raid into New Jersey, another detachment at the same time crossed at
Gray’s Ferry and took the road to Chester and Darby, with three hundred
wagons. Howe and Erskine were with them; they made a demonstration
towards Chester. Several pickets and detachments skirmished on their
front and flank, under Captain Potterfield.
Colonel John Bull, with his brigade marched to force the foragers to
retire by demonstrating against the enemy’s lines. His forces were
distributed on the Frankford, Germantown and Ridge Roads, and caused the
enemy to sound a general alarm. Bull planted his cannon, on Christmas
Day, and fired several shots at the heart of the city, then withdrew to
Frankford.
Marshall says: “Col. Bull, on the twenty-fifth instant, made an
excursion into Fourth Street, Philadelphia, with two thousand militia,
and alarmed the city by firing some pieces of cannon into the air,
whereby some of the ball fell about Christ Church. He then made a good
retreat back to his station, without the loss of a man.” The enemy,
however, made no more raids.
In 1778 and 1779 he was engaged in erecting the defenses for
Philadelphia; in 1779 he put down the chevaux de frize in the Delaware,
and in 1780 he was Commissary of Purchases at Philadelphia, and appears
to have been one of the busiest and most indefatigable of workers.
After the Revolution General Bull located at Northumberland, this was
about 1785. In 1802 he was a candidate for the Legislature, but was
defeated by Simon Snyder; in 1803, 1804 and 1805 he was elected to the
Legislature, and three years later was defeated for Congress on the
Federalist ticket.
General Bull died August 9, 1824, at the extreme age of ninety-four
years. His wife, Mary Phillips Bull, 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.'”
Truly a soldier to the very end of his eventful life.
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Colonel Bouquet Relieved Garrison at Fort
Pitt August 10, 1763
Colonel Henry Bouquet established his rendezvous in Carlisle during the
latter part of June, 1763, where he had assembled five hundred troops,
selected from his British forces and several companies of Provincial
Rangers. He was preparing to rush to the succor of Fort Pitt and other
places which were being attacked by Indians under the inspiring
leadership of Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawa, who had formed a
confederation of the Indians against the English.
Everywhere along the frontier of Pennsylvania was desolation, the
settlers had fled in terror and the interior settlements were crowded
with refugees. Especially is this true of Carlisle, where the brave
Swiss, Colonel Bouquet, was receiving first hand intelligence of the
sufferings and devastation caused by the savages.
On July 3, 1763, a courier from Fort Bedford rode into Carlisle, and as
he stopped to water his horse, he was surrounded by an anxious crowd, to
whom he told a sad tale of woe, and as he hurriedly mounted his horse to
ride to Colonel Bouquet’s tent, he shouted, “The Indians will soon be
here.”
Terror and excitement spread everywhere, messengers were dispatched in
every direction to give the alarm, and the reports, harrowing as they
had been, were confirmed by the fugitives who were met on every road and
by-path hurrying to Carlisle for refuge.
A party armed themselves and went out to warn the living and bury the
dead. They found death and destruction everywhere, and sickened with
horror at seeing groups of hogs tearing and devouring the bodies of the
dead.
After a delay of eighteen days, Bouquet secured enough wagons, horses
and oxen, and began his perilous march towards Fort Pitt. His force was
much smaller than General Braddock’s and he had to encounter a foe much
more formidable. But Bouquet, the man of iron will and iron hand, had
served seven years in American forests and, unlike the unfortunate
Braddock, understood his work.
On July 25 Bouquet reached Fort Bedford, where he was fortunate in
securing thirty backwoodsmen to accompany him. This little army toiled
through the blazing heat of July over the Allegheny Mountains, and
reached Fort Ligonier August 2.
The Indians who had besieged that fort for two months disappeared at the
approach of the troops. Here Bouquet left his oxen and wagons and
resumed his march two days later. At noon on the 5th he encountered the
enemy at Bushy Run. A terrible battle raged for two days when the
Indians were put to rout. The loss of the British was one hundred and
fifteen men and eight officers. The little army was then twenty-five
miles distant from Fort Pitt, which place was reached August 10.
The enemy had abandoned the siege on this fort and marched their forces
to unite with those engaged in combat with Colonel Bouquet at Bushy Run,
so when they were compelled to retreat after that battle, they had not
sufficient time, or lacked the courage to attack Fort Pitt with Colonel
Bouquet in hot pursuit.
It was at this time that Colonel Bouquet built the little redoubt which
is at the present all that remains of Fort Pitt, in fact is the only
existing monument of British occupancy in the vicinity of Pittsburgh.
The Indians abandoned all their former settlements, and retreated to the
Muskingum; here they formed new settlements, and in the spring of 1764
again began to ravage the frontier. To put an end to these depredations,
General Gage planned a campaign into the western wilderness from two
points. General Bradstreet was ordered to advance by way of the lakes,
and Colonel Bouquet was to go forward from Fort Pitt.
After the usual delays and disappointments in securing troops from
Pennsylvania and Virginia to aid in this expedition Colonel Bouquet
again arrived at Fort Pitt, September 17, where he was detained until
October 3. He led his troops from Fort Pitt following the north bank of
the Ohio until he reached the Beaver, where he turned towards central
Ohio.
Bouquet refused to listen to either threats or promises from the
Indians, and declined to treat with them at all until they should
deliver up their prisoners. Although not a single blow was struck the
Indians were vanquished.
Bouquet continued his march down the valley of the Muskingum until he
reached a spot where some broad meadows offered a suitable place for
encampment. Here he received a deputation of principal chiefs, listened
to their offers of peace, and demanded the delivery of all the
prisoners. Soon band after band of captives arrived, until more than
three hundred were brought into the encampment.
The scenes which followed the restoration of these prisoners to their
families and friends beggar all description; wives recovering their
husbands, husbands their wives, parents regaining children whom they
could scarcely recognize, brothers and sisters meeting after long
separation and sometimes hardly able to converse in the same language.
The story is told of a woman whose daughter had been carried off nine
years before. The mother recognized her child among the prisoners, but
the girl, who had almost forgotten her mother tongue, showed no sign of
recognition. The mother complained to Colonel Bouquet that the daughter
she had so often sung to sleep on her knee had forgotten her. “Sing the
song to her that you used to sing when she was a child,” said Colonel
Bouquet. She did so, and with a passionate flood of tears the long lost
daughter flung herself into her mother’s arms.
Everything being settled the army broke camp November 18, and arrived
again at Fort Pitt on the 28th.
Early in January Colonel Bouquet returned to Philadelphia, receiving
wherever he went every possible mark of gratitude and esteem from the
people. The Assembly of Pennsylvania and the House of Burgesses of
Virginia each unanimously voted him addresses of thanks, and on the
arrival in England of the first account of this expedition the King
promoted him to the rank of Brigadier General, to command the Southern
District of North America.
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Colonel Brodhead Wins Thanks of Congress
for Raid Started August 11, 1779
Raids on the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier in 1778 were made by the
Indians of the Ohio country; those of 1779 by the Seneca and Munsee of
the North, from the upper tributaries of the Susquehanna and Allegheny
Rivers.
The Seneca tribe of Western New York was the largest of the Six Nations,
and its warriors second only to the Mohawk in courage and military
prowess. Under Cornplanter, Guyasuta and other war captains they
distressed a wide extent of territory in New York and Pennsylvania and
decorated their huts with the scalps of hundreds of white persons.
Early in the summer of 1779, Washington directed that General John
Sullivan lead a large force against the Iroquois country from the east,
and in July Colonel Brodhead received permission to undertake a movement
of cooperation up the Allegheny Valley.
The expedition consisting of 615 men under Colonel Brodhead left
Pittsburgh August 11, 1779. Small garrisons were left to guard Forts
Pitt, McIntosh, Crawford and Armstrong. A small band of Delaware
accompanied the expedition, and acted as scouting parties under Captain
Samuel Brady and Lieutenant Hardin.
The provisions were conveyed up the river by boats as far as the mouth
of the Big Mahoning, where the supplies were taken from the boats,
loaded on the horses, and the expedition proceeded under the most
unfavorable conditions. The expedition here left the river and followed
an Indian trail almost due north, through what is now Clarion county.
A few miles below Brokenstraw Creek occurred a fight with savages, near
where Thompson is now situated. Lieutenant Hardin was leading the
advance, with fifteen white scouts and eight Delaware, when they
discovered more than thirty Seneca warriors coming down the river in
seven canoes, under the famous Chief Guyasuta. Each party discovered the
other at about the same time. The Seneca paddled for shore, threw off
their shirts and prepared for battle, little aware of the number of
their opponents.
Both sides took to trees and rocks and began a sharp fusillade, until a
few minutes another party of scouts appeared, took the Seneca on the
flank and poured a hot fire upon them. At the sound of this firing
Colonel Brodhead formed his column so as to protect his pack train and
then hurried forward with reinforcements. He arrived just in time to
witness the retreat of the Seneca, who now realized the strength of the
white force. Five Indians were killed and several wounded. Eight guns
and seven canoes containing their blankets, shirts and provisions were
prizes. Only three of Brodhead’s men were slightly wounded.
The army went into camp near the scene of the conflict and on the
following morning moved to Brokenstraw Creek. Here Colonel Brodhead
decided to leave his stores and baggage and march light to Conewago. A
rude breastwork was constructed of fallen trees and bundles of faggots,
on a high bluff which commanded an extensive view up and down the river.
This post was garrisoned by an officer and forty men, while the
expedition pushed on for Conewago. Upon arrival the Colonel was
disappointed to find the Iroquois town deserted and their huts falling
into decay.
After a hard march of twenty miles the army came again within sight of
the Allegheny River, and from a hilltop they discovered a number of
Indian villages, surrounded by great fields of splendid corn and patches
of beans, squashes and melons. This Iroquois settlement extended for
eight miles along the fertile bottom land of the Allegheny River, where
the great Cornplanter reservation was afterwards established.
The Indian spies had discovered the approach of the American forces, and
the warriors had fled so hastily with their women and children that they
left behind many deer skins and other articles of value.
The Iroquois had long before this learned to build substantial log
houses, even squaring the timbers as was the custom of the white pioneer
settlers. In this village there were about 130 houses, some of them
large enough to accommodate three or four families.
Colonel Brodhead sent a report to General Washington, saying: “The
troops remained on the ground three whole days, destroying the towns and
corn fields. I never saw finer corn, although it was planted much
thicker than is common with our farmers. The quantity of corn and
vegetables destroyed at the several towns, from the best accounts I can
collect from the officers employed to destroy it, must certainly exceed
500 acres, which is the lowest estimate and the plunder taken is
estimated at $3,000. From the great quantity of corn in the ground and
the number of new houses built and building, it appears that the whole
Seneca and Muncy nations intended to collect in this settlement.”
On the return march the supplies were picked up at Buckaloons and the
troops marched across country to French Creek. At Oil Creek the soldiers
rubbed themselves freely with oil which they found floating on the
water, and received great relief from their rheumatic pains and
stiffness. For many years this petroleum was called Seneca oil, and was
supposed to be valuable only for its medicinal qualities.
The army soon reached French Creek, at the mouth of the Conneaut Creek,
where the Munsee town of Maghingue-chahocking was found to be deserted.
It consisted of 35 large huts, which were burned. The Munsee formed a
branch of the Wolf clan of the Delaware, and they enjoyed an unenviable
reputation as thieves, murderers and general desperadoes.
The army descended French Creek almost to its mouth and thence returned
to Fort Pitt by what is known as the Venango path almost due north and
south through the heart of Butler County.
The expedition arrived at Fort Pitt on September 14 without the loss of
a man or a horse. Brodhead wrote: “I have a happy presage that the
counties of Westmoreland, Bedford and Northumberland, if not the whole
western frontier, will experience the good effect of it. Too much praise
cannot be given to both officers and soldiers of every corps during the
whole expedition. Their perseverance and zeal can scarcely be equaled in
history.”
The thanks of Congress were voted to Colonel Brodhead, and in a general
order, issued October 18, General Washington said: “The activity,
perseverance, and firmness of all the officers and men of every
description in this expedition, do them great honor, and their services
entitle them to the thanks and to this testimonial of the General’s
acknowledgement.”
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Era of Indian Traders to Death of Allummapees,
August 12, 1731
At what date and by whom the North and West Branch Valleys of the
Susquehanna and the Juniata Valley were first traversed, and the
Alleghenies first crossed by Europeans in a journey to the Ohio, is
unrecorded, and must forever remain unknown.
The first white men who ventured into the unexplored forests among these
mountains were not given to keeping journals of their travels for future
historians. No one seems to have thought of immortalizing himself by
bequeathing to us a good description giving minute details of the
country and its tribes.
At first the natives brought their peltry hundreds of miles to the
Delaware River; but, in course of time, these skins and furs became so
valuable in Europe that many of the worst class of men were stimulated
to penetrate the depths of the forest in order to hasten and monopolize
the trade. In this way the entire Juniata and West Branch regions were
traversed many years before there was a settlement established in those
fertile valleys.
From the days of William Penn’s advent up to 1722 the Indian expenses to
the Province were inconsiderable, being limited by law to £50 per annum.
In that year the Assembly paid Governor Keith’s expenses for a trip to
Albany, where an important council with the Six Nations was held, but in
1727 they refused to pay more than half the amount of an account of
Conrad Weiser, who was sent on a similar mission. In 1728, under an
alarm, they agreed to pay without limitation the expenses of an Indian
conference. After this they sometimes paid half, and sometimes all.
The appetite for presents which the Indians acquired was not easily
appeased. Constant disturbances, frequently caused by rum, called for
expensive treaties, and the donations allured the Indians and made them
more insolent and exacting. The expenses soon rose above £8,000, and the
question whether these treaties were more for the benefit of the
Proprietaries in buying lands than for the safety of the inhabitants
gave rise to heated controversy. The result was that Indian affairs
began to take a wider and more public range, and the records of those
days begin to throw more light upon the uninhabited interior of the
Province.
As early as 1722 we read that “William Wilkins was 150 miles up the
Sasquehannah trading for his master.” His master was John Cartlidge, an
Indian trader living at Conestoga, and 150 miles farther up the
Susquehanna was a venturesome trip at that date. There are also records
of several Frenchmen engaged in the trade living among the Indians east
of the mountains, extending their travels up the Susquehanna and its
branches.
A great council was held in Philadelphia, July 3, 1727, with the chiefs
of the Six Nations, but most of those in attendance were Cayuga,
Conestoga and Ganawese. Madame Montour, the celebrated interpreter, was
present at this conference and exerted her great influence toward an
amicable treaty.
In an address made by one of the chiefs to the Governor, he said: “They
desire that there may be no settlements made up the Sasquhannah higher
than Pextan (Harrisburg), and that none of the settlers thereabouts be
suffered to sell or keep any rum there, for that being the road by which
their people go out to war, they are apprehensive of mischief if they
meet with liquor in these parts. They desire also, for the same reasons,
that none of the traders be allowed to carry any rum to the remoter
parts where James Le Tort trades,—that is, Allegany on the branch of
Ohio. And this they desire may be taken notice of, as the mind of the
chiefs of all the Five Nations, for it is all those nations that now
speak by them to all our people.”
The following day the Governor made this reply: “We have not hitherto
allowed any settlements to be made above Pextan, but, as the young
people grow up, they will spread, of course, yet it will not be very
speedily. The Governor, however, will give orders to them all to be
civil to those of the Five Nations as they pass that way, though it
would be better if they would pass the Susquehannah above the mountains.
And the sale of rum shall be prohibited both there and at Alegany; but
the woods are so thick and dark we cannot see what is done in them. The
Indians may stave any rum they find in the Woods, but, as has been said,
they must not drink or carry any away.”
The interesting fact ascertained from these two addresses is that James
Le Tort, who had settled near Carlisle, as early as 1720, and was a well
known trader, had already passed over the Allegheny Mountains and
established his trading post on the Ohio River. As he was also known to
have lived and traded as early as 1701 on the island at the Forks of the
Susquehanna, long known as Packer’s Island, between Sunbury and
Northumberland, it may be fairly inferred that Le Tort found his way to
the West through the West Branch Valley and thence by the Indian path
leading from Great Island through what is now Clearfield and Kittaning
to the west.
This is interesting also because it was at this time that the Shawnee
began to pass over the mountains, followed by some Delaware, especially
those of Conestoga descent, and began to settle on the Ohio. The Shawnee
had established a large village at the mouth of Chillisquaque Creek,
where it empties into the West Branch, a mile below Lewisburg on the
east side of the stream.
The second inference is that at the date of the above conference there
were white people already seated on the Juniata and Susquehanna, farther
west than Paxtang, or there were already such decided symptoms of danger
in that direction that the Iroquois deputies considered it necessary to
forbid that anyone should presume to settle beyond the Kittatinny
Mountains. A violation of this precautionary restriction led to a series
of complaints about intruders into these valleys for the next thirty
years.
During the first quarter of the eighteenth century the history of Indian
affairs on the Susquehanna and Juniata, and especially the West Branch
of the former river, is nearly all connected closely with the Iroquois
agency on the northern border of the Province.
The principal representatives of this great Nation were Allummapees,
also called Sassoonan, the great Delaware King, and Shikellamy, the
great Oneida vicegerent.
Allummapees resided at Paxtang, as early as 1709. He removed from
Paxtang to Shamokin about 1718, and there resided among the Munsee, the
most belligerent of the Lenape clans. He ruled as king from 1718 till
his death. He was a good-hearted chieftain, true to the English and an
advocate of peace. When he died he was supposed to be one hundred years
of age. His death occurred August 12, 1731, when in a state of helpless
intoxication he was stabbed to the heart by his nephew, Shockatawlin, of
whom Allummapees was jealous.
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Indians Massacre Major John Lee and
Family, August 13, 1782
On the evening of August 13, 1782, John Lee and his family with one or
two neighbors were seated at the supper table in their comfortable log
home in what is now Winfield, Union County. Without a moment’s warning a
band of Indians, supposed to be sixty or seventy in number, rushed in on
them, and killed Lee and his family. The events of this crime rank among
the most cruel and revolting of those along the frontier.
A young woman, named Katy Stoner, hurried upstairs and concealed herself
behind the chimney, where she remained undiscovered and escaped. She
related the details of this horrible tragedy.
Lee was tomahawked and scalped, and an old man named John Walker shared
the same fate. Mrs. Claudius Boatman and daughter, who were guests of
the Lees, were killed and scalped; Mrs. Lee, with her small child, and a
larger boy, named Thomas, were led away captives.
The savages fled from the scene along the Great Path, leading up that
side of the West Branch Valley, over the White Deer Mountains, and then
crossed to the eastern side of the river below Muncy.
One of Lee’s sons, Robert, happened to be absent and thus escaped the
fate of his parents. He was returning, however, and came in sight of the
house just as the Indians were leaving it, but they did not observe him.
He fled to Northumberland and gave the alarm.
A party of about twenty volunteers was organized by Colonel Samuel
Hunter, at Fort Augusta, and hastened in pursuit. On arriving at Lee’s
house they beheld some of the victims yet alive and writhing in agony.
Lee was not dead, and Mrs. Boatman’s daughter also survived. Litters
were hastily constructed, and they were carried to Fort Augusta. Lee
expired in great agony soon after arrival at the fort. Miss Boatman was
nursed back to health and lived many years afterwards.
Colonel Hunter and his party, without delaying to bury the dead, pushed
on after the savages as rapidly as possible with a view of overtaking
them, and releasing the captives. They came in sight of them above
Lycoming Creek.
In crossing White Deer Mountains Mrs. Lee was accidentally bitten on her
ankle by a rattlesnake, and her leg became so swollen and pained her so
severely, that she traveled with great difficulty. The Indians, finding
themselves pursued, urged her along as fast as possible, but she
weakened rapidly. When near the mouth of Pine Creek, about four miles
below the present Jersey Shore, Mrs. Lee’s strength failed her and she
seated herself on the ground.