Smith’s Fort, as it was sometimes called. An unfortunate fact was that
this fort was sometimes erroneously called Fort Henry or Busse’s Fort,
and many incidents in and about this place are confused.
After the disastrous beginning of the French and Indian War the Indians
swept through the frontiers of Pennsylvania and committed terrible
massacres.
The news of the Penn’s Creek massacre soon reached the settlements on
Swatara Creek and the farmers gathered together, October 30, armed with
guns, swords, axes, pitchforks, whatever they happened to possess, until
some 200 rendezvoused at Benjamin Spickers, near Stoucksburg, about six
miles above Womelsdorf.
The Rev. Mr. Kurtz[9] of the Lutheran faith, delivered an exhortation
and offered prayer, after which Conrad Weiser divided the people into
companies of thirty each.
Footnote 9:
Reverend John Nicholas Kurtz, first Lutheran Minister in Pennsylvania.
They marched toward the Susquehanna, having first sent a company of
fifty men “to Tolkeo in order to possess themselves of the Capes or
Narrows of the Swahatawro, where we expected the enemy would come
through,” wrote Colonel Conrad Weiser, to Governor Robert Hunter Morris.
The forces were augmented on the way, and by the time they arrived at
Squire Adam Read’s plantation on Swatara Creek, they received the
intelligence of the surprise and slaughter of members of Captain John
Harris’ party at the mouth of the Mahanoy Creek.
This news dampened the ardor of the volunteers and they soon concluded
they could be of more effective service guarding their own firesides and
they hurried back. The news that 500 Indians had already made their way
through Tolkeo Gap and had killed a number of people did not contribute
to their joy on the long march home.
Colonel Weiser sensed the situation and fully understood he could not
count much upon this group, so he advised them to make a breastwork of
trees at Swatara Gap, promising to procure for them a quantity of bread
and ammunition. They got as far as the top of the mountain; fired their
guns to alarm the neighborhood, and then hurried back.
Soon came the news of the murder of Henry Hartman, just over the
mountain. When Mr. Parsons and a party went to bury the body, they
learned that two others had been recently killed and scalped, and some
had been captured. The roads were filled with persons fleeing from their
homes and confusion reigned.
It was clearly apparent that Swatara Gap must be occupied by troops and
Colonel Weiser ordered Captain Christian Busse with his company of fifty
men to “proceed to Tolihaio Gap, and there erect a stoccado fort of the
form and dimensions given you, and to take posts there and range the
woods from the fort westward towards the Swatara and eastward towards a
stoccado to be built by Cap. Morgan, about half way between the said
fort and Fort Lebanon.”
Governor Morris writing to Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, February 1,
1756, advised him that he had arranged to build a chain of forts, about
ten or twelve miles apart, between the Delaware and Susquehanna. The
best is “built at an important Pass through ye Kittahteny Hills, on our
Northern Frontier and I have called it Fort Henry.” This is an error, as
he should have written Fort Swatara.
This might be proved by a letter Colonel Conrad Weiser wrote to Governor
Morris, July 11, 1756, giving the assignment of his troops. He stated
that the men under Captain Smith are all placed in and about Swatara Gap
and the Manada Fort; Captain Busse’s men were at Fort Henry and Captain
Morgan’s at Fort Northkill and Fort Lebanon. This definitely proves that
Fort Swatara and Fort Henry were not one and the same place.
The first and most important of the commanders of Fort Swatara was
Captain Frederick Smith, whose company was recruited in Chester County.
Captain Smith was ordered, January 26, to proceed as soon as possible to
Swatara and in some convenient place there to erect a fort.
Captain Adam Read and Captain Hendrick, who had been ranging the
mountains, were ordered to dismiss their men and turn over their arms
and supplies to Captain Smith, all of which was done.
Further mention of the actual building of Fort Swatara is missing, as is
the case of Manada Fort, but it is very probable that the stockade
erected by the settlers was occupied by the provincial troops. This was
not a very formidable fortification, and was afterward referred to in a
letter to Colonel Washington as “only a block house.” It may therefore
be presumed, at this late day, that it consisted of a single building,
surrounded by a stockade.
The many murders committed by the savages and their stealthy approach,
made it necessary to distribute the soldiers among the various
farmhouses, especially during the harvest season.
The distribution of these men was usually made under the direction of
Colonel Weiser, at consultations with the several commanders at Fort
Henry.
This detail was not always satisfactory to the settlers, as may well be
imagined. Each wanted troops to be on guard and there were never
sufficient to supply the demand, but Captain Smith, at first negligent
in this particular, was afterward complimented by both Colonel Weiser
and Governor Morris for the faithful performance of his duty in the face
of many hardships.
At the treaty held in Easton, in 1757, Conrad Weiser once more acted as
agent for the Proprietaries, and interpreter. He arranged for a guard of
110 men, who were to come from sundry forts, one of which was Fort
Swatara.
On February 5, 1758, Adjutant Kern reported Lieutenant Allen and
thirty-three men at Fort Swatara, and “its distance to Fort Hunter, on
the Susquehanna, as twenty-four miles.”
There are frequent references to be found in the Pennsylvania Archives
of Paymaster Young’s visits to Fort Swatara.
Colonel James Burd’s tour of inspection in early spring of 1758 included
Fort Swatara, where he remained two days longer than desired on account
of incessant rains. He reviewed the garrison Tuesday morning, February
21. He did not seem very much pleased with conditions about the fort and
gave orders intended to correct weaknesses. He ordered a cask of powder,
100 pounds of lead and blankets for the garrison.
After this tour of inspection there does not seem to be much more
recorded of the transaction of Fort Swatara.
----------
Indian Ravages at McDowell’s Mill, Franklin
County, October 31, 1755
A place of much consequence in provincial Pennsylvania and frequently
referred to by public officers and agents was McDowell’s Mill. This was
located midway between the Reverend John Steel’s Fort and Fort Loudoun,
east of Kittatinny Mountains on the east bank of the Conococheague
Creek, in the western part of the present Franklin County.
This defense was built in the year 1756 and was a log structure,
rectangular in shape and provided with loop-holes. It stood until the
year 1840. There is at present a stone house erected on or near the site
of this old fort.
This place was a private establishment, and the earliest public notice
of it is in a letter written by Major General Edward Braddock to
Governor Morris, dated June 18, 1755, signifying his approbation of the
deposits being made at McDowell’s Mill instead of at Shippensburg.
Governor Morris wrote to General Braddock July 3, 1755, saying that he
had sent certain enumerated articles to Shippensburg, where “they will
remain until I go up into the country, which will be on Tuesday next,
and then I shall form the magazine at or near McDowell’s Mill and put
some stoccados around it to protect the magazine and the people that
will have the care of it; for without something of this kind, as we have
no militia and the Assembly will maintain no men, four or five Indians
may destroy the magazine whenever they please, as the inhabitants of
that part of the Province are very much scattered.
“I send you a plan of the fort or stoccado, which I shall make by
setting logs of about ten feet long in the ground, so as to inclose the
storehouses. I think to place two swivel guns in two of the opposite
bastions, which will be sufficient to guard it against any attack of
small arms.”
On October 31 began incursions which lasted for several days. Adam Hoops
wrote to Governor Morris, dated Conococheague, November 3, 1755:
“I am sorry I have to trouble you with this Melancholy and disagreeable
news, for on Saturday I recd. an Express from Peters Township that the
Inhabitants of the great Cove were all murdered or taken Captive and
their houses and barns all in Flames. Some few fled, upon notice brought
them by a certain Patrick Burns, a Captive, that made his Escape that
very Morning before this sad tragedy was done.
“Upon this information, John Potter, Esq., and Self, sent Expresses
through our Neighborhood, which induced many of them to Meet with us at
John McDowell’s Mill, where I with many others had the unhappy prospect
to see the Smoke of two houses that was set on Fire by the Indians, viz,
Matthew Patton’s and Mesheck James’s, where their cattle was shot down,
the horses standing bleeding with Indian Arrows in them, but the Indians
fled.
“The Rev. Mr. Steel, John Potter, Esq., and Several others with us, to
the Number of about an hundred, went in Quest of the Indians, with all
the Expedition Imaginable, but to no Success; these Indians have
likewise taken two Women Captives, belonging to said Township. I very
much fear the Path Valley has undergone the same Fate.
“We, to be sure, are in as bad Circumstances as ever any poor Christions
were in, For the Cries of the Widowers, Widows, fatherless and
Motherless Children, with many others for their Relations, are enough to
Pierce the hardest of hearts; Likewise it’s a very sorrowful spectacle
to see those that Escaped with their lives with not a Mouthful to Eat,
or Bed to lie on, or Clothes to Cover their Nakedness, or keep them
warm, but all they had consumed into Ashes.
“These deplorable Circumstances cries aloud for your Honours most Wise
Consideration, that you would take Cognizance of and Grant what shall
seem most meet, for it is really very Shocking, it must be, for the
Husband to see the wife of his Bosom, her head cut off, and the
Children’s blood drank like Water by these Bloody and Cruel Savages as
We are informed has been the fate of many.”
November 6, Hoops again wrote to Governor Morris, inclosing
qualifications for two officers, and said:
“Hans Hamilton is now at McDowell’s Mill with upwards of 200 men and
about 200 from this county, in all about 400 men.”
So it may be safely presumed as a fact that Governor Morris finally
determined to establish his magazine at McDowell’s Mills and that these
soldiers stockaded the buildings according to the plans of Governor
Morris.
On Wednesday, February 11, 1756, “two lads were taken or killed at the
Widow Cox’s, just under Parnell’s Knob, and a lad who went from
McDowell’s Mills to see what fire it was never returned, the horse
coming back with reins over his neck; they burnt the House and shot down
the Cattle.”
Under date of March 25, 1756, Governor Morris sent the following to the
Reverend John Steele: “With these Instructions you will receive a
Commission appointing you a Captain of a Company in the pay of the
Province, which is to be made up by Draughts of thirteen men out of Each
of the Companys composed by James Burd, Hans Hamilton, James Patterson
and Hugh Mercer, Esq., * * * also a Commission appointing James
Hollowday your Lieutenant * * * When you have formed your Company you
are to take post at McDowell’s Mills, upon the road to Ohio, which you
are to make your Head Quarters, and to detach patroling partys from time
to time to scour the woods. * * * You are to apply to Mr. Adam Hoops,
for the Provincial allowance of Provisions for the men under your
Command.”
Governor Morris sent instructions to Elisha Salter, Commissary General
of Musters, to proceed to McDowell’s Mill and muster the company under
Captain John Steel, and direct him to take post at McDowell’s Mill.
Robert Callender wrote to Governor Denny from Carlisle, dated November
4, 1756: “This day I received advice from Fort McDowell that on Monday
or Tuesday last, one Samuel Perry and his two sons went from the Fort to
their plantation, and not returning at the time they proposed, the
commanding Officer sent there a corporal and fourteen men to know the
cause of their stay, who not finding them at the plantation, they
marched back toward the Fort, and on their return found the said Perry
killed and scalped and covered over with leaves; immediately after a
party of Indians, in number about thirty, appeared and attacked the
soldiers, who returned the fire, and fought for sometime until four of
our people fell, the rest of them made off—six of them got into the
Fort, but what became of the rest is not yet known; there are two
families cut off, but cannot tell the number of people. It is likewise
reported that the enemy in their retreat burnt a quantity of grain and
sundry horses in the Cove.”
The activities of Fort McDowell ceased during December, 1756, when
Colonel John Armstrong removed the stores to Fort Loudoun, and increased
the capacity and strength of that place. Further references to
McDowell’s Mill are of no consequence, it being afterwards used by
rangers who were scouting along that frontier.
----------
Turmoil in Lower Counties; Penn Sails for
England, November 1, 1701
The Constitution, which had been under consideration for eighteen
months, was finally adopted October 28, 1701, and William Penn, pressed
by many claims for his presence in England, set sail November 1 and
arrived there about the middle of January.
He had hardly landed before King William died, January 18, and Princess
Anne of Denmark succeeded him. Penn was in great favor with her.
The new Constitution which Penn personally assisted in giving his
Province was as comprehensive on the subject of civil and religious
liberty as the former ones.
There was established a Council of State, composed of ten members,
chiefly Quakers and his intimate friends, of whom four made a quorum who
were empowered “to consult and assist with the best of their advice the
Proprietary himself or his deputies in all public affairs and matters
relating to the government.”
Andrew Hamilton, a native of Scotland, one of the Proprietaries of New
Jersey, and formerly Governor of East and West Jersey, was appointed
Deputy Governor, and James Logan Provincial Secretary and Clerk of the
Council.
Governor Hamilton’s administration was very brief, for he died while on
a visit to Amboy, April 20, 1703. The government then devolved upon the
Council, of which Edward Shippen was president.
Almost the entire attention of the Government was directed to the
consummation of a union between the Province and Territories.
The Territories, or Lower Counties, persisted in the absolute refusal to
join with the Province in legislation until 1703, when it was finally
determined and settled between them that they should compose different
and distinct assemblies, entirely independent of each other, pursuant to
the liberty allowed by the clause in the charter for that purpose.
The proprietary selected Mr. John Evans as the successor to Governor
Hamilton. He arrived in the province in February, 1704, and soon
increased the number of the council and called to that board, with
others, William Penn the younger, who had accompanied him to the
province. Pursuant to the instruction of the proprietary, he earnestly
applied himself to re-unite the province and Territories; and his lack
of success in this measure produced an unfavorable disposition toward
the province, which embittered his whole Administration.
Governor Evans was but twenty-six years old when appointed, and he was
zealous and active in the proprietary’s interest; he was deficient in
neither wit nor talents, but lacked experience, prudence and tact, and
was offensive to the Quakers. He showed a partiality toward the lower
counties, which produced unpleasant effects in the province.
England was at war with France and Spain, and Evans was ordered by the
Queen to raise an armed force in Pennsylvania, but his efforts proved
unsuccessful. He incurred even greater unpopularity among the Quakers
and became odious to the people of Philadelphia.
He offended the merchants of Philadelphia, when he authorized the
erection of a fort near New Castle, where it could be of little use to
the province, and inward bound ships, not owned by residents, were
obliged to deliver their half-pound of powder for each ton measurement.
The provincialists remonstrated against this abuse in vain.
At length Richard Hill, William Fishbourne and Samuel Preston, three
spirited Quakers, resolved to remove the nuisance by a method different
from any that had yet been attempted.
Hill and his companions, on board the Philadelphia, a vessel belonging
to the former, dropped down the river and anchored above the fort. Two
of them went ashore and informed French, the commander, that their
vessel was regularly cleared, demanding to pass without interruption.
This demand was refused, when Hill, who had been bred at sea, stood at
the helm and passed the fort with no other injury than a shot through
the mainsail. French pursued in an armed boat and was taken aboard,
while his boat, cut from the vessel, fell astern, and he was led a
prisoner to the cabin.
Governor Evans was apprized of the matter and followed the Philadelphia
by land to New Castle and, after she had passed the fort, pursued her in
a smaller but faster boat to Salem, where he boarded her in great anger,
and behaved with considerable intemperance.
Lord Cornbury, Governor of New Jersey, who was also Vice Admiral of the
Delaware, happened to be at Salem, and the prisoners were taken before
him. He gave them and Governor Evans, as well, a severe reprimand, and
when all promised to behave in the future they were dismissed and
Governor Evans was jeered.
Following this spirited action, the fort no longer impeded the
navigation of the Delaware.
Governor Evans made an extended trip among the Indians, which began June
27, 1707. He was accompanied by several friends and servants. The
Conestoga and other Indians had advised him that the Nanticoke of
Maryland designed war against the Five Nations. Governor Evans visited
in turn: Pequehan, on the Pequea; Dekonoagah, on the Susquehanna, about
nine miles distant from Pequehan; Conestogoe and Peixtang.
At the latter place he seized one Nicole, a French Indian trader,
against whom heavy complaints had been made. His capture was attended
with difficulties, but he was finally secured and mounted upon a horse
with his legs tied together, beneath the horse’s belly.
The articles of remonstrance, subsequently addressed to the Proprietary
by the Assembly, make it appear that the Governor’s conduct on this
occasion and among the Indians was not free from censure, it being
described as “abominable, and unwarrantable.”
To add to Governor Evans’ other troubles he had a very unhappy
misunderstanding with his secretary, James Logan, which, with the
antagonism of the Assembly, almost paralyzed legislative action, and led
to a most lamentable exhibition of ill-temper on the part of the
Governor.
Remonstrances were sent to William Penn, which tended to produce the
very steps which the Assembly desired to guard against, of provoking the
Governor to relinquish a troublesome and ungrateful Province to the
Crown of England, which had long wished to possess it.
Governor Evans was removed early in the year 1709 and Captain Charles
Gookin appointed as his successor. Gookin was an officer in Earle’s
Royal Regiment, quite advanced in years, and in the language of Penn “a
man of pure morals, mild temper and moderate disposition.”
----------
Indians Captured Frances Slocum, the “Lost
Sister of Wyoming,” November 2, 1778
Among the many dramatic incidents in the history of the Wyoming Valley
few, if any, are more thrilling or unusual than the carrying away into
captivity of little Frances Slocum.
Jonathan Slocum, a Quaker, settled at Wyoming in 1762 and, with others
who survived the awful Indian massacre of October 15, 1763, left the
valley.
In the autumn of 1777 he brought his wife, six sons and three daughters
from Rhode Island and again made his home at Wyoming.
On Monday, November 2, 1778, Jonathan Slocum and his sons, William and
Benjamin, were at work completing their corn harvest. At the Slocum home
were the other members of the family, together with Mrs. Nathan Kingsley
and her two sons. About noonday the Kingsley lads were sharpening a
knife on a grindstone in the front yard. Suddenly the crack of a rifle
was heard, and Mrs. Slocum hastened to the front door, when she was
horrified to see the lifeless body of the elder Kingsley boy lying on
the ground. The Indian who killed him was preparing to scalp his victim
with the very knife the boys were sharpening.
The terrified mother snatched her infant from the cradle, called to the
others to run for their lives, and fled out of the rear door to a log
fence beyond which lay a swamp, and there hid herself and her baby.
Meanwhile the younger Kingsley boy and Frances Slocum, then
five-and-a-half years old, hid themselves under a staircase; Judith
Slocum, with her three-year-old brother Isaac, fled toward the swamp,
while little Mary Slocum, less than ten years old, started on a run in
the direction of Fort Wyoming, carrying in her arms her baby brother,
aged one-and-a-half years. Ebenezer Slocum, then thirteen years old, was
a cripple and unable to get away with the others.
While the Slocums were fleeing from their home the Indian in their
door-yard was joined by two others, who made their way into the house
and quickly ransacked it. Frances Slocum and young Kingsley were
discovered in their hiding place, and dragged forth, while Ebenezer
Slocum was seized in another part of the house.
Mrs. Slocum, leaving her baby behind, rushed into the presence of the
Indians and implored the savages to release the children. She pointed to
the crippled feet of Ebenezer and exclaimed: “The child is lame; he can
do thee no good.”
The Indian who had him in his grasp released him to his mother. She
pleaded piteously for her daughter, but in vain.
The chief Indian of the three threw Frances athwart his shoulder, one of
the other Indians did likewise with young Kingsley, while the third one
of the party shouldered the big bundle of plunder which had been taken
from the house. They then dashed into the woods, and that was the last
Mrs. Slocum ever saw of her daughter, Frances.
Years later it was learned from Frances Slocum herself that she and
young Kingsley were carried to a cave where they stayed all night. Early
the following morning they set out and traveled for many days. When they
arrived at the village to which the Indians belonged, young Kingsley was
taken away and Frances never learned what became of him.
The chief took Frances to an aged couple of the Delaware nation, who
adopted her. She was given the name of Weletawash, which was the name of
their youngest child, whom they had lately buried.
They were living in Ontario when the Revolution ended. They then moved
to Kekionga, the present site of the city of Fort Wayne, Ind.
Frances states she was there long after she was full grown, and that she
could relate incidents of Harmar’s defeat, October, 1790. In 1790
Frances married a Delaware brave named “Little Turtle.”
During four years of war in what is Ohio and Indiana, Frances and her
husband and her foster-parents were almost constantly on the move. Her
foster-father could speak English and so could Frances, until he died,
when she lost her mother-tongue. In 1794, “Little Turtle” left her and
went west.
Sometime in 1795 while on the move with her foster-parents, Frances
discovered an Indian lying in the path suffering from wounds received in
battle with the whites. She dressed his wounds and nursed him back to
health. He supplied them with game.