was rejected by the close vote of six colonies against five. “With this
defeat,” says Bancroft, “Galloway lost his mischievous importance.”
At the October election Galloway was re-elected to the Assembly, but the
many changes in the membership foretold the decided advancement of the
Whigs. Edward Biddle was elected Speaker. Galloway did not attend until
after the report of the preceding Congress had been made.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met on December 8, 1774, was the
first Provincial Legislature to which report of the congressional
proceedings was made. The Assembly unanimously approved them December
15, and recommended them to the inviolable observance of the people.
This body then appointed Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Galloway,
Humphreys, Morton and Ross as delegates to the new Congress. Mr. Samuel
Rhoads, who was then the Mayor of Philadelphia, was too occupied with
those duties and was omitted from this delegation.
Upon the return of Benjamin Franklin from London, he was immediately
added to the congressional delegation, together with Messrs. James
Wilson and Thomas Willing. Mr. Galloway, who had repeatedly requested to
be excused from serving, was permitted to withdraw. Galloway had become
too much alarmed at the length to which the opposition to the mother
country was carried.
Hitherto Governor John Penn had looked upon the proceedings of the
Assembly without attempting to direct or control them. He was supposed
to favor the efforts made in support of American principles; but now a
semblance of regard to the instructions of the Crown induced him to
remonstrate in mild terms against the continental system of petition and
remonstrance.
In England the proceedings of the Americans were viewed with great
indignation by the King and his ministry, and the petition of Congress,
although declared by the Secretary of State, after a day’s perusal, “to
be decent and proper and received graciously by His Majesty, did not
receive much favor at the hands of the ministry, which resolved to
compel the obedience of the Americans.”
The remonstrances of three millions of people were therefore treated,
perhaps believed, as the clamors of an unruly multitude.
Both houses of Parliament joined in an address to the King, declaring
“that they find a rebellion actually exists in the Province of
Massachusetts.” That was followed by an act for restraining the trade
and commerce of the New England Provinces and prohibiting them from
carrying on the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, which was
subsequently extended to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
South Carolina and the Lower Counties on the Delaware.
Conciliatory measures were introduced in Parliament, which provided a
relief from tax or duties for those colonies which would yield strict
obedience to the laws of the mother country. This proposition was
opposed as an admission of the correctness of the American views. Upon
Pennsylvania’s reply to the resolutions of Parliament much depended, and
the Assembly acted promptly and with unanimity.
By reason of Edward Biddle’s illness, John Morton was elected Speaker,
March 15, 1775.
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Fort Montgomery Withstands Attack of
British and Indians, September 6, 1780
In the early days of the Revolution the settlers on the frontiers
suffered much at the hands of the Indians, and this was particularly
true in the region of the Susquehanna valleys. A chain of forts or
blockhouses was established from Fort Jenkins on the North Branch of the
Susquehanna, about midway between the present towns of Berwick and
Bloomsburg, to Fort Reid, in the present borough of Lock Haven.
Each of these forts was garrisoned by troops from large Fort Augusta at
the forks of the Susquehanna, and each in its turn was attacked by
Indians or by British and Indians, during the period of the Revolution,
and all but one or two of them were destroyed.
The most important attack on any of the above forts occurred July 28,
1779, when the British under Captain John MacDonald and Seneca Indians,
under Chief Hiakatoo, defeated the garrison at Fort Freeland, took all
the men and boys prisoners and destroyed the fort. This story is told on
July 28.
In 1769, William Patterson patented 700 acres of land in what is now
Lewis Township, Northumberland County, which he named Paradise. Two
years later he sold his Paradise farm to John Montgomery, of Paxtang,
and removed to White Deer Creek, to reside with his daughter, Mrs.
Hunter. John Montgomery established his family at Paradise, and his
descendants still reside in that beautiful valley.
At the time of the battle at Fort Freeland, John Montgomery heard the
firing, mounted two of his young sons on horses and sent them to the top
of a hill to learn the cause of the shooting. They soon discovered the
fort on fire and a fight raging in the timber below them. They hurriedly
returned and reported what they had seen, when their father loaded his
family in a wagon, with what provisions and clothing they could carry,
and rapidly drove across the country to the cabin of Philip Davis, on
Chillisquaque Creek, near the present village of Pottsgrove. Davis
gathered up his family and together they hurriedly journeyed to Fort
Augusta, then down the river to Paxtang, where they remained until after
the war was closed.
The precaution of Montgomery was intuitive, for the victorious British
and Indians soon reached Paradise and burned his home and buildings.
With Fort Freeland destroyed and Montgomery’s home in ruins, it was
necessary that one of these places be immediately rebuilt and fortified.
A detachment of the German Regiment, then in that vicinity, was sent to
Paradise under command of Captain John Rice, and in the winter of
1779–80 they built a stockade around a fine spring of water, which forms
the headwaters of Muddy Run. This was built permanently out of limestone
found in that locality and today is in an excellent state of
preservation and used by the tenant of the farm.
After completing this real fort they ably defended it, as an attack took
place there early in September, 1780, which is told in a letter written
by Colonel Samuel Hunter, county lieutenant, dated Fort Augusta,
September 21, 1780, as follows:
“We were alarmed by a large party of the enemy making their appearance
in our county on the 6th inst. They came first to a small fort that
Colonel Weltner’s troops had erected on the headwaters of the
Chillisquaque, calling it Fort Rice, about thirteen miles from Sunbury.
(Three errors: Headwaters of Muddy Run; should be Fort Montgomery, the
owner and original builder, and not Fort Rice, just because such a
soldier was in charge of the detail, and the distance is seventeen miles
from Sunbury, or about four from Milton).
“When the German Regiment marched off the enemy attacked the fort about
sundown, and fired very smartly. The garrison returned the fire with
spirit, which made them withdraw a little off, and in the night they
began to set fire to a number of houses and stacks of grain which they
consumed.
“In the meantime our militia had collected to the number of one hundred
men under command of Colonel John Kelly, who marched to the relief of
the garrison, and arrived there next day. The people of the garrison
acquainted Colonel Kelly that there must be two hundred and fifty or
three Hundred of the Enimy, which he did not think prudent to engage
without being Reinforced. The confusion this put the inhabitants in, it
was not easy to collect a party equal to fight the savages.
“I immediately sent off an express to Col. Purdy on Juniata whom I heard
was marching to the Frontiers of Cumberland County with the militia, he
came as quick as possible to our assistance with one Hundred and ten of
the militia and about Eighty Volunteers, which was no small
Reinforcement to us.
“Genl. Potter just coming home from camp at this critical time came up
to Sunbury and took command of the party that went in Quest of the
Enimy. But previous to his marching, discharged the Volunteers as he
concluded by the information he had received from spyes we had out that
the enemy did not exceed one Hundred and fifty and that they had
withdrawn from the inhabitants to some Remote place.
“General Potter, However, marched on to Muncy Hills, but was a little
baffled by the information to their route and did not come on their
track till the 13th and followed on about 50 miles up Fishing Creek, the
road the enemy took, but finding they had got too far ahead returned
here the 17th inst. The enemy got but one scalp and one prisoner.
(Colonel Hunter did not know of the Sugar Loaf Massacre when he wrote.)
“We all concluded the enimy had got off, but on the 18th there was a
small party made their appearance on the West Branch about fourteen
miles above this place, they killed one man and wounded another, and
killed their horses they had in the plow, which plainly shows they have
scattered into small parties to Harass the inhabitants, which I am
afraid will prevent the people from getting crops put in the ground this
fall.
“When the German Regiment marched off from here I gave orders for the
Frontier’s Companys to embody and keep one-fourth of the men Constantly
Reconnoitering.
“After garrisoning Fort Jenkins, Fort Rice and Fort Swartz with twenty
men in each of them, this was the only method I could think of
encouraging the people as we were left to our own exertions. Only about
thirty of Capt. McCoy’s company of Volunteers from Cumberland County,
until the 10 inst., that two companies of militia came here from the
same county in the whole about eighty men.
“When I received the intelligence of a large party of savages and tories
coming against Fort Rice, I gave orders to evacuate Fort Jenkins as I
did not look upon it to be tenable, which is since burned by the Enimy,
and would have shared the same had the men staid there on act. of the
Buildings, that were adjoining it, etc.”
John Montgomery and his family returned after peace was declared.
Finding the buildings of his farm destroyed and a good, strong stone
house supplying its place, he at once occupied the fort, which, with
additions, made him a comfortable home for years.
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Colonel Hartley Leads Expedition Against
Six Nation Indians—Born
September 7, 1746
Colonel Thomas Hartley, who was one of the most prominent Pennsylvanians
during the period of the Revolution, was born in Colebrookdale Township,
Berks County, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1746.
He was the son of George Hartley, a well-to-do farmer, who was able to
give his son a good classical education at Reading. At the age of
eighteen he began to read law in the office of Samuel Johnson, at York,
a prominent lawyer and relative of his mother. He was admitted to
practice in the courts of York County July 25, 1769, and in the courts
of Philadelphia a month later. He rose rapidly in his profession, and
was enjoying a lucrative practice when the War for Independence opened.
He served on the Committee of Observation for York County in 1774–75; he
represented York County as a deputy in the Provincial Conference held at
Philadelphia July 15, 1774, and in the Provincial Convention, January
23, 1775.
In December, 1774, he was chosen first lieutenant of Captain James
Smith’s company of Associators and a year later lieutenant colonel of
the First Battalion of York County. He was elected by Committee of
Safety January 10, 1776, to be lieutenant colonel of the Sixth
Battalion, commanded by Colonel William Irvine, of Carlisle, and served
with distinction in the Canadian campaign.
In December, 1776, Congress authorized General Washington to raise
sixteen battalions of infantry additional to those in service, and the
command of one of these was given to Colonel Hartley.
In the campaign for the defense of Philadelphia Hartley’s regiment bore
a conspicuous part. At the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown it was
attached to the First Philadelphia Brigade, of General Wayne’s division,
Colonel Hartley commanding the brigade, and was also at Paoli.
To repel the inroads of the Tories and Indians from New York and for the
protection of the frontiers following the “Great Runaway,” Colonel
Hartley and his regiment, July 14, 1778, were ordered to Sunbury. The
order continues:
“A detachment of Colonel Hartley’s Regiment to march from New Jersey to
Easton, there to join Colonel Kowatz, who has under his command a small
number of horse. The remainder of Colonel Hartley’s Reg’t, now in
Philad’a, to march immediately to Sunbury and join the Two Companies
lately raised at Wioming. Col. Brodhead’s Regiment, now on their march
to Pittsburgh, to be ordered to the Standing Stone. But it is necessary
to add to these Continental troops a considerable body of Militia.
Council have therefore determined to order to Sunbury three hundred
Militia from the County of Northumberland, four hundred from the County
of Lancaster & one hundred and fifty from the County of Berks.”
The troops at Standing Stone and Easton were also to be re-enforced by
militia.
This arrangement for the frontier defense was intended to rendezvous at
Sunbury 1050 troops, as follows: Part of Hartley’s Regiment at
Philadelphia, 100; two companies recruited at Wyoming, 100; militia from
Lancaster County, 400; from Berks, 150, and Northumberland, 300.
On July 16 the Board of War advised Council that they learned by letters
that General McIntosh, who was at Carlisle, hearing of the Indian
incursions, ordered Colonel Brodhead, then on his way to Fort Pitt, to
hurry his Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment to the Susquehanna, “to stop the
progress of the enemy & encourage the militia to stand in their own
defence.”
Then General J. P. DeHaas, who was stationed at Lebanon, sent an express
to Colonel Samuel Hunter, at Fort Augusta, to learn the exact situation,
when he offered his services to the Board of War.
Colonel Brodhead and the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment arrived at Fort
Augusta and soon as the colonel learned he could not be of assistance
there, he took up his march and arrived at Fort Muncy July 23, and
immediately sent out scouting parties in every direction.
When Colonel Hartley and 300 of his command arrived at Fort Augusta,
General John P. DeHaas was already there and had assumed command.
General James Potter wrote from Fort Augusta August 1, 1778: “I came
here last week to station the militia. I found General DeHaas here, who
said he commanded all the troops. The next day Colonel Hartley came and
showed me his orders to command the troops, and politely requested me to
take the command, which I declined, as I never was very fond of command,
and this is a disagreeable one.”
Colonel Hartley wrote to Council from Fort Augusta August 1, advising
the conditions when he arrived, and that General DeHaas, who was in
command, had given the command to him. Hartley gave a very correct
statement of the distressed situation following the great Wyoming
Massacre of July 3.
Soon as Colonel Hartley arrived at Fort Muncy, Colonel Brodhead led his
troops off toward Fort Pitt, via Carlisle, and Colonel Hartley settled
down to the difficult task of handling the unfortunate conditions on
that harassed frontier.
Colonel Hartley’s men built Fort Muncy. It was about a half a mile above
the present Hall’s Station, on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, in
Lycoming County, a few hundred yards directly in front of the famous
Hall’s Stone House, built in 1769. It was intended to be the most
important stronghold, next to Fort Augusta, on the West Branch of the
Susquehanna.
Colonel Hartley immediately planned an expedition against the Indians,
as he believed the way to successfully combat the savage foe was to
carry the war into his own country.
He marched from Fort Muncy, September 18, with two hundred troops and
twelve days’ rations. In his report to Congress, the Colonel says: “In
our route we met with great rains and prodigious swamps, mountains,
defiles and rocks which impeded our march, we had to open and clear the
way as we passed.
“We waded or swam the River Lycoming upward of twenty times. In lonely
woods and groves we found where the Indians had dressed and dried scalps
of the frontier victims. On the morning of the 26th, the advance party
met nineteen Indians in a skirmish. An important Indian chief was killed
and scalped.” They burnt Tioga, Queen Esther’s Town and other
settlements.
Colonel Hartley performed the marvelous feat of marching his small army
300 miles and fighting several severe battles with Indians and Tories in
two weeks; bringing in fifty head of cattle, twenty-eight canoes and
much plunder and above all else rendered such signal service to the
frontiers that the settlers could return to their habitations and
harvest their crops in safety.
Both the Provincial Council and the Continental Congress, Nov. 14, 1778,
adopted resolutions of commendation to Colonel Hartley for the success
of his expedition.
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Colonel John Armstrong Destroyed Indian
Town of Kittanning September 8, 1756
Before Governor Robert Morris was superseded by William Denny he
concerted with Colonel John Armstrong an expedition against the Indian
town of Kittanning, on the Allegheny, the stronghold of Captains Jacobs
and Shingas, the most active Indian chiefs, and from which place they
distributed their war parties along the frontier.
When Governor Denny assumed the office of Governor his predecessor
communicated to him his plans for this expedition, which were favorably
received by the Governor and his Council.
The details of this enterprise had been perfected in great secrecy. It
is quite likely that Colonel Armstrong was selected for this purpose,
not only on account of his well-known military prowess, but for the
further fact that his beloved brother, Lieutenant Edward Armstrong, had
been killed in the attack and destruction of Fort Granville, and for the
many other depredations which the Indians had committed in the Juniata
Valley.
Colonel Armstrong collected his forces at Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, now
Huntingdon County, consisting of 300 troops, divided into seven
companies. Among the captains were James Hamilton, Hugh Mercer, Edward
Nord and James Potter, all afterward distinguished officers of the
Revolution and leading citizens of the State.
On September 2, 1756, he came up with the advanced party at “Beaver
Dams,” a few miles south of Frankstown, on the north branch of the
Juniata. Here the little army struck the celebrated Kittanning path,
well trodden by Indians in their travels to the westward.
On the 7th, the evening, within six miles of Kittanning, the scouts
discovered a fire in the road, and four Indians about it, but these
could not be attacked, as one or more might escape and alarm the town.
Lieutenant Hogg and twelve men were left to watch them, with orders to
fall upon them at daybreak. The main body then made a circuit and
proceeded to the village.
Guided by the whooping of the Indians at a dance, the army approached
the place by the river, about 100 perches below the town. They arrived
at 3 o’clock on the morning of the 8th near a cornfield in which some of
the enemy were lodged, sleeping in the open on account of the excessive
heat of the weather.
As soon as the dawn of the new day made the town visible the troops
attacked it through the cornfield, killing several of the enemy. The men
were wearied by a forced march of thirty miles and had been aroused from
sound sleep to make the attack, but they fought with great eagerness.
When the firing began Captain Jacobs immediately sounded the war whoop,
and with a number of Indians, as the English prisoners afterward told
Colonel Armstrong, cried: “The white men are at last come, we will soon
have scalps enough,” but at the same time ordered their squaws and
children to flee to the woods.
Captain Jacobs defended his house bravely and through loopholes in the
logs a deadly fire was poured into the provincial troops.
The Indians refused quarter, saying they were men and would not be
prisoners. At this point Colonel Armstrong turned his attention to the
houses from which the Indians were making such a stand. He received a
bad wound in his shoulder, but continued to direct the attack. He found
the houses must be destroyed, and ordered the contiguous buildings set
on fire, which was performed by his officers and soldiers with much
dispatch.
The Indians fired at every moving object and as their aim was deadly
many soldiers were killed or wounded.
Soon as the buildings were set on fire the Indians were given another
opportunity to surrender themselves prisoners, but again they refused.
One Indian declared he did not care for death; he could kill four or
five more before he died, and some began to sing as the flames burned
near them. The few who burst from the burning buildings and ran for the
river were shot down by the soldiers.
Captain Jacobs was shot as he attempted to get out of an upper window.
Armstrong’s soldiers identified the powder horn and pouch he wore as one
he had lately received from a French officer in exchange for Lieutenant
Edward Armstrong’s boots, which he carried from Fort Granville, where
the lieutenant was killed.
The soldiers got the scalp of the great Indian chief, as they also did
of his squaw and a young Indian, called the “King’s Son.”
Before this time Captain Hugh Mercer had been severely wounded in the
arm and was carried to the top of the hill above the town, where a
number of the wounded men gathered. These soon discovered from their
elevated position that Indians were passing the river and taking to the
hills, they thought with the intention of surrounding and cutting off
the troops from any possible retreat. Colonel Armstrong would not
believe this their design, but sent men in every direction to keep him
posted upon the enemy’s movements. The Indians in their hasty retreat
left behind a number of English scalps and not a few white prisoners.
Instead of cutting down the cornfield, the colonel immediately assembled
the wounded and loaded them upon the few Indian horses which they had
collected.
The return march was slow and tedious, made so by the many wounded and
the constant watch necessary to prevent a surprise attack from ambush.
Captain Mercer was carried by some of his men over a different road and
Colonel Armstrong was alarmed for his safety.
Colonel Armstrong in his report of the action at Kittanning said he
could not estimate the loss of the enemy, as many were burned in the
buildings, but he could account for thirty or forty killed. They brought
back a dozen scalps and eleven English prisoners.
The loss sustained by the provincial forces was seventeen killed,
thirteen wounded and nineteen missing. All the wounded recovered and all
but two of the missing reached their homes.
In speaking of the horrible Indian massacres which followed Braddock’s
defeat, Drake in his Indian history, says:
“Shingas and Captain Jacobs were supposed to have been the principal
instigators of them, and a reward of $700 was offered for their heads.“
King Shingas was the greatest Delaware warrior at that time. Heckwelder,
who knew him personally, says:
“Were his war exploits all on record they would form an interesting
document, though a shocking one.”
King Shingas happened to be at Fort Duquesne when Colonel Armstrong
destroyed Kittanning.
The Corporation of Philadelphia, on the occasion of Colonel Armstrong’s
victory, addressed a complimentary letter to him, January 5 following,
thanking him and his officers for their gallant conduct and presented
him with a piece of plate.
Many descendants of the gallant Colonel Armstrong are living today and
well may they be proud of such a distinguished ancestor.
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Franklin County Erected from Part
of Cumberland County
September 9, 1784
On January 27, 1759, Lancaster County was divided by act of Assembly,
and the southern division thereof erected into a new county, to which
the name of “Cumberland” was given, with the town of Carlisle as the
seat of justice.