ostensibly to destroy the Indian towns of the Shawnee, Delaware, and
Wyandot, which were situated on the Scioto, Muskingum and Sandusky
Rivers, in what is now the State of Ohio, but his real and earnest
purpose was the reduction of the British post at Detroit, and the
winning by conquest of another empire for the Dominion of Virginia.
At this time Virginia claimed ownership to that part of Pennsylvania,
which laid west of the Laurel Hill range including what is now Fayette,
Westmoreland, Green, Washington, Allegheny and part of Beaver Counties.
In spite of the fact that the boundary line had been settled in 1779,
many of the inhabitants and officials still acknowledged allegiance to
the Old Dominion.
A force of volunteers to the number of one hundred was raised in
Westmoreland County and placed under the command of that intrepid
soldier, Colonel Archibald Lochry.
Colonel Lochry’s command was composed of a company raised and commanded
by Captain Thomas Stokely, another under Captain Samuel Shannon; a small
company of riflemen under Captain Robert Orr, was raised in Hannastown,
now Greensburg; and Captain William Campbell commanded a squad of
horsemen.
The men recruited for this service remained on their settlements until
harvest was finished in July, and on August 1, rendezvoused at
Carnaghan’s blockhouse, eleven miles northwest of Hannastown. Here they
mustered August 2, and on the following day Colonel Lochry began his
march to join General Clark at Wheeling.
The determined little band crossed the Youghiogheny at the site of West
Newton, then crossed the Monongahela at Devore’s Ferry, where
Monongahela City now stands; went overland by the settlements on the
headwaters of Chartiers and Raccoon Creeks, and reached Fort Henry in
the evening of Wednesday, August 8.
Here was a disappointment. General Clark had left by boats early that
morning, and he left a message that he would wait for Colonel Lochry at
the mouth of Little Kanawha. But no boats were provided for Lochry’s
command, and he waited at Wheeling four days, while seven boats were
being built, but these four days were fatal.
On August 13, Colonel Lochry embarked in the seven boats, the horses
following along the shores of the river. At this time the Ohio was the
dividing line between the white man’s country and that of the Indians.
The boats kept near the southern shore and all encampments were made on
the left bank. Although Colonel Lochry did not know it, his men and
their movements were watched by Indian spies who followed them through
the forests and thickets on the opposite shore of the Ohio.
Colonel Lochry met seventeen men at Fishing Creek, who had deserted from
Clark, who were making their way back to Fort Pitt. These he forced to
join his party. At the Three Islands, Lochry found Major Charles
Crascraft and six men who had been left by Clark in charge of a large
house boat, intended for Lochry’s horses, which were put aboard, and
this enabled the force to move with increased speed.
On the following day, August 16, Colonel Lochry sent Captain Shannon and
seven men in a small boat to endeavor to overtake Clark and beg him to
leave some provisions for his command. Lochry’s flour was about
exhausted, and food could only be secured by sending out hunters, whose
excursions delayed progress. On August 17, the two men sent out for food
failed to return, and were never heard from again.
Three days later two of Captain Shannon’s men, half starved, were picked
up from the southern shore. They told the story of the first disaster to
Lochry’s command. This little detail had landed on the Kentucky shore to
prepare a meal and the two survivors, with a sergeant, had gone off to
hunt. When they had gone a half mile into the woods, they heard the
firing of guns in the direction of their camp. Fearing Indians had
attacked the rest of Captain Shannon’s little party, these three were
afraid to return to investigate and started to join Lochry. In
scrambling through the thick underbrush the sergeant’s knife fell from
its sheath, and, sticking point upward, the sergeant trod upon it, the
blade passing through his foot, and the young man died in great agony in
a few hours.
The expedition suffered not only the death of Captain Shannon and his
men but the Indians captured the letter from Colonel Lochry to General
Clark, revealing the distressed condition of his men, through which
information their doom was sealed.
Lochry now realized that his movement down the stream was being watched
by the savages from both shores, and for two days and nights no landing
or halt was made. The little flotilla glided swiftly down the stream,
until necessity compelled landing, to graze the horses and seek meat for
the men.
The boats approached the mouth of a small creek, in the forenoon of
August 24. This creek has since been called Lochry’s Run. A buffalo was
drinking at the river’s edge and a soldier brought it down, when Colonel
Lochry ordered a landing, for here was meat and fine grass for the
horses.
No sooner had a landing been made than a hundred rifles cracked from the
wooded bank, many white men were killed and many wounded.
The men made for the boats and shoved off for the opposite shore.
Painted savages then appeared, shrieking and firing, and a fleet of
canoes filled with other savages shot out from the Kentucky shore,
completely cutting off the escape of Lochry’s men. The volunteers
returned the fire for a few moments, but were entrapped, and Colonel
Lochry offered to surrender. The fight ceased, the boats poled back to
shore and the force again landed.
The Westmorelanders found themselves the prisoners of Joseph Brant, the
most famous Mohawk Chief, who commanded a large force of Iroquois,
Shawnee and Wyandot. George Girty, brother of the notorious Simon, also
commanded an Indian force. The Shawnee could not be controlled and
killed the prisoners they claimed as their share. While Colonel Lochry
was sitting on a log a Shawnee warrior slipped up behind him and sank a
tomahawk into his skull, tearing off his scalp before life was extinct.
It was with great difficulty Brant was able to prevent the massacre of
the men assigned to the Mohawk and Wyandot.
In this massacre forty Westmoreland volunteers were slain, and
sixty-four taken captives. Among those who escaped death were Captains
Stokely and Orr, the latter being severely wounded. The dead were left
unburied and the prisoners hurried away to Detroit, where most of them
were turned over to the British, and afterward transferred to Montreal.
Only nineteen of the men ever returned to Westmoreland County.
----------
Civil Government in Pennsylvania Established
at Meeting of Council
August 3, 1681
When William Penn was granted the charter for Pennsylvania, he and his
heirs were constituted the true and absolute Proprietary of the country.
Penn was empowered to establish laws, appoint officers, and to do other
acts and things necessary to govern the country, including the right to
erect manors.
The first act of William Penn was to write a letter to the inhabitants
of Pennsylvania, dated April 8, 1681. Two days later he appointed his
cousin Captain William Markham deputy governor and commander-in-chief of
the province, whom he clothed with full powers to put the machinery of
the new government into motion.
At what time Captain Markham sailed for America is not known, but we
find him in New York, with the King’s letter in June, which, with his
commission, he laid before the council and commander in the absence of
Governor Andros.
On June 21, the authorities at New York addressed a letter to the
justice and other magistrates on the Delaware notifying them of the
change of government.
Markham departed from New York a few days later and repaired to
Pennsylvania to enter upon his duties, bearing with him Penn’s letter to
the inhabitants, which assured them that they should be governed by laws
of their own making, and would receive the most ample protection to
person and property.
Markham was authorized to call a council of nine, which met and
organized August 3, from which time we may date the establishment of a
civil government in Pennsylvania.
There was very little interference in the established order of things,
and the people found a mild ruler in the deputy governor.
The seat of government was fixed at Upland, the present Chester. The old
court closed its session September 13, and the new court opened the next
day.
Among the business transacted at the opening of the new court was the
appointment of William Biles and Robert Lucas, who lived at the falls,
justices of the peace. Pounds, shillings, and pence were declared to be
the currency of the country. But it was difficult to get rid of the
guilders after they had been so long in circulation.
Markham was instructed by William Penn to select a site, and build for
him a dwelling, and he chose the spot whereon Pennsbury house was
erected, in Falls Township, Bucks County.
On September 30, William Penn appointed William Crispin, John Bezar, and
Christopher Allen, commissioners, to go to Pennsylvania with power to
purchase land of the Indians and to select site for, and lay out a great
city. About this same time he appointed James Harrison his “lawful
agent,” to sell for him any parcel of land in Pennsylvania of not less
than 250 acres.
Silas Crispen was appointed surveyor-general, and sailed with this
commission but, dying on the voyage, Captain Thomas Holme was appointed
in his place and commissioned April 18, 1682.
Among the earliest acts of Markham and the commissioners was the
selection of a site for a great city, which resulted in the founding of
Philadelphia. Soundings along the west side of the Delaware River were
made to ascertain “where most ships may best ride of deepest draft of
water.”
The growth of the new “city” was remarkable from its very inception.
Within a few months Philadelphia contained eighty houses, and more than
300 farms were laid out and partly cleared.
In the summer of 1684 the city contained 357 houses, many of them large
and well-built, with cellars. A year later the number of houses had
increased to 600. There were nearly 3000 souls in the city at this time.
William Penn sailed for Pennsylvania in the ship Welcome, of 300 tons
burden, Captain Robert Greenway, September 1, 1682, accompanied by 100
emigrants, mostly Friends.
He first landed at New Castle October 27, and then at Upland on the
29th. On November 9, Penn visited Philadelphia.
Penn was very favorably impressed with virgin Pennsylvania. Pastorius
writes that Penn found the air so perfumed that it seemed to him like an
orchard in full bloom; that the trees and shrubs were everywhere covered
with leaves, and filled with birds, which, by their beautiful colors and
delightful notes proclaimed the praise of their Creator.
Penn’s policy from the beginning of his province was to extinguish the
Indian title to his grant of Pennsylvania by purchase. This he did in
fact, and the several treaty purchases made by him were executed fairly
and honorably.
At the first provincial assembly held at Philadelphia, in March, 1683, a
number of acts were passed necessary to put Penn’s government in
operation. The country was divided into three counties, Philadelphia,
Chester, and Bucks, and their boundaries fixed. A house of correction
was ordered for each county, 24 x 16 feet, in size.
The poor, who received relief from the county, with their families, were
obliged to wear the letter P made of red or blue cloth, with the first
letter of the name of the place they inhabited, in a conspicuous place
upon the shoulder of the right sleeve.
The county court was authorized to fix a price on linen and woolen
cloth, justices were to regulate wages of servants and women; a meal of
victuals was fixed at seven pence half-penny, and beer at a penny a
quart.
The products of the farms were to be received in payment of debts. Each
settler of three years was to sow a bushel of barley, and persons were
to be punished who put water in rum.
The civil government as established August 3, 1681, was soon
functioning.
----------
Saturday Evening Post Launched from
Gazette, August 4, 1821
In his excellent and interesting “A Man from Maine,” Edward W. Bok
devotes a chapter to the story of the purchase and development of The
Saturday Evening Post by Cyrus H. K. Curtis. This chapter is styled “The
Story of the 'Singed Cat.'”
Mr. Curtis was born in Portland, Maine, June 18, 1850. He went to
Philadelphia in 1876, and seven years later started The Ladies’ Home
Journal.
Mr. Curtis first developed the Ladies Home Journal and then turned his
energy and wonderful organization to a magazine for men.
Somehow he fixed his mind upon The Saturday Evening Post as the medium
through which he was to realize his pet dream. Mr. Bok is authority for
the statement that Mr. Curtis himself does not remember how he came to
fix up this old paper, but says that the publication had always
attracted him as he met it each week in his exchanges as a legacy left
to Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, who, in 1728, founded the paper
under the title of The Pennsylvania Gazette.
Franklin edited and published this paper for a number of years, and then
sold it to his grandson. Meanwhile six other papers of all sorts had
been born in Philadelphia, all having as part of their title the word
Gazette. So in 1821, to avoid a constant confusion of names, the name
was changed to The Saturday Evening Post, August 4, 1821.
The spirit of enterprise of that early day must have been put into the
venture, for in 1839, it had a circulation of thirty-five thousand
copies, the largest circulation of that day of any weekly in the United
States. The most famous statesmen and writers of the time were among its
contributors, and it ranked as the most important publication of the
time.
The Saturday Evening Post, like other old newspapers, frequently passed
into various ownerships, nearly all of whom were Philadelphians, but a
resident of Brooklyn, N. Y., owned it for a time, although the place of
publication remained at Philadelphia, and finally it passed into the
possession of Albert Smyth, of Philadelphia, whose publication it was
when Mr. Curtis went to Philadelphia in 1876, to begin the career which
has made him the most successful and most beloved of all publishers in
all the world.
During the time that Philadelphia was in possession of the British,
under Lord Howe, the publication was suspended, but after the last
British “Tommy” marched away, the paper was revived and from that time
to this day it has never missed an issue. With this record of over a
century Mr. Smyth was justly proud and its ownership was a matter of
pride, as well as the distinguished record of long service. He was fond
of its history and tradition, and as he and Mr. Curtis were friends, it
is not improbable that the latter’s interest in this old paper was
fostered during these chats, and he began a little search on his own
account for the intimate history of the paper, and before long, Mr.
Curtis knew quite as much about it as did its proud owner.
Yet the paper was losing out, the circulation was steadily and surely
diminishing, no one seemed to care. The editorship was entrusted to a
reporter of the Philadelphia Times, who devoted his odd moments upon The
Saturday Evening Post, at the elegant salary of ten dollars a week, and
the articles published were just what a ten dollar editor would be
expected to use.
A man with the vision and patriotism of Mr. Curtis could not help
feeling regret that a paper with such traditions was allowed to run
down, and he began to bargain with Mr. Smyth.
True it was only a name, but it had a long history and valuable
heritage. Best of all, Benjamin Franklin had founded it, and that was an
asset upon which Mr. Curtis could build.
Mr. Smyth went to Chicago, where he was interested in a gas project, and
left The Saturday Evening Post in charge of a friend named Brady, but in
1897 Smyth died, leaving a sister as his only heir. She could not or
would not finance the publication, and Brady turned to Mr. Curtis for
the money to get out that week’s issue.
To Brady’s surprise Mr. Curtis told him that the name of the paper was
not protected with a copyright, and that if the sister did not put up
the money and an issue was missed anyone could take up the name.
Brady’s lawyer confirmed the statement. Mr. Curtis said he would not do
anything like that, but told Brady he had nothing to sell. “However,
I'll give you one thousand dollars for the paper, type and all.”
Mr. Curtis became the owner of the paper, and sent a young man in his
establishment with a wagon to the printing office to bring away the
battered type, and as soon as it arrived, that week’s issue was printed,
so as to save the right to the title by continuous publication.
At this time the subscription list was about two thousand and soon as
Mr. Curtis improved the paper these few subscribers cancelled their
subscriptions, when it was learned that the new owner had in fact
purchased only the title and name of Benjamin Franklin.
The outlook for the future for this new venture was so gloomy that men
in his employ called it “the singed cat.”
Mr. Curtis selected George Horace Lorimer, of Boston, as the editor and
he got behind him, even in the face of the most discouraging criticism,
but neither Mr. Curtis nor Mr. Lorimer ever for a single moment doubted
that the project would make good. A half million dollars were spent upon
advertising the periodical, and at one time the loss totalled nearly a
million dollars, but during all this period there was being developed
just the kind of a paper that Mr. Curtis wanted The Saturday Evening
Post to be.
Then the circulation grew and when it reached five hundred thousand
copies the advertisers began to use its pages, and Mr. Curtis had now
put into the paper a million and a quarter dollars. Then the paper
appeared with a “circulation of one million copies” printed on the
cover, and the fight was won.
The circulation is now in excess of two million, and is, without a
doubt, the greatest publication in the history of journalism.
The Curtis Publishing Company publish The Ladies Home Journal, The
Saturday Evening Post, The Country Gentleman, The Public Ledger and The
Evening Public Ledger and the output of this plant is six hundred and
fifty thousand complete magazines, each working day, and all this in
addition to seventy-three million newspapers each year.
More than one hundred railroad cars each month are required to circulate
the magazines, as the Ladies Home Journal goes to one out of every ten
women in the United States and The Saturday Evening Post goes into more
than one out of every ten homes in this country. Such is the story of
not only Pennsylvania’s oldest and best magazine, but the largest and
most successful in the world.
----------
Patrick Gordon, Administrator of Penn’s
Will, Died August 5, 1736
William Penn was financially involved when stricken and during the six
years he suffered until relieved by death, July 30, 1718, did not place
his affairs in more favorable condition.
The Province of Pennsylvania was encumbered by Proprietary’s mortgage
given in 1708, and by his contract with the Crown for the sale of the
government. His will, which was drawn in 1712, was in contemplation of
this contract.
To his only surviving son, William, by his first marriage, he bequeathed
all his estates in England and Ireland, which, producing fifteen hundred
pounds sterling per annum, were estimated of greater value than his
American possessions.
By his first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, he had issue of three sons,
William, Springett and William, and four daughters, Gulielma, Margaret,
Gulielma and Letitia. From his American possession he made provision for
the payment of his debts, and for his widow, Hannah Callowhill and four
sons, John, Thomas, Richard and Dennis. To his wife, Hannah, whom he
made the sole executrix of his estate, he gave for the equal benefit of
herself and her children, all his personal estate in Pennsylvania and
elsewhere, after paying all debts, and allotting ten thousand acres of
land in the Province to his daughter Letitia, by his first marriage, and
each of the three children of his son William, and to convey the
remainder at the discretion of his widow, to her children, subject to an
annuity to herself of £300 sterling per annum.
Doubts having arisen as to the force of the provisions of this will, it
was finally determined to institute a suit in chancery for its
determination. Before a decision was reached in March, 1720, William
Penn, Jr., died, and while it was still pending, his son, Springett,
died.
During the more than nine years of litigation, Hannah Penn, as executrix
of the will, assumed the Proprietary power, issued instructions to her
Lieutenant-Governor, heard complaints and settled differences with the
skill and assurance of a veteran diplomat. In 1727 a decision was
reached that, upon the death of William Penn, Jr., and his son
Springett, the proprietary rights in Pennsylvania descended to the three
surviving sons, John, Thomas and Richard, issue by the second marriage.
The Province now entered upon a period of great prosperity. The almost
unbounded confidence of the Province in Governor Keith enabled him, in
1720, to establish two measures hitherto repugnant to the Assembly, and
equity court, dependent on the Governor’s will, of which he was
chancellor, and a militia organized by like authority.
The great influx of foreigners alarmed the Assembly, who feared their
settlement on the frontier. Attempts to naturalize them were treated
with coldness. Even the Governor, whose industry and utility were
proverbial, could not remove the jealousy.
Many Palatines, long resident in the Province, applied for
naturalization in 1721, but not until 1724 was leave granted to bring in
a bill, and then conditioned upon the proviso that they should
individually obtain from the justice of the peace a certificate of the
value of their property, and nature of their religious faith. A bill to
that effect reached the Governor the following year, but he returned it
on the ground that in a country where English liberty and law prevailed,
a scrutiny into the private conversation and faith of the citizens, and
particularly into their estates, was unjust and dangerous in precedent.
The House yielded, but it was not for some time that the privilege of
subjects were granted to the Palatines.
Following the death of Springett Penn and Mrs. Hannah Penn, the Assembly
conceived that the authority of Governor Patrick Gordon was determined,
and accordingly refused to act upon a message which he had sent them,
and adjourned themselves to the last day of their term.
A new commission, signed by John, Thomas and Richard Penn, in whom the
government was now vested, was received by Governor Gordon in October.
When the King gave his approbation to this new commission he reserved as
the right of the Crown, the government of the Lower Counties on the
Delaware.
Patrick Gordon who served as Deputy Governor from July 26, 1726, to his
death had been a soldier in the regular army, serving from his youth to
near the close of Queen Anne’s reign, with a high reputation. He was
appointed successor of Governor Keith by the family, and formally
proposed to the Crown by Springett Penn, their heir-at-law.
He arrived in the Province with his family in the summer of 1726, and
met the Assembly during the first week of August. In his first address
he alluded to the fact of his having been a soldier, that he
consequently knew nothing of the crooked ways of professed politicians
and must rely upon a blunt, straightforward course in his communications
with them in his administration of the government. His whole public
career seems to have been characterized by this same frankness and
integrity.
Governor Gordon took prompt measures to apprehend and punish worthless
drunken Indians who committed outrages. He concluded several very
important treaties with the Six Nations, and attended these in person.
He published “Two Indians Treaties at Conestogoe,” in 1728.