do nothing rash in retaliating her vengeance on the prisoner, and not to
permit him to be put to death until after “some form of trial.”
The intention of the frontiersmen was to summon a jury of their
neighbors and try him, at least to comply with the General’s orders. But
the fact he was an Indian would be sufficient evidence to condemn him,
even if the wounded leg was not added evidence. In event of conviction
he was to suffer death in regular Indian fashion, by torture and
burning.
On arrival at Walthour’s, Davy was confined in a log blockhouse for two
days and three nights, while the neighbors and magistrates could
assemble for the trial and execution.
While a few were guarding the prisoner, some were in quest of the
neighbors and others collected wood and materials for the burning, which
it was already determined should be at the identical spot where he had
received his wound while in the act of scalping Willard.
On the night preceding the great day the guard was somewhat careless
and, realizing their prisoner was a bad cripple, they joined rather
enthusiastically in the preparations for the execution.
On arising in the morning the blockhouse was empty. The guards were
aroused and an investigation revealed the guardhouse door securely
locked. No human being could get through the loopholes. It was found the
only possible way of escape was through the narrow space between the
overjutting roof and the top of the wall, and through this he must have
escaped.
Bitter was their disappointment, when they learned their prey had
escaped. In every direction eager searching parties ranged the country,
but no trace of the wounded Delaware. The hunt continued for two days,
but Davy had made good his escape and saved himself from the warm
reception which awaited him later in the day.
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Thousands of Lives Lost in Johnstown
Flood, May 31, 1889
When an avalanche of water swept down the Conemaugh Valley destroying
everything in its descent, including the thriving city of Johnstown,
containing thirty thousand souls, many great industrial establishments
were nearly wiped from the earth, many thousands were drowned or burned
to death, and property worth many millions was destroyed. This disaster
was so far beyond all experience that it is difficult for the mind to
grasp it.
Johnstown was a community of seven or eight towns with a combined
population of quite thirty thousand souls. It is situated in a deep
valley where the Little Conemaugh River and Stony Creek unite to form
the Conemaugh River.
Early on Friday, May 31, 1889, a freshet in Stony Creek broke away the
boom above the town and swept down the mass of logs against the
inundated houses.
This was followed in the afternoon by a far worse disaster, when the dam
of the South Fork Lake broke and the mass of water swept down the
valley, carrying everything before it. The logs and wreckage piled
against the bridge, forming a partial dam, that raised the water level
still higher, and in a short time the whole town was submerged.
Hundreds were drowned in their houses, others were swept along by the
torrent and perished either by water or by fire among the debris.
Nothing in the history of the United States in time of peace ever
approached this appalling catastrophe.
Conemaugh Lake was a body of water about three and a half miles long,
one and a quarter miles in width, and in some places one hundred feet in
depth. It was located on the mountain some three or four hundred feet
above the level of Johnstown and was, of course, a menace to that city.
It was believed to hold more water than any reservoir in America. This
lake was the property of some wealthy sportsmen of Pittsburgh and
elsewhere, members of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club.
Every known precaution had been taken to insure the safety of the
reservoir. An inspection was made monthly by competent engineers, and it
was believed nothing less than some extraordinary freak of nature could
destroy the barrier that held this large body of water in check. These
waters were held in bounds by a dam nearly one thousand feet wide, more
than one hundred feet high and ninety feet in thickness at the base.
The streams were already unusually swollen, when a heavy downpour of
rain fell steadily for forty-eight hours which increased the volume of
water in all the mountain streams. In fact, the entire State suffered
from floods. The regions along the West Branch of the Susquehanna, the
Lehigh, the Juniata and the Conemaugh Rivers were the principal scenes
of desolation.
The water in the South Fork Lake rose slowly until it poured over the
top of the big dam, and then some of the old leakages became larger,
then the breast broke, and sixteen million tons of water rushed forth
like a demon.
John Baker, the Paul Revere of the occasion, rode a race with it for a
while and saved many people, but the death-dealing torrent laden with
trees, houses, wreckage and human beings, defied even steam whistles and
telegraph instruments.
The water plowed through South Fork, Mineral Point, Franklin, East
Conemaugh, Woodvale, Conemaugh, Johnstown, Kernville, Millville and
Cambria.
It was late in the afternoon and the night that followed was one of
unutterable agony. Darkness added to the terror of the situation.
The wreckage could not pass through the big stone bridge. That caused
the water to back up and flood the city, but soon a channel was made
which cut through the heart of Johnstown. This caused the terrible
destruction of life and property that was incurred at Cambria Iron
Works.
Then came the flames to make the calamity more appalling. Hundreds of
houses had been piled up against the stone bridge, the inmates of but a
few being able to escape; these took fire and many hundreds of souls
perished in them. Men, women and children, held down by timbers, watched
with indescribable agony the flames creep surely toward them, and they
were slowly roasted to death.
There were many instances of personal heroism and self-sacrifice in
which many persons were saved from drowning or being burned to death.
There were many cases of most remarkable escapes, and not a few
instances of heroic rescue, which a moment later were rendered useless
by another catastrophe in which both hero and victim lost their lives.
Edward C. Will is credited with saving twenty-two lives.
Governor Beaver issued a proclamation, calling upon the people for their
benefactions. Adjutant General Hastings was promptly on the scene and
personally directed the patrol, composed of the Fourteenth Regiment and
one company of the Fifth Regiment of the National Guard.
Governor Beaver appointed a Flood Relief Commission to distribute a fund
which had been raised from every section of the State and all over the
country. The fund exceeded $3,000,000.
The State Board of Health was early on the ground to enforce the
sanitary laws. The debris was removed as promptly as possible, and
healthful conditions were soon restored.
To pay the State’s expenses, generous men of means advanced the money
till the Legislature would reimburse them. There never was a more
beautiful example of public and private charity in all history.
The loss of lives was 2,235, or more, and the property loss exceeded
$10,000,000 in value.
The people of Johnstown, although prostrated by their misfortune, soon
recovered, rebuilt their city and re-established their industrial
plants, making it a more beautiful and more modern place than ever
before.
----------
General John Bull, Officer of Province and
the Continental Army, Born
June 1, 1731
General John Bull was one of the distinguished patriots of the Province
and State and a veteran of the French and Indian War, a trusted agent of
the Proprietaries to the Indians, an early adherent of the colonists, a
member of the first Constitutional Convention, an officer of troops and
builder of forts, a member of the Board of War and of the General
Assembly, a prominent citizen in every particular, yet one of whose life
little is known.
John Bull was born in Providence Township, now Montgomery County, June
1, 1731, and spent his early life in that immediate neighborhood.
His active military life began May 12, 1758, when he was commissioned
captain in the Provincial service, and with his command was on duty at
Fort Allen, now Weissport, Carbon County.
Later in that year he commanded a company in the expedition led by
General John Forbes, for the reduction of Fort DuQuesne, and during this
tour of duty he rendered most conspicuous service in negotiations with
the Indians.
This treaty was attended by Governor Bernard of New Jersey, who had come
principally to demand of the Munsee that they keep a treaty promise by
which they were to deliver captives taken from his province.
The treaty ended at Easton, October 24, when mutual releases were
executed; Pisquitomen and Thomas Hickman, an Ohio Indian, were sent back
to the Ohio to bear assurance of pardon, and invitations to those
western Indians to come to Philadelphia. Captain John Bull and William
Hayes and Isaac Still, the interpreter, and two Indians of the Six
Nations, one of whom was John Shikellamy, accompanied them. The mission
was wholly successful.
In 1771 Captain Bull owned the Norris plantation and mill, and resided
there on the site of the present Norristown, then called Norriton.
He was a delegate to the Provincial Conference of January 23, 1775, and
of June 18, 1775.
On July 8, 1776, the day of the reading of the Declaration of
Independence, an election was held at the State House for members of the
Convention to form a Constitution for the State. Those elected from
Philadelphia County were Frederic Antes, Henry Hill, Robert Loller,
Joseph Blewer, John Bull, Thomas Potts, Edward Bartholomew, and William
Coats.
Captain Bull was elected a member of the Board of War, March 14, 1777.
Congress asked in October, 1775, that a battalion from Pennsylvania be
raised to take part in the expedition against Canada. John Bull was
appointed its colonel, but resigned January 20, 1776, owing to a threat
of about half the officers to do so if he continued in command, so John
Philip DeHaas, of Lebanon, was appointed.
Colonel Bull was one of the commissioners at the Indian Treaty held at
Easton January 30, 1777.
At the election held February 14, 1777, Colonel Bull was one of four
elected to the Assembly.
After the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, Colonel Bull was
sent to Mud Island, with workmen and laborers, to repair the banks and
sluices and complete barracks sufficient for the garrison.
On May 2, 1777, he was appointed colonel of the First State Regiment of
Foot, and on July 16 was commissioned Adjutant-General of Pennsylvania.
In October of this year his barns, barracks, grain, and hay were burned
by the British, and his wagons, horses, cattle, sheep and Negroes
carried off, although General Howe had given his word to Mrs. Bull that
they would not be disturbed.
In December, when General James Irvine was captured, General Bull
succeeded to the command of the Second Brigade of Pennsylvania militia,
under General John Armstrong.
While the British were in possession of Philadelphia a brigade of
Continental troops under Colonel John Bull on the evening of December
24, 1777, made an excursion into Fourth Street in Philadelphia, with two
thousand militia, and three pieces of cannon, and alarmed the city by
firing off the heavy guns, whereby some of the balls fell about old
Christ Church. Colonel Bull then made a good retreat back to his
station, without the loss of a man.
During 1778 and 1779 he was engaged in erecting defenses for
Philadelphia and in latter year he put down the chevaux de frize in the
Delaware to obstruct the approach of British ships. In 1780 he served as
Commissary of Purchase at Philadelphia, and appears to have been one of
the busiest and most indefatigable of workers.
In the year 1785 he removed to Northumberland, being attracted there by
the location of the town and the belief that it would become a large
place.
In 1802 he was a candidate for the Legislature but was defeated by Simon
Snyder, afterwards Governor of the State. In 1805 General Bull was
elected to the General Assembly, but in 1808 he was defeated for
Congress when he ran as the Federalist candidate.
Mrs. Mary Bull, his wife, died February 23, 1811, aged eighty years. The
Northumberland Argus says, “She was buried in the Quaker graveyard, and
General Bull, though much reduced by sickness and old age, previous to
the grave being closed, addressed the people as follows: 'The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord; may we
who are soon to follow be as well prepared as she was.'”
General Bull died August 9, 1824, in the 94th year of his age.
This distinguished patriot and citizen lies buried beside his wife in
the Riverside Cemetery, Northumberland, where a monument should be
erected in memory of this distinguished, yet eccentric, officer of the
French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars.
----------
Liberty Bell Hung in Old State House on
June 2, 1753
Though not the largest nor yet the oldest, but to all Americans by far
the most celebrated bell is the grand old “Liberty Bell,” whose tones on
July 4, 1776, proclaimed the birthday of our Nation.
This historic bell was originally cast in London, in 1752, for the State
House in Philadelphia. There it hung in the belfry of Independence Hall
until July 8, 1835, when it cracked while tolling the news of the death
of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.
In the Centennial year, 1876, a new bell, modeled after the original
Liberty Bell, was made by an American bell founder for the tower of the
old State House, or Independence Hall.
It weighs 13,000 pounds to represent the thirteen original States, and
carries in addition to the decoration of the old Liberty Bell, a border
of stars and the additional inscription: “Glory to God and on earth
peace, good will toward men.”
The story of the original bell begins in the year 1749, when the tower
was erected on the south side of the main building of the State House.
The superintendents were ordered to proceed as soon as they conveniently
might, and the tower was to contain “the staircase with a suitable place
therein for hanging a bell.”
A year later the House adopted a resolution directing “that the
superintendents provide a bell of such weight and dimensions as they
shall think suitable.” Isaac Norris, Thomas Leech and Edward Warner
accordingly prepared a letter, which is interesting as it is the
commencement of proceedings which resulted in the casting of what was
afterward known as the “Liberty Bell.” The letter follows:
“To Robert Charles, of London, Nov. 1, 1751. Respected Friend.—The
Assembly having ordered us (the superintendents of the State House) to
procure a bell from England, to be purchased for their use, we take the
liberty to apply ourselves to thee to get us a good bell of about two
thousand weight, the cost of which we presume may amount to about one
hundred pounds sterling, or perhaps more with the charges, etc.
“We hope and rely on thy care and assistance in this affair, and that
thou will procure and forward it by the first opportunity, as our
workmen inform us it will be less trouble to hang the bell before their
scaffolds are struck from the building where we intend to place it,
which will not be done until the end of next summer or beginning of the
fall. Let the bell be cast by the best workmen, and examine it carefully
before it is shipped with the following words, well shaped, in long
letters around it, viz.:
“‘By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the
State House in the city of Philadelphia, 1752.’
“and underneath.—'Proclaim Liberty through all the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof.—Levit. xxv. 10.'”
The bell was brought over in the ship Matilda, Captain Budden, and was
unloaded on the wharf in Philadelphia about the end of August, 1752.
It was hung in position and when given its trial for sound “it was
cracked by a stroke of the clapper, without any other violence.”
Needless to state, the superintendents were disappointed and they
determined to ship the bell back to England to be recast. But Captain
Budden had already too heavy a cargo to carry the bell.
In this emergency two Philadelphians, Pass and Stow, undertook to recast
it, using the material in the original bell. The mold was opened March
10, 1753. The work had been well done, even the letters being better
than those on the first bell.
Pass and Stow first cast several small bells to test the quality of the
material, and its sound, and found that there was too much copper in the
mixture. It was their third mixture which was finally used.
A newspaper of June 7, 1753, carried this notice: “Last week was raised
and fixed in the State House steeple the new great bell cast here by
Pass and Stow, weighing 2080 pounds with this motto: ‘Proclaim Liberty
to all the land and all the inhabitants thereof.’.” It was tested June 2
and proved satisfactory.
On July 8, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read in the State
House yard. At the same time the King’s Arms were taken from the court
room and publicly burned, while merry chimes from the church steeples
and peals from the State House bell “proclaimed liberty throughout the
land.”
This was an event which made the inscription on the bell prophetic. John
Adams, in writing to Samuel Chase on July 9, said, “The bells rang all
day and almost all night.”
The British success on the Brandywine caused great consternation in
Philadelphia. On September 15, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council
ordered “the bells of Christ Church and St. Peter’s as well as the State
House to be taken down and removed to a place of safety.” The church
bells were sunk in the river or carried away, but the Liberty Bell, with
ten others, was loaded on wagons and hauled via Bethlehem to Allentown.
In Bethlehem the wagon bearing the State House bell broke down, and it
had to be reloaded and, when Allentown was reached, the bell was hidden
under the floor of Zion Reformed Church.
After the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British Army these bells
were brought back, and the State House bell was placed in its old
position in the latter part of 1778.
The “Liberty Bell” became a venerated object, and it was tacitly
determined that it should only be rung on special occasions of
rejoicing, or to commemorate some event of public importance. It was
tolled in 1828 upon the news of the emancipation of the Catholics by act
of the British Parliament. It celebrated the centennial anniversary of
the birthday of Washington, February 22, 1832.
But an end was put to its usefulness for sound early in the morning of
July 8, 1835. The break was at first only about eight inches in length,
but when rung February 22, 1843, it was increased so much that it
henceforth became a silent memento of the historic past.
The Liberty Bell has made several trips to great national expositions,
notably the World’s Fair at Chicago, and the great San Francisco
exposition, where it always was the most popular historic relic and
viewed by millions of our citizens, but the danger incident to such
exposure caused public disapproval of the bell again leaving the State
House, and it will rest in this historic spot and continue to be the
most popular relic in Pennsylvania.
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Transit of Venus Observed in Yard of
State House June 3, 1769
The year 1769 was memorable in the annals of astronomy, owing to the
transit of Venus over the sun’s disc, which occurred June 3. Astronomers
throughout the entire world were anxious to make an observation of this
celestial phenomenon, which would not occur again until 1874.
The great interest centered in this observation arose from the fact that
by means of it the distance between the heavenly bodies could be more
accurately calculated. It was the belief that the transits of Venus
afforded the best method of measuring the distance of the sun from the
earth.
This was a period of intense interest, and many expeditions were fitted
out to observe the transit at different places in both the northern and
southern hemispheres.
Mason and Dixon, the English astronomers, who gained undying fame as the
surveyors of the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland,
started on a ship of war for their station on the southern hemisphere,
but they were attacked by a French frigate and were compelled to return
to port after a severe battle. Other expeditions became celebrated
through the adventures to which they gave rise.
The transit of 1769 was visible in the Atlantic States and observations
upon it were made under the auspices of the American Philosophical
Society at Philadelphia. The most celebrated of all these observers was
David Rittenhouse.
Benjamin Franklin had organized the society and in 1769 became the
society’s first president. He was annually elected to that position for
twenty-two years, being succeeded in 1791 by another Pennsylvanian,
David Rittenhouse.
In 1768 the American Philosophical Society petitioned the Assembly of
Pennsylvania for assistance to observe the transit of Venus, and the
proposition was treated with liberality.
One hundred pounds was granted to enable the society to procure a
reflecting telescope of two and a half or three feet focus and a
micrometer of Dolland’s make, which had to be procured from England.
They were purchased there by Dr. Franklin.
The society erected a wooden building as an observatory in the State
House yard. This was of circular shape, and about twenty feet high,
twelve to fifteen feet square and placed about sixty feet south of the
State House.
On the morning of June 3 the sky was cloudless. The transit was observed
from this building in the State House yard by Dr. John Ewing, Joseph
Shippen, Dr. Hugh Williamson, Thomas Prior, Charles Thomson and James
Pearson.
While they were thus engaged, David Rittenhouse, Dr. William Smith, John
Sellers and John Lukens noticed the phenomena at Norriton, the home of
the celebrated astronomer. Owen Biddle made an observation at Henlopen
lighthouse.
Rittenhouse was already a member of the American Philosophical Society
and made his observations for that society. He used a telescope and
other instruments made by his own hands.
When he observed the contact, and the planet had fairly entered the
sun’s disk, his emotions so overpowered him that he sank fainting to the
ground, unable to bear the intense feelings of delight which attended
the consummation of the long hoped for event. Rising from his
exhaustion, he proceeded to measure the distance between the centers of
the two bodies at stated intervals during the transit.
The observations of Rittenhouse were received with interest by
scientific men everywhere. Subsequently they were found to be nearly
accurate and his computations placed him among the greatest of
astronomers. The royal astronomer of England bore testimony to their
value and another high authority said:
“The first approximately accurate results in the measurements of the
spheres were given to the world, not by schooled and salaried
astronomers who watched from the magnificent royal observatories of
Europe, but by unpaid amateurs and devotees to science in the youthful
province of Pennsylvania.”
On November 9 of the same year David Rittenhouse made an observation of
the transit of Mercury, which was the fourth ever witnessed. About this
time he also determined the difference of the meridians of Norriton and
Philadelphia.
David Rittenhouse was without doubt the first inventor of a practical
planetarium, erroneously called the “orrery,” an instrument so
constructed as to exhibit the movements of the planets around the sun.
In theory the idea was not new. Such an instrument had been made for the
Earl of Orrery in 1715, but this was a mere toy and gave the movements
of only two heavenly bodies.