TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. PAGE The Battle-Drum of the Revolution. The Pennsylvania Navy. The Provin cial Conference. The Declaration of Independence. The Convention of 1776, and the end of Proprietary Rule. 1775-1776................ 154 CHAPTER X. The Revolution. Battles of Trenton and Princeton. The Battle of Brandy wine. Massacre at Paoli. British Occupation of Philadelphia. Battle of Germantown, and Reduction of Fort Mifflin. 1776-1777.......... 168 CHAPTER XI. The Revolution. The Cantonment at Valley Forge. The Mischianza. Philadelphia Evacuated by the British. Indian Outrages. Sullivan's Expedition. Abolition of Slavery in Pennsylvania. 1776-1780....... 181 CHAPTER XII. The Revolution. The Treason of Arnold. Revolt of the Pennsylvania Line. Surrender of Cornwallis. Declaration of Peace. 1780-1783... 196 CHAPTER XIII. Trouble in the Settlement of the Claims of the Soldiers. Council of Censors. Treaty at Fort Stanwix. Convention to revise the Constitution. 1783-1790................................................... 206 CHAPTER XIV. Administration of Governor Mifflin. The Yellow Fever in Philadelphia. The Presqu'Isle Establishment. The Whiskey Insurrection. Defence of the Frontiers. 1790-1794........................................ 213 CHAPTER XV. Jay's Treaty. The Fries' Insurrection. Removal of the Seat of Govern ment. Administrations of Governors M'Kean and Snyder. War of 1812-14. 1795-1817......................................... 232 CHAPTER XVI. Administrations of Governors Findlay, Hiester, Schulze, Wolf, and Ritner. Internal Improvements.' The Common School System. 1817-1837... 242 CHAPTER XVII. Constitutional Convention. " Buck-shot War." Administrations of Gover nors Porter, Shunk, Johnston, Pollock, and Packer. 1837-1861...... 249 CHAPTER XVIII. The Civil War. Establishment of Camp Curtin. Pennsylvania Troops the First to reach the National Capital. Pennsylvania Invaded by the Confederates. Constitutional Convention of 1873. Administrations of Governors Curtin, Geary, and Hartranft. 1861-1876.............. 259 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. "a tremendous explosion," says Ormsby in his narrative, "was heard from the westward, upon which the old General swore that the French magazine was blown up, either by accident or design." On the 25th of November the army took peaceable possession of the place, the blackened walls and charred out-posts alone remaining of that once proud fortress. On its ruins rose Fort Pitt. With the fall of Fort Duquesne terminated the struggle between France and England in the valley of the Ohio. The posts on French Creek still remained, but it was deemed unnecessary to proceed S against them, as the character of the war in the North left very little doubt that the contest would soon cease, by the complete overthrow of the French. In 1759, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara, and Quebec, S.yielded to the British arms, and on the 8th of September of the follow PLAN OF FORT PITT.. PLN OF FOT PTT. ing year (1760), Montreal, Detroit, and all of Canada were surrendered by the French. The Treaty of Fontainbleau, in November, 1762, put an end to the war. Another council was held in Easton, in October, 1758, at which the chiefs, both of the Six Nations and the Delawares, were present, and met the agents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and George Croghan, the agent of Sir William Johnson. The causes of the late war were fully discussed, complaints of the Indians concerning land were listened to, and all differences amicably adjusted; and a message was sent by the Six Nations ordering the Shawanese and Twigtwees, on the Ohio, to desist from their hostilities, on penalty of being attacked by them. Teedyuscung, at this treaty, received one of those insulting taunts from the Six Nations by which they too often exhibited their national superiority; taunts, however, which were deeply revenged upon the whites in after years, when the Delawares had thrown off the galling yoke. Teedyuscung supported his station with dignity and firmness, and refused to succumb; and the different Indian tribes at length became reconciled to each other. The capture of Quebec in 1759, by the force under the command of 1759. the lamented General Wolfe, created, not only in England, but in the Provinces, a delirium of joy." Franklin, who was in England as the agent of Pennsylvania, amidst the excitement occasioned by the victory for the British arms, was necessitated to correct the misrepresentation of the motives and conduct of the Assembly and inhabitants of Pennsylvania. While there he published an" Historical Review of Pennsylvania," but, written for party purposes, it contains party views, and, of consequence, violations of truth. In October, 1759, Governor Denny was superseded by James Hamilton. The removal of the former was in consequence of yielding to the demands of the Assembly and passing their money bill. HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. kin hills and Mahanoy, Line, and Mahantango ridges on the south side. Along the river and in the valleys there is a great amount of fertile land. The earliest record we have of this section of country dates back to 1728, when Governor Gordon gives certain instructions to Smith and Petty, Indian traders, who were about to make a journey to Shamokin. This place, which acquired considerable notoriety in the history of the State, was at this period a populous Indian village belonging to the Six Nations. It was the residence of Shikellimy, a celebrated Oneida chief, who had been sent by the Iroquois "to preside over ye Shawanees." Loskiel, in his history of the Moravian missions, states that on the 28th of September, 1742, Count Zinzendorf, accompanied by ............. ON THE SUSQUEHANNA, ABOVE MILTON. Conrad Weiser, Martin Mack, and his wife, and two Indians named Joshua and ' David, after a long and tedious journey through the wilderness, arrived at the town of Shamokin. Shikellimy gave them a hearty welcome, said he was glad to receive such a messenger, and promised to forward his designs. In 1745, the Rev. David Brainerd visited Shamokin. The entry in his journal, under date of September 13, is as follows " After having lodged out three nights, I arrived at the Indian town I aimed at on the Susquehanna, called Shaumoking, one of the places, and the largest of them, which I visited in May last. I was kindly received and entertained by the Indians; but had little satisfaction, by reason of the heathenish (lance and revel they then held in the house where I was obliged to lodge-which I could not suppress, though I often entreated them to desist, for the sake of one of their own friends who was then sick in the house, and whose disorder was much aggravated by the noise. Alas I how destitute of natural affection are these poor uncultivated pagans I although they 998 NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. seem somewhat kind in their own way. Of a truth, the dark corners of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. This town, as I observed in my diary of May last, hlies partly on the east side of the river, partly on the west, and partly on a large island in it, and contains upwards of fifty houses, and nearly three hundred persons, though I never saw much more than half that number in it. They are of three different tribes of Indians, speaking three languages wholly unintelligible to each other. About one-half of its inhabitants are Delawares; the others called Senekas and Tutelas. The Indians of this place are accounted the most drunken, mischievous, and ruffian-like fellows of any in these parts; and Satan seems to have his seat in this town in an eminent manner." The Six Nations used Shamokin as a convenient tarrying place for their war parties against the Catawbas, at the south; and they were very desirous of having a blacksmith there, to save them the trouble of long journeys to Tulpehocken, or to Philadelphia. The Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania granted the request, on condition that he should remain no longer than while the Indians continued friendly to the English. The blacksmith, Anthony Schmidt, was from the Moravian mission at Bethlehem; and this opened the way for the establishment of a mission at Shamokin, which was done in the spring of 1747, by Martin Mack, who had previously visited the place. John Hagen and Joseph Powell, of the mission, had built a house there. Bishop Cammerhoff and the pious Zeisberger visited the town in the year following. Towards the latter end of October, 1755, the frequent massacres by the French and Indians created great alarm, and measures were adopted looking to the defence of the frontiers. It being understood that the French had designs against Shamokin, Governor Morris decided upon building a fort at that place, and in his letter of the 15th of November, informs Sir William Johnson of his determination. In January following (1756), at a conference with the Indians at Carlisle, they made the request of the Governor to "immediately take possession and build a fort at Shamokin, lest they, who are a cunning, designing people, should take possession before and prevent you." At subsequent conferences with the Indians, at their earnest solicitation, the Governor agreed to yield to their requests, but, notwithstanding, it does not appear that active measures were taken to commence a fort at this important point until the following spring, when Colonel Clapham, of the Provincial service, was directed to proceed on the expedition for building a fort at Shamokin." Full instructions were given to that officer, with plans, etc.; " the ground to be cleared around, and openings to the river, and buildings erected within the fort and without; log houses in command of guns for the Indians; a breastwork for the men while at work." Ensign Samuel Miles, of Captain Lloyd's company 2d Pennsylvania battalion (afterwards Colonel Miles of the Revolution), in his manuscript journal thus notices the building of this fort: " We crossed the Susquehanna and marched on the west side thereof until we came opposite to where the town of Sunbury now stands, where we crossed over in batteaux, and I had the honor of being the first man who put his foot on shore at landing. In building the fort at Shamokin, Captain Levi Trump and myself had charge of the workmen, and after it was 999 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. finished, our battalion remained there in garrison until the year 1758. In the summer of 1756, I was nearly taken prisoner by the Indians. At about half a mile distance from the fort stood a large tree that bore excellent plums, and an open piece of ground near what is now called the Bloody spring. Lieutenant S. J. Atlee and myself one day took a walk to this tree to gather plums. While we were there a party of Indians lay a short distance from us concealed in the thicket, and had nearly got between us and the fort, when a soldier belonging to the bullock-guard came to the spring to drink; the Indians were thereby in danger of being discovered, and in consequence fired at and killed the soldier, by which means we got off and returned to the fort in much less time than we were coming out." From this time on, events connected with Fort Augusta thicken, and so important a position does it hold in the historic annals of the Province, that a bare recital of the transactions then occurring would occupy more space than our limited pages will allow. The magazine, which was built in the south bastion of the fort, and underground, is all that remains of this celebrated post of defence in frontier times. Northumberland county took an early and active part in the Revolutionary struggle. Captain John Lowdon's company, numbering one hundred men, went into service at the outset, in July, 1775, for one year, and the associators under the command of Colonels Potter and James Murray, shared in all the battles and skirmishes around Philadelphia, from those of Trenton and Princeton to Germantown and Guelph's mills, on 11th of December, 1777. On the 25th of December, 1775, occurred Doctor Plunkett's celebrated expedition to Wyoming. The Assembly, on the 25th of November, had requested the Governor to issue orders for a due execution of the laws of the Province in Northumberland county. The Governor replied in a letter of that date, to the justices and sheriff, and pursuant to his orders a number of warrant- were issued for persons residing at Wyoming, charged on oath with illegal practices, which were placed in Sheriff William Scull's hands. lie judged it prudent to raise the posse of the county, and a body of nearly five hundred men accompanied him to the neighborhood of Wyoming. Doctor William Plunkett, who had been an officer in the French-Indian war, seems to have had the military command. When they arrived at the Narrows, the posse was fired upon; Hugh McWilliams was killed, and three others desperately wounded. It was found impossible to force a passage on that side of the river, and an attempt was then made to cross the river in the night. When the boats had nearly reached the shore, and were entangled in a margin of ice, they were fired upon, and Jesse Lukens (son of Surveyor-General Lukens) was mortally wounded, and this second attempt haffled. The weather continuing intolerably severe, the expedition returned with(out effecting its object. In the spring of 1776, Casper Weitzel, Esq., a lawyer of Sunbury, raised a company, which was attached to the Pennsylvania rifle regiment, commanded by Colonel Samuel Miles. Captain Weitzel's commission is dated March 9, 1776. Hlis first lieutenant was William Gray, John Robb second lieutenant, and George (rant, third lieutenant. His company suffered very heavily in the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776. Eighteen privates are marked as missing, " since 1000 NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. the battle." Lieutenant Gray was captured, and not exchanged until the 8th of December. In June, 1779, Grant was promoted captain of 9th Pennsylvania, "for merit and extraordinary services." At the battle of Brandywine, Colonel William Cook's 12th Pennsylvania regiment was actively engaged. Captain John Brady was badly wounded, and his lieutenant, William Boyd, was killed. The latter was a son of Sarah Boyd, a widow who resided at Northumberland, and a brother of Thomas Boyd, who shared in all the dangers and fatigues of the Canada campaign, and fell a sacrifice to Indian barbarity, on Sullivan's expedition, 1779. Another brother, Captain John Boyd, of the rangers, was an acting justice for many years after the war, at Northumberland. On Warrior's run, during the Revolution, was situated Freeland's fort, memorable for the scenes which occurred at its capture, in the early part of autumn, or, to use an old pioneer's expression, "about the time peaches were ripe," in 1779. The following account of that event was given by Mr. Covenhoven, and another gentleman, a descendant of Mr. Vincent, who was captured at the fort. Rumors had been received at Fort Muncy (now the town of Muncy), where Colonel Hepburn, afterwards Judge Hepburn, was commanding, that a hostile force of British and Indians might be soon expected down the West Branch. To obtain more definite information, Robert Covenhoven, who was then acting as a guide and scout for the garrison, was sent out to the mountains above Ralston, on the head-waters of Lycoming creek and Tioga river. He was offered one or more companions, but he preferred to go alone. He knew every defile of the wilderness, and he could better elude observation alone than with several men, who might not follow his counsel. He travelled all night, and when he arrived among the mountains, he heard at least one hundred shots from the enemy encamped there, who were cleaning their guns. Without rest, and with no more food than he could eat as he ran, he returned immediately, and reported a large force approaching. Robert King also brought down word from Lycoming creek that Ferguson, with a party who had gone up to cut hay, had been attacked by Indians, and three men had been killed. Fort Muncy was filled with women and children, who were immediately put into boats and sent down to Fort Augusta, under the charge of Mr. Covenhoven. They took with them also the families from Fort Menninger, at the mouth of Warrior's run; but Freeland's fort being four miles up that run, from its mouth, there was not time to wait for the families there to come down. A messenger, however, was sent to alarm them. While the party was descending the river, the women would often jump out to tug the boats over the ripples. Fort Muncy, being untenable, was abandoned. About this time, and one or two days previous to the attack on Freeland's fort, Isaac, Benjamin, Peter, and Bethuel Vincent, brothers, together with Mr. Freeland, the owner of the fort, and his son, were at work in a field. A party of Indians came suddenly upon them. Isaac Vincent and Freeland, the father, were killed. Benjamin Vincent was taken prisoner. Jacob Freeland, the son, ran towards the stone-quarry, and was speared by an Indian in his thigh; he fell near the edge of the precipice, at the quarry. The Indians pounced upon him, but Freeland suddenly raised him upon his shoulders, and pitched him over 1001 JUNCTION OF THE NORTH AND WEST BRANCHES OF THE SUSQUEHANNA, AT NORTHUMBERLAND. "Jox, -'FokRP NORTHUMBEERLAND COUNTY into the quarry; and would have killed him, but another Indian came up and killed Freeland, spearing him in several places. The other Vinpents escaped to the fort. The main force of the enemy now appeared, consisting of about three hundred Indians and two hundred British, under Colonel McDonald. On their way down, they burnt Fort Muncy, and then laid siege to Freeland's fort, which was commanded by Captain John Lytle. There were brave men in that fort, who would have defended it to the death; but it was also filled with women and children, whom it was not thought prudent to expose to the cruelties that might result from a capture by storm. When, therefore, the enemy were about setting fire to the fort, a capitulation was entered into, by which the men and boys, able to bear arms, were to be taken prisoners, and the women and children were to return home unharmed. There was a Mrs. Kirk in the fort, with her daughter Jane and her son William. Before the capitulation she fixed a bayonet upon a pole, vowing she would kill at least one Indian; but as there was no chance for fighting, she exhibited her cunning by putting petticoats upon her son Billy, who was able to bear arms, but had yet a smooth chin, and smuggled him out among the women. The enemy took possession of the fort, and allowed the women and children to remain in an old building outside of the fort, on the bank of the run. At a preconcerted signal, Captain Hawkins Boone, who commanded a fort on Muddy run (about six hundred yards above its mouth, and two miles above Milton), came up to the relief of Freeland's fort, with a party of men. Perceiving the women and children playing outside of the fort, he suspected no danger, and incautiously approached so near that the women were obliged to make signs to him to retire. He retreated precipitately, but was perceived by the enemy, who with a strong force waylaid him, on the Northumberland road, at McClung's place. Boone's party fell into the ambush, and a most desperate encounter ensued, from which few of the Americans escaped. William Miles (afterwards of Erie) was taken prisoner in Freeland's fort; and subsequently, in Canada, Colonel McDonald mentioned to him, in the highest terms of commendation, the desperate bravery of Hawkins Boone. He refused all quarter-encouraged and forced his men to stand up to the encounter; and at last, with most of his Spartan band, died on the field, overpowered by superior numbers. Cornelius Vincent and his son, Bethuel Vincent (father of the late Mr. Vincent, of McEwensville), Captain John Lytle, William Miles, and others, were taken prisoners at the capitulation. Caltain Samuel Dougherty and a brother of Mr. Miles were killed in the fight. Peter Vincent escaped in the flurry occasioned by Hawkins Boone coming up. Sam Brady, James Dougherty, and James Hammond had cautioned Boone against keeping the road, in his retreat; and they themselves, refusing to accompany him along the road, took the route through the woods, and escaped. In September, 1794, excitement was at its height in consequence of the excise laws, and some of the whiskey boys determined to erect a liberty pole at Northumberland. Judges William Wilson and John McPherson determined to prevent it. They called upon Daniel Montgomery, also a justice, to assist them. 1003 HISTORY OF PE YNSYL VANIA. He told them he would pull at the rope if the people required it. He, however, went with them, but rendered them no assistance in suppressing the disturbance. A fight took place, and Judge Wilson read the riot act, as he called it, to disperse the crowd, but they paid no attention. One of them presented his musket at the judge, but the old Revolutionary captain cocked his pistol and made him put down the musket, under the penalty of having his brains blown out. They arrested the judge, he would not give bail, and they were afraid to put him in prison. In the melee, Jasper Ewing, the prothonotary, drew his pistol and snapped it at William Cook. Indictments were found against Daniel Montgomery, John Frick, and others, and it appears they were convicted, but pardoned. On Sunday, December 16, 1805, occurred the duel between John Binns, of Northumberland, and Samuel Stewart, of Lycoming. On account of the prominence of the actors, it had special influence on the passage of the act of 31st of March, 1806, which legislated" the code" out of Pennsylvania. Stewart attempted to chastise Binns, because he would not give him the name of the author of a paper signed " One of the People," in the Republican Argus, Binns' paper; thereupon Binns challenged him. The duel was fought beyond the Marsh, near Allen's, in Chillisquaque township, at seven o'clock in the morning. Binns and his second, Charles Maclay, had slept the night before at Laushe's tavern, opposite Lewisburg; Stewart and his second, Andrew Kennedy, at Albright's tavern, in Lewisburg. The distance measured off was only eight paces, and one fire was exchanged without effect, when, by Maclay's earnest endeavors, a reconciliation was effected. NORTHUMBERLAND was laid out in 1772 by John Lowd n and William Patterson. Robert Martin is said to have built the first house there about the year 1767, for the accommodation of people who began to visit the " New Purchase " in search of land. The most noted of its inhabitants was Dr. Joseph Priestly, the pdhilosopher, who emigrated in 1794, and died in Northumberland, on the 6th February, 1804. On the 1st of August, 1874, the scientists of America celebrated, at Northumberland, the centennial of Dr. Priestly's discovery of oxygen. In 1803 the Northumberland Academy was erected, mainly through his efforts, of which Rev. Isaac Greer was for over eight years thereafter the principal. The borough was incorporated April 14, 1828, and its most celebrated institution, the Bank of Northumberland, April 1, 1831. MILTON was laid out by Andrew Straub in 1792. The first settler on its site was Marcus Huling, who was licensed, May 26, 1772, to keep a tavern in Turbut township. It was incorporated as a borough, February 26, 1817. From 1822 to 1835, Rev. David Kirkpatrick taught the academy at Milton. His roll of scholars embraces the names of two governors, quite a number of judges, ministers, missionaries, and prominent men. The town contains quite a number of manufacturing and mechanical industries, and is situated in the midst of a fine agricultural country. On the 16th of June, Governor Richard Penn ordered the surveyor-general, John Lukens, with all convenient speed to repair to Fort Augusta, and with the assistance of William Maclay, to lay out a town to be called SUNBURY, at the most commodious place between the forks of the river and the mouth of Shamo1004 NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. kin creek. The town was laid out and lots granted to applicants therefor as Qarly as July 3, 1772. The first house erected in Sunbury seems to have been a frame one, built by John Lukens, the surveyor-general of Pennsylvania, for his own use. It is believed to be still standing. The charter for the first ferry bears date August 14, 1772, from Thomas and Richard Penn to Robert King. In 1773, William Maclay built a stone dwelling-house, the same building now owned and occupied by S. P. Wolverton, on the river bank, in the north-western part of the town. The Magazine, at Fort Augusta, was fitted up and used as a place for confining and punishing criminals in Northumberland county until a regular jail for this purpose was built. This magazine, as William Maclay informs us, had a small but complete dungeon under it, and so answered the purpose of a jpil pretty well at that early day. The first regular jail of Northumberland county was built in 1775, under the superintendence of William Maclay, Samuel Hunter, and Robert Moodie, who, in 1774, received a loan of ~800 from the Provincial Assembly to aid the county in building a court house and prison in said county. Tradition says that this jail stood on the south side of Market street and on the lot now, or lately, the property of the heirs of Charles Pleasants, Esq., deceased. Sunbury became a borough by the act of March 24, 1797. Martin Withington was the first chief burgess, and Robert Hunter town clerk. For many years the town d(lid not thrive, but its pleasant location, its proximity to the coal regions, and its advantages as a railroad centre, have aroused the dormant energies of its citizens, and Sunbury has, within the past ten years, grown to be one of the most important, in industries and population, of the inland towns of Pennsylvania. WATSONTOWN.-In 1794 John Watson, who owned the site of the place, laid out a few lots, but changing his desire to have a village cofftiguous to his resi. dence, bought back most of the lots. In 1854 Edward Piper laid out a few lots, but it was not until the year 1866, when Ario Pardee, having purchased the principal portion of the Watson lands for lumber mills, concluded to lay out a regular town. Not far from the town was the site of Fort Freeland. SHAMOKIN was laid out in 1835, under the auspices of the Shamokin coal company. It owes its importance and prosperity to the development of the anthracite coal mines in its vicinity. It is about twenty miles south-east of Sunbury, on the creek of the same name, in a gap in the west side of the great Shamokin coal basin. Next to Sunbury it is the most thriving town in the county. MOUNT CARMEL was incorporated a borough, March 22, 1870. Like Shamokin it is an out-growth of the coal development, and is the fourth town in the county in population and business enterprise. Northumberland county contains quite a number of other important towns of which the principal ones are Treverton, Dalmatia, Mahanoy, Pottsgrove, etc. Turbutville laid out about 1820. 1005 PERRY COUNTY. BY SILAS WRIGHT, MILLERSTOWN. HE act of 22d March, 1820, created a new county on and after the following first of September, out of all that part of Cumberland north of the summit of the Blue mountain and south of the Tusca roras, and named it PERRY, in honor of the gallant Oliver Hazard Perry. The county is irregular in outline, being forty-seven miles long and fourteen and a half miles of an average width, and contains an area of five hundred and fifty square miles. Hematite and fossil iron ores are extensively mined in Michael's ridge, Greenwood township; in Tuscarora mountains, Tuscarora township; in Limestone ridge, in Oliver and Miller townships; and Half-fall hills, in Buffalo and Watts townships. These mines have only been opened a few years, and give promise of contributing largely to the chief mineral wealth of the county. Hematite iron ore is generally accompanied by rocks of the metamorphic formation. Limonite, or fossil ore, as it is locally known among miners, contains 85.6 of the ore to 14.4 parts of water. The best limestone in the county contains 56 parts of quick lime to 44 of carbonic acid. The streams of the county are Fishing creek, which rises in Rye township, and flows east into the Susquehanna at Marysville; Sherman's creek, which rises in Toboyne township, and flows eastward through Jackson, Madison, Toboyne, Carroll, Wheatfield, and Penn townships into the Susquehanna at the lower end of Duncannon, of Penn township; Little Juniata creek rises in Centre township, and flowing east through Centre township, enters and flows south-east through it and Penn, and falls into the Susquehanna at the lower end of Duncannon borough; Little Buffalo creek rises in Saville township, and flows eastward, forming a boundary between Saville and Centre, Centre and Juniata townships, thence through Oliver township, between East and West Newport, into the Juniata river; Buffalo creek rises in Liberty Valley, Madison township, and flows east through Madison into Saville, where it flows south-west, and then east through Tuscarora, Juniata, and Oliver townships into the Juniata river above Newport; Raccoon creek rises in Saville township, and flows eastward through Tuscarora into the Juniata below Millerstown; Cocolamus creek flows south-west from Juniata county into the Juniata, one mile below Millerstown; Wild Cat creek rises in Greenwood township, and falls into the Juniata at the base of Buffalo hills. The largest of the streams that flows eastward into the Susquehanna is Barger's run, which, rising in Greenwood township, flows through the entire length of Liverpool township into the Susquehanna, just below the town of Liverpool. The larger part of the county was called " Shearman's valley," after an Indian trader who lost his life in fording Shearman's creek at Gibson's. This valley 1006 PERRY COUNTY. extended from the Blue mountain to the Tuscaroras, westward from the Juniata river. Pfoutz's valley, extending from the Juniata to the Susquehanna, is a small valley between Turkey and Forge hills, having an average width of a mile, and was named after its first settler, John Pfoutz. The first accounts of settlers within the present limits of Perry county we have, / are, that one Frederick Star, a German, with two or three of his coun- - trymen, "made - some small settle- --.. ments on Big Juni- --- ata, about twenty- - five miles from the -- mouth, and about ten miles north from the Blue _ H ill s, a p la c e m u c h -..... esteemed by the In- - dians for some of i? their best hunting ground." This settlement was probably east of Big Buffalo creek, and as early as 1741. The Provincial. government removed these settlers at the request MN of the Indians, in 1742, and forbade _ others at their I greatest peril from violating the provi-! - sions of the treaty, preventing settle- PERRY COUNTY COURT HOUSE AT NEW BLOOMFIELD. ments north of the Blue mountain. After the organization of Cumberland county, in 1750, Lieutenant-Governor Morris sent Richard Peters, Mathew Dill, George Croghan, Benjamin Chambers, Conrad Weiser, Thomas Wilson, John Finley, and 1007 GENERAL HISTORY. 99 The results of the late campaign, whilst they inspirited the Provinces to new exertions, brought peace and security to the middle colonies. The 1760. impoverished and exiled agriculturists, to the number of four thou sand, returned to their labors, which, prosecuted in security, brought contentment and competence, whilst the merchant again found sources of wealth in the Indian trade. Pennsylvania, oppressed by taxes, and largely indebted to the soldiery, gladly seized the occasion to reduce her force to one hundred and fifty men, officers included, against the remonstrances of the Governor, and the Generals Amherst and Stanwix. But, on command of the Crown to furnish a like number of troops as for the last campaign, the Assembly voted twenty-seven hundred men, and reported a bill, granting to his Majesty's use one hundred thousand pounds, for levying, paying, and clothing them. The town of Boston having been afflicted by a grievous conflagration, the Assembly of JAMES HAMILTON. JAMES HAMILTON. Pennsylvania, on the application of Governor Pownall, of Massachusetts, and at the instance of Governor Hamilton, * generously granted to the sufferers the sum of fifteen hundred pounds. During the winter the French attempted to retrieve their affairs in Canada. A large force was concentrated at Montreal, but General Amherst, Commanderin-Chief of the British forces in America, had an army competent to the utter annihilation of the French, and too ambitious to effect this object, moved simultaneously the armies of Quebec, Lake Champlain, and Lake Ontario, on Montreal. With this corps, composed of ten thousand British and Provincials, and one thousand Indians under Sir William Johnson, resistance was in vain, and in September every French post had capitulated. Thus fell forever the great power of France in America. The whole of the forces raised by the Province of Pennsylvania had 1761. been discharged at the close of the last campaign, except one hundred and fifty men, a part of whom were employed in transporting provisions from Niagara, and in garrison at Presqu'Isle and Le Bceuf. These were detained until they should be relieved by a detachment of the Royal Americans, but such was the weakness of that regiment that this had hitherto been impracticable. The remainder was in garrison at Forts Allen and Augusta. The latter, situated at the forks of the Susquehanna, commanded both branches of that river, which * JAMES HAMILTON was the son of Andrew Hamilton, and a native of Philadelphia, born about 1711. At the death of his father, in 1741, he was left in possession of a handsome fortune, and in the appointment of prothonotary, then the most lucrative office in the Province. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor in 1748, serving to October, 1754. He filled the same office from 1759 to 1763. He held several other offices of distinction in the Province, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the people, but his loyal feelings to the Crown caused him to be unfriendly to the Revolution. He died at New York, August 14, 1783. HISTO R Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. James Galbraith, with the under-sheriff of Cumberland county, to remove persons who had settled north of the Blue Hills. They came to the Juniata, near the place from which Star and others had been removed, where they found five cabins, one occupied by William White, another by George Cahoon, another not yet finished, owned by David IHiddleston, another occupied by George and William Galloway, and the fifth occupied by Andrew Lycan. The families and contents of these cabins being first removed, they were set on fire and burnt. The settlers were bound in recognizance of ~100 each to appear and answer for their trespass, at the next term of court, to be held at Shippensburg. Benjamin Chambers and George Croghan having separated from the rest, reported, on their return, that about six miles north of the Blue Hills, on Sherman's creek, they found James Parker, Thomas Parker, Owen McKeib, John McClure, Richard Kirkpatrick, James Murray, John Scott, Henry Gass, John Cowan, Simon Girty, and John Killough, who entered into bonds, under penalty of ~500, to remove immediately with their families and all their effects, and agreed to give their cabins for the Proprietaries into the hands of George Stephenson. Some of these cabins were burnt after the families had moved out in order to prevent settlements in the future, or the return to their former residences of the persons thus driven out. Andrew Montour was licensed to settle any place in Sherman's valley he deemed convenient. The Indians threatened summary vengeance if the settlers were not prevented from returning. Hence, to satisfy them and obviate further difficulties, the purchase of a large tract of land from the Indians was strongly recommended by Governor Hamilton. This brought about, in 1754, the Albany treaty. On the 3d of February, 1755, the land office was opened for the sale of lands in Sherman's valley, and on the Juniata. The first land located by order from the land office, in Pfoutz's valley, was by John Pfoutz, in 1755. He was the first considerable land-owner by any right, hence had the honor of giving his name to the valley. From 1755 to 1761, very little land was entered, owing to the constant terror of the Indians. There are no evidences of more than two Indian villages in Perry county. These were both along the Juniata, one on the flat between the Big Buffalo creek and the railroad, near Newport, and the other at Millerstown. The Shawanese, who were the willing tools of the French, were found on Duncan's Island by Rev. David Brainerd, while on a visit in the discharge of his duties as a missionary. He stigmatizes them as "drunken, vicious, and profane." In the year 1756, a man named Woolcomber, living on the south side of Sherman's creek, not far from Centre, declined to leave his home or remove his family, on the ground that it was the Irish who were killing one another; "the peaceable Indians," said he, "will harm no one." While at dinner one day a number of Indians came into Woolcomber's house. He invited them to eat, when an Indian answered that they did not come to eat, but for scalps. When Woolcomber's son, who was then about fifteen years of age, heard the Indian's reply, he left the table and walked out of the house through a back door. Looking back, when he was out of the house, he saw an Indian strike his tomahawk into his father's head. He then ran across Sherman's creek, which was near to the house, and as he ran his fears were confirmed by the screams of his 1008 PERRY COUNTY. 1009 mother, sisters, and brothers. He went to Robinson's fort and gave the alarm, whereupon about forty volunteers proceeded to the scene of the murder and buried the dead. The Indians were never punished. In July, 1756, the settlers of Sherman's valley gathered the women and children into Robinson's fort, and went out in companies to reap the harvest. A party of Indians stealthily approached the fort and killed a daughter of Robert Miller, John Simmeson, the wife of James Wilson, and the widow Gibson, and carried with them as prisoners Hugh Gibson and Betsy Henry. rol VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF NEWPORT. The reapers, hearing the firing of guns at the fort, returned home as hastily as possible, but they came too late to meet the savages, who had made good their escape. Hugh Gibson published an interesting narrative of his captivity. In February, 1756, a party of Indians from Shamokin came to Hugh Mitcheltree's, who lived on the Juniata. He had gone to Carlisle on business, and had Edward Nicholas to stay at his house until he should return. The Indians killed Mrs. Mitcheltree and young Nicholas before they left. From thence the same party of Indians proceeded up the river to where the Lukens now live. Mrs. William Wilcox and her son had crossed the river shortly before, and while she was staying for a visit at old Edward Nicholas' house, they made their appearance, killed Mr. Nicholas and his wife, and took Joseph, Thomas, and Catharine Nicholas, John Wilcox (the son who accompanied his mother over the river), James Armstrong's wife and two children, prisoners. While committing these depredations in Juniata county, an Indian named Cotties wished to be captain of this party, but they did not choose him, whereupon he and a boy went to Sher 3o HISTORY OF PENNSL YVANIA. man's creek, and killed William Sheridan and his family, thirteen in number. They then went down the creek to where three old persons lived, two men and a woman, named French, whom they killed. Cotties often boasted afterward that he and the boy took more scalps than all the others of the party. These murders were caused by the French, who offered large rewards for the scalps of the English which should be brought in by the Indians. In the autumn (1756) James Bell and his brother agreed to go into Sherman's valley to hunt for deer, and were to meet at Sterrett's gap, on the Kittatinny mountains. By some means or other, they did not meet, and Samuel slept that night in a cabin belonging to Mr. Patton, on Sherman's creek. The next morning he had not traveled far before he spied three Indians, who saw him at the same time. They all fired at each other; he wounded one of the Indians, but received no damage, except that his clothes were pierced with balls. Several shots were fired from both sides, each sheltered by the covert of trees. He now stuck his tomahawk into the tree behind which he stood, so that should they approach he might be prepared. The tree was grazed with the Indians' balls, and he had thought seriously of making his escape by flight, but hesitated, fearing his ability to outrun them. After some time the Indians took the wounded one and put him over the fence, one taking one course and the other another, intending to make a circuit, so that Bell could no longer secure himself by the tree. But in trying to reach these advantageous positions they had to expose themselves, when he had the good fortune to shoot one of them dead. The other ran and took the dead Indian on his back, one leg over each shoulder. By this time Bell's gun was re-loaded; he then ran after the Indian until he came within forty yards of him, when he shot through the dead Indian and lodged a ball in the living one, who dropped the dead man and ran off. On his return home from the deer hunt, Bell coming past the fence where the wounded Indian lay, he dispatched him, but did not know that he had killed the third Indian until his bones were found years afterward. In July, 1756, a small party of Indians attacked the plantation of Robert Baskins, who lived near Baskinsville railroad station. They murdered Baskins, burnt his house, and carried his wife and children away with them as prisoners. Another party belonging to the same band made Hugh Carrol and his family prisoners. About the same time the Indians murdered a family of seven persons on Sherman's creek, and then passed over the Kittatinny at Sterrett's Gap, wounded a man, killed a horse, and captured Mrs. Boyle, her two sons, and a daughter, living on Conodogwinet creek. From 1761 to 1763 there was comparative quiet and security from the incursions of the Indians. In the latter year, however, the country was overrun by the savages. From Robert Robinson's narrative, we glean the particulars of an engagement between twelve settlers and twenty-five Indians in the harvest time of that year. William Robinson was shot in the abdomen with buckshot. John Elliot, a boy of seventeen, fired his gun and then ran, loading as best he could by pouring powder into it at random and then pushing in a ball with his finger, while he was pursued by an Indian with uplifted tomahawk, and when he was within a short distance of him, Elliot suddenly turned round and shot the Indian in the breast, who gave a cry of pain, and turning, fled. Elliot 1010 PERRY COUNITY. had gone but a short distance, when he came to William Robinson, who was weltering in his own blood upon the ground, and evidently in the agonies of death. He begged Elliot to carry him off, so that the Indians would not find and scalp him; but Elliot being a mere boy, found it utterly impossible to do so, much less lift him from the ground. Finding the willing efforts of his young friend fruitless to save him from the savages, Robinson said: "take my gun, and if ever in war or peace you have an opportunity to shoot an Indian with it, do so for my sake." Thomas Robinson stood behind a tree firing and loading as rapidly as possible, until the last white man had fled; he had just fired his third shot when his position was revealed to the Indians. In his hurried attempt to load again, he exposed his right arm, which received the balls from the guns of three Indians who fired at the same time. He then fled up a hill with his gun grasped in his left hand, until he came to a large log, which he attempted to leap over by placing his left hand on it; but just as he was stooping to make the leap, a bullet passed through his side. He fell across the log. The Indians coming up, beat him on the head with the butts of their guns until he was mutilated in the most horrible manner possible. John Graham and David Miller were found dead near each other, not far from the place of attack. Graham's head was resting upon his hands, while the blood streamed through his fingers. Charles Elliot and Edward McConnel succeeded in escaping from the Indians and reached Buffalo creek; but they were so closely pursued that, when they had crossed the creek and were scrambling up the bank, they were shot and fell back into the water, where their dead bodies were found. This little band of twelve consisted of three brothers Robinson, William, Robert, and Thomas; two brothers Elliot, John and Charles; two brothers Christy, William and James; John Graham, David Miller, Edward McConnel, William McAllister, and John Nicholson. After this engagement the Indians proceeded very leisurely to Alexander Logan's, feeling their security, no doubt, on account of the inhabitants having fled to the lower part of Sherman's valley. A party of forty men, well armed and disciplined, started for Tuscarora valley to bury the dead; but when they came to Buffalo creek and saw them, having previously heard the reports of the settlers, which doubtless increased the number of the Indians, the captain thought it prudent to return. In the meantime, the six men who escaped in the engagement at Nicholson's went to Carlisle, and reported what they saw and experienced, whereupon a party of fifty volunteered to go in quest of the savages. They were commanded by High Sheriff Dunning and William Lyon. From the best information that could be had of the Indians, it was judged that they would visit Logan's to plunder and kill the cattle. The men were ambushed and in readiness when the Indians appeared, but owing to the eagerness in commencing the attack by some of the party, but four or five Indians were either killed or mortally wounded, until they made their escape into the thick woods, whither pursuit was deemed too perilous. Previous to this engagement, Alexander Logan and his son John, Charles Coyle, William Hamilton, and Bartholomew Davis, hearing of the advance of Sheriff Dunning's party, followed the Indians to George McCord's, where they found and attacked them in the barn, but the attack was such a precipitate affair that none of the savages were killed or wounded, while the entire attacking party, excepting Bartholomew Davis, 1011 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. paid the penalty with their lives. Davis escaped and joined Sheriff Dunning's party, and was engaged with them at Logan's. In the engagement at Logan's there was but one white man wounded. The soldiers brought with them what cattle they could collect, but great. numbers were killed, and many of the horses were taken away by the Indians. The Indians set fire to the houses and barns, destroyed the growing corn, and burnt the grain in the stacks, so that the whole valley seemed to be one general blaze of conflagration as far as they went. Carlisle was the only barrier between the frontier settlers and the merciless savages, and it was so crowded that every stable and shelter in the town was filled to its utmost capacity, and on either side of the Susquehanna the woods were the only shelter of many other refugee families, who had fled thither with their cattle and whatever of their effects could be hastily collected and carried with them. To relieve these sufferers, the Episcopal (Christ's and St. Peter's) churches, of Philadelphia, collected an amount of money equal to $2,942 89 in the currency of the present time, which was expended in supplying flour, rice, and medicine for the immediate relief of the sufferers. To enable those who chose to return to their homes, two chests of arms, half a barrel of powder, four hundred pounds of swan shot, and one thousand flints were purchased. These were to be sold at greatly reduced prices to such persons as would use them for their own defence. Induced by an offer which placed protection in their own hands, the settlers returned to their former homes, where they lived in constant dread of the wily foe until Colonel Bouquet occupied Fort Duquesne, on the 24th of November, 1763. During the early part of the year 1814, Gov. Snyder having ordered a thousand militia to be raised in Pennsylvania to repel the British invasion of the Canada frontier, nearly one half of the number was raised as volunteers, in Cumberland county, then including Perry; the residue were raised principally by draft from the counties of Franklin, York, and Adams. The Cumberland county troops were rendezvoused at Carlisle, from which place they marched to Pittsburgh, and thence to Black Rock Fort, now the city of Buffalo. They reached Black Rock Fort about the 1st of April. Captain James Piper's company was raised principally within the present limits of Perry county, while the companies of Captains David Moreland and John Creigh were wholly recruited therein. Captain John Creigh's company was mustered in ten days, from the 27th of August till the 6th of September, and left Landisburg on the 7th of September. Their services were tendered to and accepted by Governor Snyder, and arms and accoutrements were furnished them October 2d, at Camp Bush Hill, near Philadelphia. In the war with Mexico, almost an entire company was organized from the "Landisburg Guards " and "Bloomfield Light Infantry," but it was not accepted and credited to the county as a company. They participated in the engagements of Buena Vista,Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, the bloody battles of Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chepultepec. ANDERSONBURG is in Madison township, on the line of the stage route from Greenpark to New Germantown. About a quarter of a mile east of the village is the " Andersonburg Soldiers' Orphan school," in charge of Professor William H. Hall, as principal. BASKINSVILLE is in Penn township, lies north and adjacent 1012 PERRY COUNTY. to Duncannon borough. It was laid out in 1869, by John Shively, William C. King, and Dr. Joseph Swartz. Its location on the Pennsylvania railroad, and advantages of improvement, bid fair to make it a place of considerable importance. BLAIN is in Jackson township. The post office has been Douglass' Mills, Multicaulisville, and Blain. The name Blain was given in honor of James Blain, the warantee of the land on which the original part of the town was laid out. For beauty of location the site of the town is unsurpassed. Water is conveyed in pipes along its principal streets. DUNCANNON borough was called Petersburg until 1865. It is the largest town in the county, according to the census of 1870. It was incorporated March 12,1844. Duncannon, of Penn township, is situated south of Little Juniata creek, at the base of a spur of mountain which, on account of its resemblance to the human face, is called " Profile Rock." This village owes its existence to the Duncannon iron company's works, which consist of rolling mills and nail factory, situated at the mouth of Sherman's creek, and a large anthracite furnace between the railroad and the Susquehanna river. These works, when in full operation, give employment to about five hundred men. LANDISBURO was laid out previous to 1800 by John Landis. The first court of common pleas in Perry county was held here on the 4th of December, 1820. It was the county seat from this time until the completion of the public buildings in Bloomfield in 1827. It was incorporated December 23, 1831. Mt. Dempry Academy is located here. LOYSVILLE, formerly called Andesville, is in Tyrone township. It was laid out by Mr. Michael Loy in 1840. About a half mile south-east of the town are the farm and buildings kept up for the support of the poor of the county. On elevated grounds, north-west of the town, is Loysville Orphans' home, in charge of Rev. P. Willard as principal. LIVERPOOL was laid out in 1808, by John Huggins, and soon became the most important trading point along the Susquehanna in the county. It was incorporated as a borough, May 4, 1832. MARYSVILLE was laid out in the spring and summer of 1861, by Theophilus Fenn. For a time its name struggled between Fennwick and Haleys. In 1866 it was incorporated as the borough of Haleys, the name given to the post office for more than a year. Both borough and post office have since been changed to Marysville. Haleys is the name of the station in the eastern part of the town. Marysville station is one mile distant from Haleys at the crossings of the Pennsylvania and Northern Central railroads. The town contains a forge for the manufacture of blooms, a flour mill, a door and sash factory, etc. A round house, coal shutes, and a shifting yard of the Northern Central railroad are located here. Block-houses were built at the Marysville ends of both the railroad bridges, to guard them from the attack of rebel invaders during the late war. MILLERSTOWN, the oldest town except Huntingdon, on the Juniata river, was laid out in 1780, by David Miller, and seemed destined at the time of the forma tion of the county to become the county seat, and the largest town. It contains a large steam tannery, a carriage factory, and foundry. A toll bridge spans the river from the town to the Pennsylvania railroad depot of the same name. A mile below town is Laura furnace, erected by Messrs. William N. Taylor & 1013 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Company. The Juniata Valley Normal school is located here. Millerstown was incorporated February 12, 1849. NEW BLOOMFIELD is the name of the post office at Bloomfield, the county seat. Bloomfield, the title given in the patent to the tract of land on which it is located, was auspiciously appropriate for the new town, from the fact that its plot was marked out in a clover field in the month of June, 1822. Its site was fixed upon by Messrs. Laycock, Sheets, Pearce, and Jenks, the fourth set of commissioners provided for in the act of separation, for the future county seat. The town is located in the Mahanoy valley, twenty-six miles north-west from Harrisburg, and five from the Pennsylvania railroad at Newport. The court house, erected in 1824-'5, was remodeled in 1867-'8. The offices and public documents of the county were removed from Landisburg on the 12th and 13th of March, 1827. Bloomfield academy has been in operation many years. NEW BUFFALO, a borough in Watts township, was laid out in 1800 by Jacob Baughman. It is located along the river, nineteen miles from Harrisburg, and was incorporated April 8, 1848. NEW GERMANTOWN, in Toboyne township, was laid out by Solomon Sheibley, and named in commemoration of G'rmantown, near Philadelphia. It is twenty-four miles from Bloomfield. NEWPORT.-Sixty years ago Newport consisted of four log houses. The town was laid out in 1814, by Daniel Reider, and assumed the name of Reidersville, by which it was known till 1820, when, in anticipation of becoming the ceunty seat, its name was changed to NEWPORT. It was incorporated March 10, 1840, and is the most flourishing town in the county. ORGANIZATION OF TowNsHiPS.-Greenwood, Juniata, Rye, Saville, Toboyne, and Tyrone, were original townships. Of Buffalo and Liverpool there is no record. Carrol was formed in 1834, from Tyrone, Rye, and Wheatfield; Centre in 1831, from Juniata, Saville, Tyrone, and Wheatfield; Howe in 1861, from Oliver; Jackson in 1844, from Toboyne; Madison in 1836, from Toboyne, Tyrone, and Saville; Miller in 1852, from Oliver and Wheatfield; Oliver in 1837, from Buffalo, Juniata, and Centre; Penn in 1840, from Rye and Wheatfield; Spring in 1848, from Tyrone and Carroll; Tuscarora in 1859, from Greenwood and Juniata; Watts in 1849, from Buffalo; Wheatfield in 1826, from Rye. 1014 THE CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA. BY THOMPSON WESTCOTT, PHILADELPHIA. HE history of Philadelphia commences with the charter of the Pro vince of Pennsylvania, executed by Charles the Second to William Penn, on the 4th of March, 1681, old style. Penn made immediate arrangements for the settlement of his colony. In less than five weeks after he had obtained the charter, he issued a letter directed to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, promising that they should be governed by laws of their own making, and that he would not "usurp the right of any nor oppress his person." His cousin, Captain William Markham, formerly a soldier, was commissioned Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsyl- - vania on the 10th of - April, 1681, and instruc -- tions given him for the -- management of affairs - as soon as he should - T arrive in America. At the same time was published, by William Penn! himself, an account of - K his Province, with the intention of attracting ___ settlers. He promised FIRST CHURCH AT WICACO. to sell five thousand acres of ground, free of incumbrance, for one hundred pounds, with a quit-rent of a shilling yearly for one hundred acres. He offered to rent lands, not exceeding two hundred acres in each tract, at one penny yearly per acre, and to make an allowance for servants carried over to the amount of fifty acres per head. By the conditions and concessions agreed upon by Penn and the original adventurers and purchasers, on the 11th of July of the same year, it was agreed "that so soon as it pleaseth that the above persons arrive there, a certain quantity of land or ground plat shall be laid out for a large town or city, in the most convenient place upon the river for health and navigation; and every purchaser and adventurer shall, by lot, have so much land therein as shall answer to the proportion which he hath bought or taken up on rent." There were other regulations connected with the laying out of the city. About the 21st of June, 1681, Governor Markham arrived at New York and proceeded to Pennsylvania. He was followed, about five or six months afterward, by William Crispin, John Bezer, Nathaniel Allen, and William Haige, who were appointed commissioners with special instructions to examine the rivers and creeks "in order to settle a 1015 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. great town, with respect to health, highness, and dryness of land, advantages for navigation, and unloading and loading vessels near the shores," etc. They were ordered to lay out ten thousand acres as the bounds and extent of the liberties of said town. Penn said, "Be sure to settle the figure of the town so as that the streets hereafter may be uniform down to the water from the country bounds; let the houses built be in a line or upon a line as much as may be;... let every house be placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of its plat as to the breadthway of it, so that there may be ground on each side for gardens, or orchards, or fields, that it may be a green country town which will never be burnt and always be wholesome." Crispin, having died on the voyage, Haige, Allen, and Bezer made the examination to determine upon the site for the " great town," after their arrival, and settled the matter as early as the beginning of May, 1682. It --..was known in ..... England, at '_the latter end of July, that the capital city was to be _____- ~on or near the river Schuyl kill. The sur veys were __made by . Thomas Fair' man, an Eng SIlishman who was settled at THE OL- __ Shakamaxon - = -*" before P en n THE OLD SLATE-ROOF HOUSE. received his grant, and by Thomas Holme, a surveyor, who arrived shortly after the commissioners. According to the original plan, there was a street leading from the Delaware to the Schuylkill on the north side of the city, which was called Valley street, and a street on the southern boundary called Cedar street. Parallel with Valley street, -afterward called Vine street, was Songhurst street, afterward called Sassafras, and then Race; Holme street, afterward Mulberry and Arch; High street, afterward Market; Wynnie street, afterward Chestnut; Pool street, afterward Walnut; Dock street, afterward Spruce; and Pine street. The street extending from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, since known as Lombard street, was laid out some years afterwards, and was not on the original plan. 'Twenty-three streets, running from north to south, intersected the east and west streets between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. The plan of the city was continued on the western side of the latter stream, where three streets, running north and south, were laid out. The streets were named Delaware Front, Second, etc., out to Delaware Eleventh. The Twelfth street was Broad street, 1016 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1017 and next to it was Schuylkill Eleventh, and so they proceeded-Schuylkill Tenth, Ninth, etc., until they reached Schuylkill Front, near the Schuylkill river. At the intersection of High and Broad streets Penn had given direction for the laying out of a square of ground for public uses, and four other squares were ordered to be laid out, one in each quarter of the town. Under this direc tion the north-east square was placed between Valley and Songhurst street, its east boundary on Delaware Sixth, and its western boundary between Delaware Seventh and Eighth; the south-east square of the same size was west of Delaware Sixth, between Pool and Dock streets, but not extending as far south as the latter; the north-west square was between Valley and Songhurst street, extending east from Schuylkill Sixth, and crossing Schuylkill Seventh, extending nearly to Schuylkill Eighth; the south-west square was of the same size, between Pool and Dock streets, not extending to the latter, and east of Schuylkill Sixth, and crossing Schuylkill Seventh, extending towards Schuylkill Eighth. This arrangement was changed in a short time, as far as regards the centre square, which was moved westward to the intersection of High and the fourteenth street from the Delaware. At the same time it is to be presumed that the north-west and south-west squares were shifted westward, so -that their eastern boundary was Schuylkill Fifth (now Eighteenth street), and they crossed Schuylkill Fourth (Nineteenth street), and extended half way to Schuylkill Third (Twentieth street). When the name Philadelphia was publicly given to this "great town " is not now known. It is found in a warrant for land executed 10th of fifth month, 1682 (July, old style). The name was undoubtedly chosen by the Proprietary, and it is supposed to have been adopted from the name of a city in Lydia, Asia Minor, the seat of one of the seven early Christian churches, the signification "brotherly love" commending itself to the taste and judgment of the founder. Penn must have adopted the name before he left England, but he did not make his intention known in his original propositions addressed to settlers. In his address to be communicated to meetings in Pennsylvania and the territories thereunto belonging, to Friends, dated on board the ketch Endeavor, August 12, 1684, on occasion of his return to England, Penn said, "And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this Province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, what travail, has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee." A portion of the "great town" was the site of an Indian village called Coquanoc, and there were other villages in the county near to the city. Among them were Passyunk, which lay on the east bank of the Schuylkill, south of Grey's Ferry road; Wicaco, east of Passyunk, and near the Delaware; Cackamensi, modernized into Shackamaxon, between Gunner's run and Frankford creek, on the Delfware; Nittabaconk, on the Schuylkill, near the falls; Poquessing, on the banks of the creek flowing into the Delaware, which forms the north-eastern boundary of the city; Pennipacka, or Pennypack, near the creek still bearing the latter name; Wequiaquenske, the site of which is not known. Coquanoc does not appear on Lindstrom's map, the earliest known. Legend says that this village occupied part of the immediate city laid out by Penn, and that the word in Indian means "the grove of long pine trees." The principal streams of the city and its neighborhood were the HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. rendered its preservation highly important. The Governor urged the Assembly to provide means to pay the troops for the time they had remained in service beyond their contract, and to maintain Fort Augusta. To the latter the House assented after much debate, voting a guard of thirty men; but the former they promptly refused, referring the men for payment to the Crown, by which they were employed. The Province of Pennsylvania now looked for the enjoyment of a long and undisturbed peace, since her mild and forbearing policy had conciliated the Indians, and their dangerous neighbors, the French, were removed. But the sources in which they sought for safety were fruitful of dangers. The unprotected state of the frontiers, consequent on the discharge of the forces of the middle and southern colonies, held forth irresistible temptations to the whetted appetite of the border savages for plunder. Their hostility had been rewarded rather than chastised by Pennsylvania; every treaty of peace was accompanied by rich presents, and their detention of the prisoners was overlooked upon slight apologies, though obviously done to afford opportunities for new treaties and additional gifts. The mistaken and perverted humanity of the Quakers had softened down their offences, and its apologies gave them confidence in their allegations of injuries received from the whites. These reasons, however, are insufficient to account for the wide extension of the Indian confederacy, which was probably caused by motives of profound policy. The aborigines beheld the French driven out of their whole country, themselves threatened by forts commanding the great lakes and rivers, and they felt that an immediate and mighty effort was necessary to restrain the tide, which now, unimpeded, would spread itself over the continent. War with Spain was declared on the 4tn of January, 1762. This 1762. created a greater alarm for the safety of the Province, and especially for Philadelphia, than had previously existed, as Spain was then in possession of a powerful navy. The Governor forthwith convened the Assembly, and the members being sensible of the weakness of the Province, the House immediately appropriated ~23,500, which appears to have been the parliamentary allotment for 1759. Five thousand pounds were also appropriated for the erection of a fort mounting twenty cannon, on Mud Island, near the mouth of the Schuylkill. The fortification, hurriedly erected during this period of alarm, and which bore the name of the island upon which it was erected, has been supplied by the respectable fortress known as Fort Mifflin, being so named in honor of Governor Thomas Mifflin. The large number of negroes imported about this time became alarming to the people. The Assembly of Pennsylvania had enacted a law imposing a prohibitory duty on their introduction, which was repealed by the Crown. Other colonies, including Virginia and South Carolina, had enacted laws to restrain the importation of slaves, but the enactments failed to receive the royal sanction. Bancroft says, "never before had England pursued the traffic in negroes with such eager avarice." Pitt resigned his position as head of the British Ministry, and was succeeded by the Earl of Egremont-a most unfortunate change for colonial independence. A treaty of peace between England and 100 I~ L~ VIEW OF THE NEW CITY HALL, INTERSECTION OF BROAD AND MARKET STREFTS, PHILADELPHIA. PHILADELPHtIA CITY AND COUNTY. Delaware, called by the Indians Poutaxet, Maskerisk-Kitton; the Schuylkill, called on Lindstrom's map, the river of the Mene Jackse, and said also to be on the map of Campanius, Skiar Kjln, or Linde Kiln. Other names assigned to the Schuylkill, were Lennilikbi, or Lennilibunk, derived from a linden tree, Gaushewen and Maniaunk, the latter being more properly applied to a place on the banks of the river. Into the Delaware, within the boundaries of Philadelphia, flowed Boka [Swedish for beach], now known as Bow creek; Minques, or Mingo; Kingsessing, or Eagle creek; Boone's creek, Hollander's creek, Rosamond creek, Hay creek, Moyamensing kiln, Cooconocon, or Dock creek; Cohoquinoque, or Pegg's run; Cohocksink, or Mill creek; Tumanaranaming, Aramingo, or Gunner's run; Wingohocking, Tacony, or Frankford creek; Wissinoming, Pennypacka, or Pennypack, and Poquessing. Into the Schuylkill the principal streams emptying near Philadelphia were Nanganesy, or Mill creek, on the west bank; and Wisameka, or Wissahickon, on the east. Settlers from England began to arrive in 1681, the first ships being the John and Sarah, and Bristol Factor. Several ships came over in 1682, and the Welcome, which brought William Penn and his companions, arrived in October of that year. There were probably one or two hundred persons at Philadelphia when Penn arrived, and few had the means of immediately erecting houses, so that the majority spent the winter in caves dug under the high bluff on the river front between Valley (Vine) and Pool (Walnut) streets. The first object of Penn was to settle the laws and regulations for the government of the Province. The first Assembly was held at the Swedish town of Upland, the name of which was about that time changed to Chester. Here, on the 7th of the tenth month (December), 1682, was agreed to, the " Great Law" of sixty-nine sections, covering matters of morality as well as regulations for the government of property and the securing of the rights of conscience. There is no record to show how or when the townships were created. Penn had authority under the charter to erect towns and cities and to lay out the country into townships and counties. According to the minutes of the first Assembly at Chester, there were present delegates from the counties of Bucks and Chester, for New Castle, Jones, New Deal, Chester, and Philadelphia. The county organization must have been determined upon before Penn left England. The situation of Philadelphia was peculiar at this time. Bucks and Chester were laid out with specified boundaries adjoining Philadelphia, and as a consequence the county of Philadelphia embraced the whole Province between Chester and Bucks, and north, north-west, and north-east to an indefinite extent. On the 29th of December, Penn writes, "I am now casting the country into townships for large lots of land. I have held an assembly, in which many good laws are passed. We could not stay safely to the spring for a government." Up to that time twenty-three ships had sailed for Pennsylvania, and none had miscarried. There is no trace of the names of the townships of Philadelphia county except in scattered deeds and other writings, so as to ascertain the years when they were formed, until 1741. The following townships were undoubtedly established before 1684: German township, Oxford, Bristol, Moreland Manor, Plymouth, Byberry, Dublin, Merion, Kingsessing, and Bristol. In the year 1741 the town1019 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. ships of Philadelphia county were, Amity, Allamingle, Byberry, Bristol, Blockley, Creesham, Cheltenham, Colebrookdale, Douglass, Lower Dublin, Upper Dublin, Exeter, Franconia, Frederick, Germantown, Gwynedd, New Hanover, Upper Hanover, Horsham, Kingsess, Limerick, Moreland Manor, Montgomery, Maiden Creek, Upper Merion, Lower Merion, Manatawny, Northern Liberties, Norriton, Oxford, Ouley, Providence, Perkiomen, Skippack, Passyunk, Moyamensing, Plymouth, Roxborough, Salford, Springfield, Towamensing, Whitpaine, Whitemarsh, Worcester, Wayamensing. In 1762 several of these townships had disappeared from the records of Philadelphia, being incorporated in Berks county. At that time, as appears by records of the court of quarter sessions, the following were Philadelphia townships: Abington, Bristol, Blockley, Byberry, Cresham, Germantown, Cheltenham, Douglass, Frederick, Franconia, Gwynedd, Horsham, Hatfield, Kingsess, Limerick, Lower Merion, Lower Salford, Lower Dublin, Lower end of Germantown, Moyamensing, District of Southwark, Montgomery, Marlborough, Manor of Moreland, New Hanover, Norriton, Northern Liberties, Oxford, Perkiomen, Plymouth, Passyunk, Providence, Roxborough, Skippack, Springfield, Towamensing, Upper end of Germantown, Upper Salford, Upper Dublin, Upper Merion, Worcester, Whitpaine, Whitemarsh. Beside the townships, there were several important manors in Philadelphia county, as follows: Springettsbury, containing 1,830 acres, extending along the north side of Vine street from the Delaware to the Schuylkill; bounded on the north by the Cohoquinoque creek, or Pegg's run, as far as the Ridge road, and thence stretching north-westward to Turner's lane; and thence to the Schuylkill, and down the latter to Vine street. This tract of ground was intended to be a manor, and is called such in early patents from the Penus, but in later deeds is spoken of as the reputed Manor of Springettsbury. Portions of it were sold from time to time by the Penns, until it became so insignificant that it was called the Springettsbury farm. The latter when divided, in 1787, between members of the Penn family, contained less than two hundred acres, and occupied the ground between the present Vine street and Callowhill street, west of Twentieth, extending to the Schuylkill river. The Manor of Moreland-ten thousand acres-in the northern portion of the county, on the Delaware side, lying west of Byberry township, was granted to Nicholas More, August 25, 1682. It was partly in Bucks and partly in Philadelphia county, and when divided, there was a township of Moreland in both counties. The Manor of Mountjoy was authorized in 1683, by warrant to Letitia Penn. It contained 7,800 acres, and extended from the Welsh tract, in Chester county, to the river Schuylkill, opposite the present borough of Norristown. The Manor of Williamstadt, laid out for William Penn, Jr., was on the east side of the Schuylkill, opposite Mountjoy. Norristown is now within this manor. Springfield Manor, lying to the east of the northern portion of German township, was laid out for Gulielma Maria Penn. The Manor of Gilberts-five thousand acres-reserved for the Proprietary himself, was on the east side of the Schuylkill, opposite the present town of Phoenixville, Montgomery county. The Manor of Manatawnytwelve thousand acres-lying on the Schuylkill, below Williamstadt, was granted to John Penn in 1701. 1020 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. The indefinite area of Philadelphia county became reduced during the progress of years. Berks county was formed out of a portion of Philadelphia, Chester, and Lancaster counties, in 1752, and blocked off the northern territory between Bucks and Chester. Montgomery county swallowed up another portion of the ground between Bucks and Chester, in 1784, and thenceforth Philadelphia, from being the largest of the counties, became the smallest. The town of Philadelphia increased so wonderfully that in the course of a year it was estimated that it contained 80 dwelling houses and over 500 inhabitants. In 1700, there were 700 houses and over 4,500 inhabitants. During this interval there is no clear indication of the manner in which the town was governed. The minutes of the Provincial Council, 26th of 5th month (August), 1684, show that an order was made that Philadelphia should be made into a borough, with a mayor and six aldermen;.. - but nothing T7i",:UiiiL further appears upon the minutes in re- IIii lation to this 1 11iill,, matter, nor is there any refer- k ence to the act being accomplished. The seal of the -- county, in 168.3, was ordered to be an Eie OLD COURT HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. anchor. The city was managed as a part of the county, by the magistrates, by the Assembly, and by the Governors in council, all of whom interfered with and directed matters of municipal concern. During Penn's second visit he prepared a charter for the city of Philadelphia, which was executed October 25, 1701. Edward Shippen was nominated for mayor, and Thomas Story recorder, by that instrument. Eight citizens were nominated aldermen, and twelve others common councilmen. The charter was a very liberal instrument, and conferred as much authority as was needful for the times, granting to the common councilmen power to increase their number from time to time, the aldermen to be elected from among common council, and the mayor from among the aldermen. Provision was also made for a city court for the trial of offences less than felony, to be held by the mayor, recorder, and aldermen. This government continued up to the time of the Revolution, when it was superseded by the events of the times. The last meeting was held on the 17th of February, 1776, William Powell being mayor. During the remainder of the 1021 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Revolution the affairs of the city were administered by wardens and city commissioners. It was not till March 11, 1789, that a charter was granted to the city of Philadelphia by the Legislature of Pennsylvania. A mayor, common council, and a board of aldermen were provided for. The latter was shortly afterwards succeeded by a select council, and the aldermen ceased to be legislative )fficers of the city. A mayor's court was established, such as existed under the old charter of Penn and an aldermen's court. Some modifications in the charter were made in the course of years, until 1854, when the interests of the public demanded that an anomalous system which had grown up by the increase of the county should be abolished. There had been created north and south of the boundaries of the old city a number of independent municipalities, each resembling the city corporation in the manner of organization and authority, but each being free from any control which would necessitate deference to the interests of other sections of the city and county. Therefore, on the 2d of February, 1854, was passed by the Legislature a supplement to the charter, commonly called the Consolidation Act, which broke up all the independent townships and county authority, enlarged the boundaries of the city so as to embrace the whole county, divided the city into wards, and provided for e election of a mayor, recorder, select and common council. The growth of the incorporated districts adjoining the city was gradual, and was as follows: Southwark, created by act of Assembly, March 26, 1762; Northern Liberties, March 28, 1803; Moyamensing, March 24, 1812; Spring Garden, March 22, 1813; Kensington, March 6, 1820; West Philadelphia, February 17, 1844; Penn, February 26, 1844; Richmond, February 27, 1847; Belmont, April 14, 1853. The City of Philadelphia, according to the present boundaries, is of irregular form, representing upon the map a rough resemblance to the head of a knight with helmet and visor up. It extends along the Delaware, from the mouth of Bow creek, about two and a half miles below the mouth of the Schuylkill to Poquessing creek about five miles below Bristol, Bucks county; thence up that creek and by the line of Bucks county and south-west by irregular lines, bounded by Montgomery county, over to and across the Schuylkill and Delaware county to Bow creek, and down the mouth of the same to the place of the beginning. It contains 129.382 square miles, or 82,804 acres. The City Hall, at Fifth and Chestnut streets, is in longitude 750 9' 54", and the latitude is about 390 56' 30". By municipal census, taken April 3, 1876, the number of dwelling houses in the city were ascertained to be 143,936. This does not include stores, warehouses, mills, factories, churches, or other buildings. The number of buildings, of all kinds, is probably 160,000. The population, April 3, 1876, was 817,448; males, 398,068; females, 416,380. Males, over twenty-one years of age, 226,070; females over twenty-one years of age, 246,634; males under twentyone years, 171,993; females under twenty-one years, 172,746. The streets cross each other generally at right angles. They are lighted with gas, and at the commencement of the year 1876, there were 10,729 public lamps, and 672 miles of gas mains. Water was supplied by means of 628 miles of water main, and drainage carried off by 136- miles of sewers and culverts. There were over 1,200 miles of streets opened, of which more than 700 1022 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. were paved. Nineteen horse railroad companies carried, in the previous year 76,465,489 passengers, in 903 cars, over 242 miles of streets, and there were various steam railroads which carried a very large number of passengers to stations within the bounds of the city. The river Schuylkill is crossed by fourteen bridges, three for special railroad use, the others for general use. One of these, that at Girard avenue, is 100 feet in breadth, the widest bridge in the world. The houses are of red brick, trimmed with marble, and also of brown stone, sandstone, marble, greenstone, iron, and other materials. A large proportion of the dwelling houses are supplied with gas and water and baths, the latter being hot and cold. Water is supplied by five pumping works, which have seven great reservoirs, and furnished, in 1875, 15,097,160,069 gallons. There are five manufacturing gas works, with capacity to make over 2,000,000,000 cubic feet of gas per year. The city is the seat of manufactures which are more extensive in variety than they are in any other city of the United States. In 1870, there were 8,579 manufacturing establishments in Philadelphia, employing 152,550 hands, and paying in wages $68,647,874, with over $200,000,000 of capital, and producing articles worth $362,484,698. At the present time the number of manufacturing establishments are estimated to be 11,500; capital employed, $250,000,000; value of manufactures produced, $400,000,000. The commerce of Philadelphia has been increasing recently very largely. The exports in 1875 were $31,936,727, being an increase in five years of more than fourteen millions of dollars. The imports were $23,457,334, an increase of about seven and a half millions of dollars in the same period. This result is due to the establishment of ocean lines of steamships to Liverpool and Antwerp, to the easy and cheap method of handling grain in bulk, and to the great amount of trade brought to the city by means of the Pennsylvania and other railroads. There are forty-two banks in the city, National and State, with an aggregate capital of about $19,500,000. Safe deposit, trust, and saving fund companies hold large deposits of money. There are sixty-two insurance companies-fire, life, and marine-acting under Pennsylvania charters, beside many foreign agencies. The educational institutions are the University of Pennsylvania, founded 1749; Girard college; four medical, and two dental colleges; a polytechnic college; about five hundred public schools, with nearly 110,000 pupils, and many private schools. The principal scientific institutions are the College of Physicians, Academy of Natural Science, Zoological Society, American Philosophical Society, Franklin Institute, Wagner Institute, Horticultural Society, etc. The Academy of Fine Arts, and School of Design for Women, are devoted to the promotion of drawing, painting, and sculpture. The Musical Fund Society and others cultivate the art of music. There are numerous libraries, the oldest of which, the Philadelphia, founded July 31, 1731, is the most venerable institution of that kind in the United States. There are twenty-four hospitals for the relief of the sick and afflicted, fifteen dispensaries for supplying medicine gratis to the poor, twenty-one asylums for orph..as and abandoned children, nineteen homes for aged men and women, an asylum for the deaf and dumb, three for the blind, and many other charitable societies giving special relief in particular methods. There were five hundred and thirty-four religious congregations in the city in January, 1876, many of them occupying very 1023 HISTORY OF PE-NSLY VANIA. splendid church buildings. There were separate auxiliary buildings of a religious character, and twenty public cemeteries, in addition to church burial grounds. The Academy of Music, three dramatic theatres, and various concert and music halls were open for the entertainment of the public. There were two parks and thirteen public squares belonging to the city. Fairmount park contains 2,740 acres, and is the largest park in the United States, and only exceeded by Epping and Windsor Forests, England, and the Prater of Vienna. The facts connected with the early history of Philadelphia are almost identical with those of the Province of Pennsylvania, and as the general sketch has gone over this field, we shall refer only to such matters as 7 may not have been specially noted. There was some trouble in 1698 upon account of pirates who infest ed the Atlantic coast, robbing and burning, and when ever occasion re quired, boldly re sorting to the sea ports, where, by their bravado, th! ey seemed to defy ar rest. Robert Quarry, judge of the Admiraltv,was involved in conti nual quarrels on THE OLD SWEDES' CHURCH. this account, and in one of his letters to England said that " Pennsylvania was the greatest refuge for pirates and rogues in America, and that the navigation laws of England were openly infringed." At this time four pirates were in prison in the city, supposed to be Captain Kid's men; others were believed to be lurking in the neighborhood. These complaints were urged by Quarry in a partisan spirit, in the hope of overturning the Proprietary government. Penn returned to Pennsylvania early in December, 1699, and remained in the Province nearly two years, leaving Philadelphia about the beginning of November, 1701. At his former visit he had lived at the house originally built for him, between Market and Chestnut, and Front and Second streets, known in later times as the Letitia house. During his second visit he occupied the house of Edward Shippen, in Second street, near Spruce, and afterward the Slate Roof house, which had been built by Samuel Carpenter, and was situated at the corner of Second street and 1024 PHILADELPRIA CITY AND COUNTY the alley afterward known as Norris alley (now Gothic street). Here his son John, afterwards called the American, was born, being the only member of the family whose birth-place was not in England. Lieutenant-Governor John Evans, who arrived from England in 1704, brought with him William Penn, Junior, son of the Proprietor. Evans was young, gay, and rash, and Penn, in taste and habits, was no credit to the Quaker principles of his father. Penn got himself into trouble during a disgraceful midnight brawl at a pot-house and tavern in Coombes alley, where some of the watch were beaten. The constables arrested the young man, who acted as if he supposed that his birth vested him with privileges to break the laws. The Quakers would not agree to such licentious sentiments, and the result was that young Penn, incensed, renounced Quakerism, and returned to the church of England, the Church of his grandfather, Admiral Penn. No descendant of the Penn family after that time was a Quaker. In 1747 affairs seemed to be in a menacing condition. French privateers had come into the Delaware and made captures, plundering the neighboring shores. A fort, called the Association Battery, which was south of the city, below the Swede's church and upon the ground where the United States Navy Yard was afterwards placed, was finished in the middle of 1749, and mounted with fifty cannon in 1750, of which fourteen were presented by the Penn family. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, between Great Britain, France, and Spain, in April, 1748, which was known in Pennsylvania about the 24th of August, might have seemed to render the finishing of this fort unnecessary, but the proceedings were not relaxed until it was mounted and equipped for future use, when the emergency should rise. The associated regiments of the city chose Abraham Taylor, colonel; Thomas Lawrence, lieutenant-colonel; Samuel McCall, major. Edward Jones was colonel of the county regiment, Thomas York, lieutenantcolonel, and Samuel Shaw, major. General Edward Braddock, who was sent over from England in 1755, to drive out the French and subdue the Indians, received recruits from Philadelphia, which were enlisted for Dunbar's and Halket's regiment. The issue of Braddock's unfortunate march against Fort Duquesne caused great alarm and excitement, and the defeated troops, who escaped the Indian and French rifles, marched back despondingly to the city. There was the usual trouble about raising money to support these troops. Finally, an amount was raised by subscription, and the Quakers in the Assembly, for the first time in their history, were so greatly pressed that they passed a militia law, in the preamble of which it was stated, in effect, that though the Quakers were against bearing arms themselves, "they do not, as the world is now circumstanced, condemn the use of arms by others." The creation of a militia, of which there were twenty companies in the city and county, excited some jealousy among the associators, and they raised six companies of independent volunteers, in addition to the old association companies. Benjamin Franklin was elected colonel of the militia regiment for the city, and Jacob Duchi6 colonel of that of the county. In the year 1755, the unfortunate inhabitants of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, known as the French neutrals, were.sent to Philadelphia by Governor Lawrence of that colony. They were 454 in number, men, women, and children, and were set on shore without any provision being made for their sustenance. These 3P 1025 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. unhappy persons were landed at the pest-ho.ise on Province Island, and a guard put over them. Anthony Benezet interested himself in their behalf, and the Assembly voted a sum sufficient to pay for clothing and other necessaries. In the course of a year or t, o it was resolved to disperse these people and distribute them among the various townships where such of them as would work might have oppor u ity to (do so. In 1756, Governor Robert Hunter Morris formally declared war against the IL dians, and offered rewards for their scalps-a proceeding unauthorized by s instructions and disapproved by the Proprietaries. The Quakers in th's emergency formed the " Friendly Association for Rlegaining and Preserving Peace with the In dians," the object of which was to bring the influence of united effort to bear S- upon the government and to influence ________ t e Indians to lay aside hostilities. _ ~ They purchased valuable presents for ___the Indians, and expressed themselves _ anxious to co-operate with the govern -___ - ment in the interests of peace. But the British ministry, as might have -_.. ~been expected, were indisposed to permit such proceedings. The Earl -_ of Halifax expressed strong diszatis faction at the policy of the Friendly Associntion, and said " that a treaty held with the Indians at Philadelphi., by the people called Quakers, was the most extraordinary procedure hlie had ever seen, in persons who were on the same footing only with all other of the King's private subjects, to presume to trea' with foreign I)rinces, which," I said the noble Earl, "is the highest invasion of his Majesty's prerogative royal." The war upon the savages, on the part of the Province of I enn S... sylvana, did not last long. Sir \\W il CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. liam Johnson, of New York, who was general commissioner of the British government for treat'ng wit the Indians, thought it rash and i:prudent, and in a little over five weeks Governor Morris proclaimed a cessation of hostilities for a limited time, which arrangement was continued until peace was finally agreed upon. Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning and the killing of Capta'n Jacobs put an end to further danger from the Indians at this time. In August of the same year, 1756, war again broke out with France, and this with the Spanish war continued for six years longer, during which time privateers and letters of marque were active, and the Governor and the Assembly were engaged in constant dispute about the passage of money bills, so that at last the 1026 PHILADELPHIA CITY' AND COUNTY. Assembly, in sturdy independence, sent Benjamin Franklin to England to remonstrate against the actions of the Penn family, and to represent the Province in conference with the principal officers of the British government. Barracks in the Northern Liberties were built for the British soldiers in 1757, between Buttonwood and Green streets, extending from Third to Second street. Another militia act was passed in 1757, and what was more remarkable, the Province fitted out a ship of war to cruise for the protection of commerce. This vessel was called the Pennsylvania frigate, commanded by Captain John Sibbald, and cruised in the neighborhood of the capes of the Delaware as long as hostilities lasted. Peace was established between England, France, and Spain, by a preliminary treaty at Fontainbleau, November 3, 1762-the definitive treaty being made in February of the succeeding year, and this was the last foreign war which attracted attention before the outbreak of the American Revolution. Among other consequences of this treaty was the surrender of Canada entirely to Ureat Britain, and the cessation of the French power upon the North American continent. Relief from Indian troubles, which had been greatly fomented by French influence, was hoped for. But a confederacy among the western Indians precipitated barbarous warfare upon the borders of Pennsylvania, in 1763, which trouble was disposed of by expeditions under Colonels Armstrong and Bouquet, which defeated the savages and drove them over the mountains and beyond the Ohio. The passage of the Stamp Act by the British Parliament, March 22, 1765, led to the institution of measures in Philadelphia, which encouraged a rising spirit of independence of Great Britain, which finally led to the most important results. It was resolved to practice ecomony, and the determination first manifested itself in resolutions against expensive fanerals and ostentatious burial of the dead. The eating of mutton was discouraged, in order to promote the raising of wool, and some persons resolved that, as an aid to production of good home-brewed they would drink no more foreign beer, and import no British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. John Hughes, of Philadelphia, was appointed stamp distributor for Pennsylvania, and became at once immensely unpopular. Hle was burned in effigy in May, and his house surrounded by a mob. The Pennsylvania Assembly, in September, passed resolutions declaring that it was the inherent birthright and indubitable privilege of every British subject to be taxed only by his own consent, or that of his legal representatives. The ship Royal Charlotte, having the stamps on board for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, under convoy of the sloop of war Sardine, Captain James Hawker, was seen coming around Gloucester Point on the 5th of October. Immediately all the ships in the harbor hoisted their flags at half-mast, the bells were muffled and tolled, and everything wore an appearance of mourning at the loss of liberty. Several thousand citizens assembled at the State House in the afternoon, and sent a deputation to request Hughes, the stamp agent, to resign. He was not willing to do so, and delayed the matter for a short time, when he made reply refusing to resign, but promising not to enforce the Stamp Act in Pennsylvania, until it had been put into execution in the neighboring colonies. Shortly after, the merchants and traders of Philadelphia made an agreement not to import goods from England until the repeal of the Stamp Act, and to countermand orders 1027 GENERAL HISTORY. France was concluded towards the close of this year, but was not proclaimed in Philadelphia until the 26th of January, 1763. Peace with Spain soon followed, leaving our ancestors none but Indian enemies to contend with. For boldness of attempt and depth of design, the Kiyasuta and Pontiac war, so named by the frontier inhabitants, was perhaps unsurpassed in 1763. the annals of border warfare. Schemed by such renowned chiefs, Kiyasuta, head of the Senecas, and Pontiac, of the Ottawas, the numerous tribes lying within the reach of their influence were easily commanded for the prosecution of any new project. Not only in possession of these grand facilities to engage numerous warriors for the present purpose, they availed themselves still of additional means to secure a powerful confederacy, by calling in aid their eloquence to represent the necessity there was for defence of their own rights, in making a deadly repulse against the encroachments of the English colonies, which they represented as having finally in view the hostile displacement or extermination of every western tribe from the region they now occupied. With such means to stimulate them to action, while the recompense of their services, by the acquisition of spoil and the more inviting reward, the renown of the warrior, were related to them in the most seductive colors, it may not be wondered that the plan of those cunning chieftains was immediately approved of, and a zealous interest manifested. The grand scheme projected by these Napoleons of the western wilderness seems to have been to arouse the tribes severally of the country, and all those they could reach by their eloquence, to join in striking a decisive blow on the frontiers, and, as it were, throw terror into the very heart of the colonies, and thereby effectually and for ever repulse them from encroachments into the valley of the West. A certain day was set apart, it seems, for making the general assault, while the scheme was to be kept in profound silence, that they might come upon their victims in an unguarded hour. All the forts were to be simultaneously attacked as well as the settlements, and all individuals whom they could come upon, and with one bold sweep, as it were, raze to the earth everything bearing the mark of their doomed enemies. The season of harvest was chosen, that the attention of the people might at the time be drawn to their crops, as well as the work of havoc then be greater by their destruction of them. When the attack was made it was found not to be simultaneous. That on Fort Pitt and vicinity was made almost two or three days before the time agreed upon for the general attack, although it was done with the belief at the time that the day had arived. The misunderstanding was said to proceed from the officiousness of a Delaware squaw, who was desirous that their plans might be deranged. At the grand council held by all the tribes for the appointment of the day for the general attack and making the necessary arrangements for it, a bundle of rods had been put into the hands of every tribe, each bundle containing as many rods as there were days till the day when the general attack was to be made. One rod was to be drawn from the bundle every morning, and when a single one remained, it was the signal for the outbreak. The squaw spoken of had purposely extracted two or three rods unknowingly to the others, thinking it might materially disconcert, if not defeat, their project. From this circumHISTO R Y OF PENNSYLVANIA. already sent there for goods. The act of Parliament was to go into effect on the first of November, and on the day previous the newspapers published in the city came out with ghastly emblems of mortality-skull and cross-bones, pick-axes, spades, and coffins, and heavy black lines, stating that as they could not legally publish their papers without stamps, they had determined to suspend publication. This state of affairs continued only for a few days, when publication was resumed. There was much more serious trouble in the public offices, because the lawyers were of opinion that it was unsafe to conduct legal proceedings without stamps, as long as the statute was in force. The result was a closing of the offices for six months. News of the repeal of the Stamp Act, by one branch of Parliament, under the influence of the new Pitt ministry, was received in the latter part of March, 1766. Bells were rung, bon-fires kindled, and the health of the royal family was drank. Not till two months afterwards was the final repeal ascertained; and goods shipped from England, in the meanwhile had been locked up and kept out of the market. The captain of the vessel bringing the news was escorted to the Coffee-House, presented with a gold-laced cocked-hat, and in a foaming bowl of punch drank the sentiment, " Prosperity to America." Next day there was a grand dinner given at the State House, at which all the colonial dignitaries and British officers in town were present. Salutes were fired, the bells were rung, and strong beer distributed to the populace. Scarcely had the irritation of feeling caused by the Stamp Act subsided, before the British government, in pursuance of a direct assertion of the right to tax America, which was made in the repealing act, proceeded to carry out what seemed,l to be a threat. On the 29th of June, 1767, was passed by Parliament an act levying duties on paper, glass, painters' colors, lead, and tea, imported by the Americans. Intelligence of the result created a greater excitement throughout America than had even the passage of the Stamp Act. The economical resolutions of the Stamp Act times were renewed. A load of malt, brought in July in the Charming Polly, was, by the patriotic action of the brewers, refused and sent back to England. The cargo of the Speedwell brig was impounded, and certain citizens who had bought cheese imported in that vessel, were compelled to turn it over to the poor debtors. The brig Friend's Good-will was sent back without being allowed to be unloaded. The King's collector of customs was in trouble. Articles which he had seized were rescued, and one of his informers was ducked, tarred, and feathered. American manufactures were commenced. Glass ware, china ware, wooden buttons, woolen goods, steel, silk, brass buttons, paper hangings, and other articles which had been entirely imported from England, were now made in the city. This state of affairs continued until the British government repealed the tax laws so far as regarded paper, glass, and painters' colors, leaving, only as an assertion of their authority, the tax on tea. News of this repeal was received in May, 1770. Under this condition of affairs it was argued by some that the norn-importation agreement might be relaxed as to everything except tea, but the great body of merchants declined to suspend non-importation in pursuance of which several vessels which came from different parts of the American colonies with goods were sent back. But whilst importation through the custom house was denounced, smuggling of British goods was encouraged. In November a 1028 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. King's customs schooner, in the Delaware river, seized a suspicious pilot boat, and found that it was loaded with tea, claret, and gin. Muskett, the captain of the cruiser, took possession of his prize, but did not hold it long. The same night the schooner was boarded by thirty men, whose faces were blackened and who were armed with clubs, cutlasses, and pistols. They overpowered the King's men, rescued the pilot boat, and sailed away, and though efforts were made to detect the offenders, nothing was ever heard of the goods or the rescuers. It was not until the latter end of 1773 that it became evident that the British government was Ietermined to put this matter to a test by sending tea to America, although the merchants had sent no orders for it. Preparations were made by handbills and broadsides, addressed particularly to the Delaware pilots, to look out for the tea ship, the name of which was known. Broadsides were distributed, addressed to Captain Ayres, commander of the ship, threatening him with tar and feathers if he brought his commodity to the wharves. On Christmas day the Polly arrived at Chester. The consignee came to the city, and learning the state of public feeling, resigned his commission. At Gloucester Point the Polly was hailed by a committee, and Captain Ayres induced to come on shore, where he met a great number of people and was escorted to the State House, where he found one of the greatest meetings ever held in Philadelphia. It passed seven short and decisive resolutions, that the tea should not be landed, and that it should be carried back immediately, and that Captain Ayres should be allowed until the next morning to prepare for his return voyage. So expeditious was the assistance he received, that in two hours after the meeting the Polly weighed anchor at Gloucester Point, went down the river, and returned " the East India company's adventure to its old rotting place in Leadenhall street, London." In May, 1774, effigies of Alexander Wedderburne, who had insulted Dr. Franklin before the Privy Council, and of Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, whose actions against the colonists had caused much resentment, were drawn through the streets on a cart, hanged on a gallows at Front and Market streets, and consumed in a flame which was kindled by the use of an electrical battery. On the first of June, 1774, the day on which the Boston Port Bill was to go into effect, stores and places of business were generally closed. The flags on vessels in the river were at half-mast, and at several churches sermons were preached with reference to the sad event. One of the consequences of the circumstances of tihe times was the institution of an authority, under the control of town meetings, which was without any law, but which through committees exercised the most summary power. A committee for the city and county of Philadelphia was appointed in 1774, which was divided into committees of inspection and observation, and which exercised superintendence of all matters in which, according to the spirit of the times, it was supposed that public interests were concerned. News of the battles of Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, was received by express on the 24th, at five o'clock in the evening, but was not generally known in the city till the next day. A meeting was held on the morning of the 25th, at the State House. Eight thousand persons were present. The proceedings were brief but to the point. One resolution was passed, in effect that the persons present would associate together "to defend with arms their property, 1029 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. liberty, and lives, against all attempts to deprive them of it." Thenceforth for some years the attention of the people was turned to measures offensive and defensive-the embodiment and training of troops, the manufacture of arms and munitions of war, building of forts and redoubts, the sinking of obstructions to prevent the enemy's ships from coming up the river, the establishment of armed boats and vessels, and the organization of a navy. The second Congress VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL, 1876. met on the 5th of May, and the work of preparing for national defence was immediately commenced. Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, offered the resolution that the united Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, on the 7th of June, in Congress, then sitting at the State House. It was considered on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, and then adjourned until Monday, July 1, two committees being 1030 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. appointed, meanwhile, one to prepare a declaration to the effect of the resolution, the other to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be entered into by the Colonies. On the first of July, Lee's resolution was partly considered, and then postponed until the next day, when it was adopted. This was the great and most important matter connected with independence, but the declaration of the reasons why independence was sought has long eclipsed the fame of the resolution. Congress passed Lee's resolution of Independence July 2, 1776. The Declaration was adopted July 4th. The Declaration was formally read to the people on Monday, July 8, by John Nixon, a member of the Council of Safety, from the observatory erected by the American Philosophical Society for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus, which stood in the State House square, west of the main avenue, and about half way between Chestnut and Walnut streets, probably opposite the present Sansom street. In the afternoon five battalions of associators mustered upon the commons, and heard the instrument read to them. The King's arms in the court room, west side of the State House, first floor, were taken down by associators and burned in front of the old London coffee house. Bonfires were kindled, bells were rung, and here the old bell of the State House fulfilled the prophetic command cast upon its sides twenty-four years before: " Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." On that very d(lay (July 8) an election was held at the State House for delegates to form a constitution for the State of Pennsylvania. They met shortly afterward, adopted a plan of government for the State, elected a Council of Safety, which superseded a former body bearing the same name, and provided for the institution of a government. The movement of General Howe, in 1777, brought the British army in a round-about route from the city of New York. The troops were taken in ships and transports to the Chesapeake bay, landed near the head of the Elk river in Maryland, and marched northward. At Brandywine, Washington, who, with his whole army marched from Philadelphia to meet the enemy, fought and lost the battle. There were manceuvres upon the soil of Pennsylvania which resulted in no fighlt. Wayne was surl)rised and a large number of his men massacred near Paoli Tavern. Washington was ready to contest the passage of Howe, near the Schuylkill, at Parker's ford. By a feint, the British commander evaded the movement, and crossed the Schuylkill on the 22d of September, at Gordon's and Fatlands fords. The whole army was safe across the next day. On the 25th, the British army moved in two grand divisions, one by the Falls of Schuylkill, and the other by the road to Germantown. Here the main camp was formed, extending along the road to Lucans, afterwards known as Robert's mill, since known as Church lane, east of Germantown to the Main street, and across Schoolhouse lane to the Wissahickon. On the 26th two battalions of Hessian grenadiers, with a detachment of royal artillery, marched down Second street and entered the city. They were speedily followed by others. The Pennsylvania State fleet at this time was below the city, and the Royal troops at once undertook to throw up batteries for defence against them. These were built on the shore and on the wharves, and included the old association battery and redoubts in the neighborhood of the present Reed and Swanson streets, at 1031 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Christian street. On the 4th of October the battle of Germantown was fought. Washington's plan was excellent, but its execution failed. The British did not expect an attack which showed so much boldness on the part of an enemy who had been despised, that the British commander thought it prudent to march his men into the city. Here a line of redoubts, which had been commenced by General Putnam in the latter part of 1776 for the defence of the city, was finished. They extended from the Delaware, near the mouth of the Cohocksink creek, over to the hill at Fairmount. There were ten principal batteries, with redoubts, entrenchments, with barbettes between, the whole line being defended by abattis extending from work to work. When the royal army took possession of the city, it was separated from the assistance of the fleet which was below, in the Delaware, but prevented from coming up to the wharves by chevaux de frize and the forts at Red bank and Mud Island. Seven weeks effort were necessary to open a passage, during which Red bank was attacked and successfully defended. The British frigates Augusta and Merlin were set on fire and blown up. A considerable number of vessels of the Pennsylvania fleet were burned and destroyed, and Mud fort was taken after the most terrific bombardment of the Revolutionary war. On the 26th of November, frigates and transports arrived at the wharves, greatly to the joy of the beleaguered inhabitants. During the winter of 1777-'8, and the spring and a portion of the summer of the latter year, the British troops remained in the city performing no feats of surprising valor. Foraging and predatory expeditions were sent out occasionally, which robbed and burned in the neighboring country. An attempt was made to attack Washington at Whitemarsh, in December, which resulted in failure, the Americans being ready for the attack and the British too prudent to attempt it. An effort was made to surprise Lafayette, who was posted on the Ridge road near Barren Hill, in May, 1778. The movement was well planned, but the Frenchman obtained knowledge of it in sufficient time to make his escape. The British officers amused themselves in the city by cock fights, balls, theatrical entertainments, and other dissipations. In May they gave the meschianza, a gr,nd f6te at the Wharton mansion, Southwark, in the manner of an ancient tournament, in honor of General Howe, who had been superseded by Clinton, and was about to return to England. In one month after this festival of folly, the royal army marched out of the city, crossed the Delaware, and were in full march to New York, closely followed by Washington, who, at Monmouth, brought them to a stand. General Benedict Arnold followed close upon the heels of the British, and took command of the city as military-governor. He remained for several months, addicted himself to Tory company and neglected the Whigs, married a daughter of William Shippen, afterwards chief justice, a lady who was one of the belles of the meschianza. Arnold was poor, but affected a high style of living, and was able to do so only by dishonesty and corruption in the discharge of the office which he held as governor of the city. Congress came back shortiy afterward. The French minister, Gerard, arrived in July, 1778, and by his presence gave the very best pledge to the honesty of the alliance. News of Arnold's treason at West Point was received September, 1780. His books and papers were seized by the Supreme Executive Council, and two 1032 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. effigies of the traitor were carried through the town within three days, one of which was hanged on gallows, and the other, a double-faced figure on a wagon, was drawn along the streets and hlianged, and burned in front of the London Coffeelouse. In September, 1781, the American army passed through the city, and was followed two days afterward by the French army, under command of General Count Rochambeau. Some of the French troops were encamped on the commons for two days, after which they marched on to Virginia, where, at Yorktown, they did good service. Six weeks afterward, news of the surrender of Cornwallis was receiv 1 in Philadelphia, occasioning great excitement and general congratulation. News of the signing of the treaty of peace of November 30, 1782, by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, was received in March of the following year, and the French King's cutter Triumph, eleven days afterwards, brought news of the signing of the preliminary treaty on the 20th of January, and thus ended the events of a long and exhausting war. To celebrate the definitive treaty of peace with England, which was proclaimed by Congre-s, January 14th, 1783, there was to have been a grand celebration on the 22d of January. A very handsome arch was prepared with transparencies, lamps, etc., but before there could be any exhibition on the evening named, the structure took fire and was destroyed. Another celebration, on May 10, proved more satisfactory. In the latter part of May, 1787, delegates, appointed by twelve States to frame a Federal constitution, assembled at the State House, and elected George Washington president, and William Jackson secretary. Nearly four months afterward, on the 18th of September, the convention closed, leaving the draft of the Federal constitution to the attention of the States. Washington passed through Philadelphia, on his way to New York to assume the presidency, in the latter part of April, 1789, and was received by a procession, decorations, flags, etc. In 1789, a convention to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania, met in the city, and after a long session, adopted a new instrument, on September 2d of the following year. On the same day General Washington and his family arrived in the city from New York, and was received by a procession, and dined with the convention and the Assembly at the City Tavern, Second, above Walnut street. In December, of the same year, the Federal Congress, which had assembled in New York, March 4, of the previous year, met for the first time in Philadelphia. The seat of government, it was agreed, should be restored to Philadelphia, and remain there for ten years, until the public buildings at Washington were ready for the use of the government. During Washington's administration there were stormy times, particularly after the breaking out of the French Revolutionj, which created great excitement, and subsequently terror and disgust at the atrocities of the Revolutionary government. The United States was divided into two parties-those who hated France, and those who, out of gratitude for her services in the Revolution, were willing to forgive everything. In 1793, Washington and Adams were for the second time inaugurated President and Vice-President, respectively. In the same year, whilst M. Genet, the French minister, was in the city, the 1033 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYLVANIA. excitement was at its height. He was received by a procession, addressed with great adulation at the State House, assisted at a grand Revolutionary dinner, where he sung the Marseillaise, and wore the red cap of liberty, conducting himself with so much audacity toward the government, particularly in countenancing the capture of English vessels by French vessels in American waters, that the United States government was glad to get rid of him, and demanded his recall by the French government. When Citizen Fauchet, his suc S cessor, arr:ved, a more amicable S condition of di Splomatic affairs was hoped for. The nomina Stion of John Jay S as minister to 1 England in 1794 4l l was very un popular with the anti-Federalists, and to show the Sfeeling on the I subject his effigy it. <was guillotined, -11 IT burned, and , >blown up with gunpowder, in ' front of the town hdl, Northern a Liberties. When 1 the news of his l treaty with Eng __ land arrived, tI Flithere was great indignation among the Dem SI /,, ocrats and Jay was again burned I Iin effigy at Ken sington. John Adams was inaugurated as President, and Thomas Jefferson as VicePresident, March 4, 1797, at the Congress Hall, south-east corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets. During this administration, political feeling was more bitter than ever, and was at its height during the year 1798, when the black cockade was mounted by the friends of the Federal government as a testimonial of their 1034 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. loyalty, and to distinguish themselves from the Democrats whose cockades were red, white, and blue. The war with France, which soon after followed, added to the excitement. Washington was appointed Lieutenant-General, and arrived in the city during the latter part of the year. News of the death of Washington was received in.December, 1799. and the celebration knlown as Washington's sham funeral took place on December 26, an oration being delivered, at Zion Lutheran church, by General Henry Lee. On the 22d of February, 1800, there was another celebration at the German Reformed church, Race street, near Fourth, under direction of the Society of Cincinnati. Mayor William Jackson delivered the oration. There were Masonic ceremonies on the same day at Zion Lutheran church. By the end of 1800 the Federal government departed from Philadelphia, and about the same time the State capital was fixed at Lancaster, and the fame of the city as the metropolis of the State and of tihe nation ceased. In 1790, the first steamboat practically used in the world ran on the Delaware river between Philadelphia, Chester, Burlington, and Bristol, as a regular freight and passenger boat, advertising its trips in the newspapers, and during the season traversing over three thousand miles. The boat was thoroughly successful, and was laid up when the winter season arrived. But the poverty of the inventor, John Fitch, and the lukewarmness of the company, which was not disposed to continue its investments, led to the subsequent abandonment of the project. In 1793 the yellow fever visited Philadelphia. The mortality was very heavy, the distress and misery great. This misfortune was repeated in following years, but more terribly in 1797-'98. For four or five years afterwards there were cases of the epidemic every summer, but the mortality was comparatively light. Between 1793 and 1799 the deaths by yellow fever were twelve thousand, and attention was directed to the causes. Sanitary consultations led to the agreement that the existence of Dock creek, which extended into the heart of the city, and was surrounded by tan yards and dwellings, and was subject to unhealthy drainage, caused thle misfortune, added to which was the growing impurity of the water taken from wells. As a result of these opinions, it was resolved to arch over the creek, and measures were taken to procure water from the Schuylkill by erecting water works on Chestnut street. They were commenced May 2d, 1799, and the first water distributed January 1st, 1801. These improvements may be said to have banished the yellow fever from the city. In 1812 ground at Fairmount on the Schuylkill, including the hill, were purchased for water works, and the pumping works were commenced August 1st of that year. They were finished and started September 7th, 1815. On the 19th of April, 1819, work was commenced for the erection of a dam across the Schuylkill, at Fairmount, with the intention of constructing works which would perform the operation of pumping by water power. Three wheels were prepared, and the first water passed out of the reservoir July Ist, 1823. Since that time several other pumping works have been built in various parts of the city. There were in 1876, six, and another is in course of erection. In 1808, steamboats again began to ply on the Delaware river. The Phoenix, built by John Stevens, at Hioboken, was brought around by sea, being the first 1035 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA-MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. PHILADELPHIA CITY] AND COUNTY. steam vessel which ever navigated the ocean. Lines were established and other steamboats built, and all the predictions of poor John Fitch of the value of his invention were realized, and the profits obtained by others. In 1805, the first land carriage moved by steam in the world was exhibited by Oliver Evans, who having made a machine for cleaning out docks, built upon a scow to be operated by steam, placed it on wheels with such machinery as propelled the carriage by steam from Market street and Broad to the Schuylkill, where, being launched and paddles affixed, the vessel was navigated down the Schuylkill and up the Delaware. Evans offered at this time to make a steam carriage that would run on land, and laid his proposals before the Lancaster turnpike company. In 1809, a very serious quarrel arose between the United States government and the government of Pennsylvania, which by prudent management only was prevented from breaking out in absolute hostilities. The difficulty was caused by a legacy from the time of the Revolution, and originated in the misconduct of Benedict Arnold, when he was military governor of the city. At that time he purchased the claims of some sailors in a prize taken by the Pennsylvania State ship and another vessel. The Pennsylvania Admiralty Court made a decree in favor of the State. Arnold procured a decree from Congress ordering the whole sum to be paid into the United States Treasury. The State of Pennsylvania resisted. The question finally got into the United States courts, which decreed against the State. The money originally was in the hands of David Rittenhouse, State Treasurer, who held it for self-protection. He was dead at this time, and his estate represented by his daughters, Mrs. Sergeant and Mrs. Waters. The State passed an act forbidding them to pay the money, and agreeing to hold them harmless. This promise was carried out by the calling out of troops, under General Michael Bright of the city militia, which were posted around the dwelling of Mrs. Sergeant and Mrs. Waters, at the north-west corner Seventh and Arch streets. The United States marshal made the attempt to serve the writ, but he was repulsed by the State troops. For twenty-six days the troops were on guard, and although the marshal called out a posse comitatus of two thousand men, which, if led by him, might have precipitated a bloody collision, he succeeded by strategy in entering the house and serving his writ. Subsequently, the State ordered the money to be paid. General Michael Bright was tried, convicted, and sentenced for high treason, but was pardoned by the President. Thus ended an affair which gave to the old mansion the appellation of " Fort Rittenhouse." The war between Great Britain and the United States, which broke out in 1812, was sustained in Philadelphia with great patriotism. Volunteer companies were formed; the forts on the Delaware were strengthened; gun-boats were built for the defence of the Delaware river. In May, 1813, three companies from the city, under Colonel Lewis Rush, were stationed on the peninsula between the Delaware and Chesapeake bay, and remained two months. In July, the gun-boat flotilla, built and equipped in Philadelphia, and commanded by Captains Angus and Sheed, attacked the British sloop of war Martin, and the frigate Junon, near Crow shoals on the Delaware, and did them considerable damage. In 1814, after news was received of the capture of Bladensburg, entrenchments were thrown up by 1037 HISTORY OF PE.NNS YL VANIA. stance wa6 said to arise the untimely action of the Indians about Fort Pitt. But everywhere else the attack had been simultaneous, so correct and in such concert had they moved. The Shawanese and Delawares appear to have been the most active, and in pursuance of their bold and bloody project, the moment arriving for the general assault, the first intelligence their fated enemies had of the preconcerted work of death was a murderous attack made upon them without discrimination wherever met with. The frontier settlements of Pennsylvania, and the neighboring provinces of Maryland and Virginia, were immediately overrun with scalping parties, "marking their way with blood and devastation wherever they went, and all the examples of savage cruelty which never fail to accompany an Indian war." Almost every fort along the lakes and the Ohio was instantly attacked, and those that did not fall under the first assault were surrounded, and a resolute siege commenced. In a short time, so vigorous were the savages, that eight out of eleven forts were taken-Venango, Le Bcouf, Presqu'Isle, with the chain of stockades west of the Ohio; Fort Pitt, Detroit, and Niagara alone maintaining. These being better garrisoned, were prepared to withstand an attack with but little danger. After the first panic had passed away, the refugee settlers associated themselves together, and, under the care of divisions of the regular troops and militia, succeeded in collecting and saving the remnant of their crops. In the latter end of August, a party of volunteers from Lancaster county, one hundred and ten in number, intercepted at Muncey Creek Hill a number of Indians proceeding from Great Island, in the Susquehanna, to the frontier settlements of the Province. The Indians, who were about fifty in number, were compelled to fly, after a half hour's sharp firing. They renewed the attack, however, twice on the next day, but without success. In these skirmishes the Indians lost twelve killed, and many wounded; the provincials, four killed, and as many wounded. Colonel Armstrong collected a force of about three hundred volunteers from the vicinity of Shippensburg, Bedford, and Carlisle, under Captains Laughlin, Patterson, Hamilton, Crawford, Sharp, and others, for the purpose of attacking the settlements of Muncey and the Great Island. This little army left Fort Shirley, on the Aughwick, on the 30th of September, in high hopes of surprising the enemy, and inflicting upon them a severe punishment. But on their arrival they discovered that the Indians had left their settlement some days before. Colonel Armstrong having learned that there was a small village called Myonaghquia, to which it was supposed the savages had retired, pushed on with a party of one hundred and fifty men, and traveled with such expedition and secrecy, that the enemy, a few only in number, were scarce able to escape, leaving their food hot upon their bark tables, which was prepared for dinner. The army destroyed at this village, and at Great Island, a large quantity of grain and other provisions. During this time Fort Pitt remained in the most hazardous condition. And what may have been its situation already, apprehensions for the worst were entertained, for no accounts from it had been received of late, and in fact nothing HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. the volunteer labor of citizens, near Gray's Ferry and on the Baltimore road. Twenty-one companies of volunteers and four companies of militia were in service at the camps in Kennett Square, Chester county; Bloomfield, Shellbot, and Dupont, in the State of Delaware. They were embodied in the advance Light Brigade, under command of Brigadier-General Thomas Cadwalader, and were encamped for some months. The treaty of Ghent, of which news was received in 1815, put an end to further military operations. The first turnpike road from Philadelphia to Lancaster was built and opened in 1795. The first railroad built in the city was constructed in 1832, and led to Germantown, six miles. The Columbia railroad, a portion of the State work, was finished shortly afterward. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore, and the Camden and Amboy railroad to New York, followed in a year or two. The Reading railroad was opened February 10, 1842. The Pennsylvania railroad, chartered April 13, 1846, was in operation for a portion of the route in 1848. The Philadelphia and Trenton, North Pennsylvania, the West-Chester and Philadelphia, the Philadelphia and New York, Camden and Atlantic, West Jersey, and many others followed. The building of canals through Pennsylvania and other States, to facilitate commerce, was a matter of interest and concern as early as 1791, when the Schuylkill and Susquehanna were proposed to be united. The first practical result was the finishing of the Schuylkill navigation in 1825, the Union canal shortly afterward, the Delaware and Raritan, the eastern division of the Pennsylvania canal from Easton to Bristol, the Delaware and Chesapeake, and many other works. Lafayette, the "nation's guest," was received with a grand parade and enthusiastic ceremonies, ending with a general illumination of the city, September, 1824. He remained several days, during which time he received many courtesies, dined with the corporation of the city and with the Grand Lodge'of Pennsylvania, visited places of interest, was waited upon by deputations of citizens, representing occupations, societies, and bodies of various kinds. After his departure, having traveled over the United States, he returned to the city in the succeeding year, and remained a few days. During the time of his first visit the idea of erecting a monument to the memory of Washington, the corner-stone to be laid by Lafayette, was originated, and subscriptions were received. But the amount collected being insufficient, nothing was done practically at that time toward the erection of the monument. In 1832 the centennial anniversary of the birthday of Washington was celebrated, on the 22d of February, by the most magnificent procession which had ever marched through the streets of the city. Trades and occupations were largely represented, not only by the presence of persons interested in them, but by practical exhibitions of method of manufacture displayed upon stages and moving platforms, upon which artisans were at work. Associations and societies, fire companies and their apparatus, and other organizations assisted, rendering this the most splendid pageant which had ever been seen in the city. The feeling in favor of an erection of a monument to Washington was again kindled. Further efforts were made, so that on February 22, 1833, the corner-stone of the proposed monument was laid in Washington square, after 1038 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. having been conveyed there in a grand procession, and solemnly deposited with appropriate ceremonies. In 1832 the Asiatic cholera, which had been progressing with fearful devastation over the face of the globe, broke out in the city on the 5th of July. Progressing steadfastly westward from India across the continent of Europe, its coming was expected and prepared for. Medical commissions had been sent out by city councils to study the character of the disease, and ascertain the best means of prevention and cure. Public hospitals were established, and when the epidemic made its appearance, the community were ready to meet the misfortune. On the 4th of October the last case was reported. While the disease prevailed there were 2,314 cases, and 935 deaths. The ratio of cases to population in the city proper was one in 70; and deaths, one in 172 and a fraction. This being the most thickly built portion of the territory, showed less favorable results than in other districts where the population was sparse and the sanitary condition better. Between 1834 and 1844 a spirit of turbulence, riot, and rlisorder seemed prevalent throughout the United States. Philadelphia felt the influence, which first manifested itself in outrages against the blacks, in August, 1834, when a meeting-house, near the Wharton market, was torn down and many colored people were assaulted and beaten, and their houses broken into. In October occurred "the Robb's row riot," in the district of Moyamensing, a row of houses on Christian, west of Ninth, opposite the Moyamensing Commissioners' Hall, being burned and several persons injured. This disturbance was created by heated political antagonism. Another riot, in which the blacks suffered and their houses were burned, occurred in July, 1835. In 1838, May 17, took place the Pennsylvania Hall riot, during which a large and elegant building dedicated to purposes of public discussion by the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, only three days before, was attacked, broken into, set on fire, and totally destroyed. The Kensington railroad riots took place in 1840, a manifestation of opposition against an attempt by the Philadelphia and Trenton railroad company to lay their tracks on Front street, in the built-up part of the city. In this disturbance the rails were torn up, houses burned, and persons injured. Another riot, in which blacks were victims, took place in the summer of 1842, during which Smith's Beneficial Hall, a building erected by a colored man for the meetings of colored people, was attacked and burned. The most terrible riots known in the history of Philadelphia took -place in 1844, and resulted from political and sectarian prejudices which were aroused into activity by the formation of the Native American party and a spirit of great animosity to the Roman Catholic religion. The movement for the formation of the Native American party took place in the early part of this year. On the 6th of May a Native American meeting was called, which was intended to be held on an open lot at the south-east corner of Second and Master streets. Before the proceedings were finished, some difficulty arose between the persons holding the meeting and others on the outskirts supposed to be Catholics, which resulted in the latter making an attack in such force that the participants of the meeting were dispersed. They rallied, and proceeded to a market house near by, on Washington street, above Master. The meeting was re-organized, but the dis1039 llSTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. turbances were soon renewed, and fire-arms were used by the assailants. This unfortunate affair took place in a portion of the city where the majority of the inhabitants were Roman Catholics, and although there was nothing to show that the latter were combined for purposes of outrage, the feelings of the persons ME It LMV __ A. assailed led them to a bitter extremity. They obtained arms; an attack was made on the buildings in the neighborhood of the market, which were defended; muskets were used on both sides. Several persons were killed, but the American party being triumphant, set fire to and destroyed the obnoxious houses. These excesses led to an attack on the Catholic church of St. Michael, at Second and 1040 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. Jefferson streets, not far from the place of outbreak. It was broken into, set on fire, and totally destroyed, as was also a female seminary under charge of sisters of a religious order. On the same evening the Roman Catholic church of St. Augustine, Fourth below Vine street, was attacked by a mob, set on fire, and totally destroyed, with the priest's house adjoining. Troops had been called out before this time, and such measures were taken as prevented further outrage. In July these disturbances were renewed. The Native Americans celebrated the 4th of July with a large and showy procession which quietly marched through the streets, and ended the day with a grand display of fireworks on the line of the Columbia railroad, beyond Fairmount, when the participants dispersed, everything being apparently peaceful. Some of the Catholics misinterpreted this pageant as a method of concentration for a general attack on the Catholic churches, a supposition entirely unwarranted by the circumstances of the case. But it so happened that it was discovered, on the evening of the 6th of July, that muskets had been taken into the Catholic church of St. Philip De Neri, on Queen street, for its defence. This building was situated in a strong Native American district, and indignation was expressed at the conduct of the church authorities, who had countenanced the formation of a military company among the members for the defence of the church. There was excitement, and crowds assembled in the neighborhood of the church. The sheriff's posse was early on the ground. Military appeared afterward. Great excitement was caused by an arrest of a member of the posse by military order, he having protested against an order issued by the officer having command of the troops, directing that the citizens who were slow in retiring before the troops should be fired upon if they did not move more quickly. The protesting citizen was promptly arrested, taken to the church, and detained there-a piece of policy which greatly inflamed the people, who looked upon the prisoner as a martyr to their cause. He was kept in confinement during the remainder of the night and until next day. The mob, determined to release him, procured cannon, which were loaded with slugs and other missiles, and fired at the rear of the church, doing but little damage. It was then brought to the front, but further trouble was prevented by efforts of citizens of the district. The prisoner was released, which somewhat allayed the excitement. A volunteer company of Irishmen, placed in the church to guard the prisoner, was, on marching out, chased and dispersed. Knowledge of these transactions being noised through the city drew great crowds to the neighborhood. In the course of the afternoon the church was broken into, and hundreds passed through the building, more from curiosity than from any other purpose. The excitement was subsiding. A committee of citizens, the greater number of whom were prominent Native Americans, was organized for the protection of the church. According to every probability the disturbance had ceased without prospect of renewal. Under these circumstances the military again made their appearance on the scene. The force had been organized in Independence Square, and marched down with music playing, drawing with it a crowd of idlers, for the day was Sunday. Upon reaching the ground efforts were made to clear the streets by soldiers with fixed bayonets. The crowd retired slowly. An altercation is said to have taken place between some of the soldiers and the citizens, during which 3Q 1041 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. a brick was thrown, striking one of the volunteers. The captain commanding this company gave orders to his men to fire, and two volleys were fired into the crowd. The street was full of men, women, and children. Several persons were killed instantly and others wounded. The anger of the populace at this dreadful occurrence was intense. The excitement was renewed in more furious manifestation than before. The rioters, principal among whom were sailors and watermen, procured four pieces of artillery, and with muskets attacked the soldiers. The latter responded. The battle continued during the night of the 7th and the morning of the 8th of July. Two soldiers were killed and several wounded. Seven citizens were killed and several wounded. The situation of the military was perilous. They were without food, and were beleaguered by an infuriated populace. It was evident that if they remained until the next night they would all be massacred. Under these circumstances, the commissioners of Southwark undertook to ensure the safety of the church and the peace of the district, if the troops were withdrawn. They left the scene on the morning of the 8th. There was no difficulty afterward, and thus ended the most dreadful riot which ever took place in Philadelphia. The occurrence was the last of this kind, as there has been no serious disturbance since. The practicability of using gas for illuminating purposes was shown as early as 1817, at Peale's Museum, in the State House, the article being manufactured by Dr. Charles Kugler. The Masonic Hall adopted that process of lighting soon afterward, and the Chestnut Street theatre followed. In March, 1835, the Philadelphia gas company was created by councils, with capital stock of $125,000, the right being reserved to the city to purchase the works at a specified rate within a certain time. On the 8th of February, 1836, the first public use of gas was made, there being forty-six public lamps and only nineteen private applicants for the use of the gas. The city bought out the rights and property of the gas company, July 1, 1841, for $173,000, and took possession of the works. Gas companies were afterwards established in various districts, the rights of which were subsequently bought out by the city, except in the single case of the gas works of the Northern Liberties. The consolidation of the city with the adjoining districts, in 1854, has been proved to be a measure of importance by enlarging the sphere of municipal action. Great improvements have taken place, and the increase in the number of houses, the addition to the population, the extension of the manufacturing interests, and the enlargement of commerce has been remarkable. For seven years after consolidation no public event of great importance occurred until the breaking out of the war of the rebellion in 1861. At that time the sympathies of the greater portion of the population was strong in support of the United States government. The news of the fall of Sumter was followed by volun teering for the defence of the Union, which resulted in the formation of several regiments almost immediately. During the continuance of the war there were raised in Philadelphia and went into service, six regiments for three months' service; for three years' service, thirty-five infantry regiments, three artillery, eight cavalry; for one year, five regiments of infantry; for nine months, four regiments of infantry; for one hundred days, three regiments; for emergency during invasions, three regiments of infantry and two of artillery; drafted 1042 VIEW OF THE DELAWARE, FRONT OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHTA. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. militia for ninety days, ten regiments; independent battalions, five. Of these troops the Union League raised nine regiments of infantry and one battalion of cavalry; the Corn Exchange, two regiments. During the continuance of the war the Union and Cooper-Shop Volunteer refreshment saloons, which were maintained by subscription, in the neighborhood of the landing-place used by the Baltimore, the New York, and the Pennsylvania railroads, on the Delaware, near Washington street, received, fed, and refreshed nearly one million of soldiers, most of whom came from the North and East, or passed in that direction on their return home. In 1863, a fair for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission was held in Logan Square-the proceeds being appropriated for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers. The receipts amounted to $1,565,377 15. -.- _..;..- ---.. GIRARD COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA. On the 10th of May, 1876, the International Exposition in honor of the centennial anniversary of American independence was opened in Fairmount Park, in an enclosure of two hundred and thirty-six acres, ceded for that purpose by the Park Commission. The preparation for this great event was enormous. The buildings erected upon the grounds for various purposes connected with the display were nearly two hundred. Among these were structures devoted to purposes of the exhibition, as illustrated by machinery, manufactures, horticulture, agriculture, and for the accommodation of foreign nations and the various States of the Union which participated, beside every arrangement for the comfort of visitors. The foreign nations which took part in the display were European, Asiatic, African, and North and South American. There were thirty-five separate foreign departments, and the United States was abundantly represented in manufacture, invention, science, art, horticulture, agriculture, mining, and every conceivable form of industry. This great display exceeded anything which had 1044 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY occurred in the world, and was a fitting triumph of a century of progress in the essentials to the prosperity of mankind. Philadelphia, having been for more than a century the seat of the Provincial and the State government, and during the Revolutionary war, the meeting-place of Congress and capital of the Confederacy, and during the administrations of Washington and Adams, the capital of the Federal government, has had in it, connected with public events, many buildings of historic note. The oldest memorial of the shadowy past still existing, is the cottage of William Penn. The date of this house goes back to 1682-3. The slate-roofed house, old Swedes' church, Christ church, the State House, and several other buildings, yet remain. Many other buildings of historic note or architectural beauty adorn the metropolis, principally among which are Girard College, founded through the benevolence of Stephen Girard, the Masonic Temple, the public buildings, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1798 the University bought a house in Ninth street, below Market, which had been built for the use of the President of the United States by the State of Pennsylvania. A medical department or college had been created in connection with the college before the Revolution, but had occupied separate buildings. In 1807 a building for the department was erected on Ninth street. In 1829 the original buildings were torn down and two buildings erected for the use of the departments of literature and medicine. In 1874 this property was sold to the United States government, for the purpose of erecting thereon a post office, and the University removed to the elegant site on Locust, between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth, which was granted by the city. Here are separate buildings for the departments of literature and science and medicine, together with the University hospital. The material of these buildings is green stone, with gray stone ornaments. The style is collegiate gothic, with towers, gables, buttresses, pinnacles, bay and o al windows. The corner-stone of the building of science and arts was laid June 15, 1871, and it was finished and opened October 11, 1872. It is two hundred and fifty-four feet long, one hundred and twenty-four feet wide at the centre, and one hundred and two feet two inches deep at the wings. The medical department stands west of the main building, and is fitted up for purposes of medical instructions. There are accommodations for six hundred students, with class rooms, lecture rooms, and every convenience. The hospital is south of the main building, on Spruce street. When finished the front will be two hundred and fifty feet six inches, and the central building and two parlors each one hundred and ninety-eight feet in depth. Councils granted the ground for this hospital, $200,000 was subscribed by the State of Pennsylvania, and $350,000 from private subscriptions. There is a splended medical and surgical staff, and the hospital is entirely free to all who, needing its services, are residents of Pennsylvania. [Communicated by William Travis, A.M.] GERMANTOWN, although now incorporated in the City of Philadelphia, demands a separate notice. It is included, with Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill, in the Twenty-second ward of the city. Its situation has always been regarded as most picturesquely beautiful. It occupies a grand slope of country, extending 1045 -OgLt a-ansirlav"LSH lxw"[(Ivov -Kv ojNLvwHaf) (1,10 J]Fjj, 7!7 PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. from the old Logan estate, below Fisher's Lane, between two and three miles in a north-western direction to Mount Airy. This inclined plane is remarkably diversified with greater and less elevations, separated by ravines that begin near the Germantown avenue, or Main street, and widens into little vales, pursuing meandering courses, deepening as they go, until those on the east combine with the beautiful valleys that extend down to the Delaware river; whilst those on the west soon terminate in the Wissahickon, the western boundary of the slope, and help to form the scenes of enchanting beauty and loveliness of that worldrenowned drive in Fairmount Park. These ravines are coursed by streams of water, supplied by multitudinous springs, constituting the most perfect natural drainage possible. The ground rises still higher through the village of Mount Airy, and the summit is reached at Chestnut Hill, about two miles beyond the northern limits of Germantown. It was such a diversified region of country that arrested the attention of the learned and enterprising Francis Daniel Pastorius, the friend of William Penn, given his place in the celestial sphere by the poet Whittier as the " Pennsylvania Pilgrim." He took up the site of Germantown, as the agent of the Frankfort Company, in 1684; but Chestnut Hill, and the region between that and Germantown, were taken up for himself and a friend. The Germantown tract comprised between 5,000 and 6,000 acres, which was soon surveyed and laid out in 57 town lots, 27- on each side of Main street. Each lot facing on Main street, together with back lots, comprised about 50 acres of land. These were divided among the settlers by casting lots; and soon a thrifty town sprung up along this winding street. The settlers were mostly from Germany and Holland, and religiously of the Quaker, Mennonite, and Tunker persuasion. Specimens of the unique and substantial structure of their houses still remain. All the first settlers came here evidently for a religious asylum. Among them was quite a number of hermits, who dwelt in caves in the near vicinity. The town never had any organized government, except during a period of about fifteen years, commencing in 1691, Pastorius himself being the first bailiff. The town lost its charter because the religious scruples of the people would not permit them to take the oath of qualification for office. In 1735, Christopher Sower established the first type foundry in this country at Germantown. In 1739, he commenced the publication of a quarterly newspaper, having manufactured his own type and ink. In 1743 he issued an edition of a quarto German Bible, the first published in this country. His son continued his father's business and greatly enlarged it, publishing many books, in addition to two editions of the Bible. The newspaper became a monthly, and as the stirring times of the Revolution aipproached, it was issued weekly, obtaining a circulation of some twelve thousand, it is said becoming a power in the land. It is expected that such a people would be interested in the education of their children. For this, the citizens of Germantown were particularly distinguished at a very early day. In 1760, after frequent meetings and discussions, held at the house of Daniel Mackinet, the popular tavern of the day, a movement was organized, that combined all the wealth, enterprize, and intelligence of the place, toward the speedy erection of a large and commodious school building, with two smaller buildings as wings for residences of the masters, in a large beautiful lot 1047 GENERAL HISTORY. definite since it had been attacked, when it had been surrounded by the Indians, and "all communication cut off from it even by message." Placed at so great a distance from the inhabited portions of the Province, and rendered still more inaccessible from the then almost impassible mountains that intercepted the way, it could not be conveniently heard from, nor could assistance be rendered it without great expense of labor and time; and a considerable force being requisite for their own safety, to undertake a march so distant, some delay could not be avoided. Endeavors in the Province to raise men proving nearly abortive, although the Assembly at the first outbreak of the savages had ordered seven hundred men to be raised for the protection of the frontiers during harvest, yet all attempts now seemed to have little effect. The delay which had thus been occasioned increased the alarm for those at Fort Pitt, from whom no intelligence still was had, while the audacity of depredating parties was increased, as they discovered the settlers fleeing before them, and no very apparent effort being made to check them. All exertions proving fruitless to raise the requisite forces, General Amherst, Commander-in-Chief of the army in America, promptly dispatched Colonel Bouquet to the relief of Fort Pitt. Gathering together "the shattered remnants of the Forty-second and Seventy-second Regiments, lately returned from the West Indies," comprising in all scarcely five hundred men, the gallant Bouquet set out for a long and tedious march through the forests. His little army were indeed invalids, "reinforced with the last man that could be removed from the hospital," and many were so infirm that about sixty were conveyed in wagons; but these had been brought along more with a view of being left as reinforcements at the small posts by the way. Accompanying this little force, however, were six companies of rangers from Lancaster and Cumberland counties, amounting to two hundred, all that could possibly be spared from the Provincial volunteers, who were guarding their own homes from the inroads of the enemy. Reaching Carlisle, Colonel Bouquet found nothing had been done to carry out the orders which had been given to prepare a convoy of provisions on the frontiers. All was terror and consternation; the greatest part of Cumberland county, through which the army had to pass, was deserted; and the roads were covered with distressed families, flying from their settlements, and destitute of all the necessaries of life. In the midst of this confusion, says Bouquet in his journal, the supplies required for the expedition became very precarious; nor was it less difficult to procure horses and wagons for the use of the troops. However, in about two weeks after his arrival at Carlisle, by the prudent and active measures pursued by the commander, joined to his knowledge of the country and the diligence of those he employed, the requisite provisions and articles of conveyance were procured, and the army proceeded. Considerable anxiety had been felt for the safety of Fort Ligonier. It had been surrounded and attacked by the savages, and fears were entertained of its falling into their hands. There being a large quantity of military stores within it, it became a matter of great moment to keep it from falling into the hands of the Indians. Captain Currie, who commanded at Fort Bedford, apprehensive of this, had early sent twenty volunteers, good marksmen, to its aid. The perilous situation of Fort Ligonier coming to Colonel Bouquet's knowledge after he left HISTORY OF PENNS YL YANIA. on Bensill's, now School lane. They called the main building THE UNION SCHOOL HOUSE, a name at once typical and very suggestive. The fact that the language of the people was divided about equally between the German and English, must have been a great obstacle in the way. This was met by making it a German and English school; and there were at once enrolled seventy German and sixty English pupils. The contributions to these buildings and grounds, during the first two years, amounted to about twelve hundred pounds. The board of trustees at first became the great organized body of the town, a seat in which was the object of every aspiring man's ambition. These trustees were elected by the contributors, until 1836. The institution was chartered by the Legislature in 1786, as "THE PUBLIC SCHOOL OF GERMANTOWN," but for more than half a century it has been known as THE GERMANTOWN ACADEMY. The academy has always had considerable celebrity, and is still an object of the deepest interest and pride of the citizens, many of whom have been educated here. It was during the prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia, in 1793, that the salubrity and healthfulness of the place became so much prized. No case of that terrible scourge was ever known to originate here. The members of both the National and State governments made this town their place of secure retreat. The United States Bank was for a time located here. The academy was offered as a place of meeting to both Congress and the State Legislature; and it was for a time occupied by two of the banks of Philadelphia. After the removal of the National government to Washington, and the withdrawal of the distinguished men who had become accustomed to make this their summer residence, Germantown became isolated and exclusive for a long period. The steam railway connecting with the city, for this reason among others, was for a time a non-productive undertaking, and became almost an entire failure. The aristocratic and exclusive inhabitants and owners of the land refused to share their little paradise with the outside world. But manufactories, especially of hosiery and fine woolen goods, grew up very rapidly, that have already gained a national reputation, and both operative and operator demanded dwelling places for themselves. For some years past a spirit of noble enterprise has attracted to the place greatly increased population and multiplied wealth. The old churches, of rather Quaker plainness, have given place, in many cases, to large and commodious structures, adorned according to the style and taste of modern church architecture. Everywhere there is evidence of thrift, enterprise, and increasing wealth, all of which are made to contribute to the comfort, ease, and elegant living of the people. 1048 PIKE COUNTY. BY WILLIAM WESTFALL, ROWLANDS. IKE county was taken from Wayne by the act of March 26th, 1814. One or more terms of court was held at a little hamlet called Will sonville, on the east bank of the Waullenpaupack, at the extreme western boundary of the county. From there the county seat was removed to Milford, on the bank of the Delaware river, having crossed the entire county and gained the most extreme eastern point. The courts were held in a hotel kept by George Bowhannan, until the courthouse could be erected. - One, and perhaps the t___ - most valuable resource of - the county, has nearly disappeared from its borders..... - _ At an early day the whole R ___ - county was covered with a dense forest of white and yellow pine, oak, ash, and hickory, while three or_ four of the western townships could boast of h ving the best hemlock land in the State; in fact, one was named Green from the circumstance that the foliage of the forest never changed. A few years ago, saw mills dotted l every mountain stream; - - - - lumber manufactured, and in the log covered the PIKE COUNTYCOURT HOUSE, MILFORD. in the log, covered the [From a Photograph by Layton, Milford.] banks wherever an eddy could be found suitable for rafting, and in the spring and fall a majority of the male population were floating their hard-earned products down the Delaware in search for a market. Agriculture also thrived in the valleys and along the streams. Perhaps there is no better land in the world than the flats along the Delaware. Wheat, rye, and corn grow exuberantly, and the husbandman's reward can be seen in the neat buildings and the well-kept herds. Although lumbering for a livelihood is among the things of the past, yet the mountain land which a few years ago was nearly valueless, is now sought after by capitalists 1049 HISTORY OF PENNSLYVANIA. and skilled quarrymen. Flag and worked stone are extensively shipped by the Delaware and Hudson canal, and over the Erie road and its branches, from Lackawaxen and Shohola townships, to the value of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The earliest settlements made by Europeans in what is now Pike county was along the Delaware river, below Milford, by a party of Hollanders who came from Esopus (now Kingston), on the Hudson river. The precise date when these settlements were made is not known, but it was at a period previous to the arrival of Penn. In the year 1730 the Proprietaries appointed Nicholas Scull, the famous surveyor, to proceed on a tour of investigation up the Delaware river and find out by observation whether there were any white settlements north and west of the great mountain. John Lukens, afterwards surveyor-general of Pennsylvania, accompanied Scull on this expedition. From a letter of Samuel Preston, of Stock Port, in Wayne county, who was a deputy-surveyor under John Lukens, published in 1787, we learn that Messrs. Scull and Lukens were " much surprised by seeing large groves of apple trees far beyond the size of any near Philadelphia." The next settlement, if it could be called one, was made at Mast Hope, a little hamlet now on the Erie railroad, in Lackawaxen township. Here a cabin was built by a party of hunters and trappers, a clearing made, and a number of apple trees set out. It was afterwards claimed as Manor land, and the present owners of the property have the deed in their possession bearing the Proprietary seal. About 1760, a family by the name of Cox left the settlement below Milford, for a new location. Arriving at Mast Hope, they were struck with astonishment to find a large and thrifty orchard of apple trees superior in size to those in the settlement which they had left. No vestige of a habitation was found, and the family as a consequence considered themselves masters. Several tracts of land were afterwards taken up and patented by them in the vicinity. After enduring innumerable hardships from hunger and cold, and eking out a miserable existence for a number of years, they became tired of their isolation and returned to the haunts of civilization. Upon visiting the old grave-yards of the county, the last resting-place of many of the old settlers, can be found the record of such names as Walker, Kimble, Roberts, Holbert, Dimmick, Mott, Bowhannan, Biddis, McCarty, Dingman, Drake, Van Etten, Quick, Brodhead, Nyce, Westbrook, and many others. On the 22d day of July, 1779, near what is now the little town of Lackawaxen, was fought one of the fiercest Indian battles on record. Although this massacre took place in the State of New York, nothing but the pure waters of the Delaware separate the battle-ground from Pike county, and a brief history of that dreadful day's proceedings may not be ought of place in this sketch. Early in July, Captain Brant, the half-breed Indian chief, left the Susquehanna with some four hundred warriors, to make an incursion into the Delaware valley. The settlers received timely warning, and threw out scouts to watch the approach of the invaders. The wily Indians turned a short corner, struck for the upper Delaware, crossed near Mast Hope, at a place known as Grassy Brook, clambered over the mountains, and by forced marches reached the little town of Minisink, where the thriving village of Port Jervis now stands. The inhabitants saved themselves by flight, but the town was sacked, the horses and cattle 1050 PIKE COUNTY. driven away, and the buildings reduced to a mass of smoking ruins. Flushed with success, the invaders moved slowly up the Delaware with their plunder, keeping the York State side. While these scenes were transpiring, the people of Orange county raised about one hundred and fifty men, and put them on the trail of the savages. On the night of the 21st the Indians encamped at the mouth of Beaver brook. The pursuing party lay four or five miles further down the river. On the fatal morning of the 22d, both parties were early in motion. Brant had reached the ford at the mouth of the Lackawaxen, and a good part of his plunder was safe in Pike county. The whites held a short consultation at the Indian encampment, and the more prudent urged a return. The deliberations were cut short by a Captain Meeker, who boldly stepped to the front, exclaiming, " Let brave men follow me." This had the desired effect, and nearly the whole party were once more in hot pursuit. Two short miles brought them to the ford. A large body of the enemy could be seen upon the opposite shore. A few shots were fired, and one Indian was seen to roll down the bank towards the river. About this time a heavy volley was fired into the whites from the high hills in the rear, which awakened them to a sense of their danger and the fatal mistake they had committed of leaving the only avenue of escape in the hands of the enemy. The officers in command ordered a rush to be made for the high ground. The Indians fell back, and chose their own position; the pursued recrossed the river, and this brave but doomed band of patriotic whites were cut off from water, and surrounded by their merciless enemies. The sun poured out its fierce heat, and all through that long sweltering July day the battle raged with unmitigated fury. When night closed around the combatants, some twenty-five or thirty made a dash for the river, headed by Major Wood, who, through mistake, made the grand masonic hailing sign of distress as he approached the spot where Brant was standing. The Indian, true to his obligations, allowed the party to pass. They swam the river and made their escape into the wilds of Pike county. A few more escaped under the cover of darkness, and the rest lay upon the hillside cold in the arms of death. In the year 1822, the bones of friend and foe were picked up, put in boxes, taken to Goshen, in Orange county, given decent burial, and a beautiful monument, erected by a public-spirited citizen of the place, marks the spot where the bones of the heroes lay who fought what is known as the Battle of the Minisink. The details of this terrible disaster to the early settlers of this region have been gathered from the descendants of those who were living at that day. The Delaware and Hudson canal crosses the Delaware river at Lackawaxen by a fine suspension aqueduct, and passes along the west bank of the Lackawaxen river to Honesdale. The Honesdale and Hawiey branch of the Erie railroad is located upon the eastern bank, and over these two works a large portion of the coal mined in the Wyoming valley finds its way to a market. In this part of the county are a number of beautiful lakes, where the disciples of Isaak Walton spend many a pleasant hour. The famous Indian fighter, Tom Quick, was well acquainted with this part of the country in his day, and skulked around the ponds or lakes to slay what he called one of the accursed race. Like the Wandering Jew, hlie had no abiding place, but was continually on the move to fulfil the oath he had made when a young man to kill one hundred Indians during his lifetime. 1051 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. It is stated that before his mission was accomplished he was taken seriously ill, and was supposed would not recover. He prayed continually for life and health to carry out his project. He eventually Lecovered, the number of Indians were slain, when his old and trusty friend, the rifle, was oiled up and laid away never more to be handled by its owner. He left his old haunts, and died shortly after. He is sleeping his last sleep on the banks of the Delaware, between Shohola and Milford. The first settlement made at MILLFORD was about the year 1779, by a Hollander named Vandermark, who gave the name to the creek north of the town. He also took up and patented a tract of land, which is still outside of the corporate limits of the village. In the year 1800 there were but two houses and a blacksmith shop on the site. The whole plain at that time was thickly grown over with pine, stunted oak, and bushes, with dense forests of hemlock skirting the mountain streams. The plateau, upon which the town is built, rises some three or four hundred feet above the waters of the Delaware river, which is the eastern boundary of the town. In the year 1814 it became the county seat, and was laid out with broad streets, crossing at right angles. In 1870, a new court-house was erected, at an expense of some forty-five thousand dollars. In 1874, the act of incorporation was passed. DINGMAN, eight miles down the Delaware river, is a small hamlet noted as a favorite summer resort. BUSHKILL, still further down the river, is a quiet village. MATAMORAS, eight miles above Milford, lies on the bank of the Delaware river; it is a thriving, growing town. LACKAWAXEN, twenty miles further up the river, derives its name from the stream which here empties into the Delaware; it is a busy, bustling place. MAST HOPE, five miles above on the river, is built upon the bank of the stream from which it derives its name. ROWLANDS, MILLVILLE, and KIMBLES, are post towns on the Hawley and Honesdale branch of the Erie railway. At each place there is a thriving, industrious population, the principal occupations being lumbering and stone quarrying. ORGANIZATION OF TowNsHIPs.-Blooming Grove was erected December 17, 1850, from parts of Lackawaxen and Palmyra; Dingman, April 17, 1832, from Upper Smithfield; Green, April 24, 1839, from Palmyra; Lehman, August 19, 1829, from Delaware; Milford, April 17, 1832, from Upper Smithfield; Porter, December 16, 1851, from parts of Delaware and Lehman; Shohola, September 25, 1852, from parts of Lackawaxen, Westfall, and Milford; Westfall, January 31, 1839, from Milford. Pike county, at its organization, comprised the townihips of Middle Smithfield, Delaware, Upper Smithfield, Lackawaxen, and Palmyra. 1052 POTTER COUNTY. BY E. O. AUSTIN, FOREST HOUSE. HE territory comprised within the bounds of the county of Potter was formerly a portion of Dunstable township, Lycoming county. The lands comprising it were mostly patented, and the district lines with preliminary surveys made and established about 1790. The owners of these lands, looking to their future occupation, caused the initial steps to erect it into a county to be taken in 1803. On the 26th of March, 1804, an act of the Legislature was passed, naming the. county and defining its boundaries, but still leaving it attached to Lycom- -_" ing county for all execu- VIN tive and judicial purposes. On the 3d of February, 1806, the powers and duties of the commissioners of Lycoming were extended over Potter, providing that separate accounts should be kept of the monies collected, and also separate books for the recording of deeds therein. It was named in honor of General James Potter, an officer of the Revolution, and a distinguished citizen of Penn- _ sylvania. Sampson Crawford, Hugh White, and POTTER COUNTY COURT HOUSE, COUDERSPORT. Robert McClure were ap- (From a Photograph in possession of M S. Thompson.] pointed trustees to receive the donation from John Keating, one of the principal land owners in the county, of certain lands for the use of the county. These lands comprised two-thirds of the squares of the town, to be located and surveyed for the county seat, one public square for the county buildings, one square on which to erect an academy, and a certain quantity of land to be held for its use. The county seat was to be located at some place not more than seven miles from the geographical centre of the county. On the 4th of March, 1807, the site was fixed at the forks of the Allegheny river, within the prescribed distance from the centre, and 1053 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. named Coudersport, in honor of Judge Couder, a particular friend of the patron, Mr. Keating. Potter, M'Kean, and Tioga counties all formed a portion of Lycoming county until 1804, when the steps before mentioned were taken. This state of things continued until 1833, when Potter and M'Kean were organized in conjunction as a separate judicial district, the courts being held at Smethport, M'Kean county, with provisions, however, anticipating an early organization of Potter, under which the records of each territory were kept separate, those pertaining to Potter being subsequently transferred to Coudersport. In 1835 it (Pctter) attained its full organization, the first judges and sheriff being commissioned by Governor Wolf in 1835 and'36. Potter county is a portion of a large tract of high rolling table-land, lying in the northern central portion of the State, including the counties of Tioga, Potter, M'Kean, Elk, Cameron, etc., comprising considerable of the great bituminous coal basin, and rich in iron ore, with traces of silver, copper, and lead. It is bounded by the counties of Steuben and Allegheny, in New York, and Tioga, Clinton, Cameron, and M'Kean, in Pennsylvania. The northern half is rolling, and generally settled and improved. The southern half is much broken up with deep and narrow valleys, and high abrupt ridges, all heavily timbered, and containing most of the minerals yet discovered. Most of the larger branches of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, Allegheny, and Genesee rivers take their rise here. A peculiar feature of the formation of the county is seen in the elevation of the Allegheny basin over that of the Susquehanna. The altitude of the Allegheny, as compared with any similar point on the Susquehanna within the county, is about three hundred and seventy feet greater. The mean elevation of the county is about 1,200 feet above Lake Erie, and about 1,900 feet above the sea. The northerly and easterly slopes of the ridges are very abrupt and precipitous, while the southerly and westerly are long and of gradual ascent. The county is 37 miles long, from north to south, and 30 in breadth from east to west. Its population in 1840 was 3,371, and in 1870, 11,265, on an area of 710,000 acres. The resources of the county are mainly such as pertain to an agricultural district. Every section of the county is devoted to farming, the northern half almost exclusively. All the crops adapted to the Middle States come to maturity. Oats, buckwheat, and potatoes yield very abundantly and of the best quality. The production of wheat will compare favorably with any similarly situated county, while in the valleys corn is a staple crop. The hardier fruits thrive well, and some orchards on the high-lands are nearly always exempt from frosts and blights. But grazing and dairying are the chief resources of the people. The best varieties of the grasses thrive luxuriantly. The sward is not of that closeness and fineness seen in the best grass regions of New York, but may be ranked with the second best in the country. At the present time cheese factories are rapidly multiplying, and while a system of mixed farming will undoubtedly prevail in the future, dairying will ultimately be the principal business of the people. Of the mineral resources of the county it is as yet too early to speak with certainty. Bituminous coal is found in many places, but remains almost entirely undeveloped. On Pine and Kettle creeks it is known to exist in con1054 POTTER COUNTY. siderable quantities, and on the Allgheny river several mines have been partially developed, indicating that they may be worked to advantage when thoroughfares shall be constructed for taking the coal to market. Indications of iron are often met with, and several veins of some extent are known, but all as yet unworked. Traces of other metals are often met with, but it is not known whether they exist in sufficient quantity to pay for mining. The county is practically without lime, the writer of this knowing of but one or two places where it exists at all, and not then in quantities and of a quality to admit of its being worked. The manufacture of lumber has always been, and must continue to be, a leading interest for years to come. A large portion of the logs and timber consumed in the mills at Williamsport aud Lock Haven are floated down the streams of this county. Indeed, the establishment of the booms at those places, and the associated system of business carried on there, was the hardest blow at the prosperity of the county it has ever received. The drain upon the material of wealth has been immense, without one particle of return, as the lines of barren hills and hillsides, and great number of decaying saw-mills, unmistakably evidence. If we except the lumber mills, there are but few manufactories, and these of no great importance. Woolen cloth is manufactured in small quantities, altogether for home use, and leather to some extent, but most of the wool, and immense quantities of tan bark, are shipped to neighboring localities and the cities. The first and only railroad built within the bounds of the county-the Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia railroad-was opened in the winter of 1872. It passes only a short distance through Keating township, but the impetus it gave to business in its vicinity was very great. The only railway station at present in this county is Keating Summit, on the above-mentioned road. A railroad is in pro'cess of construction between Jersey Shore, in Clinton county, and Port Allegheny, in M'Kean county, connecting the Buffalo road with the Philadelphia and Erie. It runs diagonally through the centre of the county, and great expectations are entertained of the very beneficial effects it cannot fail to produce. Desirous of introducing settlers and establishing an agency in the county of Potter, John Keating, to whom allusion has been made in the sketch of M'Kean county, caused ten acres of land to be cleared, and the body of a log house to be erected at what was long known as the "Keating Farm," in the town of Sweden, in the summer of 1807. In the fall of the same year, William Ayres, with some help, came up from King's settlement, covered, chinked, and mudded the house, preparatory to its habitation in the spring. In March, 1808, he moved in with his family, consisting of his wife and three children, George, Nancy, and James, and a negro boy, Asylum Peters. For two years this family was alone, and, except a visit from the proprietor and a few journeys to Big Meadows, or King's settlement, for supplies, no person was seen, if we except now and then some Indians who occasionally passed that way on their hunting excursions. About two years after Mr. Ayres established himself on the Keating farm, Major Isaac Lyman located at Lymansville and assumed the agency of the Keating lands in this section. His family consisted of John, Burrel, Laura, Henry, Isaac, Otis, and Charles. The Lymans were followed by others, which soon gave 1055 HISTO R Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. the little colony the appearance of prosperity, and established a society rude but kindly. John Peet and family were the next to locate within the boundaries of the county, about one mile below Coudersport, on the Allegheny river. Benjamin Burt was the next settler, locating in Roulette township, on the Allegheny, where he has lived the greater part of the time since. He is still a hale old man, residing in Coudersport. John K. Burt, the first male child born in the limits of Potter county, lives on the farm his father Benjamin first settled on. Other accessions to their numbers followed in time. Messrs. Harry Campbell, Sherman, and Walker settled in Roulette, at what is now called Dutch town. Obadiah Sartwell, a blacksmith, built a house and lived for some time on the site of the borough of Coudersport, but becoming disgusted with the situation, removed to the lower part of Roulette, at the mouth of a creek which now bears his name. Roads were now opened to the nearest and most necessary points, and facilities were offered for opening settlements in other parts of the country, which were rapidly improved. In the war of 1812, and the Mexican war, the population of the county was too sparse to afford many recruits; but in the war of the Rebellion it furnished its full share. We find, by actual count, more than twelve hundred credited to the county. One out of seven of the whole population were engaged in their country's service, many of whom were distinguished for their capacity and ability as soldiers. The celebrated Bucktail regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserves was largely recruited in this county. Among the sharpshooters none were superior to those from Potter, and the memory and services of the gallant dead have been commemorated by the erection of a durable monument, suitably inscribed, at Coudersport. An episode in the history of the county was the attempt of the celebrated Ole Bull to plant a colony of his countrymen within its limits. In 1853, he bought of John F. Cowen, 11,144 acres of land lying within the present limits of Abbott township, for which he paid the sum of ten thousand dollars, on which tract he settled a considerable number of Norwegians and Danes. His scheme attracted the attention of many distinguished men, from whom he received contributions of machinery, stock, etc. Among those who thus countenanced his efforts was the sage of Ashland, Henry Clay. His presents consisted of blooded horses and cattle, the descendants of which are among the best grades of stock in the county. Mr. Bull did not seem to be adapted to the work of founding a colony, and having fallen into the hands of sharpers, was ultimately obliged to abandon his project with almost the total loss of his lifelong savings. Most of the colonists migrated west, a few, however, remaining in the vicinity. On the 21st of March, 1834, a terrible hurricane passed through the entire length of the county, in the manner of a whirlwind, destroying everything in its course, and to this day are traces of the devastation to be seen along the northern frontier. Luckily thvre were but few buildings in its path, its fury being spent on the timber. At Lymansville it found the only buildings in its whole length, all of which it destroyed or greatly damaged. In Harrison, this county (Potter), and West Union, Steuben county, N. Y., thirty miles distant, boards and shingles were found, which came, unmistakably, from these buildings. 1056 POTTER COUNTY. COUDERSPORT, the county seat, situated on the Allegheny river, about fourteen miles from its source, is a thriving town, containing three churches, a tannery, machine shop, several saw and grist mills, a large and excellent graded school building, and the county buildings, consisting of brick court-house, a stone jail, and sheriff's residence. LEWISVILLE borough, situated near the head of the east branch of the Genesee river, is a thriving town, second in importance in the county. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIP.-EULALIA was set off from Dunstable township, Lycoming county, by order of the court of Lycoming, December 5, 1810, embracing all of Potter county; deriving its name from Eulalia Lyman, the first child born within its limits.... ROULETTE was set off by the same court, from Eulalia, January 29, 1816, embracing the territory now composed of Roulette, Clara, Pleasant Valley, and Sharon townships.... HARRISON, February 6, 1823. Benjamin Burt, Reuben Card, and Jacob Streeter were appointed, by same court, commissioners to divide Eulalia township; the new township to be called Harrison, running from north-east corner of the county south nine miles and ninety-nine perches; west eight miles and twenty-eight perches, embracing Harrison and parts of Hector, Ulysses, and Bingham.... The south-west part of the county, under the name of WHARTON, was erected May 3, 1826, containing within its limits the present townships of Wharton, Sylvania, and Portage, and parts of Summit, Homer, and Keating.... In 1828 the north half of the county was divided by a decree of the court into townships six miles square, which were surveyed ten years later by L. B. Cole. The survey commenced at the north-west corner of the county, on the State line. The townships were named in the following order: First tier-Sharon, Chester, Loudon, Bingham, Harrison; Second tier-Milton, Hebron, Denmark, Ulysses, Hector; Third tierRoulette, Eulalia, Sweden, Jackson, Pike.... SWEDEN was organized February, 1828, with Jackson, Pike, and Ulysses attached thereto... SHARON organized December, 1828, with Chester and Milton attached... The name of Chester was subsequently changed to OSWAYA, the Indian name of a branch of the Allegheny river, which runs through it. The name of Milton was changed to CLARA. BINGHAM was organized in 1830. Loudon organized in 1830, and the name changed to GENESEE, a river by the name running through it. At the same time Denmark was changed to Allegheny. HECTOR erected in 1830, and the election appointed to be held at Benjamin Wilber's. PIKE organized January, 1832, with Jackson attached. HEBRON erected in 1832; election to be held at the house of Asa Coon. ULYSSES erected December, 1832; election to be held at the house of Stephen Brace. ALLEGHENY erected September, 1835. Clara divided in 1847, the western half to be called PLEASANT VALLEY. ABBOTT erected in 1851. HOMER, STEWARTSON, WEST BRANCH, SUMMIT, erected in 1853. KEATING, SYLVANIA, erected in 1856. PORTAGE-in the erection of Cameron county, in 1860, the inhabited portion of Portage township was set off to that county; it was re-organized in 1871, a part of Sylvania being attached to it. 3R 1057 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Carlisle, and fearing the savages might carry it, and thereby enabled, from the munitions of war that would fall into their hands, to make a more vigorous attack on Fort Pitt, and likely demolish it before he could reach it, he determined to send a small detachment ahead to its relief. A party of thirty men was dispatched with proper guides, who, with skillful and forced marches, succeeded in making their way through the woods, undiscovered by the enemy till they came within sight of the Fort, where they were intercepted by the Indians, but by making a sally, reached the Fort amidst some random shots unhurt. Fort Bedford also, at this time, was in rather a ruinous condition and weakly garrisoned, although it had been strengthened by the two small intermediate posts, Forts Loudoun and Lyttleton, which had been abandoned for that purpose. The families for twenty and thirty miles around had collected themselves here for safety so soon as the alarm had reached them; and many had not yet reached the Fort when they found themselves pursued by the merciless enemy, with whose hands some forty persons fell, those not being scalped and killed carried into hopeless captivity. Satisfied with their slaughter, they made no attack on the Fort, happily for those within it, for the attempt might have proved successful, there being but a few volunteers to defend it, until two companies of infantry detached from the approaching army had reached it. On the 25th of July the rear of the army reached Bedford, but nothing satisfactory could be gathered respecting the enemy nor the situation of Fort Pitt. The force moved forward with some diffi culty across the mountains to Ligonier. Every thing was yet in uncertainty, and the army again --y continued their route. Before them lay the Turtle Creek hills, a deep and dangerous defile. Colonel SBouquet concluded to pass these during the night, by a forced march, as an advantageous position there might be chosen by the savages to waylay REDOUBT AT FORT PITT, 1763. the troops. Approaching these hills the 5th of August, after a march of seventeen miles, and it being yet early in the afternoon, it was determined to halt at Bushy Run, a short distance ahead, and there rest the troops till towards evening, and pass the Turtle Creek defile during the ensuing night; but when within about a half-mile from the creek, the advanced guard of the army was suddenly surprised by an ambuscade of Indians opening a brisk fire of musketry upon them. Being speedily and firmly supported, by bringing up the rear, a charge of bayonets was ordered, which effectually routed the savages, when they were pursued a short distance. But no sooner was the pursuit given up than they returned and renewed the attack with redoubled vigor, while at the same moment a most galling fire was opened by the parties who had been concealed on some high ground that skirted the flanks of the army. A general charge with the whole line was now made, which proved effective, and the savages were obliged to give way; but withal to no purpose, for no sooner was the pursuit again given up than the Indians renewed the attack with their wonted ferocity. The action continued without intermission the whole afternoon-a confused and irregular attack by the forces of both parties. The enemy, routed from one 104 VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF POTTSVILLE. [From a Photograph by Geo. 3M. Bretz, PottsvIllej] 7' 7 i ~ -s - Ot' SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. BY GEORGE CHAMBERS, POTTSVILLE. HE territory now embraced within the limits of Schuylkill county is a portion of that which was purchased from the Six Nations for ~500, by the treaty of August 22d, 1749, at Philadelph a. The preceding treaty of October 11th, 1736, which was made with the Five Nations, had only conveyed the land on the south-eastern side of the Kittatinny or Blue mountain. It gave the white man a title to the fertile soil now possessed by the farmers of Berks county, and encouraged him to settle on the Tulpehocken creek, and to ascend the Schuylkill river to the gap where Port Clinton now is located, but beyond that point he ventured at his peril, and without even the shadowy safeguard of an Indian compact to protect him from the tomahawk. Yet, as to-day the frontiersman presses forward into the Black Hills where the dusky warrior has warned him not to trespass, and enters the " gold country" regardless of t' e Sioux-so in earlier days the pioneers of civilization pushed on in advance of treaties, and sought new lands where the farmer might till a fertile soil. Tempted by visions of future farms, in the beautiful valley which stretches on both sides of the Schuylkill river, and from the Blue mountain on the south to the Second mountain on the north, a number of men of German nationality ventured to locate within it at a very early period. Exactly how soon the first had come, it is now impossible to ascertain. We know, however, that as early as 1747, George Godfried Orwig, with his wife Glora, had emigrated from Germany, and taken up their residence at Sculp Hill, about one mile south of where Orwigsburg now stands, and that they were not alone, but that a number of families resided in the same neighborhood. The children of George Godfried Orwig and Glora his wife were four in number: George, Peter, Henry, and a daughter-the latter of whom went to tho West. About 1773, George Orwig married Mary Gilbert, and removed to the place now called Albright's Mill, near where Orwigsburg afterwards was located, and he there built, prior to 1790, a house and a mill oa Pine creek. A family by the name of Yeager had removed from near Philadelphia to this valley about 1762. One of the children, Conrad, had been left in what is now Montgomery county. All of the family, except Conrad, were massacred by the Indians, and afterwards Conrad learned of their fate from a boy who had been living with them, but who had been captured at the time of the massacre and had escaped from his captors. Subsequently, Conrad Yeager removed to the same region, and about 1809 one of his daughters married Isaac Orwig, a son of George Orwig. Peter Orwig, son of George Godfried Orwig, founded the town of Orwigsburg, which was laid out in 1796. Among the early settlers, Thomas Reed had located in the same valley, in 1750, if not sooner, and Martin Dreibelbis had, previously to the Revolution, built a grist mill and saw mill 1059 HISTORY OF PEYNSYLVANIA. where Schuylkill Haven now appears. Other families had selected other locations in the same valley, and a number of different places are still pointed out as the scenes of Indian murders. The savage warriors came down from the mountains to make bloody forays on the peaceful farms, and the same sad story so often written of almost every valley of our State, can be heard from the lips of old residents in the neighborhood just described. The Fincher family were killed by the Indians about where the round house at Schuylkill Haven afterwards stood, the only member being a son, who reached the house of Thomas Reed above mentioned. Another family in the neighborhood of the place now called Friedensburg were massacred about the same time. In 1756, in the eastern end of what has since become Schuylkill county, had been built Fort Franklin, which was on Lizard creek. And further westward, Fort Bohundy (also called Fort Lebanon and Fort William) had been erected on Bohundy creek, in 1754. The territory now comprising Schuylkill county had been divided between the county of Berks, erected March 11th, 1752, and the county of Northampton, erected upon the same day. During the years which elapsed prior to the beginning of the present century, the rocky hills now forming the coal districts of Schuylkill county were not considered a desirable place of residence. Upon their rugged surface no dwelling seems to have existed except the Neiman House, which was located within the present limits of Pottsville, and in which the Neiman family were murdered after the Revolution. We can trace no other dwelling in this uninviting region prior to the year 1800, although an isolated saw mill had appeared here and there, and a few attemps to dig and utilize the coal had already been made. A saw mill had already been built where Pottsville now is seen, and George Orwig had placed another near the present site of St. Clair. The Orwig family, it is known operated the latter mill by carrying with them to it a week's provisions, and thus sawing all the lumber they wished without establishing a residence at the mill, and it is probable that other parties took a similar method at other saw mills north of Sharp mountain. In the year 1800, Reese and Thomas sent men to the present location of Pottsville to make a dam and race, preparatory to building a furnace and forge. Among, the workmen was John Reed, a son of Thomas Reed, above named. John Reed built for himself a small dwelling, and in it, in the same year, 1800, was born Jeremiah Reed, afterwards sheriff of Schuylkill county, and who was, as far as tradition states, the first child born within the limits of the present town of Pottsville. Reese and Thomas built, prior to 1804, a very small charcoal furnace on the Physic tract, where Pottsville is now situated, and in that year the place was bought by John Pott, Sr. In 1807 the old Greenwood furnace and forge was erected at that place, by John Pott, Sr., through his managers, John Pott, Jr., and Daniel Focht. In 1810 John Pott, Sr., removed to the new place with his family, and in the same year he built a large stone grist mill, which is still standing. Houses were erected in the neighborhood, and in 1816 John Pott, Sr., laid out the town of Pottsville. The county of Schuylkill having been erected in 1811, Orwigsburg became the county seat, and thus was advanced in importance. At this time settlements had been made at many different points within the 1060 SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. district now forming Schuylkill county, but although the turnpike from Reading to Sunbury had been opened through, it was in a very imperfect condition. The canal had not yet been made, and communication with the market centres of the large towns was very difficult, and the coal trade had not yet begun. In his "Miners' Journal Coal Statistical Register" for 1870, Mr. Benjamin Bannan said: "In 1811 Schuylkill county was cut off from old Berks. They said, let her go, she is so poor that it is only an expense to us. Then the population was from 6,000 to 7,000." Before this time the north-western portion of the county, then called "the Mahantangos," had become of importance, and in succeeding elections, the people nearer the county seat could not ascertain what candidates had been elected until "the Mahantangos " had been heard from. At this time, however, Schuylkill county was not so large as it is now, as the portion which afterwards formed the original Union township was not taken from Columbia and Luzerne counties until March 3, 1818. The present area of the county is about seven hundred and fifty square miles. Though in part out of chronological order, it may be well to state, at this point, the names and dates of formation of the townships into which the county is now divided. Brunswig township was formed 1811; East Brunswig township was formed out of Brunswig township, 1834; West Brunswig township was formed out of Brunswig township, 1834; Barry township was formed out of Norwegian township, 1821; Branch township was formed out of Norwegian township, 1838; Blythe township was formed out of Schuylkill township, 1846; Butler township was formed out of Barry township, 1848; Cass township was formed out of Branch township, 1848; Eldred township was formed out of Upper Mahantango township, 1849; Frailey township was formed out of Lowei Mahantango; Branch, Barry, and Porter townships, 1847; Foster township was formed out of Cass; Butler and Barry townships, 1855; Hegins township was formed out of Lower Mahantango township, 1853; Hubley township was formed out of Lower Mahantango township, 1853; Kline township was formed out of Rush township, 1873; Manheim township was formed 1811; North Manheim township was formed out of Manheim township, 1845; South Manheim township was formed out of Manheim township, 1845; Upper Mahantango township was formed 1811; Lower Mahantango township was formed 1811; Mahanoy township was formed out of Rush township, 1849; Norwegian township was formed 1811; East Norwegian township was formed out of Norwegian township, 1847; New Castle township was formed out of Norwegian township, 1848; Pinegrove township was formed 1811; Porter township was formed out of Lower Mahantango township, 1840; Rush township was formed 1811; Reilly township was formed out of Branch and Cass townships, 1857; Rahn township was formed out of West Penn township, 1860; Ryan township was formed out of Rush and Mahanoy townships, 1868; Schuylkill township was formed 1811; Tremont township was formed out of Pinegrove township, 1848; Union township was formed out of Columbia and Luzerne counties, 1818; North Union township was formed out of Union township, 1867; East Union township was formed out of Union township, 1867; West Penn township was formed 1811; Wayne township was formed out of Manheim and Pinegrove townships, 1827; Washington township was formed out of Wayne and Pinegrove townships, 1856. 1061 Year. Lehigh. Schuylkill. * Tons. Tons. 1820 365........... 1821 1,073........... 1822 2,240 1,480 1823 5,823 1,128 1824 9,541 1,567 1825 28,393 6,500 1826 31,280 16,767 182Y7 32,074 31,360 1828.30,232 47,284 1829 25,110 79,973 1830 41,750 89,984 1831 40,966 81,854 1832 70,000 209,271 1833 123,001 252,971 1814 106,244 226,692 1835 131,250 339,508 1836 148,211 432,045 1837 223.,902 530,152 1838 213,615 446,875 1839 221,025 475,077 1840 225,313 490,596 1841 143,037 624,466 1842 272. 540 583,273 1843 267,793 710.200 1844 377,002 887,937 1845 429,453 1,131,724 1846 517,116 1,308,500 1847 633,507 1,665,735 1848 670,321 1,733,721 1849 781,656 1,728,500 18,50 690,456 1,840,620 1851 964,224 2,328,525 1852 1,072,136 2,636. 835 1853 1,054,309 2,665,110 1854 1,207,186 3,191,670 1855 1,284,113 3, 552,943 1856 1,351,970 3,602,999 1857 1,318,541 3,373,797 1858 1, 380, 030 3,273,245 1859 1,628,311 3,448,708 1860 1,821,674 3,749,632 1861 1,738,377 3,160,747 1862 1,351,054 3,372,583 1863 1,894,713 3,911,683 186)4 2,054,669 4,161,970 1865 2,040,913 4, 356 959 1866 2,179,364 5,787,902 1867 2,502,054 5,161,671 1868 2,507,582 5,335,731 1869 1,929,523 5,725,138 1870 3,172.916 4,851,855 1871 2,116.6883 6,314,422 1872 3,743,278 6,469,912 1873 3,243.168 6,294,769 1871 4.047.656 5,642,180 PROGRESS OF THE ANTHRACITE COAL TRADE OF PENNSYLVANIA. [Compiled by Prof. P. W. Sheafer, Pottsvile.] Lehigh Canal Opened 1820 Schuylkill Canal Opeaed....... ................... .............. I................. ............ Delaware and fludsoa Opened. Dnlmne nndld em ~1830...... .......................... Little ohaylkill iL S Union C(natl Wyoming and State Canals, Lykeni Valley IL 11 Blarer leadow Mimes, P?ie Grnre. laletan............................ Shamokin. Beek Lt. Philadelphia & Reading. H................ Cumberland........ Lehigh & Susqueknan...................... ............. Penna. Coal Co.. l. Central R.R Opened Delaware, ackawanna & Wester l......................... Sheot IL Co. Pena Central RR......... Lehigh valley Trecarlo & Broad Top. .......................................:.. IcCaalley's ML lack. & Bloomsburg.ILL a...... .......... ................. ............... 1840 .......... ............ ..50 i6 1860 ......... .................... 1870 ---------- r**** Wyoming. Tota 1 Tons. Tons. 365 ......... 1,073 ......... 3,720 ......... 6,951 ......... 11,108 .... 34,893 .... 48,047 63,434 77,516 7,000 112,083 43,000 174,734 54,000 176,820 84,000 363,871 111,777 487,748 43,700 376,636 90,000 560,758 103,861 684,117 115,387 879,441 78,207 738,697 122,300 818,402 148,470 864,384 192,270 959,973 252,599 1,108,418 285,605 1,263,598 365,911 1,630,850 451,836 2,013,013 548,389 2,344,005 583,067 2,832,309 685,196 3,089,238 732,910 3,242,9866 827,823 3,358,899 1,156,167 4,448,916 1,284,500 4,993,471 1,475,732 5,195,151 1, 603,478 6,002,334 1,771,511 6,608,517 1,972,581 6,927,580 1,952,603 6,644,941 2,186,094 6,759,369 2,731,236 7,808,255 2,941,817 8,513,123 3,055,140 7,954,314 3,145,770 7,875,412 3,759,610 9,566,006 3,960,836 10,177,475 3,254,519 9,652,391. 4,736,616 12,703,882 5,325,000 12,991,725 5,990,813 13, 834,132 6,068,369 13,723,030 7,825,128 15,849,899 6,682,302 15,113,407 8,812.905 19,026,125 10,047,241 19,585,178 9,290,910 18,980,726 SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. From 1811 to 1825 the population of Schuylkill county increased steadily but not with great rapidity.. The census for 1825 showed the number of inhabitants to be 11,339. The coal trade was still very limited, and, so far as Schuylkill county was involved, it had scarcely begun. In that year, 1825, the Schuylkill canal was opened up to Mount Carbon, and the number of tons of coal sent to market from Schuylkill county was 6,500. The coal monument and table, prepared by P. W. Sheafer, of Pottsville, civil and mining engineer, and which are ingeniously constructed so as to give at a glance a clear and comprehensive view of the expansion and occasional contraction of the trade of the different regions, is here inserted as the best instructor upon the subject which the reader can have. Before proceeding to a further discussion of the mining and transportation of the mineral which has given to Schuylkill county her prosperity, we may now take a retrospective survey of the discovery of anthracite coal, and of its introduction into use. The often quoted statement made in the report of the Board of Trade to the Coal Mining Association, in 1833, that "so early as 1790 coal was known to abound in this county," has led many readers into the erroneous belief that coal had not been discovered here until that time. But it should be noted that the word "abound" is inserted in the sentence, and it does not conflict with well established statements that show the existence of coal in Schuylkill county to have been known at a much earlier period. In an interesting paper, read by Mr. William J. Buck before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, January 4, 1875, it was stated, upon the authority of the Penn manuscripts, that anthracite coal was discovered in the Wyoming valley in 1766, and that a specimen of it was sent to England during the summer of that year. The same gentleman further states, "that the earliest authority we find for the existence of coal anywhere in the vicinity of the present town of Pottsville is William Scull's map of the Province of Pennsylvania, published in 1770. Coal is marked thereon at three places, commencing about two miles west of said borough, and extending in nearly a south-western direction for nearly four miles. It is also indicated, on the same map, about ten miles distant, on the north side of the Mahanoy creek, near the present town of Gordan or Ashland. It is not now known who first made this discovery, but its location on said map at this early period in that vicinity is important, and goes to set aside considerable that has been published on this matter as erroneous." The writer has been shown, by Charles M. Lewis, of Pottsville, civil and mining engineer, several papers of interest in relation to the discovery and introduction of coal. The first is a copy of a rough draft of a letter written to Thomas H. Burrowes, Esq., and dated Reading, May 27, 1846. Mr. Lewis states that it is in the han lwriting of Thomas Baird, an old surveyor, and an authority on the subject of the letter. It states, inter alia, that there was, soon after the Revolution, a company formed for opening coal mines and sawing lumber, near where the town of Pottsville now is, and that the coal had been discovered in digging a tail-race for the old saw-mill on Norwegian creek. The company is stated to have been composed in part, at least, of Samuel Potts, Thomas Potts, (who then owned the land), General Arthur St. Clair, Samuel Baird, Thomas Rutter, Colonel Francis Nichols, Thomas Mayberry, and Jesse Potts, of Potts1063 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. town, Montgomery county, and probably Major William Nichols, who lived in Philadelphia. The company found that, to render the Schuylkill river navigable, would require more money than could be raised then, and after sawing some lumber, to pay expenses they settled their accounts in 1786, and "the land was taken back again by Messrs. Samuel Potts and Thomas Potts." That was doubtless the company referred to by Mr. Burrowes, in his " State Book of Pennsylvania," edition of 1846. Mr. Baird also says: "I have seen a draft of survey, made in 1774, and returned to the land office, on which coal is marked, and where mines are now opened and worked, where the town of St. Clair is now laid out." Mr. Lewis has also a certified copy of the original draft of survey of the St. Clair tract, surveyed November 26, 1775, upon which are marks, and the words, "Said to be coal." This is, no doubt, the survey referred to by Mr. Baird. That land is north-east of Pottsville, and not the tracts touched by the marks on Scull's map, above described. It is, therefore, not surprising that when, in 1800, Reese and Thomas located their furnace on the site of the present town of Pottsville, old openings were found in the neighborhood from which coal had been taken out some time before. Mr. Charles M. Lewis has shown the writer a paper " On the Introduction of Anthracite Coal into Use," written and read September 4, 1858, by his father, Samuel Lewis, of Pottsville, civil and mining engineer, and who possesses very extensive and accurate information in regard to the subject. After a statement of the reasons for preparing the paper, Mr. Lewis says: " We will now give Colonel Shoemaker's version of the affair, part of which is to be found in print:' In 1832, an association was formed in this county called the Coal Mining Association of Schuylkill county, of which the writer hereof was a member. Among other officers, there was a standing committee called the Board of Trade. At the first annual meeting of the association, in January, 1833, this Board of Trade, through its chairman, Benjamin IH. Springer, Esq., made a report, noticing, among other things, the discovery and first introduction into use of our coal, from which I beg leave to make the following extracts, first observing that we have a full set of the reports of this Board of Trade, with other interesting matter relating to the coal trade, bound in a volume and deposited in our library. The report says: In the year 1812, our fellow-citizen, Colonel George Shoemaker, procured a quantity of coal from a shaft sunk on a tract of land he had recently purchased on the Norwegian, and now owned by the North American Coal Company, and known as the Centreville tract. With this he loaded nine wagons, and proceeded to Philadelphia. Much time was spent by him in endeavoring to introduce it into notice, but all his efforts proved unavailing. Those who deigned to try it declared Colonel Shoemaker to be an imposter for attempting to impose stone on them for coal, and were clamorous against him. Not discouraged by the sneers and sarcasms cast upon him, he persisted in the undertaking, and at last succeeded in disposing of two loads for the cost of transportation, and the remaining seven he gave to persons who promised to try to use it, and lost all the coal and the charges on these seven. Messrs. Mellon & Bishop, at the earnest solicitations of Colonel Shoemaker, were induced to make trial of it in their rolling mill in Delaware county, and finding it to answer fully the character given it by him, noticed its usefulness in the Phila1064 SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. 1 delphia papers. At the reading of this report, Colonel Shoemaker was present by invitation, who fully confirmed the foregoing statement, and furnished some additional information, among which was that he was induced to make the venture of taking the coal to Philadelphia, from the success attending its use here, both in the blacksmith fires and for warming houses, and that he could not believe that so useful an article was intended to always lie in the earth unnoticed and unknown. " That when he had induced Mr. Mellon to try the coal in his rolling mill, he (Shoemaker) accompanied the coal out to it, and arrived there in the evening, when the foreman of the mill pronounced the article to be stone, and not coal, and that he was an imposter in seeking to palm off such stuff on his employers as coal. As a fair trial of it by this man or the men under him could not be expected, it was arranged between Shoemaker and Mellon, who was a practical workman, that they would experiment with the coal early next morning before the workmen came. They accordingly repaired to the mill in the morning, kindled a fire in one of the furnaces with wood, on which they placed the coal. After it began to ignite, Mellon was inclined to use the poker, against which Shoemaker cautioned him. They were shortly afterwards called to breakfast, previous to which Mr. Shoemaker said he had observed the blue blaze of the kindling authracite just breaking through the body of the coal, and he knew that all was right if it were let alone, and directed the man left in charge not to use the poker or open the furnace doors until their return. When they returned they found the furnace in a perfect glow of white heat. The iron was put in, and heated in much less time than usual, and it passed through the rolls with unusual facility, or in the language of the workmen, like lead. All-employers as well as workmen-were perfectly satisfied with the experiment, which was tried over and over again, and always with complete success, and to crown the whole, the surly foreman acknowledged his error and begged pardon of Mr. Shoemaker for rudeness the preceding evening. In all this there is nothing that looks like Mr. Shoemaker not understanding how to ignite and burn anthracite coal. It had been burned in an open grate at Wilkes-Barr6 four years before, and in Pottsville, by the elder John Pott, at least two years before this time, as well as used in his smith-shop at the Greenwood furnace; and there is no probability that Mr. Shoemaker was ignorant of the process, aside from his own positive testimony on the subject." From 1825 to 1829 the amount of coal shipped from Schuylkill county gradually increased, until, as the table shows us, in the latter year, 79,973 tons went to market. In the year 1829 there was a great excitement in regard to coal and coal lands, and during that and the succeeding year many speculators hastened to Schuylkill county, hoping to make fortunes out of the now valuable lands. The Miners' Jou'rnal of June 26th, 1830, under the heading of borough census, speaks of the increase of the population of Pottsville as "almost unprecedented," and foots up a grand total of 2,424 residents; and further states, that there were besides about 1,350 who did not consider themselves permanent residents, making the whole number 3,774. At that time the population of the county had reached the number of 20,744. In all directions new towns and villages were being laid out, and every indication pointed to permanent prosperity. As is always the result, however, depression followed in the wake of excitement, 1065 HISTORY OF PENNS YLVYANIA. and the year 1831 looked upon many a bankrupt, and turned sadly homeward many an adventurer who had been sanguine of successful venture. Comfortable dwelling houses in the new town of Pottsville were unoccupied, and could have been had for the asking free of rent. It was a common saying that "men who had come in the stage with plenty of money, went down the tow-path of the canal with packs on their backs." The depression did not continue long. Among those who had flocked to the "Land o' King Coal" were pioneers who were equal to overcoming all obstacles and to producing enduring prosperity and wealth instead of failure and want. From that time to the present, despite some years of disaster and seasons of gloom, Schuylkill county has continued to increase in wealth, and in the number of inhabitants who swell her census lists. Although there are some fertile acres within her boundaries, and well-tilled farms skirt the mountain ranges in different localities, the agricultural productions of Schuylkill county will never seem of much importance when compared with her coal and iron. The old Greenwood furnace has already been mentioned. Near it, in Pottsville, before the year 1836, a number of men had been endeavoring to solve the problem of how to make iron with anthracite coal. M. B. Buckley, Thomas S. Ridgway, and John Pott, Jr., had already succeeded in melting the ore with anthracite coal, but the difficulty had been that the iron and the cinder could not be separated. Burd Patterson, also, who was an energetic and prominent pioneer, and to whom Schuylkill is indebted for many a rapid advance, had devoted time and money in efforts to attain a method by which the desirable result could be reached. At length, in 1836, Dr. Geisenheimer, a man of scientific knowledge and logical mind, succeeded in obtaining the iron separate from the cinder. His triumphant efforts were made at the Valley furnace, in Schuylkill county, and place his name high upon the list of those who have enlarged the power of man over the materials around him. In the same year, as the Miners' Journal of August 6, 1836, informs us, Governor Ritner being in Schuylkill county, went to the Valley furnace to witness the new method of making iron, and was greatly pleased with what he saw. It is stated upon good authority that Dr. Geisenheimer first made anthracite iron with the cold blast, and that it was subsequently that the more efficient hot blast was introduced from across the Atlantic. The Pioneer furnace at Pottsville was commenced in 1837, and was the first one built for the purpose of making iron with anthracite coal. After passing through many hands this furnace was bought by Atkins Bros., and subsequently, in 1866, it was torn down by them and a new one built in its stead, and they have since erected two more at the same place. The total annual capacity of the three furnaces is twenty-eight thousand tons. The same enterprising firm are proprietors of the Pottsville rolling mill, which they have enlarged until it is equal to producing two thousand tons of iron per month, and when run to full capacity gives employment to five hundred men. The Palo Alto iron works at Pottsville, which owe their advancement to the energy and business ability of Benjamin Haywood, have a capacity of one thousand five hundred tons of iron per month, and require, when in full operation, 1066 SCIUYLKILL COUNTY. * about five hundred employees. The furnaces built at St. Clair, Stanhope, Minersville, Port Carbon, and Ringgold swell the annual pig-iron capacity of the furnaces of Schuylkill county to a total of sixty-eight thousand tons. The Colliery iron works at Pottsville were begun, in 1835, by Haywood & Snyder, and continue in successful operation, now giving employment to as many as two hundred men and boys. The firm of Hiaywood & Snyder made, at a branch establishment at Danville, the first rolls for making T rails for the Mon tour iron works. These were the first T rail rolls made in Pennsylvania, and, with the possible exception of the rolls of the Mount Savage mill in Maryland, the first in this country. The Colliery iron works are now owned by George W" Snyder, Benjamin Haywood having retired from the firm in 1850, and the estab lishment has made some very heavy machinery, some of which will be mentionel further on in the present sketch. The Orchard iron works at Pottsville were founded in 1846 by John L. Pott. A large amount of heavy machinery for the manufacture of iron has been turned out by this establishment for many parts of the United States. At one time they were at work simultaneously on machinery to be sent to Maine and other machinery to be sent to Georgia. Other large iron establishments have been built upon an extensive scale at different points in the county. The first newspaper printed in the Schuylkill county was the Freiheits Press, which was published at Orwigsburg. The Miners' Journal was started in 1827, at Pottsville, by George Taylor. In 1829 it passed into the possession of Benjamin Bannan, who conducted it successfully for many years, and made the name of the Miners' Journal known over a greater extent of territory than is often reached by a country newspaper. In 1869 Mr. Bannan and Colonel Robert HI. Ramsey, whom he had taken into partnership with him, began the publication of the Daily Miners' Journal. The new enterprise was due princi pally to the efforts of Colonel Ramsey, whose zeal and industry were unceasing, and the paper has continued to prosper without cessation ever since. Mr. Bannan died in the summer of 1875, and in less than a year afterwards Colonel Ramsey had been summoned from earth. A large number of other newspapers are published in Schuylkill county. In 1829 Abraham Pott, a son of John Pott, Sr., had erected for his saw mill in Black valley the first steam engine ever used in Schuylkill county. It was put up for him by Prosper Martin, of Philadelphia, and was about ten horse power. With this engine Mr. Pott made the first practically successful attempt to generate with anthracite coal the steam for an engine. The difficulty had always been that the anthracite coal quickly burned out the old style of grate bars. The first set of bars were burned out by Mr. Pott's fire in about twelve hours. He then made a pattern of his own invention, forming the bars about four inches deep in the centre and two inches deep at each end, and at Windsor furnace, in Berks county, new bars were cast. The change was a complete success, and the bars now in use are almost identical in form with those then devised by Mr. Pott. From 1830 there was rapid improvement in the methods of mining and transporting coal. In 1835 a steam engine was erected at the Spohn colliery, Centreville, near Pottsville. It was put up by Haywood and Snyder, the 1067 GENERAL HISTORY. skulking place, would retreat to another. But Colonel Bouquet made it an object as much as possible to keep his troops collected, that they might not be broken in upon and dispersed by the enemy. The battle ended with the day without any decided advantage to either. With the first dawn of morning the war-whoop was again raised, and in a moment there seemed a thousand startling yells to break in every direction around. At this signal a rush was made by the Indians on all sides, but the lines ready formed were not to be taken by surprise, and effectually repulsed the savages in every attempt. Betaking themselves to the trees, the Indians poured an incessant fire with great precision into the little army. Fatigued with the previous day's march and the battle of the preceding evening, combined with the exposure to a hot August sun, with no water within their reach, the troops began indeed to be dispirited. Attacked with a dogged determination, and fired upon without intercession, they could neither retreat nor proceed. It became obvious, therefore, that a desperate effort must be made to save the army from total destruction. The commander happily bethought himself of a stratagem that might prove successful, which, as the troops were still disposed in a circle from the previous night, consisted in making a manoeuvre of the appearance of a precipitate retreat from one side, so as to entrap the assailants in pursuit, who would rush as thoughtless within the enclosure of lines which lay in ambuscade. The snare was set in direction of the enemy's deadliest fire, and most happily succeeded in enticing them from their places of concealment. Before aware, they were under a most destructive fire of the troops; and ere they could retreat, they received so deadly a charge from the regulars, that they fled with the utmost precipitation. This secured the victory. The woods around were immediately abandoned by the others, and the conflict ceased. This had been the whole Indian force from Fort Pitt, remarks Patterson in his "Backwoods," who, after lying around that place for three months, keeping up a vigorous siege, and being on the alert for a force to come against them from the settlements, early became apprised of the approach of Colonel Bouquet, and informed duly by their spies of the movement of the enemy, they determined, as was expected, to await tuem on the most advantageous ground, aware that if they succeeded in defeating the troops, the extent of country they had already gained sway over, by their sudden and bold movements, would not only be maintained, but a probability follow that they might strike consternation into the very heart of the settlements. It is indeed impossible to say what influence might have been exerted over the settlements of Pennsylvania in particular, had this little army been cut off. It is certain, possession of the country might not have been regained till the work of destruction had been completed west of the mountains. But so stunning were the results of this battle to the savages, dismay at once siezed them and confidence was lost. Though looked upon as a small engagement, there doubtless hung upon it results nigh as important to the colonies as the issue of the more renowned battle on the Plains of Abraham, when a Wolfe and a Montcalm met to decide the destinies of their respective nations. The little battle of Bushy Run was the means of disheartening the Indians and causing them to abandon designs which, if they had continued to execute HISTORY OF PENNSL VANIA. castings, however, having been made by Levi Morris & Co., of Philadelphia. That engine was about twenty-horse power, and was used for hoisting coal and pumping water. In the same year Haywood & Snyder built for the North American Coal company the first steam engine ever built in Schuylkill county. It was thirty-horse power, twelve-inch cylinder in diameter, and four-feet stroke. The Miners' Journal of March 18th, 1837, describes the advance at that date as fol - lows: " It is well known the business of min -ing hitherto has been main - _ ly confined to o p e r a t i o n s .above the water _level. The na t u raI conse -quence that fol - -lowed, of many - veins having b e e n worked out or exhausted on certain tracts of land above the water level, has introduced the new system of min * ing below by means of inclined planes and steam engines. The number of engines already erected and in operation is considerable, and that num Sber will in all likelihood be greatly increased within a few years." After a time, however, a better plan was sug gested by John G. Hewes, of Pottsville. While on a visit to Philadelphia, his attention was / attracted by the then common spectacle of a VIEW NEAR BROOKSIDE. man on the street breaking up the large pieces of coal into sizes suitable for use in the household fire. Mr. Hewes concluded that the dust and fragments, too small to burn, should be separated from the coal before the latter was shipped to market, and thus a saving of freight be effected. At his suggestion was made the first coal-screen ever run by steam power in the Schuylkill region. It was erected by Hewes, Baber, and Co., on the landing known as the Long Dock, at Port Carbon. The coal was broken by hand with hammers, on planks, and 1068 SCHUYLKILL (CO UTY. afterwards on perforated iron plates, by gangs of men in structures known as penitentiaries. The introduction of breakers is described in the report of the Board of Trade to the Coal Mining Association, January, 1845, as follows: "The introduction into this county within the past year of machinery for breaking coal, may justly be considered as an acquisition of vast importance to the already extensive means and appliances for economising manual labor. The machine in general use was invented by Messrs. J. & S. Battin, of Philadelphia, and was first put up in their coalyard in that city about a year ago. The first in this county was erected by Mr. Gideon Bast, on Wolf creek, near Minersville, and since that time they have been put up in various places, and are found to answer the fondest hopes of the inventor, and meet most fully the wishes of the coal operators, in performing the work at a very reduced cost and less waste of the coal. This machinery, with the circular screens attached, and driven by a twelve-horse engine, is capable of breaking and screening two hundred tons of coal per day, which is fully equal to the work of from forty to fifty men." In 1845, Alfred Lawton began sinking the Saint Clair shaft, but failed to complete it down to the Mammoth vein, although, by a bore hole, he had reached the Primrose at a depth of 122 feet. Subsequently, in 1851, E. W. McGinness commenced operations at the same shaft, and his determined efforts were rewarded by the distinction he gained when he reached the Mammoth vein. The Mammoth vein was struck at the depth of 438 feet from the surface. A deep boring made in Crow Hollow, in I1852-'3, under the direction of P. W. Sheafer, cut the Mammoth vein at a depth of 385 feet. The next shaft in the same vicinity sunk to the Mammoth vein was that of the Hickory coal company, at Wadesville. Its location and direction, which involved difficult and delicate scientific work, were successfully performed by P. W. & Walter S. Sheafer, civil and mining engineers. In miner's phraseology the Mammoth vein was "won " at the depth of 619- feet, the engineers estimate having been 607 feet, a wonderfully accurate calculation. The Pottsville collieries of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company are on the most extensive scale yet hazarded in this country. The shaft, located by General Henry Pleasants, chief engineer of the company, is the deepest coal shaft in the United States, and bears strong testimony to the scientific knowledge and skill of General Pleasants. From it coal is now hoisted vertically 1,584 feet. The Pottsville collieries have two hoisting shafts, but can be worked practically as one colliery, and will, when complete, prepare 2,000 tons daily, or practically about 500,000 tons per annum. The East shaft and boring developed the veins as follows: Little Tracy vein, cut at a depth of 216 feet; Tracy, 413 feet; Little Diamond, 690 feet; Diamond, 830 feet; Little Orchard, 1,065 feet; Orchard, 1,099 feet; Primrose, 1,558 feet; Holmes, 1,651 feet; Four Ft., 1,874 feet; Seven Ft., 11909 feet; Mammoth, 1,954 feet. The shaft is sunk to the depth of 1,592 feet. The depths below the Primrose were tested by the Diamond drill. The Orchard and Primrose veins are unusually far apart here, owing to the folding of the measures. The machinery for the Pottsville collieries is very heavy. For them the Colliery iron works at Pottsville are now building a pair of engines, working in conjunction,with forty-five 1069 1070 HISTORY OF PENHSYLVANIA. inches cylinder diameter, and five feet stroke. These engines develop actually about 1,800 horse power, and are capable of developing, if required, 5,000 horse power-being under the same circumstances about one-fourth more powerful than the great Corliss engine which drove the machinery in Machinery Hall at the Centennial Exposition. The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron company own 152,992 acres of land, 2,262 acres of which will be worked through the Pottsville collieries. In comparison with this establishment it may be stated that in 1835 the annual production of a first-class colliery was about 10,000 tons. The railroad above described, as made by Mr. Abraham Pott, was from a point in Black valley to the Schuylkill river, and was about half a mile in length. It was begun in 1826, and completed in the spring of 1827, and, therefore, could claim to be ahead in point of time of the well-known railroad from Summit Hill to the Lehigh river, Mauch Chunk, built in 1827. In 1829 and 1830, a number of railroads in Schuylkill county were projected and partly or entirely built. To-day we may ride over railroads dating back to those years. The Pottsville and Danville railroad, completed not much later, was used but for a short time and then abandoned. A net-work of railroads now extends into all parts of the coal region. In 1870, the number of miles of railroad underground, in Schuylkill county, was estimated at 339. The East Mahanoy tunnel is 3,411 feet in length, and the Little Schuylkill tunnel, 892 feet. It is impracticable in this work to give a history of the part taken by Schuylkill county men in the military operations of the country. The American army of the war of 1812 had entered upon its rolls the names of brave soldiers from this region. A number of men from Schuylkill county enlisted in the Washington Blues, a company commanded by Captain Daniel D. B. Keim, of Reading. Among them was John Bannan, afterwards an able and prominent lawyer of Pottsville, and who at the time of his death was the oldest member of the Schuylkill county bar. The Washington Artillerists, afterwards company B, 1st Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers, left Pottsville for the fields of Mexico December 5, 1846. These soldiers were engaged at the battles of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Puebla, Hlumantli, Atlixco, La Pas, and other places now familiar on the map of Mexico. The survivors reached Pottsville, on their return, July 28, 1848. They were commanded by Captain James Nagle, a gallant officer, afterwards well known as Colonel, successively of the 6th and 48th Regiments Pennsylvania volunteers, and the 39th Pennsylvania militia, and 194th Regiment of one hundred days men, and also as Brigadier-General commanding the Second Division of the Ninth Army corps. When the rebellion began, two companies from Schuylkill county were among the first defenders who reached Washington, April 18, 1861, and as is said in the "Memorial of the patriotism of Schuylkill county:" "Schuylkill, with three sister counties of Pennsylvania, wears the distinguished honor of being first in the field for the defence of Washington." During the progress of the war several regiments and a number of independent companies marched to the front from Schuylkill county, and her soldiers fought with the bravest, and won laurels in battle. But it is impossible here to give an account, including the names and deeds of each, and it would be invidious to mention only a few. The lands in Schuylkill county, devised by Stephen Girard to the city of SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. Philadelphia, in trust, have become immensely valuable. The whole number of acres of the Girard estate in Schuylkill and Columbia counties is 18,333, which is worth from fifty dollars to one thousand dollars per acre, and we learn from a recent report of Heber S. Thompson, of Pottsville, the efficient engineer and agent of the Girard estate for Schuylkill and Columbia counties: " The coal lands, which are (6,592 acres) about one-third of the whole area of the estate, comprise some of the most valuable tracts of the anthracite region, the total thickness of coal in seams of three feet or over, amounting in places to one hundred feet of regular measures." The same report states the capital invested in colliery improvements on the Girard estate by the lessees, exclusive of the interest of the estate in the same, is $2,771,788, and estimates the amount of the coal still remaining in the ground of the estate, exclusive of waste, at 174,000,000 tons. After a spirited contest Orwigsburg was compelled to relinquish her position as the county seat of Schuylkill county, and the first court held at Pottsville was of December term, 1851. In the census of 1870 the population of Schuylkill county is fixed at 116,428, but when that census was taken many of the miners were working out of the county, and the census does not give an accurate statement. In 1876 the population has reached 125,000 at least. Of the most prominent towns of the county, the census of 1870 gives the number of inhabitants as follows: Pottsville, 12,384; Ashland, 5,714; Mahanoy City, 5,533; Shenandoah, 2,951; Minersville, 3,699; Schuylkill Haven, 2,940; Port Carbon, 2,251; St. Clair, 5,726. 1071 SNYDER COUNTY. BY HORACE ALLEMAN, SELINSGROVE. NYDER county was formed out of the southern half of Union county, by act of March 2d, 1855. The commissioners under said act to organize were William G. Herrold, James Madden, Thomas Bower, James McCreight, and Isaac D. Boyer. The name was given to the county in honor of Governor Simon Snyder, who was elected from this section, and who occupied the gubernatorial chair for three consecu tive terms, commencing in - the year 1808 and ending in the year 1817. ___of rThis county has an area - of about two hundred __ square miles, along the northern part of which, ex Wtending from east to west, is Jack's mountain, while toward the souther part, and running parallel with Jack's mountain, is Shade mountain. Between these mountains lie beautiful and Ifertile valleys, formed by ' f the rolling land. It is I bounded on the north by Union county, on the east by the Susquehanna river, which is part of Northum I berland county, on the J south by Juniata county, and on the west by Mifflin county. The principal Sstreams are the Susque hanna river, Middle creek, SNYDER COUNTY COURT HOUSEP MIDDLEBURG. and Penn's creek. These [From a Photograph by the Keystone Company, Selinsgrove. creeks furnish an excellent water power, which has been utilized for years in the manufacture of flour, lumber, etc. The population of the county, according to the last census, is about 16,000, of which nine-tenths are of German descent. The principal products are wheat, corn, lumber, and iron. It is one of 1072 SNYDER COUNTY. the finest wheat growing counties in the State, the crops scarcely ever failing. The timber grown is excellent, and consists of walnut, chestnut, pine, hemlock, etc., much of which is here prepared for market in the numerous mills and sash factories. Though Snyder county is still an agricultural district, the day cannot be far distant when a new field of labor and advancement will open up. Recent prospecting and researches have developed the fact, that in addition to the iron ore already taken out, and used, there exists in other sections of the county ore of superior quality and in abundance. This ore is principally of the fossiliferous variety. It is easy of access, and convenient for transportation. The Sunbury and Lewistown railroad traverses the county from east to west, forming a connecting link between the Pennsylvania railroad at Lewistown and the Northern Central at Selinsgrove station, in Northumberland county. The Pennsylvania canal also passes along the eastern border of the county. The townships of the county are, ADAMS (formed from Beaver township in 1874), BEAVER, WEST BEAVER, CENTRE, CHAPMAN, FRANKLIN, JACKSON, MIDDLE CREEK, MONROE, PENN'S, PERRY, WEST PERRY, WASHINGTON, and UNION (formed from Chapman in 1869). SELINSGROVE, the centre of business for the county, is pleasantly situated on the west bank of the Susquehanna, in a most picturesque section of the State. Through this town flows Penn's creek, and within its limits passes the Pennsylvania canal. The population of the place is 1,600. Selinsgrove was laid out by Anthony Selin, hence its name. Selin was a Swiss, and bore a captain's commission in the Pennsylvania Line of the Revolution. He was also a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. The exact date of the laying out of this place is unknown, but it is doubtless a centennial town, as it was already known by its present name in 1785, when Simon Snyder, afterwards Governor, settled here. Many thrilling and interesting anecdotes are narrated concerning the early history of the place and its inhabitants. On the northern boundary of the county one of the most cruel and treacherous murders was perpetrated. This was in October, 1755. The Indians, seeing the gradual encroachments of the whites upon their favorite hunting grounds, became distrustful and envious. The result of this antagonism soon manifested itself a short distance from the mouth of Penn's creek, by an attack upon the settlers, consisting of twenty-five persons. In this onslaught all were either killed or carried away prisoners, except one, who escaped, though being dangerously wounded. The scene of this massacre has been described by some of the neighboring settlers, who came to bury the dead, in the following words:' We found but thirteen, who were men and elderly women. The children, we suppose, to be carried away prisoners. The house where we suppose they finished their murder we found burnt up; the man of it, named Jacob King, a Swisser, lying just by it. He lay on his back, barbarously burnt, and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead.... The ierror of which has driven away almost all the inhabitants, except the subscribers, with a few more, who are willing to stay and defend the land; but as we are not at all able to defend it for the want of guns and ammunition, and few in numbers, so that without assistance, we must flee and leave the country to the mercy of the enemy." These words were addressed to his Honor, Robert H. Morris, then 1073 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Provincial Governor. The terror and consternation caused by this cruel outrage soon became general. About one week after the events above described, John Harris (the founder of Harrisburg), in company with a party of forty-five, started up the Susquehanna in search of the savages. A number of the mangled corpses were still found, which they buried, and then proceeded to find the Indians, for the purpose of making a peace-treaty with them. Their visit was by no means satisfactory. During the night a number of the Indians, suspecting that they were to be murdered, started to summon their friends. On the following morning Harris and his party made presents to the Indians, but their conduct LUTHERAN MISSIONARY INSTITUTE, SELINSGROVE. had been so suspicious, that they were anxious to get away where they would be better protected. They started southward, and had proceeded as far as the head of the Isle of Que, where Penn's creek, prior to the construction of the Pennsylvania canal, emptied into the Susquehanna. Here they were surprised and attacked by some thirty savages, who had laid concealed. Rising suddenly, the Indians opened fire upon the whites, four of whom fell mortally wounded. Harris and his men immediately sought the shelter of the trees, and opened fire in return, killing four of the Indians and losing three additional men. The place of this fight was marked by a wedge driven into a linden.' It is narrated of John Snyder, brother of the Governor, and one of the early settlers in this place, that while sojourning at Lancaster, a short time before the 1074 SNYDER COUNVY. Revolutionary war, a British officer expressed his opinion of the Americans in gross and insulting language, whereupon John repelled the insult to the accompaniment of a sound flogging. This treatment of their superior so incensed the soldiery, that they pursued John with fixed bayonets in hot haste. He, however, effected his escape, being strong and active and swift of foot. Opposite Selinsgrove, in the Susquehanna, are a cluster of beautiful and fertile islands. These were first settled and improved by an old man, known by the name of Jimmy Silverwood. These islands at that time afforded several excellent shad fisheries, as high as three thousand being caught at one haul of the seine. Silverwood, the owner of the islands, realised quite a handsome income from these fisheries, but having, in common with his sons, spent it carelessly and with a lavish hand, they soon found - _-_.. that their expenses exceeded the income, and as an inevitable result - died poor. Selinsgrove at the - present day is a pleasant and attractive town. On the night previous to the _22d of February, 1872, and on the evening of October 30, 1874, this place was visited by large - _ conflagrations in the heart of the town. Many valuable buildings and much property were destroyed b each of said calami- SNYDER MANSION, SELINSGROVE. by each of said calami- [From a Photograph by the Keystone Company, Selinsgrove.] ties. Since these fires, modern and ornamented brick dwellings and business places have taken the place of those destroyed. At this town the Missionary Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran church, a flourishing institution of that denomination, is established. It was founded in the year 1858, by the late Rev. Benjamin Kurtz. D.D., of Baltimore, and is now under the superintendence of Rev. H. Ziegler, D.D., and Rev. Prof. P. Born. The home of Governor Snyder was at Selinsgrove, and his remains are buried in the old Luthern grave-yard of the town, with but a simple marble slab to mark his resting place. His mansion, of which a representation is given, he built and occupied. In this building he breathed his last. It is a substantial stone house, with ornamental grounds attached, and is now the residence of Samuel Alleman, Esq. Though the building has received some modern improvements since occupied by its present owner, yet in the main structure and in the interior the original remains. FREEBURG is a pleasant village, situate five miles south-west of Selinsgrove, in a fertile valley, and is a neat and prosperous place. Its inhabitants are 1075 1076 HISTORF OF PENTNSYLVANIA. greatly given to music, in which they display much natural talent. There is an academy established here, which has been in successful operation for at least twenty years, and is preparatory in its course. It is under the superintendence of Professor Daniel S. Boyer. MIDDLEBURG is situate ten miles west of Selinsgrove, in Middle Creek valley, and is the county seat. Its location is central, and hence was selected as the seat of justice. It was laid out by Albright Swineford, and the German name of the place is Schwinefords-stettel. It contains a population of 370. Not far from Middleburg is BEAVER SPRINGS, an old town formerly known as Adamsburg, near which resided Mr. Middleswarth, who for one-third of a century occupied a prominent place in the councils of the State and nation. The future of Snyder county is encouraging. Its agricultural and mineral wealth is becoming fully known and appreciated. Capitalists have turned their attention in this direction, and a strenuous effort is being made for the completion of the Selinsgrove and North Branch railroad, which is to connect probably with the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg at Northumberland, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Hancock, Maryland. Passing through the eastern and southern part of the county, it intersects with the Sunbury and Lewistown railroad at Selinsgrove, and the Pennsylvania railroad at Mifflintown. SOMERSET COUNTY. BY EDWARD B. SCULL, SOMERSET. HAT part of Pennsylvania now included within the limits of Som erset county, was formerly part of Bedford county, from which it was taken by an act of Assembly, dated April 17, 1795. It contains within its borders an area of 1,050 square miles. Situated as it is, between the Laurel Hill and Allegheny mountains, the country is one of remarkable beauty. It is of an undulating character, consisting of high hills, fertile valleys, and grassy glades. Owing to its elevated position, the climate is liable to great and sudden changes. The soil of its glades and valleys, and even on some of the mountain sides, is very rich and productive, and will compare favorably with the best farming lands in Lancaster and other eastern counties. The county is bounded on the north by Cambria, on the east by Bedford. The southern border is the Maryland State line, and the western border is composed of Fayette and Westmoreland counties. The lowest grade over the Allegheny mountains is to be found in this county, by way of the Deeter Gap. This gap is formed by a small stream, known as the Deeter's run, forcing SOMERSET COUNTY COURT HOUSE, SOMERSET. its way through the mountains. It has its source within a few hundred rods of the summit of the mountain, and is one of the streams that form the head-waters of the Raystown branch of the Juniata river. The county is almost a solid bituminous mountain, at least two-thirds of the entire area containing coal, one-half iron-ore, one-half limestone, and full one-third contains all three in juxtaposition. Fully one-half of its area is clothed with forests, numbering among their growth almost every variety of timber known to a mountainous country. Among the principal coal veins are those of the North Fork, Elk Lick, and Buffalo basins, the average depth of the seams being about eight feet. The agricultural products are principally wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, and potatoes. A large amount of the land is devoted to grazing and dairy farms, and "Glades butter" enjoys an enviable reputation in the Balti 1077 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. with the same rigor that had characterized them for a little more than three months since they had commenced the assault, might have effected much that would be fearful to relate. In this engagement Colonel Bouquet lost about fifty men, and had sixty wounded, the savages about sixty of their best warriors and many of their most distinguished chiefs. Their forces were made up with warriors from the Delaware, Shawanese, Mingo, Wyandot, Mohickan, Miami, and Ottawa tribes, and doubtless the flower of their nations, for the importance of the issue of the first decisive engagement had most likely been well weighed by them, and therefore an effort made for the victory. The army again pursued their route, and in four days reached Fort Pitt, with but little interruption except " a few scattering shots from a disheartened and flying enemy." The Indians immediately withdrew and retired beyond the Ohio. Fort Pitt relieved, found its little group of inhabitants again breathing the open air, after a constant siege of more than three months. THE OLD PENN CHAIR. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. more, Philadelphia, and other eastern markets. The amount of maple sugar manufactured forms no small item in the yearly products of most of its farms. The manufacturing interests are not very numerous, and are mainly confined to woolen goods, lumber, whiskey, and leather. A large fire-brick manufactory has been established on the line of the Pittsburgh branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, a short distance east of Meyersdale. The development of the county was very backward until the completion of the Pittsburgh division of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, in the fall of 1870. Since that time it has been quite rapid. There are now seven lines of railroad being operated in the county; the Pittsburgh division of the Baltimore and Ohio, the North Fork, Somerset and Mineral Point, Buffalo Valley, Salisbury, and the Keystone. The point at which the first settlement was made is a matter of doubt, and one about which there has been considerable dispute. There is a tradition founded on what seems to be good authority (which will be given as we proceed further with this history), that the first settlement was made at Turkeyfoot, prior to the Chester settlement, but the oldest settlement of which we have been able to gain any accurate knowledge appears to have been made in the Glades, near the centre of the county, the present site of the town of Somerest, and in Brother's Valley. A number of hunters located in the Glades, near the centre of the county, where the present town of Somerset now stands, about the year 1765. Their names were Sparks, Cole, Penrod, White, Wright, and Cox. The latter appears to have been the leader of the party, and gave his name to the creek which flows through the Glades. A number of them afterwards removed their families to their claims, and became permanent residents. In the spring of 1773 the number of settlers was greatly augmented by the arrival of people from the eastern side of the mountains, and continued to grow rapidly in numbers and prosperity until the beginning of the Revolution. SAs early as 1762, a party of settlers had located along the old Forbes road, which had been opened up by Colonel Bouquet, on his expedition to Fort Pitt in 1758. His command constructed a small fort where Stoystown now stands, and it is probable that they threw up the earthworks (known as Miller's breastworks), at the forks of the road in the Allegheny mountains. In the fall of the year 1758, General Forbes marched his command over this road. A very small force of men were regularly stationed at the fort at Stoystown until the memorable invasion by Pontiac in 1763, when they were called in to the assistance of the garrison at Bedford. This road continued to be the only avenue of communication between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for nearly forty years after. The settlers spoken of above settled along the direct line of the road, and were stopping places of notoriety among the traders and packers. Among them were Casper Stetler, near the summit of the mountain; John Miller, on the top of the mountoin; and John Stoy, where Stoystown now is. Mr. Husbands, in his "Annals of the Early Settlement of Somerset County," says, "about the year 1780 a colony of fifteen or twenty families from New Jersey arrived at Turkeyfoot and spread over the adjacent hills, from which it received the name of Jersey settlement." These persons were mostly Baptists. Benedict's history gives the date of the 1078 SOMERSET COUNTY. first organization of a church at this point at 1775. The Redstone Association, to which this church belongs, was established in 1776. The news of the stirring events that were being enacted in the East during the spring and summer of 1776, did not reach this settlement till fall, owing to the imperfect line of communication they were enabled to keep up with the outside world. The news of Lexington and the signing of the Declaration of Independence awakened the enthusiasm and patriotism of the settlers, and a company of riflemen was enlisted by Captain Richard Brown, and marched east to the scene of hostilities. This company, after participating in the battle of Long Island, was ordered to Charleston, South Carolina, and served in nearly all of the battles of the Revolution, fought in the Southern campaign, and but few of their number ever returned to the settlement. The absence of such a large number of its able-bodied men left the settlement in rather a precarious and defenceless condition. The Indians, instigated by the British, commenced to become troublesome; and after the massacre at Hannastown, Westmorland county, in September, 1782 (the nearest settlement to the west of the Glades), the consternation became so great that the settlement was almost entirely abandoned. In the spring of the following year, a number of them returned, and after the treaty of peace with Great Britain, nearly all the old settlers and a large number of new ones joined the settlement. From that time on their numbers increased rapidly, and on the 21st of December, 1795, the first court was held. The court was held in a room in John Webster's tavern, by Alexander Addison, Esquire, Judge, and James Wells, Abraham Cable, and Ebenezer Griffith, justices of the peace. In 1776, the order book of the county commissioners shows that John Campbell and Josiah Espy received the sum of two hundred and seventy dollars seventy-five cents and one-half cent, for the erection of a temporary jail in SOMERSET town. The sessions of court continued to be held in different rooms about the town, rented for the purpose, until the year 1800, when the commissioners had a stone court house erected. The contract for the erection of the building was awarded to Robert Spencer. A jail was erected in 1802. These buildings remained until about 1852-'3, when they were torn down to make room for the present ones. During the Whiskey Insurrection the citizens of this county took but little part with the malcontents. A liberty pole was raised in the public square, and one night a party of masked men, supposed to be from Westmoreland county, took the collector from his house and compelled him to swear that he would not enforce the odious laws. Mr. Husbands and Mr. Philson were taken to Philadelphia and thrown into prison on a charge of having been connected with the insurrection. After enduring an imprisonment of eight months, Mr. Husbands died, and Mr. Philson was released. In 1833, Somerset was almost totally destroyed by fire. From Main Cross street into West street every building was consumed. This was the work of an incendiary. Again, on the 9th of May, 1872, the town was visited by fire. The number of buildings destroyed was one hundred and seventeen, of which fifty-one were dwelling houses. After the fire of 1872 the town was rebuilt in a thorough and beautiful manner, and now contains a number of buildings that would be a credit to any town in the State. The Somerset and Mineral Point railroad 1079 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. connects the town with the outer world. The population is about twelve hundred. BERLIN, or the BROTHER'S VALLEY settlement, was originally made by a few German families in 1769. After the Indian title to this territory had become extinct by reason of the treaty and purchase at Fort Pitt, a number of Mennonite families moved into the neighborhood. The newly-arrived emigrants resolved to establish a town, and secured a tract of land on the head spring of the Stony creek, known as Pious spring, and laid out the town of Berlin thereon. The first deed on record in the county is for " Pious spring." It conveys in trust to Jacob Keffer and Peter Glassner, and their successors, a reserved interest on all the lots in the town of Berlin, to be paid as an annual groundrent on each lot of one Spanish milled dollar, for the use of the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches, and for schools for ever. Reference is made in this deed to a warrant dated 1784, and a patent dated 1786. The town of Berlin is situated on a ridge that forms the dividing line between the natural water basins of the county. The waters on the east flow to the Atlantic through Will's creek and the Potomac, and the Juniata and Susquehanna, and on the west to the Gulf of Mexico, through the Casselman and Monongahela rivers, and through the Stony creek, Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers. It is a neatly built little town, and has been increasing slightly since the completion of the Buffalo Valley railroad. MEYERSDALE.-The early history of Meyersdale begins with the year 1785, when Andrew Berndreger took up the tract of land upon which the greater part of!the town is situated, and secured it by a patent from the government. He immediately commenced clearing the land, and in 1789 built a small grist mill on the Flaugherty. The mill was what is known as a tub mill, and was the first built in the county. In 1791, the land was sold to Jonathan Harry, a land speculator from one of the eastern counties, who sold it to Michael Buechley in 1792. During the same year the adjoining land, known as the "Olinger property," was patented by John Olinger, a farmer from York county. Mr. Olinger moved his family to his claim, and erected a house on it. In 1793 that part of the town known as "Buechley lands " was patented, and improvements commenced by John Berger. In 1815, John Buechley sold his interest to Jacob Meyers, Sr., a farmer of Lancaster county, who in turn sold it to his son Jacob. The latter moved on the land, and immediately erected a fulling mill and a grist mill, and rapidly put the land in a state of cultivation. About the time of Mr. Meyers' settlement and the founding of the town of Meyers' Mills, five of his brothers-Christian, Rudolph, Henry, Abraham, and John-also emigrated and settled on the adjoining lands. In 1831 Peter and William Meyers started the first store in the village. In 1871 the name of the borough was changed to Meyersdale. After Somerset, it is the largest town in the county. It is pleasantly situated on the Casselman river, at its junction with the Flaugherty, and is surrounded by hills filled with almost inexhaustible quantities of coal. It lies in a rich agricultural section, that is widely noted for its valuable farms, and is increasing rapidly in wealth and population. 1080 SULLIVAN COUNTY. BY EDWIN A. STRONG, DUSHORE. ULLIVAN county was formed by act of Assembly of 15th March, 1847, and contains 434 square miles, or 277,760 acres. It was taken entirely from Lycoming county. It lies between 410 and 420 north latitude, and one-half degree east of the longitude of Washington. The whole territory lies between the North and West branches of the Susquehanna river, on what might be termed the "highlands." It is bounded its entire length on the north by Bradford county, on the east by Wyoming, HEAD-WATERS OF THE LOYAL SOCK. Luzerne, and Columbia, on the south by Columbia and Lycoming, on the west by Lycoming. The county is well watered by the Big and Little Loyal Sock and Muncy creeks, and their tributaries. The two branches of the Loyal Sock, which unite at the village of Forksville, traverse the whole length of the county, and drain the townships of Colley, Cherry, Hills-Grove, Forks, Fox, and Elkland, and a portion of Laporte and Shrewsbury. The head-waters of the Big Loyal Sock are found near the boundaries of Sullivan and Wyoming counties. The Little Loyal Sock rises in Cherry township. Muncy creek, the next stream of importance, rises in the mountainous portions of Davidson township, and running 1081 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. south-west through Davidson into Lycoming county, empties into the West Branch a short distance above Muncy. Muncy creek, in addition to the tribute paid to it by many considerable streams as it passes through Sullivan county, receives, in addition, the surplus waters of Lewis' and Hunter's lakes. The East and West branches' of Fishing creek-the largest creek in Columbia county-rise in Davidson.. After the confluence of the waters of the Big and Little Loyal Sock at Forksville-by which the creek from that point loses the distinctive designation of "Big" and "Little "-it passes on to Hills-Grove, as the dividing line between Forks and Elkland townships; then passing through the whole length of Hills-Grove township, receiving on its way several streams, the largest of which is Elk creek, it moves on in majestic grandeur, widening and deepening, until, increasing its waters to the dignity of a river, it empties into the West Branch about one mile below Montoursville. The Muncy creek, by a series of dams, to accumulate waters for the purpose of what is termed "flooding " or "splashing," is made available from a point in Laporte township, to its terminus, for the purpose of floating logs, which has proven to be a success. The franchises of this highway are secured by corporate letters and powers, thus cutting off individual enterprise, save as provided by the act of incorporation, allowing others than the corporate company to float logs upon the payment of a toll fixed by law; in fact, the whole stream as well as its principal tributaries, is a monopoly. The Little Loyal Sock is navigable during high water for rafts from a point about three miles above its junction with its larger brother. The Big Loyal Sock, by the assistance of large dams which flood its banks during the ebbing of high waters, is made the medium by which millions of feet of hemlock logs are floated to Montoursville and intermediate points, for a distance of at least fifty miles from its mouth. From Hills-Grove rafts can be run during an ordinary freshet with ease and safety. The small rafts thus taken to the West Branch of the Susquehanna are united into larger ones suited for river navigation, and then floated to the mouth of the Susquehanna and intermediate points. At a point three or four miles below the coming together of the Sock creeks, a company incorporated have erected what is called Wolf Trap dam, for the purpose of swelling the waters of the creek, thus facilitating the floating of logs below. This artificial assistance materially increases and improves the capacity of the waters of the creek for many miles as a floating stream; but it is bitterly complained of by private individuals who wish to run rafts from points above, by reason of the obstruction to this kind of navigation, and the imposition of tolls allowed to be charged by the act under which it is incorporated. Mehoopany creek, and some of its larger tributaries in Sullivan county, forms an outlet for getting logs to the North Branch of the Susquehanna, for a small portion of the northern and eastern territory of Colley and Cherry townships; but as yet no considerable amount of lumber is taken to market in that way. The creek just referred to runs through the whole width of Colley from west to east, and through about one-fourth of Cherry in the same direction. Sullivan county contains within its borders several lakes of real, and some of historic; importance. The principal, Lewis', or as it is now called, Eagle's Mere, is located in Shrewsbury township, at an altitude of nearly 1,900 feet above the 1082 SULLIVAN COUNTY. level of the sea; its greatest length is one and a quarter mlies, and its width one-half mile. The waters of this lake are clear and placid, with slight undulations toward the east. The depth has never been definitely determined. The western shore is lined with large quantities of the finest glass sand, which is not surpassed by any in the State. The lake is evidently fed by subterranean waters, whether streams or springs has not been discovered. An examination of the surroundings of the lake shows that it is not fed by visible waters. This lake covers an area of nearly six hundred acres, is well filled with fish of various kinds. Recently its waters have been well stocked with California salmon, and gives promise of success. The salubrity of the air, and the natural enchantment of the surroundings of the lake, draw to its environs each year many visitors. In the early part of the present century, a wealthy Englishman by the name of Lewis was attracted to the place, and discovering the value and quantity of the sands on the shores of the lake, he built what was then regarded as extensive glassworks, cleared up and cultivated many acres of the surrounding forest, and built several houses, among the rest a large stone mansion, and for some time carried on successfully and extensively the manufacture of glass. The war of 1812 intervening, and the distance from commercial centres being so great, with no means of transportation but the cumbersome conveyances of that day, and the country surrounding the works being supplied with the wares manufactured, business gradually decreased, and the works were finally abandoned; and now in their dilapidated condition the thriving glass works of 1810-'12 trace but a faint resemblance of the symmetrical grandeur and utility of their precedent. Like their enterprising projector, the cosy cottage and stately mansion, together with the fruits of ingenuity and skill, have passed away. The lake property comprises some five thousand acres. It is now called " Eagle's Mere Chasse," and will, at no distant day, become a noted summer resort. Hunter's Lake is also situated in Shrewsbury township, about four miles soutn of Lewis' Lake. Its altitude is somewhat less than that of Lewis' Lake. This lake also is fed by subterranean waters. It discharges a large quantity of water, sufficient to drive the machinery of a large lumber manufactory. Its form is long and irregular, contains large numbers of mountain cat fish and pickerel, and is a great fishing resort. It covers an area of three hundred acres. Robinson's, or Long Lake Pond, is situated in the south-eastern corner of Colley township, near the Susquehanna and Tioga turnpike. As its name indicates, it is a long sheet of water less pure than either Lewis' or Hunter's Lake; its inlet and outlet are of nearly equal capacity. The lake is well supplied with fish. Some two years since the waters were stocked with black bass, which has been attended with favorable results. The surroundings are of a wild, weird character, and it no doubt was among the chosen localities where the camp-fires of the aborigines were often lighted. Lopez Pond, Pickerel Pond, and Grant's Lake are favorite resorts for fishermen. They are of but little note otherwise, except as the source of the Lopez branch of the Big Loyal Sock and the East branch of Mehoopany creeks, respectively. The only remaining lake worthy of note is Elk or Merritt's, lying in the northern part of Elkland, at one time a favorite resort for elk, many of which were found in that portion of the county when first settled. It is also of some 1083 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. note by reason of the secretion of a murdered body in its waters, the victim of the only murderer executed in the county. The waters are shallow and sluggish, and of small area. The only mines of note opened in the county are those at Bernice, in Cherry township, at the terminus of the State Line and Sullivan railroad. (The projected Muncy Creek railroad is to connect with the State Line and Sullivan at this place.) The State Line and Sullivan railroad company own some five thousand acres of land in one body at this locality, much of which is first-class coal land. The present operating capacity of the mines is about three hundred tons per day. The coal is semi-anthracite, possessing the leading qualities of the anthracite, but less dense and compact; it is said to be very superior as a generator of steam; it is also used largely for fuel, makes a pleasant, healthful fire, free of gases and sulphur; but is not so lasting as the Luzerne or Schuylkill coal. The immense body of coal known to exist at this place, together with the fact that an underlying vein is proven to assimilate more closely to the pure anthracite, will at some future day render this coal deposit as valuable as some in the anthracite region. Copper has been found in promising quantities in the south-eastern portion of the county, but as yet no smelting works have been erected, nor any considerable portion of the ore taken to market. Lead in small quanties, supposed to have been known to the Indians, has been discovered, but no mine or any extensive deposit has yet been revealed. Iron ore is abundant in many portions of the county, and at some future day is destined to add largely to the wealth of the county. Limestone of the gray variety is found in various parts of the county. Iron ore, limestone, and coal being abundant, the only obstacle in the way of the manufacture of large quantities of iron is the want of facilities to market it. The manufacture of leather is the principal industry in the county. There are four large tanneries, besides three or four smaller ones. The largest tannery is that located at Thornedale, about five miles east of Laporte. This tannery has the capacity to tan forty thousand hides per annum. It consumes about five thousand cords of bark during the year, and is one of the most complete, in all its arrangements, of any in Pennsylvania. Leather tanned at this place enabled the proprietors to take the premium for best hemlock leather, at Vienna, in 1874. Laporte tannery, located four and one-half miles east of Thornedale, owned by the same firm, is of nearly the same capacity. A large tannery is located at Hills-Grove, capacity unknown; also a smaller one south-west of Sonestown. At Dushore are three small tanneries in operation. The fact that in the aboriginal period game and fish must have been abundant, is sufficient evidence to presume that the whole territory was occupied by these dusky denizens; however, no marks or traces of their occupancy now remain. Only one stream in the county bears an Indian name, that of Muncy creek, taken from " Moncy," the name given to the tribe of Indians that inhabited the West Branch country near Muncy, in Lycoming county, and no doubt in their predatory excursions reached the territory of what is now Sullivan, if they did not abide there. The path to Fort Stanwix north must have passed through Sullivan. 1084 SULLIVAN COUNTY. The fact that Sullivan contains no stream of importance, either historic or otherwise, and lies some distance from either branch of the Susquehanna, give it by internal location an isolation in the known history of the ancient Province of Pennsylvania, with no redeeming incidents to bring it to public notice. Its territory lies entirely within the purchase of the Indians made at Fort Stanwix in 1768, and the last purchase of the Penns. The first settlements in the county were made between the years 1784 and 1794. Messrs Ogden, Ecroyd, and Griffey located in what is now called HillsGrove. Captain Brown, Strong, and Miller settled in Forks township. The celebrated Dr. Priestly purchased a large tract of land about the forks of the Loyal Sock, and laid out roads and made many improvements. About the year 1800, one Henderson, Robert Taylor, and George Edkin, settled near Muncy creek. G. Phillips and one Richarts established a settlement quite early in Davidson township, known as the North Mountain settlement. About the same time, another settlement was made in what is now Cherry township. Among the first settlers of Cherry township were Messrs Zaner, Graifley, Huffmaster, King Colley, Yonkin, Bahl, and others. A curious epoch in the history of the county is what is known as the " Wind Fall," whereby the forest for a width varying from twenty rods to one-fourth mile, through the whole extent of the county running in a north-easterly direction, was entirely uprooted by a gigantic hurricane. Not one tree was left standing in the whole line of this belt of destruction. This occurred about fifty years ago. But little is known of the early history of Sullivan county, except as connected with that of Lycoming, from which it was taken. LAPORTE, the county seat, was laid out in 1853. It contains the public buildings of the county. The court house (jail, sheriffs dwelling, and public offices, all under the same roof) is a brick edifice, about fifty feet square, three stories in height, with cupola and belfry, in which is a bell of unsurpassed sweetness of tone. Laporte is located near the centre of the county, and at an altitude of nearly 1,900 feet above the level of the sea; contains two churches, Methodist and Presbyterian, a public school building, and two newspapers. DUSHORE, one of the oldest towns in the county, was not incorporated until 1859. It is located near the centre of Cherry township, about nine miles northeast of Laporte, and contains between 400 and 500 inhabitants, is growing in trade, and increasing in numbers rapidly. It takes its name from one of the French refugees who took up his residence here at an early day. It covers an area of about 400 acres, and contains three churches-Catholic, Methodist Episcopal, and Evangelical-several manufactories, etc. It is located on the Little Loyal Sock, and is intersected by the State Line and Sullivan railroad, and the Susquehanna and Tioga turnpike. It is surrounded by the most fertile farming land in the county. The church of St. Basil (Catholic) is, in architectural strength and interior beauty, one of the finest edifices in Northern Pennsylvania. FORKSVILLE, at the junction of the Big and Little Loyal Sock creeks, is a flourishing village, surrounded by a good productive country. It contains the finest school building and Protestant church in the county. The inhabitants are a thrifty, industrious people, hospitable and enterprising. 1085 SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. BY EMILY C. BLACKMAN, MONTROSE. USQUEIHANNA county was set off from Luzerne by an act of Legis lature, passed February 21, 1810, but it was not fully organized, with county officers elected, until the fall of 1812. Bradford county, erected at the same time, was its western boundary; Wayne, its eastern; and its southern, Luzerne (now Luzerne and Wyoming). The length of Susquehanna county on the State line of Pennsylvania and New York is generally quoted from the sixth to the fortieth milestone, but a recent survey by Hon. J. W. Chapman, proves that it extends "from 120 perches west of the sixth milestone on the New York State line to the fortieth, and is consequently 335 miles in length by about 24- miles average width; the east line being 241 miles precisely, and the west about 24; the true polar course of the east line being N. 2-0 W., and the north line due west, embracing an area of about 824 square miles"-by last report of census, 7197 square miles. The following diagram gives the southern line as ordered, and is accompanied by a list of the townships in the order of erection: TOWNSHIPS. 19. Dimock 1. Wilingbo- 20. Thomson rough, Gt.Bend 21. Franklin 2. Nicholson 22. Forest Lake 3. Lawsville 23. Lathrop 4. Braintrim 24. Jessup 5. Rush 25. Apolacon 6. Clifford 26. Ararat 7. Bridgewater 27. Oakland 8. New Milford 9. Harford 10. Harmony BOROUGHS. 11. Silver Lake. Montrose 12. Gibson D. DuMontrose 13. Choconut F. Friendsville 14. Middletown. Friquehanna S. Susquehanna 15. Springvllle Depot 16. Waterford, L. Little Mea (Brooklyn) dows 17. Jackson N. New Milford 18. Herrick G. Great Bend SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, 1876. The first ten townships in their former extent, comprise the area of the county at its organization. The county seat was located at Montrose in 1811, by Colonel Thomas Parke, Major Asa Dimock, and Hosea Tiffany, trustees appointed by the Governor. Stakes were set at several places proposed; but, in addition to a greater political influence existing, a stronger pecuniary interest was brought to bear for its loca 1086 SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. tion in Montrose. Dr. R. H. Rose, whose extensive tracts.of land reached this vicinity, made more liberal offers to secure this location than any that could be made elsewhere, and the trustees reported "that Isaac Post's farm, situate in Bridgewater township, where the post road intersects the Milford and Owego turnpike, is the most proper situation for the erection of said buildings." Besides, a gift of a public square at this point for the erection of the county buildings, as also of other lots, was made by Bartlet Hinds and Isaac Post. The court was organized by the appointment of the Hon. John B. Gibson, president judge, with Davis Dimock and William Thomson, associates. The county derives its name from the fact that within its limits the Susquehanna river first enters the State of Pennsylvania. In the grand sweep of the SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MONTROSE. EFrom a Photograph by G. W. Doolittle, Montrose.] river, from Lanesboro' to Pittston, it completely drains the county, every stream within our borders eventually falling into it. The Lackawanna and Tunkhannock, with their tributaries, have their sources in the eastern townships, and run across the south line of the county. The sources of Martin's and Horton's creeks are in the central townships, and, with the Meshoppen in its four streams, one of which rises near Montrose, they cross the south line to reach the river, while the Tuscarora and Wyalusing find it after crossing the county line on the west. Hopbottom creek, noted as the locality of the first large settlement in the county, is a tributary of Martin's creek, and the outlet of Heart lake. With the exception of Great Bend, every township is graced by one or more pretty lakes, the largest of which (Crystal lake) is little more than a mile in 1087 CHAPTER VII. INDIAN DEPREDATIONS ON THE FRONTIERS. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANS AT CONESTOGA. THE SO-CALLED INSURRECTION OF THE PAXTANG BOYS. BOU QUET'S EXPEDITION TO THE MUSKINGUM. 1763-1764. HE expedition of Bouquet served, in a great measure, to check the depredations of the Indians, and for a few months the frontiers of Pennsylvania were quiet. Had the Assembly acted promptly in the matter, an effectual defence could have been provided. As the winter approached, and the dread of the regular forces subsided, the savages commenced and prosecuted their outrages on the northern and western frontier, and, occasionally, penetrated the interior counties. They seldom appeared in force, and when they did, were uniformly defeated and routed by the rangers, or parties of the inhabitants; but in small squads, stealing through the woods, they attacked the settlers in their homes in the dead of the night, or whilst engaged in their occupations in the fields, burning houses and barns, and slaughtering men, women, and children. Sometimes these parties were discovered and pursued, and, when overtaken, shot and bayoneted without mercy. The road to Fort Pitt was again interrupted. A supply of provisions, under a convoy of sixty men, was forwarded from Bedford to Fort Pitt, but, on gaining the foot of the Allegheny mountains, was compelled to return, having learned that the passages were occupied by the savages. Some fragments of the Delaware and Six Nation tribes remained at their settlements in the interior, refusing to join their brethren in arms, professing affection to the colonists, and avowing a determination to continue neutral. But the neutrality of a part, at least, of these Indians, was very doubtful. Many outrages were committed in consequence, as was generally believed, of the information and advice they gave to the invaders; and some murders were perpetrated, which the public voice ascribed to a party under the protection of the Moravian Brethren. The situation of the frontiers was truly deplorable, principally owing to the supineness of the Provincial authorities, for the Quakers, who controlled the government, were, to use the language of Lazarus Stewart, "more solicitous for the welfare of the bloodthirsty Indian than for the lives of the frontiersmen." In their blind partiality, bigotry, and political prejudice, they would not readily accede to the demands of those of a different religious faith. To them, therefore, was greatly attributable the reign of horror and devastation in the border counties. The government was deaf to all entreaties, and General Amherst, commander of the British forces in America, did not hesitate to give his feelings an emphatic expression. " The conduct of the Pennsylvania Assembly," he wrote, "is altogether so infatuated and stupidly obstinate, that I want words to express my indignation thereat." Nevertheless, the sturdy Scotch-Irish and Germans of the frontiers rallied for 107 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. length; still several of them have attractions for the tourist. Perhaps no section of Susquehanna county has scenery more beautifully diversified than that included in old Willingborough, now Harmony, Oakland, and Great Bend. Here the Susquehanna river flows around the base of a spur of the Alleghanies, of which the lower outline is marked by a number of rounded peaks of great beauty; the higher, by the two mountains of the vicinity bearing their original Indian names-Ouaquaga and Miantinomah. This locality appears to have first attracted the notice of the white man during the Revolutionary war. Sixteen hundred men, under the command of General James Clinton, encamped on the flat at Great Bend, near the "three Indian apple trees," in the summer of 1779, while en route to join General Sullivan at Chemung to check the attacks of Indians upon the border settlements. Whatever doubts there may be respecting the presence of other minerals within our county, that of salt will not be denied. It has not been found, however, in quantities large enough to repay the expense of working it; though the salt made, from one spring at least, was of the very best quality. Oil wells have been sunk at different places in Apolacon, Auburn, and Oakland, resulting in total loss of investments. The water of the mineral spring in Rush is esteemed by many -for its medicinal qualities. Susquehanna is probably the butter county of our State. No better quality of butter is made anywhere than is here made. The increased price and the facility of sending it to the large cities have not only stimulated but largely increased its production within the past few years. The Erie railway follows the Susquehanna river in our county. It pays to Pennsylvania ten thousand dollars yearly for the right of way, or rather, for freedom from taxation, and finds in the arrangement a pecuniary gain. The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad follows up Martin's creek, and down the Salt Lick to Great Bend, with an extension westward; the Jeffersona branch of the Erie railway-extends from Carbondale through the eastern tier of our townships to Lanesboro', where it connects with the Lackawanna and Susquehanna railroad from Albany. The Montrose railway-narrow gaugeconnects Montrose and Tunkhannock. In Susquehanna county, except along the river in Harmony, Oakland, and Great Bend, traces of the original proprietors of the soil are not very frequent. In the vicinity of Apolacon and Tuscarora creeks, and in Herrick and Silver Lake townships, numerous arrow-heads, beads, pipes, etc., have been found; and, in other localities, other implements of the Indians. Stones of a kind not belonging to our strata, and of exquisite workmanship, were found early in Apolacon. One or two friendly Indians lingered in that vicinity after the arrival of the whites. The Delawares, who inhabited the country about Deposit, derived their supply of salt from this county. The Tuscaroras had a village on the flat afterwards owned by Colonel Pickering at Harmony. Seven Indian apple-trees were found here, besides other evidences of its former occupancy. The "three Indian apple-trees" at the west bend of the river were very aged in Revolutionary times. Years after this section was well settled, Indians of the Six Nations claimed the land within the bend of the river, south of latitude 420, and were only quieted upon seeing a fac-simile copy of William Penn's treaty with 1088 SUSQUEHANNA COUlVTY. the Indians, which Judge Thomson had procured from Harrisburg, and whereon were written the names of all the chiefs, and at the termination of each name was the sign-manual of each chief; one was a bow, another an arrow, another deer's horns, another the form of a new moon, etc., etc. Red Rock takes its name from the fact, that, high upon the face of one of the cliffs bordering the Susquehanna, about two miles above Great Bend, was the painted figure of an Indian chief, the outlines being plainly visible to the earliest white visitors; but after these were faded, the red, which predominated in this figure, still remained. The Erie railroad company have cut away a portion of the rock, and destroyed the early beauty of this spot. The history of Susquehanna county extends far back of its official organization. Reference to a period preceding the settlement of the county, when its area, with that of Luzerne, from which it was taken, was yet a portion of old Northumberland, and to still earlier times, is necessary to account for the relation which this territory once' sustained to the State of Connecticut. To this, reference has been fully made in the sketch of Luzerne county. The only Pennsylvania laws that secured the State lands to purchasers under a title derived from Connecticut were applicable to such as were located by proprietors and settlers prior to the Trenton decree; and none of these were within the terriory now comprised in Susquehanna county. An act of Assembly, April 6, 1802, provided that no conveyance of land within the counties of Luzerne (then including Susquehanna), Lycoming, and Wayne, shall pas~ any estate where the title is not derived from this State or the proprietors, before the 4th of July, 1776. This law took effect May 1, 1802; and, from that date, whatever "right" persons here may have had under a Connecticut title, it was sheer folly to defend. GREAT BEND.-SO far as is known, the section now comprising Susquehanna county had not, until 1787, a civilized inhabitant. In the fall of that year there were three families living at GREAT BEND on the Susquehanna river; the Strongs at the West Bend, the Comstocks at the East Bend (Harmony), and the Bucks between them at Red Rock. The entire course of the river in our county was included, in 1793, in Willingborough-a township of old Luzerne-whose limits, at the organization of Susquehanna, were reduced to six miles square, and the name of which was changed soon after to Great Bend. Ozias and Benajah Strong, from Lee, Mass., and three brothers by the name of Buck, from Connecticut, were the earliest purchasers of land here, June 1790. Among the settlers of the last century, whose descendants remain, were the Rev. Daniel Buck (the first minister and phy,ician), Minna Du Bois, and Oliver Trowbridge. In 1798, a "post" once a fortnight from Wilkes.Barre to Great Bend was established. In 1801, there were three slaves in the township. Until 1814, when the first bridge was built, the river was crossed by two ferries, which accommodated an immense amount of westward travel over the Great Bend and Cochecton turnpike. The farms of six of the earlier settlers converged at a point near the nineteenth mile-stone on the State line. Each farm had a river front, and all extended about two miles on the river. They constituted a tract styled "The Fan." On the south-eastern part of this tract, north of the river, is situated GREAT BEND borough, which was incorporated November, 1861. It is 3T 1089 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. an outgrowth of the Erie railroad, and was first named Lodersville. The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad company formerly ran their trains across the river to the Erie station at this place; but now Great Bend Village, also a borough on the south side of the river, is their depot, where also they have a machine shop for repairs. It was incorporated in 1875. The Presbyterian and Baptist churches are on this side of the river; and the Methodist, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic churches on the other side. HARMONY.-Moses Comstock and family, from Rhode Island, were located, in 1787, on the flat between the Starucca and Canawacta, where these streams enter the Susquehanna river. In 1789, at the mouth of Cascade creek, Samuel Preston, of Wayne county, cleared several acres, erected dwelling-houses, a sawmill, etc., anticipating a large settlement, and named the place "Harmony;" but it was not until 1809 that the township of this name was organized. Samuel Preston connected the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers by a road from Stockport to Harmony. John Hilborn assist6d him in this enterprise; and, in 1791, he too came to Harmony with his family from Philadelphia, and became an agent for Henry Drinker of that city, an owner of large tracts of land in this vicinity. The first religious meetings here were those of the Society of Friends, at the house of J. Hilborn. In 1800, Colonel Timothy Pickering came to Susquehanna county to look after lands he had purchased. He found located upon them the families of Comstock, Smith, and Westfall, whose titles not being obtained fromn him caused their removal. Timothy Pickering, Jr., an only son, at his father's request, reluctantly consented to locate on the flat vacated by Abner Comstock, and came on from Boston, and built the first framed house in Harmony. After his death, the place was occupied by John Comfort, and later by Martin Lane. For a long time it was known as Lane's Mills or Lanesville, and is now called Lanesboro'. During the construction of the works of the New York and Erie railroad it became a thriving business place. From the time of the completion of th-it road, which passes over the Canawacta bridge above the houses of Lanesboro', its business has in part been transferred on. mile south, to the Susquehanna Depot. OAKLAND.-The settlement of this, the last township, was nearly coeval with that of the first, of which it formed a part until the erection of Harmony. It was separated from the latter in December, 1853. It derives its name from the forests of oak trees north of the river. Isaac Hale and Nathaniel Lewis were here as early as 1791. William Smith occupied, the same year, the sharp angle formed by the river, which here turns abruptly to the west, making in fact the great bend. This name, strangely enough, has been given to that part in the township of Great Bend, where the river turns northward at a less marked angle. For seventy-five years this locality has been in the Westfall family. Clearings were made in Oakland in 1788-'9. The borough of SUSQUEHANNA DEPOT was incorporated August, 1853. It ik an outgrowth of the Erie railroad, the ground for which was broken here in 1846. The Erie workshops were first located here in 1848. The borough has one street, which runs in the valley, following nearly the course of the Susquehanna; the streets parallel to it are reached by steep accli1090 SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. vities, or by long staircases between the blocks of buildings. It well deserves the title it has received-the City of Stairs. It is said that some of the Erie employes go up to dinner two hundred feet above their work. The present Erie workshops were commenced in 1863 and finished in 1865, at a cost of $1,250,000; the tools and machinery cost, in addition, $500,000. There are sixteen departments of labor. The buildings, covering eight acres, are acknowledged to be the most extensive of their kind in this country, and also the most complete in their arrangements for economizing labor and facilitating work. It has the only library, reading-room, and lecture-hall connected with any similar shop in the United States, for which, as for the plan of the buildings, the community are indebted to the former master mechanic, J. B. Gregg. Oakland village is connected with the former by a bridge across the Susquehanna. BROOKLYN township was taken from Bridgewater in 1814, and was first named Waterford, afterwards Hopbottom, and finally, 1825, Brooklyn. In 1787 John Nicholson, owner of extensive tracts of land throughout the State, attempted to colonize his lands along the Hopbottom; and, in five years, collected about forty Irish and German families from Philadelphia and down the Susquehanna. He furnished them teams, a quantity of kettles for boiling the sap of the sugar maple, and erected a log grist-mill; but his agreement with them was not kept, and the families, suffering much from want, and not knowing how to manage in the wilderness, became discouraged, and most of them abandoned the settlement. Descendants of a few of them are scattered through several near townships. These were followed by a number of New England settlers, who supposed they had clear titles to their lands under the Connecticut purchase, the township being known to them as "Dandolo." They were here as early as 1795, at least temporarily; and in 1798, Joseph Chapman, Jr., from Norwich, Connecticut, became a permanent resident. The Tracys, Tewksburys, Sabins, Baileys, Geres, Tiffanys, Bagleys, and possibly others, were here prior to 1804. On Nicholson's failure, his lands passed to J. B. Wallace, of Philadelphia; and in 1810, Putnam Catlin, from Wilkes-Barre, came to Brooklyn as Mr. Wallace's agent. In the small frame building erected for his office, his son George, "since eminent on three continents as an artist, and particularly as a delineator of Indian life and features," once taught school. These were years of disquiet to the settlers in consequence of the conflicting claims of Philadelphia landholders, warrants issued to Chew and Allen, in 1775, being overlapped by those issued to John Nicholson in 1785; but, at last, by decision of the Legislature, March, 1842, the minds of the people were set at rest. Notwithstanding the severity of Brooklyn winters, its soil is productive. Cattle thrive, industry and thrift characterize the inhabitants and their surroundings. NEW MILFORD township was founded in 1807. In 1789 a hunter's cabin was on the flat where the borough of New Milford is now located, and where were, in 1790, Robert Corbet and family, from near Boston. The place was afterwards known as McCarty's Corners. The families of Hayden, Doolittle, Summers, Leach, and Foote, were here in the last century; of Buel, Hawley, Longstreet, Mitchell (single), Badger, Ward, and others, prior to 1808. They were 1091 HISTORY OF PENNSL VANIA. principally from Connecticut. The Scotch settlement was begun in 1814. The township exhibits well cultivated, richly productive, and excellent dairy farms. The Salt Lick and Martin's creek head near each other, running in opposite directions, and their valleys form a natural road bed for the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railway, which has a station in the borough of New Milford. This place was incorporated in 1859. It is a little more than one mile long, and is "as level as a house floor." But the descent to this valley from Mott's Hill was one the early traveler could never forget. Some alleviations of its once fearful grade have been effected. New Milford ships a great deal of lumber, butter, and leather. The place was once a competitor for the county seat, and with good reason. HERRIcK.-Prior to 1796, the settlers on lands now within the bounds of Herrick were in the old townships of Tioga and Wyalusing, Luzerne county. From that time for ten years they were in Nicholson; from 1806 to the organization of Susquehanna county they were in Clifford; from 1814 they were, with the exception mentioned above, included in Gibson, until in 1826, the tax list of Herrick was made out for the first time, the township having been erected the year previous. It received its name in honor of Judge Edward Herrick, who presided over the courts of Susquehanna county twenty-one years. The forests of Herrick were broken first in 1789, by N. Holdridge, who removed early to Great Bend. Abel and Gideon Kent were here in 1791, and were soon joined by Walter Lyon and others. This section was long known as "the Kent settlement." Between 1792 and 1800 the only settler was John C. Awalt, a Hessian soldier. Early in the century came the families of Dimock, Dimmick, Burritt, Lewis, Giddings, and others. Major Asa Dimock, Sr., early at Dimock's Corners, was prominent in township and county. Herrick Centre (quite one side of the centre of the township) is a railroad station, and has a large tannery, two miles above Uniondale, a thriving village on the Jefferson railroad on the Lackawanna creek. The people of Herrick, as early as 1827, 1831, and again in 1839, sought to be set off with Clifford, to form a part of a new county proposed on our south-eastern border. The natural features of the country countenanced the wish, and at the present day, most of the business of the section is done with Carbondale and Scranton. HARFORD township was confirmed "finally," January, 1808. Its western boundary is Martin's creek. It has three or four pretty lakes. Near the centre of the township is the Beaver Meadow, memorable as the birthplace of the settlement which was long known as the " Nine Partners." A tract four miles long, and one mile wide, was purchased by nine young men from Attleborough, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1790. They were Hosea Tiffany, Caleb Richardson, Ezekiel Titus, Robert Follet, John Carpenter, Moses Thacher, Daniel Carpenter, Samuel Thacher, and Josiah Carpenter. In 1792, two of them b ought their families here, and within three years later others came, including John Tyler and family. Caleb Richardson was a captain in the war of the Revolution, and held the fort where the Battery is now, in New York city, while General Washington retreated from New York. A grandson of John Carpenter became the late Governor of Iowa. Amherst College has the eminent services of a grand1092 BUSQUEHANNA (CO UNTY. son of John Tyler. The early settlers were characterized by industry, frugality, morality, and mutual kind feeling. GIBSON township was named for Chief Justice Gibson. It was first settled in 1792 or 1793, in the vicinity of Kennedy hill, by Joseph Potter. Mrs. Potter did not see a woman's face for six months. Two more families came in 1794. Wright Chamberlin came from the Hopbottom settlement in 1796, and prior to 1800, he was a licensed " taverner." The old road which passed his first location was much traveled by emigrants to the " Holland purchase" in Western New York. There may not have been more than ten families in the present township -the eastern half of old Gibson having been.set off to Herrick-at the opening of the present century. The section now familiarly called "Kentuck" was once quite extensively known as " Five Partners," as distinguished from the " Nine Partners," both being within the former limits of Harford. In the fall of 1809, William Abel, James Chandler, Ebenezer Bailey, Hazard Powers, and Daniel Brewster, came from Connecticut and bought land here in partnership; returned for the winter, and, with the exception of the last named, camine back to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1810. The rich lands of this part of Gibson make it not unworthy of its frequent designation-" the garden of the county." Its elevation affords views of great loveliness, both near and distant. The slopes furnish unsurpassed grazing, as the butter of the township well exemplifies. It abounds in productive orchards and gardens. RusH township, formed in 1813, was named after Hon. Jacob Rush, then president judge of Luzerne. Rush is traversed through the centre, from east to west, by the Wyalusing. The mineral spring, already referred to, is in this vicinity. Soon after the close of the Revolution, some of the Wyoming settlers pushed northward on the Susquehanna and along its tributaries, Wyalusing being one of them; other settlers came from the New England States, via the Susquehanna, to Great Bend, and over the hills, while still others kept to the river in canoes, and so reached the Wyalusing. The farms on the Wyalusing, below the present western line of Jessup, were occupied by the first settlers in the following order: Leonard, Adams, Tupper, Lathrop, Brown, Jay, Picket, Metcalf, J. Hyde, Brownson, and Ross-all here in 1805. No name occurs more frequently in the early records of the town than that of Joab Picket. From his opposition to the claims of the Pennsylvania landholders arose what is sometimes styled the "Picket war," in which it must be owned he was the aggressor. Colonel Ezekiel Hyde, in 1798, was surveying and selling lots under the Connecticut title, at "Rindaw "-as the Yankees styled the locality of the fork. DIMOCK, the "Bass-wood township," was principally taken from Springville, in 1832. It was named after Hon. Davis Dimock, at that time associate judge of our courts. The area of Dimock, under the Connecticut surveys, was comprised of parts of Chebur, Bidwell, Dandolo, and Manor. The first settlers of Dimock were Thomas and Henry Parke, in 1796; Joseph Chapman and son Joseph, in Chebur, temporarily, in 1798; George Mowry and sons Ezekiel and Charles, as early as 1799, in the western part of "Manor; " Martin Myers and Thomas Giles, the same year; Asa and Ezekiel Lathrop and Asahel Avery, 1800-1802. Colonel Thomas Parke came here, from Rhode Island, the legal owner, as he 1093 BHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. supposed, of about ten thousand acres-nearly half of the township of " Bidwell "-lying on the waters of the Mleshoppen creek. He defended the title both by argument and with his pen, until the legislative and judicial tribunals of the last resort had settled the question otherwise. He lost all, and was obliged to purchase upon credit, from his successful opponents, paying by surveying, for about six hundred acres, including the farm upon which he died. The families of Lane, Bolles, Hempstead, Young, Perkins, Gates, Stevens, and others, were here before 1819; when a number of emigrants, mostly from England, arrived and located at Dimock (then Springville) Corners. Many of the latter left early. Among later comers, whose influence has been felt many years, are those of Baker, Walker, Cope, Stephens, Woodruff, and others. LENOX township is drained by the Tunkhannock. The earliest road followed this stream in part, but frequently crossed it to avoid its sharpest turns. In the year 1797 four families were here, Rynearson, Hartley, Millard, and Doud, whose descendants remain. The Bells, Halsteads, Chandlers, and others came some years later. Glenwood is a small village near the confluence of the North and East branches of the Tunkhannock. Its business interests have been, of. late years, mainly built up through the Grow Brothers. Hon. Galusha A. Grow, of Glenwood, was sent to Congress by the old 12th district twelve years. AUBURN.-When Susquehanna county was set off from Luzerne, the southern line divided the township of Braintrim, and the portion above the line received, by decree of court, the name of Auburn. The general surface of the township is rolling or hilly. It is well watered. The Auburn people claim that theirs is the best producing township in the county. Considerable attention is given to the raising of stock and the dairy business. The first clearing was made in the north-west corner of the township in 1797, by Lyman Kinney, from Litchfield county, Connecticut. His father had bought 3,000 acres here, under a Connecticut title. Soon after came the first settlers to the north-east section. After the final legal decision in favor of the Pennsylvania title, some who had paid their money, and toiled hard to secure a home, gave up in despair and left. The present wealth of Auburn is largely due to men who came within the last forty years. Some of the last settlers were from New Jersey, but a larger number are Irish. FRANKLIN is the southern portion of old Lawsville township, together with a strip from Bridgewater, and for thirty years its interests were identified with the former. The first settlers were Clark, Lines, the "seven Smiths," and others from Connecticut. The families of Barnum, Tuttle, Merriman, Park, Watson, Upson, Webster, and others followed them previous to 1820. Neither rich nor poor, they belonged to a class which, with small capital, maintained a noble independence by persevering industry and prudent economy. A strong religious element pervaded the communities in which they were reared, and, as a class, they imbibed its principles. LIBERTY township is the remnant of old Lawsville after the erection of Franklin. Among the first actual settlers were, Woodcock, Bishop, Hance, Holmnes, Hazard, Butts, Ives, Truesdell, Richardson, and Bailey-all here within the first twelve years of the century. Later, the De Haert brothers were engaged in efforts to develop the resources of the Salt Spring on Silver creek. The town1094 SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. ship is very productive. The old township of Lawsville received its name in honor of Samuel A. Law, a landholder, to whose influence it was owing that most of those who settled here prior to 1805 were from his native town, Chester, Connecticut. BRIDGEWATER township originally included a small portion of what is now Wyoming county. Springville, Dimock, Lathrop, Brooklyn, Silver Lake, and portions of Forest Lake, Jessup, and Franklin have been taken from it. It is more nearly the central township of the county than any other. MONTROSE, the county seat, is about four miles west of a central north and south line, and one mile north of an east and west line. It is twelve hundred feet above the mouth of the Tunkhannock. Stephen Wilson, a native of Ver VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF MONTROSE. [From a Photograph by G. W. Doolittle, Montrose.1 mont, was the first settler here, March, 1799. His location became a landmark for those who came to this vicinity early in the century. In 1800, Captain Bartlet Hinds, an officer of the Revolution, originally from Boston, came to Montrose, as agent for ex-Governor Huntington, of Connecticut, under the title of that State. He had in his company his step-son, Isaac Post, then'sixteen years old, Robert Day, Daniel and Eldad Brewster, who settled in Bridgewater, and four others who located eleswhere. Colonel- Pickering, convincing Captain Hinds of the validity of the Pennsylvania title, he was the first here to yield to its claims. This brought upon him the indignation of others, and he was twice mobbed in consequence. Isaac Post had the first framed house in Montrose; and was the first postmaster-March, 1808. "1There was not during his life a public improvement in which he did not have a prominent part, as originator or promotor." He died here, in 1855, aged seventy-one. From 1801 to 1804 Joshua W. Raynsford and half a dozen other settlers located in "the south neighborhood," and the Backuses and others on the Wyalusing. From 1806 to 1808, the Congdons, Baldwins, and Scotts, in the " north neighborhood," and N. Curtis in the " east neighborhood." Elder Davis Dimock, the first Baptist preacher, arrived in 1807, and for many years exerted a wide 1095 1HISTORY OF PENINSYLVANIA. influence in the county. William Jessup, LL.D., many years president judge in this section, came here in 1818. Twenty years after Stephen Wilson made his first clearing, the township was well settled. The site of the court house was fixed in 1811, and from that period population and interest centred in Montrose. The borough was incorporated in 1824. It has since been twice enlarged, and is now one mile north and south by one and one-fourth east and west. The corner-stone of the first court house was laid in 1812, and the building was erected in 1813; the second in 1854-'55, Both the court house and present jail are fine structures. The first residents were largely from Long Island. In Montrose and vicinity, in addition to the Susquehanna Agricultural Company's manufactory and foundry, there are woolen mills, Crandall's "building blocks," and several minor industries. The population of Montrose, by the census of 1830, was 415; in 1870, 1,463. The Montrose and Bridgewater poor asylum has been in successful operation for several years. MIDDLETOWN township was so named because it was the middle of the three townships into which Rush was divided in 1813. The earliest pioneers of this section were Brister, Abbot, Canfield, Camp, Beardsle, Ross, Coleman, and others, in 1799 and 1800. The population, originally almost wholly from New England, is now composed largely of persons of foreign birth and descent, principally Welsh and Irish. Numerically, the latter predominate. Their immigration began about forty years ago. At the opening of the century there were at least forty-five persons on the north branch of the Wyalusing, in Middletown, and to them the locality was known as " Locke," one of the Connecticut townships. They shared the surprise and tribulation of others on learning they had to purchase from Pennsylvania. In 1819 the township included what is now a third of the borough of Friendsville, and about that time came a large number of Friends to this section. A son of Henry M. Pierce, formerly of Middletown, held for many years the presidency of Rutgers College, New York. Another son is reported in Brace's, California (1869), as returning the largest income in that State. The outlet of Wyalusing Lake, after passing through Jackson Valley (a post office of Middletown), runs for a mile or two in Bradford county, re-enters Middletown at Prattville, and falls into the North Branch two miles above the forks. At Prattville, on the road passing from the creek into Bradford county, and precisely on the line, is the Methodist church edifice, half of which is in Middletown, and this half is all the house of worship there is in the township. The village takes its name from Isaac Pratt, who came in 1801. JEssuP township, named in honor of Judge Jessup, was erected from parts of Bridgewater and Rush, with a small portion of Middletown, in April, 1846. The Wyalusing creek traverses it from east to west. The first settlers of Jessup located with their families on and near Bolles' Flat, March 10, 1799. They were Ebenezer Whipple, his step-son Ezra Lathrop, and Abner Griffis. They came from Otsego county, New York. Four brothers, by the name of Maine, came from the east about the same time. H. Sweet, Z. Lathrop, E. Ingram, J. Meacham, J. Reynolds, D. Foster, S. Lewis, and D. Carroll were included in the list, made by Hon. Charles Miner, of fifty persons, old and young, who were, in 1800, on the Wyalusing between Fairdale, in Jessup, and the present 1096 SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. east line of Rush. Charles Miner himself took up quarters here for the summer of 1799. He built a log-cabin and began chopping; but having cut his foot badly, his taste for farming subsided. Doubtless he served his generation better in editorial and legislative spheres. In 1801, David Doud occupied the first clearing of Mr. Miner. David Omstead came in 1802. Jacob Cooley in 1803, to the mill begun by H. Sweet in 1799, and now known as Depue's. Matthias Smith and Colonel William C. Turrell were here before 1810; R. Bolles the latter year. Dutch Hill-settled by persons of Dutch descent, but born in New York-comprises the section north of the Wyalusing and east of Forest Lake creek. Between these hills is another, which, with equal propriety, might be called "Jersey Hill." Fire Hill and Cornell Hill were settled in 1812. Later incomers have developed the resources of Jessup, and their descendants remain. FOREST LAKE township was named from a small sheet of water near its former centre. It was taken from parts of Middletown, Bridgewater, and Silver Lake. In 1799, Jesse and Jabez A. Birchard came from Connecticut to what is now Birchardville, on the Wyalusing. "Ruby" was the recognized locality then; they probably knew nothing of the metes and bounds of Pennsylvania. They were the first residents of Ruby as well as of the present township of Forest Lake. In 1819 William Turner and wife, from England, located by the side of the lake. The latter was the author of a volume of poems entitled "The Harp of the Beechwoods." One or two Germans of intelligence settled in this vicinity about 1822. Grist mills, saw mills, clothing works, a carding machine, a tannery, and woolen factory are in active operation. Considerable attention has been given to the culture of flax. Excellent crops of corn, buckwheat, oats, rye, and potatoes are raised. CLIFFORD township, upon the organization of Susquehanna county, was nine miles east and west by twelve miles north and south. By the erection of Gibson it parted with more than half its area. It is probable the first stroke of the settler's axe resounded, in 1799, on the east branch of the Tunkhannock, about a mile below the deep valley now styled the " City," and was wielded by Amos Morse or his son. The same year Benjamin Bucklin began the first clearing on the site of Dundaff. In the spring of 1800 Adam Miller and family settled on the flat, within fifty rods of what is now known as Clifford Corners. Within the first five years of the century, Amos Harding, David and Jonathan Burns, the Nortons, Finns, and Newtons were here. It was long known as the " Elkwoods settlement," the township as well as the mountain being the home of the elk in great numbers. In 1806, James Wells had a farm of one hundred acres at the City (a large name for a very small place, sometimes called MeAlla's Mills). He was a native of Minisink, on the Delaware, where he had a grist mill and furnished the Revolutionary army with flour. Ile had a grist mill here also, in 1807. From 1812-'18, there was a large influx of population, and their descendants remain. In 1819, Asa Dimock had a store, and his son Warren, a hotel, in what is now Dundaff. Peter Graham, of Philadelphia, and Redmond Conyngham, of Wilkes-Barre, made their purchases of land here the same year; and in 1820, Mr. Conyngham laid out the village named by him Dundaff, in honor of Lord Dundaff, of Scot1097 TABLE OF CONTENTS. COUNTY HISTORIES. [To those marked * credit is due for revision or data.] ADAMS....... ALLEGHENY... ARMSTRONG.... BEAVER....... BEDFORD...... BERKS........ BLAIR....... BRADFORD..... BUCKS........ BUTLER....... CAMBRIA...... CAMERON...... CARBON....... CENTRE...... CHESTER...... CLARION...... CLEARFIELD... CLINTON...... COLUMBIA..... CRAWFORD..... CUMBERLAND.. DAUPHIN... DELAWARE.... ELK......... ERIE......... FAYETTE...... FOREST....... FRANKLIN..... FULTON....... GREENE....... HUNTINGDON.. INDIANA...... JEFFERSON.... JUNIATA...... LANCASTER.... ...Aaron Sheely, Gettysburg........... ... Wm. M. Darlington* and Thos. J. Big ...A. D. Glenn, Eddyville............ ...James Patterson, Beaver Falls....... .. Charles N. Hickok, Bedford......... ...J. Lawrence Getz, Reading.......... ... Rev. A. K. Bell, D.D., Hollidaysburg. ... Rev. David Craft, Wyalusing........ ... Joseph Thomas, M.D.,* Quakertown.. .. Jacob Ziegler, Butler.............. ... Robert L. Johnston, Ebensburg...... .. John Brooks, Sinnemahoning........ ...Robert Klotz,* Mauch Chunk........ ...John Blair Linn, Bellefonte.......... .. J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, W ...Rev. James S. Elder, Clarion........ ... William D. Bigler, Clearfield........ ... D. S. Maynard, Lock Haven......... ... John G. Freeze, Bloomsburg......... ...Samuel P. Bates, LL.D., Meadville... S.. I. Daniel Rupp and others*.......... ... A. Boyd Hamilton, Harrisburg....... ............ ham*..... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... est Chester ......... ..,.......~ ......... .......... .......... .......... .... H. G. Ashmead, Chester.......................... .... Charles R. Earley, M.D.,* and others, Ridgway...... ....Isaac M oorhead, Erie............................ .... James Veech,* Emsworth, Allegheny county........ ....Samuel D. Irwin, Tionesta........................ ....Benjamin M. Nead, Chambersburg................. ....James Pott, McConnellsburg...................... .... Alf. Creigh, LL.D.,* and W. J. Bayard,* Waynesburg ... J. Simpson Africa, Huntingdon.................... ... A. W. Taylor* and J. M. Robinson,* Indiana........ ....G. Ament Blose, Hamilton........................ ....Silas W right*................................... .... Samuel Evans, Columbia.......................... PAGE 279 314 ............ 330 340 361 378 396 405 438 454 461 479 486 508 517 547 557 569 584 597 612 636 654 682 692 724 733 739 760 769 775 790 798 806 814 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. their own defence, and the entire force of Col. Bouquet was composed of them. The inhabitants of Paxtang, then Lancaster, now Dauphin, at the outset of "Pontiac's conspiracy," enrolled themselves into several companies, the Rev. INDIAN DEPREDATIONS ON THE FRONTIERS. John Elder being their colonel Lazarus Stewart, Matthew Smith, and Asher Clayton, men of acknowledged military ability and prowess, commanded distinct companies of "rangers." These brave men were ever on the alert, watching 108 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. land. From the fact that the Milford and Owego turnpike passed through the place, and from inducements held out by Mr. Conyngham, the place rapidly attracted settlers.. In 1824, Colonel Gould Phinney came to Dundaff with fourteen others from Wyoming Vallcy. He had previously owned enterprises with the Phelpses, at the City, which was then styled Phinneyton, and had not a thought of being outdone by Dundaff. DUNDAFF was incoporated a borough in 1828. Dilton Farrington, grandson of Abel G., who had the first ferry at Wilkes-Barre, came to Dundaff in 1825. He removed to Carbondale in 1847. Several who had been in business at the City removed to Dundaff, and among them the Phelps family, of whom there were eventually seven brothers here, originally from Connecticut. In 1831, a glass factory was established; the Dundaff academy in 1833. Dundaff had high aspirations, but in 1836 they began to yield to those of Carbondale, which was the proposed seat of justice of a county to be taken from Luzerne, and the south-eastern townships of Susquehanna. Later there were renewed petitions for a division of the county, which happily were not granted. LATHROP is the central township on the southern line of Susquehanna county. It was taken from Brooklyn, April, 1846, and named in honor of Benjamin Lathrop, associate judge of the county. The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad follows Martin's creek on the east side-the tract set off April, 1853, from Lenox. Prior to this date the creek had been the boundary line. The valley of this creek is a narrow gorge, barely wide enough for a carriage road on the west side, and for the railroad on the other; and comparatively few of the population are located on it below the village of Hopbottom. In the spring of 1799, the present area of Lathrop had but one inhabitant-a hermit by the name of Sprague. The HIon. Charles Miner found him here"made sugar with him on shares, took a horse load of it to Tunkhannock, peddled it out, a pound of sugar for a pound of pork, seven and a half pounds for a bushel of wheat, five pounds for a bushel of corn; saw the Susquehanna, got a grist ground, and then took the bridle path to Mr. Parke's, and thence fifteen miles to the forks of the Wyalusing." The location of the hermit is now called the " Five Corners," just above Hopbottom. In the fall of 1799, Captain Charles Gere, from Vermont, joined the Hopbottom settlement, which at that time extended over the present area of Brooklyn, the south-east corner of Dimock, and the northern part of Lathrop. He removed, in 1801, to Brooklyn, and Josiah Lord, from Lyme, Connecticut, purchased his improvement in Lathrop. It is still occupied by the Lord family. The families of Tarbell, Worthing, Wright, Case, and others, were here early. SPRINGVILLE was taken from the south part of Bridgewater, and on the erection of Dimock, it was reduced to its present limits. The township is well watered by the Meshoppen and its tributaries, as also by excellent springs. The soil is fertile, and the farms are in a high state of cultivation. Great attention is given to the dairy. In 1800, or the previous fall, Captain Jeremiah Spencer and his brother Samuel made the first clearing in Springville. They had surveyed here a township six miles square for Oliver Ashley, of Connecticut, who had bought 1098 SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. it under the Connecticut title, for a half bushel of silver dollars, and named it "Victory." [An irregular township of that name appears on the map of old "Westmoreland," of the Connecticut surveys.] The southern line ran near Lynn post-office. Five hundred acres, just south of Victory, was bought by Samuel Spencer of Colonel Jenkins, of Wyoming, for a horse and saddle; but, on his return to New Hampshire, he sold it for five hundred dollars to Gideon Lyman. The families of Thomas, Kasson, Blakeslee, Eaton, Cassidy, Fish, Knapp, Taylor, Carrier, Rosencrants, and Strickland were here prior to 1808. Zophar Blakeslee's farm covered what is now the village of Springville. His daughter Sarah became the wife of Hion. Asa Packer. As early as 1839 the matter of annexing Springville and Auburn to portions of Luzerne and Bradford, to form a new county, with Skinner's Eddy for a county seat, was openly agitated. Again, in 1842, it was only vigilance on the part of some that prevented their loss to Susquehanna when Wyoming county was organized. To this day there are those who contend that the township for half a mile within its southern border belongs of right to Wyoming, since the line dividing them is the unrectified one of 1810-'12. This had so long been acquiesced in, and farms and town arrangements were so well established in 1842, it was concluded best to make no changes. APOLACON.-This township takes its name from the Apolacon creek which rises here, runs northward and empties into the Susquehanna river, in the State of New York, where it is spelled Apalachin. In 1800 David Barney came from New Hampshire to the extreme north-west corner of the county, now the borough of Little Meadows, in Apolacon, and for four years he was the only settler west of Snake creek, above Forest lake. It is difficult to associate the early settlers-most of whom came from New York and New England-with Apolacon, as they passed away before its erection from Choconut. Within the last thirty years many Irish and a few Welsh have succeeded to their lands and homes. Samuel Milligan, from Philadelphia, was the first thoroughly educated man who located in Apolacon. A little later (1828) Caleb Carmalt, from the vicinity of Philadelphia, purchased of Dr. Rose one-half of his original estate in Susquehanna county, and in the division, nearly all the unseated lands in this township. Royal E. House, inventor of the printing telegraph, was but six months old when his father came from Vermont to settle here. LITTLE MEADOWS, a small village, pleasantly situated on the Apolacon creek, was incorporated as a borough in 1862. CHOCONUT township derives its name from a stream which traverses the township from south to north, emptying into the Susquehanna above Apolacon creek. The settlement of the township was begun in 1806 along the creek, by James Rose, a brother and agent of Dr. Rose, being one of the first five who located here. There is not one of the settlers prior to 1817 now in Choconut. Lewis Chamberlin was the postmaster of Choconut forty-two years. Dr. Calvin Leet came to the township in 1816, and was the first regular physician in the western half of the county, and for some years the only one. The year 1819 was marked by the arrival of a large number from the vicinity of Philadelphia, who belonged to the Society of Friends. About this time Dr. Rose set off a tract three-fourths of a mile long by three-sixteenths of a mile wide on each side 1099 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. of the Milford and Owego turnpike, which he named FRIENDSVILLE. These limits doubled constitute the present borough of this name, which was incorporated in 1846. Very little of this tract, comparatively, is occupied by village lots. In 1829, Caleb Carmalt, from Chester county, located at Choconut lake, and became one of Susquehanna county's largest land-holders, and exercised great influence among the settlers. The division in the Society of Friends, in 1830, took from him many of those who were nearly associated with him here. He died in 1862, and his widow in 1873. With them disappeared the distinguishing garb of the Friends in Susquehanna county. SILVER LAKE was the first township added to the original ten townships of the county. It took its name after that of one of the several beautiful sheets of water within its limits. The township was included in the one hundred thousand acres purchased by Dr. Rose in 1809, of the widow of Tench Francis. The pur. chase covered a tract of at least thirteen miles in extent on the State line, and nearly one-fourth of Susquehanna county. Perhaps to no one individual is Sus. quehanna county more indebted for the early development of its resources than to Dr. Rose. His enterprises were a benefaction to those whose services he required, as they were paid for in cash-a rare return for labor then. JACKSON was originally the southern half of Harmony, but has been diminished by the erection of Thomson. Near Butler lake there was once a beaver meadow. The first residents of Jackson were from Vermont, and came in 1812. The Bryants, Lambs, Bensons, Tingleys, Tuckers, Halls, Hills, etc., were here within the next four years. In the early years of the settlement, wolves made havoc among the young cattle and sheep. Bears were few, but deer were plenty. ARARAT was erected August, 1852, from parts of Herrick, Thomson, and Gibson. It is the middle one of the five townships bordering on Wayne county. It consists of an elevated table-land, having an abrupt descent on the crest to the valley of the Tunkhannock. From the summit of the Jefferson railroad, which is 2,040 feet above the level of tide-water, near the centre of Ararat, the eye takes in a circuit of nearly one hundred and fifty miles, extending west from Sugar Loaf, the western border of Wayne county, to the most elevated portions of Tioga county. At different points within a circle of half a mile eight counties can be seen. The first settlers, John and Jabez Tyler, T. Clinton, J. Clark, H. Bushnell, N. West, and W. Tarbox, came in 1810. Most of them were New Englanders, their descendants are still here. TIOMsoN.-In 1820, after the rest of the townships were well opened and cultivated, the unbroken forest of what is now Thomson (erected from Jackson, in 1833), was reached by John Wrighter from Mount Pleasant. The third settler came in 1826. This township received its name from the Hon. William Thomson, for many years an associate judge in this district. Formerly the beech-woods stretched from this vicinity fifty or sixty miles eastward to the Barrens of New York (New Jersey?), but many a thrifty hamlet now relieves the scene. One of the hills of Thomson is reported as subject to tremblings and explosions from internal gases. The Jefferson railroad winds in and out of the township, much as the Starucca creek does, and has already wrought great changes along its course. Starucca depot is within the township, but the village of that name is just over the line in Wayne county. 1100 TIOGA COUNTY. BY JOHN L. SEXTON, FALL BROOK. IOGA county was organized by an act of the Legislature March 26th, 1804; taken from Lycoming. The courts, however, were not. held in the county until 1813, when his Honor, John Bannister Gibson (afterwards Chief Justice of the State), presided at the first term of court held in and for said county. October 6th, 1814, in accordance with the act of the previous 14th of March, the county commissioners, consisting of Timothy Ives, Hopestill Beecher, and Ambrose Millard, divided the county into VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF KNOXVILLE, COWANESQUE VALLEY. six districts for justices of the peace, as follows: First, Delmar, Daniel Kelly, with eighty-seven taxables; second, Deerfield, none, with sixty-three taxables; third, Elkland, Dorman Bloss, with seventy-nine taxables; fourth and fifth, Tioga, William Rose and Daniel Lamb, one hundred and thirty-nine taxables; sixth, Covington, Elijah Putnam, ninety-five taxables. The county contains an area of 1,124 square miles, and 719,360 acres. It is bounded on the north by the State line, and the counties of Steuben and Chemung, in New York; on the east by Bradford, in Pennsylvania; on the south by Lycoming; on the west by Potter; its mean elevation being about 1,300 feet, and its maximum 2,280 feet above tide. 1101 HISTORY OF PEYNSYL VANIA. The principal water courses of the county are the Tioga and Cowanesque rivers and their tributaries. These streams flow east and north, uniting with the Canisteo, Conhocton, Chemung, and North Branch of the Susquehanna. Pine creek, on its western border, is navigable for timber and lumber rafts. This stream flows south, emptying into the West Branch at Jersey Shore. The resources of Tioga county consist in its vast deposits of semi-bituminous coal, iron ore, fire-clay, and salt; its forests of valuable timber, its rich and alluvial valleys, and highly productive table lands; and its tanning and manufacturing interests. Nearly 9,000,000 tons of semi-bituminous coal have been mined within its limits, and the trade in this article is now considered only in its infancy. Valuable deposits are annually being discovered. The principal mining towns are Fall Brook, Arnot, Antrim, and Morris Run. The construction of the Pine creek railroad along the western border of the county, when completed, will open up a rich field of coal and iron, and it is safe to predict that in a few years hence large iron manufacturing establishments will be in successful operation along the line of this road. The annual product of coal mined in the county is at present about 1,000,000 tons. Coal is found in the following townships in the county: Ward, Hamilton, Bloss, Liberty, Charleston, Duncan, Delmar, and Gaines. Iron ore and fire-clay are also found in each of the above named townships; also in Morris, Union, Sullivan, Rutland, and Richmond. A peculiar mineral has lately been discovered at Tioga village, resembling iron ore, but partaking more of the nature of steel. This mine is in an undeveloped state. At the time of the organization of the county the territory within its limits contained less than a thousand inhabitants. Its progress since has been sure and steady. In six years after (1810) it contained 300 families, and a population of 1,687. Settlements had been made on the line of the Williamson road, which was cut out north and south through the county in 1792. A settler or two had located at the Block House as early as 1795; at or near Mansfield, in 1797, Gad Lamb had located; at Tioga, Jesse Lacey, a Revolutionary soldier, had taken up a claim in 1796, and was succeeded by Dr. Willard in 1799. Thomas Berry and Jacob Prutsman, in the year 1800, made settlements on the river near Dr. Willard. A colony from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Philadelphia, located near Wellsboro' about the same time (1800), and other settlements were made on the Cowanesque at Elkland, in 1801, and also on the east line of the county, now in the towns of Sullivan and Jackson, in 1799. In 1802, settlements were made on the Tioga river at Covington, and soon after the tide of immigration flowed in from the south, north, and east. "At the place where the Tioga river crosses the New York State line," writes C. L. Peck, "it unites with a beautiful stream somewhat smaller than itself, known as Cowanesque river, and which for a great portion of its length flows through a section of the country widely known as the Cowanesque valley. The different portions of this valley were settled simultaneously. Nelson, formerly named' Beecher's Island,' was settled by three brothers, Lyman, Hopestill, and John Beecher, and their father, Hopestill Beecher, who located on an island in the river at that place, the only one of any considerable size in the Cowanesque, 1102 TIOGA COUNTY. it containing about one hundred acres of land. John Campbell, from Ireland, located at Nelson about the same time. He was followed soon after by two nephews, Joseph and James Campbell, most of whose numerous descendants remain in the valley. Elkland was first settled by Robert Tubbs, a colonel in the Revolutionary war. Soon after, Ebenezer Taylor, Andrew Bosard, Lintzford and David Coates, from New York, settled in the vicinity of Osceola (or Penderville) and Elkland, the two towns being but one mile apart. The latter is at the foot of the Cowanesque valley. Israel Bulkley, about 1800, located in the most desirable part of the valley, at a place called " Bulkley's flats." Simon Rexford first settled at Knoxville, about 1800. Soon after came Jonathan, Solomon, and Alexander Matterson, three brothers, from Rhode Island, who purchased nearly all the land on which that borough was subsequently laid out. Daniel and Thomas Cummings were among the earliest pioneers. They came from the Holland Company's purchase in New York. Knoxville derived its name from the numerous families of Knoxes, who settled some time after, prominent among whom was John C. Knox, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Two miles above Knoxville, the Jamison creek flows into the Cowanesque river, taking its name from Mary Jamison, an Indian captive, whose narrative forms an interesting chapter in the history of this locality. In 1845, S. B. Price, from New Jersey, erected the second academy built in Tioga county, at what is known as Academy Corners. Most of the prominent men of Tioga county look to Union academy as their alma mater. From 1810 to 1820, the population of the county increased more than three hundred per cent. During this interval of ten years, the Susquehanna and its upper tributaries had been navigated by raftsmen and arkmen with the product of the field and forest. State and county roads had been opened, forming connections between the citizens of Tioga, Lycoming, and Bradford counties in Pennsylvania, and Steuben and Tioga in New York. In 1830 the county contained 8,978 inhabitants. There had been erected within the previous decade a number of grist mills, thirty to forty saw mills, and one furnace, where pig iron was made. An academy was in successful operation at Wellsboro', the county seat. A navigation company had also been chartered, and the prospect of railroad communication between Blossburg and Painted Post, together with the mining operations at Blossburg, gave an impetus to business which was highly encouraging. The population of the county in 1840 reached 15,498. The Corning and Blossburg railroad was completed in 1840, traversing almost the entire length of the county north and south. This great enterprise stimulated the people in all sections of the county, and there was a steady increase in wealth and population from that year to 1850. The financial condition of the country from 1841 to 1846 interrupted a number of well planned enterprises in certain localities of the county. The agricultural, mining, and lumbering interests had been depressed during this period but revived in 1848, and continued prosperous until the close of the decade. In 1850 the population of the county was 23,987. In the matter of railroads and mining operations, from 1854 to 1860, was an important era in the history of the progress and development of the southern part of the county. The Corning and Blossburg railroad was relaid, T iron being put down instead of the old 1103 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. strap rail. The gauge was also changed to correspond with the wide gauge of the New York and Erie. Honorable John Magee of Bath, New York, obtained possession of the semi-bituminous coal mines at Blossburg, and for several years operated them in a very successful manner. It was through him that the change was made in relaying and changing the gauge of the road above referred to. In 1859, he completed a railroad seven miles in length, extending from Blossburg to his mines at Fall Brook, and commenced mining semi-bituminous coal in a vigorous manner. This new work increased the population of the county nearly two thousand, besides adding much to its material wealth. In 1875, there were 581,732 tons of coal mined-by the Fall Brook coal company, 190,806 tons; the Morris Run coal company 164,506 tons; andthe Blossburg coal com- -.. pany, 226,420 tons. _ The population of the. ___ county in 1860 was 31,044. _ - - From that year to 1870 several very important railroad and mining enterprises were begun. The Sal-t company of Syracuse, New York, leased of the Morris Run or Tioga Improvement Company their mines, situated three and a half miles east of Blossburg, and built up a town, which contains over two thousand inhabitants. The Blossburg Mining company was organized in the spring of 1866, and constructed a EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT MANSFIELD. railroad from Blossburg to their mines, on Johnson creek, building up a town now known as Arnot. Thus within a period of seven years these coal companies were the means of largely increasing the population of the county, and giving a stamina to business hitherto unknown in its history. In 1866-'7 the Lawrenceville, Wellsboro', and Antrim railroad was projected, and finished in 1872. This enterprise added forty miles of railroad to the wealth of the county, besides developing a rich field of semi-bituminous coal, and giving railroad facilities to Wellsboro', the county seat, and affording a great outlet for the product of the field and forest. A few years later, a railroad was constructed between Lawrenceville and Elkland. This railroad penetrates the rich and fertile valley of the Cowanesque. The Lawrenceville, Wellsboro', and Antrim, and the Lawrenceville and Elkland, are now known as the Corning, Cowanesque, and Antrim railroad, and is operated by the Fall Brook Coal company. The Pine Creek and Jersey Shore railroad will, when completed, open up a 1104 vast field of coal and iron on the western border of the county. The Lawrenceville and Elmira railroad, leading from the city of Elmira to Lawrenceville, has recently been constructed. Seventy-five years ago Tioga county was a vast wilderness. To-day she contains a population of not less than forty-three thou IIIN 11IH V, ~, > sand inhabitants, with all the necessary requisites to place her in a few years in the front rank of inland counties of the Commonwealth. WELLSBORO', the county seat, is one of the most pleasant and entertaining towns in Northern Pennsylvania. It is located within three miles of the 3u TIOGA COUNTY. 1105 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. geographical centre of the county. The first settlers of the town and vicinity came from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Philadelphia. The township in which Wellsboro' is located was first named Vir-Del-Mar (Virdelmar) out of compliment to the States of Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland. When the township was organized in 1808, the abbreviation vir was omitted, and the township incorporated under the name of Delmar. Wellsboro' received its name in honor of -Mrs. Mary Wells Morris, wife of Benjamin W. Morris, and sister of William and Gideon Wells, who were among the first settlers at or near Wellsboro'. These settlements were made in 1801-'2. In 1802 William Wells came from the State of Delaware, and settled two and one half miles south-west from the present site of the town. He brought with him a number of slaves, and some of their descendants are now living at that place. In the year 1806, by an act of the Legislature, Wellsboro' was declared the county seat of Tioga county. Courts, however, were not held there until 1813. A log court house was erected during the year 1812. In 1824 Ellis Lewis and Rankin Lewis commenced the publication of a newspaper which was called The Pioneer, the first paper published in the county. In May, 1830, Wellsborol was incorporated as a borough, John Norris being selected as the first burgess. The borough contained at that time about fifty families, and a population of two hundred and fifty persons. CovINGToroN is situated five miles north of Blossburg, on the line of the Tioga railroad. The earliest settler was Aaron Bloss, who located near the borough in 1801, and subsequently removed five miles south and located and founded a settlement which has since been known as Blossburg. Covington, for many years, was the leading town in Tioga county. It was incorporated in May, 1831. The early settlers were principally from New York and the New England States, among whom were the Putnams, Dyers, Marvins, Wilsons, Graves, Walkers, Kelts, Bennetts, Gaylords, Seafles, Packards, Negleys, and Kingsburys. It is surrounded by a rich and fertile country. LAWRENCEVILLE is situated near the junction of the Cowanesque and Tioga rivers, the northern boundary of the borough being the State line. The first settler was William Holden, in 1793. Among those who settled shortly after were John Elliott, Eleazer Baldwin, Ira Kilburn, James Ford, Dr. Simeon Powers, John W. Ryon, Hiram Beebe, Curtis Parkhurst, Daniel Walker, and Jacob Geer. For many years Lawrenceville was the centre of the lumber trade. Three railroads diverge from its boundaries-the Tioga, the Corning and Antrim, and the Lawrenceville and Elkland; with a fourth about completed, from Lawrenceville direct to Elmira. It was incorporated May, 1831. ELKLAND, situated on the Cowanesque river, twelve miles from Lawrenceville, was incorporated May, 1850. It is the terminus of the Lawrenceville and Elkland railway, and is situated nearly midway in the beautiful valley of the Cowanesque, surrounded by a highly cultivated agricultural region, and bids fair to be one of the leading towns in the county. MANSFIELD is situated in the valley of Tioga, on the line of the Tioga railroad, and is the educational centre of the county. The first settler was Gad Lamb, who located near the place in the year 1797. In the year 1810, Asa Mann purchased the lands comprising the present borough, and in 1824 laid it 1106 TIOGA COUNTY. out in town lots. February 15, 1855, the Mansfield classical seminary was organized, and a building was completed, and the seminary opened under the patronage of East Genesee Methodist Episcopal church, in January, 1857. On December 11, 1862, the Seminary was reorganized and recognized as a State Normal school, being the third school of that kind in the State. In the month of September, 1874, a second building was erected, one hundred and fifty feet in length and four stories high. A soldiers' orphan school is also located at this place, and is one of the most creditable institutions in the State. Mansfield was incorporated February, 1857. MAINSBURG borough was formed from the township of Sullivan, in February, 1859. It is located in the highlands six miles east of Mansfield, and is the centre of a fine agricultural district. TIOGA borough is situated near the junction of Tioga river and Crooked creek, in a delightful and fertile spot in the val- - fey of the Tioga. The Corning, Cowan --" esque and Antrim - railroad passes along ____ on the west, and the Tioga railroad on the __. east. Jesse Locey, a __ Revolutionary soldier, and one of the sentinels who stood guard 3 over Major Andrd before his execution, was the first settler. - One of the most enterprising of the early settlers was Dr. METHODIST CHURCH AT MANSFIELD. William Willard, who located at Willardsburg (now Tioga), in 1799. For many years the place was known as Willardsburg; but about thirty-five years ago it was changed to Tioga. Tioga is distinguished for the hospitality of its inhabitants and the public spirit of its leading citizens. Bush's park is one of the most attractive places in the county. It is a monument to the generosity of its owner, Hon. A. C. Bush, and the pride of the citizens of the borough. The borough is supplied with pure spring water through the enterprise of B. C. Wickham. It was incorporated in February, 1860. FALL BROOK was laid out and founded by Hon. John Magee, late president of the Fall Brook coal company, in 1858, and incorporated in August, 1864. It is one of the principal mining towns in Tioga county. The business of the 1107 GENERAL HISTORY. 109 with eagle eye the Indian marauders, who, during Pontiac's war, swooped down upon the defenceless frontiers of Cumberland and Lancaster counties. "High mountains, swollen rivers, or great distances never deterred or appalled them. Their courage and fortitude were equal to every undertaking, and woe betide the red men when their blood-stained tracks once met their eyes." The Paxtang rangers were truly the terror of the Indians; swift on foot, excellent horsemen, good shots, skillful in pursuit or in escape, dexterous as scouts, and expert in manceuvring. On the 4th of August, 1763, Col. Elder wrote to the Governor: "The service your honor was pleased to appoint me to I have performed to the best of my power, though not with success equal to my desires. However, both companies will, I imagine, be complete in a few days. There are now upwards of thirty men in each, exclusive of officers, who are now and have been employed since their enlistment in such service as is thought most safe and encouraging to the frontier inhabitants, who are, here and everywhere else in the back counties, quite sunk and dispirited, so that it's to be feared that at any attack of the enemy a considerable part of the country will be evacuated, as all seem inclinable to seek safety rather in flight than in opposing the savage foe." On the 9th of September, 1763, a few of the rangers who had encamped in Berks county were apprised of the approach of the Indians by their out-scouts. The Indians advanced cautiously, to take them by surprise. When near, with savage yells, they rushed forward; but the rangers, springing to their feet, shot the three in front. The rest fled into a thicket and escaped. The Indians were armed with guns and provided with ammunition. These Indians were on their way from the Moravian Indians, in Northampton county, to the Big Island. Runners were sent to the different parties of rangers with information, and others set out in pursuit of those who fled. The rangers who started in pursuit were baffled by the superior skill and artifice of the Indians. That they went to the Big Island was beyond a doubt. The Paxtang band were now determined to watch, with scrutinizing eyes, the Indians who visited Conestoga, and Nain, and Wichetunk, and ascertain the treacherous. The Provincial commissioners, on being informed of the above particulars, subsequently in,juired into the facts with the Governor, and reported the result to the Assembly on the 21st of October: "Upon inquiry made before the Governor into the late conduct of the Moravians and their Indians at Nain and Wichetunk, it was their opinion that the said Indians have been, and still are, secretly supplied by the Brethren with arms and ammunition, which they, the said Indians, having an intercourse with our enemies on the frontiers, do barter and exchange with them, to the great danger of the neighboring inhabitants, and that there is much reason to suspect the said Moravian Indians have also been principally concerned in the late murders committed near Bethlehem, in the county of Northampton, which renders it absolutely necessary to remove them into the interior parts of the Province, where their behavior may be more closely observed. It was ordered by the House of Assembly that the Indians be invited down and lodged at some convenient place, and supported at the public expense. Some were placed in the barracks, others on Province Island." About the middle of October, when the murder of the Stinson family and 1108 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. inhabitants is exclusively devoted to the mining of semi-bituminous coal, from two to three hundred thousand tons being annually mined and shipped to market. It is the terminus of the Fall Brook railroad. The air is pure and healthy, and some of the finest mineral springs in the State are to be found here. BLOSSBURG, one of the most populous boroughs in the county, is situated at the head of the Tioga valley. Semi-bituminous coal was first discovered here in 1792, by Robert and Benjamin Patterson. In 1806 Aaron Bloss located here, and gave the name to the town. It is at this point where the mining of semibituminous coal began on an extensive scale thirty-six years ago. Three railroads, used principally for the transportation of coal, diverge from Blossburg-one leading to Arnot, four miles distant, another to Morris Run, four and NORTHERN VIEW OF FALL BROOK FROM THE CENTRE. one-half miles, and the third to Fall Brook, seven miles. Blossburg is quite an industrial centre. The shops of the Tioga railroad are located here, a large tannery is in successful operation, as also a glass factory, saw mills, planing mills, foundry, etc. KNOXVILLE is situated on the Cowanesque river, in the township of Deerfield, a few miles from the State line. It is a thriving and enterprising place. It was incorporated as a borough in May, 1851. WESTFIELD borough is situated on the Cowanesque river, in the township of Westfield, in the north-western portion of Tioga county, near the head-waters of that river. It was settled by several Methodist ministers, and for many years was known as Priestville. It is a thriving and enterprising town, and was incorporated a borough January, 1867. TIOGA COUNTY. There are quite a number of important villages in various portions of the county which deserve mention, among them being ACADEMY CORNERS, ANTRIM, BROOKFIELD, CANOE CAMP, COWANESQUE VALLEY, CHERRY FLATS, CHARLESTON, DAGGETT'S MILLS, GAINES, HOLLIDAYTOWN, KEENEYVILLE, LAMB'S CREEK, LIBERTY, MILL CREEK, NILES VALLEY, NAUVOO, MORRIS RUN, OGDENSBURG, ROSEVILLE, STONY FORKS, STOKESDALE, SABINSVILLE, SHORTSVILLE, and WHITNEYVILLE. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS.-Tioga and Delmar, in 1808; Deerfield and Elkland from Delmar, in 1814; Covington from Tioga, February, 1815; Jackson from Tioga, September, 1815; Sullivan from Covington, February, 1816; Lawrence from Tioga and Elkland, December, 1816; Charleston from Delmar, December, 1820; Westfield from Deerfield, December, 1821; Middlebury from Delmar and Elkland, September, 1822; Liberty from Delmar and Covington, and Shippen from Delmar, in February, 1823; Richmond from Covington, February, 1824; Morris from Delmar, September, 1824; Brookfield from Westfield, February, 1827; Rutland from Jackson and Sullivan, and Chatham from Deerfield, in February, 1828; Farmington from Elkland, and Union from Sullivan, in February, 1830; Gaines from Shippen, March, 1838; Bloss from Covington, June, 1841; Middletown, Clymer, from Westfield, and Gaines, December, 1850; Ward from Sullivan and Union, February, 1852; Elk from Delmar and Morris, February, 1856; Osceola from Elkland, December, 1854; Nelson from Elkland, December, 1857; Hamilton from Bloss, December, 1872; and Duncan from Delmar, Charleston, and Morris, December, 1873. With the formation of Nelson in 1857, and the incorporation of Elkland borough, the township of Elkland ceased to exist by that name. During the late rebellion the county commissioners raised $600,000, and the townships $400,000, for war purposes. Her sons were upon every battlefield, and done distinguished service. Her war debt is now nearly extinguished, only about $30,000 remaining unpaid. This fact will convey to the reader her patriotism and resources. When the fact is taken into consideration that only seventy-five years have elapsed since the territory comprising the county was a dense wilderness, remote from commercial centres, by reference to the general statistical tables elsewhere published in this work, the progress and development made in the county speaks volumes for the energy and enterprise of its people. 1109 UNION COUNTY. BY JOHN BLAIR LINN. NION county was erected out of Northumberland by the act of March 22, 1813. Its territory embraced that within its present bounds and those of Snyder county. The aboriginal inhabitants of Buffalo, its principal valley, were Muncy Indians, subjects of the Six Nations, and were governed by Shikellimy, an Oneida chief, who had his residence on what is now the farm of Hon. G. F. Miller, at the mouth of Sinking run, three miles above Lewisburg, in Kelly township. Here Conrad Weiser vi sited him, March S 8, 1737, and here, ; -' -: _ 7 wi th o ut much doubt, his son Logan was born, whose celebrated speech, commenc S ing, "I appeal to Sany white man to S...........say if he ever en tered Logan's Icabin hungry, and .__ he did not give him meat," will go down to all time, whether _properly or not, 1 as a splendid out burst of Indian eloquence. UNION COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LEWISBURO. Buffalo an d [From a Photograph by W. M. Ginter, Lewisburg.] Penn's creeks are so called in the deed of October, 1758. In papers still earlier, Penn's is called Mahanoy creek, and the valley itself went under the general name of Shamokin. The southern portion of the county along Penn's creek had scattered settlements as early as 1754. It was then in Cumberland county, and within the purchase of 1754; but the Indians said they were deceived in that purchase, and, emboldened by Braddock's defeat, on the 15th of October, 1755, came upon the settlers, and killed and carried away all the men, women, and children, twenty-five in number, nearly to the mouth of the creek. Of the Le Roy family, who lived in Limestone township, Mary and Jacob were carried off and their father killed. Jacob Breylinger, who 1110 UNION COUNTY. lived two miles below New Berlin, was killed, his wife and two children carried to Kittanning. Swisser Run took its name from Switzer Le Roy. Among the first settlers in 1769, were William Blythe, at White Deer Mills; John Lee, at Winfield; John Beatty, at the spring near New Berlin; Jacob Grozeau, near Hoffa's mill; Barney Parsons, at the old Iddings place; John Wilson, at Jenkins' mill; Adam Haines, on the McCorley place; John Fisher, at Datesman's, West Milton; Michael Weyland, on the IHon. G. F. Miller's place; William Armstrong, at the old ferry, below New Columbia; James Parr, adjoining him, and Ludwig Derr. Jacob Fought built the first mill in the valley, in 1771, unless Derr's, the exact date of which cannot be ascertained, was built in 1770. At Fought's mills (late Shriner's mill, near Miffiinburg), the first elections were held for the valley. Ludwig Derr purchased the tract on which Lewisburg now stands, in 1772, and his mill was in existence in the fall of that year. In 1772, Northumberland county was erected, prior to which a small part of Union county territory was in Cumberland, but the larger portion in Berks county, and on the 9th of April, Buffalo and Penn's townships were erected. In February, 1776, White Deer was formed. The Connecticut claim extended as far as the 41st degree of latitude, and therefore the northern portion of Union county was included from a little above the mouth of Buffalo creek. Accordingly, we find their advanced picket, William Speddy, on Buffalo creek, in June, 1772, warning people not to accept Penn titles; and in deeds, for this year, warrants are common "against the claim of the inhabitants of New England." Speddy took post on Turtle creek, where Supplee's mill now is, but could not hold it. He remained, however, in the valley, serveJ in the Revolutionary war, and died at a place called Speddy's Gap, in Juniata county. In October, 1772, John Aurand bought the Jenkins property of John Wilson, and erected the mills there. It went by the name of "Aurand's mill" until he sold to Morgan Jenkins, in 1778-'9, since which time it has been in the Jenkins family. In the fall of 1772, Robert Barber built the first house at White Springs, and Peter Smith squatted a location at the mouth of White Deer creek, where his widow, Catharine, erected the first mills, in 1775, one of which was largely used for boring gun-barrels during the Revolution. On the 20th of April, 1775, a circular issued from Sunbury, signed by Caspar Weitzel for the committee, and directed to John Lowdon and Samuel Maclay, called for a meeting of the inhabitants of the valley, on the 1st of May, at Vandyke's spring, near the Cross Roads, "to give opposition to the impending tyranny." In the latter part of June, came a letter from the Committee of Safety at Philadelphia, under date of the 15th, requesting the enlistment of riflemen to go to Boston. An enlistment paper found among the Lowdon papers, dated at Derr's mills, July 1, 1775, and in the handwriting of Joseph Green, contains the names of Cornelius Daugherty, Robert Tuft, Edward Masters, James Carson, George Saltzman, Robert Rickey, Thomas Giltson, Robert Liney, Robert Carothers, John Hamberton, and Michael Hare. This was the nucleus of Captain Lowdon's company of Colonel William Thompson's rifle regiment. In this company were Samuel Brady, David Hammond, father of the late General 1111 HISTO R Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. Robert Hammond, Peter Pence, and other afterwards noted men. They served one year, participating in the battles of Long Island and White Plains, and most of them re-enlisted in the First Pennsylvania of the Continental Line, Colonel Edward Hand's, afterwards Colonel James Chambers', regiment. In December, 1776, a large number of the associators from Buffalo valley joined General Wash ington, and participated in the actions at Trenton and 1riEceton. One company was commanded by Captain John Lee, of Winfield, and the Northumberland battalion was Sofficered by Colonel James Potter, ; Lieutenant-Colonel James Murray; John Kelly and Thomas Robinson, majors; Benjamin Allison, surgeon Joseph Green, surgeon's mate. The heroism of Major Kelly, in cutting down the bridge at Worth's mills, on Stonybrook, in sight of i A Cornwallis' advancing army, is mat ter of public history. Captain John Clarke, who lived on the first farm Sabove Miffiinburg, took down a company from the valley proper, the remaining officers of which were Henry Pontius, first lieutenant; James Moore, second lieutenant; and Patrick Watson, ensign. They did not reach the army in time for Sthose battles, I ut participated in subsequent skirmishes during their Sterm of service. In that at Pisca,J taqu, N. J., February 1, 1777, Pat - rick Kellahan and Peter Nees, of Clarke's company, were wounded, and the latter mortally. Henry Dougherty and John Fitzsimmons, of Lee's company, wele wounded, and Gustavus Ross, the lieutenant, was killed. In the fall of 1776, Colonel William Cook raised the 12th Pennsylvania regiment, mostly in Northumberland county, and Hawkins Boone, who lived at New Columbia, commanded a company. Hananiah Lincoln, a first lieutenant, Robert King and Samuel Quinn, second lieutenants, and John Carothers, a second lieutenant (who was killed at Germantown, October 4, 1777), 1112 UNION COUNTY. were from Buffalo valley. Boone's company was detached to Colonel Morgan's rifle regiment, and was in all the fighting at Stillwater and Saratoga, which resulted in Burgoyne's surrender, and there were on the pension rolls, from Buffalo valley, George Martin and Samuel McClurghan, who were badly wounded there. On the 3d of July, 1778, occured the massacre of Wyoming, which occasioned, on the 5th, a general stampede of the inhabitants of Buffalo valley, called the " great runaway," to which reference has been made in the sketch of Lycoming county. In the fall of 1778, the mill of Samuel Fisher, in White Deer township, was burned by the Indians. In May, 1779, John Sample and wife were killed by the Indians, at a place lately owned by Abraham Leib, near Ramsey's school house, in White Deer township, where their graves may still be identified. At this time occured another runaway, caused by the fear that the Indians would double around on General Sullivan's left, and devastate the valley, in order to recall him from his expedition into the Genesee country. On the 8th of July, widow Smith's mills, at the mouth of White Deer creek, were burned, and one man killed. On the 8th of April, 1780, the Indians killed David Couples, who lived on Redbank run. They scalped him and two of his children and carried off his wife. Encamping for the night on the hill above White Deer mills, Mrs. Couples made her escape, although one of them had lain upon her clothes so that her moving would awake him. On the 16th of May, an attack was made on a party near French Jacob's Mills in West Buffalo, and killed John Foster, Jr., George Etzweiler, Jr., James Chambers, and Samuel McLaughlin. On the 14th of July, a man and three children were killed on Buffalo creek, near Wolfe's mill; the woman, according to a statement of William Wilson, who then owned the place, escaped across the creek, and looking back, saw one of the Indians dash out the brains of the smallest child against a tree. In the same month, Patrick Watson and his mother were killed at his cabin on the slight elevation a little east of the new school house at White Springs. On the 14th of July, Baltzer Klinesmith, who then resided on the Byler place, not far from Dreisbach church, was killed, and his daughter captured. Her release through Elizabeth's heroic conduct, at the spring near New Berlin, is well told by Meginness. Catharine, who was shot through the shoulder, afterwards married Robert Cham bers, of Limestone township, and survived within the recollection of many yet living. In 1780, the original Barber's mill was built by Adam Smith. It long went by the name of David Smith's mill. Titzel's mill, spoken of in early accounts of the valley, has been long known as Kelly's mill. It was first built by Henry Titzel, who fled with the "great runaway," in 1778, and never returned from Cumberland county. In March, 1781, Captain James Thompson and Margaret Young were cap tured by the Indians on the John Stahl place, in Kelly; and John Shively, in the meadow in the rear of Esquire Lincoln's house. He was never heard of ,afterwards. At the same time, George Rote and his sister Rody, aged about twelve and fourteen, were captured near Mifflinburg. When peace was declared, 1113 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. they met near where Clarion now stands, and returned together. Rody married James Ben, and moved to Centre county. Jacob and Conrad Katherman were captured at the same time. In April, 1781, David Emerick, who lived on the Scebold place, near Chappell Hollow, was killed and his family captured. Henry Bickel, who lived on the Henry Mertz place, was killed - at the same time, and on the 6th / of October Christian Hettrick, a private in Captain Samuel Mc, -WGrady's company of rangers, was L I,ikilled at Andrew Wolfe's place, and David Storms, on the ad joining place, now owned by William Cameron. ! In 1782 the outrages began 'as early as May 6. Two men, . named Lee and Razoner, were S killed between Mifflinburg and '/ l i New Berlin, and Edward Tate Sbadly wounded. The attack on I John Lee's, who lived where Pl IWinfield now stands, was made INll Uo1 in August, 1782. During this Syear, also, a boy sent to Van ' ~ Gundy's mill, now Shriner's, was shot from his horse on the - Meixell place, a short distance Sabove Francis Wilson's. Ile was Sonly fourteen years of age. S In March, 1785, Ludwig Derr laid out the town of Lew isburg. Samu,,l Weiser, of Ma hanoy, was the surveyor, and / for his services received lot num ber 5. Dcrr's first conveyance (March 26, 1785) was for reli gious purposes-lots numbers ,0 42. 44, 46, to Walter Clark, William Gray. and William Wil son, in trust for the Presbyterian congregation at or near Lewis S burg, for a meeting-house and S burying ground. The present Presbyterian church stands on one of these lots. Ludwig Derr went to Philadelphia, in September, 1785, and died there suddenly in the latter part of October. In 1789, Caleb Farley built the first grist mill on White Deer Hole creek, 1114 UNION COUNTY. .ate Charles Gudykunst's, and John Rengler the grist and saw mills on the site of the one owned by William Cameron, beyond Buffalo X Roads. On the 12th of October, 1790, occurred the first election under the Constitution. Samuel Maclay, of Buffalo valley, was elected, with John White, member of Assembly. In 1792, we note the entrance of the schoolmaster into the valleyAlexander Templeton and George Pag et- M, whose names have come II down to us. Templeton taught at New Berlin, and Paget many years at an old school house near Michael Grove's. In 1792, Mifflinburg was laid out by Elias Youngman, and New Berlin by George Long, and Buffalo township was dividled into East and West. In 1793, Colonel William Chamberlin moved into the valley from New Jersey, having bought the Bear mills property, and Michael Shirtz built the grist and saw mills at Penn's Valley Narrows; Joseph Green, a grist and saw mill on Penn's creek. In April, 1811, Hartley township was erected, after which the town of Hartleyton, which was laid out by Colonel Thomas Hartley many years before upon land owned by him, commenced to improve; and in September, 1815, Union 1115 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. township was laid out. In May, 1818, David Yoder laid out the town of New Columbia. In 1802, Ray's church, now in Lewis township, was founded; in 1815, St. Peter's, in Kelly, the land being the gift of Jacob Lotz; in 1820, the Associate Reformed church at Mifflinburg. In the fall of 1814, Andrew Kennedy published the first newspaper ever issued in the county at Mifflinburg. Educational interests have always received the attention they deserve. In 1805 a log cabin academy was built by subscription in Lewisburg; and in 1807, land was donated for a German High school near the Buffalo X Roads, where a school was kept up many years. In 1827, the Mifflinburg academy was incorporated, and received a grant of two thousand dollars from the State. In 1839, a new brick academy was erected in Lewisburg. In 1845, a movement was inaugurated by the Northumberland Baptist Association for the establishment of a college in Central Pennsylvania, which resulted in the organization of the University at Lewisburg. Its present site was purchased in 1847, and the present academy building was soon after erected. The following year, one wing of the main edifice was begun. The central portion and east wing were erected in 1858. The building, as it now stands, consists of a central portion, 80 feet square and three stories high, for public rooms, and two wings for student's use, each four stories high, and 32 feet deep by 125 feet in length, making the entire length of the building 330 feet. Instruction was commenced in the basement ofP the Baptist church of Lewisburg, in 1846, under the direction of Dr. Stephen Taylor, and the first class was graduated in 1851. Dr. Taylor was succeeded by Dr. Howard Malcolm, who resigned the presidency in 1857, and in 1858, Dr. J. R. Loomis, the present incumbent, was inaugurated. The present organization is-first, a College, with which is connected a department almost exclusively devoted to preparation in Latin and Greek, for admission to the regular college course. Second, an English Academy, a boarding and day school designed for those who do not propose to engage in classical studies. Third, a University Female Institute, erected in 1858, a boarding and day school to give a thorough education to young ladies. These are three separate institutions, all located in the borough of Lewisburg, in distinct buildings, situated on their own grounds, and having for each a separate faculty of instruction, though still under one president and with the same boards of control. Its real estate and assets are valued at $275,000. About two hundred and fifty has been the average number of pupils in all the departments, and for the ten years past the income from funds and tuition charges has met all expenses. It has no debts. 1116 VENANGO COUNTY. BY REV. S. J. M. EATON, D.D., FRANKLIN. ENANGO was erected into a county by act of March 12, 1800, from parts of Allegheny and Lycoming. That portion of Venango county lying west of the Allegheny river was, by act of Assembly of April 8, 1785, declared to be within the limits of Westmoreland county. By act of September 24, 1788, it fell within the new county of Allegheny. The portion east of the river belonged to Northumberland county, afterwards it fell into the new county of Lycoming. The name is taken from the former name of French creek, that was anciently called by the French Venango river. It is a corruption of the Indian name, In-nan-ga-eh, from the VIEW OF LIBERTY STREET, FRANKLIN, 1876. [From a Photograph by Wilt Bro's, Franklin.] Seneca language, having reference to the rude figure cut on a tree when first discovered by this tribe. In 1839 its limits were much reduced by the establishment of Clarion county, the Clarion river having originally been the southeastern boundary. In 1866 it was farther reduced by attaching a portion of its north-eastern territory to Forest county. It now forms an irregular figure, and contains about six hundred and forty square miles. The Allegheny river runs through the county near its centre, but such is the structure of the land, that in its progress it runs toward every point of the compass. The valley of the Allegheny is narrow, and the hills that flank it 1117 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. others reached the ears of the Paxtang men, they solicited their colonel, the Rev. Mr. Elder, to obtain permission of the Governor to allow them to make an excursion against the enemy. Another object had in view was "to destroy the immense quantities of corn left by the New England men at Wyoming, which if not consumed, would be a considerable magazine to the enemy, and enable them with more ease to distress the inhabitants." At the most earnest solicitation, therefore, of his men, Colonel Elder allowed the companies of Captains Stewart and Clayton to proceed to Wyoming. They marched in three days and a half one hundred and ten miles on foot. When they reached Wyoming they learned that the bloodthirsty savage had preceded them, entering the valley from the direction of Northampton county, and then taken their departure up the river, murdering all the settlers. Colonel Elder, in his letter to Governor Hamilton, was under the impression that owing to the exposed condition of that region of country, the New England men had fled from the valley. Dispirited and shocked at the Indian atrocities, the rangers, after burying the massacred, burned the Indian houses and a quantity of corn left standing, and returned to their homes. Such scenes as these frontiersmen beheld were calculated to rouse resentment in their breasts against all of the name of Indian, and we who live perfectly secure in this year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six cannot form an adequate conception of the perils which encompassed the hearths and homes of our ancestors. One need not wonder at the desperation to which they were driven, when through the neglect of the Provincial authorities, the depredations of the savages grew more frequent. Governor Hamilton, it is true, called the attention of the Assembly to the sad condition of the settlers on the frontiers, of the houses destroyed, farms laid waste, barns, grain, fences, etc., burned to ashes, and numberless murders, but all to no purpose. The murders in and around Paxtang, notwithstanding the vigilance of the rangers, became numerous, and many a family mourned for some of their number shot by the secret foe or carried away captive. The frontiersmen took their rifles with them to the field and to the sanctuary. Their colonel and pastor placed his trusty piece beside him in the pulpit. It is stated that at one time the meeting-house was surrounded while he was preaching; but their spies having counted the rifles, the Indians retired from their ambuscade without making an attack. Deed after deed was perpetrated by the savage Indians-but where these came from was a mystery. Indians had been traced by the scouts to the wigwams of the friendly Indians at Conestoga and to those of the Moravian Indians in Northampton county. Suspicion was awakened; the questions, "Are these Christian Indians treacherous? Are their wigwams the harbors of our deadly foe? Do they conceal the nightly prowling assassin of the forest-the villain, who, with savage ferocity, tore the innocent babe from the bosom of its mother where it had been quietly reposing, and hurled it in the fire? The mangled bodies of our friends cry aloud for vengeance." Such were the questions, surmises, and expressions of the exasperated people. The Paxtang rangers were active in endeavoring to discover the perpetrators of those acts of violence. The Quakers who controlled the government, as heretofore remarked," seemed HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. high and precipitous, making the scenery beautiful and varied, with many a bold outline and many a richly wooded slope. In the ancient history of this region, this river is often called the Ohio. Both the Indians and the French considered the Allegheny and the Ohio as one and the same river. In fact, in the Indian dialects, their names signified the same thing. Allegheny is from the Delaware language, and O-he-o from the Seneca, both meaning "Beautiful water." Hence, too, the French term " La Belle Rivi6re," is Beautiful river. In his celebrated map of 1755, Lewis Evans calls it the Allegan. He also gives the Shawanese name as "Palawa Thoriki." The next important stream in the county is French creek. It too has received various names. The Indians seem to have known it as To-ra-da-koin. By the English as Venango river. By the French it was called " Rivi6re aux Bceufs," or Buffalo river. By George Washington it was re-christened French creek, at the time of his visit in 1753. The beautiful and romantic then gave way to the practical, and the stream is known as French creek unto this day. The great source of wealth has been and still is petroleum. This county seems to have been its native home, for although it has been found in large quantities in some of the neighboring counties, yet it was first gathered here, bothi in small and in large quantities, and has been a valuable product since the organization of the county. Oil springs have been known, and the product gathered here since the first discovery of the county by the present inhabitants. They were found chiefly along Oil creek, and on the banks of the Allegheny. The oil was used for medicinal purposes. It was well known all over the country as "Seneca oil," "British oil," and other names. It was collected by digging out the place where it oozed from the ground, and when oil and water had accumulated, blankets were thrown in, taking up the oil, when it was wrung out, and the process repeated. Half a century ago, the product of the Oil Creek valley amounted to a dozen barrels a year. The first shipment in bulk was by Mr. Cary. Two five-gallon kegs were filled, and lashed on each side of a horse, with Mr. Cary between. The market was Pittsburgh, and this supply for a time stocked the market. In 1865, Venango county was shipping of the same product thirteen thousand barrels per day. This was when the entire production was confined to this county. Petroleum began to be sought as an illuminator, but the small quantity produced rendered it too expensive. Some of the heavy crude oil that was collected from the surface springs was taken to New England for examination. Enterprise was stimulated. In 1853, it came to the notice of George H. Bissell, who proceeded to investigate its claims. He was joined by J. G. Eveleth. The firm purchased some territory containing numerous oil springs, and commenced operations by pumping the oil and water into vats by water power. This was a slow process, but it stimulated enterprise. A joint stock company was organized, and the resolution formed to bore into the rock in quest of oil. Colonel E. L. Drake was selected to carry out this resolution. After many discouragements, under the direction and responsibility of a part of the company, oil was at last struck at the depth of seventy feet. This was on the 28th day of August, 1859. This small hole drilled through the rock so peacefully, opened the way to wealth hitherto unknown. It yielded about forty barrels per day, but it has the prophecy of better things to come. This first 1118 VENANGO COUNTY. well was in Cherry Tree township, on the bank of Oil creek, and about two miles below Titusville. The second well was on the McClintock farm, farther down the creek,and about three miles from Oil City. The third was in Franklin, and known as "the celebrated Evans well." For a time these wells were operated by pumps driven by steam; but in 1861 a new feature was developed. Wells began to flow spontaneously, under the expansive power of the confined gas. The first flowing well was on the McElhenny farm, and known as the Funk well. In June, 1961, it suddenly commenced flowing at the rate of two hundred and fifty barrels per day. In the autumn of the same year, the Phelps well, on the Tarr farm, commenced flowing at the rate of two thousand barrels per day. This was followed by the Empire well, on the lower McElhenny farm, at the rate of three thousand barrels per day. This was the largest daily production of any one well. The Noble and Delamater yielded twenty-four hundred barrels daily; the Coquette fifteen hundred; the Maple Shade one thousand; the Jersey five hundred; the Reed one thousand. This latter was on Cherry run, near Rouseville. The Maple Shade, Jersey, Coquette, and Keystone wells were on the Egbert farm, near Petroleum Centre. The Sherman was on the Foster, and the Delamater on the Farrel farm. Sometimes these wells would produce gas to such an extent as to take fire and produce the mot... disastrous results. Such an accident occurred at Rouseville in 1861. A well was bored on the Buchanan farm to the depth of t h ree hundred feet, when a COL. DRAKE'S PIONEER OIL WELL. column of gas rushed up and [From a Photograph by Mather, Titusville.J took fire from a neighboring engine. Immediately there was a shock like that of an earthquake, when the mingled oil and gas rushed from the well and took fire as it emerged from the orifice. It seemed as though the earth was pouring forth smoke and fire, carrying death and destruction in their path. At the time of the explosion, from eighty to one hundred persons were standing around. Many of these had their clothing at once saturated with the oil and instantly took fire, and were helpless in the folds of the destroyer. There were thirty-eight persons burned more or less, and of these nineteen died. Amongst the latter was IH. R. Rouse, an energetic persevering young man, who had done much to develop the business on the creek. The well burned three days before the fire could be extinguished. This was accomplished by heaping earth upon it. Another well on the Allegheny river, below Franklin, took fire before reaching oil. It was located at the mouth of Mag's run. It burned for more than a yea-r, keeping vegetation green around it, even in the winter time. The column of flame that shot up from the gas was 1119 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. about ten feet in diameter at the base, the length varying from fifty to an hundred feet. As there was no oil to take fire, and the workmen absent at the time, there were no accidents connected with this well. The business extended up the Allegheny, and down the same to the extreme limits of the county. It was pursued with advantage up the valley of French creek. The heavy oil district is confined to the neighborhood of Franklin. This is used chiefly for lubricating purposes. It is found in the high hill overlooking Franklin, but chiefly on the Galloway, McCalmont, Fee, Lamberton, Smith, Bleakey, and Kunkle farms. The gravity of the lighter oils of the county is from forty to forty-eight degrees; that of the heavy Franklin oil is from twenty-eight to thirty-two degrees. The total product of some of the largest wells along Oil creek has been from a half million to a million barrels each. Generally they have been short lived. There is one well, perhaps the oldest in the oil region, that has produced constantly for some fifteen years. Since 1865 the production of the county has fallen off greatly, as the territory on the level below has been developed. Several railroads are now in active operation in the county. The first constructed was the Franklin branch of the Atlantic and Great Western. This runs from Meadville to Oil City, along the banks of French creek and the Allegheny river. It was finished as far as Franklin, in June, 1863, and extended to Oil City in 1866. The next railroad in the county was the Jamestown and Franklin railroad, intersecting the Erie and Pittsburgh road at Jamestown, Mercer county. It was completed to Franklin in 1867, and the next season extended to Oil City. Following then were the Allegheny Valley railroad, from Pittsburgh to Oil City; the Oil Creek and Allegheny River railroad, extending from Oil City, up Oil Creek, to Titusville and beyond, with its river division, extending up the Allegheny river to Warren. The Cranberry railroad extends from South Oil City to the Cranberry coal mines. There is a noted land mark in Indian history on the eastern bank of the Allegheny, about six miles below Franklin and nine by the course of the river. It is known to the present inhabitants as "the Indian God," At times of high water it is entirely submerged. Indeed the wear of time and the friction of floating ice and timber have sadly mutilated its face. It is an immense boulder in a deflection of the river, standing on an inclination of about 50' to the horizon, and is about twenty-two feet in length by fourteen in breadth. The inscription is in hieroglyphics on its inclined face, that has originally been drawn with great distinctness. The view presented is from Schooleraft's work on the Indian tribes, and was drawn by Captain Eastman, United States Army. The following is Schoolcraft's description: " The inscription itself appears distinctly to record in symbols the triumphs of hunting and war. The bent bow and arrow are twice distinctly repeated. The arrow by itself is repeated several times, which denotes a date before the introduction of fire.arms. The animals captured, to which attention is called by the Indian pictographist, are not deer or common game, but objects of higher triumph. There are two large panthers or cougars, variously depicted; the lower one in the inscription denoting the influence, agreeably to pictographs heretofore published, of medical magic. The figure of 1120 VENANGO COUNTY. a.fepale denotes without doubt a captive; various cii'cles representing human heads denote deaths. One of the subordinate figures depicts by his gorgets a chief. The symbolic sign of a raised hand, drawn before a person represented with a bird's head, denotes apparently the name of an individual or tribe." At the foot of this inscription rock is a smaller one, having on it a single figure. This territory was originally included in the French claim. The lilies of France waved over it for years. The claim was based on the discoveries of the Jesuits, Marquette and La Salle, together with their construction of the treaties of Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle. They had possessions in Canada and at the mouth of the Mississippi, and their intention was to unite these two claims, and. hold the entire country __ west of the Allegheny mountains. This grand project shows the boldne-s and energy of the time in which it was inaugurated. In the year 1749, Gallissoniere, then Governor of Canada, set Louis Celeron with a party to bury leaden plates along the whole - line from Presqu'Isle, or even to the Mississippi, as evidences of the French claim and possession. These plates were all similar in form and design, _____ differing only in date, in - the name of the place where INDIAN GOD ROCK. they were to be deposited. They were fourteen inches i. length, by nine inches in breadth, and one-eighth of an inch in thickness. The inscription was in capital letters, and the margin ornamented with the lilies of France. On the reverse were the words " Paul Labrasse, fecit." The plate buried at Franklin bore the following inscription: " LAN 1749 DV REGNE DE LOVIS XV ROY DE FRANCE NOVS CELORON COMMANDANT DVN DETACHE MENT ENVOIE PAR MONSIEVR LE MIS DE LA GALLISSONIERE COMMANDANT GENERAL DE LA NOVVELLE FRANCE POVR RETABLIR LA TRANQVILLITE DANS QVELQVES VILLA GES SAUVAGES DE CES CANTONS AVONS ENTERRE CETTE PLAQVE AV CONFVTENT DE L'OHYO ET DE TORADAKOIN CE 29 JVILLET PRES DE LA RIVIERE OYO AUTREMENT BELLE RIVIERE POYR MONVMENT DV RENOVVELLEMENT DE POSSESSION QVE NOYS AVONS PRIS DE LA DITTE RIVIERE OYO ET DE TOVTES CELLES QVI Y TOMBNT ET DE TOVES LES TERRES DES DEVX COTES JVSQVE AVX SOVRCES DES DITTES RIVIERES VINSI QVE ONT JOVY OV DV JOVIR LES PRECEDENTS ROYS DE FRANCE ET QVILS 1121 HISTORY OF PEN NS YL VANIA. SISONT MAINTENV8 PAR LES ARMES ET PAR LES TRAITTES SPECTALEMENT PAR CEVX DE RISVVICK DVTRCHT ET DAIX LA CHPELLE."* The following translation is sufficiently literal: "In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV., King of France, M. Celoron, commandant of a detachment by Monsieur the Marquis of Gallissonier, Commander in Chief of New France, to establish tranquillity in certain savage villages of their cantons, has buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and Toradakoin, this 29th of July, near the Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession, which we have taken of said river, and all its tributaries, and of all lands on both sides, as far as the sources of said river, inasmuch as the preceding kings of France have enjoyed it by their arms and by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix la Chapelle." By the . Ohio we are to understand the Allegheny, and by Toradakoin, French creek. This plate was stolen from Joncaire by the Senec,s the following year, and brought to Colonel Johnson to be read, who made good use of it to exasperate 1 them against the French. To make good the French claim, a line of forts was erected: one at Erie, one at '' Waterford, on French creek, and one at Franklin, at the mouth of the same. The works at Franklin were commenced in the autumn of 1753, and completed in April, 1754. In the sketch of Erie county, is given the deposition of Stephen Coffin, an English prisoner, which furnishes the par INSCRIPTIONS ON INDIAN GOD ROCK. ticulars of the building of these forts, and the objection of the Indians to their erection. The Indians, however, were propitiated, and the fort commenced in 1753, and completed early in the spring of 1754. All along French creek, troops were gathering. The Indians were supplied with whiskey and became friends to the new project. Scouts were sent out, and every effort made to learn the movements of the British. Canoes were prepared and cannon dragged slowly and heavily through the forest. Everything in the way of armament and provisi:ns was brought from Lake Erie across the country to Le Bceuf, and thence down French creek by canoes and rafts. This work was called Fort Machault. These French forts from Lake Erie to the Ohio were not remarkable either for strength or for engineering skill. Neither Presqu'Isle, Le Boeuf, nor Machault, had any earth works of importance. They were all probably on the same plan, although Machault at Venango was the smallest of the three. Fortunately the plan of this latter fort has survived the changes of one hundred and * For a fac-simile representation of one of these leaden plates, see History of Allegheny county, page 318. 1122 VENANGO COUNTY. twenty years, and has recently been verified beyond a question as the identical plan* of Fort Machault and the surrounding territory, with the bearing of the hills and the distances to them. The fort was located on the western bank of the Allegheny, or Ohio, as it was originally called, sixty yards from the edge of the water, and about sixty rods below the mouth of French creek. On the present plan of the town, Elk street runs through the site of the fort, while its southern side reached nearly to Sixth street. The body of the work was in the form of a parallelogram, seventy-five by one hundred and five feet in size, with bastions at the four angles. These bastions were in the form of polygons, the two western ones having a perimeter of one hundred and thirty-five feet, and the eastern ones of one hundred and eleven feet, each. A portion of the curtains was of hewn timbers laid lengthwise upon each other, that served at the same time as the sides of the barracks. The remainder of the walls, with the bastions, were formed of timbers eight inches in diameter, and thirteen feet in height, set up after the manner of a stockade. The gate front- t enango. ed the river. In the inte- tn.-Mamu t _n 4 a. 4feSZ1e At" 2Z.tnwie rior were the magazine,.,, imeu, d. Ce_le. fifteen by eighteen feet, z. protected by a thickness of three feet of earth, and.D.. several buildings for bar- > racks. Two of these were D., eighteen by fifty-five feet in n nf b 0 nTh.. size, with three others that were much smaller. The YRACRS barracks were two stories X high, and furnished with p&& -rara.J a.t rna V7 stone chimneys. A door stone chimneys. A door PLANS OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH FORTS. in the north-eastern bastion led to a large cellar. The soldiers' barracks consisted of thirty-seven separate buildings, disposed around the fort, chiefly on the northern side. A saw mill was erected on the little stream forty rods above and near to the site where the English fort was subsequently built. It was supplied with power by the stream. The dam was constructed of heavy timbers, that are, many of them, found in their places at the present day. This dam was just along the eastern line of Elk street where it crosses the ravine. Here was prepared the lumber used for barracks, and perhaps for building boats and barges to be used in conveying supplies for the camp. Along the northern side of the fort, and within fifty feet of it, there was a small stream of water that flowed from the neighboring hills, which supplied the camp with water. This work is invariably spoken of by the French as Fort Machault. It was named in honor of Jean Baptiste Machault, born at Amonville, France, December 10th, 1701. In 1745 he was controller of the finances; in 1750, keeper of the seals, and succeeded to the colonial department in 1750. In 1794 he was * This map was found amongst the MSS of the Shippen family, and is now in the possession of William Reynolds, Esq., of Meadville. 1123 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. imprisoned by the Revolutionary government, and died the same year at ninetythree. By the English, this post was spoken of as the French fort at Venango. Monsieur Pouchot, in his memoirs, speaks of it rather contemptuously: " At its mouth (Rivi6re aux Boeuf), called in English, Venango, the French had a very poor, mean fort called Fort Machault, which is also an entrep6t for that which is going down to Fort Duquesne." It seems generally to have been poorly garrisoned, often short of provisions, and in mortal fear of assault by the English. Except in special cases, when marshalling their forces for an attack on Fort Pitt, the garrison numbered only from twenty to fifty men. They seem to have secured the friendship of the Indians, not so much by the strong arm of power, as by presents of whiskey and gewgaws. We have a partial description of the work in the deposition of a French prisoner: "Fort Machault is a fort of wood, filled up with earth. It has bastions and six wall pieces or swivel guns, and the whole works take up about two acres of ground. No Indians are there, but pass and repass to and from a little town they have about seven leagues west from Fort Machault, called Ticastoroga. They are of the tribe of the Wolf." Henry De Courcy, on the authority of an old map preserved at Quebec, affirms that Fort Machault was situated on the eastern side of the river, on French creek. Monsieur Duquesne speaks of it as on both the rivers Ohio and Venango. With these statements we must compare the ground and later authorities. The plan of the fort before alluded to settles the question of location so thoroughly that there is no longer room for doubt concerning it. There was but one French fort. Not the slightest allusion is in any place made to two, in that region, in the voluminous records that are now accessible in relation to the French occupation there. With the very limited knowledge of the geography of the country, it is easy to account for the mention of Fort Machault on the opposite side of French creek, by mistake. Monsieur Duquesne probably meant, by saying that it was one half on the Ohio river and the other on River au Bmuf, that it was designed to command the approaches of both those rivers. On the upper side of French creek there is neither sign nor tradition of military work. Although the first settlers arrived here within less than thirty years after the evacuation by the French, there was never known to them the slightest trace of earthworks or military work of any kind. It is, therefore, incredible that there should have been such works there. On the ground of the fort have been found bullets, knives, scissors, beads, melted glass, burned stone, and other relics, showing that it had passed through the fire at its destruction. The first interruption in this chain of French forts was the forced abandon. ment of Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh. This was on the 24th day of November, 1758, on the approach of General Forbes' expedition. That officer, in his report, says: "They have blown up and destroyed all their fortifications, houses, ovens, and magazines-all their Indian goods burned in the stores, that seem to have been considerable." Of the garrison, four hundred men, with the Governor, M. De Lignery, went up the river to Venango. This rendered it necessary to bring all supplies to this fort by the way of Presqu'Isle and Le Bceuf. In the meantime they were making every effort to strengthen their position P"latforms 1124 VJNANGO COUNTY. were erected in the bastions, and swivel guns mounted on them. The stockades were lined to render them more secure. A large force of laborers were at work with the avowed object of rendering Machault as strong as Fort Duquesne. Monsieur La Marie was in command at this time. This was in April, 1759. Colonel Mercer writes that he had learned from a spy that at that date there were one hundred and fifty men at the fort, and others on the way. "They have eleven batteaux at Venango, and one great gun of the size of a quart pot, which they fire off by a train by powder." We hear from the fort again on July 17, 1759. Colonel Mercer, commandant at Fort Pitt, had sent six Indian scouts up to Fort Venango, who reported that the place was strong and well manned. They said that there was then at the place seven hundred French and a thousand Indians, and that preparations were making to attack Fort Pitt. They were to set out on the 11th of that month. Three pieces of cannon had arrived from Le Bceuf, the others were expected every hour, with many batteaux loaded with provisions. Soon after a messenger arrived and handed a packet to the commandant. This contained bad news. At length he said to the Indians: " Children, I have received bad news, the English are gone against Niagara." Orders were immediately given for the evacuation of the fort. It was the month of July. The river was too low to go up by boat, and a great sacrifice must be made of their effects. The Indians were tucked out in laced coats and hats, the squaws were gorgeous in red blankets and French calico, and all their stores were either given away or burned. The batteaux and canoes that were to have conveyed them in their assault upon Fort Pitt were likewise burned. Even their artillery must have been buried, as it would be impossible to carry it with them. An old gun found an hundred years afterwards is evidence of this, and no doubt others are still slumbering in the neighborhood. The spies sent up from Fort Pitt witnessed this grand breaking up of the camp, the burning of the fort, and the departure for LIe Bceuf, and on to the relief of Fort Niagara. They reported that "there were upwards of a thousand Indians, collected from twelve different nations, at Venango." Here was an end to their expectation of retaking Fort Pitt. They had made a great effort towards the accomplishment of this object. The fort had been recently reinforced for this purpose. Monsieur D'Aubray, commandant at Kaskaskia, Illinois, had brought there 400 men and 200,000 pounds of flour from Kaskaskia to Venango. "Cut off from the route of the Ohio (or Allegheny) by the abandonment of Fort Duquesne, he proceeded with his force down the Mississippi and up the Ohio to the Wabash; thence up that river to the portage at Fort Miami, or Fort Wayne, and carried his stores over to the Maumee, passed down that river and along the shore of Lake Erie to Presqu'Isle, and carried again his stores to the portage to Le Bceuf; thence descended French creek to Venango." This was followed by the surrender of Fort Niagara and the fall of Quebec, and the final withdrawal of all claims to the territory. After the abandonment of the country by the French, the English authorities took possession. This was in 1760. Major Rodgers was sent to repair and garrison the forts along the lake. At this place an entirely new site was selected, and a new fort erected. Fort Machault was so thoroughly dismantled 1125 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. that there was nothing valuable left. The site for the new work was about forty rods higher up the river, and nearer the mouth of French creek. In the present plan of the town, Elk street runs nearly through the centre of it, and the northern bastion extends out into Eighth street. It was a much more permanent and substantial work than that of the French. The original plan has been lost, but from the earth-works, yet in good condition at the early settlement of the country, a very good idea can be formed of its general features. The general outline was square, with bastions projecting from the curtains, as shown in the sketch. The enclosed area was eighty-eight feet square, with a block-house in the centre. This was surrounded by a ditch twenty-four feet in width. Outside of this was the embankment, about eight feet in width, with bastions of earth on each side, and completely commanding all the angles of the fort. This fort was probably called Fort Venango, and like its predecessor, Fort Machault, was destined to be short-lived. The garrison was probably small, and the same difficulties attended communication with it that had hampered and annoyed the French. Still it had its importance, particularly as long as there were fears remaining of further difficulties with the French. But new dangers arose. In 1763, only three years after the construction of this fort, the formidable conspiracy of that mighty Sagamore, Pontiac, was organized. It was bold in its conception, and carried out with wonderful vigor and promptitude. It aimed at nothing less than the destruction of all the military posts and settlements of the English from Fort Pitt and Lake Erie to Detroit. The shock came in the month of June, and resulted in the destruction of all but three of the posts along the entire line. Presqu'Isle and Le Beuf were taken by assaults, Venango by stratagem. The Indians had been in the habit of playing at foot-ball on the grounds around the fort. Occasionally the ball would fall within the pickets, when they would be allowed to go within to procure it. On this occasion the ball was sent intentionally into the fort. The gate was opened, when the savages rushed in in a body, massacred the garrison, and tortured Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, over a slow fire for two or three days, burned the fort, taking with them a woman as prisoner. This prisoner was afterwards recovered from the Indians at Fort Erie, and related the circumstances of the capture and destruction of the Fort. An expedition was fitted out after the reported capture of the forts, to explore. At Venango they found but the ruins of the works, with the remains of the murdered garrison half consumed by the flames. Whether this fort was rebuilt and garrisoned by the English after this time is extremely doubtful. There is a gap in the history that we have not the means of filling up. The probabilities are that the country was abandoned until after the Revolutionary war, and the possession of the United States authorities. In the spring of 1787, the United States government began to take possession of this region. A company of United States soldiers, under the corn mand of Captain Hart, came up from Fort Pitt to erect a fort for the protection of probable settlers against the Indians. The company numbered eighty-seven men, including officers, with perhaps a dozen persons who accompanied them on their own account. They at once commenced the erection of a fortification that they called Fort Franklin. The site selected was a strange one. Instead 1126 FENANGO COUNTY. of locating near the mouth of the creek, so as to command both streams, they selected a site on the southern bank of French creek, about half a mile from its mouth. It was just above what is now the upper French creek bridge. It was built in the form of a parallelogram, the outworks including about one hundred feet square. These outworks consisted of high embankments of earth, outside of which pine pickets, about sixteen feet in height, were planted. Small cannon were mounted on its four bastions. Within the area formed by the ditches was the block-house, with a huge stack of chimneys in the centre. The block-house contained the magazine. The soldiers were quartered within the pickets. A ditch extended along the bank of the creek for some distance, that was no doubt used after the manner of modern rifle-pits. In 1790, a committee, consisting of Timothy Matlack, Samuel Maclay, and John Adlum, was appointed to examine the western waters of the State. Among others they were to examine French creek from its mouth to Le Bceuf, also the Allegheny from French creek to the Kiskiminetas. The following year, as the result of this examination, the Legislature made an appropriation of one hundred pounds to improve the navigation of French creek, from its mouth to Le Bceuf. At this time the Indians were troublesome. On the 2d day of April, 1791, all the women and children at Meadville, in the adjoining county of Crawford, were brought down French creek in canoes for protection in the fort. In 1793 the Pennsylvania Population company was formed to promote the settlement of the country. It offered, with other inducements, "to the first twenty families that should settle on French creek, one hundred and fifty acres of land each." But difficulties were increasing with the Indians. In a deposition made at Fort Pitt, June 11th, 1794, D. Ransom, who had been a trader at Fort Franklin, said that "he had been advised to leave; that the times would soon be bad; that the British and Indians would soon land at Presqu'Isle, and there form a junction with Cornplanter, on French creek; and were then to clear it by killing all the people, and taking all the forts on it." Captain Denny, writing from Fort Franklin, June 14, 1794, seems to have had the same opinion in regard to the intentions of the British and Indians. But these difficulties were all amicably settled, and a treaty of peace was signed by fifty-nine sachems. They had all been mollified by presents of land and money, and the influence was good upon their people. The garrison was kept at Fort Franklin until 1796, when the place was abandoned, and a new site selected on the flat near the mouth of the creek that was long known as the old garrison. It was a strong building, a story and one half high, and about thirty by thirty-six feet square. There were pickets planted around it, but no cannon mounted. In 1803 the garrison was withdrawn, and military protection ceased. The garrison was afterwards used as a jail from 1805 to 1819. It remained standing until 1824, when it was overthrown. The shifting current of French creek washes its site, so that its exact location is now unknown. In the war of 1812 this county was well represented. A call was issued for all the able-bodied men to go to Erie, to protect the frontier from an anticipated attack at that point. All who could be spared from their homes repaired to the scene of expected action. Of the regiment that was formed 1127 GENERAL HISTORY. resolved," says Parkman, "that they would neither defend the people of the frontier nor allow them to defend themselves, vehemently inveighed against all expeditions to cut off the Indian marauders. Their security was owing to their local situation, being confined to the eastern part of the Province." That such was the case, rather than to the kind feelings of the Indian towards them, is shown by the fact that of the very few living in exposed positions several were killed. The people declared openly they no longer confided in the professions of the Governor or his advisers; numbers of volunteers joined the rangers of Northampton, Berks, Lancaster, York, and Cumberland, who were engaged in tracing the midnight assassins. On the Manor, a portion of land surveyed for the Proprietaries, situated in Lancaster county near where the borough of Columbia is located, was settled a band of squalid, miserable Indians-the refuse of sundry tribes. Time and again they were suspected of murder and thievery, and their movements at this crisis were closely watched. Strange Indians were constantly coming and going. Colonel Elder, under date of September 13, 1763, thus wrote to Governor Hamilton: " I suggest to you the propriety of an immediate removal of the Indians from Conestoga, and placing a garrison in their room. In case this is done, I pledge myself for the future - security of the frontiers." Subsequently, on taking charge of the executive affairs of the Province, in October, Governor John Penn* replied as follows: "The Indians of Conestoga have been repre- OH PEN. JOHN PENN. sented as innocent, helpless, and dependent on this government for support. The faith of this government is pledged for their protection. I cannot remove them without adequate cause. The contract made with William Penn was a private agreement, afterwards confirmed by several treaties. Care has been taken by the provincial committee that no Indians but our own visit Conestoga. Whatever can be faithfully executed under the laws, shall be as faithfully performed." John Harris had previously made a similar request: " The Indians here I hope your honor will be pleased to cause to be removed to some other place, as I don't like their company." The rangers, finding appeals to the authorities useless, resolved on taking the law into their own hands. Several Indian murderers had been traced to Conestoga, and it was determined to take them prisoners. Captain Stewart, whose men * JOHN PENN, the son of Richard and grandson of William Penn, was born in Philadelphia, in 1728, from which circumstance he was called the "American Penn." He was Governor of the Province from 1763 to 1771, and also from 1773 to the end of the Proprietary government in 1776. He continued in the country during the Revolution. In 1777, having refused to sign a parole, he was confined by the Whigs at Fredericksburg, Va. Governor Penn died at his country seat in Bucks county, in February, 1795. HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. from this and some of the neighboring counties, Samuel Dale was elected lieutenant-colonel. He was a native of Union county, but had resided in Franklin for many years. About this time the Seneca chief, Cornplanter, came to see Colonel Dale, to inquire into the cause of the war. When this was explained to him, he declared his willingness to accompany him with two hundred warriors. He insisted on the propriety of his going. The corn was planted, and the young men could go as well as not to assist in the war with their white neighbors. Colonel Dale could satisfy him only by agreeing to call upon him should it be actually necessary. During the war, Franklin presented quite a busy aspect. All the military and naval stores were brought up from Pittsburgh in keel boats, thence up French creek to Waterford, and thence by teams to Erie. It was matter of surprise to the British, how Perry's fleet was equipped under the circumstances, as they were ignorant of this inland communication with Pittsburgh. All these boats were pushed up by hand, with the assistance of the capstan, in places where the water was specially rapid. In the civil war of 1861-'5, this county was largely represented. The soldiers' monument, standing in South park, Franklin, contains the names of over four hundred soldiers who fell in battle or died in prisons and hospitals. From the organization of the county, in 1800, to 1805, it was associated for judicial purposes with the ..neighboring counties of Warren, Butler, Mercer, S. Erie, and Crawford, with ... the seat of justice at Mead ville. The first court held Sthere was presided over by I Judge Alexander Addi on. By act of April 1, 1805, - Venango was fully o: ganized for judicial purposes, with Kinnear House. Court House. Jail. Pres. Ch. Franklin as the county seat. The first court was held vIEW OF FRANKLIN IN 1840. in a log house on Liberty in a log house on Liberty LRe-produced from an old engraving.] street, facing West park. Jesse Moore was the first judge. He was succeeded by N. B. Eldred, in 1839. After these were Alexander McCalmont, Gaylord Church, Joseph Buffington, John C. Knox, James Campbell, Isaac G. Gordon, and John Trunkey. The first court-house was erected in 1811. It was of stone, on West park, and facing what is now Plumer's Block. A second court-house was built of brick in 1848, on South park, and facing up Liberty street. This was succeeded by a third building of brick, in 1867. It was located a little to the north of its predecessor. The old garrison was used as a jail from 1805 to 1819, when a small stone building was erected for the purpose, on the South park. There was a yard attached to one end of it, surrounded by a stone wall about twelve feet in height, with a well in the enclosure. The cells were lined with oak plank, about five inches in thickness. This was the receptacle for prisoners until 1853, when a 1128 VENANGO COUNTY. new stone jail, with sheriff's house of brick, in front, was erected on Elk street. The prison was rebuilt in 1868, on the same foundation, and with the same material. FRANKLIN, the county seat, is the oldest town in the county. It was located on lands belonging to the State. On the 24th day of March, 1789, it was resolved by the General Assembly, "that not exceeding three thousand acres be surveyed for the use of the Commonwealth, at the Fort of Venango." By act of April 18, 1795, commissioners were appointed to survey one thousand acres of the reservation at the mouth of French creek, and lay off thereon the town of Franklin. The commissioners designated for this purpose were General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott. Mr. Ellicott had charge of the surveying, and General Irvine of the military escort of fifty men. The name was probably suggested by the name of the fort. The plot selected lies along the south branch of French creek and the west bank of the Allegheny river. The valley in which it is situated is about two miles in length and about half a mile in breadth, surrounded on every side by bold, precipitous hills, rising to the height of about five hundred feet. The town is beautifully laid out with wide streets, crossing each other at right angles, with the exception of Twelfth street, where there is an acute angle to accommodate a flexure in the creek. Franklin was incorporated into a borough, April 14, 1828, and honored by the Legislature with a city charter in 1868. T. Anderson Dodd was the first mayor. OIL CITY is comparatively a modern town, and is based on the rise and progress of the petroleum business. It is now a grand railroad centre, and a place of great commercial importance. It is situated on both sides of Oil creek, and at the same time on both sides of the Allegheny river, seven miles above Franklin. The land on the western side of Oil creek was purchased from the State in 1803, by Francis Holliday, descending to his son James Holliday. He sold it to Dr. John Nevins, and by him it was sold to the Michigan Rock Oil company, about 1859 or 1860, and by them laid out in lots. Previous to 1859 there were but two or three houses on that side of the creek. Two of these were hotels. One kept by Thoma, Moran was an old landmark. They were designed for the accommodation of raftsmen. The eddy above and below was often lined with rafts for miles in extent. East of the creek, or about it, the land belonged to the old Indian chief Cornplanter. The United States government had presented him with three hundred acres of land in return for services rendered the country during the Revolutionary war. By him it was given to his son, and by him sold for a small consideration. In 1861 the town began to grow rapidly, and in 1862 it was incorporated into a borough. In 1863, Cottage Hill was laid out in lots by J. I. Marston and Charles Haines. In 1863, William L. Lay purchased the Bastian farm on the south side of the river, and laid out a town by the name of Laytonia. Afterwards James Bleakley, of Franklin, purchased the Downing farm, and laid out a town adjoining this by the name of Imperial City. In January, 1866, these two towns were consolidated by an act of court, under the name of Venango City. On March 11, 1871, the two towns, Oil City and Venango City, were consolidated with a city charter by the Legislature. RENO is on the Allegheny river, four miles above Franklin. The land was 1129 1ISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. settled first by Martin Clifford, afterwards by Mr. Bowles. In 1850 it belonged to Joseph Shafer and J. W. Howe. Soon after the oil business commenced, it was purchased by C. V. Culver, a town laid out, and a company organized for the production of oil. A railroad was built from Reno to Rouseville, on Oil creek, that has since been discontinued. It takes its name from General J. L. Reno, formerly a citizen of Franklin, who fell in the late war. It has produced a large quantity of oil within its limits. It has the advantages of the Atlantic and Great Western, and also the Jamestown and Franklin railroads. ROUSEVILLE is on the Oil creek valley, at the mouth of Cherry run, and about three miles above Oil City. It was at one time a great shipping point for oil. It owes its importance to the oil development. The second well in the county was discovered in its neighborhood. It is called after H. R. Rouse, one of its proprietors, who perished in the burning of the well alluded to. PETROLEUM CENTRE was one of the remarkable places in the oil region. In many of its features it has never been equalled by any town in the whole country. It sprung into notice with the oil production, and declined with it, until its vices, as well as its glories, have departed. It is on Oil creek, midway between Oil City and Titusville, and located on the lands of the Central Petroleum company. A peculiarity of this town is, that though laid out in lots, these lots were never sold, but leased. There was no borough organization, although at one time it contained a population of some three thousand. The result was that vice and dissipation reigned within little Central, until the town became a fearful plague-spot to the regions around. The Hyde and Egbert, McCray, Wood, and other farms adjoined the town, and were productive in oil. There were Presbyterian, Methodist, and Catholic churches in the town. PLEASANTVILLE is about twenty-four miles north-east from Franklin, in the northern part of the county. It was settled by Aaron Benedict, about the year 1820. The pottery business was an early enterprise. It was incorporated as a borough in 1849, with two hundred and fifty inhabitants. It has been the scene of a wonderful oil development. The first well was the Nettleton, struck in 1855. Little, however, was accomplished until 1868, when the matter assumed a wonderful importance. There were at one time over two hundred wells, with a daily production of some two thousand barrels. The entire region round presented the appearance of a forest of derricks, with the prospect of unlimited wealth. But the supply was soon exhausted, and business declined. SIVERLEYVILLE is two miles above Oil City, on the Allegheny. It was settled by Mr. Siverley about the year 1821. The largest refining business in the county is carried on here. It is known as the Imperial oil refinery. EMLENTON is a flourishing town on the Allegheny river, in the southern part of the county. It is about thirty miles below Franklin. It derives its name from Emlen, the maiden name of Mrs. Hannah Fox, wife of Joseph M. Fox, who were the original owners of a large part of the land on which the town is located. The first improvement was made by John Kerr in 1802-'3. He was followed by John Cochran, in 1820. Andrew McCaslin started a small store. After him came P. G. Hollister, in the same business; then came John Keating, William Karnes, and others. It was incorporated as a borough some years since. COOPERSTOWN is on Big Sugar creek, nine miles from Franklin. It was com1130 VENANGO COUNTY. menced about 1827, by William Cooper, on land received from his father, who had been an ensign in the army. A flourishing woolen factory has been operated here. It has also flour and saw-mills, with a thriving trade from the country round. The first iminprovements were mills. It is an incorporated borough. PLUMER is on Cherry run, about seven miles above Oil City. The neighborhood was first settled by Henry McCalmont. At the advent of the oil business quite a flourishing village sprung up. The HIumbolt refinery was located here, which for a time carried on quite a large business. One of the oldest United Presbyterian churches in the county was planted in its neighborhood. PIT HOLE CITY.-The history of this place seems like a dream of romance. In rapidity of growth and excitement during its short career it exceeded that of - - - - _ any other town in Ame- _ -- 2--ii rica. From a single farm____ house, in May, 1865, it _____ suddenly expanded until, in September of the same year, a period of only five months, it had a population of fifteen thousand. It had its hotels, theatres, lecture halls, churches, and other public buildings, on a grand scale. It is situated on Pitt Hole creek, from which it derives its name, about eight miles from its mouth, in Cornplanter township. In January, 1865, the first well was put CABLE GROUP CITY DERRICKS, PLEASANTVILLE. 1 [From a Photograph by Wilt Bro's, Franklin.] down, on the Thomas Holmden farm. It was called the United States, and soon produced eight hundred barrels per day. This was far out from other wells. In June the Grant well was struck, flowing at the rate of twelve hundred barrels per day. This incited the country at fever heat. Capitalists rushed in; money flowed as freely as oil itself; and for three months, anything like a correct description of things would seem like fiction. The Holhnden farm had been bought by Prather & D)uncan, who laid it out in lots. These lots brought large prices; one of them $15,000. At the height of the fever the Holmden farm was sold for $1,300,000, ond resold for $1,600,000. But business bcgan to decline. The oil belt was found to be merely a small basin amid the rocks, and was soon drained. The town was deserted; property declined in value; the buildings that had been erected at great expense were removed to Pleasantville, Oil City, and Franklin until the proud city became but an humble hamlet, sitting down to dream of its formner glory. 1131 WARREN COUNTY. BY SAMUEL P. JOHNSON, WARREN. Y the act of the 24th of September, 1788, Allegheny county was created, including all the territory in the State north and west o the Ohio and Allegheny rivers, together with considerable on the other side. On the 12th of March, 1800, was passed the great new county act, by which Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango, and Armstrong counties were created out of Allegheny, and a portion of Lycoming county territory. Thus and then Warren county was formed from parts of Allegheny and Lycoming counties, and William Miles, Thomas Miles, and John Andrews were appointed trustees for it. That portion of Warren county, east and south of the river, from 1772 until 1795, was a part of Northumberland county. In 1795, it was embraced in the new county of Lycoming, created that year, where it remained until the year 1800. Even before this, four or five years, a few settlers had found their way into its wilderness, and located on the waters of the Brokenstraw and Conewango creek. Quite a number came that year by following Indian trails and surveyors' lines. The county and county seat of Warren were named after that distinguished patriot who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill-General Joseph Warren. Warren county is bounded on the north by the New York State line, in latitude forty-two degrees north; on the east by M'Kean county; on the south by Forest and Venango counties, and on the west by Crawford and Erie counties. It contains eight hundred square miles of territory, and 512,000 acres of land. The Allegheny river, entering near the north-east corner and running southwesterly, divides its territory, leaving about three-eighths of it on the south-east side. Its tributaries, of sufficient size to be useful for propelling machinery or floating rafts, are Willow creek, Sugar run, and Kinzua creek, entering on the east, and Cornplanter and Hemlock runs, and Conewango, Brokenstraw, Tidioute, and West Hickory creeks, entering from the west; the Kinzua, Conewango, and Brokenstraw, being navigable, from ten to twenty miles, for rafts of timber and manufactured lumber. Early in the year 1794, warrants were purchased and located on nearly all the land east and south of the Allegheny river, by the Holland Land Company and George Mead. The land was surveyed into tracts of 1,000 and 1,100 acres. A memorable controversy arose between these high contending parties as to the location of their respective warrants. The Holland company had purchased several hundred 900-acre warrants in July, 1794, which they claimed to be descriptive. In February, 1794, General George Mead procured 100 warrants for 1,000 acres each, and had them located partly in Warren county, in the spring following. 1132 WARREN COUNTY. The Holland company alleged he was upon their territory, and on the 15th of April, 1794, filed caveats in the land office against the issuing of any patents on the Mead surveys; and they proceeded in September following to locate their warrants on the same lands. This inaugurated a controversy over more than 100,000 acres of land, a large portion of which was in territory now embraced in Warren county, which, however, was compromised in 1796 by the surrender by Mead, of about 30,000 acres of the land covered by his surveys, and the withdrawal of the caveats by the Holland company as to the balance. These conflicting surveys have since been the source of great vexation to surveyors, and of much litigation to subsequent owners. THE BOROUGH OF WARREN. SIn 1813, the Holland Land company sold to Henry Shippen and others, styling themselves " The Lancaster Land company," 174,000 acres of their land on the east side of the Allegheny river. In 1814, this company em loyed Colonel Samuel Dale, of Union county, to re-survey and subdivide their lands into smaller lots, which he did in that and the following year, re-numbering them from 1 to 772. These lands have ever since been mapped, taxed, bought, and sold by these subdivisions, surveys, and numbers. The Lancaster Land company soon failed to keep the taxes paid, and these lands are now all 1133 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. held by treasurer's deeds under sales for unpaid taxes. The want of a general proprietorship in these lands, and a land office where they could be bought, served greatly to retard the settlement of that part of the county. The same was true of the George Mead lands, most of which came into the tax sale market as early as 1818. The territory of the county west of the Allegheny river and Conewango creek, hitherto entirely unappropriated, was mostly covered by warrants taken out by the Holland Land company soon after the passage of the celebrated actual settlement act of the 3d of April, 1792, and surveyed into tracts of 400 acres each, about the year 1795. This part of the county has always had and still contains much the largest bulk of the population. That portion of the county lying between the Allegheny river and Conewango creek was mostly surveye l on warrants taken out by John Nicholson, about the year 1800, while he was Treasurer of the Commonwealth. Nicholson proved defaulter to the government, and failed to pay his notes for the purchase money, and the State at one time claimed to still own the lands, but abandoned it, and they were all sold and re-sold for taxes, and are now held and occupied under tax titles. By the act of the 18th of March, 1795, the Governor was required to appoint two commissioners to survey and lay out the town of Warren and certain reserve tracts adjoining, upon the land reserved for that purpose by the act of the 3d April, 1792. It was done that year by General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott, and soon after the Holland company erected therein a block store-house, to which they boated provisions up the river from Pittsburgh, to supply their surveyors and settlers. This was the first erection in the town. Even before 1800, and within the next five years, quite a number of adventurous pioneers had commenced actual settlements for agricultural purposes in several localities throughout the county. John Gilson, James Morrison, and Martin Reese were the first to occupy the river flats in and adjoining the town of Warren; Joseph Marsh and Robert Russell, in the beech-woods, now Farmington township; the Morrison, English, and Marsh families on the Kinzua flats, twelve miles above Warren; Robert Miles, John Barr, John Dickenson, the Hood and Stewart families, the hardwood uplands of Sugar Grove; and Daniel Horn and Abram Davis, on the upper waters of the Brokenstraw, where the borough of Columbus stands. Lower down on that stream, James White, Andrew Evers, Robert Andrews, Joseph and Darius Mead, and Daniel McQuay cleared land for farming in connection with their lumbering operations, and still below them, as the valley widened near its mouth, farms were opened by Matthew Young, who gave to Youngsville its patronymic, John McKinney, Hugh Wilson, and Joseph Grey. At its outlet and on the river flats was opened the splendid farm then owned by General Calender Irvine, the best in the county, and which has remained in the possession of the family ever since. Upon the close of the last war with Great Britain, a rapid tide of emigration set in from New York and the Eastern States. Soon that element predominated, and has retained the ascendancy ever since. The Yankees have ruled Warren county, and to their enterprise and industry its rapid development is largely attributable. About 1830 some Germans found their way into the 1184 WARREN COU.NTY. county, and made known its attractions to their friends abroad. In a few years a large Protestant German population had sought homes here, mostly in and around Warren borough, where they and their descendants still remain. Both the agricultural and mechanical departments have been and now are largely supplied from this foreign element. A history of Warren county would be incomplete without some notice of, perhaps the earliest settler, Gy-ant-wa-chia, alias John O'Bail, alias " The Cornplanter." He was a distinguished chief of the Seneca tribe of Indians, one of the confederate Six Nations, celebrated before and during the Revolutionary war. Cornplanter was a half breed, the contemporary of Washington, about the same age, a valiant warrior of his tribe, and of superior sagacity and eloquence. He fought on the side of the French during the French and English struggle for the north-west of this continent, commencing with the battle of the Monongahela, on the 9th of July, 1755, and resulting in Braddock's defeat and death. During the Revolutionary war, he, as a.chief of one of the Six Nations, was in league with and fought on the side of the British. Immediately on the close of the war, being deserted by his British allies, his superior sagacity convinced him he had been in the wrong in that contest, and that the true policy for his tribe and race was to accept the situation, and make friends with their future masters. This he hastened to do, and was efficient in bringing the Six Nations into friendly treaties with the Government. He was himself one of the negotiators and signers to the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort Harmar, ceding large districts of land to the United States. He maintained his allegiance most faithfully and efficiently during the Indian war, from 1790 to 1794, rendering valuable assistance to the general government and in the protection of the western frontiers of Pennsylvania. For these services, among other rewards, he received from Pennsylvania permission to select 1,500 acres of land from her unappropriated territory for himself and his posterity. Among his selections he chose for his own occupancy a tract of 640 acres of beautiful land on the west bank of the Allegheny river, about fourteen miles above Warren, together with two large adjacent islands. Here he permanently located himself and family about 1791, and resided until his death, in 1836, at the age of one hundred or upwards, and here his family and descendants, to the number of about eighty-five, still reside. Notwithstanding their history and surroundings, they have never brought their land to a high state of cultivation. They farm it some, not enough for their subsistence, and many of them talk English. But with all the advantages of white neighbors and an English school kept among them, they are Indians still. In 1866, the Legislature of Pennsylvania authorized the erection of a monument to the memory of the old chieftain, which was done under the supervision of the writer at a cost of five hundred and fifty dollars, and now marks the grave of one of the bravest, noblest, and truest specimens of the aboriginal race. Three of his children were present at the dedication of his monument in 1866the last of whom died in 1874, at the age of about one hundred years. Almost the exclusive occupation of the first settlers was the manufacture of pine lumber. This continued, with some exceptions, for the first twenty years. Still, very early in the century, necessity compelled the cultivation of the soil to 1135 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. some extent, even by the lumbermen. This, and experiments made elsewhere, at length developed the fact that soil which produced valuable crops of timber would, when subdued, produce other crops equally luxuriant. The northern part of the county, generally covered with hard wood, beech and maple predominating, was found to be well adapted both to grazing and grain raising. In the production of grass, oats, and potatoes, and indeed of all climatic roots, it is unsurpassed by any county in the same latitude. Other grains are cultivated with success. Corn and buckwheat are generally remunerative crops. Good crops of wheat, rye, and barley, are raised in some localities, yet much flour is imported into the county. Naturally and properly the agriculturalists, in late years, have turned their attention to grazing and the manufacture of butter and cheese, large quantities of which are now exported to eastern cities. The lumbering business, commencing nearly with the present century, exhibited its infancy and primitive character for many years, in water mills and single upright saws, driven by overshot or fluttei: wheels, working only at certain stages of water, and subject to suspension by ice, flood, and drouth. A mill that would cut one hundred thousand feet per annum was considered a good investment. Floating lumber to market in rafts was commenced by Daniel Jackson on the Conewango, and by Darius and Joseph Mead on the Brokenstraw, in 1801. For halting and tieing up rafts, halyard and hickory splint cables were mostly used for some years, the latter being manufactured by George Gregg on the Brokenstraw. In 1805, a new trade sprung up, in the boating of seasoned lumber from the Brokenstraw to New Orleans. Several trips were thus made during this and the following years, and good profits realized, though at great hazards. The late William B. Foster, of Pittsburgh, and Colonel William Magaw, of Meadville, were engaged in that enterprise. Of the pilots and hands employed, Daniel Horn and some others would return by sail vessels to Baltimore, and from thence travel home on foot. Dan. McQuay and some others made some return trips on foot all the way from New Orleans. Such lumber, the best quality, of course, brought there forty dollars per thousand feet. From this small beginning, the lumber business, under the management and energy of the Meads and McKinneys, Elijah Smith, Daniel Horn, Dr. William A. Irvine, and others on the Brokenstraw; Guy C. Irvine, Robert Russel, Jacob Hook, Robert Miles, Josiah and Orvis Hall, and others on the river and Conewango creek, acquired huge dimensions, until at the springtime freshets these streams would seem almost covered for miles with floating rafts. Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and other intermediate towns, had grown up in the meantime, and opened their markets for lumber. Re-action wheels, steam mills, circular and gang saws, had superseded the flutter wheel and lonesome single saw, and millions of feet were now made where thousands were before. This business reached and passed its summit between the years 1832 and 1840, when it took the down grade, and has now, by the failure of the timber, dwindled to a mere fraction of what it was. In the same period agriculture has increased in about the same proportion as the lumbering has decreased. It now sends to foreign markets much butter, beef, cheese, hay, and other products. 1136 WARREN COUNTY Perhaps the most important branch of manufacturing industry of modern growth are the tanneries, that within a few years have discovered and commenced to utilize the immense forests of hemlock that covered large portions of the county, especially that part east of the Allegheny river. Six large tanneries and several smaller ones have recently commenced the consumption of hemlock bark, and are making sad havoc of thile native deer parks. These establishments require large investments of capital, and are now one of the most important and successful industries of the county. Crossing from the side-hill on the west side of the river near Tidioute, oil (originally called Seneca, now petroleum) was seen and sm It by the denizens and navigators for many years, without supposing it to be of any value, or knowing how to utilize it. Soon after the first production of oil at Titusville, in 1859. and the discovery that it could be refined into an illumina'or, the attcntion of speculators was attracted to Tidioute, and a few fl)wing wells were opened there. Immediately this rugged, lonely spot was invaded by crowds from all sections of country. For a time it seemed to be the Mecca of thie multitude seeking wealth without work. On the river and adjacent hills, several hundred wells were sunk, with more or less success, with fewer dry holes and better permanence in production than were incident to many other developed localities. But, as is true of all others, the production gradually diminished, and the bright anticipations of many were blasted. In the excitement, Tidioute grew from a small village to a large and prosperous borough. Hotels, banks, saloons, churches, and mercantile houses appeared upon its streets with magical rapidity. Money floated in every breeze like leaves in autumn. But with the diminished supply, and low price of oil since the panic of 1873, came a terrible revulsion in its prosperity. The suddenly rich became as suddenly poor, and the inflated prices of property depreciated to the lowest standard of value. Still oil continues to be produced there in paying quantities in a number of wells, mostly owned by men and companies that low prices could not break. The rise and fall of Enterprise and Fagundus, two other oil-fields of the county laying south and west of Tidioute, were but repetitions of the same inevitable destiny of all villages and cities forced to an unnatural growth by the stimulus of an oil excitement. The production of petroleum, however, has been the source of much wealth to the people of the county. Large quantities of rough and poor land were sold to foreign speculators at fabulous prices, the greater portion of which remain dead stock in the hands of the buyers. In many cases the sellers also, thus made suddenly rich, in the end are worse off than if they had never sold. The county, in its municipal capacity, incidentally received a large benefit from the discovery of oil. In 1861, Henry R. Rouse, who had represented the county in the Legislature the two preceding years, embarked largely in the oil speculations of the day, and acquired much valuable territory on Oil creek. In the moment of triump)hlant success, hlie became enveloped in an explosion of gas from one of his own wells, and was fatally burned. During the. few hours he lived afterwards he executed a will, making the county his residuary legatee. A large estate was thus acquired, one-half for the benefit of tihe poor of the county, and the other 3w 1137 112 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. ascertained this fact, acquainted his colonel of the object, who seemed rather to encourage his command to make the trial, as an example was necessary to be made for the safety of thile frontier inhabitants. The destruction of the Conestogas was not then projected. That was the result of the attempted capture. Parkman and Webster, following Rupp, state that Colonel Elder, learning of an intent to destroy the entire tribe, as they were about to set off, rode after them commanding them to desist; that Stewart threatened to shoot his horse, and much more. Such was not the case. From a letter dated Paxtang, December 16, 1763, written to Governor Penn, he says: " On receiving intelligence, the 13th inst., that a number of persons were assembled on purpose to go and cut off the Conestoga Indians, in concert with Mr. Foster, the neighboring magistrate, I hurried off an express with a written message to that party,' entreating them to desist from such an undertaking, representing to them the unlawfulness and barbarity of such an action, that it's cruel and unchristian in its nature, and would be fatal in its consequences to themselves and families; that private persons have no right to take the lives of any under the protection of the legislature; that they must, if they proceeded in that affair, lay their accounts to meet with a severe prosecution, and become liable even to capital punishment; that they need not expect that the country would endeavor to conceal or screen them from punishment, but that they would be detected and given up to the resentment of the government.' These things I urged in the warmest terms in order to prevail with them to drop the enterprise, but to no purpose." Not to be deterred, the rangers reached the Indian settlement before daylight. The barking of some dogs discovered them, and a number of strange Indians rushed from their wigwams, brandishing their tomahawks. This show of resistance was sufficient inducement for the rangers to make use of their arms. In a few moments every Indian present fell before the unerring fire of the brave frontiersmen. The act accomplished, they mounted their horses and returned severally to their homes. Unfortunately a number of the Indians were absent from Conestoga, prowling about the neighboring settlements, doubtless on predatory incursions. The destruction at the Manor becoming known, they were placed in the Lancaster work-house for protection. Among these vagabonds were two well known to Parson Elder's scouts. An express being sent to Philadelphia with the news, great excitement ensued, and Governor Penn issued a proclamation relative thereto. Notwithstanding its fine array of words, it fell upon the Province harmless. Outside of the Quaker settlements every one heartily approved of the measures taken by the Paxtang rangers. The presence of the remaining Indians at Lancaster soon became a cause of great uneasiness to the magistrates and people, for as previously remarked, two or three were notorious scoundrels. It may be here related that several of the strange Indians harbored at Conestoga, who were also absent at the destruction of the village, made their escape and reached Philadelphia, where they joined the Moravian Indians from Nain and Wichetunk, and there secreted. The removal of the Conestoga Indians from Lancaster was requested by the chief magistrate, Edward Shippen. Governor Penn proved very tardy, and we are of the opinion he cared little about them, or he would have acted promptly HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. half to be expended upon the roads and bridges of the county. By this act of beneficence, Warren county acquired a permanent fund of nearly $200,000. A first-class farm, in the valley of the Brokenstraw, on which are erected large and commodious brick buildings for the accommodation and comfort of the destitute, designated as " The Rouse Hospital," sus tained by the income from an invested fund of $85,000, remains as a permanent blessing to the county and lasting monument to the benevolent heart of Henry R. Rouse. The farm and fund almost entirely exempt the people from the burden of a poor tax. The improved condition of the roads and bridges a~lso bear daily testimony to the beneficent results de rived by the public from the interest of the other half of his generous bequest. This fund, and the judicious Sand economical management of the finances by the 4 commissioners, have given to Warren county the dis tinction of being one of a very small number in the Commonwealth entirely free from debt. The production of petroleum is still prosecuted to a considerable extent in the southern part of the county, and some recent developments have created a Spretty general impression that the land immediately around Warren borough, especially that bounding it on the north and east, is about to develop us good oil territory. A few producing wells are now in opera Stion, and active measures are now in progress to tho roughly test it. Some testing experiments are being Smade elsewhere, but as yet with no favorable results. INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY or WARREN COUNTY, WITH DATES.-County erected and surveyed in 1800; Sorganized for judicial and municipal purposes by act Sof March 16th, 1819; first court held, Hon. Jesse 0 Z Moore, president judge, Isaac Connelly and Joseph Hackney, associate judges, in November, 1819; the Hon. Henry Shippen appointed president judge in 1824; trial of Jacob Hook, for the murder of Caleb Wallace, was had in 1824; the first court house erected in 1827; first jail built in 1829; the steamboat Allegheny, built mainly by Archibald Tanner, of Warren, and David Dick, of Meadville, opened steam boat navigation on the Allegheny river up to Warren, making one and the only trip ever made by steam to Olean, in New York State, to the great amusement of the Anglo-Saxons, and the astonishment of the native Senecas, in 1830; the Warren academy, aided by a 1138 WARREN COUNTY. State appropriation, was built 1834; the Lumbermen's bank of Warren chartered, organized, and opened with a paid up capital stock of $100,000, Robert Falconer, president, and Fitch Shepard, cashier, 1834; the Sunbury and Erie, now the Philadelphia and Erie railway, chartered and organized in 1837; Sunbury and Erie railroad surveyed and located through Warren county in 1838; the Lumbermen's bank failed in 1838; the first bridge across the river built at Warren in 1839; Warren county taken out of the Sixth Judicial District, and made part of the Eighteenth District, and N. B. Eldred appointed president judge, in 1835; he was succeeded by Alexander McCalmont in 1839; Warren county restored to the Sixth District in 1840; a district court created in the Sixth Dis. trict for five years, and James Thompson appointed judge, 1840; Judge MeCalmont was succeeded by Gaylord Church, 1843; Hon. John Galbraith elected president judge in 1851; Judge Galbraith having died, the vacancy was filled by the appointment of R. Brown, 1860; he was succeeded by the election of S. P. Johnson, 1860; the district, so long composed of Erie, Crawford, and Warren counties, was changed in 1870; L. D. Wetmore was elected for the district, including Warren county, in 1870; an assistant judgeship was created for the Sixth District, including Warren, in 1856; filled by David Derrickson for the first ten years, and by John P. Vincent, until 1873; owing to the failure of the United States bank, the Sunbury and Erie railroad enterprise, in which it was the principal stockholder, was suspended for nearly twenty years, was revived in 1857, and the western division from Erie to Warren was completed in the fall of 1859; the line was completed to Sunbury in 1863; other railroads followed, first, the Warren and Franklin railroad, from Irvineton to Oil City, was completed in 1867; the Dunkirk and Warren railroad, between those two points, was built in 1871; and the Warren and Venango road, from Warren to Titusville, in 1872; the Warren county bank was chartered in 1856; and after changing its name to the North-western Bank of Warren, finally failed in 1861; a new and elegant suspension bridge over the Allegheny river was erected at Warren in 1872; and another at Tidioute in 1873; a new, ornamental, and commodious jail built in 1874; the Western Insane Hospital was located in this county, in the Conewango valley, two miles north of Warren borough, in 1873, which is now being built by the State on a most beautiful site, with twelve hundred feet frontage, and at an estimated cost of near one million; the old court house was torn down, and a new one of modern style and conveniences commenced on the same ground, this year of 1876. WARREN borough was incorporated in 1832 by act of the Legislature, with a population of 358, which may now be safely estimated at 2,600. It is beautifully situated just below the confluence of the Conewango creek and Allegheny river, bounded on the east and south by these two streams. It has within its limits about 400 acres of land, seven churches, a large and elegant Union school house, an excellent water power, on which are erected a grist mill, and several mechanical and manufacturing industries. 1139 WASHINGTON COUNTY. BY ALFRED CREIGH, LL.D., WASHINGTON. ASHING'ION county, Pennsylvania, of 1781, may very justly claim an existence as a portion of Virginia, under the original charter grante 1 to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth, on the 25th day of March, 1584. James I., in 1C06, divided the entire colony between the London and I lymiouth l nd companies, and the south-western portion of Pennsylvania, claimed by Virginia, belonged to the Plymouth Land Company. Charles I., being the suc(essor to James.L, gave ex ensive grants of land to Lord Fairfax . and Lord Baltimore, which event - caused much' difficulty. In ___ _=_ 1634, Vir -. ginia was di vided into .... eight shires, -1 11'' or counties, m which since the American Revolution, - have been di vided into one hundred and fifty-two 0 counties, of which fifty WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON COLLEGE, AT WASHIINGTON. three are in three are in West Virginia. According to historical evidence, the territory of Washington county was originally a part of the district of West Augusta, but in 1720, Spottsylvania county was taken from West Augusta, with Williamsburg as its county town. In 1734, Orange county was taken from Spottsylvania, and comprised what is now known as Western Virginia; but in 1738, Frederick and Augusta counties were erected from Orange, and by the terms of that act Augusta county was to constitute all that portion of Virginia west of the Blue ridge. As early as 1774, Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, organized a court at Fort Pitt, then claimed by Virginia. We may remark, that in 1773 it was called Fort Dunmore, in honor of its governor, and because the British had abandoned it. On November 8, 1776, 1140 WASHIN(; TON COUNTY. West Augusta was divided into three counties, viz.: Yohogania, Ohio, and Monongalia. Yohogania county embraced the northern part of Washington county of 1781, and Ohio county the southern part, while Monongalia county embraced a large portion of Fayette county. In 1778, the lines of these three counties were adjusted by Colonel William Crawford, Richard Yeates, Isaac Leet, William Scott, and James McMahon, whose descendants reside within the original boundaries once claimed by Virginia, but now belonging to Pennsylvania. The organic act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, under date of March 28, 1781, gave to Washington county its metes and bounds. It was bounded by Virginia on the south and west, the Ohio river on the north, and the Monongahela river on the east. It remained intact until September 24, 1788, when all of Allegheny county south of the Ohio and west of the Monongahela river was taken from Washington, and on September, 1789, the whole of Dickinson township and the one-half of Cecil township, Washington county, was also added to Allegheny county. On February 9, 1796, the townships of Cumberland, Morgan, Franklin, Rich Hill, and Greene were taken from Washington county and constituted Greene county. On March 12, 1800, the last reduction of the limits of Washington county was effected, by striking all its land south of the Ohio river, by which Beaver county was organized. James Edgar, Hugh Scott, Van Swearingen, Daniel Leet, and John Armstrong were appointed commissioners to organize the county, according to the provisions of the act in which its boundaries were defined, courts to be organized, purchase lands for public buildings, and to divide the county into townships, specifying their organization on July 1, 1781. The chief employment of its inhabitants is agriculture, more especially breeding and grazing cattle, and the raising of wool. Since the introduction of sheep into this county, about the year 1820, the farmers devote their time and attention to this product, and according to the census of 1870, the entire number of sheep was 426,621, while all other live stock numbered only 41,451. Bituminous coal is easily accessible in the vicinity of Washington borough, yet in some few townships it lies at quite a depth from the surface. There are twenty-seven mining establishments in this county, employing 1,042 hands, with a capital of $1,298,118. Limestone abounds throughout the county, from a dark gray to a dove or cream color. It is used for lime and "piking " the roads and streets. Hence, coal and limestone are the only mineral resources of Washington county. The names of our early settlers, and with whom the history of Washington county are so intimately blended, are David Hoge, Daniel Leet, Doctor Absalom Baird, Van Swearingen, William Findley, Hon. Alexander Addison, David Reddick, Hon. James Ross, Alexander Reed, James Marshall, Rev. Thaddeus Dodd, John Rutman, Dennis Smith, Abel McFarland, Nathaniel McGiffen, Joseph Townsend, Isaac Jenkinson, Matthew Ritchie, Rev. Matthew Henderson, Thomas Stokely, Rev. Joseph Smith, Rev. Thomas Marquis, William Rankin, Rev. John McMillan, Colonel George Morgan, James Stephenson, George Burget, Patrick McCullough, Adam Poe, Rev. Elisha McCurdy, Rev. John Watson, Henry Graham, Samuel Johnson, William Patterson, and a host of others too nume1141 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. rous to mention, whose descendants are living in our county, and generally upon the homestead of their fathers, each having a strong desire to perpetuate their respective families in the home of their ancestors. Washington county may very justly lay claim to a very large amount of patriotism in defence of liberty. As early as 1781, the very year of her organization as a county, we find Brigadier-General George Clark organizing a bri4ade to prosecute a war against the Indians, which he successfully accomplished. The officers of Westmoreland and Washington counties, on June 3, 1781, responded to his call, with the soldiers under their command, for the defence of the frontiers against the Shawanese, Delawares, and Sandusky Indians. In the fall of.1781, Colonel David Williamson, of Washington county, prosecuted his first expedition to break up the Indian settlements at the Muskingum r ver and after having taken the Indians as prisoners, he sent them to Fort Pitt, where in due time they were liberated. But onl their re urn home they killed and made prisoner a family by name of.\ ontour, which gave rise to the second expedition, in March, 1782, the result of which was the destruction of the Moravian Indians. In the summer of 1782, Colonel William Crawford organized a third expedition, with a regiment of four hundred and eighty-two men, and proceeded to Sandusky, where his command met with the disaster to whchli we have leretofore alluded. In a resum6 of the history of Washington county, there properly belongs some reference to the Virginia and Pennsylvania controversy from 1752 to 1783, the running of Mason and Dixon's line, and the progress of the Whiskey Insurrection, in all which measures the county took an active part, and was the principal point wherein meetings were held and measures adopted both to promote and defeat these several objects. These subjects have, however, been referred to in the General History. The borough of WASHINGTON was a portion of Strabane township. It was originally called " Catfish's camp," from two facts-first, an Indian chief by the name of Catfish, of the Kuskee Indians, was the possessor of all these lands for his tribe, and as early as 1759 we find him addressinz the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. The stream also bears his name. Then, again, in 1769, when David Hoge purchased the three tracts of land from the Hunter family, the patent designates one as Catfish's camp, because it was the resting-place of persons traveling from Red Stone Old Fort to Wheelinghence it was called Catfish's camp. When the town was laid out by David Hoge, October, 13, 1781, he gave it the name of Bassettown. On the 4th November, 1784, the name was changed to Washington. On the 13th of February, 1810, it was incorporated as a borough, and its limits were extended in 1854. Washington college was established March 21, 1805, as a corporation, although it existed as an academy as early as September 24, 1787. While an academy, Benjamin Franklin, in 1790, presented ~50 to be applied to the foundation of a library. In August, 1852, by an agreement between the board of trustees and the Presbyterian Synod of Wheeling, it became a synodical college, with a permanent endowment fund. September C, 1864, the Synod of Wheeling, with several other Presbyterian synods, made a formal and earnest appeal to the trustees of Washingto i and Jefferson colleges, to unite on an equitable basis, and after many meetings and full discussions by tLe alumni 1142 WASHINGTON COUNTY. 1143 and trustees of the institutions, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act of incorporation, March 4, 1865, uniting these colleges, subject, however, to a two-thirds vote of the trustees. Accordingly, on April 20, 1869, twenty-seven members out of thirty being present, the question of consolidation was adopted, and Washington and Jefferson college was thenceforth to be located in Washington, Pennsylvania. On February 2, 1870, the board of trustees completed the organization and consolidation of these two colleges. It will not be inappropriate at this time to briefly refer to Jefferson college, which was located at Canonsburg, seven miles from Washington. This institution was originally incorporated as an academy in 1794, and on January 6OUTH-WESTERN COLLEGE, CALIFORNIA. 15, 1802, received a charter from the Legislature. It continued from its organi zation to the date of its consolidation, diffusing and disseminating, through its president, professors, and alumni, the principles of science and literature, and its entire history as a college stands second to none in the United States. A female seminary was established in Washington, November 26, 1835, and during its existence of forty years it has had but three principals, of which Miss N. Sherrard has occupied the position for one year. It is very deservedly one of our best institutions, in which every branch of education to adorn the female mind, and prepare them for the duties and cares of life, are imparted by the esteemed principal and her assistants. CANONSBURG was laid out by Colonel John Canon, April 15, 1788, being situated on Chartiers creek, seventeen miles from Pittsburgh and seven miles from Washington, and within Chartiers township. It was incorporated as a HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. borough February 22, 1802. It was the original seat of Jefferson college, now consolidated with Washington college.... WEST MIDDLETON is situated in the north-western part of Hopewell township, and was erected into a borough March 27, 1823. In close proximity to the borough is Pleasant Hill seminary, which has lately been purchased to elevate the colored race in literature and science.... CLAYSVILLE is on the National road, and was erected into a borough April 2, 1832. It is located in Donegal township.... GREENFIELD, in East Pike Run township, laid out in 1819, was incorporated as a borough April 9, 1834. CALIFORNIA is also situated in East Pike Run township, on the Monongahela river, and was laid out in November, 1853, and incorporated as a borough May 1, 1859. The ground upon which the borough is laid out belonged to Yohogania county, under Virginia. It was at this point that the Indians met, in 1767, with Rev. John Steel, of Carlisle, whose mission was to persuade the white man not to molest or invade the Indian hunting grounds. The land originally belonged to Indian Peter. The South-Western Normal College, of the Tenth District, was established in this borough, March 16, 1865, under an efficient faculty and board of trustees. MONONGAHELA CITY is in Union township, on the western bank of the Monongahela river. It was originally called Parkinson's ferry, and known as such during the Whiskey Insurrection. In 1833 the name was changed to Williamsport, and April 1, 1837, to Monongahela City. It has now, by an act of the Legislature, ceased to be a borough, and enjoys all the rights and privileges of a city, with the accustomed officers. It contains varied mechanical and manufacturing industries, with an active and enterprising population. MILLSBORo' was laid out on a tract of land patented as early as June 3, 1769, on the north bank of Ten Mile creek. It is situated in East Bethlehem township. The Monongahela river at this point is slack-water, and twenty miles further up the river, as far as New Geneva.... WEST BROWNSVILLE was laid out in 1831, and erected into a borough April 2, 1852. It is situated on ihe Monongahela river, and has within its limits a vein of bituminous coal seven feet in thickness. It is a thriving, growing town.... BEALLSVILLE was laid out in August, 1819, and erected into a borough February, 16, 1852. It is located in West Pike Run township, and on the National road, fifteen miles from Washington. .. BENTLEYSVILLE was laid out on the waters of Pigeon creek, March 4, 1816, and on May 2, 1868, became a borough. Its original limits have been extended. It is situated in Somerset township.... FREDERICKTOWN, in East Bethlehem township, is on the west bank of the Monongahela river, two miles north of the mouth of Ten Mile creek, eight miles above Redstone Old Fort (Brownsville), and twentv miles south-west of Washington. It was laid out as early as 1790, the land thereof being patented in 1788. So determined were the people to promote literature and science, that in 1793 they established a public library.... WEST ALEXANDER, in Donegal township, was laid out in 1817, and incorporated as a borough May 31, 1874. The National turnpike and Hempfield railroad runs through this thriving borough. 1144 WAYNE COUNTY. BY THOMAS J. HAM, HONESDALE. _- -AYNE county was organized by the act of March 21st, 1798, declar ing that "all that part of Northampton county lying and being to the northward of a line, to be drawn and beginning at the west end of George Michael's farm, on the river Delaware, in Middle Smithfield township, and from thence a straight line to the mouth of Trout creek on the Lehigh, adjoining Luzerne county, shall be, and the same is hereby, erected =__._...... -- VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF HONESDALE. into a county, henceforth to be called Wayne." It was so named in honor of that gallant officer of the Revolution, (leneral Anthony Wayne, of Chester county. The county, as originally set off from Northampton, contained an area of about 1,300 square miles, and was divided into four townships, viz.: Delaware, Middle Smithfield, Matlack, and Upper Smithfield. At the first term of its courts the expediency of its farther division was recognized, and on the second day of the session, September 11th, 1798, in compliance with a petition of twenty-five 1145 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. citizens of the northern part of the county, praying that the county north and west of Shohola creek be made into six townships, to afford greater facilities for the transaction of town business and convenience in assessing, an order was made for that purpose, Samuel Stanton, Eliphalet Kellogg, Nathan Skinner, Mordecai Roberts, and Hezekiah Bingham, Jr., or any of them, being authorized to run the lines. On the 26th of March, 1814, that portion of Wayne county lying south and east of Big Eddy on the Delaware, and south of the Waullenpaupack creek, was erected into Pike county. The resources of the county may be comprised under the general heads of manufactures and agriculture. Large mineral deposits are believed to exist in different parts of the county, but, as yet, with the exception of occasional unsuccessful experiments, nothing has been done toward their development. It is quite certain that veins of anthracite coal extend within the north-western boundary line; small quantities of lead ore have been found in the hills on the east of Honesdale; iron ore exists in Berlin township, and indications of other minerals crop out in different localities. In Mount Pleasant, Texas, and Berlin, prospecting has at various times been engaged in to a considerable extent, but leading to no profitable results. During the oil excitement of a few years since, unquestionable indications of petroleum deposits were discovered at various points in the county, and in Damascus township, opposite Narrowsburg, a well was sunk to a considerable depth, but, owing to unsatisfactory results, finally abandoned. As it has been largely owing to the operations of the Delaware and Hudson canal company, however, that the development of Wayne county has been continuous and rapid, it is fitting that a brief account of the origin, growth, and present business of that corporation should be given in this connection. The experiment of burning anthracite coal in a grate proving- successful in Wilkes-Barr6 in 1808, attempts were soon made to forward the fuel to market. Among other avenues of transportation an outlet was sought through Rixe's gap, in this county, in addition to the old Connecticut road. The coal was drawn on sleds during the winter. The distance to the Lackawaxen by this route, which lay through Cherry Ridge township, was about twenty miles. Arrived at White Mills, it was loaded on pine rafts and floated to Philadelphia. The risk of navigating the Lackawaxen in this manner being found to be great, in 1823, Maurice Wurts obtained authority from the Legislature to improve the navigation of the stream, but competition from other companies, just formed in the Schuylkill and Lehigh region, springing up, Philadelphia was abandoned as an unremunerative market, and the project of connecting the Delaware with the Hudson river, with the view to reaching New York by water communication, began to be seriously considered. William Wurts shortly afterward made a survey of the route, and reporting favorably, the needed legislation was obtained from the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and a competent engineer was employed to re-survey the line and furnish estimates of the cost of the proposed canal. The original survey of the canal placed the western terminus at or near Keen's or Headley's pond, in Wayne county, whence the mines were to be reached by a short railroad crossing the Moosic mountain by means of inclined planes. This was subsequently changed, and the connection of the railroad 1146 WAYNE COUNTY. and canal made at the junction of the Lackawaxen and Dyberry creeks, then a tract covered with the primeval forest, and an almost impenetrable jungle of laurel. The canal was commenced in 1826, and occupied two years in its construction. It was at first designed for boats carrying twenty-five tons, and has since been from time to time enlarged, at a cost of over six millions of dollars, until at present it floats average cargoes of one hundred and thirty tons. It is 108 miles in length, while the railroad extending to Providence is thirty-two miles long, and cost upwards of three millions of dollars. This road was the second one built on this continent, and the first in America upon which a locomotive was attempted to be run. This engine, named the "Stourbridge Lion," was built in England, and imported in 1828. It was put upon the rails near the old Methodist Episcopal church building, in the borough of IHonesdale, and successfully run two or three miles up the valley and return, Major Horatio Allen being the engineer. It was soon found, however, that the locomotive was too heavy for the slender trestling of which much of the road was then composed, and its agency was abandoned, stationary engines and inclines being made to obviate the necessity for its use. The Pennsylvania coal company, in 1848, commenced the building of a railroad from Pittston to Hawley, a distance of forty-seven miles, about thirty of which pass across the south-western portion of this county. It was completed in 1850, and its building gave a new impetus to the growth of the village at its eastern terminus, Hawley becoming in a short time the second town in population in the county. The manufacture of glass was one of the earliest prominent business ventures of the county. The first furnace was started(l in 1816, by a company organized by Christopher Faatz, who had previously been engaged in the same business in Milford. Mr. Faatz was a native of Germany, and the first man to blow window glass in the United States. The factory was located on a tract of six hundred acres of land, situated near Bethany, the then county seat. It was heavily wooded, thereby insuring an abundance of fuel, and upon it were three beautiful ponds, whose margins supplied unlimited quantities of suitable sand. A large business was done, but on the whole an unprofitable one, and within a few years the establishment passed into other hands. Subsequently the factory was kept running until December, 1848, when the buildings were destroyed by fire. In 1847 the Honesdale glass factory, located at Tracyville, was started. An extensive business was carried on until the buildings were swept away by a flood, caused by the bursting of the dam of one of the Delaware and Hudson canal company's reservoirs, in February, 1861. In 1873 the Honesdale glass company was organized, by which the works at Tracyville have been rebuilt, and the business resumed on an extensive scale. Very extensive flint-glass works have been in operation for several years at White Mills, five miles from Honesdale. They were established by Christian Dorflinger, who is also president of the HIonesdale glass company. The White Mills works are among the most complete in the country. As a dairy county, Wayne enjoys a very enviable reputation. The grazing qualities of the land are excellent, the water pure and chemically adapted to butter-making. A large proportion of the butter of Wayne county is sent to the 1147 GENERAL HISTORY. Day after day passed by, and the excitement throughout the frontiers became greater. The rangers, who found that their work had been only half done, consulted as to what measures should be further proceeded with. Captain Stewart proposed to capture the principal Indian outlaw, who was confined in the Lancaster work-house, and take him to Carlisle jail, where he could be held for trial. This was heartily approved of, and accordingly a detachment of the rangers, variously estimated at from twenty to fifty, proceeded to Lancaster on the 27th of December, broke into the work-house, and but for the show of resistance would have effected their purpose. But the younger portion of the rangers, to whom was confided this work, were so enraged at the defiance of the Indians, that before their resentment could be repressed by Captain Stewart, the unerring rifle was employed, and the last of the so-called Conestogas had yielded up his life. In a few minutes thereafter, mounting their horses, the daring rangers were safe from pursuit. George Gibson, who, from his acquaintance with the principal frontiersmen of his time, in a letter written some years after, gives the most plausible account of this transaction, which bore such an important part in the early history of the Province. He says: " No murder has been committed since the removal of the friendly Indians and the destruction of Conestoga-a strong proof that the murders were committed under the cloak of the Moravian Indians.... A description of an Indian who had, with great barbarity, murdered a family on the Susquehanna, near Paxtang, was sent to Lazarus Stewart at Lancaster. This Indian had been traced to Conestoga. On the day of its destruction he was on a hunting expedition. When he heard that the rangers were in pursuit of him, he fled to Philadelphia.... The three or four who entered the work-house at Lancaster were directed by Stewart to seize on the murderer, and give him to his charge. When those outside heard the report of the guns within, several of the rangers alighted, thinking their friends in danger, and hastened to the door. The more active of the Indians, endeavoring to make their escape, were met by them and shot. No children were killed by the Paxtang boys. No act of savage butchery was committed." If the excitement throughout the Province was great after the affair at Cones toga, this last transaction set everything in a ferment. " No language," says Rev. Dr. Wallace, " can describe the outcry which arose from the Quakers in Philadelphia, or the excitement which swayed to and fro in the frontiers and in the city." The Quakers blamed the Governor, the Governor the Assembly, and the latter censured everybody except their own inaction. Two proclamations were issued by the Provincial authorities offering rewards for the seizure of those concerned in the destruction of the Indians, but this was impossible, owing to the exasperation of the frontiersmen, who heartily approved of the action of the rangers. On the 27th of December, the Rev. Mr. Elder hurriedly wrote to Governor Penn: "The storm, which had been so long gathering, has at length exploded. Had government removed the Indians from Conestoga, as was frequently urged without success, this painful catastrophy might have been avoided. What could I do with men heated to madness? All that I could do was done. I expos tulated, but life and reasoD were set at defiance, and yet the men, in private life, 113 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. New York market, where it ranks as the product of first-class Orange county dairies, and commands the highest market rates. The annual yield is: butter, 1,100,000 pounds; cheese, 5,000 pounds. Concerning the early settlement of the county, neither the scope of thi' sketch, nor the extent of our researches, at this time, admit of an extended account. It was part of the territory long in dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and is generally admitted to have been the first point at which an attempt to locate under the Connecticut title was actually made, the Delaware company commencing its settlement at Cushetunk (Cochecton) as early as 1757. In 1761, a warrant was issued by the Chief Justice of the Province, directing the sheriff of the county (then Northampton) to arrest a number of New Englanders who had intruded upon the Indian lands at Cushetunk without leave. There is abundant evidence that this settlement was made near the mouth of Corkin's creek, and Simon Corkins, from whom the stream derived its name, was one of the offenders named in the warrant. Many of the descendants of his colleagues, recited in the writ, are at present among the most respected citizens of the county. The Skinners, Corkinses, Smiths, Willises, Tylers, Chapmans, and Adamses, of Damascus and adjoining townships, can boast these venturesome and hardy pioneers as their ancestors. In 1762, Sheriff John Jennings, of Northampton county, employed John Williamson to visit Cochecton and gain intelligence of the condition of the settlement. In his report, Williamson says, that he reached the place by traveling up the Delaware to Minisink, seventy miles from Easton, and thence following an Indian path for forty miles, through a miserable rocky country. lie found sixteen families settled on the Delaware, their improvements extending for a distance of seven miles along the river. The spirit which animated these pioneers may be inferred from Williamson's report, in which he says: " There were in all forty men. They threatened, if any sheriff came to molest them, they would tie a stone about his neck and send him down to his governor. They knew the woods well, and would pop them down three to one." The "head man" of the settlement was Moses Thomas. Other leading men were Aaron Thomas, Isaac and Christopher Tracey, Jonathan Tracey, Reuben Jones, Moses and Levi Kimball, James Pennin, Daniel Cash, Nathan Parks, and Bezaleel Tyler. They were living in comfortable log houses, covered with white pine shingles or boards, and each raising a few acres of corn. Chapman says, that by this time the settlement had grown to a village of thirty dwelling houses, three large log houses, a block-house for defence, one grist mill, and one saw mill. This settlement was soon afterward broken up by the Indians, and its founders driven away; but they subsequently returned, an:l some of them penetrated to the valley of Wyoming, where their history has been traced in letters of blood. An Indian path leading from Cochecton, through Little Meadows, in Salem township, and across the Moosic mountains to Capoose, whence a wellbeaten trail led to Wyoming, was the first route by which the Delaware and Susquehanna were connected, and the first rude wagon-road cut out and opened from the Hudson river to Wyoming valley, for the pack horse or wheels followed this track the greater portion of the way, because of its being the most direct route from Connecticut to the backwoods of Lackawanna and Wyoming, then called Westmoreland by the Yankees. 1148 WAYNE COUNTY. The Proprietary survey of Waullenpaupack Manor, located on the Waullenl)aupack creek, now the dividing line between Wayne and Pike counties, was made in 1748. It contained something over twelve thousand acres. A settlement was made on this tract by a family named Carter, in 1753, supposed to be the first whites who ever attempted to make themselves a home in this region. During the French and Indian war-probably in 1757-the family were butchered by the savages and their house burnt. The Connecticut settlers, following the old Indian path from Cochecton to the Susquehanna, which ran near the site of Carter's house, found the chimney still standing. In 1774, the Connecticut adventurers laid out farms lying along the creek for a distance of four miles and a half, and extending back to the mountains a distance of one mile. These were allotted to the settlers, and, for the most part, are still owned by their descendants. In the following year, about half of the settlers were arrested, at the instance of Governor Hamilton, as " Connecticut intruders." On their way to Easton, they entered into a written obligation with their captors, in consideration of being released, to resign all claims to the lands they were occupying, and in future pay due obedience to the laws of Pennsylvania, and, if required, march for the defence of American liberty. During the Revolution, the settlement was subjected to many warlike incursions from the Indians and their Tory allies living on the upper waters of the Delaware. The well authenticated accounts of the outrages perpetrated during these raids are highly interesting, but the restrictions as to space imposed upon the writer prevent their being placed on record here. They had the effect of nearly depopulating the settlement for the time being, but on the return of peace with Great Britain, several of the Waullenpaupack people who had sought refuge in Orange county, N. Y., and in Connecticut, found their way back to their old homes, and shortly afterward began to extend the boundaries of their p)ioneer work, following the courses of the streams, and locating on the rich bottom lands through which they flow. Thle first settler in Salem township was Robert Strong. ie moved there with his family in 1756. Being hospitable to thile Indians, he was favored with their friendship, and was never molested in any of their murderous raids. These relations continued until 1779, when General Sullivan desolated the Indian country, from the Suquehanna to the Genesee. This awoke the spirit of revenge in the savages, and, thirstin( for vengeance, small parties of them roamed the mountains in search of victims. None were spared. Death was the sentence pronounced upon young and old, and fortunate were those who were not first put to thie most cruel torture. In the early winter of 1779, a raid was made upon the little settlement in Salem. Strong, who for nearly a quarter of a century had been exempt from harm at the hands of the Indians, felt assured that his family would still be spared. But the slaughter was general. Strong and his entire family were butchered in cold blood, and it was not until the savages supposed that every man, woman, and child of the little hamlet was slain, that they left for Cochecton and other settlements, in search of new victims. The only survivor of this raid was a man named Jacob Stanton He managed to secrete himself at the outset of the attack, and, watching a favorable opportunity, crept to the shadow of the woods, where he found a 1149 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. hiding-place until after the Indians had left the neighborhood. He then prepared a common grave as the last resting-place for his martyred family aiind neighbors, and, unaided, laid them in it side by side. Over their remains he fashioned a huge mound, which still exists as a mute, yet eloquent, witness of the fearful trials to which pioneer settlements were sometimes subjected. This massacre took place on what was in after years known as the Seth Goodrich farm. HONESDALE, the present county town, located on the Lackawaxen river, at the junction of the West Branch and Dyberry creeks, was first laid out in 1826, and incorporated a borough in 1831. It became the county seat in 1842, the first court being held in the new court house, December sessions, 1843. Up to 1826, when active operations in the construction of the canal were first commenced, the site of the village was a wilderness, but dating from that event, the growth of the town, which was named Hone's Dale, in honor of Hon. Philip Hone, an early and efficient patron of the Dela ware and Hudson canal company, has been rapid and con tinuous. The bo WAYNE COUNTY SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, HONESDALE. rough is much the largest village in the county, and is noted for the regularity and cleanliness of its streets, its public park, etc. During the late civil war, Wayne county contributed liberally of blood and treasure for the maintenance of the Union, and through the exertions of the ladies of the county, a noble monument has blen erected in the public square in Honesdale, to perpetuate the memory of those who fell. The streets are lighted with gas, and well conducted water works supply nearly every house with excellent water. It contains seven churches, a public library, and, in fact, a liberal supply of all the institutions which contribute to the prosperity of communities. BETHIANY, the county seat of Wayne from 1805 until 1843, was erected into a borough from a portion of Dyberry township, March 31, 1821. It is a pretty village, occupying a beautiful site on a high eminence, three miles north-west of Honesdale, though it has naturally lost much of its business activity since the removal of the county buildings. A newspaper was established in Bethany as early as 1818, called the Wayne County Mirror. 1150 WAYNE COUNTY, HAWLEY, the second village in size in the county, and an important point in consequence of being the depot for transhipping the coal of the Pennsylvania coal company from the Washington to the Erie railway, and the Delaware and Hudson canal, is located in Palmyra township. The business of the place has suffered somewhat of late years in consequence of the removal of the company's shops to another point. PROMPTON borough was incorporated out of parts of Texas, Canaan, and Clinton, in September, 1850. The village proper is located on the West Branch, about four miles west of HIonesdale, while the borough limits extend nearly to Waymart and the Clinton line on the west and north. The Wayne County Normal School, established by the county superintendent, is located here. WAYMART was incorporated April 8, 1851. The borough was erected out of the northern portion of Canaan township, and borders on the Clinton line. The Delaware and Hudson canal company make this an important point, their road running through the village. Considerable quantities of coal are sometimes stocked in Waymart when the docks in Honesdale become full. WAYNE borough was incorporated in 1853. The village is located in Scott township, and is important as being the centre of extensive tanning and lumbering operations. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS.-BERLIN, from Dyberry, November 27, 1826. .. BUCKINGHAM was one of the original six townships into which Wayne was divided, on its erection in 1798, and comprised all of the territory now embraced in Buckingham, Manchester, and Scott townships, together with a part of Preston and all of Wayne borough.... CANAAN was erected in 1798, on the organization of the county.... CLINTON was erected in 1834, out of the northern portion of Canaan, and a small part each of Dyberry and Mount Pleasant.... CHERRY RIDGE from Texas and Canaan, December 6, 1843. ... DAMASCUS, in the oiiginal division of all that portion of the county of Wayne lying north of Shohola creek, in 1798.... DYBERRY, from I)amas cus, in September, 1803, comprised at first all of the present territory known by that name, as well as Berlin, Oregon, Texas, and part of Prompton.... LEBANON was erected in August, 1819.... OREGON, from part of Berlin, in December, 1846.... PRESTON was erected April 28, 1828, from parts of Mount Pleasant and Scott.... MANCHESTER, from a part of Buckingham, August 30, 1826.... MOUNT PLEASANT, originally one of the six divisions of the county, on its erection in 1798, has been materially reduced by the subsequent laying out of other townships, leaving it at present an area of about thirty-two thousand acres.... PALMYRA was erected, September, 1798, and originally included the territory now comprising Palmyra, Paupack, and part of Texas. ... PAUPACK, from Palmyra, in May, 1850.... SCOTT, from Bucking ham, in 1821.... SALEM, one of the original six townships of the county, erected in 1798, and then included Sterling, which was set off in 1815. Part of Sterling was again added to Salem in 1839.... STERLING, from Salem, April 24, 1815.... SOUTH CANAAN, from Canaan, in February, 1852... TEXAS, from Dyberry, in 1837. 1151 Ml. -?o VIEW ON THE CONEMAUGH, NEAR BOLIVAR, PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD. WESTMORELAND COUNTY. BY DALLAS ALBERT, YOUNGSTOWN. ROM 1769 to 1771, all the western portion of the State was embraced in Cumberland county. Bedford county was erected in 1771, with Bedford town as the county seat. The limits of this county, in its turn, extended to the Ohio river, and as early as this year the Penns appointed magistrates to cover their jurisdiction about Pittsburgh. But from the continual accession of emigrants into this region, and from the question already creating trouble between the colonists about the Youghiogheny, in reference to the boundary lines, it was needful, as well as politic, to erect a new - r -:- - - county government in no long AM time. After recognizing the formality of the petitions from VM numerous inhabitants of Bedford county, west of Laurel Hill, praying for the erecting of a new county, the General Assembly, on the 26th of February, 1773, passed the act by which Westmoreland county was established. It was called Westmoreland, after the county of Westmoreland in England. By the act it was placed on an equal footing with the other counties, and ample provision was made for the regular course of jus- -.. tice in open court at the doors WESTMORELAND COUNTY COURT HOUSE. of her people. By provision of the act, the courts were to be held at the house of Robert Hanna, till a court house should be built. Hanna's settlement was on the old Forbes road, about thirty miles east of Pittsburgh, and about three miles north-east of the present county town, Greensburg. Robert Hanna, a north-county Irishman, had early opened a public-house here, and near him had soon been commenced a settlement, prosperous for those times. If we except the region immediately contiguous to Fort Ligonier, and the region about the forks of the Ohio, the settlement about Hanna's was, at this date, the most flourishing in the county. After the courts had been appointed for here, the place was further stimulated. It was the first collection of houses between Bed 3 x 1153 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANTA. ford and Pittsburgh dignified with the name of town. It at no time contained more thin perhaps thirty log cabins, built after the primitive fashion of those days, of one story and a cock-loft in height, with clap-board roofs, and a huge mud chimney at one end of each cabin. These, scattered along the narrow packhorse track among the monster trees of the ancient forest, was that Hannastown which occupied such a prominent place in the early history of Western Pennsylvania, where was held the first court west of the Allegheny, where the resolves of May 16, 1775, were passed, and which, swept off the earth by the merciless fire of the British mercenary savages, in truth and in deed marks the termination of the war for Colonial independence. The first court held at Hannastown was opened April 13, 1773, in the thirteenth year of the reign of George the Third. It was a court of quarter sessions, and William Crawford presided. Here was justice first dispensed in the forms guaranteed by the great Alfred and the English Justinian, sacred in the traditions of the English speaking people; and this was the first place in the Mississippi valley where justice was administered in virtue of judicial authority. Among the justices named in the first commission, William Crawford appears to have been the most conspicuous. He was a Virginian, and had settled on the southern side of the Youghiogheny. He was always recognized as the presiding justice when lhe was present at the county courts, although this distinction was not sanctioned by law, and only by usage. Why this distinction was so generally conferred upon him is a difficult matter for us to determine; for his predilections were, as a matter of course, in favor of Virginia, he holding his lands under title from Virginia, his military commissions under the patronage of Virginians, and with the claims of Virginia being personally concerned and interested. Perhaps it was indeed to reconcile the apparent troubles arising from the conflicting claims of the two colonies. Crawford, at any rate, above the rest enjoyed this distinction, till, by an order of 1775 from the council, he was removed from office, on information that he openly sided with Virginia in the troubles then culminating. The most active agent in these affairs was one Doctor John Connolly, a man of great energy and of some ability, but of a mercenary and tyrannical disposition. He was by birth a Pennsylvanian, but became a willing tool of Dunmore. In the early par of 1774, Connolly took possession of Fort Pitt by an armed militia force, gotten together in the western part of the district of West Augusta, a name for that division of Virginia which lay beyond the Blue Ridge. He changed the name of Fort Pitt to Fort Dunmore, and in a proclamation from here asserted the claims of Virginia, and commanded the people west of Laurel Hill to recognize the authority of the King's governor. Nor did he stop at this; but he opposed the action of the Provincial magistrates both at Pittsburgh and at Hannastown, took private property from citizens, and abused with insolence any one who opposed his pretensions. St. Clair had Connolly arrested, and bound over to keep the peace, when Connolly, going to Staunton, in Augusta county, was vested with the authority of a justice of the peace, to give a legal sanction and a show of civil authority to his actions. The disadvantages suffered by the inhabitants about Pittsburgh are forcibly put in the correspondence of Devereux Smith, one of the county justices, and a 1154 TVESTMO ELAND CO UNTY. firm adherent of Penn, and the apprehensions of the people at large fully set forth in the letters of St. Clair. In short, so much did these suffer in mind, body, and estate, by the tyranny of Connolly, that many left for the east to escape the evil time. The crops were allowed to lie ungathered; the fences were down, and the cattle running at large. No taxes could be collected; for twenty miles on either side of the Youghiogheny there was an exemption from civil and military duty; and worse than all, the public fears were heightened by the prospect of an Indian war, then gathering along the Ohio. Hlow these troubles would have ended is unforeseen, for during the latter part of 1774 the attention of all the western frontierwas turned to the Indian invasion. This war, called Dunmore's war of 1774, was strictly confined to the western border of Virginia. In the fall was fought the battle of Point Pleasant. Not knowing whether the whites or the savages might be successful, all the inhabitants remaining in Westmoreland were in arms, Under the advice and supervision of St. Clair, assisted by Colonel Proctor, Colonel Lochrey, Captain James Smith, the frontier was put in a state of defence. All settlers withdrew back of the Forbes road, and the country between that and the Allegheny river was almost totally deserted. A company of rangers, whose extra pay was promised by the prominent men of the county, was organized, first at Fort Ligonier, but increased in numbers so that they, in squads of from ten to thirty, were scattered at intervals from Ligonier valley, by way of HIannastown, to the Bullock Pens, a few miles east of Pittsburgh. Many stockade forts an I block-houses were then erected, which served during the Revolution, and after, as places of defence to the inhabitants. Ligonier fort was put in repair, a stolkade was put up at IIannastown, one on the Kiskiminetas, one at Kitanning, one at Proctor's, between Hanna's and Fort Ligonier; while block-houses, by the exertions of the people, were raised at convenient distances and of easy approach. An unaccountable panic seized upon the people. Alarms without foundation were constantly spread, and continually increasing. Every exertion was made by those in authority to keep the inhabitants from wandering away. Such a state of miserable uncertainty continued, till the fortunate news of the success of Colonel Lewis at the mouth of the Kenhawa. After the termination of Dunmore's war, in the fall of 1774, the civil troubles were again agitated. What, with this and the scanty supply of food, saved over from the preceding harvests, the winter of 1774-'75 was long remembered in the traditionary annals of Westmoreland. But the trials and sufferings of this time made this people, perhaps more than any other of the western colonists, appreciate that liberty which was now apparently to pass from them. All Americans appreciate the course their forefathers took in 1775. But especially may Pennsylvanians in general, and Westmorelanders in particular, with patriotic pride and reverence, contemplate the actions of their ancestors at this date. The American Revolution was then actually begun. When the news of the first skirmish reached the wilderness west of the mountains, a thrill of sympathy went up from the people. On the 16th of May, four weeks after Lexington, there were two meetings held in Western Pennsylvania, and both of them within the virtual limits of Westmoreland. One of these meetings was held at Pittsburgh, the other at Hannastown. Of the meeting at Pittsburgh, both Virginians and Pennsylvanians partici1155 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. pated in it; the meeting at Hannastown was composed exclusively of Pennsylvanians. The resolutions adopted at Pittsburgh gave expression to a common sympathy, but took the occasion to refer more especially and at large to local affairs and grievances. Of this document we have the names of the signers and the names of those nominated to the committees. The only record we have of the meeting at Hannastown is preserved in the second volume of the American Archives (fourth series), and a letter of St. Clair to Governor Penn, written two days after the meeting, in which he alludes to the fact of his being present. The celebrated document which was produced on that day by these frontiersmen, sets forth in substance, that at a meeting of the inhabitants of Westmoreland county, to take into consideration the very alarming state of the country, caused by the unjust and unconstitutional measures of the ministry and parliament, it was resolved that... they, anticipating the fu- - ture results of such a po- _-- licy if persisted in, considered it the duty of every American citizen to oppose by every means which God had put in his power the execution of this sys- = ternm; as for them theywere ready and willing to oppose it with their lives and fortunes. To this end, they formed themselves into a military or- HOME OF GEN. ST. CLAIR, ON CHESTNUT RIDGE. [From a Pencil Sketch by Dallas Albert.] ganization known as the Association of Westmoreland county. They asserted that they acknowledged the King of England as their lawful and rightful sovereign, and that they did not mean by the association to deviate from that loyalty which it was their duty to observe; but that, actuated by a love of liberty, it was no less their duty to transmit unimpaired that liberty to their offspring which was taken from them by a corrupt ministry and a hired Parliament. And to this end, was the association formed to serve, if need be, in a military capacity against any power sent to enforce the arbitrary measures. But when things were restored to the same condition as before the era of the Stamp Act, when America grew happy, that then their association should be at an end, but till then it should remain in force. The association formed that day, was perfected under the military control of Colonel John Proctor. It did not in its regimental organization serve in the Continental army, but many of those who belonged to it saw service either under Washington himself, or in the campaigns against the Indians and British in the west. St. Clair was appointed early in 1776 to command a battalion of Pennsylvania militia. His services during the war were varied. He has the honor of having proposed to Washington the plan of attack on the British at Princeton; and as an officer of great experience was one of the commission which sat on the trial of Major Andre. 1156 WESTMORELAND COUNTY. As the Revolution continued, their troubles, instead of having abatement, increased. During 1778 and 1779, Ligonier valley suffered, perhaps, more than any other portion. The rivers by this time presented a barrier of armed posts from Kittanning to Brownsville; but Fort Ligonier was the only place of refuge for the people of this valley, who had, in spite of war and privation, increased in population. The valley derives its name from the fort. It lies between the Laurel Hill on the east and the Chestnut ridge on the west, and extends from the waters of the Yough to the Conemaugh. It is well watered with noble streams, and is now a thrifty and populous region. It was then infested with beasts of prey and overrun by savages. It was marked north and south by the Indian trails of the old Six Nations. For the Indians who at this day scalped for the bounty, it was a desirable hunting-ground. These, on their predatory war-trips, could dash upon the settler in the field, the woman at the cabin, the child at the spring; and after securing the booty, either in prisoners or in tufts of bloody hair, would skulk into the deep forests, evading all pursuit. It was not safe to go from the fort. Within sight of the little stockade, women were killed and men carried captive. The noble souls of that time, sainted by after generations, who never stirred from their birth-place, were such men as Captain Shannon, Colonel William McDowell, and the Cliffords. This date, 1779, corresponds with the date of the stories of adventure and deeds of courage and prowess of the border, which, having found their way into print, have, as in the instance of Mrs. Experience Bozarth, of Dunkard creek, since remained as a standing memorial of the spirit of those days. The effect of this warfare has been noticed by general historians, and all agree that the ceaseless conflict goaded on the whites to wage, on their part, a kind of half-savage war. At length, in 1781, it was resolved by the inhabitants of Western Pennsylvania to carry the war into the hive itself. Colonel Brodhead, the year previous, had planned a campaign against the Indians, at the forks of the Muskingum; and now the militia of the south-western counties, under the command of Colonel Williamson, on their own responsibility, marched against the friendly Moravian Indians to insist upon their removing from their half-way position between the two races, under the pretence that they harbored those whose business was war. Their villages were broken up, and they were scattered to the wilds. These, returning toward the end of the winter to gather in the corn, were attacked by a second party of rough backwoodsmen, and although they themselves were peaceable Indians, who, under the charge of pious missionaries, pursued the ways of peace, yet in cold blood were they murdered by the exasperated whites. Above ninety of them were slaughtered like beasts, not choosing to raise their arm in their own defence, but on their knees beseeching the mercy of the God of Christians. To further complete the work of extermination, but more ostensibly to carry a war into the towns of the Wyandots, in 1782, was the expedition of Colonel William Crawford planned. This expedition met the fate which human justice would say the expedition of the former, Colonel Williamson's, had merited. But in the terrible death of Crawford, in the plenary vengeance which the savages inflicted upon their unfortunate prisoners, this campaign stands out prominently in border history, and has to be noticed in a sketch of Westmoreland, in connection with the subsequent 1157 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. were virtuous and respectable-not cruel, but mild and merciful.... The time will arrive when each palliating circumstance will be calmly weighed. This deed, magnified into the blackest of crimes, shall be considered one of those youthful ebullitions of wrath caused by momentary excitement, to which human infirmity is subjected." To this extenuating and warm-hearted letter, came a reply, under date of December 29, 1763, from the Governor: "As it is absolutely necessary, for the preservation of peace and good order in the government, that an immediate stop be put to such riotous proceedings, I beg you will continue to use your best endeavors to discourage and suppress all insurrections that may appear among any of the people over whom you have an influence, and that you will be pleased to take all the pains in your power to learn the names of the ringleaders and perpetrators of those barbarities, and to acquaint me with everything you can discover concerning them. The Commissioners, not thinking it necessary any longer to keep in pay more than one person to command the troops on the east side of the Susquehanna, came yesterday to a resolution to discontinue the pay of yourself and Mr. Seeley as commanders of the companies in Lancaster and Berks counties, which are for the future to be put under the direction of Major Clayton, as well as those in Northampton. I, therefore, desire you will deliver over to him all the Provincial arms, accoutrements, ammunition, and other military stores remaining in your possession, with an exact account of those you have distributed among the two companies. I return you thanks for the good services you have performed, and for the care and prudence with which you have conducted your military command from the beginning." From the foregoing letter of Governor John Penn, it is evident that the commissioners, or rather the Provincial Council, intended to punish 1764. both the frontier commanders, or that with the destruction of the Conestogas, there was little or no danger of Indian atrocities. The latter proved to be the case, but the authorities were cognizant of the fact that the Paxtang boys were correct in their surmisings, and that peace would follow the removal of the friendly Indians. It shows, also, that believing thus, the Provincial authorities were culpable, to a great degree, in allowing the Indians to remain on the Manor, despite the representations of Colonel Elder, John Harris, and Edward Shippen. The Reverend Mr. Elder quietly laid by his sword, feeling confident that time would vindicate his course, whatever that may have been. The different proclamations of Governor Penn, and the action of the Assembly relative to this transaction, created immense excitement on the frontiers of Lancaster, Berks, and Northampton, and meetings were held, at which the Provincial authorities were severely condemned. Representatives were appointed to proceed to Philadelphia and demand redress and protection. Accompanying these were large delegations from the "back inhabitants." The Moravian Indians who had been confined in the barracks at Philadelphia since November, were removed to Province Island, at the reported march of "a large body of rioters (?), who were bent on destroying them also." This has been always denied, as merely a wild rumor, which, like many other reports, spread consternation and alarm in the city. The Assembly resolved to resist HISTORY OF PEN.NSYLVANIA. troubles which she sustained. For if ever the destruction of Gnadenhiitten was avenged, it was by the burning of Hannastown. The hopes formed upon the success of this expedition were to the southern Westmorelanders bitter ashes. Another and no less disastrous expedition left in mourning the inhabitants about Hiannastown. While General Irvine commanded at Fort Pitt, the celebrated campaign of Colonel Clarke, of Virginia, was set on foot. To protect the western colonists who could not protect themselves, the State of Pennsylvania assisted in raising a company of militia to co-operate with Clarke. These were now on the border of the county, and to assist in the enterprise of Clarke, part of these, together with a company of young Westmorelanders, under the command of Colonel Archibald Lochrey, in all amounting to one hundred and seven men, started westward to form a junction with Clarke. In the meantime, Clarke had proceeded as far as the Miami, in Ohio. Leaving there a small party to wait upon Lochrey, who together were to follow him, he went on into the wilderness. Lochrey and his men never made the junction with the Virginians, for they were attacked by the Indians and British, and killed to a man. Long did their friends in Westmoreland await for their returning. It was not till years after that the fate of the illstarred expedition was really known. The bones of these brave men lie near a small creek called Lochrey's creek, not far below the mouth of the Miami. No sooner had the Indians been successful in repulsing the whites, than they banded together under the instigation of the renegade whites, and poured in upon the defenceless people of northern Westmoreland. A body of about three hundred, said to have been under command of Kyashuta, crossed the Allegheny. On the 13th of July, 1782, the laborers at work in a harvest field about a mile north of Hannastown spied the foremost Indians skulking about the fields. Some seizing their guns, hurried back to the stockade, and others carried the news throughout the country. Then all flocked together where best they might. Within a few hours the mongrels were around the village of Hannastown. Timely warning had been given, and all had hied into the little fort. But its defenders, though brave, were few. Its inmates were mostly decrepit old men, and women and children. Most of the young men were out giving the alarm and assisting the helpless. Besides, they had few arms. When the savages came up over the brow of the hill, north of the village, a loud yell indicated to the housed-up inmates that they had been baffled out of a rare butchery. They did not attack the fort for good reasons, but fell to the work of plunder and demolition. Soon the flames rose from the rude cabins, and, carried by a favoring wind, swept over all the place. While the flames were rising gaily a consultation was held by the renegades. A party of perhaps sixty then broke off, and while the rest danced around the burning houses, passed toward the south to attack the station at Miller's, about three miles away. Here had collected about a dozen families, and hither the devils had hoped to come before they were looked for. But brave souls, regardless of danger to themselves, had spread the alarm; and no sooner were the naked bodies seen in the sunshine in the edge of the clearing at Miller's, than Captain Matthew Jack, on his reeking horse, was gathering the men in. There were stout and brave ones among them, used to Indian warfare and fearless of death, but they now could do nothing. To 1158 WESTMORELAND CO UNTY. venture battle with the treacherous crew was to, bring death upon the more numerous women and children under their care. While some could scarcely be kept from firing, the cooler prevailed upon these to rather take their chances of captivity. The Indians were upon them, and soon they were bound with stout thongs and laden with such booty as their captors fancied. Thus they were driven into the woods towards the British posts in Canada. The noise of the guns and the shouting of the crew, now drunken with whiskey, about the fort, were carried for miles through the country on that quiet summer day. The yeomanry gathered from all convenient parts, and by nightfall, a party of perhaps thirty, well armed, had collected at a point within three miles of the smouldering village and the beleagured fort. The Indians by this had retired to the hollow, awaiting the day to begin the attack. The noise made by the relief who entered across the bridge into the stockade, and the beating of the drums, braced up and beaten through the night, struck the wretches with such fear that they altered their former intention, and under the morning stars they started with their prisoners from all that was dear and near. The town lay in ashes, and with the coming day the prowlers were away. They were followed by the settlers as far as the Kiskiminetas. Besides remembering the cool bravery of Captain Jack, the burning of Hannastown, to all Westmorelanders, recalls the untimely death of the maiden Margaret Shaw. When the town people were driven into the stockade a little child was seen to wander away toward an opening in the picket wall. Margaret Shaw ran to fetch it back, when, as she stooped to reach it up, a bullet entered her breast. She fell dead. She was of a family of hardy pioneers, and her brother, David Shaw, was long one of the heroes of those trying times. Shaw and Brownlee were two whose virtues shone in that age as possibly in no other. Brownlee was at Miller's when the savages came there. The evident reason why he did not fight upon the word, was that he expected to make his escape when captured; and the plaintive voice of his wife, " John, you will not leave me," made the long rifle drop with its muzzle to the ground. When they had captured him they loaded him with a great burden, and on all set his own little boy. The little fellow clung to his father's neck, and the brave backwoodsman trudged along as docile as a slave. The Indians knew him as a brave man. When he stopped to fix his child upon his shoulders more comfortably, an unpitying wretch sunk his hatchet into Brownlee's head. He rolled over, and the same hatchet was buried in the brain of the child. The mother saw it all. We cannot, in such a sketch, give incidents but in a general way. As it was, the people appeared to see the vengeance of God; and distracted, distressed; and apparently forsaken, they huddled together in such places as they might till the storm had blown over. But thenceforth the evils were few, and slowly their old ways came back again. The village of HIannastown was never rebuilt. With the suns of the coming spring, the men went back again to their deserted fields, and henceforth labored in peace. The burning of Hannastown divides the history of Westmoreland into two eras. The termination of the Revolutionary war brought peace to the western Pennsylvanians. Affairs then began to go on smoothly. In 1779 the boundaries of Pennsylvania and Virginia were adjusted, and in 1784 definitely marked out. 1159 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Although the contention had,ceased some time prior to this, yet the jurisdiction of Westmoreland over the southern tier of counties was merely nominal. And no sooner was this jurisdiction fixed than it was needful to divide the territory. In 1781 was Washington county erected out of part of Westmoreland. Fayette county was formed in 1783; and in 1788 Allegheny county was carved out of a part of Westmoreland and of Washington. Thus to the most casual observation it is seen that, barring the troubles of the early conflicting claims and the intervening general war, the actual boundaries of Westmoreland, so far as to historical purposes, were nearly identical, and with little exception the same. For the northern tier of counties, erected out of the territory of Westmoreland, were for many years unpeopled, and their history previous to their legislative existence is devoid of interest. After the end of the Revolution, under the government of the State, a great change took place in the matter of roads and in the facilities for transportation. Nor do we know of any method by which we can get a clearer view of the progress of the county than by noticing it in connection with these. In 1784 and'85, the old Pennsylvania State road was opened out upon nearly the old Forbes' trail. Villages sprang up along this route, and on either side of it, as along a river, the population increased. About this time lots were laid out on the lands of Christopher Truby, and a few houses built north of a blockhouse of Revolutionary times. This was the beginning of Greensburg, which is said to have derived its name from General Greene, of the army. After the destruction of the public buildings at Hannastown, a committee of trustees being appointed whose duty it was to locate a place within certain specified bounds for the buildings of the county, they chose upon Greensburg; and this place has ever since remained the county seat. It was incorporated a borough in 1799, and was the first borough in the county. The State road gave way to the chartered turnpike, aided by the State, in 1807 and 1808, and finished about 1819. Its route was nearly identical with the old road. The northern turnpike, passing from Blairsville to Murraysville, was also projected and aided about the same time. Between these two dates, small clusters of houses had been built both along these roads, along the road leading from Somerset to Mount Pleasant, and along the rivers. A collection of about a dozen houses marked the site of the present shipping point of WEST NEWTON, then called Robbstown. This place has been dignified in history under the name of Simrall's Ferry, as the starting place of those New Englanders who, in 1788, emigrated to the Muskingum, so elegantly described by Hildreth. At the beginning of the century, there were a few houses and shops in the centre of a rich country called MOUNT PLEASANT, a name derived from Mount Pleasant church, an old point selected by the Redstone Presbytery, and named thus by them, where there was preaching as early as 1781. On the old Pennsylvania road was LIGONIER, called then Ramseystown, near the site of old Fort Ligonier. It consisted of a score of log houses, scattered along on either side of the miry mountainous road. Farther on, half way betwixt Ligonier and Greensburg, at the base of the Chestnut hills, five or six cabins, half of them inns, marked the site of YOUNGSTOWN, an old village called first Martinsburg, 1160 WESTMORELAND COUNTY. after the name of a prominent land-owner. On the northern route was NEW ALEXANDRIA. These places flourished when the turnpike and other highways were established, and were, up to the advent of canals and railroads, the centres of business and wealth. Now all of them, with the exception of those which have been touched by railways, have filled their corporate destiny, and are only thrifty detached villages, doing a fair share of local business, and presenting a quaint and venerable appearance. After the construction of the Pennsylvania railroad, which completely revolutionized traffic and travel, other villages sprang up with rapidity theretofore unknown. The older places became deserted, and instead of retaining their supremacy, many have retrograded in a relative proportion. The Pennsylvania railroad touched the turnpike only at Greensburg, elsewhere keeping to the north of it. Of the new towns, now centres of merchandising, of manufacturing, of mining, the most noticeable are DERRY, LATROBE, PENN, and IRWIN, all thrifty towns, built up in modern style, and full of the vigor of a later generation. No less wonderful have been the innovations since the South-west Pennsylvania Branch road has been in operation. This road, built in 1873, and running from Connellsville to Greensburg, bisects a territory rich Q beyond telling in mineral deposits of bituminous coal and iron. Numerous villages have sprung up along its track, and the old places have been made new. For miles along either side of the road, especially towards the southern terminus, the eye at night sees a continuous line of fiery craters and ghostly MONUMENT TO GEN. ST. CLAIR. figures in the glare-coke ovens and cokers. Up to within two decades of this writing, Westmoreland was pre-eminently an agricultural county. Attempts had, it is true, been made, so early as toward the end of the last century and the beginning of the present, to work up the iron ore found in her mountains. This proved unprofitable, unless along the rivers where cheap transportation lessened the cost of marketing it; and the people were content to transfer their capital and energy to cultivating the soil. In the rich limestone valley lying west of the Chestnut ridge, and extending along the whole range, all marketable grain was grown. But when the railroads offered a new method of transportation, new interests were readily engaged in. These interests--lumber, bark, limestone, coal, coke, fire-clay, iron, have now for twenty years been developing in a constantly accelerating degree. Although we can only glance at the part Westmoreland has taken in the affairs of the Union, it is deserving of a more extended notice. Some discontented parties participated in the sedition known as the Insurrection in the Four Western Counties. Upon the whole, that local disturbance had a good result for the interests of the county; for many of the soldiers collected here at that time afterward permanently located. Indeed the accession of new settlers consequent upon that affair was remarkable. Several Westmorelanders figured prominently in it. William Findley, the first representative in Congress for the county, wrote an apologetic account of it, which has long been considered good 1161 .HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. historical authority; and Edward Cook, an associate judge of Fayette, who had been a delegate for Westmoreland in the Convention of 1776, helped much to reconcile the people with the government. In the war of 1812, many Westmore. landers volunteered and saw service in Canada. No full company was organized here. But, when war was declared with Mexico, the martial spirit of her children, emphatically Westmorelanders, bred on her rugged hills, was fully and creditably made apparent. When the first attempt was made to enlist volunteers, the number who offered themselves was seen to be quite sufficient to make at least one full company. This was organized at Greensburg; and the list embraced representatives from all parts of the county. In the war for the Union, Westmoreland was liberal in her volunteers. These were among the first to enlist, and they were in service in every department of the army. Owing to the system by which the men and the companies could choose their regiments, her soldiers were scattered under numberless commands. Although there was only one company from Westmoreland originally in the Old Eleventh, yet, by the end of the war, the majority of the regimental officers were Westmorelander's, and to this regiment a great proportion of the subsequent recruits were added. They point with pride to the record of the regiment, which on many fields, under the command of Colonel Richard Coulter, sustained the honor of the Republic. On the 26th of February, 1873, Westmoreland celebrated, at Greensburg, the centennial anniversary of the organization of the c6unty. At the meeting, her most eminent citizens rehearsed the glory of her hundred years' history. They pointed with pride to the status of the mother county of Western Pennsylvania; how, from a sparsely settled community she had grown to be a powerful county; how, from a handful of hardy emigrants she had increased to a population of nigh sixty thousand souls; how her record of patriotism and glory had kept pace with her statistics of material advancement. They rehearsed the deeds of her soldiers, the sufferings of her early settlers, and recalled to mind the long list of her children who had become distinguished as judges, legislators, physicians, and divines, eminent in letters, or glorified in the list of heroes. On the 15th of May, 1875, she ushered in the series of anniversaries intended to commemorate the era of the Revolution, by remembering the resolutions of May, 1775. On that occasion were read to the descendants of the Hannastown patriots, letters of gratulation from the most illustrious citizens of the Union. Amid the ringing of bells and the sounding of cannon, the delegates from the fourteen counties formed out of the original territory of Westmoreland paid homage to the prinples of liberty spoken by the backwoodsmen who had defined their rights in the face of the Parliament of Great Britain. Senators, judges, statists, military men, and civilians, with common interest and common patriotism, with a glow of the ancient devotion, laid their wreaths on the urns of her dead heroes, and rejoicing in the liberty now amply secured to the people, signified the pride they felt in being the children of Old Westmoreland. And may her history for the next hundred years equal that of the last I 1162 WYOMING COUNTY. BY CHARLES M. LEE, TUNKUANNOCK. "ON Susquehanna's side, fair Wyoming! Although the wild flower on thy ruined wall And roofless homes a sad remembrance bring Of what thy gentle people did befall, Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore. Sweet land! may I thy lost delights recall."-CAMP.BELL. YOMING! at that name, wherever the English tongue is spoken, wherever the traditions of our nation's first struggles for life are read, wherever in the round world the tales of American patriotism and endurance are told, a thrill electric threads the nerves, and makes the heart of man beat faster in its sympathy - with true bravery, true nobility. This name is most appropriately given to this county, as being the northern opening of the wonderful and beautiful Wyoming valley, the home of heroism, the fount of history and song. True, within the immediate limits of this county, the records remain of no hard-fought battles, no bloody massa- - 7 cres, no life-long captivities, to transmit her name down to posterity as one rendered immortal by the bloody deeds committed within her border; yet while the work of devasta- - tion was going on in other counties, and even before it WYOMNG COUNTY COURT HOUSE, TUNKHANNOCK. had commenced, it was the [From a Photograph by B. S. Williams, Tunkhannock.] scene of quarrels and Indian plottings, that culminated, at length, in the great massacre of Wyoming. While the Indians were making preparations for the decisive move on the valley below, it was evident that Wyoming county was destined to be the scene 1163 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. of much bloodshed. Her bright sun of peace and happiness was about to set. " On the 5th of June, 1778, there was an alarm from the Indians and six white men, Tories, coming in the neighborhood of Tunkhannock and taking Wilcox. Pierce, and some others prisoners, and robbing and plundering the inhabitants." The foregoing is from tihe journal of Lieutenant Jenkins, and he tells us that as soon as this reached the ears of those in the valley below they began to fortify, so this seems to have been one of the first indications of the approaching danger. On the 12th of June, 1778, William Crooks and Asa Budd came up the river in a canoe to a place some two miles above Tunkhannock, formerly occupied by a Tory named John Secord, which was near where Uriah Suretand now lives. Crooks was fired upon and killed by a party of Indians. He was the first white man killed in Westmoreland, so we see the first blood was shed in Wyoming county. On the 17th of June of the same year, a party of six men, in two canoes, came up the river to observe the movements of the enemy. The party in the forward canoe landed about six miles below Tunkhannock (La Grange), and on ascending the bank they saw an armed force of Indians and Tories moving toward them. They gave the alarm, returned to their canoes, and endeavored to get behind an island to escape the fire, which was being poured in upon them. The canoe, in which were Miner Robbins, Joel Phelps, and Stephen Jenkins, was fired upon, and Robbins killed and Phelps wounded. Jenkins escaped unhurt. In the party that fired upon the canoe was Elijah Phelps, a Tory, the brother of Joel and brother-in-law of Robbins. Thus the work of death commenced, and on the 30th of June, the enemy, numbering about two hundred British Provincials, and about two hundred Tories from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, under the command of Major John Butler and Captain Caldwell, of Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, and about five hundred Indians, commanded by Joseph Brant, a Mohawk, descended the river in a boat, and landed on the south bank of Bowman's creek, where they remained some time waiting for the West Branch party to join them. This party consisted of about two hundred Indians, under the command of Gucingerachton. After the juncture of these forces, numbering altogether about eleven hundred, they moved forward to the invasion of Wyoming. They left the largest of their boats, and with the lighter ones passed on down the river to the Three Islands, now known as Keeler's. From this point they marched to the valley. The bloody scene had now commenced, and these fiends of hell were let loose upon the inhabitants of the country, dealing death to whomever they met. WYOMING county is a new county, having been taken from the north-eastern corner of Luzerne, by act of April 4, 1842, when Henry Colt, of Luzerne, George Mack, of Columbia, and John Boyle, of Susquehanna county, were appointed commissioners to mark out the boundary. Its form is that of an oblique parallelogram, being about twenty-three miles long by fifteen wide, making an area of three hundred and forty-five square miles. Its eastern boundary is a broken line extending from Marcy's saw mill, on Tunkhannock creek, to Stearn Keeler's, a point on the Susquehanna about two miles below Falls village. The surface of the county is diversified by numerous spurs of the Appalachian system, some of which tower into lofty peaks, among which the principal are Mount Solecca, 1164 WYOMING COUNTY. whose base is washed by Tunkhannock creek and the river, and which rises to the height of one thousand feet in the face of the borough of Tunkhannock; Mount Chodawo, nearly opposite, on the south bank of Bowman's creek, and of about the same height; and Mount Matchasaung, which rises to a great height, overlooking the little hamlet of La Grange. The Susquehanna river runs from the north-west to the south-east corner, thus dividing the county diagonally into two almost equal portions. It has numerous tributaries which, by reason of the mountainous region through which they flow, descend very rapidly, and thus afford excellent water-power for factories and mills of all descriptions. Among the most prominent of these streams are the Tuscarora, Meshoppen, Tunkhannock, Falls, and Wyolutimunk creeks, from the east side, and Little and Big Mehoopany and Bowman's creeks from the west side. There are also several beautiful little lakes, among which are prominent Lake Carey, Lake Wywola, and Oxbow lake. The largest of these, Lake Carey, is situated in Lemon and Tunkhannock townships, about three miles north of Tunkhannock borough, and is three miles long by one wide. It is surrounded by lofty pines and hemlocks, which give it a picturesque appearance. This, as well as the others named, is filled with fish. Lake Wywola is situated in Overfield township, about five miles south-east of Tunkhannock, and is a beautiful little body of water. The resources of the county are principally agricultural and manufacturing, the minerals abounding being unimportant from an artizan's point of view* Leather, lumber, and agricultural implements are the principal articles of manufacture. By reason of the vast forests of timber in different portions of the county, lumber forms one of the principal exports. The soil along the river and its tributaries is exceedingly fertile, and well adapted to the raising of grain, while the hill sides afford excellent pasture for cattle and sheep. Butter and grain are shipped yearly in considerable quantities. The railroads which pass through the county furnish ample facilities for transportation, while its contiguity to the coal fields of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys makes it a desirable location for manufactories. Wyoming county contains seventeen townships and ten boroughs. BRAINTRIM, originally known as White Haven township, was laid out in 1766, but owing to the troublesome times incident to the Revolution, it was re-granted in 1778, and called by its present name. This was one of the three certified towns which were situated in the county, and was one of the first settled. Among the settlers of Braintrim was John Depue, who located at the mouth of Tuscarora creek. In July, 1776, the farm passed into the hands of William Hooker Smith. About two miles below, on Black Walnut bottom, Frederick Vanderlip was seated. This was a favorite stopping point for travelers, and was the place where Sullivan's army encamped in its march up the river on the night of August 4, 1779. EXETER was granted on the 28th of November, 1772, to Isaac Tripp, John Jenkins, and Jonathan Dean. It was named Exeter in 1774, from Exeter in Rhode Island. When the county was set off from Luzerne, that part of Exeter embraced in Wyoming was still called Exeter. Among the first settlers were Mr. Headley and Paul Keeler, about 1795. 1165 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. FORKSTON was taken from Windham in 1844. The first settler was Leonard Lott, who came up the river in a canoe about the year 1795, and drew the canoe up the creek to the forks where he settled. CLINTON township was erected from parts of Tunkhannock, Falls, Nicholson, and that portion of Abington, in Wyoming county. The people petitioned to have the township named Harmony, but for some reason the judges then on the bench called it Clinton. It was settled by emigrants from Rhode Island. Robert, Phineas, Oliver, and Solomon Reynolds, were the first settlers, who came there in the year 1798. Stephen Capwell and sons were the next, who came in 1800. EATON was erected from parts of Tunkhannock, in 1818. It was named for General William Eaton, of Massachusetts. Among the first settlers was one John Secord, who located on the fiat about two miles above Tunkhannock, on the op posite side of the river, in 1773. This fiat was then called Catchakamy Plains. It was at his house that the first white man was killed in Westmoreland du ring the Revolutionary war. Below this, at the mouth of Bow man's creek, lived Jacob and Adam Bowman, settled there in 1773, whence the name of the cre k. It was on their farm that the In dians encamped on the night previous to the massacre GLEN MONEYPENNY, WYOMING COUNTY. previous to the massacre [From a Photograph by B. S. Williams, Tunkhannock.] of W yoming. Elisha Har ding came in 1790, and Joshua Patrick, a soldier of the Revolution, about 1795. Glen Moneypenny, situated in Eaton township, on a little stream which empties into the Susquehanna on its western side, six miles below Tunkhannock, presents one among the many wildly picturesque scenes to be found throughout the mountain region of the county. FALLS was originally granted to James Park, Obediah Gore, George Dorrance, and Captain Joseph Park, but being driven off by the natives it was re-granted on the 8th of May, 1786. The first settlement was made in July, 1773, by Benjamin Jones, at Wyolutimunk. This old Indian village was situated in the lower end of Falls township, and was the camping ground of Sullivan's army on the night of August 1, 1797. It signifies " we came upon them unawares." The Delaware Indians say in explanation of this name, that a party of the Five Nation Indians were making a descent upon them with hostile intent; that they 1166 WYOMING COUNTY. went out to meet them, ambuscaded them at the lower end of the mountain, and surprised and captured them. Justus Jones came in 1794, David Moorehouse and John Fitch in 1787, Zuriel Sherwood in 1789, John C. Williams in 1784, and Matthew Sherwood in 1789. The latter is now living at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, and is the oldest Connecticut settler in the county. TUNKHANNOCK was the third of the original certified towns, and was then called Putnam, after General Israel Putnam, of the Revolution, he owning lots hereIt was organized in 1790; the borough in 1772. The oldest settlers of Tunkhannock, as far as known, were Zebulon Marcy, who lived near where the tannery now stands, and Christopher Avery, who lived on the flat on the south side of the creek. Philip Buck, a German, sent here by the Pennamites in 1773, lived upon the land of Christopher Avery, but afterwards, in company with two others, settled opposite the mouth of Bowman's creek. Abraham and Adam Wartman were also two Germans sent here by the Pennamites in the same year that Philip Buck came. They settled near the mouth of Tunkhannock creek. Nicholas Phillips settled near the creek in the same year; Jacob Teague settled about two miles above the mouth of the creek, in 1774; and Increase Billings near the forks of the north and south branches, in the year 1773. He conveyed to one Reuben Herrington, in 1775, and Herrington, in 1776, conveyed his to Job Tripp. Just below.. Philip Buck, lived Frederic Anger and Frederick _ _ Frank; below this, where La Grange now is, lived Jeremiah Osterhout, who came here prior to 1796. PUTNAM was granted, September 24, 17757 and OSTERHOUT MANSION. on December 20, lots were [From a Photograph by B. S. Williams, Tunkhannock.] taken by twenty-six persons. The place of encampment of Sullivan's army on the night of August 3, 1779, was at Wartman's, who lived in a cabin near Palen's tannery. WASHINGTON was taken from Braintrim and Tunkhliannock, in 1831. John Carney and son, the first settlers, located on the flat opposite Mehoopany in 1787, his son William having come two or three years previous. Directly back of Mehoopany depot, Jacob Miller settled in 1791, and his son Christopher (now living) was born the following spring. Near Vosburg depot lived one Mr. tIuntit, who came there prior to the year 1795. He established a ferry, which has always been known as Hunt's ferry. WINDHAM is among the oldest townships in the county. Job Whitcomb was one of the first settlers, having settled on North Flat in the year 1787. Hiram and Solomon Whitcomb also lived near by. Asa Stevens lived on the upper end of Hemlock Bottom, now Scottsville. Just below him lived Josiah Fasselt, who 1167 GENERAL HISTORY. any attempt to destroy the Indians, but the latter, frightened at the reports of their threatened destruction, petitioned the authorities to send them, a hundred and fifty in number, with their two ministers, to England. But this being impracticable, the Governor furnished them an escort, to proceed through New Jersey and New York, to Sir William Johnson, under whose protection they were desirous to place themselves. William Franklin, then Governor of New Jersey, granted them a passport; but Governor Colden, of New York, by advice of his Council, refused to admit them within his Province. The Council of New York were offended by Governor Penn sending so large a body of Indians into their colony without their consent; and professed themselves more disposed to punish than to protect the Indians from the east side of the Susquehanna, whom they considered as their worst enemies, composed of the rogues, thieves, and runaways from other Indian nations. They also condemned the policy which returned these men to strengthen their nation. The progress of the Indians being thus obstructed, General Gage, who had succeeded General Amherst in the chief command of the English forces in America, directed two companies of the Royal Americans to re-escort them to Philadelphia, where they were secured in the barracks. The approach of the frontiersmen, about the time of the return of the Indians, renewed the excitement. The force of the former was magnified to many thousands, and six companies of foot, one of artillery, and two troops of horse, were formed to oppose them; and some thousands of the inhabitants, including many Quakers, were prepared to render assistance, in case an attempt should be made upon the town. The barracks, also, where the Indians were lodged, under the protection of the regular troops, were fortified, several works being thrown up about them, and eight pieces of cannon mounted. But the Governor would not venture to command his forces to attack the insurgents until he obtained indemnity for himself and them, by the extension to the Province of the English Riot Act. The bill extending it was passed very hastily through the House. On arriving at Germantown, the Paxtang men were met by commissioners, to whom they made known their intentions, and Colonel Matthew Smith and James Gibson accompanied the former to Philadelphia, where they met the Governor and the Assembly presenting their grievances, which we here give in full, as a clear and candid statement of affairs at that period. In the meantime, with a few exceptions, the party who accompanied them returned to their homes -the inhabitants of the city to their peaceful avocations. "We, Matthew Smith and James Gibson, in behalf of ourselves and his Majesty's faithful and loyal subjects, the inhabitants of the frontier counties of Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton, humbly beg leave to remonstrate and lay before you the following grievances, which we submit to your wisdom for redress. "First. We apprehend that as Freemen and English subjects, we have an indisputable title to the same privileges and immunities with his Majesty's other subjects who reside in the interior counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, and, therefore, ought not to be excluded from an equal share with them in the very important privilege of legislation; nevertheless, contrary to the HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVAIA. came to this township in the year 1795. It was on his farm that Timothy Pickering was imprisoned in a log cabin, and fed on mush from a sap trough. Asa Budd, who was with Crooks when he was shot at Secord's house, lived just below Fasselt's. Abijah Sturdevant was the first settler at Jenningsville, having come there some time previous to 1795. LEMON was organized from Tunkhannock and Braintrim in 1847. Daniel Earle was among its first settlers. MEHOOPANY was taken from Windham in 1844. It was originally "Hoppeny," an Indian name, and signified "the place of potatoes," or " where potatoes grew." "Amos York erected a house in 1775, opposite, and above the mouth of the Meshoppen, and enclosed a considerable tract of land, and afterwards removed to Wyalusing. Elijah Phelps finding the house empty, moved in without any authority from York, who warned him off some time prior to the battle. York was slain in the battle." This battle was probably the massacre of Wyoming. Thomas Millard lived near Elijah Phelps, and came about the same time. Noah Phelps lived nearly opposite Meshoppen creek, as early as 1795. Just below, at the mouth of the Little Mehoopany, Henry Love, a soldier of the Revolution, settled in 1796. At the mouth of the Big Mehoopany settled Zepheniah Lott in 1791, and on Grist Flat, John and George Grist, about 1795. MESHOPPEN was taken from Braintrim in 1854. The Indian name from which it is derived means "the place of choral beads," or a "distribution of choral beads." Amaziah Cleveland was probably the first permanent settler. He built a saw mill and two houses at the mouth of Meshoppen creek. Mason T. Alden came there as early as 1775, followed by Ezekiel Mowry, some years after; he built the first grist mill in Meshoppen. Farther up the river, Benjamin Overfield came prior to 1795, and Peter Osterhout about the same time. After him came Paul Overfield. MONROE was taken from North Moreland, in 1831. Matthew Phenix was probably the first settler, but he did not come there until 1817.... NICHOLSON is an old township, named for John Nicholson, formerly comptroller general of the State.... NORTH BRANCH was erected in 1856.... NORTH MORELAND was the second of the three certified towns in the county. It was erected in 1815. Timothy Lee was probably the first settler of this township, having settled on the place now owned by Manning Champlin, in 1800.... OVERFIELD was taken from Falls, in 1859. Abel Patrick was probably the first settler, having settled in 1787. TUNKHANNOCK was incorporated August 8, 1841. When the county was set off from Luzerne, Tunkhannock became the county seat, and the stakes for the court house were set on the 25th of May, 1842, upon two acres of land presented to the county by Thomas Slocum. The court house and jail were built in 1843-'4, and the jail was re-built in 1868. The court house was enlarged in 1869-'70. The borough proper contains 983 inhabitants, but within the immediate neighborhood of the borough there are 1,245. At this place the Montrose railway intersects the Lehigh Valley. It is a quiet, orderly town, and is the largest in the county. NICHOLSON was incorporated in August, 1875. It is a flourishing little town of about 450 inhabitants. It is on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, and ships considerable quantities of lumber and farming produce. 1168 YORK COUNTY. BY M. O. SMITH, HANOVER. ' ORK county was erected by act of Assembly, August 19, 1749, being separated from Lancaster county. Its boundary was described to be north and west by a line from the Susquehanna along the South mountain to the Maryland line, on the east by the Susquehanna, and on the south by the Maryland line. In 1800, its limits were curtailed by the separation of Adams county. Its present area is nine hundred square miles. The first settlers in York county were intruders from Maryland. The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania would allow no settlements on any lands not thoroughly freed from Indian claims; but the Marylanders thought only of pushing their boundary northwards, and thus to take the lands in dispute between the Calverts and the Penns by force, if necessary, regardless of Indians or Pennsylvanians. The Indians complained to Governor Keith, and he, obtaining their consent, had five hundred acres of land surveyed for himself west of the Susquehanna, in April, 1722. The Marylanders were not thus to be intimidated, but kept pressing on their surveys. Governor Keith held a council with the Indians, at which it was determined to survey a large tract, for the use of Springett Penn, to be known as Springettsbury Manor. This survey, including 75,520 acres, was made June 19 and 20, 1722. The Indians cheerfully granted this privilege, for they were confident they could at any time obtain as much of this land as they might want for their own use. Springettsbury Manor was resurveyed in 1768. The boundaries of this survey differed from those of the first. This manor, like others, was not confiscated during the Revolution, but remained the private property of the Penns. This caused, in after years, tedious and bitter litigation, which continued down as late as 1830. As the Marylanders showed no intention of respecting these surveys, it was resolved to permit settlements by Pennsylvanians. As the lands were not yet fully purchased from the Indians2 licenses to settle only were granted-Samuel Blunston, of Wright's Ferry, being commissioned to issue them. The first license so issued is dated January 24, 1733-'4, and the last, October 31, 1737, after which period clear titles were given, the Indian right to the land having been extinguished by treaty. Among the intruders from Maryland were Michael Tanner, Edward Parnell, Jeffrey Summerfield, and Paul Williams, who settled near the Indian town of Conejohela, in 1723. They were driven off by the Pennsylvania authorities in 1728, after repeated complaints from the Indians. In 1729, the first authorized settlement west of the river was matde by John and James Hendricks. They intended to settle on the abandoned farm from which the squatters had been driven, but James Hendricks having accidentally shot his son while viewing these lands, they made their settlement about three miles north. Other families 3Y 1169 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. followed rapidly, and soon along Kreutz creek, in Hellam township, and for some miles around, the settlers were quite numerous. In 1732, three years after the first settlement, the tax collector reported that there were four hundred persons west of the Susquehanna who paid taxes to Lan aster county, and acknowledged allegiance to Pennsylvania. Thomas Cresap, in March, 1730, under a Maryland grant, settled upon the lands from ....which Tan - -_ner and -.others had been remov ed two years before. Cre sap was a =_bold, reck S less man, and was ac - _____ _ companied by others --__ _-- equally des _-__-_ perate. They -proceeded to -:- - ------drive away the Indians, burning the C- cabins over their heads. Refugees from justice - -here sought S safety from punishment, and joined Cresap's lawlessband. -''.' Besides this settlemeent ._..- _ = b e t w e e n Kreutz and YORK COUNTY COURT HOUSE, YORK. C o d o r u s [From a Photograph by John T. Williams, York.] c reeks, which was composed mainly of Germans, an English colony was soon planted near the Pidgeon hills, being composed mostly of persons having Maryland titles. "The Barrens" was also settled about this time-comprising the lands now in Chanceford, Fawn, Peach Bottom, Hopewel], and Windsor townships. A number of families of the better class of peasantry from Scotland and Ireland settled these lands from 1731-'5, and their descendants still 1170 YORK COUNTY retain them in many cases. The country around York was also settled between 1730 and 1735, but the land whereon that borough stands was not taken up before 1741. The dissensions between the Penns ald the Calverts as to the boundary line between Maryland and Pennsylvania, gave rise to many acts of violence in York county. Among the most notorious of the characters who figured in these struggles was Thomas Cresap, reference to whom has been made in connection with the sketch of Lancaster county. Many of the settlers were not very conscientious, and turned all these troubles to their own advantage-acknowledging or refusing allegiance to either Province as best suited their purposes. In February, 1757, the grand jury took such action as compelled all to obey the Royal order, by showing allegiance to the Province from which they had received the titles to their land. The increase of settlers, now that quiet was restored, was large and constant. Roads were opened, mills erected, and new and permanent dwellings were built, as the land titles were settled, it was supposed, beyond dispute. A road was opened in 1740, from Wright's ferry to the Monocacy road at the Maryland line, thirty-five miles long, which became at once a highway of travel between Maryland and Virginia, and the eastern cities and towns, thus adding much to the prosperity of the growing colony. In 1741, the Proprietaries ordered a town site to be laid off on Codorus creek, in Springettsbury manor. It was to be named Yorktown, and laid out after the plan of Philadelphia. In October, the part east of the creek was laid out into squares. The Proprietaries gave "tickets" to applicants for lots. These tickets gave a right to build, and promised a patent upon certain conditions. One of these was that the applicant build at his own cost a substantial dwelling house, sixteen feet square, with a brick or stone chimney, within one year from the time of his application. Seven shillings sterling yearly quit-rent was required from each lot-holder. If all the conditions were not complied with, the lot was transferred to another. The first election in the new county was held in October, 1749. The only polling place was at a log tavern in Yorktown. The candidates for sheriff were Hans Hamilton, the favorite of the Irish of the western part of the county, and Richard McAllister, the candidate of the Germans. A quarrel occurred early in the afternoon, resulting in a riot between the two factions. The Irish were driven from the polls, and the Germans elected McAllister by an overwhelming majority. But Hamilton was a great favorite with the Governor, and was soon after duly commissioned. At the election in 1750, the rioting was renewed, Hamilton was again commissioned. Both parties appealed to the Assembly, the sheriff was called to the bar of that body, and publicly admonished to maintain better order in his county in the future. The first court of quarter sessions met on the 31st day of October, 1749. John Day, Thomas Cox, John Wright, Jr., George Swope, Matthew Diehl, Hans Hamilton, Patrick Watson, and George Stevenson, being judges, by virtue of their commissions as his Majesty's justices of the peace. The courts were held in private houses until 1756, when a court house was built in the public square of Yorktown. It was a two-story brick building, with four gables surmounted by a steeple. 1171 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. The people of York county were now left undisturbed, until the defeat of General Braddock opened their settlements, as well as the few west of them, to the horrors of an Indian invasion. Meetings were held, and it being found that arms and ammunition were not to be had, the greatest excitement ensued. Many of the people fled to York, and some even to the east side of the Susquehanna, for safety. The great numbers of refugees from Cumberland county passing through the county, intensified the fears of the people, and increased the panic. Several companies of troops were raised and sent to the Cumberland valley. As these took with them all the arms in the county, the people were left utterly defenceless. Partial order was restored by the retreat of the Indians, after having driven from their homes one thousand families, in the latter part of November. The season of quiet did not endure long, however, for in August following, an Indian foray created a still greater panic. Marsh creek became the frontier, all the county beyond being deserted. All the able-bodied men in the county were enlisted into associated companies, and drilled daily. This raid and its consequent excitement was soon over, and quiet reigned until 1758, in April of which year another inroad was made into the western part of the county. But little damage was done, and the alarm was not as great as upon former occasions. Four companies of militia, with a number of teamsters, wagons, etc., were furnished by York county to the Forbes expedition which reduced Fort Duquesne. Peace now prevailed until Pontiac's war in 1763. York county improved rapidly during this period. _______ A terrible storm followed - - ~the calm, when news of -_ _- =- --Pontiac's outbreak was - "-- - received. The reports - greatly exaggerated the danger, and the excite -- - ment west of the Sus quehanna never ran higher. The whole peo S ple feared immediate massacre, and, utterly dismayed, fled to the . towns for shelter, Ship pensburg, Carlisle, York, and Lancaster being crowded with the refugees. But when the tidings came that the forts at Bedford, - Loyalhanna, and Pitt, had THE GLATZ MANSION.-BUILT 1732. successfully resisted the onset of the savages, the panic was gradually allayed. From that day, the Indians have had no terrors for the people of York county. Under the influence of peace and quiet, the settling of York went forward rapidly. More roads were opened, churches built, and the settlements assumed 1172 YORK COUNTY. a more permanent character. In 1764, the town of Hanover was founded, being laid out in a wilderness by Richard McAllister. The people of the neighborhood laughed at McAllister's " folly," and one old lady jeeringly called the new town " Hickorytown," from the trees that covered the site. The town, however, grew steadily, and while McAllister's house still stands, it is surrounded now by a thriving town of twenty-five hundred souls, instead of a dense hickory forest. Being located in " Digges' choice," it was long doubtful to which Province it would be assigned, hence fugitives from justice made it a harbor, and " Rogue's Resort" became its familiar appellation. This added rapidly to its population, but such accessions were not to be desired. Several robbers broke into McAllister's store; hlie arrested them and took them to York. The sheriff refused to receive the prisoners, saying, - "You.of Hanover wish to be indepen- -- dent, therefore punish your villains --- yourselves." McAllister took him at his word, and thereafter was himself judge and jury among the rough settlers of " Rogue's Resort." og-. On the 1st of July, 1775, a company of riflemen marched from York to join the Continental army before Boston. This was the first company that marched in arms against Great Britain from that part of the colonies west of the Hudson Y part river. It was over one hundred strong,p composed of excellent marksmen, and had as officers: Michael Doudel, captain; Henry Miller and John Dill, lieutenants; John Watson, ensign. They Z were enthusiastically received at Cambridge, and attached to Colonel Thompson's rifle regiment. Lieutenant Miller, on the day after their arrival, nothing THE PROVINCIAL COURT HOUSE AT YORK, Where the Continental Congress met, 1777-78. fatigued by the long and wearisome march, formed a plan to capture a British guard on Bunker Hill. The attempt was made; it failed, but several Britishers fell, and several were captured, without the gallant riflemen sustaining any loss. This company also participated with honor in the battles at Long Island and White Plains. During the latter part of 1775, the men of the county, as recommended by Congress, were enrolled into militia companies. The companies were consoli dated into five battalions. One company was chosen from each battalion to form a regiment of minute men. Of this regiment Richard McAllister was made colonel. This plan of organization succeeded admirably, there soon being nearly 4,000 men enrolled. 1173 HISTORY OF PENSYLVANIA. Early in 1776 four companies were sent to Colonel Irwin's regiment, of which -Thomas Hartley, of York, was lieutenant-colonel. Three of the companies were commanded by David Grier, of York, Moses McClean, of Marsh creek, and Archibald McAllister, of Hanover; the name of the captain of the fourth is now unknown. The men were enlisted for fifteen months. In 1777 this regiment was commanded by Colonel Thomas Hartley, David Grier being lieutenantcolonel. It participated in several engagements, including the battle of Brandywine. So warlike was the spirit of the people at this time that officers from other counties came into York county to enlist their companies. In May, a rifle company marched to Philadelphia and joined Colonel Miles' regiment. William McPherson was captain of this company. On the 4th of July, at a convention of representatives of the associators of Pennsylvania, at Lancaster, James Ewing, of this county, was elected second brigadier-general of the militia of Pennsylvania. The five battalions of militia from York county marched to New Jersey in July, 1776. Here a camp was formed, and enough men drawn by lot to fill two battalions in the Flying Camp. The first battalion was commanded by Colonel Michael Swope, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Stevenson, and Major William Baily. There were eight companies, commanded by Captains Michael Smyser, Gerhart Graeff, Jacob Dritt, Christian Stake, John McDonald, John Ewing, William Nelson, and Williams. The second battalion's officers were: Colonel Richard McAllister, Lieutenant-Colonel David Kennedy, and Major John Clark. 'The captains were Nicholas Bittinger, McCarter, McCoskey, Laird, Wilson, and Paxton. As soon as completed, although not yet under discipline, the Flying Camp was sent to join Washington, and on the 27th of August, but a few weeks after they left their homes, the men fought gallantly on Long Island. The York county companies lost heavily. Of Graeff's company, only eighteen reported after the battle, the rest being killed, wounded, or captured. At Fort Washing ton, on the 16th of November, Dritt's and McCarter's companies lost heavily. McCarter was mortally wounded, and Ensign Barnitz, of Dritt's company, was wounded in both legs. After fifteen months' imprisonment he was exchanged, and carried home on a litter.. Thirty years later he had one leg amputated from the effects of his wound. Colonel Swope, with nearly all his officers and men, fell into the enemy's hands, and were crowded into the loathsome prisons of New York. Throughout the retreat across New Jersey, that followed these disasters, Miller's York company (formerly Doudel's) earned many thanks from the commanding officer for their efficient services in aiding to check the enemy and protect the rear of the shattered patriot force. The next event of importance in York county was the arrival at York of the Continental Congress, September 30, 1777, having been driven from Philadelphia by the enemy. The sessions were held in the court house at York until June 27, 1778, nearly nine months, when the members returned to Philadelphia. While at York, the news of Burgoyne's surrender was received by Congress; John Hancock resigned his presidency of that body, and Henry Laurens was elected as his successor; Lafayette was appointed to the command of a division in the Continental army; and Baron Steuben's offer of service was accepted. Philip 1174 YORK COUNTY. Livingston, one of the delegates from New York, died June 11, 1778, and was buried next day in the German Reformed graveyard. From the close of the Revolution until 1800, the people suffered from hard times, brought about partly by the depreciation of the paper money, and partly by the waste of life and property in the long struggle. National, State, and local debts being heavy, taxes were by no means light, and the people were everywhere more or less irritated by the visits of the tax-gatherer. A riot occurred at York, in November, 1786, to prevent the sale of a cow for delinquent taxes. The leaders in the affair were heavily fined, but the fines were afterwards remitted. In 1797 and 1793 occurred the "Dady" imposter, an interesting account of which is given by Judge Henry. In 1800, after a long and bitter controversy, the western part of the county was cut off and erected into a new county, named Adams. The old quarrel between the Irish and the Germans, and the political difference between the two sections, led to the separation. 1803 is memorable for a negro conspiracy to burn the county seat. Incensed by the punishment of a negro woman for an attempted poisoning, the blacks fired the town several times. At length one carried a pan of coals at midday to her master's barn. She was seen, and confessed the plot. It was found that she had mistaken twelve o'clock noon for twelve o'clock midnight, the hour fixed upon. A number of the plotters were convicted and sent to prison. They were mostly slaves-of whom there were many owned in York before the abolition of slavery in the State. In the war of 1812-'14, York county was not specially called upon for troops until tihe summer of 1814, during the British attack on the Maryland coast. A number of her sons served in various commands, however, in the campaigns in Canada. When the militia were ordered to the defence of Baltimore, all the companies in the county that were armed and equipped marched at once. The others were furnished arms as rapidly as possible, and sent forward, but they reached the city too late to assist in its defence. The "York Volunteers," under Captain Michael H. Spangler, a fine company of young men, nearly one hundred strong, marched to Baltimore, and having been attached to the Fifth Maryland, fought gallantly at North Point. Two were captured, and several wounded. Their services were mentioned in the official dispatches with the highest compliments. Two companies from Hanover and vicinity, under Captains Frederick Metzger and John Bair, also reached Baltimore in season to participate in the fight, and bore themselves right gallantly. It may not be out of place, at this point, to state that the first locomotive made in the United States was built in the early part of 1830, in York, by Mr. Phineas Davis, and took the premium offered by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad "to the constructor of the locomotive which would draw fifteen tons, gross weight, fifteen miles an hour." This engine, a curiosity at this time, was the model for those built after it for three or four years. The firing on Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, caused an outburst of indignant feeling, but the Baltimore riots subsequent, increased the excitement tenfold. Rumors of an attack from the Baltimore " roughs" kept the people of York, Hanover, and the smaller towns along the border in a ferment, and preparations 1175 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. for defence were promptly made. Troops from Harrisburg were sent towards Baltimore, and on the Saturday following telegraphic orders were received for the York companies to go to their assistance. This was the beginning of that four years' struggle for the Union in which York county contributed her full share. General Lee's first invasion of Maryland caused great excitement and dread among the people. Home guards were formed, remove horses, cattle, and valuables to places of retreat after the battle of Antietam brought quiet to THE OLD REFORMED CHURCH AT YORK. [From a Photograph by John T Williams, York.] and arrangements made to safety. The Confederate the southern border, but in the ensuing summer it was destined to suffer the evils of actual invasion. Early in June, Lee crossed the Potomac, and at once the wildest excitement arose. Merchants shipped their goods to eastern cities; banks depleted their vaults; farmers drove their horses and cattle across the Susquehanna; and every road was crowded with refugees seeking safety for themselves and property. A committee of safety was appointed at York, June 15th. They made every effort to raise companies, but as the men were to be sent to Harrisburg for the defence of the State, only a few volunteered, as their own homes were in immediate danger. One company of six months' men, under Captain Seipe, was sent to Camp Curtin. Numerous companies of home guards were formed in various parts of the county. Hanover sent one company of sixty men, raised in forty-eight hours, to Harrisburg. A citizens company of horsemen was formed and did good service as scouts. Major Hailer, of the regular army, was entrusted with the defence of York. The places of business were closed at 6 P. M., and on June 26th, at noon, meetings were held, and companies formed and drilled. It was thought that at the worst, but a force of cavalry raiders would visit York county; but on the 1176 YORK COUNTY. 26th of June, information was received that large forces of cavalry, artillery, and infantry were approaching Gettysburg. The same night came news of the occupation of that town, and the retreat of the small militia force guarding there. Saturday, the 30th, all places of business were closed, and York presented a gloomy appearance, notwithstanding the crowds on the streets. At 3 P. M., the enemy was reported at Abbottstown. Major Hialler ordered out his little force of defenders, consisting of the convalescents of the United States hospital, the hospital guards, a number of the 87th Regiment, the Philadelphia city troop, an Adams county cavalry company, and some citizens of the borough, in all about three hundred and fifty men. Upon receiving reports of the strong force of the enemy, this body fell back on Wrightsville, leaving York defenceless. Mr. B. Farquhar, a citizen of the borough, had entered the rebel lines, and was authorized by General Gordon, commanding the advance, to assure the borough authorities that if no resistance was offered, pi-ivate property and unarmed citizens would be respected. The committee of safety then adopted the following: " Resolved, That, finding our borough defenceless, we request the chief burgess to surrender the town peaceably, and to obtain for us the assurance that the persons of citizens and private property will be respected; the chief burgess to be accompanied by such of the committee as may think proper to join him.". Chief burgess David Small, Colonel George Hay, W. Latimer Small, and Thomas White, Esquires, accompanied Mr. Farquhar to the rebel camp on Saturday evening. They assured General Gordon that they had endeavored to defend the town, but had failed, and asked the safety of citizens and property. General Gordon gave them every assurance of the protection they asked. Next morning, at 10 o'clock, the town was occupied; the large American flag flying in Centre square was taken down, and carried away by the enemy. The fair grounds and government hospital were occupied, and artillery planted to command the town. The court house was made the head-quarters of General Early, Gordon's brigade passing on towards Wrightsville. Here a slight skirmish occurred. The Pennsylvania and New York militia fell back over the river, burning the bridge. No damage was done at Wrightsville beyond the burning of several houses which took fire from the bridge. The rebels destroyed the railroad bridges above and below York. Requisitions were made on the people of York for 165 barrels flour, 3,500 pounds sugar, 1,650 pounds coffee, 300 gallons mollasses, 1,200 pounds salt, 32,000 pounds fresh beef, all to be delivered at the market house by 4 o'clock P.M. Demands were also made for $100,000 in money, 1,000 hats, 1,000 pairs of socks, 2,000 pairs shoes or boots. The citizens held a meeting, and endeavored to fill the requisition. Goods and money to the amount of $35,000 were collected, with which General Early expressed himself satisfied. No damage was done in the town until Monday evening, when General Early personally led a detachment to the depot to destroy the railroad property. Seeing that their destruction would result in great loss of private property, he desisted; but destroyed some cars, by fire, and tore up the track, switches, etc. The same evening, Gordon's brigade returned, passed through town, and encamped a few miles west. On Tuesday morning, at an early hour, the remaining troops followed, and York was freed from her captors. Although a general HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Proprietor's charter and the acknowledged principles of common justice and equity, our five counties are restrained from electing more than ten Representatives, viz., four for Lancaster, two for York, two for Cumberland, one for Berks, and one for Northampton, while the three counties and City of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, elect twenty-six. This we humbly conceive is oppressive, unequal, and unjust, the cause of many of our grievances, and an infringement of our natural privileges of Freedom and equality; wherefore, we humbly pray that we may be no longer deprived of an equal number with the three aforesaid counties, to represent us in Assembly. "Secondly. We understand that a bill is now before the House of Assembly, wherein it is provided that such persons as shall be charged with killing any Indians in Lancaster county, shall not be tried in the county where the fact was committed, but in the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, or Bucks. This is manifestly to deprive British subjects of their known privileges, to cast an eternal reproach upon whole counties, as if they were unfit to serve their country in the quality of jurymen, and to contradict the well-known laws of the British nation in a point whereon life, liberty, and security essentially depend, namely, that of being tried by their equals in the neighborhood where their own, their accusers, and the witnesses' character and credit, with the circumstances of the fact, are best known, and instead thereof putting their lives in the hands of strangers, who may as justly be suspected of partiality to as the frontier counties can be of prejudices trigainst Indians; and this, too, in favor of Indians only, against his Majesty's faithful and loyal subjects. Besides, it is well known that the design of it is to comprehend a fact committed before such a law was thought of. And if such practices were tolerated, no man could be secure in his most valuable interest. We are also informed, to our great surprise, that this bill has actually received the assent of a majority of the IHouse, which we are persuaded could not have been the case, had our frontier counties been equally represented in Assembly. IHowever, we hope that the Legislature of this Province will never enact a law of so dangerous a tendency, or take away from his Majesty's good subjects a privilege so long esteemed sacred by Englishmen. " Thirdly. During the late and present Indian War, the frontiers of this Province have been repeatedly attacked and ravaged by skulking parties of the Indians, who have with the most savage cruelty murdered men, women, and children, without distinction, and have reduced near a thousand families to the most extreme distress. It grieves us to the very heart to see such of our frontier inhabitants as have escaped savage fury with the loss of their parents, their children, their wives, or relatives, left destitute by the public, and exposed to the most cruel poverty and wretchedness, while upwards of an hundred and twenty of these savages, who are with great reason suspected of being guilty of these horrid barbarities, under the mask of friendship, have procured themselves to be taken under the protection of the Government, with a view to elude the fury of the brave relatives of the murdered, and are now maintained at the public expense. Some of these Indians, now in the barracks of Philadelphia, are confessedly a part of the Wyalusing Indians, which tribe is now at war with us, and the others are the Moravian Indians, who, living with us under the 116 BISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. gloom overspread the community during the occupancy, no private citizens were molested; and with the exception of the ransacking of a few deserted houses in the country, no damage was done. Horses and cattle were taken by the enemy. On their retreat, however, in a few cases, stolen horses were returned to their owners on identification. The number of horses taken from the county by the enemy has been estimated as high as two thousand. The corps hastened to Gettysburg, engaged in the battle, and lost heavily. On Tuesday, June 30th, a cavalry skirmish took place at Hanover. General Kilpatrick, with his cavalry division, was in search of Stuart's rebel raiders, and was passing through Hanover, each regiment halting in the streets to receive food from the people of the town. The 18th Pennsylvania was the rear-guard, and while halting in the streets, many of the men being dismounted, was suddenly attacked by Stuart's men, who had been moving on a road parallel to that over which Kilpatrick was passing. The 18th was thrown into disorder, and driven from the town before it could re-form. In the open country, the regiment rallied, and with the 5th New York, made a gallant counter charge, driving the rebels back to their artillery, which was forthwith opened. The roar of the guns brought Kilpatrick back to the rescue, with the 1st Vermont, 1st Virginia, and 5th Michigan. lie formed his line of battle on the hills north of the town, while the enemy held the heights to the south. The 18th occupied the town, and barricaded the streets. Artillery firing and skirmishing were kept up until dusk, when Stuart retreated. This skirmish prevented Stuart from joining Lee until after the battle of Gettysburg, much to the loss of their cause. When the rebels charged into the town, the streets and public squares were crowded with citizens, women, and children, yet fortunately none were injured. The Union loss in the fight was one adjutant, three sergeants, one corporal, and six privates killed, and forty-two wounded, several of whom afterwards died of their wounds. The loss of the rebels was never fully ascertained, but was at least as large as the Union loss. The fight over, the wounded were at once placed in an hospital opened in a large building known as Pleasant Hill hotel. The ladies furnished bedding, food, and acted as nurses. Sick and wounded soldiers from the army at Gettysburg sought an asylum in this hospital, and it soon contained over one hundred and fifty inmates. Strenuous efforts were made to have the government establish the hospital as a permanent one, but it was ordered to be closed in August, and the patients sent elsewhere. Early in 1862, the 6th New York cavalry w- e st.tioned at York to perfect the men in drilling. A barracks and stables were erected on the public common for their use. The regiment was soon ordered to the front, and the buildings altered and converted into an extensive general hospital, which was maintained until the close of the war. There were usually over one thousand patients present, sick and wounded, and owing to the healthful location and great care exercised, the death rate was small, not over two hundred deaths occurring among the thousands treated. Almost all who died were buried in a lot in Prospect Hill cemetery. A few years ago these bodies were removed to a central lot, and a handsome bronze monument erected to their memory. The ladies of York had formed a relief society, early in the war, and had, by means of fairs, etc., raised a large fund to alleviate the distresses of the sick and wounded. Several 1178 YORK COUNITY. thousand dollars of this fund remained unexpended at the close of the war; this was appropriated to the purchase of the monument referred to. The surface of the country is broken and hilly, though nowhere mountainous. Many irregular spurs of the South mountain lie near the north-western boundary, the Conewago hills cross the county near York Haven, the Slate hills occupy the south-eastern corner, while the Pigeon hills extend from the south-eastern part of the county across the line into Adams county. Crossing the centre, from north-east to _ _ ____ south-west, is a - -__-=-- _ _ - strip of lime - stone, the rich farming lands of which have - been brought to -- _,,the highest de 111111j.. Jl,,11 gree of cultiva tion by the Ger I~ man farmers and their de scendants. The lands along the A southern bor ders, and espe cially the south II eastern par t . erwere o nc e known a the "York Bar rens," from the fact that when PUBLIC FOUNTAIN, CENTRE SQUARE, HANOVER. settled they were found entirely free from timber, the natives having cleared it with fire to improve their hunting ground. The Codorus creek drains the centre of the county, the Conewago the northern portion, and the Muddy creek the south-eastern part. These streams, with their numerous branches, and the Susquehanna river flowing more than fifty miles along the eastern border, make the county finely watered, and the country being hilly, mill-sites are numerous. The principal occupation of the people is agriculture. The farmers are gene rally prosperous, having convenient markets for the sale of their grain and pro duce, nearly all parts of the county being accessible by railroad. Deposits of iron ore exist in many parts of the county. About forty years ago there were several charcoal furnaces in blast; but all have been abandoned. There is an anthracite furnace at Wrightsville, recently erected, and quite prosperous. Much iron ore is mined, and taken to furnaces in other counties. Near Hanover Junc tion is found an ore known as "steel ore," which, mixed with other ore in 1179 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. certain proportions, produces most excellent steel. In the Slate hills, in the south-eastern part of the county, are mined large quantities of the best quality of roofing slate. It is widely known as Peach Bottom slate. Distilleries were formerly very numerous, but there are now only a few in the county. Farming is a business of considerable importance, though it, too, has declined. YORK, the county seat, is on the banks of Codorus creek, eleven miles from the Susquehanna. Rich and thriving, it is surrounded by a fertile region. The court house, a brick edifice, with massive granite front, in the form of a Grecian temple, stands near the centre of the town. It was erected in 1841-'2, at a cost of $150,000. The county prison, of sandstone, resembling a Norman castle, and the county hospital and almshouse, both magnificent buildings, stand on the county farm adjoining the town. The town was founded in 1741; incorporated as a borough in 1787. Turnpikes radiate to Baltimore, to Gettysburg, to Wrightsville, to Harrisburg, and to Dallastown; railroads to Baltimore, Harrisburg, Wrightsville, Peach Bottom, and Hanover. The history of the borough has been interwoven with that of the county in the preceding pages. HANOVER is situated in the extreme south-western part of the county, near the Adams county line, on the headlands between the sources of the Codorus and the Conewago. The town was founded in 1764, and the borough incorporated in 1815. Railroads run to the Northern Central at Hanover Junction, to Gettysburg, to Littlestown and Frederick, and to York. The population of the town and neighborhood is of German descent, but the English language is now generally spoken. WRIGHTSVILLE is on the west bank of the Susquehanna, opposite Columbia, with which it is connected by a bridge. The town occupies an elevated site, and commands an exteiisive view. The place was long known as Wright's Ferry, but the building of the bridge, in 1834, caused a change of name. The borough was incorporated in 1834. SHREWSBURY borough is on the York and Baltimore turnpike, thirteen miles south of York, and one from Railroad borough or Shrewsbury station on the Northern Central railway. It was incorporated in 1834. The place was formerly known as Strasburg, and was a thriving village in the days of turnpike travel. The remaining incorporated towns are: MANCHESTER, formerly Liverpool, laid out about 1815, and erected into a borough, March 9, 1844, when its name was changed. DILLSBURG, the southern terminus of the Dillsburg and Mechanicsburg railroad, was incorporated April 91 1833. LEWISBERRY, in the "Red Lands," celebrated for its minor manufactures, was incorporated April 2, 1832. DALLASTOWN, on the'Peach Bottom narrow gauge railroad; LOGANSVILLE, seven miles south of York; FRANKLINTOWN, laid out in 1815, two miles south of Dillsburg; NEW FREEDOM, GLEN ROCK, and GOLDSBORo', on the Northern Central railroad; JEFFERSON, laid out in 1811, are thriving villages. 1180 GENERAL INDEX. ABORIGINES, characteristics of, 17. Adams county, sketch or, 279; resources of, 281; early settlements in, 281; towns of, 303; formation of town ships in, 312. Addison, Judge Alexander, 231. Agriculture in Pennsylvania, annual value of products of, 546. Agricultural Hall, Centennialexhibition, 653. Albany, Colonial conference at, 79. Allegewi. 17, 20. Alleghenies, distant view of, 399. Allegheny City, Western penitentiary at, 326; descrip tion of, 327. Allegheny county court house, 315. Allegheny county, sketch of, 35; resources of, 316; his torical review of, 317; towns of, 325 Allegrippus, scene at, 401. Allentown, Lehigh county court house at, 871; descrip tion of, 877 Allen rifles of Allentown, 261. Algonquins, 17. Alricks, Jacob, Governor of the Colony, 39. Alricks, Peter, Deputy Governor, 42. Altoona, description of, 402. Amber Cascade, Glen Thomas, 499. Amherst, General Jeffrey, 99, 103; his opinion of the Pennsylvania Assembly, 107. Andastogues-See Susquehannas. Anderson. Major Robert 259. Andross, Sir Edmund, English Governor, 42. Anthracite coal, opening up of trade of, 242; progress of 1062; discovery of, 1063; first use of, 1064; mining and transportation of, 1067. Argall, Sir Samuel, 28. Armstrong, Colonel John, 93; destroys Kittanning, 95. Armstrong county, sketch of, 330; public buildings of, 330; resources of, 331; historical review of, 332; towns of, 336. Arnold, expedition of to Quebec, 154; in command of Philadelphia, 186; conduct of, 190; treason of, 196. Arnot, coal schutes at, 1105: incline at, 965. Associators, organization of, 148; address to by conven tion of deputies, 160. Atlee, Colonel Samuel J., 166. Athens, description of, 430. Augusta fort, building of, 999. Ayers, General, at Gettysburg, 291. BALD EAGLE'S nest, 508. Baltimore, Lord, grant for Maryland, 32; Penn meets with, 51; controversy with, 51. Baltimore, passage of Pennsylvania troops through city of, 262. Bank of Pennsylvania, incorporated, 214. Bantling, Emanuel, invention by, 210. Barber, Robert, notice of, 830. Bates, Samuel P., 273. Battle-drumni of the Revolution. 154. Battle-flags, preservation of, 270. "Battle of the Kegs," 183. Beaver borough, description of, 347. Beaver college, 348. Beaver county, sketch of, 340; resources of, 341; histori cal review of progress of, 343. Beaver Falls, description of, 353; view of, 354. Bedford borough, Provincial court house at, 362; Wash ington's head-quarters at 1794, 371; description of,372. Bedford county, sketch of, 361; historical review of, 362; towns of, 372. Bedford Springs, view at, 368; medicinal properties of, 377. Beckman, William, Dutch Governor, 39. Bellefonte, view of, 502; description of, 507; view of gap north of, 513. Benner, General Philip, 515. Berg (Hill) Kirche, 867. Berks county, sketch of, 378: resources of, 379; historical review of, 382; formation of townships in, 403. Bethlehem, old Indian chapel at, 967; first house erected in, 969; old Crown Inn at, 979; Lehigh university at, 980; old mill at, 982; notice of, 991; Schnitz house at, 992; married brethren and sisters' house at, 993. Berlin. or Brothers' valley, notice of, 1080. Berwick, notice of, 595. Bethany, notice of, 1150. Biddle, Lieutenant James, 239. Big Island, map of, 572. Bigler, William, Governor, 255; biographical sketch of, 255. Birmingham Friends meeting house, 531. Birney, General D. B., at Gettysburg, 289, 290. Black or French Cockade worn, 233. Blackwell, Captain John, Deputy Governor, 54. Blair county, sketch of, 397; resources of, 397; towns of, 400; formation of townships in, 403. Blairsville, notice of, 796. Bloemart, Samuel, 30. Blood's settlement 733 Bloody Run, now Everett, 375. Bloomsburg, State Normal school at, 592; notice of,593. Blunston, Samuel, 831. Boone, Captain Hawkins, 189, 1003. Border counties claims of 273. Boston, Pennsylvania sends relief to, 99. Boston Port Bill, 132. Bouquet, Colonel Henry, expedition of 1763, 103; reaches Fort Pitt, 106; expedition to the Muskingum, 122, 626, 826. Brackenridge, Judge Hugh H., 225, 226, 231. Braddock, General Edward, arrives in America, 82; map of route of, 84; journal of, 85; surprised by an ambus cade, 87; death of, 88; consternation caused by defeat of, 89. Braddock's Fields, meeting of insurgents at, 226. Bradford county, sketch of, 405; resources of, 408; his torical review of, 409; towns and townships in, 429. Bradford, David 225 226 228 231. Brady, Captain John, killed, 918. Brady, Captain Samuel, adventures of, 333, 457, 553. Brady, General Hugh, 785. Brandywine, battle of, described, 172, 531, 664. Bright, General Michael, 1037. Bristol, notice of, 450. Brodhead, Colonel Daniel, 166. Brooks, GeneralW. T. H., 265, 383. Brookville, court house at, 798; notice of, 805. Brown, John, raid of, into Virginia, 257. 753. Brownsville, view of, 724; notice of, 730. Buchanan, James, President of the United States, 758. Bucks county, sketch of, 438; resources of, 440; historical review of, 440; towns of, 451; formation of townships in, 453. Buckingham Friends meeting house, 450. " Buck-shot War, " 249. Butler borough, court house at, 454; view of, 458; notice of, 458; public school building in, 459. Butler county, sketch of, 454; resources of, 455; historical review of, 456; towns of, 460. CADWALLADER, General John, 167. Cambria county, sketch of, 461; resources of, 463; his torical review of, 467; roads in, 473; towns of, 475. Cambria Iron works, 464. Cameron county, sketch of, 479; historical review of, 480; formation of townships in, 484. Cameron, General Simon, Secretary of War, 260. Campanius, Rev. John, 34. Camp Curtmn, establishment of, 260, 263; Western troops quartered at, 264; troops organized at, 264; view of general hospital as, 268. Canon, John, 784. Canonsburg, notice of, 1143. Canton, notice of, 432. Capital of the Nation, removal of, 233. Capital of the State, removal of, 233. Carlisle, court house at, 612; notice of, 623; soldiers' monument at, 628. Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, 1774, 141. Carbondale, notice of, 911. Carbon county, sketch of, 486; resources of, 488; histori calreview of, 490; towns in, 499. ' Carroll' s Delight,'' 282. Carrolltown, church and convent at, 476. Carr, Sir Robert, Deputy-Governor, 41. Cascade, Glen Onoko, 497. Catawissa, notice of, 593; ancient Friends meeting house at, 594. Catfish camp, near Washington, 1142. Cayugas-See Iroquois. Censors, council of, 207. Centennial exhibition, 1876, 1044: main building for, 596; medal-obverse, 339; medal-reverse, 360. Centre county, sketch of, 502; historical review of, 503; towns of, 507; formation of townships in, 512. 1181 1182 GENERAL INDEX. Chambersburg, burning of, 267, 753; view of, before the DeVries, David Pieterszen of Hoorn, 31, 32. fire, 754; after the fire, 756; notice of, 756. D'Hinoyossa, Alexander, 39. Chambers, Colonel James, 154, 620. Dickinson, John, course of at the outset of the RevoluChameleon falls, Glen Onoko, 485. tion, 163; elected president, 204; biographical sketch Chester county, sketch of, 517; resources of, 520; histori- of, 205. cal review of, 525; educational institutions in, 534; Dickinson college, Carlisle, 629, 630. towns and townships in, 554. Dix, Miss Dorothea L., the philanthropist, 254. Chester, old town hall at, 635; first meeting-house of Doanes, the outlaws, 446. Friends at, 661; notice of, 669. Donegal church, notice of, 840. Chester valley, view of, 519. Doubleday, General Abner, at Gettysburg, 286. Chevaux-de-trize in the Delaware, 156. l)oudle, Captain Michael, 154. Chew mansion, Germantown, 178. Downingtown, notice of, 536. Christ church, Philadelphia, 1026. Doylestown, notice of, 449; court house at, 438; soldiers' Church, Jerry, 570. monunment at, 449. Clarion county, sketch of, 547; resources of, 550; educa- Drake's pioneer oil well, 1119. tional interests in, 551; historical review of, 552: towns Duel between John Binns and Samuel Stewart, 1004. of, 554. Duncan's island, description of, 651. Clarion, court house at, 547; prison at, 549; Carrier Dunmore, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 144. selminary at, 552; notice of, 554. Dunmore's war of 1774, 1155. Clarke. General George, troops enlisted for expedition Duquesne Fort, erection of, 80; burning of, 98. of, 1142, 1158. Clayton, Colonel Asher, 110. EARLY, General Juibal, at Gettysburg, 293, 294; orders Clearlield county, sketch of, 557; resources of, 559; his- the burningof Chaminbersburg, 753. torical review of, 563;.towns or, 5614. Easton, grand Indian council at, 1756, 95; second counClearfield borough, view of, 557; notice of, 564. cil at, 1758, 98; historical suinmmuary of, 985. Clinton county, sketch of, 569; resources of, 571; his- Eaton, Rev. George W., 784. torical review of, 574; towns of, 579. Ebensburg, notice of, 475. Clinton, Sir Henry, succeeds Lord Howe, 184; evacuates Economy, description of, 356; assembly house at, 357; Philadelphia, 185. church of the Harmonists at, 358. Cloud Point, Lehigh valley, 500. Education, of the poor, 235; liberal system of ad opted, Cluggage, Captain Robert, 154. 243; public or tree system adopted, 247; advocates of, Cinciinati, Society of, 270. 248. Coaches, first through line to Pittsburgh, 236. Elder, Colonel John, 109, 114; letter of to Colonel Burd, Coal, use anid discovery of, 487, 884, 1063, 1146. 120. Coatesvi.le, notice of, 536. Elftsborg or Elsngborg, Swedish fort. 34. Cockade, State, adopted, 235. Elliott, Commodore Jesse Duncan, 240. Colve, Anthony, Dutch Governor, 42. Elk county, sketch of, 682; resources of, 683; early settleColumbia borough, notice of, 830; view of town hall and mnents in, 684; towns of, 690; formation of towlnships Locust street in, 831. in, 690. Columbia county, sketch of, 584; historical review of, Emigh's Gap, Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, 567. 585; towns of, 593; formation of townships of, 596. Eupuriunl, view of, 479; notice of, 483. Committee of Safety, appointment of, 148; seal of, 148; England, policy of, 123. new appointment of, 154. Ephrata, wounded at Brandywine taken to, 176; notice Conestoga Indians, treachery of, 107; removal of re- of, 835; brothers' and sisters' house at, 835. quested, 111; murderous Indians harbored by, 112; de- Erie city, view of from the lake, 692; old block-house at, stroyed by the Vaxtang boys, 112. 693; notice of, 719; soldiers and sailors' lonumlent at, Conemnaugli, view on the, 1152. 720. Conewago canal colupany, 214. Erie county, sketch of, 693; early history of, 693; towns Connecticut, claims of, 204, 420, 887, 1111, 1149. and townships in, 721. Connellsville, notice of, 729. Erie, lake, account of battle of, 704, 934. Connolly, Dr. John, agent of Virginia, 144, 1154. Evans, John, Deputy Governor, 60; biographical sketch Conshohocken, notice of, 959. of, 61. Constitutional Conventioln of 1776, 165; of 1690, 212; of Evans, Oliver, inventions by, 210, 236. 1837-8, 249; of 1873, 275. Ewell, General Robert, at Gettysburg, 282, 286, 288, 293, Continental Congress, delegates from iPennsylvania, 141. 299, 300, 302; at Carlisle, 622. Convention of Deputies, 159; address to Congress, 160; Ewing, General James, 162. address to the Associators, 160. Excise laws, sumnary of, 218. Cook, Colonel Edward, 225, 227. Cook, Martha Walker. 515. FAIR PLAY men, notice of, 919. Corbly family killed, 771. Fa!l Brook, notice of, 1107; view of, 1108. Cornwall ines, notice of, 864. Fallston, notice of 349. Corry, notice of, 721. Fayette county, sketch of, 724; roads laid out in, 727; Couchl, General D. N., 265, 283, 302. 749. historical summary of, 727; towns of, 729. Coudersport, court house at, 1053; notice of, 1057. Federal constitution, convention to frame, 210; adopCoulter, General Richard, at Gettysburg, 293. tion of, 211. Counties and county towns, 278. Feeble-minded children, training school for, 256. County histories, 277. Fell. Judge Jesse, burns anthracite coal in a grate, 884. Cove, Great, massacre by Indians in, 745. Findlay, William, Governor, 242; biographical sketch Covenhoven's narrative, 917. of, 242; notic,e of, 758. Crawford county, early history of, 597; education in, Findley, William, 229, 231. 605; resources of, 609. Fisheries, inland, 275. Crawford, Colonel William, expedition and fate of, 202, Fitch, John, invention by, 209. 1154, 1157. Five Nations Indians, 21. Cresap, Thomas, agent of Lord Baltimore, 822. Fletcher, Benjamin, Governor, 55. Crooked Billet, surprise at, 184, 959. Forts-Ashcraft's, 726; Augusta, 999, 1001: Bedford, 362; Crozer theological selminary at Upland, 681. Bosley, 586; Burd, or Necessity, 726; Caslmir, 36; CasCunlberland county, sketch of, 612; first settlers in, 615; sell's, 726; Christina, 34; Cresap's, 824; l)eshler's, 876; Indian incursions it, 617; resolves of inhabitants, 1774, Forty, 902; Franklin, 1126; Freeland, 189, 1001; Gad 618; rebel invasion of, 1863, 622; towns of, 633. dis', 726; Granville, 942; Hamilton, 948; Henry, 866; Curtin, Andrew G., Governtior, 259; biographical sketch Hunter, 649; Jenkins', 586; Le Bcelluf, 102, 698, 1126; of, 259; inaugural declarations, 259; comprehends the Lucas 726; Lyttletoii, 765; McClure's. 586; McCoy's, magnitude of the rebellion, 260; his care for the troops, 726; Niclntosh 188; Machault, 1122; Meninger, 1001; 268. Mercer, 180; Mifflin, 180; Miller's, 1078; Minter's, 726; Curwensville, notice of, 564. Morris', 726; Muncy, 188, 1001; Nassau, 35; Norris, 948; Oplaudt, 31; Pearse's, 726; Penn, 948: Presqu'Isle, DANVILLE, court house at, 961; notice of, 962; Insane 102, 694, 1126; Rice, 586; Stevenson's, 726; Smith. 866; hospital at, 964. Swearingen's, 726; Venango, 102, 1126; Washington, Dauphin county, sketch of, 637; early settlement of, 640; 166; Wheeler, 586. ill the Revolution, 642; towlnof, 649; formation of town- Fort Bedford house, 363. ships, 653. Fort Pitt, erection of, 98; plan of, 98; redoubt at, 104. Davis, Jefferson, President Southern Confederacy, 279. Fort Stanwix, treaty of 1768, 130; second treaty at, 1784, Decatur, Commnodore Slephen, 239. 207. De Haas, Colonel John Philip, 156. Fort Sumter, firing on, 259. Declaratory act of the British'arliament, 124. Forest county, sketch of, 733* resources of, 734; early setDelaware county, sketch of, 655; first settlement in, 656; tlements in, 737; towns and townships in, 738. towns and townships in, 667. Forbes, General John, expedition ot, 97; erects Fort Delaware Indians, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. Pitt, 98. Delaware river, discovery of by Hudson, 28; names Frame of government, 47. known by. 29. Franklin and Marshall college, 825. Delaware Water Gap, 949. Franklin, Benjamnin, establishes Philadelphia library, Denny, William, Deputy Governor, 93; biographical 71; publishes historical review of Pennsylvania, 98; po sketch of, 93. litical pamphlet written by, 120; letter to Lord Karnes Derry church, description of, 644. relative to, 120; elected president, 209; biographical Deshler's Fort, sketch and notice of, 876. sketch of, 209. GENERAL INDEX. 1183 Franklin, view of Liberty street in, 1117; view of in 1840, Horse Shoe Curve on Pennsylvania railroad, 396. 1128; notice of, 1129. Horticultural Hall, Centennial Exposition, 437. Franklin county, sketch of, 739; resources of, 742; his- " Hot Water " war, 233. torical review of. 743: towns of, 756. House tax, imposition of, 233. ",Freedoms and Exemptions," 30. Howard. General O. O., at Gettysburg, 284. Freidenshutten, Moravian monument at, 415. Howe, General, marches on Philadelphia, 171; defeats French and English forts at Venaugo, plan of, 1123. the Americans at Brandywine, 173; entrance into French and Indian war, station of troops during, 95. Philadelpla, 175. French, designs of, 71; erection of forts by on the Ohio, Hudde, Andreas, Dutch commissary, 35, 38 79, 319. Hudson, Henry, discovers the Delaware, 28 French neutrals, 1025. Humiphreys, Whitehead, invention by, 210. French refugees, 424. Huiimphrey. General A. A., at Gettysburg, 290, 295. Fries Insurrection, 233. Hunti ugdon county, sketch of, 775; resources of, 776; Frontiersmen, march of to Philadelphia, 115; present history of, 777; early settlers in, 779; towns of, 785; for their grievances, 115; Governor Penn's opinion of, 121. mation of townships in, 789. Fulton county, sketch o, 760; resources of, 761; histori- Huntingdon borough, 775; seal of, 779; notice of, 785. cal review of, 764; towns and townships in, 787. Fugitive slave law, passage of, 255. IMMIGRANTS into Pennsylvania, 69. Indiana borough, notice of, 795, 796. GALDRAITHS of Donegal, 845. Indiana county, sketch of, 790; resources of, 791; early Galti A t,231; residence of, 731. settlements in 793; towns of, 795; townships in, 796. Gallatzi, inissioary priest, 469 Ilidian battle at Lackawaxen, 1050. Gas, first introduction of, 1042 Indian God Rock, view of, 1121; inscriptions on, 1122. Gas,81s inrodctin o, 142 ndIanl incursionis, 1794, 216. Geary, General John W., at Gettysburg. 288, 293, 295; Idia inr s, es 90 17. elected Governor, 273; biographical sketch of, 273. Indian marauds, tears of, 78: on the frontiers, 90. 197. Genet, M., violates the neutrality laws, 215. Indians, purchases frm, 1682, 442; 1683, 525; 1762, 888; Germantown, battle of, 177. 1768, 504, 1085: map showing, 208. Geriantown, otice 1, 1045; academy at, 1046. Indian relics found near Safe Harbor, 818. Gettysburg, battle of, 282; General Lee's head-quarters Indian scalps, rewards for, 93. at, 285; the first day's battle, 286; General Meade's Indian walk, 74, 443, 967. head-quarters at, 288, the seco,u day's battle, 28; the Independence Hall, 1876, 1030. third day's battle, 294; plan of thle battle of, 295. Independence proposed, 162; declared, 164; signed, 164; Gettysburg boiough, descrivtion of, 303; Lutheran theo- publicly read in Philadelphia, 165. logical se nary u 303 l ensylvaia college at, 305, Insane poor, first State hospitai erected, 254. soldiers' national cemetery at, 306; national mltou- International Exposition, 1044. lent at, 308; ouunent o Geera Reynolds at, 310. Iternal improvementits, measures taken for, 213; vigG1)bon, General, at Gettysburg, 292. nette, 789. Gibson, James, 115. Iroquois the, 17 18, 19, 22. Gilbert family, cature of. 493. Irvine, General Villiamn, 157; commissioner to western Girard college at hiladelphia, 1044. insurgents, 227. Glatz tn elladd 1 i, 11. Irving Female College, Mechanicsburg, 632. mltzlansion, erected 173"2, 1172. Glen Moneypeny, 1166. JACK, Captain, sketch of, 615. Glen of Glenolde, 668. Jack, Captain Matthew, 1158. Gnadenhutten, notice of 491. Jack's N arrows Pennsylvania railroad, 781. Granville, fort, captured, 942. Jacquett, John 1'aul, Dutch Governor, 38. Great Island, map of, 572. Jay's Treaty with Great Britain, 232. Great Meadows, Jumonville defeated at, 80. Jennlngs Colonel William W., 264, 283. Greeley Horace, charges of against t'ennsylvania dis- Jeikiuns' cavalry, Confederate, 282, 622, 750, 751. proved, 266. 1Jeffer6on county, sketch of, 798. resources of, 799; his Greencastle, notice of, 758. torlcal review of, 800; towns of, 805. Greene county, sketch of, 769; historical summary of, Jersey prison slips, 264. 171; towns of', 773: townships iii, 774. Jersey Shore, notice of, 921. G reensburg, court house at, 1153; notice of, 1160. Jesuit missionaries, 17. Gregg, Andrew, 515. Johnson, General, division at Gettysburg, 282, 293. Grove, Peter, adventures of, 482. Johiistoii, Re, v..John, 785. Godyn, Samuel, 30. Johnston, William F., Governor, 254; biographical Gookii, Charles, Deputy Governor, 62; biographical sketch of, 254. sketch of, 62. Johnstown, view of, 464; description of, 475. Gordon, General John B., at Gettysburg, 283. Jubilate De, in language of Six Nations, 24. Gordon, Patrick, Deputy Governor, 70; biographical Juniata county, sketch of, 806; early settlements In, 807; sketch of, 70; death of, 74. towns of, 811, townships in, 813. Gyantwachia, or Cornplanter, 1135; monument erected to by Pennsylvania, 1135. KASKASKUNK, 857. Keithli, Sir VWillain. Deputy Governor, 64; biographical ' HALF SHARE' men, 421. sketch of, 64; inmeets tile Indians at Albany, 68. Hain's church near Wernersville, 389. Key of Kalmar, ship of war, 33. Hamburg, sketch of, 387. Keystone State, Pennsylvania first called, 235. Hamilton, Andrew, Deputy Governor, 60; biographical Kieft, Sir William, Director-General, New Netherlands, sketch of, 60. 34. Hlamilton, James, Deputy Governor, 77; biographical Kilpatrick, General, at Gettysburg, 299. sketch of, 97. King, Francis, 925. lanipton, General Wade, at Chambersburg, 748. Kittanling borough, notice of. 336. lHancock, General W. S., at Gettysburg, 287, 292. Kittauning, Indian town of, destroyed, 95. Hanuastown, sketch of, 1154; destruction of, 1158. Kittanning path, 472. Hanover church, view of, 646. Kirkpatrick, Major Abram, 225. Hanover, Dauphin county, resolutions in 1774, 641. Kiyasuta, Seneca Chief, conspiracy of, 101. Ilanover, York county, notice of, 1180; public fountain Kulpe, General Joseph, 622, 752. at, 1179. Knoxville, view of, 1101; notice of, 1108. Harmony Society at Economy, 355. Kingston, notice of, 910; Wyoiunig seminary at, 911. Harrisburg, seat of government removed to, 238; view of Kutztown, notice of, 388. State Capitol at, 244; itnsurrectlon at, 250; view ot, 636; tirst German church at, 647; first English, 647. LAFAYETTE College, Pardee Hall. 966; notice of, 986. Harris, John, notice of, 639; grave of, 640. Lafayette, General, wounded at Brandywine, 175; visit Harris mansion, 637. to P'ennsylvauia, 245, 533, 670, 1038. Hartley, Colonel Thomas, expedition against the Indian Lancaster city, old court house at, 814; court house country, 188, 418. at, 827; high school. 828; soldiers' monumeunt at, 829; Hatboro', notice of, 959. county hospital at, 851. Hazleton notice of, 909. Lancaster, conference with Six Nations at, 77; Supreme Heckeweder, 17, 19. Executive Council at, 176, 183. Hebron church, Lebanon, notice of, 888. Lancaster county, when formed, 70; sketch of, 814; re Hendricks, Captain William, 154. 620. sources of, 815; early settlements in, 820; towns and Hendrickson, Captain Cornells, 29. townships in, 811. Hetilh, General, at Gettysburg, 288, 297, 300. Lancasterian system of education, 243. Hiester, Joseph, Governor, 243; biographical sketch o,, Lancaster land company, 1133. 243. Lands improved and unimproved in Pennsylvania, 567. Hill, General A. P., at Gettysburg, 282, 286, 288, 292, 296, Lal)orte, notice of, 1085. 300. Latta, John, Lieutenant-Governor under Constitution Hochitagete or Barefoot, 19. of 1873, 276. Ilollandare, Peter, Swedish Governor, 34. Lawrence county, sketch of, 854; resources of, 855; his Holland laud company, 1133, 1134. torical review of, 856* towns of, 859. Hollidaysburg, Blair county, court house at, 397; sket Leaden plate deposited by the French in the Ohio, 319; of, 400. translation of inscription on, 1122. Hood, General, at Gettysburg, 288, 289, 300. Lebanon borough, view of, 892; county court house at, Hooker, General Joseph, 284. 863; notice of, 867. GENERAL INDEX. Lebanon county, sketch of, 863; resources of, 864; his torical review of, 865; towns of, 867. Lee, Governor Henry, in command of Western army, 229. Lee, General Robert E., at Gettysburg, 288, 296, 299, 300, 301; at Chambersburg, 749, 752. Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, 869. Lehigh coal, discovery orf, 487. Lehigh county, sketch of, 871; resources of, 873; histori cal review of, 874; towns of, 877; townships in, 879. Lehigh navigation company, 487. Lehigh university, at Bethlelhen, 980, 981. Lehighton, notice of, 499. Lemke, Rev. Peter Henry, 470. Lenape-see Delawares. Lewisburg, court house at, 1110; view of, 1114; univer sity of, 1116. Lewistown borough, view of, 943; notice of, 944. Lewis' lake, notice of, 1082. Lewistown narrows, Pennsylvania railroad, 941. Liberty bell, Independence hall, 556. Library company of Philadelphia established, 71. Lincoln university, 535. Lindstrom, Peter, 37. Litiz, notice of, 537; spring and walk at, 838. Logan Guards of Lewistown, 261. Logan, James, Provincial secretary, 60, 64, 74; bio graphical sketch of, 76. Logan, the Mingo chief, 940. Log college, 444. Long Island, battle of, 166. Longstreet, General, at Gettysburg, 282, 295, 299. Loretto, St. Aloysius college at, 477. Lovelace, Colonel Francis, English Governor. 41. Lowdon, Captain John, 154. Lower Merion Friends meeting-house, 954. Lowreys, of Donegal, 848. Loyal Sock, head-waters of, 1081. Lutheran theological seminary at Gettysburg, 304. Luzerne county, sketch of, 881; resources of, 884; early history of, 885; towns of, 909. Lycoming, sketch of, 913; resources of, 913; historical summary of, 915; towns of, 919; townships in, 922. Lykens, notice of, 652. MCCANDLESS, General William, at Gettysburg, 292, 299. McCausland's foray, 753. McConnellsburg, court house at, 760; notice of, 767. McFarlane, Captain James, 225. M'Kean county, sketch of, 923; resources of, 924; early settlements in, 925. I1'Kean, Thomas, commissioner to western counties, 227; elected Governor, 234; biographical sketch of, 231. McKeesport, description of, 327. Machault Fort, 1122. Machinery hall, Centennial Exhibition, 861. Magaw, Colonel Robert, 157. Manor of Maske, 281; Pennsbury, 441; Springettsbury, 1171* Succoth, 503. Mansfield, Episcopal church at, 1104; Methodist church at, 1107; State normal school at, notice of, 1106, 1107. Marietta, notice of, 843. Markham, William, D)epnty Governor, 47, 56, 57. Mauch Chunk, description of, 496. Maryland intruders, 68, 72, 822, 1169. Mason and Dixon's line, historical resume of, 124; run ning of, 129. Meade, General George G., at Gettysburg, 284, 287, 288, 296; report of, 301. Meadville, court house at, 597; county seat fixed at, 605; view of, 607. Mechanicsburg, notice of, 632. Media, court house at, 678. Memorial Hall, Centennial Exhibition, 774. Mengwe-see Iroquois. Mercer borough, notice of, 938. Mercer county, sketch of, 931; historical review Of, 932; towns of, 936. Merrill, General Jesse, 274. Mey, Captain Cornelis Jacobsen, 29, 30. Meyersdale, notice of, 1080. Middleburg, county court house at, 1072; notice of, 1076. Middletown, description of, 649. Mifflin county, sketch of, 939; historical review of, 940; towns of, 944. Mifflintown, county court house and soldiers' monument at, 806; notice of, 811. Miffin, Thomas, elected President, 211; chosen Gover nor, 213; biographical sketch of, 213. Miles, Colonel Samuel, 166, 167. Milford, county court house at, 1049; notice of, 1052. Military academy at Chester. 672. Mlllersburg, description of, 651. Millersville, State normal school at, 842. Milroy, General, dispersion of command of, 265, 266, 282, 750. Milton borough, notice of, 1004. Minuit, Peter, Swedish Governor, 30, 33. Mischianza 184. Mohawks. indians, 17. Mloliicanuittuck, 20. Monroe county, sketch of, 946; historical review of, 947; towns of, 949. " Monroe doctrine" endorsed by Pennsylvania, 245. Monongahela city, notice of, 1144. Montgomnery county, sketch of, 950; resources of, 951; historical summary of, 952; towns of, 956. Montour county, sketch of, 961; towns of, 962. Montrose, county court house at, 1087; view of, 1095; notice of, 1095. Moore, Nicholas, Chief Justice, 53. Moore, William, elected Vice-President, 192; chosen Presldent, 202; biographical sketch of, 202. Moravian missionaries, 17. Moravian missions, 412. 414, 490, 402, 856, 868, 972, 978. Moravian Indians, treachery of, 109; removal of to Pro vince island, 109; opinions of the frontiersmen relative to, 117. Morrell, General Isaac, 238. Morris, Robert Hunter, Deputy-Governor, 80; bio graphical sketch of, 80. Mount Pilsgah inclined plane, 496. Muhllenberg, Peter, elected Vice-President, 210; resigns, 211; grave of, 960. Muncy, notice of, 921. Muskingum, Colonel Bouquets' expedition to, 122. Myggenoorg or Mosquito fort, 34. NAGEL, CAPTAIN GEORGE, 154. National light infantry of Pottsville, 261. National road, 725. Native American riots, 252. Navy, Pennsylvania, organization of, 154. Nazareth hall, view of, 990. Nazareth, notice of, 990. Negroes, importation of, 100. Nesquehloning bridge, 501. Neville, General John, house burned, 225; re-assumes the duties of his office, 230. New Bloomfield, court house at, 1007; notice of, 1014. New Brighton, view of, 350: description of, 350. New Castle, Delaware, madle a corporation, 41. New Castle, Lawrence county, court house at, 854; pub lic school building at, 859; notice of, 859; Disciples church at, 860. New Gottenberg, Swedish fort, 34. Newport, view of, 1009; notice of, 1014. New Purchase, 130. New Sweden, msap of, 43. Newtown, description of, 451. Nicole, French Indian trader, 62. Nicolls, Sir Riclhard, captures New Netherlands, 40. Noailles, Viscount Louis de, 424. Non-imIportation resolutions signed, 130. Norristown, court house at, 950; notice of, 956; old fire company at, 957. Northampton county, sketch of, 968; historical summary of, 968; townships in, 981; men of note of, 996. Northumberland borough, notice of, 1004. Northumberland county, sketch of, 997; historical sum mary of, 998; towns of, 1004. North Branch canal, completion of, 256. OHIO, obstruction to navigation of, 255. Oil City, notice of, 1129. Oil (petroleum), notices of, 604. 1118. Ole Bull settles in Pennsylvania, 1056. Onoko Falls, 498. Opessah, Shawanese chief, 23. Osceola. description of, 565. Osset, Giles, Dutch colmmnissary, 31. Osterhout mansion, 1167. PACKER, WILLIAM F., Governor, 257; biographical sketch of, 257. Palmer, Anthony, 77. Paoli battle ground, 176, 532. P'appegoya, John, Governor of New Sweden, 36. Parkinson's Ferry, nmeeting of insurgents at, 227, 229. Patterson, James, 344, 353. Patton, Colonel John, 515. Paxtang church, description and views of, 645. Paxtalng, Indian mnarands in, 110. Paxtang rangers, destroy the savages at Conestoga, 112; complete their work at Lancaster, 113; seeds of the Revolution sown by, 121. Pemberton, Lieutenant-General, C. S. A., 261. Fender, General, killed at Gettysburg, 288, 300. Pennamnite war, 591, 948, 1000. Penn, (Gulielnia Maria, death of, 57. Penn, Hannah, 67, 74. Penn, John, 71; death of, 77. Penn, John, Lieutenant-Governor, 111; biographical sketch of, 111I; goes to England, 131; returns to the Province, 131; course of, 142. Penn, Richard, Lieutenant-Governor, 131; biographical sketch of, 131. Penn, Springett, 74. Penn, Thomas, 71. Penn, William, portrait of, frontispiece; description of tihe Indians, 25; Charles II. grants Pennsylvania to, 45; proclamation by, to people of the Province, 46; arrives at New Castle, 48; returns to Europe, 52; deprived of his Province, 55; second visit to Pennsylvania, 58; grants a new charter to the Province, 59; returns to England, 60: death of, 65; biographical sketch of, 45; book plate, 66; chair of, 27. Penns compensated for proprietary rights, 192. 1184 GELYE IAL INDEX. 1185 Penn's creek massacre, 1110. Ross, George, elected Vice-President, 211. Penn's treaty Inlonunlenlt, 49. Ross, Captain James, 154. Penn's treaty vwitlhI tle Indll(lians, 50. Rouse, Henry R., 1119, 1137. Penn's valley, froin Nittany mountain, 505. Rttunaway, the brig, 575. Pennsylvantia granted to William Penn, 45; how named, Rysingh, John Claudius, Governor of New Sweden, 36. 46; (dividid 111into three counties, 51; map of, 1685, 52; map of, 1730, (12. SAFE HARBOR, notice of, 839; Indlan relics found near, Pennsylvania canal, prosecution of, 245. 818: inscription oil rocks at, 839. 'Pennsylvania college at Gettyslburg, 304. St. Clair, General Arthur, commnllnd of in the Revoltion, P'elnnsylvanlia militia, conduct of in war of 1812, 241; in 157; defeat of by thile Indians. 212; home of on Chestnut 1862, advance into Maryland, 265: thanks of General Ridge, 1156; monument to. 1161. McCleilan to, 265; at (Gettysburg, 283, 302. St. Alary's, description of, 690. Pennsylvania, inalltactluring idustries of, 567. Saltsburg discovery of salt springs at, 791. Pennsylvania, pat riotisiln of the people of. 266. Salt works established by Pennsylvania on Toi's river, Pennlsylvania, populatioln of by counties. 329. 166. i'enntsylvania railroad, completion of, 256. Saw-dust" war, 274. Pennsylval ia r eserves, organization of, 260, 265; at Get- Saxton, Joseph, 784. tysburg, 292, 299. Schellsburg, tnotice of, 376. Pelmsylvatia troops, first to reachl the Federal capital, Schuylkill coal and navigation company, 245, 1063. 1861, 262; t han ks of Congiess to, 263. Schlylkill county, skelch of, 1059; early settlemnents itn, Pennsylvania soldiers in th ilRevolution, deplorable con- 1059; towli shilps of, 1061; coal developleat in, 1065. dilion oft, 196; revolt of, 197; their grievances, 197; set- Schuylkill river, view on, 945. tlentei wilh, 201; claims of, 206. Scranton, description of, 909. Perry cottlty, sketch of, 1006; early settlements in, 1007; Scotclh-Irish, the fi rset settlers in Northampton county, towns of, 1012; townships in, 1014. 970. Perry, Oliver lazald, gol medal to, 240; victory on " Scout Fisscal," office of. 30. Lake Erie, 7014; flag ship Lawrence. 706. Scull, Niclholas, nap of, 974, 1063. Pet igrew, Geuerl.d, at (Gettysburg, 297, 298. Seal of Assentbly-1776, 168. Pltladelphia city ai;d county, sketch of, 1015: historical Seal of Committee of Sately-1775, 148. sllniIlary of, 1015; towitships of, 1019; consolidation of, Seal of Hmtilingdoll borough, 779. 1022. Seal, Proprietary. 27. Philadelphia captured by the British, 1031; yellow fever Seiler, Captain Getorge A. C., forms Camp Curtin, 263. it), 1035; old slat:c-roof tiouse at, 1016; new city hall int, Seigfried, Colhnel,ohl, 976. 1018; old courit house at, 1021; old navy yard at, 11040; Selinsgrove, notice of, 1073; Snyder mansion at, 1075; view of Delaware frott, 1043; United States inlnt at, Lltilerant mlissionary institute at, 1074. 404; old Vine street church in, 732. Senlecas-See Iroquois. l'ickering, Colonel Timothy, conference at Tioga, 422. "SlShadesof Death," 188. Pickett, Gt.ntral, at Gottysburg, 289, 294, 297, 298. Shatkamaxon, suppotsed treaty at, 49. Pike county, sketch of, 1049; historical review of, 1050; Shatnokin, now Slunbury, 998. towns of, 1052. Sharon, notice of, 9368. Pittsburghi, vi -v of, looking up the Ohiol, 314; laying out Shawanese Indians. 23, 585, 885. of town of, 3.1; progress of, 322; description of, 325; Slhaw, Margaret, biavery of, 1159. city hall at, 325. Shee, (Colonlel John, 157. Pittston, uotice of, 912. Slteshlequtanunk, site of, 412. Pit litthle city, descripltion of, 1131. Slteyichbl country, 20. Pleasan.tville, go 0u! of oil derricks at, 1131. Shikellimy, notice of, 998; residence of, 1110. Pl1nkett, DIr. illialm, exp(ditioll of, 1000. Shippensbtturg, description of, 631. Pollock, James, Governor, 256; biographical sketch of, Shrewsbury, Inotice of, 1180. 256. Shlmunk. Franeis R.. Governor, 252; biographical sketch Pnltiae, Ottawa chief, conspiracy of, 101. of, 252; farewell address to people of Pennsylvania, 253; Portage road, view on, 474. (death of, 253. Porter, Davii R., Governor, 249; biographical sketch of, Shulze, John Andrew, Governor, 215; biographical 250. skelcht of, 245. Porter, General Andrew, 957. Sickles. General, at Gelttysburg, 288, 290, 292. Potter, General Jallmes, 516. Six Nation Indians, 21; conference with at Lancaster, Potter (countty. skelchi of. 1053; resoulrces of, 1054; settle- 77; treaty with at Fort Stallwix, 130; take sides with mentls in, 1055; townships in, 1057. tte British, 188. Po tt, Joilln, burns anthracite (coal-, 1065. Slavery abolished in Pennsylvanli:a, 193. Pottsville, view of, 1058. Snlyder county, sketch of, 1072; towns and townships in, PresidI,it's hose btilt by Penlsylvania, 232. 1073. Preq(u'Isle, Indians opposed to establishlnctt at, 216; Snyder, Silonl, Governor, 236; biogralphical sketch of, tovwn i aid out at, 216. 236; imansi(onl of, at Selitsgrove, 1075. Priestly, Dr. Joseph, 1004. Smt hport, countyv court house at, 923; county prison at, Prilnceloln, battle iof, 169. 929; notice of, 930. Pr-intz IHlall, Indian convocation at, 37. SlInitl, Matthew, lays before Provincial authorlties the Priintz, lJolin, Swedish Governor, 31. grievances of the frontliers, 115; commands in the Proprietary govert Ilnent, relative to, 122. Revol tion, 154; elected vice-president, 192; resiglts, 192. Provinlcial conference, proceedilngs of. 133. Soldiers' Nation al cemetery, 306. Provincial convention, proceedings of, 144. Soldiers' Orphans' schools, origin of, 271, 272. Public works, sale of, 256. Solebury Friends mteeting-hotse, 444. Pulpit rocks, near Iott(l Islatd, 580. S011erset i)orotLgh, county coturt house at, 1077; notice of, Pumlpkin flood,l 907. 1079; fires in, 10179. Punxsutawney, view of, 803; notice of. 805. Somerset eounly, sketch (of, 1077; resources of, 1077; early settlements in, 1078; towns of, 1080. UAKERTOWN, (description of, 451. Sottih-western college, (Califoria. 1143. IUappas, driven frotll the Ohio, 17. Springettslnry tllnor, 68. 1169, 1171. QuleIev, caplture of by Genetal Wolfe, 98; Arnold's expe- Sprt -e Creek tunnel, P'eis. lvania railroad,. 786. dition agatinst, 154. S lamp act, pasage of, 123; opposition to, 123; repealof, 124; effect of, 1027. RAILROAD, first, in America, 246. Standing Slone, 778. Ralston itlnelll- plal, 922. Slate college, Cenlre cotunty, 511. Randolph, P'eyton, of Virginia, 14-1. State hlouse, PIovincial, erectiont of, 71; in 1778, 187. Rapp, Rev. Georg,., foundllller of hi l:larmonists.:155. Stellens. Johnl, Ilnvention ly. 219. Reading, county court Ihouse at, 378; Trinity lutheraln Stevens, Thaddi uls, grave of, 83:0. chlrch at.:394; cemetery gate at, 395. Stewart, Captain Lazars., expt-ditlon to Wyoming, 110; Redick, David, elected Vie-P'resident, 211. commandis I hIe Paxiang boys, 111; threatened arrest of, Redstone oldi fort, ieeting of insurgetnts. at, 221. 288. 120; goes Ito Wyoniing, 1210. Reed, General Josephl, President, 190; biographical Stewart. Colnlmodore Chatles. 241. skelch of', 190. Stewart's block-hlouse, 895. Reed, General William, Adjutant-General, 238. Slinson falmily, mnurder of, 109. Relief notes, issue of, 251. Stlroudsbill g, 11no1 ice of, 949. Renova station, Philadelplhia and Erie railroad, 582. Smr rt, Gen. J. E. B., at Gettysburg,284; rald of in 1862, Reynolds, General Johnl F., at Gettysburg, 265, 284, 286, 747. 300; mo nmtent to, 310. Stuyvesant, Peter, Governor of New Netherlands, 36. Ridgway, view of. 6 W2; description of, 690. Sullivan county, sketch of, 1081; lakes in, 1083; resources Ridlty f'ark lake, 616. of, 1084; towis of, 1085. Ridley P'ark station, 679. Sullivan, General John, expedition of, 191, 906. Ringgold light artillery of Reading. 261. Sunlbury, notice of. 1004. Ritner, Joseph, (Governor, 247; biographical sketch of, Slusqulehanna county, sketch of, 1086; plan of townships 247. im, 1086; historical summary of, 1088; towns of, 1092. RiotIs In Philadelphia, 1039. Susquehalinna Indians. 17, 18, 19. Roberdeau, Daniel, alpplointted brigadier-general, 162. SIuslqutehanna river, viev nlear Milton, 998; junction of Rome, description of, 433. North and West Branchies of, 1002; view on from. Col Rosborough, Rev. Johlu, murdered by the British, 977. lege hill, Lewisburg, 1112. GENERAL INDEX. Swanendael, 31. Swarthmore college, 654. Swedes church, 1024. Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 33, 656. Sykes, General, at Gettysburg, 288. TALON, OMER, French refugee, 424. Tannehill, General Adamson, 238. Taxation without representation, 123. Taylor, Abiah, house built by, 1724, 539. Taylor, George, signer of Declaration of Independence, 986. Tea ships not allowed to land at Philadelphia, 131. Teedyuscung, Delaware chief. 23, 95, 119. Thannawage, Mohawk chief, 21. Thomas, Sir George, Deputy-Governor, 75; biographical sketch of, 75. Thompson, Colonel William, commands the first regi ment of the I'Army of the Continent," 154. Thomson, Charles, 123, 141. Tienpont, Captain Adrien Joriz, 30. Tionesta, view of, 733; notice of, 738. Tinicum island, 35. Tioga county, sketch of, 1101; resources of, 1102; towns of, 1105; townships in, 1109. Torkillus, Rev. IReorus, Swedish minister, 33. Towanda, view of, 405; description of, 435. Trappe, ancient Lutheran church at, 960. Treaty between Swedes and Indians, 37. Trefalldigheit, or Fort Trinity, 38. Trenton, battle of, 168, 169; decree of, adverse to Coii necticut, 420., Troops called out"to quell the Whiskey Insurrection, 227. Tunkhannock; county court house at, 1163; description of, 1167, 1168,. Turnpike roads, first, 1038. Tuscarora valley, settlement of, 807. Tyrone city, notice of, 402. UNALACHTGO, or Turkey tribe, 20. Unamis, or Turtle tribe, 20. Union canal, 245. Union pounty, sketch of, 1110; historical summary of, 1111; towns of, 1114. Union League House, Philadelphia, 258. Uniot'w, description of, 729. University of Lewisburg, view of, 1115. Universty of t'ennsylvania-Department of Arts and of, 104. University of Pennsylvania, purchase of the president's hot.e for, 232. Upland, now Chester, 657. Usselinx, William, 33. VALLEY FORGE, cantonment at, 181; Washington's head-quarters at, 182; view of, 955. Vai Campen, narrative of, 587. Van Dyck, Goeran,' scout fisscal,' 39. Van Hulst, William, 30. Van Twiller, Vouter, Dutch Governor, 32. Venango comnty, sketch of, 1117; French occupation of, 1122; towns of, 1129. Vincent, General, killed at Gettysburg, 291, 300. Virginia, pretensions of relative to western boundary, 144, 1154. WALKING PURCHASE, 443, 968. Wall George, 210. Ward, Ensign Edward, 80 War for the Union, 259; establishment of Camp Curtin, 260; first troops to reach the Federal capital from Penn sylvania, 261; first invasion of the State, 265; last inva sion, 267; troops raised for, 269. War of Independence, troops raised for, 148. War of 1812-14, 237; enthusiasm of the people, 238. War with Mexico, 252. Warren borough, view of, 1133; State hospital for insane at, 1138; notice of, 1119. Warren county, sketch of, 1132; land claims in, 1133* resources of, 1136; incidents in history of, 1138. Warren, General, at Gettysburg, 291. Washington and Jefferson college, 1140. Washington artillery, of Pottsville, 261. Washington borough, notice of, 1142. Washington county, sketch of, 1140; early settlement of, 1141; resources of, 1141; towns of, 1143. Washington female seminary, 478. Washington, President, proclamations issued by, 222, 227; proceeds to the western counties, 229; letter to General Seigfried, 976. Wayne county, sketch of, 1145; resources of. 1146; his torical summary of, 1148; towns of, 1150; townships in, 1151. Wayne, General Anthony, birth place and residence of, 540; in the Revolution, 157, 176; revolt of forces of, 197; victory over the Indians, 231; death of, 703. Waynesburg, county court house at, 769; notice of, 733. Weed. General, killed at Gettysburg, 300. Weissport, notice of, 499. Wellsboro', notice of, 1105. Welsh, Colonel Thomas, in command of Camp Curtin, 264. Welsh settlement, 952. West Chester, county court house at, 517; notice of, 537. Westmoreland county, sketch of, 1153; historical review of, 1154; Revolutionary resolves of, 1156; Centennial celebration of, 1162. Western counties, opposition to excise in, 221; hardships of the people, 220; President Washington's proclama tions to, 222, 227; turbulent proceedings in, 222; State commissioners to, 227; Federal commissioners to, 227; march of troops to, 229. Wharton, Thomas, Jr., elected President, 170; biographical sketch of, 170; sudden death of, 186. harton house, where the mischianza was held, 185. " Whigs'' and''Tories, I terms first used, 132. White Marsh, Washington's head-quarters at, 181. Whiskey Insurrection, historical summary of, 222. Wicaco, first church at, 1015. Wilcox, view of, 690. Wilkes-Barre, county court house at, 881; county prison at, 908; description of, 908. Williamsport, county court house at, 916; description of, 916. Wilson female college, Chamnbersburg, 757. Wissahickon, view on, 635. Wolf, George, Governor, 246; biographical sketch of, 246. Wolf or Minsi Indians, 20. Woolcomber family killed, 1008. Women's Pavilion, Centennial Exhibition, 813. Womelsdorf, notice of, 388. Wright, James, 832. Wright, John, 832. Wright's Ferry Mansion, Columbia. 833. Wyalusing, Indian mission at, 411; Moravian monument at, 415. Wyoming battle ground, 898; massacre at, 188; full de tails of, 1164. Wyoming county, sketch of, 1163; resources of, 1165; towns and townships in, 1165. Wyoming seminary at Kingston, 911. YELLOW FEVER at Philadelphia, 215. York, James, D1)uke of, 40, 42. York borough, laid out, 1171; Continental Congress in session at, 176, 183; court house at, 1170; court house, Provincial, 1173; Reformed church at, 1176; notice of, 1180. York county, sketch of, 1169; first settlers, 1170; in the Revolution, 1173; in war of Rebellion, 1175; resources of, 1179; towns of, 1180. Yorktown, surrender of Cornwallis at, 201. ZEISBERGER, Rev. David, apostle to the Indians, 832, 856. Zinzendorf, Count, missionary to the Indians, 886. Zook, General, killed at Gettysburg, 300. 1186 GENERAL BSTORY. cloak of friendship, carried on a correspondence with our known enemies on the Great Island. We cannot but observe, with sorrow and indignation, that some persons in this Province are at pains to extenuate the barbarous cruelties practised by these savages on our murdered brethren and relatives, which are shocking to human nature, and must pierce every heart but that of the hardened perpetrators or their abettors; nor is it less distressing to hear others pleading that although the Wyalusing tribe is at war with us, yet that part of it which is under the protection of the Government, may be friendly to the English, and innocent. In what nation under the sun was it ever the custom that when a neighboring nation took up arms, not an individual should be touched but only the persons that offered hostilities? Who ever proclaimed war with a part of a nation, and not with the whole? Had these Indians disapproved of the perfidy of their tribe, and been willing to cultivate and preserve friendship with us, why did they not give notice of the war before it happened, as it is known to be the result of long deliberations, and a preconcerted combination among them? Why did they not leave their tribe immediately, and come among us before there was ground to suspect them, or war was actually waged with their tribe? No, they stayed amongst them, were privy to their murders and revenges, until we had destroyed their provisions, and when they could no longer subsist at home, they come, not as deserters, but as friends, to be maintained through the winter, that they may be able to scalp and butcher us in the spring. " And as to the Moravian Indians, there are strong grounds at least to supect their friendship, as it is known they carried on a correspondence with our enemies on the Great Island. We killed three Indians going from Bethlehem to the Great Island with blankets, ammunition, and provisions, which is an undeniable proof that the Moravian Indians were in confederacy with our open Senemies; and we cannot but be filled with indignation to hear this action of ours painted in the most odious and detestable colors, as if we had inhumanly murdered our guides, who preserved us from perishing in the woods, when we only killed three of our known enemies, who attempted to shoot us when we surprised them. And, besides all this, we understand that one of these very Indians is proved, by the oath of Stinson's widow, to be the very person that murdered her husband. How, then, comes it to pass that he alone, of all the Moravian Indians, should join the enemy to murder that family? Or can it be supposed that any enemy Indians, contrary to their known custom of making war, should penetrate into the heart of a settled country to burn, plunder, and murder the inhabitants, and not molest any houses in their return, or ever be seen or heard of? Or how can we account for it, that no ravages have been committed in Northampton county since the removal of the Moravian Indians, when the Great Cove has been struck since? These things put it beyond doubt with us that the Indians now at Philadelphia are his Majesty's perfidious enemies, and, therefore, to protect and maintain them at the public expense, while our suffering brethren on the frontiers are almost destitute of the necessaries of life, and are neglected by the public, is sufficient to make us mad with rage, and tempt us to do what nothing but the most violent necessity can vindicate. We humbly and earnestly pray, TABLE OF CONTENTS. LAWRENCE..... LEBANON..... LEHIGH........ LUZERNE....... LYCOMING...... M'KEAN....... MERCER........ MIFFLIN....... MONROE....... MONTGOMERY... MONTOUR....... ... Rev. D. X. Junkin, D.D., New Castle........... .. I. D. Rupp and George Ross, M.D.,* Lebanon... .R. K. Buehrle and E. G. Leisenring,* Allentown. ...Steuben Jenkins* and others, Wyoming......... ...E. S. W atson, W illiamsport................... ...W illiam King, Ceres........................ ... William S. Garvin and Seth Hoagland, Mercer... ... Silas Wright* and C. W. Walters,* Lewistown.. ...W illiam S. Rees, Stroudsburg................. ... Morgan R. Wills, Norristown.................. ...John G. Freeze............................. NORTHAMPTON.... Rev. William C. Reichel, Bethlehem................ NORTHUMBERLAND. John F. Wolfinger, Milton....................... PERRY............ Silas W right, M illerstown......................... PHILADELPHIA.... Thomson Westcott, Philadelphia................... PIKE.............W illiam W estfall, Rowlands....................... POTTER..........E. O. Austin, Forest House....................... SCHUYLKILL....... George Chambers, Pottsville...................... SNYDER........... Horace Alleman, Selinsgrove...................... SOMERSET.........Edward B. Scull, Somerset....................... SULLIVAN.........Edwin A. Strong, Dushore........................ SUSQUEHANNA..... Miss Emily C. Blackman, Montrose................ TIOGA...........John L. Sexton, Fall Brook...................... U NION............John Blair Linn................................. VENANGO..........Rev. S. J. M. Eaton, D.D., Franklin................ W ARREN..........Samuel P. Johnson, W arren....................... WASHINGTON......Alfred Creigh, LL.D., Washington................. WAYNE..........Thomas J. Ham, Honesdale...................... WESTMORELAND.... Dallas Albert, Youngstown....................... WYOMING.........Charles M. Lee, Tunkhannock..................... YORK.............M. O. Smith, Hanover............................ PAGE 854 862 871 880 913 923 931 939 946 950 961 967 997 1006 1015 1049 1056 1064 1072 1077 1081 1086 1101 1110 1117 1132 1140 1145 1152 1163 1169 GENERAL INDEX.............................................. 1181 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. therefore, that those enemies of his Majesty may be removed as soon as possible out of the Province. "Fourthly. We humbly conceive that it is contrary to the maxims of good Spolicy, and extremely dangerous to our frontiers, to suffer any Indians, of what tribe soever, to live within the inhabited parts of this Province while we are engaged in an Indian war, as experience has taught us that they are all perfidious, and their claim to freedom and independency puts it in their power to act as spies, to entertain and give intelligence to our enemies, and to furnish them with provisions and warlike stores. To this fatal intercourse between our pretended friends and open enemies, we must ascribe the greatest of the ravages and murders that have been committed in the course of this and the last Indian war. We, therefore, pray that this grievance be taken under consideration and remedied. "Fifthly. We cannot help lamenting that no provision has been hitherto made, that such of our frontier inhabitants as have been wounded in defence of the Province, their lives and liberties, may be taken care of, and cured of their wounds at the public expense. We, therefore, pray that this grievance may be redressed. " Sixthly. In the late Indian war, this Province, with others of his Majesty's colonies, gave rewards for Indian scalps, to encourage the seeking them in their own country, as the most likely means of destroying or reducing them to reason, but no such encouragement has been given in this war, which has damped the spirits of many brave men, who are willing to venture their lives in parties against the enemy. We, therefore, pray that public rewards may be proposed for Indian scalps, which may be adequate to the dangers attending enterprizes of this nature. "Seventhly. We daily lament that numbers of our nearest and dearest relatives are still in captivity among the savage heathen, to be trained up in all their ignorance and barbarity, or to be tortured to death with all the contrivances of Indian cruelty, for attempting to make their escape from bondage; we see they pay no regard to the many solemn promises they have made to restore our friends who are in bondage amongst them. We, therefore, earnestly pray that no trade may hereafter be permitted to be carried on with them until our brethren and relatives are brought home to us. " Eighthly. We complain that a certain society of people in this Province, in the late Indian war, and at several treaties held by the King's representatives, openly loaded the Indians with presents, and that J. P., a leader of the said society, in defiance of all government, not only abetted our Indian enemies, but kept up a private intelligence with them, and publicly received from them a belt of wampum, as if he had been our Governor, or authorized by the King to treat with his enemies. By this means the Indians have been taught to despise us as a weak and disunited people, and from this fatal source have arose many of our calamities under which we groan. We humbly pray, therefore, that this grievance may be redressed, and that no private subject be hereafter permitted to treat with, or carry on a correspondence with, our enemies. "Ninthly. We cannot but observe with sorrow, that Fort Augusta, which has been very expensive to this Province, has afforded us but little assistance 118 GENERAL MISTORY. 119 during this or the last war. The men that were stationed at that place neither helped our distressed inhabitants to save their crops, nor did they attack our enemies in their towns, or patrol on our frontiers. We humbly request that proper measures may be taken to make that garrison more serviceable to us in our distress, if it can be done. "N. B.-We are far from intending any reflection against the commanding officer stationed at Augusta, as we presume his conduct was always directed by those from whom he received his orders. "Signed on behalf of ourselves, and by appointment of a great number of the frontier inhabitants. " MATTHEW SMITH, "FEBRUARY 13th, 1764." "JAMES GIBSON. The memorial of Gibson and Smith was sustained by another, having fifteen hundred signatures. The Assembly sent these memorials to a committee, which recommended a conference with the representatives of the back inhabitants, in order to convince them and the people that their complaints were unfounded. The House invited the Governor to participate in this conference, but he declined the measure, as incompatible with the dignity and subversive of the order of the government. He recommended them to investigate the merits of the petitions, and should any bill grow out of the investigation, he promised to give it due attention. The Assembly took no further steps. The bill directing persons charged with murdering an Indian in Lancaster county to be tried in Philadelphia, Bucks, or Chester, became a law, but no conviction for that offence was ever had. Pamphlets, says Webster, without number, truth, or decency, poured like a torrent from the press. The Quakers took the pen to hold up the deed to execration; and many others seized the opportunity to defame the Irish Presbyterians as ignorant bigots and lawless marauders. A dialogue between Andrew Trueman and Thomas Zealot, speaks of "Saunders Kent, an elder these thirty years, that gaed to duty" just before the massacre, and while he "was saying grace till a pint of whiskey, a wild lad ran his gully (knife) through the wame of a heathen wean." This, and much more that is worse, lacks the first requisite of a good lie; it does not look like truth; it makes the Irish Presbyterians talk like English churchmen, to whom the phrase " saying grace " is peculiar. "Gaeing to duty" is a thrust at family worship in use among Presbyterians, but highly ridiculous to godless "sayers of grace." The Presbyterians replied that Teedyuscung confessed that he would not have complained of the new settlers if he had not been encouraged by prominent Quakers. They produced affidavits that the Indians who were killed were drunken, debauched, insolent, quarrelsome, and dangerous; they refer to the Christian Indian, Renatus, as notoriously bad, and assert that the Indian who shot Stinson, in Allen township, while rising from his bed, was secured in Philadelphia from justice, and comforted in a good room, with a warm bed and stove. They also charged that the representation in the Assembly was unequal, and that Lancaster, with a larger population, was allowed fewer members than other counties. 120 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. Violent and bitter as were the attacks of the Quaker pamphleteers, Parson Elder was only casually alluded to. With the exception of the following, written to Colonel Burd, hlie made no attempt to reply to any of these, leaving his cause with God and posterity: "Lazarus Stewart is still threatened by the Philadelphia party; he and his friends talk of leaving. If they do, the Province will lose some of its best friends, and that by the faults of others, not their own; for if any cruelty was practised on the Indians at Conestoga or at Lancaster, it was not by his or their hands. There is great reason to believe that much injustice has been done to all concerned. In the contrariness of accounts we must infer that much rests for support on the imagination or interest of the witnesses. The characters of Stewart and his friends were well established Ruffians, nor brutal, they were not; but humane, liberal, and moral, nay, religious. It is evidently not the wish of the party to give Stewart a fair hearing. All he desires is to be put on trial at Lancaster, near the scenes of the horrible butcheries committed by the Indians at Tulpehocken, etc., where he can have the testimony of the scouts and rangers, men whose services can never be sufficiently rewarded. The pamphlet has been sent by my friends and enemies; it failed to inflict a Npound; it is at least but a garbled statement; it carries with it the seeds of its own dissolution. That the hatchet was used is denied, and is it not reasonable to suppose that men, accustomed to the use of guns, would make use of their favorite weapons?. The inference is plain, that the bodies of the Indians were thus mangled after death by certain persons, to excite a feeling against the Paxtang boys. This fact, Stewart says, he can and will establish in a fair trial at Lancaster, York, or Carlisle. At any rate we are all suffering at present by the secret influence of a faction-a faction who has shown their love to the Indians by not exposing themselves to its influence in the frontier settlements." The "pamphlet" alluded to in the foregoing was the notorious article written by Benjamin Franklin for political effect. He acknowledged, in a letter to Lord Kames, that his object was a political one. As such, its tissue of falsehoods caused his defeat for member of the Assembly, a position he had held for fourteen years. Fortunately for him, the Revolution brought him into prominence, and the past was forgotten. From several letters of Governor John Penn written during this period to his uncle Thomas Penn, we glean the following facts, which, when properly considered, will in a great measure remove the odium which prejudiced historians have thrown upon this transaction. In one, of the date of Nov. 11, 1763, he says: "I have had petitions every day from the frontier inhabitants requesting assistance against the Indians, who still continue their ravages in the most cruel manner." He alludes to the fact of the" Indians on the Manor" in Lancaster county being concerned in several murders in that county. In another: "It is beyond a doubt that many of the the Indians now in town [referring to the Moravian Indians confined in the Barracks] have also been concerned in committing murder among the back settlers. Many of the people have had their wives and children murdered and scalped, their houses burnt to the ground, their cattle destroyed, and from an easy plentiful life, are now become beggars. "The Conestoga Indians, but also those that lived at Bethlehem and in other GENERAL HISTORY. parts of the Province, were all perfidious-were in the French interest and in combination with our open enemies." These are some of the private views of the executive of the Province, who, to cajole the Assembly, like Franklin, deemed it policy to yield for a time to the popular clamor and misrepresentation, and publicly declare sentiments directly opposite to those he held and conceived. We have neither time nor inclination to give too much prominence to this affair; but desiring to palliate the transaction, we have presented our argument. In addition to all we have said-it is well known that an investigation was had into the matter, by the magistrate (Shippen), at Lancaster, but the evidence against the Indians was so condemnatory that it was not only suppressed but destroyed. All efforts, therefore, to carry into effect the proclamation of the Governor was really suspended, so far as his authority went, in regard to which grave complaints were made by the Assembly, who seemed to bend all their energies to persecute the offenders. The march to Philadelphia, we again reiterate, was not to destroy the Indians protected there. In a subsequent letter, Governor Penn says: " We expect a thousand of the back inhabitants in town, to insist upon the Assembly granting their request with regard to the increase of representatives, to put them Upon an equality with the rest of the counties. They have from time to time presented several petitions for the purpose, which have been always disregarded by the IHouse; for which purpose they intend to come in person. I am of opinion they [the Assembly] will never come into, as it will be the means of lessening the power of the Governing few in this Province." What more convincing proof is needed of the object of the Paxtang men in going to Philadelphia? Their motives obviously misconstrued- their actions vilified-their principles maligned, and for one hundred and twenty years they have rested under the obloquy "of murderers and rioters." In the light of history, through recent research, it is time that their conduct be justified, and the wrong done them be righted. "Truth is a Divine attribute," and history is truth, but unfortunately too much prejudice tinctures the records of the past, and he who would write truly, must compare the internal with the external history of every transaction. It is only by this means correct conclusions are arrived at, and impartial history written. This transaction gave rise to these among other questions, and the pamphlets on the popular side may truly be said to have sown the seeds of the Revolution: "Was the destruction of the Indians in Lancaster county justifiable on the plea of necessity?" "Was the policy adopted by the Proprietary government in treating with Indians, judicious? " Early in 1764, extensive measures were resolved upon for the reduction of the Indians. General Gage determined to attack them on two sides, and to force them from the frontiers by carrying the war into the heart of their own country. One corps was destined, under Colonel Bradstreet, to act against the Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, and other nations living upon or near the lakes; whilst another, under the command of Colonel Bouquet, should attack the Delawares, Shawanese, Mingoes, Mohickans, and other nations between the Ohio and the lakes. These corps were to act in concert, and as that of Colonel Bradstreet would be first ready, he was directed to proceed to Detroit, Michilimackinack, and other places, and on his return to encamp and remain at Sandusky, to awe HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. from that position the numerous tribes of Western Indians, and prevent them from rendering aid to those on the Ohio, whilst Colonel Bouquet should attack the latter in the midst of their settlements. Part of the Forty-second and Sixtieth Regiments were allotted to Colonel Bouquet, to be joined with two hundred friendly Indians, and troops from Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Indians never came, and Virginia could spare but few men, having already organized seven hundred for the defence of her own frontier. The quota of Pennsylvania was one thousand, and the Assembly, with great alacrity, resolved to raise this force, and to maintain ittheyvoted fifty thousand pounds. Bouquet's expedition to the Muskingum, in the autumn of 1764, overawed the Indians, who sued for peace. The Delawares, Shawanese, and Senecas agreed to cease hostilities, and surrender a great number of prisoners taken during the recent wars. The return of these prisoners, many of whom were children, carried joy to many an anxious heart in Pennsylvania. Some of the prisoners had formed attachments among the Indians which they were loath to break. The first application to the Assembly for supplies revived the old controversy with the Proprietaries. Indeed, harmony was scarcely to be expected between one of the Proprietary family as Governor on one side, and the Assembly on the other. That the Proprietary estates were to be taxed, was a question settled; but how, and upon what basis they were to be assessed, was a subject of controversy, and the Proprietaries, as usual, leaned strongly to their own interests. The Assembly were compelled to yield to the necessities of the Province, and the supplies were granted; but the conduct of the Governor so incensed the Assembly, that they determined, by a large majority, to petition the King to purchase the jurisdiction of the Province from the Proprietaries, and vest the government directly in the Crown. And among the important questions which agitated and inflamed the public mind at this period was this: "Whether a Proprietary government or one with kingly powers was the government best adapted to this Province?" To break down the feudal power, and bring the people and the Crown in direct communication, is in all countries the first great step towards popular freedom, and prepares the way for the next step, the direct conflict between the Crown and the people. It so happened, however, that in this case the avarice of the British ministry outran the anti-feudal propensities of the people, and brought the colonies at once to the last great struggle between the people and the Crown. There was much opposition from leading men in the Province against throwing off the Proprietary dominion. Isaac Norris, the venerable Speaker, John Dickinson, afterwards distinguished in the Revolution, and Rev. Gilbert Tennant, and Rev. Francis Allison, representing the Presbyterian interest, with William Allen, chief-justice, and afterwards father-in-law of Governor Penn, were strong in opposition to the measure. The Quakers, on the other hand, supported it, and were sustained by several successive assemblies. Benjamin Franklin was appointed provincial agent to urge the measure before the ministry in London. He sailed for England, November 1, 1764, and found on his arrival that he had to contend with a power far stronger and more obstinate than the Proprietaries themselves, even with the very power whose protection he had come to seek. 122 CHAPTER VIII. RELATIONS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND THE COLONIES. MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. TIHE OUTSET OF THE REVOLUTION. RESOLVES AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE PROVINCIAL DEPUTIES. THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY. 1765-1775. RIENDLY as were the relations between the colonies and the mother country, they would doubtless have continued, had the former not seen fit to pursue a new policy towards the latter with respect to revenue and taxation. The colonies, until then, had been permitted to tax themselves. The first act of Parliament aiming at the drawing of a revenue from the colonies, was passed September 29, 1764, the preamble running thus: " WHIEREAS, it is just and necessary that a revenue be raised in America for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same, we, the Commons," etc. This act imposed a duty on "clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, etc., etc., being the produce of a colony not under the dominion of his Majesty." On the subject of the right of the British Parliament to tax the colonies, it was asserted in the mother country "to be essential to the unity, and of course, to the prosperity of the empire, that the British Parliament should have a right of taxation over every part of the royal dominions." In the colonies it was contended " that taxation and representation were inseparable, and that they could not be safe, if their property might be taken from them, without their consent." This claim of the right of taxation on the one side, and the denial of it on the other, was the very hinge on which the Revolution turned. In accordance with the policy to be observed towards America, the next year, 1765, the famous Stamp Act passed both houses of Parliament. 1765. This ordained that instruments of writing, such as deeds, bonds, notes, etc., among the colonies, should be null and void, unless executed on stamped paper, for which a duty should be paid to the Crown. The efforts of the American colonies to stay the mad career of the English ministry proved unavailing. The Stamp Act was passed with slight opposition by the Commons, and with unanimity by the Lords. Dr. Franklin labored earnestly to avert a measure which his sagacity and extensive acquaintance with the American people taught him was pregnant with danger to the British empire; but he entertained not the idea that it would be forcibly resisted. He wrote to Mr. Charles Thomson, "The sun of liberty is set, you must light up the candles of industry and economy." To which Mr. Thomson replied, " he was apprehensive that other lights would be the consequence." To Mr. Ingersoll, Franklin said, " Go home and tell your people to get children as fast as they can," intimating that the period for successful opposition had not yet arrived. The opposition to the Stamp Act in America was so decided and universal 123 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. that Parliament had only the alternative to compel submission or to 1766. repeal the act. It was repealed on 18th of March, 1766, but accom panying it was one known as the Declaratory Act, more hostile to American rights than any of its predecessors. The act affirmed "that Parliament have, and of right ought to have, power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." The news of the repeal reached America in May following, and caused unbounded demonstrations of joy. Though the Quakers generally would not have violently resisted the execution of the law, they shared with others the joy produced by the tidings of the repeal. The French and Indian wars had been happily terminated, and the controversy with the mother country appeared now to be the only event that could again give rise to the "wars and fightings," which had already become a snare to many youthful members of the society. During the year 1767 was run the so-called Mason and Dixon's 1767. line, and that every Pennsylvanian may know the interesting history relating thereto, we give this resumd of that important transaction: In 1632 Charles the First granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baron of Baltimore, "all that part of the peninsula, or Chersonese, lying in the parts of America between the ocean on the.east and the bay of Chesapeake on the west, divided from the residue thereof by a right line drawn from the promontory or headland, called Watkin's point, situated upon the bay aforesaid, and near the river of Wighco [Wicomico?] on the west, unto the main ocean on the east, and between that boundary on the south, and that part of the bay of Delaware on the north, which lieth under the fortieth degree of latitude, where New England terminates." Under this grant, Lord Baltimore and his descendants claimed the whole Peninsula, from the above-mentioned "right line" to the 40th degree of latitude; but his title, in strictness, only extended to that portion of it hitherto unsettled, or uncultivated (hactenus inculta)-and the Dutch and Swedes had previously settled on the western margin of the Delaware. The Duke of York subsequently conquered not only the Dutch settlements east of the Delaware (now parts of New York and New Jersey), but also those on the western shore, and exercised sovereignty over them until 1682-when he transferred his claim on the western shore and bay of Delaware to William Penn, who had early perceived the importance of owning that side of the river all the way from his Province to the ocean; and hence the annexation of the "three Lower Counties on Delaware" now constituting the State of that name. The title being contested, and the late owner being now King James the Second, it was ordered by a decree of his Council, in 1685, "that for avoiding further differences, the tract of land lying between the bay of Delaware and the eastern sea on the one side, and the Chesapeake Bay on the other, be divided into equal parts, by a line from the latitude of Cape Hienlopen to the fortieth degree of north latitude, the southern boundary of Pennsylvania by charterand that the one-half thereof lying toward the bay of Delaware and the eastern sea, be adjudged to belong to his Majesty, and the other half to the Lord Baltimore, as comprised in his charter." The decrees of royalty not being as debatable, just then, as they have been 124 GENERAL HIISTORY. since, of course the recent conveyance of the eastern half of the Peninsula t( William Penn by His Majesty, while Duke of York, was regarded as entirely valid. This decree, however, did not remove the difficulty existing between the Proprietaries; for the true situation of Cape Henlopen was still uncertain, and the middle of the Peninsula was yet to be ascertained. The occurrence of death among the parties, anl the existence of a litigious spirit, protracted the dispute until the 10th of May, 1732-when an agreement was entered into by the sons of William Penn and Charles Lord Baltimore, great grandson of the original patentee of Maryland. They mutually agreed "that a semi-circle should be drawn at twelve English statute miles around New Castle, agreeably to the deed of the Duke of York to William Penn, in 1682; that an east and west line should be drawn, beginning at Cape Henlopenwhich was admitted to be below Cape Cornelius-and running westward to the exact middle of the Peninsula; that from the exact middle of the Peninsula, between the two bays of Chesapeake and Delaware, and the end of the line intersecting it in the latitude of Cape Henlopen, a line should be run northward, so as to form a tangent with the periphery of the semi-circle at New Castle, drawn with the radius of twelve English statute miles, whether such a line should take a due north course or not; that after the said northwardly line should touch the New Castle semi-circle, it should be run further northward until it reached the same latitude as fifteen English statute miles due south of the most southern part of the uity of Philadelphia that from the northern point of such line, a due west line should be run, at least for the present, across the Susquehainna river, and twenty-five miles beyond it-and to the western limits of Pennsylvania, when occasion and the improvements of the country should require; that that part of the due west line not actually run, though imaginary, should be considered to be the true boundary of Maryland and Pennsylvania; "... and "that the route should be well marked by trees and other natural objects, and designated by stone pillars, sculptured with the arms of the contracting p)arties, facing their respective possessions." This important document, though seemingly so free from ambiguity, was afterward the subject of much litigation; but was finally carried into complete effect, in all its parts. It accounts for the remarkable boundaries of the "three Lower Counties"-which counties, however, would not stay annexed to Pennsylvania, aiid at the Revolution, became the valiant little State of Delaware. The quiet of the Provinces continuing to be interrupted by the conflicting claims of settlers along the border-both parties applied, in 1737, to the King's Council, for some order which should lessen or allay these ferments. An amicable temporary arrangement, however, was in the meantime effected by the parties; and they agreed "that all the vacant land not now possessed by, or under either of them, on the east side of Susquehanna river down as far as fifteen miles and a quarter south of the latitude of the most southern part of the city of Philadelphia, and on the west side of Susquehanna, as far south as fourteen miles and three-quarters south of the latitude of the most southern part of the city of Philadelphia, should be subject to the temporary and provisional juris. diction of Pennsylvania; and that all vacant land not possessed by or undel either, on both sides of the Susquehanna, south of the said temporary limits, HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. should be subject to the jurisdiction of Maryland, until the boundaries were finally settled-but to be without prejudice to either party." And when this Convention was reported to the Council, His Majesty was pleased to order, "that the Proprietaries of the said respective Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania do cause the said agreement to be carried into execution." The order was accordingly promulgated by proclamation in the Provinces, and commissioners were the following year appointed to run the temporary line: Richard Peters and Lawrence Growden, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Colonel Levi Gale and Samuel Chamberlain, on that of Maryland. These commissioners commenced their active operations in the spring of 1739 (their place of beginning does not appear)-and after proceeding as far as the eastern bank of the Susquehanna, were interrupted by the departure of Colonel Gale, on account of death and sickness in his family, and the declaration of Mr. Chamberlain, that he had no authority to continue operations without the attendance of his colleague. The Pennsylvania commissioners, deeming their power to proceed limited to a joint operation with those of Maryland, were thereupon instructed by Governor Thomas to proceed alone. They accordingly did so; and ran the line westward of the Susquehanna, "to the most western of the Kittochtinny Hills," which now forms the western boundary of the county of Franklin. The course ran by these commissioners formed the famous "temporary line"-so well known to the lawyers and early settlers along the southern border of Pennsylvania. The cofitroversy, nevertheless, still continued; the cause got into chancery, on the construction of the agreement of May 10, 1732, and was not decided until 1750. On the hearing, Lord Baltimore's counsel contended that it could not be carried into effect, by reason of its vagueness, uncertainty, &c. The Lord Chancellor (HIardwick), however, overcame all the objections-urged in a long-winded argument of five days duration-and decreed a performance of the articles of agreement. He directed that new commissioners should be appointed within three months after the decree, who should commence their operations in November following. He further ordered that the centre of the semi-circle should be fixed as near the centre of the town of New Castle as may be-that it should be described with a radius of twelve English statute miles, "so that no part of the town should be further than that distance from the periphery: and that Cape Henlopen should be taken to be situated as it was laid down in the chart accompanying the articles of agreement" (i. e. at Fenwick's Island, about fifteen miles southward of the present Cape Ilenlopen). The commissioners were appointed agreeably to the decree, and met at New Castle on the 15th of November, 1750. They fixed upon the court house in New Castle as the centre for drawing the semi-circle; but Lord Baltimore's commissioners conjured up a new and unexpected difficulty, by insisting that the radii of the semi-circle should be measured superficially, without allowing for the inequalities of the ground-regardless of the absurd consequences resulting from such mode of measurement in creating inequality in the radii, and the consequent impossibility of describing any thing deserving the name of a semi-circle. Yet, as the objection was persisted in, the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania were again under the necessity of a further application to chancery; and, in 1751, obtained a decision in favor of horizontal measurement. GENERAL HISTORY. The commissioners again proceeded in their task. Having run the semicircle in conformity with the Lord Chancellor's decree, and marked it on the ground, they commenced their operations at the point then known as Cape Henlopen. The fixing of the southern boundary of the "three Lower Counties" at Fenwick's Island, requires explanation-inasmuch as the chart adopted by the Proprietaries in their agreement of 1732, gives to the cape opposite Cape May, at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, the name of Cape Cornelius (afterward, for a time, called Cape James), and to the point, or "false cape," at Fenwick's Island, the name of Cape Henlopen; while the charts of the present day transpose that order. How, or why the names become thus transposed on the charts and maps of our time, seems not to be clearly understood; but that they have changed positions since 1732, is an unquestionable fact, As the Lord Chancellor had decided that Cape Henlopen should be taken to be where it had been agreed to be, nineteen years before-the ingenuity of the commissioners of Maryland could devise no further objections in that particular; and they proceeded, in conjunction with those of Pennsylvania, to run the line across the peninsula, and to ascertain "the exact middle," as a point from whence to run the northwardly line to form a tangent with the semi-circle at New Castle. The line between the two bays, in the latitude of the Cape Henlopen of that time, was then run; and after some further delay, and cavilling about the distance, by his commissioners, Frederick Lord Baltimore-weary of the controversy-entered into articles of agreement with Thomas and Richard Penn, July 4, 1760, which at length effectually closed their tedious and irksome altercations. By this agreement it was covenanted that the semi-circle, as already run, should be adopted; that the distance across the Peninsula, in the latitude of Cape Henlopen; should be taken to have been rightly run, at 69 miles and 2982 perches from the stone pillar east of "the mulberry tree, at Fenwick's Island," marked with the arms of the contracting parties; that the middle of such line should be ascertained, and a stone pillar should be fixed at that point; that from such point a northwardly line should be run, whether the same should be due north or not, so as to form a tangent with the semi-circle at New Castle, drawn with a radius of twelve English statute horizontal miles from the court house in that place-and past the said point of contact further north till it reached the latitude of fifteen miles south of the most southern part of Philadelphia; that from said fifteen mile point, a line should be run due west-to the utmost longitude of Pennsylvania; that all claim should be released to the territory within those limits then to be ascertained, and that the Penns should appoint commissioners to run the lines as yet unfinished. "The Commissioners appointed under the deed of 1760 addressed themselves, at once, to the completion of the peninsular east and west line, and to tracing the twelve mile circle-appointing to this end the best surveyors they could obtain. The mode of proceeding was to measure with the common chain, holding it as nearly horizontal as they could, the direction being kept by sighting along poles, set up in what they called vistas, cut by them through the forest.... But the progress made was very slow; and at the end of three 127 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE ALLEGIIENY county court house, Pittsburgh...... 315 Alleghenies, distant view of........................... 399 Allegrippts, scene at, on Pennsylvania railroad.... 401 Amber cascade, Gleln Thomas....................... 499 Anthracite coal trade, progress of................ 10162 Armstrong county public buildings...................330 Arnot, coal schutes at.................................. 1105 A rnot, incline at.................................... 965 Bald Eagle's Nest, on Spring creek.................. 508 Beaver college........................................ 348 Beaver Falls borough, view of......................... 354 Bedford, Provincial court house at.................. 362 Bedford Springs, view at............................. 368 Bellefonte borough, view of........................... 502 Bellefonte, view of gap near........................... 513 Berg (hill) kirche, Lebanon county.................. 867 Berks county court house.............................. 378 Betheleem, first house built itt....................... 969 Bethlehent, married brothers' and sisters' house at, 993 Bethlehem, old Crown Inn at........................ 979 Bethlelten, oltd oill at........................... 982 Bethlehem, old Schnitz house at.................. 992 'igler, Williato, portrait of..................... 25.5 Bilrttiinghant Frieitds nteeting-house................. 531 Blair county court loe, lollilaysbtrg........... 397..... Bloouslblurg, State Nolral school at.................. 592 Braddock's route, 1755................................ 84 Braddock surprised by the Indians................. 87 Brookside, view near......................... 1068 Brownsville borougli, view of......................... 724 Bucks county court hlouse, l)oylestovn.............. 438 Buckinghan Frie ds eeinetitg-louse................ 450 hButler borough, view vof.................... 418 Butler conty court tose..................... 454 Butler public school building.......................... 459 Camp Curtin, general hospital at 1864..... 268 Carbon county court house, Mauch Cunk........ 486 Carlisle, sold-iers' tton mett at....................... 628 Carpenter's hall, Philadelphia, 1774............... 141 Carrotown, church an covent at................... 476 Carrier fentale seminary at Clarion................. 552 Cascade, Glen O oko............................ 497 Catawissa, ancent Friends ineetng-totse t....... 594 Chanbersburg. before the burning, 1864........... 754 Chambersburg, after the bttrning, 1864............... 756 Chameleon fails, Glen Onoko...................... 485 Chester, old town hiall at.............................. 655 Chester county cou t house, West Chester.......... 517 Chester, first meetitg-iouse of Friends at.......... 661 Chester or Great valley, view of............................ 519 Chew mansion, (Jertnantown...................... 178 Christ church, Philadelphia..................... 1026 Clarion county c(urt house, Clarion............... 547 Clarion county prisont Clarion................... 549 Clearfield borough, view of....................... 557 Clinton county court house........................... 569 Cloud polint, view of.................................. 500 Columbia county court house, Boomsburg.......... 584 Columbia borough, town hall iii............... 831 Conettaugh, scente on, near Bolivar, Petn'a t. R.. 1152 Cornwall intes, Lebanon county..................... 864 Crawford county court house, Meadville............ 597 Cresson Springs, Allegheny mountains............ 466 Crozer theological seminary at Upland............... 681 Cumberland county court house.................... 612 Curtin, Andrew G., portrait of................... 259 Delaware, view on the.......................... Inset. Ielaware county court house, Media.............. 678 Derricks, cable group of, at, Pleasantville.......... 1131 Dickinson college, Carlisle............................ 630 Derry church, Dauphin county...................... 644 Derry church, interior view of................... 645 Dickinsoon, John, portrait of..................... 205 Doylestown, soldiers' nonutnentt tt.................. 449 Drake's Pioneer oil well, Venango county.......... 1119 Economy, assembly house at......................... 356 Emigh's Gap, Tyrone and Clearfield railroad........ 564 Emporium borough, view of......................... 479 Ephrata, brothers' and sisters' house at............. 835 Erie city, view of from the lake...................... 692 Erie, old block-house at............................ 693 Erie, soldiers' and sailors' monument at...........720 PAGE Fall-Brook. northern view of, from the centre...... 1108 Findlay, William, portrait of......................... 242 Fort Bedford house, Bedford........................ 363 Fort, 1)eshler's, on Coplay creek.................... 876 Fort Forty, 1778................................... 902 Fort iunter, near Harrisburg...................... 649 Fort Lyttleton, plan of, 17,55........................... 765 Fort Pitt, plan of, 1760................................. 98 Fort t'itt, redoubt at, 1763........................ 104 Forts, French and English, at Venango.......... 1123 Frankliu and Marshall college, Lancaster.......... 825 Franklin, Benjamin, portrait of..................... 209 Franklin, town of, in 1840........................... 1128 Franklin, street view, in 1876........................ 1117 Fulton county court house........................ 760 Gallatin Albert, residence of........................ 731 Geary, John W,., portrait of......................... 273 Gertma i town a(adetny............................... 1046 Gettysburg, plan of battle of......................... 295 Gettysburg, national tonument at................. 307 Gettysburg, thieological seniay at................. 303 Girard college, I'hiladelphia.......................... 1044 Glatz mansion. York county, 1732.................... 1172 Glen Moneypenny, Wyoming county................ 1166 Glen of Glenolden, Ridley park....................... 668 Gordon, Patrick, portrait of.......................... 70 Great or Big island, map of.....................572 Green county court house, Waynesburg.......... 769 Hamilton, James, portrait of..................... 99 Hanover church, Dauphin cottty................... 646 Hanover, York county, public fountain.............. 1179 Hainti's church, near Wernersville.................... 389 Harnionist chturch, at Econoty................... 358 Harrisburg city, view of, froi the west............. 636 Harrisburg, State Capitol at......................... 244 Harrisburg, first Gernta church at................. 647 Harrisburg, first English church at.................. 647 Iarris, Jo nn, grave of................................ 640 Uarris mansion, built 1766.......................... 6.37 Hartranft, John F., portrait of................... 275 Hiester, Joseph, portrait of...................... 243 Honesdale borough, view of.................... 1145 Huntingdon borough, seal of..................... 779 Huntin gdon borough, view of........................ 775 Horse-shoe curve, Allegheny mountains............. 396 Independence Hall, 1876............................ 1030 Indeptendence Hall, rear view....................... 167 Intdiana conty court house....................... 790 Irdian chapel at Betllehem, 1765..................... 967 Idian depredations on the ft ontiers................. 108 Intdian god rock, Venango county.................... 1121 Indiant god rock, inscriptiotns on..................... 1122 Indian inscriptions on rocks at Safe Harbor......... 839 Indian relics found ntear Safe Harbor................ 818 Insane, State hospital for, at Danville................ 964 Insane, State hospital for, at Warren................ 1139 Internal itprovements, vignette................... 789 Irving female college, Mechanicsburg.............. 632 Jack's Narrows, near Mapleton, Penn'a railroad... 781 Jefferson county court house, Brookvlle............ 78 Johlston, Willian F., portrait of.................... 254 Joltstown, and Cambria iron works................ 464 Juniata county court house, Mifflintown........... 86 Keith, Sir William, portrait of....................... 65 Knoxville borough, Cowanesque valley............... 1101 Lackawanna falls..................................... 884 Lafayette college, Pardee halt, Easton.............. 9V Lancaster county court house, Lancaster....... 827 Lancaster county court house, old.................... 814 Lancaster county hospital............................ 851 Lancaster county soldiers' monuntent................ 829 Lancaster high school................................ 828 Lawrence county court house, New Castle........... 854 Leaden plate buried by the French, 1749............. 318 Lebanon borough, view of............................. 862 Lebanon county court house, Lelaon.............. 863 Lee's head-quarters at Gettysburg................... 288 Lehigh county court house, Allentown.............. 871 128 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYLVANIA. years, little more was accomplished than the peninsular line and the measurement of a radius." This left to be ascertained and established, "the tangent, from the middle point of the peninsular line to the tangent point-the meridian from thence to a point fifteen miles south of the most southern part of the city of Philadelphia-with the arc of the circle to the west of it-the fifteen miles distance-and the parallel of latitude westward from its termination." It remains now, as simply and succinctly as practicable, to relate, that on the 4th of August, 1763, the Penns, Thomas and Richard, and Frederick, Lord Baltimore, then being together in London, agreed with Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, "two mathematicians and surveyors," "to mark, run out, settle, fix, and determine all such parts of the circle, marks, lines, and boundaries, as were mentioned in the several articles or commissions, and were not yet completed;" that Messrs. Mason and Dixon arrived in Philadelphia, November 15, 1763, received their instructions from the commissioners of the two Provinces, December 9, 1763, and forthwith engaged in the work assigned to them; that they ascertained the latitude of the southernmost part of the city of Philadelphia (viz.: 390 56' 29.1" north-or more accurately, according to Colonel Graham, 390 56' 37.4"), which was agreed to be in the north wall of the house then occupied by Thomas Plumstead and Joseph Huddle, on the south side of Cedar Street; and then, in January and February, 1764, they measured thirty-one miles westward of the city (probably from the margin of the river Delaware), to the forks of the Brandywine, where they planted a quartzose stone-known then, and to this day, in the vicinage, as "the Star-gazers' Stone," a short distance west of the Chester county alms-house, in the same latitude as the southernmost part of Philadelphia (which stone is 6 miles 264 perches west of the meridian of the court house in West Chester; and a due cast line from it intersects said meridian four hundred and forty-six and one-half perches, or nearly a mile and a half south of the court house; that in the spring of 1764, after a satisfactory "star-gazing," in the forks of the Brandywine-they ran, from said stone, a due south line fifteen English statute miles (in the first mile crossing the West Bran-lywine three times), horizontally measured by levels each twenty feet in length and this was re-measured in like manner nearly three years afterwards), to a post marked West, ascertaining there, also, the latitude of the place (then computed at 390 43' 18", now more exactly calculated to be 390 43' 26.3" north); that they then repaired to a post, marked Middle, at the middle point of the peninsular west line running from Cape Hienlopen (Fenwick's Island) to Chesapeake Bay, and thence, during the summer of 1764, they ran, marked, and described the tangent line, agreed on by the Proprietaries. Then, in the autumn of 1764, from the post marked West, at fifteen miles south of Philadelphia, they set off and produced a parallel of latitude westward, as far as to the river Susquehanna; then they went to the tangent point, and in 1764-5, ran thence a meridian line northward until it intersected the said parallel of latitude, at the distance of 5 miles, 1 chain, and 50 links, thus and there determining and fixing the northeast corner of Maryland. Next, in 1765, they described such portion of the semicircle round New Castle, as fell westward of the said meridian, or due north line from the tangent point. "This little bow or arc"reaching into Maryland-" is about a mile and a half long, and its middle width GENERAL HISTOR Y. one hundred and sixteen feet; from its upper end, where the three States join, to the fifteen mile point, where the great Mason and Dixon's line begins, is a little over three and a half miles; and from the fifteen mile corner due east to the circle, is a little over three quarters of a mile-room enough for three or four good farms. This was the only part of the circle which Mason and Dixon ran." The surveyors appear to have moved about considerably, and to have repeated their operations at several points, but finally they proceeded with the intention of continuing the west line beyond the Susquehanna, to the end of five degrees of longitude from the river Delaware, in the parallel of said west line; and in the years 1766-7 they extended the same to the distance of 230 miles, 18 chains, and 21 links, from the beginning of said line. at the northeast corner of Maryland (or 244 miles, 38 chains, and 36 links, from the river Delaware), near to an Indian war-path, on the borders of a stream called Dunkard creek; but were there prevented, by the aboriginal Proprietaries, from continuing the said line to the end of five degrees of longitude (the western limits of Pennsylvania), which, in the latitude of said line, they found-and the commissioners agreed-to be 267 miles, 58 chains, and 90 links, at the rate of 53 miles, 167.1 perches, to a degree. Colonel Graham, however, estimates the length of the southern boundary of Pennsylvania at 266 miles, 24 chains, and 80 links. The line thus run was subsequently (November 9, 1768) certified by the commissioners to have been marked, described, and perpetuated, by setting up and erecting therein stones at the end of every mile, from the place of beginning to the distance of 132 miles, near the foot of a hill called and known by the name of Sideling Hill-every five mile-stone having on the side facing the north the arms of Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved thereon, and on the south side the arms of Lord Baltimore. Those stones were imported from England, and were hewn from that variety of calcareous rock known as Oolite or Roe stone. The line thus marked is stated to have been measured horizontally-the hills and mountains with a sixteen and a half-foot level; and the vista, cut through the forest, eight yards wide, was "seen about two miles, beautifully terminating to the eye in a point." The residue of the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania-something less than twenty-two miles-was afterward (in 1782) run by other surveyors; it was not, however, completed and permanently marked until 1784. The interference of the Indians having arrested the further proceedings of Mason and Dixon, those gentlemen returned to Philadelphia and reported the facts to the commissioners; when they received an honorable discharge on the 26th of December, 1767, having been engaged in the service about four years. They were allowed twenty-one shillings each per day for one month, from June 21, of the last year, and the residue of the time, ten shillings and six pence each per day, for the expenses, etc., and no more until they embarked for England; and then the allowance of ten shillings and six pence sterhling per day was again to take place, and continue until their arrival in England. T 129 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. The amount paid by the Penns, under those proceedings, from 1760 to 1768, was thirty-four thousand two hundred pounds, Pennsylvania currency. Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, in an introduction to the Observations of Mason and Dixon, in the Philosophical Transactions, remarks: " In the course of this work they traced out and measured some lines lying in and near the meridian, and extended, in all, somewhat more than one hundred miles; and, for this purpose, the country in these parts (i. e., on the Peninsula) being all overgrown with trees, large openings were cut through the woods, in the direction of the lines, which formed the straightest and most regular, as well as extensive vistas that, perhaps, were ever made. Messrs. Mason and Dixon perceived that a most inviting opportunity was here given for determining the length of a degree of latitude, from the measure of near a degree and a half. Moreover, one remarkable circumstance very much favored the undertaking, which was, that the country through which the lines run was, for the most part, as level as if it had been laid out by art." The astronomical observations for determining the length of a degree of latitude were begun on the 11th of October, 1766, and continued to the 16th of that month. The degree of latitude measured 363,763 feet, about 68.9 miles. Colonel Graham says, "their measurement for determining the length of a degree 6f latitude" was performed "in the year 1768, under the auspices of the Royal Society of London, after they had finished the marking of the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, and were discharged from the service of the Commissioners." The difference of latitude, of the stone planted in the forks of Brandywine, and the middle post, in the western Peninsular line - or the amplitude of the celestial arch, answering to the distance between the parallels of latitude passing through these points-has been found by sector to be 10 28' 45". In 1767 a bill passed Parliament, imposing certain duties on tea, glass, paper, and painters' colors, imported into the colonies from Great Britain. This act, with several others, re-kindled the opposition of the colonies. Again associations were formed to prevent the importation of British goods, and meetings called to resolve, petition, and remonstrate. The British ministers, deluded into the belief that a reduction of the tax would restore tranquility, promised that five-sixths of the taxes imposed in 1767 should be repealed; and in 1770 all were abolished, save three pence per pound on tea. In Philadelphia the non-importation resolutions were signed by all of the principal merchants and business men of that city. The lawless white men on the frontiers continued to encroach upon the Indian lands, and to provoke hostilities by atrocious murders of inoffensive Indians. Another savage war menaced the Province in 1767-'68, but was prevented by the timely intervention of Sir William Johnson. At his suggestion a great council was held at Fort Stanwix, in New York, at which all grievances were adjusted; and a treaty was made, November 5, 1768. 1768, with the Six Nations, which conveyed to the Proprietaries all the land within a boundary extending from the New York line on the Susquehanna, past Towanda and Tyadaghton creek, up the West Branch, over to Kittanning, and thence down the Ohio. This was then called the New Purchase, 130 GENERAL HISTORY. 131 and opened a wide field of adventure to the hardy pioneers of Pennsylvania. It was a vast school too, in which some of the bravest soldiers of the subsequent wars were reared. In 1769 both houses of Parliament, in an address to the King, requested him to order the Governor of Massachusetts to take notice of such as might be guilty of treason, that they might be sent to England and tried there. In 1771, John Penn having returned to England, Mr. James Hiamil 1771. ton administered for a short time as president of the council, until the arrival of Richard Penn,* younger brother of John, as lieutenant-governor, in the autumn of the same year. Richard Penn's administration only continued until the return of his brother John, in September, 1773; but he appears during that short term to have won the sincere affections of his fellow-citizens. The recommendations of meetings 1778. and associations to suspend the impor tation of tea had been so strictly complied with, that but little had been brought into the country. The consequence was, that vast quantities, seventeen millions of pounds, had accumulated on the hands of the East India Company. For their relief, Parliament now authorized them to export this tea to any part of the world, free of duty. Confident of nowRI.DPN RICHARD PENN. finding a market for their tea in America, the East India Company freighted several ships with that article for the different colonies, and appointed agents to dispose of it. The colonists resolved to obstruct the sale of that tea and to refuse the payment of even three pence by way of duty. On the approach of the tea ships destined for Philadelphia, the pilots 1774. in the river Delaware were warned not to conduct them into harbor; and their captains, apprised of the foregoing resolutions, deeming it unsafe to land their cargoes, consented to return without making an entry at the custom house, the owners of goods ordered from England, on board these vessels, cheerfully submitting to the inconvenience of having their merchandise returned to Great Britain. It is stated that a large quantity of tea was destroyed on the Cohansey. The captains of vessels addressed to New York wisely adopted the same resolution. The tea sent to Charleston was landed and stored, but not offered for sale; and having been placed in damp cellars, became rotten, and was entirely lost. The ships designed for Boston entered that port. * RICHARD PENN was born in England, in 1734. He was brother of John Penn, and was a member of the Provincial Council, and naval officer during the latter's administration. He married Miss Mary McMasters, of Philadelphia. He was Governor of the Province from 1771 to 1773, and such was the confidence in him that, in 1775, wuen he embarked for England, he was entrusted with the second petition of Congress to the King. On his arrival in London, he was examined in the House of Lords as to American affairs. He subsequently became a member of Parliament. He died in England, May 27, 1811. HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. and the energy of Governor Hutchinson prevented their return; but before the tea could be landed, a number of colonists, pursuant to a concerted plan, dresseO in Indian costume, entered the vessels, and, without doing other damage, broke open three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, and emptied their contents into the water. Such was the union of sentiment among the people, and so systematic their opposition, that not a single chest of the cargoes sent out by the East India Company was sold for its benefit. These proceedings were communicated by the King to Parliament on March 7th, 1774, and measures were speedily adopted contemplating the submission of the rebellious colonists. An act was passed called the "Boston Port Bill," by which the port of Boston was closed and the custom house transferred to Salem; by another act the charter of Massachusetts was subverted, the nomination of councillors, magistrates, and other officers being vested in the Crown during the royal pleasure; by a third act the Governor of that colony was directed and authorized to send persons indicted for murder or any other capital offence, to any other colony, or to Great Britain, for trial. A bill was also passed for quartering soldiers upon the inhabitants. The inhabitants of Boston had foreseen the present crisis, and they met it with undaunted spirit. Information of the passage of the Port Act was received on the tenth of May, and on the thirteenth, the town resolved "that, if the other colonies would unite with them to stop all importations from Great Britain and the West Indies until that act should be repealed, it would prove the salvation of North America and her liberties; but should they continue their exports and imports, there was reason to fear that fraud, power, and the most odious oppression would triumph over justice, right, social happiness, and freedom." A copy of this resolution was transmitted to the other colonies, the inhabitants of which expressed deep sympathy in the sufferings of their brethren in Boston, endured in the common cause; and concurring in opinion with them on the propriety of convening a Provincial Congress, delegates for that purpose were generally chosen. Throughout the continent, the first of June, the day on which the Boston Port Act was to take effect, on the resolution of the Assembly of Virginia, was adopted "as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore the Divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of civil war, and to give one heart and one mind to the people, firmly to oppose every invasion of their liberties." The terms "Whigs" and " Tories" were introduced at this time-the former to describe those in sympathy with the cause of Boston, and arrayed on the side of the colonies against Parliament; the latter to designate those whose sympathies were with Great Britain against the colonies. Throughout the country, and especially in Pennsylvania, the warmest interest and most cordial sympathy were manifested.-for the people of Boston. The committee of correspondence for the city of Philadelphia, early in June sent a circular to the principal citizens of the different counties, in which they say: "The Governor declining to call the Assembly, renders it necessary to take the sentiments of the inhabitants; and for that purpose it is agreed to call a meeting of the inhabitants of this city and the county at 132 GENERAL HISTORY. the State House, on Wednesday, the 15th instant. And as we would wish to have the sentiments and concurrence of our brethren in the several counties, who are equally interested with us in the general cause, we earnestly desire you to call together the principal inhabitants of your county and take their sentiments. We shall forward to you by every occasion, any matters of consequence that come to our knowledge, and we should be glad you would choose and appoint a committee to correspond with us." This was signed by Charles Thomson, the clerk of the first Continental Congress. In pursuance of these suggestions, meetings were held in every part of the State, especially in the middle and western counties, where the Scotch-Irish took the lead. Deputies were chosen from every district in the Province, who assembled at Philadelphia on the 15th of July. There were present, for the city and county of Philadelphia: Thomas Willing, John Dickinson, Peter Chevalier, Edward Pennington, Thomas Wharton, John Cox, Joseph Reed, Thomas Wharton, Jun., Samuel Erwin, Thomas Fitzsimons, Doctor William Smith, Isaac Howell, Adam Hubley, George Schlosser, Samuel Miles, Thomas Mifflin, Christopher Ludwick, Joseph Moulder, Anthony Morris, Jun., George Gray, John Nixon, Jacob Barge, Thomas Penrose, John M. Nesbitt, Jonathan B. Smith, James Mease, Thomas Barclay, Benjamin Marshall, Samuel Howell, William Moulder, John Roberts, John Bayard, William Rush, and Charles Thomson. Bucks-John Kidd, Henry Wynkoop, Joseph Kirkbride, John Wilkinson, and James Wallace. Chester-Francis Richardson, Elisha Price, John Hart, Anthony Wayne, Hugh Lloyd, John Sellers, Francis Johnston, and Richard Reiley. Lancaster-George Ross, James Webb, Joseph Ferree, Matthias Slough, Emanuel Carpenter, William Atlee, Alexander Lowrey, and Moses Irwin. York-James Smith, Joseph Donaldson, and Thomas Hartley. Cumberland-James Wilson, Robert Magaw, and William Irvine. Berks-Edward Biddle, Daniel Brodhead, Jonathan Potts, Thomas Dundas, and Christopher Schultz. Northampton-William Edmunds, Peter Kechlein, John Oakley, and Jacob Arndt. Northumberland-William Scull and Samuel Hunter. Bedford-George Woods. Westmoreland-Robert Hannah, James Cavett. Thomas Willing was chosen chairman, and Charles Thomson, clerk. It was agreed that, in case of any difference in sentiment, the question be determined by the Deputies voting by counties. The letters from Boston of the 13th of May were then read, and a short account given of the steps taken in consequence thereof, and the measures now pursuing in this and the neighboring provinces; after which the following resolves were passed: " Unan. 1. That we acknowledge ourselves and the inhabitants of this Province, liege subjects of his Majesty King George the Third, to whom they and we owe and will bear true and faithful allegiance. "Unan. II. That as the idea of an unconstitutional independence on the parent state is utterly abhorent to our principles, we view the unhappy differences be183 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. tween Great Britain and the Colonies with the deepest distress and anxiety of mind, as fruitless to her, grievous to us, and destructive of the best interests of both. " Unan. III. That it is therefore our ardent desire that our ancient harmony with the mother country should be restored, and a perpetual love and union subsist between us, on the principles of the constitution, and an interchange of good offices, without the least infraction of our mutual rights. "Unan. IV. That the inhabitants of these colonies are entitled to the same rights and liberties within these colonies, that the subjects born in England are entitled to within that realm. "Unan. V. That the power assumed by the Parliament of Great Britain to bind the people of these Colonies, by statutes,'IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER,' is unconstitutional; and therefore the source of these unhappy differences. "Unan. VI. That the act of Parliament for shutting up the port of Boston is unconstitutional; oppressive to the inhabitants of that town; dangerous to the liberties of the British Colonies; and therefore, that we consider our brethren at Boston as suffering in the common cause of these Colonies. "Unan. VII. That the bill for altering the administration of justice in certain criminal cases within the province of Massachusetts Bay, if passed into an act of Parliament, will be as unconstitutional, oppressive, and dangerous as the act above mentioned. " Unan. VII. That the bill for changing the constitution of the province of Massachusetts Bay, established by charter, and enjoyed since the grant of that charter, if passed into an act of Parliament, will be unconstitutional and dangerous in its consequences to the American colonies. "Unan. IX. That there is an absolute necessity that a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies be immediately assembled, to consult together, and form a general plan of conduct to be observed by all the Colonies, for the purposes of procuring relief for our grievances, preventing future dissensions, firmly establishing our rights, and restoring harmony between Great Britain and her colonies, on a constitutional foundation. "Unan. X. That, although a suspension of the commerce of -this large trading province with Great Britain would greatly distress multitudes of our industrious inhabitants, yet that sacrifice, and a much greater, we are ready to offer for the preservation of our liberties; but, in tenderness to the people of Great Britain, as well as this country, and in hopes that our just remonstrances will at length reach the ears of our gracious Sovereign, and be no longer treated with contempt by any of our fellow-subjects in England, it is our earnest desire that the Congress should first try the gentler mode of stating our grievances, and making a firm and decent claim of redress. "XI. Resolved, by a great majority, That yet notwithstanding, as an unanimity of councils and measures is indispensably necessary for the common welfare, if the Congress shall judge agreements of non-importation and non-exportation expedient, the people of this Province will join with the other Principal and neighboring colonies in such an association of non-importation from and nonexportation to Great Britain, as shall be agreed on at the Congress. "XII. Resolved, by a majority, That if any proceedings of the Parliament, of 134 GENERAL HISTORY. which notice shall be received on this continent, before or at the general Congress, shall render it necessary in the opinion of that Congress, for the Colonies to take farther steps than are mentioned in the eleventh resolve; in such case, the inhabitants of this Province shall adopt such farther steps, and do all in their power to carry them into execution. "Unan. XIII. That the venders of merchandise of every kind within this Province ought not to take advantage of the resolves relating to non-importation in this Province or elsewhere; but that they ought to sell their merchandise, which they now have or may hereafter import, at the same rates they have been accustomed to do within three months last past. "Unan. XIV. That the people of this Province will break off all trade, commerce, or dealing of any kind with any colony on this continent, or with any city or town in such colony, or with any individual in any such colony, city, or town, which shall refuse, decline, or neglect to adopt and carry into execution, such general plan as shall be agreed in the Congress. "Unan. XV. That it is the duty of every member of this committee to promote, as much as he can, the subscription set on foot in the several counties of this Province, for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Boston. "Unan. XVI. That this committee give instructions on the present situation of public affairs to their representatives, who are to meet next week in Assembly, and request them to appoint a proper number of persons to attend a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies, at such time and place as may be agreed on, to effect one general plan of conduct, for attaining the ninth resolve. "That John Dickinson, Doctor William Smith, Joseph Reed, John Kidd, Elisha Price, William Atlee, James Smith, James Wilson, Daniel Brodhead, John Oakley, and William Scull, be appointed to prepare and bring in a draught of instructions." The author of these instructions was John Dickinson, the chairman of the committee; and as important to a proper understanding of the principles that actuated our ancestors in adopting measures which eventually resulted in the revolt of the Colonies, and as a valuable chapter in the history of the State, we give the address in full. " GENTLEMEN: The dissensions between Great Britain and her Colonies on this continent, commencing about ten years ago, since continually increasing, and at length grown to such an excess as to involve the latter in deep distress and danger, have excited the good people of this Province to take into their serious consideration the present situation of public affairs. "The inhabitants of the several counties qualified to vote at elections, being assembled on due notice, have appointed us their deputies; and in consequence thereof, we being in Provincial Committee met, esteem it our indispensable duty, in pursuance of the trust reposed in us, to give you such instruction, as at this important period appear to us to be proper. "We, speaking in their names and our own, acknowledge ourselves liege subjects to his Majesty King George the Third, to whom'we will be faithful and bear true allegiance.' "Our judgments and affections attach us, with inviolable loyalty, to his Majesty's person, family, and government. 135 HISTORY OF PENNSYLYANIA. "We acknowledge the prerogatives of the Sovereign, among which are included the great powers of making peace and war, treaties, leagues, and alliances binding us-of appointing all officers, except in cases where other provision is made, by grants from the Crown, or laws approved by the Crown-of confirming or annulling every act of our Assembly within the allowed time-and of hearing and determining finally, in council, appeals from our courts of justice.'The prerogatives are limited,' as a learned judge observes,'by bounds so certain and notorious, that it is impossible to exceed them, without the consent of the people on the one hand, or without, on the other, a violation of that original contract, which, in all states implicity, and in ours most expressly, subsists between the Prince and subject-for these prerogatives are vested in the Crown for the support of society, and do not intrench any farther on our natural liberties, than is expedient for the maintenance of our civil.' "But it is our misfortune, that we are compelled loudly to call your attention to the consideration of another power, totally different in kind-limited, as it is alleged, by no'bounds,' and'wearing a most dreadful aspect' with regard to America. We mean the power claimed by Parliament, of right to bind the people of these Colonies by statutes,'IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER'-a power, as we are not, and, from local circumstances cannot, be represented there, utterly subversive of our natural and civil liberties-past events and reason convincing us that there never existed, and never can exist, a state thus subordinate to another, and yet retaining the slightest portion of freedom or happiness. "The import of the words above quoted needs no descant; for the wit of man, as we apprehend, cannot possibly form a more clear, concise, and comprehensive definition and sentence of slavery, than these expressions contain. "This power claimed by Great Britain, and the late attempts to exercise it over these Colonies, present to our view two events, one of which must inevitably take place, if she shall continue to insist on her pretensions. Either, the colonists will sink from the rank of freemen into the class of slaves, overwhelmed with all the miseries and vices, proved by the history of mankind to be inseperably annexed to that deplorable condition: Or, if they have sense and virtue enough to exert themselves in striving to avoid this perdition, they must be involved in an opposition dreadful even in contemplation. " Honor, justice, and humanity call upon us to hold, and to transmit to our posterity, that liberty, which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children: But it is our duty to leave liberty to them. No infamy, ini'luity, or cruelty can exceed our own, if we, born and educated in a country of freedom, entitled to its blessings, and knowing their value, pusillanimously deserting the post assigned us by Divine Providence, surrender succeeding generations to a condition of wretchedness from which no human efforts, in all probability, will be sufficient to extricate them; the experience of all states mournfully demonstrating to us, that when arbitrary power has been established over them, even the wisest and bravest nations that ever flourished have, in a few years, degenerated into abject and wretched vassals. "So alarming are the measures already taken for laying the foundations of a despotic authority of Great Britain over us, and with such artful and incessant vigilance is the plan prosecuted, that unless the present generation can interrupt 136 GENERAL HISTORY. the work, while it is going forward, can it be imagined that our children, debilitated by our imprudence and supineness, will be able to overthrow it, when completed? Populous and powerful as these Colonies may grow, they will still find arbitrary domination not only strengthening with strength, but exceeding, in the swiftness of its progression, as it ever has done, all the artless advantages that can accrue to the governed. These advance with a regularity, which the Divine Author of our existence has impressed on the laudable pursuits of his creatures: But despotism, unchecked and unbounded by any laws-never satisfied with what has been done, while anything remains to be done for the accomplishment of its purposes-confiding, and capable of confiding, only in the annihilation of all opposition-holds its course with such unabating and destructive rapidity, that the world has become its prey, and at this day, Great Britain and her dominions excepted, there is scarce a spot on the globe inhabited by civilized nations where the vestiges of freedom are to be observed. "To us, therefore, it appears, at this alarming period, our duty to God, to our country, to ourselves, and to our posterity, to exert our utmost ability, in promoting and establishing harmony between Great Britain and these Colonies, ON A CONSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATION. "For attaining this great and desirable end, we request you to appoint a proper number of persons to attend a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies, appointed, or to be appointed, by the representatives of the people of the Colonies respectively, in assembly or convention, or by delegates chosen by the counties generally in the respective Colonies and met in Provincial Commitee, at such time and place as shall be generally agreed on: And that the Deputies from this Province may be induced and encouraged to concur in such measures as may be devised for the common welfare, we think it proper, particularly to inform, how far, we apprehend, they will be supported in their conduct by their constituents. "The assumed parliamentary power of internal legislation, and the power of regulating trade, as of late exercised, and designed to be exercised, we are thoroughly convinced, will prove unfailing and plentiful sources of dissensions to the mother country and these Colonies, unless some expedients can be adopted to render her secure of receiving from us every emolument, that can in justice and reason be expected, and us secure in our lives, liberties, properties, and an equitable share of commerce. "Mournfully revolving in our minds the calamities that, arising from these dissensions, will most probably fall on us or our children, we will now lay before you the particular points we request of you to procure, if possible, to be finally decided: and the measures that appear to us most likely to produce such a desirable period of our distresses and dangers. We therefore desire of you "FIRST-that the Deputies you may appoint may be instructed by you strenuously to exert themselves, at the ensuing Congress, to obtain a renunciation on the part of Great Britain, of all powers under the statute of the 35th Henry the Eighth, chapter the 2d. Of all powers of internal legislation-of imposing taxes or duties internal or external-and of regulating trade, except with respect to any new articles of commerce, which the Colonies may hereafter raise, as silk, wine, etc., reserving a right to carry these from one colony to another-a repeal ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Lehigh university, Bethlehem.................... 980 Lewisburg borough, view of..................... 1114 Lewisburg university........................... 1115 Lewistown borough, view of......................... 943 Lewistown narrows, Pennsylvania railroad.......... 941 Liberty bell, Independence hall................... 556 Litiz, spring and walk at......................... 838 Logan, James, portrait of......................... 76 Lower Merion Friends meeting-house............. 954 Loyal Sock, head-waters of...................... 1081 Lutheran missionary institute, Selinsgrove......... 1074 Luzerne county court house, Wilkes-Barre.......... 881 Luzerne county prison, Wilkes-Barre.............. 908 Lycoming county court house, Williamsport........ 916 M'Kean county court house, Smethport............ 923 M'Kean county prison, Smnethport................... 929 M'Kean, Thomas, portrait of....................... 234 Mansfield, Episcopal church at....................... 1104 Mansfield, Methodist church at...................... 1107 Mansfield, State normal school at................. Inset. Meade's headquarters at Gettysburg............... 285 Meadville city, view of................................ 607 Mexico, Pennsylvania monument to heroes of....... 274 Mifflin county court house, Lewistown............ 939 Mifflin, Thomas, portrait of........................... 213 Mint, United States, at Philadelphia................ 404 Millersville, State normal school at............... 842 Military academy at Chester.......................... 672 Montgomery county court house, Norristown....... 950 Montour county court house, Danville.............. 961 Montrose borotugh, view of........................... 1095 Moore, William, portrait of........................... 202 Moravian monument at Wyalusing............... 415 Mount Pisgah inclined plane......................... 496 Nazareth Hall, Nazareth............................. 990 Nesquehoning bridge................................ 501 New Brighton, view of............................... 350 New Castle, Disciples' church at................... 860 New Castle, public school building at............... 859 New Sweden, map of................................... 43 Newport borough, view of.............................1009 Norristown fire company............................. 957 PAGE Reading, cemetery gate at............................ 395 Reading, Provincial court house at.................. 393 Reading, Trinity Lutheran church at............... 394 Reed, Joseph, portrait of............................. 190 Renova station, Philadelphia and Erie railroad..... 582 Reynolds, General John, monument to............. 310 Ridlgway borough, view of........................... 682 Rtidley park lake.................................. 666 Ridley park station.............................. 679 Ritner, Joseph, portrait of.......................... 247 St. Aloysius college, Loretto..................... 477 St. Clair, General, home of, on Chestnut ridge...... 1156 St. Clair, monument to. at Greensburg............. 1161 Schuylkill river, view on............................. 248 Seal of Assembly, 1776................................. 168 Seal of Committee of Safety, 1775................... 148 Seal of Proprietary.................................... 27 Shulze, John Andrew, portrait of................... 245 Shunk, Francis R., portrait of....................... 252 Slate roof house, Philadelphia......................... 1016 Snyder county court house, Middleburg............. 1072 Snyder mansion, Selinsgrove.......................... 1075 Snyder, Simon, portrait of........................... 236 Solebury Friends meeting-house.................... 444 Somerset county court house, Somerset............. 1077 South-western college, California................... 1143 Spruce Creek tunnel, Pennsylvania railroad......... 786 State (Agricultural) college, Centre county.......... 511 Stewart's block-house, Wyoming.................. 895 Stevens, Thaddeus, grave of, at Lancaster........... 830 Susquehanna county court house, Montrose......... 1087 Susquehanna county, plan of townships in........... 1086 Susquehanna river, above Milton..................... 998 Susquehanna river, near Lewisburg.................. 1112 Susquehanna,junction of North and West branches, 1002 Swarthmore college, Delaware county.............. 654 Swedes' church, Philadelphia...................... 1024 Taylor, Abiah, house of, built 1724.................. FO Tionesta borough, view of........................... 733 Towanda borough, view of........................... 405 Trappe, ancient Lutheran church at................ 960 Union county court house, Lewisburg.............. 1110 Onoko falls, Glen Onoko.......................... 498 Union League house, Philadelphia.................. 258 Osterhout mansion Wyoming county.............. 1167 Packer, William F., portrait of...................... 257 Paxtang church, Dauphin county.................... 646 Penitentiary, western, at Allegheny City.......... 326 Penn, John, portrait of.......................... 111 Penn, Richard, portrait of............................ 131 Penn, William, portrait of................ Frontispiece. Penn's book plate...................................... 66 Penn's chair.......................................... 106 Penn's residence at Chester......................... 659 Penn's treaty with the Indians, 1682................. 50 Penn's treaty monument......................... 49 Penn's valley, from Nilttany mountain............ 505 Pennsylvania college at Gettysburg................ 305 Pennsylvania, map of, 1685........................ 52 Pennsylvania, miapof, 1730........................ 92 Pennsylvania, map of, showing Indian purchases... 208 Pennsylvania, university of, dep. of science and arts, 1034 Pennsylvania, university of, medical department... 1036 Perry county court house, New Bloomfield.......... 1007 Perry's flag ship Lawrence......................... 706 Philadelphia, city buildings in........................ 1018 Philadelphia, view on tit Delaware at............ 1043 Philadelphia, old court house at..................... 1021 Philadelphia, old navy yard at....................... 1040 Pike county court house, Milford................. 1049 Pine street church, Philadelphia.................... 732 Pittsburgh city, from down the Ohio............. 314 Pittsburgh city hall.................................. 325 Pollock, James, portrait of.......................... 256 Portage road, view on............................... 474 Porter, David R., portrait of............250 Potter county court house, Coudersport.......... 1053 Pottstown, cottage seminary at.................... Inset. Pottsville borough, view of...................... 1058 President's house, erected by Pennsylvania........ 232 Provincial State house, in 1734....................... 71 Provincial State house, in 1778........................ 187 Pulpit rocks, Round island, Phila. & Erie railroad, 580 Punxsutawney borough, view of...................... 803 Ralston inclined plane................................ 922 Valley Forge, view at................................. 955 Warren borough, view of............................. 1133 Washington and Jefferson college.................... 1140 Washington female seminary..................... 478 Washington's head-quarters at Bedford, 1794....... 371 Washington's head-quarters at Valley Forge....... 182 Wharton house................................. 185 Wharton, Thomas, Jr., portrait of................. 170 Wayne, General, birth-place and residence of....... 540 Wayne county soldiers' monument, Honesdale...... 1150 Westmoreland county court house, Greensburg..... 1153 Wicaco, First Swedes' church at.................... 1015 Wilcox borough, view of............................. 689 Wissahickon, view on........................... 635 Wolf, George, portraitof............................ 246 Wright's Ferry mansion, Columbia.................. 833 Wyoming battle-ground, plan of................... 898 Wyoming county court house, Tunkhannock........ 1163 Wyoming, Indian massacre at........................ 880 Wyoming, incident in history of.................. Inset. Wyoming seminary, at Kingston................... 911 Wyoming valley, first glimpse of.................... 882 York county court house, York..................... 1170 York, Provincial court house at......................1173 York, Reformed church at........................... 1176 Ziesberger preaching to the Indians, 1767............ 735 Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, 1876. Bird's-eye view of the Centennial buildings, Inset. M em orial hall...................................... 774 Agricultural building............................ 653 Horticultural hall................................437 Main Exhibition building........................ 596 Women's pavilion................................ 813 M achinery hall................................... 861 Exhibition medal, obverse....................... 339 Exhibition medal, reverse........................ 360 Eagle, Centennial-vignette..................... 583 Eagle, National-vignette........................ 738 Jl HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. of all statutes for quartering troops in the Colonies, or subjecting them to any expense on account of such troops-of all statutes imposing duties to be paid in the Colonies, that were passed at the accession of his present Majesty, or before this time; whichever period shall be judged most advisable-of the statutes giving the Courts of Admiralty in the Colonies greater power than Courts of Admiralty have in England-of the statutes of the 5th of George the Second, chapter the 22d, and of the 23d of George the Second, chapter the 29th-of the statute for shutting up the port of Boston-and of every other statute particularly affecting the province of Massachusetts Bay, passed in the last session of Parliament. "In case of obtaining these terms, it is our opinion, that it will be reasonable for the Colonies to engage their obedience to the acts of Parliament declared to have force, at this time, in these Colonies, other than those above-mentioned, and to confirm such statutes by acts of the several assemblies. It is also our opinion, that taking example from our mother country, in abolishing the' Courts of Wards and Liveries, Tenures in capite, and by Knights service and purveyance,' it will be reasonable for the Colonies, in case of obtaining the terms before mentioned, to settle a certain annual revenue on his Majesty, his heirs and successors, subject to the control of Parliament, and to satisfy all damages done to the East India Company. "This our idea of settling a revenue, arises from a sense of duty to our Sovereign, and of esteem for our mother country. We know and have felt the benefits of a subordinate connection with her. We neither are so stupid as to be ignorant of them, nor so unjust as to deny them. We have also experienced the pleasures of gratitude and love, as well as advantages from that connexion. The impressions are not yet erased. We consider her circumstances with tender concern. We have not been wanting, when constitutionally called upon, to assist her to the utmost of our abilities; insomuch that she has judged it reasonable to make us recompenses for our overstrained exertions: And we now think we ought to contribute more than we do to the alleviation of her burthens. "Whatever may be said of these proposals on either side of the Atlantic, this is not a time either for timidity or rashness. We perfectly know, that the great eause now agitated is to be conducted to a happy conclusion only by that well tempered composition of counsels, which firmness, prudence, loyalty to our Sovereign, respect to our parent State, and affection to our native country, united must form. "By such a compact, Great Britain will secure every benefit that the Parliha mentary wisdom of ages has thought proper to attach to her. From her alone we shall continue to receive manufactures. To her alone we shall continue to carry the vast multitude of enumerated articles of commerce, the exportation of which her policy has thought fit to confine to herself. With such parts of the world only as she has appointed us to deal, we shall continue to deal; and such commodities only as she has permitted us to bring from them, we shall continue to bring. The executive and controling powers of the Crown will retain their present full force and operation. We shall contentedly labor for her as affectionate friends, in time of tranquility; and cheerfully spend for her, as 138 GENERAL HISTORY. dutiful children, our treasure and our blood, in time of war. She will receive a certain income from us, without the trouble or expense of collecting it-without being constantly disturbed by complaints of grievances which she cannot justify and will not redress. In case of war, or any emergency of distress to her, we shall also be ready and willing to contribute all aids within our power: And we solemnly declare, that on such occasions, if we or our posterity shall refuse, neglect, or decline thus to contribute, it will be a mean and manifest violation of a plain duty, and a weak and wicked desertion of the true interests of this Province, which ever have been and must be bound up in the prosperity of our mother country. Our union, founded on mutual compacts and mutual benefits, will be indissoluble, at least more firm than an union perpetually disturbed by disputed rights and retorted injuries. "SECONDLY. If all the terms above mentioned cannot be obtained, it is our opinion, that the measures adopted by the Congress for our relief should never be relinquished or intermitted, until those relating to the troops-internal legis. lation-imposition of taxes or duties hereafter-the 35th of Henry the 8th, chapter the 2d-the extension of Admiralty Courts-the port of Boston and the province of Massachusetts Bay-are obtained. Every modification or qualification of these points, in our judgment, should be inadmissible. To obtain them, we think it may be prudent to settle some revenue as above-mentioned and to satisfy the East India Company. " THIRDLY. If neither of these plans should be agreed to in Congress, but some other of a similar nature shall be framed, though on the terms of a revenue, and satisfaction to the East India Company, and though it shall be agreed by the Congress to admit no modification or qualification in the terms they shall insist on, we desire your Deputies may be instructed to concur with the other Deputies in it; and we will accede to, and carry it into execution as far as we can. "FOURTHLY. As to the regulation of trade-we are of opinion, that by making some few amendments, the commerce of the Colonies might be settled on a firm establishment, advantageous to Great Britain and them, requiring and subject to no future alterations, without mutual consent. We desire to have this point considered by the Congress; and such measures taken as they may judge proper. "In order to obtain redress of our com mongrievances, we observe a general inclination among the Colonies of entering into agreements of non-importation and non-exportation. We are fully convinced that such agreements would withhold very large supplies from Great Britain, and no words can describe our contempt and abhorrence of those colonists, if any such there are, who, from a sordid and ill-judged attachment to their own immediate profit, would pursue that, to the injury of their country, in this great struggle for all the blessings of liberty. It would appear to us a most wasteful frugality, that would lose every important possession by too strict an attention to small things, and lose also even these at the last. For our part, we will cheerfully make any sacrifice, when necessary, to preserve the freedom of our country. But other considerations have weight with us. We wish every mark of respect to be paid to his Majesty's administration. We have been taught from our youth to entertain 139 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. tender and brotherly affections for our fellow-subjects at home. The interruption of our commerce must distress great numbers of them. This we earnestly desire to avoid. We therefore request that the deputies you shall appoint may be instructed to exert themselves, at the Congress, to induce the members of it to consent to make a full and precise state of grievances, and a decent, yet firm claim of redress, and to wait the event before any other step is taken. It is our opinion that persons should be appointed and sent home to present this state and claim at the Court of Great Britain. "If the Congress shall choose to form agreements of non-importation and non-exportation immediately, we desire the deputies from this Province will endeavor to have them so formed as to be binding upon all, and that they may be permanent, should the public interest require it. They cannot be efficacious, unless they can be permanent; and it appears to us that there will be a danger of their being infringed, if they are not formed with great caution and deliberation. We have determined in the present situation of public affairs to consent to a stoppage of our commerce with Great Britain only; but in case any proceedings of the Parliament, of which notice shall be received on this continent, before or at the Congress, shall render it necessary, in the opinion of the Congress to take further steps, the inhabitants of this Province will adopt such steps, and do all in their power to carry them into execution. " This extensive power we commit to the Congress, for the sake of preserving that unanimity of counsel and conduct that alone can work out the salvation of these Colonies, with a strong hope and trust that they will not draw this Province into any measures judged by us, who must be better acquainted with its state than strangers, highly inexpedient. Of this kind, we know, any other stoppage of trade, but of that with Great Britain, will be. Even this step we should be extremely afflicted to see taken by the Congress, before the other mode above pointed out is tried. But should it be taken, we apprehend that a plan of restrictions may be so framed, agreeable to the respecti,,ve circumstances of the several colonies, as to render Great Britain sensible of the imprudence of her counsels, and yet leave them a necessary commerce. And here it may not be improper to take notice, that if redress of our grievances cannot be wholly obtained, the extent or continuance of our restrictions may, in some sort, be proportioned to the rights we are contending for, and the degree of relief afforded us. This mode will render our opposition as perpetual as our oppression, and will be a continual claim and assertion of our rights. We cannot express the anxiety with which we wish the consideration of these points to be recommended to you. We are persuaded, that if these Colonies fail of unanimity or prudence in forming their resolutions, or of fidelity in observing them, the opposition, by non-importation and non-exportation agreements, will be ineffectual; and then we shall have only the alternative of a more dangerous contention, or of a tame submission. "Upon the whole, we shall repose the highest confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the ensuing Congress: And though we have, for the satisfaction of the good people of this Province, who have chosen us for this express purpose, offered to you such instructions as have appeared expedient to us, yet it is not our meaning, that by these or by any you may think proper to give them, the 140 GENERAL HISTORY. deputies appointed by you should be restrained from agreeing to any measures that shall be approved by the Congress. We should be glad the deputies chosen by you, could, by their influence, procure our opinions, hereby communicated to you, to be as nearly adhered to as may be possible; but to avoid difficulties, we desire that they may be instructed by you to agree to any measures that shall be approved by the Congress; the inhabitants of this Province having resolved to adopt and carry them into execution. Lastly-We desire the deputies from this Province may endeavor to procure an adjournment of the Congress, to such a day as they shall judge proper, and the appointment of a standing committee. "Agreed, that John Dickinson, Joseph Reed, and Charles Thomson, be a committee to write to the neighboring colonies, and communicate to them the resolves and instructions. " Agreed, that the committee for the city and county of Philadelphia, or any fifteen of them, be ___ a Committee of Correspondence for the general Committee of this Province." Such was the determined stand taken by the people of Pennsylvania, who, with loyalty upon their -- lips, says Sherman Day, but the spirit of resistance in their hearts,.. pushed forward the Revolution. _ The Assembly promptly responded to the" Instructions " by I7 appointing Joseph Galloway, Speaker, Daniel Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, John Morton, Charles Humphreys, George Ross, Edward Biddle, and subsequently,John Dickinson, as delegates from enD insl nas eCgess om CARPENTER'S HALL, PHILADELPHIA-1774. Pennsylvania to the Congress to be held in Philadelphia, in September. This body, meeting on the 5th of that month, at Carpenter's Hall, chose Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, President of Congress, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, Secretary. The declaration of rights was agreed upon. First, then, they named as natural rights, the enjoyment of life, liberty, and fortune. They next claimed, as British subjects, to be bound by no law to which they had not consented by their chosen representatives (excepting such as might be mutually agreed upon as necessary for the regulation of trade). They denied to Parliament all power of taxation, and vested the right of legislation in their own Assemblies. The common law of England they declared to be their birthright, including the rights of trial by a jury of the vicinage, of public meetings, and petition. They protested against the maintenance in the Colonies of standing armies without their full consent, and against all legislation by councils depending on the Crown. Having thus proclaimed their rights, they calmly enuHISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. merated the various acts which had been passed in derogation of them. These were eleven in number, passed in as many years-the sugar act, the stamp act, the tea act, those which provided for the quartering of troops, for the supersedure of the New York Legislature, for the trial in Great Britain of offences committed in America, for the regulation of the government of Massachusetts, for the shutting of the port of Boston, and the last straw, known as the Quebec Bill. On the 18th of October articles of confederation were adopted, the signing of which, two days afterwards, remarks Henry Armitt Brown, should be regarded as the commencement of the American Union, based upon freedom and equality. On the 26th of the same month, after adopting an address to the people of Great Britain, a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal address to his Majesty, it adjourned to meet in Philadelphia, on the 10th May following. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met on the 8th of December, was the first Provincial Legislature to which report of the Congressional proceedings was made. By this body they were unanimously approved, and recommended to the inviolable observance of the people; and Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Galloway, Humphreys, Morton, and Ross were appointed delegates to the next Congress, Mr. Rhoads being omitted, his office of mayor of the city engrossing all his attention. 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 having repeatedly requested to be excused from serving as a deputy, was then permitted to withdraw. This gentleman became affrighted at the length to which the opposition to the parent State was carried. He drew the instructions given to the Pennsylvania delegates for the past and next Congress, and refused to serve unless they were framed to his wishes. Hitherto Governor 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 remonstrance 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." This 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 counties on the Delaware. Pending the consideration of this bill, Lord North introduced what he termed a conciliatory proposition. It provided "that when any colony should propose to make provision, according to its circumstances, for contributing its pro142 GENERAL HISTORY. portion to the common defence, and should engage to make provision also for the support of the civil government, and the administration of justice in such colony, it would be proper, if such proposal were approved by His Majesty and Parliament, and for so long as such provision should be made, to forbear to levy any duty or tax except such duties as were expedient for the regulation of commerce, the net produce of the last mentioned duties to be carried to the account of such colony." This proposition was opposed as an admission of the correctness of the American views as to taxation by Parliament, and as a concession to armed rebels. The Prime Minister declared "that he did not expect the proposition would be acceptable to the Americans, but that if it had no beneficial effect in the Colonies, it would unite the people of England by holding out to them a distinct object of revenue. That, as it tended to unite England, it would produce disunion in America; for, if one colony accepted it, their confederacy, which made them formidable, would be broken." This avowal of the character and tendency of the resolution was not requisite to enlighten the colonists. On its transmission to the Provinces, it was unanimously rejected. A specimen of the manner in which it was attempted to be supported is found in the address of Governor Penn to the Assembly of Pennsylvania. "He presented the resolution to the House as an indication of the strong disposition of Parliament to remove the causes of American discontents; urged them to consider this plan of reconciliation, offered by the parent State to her children, with that temper, calmness, and deliberation which the importance of the subject and the present critical situation of affairs demanded; observed that the colonies, amid the complaints occasioned by jealousy of their liberties, had never denied the justice of contributing towards the burthens of the mother country, to whose protection and care they owed not only their present opulence, but even their existence. On the contrary, every statement of their supposed grievances avowed the propriety of such a measure, and their willingness to comply with it. The dispute was therefore narrowed to this point, whether the redress of colonial grievances should precede or follow the settlement of that just proportion which America should bear towards the common support and defence of the whole British Empire. In the resolution of the Hquse of Commons, which he was authorized to say was entirely approved by His Majesty, they had a solemn declaration, that an exemption from any duty would be the consequence of a compliance with the terms of such resolution. For the performance of this engagement, he presumed no greater security would be required than the resolution itself approbated by His Majesty. And as they were the first Assembly to whom this resolution had been communicated, much depended upon their conduct, and they would deservedly be revered by the latest posterity, if by any possible means they could be instrumental in restoring the public tranquility, and rescuing'both countries from the horrors of a civil war." The Assembly lost no time in replying to this message. "They regretted," they said, " that they could not think the offered terms afforded just and reasonable grounds for a final accommodation between Great Britain and the Colonies: They admitted the justice of contribution in case of the burthens of the mother country, but they claimed it as their indisputable right that all aids from them should be free and voluntary, not taken by force, nor extorted by fear; and they 143 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. chose rather to leave the character of the proposed plan to be determined by the Governor's good sense, than to expose it by reference to notorious facts, or the repetition of obvious reasons. But, if the plan proposed were unexceptionable, they would esteem it dishonorable to adopt it without the advice and consent of their sister colonies, who, united by just motives and mutual faith, were guided by general counsels. They assured him that they could form no projects of permanent advantage for Pennsylvania which were not in common with the other colonies; and should prospect of exclusive advantage be opened to them, they had too great regard for their engagements to accept benefits for themselves only, which were due to all, and which, by a generous rejection for the present, might be finally secured to all." Notwithstanding the gloomy state of affairs this year, Lord Dunmore of Virginia set up the unfounded pretension that the western boundary of Pennsylvania did not include Pittsburgh and the Monongahela river, and many settlers were encouraged to take up lands on Virginia warrants. He even took possession of Fort Pitt, by his agent, Dr. John Connolly, on the withdrawal of the royal troops by order of General Gage. Even General Washington, who knew that country so well, and had taken up much land in it, entertained the idea, probably, at that date, that what are now the counties of Fayette, Greene and Washington, were in Virginia. Some of these new settlers were of the worst class of frontiersmen, and several of them were concerned in the barbarous murder of the family of Logan, the Mingo Chief, and of others. A bloody war upon the frontier was the consequence of these murders; but Pennsylvania, by timely conciliatory measures through Sir Wmin. Johnson, escaped the ravages of that war. Governor Penn promptly repelled the intruders under the Virginia titles; arrested and imprisoned Dr. Connolly, and kept in pay for some months the rangers of Westmoreland county, who had rallied for the defence of the frontier. Lord Dunmore's war against the western Indians followed the attack on the frontiers of Virginia. On the 23d of January, 1775, a Provincial Convention was held at Phila delphia, continuing in session six days. There were present committees 1775. from each county, and as these individuals subsequently took an active part in the contest, either in the councils of the State or in the field, we give their names For the city and liberties of Philadelphia-John Dickinson, Thomas Mifflin, Charles Thomson, John Cadwalader, George Clymer, Joseph Reed, Samuel Meredith, William Rush, James Mease, John Nixon, John Benezet, Jacob Rush, William Bradford, Elias Boys, James Robinson, Manuel Eyre, Owen Biddle, William Heysham, James Milligan, John Wilcox, Sharp Delaney, Francis Gurney, John Purviance, Robert Knox, Francis Hassenclever, Thomas Cuthbert, Sen., William Jackson, Isaac Melcher, John Cox, John Bayard, Christopher Ludwig, Thomas Barclay, George Schlosser, Jonathan B. Smith, Francis Wade, Lambert Cadwallader, Reynold Keen, Richard Bache, Samuel Penrose, Isaac Coates, William Coates, Blathwaite Jones, Thomas Pryor, Samuel Massey, Robert Towers, Henry Jones, Joseph Wetherill, Joseph Cowperthwaite, Joseph Dean, Benjamin Harbeson, James Ash, Benjamin Loxley, William Robinson, Ruloff Alberson, James Irvine. 144 GENERAL HISTORY. Philadelphia county-George Gray, John Bull, Samuel Ashmead, Samuel Irvine, John Roberts, Thomas Ashton, Benjamin Jacobs, John Moore, Samuel Miles, Edward Milnor, Jacob Laughlan, Melchior Waggoner. Chester county-Anthony Wayne, Hugh Lloyd, Richard Thomas, Francis Johnson, Samuel Fairlamb, Lewis Davis, William Montgomery, Joseph Musgrave, Joshua Evans, Persifor Frazer. Lancaster county-Adam Simon Kuhn, James Clemson, Peter Grubb, Sebastian Graaff, David Jenkins, Bartram Galbraith. York county-James Smith, Thomas Hartley, Joseph Donaldson, George Eichelberger, John Hay, George Irwin, Michael Smyser. Cumberland county-James Wilson, Robert Magaw. Berks county-Edward Biddle, Christopher Schultz, Jonathan Potts, Sebastian Levan, Mark Bird, John Patton, Baltzer Gehr. Northampton county-George Taylor, John Oakley, Peter Kechlien, Jacob Arndt. Northumberland county-William' Plunkett, Casper Weitzel. After the organization of the Convention, General Joseph Reed being chosen chairman, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: " That the committee of the city of Philadelphia, and each county committee, shall have one vote in determining every question that may come before this convention. ~' That this convention most heartily approve of the conduct and proceedings of the Continental Congress. That we will faithfully endeavor to carry into execution the measures of the association entered into and recommended by them, and that the members of that very respectable body merit our warmest thanks by their great and disinterested labors for the preservation of the rights and liberties of the British Colonies. " That it be, and it is hereby, recommended to the several members of this convention to promote and encourage instructions, or advise from their several counties to their representatives in General Assembly to procure a law prohibiting the future importation of slaves into this Province. "That in case the trade of the city and liberties of Philadelphia shall be suspended in consequence of the present struggle, it is the opinion of this convention that the several counties should, and that the members of this convention will exert themselves to afford all the necessary relief and assistance to the inhabitants of the said city and liberties, who will be more immediately affected by such an event. "That if any opposition shall be given to any of the committees of this Province in carrying the association of the Continental Congress into execution, the committees of the other counties, in order to preserve the said association inviolate, will give all the weight and assistance in their power to the committee who shall meet with such opposition. "That it is the most earnest wish and desire of this convention to see harmony restored between Great Britain and the Colonies. That we will exert our utmost endeavors for the attainment of that most desirable object. That it is the opinion of this body that the commercial opposition pointed out by the Continental Congress, if faithfully adhered to, will be the means of rescuing this K HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. unhappy country from the evils meditated against it. But if the humble and loyal petition of said Congress to his most gracious Majesty should be disregarded, and the British administration, instead of redressing our grievances, should determine by force to effect a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the British Parliament, in such a situation we hold it our indispensable duty to resist such force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America. " WHEREAS, It has been judged necessary for the preservation of our just rights and liberties to lay a restraint on our importation, and as the freedom, happiness, and prosperity of a State greatly depend on providing within itself a supply of articles necessary for subsistence, clothing, and defence, a regard for our country as well as common prudence call upon us to encourage agriculture, manufactures, and economy. Therefore this convention do resolve as follows: "That from and after the first day of March next, no person or persons should use in his, her, or their families, unless in cases of necessity, and on no account sell to the butchers, or kill for the market, any sheep under four years old. And where there is a necessity for using any mutton in their families it is recommended to them to kill such as are the least profitable to keep. " That we recommend the setting up of woollen manufactories in as many different branches as possible; especially coating, flannel, blankets, rugs, or coverlids, hosiery, and coarse cloths, both broad and narrow. "That we recommend the raising and manufacturing of madder, wood, and such other dye-stuffs as may be raised in this Province to advantage, and are absolutely necessary in the woollen manufactures. " That each person having proper land should raise a quantity of flax and hemp, sufficient not only for the use of his own family, but also to spare to others on moderate terms. And that it be recommended to the farmers to provide themselves early with a sufficient quantity of seed for the proposed increase of the above articles of hemp and flax. "As salt is a daily and almhnost indispensable necessary of life, and the making of it among ourselves must be esteemed a valuable acquisition, we, therefore, recommend the making of it in tihe manner used in England and other countries, and are of opinion it may be done with success in the interior parts of the Province where there are salt springs, as well as on the sea coasts. "That saltpetre being an article of great use and consumption, we recommend the making of it, and are further of opinion it may be done to great advantage. "That the necessity we may be under for gunpowder, especially in the Indian trade, induces us to recommend the manufacturing that article as largely as possible by such persons who are or may be owners of powder mills in this Province. " That we recommend the manufacturing of iron into nails and wire, and all other articles necessary for carrying on our manufactures evidently in general use, and which, of consequence, should our unhappy differences continue, will be in great demand. "That we are of opinion the making of steel ought to be largely prosecuted as the demand for this article will be great. "That we recommend the making of different kinds of paper now in use among us, to the several manufactures; and as the success of this branch depends 146 GENERAL IHISTORY. on a supply of old linen and woollen rags, request the people of this Province, in their respective houses, may order the necessary steps to be taken for preserving these otherwise useless articles. " That as the consumption of glass is greater than the glass houses now established among us can supply, we recommend the setting up of other glass houses, and are of opinion they would turn out to the advantage of the proprietors. " That whereas wool combs and cards have, for some time, been manufactured in some of the neighboring colonies, and are absolutely necessary for carrying on the hosiery and clothing business, we do recommend the establishing such a manufactory in this Province. " That we also recommend the manufacturing of copper into sheets, bottoms, and kettles. "That we recommend the erecting a greater number of fulling mills and mills for breaking, swingling, and softening hemp and flax, and also the making of grindstones in this country. " That as the brewing of large quantities of malt liquors within this Province would tend to render the consumption of foreign liquors less necessary, it is, therefore, recommended that proper attention be given to the cultivation of barley; and that the several brewers, both in city and country, do encourage it by giving a reasonable and sufficient price for the same. " That we recommend to all the inhabitants of this Province, and do promise for ourselves in particular, to use our own manufactures, and those of the other colonies in preference to all others. " That for the more speedy and effectually putting these resolves into execution, we do earnestly recommend societies may be established in different parts, and are of opinion that premiums ought to be granted in the several counties to persons who may excel in the several branches of manufactory, and we do further engage that we, in our separate committees, will promote them to the utmost of our power. " That if any manufacturer or vender of goods and merchandise in this Province shall take advantage of the necessities of his country, by selling his goods or merchandise at an unusual and extravagant profit, such person shall be considered as an enemy to his country, and be advertised as such by the committee of the place where such offender dwells. " That we recommend the making tin plates, as an article worthy the attention of the people of this Province. "That as printing types are now made to a considerable degree of perfection by an ingenious artist in Germantown, it is recommended to the printers to use such types in preference to any which may be hereafter imported. " That the committee of correspondence for the city and liberties of Philadelphia be a standing committee of correspondence for the several counties here represented, and that if it should at any time hereafter appear to the committee of the city and liberties that the situation of public affairs render a provincial convention necessary, that the said committee of correspondence do give the earliest notice thereof to the committees of the several counties." The crisis to which the convention looked forward when framing these resolves, 147 PART I. GENERAL HISTORY. 13 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. had arrived. The battle of Lexington was subsequently fought, and submission to the arbitrary acts of Parliament was attempted to be enforced by the bayonet. Congress at their session in May having resolved to raise a Continental army, of which the Pennsylvania portion amounted to four thousand three hundred men, the Assembly recommended to the commissioners of the several counties, as they regarded the freedom, welfare, and safety of their country, to provide arms and accoutre Snients for this force: they also directed the officers S? ~ of the military association to select a number of b minute men, equal to the number of arms which S could be procured, who should hold themselves n readiness to march at the shortest notice to any quarter, in case of emergency; they made further : ppropriations for the defence of the city against V fattacks by vessels of war, and directed the p)urchase SEAL OF THE COMMITTEE 01 of all the saltpetre that should be manufactured SAFETY-1.775. within the next six months at a premium price. To assist in carrying into effect these measures, on the 30th of June, a Committee of Safety, consisting of the following persons, were appointed: City of Philadelphia-Thomas Wharton, Jr., Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Morris, Jr., Robert Morris, Francis Johnston, John Cadwallader, Owen Biddle, Thomas Willing, Andrew Allen, Robert White. Philadelphia County-John Dickinson, George Gray, Daniel Roberdeau, Richard Reily. Bucks-Henry Wynkoop. Chester-Anthony Wayne, Benjamin Bartholomew. Lancaster-George Ross. York-Michael Swope. Cumberland-John Montgomery. Northampton-William Edmunds. Berks-Edward Biddle. Bedford-Bernard Doughei ty. Northumberland-Samuel I unter. Westmoreland-William Thompson. This body immediately organized by the appointment of Benjamin Fr:,nklin, president, William Garrett, clerk, and Michael HIlillegas, treasurer. For the pay and support of the associated troops called into service for the defence of the Province, the Assembly directed the issuing bills of credit for thirty-five thousand pounds. Among the first labors of the Committee of Safety was that of preparing articles for the government of the military organizations known as Associators. On the 19th of August, the following Articles of Association of P(Ennsylvania were adopted: "We, the officers and soldiers, engaged in the present association for the defence of American liberty, being fully sensible that the strength and security of any body of men, acting together, consists in just regularity, due 148 GENERAL HISTORY. subordination, and exact obedience to command, without which no individual can have that confidence in the support of those about him, that is so necessary to give firmness and resolution to the whole, do voluntarily and freely, after consideration of the following articles, adopt the same as the rules by which we agree and resolve to be governed in all our military concerns and operations, until the same, or any of them, shall be changed or dissolved by the Assembly, or Provincial Convention, or in their recess by the Committee of Safety, or a happy reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and the Colonies. "1 st. If any officer make use of any profane oath or execration, when on duty, he shall forfeit and pay, for each and every such offence, the sum of five shillings. And if a non-commissioned officer or soldier be thus guilty of cursing or swearing, he shall forfeit and pay, for each and every such offence, the sum of one shilling. "2nd. Any officer or soldier who shall refuse to obey the lawful orders of his superior officer, may be suspended from doing duty on that day, and shall upon being convicted thereof before a regimental court martial, make such concessions as said court martial shall direct. "3rd. Any officer or soldier who shall begin, excite, cause, join in, or promote any disturbance in the battalion, troop, or company, to which he belongs, or in any other battalion, troop, or company, shall be censured according to the nature of the offence, by the judgment of a regimental court martial. " 4th. Any officer or soldier who shall strike his superior officer, or draw or offer to draw, or shall lift up any weapon, or offer any violence against him, being in the execution of his office, shall, upon conviction before a regimental court martial, be dismissed, and shall be deemed to be thereby disgraced as unworthy the company of freemen. "5th. Any commanding or other officer who shall strike any person when on duty, shall, upon conviction before a general court martial, be in a like manner dismissed and disgraced. "6th. Any officer or non-commissioned officer or soldier, who shall make use of insolent, provoking, or indecent language while on duty, shall suffer censure or fine as shall be inflicted by a regimental court martial, according to the nature of the offence. " 7th. If any officer or soldier should think himself injured by his colonel, or the commanding officer of the battalion, and shall upon due application made to him, be refused redress, he may complain to the general of the Pennsylvania Associators, or to the colonel of any other battalion, who is to summon a general court martial, and see that justice be done. " 8th. If any inferior officer or soldier shall think himself injured by his captain, or other superior officer in the battalion, troop, or company to which he belongs, he may complain to the commanding officer of the regiment, who is to summon a regimental court martial, for the doing justice according to the nature of the case. " 9th. No officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, shall fail of repairing with their arms, ammunition, and accoutrements upon any regular alarm, or at the time fixed, to the place of parade or other rendezvous appointed by the HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. commanding officer, if not prevented by sickness or some other evident necessity, or shall go from the place of parade without leave from the commanding officer before he shall be regularly dismissed, on penalty of being fined or censured according to the nature of the offence, by the sentence of a regimental court martial. But no officer or soldier shall be obliged to attend to learn the military exercise more than once in a week. " 10th. Any officer or soldier found drunk when under arms, shall be suspended from doing duty in the battalion, company, or troop on that day, and be fined or censured, at the discretion of a regimental court martial. " 11th. Whatever sentinel shall be found sleeping upon his post, or shall leave it before he is regularly relieved, shall suffer such penalty or disgrace as shall be ordered by a regimental court martial. " 12th. Whatever commissioned officer shall be convicted before a general court martial, of behaving in a scandalous or infamous manner unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman, shall be dismissed from the association with disgrace. " 13th. Every non-commissioned officer or soldier who shall be convicted at a regimental court martial of having sold, carelessly lost, wilfully spoiled or wasted, or having offered for sale, any ammunition, arms, or accoutrements belonging to this Province, shall be dismissed such battalion, troop, or company, as an unworthy member, and be prosecuted as the law directs. " 14th. All disorders and neglects which officers and soldiers may be guilty of, to the prejudice of the good order and military discipline of the association of this colony, are to be taken cognizance of by a general or regimental court martial, according to the nature and degree of the offence, and be censured at their discretion. "15th. That on the first meeting of every battalion, after subscribing these articles of association, and from thence forward on the first meeting of every battalion, after the third Monday in September annually, there be chosen two persons, such as are entitled to vote for members of Assembly, out of each company in the respective battalions, b. the non-commissioned officers and privates, whose duty and office shall be for the year following, to set and join with the officers in court martial, which persons so chosen shall be styled court martial men. " 16th. Every general court martial shall consist of thirteen members, six of whom shall be commissioned officers under the rank of a field officer, and six court martial men, who shall be drawn by lot out of the whole number, and these twelve are to choose a president, who shall be a field officer and have a casting voice. " 17th. Every regimental court martial shall be composed of seven members, three officers, three court martial men, and a president, who is to be a captain, and to be chosen by the six, and also to have a casting voice. " 18th. In all courts martial not less th.n two-thirds of the members must agree in every sentence for inflicting penalties, or for disgracing any associator, otherwise he shall be acquitted. " 19th. The president of each and every court martial, whether regimental or general, shall require all witnesses, in order to trial of offenders, to declare on 150 GENERAL HISTORY. their honor, that what they give in as evidence is the truth, and the members of all courts martial shall make a declaration to the president, and the president to the next rank, upon their honor, that they will give judgment with impartiality. "20th. All non-commissioned officers, drummers, fifers, or others, that shall be employed and receive pay in any of the battalions, companies, or troops, shall subscribe these rules and regulations, and be subject to such fines, to be deducted from their pay, and to such penalties as a regimental court martial shall think proper, upon being convicted of having transgressed any of these regulations. " 21st. All associators called as witnesses in any case before a court martial, who shall refuse to attend and give evidence, shall be censured or fined, at the discretion of the court martial. "22d. No officer or soldier being charged with transgressing these rules, shall be suffered to (do duty in the regiment, company, or troop to which he belongs, until he has had his trial by a court martial; and every person so charged shall be tried as soon as a court martial can be conveniently assembled, "23d. The officers and soldiers of every company of artillery, or other company, troop, or party that is or shall be annexed to any battalion, shall be subject to the command of the colonel or commanding officer of said battalion, and the officers shall sit as members of courts martial in the same manner as the officers of any other company. " 24th. No penalty shall be inflicted at the discretion of a court martial other than degrading, cashiering, or fining, the fines for the officers not to exceed three pounds, and the fine for a non-commissioned officer or soldier not to exceed twelve shillings for one fault. " 25th. The field officers of each and every battalion shall appoint a person to receive such fines as may arise within the same, for breach of any of these articles, and shall direct those fines to be carefully and properly applied to the relief of the sick, wounded, or necessitous soldiers belonging to that battalion, and such person shall account with the field officers for all fines received, and the application thereof. " 26th. The general or commander-in-chief of this association, for the time being, shall have full power of pardoning or mitigating any censures or penalties ordered to be inflicted for the breach of any of these articles by any general court martial; and every offender convicted as aforesaid, by any regimental court martial, may be pardoned, or have his penalties mitigated by the colonel or commanding officer of the battalion, excepting only where such censures or penalties are directed as satisfaction for injuries received by one officer or soldier from another. " 27th. Any officer, non-commissioned officer, or other person, who, having subscribed these articles, shall refuse to make such concessions, pay such fines, or in any other matter refuse to comply with the judgment of any court martial, shall be dismissed the service, and held up to the public as unfriendly to the liberties of America. " 28th. Upon the determination of any point by a regimental court martial, if the officer or soldier concerned on either side thinks himself still aggrieved, he may appeal to a general court martial; but, if upon second hearing, the HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. appeal appears groundless and vexatious, the person so appealing shall be censured, at the discretion of the general court martial. " 29th. Upon the death, resignation, promotion, or other removal of an officer from any battalion, troop, or company (except field officers), or any court martial men, such vacancy is to be filled by the person or persons such troop or company shall elect. "30th. No officer or soldier shall be tried a second time for the same offence, except in case of appeal. " 31st. All officers and soldiers of every battalion, troop, company, or party of associators, who shall be called by the Assembly, or Committee of Safety in recess of Assembly, into actual service, and be on pay, shall, when acting by themselves, or in conjunction with the Continental forces, be subject to all the rules and articles made by the honorable Congress for the government of the Continental troops. " 32d. No commissioned, non-commissioned officer, or private, shall withdraw himself from the company to which he belongs, without a discharge from the commanding officer of the battalion, nor shall such person be received into any other company without such discharge. " In testimony of our approbation and consent to be governed by the above regulations, which have been deliberately read to, or carefully perused by us, we have hereunto set our hands." Many of the citizen soldiers refused to sign and submit to tnese regulations, alleging that numerous persons, rich, and able to perform military duty, claimed exemption under pretence of conscientious scruples, and asserting that where the liberty of all was at stake, all should aid in its defence, and that where the cause was common to all, it was inconsistent with justice and equity that the burden should be partial. Moved by these representations, the Committee of Safety recommended to the Assembly to provide that all persons should be subject to military duty, but that persons conscientiously scrupulous might compound for actual service by a pecuniary equivalent. The House, however, was not prepared for a measure of so strong a character; and they suffered their term of office to expire without passing upon the proposition. But this subject was pressed on the early attention of the succeeding Assembly. Congress having recommended to the inhabitants of the several Provinces, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, to organize themselves into regular companies of militia, gave new occasion to the associators to urge the Assembly to put all the inhabitants in this respect on an equal footing. The Friends, who were the most affected by coercion to military service, addressed the Legislature, setting forth their religious faith and practice with respect to bearing arms, and claiming exemption from military service by virtue of the thirty-fifth section of the laws agreed upon in England, and the first clause of the charter granted by Penn. The Mennonists and German Baptists also remonstrated, praying exemption, yet, while doing so, they were not unwilling to contribute pecuniary aid. The principles of the Quakers were severely denounced by the associators as unfriendly to the liberties of America, destructive of all society and government, and highly reflecting on the glorious revolutions which placed the present royal family on the throne. "Though 152 GENERAL HISTO R Y. firmly persuaded," they said, "that a majority of the society have too much sincerity, wisdom, and good sense, to be influenced by such principles; yet duty to ourselves, to our country, and our posterity, at this alarming crisis, constrains us to use our utmost endeavors to prevent the fatal consequences that might attend your compliance with the application of the people called Quakers. These gentlemen would withdraw their persons and fortunes from the service of their country at a time when most needed; and if the patrons and friends of liberty succeed in the present glorious struggle, they and their posterity will enjoy all the advantages, without jeoparding person or property. Should the friends of liberty fail, they will risk no forfeitures, but having merited the protection and favor of the British ministry, will probably be rewarded by promotion to office. This they seem to desire and expect. Though such conduct manifestly tends to defeat the virtuous and wise measures plannedf by the Congress, and is obviously selfish, ungenerous, and unjust, yet we would animadvert upon the arguments they have used to induce the House to favor and support it." Thus urged, the Assembly resolved that "all persons between the ages of sixteen and fifty, capable of bearing arms, who did not associate for the defence of the Province, ought to contribute an equivalent for the time spent by the associators in acquiring military discipline; ministers of the gospel of all denominations, and servants purchased bona-fide for valuable consideration, only excepted." By this resolution the principle which still regulates the fines for neglect or refusal of military service was established. The military association, originally a mere voluntary engagement, became, by the resolutions of the Assembly, now having the effect of laws, a compulsory militia. Returns were required from the assessors of the several townships and wards of all persons within military age, capable of bearing arms; and the captains of the companies of associators were directed to furnish to their colonels, and the colonels to the county commissioners, lists of such persons as had joined the association; and the commissioners were empowered to assess on those not associated the sum of two pounds ten shillings annually, in addition to the ordinary tax. The Assembly also adopted rules and regulations for the better government of the military association, the thirty-fifth article of which provided " that if any associator called into actual service, should leave a family not of ability to maintain themselves in his absence, the justices of the peace of the proper city or county, with the overseers of the poor, should make provision for their maintainance." 153 CHAPTER IX. TIHE BATTLE-DRUM OF THE REVOLUTION. THE PENNSYLVANIA NAVY. THE PRO VINCIAL CONFERENCE. TIHE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THE CONVEN TION OF 1776, AND THE END OF PROPRIETARY RULE. 1775-1776. ITIIIN ten days, says Mr. Linn, after the news of the battle of Bun ker's Hill had reached the Province of Pennsylvania, her first rifle regiment was officered and completed, many of the eight companies numbering one hundred men. It was commanded by Colonel William Thompson, of Cumberland county, whom Lossing by mistake credits to Virginia. The companies were severally under the command of Captains James Chambers, Robert Cluggage, Michael Doudle, William Hendricks, John Lowdon, James Ross, Matthew Smith, and George Nagel. The regiment upon its organization at once marched to the relief of Boston, where they arrived about the last of July. They were the first companies south of the Hudson to arrive in Massachusetts, and naturally excited much attention. They were stout and hardy yeomanry, the flower of Pennsylvania's frontiersmen, and according to Thatcher, " remarkable for the accuracy of their aim." This command became, in January, 1776, the " First Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies, commanded by General George Washington." Two companies of this battalion, Captains Smith and Hendricks, were subsequently ordered to accompany General Arnold in his unsuccessful expedition to Quebec. Their term of service was for one year. The Committee of Safety held its sessions almost daily in Philadelphia. Their duties, says Dr. Smith, were arduous in the extreme. It is indeed difficult to comprehend how a body of men could control and direct such an amount of business, in all its details, as was brought under their notice, and no adequate idea can be formed of their labors. On the 20th of October a new committee was appointed, the old members continuing except Thomas Willing and Robert White, of Philadelphia; William Edmunds, of Northampton; William Thompson, of Westmoreland; James Mease, George Clymer, David Rittenhouse, John Nixon, Samuel Howell, and Alexander Wilcocks, of the city of Philadelphia. Joseph Reed and Samuel Miles, of the county, George Taylor, of Northampton, and James Biddle, of Berks, were added. The same organization was effected, and until the 22d of July, 1776, it was the moving power of the State. The troops ordered by Congress were immediately raised, measures taken towards the defence of the Delaware river, both by means of chevaux-de-frize and the construction of an armed flotilla. With great promptness, on the 7th of July, John Wharton was directed to procure materials and make preparations for building a boat or calevat, of which he was to exhibit a model on the next day. Mr. Wharton, equally prompt, produced his model on the 8th, and was 154 GENERAL HISTORY. 155 then directed to immediately build a boat or calevat of forty-seven or fifty feet keel, thirteen feet broad, and four and a half feet deep. On the 10th, Manuel Eyre was directed to build a boat according to a model produced by him, and on the 15th the sub-committee was directed to build twelve boats, including the two already ordered. The first officers, Captain Henry Dougherty and Captain John Rice, were appointed on the 17th of July, 1775. The first boat launched was from the yard of John Wharton, on the 19th of July, and was called the Experiment, the command of which was assigned to Captain Henry Dougherty. The second boat launched was the Bull Dog, from the ship yard of Manuel Eyre, at Kensington, on the 26th of July, and Captain Charles Alexander assigned to its command. This was the commencement of the Pennsylvania State Navy, antedating three months the first legislation of Congress (October 13, 1775), in regard to a navy. The names of the builders of the greater part of the vessels have come down to us. The Franklin and Congress were built by Manuel Eyre; the Washington by John Wharton; the Burke by Warnock Coates; the Hancock by William Williams; the Camden by Simon Sherlock; the Effingham by Casdrop and Fullerton; the Ranger by Samuel Robins; the Dickinson by John Rice, and the Warren by Joseph Marsh. Among the first commissions issued subsequent to those above mentioned were those of Nicholas Biddle, as Captain of the Franklin, August 1, 1775; John Hamilton, of the Congress, August 2; Allen Moore, of the Effingham, August 3; and James Montgomery, of the Ranger, August 31; and by the 15th of September, the navy was upon a permanent footing, officered as follows: Bull Dog, Captain Alexander Henderson, Lieutenant John Webb; Burke, Captain James Blair, Lieutenant John Chatham; Camden, Captain Richard Eyre, Lieutenant George Garland; Chatham, Captain Charles Alexander, Lieutenant Robert Pomeroy; Congress, Captain John Hamilton, Lieutenant Hugh Montgomery; Dickinson, Captain John Rice, Lieutenant James Allen; Experiment, Captain Allen Moore, Lieutenant Benjamin Thompson; Effingham, Lieutenant John Hennessey; Franklin, Captain Nicholas Biddle, Lieutenant Thomas Houston; Hancock, Captain John Moulder, Lieutenant David Ford; Ranger, Captain James Montgomery, Lieutenant Gibbs Jones; Warren, Captain Samuel Davidson, Lieutenant Jeremiah Simmons; Washington, Captain Henry Dougherty, Lieutenant Nathan Boys. The cost of this fleet was estimated at ~550 per boat; the boats were pro pelled by rowers, each boat carrying two howitzers, besides swivels, pikes, and muskets. By the 28th of December ten fire rafts were constructed, and Captain - John Hazlewood appointed commander and superintendent over the whole fleet of rafts. These were thirty-five feet long and thirteen wide, the floors close and caulked, with a wash-board and rails to confine the materials. They were loaded with hogsheads and other casks, the staves of tar-barrels, oil-barrels, turpentine and resin casks, with hay or straw, turpentine, brimstone, and other combustible substances thrown into the hogsheads and between them, a quantity of pine wood intermixed, and powdered resin strewed over the whole to convey the fire with greater rapidity to every part. To the naval force were added, in 1776, two floating batteries called the Arnold HISTO R Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. and the Putnam, a ship of war called the Montgomery, the,Etna, a fire sloop, and six guard boats. According to a return of the 1st of August, 1776, the humber of vessels in commission was twenty-seven, and the number of men in actual naval service seven hundred and sixty-eight. On the 14th of September, 1775, John M. Nesbit was appointed paymaster, and on the 16th John Ross, muster master of the navy. The latter, in accepting the appointment, said he would undertake it for the good of the service, and would accept no pay therefor. He acted in this capacity until the 23d of February, 1776. On the 27th of September, Dr. Benjamin Rush was appointed surgeon, anJ on the 10th of October, Dr. Duffield, assistant-surgeon, each to receive sixteen dollars per month for their services. On the 23d of October Captain Thomas Read had the honor of receiving the appointment of commodore, the first officer of that title of the naval forces of America. Congress had, by resolution, allowed all merchant vessels until the month of September to get away from Philadelphia; immediately after which two tiers of the chevaux-de-frize were sunk opposite Fort Island (called also Mud Island), just below the mouth of the Schuylkill, to which a third tier was added soon after. Two tiers were sunk farther down the river, near Marcus Hook, and many hulks of vessels in the different channels of the river. The track through these obstructions was concealed from general knowledge, and ten pilots were taken into the pay of the State, who alone conveyed vessels through the passage. The buoys were all removed from the Delaware below the city, and pilots were stationed at Lewes, Delaware, and at Cape May, who piloted vessels up as far as Chester, where the chevaux-de-frize pilots took charge of them. The firerafts were stationed part in Darby creek, on the Delaware side of the river, part in Mantua creek, on the Jersey side, eleven miles below Camden, and part in the Schuylkill river, and five vessels were stationed between the chevauxde-frize, and the mouth of Woodberry creek, which is a little above Mantua creek. Signal and alarm-posts were established and alarm-boats stationed near them. Post No. 1 was at Cape-Henlopen, under charge of Major Henry Fisher, of Lewes; No. 3 at Mother-kill; No. 8 at Chester; No. 10 at Billingsport, and so on up to the city; and thus news of the arrival of any vessels off Cape Henlopen were conveyed to the Committee within twenty-four hours. The usual station of the fleet was at Fort Island; it was manned in part by sailors and crews of enlisted men, filled up, as occasion required, by the associators. In October a Continental fleet was fitted out by Congress, at Philadelphia, and the Committee of Safety loaded its vessels with all the gunpowder it could spare, furnished it with a great quantity of arms, and in addition, resolved that its officers might enlist one hundred men from among the crews of the armed boats who were willing to enter the service of the United Colonies. This fleet left Philadelphia in December, 1775, but was frozen up near Reedy Island, and did not finally leave the bay until the 17th of February ensuing. About the same time the second battalion, first under the command of Col. John Bull, and afterwards that of Col. John Philip De Haas, the latter a brave officer of the Provincial service under Forbes and Bouquet, was organized. Towards the close of the year the Continental Congress made a further demand of four battalions, which were raised in a few weeks. These were placed 156 GENERAL IIISTOR Y. 157 under the commands of Colonels Arthur St. Clair, John Shee, Anthony Wayne, and Robert Magaw. The sixth battalion, under Colonel William Irvine, 1776. was organized in February, 1776. These commands were speedily forwarded to the front, a portion to Canada and the defences on the Hudson, the remainder to the main army. On the 20th of February, 1776, the Committee of Safety requested the Assembly to adopt measures for raising two thousand additional troops for the protection of the Province. The latter body took prompt action, resolving to "levy and take into pay fifteen hundred men, officers included, and that the men be enlisted to serve until the first day of January, 1778, subject to be discharged at any time upon the advance of a month's pay to each man." Twothirds of the lines were to be rifle-men, divided into two battalions; the remainder to consist of one battalion of musketry. The entire body was raised in six weeks, and rendezvoused at Marcus Hook. The rifle regiment was under the command of Colonel Samuel Miles, the musketry battalion that of Colonel Samuel J. Atlee. These officers saw good service during the French and Indian war, and it was not many days ere the men were under remarkable discipline. This force, however, was severely worsted in the Long Island campaign. The principal officers remaining prisoners, the men were re-organized and recruited as the "Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot," under Colonel John Bull. On the appointment of the latter as adjutant-general of the militia of the State, Colonel Walter Stewart assumed command. On the 13th of January, Andrew Caldwell was appointed commander-inchief of the fleet, "he having been applied to take the command and consenting thereto." On the 22d of the month a muster showed four hundred and ten men employed on board the armed boats. On the 3d of February the pay of the captains of the armed boats was increased to ~10 per month, or $26.66; pay of the first lieutenants to $17 per month; and of the. second lieutenants to $17 per month; two-thirds of all prize money to be distributed among the captors, one-third to be retained by the Committee for use of the widows and children of those killed in battle. On the 13th of March seamen's wages were fixed at $7 per month, and two dollars bounty, to be paid one month after thcir enlistment. The commodore's pay was $60 per month. On the 5th of March, John Mitchell was appointed muster master, and on the same day William Brown the first captain of marines, in the State service. On the 6th, Captain Thomas Read was made second in command of the fleet, and the boats all ordered to Fort Island. On the 9th, Captain Samuel Davidson was appointed to the command of the floating battery Arnold, and John Mitchell had to his other duty added that of commissary of provisions for the naval forces. "The first opportunity given this fleet to defend its native waters," remarks Mr. Westcott, in his History of Philadelphia, " was when, on the night of the 6th of May, 1776, an express arrived with the information that two ships of war and other vessels, supposed to be tenders, were coming up the river. The Commiittee of Safety ordered Captain Thomas Read, commander of the ship Montgomery, and Andrew Caldwell, commodore, to proceed with the thirteen armed boats and fire-vessel AEtna, to attack the enemy. The enemy's vessels were the GOVERNORS OF THE COLONIES ON TIHE DELAWARE, OF THE PROVINCE, AND OF THE COMMONWEALTH. GOVERNORS OF NEW NETHERLANDS AND OF GOVERNORS OF THE SWEDES ON THE THE DUTCH ON THE DELAWARE. DELAWARE. PETER MINUIT................... 1624-1632 PETER MINUIT.................... 1638-1641 WOUTER VAN TWILLER.......... 1633-1638 PETER HOLLANDARE............. 1641-1643 Sli WILLIAM KIEFT............ 1638-1647 JOHN PRINTZ..................... 1643-1653 PETER STUYVESANT............... 1647-1664 JOHN PAPPEGOYA................. 1653-1654 JOHN CLAUDIUS RYSING........ 1654-1655 [Captured by Peter Stuyvesant, 1655.] DOMINION OF THE DUTCH. PETER STUYVESANT, Governor of New Netherlands and of the settlements on the Delaware............................................... 1655-1664 ANDREAS HUDDE, Commissary............................................. 1655-1657 JOHN PAUL JACQUET........................................................ 1655-1657 [The Colony divided into that of the City and Company, 1657.] COLONY OF THE,CITY. COLONY OF THE COMPANY. JACOB ALRICKS.............. 1657-1659 GOERAN VAN DYKE.......... 1657-1658 ALEXANDER D'HINOYossA... 1659-1662 WILLIAM BEEKMAN......... 1658-1662 WILLIAM BEEKMAN.......................................................... 1663-1664 ALEXANDER D'HINoYossA........................................................ 1663-1664 [Settlements captured by the English, 1664.] DOMINION OF THE DUKE OF YORK. COLONEL RICHARD NICOLLs, Governor............................................. 1664-1667 ROBERT CARR, Deputy Governor.................................................. 1664-1667 COLONEL FRANCIS LOVELACE....................................................... 1667-1673 [Colonies captured by the Dutch, 1673.] DOMINION OF THE DUTCH. ANTHONY COLVE, Governor of New Netherlands............................. 1673-1674 PETER ALRICKS, Deputy Governor of the Colonies on the west side of the Delaw are................................................................... 1673-1674 [Colonies re-captured by the English, 1674.] DOMINION OF THE ENGLISH. SIR EDMUND ANDROSS............................................................ 1674-1681 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. frigate Roebuck, Captain Hammond, of forty-eight guns, and the sloop of war Liverpool, Captain Bellew, of twenty-eight guns, with their tenders. Captain Proctor, of the artillery, who h:ad command at Fort Island, volunteered with one hundred men, and served on board the Hornet. The Montgomery, the Continental ship Reprisal, Captain Weeks, and the floating battery Arnold, remained near the chevaux-de-frize, in a line with the forts, but the boats proceeded down the river near the mouth of Christiana creek. " On the afternoon of the 8th, the flotilla came in sight of the enemy. The boats opened fire with spirit, the cannonade on both sides being very heavy, and lasting for three or four bhours, with no particular damage on either side. So wrote Colonel Miles, who was on the river bank near Wilmington with one hundred riflemen, to render any assistance that might be necessary. The Roebuck ran aground, and the Liverpool came to anchor to cover her. During the engagement the Continental schooner Wasp, Captain Charles Alexander, which had been chased into Wilmington creek, came out amid the confusion, and captured an English brig belonging to the squadron. It being nearly dark, and the provincial vessels being but poorly provided with ammunition, firing ceased on both sides. The British worked faithfully during the night, and succeeded in getting their vessels off. An American prisoner on board, said much solicitude was expressed about the movements of the fire-ship. For some reason no effort was made to send the,Etna against the Roebuck before she got off. On Thursday morning at five o'clock the action was renewed with so much vigor and skill that the ships were obliged to return to the capes. They were followed by the boats as far as New Castle. " Thle captains of the boats complained very much of the character of the supplies furnished them by the Committee. On the second day they had to cut up their blankets, trowsers, and stockings to compensate for defective cartridges; and they also cut up cables and netting for wads for the guns. The captains published a statement, setting forth these facts, and blaming the Committee of Safety for the comparative failure of the expedition. Thle Assembly appointed a committee to investigate the subject, which reported that the galleys had sufficient ammunition, and that the committee,was not in fault. But this report was attacked by the captains, who alleged that the committee had never heard any evidence upon the subject. " The boats brought up to the city, after the action, splinters from the enemy's vessels knocked off by the American shot, which were exhibited at the Coffee House, exciting much interest. The loss of the boats was one killed and two wounded; the loss of the British, one man killed and five wounded. The Roebuck and the Liverpool resumed their old stations at Cape May, where they organized invasions of the neighboring shores, and captured all the American vessels that came within their reach." The deputies from Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress had been instructed by the Provincial Assembly which appointed them to use their best efforts for redress of grievances. Failing in this, Congress, on the 15th of May, 1776, recommended that " the respective Assemblies and conventions of the United Colonies, where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs has been hitherto established, to adopt such government as shall, in the opinion of the 158 GENERAL HISTORY. representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America in general." A diversity of opinion existed in the Province upon this resolution, and on the 21st of the same month [May], a protest was presented to the representatives in Assembly against the authority of the IHouse to interfere in the premises, as being elected under authority derived from the Crown, and sworn to the King's allegiance, they were disqualified from acting on this recommendation. The petitioners d(lid not, however, object to the exercise of the proper powers then existing for the maintainance of order until a new constitution, originating with and founded on the authority of the people, should be prepared and adopted by a convention elected for that purpose. They accordingly asked that application should be made to the several county committees for the election of a convention empowered to carry out the recommendations of Congress. The Assembly referred the resolve of Congress to a committee, but took no further action, nor did the committee ever make a report. "The old Assembly," says Westcott, "which had adjourned on the 14th of June, to meet on the 14th of August, could not obtain a quorum, ald adjourned again to the 23d of September. It then interposed a feeble remonstrance against the invasion of its prerogatives by the Convention, but it was a dying protest. The Declaration of Independence had given the old State Government a mortal blow, and it soon expired without a sigh-thus ending forever the Proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania." In the meantime, the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees for a conference in that city on Tuesday, the 18th day of June. On the day appointed, the following deputies met at Carpenter's Hall, and organized by the election of Colonel Thomas McKean, president, Colonel Joseph IHart, vice-president, and Jonathan B. Smith and Samuel C. Morris, secretaries: For the Committee of the City, &c., of Philadelphia-Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Col. Thomas M'Kean, Mr. Christopher Marshall, Sen., Major John Bayard, Col. Timothy Matlack, Col. Joseph Dean, Capt. Francis Gurney, Major William Coates, Mr. George.Schlosser, Capt. Jonathan B. Smith, Capt. George Goodwin, Mr. Jacob Barge, Mr. Samuel C. Morris, Capt. Joseph Moulder, Mr. William Lowman, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Mr. Christopher Ludwig, Mr. James Milligan, Mr. Jacob Schriner, Capt. Sharp Delaney, Mqjor John Cox, Capt. Benjamin Loxley, Capt. Samuel Brewster, Capt. Joseph Blewer, Mr. William Robinson. Philadelphia county-Col. Henry IHill, Col. Robert Lewis, Dr. Enoch Edwards, Col. William Hamilton, Col. John Bull, Col. Frederick Antis, Majo: James Potts, Major Robert Loller, Mr. Joseph Mather, Mr. Matthew Brooks, Mr. Edward Bartholomew. Bucks-John Kidd, Esq., Major Henry *Wynkoop, Mr. Benjamin Segle, Mr. James Wallace, Col. Joseph HIart. Chester-Col. Richard Thomas, Major Williams Evans, Col. Thomas Hockley, MAjor Caleb Davis, Elisha Price, Esq., Mr. Samuel Fairlamb, Capt. Thomas Levis, Col. William Montgomery, Col. Hugh Lloyd, Richard Reily, Esq., Col. Evan Evans, Col. Lewis Gronow, Major Sketchley Morton. Lancaster-William Atlee, Esq., Mr. Lodowick Lowman, Col. Bartram Gal159 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. braith, Col. Alexander Lowrey, Major David Jenkins, Capt. Andrew Graaff, Mr. William Brown, Mr. John Smiley, Major James Cunningham. Berks-Col. Jacob Morgan, Col. Henry Haller, Col. Mark Bird, Dr. Bodo Otto, Mr. Benjamin Spyker, Col. Daniel Hunter, Col. Valentine Eckert, Col. Nicholas Lutz, Capt. Joseph Heister, Mr. Charles Shoemaker. Northampton-Robert Levers, Esq., Col. Neigal Gray, John Weitzel, Esq., Nicholas Depui, Esq., Mr. David Deshler, Mr. Benjamin Dupui. York-Col. James Smith, Col. Robert M'Pherson, Col. Richard M'Allister, Col. David Kennedy, Capt. Joseph Reed, Col. William Rankin, Col. Henry Slagle, Mr. James Edgar, Mr. John Hay. Cumberland-Mr. James M'Lane, Col. John Allison, John Maclay, Esq., William Elliot, Esq., Col. William Clark, Dr. John Calhoon, Mr. John Creigh, Mr. Hugh M'Cormick, Mr. John Harris, Mr. Hugh Alexander. Bedford-Col. David Espy, Samuel Davidson, Esq., Col. John Piper. Westmoreland-Mr. Edward Cook, Mr. James Perry. The Conference at once unanimously resolved, "That the present government of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and " That it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the express purpose of forming a new government in this Province on the authority of the people only." Acting upon these resolves, preparations were immediately taken to secure a proper representation in the Convention. The qualifications of an elector were defined. Every voter was obliged to take an oath of renunciation of the authority of George the Third, and one of allegiance.to the State of Pennsylvania, and a religious test was prescribed for the members of the Convention. The following declaration was signed by all the deputies on the 24th of June, and presented to Congress: " We, the deputies of the people of Pennsylvania, assembled in full Provincial Conference, for forming a plan for executing the resolve of Congress of the 15th of May last, for suppressing all authority in this Province, derived from the Crown of Great Britain, and for establishing a government upon the authority of the people only, now in this public manner in behalf of ourselves, and with the approbation, consent, and authority of our constituents, unanimously declare our willingness to concur in a vote of the Congress, declaring the United Colonies free and independent States: Provided, The forming the government and the regulation of the internal police of this Colony be always reserved to the people of the said Colony; and we do further call upon the nations of Europe, and appeal to the Great Arbiter and Governor of the empires of the world, to witness for us, that this declaration d(id not originate in ambition, or in an impatience of lawful authority, but that we were driven to it in obedience to the first principles of nature, by the oppressions and cruelties of the aforesaid King and Parliament of Great Britain, as the only possible measure that was left us to preserve and establish our liberties, and to transmit them inviolate to posterity." The Conference adjourned on the 25th of June, after unanimously approving of the following address to the Associators of Pennsylvania: " GENTLEMEN: The only design of our meeting together was to put an end 160 GENERAL hISTORY. to our own power in the Province by fixing upon a plan for calling a convention to form a government under the authority of the people. But the sudden and unexpected separation of the Assembly has compelled us to undertake the execution of a resolve of Congress for calling forth 4, 500 of the militia of the Province to join the militia of the neighbouring colonies to form a camp for our immediate protection. We presume only to recommend the plan we have formed to you, trusting that in case of so much consequence your love of virtue and zeal for liberty will supply the want of authority delegated to us expressly for that purpose. "We need not remind you that you are now furnished with new motives to animate and support your courage. You are not about to contend against the power of Great Britain in order to displace one set of villains to make room for another. Your arms will not be enervated in the day of battle with the reflection that you are to risk your lives or shed your blood for a British tyrant, or that your posterity will have your work to do over again. You are about to contend for permanent freedom, to be supported by a government which will be derived from yourselves, and which will have for its object not the enrolment of one man, or class of men only, but the safety, liberty, and happiness of every individual in the community. "We call upon you, therefore, by the respect and obedience which are due to the authority of the United Colonies, to concur in this important measure. The present campaign will probably decide the fate of America. It is now in your power to immortalize your names by mingling your achievements with the events of the year 1776-a year which we hope will be famed in the annals of history to the end of time, for establishing upon a lasting foundation the liberties of one-quarter of the globe. " Remember the honor of our Colony is at stake. Should you desert the common cause at the present juncture, the glory you have acquired by your former exertions of strength and virtue will be tarnished, and our friends and brethren who are now acquiring laurels in the most remote parts of America will reproach us and blush to own themselves natives or inhabitants of Pennsylvania. But there are other motives before you-your houses, your fields, the legacies of your ancestors, or the dear-bought fruits of your own industry and your liberty -now urge you to the field. These cannot plead with you in vain, or we might point out to you further-your wives, your children, your aged fathers and mothers, who now look up to you for aid and hope for salvation in this day of calamity only from the instrumentality of your swords. Remember the name of Pennsylvania. Think of your ancestors and of your posterity." Early the same month Congress "resolved, that a Flying Camp be immediately established in the middle Colonies, and that it consist of ten thousand men," to complete which number, it was ordered that the Province of Pennsylvania be required to furnish six thousand of the militia. This force was to be enlisted for six months. The Conference of Committees then in session resolved subsequently that four thousand five hundred of the militia should be embodied, which with fifteen hundred then in the pay of the Province would make up the six thousand required by Congress. The Flying Camp was accordingly soon formed. It consisted of three brigades, two of which were HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals James Ewing and Daniel Roberdeau, of Pennsylvania. The other officer was from Maryland. The object in forming this body seems to have been not only to show the enemy the power of the nation they warred against, but also to render assistance to General Washington in case of offensive or defensive operations. The Flying Camp is closely united with the honors and the sufferings of many men in Pennsylvania. They underwent "the hard fate of war " in the Jerseys, and are intimately connected with the glories achieved at Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth. Toward the last of June, apprehending an immediate attack upon Philadelphia by way of the river, the Committee of Safety continued to increase its defences, in order to be prepared for the enemy. The two tiers of chevaux-defrize first constructed were probably defective, and in consequence two additional tiers were sunk, one opposite Billingsport and the other in range with the fires of the Fort. It becoming obvious in a few days that New York, and not Philadelphia, was to be attacked, Col. Miles' command was ordered to Philadelphia, and letters were dispatched by the Committee to the colonels of the different battalions of the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Lancaster, and Chester, requesting they would hold themselves in readiness to march at an hour's warning. We now come to the most momentous epoch in the history not only of the State, but of the Nation. The first actual approval of independence by State authority was in North Carolina. The convention of that State, on the 22d of April, 1776, directed their delegates to "concur with those of other States in establishing independence." Then followed the action of Virginia, the convention of which resolved unanimously that their delegates in Congress should.propose to that body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence on the King and Parliament of Great Britain. The delegates in Congress from Pennsylvania, by their instructions of the 9th of November, 1775, were expressly commanded to resist this measure, as they had been to oppose every proposition for changing the form of the Provincial government. From this restriction they were, however, released by a resolution of the Assembly, adopted at the instance of some petitioners from the counties of Lancaster and Cumberland, authorizing them "to concur with the other delegates in Congress in forming such further contracts between the United Colonies, concluding such treaties with foreign kingdoms and states, and adopting such other measures, as, upon a view of all circumstances, shall be judged necessary for promoting the liberty, safety, and interests of America; reserving to the people of this Colony the sole and exclusive right of regulating its internal government and police." The reluctance with which the Assembly granted this authority is demonstrated by their concluding observations. " The happiness of these Colonies," they said, " has, during the whole course of this fatal controversy, been our first wish; their reconciliation with Great Britain our next. Ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both. But if we must renounce the one or the other, we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme Governor of the Universe, that we shall not stand condemned before His throne, if our choice is determined by that overruling law of self-preservation, which His divine wisdom has thought proper to implant in the hearts of His creatures." 162 GENERAL HISTORY. The committee which reported these instructions consisted of Messrs. Dickinson, Morris, Reed, Clymer, Wilcocks, Pearson, and Smith. The action of the Pennsylvania Conference has been referred to. The public mind throughout the Colonies was now fully prepared for a declaration of independence. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which displayed such reluctance, now assented to the measure. On the 7th of June the proposition was made in Congress by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, seconded by John Adams, of Massachusetts, that the "United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." This resolution was referred to a committee of the whole Congress, where it was daily debated. In favor of independence, Lee and Adams were the most distinguished speakers, the latter of whom has been characterized as the "ablest advocate " of the measure; and their most formidable opponent was John Dickinson. Although the latter, by his political writings, had been powerfully instrumental in preparing the people for this end, yet when the time came, hlie endeavored to allay the undue excitement. "Prudence," he said, " required that they should not abandon certain for uncertain objects. Two hundred years of happiness and present prosperity, resulting from English laws, and the union with Great Britain, demonstrated that America could be wisely governed by the King and Parliament. It was not as independent, but as subject States, not as a republic, but as a monarchy, that the Colonies had attained to power and greatness. What then," he exclaimed, "is the object of these chimeras hatched in the days of discord and war? Shall the transports of fury sway us more than the experience of ages, and induce us to destroy, in a moment of anger, the work which had been cemented and tried by time. The restraining power of the King and Parliament was indispensable to protect the Colonies from disunion and civil war; and the most cruel hostility which Britain could wage against them, the surest mode of compelling obedience, would be to leave them a prey to their own jealousies and animosities. For, if the dread of English arms were removed, province would rise against province, city against city, and the weapons now assumed to combat the common enemy would be turned against themselves. " Necessity would then compel them to seek the tutelary powe, they had rashly abjured: and, if again received under its regis, it would be no longer as freemen, but as slaves. In their infancy, and without experience, they had given no proof of ability to walk without a guide; and, judging of the future by the past, they must infer that their concord would not outlive their danger. Even when supported by the powerful hand of England, tle Colonies had abandoned themselves to discords, and sometimes to violence, from the paltry motives of territorial limits, and distant jurisdictions: what, then, might they not expect, when their minds were heated, ambition roused, and arms in the hands of all. "If union with England gave them means of internal peace, it was not less necessary to procure the respect of foreign powers. Hitherto, their intercourse with the world had been maintained under the name and arms of England. Not as Americans-a people scarce known-but as Englishmen, they had obtained entrance and favor in foreign ports: separated from her, the nations would treat 163 HlISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANAL4. them with disdain, the pirates of Europe and Africa would assail their vessels, massacre their seamen, or subject them to perpetual slavery." As far-seeing a man as John Dickinson was, he could not fully comprehend the idea of a separate existence of the Colonies from the mother country, and yet no purer patriot breathed the air of freedom. A zealous advocate of liberty, it was, as stated, his words that startled the Colonies and struck the key-note which aroused the energies of the provincialists and bade them contend for independence. Notwithstanding his over-cautiousness, nay hesitancy, the declaration having been determined on, Dickinson entered heartily into its support and took an active part in all the affairs transpiring in the Colonies-even wielding his sword in the cause. On the first day of July, a vote in committee of the whole was taken in Congress, upon the resolution declaratory of independence. It was approved by all the Colonies except Pennsylvania and Delaware. Seven of the delegates from the former were present, of whom four voted against it. Cmesar Rodney, one of the delegates from the latter, was absent, and the other two, Thomas M'Kean and George Read, were divided in opinion, M'Kean voting in favor and Read against the resolution. At the request of a colony, the proposition having been reported to the house, was postponed until the next day, when it was finally adopted and entered upon the journals. Pending the consideration of this important question, a committee, consisting of Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and R. R. Livingston, was appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. Adams and Jefferson were appointed a sub-committee, and the original draft of this eloquent manifesto was made by Jefferson. It was adopted by the committee without amendment, and reported to Congress on the twenty-eighth of June. On the 4th of July, having received some alterations, it was sanctioned by the vote of every Colony. Two of the members from Pennsylvania, Morris and DicKinson, were absent; Franklin, Wilson, and Morton, voted for, and Willing and Humphreys, against it. To secure the vote of Delaware, M'Kean sent an express for Rodney, who, though eighty miles from Philadelphia, arrived in time to unite with him in the vote. The Declaration was directed to be engrossed, and, on the second of August, 1776, was signed by all the members then present, and by some who were not members at the time of its adoption. Among the latter were Colonels George Ross and James Smith, Dr. Benjamin Rush, George Clymer, and George Taylor, who had been elected by the Pennsylvania Convention, in the place of Messrs. Dickinson, Willing, and Humphreys, who had opposed it. On the 5th of July circular letters were sent by Congress to the Assemblies, Conventions, and Councils of Safety of the various States, requesting that the Declaration of Independence should be officially proclaimed. In Pennsylvania the Committee resolved on the latter-that the instrument should be read by the Sheriff of Philadelphia, or by some person under his direction, at the State House, on Monday the 8th of July. At the same time it was directed that the King's arms should be taken down from the court room and publicly burned by nine associators appointed for the purpose. GENERAL HISTORY. 165 On the day in question, the Committee of Observation for Philadelphia marched to the lodge room, in Lodge Alley, occupied by the Committee of Safety; from thence both bodies proceeded to the State House yard, where John Nixon, a member of the Committee of Safety, on behalf of the proper officer, read the Declaration of Independence. "The instrument," says Mr. Westcott, "was heard with attention, and received with hearty and warm applause. In the afternoon the five battalions were mustered on the commons, and the Declaration was proclaimed to each of them. In the evening the King's arms were torn down, as had been previously arranged, and burned, amidst the acclamations of a large crowd of spectators. Bells were rung, bonfires were lighted, and, upon this joyful occasion, the old bell of the State House, bearing upon its sides the remarkable motto' Proaclaim Liberty throughout the Land, unto all the Inhabitants thereof,' was probably first rung in honor of the joyful change of affairs." The delegates to the Convention to frame a constitution for the new government consisted of the representative men of the State-men selected for their ability, patriotism, and personal popularity. They met at Philadelphia, on the 15th of July, each one taking, without hesitancy, the prescribed test, and organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president, George Ross, vicepresident, and John Morris and Jacob Garrigues, secretaries. On the 18th of the month, Owen Biddle, Colonel John Bull, the Rev. Wmin. Vanhorn, John Jacobs, Colonel George Ross, Colonel James Smith, Jonathan Hoge, Colonel Jacob Morgan, Colonel Jacob Stroud, Colonel Thomas Smith, and Robert Martin, were appointed to "make an essay for a declaration of rights for this State." On the 24th the same persons were directed to draw up an essay for a frame or system of government, and John Lesher was appointed in place of Colonel Morgan, who was absent with leave. On the 25th of July, Colonel Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Colonel James Potter, David Rittenhouse, Robert Whitehill, and Colonel Bartram Galbraith, were added to the Committee on the Frame of Government. On the 28th of September, the Convention completed its labors by adopting the first State Constitution, which went into immediate effect, without a vote of the people. During the session of the Convention, says Mr. Westcott, it not only discussed and perfected the measures necessary in the adoption of a Constitution, but assumed the supreme authority in the State, and legislated upon matters foreign to the object for which it was convened. Among other matters this body appointed a Council of Safety, to carry on the executive duties of the government, approved of the Declaration of Independence, and appointed justices of the peace, who were required, before assuming their functions, to each take an oath of renunciation of the authority of George III., and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania. The legislative power of the frame of government was vested in a General Assembly of one House, elected annually. The supreme executive power was vested in a President, chosen annually by the Assembly and Council, by joint ballot-the Council consisting of twelve persons, elected in classes, for a term of three years. A Council of Censors, consisting of two persons from each city and county, HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. was to be elected in 1783, and in every seventh year thereafter, whose duty it was to make inquiry as to whether the Constitution had been preserved inviolate during the last septennary, and whether the executive or legislative branches of the government had performed their duties as guardians of the people, or assumed to themselves, or exercised other or greater powers than they were entitled to by the Constitution. They were also to inquire whether the public taxes had been justly levied and collected, in all parts of the Commonwealth; in what manner the public moneys had been disposed of, and whether the laws had been duly executed. For these purposes they had power to send for persons, papers, and records, and they could pass public censures, order impeachments, and recommend to the Legislature the repeal of such laws as appeared to have been enacted contrary to the principles of the Constitution. Their powers were to continue one year, and they might call a convention to meet within two years, if deemed absolutely necessary, for amending any article of the Constitution that might appear defective, or for explaining any that might be thought to be not clearly explained, or for adding such as might appear necessary for the preservation of the rights and happiness of the people. The articles to be amended were to be published six months before election, in order that the people might have opportunity of instructing their delegates concerning them This Constitution, although defective, was not for some years remedied. The Assembly, in 1777, adopted measures looking to a calling of a convention, and an election ordered for delegates thereto by a resolution on 28th November, 1778, but so highly incensed were the people of the State at what they considered an uncalled-for action on the part of the Legislature, that body rescinded the motion by a vote of forty-seven to seven, nine-tenths of the qualified voters remonstrating. The scarcity of salt exciting serious apprehensions, Congress passed resolutions against a monopoly of that article, and the Council of Safety purchased a quantity to distribute through the State. They established salt works on Tom's river, New Jersey, but some time elapsed before these works were productive. The necessities of the Continental service caused the Council of Safety to place the State battalions of Colonels Samuel Miles, Samuel J. Atlee, and Daniel Brodhead at the disposal of Congress. They were marched to Long Island, where, with the Continental regiments of the Pennsylvania Line, viz.: Colonels Shee's, Magaw's, and Lambert Cadwallader's, they were engaged in battle on the 27th of August, which resulted in the defeat of the American forces and the evacuation of Long Island. The Pennsylvania troops sustained serious loss. Lieutenant-Colonel Caleb Perry, of the musketmen, was killed, as also Lieutenant Charles Taylor, of the second battalion of riflemen, and Lieutenant Joseph Moore, of the musketmen. Colonel Samuel Miles and LieutenantColonel James Piper, of the first riflemen, and Colonel Samuel J. Atlee, of the third, with other officers, were taken prisoners. On the 16th of November Fort Washington was reduced, and as in the engagement at Long Island, the Pennsylvania troops were severe sufferers. Morgan's, Cadwallader's, Atlee's, Swope's, Watts', and Montgomery's battalions 16f GENERAL HISTORY. were taken prisoners. In addition to these severe blows to the cause of independence, General Howe's advance menaced Philadelphia. On the 28th of November a meeting was held at the State House to consider the exigency of affairs. The Assembly sent General Mifflin through the State to stir up the people. Bounties were offered to volunteers-ten dollars to every man who joined General Washington on or before December 20th, seven dollars to those who came forward before December 25th, and five dollars to all who enlisted after that time and before December 30th, on condition of their undergoing six weeks service. Commodore Seymour was dispatched to Trenton with the armed boats to assist in transporting the army and stores across the Delaware. General Roberdeau was sent to Lancaster to alarm the people. In the midst of this general excitement and almost consternation, Congress exhibited an alarm and indecision which was exceedingly injurious to the cause. After having declared by resolution that they would not quit Philadelphia, the members, on the very next day, adjourned precipitately to Baltimore. General Washington dispatched Major-General Israel Putnam to Philadelphia to direct the defences. He arrived on the 12th of December, and assumed military command of the city. The fort at Billingsport was of little consequence, and works were commenced at Red Bank, on the Delaware, New Jersey, as commanding the river. The British troops occupied Trenton towards the middle of December, and their advance threatened Philadelphia from the east side of the Delaware. The Council of Safety, owing to the demand for reinforcements by the commanderin-chief, sent forth an energetic and patriotic circular, calling on every friend of his country "to step forth at this crisis." In order to render the organization of the associators more serviceable, Colonel John Cadwallader was chosen brigadier-general by the Council of Safety, and Colonel Miles appointed brigadier-general of the Pennsylvania Line. REAR VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL. 167 GOVEIIN ORS. PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT. WILLIAM PENN, Proprietary..................................................... 1681-1693 WILLIAM MARKHAM, Deputy Governor..................... June, 1681-Oct., 1682 WILLIAM PENN, Proprietary................................. Oct., 1682-June, 1684 The Council (THOMAs LLOYD, President)....................... June, 1684-Feb., 1688 1. THOMAS LLOYD, 2. ROBERT TURNER, 3. ARTHUR COOK, Five Commissioners appointed by Penn, Feb., 1688-Dec., 1688. 4. JOHN SYMCOCK, 5. JOHN ECKLEY, ) Captain JOHN BLACKWELL, Deputy Governor................. Dec., 1688-Jan., 1690 The Council (THOMAS LLOYD, President)...................... Jan., 1690-Mar., 1691 THOMAS LLOYD, Deputy Governor of Province,. Mar., 1691-Apl., 1693 WILLIAM MARKHIAM, Deputy Governor of Lower Counties, " CROWN OF ENGLAND.............................................................. 1693-1695 BENJAMIN FLETCHER, Governor of New York, Governor....... Apl., 1693-Mar., 1695 WILLIAM MIARKHAM, Lieutenant Governor..................... Apl., 1693-Mar., 1695 WILLIAM PENN, Proprietary..................................................... 1695-1718 WILLIAM MARKHAM, Deputy Governor....................... Mar., 1695-Dec., 1699 WILLIAM PENN, Proprietary................................. Dec., 1699-Nov., 1701 ANDREW HAMILTON, Deputy Governor (died)............... Nov., 1701-Apl., 1703 The Council (EDWARD SHIPPEN, President)................... Apl., 1703-Feb., 1704 JOHN EvANS, Deputy Governor................................ Feb., 1704-Feb., 1709 CHARLES GOOKIN, Deputy Governor........................... Feb., 1709-May, 1717 SIR WILLIAM KEITH, Deputy Governor....................... May, 1717-July, 1718 JOHN PENN, RICHARD PENN, and THOMAS PENN, Proprietaries............... 1718-1746 SIR WILLIAM KEITii, Deputy Governor....................... July, 1718-Aug., 1726 PATRICK GORDON, Deputy Governor.......................... Aug., 1726-Aug., 1736 The Council (JAMES LOGAN, President)....................... Aug., 1736-Aug., 1738 GEORGE THOMAS, Deputy Governor........................... Aug., 1738-May, 1746 [JOHN PENN died 1746; RICHARD PENN died 1771, when JOHN PENN, his son, together with THOMAS PENN, became sole Proprietaries.]............... 1746-1776 GEORGE THOMAS, Deputy Governor............................ May, 1746-May, 1747 The Council (ANTHONY PALMER, President)................... May, 1747-Nov., 1748 SJAMES HAMILTON, Deputy Governor........................... Nov., 1748-Oct., 1754 ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, Deputy Governor.................... Oct., 1754-Aug., 1756 WILLIAM DENNY, Deputy Governor........................... Aug. 1756-Oct., 1759 JAMES HAMILTON, Deputy Governor........................... Oct., 1759-Nov., 1763 JOHN PENN (son of Richard Penn), Lieutenant Governor...... Nov., 1763-Apl., 1771 The Council (JAMES HAMILTON, President)................... Apl., 1771-Oct., 1771 RICHARD PENN (brother of John Penn), Lieutenant Governor. Oct., 1771-Sept., 1773 JOHN PENN, Lieutenant Governor............................ Sept.,1773-Sept.,1776 IN THE REVOLUTION. THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY (BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Chairman).... Sept., 1776-Mar., 1777 PRESIDENTS OF THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. THOMAS WHARTON, JR........................................... Mar. 5, 1777-May 23, 1778 GEO. BRYAN, V. P., acting, vice President Wharton, deceased.... May 23, 1778-Dec. 22, 1778 JOSEPH REED..................................................... Dec. 22, 1778-Nov. 15,1781 WILLIAM MOORE............................................ Nov. 15, 1781-Nov. 7,1782 JOHN DICKINSON.............................................Nov. 7, 1782-Oct. 18, 1785 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN............................................ Oct. 18, 1785-Nov. 5, 1788 THOMAS MIFFLIN................................................. NOV. 5, 1788-Dec. 21, 1790 CHAPTER X. 1HE REVOLUTION. BATTLES OF TRENTON AND PRINCETON. THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE. MASSACRE AT PAOLI. BRITISH OCCUPATION OF PHILADELPHIA. BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN AND REDUCTION OF FORT MIFFLIN. 1776-1777. N Wednesday, the 25th of December, 1776, General Washington, with his army, was on the west bank of the Delaware, encamped near Taylorsville, then McConkey's ferry, eight miles above Trenton. The troops under General Dickinson were at Yardleyville; and detachments were encamped still further up the river. The boats on the river had all been secured when General Washington had crossed with his army on the first of the month. The Pennsylvania troops were in two bodies one at Bristol, under General Cadwallader, and the %a,A k other at Morrisville, opposite Trenton, under I General Ewing. At this time the British, under S General Howe, were stationed in detachments at S s Mount Holly, Black Horse, Burlington, and Bordentown; and at Trenton there were three regiments of Hessians, amounting to about fifteen -o o A hundred men, and a troop of British light horse. S Divisions of the British army were also at Prince ton and New Brunswick. The plan of General Washington was to re-cross SEAL OF THE ASSEMBLY. the Delaware with his army at McConkey's ferry, 1776. in the night of the 25th, and for General Ewing, with his command, to cross at or below Trenton, -that both might fall upon the enemy at the same time-Ewing at the south and General Washington at the north end of the town. At dusk the Continental troops, under the commander-in-chief, amounting to 2,400 men, with twenty pieces of artillery, began to cross at the ferry. The troops at Yardleyville, and the stations above, had that day assembled at this ferry. It was between three and four o'clock in the morning before all the artillery and troops were over and ready to march. Many of the men were very destitute as regarded clothing, but nowise despairing, they pushed on. The ground was covered with sleet and snow, which was falling, although before that day there was no snow, or only a little sprinkling on the ground. General Washington, as they were about to march, enjoined upon all profound silence during their march to Trenton, and said to them: "I hope you will all fight like men." The army marched with a quick step in a body from the river, up the crossroad to the Bear Tavern, about a mile from the river. The whole force marched down this road to the village of Birmingham, distant about three and one-half miles. There they halted, examined their priming, and found it all wet. 168 GENERAL HISTORY. "Well," said General Sullivan, "we must fight them with the bayonet." From Birmingham to Trenton the distance by the river road and the Scotch road is nearly equal, being about four and a half miles. The troops were formed in two divisions. One of them, commanded by General Sullivan, marched down the river road. The other, commanded by General Washington, accompanied by Generals Lord Stirling, Greene, Mercer, and Stevens, filed off to the left, crossed over to the Scotch road, and went down this road till it enters the Pennington road about a mile above Trenton. Scarcely a word was spoken from the time the troops left the ferry till they reached the town, and with such stillness did the army move that they were not discovered until they came upon the out-guard of the enemy, which was posted in the outskirts of the town, when one of the sentries called to the out-guard and asked, "Who is there?" "A friend," was the reply. " A friend to whom?" "A friend to General Washington." At this the sentinel fired, retreating. The American troops immediately returned the fire, and, marching upon them, drove them into town. The artillery, under Colonel (afterwards General) Knox, soon got into position, and enfiladed the main street. The infantry supported the artillery, and the enemy were thrown into confusion. One regiment attempted to form in an orchard, but were soon forced to fall back upon their main body. A company of them entered a stone house, which they defended with a field-piece, judiciously posted in the hall; but Captain (afterwards Colonel) Washington advanced to dislodge them. Finding his men exposed to a close and steady fire, he suddenly leaped from them, rushed into the house, seized the officer who had command of the gun, and claimed him prisoner. His men followed him, and the whole company were made prisoners. In the meanwhile victory declared itself everywhere in favor of the American arms. General Rahl, who commanded the Hessians, was mortally wounded early in the engagement. He was taken to his headquarters, where he died of his wounds. The number of prisoners was twenty-three officers and eight hundred and eighty-six privates. The loss of the enemy in killed was seven officers and thirty privates; that of the Americans, two privates killed and two frozen to death. Had General Ewing's division been able to cross the Delaware as contemplated, and taken pcssession of the bridge on the Assunpink, all the enemy that were in Trenton would have been captured; but owing to so much ice on the shores of the river, it was impossible to get the artillery over. As it was, the victory greatly revived the drooping spirits, not only of the army, but of the Union. Before night the forces of Washington, with their prisoners and other trophies of victory, had safely landed on the Pennsylvania side of the river. After the battle at Trenton, General Putnam hastened to rejoin the army, leaving General Irvine in command of Philadelphia. Subsequently General Gates succeeded the latter. Close upon the victory at Trenton followed the action at Princeton, on the 2d day of January, 1777. In this battle the Philadelphia City Troop, 1777. under the command of Captain Samuel Morris, and Captain William Brown's company of marines, belonging to the Pennsylvania ship HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Montgomery, distinguished themselves by their bravery. At Princeton fell the brave General Hugh Mercer, and a number of other officers and men. The members of the Supreme Executive Council, chosen under the Constitution of the State, at the election in February, assembled on the 4th of March, and proceeded to an organization, and the Council of Safety was dissolved. In joint convention with the Assembly, Thomas Wharton, Jr.,* was elected President, and George Bryan, Vice-President. To give due dignity to the executive of the new government, the inauguration took place on the following day, the 5th, with much pomp and ceremony, at the court house. On the 13th of March, the Supreme Execu tive Council appointed a Navy Board, to whom was committed all powers necessary for the good of that service. This board entered very promptly upon the duties of its appointment, meeting with many difficulties, boats out of repair and inefficiently manned, difficulties about rank in the fleet, all of which it succeeded in overcoming. In April, when it was thought Philadelphia would be attacked, this board was invested with all powers in its department necessary to ensure the public safety, and a pro /clamation was issued forbidding the sailing of all vessels from the port without its permission. THOMAS WHARrON, JR., The association system failing, the Assembly addressed itself to the task of establishing a regular and permanent militia, and a Board of War, consisting of nine members, was appointed to assist in carrying out the provisions of the new militia law. Early in June, General Howe, commander of the British forces at New York, showed a disposition to advance by land across New Jersey, and to take possession of Philadelphia. On the 14th of that month he actually made an advance by two columns, which led General Washington to believe that this was his real intention. This information being communicated to Congress, the same day that body directed "that the second-class of the militia of the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton, be ordered to march to the places to which the first class of the said counties respectively are ordered, and that the third class be got in readiness to march, and also, that the first and second classes of the city militia be ordered to march to Bristol, and the third class hold themselves in readiness to march at the shortest notice." This order was promptly responded to by the Supreme Executive Council of the State, who issued a circular letter to the lieutenants of THOMAS WHARTON, Jr., was born in Philadelphia in 1735. He was descended from an ancient English family, and was the grandson of Richard Wharton, who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683. President Wharton was twice married, first to Susan, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, and subsequently to Elizabeth, daughter of William Fishbourn. He was a warm supporter of the principles of the Revolution, and on the change of government, was elected to the highest office in the State. He died suddenly at Lancaster, on the 23d of May, 1778. He was buried with military honors, and at the request of the vestry, was interred within the walls of Trinity church in that city. 170 GENERAL HISTOR Y. 171 the counties named "to forward the first-class of militia immediately, and to hold the second class in readiness to march at the shortest notice." One hundred wagons were also directed to be sent. The militia, we will state here, was divided into eight classes. When a class was called out, many belonging to it could not or would not go. The deficiency was made up by the employment of substitutes, either taken from the other classes, or from those not subject by law to the performance of military duty. These substitutes were procured by means of a bounty, which was paid by the State, to be remunerated by the fines imposed on delinquents, and varied from ~15 to ~50 for two months service. In some regiments the number of substitutes nearly equalled the number of those regularly drafted. The system of employing substitutes at high rates was much complained of by the officers of the regular army, who regarded it as a serious obstruction to recruiting by enlistments. The marching of General Howe, it seems, was intended to draw General Washington from the strong position he then occupied, and in that event to give him battle, which he declined to do, as our troops were then posted. Washington wisely refused to risk his army in an open field fight, and Howe would not venture to cross the Delaware, leaving so large a force as that commanded by Washington in his rear, so that Philadelphia was again relieved from being attacked by the way of New Jersey. It having become apparent, therefore, that General Howe had definitely changed his plan for gaining possession of Philadelphia, the marching orders for all the militia, except those of Chester and Philadelphia, were countermanded. Early in July, news of the embarkation of a large British force at New York very reasonably suggested the idea that the attack on the capital of Pennsylvania would be by way of the river Delaware, and that perchance was General Howe's intention when he sailed. Every effort was accordingly made for the defence of the river. On the 27th of July certain information was received by the Council of Safety of the approach of the British fleet towards the Delaware bay. The news produced the highest degree of excitement among the inhabitants, and induced the authorities of the State to redouble their exertions. The day following, Congress made a requisition on the Supreme Executive Council for four thousand militia, in addition to those already in service, in response to which the authorities ordered one class to be immediately called into service " to march for Chester." The different detachments of the army under Washington were also directed to repair to the vicinity of Philadelphia, while the militia of Maryland, Delaware, and Northern Virginia, were ordered by forced marches to join the Pennsylvania troops. It was at this time that Washington first met Lafayette, who had recently arrived in Philadelphia. Lafayette, invited by Washington, at once took up his quarters with the commander-in-chief, and shared all the privations of the camp. After entering Delaware bay, General Howe found some difficulty in the navigation of his immense naval armament. He retraced his steps to the ocean, deciding to make his approach by the way of the Chesapeake. On the 25th of August, the British army, consisting of eighteen thousand men, including a portion of the Hessian force, was disembarked not far from HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. the head of the river Elk. It was plentifully furnished with all the equipage of war, excepting the defect of horses, as well for the cavalry as for the baggage. The scarcity of forage had caused many of them to perish the preceding winter, and a considerable number had died also in the late passage. This was a serious disadvantage for the royal troops, who, in this section of Pennsylvania, might have employed cavalry with singular effect. On the 28th, the English vanguard arrived at the head of the Elk, and the day following at Gray's hill. Here it was afterwards joined by the rear guard under General Knyphausen, who had been left upon the coast to cover the debarkation of the stores and artillery. The whole army took post behind the river Christiana, having Newark upon the right, and Pencander or Atkins on the left. A column commanded by Lord Cornwallis having fallen in with Maxwell's riflemen, routed and pursued them as far as the farther side of White Clay creek, in which the patriots lost forty in killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy was somewhat less. The American army, in order to encourage the partisans of independence, and overawe the disaffected, marched through the city of Philadelphia; it afterwards advanced towards the enemy, and encamped behind White Clay creek. A little after, leaving only the riflemen in the camp, Washington retired with the main body of his army behind the Red Clay creek, occupying with his right wing the town of Newport, situated near the Christiana, and upon the great road to Philadelphia; his left was at Hockhesson. But this line was little capable of defence. The enemy, reinforced by the rear guard under General Grant, threatened with his right the centre of the Americans, and extended his left as if with the intention of turning their right flank. Washington saw the danger, and retired with his troops behind the Brandywine; he encamped on the rising ground which extend from Chadd's Ford, in the direction of northwest to southeast. The riflemen of Maxwell scoured the right bank of the Brandywine, in order to harass and retard the enemy. The militia, under the command of General Armstrong, guarded a passage below the principal encampment of Washington, and the right wing lined the banks of the river higher up, where the passages were most difficult. The passage of Chadd's Ford, as the most practicable of all, was defended by the chief force of the army. The troops being thus disposed, the American general waited the approach of the English. Although the Brandywine, being fordable almost everywhere, could not serve as a sufficient defence against the impetuosity of the enemy, yet Washington had taken post upon its banks, from a conviction that a battle was now inevitable, and that Philadelphia could only be saved by a victory. General Howe displayed the front of his army, but not, however, without great circumspection. Being arrived at Kennet Square, a short distance from the river, he detached his light-horse to the right upon Wilmington, to the left upon the Lancaster road, and in the front towards Chadd's Ford. The two armies found themselves within seven miles of each other, the Brandywine flowing between them. Early in the morning of the 11th of September, the British army marched toward the enemy. Howe had formed his army in two columns, the right commanded by General Knyphausen, the left by Lord Cornwallis. His plan was, that while 172 GENERAL HISTORY. the first should make repeated feints to attempt the passage of Chadd's Ford, in order to occupy the attention of the Americans, the second should take a long circuit to the upper part of the river, and cross at a place where it is divided into two shallow streams. The English marksmen fell in with those of Maxwell, and a smart skirmish was immediately engaged. The latter were at first repulsed; but being reinforced from the camp, they compelled the English to retire in their turn. But at length, they also were reinforced, and Maxwell was constrained to withdraw his detachment behind the river. Meanwhile, Knyphausen advanced with his column, and commenced a furious cannonade upon the passage of Chadd's Ford, making all his dispositions as if he intended to force it. The Americans defended themselves with gallantry, and even passed several detachments of light troops to the other side, in order to harass the enemy's flanks. But after a course of skirmishes, sometimes advancing, and at others obliged to retire, they were finally, with an eager pursuit, driven over the river. Knyphausen then appeared more than ever determined to pass the Ford; he stormed, and kept up an incredible noise. In this manner the attention of the Americans was fully occupied in the neighborhood of Chadd's Ford. Meanwhile, Lord Cornwallis, at the head of the second column, took a circuitous march to the left, and gained unperceived the forks of the Brandywine. By this rapid movement, he passed both branches of the river, at Trimble's and at Jefferis' fords, without opposition, about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then turning short down the river, took the road to Dilworth, in order to fall upon the right flank of the American army. General Washington, however, received intelligence of this movement about noon, and, as it usually happens in similar cases, the reports exaggerated its importance exceedingly; it being represented that General Howe commanded this division in person. Washington therefore decided immediately for the most judicious, though boldest measure; this was to pass the river with the centre and left wing of his army, and overwhelm Knyphausen by the most furious attack. He justly reflected that the advantage he should obtain upon the enemy's right would amply compensate the loss that his own might sustain at the same time. Accordingly, he ordered General Sullivan to pass the Brandywine with his division at an upper ford, and attack the left of Knyphausen, while he, in person, should cross lower down, and fall upon the right of that general. They were both already in motion in order to execute this design, when a second report arrived which represented what had really taken place as false, or in other words, that the enemy had not crossed the two branches of the river, and that he had not made his appearance upon the right flank of the American troops. Deceived by this false intelligence, Washington desisted, and Greene, who had already passed with the vanguard, was ordered back. In the midst of these uncertainties, the commander-in-chief at length received the positive assurance, not only that the English had appeared upon the left bank, but also that they were about to fall in great force upon the right wing. This was composed of the brigades of Generals Stephen, Stirling, and Sullivan. The first was the most advanced, and consequently the nearest to the English; the two others were Iosted in the order of their rank, that of Sullivan being next to the centre. The latter was immediately detached from the main body to support the two former brigades, and, being the senior officer, took the comHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. mand of the whole wing. Washington himself, followed by General Greene, approached with two strong divisions towards this wing, and posted himself between it and the corps he had left at Chadd's Ford, under General Wayne, supported by Proctor's artillery, to oppose the passage of Knyphausen. These divisions, under the immediate orders of the commander-in-chief, served as a corps of reserve, ready to march, according to circumstances, to the succor of Sullivan or of Wayne. But the column of Cornwallis was already in sight of the Americans. Sullivan drew up his troops on the commanding ground above Birmingham meeting-house, with his left extending towards the Brandywine, and both his flanks covered with very thick woods. His artillery was advantageously planted upon the neighboring hills; but it appears that Sullivan's own brigade, having taken a long circuit, arrived too late upon the field of battle, and had not yet occupied the position assigned it when the action commenced. The British, having reconnoitered the dispositions of the Americans, immediately formed, and fell upon them with the utmost impetuosity. The engagement became equally fierce on both sides about four o'clock in the afternoon. For some length of time the Americans defended themselves with great valor, and the carnage was terrible. But such was the emulation which invigorated the efforts of the British and Hessians, that neither the advantages of situation, nor a heavy and well-supported fire of small-arms and artillery, nor the unshaken courage of the Americans, were able to resist their impetuosity. The light infantry, chasseurs, grenadiers, and guards, threw themselves with such fury into the midst of the Continental battalions, that they were forced to give way. Their left flank was first thrown into confusion, but the rout soon became general. The vanquished fled into the woods in their rear; the victors pursued, and advanced by the great road towards Dilworth. On the first fire of the artillery, Washington, having no doubt of what was passing, had pushed forward the reserve to the succor of Sullivan. But this corps, on approaching the field of battle, fell in with the flying soldiers of Sullivan, and perceived that no hope remained of retrieving the fortune of the day. General Greene, by a judicious manceuvre, opened his ranks to receive the fugitives, and after their passage, having closed them anew, he retired in good order, checking the pursuit of the enemy by a continual fire of the artillery which covered his rear. Having come to a defile, covered on both sides with woods, he drew up his men there, and again faced the enemy. His corps was composed of Virginians and Pennsylvanians; they defended themselves with gallantry, and made an heroic stand. Knyphausen, finding the Americans to be fully engaged on their right, and observing that the corps opposed to him at Chadd's Ford was enfeebled by the troops which had been detached to the succor of Sullivan, began to make dispositions for crossing the river in reality. The passage of Chadd's Ford was defended by an intrenchment and battery. The Americans stood firm at first; but upon intelligence of the defeat of their right, and seeing some of the British troops who had penetrated through the woods, come out upon their flank, they retired in disorder, abandoning their artillery and munitions to the Hessian general. In their retreat, or rather flight, they passed behind the position of General Greene, who still defended himself, and was the last to quit the field of 174 GENERAL HISTORY. battle. Finally, it being already dark, after a long and obstinate conflict, he also retired. The whole army retreated that night to Chester, and the day following to Philadelphia. There the fugitives arrived incessantly, having effected their escape through by-ways and circuitous routes. The victors passed the night on the field of battle. If darkness had not arrived seasonably, it is very probable that the whole American army would have been destroyed. Their loss was computed at about three hundred killed, six hundred wounded, and near four hundred taken prisoners. They also lost ten field-pieces and a howitzer. The loss in the royal army was not in proportion, being something under five hundred, of which the slain did not amount to one-fifth. The French officers were of great utility to the Americans, as well in forming the troops as in rallying them when thrown into confusion. One of them, the Baron St. Ouary, was made a prisoner, to the great regret of Congress, who bore him a particular esteem. Captain De Fleury had a horse killed under him in the hottest of the action. The Congress gave him another a few days after. The Marquis De Lafayette, while he was endeavoring, by his words and example, to rally the fugitives, was wounded in the leg. He continued, nevertheless, to fulfil his duty, both as a soldier in fighting and as a general in cheering the troops and re-establishing order. The Count Pulaski, a noble Pole, also displayed an undaunted courage at the head of the light-horse. The Congress manifested their sense of his merit by giving him, shortly after, the rank of brigadier, and the command of the cavalry. If all the American troops in the action of the Brandywine had fought with the same intrepidity as the Virginians and Pennsylvanians, and especially if Washington had not been led into error by a false report, perhaps, notwithstanding the inferiority of numbers and the imperfection of arms, he would have gained the victory, or, at least, would have made it more sanguinary to the English. However this might have been, it must be admitted that General Howe's order of battle was excellent; that his movements were executed with as much ability as promptitude; and that his troops, British as well as German, behaved admirably well. The day after the battle, towards evening, the British dispatched a detachment of light troops to Wilmington. There they took prisoner the Governor of the State of Delaware, and seized a considerable quantity of coined money, as well as other property, both public and private, and some papers of importance. Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia the 26th of September, at the head of a detachment of British and Hessian grenadiers. The rest of the army remained in the camp at Germantown. Thus the rich and populous capital of the whole confederation fell into the power of the royalists, after a sanguinary battle, and a series of manceuvres no less masterly than painful, of the two armies. The Quakers, and all the other loyalists who had remained there, welcorned the English with transports of gratulation. Washington, descending along the left bank of the Schuylkill, approached within sixteen miles of Germantown. He encamped at Skippack creek, purposing to accommodate his measures to the state of things. Congress and the Supreme Executive Council of the State remained in 175 RHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Philadelphia during the exciting events transpiring before the city. The former adjourned on the 18th to meet at Lancaster, where it convened on the 27th, but three days after removed to York. The State government remained until the 24th, when it adjourned to Lancaster, the archives, etc., having previously been removed to Easton. A few days after the battle of Brandywine four or five hundred of the Americanwounded soldiers were taken to Ephrata and placed in a hospital. Here the camp fever set in, which, in conjunction with the wounds of the soldiers, baffled the skill of the surgeons. One hundred and fifty, a fearful mortality, proved fatal and were buried there. They were principally from Pennsylvania and New England, and a few British who had deserted and joined the American army. On the evening of the 20th of September General Wayne's division of the army was encamped on the ground at Paoli, three miles in the rear of the left wing of the British army, from whence, after being reinforced by General Smallwood's command of militia, it was his intention to march and attack the enemy's rear when they decamped, and if possible "cut off their baggage." General Howe having been informed by Tories residing in the neighborhood of the exact position of Wayne's encampment, dispatched General Gray, with an adequate force, to capture the whole party. Cautiously approaching in the dead of the night, and probably guided by some local enemy of the American cause, he drove in the pickets with charged bayonets, and at once rushed upon the encampment with the cry of "no quarters." Wayne instantly formed his division, and with his right sustained a fierce assault, directed a retreat by the left, commanded by Colonel Richard Humpton, under cover of the first Pennsylvania regiment, the light infantry, and the horse, who for a short time withstood the violence of the shock. The total loss of the Americans has been variously estimated at from one hundred and fifty to three hundred, while the British only admitted a loss of seven. Some severe animadversions on this unfortunate affair having been made in the army, General Wayne demanded a court martial, which, after investigating his conduct, was unanimously of opinion "that he had done everything to be expected from an active, brave, and vigilant officer," and acquitted him with honor. Of this court General Sullivan was president. General Howe, having occupied Philadelphia, at once took measures to secure the unobstructed passage of his fleet up the Delaware river. Colonel Sterling was sent with a detachment to attack the fort at Billingsport, as its capture would place it in their power to make a passage through the obstructions in the channel, and to bring their vessels within striking distance of Fort Mifflin. This was accomplished on the 2d of October, without resistance, the small garrison, under Colonel Bradford, taking off all the ammunition and some of the cannon spiking the rest, and burning the barracks. While this was being effected by the enemy, General Washington regarded it as a favorable opportunity of making an attack on the British force stationed at Germantown. He took this resolution with the more confidence, as he was now reinforced by the junction of the troops from the Hudson and a division of Maryland militia. The British line of encampment crossed Germantown at right angles about 176 GENERAL HISTORY. 177 the centre, the left wing extending on the west from the town to the Schuylkill. That wing was covered in front by the mounted and dismounted Hessian chasseurs, who were stationed a little above, towards the American camp; a battalion of light infantry and the Queen's American rangers were in the front of the right. The centre, being posted within the town, was guarded by the 40th regiment, and another battalion of light infantry, stationed about threequarters of a mile above the head of the village. Washington resolved to attack the British by surprise, not doubting that if he succeeded in breaking them, as they were not only distant, but totally separated from the fleet, his victory must be decisive. He so disposed his troops that the divisions of Sullivan and Wayne, flanked by Conway's brigade, were to march down the main road, and entering the town by the way of Chestnut Hill, to attack the English centre and the right flank of their left wing; the divisions of Greene and Stephen, flanked by MacDougal's brigade, were to take a circuit towards the east, by the limekiln road, and entering the town at the market-house, to attack the left flank of the right wing. The intention of the American general in seizing the village of Germantown by a double attack, was effectually to separate the right and left wings of the royal army, which must have given him a certain victory. In order that the left flank of the left wing might not contract itself, and support the right flank of the same wing, General Armstrong, with the Pennsylvania militia, was ordered to march down the Manatawny or Ridge road upon the banks of the Schuylkill, and endeavor to dislodge the chasseurs and Hessians at Van Deering's mill and at the falls, and afterwards to get upon the left and rear of the enemy, if they should retire from that river. In like manner, to prevent the right flank of the right wing from going to the succor of the left flank, which rested upon Germantown, the militia of Maryland and New Jersey, under Generals Smallwood and Forman, were to march down the old York road, and to fall upon the English on that extremity of their wing. The division of Lord Stirling, and the brigades of Generals Nash and Maxwell, formed the reserve. General Potter, in the meantime, was ordered to make an attack or a feint from the west side of the Schuylkill upon the royal camp in the city, so as to keep the grenadiers in work. These dispositions being made, Washington quitted his camp at Skippach creek, and moved towards the enemy on the 3d of October, about seven in the evening. Parties of cavalry silently scoured all the roads, to seize any individual who might have given notice to the British general of the danger that threatened him. Washington in person accompanied the columns of Sullivan and Wayne. The march was rapid and silent. At three o'clock in the morning, the British patrols discovered the approach of the Americans; the troops were soon called to arms; each took his post with the precipitation of surprise. About sunrise the Americans came up. General Conway, having driven in the pickets, fell upon the 40th regiment and the battalion of light infantry. These corps, after a short resistance, being overpowered by numbers, were pressed and pursued into the village. Fortune appeared already to have declared herself in favor of the Americans; and certainly if they had gained complete possession of Germantown, nothing could hava frustrated them of the most signal victory. But in this conjuncture 16 GOVERNORS. VICE PRESIDENTS. GEORGE BRYAN (resigned)............................... Mar. 5, 1777-Oct. 11, 1779 MATTHEW SMITH (resigned)................................. Oct. 11, 1779-Nov. 15, 1779 WILLIAM MOORE........................................ Nov. 15, 1779-Nov. 15,1781 JAMES POTTER................................................ Nov. 15, 1781-Nov. 7, 1782 JAMES EWING.................................................... Nov. 7, 1782-Nov. 6, 1784 JAMES IRVINE (resigned)........................................ Nov. 6, 1784-Oct. 10, 1785 CHARLES BIDDLE................................................. Oct. 10, 1785-Oct. 31, 1787 PETER MUHLENBERG (resigned)................................ Oct. 31, 1787-Oct. 14, 1788 DAVID REDICK................................................ Oct. 14, 1788-Nov. 5, 1788 GEORGE ROSS..................................................... Nov. 5, 1788-Dec. 21, 1790 GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790. THOMAS MIFFLIN............................................... Dec. 21, 1790-Dec. 17, 1799 THOMAS M'KEAN............................................... Dec. 17, 1799-Dec. 20, 1808 SIMON SNYDER................................................. Dec. 20, 1808-Dec. 16, 1817 WILLIAM FINDLAY.............................................. Dec. 16, 1817-Dec. 19, 1820 JOSEPH HIESTER................................................ Dec. 19, 1820-Dec. 16, 1823 JOHN ANDREW SHULZE........................................... Dec. 16, 1823-Dec. 15, 1829 GEORGE WOLF.................................................. Dec. 15, 1829-Dec. 15, 1835 JOSEPH RITNER.................................................. Dec. 15, 1835-Jan. 15, 1839 GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1838. DAVID RITTENHOUSE PORTER.................................. Jan. 15, 1839-Jan 21, 1845 FRANCIS RAWN SHUNK.......................................... Jan. 21,1845-July 9, 1848 WILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON (vice Shunk, deceased).......... July 9, 1848-Jan. 20, 1852 WILLIAM BIGLER............................................... Jan. 20, 1852-Jan. 16, 1855 JAMES POLLOCK................................................ Jan. 16, 1855-Jan. 19, 1858 WILLIAM FISHER PACKER...................................... Jan. 19, 1858-Jan. 15, 1861 ANDREW GREGG CURTIN.................................... Jan. 15, 1861-Jan. 15, 1867 JOHN WHITE GEARY............................................ Jan. 15, 1867-Jan. 21, 1873 JOHN FREDERICK HARTRANFT.................................. Jan. 21, 1873-Jan. 18, 1876 GOVERNOR UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1873. JOHN FREDERICK HARTRANFT.................................. January 18, 1876. LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1873. JOHN LATTA........................................................ January 19, 1875. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Lieutenant-Colonel Musgrave threw himself, with six companies of the 40th regiment, into a large and strong stone house, the mansion of Judge Chew, situated near the head of the village, from which he poured upon the assailants so terrible a fire of musketry that they could advance no further. The Americans attempted to storm this unexpected covert of the enemy, but those within THE CHEW MANSION, GERMANTOWN. continued to defend themselves with resolution. They finally brought cannon up to the assault, but such was the intrepidity of the English, and the violence of their fire, that it was found impossible to dislodge them. During this time General Greene had approached the right wing, and routed, after a slight engagement, the light infantry and Queen's rangers. Afterwards, turning a little to his right, and towards Germantown, he fell upon the left flank of the enemy's right wing, and endeavored to enter the village. Meanwhile, he expected that the Pennsylvania militia, under Armstrong, upon the right, and the militia of Maryland and New Jersey, commanded by Smallwood and Forman, on the left, would have executed the orders of the commander-inchief7 by attacking and turning, the first the left, the second the right flank of the British army. But either because the obstacles they encountered had retarded them, or that they wanted ardor, the former arrived in sight of the German chasseurs, and did not attack them; the latter appeared too late upon the field of battle. The consequence was, that General Grey, finding his left flank secure. 178 GENERAL HISTORY. marched, with nearly the whole of the left wing, to the assistance of the centre, which, notwithstanding the unexpected resistance of Colonel Musgrave, was excessively hard pressed in Germantown, where the Americans gained ground incessantly. The battle was now very warm at that village, the attack and the defence being equally vigorous. The issue appeared for some time dubious. General Agnew was mortally wounded while charging with great bravery at the head of the Fourth brigade. Colonel George Matthews, of the Ninth Virginia regiment, who was in the advance of Greene's column, assailed the English with so much fury that he drove them before him into the town. He had taken a large number of prisoners, and was about entering the village when he perceived that a thick fog and the unevenness of the ground had caused him to lose sight of the rest of his division. Being soon enveloped by the extremity of the right wing, which fell back upon him when it had discovered that nothing was to be apprehended from the tardy approach of the militia of Maryland and New Jersey, he was compelled to surrender with all his party; the English had already rescued their prisoners. This check was the cause that two regiments of the English right wing were enabled to throw themselves into Germantown, and to attack the Americans who had entered it in flank. Unable to sustain the shock, they retired precipitately, leaving a great number of killed and wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel Musgrave, to whom belongs the principal honor of this affair, was then relieved from all peril. General Grey, being absolute master of Germantown, flew to the succor of the right wing, which was engaged with the left of the column of Greene. The Americans then took to flight, abandoning to the English, throughout the line, a victory, of which, in the commencement of the action, they had felt assured. 0 The principal causes of the failure of this well-concerted enterprise were the extreme haziness of the weather, which was so thick that the Americans could neither discover the situation nor movements of the British army, nor yet those of their own; the inequality of the ground, which incessantly broke the ranks of their battalions, an inconvenience more serious and difficult to be repaired for new and inexperienced troops, as were most of the Americans, than for the English veterans; and, finally, the unexpected resistance of Musgrave, who found means, in a critical moment, to transform a mere house into an impregnable fortress. General Reed's proposition was to pursue the enemy when first thrown into confusion and turning their faces towards Philadelphia, but General Knox opposed the suggestion as being against all military rule, " to leave an enemy in a fort in the rear." " What," exclaimed Reed, "call this a fort, and lose the happy moment! " Knox's opinion prevailed, and the result was as described. Thus fortune, who at first had appeared disposed to favor one party, sud. denly declared herself on the side of their adversaries. Lord Cornwallis, being at Philadelphia, upon intelligence of the attack upon the camp, flew to its succor with a corps of the cavalry and the grenadiers; but when he reached the field of battle the Americans had already left it. They had two hundred men killed in this action; the number of wounded amounted to six hundred; and about four hundred were made prisoners. One of their most lamented losses was that of Brigadier-General Francis Nash, of North Carolina, besides 179 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Colonel Boyd, Major Sherbourne, Major White, and Major Irvine. The loss of the British was little over five hundred in killed and wounded; among the forformer were Brigadier-General Agnew and Colonel Bird. The American army saved all its artillery, and retreated the same day, about twenty miles, to Perkiomen creek. The Congress expressed, in decided terms, their approbation, both of the plan of this enterprise and the courage with which it was executed; for which their thanks were given to the general and the army. A few days after the battle, the royal army removed from Germantown to Philadelphia. On the 17th of October the British army, under Burgoyne, surrendered to General Gates, the news of which enlivened the hearts of the desponding patriots, but unfortunately resulted in a clamor for a change in the commander-in-chief, substituting Gates in Washington's position. This faction was not strong, and although they excited a spirit of envy and jealousy in many officers of the Continental army, yet the rank and file bore true allegiance to tbeir illustrious commander. On the 22d of October occurred Count Dunop's attack on Fort Mercer, at Red Bank. It commenced at four o'clock, and with the first sound of the Count's cannon, the British fleet, consisting of the Augusta, a new sixty-four gun vessel, the Roebuck, forty-four guns, the Merlin frigate, the Liverpool, and several other vessels which had got through the barrier at Billingsport, attempted to make its way up the river to assist the attack. The Pennsylvania State fleet, under Commodore Hazelwood, immediately engaged these vessels and drove them back; the galleys also were of great service in flanking the enemy at the fort. Going down the river, the Augusta and Merlin ran aground; hearing of which, on the morning of the 23d, the commodore immediately hoisted signal to engage, and the action soon became general. The Augusta took fire and blew up, and not being able to get the Merlin off, she was burned by her crew. Commodore Hazelwood was, by a vote of Congress of the 4th of November, honored with a sword for his gallant conduct in this action. Pending the reduction of Fort Mifflin, on Hog Island, the Pennsylvania fleet was actively engaged defending the pass between it and the Jersey shore, took a part in the actions before the fort was burned and abandoned by our troops on the 16th of November, losing in one day thirty-eight men killed and wounded. On the 20th, Fort Mercer was abandoned by our troops, and the fleet could no longer lie in safety under Red Bank; accordingly, after holding a council of the captains of the galleys, it was determined to pass by the city in the night, and take refuge in the Delaware above Burlington. At three o'clock in the morning of the 21st, the commodore got under way, and about half past four passed the city without having a shot fired at the convoy. It consisted of thirteen galleys, twelve armed boats, province sloop, ammunition sloop, Convention brig, an accommodation sloop, one provision sloop, one schooner, and two flats with stores; the schooner Delaware, Captain Eyre, was driven on shore and set on fire. An attempt was made to get the Continental fleet up, but failed, and its vessels Andrea Doria, Xebex, etc., with the Province ships and the two floating batteries, were set on fire and burned. 180 CHAPTER XI. THE REVOLUTION. THE CANTONMENT AT VALLEY FORGE. THE MISCHIANZA. PHILADELPHIA EVACUATED BY THE BRITISH. INDIAN OUTRAGES. SULLI VAN'S EXPEDITJON. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 1777-1780. ATE in November, General Washington, being now reinforced by Gen eral Gates' army from the north, encamped in a strong position at Whitemarsh, Montgomery county. The American army at this time consisted of about eleven thousand, of whom nearly three thousand were unfit for duty, "being barefooted and otherwise naked." Howe had with him but little more than twelve thousand fighting men. The British general made several attempts to provoke or entice Washington into the field, but the latter chose to receive the enemy in camp-each general choosing not to risk a battle without the advantage of ground. On the 3d of December General Howe attempted to surprise the American camp, but his design was frustrated by the vigilance of the American commander. Howe manceuvred with the hope of drawing General Washington out to battle, but signally failed. The Americans remained in their own camp, with the exception of skirmishing parties sent out to annoy the enemy. Generals Potter, Irvine, Armstrong, and Reed, of the Pennsylvania troops, kept watch over the movements of the British. On the night of the 8th, General Howe marched back ingloriously to Philadelphia without accomplishing his threat of "driving General Washington over the Blue Mountains." Washington finally concluded to go into winter quarters at Valley Forge. Here this faithful band of patriots, worn out with the fatigues of the summer's campaign, and destitute of all the necessaries of life, passed a most dreary winter. They erected log huts on the plan of a village, and so far were comfortably sheltered; but blankets, sufficient clothing, shoes, and oftentimes provisions, were but scantily provided. It was with great difficulty and anxiety that Washington kept his army together until spring. Yet amid all this suffering, day after day, as Dr. Lossing remarks, surrounded by frost and snow, for it was a winter of great severity, patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers; and the love of self was merged into the one holy sentiment-love of country. Although a few feeble notes of discontent were heard, and symptoms of intentions to abandon the cause were visible, yet the great body of that suffering phalanx were content to wait for the budding spring, and be ready to enter anew upon the fields of strife for the cause of freedom. It was one of the most trying scenes in the life of Washington, but a cloud of doubt seldom darkened the serene atmosphere of his hopes. He knew that the cause was just and holy, and his faith and confidence in God as a defender and helper of right were as steady in their ministrations of vigor to his soul as were the pulsations 181 HISTORY OF PENNSSYL VANIA. of his heart to his active limbs. In perfect reliance upon Divine aid, he moved in the midst of crushed hopes, and planned brilliant schemes for the future. Congress, on the 10th of December, passed a resolution requesting the Legislature of Pennsylvania to enact a law requiring all persons at the distance WASHINGTON'S HEAD-QUARTERS AT VALLEY FORGE. of seventy miles, and upwards, from General Washington's headquarters, and below the Blue Mountains, to thresh out their wheat and other grain within as short a space of time as the Legislature should deem sufficient for the purpose, and in case of failure to subject the same to seizure by the commissaries at the price of straw only. No such law was passed, but the commander-in-chief, on the 29th, issued a proclamation from Valley Forge commanding that one-half of 182 GENERAL HISTORY. the grain in store within seventy miles of his camp should be threshed out before the first of February ensuing, and the other half before the first of March. On Monday, the 5th of January, 1778, transpired the ever-memor 1778. able event-the " Battle of the Kegs." The large number of vessels, says Thompson Westcott, which lay before Philadelphia, stimulated the ingenuity of the Americans to find some means to destroy them. A number of kegs, or of machines that resembled kegs as they were floating, were prepared at Burlington by the men of the Pennsylvania galleys, and placed in a position to be carried against the shipping by the current. Unluckily the vessels, which had been in the middle of the river, were then drawn in near the wharves to avoid the ice. The kegs had spring locks which were contrived so as to explode on coming in contact with any hard substance. On the day in question several of these kegs were observed floating down the river, and "an alarm immediately spread throughout the city. Various reports prevailed, filling the city and the royal troops with consternation. Some reported that these kegs were filled with armed rebels who were to issue forth in the dead of night and take Philadelphia by surprise, asserting that they had seen the points of their bayonets through the bung-holes of the kegs. Others said they were charged with the most inveterate combustibles, to be kindled by secret machinery, and setting the whole Delaware in flames, were to consume all the shipping in the harbor; whilst others asserted they were constructed by art magic, would of themselves ascend the wharves in the night time, and roll, all flaming, through the streets of the city, destroying everything in their way. Be this as it may, certain it is that all the shipping in the harbor, and all the wharves were fully manned. The battle began, and it was surprising to behold the incessant blaze that was kept up against the enemy-the kegs. Both officers and men," continues the account, " exhibited the most unparalleled skill and bravery on the occasion, whilst the citizens stood gazing as the solemn witnesses of their prowess. From the Roebuck and other ships of war whole broadsides were poured into the Delaware. In short, not a wandering chip, stick, or drift log, but felt the vigor of the British arms." The entire transaction was laughable in the extreme, and furnished the theme for unnumbered sallies of wit from the Whig press, while the distinguished author of " Hail, Columbia," Francis Hopkinson, paraphrased it in a ballad which was immensely popular at the time. With the exception of occasional depredations committed by British foraging parties, during the winter all was quiet on the Delaware. The vigilance of Generals Potter and Lacey greatly restrained these forays. In the meantime, through Washington, with the aid of Steuben and other foreign officers in the army, the band of American patriots were metamorphosed into a well-disciplined army. General Wayne's command was encamped during nearly the whole winter and spring at Mount Joy, in Lancaster county, assisting in securing supplies of provisions for the army at Valley Forge. The Supreme Executive Council of the State, and the Assembly, in session at Lancaster, and the Congress at York, were principally engaged in legislating for the interests of the army, preparing for the ensuing campaign. On the 6th of March the Assembly passed the "act for the attainder of divers traitors," among whom were specially mentioned, Joseph Galloway, Andrew Allen, Rev. 183 HISTOR Y OF PE.NS YL VANIA. Jacob Duche, John Biddle, and others. The recreant sons of Pennsylvania began to be numerous and troublesome, and severe measures were absolutely necessary. On the 6th of February France openly espoused the American cause, and a treaty of alliance was negotiated at Paris, by the commissioners, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, who had been sent as ambassadors by Congress in September of the previous year. This joyful news reached York on the 2d of May. In compliance with this agreement, the French ministry dispatched a fleet of twelve ships and four frigates, under Count D'Estang, to the Delaware. On the 1st of May, General John Lacey, with a small force of militia stationed at Crooked Billet Tavern, Bucks county, for the purpose of preventing supplies of provisions being sent to Philadelphia, were surprised by a detachment of British troops under Colonel Abercrombie. The Americans lost twenty-six killed, eight or ten wounded, and fifty-eight missing. The British bayoneted many of the prisoners after they had surrendered; others of the wounded were " thrown in among some standing buckwheat straw, which was set on fire, whereby several were burned to death. The corpses of the killed were roasted, and the clothes burned off their bodies." The infamous wretches who committed these atrocities were the Tory soldiers of Simcoe's rangers. Among the Americans killed was Captain John Downey. He served gallantly at Trenton and Princeton, and was commissary to Lacey's brigade. On the 7th of May, Lord Howe was superseled by Sir Henry Clinton. Previous to the British commander's departure a magnificent f6te, called the Mischianza-" a combination of the regatta, the tournament, the banquet, and the ball," we quote from Hazard, " was given in his honor by his field officers. The principal scenes were enacted at Mr. Wharton's country-seat, in Southwark; but a splendid spectacle was exhibited on the Delaware, by the procession of galleys and barges, which left the foot of Green Street, with the ladies, knights, Lord and General Howe, General Knyphausen, &c., on board, with banners and music. The British men-of-war, the Vigilant, the Roebuck, and the Fanny, lay in the stream opposite the city; and the shores were crowded with British transport ships, from which thousands of eager spectators watched the scene. Cheers and salutes of cannon greeted the procession. The principal actors in the pageant were the six Knights of the Blended Rose, splendidly arrayed in white and pink satin, with bonnets and nodding plumes, mounted on white steeds elegantly caparisoned, and attended by their squires. These knights were the champions of the Ladies of the Blended Rose, and were dressed in Turkish habits of rich white silk. To these were opposed the Knights of the Burning Mountain, dressed and mounted with equal splendor, and professing to defend the Ladies of the Burning Mountain. The names of the Ladies of the Blended Rose, as given by one of the actors in the pageant, were Miss Auchmuty (the daughter of a British officer), Miss Peggy Chew, Miss Jenny Craig, Miss Willamina Bond, Miss Nancy White, and Miss Nancy Redman. The Ladies of the Burning Mountain, Miss Beckie Franks, Miss Becky Bond, Miss Becky Redman, Miss Sally Chew, and Miss Willamina Smith-only five; but Major Andrd, in his account, gives it a little differently. In place of Miss Auchmuty, of the Blended Rose, he has Miss M. Shippen; and in place of Miss Franks, of the Burning GENERAL HISTOR Y. Mountain, he has Miss S. Shippen, and, in addition, Miss P. Shippen. The challenge given by the Knights of the Blended Rose was, that' the Ladies of the Blended Rose excel in wit, beauty, and every other accomplishment, all the other ladies in the world; and if any knight or knights should be so hardy as to deny this, they are determined to support their assertions by deeds of arms, agreeable to the laws of ancient chivalry.' The challenge was of course accepted by the Knights of the Burning Mountain, and the tournament succeeded. After the tournament came a grand triumphal procession, through an arch; and then a flte champetre, with dancing, supper, &c., enlivened by all the music of the alll _., a, ft IN.m~; THE WHARTON HOUSE, WHERE THE MISCHIANZA WAS HELD. [Fac-simile of an Old Print.] army. Such were the scenes exhibited in Philadelphia, while the half-naked and half-starved officers and soldiers of the American army were suffering on the hills of Valley Forge. The accomplished and unfortunate Major Andr6 was one of the knights, and was, besides, the very life and soul of the occasion. He, with another officer, painted the scenery, and designed and sketched the dresses, both of the Knights and Ladies." Six days after this pageant of folly, on the 24th of May, a council of war was held under Sir Henry Clinton, and it was resolved to evacuate the city, which took place on the 18th of June. This was delayed owing to the arrival, on the 6th, of the commissioners of Great Britain sent to negotiate peace and a recon ciliation. It was too late. The treaty with France put that out of the question now, whatever might previously have been the feeling. Among other intrigues, it is stated, the commissioners secretly offered to General Joseph Reed, then delegate to Congress, and afterwards President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, ~10,000 sterling, with the best office in the Colonies, to promote 185 HISTORY OF PEVNSYLVANIA. their plans. He promptly replied: "I am not worth purchasing; but such as I am, the king of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it." Fearing the arrival of the French fleet, news of which had been forwarded General Clinton by the British ministry, the enemy's flotilla went out'to sea, or took shelter in Raritan Bay, while the army pushed across the Jerseys. Washington, apprised of the retreat of the enemy, moved his troops from winter quarters and pursued them. The brilliant action of Sunday, the 28th of June, at Monmouth, was the consequence. The day was excessively warm and sultry. The American troops, though much fatigued by their march, fought with determined bravery, and the British were compelled to give way. Taking advantage of the night, the approach of which probably saved them from a total rout, they withdrew, and at daybreak had gained the heights of Middletown, having left behind them such of their wounded as could not with safety be removed. On the 23d of May previous, President Wharton died suddenly of an attack of quinsy, at Lancaster. His funeral, on the day following, was conducted by the State authorities, and as commander-in-chief of the forces of the State, was buried with military honors. By his decease, the Vice-President, George Bryan, assumed the executive functions. Upon the re-occupation of Philadelphia by the Continental army, Major General Benedict Arnold was ordered by General Washington to take command of the city, and " prevent the disorders which were expected upon the evacuation of the place and the return of the Whigs after being so long kept out of their property." Congress met at the State House, on the 25th of June, and the Supreme Executive Council held its first meeting the day following. It was the 9th of July ere Commodore Hazelwood reported the armed boats of the Pennsylvania navy all afloat and getting ready for service. The Convention brig, Captain Thomas Houston, was ordered to be fitted out as soon as possible, and it, with the armed boats, to go down into the bay; and in a short time three of the galleys and three of the barges were fitted and manned. The rest were laid up except one galley, which was sunk in Crosswichsunk creek, near Bordentown. On the 25th the Supreme Executive Council took into consideration the case of John Gilfray, boatswain of the ship Montgomery, found guilty of deserting to the enemy, and under sentence of death. It being the first conviction of an offence of this kind in the State fleet, he was pardoned, and Commodore Hazelwood was authorized to offer full pardon to all deserters who returned before the 1st of September. In the beginning of this month, however, Lieutenant Lyon, of the Dickinson, and Lieutenant Ford, of the Effingham, who deserted during the attack upon Fort Mifflin, were executed on board one of the guard boats on the Delaware. Lieutenant Wilson, of the Rangers, and John Lawrence, one of the gunners of the fleet, who deserted at the same time, and were under sentence of death, were reprieved. Active measures were taken for the speedy trial of all persons accused of high treason, and the "conviction of quite a number excited an intense sensation and much alarm among the Tories and Quakers." Several were executed, notwithstanding every exertion to save them, but so bitter was the hatred of the Whigs THE STATE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA-1778. CHAPTER I. THE ABORIGINES. THE SUSQUEHANNAS. THE DELAWARES. THE SHAWANESE. INDIAN CHARACTERISTICS. 0O the Moravian and Jesuit missionaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries we are chiefly indebted for the information we have of the aborigines who inhabited Pennsylvania on the advent of the European, and in our account we shall make free use of IHeckewelder, Charlevoix, and others of that band of God-fearing men. At this period, the territory embraced between the great lakes and the St. Lawrence to the northward, and the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac to the southward, was occupied by two families of tribes-the Algonquin and the Huron Iroquois. The former, which included the Miemacs, Mohegans, Illinois, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Sacs, Foxes, Miamies, the Delawares of Pennsylvania, and many of the Maryland and Virginia tribes, surrounded the more powerful and civilized tribes, who have been called the Huron Iroquois, from the names of the two most powerful nations of the group-the Hurons or Wyandots of Upper Canada, and the Iroquois or Five Nations of New York. Besides these, the group included the Neuters, on the Niagara; the Dinondadies, in Upper Canada; the Eries, south of the lake of that name; the Andastoguds or Susquehannas, on that river; the Nottaways and some other Virginian tribes; and finally, the Tuscaroras in North Carolina, and perhaps the Cherokees, whose language presents many striking points of similarity. Both these groups claimed a western origin, and seem in their progress east to have driven out of Ohio the Quappas, called by the Algonquins, Alkansas or Allegewi, who retreated down the Ohio and Mississippi to the district which has preserved the name given them by the Algonquins. After planting themselves on the Atlantic border, the various tribes seem to have soon divided and become embroiled in war. The Iroquois, at first inferior to the Algonquins, were driven out of the valley of the St. Lawrence into the lake region of New York, where, by greater cultivation, valor, and union, they soon became superior to the Algonquins of Canada and New York, as the Susquehannas, who settled on the Susquehanna, did over the tribes of New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Prior to 1600, says the Relation de la Nouvelle France, the Susquehannas and the Mohawks, the most eastern Iroquois tribe, came into collision, and the former nearly exterminated their enemy in a war which lasted ten years. In 1608, Captain Smith, in exploring the Chesapeake and its tributaries, met a party of these Sasquesahanocks, as he calls them,'tl he states that they were still at war with the Massawomekes, or Mohawks. De Vries, in his Voyages, found them in 1633 at war with the Armewamen and Sankiekans-Algonquin tribes on the Delaware-maintaining their supremacy by butchery. They were friendly to the Dutch. When the Swedes arrived in 1638, 17-B HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. of the Revolution, many of whom had suffered severely at the hands of the disaffected, that some victims were deemed necessary to mollify their animosities. "Mercy," says Thompson Westcott, " was fettered in the desire to vindicate principles, and strike terror into the souls of the Tories by some memorable examples." The Indians of the Six Nations, as well as the tribes in the western territory, had been induced by the British to take up the hatchet against the Colonies. During the year 1777 they were principally engaged on the Northern frontiers of New York, and Pennsylvania escaped their ravages, with the exception of a few marauding parties. In 1778 the garrison at Pittsburgh was strengthened, and Fort M'Intosh was built at the mouth of Beaver. Notwithstanding the expected attacks from Indians on the north and west branches of the Susquehanna, the inhabitants of Northumberland county and of the Wyoming valley had promptly responded to the urgent calls of Congress, and left exposed their own homes, by sending nearly all their fighting men to the campaigns in the lower country. While in this defenceless situation, the dark cloud of savage warfare burst upon them. Early in July, 1778, Colonel John Butler, with a party of Tory rangers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, and a large body of Indians, chiefly Senecas, descended the Susquehanna, and destroyed the flourishing settlements of the Wyoming valley. A few old men were hastily gathered for defence, with a few soldiers returned on a visit from the army; the women and children were sheltered in a stockade fort, where their defenders ought also to have remained; but their courage outweighed their prudence, they loved fighting from habit, and they chose to go out to meet the enemy. This little handful of men fought with more than Spartan courage, but numbers overpowered them-they were routed-many were cut down in the fight, and those captured were put to death with the hatchet. Colonel Dennison, who escaped to the fort with a few others, succeeded in entering into a capitulation by which the women and children were to be preserved, and permitted to depart. Unhappily, however, the British commander either could not or would not enforce the terms of the capitulation, which were to a great extent disregarded, as well by the Tories as Indians. Instead of finding protection, the valley was again laid waste-the houses and improvements were destroyed by fire, and the country plundered. Families were broken up and dispersed, men and their wives separated, mothers torn from their children, and some of them carried into captivity, while far the greater number fled through the wilderness of the Pokono mountains towards the settlements on the Delaware. Some died of their wounds, others from want and fatigue, while others were lost in the wilderness or were heard of no more. Several perished in a great swamp in the neighborhood, which from that circumstance acquired the name of The Shades of Death, and retains it to this day. For fuller details of this painful transaction, the reader is referred to the sketch of Luzerne. Colonel Hartley, with a small detachment from Muncy, soon after the battle, went up the Susquehanna, and destroyed the Indian villages at Wyalusing, Sheshequin, and Tioga. A month or two after the battle of Wyoming, a force of British, Indians, and Tories, under Colonel McDonald, made a descent on the West Branch. Fort Muncy being untenable, was abandoned on definite 188 GENERAL HISTORY. information being received of the approach of the enemy, as also the fort at the mouth of Warrior's run, and all the women and children in the neighborhood were put into boats and sent down to Fort Augusta. Four miles up from the mouth of the Warrior's run was located Fort Freeland, which at this time was commanded by Captain John Lytle. The enemy at once laid siege to the fort. There were brave men in that fort, who would have defended it to the death; but it was also filled with women and children, whom it was not thought prudent to expose to the cruelties that might result from a capture by storm. When, therefore, the enemy were about setting fire to the fort, a capitulation was entered into, by which the men and boys, able to bear arms, were to be taken prisoners, and the women and children were to return home unarmed. A Mrs. Kirk, in the fort with her daughter Jane and her son William, before the capitulation fixed a bayonet upon a pole, vowing she would kill at least one Indian; but as there was no chance for fighting, she exhibited her cunning by putting petticoats upon her son "Billy "-who was able to bear arms, but had yet a smooth chin-and smuggled him out among the women. The enemy took possession of the place, allowing the women and children to remain in an old building outside of the fort, on the banks of the run. At a preconcerted signal, Captain Hawkins Boon, who commanded a stockade on Muddy run, two miles above Milton, came up to the relief of Freeland's fort, with a party of men. Perceiving the women and children playing outside of the fort, he suspected no danger, and incautiously approached so near that the women were obliged to make signs to him to retire. He retreated precipitately, but was perceived by the enemy, who with a strong force waylaid him, on the Northumberland road, at McClung's place. Boon's party fell into the ambush, and a most desperate encounter ensued, from which few of the Americans escaped. Colonel McDonald afterwards spoke in the highest terms of commendation of the desperate bravery of Hawkins Boon. He refused all quarter-encouraged and forced his men to stand up to the encounter; and at last, with most of his Spartan band, died on the field, overpowered by superior numbers. The border settlements of Westmoreland were also overrun in every direction by scalping parties, and as many of the marauding parties were known to cross the Allegheny, forts were ordered to be erected at the mouth of Puckety creek, on the Loyalhanna, and on the Kiskeminitas. At the same time, General McIntosh was sent with a small force of regulars for the protection of the frontiers. He commenced the erection of a fort at the mouth of the Beaver, named after the commander. From here General McIntosh went on an expedition against the Sandusky towns, and erected Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas. On the 1st of December, General Joseph Reed was elected President, and George Bryan, Vice-President, who were inducted into their official stations with all the pageantry attending the first inauguration of the chief executive of the State. The main body of the American army continued at White Plains watching the movements of the enemy during the autumn of 1778, when Washington took up winter quarters in huts which he had caused to be constructed at Middlebrook, in New Jersey. Wednesday, the 30th of December, was observed, by order of Congress, as 189 HISTORY OF PENNYSYL VANIA. a day of fasting and prayer. At this period "the affairs of the colonies were in the most distressed and ruinous condition..... Party disputes and personal quarrels were the great business of the day, while the momentous concerns of the country, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, depreciated money, and a want of credit, which is the consequence in the want of everything, were but secondary con siderations, and postponed by Congress from time to time, as if their affairs wore the most promising aspect. The paper was sinking in Philadelphia daily fifty per cent." In fact, there was an alarming supineness pervading the -constituted authorities. The conduct of General Arnold, on the 3d of February, 1779, occasioned decided 1779. action on the part of the Supreme Executive Council, and the Attorney General of the State was ordered to prosecute Arnold for illegal and oppressive conduct while JOSEPH REED.* in command of the military at Philadelphia. A copy of the charges were presented to the General before he left the city, but he did not care to meet them, and under pretence of attending to his duty, "fled from inquiry." From the camp on the Raritan, whence hlie had gone, he addressed a letter " To the Public," expressing his willingness that Congress should direct a court-martial to inquire into his conduct. The accusations of the Supreme Executive Council were laid before that body, but the trial was delayed, and not until January, 1780, was the courtmartial held. Arnold was then "convicted of using the public wagons for his own benefit," but he was acquitted of any corrupt intent, and sentenced to be reprimanded by the commander-in-chief. * JOSEPH REED was born at Trenton, New Jersey, August 27,1741. He graduated at New Jersey College, 1757, and shortly after entered the Inner Temple, London, as a law student. Returning in 1765, he began a successful practice at Trenton, and in 1767 was appointed deputy secretary of New Jersey. After his marriage in England to Esther De Berdt, he settled in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Committee of Correspondence in 1774, president of the Convention of January, 1775, delegate to Congress in May, and in July, accompanied Washington to Cambridge as his secretary and aid-de-camp. During the campaign of 1776 he was adjutant-general of the Continental army. In 1777 he was appointed chief-justice of Pennsylvania, and named by Congress brigadier-general, both of which he declined. He served as a volunteer at Brandywine, Whitemarsh, Germantown, and Monmouth. Member of Congress in 1778, he signed the Articles of Confederation. From 1778 to 1781 be was President of Pennsylvania. Active, energetic, and patriotic, President Reed had the confidence of his fellow-citizens, by whom he was respected and beloved. His memory, however, has been maligned by Bancroft, who, in his zeal to laud some favorite officer, charges Reed with disloyalty. Recent researches prove their falsity, and that the American officer who listened to the syren-voice of the Britons was a Colonel Reed, of the Burlington, N. J., militia. President Reed resumed his profession at the close of his administration, and after the peace visited England for his health, but without beneficial result. He aided greatly the founding of the University of Pennsylvania, favored the gradual abolition of slavery, and the doing away with the Proprietary powers vested in the Penn family. He died at Philadelphia, March 5, 1785. 190 GENERAL HISTORY. The "scarcity of articles of food and personal necessity " was now becoming so general, that the Supreme Executive Council issued a proclamation on the 18th of January against "forestalls and engrossers." The cause of all this trouble was, as heretofore alluded to, the depreciation of the Continental money. The quantity of this money then in circulation, exclusive of the State's emissions of paper, was one hundred and thirty millions of dollars-about four times as much as was necessary for a medium of trade. The Continental money, therefore, instead of standing at almost one-fourth of the value, remarks Thompson Westcott, had depreciated in some articles so low as three thousand per cent. This was said to be due "first, to a scarcity of many articles, particularly of European goods; second, a monopoly of many articles, particularly of West India goods, which operates the same way as a scarcity; third, a want of confidence in the credit of the money induced people to ask and give a greater sum for articles than they were worth." The Pennsylvania Assembly attempted to grapple with this subject, and adopted certain restrictions in regard to purchases, and laid embargoes on the exportation of goods. Prices were affixed by the local committees of inspection for certain imported articles and home productions. These measures, it was hoped, would be of the utmost benefit, but the regulation of prices bore hard on some of the tradesmen, and in consequence they were the first to complain. The whole difficulty was owing to the depreciation of the currency, but the problem was not of easy solution. On the 26th of May the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly presented a memorial to Congress upon this subject. That body adopted "a plan for raising money by subscription, and stopping the emissions of paper currency." This gave some relief, but unfortunately the loans were small. The campaign of 1779 opened, therefore, under circumstances not bright or cheery. Congress made no provisions for re-enlisting until late, when at the time a competent army should have been in camp. The bounty then offered was so low that men could not be procured to enter the service, and the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, and New Jersey had to be called on in the most pressing manner, by the commander-in-chief, and ultimately by Congress, to increase the bounty, and use every exertion to forward their respective quotas of troops. The policy of waging a more decisive war against the Indians, and the Tories associated with them in their barbarous irruptions upon the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York, caused Congress, on the 25th of February, to direct the commander-in-chief to take the most effectual means to protect the inhabitants and chastise the savages. With this end in view, General Washington ordered General Sullivan to carry the war into the country of the Six Nations, "to cut off their settlement, destroy their crops, and inflict upon them every other mischief which time and circumstances would permit." The plan of the campaign was to be commenced by a combined movement of two divisions, the one from Pennsylvania ascending the valley of the Susquehanna to the intersection of the Tioga river, under Sullivan, and the other from the north under General James Clinton, which was to descend the Susquehanna from its principal source, and after forming a junction, the whole to proceed by the course of the Chemung river into the fertile country of the Senecas and HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Cayugas. The progress of this force was slow, and Indian precaution was used to guard against surprise. Large flanking parties were flung out on either side, and riflemen and scouts were kept forward. Major Parr's rifle corps formed the advance guard, the brigades of Generals Hand, Maxwell, Parr, and Proctor's artillery forming the central column, or constituting the main body of the army, while General Clinton's division protected and brought up the rear. On the 29th, the advance fell in with the enemy near Newtown, on the Chemung. The number of Indians was thirteen hundred, of the Tories two hundred and fifty. The notorious Brant commanded the savages, while the regular troops and rangers were led by Colonel John Butler. The contest was long, and on the side of the enemy, bloody. The latter, at last, fled in the utmost precipitation. Eleven Indian dead were found on the field. The rest of the wounded and dead were borne away on the retreat. Being pushed at the point of the bayonet, they had not time to bear away all their slain, although the Indians invariably exert themselves to the utmost to prevent the bodies of their dead from falling into the hands of their foes. The Americans lost three killed and thirty-four wounded. Sending his wounded back to Tioga, General Sullivan pushed on his army, destroying the various Indian towns, their fields of corn and beans. The Indians everywhere fled as the American army advanced, and the whole country of the Genesee was swept as with the besom of destruction. Forty Indian towns, the largest containing one hundred and twenty-eight houses, were destroyed. Corn, gathered and ungathered, amounting to one hundred and sixty thousand bushels, shared the same fate. This terrible lesson neither intimidated the savages nor prevented their incursions. Throughout the remainder of the war, they stole in small parties into all the frontier settlements, where blood and desolation marked their track. Colonel Brodhead, about the same time, engaged in a successful expedition against the M-nsey towns on the north branch of the Allegheny, destroying the villages and crops about the mouth of Brokenstraw, and above the Conewangol and a party of forty warriors cut off who were on their way to the settlements in Westmoreland county. The successful storming of Stony Point by General Wayne on the night of July 15, one of the most daring exploits of the war, produced a great alteration in the situation of affairs, wrote General St. Clair, and buoyed up the hearts of the desponding patriots, as it struck terror to the Tories. Congress, on the 26th of the same month, unanimously passed a resolution of thanks to General Wayne, "for his brave, prudent, and soldierly conduct in the spirited and well conducted attack on Stony Point." On the 11th of October, Vice-President Bryan resigned his office, whereupon Colonel Matthew Smith was chosen to fill the vacancy, which he, too, resigned on the 29th of the month. At the annual election on the 12th of November following, William Moore was unanimously chosen to the position. On the 27th of November, the Assembly, after careful consideration, passed resolutions annulling the Royal Charter, and granting the Penns, as a compensation for the rights of which they were deprived, ~130,000 sterling. They retained, however, their manors, real estate as private proprietors, their ground-rents and quit-rents issuing out of their manors, and were still the largest landed proprietors in Pennsylvania. They subsequently received 192 GENERAL HISTORY. from the British government an annuity of ~4,000 for their losses by the Revolution. The year 1780 is memorable in the annals of Pennsylvania for the 1780. passage of the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in this State. On the 5th of February, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council, in their message to the Assembly, called the attention of that body to this subject. "We think," say they, "we are loudly called on to evince our gratitude in making our fellow-men joint heirs with us of the same inestimable blessings, under such restrictions and regulations as will not injure the community, and will imperceptibly enable them to relish and improve the station to which they will be advanced. Honored will that State be in the annals of mankind which shall first abolish this violation of the rights of mankind; and the memories of thost will be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance who shall pass the law to restore and establish the rights of human nature in Pennsylvania. We feel our selves so interested on this point as to go beyond what may be deemed by some the proper line of our duty, and acquaint you that we have reduced this plan to the form of a law, which, if acceptable, we shall in a few days communicate to you." Although the subject was thus forcibly presented, the matter was dismissed by the Assembly "as the Constitution would not allow them to receive the law from the Council." Nothing more was done until in the November Assembly, when George Bryan, formerly Vice-President of the State, having been elected a member of the Legislature, urged the passage of a bill which he had prepared. On the first of March, 1780, by a vote of thirty-four yeas to twentyone nays, the act passed the Assembly. It provided for the registration of every negro or mulatto slave or servant for life, or till the age of thirty-one years, before the first of November following, and also provided, "that no man or woman of any nation or color, except the negroes or mulattoes who shall be registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within the territory of this Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women." The servants of members of Congress, foreign ministers, and persons passing through or sojourning not longer than six months, were also made an exception. To Vice-President Bryan is due the credit of originating and finally urging this humane measure to a successful vote. Again the paper-money difficulties took up the attention of the State Legislature. On the 20th of March, Congress, yielding to the necessity, authorized the States to revise the laws making the continental bills a tender, and to amend them as it was thought proper. The next day, in the Assembly, a motion to suspend the operation of the law so far as it made the continental currency equal to gold and silver in payment of debts, was lost by a tie vote. The effort, however, to prevent a suspension of the tender laws could not be maintained very long. On the 24th of May a bill was proposed, which passed the 31st, effecting this plan for three months, and on the 22d of June the suspension was continued until the next session, and on December 22d, indefinitely. On the 1st of June, for the purpose of bringing the war to a close, the Assembly authorized the passage of an act to redeem the continental bills to the amount of twenty-five millions of dollars, by the collection of taxes at the rate of one million dollars to forty millions. Every effort was made to keep the State money up to par. The mea193 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. sures adopted bringing but temporary relief, the Assembly, on the 29th of May, passed resolutions authorized the borrowing of a sum of money not exceeding ~200,000 sterling, pledging the faith and honor of the State for its repayment after ten years. It was deemed necessary to send an agent to Europe, but neither in Holland nor France, countries whose sympathies were the strongest for the struggling Colonies, could this be effected, and he was, in July, 1781, recalled by the Supreme Executive Council. Other measures were adopted to relieve pressing necessities. The army was not only without pay but without clothing, and full short of provisions. To supply their destitute countrymen, subscriptions were instituted by the ladies, while to relieve financial embarassment, "The Bank of Pennsylvania " was established. The continental money, however, continued to sink in value, while efforts were made again and again to sustain it. On the 20th of March a law was passed to effect a re-organization of the whole militia system. It provided for the appointment of a lieutenant for each county, and two sub-lieutenants or more, not exceeding the number of battalions. The battalions were to be divided into classes as heretofore. Fines, however, for non-attendance on muster days were fixed for commissioned officers at the price of three days' labor, and for non-commissioned officers and privates at one and a half days' labor. When called out, the pay of privates was to be equal to one day's labor. Persons called out, but neglecting or refusing to go, were liable to pay in each case the price of a day's labor during the term of service, besides a tax of fifteen shillings on the hundred pounds upon their estates. As a relief to this class, the hiring of substitutes was allowed. Pensions were promised to the wounded in battle, and support to the families of those militia men who were killed, at rates to be fixed by the courts. Considerable opposition was made to this law, from the fact that by permitting the hiring of substitutes it would relieve the disaffected and Tories. The exigencies of the times, says Thompson Wescott, led to the authorizing of some extraordinary measures. On the 28th of May, General Washington, in writing to President Reed, said: "I assure you every idea that you can form of our distress will fall short of the reality. There is such a combination of circumstances to exhaust the patience of the soldiery that it begins at last to be worn out, and we see in every line of the army the most serious features of mutiny and sedition.... I must observe to you that much will depend upon the State of Pennsylvania. She has it in her power to contribute, without comparison, more to our success than any other State, in the two essential articles of flour and transportation.... The matter is reduced to a point. Either Pennsylvania must give us all the aid we ask of her, or we undertake nothing.... I wish the Legislature could be engaged to vest the Executive with plenipotentiary powers. I should then expect something from your abilities and zeal. This is not a time for formality or ceremony. The crisis is in every point of view extraordinary, and extraordinary expedients are necessary. I am decidedly of this opinion." In addition to the demands of our own army in the field, the expected arrival of the French troops rendered energetic and determined action. On the first of June the Assembly resolved, that during the recess of the House, " should the 194 GENERAL HISTUR Y. circumstances of the war render it necessary," the President or Vice-President in Council, should be authorized and empowered" to declare martial law," as far as the same might be "conducive to the public security and to the safety and defence of the good and faithful citizens of this Commonwealth." On the 6th, Council passed resolutions to the effect, that as it " would be necessary to make extraordinary exertions for the supply of the army, and supporting other measures that might be for the safety and security of the State, a discrimination should be made between citizens who had shown themselves to be friends of the country and those of a contrary character. On the same day a proclamation was issued, in which was specified the necessity of procuring supplies in so short a space of time that the usual and ordinary forms must be dispensed with. Late offensive movements of the enemy, of which certain intelligence had just been received, admitted of no delay in procuring a number of horses and wagons to be forwarded with all expedition to camp. Furthermore, the indiscriminate admission of all strangers without examination or inquiry gave facilities to spies and emissaries of the enemy. All suspicious persons were ordered to be arrested. An embargo was laid on all outward bound vessels, excepting those in the service of France. Seizure of horses was made, especially those belonging to the Tories and Quakers. Searches for arms were also made through the houses of the latter. Sir Henry Clinton having entered the State of New Jersey with his force, seems to have caused all this alarm. A portion of the militia was ordered to join the main army, but the British commander having pushed up North river, the orders were countermanded. Shortly after, the French troops, under Rochambeau having arrived, a plan was formed for an attack on New York. In order to make this enterprise effective, the services of militia from Pennsylvania were demanded, and the several counties of the State were put under requisition for the furnishing of supplies. Flour, forage, wagons, and horses were required. Four thousand militia were ordered to be organized by the county lieutenants, to rendezvous at Trenton, New Jersey. President Reed took command of the camp in person. When strongest, it consisted of fifteen hundred infantry, two companies of artillery, with four pieces of cannon, and the City Troop of light-horse. On account, however, of the blockade of Rochambeau by the British fleet, and the non-arrival of another division of the French army, the plan failed and the camp broke up. The camp at Trenton was well conducted-the tents and necessaries for field service were in good order-a regular market was held which was attended by neighboring farmers. On the occasion of the dismissal of the troops on the 2d of September, addresses were made to them by General Lacey, Colonel Eyre, and Colonel Wills, a committee appointed for that purpose. 195 CHAPTER XII. THE REVOLUTION. THE TREASON OF ARNOLD. REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS. DECLARATION OF PEACE. 1780-1783. OWARDS the close of September the Supreme Executive Council received intelligence of the treason of General Benedict Arnold, who had been in command of the American post at West Point. Among the people the news of the infamy of this man excited the greatest indignation. In Philadelphia, to give expression to popular feeling, a pulic parade took place, three days after the arrival of the news, in which an effigy of Arnold was carried through the streets and finally hung upon a gallows. The Council at once confiscated Arnold's estate, and his wife was ordered to depart the State within fourteen days. Of the arrest, trial, and execution of Major Andre, and the escape of Arnold, his reward and price of dishonor, it is not in our province to refer to in full. If the proceedings against Tories in Pennsylvania had been fierce previous to this time, the feeling aroused by the defection of Arnold produced the bitterest animosity and hatred against all who were not in full sympathy with the American Colonies. Many arrests were made, a number were tried and condemned, and one, a Quaker of Chester county, executed for high treason. The property of prominent Tories were forfeited and sold, and in fact, the most energetic measures taken to crush out whatever might be inimical to the cause of independence. The situation of the soldiers from Pennsylvania in the Continental army at this period was truly deplorable. About the 1st of December, the division of General Wayne went into winter quarters, in the neighborhood of Morristown. The soldiers were wearied out with privations, and indignant at their officers, whom they accused of not properly representing their situation to Congress. But the fault was in the tardiness of Congress, not in the officers. The Pennsylvania troops had been enlisted on the ambiguous terms of "serving three years or during the continuance of the war," and the commanding officers of the army anticipated the evils that occurred. From the report to the Assembly we give the accounts which follow. It appears that considerable discontent had for some time taken place amongst the soldiers on account not only of the cause alluded to, but of deficiencies of clothing, arrearages of pay, and the depreciation of the currency; which as yet extended no further than private complaints and murmurs. Whatever real causes of discontent, in some of these particulars, might have been occasioned by the public necessities, owing to disappointments unavoidable in times of war and invasion, it is evident that they were greatly exaggerated by the influence of too great a mixture of British deserters in the Pennsylvania Line. It is more than probable that this dissatisfaction would not have assumed the formidable aspect 196 GENERAL HISTOR Y. in which it afterwards appeared had not concurrent circumstances administered the occasion. New Year's Day, being a day of customary festivity, an extra pro. 1781. portion of rum was served out to the soldiers. This, together with what they were able to purchase in the neighborhood of the Line, was sufficient to inflame the minds of men, already predisposed by a mixture of real and imaginary injuries, to break forth into outrage and disorder. As soon as night came on, the camp was observed to be in great confusion, and by eleven o'clock became quite tumultuous; the troops avowedly threw off all obedience and prepared to march. In vain did General Wayne and the officers of the Line exert themselves to reduce the mutiny and restore order and discipline; the affair had gone too far to yield to their exertions, and one of the officers unhappily lost his life in the attempt. At length the Line left their camp in a most tumultuous and disorderly manner, and marched to Princeton, where they fixed their quarters. General Wayne, uncertain whether this mutiny arose from British influence and disaffection, or only from the grievances they so loudly complained of, thought it most prudent to get this disorderly body, if possible, organized into some regularity, in which situation the mutineers might be treated with and the truth discovered. To this he was the more encouraged as they had repeatedly, and in the strongest terms, denied the least tincture of disaffection, or any intention of deserting to the enemy. He accordingly recommended it to them to choose a number of sergeants, to sit as a board and represent their grievances, so that redress might be had if their complaints should appear to be well founded. In pursuance of this order, a sergeant from each regiment met General Wayne, Colonels Butler and Stewart, and mentioned the following grievances: "1. Many men continued in the service after the expiration of the enlistments. "2. The arrearages of pay, and the depreciation not yet made up, and the soldiers suffering every privation for want of money and clothing. "3. That it was very hurtful to the feelings of the soldiers to be prevented from disposing of their depreciation certificates as they pleased, without consulting any person on the occasion." Upon this representation being considered by General Wayne and the colonels, it was agreed, on their part, that one disinterested sergeant or private from each regiment should, with the commanding officer of the corps, when an enlistment was disputed, determine on the case; also that a sergeant from each regiment be appointed to carry an address to Congress, backed by the general and field officers. This was followed by the proposals from the sergeants to General Wayne, which, with his answer, was sent forward. The sergeants' propositions were entitled: " Proposals from the Committee of Sergeants, now representing the Pennsylvania Line Artillery, &c." "1. That all, and such men as were enlisted in the years 1776 or 1777, and received the bounty of twenty dollars, should be without any delay discharged; and all arrears of pay, and depreciation of pay, should be paid to the said men, without any fraud, clothing included. " 2. Such men as were enlisted after the year 1777, and received one hundred and twenty dollars bounty, or any more additions, should be entitled to their UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Darlington Memorial Library Wto HISTORY OF PENNSYL VAN1A. they renewed the friendly intercourse begun by the Dutch. According to Hazard, they purchased lands of the ruling tribe, and thus secured their friendship. Southward, also, they carried the terror of their arms, and from 1634 to 1644, says Bozman, they waged war on the Yaomacoes, the Piscataways, and Patuxents, and were so troublesome that in 1642 Governer Calvert, by proclamation, declared them public enemies. When the Hurons, in Upper Canada, in 1647, began to sink under the fearful blows dealt by the Five Nations, the Susquehannas sent an embassy to offer them aid against the common enemy. Nor was the offer one of little value, for the Susquehannas could put into the field one thousand three hundred warriors, trained, says Proud, to the use of fire-arms and European modes of war by three Swedish soldiers, whom they had obtained to instruct them. Before interposing, however, they began a negotiation, and sent an embassy to Onondaga to urge the cantons to peace. The Iroquois refused, and the Hurons, sunk in apathy, took no active steps to secure the aid of the friendly Susquehannas. That tribe, however, maintained its friendly intercourse with its European neighbors, and in 1652, Sawahegeh, and other sachems, in presence of a Swedish deputy, ceded to Maryland all the territory from the Patuxent river to Palmer's Island, and from the Choptauk to the north-east branch north of Elk river. Four years later, the Iroquois, grown insolent by their success in almost annihilating their kindred tribes north and south of Lake Erie, provoked a war with the Susquehannas, plundering their hunters on Lake Ontario. During that year the small-pox, that terrible scourge of the aborigines, broke out in their town, sweeping off many, and seriously enfeebling the nation. War had now begun in earnest with the Five Nations, and though the Susquehannas had some of their people killed near their town, they in turn pressed the Cayugas so hard that some of them retreated across Lake Ontario to Canada. They also kept the Senecas in such alarm that they no longer ventured to carry their peltries to New York, except in caravans escorted by six hundred men, who even took a most circuitous route. A law of Maryland, passed May 1, 1661, authorized the Governor of that Province to aid the Susquehannas. Smarting under constant defeat, the Five Nations solicited French aid, but in April, 1663, the Western cantons raised an army of eight hundred men to invest and storm the fort of the Susquehannas. This fort was located about fifty miles from the mouth of the river. The enemy embarked on Lake Ontario, according to the French account, and then went overland to the Susquehanna. On reaching the fort, however, they found it well defended on the river side, and on the land side with two bastions in European style, with cannon mounted and connected by a double curtain of large trees. After some trifling skirmishes the Iroquois had recourse to strategem. They sent in a party of twenty-five men to treat of peace, and ask provisions to enable them to return. The Susquehannas admitted them, but immediately burned them all alive before the eyes of their countrymen. The force of the Iroquois, according to Proud and Hazard, consisted of one thousand six hundred warriors, while that of the Susquehannas only one hundred. On the retreat of the Iroquois, the Susquehannas pursued them with considerable slaughter. After this the war was carried on in small parties, and Susquehanna prisoners HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. discharge at the expiration of three years from the time of said enlistment, and their full depreciation of pay, and all arrears of clothing. "3. That all such men belonging to the different regiments that were enlisted for the war, should receive the remainder part of their bounty and pay, and all arrears of clothing. That they should return to their respective corps, and should do their duty as formerly, and that no aspersions should be cast, and no grievances should be repeated to the said men. "4. Those soldiers who were enlisted and received their discharges, and all arrearages of pay and clothing, should not be compelled to stay by any former officers commanding any longer time than was agreeable to their own pleasure and disposition; of those who should remain for a small term as volunteers, that they should be at their own disposal and pleasure. " 5. As they then depended and relied upon General Wayne to represent and repeat their grievances, they agreed in conjunction from that date, January 4, in six days to complete and settle every such demand as the above five articles mentioned. "6. That the whole Line were actually agreed and determined to support the above articles in every particular." General Wayne, having maturely considered the foregoing proposals and articles presented to him by the sergeants, in behalf of themselves, the artillery and privates of the Pennsylvania Line, returned the following answer: " That all such non-commissioned officers and soldiers as were justly entitled to their discharges should be immediately settled with, their accounts properly adjusted, and certificates for their pay and arrearages of pay and clothing given them, agreeably to the resolution of Congress, and the act of the Honorable Assembly of Pennsylvania, for making up the depreciation, and should be discharged the service of the United States. " That all such non-commissioned officers and privates belonging to the respective regiments, artillery or infantry, who were not entitled to their discharge, should also be settled with, and certificates given them for their pay, depreciation, and clothing, in like manner as those first mentioned, which certificates were to be redeemable at a short period as the nature of the case would admit, to be paid in hard cash or an equivalent in Continental money of these States, and should be immediately furnished with warm clothing, they returning to their duty as worthy, faithful soldiers. " These propositions were founded in principles of justice and honor, between the United States and the soldiery, which was all that reasonable men could expect, or that a general could promise consistent with his station or duty, and the mutual benefit of their country and the Line which he had had so long the honor of commanding. If the soldiers were determined not to let reason and justice govern on this occasion, he had only to lament the fatal and unfortunate situation to which they would reduce themselves and their country." Intelligence of this affair was soon conveyed to New York. The enemy were highly elated on the occasion, and exerted themselves to the utmost, not abating their diligence, although the rain poured down incessantly. Four or five thousand troops were immediately embarked in order to make a descent on Jersey, at 198 GENERAL HIS7TORY. South Amboy, under a full persuasion that the Pennsylvania Line waited only an opportunity to join the British troops. They were confirmed in this idea by a person from Woodbridge who went over to Staten Island and informed that such was the determination of the Board of Sergeants. On the arrival of this news at Philadelphia, the President of the State and a committee of Congress, attended by the Pensylvania troop of horse, set out for Trenton. In the meantime, the negotiations previously stated had taken place, but not to any extent. General Wayne was yet in doubt as to the real designs of the mutineers; but a circumstance now occurred which seemed to evince the fidelity of the discontented troops. A spy from New York, attended by a guide, appeared before the Board of Sergeants with a paper rolled in sheet lead, intimating that if the Pennsylvania Line would direct their march toward North river a large body of British troops should be ready to receive them; and promising very large emoluments to every soldier who would thus desert his country's cause. No sooner did this emissary make his errand known but the Board of Sergeants rejected the proposal with disdain, and sent the spy with his companion under guard to General Wayne, with a reserve, however, that they should be re-delivered to the Board if demanded. President Reed, having on the 6th advanced near Princeton (being also fully authorized by the Committee of Congress to make propositions), wrote a letter to General Wayne, in which he expressed some doubts as to the propriety of going within the pickets of the insurgents. This letter being shown to the sergeants, they immediately wrote to the President these words: "Your Excellency need not be in the least afraid or apprehensive of any irregularities or ill-treatment, that the whole Line will be very happy, how expedient your Excellency would be in settling this unhappy affair." Encouraged by these circumstances, but without any great confidence in them, more especially as the Board of Sergeants had demanded the spies from General Wayne and at this time had them in possession, his Excellency determined to venture among them. That the President bad no firm dependence on their pacific assurances, appears by a passage in a letter written to the Vice-President at Philadelphia, just before he went into Princeton, wherein he says: "I have but one life, and my country has the first claim to it. I therefore go with the cheerfulness which attends performing a necessary, though not a pleasant duty." Upon his entry into Princeton the whole Line was drawn up for his reception, and every mark of military honor and respect shown him. After this interview the negotiations commenced in regular form. During the treaty, the President had the address to persuade the mutineers to advance to Trenton; for notwithstanding all favorable appearances, he still remained jealous of their situation. After a correspondence of some days, in which great tenaciousness was shown on the part of the malcontents, and equity with firmness on the part of President Reed, articles of agreement were finally assented to and confirmed on both sides. These articles were as follows, viz.: " Proposals made to the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line, at Princeton, January Ith, 1781. HISTO? Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. " His Excellency, Joseph Reed, Esq., President, and the Honorable Brigadier-General Potter of the Council of Pennsylvania, having heard the complaints of the soldiers as represented by the sergeants, informed them that they were fully authorized to redress reasonable grievances, and they had the fullest disposition to make them as easy as possible; for which end they proposed: " That no non-commissioned officer or soldier should be detained beyond the time for which he freely and voluntarily engaged, but where it appeared they had been in any respect compelled to enter or sign, such enlistment should be deemed void and the soldier discharged. " To settle who were and who were not bound to stay, three persons should be appointed by the President and Councils [this appointment was made afterwards by the Committee of Congress], who were to examine into the terms of enlistments; where the original enlistments could not be found, the soldier's oath should be adrQitted to prove the time and terms of enlistment, and the soldier should be discharged upon his oath by the condition of the enlistment. "Wherever any soldier had enlisted for three years, or during the war, he was to be discharged, unless it should appear he afterwards re-enlisted voluntarily and freely. The gratuity of one hundred dollars given by Congress was not to be reckoned as a bounty, or any men detained in consequence of that gratuity. The commissioners to be appointed were to adjust any difficulties which might arise on this article also. " The auditors were to attend as soon as possible to settle the depreciation with the soldiers, and give them certificates. Their arrearages of pay should be made up as soon as circumstances would admit. " A pair of shoes, overalls, and shirt, should be delivered to each soldier in a few days, as they were already purchased and ready to be forwarded whenever the Line should be settled. Those who were discharged would receive the above articles at Trenton, producing the General's discharge. " The President hoped that no soldier of the Pennsylvania Line would break his bargain, or go from the contract made with the public, and they might depend upon it that the utmost care would be taken to furnish them with every necessary fitting for a soldier. In addition, the President would recommend that the State of Pennsylvania should take some favorable notice of those who were engaged for the war. The Commissioners would attend at Trenton, where the clothing and stores would be immediately brought, and the regiments should be settled with in their order. A field officer of each regiment was to attend during the settlement of his regiment. " Pursuant to General Wayne's orders of the 2d instant, no man was to be brought to any trial or censure for what had happened on or since New Year's Day, but all matters were to be buried in oblivion." On the conclusion of the foregoing articles, the two emissaries were again delivered up, but his Excellency having been informed by General Wayne, that at the time they were first brought to him, he had promised the two soldiers who conducted them fifty guineas each as a reward for their fidelity, he determined to fulfil this engagement, and accordingly sent for those men, and offered them the promised gratuity. This, however, they declined accepting, saying that they only obeyed the orders of their superiors, the board of sergeants. The hundred 200 GENERAL HISTORY. 2 guineas, were then offered to the board of sergeants, who returned this remarkable answer: "Agreeably to the information of two sergeants of our board who waited on your Excellency, that in consideration of the two spies, they informed the remainder of the board that your Excellency had been pleased to offer a sum of gold as a compensation for our fidelity; but as it has not been for the sake or through any expectation of receiving a reward, but for the zeal and love of our country, that we sent them immediately to General Wayne, we, therefore, do not consider ourselves entitled to any other reward but the love of our country, and do jointly agree that we shall accept of no other." The two spies were tried by a court-martial on the 10th, and being duly convicted, were executed on the 11th, agreeable to their sentence, near the great road leading from Philadelphia to Trenton ferry. However unjustifiable the conduct of the Pennsylvania Line was and should be deemed in the first instance, it must be acknowledged that they conducted themselves in the business, culpable as it was, with unexpected order and regularity, and their fidelity in refusing the large offers made by the enemy, in delivering up the spies, and in refusing the hundred guineas they had so justly merited, exhibits an instance of true patriotism and disinterestedness not to be found amongst mercenary troops who bear arms for pay and subsistence only, uninspired by their country's rights, or the justice of the cause which they have engaged to support. In pursuance of the articles agreed to, and the plan adopted, commissioners were appointed by Congress to settle with the discontented soldiers, man by man, their terms of enlistment carefully inquired into, their wants supplied, money advanced on account of pay, and certificates given for the remainder. About the close of February, 1781, orders were given for the rendezvousing of the Pennsylvania troops under General Wayne at York, previous to joining the Southern army under General Greene. The delay of the State auditors, who were appointed to settle and pay the proportion of the depreciation due the troops, caused some little trouble, but by the 7th of June this force, amounting to only eleven hundred, formed a junction with Lafayette. No sooner had the allied armies departed, than fears arose that the unprotected state of the country might tempt the British troops in New York to make an incursion into New Jersey, and even to approach Philadelphia. To counteract such a movement, the Pennsylvania militiamen were ordered to hold themselves in readiness for instant service. Congress recommended that three thousand men should be called out. This force rendezvoused at Newtown, in Bucks county. A watch was set at Cape May. The public records were ordered to be got ready for immediate removal. The uncertainty as to the designs of the enemy continued for some days, but as no movement was made against New Jersey, and as embarkations were made from New York, it became probable that the intention was to transport a body of troops southward to relieve Cornwallis. The camp at Newtown was therefore broken up about the middle of October, and the militia returned to their homes. The capitulation of the British army under Cornwallis at Yorktown to the American Commander-in-Chief on the 29th of October, gladdened and cheered the hearts of the patriots of the whole country. They were overpowered, says 201. HISTORY OF PENNS YL VA.NIA. Westcott, with gratitude and gladness-while the hearts of the Tories sank within them-for they knew this great event was virtually a conclusion of the war. The important news was first communicated to Thomas McKean, President of Congress, on the morning of the 22d. On the 24th, when the official account of the surrender was brought by Major Tilghman, aid to Washington, the Supreme Executive Council of thle State waited upon the President of Congress, the members of that august body, and the minister of France, who congratulated each other on this great, important, and happy event. The standard of Pennsylvania was hoisted, and at twelve o'clock a salute was fired from the artillery in the State House yard, as also from the shipping in the harbor with colors displayed. The success of the American arms before Yorktown did not lessen the ardor and energy of Congress, the State of Pennsylvania, the commander-in-chief, or the army. The end of the conflict with the mother country seemed nearer, and no effort was spared to secure the blessed boon for which they had struggled so many years. On the 14th of November William Moore,* who had served as Vice-President since 1779, succeeded President Reed, whose term as coun cillor had expired. General James Potter was chosen at the same time Vice-President. Dur ing the entire administration of President Moore, the great question at issue in the State S was that of the finances. S On account of the hostile demonstrations of </ the Ohio Indians against the settlements in Western Pennsylvania, it was determined that a force should be raised and marched against the Sandusky Indians, who seemed the most active in keeping up a predatory warfare. The requisite WILLIAM MOORE. force was raised principally in Washington and Westmoreland counties, consisting of the ranging companies of volunteers. On the 20th of May the troops, numbering more than four hundred, assemn 1782. bled at Mingo Bottom, where they unanimously selected as leader Colo nel William Crawford, of Westmoreland. Of the disastrous results of that expedition, the defeat, the capture, and finally the burning of Colonel Crawford at the stake by the savages, we can merely refer to. When the news of Crawford's unhappy fate reached the settlements, it spread a gloom on every countenance. During the French war he had distinguished himself for his brave and gallant conduct, and in the revolutionary struggle he proved himself * WILLIAM MOORE was a native of Philadelphia, and at the outset of the Revolution engaged in mercantile pursuits. He signed the non-importation resolutions, andI was a member of the Council of Safety, 1776, from which he was transferred by the Supreme Executive Council to the Board of War. Upon his election as Councillor in 1779 he was chosen Vice-President, and, on the expiration of President Reed's term of office, to the head of the State government. In 1784 he was elected a member of the Assembly, and, until his death, which took place in 1793, he took an active part in public affairs. Mr. Moore married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, and was brother-in-law of President Wharton, who married Susanna Lloyd. 202 GENERAL 11I ST ORY. not unworthy his reputation as a soldier and a patriot. His loss was a severe blow to the frontiers. The savages soon after this, emboldened with their late success, and instigated by Girty, McKee, and other white outlaws who had taken refuge among them, determined on a grand campaign. Measures were at once adopted to defend the exposed settlements, and although there wei'e frequent Indian incursions into Kentucky and Virginia, Western Pennsylvania was happily spared. In August a special session of the Assembly was convened by request of the Supreme Executive Council, to devise some means to provide funds for carrying on the government. At this session the matter of a treaty between Great Britain and the United States was taken up. In 1778, the General Assembly had passed resolutions declaring "that the man or men who should presume to make a separate or partial convention with the King of Great Britain, or with commismissioners appointed by him, ought to be considered as enemies of the United States; that, as a preliminary, the fleets and armies of the British Crown ought to be withdrawn from the American territory, or the independence of the United States previously acknowledged. Resolutions were also adopted affirming the sovereignty of the State, and averring that Congress had no right or authority to do anything that might have a tendency to yield up that authority, without the consent of the State, previously obtained." These matters were now taken up by the Council., In many particulars the condition of public affairs had changed and become modified since 1778; but the probability of peace rendered some definite action necessary. A resolution was therefore adopted on the 28th of May, by the Supreme Executive Council, re-affirming the spirit of the resolutions of 1778, with the additional declaration that any propositions that might be made by Great Britain in any manner tending to violate the treaty existing between the United States and France ought to be treated "with every mark of indignity and contempt." At the same time, the Council declared that the benefits which Great Britain might derive from America, were she to adopt principles of moderation, wisdom and justice, " were such that a desire for the general interest of mankind and the dignity of human nature, caused some concern at witnessing that once powerful and respectable nation continuing to act upon principles which, if persisted in much longer, would, by destroying all title to the esteem and confidence of the United States, render treaties of amity and commerce between the Americans and English absolutely and altogether impracticable." This measure came up before the Assembly at the special session. A resolution against peace with England without the concurrence of France, against reunion with Great Britain on any terms, and against a revival of the rights of the Proprietary family, was before the Assembly. It was supposed that, in reference to the last subject, the House was divided in sentiment. The proposition had previously been rejected in committee by a vote of seven to five. This news reached the public and caused a great excitement. The proposal was recommended by way of amendment to be taken up the following day. The spirit manifested ly the people was such as to show the members of the Legislature what the real feeling was. It was so strong and overwhelming, that the next day, when the amendment was proposed, instead of a warm debate upon it, all opposition was silenced, and the resolutions were passed unanimously. 203 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. On account of Indian incursions into the upper part of Northumberland during the early paft of the autumn, the Council determined to send an expedition into the Genesee country, of which General James Potter, Vice-President, was to be in command. The lieutenants of Berks, Lancaster, Northampton, and Cumberland were directed to call into service a sufficient number of troops to rendezvous at Fort Muncy on the 4th of October. At the same time militia from several of the western counties were ordered to Fort Pitt under command of General William Irvine, who had been deputed by the same authority to march on Sandusky. Both of these expeditions were on the eve of setting out, when at the request of General Washington, the orders were countermanded. This was owing to the determined efforts required for the further prosecution of the war against the British. The alacrity with which the frontiersmen entered the service on this special call was conspicuous, and when orders came to lay aside the expeditions the disaffection was great, as the militia were, particularly in the western counties, determined to avenge the atrocious murder of Colonel Crawford. In November, the Pennsylvanians confined on board the Jersey prison-ship, at New York, made application to the State authorities, representing their destitute condition. They were cruelly treated by the English, and were in want of clothing, blankets, and food. There were sent to them immediately afterwards, by a flag of truce, three hundred bushels of potatoes and fifty barrels of flour. As frequently, however, as possible, exchanges were made of prisoners, by which many of the captives at New York were released. Prior to the Revolution an angry controversy grew out of the claims of Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley lands. It was postponed to the more pressing exigencies of that important epoch, in which both parties made common cause. The Connecticut settlers had returned soon after Sullivan's expedition of 1779. In 1778, the title of these lands had been taken from the Penns and vested in the State. On the assertion of this new title on the part of the State, the controversy was opened anew, and was referred to Congress. who appointed commissioners to meet at Trenton in November, 1782. The commissioners, after hearing both parties, decided that Connecticut had no right to the land in controversy-and that the jurisdiction and pre-emption of all lands within the charter bounds of Pennsylvania of right belonged to that State. The settlers cheerfully acquiesced in the change of jurisdiction, but claimed that, although Connecticut had no right to the land, yet the Susquehanna Company had. The State proceeded to enforce its claims by a method very different from that of William Penn, and thereupon ensued a fierce and vindictive civil war, nearly as desolating as the previous irruptions of the Tories and savages. At length, after a series of vacillating and ill-advised legislation, the State passed a law, in 1799 and 1801, compensating the Pennsylvania claimants by a grant of lands elsewhere, or by a payment in money; and confirming to the Connecticut settlers their titles on condition of their paying the State a small price per acre, from eighty-six cents to one dollar and twenty cents, according to the quality of their land. The New England emigrants became obedient, industrious, and valuable citizens of their adopted State; and Wyoming, after a long train of unparalleled sufferings, enjo)yed a state of repose and prosperity. At the election in November, John Dickinson was chosen President, and 204 GENERAL HISTOR Y. General James Ewing, Vice-President. Political controversy ran high, and neither before or since, were bitter invective and detraction of prominent citizens so freely indulged in by newspaper writers. Mifflin, Reed, McKean, Dickinson Cadwallader, and other influential men of the State, were assailed by a malignity and virulence unequalled. On the 12th of March, the first 1783. news was received of the signing of the treaty of November 30, 1782, acknowledging the independence of the United States. This was the first measure necessary in the negotiations for peace between all the belligerents. On the 20th of January, 1783, the preliminary treaty of peace was signed. On the 11th of April, Congress issued a proclamation enjoining a cessation of hostilities; and on the 16th of the same month, the Supreme Executive Council made public announcement of the happy event at the Court House. The State flag was hoisted,' church bells were rung, and expressions of joy OHN DICKINSON.* at the happy relief from the miseries of war, were universal. One of the first measures that was necessary on the cessation of the war was an exchange of prisoners. The soldiers of Burgoyne's army were principally in the interior of Pennsylvania, and these were put in motion before the proclamation, and arrived in Philadelphia on their way to New York a day or two previous to the official announcement. With this joyful intelligence, the re-opening of commerce followed, and at once action was taken by the Supreme Executive Council, for the removal of the obstructions in the Delaware river. * JOHN DICKINSON was a native of Maryland, born November 13, 1732. He studied law in Philadelphia, and entered the Temple, London. On his return he practiced with success at Philadelphia. Was elected member of the Assembly in 1764. In 1765 he was a deputy to the first Colonial Congress, and its resolutions were drawn up by him. In 1767 he published his "Farmers' Letters to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," which was reprinted in England and France. In 1760 the College of New Jersey conferred on him the degree of LL.D. In 1774 he wrote an "Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies of America," published by the Provincial Conference of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Congress of 1774, and was the author of those important State papers, "The Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec," The Declaration to the Armies," the tw) petitions to the King, and " The Address to the States." He opposed the Declaration of Independence as premature. This course made him unpopular for a time. In October, 1777, he was made brigadier-general of the Pennsylvania militia. In April, 1779, he returned to Congress from Delaware, and wrote "The Address to the States," of May 26. In 1781-5 he was President of the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware, successively, and member of the Convention for framing the Federal Constitution. In 1788 appeared his "Fabius" letters, advocating the adoption of the new Constitution. Another series over the same signature, on the relations of the United States with France, 1797, was his last work. In 1792 he was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of Delaware. His political writings were published in two volumes, in 1801. He was a man of elegant learning and fine conversational powers. He died at Wilmington, Delaware, February 14, 1808. 205 CHAPTER XIII. TROUBLE IN THE SETTLEMENT OF THE CLAIMS OF THE SOLDIERS. COUNCIL OF CENSORS. TREATY AT FORT STANWIX. CONVENTION TO REVISE THE CONSTI TUTION. 1783-1790. N June 1783, a number of the non-commissioned officers and sol diers of the Pennsylvania Line, wearied and exasperated by the delay in the settlement of their claims, resolved to demand a redress of their grievances and a prompt settlement of their accounts. A body of them accordingly marched from Lancaster towards the city of Philadelphia, and although the Supreme Executive Council and Congress were informed of their coming, no measures were taken to check the advance of the malcontents. On the 21st of June, while the Executive Council was in session, about thirty of them armed marched to the State House, and sent in a memorial in writing that as their general officers had left them, they should have authority to appoint commissioned officers to command them and redress their grievances. With this demand went a threatening message that in case they were r_fused, the soldiers would be let in upon the Council, who must then abide by the consequences. Only twenty minutes were given for deliberation; but so insolent were the terms, that Council at once unanimously rejected the propositions. This creating a wide-spread alarm, the President of Congress assembled that body in special session, and demanded that the militia of the State should be immediately called forth in sufficient force to reduce the soldiers to obedience, disarm them and put them in the power of Congress. Prior to the assembling of Congress at Carpenter's Hall, the soldiers were at their barracks and all was quiet. A session of the Supreme Executive Council was held on the following day, Sunday, at the house of President Dickinson. That body, however, was not as much in favor of the extreme measures as Congress. The result was that the latter, dissatisfied with the indisposition of the Council, adjourned to meet at Princeton, New Jersey. The action of Congress was neither prudent nor necessary. It was, continues Mr. Westcott, whose account we have given, the result of too high a degree of pride, and a disposition to construe an undesigned affront into a wanton insult, or it was a consequence of a pusilanimous fear, that was unjustifiable by the succession of events. The promoters of this mutiny escaped, but several of the ringleaders were arrested and court-martialed. Two of the sergeants of the Third Pennsylvania were sentenced to be shot, while several others were to receive corporal punishment. All were subsequently pardoned by Congress. Congress remained during the summer at Princeton. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, the Council, and prominent citizens of the State invited it to return to Philadelphia, and although Congress seemed pleased and satisfied at the measures taken, yet they were ashamed to go back to a city they had deserted so precipitately and causelessly almost, and they adjourned to meet at Annapolis. 206 GENERAL HlISTORY. During this year, a conference was held by George Bryan, George Gray, and William Bingham, commissioners appointed on behalf of Pennsylvania, and Abraham Clark, Joseph Cooper, and Thomas Henderson, on behalf of New Jersey, to settle the jurisdiction of the islands in the Delaware. By this body the islands were assigned to the States according to proximity. Windmill island, League island, Mud or Foot island, Hog island, and Little Tinicum were annexed to the State of Pennsylvania, while Petty's island and Red Bank island were assigned to New Jersey. It was further agreed that the river Delaware should be a public highway, and that the two States should have concurrent jurisdiction between the shores. This treaty was ratified by an act passed 20th September. At the general election in October, members of the Council of Censors were chosen, conformable to the Constitution of 1776, for the purpose of inspecting the acts of the Legislature and Executive branches of the Government, since the adoption of that instrument. On the 10th of November, the Council of Censors met at Philadelphia. Of this body, Frederick A. Muhlenberg was chosen president. The Council continued in existence nearly a year, adjourning finally on the 25th of September, 1784. Various amendments were discussed and strong differences of opinion were manifested; but in their address to the freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at the close of their labors, recommended a continuance of the frame of government. They say, "If with heart and hand united, we will all combine to support the Constitution, and apply its injunction,; to the best use of society, we shall find it a source of the richest blessings. We would earnestly recommend this to you. Give it a fair and honest trial; and if after all, at the end of another seven years, it shall be found necessary or proper to introduce any changes, they may then be brought in, and established upon a full conviction of their usefulness, with harmony and good temper, without noise, tumult, or violence." The definitive treaty of peace with England was ratified by Congress 1784. on the 14th of January, 1784, and proclamation of the fact published on the 22d of that month. In celebration of this event, the Legislature of Pennsylvania erected a triumphal arch on High Street, between Sixth and Seventh streets. By an unlucky accident the arch took fire just as the inaugurating ceremonies were to take place. On the 9th of August, General Lafayette visited Philadelphia and was received by the citizens of the State with great enthusiasm, "amidst the discharge of artillery and the ringing of the bells." He was waited upon by the officers of the Pennsylvania Line, headed by Generals Wayne, St. Clair, and Irvine, and an address of welcome and congratulation delivered by President Dickinson, in the presence of the Council and the Assembly. Since the year 1768, the northwestern boundary of Indian purchases in the State ran from the Susquehanna, on the New York line, to Towanda creek; thence to the head of Pine creek; thence to its mouth, and up the West Branch to its source; thence over to Kittanning, and down the Ohio to the west line of the State. The last treaty held at Fort Stanwix with the Indians took place in October, 1784. One important feature of this treaty was the settlement of the difficulty that had existed for sixteen years between the whites, in relation to the 207 GENERAL HISTORY. were from time to time burned at Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Cayuga. In the fall of 1669, the Susquehannas, after defeating the Cayugas, offered peace, but the Cayugas put their ambassador and his nephew to death, after retaining him five or six months-the Oneidas having taken nine Susquehannas, and sent some to Cayuga, with forty wampum belts to maintain the war. At this time the great war chief of the Susquehannas was one styled IHochitagete, or Barefoot, and raving women and crafty medicine men deluded the Iroquois with promises of his capture and execution at the stake, and a famous medicine man of Oneida appeared after death to order his body to be taken up and interred on the trail leading to the Susquehannas, as the only means of saving that canton from ruin. Toward the summer of 1672 a body of forty Cayugas descended the Susquehanna in canoes, and twenty Senecas went by land to attack the enemy in their fields; but a band of sixty Andastd, or Susquehanna boys, the oldest not over sixteen, attacked the Senecas and routed then]m, killing one brave and taking another. Flushed with victory, they pushed on to attack the Cayugas, and defeated them also, killing eight, and wounding with arrow, knife, and hatchet fifteen or sixteen more, losing, however, fifteen or sixteen of their gallant band. At this time the Susquehannas were so reduced by war and pestilence that they could muster only three hundred warriors. In 1675, according to the Relations Inelites and Colden, the tribe was completely overthrown, but unfortunately we have no details whatever as to the forces which effected it, or the time or manner of their utter defeat. The remnant, too proud to yield to those with whom they had long contended as equals, and, by holding the land of their fathers by sufferance, to acknowledge themselves subdued, yet too weak to withstand the victorious Iroquois, forsook the river bearing their name, taking up a position on the western borders of Maryland, near the Piscataways. Shortly after they were accused of the murder of some settlers, apparently slain by the Senecas; they sent five of their chiefs to the Maryland and Virginia troops, under Col. John Washington, great-grandfather of General George Washington, and Major Thomas Truman, who went out in pursuit. Although coming as deputies, and showing the Baltimore medal and certificate of friendship, these chiefs were cruelly put to death. The enraged Susquehannas then began a terrible border war, which was kept up until their utter destruction. Having thus followed the fortunes of the aborigines in the centre of Pennsylvania, we turn our attention to the two tribes residing therein upon the arrival of the Founder-and whose important connection with the subsequent history of the State deserves more than a passing notice. We refer to the Delawares and Shawanese. The Lenni Lenape, or the original people, as they called themselves, inhabited principally the shores of the river Delaware, thence their name. The Lenape were of western origin; and nearly forty tribes, according to lleckewelder, acknowledged them as their " grandfathers " or parent stock. It was related by the braves of the Delawares, that many centuries previous their ancestors dwelt far in the western wilds of the American continent, but emigrating eastwardly, arrived after many years on the Namesi Sipu (the Mississippi), or river of fish, where they fell in with the Mengwe (Iroquois), who had also emigrated from a HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. boundary line embraced by Tyadaghton. It was contended by some that Lycoming creek was the line, and by others that it was Pine creek. SHOWING THE VARIOUS PURCHASES ~XAIDE FRoX W1m INDIAN &C. WVAnR W KEAN POTTEAt. TIOGA1 J?D, GRE OR At this treaty, the Pennsylvania commissioners were specially instructed to EL SE__A 0 CjjN01N LYCOM C inquire of" the Indians which stream was really the Tyadaghton, and, also, the Indian name of Burnett's Hills, left blank in the deed of 1768. The Indians informed them Tyadaghton was what the whites call Pine creek, being the largest stream emptying into th( West Branch. As to Burnett's Hills, they called them the Long Mountains, and knew them by no other name. NE The commissioners at this treaty purchased the residue of the Indian lands within thle limits of Pennsylvania, and the deed, signed by the chiefs of the Six Nations, is dated October 23, 1784. This purchase was confirmed by the Wyandott and Delaware Indians, at Fort McIntosh, by a deed executed by those nations, dated January 21, 1785. Thus, says Meginness, in a period of about one hundred and two years was the whole right of the Indians to the soil of Pennsylvania extinguished. The Legislature, at the time of this last treaty, being apprehensive that the directions given to the commissioners to ascertain the precise boundaries of the purchase of 1768, might produce some inconveniences, declared: " That the said directions did not give, nor ought not to be construed to give, to the said commissioners, any authority to ascertain, deftnitely, the boundary lines aforesaid, in the year 1768, striking the line of the West Branch of Susquehanna, at the mouth of Lycomick or Lycoming creek, shall be the boundaries of the same purchase, to all legal interests and purposes, until the General Assembly shall otherwise regulate and declare the same." This last accession of lands was called by the whites the " New 1785. Purchase," and when the land office opened in 1785, settlers rapidly flocked up the West Branch. ~~AA B1AM BU IRC4 G E At ~ j: thi trety thKenyvnacmisoeswr pcalntutdt ThA ominr t this treatyprhae the Penyvnacmisoeswre seofei Indyins landst wnihn the liiof Purenn'syHlani, letan the desged by the8 che ofnhedixn Ninons,d ise datdacto 23, wha t84. This casewase cofred byn the Wan-es stteand elawareg indian6Wst Frth McIntosh Byret' ails deed excledb thoe ntie on, dated ns Janr 21,w 18.thus, sbys Mtegnnaesna eido bu onehued amsind at years wrathe wurhled rihteiu of the Indian oathesolf wihntemt fPennsylvania, exinushd [hLeiltrede, atne the time ofchies las treaty, Nthens peis bdaries Ocof the74i purchase ofs 1c68nmihtredu some nconneotnces ]Delad: "Ths,at et saddrctosh,b didd otgie,ougt not tosbe caonsudatoe, tonar the said. comms,siones, aenyss toity to aerin, efi-ou ntely hded bondar lietfoead,ioh year 1768 sh hlihftreIikn t hie ofilthe WensyBranh oftiSuseana the moisuth, of Lyeomim or Lyoing catre,l bhe the boundaries of th ae purchase, o all8 leg intrssdupupoes uovnil the General Assembly shall otherwise regulate and declare the same." This last accession of lands was called by the whites the "1New 1785. Purchase," and when the land office opened in 1785, settlers rapidly flocked up the We,.t Branch. 208 GENERAL HISTORY. On the 4th of July of this year, the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, the first in the United States, was organized. On the 18th of October, Benjamin Franklin,* then on the verge of eighty, having arrived from France the previous month, was chosen President of the State, and Charles Biddle, Vice-President. The controversy in relation to the test laws which the previous year had caused the disruption of the Assembly, was reviewed before the Legislature, but little relief was 1786. given by the act of 4th of March, 1786, and it was not until three years after that a bill was passed repealing all laws requiring any oath or affirmation of allegiance "from the inhabitants of the State." The islands assigned to Pennsylvania by the treaty with New Jersey were, by an act passed at this session of the Legislature, distributed among the several counties bordering on the river. Up to this time the jurisdiction over BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Hog island was doubtful, but it had been exercised by Philadelphia county. By this act that island was permanently attached to Chester county. During this year considerable activity was manifested by manufacturers and inventors. Applications were made to the Assembly for aid, by John Stephens, to enable him to prosecute to perfection his discovery of the art of making blue stone melting pots equal to black lead crucibles; by John Fitch, the exclusive right to his invention of navigating boats and vessels by steam * BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born at Boston, Massachusetts, on the 17th of January, 1706. Apprenticed to his brother James, a printer, he occasionally contributed to the newspaper published by him. The brothers disagreeing, Benjamin left him, went to Philadelphia, and established himself as a printer. He subsequently visited England, where he worked as a journeyman, returned in 1726, and in 1729 became editor and proprietor of the Pennsylvania Gazette. In 1730, married Deborah Reed; commenced publishing "Poor Richard's Almnanac," which acquired a wide celebrity. He became clerk of the Provincial Assembly in 1736, postmaster of Philadelphia, 1737, deputy postmaster, general of the British Colonies in 1753, agent of the Assembly in opposition to the claims of the Proprietary Governments of exemption from taxation in England, 1757-62. In 1752 he made, by means of a kite, the great discovery of the identity of lightning with the electric fluid. This procured him the membership of the Royal Society, the Copley gold medal, and the degree of LL.D., in 1762, from Oxford and Edinburgh. In 1755 he assisted in furnishing transportation for Braddock's expedition. He was commissioner to the Albany Congress of 1754. While in England, in 1766, he was examined before the House of Commons on the state of affairs in the Colonies, and partly by his exertions the obnoxious Stamp Act was repealed. Returning to Philadelphia, in May, 1775, he was elected to Congress; was one of the committee to prepare, and a signer of, the Declaration of Independence. He was president of the Provincial Convention which framed the Constitution of 1776. From the close of the latter year to 1785 was ambassador to France. To him is due the principal credit of procuring the treaty of alliance with France, 1778, which secured the independence of the Colonies. With Adams and Jay, he signed the definite treaty of peace, September 3, 1783. He was President of Pennsylvania, 1785-88, and delegate to the Convention which framed the Federal Constitution of 1787. -He died at Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. 209 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. by John Eve, manufacturer of gunpowder; by Oliver Evans, for the exclusive right to use his inventions of machines for making cotton and woolen cards, and also a machine to clean wheat and manufacture it into flour; by Whitehead Humphreys, for assistance to prosecute his discoveries in the art of converting bar-iron into steel; by George Wall, for exclusive manufacture of a new mathematical instrument invented by him; and by Emanuel Bantling, for a special law of encouragement for his invention of a tube-bellows for blacksmiths. In March, 1787, the subject of the removal of the seat of the State Govern ment from Philadelphia to Harrisburg was introduced into the Assem 1787. bly by Mr. Findley. The preamble stated that " the people of the State suffered great inconvenience, and were subjected to unequal burdens in consequence of the seat of Government, Land Office, Treasury of the State, Comptroller-General's Office, and Rolls' Office being fixed at Philadelphia, at the distance of four hundred miles from the Western boundary of the State." He therefore moved that a committee be appointed to bring a bill appointing commissioners to erect a State House at Harrisburg, on a lot of ground belonging to the State. This motion was carried by a vote of thirty-three yeas to twenty-nine nays, but was shortly afterward reconsidered and laid on the table. In May of this year [1787], the Convention to frame the Federal Constitution assembled in Philadelphia. Twelve States were represented. The delegates from Pennsylvania were Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, and Gouverneur Morris. General Washington was elected president, and William Jackson, secretary. The Convention sat with closed doors. It terminated its deliberations on the 18th of September, when the scheme of the Constitution was perfected. The plan had many opponents in Pennsylvania, particularly among the partisans of the State Government. A draft of the instrument was reported to the Assembly, when a motion was made to authorize the calling of a State Convention to deliberate upon its adoption. This body met on the 21st of November, and was organized by the choice of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg as president, and James Campbell as secretary. On the 12th of December following, the final adoption of the draft of the Constitution was carried by a vote of forty-six yeas to twenty-three nays. The day after, the members of the Convention and of the Supreme Executive Council, with officers of the State, and the city of Philadelphia, and others, went in procession from the State House to the old Court House, where the ratification of the instrument was solemnly proclaimed. Twelve cannon were fired and the bells were rung. The Convention returned to the State House, where two copies of the ratification of the Constitution were signed. According to Hamilton, a motion was made that all members should sign it as an acquiescence to the principle that the majority should govern, which was strenuously objected to by the opponents of this instrument. The Federal Constitution, after its adoption by Pennsylvania, was submitted to the other States, and as State after State approved of it, the exultation of the " Federalists," as they were called, and the chagrin of the " AntiFederalists," were displayed with more and more violence. In several States processions had taken place to celebrate the inauguration of the new era, but in 210 GENERAL HISTORY. Pennsylvania, says Westcott, there had been no celebration of this kind, the proceedings in reference to the adoption of the Constitution being hurried through so as not to allow of any public display. It was decided, however, that as soon as the ninth State acceded to it, measures should be taken for public rejoicing. Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Con 1788. necticut, Maryland, South Carolina, and Massachusetts had adopted it prior to June, 1788, and when, on the 21st of that month, New Hampshire, the ninth State, ratified it, it was determined by the citizens of Philadelphia to celebrate the formation of the new Union on the ensuing 4th of July. By that time Virginia had acceded to the Constitution. This pageant was as imposing as it was possible for the authorities and people of Pennsylvania, in their enthusiasm, to make it, and not only in the metropolis, but in every town in the State was the occasion one of patriotism and splendor. The adoption of the Constitution, says Mr. Westcott, rendered the institution of measures necessary for the election of members of Congress and electors of President and Vice President of the United States. In order to avail themselves as fully as possible of the privileges afforded, the Anti-Federalists were early at work. A few among the leading men of this party assembled in convention at Harrisburg in September, ostensibly for the purpose of recommending a revision of the new Constitution. Blair McClenachan was chairman of this small assembly, and General John A. Hanna secretary. They resolved that it was expedient to recommend an acquiescence in the Constitution, but that a revision of the instrument was necessary. Among other topics enforced was the propriety of a reform of the ratio of Congressional representation, and that Senators should be liable to be superseded or recalled at any time by the State which elected them. Several other changes were advocated, but it contented itself by nominating a general ticket for Congress. The action of this body was immediately denounced, and as the nominees were Anti-Federalists, it was said that power to enforce the new Constitutional system ought not to be granted to its opponents. A new convention was called to meet at Lancaster, which selected candidates for Congress and electors for President. The election of members of Congress took place in November, and in the State six of the nominees on the Federal ticket were elected, and two (David Muhlenberg, of Montgomery, and Daniel Heister, of Berks), who, although Federalists, had, with two others of the same politics, been placed as a matter of policy with the opposition ticklet. On the 14th of October, Vice President Muhlenberg resigning, David Redick, of Washington county, was chosen to that station. On the 5th of November following, General Thomas Mifflin succeeded Benjamin Franklin, who declined a re-election on account of his advanced years. At the same time George Ross, of Lancaster, was elected Vice President. The first election for electors of President of the United States under the new Constitution was held in January. The Federal ticket was success 1789. ful-the ten votes of Pennsylvania were given for George Washington as President, and eight votes for John Adams, and two for John Hancock for Vice President. Eleven of the thirteen States participated in the election-two not having'ratified the Constitution, and the other not having provided for the choosing of electors. General Washington received the 211 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. unanimous vote as President, and John Adams had the majority for Vice President. The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 proving inadequate for the requirements of a useful and effective government, its revision was demanded. On the 24th of March the Assembly passed resolutions recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly. In September following the latter body passed resolutions for calling a convention. At the election in October delegates were chosen, and on the fourth Tuesday of November the Convention assembled in Philadelphia, electing Thomas Mifflin, President. After a long session the members adjourned in the ensuing year to meet again, when 1790. the subject of the Constitution was again taken up and concluded, and the new instrument adopted September 2, 1790. The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches of government. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, a Senate being created. The Supreme Executive Council was abolished. A governor was directed to be elected, to whom the administration of affairs was to be entrusted. The former judicial system was continued, excepting that the judges of the higher courts were to be appointed during good behavior, instead of for seven years. The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision copied into the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship, rights of conscience, and exemptions from compulsory contributions for the support of any ministry. The recognition of God, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, was still demanded of all holding office, but a belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not included. The Council of Censors ceased to have authority; and Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which the new Federal Government was to be administered. In the autumn of 1790, depredations on the frontiers became of common occurrence, and as little could be done to arrest them without marching into the heart of the Indian settlements, this was determined upon, and General Josiah Harmar was ordered to march upon the towns bordering on the Miami. The result was unfortunate, owing to the ruinous plan of acting in detachments.; by this means one-half of the regular force was lost. This abortive expedition served only to encourage the enemy, and to give additional rancor to their incursions. The failure of General Harmar made a deep impression upon the American nation, and was followed by a loud demand for a greater force, under the command of a more experienced general. General Arthur St. Clair, a native of Pennsylvania, an officer of the Revolution, and then Governor of the Northwestern territory, was placed in the year following at the head of a regular force of about fifteen hundred men, well furnished with artillery, and six hundred militia. Like Hlarmar's, this expedition was a disastrous failure, ending in the total route of St. Clair's army, and the loss of many officers and men. This, in proportion to the number engaged, was enormous and unparalleled, except in the affair of Braddock. Sixty-eight officers were killed upon the spot, and twenty-eight wounded. Out of nine hundred privates who went into action, five hundred and fifty were left dead upon the field, and many of the survivors were wounded. 212 CHAPTER XIV. ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR MIFFLIN. THE YELLOW FEVER IN PHILADELPIIIA. THE PRESQU'ISLE ESTABLISHMENT. THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. DEFENCE OF THE FRONTIERS. 1790-1794. HE first election held under the Constitution of the Commonwealth that of 1790, resulted in the choice of Thomas Mifflin* for Governor. General Mifflin had little or no opposition, his term of service as President being highly acceptable to the people. General Arthur St. Clair, his opponent, was highly esteemed, but the popularity of Mifflin carried him in triumph, and for three terms was chosen to the chief magistracy of Pennsylvania, and the routine of executive business, says Armor, as established by him under the new Constitution, with little variation has been preserved. Several impor tant events transpired during his administration which more than ordinarily moved the public mind. The system of internal improvements which in Pennsylvania in after years formed so great a portion of the cares of the State, and which involved the Commonwealth in heavy debts, dates its beginning from measures adopted during the first year of Governor Mifflin's administration. The committee appointed by the Legislature THOMAS MIFFLIN. at their session in 1790, made a long and valuable report on the 19th of February, 1791, in which the results of the 1791. examinations made in previous years by the commissioners were embodied. The members of this committee were of opinion that the *THOMAS MIFFLIN was born in Philadelphia, in 1744, of Quaker parentage. On the completion of his education in the Philadelphia College, he entered a counting-house. He visited Europe in 1765, and returning, entered into mercantile pursuits. In 1772, he was chosen to the Assembly from Philadelphia; and in 1774, a delegate to the first Continental Congress. He was appointed major of one of the first Pennsylvania battalions; accompanied Washington to Cambridge, as aid-de-camp; in August, was made quarter-master general; shortly afterwards adjutant general; brigadier general, March 16, 1776; and major general, February 19, 1777. He commanded the covering party during the retreat from Long Island. After the battle of Germantown, he resigned his position in the army. In 1782, was elected a delegate to Congress, of which body he was president in 1783. He was member and speaker of the Legislature in 1785; a delegate to the convention to frame the Federal constitution in 1787; President of the Supreme Executive Council from October, 1788, to December, 1790; president of the convention which framed the constitution of 1790; Governor of the State from 1790 to 1799; and died at Lancaster, January 21,1800, while serving as a member of the Legislature. 213 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Delaware river could be an important channel for the introduction of the trade and produce of New York by a portage of nineteen miles, and by extending two other short portages to Lake Ontario. They estimated that a safe boat and raft navigation might be made to the Northern boundary of the State for ~25,000. In regard to the connection of the Delaware and Allegheny rivers, they stated various interesting facts. In 1790 it was said that one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of wheat had been brought down the Susquehanna, and passed through Middletown for Philadelphia, a large proportion of which came from the Juniata. In 1788 a considerable quantity of flour went up the Susquehanna for the settlers of Northumberland. A further report was made in April, by which appropriations for opening the rivers were recommended, and that the Governor should issue a proclamation inviting proposals for undertaking the construction of canals and locks in and near the waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla; that a canal should be made from Frankstown to Poplar run; that proposals should be invited for clearing the Susquehanna from Wright's ferry to the Maryland line; that the construction of a turnpike road from Philadelphia through Lancaster to the Susquehanna should be contracted for; also, other roads throughout the State. The bill was passed on the 6th of April, and in August Governor Mifflin apprised the Legislature that he had made contracts for the improvement of certain streams, but that several propositions had not yet met with persons wil4ing to undertake the specified work." In the meanwhile, continues Mr. Westcott, "an association was formed for promoting the improvement of roads and inland navigation," and the Assembly was asked to pass an act of incorporation for "a company for opening a canal and lock navigation between the rivers Schuylkill and Susquehanna, or by the waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla, and the Quittapahilla and Swatara in the counties of Berks and Dauphin." The public interest was strongly aroused in favor of this enterprise, and the most sanguine ideas of its importance and successful accomplishment were indulged in. It is stated that forty thousand shares were subscribed for, when the number were but one thousand. To give all an equal chance, the shares were distributed among the subscribers by lottery. This enterprise began in 1792, was completed after some years, and is now known as the Union Canal. In April, 1793, a company was chartered for the purpose of constructing a canal and lock navigation in the west branch of the Brandywine. 1793. On the same day "The Conewago Canal Company" was authorized to open and improve the navigation of the Susquehanna river, from Wright's ferry to the mouth of the Swatara. This project was an important object in the great scheme for internal improvement and intercourse with the West. The remains of this canal around the Great Falls are still to be seen. During the same year the Bank of Pennsylvania was incorporated by the Legislature, the opinion being expressed that it would "promote the regular, permanent, and successful operation of the finances of the State, and be productive of great benefit to trade and industry in general." The State subscribed for one-third of the entire stock-and branches were established at Lancaster, Harrisburg, Reading, Easton, and Pittsburgh. These were discontinued in 1810; in 1843 the State sold its stock, and with the financial crisis of 1857 it sunk in ruin. 214 GENERAL HISTORY. In 1793, the affairs of the French revolution created undue excitement in America, and much sympathy was expressed by the people of the Union in that terrible convulsion which shook Europe to its centre. The appointment of M. Genet as Minister from the French Republic to the United States, raised the enthusiasm to the highest pitch. Upon the arrival of Genet, the streets of Philadelphia were the scene of continual excitement. Every effort was made by the Federal and State governments to stem the tide of Gallic madness which threatened violence, owing to the number of English and French sailors then in the port of the capital. A British ship, the Granger, was captured in the Delaware, but being in violation of the laws of nations, was promptly released. Following this a vessel named the Sally was fitted out as a French privateer. The State government determined to make an effort to maintain the neutrality of the port, and Mr. Dallas, Secretary of the Commonwealth, was directed by Governor Mifflin to wait on M. Genet, and forbid the sailing of the vessel. In the course of the violent controversy which ensued during this interveiw, Genet said that he "would appeal from the President to the people." This expression, so severely criticised and denounced by the citizens and the press, was emphatically denied by the French minister. He gave his promise that the privateer should not leave, but in violation she did sail a few days afterward. A committee of merchants waited on Governor Mifflin and entreated him to preserve neutrality. The governor assured them that every measure would be taken; and the Federal authorities also showed earnestness in the determination to repress the proceedings of M. Genet. In the heated discussions which resulted, Governor Mifflin maintained a reserved and dignified position. At the opening of the session of the Legislature in August, the Executive reported the measures which were taken to preserve the neutrality of the ports. In accordance with his views, an appropriation was made for the erection of a battery on Mud island, for the purpose of commanding the river Delaware. It was during this year that the dreaded pestilence, the yellow fever, ravaged Philadelphia, spreading dismay and terror. The general consternation which incited many to flee from the destroyer, "produced scenes of distress and misery," wrote Matthew Carey, "of which parallels are rarely to be met with, and which nothing could palliate but the extraordinary public panic and the great law of self-preservation. Men of affluent fortunes, who gave daily employment and sustenance to hundreds, were abandoned to the care of a negro, after their wives, children, friends, clerks, and servants had fled away and left them to their fate. In some cases, at the commencement of the disorder, no money could procure proper attendance. With the poor the case was as might be expected, infinitely worse than the rich. Many of these perished without a human being to hand them a drink of water, to administer medicines, or to perform any charitable office for them. Various instances occurred of dead bodies found lying in the streets, of persons who had no house or habitation and could procure no shelter." The cessation of business, in consequence of the plague, threw hundreds of poor people out of employment. Want and famine made their appearance. While the fatal atmosphere of contagion overspread the devoted city, says Westcott, the most frightful exaggerations of the real condi215 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. tion of things were spread throughout the country, the consequence of which very soon became serious. In nearly all the cities and towns, near and far, with a few humane exceptions, all intercourse with Philadelphia was prohibited. This added to the general distress. At last the benevolence of the inhabitants elsewhere came to the relief, and contributions in money and provisions were poured out with a liberal hand. The mortality, it is stated, was about five thousand, equal to twenty-two per cent. of those remaining in the city. Among those attacked were Governor Mifflin and Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury under Washington. Both recovered, and on the 14th of November the Executive issued a proclamation, stating the pestilence had ceased, and fixing a day of thanksgiving, fasting, and prayer. The defence of the western portion of the State from Indian incur 1794. sions again required the prompt attention of the authorities, and on the 28th of February, 1794, the Legislature passed an act for raising soldiers for the defence of the river Delaware and of the western frontiers. At the same time efforts were made toward the laying out of a town at Presqu'Isle, "in order to facilitate and promote the'progress of settlement within the Commonwealth, and to afford additional security to the frontiers thereof." Governor Mifflin transmitted to the President of the United States a copy of this act, apprehending the difficulties which soon manifested themselves. Prior to this he had sent to Captain Ebenezer Denny a commission, giving him the command of the Allegheny company, ordered to protect Messrs. William Irvine, Andrew Ellicott, and Albert Gallatin, who had been appointed commissioners to lay out the town. For the same object, a post had been established at Le Bceuf, two miles below the site of the old French fort of that name. On the arrival of the detachment at Fort Franklin the news were not favorable toward an establishment at Presqu'Isle. The Indians had been irritated by the British, and meditated an opposition to the government. General Wilkins, in writing to Mr. Dallas, stated " the English are fixed in their opposition to the opening of the road to Presqu'Isle, and are determined to send a number of English and Indians to cut them off." On the 24th of May Governor Mifflin applied to the President to order one thousand militia from the Western brigades, raised for the frontier defence, to support the commissioners who were authorized to lay out the towns. The brigade inspectors of Westmoreland, Washington, Allegheny, and Fayette, accordingly made a draft for that number to co-operate with Captain Denny's detachment, under the command of General Wilkins. The citizens of Northwestern Pennsylvania urged on improvements, and the President, fearful of giving offence to the Indians, advised a temporary cessation. Governor Mifflin, in writing to the Secretary of War, said: " Some of the old grievances, alleged to have been suffered from the Union, the inflammatory speech of Lord Dorchester, the constant machinations of British agents, and the corruption of the British tribes, had, in truth, previously excited that hostile disposition which you seem to consider the effect of the measures pursued by Pennsylvania for establishing a town at Presqu'Isle.... I desire to be clearly understood that on my part no assent is given to any proposition that shall bring in doubt or controversy the rights of the States.... At the same time I am 216 GENERIAL HISTOR Y. anxious to promote the views of the general government, and to avoid increasing the dissatisfaction of the Six Nations, or in any manner extending the sphere of Indian hostilities." Orders were issued to Captain Denny to proceed no farther with his detachment than Le Boeuf, where under the direction of General Wilkins two small block-houses had been erected for the protection of the commissioners. Attorney-General Bradford having been written to by the Secretary of War as to the constitutionality of raising four companies of troops "for the port of Philadelphia and the defence of the frontiers," replied: " There is nothing in the Constitution, I apprehend, which prohibits the several States from keeping troops in time of war. If peace shall be made with the Indians, and the United States be engaged in no other war, these troops cannot be constitutionally kept up in Pennsylvania, although the war should continue to rage in Europe." A rumor prevailing that a large body of Indians, assisted by the British, had been seen crossing the lake, and others descending the Allegheny, with the object of taking Fort Franklin, destroying the settlement at Cussewago, and then make an establishment at Presqu'Isle, Captain Denny removed to Venango with his men, at the same time ordering the brigades to be ready when called. On the 18th of June, at Buffalo creek, a council was held with the Six Nations, by Captain Denny and the Pennsylvania commissioner, General Chapin. Cornplanter addressed the conference, in substance as follows: " That they depended upon the Americans to do all in their power to assist them; they wished Colonel Johnson, the British agent, and General Chapin to remove back over the line which they had laid out. This line began at O'Bail's town, and in a direct line crossed French creek, just below Mead's, and on the head of the Cuyahoga; from thence to the Muskingum, and down the Ohio and to the mouth and up the Mississippi, leaving a small square for a trading house at the mouth of the rivers, and one where Clarksville now stands. If this removal was attended to immediately, they should consider them friends; if not, they must be considered enemies." Mr. Ellicott and Captain Denny desired an interval of an hour to prepare an answer, at the expiration of which they replied as follows: " By the peace of 1782 the King of Great Britain ceded all the lands of Pennsylvania, which they claim, but from regard to justice they desired to fairly purchase it from the Six Nations-the real owners of the soil. The purchase north of the north boundary of Pennsylvania, west of the Conewango river, Lake Chatauqua, and the path leading from thence to Lake Erie, and south of said lake, was made of your chiefs at Fort Harmar by Generals Butler and Gibson, and the money and goods punctually paid them. They had also sold those lands to such people as chose to settle and work them, and it was their duty to protect them from depredations. Their military preparations were intended as a defence from hostile Western Indians, not supposing they needed any from the Six Nations, whom they considered their friends and allies. They could not consistently with their duty remove from the lands they had purchased, unless directed to do so by the great council of the people, to whom they would immediately send their message. They had been ordered by the great council of Pennsylvania to their present post, and they could not move from thence until orders came for that purpose." 217 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. distant country, and approached this river somewhat nearer its source. The spies of the Lenape reported the country on the east of the Mississippi to be inhabited by a powerful nation, dwelling in large towns erected upon their principal rivers. This people, tall and stout, some of whom, as tradition reports, were of gigantic mould, bore the name of Allegewi, and from them were derived the names of the Allegheny river and mountains. Their towns were defended by regular fortifications or intrenchments of earth, vestiges of which are yet shown in greater or less preservation. The Lenape requested permission to establish themselves in their vicinity. This was refused, but leave was given them to pass the river, and seek a country farther to the eastward. But, whilst the Lenape were crossing the river, the Allegewi, becoming alarmed at their number, assailed and destroyed many of those who had reached the eastern shore, and threatened a like fate to the others should they attempt the stream. Fired at the loss they had sustained, the Lenape eagerly accepted a proposition from the Mengwe, who had hitherto been spectatot's only of their enterprise, to conquer and divide the country. A war of many years duration was waged by the united nations, marked by great havoc on both sides, which eventuated in the conquest and expulsion of the Allegewi, who fled by the way of the Mississippi, never to return. Their devastated country was apportioned among the conquerors; the Iroquois choosing their residence in the neighborhood of the great lakes, and the Lenape possessing themselves of the lands to the south. After many ages, during which the conquerors lived together in great harmony, the enterprising hunters of the Lenape crossed the Allegheny mountains, and discovered the great rivers Susquehanna and Delaware, and their respective bays. Exploring the Sheyiclhbi country (New Jersey), they arrived on the.Indson, to which they subsequently gave the name of the Mohicanniltuck river. Returning to their nation, after a long absence, they reported their discoveries, describing the country they had visited as abounding in game and fruits, fish and fowl, and destitute of inhabitants. Concluding this to be the country destined for them by the Great Spirit, the Lenspe proceeded to establish themselves upon the principal rivers of the east, making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of Lenape-wihilluck (the river or stream of the Lenape), the centre of their possessions. They say, however, that all of their nation who crossed the Mississippi did not reach this country; a part remaining behind to assist that portion of their people who, frightened by the reception which the Allegewi had given to their countrymen, fled far to the west of the Namasi Sipu. They were finally divided into three great bodies; the larger, one-half of the whole, settled on the Atlantic; the other half was separated into two parts, the stronger continued beyond the Mississippi, the other remained on its eastern bank. Those on the Atlantic were subdivided into three tribes-the Turtle or Unamnis, the Turkey or Unalachigo, and the Wolf or Minsi. The two former inhabited the coast fi'om the Hudson to the Potomac, settling in small bodies in towns and villages upon the larger streams, under the chiefs subordinate to the great council of the nation. The Minsi, called by the English Monseys, the most warlike of the three tribes, dwelt in the interior, forming a barrier between their HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. At another conference, held at the same place, the Indians maintained that they " had decided upon their boundaries, and wished for nothing but justice-they wanted room for their children. If a garrison were established at Presqu'Isle the southern Indians might do injury and the Six Nations be blamed for it." In October, the President, at the desire of the Indians, appointed a conference at Canandaigua for the purpose of establishing a firm and permanent friendship with the Six Nations, and appointed Colonel Timothy Pickering sole agent for this purpose. At this council all difficulties were amicably settled, a large tract of land west of the Phelps and Gorham purchase in New York was reserved to them, with $14,500 in goods; and fifty-nine sachems signed a treaty of perpetual peace and friendship with the United States. Although active preparations were made for carrying out the intentions of the Legislature, an act was subsequently passed to suspend the laying out of a town at Presqu'Isle, and it was not until the 18th of April, 1795, that, all difficulties removed, the same body authorized the laying out of the towns at Le Bweuf, at the mouth of Conewango creek, at the mouth of the French creek, and at Presqu'Isle. At this time transpired the important events to which we shall now refer. Perhaps no part of the history of Pennsylvania is less understood than the insurrection of 1794, commonly known as the "Whiskey Insurrection." We give, therefore, a summary of the various excise laws of Pennsylvania, with their fate as indicating the temper of the people on that subject, together with a notice of the hardships the early settlers of Western Pennsylvania had to endure, the disturbances following the enactment of an excise law by Congress, and of the measures, peaceable and military, taken to suppress them. On the 16th of March, 1684, the first excise was imposed by the Assembly of the Province, in an act entitled " Bill of Aid and Assistance of the Government." [Votes of Assembly, I. 29.] This objectionable feature thereof was soon after repealed, and not renewed until the year 1738, when the Provincial Assembly passed "An Act for laying an excise on wine, rum, brandy, and other spirits." So unpopular was this act, that it remained in force only a few months. In May, 1744, it was again renewed by the Assembly, for the purpose of providing money without a general tax, not only to purchase arms and ammunition for defence, but to answer such demands as might be made upon the inhabitants of the Province by his Majesty for distressing the public enemy in America. This was not long in operation. In the year 1772, the attention of the Assembly was once more called to the excise as a productive source of revenue, and a duty was levied on domestic and foreign spirits. At first, however, as to home distilled spirits it was not executed, and, indeed, hardly any steps were taken for the purpose, particularly in the older counties. But during the Revolutionary war, the necessities of the State and a temporary unpopularity of distillation, owing to the immense amount of grain consumed, rendered the collection of duties both necessary and practicable, and a considerable revenue was thereby attained. Towards the end of the war th! act was repealed. In 1780, Congress resolved that an allowance of an additional sum should be made to the army, to compensate for the depreciation of its pay. This was 218 GENERAL HISTORY. distributed among the States for discharge. Pennsylvania made several appropriations for the purpose, but the revenues so applied turned out to be unproductive. The depreciation fund was always favorably regarded, and upon an application of the officers of the Pennsylvania Line, another effort was made, the revenue arising from the excise remaining uncollected was appropriated to this fund, and vigorous measures were taken for its collection. [Dallas, II. 162.] Great changes, however, had taken place in the disposition of the people since the first imposition of these duties. The neighboring States were free from the burthen, and in New Jersey, where a law had been passed for the purpose, its execution had been entirely prevented by a powerful combination. The Pennsylvania law, therefore, met with great opposition, especially west of the Alleghenies, and there is no evidence that the excise was ever paid in that section. The majority of the people in the western counties of the State were of ScotchIrish descent. They had heard of the exaction and oppression in the old country under the excise laws-that houses were entered by excise officers, the most private apartments examined, and that confiscations and imprisonment followed if the smallest quantity of whiskey was discovered not marked with the official brand. They also remembered that resistance to the stamp act and duty on tea, at the commencement of the Revolution, began by the destruction of the tea and a refusal to use the royal stamps; that the design was not to break allegiance to the British throne, but to force a repeal of these odious laws. They were almost to a man enemies to the British government, and had contributed their full proportion in service in establishing the independence of America. To them no other tax of equal amount would have been half so odious. Holding these opinions, it is not to be wondered at, that the more hot-headed resorted to threats of violence, and precipitated the riotous proceedings which are detailed in the pages following. The condition of the Western counties at this period we shall briefly describe. This portion of Pennsylvania was partially settled from ten or fifteen years before the war of the Revolution. During that contest the people west of the mountains had to defend themselves against the murderous attacks of the Indians on their borders. The savage foe often made incursions into the settlements, murdered men, women, and children, burnt their cabins and destroyed their grain and cattle. On one occasion they penetrated into the centre of Westmoreland county, burnt the county town, killed several of the inhabitants, and carried off as prisoners the daughters of Hanna, the original proprietor of the place. In the summer season, for several years, the men placed their wives and children in block-houses, guarded by the old men, while the young and active hoed their corn and harvested their crops in parties, some keeping watch and others performing the work. They were also called on for their quota of men to fight the British on the Atlantic coast. " When a boy," says Dr. Carnahan in an excellent resum6 of the transaction, "I have heard from the lips of western men of the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and also of the horrors and sufferings of the Jersey prison-ships. For several years after the peace of 1783, there was nothing but a horse-path over the mountains; so that salt, iron, powder, lead, and other necessary articles had to be carried on pack219 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. horses from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. As late as 1794, the year of the insurrection, so bad were the roads that freight in wagons cost from five to ten dollars per hundred pounds, salt sold for five dollars a bushel; iron and steel from fifteen to twenty cents per pound in Pittsburgh. " Western Pennsylvania is a hilly but remarkably healthy and fertile region, and in its virgin state the soil produced wheat, rye, corn, and other grains in abundance with very little culture. But there was no market. While the farmers east of the mountains were growing rich by means of the French revolution and the general war in Europe, those west of the mountains could find no outlet for their abundant harvests. The freight of a barrel of flour from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia would cost nearly as much as it would bring in that market. The mouth of the Mississippi was then in the hands of the Spanish, and there were no houses of established character in New Orleans to which produce could be consigned. Merchants in Pittsburgh and elsewhere would not purchase wheat or flour and run the risk of sending it down the river in boats, which were liable to be fired on by the Indians from the banks of the Ohio, the boatmen murdered, and their cargoes destroyed "Trade down the river was carried on in this way: A farmer of more enterprise than his neighbors, would build a boat or ark of rough plank, load it with his own produce and that of his neighbors who were willing to send a venture, and he would float down the Ohio and Mississippi and sell at New Orleans for what he could get, and make his way back in a vessel to New York; or what was more common, he would come through Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, over the mountains and through cane-brakes, wearing a girdle of Spanish dollars round his body, which might serve as a corset in case an Indian, as was very likely, should shoot at him." Wheat was so plentiful and of so little value that it was a common practice to grind that of the best quality and feed it to the cattle, while rye, corn, and barley would bring no price as food for man or beast. The only way left for the inhabitants to obtain a little money to purchase salt, iron, and other articles necessary in carrying on their farming operations, was by distilling their grain and reducing it into a more portable form, and sending the whiskey over the mountains or dowrn the Ohio to Kentucky, then rapidly filling up and affording a market for that article. The lawfulness or morality of making and drinking whiskey was not in that day called in question. When Western Pennsylvania was in the condition described, the Federal Constitution was adopted, and a most difficult problem was presented, viz.: How to provide ways and means to support the government, to pay just and pressing Revolutionary claims, and sustain an army to subdue the Indians still harassing the frontiers. The duties on goods imported were very far from adequate to the wants of the new government. Taxes were laid on articles supposed to be the least necessary, and, among other things, on distilled liquors or on the stills with which they were manufactured. The Constitution of the United States provided "that all duties, imports, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." (Section 8.) But it is manifest that the same article may be taxed alike in all the States, and yet the tax may be very unequal and oppressive in particular parts of the country. Excise on stills and whiskey operated in this way, little or no whiskey was 220 (GENERAL HISTORY. manufactured in some of the States, and in different parts of the same State. The Western people saw and felt that the excise pressed on them, who were the least able to bear the burden, more heavily than on any other part of the Union. They had more stills and made more whiskey than an equal population in any part of the country. There were very few or no large manufactories where grain was bought and cash paid. There was not capital in the country for that purpose. In some neighborhoods every fifth or sixth farmer was a distiller, who, during the winter season, manufactured his own grain and that of his neighbors in a portable and saleable article. They foresaw that what little money was brought into the country by the sale of whiskey would be carried away in the form of excise duties. The people of Western Pennsylvania then regarded a tax on whiskey in the same light as the citizens of the State would now a United States tax on coal and iron. The State tax, as heretofore remarked, having remained a dead letter for years, was repealed, a circumstance not likely to incline the people to submit to a similar law passed by Congress on the 3d of March, 1791, at the suggestion of General Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury. This law laid an excise of four pence per gallon on all distilled spirits. The members from Western Pennsylvania-Smilie, of Fayette, and Findley, of Westmoreland-stoutly opposed the passage of the law, and on their return among their constituents loudly and openly disapproved of it. Albert Gallatin, then residing in Fayette county, also opposed the law by all constitutional methods. It was with some difficulty that any one could be found to accept the office of inspector in the western district on account of its unpopularity. The first public meeting in opposition was held at Redstone Old Fort, 27th July, 1791, where it was concerted that county committees should meet at the four county seats of Fayette, Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Washington. On the 23d of August the committee of Washington county passed resolutions, and published them in the Pittsburgh Gazette, to the effect that "any person who had accepted or might accept an office under Congress in order to carry the law into effect, should be considered inimical to the interests of the country, and recommending to the citizens of Washington county to treat every person accepting such office with contempt, and absolutely to refuse all kind of cornmmunication or intercourse with him, and withhold from him all aid, support, and comfort." Delegates from the four counties met at Pittsburgh, on the 7th of September, 1791, and passed severe resolutions against the law. These meetings, composed of influential citizens, served to give consistency to the opposition. On the 5th of Septefnber, 1791, a party, armed and disguised, waylaid Robert Johnson, collector of Allegheny and Washington, near Pigeon creek, in Washington county, tarred and feathered him, cut off his hair, and took away his horse, leaving him to travel on foot in that mortifying condition. Several persons were proceeded against for the outrage, but the deputy marshal dared not serve the process, and "if he had attempted it, believes he should not have returned alive." The man sent privately with the process was seized, whipped, tarred and feathered, his money and horse taken from him, blindfolded and tied in the woods, where he remained five hours. HISTOBY OF PENNS YL VANIA. In October, 1791, an unhappy person, named Wilson, who was in some measure "disordered in his intellects," and affected to be, perhaps thought he was, an exciseman, and was making inquiry for distillers, was pursued by a party in disguise, taken out of his bed, and carried several miles to a blacksmith's shop. There they stripped off his clothes and burned them, and having burned him with a hot iron in several places, they tarred and feathered him and dismissed him, naked and wounded. The unhappy man conceived himself to be a martyr to the discharge of an important duty. In Congress, 8th of May, 1792, material modifications were made in the law, lightening the duty, allowing monthly payments, &c. In August, 1792, the Government succeeded in getting the use of William Faulkner's house, a captain in the United States army, for an inspection office. Hle was threatened with scalping, tarring and feathering, and compelled to promise not to let his house for that purpose, and to publish his promise in the Pittsburgh Gazette. The President issued a proclamation the 15th of September, 1792, enjoining all persons to submit to the law, and desist from all unlawful proceedings. The Government determined-first, to prosecute delinquents; second, to seize unexcised spirits on their way to market; and third, to make no purchases for the army except of such spirits as had paid duty. In April, 1793, a party in disguise attacked in the night the house of Benjamin Wells, collector in Fayette county, but he being from home, they broke open his house, threatened, terrified, and abused his family. Warrants were issued against the offenders by Judges Isaac Mason and James Findley, but the sheriff refused to execute them, whereupon he was indicted. On the 22d of November they again attacked the house of Benjamin Wells in the night. They compelled him to surrender his commission and books, and required him to publish a resignation of his office within two weeks in the papers, on pain of having his house burned. Notwithstanding these excesses, the law appeared, during the latter part of 1793, to be rather gaining ground. Several principal distillers complied, and others showed a disposition, but were restrained by fear. In June, 1794, John Wells, the collector for Westmoreland, opened his office at the house of Philip Reagan, in that county. An attack was made in the night by a numerous body of men. Reagan expected them, and had prepared himself with guns and one or two men. The firing commenced from the house, and the assailants fired at it for some time, without effect on either side. The insurgents then set fire to Reagan's barn, which they burned, and retired. In the course of a day or two 150 men returned to renew the attack. After some parleying, Reagan, rather than shed blood, proposed to capitulate, provided they would give him honorable terms and assurances that they would neither abuse his person nor destroy his property, he to give up his commission, and never again act as an exciseman. These stipulations were agreed to, reduced to writing and signed by the parties. Reagan then opened his door, and came out with a keg of whiskey and treated them. However, after the whiskey was drunk, some of them began to say that he was let off too easy, and that he ought to be set up as a target to be shot at. Some were for tarring and feathering him, but others took 222 GENERAL HISTORY. his part, and said he had acted manfully, and that after capitulating they were bound to treat him honorably. At length they got to fighting amongst themselves. After this it was proposed and carried that Reagan should be courtmartialed, and that they would march off right away to Ben. Wells, of Fayette county, the excise officer there, and catch him and try him and Reagan both together. They set out accordingly, taking Reagan along, but when they arrived at Wells' house he was not there, so they set fire to it and burned it to the ground with all its contents. They left an ambush near the ruins, in order to seize Wells. Next morning he was taken, but during the night, as Reagan had escaped and Wells was very submissive with them, they let him off without further molestation. The next attack was made on Captain Webster, the excise officer for Somerset county. by a company of about 150 men from Westmoreland. They took his commission from him, and made him promise never again to act as a collector of excise. An attempt was made by some of the party to fire his haystacks, but it was prevented by others. They marched homeward, taking Webster a few miles. Seeing him very submissive, they ordered him to mount a stump and repeat his promise never again to act as a collector of excise, and to hurrah three times for " Tom the Tinker," after which they dismissed him. This term, "Tom the Tinker," came into popular use to designate the opposition to the excise law. It was not given by adversaries as a term of reproach, but assumed by the insurgents in disguise at an early period. " A certain John Holcroft," says Mr. Brackenridge, " was thought to have made the first application of it at the attack on William Coughran, whose still was cut to pieces. This was humorously called mending his still. The menders, of course must be tinkers, and the name collectively became Tom the Tinker." Advertisements were put up on trees and other conspicuous places, with the signature of " Tom the Tinker," threatening individuals, admonishing or commanding them. Menacing letters, with the same signature, were sent to the Pittsburgh Gazette, with orders to publish them, and the editor did not dare refuse. "At Braddock's field the acclamation was,' Hurrah for Tom the Tinker!'' Are you a Tom Tinker's man?' Every man was willing to be thought so, and some had great trouble to wipe off imputations to the contrary." Mr. Findley says " it afterwards appeared that the letters did not originate with Holcroft, though the inventor of them has never been discovered." The office in Washington opened to receive the annual entries of stills, after repeated attempts, was suppressed. At first the sign was pulled down. On the 6th of June, twelve persons, armed and painted black, broke into the house of John Lynn, where the office was kept, and, beguiling him by a promise of safety to come down stairs, they seized and tied him, threatened to hang him, took him into the woods, cut off his hair, tarred and feathered him, and swore him never again to allow the use of his house for an office, never to disclose their names, and never again to aid the excise; having done this, they bound him, naked, to a tree and left him. He extricated himself next morning. They afterwards pulled down part of his house, and compelled him to seek an asylum elsewhere. In Congress, on the 5th of June, 1794, the excise law was amended. Those, however, who desired not amendment, but absolute repeal, were thereby incited 223 HISTORY OF PENNS YLY VANIA. to push matters to a more violent crisis. It became indispensable for the government to meet the opposition with more decision. Process issued against a number of non-complying distillers in Fayette and Allegheny. Indictments were found against Robert Smilie and John M'Culloch, rioters, and process issued accordingly. It was cause of great and just complaint in the Western counties, that the Federal courts sat only on the eastern side of the mountains, and that individuals were subjected to ruinous expenses when forced to attend them. The processes, requiring the delinquent distillers to appear at Philadelphia, arrived in the west at the period of harvest, when small parties of men were likely to be assembled together in the fields. In Fayette county the marshal executed his processes without interruption, though under discouraging circumstances. In that county the most influential citizens and distillers had, at a meeting in the winter or spring previous, agreed to promote submission to the laws, on condition that a change should be made in the officers. In Allegheny county, the marshal had successfully served all the processes except the last, when, unfortunately, he went into Pittsburgh. The next day, 15th July, 1794, he went in company with General Neville, the inspector, to serve the last writ on a distiller named Miller, near Peters' creek. It is believed that had Major Lenox, the marshal, gone alone to serve that remaining one, there would have been no interruption. Unfortunately he called on the inspector to accompany him. General Neville was a man of the most deserved popularity, says Judge Wilkinson, and in order to allay opposition to the law as far as possible, was appointed inspector for Western Pennsylvania. His appearing, however, in company with the marshal, excited the indignation of some of Miller's neighbors, and on the return of the marshal and inspector, they were followed by five or six men armed, and a gun was discharged towards them, not, it is believed, with a design to injure, but to alarm them and show their dislike towards the inspector. On the day of this occurrence, there was a military meeting at Mingo creek, about seven miles distant from the inspector's house, for the purpose of drafting men to go against the Indians. A report of the attack on the marshal and inspector was carried to this meeting, and on the day following, at daylight, about thirty young men, headed by John Holcroft, the reputed " Tom the Tinker," assembled at the house of the inspector and demanded the delivery of his commission and official papers. This was refused, and the firing of guns commenced. It is not known who fired the first gun-the insurgents always maintaining that it came from the house, and their only intention was to alarm the inspector, and to cause him to deliver his papers. The firing went on for some time from the house and from the assailants. At length a horn was sounded in the house, and then there was a discharge of fire-arms from the negro quarters, which stood apart from the mansion house. From the guns of the negroes, who probably used small shots, five or six of the insurgents were wounded, one of them mortally. Forthwith the report spread that the blood of citizens had been shed, and a call was made on all who valued liberty or life to assemble at Mingo creek meeting-house, prepared to avellge the outrage. Some went willingly, others were compelled to go. A large number assembled at the place of rendezvous. Three men were appointed to 224 GENERAL HISTORY. direct the expedition, and Major Macfarlane, who had been an officer in the Pennsylvania Line of the Revolution, was chosen to command the armed force. When they were within half a mile of Neville's house, leaving those who had no fire-arms in charge of the horses, they advanced. After the first attack, Neville had left his house, and Major Kirkpatrick, with ten or twelve United States soldiers, had come to defend it. Kirkpatrick was allied to the family of Neville by marriage. When the assailants approached the house, the three men who were to superintend the affair took their station on an eminence at a distance. Macfarlane and his men approached within gun-shot and demanded Neville. It was answered that Neville was not in the house nor on the premises. His commission and official papers were then demanded, with a declaration that if they were not delivered they would be taken by force. Kirkpatrick replied that he had a sufficient force to defend the house, and he would not surrender the papers. Macfarlane informed him that he would wait until the women and children, which he observed were in the house, had withdrawn, and then he would commence the attack, unless his demands were complied with. The women withdrew and the firing began on both sides. After several rounds the firing seemed to cease from the house, and Macfarlane, supposing a parley was desired, stepped from behind a tree which protected him and ordered his men to stop. At that instant a ball from the house struck him, and hlie expired in a few minutes. Some of the assailants, without orders, applied a torch to the barn; from the barn the fire spread to the other out-buildings, and from them to the dwelling house. When the house caught fire, Kirkpatrick surrendered and was permitted to leave with his command uninjured. The death and funeral of Macfarlane greatly increased the excitement, and runners were sent forth to call a meeting of the people at Mingo creek meetinghouse, to determine what measures were to be taken. In the town of Washington, among others, the messenger urged David Bradford and Colonel John Marshall to attend the proposed meeting. At first they both refused. Marshall said lie would have nothing to do with the business; and Bradford declined on the ground that he was prosecuting attorney for the county, and that his services in that capacity might hereafter be called for. They afterwards changed their minds, attended the meeting, where, hearing the story of what they called the murder of Macfarlane, their sympathies became excited, and from that moment they took a warm and active part. The prominent persons at this meeting were those named, and Messrs. Parkinson, Cook, and Brackenridge. The latter, it appears, attended for the purpose of gaining their confidence. He suggested that though what they had done might be morally right, yet it was legally wrong, and advised the propriety of consulting their fellow citizens. A meeting of delegates from the Western counties was therefore ordered to be held at Parkinson's Ferry, now Monongahela city, on the 14th of August. A night or two after the meeting at Mingo creek, Bradford and Marshall got possession of the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia mail. The post-boy had been attacked and the mail taken from him by two men near Greensburg. The object was to ascertain what had been written to the east respecting the disturbance. Letters were found giving sad accounts of their doings, and naming individuals P HISTO R Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. concerned. Those of General Gibson, Colonel Presley Neville, Mr. Brison, and Mr. Edward Day, gave the greatest offence to the insurgents. The documents not referring to this affair were put into the mail bag and returned to the postoffice in Pittsburgh. The authors of the objectionable letters were, in consequence, obliged to leave Pittsburgh, by some circuitous route, or conceal themselves, that it might be given out publicly that they were gone. In the meantime, Bradford and others, without a semblance of authority, issued a circular letter to the colonels of the several regiments in the Western counties, requiring them to assemble their commands at the usual place of rendezvous, fully equipped with fire-arms and ammunition and four days' provision, and from thence to march to Braddock's Field, so as to arrive on Friday, the 1st of August. Strange to say, it was in many instances promptly obeyed; many who despised it at heart did no' dare to disobey it. Bradford afterwards denied that he gave such an order, but this is in existence. There were but three days between the date of the orders and the time of assemblage, yet a vast and excited multitude was brought together, many in companies, under arms. Some were well disposed towards the government, but came for fear of being proscribed; others as mere spectators; others, such as Judge Bra(kenridge and several from Pittsburgh, to put themselves, if possible, at the head of the multitude, and restrain them, by organization and management, from proceeding to open outrage and rebellion. Great apprehension was entertained that the insurgents might proceed to Pittsburgh and burn the town. The obnoxious persons had been banished, as if by authority, in deference to the demands of the Tom Tinker men, and the Pittsburgh delegation were careful to announce the fact at Braddock's Field. Probably the majority of those assembled were secretly well disposed towards the government, but afraid to come out and avow it. Mr. Brackenridge thus describes the feeling that prevailed there and throughout the Western counties: "A breath in favor of the law was sufficient to ruin any man. it was considered as a badge of Toryism. A clergyman was not thought orthodox in the pulpit unless against the law. A physician was not capable of administering medicine, unless his princip es were right in this respect. A lawyer could have got no practice without at least concealing his sentiments, if for the law; nor could a merchant at a country store get custom. On the contrary, to talk against the law was the way to office and emolument. To go to the Legislature or to Congress, you must make a noise against it. It was the Shibboleth of safety, and the ladder of ambition." It was proposed by Bradford to march and attack the garrison at Pittsburgh, but this was abandoned. Bradford now moved that the troops should go on to Pittsburgh. " Yes," said Brackenridge, " by all means; at least to give a proof that the strictest order can be observed, and no damage done. We will just march through, and, taking a turn, come out upon the plain on the banks of the Monongahela; and after taking a little whiskey with the inhabitants, the troops will embark and cross the river." Officers having been appointed, Edward Cook and Bradford, generals, and Colonel Blakena), officer of the day, the insurgents marched in a body, by the Monongahela road, to Pittsburgh. By the wily management of some of the Pittsburgh gentlemen, the greater part of the company, after being diverted by a treat, were got across the Monongahela. A GENERAL HISTORY. few, however, remained, determined to burn General Neville's house, in town, and General Gibson's and others. By the influence of Colonel Cook, Marshall, and others of the insurgent party, this outrage was prevented. Major Kirkpatrick's barn, across the river, was burned. If they had succeeded in burning two or three houses, the whole town must have been consumed. " The people," says Mr. Brackenridge, "were mad. It never came into my head to use force on the occasion. I thought it safest to give good words and good drink, rather than balls and powder. It cost me four barrels of old whiskey that day, and I would rather spare that than a quart of blood." An account of these turbulent proceedings reaching the State and national authorities, a conference was immediately held. Governor Mifflin, on the 6th of August, appointed Chief-Justice M'Kean and General William Irvine to proceed immediately to the Western country to ascertain the facts relative to the late riots, and, if practicable, to bring the insurgents to a sense of their duty. The day following, President Washington issued a proclamation of warning, commanding "all persons being insurgents, on or before the 1st day of September, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes," at the same time directing the raising of troops, to be held in readiness to march at a moment's warning." The quotas of the States were as follows: Infantry. Cavalry. Artillery. Total. Pennsylvania............................... 4,500 500 200 5,200 New Jersey................................ 1,500 500 100 2,100 Maryland............................................ 2,000 200 150 2,350 Virginia...................................... 3,000 300... 3,300 11,000 1,500 450 12,950 The same day, Governor Mifflin issued a similar proclamation, directing the quota of the State to be armed and equipped as speedily as possible. The Governor issued a second proclamation, calling together the Assembly of the State in special session. On the 8th, the President appointed James Ross. Jasper Yeates, and William Bradford forthwith to repair to the Western counties and confer with such bodies or individuals as they may approve, " in order to quiet and extinguish the insurrection," giving them full instructions and ample powers concerning the same. These proceedings in the east had not been received west of the Alleghenies previous to the meeting called for the 14th of August, at Parkinson's Ferry. This was composed of two hundred and sixty delegates, elected by the respective counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, Allegheny, Washington, and that part of Bedford lying west of the mountains, and by the county of Ohio, in Virginia. Many had been sent with a view to stem the current of disorder until it had time to cool down. This, however, was only to be accomplished, as some thought, not by open opposition, but by covert management. Colonel Cook was appointed chairman, and Albert Gallatin secretary. Gallatin, Brackenridge, and Judge Edgar, of Washington county, took a prominent part in the discussions. The intemperate resolutions were gradually softened down or explained away. The organic force of the insurrection was condensed into a committee of sixty, one from each township; and this committee was again represented by a standing GENERAL HISTORY. nation and the Mengwe. They extended themselves from the Minisink, on the Delaware, where they held their council seat, to the Hudson on the east, to the Susquehannah on the southwest, to the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehannah rivers on the north, and to that range of hills now known in New Jersey by the name of the Muskenecun, and by those of Lehigh and Conewago in Pennsylvania. Many subordinate tribes proceeded from these, who received names from their places of residence, or from some accidental circumstance, at the time of its occurrence remarkable, but now forgotten. Such probably were the Shawanese, the Nanticokes, the Susquehannas, heretofore referred to, thle Neshamines, and other tribes, resident in or near the Province of Pennsylvania at the time oft its settlement. The Mengwe hovered for some time on the borders of the lakes, with their canoes in readiness to fly should the Allegewi return. Having grown bolder, and their numbers increasing, they stretched themselves along the St. Lawrence, and became, on the north, near neighbors to the Lenape tribes. The Mengwe and the Lenape, in the progress of time, became enemies. The latter represent the former as treacherous and cruel, pursuing pertinaciously an insidious and destructive policy toward their more generous neighbors. Dreading the power of the Lenape, the Mengwe resolved to involve them in war with their distakt tribes, to reduce their strength. They committed murders upon the members of one tribe, and induced the injured party to believe they were pepetrated by another. They stole into the country of the Delawares, surprised them in their hunting parties, slaughtered the hunters, and escaped with the plunder. Each nation or tribe had a particular mark upon its war clubs, which, left beside a murdered person, denoted the aggressor. The Mengwe perpetrated a murder in the Cherokee country, and left with the dead body a war club bearing the insignia of the Lenape. The Cherokees, in revenge, fell suddenly upon the latter, and commenced a long and bloody war. The treachery of the Mengwe was at length discovered, and the Delawares turned upon them with the determination utterly to extirpate them. They were the more strongly induced to take this resolution, as the cannibal propensities of the Mengwe, according to Heckewelder, had reduced them, in the estimation of the Delawares, below the rank of human beings. Hitherto each tribe of the Mengwe had acted under the direction of its particular chiefs; and, although the nation could not control the conduct of its members, it was made responsible for their outrages. Pressed by the Lenape, they: resolved to form a confederation which might enable them better to concentrate their force in war, and to regulate their affairs in peace. Thannawage, an aged Mohawk, was the projector of this alliance. Under his auspices, five nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas, formed a species of republic, governed by the united councils of their aged and experienced chiefs. To these a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, was added in 1712. This last originally. dwelt in the western parts of North Carolina, but having formed a deep and general conspiracy to exterminate the whites, were, as stated in Smith's History of New York, driven from their country, and adopted by the Iroquois confederacy. HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. committee of twelve. The committee of sixty was to meet at Redstone Old Fort, on the 2d of September, and the standing committee were in the meantime to confer with the United States commissioners, whose arrival had been announced at Pittsburgh, during the meeting. To gain time and restore quietness was the great object with Gallatin and his friends. Mr. Gallatin presented with great force the folly of past resistance, and the ruinous consequences to the country of the continuance of the insurrection. He urged that the government was bound to vindicate the laws, and that it would surely send an overwhelming force against them. Hie placed the subject in a new light, and showed the insurrection to be a much more serious affair than it had before appeared. The Pennsylvania commissioners reached Pittsburgh on the 17th. On the 20th the commissioners on the part of the Union, with those on the part of the State, met the committee appointed at the meeting at Parkinson's Ferry. At this conference, preliminary proceedings were taken which resulted in propositions by both bodies of commissioners, who explicitly declared that the exercise of the powers vested in them "to suspend prosecutions," "to engage for a general pardon and oblivion of them," "must be preceded by full and satisfactory assurances of a sincere determination in the people to obey the laws of the United States." The committee presented their grievances, dwelling principally, says Chief-Justice M'Kean, on their being sued in the courts of the United States, and compelled to attend trials at the distance of three hundred miles from their places of abode, before judges and jurors who were strangers to them. Every argument against an excise was urged, but it was clearly evidenced that there was an apprehension in the gentlemen of the committee themselves respecting the safety of their own persons and property, if they should even recommend what they conceived best for the people in the deplorable situation to which they had brought tnemselves. The conference adjourned to the 28th of August, to meet the committee of sixty at Redstone Old Fort, now Brownsville, where, after two days' session, the propositions of the commissioners were finally recommended for acceptance. The meeting was opened by a long, sensible, and eloquent speech by Mr. Gallatin, in favor of law and order. Mr. Brackenridge enforced and enlarged upon the arguments already advanced by Gallatin. Bradford, in opposition, let off a most intemperate harangue; but when he found the vote, 34 to 23, was against him, he retired in disgust. Afterwards, alleging that he was not supported by his friends, he signed the terms of submission, and advised others to do it. Judge Edgar summed up the argument for submission, and, by his pious and respectable character and his venerable appearance, won many over to his side. Such was the fear of the popular frenzy that it was with difficulty a vote could be had at this meeting. No one would vote by standing up. None would write a yea or nay, lest his handwriting should be recognized. At last it was determined that yea and nay should be written by the secretary on the same pieces of paper, and be distributed, leaving each member to chew up or destroy one of the words, while he put the other in the box. This resulted in the appointment of another committee to confer with the commissioners, who were also empowered " to communicate throughout the several counties the day -t which the sense of the people was expected to be taken" on this question, 20 8 GENERAL HISTORY. "Will the people submit to the laws of the United States upon the terms proposed by the commissioners of the United States? " The foregoing test of submission was to be signed individually by the citizens throughout the Western counties before or on the 11th of September. Only ten days intervened, says Rev. Dr. Carnahan, between the offer of the new terms and the day on which each individual should secure an amnesty of the past by a written promise of submission to the laws. Four of these days passed before the terms were printed, leaving only six days to circulate information over a region much larger than the State of New Jersey. There was no opportunity to instruct the people respecting what was to be done.. The consequence was that in some places the people did not meet at all. All the commissioners had returned to Philadelphia before the day of signing, except James Ross, who remained to carry the signatures to the government. Bradford and Marshall signed on the day appointed, and to the credit of tle former be it stated, that he made a long speech exhorting the people to submit. The report of the commissioners, however, was so unfavorable, that the President though it necessary to send over the mountains the army already collected, but within a few days after Mr. Ross left with the papers signed, a sudden and great change took place in the sentiments and conduct of the insurgents. Various meetings were held, and strong resolutions were passed, expressing their ready submission to the laws of the land. Ohio county, Virginia, was the only exception-the inhabitants of that district being as rebellious as ever. The army, as previously statedl, consisted of 12,950 men. Governor Henry Lee, of Virginia, was placed in chief command. Governor Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania; Governor Richard Howell, of New Jersey; Governor Thomas S. Lee, of Maryland; and General Daniel Morgan of Virginia, commanded the volunteers from the respective States. The President, accompanied by General Henry Knox, Secretary of War; General Alex. Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; and Judge Richard Peters, of the United States District Court, set out for Western Pennsylvania on the 1st of October. On Friday His Excellency reached Harrisburg, and on the day following, Carlisle, where the main body of the army had preceded him. The meeting of the Committee of Safety at Parkinson's Ferry, on the 2d of October, appointed William Findley, of Westmoreland, and David Redick, of Washington county, commissioners to wait on the President and to assure him that submission and order could be restored without the aid of military force. They met President Washington at Carlisle on the 10th, where several interviews were had. They made known to him the change that had taken place, that the great body of people, who had no concern in the disorders, remained quietly at home and attended to their business, had become convinced that the violence used would ruin the country; that they had formed themselves into associations to suppress disorder and to promote submission to the laws. The President in reply, stated that as the army was already on its way to the disaffected region, the orders would not be countermanded, yet assured the delegates that no violence would be used, and all that was desired was to have-the inhabitants come back to their allegiance. 229 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. The commissioners returned, called another meeting of the Committee of Safety at Parkinson's Ferry, on the 24th, and made their report. Assurances were received from all parts of the country that resistance to the laws had been abandoned, and that no excise officer would be molested in the execution of his duties. The same commissioners, with the addition of Messrs. Ephriam Douglass and Thomas Morton, were appointed to meet the President on his arrival at Bedford, and inform him of the state of the country. The President left Carlisle on the 11th of October, reaching Chambersburg on the same day, Williamsport on the 13th, and Fort Cumberland on the 14th, where he reviewed the left division of the army, consisting of the Virginia and Maryland volunteers. On the 19th, he arrived at Bedford, where he remained two or three days, then returned to the Capital, which he reached on the 28th. In the meantime, the commissioners appointed by the insurgents, finding that the President had left for the east, proceeded to Uniontown, to confer with General Lee, in whose hands all power to treat with them had been delegated, who received them with civility, assuring them that no exertions would be wanting on his part to prevent injury to the persons and property of the peaceable inhabitants. He bade the commissioners to "quiet the apprehensions of all on this score," that he expected on the part of "all good citizens the most active and faithful co-operation, which could not be more effectually given than by circulating in the most public manner, the truth among the people, and by inducing the various clubs which had so successfully poisoned the minds of the inhabitants to continue their usual meetings for the pious purpose of contradicting with their customary formalities their past pernicious doctrines. A conduct, he continued, so candid should partially atone for the injuries which, in a great degree, may be attributed to their instrumentality, and must have a propitious influence in administering a radical cure to the existing disorders." This report was printed and widely circulated. The General himself published an address to the inhabitants of the " Four Western Counties," recommending the subscribing " an oath to support the Constitution and obey the laws, and by entering into an association to protect and aid all the officers of the government in the execution of their respective duties." Notices were at once issued by all the justices of the peace that books were opened at their respective offices "to receive the tests or oaths of allegiance of all good citizens." At the same time General Neville gave official notice for the immediate entering of all stills. At once the people attended to the requirements of the commander-in-chief of the army and the law, and on the 17th of November, general orders were issued for the immediate return of the troops, except a small detachment under General Morgan, directed to remain at Pittsburgh "for the winter defence." A formal investigation was held by Judge Peters, at which information was made against many who had really been guilty of no offence against the Government. Quite a number were arrested and carried to Pittsburgh. Some were released through the inteposition of influential friends, while others, less fortunate, were sent to Philadelphia for trial, where they were imprisoned for ten or twelve months. Several were finally tried, one or two convicted, but 230 GENERAL HISTORY. subsequently pardoned. David Bradford, who had been excepted from the amnesty, fled down the Ohio river, escaping into the Spanish dominions. The peculiar course which Mr. Brackenridge had taken placed him, for a time, in a very awkward predicament, as well as in personal danger. He was denounced to the government as having been one of the leaders of the insurrection. He had certainly taken an active part in the public meetings, and apparently acted with the insurgents. The turning point in his case was the quo animo, the motive for his peculiar conduct. Fortunately, his motives had been fully known, throughout his whole course, to Hon. James Ross, who explained his conduct to the Secretary of the Treasury. At the close of the examination the Secretary, General Hamilton, said to him, " In the course of yesterday I had uneasy feelings. I was concerned for you as for a man of talents. My impressions were unfavorable. You may have observed it. I now think it my duty to inform you that not a single one remains. Had we listened to some people, I do not know what might have be.n done. There is a side to your account. Your conduct has been horribly misrepresented, owing to misconception. I will announce you in this point to General Lee, who represents the Executive. You are in no personal danger. You will not be troubled even by a simple inquisition by the judge. What may be due to yourself with the public, is another question." Albert Gailatin, as also Judge Addison, were censured for the part taken therein, but no men stood higher in the opinion, not only of the President of the United States, but of the Pennsylvania authorities. William Findley and Hugh H. Brackenridge, each wrote a History of the Insurrection, but they endeavored simply to defend the parts they took in the transaction. In the language of Dr. Carnahan, " this occurrence was salutary as an example, showing that the Federal Government was not a rope of sand, which might be broken at the will of any section of the country whenever any State or part of a State thought a particular law unjust or oppressive." This year, August 20, General Anthony Wayne gained a complete victory over the combined forces of the Indians. His pursuit of them even to the gates of the British fort, the destruction of McKee's house, and the Indian cornfields, close to that fort, and his very decided correspondence with the British commandant, broke the spirit of the Indians and led to the treaty of Fort Greenville, by which the Indian title to the eastern portion of the State of Ohio was ceded to the United States. This removed all danger of hostile incursions into Western Pennsylvania, and thus also contributed to the rapid settlement of that section of the State. 231 CHAPTER XV. JAY'S TREATY. THE FRIES INSURRECTION. REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERN MENT. ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS M'KEAN AND SNYDER. WAR OF 1812. 1795-1817. HE terms of the treaty with Great Britain, commonly called Jay's, upon being made known caused intense excitement, and a violent spirit of opposition, says Westcott, to its ratification was immedi ately displayed. Town meetings were called in Philadelphia, and B13ILDING ERECTED BY PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. [Fac-simile of an Old Print.) memorials were presented to the President of the United States upon the 1795. subject. These demonstrations were all intended to have an influence upon Washington, who had not yet signed the treaty, but they were without effect. Despite the vituperation launched against himself and Mr. Jay, he ratified the instrument on the 11th of August. In the expectancy that Philadelphia would continue to be the Capital of the nation, the Legislature erected a building on Ninth Street, with the intention of making it the official residence of the President. On the completion of the building, Governor Mifflin tendered the use of it to Mr. Adams, the President elect, who declined the offer. The building was eventually sold, and became the property of the University of Pennsylvania. In March, the President informed Congress of the difficulties which prevented the negotiation of a treaty with France. The demands of the latter were so 232 GENERAL HISTORY. insolent, that the intelligence checked in part the tide of sympathy which had been setting so strongly towards that unfortunate country. The Senate of Pennsylvania, however, passed strong resolutions deprecating war, but they met with disaster in the House. The political excitement ran high, and the French or black cockade was worn by the over-ardent patriots of the day. As a badge of distinction it was said to be indiscreet and improper, and led many into turbulence. Governor Mifflin, in view of the prospect of a war with France, addressed a circular letter to the officers of the militia, requesting their assistance 1797. in preparing for warlike measures. The enthusiasm of the citizens became aroused, and new companies were formed where the old were not prompt in their conduct. Measures were taken by the merchants of Philadelphia for the building of vessels of war to be loaned the government. In the beginning of July, Captain Decatur, in command of the sloop-of-war Delaware, captured a French privateer cruising about the capes. She was sent a prize to Philadelphia, and her crew forwarded to the jail at Lancaster. The imposition of the so-called " house tax " by the Federal Government, led to resistance in Lehigh, Berks, Northampton, and a small portion 1798. of Bucks and Montgomery counties. The intention of the United States was to raise a revenue to reduce the heavy debt incurred by the Revolutionary war. IHad the participants clearly understood the law and the objects of Congress, they would not have deigned to resist by force the attempt at its collection. The measure was at first opposed by the women, and the methods of defence resorted to by them induced the title " The Hot Water War " to be applied to the disturbances. In Northampton county a number of persons were seized by order of the United States marshal, but rescued by a force under the leadership of John Fries. In obedience to *the proclamation of the President, Governor Mifflin called out troops from Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Lancaster. The command was given to General William Macpherson. The ringleaders were soon arrested, and taken to Philadelphia. Fries was subsequently tried for high treason and found guilty, but his life was spared, as well as those of his companions, President Adams according them a free pardon. The removal of the Capital, always a vexatious question, began to be vigorously discussed shortly after the adoption of the Constitution. The location of the seat of government in a large city has ever been objectionable, from the fact that legislation is too much under the control of the municipality, and in the great State of Pennsylvania it was considered that it would be better for the interests of the Commonwealth if the Capital was centrally located. In February, 1795, a resolution passed the House of Representatives for the removal of the place of permanent residence of the Legislature to Carlisle. It failed in the Senate. At the session of 1796 the House again took up the matter. Reading and Carlisle were both named; but their claims not agreed to. Lancaster was chosen by two majority; the Senate, however, interposed, and the measure was not accomplished. Two years afterwards the subject was again renewed, and Wright's Ferry on the Susquehanna river proposed. Subsequently a motion was made to strike out Wright's Ferry and insert Har isburg, 233 HISTO R Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. but was lost. The bill, as passed, was amended in the Senate by the insertion of Harrisburg as the Capital. Neither House would recede, and the measure failed. In 1799 another effort proved successful, and Lancaster was 1799. selected as the seat of government. The Governor signed the bill on the 3d of April, 1799. The time from which Lancaster was to be considered the State Capital was after the first Monday of November. The Legislature met there on the 3d of December following; "and thus, after one hundred and seventeen years," says Westcott, " Philadelphia ceased to be the capital of the State, about the same time when, by the removal of the Federal Government, it ceased to be the capital of the Union." In 1799, the choice of Governor fell on Thomas M'Kean,* then chief justice of Penn sylvania. On assuming the duties of his office, great difficulties had to be surmounted, the prin cipal of which was the removal from office of many who had heretofore been appointed not through merit, but personal considerations only. His course was sharply criticised, and party //feeling during his entire administration was i/exceedingly warm and bitter. Writing to Presi "'/ dent Jefferson shortly after his induction into office, he says: " It appears that the anti-repub Slicans (even those in office), are as hostile as THOMAS M'KEAN. ever, though not so insolent. To overcome them they must be shaven, for in their offices (like Samson's hair-locks) their great strength, with their disposition for mischief, may remain, but their power of doing it will be gone. It is out of the common order of nature to prefer enemies to friends; the despisers of the people should not be their rulers, nor men be vested with authority in a government which they wish to destroy." The Federalists in the Legislature made an attack upon the Governor for holding the principles thus enunciated, and the address of the Senate was one of accusation instead of congratulation. Governor M'Kean made a long reply, "declaring that the objectionable expressions were uttered before he assumed * THOMAS M'KEAN wasborn in Chester county, March 19, 1734. After an academic and professional course of study, he was admitted an attorney, and soon after appointed deputy attorney-general for Sussex county, Delaware. In 1757 he was elected clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and from 1762 to 1769 was member thereof for the county of New Castle. In 1765 he assisted in framing the address of the Colonies to the British House of Commons. In 1771 he was appointed collector of the port of New Castle; inmemnber of the Continental Congress in 1774, and annually re-elected until February, 1783. In 1778 he was a member of the convention which framed the Articles of Confederation; and 1781 president of Congress. In addition to these duties, in 1777 he acted as President of Delaware, and until his election of Governor, from 1777 to 1799, held that office, and executed the duties of chief justice of Pennsylvania. He was a promoter of and signer of the Declaration of Independence; commanded a battalion which served under Washington in the winter of 1776-77. He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania three terms (1798 to 1808) under the constitution of 1790, of the convention framing which he was a member. He died at Philadelphia, on the 24th of June, 1817. 234 GENERAL 11HSTORY. office, and that as regarded the removals from office he relied upon his right to make such changes as he deemed proper, without accountability to any person or party." During his last term of office, such was the acrimony of the opposition who controlled the Assembly, that articles of impeachment were preferred against him, but a trial was never had. Governor M'Kean submitted a paper " defining in a most lucid manner the powers and duties of the several branches of the government, legislative, judicial, and executive, and expounding clearly impeachable offences. This document is regarded with great favor by professional men, and is quoted as authority upon the questions of which it treats." In his last message to the Legislature he said, " In my last personal communication to the Assembly, probably in the last important public act of my life, I shall be indulged, I hope, in claiming some credit for feelings corresponding with the solemnity of the occasion. It has been my lot to witness the progress of our country from a colonial to a national character, through the ordeal of many trials, in peace and in war. It has been my happiness to enjoy the favor and the confidence of our country in the most arduous as well as in the most auspicious stages of her political career. Thus attached by every tie of honor and of gratitude, by all the motives of social interest and affection, I contemplate the future destinies of our country with a proud but anl anxious expectation. My day of exertion (of feeble exertion at the best) is past; but for our fellow-citizens, and for their representatives in every department of the government, I can only cease to implore the blessing of Providence when I cease to exist." By a law passed in 1802, to provide for the regulation of the militia, the State cockade was directed to be blue and red. The same year was 1802. passed the first law for the education of the children of the poor gratis, although both the Constitution of 1776 and that of 1790 provided for the establishment of "a school or schools in every county." Owing to the lameness of this law, it remained a dead statute so far as some of the counties in the State were concerned. In the address of the Democratic committee for 1803, is used the following language: " As Pennsylvania is the keystone of the Democratic arch, 1803. every engine will be used to sever it from its place"-being probably the first instance in which the comparison of the Commonwealth to the keystone of an arch was used, and the origin of a figure of speech since very common. At the session of the Legislature in December, a memorial was presented from Thomas Passmore, of Philadelphia, charging Justices Yeates, Shippen, and Smith, of the Supreme Court, with oppression and false imprisonment, he having been committed for contempt of court. The subject was referred to the succeeding Assembly. This body took up the affair, and the House of Representatives recommended that the court should be impeached for high misdemeanors. Articles of complaint were prepared and the impeachment sent to the Senate. It was not until the subsequent session that proceedings were had, when, upon the final vote in the Senate, thirteen pronounced guilty, eleven not guilty; the constitutional majority of two-thirds not being obtained, the accused were acquitted. 235 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. In the month of August the first through line of coaches from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, via Lancaster, Harrisburg, Carlisle, Shippensburg, 1804. Bedford, Somerset, and Greensburg was established, and the time occupied about seven days. In 1805, a project was started by a portion of the Democratic party, as then organized, for revising the State Constitution. It grew out of the trial 1805. of the judges of the Supreme Court, and the advocates of the measure proposed to make the election of senators annual, to reduce the patronage of the Governor, and to limit the tenure of the judiciary. The party urging these changes assumed the name of " Constitutionalists;" while those opposed called themselves "Friends of the People." The controversy for some time was carried on with much bitterness, but did not result in a change. This year was distinguished by an effort towards the propulsion of the first land-carriage moved by steam in the world. This was done by Oliver 1807. Evans, in July, at Philadelphia. The year following the first railroad in America was built in Ridley township, Delaware county. In October, 1808, Simon Snyder,* another member of the Constitutional convention of 1790, was elected Governor. Three 1808. years previously, on account of the estrangement of Governor M'Kean from the party which elevated him to power, his defeat was nearly effected by Mr. Snyder. SThe former having served the full constitutional period, the latter was nominated for Governor, and although his opponent, James Ross, was a man of eminent talent, Governor Snyder was elected by an overwhelming majority. On his accession to the gubernatorial office, SIMON SNYDER. difficulties with England were serious, she assum ing the right to search American vessels for suspected deserters from the British navy, under cover of which the grossest outrages were committed by British cruisers and privateers on American commerce. These depredations produced the most intense excitement. From the beginning of its career the United States had earnestly protested against the right of search. An open rupture had been apprehended for several years, but owing * SIMON SNYDER was born at Lancaster, November 5,1759. His father, Anthony Snyder, was a native of Oppenheim in Germany, emigrating to America in 1748. He apprenticed himself at the age of seventeen to the trade of a tanner at York, and during intervals pursued his studies. In 1784 he removed to Selinsgrove, where he entered into mercantile pursuits. He was early elected a justice of the peace, which office he held for twelve years. He was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of 1790; and in 1797 was elected.a member of the House of Representatives, of which he was chosen Speaker in 1802, serving in that position for six successive terms. With him originated the arbitration principle incorporated with other wholesome provisions for the adjustment of controversies brought before justices of the peace, in a law commonly called the "hundred dollar law." In 1808 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, and served for three terms. Upon retiring from that office in 1817, he was chosen to the State Senate, but died while a member of that body, November 9, 1819. 236 GENERAL HISTORY. to the amicable nature of the Federal Government the resort to arms was delayed until all hopes of settling existing difficulties with England were at an end. As early as 1807 active preparations were made by the United States for defence, and about five millions of dollars were appropriated by the govern ment for war purposes. In 1811 Congress was convened a month 1811. earlier, and that body at once seconded the measures adopted by President Madison, declaring offensive measures, and authorizing the call of one hundred thousand troops. Pennsylvania spoke out emphatically, resolving to stand by the general government, and this course was promptly followed by nearly all the States of the Union. On the 12th of May, 1812, Governor Snyder expressed the 1812. feelings of the people of his native State, in his call for Pennsylvania's quota of fourteen thousand militia, when he said: " The Revolution of America, that great and mighty struggle, which issued in giving to the United States that place among the powers of the earth to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitled them, had scarcely been consummated, when the King, over whom we had been triumphant, began an invasion of our rights and property, which has almost uninterruptedly been continued and yearly aggravated in kind and in degree. Remonstrance has followed remonstrance, but they' have only been answered by repeated injury' and new outrage. Their promises-their written engagements-their plighted faith-have all been wantonly violated. These wrongs have been so long endured, that our motives have been mistaken, and our national character misrepresented. Our forbearance has been called cowardice-our love of peace, a slavish fear to encounter the dangers of war. We know that these representations have no foundation in truth; but it is time that our enemies-that our friends-that the world, should know, we are not degenerated sons of gallant sires. " For nearly thirty years we have been at peace with all the nations of the earth. The gales of prosperity, and the full tide of happiness, have borne us along; while the storm of war has been desolating the greater part of the civilized world, and inundated it with the bitter waters of affliction. All the means which wisdom and patriotism could devise have been in vain resorted to, in the hope of preserving peace. The cup of patience-of humiliation and long suffering-has been filled to overflowing; and the indignant arm of an injured people must be raised to dash it to the earth, and grasp the avenging sword. " In the cultivation of the earth, and in manufacturing and transporting its products, the people of the United States have been honestly, usefully, and harmlessly employed; and for many years have we been feeding the nation whose navy' has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, and destroyed the lives of our people.' Our ability and disposition to serve them has whetted their commercial jealousy and monopolizing animosity. " It is our property that has been plundered-it is our rights that have been invaded-it is the persons of our friends, relatives, and countrymen, that have been I'taken captive on the high seas,' and constrained to bear arms against their country; to become. the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.' It is our flag that has been bathed in our 237 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. The beneficial effects of this system early displayed themselves. The Lenape were checked, and the Mengwe, whose warlike disposition soon familiarized them with fire arms procured from the Dutch, were enabled, at the same time, to contend with them and to resist the French, who now attempted the settlement of Canada, and to extend their conquests over a large portion of the country between the Atlantic and the Mississippi. But, being pressed hard by their new, they became desirous of reconciliation with their old enemies; and, for this purpose, if the tradition of the Delawares be credited, they effected one of the most extraordinary strokes of policy which history has recorded. The mediators between the Indian nations at war are the women. The men, however weary of the contest, hold it cowardly and disgraceful to seek reconciliation. They deem it inconsistent in a warrior to speak of peace with bloody weapons in his hands. ie must maintain a determined courage, and appear at all times as ready and willing to fight as at the commencement of hostilities. With such dispositions, Indian wars would be interminable, if the women did not interfere and persuade the combatants to bury the hatchet and make peace with each other. On these occasions, the women pleaded their cause with much eloquence. "Not a warrior," they would say, "but laments the loss of a son, a brother, or a friend. And mothers, who have borne with cheerfulness the pangs of child-birth, and the anxieties that wait upon the infancy ana adolescence of their sons, behold their promised blessings crushed in the field of battle, or perishing at the stake in unutterable torments. In the depth of their grief they curse their wretched existence, and shudder at the idea of bearing children." They conjured the warriors, therefore, by their suffering wives, their helpless children, their homes, and their friends, to interchange forgiveness, to cast away their arms, and, smoking together the pipe of amity and peace, to embrace as friends those whom they had learned to esteem as enemies. Prayers thus urged seldom failed of their desired effect. The function of the peace-maker was honorable and dignifie, and its assumption by a courageous and powerful nation could not be inglorious. This station the Mengwe urged upon the Lenape. " They had reflected," they said, " upon the state of the Indian race, and were convinced that no means remained to preserve it unless some magnanimous nation would assume thile character of the woman. It could not be given to a weak and contemptible tribe; such would not be listened to; but the Lenape and their allies would at once possess influence and command(l respect." The facts upon which these arguments were founded were known to the Delawares, and, in a moment of blind confidence in the sincerity of the Iroquois, they acceded to the proposition, and assumed the petticoat. The ceremony of the metamorphosis was performed with great rejoicings at Albany, in 1617, in the presence of the Dutch, whom the Lenape charged with having conspired with the Mengwe for their destruction. Having thus disarmed the Delawares, the Iroquois assumed over them the rights of protection and command. But still dreading their strength, they artfully involved them again in war with the Cherokees, promised to fight their battles, led them into an ambush of their foes, and deserted them. The Delawares, at length, comprehended the treachery of their arch enemy, and resolved to resume HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. waters-made red with the blood of our fellow-citizens. Every gale from the ocean wafts to our ears the sighs, the groans of our impressed seamen, demanding retribution. It is our homes and firesides that have been invaded by'the merciless Indian savages,' who have been instigated to pollute our sacred soil with hostile feet, and tomahawk our citizens reposing in peace in the bosom of our country. The seeds of discord have been sown amongst our people by an accredited spy of the British government, at a time, too, when the relations of peace and amity were subsisting between our own and that government, founded on re-iterated assurances from them of national esteem and friendship. " If ever a nation had justifiable cause for war, that nation is the United States. If ever a people had motives to fight, we are that people. Our government, the watchful guardians of our welfare, have sounded the alarm-they have called upon us to gird on our swords and be ready to go forth and meet our enemies. Let us hasten to obey the government of our choice, and rally around the constituted authorities of the Union. Let an honorable zeal glow in our bosoms, as we eagerly press forward to render our services. It would give the Governor inexpressible satisfaction, if Pennsylvania would volunteer her quota. May each State animate the others, and every citizen act as if the public weal-the national honor and independence-rested upon his single arm. The example of the heroes and statesmen of our Revolution, and the rich inheritance their courage and wisdom achieved, cannot fail to urge all who love their country to flock around her standard-upborne by the right hands of freemen, planted in the sacred soil their valor won, and consecrated by a righteous cause;-this nation may well go forth' with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,' and a conscious b3lief that the arm of the Lord of Hosts, the strength of the Mighty One of Israel, will be on our side. " The last appeal being now to be made, by an injured and indignant nation, it remains for the militia and volunteers of Pennsylvania, by a prompt co-operation with her sister States, to render efficient the measures which are or may hereafter be adopted by the the United States government." Such was the enthusiasm of the hour, that in response to the Governor's call three times as many troops tendered their services as were required. The disappointment of some was so great that money was freely offered to secure a place among those accepted by the authorities. General William Reed, the adjutant-general of the State, speedily organized this force, which was formed into two divisions-Major-General Isaac Morrell appointed to the command of the first, and Major-General Adamson Tannehill to the second. The differences which had so long subsisted between the United States and Great Britain, and which had led to the various measures adopted for defence, finally resulted in war, which was declared by Congress on the 18th day of June, 1812. Every representative but two from Pennsylvania, and both the senators, voted in favor of a declaration, and nobly did their constituents make known their approval of that vote. By a law of the General Assembly passed in February, 1810, the seat of government was directed to be removed to Harrisburg in the summer of 1812. Until the erection of the public buildings, for which a commission was 238 GENERIAL HISTORY. appointed, the sessions of the Legislature were held in the Court House at Harrisburg, from December, 1812, to December, 1821. In July, a general alarm prevailed in the town and vicinity of Erie, in consequence of the appearance of a British Indian force on the opposite side of the Lake. On the 15th, orders were issued for the organization of the sixteenth division of the Pennsylvania militia, under General Kelso, for the protection of the frontier. Arms and munitions of war were sent forward. These measures so promptly taken, prevented the British and their savage allies from polluting the soil of Pennsylvania with hostile feet. On the 3d of December, 1812, Governor Snyder, in his annual message, held this language in relation to the declaration of war by Congress against Great Britain: " The sword of the nation, which for thirty years has been rusting in its scabbard, has been drawn to maintain that independence which it had gloriously achieved. In the war of the Revolution our fathers went forth, as it were,' with a sling, and with a stone, and smote the enemy.' Since that period our country has been abundantly blessed and its resources greatly multiplied; millions of her sons have grown to manhood, and, inheriting the principles of their fathers, are determined to preserve the precious heritage which was purchased by their blood, and won by their valor." At the suggestion of the Governor, the Legislature passed an act for an additional monthly allowance to be made to the militia from Pennsylvania. Gun-boats and privateers were built and fitted out in the port of Philadelphia, the ordnance at Fort Mifflin was repaired, and energetic efforts made to place not only the Delaware river, but that portion of the State upon Lake Erie, in a state of defence. The gallant services of two eminent Pennsylvanians, Commodore Stephen Decatur, of the frigate United States, and Lieutenant James Biddle, of the Wasp, received special approbation at the hands of the Legislature, who directed an appropriate sword to be presented to each of those officers for their bravery. Early in the month of March, 1813, the blockade of the Delaware, 1813. which had been constantly anticipated from the period at which hostilities were proclaimed, was effected by the British fleet under Commodore Sir John P. Berresford. It was prosecuted with such vigor as to cut off the chief part of the foreign commerce of Philadelphia. In the course of that month, the enemy were several times repulsed by the militia of Delaware in attempts to capture small vessels close in with the shore. In obedience to requisitions from the President, a third and fourth detachment of one thousand men each were ordered into the service of the Union. The fourth detachment was to protect the shores of the Delaware, and the third to protect vessels of war then building and equipping in the harbor of Erie. The happy result of the latter service was amply manifested in the glorious victory on Lake Erie, which, if ever equalled, was in naval service never excelled-a victory not less brilliant in its achievements than important in its effects; not less honorable to the nation than to the distinguished Perry, who commanded, and the brave officers and men who composed, that heroic force. The successes of Croghan, Harrison, and Chauncey, during the year, struck a fatal blow to British prowess, whether upon the land or the sea. 239 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. At the subsequent session of the Assembly of the State, it was directed "that the thanks of the government be tendered to Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, of Rhode Island, for the brilliant action through which hlie succeeded in capturing His Britannic Majesty's fleet on Lake Erie," and that a gold medal be presented to him. A gold medal was likewise presented to Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott, of Pennsylvania, for heroic conduct in that engagement, and silver medals " to those citizens of the State who nobly and gallantly volunteered on board of the American squadron on Lake Erie." In the summer and autumn of 1813, the shores of the Chesapeake and its tributary rivers were made a general scene of ruin and distress. The British force assumed the character of the incendiary in retaliation for the burning of the town of York in Upper Canada, which had been taken by the American army under General Dearborn in April of that year. This was purely accidental, but it served as a pretext for the general pillage and conflagration which followed the marching of the invading army. On the 24th of August, 1814, the enemy took possession of Washington City, no defence having been made. The commanders of the British force-General Ross and Admiral Blackburn-proceeded in person to direct and superintend the business of conflagration. " They set fire 1814. to the Capitol," says Mr. Dallas in his " Causes and Character of the War," "within whose walls were contained the halls of the Congress of the United States-the hall of their highest tribunal for the administration of justice; the archives of the legislature and the national library. They set fire to the edifice which the United States had erected for the residence of their chief magistrate. And they set fire to the costly and extensive buildings erected for the accommodation of the principal officers of the government in the transaction of the public business. These magnificent monuments of the progress of the arts which America had borrowed from her parent Europe, with all the testimonials of taste and literature which they contained, were on the memorable night of the 24th of August, consigned to the flames, while British officers of high rank and command united with their troops in riotous carousals by the light of the burning pile." Horror-stricken, if not conscience-stricken, at the desolation, General Ross fled from the unfortunate city. Owing to the menacing attitude of the enemy subsequent to the fearful depredations alluded to, additional requisitions were made, and the promptitude with which the militia of the State turned out at their country's call reflected upon them signal honor. On the 26th of August, Governor Snyder issued his stirring appeal for a call to arms: " The landing upon our shores," lihe said, " by the enemy, of hordes of marauders, for the purpose avowedly to create by plunder, burning, and general devastation, all possible individual and public distress, gives scope for action to the militia of Pennsylvania by repelling that foe, and with just indignation seek to avenge the unprovoked wrongs heaped on our unoffending country. The militia generally within the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon, Berks, Schuylkill, York, Adams, and Lancaster, and that part of Chester county, which constitutes the 2d brigade of the 3d division, and those corps particularly who, when danger first threatened, patriotically tendered their services in the field, are earnestly invited to rise (as on many occasions Pennsylvania has heretofore done) superior to local feeling and evasives that 240 GENERAL HISTORY. might possibly be drawn from an imperfect military system, and to repair with that alacrity which duty commands, and it is fondly hoped inclination will prompt, to the several places of brigade or regimental rendezvous that shall respectively be designated by the proper officer, and thence to march to the place of general rendezvous. "Pennsylvanians, whose hearts must be gladdened at the recital of the deeds of heroism achieved by their fellow-citizen soldiers now in arms on the Lake frontier, and within the enemy's country, now the occasion has occurred, will with ardor seek and punish that same implacable foe, now marauding on the Atlantic shores of two of our sister States." By the general orders issued the same day camps were established at Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, and at York. A force of five thousand men were soon at the latter rendezvous under the commands of Major-General Nathaniel Watson and Brigadier-Generals John Forster and John Adams. When General Ross attempted to capture Baltimore, these Pennsylvania militia marched thither and had the high honor to aid in repelling the enemy. The gallant record, during the year's campaign, of the brave Pennsylvanians who served at Chippewa and Bridgewater, reflected glory on the patriotism and valor of the old Commonwealth, and secured not only the thanks of their brave commander, but the gratitude of their countrymen. During the struggle which had just closed, he soil of Pennsylvania had never been trodden by a hostile foot, and yet it had at one time a greater number of militia and volunteers in the service of the United States than were at any time in the field from any other State in the Union, and as she furnished more men, so did she furnish more money to carry on the war. The militia and volunteers, as noted, were actually engaged in Canada, on Lake Erie, at Baltimore and elsewhere, and stood ready to repel the enemy from the States of New York and New Jersey. It ought not be forgotten that when four thousand New York militia, under General Van Rensselaer, arrived at Buffalo on their march to invade Canada, they refused to cross the line, on the pretext that they were not obliged to do so even to fight their country's enemies; but soon after, when General Adamson Tannehill, with a brigade of two thousand Pennsylvanians, reached the Niagara, they did not hesitate, but promptly crossed the line and gallantly met the foe. So, too, it was the militia of Pennsylvania who manned Perry's fleet, on Lake Erie, and enabled him to announce, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." On the 17th day of February, 1815, the treaty of peace between the 1815. United States and Great Britain was ratified by the Senate. On the 20th of the same month, Captain Charles Stewart, of the frigate Constitution, with an inferior force, captured the British ships of war, Cyane and Levant. This gallant service was received everywhere with joy, and Captain Stewart's native State, Pennsylvania, presented him with a magnificent gold-hilted sword, commemorative of his distinguished bravery and skill. 241 CHAPTER XVI. ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS FINDLAY, HIESTER, SHULZE, WOLF. AND RITNER. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM. 1817-1837. HE success of the Republicans in 1817 brought to the gubernatorial office William Findlay,* of Franklin county. Governor Findlay found his position one of much care and trouble. Party rancor ran so high that at each sojourn of the Legislature during his term of office the opposition who controlled both Houses made his official conduct subject to investigation. In June, 1817, commissioners on 1817. the part of Maryland were met by those from Pennsylvania to examine the river Susquehanna and consider the means best calculated to improve its navigation. The commissioners reported against the continuation of the canal system adopted at Conewago, but recommended the removal of certain obstruc S tions in the river at the different rapids, as far as Northumberland. Explorations of other Sstreams had previously been made, and an exten sive system of internal improvements was pre sented to the Legislature at its session WILLIAM FINDLAY. 1818. in 1818 by Governor Findlay, the main features being the improvement of the navigation of the principal rivers, with their tributary streams within the jurisdiction of the State, as far up and as near to their sources as possible, then by connecting the heads of these streams by short portages. During Governor Findlay's term of office began the opening up of the anthracite coal trade, which has grown to such immense proportions. The primary difficulty heretofore had been in sending the coal to market. Private * WILLIAM FINDLAY was born at Mercersburg, Franklin county, June 20, 1768. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish. He received a good English education, and was intended for the law, but owing to the pecuniary embarrassments of his father, who met with a severe loss by fire, a collegiate course, then considered necessary, was denied him. After marrying, in 1791, he began life as a farmer. He was appointed a brigade inspector of Franklin county, the first office he held. In 1797 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives. In 1803 he was again chosen to that office, and successively until January, 1807, when, having been elected State Treasurer, he resigned his seat in the House. For ten years he filled the latter position. In 1817 he was elected Governor over General Joseph Heister. He served one term. At the session of the Legislature, in 1821-22, Governor Findlay was chosen United States Senator for six years. At the expiration of the senatorial term, President Jackson appointed him Treasurer of the United States Mint. He died at Harrisburg, November 12, 1846. 242 GENERAL HISTORY. enterprises, however, were encouraged, and by these means easy access was rapidly afforded for the products of the mines in the interior counties to reach the seaboard. General Joseph Hiester,* an officer of the Revolution, succeeded Governor Findlay in December, 1820. Remembering the unmerited attacks made 1820. upon his predecessor in office, he thus alludes to the subject in his inaugural: "I trust that if any errors shall be committed, they will not be chargeable to intention. They will not proceed from a willful neglect of duty on my part, nor from any want of devotion to the best interests of our country. Such errors, I may justly hope, will meet with indulgence from an enlightened and liberal people. S.. Considering myself as elected by the people of this Commonwealth, and not by any particular denomination of persons, I shall endeavor to deserve the name of chief magistrate of Pennsylvania, and to avoid the disgraceful appellation of the Governor of a party." As it is with us even to-day, the great sub ject which engrossed the minds of the 1821. citizens of the State, was the opening JOSEPH HIESTER. of a great highway to the West-ever the grand aim of those who had the prosperity of the Commonwealth at heart. The Legislature chartered a number of canal and turnpike companies, and authorized State subscriptions to the same. The subject of education was another measure to which the attention of the people was drawn, and in his annual message Governor Hiester used this language: "Above all it appears an imperative duty to introduce and support a liberal system of education connected with some general religious instruction." The city and county of Philadelphia had been erected into "the first school district of Pennsylvania" in 1818, and during this session (1822) the city and county of Lancaster were erected into "the second school district." These, termed the Lancasterian methods, were the beginnings of that glorious system of free education, which has placed our State in the front rank of public educators. In 1822, the Legislature first met in the Capitol erected at Harrisburg. This building had occupied two years in its erection, the corner-stone 1822. having been laid on the 31st of May, 1819, with imposing ceremonies. JOSEPH HIESTER was born at Reading, November 18, 1752. In 1775 he raised a company of eighty men, and received his coin mission as captain. When the battalion was formed he was appointed major. He participated in the battle of Long Island, severely wounded, was taken prisoner, and suffered a year's confinement in a British prison-ship. After his exchange he again joined the army and was wounded at Germantown. He was for many years a member of the Legislature; was delegate of the Convention of 1790, and was a member of Congress from 1797 to 1805, and again from 1815 to 1821, when he was elected Governor of the State, which station he filled one term. He died June 10, 1832. 243 STATE CAPITOL, UJARiRTNBURG, GENERAL HISTORY. John Andrew Shulze,* of Lebanon county, was inaugurated Gover 1823. nor December 16, 1823. For six years he occupied the executive chair. In 1823, in his annual message, President Monroe made his celebrated declaration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western hemisphere, and the non-interference of European powers in the political affairs of this continent. The determined stand taken by Mr. Monroe was warmly endorsed by the people of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the State, at the subsequent session, passed resolutions to the effect that it had afforded them "the highest gratification to observe the President of the United States, expressing the sentiments of millions of freemen, proclaiming to the world that any attempt on the part of the allied sovereigns of Europe to extend their political systems to any portion of the continent of A America, or in any other manner to interfere in their internal concerns, would be considered asdangerous to the peace and safety of the United States." Governor Shulze, in transmitting these resolutions to the President, expressed his hearty endorsement of the doctrines therein set JOHN ANDREW SHULZE. forth. DqTring the administration of Governor Shuize, General Lafayette made his second visit to Pennsylvania, an event which produced marked and 1825. spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population. Next to the great and good Washington, he was hailed as the deliverer of this country, and no where was he made more welcome than in this State. In 1825, the Schuylkill navigation canal, projected almost thirty years previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed. The occasion was one of public rejoicing, and the success of the enterprise gave an impetus to other improvements. Shortly afterwards the Union canal, heretofore referred to, was also finished. The great Pennsylvania canal was prosecuted with vigor. Governor Shulze hesitated somewhat at this stupenduous plan of 1826. internal improvements by the State, and opposed the loan of a million dollars authorized by the Legislature. He was obliged to yield, however, to the popular will, and before the close of his second term, six millions of dollars had been borrowed. * JOHN ANDREW SHULZE, the son of a Lutheran clergyman, was born at Tulpehocken, Berks county, July 19, 1775. He received a classical education and studied theology. He was ordained in 1796 a Lutheran minister, and for six years officiated as pastor of several congregations in Berks county. Owing to a rheumatic affection, he forsook the church and entered upon mercantile pursuits. In 1806 he was elected to the Legislature, and served three years. In 1813 he was commissioned prothonotary of the new county of Lebanon, which office he filled for eight years. In 1821 he was chosen representative, and the year following a State senator. In 1823 he was elected Governor of the State, and re-elected in 1823. In 1840 he was a member of the Electoral College. In 1846 he removed to Lancaster, where he died, November 18, 1852. 245 B. IISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. The main line of the public works from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was composed of 126 miles of railroad and about 292 miles of canal. It was completed in 1831. Several branch canals were also put under contract, and the entire expenditure for the improvements amounted to over thirty-five millions of dollars. These internal improvements were managed by a board of three canal commissioners. On the 28th of March, 1825, the question of calling a convention to revise the Constitution was ordered to be submitted at the next general election, but the measure was defeated by a vote of 44,470 to 59,813. Previous to 1827, says Mr. Sypher, the only railroads in America were a short wooden railroad (to which we have heretofore referred), constructed at Leiper's stone quarry in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, and a road three miles in length, opened at the Quincy granite quarries in Massachusetts, in 1826. In May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch Chunk to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest railroad in America. In 1829, George Wolf,* of Northampton county, was chosen Governor over - 1829. Joseph Ritner. At this period there began to be a change in the political horizon of the State. A fearful crusade was made against secret societies, which were de nounced as tending to subvert free govern ment. Commencing in the New England States, the reported abduction of a traitor to the free-masons in New York, assisted to spread rapidly the contagion, and party lines ' were almost equally drawn in the State of Pennsylvania. The Federal party lost its iden GEORGE WOLF. tity, and the Anti-Masons sprung up like mush rooms. Their candidate for Governor was defeated at the first election by seventeen thousand, and at. the second by only three thousand votes out of a poll of almost two hundred thousand. When Governor Wolf came into office the financial affairs of the Commonwealth, owing to the extensive scheme of public improvements, then well progressing, were in a deplorable condition. There was but one course to pursue which would maintain the credit of the State, and that was to push the works to rapid completion. This was done, and in a few years he with others had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far these needed improvements went towards developing the resources of Pennsylvania. * GEORGE WOLF was a native of Allen township, Northampton county, where he was born, August 12, 1777. He received a classical education. Before his majority he acted as clerk to the prothonotary, at the same time studying law under John Ross. President Jefferson appointed him postmaster at Easton, and shortly after Governor M'Kean commissioned himas Clerk of the Orphans' Court, which office he held until 1809. In 1814 he was chosen member of the Legislature, and in 1824 a representative in Congress, a position he filled for three terms. From 1829 to 1835 he occupied the executive chair of the State. General Jackson appointed him comptroller of the Treasury in 1836, and President Van Buren collector of the port of Philadelphia in 1838. He died at Philadelphia, March 11,1840. 246 GENERAL HISTOR Y. At this period measures were adopted which has secured for the children of the Commonwealth the system of public or free education-being the levying of a tax for a school fund. The Governor, in his annual message, 1831. December, 1831, says in reference thereto: "It is cause for no ordinary measure of gratification that the Legislature, at its last session, considered this subject worthy of its deliberations, and advancing one step towards the intellectual regeneration of the State by laying a foundation for raising a fund to be employed hereafter in the righteous cause of a practical general education; and it is no less gratifying to know that public opinion is giving strong indications of having undergone a favorable change in reference to this momentous measure, and by its gradual but powerful workings is fast dispelling the grovelling fallacies, but too long prevalent, that gold is preferable to knowledge and that dollars and cents are of a higher estimation than learning.... I would suggest for your consideration the propriety of appointing a commission, to consist of three or more talented and intelligent individuals, known friends of a liberal and enlightened system of education, whose duty it should be to collect all the information and possess themselves of all the facts and knowledge that can be obtained from any quarter having a bearing upon or connection with the subject of education, and to arrange and embody the same in a report to the Legislature." In compliance with this wise recommendation, a bill was eventually drawn embodying what were 1834. believed to be the best features of those systems which had been most successful in other States, and at the session of 1834 passed both branches of the Legislature with a unanimity rarely equalled in legislation. On the 14th of April, the Legislature again passed an act for submitting the question of calling a convention, which was approved at the general election by a vote of 87,570 to 73,166. At the next session of the Assembly, March 29, 1836, an act was passed directing the convention. In 1835, at a period of unusual 1835. political excitement, Joseph Ritner,* of Westmoreland county, was elected Governor. Owing to a defection in the ranks of the party to whom Governor Wolf gave adherence, the vote was divided between him JOSEPH RITNER. and Henry A. Muhlenberg, resulting in his defeat. * JOSEPH RITNER was born in Berks county, March 25, 1780. He was brought up as a farmer, with little advantages of education. About 1802 he removed to Washington county. Was elected a member of the Legislature from that county, serving six years, and for two years was Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1835 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, as the Anti-Masonic candidate. He was an earnest advocate of the common school system, so shccessfully inaugurated during the administration of Governor Wolf, and also a strong opponent of human slavery. In 1848 he was nominated by President Taylor director of the mint, Philadelphia, in which capacity he served for a short time. He died on the 16th day of October, 1869. 247 GENERAL HISTORY. their arms, and, being still superior in numbers, to crush them. But it was too late. The Europeans were now making their way into the country in every direction, and gave ample employment to the astonished Lenape. The Mengwe denied these machinations. They averred that they conquered the Delawares by force of arms, and made them a subject people. And, though it was said they were unable to detail the circumstance of this conquest, it is more rational to suppose it true, than that a brave, numerous, and warlike nation should have voluntarily suffered themselves to be disarmed and enslaved by a shallow artifice; or that, discovering the fraud practised upon them, they should unresistingly have submitted to its consequences. This conquest was not an empty acquisition to the Mengwe. They claimed dominion over all the lands occupied by the Delawares, and, in many instances, their claims were distinctly acknowledged, Parties of the Five Nations occasionally occupied the Lenape country, and wandered over it at all times at their pleasure. Eventually, in 1756, Tedyuscung, the noted Delaware chief, seems to have compelled the Iroquois to acknowledge the independence of his tribe, but the claim of superiority was often afterwards revived. The origin of the Shawanese was southern. They probably belonged to the Algonquins, as they spoke the same language. From the most authentic information, Harvey informs us, it appears that the basin of the Cumberland river was the residence of the Shawanese before the settlement of the Europeans on the continent, and that they connected the different sections of the Algonquin families. At the celebrated treaty of 1682, the Shawanese were a party to that covenant, and they must have been considered a very prominent band, from the fact of their having preserved the treaty in their own possession or keeping, as we are informed that, at a conference held many years after, that nation produced this treaty on parchment to the Governor of the Province. It was the custom with the Indian tribes who made a joint treaty with the whites to commit the preservation of the papers containing the treaty, etc,, to such of the bands as were considered most to be trusted. From the best authority, it appears that as early as 1673 upwards of seventy families of that nation removed from the Carolinas and occupied some of the deserted posts of the Susquehannas. Others of the tribe soon followed. In the year 1698, some Shawanese applied to the Proprietary Government of Pennsylvania for permission to settle on the Conestoga and Pequea creeks, under Opessah, their principal chief. Here they remained a quarter of a century, when, with other families settled on the Swatara, Paxtang, and the Susquehanna streams on the east, they branched off to the westward. As early as 1728 we find the Shawanese as far west as the Ohio, and by the middle of the eighteenth century the entire tribe had settled on the branches of that river. In the year 1732 the number of fighting braves of that nation in Pennsylvania amounted to seven hundred. The Shawanese, says Colden, were the most restless of all the Indian tribes. In 1745, he says, one tribe of them had gone to New Spain. This band of four hundred and fifty, who located themselves on the head-waters of the Mobile river, probably never returned to Pennsylvania. As it is difficult to disentangle the web of conflicting evidence respecting the nationality of the Indians who from time to time occupied the soil of Pennsyl248 HISTORY OF PE1VNS YL VANIA. Notwithstanding the perfect unanimity which attended the passage of the school law of 1834, in many sections of the State persons were sent to the Legislature especially to secure its abolition. It was at this time that such men as Wolf, and Ritner, and Stevens, stood up in advocacy of the common school system, and which fortunately resulted in preserving the law intact, except so far as to divest it of any objectionable features. In the language of Mr. Burrowes,"~ When the agitating divisions of the day shall have sunk into comparative insignificance, and names be only repeated in connection with some great act of public benefaction, those of George Wolf and Joseph Ritner will be classed by Pennsylvania among the noblest on her long list; the one for his early and manly advocacy, and the other for his well-timed and determined support, of the Free School." CHAPTER XVII. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. " BUCKSHOT WAR." ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVER. NORS PORTER, SHUNK, JOHNSTON, POLLOCKI AND PACKER. 1837-1861. N the 2d of May, 1837, the convention, of which John Sergeant was elected president, assembled at Harrisburg for the purpose of revising the constitution of the Commonwealth. Adjourning in July, the convention met again at Harrisburg in October, and removed in December to Philadelphia, where their labors were closed 1838. on the 22d February, 1838. The amendments were adopted by the people at the subsequent annual election. In conformity with the more important amendments, the political year commenced in January; rotation in office was secured by allowing the Governor but two terms of three years each, in any term of nine years; the senatorial term was reduced to three years; the power of the Legislature to grant banking privileges was abridged and regulated; private property could not be taken for public use without compensation previously secured; the Governor's patronage was nearly all taken away, and the election of many officers heretofore appointed by him was vested in the people or their representatives; the Governor's nomination of judicial officers was to be confirmed in the Senate with open doors; all life offices were abolished; judges of the Supreme Court were to be commissioned for fifteen years-presidents of the common pleas, and other law judges, for ten years-and associate judges for five years-if they so long behaved themselves well; the right of suffrage was extended to all white freemen twenty-one years old, one year resident in the State, having within two years paid a tax assessed ten days before the election, and having resided ten days immediately preceding in the district; white freemen between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-two, citizens of the United States, having resided a year in the State and ten days in the district, could vote without paying any tax; two successive Legislatures, with the approbation of the people at a subsequent election, once in five years, could add to the Constitution whatever other amendments experience may have required. The amendments proposed were ratified at the general election in October by a vote of 113,971 to 112, 59. At the October election (1838) David R. Porter, of Huntingdon, was chosen Governor, in a hotly contested political canvass over Governor Ritner. The defeated party issued an ill-timed and ill-advised address, advising their friends "to treat the election as if it had not been held." It was determined therefore to investigate the election, and to do this the political complexion of the Legislature would be decisive. The majority of the Senate was Anti-masonic, but the control of the House of Representatives hinged upon the admission of certain members from Philadelphia whose seats were contested. The votes of one of the districts in that city were thrown out by 249 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. reason of fraud, and the Democratic delegation returned. The Anti-masonic return judges refused to sign the certificates, " and both parties made out returns each for a different delegation, and sent them to the Secretary of the Commonwealth." The Democratic returns were correct, and should have been promptly received "without question." When the Legislature met, the Senate organized by tne choice of Anti-ma sonic officers. In the House a fierce struggle ensued, both delegations claiming seats. The consequence was that each party went into an election for speaker, each appointing tellers. Two speakers were elected and took their seat upon the platform-William Hopkins being the choice of the Democrats, and Thomas S. Cun W. ningham of the opposition. The Democrats be lieving they were in the right, left out of view S the rejection of the votes of the Philadelphia district. However, when the returns from the secretary's office were opened, the certificate of the minority had been sent in, thus giving the DAVID R. PORTER.* advantage to the Anti-masons. It was then a question which of the two Houses would be recognized by the Senate and the Governor. At this stage of the proceedings, a number of men (from Philadelphia especially), collected in the lobby, and when the Senate after organization proceeded to business, interrupted it by their disgraceful and menacing conduct. The other branch of the Legislature was in like manner disturbed, and thus both Houses were compelled to disperse. The crowd having taken possession o~f the halls proceeded to the Court House, where impassioned harangues were indulged in and a committee of safety appointed. For several days all business was suspended, and the Governor, alarmed for his own personal safety, ordered out the militia, and fearing this might prove insufficient, called on the United States authorities for help. The latter refused, but the militia under Major-Generals Patterson and Alexander, came promptly in response. For two or three days during this contest, the danger of a collision was imminent, but wiser counsels 1839. prevailed, and the Senate having voted to recognize the section of the House presided over by Mr. Hopkins, the so-called "Insurrection at Harrisburg " was virtually ended. This was what is commonly known as the "Buck-shot War." * DAVID RITTENHOUSE PORTER, the son of General Andrew Porter, of the Revolution, was born near Norristown, Montgomery county, October 31, 1788. He received a good classical education. When his father was appointed surveyor-general, young Porter went as his assistant. During this period he studied law, but his health becoming impaired, he removed to Huntingdon county, where he engaged in the manufacture of iron. In 1819 he was elected member of the Assembly, serving two years. In 1821 Governor Hiester appointed him prothonotary of Huntingdon county. In 1836 he was chosen State senator, and from 1838 to 1845 filled the office of Governor of the Commonwealth. He died at Harrisburg, August 6, 1867. 250 GENERAL HISTORY. Governor Porter in his first annual message to the Legislature held the following views, which for far-sightedness were somewhat remarkable, insomuch as as they were the subject of considerable ridicule by the press: " There are two subjects which are essentially necessary to the full fruition of the benefits to be derived from our main lines of canals and railroads between the eastern and western sections of the Commonwealth, as to awaken the earnest solicitude of every true Pennsylvanian. I allude to the removal of the obstructions to steamboat navigation in the Allegheny, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers from Pittsburgh to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Pittsburgh up the Allegheny as far as the same may be found practicable by the survey authorized under direction of the general government, and to the construction of a continuous railroad from the city of Pittsburgh through or near the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to some point on the Mississippi river at or near St. Louis." In 1836, the charter of the second bank of the United States expired, but the United States Bank of Pennsylvania was chartered by the State Legislature, with the same capital of $35,000,000, and, purchasing the assets and assuming the liabilities of the old bank, continued the business under the same roof. In 1837, a reaction commenced. All the banks, with very rare exceptions, suspended specie payment throughout the Union. A resumption was attempted in 1839, but was only persevered in by the banks of New England and New York. This new suspension, however, was not generally followed by contraction of the currency in Pennsylvania until 1841, when an attempt was made to 1841. resume, but it proved fatal to the bank in question and the Girard bank, which were obliged to go into liquidation; while nearly all the banks of this State, and of all the States south and west of it continued their suspension. To relieve the distressing pressure throughout the State, consequent upon the downfall of the great banks, and the general reaction of all private speculations, and also to provide temporary means for meeting the demands upon the State treasury, the banks, still in a state of suspension, were permitted, by a law of 4th May, 1841, to issue small notes, of the denominations of $1, $2, and $3, which were loaned to the State, and were redeemable in State stock whenever $100 were presented in one parcel. The treasury of the State still being embarrassed, the State stocks became depreciated (being at one time as low as $35 for $100), and the small notes depending upon it, sympathized in the depreciation, but not to an equal extent. An attempt to coerce the banks to specie payments, in the spring of 1842, was unsuccessful, the State having made no adequate provision for the redemption of the small notes, called 1842. relief notes. A few city banks resumed; others failed; the country banks generally remained in a state of suspension, and the relief notes, at a discount of from seven to ten per cent., formed the only currency throughout the State. During this year the State made only a partial payment, in depreciated funds, of the semi-annual interest on her stocks, and her credit, hitherto sustained with difficulty, sunk with that of other delinquent States. The legislative-provisions of 1842 and 1843, especially the tax law of July, 1842, tended in a great measure to replenish the exhausted treasury, and resuscitate the credit of the State. In 1843 arose a new political organization which had for its principies reform 251 HIS TOR Y OF PE1VNS YL VANIA. in the naturalization laws, the reading of the Bible in the public schools, 1843. and the election or appointment of native Americans only to office. "American Republican Associations," as the societies were termed, were rapidly organized, especially in the large cities. " Beware of foreign influence," was the rallying cry of this ephemeral party, who were charged with religious proscription, intolerance, and persecution. A very large proportion of the inhabitants of Philadelphia were of foreign extraction, if not of foreign birth. The attempt to infuse religious prejudices into political contests always results in outrage, disorder, blood, tumult, and conflagrations. Such was the consequence in the metropolis-a series of riotous proceedings in April and May, 1844, which required at last the State authorities to check. Governor Porter 1844. issued a proclamation calling "into immediate service all the volunteer companies belonging to the first division of the Pennsylvania militia," under the command of Major-General Patterson. Over-awed for the time by the presence of this armed force, the lawless proceedings ceased, but no sooner did the military retire, than the same spirit fanned anew the flames of discord. The militia were again called out, and the city placed under martial law. A conflict arose between the populace and the troops, which resulted in the latter firing into an unarmed crowd of citizens. Several were killed and a number wounded. The excitement became intense. The Governor went in person to the city and used every exertion to quiet the turbulent and disaffected, which result ed successfully-and thus ended the lawless pro ceedings which disgraced the proud escutcheon of not only the city of Philadelphia but the State of Pennsylvania. Having served two terms, Governor Porter was succeeded in office by his former 1845. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Fran cis R. Shunk, * at that time from Alle Sgheny county. During his first term but little of interest transpired in Pennsylvania, the en FRANCIS R. SHUNK. tire attention of the people of the State being FRANCIS R. SHUNK. drawn to the war with Mexico, brought about by the annexation of Texas. Congress, on the 13th of May, 1846, announced that by the act of 1846. Mxico a state of war existed between that government and the United States, and for the purpose of prosecuting it to a speedy and successful termination, the President was authorized to employ the militia, naval, and * FRANCIS RAWN SHUNK was born at the Trappe, Montgomery county, August 7, 1788. He became a teacher at the age of fifteen, and in 1812 received the appointment as clerk in the Surveyor-General's office under General Andrew Porter. In 1814 he marched as a private soldier to the defence of Baltimore. In September, 1816, he was admitted to the practice of the law. He filled the position of assistant and then principal clerk of the House of Representatives for several years; next became secretary to the Board of Canal Commissioners; and in 1839 Governor Porter appointed him secretary of the Commonwealth. In 1842 he removed to Pittsburgh, engaging in his profession. In 1844 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, and re-elected in 1847. He died on the 30thof July, 1848. 252 GENERAL HISTORY. military forces of the United States and to call for and accept the services of fifty thousand volunteers. In pursuance of this authority the President requested six regiments of volunteer infantry to be held in readiness to serve for twelve months, or to the end of the war. Within a period of thirty days the offer of ninety companies, sufficient to fill nine regiments, were received-manifesting an old-time patriotism and zeal highly cre.itable to the State. In November, 1846, orders were sent for the mustering into the service of the United States one regiment of volunteers, and on the 15th day of December the first regiment was organized at Pittsburgh-six of the companies composing it were from Philadelphia, one from Pottsville, one from WilkesBarre and two from Pittsburgh, under the command of Colonel Wynkoop. At the request of the President, the second regiment of volunteer infantry was mustered into service on the 5th of January, 1847, at Pittsburgh. One of the companies composing this force was organized in Philadelphia, one 1847. in Reading, one in Mauch Chunk, one in Harrisburg, one in Danville, two in Cambria county, one in Westmoreland county, one in Fayette county, and one in Pittsburgh. Colonel Roberts was placed in command, to which succeeded Colonel Geary. Two additional companies were subsequently mustered into service and sent to the field. One of these was from Bedford, the other from Mifflin county. The record of the gallant services of these troops on the fields of Mexico it is not our province now to recall. At Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Chepultepec, and the City of Mexico, their bravery and valor secured the highest commendations of their venerated chieftain. Just as the remnant were returning from the South with their 1848. laurels, the Executive of the State, deeply lamented, passed away, hav ing a few days previous (July 9, 1848) issued the following: "To the people of Pennsylvania: "It having pleased Divine Providence to deprive me of the strength necessary to the further discharge of the duties of your chief magistrate, and to lay me on a bed of sickness, from which I am admonished by my physicians and my own increasing debility, I may, in all human probability, never rise, I have resolved, upon mature reflection, under a conviction of duty, on this day, to restore to you the trust with which your suffrages have clothed me, in order that you may avail yourselves of the provision of the Constitution to choose a successor at the next general election. I therefore hereby resign the office of Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and direct this, my resignation, to be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth. " In taking leave of you under circumstances so solemn, accept my gratitude for the confidence you have reposed in me. My prayer is that peace, virtue, intelligence, and ecligion m,ay pervade all your borders-that the free institutions you have inherited from y)our ancestors may remain unimpaired till the latest posterity-that the same kind Providence, which has already so signally blessed you, may conduct you to a still higher state of individual and social happinessand mhcn the woild shall close upon you, as I feel it is soon about to close upon 253 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYLVANIA. me, that you may enjoy the consolations of the Christian's faith, and be gathered, without a wanderer lost, into the fold of the Great Shepherd above." Governor Shunk was succeeded in office by William F. Johnston, * then Speaker of the Senate, according to the provisions of the Constitution. The vacancy having occurred three months before the time fixed for the annual election, the acting Governor therefore issued the necessary writs for the election of a chief magistrate, which resulted in the choice of Mr. Johnston. Owing to a number of illegal seizures of fugi tives from labor, on the 3d of March previous the Assembly passed an act to prohibit the exercise of certain powers heretofore employed by the judicial officers of the State, relative to the ren dition of fugitive slaves, forbidding the use of the jails of the Commonwealth for the deten tion of such persons, and also repealing so much of the act of 1780 as authorized the masters or owners of slaves to bring and retain such -- within the State for a period of six months. This act was considered in the Southern States as being inimical to the faithful observance of WILLIAM F. JOHNSTON. Pennsylvania's Federal obligations. Fidelity in the discharge of every constitutional duty has distinguished our government and people, and whatever may have been the mischievous opinions then propagated beyond our borders, they were conceived in error of our true history. Attention having been called to the neglected and suffering condition of the insane poor of the State in 1844, the Legislature, at the subsequent session, provided for the establishment of an asylum for this unfortunate class, to be located within ten miles of the seat of government. The citizens of Harrisburg, with the aid of a liberal appropriation by Dauphin county, purchased a farm adjoining that city, and in 1848 the commissioners appointed by the State began the erection of the first building erected by the Commonwealth for the reception of the insane To the individual exertions of an estimable and philanthropic lady, Miss Dorothea L. Dix, are we indebted for the active interest taken by the Commonwealth in these noble charities. *W'ILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON was born at Greensburg, Westmoreland county, November 29, 1808. With a limited academic education, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in May, 1829. Removing to Armstrong county, he was appointed District Attorney, a position he held until 1832. He represented Armstrong county for several years in the Lower House of the Assembly, and in 1847 was elected a member of the Senate from the district composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria, and Clearfield. At the close of the session of 1848, he was elected Speaker of the Senate for the interim, and on the resignation of Governor Shunk on July 9th following, assumed the gubernatorial functions according to the provisions of the Constitution. At the general election in October, he was elected for the full term, serving until January 20, 1852. On retiring from office, Governor Johnston entered into active business life. He was appointed by President Johnson collector of the port of Philadelphia, but owing to the hostility of the United States Senate to most of that President's appointments, he was not confirmed. He died at Pittsburgh, October 25, 1872. 254 GENERAL HrSTORY. It was not until this year that the common school system was adopted throughout the entire State-and in the educational epoch of our history, stands conspicuous. From this time onward rapid strides were made-improvements in the system and defects remedied. In 1849 considerable excitement existed in Pittsburgh and the western part of the State,'occasioned by the erection of a bridge over the Ohio river 1849. at Wheeling, owing to the obstruction to navigation of that highway in times of high water. The Legislature was appealed to, eventually Congress, and finally the Supreme Court of the United States. Measures, however, were adopted which removed all objections. During Governor Johnston's administration, the attention of the Legislature was called to the records of the Provincial and State governments, which in their then condition were inaccessible, and that body authorized their publication. Twenty-nine volumes of these documents, including a general index, edited by Samuel Hazard, were printed. They form almost complete details of the transactions of government from 1682 to 1790-invaluable in their importance to a full comprehension of the early history of Pennsylvania. The passage by Congress of the fugitive slave law was a matter of 1850. vast importance to the State. Situate on the borders of the slave States of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, wrongs were to be feared and disorders apprehended. For years previous the southern slave felt free whenever he touched the soil of the Land of Penn, but the enactment of the compromise measures of 1850 obliged him to flee beyond the confines of the Statfes. The year following a serious riot occurred at Christiana, Lancaster county; and in other localities the arrest of fugitives led to disturbances of the peace and bloodshed. William Bigler,* of Clearfield, as 1852. sumed the functions of the chief magis- / tracy January 20, 1852. During Governer Bigler's term of office several very important measures were adopted by the Legislature, the principal of which were the estab- WILLTAM BILER. lishing the office of county superintendent of * WILLIAM BIGLER was born at Shermansburg, January 1, 1814. He received a fair school education. Learned printing with his brother from 1830 to 1833, at Bellefonte. In the latter year he established the Clearfield Democrat, which he successfully carried on for a number of years. He subsequently disposed of his paper and entered into mercantile pursuits. In 1841 he was elected to the State Senate, chosen Speaker in the spring of 1843, and at the opening of the session of 1844. In October following, he was re-elected to the Senate. In 1849 appointed a revenue commissioner. In 1851, elected Governor of the State, serving for three years. In January, 1855, he was elected for the term of six years to the United States Senate. Governor Bigler w as a prominent delegate of the Constitutional Convention of 1873, and to his labors are we indebted for a number of the beneficial features of this instrument. He was one of the earliest championsof the Centennial Exposition of 1876, and represented Pennsylvania in the Board of Finance, and his efforts ministered greatly to its successful issue. His residence is at Cleartield. 255 HIS TORY OF PENNSYL VA NIA. common schools, and the founding of the Pennsylvania training school for feeble-minded children. The completion of the Pennsylvania railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, in February, 1854, added a powerful impulse to the development of the 1854. resources of the State, and perfected that grand scheme by which almost a century previous the inhabitants of the metropolfs sought to secure the trade of the West. With the completion of this important route, lateral roads were built, until at the present time a map of that thoroughfare presents the appearance,of a gigantic tree with innumerable branches. The consolidation act of the 2d of February, by which the county of Philadelphia was blotted out of existence, merging it into the city, was a notable event of the year The North Branch canal, the last of the sys. tern of internal improvements undertaken by the Commonwealth, was completed. Owing to some mismanagement the work had been dis continued for ten or twelve years. It opened an outlet to the inexhaustible mines of coal with which that section abounds. At the October election, 1855, James - 1855. Pollock,* of Northumberland, was chosen Governor by a large majority. He was nominated and supported by the Know Nothing party, an organization closely allied to the Native American Association. At this JAMES POLLOCK. period the subject of the introduction of slavery into the Territories was warmly agitated throughout the length and breadth of the State. By the act of the 16th of May, the main line of the public works 1857. of the State was directed to be sold. On the 25th of June following Governor Pollock caused the same to be done, and on the 31st day of July the whole line of the public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at the price of seven millions five hundred thousand dollars. Following this sale, measures were taken for the disposal of the remaining divisions of the public improvements. They had failed to be a source of revenue to the State, and the application of the proceeds to the payment of the debt of the Commonwealth soon led to the removal of taxation by the State. *JAMES POLLOCK was born at Milton, Northumberland county, September 11, 1810. His early education was committed to the care of Rev. David Kirkpatrick, who had charge of the classical academy at Milton. ie graduated at Princeton, September, 1831; in 1835 he received the degree of A.M. in course, and in 1855 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him. Jefferson College conferred a like honor in 1857. In November, 1833, he was admitted to the bar; in 1835 appointed District Attorney for Northumberland county; from 1843 to 1849 served as member of Congress; in 1850 appointed president judge of the eighth judicial district, and in 1854 Governor of Pennsylvania. In the so-called compromise convention assembled at Washington in February and March, 1861, Governor Pollock represented Pennsylvania. From 1861 to 1 66 he filled the office of Director of the United States Mint under the appointment of President Lincoln. In 1869 he was reinstated by President Grant to the same position, which office he now [1876] holds. 256 GENERAL 1ISTOR Y. In the summer of this year [1857], a serious financial revulsion occurred, resulting in the suspension of specie payments by the banks of Pennsylvania and other States of the Union, followed by the failure of many long-established commercial houses, leading to the destruction of confidence, and to the general embarrassment and depression of trade, and threatening to affect disastrously the credit of the Commonwealth and the great industrial interests of the people. In order to release the banks from the penalties and forfeitures incurred by a suspension of speci3 payments, Governor Pollock convened the Legislature in "extraordinary session " on the 6th of October. On the 13th an act was passed " providing for the resumption of specie payments by the banks and for the relief of debtors," to go into immediate effect. This law had the desired result, and public confidence being restored, the different branches of industry revived, and the community saved from bankruptcy and ruin. When William F. Packer,* of Lycoming county, assumed the office of Governor on the 19th of January, 1858, the great ques 1858. tion which occupied the minds of the people not only of the State but of the Union was the admission of Kansas among the great family of States. Although by the act of 1857, separating the office of superintendent of public schools from that of secretary of the Commonwealth, provi- WILLIAM F. PACKER. sion was made for the establishment of normal schools, it was not until 1859 that any such was recognized. The first was that located at Millersville, Lancaster county. In 1859 the celebrated raid into Virginia by John Brown occurred, by which the public property of the United States at Harper's Ferry was seized, and the lives of citizens of that State sacrificed by that band of desperadoes, who, in their mad zeal, attempted to excite the slave population to insurrection. The subsequent trial and conviction of John Brown by no means quenched the flames of disunion which the Missouri compromise of 1820, the fugitive slave law of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska imbroglio had united in kindling. The election of President Lincoln in 1860 causelessly precipitated the measures which led to civil. war. On the 20th of December, South Carolina passed by a unanimous vote the * WILLIAM FISHER PACKEh was born in Howard township, Centre county, April 2, 1807. At the age of thirteen he began to learn the profession of printing in the office of Samuel J. Packer, at Sunbury. Mr. Packer's newspaper being discontinued, William F. returned to Centre county, completing his apprenticeship in the office of the Patriot. In 1825, he was appointed clerk in the register's office of Lycoming county. In 1827 hlie began the study of law, but purchasing an interest shortly after in the Gazette, he continued his editorial career with that paper until 1836, when he assisted in establishing the Keystone at Harrisburg, remaining connected therewith until 1841. In February, 1839, he was appointed a member of the Board of Canal Commissioners; in 1842, Auditor-General of the Commonwealth; in 1847, and 1848, elected member of the Legislature, being chosen the latter year Speaker of the House; in 1849, elected to the Senate; and in 1857, Governor of the Commonwealth. He died in the city of Williamsport, September 27, 1870. 257 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. vania, we shall content ourselves with the foregoing reference to the three principal nations, the most important of whom were the Delawares and Shawanese, as for almost a century and a half they were the principal parties to all treaties. The language of the aborigines, says Gordon, was said to be rich, sonorous, plastic, and comprehensive in the highest degree. It varied from the European idioms chiefly in the conjugation of the verbs, with which not only the agent and patient were compounded, in every possible case, but the adverbs were also blended, and one word was made to express the agent, the action, with its accidents of time, place, and quantity, and the object effected by them. And, though greatly pliant, it was subjected to rules, from which there were few exceptions. It had the power of expressing every idea, even the most abstract. The Old and New Testaments were translated into it, and the Christian missionaries had no difficulty, as they asserted, of making themselves understood on all subjects by the Indians. As a specimen, we give the following translation of the Jubilate Deo in the language of the Six Nations: O Sewatonnharen ne Rawenniioke, nise ne Tsionwentsiagweon; hetsisewawenniiostak ne Rawenniio, noc tsi etho nensewaiere sewatshliennonnihak; nok gasewe tsi nonwe nihenteron, nok tetsisewariwagwas ne Rawenniio. Agwa sewerhekne Rawenniio raonha ne Niioh; nok raonha songwaiatison; nok iah i-i ne tiongwe teiongwatatiatison; nok raonha rahongweta ni-i ne tiongwehogon. Wasene tsit honnhogaronte, etho tetsisewanonweraton; nok ne rahononsagon tetsisewariwagwas: Tetsisewanonweraton, nok hetsisewasennanoronst nonen wesewatati. Roianere na-ah ne Rawenniio, tsinihotennitenraskon iah tiaiehcwe; nok no rahoriwatokenti toitkon tontatie, tsinahe tsontagawatsiratatie nongwe. A cultivated language usually denotes great civilization. But our aborigines seem to have confined their efforts to the improvement of their speech. This was a consequence naturally flowing from their form of government and political institutions, in which the most absolute liberty prevailed. The public welfare was confided to the aged and experienced chiefs, whose resolutions were obeyed in full conviction of their wisdom. They had no law but public opinion, and the redress of injuries belonged to the injured. Among such a people, particularly, eloquence is the handmaid of ambition, and all power must depend upon the talent of persuasion. To this cause we may ascribe the cultivation and the many beauties which are said to mark the Indian tongues of North America. In other respects, these tribes had advanced little beyond the rudest state of nature. They had no written language, unless rude drawings may be thus considered. Their intercourse with each other was regulated by a few simple rules of justice and courtesy. Their passions generally preserved an even and moderate tenor; but, occasionally becoming intense, they produced enormous crimes, or deeds of heroism. In the commerce of the sexes, love, as a sentiment, was almost unknown. Marriage was a physical convenience, continued by the will of the parties, either sex having the power to dissolve it at pleasure. The treatment of the women, however, if not marked by tenderness, was not cruel. A full proportion of labor, it is true, was imposed upon them, but it was of that HISTOR? Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. ordinance of secession. Governor Packer, in his last message to the Legislature, expressed in plain terms the fearful position in which not only South Carolina, but the other States preparing for similar action, had placed themselves. " The advocates of secession," he said, " claim that the Union is merely a compact between the several States composing it, and that any one of the States which may feel aggrieved may, at its pleasure, declare that it will no longer be a party to the compact. This doctrine is clearly erroneous. The Constitution of the United States is something more than a mere compact, or agreement, between the several States. As applied to nations, a compatct is but a treaty which may be abrogated at the will of either party; responsible to the other party for its bad faith in refusing to keel) its engagement, but entirely irresponsible to any superior tribunal. A government, on the other hand, whether created by consent or conquest, when clothed with legislative, judicial, and executive powers, is necessarily in its nature sovereign; and from this sovereignty flows its right to enforce its laws and decrees by civil process, and in an emergency, by its military and naval power. The government owes protection to the people, and they in turn owe it their allegiance. Its laws cannot be violated by its citizens without accountability to the tribunals created to enforce its decrees and to punish offenders. Organized resistance to it is rebellion." On the 24th of December, on the attempt to ship ordnance from the arsenal at Pittsburgh for the purpose of supplying southern ports, the citizens of that city rightly refused permission, and it was prevented. UNION LEAGUE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. 258 CHAPTER XVIII. THIE CIVIL WAR. ESTABLISHMENT OF CAMP CURTIN. PENNSYLVANIA TROOPS THE FIRST TO REACH THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. TIHE BATTLE FLAGS OF THE STATE. PENNSYLVANIA INVADED BY THE CONFEDERATES. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVEN TION OF 1873. ADMIINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS CURTIN, GEARY, AND HIART RANFT. 1861-1876. SUTTERINGS of the coming storm were approaching nearer and nearer, and the year opened up gloomily. In the midst of this portentous overshadowing, on the 15th of January, Andrew G. Curtin,* of Centre county, took charge of the helmn of State. In his inaugural he took occasion "to declare that Pennsylvania would, under any circumstances, render a full and determined support of the free 1861. institutions of the Union,"... and pledged himself to stand betwecen the Constitution and all encroachments instigated by hatred, ambition, fanaticism, and folly. On the 17th of February, the House passed a series of resolutions approbatory of Major Anderson, and Governor Hicks of Maryland, and pledging to that State the fellowship and support of Pennsylvania. The month previous the House had passed resolutions taking high ground in favor of sustaining the Constitution and the Union. In Philadelphia and throughout the State, meetings were held for the avowal of the same sentiments at that time. It was by this means that the elements of opposition 0 CRTIN. ANDREW G. CURTIN, to treason were called forth and put in motion. Threatenin)g as was the danger, no one anticipated that it would break forth so suddenly, nor that it would grow to such fearful proportions as it in a brief time assumed. The Governor was aware of the solid patriotism of the citizens of the State, in the stubborn will, the ability, and resources of the Conmmonwealth. It is true, when the leaders of the South, who had long secretly been preparing to dissolve the Union, unmasked their design by the attack on Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, on the 12th day of April, 1861, no State in the Union was less prepared, so far as munitions of war were XNDREW GREGG CURTIN was born at Bellefonte, Centre county, April 28, 1817. Admitted to the bar in 1839, and practiced at Bellefonte. From 1855 to 1858 he was Secret,iry of the Commonwealth and superintendent of common schools. In 1860 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. When the war for the Union broke out he was one of the most zealous of the war governors of the Northern Statei. He was re-elected in 1863. Active in the election of General Grant to the Presidency, he was honored with the appointment of Minister to Russia in 1869. Hle returned in 1872, and was elected a member or the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State. He resides at Bellefonte. 259 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. concerned, to take part in an armed conflict, than Pennsylvania at that time. Her volunteer soldiery system had fallen into decay. There were P ss volunteer military companies in the State up to 1860 than ever before were on the rolls of the Adjutant-General's office. While the militia system had fallen into contempt, by reason of the burlesques to which it was made a subject, the distaste for that service had grown with the long period of peace which had surrounded the country; and this, added to the fact that the large Quaker and Menonnite portion of the population, the strong Methodist and Presbyterian elements which exist in all parts of the Commonwealth, and which, as a rule, held the mere trade in war in abhorrence, pervaded the State, so barren in military material, that when the first tokens of the impending storm were seen by the movement of secession, the people of Pennsylvania looked on with seeming indifference, lulling themselves in the false security which their hopes that there would be no collision, inspired. But when that first overt act was committed, and the news was flashed over the North, it created no fiercer feeling of resentment elsewhere than it did throughout the Keystone State. On the 15th day of the same month, the President of the United States issued a proclamation calling out seventy-five thousand militia from the different States to serve for three months, in the war thus precipitated, and a requisition at once made on this State for fourteen regiments. The alacrity with which these regiments were furnished, demonstrated not so much the military ardor, as it did the patriotic spirit of the people. As before remarked, the citizens had no clear idea of the horrors of war-the shedding of human blood and the sacrifice of human life was a thing fearfully horrible to them-which they did not fully realize were to be the enormous effects of the attack on Fort Sumter. When they responded to the call for troops, they rushed forward believing their firm appearance would over-awe the insurgents, and a single bloodless campaign end the trouble between the South and the National government. Hence, instead of fourteen regiments, sufficient rushed to Harrisburg to organize twenty-five. But there were two men-Pennsylvanians-who comprehended the situation from the outset. General Simon Cameron, Secretary of War under President Lincoln, advised the organization of the most powerful army the North could raise, so that at one blow armed Rebellion might be effectually crushed. Governor Curtin took advantage of the excess of men offering their services, and began at once, after the complement of the three months' men had been furnished to the Federal government, to organize the famous Reserve corps. He discovered the approaching tornado in the distance, and thus commenced to prepare for its fury, the Reserves being the only troops well-organized and disciplined in the North ready for the service of the Union at the moment of the disaster of the first battle of Bull Run. On the 18th of April, Camp Curtin was regularly and formally established in the north-western suburbs of Harrisburg. It was the first regular camp formed north of the Susquehanna in the loyal States, and before the end of the month of April, twenty-five regiments were sent to the field from its precincts. On the 30th of April, Governor Curtin called an extra session of the Legislature, for the purpose of providing means for the better establishment of the State Militia, for the passage of financial measures, the assumption of a military debt 260 GENERAL HISTORY. then already created, and to organize an army for State defence. The Legislature, when convened, acted with energetic promptness. On the 15th day of May, following, an'act was passed providing for the organization of the Reserve corps, to consist of thirteen regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and one of artillery. The first military organization which, according to documentary evidence, began the active preparations for defence, was the Ringgold light artillery, of Reading. Early in January, 1861, Captain McKnight believed he foresaw the signs of impending danger, and hlie therefore councilled with his men, who agreed to devote a certain portion of each day to drill and discipline. On the morning of the 12th of April Governor Curtin received the following dispatch from Philadelphia: " The war is commenced. The batteries began firing at four o'clock this morning. Major Anderson replied, and a brisk cannonading commenced. This is reliable, and has just come by associated press. The vessels were not in sight." This intelligence referred to the attack on Fort Sumter, and was at once flashed from the Capital, by orders of the Governor, to all parts of the State. The news was interpreted as the precipitation of a great rebellion. Three days later, the President issued his proclamation calling out the militia. The Secretary of War telegraphed to Governor Curtin to send two regiments of the quota of fourteen from this State within two (lays. Washington city was reported as in imminent peril, being entirely unprotected and at the mercy of the assailants then in arms in Virginia. The utter lack of military organizations outside the cities of the State was remarkable at this period-so remarkable, indeed, as to have no doubt been understood and acted upon by the insurgent leaders, because the same condition existed in all the Middle and Eastern States, where a continuous period of peace had almost completely deadened military ardor. Aside from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, there were few military companies in the State fully armed and equipped, and of these not one-fourth contained the minimum number (thirty-two) of men. But, as the appeal for men was disseminated through the towns and villages of the interior, the officers of whatever military organizations which did exist promptly rallied their men and tendered their services to the Governor. The Ringgold light artillery, Captain McKnight, of Reading; the Logan guards, Captain Selheimer, of Lewistown; the Washington artillery, Captain Wren, and the National light infantry, Captain McDonald, of Pottsville; and the Allen rifles, Captain Yeager, of Allentown, were the first, or among the very first to offer their services in an armed and disciplined condition for immediate action. When the Ringgold light artillery, numbering one hundred and two men, reached Harrisburg, and word was sent to the Secretary of War of the presence of so strong a company at the State Capital, he at once telegraphed for its immediate presence in Washington, but for prudential reasons the order was suppressed. On the morning of the 18th of April, a detachment of regulars of company " H," 4th artillery, numbering fi?t1y men, arrived in Harrisburg from the West, in command of Lieutenant Pemberton. This young officer was of Northern extraction, but his Southern sympathies led him into the Rebel service, where he 261 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. rose to the grade of Lieutenant-General, and had the felicitous favor of being captured, with his entire command, at Vicksburg. The five volunteer companies having been mustered into the United States service by Captain Seneca G. Simmons, of the 7th United States infantry, the regulars and the volunteers referred to departed on the same train, the first for Fort McHenry, and the latter for Washington. The volunteers marched two miles through the city of Baltimore, then filled with Southern sympathizers, ready to obstruct their passage through the city. On leaving the cars at Bolton to march to Camden station, a battalion was formed in this order: Pemberton's regulars on the right, Selheimer's Logan guards next, and Yeager, Wren, and McDonald following-McKnight, with the Ringgold artillery, bringing up the rear. As the column was formed at Bolton station, the Baltimore police appeared in large force, headed by Marshal Kane, followed by a mob, who at once attacked the volunteers, and were countenanced by the police sent to give them a safe conduct through the city. The men were ordered to maintain their discipline, and to make no reply to the ribald slang of the ruffians who menaced them. When in the centre of the city, the regulars Utinder Pemberton filed off toward Fort McHenry, leaving the volunteers to pursue their march to Camden station. This seemed to be a signal to the mob, and at once the air was filled with flying missiles, while every species of oath and imprecation were flung at the volunteers as they moved onward. Not a man inade a reply-steadily, silently, sternly, and undauntedly the five companies moved over the rough, cobble-stone streets. At every step the mob increasedalmost every house contributed to swell the stream of fury-women screamed encouragement from latticed blinds-but with unblanched faces and a steady step the brave men who hurried to the rescue of the National Capital never for a inoment wavered, marching like veterans, as the mob gave way before and around them, they forced their passage to the depot. The mob believed that a portion of the Logan guards carried loaded guns, because their half-cocked pieces displayed percussion caps, but in reality, there was not a load of powder or ball in the entire five companies; nevertheless the feint of displaying the caps, which was done partly as a jest on leaving the cars at Bolton station, saved the men from the bloody attack which was hurled the next day at a force of Massa6husetts troops passing through the city. As it was, when the troops were boarding the cars at Camden station, the infuriated rabble who had dogged their steps hurled bricks, stones, clubs, and mud into their disorganized ranks, without, fortunately, injuring a man. Attempts were made to throw the cars firom the track, to detach the locomotive, and to break the machinery-all of which failed, the train leaving the depot amid the demoniac yells of the disappointed ruffians whose thirst for blood was now aroused to a savage fury. The solicitude of Governor Curtin for the safe transit of these troops through Baltimore was intense. He remained at the telegraph office in Harrisburg receiving dispatches depicting the scene in the streets of Baltimore, and when at length it was announced that the train had passed out of the reach of their assailants, with the men on board, he emphatically declared tiat not another Pennsylvania soldier should march through Baltimore unarmed, but fully prepared to defend himself. At seven o'clock, P.M., of the 18th, the3e five companies reached Washington, 262 GENERAL HISTO R Y. and were at once properly quartered. They were the first troops which arrived from any State to defend the National Capital, constituting the advance of that mighty host which speedily followed from the North, the West, and the East, and which eventually defeated the slaveholder's rebellion for the destruction of the fairest heritage in the shape of a government mani ever bequeathed to his brother. The following resolution was passed by Congress in recognition of the gallantry displayed by the soldiers from Pennsylvania who passed through Baltimore on the ever-memorable 18th of April: " 37TH CONGRESS, U. S., JULY 22, 1861. " Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and are hereby tendered, to the five hundred and thirty soldiers from Pennsylvania, who passed through the mob at Baltimore and reached Washington on the 18th of April last, for the defence of the National Capital. " GALUSHA A. GROW, "Speaker of the House of Representatives." On the day when the first troops contributed by the State for the defence of the National Capital were pursuing their march through the streets of Baltimore, other volunteers were arriving in Harrisburg-the railroad depots were overflowing with recruits-the public grounds around the State Capitol were covered with improvised shelter for troops-the Capitol was occupied by them, and it was at once apparent that a great camp must be established, where raw recruits could be received, drilled, equipped, and armed for active service. Accordingly, what was known as the Dauphin County Agricultural Society's park, an eligible plot of ground in the northwestern portion of the suburbs of Harrisburg, was taken possession of by the authorities. It lay within two hundred feet of the Pennsylvania railroad on the east, and a thousand on the west from the Susquehanna river, and was, perhaps, the finest site for a great camp of instruction and depot for military stores in the Commonwealth. Camp Cuxtin was founded on the 18th of April, 1861, and before the end of that month twenty-five regiments were formed there and sent to the field. It can be inferred from this, the energy and enthusiasm with which the authorities and people of Pennsylvania entered into the conflict for the defence of the Union after the assault on Fort Sumter had fully aroused their patriotic resentment. Captain G. A. C. Seiler, of Harrisburg, organized the first military operations at Camp Curtin; and under the immediate direction of the State authorities before the regular recruiting and instruction of men at that post, the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Eli Slifer, had, previously to the establishment of the camp on the 18th of April, assumed the discharge of certain military functions, such as replying to telegraph offers of troops, affording information as to quotas of companies; but after the regular opening of Camp Curtin, Captain Seiler was formally put in command, which position he held by commission from the 28th of May to the 31st of July, 1861, during which he displayed great energy, but by exposure and over-work contracted a disease, from which he died. Having relinquished the command of the camp on the date named, he was succeeded by Colonel John H. Taggart, 12th Regiment, P. V. Early on the 21st of April, there arrived in Harrisburg troops in companies from Ohio, consisting of men from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Urbana, Mansfield1, 263 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Dayton, Zanesville. and Steubenville, who were quartered at Camp Curtin. The intelligence had reached Harrisburg of the burning of the bridges on the Northern Central railroad, and( a body of two thousand men were at once thrown forward from Camp Curtin, followed by three hundred regulars from Carlisle barracks with a battery of flying artillery. When these troops reached Cockeysville, Md., it produced the most intense excitement along the Northern Central railroad leading into Baltimore, while in that city the sympathizers with the rebellion were thrown into convulsive rage at the threat which this advance of troops seemed to imply, of an attack on that place. It was believed there that the troops in Fort McHenry were awaiting the arrival of the troops from Cockeysville to shell Baltimore. In the meantime the few companies enlisted at the former locality were subjected to almost equal anxiety, as they were there without tents or proper commissary supplies, expecting hourly to be overwhelmed by the advance of a powerful force from disloyal Baltimore. On the 27th of April, at least three thousand men had arrived at Camp Curtin; two thousand were encamped at Lancaster, and three thousand were in readiness to march from Philadelphia. The twenty-five regiments which were fitted out at Camp Curtin, consisting of 20,175 men, were clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted, and transported by the State, in consequence of the inability of the Federal Government to perform this service. At the completion of the three months enlistment, over ten thousand of these men were returned to Camp Curtin. Their condition while in service on the Southern border of the State, in Maryland and Virginia, was not the best, as they were compelled, to a great extent, to do without cooked rations or tents, and much complaint was uttered in consequence. Colonel Thomas Welsh, of Lancaster county, assumed the command of Camp Curtin in July, 1861, which he held until the complete organization of his regiment, the 45th, and its departure for the scene of war, on the 21st of October following, having received its flag from Governor Curtin on the day previous. Until Colonel Welsh took command of the Camp, its organization and discipline were not as rigid as strict military rule demanded. This was partly owing to the peculiar condition of the levies which daily arrived. The three months' men had been principally organized under the militia laws of the State, and from the troops which had acquired that short experience in actual service, the nine months' men were recruited-after which came the requisition for the three-years' men, and with it a sterner element in both camp and field, which brought up the standard of the troops sent to the front to the very highest veteran efficiency. Colonel Welsh gave to the discipline of Camp Curtin its first strict military rule, in the enforcement of which he was ably seconded by Adjutant W. W. Jennings, of Harrisburg, who served from the opening of the Camp in that position until he was elected Colonel of the 127th regiment. During the year 1862, when the organization of the three years, 1862. regiments began, drafts were ordered by the Federal Government, and as the Federal authorities apportioned the quotas to the States, the State authorities in turn apportioned quotas to the several counties, where they were sub-divided among towns and townships. To fill up these quotas and thus GENERAL HllSTORY. escape the draft, called into existence a business in bounties, by which hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent if not squandered. Agents from the several counties of the State were stationed at Camp Curtin for the purpose of offering bounties to recruits, a business which was converted into a rivalry out of which official fraud and personal corruption grew to frightful proportions, filling up companies frequently with men who were physically and mentally incompetent. and in many cases with others who shirked their duty when in the field, or sought to escape before they reached the front. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania met the demands made upon her by the War Department with the utmost alacrity, and the best material she could command. Of the quota of the State, under the call of July 7, 1862, forty-three regiments of volunteers, aggregating 40,383 men, were put into service, and under the draft, ordered August 4th of the same year, fifteen regiments, containing an aggregate force of 15,000 men, organized and sent forward. During the same period nine independent batteries of artillery were organized in the State, with an aggregate strength of 1,358 officers and men. The speed with which Governor Curtin pushed forward these men elicited the warmest acknowledgments of the War Department, through which President Lincoln forwarded his thanks to the people of Pennsylvania for the promptness with which they responded to the call for troops. By the liberal offer of bounties the draft was rendered unnecessary in nearly all parts of the State, each county quota being in most part filled up by the nine months' men, who, on reaching Camp Curtin, in most instances re-enlisted for the war. In the month of September, after the second disaster at Bull Run, it became evident that the enemy had adopted an aggressive policy, and was about to invade the Northern States through Maryland and the southern border of Pennsylvania. At the period of this crisis, Governor Curtin, with his usual alacrity and foresight, solicited and received authority from the President to issue a proclamation calling into immediate service fifty thousand of the freemen of the State. Under this call twenty-five regiments and four companies of infantry, fourteen unattached companies of cavalry, and four batteries of artillery were immediately organized and sent to the border, the greater portion advancing be'yond the State line into Maryland. General John F. Reynolds, at that time commanding the Pennsylvania Reserve corps, was put temporarily in charge of these troops, and when the crisis ended which made their appearance in the field necessary, Governor Curtin was thanked by Major-General McClellan for his zeal in thus covering the southern border of his State, which materially aided in frustrating the Southern incursion into the heart of Pennsylvania, and probably further North. Early in June, 1863, before the dispersing of General Milroy's force at Winchester, the general government took the alarm, and an order from 1863. the War department constituted two new military departments, one of them being that of the Susquehanna, under the the command of General Couch, the other that of the Monongahela, under the command of General W. T. H. Brooks. On the 12th of June, Governor Curtin called out the entire militia of the State. Prompt was the response, and large numbers of troops came at once to Harrisburg, offering their services for the emergency. Unfortu265 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. nately, the general government refused to accept on that first call any troops for less than six months. The men, who had suddenly left their homes, were unprepared for an absence of six months, and would not be mustered into the service of the United States. In this dilemma, Governor Curtin was appealed to, that he should receive the offering troops 9n account of the State, as we had a right to defend our territory without the consent of the general governmentbut to prevent a conflict of authority, the Governor would not consent thereto. It was on the 26th of June that the second proclamation of Governor Curtin was issued, limiting the service to ninety days, or for the emergency. However, in the interim between the 17th and the 26th of the month eight regiments and one battalion had been mustered in for the emergency. During this delay the battle of Gettysburg had occurred, and the rebel force retreated south of the Potomac ere the entire number of troops called by the State were in motion. This circumstance has given rise to the charge of lack of patriotism by Mr. Greeley and other historians of the war. It is stated by the former that "the uniformed and disciplined regiments of New York city generally and promptly went to the front, but that the number of Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, and West Virginians, who set their faces resolutely towards the enemy in this crisis bore but a slim proportion to that of their brethren, who seemed just then to have urgent business east of the Susquehanna or west of the Ohio;" in other words, that the country was profoundly disheartened, while the army had already absorbed what was bravest and most patriotic of its militia-and hlie puts down the number of Pennsylvanians who finally responded to the calls at twenty-five thousand, with the force of New York at fifteen thousand, and New Jersey at three thousand. The New York and New Jersey troops were not required to be mustered into the United States service for six months, but were received as they came, for the emergency. This should be properly understood. There was no lack of patriotism on the part of the people of Pennsylvania on this occasion, but the paucity of State troops was attributable, in a great degree, to the action of the State and National authorities. That the people of the State would have responded to a proper call before the battle of Gettysburg is evident from the alacrity which was exhibited on the occasion of that made by the Governor in September, 1862. It has been stated that the object of the Secretary of War in calling foi troops for so long a period as six months was in a great measure to have a large force ready to guard the line of the Potomac when necessary. Had a longer time been afforded for that purpose, troops might have been obtained, but it was unwise to make a call for the period noted, when the invasion of the State was imminent. The first evidence the inhabitants of the Cumberland Valley had of the rebel approach, was the flight of Milroy's wagon train, which was ordered, as alleged, to secure itself on the east side of the Susquehanna. The horse and mule teams, laden with army supplies, thronged the main road from the State line, and afforded substantial evidence of Milroy's overthrow. Soon followed trains of farm wagons not only from Maryland, but from York, Franklin, and Cumberland counties, too numerous to find accommodations at Harrisburg or in 266 GENERAL HISTORY. ts vicinity, but which pushed on to Lebanon, Berks, and Lancaster counties. Many of these trains were crowded with produce and house furniture, most of chem leaving behind the women and children. Loose cattle, horses, colts, and calves abounded. Pedestrians also pushed along with the caravan, some carrying what they well could. So precipitate was the flight that many amusing incidents occurred, of which it is not our province at the present to rehearse. While the female portion of the rural districts remained behind with their household goods to guard, in the towns along the railroads there prevailed a general alarm, and those who could left for places of security. As far east as Harrisburg was this especially the case; railroad cars were crowded, and other vehicles were called into requisition. But the commotion was not confined to them. Banks were cleared of their money and valuable papers, numerous stores of their goods, and at the Capitol of the State, the important and valuable papers of the departments, the books of the State Library, as also the different county records, were removed to places of safety. In the midst of the consternation which prevailed, the men of the State who were not with the militia were firm, and the able-bodied went to work upon the fortifications on the west of the Susquehanna, opposite Harrisburg, subsequently named Fort Washington, with the hope of some, and the expectation of others, that the Confederate force, if it came at all, would come directly down the valley. Troops were likewise stationed at the different fording places of the river, and breastworks thrown up. _[he New York and New Jersey troops did not by any means comprise all the effective militia force in the valley. They were of some use in swelling the number of our forces at Fort Washington, and it is now reported that Colonel Jenkins, who with his command of eight hundred men, spent a night at Mechanicsburg, approached Harrisburg as far as Oyster's Point, where a slight artillery skirmish ensued, but that officer ascended a hill in the valley from which he had a view of the defences opposite the Capital, and upon inquiry was informed that a large Union force, with considerable artillery, occupied that city. However, the Army of the Potomac was approaching, the Confederate troops sent for, and on Monday, June 29, their forces at Carlisle and York fell back to concentrate. Of the subsequent events-the three days' fight at Gettysburg-that decisive battle which struck the death-knell of the Southern Confederacy, we shall describe in full in subsequent pages. In July 1864, the Confederate forces again crossed the Potomac, 1864. threatening the southern border of the State, and marched towards the National Capital. Under the pressing demands of the Federal authorities, all the organized troops in Pennsylvania were immediately sent forward. The Southern army was defeated and driven back. A column of three thousand men had however crossed into the State, and on the 30th of July, burned the town of Chambersburg. The full details of this transaction are given elsewhere. Although the people of all the Southern border suffered much from the incursions of the enemy, Chambersburg was the only town entirely destroyed within the limits of any loyal State. The citizens of that place were suddenly reduced to 267 GENERAL HISTORY. kind which necessarily falls to their lot, where the men are absent from their homes in search of sustenance for their families. It consisted of domestic and agricultural services. Children were educated with care in the knowledge of the duties and employments of their future life. Their lessons were taught in a kind and familiar manner, their attention awakened by the hope of distinction, and their efforts rewarded by general praise. Threats nor stripes were ever used. Lands and agricultural returns were common property; peltries and the other acquisitions of the chase belonged to individuals. It is well known they were very much averse to European religion and customs, unless in such things as they could comprehend and clearly understand were for their real benefit. Yet, in this, sometimes, their passions prevailed over their better understanding; instance, their drunkenness, &c. But though the hoped and desired success did not so fully attend the labors bestowed on them, and the means used, both by William Penn himself, in person, and by divers others of the more pious and early settlers, whose good example was very remarkable, with the later endeavors since continued, to inform the judgment of the Indians in regard to religious affairs, to acquaint them with the principles and advantages of Christianity, to restrain them from some things acknowledged by themselves to be manifestly pernicious, particularly from abusing themselves with strong liquor, by law, as well as advice, &c., so much as might reasonably have been wished or expected; yet these very labors and means were far from being useless, or entirely without good effect; for the consequence declared that the Indians, in general, were sensible of the kind regard paid them and of the good intended thereby, which they showed and proved by their future conduct and steady friendship, though they generally refused in a formal manner to embrace European manners, religion, and opinions: " For, governed by their own customs, and not by laws, creeds, &c., they greatly revered those of their ancestors, and followed them so implicitly that a new thought or action seldom took place among them." "They arc thought," says William Penn, " to have believed in a God and immortality; and seemed to aim at a public worship: in performing this, they sometimes sat in several circles, one within another: the action consisted of singing, jumping, shouting, and dancing; which they are said to have used mostly as a tradition from their ancestors, rather than from any knowledge or inquiry of their own into the serious parts of its origin. " They said the great King, who made them, dwelt in a glorious country to the southward; and that the spirits of the blest should go thither and live again. Their most solemn worship was a sacrifice of the first fruits, in which they burned the first and fattest buck, and feasted together upon what else they had collected. In this sacrifice they broke no bones of any creature which they ate; but after they had done they gathered them together and burned them very carefully. They distinguished between a good and evil Manito, or Spirit; worshipping the former for the good they hoped; and, it is said, some of them, the latter, that they might not be afflicted with the evil which they feared; so slavishly dark were some of them represented to have been in their understandings! I But whether this last was true, in a general sense, or peculiar only to some parts, it was certainly not the case at all among the Indians within the limits of these 268 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. poverty, and for a time, were sustained by the active benevolence of the people of other portions of the Commonwealth. The burning of Chambersburg was an act of ruthless vandalism unnecessary at the time as a means of promoting the protection or the success of the invader, and perpetrated merely as a show of bravado, in defiance of all honorable warfare and the sacred rights of humanity. The inhabitants offered no resistance at the time to the advance-there was no Union force intrenched in the town, and therefore, no necessity to fire it as a means of dislodging an enemy. The history of all the campaigns in which the troops of Pennsylvania took GENERAL HOSPITAL, CAMP CURTIN, 1863. [From a Photograph by D. C. Burnite.] part is also the history of Camp Curtin. It was on that classic ground that these troops were in great part recruited, mustered-in, and mustered-out. After the mustering in of the nine months' men, the Federal authorities took charge of Camp Curtin, the affairs of which were thenceforth, to the end of the war, entirely conducted through the War Department. The control of all troops after they were mustered into the United States service passed out of the hands of the State, yet the Governor of the Commonwealth did not cease vigilantly to care for their welfare, to look after their comfort in the field, and their succor when sick or wounded. Camp Curtiu, besides being a vast depot of military stores and rendezvous for troops passing to and from the army in the field, was also a hospital for the accommodation of the sick and wounded, and for the quartering of prisoners captured in battle. In addition to the relief afforded by the government in hospitals attached to this and other camps, the citizens in various portions of the State were unceasing in their attention to the wounded or diseased-stricken heroes. After those sanguinary conflicts at Antietam and Gettys. GENERAL RISTOR Y. burg, when numerous hospitals were improvised, and indeed during the four years of war, the entire population of the State busied themselves in providing such aid that the military stores did not afford, in which noble duty women and children vied with old and young men in contributing the utmost in their power. Governor Curtin, at the close of the war, in a special message to the Legislature thus referred to the part which the people had taken in the struggle to maintain the Union and preserve the Government: " Proceeding in the strict line of duty, the resources of Pennsylvania, whether in men or money, have neither been withheld or squandered. The history of the conduct of our people in the field is illuminated with incidents of heroism worthy of conspicuous notice; but it would be impossible to mention them in the proper limits of a message, without doing injustice, or, perhaps, making invidious distinctions. It would be alike impossible to furnish a history of the associated benevolence and of the large individual contributions to the comfort of our people in the field and hospital, or of the names and services, at all times, of our volunteer surgeons, when called to assist in the hospital or on the battle field nor is it possible to do justice to the many patriotic Christian men who were always ready to respond when summoned to the exercise of acts of humanity and benevolence. Our armies were sustained and strengthened in the field, by the patriotic devotion of their friends at home; and we can never render full justice to the heaven-directed, patriotic, Christian benevolence of the women of the State." With this message all operations at the various camps were brought to a close. At the great rendezvous, Camp Curtin, the ground was restored tothe uses of agriculture, and to-day is partly occupied by private residences. But the scenes enacted there will never be forgotten. It was the Altar on which Pennsylvania laid her most precious offerings for the safety of the Union of which she is the Keystone. The flower of her youth and the robust maturity of her strongest manhood passed into. and out of that camp to the field of battle-some to perish amid its carnage, others to return wounded or sickened unto death, and still others unharmed, the survivors of the great conflict, who now live to wear its honors and enjoy the fruits of the victory for Liberty and Union, which their valor helped to win. During the four years of war, Pennsylvania sent to the Federal or Union army 270 regiments and several unattached companies, numbering in all 387,284 men, including the 25,000 militia in service in September, 1862. 1861.-Under call of the President of April 15, 1861, for three months, 20,979; " Pennsylvania reserve volunteer corps" sent into the United States service under the call of the President of July 22, 1861, for three years, 15.856; organized under act of Congress of July 22, 1861, for three years, 93,759; making 130,594. 1862.-Under call of the President of July 7, 1862, including eighteen ninemonths regiments, 40,383; organized under draft ordered August 4, 1862, for nine months, 15,100; independent companies for three years, 1,358; recruits forwarded by superintendents of recruiting service, 9,259; enlistments in organizations of other States and in the regular army, 5,000;. making 71,100. 1863.-Organized under special authority from War Department for three 269 HISTO RY OF PENNSYL VANIA. years, 1,066; under call of the President of June, 1863, for six months, 4,484; for the emergency, 7,062; recruits forwarded by superintendents of recruiting service, 4,458; enlistments in regular army, 934; militia called out in June for ninety days, 25,042; making 43,046. 1864.-Re-enlistments in old organizations for three years, 17.876; organized under special authority from War Department for three years, 9,867; under call of July 27, for one year, 16,094; under call of July 6, for one hundred days, 7,675; recruits forwarded by superintendents of recruiting service, 26,567; drafted men and substitutes, 10,651; recruits for regular army, 2,974; making 91,704. 1865.-Under call of the President of December 19, 1864, for one year, 9,645; recruits forwarded by superintendents of recruiting service, 9,133; drafted men and substitutes, 6,675; recruits for regular army, 387; making 25,840; and a total of 362,284 men. To this should be added the militia called out in 1862, amounting to 25,000, which go to make up the grand total of 387,284 men furnished by Pennsylvania. There is no feature so attractive in the organization and services of the regiments which Pennsylvania contributed to aid in crushing the insurrection of the people of the slave States, than that of the origin of the regimental battle flags, the actions in which they were borne, their present condition, and place of deposit. In May, 1861, the Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania, an organization formed of the surviving officers of the Revolutionary war and their descendants, tendered to Governor Curtin a donation of five hundred dollars, to be used toward arming and equipping the volunteers of the State. On the 8th of May the Governor, in a special message to the Legislature, announced the tender of this money, and requested that he be authorized to receive and directed how to apply it. In a series of joint resolutions, the Assembly directed him to apply the money to the purchase of regimental flags to be inscribed with the arms of the State. Other resolutions were passed providing for ascertaining how the several regiments of Pennsylvania in the war of the Revolution, in that of 1812, and with Mexico, were numbered, the divisions of the service in which they were distributed, and in what action said regiments distinguished themselves; that having obtained these particulars, the Governor should procure regimental standards, inscribed with the numbers of those regiments respectively, on which should be engrossed such data. The standards thus were delivered to the regiments then in the field or forming, bearing the regimental numbers corresponding to the regiments of Pennsylvania in former wars. The Reserves secured the greater portion of the flags thus inscribed with the dates of the Revolution and succeeding wars. The Governor was also authorized to procure flags for all the regiments of the State serving in the Union army, emblazoned with the number thereof and the coat of arms of the Commonwealth. These resolutions provided for the return of all the standards to the possession of the State at the close of the war, to be inscribed as the valor and good conduct of the soldiers of each regiment deserved; and whenever the country may be involved in any future war, they are to be delivered to the regiments then formed according to their number as they may be called into service. 270 GENERAL IlS7IORY. Such was the origin of the battle-flags of Pennsylvania. The Governor in person presented each regiment with one of these ensigns, the ceremony either taking place at camps within the State or in the camps of the armies at the front to which they were assigned. Such events were always interesting-the magnetic eloquence of the fervid Governor eliciting the spontaneous enthusiasm of the men who received their standards with vows that were zealously kept, while the pledges of personal devotion which the Governor made to care for them in sickness, wounds, and death, and to provide for the widows and orphans of those who perished, were as religiously fulfilled. Every regiment that went into service bearing one of these flags never lost its identity with the State which contributed it to the national defence, and to that extent the fame those soldiers made for themselves on the field of battle was reflected back on the old Commonwealth, where its lustre will long be preserved, not as an object of irritation between the sections which antagonized each other in the late civil war, but as an evidence of national devotion and personal valor which is destined in after years to be prized in grateful remembrance. Two hundred and eighteen of these flags have been returned to the State, and are deposited in a room specially arranged for their safe keeping in the Capitol at Harrisburg. They are enumerated by beginning with the 11th regiment, Colonel Richard Coulter's, to that used by the 215th, Colonel Thomas Wistar's. The condition of the standards impresses the beholder with the havoc through which they were carried. That of the 100th regiment now consists of only three small pieces of tattered silk. The flag of the 150th was captured at Gettysburg and afterwards recaptured among the baggage of the President of the so-called Southern Confederacy. That of the 90th has its staff shot away; the 148th is in a similar condition, as well as greatly riddled by bullets. Two flags of the 51st are torn and riddled, having been carried in some of the fiercest struggles of the conflict. The original flag of the Buck-tail regiment (42d), with a portion of a buck-tail still on the top of the staff, is an object of much curiosity. The State possesses no more valuable deposit in its archives than these flags. The older they become the more valuable and more venerated they will be. Another subject growing out of the war was the adoption of the system of soldiers' orphans schools. Of the facts connected with their origin and growth we shall refer in brief terms. In the message of Governor Curtin, of January 7, 1863, he says: "In July last, I received, at Pittsburgh, by telegraph, an offer from the Pennsylvania railroad company of a donation of $50,000, to assist in paying bounties to volunteers. I declined this offer, because I had no authority to accept it on behalf of the public, and was unwilling to undertake the disbursement of the fund in my private capacity. I have since received a letter on the subject from the company, suggesting other modes of disposing of the money, a copy of which is annexed to this message." To Colonel Thomas A. S(ott, then vice-president of that great corporation, are we really indebted for originating and suggesting the establishment of that system which led the way to provide for the education and maintenance of the destitute orphans of soldiers. At the request of the Governor, a bill was prepared by Professor J. P. Wickersham, then principal of the State Normal school at Millersville, embodying the provisions necessary HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. for carrying into effect the measures proposed in the message concerning these wards of the State. This bill was not acted on for want of time, but a short act was passed authorizing the Governor to accept the donation of the railroad company, and to use it, at his discretion, for the purposes designated. In order to accomplish this, the Governor, on the 16th of June, 1864, duly corn missioned Thomas H. Burrowes, Superintendent of Soldiers' Orphans. Dr. Burrowes began at once to organize the system. A number of schools willing to receive pupils were selected in different parts of the State, through the assistance of the patriotic and public-spirited citizens in the several counties who acted as superintending committees. By the 9th of February, 1865, six schools and five homes had contracted to receive two hundred and seventy-six orphans. The task of finding suitable institutions willing to receive soldiers' orphans, under all the circumstances attending the matter, was one of extreme difficulty; and a man less hopeful than Dr. Burrowes, one with more calculation and less faith, would not have succeeded in accomplishing it. He had but $50,000 at command, several of the Normal schools declined his request to erect additional buildings for the accommodation of such orphans as he might send to them., the prices asked for taking care of the orphans by a number of boarding schools to which he applied were higher than hlie could pay, and, worse than all, there was a general want of confidence in the permanency of the enterprise. Still, full of faith and zeal, the superintendent labored on in his good work, and, at last, had the good fortune of seeing the obstacles that at first stood in the way of his plans, in great measure overcome. The Legislature of 1865 passed an act, approved March 23, "establishing the right principle that the destitute orphans of our brave soldiers are to be the children of the State," and appropriating $75,000 to carry on the work for the year. Although this measure finally passed both Houses unanimously, it met in its progress some very strong opposition, and Dr. Burrowes says, "it owes its origination entirely to the wise forethought and untiring exertions of Governor Curtin." The expenses of the first year amounted to $103,817 67, but no one appreciated even then the magnitude of the system building up. For nearly ten years the number of orphans under the care of the Commonwealth have been about eight thousand annually, at an annual expense of nearly half a million dollars. "No calculation," said Governor Geary in his message of 1868, "can furnish an estimate of the benefits and blessings that are constantly flowing from these institutions. Thousands of orphan children are enjoying their parental care, moral culture, and educational training, who otherwise would have suffered poverty and want, and been left to grow up in idleness and neglect. Many a widow's heart has been gladdened by the protection, comfort, and religious solicitude extended to her fatherless offspring, and thousands are the prayers devoutly uttered for those who have not been unmindful of them in the time of their affliction. In making the generous disposition it has done for these destitute and helpless orphans, the Legislature deserves and receives the heartiest thanks of every good citizen, all of whom will cordially approve a continuance of that beneficence. In shielding, protecting, and educating the 272 G.ENERAL HISTORY. children of our dead soldiers, the Legislature is nobly performing its duty. These children are not mere objects of charity or pensioners upon our bounty, but the wards of the Commonwealth, and have just claims, earned by the blood of their fathers, upon its support and guardianship, which can only be withheld at the sacrifice of philanthropy, honor, patriotism, State pride, and every principle of humanity." As early as 1864, measures were taken by the Executive and Legislature looking to the preparation of a history of the men who went forward in the armies of the country from this State in the great battles for the Union. Subse quently, 1866, Prof. Samuel P. Bates 1866. was appointed to this work. Five im perial octavo volumes of over one thousand pages each give a valuable history of every regiment from the State-an enduring monument, not only of the bravery of the sons of Pennsylvania, but of the power and the glory of the good old Commonwealth. On the 15th of January, 1867, Gene 1867. ral John W. Geary,* of Westmoreland county, was inaugurated Governor of the State, a position in which, by election to a second term, he served six years. During that' period the debt of the Commonwealth was re- JOHN W. GEARY. duced over ten millions of dollars. It was a time of unusual activity in business, and the proper development of the industrial resources of Pennsylvania. During the war for the Union, the so-called "border counties," York, Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, Fulton, Bedford, and Perry, suffered severely, not only through the invasion of the Southern forces, but incidentally by the marching of the Federal troops interposing to drive the former from the State. The citizens who thus sustained destruction and loss of property appealed to the 1868. Legislature for aid. That body generously considered the matter and took measures to afford the citizens the necessary assistance. The Governor appointed a board of commissioners agreeably to the act of April 9, * JOHN TWHITE GEARY Was born at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland county, December 30, 1819. He taught school, became a merchant's clerk in Pittsburgh, afterward studied at Jefferson College; finally became a civil engineer, and for several years was connectcd with the Allegheny Portage railroad. He was lieutenant-colonel of the second Pennsyl vania regiment in the Mexican war; wounded at Chapultepec, and for meritorious conduct was made first commander of the city of Mexico after its capture and colonel of his regi ment. In 1849 was made postmaster of San Francisco, soon after alcalde of that city, and its first mayor. In 1852 returned to Pennsylvania and settled on his farm in Westmoreland county. From July, 1856, to March, 1857, he was Governor of Kansas. Early in 1861 raised and equipped the 28th Pennsylvania volunteers; promoted brigadier-general of volunteers April 25, 1862; wounded at Cedar Mountain; led the 2nd division of the 12th corps at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wauhatchie, and Lookout Mountain; com manded the 2d division of the 20th corps in Sherman's march to the sea; appointed military governor of Savannah on its capture, December 22, 1864; elected Governor of Pennsyl vania, 1867, serving two terms. He died suddenly, at Harrisburg, on February 8, 1873. 273 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. 1868, who were authorized to adjudicate the claims thereof, and although the amounts allowed were small, they served to afford temporary relief. By an act of the Assembly adopted April 22, 1858, a monument was erected this year, on the grounds of the Capitol at Harrisburg, to commemorate the heroic virtues of the "citizens of Pennsylvania who were slain or lost their lives in the late war with Mexico." THE PENNSYLVANIA MONUMENT TO THE HEROES OF MEXICO. At the session of the Legislature of 1870, an effort was made to take from the sinking fund of the State bonds to the value of nine and a half 1870. millions of dollars, the proceeds of the sales of the public improvements formerly owned by it, in aid of certain railroads. The Governor interposing his veto, prevented this contemplated outrage. In the month of July, 1871, a serious disturbance of the public peace 1871. and order of the city of Williamsport took place, rendering the civil authority powerless. Under this necessity a reliable military force was sent forward under command of General Jesse Merrill, to protect and aid the authorities in enforcing the civil processes. By the presence of the troops the law-abiding citizens were encouraged and the lawless disheartened. This was termed at the time " the saw-dust war." 274 GENERAL HISTORY. 1872. A Bureau of Labor Statistics and of Agriculture was established by 1872. an act of the Legislature of April 12, 1872. General John F. Hartranft,* of Montgomery county, assumed the office of Governor on the 21st of January, 1873. The inland fisheries of nearly all the States having toward the middle of the century shown a very great falling off in consequence of the absence of all legal regulation, the New England States, commencing with Massachusetts, took the subject in hand in 1865, and immediately thereafter, on the 30th of March, 1866, the State of Pennsylvania followed her example. Colonel James Worrall was appointed commissioner by Governor Curtin, to make an examination of the streams of the State, the artificial obstructions to the passage of fish, and to report such measures as should be proper to re-stock and protect them. In the summer of 1868, several gentlemen of Harrisburg, to test the matter of propagating " fish from other streams, introduced the black bass of the Potomac into the Susquehanna, and through appropriate legislation the result has been successful. Fish-ways were created in the dams which crossed the more important . JOHN F. HARTRANFT. rivers-intended to facilitate the passage of anadromous fishes up and down the streams. The Legislature in 1873 1873. made appropriations for carrying out this object, and the Fishery com missioners have zealously devoted themselves to this work; and Pennsylvania has advanced equally with the most energetic of the other States. The pernicious and alarming results of special legislation, with other evils connected with the working of the Constitution of 1838, demanded a reform in that instrument. On the 2nd of June, 1871, the General Assembly, to further that object, passed a resolution to submit the calling of a convention to the people * JoHN FREDERICK FIARTRANFT was born in New Hanover township, Montgomery county, December 16, 1830. In his seventeenth year he entered the preparatory department of Marshall College, and subsequently was transferred to Union College, Schenectady, where he graduated in 1853; studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1859. At the outset of the civil war he raised the 4th Pennsylvania regiment. At the first Bull Run battle he served on General Franklin's staff, the period of enlistment of his regiment having expired one day previous. Upon the muster out of this "three months' " regiment, Colonel Hartranft organized the 51st. He accompanied General Burnside in his expedition to North Carolina in March, 1862, and with his regiment was in all the engagements of the 9th corps, including Vicksburg; led the famous charge that carried the stone bridge at Antietam; was made brigadier-general May 12, 1864; in command of the 3d division, 9th army corps, March 25, 1865, gallantly recaptured Fort Steadman in the lines before Richmond, for which he was breveted major-general. Was elected auditor-general of Penn%ylvania, in 1865, and on August 29, 1866, the President tendered him the position of colonel in the regular army, which he declined. In 1868, General Hartranft was re-elected auditor-general. In 1872 he was chosen Governor of the Commonwealth, and re-elected in 1875 for the term of three years. 275 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. of the State. At the general election held in October following, the vote for holding a constitutional convention was 128,354 to 70,205 against the measure. The Legislature, by its act of April 11, 1872, made provision for the calling of the same, and to secure a full and free expression of opinion in the convention without party or political bias, the plan of minority representation was adopted. The delegates elected assembled at the State Capitol, Harrisburg, on Tuesday, November 13, 1872, adjourned from thence to Philadelphia on the 27th, where it assembled on the 7th of January, 1873. The draft of the Constitution having been adopted by that body, it was submitted to the qualified electors of the Commonwealth on Tuesday, the 18th day of December, and was approved by a vote of 253,560 for, and 109,198 against the measure. As thus adopted, the new Constitution of 1873 comprises the following reforms: An increase of the number of senators and representatives of the General Assembly; biennial sessions of the Legislature; the election by the people of sundry officers heretofore chosen; minority representation; modifications of the pardoning power; a change in the tenure and mode of choosing the judiciary; a change in the date of the annual elections; prohibition of all special legislation, with other changes of vital importance to the interests of the people at large. The 1874. Constitution went into effect the first day of January, 1874. Although it is imperfect in certain points, the Constitution is considered a model instrument, and during the two years in which it has been in operation, given the greatest satisfaction to the people. In March, 1874, owing to the seizure of railroad trains by a mob at Susquehanna depot on the New York and Erie Railroad, troops were ordered forward by the Governor, who succeeded in quelling the disturbance and restoring confidence. Disturbances in the mining regions occurred during this and the following year; but by the prompt calling out of the military by Governor Hartranft, order and peace were preserved. The new constitution providing for the election of a Lieutenant-Governor who was to act as President of the Senate, in November John Latta* of Westmoreland county, was chosen for a period of four years. On the 18th day of January, 1876, Governor Hartranft re 1876. assumed the executive functions under the constitution of 1873; and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, founded by deeds of Peace, has become the Empire State of the Union-first in population, first in wealth, first in industrial resources, and first in political influence. * JoHN LATTA was born in Unity township, Westmoreland county, in 1836. He received an academic education, graduated at Yale Law School, admitted to the bar in 1859, and located at Greensburg. Mr. Latta served in the Senate 1864-5, and in the House 1872-3. Elected Lieutenant-Governor 1874. 276 PART II. COUNTY HISTORIES. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. provinces, or, at least, very much concealed from the first and early settlers of them. "But in late years it was less to be admired that the Indians, in these provinces and their vicinity, had shown so little regard to the Christian religion, but rather treated it, as well as its professors, with contempt and abhorrence, when it was duly considered what kind of Christians those generally were, with whom they mostly dealt and conversed; as, the Indian traders, and most of the inhabitants of the back counties of this and the neighboring provinces, who had chiefly represented the professors of Christianity among them, for many years I viz., such of the lowest rank, and least informed, of mankind, who had flowed in from Germany, Ireland, and the jails of Great Britain, and settled next them, as well as those who fled from justice in the settled, or better inhabited parts of the country, and retired among them, that they might be out of the reach of the laws, &c., the least qualified to exhibit favorable ideas of this kind; but it was most certain they have done the contrary; insomuch that, it were to be wished the cause of the late unhappy Indian war within the limits of these provinces, did not take its rise, in no small degree, from the want of common justice, in the conduct of too many of these people towards them; for notwithstanding the general ignorance of the Indians in many things, especially of European arts and inventions, yet in things of this kind they relied more on experience than theory; and they mostly formed their judgment of the English, or Europeans, and of their religion and customs, not from the words, but from the actions and manners of those with whom they most conversed and transacted business. "For, however ignorant and averse to European refinement and ways of thinking, on religious subjects, the Indians, in general, might appear to have been, yet, as in all other nations of mankind, it is most certain there were some among them of a more exalted way of thinking, and enlightened understandings, who, notwithstanding the great absurdities among the generality, were not without some degree of a just sense and acknowledgment of the providential care and regard of the Almighty Creator over the human race, both in a general and particular capacity, and, even, of divine grace and influence on the human mind, and that independent of foreign information, or instruction: of this their immediate sense and understanding of mental objects, which it is most manifest many of them possessed, even of the highest nature, and very demonstrative; besides, part at least of their traditions, from their ancestors, whose prime original, so far as it is founded on truth, must necessarily have first arisen from the divine intelligence, though communicated in different degree to different parts of the human race, and though much of such tradition may be mixed with imagination and absurdity." The strongest passion of an Indian's soul was revenge. To gratify it, distance, danger, and toil were held as nothing. But there was no manliness in his vengeance. He loved to steal upon his enemy in the silence of the forest, or in his midnight slumbers, and to glut himself, like a ravenous wolf, in undistinguished slaughter. In war, not even the captive was spared, unless he were adopted to supply the place of a deceased member of the capturing nation. If not thus preserved, he was destined to perish, in protracted torture, under the hands of women and chil 278 COUNTIES. Chester*.......... Bucks*........... Philadelphia*.... Lancaster........ York............. Cumberland...... Berks............. Northampton.... Bedford.......... Northumberland Westmorelandt.. Washington.... Fayette.......... Franklin...... Montgomery..... Dauphin........ Luzerne.......... Huntingdon...... Allegheny........ Delaware......... Mifflin i.......... Somerset......... Lycoming........ Greeie.......... Wayne.......... Adanms.......... Centre............ Armstrong....... Butler............ Beaver........... Crawford......... Erie............. Mercer......... Venrango......... Warren.......... Indiana........... Jefferson........ M'Kean.......... Potter........ Tioga............ Cambria.......... Clearfield........ Bradford*....... Susquehainnaa.... Scihuylkill........ Lehigh........... Lebanon.......... Columbia......... Union............ Pike............. Perry............. J uniata........... Monroe........... Clarion.......... Clinton........... Wyoning........ Carbon......... Elk............. Blair............. Sullivan......... Forest~........... Fulton............ Lawrence........ Montour.......... Snyder........... Cameron......... FRiOM WHAT FORMED. C............................................................ Lancaster....................................... Lancaster............................................. Plrhadelphia, Bucks, Lancaster................... Bucks...................................................... Cumaberland............................................... Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks, Bedford, and North'n B edford.................................................... W estm oreland............................................ W estinoreland............................................. Cum berland................................................ Philadelphia............................................... Lancaster.................................................. Northumberland......................................... B edford................................................... Westmoreland and Washington..................... Chester......................................... Cumberland and Northumberland.................. Bedford......................................... Northumberland......................................... Washington................................... Northampton................................... Y ork.................................................. Mifflin, Northumberland, Lycomning, and Huntingdon Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Lycoming............. Allegheny................................................ Allegheny and Washington....................... Allegheny.................................. Allegheny...................................... Allegheny...................................... Allegheny and Lycomning......................... Allegheny and Lycomring......................... Westmoreland and Lyconing........................... Lyconming...................................... Lycoming............................................ Lycoming...................................... Lycomin g.......................................... Huntiikgdon, Somerset, and Bedford.................. Lycoming and Northumberland......................... Luzerne and Lycoming........................... Luzerne........................................ Berks and Northampton.......................... Northampton.................................... Dauphin and Lancaster.................................. Northum berland........................................ Northumberland.......................................... Wayne......................................... Cuniberland..................................... Mifflin.............:.......................... Northampton and Pike........................... Venango and Armstrong......................... Lyconl ig and Centre................................... Luzerne........................................... Northampton and Monroe................................ Jefferson Clearfield, and M'Kean...................... Huntingdon and Bedford.......................... Lycomning....................................... Jefferson and Venango................................... Bedford........................................ Beaver aind Mercer................................ Columbia......................................... Union......................................... Clinton, Elk, M'Kean, and Potter..................... WHEN FORMED. .....................................1682... .....................................1082... ....,1682... May 10, 1729... Aug. 19. 1749... Jan. 27, 1750... Mar. 11, 1752... Mar. 11,1752... Mar. 9, 1771... Mar. 27, 1772... Feb. 26, 1773... Mar. 28, 1781... Sept. 26, 1783... Sept. 9, 1784... Sept. 10, 1784... Mar. 4, 1785... Sept. 25, 1786... Sept. 20, 1787... Sept. 24, 1788... Sept. 26, 1789... Sept. 19, 1789... April 17, 1795... April13, 1796... Feb. 9, 1796... Mar. 21, 1798... Jan. 22, 1800... Feb. 13, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 12, 1800... Mar. 30, 1803... Mar. 26, 1804... Mar. 20. 1804... Mar. 26, 1804... Mar. 26, 1804... Mar. 20, 1804... Mar. 26, 1804... Feb. 21, 1810... Feb. 21, 1810... Mar. 11, 1811... Mar. 6, 1812... Feb. 16, 1813... Mar. 22, 1813... Mar. 22, 1813... Mar. 26, 1814... Mar. 22, 1826... Mar. 2, 1831... April 1, 1836... Mar. 11, 1839... June 21, 1839... April 14. 1842... Mar. 13.1843... April 18, 1843... Feb. 26, 1846... Mar. 15, 1847... April 11, 1848... April 19, 18-50... Mar. 25. 1850... May 3, 1850... Mar. 2, 1855... Mar. 29, 1860... COUNTY TowNs. West Chester... )oylestown..... Plhladelphia.... Lancaster....... York............. Carlisle.......... Reading......... Easton.......... Bedford......... Sunbury......... Greensburg..... Washington.... Uniontown..... Chambersburg.. Norristown..... Harrisburg..... Wilkes-Barre.. Huntingdon.... Pittsburgh...... Media............ Lewlstown.... Sonmerset........ Williamsport... Waynesburg.... Honesdale....... Gettysburg...... Belhefonte....... Kittanning...... Butler........... Beaver.......... Meadville...... E rie............. Mercer.......... Franklin........ Warren.......... Indiana.......... Brookville...... Smniethlport...... Coudersport.... Wellsboro'...... Ebentisburg...... Clearfileld........ Towanda........ Montrose........ Pottsville....... Allentown...... Lebanon......... Bloonisburg..... Lewisburg...... M ilford.......... New Bloomfield Miffllitown..... Stroudsburg..... Clarion.......... Lock Haven..... Tunlikhannock... ManchChunk... Ridgway........ Hollidaysburg.. Laporte......... Tionesta......... McConnellsburg New Castle...... D)anville......... Middleburg..... Emporlun...... 1786 1778 1682 1730 1741 1751 1748 1738 1766 1772 1782 1782 1769 1784 1784 1785 1783 1767 1765 1849 1790 1795 1796 1796 1826 1780 1795 1804 1803 1791 1795 1795 1803 1795 1795 1805 1830 1807 1807 1806 1805 1805 1812 1811 1816 1751 1750 1802 1785 1800 1822 1791 1806 1839 1833 1790 1815 1833 1812 1850 1852 1786 1802 1790 1800 1861 * Chester, Bucks, and Philadelphia were the three original counties established at the first settlement of the Province of Pennsylvania. t In 1785 part of the purchase of 1784 was added to Westmoreland. * Previous to March 24, 1812, this county was called Ontario, but its name was changed to Bradford on that day. ~ Part of Venango added by act approved October 31, 166. HISTORY OF PENNSYL rANIA. ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES AND COUNTY TOWNS. ADAMS COUNTY. BY AARON SHEELY, GETTYSBURG. [With acknowledgments to Edward McPherson, D. J. Benner, and Joseph S. Gitt.] DAMS county was originally included within the ample limits of Chester county. Soon after the settlement of Pennsylvania by William Penn, in 1682, the Province was divided by its proprietor into three counties, Bucks, Chester, and Philadelphia. Lancaster county was separated from Chester by act of May 10, 1729, and was the first county established subsequent to the formation of the three original counties. The first division of Lancaster county was by act of August 9, 1749, when York county was separated from it. York, which then included what is now Adams, was the first county erected west of the Susquehanna river, and embraced all that territory bounded on the west and north by the South mountain, on the east by the Susquehanna, and on the south by Maryland. The county being very large, and the distance from the upper end to the county-seat being great, a movement looking to the formation of a new county was set on foot as early as 1790. Much feeling was soon developed in reference to this matter. Those living within easy reach of the old county-town manifested their selfishness by violently opposing the measure, while those residing within the limits of the proposed new county were just as active and zealous in favor of a separation. Public meetings were held, petitions for and remonstrances against the erection of a new county were industriously circulated, signers to each obtained, and presented to the Legislature. Finally, after ten years of contention and strife, the separation took place by virtue of an act of Assembly dated January 22, 1800. The new county was named ADAMS, in honor of John Adams, who was President of the United States from 1797 to 1801. The commissioners to mark and run the line dividing Adams from York county were Jacob Spangler, deputy surveyor of York county, Samuel Sloan, deputy surveyor of Adams county, and William Waugh. In June, 1790, when the formation of a new county was first agitated, James Cunningham, Jonathan Hoge, and James Johnston were appointed commissioners to fix upon a site for the county seat. After some deliberation the Commissioners selected for this purpose a tract of one hundred and twenty-five acres, in Straban township, belonging to Garret Yanasdal, and described as " lying between the two roads leading from Hunter's and Gettys' towns to the Brick House, including part of each road to Swift run," and being in part the present site of Hunterstown. In 1791 the subject was again agitated. The Reverend Alexander Dobbin and David Moore, Sen., were appointed trustees for the new county, with full powers, for them and their representatives, to take assurances of all offers for the payment of money, or for the conveyance or transfer of any property in trust, for the use of public buildings to be erected in the town of Gettysburg. 279 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Adams county is bounded on the north by Cumberland, east by York, south by the State of Maryland, and west by Franklin. Its length from east to west is 27 miles, and its breadth from north to south is 24 miles. The area is 248 square miles, or about 350,000 acres. The surface of the county is greatly diversified. The South mountain, the first great chain of hills west of the sea-board, extends along the entire western and northern borders. The other principal elevations are Round, Wolf's, Spangler's, Culp's, and Harper's hills, with Big and Little Round Top, in the central and southern parts. The principal stream is Conewago creek, which has its source in the South mountain, near the dividing line between Adams and Franklin, receiving in its course Opossum creek, Plum run, and Miley's run from the north; and Beaver Dam run, Swift run, Little Conewago, Pine run, Deep run, and Beaver creek from the south, pursuing a winding north and north-east course into York county, through which it passes, and finally finds its way into the Susquehanna near York Haven. Marsh creek, the second stream in size and importance in the county, also takes its rise in the South mountain, near the source of the Conewago, flows south-east to the Monococy river, in Maryland, draining the southern portions of the county and receiving in its course North Branch, Little Marsh creek, Willoughby's run, Rock creek, and Little's run. The entire length of this stream is about 25 miles, and in its course it furnishes excellent water power for ten grist and flouring mills, besides a large number of saw mills and several factories. The first-mentioned of its tributaries, North Branch, is interesting because of its subterranean source in the South mountain, in Franklin township, some four miles north of Cashtown. The sound of this underground stream is first heard in a wild and rocky ravine a short distance north of the public road leading from Hilltown to Buchanan valley, and near Black Sam's cabin, a rude hut once occupied by an old colored man, who here lived the lonely and solitary life of a hermit. After pursuing a southerly course for about two miles, now roaring and thundering among subterranean rocks, and anon moving so slowly and quietly that its direction can only be determined by a faint gurgling and trickling sound, it finally appears above ground. Geologically, Adams county belongs to the south-eastern or sea-board district of Pennsylvania, and is an undulating plain of reddish, sandy-clay soil, in the northern and western portions, while in the eastern part a gray micaceous soil is found. The Lawrentian system, the oldest known to geologists, is represented in the South mountain. The Mesozoic, or New Red Sandstone formation, spreads itself thinly over a portion of the county. The principal minerals of importance are copper, found both in a native state and as a carbonate, in the western and central parts of the county; and crystalline iron ore, much of it magnetic, and some hematite. The central part of Franklin township, about a mile east of Cashtown, is particularly rich in magnetic ore of superior quality. The belt of country stretching from near Littlestown to Hanover, York county, near the line of the railroad, also yields annually immense quantities of iron. The great ore beds of the South mountain seem to lie at considerable depths beneath the surface, and with few exceptions, have not been reached. They will undoubtedly, in the near future, become a source of great wealth to this part of 280 ADAMS COUNTY. the State. Recent surveys and tests indicate that the iron ore of this county is not only excellent in quality but almost inexhaustible in quantity. Some of the beds of magnetic iron ore are traceable for many miles, having become decomposed along their outcrops in places, thus affording extensive surface mines of brown hematite. Limestone occurs in large quantities in the northern, eastern, and western parts of the county, and has become a source of great wealth to the people. Thousands of tons of limestone are annually converted into lime, which is used largely by farmers all over the county in the improvement of their land. The liberal use of lime as a fertilizer by farmers has wrought a wondrous change in this county during the last twenty-five years. Broad stretches of worn-out lands that formerly did not produce sufficient to pay the taxes assessed against them, have been rendered fertile and productive by the generous use of this agent. Hundreds of fields that were once too poor to grow even briars an 1 weeds have been, by its use, made to literally blossom as the rose. Many farms that, years ago, only impoverished those who cultivated them, now yield the most abundant crops of grain, grass, fruits, and vegetables, enriching those who till them, and all by the judicious application of lime. The county exports annually large numbers of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry, besides immense quantities of farm and garden products, such as wheat, corn, rye, oats, timothy and clover seed, hay, apples, peaches, grapes, strawberries, butter, and eggs. Much iron ore is also sent out of the county every year, bringing in a good revenue. Though for a time an object of reproach for the poverty of its soil and for its limited resources, Adams county now compares favorably with any county of its size in the State in everything that is necessary to make a county prosperous and its people happy. Between 1736 and 1740 there were early settlements made by the ScotchIrish who had previously been residing in the lower end of York county. Among these were William McClellan, Joseph Farris, Hugh McKean, Matthew Black, Robert McPherson, William Black, James Agnew, John Alexander, Moses Jenkins, Richard Hall, Richard Fosset, Adam Hall, James Wilson, John Steel, John Johnson, John Hamilton, Hugh Vogan, John McWharter, Hugh Sweeny, Titus Darley, Thomas Hosack, some of the Allisons, Campbells, Morrisons, Edies, etc. The majority of these early settlers located on an immense tract of land comprising about one-fifth of the available land of Adams county laid out for the Proprietaries' use, and named the Manor of Maske. When the Provincial surveyors arrived for the purpose of running its lines, the settlers upon it, not understanding or not approving the purpose, drove them off by force. Some of the settlers had taken out regular warrants, others had licenses, and some were there probably without either. As a result, the lines were not run till January, 1766, and the return of them was made, on the 7th of April, 1768, to the land office. The Manor, as then surveyed, is nearly a perfect oblong. The southerly line is 1,887 perches; the northern, 1,900 perches; the western line, 3,842 perches; and the eastern 3,954. It is nearly six miles wide, and about twelve miles long. The southern line is probably a-half mile north of Mason and Dixon's line, and the 281 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. northern is about mid-way between Mummasburg and Arendtsville, skirting a point marked on the county map as Texas, on the road from Gettysburg to Middletown, does not quite reach the Conewago creek. The Manor covers the towns of Gettysburg and Mummasburg, the hamlet of Seven Stars, and probably McKnightstown, all of the township of Cumberland, except a small strip of half a mile along the Maryland line, nearly the whole of Freedom, about onethird of Highland, the southeast corner of Franklin, the southern section of Butler, the western fringe of Straban, and a smaller fringe on the west side of Mount Joy. Gettysburg is situated north of the centre, and on the eastern edge of the Manor, and is thus about five and a-half miles from the northern line and seven and a-half from the southern. The Manor is separated by a narrow strip on the west from Carroll's Tract, or " Carroll's Delight," as it was originally called, and which was surveyed under Maryland authority on the 3d of April, 1732. It was patented August 8, 1735, to Charles, Mary, and Eleanor Carroll, whose agents made sales of warrants for many years, supposing that the land lay within the grant of Lord Baltimore and in the county of Frederick. As originally surveyed, " Carroll's Delight " con tained 5,000 acres. From the period of the organization of the county to the breaking out of the civil war, Adams county presents no striking features in her history, and not until July, 1863, when that terrible conflict between the armies of the two sections of the Union took place within her borders, are the details of sufficient general interest. Leaving these matters, we proceed to narrate the events immediately preceding THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. The month of June, 1863, was probably the darkest period in the history of the great civil war. The conflict had been raging for more than two years with results wholly incommensurate with the means employed. Dissatisfaction with the conduct thereof was general. The conscription, which had been resorted to in most of the States, increased the popular discontent. Rumors of foreign intervention began to darken the political horizon. In the south-west, affairs were in a critical condition. The army of the Potomac had sustained repeated and severe reverses on the soil of Virginia. Such was the aspect of affairs when the enemy, flushed with victory, and his army augmented by large numbers of fresh troops, suddenly assumed the offensive by a bold invasion of the north. The Confederate army under General Lee left its position near Fredericksburg on the 9th of June, mpving in a north-westerly direction, and within a few days the valley of the Shenandoah was freed from the only opposing force by the dispersion of Milroy's command, at Winchester. On the 22d, Lee threw Ewell's corps across the Potomac, at Shepherdstown and Williamsport, with orders to advance upon Hagerstown, Maryland, Lee following a few days later with the other two corps of his army, commanded respectively by Longstreet and A. P. Hill. From Hagerstown, General Ewell, with Rodes' and Johnson's divisions, preceded by Jenkins' cavalry, marched to Chambersburg, and thence to Carlisle, where he arrived on the 27th. Early's division of Ewell's corps, which had occupied Boonsboro, moved to Greenwood, 282 ADAMS COUNTY. a point on the turnpike leading from Chambersburg to Baltimore, eight miles from the former place, whence in pursuance of instructions from Lee, Early marched in the direction of Gettysburg. At Cashtown, eight miles from Gettysburg, Early divided his force, sending Gordon's brigade to Gettysburg with directions to occupy the town, whilst with the remainder of his command he took the more direct road to York by way of Mummasburg, where he encamped for the night. Soon after Gordon's brigade had taken possession of the town, General Early, with his staff, came in from Mummasburg for the purpose of communicating with the borough authorities in regard to subsistence for his troops. Pending these negotiations, it was discovered that several cars at the depot were filled with supplies for Colonel Jennings' 26th regiment, P. V. M. These were at once captured and appropriated by the invaders, and thus the town was undoubtedly spared a burdensome levy. The railroad bridge across Rock creek, half a mile east of the town, was soon fired by order of General Gordon, and whilst it was in a blaze a number of cars were ignited and started down the track, but they passed over the bridge and were consumed a short distance beyond. Altogether about twenty cars were burned, belonging to the Pennsylvania, Northern Central, and Hanover Branch railroad companies, besides three or four belonging to individuals. One of the cars contained a supply of muskets for Colonel Jennings' command, and these were also destroyed, their captors professing to have no use for them. The Confederate advance consisted of White's cavalry, numbering about 150 men, and as they entered the town they charged up Chambersburg street at a rapid rate, in pursuit of a number of persons on horseback who were hurrying out York and Baltimore streets trying to escape. A few shots were fired, and the fugitives halted. In one instance a member of Bell's cavalry was pursued out the Baltimore turnpike, for a distance of nearly two miles, by a Confederate cavalryman, and, after being vainly halted several times, was shot and instantly killed. As early as June 11th, the War Department at Washington, as a precautionary measure, assigned Major General W. T. H. Brooks to the Department of the Monongahela, and Major General D. N. Couch to the Department of the Susquehanna, with the headquarters of the latter at Harrisburg. General Couch detailed Major G. O. Haller, of the 7th Regular Infantry, to duty at Gettysburg, with orders to assume command of military operations in the county. His dispositions were made with promptness and energy. On the evening of the 20th he addressed a large public meeting at the Adams county court house, urging the citizens of Gettysburg to prepare for the emergency, as it was evident their homes and firesides were about to be invaded. Sunday morning, the 21st, the City Troop of Philadelphia, under command of Captain Samuel J. Randall, arrived and reported for duty. These men furnished their own uniforms and equipments, a most complete outfit, and gave their services without pay. They did excellent duty on the mountain as scouts, carefully watching and reporting the movements of the enemy. The 26th Regiment, P. V. M., Colonel W. W., Jennings, arrived from Harrisburg on the morning of the 26th. Immediately on their arrival the regiment was sent out on a reconnoitering expedition in the direction of Cashtown, and after 283 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. proceeding about three miles they were surprised by White's Confederate cavalry and thirty-six of their number captured. These were taken into Gettysburg as prisoners, and subsequently paroled at the Court House. The next morning, the 27th, one hundred more of the regiment were taken prisoners about three miles out the Mummasburg road, where six hundred of them had encamped. These were paroled at Hunterstown later in the day. Bell's cavalry, a home company, accepted by the Governor, and formally sworn into the United States service for six months by Major Haller, on the 24th, performed very efficient service as scouts, frequently coming in contact with the enemy, making narrow escapes, and bringing in much valuable information. On Saturday, the 27th, the enemy left for Hanover, East Berlin, and York. Sunday, the 28th, at 12 M., two regiments of Federal cavalry, about 2,000 strong, commanded by General Cowpland, entered Gettysburg from the direction of Emmittsburg. Tuesday, the 30th, at 9- A.M., a portion of General Hill's corps, comprising several thousand men, advanced on the turnpike from Cashtown to within two miles of Gettysburg, but being only on a reconnoitering expedition they fell back within an hour. General Stuart, with the Confederate cavalry, did not cross the Potomac with the rest of Lee's army, but crossed near Harper's Ferry, and managed to elude every cavalry force sent after him, until he reached the town of Hanover, in Pennsylvania, where, on the 29th, he was defeated by Kilpatrick in a fierce engagement of eight hours, after which he moved in the direction of York. Meanwhile, on the 11th and 12th of June, the Union army had broken up its encampment and marched northward on a line nearly parallel with that of the enemy. The route of the army was kept carefully concealed, and it was not even known that it had crossed the Potomac until the 27th, when the headquarters were at Frederick city, which had been abandoned by the enemy. On this day General Hooker was relieved from the command of the army, which was conferred upon General George G. Meade, of Pennsylvania. On the morning after assuming command, General Meade ordered the main body of his army to march northward into Pennsylvania, in the general direction of Harrisburg, and on a line parallel with the route taken by Lee, but on the east side of South mountain. Major-General Reynolds, commanding the 1st corps, occupied the extreme left of the army of the Potomac, and was instructed by Meade to feel Lee and carefully watch his movements, but not to bring on a general engagement unless it became imperatively necessary to do so. On Tuesday, the 30th, about noon, Buford's Federal cavalry, 6,000 strong, came in on the Emmittsburg road, passed through Gettysburg, and encamped in two divisions a few hundred yards beyond the borough limits, the one on the Chambersburg pike, and the other on the Mummasburg road, placing their artillery in position. The same afternoon the 1st corps of infantry, 8,000 men, under General Reynolds, and the 11th corps, numbering 15,000, commanded by General O. O. Howard, came from Emmittsburg to Marsh creek, five miles south-west of Gettysburg, where they encamped for the night. It now became evident that a great battle was about to be fought in the immediate vicinity of Gettysburg, invested as it was by 29,000 Federal troops, and at least twice this number of Confederates. 284 ADAMS COUNTY. Gettysburg is situated on a beautiful plain between two slightly,elevated ridges, which have become classic by reason of the important part they were made to play in the grand drama enacted here. The elevation west of the town, a gently rising ground, is known as Seminary ridge, the Lutheran Theological Seminary being located here, and is distant just one mile from the centre of the town, which it overlooks. This ridge extends many miles in a direction almost due north and south from the Seminary, and formed the main line of Confederate defences during the last two days of the battle. It was on this ridge, where the Chambersburg pike crosses it, that General Lee established his headquarters after the first day's engagement. The elevation east of the town is called Cemetery hill, from the fact that Evergreen cemetery, a citizen's burying ground, occupies some eighteen acres of beautiful ground on its eastern and western slopes, on the south side of the Baltimore pike, and about half a mile from the town. This ridge commences a few hundred yards north - of the entrance to this cemetery, and extends far to the south in a line parallel to Seminary ridge. Big and Little - Round Top are both - spurs of this ridge, which formed the main line of Federal defences during the second and third day's fighting. A short GENERAL LEE'S HEAD-QUARTERS AT GETTYSBURG. [From a Photograph by W. H. Tipton & Co., Gettysburg.] distance east of the cemetery this ridge curves sharply to the right, forming two rocky prominences, known respectively as Culp's hill and Spangler's hill, and terminating in Wolf's hill a rough and thickly wooded knob east of Rock creek, which is a sluggish stream winding among these hills. Not only does Gettysburg possess many natural advantages for the fighting of a great battle in its vicinity, but its numerous and excellent roads give it additional value in a strategic point of view, being situated at the convergence of ten great roads, which radiate from it like the spokes of a wheel. The turnpike from Baltimore, by which the 6th and 12th corps were advancing, comes in on the south-east; the road from Taneytown, by which the 2nd, 3d, and 5th were approaching, comes from the south; that from Emmittsburg, by which the 1st and 11th were advancing, comes in from the south-west; that from Hagerstown, used by Lee as one of his thoroughfares, approaches from the west; that from Chambersburg, by which the corps of Longstreet and Hill were marching, comes in on the north-west; those from Mummasburg, Carlisle, Harrisburg, and 285 HIS TORY OF PENS YL VANIA. York, by which Ewell's troops were advancing, coming from the north and north-east; and that from Hanover, used chiefly by the cavalry troops of Kilpatrick and Stuart, coming from the east. THE FIRST DAY'S BATTLE. On Wednesday, July 1st, at 9- o'clock in the morning, skirmishing began between General Buford's dismounted cavalry and the advancing Confederates; and by 10 o'clock the artillery was brought into play. Willoughby's run flows immediately west of the position occupied by Buford. Pender's and Heth's divisions of Hill's corps, numbering 20,000 men, had moved down the Chambersburg road, and had posted themselves along the line of the stream just mentioned, followed by Anderson's division of the same corps, and occupied a position near the Hagerstown road. Skirmishing soon brought on a battle, when sharp cannonading commenced on both sides, the gallant Buford bravely holding his ground against a superior force of the enemy. Meantime General Reynolds, on receiving intelligence from Buford of the presence of the Confederates in the vicinity of Gettysburg, hastily left his encampment on the Emmittsburg road at Marsh creek, five miles distant, and hurried up his corps, at the same time sending word back to General Howard, requesting him, as a prudential measure, to bring up the 11th corps as rapidly as possible. The 11th had also been coming up the Emmittsburg road, but finding it crowded with the wagon train of the 1st corps, they started off on a by-way leading to the Taneytown road, and were still on this by-way when Reynolds' messenger reached them. When the 1st had reached the Peach orchard, two miles from Gettysburg, and while many of the men were slaking their thirst and filling their canteens with water drawn from Wentz's well, the sound of heavy and rapid cannon firing was heard in the direction of the Chambersburg road beyond Gettysburg. Almost at the same instant Captain Mitchell, a gallant aid upon General Reynolds' staff, came dashing down the road, with orders to the various division commanders to push forward their divisions as rapidly as possible. The Ist corps consisted of three divisions, and marched in the following order: First division under General Wadsworth; Second division under General Doubleday; next came five full batteries of artillery under Colonel Wainright; and bringing up the rear came the splendid Third division of General Robinson. The order was given to double quick, which was instantly obeyed, the troops keeping the road until they reached the brick house to the right, on Codori's farm, where they took to the fields and marched in the direction of the ridge to the left, which they reached a short distance south of the Seminary. Wadsworth's division, composed of Meredith's and Cutler's brigades, had the advance, with Cutler on the right and Meredith on the left. Arriving at the Seminary, the near presence of the enemy became at once manifest. General Reynolds promptly ordered a battery in position, and rode forward to select ground for a line of battle. Sadly unfortunate for him and for his country, that so sorely needed his well-tried services, he fell pierced through the head by a ball from a sharp-shooter's rifle, and was borne to the rear mortally wounded. General Abner Doubleday immediately assumed command of the corps, but there was no time to wait for orders 286 ADAMS COUNTY. from the new commander. Instantly, right and left, Cutler, with his veterans, and Meredith, with his famous "Iron Brigade," wheeled into line on the double quick. Cutler, having the advance, opened the attack. Meredith became engaged a few minutes later. The fighting on the right was fearful for a while, and resulted in the capture of a portion of Davis' Mississippi brigade, which had taken refuge in an unfinished railroad cut. On the left the struggle was, if possible, still more severe and bloody. A strong force advanced from the woods on the edge of which Reynolds had fallen but a short while before, and, though volley after volley was poured into the column, the men did not waver. The proximity and strength of the enemy at last became so threatening that the second division was ordered to make a charge, which was successful. Many of the enemy were shot, bayoneted, and driven to partial retreat, Archer's brigade of 1,500 men being captured on the banks of Willoughby's run. Our ranks suffered severely in this demonstration, and it was evident such fighting could not long continue. Wadsworth's brave men, who had been contending for two hours against a superior force of the enemy, began to show signs of exhaustion. Rodes' division of Ewell's corps, numbering 12,000 men, had come up on the right and was pressing the 1st corps so hard that the veterans, who had been holding their ground so long and so firmly against large odds, began to waver. But just at the critical moment, when the sun stood at high noon, General O. O. Howard arrived with the 11th corps, and, posting Steinwehr's division on Cemetery hill as a reserve, marched directly through the town with the divisions of Schurz and Barlow, and at once formed a line of battle to the right of the Chambersburg road along Seminary ridge. A charge was soon made by the entire force in front, comprising the corps of Hill and Ewell, 62,000 strong. The shock was awful. The superior numbers of the enemy enabled them to overlap both flanks of the Union army, threatening them with capture. Finally General Howard found it necessary to order a retreat, and the bleeding and exhausted remnants of the two devoted corps retired through the different streets of the town to Cemetery hill, where they took up a new position, the 1st corps to the left and the 1st and 3d divisions of the 11th corps to the right and rear of Steinwehr. The 11th corps, being heavily pressed, lost about 2,500 prisoners in the retreat through the town. General Meade received intelligence of the engagement at Gettysburg about noon, while he was on Pipe Creek hill, near Taneytown, Maryland, about 14 miles distant, selecting a line of battle. Shortly afterwards a second message arrived announcing the death of General Reynolds. Meade at once dictated an order to General W. S. Hancock, dated 1:10 P.I., directing him to turn his corps, the 2d, over to General Gibbon and proceed to the front, assume command of all the troops there, and make such dispositions as the exigencies of the case might require. Hancock arrived on the field at 3:30 P.M., while the retreat to Cemetery hill was in progress, and did much by his presence and influence to restore order and inspire the men with confidence in themselves and their new position. By half-past four P.M. the troops were securely posted in their new position, and the effective fire of artillery and sharp-shooters prevented further pursuit by the enemy. About 5 o'clock in the evening General Sickles arrived from Emmittsburg with the principal part of the 3d corps, and took 287 GENERAL HISTORY. dren. On the other hand, hospitality and respect for the property of others were their distinguishing virtues. Strangers were treated with great attention and kindness, their wants liberally supplied, and their persons considered sacred. To the needy and suffering of their own tribes they cheerfully gave; dividing with them their last morsel. Theft in their communities was rare, and is said to have been almost unknown before their acquaintance with the whites. Such are, in brief, the peculiar characteristics of the aborigines. With the exception of a mere handful in the northern part of Warren county, all have disappeared from the limits of our State, and only the names of our streams and our mountains are left to remind us of the native red man, although the revenge. ful Delawares and perfidious Shawanese hold a prominent place in the history of the State for at least an entire century. PROPRIETARY SEAL. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. position on Cemetery ridge to the left of Howard, occupying nearly the whole of the line to Round Top. An hour later, Slocum's 12th corps came up the Baltimore turnpike and occupied the extreme right of the line, embracing Culp's, Spangler's, and Wolf's hills. Thus ended the action of the first day. THE SECOND DAY'S BATTLE. On the morning of the 2d, the following were the dispositions of the two armies, General Meade, who arrived on the battle-field about eleven o'clock the night previous, assuming the active direction of affairs: The 12th corps, General Slocum commanding, was placed on his right; General Williams - commanding the 1st - division of the 12th - _- _ corps took the extreme right, his right resting _ on Rock creek, with one brigade thrown to the east of the creek to occupy Wolf's hill, and to protect the ex treme right flank. The remainder of Williams' division occupied an irregular line stretching from the creek to Culp's hill, by the way of Spangler's spring. General Geary, com manding the 2d divi sion, occupied Culp's hill, and joined unto GENERAL MEADE'S HEAD-QUARTERS AT GETTYSBURG. the 11th corps in posi [From a Photograph by W. H. Tipton & Co., Gettysburg.] tion on Cemetery hill. To the south of Cemetery hill were, first, the remnants of the 1st corps under Doubleday. Continuing the line toward the left, were the 2nd corps (Hancock's), the 3d (Sickles'), and later in the day, the 5th (Sykes') occupying the naturally entrenched heights of Little Round Top. On the part of the Confederates, General Longstreet's corps had the right, with Hood's and McLaw's divisions in order; General A. P. Hill's corps had the centre, with Anderson's, Heth's, and Pender's divisions in order; General Ewell's corps had the left, with Rodes', Early's, and Johnson's divisions in order. The 6th corps (General Sedgwick's) did not arrive until late in the day, and was held in reserve and used where its presence was most needed. Lockwood's brigade of Maryland troops arrived on the field with the 6th corps and was temporarily assigned to the 12th corps, and relieved one of Williams' brigades that had been protecting Wolf's hill. General Meade established his headquarters on the Taneytown road, a short distance to the rear of his line. General Lee had his headquarters on the Chambersburg road, a short distance to the rear of the Seminary ridge. 288 ADAMS COUNTY. Both commanders were thus in superior positions to communicate promptly and easily with all parts of their lines. The Confederate forces were now all in position with the exception of Pickett's division, of Longstreet's corps, which had been detailed at Chambersburg to guard the wagon trains and to keep open Lee's communication with the Potomac against any flank movement from Harrisburg, by the Cumberland Valley. Strategically the positions of the two armies were in accordance with the topography of the ground heretofore described; the Federal army occupying Cemetery hill, as a centre, with flanks resting upon the elevated lines, on the right, to Wolf's hill, and, on the left, to Little and Big Round Tops, which admirably and effectually protected the left flank of the army, as Wolf's hill and Rock creek did the right. The movements of troops on the right were fully masked by heavy timber, the left being more open. From Round Top to Cemetery hill the Union line generally faced the west, but from this hill to the extreme left the line curved back on itself so much that it faced nearly in the opposite direction. This curved line gave General Meade a great advantage in speedily moving troops from one flank to the other. The Confederates, on Seminary Ridge, had a line of very similar form, but necessarily much longer. A comparison of the two lines shows that the Federal line was only one-third of that of their adversaries. The night, and Thursday till mid-day, passed in comparative silence; what little firing was done was confined to the skirmish line. But the two armies were not idle; artillery was brought up, the heavy guns that arrived with the 2d corps were put in position, regiments and brigades marched and counter-marched from one part of the line to another, weak points were strengthened, salients were covered with double lines, mattock and spade and shovel were in useful requisition, rifle pits dotted the line, wood fences were swept away and combined with stone walls to give additional strength to the temporary defences, orderlies dashed from point to point bearing orders that were as promptly obeyed; the heavy rumble of army wagons showed that provisions and ammunition were being distributed to the men, and ambulances hurrying to and fro pointed out plainly that the work of death vvas soon to begin. At 3 o'clock, the artillery on the Federal and on the Confederate sides was in position; and everything seemed ready for the work of death to commence. It was only a few minutes before 4 o'clock when a gun from Seminary ridge was fired. In an instant both lines were a blaze of artillery and musketry, and the action became general on the Federal left. It soon became evident that the enemy's object here was to crush Sickles. Hood's and McLaw's divisions moved from under their cover on Seminary ridge, in solid columns, across an open space, and engaged Sickles, at the peach orchard, in a hand-to-hand fight. Ward's and DeTrobriand's brigades, of Birney's division, of the 3d corps, received the main force of the enemy's onset. The remainder of Birney's division was also hotly engaged. Gallantly the regiments and brigades met the attack-ably supported by a deadly artillery fire-volley for volley of the enemy was returned, inch by inch they yielded the ground, back over the ridge into the meadows of wheat and corn were they driven, but so stubbornly did they contest it that they had to abandon many of their wounded. A new impulse-a rally, a 289 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. cheer, and back their force was driven; and the brigades re-occupied their first position. Fresh regiments filled up the gap made in the Confederate ranks-the shock of battle again was felt, the plain became enveloped in smoke, and the left of the 3d corps (Birney's division) was once more driven back. Cheering his men on by his words, General Sickles did all that a brave commander could do. Passing towards the left of his corps, into the Peach orchard, General Sickles' foot was carried off by a cannon shot. The command of the corps now devolved on Birney. The retreat of Birney's left was accelerated by the fact that General Longstreet's right was prolonged by the interval of two brigades beyond his (Birney's) left; and a quick flank movement of these brigades would have completely enveloped his shattered troops. The right of the 3d corps fared no better. Birney's division having given way, exposed Humphreys' division and Graham's brigade on the right-still advanced to the Emmittsburg road-to the fiercest assaults of the enemy, both on flank and front. These officers saw that nothing but the best generalship could extricate their commands, as their right was separated from the 2d corps by half a mile of ground, their left was exposed by Birney's retreat, and the enemy was pressing them on all sides. Left without supports, Humphreys determined to do his best to get his command out of the dilemma. Drawing off his men by detail, reforming his line of battle, attacking the enemy at every vantage ground with overwhelmning impetuosity, taking advantage of his enemy's weakness, with the skilled eye of an engineer, to increase his own chances of escape, Humphreys commenced his retrograde movement from the line of the Emmittsburg road with 5,000 men, and formed a line to the left of the 2d corps, on the extension of Cemetery Hill, with 3,000 men-a loss of 2,000 men bearing testimony in the language of blood to the desperation of the fight. Humphreys' division was now in the position originally contemplated for it by General Meade, in his general instructions to corps commanders. In its new position the division was still assaulted by the enemy, but its right protected by the 2d corps and its left by the timber stretching towards Little Round Top, it used its vantage of the high ground in such a manner as to repel every assault of the enemy, who at last retired beyond the Emmittsburg road. Even if the 3d corps was driven from its first position along its whole line, and the Confederates were left in possession of the field, yet one important effort had to be made before Longstreet had performed satisfactorily the work assigned him by General Lee-and that was to occupy Little and Big Round Top. This was the prize that eclipsed all others in the eyes of the Confederate commanderin-chief, and to secure it was the main object of the fight of this day on his right. It was to accomplish this that Longstreet was directed to project two of Hood's brigades beyond the left of Sickles, and, forcing back the 3d corps with the remaining brigades and Anderson's division, these two brigades were at the proper moment to make a dash for these hills; and once their rocky crests in possession, it would have been next to impossible to dislodge them. While these brigades were moving forward, General Meade was making such dispositions of his troops as frustrated the design of the enemy on these hills, and probably saved the army. General Meade had seen that Sickles could not maintain 290 ADAMS COUNVTY. his isolated position at the commencement of the action, and immediately dispatched aid from his reserves. General Warren, engineer-in-chief on General Meade's staff, noticing the nakedness of Little Round Top, and its importance as the key to the Federal left, hastly detached General Vincent's brigade, of the 5th corps, and ordered it into position on its summit. By a rapid movement General Vincent reached the height, and had scarcely time to advantageously form his men on the rocky and broken summit, and construct a few hastily formed rifle-pits, before the exultant Confederates, debouching from the heavy timber into the open space at the foot of the hill, and, with a yell and a rush, attempted to scale the rocky citadel. Like the rugged, weather-beaten rocks behind whose immovable ramparts the men fought, Vincent's brigade met the enemy's shock. But the most determined bravery must yield before overwhelming numbers, and Vincent and his handful of men were borne down and would have become, together with the hill, the prize, had not General Weed, fortunately at that moment, arrived on the ground with his brigade. This new enemy was too much for the Confederates, and they retired from the hill-but not before both Generals Weed and Vincent had laid down their lives in its defence. Birney's old division, which was the first to retreat from the line of the Emmitsburg road, sought the cover of the two brigades of General Barnes' division-5th corps-sent to its relief. These brigades joined battle with the Confederates, in the woods some distance in front of Little Round Top, and so overwhelming were they assailed-the assailants encouraged by the prospects of an easy victory-that they were soon routed. Then Caldwell's divisiontemporarily detached from Hancock's corps, to relieve the pressing necessities of this position, but slightly more to the right, by a detour along the flanks of Little Round Top, entered the low skirt of woodland, where they became at once hotly engaged. With unparalleled courage, inch by inch, from rock to rock, and from tree to tree, this division disputed the ground, but the impetuosity of the Confederates was irresistible-human effort could not stand before it, the little advantage of one moment was swept away in the general disaster, and, broken, overpowered, the division sought safety in flight, with the loss of one-half their number, and having to lament the death of two of its brave brigade commanders-Cross and Zook, falling at the heads of their commands. General Ayers' division-mainly composed of regulars-now took the place that had been so disastrous to Barnes and Caldwell. This division stood like a wall of adamant to the fiercest shocks of the Confederates; and had defied every attempt to break its ranks, until being out-flanked, it manceuvred so as to form a new front, and under this advantage covered its retreat to the defences of Little Round Top. The intermediate low ground from Round Top to the timber-the posi. tion of the Confederates-was now unoccupied. A long and hearty cheer arose from the Confederate lines, the dead in the woods behind them, the groans of the wounded around them, were alike forgotten in the thought that they had beaten the foe-that they had only to move forward to occupy the desired summit, and then they could rest their weary frames. The line was formed; and debouching from the cover of timber, every eye sought the heights beyond; and no wonder it is that a shudder passed over them and an involuntary "halt," for from the 291 HISTORY OF PEIVNSYL VA1NIA. crest of the hill, in the rays of the setting sun gleamed the brightness of an impassable wall of steel, and from every accessible crag and spur frowned down the gaping mouths of light and heavy artillery. In addition to the artillery, General Meade had thoroughly garnished the hill with fresh troops from the 5th and 6th corps. But the pause was only for a moment. General Crawford's division of the Pennsylvania Reserves, with General McCandless' brigade in advance, moved quickly and in compact order down the slope of the hill; and with a volley and an order to charge, his men rushed upon the enemy with that determination and steadiness that contributed to the decision of more than one battle field. But Longstreet's troops were too used to success during the day, and thought the final victory too near their grasp, to yield without a desperate struggle. With words of cheer and examp]es of daring the Confederate officers urged on their men; for a few moments the result was in doubt; just then McCandless' brigade poured a destructive volley into the enemy's ranks, and the fight was decided at this point. Night was slowly settling down; the Confederates sought the shelter of a wheat field some distance in the rear, and there passed the night. Crawford's men occupied the timber-under cover of a stone wall, that had been the scene of such bloody fighting during the day. But while the exciting scenes just mentioned were taking place in front of Round Top, while Sickles and Longstreet were massing their strength on a field that was favorable to the latter in all except the last grand struggle, it must not be thought that the remaining corps, divisions, and brigades were lying quietly on their arms uninterested spectators of the exciting scenes in their immediate vicinity. General Lee, in initiating the attack on the 3d corps, had other plans in view. The attack on Sickles and the possession of Little and Big Round Tops were the most important of Lee's plans, yet it was equally important that both Hill and Ewell should so threaten the Union lines that General Meade would not be able to weaken them by sending reinforcements to his left. In succession after the attack on the 3d corps, the conflict extended along the Federal line, and the 2d corps with the left of the 1st became hotly engaged. The action was of short duration, and resulted in the repulse of the Confederates, but not before General Hancock was wounded in the thigh, and General Gibbon, upon whom the command of the 2d corps devolved after the fall of Hancock, was wounded in the shoulder. General Howard, already on the morning of the first day's fight, before the disaster to his own corps, saw the strategic importance of Cemetery and Culp's hills, and immediately detailed for their protection Steinwehr's division of his corps. As soon as General Meade arrived on the field, he at a glance saw that these two points were the keys to the Federal position, and felt the necessity of properly strengthening them by massed artillery in such positions as commanded the approaches. In addition to the artillery, Cemetery hill was protected at this hour by the 11th corps, Culp's hill by one brigade of General Geary's division of the 12th corps, the remaining two brigades having at an earlier hour been sent to the left of the line and having not yet returned, and General Williams' division, of the same corps, deployed farther to the right, by Spangler's hill, to cover the approaches by the way of Rock creek. 292 ADAMS COUNTY. General Ewell had his whole corps by this time in position, and, in accordance with General Lee's plan of battle, detailed three brigades to carry the works on Cemetery hill, among which brigades were the celebrated Louisiana Tigers. Through the east end of the town and across the open field they came in solid column, exposed to a murderous fire from artillery and musketry. Not a waver in their line, thougli under a deadly fire, up to the foot of the hill, then with a rush they charged to the very mouths of the guns. Protected as the Federals were by hastily constructed earthworks, they poured volley after volley into the advancing ranks. For a few moments there was a hand to hand fight over the very guns, the Federal cannoniers even using rammers and handspikes when they were unable to serve their pieces any longer. So nearly were the Confederates in possession of this point, that they succeeded in spiking two guns. There is no doubt that the success of the Confederates in driving back the artillerymen, and thus capturing the point,was mainly due to the fact that the support of the artillery did not act with that promptness and determination that should characterize efficient troops. These supports were the shattered regiments of the 11th corps. But just at the critical moment, when two guns were already spiked and the artillerymen were driven from more guns, General Richard Coulter's brigade, of the 6th corps, fell into a position commanding the threatened line, and at the command " Charge," precipitated itself upon the enemy. The fight was renewed with increased fury; the enemy were determined not to give up the victory so nearly won; Coulter's men at the point of the bayonet pressed them backward inch by inch; again they rallied; again were they repulsed.. Their reinforcements did not arrive, and at last Early and his brigades were beaten back, and sought safety in flight. Early in this attack lost one-half his men, and was compelled by the steady fire from the lately beleaguered hill, to abandon his dead and wounded where they fell. Thus the second attack on the Federal lines during the day had failed of success, though at one period both promised victory for General Lee. General Lee had now attacked in detail every part of the Federal line except one, and that was the position of the 12th corps, extending from Cemetery hill to Rock creek, with General Geary's division, now reduced to Greene's brigade, on Culp's hill, and Williams' division, on Spangler's hill, and Lockwood's Maryland brigade, temporarily assigned, on Wolf's hill. Greene's position was the weakest, as he had with his brigade to cover the division front, General Geary, with the remaining brigades, not yet having returned from the left. But his men were not idle, and pick and shovel were used to so good effect, that his men were protected by a line of rifle-pits following the line of the hills to the creek. The whole line was situated in a dense belt of timber. At 81 o'clock, P.M., Johnson's division, of Ewell's corps, advanced under cover of the darkness and timber close to the Federal lines, and began a vigorous and simultaneous attack on the 12th corps from Culp's hill to Wolf's hill. The Federal batteries on Culp's -Hill commanded to a certain extent an enfilading fire on the advancing enemy, and thus did admirable service from behind their earth-works in lifting the brunt of an overwhelming attack from Geary's line. Lockwood, on Wolf's hill, from among the rocky covers fought the enemy with success. In consequence of the broken and irregular formation of the hill, the fight was more on the guerilla order, each man for himself. After several hours stubborn fighting, 293 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. the Confederate left was driven back, except several small commands, which secured a lodgment in the timber near McAllister's dam, and surrendered a, prisoners the next morning when they discovered that they were isolated ana surrounded. Farther towards the left, Williams' division held the ground in the timber and open meadow around Spangler's spring. His right was pushed back to McAllister's dam, by a superior force of the enemy, who tried to force his lines on the west bank of Rock creek, but being exposed to the fire of a Federal battery on the Baltimore road, they fell back out of reach of Williams' line. Between Williams' division and the batteries on Culp's hill, lay Greene's brigade. As though knowing intuitively that this was the weakest point of the 12th corps, General Lee made this the principal point of attack, and to Generals Stewart and Walker, of Ewell's corps, was assigned the duty of directing the assault. Again and again did these Generals hurl their forces against Greene, and again and again were they repulsed. Greene's men, from behind their rifle-pits, delivered volley after volley into the rapidly-thinning ranks of the foe. After several assaults, Walker and Stewart drew off their commands, reduced by the fight more than one-half, and left Greene in undisputed possession of the ground. Between Greene and Williams was a gap made vacant by the withdrawal of Geary's two brigades, and which was but poorly garnished by the details from Greene. This weak position was also sharply attacked, and everything was carried away before the Confederates. Advancing through this gap by the southern flank of Culp's hill, a considerable Confederate force passed around the flanks of the Federal lines, and, without any opposition, reached a position a little to the east of the Baltimore road and within a third of a mile of General Meade's headquarters. Probably fearing a trap, as they saw no enemy, they withdrew by the same way they came and took up their quarters for the remainder of the night under cover of the very rifle pits dug by their enemy. Thus closed the second day's battle. General Meade's losses had been heavy; Sickles had been driven back from his first line; Caldwell's, Barnes', and Ayers' divisions had been badly cut up; Generals Hancock and Gibbon were wounded; Generals Vincent, Weed, Zook, and Cross were killed; two guns were spiked, but, on the other hand, the new line of the 3d corps was infinitely better adapted to defence in front, and guarded by natural fortifications on its outer flank; the enemy had failed in their assaults at all but one small gap between Greene and Williams; Meade's army was jubilant over its successes; the men felt as though the tide of invasion was again to be rolled back to the soil where treason first drew the sword; his line was stronger now than at any previous hour of the engagement, and he felt more able to repel attack. THE THIRD DAY'S BATTLE. During the night, Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps came up from Chambersburg and took position between Anderson and Heth, nearly opposite the Federal left centre. Rodes, also, withdrew the main part of his division from the town, uniting with Early's command in front of the Federal right in such a way as to take advantage, as soon as morning opened, of the break made 294 ADAMS COUNTY. in the right of Geary's division the evening previous. McGowan's and Daniel's brigades, of Hill's corps, were moved to the support of Johnson's line in front of Culp's hill, while Smith's and Walker's brigades, of Longstreet's corps, were also sent to the Confederate left. At an early hour Colonel Best, who had placed his artillery on Powers' hill, an advantageous position on the Baltimore road to the rear of Cemetery hill, opened a furious cannonade, to dislodge the Confederates from their position in Geary's line. For an hour the storm of shot and shell raged. There had been PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. no reply yet from the enemy. Then General Geary, having returned from Round Top with two brigades, and General Shaler, with a brigade of the 6th corps, began the attack, and for an hour and a half the battle raged with unexampled fury in the timber of Spangler's hill and spring. Steadily the Federals advanced, driving the enemy from point to point, taking advantage promptly of every defection in the foe's ranks, and ably supported by part of the 5th corps and Humphreys' division of the 3d corps. The ground was obstinately contested, and Geary was making slow work in dislodging the enemy, when Greene executed a flank movement so as to give his brigade a more commanding position, and Lockwood's brigade, on Wolf's hill, being reinforced and forming an advance line, secured an enfilade fire. Assaulted now in both flanks as well as in front, the enemy were compelled to fall back, but only to take up a new line-make a last stand. Geary, now being in possession of.i: 295 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. original line, made a bold dash on the new line of the enemy, who, failing of promised reinforcements, made but one effort to stem the tide of defeat and then sought safety in flight. Thus the Confederates were dislodged from their advantages of the evening before, but at a heavy loss for both sides. General Meade's line was now again intact from extreme right to extreme left, the enemy having been repulsed at every point. Thus closed the battle on the Federal right. The next act in this bloody drama was the great duel with cannon between the two armies, preparatory to Pickett's grand charge. " The movements of the enemy (Confederates)," says the Annual Encyclopedia, "thus far had been made rather to cover up his designs than as serious efforts against General Meade. The battle of the previous day had demonstrated that the issue of the struggle turned on the occupation of Cemetery hill. To get this, therefore, was the object of General Lee. Early in the morning preparations had been made by General Lee for a general attack on General Meade's whole line, while a large force was concentrated against his centre for the purpose of taking by force the ground he occupied." With this object in view and for the purpose of preparing for the infantry assault, General Lee massed his artillery in a line that enveloped more than one-half of the point against which the attack was to be directed, namely, Cemetery Hill, and the positions of the 1st and 2d corps on the prolongation of this hill towards Round Top. " General Longstreet massed a large number of long range guns-fifty-five in number-" says the correspondent of the Richmond Enquirer, writing from the battle-field, " upon the crest of a slight eminence just in front of Perry's and Wilcox's brigades, and a little to the left of the heights upon which they were to open. LieutenantGeneral Hill massed some sixty guns along the hill in front of Posey's and Mahone's brigades and almost immediately in front of the heights." These parks of artillery were increased by batteries in position farther towards the flanks. General Meade had not been idle during these hours. Satisfied that General Lece' intentions were to make a general assault on Cemetery hill and the lines of the 1st and 2d corps, he did what any good commander would have done, namely, strengthened this part of his position. He put his artillery in position, battery after battery forming in park, until he had at least one hundred guns in line. The infantry divisions and brigades were protected by reserve lines wherever it was thought there was the greatest danger of penetration in the anticipated charge. At 1 o'clock the signal gun was fired and the cannonading began-cannonading that, for number of pieces, intensity of fire and duration, has never had its equal on the Western Continent and scarcely a superior in the annals of European warfare. It is thus described by a spectator in the Federal lines: " The storm broke upon us so suddenly that soldiers and officers, who leaped as it began from their tents or lazy seats on the grass, were stricken in their rising with mortal wounds, and died-some with cigars between their teeth, some with pieces of food in their fingers, and one at least-a pale young German from Pennsylvania-with a miniature of his sister in his hands. Horses fell, shrieking such awful cries as Cooper told of, and writhing themselves about in mortal agony. The boards of fences, scattered by explosion, flew in splinters 296 ADAMS COUNTY. through the air. The earth, torn up in clouds, blinded the eyes of hurrying men; and through the branches of the trees and among the gravestones of the cemetery a shower of destruction crashed ceaselessly." From Batchelder's Illustrated Tourist's Guide, the following account of the artillery duel and the movements of Federal troops is taken: "At one o'clock the artillery fire opened, and for two hours the heaviest artillery duel ever experienced on this continent was kept up. When it closed, the infantry (Confederate) advanced and like an avalanche swept majestically across the plain. It was received with a fearful hurricane of missiles, solid shot, spherical case, shrapnell, shell, canister, and every invention known to modern warfare. Still on it came, up to the very works behind which lay the Union troops. The Union line was broken at the' copse' of trees, and forced back over the ridge; and for a moment of terrible suspense, victory hung trembling in the balance. Hall's brigade on Webb's left (Webb being in command of the temporarily broken line) rushed to his assistance, and Hays' division rose from the stone wall and delivered a perfect sheet of flame. Woodruff's battery, in the grove to our right, was run forward, turned to the left and swept the whole valley with canister. The 8th Ohio volunteers, on the skirmish line beyond the grove and the Emmittsburg road, I'changed front forward on left company;' Stannard's brigade, on Hall's left, moved by the right flank, I'changed front forward on first battalion;' Webb's first line united with his reserve, and all opened a converging fire of musketry, and the repulse was complete; 4,500 men threw down their arms and came in as prisoners." The correspondent of the Richmond Enquirer gives the following graphic picture of the artillery duel and Pickett's charge which followed: "The fire of our guns was concentrated upon the enemy's line on the heights stormed the day before by Wright's brigade. Our fire drew a most terrific one from the enemy's batteries, posted along the heights from a point near Cemetery hill to the point in their line opposite to the position of Wilcox. I have never yet heard such artillery firing. The enemy must have had over one hundred guns, which, in addition to our one hundred and fifteen, made the air hideous with most discordant noise; the very earth shook beneath our feet, and the hills and rocks seemed to reel like a drunken man. For one and a half hours this most terrific firing was continued, during which time the shrieking of shells, the crash of falling timber, the fragments of rock flying through the air shattered from the cliffs by solid shot, the heavy mutterings from the valley between the opposing armies, the splash of bursting shrapnell and the fierce neighing of wounded artillery horses, made a picture terribly grand and sublime, but which my pen utterly fails to describe. Now the storming party was moved up, Pickett's division in advance, supported on the right by Wilcox's brigade, and on the left by Heth's division commanded by Pettigrew. The left of Pickett's division occupied the same ground over which Wright had passed the day before. I stood upon an eminence and watched this advance with great interest; I had seen brave men pass over that fatal valley the day before; I had witnessed their death struggle with the foe on the opposite heights; I had observed their return with shattered ranks, a bleeding mass, but with unstained banners; now I saw their valiant comrades prepare for the same CHAPTER II. DISCOVERY OF THE DELAWARE BY HUDSON. SETTLEMENT OF THE DUTCH AND SWEDES. 1609-1681. EVERAL years subsequent to the first settlement of Virginia, Henry Hudson, while in the service of the Dutch East India Company, made his celebrated voyage that resulted in the discov ery of the great river which most justly bears his name. He sailed from Amsterdam in the HIalf-Moon, on the 4th of April, 1609, with the view of discovering a northwest passage to China. Ile arrived off the Banks 1609. of New Foundland in July, continued his course westwardly, and, after some delay, entered Penobscot Bay, on the coast of Maine. Aftei making some slight repairs, Hudson continued southwest along the coast until the 18th of August, when hlie arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Reversing his course, on the 28th of August, 1609, in latitude thirty-nine degrees and five minutes north, Hudson discovered "a great bay," which, after having made a very careful examination of the shoals and soundings at its mouth, he entered. According to Juet, hlie soon came to the over-cautious conclusion that "lhe that will thoroughly discover this great bay must have a small pinnace, that must draw but four or five feet water, to sound before him." To this great bay the name of Delaware has been given, in honor of Lord Delaware, who is said to have entered it one year subsequently to the visit of Hudson, although this has been denied by Mr. Broadhead and other historians. Coasting along the Eastern shore of New Jersey, Hudson, on the third day of September, anchored his ship within Sandy Hook. On the twelfth he entered New York Bay through the Narrows. The time between the 11th and 19th of September was employed in exploring the North River. lie ascended with his ship as high as the spot on which Albany now stands. Satisfied that he could not reach the South Sea by this route, he retraced his steps. On the 4th of October hlie reached the ocean, and on the 7th of November following arrived on the English coast. Though an Englishman, Hudson was in the employ of the Dutch, and his visit to the Delaware, however transient it may have been, is rendered important from the fact that on it principally, if not wholly, rested the claim of that Government to the bay and river, so far as it was based on the ground of prior discovery. This claim is now fully conceded; for although the bay was known in Virginia by its present name as early as 1612, no evidence exists of its discovery by Lord Delaware, or any other Englishman, prior to 1610, when it is said that navigator "touched at Delaware Bay on his passage to Virginia." Plantagenet-very doubtful authority-in his " Description of New Albion," gives Sir Samuel Argall the credit of being the first European who entered its waters after its discovery by Hudson. An official Dutch document, drawn up in 1644, claims that New Netherland "was visited by 28 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. bloody trial, and already felt that their efforts would be vain, unless their supports should be as true as steel and as brave as lions. Now they move forward; with steady, measured tread they advance upon the foe. Their banners float defiantly in the breeze, as onward in beautiful order they press across the plain. I have never seen since the war began (and I have been in all ihe great fights of this army) troops enter a fight in such splendid order as did this splendid division of Pickett's. Now Pettigrew's command emerge from the woods upon Pickett' sleft, and sweep down the slope of the hill to the valley beneath, and some two or three hundred yards in the rear of Pickett. I saw by the wavering of this line as they entered the conflict that they wanted the firmness of nerve and steadiness of tread which so characterized Pickett's men, and I felt that these men would not, could not stand the tremendous ordeal to which they would be soon subjected. These were mostly raw troops which had been recently brought from the South, and who had, perhaps, never been under fire-who certainly had never been in any very severe fight-and I trembled for their conduct. Just as Pickett was getting well under the enemy's fire, our batteries ceased firing. This was a fearful moment for Pickett and his brave command. Why do not our guns re-open their fire? is the inquiry that rises upon every lip. Still our batteries are as silent as death! But on press Pickett's brave Virginians; and now the enemy open upon them from more than fifty guns, a terrible fire of grape, shell, and canister. On, on they move in unbroken line, delivering a deadly fire as they advance. Now they have reached the Emmittsburg road, and here they meet a severe fire from the heavy masses of the enemy's infantry, posted behind the stone fence, while -their artillery, now free from the annoyance of our artillery, turn their whole fire upon this devoted band. Still they remain firm. Now again they advance; they storm the stone fence; the Yankees fly. The enemy's batteries are, one by one, silenced in quick succession as Pickett's men deliver their fire at the gunners and drive them from their pieces. I see Kemper and Armistead plant their banners in the enemy's works. I heard their glad shouts of victory. " Let us look after Pettigrew's division," continues the same correspondent. "Where are they now? While the victorious shout of the gallant Virginians is still ringing in my ears, I turn my eyes to the left, and there, all over the plain in utmost confusion, is scattered this strong division. Their line is broken; they are flying, apparently panic-stricken, to the rear. The gallant Pettigrew is wounded, but he still retains command, and is vainly striving to rally his men. Still the moving mass rush pell-mell to the rear, and Pickett is left alone to contend with the hordes of the enemy now pouring in on him on every side. Garnett falls, killed by a minie ball, and Kemper, the brave and chivalrous, reels under a mortal wound and is taken to the rear. Now the enemy move around strong flanking bodies of infantry, and are rapidly gaining Pickett's rear. The order is given to fall back, and our men commence the movement, doggedly contending for every inch of ground. The enemy press heavily our retreating line, and many noble spirits who had passed safely through the fiery ordeal of the advance charge, now fall on the right and on the left. Armistead is wounded and left in the enemy's hands. At this critical moment the shattered remnant of Wright's 298 ADAMS COUNTY. Georgia brigade is moved forward to cover their retreat, and the fight closes here." During this attack on General Meade's left centre, Generals Longstreet and Ewell threatened the Federal flanks, but without any apparent success. With the repulse of Pickett closed General Lee's aggressive movements, and from this on he acted mainly on the defensive. The Federal ammunition and provision trains had been placed in position to the rear of Round Top as a place of security. While the assault by Pickett was being made against the Federal left centre, Hood's and McLaw's divisions attempted to gain possession of these trains by executing a flank movement to the south of Round Top, by turning the flank of the 6th corps. The enemy advanced in three lines and were meeting with considerable success when General Kilpatrick, whose cavalry division had been on duty protecting the Federal left flank, made a vigorous attack on the flank of the rear line of the enemy. This threw the enemy in confusion, and Kilpatrick moving his left rapidly forward, exposed the foe to the danger of being completely enveloped and cut off from their supports. The Pennsylvania Reserves, under McCandless, pressed hotly upon the enemy in front of Round Top and drove them back in disorder, leaving part of a battery, three hundred prisoners, and five thousand stand of arms in the hands of this gallant command. At the same time General Gregg and his cavalry made an assault, in accordance with orders, on Ewell's left and Stuart's cavalry, and met with decisive success. Thus closed the battle of Gettysburg-a battle unsurpassed in desperate fighting, distinguished bravery on both sides, and heavy losses, in any of the many battles of the war-a battle than which none was as important in ultimate results. Up to this time the general average of results was in favor of the Confederate forces; although defeated in numerous engagements, the troops of the Confederacy were handled in such a manner that victory resulted even out of defeat. Never had the chances of the Confederacy been so bright nor their hopes of success so apparently assured. All three of its armies were flushed with recent victories; Lee's army with the victory of Chancellorsville; the army of the Tennessee with a series of out-manceu.yres of their Federal opponents, and General Grant's hammering away at Vicksburg it was confidently predicted would result in defeat. When General Lee decided on the Pennsylvania invasion, although undertaken contrary to the advice and far-seeing counsels of discerning Southerners, including even Mr. Davis, the President of the Confederacy, he felt, and the world endorsed it, that he was at the head of an army that had never known defeat. This confidence is further indicated by General Lee changing the character of the war from a defensive to an aggressive one. Although not anxious to precipitate a general engagement, and manceuvring in such a manner as to avoid it, yet General Lee did not wish the world to understand by this conduct that he entertained any doubts of the result of such an engagement. General Lee's plan of the invasion, no doubt, included the burden of the support of both armies by the Northern States, and at the same time to so manoeuvre his airmy and so take position that the Federal army would have to assume the attack and thus expose New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington to his control. He had fully weighed the military energy and capacities for moving large bodies 299 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. of men with rapidity from one base to another, as shown by the previous Federal commanders; but Meade's promptness and celerity in following him upon the east slope of the mountains completely disconcerted his calculations. When Reynolds and Hill began the fight on Wednesday morning, and Ewell's corps crushed down all opposition, so that the advantages of the day were in favor of the Southern army, General Lee had no idea that he was in front of the whole army of the Potomac. The result of the first day's fight confirmed this theory; and the Confederate forces were inspired with such unbounded enthusiasm at the success of Wednesday's fighting that General Lee could not doubtlessly have prevented an attack by his troops even when he learned that he was confronted by the whole army of the Potomac. Howard's selection and Hancock's wise defences of Cemetery hill, and the lines on elevated ground both towards the right and left which were protected by Wolf's hill and Little and Big Round Top, did much to ensure the success of the Federal forces and repel the repeated assaults of the enemy. Notwithstanding General Lee's orders and congratulations to his troops shortly after the battle convinced his men even against the facts that their defeat was not so great as it was in reality, this battle was the great turning point of the war. The army of Northern Virginia, whose boast had been that it had never suffered defeat, received here a blow from which it never recovered, sustained losses which all the governmental machinery could never replace. From this date on to the close of the war, never was the Confederacy able to put such an army into the field, and was compelled after this time to act on the defensive instead of initiating campaigns. The following is as nearly an official list of the casualties of the battles as is obtainable. The Federal losses were four thousand eight hundred and thirtyfour killed, including those who died in the various general hospitals located on the field by the surgeons in charge; fourteen thousand seven hundred and nine wounded, and six thousand six hundred and forty-three missing, of whom nearly four thousand were taken prisoners, mostly from Howard's corps in the first day's fight; making a total loss of twenty-five thousand one hundred and eighty-six. Among the killed were Generals Reynolds, Vincent, Weed, Zook, Cross, and Farnsworth-the last named falling in Kilpotrick's charge on Hood's command on the extreme left, late on Friday afternoon. The list of wounded included M.ajor-Generals Sickles, Hancock, Butterfield, Doubleday, and Birney, and Brigadier-Generals Barlow, Barnes, Gibbon, Hunt, Graham, Paul. and Willard. The Confederate loss was six thousand five hundred killed; twenty-six thousand wounded; nine thousand prisoners, and four thousand stragglers; making a grand total loss of over forty thousand men, besides three guns, forty-one standards, and twenty-five thousand stand of small arms. Their retreat was so hasty that many of their dead were buried by the Union forces, and their means of conveyance so inadequate that several thousand of their wounded fell into the Federa. hands, an insufficient number of surgeons being left with the wounded to give them the proper surgical attention. Among the dead were Major-Generals Pender, and Brigadier-Generals Barksdale (died on the battle field), Armistead (died in Federal hospital several days after), Garnett (in Pickett's charge), and Semmes; the wounded were Major-Generals Hood, Heth, and Trimble, and Brigadier-Generals Kemper, Scales, Anderson, Pettigrew, wounded in the battle field and killed 300 ADAlMS COUNTY. at Falling Waters, Hampton, Jones, and Jenkins. Generals Archer and Kemper were among the prisoners taken-the former captured with the Mississippi brigade in the first day's fight, the latter abandoned in the Seminary hospital as mortally wounded on the retreat of his command. The excess in killed and wounded among the Confederates is due to the fact that General Lee was compelled, being the attacking party, to fight his men on more open ground. The numerical strength of the two armies is rather difficult to determine, but it is a safe statement to put General Lee's army, when it crossed the Potomac, at one hundred and five thousand men, with ninety-five thousand actively engaged; the Federal seventy-five thousand, with sixty-five thousand actively engaged. Friday night passed away without any alarms-the Federals in doubt whether the fight was to be renewed on the following day, while General Lee was perfecting his arrangements to successfully conduct his retrograde movement to the Potomac and the valley of the Shenandoah. Under the cover of the darkness General Ewell's corps was withdrawn from its line through the town and placed in the works on Seminary ridge. At an early hour on Saturday morning strong details from both armies began the solemn work of burying the dead and collect ing the wounded into the general hospitals. The dead of both armies were interred after the usual hasty manner of such burying parties, on the field where they fell. (Afterwards the Union dead were collected together in the National cemetery, with the exception of between one thousand and twelve hundred who were removed to their homes in the loyal States. The Confederate dead remained in their hasty graves, in the cultivated fields and rocky timber land, with very little effort made to distinguish them from each other until after the war, when the bodies as far as possible were raised, coffined, and removed to places of interment among their friends in the South.) The morning was hazy, and for several hours the rain fell in torrents. From an early hour General Lee was sending towards IHagerstown such of his wounded as could bear transportation or had been removed within his lines during the progress of the battle. After noon, he began withdrawing, by the roads leading through the mountain passes, his artillery and wagon trains, with which latter he was heavily loaded down-the product of the rich Pennsylvania farms upon which contributions had been levied right and left. By dark the whole Confederate army was in motion in the same direction, its retreat concealed and protected by a heavy rear column. The route taken was by Fairfield and the Monterey mountain gap. On Monday General Lee reached IHagerstown, and took position with his army. The pursuit by General Meade is thus given in his report: " The 5th and 6th of July were employed in succoring the wounded and burying the dead. Major General Sedgwick, commanding the 6th corps, having pushed the pursuit of the enemy as far as the Fairfield pass and the mountains, and reporting that the pass was very strong-one in which a small force of the enemy could hold in check and delay for a considerable time any pursuing force-I determined to follow the enemy by a flank movement, and accordingly, leaving McIntosh's brigade of cavalry and Neil's brigade of infantry to continue harrassing the enemy, I put the army in motion for Middletown (Maryland), and orders were immediately sent to Major-General French, at Frederick, to re-occupy Harper's Ferry, and send a force to occupy Turner's Pass, in South mountain. I subse301 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. quently ascertained that Major-General French had not only anticipated these orders in part, but had pushed a cavalry force to Williamsport and Falling Waters, where they destroyed the enemy's pontoon bridge and captured its guard. Buford was at the same time sent to Williamsport and Hagerstown. The duty above assigned to the cavalry was most successfully accomplished, the enemy being greatly harrassed, his trains destroyed, and many captures of guns and prisoners made. After halting a day at Middletown to procure necessary supplies and bring up trains, the army moved through South mountain, and by the 12th of July was in front of the enemy, who occupied a strong position on the heights near the marsh which runs in advance of Williamsport. In taking this position, several skirmishes and affairs had been had with the enemy, principally by the cavalry and the 6th corps. The 13th was occupied in reconnoisances of the enemy's position and preparations for an attack, but on advancing on the morning of the 14th, it was ascertained that he had retired the night previous by the bridge at Falling Waters and ford at Williamsport. The cavalry overtook the rear guard at Falling Waters, capturing two guns and numerous prisoners. Previous to the retreat of the enemy, Gregg's division of cavalry was crossed at Harper's Ferry, and coming up with the rear of the enemy at Charlestown and Shepardstown, had a spirited contest, in which the enemy was driven to Martinsburg and Winchester, and pursued and harrassed in his retreat." "The pursuit was resumed by a flank movement," continues General Meade in his report, " of the army, crossing the Potomac at Berlin and moving down the Loudon valley. The cavalry were immediately pushed into several passes of the Blue ridge, and having learned from servants of the withdrawal of the Confederate army from the lower valley of the Shenandoah, the army (the 3d corps, Major General French, being in advance), was moved into Manassas gap, in the hope of being able to intercept a portion of the enemy in possession of the gap, which was disputed so successfully as to enable the rear guard to withdraw by the way of Strasburg. The Confederate army retiring to the Rapidan, a position was taken with this army on the line of the Rappahannock, and the campaign terminated about the close of July." The history of this battle would be incomplete without recording the part taken in it by the raw troops organized mostly in the States of Pennsylvania and New York, and assembled at Harrisburg by orders from the War Department. General Couch, the commander of this department, did all he could to organize for active service these troops, in connection with General W. F. Smith, who was assigned to the command of the 1st division. This division took position opposite Harrisburg when General Lee's army was advancing by the Cumberland valley, and constructed a system of earth-works for defence. As soon as Lee's retreat became known General Smith advanced up the valley with six thousand infantry, two batteries, and a small force of cavalry, and at Carlisle met General W. H. H. Lee, who expected to meet Ewell there. Lee attacked Smith with artillery, but the latter was so well posted that the attack was soon abandoned. General Smith advanced towards Chambersburg, followed by General Dana with the second division of Couch's command. General Couch now transferred his headquarters to Chambersburg, but General Lee soon after 302 ADAMS COUNTY. this withdrew with his whole army to the south side of the Potomac. and these two divisions saw no further service at this time. GETTYSBURG, post borough and the county seat, stands on a beautiful plain midway between two slightly elevated ridges a little more than a mile apart-the one to the west being known as Seminary ridge, while the one to the,, south-east is called Cemetery hill-and is within easy view of the South mountain, "' eight miles distant, which sweeps in a majestic curve far as the eye can reach to the south and north-east. It is surrounded by-... a fertile and well i cultivated country, which exports annually 1 1 large quantities of farm produce. It is i.I noted for its pure and l I!it:r salubrious air, and has, " long ) been esteemed as. 0 one of the healthiest JiIi' districts in the State. The town was laid out by James Gettys about the year 1780, and has I been named after him It became the county n seat of Adams in 1800, and incorporated as a borough in 1807. The,iI court house, jail, and,,,' almshouse are large,, and commodious build- I ings, and are well adapted to their several uses. The private dwellings are generally built in a neat 303 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. and substantial manner, while a few of those more recently erected display much taste and elegance in their architecture and surroundings. Gettysburg branch of the Hanover Junction, Hanover, and Gettysburg railroad has its western terminus here, and is doing a fair business. It has changed hands several times, and is at present owned and worked by the Hanover company. It was formally opened to business on Thursday, December 16, 1859. A Lutheran Theological Seminary is located here, and is in a flourishing condition. This highly important and useful Institution, established by the General Synod, was opened for the reception of students in 1826. Dr. S. S. Schmucker, who was the first professor, served in that position for almost forty years. Over five hundred men have been students in this seminary. It is under the control of a Board of Directors, chosen by eight surrounding synods. The present faculty consist of Rev. James A. Brown, D.D., professor of didactic theology, and chairman of the faculty; Rev. Charles A. Hay, D.D., professor of Hebrew and the Old Testament exegesis, German language and literature, and pastoral theology; Rev. E. J. Wolf, A.M., professor of Greek and New Testament exegesis, Biblical and ecclesiastical history and archaeology; Rev. J. G. Morris, D.D., lecturer on pulpit elocution and the relations of science and revelation. Through the liberality of Rev. S. A. Holman, A.M., a lectureship on the Augsburg Confesssion has been endowed, and also another on " Methods in Ministerial Work," by John L. Rice, Esq., of Baltimore. An appropriate celebration of the fiftieth anniversary and a general reunion has recently taken place in connection with the commencement in June, 1876. The seminary edifice is a plain but handsome four-story brick building, 40 by 100 feet, occupying a commanding eminence on a ridge about half a mile to the west of the town, of which it commands a beautiful view. A number of rooms have been furnished by congregations and benevolent individuals, by which the expenses of indigent students are materially diminished. At a short distance on each side of the seminary are fine, large brick houses, occupied by professors in the institution. The library of the seminary is one of the most valuable collections of theological works in this country, containing many volumes written in all the languages of Europe, and treating of every branch of theological science. A large number of these were procured in Germany by the Rev. Benjamin Kurtz, D.D., and many others, consisting of the latest and best works of English and American theological literature, were subsequently obtained through the personal exertions of Dr. Schmucker. Pennsylvania College is charmingly situated in the town. It had its origin in the wants of the community in general, and in those of the Theological Seminary in particular. Some of the applicants for admission to that institution being found deficient in classical attainments, it was resolved in 1827 to establish a preparatory school, to be under the direction of the Lutheran Church, and appointed Rev. S. S. Schmucker, D.D., and Rev. J. IHerbst to select a teacher and make the necessary arrangements for the establishment of the school. Rev. D. Jacobs, A.M., was chosen as teacher, and in June, 1827, the school went into operation, as a preparatory department of the seminary. From this humble beginning it gradually rose to importance and influence. The sch6ol building was sold for debt in 1829, and was purchased by Dr. Schmucker, Who divided the 304 ADAMS COUNTY. price of the purchase into shares of fifty dollars each, which he induced prominent ministers in different parts of the country to purchase. Certain articles of agreement, which were duly executed, gave to the stockholders the management of the fiscal affairs of the school, and to the directors and professors of the Theological Seminary the selection of the teachers and the regulation of the course of study and discipline, and giving to the school the title of Gettysburg Gymnasium. Under the new management the number of pupils increased very rapidly. Rev. D. Jacobs died in 1830, and was succeeded in 1831 by Rev. IH. L. NMIU PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE, GETTYSBURG. Baugher, A.M., as Principal. The number of pupils continuing to increase, measures were adopted a few years later by which a charter was obtained from the Legislature incorporating the institution under the name of Pennsylvania College. The college was organized, under very favorable auspices, on the 4th of July, 1832, and went into full operation in October following. Professors in the different departments were at once appointed, Drs. Schmucker and Hazelius, of the Theological Seminary, serving temporarily and gratuitously, the former as professor of intellectual and moral philosophy, the latter as professor of the Latin language. Rev. H. L. Baugher and Professor M. Jacobs, who had already established a high reputation as teachers in the Gymnasium, were regularly appointed, the former as professor of the Greek language and literature, and the latter as professor of mathematics and the physical sciences. Through the strenuous exertions of Thaddeus Stevens, who then (1833) represented Adams county in the Legislature, fifteen thousand dollars were appropriated by the Commonwealth to this institution, payable in five years. Without this opportune succor, it is doubtful if Pennsylvania College would have become an established fact. In October, 1834, Rev. C. P. Krauth, D.D., a gentleman of 305 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. ripe scholarship, became president of the college. From this time the college entered upon a career of great success and prosperity, other teachers and professors being added from time to time, as the needs of the institution required and its means justified. In connection with the college, and as a feeder to it, there is a preparatory department, in which instruction is given in all the branches usually embraced in a thorough English course, and affording to those who desire to prepare for business, or for college, every advantage for acquiring a knowledge of the elements of Latin, Greek, and mathematics. A large and commodious building was erected a few years ago on Carlisle Street, several hundred yards east of the college, for the use of the preparatory department, and has been named Stevens Hall, in honor of Thaddeus Stevens, a lifelong friend of the college, who donated $500 for that purpose. Through the liberality of some of the friends of the college, an observatory has been erected and furnished with a full equipment of astronomical and meteorological instruments. A large equatorial telescope has been mounted, a transit instrument, an astronomical clock, and chronograph have been purchased, and are freely used for the general purposes of class instruction. A large gymnasium has also recently been erected, affording opportunity to students for exercise, recreation, and general physical culture. The students attend, under such regulations as they themselves, in their Gymnasium Association, establish, and ample time is afforded for voluntary exercise. The college library contains 7,200 valuable works. Each of the libraries of the two literary societies contains 6,000 volumes of well selected and standard volumes, to which additions are constantly made by donations and by appropriations of money for that purpose. Linumen Hall stands a few rods west of the college building, contains a large and valuable collection of zoological specimens, minerals, fossils, coins, relics, antiquities, and other curiosities. The botanical collection is large and well arranged, and contains a full representation of American flora. Few colleges possess a more complete cabinet of minerals than the one now belonging to Pennsylvania College. The Soldiers' National Cemetery is by far the most attractive and sadly beautiful of the many points of interest on the field of Gettysburg. Here, beneath the soil they defended so well, repose the brave men who, after surviving many a hard-fought engagement, came at last to die on these beautiful hills and plains. Here, under the sod which so many of them drenched with their life's blood, rest the heroes who saved a nation, and whose noble deeds will ever merit a grateful people's remembrance. This cemetery embraces seventeen acres of gently rising ground south of the Baltimore turnpike, and adjoining Evergreen Cemetery. Owing to the necessary haste with which everything had to be done during the battle, and for some days subsequent to it, many of our brave soldiers were but insufficiently buried. Indeed, many of those who fell during the first day's fight remained unburied until Monday, the sixth day following after Lee's retreat, when decomposition had so far progressed as to render anything like proper interment impossible. A few bodies received no burial whatever, and were left to be devoured by hogs and birds. In many cases the bodies were left as they fell, and were covered only by heaping a little loose earth over them. The rains 306 307 I NATIONAL MONUMENT AT GETTYSPURG. [From a Photograph by W. H. Tipton & Co., Gettysburg.] GENERAL HISTORY. inhabitants of that country in the year 1598," and that "two little forts were built on the South and North Rivers." This assertion, made by an interested party after the laipse of half a century, is also to be doubted. The various names by which the Delaware River and Bay have been known, are: by the Indians-Pautaxat, Marisqueton, Makerisk-kisken, and Lenape Wihittuck; by the Dutch-Zuydt or South River, Nassau River, Prince HIendrick River, and Charles River; by the Swedes-New Swedeland Stream; and by the English, Delaware River. In 1614 a general charter was granted by the States General of 1614. Holland, securing the exclusive privilege of trade during four voyages with "any new courses, havens, countries, and places" to the discoverer, and subjecting any persons who should act in violation thereof to a forfeiture of their vessel, in addition to a heavy pecuniary penalty. Stimulated by this edict, the merchants of Amsterdam fitted out five vessels to engage in voyages, in pursuance thereof. Among them was the Fortune, commanded by Captain. Cornelis Jacobsen Mey. With more enterprise and industry than his predecessors, this navigator visited the shores from Cape Cod to the South, or Delaware River, examining and mapping as he went along the numerous inlets and islands. From him the bay of the Delaware was called New Port Mey, its northern cape, Cape Mey, and the southern, Cape Cornelis. To a cape still further south lie gave the name of IHlindlopen, after a town of Friesland. Returning to IHolland, and making report of his discoveries, in connection with the other skippers, the exclusive privileges of trade were granted to the United Company of Merchants of the cities of Amsterdam and. Iloorn, by whose means the expedition had been fitted out. It was limited, however, to "newly discovered lands situate in America between New France and Virginia, whereof the sea coasts lie between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude, now named New Netherland," and was to extend to four voyages, to be made within three years, from the first of January, 1615. It will be seen that the Delaware Bay is not included in this grant, a circumstance that would suggest that the discoveries in that quarter by Captain Mey had not been appreciated. To Skipper Cornelis HIendrickson is due the credit of the first exploration of the Delaware river as high up, probably, as the mouth of the Schuylkill, 1610. in the year 1616. IHis report, furnished by his employers to the States General, was not considered, however, as furnishing additional proof that the discoveries made by him went much beyond what had been previously made, for the application for trading privileges was refused. In anticipation of the formation of a Dutch West India Company, these privileges were not again granted under the general charter of 1614, except in a very few instances. The trade to New Netherland, regarded by the Dutch as extending beyond the Delaware, was thrown open, in a measure, to individual competition. This did mot last long, for on the third of June, 1621, the West India Company was incorporated. This company having, by virtue of the charter, taken possession of the country, they dispatched the ship New Netherland, with a number of people, thereto, under the direction of Captains Cornelis Jacobsen Mey and Adrien Joriz HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. soon washing off this meagre covering, the bodies were left exposed. As a general thing the marks on the graves, where marked at all, were but temporary, and were liable to be speedily obliterated by the action of the weather. Such was the spectacle that presented itself to Governor Curtin, who, shortly after the battle, visited the hospitals in and around Gettysburg for the purpose of ministering to the wants of the wounded and dying. The Governor and a few friends, among whom was David Wills, of Gettysburg, at once conceived the idea of taking measures for collecting these remains and burying them decently and in order, in a cemetery to be provided for the purpose. Mr. Wills accordingly submitted a proposition and plan for this purpose, by letter dated July 24, 1863, to Governor Curtin. The Governor promptly approved the measure, and directed Mr. Wills to correspond with the Governors of the different States with a view to securing their co-operation and aid. The project was seconded with great promptness by all the executives addressed on the subject. Grounds favorably situated were selected by Mr. Wills, as agent for Governor Curtin, and purchased for the State of Pennsylvania, " for the specific purpose of the burial of the soldiers who fell in defence of the Union in the battle of Gettysburg, and that lots in this cemetery should be gratuitously tendered to each State having such dead on the field. The expenses of the removal of the dead, of the laying out, ornamenting, and enclosing the grounds, and erecting a lodge for the keeper, and of constructing a suitable monument to the memory of the dead, to be borne by the several States, and assessed in proportion to their population." The grounds embraced in this cemetery are those on which the Federal line of battle rested on the second and third days of July, and constitute the most urominent and important position on the whole battle-field. They have been tastefully laid out with walks and lawns, and planted with trees and shrubs. The cemetery proper is located on the central and highest portion of the grounds, next the citizens' burial-ground, and is in the form of a semi-circle, within which the bodies of the fallen soldiers are interred in sections, a large granite block with suitable inscription marking the section for each State respectively, with the number of bodies in each. The head-stones to the graves are all alike, and form a continuous line of granite blocks, rising nine inches above the ground, and having the name, company, and regiment, of each soldier sculptured on it. The entrance to the cemetery-grounds is on the Baltimore turnpike, through a large iron gateway, appropriately ornamented, with a beautiful iron fence the whole length of the front. The intermients in the National Cemetery are as follows: Maine, 104; New Hampshire, 49; Vermont, 61; Massachusetts, 159; Rhode Island, 12; Connecticut, 22; New York, 867; New Jersey, 78; Pennsylvania, 534; Delaware, 15; Maryland, 22; West Virginia, 11; Ohio, 131; Indiana, 80; Illinois, 6; Michigan, 171; Wisconsin, 73; Minnesota, 52; United States regulars, 138; three lots with unknown dead, 979-total, 3,564. The care of the cemetery by commissioners from so many States being found inconvenient and burdensome, it was resolved by the board of managers, June 22, 1871, to enter into negotiations with the Secretary of War for its transfer to the General Government. After some correspondence and several conferences, 308 ADAMS COUNTTY. the cemetery was finally transferred to the United States, and on the 1st day of May, 1872, the National Government took formal and complete possession and control of it. The National monument, so grand in conception, so happy in design, and so beautiful in execution, occupies a commanding position near the semi-circle of graves, and was erected by the several States in memory of the brave men who here offered up their lives on the altar of their country. The design of the monument is purely historical, and has been executed in a manner so strikingly natural and truthful that any discerning mind will at a glance comprehend its full meaning and purpose. The superstructure is sixty feet high, and consists of a massive pedestal of light grey granite, from Westerly, Rhode Island, twenty-five feet square at the base, and is crowned with a colossal statue of white marble, representing the GENIUS OF LIBERTY. Standing upon a three-quarter globe, she holds with her right hand the victor's wreath of laurel, while with her left she clasps the victorious sword. Projecting from the angles of the pedestals are four buttresses, supporting an equal number of allegorical statues of white marble, representing respectively, WAR, HISTORY, PEACE, and PLENTY.... WAR is personified by a statue of an American soldier, who, resting from the conflict, relates to HISTORY the story of the battle which this monument is intended to commemorate.... HIsToRY, in listening attitude, records with stylus and tablet the achievements of the field, and the names of the honored dead.... PEACE is symbolized by a statue of the American mechanic, characterized by appropriate accessories.... PLENTY is represented by a female figure, with a sheaf of wheat and the fruits of the earth, typifying peace and abundance as the soldier's crowning triumph. This beautiful monument and statuary were designed by J. G. Batterson, of Hartford, Connecticut, and were executed in Italy under the immediate supervision of Randolph Rogers, the distinguished American sculptor. The main die of the pedestal is octagonal in form, paneled upon each face. The cornice and plinth above are also octagonal, and are heavily moulded. Upon this plinth rests an octagonal moulded base bearing upon its face, in high relief, the National arms. The upper die and cap are circular in form, the die being encircled by stars equal in number with the States, whose sons gave up their lives as the price of the victory won at Gettysburg. This monument, as it stands, cost $50,000. The purchase of the ground, the removal and re-interring of the dead, the granite head-stones, the stone wall and iron fence, the gateway and the porter's lodge, and the laying out and ornamentation of the grounds, cost about $80,000. The Reynolds statue cost $10,000-thus making the cost of the cemetery, and everything pertaining to it, about $140,000. The first object of special interest that presents itself on entering the cemetery is the beautiful statue erected to the memory of Major-General John, Fulton Reynolds, who fell early in the first day's action. It is of bronze, of heroic size, standing on a pedestal of Quincy granite. The right hand, holding a field glass, hangs loosely at his side, while the left grasps the hilt of his 309 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. sword. The face is turned towards the north-west, the direction from which the enemy was advancing, and the direction in which he was looking when he received his death wound. The statue was cast at the foundry of Messrs. Robert Wood & Co., Philadelphia, from a model furnished by Mr. J. Q. A. Ward, of New York. The artist has given his subject an easy, graceful, and life-like attitude, and makes him look every inch the true soldier that he was. mm m, mll Il l!H 7v' 7 MONUMENT TO GENERAL REYNOLDS, GETTYSBURG. [From a Photograph by W. H. Tipton & Co., Gettysburg.] through the place, has added much to its business The Katalysine springs, which have be come so celebrated as a resort for invalids, are situate two miles west of Gettysburg, near Wil loughby's run, and are embraced within the area of the first day's battle field. LITTLESTOWN, for merly called Petersburg, is the second town in size and importance in the county, and in 1870 contained a population of 847. It is on the Gettys burg and Baltimore turn pike, and is ten miles south-east from the for mer place. The Frede rick and Pennsylvania Line railroad passing prosperity. The town is pleasantly located, in a fertile and highly improved country, and presents a fine appearance. The town was formerly a part of Germany township, having been incorporated as a borough by decree of Court, February 23, 1864. PETERSBURG, or YORK SPRINGS, a post borough in the northern part of the county, between Huntington and Latimore townships, was incorporated by decree of Court of Quarter Sessions, August 20, 1868. It is on the Carlisle and Hanover turnpike, fourteen miles from the former and sixteen from the latter place. It is also fourteen miles from Gettysburg and twenty-one from York, the State road leading to Harrisburg passing through the place. A railroad from Dillsburg, York county, to this place has been graded but not completed. The town was laid out about the year 1803, by Peter Fleck, who, with Isaac Saddler, ercted the first two houses in the place. Soon afterwards Jacob Gardner, Joshua Speakman, Vincent Pilkington, and others, added dwellings. Near by are the York sulphur springs, a favorite resort for many citizens of Philadelphia and Baltimore. Their medicinal qualities have been highly extolled. NEW OXFORD, a post borough, and until recently embraced in Oxford township, is on the railroad from Gettysburg to Hanover, ten miles from the former 810 ADAMS COUNTY. and six miles from the latter place. It was laid out by Henry Kuhn, in 1792, and was erected into a borough by decree of Court, August 20th, 1874. It contains four churches belonging respectively to the Lutherans, the Reformed, the Methodists, and the Roman Catholics. A collegiate and medical institute was established here some years ago by Dr. Pfeiffer, but it never received sufficient patronage and support to justify its continuance. ABBOTTSTOWN, or Berwick borough, is a post village on the turnpike leading from York to Gettysburg, fourteen miles from either place. Two turnpikes, the one leading from York to Gettysburg, and the other from Hanover to East Berlin, intersect within the borough. The town was laid out in 1753 by John Abbott. The first lot sold here wal purchased by Jacob Pattison, October 19, 1763. Beaver creek, a tributary of the Conewago, flows near by the town, forming the boundary line between York and Adams counties. The town was incorporated as a borough in 1835. EAST BERLIN is a pleasantly situated post town in the northern part of Hamilton township. It was laid out in 1764 by John Frankenberger, an early settler, who named it Berlin. Mr. Frankenberger, the proprietor, disposed of his interest, in 1774, to Peter Houshill, who, in 1782, sold to Andrew Comfort. In 1794 John Hildebrand became proprietor. The first house erected after the laying out of the town was built by Charles Himes, in 1765; the second, by James Sarbach, in 1766; the third, by James Mackey, in 1767, who opened the first store. The first English school taught in this part of the country was opened here, in 1769, by Robert John Chester, an Englishman. The Conewago flowing hard by and affording excellent mill power, Peter Lane, a German, erected a grist mill at the west end of the town about the year 1769, which was swept away by a freshet thirty years afterwards. BENDERSVILLE, formerly Wilsonville, is in Menallen township, ten miles north of Gettysburg, on the State road leading from the latter place to Newville, Cumberland county. It is near the base of the South mountain, five miles from Laurel forge, and the same distance from Pine Grove furnace. It was laid out about the year 1835, but did not thrive till 1840, when an impetus was given it by the erection of some twenty houses. Nestling behind a semi-circular ridge, the village presents a neat appearance. It is noted for its pure air, for its healthful location, and for its attention given to the cultivation of all kinds of fruits and vegetables, of which it has the best in the county. An association was formed here in the early part of 1860, called the Menallen Agricultural Club, the object of which was the consideration of subjects and topics of interest to farmers and fruit growers. The meetings of the society were held regularly in the public-school house, and soon created so much interest in the community that measures were adopted by the society, aided by the citizens, for the holding of an agricultural exhibition in the autumn of the same year. The exhibition proved so successful that it at once became permanent. After a few years the society, together with its buildings and fixtures, was moved to Gettysburg, where its meetings and exhibitions have since been regularly held, under the name and title of the Adams County Agricultural Society. HUNTERSTOWN, formerly called Woodstocki, is a post village in the central part of Straban township, on the road leading from Gettysburg to East Berlin, 311 HISTOBY OF PENNSYL VANIA. five miles from the former, and eleven miles from the latter place... FAIRFIELD, or Millerstown, is a post town of Hamiltonban township, on the Hagerstown and Gettysburg road, eight miles west from the latter place...... MIDDLETOWN, a post village of Butler township, is seven miles north of Gettysburg, on the road leading from the latter place to Bendersville. The name of its post-office is Bigler...... MECHANICSVILLE, or Bragtown, is 4 small village in the extreme northern part of the county, distant from Gettysburg eighteen miles. It was laid out by Joseph Griest...... McSIIERRYSTOWN, a post village in Conewago township, is two miles west of Hanover, York county, on the road leading from the latter place to Gettysburg. It is one mile in length, being built chiefly along one street..... HAMPTON, a post town of Reading township, on the turnpike leading from Carlisle to Baltimore, twelve miles east from Gettysburg, six from Petersburg, and ten from Hanover, was laid out in 1814 by Dr. John B. Arnold and Daniel Deardorff...... HEIDLERSBURG, a small post town in Tyrone township, on the State road leading from Gettysburg to Harrisburg, is ten miles from the former and twenty-five miles from the latter place. The State road and the Menallen road, leading from Chambcrsburg to York, intersect at right angles at this place...... MUMMASBURG is a small village in Fanklin township, at the terminus of the Gettysburg and Mummasburg turnpike, five miles from the former place... S. ARENDTSVILLE, a handsome and thriving post town in the north-eastern angle of Franklin township, was laid out by a Mr. Arendt about the year 1820. It is pleasantly located at the intersection of the Menallen and Shippensburg roads, eight miles north of Gettysburg..... BEECIHERSVILLE, a'small village about a mile east of Arendtsville, on the road from the latter place to Gettysburg, contains a woolen factory, a tannery, and about a dozen dwellings. .... NEW CHESTER, or Pinetown, so called because of a belt of pine timber contiguous to it, is a post village in Straban township, and was laid out by Henry Martzsaal in 1804. It is nine miles east from Gettysburg, within several hundred yards of one of the bends of the Big Conewago..... CASHTOWN, a fine village in Franklin township, at the foot of the South mountain, is eight miles north-west from Gettysburg, on the Chambersburg turnpike. *.... HILLTOWN is a small hamlet, one mile north of Cashtown, on the road leading from Mummasburg to Chambersburg...... NEW SALEM, a pretty village on the Chambersburg and Gettysburg turnpike, six miles northwest from the latter place, was laid out in 1860 by John Hartman, who, in January of that year, purchased of Albert Van Dyke, administrator of the McKnight estate, the greater part of the ground now embraced within the limits of the village, paying $6,000 for the same. A number of lots were soon sold, upon which improvements were commenced the following spring. The location being a good one, the village has steadily grown until it has become quite a thriving place...... SEVEN STARS is a small village on the Chambersburg turnpike, four miles from Gettysburg, where the old "Tape Worm" railroad crosses the turnpike. ORGOANIZATION OF TowNsIiPs.-Berwick-A township of York county before division in 1800. Butler-Out of parts of Franklin and Menallen-August 20, 1849 312 ADAMS COUNTY. Conewago-Out of those parts of Manheim and Heidelberg townships, York county, which fell within the lines of Adams-May 25, 1801. Cumberland-A township of York county before division in 1800. Franklin-A township of York county before division in 1800. Freedom-Out of Liberty, January 22, 1838. Germany-A township of York county before division in 1800. Hamilton-Of part of Berwick township, August 20, 1810-area, 1010162 acres. Hamiltonban-A township of York county before division in 1800. Highland-The territory of Highland-taken from Cumberland, Franklin, and Hamiltonban-was annexed to Freedom in 1861, and made an independent township November 16, 1863. Huntington-A township of York county before division in 1800. Latimore-Out of parts of Huntington and those parts of Warrington and Monaghan townships, York county, which fell within the lines of Adams county, August 19, 1807. Area, 13,733 acres and 143 perches. Liberty-Out of parts of Hamiltonban township, August 25, 1800. Menallen-A township of York county before division in 1800. Mountjoy-A township of York county before division in 1800. Mount Pleasant-A township of York county before division in 1800. Oxford-Of part of Berwick. April 19, 1847. Reading-A township of York county before division in 1800. Straban-A township of York county before division in 1800. Tyrone-A township of York county before division in 1800. Union-Of parts of Conewago, Germany, and Mount Pleasant, January 25, 1841. Of the twelve districts noted as existing in York county before its division in 1800, all except Franklin existed prior to 1749, when York county was erected out of parts of Lancaster. From 1749 to 1800, there appears to have been no subdivision of what is now Adams county, except in the creation of Franklin township, out of, probably, Hamiltonban and Menallen. There is no record of the date, but it was probably after the year 1768. 313 VIEW OF PITTSBURGH, LOOKING UP THE 0111O. ALLEGHENY COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to William M. Darlington and Thomas J. Bigham.] TIE county of Allegheny was organized by virtue of the act of Assem bly of September 24, 1788, which recites: " That all those parts of Westmoreland,and Washington counties lying within the limits and bounds hereinafter described, shall be, and hereby are, erected into a separate county; that is to say, beginning at the mouth of Flaherty's run, on the south side of the Ohio river; from thence, by a strait line, to the plantation on which Joseph Scott, Esquire, now lives, on Montour's run, to include the same; from thence, by a strait line, to the mouth of Miller's run, on Chartier's creek; ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURT HOUSE. from thence, by a strait line, to the mouth of Perry's mill run, on the east side of Monongahela river; thence up the said river to the mouth of Becheta's run:; thence, by a strait line, to the mouth of Sewickly creek, on Youghiogheny river; thence, down the said river, to the mouth of Crawford's run; thence, by a strait line, to the mouth of Brush creek, on Turtle creek; thence, up Turtle creek, to the main fork thereof; thence, by a northerly line, until it strikes Puckety's creek; thence down the said creek to the Allegheny river; thence up the Alleghen) river to the northern boundary of the State; thence along the same to the river Ohio; and thence, up the same, to the place of beginning; to be henceforth known and called by the name of Allegheny county." The commissioners to run the boundary lines between the counties of Westmoreland, Washington, and Allegheny were Eli Coulter, Peter Kidd, and Benjamin Lodge. In 1789 an additional part of Washington county was annexed; and by an act of April 3, 1792, upwards of 200,000 acres on Lake Erie, purchased by the State from the general government, was declared to be part of Allegheny county. 315 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. These extended limits of the county were subsequently reduced by the counties formed west and north of the Allegheny river. Allegheny county is bounded on the north by Butler; east by Westmoreland; south and south-west by Washington, and north-west by Beaver. The county forms an irregular figure about twenty-six miles in diameter, and contains an area of 754 square miles, or 482,560 acres. The surface of the county is undulating, and near the rivers and principal creeks, broken and hilly, many of the elevations jeing precipitous, and occasionally furrowed into deep ravines. The upland is rolling, and very little can be called flat, except the bottom lands along the streams. Within the limits of the county are comprised the very populous country around the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers with the Ohio, and of the Youghiogheny with the Monongahela. Besides these navigable streams there are, tributary to them, Chartier's, Peters', Turtle, Plum, Deer, and Pine creeks, with a number of less important streams. The county is situated in the heart of the bituminous coal formation of the Appalachian field; and it derives its chief importance from the inexhaustible supply and enormous development of this valuable fuel. The amount of capital invested in the mines of the county according to the census of 1870 was estimated at $12,169,000, and twenty-two thousand seven hundred and ten acres were under development. The value of these may be placed at $8,690,000; $438,000 was invested in cars, tools, and the articles necessary to mining. The live stock employed was valued at $287,000. Upwards of $1,200,000 were invested in houses. The variou: improvements, such as railway tracks, trestles, etc., cannot be less than $1,625,000. The list embraces one hundred and thirteen collieries in active operation, employing eight thousand miners. The amount of coal mined annually is upwards of one hundred million bushels. Nearly thirty million bushels are consumed in and around the city of Pittsburgh, numbers of the manufacturing establishments consuming from one to three thousand bushels of coal per day. From fifty to fifty-five million bushels are exported by river alone annually. The amount exported by rail approaches eighteen million bushels. Upwards of twenty million bushels of coke are made annually in eight hundred and fifty-six ovens. In a review of the industrial resources of Allegheny county, we speak principally of those developed in the city of Pittsburgh and the towns in its immediate vicinity. No other county in the United States contains two cities of the first class. It is not in coal alone that the strength of this section is shown In those things which coal enables artizans of Pittsburgh to produce, is her powei equally apparent. As nearly as can be ascertained, one-half of the glass factories in the United States are located at Pittsburgh, where there are forty firms engaged in the manufacture of glass, who run sixty factories producing the various descriptions of green, window, flint, and lime glass, employing over four thousand workmen, and producing between four and five millions' worth of glass. In iron and steel Pittsburgh claims and maintains to be the great market of the country. The exact money market of this great trade has always been difficult to arrive at. Much of the iron has been shipped by rail to the various points, and much by river. By figures we have at command of the shipments of plate, bar, sheet, and rod iron and steel from Pittsburgh in the year 1875, it would seem ALLEGHENY COUNTY. that there were exported, by rail alone, to twenty-four different States, over 143,000 tons, and 80,000 kegs of nails between twenty different States. These railroad exportations, it must not be forgotten, are not probably half the manufacture. That of castings there were shipped by rail alone 5,143,008 pounds in 1874 to twenty-two different States, and that by one railroad alone there was received in 1874 into the city, 107,000 tons of pig iron and blooms, exclusive of the yield of six or eight furnaces running in the city of Pittsburgh, nor the imports by river and other railroads. It is estimated that of shipments made from Pittsburgh, at least as much is sent by river as by rail. There are over thirty iron rolling mills in Pittsburgh, six steel mills, and between fifty and sixty iron foundries. These figures but feebly indicate the full extent of the great iron and steel trade of the city, of which the sales alone of articles made of iron subject to tax, made and returned in the city, was, from March 1875 to March 1876, over $27,000,000. In 1876 the amount of capital invested was $70,000,000, and the annual value of the products $39,000,000. Oil is another great staple, and there are in Pittsburgh fifty-eight refineries, in which is invested a capital of over $12,000,000 in buildings and machinery, and in the tanks and barges necessary to the carrying on of the business, nearly $6,000,000 more. The oil trade for the three years from January, 1873, to January, 1876, amounted to about $50,000,000, or an average of about $11,000,000 annually. During these three years the entire exportation of petroleum from the United States was 217,948,602 gallons, and the shipments east from Pittsburgh was 132,396,179 gallons, showing that Pittsburgh supplied over sixty per cent. of the whole foreign exportation of petroleum in the period cited. The history of Allegheny county presents a greater variety of startling incidents than almost any other portion of the State. Great Britain, France, Great Britain again, Virginia, the United States and Pennsylvania have each in turn exercised sovereignty either over the whole or greatest part of the county. Since its first settlement was captured in war, first by Contrecceur in 1754, and by Forbes in 1758-once beseiged by Indians in 1763-blown up and burned by the French in 1758-it was the field of controversy between neighboring States min 1774, and finally the scene of civil war in 1794. When the white man appeared in the region around the head-waters of the Ohio river, the occupants of the soil were principally Shawanese, with some roving bands of the Six Nations and scattered wigwams of the Delawares. It is more than probable that the "mound builders," whose traces were more noticeable in the Western States than in Pennsylvania, were the primeval inhabitants, judging from descriptions of the remains of ancient fortifications within the limits of Allegheny county, the principal one of which was located on Chartier's creek, about seven or eight miles from Pittsburgh. From the description of a traveler who passed through the western country in 1807, we learn that it consisted of an oblong elevated square two hundred feet long, one hundred and forty feet broad, and nine feet high, level on the summit and nearly perpendicular at the sides, the centre of each of the sides towards the stream projecting, forming gradual ascents to the top, equally regular and about six feet wide. Near the centre of the fort was a circular mound nearly thirty feet in diameter, and five feet high. At the corner near the river was a semi-circular parapet 317 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Tienpont. Mey proceeded to the Delaware, or South, River, on the 1623. eastern bank of which, fifteen leagues from its mouth, he erected Fort Nassau, at a place called by the natives Techaacho, supposed to be on the Sassackon, now Little Timber Creek, a short distance below the present town of Gloucester, in New Jersey. It was the first settlement, if it can so be regarded, on the Delaware. The administration of the affairs of New Netherland was confided by the West India Company to Peter Minuit, who arrived at Manhattan Island in 1624. He was assisted in his government by a council of five members and a 1624. " Scout Fiscal," whose duties embraced those now usually performed by a sheriff and district attorney. The authority vested in the Director, as he was styled, and his council, was ample, being executive, legislative, and judicial, and extended to the South as well as the North River. The commencement of the Directorship of Minuit is fixed by Wassenaer, in his History of Europe, in the year 1626, and he assigns him two predecessors in that office, viz., William Van Hulst, for the year 1625, and Cornelis Mey, for the year 1624. These men, in conjunction with Adrien Joriz Tienpont, appear, however, to have been merely directors of an expedition, and it would seem that the government of the country, of which the territory embraced within the limits of that portion of the State on the Delaware constituted a part, commenced with the administration of Minuit. According to the authority last quoted, the effort at a settlement on the Delaware seems to have been abandoned before the expiration of a single year, in order to strengthen the colony at Manhattan. It is not remarkable that this policy should have been adopted, as the whole colony at that place scarcely numbered two hundred souls. The fort, therefore, at the South River, was abandoned to the Indians, who did not fail to occupy it as their occasions required; and the country again passed into their possession as completely as it was on the dlay Hudson touched at the capes. In 1629, the West India Company granted, by charter, special privi 1629. leges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherland. They adopted certain articles termed " FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS," under which scheme the feudal tenure of lands was to be introduced into America, south of Canada, where settlements on an analogous plan had already commenced. Thus encouraged, several of the directors of the company, among whom were Samuel Godyn and Samuel Bloemaert, resolved to make vast territorial acquisitions, and by their agents had purchased a large tract of land at the mouth of the Delaware Bay. This grant was confirmed to the purchasers by Peter Minuit, the Director, and his council, on the 16th of July, 1630. 1630. The land embraced in the grant, thus confirmed, was "situate on the south side of the aforesaid bay of the South River, extending in length from cape Hinlopen off into the mouth of the aforesaid South River, about eight leagues, and half a league in breadth into the interior, extending to a certain marsh or valley through which these limits can be clearly enough distinguished." Samuel Godyn had previously given notice of his intention to make the above purchase, and to occupy the bay of the South River as "Patroon" on the conditions set forth in the " Freedoms and Exemptions." Meeting with ALLEGHENY COUNTY. crowned with a mound which guarded an opening in the wall near by. Scarcely a vestige now remains, but we have seen it recently stated that a small mound is still to be seen on the ridge at McKee's rocks below the mouth of the same stream. It was the locality of Shingas, the famous Indian warrior. There were numerous Indian villages within the present limits of Allegheny county, but except in the historical details of one hundred and twenty years ago, nothing remains of the royalty which swayed the inhabitants of the Ohio. The principal of these was Shannopin's town. It was situated, says Mr. Darlington, on the banks of the Allegheny river, now in the corporate limits of the city of Pittsburgh. It was small;had about twenty families of Delawares, and was much frequented by the traders. By it ran the main Indian path from the East to the West. In April, 1730, Governor Thomas, at Philadelphia, received a message from "the Chieffs of ye Delewares at Allegaening, on the main road," taken down (written) by Edmund Cartlidge, and interpreted by James Letort, noted traders. Among the names signed to the letter is that of " Shannopin his Z mark." The chief's message was to explain the cause of the death of a white man named Hart, and the wounding of another, Robeson, occasioned by rum, the bringing such great quantities into the woods, they desired the Governor to suppress, as well as to limit the number of traders. Shannopin's name is signed to several documents in the archives of the State. He appeared occasionally at Councils held with the Governor. He died in 1740. Towards the close of the seventeenth century the French, through the adventures and discoveries of LaSalle, Marquette, and others, gained a most excellent knowledge of the country of the Ohio and Mississippi, and at once measures were adopted looking to the extension of the French empire, claiming the vast territory west of the Alleghenies. As early as 1719 the French began actively to erect a line of forts for the purpose of connecting Canada with the valley of the Mississippi, but it was not until 1749 that measures were taken to extend their trade with the Indians on the Allegheny. The year previous a movement had been made towards a permanent settlement on the Ohio river by the English colonies. Thomas Lee, one of His Majesty's council in Virginia, formed the design of effecting a settlement on the wild lands west of the Allegheny mountains, through the agency of an association of gentlemen. Before this date there were no English residents in those regions. A few traders wandered from tribe to tribe, and dwelt among the Indians, but they neither cultivated nor occupied the land. Mr. Lee associated with himself Mr. Hanbury, a merchant from London, and twelve persons in Virginia and Maryland, composing the " Ohio Land Company." One-half million acres of land were granted them, to be taken principally on the south side of the Ohio, between the Monongahela and Kanahawa, and on which they were required to settle one hundred families and erect and maintain a fort. The Englishmen claimed title under a charter of Charles II., strengthened by a treaty with the Six Nations. In 1749, Captain Louis Celoron, a French officer, was dispatched by the Governor-General of New France (Canada) to take possession of the country along the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. He performed that duty, and deposited leaden plates bearing inscriptions at the mouths of the prominent streams. Several of the plates were eventually secured. The one placed at Venango was 319 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. dated 29th July, 1749,* at forks of the Ohio, 3d August, 1749, and at mouth of Kanahawa, 18th August, 1749. In 1750 Christopher Gist was dispatched by the Ohio Company to make explorations, and also an examination of the Ohio on the south side to within fifteen miles of the Falls. In June, 1752, a conference was held at Logstown, fourteen miles below Pittsburgh, on the right bank of the Ohio, with the Indian chiefs of the neighboring tribes. The commissioners, consisting of Colonel Fry, Captain Loamax, and Mr. Patton, desired an explanation of the treaty held at Lancaster in 1744, when the Delaware Indians ceded to the English the lands on the Ohio. The chiefs objected, stating that there was "no sale of lands west of the warrior's road which ran at the foot of the Allegheny ridge." The Commissioners finally induced them, by the offer of presents, to ratify the treaty and relinquish the Indian title to lands south of the Ohio and east of the Kanahawa. Soon after the treaty at Logstown, Gist was appointed surveyor of the Ohio Company, and directed to lay out a town and fort near the mouth of Chartier's creek. It seems, however, that this project was abandoned, and subsequently the location was changed to the forks of the Ohio. About this time (1753) the French, as referred to previously, were carrying out their grand scheme for uniting Canada with Louisiana, and it was decided to erect one fort at Logstown and one at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela. In the prosecution of this scheme, and to enforce their claim to the whole country on the Ohio, they seized the storehouse at the former place belonging to the traders, with all the goods and skins, amounting to the value of twenty thousand pounds. In the fall of 1753, accounts were received that a considerable French force had arrived at Presqu'Isle, on their way to the Ohio; and in October of that year, George Washington was selected as a messenger, to proceed by the way of Logstown to the French commandant, wherever he might be found, to demand information as to the object of the French troops. Washington departed immediately from Williamsburg, and arrived at the forks about the 23d or 24th of November, 1753. HIe examined the point, and thought it a favorable position for a fort. He then proceeded to Logstown-and thence to the French commandant at Le Bceuf, from whom he received a very unsatisfactory reply. mmediately on the return of Washington to Virginia, Captain Trent, with a company of troops, was directed to proceed to the Ohio, and establish himself at that locality. In the early part of 1754 was commenced the first building on the site where Pittsburgh now stands. Of the arrival of the French convoy, the capitulation and the retiring of the English, and of the important events which transpired in this section of Pennsylvania during the expeditions of Generals Braddock, Forbes, and Bouquet, we have alluded in the general history. By reference thereto, it will be seen that the French retained possession of Fort Duquesne from the 17th of April, 1754, to the 24th of November, 1758. This position, of course, gave them an influence over the neighboring Indians, which was so used as to inflict upon the frontier settlers much distress and bloodshed. The importance of this position, in a military point of view, was duly appreci *For translation of the one at French creek, see History of Venango county. 320 ALLEGHENY COUNTY ated by the English, and early and energetic efforts were therefore adopted to expel the French. Upon its occupancy by General Forbes' army in 1758, the English proceeded to the erection of works for the defence of the post. A small square stockade with a bastion at each angle was constructed on the banks of the Monongahela between the present site of Liberty and West streets in Pittsburgh. This was only intended for temporary use, for in the year following, General Stanwix erected more substantial works, which in honor of the then British Premier, he named Fort Pitt. In 1764, Colonel Bouquet built a redoubt on the site of the fort which is still standing. It is simply a square stone building, and is located north of Penn street west of Point street, a few feet back of Brewery alley. The first town of Pittsburgh was built near the Fort, in 1760. It was divided into the upper and lower town. In a carefully prepared list of the houses and inhabitants outside of the fort, made for Colonel Bouquet, April 15, 1761, by Captain William Clapham, and headed "A return of the number of houses, of the names of owners, and number of men, women, and children, in each house, Fort Pitt, April 14, 1761," the number of inhabitants is two hundred and thirty-three men, women, and children, with the addition of ninety-five officers, soldiers, and their families residing in the town, making the whole number three hundred and thirty-two. Houses, one hundred and four. The lower town was nearest the fort, the upper on the higher ground, principally along the bank of the Monongahela, extending as far as the present Market Street. In this list of the early inhabitants are the well-known names of George Croghan, William Trent, John Ormsby, John Campbell, Ephraim Blaine, and Thomas Small. Settlements were also made along the Monongahela and its tributaries, and the inhabitants seem to have enjoyed comparative quiet, until the year 1763, when, during the Pontiac war, Fort Pitt was completely surrounded by the savage foe, who cut off all communication with the interior of the country, and greatly annoyed the garrison by an incessant discharge of musketry and arrows. The post was finally relieved by Colonel Bouquet, who in the following year retaliated by marching with a sufficient force to the Muskingum, and there dictated terms of peace to the hostile tribes of the north-west. The second town of Pittsburgh was laid out in 1765, by Colonel John Campbell, by permission of the commanding officer at Fort Pitt. It comprised the ground within Water, Market, Second, and Ferry streets. Campbell's plan of lots was subsequently incorporated unaltered in the survey made by George Woods for the Penns in 1784, and is known as the " Old Military Plan." Two of the houses built on lots in that plan are now standing on Water street, near Ferry. They are constructed of hewn logs weatherboarded. These, with the two on the southeast corner of Penn and Marbury (Third) street, formerly owned and occupied by General Richard Butler and his brother, Colonel William, are the oldest in Pittsburgh or west of the Alleghenies. Of course the old brick redoubt of Colonel Bouquet before referred to, between the Point and Penn street, is excepted. It, however, was not originally built for a dwelling-house, but as an outwork or addition to Fort Pitt. From this period until the close of the Revolutionary war but little improve V 321 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. ment was made at Fort Pitt. The fear of Indian hostilities, or the actual existence of Indian warfare, prevented immigration. In 1775, the number of dwelling-houses within the limits of Fort Pitt did not, according to the most authentic accounts, exceed twenty-five or thirty. During the Revolution, the Penn family being adherents of the British government, the Assembly confiscated all their property except certain manors &c., of which surveys had been actually made and returned into the land-office prior to the 4th of July, 1776, and also except any estates which the Proprietaries held in their private capacities by devise, purchase, or descent. Pittsburgh, and the country eastward of it and south of the Monongahela, containing 5,766 acres, composed one of these manors (surveyed in 1769), and of course remained as the property of the Penns. In the spring of 1784, arrangements were made by Tench Francis, the agent of the Proprietaries, to lay out the Manor of Pittsburgh in town and out-lots, and to sell them without delay. For this purpose he engaged George Woods, of Bedford, an experienced surveyor, to execute the work. The manor lots found a ready sale, and in 1786, Judge Brackenridge then a young attorney in the new town, estimated the number of houses at one hundred, and the population at about five hundred. Previous to this there were no buildings outside the fort, except those already noticed occupied by Indian traders arid a few mechanics and soldiers' families. The inhabitants of Allegheny county took a conspicuous part in the " Whiskey Insurrection" of 1794. Liberty poles were erected and people assembled in arms and compelled the officers of the Excise to leave the country or resign. Their object was to compel a repeal of the law and not to subvert the government, but they unfortunately pursued the wrong course to effect their object. From 1790 to 1800, says Harris, the business of Pittsburgh and the West was small, but gradually improving. The fur trade was the most important. Considerable supplies of goods were received from the Illinois country by barges. On the 19th of May, 1798, the galley President Adams was launched at Pittsburgh. She was the first vessel built then competent for a sea voyage, and was constructed by order of the government of the United States, in its preparations for the threatened war with France. In July, the Senator Ross was ready to launch, but on account of low water it was not accomplished until the spring of 1799. In the spring of 1797, arrangements were made by James O'Hara and Isaac Craig, for the erection of the first glass works in Pittsburgh, and William Eichbaum, superintendent of glass works at the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, engaged to direct the building of the works. This was the beginning of that business now so extensively carried on. So many difficulties, however, were encountered that after a few years Major Craig retired. General O'Hara persevered, and after a very large expenditure of money and labor succeeded in the manufacture of glass. During this year the first paper-mill west of the Alleghenies was erected at Pittsburgh. In 1802-3 Pittsburgh and the country around it were greatly excited by the impeachment and subsequent removal of Alexander Addison, then president iudge of the judicial district. This was owing to party spirit which during the administration of the elder Adams ran exceedingly high. 322 ALLEGHENY COUNTY. From 1802 to 1805 four ships, three brigs, and three schooners were built at Pittsburgh, while two vessels were constructed at Elizabethtown. On the first day of January, 1804, a branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania was established here in a stone building on the east side of Second Street, between Ferry Street and Chancery Lane. During that year the first iron foundry was erected by Joseph McClurg. The year 1811 inaugurated a revolution in the commerce and noted an epoch in the history of Pittsburgh well worthy of commemoration. In this year the genius of Fulton and the theory of Fitch had a practical and successful test in the application of steam as a propelling power to vessels against a strong current. The year previous [1810], Messrs. Fulton, Livingston, and Rossevelt, constituting a firm, organized for the purpose of testing Fulton's plan, commenced the building of a boat, the dimensions of which were-keel, a hundred and thirty-eight feet; burden, some three hundred tons, cabin below deck, portholes, bow-sprit, &c. Forty thousand dollars were invested in this enterprise, and in March, 1811, the first steamboat ever built or run on western waters was launched at Pittsburgh, and duly christened the New Orleans. On the 24th of December this steamboat left for the Crescent city. The New Orleans arrived safely at her destination. Shortly after she went into the regular packet trade between Natchez and New Orleans, in which she continued two years, clearing $20,000 the first. In 1814 she was snagged and lost near Baton Rouge. The second steamboat constructed at this port was the Comet, launched in 1813. In 1814 the Mississippi steamboat company built the Vesuvius and -Etna. From this time onward, for a period of fifty years, the number of boats constructed at Pittsburgh was immense, and the progress and development of the place was rapid. During the war of 1812, Pittsburgh sent a company into the North-western territory to join the command of General Harrison that won a lasting fame for its bravery. It was named the Pittsburgh Blues, and was under the command of Captain James R. Butler. The Blues fought at Fort Meigs and Mississineway, losing a number of their men in those contests. Pittsburgh, by an act of Assembly at the sessions of 1815-16, became a citytaking its date from March 18, 1816. At the first election for municipal officers under the city charter, Major Ebenezer Denny was chosen mayor. In August 1825, a convention of the friends of internal improvements, consisting of delegates from forty-six counties of the State, met at Harrisburg, and passed resolutions in favor of " opening an entire and complete communication from the Susquehanna to the Allegheny and Ohio, and from the Allegheny to Lake Erie, by the nearest and most practicable route." The Juniata and Conemaugh was reported the " most practicable route" by the commission appointed by the Governor in 1824, to explore a route for a canal from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The report was adopted and the work let. In the fall of 1827 water was let into the levels at Leechburg from the " seven-mile" or Leechburg dam, but the inexperience of the contractors and workmen who had built the canal below caused innumerable difficulties. To remedy the evil occupied the balance of the fall and winter. The first canal boat ever built or run west of the mountains, was the General 323 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Abner Lacock. She was built at Apollo, Armstrong county, by Philip Dally, under the auspices of Patrick Leonard of Pittsburgh. She was intended as a freight and passenger packet, had berths and curtains, after the style of the steamboats of those days. In the fall of 1834, the Philadelphia and Columbia, and the Allegheny portage railroads were completed, giving a through line to Pittsburgh, and the same month an emigrant's boat from the North Branch of the Susquehanna, passed over the inclined planes on trucks with the family in it, was launched at Johnstown, reached Pittsburgh, was run into the Ohio, and pursued its course down that river to Cairo, and was towed up the Mississippi to St. Louis. The completion of this through route gave to Pittsburgh a fresh impetus, and tended largely toward the opening up of the mineral resources of Western Pennsylvania. The salt of the Kiskiminetas soon became an important branch of traffic and barter in the east, and gave employment to a large number of men. Blast furnaces, bloomeries, etc., sprang into existence along its line, and a general life and thrift was manifest from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. In Pittsburgh, for a time, the forwarding and commission business absorbed all other branches of trade with capitalists. The business man who had not stock or some kind of an interest in some of the lines of boats on the canals, or the steamboats or other modes of transportation on the rivers, was not regarded as either wealthy or enterprising. In 1834, an experimental trip was made from Pittsburgh to Johnstown with a little steamboat, but not proving satisfactory for many reasons, all ideas of applying steam to canal boats was abandoned. In 1835 the Erie canal, or the greater portion of it, was put into operation, opening up another large mineral and agricultural field to Pittsburgh, where the products found a ready market, and augmented the amount of business done there. The boats reached Pittsburgh by being towed by steam-tugs up the Ohio from the mouth of Beaver creek, twenty-six miles below the city. Soon after this a canal called the Cross-cut was built, connecting the Erie with the Ohio canal at Akron, Ohio. The junction of the Erie and Cross-cut was made at the mouth of the Mahoning river, in the Beaver valley, some four miles below New Castle. By this connection, long before there was a railroad in the West, freight could be shipped to Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Detroit, Portsmouth, Chillicothe, and other intermediate points, without breaking bulk. All these advantages, taken in connection with the fact of Pittsburgh being the head of navigation of the western and south-western waters, it is little to be wondered at that she became a nucleus for all branches of trade, and a power in the manufacturing world. In 1836 was commenced the improving of the Monongahela by locks and dams, to meet the efforts of Marylanders east of the mountains, and opening a channel of commerce with Pittsburgh by way of the Potomac canal to Cumberland, and the Cumberland pike to Brownsville. After much opposition the work was completed in 1844, and it proved to be one of the greatest features of the Iron City's success. The pools or slack water offered ample harbors for the loading of coal boats and barges, and the coal trade of the Monongahela has ever since been the source of great revenue to the company which, under the 324 ALLEGHENY COUNTY. lead of General James K. Moorhead, constructed it, to the exporters and the public generally. In 1839 the Valley Forge, the first iron steamboat made in the United States, was built at Pittsburgh. On the tenth day of April, 1845, occurred the great fire at Pittsburgh, burning over a space of fifty-six acres. The aggregate loss of property amounted to over five millions of dollars, and many families were rendered homeless. Aid came in freely from the neighboring towns and cities, while the Legislature, then in session, made an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars to relieve the distressed inhabitants, of which amount, however, only thirty thousand dollars was drawn from the Treasury. On the 29th of March, 1872, the consolidation of the Southside with Pittsburgh was effected by an act of the Assembly, which bill received the sanction of the Governor on the 2d of April, following. The Southside included eleven boroughs, having a population of 35,000-Birmingham, East Birmingham, Ormsby, Allentown, St. Clair, South Pittsburgh, Monongahela, Mt. Washington, Union, West Pittsburgh, and Temperanceville. Although the __ details herewith given are in fact the history of Pittsburgh itself, _______ there are other matters connected with that city to which we will make reference. ___ PITTSBURGH is the second city of Pennsylvania in population and importance. It is substantially and compactly built, and contains many fine residences, particularly in the east section. A -- large number of the principal avenues are graded and paved. Horse cars run through the CITY HALL, PITTSBURGH. principal streets and to the suburbs. Seven bridges span the Allegheny river and five the Monongahela. From its situation, Pittsburgh enjoys excellent commercial facilities, and has become the centre of an extensive commerce with the Western States; of its industrial resources we have referred to in full. The extent of its iron manufactories has given it the appellation of the "Iron City," while the heavy pall of smoke that constantly overhangs it, produced by burning bituminous coal in all the dwelling-houses and manufacturing establishments, has caused it to be styled the "Smoky City." Smithfield street is the principal business thoroughfare, and trade is very active in Penn and Liberty streets and Fifth avenue, which contain many handsome retail stores. Among the public buildings are the municipal hall, corner of Smithfield and Virgin streets, costing seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with a granite front and a massive central tower; the Court House, a solid stone edifice, corner of Fifth avenue and Grant street, with a columned portico, and surmounted by a dome; the custom house 325 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. and post office, a commodious structure of stone, corner of Smithfield street and Fifth avenue; and the United States Arsenal, a group of spacious buildings standing in the midst of ornamental grounds in the northeast section of the city. The new and elegant building of the Mercantile Library is in Penn street; it cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and contains fifteen thousand volumes and a well supplied reading-room; the Young Men's Christian Association has a good reading-room at the corner of Penn and Sixth streets. There are in the city two theatres, an Opera House, an Academy of Music, and several public halls. The Western University, founded in 1819, has a handsome building in the southeast part of the city, near the Monongahela, and in 1876 had seventeen instructors and two hundred and fifty-two students; it has a library of twentyfive hundred volumes, extensive philoso,)hical and chemical apparatus, and a itJ WESTERN PENITENTIARY, ALLEGHENY CITY. cabinet containing over ten thousand specimens in geology, mineralogy, conchology, and zoology. The Pittsburgh Female College (Methodist) is a flourishing institution. Several of the public school buildings are large and substantial. Among the principal charitable institutions within the limits of the city, are the City General Hospital, the Homceopathic Hospital and Dispensary, the Mercy Hospital, the Episcopal Church Home, and the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. The Convent of the Sisters of Mercy is the oldest house of the order in America. The Western penitentiary, in the ancient Norman style, situated on Ohio street, Sherman avenue, and West Park, Allegheny City, was erected by authority of the Legislature of March 8, 1818. It was completed for occupancy about 1827, and cost over half a million dollars. It was originally intended to be conducted on the solitary confinement principle, but recently the "congregate " system has been adopted. 326 ALLEGHENY COUNTY. The Western Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane is at Dixmont. It is properly a private institution, although the State has constructed the buildings, which are capable of accommodating over four hundred patients, and otherwise aided it. The area of the grounds connected with it is three hundred and fifty acres. The buildings cost half a million dollars. Indigent insane have by law the preference of "paying " patients. The Western Reform school located at Morganza on the Pittsburgh and Washington railroad has recently been completed. It is designed for incorrigible or vagrant girls and boys. The ground and buildings cost half a million dollars. One main building for boys and another for girls. This institution is hereafter to be conducted on the family system. The entire arrangement when in full operation will make it the finest institution on this plan in the United States. It is managed by a board of trustees, of which Thomas J. Bigham is president-appointed by the Governor. Besides the foregoing public institutions there are several other establishments of similar character-Allegheny City poor-house at Claremont, seven miles from the city; City farm for Pittsburgh, situated on the left bank of the Monongahela about two miles above the city limits, containing 149 acres, and extensive buildings; Allegheny county home, situated near Chartiers' Valley railroad about seven miles from Pittsburgh, on a farm of two hundred and five acres; and the Allegheny county workhouse, situated on the right bank of the Allegheny, about seven miles above Allegheny City, at Claremont station, West Pennsylvania railroad, on fifty acres of land. The latter institution has been self-sustaining. It has been under the superintendence of Henry Cordier, who has been the most successful in managing an institution for stubborn persons. ALLEGHENY CITY is situated on the west bank of the Allegheny river, opposite Pittsburgh, with which it is connected by several fine bridges. Its manufacturing interests are large, and the elegant residences of many Pittsburgh merchants may be seen here occupying commanding positions. The city has now a population of 75,000. The City Hall is on the square at the crossing of Ohio and Federal streets, and the Allegheny Library is close by. Theological Seminary (Presbyterian) was established here in 1827. It is situated on a lofty insulated ridge 100 feet above the river, and affords a magnificent prospect. The Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church, established in 1826, and the Allegheny Theological Institute, organized in 1840 by the synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, are also located here. The Allegheny Observatory, situated on an elevated site north of the city, is a department of the Western University of Pittsburgh. The Public Park lies around the centre of the city; it contains 100 acres, and is adorned with several tiny lakelets and a monument to Humboldt. On a lofty crest near the Allegheny, in the east part of the city, stands the Soldiers' Monument, erected to the memory of the 4,000 men of Allegheny county who lost their lives in the civil war. It consists of a graceful column, surrounded at the base with statues of an infantry man, a cavalryman, an artillerist, and a sailor, and surmounted by a bronze female figure of colossal size. McKEESPORT is laid out upon a wide plain which affords ample room for a large city. Situated at the junction of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny 327 GENERAL HISTORY. David IPieterszen De Vries, of IHoorn, "a bold and skilful seaman," who had been "a master of artillery in the service of the United Provinces," he made him acquainted with the design of himself and associates, of forming a colony. The bay of the South River was held up to De Vries as a point at which a whale fishery could be profitably established, as Godyn represented " that there were many whales " which kept before the bay, and the oil, at sixty guilders a hogshead, he thought, would realize a good profit. De Vries, declining to accept a subordinate position in connection with the colony, he was at once admitted, on perfect equality, into a company of " Patroons," who associated themselves together on the 16th day of October, 1630. On the 12th of December following, a ship and a yacht for the South River were dispatched from the Texel, " with a number of people, and a large stock of cattle," the object beirng, says De Vries, " as well to carry on a whale fishery in that region, as to plant a colony for the cultivation of all sorts of grain, for which the country is well adapted, and of tobacco." Swanendael (valley of swans) was the name given to the tract of land purchased by Godyn for his colony on the " South River, in New Netherland." From him the bay was named in the Dutch records, " Godyn's Bay." This was in midwinter, 1630-1, but the date of the arrival of the colonists is not known. Skipper Ileyes, who commanded the Walrus, for that appears to have been the name of the ship that brought out this little colony, purchased of the Indians a tract of land sixteen English miles square, at Cape May, and extending sixteen miles on the bay. This document, duly reported and recorded, is still in existence. A house, "well beset with palisades in place of breastworks," was erected on thie northwest side of IHoorn-kill (Lewes creek), a short distance from 1631. its mouth. It was called " Fort Optlandt," and appears to have served the colony, which consisted of thirty-two persons, as a place of defence, a dwelling, and a storehouse. This colony, the most unfortunate that settled on the bay or river, was left under the charge of Giles Osset. Commissary Osset set upon a post or pillar the arms of Holland painted on tin, in evidence of its claim and profession. An Indian, ignorant of the object of this exhibition, and perchance unconscious of the right of exclusive property, appropiiated to his own use this honored symbol. The folly of Osset considered this offence not only as a larceny, but as a national insult, and he urged his complaints and demands for redress with so much vehemence and importunity that the harrassed and perplexed tribe brought him the head of the offender. This was a punishment which Osset neither wished nor had foreseen, and he ought justly to have dreaded its consequences. In vain hlie reprehended the severity of the Indians, and told them, had they brought the delinquent to him, he would have been dismissed with a reprimand. The love of vengeance, insepa rable from the Indian character, sought a dire gratification; and, though the death of the culprit was doomed and executed by his own tribe, still they beheld its cause in the exaction of the strangers. Availing themselves of the season in which a greater part of the Dutch were engaged in the cultivation of the fields, at a distance from their house, the Indians entered it, under the amicable pretence of trade, and murdered the unsuspicioui Osset, with a single sentinel who HISTORY OF PENNS YLVANIA. rivers, it enjoys the business derived from the extensive coal trade on both streams, and under its influence has increased rapidly in population and wealth. The town is well laid out with fine wide streets, and a large proportion of the houses are well constructed of brick. The population numbers now about 12,000; in 1842 it had only 500. It is one of the principal stations of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad, and by that road and its connections its inhabitants have easy access to all the Eastern and Western cities. Surrounded on all sides by a fine basin of coal, and possessed of superior advantages by either the Monongahela slack-water or the railroad for transportation to any of the cities of the United States, it is a choice spot for the location of manufacturers of such articles as find their market elsewhere than at the places where they are made. The near access which is had from this point to the fine iron ores and forests which abound further up the valley of the Youghiogheny, the superiority of the coal, its abundance and low cost, with the transportation advantages before mentioned, seem to point out this location as one in which must eventually gather a large number and variety of manufacturing in metals and wood. Perhaps no other town in Western Pennsylvania has so many elements of future growth. The close of the present century may show a city of 40,000 inhabitants. EAST and WEST ELIZABETH boroughs are six miles above McKeesport-one on each side of the Monongahela river. They have in a less degree the same elements as McKeesport. Population nearly 5,000...... BRADDOCK borough is on the north bank of the Monongahela river, located upon the site of the famous battle ground of July 9, 1755, known in history as the defeat of Braddock. This town is situated eight miles above Pittsburgh and four miles below McKeesport, and receives the overflow from both points. The Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio railroads both pass through it. Though only commenc-d as a village some eight years since, it has already a population of over 5,000. The Edgar Thompson steel works for the manufacture of steel rails, in successful operation, is located here..... The boroughs of ETNA and SIIARPSBURGH, five or six miles above Pittsburgh on the Allegheny river, contain a population of some 10,000, chiefly engaged in the manufacture of iron. The offices are in Pittsburgh, but the mills are located in these boroughs. The furnaces of the Isabella company consume immense quantities of iron ore, chiefly brought from the Lake Superior region. Three rolling mills are also located here. S.. The borough of TARENTUM, twelve miles above, is also of late growing into importance. Population about 3,000..... NATRONA borough, some three miles above, is the result of the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing company. This company produces several important products, and have built up a village of 2,000 inhabitants, chiefly employed in its industrial departments..... Commencing about seven miles below Pittsburgh, on the north side of the Ohio river, the villages of Dixmont, Haysville, Sewickly, and Lutsdale, dot the line of the Chicago railway. These are the dwelling-places of Pittsburghers whose days are spent in the city and nights in these villages. They cover a space of some eight miles, and probably include a population of 10,000...... MANSFIELD, and its suburbs on the line of the Pan-Handle railroad, six miles south of Pittsburgh, is an important mining, and will become 328 ALLEGRENY COUNTY 329 a manufacturing point. The Chartiers' Valley railroad connects this village with Washington, Pennsylvania, and the Pan-Handle railroad with Cincinnati and St. Louis. The development of coal mines along the route of these two railroads is likely in the near future to build up a large mining and manufacturing population, with Mansfield as its centre. POPULATION OF PENNSYLVANIA BY COUNTIES-1790 TO 1870. COUNTIES. Adams............... Allegheny........... Armstrong........... Beaver............... Bedford.............. Berks................. Blair............. Bradford............ Butler............... Bucks................ Cambria............. Cameron............. Carbon............... Centre............... Chester.............. Clarion.............. Clearlield............. Clinton.......... Columbia............ Crawford............ Cumberland.......... Dauphin.............. Delaware............. Elk.................. E rie................. Fayette.............. Franklin............. Fulton............... Forest................ Greene.............. Huntlingdon.......... lndiana........... Jefferson............ Juniata.............. Lancaster............ Lawrence............ Lebanon.............. Lehigh............... Luzerne.............. Lycoming............ M'Kean.............. Mercer............... Mifflin............... Monroe............... Montgomery......... Montour.............. Northampton........ Northumberland.... Perry................ Philadelphia....... Pike.................. Potter............... Schuylkill............ Somerset............. Snyder............ Sullivan........... Susquehanna......... Tioga................. Union................ Venango............. WVarren.............. Washington.......... Wayne............ W"est mnoreland...... Wyoming............ York.................. Totals......... 1790. 1800. 1810. 1820. .......... 10,309 .......... 13,124 30,179 .......... .......... ........iji 25,401 .......... .......... 7,562 .......... 27,937 .......... .......... .......... 18,243 18,177 9,483 .......... .......... 13,325 15,655 .......... 7,565 .......... .......... 36,147 .......... .......... 22,90429 24.250 17,161 .......... 54,391 .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 23, 866 56,391 . 3..... 13,172 15,087 2,399 5,776 12,039 32,407 .......... 3,916 27,496 .......... .......... 13,609 32,093 .......... .......... .......... 2,346 25,386 22,270 12,809 ......... 1,468 20,159 19,638 .......... 8,605 13,008 .......... 43,403 12,839 5,414 3,228 .......... 24,150 30,062 27,797 81,009 .......... .......... .....~..... 10,188 .......... 1,130 233 26,298 2,562 22,726 ....25,643 15,152 19,370 25,317 34,921 6,143 10,324 12,168 15,340 15,746 20,248 43,146 46,275 .......... 11,554 7,346 10,193 32,371 37,842 2,117 3,287 ..................... 10,681 13,796 39,596 44,451 ..................... 875 2,342 .......... 17,621 6,178 9,397 26.757 23,606 31,883 21,653 14,734 14,810 ................ 3,758 8,541 24,714 27,285 23,083 31,892 ...................... 12,544 15,554 14,778 20,139 6,214 8,882 161 561 ............... 53,927 67,975 .......... 16,975 18,895 18,109 20,027 11,006 13,517 142 728 8,277 11,681 12,132 16,618 ....,.................. 29,703 35,793 38,145 31,765 36,327 15,424 .......... 11,284 111,210 135,637 .......... 2,890 29 186 .......... 11,311 11,284 13,974 ....................,. .......... 9,960 1,687 4,021 .......... 18,619 3,060 4,915 827 1,976 36,289 40,038 4,125 4,127 26,392 30,540 31,958 38,747...... 1830. 21,379 50,552 17,701 24,183 24,502 53,152 ............ 19,746 14,5861 45.745 7,076 ........... 18,879 50,910 .......... 4,803 20,059 16,030 29,226 25,243 17,323 ........... 17,041 29,172 35,037 ............ 18,028 27.145 14,252 2,025 ............ 76,631 20,557 22,256 27,379 17, &36 1,439 19,729 21,690 39,406 ............ 39,482 18,133 14,261 188,797 4,843 1.265 20,744 17,762 o........... 16,787 8,978 20,795 9,470 4,697 42,784 7,663 38,400 .....42,859.. 1840. 1850. 23,044 81.235 28.365 29,368 29,335 64,569 32, 769 22.378 48,107 11,256 20,492............ 57,515 7,834 8,323 24,267 31,724 30,953 30,118 19,791 ........... 31,344 33,574 37,793 ............ 19,147 35,484 20.782 7,253 11,080 84,203 21,872 25,787 44,006 22,649 2,975 32,873 13,092 9,879 47,241 40.996 20,027 17,096 258,037 3,832 3,371 29,053 19,650 ............ 21,195 15,498 22,787 17,900 9,278 41.279 11,848 42,699 47.010... 25,981 138,290 29,560 26,689 23,052 77,129 21,777 42,831 30,346 56,091 17,773 ............ 15,686 23.355 66,438 23,565 12,586 11,207 17,710 37,849 34,327 35,754 24,679 3,531 38,742 39,112 39,904 7,567 ....,........ 22,136 24,786 27,170 13. 518 13,029 98,944 21,079 26,071 32,479 56,072 26,257 5,254 33,172 14,980 13,270 58,291 13,239 40,235 23.272 20,088 408,762 5,881 6,048 60,713 24,416 ............. 3.694 28,688 23,987 26.083 18,310 13,671 44. 939 21.890 51,726 10,655 57,450 1860. 28,006 178,831 35,797 29,140 26,736 93.818 27,829 48,734 35,594 63,578 29,155 ............ 21,033 27,000 74,578 24,988 18.759 17,723 25,065 48,755 40,098 46,756 30,597 5,915 49,432 39,909 42,126 9,131 898 24,343 28.100 33,687 18,270 16,986 116.314 22,999 31.,831 43,753 (0,244 ;7,399 8,859 36,856 16,340 16,758 70,500 13.053 47,904 28,922 22,793 565,529 7,155 11,470 89.510 26.778 15,035 5,637 36,267 31,044 14,145 25,043 19.,190 46.805 32.239 53.736 12,540 68,200 434,373 602,365 810,091 1,047,507 1,348,233 1,724,033 2,311,786 2,906,215 1870. 30,315 262,204 43,382 36,148 29,635 106,701 38,051 53.204 36,510 64,336 36,569 4.273 28,144 34,418 77,805 26,537 25,741 23.211 28,766 63,832 43,912 60,740 39,403 8,488 65,973 43,284 45,365 9,360 4,010 25.887 31,251 36,138 21,656 17,390 121,340 27,298 34,096 56,796 160,915 47,626 8,825 49,977 17,508 18,362 81,'612 15,344 61,432 41,444 25,447 674,022 8,436 11,265 116.428 28,226 15,606 6,191 37,523 35,097 15.566 47,925 23,897 48,483 33,188 58,719 14,585 76,134 3, 21,951 ARMSTRONG COUNTY. BY A. D. GLENN, EDDYVILLE. RMSTRONG county was formed by the act of 12th of March, 1800, from parts of Lycoming, Westmoreland, and Allegheny. It received its name from General John Armstrong, who commanded the expedition against the Indians at Kittanning in 1756. In 1802 commissioners were appointed to locate the county seat, and upon their report in 1804 the present site was laid out. James Sloan, James Mathews, and Alexander Walker were . appointed the first commis _ 0- sioners to locate the county - seat and organize the coun S~ty, but the latter declined to serve. The county was fully organized for judicial purposes in 1805. Since the establishment of the county, its size has been considerably curtailed by the formation of Clarion. 1 Average length, 25 miles; breadth, 25 miles; area, about 625 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Clarion, on the east by 4Jefferson and Indiana, on -dthe south by Westmore' -land, and on the west by ARMSTRONG COUNTY PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Butler. The surface of [From a Photograph by Shadle, Kittanning.] the county is diversified, but generally rolling or hilly, particularly those parts lying adjacent to streams of water. The Allegheny river is the largest stream of water flowing through the county. It forms the eastern boundary of a narrow strip of territory belonging to Armstrong county, extending from above Parker to the mouth of Redbank creek, where the Allegheny river first enters the county, flowing a distance of about thirty-six miles through the county, separating it into two somewhat unequal parts, and passing out of the county at the confluence of the Kiskiminetas. It was considered by both the aborigines and the French as identical with the Ohio, and the Monongahela an affluent. O-hee-o in the Seneca, and Allegheny in the Delaware language, having the same signification, fair water-hence 330 ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the French name, La Belle Riviere. Before the construction of the Allegheny Valley railroad, this river afforded by means of steamboats an easy and rapid transit between various towns along the river, but the days of steamboats are past on this river except those used in towing oil barges. The Kiskiminetas river forms the southern boundary of the county emptying into the Allegheny one mile north of Freeport. The Pennsylvania canal passed along this river and was fed by it, but now canal, aqueduct, and dams, are among things of the past -the use of the canal being superseded by the more rapid means of transit afforded by the West Pennsylvania railroad. Redbank creek forms the northern boundary. Mahoning creek, formerly called by the Indians Mohulbucteetam, enters the county near Milton, separating Wayne and Redbank townships, flowing through Mahoning township separating Madison and Pine, falls into the Allegheny river ten miles north of Kittanning. Crooked creek rises in Indiana county, flows in a westerly direction and empties into the Allegheny five miles below Kittanning. It is exceedingly crooked, hence its name. Cowanshannoc, Pine, Buffalo, Plum, Sugar, and Bear creeks, all tributaries of the Allegheny, with numerous smaller streams, furnish abundant water. In addition to water transportation there are three railroads: the Allegheny Valley, which extends along the left or eastern bank of the Allegheny river; the West Pennsylvania, which passes along the southern boundary, but on the opposite side of the Kiskiminetas river; the Low Grade Division of the Allegheny Valley railroad, which passes along the northern boundary, but on the north side of Redbank creek. Bituminous coal is found in all parts of the county; the usual thickness of the vein being about four feet. Very extensive coal works are in operation in Mahoning township, about one and a half miles from the borough of New Bethlehem, in Clarion county, and the same distance from the Low Grade Division of the Allegheny Valley railroad, with which it is connected by a branch road constructed by the Redbank Mining Land coal company. The principal vein consists of cannel coal, with an average thickness of nine feet. Operations were commenced in 1870, but no coal was shipped until 1872. The coal is of an excellent quality, and is forwarded to all the eastern cities. It is said there are but four other veins of similar coal in the United States. Thirty-eight thousand tons have been shipped the last two years (1874-75). In addition to this vein of cannel coal, the company own two veins of bituminous coal, one four feet, the other three feet nine inches; all three in 70 feet perpendicular of the hill. The capacity of the works is three hundred tons per day. A somewhat similar vein to this is found on the Thompson farm in Redbank township; it is about six feet. Another extensive works the Mahoning Coal company is operating at the mouth of Mahoning on the Allegheny Valley railroad. It has bituminous coal alone. Iron ore is found in the creeks and river hills in the northern part of the county. Caldwell's and Stewartson's furnaces on Mahoning, and Pine creek furnace on Pine creek, are now (1876) in operation. These produce pig iron, as also did Monticello at the mouth of Cowanshannoc, but it has ceased operations. That part of the county lying north of Brady's Bend and between Butler county and the Allegheny river, is included in what is generally termed "The 331 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Lower Oil Fields." The first attempt to develop the oil resources of this territory were made in 1860 by Thomas McConnell, W. D. Robinson, Smith K. Campbell, and Colonel J. B. Findlay, of Kittanning, but oil was not " struck" until October, 1865. The following account of the drilling of the first well at Parker's Landing is taken from Henry's "History of Petroleum: " " In the winter of 1864-5 the oil excitements of the upper and lower Oil creek regions were at their height, and Mr. William D. Robinson very earnestly conceived the idea that oil deposits existed in the region of his third of a century's residence. He had examined and carefully noted the then generally received opinion of " surface indications," and soon reached the conviction that oil could be found there. He purchased thirty-six acres of the old homestead farm, lying on the Allegheny river and now forming a portion of Parker's Landing. This thirty-six acres of land he made the basis of a stock company. In the spring of 1865 he commenced his first well under the auspices of this company, and this was the first oil-well drilled at Parker's Landing. The embarrassment attending the first effort to find oil at Parker's Landing may be estimated by those familiar with new territory. All the machinery for the well had to be boated from Pittsburgh or Oil City, and there was neither derrick nor development between these two points, fifty and sixty miles from a machine shop, if a break occurred. Pittsburgh, Oil City, or Titusville, were the nearest points for repairs. It required the entire summer of 1865-nearly six months-to complete this well. In October, 1865, the sand pump brought up the unmistakable evidence of a 'third sand' or oil-rock. The well was tubed and started off at about ten barrels per day. It averaged the first year nineteen barrels per day, and oil was sold from it during its first two or three months' production at eight dollars per barrel. The well continued to produce for a long time, and was a source of much profit to the company." This was the beginning of the oil development, but afterwards the hills around Parker became dotted over with derricks, and a vast quantity of the oleaginous fluid has been obtained. Large wells were afterwards struck in Perry township, at Armstrong run, near Quccnstown, and on the head-waters of Pine run. There was a burning well at the latter place. On both runs towns were rapidly built, but soon disappeared when the oil territory gave out. At Armstrong run a school-house was built for the use of the new town, and by the close of the first term the town had mostly been removed and the school-house itself emigrated to a different locality. In former years considerable salt was manufactured in the county, but at present nearly all the works have ceased to manufacture. Salt water at various depths is found in different sections. A vein of what is supposed to be roofing-slate has been discovered in Redbank township. Limestone has been found in all parts of the county. According. to a tradition of the Cornplanter Indians, a lead mine on the Mahoning creek was known to their fathers. So strong are they in this belief, some thirty years since they sent two of their number to find the mine, but without success. The site of Kittanning was originally occupied by an Indian village of that name. From this point a path crossed the mountains to Black Log valley, Standing Stone (now Huntingdon), and other places in the central part of the 332 ARMSTRONG COUNTY State, along which the Indians passed to and fro. It was to this place that in September, 1756, the expedition of General John Armstrong was sent, the details of which, resulting in the destruction of the town and the overthrow of the Indians, we have previously given. Subsequently, in 1780, another fierce encounter with the natives took place within the limits of the county at Mahoning, ten miles distant from Kittanning. At this period General Brodhead was in command of Fort Pitt, and Captain Samuel Brady was frequently sent out with a scouting party into the Indian country north and west of the fort to watch the movements of the savages. Captain Brady was a native of Cumberland county, born in 1758, but soon after removed with his father to the West Branch of Susquehanna, a few miles above Northumberland. Cradled amid the alarms and excitements of a frontier exposed to savage warfare, Brady's military propensities were very early developed. He eagerly sought a post in the Revolutionary army; was at the siege of Boston; a lieutenant at the massacre of the Paoli; and in 1779 was ordered to Fort Pitt with the regiment under General Brodhead. A short time previous to this both his father and brother had fallen by the hands of Indians; and from that moment Brady took a solemn oath of vengeance against all Indians, and his future life was devoted to the fulfilment of his vow. His success as a partisan had acquired for him its usual results-approbation with some, and envy with others. Some of his brother officers censured the commandant for affording him such frequent opportunities for honorable distinction. At length open complaint was made, accompanied by a request, in the nature of a demand, that others should be permitted to share with Brady the perils and honors of the service abroad from the fort. The General apprised Brady of what had passed, who readily acquiesced in the propriety of the proposed arrangements, and an opportunity was not long wanting for testing its efficiency. The Indians made an inroad into the Sewickly settlement, committing the most barbarous murders of men, women, and children; stealing such property as was portable, and destroying all else. The alarm was brought to Pittsburgh, and a party of soldiers, under the command of the emulous officers, despatched for the protection of the settlements, and chastisement of the foe. From this expedition Brady was of course excluded; but the restraint was irksome to his feelings. The day after the detachment had marched, Brady solicited permission from his commander to take a small party for the purpose of "catching the Indians;" but was refused. By dint of importunity, however, he at length wrung from him a reluctant consent, and the command of five men; to this he added his pet Indian, and made hasty preparation. Instead of moving towards Sewickly, as the first detachment had done, he crossed the Allegheny at Pittsburgh, and proceeded up the river. Conjecturing that the Indians had descended that stream in canoes, till near the settlement, he was careful to examine the mouths of all creeks coming into it, particularly from the south-east. At the mouth of the Big Mahoning, about six miles above Kittanning, the canoes were seen drawn up to its western bank. He instantly retreated down the river, and waited for night. As soon as it was dark, he made a raft, and crossed to the Kittanning side. He then proceeded up to the creek, and found that the Indians had, in the meantime, crossed the stream, as their canoes were drawn to its upper or north-eastern bank. The country on both sides of Mahoning, at its mouth, is rough and moun333 HISTORY OF PANNSYLYVANIA. tainous; and the stream, which was then high, very rapid. Several ineffectual attempts were made to wade it, which they at length succeeded in doing, three or four miles above the canoes. Next a fire was made, their clothing dried, and arms inspected; and the party moved towards the Indian camp, which was pitched on the second bank of the river. Brady placed his men at some distance, on the lower or first bank. The Indians had brought from Sewickly a stallion, which they had fettered and turned to pasture on the lower bank. An Indian, probably the owner under the law of arms, came frequently down to him, and occasioned the party no little trouble. The horse, too, seemed willing to keep their company, and it required considerable circumspection to avoid all intercourse with either. Brady became so provoked that he had a strong inclination to tomahawk the Indian, but his calmer judgment repudiated the act, as likely to put to hazard a more decisive and important achievement. At length the Indians seemed quiet, and the Captain determined to pay them a closer visit. He had got quite near their fires; his pet Indian had caught him by the hair and gave it a pluck, intimating the advice to retire, which he would not venture to whisper; but finding Brady regardless of it, had crawled off-when the Captain, who was scanning their numbers and the position of their guns, observed one throw off his blanket and rise to his feet. It was altogether impracticable for Brady to move without being seen. He instantly decided to remain where he was, and risk what might happen. He drew his head slowly beneath the brow of the bank, putting his forehead to the earth for concealment. His next sensation was that of warm water poured into the hollow of his neck, as from the spout of a teapot, which, trickling down his back over the chilled skin, produced a feeling that even his iron nerves could scarce master. He felt quietly for his tomahawk, and had it been about him he probably would have used it; but he had divested himself even of that when preparing to approach the fires, lest by striking against the stones or gravel, it might give an alarm. He was compelled, therefore, nolens volens, to submit to this very unpleasant operation, until it should please his warriorship to refrain, which he soon did, and returning to his place wrapped himself up in his blanket, and composed himself for sleep as if nothing had happened. Brady returned to and posted his men, and in the deepest silence all awaited the break of day. When it appeared, the Indians arose and stood around their fires, exulting, doubtless, in the scalps they had taken, the plunder they had acquired, and the injury they had inflicted on their enemies. Precarious joy-short-lived triumph! The avenger of blood was beside them! I At a signal given, seven rifles cracked, and five Indians were dead ere they fell. Brady's well-known war-cry was heard, his party was among them, and their guns (mostly empty) were all secured. The remaining Indians instantly fled and disappeared. One was pursued by the trace of his blood, which he seems to have succeeded in staunching. The pet Indian then imitated the cry of a young wolf, which was answered by the wounded man, and the pursuit again renewed. A second time the wolf cry was given and answered, and the pursuit continued into a windfall. Here he must have espied his pursuers, for he answered no more. Brady found his remains there three weeks afterwards, being led to the place by ravens that were preying on the carcass. The horse was unfettered, the plunder gathered, and the party commenced their return to Pittsburgh, most of them 334 ARMSTRONG COUNTY. descending in the Indian canoes. Three days after their return, the first detachment came. They reported that they had followed the Indians closely, but that the latter had got into their canoes and made their escape. It was not therefore until the danger of savage encroachments ceased, almost the close of the century, that settlements were made within the present limits of Armstrong county. The land in the neighborhood of Kittanning remained in possession of the Armstrong family; and when the establishment of the county was proposed, Dr. Armstrong, of Carlisle, a son of the General, made a donation of the site of the town to the county, on condition of receiving one-half of the proceeds of the sales of lots. Robert Brown and David Reynolds were among the first who erected dwellings at the old Indian town. The former went there in 1798, with several hunters. He first settled on the opposite bank of the river. At that time there were very few settlers in the region. Jeremiah Loughery, an old frontiersman, who had been in Armstrong's expedition, lingered around the place for many years. He had no family, and wandered from house to house, staying all night with people, and repaying their hospitality with anecdotes of his adventures. The early settlers of that day found it necessary to be always prepared for Indian warfare, and for hunting the beasts of the forest; indeed, their character generally throughout the surrounding region was a mixture of the frontiersman, the hunter, and the agriculturist. All wore hunting shirts, and went barefoot, or wore moccasins. The early pioneers were from the eastern sections of the State, many of them Germans who, through their thrift and frugality, soon transformed the wilderness into a garden of beauty. Upon the treaty of Fort McIntosh, peace spread her benign influence over the forests and fields of Armstrong, and the peaceable pursuits of the agriculturist gave confidence to emigration, and gradually, without any of those incidents that comprise an eventful history of a locality, Armstrong county has progressed in all the essentials which go to make up an influential community-population, enterprise, industry, and wealth. Until after the lapse of almost three-quarters of a century, little of moment transpired within the limits of the county to be placed on record. Then the great civil conflict created such a powerful revulsion in popular feeling that Armstrong county presents its history in the great Rebellion. During that struggle she performed her duty nobly. Captain William Sirwell organized a company of three months' men, and was mustered in as Company B, 9th Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers, at Harrisburg, April 22, 1861. In the same year a camp was formed on the old fair-ground on the banks of the Allegheny river immediately above Kittanning. It was named Camp Orr, after General Robert Orr, an old and prominent citizen of the county. There were two regiments (three-years' men) and a company of cavalry recruited at this camp. The first regiment, 78th Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, under the command of Colonel Sirwell, left Kittanning on the 14th of October, 1861, arriving in Pittsburgh that afternoon. On the 18th of October, accompanied by the 77th and 79th regiments, Pennsylvania volunteers, and Muehler's battery of artillery, under command of General James S. Negley, they moved to Louisville, Kentucky, via the Ohio river. From Louisville they moved south along the Louisville and Nashville railroad, first camping near Nolin creek. The 78th was attached to the army of the Cumber335 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. land, and so remained till the close of its term of service, when it returned to Kittanning to be mustered out. This regiment participated in many engagements, and made for itself a highly honorable record. Of this regiment Companies B, F, G, I, and K, were from Armstrong county. The second regiment, 103d Pennsylvania volunteers, left Camp Orr for Harrisburg, on the 24th of February, 1862. This regiment, under command of Colonel Theodore F. Lehman, joined the army of the Potomac, but was subsequently sent further south, suffered severely through sickness in camp, death in battle, and starvation in Southern prisons. But a small percentage of the regiment ever returned. Only one entire company (Captain Hamilton's) belonging to this regiment was recruited in Armstrong county, though a large number of the men in several of the other companies were citizens of Armstrong. The following fully organized companies served in different regiments: Company M, 2nd Pennsylvania cavalry; Company D, 62nd Pennsylvania infantry; Companies B and C, and part of E and F, 139th infantry; Company K, 14th cavalry; Battery No. 204 (5th heavy artillery); and Company H of the 10th, and Companies A and G, 22nd militia (1862). Besides these there were a great many of the citizens of the county scattered in different regiments of this and other States. Since that period little of moment has transpired, save the excitement and incidents due to the discovery and development of oil. KITTANNING, the county seat, is situated on the left bank of the Allegheny river, forty-five miles north-east of Pittsburgh. It is pleasantly located on the bottom land adjoining the river. Kittanning was laid out in 1804, and incorp-rated as a borough in 1821. It contains the usual county buildings, one of which -the jail-deserves special mention. The jail and sheriff's house are built together, the entire length being 114 feet by 50 feet in width. The jail is two stories in height, contains twenty-four cells, each 8x14, 13 fTet in height, hall 18x68. A cast-iron balustrade three feet in width projects from the second tier of cells and extends entirely around the hall; The sheriff's house contains nine rooms, including dining-room and kitchen; flooring of yellow-pine, doors four inches thick, made of oak with boiler-iron between firmly bolted together; the windows are protected by 1- inches round iron. The foundations-seven feet in width-are sunk to the solid rock twenty-four feet below the surface. The entire structure, including cornice, window caps, and tower, are of fine-cut stone from the Catfish quarry in Clarion county. The sheriff's house is furnished with all the modern improvements-bath-rooms on both floors, gas, and hot and cold water throughout the building. The cupola rises 108 feet from the ground. James McCullough, Jr., of Kittanning, was the architect, and superintended the erection of the building. It was erected in 1870-73 at a cost of $268,000. From its cost and color it has been euphoniously dubbed the " White Elephant." The court house is a plain, substantial structure. The BRADY'S BEND (or Great Western, as it was formally called) iron works are situated on the right bank of the Allegheny, twenty-five miles above Kittanning. The rolling-mill is on the river at the mouth of the creek, the furnaces about a mile up the stream. Their lands and the village built thereon stretches out three or four miles up the valley of the Sugar creek and its branches. A rail336 ARMSTRONG COUNTY. road extends from the depot of the Allegheny Valley railroad in East Brady, on the opposite side of the river, three miles up the Sugar creek; another runs from the furnaces to the coke yard on the summit. On the former, locomotives draw the cars; on the latter, the empty cars are drawn to the top by horse-power, which return loaded by the force of gravitation. There was a population of about 3,000 here at one time, and about $400,000 paid out annually to employees, but for some cause-probably the reduction in price of railroad iron-the company failed, and the works at present stand idle. The place affords, when the works are in operation, an excellent home-market for produce. The place derives its name from a large bend in the river named after Captain Samuel Brady, who had an encounter with Indians near the present site of the rolling-mill. This seems to be the southern limit of the lower oil fields, as oil has never been found south of this point in the county. About a mile north of the furnaces, up a deep ravine, is the borough of QUEENSTOWN, a smart village which has received quite an impetus from the discovery of oil within and adjoining the borough limits. MANORVILLE, about one mile below Kittanning on the Allegheny river, with a population of 330, has an oil refinery, tannery, brick works, and an extensive lime-stone quarry..... WORTHINGTON is situated six miles west of Kittanning, on the Butler turnpike. Near it are the Buffalo woolen-mills, a tannery, and some minor enterprises. PARKER CITY is situated on the Allegheny river, eighty-two miles north of Pittsburgh, and is the centre of the Armstrong, Butler, and Clarion county oil regions. During the years 1818 to 1822, when the Bear creek furnace was built, quite a flourishing town grew up in the part now known as the Second ward; it was then, and until the incorporation of Parker City, known as Lawrenceburg. When this furnace blew out about 1840, the town rapidly disappeared until only two or three houses remained. About the year 1869 the part known as the First ward had but two or three dwellings. In this year the oil excitement began, and a town sprung up as if by magic. These developments spread rapidly and people flocked to the place, and in 1873 the town of Parker's Landing and borough of Lawrenceburg were incorporated under the name of the City of Parker. The Parkers were the original inhabitants, and owned the greater part of the land on which the city now stands. This family gave the city its name. It contains five churches. Population about 3,500. The principal business is that of producing oil; the traffic in petroleum is carried on at this place very largely; the bulk of the vast product of the region is handled at this place. The first well was put down in 1865 by W. D. lRobinson for the Clarion oil company, but not much was done until 1869. Parker is on the line of the Allegheny Valley railroad, and is the eastern terminus of the Parker and Karns City railroad, a narrow gauge road running into the Butler county oil regions. FREEPORT, situated on the west bank of the Allegheny river at the mouth oi Buffalo creek, was laid out by David Todd, about the year 1800. The Pennsylvania canal crossed the Allegheny about a mile above Freeport, at the confluence of the Kiskiminetas river, and passed through this town. It added much to its prosperity, but the closing of the canal gave Freeport a check, from which it has scarcely recovered. The West Pennsylvania railroad, crossing the river at the junction of the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers, passes through 337 IHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. attended him. Thence proceeding to the fields, they fell upon the laborers, in the moment of exchanging friendly salutations, and massacred every individual. This conduct of the Indians, with its extenuating circumstances, as related by themselves to De Vries, is sufficiently atrocious; but it is neither improbable nor inconsistent with the disposition the aborigines had frequently displayed towards foreigners, that the desire of possessing the white man's wealth was as powerful a stimulant to violence as the thirst for vengeance. In December, 1631, De Vries again arrived from Holland. He found no vestiges of his colonists, save the ashes of their dwelling and their unburied carcasses. Attracted by the firing of a cannon, the savages approached his vessel with guilty hesitation. But having at length summoned courage to venture on board, they gave a circumstantial narrative of the destruction of his people. De Vries deemed it politic to pardon what he could not safely punish; and was, moreover, induced, by the pacific disposition of his employers, to seek reconciliation. He made a new treaty with the Indians, and afterwards, with a view to obtain provisions, ascended the river above Fort Nassau. Ile had nearly fallen a victim here to the perfidy of the natives. Pretending to comply with his request, they directed him to enter the Timmerkill (Timber Creek), which furnished' a convenient place for an attack, but warned by a female of the tribe of their design, and that a crew of a vessel, which had been sent from Virginia to explore the river the September previous, had been there murdered, he returned to Fort Nassau, which he found filled with savages. They attempted to surprise him, more than forty entering his vessel; but, aware of their intention, he ordered them ashore with threats, declaring that their Manito, or' Great Spirit, had revealed their wickedness. But subsequently, pursuing the humane and pacific policy which had hitherto distinguished him, he consented to the wishes they expressed, of forming a treaty of amity, which was confirmed with the customary presents on their part; but they declined his gifts, saying they did not now receive presents that they might give others in return. Failing to procure the necessary provisions, De Vries, leaving part of his crew in the bay to prosecute the whale fishery, sailed to Virginia, where, as the first visitor from New Netherland, he was kindly received, and his wants supplied. Upon his return to the Delaware, in April following, finding the whale fishery unsuccessful, he hastened his departure, and, with the other colonists, returned to Holland, visiting Fort Amsterdam on his way. Thus, at the expiration of twenty-five years from the discovery of the Delaware by Hudson, not a single European remained upon its shores. Director Minuit, suspected to have favored the claims of the Patroons, having been recalled, left the now flourishing colony of New Amsterdam 1632. in the spring of 1632. HIe was succeeded by Wouter Van Twiller, who arrived at Fort Amsterdam early the following year. The same year, Lord Baltimore obtained a grant for Maryland, under which he chiimed the lands on the west side of Delaware river, the fruitful source of continual controversies between him and the Dutch, and later with the Pennsylvania proprietaries, which were not settled for more than one hundred and thirty years. After his death, the patent was confirmed to his son. Thie extent of the grant will be seen from the following proceedings and description, but had it not HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Freeport; also the Butler Branch railroad connects with the main line at this place. These improvements have aided somewhat in restoring its former vigor. APOLLO is situated on the Kiskiminetas river, about ten miles from its confluence with the Allegheny. It was laid out in 1815, by William Johnston and J. R. Speer, and named Warren, after an old Indian chief of that namethe site of the village being called Warren's Sleeping Ground. The first settlers were Isaac McLaughlin, Robert Stewart, Abraham Ludwick, and Catharine Cochran, mother of ex-Judge Cochran. In 1848 it was incorporated as a borough, and its name changed to Apollo. Until 1827 the citizens of Apollo (or, as then called, Warren) had to go to Greensburg, Westmoreland county, or to Kittanning, Armstrong county, for their mail matter. In that year a post office was established. Milton Dally was the first postmaster. The first store was kept by John Mcllvaine, the first hotel by Peter Risher. The cemetery is supposed to be located on an old Indian burying ground. Of the Indian chiefs who made this their stopping place the name of but oneRaughnewag-is remembered. The Pennsylvania canal passed through this town and aided much in building it up. The canal was permanently closed in 1864. The town now possesses the facilities offered for transportation by the Western Pennsylvania railroad, which passes on the opposite side of the river. The present population is about 1,600. LEECHBURGH is situated on the Kiskiminetas river, seven miles from its mouth. It was settled about the opening of the Pennsylvania canal. After the canal was closed it seemed at a stand-still for several years, until Rogers & Burchfield, proprietors of the iron works in Apollo, started a works in this place. This gave the town new life, and it became quite a thrifty, enterprising village. A few years since, some parties desiring to test the territory for oil, drilled a well several rods from the Westmoreland end of the bridge. No oil was found, but a heavy flow of gas. This gas ran to waste for some time, but at length Messrs. Rogers & Burchfield, conceiving it might be utilized, conveyed it by means of iron pipes from the well across the bridge to their rolling-mill, and introduced under their furnaces. It was found to work admirably, and resulted in a large saving in fuel, not only furnishing heat and light for the works, but a pipe projecting far above the roof of the establishment sends forth with great force a constant stream of gas, which burns night and day, illuminating the whole town. DAYTON, a thriving village in Wayne township, is situated in the midst of a fine farming country. The first settlers were Peter Kammerdinner, Jesse Cable, James M'Quown, Guyer & Laughlin, Dr. Goodheart, James Coleman, and Thomas II. Marshall. The town was never regularly laid out, but lots sold to suit purchasers. It was named about 1853; incorporated as a borough in 1873; present population, 575. Near to the limits of the borough is the Glade Run (Presbyterian) Church, and Glade Run Academ. Glade Run and Dayton Academies were opened about twenty-five years ago. The Soldiers' Orphan school, established in 1866, is beautifully situated on a small eminence overlooking the town and surrounding country, and near to a fine grove-belonging to the school lot-of natural forest trees. ELDERTON borough (formerly called Middletown) is situated on a high hill ARMSTRONG COUNTY. just midway on the pike between Kittanning and Indiana, containing three churches, an academy, school house, bank, several stores, two hotels, foundry, etc. It has an elevated and healthy location, and contains some fine private residences WHITESBURGH post village, a small collection of houses, is on the pike five miles west of Elderton. BLANKET HILL post office is about midway between Whitesburgh and Kittanning. RURAL VILLAGE is situated on the Kittanning and Clearfield turnpike, twelve miles east of Kittanning, in one of the healthiest and best grain-growing sections of the western part of the State. It was settled in 1835 by John Patterson, Alexander Foster, Sr., Hamlet Totten, and others, and contains a population of 200. MIDDLESEX (Cowansville post office), is situated eight miles from Kittanning, on the Brady's Bend road, and contains twenty or twenty-five dwellings. Its first residents were William McClatchy, Solomon Bruner, and R. G. Porterfield. The post office was established in 1848, through the influence of John Cowan, hence the name. The town was laid out by William McClatchy about 1850. OAKLAND (formerly called Texas) is nine miles from the mouth of Mahoning, on the Brookville road. It was settled about 1843 by Joseph Baughman, Samuel Copenhaver, Isaac Sanderson, and William R. Sanderson, by whom it was laid out. PUTNEYVILLE was settled by David Putney in 1834, and who now lives in the village at the advanced age of 85. At that time it was a laurel thicket. It is on Mahoning creek, about twenty miles from the county seat. Two miles above this, on Mahoning creek, is EDDYVILLE post office, a small village. SLATE LICK is located at the cross-roads leading from Kittanning to Pittsburgh, and from Freeport to Brady's Bend, in South Buffalo township. The place derived its name from a deer lick in the immediate vicinity. CENTENNIAL MEDAL-OBVERSE. 339 BEAVER COUNTY. BY JAMES PATTERSON, BEAVER FALLS. EAVER COUNTY was erected March 12, 1800. It was formed out of parts of Allegheny and Washington counties. Jonathan Coulter, Joseph Hemphill, and Denny McClure, were named as commis sioners for the erection of public buildings. Beaver town was named in the act as the county seat. The county was organized for judicial purposes April 2, 1803. The first court was held February 6, 1804, at the house of Abner Lacock, on the lot in which John Clark for many years kept a hotel. Jesse Moore was the first president judge; Abner Lacock, John H. Redick, and Joseph Caldwell, were the first associates, and sat with Judge Moore. David Johnson was the first prothonotary, and was the first teacher in Canonsburg academy, July, 1791. William Henry was the first sheriff. Judge Moore was succeeded by Solomon Roberts, and he by William Wilkins; then came Charles Shaler, followed by John Bredin; then Daniel Agnew, etc., etc. At the first term, 1804, the following named attornies were admitted to practice in Beaver county, viz.: Alexander Addison, Thomas Collins, Steel Sample, A. W. Foster, John Bannister Gibson, Sample S. King, Obediah Jennings, William Wilkins, Henry Haslet, James Allison, John Simmonson, David Redick, Parker Campbell, David Hays, C. S. Sample. Henry Baldwin, Thomas G. Johnston, Isaac Kerr, James Mountain, Robert Moore, William Ayrs, and William Sarwell. Many of these became afterwards distinguished men in the State and nation, holding high and responsible positions. Judge Moore's circuit included five counties ending at Erie, and holding court in each five weeks in the year. The county is bounded on the north by Mercer county, on the east by Butler, on the south-east by Allegheny, on the south by Washington, and on the west by the States of Ohio and Virginia. The Ohio river flows through the southern portion of the county, which it enters fourteen miles below Pittsburgh, and runs a northerly course for about twelve miles, where the Beaver river falls into it, and then turns south-west and crosses the county by that course fifteen miles, receiving the Big Sewickly above the mouth of Beaver river, and the Raccoon creek below it. The Mahoning river and Shenango, uniting in Lawrence county, form the Beaver river, with the Slippery Rock and Conoquenessing creeks, which flow into it near to the dividing line from Lawrence county, flows southward through nearly the middle of the county, and empties into the Ohio at Rochester, and near the borough of Beaver. Within the first five miles from its mouth there is a natural fall and rapids in quick succession of sixty-five feet in the aggregate, which natural fall, with a dam erected at the head (making a pool or " slack water," reaching back some seven miles to the mouth of the Conequenessing 340 BEAVER COUNTY. creek), make the whole fall of water for manufacturing uses eighty to eighty-five feet. Besides these rivers and creeks there are many important streams in this county, which form collectively an almost incalculable amount of water power for factories, work-shops, &c. The population of the county when formed in 1800 was, as per the census of that year, 5,776, almost all of which was found to be on the south side of the Ohio, and engaged in agriculture. The length of the county north and south is 26J miles; width east and west, 185 miles; area in acres, 298,240-square miles, 446. Beaver county belongs to the secondary geological formation. Valuable and extensive beds of bituminous coal, with strata of limestone, occur in almost every part of the county. Near Darlington is a bed of cannel coal, eight or ten feet thick and greater, under which is a foot or more of good common bituminous coal. This cannel coal is also found in other parts of the county, and near to the Beaver and Ohio rivers. Cannel coal is light, compact, ignites easily and quickly, and burns with a strong blaze. Much of it is sent, during the navigation of the Erie canal, to New York city for the making of gas. Coal No. 4, known as the Cannel coal vein, can be almost always found when sought at the proper horizon; but with few exceptions is thin and of no valueor of but little. In the valley of the Little Beaver river it lies near the grade of railroad, and near Cannelton there is a "pocket" varying in thickness from three to twenty-two feet of cannel, underlaid with one foot of bituminous of such purity that it is hauled by wagons for use by blacksmiths for twenty miles around. The quality of the cannel is such as to compete with the English and Peytonia cannels, and for its cheerfulness and cleanliness has become the favorite household fuel of New York City. The sales to that city alone will aggregate ten thousand tons annually during the past twenty years. The cannel coal was first discovered here in 1832, and was known as slate coal commonly, and a mine opened. The selling price was so low for a number of years as to supply the place of wood, having twice the heating-power of wood, and igniting as easily. About the year 1850 a railroad was built from the mine to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railroad, and during the past twenty-five years the mine has been steadily worked. During the forty-three years' operation, over one hundred acres have been mined out; and still the supply seems to be inexhaustable. The coal is underlaid with a ".mother" shale which is literally full of fossil remains, fishes and mollusks. Suites of beautiful preserved fossils from this mine form the pride of many cabinets in Europe as well as in our own country. Iron ore of various kinds has been and is to be found in many parts of the county. That part of the county which lies on the south side of the Ohio river is somewhat hilly, but generally more of a rolling character, much cut with streams of water, and relieved by many fine valleys of good, rich bottom lands, and altogether well suited for sheep husbandry and the cultivation of wheat and the cereal grains. That part being on the north side of the Ohio is of a rolling, gently undulating surface, excepting points immediately upon the banks of the rivers, and the soil is well adapted to every variety of farming and stock raising. The county has been justly distinguished since the year 1830 for the quantity HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. and quality of its wool. Bituminous coals of excellent quality, cannel coal limestone in inexhaustable quantities, fire clays, suitable for making fird bricks for furnaces, etc., superior free sandstone, for building, are to be found in many localities in great abundance, and at the most advantageous points for economical use and for transportation abroad. There are few places to be found anywhere where so many and great advantages are offered for manufacturers as are possessed by Beaver county. Among these may be named that which first attracts the attention of strangers, viz., the greatness of the water power-particularly of the Beaver river, and the great ease with which it can be made available for manufacturing and mechanical purposes; and its other advantages for the economical manufacture and transportation of raw material and various articles of merchandize. The Ohio river affords one of the cheapest modes of transportation to and from the largest extent of country and population than by any other river or mode of conveyance of raw or manufactured goods. Railroads, running to all points of the compass, afford additional facilities for speedy travel and transportation, the advantages of which to manufacturers are steadily on the increase. It is only recently, and since the close of the late war, that the great advantages of this county for,economical manufacturing have been generally or widely appreciated by manufacturers or capitalists. This was owing to several causes; a few of the most prominent and influential of which may be stated: In the first place, danger from the Indians prevented settlers and enterprising people from venturing into the territory west of the Ohio until after 1796, and comparatively few even of those who had previously bought from the State and paid it for tracts of land, dared venture to make improvements for some years after that time; and those who first entered were mostly farmers. And another cause was that, until after the year 1830, and the completion of the Pennsylvania public improvements from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, the great travel and transportation of merchandise, etc., between the great cities of the east and the country west of the Alleghenies were by the way of the New York canals to the lakes, or south by way of Baltimore and the national turnpike to Wheeling, Virginia, and partly over the Pennsylvania turnpike roads from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and from Pittsburgh down the Ohio by steamboats. And all these missed any sight of Beaver county's natural beauties and advantages. The price of passage in a stage coach from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, for some time before and after 1830, was $18 to $20 and $22; and freight charges by Conestoga wagons were, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, from three cents to five cents per pound; and the time occupied in travel between the two cities in the fastest stage line was three and one-half to four days and nights; and even until the railroads from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh were in operation, or until telegraphic lines were established, an answer to a letter sent from Beaver post office could not be received at that office in less time than eight to ten days. And even after the completion of the public works, and until about the close of our last war, the close proximity of Beaver to Pittsburgh, instead of working to promote the growth of Beaver county, operated to its disadvantage in various ways. The Pittsburghers labored to impress upon strangers from the East and elsewhere who were looking and inquiring for sites to engage in the erection of 342 BEAVER CO UNTY. works, factories, &c., that coal in Pittsburgh was so cheap, and an engine of sufficient power for their purposes would cost so little, and could be got upon such terms there, and which could all be paid out of their daily profits, and had so many hard things to urge against water power generally, and there particularly, that they-seekers-were, deterred from locating in Beaver county. Another fact-as argued-which operated against establishing industrial -works in Beaver, was that Beaver county had no banking accommodations; whereas, Pittsburgh had a great abundance of banking and exchange facilities; that while a business man or a manufacturer wishing to get his bills of exchange cashed would be required, under the rules, if living out of the county-city-to furnish two acceptable city endorsers, or go to a broker and pay him according as he could make terms. Before the Pennsylvania public improvements were completed, the market for flour, grain, manufactured goods of all kinds, was the "home market" and the Ohio river and western waters, up to the year 1830. The war of 1812 with Great Britain caused a check upon the growth and prosperity of the county in population and business. Many of the citizens entered the army and went to the frontiers, and generally supported the government most zealously. The law of April, 1792, opened up the "territory north and west of the Ohio" to occupancy, which was previously an uninhabited wilderness, and had been in possession of the Indians until after General Wayne's treaty of Greenville in 1795, and for a year or more thereafter considered to be unsafe for families to settle in. Under this law of 1792 great troubles arose, and great litigation and almost never-ending lawsuits grew out of disputes between those claiming " title under purchase from the State," and those claiming under "settlement and improvement." This retarded the growth and improvement of Beaver for more than fifty years. One case may be named as a proof for this. General Daniel Brodhead, an officer in service under General George Washington, when in command at Fort Pitt, became well acquainted with the " Falls of Beaver and the Black Walnut Bottom on the west side of Beaver river." Aware of the great value of the site for manufacturing purposes, when this law of April, 1792, was passed, he, on the day of its passage, made purchase of warrants for two tracts of four hundred acres each, covering the Black Walnut Bottom and the "middle falls of Beaver." In August, 1801, he sold these two tracts of land to David Hoopes, of Chester county, for three thousand dollars, receiving one hundred dollars on account, binding himself to make good title and give possession at a fixed time. David Hoopes, with a company of friends, went out the same year to take possession of the land, and to begin building mills, etc., but found it in possession of " settlers," claiming the land under "settlement and improvement." He was obliged to buy fifty acres, embracing some of the bottom and water power, and the next year began making improvements. An iron-blast furnace was built, also a grist-mill, saw-mill, &c.; and in 1806 a town plot was made, lots sold, and under various firms--Hoopes, Townsend & Co.; J. Wilson & Co.; Barker, Greege & Co.; and O. Ormsby. Until the year 1818, a large business was done in the " Brighton " estate, when, -owing to the general financial depression, the furnaces could not be worked with profit, and the mills, furnace, forge, &c., were permitted to become dilapi343 HISTORY OF PEN.NS YL VANIA. dated and ruinous. Previous to this time, the Harmony Society, then located in Butler county, would have purchased the place-these two tracts of land and the improvements thereon-for $32,000, but for the disputes about the title of a. large part thereof. Had it not been for this defect in title, this numerous and influential society would have taken and improved it instead of removing to the State of Indiana, which they did shortly afterwards. General Brodhead instituted suit in the United States Court of Equity in Philadelphia, and obtaining a judgment, in his favor dispossessed the original settlers, some of them leasing part of the land from him and others leaving the place altogether. The population in 1810 was 12,168, which had increased at the census of 1820 to 15,340. The most important event during the decade thereafter, causing the increase of population, business, etc., was the coining into the county of the Harmony Society from Harmony, Indiana, in the year 1825, and locating upon a large tract of land on the Ohio river, possessing one of the most beautiful of the very many sites for a town or city, upon which they laid out the town of Economy, and erected factories, mills, and workshops. The Society added largely to the population, and made a market for many agricultural products, wool, etc. Their industry, economy in gardening, and in fruit culture, had a most inspiring and stimulating effect, constantly growing to the present time. The population had increased by the census of 1830 to 24,206. The influence of a protective tariff and the United States bank, which had done so much for Eastern Pennsylvania, had for good reached even west and north of the Ohio river to Beaver county. James Patterson, a citizen of Philadelphia, on a visit to Pittsburgh and the West, was by an accident induced to visit Beaver county, in the spring of 1829, and falling in love with the water-power, etc., at Brighton, on the Beaver river, purchased the estate embracing about thirteen hundred acres. The old works were in a state of ruin and decay. He removed his family, machinery, etc., the same year, and began some improvements of the property. He erected a flour-mill, in which, during a number of years, he did a thriving business in purchasing wheat in the country around, making extra family flour for the Philadelphia market. During the working of the Pennsylvania public improvements, large quantities were sent to the East. He also built a cotton factory, spinning coarse yarns for a market, and much of which he had made by local weavers into plaids, checks, etc., and giving employment to many work-people, spreading more money through the country than had ever been done before. At this time, and until the good effects of the working of the canals, etc., after completion were felt, the price of wheat at the Falls was forty to fifty cents per bushel-fifty cents per day for a laboring man, or a country carpenter; very good coal delivered for four and one-half to five cents per bushel. The price paid the digger was one cent and five-eighths per bushel. The purchase and cash price paid to Mr. Oliver Ormsby, of (near) Pittsburgh, Allegheny county, made quite an impression, and was the cause of much real estate in the county changing hands and many improvements of importance being made. The progress and completion in the county of the State canal to New Castle, produced a sensible effect upon the spirits of the people and upon values generally. The people of the county received with great approval the public school law,. 344 BBAYER COUNTY. and put it in force by building school-houses, etc., early after its passage, and it has grown with the people since, until it is now a great power for good. The chartering by the State of Pennsylvania of the United States Bank, and establishing a branch thereof in. New Brighton, had considerable influence at the time and for a few years thereafter, in stimulating and promoting real business and improvements, as also of all manner of wild speculation. Manufacturers and owners of real estate were induced not only to enlarge their factories, and work shops, but to build additional ones, and to embark in new and large business operations, requiring much money, which they were led to believe they could obtain abundantly from their branch bank. Every thing went on swimmingly till the mother bank in Philadelphia failed, and assigned the indebtedness due to the branch in New Brighton to Philadelphia Bank "Trustees," when great distress and ruin fell upon many of the people and the business of the county, and values of real estate and other property were prostrate and almost entirely without a price in the market. The effects of the so-called panic of 1873 are not to be compared with the consequences of this failure of the United States Bank in Beaver county. Under the labor, influence, and cost of a citizen of the county, a very large amount of these debts due in Beaver county, approximating $200,000, was compromised and paid, by the assignments of cash, real estate, bank stocks, etc., to the very great benefit of debtor and creditor. By these compromises, most of the manufacturers were enabled, at least in a small way, to resume operations, and gradually, but slowly, confidence and business revived again. The population of the county, as per census of 1840, had grown to be 29.368. During the time from 1840 to 1850 the county interests continued to labor under the bad influences of the failure of the bank referred to, and the general depression of business and losses incurred by some of her manufacturers by the great fire of 1845 in Pittsburgh, but trade and population gradually improved. The census of 1850 showed the population to be 26,689. This reduction in the number of inhabitants was caused by the act of the Legislature, March 20, 1849, by which a part of Beaver county territory was taken to form Lawrence county, and Beaver lost thereby 9,130 of her citizens. The contract for building the Ohio and Pennsylvania railroad through this county was made April 24, 1850. The first locomotive passed up Beaver creek as far as Block House run, July 30, 1851. The first "excursion train" came from Pittsburgh, 23d October, 1851, and passed beyond the summit towards Alliance, Ohio. Under the influence of general prosperity in the East, and under the hopes inspired by the railroad enterprises in and through the county, an eastern company purchased, in 1853, through a real estate agent, James Patterson's estate, mills, etc., at Brighton, on the Beaver, and also from Ovid Pinney his large property at Rochester, on the Ohio. Great expectations were formed of the good results to the general interests from this purchase and the improvements which were expected to follow. But after a very sickly existence and unwise management, and the loss of the cotton factory and the original machinery therein from fire, by the act of an incendiary, and much damage to the property otherwise, the company utterly failed, and the owner, holding a mortgage for most of the purchase money, had a long and most vexatious suit 345 4HISTORY OF PENNSYL VA-NIA. at law to dispossess them, and Was sued for $70,000 damages, because in the deed of mortgage it was stipulated that one per cent. should annually be paid, over six per cent., to cover State or municipal taxes upon money at interest. The census of 1860 finds the population to be 29,140. The panic of 1857 had a very bad influence upon business in the county, as had also the two first years of our late war. The great majority of the people sustained the Government in the war with great zeal and spirit, promptly furnishing volunteers and recruits for the army as required of them, and as promptly paid all taxes and income. Each borough and township was made a military district, and furnished its quota of men as they were called, and paid their recruits in cash at the time, the bounty agreed upon to each, the county incurring no debt or obligation for this purpose. And owing to this fact the county has for a number of years past been free from debt. There is probably no county in the State which in proportion to population put more soldiers in the army than did Beaver. An effort was made during two sessions of Congress, in the years 1861-2 and 1862-3, to induce the government to purchase the Brighton estate, with its great water powers, for the erection of a National armory for making large and small guns, and for which a committee of National engineers, appointed by the government in 1825, had recommended it after careful examination of many sites in the West-but which, owing mainly to the opposition of the Pittsburgh "Board of Trade," which pressed for its location in Pittsburgh-was unsuccessful. Failing to induce manufacturers or capitalists from abroad to buy and improve the property for their own and the general benefit, the Harmony Society of Economy undertook the task to induce private manufacturers to buy lots, water powers, etc., and in that way do in a retail way what Mr. Patterson had failed to do by wholesale. The Society, accordingly, in the year 1866, had made a new survey of the town-Brighton-very much enlarging its boundaries, and appointed H. F. & J. Reeves, real estate agents, to offer for sale building lots, water lots, houses and lots, etc., etc., at low prices to improvers. The lots sold quickly under this management, and the town grew in population and business very rapidly, and the people asked to be incorporated into a borough, and were so in the year 1870. It is now believed to be the largest manufacturing town in this county, and one of the largest in Western Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh. The population as per the census of 1870 was 3,112. The taxables assessed in December, 1875, were 1,104 (eleven hundred and four); number of children enrolled January 1, 1876, was 782 (seven hundred and eighty-two). The whole population will not therefore be less than 4,500. The census of 1870 makes the whole population of Beaver 37,612, and it is at this time [1876] over 45,000. The population increase per cent. from 1850 to 1860 was nine (9) per cent.; from 1860 to 1870 it was twenty-five (25) per cent. The old Pennsylvania Beaver division of the canal owned by the Erie canal company, which for many years had been doing no good to the company or the people, was sold, and the Harmony Society finally became the owner of the title, then sold off the dams, canal-bed, and tow-path, from the lower end of New Brighton up the river to the mouth of the Conequenessing creek-which makes the water power available for manufacturing purposes much greater at Beaver 346 BEAVER COUNTY. Falls than ever before. The Erie canal used for passing boats very much of the water, and wasted much more needlessly, and doing little good most of the time. Much is said and often repeated of the hardships and sufferings endured by "the early pioneers" who first settled upon our frontiers to clear up the land and make themselves a home and a farm; but their lives and fortunes are most happy and successful when compared with the lives and fortunes of those who first undertook the task of improving the natural advantages and to build up a business for their own and the country's best welfare in this county. The whole history and experience of those who first began the improvements on the Beaver at Brighton, from Hoopes, Townsend & Co., until Oliver Ormsby became the owner, showed nothing but a continual contest with adverse circumstances and obstructions of all sorts, and of troubles, and discords, and opposition from their neighbors, and while being friends were themselves very unfriendly one with another; and which continued as long as most of the parties lived, and exists with some to this day. A gentleman who was one of the firms owning and operating the works, and the best business man of them all, left Beaver county with so strong a hatred and antipathy to those people and the place, that he would not put his foot ashore in Beaver county, when he came up to receive a certain sum of money from Mr. Patterson, and to deliver an important title paper which he had held. The future prospects for the county are most promising. A railroad, the Pittsburgh and Erie, has been recently located, from Pittsburgh coming down the Ohio through this county on the south side, crossing the Ohio at Beaver, and running up the Beaver from there through Fallston, Beaver Falls, etc., up to the junction of the Mahoning rier, beyond, westward and northward. In the not far distant future, the valleys on the sides of our rivers presenting the routes of iron railways built at low grades, and being made at a cheaper cost than they have been hitherto, will carry freights at all seasons, at a rate and under circumstances which shippers will prefer to any thing which could be offered even upon an improved navigation of the Ohio river. This, too, would work greatly to the benefit of Beaver county, where exist so many of the elements required for economical manufacturing. In a short time, too, the coal now sent down southward by the Ohio from Pittsburgh will not be required there, which will work much in favor of manufacturers in Pittsburgh and vicinity. BEAVER borough was laid out by the State surveyor and approved and confirmed by the Assembly, March 6, 1793. The site is that upon which General McIntosh built the fort named after him in 1778. The town was first named McIntosh, but subsequently called after the name of the stream. General Washington, on an exploring expedition down the Ohio, A.D. 1770, stopped at the mouth of Beaver, and speaks of the site in his diary as a fine body of land. It was also the site of a so-called French built town as early as 1754. The lots of ground as laid out were sold on the 12th day of July, by commissioners appointed for the purpose, viz., David Bradford, James Marshall, and Andrew Swearingen. The sale began in Washington, Pa., and continued from day to day, and finished August 12, 1793, nearly all of the lots being sold. Among the first purchasers, and who afterwards moved to the town, were James Allison, Robert, John, and Charles Davidson, Guion Greer, Thomas 347 GENERAL HISTORY. been for the occupancy of the Dutch thus narrated, Delaware as a separate State would have had no existence. Therefore "the voyage of De Vries," says Bancroft, "was the cradling of a State. According to English rule, occupancy was necessary to complete a title to the wilderness. The Dutch now occupied Delaware, and Harvey, the governor of Virginia, in a grant of commercial privileges to Claiborne, recognised the adjoining plantations of the Dutch." "By letters patent of this date, reciting the petition of Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, for a certain country thereinafter described, not then cultivated and planted, though in some parts thereof inhabited by certain barbarous people, having no knowledge of Almighty God, his Majesty granted to said Lord Baltimore: "All that part of a peninsula lying in the parts of America between the ocean on the east, and the bay of Chesapeake on the west, and divided from the other part thereof by a right line drawn from the promontory or cape of land called Watkins' Point (situate in the aforesaid bay, near the river of Wigheo), on the west, unto the main ocean on the east; and between that bound on the south, unto that part of Delaware bay on the north, which lieth under the 40th degree of north latitude from the equinoctial, where New England ends; and all that tract of land between the bounds aforesaid; i. e., passing from the aforesaid bay called Delaware bay, in a right line by the degrees aforesaid, unto the true meridian of the first fountain of the river of Pattowmack, and from thence trending towards the south unto the further bank of the aforesaid river, and following the west and south side thereof, unto a certain place called Cinquack, situate near the mouth of the said river, where it falls into the bay of Chesapeake, and from thence by a straight line unto the aforesaid promontory and place called Watkins' Point." It does not appear that actual steps towards the settling of the banks of the Delaware were taken until 1638, and the authentic notices of transactions belonging to the interval which have come down to us are not of sufficient moment to be chronicled in this place. Peter Minuit, after his return to Holland, went to Sweden and succeeded in reviving the plan of colonizing the Delaware, abandoned by Usselinx, who is supposed to have died at the Hague, in 1647. Towards the close of 1637, Minuit, under the patronage of Queen Christina, at the head of an expedition consisting of the ship of war Key of Kalmar, and the transport Griffin, and carrying a clergyman, an engineer, about fifty settlers, with the necessary provisions, merchandise for trade and presents to the Indians, left Gottenberg, and after calling at Jamestown, in Virginia, for wood and water, reached the Delaware about May, 1638. Purchasing the soil on the western shore, from the 1638. capes to the falls of Santhikan, opposite to the present city of Trenton, from the Indians, he erected the fort and town of Christina, on the north bank of the Minquas-kill, or Minquas creek, almost three miles above its mouth. The Rev. Reorus Torkillus, who accompanied Minuit, was the first Swedish clergyman in America; he died in 1643, aged 35. The establishment tof the Swedes led to remonstrances on the part of Kieft, then director-general of Newv Netherland, which were unheeded by Minuit, whose intercourse with the Indians was of an amicable character. Minuit died at Christina several years afterwards. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Henry, David Johnston, Samuel Johnston, Joseph Lawrence, and James Lyon. The town was formed into a borough, March 29, 1802, and originally extended east of the Beaver, including much of what is now Rochester and all Bridgewater. Beaver is beautifully situated on a high plateau of land, giving a large view of the Ohio on both sides above and below the town, which is rarely equalled. It is favored with very good and never-failing springs of water, conveyed in pipes generally through the streets; the atmosphere is pure and healthy, as the county generally is proved to be; and the population by the census of 1870 was 1,120. It has recently made rapid increase in numbers and in value of general improvements. There is no place on the river better suited as a place for a home, churches, and schools, with quiet and good order prevailing. Prior to 1829, the Presbyterian brick church, now standing, was the only one south of Darlington and for many miles up or down the river. In this church the Rev. A. B. Quay was pastor, and alternated his labors between it and the service of the Colonization Society as their agent, according as his health permitted. He was a scholar and Christian minister of zeal and great service to his church and society. He died here worn out in the service, much respected and regretted. The first Methodist church was erected about 1830. The present building is of recent construction. There are also United Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches. The "Beaver College and Musical In stitute," well-known and ___ - very highly appreciated, ....________ is located here, of which A- the Hon. Daniel Agnew is president and Rev. R, T. Taylor principal. At the upper end of the town is the "Beaver Female - -Seminary," under the charge of the Rev. Tho mas Kennedy, and is in BEAVER COLLEGE AT BEAVER. - a prosperous and promi sing condition. BRIDGEWATER borough was formed from a portion of Beaver, a part of Sharon, and another small part of Fallston, and lies along the Beaver from Fallston line down to the Ohio river. The population by the census of 1870 was 1,119, and it is estimated by resident citizens to have much increased in numbers since that time. There are three iron foundries, two saw, and one grist mill; two wagon factories, three tanneries, and many minor industries. The first bridge across the Beaver river is at this place, and is a good, solid Pennsylvania bridge. Robert Darragh, a very early pioneer in Beaver county, opened a store at this locality. He served one term as State Senator from Beaver and Washington. He died at the advanced age of ninety-five. The Hon. John Dickey lived in the bounds of this borough many years, and died in it. Win. Davidson, George Hinds, and John Boles, settled here at an early date. 348 BEAVER COUNTY The "Beaver Point," on the Ohio end of the borough, is a beautiful location at the junction of the Ohio and Beaver rivers. It was for many years a great for warding place for agricultural products down the river Ohio, and the landing and storing of goods from New Orleans, upwards, and from Pittsburgh, further east. The land at this point was bought early after 1803 by the Harmony Society, upon which they built a warehouse for storing goods received and shipped by the river, and which they sold before their removal from Butler county, West It was used for the same purpose as late, at least, as 1850. Upon the locks of the canal entering the Ohio, was erected the first steamboat built for carrying passengers to and from Beaver to Pittsburgh, by John Dickey and others, of a size as they calculated would pass through those locks. It did pass through once, and was found to be too tight a fit, consuming too much time in the transit. She ran for a time from below the locks, and it being found that she was too small for that trade, was sold to go down the river, and the steamboats Beaver, Falls ton, and New Castle were subsequently built and put in successful operation, landing for a time at this place, and also at Rochester, where large warehouses were erected to accommodate the trade. FALLSTON is built on the west bank of the Beaver on a narrow bottom, at the foot of a high bluff or hill, and was as early as 1830 famous for the variety of its manufactures. It was at that time the chief and almost only point of mechanical and manufacturing industry in the county, excepting at Economy. Wool, paper, linseed oil, scythes, baskets, carpets, lasts, etc., were among the manufactures of the town in that day, but do not now exist there, and are superseded by larger and more important works. A road under the hills, called the " narrows," about a mile long, lies between -this place and Beaver Falls. A good substantial covered bridge divides it from New Brighton, which last named place owes much of its population and wealth to the people and industries of this always busy and industrious town. About one-third of the distance between Beaver Falls and Fallston there is a dam built across the Beaver for the common use of New Brighton and Fallston. The water power which this dam and the race-way affords is immense, each side being entitled to one-half thereof. A race-way is conducted down the narrows through the town to the works where it gives some seventeen or eighteen feet fall for use. It was among the first to improve the power of these water-falls for manufacturing purposes. John Pugh and Evan Pugh, David Townsend, Benjamin Townsend, Abel Townsend, and Thomas Thorniley, were among the early settlers. Miner, Champlin & Co., in 1828, established a factory for making buckets, tubs, etc., which became in time a great business, and at a later day under the firm of Miner & Merrick, was one of the very best managed and most successful works of the kind in this country. Owing to the nature of the enterprise and the development of the West the enterprise could no longer be made to pay, and it is dead. In 1826 a wire-works was erected and started by Reese, Townsend & Ca William P. Townsend & Co., the present proprietors, have in recent years built a solid and perfect stone building of large capacity for the business. A large business has been successfully carried on for some years past in making superior white lead kegs. Besides these establishments, there are the extensive saw-mills of Miner & Co.; M. & S. H. Darragh's machine and engine works, HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Herron & Kennedy's flour and grist-mill; and John Thorniley's stove foundry. The town has grown and extended over the second bench or plateau, south of the water-power works. In 1831 an academy was built which was used foi educational and religious purposes. The Presbyterians of the Falls of Beaver. generally were organized into a church body, and had children baptized in it shortly after its erection by the Rev. Mr. Hughs, of Darlington, before the church building was erected in New Brighton. The history of manufactures in this place is very suggestive, particularly in an economical view. In 1830, and for a short time before and after that period wool carding for the far. mers was a large business of the place. The far mers would bring their wool here to be carded, and when done would take it home and spin it into yarn, and either weave it at home or bring it, which was most com monly the case, to the woolen-mills to be made ___ into goods for male and - female wear. In a short time, however, they came - to believe it best to sell their wool for cash, and trade in the stores for goods for wearing apparel. This ruined the business VIEW OF NEW BRIGHTON. of Wool carding, and in a [From a Photograph by H. Noss, New Brighton.] great degree tho business of the woolen factories. NEW BRIGHTON is situated on the eastern side of the Beaver, and is connected with Beaver Falls by a covered toll bridge built and finished by Le Barron in 1833-4, and is a solid structure. A short distance above this the iron bridge of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railroad company crosses it also. In 1829 David Townsend purchased from Thomas Bradford, of Philadelphia, the tract of land, No. 93, upon which the best part of the town has been since built. Mr. Townsend had purchased this tract by articles of agreement from the latter, some considerable time previous, but paid no money on it, but was to pay 2,000 dollars on a fixed day in the summer or early autumn of 1829. As early as 1801, David and Benjamin Townsend bought tract No. 94. Tract No. 95 was bought by James Patterson in July, 1829, from Oliver Ormsby, the title to the tract being then in the name of David Shields, of Allegheny county, as it had been from an early day. In 1829 the only improvement upon No. 94 was the house of W. Webster and that of the large stone flour mill, unfinished, and perhaps a small one story house near where the 350 BEAVER COUNTY Novelty Works now are, and back east of the rising ground. Benjamin Townsend had then built the house where E. P. Townsend now lives. The town, as it now stands, covers the western end, or part of the two "benches," of them, Nos. 95, 94, 93, 92, and 91. The manufacturing business of the counties was then mainly done in Fallston, and the owners of the works lived there. After the purchase of No. 93, David Townsend laid it out as the streets, etc., are now; the No. 94 was previously laid out as it is now. The first improvements, except the stone mill, were begun on No. 92. This town has its water powers under the control of a water company, as has the Fallston owners their water powers; and they both joined a short time ago in building a strong and safe new dam, and made also improvements in their race-way and head-gates. They have now under good and safe command a very large water power of about eighteen feet fall. There were built and started many works upon this race-way for various kinds of manufacture. Circumstances have changed the character of many of them; fire destroyed some, and for various reasons the business in others has been altered. When David Townsend died, his executors sold the lots at public sale, and many of them were purchased by business men in Fallston, who built and improved upon them and themselves occupied them. By the progress of the canal to completion and when completed, through the town, a great impulse was given to its growth. The establishment of the U. S. Branch Bank here also helped it greatly, but the finishing of the Ohio and Pennsylvania railroad to the town, with the great partiality of the engineers and officers shown to it, made a wonderful addition to its business and advancement. To all these good influences may be added the fact, that large tracts of land, north-west of New Brighton, owned by the heirs of Benjamin Chew, Senr., were put into market and sold rapidly to good, industrious settlers, who cleared the lands and improved the markets and business of the town; to this also was added the same effects caused by the sales of large tracts of land owned by Thomas Bradford, by his grandson, B. R. Bradford, as agent resident in Beaver county. New Brighton suffered severely, as did the whole of the county, by the failure of the United States Bank. Adversities from various causes were visited, and fell upon some individuals and business firms; but the general course of the town has been very successful, much more so than usual with young towns in a new country. There lived, and yet are living, in this town numbers of persons who deserve to be mentioned and gratefully remembered for their influence upon the industries and growth of this town, Fallston, and the county generally, prominent among whom was John Pugh. He was a professional miller, and did much, in his purchase of wheat for his mills in Fallston, to promote the agricultural interests of the county; and as a president of the Branch Bank, in co-operation with the cashier, Dr. W. H. Denny, did much to promote business at the Falls and in the county generally. Robert Townsend was a model business man, and a friend to the Falls. David Townsend, William Townsend, Benjamin Wilde, John Miner, Silas Merrick, W. T. Kennedy, and others, both living and dead, were most influential. 351 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. The town is now lighted by gas, and is steadily improving, and is altogether a delightful place of residence, and destined to a much larger growth. The industries of New Brighton are deserving of special notice in a description of the town, but our limited space forbids. In 1842, the Keystone woolen mills was established for the manufacture of cloths and cassimeres, by William Wilde, who for a period of over thirty years successfully managed the enterprise. It is now owned by Mr. Bancroft, of New York, who proposes to devote the manufacture chiefly to flannels and water-proof. In addition to these works, there are the Novelty Works, employed in the manufacture of knitting machines, three large flouring mills, the Pennsylvania bridge and machinery works of White & Sons, Merrick's grate and front works, and the Pioneer flag mills of Bently & Gerring, all giving employment to a large number of persons, and by their success adding much to the prosperity of this enterprising borough. There are nine churches of as many denominations. The site upon which Brighton and Beaver Falls was in part first laid out had the first improvements made upon it in the summer of 1801 by David Hoopes & Co., who had made the purchase previously referred to, but were obliged to purchase again from the occupant fifty acres, and some time thereafter another fifty acres, on which the erection of a grist and saw mills, forge, charcoal furnace for pigs, hollow-ware, stoves, etc., was commenced and put into successful operation. In 1806, Isaac Wilson & Co., now the owners, had surveyed and laid out a plot of a town and sold lots to improvers, built dwelling-houses, etc., and a large business was done, to the great benefit of the county, by the four or five firms which succeeded each other as owners in quick succession. They called the new town " Brighton." Oliver Ormsby kept the works in operation, under the superintendence of James Glen and John Dickey, until about 1818, when, owing to the general depression in business, caused by the peace of 1814 with England, which removed all let and hindrance to English and other foreign iron and other manufactured goods flooding our country, to the ruin of home industry and all values, and to other causes, it suspended. Thus this place and its work, for so many years the chief and almost the only point of manufacturing industry in the county, remained dead in ruins, until the year 1829, when it was purchased by James Patterson, long a citizen of Philadelphia, from Mr. Ormsby, and under his labors and expenditures it again was rebuilt, and became a point from which considerable money was spread abroad through the county and country around in the payment of labor, wheat, wool, etc., for twenty years and more. Mr. Patterson had great difficulty in consummating the purchase with Ormsby, in consequence of he and the other owners of Gen. Brodhead's title to the land, having brought in a bill of $10,000 damages against the General for money they had been obliged to pay to those in possession for wool, ores, land, etc., which they held against the balance due the General for the original purchase from him-he not having given them possession, as he was bound to have done. The General's heirs would not make deed without the balance due being paid them. Mr. Patterson, to avoid law suits and trouble, agreed, finally, to pay the amount due the General's heirs. Notwithstanding all this, hlie was destined to contend at law through many vexatious and costly damaging suits, to make good his titles and become free from his opponents, who were many and influential. 352 BEAVER COUNTY The suits growing out of the disputed parts of the two portions of land sold by General Brodhead to David Hoopes & Co., in 1801-and which the former began in the United States Court in Philadelphia in 1812, and obtained a judgment in his favor and had the United States marshal dispossess the occupantswere, unfortunately, not terminated finally until about the year 1865 or'6, when the United States Supreme Court in bane decided the last of them in favor of James Patterson, which made General Brodhead's title good; after there having been in his favor one verdict in Beaver County Court, affirmed in the State Supreme Court, and twice in the United States District Court of Pennsylvania. It was the same case in which, when one of the lawyers was pleading before Judge David Green, for a new trial, a verdict having been rendered for Mr. Patterson, the judge on the bench said to him, "that in all his experience, which whether as a surveyor, a lawyer, or a judge, in Pennsylvania State, county, and in the United States courts, he had never known a case of land ejectment come into court so weak in every respect as this one which he was attorney for, nor one so strong and clear as that of the plaintiff, Mr. Patterson." These suits were costly and more vexatious and very injurious to the best interests of the country, and were prosecuted not by the original settlers, or claimants, but by neighboring proprietors, who, while improving their own properties, were tempted to disregard " party lines" in doing so, owing to the absence and neglect of the owner of the Brighton estate. In the year 1830 Brighton had no post office. In 1831 James Patterson was appointed postmaster, when by law it was entitled to a mail by horse twice a week. The postmaster carried it at his own expense daily for many years from Beaver town. There are now thirty-eight post offices in the county, and Beaver Falls receives two mails daily from the East by rail and one from the West. Lease & Robertson, paper makers, made agreement with Mr. Patterson to build a paper mill in Brighton, in 1831, to be driven by steam power, for which, and heating purposes, the latter agreed to supply the coal from his coal banks, delivered at the mill, for ten years time for four and a-half cents per bushel. Experience proved the fact to Mr. Robertson, after running his mill by steam power some years, that he could make paper much more economically by water power than by that of steam, even with coal costing under four and a-half cents per bushel, when he bought land and water-power at the head of the Falls, and built a paper mill, which he operated successfully many years, allowing his steam mill to go to decay and ruin, after removing such paper machinery as he could use in his new mill. Mr. Robertson, in the manufacture of paper and wall paper, gave employment to many, thereby aiding in promoting the general interest. Having failed in his last efforts to make sale of the whole property to the United State government, for an armory and foundry for big cannon, Mr. Patterson surrendered the property to the Harmony Society, who undertook the task of inducing private parties to buy by retail lots for dwellings, water lots for mills, etc. They revised the plot of Brighton, very much enlarging it, extend ing it along the Beaver nearly if not quite, three miles, over ground remarkably well suited by nature for a town or city, and changed its name from Brighton to that of BEAVER FALLS. One reason for this change was that the place had been known by the name of Beaver Falls in the county in its earliest days; and 353 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANYIA. another reason, that New Brighton having, under the influences of the canal passing through it, and afterwards by the Ohio and Pittsburgh railroad stopping in it and passing through its streets and much favoring it, grown much larger than "Brighton "-people were in the habit of dropping " New" and calling their town Brighton, and calling Brighton proper " Old Brighton." This made confusion, and the people of Brighton were willing to adopt a name about which there could be no other "claimant "-at least in the county. - - ~ ~ ~ - - -6- ---- -. - --........-.....-.. 2:::' ,.# VIEW OF BEAVER FALLS. [From a Pencil Sketch, by Robjohnsi.] Beaver Falls has now grown to be one of the most important and well-established manufacturing and successful business towns, not only in the county, but in Western Pennsylvania. In the census of 1870 the population was found to be 3,112, which at present exceeds 4,500. There has been built upon a triangular lot, surrounded by sixty-feet streets-the gift of the Society-a large, threestory school-house, at a cost of somewhere near $30,000, for the public schools. The town begins south of the toll bridge across the Beaver, connecting Beaver Falls with New Brighton, and just at the mouth, or northern end, of the road called the "narrows," on the banks of Beaver, between Fallston and Beaver Falls, the hills bearing to the north-west for some distance, and then turning to bear north-eastward, and the Beaver shore bearing from the bridge north-eastwardly for some distance, and then bending north-westward, makes the plot of the town and valley much in the shape of a pear-the narrows being the stem. In it is the toll bridge-the bridge of the Pittsburgh and Chicago railroad. The width of the Beaver where this railroad bridge crosses the river is five hundred 354 BEAYVER COUNTY. feet. The first dam above this bridge across the Beaver is seven hundred and forty feet long, giving a fall of water for mill purposes of about twenty feet, flowing the water back nearly two miles, near to another dam across that stream, affording a fall of about the same value, and flowing a pool of water back about seven miles to the mouth of the Conequenessing creek. The town extends north of this dam for a considerable distance. These two dams can and will at a very early day be made to give jointly not less than forty feet of fall, with a much greater supply of water than was ever at command for mill and manufacturing purposes. In the hills lying west of the town are veins of very good bituminous coal. Those mostly now worked are a little over three feet thick. The hills also on the east bank of the river have the same veins with a greater thickness. The Pittsburgh and Chicago railroad runs at the foot of the hills on the west side of the town. There is a gas company, which supplies the borough with gas for the town lamps, etc., etc. There is also a water company, which may be said at present to consist of the Harmony Society, which has put up water works, pumping the water for general use from a very large supply under the rocks underlying the town, by improved machinery and great power. Pipes are laid through most of the streets, and many houses supplied thereby. The industries of Beaver Falls are on such a large scale and of such vast importance that although it would be desirable to describe them fully, we can merely allude to them, to show how extensive are the manufacturing facilities of the town, a very Pittsburgh in miniature, and rapidly growing in wealtL and consequence. Steel works of Abel Pedder & Co., started in 1875; Beaver Falls cutlery, one of the first enterprises built in the town, giving employment to over three hundred persons, including one hundred Chinese brought from the Pacific in 1873; the Pittsburgh hinge company and Western file company have large and extensive works; the axe and hoe works of Joseph Graff & Company; Beaver Falls company's operative foundry; saw works of Emerson, Ford & Co.; Economy stove and hollow ware works; shovelworks, H. M. Meyers & Co.; and the Beaver Falls flour mills. In addition to the foregoing extensive manufacturing establishments, there are quite a number which, although of minor importance, in the aggregate employ many hands, such as planing mills, casket works, machine shops, foundries, paper mill, carriage and glass works; and beside all these industries, there are several coal mines-the whole going to make up such varied mrnanufacturing enterprises, that show the active means of the prosperity of Beaver Falls. EcONoMY.-The site of this town of economy and industry was purchased by Rev. George Rapp for the Harmony Society, then living in New HIarmony, Indiana, and to which the Society removed in the year 1825, having lived ten years, increasing in numbers and wealth during their residence there, although previously, as a Society, living in Harmony, Butler county, Pa., ten years prior to their moving to Indiana. This site, upon which they built their new town of Economy, is one of the most beautiful anywhere upon the banks of the Ohio or elsewhere. It is on elevated ground, sloping gently back 855 5 L1TOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. from the river. Their number then above seven hundred souls; and at once began the erection of dwellings, mills, and factories, such as are usually necessary for so large a population in a busy manufacturing town. Rev. George Rapp, as spiritual head, "Father," and Frederick Rapp, as temporal business manager, were still with them as in Butler county and in Indiana State. Their thus coming again into Pennsylvania had very great influence upon the general interests and prosperity of this county, which continued to increase by their enterprise and their power for good to all. They built an extensive ASSEMBLY HALL AT ECONOMY. woolen factory, where a very large quantity of wool was manufactured into blankets, sattinets, etc., for which they purchased large quantities of the wool raised in the county; they erected a cotton factory, spinning coarse cottons for sale, and weaving much of it into sheetings, shirtings, and many other branches of manufactures; and cleared and cultivated many acres of good lands. Everything went on prosperously until the appearance in the society of a man calling himself Count Leon-an enthusiast and impostor, as he finally proved himself to have been-when, under his influence and that of the women and others brought with him, discord and ill-feelings arose, which ended in a division of the society, about one-third of their number leaving the Society with Count Leon, under the wise counsels of Father Rapp, by a compromiso, paying them in cash one hundred and five thousand dollars ($105,000) to leave the place altogether, which they did. They purchased and formed a new society, under Leon, at what is now known as Phillipsburg, on the Ohio, opposite Beaver. The Society, after the departure from among them of the discontented, lived prosperously and happy under the lead of" Father Rapp " until his death,. which occurred on the 7th of August, 1847. He was a most remarkable man in 356 BEAVER COUNTY. many respects. " He made and left his impress on the Society, which still exists as he left it, only with diminution in numbers." And it may be further said, that this impression was even more remarkable upon those of the Society who left it with Leon, after having been long years under his training and spiritual influences-that while going out with Leon and into the world to do for themselves, as many did from the time of first leaving, and all of them afterwards, each and all of them continued without exception to conduct themselves as good citizens, moral and upright, and many of them to-day are among the best people of the county. The influence of the Society was all good and influential in all the country around them, in economy, gardening, farming generally, sheep raising, etc. Upon the death of George Rapp, R. L. Baker and Jacob Henrici were formally elected trustees of the society, and took charge of all temporal interests. Under their administration, as the numbers of the society decreased naturally, and their factories ceased to be operated at home, they extended their attention, under the special care particularly of Mr. Jacob Henrici, to outside enterprises, as had not been done during the lifetime of Father Rapp, and with great and marked benefit to the interests of the Society and to the objects and neighborhoods where this attention and influence were directed. During the lifetime of Mr. Baker, the reputation and respect for these trustees as good business men, of large and liberal views, were generally very much increased. The influence of the Society, under their trusteeship, extended far and wide. They showed themselves ready and willing to aid every good work which promised to promote the public welfare. Though conscientiously non-combatants, they were most zealous and hearty supporters of the government during the war, and not only contributed money for the relief of the soldiers, but paid large bounties for substitutes for any who were drafted for the army, or called for from their military division of the country. Under their direction the Darlington cannel coal field was developed, and a very superior railroad made, some six or seven miles long, from the mines extending to New Galilee, connecting with the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railway. Their means and enterprise were mainly instrumental in making the Little Saw-Mill railroad, which brought and brings yet out such large quantities of good coal of so much benefit to the many rolling mills and other interests in that neighborhood and for export. But in the midst of this beneficial labor, R. L. Baker, that faithful trustee and good Christian man, died, much beloved and regretted in and out of the Society. He lived devoted to what he believed to be religious duty, selfdenying, and faithful to all duties. After the death of their beloved " Baker," the Hiarmonists elected Jonathan Lenz as a trustee with Jacob Henrici-the latter as senior and spiritual leader. Mr. Lenz had been one of the first in the Society, and was greatly respected. Beaver Falls had made much progress in the development of its natural advantages, under the care and nursing of Baker and Henrici, in which Mr. Baker had taken great interest, and to whom it owes its name of Beaver Falls; and this efficient care and interest have been since extended, to the immense benefit of the town and its various interests, and to the whole countyl and with a good and rertain prospect of valuable pecuniary benefits, in the near future, of the Society. 357 H1'STORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. While it is conceded that the Dutch had for a long time traded on the river, that they had there erected forts, or trading posts, one of which had been occupied from time to time since 1624, that they had purchased lands from the Indians on both sides of the bay near its mouth, and had made an unsuccessful attempt to plant a colony at Swanendael, yet it cannot be denied that the colony of Minuit constituted the first permanent settlement on the Delaware. While the Swedish government may claim the distinction of planting this colony, it is really entitled to very little credit on account of any immediate care and attention bestowed on it. " The whole number of emigrants," says Hazard, "did not exceed fifty souls, and a portion of these, according to Van der Donk, were criminals." Though well supplied in the beginning, they were left a long time without aid or succor from Sweden, and but for the experience and energy of the commander, a Dutchman, the permanency of the colony could not have been maintained. As it was, but a single day intervened between the time appointed for its dissolution, and the arrival of supplies that saved it from that catastrophe. Peter Hlollandare, a Swede, appointed to succeed Peter Minuit as Governor of New Sweden, arrived in one of the vessels sent for the relief and 1641. reinforcement of the colony at Christina. His administration con tinued for a year and a half, when he returned to occupy a military post in his native country. John Printz, appointed Governor, accompanied by Rev. John Campanius with another colony, on board the Stoork and the Renown, arrived in the 1643. Delaware on February 15, 1643, at Fort Christina, after a passage of one hundred and fifty days. Agreeably to his instructions, he erected on the island of Tenakong, or Tinicum, a fort called New Gottenberg, a handsome residence which he named Printz Hall, and, subsequently, a church. A mill was also built on Cobb's creek. The principal inhabitants had their dwellings and plantations on this island. Printz's instructions acknowledged the right of soil in the Indians; directed him to confirm the contract made by Minuit; to maintain a just, upright, and amicable intercourse with them, and, if possible, also with the Dutch. Still, in case of hostile interference on their part, lie was to " repel force by force." During the same year, Printz is said to have erected on or near the present Salem creek, another fort called Elftsborg, or Elsingborg. for the purpose of shutting up the river, a matter which greatly exasperated the Dutch, whose ships, when passing, had to lower their colors and were boarded by the Swedes. Report says that the latter had, however, soon to vacate the fort on account of the mosquitoes, and that they called it Myggenborg, or Mosquito Fort. Two years previous, against the anxious admonition of Director General Kieft, a company of emigrants from New Haven proceeded to the Delaware, located themselves at Salem creek and on the Schuylkill. This intrusion, in the estimation of the Dutch, was an affair of " ominous consequence," that might eventually result in the ruin of their trade on the South River; accordingly, no time was to be lost in getting rid of these dangerous rivals. In effecting their removal the Swedes have the credit of lending a helping hand to the Dutch. The only measures in which the Dutch and Swedes could unite harmoniously in HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. And it is firmly believed that " Beaver Falls " will prove to be in all time, as it is now, the most material monument in the memory of the " Harmony Society " and its trustees, of any other which they may or can leave of the good they have or may do on earth. The members of the Society are now all old or elderly men and women, with quite a number of persons, mainly young, who live with them. They are the same economical, industrious, frugal people they ever were. Their church is a fine .. __building, which has a - -large clock in the -.-steeple, with bells; and --_ -during the whole of the S existence of this church _-and the society at Economy it would have been and would now be .. a good lesson of how ___Christian people should conduct themselves in entering the House of God," while they re - main there, and for S their departure. In this _____church, upon the bell _ ringing, the people en ter, and in a very short time all are quietly CHURCH OF THE HARMONISTS, ECONOMY. seated, are grave and soberly attentive during the services, and after, depart orderly, none entering or departing during the time of worship. The trustees, Messrs. Henrici and Lenz, are fully and actively occupied in the discharge of all their various and special duties and cares. Their and the Society's whole lives have been examples worthy of study, and, in almost all things, of imitation. ROCHESTER borough is situated on the east side of the Beaver river, at the junction of that stream with the Ohio, and contains about 2,500 inhabitants. It has an extensive front upon the Ohio river, with a very good landing for steamboats to load and unload freights and passengers. It is favorably situated for manufacturing, which is now being carried on to a considerable extent. The Rochester Tumbler company's glass works is located here, and doing a large business; also the Rochester casket manufactory; the Rochester foundry; Pendleton & Bros.' fire-brick works; Scott, Boyle & Williams' lumber yard and saw mill company; L. H. Oatman's lumber yard, saw and planing mills; Monroe Miller & Co.'s planing mills, sash and door factory; William Miller's planing mill and sash and door factory; Whitfield & Co.'s planing mill and sash and door factory; which, together with other minor works, give employment to a large number of employees. The advantages of shipping to all points of the country are unsurpassed. In addition to the Ohio river, there are the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad, the Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroad, the 358 BEAVER COUNTY. Erie and Pittsburgh railroad, the Mahoning Valley railroad, the New Castle and Franklin railroad, all passing and stopping here each way. The attention of capitalists was first attracted to this point about 1835. Ovid Pinney came here about that time and purchased a large amount of land, and laid out a town, but owing to the crash of 1838 to 1840, a damper fell on the place, from which it did not recover till 1850, when the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroad were commenced, and a new impetus given to the place. The early pioneers here were the Rev. Francis Reno, and his sons Lewis and William, Atlas E. Lacock, William Porter, George Hinds, Sylvester Dunham, Samuel and John Stiles, Wilson Frazer, John Boles, Charles and John M. Lukens, Hamilton Clark, Clark Parks & Co., James A. Sholes, Frederick C. H. Speyerer, George C. Speyerer. The proprietors of the tumbler glass works deserve much credit, for in their enterprise and public spirit, have drilled wells for gas for manufacturing uses at their works, which they have succeeded in obtaining. PHILIPSBURG is situated on the south side of the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Beaver river, and was occupied and improved as a boat yard for building steam boats, keel boats, etc., for quite a number of years before 1832, when they sold the lands and improvements, as stated, to Count Leon. Their purchase included some eight hundred acres of land, which were purchased for the seceders from the Economy Society and others. They changed their name to New Philadelphia Society, and their town New Philadelphia. They erected a hotel, factories, etc., and pioposed to rival Economy in manufacturing. They organized a society, and Count Leon as president, and a board of twelve managers, which lasted some eighteen months, and then dissolved and the property divided. Those that remained after the dissolution of the society formed a company, and carried on a woolen and grist mills for eight years, and then dissolved. Count Leon with his followers went southward. The large buildings were sold to Dr. Acker, who opened a water cure, which was highly successful for years. He sold to Dr. Baels, who also met with success. Here for ten years has been located one of the State's Soldiers' Orphan schools -Pennsylvania's great charity-under the superintendence of Rev. W. G.Taylor, D. D. This school has been considered among the best and most successful of the schools in the State. The school building is 40x44 feet, three stories, with wings 30x36 feet. The dwelling is 110x44 feet, four stories. The arrangement and adaptation of these buildings are complete. There are two hundred and ten acres of ground connected with the school. The buildings and grounds were furnished at the private expense of Dr. Taylor. The present population of the village is about six hundred, of which two hundred are in the Orphans' Home. Philipsburg is a fine site for manufacturing, and will no doubt be so improved if the railroad from Pittsburgh comes down on the south side and crosses the Ohio from there to Beaver. FREEDOM borough is situated on the north-west bank of the Ohio river above Rochester and adjoining it. It was founded in 1832, by Stephen Philips and Jonathan Betz, who entered into partnership for steamboat building, for which the place was deemed well suited, and where a great many good and large and small boats have been built by this firm and that of Philips and Graham. By the 359 BISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. census of 1870 the population was six hundred and thirty-four, and as the place is prosperous and growing, the present number may be estimated at eight hun. dred. The chief business of the place is steamboat building. The Excelsior Oil Company is located here and do a large business. There is a saw mill, lath, shingle, sash, and door factory, five brick works, and other minor industrial establishments. DARLINGTON is a village nine miles north-west of Beaver, and was a thriving place in stage coach times and before railroads. Since then it has barely held its own. It was many years well and favorably known for its church ahd academy, where many received from the Rev. Mr. Hughs and other teachers a good education. It is situated on the Little Beaver, in the midst of a thriving country and mining district. There is on the Ohio river, above Freedom, the town of BADEN, through which passes the railroad, and also REMINGTON; and below Beaver, on the Ohio and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroad, the large and prosperous town of INDUSTRY, and another equally so, SMITH'S FERRY, at the mouth of Little Beaver, up which creek there are in operation one hundred and fifty producing oil wells, total production of oil being one hundred and ten barrels per day. A pipe three and a half miles long with a branch brings the oil to Smith's Ferry. There are three refineries, two at Smith's Ferry. A growing town, NEW GALILEE, is on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railway, some seven miles north-west from Beaver Falls, and near to Darlington. Above Beaver Falls on the Beaver and the railroad to Erie and the West, there are Homewood, Clinton, etc. In fact it may be said that along the Ohio through the county and on the railroads, population and towns are almost, and ultimately will be, continuous; and so in the county up and on the Beaver river, from its mouth to the Lawrence line. A thriving town near the Washington county line should be mentioned. -FRANKFORT, near which is the Frankfort Springs, a favorite resort for health and recreation in the summer months. CENTENNIAL MEDAL-REVERSE. 360 BEDFORD COUNTY. BY CHARLES N. HICKOK, BEDFORD. [In consenting to furnish a synopsis of the early history of Bedford county, the writer anticipated difficulties in producing a full and reliable paper, but until he had fairly commenced the work, he had not the most remote idea of the many obstacles there were in the way of a conscientious performance of this duty, and nothing but the fact. that his word had been given to his friend, the general Editor of this work, prevented the relinquishment, at an early day, of a task, to say the best of it, very discouraging. The data, rendered by the lapse of time obscure and meagre, could be found, even for this short sketch, only after much and laborious search. Circumstances, the occurrence of which were evident, required sometimes weeks of patient labor to establish as facts by the records, and others were substantiated only by incidental and collateral proofs, almost as legendary as the occurrences themselves. While what has been here recorded as history is, we think, reliable, many things interesting, if only they could have been proven true, have been rejected, because the author was not sure upon which side of the doubtful line that divides romance from history they were located. In the labor incurred, the writer gratefully acknowledges the aid of the following named friends, without whose kind co-operation he is conscious his efforts must have proved abortive, viz.: William P. Schell, John Cessna, Samuel L. Russell, John Mower, John P. Reed, Joseph W. Tate, and Samuel Ketterman, Esquires, and others.] HE county of Bedford was created March 9, 1771V, by an act of the General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, entitled "An act for erecting a part of the county of Cumberland into a separate county;" and the commissioners appointed to " run, mark out, and distinguish the boundary lines between the said counties of Cumberland and Bedford," were Robert McCrea, William Miller, and Robert Moore. The reason assigned for the erection of the new county was " the great hardships the inhabitants of the western parts of the county of Cumberland lie under, from being so remote from the present seat of judicature and the public offices." The boundary lines were defined as follows, "that is to say, beginning where the Province line crosses the Tuscarora mountain, and running along the summit of that mountain to the gap near the head of Path valley; thence with a north line to the Juniata; thence with the Juniata to the mouth of Shaver's creek; thence north-east to the line of Berks county; thence along the Berks county line north-westward to the western boundaries of the Province; thence southward, according to the western boundary of the Province, to the south-west corner of the Province; and from thence eastward with the southern line of the Province to the place of beginning," embracing, as the reader will perceive, the entire south-western portion of the State, from the West Branch of the Susquehanna and the Cove, or Tuscarora mountain, westward to the Ohio and Virginia line. The lines thus set forth, by the act passed "in the eleventh year of the present reign" (George III.), not being considered sufficiently explicit, a subsequent act was passed, March 21, 1772, in which the limits were more definitely explained, "to the end that the boundaries of the county of Bedford may be BHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. certainly known," and George Woods, William Elliott, Robert Moore, and Robert McCrea were appointed to carry the order of the General Assembly into effect. The area of this county, once so immense, has been gradually restricted, by the erection of Northumberland county, in 1772, Westmoreland in 1773, Huntingdon in 1787, Somerset in 1795, Cambria in 1804, Blair in 1846, and Fulton in 1850; and the one jurisdiction has, in time, been divided and sub-divided, until some twenty counties, or portions of counties, now occupy the territory of the original county of Bedford. The name it bears was evidently given to it from the fact that the town of THE PROVINCIAL COURT HOUSE AND JAIL AT BEDFORD. [From a Sketch by John Mower, Esq., taken from memory.] Bedford was selected as its county seat. The town was doubtless so called from the fort of that name there located. In fact, this name was assigned to the town by Governor John Penn, when, by his order, it was laid out in 1766, although it was commonly so designated as early as 1759 or 1760, and there is some reason for believing at a still earlier period. The reasons for thus naming the fort are, so far as we can learn, only traditionary. It is more than probable, however, that the tradition, in one instance, is correct, viz.: That the fort erected at Raystown, during the latter part of the reign of George II., received its name in honor of one of the dukes of the house of Bedford, in England. Various other reasons are assigned, but they are, to say the least, questionable. The reasons the writer of this paper has for concluding that the defence known as Fort Bedford was erected toward the close of the reign of King 362 BEDFORD COUNTY. George II., viz., not earlier than 1755 nor later than 1759, are as follows: There is circumstantial and incidental evidence almost as conclusive as positive proof, that protective and defensive works of some kind existed at Raystown (Bedford) for several years prior to General Braddock's expedition in 1755. The earliest traditions are very obscure as to the date of the first settlement of the locality. One Rea, whose previous or subsequent history is unknown, settled there in 1751, and the hamlet and the branch of the Juniata on whose banks it was built, doubtless derived their name from him, but there are intima. tions that there were settlements in the vicinity earlier still, and that fully a decade before Forbes' expedition in 1758, it was a defended settlement, or there was there a defence of some kind to which the settlers, scattered within an area of thirty or forty miles, could fly for protection against the incursions of the savages. Always, prior to that year (1758), so far as we can discover, all letters and official papers were dated at "Rays- _town," "Camp at Rays- =0 __ town," or "Fort at Rays- - town." General Forbes, - while encamped there when on his expedition for the relief of the garrison at Fort Duquesne, dates his letters from " Camp at Raystown." In 1759 and thereafter, these dates change. In August of that year, General Stanwix, on his way to the borders of the Province on Lake Erie, a. dates his official papers at " Bedford," and " Fort Bedford." This is the THE OLD FORT BEDFORD HOUSE. earliest mention we have [From a Photograph by T. R. Gettys, Bedford.] discovered of" Fort Bedford." In July, 1755, immediately after Braddock's disaster, Colonel James Burd proposed cutting a road from Fort Cumberland to "Ray's Town," and suggested erecting a fort at that place, "to shut up the other road and save the back inhabitants." While this proposition of Colonel Burd's might, as isolated evidence, be considered as indicating that no work of defence was in existence at Raystown at that time, there is ample collateral evidence that a fort of some kind was then standing, but from lack of size, or strength, or from decay, it was insufficient for the exigencies of the time, and hence his proposal to build. A fort, such as he suggested, must have been erected prior to 1759. In fact, the "1 Old Fort House," a view of which we present to our readers, and which is still standing (1876) in good condition, and a large and commodious building for the period in which it was erected, is known to have been 363 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. the officers' quarters in the fort before that time, and was designated as the "King's House." The act of 1771, providing for the erection of Bedford county, also contained the following clause, to wit: "That it shall and may be lawful to and for Arthur St. Clair, Bernard Dougherty, esquires; Thomas Coulter, William Procter, and George Woods, gentlemen; or any of them, to purchase and take assurance to them and their heirs of a piece of land situate in some convenient place in said town (Bedford), in trust and for the use of the inhabitants of the said county, and thereon to erect and build a court house and prison, sufficient to accommodate the public service of said county, and for the use and conveniency of the inhabitants." In pursuance of the foregoing, a purchase was made and the deed recorded as the "Deed of James McCashlin to Arthur St. Clair, Bernard Dougherty, George Woods, and William Procter, esquires; and Thomas Coulter, gentleman, trustees appointed by the General Assembly of the Province to erect a jail and court house in the county of Bedford, for lot No. 6, bounded partly by the public square, dated November 10, 1771, consideration one hundred pounds." The lot No. 6 referred to, is that now occupied by the residence of Mrs. Samuel H. Tate, on the north-east corner of the square. Why the public buildings were not placed there, as at first intended, and were built instead in the north-west quarter of the square, is not now and probably never will be known. There was, however, so I am informed by several old citizens, a log structure on the corner of this lot (No. 6) temporarily occupied as a court house, and probably built to be used for that purpose, while the more permanent one was in the slow process of erection, and between this building and the north line of the lot, and standing back from Juliann street, to the rear of where H. D. Tate's law office now is, was, in the recollection of many of the present citizens, a low, one-story log house that was built for and used as a jail for several years. A letter we have just been shown by Chief Burgess Sansom, written many years ago by his uncle, Rev. James Sansom, speaks of his father (Rev. James) having delivered the logs for the first court house. The permanent "court house and prison," built on the portion of the square in front of where the Lutheran church now stands, was an unusually extensive and substantial building for that day, being massively constructed of the blue limestone of the vicinity. It was demolished about the year 1838, by order of the court, it having been declared a nuisance, after a greater and much less excusable nuisance had been perpetrated in the erection of the present public structure on the opposite quarter of the square; thus, so long as it shall be permitted to stand, deforming what is otherwise one of the most beautiful town parks in the Commonwealth. The engraving of the old provincial buildings is a reproduction of a pencil sketch, by John Mower, Esq., the oldest living member of the Bedford bar, and the only individual, who was contemporary with it, whose fine artistic taste and skill could have been brought to bear to rescue it from oblivion. A number of the old citizens who remembered the building, but could not recall it in detail, pronounce this sketch perfect. The jail, with its dark dungeon for convicts, its cell for ordinary criminals, and its debtor's prison with the grated window, 364 BEDFORD COUNTY. occupied the lower story to the left of the centre door. The balance of the first floor, on the right, was the jailor's residence, in the wings of which, in early days, the elections were held. The court room comprised the entire second story, and was entered by the stair-case from without. In one corner of the court room a flight of steps led to the third story, or attic, under the high roof, in which were the grand jury and other jury rooms. The early courts of the county were not held as now by "men learned in the law," but by "justices nominated and authorized by the Governor for the time being, by commissions under the broad seal of the Province." The first "court of quarter sessions of the peace and jail delivery" was held April 16, 1771, "before William Procter, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna, George Wilson, William Lochery, and William McConnell, Esquires, justices of our Lord the King, to hear and determine divers felonies and misdemeanors committed in said county." The other justices appointed and commissioned by George III., with the above, were John Frazer, Bernard Dougherty, Arthur St. Clair, William Crawford, James Milligan, Thomas Gist, Dorsey Penticost, Alexander McKee, and George Woods. The first commissioners were Robert Hanna, Dorsey Penticost, and John Stevenson. The first grand jury were James Anderson, Charles Cessna, James McCashlin, Thomas Kenton, Allen Rose, George Milliken, John Moore, Robert Culbertson, George Funk, John Huff, Rinard Wolfe, Valentine Shadacer, Thomas Hay, Samuel Drennin, Edward Rose, Samuel Skinner, William Parker, Christopher Miller, Thomas Croyal, Adam Sam, Jacob Fisher, and David Rinard. William Procter was the first sheriff. Arthur St. Clair was appointed first prothonotary, recorder, and clerk of court, by Governor John Penn, March 12, 1771, and deputy register for the probate of wills, 18th of same month, by Benjamin Chew, Register General. The first deed recorded in the archives of the county is that of George Croghan to John Campbell, Esq., merchant of Fort Pitt, dated 29th November, 1770. It recites, that" Whereas Johonoissa, Scanayadia, and Caseantinica, chiefs or sachems of the Six Nations of Indians, did by the deed duly dated August, A.D. 1749, sell to the said Croghan in fee a certain tract of land on the south side of the Monongahela river, beginning at the mouth of Turtle creek, and thence down the said river to its junction with the Ohio, computed to be ten miles," etc. The second paper recorded is an affidavit of James Pollock, on the 4th April, 1771, that he lost a note for three pounds. The third paper recorded is a "mortgage made 14th January, 1771, between Francis Howard, now of Fort Pitt, ensign in his Majesty's 18th reg't of Foot, and Edward Hand, of the same, surgeon mate in said reg't, on both sides of Chartier's creek, for 1636 acres of land. Acknowledged before Charles Edmunston, Capt. 18th Reg't. commanding." The next record is of the deed heretofore mentioned of 16t No. 6, to the commissioners. Then comes a deed of John Hardin, dated 15th February, 1772, to John Hardin, Jr., " in consideration of natural love and affection, for his lands this side of Laurel Hill, negroes, stock, and other substances, moveable and immoveable." The last paper we shall mention as throwing some vague light upon the early 365 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. settlement of Bedford county, is a deed of the Indians to Garrett (Gerrard?) Pendergrass. We give a copy of the deed in full, as interesting, not alone from the fact that it is a conveyance of the ground on which Allegheny City now stands, then in Bedford county, but also that this conveyance was in lieu, as the reader will see, of the ground on which Bedford is built, and which having belonged to Pendergrass at a very early day-he was evidently dispossessed of previous to the settlement of Ray at the place. This is one of a number of the incidental proofs which justify the reader in believing that the early settlement of Bedford was even earlier than we have been accustomed to suppose. The deed is as follows, viz: " Know all men by these presents, that whereas a certain Garrett Pendergrass, Senior, of Bedford settlement, in the Province of Pennsylvania, and County of Cumberland, was settled some number of years past by leave of the chiefs and deputy's of the Six Nations of Indians, on a Tract of Land where Bedford is now situate, while the said land was yet the property of us and our said Chiefs and deputy's, Said Pendergrass being dispossessed of said lands In the time of the war between the French and English, and before Said Pendergrass could saifly return to live on said land it was Entered upon by people who have from time to time and yet continues to keep said Pendergrass from the enjoyment of said tract of Land, and said Pendergrass, at the last treaty held at Fort Pitt with the representatives of the Six Nations, informed our said chiefs or their representatives or deputy's that he was deprived of the abo've tract of land as above mentioned, whereupon us and our said deputy's did then at the said treaty, give him, the said Pendergrass, our leave in writing under our hands to settle on a tract of land called the Long Reach near the mouth of the Yaughyagain, but the said last mentioned tract being at the time of the said treaty, or before it, improved by some other person or persons, contrary to our expectations, for which reason the said Pendergrass has not obtained possession of the latter mentioned tract and cannot quietly enjoy neither of the two above mentioned Tracts; Know ye, therefore, that we the under or within bound subscribers, who have hereunto caused our names to be set, and have put our marks, the first of us assigning being one of the chiefs and the other two deputy's off the said Six nations, do give and grant to the said Garrett Pendergrass, his heirs and trustees forever, our full leave and liberty of us, and for and in behalf of the said Six Nations to settle on a tract of land on the north side of the Aligania River opposite to Fort Pitt, in form of a Cemi Circle from said landing; hereby granting to him and his heirs, trustees, and assigns, full liberty to build houses, make improvements, and cultivate the said tract of land or any part thereof, and that hlie, the said Pendergrass may the more quietly enjoy the said land, and any benefit that him, his heirs, or assigns shall make or can make thereby, we do for ourselves and in behalf of the said Six Nations discharge all people whatsoever from molesting or disturbing him the said Pendergrass, his heirs, trustees, or assigns, in the possession or quiat enjoyment of the said land, or any part thereof, and we do by these presents, firmly engage and promise to answer all objections that any Indian tribe or tribes may have to the making of the above settlement. " In witness whereof we have caused our names to be subscribed, and have 366 BEDFORD COUNTTY. hereunto set our marks, in the month of February, in the year of our Lord God one thousand seven hundred and seventy. ANONGUIT, (mark), a turtle. ENISHSHERA, or Captain Henry Mountare, (his ] mark). CONNEHRACA-HECAT, or the White Mingo, (his mark), a circle, O. "Signed and agreed to before James Elliott. "GARRETT PENDERGRASS, JR." "BEDFORD, SS. " Came before me, the subscriber, one of his Majesty's justices of the peace of said county, the within named Indians, viz.: Anonguit, Enishshera, or Captain Henry Mountare, and Connehraca-hecat, or the White Mingo, and acknowledged the within instrument of writing, or bill of sale, to be their act and deed, and desired the same might be recorded as such. Given under my hand and seal in the month of Febr ary, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy. " JAMES ELLIOTT. "Recorded 19th September, 1772." The first attorney sworn in was Robert Magraw, at the first session of the courts of the county, April 16, 1771, on motion of Bernard Dougherty, one of the justices, there being no attorney to make the motion. Afterwards, at the same session, on motion of Robert Magraw, the following were admitted to practice, viz.: Andrew Ross, Philip Pandleton, Robert Galbraith, David Sample, and James Wilson, and at the ensuing term, July 16, 1771, David Grier, David Espy, and George Brent were admitted. The names recommended to the Governor for license as tavern-keepers in 1771, were Margaret Frazer, Jean Woods, Frederic Naugel, George Funk, John Campbell, Joseph Irwin, John Miller, and Samuel Paxton. The old inns, or tavern-houses of Frederic Naugel and George Funk are still standing on West Pitt Street, and were famous in their day as synonyms of good cheer for " man and beast." That of George Funk was the aristocratic inn (hotels were unknown at that day), and the headquarters of the judges, lawyers, and military officers. The last of the Funk family died about fifteen years ago, and the descendants of Frederic Naugel are still with us, one of them (Frederic) still living on the farm, adjoining the town, owned by his ancestor. The first judge "learned in the law " appears to have been James Riddle, who died in Chambersburg in 1838, leaving an honorable record. The members, from Bedford county, of the convention which adopted the State Constitution of September 28, 1776, were Benjamin Elliott; Thomas Coulter, ancestor of Judge Coulter of Westmoreland; John Burd; John Wilkins, father of Judge Wilkins, late of Pittsburgh; John Cessna, great-grandfather of Hon. John Cessna of Bedford; Thomas Smith, and Joseph Powell. The members of the State Constitutional Convention of February 5, 1790, were Joseph Powell, and John Piper, afterward member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, of whom it is recorded that he made a leap across the open circle beneath the dome of the State House at Harrisburg, while it was unfinished as to the railing around it. From numerous traditions he was a remarkable athlete. It will hardly be considered an unpardonable digression to mention here a 867 GENERAL HISTORY. carrying out, were such as would keep the English from gaining a footing on the river. In 1645, when Andreas Hudde, the Dutch commissary on the Delaware, made his examination of the river preparatory, to making his report to the 1645. government, there were on the same side of the river with Fort Christina, and about two (Dutch) miles higher up," some plantations," which, in the language of the report, "are continued nearly a mile; but few houses only are built, and these at considerable distances from each other. The farthest of these is not far from Tenakong.... Farther on, at the same side, till you come to the Schuylkill, being about two miles, there is not a single plantation at Tenakong, because near the river nothing is to be met but underwood and valley lands." After Tinicum, according to Hudde, Chester, Marcus Hook, and one or two points above and below, may claim a priority of settlement to any part of the Province of Pennsylvania. Though the Swedes had erected a fort on the New Jersey side of the river they never placed so high an estimate on their title to the land on that side as to that on the western shore. As a consequence, most of their settlements were at first made on that side of the Delaware, up which, and the Schuylkill, they were gradually extended. These rivers, and the numerous tide-water creeks, consti tuted the highways of the Swedish settlers, and it was in close 1646. proximity with these streams their habitations were erected. In 1646 they constructed and consecrated a church on Tinicum island. As to the social and domestic condition of the settlers on the Delaware, at the time of the arrival of Governor Printz, no satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at. The Swedes were of three classes, " The company's servants," those who came " to better their fortunes," and were called freemen; and a third class, consisting of " vagabonds and malefactors," who were to remain in slavery, and were employed " in digging earth, thinning up trenches, and erecting walls and other fortifications." Fort Nassau was merely a military establishment to maintain a trading postThe fort was occupied by the soldiers and servants of the Dutch West India Company, and there is reason to believe that, at times, some of the latter were negro slaves. But little is known of the early doings of the Hollanders under Swedish authority on the river and bay below Christina. Governor Printz possessed many qualifications that fitted him for the position he occupied. His plans were laid with good judgment, and were executed with energy. He managed the trade of the river with the natives so as to monopolize nearly the whole; yet succeeded during his entire administration in avoiding an open rupture with the Dutch authorities, whose jealousy was said to be excessive. The settlement of the country, however, proceeded very slowly under the Swedish dynasty, while trade was pushed to an extent never before known upon the river. This, as before remarked, was a source of great annoyance to the Dutch, as the trade of the river was lost to them in proportion as it was acquired by the Swedes. On account of the progress made by the latter, Governor Kieft sent Hudde to keep a watch on the proceedings of Governor Printz, and to resist his supposed innovations. IIudde, at this time, estimated 868 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. number of names intimately associated with the history of Bedford county, in its courts and offices, who, at various periods, have become prominent in State and ~ VIEW AT BEDFORD SPRINGS. National affairs, viz.: Hon. Thomas Smith, who held several appointments of trust under the government, and was afterwards judge of the Supreme Court; Hon. Jonathan Walker, judge of the court, father of Hon. Robert J. Walker, BEDFORD COUNTY. United States Senator from Mississippi, and Secretary of the National Treasury, who resided here in his boyhood, and received his early education here; Hon. Charles Huston, judge, afterwards supreme judge; Hon. John Tod, judge, afterwards supreme judge, lived and died here; Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, judge, afterwards supreme judge, Secretary of State of United States, Secretary of War, and Attorney General United States; Hon. William Wilkins,judge, United States Senator, Minister to Russia, and Secretary of War of United States, lived in early life with his father in the house one mile north of Bedford, on the Hollidaysburg road, now occupied by Samuel Carney; Hon. John S. Carlisle, United States Senator from West Virginia, is the son of a Bedford lawyer; General Arthur St. Clair, of Revolutionary fame, was the first prothonotary and register of Bedford county; Hon. David Mann, father of William F. and D. F. Mann, a gentleman of sterling worth, was appointed prothonotary in 1809 by Governor Snyder, and reappointed by Governor Findlay, serving twelve years, was State senator in 1821, and Auditor-General under Governor Shulze, 1824-'27. Hon. Job Mann, nephew of the above, was prothonotary for twelve years, afterwards State Treasurer of Pennsylvania and representative in Congress; Hon. Alexander Thompson, judge, and member of Congress, a man of remarkable uprightness, purity, and simplicity of character; Hon. James M. Russell, nephew of the first law judge of the county (Riddle), was a lawyer here for over fifty years, a representative in Congress, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1837'38; HIon. S. M. Barclay, a prominent lawyer and senator of the State; Hon. Alexander King, judge of the district and State Senator; Hon. Francis Jordan, Secretary of State of Pennsylvania, is a native of Bedford county, studied law, was admitted and practiced in early life at the Bedford bar; Hon. Alexander L. Russell, son of James M., member of the Bedford bar, afterwards Secretary of State and Adjutant-General of Pennsylvania; Hon. Samuel L. Russell, brother of the above, a member of the Bedford bar, and member of Congress, and of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-'73; Hon. John Cessna, member of the bar, speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1851 and 1863, member. of the forty-first and forty-third Congress, and filled many other important public and party offices; Hon. William P. Schell, member of the bar, also Speaker of Pennsylvania House of Representatives. There are and have been many others whom Bedford might claim, who have had honorable influence in public affairs, but we are restricted by want of space to the above mentioned. The original townships, several of which will be recognized as now belonging to other localities, were Ayr, Bedford, Cumberland, Barree, Dublin, Colerain, Brother's Valley, Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant, Hempfield, Pitt (now Allegheny county), Tyrone, Spring Hill, Rosstrevor, Armstrong (now Armstrong county), and Tullileague. The present townships are Bedford, Broad Top, Colerain, Cumber land Valley, Hopewell, Harrison, Juniata, Londonderry, Liberty, Monroe, Napier, East Providence, West Providence, East St. Clair, West St. Clair, Southampton, Snake Spring, Union, Middle Woodbury, and South Woodbury. The early record of Bedford county abounds in the fearful incidents usual to wild and perilous border life, which if narrated here would make this sketch, albeit veritable history, seem a romance. Our space, however, is limited, and we must forbear. Often and terrible were the visitations of the savages to the 369 370 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. homes of the early settlers, and the obliterations of entire families, and the dispersion or destruction of settlements were of not infrequent occurrence. One incident of the kind-the massacre of the Tull family-is an illustration of the remark, and we allude to it to the exclusion of others as thrilling and dire, because the circumstance has been perpetuated in the memories of the inhabitants from the locality, having ever since borne the name of the fated family. Every school child in the county knows of or has heard of "Tull's Hill." It lies on the Pittsburgh turnpike, six miles west of Bedford, and has its name from the murder in 1777 by the Indians of a family of that name, consisting of the parents and nine children. The writer many years ago saw an old citizen, who when a young man of nineteen years, passed the smouldering ruins of the Tull cabin the day of the massacre, and saw the mutilated remains of the victims. He made his escape to Fort Bedford. We give the following extract of an account of this massacre, which was written by John Mower, Esq., some thirty years ago. " There were ten children, nine daughters and a son; but at the time referred to the son was absent. At that time the Indians were particularly troublesome, and the inhabitants had abandoned their improvements and taken refuge in the fort; but Tull's family disregarded the danger and remained on their improvements. One Williams, who had made a settlement about three miles west of Tull's, and near where the town of Schellsburg now stands, had returned to his farm to sow some flaxseed; he had a son with him, and remained out about a week. The road to his improvement passed Tull's house. On their return, as they approached Tull's, they saw a smoke, and coming nearer, discovered that it arose from the burning ruins of Tull's house. Upon a nearer approach, the son saw an object in the garden, which by a slight movement had attracted his attention, and looking more closely, they found it was the old man just expiring. At the same moment, the son discovered on the ground near him an Indian paintbag. They at once understood the whole matter, and knowing that the Indians were still near, fled at once to the fort. Next day a force went out from the fort to examine, and after some search, found the mother with an infant in her arms, both scalped. A short distance in the same direction, they found the eldest daughter also scalped. A short distance from her, the next daughter in the same situation, and scattered about at intervals, the rest of the children but one, who, from circumstances, they supposed had been burned." The following extract from the Pennsylvania Gazette of August 30, 1764, incidentally explains the perilous state of affairs at that time, and this continued to be the condition of things, at intervals, until 1780. The extract is as follows: "All appears quiet at present along the frontier, except about Bedford, where there are, according to intelligence from thence, some of the savages lying in wait for opportunity of doing mischief. They attempted, very lately, to take a man that was fishing, but he got off. The people are returning over the hills to their places, which we are afraid is too soon." General Bouquet writes to Governor Penn, August 25, 1764, as follows: "A party of thirty or forty Indians have killed, near Bedford, one Isaac Stimble, an industrious inhabitant of Ligonier; taken some horses loaded with merchants, goods, and shot some cattle, after Colonel Reed's detachment had passed that post." BEDFORD COUNTY. We learn, also, from Rev. Dr. Dorr's Historical account of Christ and St. Peter's churches, Philadelphia, that in July, 1763, the "back inhabitants," Bedford, with other points, were in such distressed condition from the "inroads of the savages," that the congregations of Christ and St. Peter's Episcopal churches of Philadelphia, at the instance of their Rector, Rev. Richard Peters, contributed the sum of ~662 3s. for their relief, and after corresponding with the minister and wardens of the Episcopal church, at Carlisle, for information, sent "supplies of flour, rice, medicine, and other necessaries, together with two chests of arms and half a barrel of powder, four hundred pounds of lead, two hundred of swan shot, and one thousand flints." The inhabitants of Bedford county have always been with the advance of their fellow-citizens of other localities in furnishing brave men for the defence of the rights of their country. Reference to the archives and records of the Commonwealth shows that in the early French and Indian wars, the war of the Revolution, the late war with England, the Mexican war, and the recent civil war, Bedford county has always furnished, never l,ess, and often more, than its full quota of those _ who voluntarily gave their services, in the camp and in the field, to their country. H We are indebted to Hon. William P. Schell for the data of the following geographical and geological description of the county: All of the geological strata within the limits of Pennsylvania, from the Trenton or lower limestone up to and including the coal formation, ESPY HOUSE-WASHINGTON'S HIEAD-QUARTERS, 1774. d [From a Photograph by T. R. Gettys, Bedford.] are found in the county. The great Apalachian chain of mountains have their tread north-east and southwest through the county. The western boundary is formed by the Great and the Little Allegheny mountains, which abound in coal, iron ore, and fire-clay. The eastern boundary is formed by Ray's Hill and Broad Top mountains. They contain a very superior coal, known as the Broad Top, semi-bituminous, and also iron. The central portion of the county is traversed by several mountain ranges Terrace, Tussey's, Dunning's, Evit's, Will's, and Buffalo mountains, all of which contain one or more valuable seams of fossil iron ore, excepting the first named, which contains an excellent red hematite ore. There are over two hundred square miles of fossil iron ore within the limits of the county. Embosomed in these 371 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. mountain ranges are some of the most beautiful and fertile limestone valleys to be found anywhere. Many of them are of the same geological formation as Lebanon valley, the great Cumberland valley, and the limestone land of Lancaster county. Morrison's cove is some eight miles in width, and extends some twelve miles in this county and through Blair and Centre counties. The land is as fertile and as well improved as any part of the " garden spot of the State "-Lancaster county. Snake Spring valley, Friend's cove, and Milligan's cove are also composed of the Trenton or lower strata of limestone. These valleys are generally underlaid with a very rich brown and red hematite iron ore. There are also several very beautiful and fertile valleys of the upper or Hilderberg limestone formation, to wit: Bedford, Cumberland valley, Dutch Corner, St. Clair, and' Will's Creek valleys. Chestnut ridge, near Schellsburg, is also of the same formation. Within a distance of ten miles, on an east and west line, may be found every geological stratum within the State, except those beneath the Trenton limestone. Bedford county is, without doubt, one of the richest iron counties in the State, as it contains almost every variety of ore-the fossil, the hematite, and the carbonaceous ores. Iron can be made at lower rates than elsewhere in the State, as coal, iron ore, and limestone are found in great abundance in close proximity, and these are all intersected by a railroad running diagonally north,ast and south-west, through the entire length of the county. The natural scenery of Bedford county is perhaps unsurpassed for picturesqueness and variety. The wild mountain views alternate with rare rural scenes. The valleys especially attract the attention of tourists, and some of the landscapes are pronounced, by persons traveled in this and other lands, as beautiful as any the sun shines upon. The climate is pure and healthful. The manufacturing facilities of the county are as yet comparatively undeveloped. There are several extensive iron furnaces, some of which have been nearly a century in operation. One, the Bloomfield furnace, in Morrison's cove, furnishes iron of such peculiarly excellent and tenacious quality that it was exclusively used during the recent war for the manufactuf'e of the immense cannon used by the government. There are several manufactories of woolen goods, planing mills, and a large number of extensive steam tanneries, but in all these industries, especially the iron interest, the reserve supply of material untouched is simply inexhaustible. The town of BEDFORD was laid out in June, 1766, by order issued by Governor John Penn to the Surveyor-General of the Province, John Lukens, and it was incorporated as a borough, by act of Assembly of the State, 13th March, 1795. The original plan of the town, which has been enlarged by subsequent additions, was similar to all the old towns of the Penns, having equally sized squares, divided by streets intersecting each other at right angles, and a central park or square. It had three streets running east and west, viz., Penn, Pitt, and John, the two latter being on the north and south, and each sixty feet in width, and the first named being central, between the other two, and eighty feet in width. These are crossed at regular intervals by six other streets, running north and south, named respectively, Juliann, Thomas, Richard, Bed372 BEDFORD COUNTY. ford, East, and West streets, each of the width of sixty feet. The personal names, feminine and masculine, perhaps more home-like than euphonious, which some of these streets bear, were given (so says tradition) by John Lukens in honor of members of the Governor's family. The limits of the borough have been gradually enlarged, until to-day it covers an area of one mile from east to west, by one and a quarter miles north to south. At the time of the survey by John Lukens, the streets of Raystown, viz., the road from the east to Fort Pitt and the path south to Fort Cumberland, entered the hamlet on lines parallel with the Old Fort, or King's house. The survey of Lukens changed these courses, for his orders were to "lay out the streets parallel with and at right angles with Colonel Bouquet's house." This house is the large limestone mansion known as the " Woods house," that stands on Pitt street, directly opposite the Old Fort house, and is now the residence of A. B. Carn. It is, even for the present day, a spacious, elegant mansion, massive and durable in style, and unless it should be removed to make way for business houses, will be as strong and secure a century hence as it is now. Why it was called Colonel Bouquet's house is not now known, unless it being his head-quarters in 1758, when he remained some time at Bedford with his force of 7,850 men, and his again occupying it temporarily in 1763, associated his name with it. It is sure he never owned it, nor had his permanent residence in Bedford. The hodise was built prior to 1758, tradition says by a Captain Klein, a Scotchman, and at an early day came into the possession of George Woods, Esquire, one of the King's justices, and was for several generations the residence of himself and descendants, having passed out of the family within the last thirty years. The only buildings contemporary, or nearly so, with it now standing are the Old Fort or King's house; the Funk and Nawgel taverns, on West Pitt street; the old Barclay house in the south-east suburb, known as the " Grove;" the " Espy house," a picture of which is given, interesting as Washington's headquarters in October, 1794, when he came to Bedford on his expedition to the western counties during the Whiskey Insurrection. It is also a matter worthy of note that General Arthur St. Clair had his first prothonotary's office, in 1771 and 1772, in the basement of the rear building of the Espy house. The Old Fort, or " King's house," stands at an angle eccentric from the town lines, facing a private square at the intersection of Pitt and Juliann streets. It is a somewhat singular circumstance, in this land of change, that this property is now owned by a descendant (David F. Mann) of one of the first home officers commissioned in the war of the Revolution, Captain Andrew Mann, father of the late Hon. David Mann. The old house is built of oak logs, and is yet substantial and in good preservation. It had a smooth clay floor on the first story, still to be seen under the modern flooring, and split logs flooring the second story. The building is now covered with weather boarding, but the clap-boarding of the gable ends is still to be seen from the inside, fastened with immense wrought-iron spikes. In the old Nawgel tavern, the old split oak floor, nailed with the same huge homemade spikes, is to be seen. Lying to the eastward of the King's house, and sloping downward to what is now East street, was the "King's orchard," some fifteen acres planted in apple 373 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYLVANIA. trees, the last one of which was standing as lately as about 1855, having survived its companions many years. This orchard seems to have been used in early times as a burial-place for the settlers and soldiers of the fort, the graves being scattered without regard to order all over the space alluded to, some singly, others in small clusters, as evidenced by the frequent exhumation of human remains, from the early years of the borough to the present time, in excavating for buildings and other purposes. These remains are still occasionally brought to the surface in the ordinary work of cultivating the gardens in the compactly built portion of the town which was once the King's orchard. But a dozen years ago, in digging the cellar for the brick house on the north side of Penn street, immediately east of the Presbyterian church, the workmen discovered what were evidently the remains of two adult persons in early manhood and womanhood, probably man and wife, who had, from indications shown by the appearance of the bones, met deaths of violence. In the forehead of the female skeleton was the perforation made by the leaden bullet which was found in the cavity of the skull. After the town was surveyed in 1766, the interments seem to have been principally confined, for some thirty years, to the Episcopal burial-ground on Penn street, east of Richard, also a part of the King's orchard, which, at the laying out of the town, was donated by Governor Penn to "the Church for a burial-place." In removing the remains of the dead from this old graveyard to the new cemetery, some ten years since, remains of several, supposed to be British officers, were among those taken up. In the grave of one, thought by the old inhabitants to be that of a Colonel Campbell, were found, besides the massive coffin handles, a breast-pin containing a lady's miniature, and a pair of very rich, old fashioned, gold linked sleeve-buttons. The remains of Justice Bernard Dougherty, Judge Scott, and others of the early pioneers, were deposited in this ground. In the old graveyard on Juliann street, south of the original borough line, also donated by order of Governor Penn to the "Lutherans and Calvinists of the town," commonly known as the Presbyterian graveyard, also lie the remains of many of the first settlers. It is in this ground that John Tod, judge of the Supreme Court, is buried. There is also another tomb in this enclosure, around which cluster interesting memories-it is that of Colonel Levin Powell, of Virginia, who died in Bedford while visiting the springs for his health in 1810. He was the Colonel Powell in connection with whose name the following characteristic anecdote is narrated. Colonel Powell was a candidate for Congress in the district in which Washington resided, and they were not on amicable terms, although of the same party. As the General alighted from his horse and walked up to the polls to announce his vote, as was the custom of the time in Virginia, the crowd, curious to know how he would vote, under the circumstances, followed him. Washington observing this, exclaimed, in words that have passed into a proverb: " Gentlemen, I vote for principles, not men," and then directed the clerk to record his vote for Colonel Levin Powell. The early settlers of Bedford were principally English, also the Scotch-Irish, and the German element were largely represented. The descendants of a number of the pioneers still reside here, and many of them are among our first citizens. For many years the society of the town was characterized by English customs 374 BEDFORD COUNTY. and hospitality, and like Carlisle, Chambersburg, and some other of the colonial towns, was intelligent, select, refined, and aristocratic. The town is beautifully situated on the Raystown branch of the Juniata, in the midst of a most charming landscape, in a valley the beauties of which have formed the theme of many a poet's verse and tourist's praise. For healthfulness of location, exquisiteness of scenery, and salubrity of climate, it has few rivals. It is well built, has wide streets well paved, and is much remarked upon for the beauty and number of its shade trees. Its public edifices, court house, churches, and school buildings, are handsome and in good architectural style, and its private residences are uniformly good, and some of them quite beautiful; these are for the most part brick and stone. The town stands upon what for many years was the great thoroughfare between the East and West-the trnpike leading from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Pittsburgh and Wheeling; and until the completing of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad on the south, and the Pennsylvania Central on the north, the entire road, from Chambersburg to Pittsburgh, was teeming day and night with coaches, Conestoga wagons, and private conveyances, and every interest of the town and country was prosperous. After the opening out of the railroads above mentioned, the old place was figuratively 1 laid on the shelf," until the completing, in 1872, of its railroad connecting the Pennsylvania and Maryland railroads, since which time its prosperity has been on the increase. Its population has since then doubled, its inhabitants now numbering 2,500. The Bedford and Bridgeport railroad runs on the north side of the river, about two hundred yards from its main street, with which it is connected by two bridges, one of them an iron bridge of remarkable durability and beauty. There is considerable wealth concentrated here, and there is little of poverty. The citizens, as a class, are industrious, moral, and prosperous. It has one of the finest graded schools in the State. Its churches are, the Presbyterian, Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, and two African Methodist. EVERETT, formerly Waynesburg and Bloody Run, the second in size of the towns of Bedford county, is a thriving borough of twelve hundred inhabitants, situated on the Raystown branch of the Juniata, and the Chambersburg and Bedford turnpike, eight miles from the latter place. The Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, which connects with the Bedford and Bridgeport railroad at Mount Dallas, one mile west of the town, has a depot here. The town is handsomely built, and improving rapidly, and is inhabited by a moral, energetic, intelligent, and hospitable people. The private residences are principally built of brick and frame. Colonel Joseph W. Tate writes to me concerning its early history: "In reference to the borough of Bloody Run, now Everett, I find the facts to be as follows: In a deed dated 7th March, 1787, from John Musser, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Michael Barndollar, of Frederick county, Md., there was conveyed four hundred acres of land. This was comprised in two warrants, one in the name of William Thompson, for 250 acres, the other in name of James Elliott, for 150 acres, which includes the creek or branch called Bloody run. On the first day of February, 1800, under articles of agreement, Michael Barndollar conveyed eighty acres of the western part of the above warrants unto Samuel Tate, of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. The above eighty acres included the Juniata river 375 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. and the stream Bloody run, from its mouth to a survey in the name of Robert Culbertson. On 13th October, 1800, Samuel Tate was by Michael Barndollar constituted attorney to procure patents for the above described lands." This was the beginning of the hamlet of Bloody Run, which finally grew into a village, and afterward was incorporated as a borough. The name was changed, a few years ago, for one perhaps more euphonious-Everett, which at times has caused some embarrassment to tourists who were in search of the historic battleground of Bloody Run. Colonel Tate goes on to remark that "the battle with the Indians, from which the old town derived its name, was fought on the Culbertson tract, a short distance east of the steam mill, and south of Spring's. Traces of the old road can yet be seen on Culbertson's hill, west of where J. W. Barndollar's railroad warehouse now stands. The first Methodist church and graveyard were on the boundary of R. Culbertson's survey. Prior to building the Methodist church, the graveyard was west of the old stone church, and near the old log schoolhouse. There was another graveyard at an early day, on the point west of where Blooly run empties into the Raystown branch." There are various and conflicting accounts as to the affair which gave the name of Bloody run to this stream and for many years to the town. The following, published in a London (England) paper in 1765, is perhaps as authentic as any other, viz.: "The convoy of eighty horses, loaded with goods, chiefly on his Majesty's account, as presents to the Indians, and part on account of Indian traders, were surprised in a narrow and dangerous defile in the mountains by a body of armed men. A number of horses were killed, and the whole of the goods carried away by the plunderers. The rivulet was dyed with blood, and ran into the settlement below, carrying with it the stain of crime upon its surface." The foregoing is as explicit as a report borne across the Atlantic from the wilds of the west at that day could well be. It was not in a mountain defile, however, that the melee occurred; it was in a hollow among the hills, near the river, and not far from the base of the mountain, and the truth, as far as we can gather, is about this: The traders above referred to were doing, as some are doing in our western border to-day, gratifying their passion for lucre at the sacrifice of the public good, viz., surreptitiously furnishing the savages with the implements and materiel of war, by which they were enabled to carry on more readily their predatory and murderous attacks upon the settlers and their families. It were well, perhaps, if there were now, as then, stern men who, on their own individual responsibility, would correct the evil by visiting summary vengeance upon the sordid knaves. SCHELLSBURG.-I am indebted to John P. Reed, Esq., grandson of the founder of Schellsburg, for the following sketch: "Schellsburg,'the loveliest village of the plain,' is situated on the eastern slope of Chestnut ridge, one of the foothills of the Allegheny mountains, nine miles west of Bedford, on the turnpike leading to Pittsburgh. It was laid out by John Schell, a native of Goshenhoppen, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1810, who was forced to leave his early home on account of the' alien and sedition law,' and his' liberty pole' proclivities. He came to Bedford county about the year 1800, and stopped at ' Nine Mile town,' west of Bedford, and bought the tract of land patented as 376 BEDFORD CO UNTY. ' Nine Mile town,' and an adjoining tract patented in the name of' Pekin,' about five hundred acres, from Samuel Davidson and John Anderson, of Bedford, in 1801, and on these lands, on the road leading from Bedford to Fort Pitt, he laid out the village of Schellsburg. It grew apace, and the Legislature, by act of 19th of March, 1838, made it a borough. It is a beautiful and substantial village of about five hundred inhabitants, situated near the foot of a picturesque ridge, surrounded by beautiful meadows and fields, forming quite an extended plain, with a fine view of the distant Buffalo ridge and the Wills mountains. John Schell donated several lots for church and educational purposes, and some ten acres of level land, on the summit of the ridge, for a church and cemetery. Here was built, mainly through his efforts, the first church (a union church of the German Reformed and Lutheran denominations) in that part of the county, which remains to-day a relic of the labors of the pioneers of this section, and is used now only as a mortuary chapel of the beautiful burial-ground that surrounds it. In the village, the Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian people are represented by churches, and a creditable brick school-house supplies the wants of the villagers in that regard. A town hall is now also in process of erection. At an early day the town was the centre of business for thirty miles in a westerly and northerly direction; now the business is more diffused." The other boroughs of the county are WooDBURY, in Morrison's cove; ST. CLAIRSVILLE, ten miles north of Bedford, named in honor of Arthur St. Clair; RAINSBURG, in Friend's cove, nine miles south-east from Bedford; SAXTON, on the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, in the north-east end of the county; COALDALE, on Broad Top mountain; PLEASANTVILLE, in the north-west section, where are located a large steam tannery and grist mills; and BRIDGEPORT, at the junction of the Bedford and Bridgeport with the Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad. The medicinal springs of Bedford are so widely and justly celebrated, that no sketch of this locality can be complete without some reference thereto. These springs rank foremost in Pennsylvania on account of their mineral properties and medicinal effects, and their mountain elevation and scenery. They are a mile and a half from the town of Bedford, from which they derive their name. Besides the mineral spring, as it is called, there are found in close proximity a chalybeate spring, a powerful limestone one, a sulphur, and two sweet springs. The discovery of the remedial virtues of the Bedford waters only dates half a century back. In the year 1804, a mechanic of Bedford, Jacob Fletcher, when fishing for trout in the stream near the principal fountain, was attracted by the beauty and singularity of the waters flowing from the bank, and drank freely from them. They proved purgative and sudorific. He had suffered many years from rheumatic pains and formidable ulcers on the legs. On the ensuing night he was more free from pain, and slept more tranquilly than usual; and this unexpected relief induced him to drink daily of the waters, and to bathe his limbs in the fountain. In a few weeks he was entirely cured. The happy effect which they had on this patient led others, laboring under various chronic diseases, to the springs. In the summer of 1805, many valetudinarians came in carriages and encamped in the valley, to seek from the munificent hand of nature their lost health. Since that period the springs have become widely famous. 377 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. the whole force of the Swedish governor at from eighty to ninety men. But the Dutch force on the river, at the same time and for some years afterwards, was utterly insignificant, even when compared with that of the Swedes. As late as 1648 they had but six able-bodied men on the river. It was not long ere Hudde and Governor Printz got into an angry controversy, which, through the negotiation of Rev. Campanius, an amicable arrangement was entered into between the Swedes and the Dutch about the trade of the Schuylkill. Nevertheless the planting of a Dutch settlement on the western shore of the Delaware was now the policy of the authorities at Manhattan. To this Governor Printz entered a sharp protest. Governor Kieft having been recalled, the administration of affairs 1647. upon Dutch account on the Delaware passed into the hands of Peter Stuyvesant. His administration commenced on the 27th of May, 1647. and continued till 1664, when the American interests of the Dutch passed into the hands of the English. The disagreements between the Swedes and the Dutch continued, giving rise to a mutual hatred and jealousy. Stuyvesant in a letter complains of the en croachments of the former, while they in turn suggest plans to inter 1648. fere with the Dutch to and on the North River. Each party steadily pursued the policy of obtaining additional grants of lands from the Indians as the one most likely to strengthen its claims upon the Delaware. The Swedes, however, maintained their supremacy. Governor Stuyvesant's troubles were not:done with the Swedes on the Delaware. He was constantly embroiled with his own people, and his New England neighbors gave him much uneasiness. The directors of the West India Company intended to apply to the Government of Sweden for the establishment of limits between the two colonies on the South River. Stuyvesant made a visit to the Delaware, and at once, without waiting for a personal interview with Governor Printz, conducted negotiations by means of "letters and messengers," but no satisfactory conclusion was arrived at. Before he left the river, he secured from an Indian sachem, by "a free donation and gift," lands he had refused to sell to the Swedes. Certain other suspicious negotiations were conducted with the Indians, by which their title to the land from Christina-kill to Bombay Hook the Dutch pretended to have extinguished. Having thus acquired "an Indian title" to the west bank of the river, Governor Stuyvesant at once determined to erect another fort, and to raze Fort Nassau, which "lay too high up." This new fort, named Casimir, was erected about a league from Fort Christina, and its site was within the limits of the present town of New Castle. Governor Printz, having been accustomed to an active military life, became wearied of his position, and requested permission to return to Sweden. 1653. Not waiting for the arrival of his successor, he sailed for his native country in October, 1653, leaving his son-in-law, John Pappegoys, in charge of the government. The interval between the departure of the old Governor and the arrival of the new one did not exceed five or six months, and Pappegoya also returned to Sweden the following year. The commission of John Claudius Rysingh, the successor of Printz, bears BERKS COUNTY. BY J. LAWRENCE GETZ, READING. ERKS county (named after Berkshire in England, where the Penn family held large landed estates) was originally formed from parts of Philadelphia county east of the river Schuylkill, and from parts of M Chester and Lancaster west of the same river, by an act of the General Assembly, approved March 11th, 1752, by the Hon. James Hamilton, Governor of the Province. By the same act, Edward Scull, of Philadelphia county, Benjamin Lightfoot, of Chester, and Thomas Cookson, of Lancaster, were appointed commissioners to run the boundary lines. Its subdivisions at that BERKS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, READING. [From a Photograph by Saylor, Reading.] time consisted of sixteen townships, of which Albany, Alsace, Amity, Colebrookdale, Douglass, Exeter, Hereford, and Oley, were taken from Philadelphia county; Bern, Bethel, Caernarvon, Cumru, Heidelberg, Robeson, and Tulpehocken, from Lancaster county; and Union township from Chester county. Berks was reduced to its present limits by annexing the extreme northern part to Northumberland, 1772; and by the erection of Schuylkill county out of an additional northern part of its territory, 1811. It is bounded on the north by Schuylkill; on the north-east by Lehigh; on the south-east by Montgomery and Chester; and on the south-west by Lancaster and Lebanon. Average length, 32 miles; breadth, 28 miles; area, 927 square miles, embracing 593,280 acres. By the petition which was presented to the General Assembly, February 4th, 378 BERKS COUNTY 1752, asking for the erection of a county to be called Berks, the population of the territory included within the then proposed limits was estimated at seven thousand. By the several decennial censuses of the United States government, taken from 1790 to 1870, inclusive, the population of the county was enumerated as follows: 1790, 30,179; 1800, 32,407; 1810, 43,146; 1820, 46,275; 1830, 53,152; 1840, 64,569; 1850, 77,129; 1860, 93,818; 1870, 106,701; 1876 (estimated), 120,000. The topographical features of the county are diversified. Broad fertile plains and valleys intermingle with rough hills and mountains incapable of cultivation by the plow. But as compensation for the sterile surface of the latter, many of them contain enormous mineral wealth in the shape of iron, which awaits development, and will yet become the source of incalculable profit to the future inheritors of the soil. The southern portion of the county is traversed in a south-westerly course by the South mountain range, here and there broken into irregular spurs. In the northern part there are several elevated ridges. The Kittatinny or Blue mountain forms the boundary line between Berks and Schuylkill. The principal stream in Berks county is the river Schuylkill (" hidden creek "), so named by the Dutch, who were the first explorers of this region. and who, it is said, in their explorations of the Delaware river, passed the mouth of the Schuylkill without perceiving its existence. The Indian name of the river was Man-ai-unk. It rises in the carboniferous highlands of Schuylkill county, and flowing in a south-easterly direction, breaks through the Blue ridge at Port Clinton, and flows down by Hamburg, and passing Reading, becomes the dividing line between the counties of Montgomery and Chester a few miles above Pottstown. Several of its large tributaries flow through Berks county, the principal one of which is the Tulpehocken creek, rising in Lebanon county, and flowing E.S.E., empties into the Schuylkill near Reading. The Maiden creek, another tributary, rises in the north-eastern part of the county, and flows into the Schuylkill six miles above Reading. The Manatawny rises in the south-eastern part of the county, and empties into the Schuylkill at Pottstown. There are several smaller streams in the county, viz.: Saucony, a branch of the Maiden creek; Northkill, which empties into the Tulpehocken near Bernville; Cacoosing and Spring creeks, which are branches of the Tulpehocken; and Allegheny and Monocasy creeks, emptying into the Schuylkill below Reading. The Little Swatara rises at the foot of the Blue mountain, and flows in a southwesterly direction, through Lebanon county, and unites with the Great Swatara near Jonestown. These streams furnish ample water power for mills, furnaces, forges, and other manufactories. The agricultural resources of Berks are very large, and the county ranks in this respect as the third in the State, being excelled only by Chester and Lan caster. The soil generally (with the exceptions noted on a preceding page) is of good quality, and under thorough culture. One-third is fertile limestone land, very productive in wheat and other cereals. In the southern part the red shale formation prevails. Well cultivated fields in every section testify to both the fertility of the soil and the persevering industry of the large rural popula tion which is principally engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1870 the total 379 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. estimated value of all farm productions, including betterments and additions to stock, was $9,150,789. The surplus agricultural products are sent principally to the markets of Philadelphia, New York, and the Schuylkill coal regions. The chief mineral wealth of Berks consists in iron ore, which occurs in various parts of the county. At Mount Pleasant, in Colebrookdale township; in Oley township; at Boyertown; at Moselem, in Richmond township; and at several other points, beds of good quality of ore are profitably worked. The products of these mines form the principal supply for the numerous furnaces in the county. An approximate idea of the extent and productive value of the various manufactories of iron in Berks county is given in the following table, compiled from the census of 1870, which contains the only reliable data accessible to the writer: SValue of MANUFACTORIES. Capital. Wages. materials Products. AE consumed. Bloomeries..... 3 16 $62,500 $5,133 $40,415 $59,220 Forged and rolled... 19 1,027 2,199,659 581,260 2,196,684 2,983,755 Bolts, nuts, etc... 2 26 110,000 13,564 52,309 71,000 Nails and spikes... 3 140 180,000 66,250 288,472 383,500 Wrought tubes.... 1 241 750,000 108,410 437,206 569,634 Pig iron...... 17 1,244 2,378,600 332,945 1,415,166 2,041,025 Castings, all kinds... 15 492 626,500 211,623 403,890 718,559 Machinery (not specified) 6 68 72,990 23,090 14,480 68,750 Engines and boilers.. 3 112 95,500 40,600 42,350 107,640 Total....... 69 3,366 $6,475,749 $1,382,875 $4,890,972 $7,003,083 PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES OF THE COUNTY OTHER THAN IRON. oMANUFACTORIES. Capital. Wages. mValue of Products. materials. Canal boats..... 3 121 $59,500 $46,470 $106,401 $155,801 Boots and shoes... 11 177 70,900 60,150 89,622 170,417 Bricks....... 29 386 191,160 81,416 97,915 260,110 Carriages and wagons. 54 185 67,950 40,846 44,064 137,233 Clothing...... 59 307 88,375 54,647 137,143 228,801 Cotton goods.... 5 341 198,400 77,450 175,574 299,550 Flouring mill products. 63 154 557,550 29,555 1,127,265 1,308,233 Hats and caps.... 16 432 391,188 177,460 458,299 951,880 Leather tanned.... 38 1J3 180,765 26,191 281,499 348,564 Do. curried... 39 7I 111,525 15,777 250,961 314,831 Malt liquors..... 5 66 421,000 36,720 150,715 257,679 Sash, doors, and blinds. 6 130 56,500 61,417 112,852 211,861 Cigars....... 38 282 89,500 49,910 86,198 196,543 Woolen goods.... 13 227 197,780 57,473 158,795 285,435 380 BERKS COUNTY. The number of manufacturing establishments of all descriptions in Berks county, as returned by the census of 1870, was 1,440. Total number of hands employed, 8,991; capital invested, $11,182,603; wages paid annually, $2,711,231; materials consumed, $10,646,049; value of products, $16,243,453. Estimated value in 1875, being 50 per centum added, $24,365,179. It has been the fashion with writers for the press, for the most part unacquainted with the history and character of the inhabitants of Berks county, to represent them as an ignorant people, inimical to education. To such an extent has this misrepresentation been carried, that, up to a very recent period, the "Dumb Dutch " of Berks had become a by-word of reproach against this people indiscriminately. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In every settlement of Berks county, from the earliest dates, the school house was reared contemporaneously with the church; secular education went hand in hand with religious instruction, and the schoolmaster was regarded as second only to the pastor in the importance of his functions. It is true that the Germans of Berks county, with their characteristic jealousy of all innovations upon their established customs and institutions, were slow to adopt the provisions of the common school law of Pennsylvania, which they looked upon with suspicion, as an attempt by the State to usurp authority in a matter which they believed to belong exclusively to themselves as a local and domestic regulation of which they were best qualified to have the control. Whether right or wrong in this view is no longer a question of practical importance. Suffice it to say that, when the school system came to be fairly understood, it was readily accepted and faithfully administered, and in no county in the State do its operations and results to-day present a more gratifying exhibit. Exclusive of the city of Reading, the county is sub-divided into fifty school districts, with four hundred and twenty-five schools, which are kept open upon an average of six months in the year. The number of teachers employed during the school year just closed was 430; average number of pupils in attendance, 12,374. The annual taxation of the people for the support of these schools amounts to nearly $105,000, and no tax is more willingly paid. The school houses are all substantially built, and many of them have been constructed after the most improved models of school architecture. The earliest internal improvements which brought Berks county into direct communication with other sections of the State were the three great turnpike roads, namely, the Reading and Perkiomen, from Philadelphia to Reading, fiftytwo miles; the Centre, an extension of the former, from Reading to Sunbury, eighty-two miles; and the Berks and Dauphin, from Reading to Harrisburg, fifty-two miles. These highways have been preserved in good repair at a very small annual expenditure, and attest the wisdom and engineering skill of the old surveyors by whom they were constructed. The turnpikes were succeeded by the canals, of which the Union canal is the oldest, having been projected in 1821, and opened to navigation in 1826. It commences at Middletown, on the Susquehanna, and enters the Schuylkill at Reading. The Schuylkill canal, although projected at a later date, was completed about the same time. It extends from Port Carbon, in the Schuylkill coal region, follows the course of the river down through Reading, and terminates at Fairmount, Philadelphia. Its whole length SHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. is one hundred and eight miles. It is now operated, under lease, by the Reading railroad company. The county is intersected by railroads in almost every direction, chief of which is the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, completed through from Philadelphia to Pottsville, ninety-three miles, in 1842. All the other lines of railway, with one exception, although constructed by independent companies, have now passed under the control of that great corporation, either by consolidation or lease. The Lebanon Valley branch, from Reading to Harrisburg, fifty-four miles, connects with the Pennsylvania railroad at the latter city. The East Pennsylvania branch, from Reading to Allentown, thirty-six miles, connects with the Lehigh Valley railroad at that station, and forms a link in what is known as the Allentown route from New York to the West. The Reading and Columbia, and Lancaster branch, forty miles, connects at Columbia with railways to York and Port Deposit. The Berks and Lehigh branch, forty-three miles, from Reading to Slatington, connects at that point with the Lehigh Valley railroad. The other branches are the Colebrookdale, twelve miles, from Pottstown to Barto, and the Kutztown, four and one-half miles, from Topton to Kutztown, which are elsewhere noticed. The exception referred to is the Wilmington and Reading railroad, sixty-four miles, connecting with the Pennsylvania railroad at Coatesville, and with the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroad at Wilmington. The South Mountain and Boston railroad, now under construction, and a portion of the Pennsylvania division of which has been graded, passes in a direct line from east to west, through the northern portion of Berks county, along the fertile valley of the Tulpehocken. This road will extend from the Susquehanna river, near Harrisburg, on the south-west, in a north-easterly course to the Hudson river, opposite Poughkeepsie, New York. When completed, it will form a connection with Reading by means of the Straustown branch, twenty miles in length, from the main line which takes Straustown in its route. This branch passes through the borough of Bernville. The first settlements within the present limits of Berks county were made between the years 1704 to 1712, by some English members of the Society of Friends, French Huguenots, and German emigrants from the Palatinate, in Wahlink, or Oley, a name which signifies, in the Indian tongue, "a tract of land encompassed by hills." Among the Friends who first domiciled here were Arthur Lee and George Boone, the ancestor of Daniel Boone, the famous pioneer of Kentucky. Prominent among the first German settlers at or near Oley was Hans Keim, the ancestor of the Keim family of Reading. The Huguenots who settled in Berks first endeavored to find a home in New York. Abraham De Turek, of Oley, one of their descendants, in a letter dated March, 1844, to I. D. Rupp, author of the " History of Berks County," wrote: "My ancestor, Isaac Turk, or De Turck, lived in France, and being a Huguenot, was obliged to flee to Frankenthal in the Palatinate. He emigrated to America in the days of Queen Anne (1709), settled in the State of New York, in the neighborhood of Esopus, and removed to Oley 1712. The patent of my land is dated 1712." About 1714 or 1715, a few Swedes settled in Amity township. There still 382 BERKS COUNTY. stands a relic of this settlement-a two story house, built of the native sandstone, on the east bank of the Schuylkill, at the village of Douglassville, in the front wall of which there is a stone bearing the initials and date "I. M. I., 1716." A settlement was begun in Tulpehocken, in 1723, by some Germans who had fled from the Palatinate in 1708 or 1709, and taken refuge in England at the invitation of Queen Anne. In December, 1709, three thousand of these refugees embarked at London in ten ships for New York. Nearly one-half of them perished on the voyage. The survivors arrived at New York in June, 1710, and settled at various points on the Hudson. In the winter of 1712-13, about fifty families took up lands and established their homes on the Scoharie, within the limits of the present county of Scoharie. Others soon joined them there, and after encountering the various trials and hardships incident to the immigrant for several years, they brought much of the land under culture, and founded flourishing hamlets in the midst of rich fields of corn and productive gardens. But while rejoicing in the prospect of peace and prosperity, they were suddenly notified that the lands which they had improved belonged to the State, and that they must relinquish them to the lawful claimant. Submitting patiently to adverse fate, they sadly left their homes on the Scoharie for Pennsylvania, where they found an asylum among the Indians. Piloted by a friendly Indian, in the spring of 1723, they finally reached the head of the Tulpehocken creek, and settled on Indian lands about eighteen miles west of Reading. Having provided temporary shelter for their wives and children, their next care was to send deputies to Lieutenant-Governor Keith, to ask permission to settle on the Tulpehocken creek. He granted their petition on condition that they would, as soon as possible, make full satisfaction to the Proprietary or his agent, for such lands as should be allotted them. A few years later, fifty other families removed from the Scoharie to Tulpehocken. This new accession aroused the hostility of the natives. At a council, held June 5, 1728, in Philadelphia, in the presence of a large audience, one of the chiefs, Allummapees, otherwise Sassoonan, king of the Delawares, plaintively alluded to the encroachments upon his people which had been made by the Germans. In addressing James Logan, president of the council, he said: " I am now an old man and must soon die; my children may wonder to see their father's lands gone from them, without receiving anything for them, and they left with no place of their own to live on. This may occasion a difference between their children and us hereafter. I would willingly prevent any misunderstanding that may happen." In 1729 there was another accession of Palatines, prominent among whom was Conrad Weiser, who afterwards played an important part in the colonial history of Berks county. To quiet and fully satisfy the Indians, Thomas Penn, son of the Proprietary of Pennsylvania, purchased the lands in this region from the Indians in 1732, and from him the settlers derived valid titles to the lands they occupied. But the attempts to preserve peace between the German settlers of Berks county and the Indians were all unavailing. To relate in detail all the atrocities committed by the natives from 1744 to 1764, would exceed the compass of this limited sketch. In 1744, when war was declared between Great 383 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Britain and France, the latter easily succeeded in exciting the hostility of the Indians against the English, and the French found them not only willing but eager to join them in their acts of plunder and rapine. Soon after Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne, in July, 1755, the Indians made marauding incursions into Berks county from the direction of the Blue mountain. They devastated, by fire and slaughter, many parts of the county. Hundreds of houses were laid in ashes, hundreds of persons were scalped and slain, and many, without distinction as to age or sex, were taken captives by the savages, and subjected to tortures from which death was a blessed release. Conrad Weiser, who was then commander of the Provincial forces in Berks, wrote numerous letters which are still in existence, to Lieutenant-Governor Morris, giving thrilling accounts of the deplorable condition of the settlements. In one letter, dated the latter part of 1755, he wrote: " This country is in a dismal condition. It can't hold out long. Consternation, poverty, confusion everywhere." Alarms of this kind continued in Berks and other counties till 1778, when the Indians were finally driven beyond the Allegheny mountains. Although the first settlers of Berks county were chiefly Germans, the colonial records show that emigrants of other European nationalities also sought and found homes here. Reference has been made to the settlements of Friends and French Huguenots in Oley, and of Swedes in Amity. Besides these, there were settlements of Huguenots in Alsace township, contiguous to Reading, and in Greenwich, on the border of Lehigh county; in Bern, of Swiss; in Brecknock, Caernarvon, and Cumru, of Welsh; in Maiden Creek, of Friends; in Robeson, of Friends, English, and Welsh; and in Union, of Swedes, English, and Welsh. A few Dutch families settled in Pike township, about 1730, and their descendants still reside there upon the ancestral estates. John Pott, a descendant of one of these families, built the first furnace in Pottsville, and gave the name to the town, which has since become the great depot of the Schuylkill coal region. He is also credited with having been the discoverer of the utility of anthracite coal. Hereford township, in the extreme eastern corner of the county bordering upon Montgomery and Lehigh, was settled principally by " Schwenkfelders," a religious sect founded by Kaspar von Schwenkfeld, a nobleman of Silesia. His adherents were persecuted by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, and in 1734 a considerable number of them emigrated to Pennsylvania, and settled on contiguous lands in Berks, Montgomery, and Lehigh. Their descendants in these counties still number about three hundred families and eight hundred members, and have five churches and schoolhouses. The inhabitants of Berks, being for the most part composed of immigrants, and the descendants of immigrants, who had either been driven from or voluntarily left their native country to escape from civil oppression or religious persecution, it was natural that they should have been among the first to espouse the cause of the Colonies in resisting the usurpations of the British Crown. In June, 1775, after the first blood had been shed for American freedom in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, the Assembly, in session at Philadelphia, recommended to the commissioners and assessors of Berks county " to immediately provide four hundred firelocks with bayonets, cartridge boxes with twenty-three rounds of 384 BERKS COUNTY. cartridges in every box, and knapsacks for the immediate use of drafted soldiers." This recommendation was promptly adopted. At a meeting held at Reading, January 2, 1776, Edward Biddle, Jonathan Potts, Mark Bird, Christopher Schultz, John Patton, Sebastian Levan, and Baltzer Gehr, were appointed delegates to a convention, held at Philadelphia, January 22, 1776, to devise measures for effectual resistance to the mother country; and Edward Biddle, Jonathan Potts, William Rehrer, Christopher Witman, and Mark Bird, were constituted a committee of correspondence. When, on July 4, 1776, the delegates of the "Associators of Pennsylvania " met at Lancaster, to choose two brigadier-generals to command the battalions and forces of Pennsylvania, Berks county was represented by Colonels Bird, Patton, and Levan; Majors Gabriel Hiester, Jones, Lindemuth, and Lceffler; Lieutenants Cremer, Lutz, Rice, and Miller; Adjutant S. Eby; Captains Keim and May; and privates Hartman, Filbert, Morgan, Tolbert, Spohn, Wenrich, Moser, Seltzer, Winter, Lerch, Wister, and Smack. While this convention was being held, the representatives in Congress unanimously declared the thirteen Colonies free and independent States. This act gave an impetus to the struggle which induced the patriots of Berks to make common cause with their brethren already in arms, by enlisting for active service whenever their country should call them into the field. During the winter of 1776-'77, when the British were in possession of Philadelphia, Reading was the resort of many fugitive families from the metropolis, and it is related that, notwithstanding the gloomy prospects of the army under Washington, the little town became the scene of much gaiety. The society of the refugees received accessions of visitors from time to time-officers of the army, and others, who found relief from the contemplation of the common suffering in card parties, balls, sleighing excursions, and kindred pleasures. General Mifflin (afterwards Governor of the Commonwealth) held a country-seat named "Angelica," three miles south-east of Reading, which subsequently became the property of the county, and is now occupied by the alms-house and county hospital buildings. He was out of command in the army at this time, and was residing here. It was during this dark interval of the war that Reading became the head-quarters of the " Conway Cabal," which had for its object the deposition of Washington as Commander-in-Chief, and the substitution of General Gates. General Mifflin was, for a time, a leading spirit among these malcontents, but subsequently regretted the step he had taken, apologized for his conduct, and was restored to favor. During the same period, a body of Hessian prisoners, who had been captured at Trenton in December, 1776, together with some British, and the principal Scotch Royalists who had been captured in North Carolina, were brought to Reading, and confined in a sort of rude barracks on Penn's Mount, east of the town, where they remained some time. To protect themselves against the inclemency of the winter, they built huts from the stones which they found there in great abundance, the ruins of which may still be traced by the curious antiquary. These prisoners were under the command of Captain Philip Miller, of Reading, who fought in the battle of Trenton. At the beginning of the year 1777, the number of available efficient men in 385 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Berks was reported at about four thousand. On the 5th and 6th days of May, in that year, they met at convenient places to elect field officers, and formed themselves into companies and classes, agreeably to law. July 28, 1777, the Council of Safety at Philadelphia, in the exigency of affairs, when the invasion of Pennsylvania by the British was apprehended, ordered Colonel Jacob Morgan, of Berks, forthwith to embody one class of the militia of the county and send them to Chester. The command was promptly complied with, the militia exhibiting the warmest zeal in the cause upon which the future fate of the American States depended. Some of the inhabitants, however, here as elsewhere, were not equally zealous, assigning as a reason for not responding to the call, that they were unprovided with arms, ammunition, and other necessaries. In August following, a second class of the militia of Berks were ordered out, the force, including officers and privates, aggregating six hundred and fifty-six "hearty and able men." In November, the fifth and sixth classes were notified to appear at Reading, with all the arms, accoutrements, and blankets they could procure. There was at this time a great want of arms and ammunition. In this exigency, proper persons were appointed by the commissioners to go from house to house to collect arms, blankets, and whatever could be made available for the service, and forward them to the commissioners. In July, 1780, a requisition was made upon Berks to furnish, monthly, six hundred barrels of flour, six hundred tons of forage, two hundred horses, and twenty wagons. The last order from the Council of Safety was issued September 11, 1781, for three classes of the militia of Berks county. This, as well as the several previous requisitions, both for men and munitions of war, as well as for supplies for subsistence, were promptly complied with. During the entire period of the Revolutionary struggle, from 1775 to 1783, Pennsylvania furnished 29,555 " effective men." Of these, 7,357 were militia, and 22,198 were regular Continental troops. Of this number Berks county furnished its full quota. In the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, the town of Reading furnished a company of volunteers to aid in subduing the malcontents in the west. In the war of 1812-14, Berks county furnished two full regiments of militia and volunteers, which constituted the Second Brigade Pennsylvania Militia, under command of General John Addams, of Reading. Jeremiah Shappell and John Lotz were Colonels of the First and Second regiments respectively. The captains of the several companies were: George Zieber, Jacob Marshall, Thomas Moore, John Mauger, George Marx, George Ritter, Jonathan Jones, Henry Willotz, John May, John Christian, Gabriel Old, Daniel De B. Keim, and William Hain. These troops marched to the defence of Baltimore in the fall of 1814, when that city was threatened by the British, and remained in camp there until the conclusion of peace. When war was declared between the United States and Mexico (1846) three companies of volunteers were recruited in Reading and the vicinity, and tendered their services to the government. Only one of them was accepted, the Reading Artillerists, Captain Thomas S. Leoser, which became Company A of 386 BERKS COUNTY the Second Pennsylvania regiment, and did gallant service under General Scott in all the engagements from Vera Cruz to the capture of the city of Mexico. In the late war of the rebellion Berks county attested her devotion to the cause of the Union by sending into the field forty-eight full companies of volunteers, who served in various regiments, chiefly in the Army of the Potomac, and many of these gallant men, officers and privates, yielded up their lives a willing sacrifice upon the altar of their country. In every sanguinary engagement of the campaign their names were found in the list of killed, wounded, and prisoners. The future historian will do justice to their memories. The drafts of 1863, which were obnoxious to the people of many districts and resisted in some, met with no obstacles to their enforcement here, and two full regiments of drafted men were obtained, who willingly submitted to the decrees of war, and faithfully served out the term for which they were recruited. It deserves to be noted here that the Ringgold Light Artillery of Reading, Captain James McKnight, was the first company that reported at Harrisburg in response to President Lincoln's proclamation of April 15, 1861, calling for 75,000 men, and was one of the five Pennsylvania companies that first arrived at Washington for the defence of the Capital. The territorial subdivisions of Berks consist of the city of Reading, eight boroughs and forty-one townships. The following table gives the date of formation, population, and valuation of taxable property of each: 0 DISTRICTS. 2 E- Valuation DISTRICTS. P C Valuation Albany, 1752 1,510 $1,048,365 Jefferson, 1851 1,133 858,405 Alsace, 1752 1,294 882,273 Kutztown (bor.), 1815 1,045 572,643 Amity, 1752 1,646 1,465,158 Longswamp, 1759 2,910 1,310,366 Bern, 1752 2,124 1,501,092 Maiden Creek, 1752 1,615 1,803,966 Bern, Upper, 1821 2,008 1,774,227 Marion, 1843 1,440 1,641,957 Bernville (bor.), 1850 457 220,053 Maxatawny, 1752 2,531 2,863,344 Bethel, 1752 2,285 1,898,955 Muhlenberg, 1850 1,547 1,626,228 Birdsboro (bor.) 1872 *1,000 660,066 Oley, 1752 1,986 2,875,161 Boyertown (bor.), 1866 690 602,619 Ontelaunee, 1850 1,339 1,382,259 Brecknock, 1752 813 534,990 Penn, 1841 1,515 1,243,998 Caernarvon, 1752 927 797,125 Perry, 1849 1,680 1,282,035 Centre, 1842 1,529 1,405,590 Pike, 1813 925 480,177 Colebrookdale, 1752 1,660 1,107,981 Reading, 1783 33,930 34,700,000 Cumru, 1752 2,573 1,785,877 Richmond, 1752 2,874 2,067,936 District, 1759 724 503,358 Robeson, 1752 2,458 1,260,o37 Douglass, 1752 1,072 813,555 Rockland, 1759 1,451 967,170 Earl, 1781 1,022 516,135 Ruscomb Manor, 1759 1,408 682,974 Exeter, 1752 2,239 2,076,834 Spring, 1850 2,253 2,217,398 Fleetwood (bor.), 1873 *600 326,871 Topton (bor.), 1876 *400 - Greenwich, 1759 2,151 1,462,620 Tulpehocken, 1752 2,013 1,431,669 Hamburg (bor.), 1803 1,590 773,106 Tulpehocken, U., 1820 1,196 845,865 Heidelberg, 1752 1,193 1,601,625 Union, 1752 2,165 1,109,625 Heidelberg, Lo'r, 1842 2,480 2,302,926 Washington, 1839 1,609 1,483,221 Heidelberg, N'th, 1842 979 772,660 Windsor, 1759 1,211 683,094 Hereford, 1752 1,260 1,277,904 Womelsdorf(bo.), 1837 1,031 531,699 * Estimated population, 1876. HAMBURG was settled as early as 1720, by emigrants from the free State of 387 GENERAL HISTORY. date the 12th December, 1653. Arriving in New Sweden towards the end of May, on board the ship Aren, Rysingh commenced his administration by capturing the Dutch Fort Casimir, in direct violation of his instructions. With its capture, the authority of the Dutch on the river, for the time being, was suspended. The engineer, Peter Lindstrom, who constructed the first map of New Sweden, and who came to the country with Rysingh, caused this fort to be greatly strengthened. lie also laid out the town of Christina, back of the fort of that name. On the 17th of June, a great convocation of Indians was held at Printz Hall, on Tinicum, at which it was offered, on behalf of the Queen of Sweden, 1654. to renew the ancient league of friendship that subsisted between them and the Swedes, who had purchased from them the lands they occupied. The Indians complained that the Swedes had brought much evil up )n them, for many of them had died since their coming into the country; whereupon a considerable number of presents were distributed among the Indians, which brought about a conference among themselves. The result was a speech from one of their chiefs, Naaman, in which he rebuked his companions for having spoken evil of the Swedes, and told them he hoped they would do so no more, for the Swedes were very good people. "Look," said he, pointing to the presents, " what they have brought to us, for which they desire our friendship." " Afterwards he thanked the Swedes for their presents, and promised that friendship should be observed more strictly between them than it had been before; that if any one should attempt to do any harm to the Indians, the Swedes should immediately inform them of it; and, on the other hand, the Indians would give immediate notice to the Christians of any plot against them, even if it were in the middle of the night. On this they were answered, that that would be, indeed, a true and lasting friendship, if every one would agree to it; on which they gave a general shout in token of consent. Immediately on this the great guns were fired, which highly delighted the natives. After advising that some Swedes should be settled at Passyunk, where there lived a great number of Indians, they expressed the wish that the title to the land which the Swedes purchased should be confirmed, on which the agreements were read to them, word for word. When those who had signed the deeds heard their names they appeared to rejoice, but when the names were read of those who were dead they hung their heads in sorrow." The recorded proceedings of this treaty with the aborigines have come down to us through Campanius, and it is conclusive evidence that the Swedes had purchased from the Indians the lands then occupied by them; and the fact that one of the principal chiefs was a party to this transaction, renders it a certainty that the former purchase of the Swedes had been made from "the right owners," the pretensions of Stuyvesant to the contrary. Campanius informs us that the treaty thus so solemnly made between the Swedes and Indians " has ever been faithfully observed by both sides." The affairs of the Swedes on the Delaware were now approaching a crisis, but nothing had occurred to arouse the suspicions of the home government. The triumph of Rysingh was regarded as a re-conquest of usurped territory, and no other means to reclaim it by the Dutch were apprehended. This was a fatal HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Hamburg, Germany, and hence when incorporated as a borough, it was appropriately so named. It is beautifully situated on the east bank of the Schuylkill river, sixteen miles north-east of Reading, and has become one of the principal stations on the Philadelphia and Reading railroad between Reading and Pottsville. The projected South Mountain railroad will span the Schuylkill at this point, and run through the northern portion of the town. It has considerable trade and manufactures, and contains many fine buildings, including five churches and three large school houses. KUTZTOWN was settled by Germans about the year 1733. It is situated on the old post road between Reading and Easton, seventeen miles north-east of Reading. It is now connected with the East Pennsylvania branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad at Topton station, by a branch of the (uncompleted) Allentown railroad. Since 1860 Kutztown has increased rapidly in population and business. It is now the most flourishing borough in the county. The Keystone State normal school is located upon a commanding site overlooking the town, and is one of the finest educational institutions in the country. It consists of a central building of simple, but imposing, architectural proportions, crowned with a tower and flanked by wings, the whole presenting a front of two hundred and forty feet. The surrounding grounds have been beautifully improved with parterres of grass and shrubbery, with walks shaded by numerous trees. The main building was originally the " Maxatawny seminary," which was enlarged to its present dimensions during the years 1865-'66. September 13, 1866, the school was officially recognized as the State Normal School of the Third District of Pennsylvania. It has boarding accommodations for three hundred, and school accommodations for four hundred, students. The number of students enrolled in the catalogue of 1875 was five hundred and sixteen, of whom four hundred and seventy-one were males. The whole cost of the buildings and grounds was about $85,000. WOMELSDORF was settled in 1723, by some of the German families who had originally found homes in Scoharie county, New York, but were. obliged to surrender their lands there in consequence of defective titles. It was laid out as a town by John Wommelsdorff, from whom it derived its name. It is situated near the Tulpehocken creek, on the Berks and Dauphin turnpike road, fourteen miles west of Reading. Conrad Weiser settled near Womelsdorf in 1729, and his remains were interred there in the family burying-ground, which is still preserved intact as a venerated spot. Up to the date of its incorporation as a borough, Womelsdorf was included in Heidelberg township. The Bethany Orphans' Home, founded by the Reformed church, is situated in a beautiful grove of eighty-eight acres of land, near Womelsdorf station on the Lebanon Valley branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, about half a mile south of the borough. The building is large and commodious, and is abundantly supplied with the purest water from the South Mountain spring. Previous to the purchase of the property for the Home, in 1868, it was known as "Manderbach's Springs," and was much frequented by strangers as a summer resort. There is a tradition among the inhabitants of Womelsdorf that Washington tarried there over night, in October, 1794, on his way to take command of the troops who had rendezvoused at Carlisle to march to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection in 388 BERKS COUNTY. Western Pennsylvania, and that, on this occasion, accompanied by General Joseph Hiester and other persons of note, he visited the grave of Conrad. Weiser. BIRDSBORO, formerly included in Robeson township, is a flourishing manufacturing town on the Schuylkill, eight miles south-east of Reading. It is an important station on the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, and the Wilmington and Reading railroad. The extensive iron works of Messrs. E. & G. Brooke, consisting of furnaces, rolling mill, and nail factory, are situated here, and make it the centre of a large trade. It has several fine churches and many elegant private residences. BOYERTOWN, set off from Colebrookdale township, is situated on the Colebrookdale railroad, about eight miles from Pottstown, where the latter connects with the - Philadelphia and Reading road. Its inhabitants are prin- _ cipally interested in the min- _ing of iron ore, large deposits of rich magnetic ore lying in ___ the immediate vicinity, some of the veins of which extend under a portion of the ground - on which the town has been I built. The Colebrookdale iron works, two miles distant, are engaged extensively in the manufacture of castings of various kinds, principally wagonboxes and sad-irons. Boyertown contains two large academies and boarding schools, and is a favorite summer resort for Philadelphians. FLEETWOOD, set off from... riRichmond township, is a station on the East Pennsylvania THE OLD HAIN'S CHURCH, NEAR WERNERSVILLE. [branch of the Reading railroad, From a Photograph by Leaman & Lee, Reading.] branch of the Reading railroad, eleven miles east of Reading, and since the completion of that road in 1858, has grown into a thriving manufacturing town. BERNVILLE is situated on the Union canal, fourteen miles north-west from Reading. It has an industrious population, and several manufacturing establish ments of note. The South Mountain railroad, now in process of construction, will pass through the borough, which will give a new impetus to the business of the vicinity. TOPTON, the youngest borough in the county, set off from Longswamp town ship, February 12, 1876, is situated eighteen miles north-east of Reading, on the East Pennsylvania railroad, at its junction with the Kutztown branch. 389 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. LEESPORT, on the Schuylkill river, and also a station on the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, nine miles north of Reading, is a flourishing village. A large anthracite furnace, owned by the Leesport Iron company, is in operation here. MORGANTOWN, a village in Caernarvon township on the Conestoga turnpike road, thirteen miles south from Reading, was settled about 1740, by emigrants from North Wales, principally workers in iron, and is one of the few places in Berks county where the German language has never prevailed. It was named after its founder, Colonel Jacob Morgan, a distinguished soldier of the Revolutionary war, and is noted as the birthplace of many men who have become prominent in the public affairs of the country, among whom may be named the Hon. J. Glancy Jones, ex-Member of Congress and Minister to Austria, and the Hon. Hiester Clymer, ex-State Senator and now Member of Congress. The first inhabitant of Caernarvon was David Jones, a Welsh iron-master, who purchased about one thousand acres of land in 1735, and was the first to successfully develop the iron industry of Pennsylvania. The mines now known as "Jones's Mine Holes," are upon a portion of the original purchase of this pioneer, and for many years were a source of wealth to him and his descendants. An old mansion is still standing on the turnpike, two miles from Morgantown, which was built in 1752 by his son, Jonathan Jones, who afterwards had a colonel's commission in the Revolutionary army. These were the ancestors of the Hon. J. Glancy Jones. VIRGINSVILLE, hitherto an obscure village in Richmond township, four miles from Kutztown, has become a place of note since the discovery, in 1871, of a remarkable natural curiosity now known as the " Crystal Cave." This subterranean wonder was disclosed by some men engaged in quarrying stone, and is regarded with admiration by all who have examined it. The cave is of vast dimensions, and crystal formations of every shape and color are found within its recesses. Chief among these is a splendid wing-shaped brace of pendants hanging from a lofty projection, and most appropriately named the "Angel's Wings." A large hotel has been built near the cave, and since the village has become a railroad station by the completion of the Berks and Lehigh road, numerous strangers and parties of pleasure visit the place during the summer season. The whole territory of Berks county is dotted with numerous villages, beautiful in situation, thriving in business, and delightful as rural retreats; but it is the province of the gazetteer rather than the historian to describe them. CUMRU township is entitled to notice under this head, as being the seat of the county almshouse and hospital buildings, upon a large and highly cultivated farm of over five hundred acres, which was formerly the property of Governor Thomas Mifflin, and where he resided during his intervals of retirement from the public duties of his eventful life. The new hospital for the insane, completed in 1875, is a large and commodious structure, in which all the modern appliances for the comfort and relief of this afflicted class have been introduced. An average of five hundred inmates are subsisted here, mainly from the products of the farm. It is easily accessible from the city, from which it is three miles distant, over an excellent macadamized road. READING, the seat of justice of Berks county, was named after the ancient 390 BERKS COUNTY. boiough of Reading and market-town of Berkshire in England, whibch it is said to resemble in some of its geographical environs. It was laid out in the fall of 1748, by the agents of Richard and Thomas Penn, then Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania. Settlers were invited to it "as a new town of great natural advantages of location, and destined to become a prosperous place." In 1752, when the county of Berks was erected, and Reading was made the capital, it contained 130 dwelling houses, 106 families, and 378 inhabitants. The original settlers were principally Germans, who had emigrated from Wirtemberg and the Palatinate, although a few Friends who settled here under the patronage of the Penns had control of the government prior to the Revolution. The Germans, however, being the more numerous, gave character to the town both in language and customs. For many years the German tongue was almost exclusively spoken, and it is still used in social intercourse and religious worship by a considerable portion of the present population. Reading was incorporated as a borough in 1783, and as a city in 1847. It is beautifully situated on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill river, fifty-two miles east (fifty-four by railroad) of Harrisburg, and fifty-two miles north-west (fifty eight by railroad) of Philadelphia. It is built upon a plain sloping gently from Penn's Mount, an eminence on the eastern side, to the river, which gives it great natural facilities for drainage. The streets are wide and well graded, and generally intersect each other at right angles, and form in their course almost exact indices of the cardinal points of the compass. Reading is abundantly supplied with pure water from various mountain streams which have been from time to time conducted into reservoirs on Penn's Mount, and thence distributed throughout the city. The first spring water was introduced by the Reading water company, a private corporation, in 1822, whose property and franchises were purchased by the city in 1865, for the sum of $300,000, and since then they have been under the supervision of a board of four commissioners elected at stated terms by the city councils. The Reading gas company was chartered in 1848. The works are situated on the Schuylkill canal, at the foot of Fifth street. The present boundaries of Reading comprise an area of about four thousand acres, extending three and one-tenth miles north and south, and two and fourtenths miles east and west. Its municipal subdivisions consist of eleven wards, nearly equal in territorial extent and population, each of which elects one member of the select council for a term of three years, and four members of common council (or more, according to the ratio of taxable inhabitants) for a term of two years. The mayor is elected biennially, and has the appointment of the police force of the city, which now consists of a chief, one lieutenant, two sergeants, and thirty-five patrolmen, subject to confirmation by the select council. All laws and ordinances of councils must have the approval of the mayor. Reading has an efficient volunteer fire department, consisting of ten companies-seven steam-engines, two hook-and-ladder, and one hose company-which are mainly supported by appropriations from the city treasury, at an average annual cost of $17,000. The councils have general control of the property and apparatus of the companies; and their immediate direction, when in service, is committed to a chief engineer and two assistants, who are elected annually by HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. the Firemen's Union, an incorporated body composed of delegates representing the several companies composing the department. The fire-alarm telegraph, adopted 1875, has proved of incalculable service in saving the city from destructive conflagrations, by the promptness with which the discovery of fires is signaled, and the exact indication of the locality where the services of the firemen are needed. Reading was among the first districts in the Commonwealth to accept the provisions of the Common School law of 1834, and although the progress of the new system of education was at first slow, it gradually grew into favor, until the public schools of Reading attained to a rank entitling them to be classed among the best in the State. The city now constitutes an independent school district, under special laws, and is governed by a board of controllers, composed of four members from each ward. The schools consist of a high school, in charge of a principal and eight assistants, seven grammar schools, six intermediate schools, thirteen secondary schools, and forty primaries. A corps of one hundred and thirty-two teachers are required to conduct these schools-all females except the principal of the high school and four of his assistants. The general supervision of the schools is committed to a city superintendent, elected annually by the board of controllers. Number of school-houses in 1876, twenty-two. Pupils of all grades in attendance, 7,000. Prior to 1830, the compilers of the gazetteers found nothing worthy of remark in relation to Reading, except that many of its inhabitants were engaged in the manufacture of wool hats. The hat manufacture still constitutes a branch of its productive industry, but it has been long since exceeded by other manufacturing industries, chief among which are the various products of iron although cotton and woolen goods, boots and shoes, agricultural implements, furniture, leather, bricks, carriages, and indeed almost every article that ministers to the necessity or convenience of man, are produced here for the supply of home and distant markets. The principal workshops of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company are established here, consisting of forges, rolling mills, foundries, locomotive works, car shops, and others, which give employment to about three thousand laborers and skilled mechanics. The first public buildings erected in Reading were the court house (1762), the jail (1770), and the State house (1793). The court house stood in the open square, at the intersection of Penn and Fifth streets, which was then the geographical centre of the town. It was a small two-story structure of rubble work, painted red, with nothing pretending to ornament, if we may except a diminutive belfry which contained a small bell and the town clock, the dials of which were never known w'ithin the memory of the oldest inhabitant to mark the hours correctly. There was a tradition among the " old wives," that the clock was bewitched, and that no human skill ever could make it go right. Whatever might have been the cause, the fact was so. The old court house was demolished in 1841, having been superseded in 1840 by the completion of the present court house, a large and elegant structure, composed in the Ionic order of Grecian architecture, with basement and portico of sandstone, and a cupola twenty-four feet in diameter at the base, and eighty-four feet in height above the roof. This building was enlarged a few years ago by an addition to the rear, and 392 BERKS COUNTY. now contains two spacious court rooms, commodious offices for the several county officers, a large law library room, jury rooms, vaults, etc. The old jail, a long, low, heavy two-story stone structure, built for durability, certainly if not for ornament, is still standing on the north-east corner of Fifth and Washington streets, with very little alteration in its original appearance, and is occupied for business purposes. If not disturbed by the onward march of improvement, it bids fair to endure for another century. The new county prison, designed and erected in 1846 by the celebrated architect, John Haviland, stands on a commanding site on the south-western slope of Penn's Mount, at the junction of Penn street and Perkiomen avenue. It is built of red sandstone, in the castellated THE PROVINCIAL COURT HOUSE AT READING. Erected in 1762, Demolished in 1841. [From a Drawing by F. A. Holtzwart, 1838.] Gothic style, and is a conspicuous ornament of the city, if, indeed, a penal institution can be viewed in an ornamental light. The State house, which, prior to 1840, was occupied by the public offices of the county, and as a town hall, was a plain but substantial two-story brick building, on the north-east corner of Penn and Fifth streets. It was converted into places of business after ceasing to be used for public purposes, and was destroyed by fire, January, 1872. Reading contains many other large and elegant public edifices and private mansions, which give it the appearance of a metropolitan city. Among the former are the Academy of Music, Grand Opera House, market houses, the Keystone Hall, Library Hall, City Hall, Masonic Temple, now in course of erection, St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, under the charge of the Roman Catholic Sisters 393 HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. of Charity, the diocesan school of the Protestant Episcopal church, parochial school of St. Paul's Roman Catholic church, and others. The new passenger depot of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company, in the northern section of the city, where the several branches of this great corporation connect with its main line, is, in convenience of arrangement, architectural taste, eligible location, and beautiful park-like surroundings, one of the most complete structures of the kind in the United States. It has been truly denominated "the pride of the city and the admiration of all travelers." One of the few houses of ante-revolutionary date, which still stands as a monument of the colonial era of Reading, is the two-story stone building on the north-east corner of the public square at Fifth and Penn streets, now occupied by the Farmers' National Bank. It was erected in 1764, and was originally kept as a public-house or tavern (the "hotel" is an institution of later times). Tradition -says that Washington was entertained here __ when on his way to join the troops which S_ had been called out to suppress the Whiskey --_ I_Insurrection in 1794, and this incident has . Ibeen so well authenticated that it may be . set down as a fact. The building has under gone some alterations and improvements, . but is well preserved in nearly its primitive form. The Friends were the first to make pro, vision for religious instruction in Reading. vIn 1750 they erected a meeting-house and i school-house, plain log structures, on a lot set apart for the purpose in the locality now known as the corner of Washington and Ash streets. These relics of the past cen TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH. tury have long since disappeared, and the present generation knows nothing of their existence, except from the photographs of them which have been fortunately preserved. The next house of religious worship was the German Reformed church, erected about 1762, on the site of the present large and beautiful First Reformed church on Washington street, above Sixth. The Lutheran "Church of the Trinity," on the north-west corner of Washington and Sixth streets, was erected in 1791, and, with the exception of the graceful tapering spire which rises from the tower on the western gable-end to the height of two hundred and one feet six inches, and various improvements in the interior arrangements, stands to-day almost as it stood in its original form. The Roman Catholics built a chapel here in 1791, on the east side of Seventh street, between Franklin and Chestnut, which was occupied for worship until the year 1846, when St. Peter's church, on SouthFifth street, was erected. Up to the year 1824, when the Presbyterian church was organized, the religious services of the churches were conducted exclusively in the German language. The English portion of the inhabitants, whose number was then small, assembled on every alternate Sunday, in the Reading academy, 394 BERKS COUNTY. which stood on the south-west corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets (now occupied by one of the railroad machine shops), where the Rev. John F. Grier, D.D., principal of the academy, ministered to them in their own tongue. The Episcopal church, which occupied the site of the present Christ cathedral, was erected in 1826. The Methodists, although existing as a society previous to that date, erected their first church in 1828; the Baptists about the same period; and the Universalists in 1830. Reading now contains more than thirty church edifices, of which five are Lutheran, five Reformed, four Methodist, three Presbyterian, two Protestant Episcopal, two Roman Catholic, two Baptist, and others representing the various religious denominations in the United States. The Charles Evans cemetery, founded in 1846 by a munificent donation of land and money from the late Charles Evans, - - Esq., long a distinguished member of the Berks county bar, is beautifully situated on an eminence in the northern suburb of Reading. It is adorned with an imposing front and gateway on f Centre avenue, of dark sandstone, in the pointed Gothic style, and a L 20 chapel of red freestone chapel of red freestone THE CEMETERY GATE AT READING. in the same style, de- [From a Photograph by Saylor, Reading.] signed and constructed by the late John M. Gries, of Philadelphia (a major in the Union army, killed at the battle of Fair Oaks), which is universally admired as one of the purest gems of Gothic architecture. In 1810, according to the first official census of record, Reading had a population of 3,462. During the thirty years following, its increase was very gradual, and the census of 1840 reported the number of its inhabitants at 8,392. But from that time onward it took a new departure, and the enumeration of 1850 developed the fact that it had nearly doubled its population within the preceding decade. In 1850, the little rural borough had expanded into the prosperous city of 15,743 inhabitants. Thus, in just one century from the date of the foundation of the town, the prediction of the Penns that it was "destined to become a prosperous place," was fully verified. By the census of 1870, the population was enumerated at 33,930, which may be safely estimated to have increased by this time (1876) to 40,000. To predict the future of Reading is beyond the power of human foreknowledge. Notwithstanding the prevailing depression of its manufacturing industries, resulting from the universal financial panic of 1873, the destiny of this city is assured, and should it increase in the same ratio as it has advanced in the past, a decennial addition of fifty per centum will give it a population of not less than 250,000 fifty years hence. HORSE SHOE CURVE, NEAR KITTANNING POINT, ON THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, BLAIR COUNTY. BY A. K. BELL, D.D., HOLLIDAYSBURG. LAIR COUNTY was formed from parts of Huntingdon and Bedford, by an Act of Assembly, approved the 26th day of February, 1846. The act declares that on and after the fourth Monday of July, 1846, the territory within the townships of North Woodberry and Greenfield, in the county of Bedford, and the territory within the townships of Allegheny, Antis, Snyder, Tyrone, Frankstown, Blair, Huston, Woodberry, and a portion of Morris, in the county of Huntingdon,. should constitute a new county, to be known as - _ BLAIR County. The county takes its - - -..name from John Blair, or - - rather John Blair, Jun., whose home was some four miles west of Holli - _---___ daysburg, on the Hun- -_-__ __ tingdon, Cambria, and Indiana turnpike, former- - ly known as the "North- - ern pike." He was in his day a man of mark, fore- i /_ most in every public enterprise, and well deserved the honor thus conferred upon him. Hollidaysburg was made, from the beginning, the county seat. " seat. BLAIR COUNTY COURT HOUSE. The general surface of [From the Design of the Architect, David S. Gendell.] the county is mountainous. Bounded on the west by Cambria, it takes in the eastern slope of the Allegheny mountains. It has Clearfield and Centre counties on the north, Huntingdon on the east, and Bedford on the south. It has within its borders, Brush, Canoe, Dunning's, Short, Cove, and Lock mountains, more or less, one and the same mountains, and all running north and south. These mountains are all rich in minerals, while the valleys are well watered and fertile. Iron is the principal manufacture of the county. It is an old iron region. Formerly there were a large number of small charcoal furnaces and forges. Prior 397 ID IA,B78 i 1 I~ HITS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. delusion; for at the close of 1654, while estimates were being made in Sweden for the support of their colony during the ensuing year, on a peace basis, an armament was being fitted out in Holland, not only sufficient " to replace matters on the Delaware in their former position," but " to drive out the Swedes from every side of the river." In the spring of 1655, five armed vessels, well equipped, were forwarded to Stuyvesant, with authority to charter others. The armament, when 1655. completed at New Amsterdam, consisted of seven vessels and about six hundred men. Thile expedition was commanded by Governor Stuyvesant in person, and arrived at the bay of South River on the afternoon of Monday, the 5th of September. The deserted Fort Elsingborg was visited the following day, but it was not until Friday that the fleet reached Fort Casimir, now christened Trefalldigheit, or Trinity. This post was under the immediate command of Swen Schute, "the brave and courageous lieutenant" of the Swedes, while Governor Rysingh, in person, had charge of Christina. To prevent a communication between the two forts, Stuyvesant had landed fifty men. The demand made by the Dutch was a " direct restitution of their own property," to which Commander Schute, after having had an interview with Stuyvesant, reluctantly yielded oni the following day, upon very favorable terms of capitulation. The Dutch Governor then proceeded to Fort Christina, and, after a seige of fourteen days, it also was surrendered by Rysingh; articles of capitulation were signed, according to which the Swedes were suffered to vacate the fort with flying colors, and the Governor and as many persons as might choose to accompany him, besides being allowed their private property, were offered a free passage to Sweden, whither they ultimately returned. Agreeably to special instructions from the home government, an offer was made to restore the possession of Fort Christina to Rysingh, but he declined the offer, preferring to abide by the articles of capitulation. Thus ended, on September 25, 1655, the short career of Governor Rysinghli, and with him fell the whole Swedish Colony. The hardships of the Swedes, though they were not protracted under the Dutch government, did not terminate with the capture of their forts. We are informed by Acrelius, that the "flower of their troops were picked out and sent to New Amsterdam. Under the pretext of their free choice, the men were forcibly carried on board the ships. The women were ill-treated in their houses, the goods pillaged, and the cattle killed." Many improvements were made by the Swedes, from Henlopen to the Falls of Alumingh or Santhikans. They laid the foundation of Uplandt, the present Chester; Korsholm Fort was built at Passayung; Manayung Fort was placed at the mouth of the Schuylkill; they marked the sites of Nya Wasa and Gripsholm, somewhere near the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers; Straws Wijk, and Nieu Causeland (the present New Castle); and forts were erected at Kingsessing, Wicacoa (Southwark), Finlandt, Meulendael, and Lapananel. On the eastern shore the Swedes had settlements at Swedesborough and other places. The government of the Dutch on the river was established by the appointment of John Paul Jacquet as vice-director and commander-in-chief, and Andreas Hudde, as secretary and surveyor, keeper of the keys of the fort, etc. HISTORY OF PENNSYLY VANIA. to the building of the canal, the iron was hauled in wagons to Pittsburgh, at a cost of some thirty dollars per ton. Most of the old furnaces and forges are no longer worked, giving place to larger furnaces, worked with coke, to rolling mills, and nail factories. The present number of furnaces in use is ten, capable of producing one thousand tons of metal per week, with four rolling mills and two nail factories. The furnaces are known, as Etna in Catharine township, Juniata at Williamsburg, Springfield in Woodberry, Rodman in Taylor, Gap or Martha in Freedom, Frankstown at Frankstown, Number One and Number Two in Hollidaysburg, Allegheny and Bennington in Allegheny. Hollidaysburg has two rolling mills, and two nail factories; Duncansville, a rolling mill and nail factory; and Logan township, a rolling mill. The iron ore of the county, though not specially rich, is abundant and of a superior quality; large quantities are shipped elsewhere. The agricultural products of the county are considerable and varied, yet not sufficient for the population, which in 1870 was 38,051, and is now, 1876, perhaps 44,000. The farmers are intelligent, enterprising, and well to do. Perhaps in all the State there is not a finer farming neighborhood or better farms than are found in Morrison's Cove and Sinking Spring Valley. The great Pennsylvania railroad passes through the county, entering its borders some three miles east of Tyrone; and to this road the county owes very largely its prosperity. A branch road leaves the main line at Altoona, running to Hollidaysburg, Newry, Williamsburg, Martinsburg, and Henrietta. This branch is among the most profitable belonging to this great corporation, doing a heavy freight and passenger business. At Bell's Mills, a narrow gauge road connects with the main line, extending some seven miles to Lloydsville, in Cambria county. This is among the first, if not the first, narrow gauge roads in the country, and is a complete success. The scenery along this road is wild beyond description, far superior in every respect to that along the main line from Altoona to Gallitzin. Other branch roads leave the main line at Tyrone, running to Clearfield and Lock Haven. Indeed, "Little Blair" is almost a railroad county, with Altoona, the chief of railroad towns, in her very centre. The usual Indian troubles, incident to the first settlement of the Juniata valley, marked the early history of what is now Blair county. The stories pertaining thereto have been written and re-written. No doubt the early settlers endured great hardships and privations. The Indians were savage, cruel, and treacherous, sparing neither women nor children. From one standpoint we can but regard them, and rightly, as savages. And yet we must not forget the circumstances surrounding them, and mourn that no one lives to tell the story of their wrongs. That they were wronged and cheated no one doubts; and could we have the story of these wrongs, we might feel that if they did inhuman deeds, they had, at the hands of the whites, great provocations. The politics of Blair county from its organization have been moderate Republicanism, while many of the most worthy citizens have been and are of Democratic tendencies. Neither party, as a general rule, are able to carry a bad man into office. Good and true men have usually filled the county offices, and fill them this centennial year. Some townships in the county have not for years had a house licensed to sell intoxicating drinks. The common schools, though 398 BLAIR COUYTY. not all they should be, are, nevertheless, cherished by the people-their joy and their pride. Originally, the entire Juniata valley was settled largely by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and after them the Lutherans. Both denominations have still a strong hold throughout the valley. Methodists, Baptists, and others, have come in since the first settlements, and have a habitation and a home. In Blair county the Presbyterians would seem to lead in numbers, influence, and wealth. The Lutherans and Methodists are both numerous and active, while the Baptists, the youngest of the leading denominations, are not behind in every good word and work. All in all, we claim for "Little Blair" in her mountain home, an Or- RMM DISTANT VIEW OF THE ALLEGHENIES. intelligent, enterprising, and upright citizenship, loyal to themselves, the State. and the Union. During the war for the Union, they may have differed as to measures, but treason found no home in Blair county. The blood of her firstborn helped to fill the baptistry of the Nation's second baptism. Sinking Spring valley is noted as the place from whence the Government received lead in the early stages of the Revolutionary war. The mines were most likely known to the French as long ago as 1750. The Indians of this region, after they had obtained fire-arms, could always secure abundance of lead, but from whence was long a secret. General Daniel Roberdeau, member of Congress from Pennsylvania, was appointed in 1778, to proceed to the valley and superintend the mines. They were worked perhaps until the fall of 1779, or until a supply was received through the French. The Arch Spring and Cave in this valley are among the greatest curiosities to be met with anywhere. The spring comes forth from an opening, arched over by nature, and with a sufficient supply of water to drive a large grist-mill. A 399 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. little below the mill the spring disappears; coming again to the surface, it runs some distance and enters a cave, passing under Cave mountain, it flows into the Juniata at Water Street. The locality thus named by the early settlers is frequently alluded to in the Provincial records. Logan's valley, a valley extending from Tyrone to Altoona, takes its name from Captain Logan (not the Mingo), an Indian chief of the Delaware tribe who, for several years, resided in the locality. One of his homes was at the big spring adjoining Tyrone, and the other at the spring on the farm of David Henshy, Esq., in Antis township. Logan had been deposed by his tribe on account of the loss of an eye, before coming to the Juniata valley. The springs still bear the name of Logan, and are in themselves very fine. The entire valley has felt the quickening influence of the railroad, and do honor to the old Indian chief, who was a true friend of the white man. Scotch and Canoe valleys are parts of Frankstown and Catharine townships, and are very fertile. Scotch valley is somewhat noted as one of the earliest settlements in the county, and as the home of the Moore family, many of the descendants still residing there. The Moores came from Scotland-the father, Samuel Moore, seven sons, and two daughters. They stopped for a time in Kishacoquillas valley, and then came to Scotch valley, five miles beyond the nearest habitation. This was in 1768. Some time after they were joined by the Irwins, Crawfords, Fraziers, Bells, Stewarts, and others, all Scotchmen. Their descendants are in all the region round about and in parts beyond. We may not forget as among the valleys of Blair county, its Morrison's cove, but another name for valley. You enter it either at Williamsburg or through the gap at Roaring Spring, itself a curiosity, and the largest spring in the county. Around it, within a few years, a thriving village has sprung up, having a fine paper-mill, foundry, and several churches. And now, in the cove, and as you pass along, you are ready to ask, wherein is old Lancaster better than this before my eyes? Such farms, buildings, deposits of limestone and iron ore, are but seldom met. All in all, Morrison's cove has few equals, viewed from whatever standpoint you may take. In 1749 a few Scotch-Irish families settled in the cove, most of whom perished at the hands of the Indians. The entire cove was afterwards purchased by the Penns for ~400, or $2,000. In 1755 a colony of Dunkards, or German Baptists, settled in the cove, and many of their descendants are still there, retaining well-nigh the same simplicity which marked their fathers-" non-resistants-producers-non-consumers." HOLLIDAYSBURG still remains the county seat, and for years it was the chief town in all this region. The town takes its name from William and Adam Holliday, who settled here in the year 1768. They were on their way West, but on reaching this point they decided to stop and settle. As Adam drove the first stake in the ground, he remarked to William: " Whoever is alive a hundred years hence will find here a considerable sized town," all of which has been realized. The town took its start with the building of the canal, it being the head of canal navigation east of the mountains. Here for years all goods going east and west were transhipped to boats and cars. The basin, in these days, presented a lively, busy scene. But all this has passed away. The basin has been filled up, and the boatman's horn is heard no more. Nevertheless, Holli400 SCENE AT ALLEGRIPPUS, ON TIE PENNSYLVANIA RAILfROAD. 2 A-401 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. daysburg remains a pleasant, prosperous town, with a population, embracing Gaysport and environs, of fully 5,000. The county buildings are among the best in the State, erected at a cost of some $225,000. Hollidayburg has, moreover, six fine houses of worship-two Catholic, one Baptist, one Lutheran, one Methodist, and one Presbyterian; a superior female seminary, a large hall, and other public buildings. The iron works in the place give employment to a large number of hands, while the local trade is considerable. ALTOONA is the metropolis of the county, a city of no mean pretentions, and as a railroad town, second to none in the Union. On the location of the Pennsylvania railroad in 1849, the present site, then a farm owned by David Robeson, Esq., was selected for the shops, offices, etc., of this young but now giant corporation. The company now occupy all of one hundred and twenty-two acres, and is still extending its improvements. The Logan House, the grand railroad hotel, is a model establishment. All the Pennsylvania railroad buildings are of the substantial kind, the machinery the very best, giving employment to thousands of men, and turning out such work as is seldom met with elsewhere. Some twelve church buildings speak well for the morals of the town, while the large and commodious school-houses assure the stranger the children are not forgotten. Altoona has three banks, one public hall, one daily and three weekly newspapers. Population in 1870, 10,610, increased in 1876 to perhaps 13,000. All in all, the "Mountain City " is the city of all this region. TYRONE is another town, the outgrowth of the railroad, and laid out about the same time with Altoona. It is located some fourteen miles east of Altoona, at the mouth of Bald Eagle valley, and takes its name from an old iron works in the neighborhood, known as Tyrone Forges. The rapid growth of Tyrone is owing to two branch roads connecting with the main line at this point, the one running to the coal and lumber region of Clearfield county, the other connecting with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Lock Haven. A large coal and lumber trade is here brought upon the main line, making Tyrone station one of the most important between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The place has a good local trade, with a population in 1870 of 1,800; has eight churches, two public halls, two banks, three planing-mills, and a steam tannery. A new railroad from Tyrone to Lewisburg is in course of construction, which when completed will somewhat add to the importance of the " little city " among the hills, while it will open up a direct route to the anthracite coal regions. WILLIAMSBURG, a village in the south-eastern part of the county, in Woodberry township, pleasantly located on the south branch of the Juniata. It was laid out in 1794, by a German named Jacob Ake. One of the finest springs of water to be met with anywhere flows through the town, furnishing water power for a grist-mill, furnace, and other machinery. Population some 900. FRANKSTOWN, on the Juniata, two miles cast of Hollidaysburg, is perhaps the oldest village in all this region, having been originally an Indian town known as Assunnepachla. Its present name is derived from an old German Indian trader, Stephen Franks,'who made this place his home. The Indians remained here until 1755, when they went West, joined the French, and made war on Father Onas, or William Penn. They did so because the year previous the Penns, for a paltry sum, had bought the whole region of the Juniata from the Iroquois at 402 BLAIR COUNTY. Albany, N. Y. Prior to the building of the canal, Frankstown was a place of some note on the route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh; since then it has made but little progress. One of the Cambria iron company's furnaces is at this point, and gives employment to a goodly number of the residents. MARTINSBURG is an old town, beautiful for situation, in Woodberry township, otherwise Morrison's Cove, and distant some twelve miles from Hollidaysburg, on the Hollidaysburg branch road. It contains several churches, a bank, a planingmill, a high school, and a foundry. In the midst of one of the finest farming districts, it has considerable local trade. NEWRY is another old town, situate in Blair township, some four miles west of Hollidaysburg. It has a railroad connecting with the Hollidaysburg branch at Y switches. Newry, prior to the building of the turnpike, was on the main road east and west. At present it has but little trade, yet, withal, it is a pleasant, quiet place, having for many years the only Roman Catholic church in the county. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS.-ALLEGHENY was, prior to the formation of Blair county, in 1846, a township of Huntingdon county. As it then existed, it joined Antis on the north. In 1852, Logan was formed out of Allegheny and Antis; hence, Allegheny is now bounded on the north by Logan, on the west by Cambria county, on the south by Blair and Juniata, and on the east by Frankstown. ANTIs, like Allegheny, was a part of Huntingdon county. It is said the name is that of a somewhat noted Tory who resided here during the Revolutionary War. In 1852, the southern portion of the township was taken to form Logan. As Antis now stands, it is bounded on the north by Snyder, on the east by Tyrone, on the south by Logan, and on the west by Cambria county. BLAIR came out from Huntingdon county, and surrounds Hollidaysburg, the county seat. It originally was taken from Allegheny and Frankstown, and as now organized is bounded on the north by Allegheny and Frankstown, on the east by Frankstown and Taylor, on the south by Freedom, and on the west by Allegheny. CATHARINE was part of Morris in Huntingdon county, and became a township in 1846, by the organization of Blair county. It is bounded on the north and east by Huntingdon county, south by Woodberry, and west by Frankstown and Tyrone. FRANKSTOWN was a township of Huntingdon county, until the formation of Blair county in 1846. Some changes have since been made in its boundaries, but none of any importance. As it now stands, is is bounded on the north by Tyrone and Catharine, on the east by Woodberry and Huston, on the south by Taylor, and on the west by Blair, Allegheny, and Logan. FREEDOM.i belonged originally to Bedford county, and as part of Greenfield. First, in 1847, Juniata was formed out of Greenfield, and in 1857 Freedom was created out of Juniata. It has Greenfield on the south, Juniata on the west, Blair on the north, and Taylor on the east. GREENFIELD, an old township of Bedford county, became part of Blair county in 1846. Since then both Freedom and Juniata have been taken from it. It is bounded on the south by Bedford county, on the west by Somerset county, on the north by Juniata and Freedom, and on the east by Taylor. 403 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VA NIA. HUSTON was originally a township of Bedford county. It is bounded on the south by Bedford county, on the east by Huntingdon county, on the north by Woodberry, and on the west by Frankstown. JUNIATA, taken from Greenfield and organized as a township in 1847. It has Cambria county on the West, Allegheny on the north, Freedom on the east, and Greenfield on the south. LOGAN was formed in 1850 out of Allegheny and Antis, and lies around Altoona. It is bounded on the north by Antis, on the east by Tyrone and Frankstown, on the south by Allegheny, and on the west by Cambria county NORTH WOODBERRY originally belonged to Bedford county. It has Bedford county on the south, Taylor on the west, Huston on the north, Huntingdon county on the east. SNYDER came from Huntingdon county, and is bounded on the north by Center county, on the east by Huntingdon county, on the south by Antis, and on the west by Cambria county. It has within it the borough of Tyrone. TAYLOR was formed in 1855, out of North Woodberry and Huston. It has Bedford county on the south; Greenfield, Freedom. and Blair, on the west; Frankstown on the north, and North Woodberry on the east. TYRONE an old township of Huntingdon county, and until incorporated into Blair county in 1846. It has Logan and Antis on the west, Snyder on the north, Catharine on the east, and Frankstown on the south. WOODBERRY came from Huntingdon county, and has within it the town of Williamsburg. It is bounded on the south by Huston, west by Frankstown, north by Catharine, and on the east by Huntingdon county. FIFTEEN townships in all, Allegheny, Antis, Blair, Catharme, Frankstown Snyder, Tyrone, and Woodberry, originally from Huntingdon county; Green field, Huston, North Woodberry, from Bedford county; and Freedom, Juniata, Logan, and Taylor, formed since the organization of Blair county, in 1846. 404 BRADFORD COUNTY. BY REV. DAVID CRAFTI WYALUSING. HAT part of Pennsylvania now known as Bradford county, was formerly included in Northampton. At this time, however, it was the home of the red man, there being not more than two or three white families residing within the county limits at the formation of Northumberland in 1772. By the act of Assembly erecting the county of Luzerne, its boundaries were made to include nearly all of present Bradford, leaving a small triangle in the northwestern part of the county, whose base was about six miles on the State line, and its vertex at the southwestern angle of the county, which was subsequently included in Lycoming. --77 VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF TOWANDA. [From a Photograph by G. H. Wood, Towanda.)] For the purpose of legislating Colonel John Franklin out of the Assembly, to which the people of Luzerne persisted in sending him, and where his earnest and persevering advocacy of the claims of the Connecticut settlers rendered him exceedingly obnoxious to those holding Pennsylvania titles in his district, and to the Pennsylvania Landholders' Association, which exerted great influence in the Legislature, an act was passed April 2, 1804, setting off so much of Luzerne as lies north and west of a line run from the East Branch o1 the Susquehanna river, where it crosses the State line, thence southerly to the northeast corner of Claverack (one of the townships of the Susquehanna Company), thence by the northwest and southwest sides of Claverack to its southwest corner, which was near the present village of Monroeton, thence by a 405 HISTO R Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. line running due west to the line separating the two counties, and attaching it to Lycoming. On the 21st of February, 1810, an act was passed to erect parts of Luzerne and Lycoming counties into separate county districts, in which the first section provided that "such parts of those counties included within the following lines, to wit:. Beginning at the fortieth milestone standing on the north line of the State; thence running south to a point due east of the head of the Wyalusing Falls in the Susquehanna river; thence southwesterly to the nearest point in the Lycoming county line; thence in a direct line to the southeast corner of Tioga county, at the Beaver Dam, on Towanda creek; thence northerly along the east line of Tioga county to the eightieth milestone standing on the north line of the State; thence east along said line to the fortieth milestone, the place of beginning-be and is hereby erected into a separate county, to be henceforth called Ontario county, and the place of holding courts of justice in and for said county shall be fixed by three commissioners to be appointed by the Governor, at any place at a distance not exceeding seven miles from the centre of the county which may be most beneficial to and convenient for the same." The Governor appointed Samuel Satterlee, Moses Coolbaugh, and Justus Gaylord, trustees of the new county, who employed Jonathan Stevens, Esq., then deputy surveyor for this district, to survey the bounds thereof. By an act passed March 28, 1811, the trustees of the county of Ontario "are hereby authorized and required to establish a point east of the Slippery Rocks, (so called), at the head of Wyalusing Falls, in the river Susquehanna, for the southeast corner of Ontario county; from thence a line run west to the said Slippery Rocks; from thence a southwesterly course to the nearest point of Lycoming county, is hereby established as the southern boundary of the said county." The remaining lines were left unchanged, and form the present boundaries of the county On the 24th of March, 1812, an act was passed which provided for the election of county officers at the regular election of the next October, for organizing the county for judicial purposes, and for changing its name from Ontario to that of Bradford, in honor of William Bradford, formerly Attorney-General of the United States, and directed the courts to be held at the house of William Means, Esq., of Meansville, in Towanda township, until suitable county buildings should be erected. Bradford was united with Tioga, Susquehanna, Wayne, and Luzerne counties, to form the Eleventh Judicial District. John Bannister Gibson, afterward one of the judges of the Supreme Court, was appointed president judge; John McKean and George Scott were his associates. The other county officers were, Abner C. Rockwell, sheriff;. Charles F. Welles, prothonotary, clerk of the sessions and Oyer and Terminer, register and recorder, and clerk of the Orphans Court; William Myer, Justus Gaylord, Jr., and Joseph Kinney, commissioners; Henry Wilson, prosecuting attorney; John Horton, coroner; Harry Spalding, treasurer. The venires were issued for a jury, and the whole machinery of the organization was put in motion January 18, 1813, the day fixed by law for the new county to go into operation. On this day the commissions of the several officers 406 BRADFORD COUNTY. were read, and the oaths administered with great pomp and ceremony There was considerable strife in the neighborhoods around the geographical centre of the new county for the county seat, especially between Wysox, Monroeton, and Towanda, but in consideration of the donation of ample grounds for county buildings, the commissioners located the county seat at Meansville, as it was then called, and the new county commissioners were instructed to proceed with all diligence to erect suitable buildings for the accommodation of the county offices. As the counties are now organized, Bradford is bounded on the east by Susquehanna, on the east and south by Wyoming, on the south by Sullivan and Lycoming, and on the west by Tioga. Its average length from east to west is a trifle less than forty miles, and its mean breadth from north to south about twenty-nine and one half miles, and includes within its boundary lines one thousand one hundred and seventy-four square miles, or seven hundred fifty-one thousand, three hundred and sixty acres, being in area the third county in the Commonwealth. The north-east branch of the Susquehanna enters the county from the State of New York, between the fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh mile-stones, and, running about six and a half miles in a south-westerly direction, receives its principal affluent, the Tioga, which finally enters the county near the sixty-second mile stone. The peninsula between the two rivers has been called Tioga-Point from the first settlement of the country. From the junction, the river pursues, with many windings, a mean south-easterly course, and leaves the county at the north-western angle of Wyoming county. Besides these, the principal streams in the west are Seeley's, South, Bentley's, and Orcut's creeks, flowing north into the Tioga; the Sugar creek, the Towanda, Durell's creek, and the Sugar run, which empty into the Susquehanna from the west. On the east are the Wappusening, which runs north; Horn creek, the Wysox, and the Wyalusing, running west into the Susquehanna. These creeks, with their numerous branches, the waters of the Apolacon in the north-east, of the Tuscarora in the south-east, and of the Loyal Sock in the south-west, and many smaller streams, make Bradford one of the best watered counties in the State. The surface of the county is uneven, being broken by numerous ridges of high hills, whose general course is from the south-west to the north-east, with spurs running north, which make the water sheds of the streams flowing in that direction. East of the river are high table lands in Tuscarora, Pike, Herrick, Orwell, and Warren townships, which are excellent grazing lands and produce good crops of summer grains, but there are no peaks of any considerable height. In the west are Mt. Pisgah and Mt. Elizabeth, and near the south-eastern corner of the county are the Tyler and Round Top. The principal ranges are the Armenia mountains, in the western part of the county, and the Barclay mountains-the Burnett's hills which formed part of the boundary in the Indian purchase of 1768-between the main and Schreder branches of the Towanda creek. The Susquehanna, in its passage through the county, instead of following a natural valley, like most large rivers, breaks through successive ranges of hills, whose precipitous escarpments in some places tower hundreds of feet above the stream, so that on each side it is bordered with alternate sections of hills with GENERAL HISTORY. As evidence that the Swedish government had been kept in ignorance of the intended conquest of New Sweden by the Dutch, was the arrival, on the 1656. 24th of March, 1656, of the Swedish ship Mercury, with one hundred and thirty souls on board, intended as a reinforcement to the colony. They were forbidden to pass the fort, but a party of Indians joined the crew and conducted the ship up the river, the Dutch not venturing to fire a gun against them. Although the Dutch government never yielded its assent to the landing of the immigrant passengers, they all did land, and probably most of them remained in the country. The Dutch West India companies had become greatly embarrassed by the large amount of their debts, which had been increased by the aid 1657. afforded the City of Amsterdam, towards the conquest of the Swedes on the Delaware, and to liquidate this debt, that part of the South River extending from the west side of Christina-kill to the mouth of the bay, "and so far as the Minquas land extended," was transferred to that City. The colony thus established took the name of Nieuer Amstel. The government of the City colony was organized by the establishment of a board of commissioners to reside in the City of Amsterdam. Forty soldiers were enlisted and placed under the command of Captain Martin Krygier and Lieutenant Alexander D'HIinoyossa, and one hundred and fifty emigrants, freemen, and boors, were forthwith dispatched to settle in the new colony. Jacob Alricks accompanied the expedition as Director of New Amstel. Alricks assumed the government of the colony towards the close of April, 1657, when Hudde was appointed to the command at Fort Christina, the name of which was changed to Altona, and also of New Gottenberg. Over the Swedes and Fins, who were exclusively the inhabitants of the river above the colony of the City of Amsterdam, Goeran Van Dyck had been appointed with the title of "schout fisscal," and under him Anders Jurgen. Van Dyck suggested to Stuyvesant the necessity of concentrating the Swedish inhabitants, and procured from him a proclamation inviting them to assemble in one settlement. The invitation was not accepted. In May, 1658, Governor Stuyvesant made a isit to South River to examine into affairs there. Finding some irregularities concerning the customs, 1658. hlie appointed William Beekman, with the title of commissary and vice director, to superintend the revenue. Outside of the district of New Amstel, Beekman was charged with the administration of civil and criminal justice, and the superintendence of military affairs. Within that district the authority was vested in Alricks. The prosperous commencement of the City colony was soon followed by evils that almost threatened its dissolution. Sickness, a scarcity of provisions and failure of crops, followed by a severe winter, spread dismay and discontent among the people. Added to these distresses were news of a threatened invasion by the English, and the arrival of commissioners from Maryland to command the Dutch to leave, or to acknowledge themselves subjects of Lord Baltimore. In regard to the latter a protracted conference ensued, in which the Dutch title to the lands on the Delaware river and bay was defended with considerable ability. The land from Bombay Hook to Cape HIenlopen was secured by HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. their intervening valleys, thus affording a pleasing variety of landscape to the traveler, and many views of picturesque beauty for the artist. This peculiarity of the Susquehanna valley, if valley it can be called, has produced a scenery which a celebrated Scotch essayist describes "beautiful as the gates of paradise," of almost world-wide reputation. The flats along the river, usually at the mouths of the larger creeks, are rich bottoms, frequently intersected by a gravel ridge running parallel with the river, and were seats of Indian villages, who had made partial clearings for corn patches long before the country was known to the white man. Along the creeks are fertile alluvial flats of varying width, which, as the river is approached, are bounded by steep hill sides. On the higher lands the soil is heavier, sometimes clayey, but productive. Agriculture is the chief employment of the people. The county is well adapted to grazing, especially in the northern and western portions of it, where butter is the chief production, for which the county is justly celebrated. Bradford county butter commands a ready sale and the highest price in any market to which it is sent. In some portions of the county considerable attention has been given, of late, to improved varieties of stock, both of horses, cattle, and sheep, and the stock now seen on many of the farms of the county will compare favorably with the finest cattle herds of the country. Oats, corn, and buckwheat are the principal grains. Good crops of wheat are usually raised on the river and creek flats, but the amount is seldom sufficient for home consumption. Barley, millet, and hops have been grown in small crops, but the experiment has not as yet proved successful. Potatoes are largely cultivated, and many thousands of bushels are annually sent to the market. Within a few years past, hay has become an important article of export, and every season thousands of tons are sent to the coal-producing regions of the State. The principal mineral productions are coal and flagging. The coal is found on the Barclay mountain, geologically the highest land in the county. It is of the semi-bituminous variety, and is peculiarly adapted to manufacturing, blacksmithing, and locomotive uses. At present the mining is carried on by the Erie railway, Fall Creek, and Carbon Run companies. A railroad from the mines connects with the Pennsylvania and New York railroad, at Towanda, and brings several thousand tons annually to the market. Most of the flagging quarries are found along the creeks a short distance from the river. There are also some beds of building stone. These are of the blue-stone variety, easily worked, but enduring a great amount of wear and exposure. The quarrying and shipping of stone has of late become an important industry. At Austinville, Columbia township, in the western part of the county, considerable quantities of iron ore are mined, which is claimed to be of a superior quality. Iron has been found in other parts of the county, but as yet no attempt has been made to bring it into market. The whole of Bradford was originally covered with heavy forests, in some parts of pine and hemlock, in others of beech and maple. There were magnificent walnuts along the river; black ash, birch, and oak were frequently found in the forests. For many years the manufacture of lumber and shingles was largely 408 BRADFORD COUNTY. carried on. These were hauled to the river or larger creeks, rafted and floated down the river to the several markets below. Every spring the river would be thickly dotted with rafts of various kinds and sizes, bearing the fruits of the winter's work, running the hazard of being stranded or being crushed by some mismanagement, to find a market at Harrisburg, Middletown, Baltimore, or Philadelphia, when many times the proceeds would scarcely be sufficient to pay for the rafting and running. The first saw-mill built in the county was by Anthony Rummerfield, on the creek which bears his name, before the Revolutionary war. Since then, there has been a time when they could be counted by the thousand. With the disappearance of the forest, this branch of industry has correspondingly diminished, and the greater facilities of transportation furnished by railroads have made rafting a thing of comparatively rare occurrence. Except from the south-western part of the county, very little lumber is now sent to the market. The water power furnished by the creeks affords facilities for manufacturing of various kinds, but as yet, except for running of grist and saw-mills, it has remained unused. Within a few years past a variety of manufactures have been initiated, which will be noticed under the sketches of the towns where they are located. When the white people first began to visit this county, Tioga-Diahoga, as it is more frequently written in the journals of the earlier travelers-was the "fore town " of the Iroquois, who at that time held all the Indian tribes of Pennsylvania and New Jersey in subjection, and assigned the Susquehanna valley to the Delawares, whose lands they were selling from time to time to the whites. Tioga was the southern gate to the Confederacy, through which, or by the Mohawk, all strangers must enter their territory or be treated as spies and enemies. Here was stationed a sachem, whose business it was to examine all who applied for admission into the Iroquois country, and whose decision upon all such requests was final. To this point all the great paths led, which were frequented by warriors, hunters, and travelers. At the mouth of the Sugar creek, Oscului (meaning the Fierce) was also an old Indian town, second in importance to Tioga, standing at the junction of the path leading from the West Branch to the Susquehanna, with the great Warrior path down the river. It was a convenient resting place for travelers, and a rendezvous for hunting and war parties. At this place are the remains of what appears to be an ancient fortification, which from its construction and the relics found in it, would indicate that it was constructed by a people allied to the mound builders of the West, and point to an occupancy anterior to that of the Iroquois At Wyalusing was an ancient Indian town, traces of which were visible as late as 1750, called Gahontoto, inhabited by a people who were neither Delawares nor Iroquois, called by the latter Tehotitachsae, against whom the Cayugas made war and exterminated them, before the Indians knew the use of fire arms, when they fought with bows and arrows. At Towanda and Wysox were at various times Indian settlements, but they do not, at least within historic times, seem to have been permanent places of abode. Subsequently Towanda was one of the national burying places for the Nanticokes, after their removal among the Iroquois. In 1752, Papunhank, a Minsi chieftain of some importance, with about twenty 409 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVYANIA. families, built at Wyalusing. Their houses for the most part were constructed of split logs, one end of which was set into the ground, and upon the other were placed poles which were covered with bark. The description given of this town by travelers would indicate that not only in the structure of their houses, but in the general character of the people, they were far in advance of most of the native settlements. Papunhank frequently visited Philadelphia, where he became acquainted with several Quakers, and acquired some knowledge of Christianity, and, at length, set himself up as a teacher to his people. In the month of May, 1760, Christian Frederick Post, on his way with a message from the Governor of Pennsylvania to the great Council at Onondaga, stopped over night at the town, and at their request, gave them a sermon from the text, "Behold I bring you tidings of great joy," etc.-Luke ii. 8-11. This without doubt was the first gospel sermon preached in the county. In the meanwhile some other families had come into the town, among whom were Job Chillaway, who had at times acted as government interpreter, and Tom Curtis, both men of intelligence and influence. Papunhank's people losing confidence in him as a religious teacher, on account of his own bad life, began to consult about taking measures for inviting a white teacher to settle among them. In their councils however, they were divided in opinion, one party being in favor of the Quakers, and the other of the Moravians, and so equal was the strength of the two parties that neither was disposed to yield to the other. Their differences were compromised by agreeing to accept the first teacher who came. John Woolman, the prominent Quaker evangelist, having made the acquaintance of some of the Wyalusing Indians at Philadelphia, probably of Papunhank himself, after much deliberation, set out in company with Benjamin Parvin, to visit the town, in May, 1763, purposing, if he should be well received, to remain with them and teach them the gospel. In the meanwhile, news of the awakened interest in religion at Wyalusing coming to the ears of David Zeisberger, the celebrated Moravian apostle to the Indians, he left Bethlehem on the 18th of May, passing Woolmnan on the mountain below Wilkes-Barre, where they dined together, reached Wyalusing on the 23d, two days before him. Above the Lackawanna, Zeisberger was met by Job Chillaway, who informed him of the conclusion of the council, and accompanied him to Papunhank's town. Here he was received as the divinely sent messenger, to teach them the great words of the Christian religion, and though wearied from the long journey, at once, that very day, set about preaching the gospel to his waiting and anxious hearers. Never had the great preacher a more attentive audience, and never did he speak "the great words" with more fervor and zeal. Woolman, on his arrival, was kindly received, but was informed that, according to the decisions of their council, Zeisberger must be regarded as their accepted teacher. After remaining five days to assist in inaugurating the good work, and witnessing the kind reception of the gospel, he departed, with many prayers for the abundant success of the mission. This opportune arrival of Zeisberger was the occasion of founding one of the most important and success410 BRADFORD COUNTY. ful missions ever established among our North American Indians. On such apparently trifling ev#ts do important results turn. Zeisberger being so well received, was appointed resident missionary at Wyalusing, by the Mission Board at Bethlehem, and with great success prosecuted his labors here and at Tawandaemenk, an Indian village, consisting of twelve or fourteen Delaware families, relatives of Anthony, his helper, on the flats at the mouth of the Towanda creek. Scarcely had a month elapsed from the time of Zeisberger's first visit to Wyalusing, before the Pontiac war broke out, and the messengers of that celebrated chieftain were visiting every village on the Susquehanna, urging the Indians to again dig up the hatchet they had so recently buried. Already the emissaries were at Wyalusing before Zeisberger was commanded to leave the town. All was now excitement and commotion; and the intrepid missionary was compelled to suspend the work so auspiciously begun, and of which there seemed such bright prospects of abundant success, but not before he had baptized Papunhank, who received the name of John, and another Indian who was called Peter. The Moravian Christian Indians, for their greater security during the war, in which they refused to take any part, were removed first to a settlement near Bethlehem, and then to Province Island, in the Delaware river, a little below Philadelphia, where they were sheltered in government barracks during the war. Thither Papunhank and twenty of his followers, who determined to have nothing to do with the war, hastened. Here, cooped up in narrow quarters, subsisting on food to which they were not accustomed, harassed by a multitude of fears, threatened more than once with death, their numbers decimated once and again, after a most distressing confinement of more than seventeen months, at the very first dawn of peace, they emerged from their prison, for such it had proved to be, and again sought a home in the forest. Papunhank invited the whole company to settle in his town on the Susquehanna, and hither, after due consultation, they turned their steps, led by their beloved teachers, Zeisberger and John Jacob Schmick. On the 3d of April, 1765, the company, consisting of eighty adults and upwards of ninety children, set out from Bethlehem, and after a tedious journey of thirty-six days, arrived at Wyalusing, May 9th. With devout thanksgiving they set the stakes for their new town, and their houses were reared amid joyous songs of praise to Jehovah, for his abundant mercies. During the season, thirty bark covered huts, four log cabins, a mission house, and church, were erected. This town, which was built on the east side of the river, about two miles south of the present village of Wyalusing, and near the Sugar Run station, on the P. and N. Y. railroad, was regularly laid out in lots, on each side of the street, eighty feet in width, running east and west, with an alley ten feet wide between every pair of lots. When the settlement was abandoned, it consisted of thirtynine log cabins, some of these with shingle roofs, and thirteen huts. In the centre of the town, and in the middle of the street, stood the church, built of square pine logs, with shingle-covered roof and glazed windows, surmounted by a belfry, in which hung a bell, that on the Sabbath, or holy day, as it rung out over the meadows and corn fields of this beautiful valley, and its cheerful tones HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. were echoed back from the surrounding hill sides, told heathen and Christian that in this one spot, in the wide-spreading wilderness, was a place consecrated to the worship of the true God, whose life-giving words they were invited to come and hear. Within, the church, which was thirty-two by twenty feet in dimension, was adorned with two oil paintings, one representing the Nativity, and the other Christ's agony in the garden. We read in the mission diary, that many a dusky warrior was led by the contemplation of these scenes to ask in amazement "who it was that thus humbled himself, and then suffered for the children of men." The. town was surrounded by a post and rail-fence, and every week during the summer season, the streets and alleys were swept by the women with wooden brooms, and the rubbish taken to the river, where every family had a canoe. Adjoining the town were two hundred and fifty acres of plantations enclosed with more than two miles of fences. Their corn patches were extended at intervals for nearly two miles up the Wyalusing, and on the large island in the river between Terrytown and Wyalusing. Their hay was cut on the natural meadows near the Frenchtown station, they had sugar camps on the Sugar run, found cranberries in the marshes in Wilmot township, and whortleberries on the mountains around Tunkhannock. The mission received the name of Friedenshiitten (Huts of Peace), in 1766. It was a Christian Indian town, in which the men still engaged in the hunt and the chase, the women planted and harvested the fields, but learned to read their Bibles, sing their religious hymns, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Order, harmony, and industry, prevailed. A school-house was built adjoining the church, where both adults and children were taught to read in both Delaware and German, to repeat the ten commandments, the Lord's prayer, the Apostles' creed, and to sing Delaware hymns. In the church, the daily morning and evening service was held, the Sabbath and usual holy days were observed, and the Lord's Supper regularly celebrated. Their hymns were sung to the accompaniment of a spinnet, made by Joshua, a Mohican Indian, and all the arrangements of a strictly Moravian town were scrupulously enforced. Traders were not allowed to bring any spirituous liquors into the town, and the elders of the congregation enforced the wholesome rules for the peace of the community. Besides a large number of visitors which constantly thronged the town, the year 1767 witnessed the migration northward of the remnahts of what were once two powerful nations, the Tuscaroras in the spring, and the Nanticokes in the autumn. These were entertained at the mission, where quite a number remained all the winter, much to the annoyance of the missionaries. At Sheshequanink, the site of the present village of Ulster, some Delawares made a settlement soon after the close of the Pontiac war, under a chief named Echobund. Some of Brainerd's New Jersey Indians removed here, among whom were Isaac Stille and Joseph Peepy, both of whom had been in the service of the Province of Pennsylvania as messengers and interpreters; Nicholas Tatemy, Nathaniel Davis, and some others. These frequently came to Friedenshiitten to attend religious worship, when at length, after due consideration, and at the repeated and earnest request of the Sheshequin Indians, a station was established at their town, and John Rothe, who had been an assistant at Friedenshiitten, was 412 BRADFORD COUNTY. appominted resident missionary, who entered upon his work early in the year 1769. Here a small chapel was built and a house for the missionary; but the prosperity of the mission was retarded from various causes, but chiefly on account of the immediate settlements of heathen Indians, who were averse to receiving the gospel, and it ever continued to be an appendage to Friedenshiitten. The whole number connected with the mission at this station, at the time of the exodus, was fifty-three, of whom four were communicants, fifteen baptized non-communicants, thirty-one not baptized, besides the missionary, his wife, and child. This child, a son born in May, 1772, was the first white child born in the county. Several circumstances contributed to render the mission insecure and finally led to its removal. When it was first established at Wyalusing, in accordance with Indian diplomacy, permission was asked of Togahaju, the Cayuga sachem, and viceroy of the Iroquois, for the privilege of building at the place they had selected; but he wished them to remove to Cayuga, where he promised they should have lands, and permission to enjoy the teachings of the missionaries and to practice their religion But the proposition not being acceptable to the mission, an evasive answer was returned. In reply to a more peremptory summons, Zeisberger and a deputation of the chief men from the mission visited Cayuga, and represented to Togahaju the objections to a removal, the peculiarities of Moravian towns and of their religious services in such strong light, that the sachem withdrew his demand, and added, "heretofore you have only sojourned at Wyalusing, I now set you down there firmly 1 give you all the land down from Tioga as far as a man can walk in two days. It is yours. No one shall disturb you. All other Indians shall remove if you desire it." This grant was afterward confirmed by the great council at Onondaga. Thus assured, they remained in peace until the treaty at Foit Stanwix, in November, 1768, when the Six Nations sold the land which had so solemnly been assigned to them, "from under their feet." As soon as this transaction became known at Friedenshiitten, a deputation waited upon Governor Penn, informing him of their settlement and Christian civilization, and the peaceable character of their religious principles, asking that the country surrounding the mission might be held in trust for them. This the Governor declined to allow, but assured them that they never should be disturbed, and that his surveyorg should not come within five miles of their town. But even in Pennsylvania it had begun to be fashionable to break faith with the Indians, and within a few months after this assurance had been given, Mr. Stewart was running lines and locating warrants upon the plantations attached to the mission. In addition to this, the controversy between Pennsylvania and the Connecticut people was beginning to assume a serious aspect, and the probabilities were that ere long the whole country would be involved in the conflict. In September, 1766, Zeisberger left Friedenshiitten, in order to preach the gospel to some of the Delaware tribes, on the Ohio river, where he established a mission. Learning the condition of affairs at Wyalusing, and that a removal was in contemplation, Zeisberger was commissioned to bear an invitation to the brethren on the Susquehanna to settle in the Ohio country. The proposition receiving the cordial approval of the Mission Board at Bethlehem, Zeisberger 413 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. hastened to Wyalusing, to lay the invitation before the brethren there. A council was called, to which the Sheshequin brethren were summoned, when, after a long and careful deliberation, the invitation was accepted, and the early part of the following summer was fixed upon as the time for their departure. The Wyalusing mission at this time numbered one hundred and fifty-one souls, of whom fifty-two were communicants; seventy-two were baptized noncommunicants; twenty were unbaptized. During the continuance of the mission, ninety-four adults and forty-five infants were baptized, seven couples were united in Christian marriage, and forty-one had died. With the coming spring, all were busy in making preparations for the contemplated exodus. On the 11th of June, 1772, everything being in readiness, the congregation assembled, for the last time, in their church, when, with thanksgiving to God for His mercies, and prayers for His protection and guidance, they went forth to bid a final adieu to their beautiful homes, their pleasant hunting grounds, and the graves of their kindred, and took up their march toward the setting sun. The emigrants from Wyalusing were divided into two companies, and each of these was subdivided into several parties. One of these companies went overland, by the Wyalusing path, up the Sugar run, and down the Loyal Sock, via Dushore. This company was in charge of Ettwein, who had, at their request, been sent to superintend their removal, and had the care of the horses and cattle; the other, in charge of Rothe, went by canoe down the Susquehanna and up the West Branch, and carried the bulk of their property. The bell was taken down from its turret, and carried by Anthony in his canoe in the van of the fleet, and was tolled until the squadron rounded the mountain a mile and a half below the church. The doors and windows of the church were nailed up, and the buildings left in care of Job Chillaway, who, with Hendricks, remained in the town. The Sheshequin party followed the path up the Towanda and down the Lycoming. The place of general rendezvous was the Great Island, now Lock Haven. After resting here a few days, they again took up their journey for the place of their destination, on the Big Beaver, in Lawrence county. The journey was full of incident, and severely taxed the patience and fortitude of all who participated in it. Tormented with ponk flies, which were almost invisible, but whose bite was like burning ashes; overtaken by terrible thunder storms, drenched by heavy rains, encountering multitudes of rattlesnakes, traversing swamps, crossing mountains and streams, now feeling their way along dangerous precipices, then threading deep and narrow ravines, sometimes their path obstructed by fallen trees, and at others obliterated by devastating fires, not a soul was seriously injured, scarcely a hoof was lost, and not a night did one lack for food. The journal of Ettwein is full of interest, but too long for quotation here. Says the Rev. W. C. Reichel, this migration "marks a new era in the history of the Moravian Mission among the aborigines of this country, which era was characterized by perpetual disturbances and unrest-it also being the era of its gradual decadence extending down into our own times, when there is but a feeble remnant of Christian Indians ministered to by Moravians, dwelling at New Fairfield, Canada, and New Westfield, Kansas. In the veins of some of these 414 BRADFORD COUNTY. there flows the blood of the Mohicans and Delawares of old Friedenshiitten, the deserted village' of the flats of Wyalusing " A century had elapsed, and the history, and even the location of this remarkable mission was fast fading out from the recollections of men. Their church had been torn down, and its timbers built into a raft, had conveyed a few families with their goods to Wyoming; their houses had been burned by an armed force during the Revolutionary war, every vestige - and mark of the town had been removed; even the missionary's well had been covered up, and the spring which had furnished the town with water had been buried under the canal, when in September, 1870, a company of ladies and gentlemen, representing the Moravian Historical Society, visited Wyalusing, and in company with some of the residents of the place, sought out the historic ground, walked around the fertile fields which were the site of the ancient village and its plantations, visited the burying ground, where sleep the dust of more.... than two-score pious Indians; and on the 14th and I 15th of the following June, a large company from Philadelphia, New York, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Litiz, with a large concourse of people from Wyalusing and the surrounding country, assembled on the consecrated spot, and with beautiful, but solemn ceremonies, dedicated a monument, bearing appropriate inscriptions, which had been erected "to MORAVIAN MONUMVLNT. mark the site of Friedenshiitten," that may, for many years to come, remind the passer-by of this interesting page of our local history. Previous to the exodus of the Moravian Indians, so far as is now known, but two white families were settled within the present limits of the county; these were Rudolph Fox and Peter Scheufeldt, the former on the Towanda flats, and the latter at Asylum, which for many years was cailed " Shufelt's flats." Both these were Germans, and descendants of Palatine families who had emigrated into New York in the years 1710-15. when. becoming dissatisfied with the location, removed to Pennsylvania. Messrs. Fox and Scheufeldt, following the current of emigration down the Susquehanna, reached the places where they located in May, 1770, and for three years were the only white families resident in the county. Sonime of the descendants of Mr. Fox now occupy the farm upon which hlie settled. About 1775 Mr. Schlieufeldt removed to the West Branch, where hlie was killed by the Indians in 1779. During the years 1773 and 1774, the New England settlements at Wyoming, under the Susquehanna company, were rapidly increased, and the townships first set ap)art for the settlers being taken ul), additional ones were granted to companies of adventurers who wished to locate their rights for purposes of settlement. In May 1774, the township) of Standing Stone, then called Wooster, was granted to David Smith and his associates, and settlements were commenced 415 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. in it by Lemuel Fitch, Simon Spalding, Anthony Rummerfield, and some others. The same month another township, afterwards called Springfield, but which originally bore the name of Washington, was granted to James Wells, Jeremiah Ross, and others. This is the first instance known to the writer of a place named in honor of the gallant young colonel whose coolness and bravery saved Braddock's army from annihilation, and subsequently, whose skill and patriotism won for him the name of Father of his Country. The plantations attached to the Indian missions, included in this township afforded greater attractions for settlers, who began to occupy them the same year in which the township was granted. Among these were James Wells and Robert Carr, at Wyalusing, Edward Hicks at Sugar Run, and Benjamin Budd at Terrytown. The year before, 1773, Isaac Van Valkenburg and his two sons-in-law, Sebastian and Isaac Strope, from the town of Claverack on the Hudson, settled at Fairbanks, on the old Indian Meadows, and John Lord in 1774, settled at what is now called Lower Sheshequin. For the next two or three years settlements were rapidly increased, and the additional townships of Claverack and Ulster were granted; the former, next above that of Standing Stone, covering the flats of Wysox, Towanda, and Sugar creek, granted June 4, 1778; the latter in 1775, covering the Old Tioga and the flats adjoining. The Van Valkenburgs, and Stropes, Samuel Cole and some others, were settlers in Claverack as soon or before the grant was obtained, but owing to the impending troubles of the Revolution no settlements were attempted in Ulster under Connecticut rights until after the peace. In the lower townships, however, the number of settlers had been constantly increasing, and were to be found not only along the river but extending five or six miles up the Wyalusing creek, and in the township of Springfield alone there were thirty-two families, mostly New England people holding titles under the Susquehanna company. As early as April, 1769, within six months after their Indian purchase, the Proprietary government of Pennsylvania had granted to their friends warrants of survey, which were laid on the best lands along the river, and up the Wyalusing and Wysaukin creeks-the Towanda was not included in the purchase. For the purpose of holding these lands against the New England people, they were let out to lessees or tenants, who came upon them, made improvements, and in some instances removed their families. Many of these were German people from the neighborhood of Philadelphia. Events were now transpiring in the country which led another class of emigrants to seek a home on these frontiers. The tyrannical acts of the British ministry had precipitated the war of the Revolution. With but very few exceptions the New England settlers were pronounced and active Whigs, and in the very outset of the struggle had taken a decided position on the side of Congress and in favor of the independence of the States. They regarded with suspicion all who were lukewarm in the cause, or for any reason held themselves aloof from the patriotic gatherings and musters, and in some instances arrested and held them in confinement. In consequence of these severe proceedings, quite a number living in the neighborhood of the Wyoming settlements, who for any reason were not in sympathy with the majority of the people there, removed up the 416 BRADFORD COUNTY river into this county, where they would be less subject to annoyance and nearer to their friends. About the same time several disaffected people from the south-eastern part of the province of New York came over and settled on the Susquehanna. These, with a number of deserters from the American army, formed the majority of our population at the close of 1777, and on account of Tioga still being an Indian town, became a dangerous element, ready to foment any disturbance which might distress the Whigs and aid the cause of the British crown. Some of these people had this year joined the British forces at Niagara, had been in the army of St. Leger at the investment of Fort Schuyler, and held commissions in the British army, but returned to their homes in the autumn, where, to escape arrest, they took the freeman's oath and professed to be patriots. At the very outset of the Revolutionary struggle, quite a number of our people enlisted in the two independent companies of Wyoming. Among these were Simon Spalding, James Wells, and Perrin Ross, who were commissioned lieutenants, and Justus Gaylord, a sergeant. Wells and Ross were both slain at the battle of Wyoming. About a dozen others were connected with the train bands of Wyoming; altogether, there were twenty or more from these upper settlements, who, in one capacity or another, were serving in the patriot forces of the country. The vicinity of the Susquehanna settlements to the Indian towns of Sheshequin, Tioga, and Chemung, made the people exceedingly solicitous that the Indians should be kept quiet, and maintain the pledge of neutrality in the contest, which they had given the inhabitants. They were, therefore, treated with great kindness, and frequent deputations passed between these towns and the settlements in the interest of peace. But, notwithstanding the professed neutrality of the savages, it was plainly to be seen that the solicitations of the royalists, the persuasions of British Indian agents, and the reward offered for scalps, were having their effect, and that at any time an Indian war might break out all along the northern border. To prevent this, if possible, in the latter part of December, 1777, a strong detachment was sent up from Wyoming, as far as Sheshequin, for the purpose of arresting the most active of the British emissaries, and quieting the Indian tribes on the border. It was reported that some deserters were lodged with an Indian by the name of Hopkins, living at Sheshequin, who had received a captain's commission in the British army. The soldiers surrounded his house, and Hopkins, in attempting to escape, was severely wounded. This was the first blood shed in the Susquehanna valley in the Revolutionary war. A short time previous to this, two scouting parties had been captured and taken within the British lines; but the inhabitants had not been molested. No sooner had this expedition returned to Wyoming, than the enemy commenced hostilities against the unoffending settlers. Lemuel Fitch was taken at Standing Stone, and his house burned. Mr. Fox was captured at Towanda, and Richard Fitzgerald, a neighbor of Fitch, was taken and his stock driven off. Fitzgerald was carried as far as Wysox, where his captors bound him to a flax brake, and told him unless he would hurrah for King George, they would break every bone in his body. "Well," said the stout-hearted old Dutchman, "I am an old 2B 417 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. purchase from the savages, and a fort erected at Hoern-kill as a further security against the English claim. It was attached to the district of New Amstel. The clashing of interests between the City and the Company, taken in connection with the adverse circumstances with which hlie was surrounded, rendered Director Alrick's position one of great difficulty. Towards the close of 1659. the year 1659 he departed this life. Previous to his death Alricks nomi nated D'Hinoyossa as his successor, and Gerit Van Gezel as Secretary. While the City and Company occupied the country jointly, the seat of justice of the latter jurisdiction was at Altona. The Swedes did not resort voluntarily to the court held there, preferring to settle their differences among themselves, and in one or two instances they wilfully disregarded its processes. The time had now arrived when the dominion of Pennsylvania was to be wrested from the Dutch, and, with the exception of a short interval, for ever. The crown of Great Britain having been restored to Charles II., he granted to his brother James, Duke of York, the territory embracing the whole of New York and New Jersey, and, by a subsequent grant, that which now comprises the State of Delaware. To secure the possession of his newly acquired territory, the Duke fitted out an expedition consisting of four men-of-war and four hundred and fifty men, which he placed under the command of Sir Richard 1664. Nicolls. Associated with the commander were Sir Robert Carr, Sir George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, Esq., as commissioners. The expedition reached the mouth of the Hudson in the latter end of August, 1664. The formidable force and the favorable terms offered to the inhabitants disposed them to capitulate, notwithstanding the efforts of the Governor to excite resistance. After a few days of fruitless negotiation, during which Stuyvesant pleaded in vain the justice of the title of the States General, and the peace existing between them and the English nation, a capitulation was signed, August 27, 1664, and, immediately afterwards, a force was dispatched to reduce Fort Orange. In honor of the Duke of York, the city of New Amsterdam received the name of New York, and Fort Orange that of Albany. The greater part of the inhabitants submitted cheerfully to the new government, and Governor Stuyvesant retained his property and closed his life in New York. Matters being thus arranged at New Amsterdam, the reduction of the colony on the Delaware having been determined, Sir Robert Carr, with two frigates, the Guinea, and the William and Nicholas, and the troops not needed at New York, sailed thither and accomplished his mission with the expenditure of two barrels of powder and twenty shot. The capitulation took place on October 1, 1664, and stipulated that " the burgesses and magistrates submitting to his majesty should be protected in their persons and estates; that the present magistrates should be continued in office; that permission to leave the country within six months should be given to any one desirous so to do; that all persons should enjoy liberty of conscience as formerly; that any person taking the oath of allegiance should become a free denizen, and enjoy all the privileges of trading into any of his Majesty's dominions, as freely as any Englishman." The whole country being thus reduced without bloodshed, Colonel Nicolls, by virtue of a commission of the Duke of York, assumed the government of New York, and on November 3rd was commissioned by his colleagues, CartHISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. man, and can't live long at the best, but I will never die a Tory." They released him; Fox made his escape, and Fitch died in captivity. In the February following, Amos York and Nathan Kingsley, Esq., of Wya. lusing, neighbors, who had settled there in 1776, were captured, their goods and stock taken off, and their families left to take care of themselves as they might. Mr. Kingsley made his escape after about nine months' captivity. Of his family while at Mr. Slocum's in Wilkes-Barre, one son was killed, and another taken by the Indians, at the time when Francis Slocum was captured. Mrs. York and her helpless family, with other settlers, retired to Wyoming when the river broke up in the spring; her husband after several months' captivity was released, went to his old home in Connecticut, where he sickened and died in a few days. In May the families of the Van Valkenburgs and Stropes, at Wysauking, were captured, and retained in the hands of the enemy until the close of the war. Although their settlements were broken up, their families scattered, their friends in captivity, their property destroyed, yet the people abated none of their interest in the welfare of their common country. It is doubtful if any part of the Commonwealth, glorious as her record is during the war for Independence, can produce many instances of a greater percentage of sufferers, and at the same time of active participants in the struggle, than was found in our own county. Notwithstanding its entire depopulation, Bradford county was the theatre of many important events, subsequently, in the Revolutionary war. It was at Tioga Point that the combined forces of Indians, rangers, and Tories, under Major John Butler, were organized, which devastated Wyoming in the summer of 1778. In the autumn of the same year, Colonel Hartley, with a force of four hundred men, set out from Muncy, on the West Branch, and passing up the Lycoming, and down the Towanda, burned the towns of Tioga and Sheshequin, and re-captured some of the stock stolen at Wyoming the preceding summer. Returning down the river, he burned Wyalusing, and had a sharp but decisive engagement with the enemy on the hill just below the town, and on the southern borders of the county. The next year, the grand army under General Sullivan passed through the county, built Fort Sullivan on Tioga Point, where he awaited the arrival of the division under General Clinton. Here was the base of his communications with the country while destroying the Indian towns and cornfields in central New York. In both these expeditions were the former settlers in this county. Beside these important movements against the enemy, there were frequent conflicts between scouting parties from Wyoming and bands of prowling Indians, who were usually led in their marauds by white people. The last of March, 1780, a band of Indians made a descent on the Wyoming settlements, captured Moses Van Campen, murdered and scalped his father, brother, and uncle, captured a boy named Pence, also Abraham Pike, an Irishman, who had been a British soldier, but deserted and joined the American army, and a lad named Rogers, and then bent their way toward Tioga, crossing the river near Tunkhannock. They arrived at Wysox on the third of April, when the whole party, consisting of ten Indians with their four prisoners, lay down to sleep. During the day the captives had formed a plan for effecting their escape. Accordingly, after the savages had fallen asleep, they loosened each other's 418 B RADFORD COUNTY. bonds, removed the guns, and then with toaahawks proceeded to dispatch their slumbering captors. Four of them were killed, two or three badly wounded, and the rest fled to the woods. After scalping the dead and recovering the scalps the Indians had taken with their other booty, they hastily constructed a raft, and on the 5th of April, were again among their friends. Mr. Miner says of this engagement, " No nobler deed was performed during the Revolutionary war." On the 9th of June this same year, Captain John Franklin, who was in command of the militia at Wyoming, with five men came up as far as Wysauking, where he surprised and captured a small party of Tories and a considerable amount of booty which was valued at nearly ~47 sterling. In the September following, another party came up as far as Tioga, but without any special adventure. On the 7th of April, 1782, a party of thirteen Indians made a descent on the house of Roswell Franklin, and setting fire to his buildings carried off his wife and four children, one of whom was an infant. A party of eight immediately started in pursuit, and passing the savages, laid wait for them at a ravine in the mountain nearly opposite Asylum. After waiting for some time, the party of Indians were seen advancing, but discovered the ambush which had been laid for them. Placing their captives behind the trunk of a fallen tree, the savages immediately stationed themselves behind trees for shelter, waiting for the attack. Here for several hours each party maintained their ground, until several of the Indians having been killed, the three older children escaped to their friends whose voices they recognized, the chieftain shot Mrs. Franklin, and seizing the infant placed it upon his shoulder and retreated with his party. Mrs. Franklin was buried as decently as circumstances would permit, and the scouts with the three rescued children returned to Wyoming. In this encounter two Americans were wounded and six of the Indians were killed. When the number and position of the parties are considered, and the length of time this engagement was maintained, greater personal bravery and heroism have been rarely met with. These incidents are of local interest to the people of this county, not only because they transpired upon our territory, but because, except in a single instance, the parties were, many of them, at some time, residents of the county. Immediately after the close of the Revolutionary war, many of the surviving families returned to their old homes, re-built their houses, and, so to speak, began life anew. Quite a number of soldiers who had taken part in the various expeditions which passed through the county during the war, became acquainted with the broad flats at Sheshequin and Tioga, and resolved to take possession of them as soon as opportunity offered. Accordingly in the fall of 1783, these flats were laid out into farms, and the settlers began to locate upon them. The troubles at Wyoming, known as the second Pennamite war, induced many others, who became wearied with the conflict, to migrate into this county, where at that time comparative peace prevailed. In consequence of the severe measures instituted against the New England settlers under the Susquehanna company, at a meeting held at Hartford, July 13, 1785, that company resolved to give each man who would come upon their lands and remain there for three years, subject to the orders of the standing committee of the company, one-half share in the purchase. Six hundred shares 419 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VYANIA. were also ordered to be sold for thed use of the company in defending their claim. The new impulse given by these measures, the stories of Pennsylvania oppressions and cruelties upon the settlers, who had been pelted and torn by the war during which they had stood as a rampart between the savages and the settlers below them, that were ringing through all New England, the activity of the leading spirits of the company, and the influence of some of the prominent men in Connecticut and Massachusetts, all combined to awaken the deepest interest in the welfare of the settlers, and to lead a large number to emigrate to the purchase. These indiscriminately were known as " Half-Share men," of whom a large proportion became settlers in Bradford county. New townships were surveyed, a multitude of shares were located, so that before the close of the century, the company had assigned every acre of land in the county to those claiming rights under it. As has just been intimated, the territory of this county is included in what was kown as the " Connecticut Claim." Being remote from the lower settlements, it escaped in a great measure those conflicts between the adverse claimants which embroiled Wyoming in what have been called the first and second Pennamite wars. It was not until 1795, when an act was passed reducing the price of vacant land to six pence per acre, under which speculators secured for themselves warrants, covering thousands of acres, in expectation of realizing immense fortunes, that any disturbance arising from conflicting titles arose. The policy of the State in quieting the titles of the old settlers, that is, of those who had acquired lands under the Susquehanna company previous to the decree of Trenton, December 30, 17821 in which the jurisdiction of the disputed territory was awarded to Pennsyl;-vania, was foreshadowed in the act of 1787, but was more fully developed in the acts of 1799, and its several supplements. By this law, those settlers in the seventeen townships which had been granted by the company, and actually settled before the decree of Trenton, were confirmed to the settlers. In this county were four such townships, viz.: Springfield, Standing Stone, Claverack, and Ulster. But the grants of Standing Stone. and Ulster had failed, because of the want of a sufficient number of settlers, the rules of the company requiring twenty. The provisions of the act, were, however, extended to Ulster by the law of 1810. By these several enactments, the titles were confirmed to the early settlers in these three townships, but they included only a very small part of the county. There was another class to whom no compromise was offered; these were the " Half Share men," or, as they were sometimes called, the " Wild Yankees," who were induced to come upon the purchase in full faith in the validity of the Susquehanna company's title, and for the purpose of defending it from encroachment by the Pennsylvania landholders. For these, though they were for the most part industrious and honest men, and would have made good citizens, the Commonwealth had a policy, not of conciliation, but of extirpation, or, in the language of one of the judges of the Supreme court, "to cut them up by the roots." Toward these, juries were allowed no discretion, and for them courts could show no mercy. To this policy, as may be supposed, these settlers did not readily accede, although many of the old settlers endeavored to persuade them to submit to the 420 BRADFORD COUNTY. oppressive laws which were attempted to be enforced against them, and trust to the generosity of the State to afford them relief. On the other hand, they were urged to maintain their claims at all hazards, by such men as Colonel John Franklin, the Satterlees, the Kingsburys, and Spalding of this county, Colonel John Jenkins of Wyoming, and Ezekiel Hyde of Susquehanna county, men who had been leading spirits in the controversy from the first, and possessed the unbounded confidence of the Connecticut settlers. In order more successfully to maintain their claim, they banded together under a league, each pledging to defend the others with money or force. As might be expected, acts of violence were committed and many things were done, which, in less exciting times, would have been considered, even by the perpetrators, as atrocious. Settlers under Pennsylvania title were driven off their lands, surveyors who came to locate warrants were compelled to desist, one surveyor had his compass broken and another his chain stolen. A Mr. Erwin, from Easton, was shot dead while standing in the door of the house of Mr. McDuffie in Athens; the Rev. Thomas Smiley, at that time living eight or ten miles up the Towanda Creek, while acting as an assistant agent under the Intrusion law, was tarred and feathered near the mouth of the Towanda creek, and warned out of the country. On the other hand the Pennsylvania party were not idle. The landholders entered into an association for the purpose of protecting their interests. Possessing great influence in the Legislature, laws of great severity were enacted against the " Intruders," as the "Half Share men" were contemptuously called, settlement under the Susquehanna company's title, outside the seventeen townships, was made a crime punishable with severe penalties, recorders were forbidden to admit to record conveyances which did not recite the Pennsylvania title, and the whole machinery of the government was set to destroy root and branch every vestige of the half-share titles. Arrests were numerous, but few, if any, were convicted. A Mr. Spalding, a settler near the present village of Canton, was arrested and sent to jail as an intruder, and while in confinement the sheriff turned his wife and little children out of doors in a deep snow in midwinter, burned down his house, leaving the homeless, helpless family to take care of themselves as best they could. Several attempts were made to compromise the questions in dispute, but the landholders would assent to no terms until the people would abandon the companies, renounce the Connecticut titles, and pledge themselves to support the laws of the Commonwealth. After nearly a dozen years of fruitless strife, better counsels prevailed. These contests had debarred settlers from coming upon lands whose titles were in dispute, and the landholders, instead of reaping the fortune they had anticipated, found themselves hoplessly involved in debt, which in many instances resulted in bankruptcy and ruin, and thousands of acres, in Luzerne county and in Bradford, were sold for taxes, many of which were purchased by the settlers. Others began to pursue a more lenient course as a matter of policy, while settlers found it was far better to purchase the State title at reasonable rates than to be forever in difficulty and controversy. These troubles, of course, retarded the progress both of the settlement and improvement of the county, so that in 1813, the date of its organization, more HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. than four hundred and fifty thousand acres were assessed as unimproved land, and very much of the remaining two hundred and seventy thousand acres, outside of the two certified townships, was occupied without any form of title by the settler. Since then, however, the amount of unseated lands has rapidly diminished, titles have been perfected, and the increase of population and prosperity has been continuous and permanent. A few years after the close of the Revolutionary war, a party of Seneca Indians on Pine creek were attacked by the settlers there and two of their number were killed. Already the tribes of the Six Nations were in commotion, a general Indian war was being waged in the West, and British emissaries at Niagara were using all their influence to draw the different tribes in western New York into the contest, and many of their influential sachems had already expressed a willingness to take up the hatchet in the cause of their brethren. The murder of these men, at this time, made the danger of hostilities all the more imminent. In order to avert the threatened danger, General Washington, President of the United States, under date of September 4, 1790, commissioned Colonel Timothy Pickering, then at Wyoming, a man of great tact and of consummate abilities, who, during the Revolutionary war, had held important offices under the government, to proceed to Painted Post, or some other convenient place, to meet, in behalf of the United States, the Indians, to assure them that the murders committed on Pine creek, on some of their tribe, were causes of displeasure to the United States, and endeavor to heal the difficulties which had been engendered. It was decided on consultation to hold the conference at Tioga instead of at Painted Post. Colonel Pickering immediately dispatched a trusty messenger to the Senecas, inviting them to a friendly conference, with assurances of good will on the part of the United States, and their willingness to make reparation for the injury which had been done them. The time appointed for the conference was the 25th of the following October. Colonel Pickering at once began to make active preparations for the forthcoming conference. To Colonel Matthias Hollenback of Wilkes-Barre, who was familiar with Indian habits, and had considerable experience in trade with them, was intrusted the duty of purchasing supplies and presents for the treaty and transporting them to Tioga. When it is remembered that from five hundred to a thousand Indians were expected to attend this treaty, and that the conferences might continue for a fortnight, it will be seen that the work assigned to Colonel Hollenback was no slight task. The party set out for Tioga early in October. Stopping at Sheshequin, Colonel Pickering secured the services of Colonel Simon Spalding, whose knowledge of Indian character and personal acquaintance with many of their sachems, by whom he was held in high esteem, as well as his good judgment, were peculiarly serviceable in the negotiations, and gratefully acknowledged by Colonel Pickering in his report of the conference. Reaching Tioga on the 17th, it was not until the 29th that five runners arrived, announcing the approach of five hundred Indians to the conference, and not until the 14th of November that the party began to arrive there. The same 422 BRADFORD COUNTY. afternoon, Colonel Pickering invited twenty or thirty of their most important chiefs, among whom was the Farmer's Brother, Red Jacket, Good Peter, Big Tree, and Captain Hendrick Aupaumut, to an informal conference, where they smoked the pipe, " drank grog, and ate our bread and cheese." It was not until the 17th that the formal conferences began. The questions to be discussed were of peculiar difficulty and delicacy on account of the hostile feeling against the government. Red Jacket and Cornplanter had strong prejudices against the United States, and were willing to enter the league with the Western Indians. Joseph Brandt, though not present, was giving all of his powerful influence against any adjustment of the difficulties. " Colonel John Butler, then commandant at Fort Niagara, and other British officials on the Canadian frontier, were using all possible means to instigate these nations to hostility." To remove these prejudices and counteract these evil influences required all the courage and tact of which Pickering and his associates were masters. In his opening speech, Colonel Pickering went through the usual formality of pulling the hatchet out of their heads, washing off the blood, and wiping the tears from their eyes with the customary strings of wampum, to which Farmer's Brother, the principal chief, replied. Two days longer were spent in waiting for Fish Carrier, who had been sent to the Indians on the Grand river, bearing Colonel Pickering's letter, and inviting them to the conference. Farmer's Brother and Red Jacket were the principal speakers; the latter was famed as a great aboriginal orator, whose rousing, magnetizing eloquence brought him into great notoriety among the Indian tribes. Colonel Pickering says, " he acted a conspicuous part at the conference, displaying a good understanding, a ready apprehension, and great strength of memory. He was attentive to business at the council fire, and when consulted in private, on matters relating to their peculiar customs, he appeared to be very well acquainted with them, and always gave me the necessary information very intelligently, with perfect candor, and in a most obliging manner."' The conference was continued until the 23d of November. On this day the presents were distributed, the mourning belts were presented to the relatives of the murdered men, with suitable speeches of condolence, and the post was reset in the hole where all their difficulties were buried. "These ceremonies terminated, renewals of friendship secured, a treaty concluded, and satisfaction given and taken on both sides, the council fires were covered up, the Indians returned to their homes, and Colonel Pickering repaired to Philadelphia to make report of his doings." General Knox, the secretary of war, in his report says, "the proceedings of Colonel Pickering were conducted with ability and judgment, and consistently with the constitution and laws of the United States; and also with the candor and humanity which ought to characterize all the treaties of the general government with the unenlightened natives of the country." The following year, the work of conciliation was completed at a treaty held at Newtown, now Elmira. The echoes of the war of our Revolution scarcely had died away, ere they were answered back from the other side of the Atlantic. France had been among the first of the great European nations to recognize our independence, and with 423 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. men and money had generously assisted the new-born government in its conflict with her ancient rival. The watchwords of liberty, freedom, and equal rights, had been caught up by a people suffering from the evils of a mismanaged and extravagant government, until they were ready not only to reform the abuses with which centuries of profligacy had burdened the nation, but to run into the other extreme of riot and anarchy. The story of the French Revolution is too familiar with all readers of history to be here repeated. Multitudes who were in sympathy with the ancient order of things, or preferred reformation to revolution, fled the country, and many of them turned their steps toward our own land for protection and a home. The insurrection of the blacks in the French colony at St. Domingo sent another company of French refugees to our shores. Many of these were not only homeless, but without means, having left everything behind them, and fled for their lives. To the more favored of their countrymen it became a serious question how they could best provide for the necessities of their unfortunate friends, without having them pensioners upon their bounty. Viscount Louis de Noailles, who was brother-in-law to Lafayette, a general in the French army which assisted in the war of the Revolution, and was selected on the part of the French to receive the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and Omer Talon, a banker of Paris, in consultation with John Nicholson and Robert Morris, decided to form a company, purchase a large tract of unimproved land, and selecting a favorable location, colonize such of the refugees as were not otherwise provided for. Accordingly negotiations were entered into with Messrs. Nicholson and Morris, for the purchase of one million acres of wild land, provided a location suitable for a settlement could be secured. The plan which was attempted to be carried out was, that each colonist should have the privilege of purchasing a home lot in the town, or could rent it of the company, and by improving a given number of acres of the wild land, slould have liberty of purchasing four hundred acres, at a stipulated price. This plan, which they were led to believe would result in great fortunes to the company, it was found necessary to modify, and finally to abandon. The place selected for the settlement was a comparatively level plain, lying in the bend of the river, opposite and above the old Indian meadows. On account of the conflicting titles, Mr. Morris applied to Judge Hollenback, to negotiate the purchase of both the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claims, of several hundred acres. This was regularly laid out into village lots, and M. Talon was sent on to oversee the arrangements necessary to be made for the reception of the colonists. The first tree was cut December 1, 1793. Before spring a number of log houses were erected, and the colonists began to flock to their new homes. They called their town Asylum which name it has ever since retained. They immediately set about surrounding themselves with the appliances of comfort and refinement to which they had been accustomed at home. Stores and shops were opened and filled with goods brought directly from Philadelphia, to which the people flocked from all the surrounding country. They cleared and improved their house lots, and soon transformed the partially cultivated fields into beautiful gardens and meadows. A mill, with a bolt for making flour, was 424 BRADFORD COUNTY. erected and driven by horse-power. They set up a bakery, where bread, pastry, and even confectionery, weremade for the settlement, and a brewery was put in operation for making ale. A weekly post was established with Philadelphia, by which they were kept in communication with the outside world. Quite a number of clearings were commenced on their wild lands, in the back part of Terry township where some houses were built, in Albany township, and Sullivan county. A saw mill was erected at Laddsburg, but not completed. Although the unfortunate Louis XVI. and his accomplished Queen had passed under the guillotine before the settlement had been commenced, yet the news of that event did not reach here until some time after, and the colonists entertained high expectations of being able to afford a secure retreat for the royal family until the storm of the Revolution had passed over. For this purpose, large buildings were put up at the settlement in Terry, but their hopes, as many others which had been awakened in reference to their enterprise, were doomed to disappointment. Most of the emigrants having been wealthy gentlemen in Paris, and some of them members of the royal household, entirely ignorant of farming, and unused to manual labor, found great difficulty in adapting themselves to their new condition. Yet they endured their privations with fortitude, and cheerfully set about the laborious task of clearing and cultivating the heavily timbered lands, from which they had been led to expect immediately such large returns. About the same time that Asylum was founded, M. Brevost, a Parisian gentlemen of great wealth, celebrated for his benevolence, contracted for a large tract of land on the Chenango river, in the State of New York, where he founded another colony, composed of eight or ten families. But failure to receive from France expected funds, the unfavorable character of the location, discouraged the colonists, and led them to abandon their plantations and remove to Asylum, which although thus increased in numbers, was not much strengthened in wealth or working force. It is said a Frenchman never forgets the sunny vales of his native land, and never goes to any country where he does not long to return to his own beloved France. In addition to this characteristic love for his native home, there was much to render the colonists discontented with their situation. Ignorance of our language, and of the prices which ought to be paid for labor and supplies led them often to be imposed upon by the cupidity of their Yankee neighbors. Exposure to such unaccustomed hardships and privations was attended with pain and suffering. Then they were disappointed in their expectations of income from their investment, many of them having expended everything in the purchase of land, which was a burden instead of a revenue, annoyed by the poverty of the country, and the difficulty of obtaining supplies, it is no wonder that most o. them regarded Asylum as a place to be endured rather than one in which it was desirable to live; and when Napoleon came into power and repealed the laws of expatriation which had been passed against the emigrants, with the promise of the restoration of their confiscated estates on their return, the greater part gladly embraced the opportunity and went back to France. Some of them removed to Philadelphia, and two or three to other parts of the country, but three remained in the vicinity of Asylum. The late Hon. John La Porte, who was Speaker of 425 HISTORY OF PENYNSYL VANIA. the General assembly in 1832, the fifth term of his membership, from 1832 to 1836 a member of Congress, and Surveyor General of Pennsylvania in the years 1845 to 1851, was a descendant of one of those families; those of the others are known as among the best citizens of the county. During the continuance of the settlement, it was visited by several distinguished personages, who since have obtained a world-wide reputation. In 1795, Louis Philippe spent several weeks at Asylum, enjoying the hospitality of M. Talon. Tallyrand spent some time here; Count de la Rochefoucauld was several days at Asylum while on his journey through the States in 1795--6, and his observations on the character of the colonists afford the fullest account that has been given of them. In 1796, the town consisted of about fifty log houses, occupied by about forty families. Among the most noted of these, besides those already mentioned were M. De Blacons, a member of the French Constituent Assembly from Dauphine; M. De Montule, a captain of a troop of horse; M. Beaulieu, a captain of infantry in the French service, and who served in this country under Potosky; Dr. Buzzard, a planter from St. Domingo, and M. Dandelot, an officer in the French infantry. But perhaps the best known of all, at least in this country, was M. Dupetit-Thouars, or as hewas generally called by the Americans, the Admiral. Wrecked while on voyage in search of La Perouse, he reached Asylum destitute of everything but an unfaltering courage, a genial temper, and the chivalrous pride of a Frenchman. Disdaining to be a pensioner on the bounty of his countrymen, he obtained a grant of four hundred acres in the dense wilderness of now Sullivan county, and went out literally single-handed, having lost an arm in the French naval service, commenced a clearing, built himself a house, returning to Asylum once a week for necessary food and change of apparel. He returned to his native country, obtained a position in the navy, saying he had yet another arm to give to France, was placed in command of the ship Le Tonnant and killed in the battle of the Nile. The borough of Dushore, which includes the clearings of this indomitable Frenchman, was named in honor of him, this being nearly the anglicised pronunciation of his name. Although the first settlers of this county were poor, having enjoyed but few advantages of religious or intellectual culture, and for many years were harassed by the uncertainty of the titles to their lands, yet true to their New England traditions, their first thought, after securing shelter for their families and some means for their subsistence, was to secure the advantages of the church and the school for themselves and their children. As early as 1791, a Congregational church was organized at Wysauking, and two years afterward, a Presbyterian church, consisting of thirteen members, was organized at Wyalusing. This was probably the first church established on the Presbyterian plan in all Northern Pennsylvania. Both these organizations have continued in existence until the present time, although the former, like mo3t of the churches in the county on the Congregational basis, has adopted the Presbyterian form of government. The same year, 1793, Rev. Willham Colbert, a Methodist itinerant, was appointed to a circuit, which included all of this county and extended up into the Lake country of New York, who organized the first Methodist class at the house of Wanton Rice, on Schuefeldt's flats-Asylum 426 BRADFORD COUNTY. The year before, Rev. John Hill had been in the county, but it is not known that he did more than to explore the ground. Rev. Mr. Spafford, a Baptist minister, was, this year, preaching on the Wyalusing creek, and Rev. Thomas Smiley, about the same time, commenced preaching along the river and the Towanda creek, where and on Sugar creek, Baptist churches were soon after organized. The Congregational church of Smithfield was organized in Poultney, Vermont, in February, 1801, previous to the removal of its members to this county. A Universalist society was organized near this time, in the upper part of the county. The whole number of religious societies now in the county is one hundred and thirteen, with a total membership of more than eighty-two hundred, of which the leading denominations are Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Disciples. Schools were commenced in the settlements along the river about 1790. The teacher was paid by a subscription taken in the neighborhood, and taught reading, writing, and spelling, with the rudiments of arithmetic. Inferior as these schools were, when measured by the present standard, they were sufficient for the necessities of the times. They were sometimes attended by old and young, and father and son might be seen in the same school studying the same lessons. The Susquehanna company divided their townships into fifty-three equal parts, of which fifty were allowed to the settlers, and of the remaining three, one was assigned to the first minister who settled in the township, one to the church, and the other to the school. In the townships in this county, certificates were issued to a committee appointed by the proprietors of the township, who sold the lots and divided the proceeds among the several neighborhoods in the proportion to the number of families. As early as 1797, an academical association was formed at Athens, funds were secured, and a building erected. In 1813, it was incorporated by an act of the Legislature, and a grant of two thousand dollars was made to the trustees, for which the academy was to furnish free tuition to four poor children, not exceeding two years each, provided there is application made for them. In 1854, the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute was incorporated, a large four-story brick building was put up at the cost of about sixteen thousand dollars, an endowment in scholarships secured, and the institution opened in the fall of 1855, in which normal, preparatory, commercial, and higher English courses have been established, where pupils receive thorough training in the various branches of which these courses are composed, from an efficient corps of teachers. Besides these and several private schools, there are now three hundred and eighty-eight public schools in the county where the elementary branches are taught, besides higher grades in the larger towns in which more than sixteen thousand pupils receive instruction from about six hundred teachers, at an annual expense of about eighty thousand dollars. The War of 1812 occurred about the time of the organization of the county, and although the martial spirit of the people had been exhibited in keeping up various military organizations, yet neither in this nor in the Mexican war did the county furnish many soldiers who were in actual service. In the War for the Union, however, Bradford took an earnest and conspicuous part. Her sons rushed to the conflict to maintain the government their fathers 427 GENERAL HISTORY. wright and Maverick, to proceed to Delaware, " to take special care for the good government of said place, and to depute such officer or officers therein as he shall think fit for the management of his Majesty's affairs, both civil and military, until his Majesty's pleasure be further known." Colonel Robert Carr was appointed Deputy Governor. New Amstel was now called New Castle. The capture of New York and its dependencies led to an European war between Great Britain and Holland, ending in the treaty of Breda, at which the right of the former to their newly-acquired territories in America was acknowledged. Colonel Nicolls governed for nearly three years with justice and good sense. lie settled the boundaries with the Connecticut Colony, which, yielding all claim to Long Island, obtained great advantages on the main, pushing its line to Marmaroneck river, about thirty miles from New York; he prescribed the mode of purchasing lands from the Indians, making the consent of the governor requisite to the validity of all contracts with them for 1665. the soil, and directing such contracts to be entered in the public registry; he incorporated the city of New York, under a mayor, five aldermen, and a sheriff, in 1665, and, although he reserved to himself all judicial authority, his administration was so wise and impartial, that it enforced universal praise. Colonel Francis Lovelace succeeded Colonel Nicolls, in May, 1667. By proclamation he required that all patents granted by the Dutch, for 1667. lands upon the Delaware, should be renewed, and that persons hold ing lands, without patent, should take out titles under the English authority. Power was given to the officers on the Delaware to grant lands, and the commission of surveyor-general, of all the lands under the government of the Duke of York, on the west side of the Delaware, was issued to Walter Wharton. Governor Lovelace also renewed the duty of ten per cent. imposed on goods imported by the Delaware, which had been ordained by the Dutch, and repealed by his predecessor; but it was found so oppressive, that he also was compelled to revoke the order by which it was established. In the Spring of the year 1672, the town of New Castle was, by the 1672. government of New York, made a corporation; to be governed by a bailiff and six associates; after the first year, four old to go out and four others to be chosen. The bailiff was president and had a double vote; the constable was chosen by the bench. They had power to try causes, as far as ten pounds, without appeal. The English laws were established in the town, and among the inhabitants, on both sides of Delaware. The office of schout was converted into that of sheriff, for the corporation and river, annually chosen. And they were to have free trade, without being obliged to make entry at New York, as before. The fears of the government of Maryland, says Gordon, lest the title of Lord Baltimore to the country on Delaware Bay should be weakened by non-claim, produced occasional irruptions of a very hostile character. An act of violence was committed at Hloarkill [1672], by a party of Marylanders led by one Jones, who seized the magistrates and other inhabitants, plundered them, and carried HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. fought to establish. No sooner was the news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon by the rebel hosts flashed over the country than the whole county was ablaze with excitement. At a public meeting held in Towanda, a large number volunteered in answer to the President's call for troops to enforce the demands of the Federal goverfiment. This was followed by public meetings held in other parts of the county; companies were organized for military drill, and the sound of the fife and drum were heard on almost every street corner. Nor was this all. The ladies met in almost every neighborhood to prepare such things as were thought needful for those about starting for the field of battle, and supplies for field and hospital. At first these contributions were made without much system, and but little or no account was taken either of the amount or value of the contributions. After the organization of the Sanitary and Christian commissions, auxiliary societies were established and contributions made in nearly every township in the county. Men gave and women worked for these as never before for any benevolent enterprise. It touched the tenderest sympathies of the human heart, and kindled every slumbering spark of patriotism in the breast. In Athens alone, during the year 1864, thirty-five boxes and six hundred and thirty-eight dollars in cash were sent to the Christian commission, and this, perhaps, is but a fair average for the whole county. As nearly as can now be ascertained, Bradford county sent more than eighteen hundred men into the field, besides emergency men. In the 141st regiment seven companies were from Bradford, besides companies in the Reserve corps and other regiments, and a large number who enlisted in the State of New York. Bradford county soldiers were in every branch of the service; they could be found in all the armies, and the navy upon the seas, in the army of the Potomac from its organization until the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, at Beaufort, with Sherman in his march to the sea, at Nashville and Chattanooga, with Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley; where, in hard service and gallant bravery, they were surpassed by no troops in the Union armies. The record of their deeds is in their country's history, their blood enriched many a battle-field, their sufferings are told in the horrors of rebel prisons, and their bones rest in the National cemeteries. One indication of the general progress of a community is found in the political divisions required for the convenience, and the ability and willingness to bear the burdens which such divisions impose, therefore the history of township organizations, as well as tables showing increase of population, wealth, and production, indicate the growth in financial ability and homogeneousness of the people. At the March sessions of 1790, the Court divided Luzerne county into eleven townships, two of which, Tioga and Wyalusing, covered the area of the northern part of Wyoming, of Susquehanna, and of Bradford counties, except a narrow strip of the southern border of the latter, a dense, uninhabited wilderness, which was included in Tunkhannock township. By this order Tioga was bounded on the north by the north line of the State; on the south by an east and west line passing through the Standing Stone; and on the east and west by the lines of the county. This township was about fifteen miles in width from north to south, and more than seventy miles long. Wyalusing was bounded on the north 428 BRADFORD COUNTY. by the south line of Tioga; on the south by an east and west line passing through the mouth of the Meshoppen creek; on the east and west by the county lines It was about ten miles in breadth, and in length about the same as Tioga. In 1795, a strip of nearly six miles in width was cut off the south side of Tioga, and erected into a separate township, called Wysox, and in 1797 the remaining part of old Tioga was again divided. The lower part was called Ulster, and the upper part Athens, and thus the name Tioga, which from time immemorial had been attached to the peninsula at the "meeting of the waters," was lost to our county. These townships were from time to time subdivided, to suit the convenience of the inhabitants, of which the ten following, viz., Athens, Burlington, Canton, Orwell, Smithfield, Towanda, Ulster, Wysox, and parts of Wyalusing and Rush, were included in Bradford. Out of these ten, thirty-seven townships have since been formed. ALBANY is on the Fowler branch of the Towanda, along which runs the Sullivan and Erie railroad, and took its name from a township of the Susquehanna company, which covered part of its area. It was taken from Asylum and Monroe in 1824. The valley of the creek is narrow and bounded by high hills. The French had made several small clearings in the neighborhood of Laddsburg, erected the frame of a saw-mill, and had several sugar camps in the vicinity, but made no attempts at a permanent settlement, and their lands fell into the hands of the celebrated Dr. Priestly, who, to induce settlers to come upon his lands, offered lots of seventy-five acres each to the first four who would locate upon his land. This offer was accepted by Sheffield Wilcox and Horatio Ladd, who with their families moved into the township in 1801. Daniel Miller and a few others came soon after, but the construction of the Berwick and Newtown turnpike in 1817-19, was the means of settling it much more rapidly. Nearly all of the township is now covered with fruitful farms. NEW ALBANY, on the Sullivan and Erie railroad, is a place of considerable business. LADDSBURG has quite a trade in bark and lumber. The opening of the railroad has given an impulse to business along its line, which in a short time will add much to the wealth and business of the township. ARMENIA is on the western border of the county, from which it is practically cut off.by the ranges of the Armenia mountains. It takes its name from the Susquehanna company's township of the same name, which included part of its area, and the high hill which bounds three sides of the township doubtless suggested the name for both. The township was set off from Canton and Troy in 1843. It is uneven, sparsely inhabited, and contains a large proportion of wild land. ASYLUM was set off from Wyalusing in 1814. It received its name from the French people, whose town was embraced in its territory, which was the Scheu feldt's flats, or Wooster of former times, on which several families were located previous to the battle of Wyoming. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, Robert Alexander and his son purchased the Forsythe farm on the upper end of the fiats, Wanton Rice settled below them, and Captain Richard Townley on the lower part. In 1793 these parties sold out their claim to the French, and removed from the county. Stephen Durell came up from Wyoming, where he was one of the earliest settlers, and located near the mouth of the creek, which 429 HIS TORY OF PE-NNSYL VANIA. bears his name, where he had a small mill; Amos Bennett, with his two sons-inlaw, Benjamin Akely and Richard Benjamin, at the mouth of Bennett's creek, on land occupied by Samuel and Azariah Ketchem before the Revolutionary war, and Samuel Cole returned to his plantation at Macedonia. ATHENS is situated in a beautiful section of country, at the confluence of the Susquehanna and the Tioga or Chemung rivers. The spot was known during the Revolution and in the early part of this century as Tioga Point. Tioga (meaning the meeting of the waters), originally the name of the place, is still the legal name in Pennsylvania of the river, which in New York is called Chemung. Prior to the Revolution, and as far back as 1737, when Conrad Weiser, the celebrated interpreter and Indian agent, made his first visit to the Six Nations, it was the site of the Indian town Diahoga, the most extensive Indian settlement within the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania north of Shamokin, it being on the main trail of the Six Nations from the Wyoming valley to the north. Here the paths diverged, that to Genesee and Niagara following up the Tioga, while that to Onondaga followed for some distance further up the Susquehanna. The first white man who made this place, then becoming known as Tioga and Tioga Point, his home, was John Secord, who in the early summer of 1778 had here a cabin and some cattle, and tilled the soil. It was at this place in that year that Butler, and perhaps Brandt, with their English and Indians, rendezvoused and prepared for their descent on Wyoming, and hither they returned after the massacre. When they took their final departure, Secord went with them, and disappears from our history. In September, 1778, Colonel Hartley, with a force of four hundred men, came as far north as this place, and burned Tioga, and Queen Esther's palace and town. In the following year, during his expedition against the Indians, General Sullivan made Tioga the base of his opera tions. He ascended the river, arriving here with three thousand five hundred men on the 11th of August, and erected block houses and a stockade, extending across the peninsula from river to river, called Fort Sullivan. General Clinton pushed across the country from Albany to Otsego Lake, with eighteen hundred men, and floated down the Susquehanna, uniting his forces with Sullivan, August 22d. The whole army lay here until the 27th, when it went on its march of devastation, leaving Tioga a military station, under command of Colonel Shrieve, whence Sullivan derived his supplies, and to which he sent his wounded. The expedition returned here victorious, and on the 4th of October the fort was demolished and the army went down the river to Wyoming. In 1783 white adventurers and pioneers first crept up the river as far as Tioga Point. The first settler after the war of whom there is any positive information was Benjamin Patterson, who squatted on the east side of the Susquehanna, as did, shortly after, one Miller and one Moore. About 1783 a man named Andreas Budd erected a cabin on the point, and in the next year Jacob Snell, from Stroudsburg, settled west of the Tioga, where, on the 5th of July, 1784, was born the first white native-the late Major Abraham Snell. In 1784, or early in 1785, Matthias Hollenback, of Wilkes-Barre, opened here a trading-house. In May, 1786, the Susquehanna company issued a grant for a township, to be called Athens, and in May and June of that year it was surveyed, and the village plat laid out by Colonel John Jenkins, Colonel John Franklin, and 430 BRADFORD COUNTY. Colonel Elisha Satterlee. The site of the village was granted by Pennsylvania, May 17, 1785, to Josiah Lockhart, of Lancaster, under lottery warrant Number one, the land being embraced within the purchase from the Indians of October, 1784, but the first settlements were made under the Connecticut title by New England people. Colonel Satterlee and his brother-in-law, Major Elisha Mathewson, came up from Wyoming and made improvements in 1787, and the next year settled here permanently. Colonel Franklin built a house in 1787, and was intending to settle here the same year, but was arrested for high treason against the State of Pennsylvania, and confined in irons in Philadelphia. It was alleged that the Connecticut settlers, of whom he was the recognized leader, were about to erect a new State in Northern Pennsylvania, with Franklin as governor. He was detained in prison nearly two years, and, immediately after his release in 1789, settled permanently in Athens. Franklin, Satterlee, and Mathewson, were the most prominent of the early settlers; they had all served in the war, were in Wyoming during the Yankee and Pennamite troubles, and had been here with Sullivan. In 1796, a warrant for a Masonic lodge, still in existence, was granted; 1797 an academy, afterwards endowed by the State, and now in a very flourishing condition, was organized; in the summer of 1800 the post office was established; in 1812 the first church-Presbyterian-was organized. Athens was incorporated as a borough in 1832, and has now a population of about one thousand five hundred. The continuation of the Lehigh Valley railroad passes through it; and just above the borough limits, but within the township of Athens, at a new station called SAYRE, connection is made with the Geneva, Ithaca, and Athens, and the Southern Central railroads. BARCLAY covers the coal fields of the Towanda and Fall Creek companies, and the large saw-mills of the Schroeder land company. BARCLAY, FALL CREEK, GRAYDON, and CARBON RUN in LeRoy township, are mining villages. The land is owned by the companies, and the business is carried on by them. It is said that but one freeholder lives upon the mountain. The Barclay railroad connects the mines with the Pennsylvania and New York railroad at Towanda. The Barclay mines and railroad are at present operated by the Erie railway company, who hold a lease of the works. The township was cut off from Franklin in 1867. Mining and lumbering is the only business carried on in the township. BURLINGTON was one of the original townships at the organization of the county, and lies on the Sugar creek between Towanda and Troy. The great thoroughfare between the North and West branches of the Susquehanna, known as the Sheshequin Path passed through this town, and soon after the close of the Revolution settlers began to push up the creek. The Susquehanna company's township-Juddsburg-which covered a large part of Burlington, was granted in the summer of 1786, and about that time Joseph Ballard, John Clark, Moses Calkins, Stephen Ballard, and Jacob Swaine, were found settled along the creek. They were earnest defenders of the Connecticut title, and held to their rights with great pertinacity. They manifested the same enterprise in improving as in maintaining their rights, so that this has become one of the leading townships in the county. Nehemiah Allen and John McKean were among the prominent persons who came in soon after. General Samuel McKean was, for a number of years, one of the most prominent citizens of the county, and held various offices of HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. trust, having reached the United States Senate, where he held his seat for six years. In 1825 the township was divided, the western part taking the name of West Burlington. BURLINGTON borough, near the line dividing the two townships, is a village of some business, and the most important point on the creek between Towanda and Troy. Mountain Lake, near the borough, is a place of resort for pleasure parties. LUTHER'S MILLS and WEST BURLINGTON each are places of considerable business. CANTON was originally a part of Burlington, but the line dividing Luzerne county in 1804, divided also the township, and that part of it remaining in Luzernie took the name of Canton. It is situated on the head waters of the Towanda, whose broad and beautiful valley contains some of the best farms in the county. The first settlements were made in 1796,'97, and'98, by the families of Ezra Spalding, Ebenezer Byxbe, Ashmun Gillett, and some others. The town has increased rapidly in wealth and population. CANTON borough, incorporated in 1864, is pleasantly situated on the Williamsport and Elmira railroad, is an important centre for business, and for shipping of agricultural products. MINNEQUA, two miles above, also on the railroad, is becoming famous as a watering place. During the season the house is filled with guests seeking health and rest. The mineral spring on the premises has already attained great celebrity for its medicinal qualities. ALBA, in the northern part of the township, made a borough in 1863, is a thriving place. EAST CANTON is a place of some business, and contains a number of pleasant private residences. COLUMBIA was taken from Smithfield in 1813, and is a fine dairy region. About 1798, the whole township was an unbroken forest. Two brothers by the name of Ballard, Nathaniel Morgan, and some others, were among the first emigrants. The borough of SYLVANIA, in the southern part, was incorporated in 1853. AUSTINVILLE is a place of considerable business. COLUMBIA CROSS ROADS and SNEI)EKERVILLE are stations on the Williamsport and Elmira railroad of some importance. FRANKLIN was organized in 1819, from territory taken from Canton, Troy, and Burlington, and lies in the valley of the Towanda creek. FRANKLIN DALE in the east, and WEST FRANKLIN in the west of the township, are small villages. Pavid Allen and Elisha Wilcox were among its first settlers. The fiats along the creek are covered by good farms, and the hill sides, though steep, contain good grazing land. GRANVILLE was erected into a separate township in 1831, out of parts of Franklin, Burlington, and Troy. GRANVILLE CORNERS, GRANVILLE CENTER, WEST GBANVILLE, and the SUMMIT, the latter on the Williamsport and Elmira railroad, are quiet little villages. The soil affords fine pasture, and grazing is the principal business of its people. HERRICK is situated on high table land, and is among the latest settled townships of the county. In the southern part of the township is a large Irish population from Ballibay, Ireland, who are among the most industrious and intelligent people of the country. Raising of cattle and butter making are the principal employments of the people. The township was set off from Wyalusing in 1837. LEROY was constituted a township out of territory taken from Canton and Franklin in 1835, and was settled by the Holcombs about 1796. Along the creek 432 BRADFORD COUNTY. the land is fertile, but a large part of the township is still covered with forest. The village of LeRoy is pleasantly situated on the Towanda creek. LITCHFIELD was taken from Athens in 1821. It began to be settled in 1788 by Thomas Park, who was soon followed by Elijah Wolcott and others. Since that time the improvements have been rapid. Litchfield, near the centre, is the most considerable village in the township. The same year, 1821, MONROE was set off from Burlington and Towanda. The valley of the Towanda here is broad, and afforded an inviting home to the pioneer adventurer. Among its first settlers were Reed Brockaway and Noadiah Cranmer, at Monroeton, John Schraeder, near Greenwood, and the Fowlers, on the branch that bears their name. The southern part of the township is mountainous, and covered with timber, except along the south or Fowler branch, where there is a belt of good farming land. MONROETON was incorporated as a borough in 1855. At this point is the junction of the Sullivan and Erie with the Barclay railroad, and is a place of some importance. At GREENWOOD, two miles west, on the Towanda, is a large tannery, and a manufactory for small wooden articles. Lumbering and agriculture are the chief occupations of the people. ORWELL, whose original name was Mt. Zion, had been established as a township prior to the organization of the county, and is a fine grazing district. It was settled in the beginning of the present century by Francis Mesusan and Dan Russell, on the Wysox creek, and Asahel Johnson, Samuel Wells, Levi Frisbie, and Capt. Josiah Grant, in other parts of the township. ORWELL IIILL and POTTEI VILLE are the principal places in the township. OVERTON was made a separate township in 1853, out of territory tagen irom Albany, Franklin, and Monroe. The principal place is OVERTON, in the southeastern corner. The township is sparsely settled, by far the greater part of its area being wild land. PIKE was taken from Orwell and a part of the old township of Rush, which was included in Bradford, and erected into a township in 1813. The first settlements were made along its northern part, on the Wyalusing, in 1794-6, by Abraham Taylor, Elisha Keeler, Isaac Brownson, Dimon Bostwick, and others. The northern part is a high table land, on the top of which is LERAYSVILLE, named in honor of Vincent LeRay, whose father, a Frenchman, owned about eighty thousand acres of land in the north-eastern part of the county. It was made a borough in 1863. An attempt was made to establish here a company on the plan of community of labor. The proprietors were called the Phalanx, but the experiment proved a failure. STEVENSVILLE, on the creek, is a place of considerable business. The traveler will find as good farms and as fine herds of cattle in this and the adjoining townships as anywhere in the county. RIDGBURY was constituted a township in 1818. It had previously formed parts of Athens and Wells. RIDGBURY and MIDDLETOWN, on Bentley creek, which runs through the western part, are the most important places. ROME, so named because it is on the same parallel of latitude as Rome in Italy, was erected into a township from parts of Orwell and Sheshequin in 1831. About 1798 settlers began to locate farms on the Wysox, within the present bounds of the township, among whom were Nathaniel P. Moody, Godfrey Vought, Henry Lent, Frederick Eiklor, and Enoch Towner. The township 2 c 433 BISTOR Y OF PENNSSYL VYANIA. contains many good farms, and an intelligent, enterprising population. ROMX borough, in the south-western part, incorporated in 1861, is pleasantly situated on the Wysox. SMITHFIELD, one of the original townships, is located on high ground, and is noted as one of the best butter-making districts in the county. Settlements in it were begun in 1796 by Reuben Mitchell, who was shortly after followed by others. EAST SMITHFIELD, near the centre, is a thriving place. Here is located the Congregational church, which was organized in Poultney, Vermont, in 1801, and also a beautiful monument erected in memory of those from the township who fell in the war for the Union. SPRINGFIELD, which adjoins Smithfield on the west, and which it resembles in the character of its soil, inhabitants, and productions, and from which it was taken in 1813, has for its principal places LEONA, SPRINGFIELD, and MILL CITY. In the year 1803, the solitary wilderness which covered this township was broken by the pioneer families of Captain John Harkness, and Ezekiel & Austin Leonard, who named the township from the place of their emigration in Massachusetts. SoUTH CREEK, on the north of Springfield and Columbia, was set off from Wells and Ridgbury in 1835, and is intersected from north to south by the creek which gave the name to the township, and beside of which runs the Williamsport and Elmira railroad, on which are the STATE LINE and GILLETT'S stations, where are pleasantly located villages. The soil is adapted to grazing, especially on the high lands which border the creek valley. STANDING STONE derives its name from a high rock standing in the opposite side of the river, which has been a land-mark from the earliest settlement of the country. It was erected into a township out of parts of Herrick and Wysox in 1841. Settlements were commenced in this township as early as 1774, by Lemuel Fitch, Simon Spalding, Henry Birney, Richard Fitzgerald, and Anthony Rummerfield, on the creek which bears his name, and where he erected the first saw-mill built in the county. These settlements were broken up by the Indians and Tories during the Revolutionary war;-Fitch being taken off and died in captivity; Spalding enlisted in the Continental army. Birney and Fitzgerald returned to their old homes soon after the close of the war, and others followed subsequently. Along the river are fine grain-producing farms; those on the hills are better adapted to pasturage. STANDING STONE and RUMMERFIELD are stations on the Pennsylvania and New York division of the Lehigh Valley railroad. SHESHEQUIN, on the east side of the river, opposite the old Indian town from which it receives its name, was set off from Ulster in 1820. Here had been the meadows and cornfields of the red man from time immemorial, and to the army of General Sullivan afforded a pleasant camping ground, and so attracted the attention of some of the soldiers in that campaign, that immediately after the close of the war, in 1783, General Simon Spalding, Judge Obadiah Gore, and a number of other families, located themselves on its broad flats. The settlers rapidly increased, so that, for a number of years, Sheshequin was the source of supply for the pioneer settlers of all the northern part of the county. Then General Spalding, Joseph Kinney, Esq., and Colonel Joseph Kingsbury were among the leading spirits in defending the Connecticut title, and were active in locating settlers on the company's rights. The early prominence of this township has been 434 BRADFORD COUNTY. sustained by the succeeding generations, so that Sheshequin has ever been considered among the foremost of the townships of the county. Here was the home of Mrs. Julia A. Scott, nee Kinney, whose sweet poems have made the lovely vale of Sheshequin immortal. The village of SHESHEQUIN is a collection o, farm houses, a quiet, beautiful place, bordered with productive farms, and containing an intelligent and enterprising population. TERRY was organized in 1859. Settlements were begun here prior to the Revolutionary war, but were not resumed till 1788, when Jonathan Terry, in whose honor the township was named, moved his family into the place. For a number of years the settlements were confined to the river flats, but within a few years past the back farms have been greatly improved, and now are the most productive in the township. TERRYTOWN and NEW ERA are the most important places. TOWANDA was one of the original townships. A little above the mouth ot the creek is the site of one of the national cemeteries of the Nanticoke Indians. TOWANDA, the county seat of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, is located upon the right bank of the Susquehanna river, and in the centre of a thickly populated region, whose mineral and agricultural resources are abundant... The borough proper is located on the William Means patent of 1807, together with the Irwin patent of 1830, and others adjoining on the north. It was laid out in 1812 by Mr. Means. Thomas Overton, father of Edward Overton, donated to the county the square where the court house stands. The town grew but slowly, and in 1820 there were only four houses on Main street, above the court house, and two of them were built of logs. Main street was then called Tioga Point road. It was incorporated in 1828. The first survey for the Barclay road was made as early as 1839. The Towanda of 1876 is a thriving borough of about six thousand inhabitants, with mining, manufacturing, and commercial interests aggregating millions annually, presenting many advantages to the capitalist, laborer, manufacturer, business man, or persons seeking a home amid an intellectual community, in a healthy locality. It has superior advantages for economical manufactures; coal-both anthracite and bituminous-of the finest quality, being abundant and cheap. The dam in the river, formerly used for the canal, with the canal bed, furnish an inexhaustible water power, sufficient of itself to build up a flourishing manufacturing town. The dam has a fall of fourteen feet, and there is little doubt that this source of wealth will be speedily utilized. Iron ore abounds in the hills; and the excellent railroad facilities, together with these advantages, are certain to make Towanda at no distant day a great iron manufacturing point. There are three completed lines of railroads centering in Towanda, giving an easy and direct connection with all parts of the country, and affording every facility for the shipment of manufactured products, as well as a large and cheap supply of that great necessity, coal. Other important roads have been projected, whose completion will be of great advantage to all the interests of the borough. In the rural cemetery, near the town, on the high bank overlooking the Susquehanna, lie the remains of Judge Wilmot, the celebrated author of the "Wilmot Proviso." His grave is marked by a plain headstone bearing the following inscription: " DAVID WILMOT, born January 20, 1814; died March 16, 1868, aged 435 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. 54 years.' Neither slavery nor unvoluntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.'" NORTH TOWANDA, set off from the old township in 1851, is a fine farming region. TROY, at the head of Sugar creek, was separated from Burlington in 1815, and the borough incorporated in 1844. It is situated on the Williamsport and Elmira railroad, and is the centre of the great butter producing section of the county, from which thousands of tons are annually shipped to the market. In population, business, and wealth it ranks next to Towanda. EAST TROY, three miles down the creek, is a place of some importance, with many excellent farms and pleasant homes surrounding it. TUSCARORA is on the highland separating the Wyalusing and Tuscarora creeks, and formed a part of Wyalusing until 1830, when it was erected into a township. It is still frequently called by the name of Springhill, which was given it by the Susquehanna company. It is a superior grazing region, and contains many valuable farms. It began to be settled early in the present century, but since has been rapidly improved. WARREN, in the extreme north-eastern part of the county, and WINDHAM, adjoining it on the west, were erected out of parts of Orwell and Rush in 1813. The face of the county is broken by the valleys of the Wappasuning, the Wysox, and the Apolacon. The flats bordering the streams are adapted to tillage, while the ridges are fine grazing lands. In 1796 Jeptha Brainerd and some other families settled on the Wappasuning, and two years after James Bowen, Wm. Arnold, Mr. Harding, and Mr. Gibson, settled on the south branch of the same creek, and in 1800 Ebenezer Coburn and his brother Jonathan settled farther east. This part of the county now contains a thrifty and enterprising population. WELLS, in the north-west, was an unbroken wilderness until 1800, when Lemuel Gaylord purchased a farm on Seeley creek and made a settlement there. In 1803 he was followed by Solomon and Ithamar Judson. The population had increased sufficiently within the next ten years to create a demand for a new township, which was granted in 1813. It is a good farming region, steadily increasing in wealth and population. WILMOT, named in honor of the late David Wilmot, lies west of the river on the southern border of the county. Bordering the river are old farms which were settled prior to the Revolutionary war, but the hills back of them have until recently been covered with timber. The township has been rapidly settling up for the past few years, and with the disappearance of the timber, farms are being improved and rendered productive. The township, as the lines now are, was organized in 1859. ULSTER was one of the original townships; it lies on the west side of the river, and like Sheshequin, was settled soon after the close of the Revolution. Captain Benjamin Clark, Adrial Simons, and Solomon Tracy, were among its pioneer settlers. It contains the villages of ULSTER, which covers the site of the Indian town of Sheshequanink, and Milan, both stations on the Pennsylvania and New York railroad, and places of some business. 436 BRADFORD COUNTY. WYALUSING is a small part of the old township, organized in 1790. It covers the site of Freidenshiitten, the Indian Mission, and was the earliest settled of any township in the county. Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people. The principal villages are Wyalusing, on the river, and Camptown, on the Wyalusing creek, five miles above its mouth. SUGAR RUN, on the Pennsylvania and New York railroad, is noted for its shipments of bark and lumber. A few rods below the station stands the monument erected to mark the location of the Indian Mission. HOMET'S FERRY, FRENCHTOWN station, near the upper line of the township, is on the old Miciscum, the Indian meadows. WYsox, also on the east side of the river, is one of the leading agricultural townships of the county. It was one of the original townships, and began to be settled in 1776. The large farm of V. E. and Joseph Piollet covers the location of these early settlements. MYERSBURG, two miles up the Wysox, is a place of some business. WYsox, on the Pennsylvania and New York railroad, is a mart for a large hay, grain, and butter trade. EAST TOWANDA, just opposite the borough, with which it is connected by a bridge, is a village which has sprung up within a few years, and is rapidly growing. HORTICUITLTURAL HALL, CENTENNIAL EXHI3TTION. 437 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. off the booty. They were joined by one Daniel Brown, a planter of Hoarkill. Brown was soon taken, sent to New York, and there tried and convicted; but on promise of amendment, and security given for his good behavior in future, was dismissed. Governor Lovelace wrote a letter to Governor Calvert of Maryland, on this aggression, and instructed Captain Carr, his deputy at Delaware, to resist future encroachments. Charles II. having declared war against the States General of Holland, Dutch privateers soon infested the American coasts, and plundered the inhabitants of New Castle and Hoarkill. With a view to repairing their losses, permission was granted to them by the government to impose, for one year. a duty of four guilders, payable in wampum, on each anker of strong rum imported or sold there. Wampum being the chief currency of the country and scarce, the governor and council of New York issued a proclamation increasing its value, whereby "instead of eight white and four black, six white and three black should pass for a stiver: and three times so much the value in silver." This was the Indian money, by them called wampum; by the Dutch, sewant. It was worked out of shells, into the form of beads, and perforated to string on leather. Six beads were valued at a stiver; twenty stivers made what they called a guilder, which was about sixpence currency, or fourpence sterling. The white wampum was worked out of the inside of the great conques. The black, or purple, was formed out of the inside of the mussle, or clam-shell. These, being strung on leather, were sometimes formed into belts, about four inches broad and thirty in length, and were given and received at treaties, as seals of friendship. A squadron of Dutch ships, under command of Evertse and Benke, arrived on July 30, 1673, and recaptured New York without opposition. The 1673. commander of the fort at the Narrows, John Manning, treacherously made peace with the enemy and delivered up the fort without giving or receiving a shot, and the major part of the magistrates and constables swore allegiance to the States General and the Prince of Orange. Thus New York and New Jersey came again under Dutch rule. Deputies were also sent by the people inhabiting the country as far west as Delaware, who, in the name of their principals, made a declaration of their submission, and Delaware again reverted to the Dutch in that year. Anthony Colve was appointed governor, with Peter Alricks Deputy, who held the offices until the country was restored to England by the Treaty of Westminster, concluded the 19th February, 1674. The Duke of York, says Proud, on June 29, 1674, obtained a new royal patent confirming the land granted him in 1664, and two days after 1674. appointed Major, afterwards Sir, Edmund Andross, governor of his territories in America, which were surrendered to him by the Dutch on October 31 following. Andross authorized Captain Edmund Cantwell and William Tomm to take possession of the forts and stores at New Castle for the King's use, and directed them to adopt measures for the establishment of order and tranquility on the Delaware. On June 24, 1674, the Duke of York granted to John, Lord Berkley, and Sir George Carteret, " the Province of New Jersey, bounded on the east by the BUCKS COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to Joseph Thomas, M.D., and W. W. H. Davis.] UCKS was one of the three original counties established by the Founder of Pennsylvania in 1682. It took its name from a district in England, from whence came a number of the passengers by the Welcome. In a letter to the Free Society of Traders, early in 1683, William Penn speaks of it as Buckingham county. The Proprietary called together the first Assembly at Chester, on the 4th of December, 1682, and then BUCKS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, DOYLESTOWN. [Front a Photograph by C. Garwood, Baltimore.] we have the first record of the county. At that time its northern boundary extended to the Kittatinny mountain, "or as far as the land might be purchased from the Indians." The formation of Northampton county in 1752 reduced the county to its present size. At the session of the Assembly alluded to, the members from Bucks were William Yardley, Samuel Darke, Robert Lucas. Nicholas Waln, John Wood, 438 BUCKS COUNTY. John Clows, Thomas Fitzwater, Robert Hall, and James Boyden. Most of them were personal friends of Penn, and had either accompanied or preceded him to the Province. At a council held at Philadelphia on the 23d of first month, 1683, in the presence of the Proprietary and Governor, it was ordered that the seal of the county of Bucks be a tree and a vine. At the time of its organization William Penn selected an extensive tract of fine land on the banks of the Delaware, four or five miles above where Bristol now stands, which he named Pennsbury Manor. This tract originally contained over eight thousand acres. It was not until the 8th of second month, 1685, that the bounds of the county were determined. From the proceedings of the Council at that date, we learn that " the bounds of the county of Bucks and Philadelphia should be as follows: To begin at the mouth of Poetquessink creek, on Delaware, and so by the said creek, and to take in the townships of Southampton and Warminster. In obedience thereto and confirmation thereof, the president and council have seriously weighed and considered the same, have and do hereby agree and order that the bounds between the said counties shall be thus: to begin at the mouth of the Poetquessink creek, on Delaware river, and go up thence along the said creek by the several courses thereof to a south-west and north-west line, which said line divides the land belonging to Joseph Growdon and company, from Southampton township; from thence by a line of marked trees along the said line one hundred and twenty perches more or less; from thence north-west by a line of marked trees, which said line in part divides the land belonging to Nicholas Moore from Southampton and Warminster townships, continuing the said line as far as the said county shall extend." Bucks county has the Delaware river for its north-eastern and south-eastern boundary, being located on the great bend of that stream. Lehigh and Northampton on the north, and Montgomery on the west and south, are the bordering counties. It is about forty miles in length, with an average breadth of fifteen miles. The principal streams are the Neshaminy, Tohickon, and Durham creeks within the county, and the head-waters of the Perkiomen flowing into Montgomery county. The surface of the country is gently undulating, except in the northern part of the county, where ridges of the South mountain or Lehigh hills encroach upon the river plateau. Three distinct geological belts cross the county, each imparting its peculiar character to the soil and surface. Strata comprising those of the primitive formation, such as gneiss, hornblende, mica, slate, &c., occupy the south-eastern portion of the county, forming a gently undulating surface, with a moderately fertile soil. Along the river, however, the land is very productive. Next to this, occupying a broad belt and including a large portion of the county, is a red shale, accompanied in some portions with sandstone and conglomerates. This affords a very good soil, well adapted to grass and cereals. This being a formation of the secondary order, there is an out-cropping in a few places of limestone-in Solebury and Buckingham townships. There is also a deposit of hematite iron ore found in this neighborhood, which has only recently been explored. In the upper portion of the county is the third geological belt, composed of primary rocks of the gneiss family, the variety called trap, and the lower sandstone. The trap rock comprises a series of parallel elevations, attain439 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. ing, in Haycock and Rockhill townships, mountainous proportions. The spur in the former township is called Haycock mountain, from a supposed resemblance to a cock of hay, and the township took its name from this fact. This belt of igneous rock, beginning at the Delaware river, in the neighborhood of Bridgton, extends through parts of Nockamixon and Tinicum, Haycock, Rockhill, Richland, and Milford townships, and thence through Montgomery and Chester counties. Enclosed, however, among these hills are several rich limestone valleys. One of these is the valley of Durham Creek, at the mouth of which once stood the Durham Cave, or Devil's Hole, as it was called; but during the past thirty years the limestone of which the cave was composed has been gradually removed for use at the iron furnaces there, until now no trace of the cave remains. Iron ore of a rich quality also abounds in several places in the northern part of the county. Lead is found at Galena, in New Britain township, and the mines were successfully worked here for several years. In the southern end of the county a number of minerals in veins of rocks of igneous origin, which here crop out, are found, and among these plumbago. In Southampton township, near the Buck tavern, a mine of this mineral was formerly worked with success. At Blackman's or Long's Mill, in Durham township, as early as 1727, iron works were in successful operation. Here was fabricated from the ore, about 1756, by means of charcoal for fuel, a primitive style of stove, or furnace, pieces of which may still be seen in some parts of the county. Cannon ball, etc., were also cast here, used in the Revolution. These works were finally abandoned at this place, and extensive ones erected at the river, near Reiglesville, where the Lilly fire and burglar-proof safes were once manufactured. Messrs. Cooper & Hewitt now manufacture pig-iron only. The resources of the county are mainly agriculture. The soil along the margins of the streams is very fertile, producing large crops of cereals, but the farmers, in late years, have turned their attention considerably to stock raising and the dairy. Immense quantities of butter and milk are sent to the Philadelphia market; and Bucks county butter has obtained a celebrity equal to that of Chester county. Hay is also a staple production, and the soil is well adapted to timothy and clover, extensive shipments of the former finding a ready sale in Philadelphia. The first settlements within the present limits of Bucks county were made by the Swedes, about the year 1670. The Swedes were familiar with the country on the Delaware as high up as the " Falls." From the records of the court at Upland, we learn that a petition was presented on the 23d of November, 1677, for a settlement and town in that locality. The number of Swedish petitioners was twenty-four. The first English settlement in Pennsylvania proper was near the Lower Falls in Bucks county, by virtue of patents from Sir Edward Andros. These were principally Quakers, who, when the colony passed into the possession of William Penn, as proprietor, had already established themselves. In fact, so prosperous was this section, that strong expectations, says Mr. Buck, were entertained by many of them at first that the city of Philadelphia would be located either at Pennsbury or Bristol, and this perhaps might have been the case had not the river channel been deemed too shallow for ship navigation up so far as those places. 440 BUCKS COUNTY. Among the earliest inhabitants were William Yardley, James Harrison, Phineas Pemberton, William Biles, an eminent preacher, William Darke, Lyonel Brittain, William Beaks, etc. And soon afterwards, there, and near Neshaminy creek, Richard Hough, Henry Baker, Nicholas Waln, John Otter, Robert Hall; and in Wrightstown, John Chapman and James Rateliff, a noted preacher in the society. In the year 1683, Thomas Janney, a celebrated preacher among the Quakers, settled near the Falls, with his family and others who at that time arrived from Cheshire, in England. After twelve years residence here, he returned to England and died there; a man of good reputation, character, and example. In 1682, John Scarborough, a coachsmith, arrived in the country with his son John, then a youth, and settled in Middletown township, but he afterwards returned to England and left his possessions to his son. John Chapman came over in 1684, and was entertained some time at Phineas Pemberton's at the Falls, who had then made some progress in improvements. Afterwards Chapman went to his purchase in Wrightstown, where, within about twelve months afterwards, his wife had two sons at one time, whence he called the place Twinborough. At this time Chapman's place was the farthest back in the woods of any English settlement; and the Indians being then numerous, much frequented his house, and were very kind to him and his family, as well as to those who came after him, often supplying them with corn and other provisions, at that time very scarce. Thomas Langhorne came the same year, but died soon after. The first settlers generally came from England, and were of the middle rank, and chiefly Friends; many of them had first settled at the Falls, but soon after removed back, as it was then called, into the woods. As they came away in the reigns of Charles, James, William, and Anne, they brought with them not only the industry, frugality, and strict domestic discipline of their education, but also a portion of those high-toned political impressions that then prevailed in England. The first surveys in what was then called Buckingham, were as early as 1683, and the greater part were located before 1703. It is not easy to ascertain who made the first improvements, but most probably, from circumstances, it was Thomas and John Bye, and George Pownall, Edward Henry, and Roger Hartley; Dr. Streper and Wm. Cooper came early; Richard Burgess, John Scarborough, grhndfather of the preacher of that name, and Henry Paxson, were also early settlers. John and Richard Lundy, John Large, and James Lenox, and Win. Lacey, John Worstall, Jacob Holcomb, Joseph Linton, Joseph Fell, Matthew Hughes, Hugh Ely, and perhaps Richard Norton, came from Long Island about 1705. The first adventurers were chiefly members of the Falls meeting, and are said to have frequently attended it, and often on foot. In the year 1700 leave was granted by the quarterly meeting to hold a meeting for worship at Buckingham, which was first at the house of William Cooper. On the Manor of Pennsbury William Penn caused to be erected a spacious country residence. Upon this spot he had concentrated many a bright vision of quiet enjoyment, in the midst of his own family, and surrounded by the anticipated honors of his station as Proprietary. He erected, or caused to be erected HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. during his absence, a magnificent mansion-house, sixty feet long by forty deep, with offices and out-houses at the sides, fronting upon a beautiful garden which extended down to the river. It was in his day, and for many years afterward, the marvel of the neighborhood. He had the happiness to reside here for a short period with his family in 1700-1, and entertained much company in his public capacity. The increasing cares and responsibilities of the Province, and the peculiar state of the times, required his presence in England, and he never afterward enjoyed that quiet retirement for which he had so luxuriously provided. The mansion and out-houses were neglected d(luring his absence. A large leaden water reservoir, which had been erected on the top of the mansion to guard against fire, became leaky, and injured the walls and furniture of the house, so that it fell into premature decay, and it was taken down just before the Revolution. After the peace, the whole estate was sold out of the Penn family. In addition to this manor, Penn laid out in the township of Wrightstown, and also in Newtown, a park, or as it is frequently called, a town square. The lands selected were considered the most beautiful in the township; of an oval, smooth surface, having no chasms or large streams of water within their limits; the soil rich and covered with heavy timber. The parks were perfect squares, near the centre of the township, and contained each about six hundred and forty acres of land. They were to be exempt from cultivation or settlement, and to be kept for purposes similar to the parks of England; but were only continued in this manner for thirty-five or forty years, when the inhabitants of the township became dissatisfied with their continuance, as they produced much inconvenience to them from many causes. Upon these representations being made to the Proprietary government, the parks were divided between the land-holders, in proportion to the land each one held in the townships. We have already stated that Phineas Pemberton held the first commission as clerk of the courts of Bucks. The first justices of the peace for the county were Arthur Cook, Joseph Growdon, William Yardley, Thomas Janney, William Biles, Nicholas Waln, John Brock, and Henry Baker. The first purchase of land from the Indians above the Neshaminy, in Bucks, made by William Markham, the agent of William Penn, was in 1682. This purchase was to be bounded by the river Delaware on the north-east, and the Neshaminy on the north-west, and was to extend as far back as a man could walk in three days. It is stated that Penn and the Indians began to walk out this land, commencing at the mouth of the Neshaminy, and walking up the Delaware; and in one day and a half they got to a spruce tree, near Baker's creek, when Penn concluded this would include as much land as he would want at present. A line was drawn, and marked from the spruce tree to the Neshaminy. From the period of this purchase, nmerous white settlers established themselves northward as far as Durham, in the upper part of the county, where a furnace was erected; and some of the scattering frontier establishments of the white people reached as far as the Lehigh hills. The Indians, becoming uneasy at the approach of these settlements of the white people, desired to have a limit placed upon these encroachments, and a treaty was held at Durham in 1734, which was continued at Pennsbury in May, 1735, and concluded at Philadelphia in August, 1737; in which the limits of the tract, as described in the deed of 442 BUCKS COUNTY. 1682, were confirmed, and it was agreed that the "walk" which was to determine the extent of the territory should be performed. It seems to have been expected by the Indians that this "walk" would not extend beyond the Lehigh hills, about forty miles from the place where it was to begin; but it was the desire of the Proprietary in 1737 to extend the walk as far as possible, so as to include the land in the Forks of the Delaware, and even further up that river, to obtain, if possible, the possession of the Minisink land-a very desirable tract along the river above the Blue mountains. The time appointed for the walk was the 19th of September, 1737. The place agreed upon as the point to commence was at a chestnut tree standing a little above the present site of Wrightstown. The walk was under the superintendence of Timothy Smith, then sheriff of Bucks county, and Benjamin Eastburn, surveyor-general. The persons employed by government to perform the walk were famous for their abilities as fast walkers, and they were to have as a compensation five pounds in money and five hundred acres of land in the purchase. They were Edward Marshall, a native of Bucks county, a noted hunter, chain carrier, etc.; James Yeates, also a native of Bucks county, a tall slim man of much agility and speed of foot; and Solomon Jennings, a remarkable stout and strong man. At sunrise they started from the chestnut tree alluded to above Wrightstown, accompanied by a number of persons, some of whom carried refreshments for them. They walked moderately at first, but soon quickened their pace, so that the Indians frequently called to them to walk and not to run; but these remonstrances produced no effect, and most of the Indians left them in anger, saying they were cheated. A number of people were collected about twenty miles from the starting point to see them pass. First came Yeates, stepping as light as a feather, accompanied by several persons on horseback; after him, but out of sight, came Jennings, with a strong, steady step; and yet, far behind, came Marshall, apparently careless, swinging a hatchet alternately in one hand to balance the motion of his body, and eating a biscuit. Bets ran in favor of Yeates. Jennings and two of the Indian walkers gave out before the end of the first day, being unable to keep up with the others. But Marshall, Yeates, and one Indian kept on, and arrived at sunset on the north side of the Blue mountain. At sunrise next morning they started again, but when crossing a stream at the foot of the mountain Yeates became faint and fell, Marshall turned back and supported him until some of the attendants came up, and then continued the walk by himself. At noon, the hour when the walk was to terminate, he had reached a spur of the Second or Broad mountain, estimated to be eighty-six miles from the starting point. Having thus reached the furthest possible point to the north-westward, it now remained to draw a line from the end of the walk to the river Delaware. The course of this line not being described in the deed of purchase, the agent of the Proprietaries, instead of running by the nearest course to the river, ran northeastward across the country, so as to strike the Delaware near the mouth of the Lackawaxen, thus extending far up the river, taking in all the Minisink territory, and many thousand acres more than if they had run by the nearest course to the Delaware. It is well known that the Delaware Indians immediately saw and complained of the manner in which these things were done as a 443 4ISTOR Y OF PENYNSYL VANIA. fraud upon them, nor would they relinquish the land until compelled to do so by the deputies of the Six Nations, at the treaty of 1742. The proceedings of this walk are mentioned as one of the causes of the hostile feelings of the Indians, which eventually led to war and bloodshed; and the first murder committed by them in the Province was on the very land they believed themselves cheated out of: The Indians always contended that the walk should be up the river by the nearest path, as was done in the first day and a half's walk by William Penn, and not by the compass across the country, as was done in this case. It is stated that afterwards, when the Surveyor-General and other persons to assist him passed over this ground, it employed them about four days to walk to the extent of the purchase. Jennings, -- -= who did not hold out to - cross the Lehigh, never -recovered his health, and lived but a few years after. Yeates, when taken out of the stream at the foot of the mountain, was quite blind, and died in three days afterwards. Marshall lived and died on Mar shall's Island, opposite Tinicum township, on the Delaware, aged about nine ty years. By an act of the Gene ral Assembly, passed March 20, 1724, the county build ings for Bucks were directed FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE, SOLESBURY. to be built at Newtown, as [From a Photograph by C. Garwood.] being more central and convenient for the people. Previous to this the courts and county business had been transacted at Bristol for nearly a quarter of a century, but as the population kept steadily extending itself upwards more into the country, the change was a necessity. To Bucks county belongs the honor of having one of the earliest seminaries of learning in the State. The Rev. Mr. Tennent came from Ireland in 1718, and three years after settled in Bensalem; from thence, about 1726, he removed to the Neshaminy, in Warwick township, and established an academy which was more particularly intended for the education of ministers for the Presbyterian church. In consequence of having been constructed of logs, this school has been popularly denominated the " Log College." During many years after the first settlement of the county the kind-hearted and industrious Friends cleared and cultivated their lands in peace, contented with their own lot, and having no cause of quarrel with others. Between them and the Indian- who dwelt among them hospitality and other kind offices had always been reciprocated, and although the black cloud of Indian warfare was 444 BUCKS COUNTY. rumbling and thundering beyond the Blue mountains in 1755-1760, yet the Quakers had little to fear from it. During several generations, the simple history of the colonists of Bucks county was, that they lived in quiet and improved their farms. But at length people of other races and different religious and political opinions began to settle among and around them; and in process of time the desolating tide of the Revolutionary war swept to and fro across their once quiet county. The American army, late in the year 1776, retreated across New Jersey into this county. General Washington defended all the passes of the river from Coryell's ferry to Bristol. His headquarters were at Newtown, while he was urging upon Congress the necessity of reinforcing the army. The enemy posted themselves along the Jersey side of the Delaware, waiting for the ice to form a bridge by which they might reach Philadelphia. The affairs of America at this time wore a very serious aspect. A considerable part of New Jersey was in possession of the enemy. The American army had lost during the campaign near five thousand men by captivity and the sword; and the few remaining regular troops, amounting to only two thousand men, were upon the eve of being disbanded, as their enlistments had been only for one year. In this dilemma, Congress invested Washington with great power; and the Council of Safety at Philadelphia, on the 17th of December, recommended General Washington to issue his orders for the militia of Pennsylvania forthwith to join his army. In pursuance of this call, the militia of Bucks and adjoining counties flocked with alacrity in considerable numbers to Washington's standard, and so reinforced his depleted army that in a short time afterwards he was enabled to move against and defeat the enemy at Trenton. Soon after the battle, the Hessian prisoners, nearly a thousand in number, with their arms, six brass field pieces, eight standards, and a considerable quantity of munitions of war, were brought through the county on their way to Philadelphia to be sent to Lancaster. The Hessians were well clad, with large knapsacks and spatter-dashes to their legs, while on either side of them as a guard, in single file, were our countrymen, at the end of December in their worn out summer uniforms, and some even without shoes. General Washington, on the 28th, again made Newtown his headquarters, and after remaining there a few days, he once more crossed the Delaware, and on the 3d of January engaged the enemy at Princeton. About the close of the year 1776, when the cause of America seemed to be expiring, and the attack on Trenton had not yet been made, Joseph Galloway, a prominent citizen of Bucks county, like many others in the greatest hour of need, deserted his country, doubtless thinking that Britain's powerful arm would soon crush these colonies, and his best policy wou"d therefore be to secure her friendship in time. The people of Bucks were not surprised at this; and their previous suspicions of his loyalty proved not unfounded. The Legislature of the State, under the new Constitution, at Philadelphia, on the 17th of March, 1777, passed a militia law by which they established a sort of military tribunal in each county, composed of five officers, four sub-lieutenants, with the rank of colonel and lieutenant-colonel respectively. These officers were .to hold courts, to class and district the militia, to organize them into companies and regiments, etc. Captain John Lacey, a native of Bucks, was made a 445 HIS TORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. lieutenant-colonel by the militia of his district, and as the duties did not interfere with his position as one of the sub-lieutenants of the county, he acted in both capacities. Colonel Lacey was commissioned a brigadier-general on the 9th of January, 1778, and to him was given the command of the militia between the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware. His instructions from General Washington were to protect the inhabitants and prevent supplies and intercourse with the enemy in Philadelphia. The duties were exceedingly arduous, and owing to the paucity of the force under him, and the number of Tories and well-paid spies in the county, General Lacey found it impossible to carry out his instructions with that rigidity which the exigencies of the case required. On the morning of the 13th of January, a party of British light horsemen entered Bensalem, and took John Vandergrift, the county commissioner, his son, Edward Duffield, and others, prisoners, besides capturing a large quantity of forage, and on several occasions detachments of Lacey's men were surprised and made prisoners by a superior force of the enemy. After the departure of the British from Philadelphia in June, 1778, the country around that city became tolerably quiet, though at times apprehensions were entertained of an invasion of the enemy from their stronghold at New York. For this purpose the militia were kept in readiness to check any sudden irruption that should be made along the Delaware. On the 12th of October, 1781, at that time stationed at Newtown, they were discharged, with the thanks of General Lacey, in general orders, for the readiness they had exhibited in taking the field in defence of the State. Through all the Revolutionary contest Bucks county nobly did her duty. In the beginning, for the protection of the Northern colonies, she sent soldiers and money for their relief. When Washington was compelled to retreat through Jersey with his handful of half-clad and starving men before the victorious foe, it was in Bucks county that he raised his standard anew, and her citizens rallying to his assistance, contributed much to give the enemy his first check at Trenton. On all occasions she raised her quotas of men and money, and her patriotism fully equalled that of any of the other counties of the State. During the war a number of young men, either to escape from serving in the army or paying fines, and yet did not choose to enlist openly with the enemy, found a more profitable employment in secrect acts of treachery and piracy among their neighbors, and for which they were amply compensated by the British during their stay in Philadelphia or New York. Among these outlaws were several brothers by the name of Doane. The Doanes were a Quaker family, living in Plumstead township during the Revolution. The father was a worthy man; but his six sons, as they grew to manhood, abandoned all the noble principles of the sect with which they had been reared, and retaining only so much of its outward forms as suited their nefarious schemes, they became a gang of most desperate outlaws. They were professedly Tories, and they drove for a time a very profitable trade in stealing the horses and cattle of their Whig neighbors, and disposing of them to the British army, then in Philadelphia. One of the brothers, Joseph, was teaching school in Plumstead. Two of the brothers had joined the British in Philadelphia, and through them the stolen horses were disposed of, and the proceeds shared. The Doanes at school were often display446 BUCKS COUNTY. ing their pockets full of guineas, which were at first supposed to be counterfeit; but subsequent events proved their genuineness, and disclosed the source from which they had procured so considerable an amount of gold. Suspicion had long fastened upon the family; they were closely watched; and eventually, about the year 1782, the stealing of a horse belonging to Mr. Shaw, of Plumstead, was distinctly traced to them. This brought upon Mr. Shaw, and a few others who were active in their detection, the combined malignity of the whole banditti; and it was not long before they obtained their revenge. Uniting with themselves another villain of kindred spirit, the whole band, seven in all, including Moses Doane, who was their captain, and Joseph the schoolmaster before mentioned, fell upon Mr. Shaw at the dead of night, in his own house, bruised and lacerated him most cruelly, and decamped with all his horses and many valuables plundered from the house. A son of Mr. Shaw was dispatched to the nearest neighbors for assistance and to raise the hue and cry after the robbers. But these neighbors being Mennonists, conscientiously opposed to bearing arms, and having besides an instinctive dread of danger, declined interfering in the matter; such was the timidity and cautiousness manifested in those times between the nearest neighbors, when of different political sentiments. The young man, however, soon raised a number of neighbors, part of whom came to his father's assistance, and part armed themselves and went in pursuit of the robbers. The latter, after leaving poor Mr. Shaw, had proceeded to the house of Joseph Grier, and robbed him - and then went to a tavern kept by Colonel Robert Robinson, a very corpulent man. Him they dragged from his bed, tied him in a most excruciating position, and placing him naked in the midst of them, whipped him until their ferocity was satiated. They subsequently robbed and abused several other individuals on the same night, and then escaped into Montgomery county. Here they were overtaken, somewhere on Skippach, and so hotly pursued that they were glad to abandon the fine horses on which they rode, and betake themselves to the thicket. Joseph, the schoolmaster, was shot through the cheeks, dropped from his horse, and was taken prisoner. The others effected their escape, and concealed themselves. The prisoner was taken to Newtown and indicted, but while awaiting trial escaped from jail, fled into New Jersey, and there, under an assumed name, taught school for nearly a year. The Federal government had offered a reward of eight hundred dollars for him or his brothers, dead or alive; and while in a barroom one evening he heard a man say that he would shoot any one of the Doanes, wherever he might see him, for the sake of the reward. Doane's schoolbills were settled very suddenly, and he made his way into Canada. Moses, the captain of the gang, with two of the brothers, had concealed themselves in a secluded cabin, occupied by a drunken man, near the mouth of Tohickon creek. Mr. Shaw, the father, learning their place of concealment, rallied a party of men, of whom Colonel Hart was made the leader, and surrounded the house. Instead of shooting them down at once, Hart opened the door, and cried out, " Ah! you're here, are you?" The Doanes seized their arms, and shot down Mr. Kennedy, one of the party. Two of the outlaws went through the back window, which seems not to have been sufficiently guarded, and made their escape into the woods. Moses, the captain, who, by the way, GENERAL HISTORY. Atlantic ocean, on the west by Delaware Bay and river, on the north by a line drawn from the Delaware river at forty-one degrees forty minutes, to the Hudson River, in forty-one degrees northern latitude." Lord Berkley, in 1675, sold his half of the province of New Jersey to.a person named John Fenwicke, in trust for Edward Byllinge and + his assigns, in consequence of which the former, this year, ar- PEN1 t,. rived with a number of passengers, in a ship SY. called the Griffith, from London, on a visit to his N new purchase. lie land- - ed at a place, in West Jersey, situated upon a creek, or small river, which runs into the river Delaware, to which place he gave,. the name of Salem, a.. name which both the' place and creek still retain. Byllinge being - pecuniarily involved, conveyed his interest in J the Province to William Penn, Gawen Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas, in trust for his creditors. Nn The trustees sold proprietary rights to seve-................... ral other persons, and 0 Sv EM& having made, with Sir r.zop,e,,.r& George Carteret, a division of the Province, MAP OF NEW SWEDEN. proceeded to frame a constitution for their moiety under the title "concessions and agreements of the proprietors and free-holders of West Jersey, in America." According to Gordon, in June, 1677, Thomas Olive, Daniel Wills, John Kinsey, John Penford, Joseph Helmsley, Robert Stacey, Benjamin 1677. Scott, Thomas Foulke, and Richard Guy, commissioners, appointed by the Proprietaries to superintend their interests in the Province, arrived at New Castle, with two hundred and thirty settlers, principally Quakers. Having explored the country for many miles along the shores of the Delaware, they made allotments of land among the adventurers at several miles distance HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. was more of a gentleman than either of the other brothers, surrendered; but immediately on his surrender he was shot down by one of the attacking party. The person who shot him was not, however, voluntarily of the party, but was suspected of being implicated with the Doanes in their ill-gotten gains; and it was supposed he shot him to close his mouth against the utterance of testimony against himself. The other two were afterwards taken in Chester county, hung in Philadelphia, and brought home to be interred in Plumstead township. The Doanes were distinguished from their youth for great muscular activity. They could run and jump beyond all competitors, and it is said one of them could jump over a wagon. Many years afterwards, the young lad Shaw, who had himself received many a severe flogging from Doane the schoolmaster, became a magistrate in Doylestown, and rejoiced in the dignified title of"'Squire " Shaw. Sitting one day at his window, whom should he see entering his gate but old Joseph Doane, the traitor to his country, the robber of Shaw's father, the old schoolmaster who had so often flogged him, the refugee from prison, and now a poor, degraded, brokendown old man. Mr. Shaw assumed his magisterial dignity, and met him bluntly at the door with the question, "What business have you with me, sir?" Some inquiries passed, a recognition was effected, and a cold formal shaking of hands was exchanged. The old scoundrel had returned from Canada to bring a suit against an old Quaker gentleman in the county, for a small legacy of some forty dollars, coming to Doane; and he had the cool impudence to require the services of a magistrate whose father he had formerly robbed and nearly murdered. It is creditable to'Squire Shaw's high sense of honor, and respect for the law he was sworn to administer, that the man received his money, and returned quietly to Canada. The meeting between the plaintiff and the defendant is said to have been quite amusing. Their conversation was still conducted, on both sides, in the " plain language " of Quakers; but nevertheless they abused each other most roundly-the one alleging his authority from government to blow the other's brains out, or to take him " dead or alive," and the other claiming his money, so long, as he thought, unjustly detained. Subsequently, a sister of the Doanes, with her husband, also returned from Canada, and made a similar claim for a legacy before'Squire Shaw. Bucks county sent her full quota of men to aid in the suppression of the rebellion. In April, 1861, a company of volunteers, in command of W. W. H. Davis, was raised for the defence of Washington. Under the act of May, 1861, for the organization of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, Bucks county furnished three companies, one in the lower end, commanded by Wm. Thompson; one in the middle, by David V. Feaster; and one in the upper end, by Joseph Thomas. In the autumn of 1861 a full regiment of volunteers was recruited and organized in the county by Colonel W. W. IHI. Davis, called the one hundred and fourth regiment. In the latter part of the summer of 1862, Col. Samuel Croasdale, of Bucks county, organized a regiment, recruiting two companies in this county. He was killed, soon after entering the service, at Antietam, Maryland, September 17, 1862. Several other companies and parts of companies were subsequently recruited in the county for the war. On the 30th of May, 1868, on a small plot in Doylestown, was erected a 448 BUCKS COUNTY. monument to the memory of the officers and men of the one hundred and fourth Tegiment who fell in the war. General W. H. Emory delivered a commemorative address. DOYLESTOWN, the county seat, was first called by this name in 1778. It derived the name from William Doyle, who settled there about 1735, and kept a hostelry at the cross-roads as early as 1742. The town is situated on a hill commanding an extensive view of the fertile country around it. It became the county seat in 1812, when the public documents were removed from Newtown, and the county buildings erected. The earliest inhabitants of the neighborhood were Scotch-Irish. In 1732 a log church was founded at Deep Run, eight miles north-west of Doylestown, of which Rev. Francis McHenry was installed pastor in 1738. He died in 1757, and was succeeded, in 1761, by the Rev. James Latta, to whom and to his successors in the ministry, Hon. William Allen, of Philadelphia, gave the lot of ground occupied by the church and parsonage. Rev. Hugh McGill in 1776, Rev. James Grier in 1791, and Rev. Uriah DuBois in 1798, succeeded to the charge, and under the latter, public worship began to be held interchangeably at Deep Run and Doylestown in 1804, he being also principal of the academy at the latter place. The Presbyterian church here was dedicated on the 13th of SOLDIERS MONUMENT AT DOYLESTOWN. August, 1815. In the char- [From a Photograph by C. Garwood.] ter for the academy referred to, the State granted a certain sum, on condition that there should be a number of poor children educated gratis, not exceeding three in number at any one time. Doylestown was incorporated as a borough in 1838. About twenty years ago the Doylestown railroad was built to this place from Lansdale, a point on the North Pennsylvania railroad (it being a branch of the main trunk), and from this period Doylestown began to manifest life and materially grow. It now has extensive water works, furnishing a bounteous supply of excellent spring water, which is obtained a short distance from the town. Its buildings and streets are lighted with gas; new streets have been laid out, and many handsome and commodious residences have been built. A large and beautiful hall, called " Lenape Hall," with stores and market house in the basement, has been erected, constituting an ornament as well as a convenience to the town. A flourishing boarding school for boys and girls has 2 D 449 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. been established here by a joint stock company, and also a prosperous female seminary, conducted by Rev. Shelp. The same public buildings which were originally erected still stand, with little change in their appearance. The population of the borough exceeds two thousand. BRISTOL is the second chartered borough in Pennsylvania. The site upon which it is erected is a part of a tract of land patented to Samuel Cliff by Sir Edmund Andros, Colonial Governor of New York. The first court house and prison (of logs) were erected here at the formation of the county, and subsequently rebuilt of brick in 1705. By an act of the Assembly, of the 20th March, 1724, the county seat was removed to Newtown. Sir William Keith, Governor of the Province, granted the first borough charter, on the 14th November, 1720. The petitioners for the same, " owners of a certain tract of land formerly called Buckingham, in the county of Bucks," were, Anthony Burton, John Hall, William Wharton, Joseph Bond, "and many other inhabitants of the town of Bristol; " and the petition recites that they had already laid out streets, erected a church and meeting-house, a court house, and a prison, and that the courts had for a long time been held there, etc. Joseph Bond and John Hall were appointed burgesses, and Thomas Clifford, high constable. This original charter continued in force until the Revolution. A new one was granted by the State in 1785. Graydon, whose father was president of the court in this county, says in his memoirs: "My recollections of the village of Bristol, in which I was born on the 10th of April, N. S., in the year 1755, cannot be supposed to go further back than to the year 1756 or 1757. There are few towns, perhaps, in Pennsylvania, which, in the same space of time, have been so little im proved, or undergone less alteration. Then, as now, the - great road leading from Phila S delphia to New York, first skirting the inlet, at the head of which stand the mills, and then turning short to the left along the banks of the Delaware, formed the prin cipal and indeed only street, O marked by any thing like a continuity of building. A few places for streets were opened from this main one, on which, . here and there, stood an hum FRIENDS' MEETING-HiiOUSE, BUCKINGHAM. ble, solitary dwelling. At a [From a Phot6graph by C. Garwoo&.] corner of two of these lanes was a Quaker meeting-house, and on a still more retired spot stood a small Episcopal church, whose lonely grave-yard, with its surrounding woody scenery, might have furnished an appropriate theme for such a muse as Gray's. These, together with an old brick jail (Bristol having once been the county town of Bucks), constituted all the public edifices in this, my native town. With the exception of 450 BUCKS COUNTY. 451 the family of Dr. DeNormandie, our own, and perhaps one or two more, the principal inhabitants of Bristol were Quakers. Among these, the names of Buckley, Williams, Large, Meritt, Hutchinson, and Church, are familiar to me." In 1712 Saint James' Church was erected by the Episcopalians, and in 1714 the Friends erected a meeting-house. These comprised, for a full century, the only houses of worship in the borough. On the 16th of September, 1785, the Legislature passed a law to re-establish the ancient corporation of the borough of Bristol. This charter continued in force up to the year 1851, when the present charter, more satisfactory to the citizens, was adopted by the legislative authorities. Bristol is prettily located on an elevated plateau, on the right bank of the Delaware, at the mouth of Mill creek. It is opposite Burlington, and twenty miles from Philadelphia. The New Jersey division of the Pennsylvania railroad passes through the borough, and the Delaware canal has here its terminus. It has steamboat communication with the river towns, and the trade of the borough is rapidly increasing in importance. NEWTOWN is a thriving borough, situated on a small branch of the Neshaminy, ten miles north-west of Bristol. By an act of Assembly, passed the 20th of March, 1724, it became the county seat in place of Bristol, an honor which it held until 1812, when the courts and public offices were removed to Doylestown,as a more central situation. Newtown was one of the earliest settlements, the township from which it derives its name having been formed as early as 1686. In the original plan of surveys, the present borough was laid out exactly one mile square, containing six hundred and forty acres, with the stream running through its centre. The Presbyterian church was founded about 1734, and a new house rebuilt in 1769. The academy was incorporated in 1798, and was the ninth institution of that kind in the State. While the American army were guarding the Delaware from Coryell's Ferry to Bristol, in 1776, General Washington had his headquarters at Newtown. MORRISVILLE took its name from Robert Morris, the distinguished patriot and financier, Hie resided here for some time in a splendid mansion-house. The estate was afterwards purchased by the French royalist, General Victor Moreau, who spent about three years of exile here. The neighbors remember him as a kind-hearted, sociable man, who delighted in roaming about the banks of the river, fishing and hunting. The mansion took fire, and was consumed. The General returned to Europe, joined the allied armies, and was killed at Dresden. QUAKERTOWN, in point of size and importance, ranks the third in the county. It is situated on the head-waters of Tohickon creek, in Riichland township, and on the line of the North Pennsylvania railroad. It is surrounded by a productive farming district, with a soil composed of a clay loam, admixed with red slhale, being especially well adapted to grain crops and grass for hay, which is shipped in considerable quantity to Philadelphia and other places. Its name is derived from settlements of Friends, or Quakers, who emigrated from Gwynedd to its vicinity, some time about the year 1700; and when a post office was established here, it was then called Quakertown, about 1803. The site of the town is a part of an extensive district, embracing several thousand acres, which was designated by the early settlers the Great Swamp, or HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Great Meadow, on which they pastured their cattle, while they dwelt on the more elevated or hilly territory adjacent. It afterward took the name of Flatland, and subsequently Richland, from the fertile quality of the soil. A log structure was erected by the Frienids for holding their meetings (originally about a half mile south of the present town, near where William Shaw now resides), in 1710. Here they had also a burying ground, where they consigned their dead, in common with the Indian, and thus the dust of these early pioneers mingles with that of the red man, with whom they always lived in friendly intercourse. There is, however, now no trace of the old log meeting-house, nor even a stone to mark the place of burial, yet some records in the possession of the Friends here, and tradition, preserve them from oblivion. Subsequently, about the year 1750, on the site of the present meeting house, a new building was put up for public worship, to which the scattered Friends living in Springfield, Haycock, Milford, Rockhill, and even in the more distant townships, repaired to worship God, and bury their friends and kinsmen. They had no other place for worship nearer than the Gwynedd meeting (in Montgomery) some twenty miles distant. Late as 1820 the village did not contain a dozen dwellings, notwithstanding it was on the main thoroughfare from Allentown to Philadelphia, along which was the principal travel of the settlers on the Lehigh to Philadelphia. In 1855 the town began to improve very rapidly in consequence of the North Pennsylvania railroad running near it, and it was the same year organized into a borough. In 1874 a little town called Richland Centre, which had sprung up near the station of the railroad, was annexed to the borough, making now an aggregate population of nearly two thousand. The extensive stove works of Thomas, Roberts, Stevenson, & Company, are located here. The first monthly meeting of the Friends recorded here is 1741. The first white child born in the vicinity of Quakertown was John Griffith. Morris Morris gave ten acres of land for the Friends' meeting-house, etc., in 1745. Quakertown was a prominent station on the so-called "under-ground railroad," in the days of anti-slavery excitements, to assist the fugitive slaves in making their escape to Canada. These negroes, having reached here by night usually, from West Chester (also a station), were concealed for a time by the Friends when danger of pursuit was apprehended, and then they were secretly transported in wagons to Stroudsburg, Monroe county. They came often, a dozen or more in one party, and were distributed among a number of the families of Friends, who would conceal them for a time in garrets, hay-lofts, etc. Richard Moore, recently deceased, an excellent and exemplary citizen, figured prominently in this philanthropic though perilous work. A library was established in Quakertown called the "Richland Library," by an act of incorporation, dated 1795, it being, according to Commissioner Eaton, the seventh in rank of seniority in the United States. Its membership and readers embraced the most intelligent part of the citizens of the upper portions of the county. It contains near two thousand volumes. SELLERSVILLE was incorporated a borough in 1874. It is situated in Rockhill, on the North Pennsylvania railroad, near the east branch of the Perkiomen. It contains two hotels, three stores, and an elegant public school-building, 452 BUCKS COUNTY. 453 perhaps the finest in the county. The population is about four hundred. Cigar manufacturing is extensively carried on here and in the vicinity. The place was named after Samuel Sellers, who kept a hotel and store at this place about seventy years ago, and was elected sheriff of the county. It was then an important stopping place for teams, etc., located as it was upon the old Allentown road. APPLEBACHVILLE is in Haycock township, and was named after General Paul Applebach and his brother Henry, who erected the first house in the village, a hotel, and afterwards put up nearly all the other buildings. It was, for a long time, a principal stopping place for stages running on the old Bethlehem road, between Bethlehem and Philadelphia. The post office was moved here from Strawntown, a little village half a mile south of it, in 1848. Sixty years ago such was the extent of travel on this great thoroughfare for stages and heavy teams, that at very short intervals hostelries were kept, and all were frequently crowded at nights with lodgers. There were two of these in Strawntown, one kept by Nicholas Roudenbush, and the other by Joseph Brown. HAGERSVILLE, also a small village on the Bethlehem road, in Rockhill township, was named after Colonel George Hager, who built here first in 1848. HULMEVILLE is situated on the Neshaminy creek, about six miles from Bristol. It contains a population of three hundred and fifty, and has a number of fine edifices--churches and private dwellings. The Neshaminy affords an excellent motive power here, which is utilized for manufacturing purposes. It was organized out of the township of Middletown into a borough in 1872. ATTLEBOROUGH was also organized out of Middletown township into a borough corporation in 1874. It is pleasantly located on an elevated site, surrounded by a fine farming district. It was an inconsiderable village over a century ago. Its present population is between five and six hundred. ORGANIZATION OF TowNsuis.-The following are the dates of the orgamnization of the different townships: Bedminster,. Bensalem,. Bristol, Buckingham, Doylestown,. Durham, Falls, Haycock,. Hilltown, Lower Makefield, Middletown, Milford, New Britain,. Newtown,. S.. 1742 .. 1692 S.. 1695 S 1702-3 S. 1818 S1775 S.. 1692 S. 1743 ... 1722 .. 1692 S.. 1692 S. 1734 ... 1722 S. 1702-3 Nockamixon,. Northampton, Plumstead, Richland,. Rockhill, Solesbury,. Southampton,. Springfield,. Tinicum,. Upper Makefield, Warminster, Warrington, Warwick, Wrightstown, S. 1724 S. 1722 S. 1725 . 1734 S. 1740 S 1702-3 S 1702-3 S. 1743 S 1742 S.. 1737 1702-3 S. 1734 . 1722 S1702-3 BUTLER COUNTY. BY JACOB ZIEGLER, BUTLER. [With acknowledgments to Samuel P. Irvin.] UTLER county was formed from the county of Allegheny, by the act of the 12th of March, 1800, and named in honor of General Richard Butler, who was killed at St. Clair's defeat. It was then bounded: "Beginning at the mouth of Buffalo creek, on the Allegheny river; thence by a straight line running due west until it strikes the line on Beaver county; thence north by the line of said county to the north-east corner of said county; thence by a line north -- - _-- thirty-five degrees, east four - teen miles; thence by a line running due east, continuing _ R% -said course to where a line running due north from the mouth of Buffalo creek, the place of beginning." The place of the county seat was - -- not to be at a greater dis tance than four miles from the '-- T 1, 7 centre of the county. The year following commissioners were appointed to run the county lines. The persons appointed for this purpose Iwere Samuel Rippy, Henry Evans, and John M'Bride, with Beatty Quinn as their -- v axeman. After these commis. sioners had performed their ---~ ~.._ _......... -. - - duty and made the proper Sreport, the Legislature ap BUTLER COUNTY COURT HOUSE. pointed John David, William [From a Photograph by John P. Orr, Butler.] Elliott, and Samuel Ewalt, commissioners to fix upon a proper place for the seat of justice for the county. The place selected by them is where the town of Butler now stands. While this county was still a part of Allegheny county it contained but four townships. These were Buffalo, Middlesex, Conoquenessing, and Slippery Rock. The limits of the county now are as follows: Beginning at the mouth of the Buffalo creek at Freeport; thence westward twenty-three miles to a 454 BUTLER COUNTY. corner on the west side of Alexander's district, adjoining Beaver county; thence along said line and Beaver county, northward twenty-three miles to a corner, where the streams of Muddy creek and Slippery Rock unite; thence along the Mercer county line north fifteen degrees, east fifteen miles to a corner near Harrisville; thence eastward fifteen miles to a corner near the Allegheny river near Emlenton; thence southward about thirty miles along the Armstrong county line to the place of beginning, containing about seven hundred and eighty-five square miles. In point of mineral wealth, Butler county is among the foremost of the counties of the State, and it contains now about forty thousand inhabitants. Under the whole surface there is abundance of white, blue, black, and yellow clays, suitable for bricks and other purposes. In certain parts there are fine bodies of limestone, a portion of which is fossil. Sandstone of the best quality abounds in all localities, and bituminous and cannel coal in great quantities. Iron ore is also abundant, and as for petroleum, the county is now looked upon as the greatest oil region in the world. Some idea may be formed of the production of the latter article when it is stated that the average for the last two years has been about ten thousand barrels per day. No enterprise is equal to the development of oil to give rise and growth to towns, and when it fails nothing puts an end to their growth and prosperity quicker. Consequently we have PETROLIA, KARNS CITY, GREECE CITY, ANGELICA, ARGYLE, MODOC, TROUTMAN FARM, ST. JOE, GREAT BELT CITY, and other towns all on the line of development. Of all these, however, PETROLIA and KARNS CITY seem to be the most successful. At these places the oil production is still very remunerative, and, of course, they have more stability than others. They are peopled with a thriving and industrious class, who take pride in keeping up the prosperity and business of their respective places. GREECE CITY at one time bid fair to rival them all, but the failure of oil in large quantities has materially interfered with its growth. There are still large pumping engines at work there pumping oil to the receiving tanks at Butler, of which there are three, and from which oil cars are loaded and taken over the Butler Branch railroad to the West Pennsylvania railroad, and thence to Philadelphia over the Pennsylvania Central. There are a great many iron tanks, capable of holding thousands of barrels of oil, and pipes, through which it is transported, and owned by pipe companies, to be seen in all directions. A just appreciation of the amount of business done by these compamnies can only be had by being an eye-witness and having some knowledge of the oil business. While oil is a wonderful production, and has fairly revolutionized the industry of the county, yet the gas will in all probability far exceed it in its application as fuel in propelling machinery, and also for lighting purposes. There are several wells, the Delamater and Duffy being the largest, which throw out a volume of gas per hour sufficient to supply the city of Philadelphia two days and nights, at least, with all the gas needed. This gas is to be found in all parts of the county, and it is not exaggerating when we say that Butler will in time be the basin from which will be taken the means of both light and fuel. It is inexhaustible. 455 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. In regard to railroads, there are-the Butler Branch road running from Butler to Freeport, and there connecting with the West Pennsylvania road, which gives a connection by rail with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The Parker and Karns City railroad runs from the town of Parker on the Allegheny river, in Armstrong county, to Karns City, in Butler county. It is a narrow gauge road, but does a large amount of business in freight and travel. This road gives an outlet for oil producers to the Allegheny railroad, and consequently to Pittsburgh and the upper oil region. The Shenango and Allegheny river railroad runs from Sharon, in Mercer county, to Hilliard's Mill, in Butler county; and while there is considerable travel, it is used mainly for shipping coal and the transportation of oil to the lake cities. There are other railroads in contemplation, and it is confidently expected the great mineral resources of the county will demand the investment of capital in their construction. The surface is beautifully distributed with hills and valleys, and streams of clear water flow in all directions. The whole is subject to cultivation, and the soil is good for farming and grazing purposes. The minerals, which abound everywhere in the county, must in time make it a great manufacturing centre; especially when it is now an established fact that gas abounds in large quantities, and can be used for fuel in smelting iron or for manufacturing purposes with much more facility and at much cheaper rates than with coal. Timber, of the best quality, white oak, black oak, chestnut, sugar maple, etc., abound in nearly all sections of the county. Fruit is grown with considerable success, but owing to the cold lake winds which prevail in the spring of the year, not in the same abundance that is grown in more southerly places. The first map of the county. in connection with one of Allegheny county, was made by David Dougal, Esq. the person referred to subsequently. He was an experienced surveyor, and had spent some time among the Indians in this the then western frontier. Butler county was first settled mostly by inhabitants from the counties west of the mountains. Westmoreland and Allegheny contributed the greater portion; Washington and Fayette a part; and some came from east of the mountains. A few emigrated from other States. Pennsylvanians, of Irish and German extraction, native Irish, some Scotch, and some few Germans, were amongst the early pioneers. The first settlement commenced in 1792, immediately subsequent to the act of the 3d of April of that year, which provided for the survey of all that part of western Pennsylvania lying north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers and Conewango creek. No considerable settlement was made until 1796, and up to 1800-3, at which time the county town was laid out. This era gave a new stimulus to the opening up and improvement of the county. The first locations were made on the head-waters of what is called Bull creek, in the south-east corner of the county, adjoining Allegheny county. The names of these settlers were James Fulton, Henry Kennedy, Martin Kennedy, William Holtz, John Hiarbeson, and Abraham Frier. Previous to the formation of the county, the Indian disturbances on the frontiers bordering on the Allegheny were frequent, and the fear of the scalping knife and tomahawk prevented the rapid settlement of this locality. In the spring of 1792 a band of Indian marauders entered the limits of Butler, com mitting numerous depredations. 456 BUTLER COUNTY. General Brodhead's expedition to the head-waters of the Allegheny, referred to in the General History, effectually checked these inroads, and secured peace to the frontiers. One of Captain Samuel Brady's characteristic adventures with the Indians occurred on Slippery Rock creek, in this county. Although General Brodhead's summary punishment of the natives quieted the country, yet for some time he kept spies out for the purpose of watching their motions and guarding against sudden attacks on the settlements. One of these parties, under the command of Captain Brady, had the French creek country assigned as their field of duty. The Captain had reached the waters of Slippery Rock, a branch of Beaver, without seeing signs of Indians. Here, however, he came on an Indian trail in the evening, which he followed till dark without overtaking the enemy. The next morning he renewed the pursuit, and overtook them while they were engaged at their morning meal. Unfortunately for him, another party of Indians were in his rear. They had fallen upon his trail, and pursued him, doubtless, with as much ardor as his pursuit had been characterized by; and at the moment he fired upon the Indians in his front, he was, in turn, fired upon by those in his rear. He was now between two fires, and vastly outnumbered. Two of his men fell; his tomahawk was shot from his side, and the battle-yell was given by the party in his rear, and loudly returned and repeated by those in his front. There was no time for hesitation; no safety in delay; no chance of successful defence in their present position. The brave Captain and his rangers had to flee before their enemies, who pressed on their flying footsteps with no lagging speed. Brady ran towards the creek. He was known by many, if not all of them, and many and deep were the scores to be settled between him and them. They knew the country well, he did not; and from his running towards the creek they were certain of taking him prisoner. The creek was, for a long distance above and below the point he was approaching, washed in its channel to a great depth. In the certain expectation of catching him there, the private soldiers of his party were disregarded; and throwing down their guns and drawing their tomahawks, all pressed forward to seize their victim. Quick of eye, fearless of heart, and determined never to be a captive to the Indians, Brady comprehended their object and his only chance of escape the moment he saw the creek, and by one mighty effort of courage and activity, defeated the one and effected the other. He sprang across the abyss of waters, and stood, rifle in hand, on the opposite bank in safety. As quick as lightning his rifle was primed, for it was his invariable practice in loading to prime first. The next minute the powder-horn was at the gun's muzzle; when, as he was in this act, a large Indian, who had been foremost in pursuit, came to the opposite bank, and with the manliness of a generous foe, who scorns to undervalue the qualities of an enemy. said in a loud voice, and tolerable English, " Blady make good jump!" It may indeed be doubted whether the compliment was uttered in derision, for the moment he had said so he took to his heels, and, as if fearful of the return it might merit, ran as crooked as a worm-fence-sometimes leaping high, at others suddenly squatting down, he appeared no way certain that Brady would not answer from the lips of his rifle. But the rifle was not yet loaded. The Captain was at the place afterwards, and ascertained that his leap was about twenty-three feet, and that the water was twenty feet deep. 457 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. from each other. But fear of the natives finally induced the emigrants to settle together, in and about a town plot, laid out by the commissioners, first called Beverly, then Budlington, and afterwards Burlington. In the same year two ships arrived, bearing many families of great respectability. The quiet of the colonists was undisturbed, except by the duty again levied upon their commerce at the Hloarkill, by the New York government. This was vexatious as a tax, and insulting to the sovereignty of the proprietaries, who remonstrated for some time in vain with the agents of the Duke of York; but finally, after an investigation, by commissioners appointed for the purpose, the duty was repealed. Dispensing with their executive of commissioners, the Proprietaries appointed Edward Byllinge Governor, who, soon after his arrival in the Province, commissioned Samuel Jennings as his deputy. In November, 1681, Jennings called the first Assembly, and, in conjunction with them, adopted certain articles, defining and circumscribing the power of the Governor, and enacted such laws as the wants of the colony required. Sir George Carteret, the proprietor of East Jersey, died in 1679, having in his last will ordered the sale of that country to pay his debts. His 1681. heirs sold it, by indenture of lease and release, bearing date February 1 and 2, 1681-82, to William Penn and eleven other persons. These twelve proprietors added twelve more to their number, and to these the Duke of York made a fresh grant of East Jersey under date March 14, 1682. William Penn, as one of the trustees of Byllinge, became thus intimately connected with the colonization of West Jersey, and subsequently as a purchaser with that of East Jersey. Under these circumstances he became familiar with the affairs of the new world, and conceived the design of founding a commonwealth on principles of perfect equality, and of universal toleration of religious faith, on the west side of the Delaware. 458 HISTORY OF PENNS YL YANIA. Brady's next effort was to gather up his men. They had a place designated at which to meet, in case they should happen to be separated, and thither he went, and found the other three there. They immediately commenced their homeward march, and returned to Pittsburgh about half defeated. Three Indians had been seen to fall from the fire they gave them at breakfast. BUTLER borough is one of the most beautiful towns in Pennsylvania, and its location is upon a small hill, surrounded by an extensive valley, through which flows the Conoquenessing creek. At the time the location was effected it was covered with a heavy growth of timber, and although not exactly in the centre VIEW OF TIIE BOROUGH OF BUTLER. [From a Photograph by John P. Orr, Butler.] of the county, yet the Commissioners deemed it the most eligible site that could be selected. Time proved the wisdom of their choice. Butler is at or near the 410 of north latitude and 30 of western longitude from the city of Washington. In 1803 the town was laid out in lots, and a sale was held in the month of August of that year. The highest bid made was for lot No. 24, in the general plan of the town, and this lot reaches to the Diamond, in the centre of which is the large and commodious court house. The bid was one hundred and twenty dollars. The balance of the lots sold for prices ranging from that amount down to as low as ten dollars. The land on which the town is located was claimed by John and Samuel Cunningham, and contained one hundred and fifty acres. They made a free donation of it to the county of Butler. These gentlemen were sons of Colonel Cunningham, of revolutionary fame, and emigrated from Lancaster (now Dauphin) to this county. BUTLER COUNTY. The State of Pennsylvania purchased from the Indians in 1784 the land lying north and west of the Allegheny river and Conewango creek. In 1786-7 and in 1788 this land was run off into donation districts, and Colonel Cunningham had a contract for part of this work. The part surveyed by John Cunningham under the contract with his father is known as the Cunningham district. The object was to give the soldiers land as a donation for their services. Robert Morris came into. possession of about one hundred thousand acres, and John Cunningham, the son of Colonel Cunningham, was his agent. The act of Assembly required settlement to be made within a certain time, but by a special act Mr. Morris' right of settlement was extended for five years. The Indians still held possession, for there was a division among them as to the -- - sale, and they refused to 21 M vacate. The consequence _0_M__ -_- -- of this hostility was that Mr. Morris could not make settlements as re- -- quired, and a suit was tried at Sunbury, in this State, before Judge McKean, in which the question of prevention was U f settled. The suit terminated in favor of the Morris warrants. By Wayne's treaty in 1795 the Indians were removed. John Cunningham, with his brother Samuel, PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING, BUTLER. came into possession [From a Photograph by John P. Orr, Butler.) under Robert Morris, of fifteen hundred acres of land, one hundred and fifty acres of which they donated, as stated, to the county of Butler. During the fall of 1803, houses were built in Butler, and accommodations made for citizens and for the reception of the court. The court was opened by Judge Moore as president, and Samuel Findlay and John Parker associates. John M'Candless was sheriff. Matthew White, Jacob Mechling, and James Bovard, commissioners, with David Dougal, as their clerk. The latter gentleman is still living, and is now in the ninety-eighth year of his age. Butler has, within the past five years, made rapid progress in wealth and population, the latter almost doubled since the census of 1870. It contains, begides the public buildings, an academy, Soldier's Orphans' Home, under the care of Rev. Thompson, and the Witherspoon Institute. The following are among the most prominent towns in the county, and which were organized prior to the discovery of oil: PROSPECT 1is a small place, situated on the old Franklin road, eight miles west 459 H0STOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. of Butler, and was laid out by Andrew M'Gowan about the year 1805. The country surrounding it is well adapted to agriculture. ZELIENOPLE was laid out by Dr. Bassa Miller about the year 1802 or'3, and Harmony, which nearly adjoins it, by the Harmonites at about the same time. This latter place is located on the bank of the Conoquenessing creek, fifteen miles southwest from Butler. Both of these places are beautifully located in the midst of an extensive valley, and are surrounded by the best farms to be found in the county. The people are mostly of German descent, and carry agriculture to the highest state of perfection. HARRISVILLE is located on the old Franklin road, in the north-west corner of the county, twenty miles from Butler, and was laid out by Ephraim Harris about 1802 or 1803. Near this place the Shenango and Allegheny river railroad is located, over which is transported an immense quantity of coal. About one mile and a half this side of the town on the railroad are the receiving tanks of an oil company, and the oil is pumped from the place of production, put on the cars, and taken to Cleveland. CENTREVILLE is situated on the road leading from Butler to Mercer, and about fifteen miles from Butler, north-west. This place was laid out by Stephen Cooper, and is now a thriving town. MURRINSVILLE, situated on the road from Butler to Scrubgrass creek, in Venango county, about twenty miles north of Butler, was laid out by John Murrin about the year 1820. In the neighborhood of this place are great bodies of cannel coal, and efforts are being made to ship it to the lake cities. SUNBURY is situated on the road leading from Butler to Emlenton, and was laid out about the year 1820 by John Gilchrist. NORTH WASHINGTON is situated sixteen miles north-east from Butler on the same road, and was laid out about the year 1810 or 112. FAIRVIEW, on the road from Butler to the mouth of Bear creek, is fourteen miles north-east from Butler, and was laid out by Thomas McCleary? about the year 1830. MILLERSTOWN is in the north-east section of the county, eleven miles from Butler, and was laid out by Philip Barnhart about the year 1830. SAXENBURG is nine miles south-east from Butler, was laid out by John Roebling, the famous engineer and bridge builder, in the year 1835. The country around is well adapted to agriculture, and some of the best farms in the county are to be found in its vicinity. Fairview, Martinsburg, and Millerstown, already referred to in consequence of the oil development in their immediate vicinity, have grown to be places of note, not only in point of population but of business. The latter place especially has become the centre of oil operations, and here can be seen oil tanks containing thousands of barrels of oil, immense engines to pump the oil to railroad stations, hundreds of laboring men employed in various capacities, together with many others engaged in those various pursuits which follow the development. There are small towns in the county, viz.: Martinsburg, Coylesville, Hannahstown, Brownsdale, Evansburg, Petersville, Mount Chestnut, Unionville, Eau Claire, Buena Vista, and some others not necessary to mention. All these existed before the oil excitement 160 CAMBRIA COUNTY. BY ROBERT L. JOHNSTON, EBENSBURG. HE county of Cambria owes its existence to an act of Assembly. passed the 26th day of March, 1804. The territory composing it was taken from the counties of Huntingdon and Somerset. The act provided " That so much of the counties of Huntingdon and Somerset, included in the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the Conemaugh river, at the south-east corner of Indiana county; thence by a straight line to the Canoe Place, on the West Branch of Susquehanna; thence easterly along the line of Clearfield county to the south-westerly corner of Centre county, on the heads of Moshannon creek; thence southerly along the Allegheny mountain to Somerset and Bedford county lines; thence along the lines of Somerset and Bedford counties about seventeen miles, until a due west course from thence will strike the main branch of Paint creek; thence down said creek, the different courses thereof, till it empties into Stony creek; thence down Stony creek, the different courses, to the mouth of Mill creek; thence a due west line till it intersects the lines of Somerset and Westmoreland counties; thence northerly along said line to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, to be henceforth called Cambria county." The same act provided that the county seat should be fixed by the Legislature within seven miles of the centre of the county, and authorized the Governor to appoint three commissioners to run and mark the boundary lines. The act also provided for future representation in the Legislature as soon as the new county should be entitled thereto by an enumeration of its taxable inhabitants; and for the appointment of three trustees to receive proposals for real estate upon which to erect the public buildings. The act organizing the county for judicial and political purposes was not passed until the 26th of January, 1807; until which time it was deemed only a "provisional" county, and was attached to Somerset county. An act of Assembly, passed the 29th of March, 1805, fixed the county seat at Ebensburg, and appointed John Horner, John J. Evans (both of Cambria county), and Alexander Ogle, of Somerset, trustees, to receive a grant of land for the public buildings from Rees Lloyd, John Lloyd, and Stephen Lloyd, who donated the square of ground upon which the public buildings now stand. The first general election in Cambria county was held in October, 1807, and from thence is dated its full organization. The county retains its original boundaries, with the exception of the northwestern corner, known in the original boundary as Canoe Place, more recently as Cherrytree, and now as Grant, the latter being the name of the post office This village, lying about equally in Cambria, Clearfield, and Indiana counties, was 461 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. erected into a borough and annexed to the latter county. Frequent efforts have been made to divide the county, both on the extreme south and the extreme north, but they have hitherto proved unsuccessful. While the northern and southern lines of the county have never been the subject of dispute, the eastern and western lines have caused much difficulty. The western line has since been re-located, and is now settled. But the greatest trouble was in reference to the eastern line. While the act placed it "along the Allegheny mountain," it became a matter of great difficulty to trace it, there being no record of the original running, and a great portion of the summit of the mountain being without timber for axe marks; and the mountain being cloven, so to speak, by immense chasms and ravines, it became more a matter of opinion than any certainty where the line should actually be run. The inconvenience resulting from this uncertainty was remedied by an act of Assembly passed in 1849, appointing Hon. James Gwin, of Blair county, and E. A. Vickroy, of Cambria county, to run and adjust the line; a duty which was satisfactorily performed during the same year, and a record thereof filed in the proper office. Thus located, Cambria county occupies the table land lying between the summit of the Allegheny mountain and the Laurel Hill, the western line running near the western base of the latter elevation, including it, and running in the same general direction. And while it is called the "mountain county," it embraces, perhaps, more tillable surface than any of the adjoining counties, in proportion to its area. It is bounded by Clearfield, on the north; Blair and Bedford, on the east; Somerset, on the south; and Westmoreland and Indiana, on the west. Its length is thirty-five miles, its breadth twenty-one miles; and embraces an area of six hundred and seventy square miles. The position of the county is elevated; for, while the eastern approach to the Allegheny mountain is abrupt and rugged, the western descent is comparatively gentle. Besides the Allegheny and the Laurel Hill, there is no elevation in Cambria county that can be dignified with the name of mountain. The Allegheny divides Blair and Bedford from Cambria, its direction being north-easterly and southwesterly, the whole length of the county. Its greatest altitude is at the southern extremity of the county, and there is a gradual falling-off in its height till it reaches the northern line. From the centre, north, it abounds in chasms or " gaps," known as Blair's gap, Burgoon's gap, Sugar Run gap, and Bell's gap. These gaps furnished the sources of the main, or Frankstown branch of the Juniata. The Laurel Hill, in western Cambria, pursues the same general direction, and loses its character as a mountain before reaching the northern boundary. Though containing no large stream, Cambria county is well watered. The West Branch of the Susquehanna has its rise some eight miles north of Ebensburg, leaving the county at Cherrytree, formerly known as Canoe Place. Chest creek rises some three miles from Ebensburg, and pursuing a northerly course empties into the Susquehanna in Clearfield county. Clearfield creek rises near the summit of the mountain, at Gallitzin, flows north, and receiving the Beaver Dam branch from the west, passes into Clearfield county, and reaches the Susquehanna below the town of Clearfield. These streams are all declared public highways. 462 CAMBRIA COUNTY The Juniata has its rise from small streams passing through the various gaps in the Allegheny. The Conemaugh drains southern Cambria. This stream is formed of various branches: the Ebensburg branch, arising.near the town of that name, and flowing south to the village of Wilmore, receives the Cresson branch, which has its source near the summit of the Allegheny, and flows in a south-westerly direction. Their united waters, pursuing the same direction, are increased by the South Fork, which flows nearly due west. At Johnstown it falls into the Stony creek, which rises in Somerset county, and flows in a northerly direction through Cambria to its junction with the smaller stream at Johnstown. Their united waters, taking the name of the Conemaugh, flow westwardly, and, leaving the county, forms the boundary between Indiana and Westmoreland. The southern branch of Blacklick has its source north of Ebensburg, and flows west to the line of Indiana county, where, receiving an accession in the northern branch, falls into the main Blacklick, a few miles west of the county line. The waters that flow into the Atlantic, and those that seek the Gulf of Mexico, interlock in alternate dells in this county; and the traveler, at one point on the Ebensburg and Cresson railroad, some four miles from the former place, may see from the cars, on the one side, a fountain whose waters reach the Gulf of Mexico; and on the other, exactly opposite, another whose waters pass through the Chesapeake bay to the Atlantic. Cambria county is not distinguished as an agricultural county, her soil being better adapted to grazing than grain growing. Still a large portion of the north produces excellent crops of wheat; and the same may be said of the hilly portion of southern Cambria. The level portion of the county is too cold and "spouty" for fall grain, but produces excellent crops of grass. Corn is not a favorite of her soil, but oats is produced in abundance. The length and severity of the winter is all that hinders her from being one of the finest stock growing counties in the State. Coal underlies the entire surface of the county, and is mined extensively. The line of the Pennsylvania railroad, from Gallitzin to Johnstown, more than twenty-five miles, is a succession of coal drifts, from which immense quantities of the best bituminous coal is shipped, and from which large quantities of coke are manufactured. In the north and west the coal is equally abundant, but not so extensively worked for want of a convenient market. Near the north-eastern line, at Lloydsville, an extensive coal vein has recently been opened, which is shipped to the Pennsylvania railroad by a narrow gauge railroad, connecting with the former at Bell's Mills. A single deposit of cannel coal, in the western portion of the county, was operated a few years since, but is now abandoned. Iron ore abounds in many portions of the county, but is only utilized in the vicinity of Johnstown, where immense quantities are mined to supply the furnaces of the Cambria iron company. The greatest iron and steel manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, if not in the world, is located at Johnstown; and as this company conducts other enterprises, they shall be considered together. An establishment that directly or indirectly employs nearly seven thousand persons-men, women, and boys, and transacts a business of over ten million dollars a year, deserves separate consi463 H1 8 i'ORY OF PENNSYL YANIA. deration. While the main estab t lishment and a great bulk of its Semployers are in Cambria,itsmines, furnaces, and lands extend to Blair, Bedford, and Som erset counties. The Conemaugh valley at Johns town is but a few hundred feet across. In the mountain side, to the west, lies a deep seam of semi-bi tuminous coal, which is exposed i all along the road way, extending a vast distance, and apparently inexhaustible. It makes splendid coke, and is, therefore, invaluable for the company's many blast furnaces. Under this coal mine lies a fine bed of water cement. On the other side of the valley, and to the south, are vast beds of iron ore, coal, and lime-stone, and, immediately above the blast furnaces, a quarry of excellent stone. Fourteen hundred tons of coal and five hundred tons of ore are mined from these beds every day. With the exception of the quantity of coal which is sold to their employees, the Cambria Iron company consume all the coal they mine in their mills and furnaces. As to iron ore, 464 CAMBRIA COUNTY. though they own and are interested in other mines as well (the aggregate of the ore and coal lands owned by the company exceeds 50,000 acres), they are, nevertheless, large buyers of Lake Superior and other high-classed ores. The company produces about three hundred tons of pig-iron a day. The Bessemer steel works and rolling mills turn out three hundred tons of iron and steel rails in a day; in a year about seventy thousand tons of iron rails, weighing from sixteen to eighty-three pounds to the yard, and thirty-five thousand tons of steel rails, weighing from forty-two to sixty-seven pounds to the yard. The area of ground covered by these enormous works is over sixty acres, the rolling mill alone covering seven acres. In the rolling-mill there are no less than seven trains of rolls, these trains each having five pair of rolls. To keep these rolls supplied with heated metal requires twenty-eight heating furnaces, while forty-two double puddling furnaces furnish the heaters with the puddled bars. The Cambria Iron company has already no less than nine blast furnaces in operation, producing as previously stated, three hundred tons of pig-iron a day; but finding these insufficient for their demands, they are now erecting another very large one near the rolling-mill. Only four of the furnaces are at Johnstown. Of the others, one is at Conemaugh, about two miles from Johnstown; two are at Holiidaysburg, to the south of Altoona; one is at Frankstown, and another is at Bennington, on the summit of the Allegheny mountains, at the point where they are crossed by the Pennsylvania railroad. The Johnstown works are marvels in their way. For the transportation of the coal and ore from the adjacent mines to the blast furnaces and mills, and carrying the pig-iron to the mills, transporting the rails, and doing all the heavy work, they have no less than eleven locomotive engines of all sizes, from the largest ordinary locomotive down to a little fellow about four feet high, called the Dwarf. The railroad track, which is a perfect network, would, if constructed in a straight line, extend over thirty-six miles of ground. Besides these works, Ashland furnace, near the eastern boundary of the county, and Eliza furnace, on the western line, have been operated; but both were abandoned on account of inconvenience to the market. Extensive tanneries are also operated at Johnstown and its vicinity, and also at Carrolltown. Lumber has been an important article of commerce. In the neighborhood of Johnstown, at Ebensburg, at Wilmore, and at other points, vast quantities of hard and soft lumber, such as ash, maple, cherry, poplar, cucumber, etc., have been manufactured for the eastern and western markets; and immense quantities of hemlock is shipped for building purposes. The shook business is carried on extensively in various parts of the county, more particularly at Ebensburg, Conemaugh, Summer Hill, and Chest Springs. This is the manufacture of oak timber into vessels to be shipped to Cuba and other points for molasses, rum, etc. In the north-eastern, northern, and north-western portion of the county the lumbering business is a heavy element of prosperity. The pine lumber trade in this region has been principally conducted by rafting the timber, sometimes manufactured into boards; but oftener the squared logs, formed into rafts, down the Susquehanna to the eastern market. More recently, however, what is called irogging has been more generally adopted. This consists in cutting the pine logs 2E VIEW OF CRESSON, ON~ THE ALEGIEENY MVOUNTAINS, CAMBRIA COUNTY. into proper lengths, and floating them down the stream, au naturelle, to the market. Timber thus floated pays tribute at the boom at Williamsport, and thence pursues its way east. On the most trifling streams this traffic is carried on by, means of splashes-that is, a dam is constructed over the stream, and the water is pent up until it becomes a large body; the timber is put into the stream below; at the proper time the sluices or gates are opened, and the timber floated down to the river. There is no township in the county in which the lumber business is not pursued with more or less success; and the growing scarcity of the article only enhances the value of what remains. Large quantities of butter have also been shipped from Ebensburg, Carrolltown, and other points; while the immense quantity manufactured in the country surrounding Johnstown feeds the vast numbers connected with the Cambria Iron works. Besides the foregoing, the county has derived considerable amount of her resources from houses of resort for summer visitors. Of these, notably, is the Cresson House. The Cresson Springs now ranks with Saratoga, Bedford Springs, and other celebrated watering places. The house is beautifully situated on an eminence, directly east of the Pennsylvania railroad station at Cresson, and commands a fine view of the mountain scenery. It is calculated to accommodate a thousand visitors, and with its adjoining cottages, has the appearance of a beautiful village. It is surrounded with carefully prepared drives and delightful walks through the primeval forest; and St. Ignatius Spring, a highly medicinal fountain (named from Ignatius Adams, a pioneer, who formerly owned the ground on which it issues), is within a convenient plank walk from the main building. Near it are the Mansion House, at Summitville, also a delightful resort for visitors; and the Callan House, about a furlong east of the Cresson House, on the line of the railroad. At Ebensburg, Bellemont is also a favorite resort, filled with strangers every season; while the Lloyd House, directly opposite the Ebensburg station, is a delightful resting place for the visitor. At or near Scalp Level, on the southern boundary, large numbers of strangers make their annual visit; while at different points in the county, especially the eastern part of the county, a large number of summer boarding houses are put in requisition to accommodate boarders for the season. In truth, the Allegheny mountain has attractions for summer visitors not to be found elsewhere. The high lands of the Alleghenies are entirely exempt from fevers and all malarious diseases. The fogs and miasma of lower regions are unknown, and a pure atmosphere is the reward of the visitant. A mid-day sun here is no less powerful and enervating than in the lower territory, but a cool breeze always tempers the atmosphere, while the nights of sweltering heat experienced elsewhere is not known in the Alleghenies, where the nights and mornings are always cool and invigorating. The early settlers of Cambria county may be divided mainly into three classes: 1. The families of American Catholics from Maryland and the adjacent portion of Pennsylvania (some of them descendants of the colony of Lord Baltimore), who settled in the eastern and north-eastern portion of the county, mainly in the vicinity where Loretto now stands. 2. Pennsylvania Germans, from Somerset 467 CHAPTER III. THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA GRANTED TO WILLIAM PENN. THE PROPRIE TARY RULE, UNTIL THE DEATH OF THE FOUNDERS. 1681-1718. DMIRAL SIR WILLIAM PENN, renowned in English history by his martial valor as an officer of the British Navy, left to his son a claim against the government for sixteen thousand pounds, consist ing to a great extent of money advanced by him in the sea service, and of arrearages in his pay. In 1680 William Penn* petitioned Charles II. to grant him in lieu of said sum "letters-patent for a tract of land in America, lying north of Maryland, on the east bounded with Delaware river, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far as plantable." This petition was referred to the " Committee of the Privy Council for the Affairs of Trade and Plantations," who ordered copies to be sent to Sir John Werden, the Duke of York's agent, and to the agents of Lord Baltimore, "to the end that they may report how far the pretensions of Mr. Penn may consist with the boundaries of Maryland, or the Duke's propriety of New York, and his possessions in those parts." The Duke of York desired to'retain the three lower counties, that is, the State of Delaware, as an appendage to New York, but his objection was finally withdrawn, being the result of an interview between him and Mr. * WILLIAM PENN, the founder of Pennsylvania, was born in London, October 14, 1644. While a student at Oxford he became deeply impressed by the preaching of a celebrated Quaker, Thomas Lee. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn, but in 1665 went to Ireland to manage an estate of his father's. He acquired military renown as a soldier at the siege of Carrickfergus, and caused himself to be painted in military costume. This is considered to be the only genuine portrait of the great "Apostle of Peace." He soon after joined the Quakers, and at a meeting at Cork, in 1667, was arrested and put into prison. Released through the efforts of the Earl of Orrery, he began to preach, and for writing "The Sandy Foundation Shaken," was imprisoned in the Tower, where he wrote his celebrated work, "No Cross, No Crown." Liberated by the influence of his father, he was, in 1670, arrested for street preaching, and committed to Newgate. At the trial he pleaded his own cause, was acquitted, but detained in prison, and the jury were fined. While in Newgate he wrote several religious tracts. In 1674 he wrote " England's Present Interest Considered," an able defence of freedom of conscience and the rights of Englishmen. In 1672 he married Gulielmna Maria Springett. In 1677 Penn, with Barclay and others, preached in Holland and Germany. In 1676 he became concerned in the settlemert of West Jersey. In 1681 he obtained from the king a charter for Pennsylvania. He then published " A Brief Account of the Province of Pennsylvania," proposing the easy purchase of lands and good terms for settlers. On the 27th of October, 1682, he arrived in the Delaware. Returned to England in 1684. Secured, in 1686, the liberation of over 1,200 imprisoned Quakers, and the passage of the "Toleration Act" in 1687. In 1688 he was tried for treason, but acquitted. In 1699 made a second visit to his Province, returning in 1701. In 1708 was committed to prison for debt, but released by the intervention of friends. He died of paralysis, at Rushcombe, July 30, 1718. His enduring monument is the great State founded by him "in deeds of peace." ITSTORY OF PE NNSYL VANIA. and the eastern German settlements, who occupied the south of the county, in the neighborhood of Johnstown. 3. Emigrants from Wales, who founded Ebensburg and Beula, whose descendants still predominate within a radius of five miles of the former village. 1. The earliest actual settlement was made by Michael McGuire, about one mile east of the present village of Loretto. The following in relation to this settlement was prepared by tae present writer more than thirty-five years ago, for Day's "Historical Collections:" " Previous to the year 1789, the tract of country which is now included within the limits of Cambria county was a wilderness.'Frankstown settlement,' as it was then called, was the frontier of the inhabited parts of Pennsylvania east of the Allegheny mountain. None of the pioneers had yet ventured to explore the eastern slope of the mountain. A remnant of the savage tribes still prowled through the forests, and seized every opportunity of destroying the dwellings of the settlers, and butchering such of the inhabitants as were so unfortunate as to fall into their hands. The howling of the wolf, and the shrill screaming of the catamount or American panther (both of which animals infested the country in great numbers at the period of its first settlement), mingled in nightly concert with the war-whoop of the savages. It is believed that Captain Michael McGuire was the first white man who settled within the present bounds of Cambria county. He settled in the neighborhood of where Loretto now stands, in the year 1790, and commenced improving that now interesting and well-cultivated portion of Allegheny township, a large portion of which is still owned by his descendants. Luke McGuire, Esq., and Captain Richard McGuire were sons of Michael McGuire, and came with him. Thomas Blair, of Blair's gap, Huntingdon county, was at this time the nearest neighbor Captain McGuire had. He resided at a distance of twelve miles. "Mr. McGuire was followed not long afterward by Cornelius Maguire, Richard Nagle, Wm. Dotson, Richard Ashcraft, Michael Rager, James Alcorn, and John Storm; the last was of German descent. These were followed by others-John Trux, John Douglass, John Byrne, and, we believe, Wm. Meloy. Under the auspices of these men, and perhaps a few others, the country improved very rapidly. The first grist-mill in the county was built by Mr. John Storm. The hardships endured by these sturdy settlers are almost incredible. Exposed to the inclemency of an Allegheny winter, against the rigor of which their hastilyerected and scantily-furnished huts afforde.d a poor protection, their sufferings were sometimes almost beyond endurance. Yet with the most unyielding firmness did these men persevere until they secured for themselves and their posterity the inheritance which the latter at present enjoy. There was nothing that could be dignified with the name of road by which the settlers might have an intercourse with the settlements of Huntingdon county. A miserable Indian path led from the vicinity of where Loretto now stands, and intersected the road leading to Frankstown, two or three miles this side of the Summit. "Many anecdotes are related by the citizens of Allegheny township of the adventures of their heroic progenitors among the savage beasts, and the more savage Indians, which then infested the neighborhood. The latter were not slow to seize every opportunity of aggression which presented itself to their blood468 CAMBRIA COUNTY. thirsty minds, and consequently the inhabitants held not only property, but life itself, by a very uncertain tenure. The truth of the following story is vouched for by many of the most respectable citizens in Allegheny and Cambria townships, by one of whom it has kindly been furnished us for publication. A Mr. James Alcorn had settled in the vicinity of the spot where Loretto now stands, and had built a hut and cleared a potato patch at some distance from it. The wife of Mr. Alcorn went an errand to see the potatoes, and did not return. Search was immediately made, but no trace could be found to lead to her discovery. What became of her is to this day wrapped in mystery, and, in all human probability, we shall remain in ignorance of her fate. It was generally supposed that she had been taken by the savages, and it is even reported that she had returned several years after, but this story is not credited by any in the neighborhood." The advent of the great American missionary priest, DEMETRIUs AUGUSTINE GALLITZIN, gave renewed courage to these poor colonists. He appeared among them under the humble name of Smith (his mother's maiden name was Schmettan), and commenced his labor with a zeal that knew no flagging for more than forty years, when he laid down his life in the midst of his sorrowing flock. On his arrival at the scene of his labors in 1799, he had a rude log chapel erected, and was constant in his ministrations to the spiritual and temporal wants of his people. He wrote several controversial works in the midst of his duties. His " Defence of Catholic Principles," " Letter to a Protestant Friend," and "Appeal to the Protestant Public," have a very extensive circulation among those professing his faith. He died on the 6th of May, 1840, at Loretto, having for forty-two years exercised pastoral functions in Cambria county. He was born in 1770, at Munster, in Germany. His father, Prince de Gallitzin, ranked among the highest nobility in Russia. His mother was the daughter of FieldMarshal General de Schmettan, a celebrated officer under Frederick the Great. Her brother fell at the battle of Jena. Rev. Gallitzin held a high commission in the Russian army from his infancy. Europe in the early part of his life was desolated by war-the French revolution burst like a volcano upon that convulsed continent; it offered no facilities or attractions for travel, and it was determined that the young Prince de Gallitzin should visit America. He landed in Baltimore in August, 1792, in company with Rev. Mr. Brosius. By a train of circumstances in which the hand of Providence was strikingly visible, his mind was directed to the ecclesiastical state, and he renounced for ever his brilliant prospects. Already endowed with a splendid education, he was the more prepared to pursue his ecclesiastical studies, under the venerable Bishop Carroll, at Baltimore, with facility and success. Having completed his theological course, he spent some time on the mission in Maryland. Shortly after (1799) he directed his course to the Allegheny mountains, and found that portion of it which now constitutes Cambria county a perfect wilderness, almost without inhabitants or habitations. After incredible labor and privations, and expending a princely fortune, he succeeded in making "the wilderness blossom as the rose." His untiring zeal collected about Loretto, at the period of his decease, a Catholic population of three or four thousand. He not only extended the church by his missionary toils, but also illustrated and 469 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. defended the truth by several highly useful publications. In this extraordinary man we have not only to admire his renunciation of the brightest hopes and prospects; his indefatigable zeal-but something greater and rarer-his wonderful humility. No one could ever learn from him or his mode of life, what he had been, or what he exchanged for privation and poverty. To intimate to him that you were aware of his condition, would be sure to pain and displease him. He who might have revelled in the princely halls of his ancestors, was content to spend thirty years in a rude log-cabin, almost denying himself the common comforts of life, that he might be able to clothe the naked members of Jesus Christ, the poor and distressed. Few have left behind them such examples of charity and benevolence. On the head of no one have been invoked so many blessings from the mouths of widows and orphans. It may be literally said of him, "if his heart had been made of gold he would have disposed of it all in charity to the poor." A memoir of Prince Gallitzin, in the German language, was written many years ago by Rev. Peter Henry Lemke, his successor at Loretto, and by Rev. Thomas Heyden, of Bedford, in English, while a full history of his life and ministry has been published by Sarah M. Brownson, New York, 1873. After Gallitzin's arrival among the colony, he purchased large quantities of land which he conveyed to actual settlers at nominal prices. He also laid out the village of Loretto, and named it from the religious town of that name on the Adriatic. Here he sold the lots, as he sold the farm land, to merchants and mechanics, upon the condition that they should be built upon within a certain time. The settlement thus inaugurated now embraces in whole or in part the townships of Allegheny, Clearfield, Gallitzin, Munster, Carroll, Chest, and Washington, and the villages of Loretto, Chest Springs, St. Augustine, Munster, Gallitzin, and Summitville. Within the territory where stood in 1800 the solitary log cabin chapel, there are now six fine churches with flourishing congregations. 2. The grand source of population was the Pennsylvania German stock. The pioneer of these settlers was Joseph Jahns, and those who followed in his wake were mostly Tunkers (German Tunken, to dip), and Mennonites, or Amish. Mr. Jahns (or Yahns, as he spelled his name), arrived on the scene in 1791. He found the site of the present town, an old Indian village, called Kickenapawling's old town. The other settlers located in the adjacent county, notably on Amish Hill, so named from its colony, and their descendants preponderate to the present day in the districts surrounding Johnstown. They are a thrifty, honest people; have their clergy among themselves, rarely patronize the doctor -the lawyer, never. 3. The third settlement was made by a colony of emigrants from Wales. Ebensburg and vicinity were not settled for several years after the first settlement was made at Loretto and Munster. As it lay still further from the more eastern settlements than the two latter places, it of course would not so soon be occupied by the hardy emigrants. In the fall and winter of 1796, the families of Thomas Phillips, William Jenkins, Theophilus Rees, Evan Roberts, Rev. Rees Lloyd, William Griffith, James Nicholas, Daniel Griffith, John Jones, David Thomas, Evan James, and George Roberts; and Thomas W. Jones, Esq., John 470 CAMBRIA COUNTY. Jenkins, Isaac Griffith, and John Tobias, bachelors, commenced settling in Cambria township, Cambria county; and in the following spring and summer the families of the Rev. Morgan J. Rees, John J. Evans, William Rees, Simon James, William Williams (South), Thomas Griffith, John Thomas, John Roberts (Penbryn), John Roberts (shoemaker), David Rees, Robert Williams, and George Turner, and Thomas Griffith (farmer), James Evans, Griffith Rowland, David Edwards, Thomas Lewis, and David Davis, bachelors, followed. There were at this time several families living in the vicinity of the places where Loretto, Munster, Jefferson, and Johnstown now stand. The settlers above named, we believe, were all from Wales. They commenced making improvements in the different parts of what is now called Cambria township. The name which the Welsh emigrants gave to their settlement, Cambria, was derived from their former home-the mountainous part of Wales. Cambria township afterwards gave name to the county, which was, at the time of which we speak, a part of Somerset county. The tract of country on which the Welsh emigrants settled had been purchased a year or two previous by the Rev. Morgan J. Rees (mentioned above), from Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, and by him sold to his Welsh brethren, in smaller tracts. The descendants of the Welsh are the principal population at this day of Ebensburg borough and Cambria township, while the settlement extends to a portion of all the adjoining townships. The colony, under lead of Rev. Rees Lloyd and Rev. George Roberts, were highly successful in their enterprise. They were, in religion, Dissenters, or Welsh Independents, and were men of strong religious convictions. Their services were at first exclusively in the Welsh language, and still preaching is rendered in that tongue in their churches The colony, under lead of Rev. Morgan J. Rees, Baptist, settled some two miles further west, and founded Beula. They flourished for a few years, but subsequently the town was abandoned. A large Irish emigration subsequently settled in what is now Munster and Washington townships, and what is known as Hickory Ridge, in Allegheny township. In the northern portion of the county settlements were afterwards made, both in the present bounds of Carroll township, one known as " Weakland' settlement, the other as " Luther " settlement. These settlers were from the eastern counties, as were also those who founded " Glasgow " settlement, in the north-eastern portion of the county. In the west, on Laurel hill, Michael Rager, a revolutionary soldier, located at an early day, and his descendants occupy a large portion of the territory at present. Rev. Peter Henry Lemke, a German priest, introduced a colony of German Catholics into the neighborhood surrounding Carrolltown, which is now a rich and thriving population. In more recent years there has been a considerable influx from the New England States, noted for their enterprise and industry. Trouble with the aborigines did not prevail to any great extent within the limits of the county. No Indian settlement, except the town of Kickenapawling (Johnstown) existed in the county. The rugged and mountainous character of the country was not adapted to the habits of the red men. Frankstown, in Blair county, and Kittanning, on the Allegheny, were noted Indian villages, and Canoe Place, since known as Cherrytree, on the Susquehanna. The north-western 471 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. corner of Cambria county was known as the head of canoe navigation on the Susquehanna. To this point the Indians ascended in their canoes; when, drawing them from the stream, they would strike their trail, through northern Indiana to Kittanning. From Frankstown a trail historically known as SKittanning Path" passed the eastern line of Cambria county, and pursued a north-western direction through the county to Canoe Place, or Cherrytree, whence the trail just mentioned was followed to Kittanning. It will be seen that Cherrytree was noted as the head of canoe navigation on the Susquehanna, and the point of junction of the Indian trails or paths. But it obtained greater celebrity, as the northern boundary of the purchase from the Indians, at the treaty or purchase made at Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1768. That portion of the deed is in these words: "To the heads of a creek which runs into the west branch of Susquehanna, which creek is by the Indians called Tyadaghton, and down the said creek on the south side thereof to the said west branch of Susquehanna, then crossing the said river, and running up the same on the south side thereof, the several courses thereof to the fork of the same river, which lies nearest to a place on the river Ohio, called the Kittanning, and from thence," etc. This purchase included all of Cambria county. The Kittanning Path was a well-known landmark. It is often referred to in land warrants, was well known to the old surveyors who located lands in Cambria, as well as our older citizens. In many places it can be traced to this day. It gives the name to that triumph of science, the Kittanning point on the Pennsylvania railroad, on the declivity of the Allegheny, the path pursuing the gap which the road almost encompasses. John Hart, a German, who carried on a trade in furs, etc., with the Indians, is supposed to be the first white man who traveled this path. Some twelve miles north of Ebensburg, on the Dry Gap road, is a spot famous as the place where he, with his horse, was wont to spend the night; and the name is frequently called Hart's Sleeping to the present time by many of the earlier settlers. Tradition gives the name of Hartslog valley, in Huntingdon county, to him, from the fact that he there fed his horse in a kerf cut in a log. An ancient fortification exists near the Beaver Dam branch of Clearfield creek, in the north-eastern portion of the county. Some years since part of the timbers remained, showing its extent and purpose, but the plowshare has nearly obliterated the last vestige of it. It was evidently a stockade or fort for refuge against Indian aggression; but there is no tradition concerning its construction or use. A short distance further north is a most remarkable windfall. When a primeval forest, a hurricane had passed from west to east, and in its force levelled every tree with the ground for nearly a mile in width. Nearly forty years ago, when first seen by the writer, the appearance was most striking. Approaching it from the south, in a summer's day, with a clear sky, the narrow road led through a dense forest of stately pines, through which the sun never reached the head of the traveler, the eyes are at once greeted by a vast opening, and, he believes himself, of extensive cultivation. Emerging from the woods, he finds himself on an extended plain without a single tree, but a general growth of aspen (Trembler), its leaves reflected in the bright sunshine, and a 472 CAMBRIA COUNTY. relief, appearing ethereal, after the dense forest from which he had just emerged. The monarchs of the forest had all been uprooted, and small mounds (the earth which had adhered to the roots) filled the plain, while the last remains of the huge forest trees lay crumbling to the eastward, the direction in which the hurricane had passed. More recent improvements have put all this territory in cultivation, and the effect of the celebrated windfall is now, in a measure, lost; but the post office, itself" Fallen Timber," keeps alive its memories. Cambria county furnished two companies in the war of 1812, commanded respectively by Captains Moses Canan and Richard McGuire, who were in the celebrated Black Rock expedition. Two companies volunteered for the Mexican war-the Cambria Guards, of Ebensburg, commanded by Captain James Murray, afterwards Captain C. H. Heyer, and the Highlanders, from Summitville, commanded by Captain John W. Geary, afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania. The history of roads and highways possesses some local interest. Originally transportation over the mountain was carried on by packing on horses, and traveling by pathways. The nearest mill to the early Ebeusburg settlers was at Blair's gap, nearly twenty miles distant. It took a day to reach the mill with the grist on horseback, and after its conversion to flour another day sufficed to get it home. The earliest road, if it may be dignified by that name, was known as Galbraith's road, which passed south of Ebensburg. From the location of the county, however, it necessarily became traversed by the various routes crossing from the east to Pittsburgh, or Fort Pitt, as it was then called. On the 29th March, 1787, an act of Assembly was passed appointing commissioners " to lay out a State highway, between the waters of the Frankstown branch of Juniata, and the river Conemaugh. This road, still known as the Frankstown road, crossing the Allegheny, reaches the Conemaugh at Johnstown. The stream by the same act was made a public highway. Portions of this road were changed by proceedings in the quarter sessions of the counties through which it passed, by act of April 11, 1799. By act of April 13, 1791, amended by act of April 10, 1792, the Conemaugh and its branches were declared public highways. The act of February 13, 1804, declared the Clearfield creek to the great Elk Lick (forks of Beaver Dam), a public highway. The act of April 11, 1807, appropriates money to the commissioners of Cambria county, " for improving the State road from Beula to Pittsburgh." It is a sad commentary on the history of the county, that while Pittsburgh and its environs may number two hundred thousand, there is not now a solitary house or inhabitant in Beula. The once thriving village, two miles west from Ebensburg, and its formidable rival, is now entirely deserted, and in many places it is difficult to trace the State road, whose improvement was in the eye of the Legislature. The public road referred to passed centrally through Cambria county by Munster, Ebensburg, and Beula, and in legislative parlance was known as the "road leading from Blair's gap to the western line of the State." All this was before the days of turnpikes. On the 4th March, 1807, an act was passed incorporating a company to construct a turnpike "from Harrisburg through Lewistown and Huntingdon to Pittsburgh." A supplement to this act incorporated a company for the construction of the " Huntingdon, Cambria, and Indiana Turnpike 473 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Road," March 20, 1810. A further supplement of February 21, 1814, directed that the turnpike should be laid out "from the house of John Blair (Blair's gap), on the east side of the Allegheny mountain, on the post road in Huntingdon county, by the best and nearest route through Munster and Ebensburg, to the house of Martin Rager, on the west side of Laurel Hill." This turnpike was not finished for travel for several years after, and passes directly through the centre of the county. The Dry Gap road follows the same general direction as the Kittanning path, entering the --county at the gap _-______....from which it takes its name, and ex _tending north-west _ _ ~erly to Cherrytree. _A road was con _____structed from _Ebensburg to Phil _ -ipsburg, in Centre __- county but only a _ _portion of it is now ..... in use. __General McCon nell, of revolution _ary memory, a re sident of Philadel phia, held a large body of land in what is now Chest township, in north ern Cambria, and Mrs. Ruth McCon nell, the widow of his son, built a fine mansion on the pro perty, and named her home Glencon nell. The doors, windows, etc., were brought from Phila VIEW ON THE OLD PORTAGE ROAD. delphia. A road led from "the Glen" to Ebensburg, but has long been disused. A road also led from Beula to the town of Somerset, which is now obliterated. But the age of improvement sped on. In 1831-32 the Portage railroad, ascending the eastern slope of the Allegheny by five inclined planes, up which the cars were drawn by stationary engines, and descending on the west by a like number, connected at Johnstown and Hollidaysburg with the " Main Line" of Pennsylvania improvements. This great achievement (as it was then called) is 474 GAMBRIA COUNTY. superseded by the location of the Pennsylvania railroad, near the same line, which enters Cambria through the great tunnel at Gallitzin, and leaves the county on the line of Westmoreland and Indiana counties. Two natural curiosities worthy of note, existing in this county, deserve brief mention. The Conemaugh, in its descent of the mountain, after the accession of the South Fork, finds its course arrested by a mighty ledge of rocks, and, turning to the right, passes for miles round an elevated plateau, and, returning to within a stone's-throw of the place of divergence, pursues its downward career. Immediately west of this is the Horse-shoe viaduct, constructed for the Portage railroad, and now used by the Pennsylvania railroad. In the same manner the Blacklick, near the western line of the county, forms a peninsula. Along the public road traversing this neck of land is an immense rock, which has been cleft by some convulsion of nature, and affords barely room in the crevice, or crevasse, for the passage of a wagon. The walls of this rock are perpendicular on each side, and if brought into contact would fit like joiner's work. Passing through this in the hottest summer day, the traveler experiences the coolness of an ice-house. Snow has been known to remain here till June. EBENSBURG is the county seat. It is situated in the precise geographical centre of the county. The Northern turnpike passes through its principal street; is connected with Indiana by a turnpike road, and a branch railroad connects it with the Pennsylvania railroad at Cresson. It has also public roads leading to Carrolltown, Loretto, and Wilmore. Ebensburg was laid out about the beginning of the present century by Rev. Rees Lloyd, who gave it the name of his eldest son, Eben. He also conveyed, in trust, the square upon which the public buildings now stand. The court house is a venerable building, wherein justice is still "judicially administered," but is by no means creditable to the town or the county. The jail is one of the finest and most massive, and safe, of any in the State. An academy also stands upon the public grounds; but is now used as a public school. Water works are in course of erection. The Sisters of St. Joseph have a Catholic school for boys, in a flourishing condition. The first court was held in the building known as the " Old Red Jail." The court room was above stairs-the prison below. It was here that Jemmy Farral, being sentenced for contempt of the court above, was seized with a devotional fit, and sang so lustily that the court was compelled to adjourn until his term of probation expired. Ebensburg was created a borough in 1825. JOHNSTOWN, with its aggregation of surrounding municipalities, eight in number, embraces a population of 13,842. These are, Johnstown proper, Conemaugh, Millville, Cambria, Prospect, East Conemaugh, Franklin, Coopersdale, and Woodvale. Johnstown proper is situated at the confluence of Conemaugh creek with Stony creek, two of its wards, lying on the west side of the latter, and formerly known as Kernville. It is connected with its Kernville wards by a fine bridge across Stony creek, while a like structure crosses the Conemaugh, connecting the town with the Pennsylvania railroad and the Cambria iron works. Its location, as before stated, is on the site of Kickenapawling's Indian town, and was laid out by Joseph Jahns, before referred to, whence it derives its name. While the town itself lies mostly on a level plateau, it is surrounded on three sides by high and precipitous hills. The town is well paved, but the drainage 475 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. of a portion is very difficult. It is supplied with excellent water from Wild Cat run, on Laurel Hill; and recently additional supplies have been secured from the Conemaugh. It is distinguished for the number and excellence of its churches. The Baptists, Catholics, Disciples, Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans (English and German), Presbyterians, and United Brethren have each fine church edifices. Sandy Yale Cemetery is beautifully situated and tastefully ornamented. It is the chief burial place, im _ - ~ mediately above town, on Stony creek. There are two __ elegant places of amuse 7__ 2 Z<3:ment the town hall and opera house; a splendid S- market house; one daily - newspaper and three weekly -newspapers, two English and one German. Formerly S the borough was the con ___ __ necting point of railroad ... and canal transportation, and had a large number of E warehouses for the deposit and transhipment of mer I chandise. These are all abandoned now, or con verted to other purposes. CARROLLTOWN, ten miles north of Ebensburg, is a prosperous borough, con taining mainly German Catholic inhabitants. It boasts a very large and ele 1 mn gant Catholic church; and CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CONVENT AT CARROLLTOWN. close by, a Benedictine con [From a Photograph by P. L. Eck.] vent. Immediately west of the town stands a fine brick structure-the Benedictine monastery. Father Lemk4, a German priest, was the founder of the town, and an association known as the De Lemk4 Society perpetuates his name and his virtues. An extensive tannery, a brewery, and other manufactures, add to the prosperity of the village. The borough is in Carroll township. CONEMAUGH borough adjoins Johnstown, from which it is only divided by an imaginary line, in appearance it being the same town. In 1870 it contained 2,336 inhabitants. It lies above Johnstown on the Conemaugh side. It has an industrious and thriving population, the majority being laborers. MILLVILLE is directly opposite Johnstown, fronting on the Conemaugh above and below its junction with the Stony creek. The immense iron and steel works of the Cambria iron company, alluded to in the early portion of this sketch, are 476 CAMBRIA COUNTY. here located. The bulk of the inhabitants are operatives in these works. It has a population of 2,500. CAMBRIA borough lies opposite Millville, on the Conemaugh. Like it, it is mostly inhabited by operatives in the mills. EAST CONEMAUGH and FRANKLIN lie two miles higher up the Conemaugh, the stream dividing the two boroughs. The works of the Pennsylvania railroad company are located here, and these villages are mainly inhabited by those in the employ of the company. Between these points and Conemaugh borough, the village of WOODVALE is situated. Here are located the extensive woolen mills of the Cambria iron company. A short distance below Cambria borough, on the Conemaugh, is COOPERSDALE. PROSPECT borough occupies the northern ascent from the Conemaugh, and - - is mainly inhabited by employees at the iron works. LORETTO, founded by Prince Gallitzin, is one of the oldest villages in the county. It contains a large Catholic church edifice, in front of which repose the remains of the pious founder, surmounted by a monument. The convent of St. Aloysius, under the ST. ALOYSIUS' COLLEGE, LORETTO. auspices of the Sisters of Mercy, is a very imposing building, and has had the highest success as an educational establishment. The Franciscan Monastery, on an eminence west of the town, is also a large and handsome structure, known as St. Francis, school for young men. It is situate in Allegheny township. CHEST SPRINGS, on the Dry Gap road, partly in Allegheny, partly in Clearfield township, owes much of its prosperity to a New England colony, engaged in the manufacture of shook and other lumber. It has a large steam planing mill. WILMORE, on the Pennsylvania railroad and Conemaugh creek, in Summer Hill township, is largely engaged in the lumber trade. SUMMITVILLE, on the mountain, in Washington township, was incorporated as a borough during the palmy days of the "Old Portage railroad," and continued to thrive during its existence. On its abandonment the town declined. It is now a favorite summer resort, on account of the grateful mountain breezes. Among other villages may be noted-AAMSBURG, in Adams township; BELSENO, on the Indiana turnpike, in Blacklick township; ST. LAWRENCE and ST. BONIFACIUs, in Chest township, each of which boasts a handsome Catholic church; ST. AUGUSTINE, in Clearfield township, with a large Catholic church; SUMMER HILL, in Croyle township, with a large lumbering establishment; GALLITZIN borough, at west end of Pennsylvania railroad tunnel, so named from Prince Gallitzin; FAIRVIEW, in Jackson township, on the Johnstown road; MUNSTER, on the Northern turnpike, in township of same name; PLATTVILLE, in HISTORY OF P-ENNS YL VANIA. Penn. Lord Baltimore's agent wanted the grant, if made to Penn, to be expressed as "land that shall be north of Susquehanna Fort, also north of all lands in a direct line westward from said fort, for said fort is thle boundary of Maryland northward." After sundry conferences and discussions concerning the boundary lines and other matters of minor importance, the committee finally sent in a favorable report and presented the draft of a charter, constituting William Penn, Esq., absolute Proprietary of a tract of land in America, therein mentioned, to the King for his approbation, and leaving to him also the naming of the Province. The King affixed his signature on March 4, 1681, naming the Province Pennsylva 1681. nia, for reasons explained in thile subjoined extract from a letter of William Penn to his friend Robert Turner, dated 5th of 1st month, 1681: " This day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of Pennsylvania; a name the King would give it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty hilly country, but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Penmaumoire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, called this Pennsylvania, which is, the high or head woodlands, for I proposed, when the Secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it, and though I much opposed it, and went to the King to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him nor could twenty guineas move the under-secretary to vary the name, for I fear lest it be looked on as vanity in me, and not as a respect in the King, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise." This charter, under date March 4,1681, exists in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and is written on three pieces of strong parchment, in the old English handwriting, with each line underscored with lines of red ink, that give it a curious appearance. The borders are gorgeously decorated with heraldic devices, and the top of the first page exhibits a finely-executed likeness of his Majesty, in good preservation. Nearly a month after the signing of the charter, the King, on the second day of April, issued a declaration informing the inhabitants and planters of the Province that William Penn, their absolute Proprietary, was clothed with all the powers and pre6minences necessary for the government. A few days later, on 8th of April, tihe Proprietary addressed the following proclamation to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania: " MY FRIENDS: I wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These are to let you know that it hath pleased God, in his providence, to cast you within my lot and care. It is a business that, though I never undertook before, yet God hath given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest mind to do it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your change, and the King's choice, for you are now fixed, at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great. You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution, and has given me his grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and iml)rovement of their happiness, I shall HISTORY OF PENIV; YL VANIA. Susquehanna township; HEMLOCK and PORTAGE, in Washington township, on Pennsylvania railroad; and LLOYDSVILLE, in White township. The last is a village of recent growth, at the terminus of the Bell's Mill narrow gauge railroad, where the mining of coal is carried on very extensively. The deserted village of BEULA has already been mentioned. Originally laid out with the dimensions of a city-afterwards the formidable rival of Ebensburg; the loss of the county seat, and the changed location of the Northern turnpike, left it without resources and without hope, and it went into rapid decay. At this time the site of the "deserted village," as shown the visitor by the "oldest inhabitant," is all that remains of the once prosperous Beula. Cambria county, with Blair and Huntingdon, constitutes the twenty-fourth judicial district, Hon. John Dean, presiding; and is attached to the Western district of Supreme Court, sitting at Pittsburgh. With Blair, Bedford, and Somerset, she forms a Congressional district. With Blair county she elects a Senator, and is entitled to two members of the House of Representatives. FEMALE SEMINARY AT WASHINGTON. 478 CAMERON COUNTY. BY JOHN BROOKS, SINNEMAHONING. - AMERON County, named for the Hon. SIMON CAMERON, was orgamnized by act of Assembly, March 29, 1860, from parts of Clinton, Elk, M'Kean, and Potter counties. It contains four hundred square miles, nd is within the purchase of October 23, 1784, known as the New Purchase. It lies in latitude north 410 30', and longitude from Greenwich west 780 30', and among the spurs of the Alleghenies, and on the eastern slopes -Th VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF EMPORIUM. thereof. The mountain ridges rise here to an altitude of 2,100 feet above tide water. The Sinnemahoning river and its branches and small creeks drain nearly all the area of the county, and are debouched into the West Branch of the Susquehanna. The surface of the land within this county is much broken and rugged, occasionally interspersed with plateaus of table land upon the summits. These are mostly found in the middle and western parts of the county. The third bituminous coal basin passes into this county, a little north of the middle part, lying in a north-easterly and south-westerly direction, in which is found five workable veins of bituminous coal, and a vein of iron ore. The eastern part of the county 479 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. lies chiefly upon the crest or anticlinal axis between the second and third bituminous coal basins. The surface in this section is broken, lying in ridges and abrupt slopes and cliffs, and on which are found boulders and fragments of the conglomerate rock No. 12, which attains the thickness of one hundred feet in many places. Underlying this strata of conglomerate is found the out-croppings of a vein of iron ore (by some called brown hematite), and believed to be from four to five feet in thickness, but as yet not definitely ascertained. The river fiats or bottoms are alluvial and fertile. The uplands are mostly of the red shale and fire-clay soils, and are fertile and adapted to produce all the cereals and grasses of the latitude exuberently. The forests of this county contain a dense growth of white pine, white oak, and hemlock timber, with other varieties of oaks and pines, elms, butternut, sugar maple, cherry, etc., excepting those parts which have been devastated by the axe-man and the forest fires of the last half century. Previously this county limit afforded the Indian inhabitants superior fishing and hunting grounds. The pure soft silvery waters teemed with the salmon, shad, pike, eel, trout, and other varieties of the finny tribe, and the forests abounded with elk, deer, black bear, raccoon, squirrels, wild turkey, pheasants, &c., all of which were evidently provocatives to the gastronomy of the Indian youths and maidens of the seventeenth and previous centuries. The pioneer families who migrated to this section of country early in the present century subsisted largely upon the abundance thus afforded. At this period it did not require the science or skill of a Nimrod and an Isaak Walton to furnish their tables with " bounteous supplies." The verdant Esau and the piscatory adventurer or tyro alike succeeded, so easily were these necessaries of life obtained. The resources of Cameron county are chiefly the productions of the forests, the manufacture of lumber and of leather being the principal vocations. Agriculture (as in most all lumbering sections of country) has been sadly neglected. This has been disastrously true of the county of Cameron. Three railroads pass into or through this county. The Philadelphia and Erie railroad passes through, and has about forty miles of grade within the county. The Buffalo, Philadelphia, and New York railroad passes into the county a distance of about fourteen miles, and forms a junction with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Emporium; and the Allegheny Valley (low grade) railroad passes into the county about ten miles, and forms a junction with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Driftwood. The Cameron coal company have been producing and marketing coal occasionally for the twelve years past. Two large taiuneries have been established within the county, consuming some eight thousand cords of bark annually, and manufacturing over sixty thousand sides of sole leather. Principally the hemlock bark is used by these tanneries. The first settlements made within the limits of Cameron county were made in the years 1809 to 1815 inclusive. In 1809-10 Andrew Overdorf, Levi Hicks, Jacob Burge, John Earl, and John Jordan moved their families here and made improvements. In 1811-12 Joseph Mason, John Ramage, Stephen Berfield, Isaac McKisson, John Spangler, and Adam Logue made settlements. In 1813-14 Benjamin Brooks, Wm. A. Wykoff, James Shafer, Joseph Brooks, and John 480 GCAMERON COUNTY. Sheffer migrated to this section, and made improvements. In 1815-16 David Crow, Elihu Chadwick, Brewster Freeman, Robert Lewis, A. Housler, J. Brittain, and others came with their families. The early settlers were generally a hardy, active, energetic "go-ahead" class of people, hailing mostly from eastern and middle Pennsylvania, from the State of New Jersey, and from the New England States. They, as a class, though rude, were honest in their dealings; though boorish, were hospitable and generous. Occupying, as they did, the remote outskirts of civilization, they were subjected to many privations, the more especially in this rugged section of country, without roads, except the Indian's trail, and the only mode of ingress and egress being by canoes and small boats. These early pioneers brought their families and goods in canoes up the Susquehanna river and the Sinnemahoning, propelled by manual force against the rapid current of the streams. These canoes were generally manned by a steersman and a bowsman, who with steel-pointed setting-poles placed upon the bottom of the stream upon which they threw their whole weight and force and thereby propelled their canoes forward, and by continued and repeated processes and propulsions, they frequently made twenty-five miles a day against the current, carrying in their canoes from three-fourths to one ton at a trip. On some occasions, in case of low water in the streams, the boat crew would be compelled to remove the gravel and fragments of rock from the line of their course, and wade for miles at a time in the stream, carrying and dragging their boats forward by their almost superhuman strength. Such frequent exercise of course developed an unusual vigorous muscle, and it would seem almost fabulous to describe the extraordinary feats frequently performed by these athletics of pioneer life. The first settlers were not a migratory people. Their descendants (with the exception of that of McKisson) continue to reside in this region, at the present time, and many of them within the limits of Cameron county. These families were generally robust and fruitful. As an instance of this, may be mentioned the family of Mr. Benjamin Brooks, whose descendants, now living, number four hundred and fifty-eight persons, three-fourths of which number reside within a radius of twenty miles from the point where their ancestor first landed in this county. The majority of these early settlers could read, but had not much education; had no schools for many years, and the education of their children, for a time, was neglected. Several of these pioneers had done efficient service in the Revolutionary war, and some in the war of 1812. Almost all the vocations of the industrial classes were represented, and all could aid in the work of extemporizing a cabin for the accommodation of the recent immigrant. Among these early settlers there were but few who professed Christianity practically. Most of them, however, held some theory of religion, mostly Baptist or Presbyterian in their views. Profanity was the common spice of conversation, and God was, if "not in all their thoughts," in all their mouths; and invoked by way of execrations and imprecations more frequently than by benedictions. The use of whiskey was general; some families of more recent emigration always kept whiskey in the house, but kept no cows, alleging that a barrel of whiskey in a ,family was of more value than a cow. At this early period flax was much cultivated, and sheep raised; and home 2F 481 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. spun and woven manufactured fabrics, dyed with butternut and garden madder, constituted the greater part of the apparel of all the classes. The sugar maple furnished the sugar, and the pumpkin the molasses, for general use. Coffee was made from rye,wheat, acorns, chestnuts, and peas; tea from the spice-bush, the sassafras root, and from the aromatic plants of the kitchen garden. The Indians made frequent visits to this section of country for many years during its first occupation by the whites. They were, however, peaceable, and if they indulged in a spree, they always had one sober Indian to care for the others. In this they were more discreet than many of the whites. The celebrated battle of Peter Grove with the Indians took place at the mouth of a small creek called Grove's run, which empties into the Sinnemahoning, about three-quarters of a mile above the mouth of the first fork of Sinnemahoning. This occurred long before this region was settled by the whites, the frontier being Sunbury. The Groves, Peter and Michael, resided about two miles east of Miffiinburg, in Buffalo valley, Union county. Peter Grove's father had been massacred by the Indians, who had exhibited contortions of the face to Peter Grove, thereby indicating how his father had made such contortions while being scalped. Peter Grove swore eternal vengeance on the murderers, and followed the party of Indians, pursuing them through the wilderness, until they had encamped for the night at the mouth of this small creek. Grove and his party of four men, among whom was a brother of his, observed from the summit of the fork hill of Ellicott's run, about two miles east of the encampment, their locality. Seeing their camp fires from his elevated position, he and his party approached the Indian encampment stealthily, and found them near a small pond and large spring of water, on or near the bank of the river, and near the mouth of the small creek, or Grove's run. The Indians had stacked their guns against a large oak tree; their tomahawks were sticking in the bark of a large limb that grew from the oak, quite within their reach. While all the Indians except one, who sat as a sentinel, were asleep at the foot of the oak tree, or near thereto, Peter Grove, after reconnoitering, learned their position, and after having instructed his men as to the manner of attack, they all fired except one man, and rushed upon the Indians, who had been surprised, seized part of their arms, and threw them into the pond of water near the encampment. Several Indians had been killed in the attack, and the remainder had been routed. Soon, however, after the Grove party left, the Indians had rallied in pursuit, and were seen descending the valley of the Susquehanna, below the mouth of the Sinnemahoning. Peter and his men having back-tracked themselves at this point,. had waded up the bed of the Susquehanna, and from the mountain-top observed the Indians on the trail; but, mistaking the route of Grove's party, they went down the valley, while Peter and his party crossed through the mountains, and the second day thereafter saw the Indians where Lock Haven now is, from the Bald Eagle mountains. Grove and his men then passed their way to the settlement in Buffalo valley. About the year 1820 the pond at the mouth of the creek was drained, and a gun barrel and lock found, which had not been recovered by the Indians. The marks of the dozen tomahawks, made in the limb of the old oak tree, were visible, and were to be seen until the tree fell into the river by the constant washings of the bank where it stood. The tree fell about the year 1835. 482 CAMERON UO UNTY. Among the incidents that pertain to this county, the following may be noticed: In the year 1873 excavations were being made for a cellar under the post office building, at Sterling run, in this county. The building had been removed from its former site about forty feet, and hence the demand for the excavations for a cellar under the building at its new site. Mr. Earl, the proprietor of the grounds, in making these excavations found human bones, and proceeded the more carefully to continue his excavations, which, when completed, disclosed seventeen skeletons, evidently of Indian origin. All except two were of ordinary grown stature, while one measured over seven and a half feet from the cranium to the heel-bones. The bones had all remained undisturbed. They lay with their feet toward each other in a three-quarter circle, that is, some with their heads to the east, and then north-easterly to the north, and then north-westerly to the west. There had been a fire at the centre, between their feet, as ashes and coals were found there. The skeletons, except one smaller than the rest, were all as regularly arranged as they would be naturally in a sleeping camp of similar dimensions; the bones were many of them in a good state of preservation, particularly the teeth and jaw-bones, and some of the leg-bones and skulls. The stalwart skeleton had a stoneware or clay pipe between his teeth, as naturally as if in the act of smoking; by his side was found a vase or urn of earthenware, or stoneware, which would hold about a half gallon. This vessel was about onethird filled with a somewhat granular substance like chopped up tobacco stems or seeds. The vase had no base to stand upon, but was of the gourd-shape and rounded; its exterior had corrugated lines crossing each other diagonally from the rim. The rim of the vase had a serrated or notched form, and the whole gave evidence that it had been constructed with some skill and care, yet there was a lack of beauty of form or symmetry, which the race were at that period evidently ignorant of. The skeletons were covered about thirty inches deep, twenty-four inches of which was red shale clay, or good brick clay. The top six inches was soil and clay, which, doubtless, had been formed from the decayed leaves of the forest for centuries. This ground had been heavily timbered. When the first clearing was made upon it, in 1818, there had not grown immediately over or upon this spot any very large trees, as no roots of trees had disturbed the relics, yet the timber in the immediate vicinity had been very large white pine and oak. This spot had been plowed and cultivated since 1818, and had been used as a garden for the last preceding ten years. I visited the ground, and examined the locality and position of all the skeletons. One, the smallest, had been in the erect or crouched position, in the north-west corner of the domicile. The most reasonable theory is that this was their habitation; that their hut had been constructed of this clay, as the surrounding grounds were gravelly, as was also the bottom of this spot. It would seem that the gravel had been scooped away, or had been excavated to the depth of two feet, and that there had been a hut constructed of clay over the excavation, and that while reclining in their domicile some electric storm had in an instant extinguished their lives, and at the same time precipitated their mud or clay hut upon them, thus securing them from the ravages of the beasts of the forest. EMPORIUM borough, the county seat of Cameron, was incorporated 13th Octo483 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. ber, 1864. It has a court house and jail, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, and a Catholic church, a graded school building, one tannery, two saw mills, one planing mill, and one grist or flouring mill. The Philadelphia and Erie railroad passes through the town, and the Buffalo and Philadelphia and New York railroad forming a junction therewith. The town is situated on the Driftwood branch, at the junctions of the Portage creek and West creek with the Driftwood. DRIFTWOOD borough was incorporated 17th January, 1872. It is located at the junction of the Driftwood and Bennett's branches of the Sinnemahoning. It was formerly called " Second Forks." The junction of the Allegheny Valley railroad with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad is at this place. The town has two churches, one Union and one Catholic. The borough of CAMERON is not organized. It is at the mouth of Hunt's run, in Lumber township, and is the head-quarters of the Cameron coal company, who have offices here. The mills of the Hunt's Run lumber company are situated here. The town took its name from the post office, which was named in honor of General Cameron, who contributed the court house bell, thereby acknowledging the compliment. STERLING RUN is in Lumber township, situate at the mouth of Sterling run. There are several mills and a tannery in the vicinity, and the lands upon this run or creek comprise the greater part of the coal lands in the county, and are owned by Ario Pardee, Hazelton, Noyes & Whiting, and the Simpsons, of New York. The town site was owned and laid out by one Brooks, called Philosopher Brooks, who was a surveyor, a real estate dealer, and lumberman, and who built many houses and mills, and had in his employ hundreds of men and scores of teams. SINNEMAHONING is a village extending from the mouth of the first fork of Sinnemahoning, or east fork, up to the mouth of Grove's run, and takes in the station on the Philadelphia and Erie railroad called by that name. The greater part of the town is near the battle ground of Peter Grove and the Indians, and is called by some " Battle Grove," and by others " Enterprise." This town was laid out and owned by the person known as Philosopher Brooks. The town is partly in the township of Grove and partly in the township of Gibson. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPs.-Lumber township was organized while in Clinton county. It is the third township from the east line of the county; lies on the Driftwood branch of Sinnemahoning; includes the villages of Cameron and Sterling Run. The first settlers in the township were John Spangler, Winm. Sterling, and John Sheffer, some of whose descendants still reside in the township. SHIPPEN township is the north-western township in the county, and lies on West creek, Driftwood, North creek, and Lower Portage creek. The borough of Emporium was taken out of this township. Prominent early citizens were Elihu Chadwick, Brewster Freeman, John Earl, R. Lewis, A. Housler, and John Chandler. PORTAGE township lies on the Upper Portage waters, and adjoining Potter county, of which it was a part. The Buffalo railroad passes through this township. There was a salt manufactory established here about 1833, now abandoned. The prominent early citizen was Hiram Sizen, who made the first improvement 484 GAMER ON COUNTY. and settlement, and built the first grist mill and wooden bowl manufactory, about 1828. His descendants still reside in the township. GIBSON TOWNSHIP, named in honor of Colonel George Gibson, was organized while in Clearfield county, and lies next to Grove township on the west, and west of the line of Houston's district, which, running north and south, passes across the Sinnemahlioning, about three-fourths of a mile above the mouth of the first fork, and near the mouth of Grove's run. Driftwood borough was taken from this township. Salt was made here in 1815-16. It has two post offices and six school houses, and four railroad stations. Prominent early citizens were Joseph Mason, John Jordan, Benjamin Brooks, and others, descendants of whom still reside in the township. GROVE TOWNSHIP, named in honor of Peter Grove, was established while the territory was in Lycoming county, before Clinton county was organized. It is the most easterly township in the county of Cameron. It lies principally on the east branch of the Sinnemahoning, or what is called the first fork. The first settlement made in the limits of the county of Cameron was made in this and Gibson townships. It has three post offices and one railway station. Among its early citizens were James Shafer, John Ramage, and William A. Wykoff. CHAMELEON FALLS, GLEN ONOKO, CARBON COUNTY. 485 CARBON COUNTY. [ Ll*nowledgments to Robert Klotz, Mauch Chunk.] 1843, out of parts of Northampton and Monroe counties. The commissioners appointed by the Governor to form the county were Charles W. Hiiggins, of Northumberland county, William J. B. Andrews, of Clearfield county, and John B. Brodhead, of Pike county. The original townships were East Penn, Upper Towamensing, Lower Towamensing, Mauch Chunk, and ___ Lausanne, from North -- __- --ampton county, and - _ _ _ -__ ~the township of Penn ---..-Forest, from Monroe .. county; since which ___n time the following _.. changes have been __.....___made by sub-division --...of townships and new townships formed, viz.: Franklin [1852]; Ma honing, Packer [1854]; Banks, Lehigh [1872]; Kidder [1851]; mak ing in all twelve town rships, within which there are six boroughs, each having their own officers entirely inde pendent of the town ships from which they were taken, viz.: ....Mauch Chunk, East t,l,;I,:,Y:.'. ",,Y,?:'i"ii'l'':'','','.,',,'l,'l?,',,':',''!........... Mauch Chunk, Lehigh - ton, Weatherly, Weiss port, and Parryville. The county is near CARBON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MAUCH CHUNK. [From a Photograph by James Zellner, Mauch Chunk.] ly square, or about twenty miles each way, and is a very mountainous and wild region, with about one-third of the land adapted to agriculture. It is about equally divided by the Lehigh river, and is watered by a number of important and picturesque streams, the most promi 486 GARBON COUNTY. nent of which are the Aquancshicola, Lizard, Poho-Poko or Big creek, Mahoning, Nesquehoning, and Quakake creeks. The principal productions of the county are coal d lumber, and the outlets from the county to the markets are by the canal of the old Lehigh Coal and Navigation company (which had its commencement in this county), and the Lehigh Valley, and the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroads. The first discovery of coal in the valley of the Lehigh was by a hunter named Philip Ginter, in 1791, on the top of Sharp mountain, n., -site of the town of Summit Hill, nine miles north-west of Mauch Chunk..Laking known his discovery to Colonel Jacob Weiss, residing at what is now known as Weissport, the latter took a specimen of it to Philadelphia, and submitted it to the inspection of Messrs. John Nicholson, Michael Hillegas, and Charles Cist, who were so well satisfied as to its merits, that in 1792 they, with some others, formed themselves into what was called the Lehigh Coal Mine company. Without charter or incorporation, they took up eight or ten thousand acres of unlocated land, including the Sharp mountain. The company proceeded to open the mines, and made an appropriation of ten pounds to construct a road to the landing, a distance of nine miles. The mines were not worked to any extent, owing to the poor encouragement they received, until after the commencement of the war of 1812. They afterwards gave leases of their mines to different individuals in succession, the last of which was owned by Messrs. Cist, Miner, and Robinson, who started several arks of coal to Philadelphia, only three of which reached the city. They abandoned the business, disheartened by the public incredulity, in 1815. People would neither purchase it (or, when they did, would afterwards complain of being imposed upon), nor take it as a gift. At the solicitation of Colonel Weiss, an attempt was made, by permission of the Philadelphia city authorities, to burn it under the boilers at the water-works; but it was declared that it only served to put the fire out, and the remainder was therefore broken up and scattered on the sidewalks in place of gravel. In the light of its present universal use, it is most amusing to recall the persistent discredit with which the public looked upon it in the beginning. Hand-bills were printed in English and German, stating the method of burning it, and including certificates from blacksmiths and others who had successfully used it. Sometimes journeymen were bribed to try the experiment fairly, so averse were they to any innovation of this kind. Luckily, charcoal became scarce and costly, and thus at length some were the more easily induced to test the new commodity; but it was many years before capitalists were led to put much faith in it as a profitable investment. The expenses of hauling from the mines and of transportation to the city were very great, so that in the early experiments coal cost the shippers about fourteen dollars a ton when ready for sale in Philadelphia. In July, 1818, the Lehigh Navigation company, and in October of the same year, the Lehigh Coal company were formed, which together were the foundation of the present Lehigh Coal and Navigation company. The improvement of the Lehigh was commenced in August, 1818, and under the skillful and energetic management of Josiah White, Erskine Hazard, and George F. A. Hanto, the almost insuperable obstacles in the way of the river's navigation and the transportation of coal were at length overcome, and the success of the settlements 487 GENERAL HISTORY. heartily comply with, and in five months resolve, if it please God, to see you. In the meantime, pray submit to the commands of my deputy, so far as they are consistent with the law, and pay him those dues that formerly you paid to the order of the Governor of New York, for my use and benefit; and so I beseech God to direct you in the way of righteousness, and therein prosper you and your children after you. "WILLIAM PENN." Captain William Markham, a cousin of William Penn, was the deputy referred to in the preceding proclamation, whose commission, bearing date April 10, 1681, contained the following directions: 1. To call a council, consisting of nine, he to preside. 2. To read his letter and the King's declaration to the inhabitants, and to take their acknowledgment of his authority and propriety. 3. To settle boundaries between Penn and his neighbors; to survey, set out, rent, or sell lands according to instructions given. 4. To erect courts, appoint sheriffs, justices of the peace, etc. 5. To call to his aid any of the inhabitants, for the legal suppression of tumult, etc. Governor Markham carried also letters from Penn and the King to Lord Baltimore, authorizing him to adjust boundaries. HIe arrived at New York on June 21, 1681, and Lord Baltimore, being in the Province, had an interview with Markham, at Upland, which resulted in discovering, from actual observation, that Upland itself was at least twelve miles south of 40 degrees, and that boundaries claimed by Lord Baltimore would extend to the Schuylkill. This discovery ended the conference, and gave fresh incentives to Penn to obtain from the Duke of York a grant of the Delaware settlements, as without such grant he had now reason to fear the loss of the whole peninsula. Penn soon after published an account of his Province, with the royal charter and other documents connected with it, offering easy terms of sale for lands, viz., forty shillings sterling for one hundred acres, subject to a quit rent of one shilling per annum for ever. Many persons from London, Liverpool, and Bristol embarked in his enterprise; and an association, called the "Free Traders' Society of Pennsylvania," purchased large tracts of land. In the autumn of the same year Penn appointed three commissioners, viz., Win. Crispin, John Bezar, and Nathaniel Allen, to proceed to the Province, arrange for a settlement, lay out a town, and treat with the Indians. To these commissioners, says Westcott, was added afterwards William Haige. They set sail from London probably near time end of October,.but it is not known at what date they arrived. In the beginning of the year following, Penn published his frame of govern ment, and certain laws, agreed on in England by himself and the 1682. purchasers under him, entitled " The frame of the government of the Province of Pennsylvania, in America; together with certain laws, agreed upon in England by the Governor and Divers of the Free-Men of the aforesaid Province. To be further Explained and Confirmed there, by the first Provincial Council and General Assembly that shall be held, if they see meet." 8ISTORY OF PEYNSYLY VANIA. of Mauch Chunk and vicinity assured. Several incidents connected with this, development of the coal trade are of such interest that we append them: The Legislature were early aware of the importance of the navigation of the Lehigh, and in 1771 passed a law for its improvement. Subsequent laws for the same object were enacted in 1791, 1794, 1798, 1810, 1814, and 1816. A company was formed under one of them, which expended upwards of thirty thousand dollars in clearing out channels, one of which they attempted to make through the ledges of slate which extend across the river, about seven miles above Allentown; but they found the slate too hard to pick, and too shelly to blow; and at length considered it an insuperable obstacle to the completion of the work, and relinquished it. In 1812, Messrs. White & Hazard, who were then manufacturing wire at the Falls of Schuylkill, induced a number of individuals to associate and apply to the Legislature for a law for the improvement of the river Schuylkill. The coal, which was said to be on the head waters of that river, was held as an inducement to the Legislature to make the grant, when the senator from Schuylkill county asserted that there was no coal there-that there was a kind of "black stone " that was " called " coal, but that it would not burn. During the war, Virginia coal became very scarce, and Messrs. White & Hazard having been told by Joshua Malin that he had succeeded in making use of Lehigh coal in his rolling mill, procured a cart load of it, which cost them one dollar per bushel. This quantity was entirely wasted without getting up the requisite heat. Another cart load of it was however obtained, and a whole night spent in endeavoring to make a fire in the furnace, when the hands shut the furnace door and left the mill in despair. Fortunately one of them left his jacket in the mill, and returning for it in about half an hour, noticed that the door was red hot, and upon opening it, was surprised at finding the whole furnace at a glowing white heat. The other hands were summoned, and four separate parcels of iron were heated and rolled by the same fire, before it required renewing. The furnace was then replenished, and as letting it alone had succeeded so well, it was concluded to try it again, and the experiment was repeated with the same result. In 1821 and 1822, the quantities of coal produced were so much increased that the public became secure of a supply; and its own good qualities, together with its reasonable price, gave it an extensive and rapidly increasing demand. At this period, anthracite coal may be said to be permanently introduced into use. In 1824, the Lehigh company reduced the price of coal to seven dollars. In 1825, coal first came to Philadelphia by the improved navigation of the Schuylkill-the quantity was five thousand three hundred and seventy-eight tons. The year following sixteen thousand two hundred and sixty-five tons of coal were transported on the Schuylkill, and thirty-one thousand two hundred and eighty tons on the Lehigh. Nature did not furnish enough water, by the regular flow of the river, to keep the channels at the proper depth, owing to the very great fall in the river, and the consequent rapidity of its motion. It became necessary to accumulate water by artificial means, and let it off at stated periods, and let the boats pass down with the long wave thus formed, which filled up the channels. This was effected by constructing dams in the neighborhood of Mauch Chunk, in Which were placed sluice-gates of a peculiar construction, invented for the purpose by Josiah 488 CARB ON COUNTY4 White (one of the managers), by means of which the water could be retained in the pool above until required for use. When the dam became full, and the water had run over it long enough for the river below the dam to acquire the depth of the ordinary flow of the river, the sluice-gates were let down, and the boats, which were lying in the pools above, passed down with the artificial flood. About twelve of these dams and sluices were made in 1819. The boats used on this descending navigation consisted of square boxes or arks, from sixteen to eighteen feet wide, and twenty to twenty-five feet long. At first two of these were joined together by hinges, to allow them to bend up and down in passing the dams and sluices; and as the men became accustomed to the work, and the channels were straightened and improved as experience dictated, the number of sections in each boat was increased, till at last their whole length reached one hundred and eighty feet. They were steered with long oars, like a raft. Machinery was devised for jointing and putting together the planks of which these boats were made, and the hands became so expert that five men would put one of the sections together and launch it in forty-five minutes. Boats of this description were used on the Lehigh till the end of the year 1831, when the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania canal was partially finished. In the last year forty thousand nine hundred and sixty-six tons were sent down, which required so many boats to be built, that, if they had all been joined in one length, they would have extended more than thirteen miles. These boats made but one trip, and were then broken up in the city, and the planks sold for lumber, the spikes, hinges, and other iron work, being returned to Mauch Chunk by land, a distance of eighty miles. The descending navigation by artificial freshets on the Lehigh is the first on record which was used as a permanent thing; though it is stated that in the expedition under General Sullivan, in 1779, General James Clinton successfully made use of the expedient to extricate his division of the army from some difficulty on the east branch of the Susquehanna, by erecting a temporary dam across the outlet of Otsego lake, which accumulated water enough to float them, when let off, and carry them down the river. The celebrity of the Lehigh coal is very extensive, from the fact that it is the hardest known anthracite in the world. The bed upon the top of Mauch Chunk mountain is fifty-three feet in thickness, exceeding, in this respect, any layer or vein as yet discovered. In 1820 three hundred and eighty-five tons completely stocked the market. Now the shipments of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company alone reach sometimes as much as twenty thousand tons per week. It is claimed that the first railroad track ever laid down in the United States was in the streets of Mauch Chunk. It is believed that the first furnace in the country at which any considerable success was attained in the smelting of iron, with anthracite coal, was an old one at Mauch Chunk, temporarily fitted up for that purpose in the autumn of 1837 by Messrs. Joseph Baughman, Julius Guiteau, and Henry High, of Reading. An earlier attempt was made in the use of anthracite for fuel in iron manufacture at Mauch Chunk also in 1823-4, in a furnace built especially by persons connected with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company. It was several years after this date that similar experiments were tried at Kingston, Mass., and at Vizelle, on the borders of France and Switzerland. 489 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. About one-third of Carbon county is adapted to agriculture. On the south and west side of the Lehigh river the soil is light gravel and red shale. On the north and east more sand and loam, underlaid with clay, which will eventually make the best farming country, especially for grass; and as the timber districts are becoming depleted, farming will increase. Iron, slate, and mineral paint are found in the townships of East Penn, Franklin, and Lower Towamensing, not, however, developed to any great extent, except paint, of which some four thousand tons are annually manufactured and sold by the Prince Metallic Paint company. The Carbon Iron company is located at Parryville, on the Lehigh river, six miles below Mauch Chunk. These furnaces have a capacity of six hundred tons per week. The hematite ore used in them is mined partly in the neighborhood and partly in Lehigh and Berks counties. At Weissport there is a rolling mill containing two heating furnaces and three double puddling furnaces, with a full complement of rolls and other machinery necessary to turn out thirtyfive tons per day of merchant bar-iron, scrolls, band-iron, etc. Punching and spike machines have recently been added. Considerable lumber is shipped from the north-west part of the county, especially from the Hickory Run and Mud Run districts, Kidder township, and some from Penn Forest township. The first settlement in Carbon county was by the Moravian missionaries in the year 1746. The converted Mohican Indians having been driven out of Shekomeko, in New York, near the borders of Connecticut, and from Pachgatgoch in the latter state, found an asylum for a short time at Friedenshiitten, near Bethlehem. Deeming it inconvenient to maintain a large Indian congregation so near Bethlehem, the missionaries purchased two hundred acres on the north side of Mahoning creek, about half a mile above its junction with the Lehigh. Each Indian family possessed its own lot of ground, and began its separate housekeeping. Gnadenhiitten became a very regular and pleasant town. The church stood in the valley; on one side the Indian houses, forming a crescent, upon a rising ground; and on the other stood the house of the missionary, and the burying-ground. The road to Wyoming and other Indian towns lay through the settlement. This was the famous path over Nescopec mountain, still known as the Warrior's path. The missionaries tilled their own grounds, and every Indian family their plantation; and on the 18th of August, 1746, they had the satisfaction to partake of the first fruits of the land at a love-feast. Christian Rauch and Martin Mack were the first missionaries who resided here. They were succeeded by other missionaries, who were occasionally removed, the brethren being of opinion that frequent changes of the ministers of the congregation might be useful in preventing too strong an attachment to, and dependence upon men, and fixing the hope of the Indians more upon God alone. Several parts of Scripture had been translated into the Mohican language. The congregation met morning and evening to sing and pray, and sometimes to hear a discourse upon the text of Scripture appointed for the day. The holy communion was administered to the communicants every month. The Indians called the communion day the great day, and such indeed it was, for the missionaries could never find words to extol the power and grace of God 490 CARBON COUNTY revealed on these occasions. In September, 1749, Bishop [Baron] John de Watteville went to Gnadenhiitten and laid the foundation of a new church, that built in 1746 being too small, and the missionaries being obliged to preach out of doors. The Indian congregation alone consisted of five hundred persons. About this time Rev. David Brainerd and several of his Indian converts visited Gnadenhiitten. The congregation continued in this pleasing and regular state until the year 1754. When the Delawares and Shawanese on the Susquehanna, says Loskiel, began to waver in their allegiance to the English, and were preparing to take up the hatchet on the side of the French, it became an object of some importance to them to withdraw their Indian brethren in the missionary settlements beyond the reach of the whites, that the hostile savages might more freely descend upon the white settlements. The Christian Indians for some time resolutely refused to move to Wyoming. At length, however, a part were seduced by the influence of Teedyuscung. The Mohicans who remained were joined by the Christian Delawares from Meniolagomekah, and the land on the Mahoning being impoverished, and other circumstances requiring a change, the inhabitants of Gnadenhiitten removed to the north side of the Lehigh. The dwellings were removed, and a new chapel was built in June, 1754. The place was called New Gnadenhiitten, and stood where Weissport now is. The dwellings were so placed that the Mohicans lived on one, and the Delawares on the other, side of the street. The brethren at Bethlehem took the culture of the old land on the Mahoning upon themselves, made a plantation of it for the use of the Indian congregation, and converted the old chapel into a dwelling, both for the use of those brethren and sisters who had the care of the plantations, and for missionaries passing on their visits to the heathen. "The Indians in the French interest were much incensed that any of the Moravian Indians chose to remain at Gnadenhiitten, and determined to cut off the settlement. After Braddock's defeat, in 1755, the whole frontier was open to the inroads of the savage foe. Every day disclosed new scenes of barbarity committed by the Indians. The whole country was in terror; the neighbors of the brethren in Gnadenhtitten forsook their dwellings and fled; but the brethren made a covenant together to remain undaunted in the place allotted them by Providence. However, no caution was omitted; and because the white people considered every Indian as an enemy, the Indian brethren in Gnadenhiitten were advised as much as possible to keep out of their way-to buy no powder nor shot, but to strive to maintain themselves without hunting, which they willingly complied with. But God had otherwise ordained. On a sudden the mission-house on the Mahoning was, late in the evening of 24th November, attacked by the French Indians, burnt, and eleven of the inhabitants murdered. The family, being at supper, heard an uncommon barking of dogs, upon which Brother Senseman went out at the back door to see what was the matter. On the report of a gun, several ran together to open the house door. Here the Indians stood with their pieces pointed towards the door, and firing immediately upon its being opened, Martin Nitschmann was instantly killed. His wife and some others were wounded, but fled with the rest up stairs into the garret, and barricaded the door with bedsteads. Brother Partsch escaped by jumping out of a back winaow. HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Brother Worbass, who was ill in bed in a house adjoining, jumped likewise out of a back window and escaped, though the enemies had placed a guard before his door. Meanwhile the savages pursued those who had taken refuge in the garret, and strove hard to burst the door open; but finding it too well secured, they set fire to the house, which was soon in flames. A boy called Sturgis, standing upon the flaming roof, ventured to leap off, and escaped; though at first, upon opening the back door, a ball had grazed his cheek, and one side of his head was much burnt. Sister Partsch seeing this took courage, and leaped likewise from the burning roof. She came down unhurt, and unobserved by the enemies; and thus the fervent prayer of her husband was fulfilled, who in jumping out of the back window cried aloud to God to save his wife. Brother Fabricius then leaped also off the roof, but before he could escape was perceived by the Indians, and instantly wounded by two balls. He was the only one whom they seized upon alive, and having dispatched him with their hatchets, took his scalp, and left him dead on the ground. The rest were all burnt alive, and Brother Senseman, who first went out at the back door, had the inexpressible grief to see his wife consumed by the flames. Sister Partsch could not run far for fear and trembling, but hid herself behind a tree, upon a hill near the house. From hence she saw Sister Senseman, already surrounded by the flames, standing with folded hands, and heard her call out,''Tis all well, dear Saviour-I expected nothing else!' The house being consumed, the murderers set fire to the barns and stables, by which all the corn, hay, and cattle were destroyed. Then they divided the spoil, soaked some bread in milk, made a hearty meal, and departed-Sister Partsch looking on unperceived. This melancholy event proved the deliverer of the Indian congregation at Gnadenhtitten; for upon hearing the report of the guns, seeing the flames, and soon learning the dreadful cause from those who had escaped, the Indian brethren immediately went to the missionary, and offered to attack the enemy without delay. But being advised to the contrary, they all fled into the woods, and Gnadenhiitten was cleared in a few minutes, some who already were in bed having scarce time to dress themselves. Brother Zeisberger, who had just arrived in Gnadenhiitten from Bethlehem, hastened back to give notice of this event to a body of English militia, which had marched within five miles of the spot; but they did not venture to pursue the enemy in the dark." The fugitive congregation arrived safely at Bethlehem. After the French and indians had retired, the remains of those killed on the Mahoning were carefully collected from the ashes and ruins, and solemnly interred. A broad marble slab, placed there in 1788, now marks the grave, which is situated on the hill a short distance from Lehighton, and a little north of a small hamlet which occupies the site of the ancient missionary village. The following is the inscription on the marble: " To the memory of Gottlieb and Joanna Anders, with their child Christiana; Martin and Susanna Nitschmann. Anna Catharine Senseman, John Gattermeyer, George Fabricius, clerk; George Schweigert, John Frederick Lesly, and Martin Presser, who lived here at Gnadenhiitten unto the Lord, and lost their lives in a surprise from Indian warriors, November the 24th, 1755. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.-Psalm cxvi. 15." In 1756 Benjamin Franklin was sent out by the Provincial authorities to erect 492 GARBON COUNTY. stockade forts on the Lehigh, which was then the northern frontier. The fort erected opposite Gnadenhiitten was named Fort Allen, in honor of William Allen, chief justice of the Province. It served as a place of refuge in times of Indian depredations, and for a number of years was occupied by at least a handful of rangers and scouts. As late as 1780 the Gilbert family, living on Mahoning creek, five or six miles from Fort Allen, were carried into a bitterly painful captivity by a party of Indians, who took them to Canada, and there separated them. At the time of its occurrence this event caused intense excitement throughout the State, and from an interesting narrative published shortly after their release from captivity, we append the following synopsis: Benjamin Gilbert, a Quaker from Byberry, near Philadelphia, in 1775, removed with his family to a farm on Mahoning creek, five or six miles from Fort Allen. His second wife was a widow Peart. They were comfortably situated, with a good log dwelling-house, barn, and saw and grist mill. For five years this peaceable family went on industriously and prosperously; but on the 25th April, 1780, the very year after Sullivan's expedition, they were surprised about sunrise by a party of eleven Indians, who took them all prisoners. At the Gil. bert farm they made captives of Benjamin Gilbert, Sr., aged 69 years; Elizabeth, his wife, 55; Joseph Gilbert, his son, 41; Jesse Gilbert, another son, 19; Sarah Gilbert, wife to Jesse, 19; Rcbecca Gilbert, a daughter, 16; Abner Gilbert, a son, 14; Elizabeth Gilbert, a daughter, 12; Thomas Peart, son to Benjamin Gilbert's wife, 23; Benjamin Gilbert, a son of John Gilbert of Philadelphia, 11; Andrew Harrigar, of German descent, 26; a hireling of Benjamin Gilbert's; and Abigail Dodson, 14, a daughter of Samuel Dodson, who lived on a farm about one mile from Gilbert's mill. The whole number taken at Gilbert's was twelve. The Indians then proceeded about half a mile to Benjamin Peart's dwelling, and there captured himself, aged 27; Elizabeth, his wife, 20, and their child, nine months old. The last look tihe poor captives had of their once comfortable home was to see the flames and falling in of the roofs, from Summer Hill. The Indians led their captives on a toilsome road over Mauch Chunk and Broad mountains into the Nescopec path, and then across Quakake creek and the Moravian pine swamp to Mahoning mountain where they lodged the first night. On their way they had prepared moccasins for some of the children. Indians generally secure their prisoners by cutting down a sapling as large as a man's thigh, and therein cut notches in which they fix their legs, and over this they place a pole, crossing it with stakes drove in the ground, and on the crotches of the stakes they place other poles or riders, effectually confining the prisoners on their backs; and besides all this they put a strap round their necks, which they fasten to a tree. In this manner the night passed with the Gilbert family. Their beds were hemlock branches strewed on the ground, and blankets for a covering. Andrew Montour was the leader of the Indian party. The forlorn band were dragged on over the wild and rugged region between the Lehigh and the Chemung branch of the Susquehanna. They were often ready to faint by the way, but the cruel threat of immediate death urged them again to the march. The old man, Benjamin Gilbert, indeed, had begun to fail, and had 493 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. been pai-ted black-a fatal omen among the Indians; but when his cruel captors had put a rope around his neck, and appeared about to kill him, the intercessions of his wife softened their hearts, and he was saved. Subsequently, in Canada, the old man conversing with the chief observed, that he might say what none of the other Indians could, "that he had brought in the oldest man and the youngest child." The chief's reply was impressive; " It was not I, but the great God, who brought you through; for we were determined to kill you, but were prevented." On the fifty-fourth day of their captivity, the Gilbert family had to encounter the fearful ordeal of the gauntlet. " The prisoners," says the author of the narrative, " were released from the heavy loads they had heretofore been compelled to carry, and were it not for the treatment they expected on theil approaching the Indian towns, and the hardship of separation, their situation would have been tolerable; but the horror of their minds, arising from the dreadful yells of the Indians as they approached the hamlets, is easier conceived than described-for they were no strangers to the customary cruelty exercised upon the captives on entering their towns. The Indians-men, women, and children -collect together, bringing clubs and stones min order to beat them, which they usually do with great severity, by way of revenge for their relations who have been slain. This is performed immediately upon their entering the village where the warriors reside, and cannot be avoided; the blows, however cruel, must be borne without complaint. The prisoners are sorely beaten until their enemies are weary with the cruel sport. Their sufferings were in this case very great; they received several wounds, and two of the women who were on horseback were much bruised by falling from their horses, which were frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took shelter by the side of one of them (a warrior), but upon his observing that she met with some favor upon his account, he sent her away; she then received several violent blows, so that she was almost disabled. The blood trickled from their heads in a stream, their hair being cropped close, and the clothes they had on in rags, made their situation truly piteous. Whilst the Indians were inflicting this revenge upon the captives, the chief came and put a stop to any further cruelty by telling them' it was sufficient,' which they immediately attended to." Soon after this a severer trial awaited them. They were separated from each other. Some were given over to Indians to be adopted, others were hired out by their Indian owners to service in white families, and others were sent down the lake to Montreal. Among the latter was the old patriarch Benjamin Gilbert. But the old man, accustomed to the comforts of civilized life, broken in body and mind from such unexpected calamities, sunk under the complication of woe and hardship. His remains were interred at the foot of an oak near the old fort of Cceur du Lac, on the St. Lawrence, below Ogdensburg. Some of the family met with kind treatment from the hands of British officers at Montreal, who were interested in their story, and exerted themselves to release them from captivity. Sarah Gilbert, the wife of Jesse, becoming a mother, Elizabeth left the service she was engaged in-Jesse having taken a house-that she might give her daughter every necessary attendance. In order to make their situation as comfortable as possible, they took a child to nurse, which added a little to their 494 GARBON COUNTY. income. After this, Elizabeth Gilbert hired herself to iron a day for Adam Scott. While she was at her work, a little girl belonging to the house acquainted her that there were some who wanted to see her, and upon entering the room, she found six of her children. The joy and surprise she felt on this occasion were beyond what we shall attempt to describe. A messenger was sent to inform Jesse and his wife that Joseph Gilbert, Benjamin Peart, Elizabeth his wife, and their young child, and Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert the younger, were with their mother. Among the customs, or indeed common laws, of the Indian tribes, one of the most remarkable and interesting was adoption of prisoners. This right belonged more particularly to the females than to the warriors, and well was it for the prisoners that the election depended rather upon the voice of the mother than on that of the father, as innumerable lives were thus spared whom the warriors would have immolated. When once adopted, if the captives assumed a cheerful aspect, entered into their modes of life, learned their language, and, in brief, acted as if they actually felt themselves adopted, all hardship was removed not incident to Indian modes of life. But, if this change of relation operated as amelioration of condition in the life of the prisoner, it rendered ransom extremely difficult in all cases, and in some instances precluded it altogether. These difficulties were exemplified in a striking manner in the person of Elizabeth Gilbert the younger. This girl. only twelve years of age when captured, was adopted by an Indian family, but afterwards permitted to reside in a white family of the name of Secord, by whom she was treated as a child indeed, and to whom she became so much attached as to call Mrs. Secord by the endearing title of mamma. Her residence, however, in a white family, was a favor granted to the Secords by the Indian parents of Elizabeth, who regarded and claimed her as their child. Mr. Secord having business at Niagara, took Betsy, as she was called, with him; and there, after long separation, she had the happiness to meet with six of her relations, most of whom had been already released and were preparing to set out for Montreal, lingering and yearning for those they seemed destined to leave behind, perhaps for ever. The sight of their beloved little sister roused every energy to effect her release, which desire was generously seconded by John Secord and Colonel Butler, who, soon after her visit to Niagara, sent for the Indian who claimed Elizabeth, and made overtures for her ransom. At first he declared that he "would not sell his own flesh and blood; " but, attacked through his interest, or in other words, his necessities, the negotiation succeeded, and, as we have already seen, her youngest child was among the treasures first restored to the mother at Montreal. Eventually they were all redeemed and collected at Montreal on the 22nd of August, 1782, when they took leave of their kind friends there and returned to Byberry, after a captivity of two years and five months. The premises where stood the dwelling and improvements of the Gilbert family were on the north side of Mahoning creek, on an elevated bank about forty perches from the main road leading from Lehighton and Weissport to Tamaqua, and about four miles from the former. Benjamin Peart lived about half a mile further up the creek, and about one-fourth of a mile from the same, on the south side. 495 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. The subsequent events transpiring within the limits of Carbon county are so intimately connected with its progress and development, that we have alluded to them in the former portion of this sketch. In the war of the Revolution, this portion of the then Northampton county, notwithstanding its frontier exposure, contributed largely to that gallant band of heroes who, under the lead of Washington, gained for us our independence. In the war of 1812 the enthusiasm of the inhabitants was unbounded; and wherever and whenever required, the struggles of their fathers were not forgotten; although they shared no bloodstained battle-field, their services helped to swell the patriot host which mustered for the defence of the - -Delaware and the me.- tropolis of Pennsylva - nia. In the recent civil conflict Carbon county contributed her full share in men and means to put down the rebellion. Many of her sons fell on the field of strife, cement ing by their blood the union of the States. The history of these troops we leave to the faithful / local historian. MAUCH CHUNK, the county seat, is situated on the west bank of the Lehigh river, forty-six miles from its mouth, in what has been called the " Switzerland of Ameri ca." It was first settled S about the year 1815. It MOUNT PISGAH INCLINED PLANE. was then a perfect wil derness, covered with forest-trees and undergrowth, and so completely hemmed in by high and steep mountains, that it was as unlikely a spot as could be selected for a town, while any outlet by means of a wagon road seemed well nigh impossible. The borough is located on a creek of the same name, in a narrow gulch, between three high, steep, and rocky mountains, whose peaks average eight hundred and fifty feet above the town. Mauch Chunk is an Indian name, and means "Bear mountain." One of the peaks, in proximity to the town, is the celebrated Mount Pisgah, over which crosses the far-famed switch-back railroad, annually visited by sight-seers from all parts of the country. Until 1827 the coal was brought from the mines to the river in wagons. To Josiah White is due the honor of this enterprise, which has contributed so largely to the development and prosperity of this locality. By means of stationary engines at the different 496 CARBON COUNTY. planes, the empty cars are hauled up and returned to the mines, and the loaded ones brought as far as Summit Hill, whence they proceed, by gravity, to the shutes at Mauch Chunk. The grade varies from fifty to ninety feet per mile, except in the descent from Summit Hill to Panther Creek valley, when it is two hundred and twenty feet. The same unusual style of locomotion is also adopted for passenger cars, and affords a remarkable degree of amusement and enjoyment to the numerous visitors carried daily over this route. By a tunnel one mile in length, through the Nesquehoning mountain, from the Panther Creek valley, the coal company ships most of its coal to Mauch Chunk, retaining the switch-back road for passenger travel almost exclusively. From the foot of Mount Pisgah a double track has been constructed to its summit, a distance of two thousand three hundred and twenty-two feet, with an elevation of about nine hundred feet above the river, at an angle of twenty degrees. The scene from the top of the plane is really sublime. The view of Mauch Chunk, Upper Mauch Chunk, East Mauch Chunk, nestling beneath the shadows of the mountains, with the Lehigh river winding its way at its base, and alive on either side with the steam-cars and canal boats; the succession THE CASCADE, GLEN ONOKO. of mountain ridges, rising range after range; the distant view of the Lehigh water gap, with occasional glimpses of intervening fields and hamlets, and the far distant view of Schooley's mountain, in New Jersey; this with much more that cannot be described, combine to make this panorama one of almost matchless beauty and grandeur. As a consequence, Mauch Chunk has become a favorite resort. The borough contains handsome church edifices of stone and brick, belonging to the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, and Methodist congregations. The county prison is a fine specimen of architecture, costing over $130,000. The court house is a plain, substantial, and commodious building. The borough is well lighted with gas, while few places enjoy so great and constant supply of pure spring water. Its industries consist principally of two extensive iron foundries and machine shops for the manufacture of stationary engines, pumps, boilers, etc., steam flour and grist mill, car repair shops, shoe AN ILLUS TE TiZD HISTOR Y TI E C'ON' N/lOi )\\VLA l\I Ii It OF PENNSYLVANIA CIVIL, POLITICAL, AND MILITARY, INCLUDING Ilstorical DescriAliolns OF THEIR TOWNS, AND INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. WM. H. BY EGLE, M. D., Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylcania. SOLI) ONY. BY SBS'.( Wll'YV70N. HARRISBURG: & ('(). 1876 IACI t()NTV IN TI II STAT'\I ", 1)1 \\1"ITT C. 48 HISTORY OF PENNSYLYANIA. South of the Province lay the territories or counties on Delaware, stretching one hundred and fifty miles along the bay, to the Atlantic Ocean. The possessor of this country, commanding the entrance and course of the river, would have power to harass the commerce, and in other respects to affect the welfare of the neighboring colony. Penn was desirous, says Gordon, to possess these territories, as well on account of the security they afforded, as of the advantages to be derived from a hardy and laborious population. The Duke of York held them as an appendage to his government, and, though reluctant to cede them, he could not resist the solicitations of the Proprietary. He executed three deeds to Penn in August, 1682. The first, dated the twenty-first, releasing his right to the Province; the others, dated the twenty-fourth, granting the town of New Castle and the land lying within a circle of twelve miles about it; and the tract of land beginning at twelve miles south of New Castle, and extending southward to Cape HIenlopen. For the last tract, Penn covenanted to pay the Duke and his heirs one-half of all the rents and profits received from it. These grants conveyed to the Proprietary a fee-simple estate in the soil, but no political right whatever. Holding in socage as of the Duke's castle at New York, he owed fealty to, and was a subject of that government. Whether he ever obtained from the crown political power over this country is questionable. It is certain that, when the right he assumed became the subject of controversy among the inhabitants of the Province and territories, no grant of this nature was exhibited. These deeds were duly recorded in New York, and, by proclamation of the commander there, twenty-first November, 1682, to the magistrates on the west side of the Delaware, the rights of Penn under them were publicly recognized. Penn having completed all arrangements for his voyage to America, after writing an affectionate letter to his wife and children, and another " to all faithful friends in England," accompanied by about one hundred passengers, mostly friends from Sussex, after a passage of about two months on board the ship Welcome, of three hundred tons burthen, came in sight of the American coast about Egg-Harbor, in New Jersey, on the 24th of October, and reached New Castle on the 27th. On the following day he produced his deeds from the Duke of York, and received possession by the solemn " delivery of turf, and twig, and water, and soyle, of the River Delaware." He was received with demonstrations of gladness by the inhabitants, and at the Court House, at New Castle, says Clarkson, made a speech to the old magistrates, in which he explained to them the design of his coming, the nature and end of government, and of that more particularly which he came to establish. To form some idea of the proportion of the different sorts of people, observes Proud, on the west side of Delaware, about this time, or prior to William Penn's arrival, on the lands granted him, it may be noted, that the Dutch then had a meeting place, for religious worship, at New Castle; the Swpdes, threeone at Christina, one at Tinicum, and one at Wicacoa. The Quakers had three -one at Upland, or Chester, one at Shakamaxon, and one near the lower falls of Delaware. Penn went to Upland, on the 29th of October, 1682. On his arrival there he changed its name. This was a memorable event, says Clarkson, and to be HISTORY OF P ENNS YL VANIA. factories, boat yards, and two wire-rope factories. The machinery for this latter branch of manufacture was first invented in Mauch Chunk. The second ward of the borough, called Upper Mauch Chunk, is situated on the mouitain, about two hundred and fifty feet above the main part of the town. It is a quiet and industrious place, of about one thousand inhabitants, principally Germans, who work in the different car shops and on the railroads. A grave-yard is located on the neighboring height. The grandeur and magnificence of the scenery of Carbon county is not confined to picturesque Mauch Chunk. Two miles above is situated Glen Onoko, greatly admired for its wild beauty. Its course is westerly, and the total ascent over nine hundred feet. It forms the channel for a pure and limpid stream, which fol S lows its eccentric course over innumerable cascades and rapids until it empties into the Lehigh. The finest view in the Glen includes not only the Chameleon Falls but also Onoko Falls and the Cas -l /cade, and this double vista is rich with a diver sity of loveliness not easy to describe. The former are so called from the va ONOKO FALLS, GLEN ONOKO. riety of colors frequently noticeable in the spray and foam. They are fifty feet high. Onoko Falls are the highest in the Glen, and are esteemed the handsomest. Their height is ninety feet. The shelving overhanging rocks on either side are covered with moss and fern, and these, with a tree now and then jutting out from their apparently sterile embrace, form a fitting embellishment to the dashing and sparkling waters which have been for centuries seeking through their fissures an outlet from their mountain source. A view of the Nescopec valley from Prospect rock is grand and imposing. For miles and miles the eye ranges over a succession of fertile valleys interspersed with the primeval forest. The panorama extends as far as the eye can reach. Not far distant is Cloud Point, so named from the fact that it is very frequently shrouded in filmly vapor. Here, too, the view is of equal beauty, and in the language of a celebrated tourist, "there is something indescribably grand in the solitude of this scene-forests of giant trees lifting high their heads, 498 CABRBON COUNTY. through which peer rough visaged rocks, which the hand of time has failed to smooth." All along the Lehigh valley, north of Mauch Chunk, are numberless attractions. Fifty years ago it was almost an unexplored wilderness, but the ingenuity of man has triumphed, and instead of the dangerous defile and the impassable mountain torrent, two railroads thread the way; and the scenic beauties-a succession of valley, precipice, mountain, rock, ravine, snowy cascade, and romantic nook, are open to the artist and the traveller, enrapturing the one and charming the other. Not far from Cloud Point is Glen Thomas, named in honor of David Thomas, the pioneer of the iron trade of the Lehigh. In this shaded dell is the Amber Cascade, so greatly admired by all visitors to this picturesque region. The borough of EAsT MAUCH CHUNK was incorporated in 1853. It is situated on the east side of the Lehigh river, on a level platform of land surrounded by mountains. The streets are wide, and it contains many handsome residences. It has a Catholic, Methodist, and Episcopal church edifices. Most of the trading is carried on with Mauch Chunk, three-quarters of a mile distant. WEISSPORT borough was early settled by Colonel Jacob Weiss, Quartermaster-General of the Revolutionary army. It contains among other industries, an emery wheel manufactory, a foundry, boat yards, sash factory, saw mill, etc. The town is situated on a level sandy plain, along the shore of the Lehigh river, and on the site of old Fort Allen. The famous Franklin well, constructed by the celebrated printer, is in a good state of preservation. Weissport was incorporated as a borough in 1867. LEHIGHTON, directly across the Lehigh river, and from which it takes its name, is an old town, also laid out over a hundred years ago. It is a stirring borough, containing about two thousand inhabitants, having a foundry, pork pack- - ing establishment, lumber and coal yards, grist AMBER CASCADE, GLEN THOMAS. mill, coach factories. The Lutherans, Presbyterians, Catholic, Episcopalians, and Methodists have each a church. The famous Gnadenhiitten burying ground is located here. The " Packerton " Lehigh Valley railroad company's shops are located one and a half miles north of it, and also those of the Lehigh Valley and Lehigh and Susquehanna railroads. Mahoning and East Penn townships are tributary to its trade. This borough has doubled its popu499 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. lation in ten years, and is destined to be the largest town in Carbon county. It was incorporated in 1855. PACKERTON, named in honor of Hon. Asa Packer, the president of the Lehigh Valley railroad, contains the large shops of the Lehigh Valley railroad company, completed in 1863, where nearly five thousand coal and box cars were built during 1875, employing about six hundred men. Here is located the deer park of Judge Packer, seventy-five acres of which are enclosed, containing elk, antelope, deer, etc. Packerton contains a post office, Methodist church, and a large school-house, erec Sted by Mr. Packer, .._ -and presented by - _ -_ _ _ - him to the school -__ - - board of the Pack _ erton independent - school district. Adjoining this is ______a small hamlet __ known as Dolon M burg, containing a population deriv ing their support from Packerton. NESQUEHONING is a small mining village in Mauch Chunk township, on the Nesquehon ing Valley rail road, four and one half miles north west from Mauch Chunk. The inhabitants are miners, as a general thing, old residents of the county, as the place has been very steadily worked for forty years. SUMMIT HILL, in Mauch Chunk township, - is a large town, entirely a mining district of the old Lehigh coal and navigation company. It, with the towns of ASHTON and SANSFORD, . adjoining on the west (the latter place being ...... the east end of the tunnel made a few years CLOUD rOINT... CLOUD POINT. ago by the Lehigh coal and navigation com pany, nearly a mile long), containing repair shops, and the large amount of coal produced from the different mines, make Summit Hill, as the centre, a busy place, with a population of about three thousand hardy, sturdy miners and artisans. This is the end of the famous switch-back railroad, and by it in times past all the product was transported. Since the completion of the tunnel at Sansford, the towns are supplied by that road running from Mauch Chunk to Tamaqua station, 500 CARBON COUNTY. at Sansford. The north end of the tunnel is called Houts, after one of the partners of the original firm of the original coal producing company of 1817, White, Hazard & Houts. Here are located very large works where small coal receives its second cleaning prior to its being shipped to market. WEATHERLY borough, a very busy, thriving town of full one thousand five hundred inhabitants, near the junction of the Mahanoy branch of the Lehigh Valley railroad, is situated on Black creek. It contains large repair shops and locomotive works for the Lehigh Valley railroad. It was incorporated in 1864. BUCK MOUNTAIN, a village at the mines of that name. The Buck Mountain coal company lies in Lausanne township, adjoining the Luzerne county line. ROCK-PoRT is a small town on the Lehigh river. In former days it was the outlet of the coal from the Buck Mountain company's mines to the canal. The canal was washed away in 1862, and since its abandoning is the station of the Lehigh and Sus- - quehanna railroad. There is an extensive flagstone quarry near by. The poor house farm is located in the neighborhood, and is a model in its way. LEHIGH WATER GAP is 10cated where the Lehigh river cuts through the Blue mountains. It is known as the residence of General Craig of revolutionary fame. A small hamlet in a very picturesque place at the junction of the Aquanshicola creek and the Lehigh river. MILL-PORT is situated two miles up Aquanshicola creek. It is a small village, containing a tannery, mill, etc., and gives the people of the village and NESQUENING RIDGE. the township of Lower Towamensing a centre of labor. BEAVER MEADOW, a village located in the east end of Banks township, close to the Beaver Meadow mines, also other large coal works near by and newly building, is the station of the Beaver Meadow branch of the Lehigh Valley railroad. It contains a large shoe manufactory, etc. YORKTOWN is a mining town, in the western end of Carbon county, from which a large amount of coal is shipped by the Lehigh and Susquehanna and Lehigh Valley railroads. JEANSVILLE, a flourishing mining town, lies partly in Luzerne and partly in Carbon counties. It ships large quantities of coal. CENTRE COUNTY. BY JOHN BLAIR LINN, BELLEFONTE. HE act "for creating parts of the counties of Mifflin, Northumberland, Lycoming, and Huntingdon into a separate county, to be called Centre," was approved February 19, 1800. [Dallas' Laws, vol. iv. 541.] The bounds of its territory then commenced on the river, opposite the mouth of Quinn's run (improperly called in present maps "Queen run "); thence running nearly due south to the mouth of Fishing creek (where VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF BELLEFONTE. [From a Photograph by Moore, Bellefonte.] Mill Hall has been built since); thence a course a little south of east, to the old north-east corner of Haines, including Nittany valley; from which point they followed the present boundaries of the county to the Moshannon creek; thence to the mouth of the Moshannon; thence down the river to the place of beginning. The act creating Clinton county (21st June, 1839, P. L., 362) carved from 502 CENTRE COUNTY. Centre the territory now embraced in that part of Chapman and Crugan townships south of the river; all of Beech Creek, Porter, and Logan, and nearly all of Greene, Lamar, and Bald Eagle townships, in the former county. The northern line of the purchase of 1758 ran from a point on Buffalo creek, a few miles west of Mifflinburg, Union county, due west, passing through where Bellefonte now stands, to the east side of the Allegheny hills, where the boundary deflected southerly to the State line at what is now the intersection of the bounds of Bedford and Somerset with the latter. About the half, then, of the present territory of Centre was within the purchase of 1758, and that the more tillable portion. "So cautious, however, were the proprietors at this period, of offending the Indians, by making surveys beyond the line, that the most positive instructions were given the deputy surveyors on this head; and as the line was not run, nor its exact position known, the end of Nittany mountain appears to have been assumed as a station, and a west line from thence presumed to be the purchase line." [Charles Smith, 2 Smith Laws, 122.] Cumberland county had been formed January 27, 1750, including all the western portion of the Province. All the southern half of Centre county therefore was within the bounds of Cumberland until the following changes took place: first, Bedford county was erected March 9. 1771, and that part of Frankstown township, which included the territory forming now the southern portions of Harris, Ferguson, Half-Moon, Taylor, and Rush townships, came within the bounds of Bedford, and remained there until Huntingdon was erected, September 20, 1787; second, Northumberland county was erected March 21, 1772, embracing the present territory of the county north of the Bedford county line; speaking with reference to the lines between Bedford and Northumberland, ascertained in pursuance of the act of 30th of September, 1779. [Dallas' laws, vol. i. page 803.] On the 19th of September, 1789, Mifflin county was formed [Dallas' Laws, vol. ii., 718], including all the southern half of the territory of Centre except the part in Huntingdon county above referred to, and Gregg, Penn, Haines, and Miles townships, as now constituted, which remained in Northumberland. On the 22d of September, 1766, William Maclay made the first survey in Penn's valley, then in Cumberland county, a reservation of the Proprietaries in the name of Henry Montour, eight hundred and twenty acres, called the Manor of Succoth, described as on the head of Penn's creek, above the great Spring and north-west of it. It adjoins the M%tlack survey (where Spring Mills now stands) on the north, in Gregg township, and is called for by all the surrounding surveys. On the 23d and 24th of September, 1766, Mr. Maclay surveyed what is now known as the "Manor," for the Proprietaries, embracing one thousand and thirty five acres in what is now Potter township, described as " near the Indian path leading from the head of Penn's creek to Old Frankstown, where the waters seem to turn to Little Juniata." Its bounds ran south-westerly from the tract on which Potter's Fort tavern stands, eight hundred and fifty-seven perches, or nearly three miles, its width varying from one hundred and fifty-eight perches on the east, to two hundred and fifty-four and a half on the west. The Haines' surveys, run ning from the mouth of Elk creek, along Penn's, and for nearly a mile up Sink ing creek, were made by the same surveyor in September and October, 1766; a few 503 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. others were made for General Potter (now in Gregg township), in 1766. A number of surveys, commencing with the John Chandler, immediately west of Woodward, were made in October, 1766; but the larger portion of the valley surveys do not date beyond 1774. On November 5, 1768, the upper half of the present territory of Centre was secured by purchase at Fort Stanwix from the Indians. It was all within Cumberland until the erection of Northumberland, in 1772. It being within Charles Lukens' district, the oldest surveys were made by Lukens and his deputies, in the summer of 1769. The "officer's surveys," extending from Lock Haven to Howard, were made by Charles Lukens, in March and April, 1769. The Griffith Gibbon, on which Bellefonte now stands, was surveyed July 20, 1769, and the Peter Graybill (on which Milesburg is now built), on the 18th of July, 1769, then known as the " Bald Eagle Nest." The valley surveys, commencing near Stover's, in Brush valley, and running up to Gregg township, were all made by William Maclay, for Colonel Samuel Miles, in 1773. A manuscript journal of Richard Miles probably indicates the surveying party: "April 20, 1773, started for Shamoken, from Radnor, Chester county, in company with James and Enos Miles, Abel Thomas, and John Lewis." They passed up the river by way of Muncy Hill and Great Island; then went up the Bald Eagle, returning by way of the Narrows, down through Buffalo valley. Elk, Penn's, Pine, Sinking, and Bald Eagle creeks had their names as early as 1766 Marsh, Beech, Spring, Fishing, Moshannon creeks, Wallis, Davis, and Buffalo runs have their names in 1769. Scull's map of April 4, 1770, indicates the position of the Eagle's Nest, Great Plains, Big Spring, now Spring Mills, the Indian path from " the Nest," up Buffalo run to Huntingdon. In 1772 the territory was nearly all included in Buffalo and Bald Eagle townships, Northumberland county-Buffalo, extending up to the forks of Penn's creek, thence by a north line to the river, and Bald Eagle beginning at the forks, thence by a north line to the river, thence up the same to the county line, etc. At May sessions, 1774, Potter township was erected out of Penn's, Buffalo, and Bald Eagle, bounded eastward by a line from the top of Jack's mountain, by the four-mile tree in Reuben Haines' road in the Narrows, to the top of Nittany mountain, thence along the top thereof to the end thereof, at Spring creek, on the old path, thence south or south-east to the top of Tussey's mountain, thence along the county line to the top of Jack's mountain, etc. At February sessions, 1790, the name of Potter township was changed to Haines. The southern portion of Centre county was settled by emigrants from Cumberland Ialley as early as 1766, and before that. The settlers of the northern portion came in by way of the Bald Eagle creek in 1768 and 1769. Among the earliest settlers of this northern portion of the county were Andrew Boggs, who built his cabin on the Joseph Poultney, opposite Milesburg, Daniel and Jonas Davis, who settled a little farther down the creek, William Lamb, Richard Malone, etc. Among the Revolutionary soldiers of Centre county were Philip Barnhart. who died April 3, 1843; Lawrence Bathurst; Nicholas Bressler, died in April, 1843; Isaac Broom, wounded at Germantown; John C. Colby, a deserter from the Hessians; Jacob Duck, died in 1836; Peter Fleck, Peter Florey, of Haines 504 CENTRE COUNTY. township; Jacob Fliescher, Ludwig Friedley, John Glantz, John Garrison, of Spring; Henry Herring, William Hinton, of Boggs, who died in 1839, aged ninety-one years; Christopher Keatley, of Potter township; William Kelly, John Kitchen, Daniel Koons, David Lamb, died April 19, 1837, and who was with Arnold at Quebec; Mungo Lindsay, of Col. Miles' regiment; William Mason, of Spring township; John McClean, of Potter; Jacob Miller, of Walker; Henry McEwen, of Potter, who was also at Quebec; Alexander McWilliams; Isaac McCamant, of Ferguson; John F. Ream, Evan Russel, Adam Sunday, Valentine Stober; Nicholas Schnell, of Potter, Nicholas Shanefelt, of Harris; William Taylor; Joseph Vaughn, of Half-Moon; David Wilson, of Bald Eagle; Joseph - -7 __ PENN'S VALLEY, FROM NITTANY MOUNTAIN. [From a Photograph by Moore, Bellefonte.) White, of Boggs; Neal Welsh, of Half-Moon. Robert Young, of Walker, of Lowdon's company at Boston, in August, 1775; also James Dougherty, who was made a prisoner at Quebec, and afterwards served in Washington's Life-Guards until the end of the war. In 1776 Penn's valley was pretty numerously settled, and Potter township, which then embraced that valley, was represented in the county committee of safety by John Livingston, Maurice Davis, and John Hall. A company of associators from it and the Bald Eagle settlement, in March, 1776, was officered as follows: Captain William McElhatton, First Lieutenant Andrew Boggs, Second Lieutenant Thomas Wilson, Ensign John McCormick. A Presbyterian church was organized in East Penn's valley, and a church built at Spring Mills at a very 505 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. early date. The first regular pastor, of whom we have any account, was Rev. James Martin, who commenced his labors there April 15, 1789; he died June 20, 1795, and is buried at Spring Mills. He was the ancestor of the Bell family of Blair county. On the 8th of May, 1778, the Indians killed one man on the Bald Eagle settlement, Simon Vaugh, a private of Captain Bell's company; he was killed at the house of Jonas Davis, who lived a short distance below Andrew Boggs, opposite Milesburg. Robert Moore, the express rider, who took the news, stopped at the house of Jacob Standiford to feed his horse, where he found Standiford dead, who, with his wife and daughter, were killed and scalped, and his son, a lad of ten or eleven years of age, missing. Standiford was killed on what was lately Ephraim Keller's farm, three miles west of Potter's Fort. Henry Dale, father of Captain Christian Dale, who helped bury them, said that Standiford and four of his family were killed. They were buried in a corner of one of the fields on the place, where their graves may still be seen. On the 25th of July, 1778, General Potter writes from Penn's valley, "that the inhabitants of the valley are returned, and were cutting their grain. Yesterday two men of Captain Finley's company, Colonel Brodhead's regiment, went out from this place in the plains a little below my fields, and met a party of Indians, five in number, whom they engaged; one of the soldiers, Thomas Van Doran, was shot dead, the other, Jacob Shedacre, ran about four hundred yards, and was pursued by one of the Indians; they attacked each other with their knives, and one excellent soldier killed his antagonist. His fate was hard, for another Indian came up and shot him. He and the Indian lay within a perch of each other; these two soldiers served with Colonel Morgan in the last campaign." (At Burgoyne's capture.) James Alexander, who in after years farmed the old Fort place, found a rusted hunting knife near the spot of the encounter. Two stones were put up to mark the spot, still standing on William Henning's place, near the fort. In 1792, when Reading Howell published his map, his stations on the main road were Hubler's, Aaronsburg, McCormick's, now Spring Mills, and Potter's. Connelly's is marked in Nittany valley, Malone's opposite the Nest, Antes' below. Miles' in Brush valley, Willy brook (Willy-bank), name of a stream issuing principally from Matlack's spring, and running into Spring creek; the Buffalo Lick, on Buffalo run, on the place now owned by Mrs. Samuel H. Wilson's heirs. Aaronsburg was then the only town in the territory. In the years 1770 or 1771 Reuben Haines, a rich brewer of Philadelphia, who owned the large body of land above referred to, cut a road from the hollow just below the Northumberland bridge, up along the south side of Buffalo valley, through the narrows into Penn's valley. In 1775 a road from the Bald Eagle to Sunbury, along the west side of the Susquehanna, was laid out, and the main road through Buffalo valley was pushed up as far as the Great Plain. The turnpike era commenced March 29, 1819, with the incorporation of the Aaronsburg and Bellefonte turnpike road company and the Youngmanstown and Aaronsburg turnpike road company. Inland navigation, with the incorporation of the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek navigation company, April 14, 1834. Railroads, with the incorporation of the Tyrone and Clearfield railroad company, March 23, 1854, and the Tyrone and Lock Haven, February 21, 1857. 506 CENTRE COUNTY. The development of the iron interest of Centre county commenced with the purchase by Colonel John Patton, of the tract upon which he erected Centre furnace, now in Harris township, and twenty-eight other contiguous tracts from Mr. Wallis, May 8, 1790. He built Centre furnace in the summer of 1792. The next adventurer in that business was General Philip Benner, who bought the Rock Forge place of Mr. Matlack, May 2, 1792, and in 1793 erected his house there, together with forge, slitting, and rolling mill. In 1795 Daniel Turner erected Spring Creek forge, of which nothing remains now but the site, and in 1796 Miles Dunlap & Co. had Harmony forge, on Spring creek, in operation. In 1837 the following iron works were in operation: On Bald Eagle creek: Hannah furnace, owned by George McCulloch and Lyon, Shorb & Co.; Martha furnace, owned by Roland Curtin; a new furnace, owned by Adams, Irwin & Huston. On Moshannon and Clearfield creeks: Cold Stream forge, owned by Mr. - Adams; a forge and extensive screw factory, owned by Hardman Phillips. On Spring and Bald Eagle creeks: Centre furnace and Milesburg forge and rolling mill, owned by Irwin & Huston; Eagle furnace, forge, and rolling mill, owned by Roland Curtin; Logan furnace, forge, rolling mill, and nail factory, owned by Valentine & Thomas; Rock furnace and forge, owned by the heirs of General P. Benner; forge owned by Irwin & Bergstresser. On Fishing creek and Bald Eagle creek: Hecla furnace and Mill Hall furnace and forge, owned by John Mitchell & Co.; Howard furnace, owned by Harris & Co.; Washmington furnace and forge, owned by A. Henderson. Also, in the county: Tussey furnace, owned by Lyon, Shorb & Co., not now in operation; and a furnace owned by Mr. - Friedley. In all, thirteen furnaces, making annually eleven thousand six hundred tons pig metal; ten forges, making four thousand five hundred tons blooms; three rolling mills, manufacturing two thousand three hundred tons into bar iron and nails. AARONSBURG was laid out by Aaron Levy, of the town of Northumberland, on the 4th of October, 1786. The town plan is recorded at Sunbury of that date. Aaron's square, ninety feet in breadth, extending from East street to West street, was reserved for public uses. BELLEFONTE was laid out by Messrs. James Dunlop and James Harris, upon the Griffith Gibbon tract, which they purchased of William Lamb. in 1795: The first members of town council were William Petriken, Roland Curtin, J. G. Lowrie, Thomas Burnside, Andrev Boggs, and Robert McLanahan. It was incorporated March 8, 1806. The first water works were erected in 1808. On the 18th of March, 1814, another act of incorporation was passed, including Smithfield in the borough, and repealing the former one. MILESBURO was laid out by Colonel Samuel Miles, on the Peter Graybill tract, known as the Bald Eagle's Nest, in 1793. The old Indian town stood on the right bank of the creek about a mile below where Spring creek empties into the Bald Eagle. Many applications of 1.769 have reference by distance or otherwise to the Bald Eagle's Nest. The Joseph Poultney, on the opposite bank of the creek, is described " as near the fording, including his improvement, and opposite the Nest." Milesburg was incorporated March 3, 1843. The " Bald Eagle's Nest" was the residence of an Indian chief of that name, 507 GENERAL HISTORY. distinguished by some marked circumstance. He determined, therefore, to change the name of the place. Turning around to his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him in the ship Welcome, he said: " Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I should call this place?" Pearson said, " Chester," in remembrance of the city from whence he came. William Penn replied, that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name. From Chester Penn is said to have proceeded with some of his friends in an open barge, in the earliest days of November, to a place about four miles above the mouth of the Schuylkill, called Coaquannock," where there was a high, bold shore, covered with lofty pines. Here the site of the infant city of Philadelphia had been established, and we may be assured, writes Janney, his approach was hailed with joy by the whole population: the old inhabitants, Swedes and Dutch, eager to catch a glimpse of their future governor; and the Friends, who had gone before him, anxiously awaiting his arrival." Penn immediately after his arrival dispatched two persons to Lord Baltimore, to ask of his health, offer kind neighborhood, and agree upon a time of meeting, the better to establish it. While they were gone on this errand he went to New York to pay his duty to the Duke, in the visit of his government and colony. He returned from New York towards the end of November. To this period belongs the " Great Treaty," which took place at Shakamaxon. It seems to have been a place of resort for the Indians of different nations to consult together and settle their mutual differences, and on this account it was probably selected by Markham, and Penn after him, as the place for holding their successive treaties. Thompson Westcott, whose researches have exceeded perhaps those of any other historian, says there is no evidence that a treaty of peace or of purchase of lands ever was held under the great elm tree at Shakamaxon, in 1682, by William Penn, and yet tradition is very positive upon the subject, and such antiquaries as Watson and Fisher, with the graphic descriptions of earlier writers, have so fully engrafted this pleasing transaction on Pennsylvania history, that we almost hesitate to dispel the illusion. The site of the great --.. OU elm tree is marked by a monument, erected in 1827. It contains the following inscriptions. AND THE 110.. INDIA A1 North side.-Treaty Ground of William eS2 Penn and the Indian Nations. UNWOI FATHI South side.-William Penn, born 1644 died 1718.. East side.-Pennsylvania Founded, 1681, by deeds of Peace. West side.-Placed by the Penn Society, A.D. 1827, to mark the site of the Great PENN TREATY MONUMENT. Elm Tree. If the treaty was not held at the Shakamaxon, Penn undoubtedly met the HISTORY OF PENNYS SYL VANIA. who had built his wigwam there between two white oaks. Bald Eagle was the chief of a Muncy tribe, and commanded the party which made the attack upon a party of soldiers who were protecting some reapers on the Loyal Sock, on the 8th of August, 1778, when James Brady was mortally wounded. He was killed at Brady's Bend on the Allegheny, fifteen miles above Kittanning, by Captain Samuel Brady, in the early part of June, 1779. [Appendix to Pennsylvania Archives, page 131.] It was a place of resort by the Indians even after the Revolutionary war. Shawanee John and Job Chillaway, friendly Indians, made it their rendezvous. The former, who belonged to Captain Lowdon's company, BALD EAGLE'S NEST, FROM BELOW, ON SPRING CREEK. [From a Photograph by Moore, Bellefonte.] which fought in front of Boston, died at the " Nest" many years after the war. All traces of the village have long since disappeared. PHILLIPSBURG was laid out before Centre county was erected. Henry and James Phillips were the proprietors, and the first house was built by John Henry Simler, a Revolutionary soldier, in the year 1797. Simler enlisted in Paris, in 1780, in Captain Claudius de Berts' troop, Colonel Armand's (Marquis de La Rouarie) dragoons, and was at the taking of Cornwallis; he was wounded in the forehead and eye by a sabre. He died in Philadelphia in 1829. William Swansey, Robert Boggs, and Andrew Gregg, the trustees specified in the act of Assembly erecting the county, met at Bellefonte on the 31st of 508 CENTRE COUNTY. July, 1800. A conveyance for one-half of the tract of land on which the town of Bellefonte was laid out, including a moiety of the lots in said town as well as those sold or those not sold, was presented by James Dunlop and James Harris, Esqs., according to their bond given to the Governor. It was agreed that the sale of the lots should be indiscriminate, and the money arising therefrom should be divided equally between the proprietors and trustees; and that on the first Monday of September, the residue of the part undivided in the town should be laid out in lots of two and a half acres each, and sold at public auction. It was also agreed that it would be injurious to the interests of the inhabitants to erect the prison in the public square, and that application should be made to the Legislature to vest the trustees with discretionary power to erect the prison in any other part of the town. On the 1st of September they met again, articled with Colonel Dunlop and Mr. Harris for payment of one half of the proceeds of lots to be sold, and contracted with Hudson Williams to build the prison on such lot as should be designated. It was to be thirty feet long and twenty-five feet wide in the clear. Among other specifications "there shall be an apartment in the cellar for a dungeon; said dungeon shall be twelve feet by nine in the clear, covered above with hewed logs laid close together, under the plank of the floor, and a proper trap door to let into the dungeon." The contract price for the jail was one thousand one hundred and sixty-two dollars. The first court held in Bellefonte was the quarter sessions of November, 1800, before Associate Judges James Potter and John Barber, when, upon motion of Jonathan Walker, Esq., the following attorneys were qualified: Jonathan Walker, Charles Huston, Elias W. Hale, Jonathan Henderson, Robert Allison, Robert F. Stewart, William A. Patterson, John Miles, David Irvine, W. W. Laird, and John W. Hunter. The January sessions, 1801, were also held by Judge Potter and his associates; constables appearing: for Upper Bald Eagle, William Connelly; Lower Bald Eagle, Samuel Carpenter; Centre, John McCalmont; Haines, Philip Frank; Miles, Stephen Bolender; Potter, Thomas Sankey; Patton, Christian Dale. The following persons were recommended for license as inn-keepers: John Matthias Beuck, Aaronsburg; Robert Porter, Franklin; Thomas Wilson, Centre; James Whitehill, Potter; and Philip Callahan, Aaronsburg. The name of Upper Bald Eagle was changed to Spring township, and Ferguson erected, beginning at the line of Bald Eagle and Patton, near Robert Moore's, including his farm, thence through the Barrens, to include Centre furnace and James Jackson, near Half Moon, the line to be continued until it strikes the Huntingdon county line, thence along same and Centre till it strikes Tussey mountain, thence along the mountain to Patton and Potter and part of Bald Eagle, to the place of beginning. The first grand jury was assembled to April sessions, 1801, when the president judge, James Riddle, appeared on the bench for the first time in the county. The names of these jurors were William Swansey, Esq., James Harris, Esq., Philip Benner, Richard Malone, John Ball, David Barr, William Kerr, Esq., Michael Bolinger, Esq., James Whitehill, William Irvine, John Irvin, William Eyerly, Esq., James Newall, Samuel Dunlop, Alexander Read, General John Patton, John M. Beuch, James Reynolds, Michael Weaver, and Felix Chrisman. Additional persons recommended for license: Hugh Gallagher and Benjamin 509 HISTO R Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. Patton, Bellefonte; Jacob Kepler and John Benner, Potter; John Motz and William Lowerwine, of Haines. The first case of notoriety, particularly from the array of counsel concerned, was George McKee vs. Hugh Gallagher, 18th August, term, 1801. McKee kept a tavern in a stone house, on the lot where Thomas Reynolds now resides; Gallagher, in a long frame house, which stood in the lot now occupied by D. G. Bush, Esq. A wagon loaded with whiskey in barrels did not stand over night in front of McKee's, as some one took out the pinnings, and it rushed, like the swine of old, down the declivity into the creek, and the whiskey floated off with its waters. Hinc illw lacrime. The case, however, was slander. Gallagher said George McKee stole Samuel Lamb's saddle bags. The counsel who appeared for McKee were Foulke, Reed, J. Dunlap, S. Duncan, Wallace, T. Duncan, Culloh, Thompson, Miles, McClure, Kidd, Irwin, Allison, and Patterson. For Gallagher appeared Stewart, Walker, Henderson, Rose, Huston, Hastings, Clark, Hall, Laird, Bonham, Gemmill, Burnside, Boggs, Orbison, Cadwalader, Canan, Smith, Carpenter, H. Dunlop, Dean, Hepburn, and Bellas. After exhausting all the tactics known to lawyers in attack and defence, the case was finally marked settled. The first capital case was that of negro Dan, alias Daniel Beyers, who murdered James Barrows, on the night of the 15th of October, 1802, in Spring township. The jury returned with their verdict a valuation of him; "valued him at two hundred and fourteen dollars." He was executed on the 13th of December, 1802, by James Duncan, Esq., then high sheriff. A large crowd, consisting of forge-men and other original characters, had assembled to witness the execution, and a company of horse, under the command of Captain James Potter (General Potter, 2d), was drawn up near the scaffold. With the first swing the rope broke, and negro Dan fell to the ground unhurt; with that the crowd shouted "' Dan is free," and headed by Archy McSwords and McCamant, they made a move to rescue him. Sheriff Duncan, who always carried a lead-loaded riding whip, drew it promptly, and struck McSwords a blow that might have felled an ox. McSwords scratched his head, and said, "Mr. Duncan, as you are a small man, you may pass on," with that Captain Potter's company made a charge, and William Irvin, of the troop, levelled McCamant with a blow of his sword, cutting his cap-rim through Meanwhile William Petriken stepped up to Dan, and patted him on the shoulder, saying, " Dan, you have always been a good boy, go up now and be hung like a man," which he did. The next capital case was that of James Monks, convicted of the murder of Reuben Guild, before Judge Huston, December 1. 1818. He was executed on Saturday, January 23, 1819, by John Mitchell, Esq., high sheriff. For several years prior to 1820, the people of Centre county were kept in constant terror by the operations of a bold band of highwaymen and counterfeiters, among whom were McGuire, Connelly, and David Lewis. Lewis was a son of Lewis Lewis, a former deputy surveyor under Charles Lukens, who removed to Centre county, then Mifflin, in 1793. They operated along the road through the Seven mountains, their last adventure being the robbery of a wagon loaded with store goods belonging to Hammond and Page of Bellefonte. An armed party from Bellefonte tracked them to the house of Samuel Smith, at the 510 CENTR9 COUNTY. 511 junction of Bennett's and Driftwood Branch, where a battle occurred, resulting in the mortal wounding of Connelly, who died July 3, at KARSKADDEN, near the mouth of Bald Eagle, and of David Lewis, who died in the Bellefonte jail, in July, 1820. Twelve miles south-west of Bellefonte, in College township, is located the State College. As originally proposed by the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, and organized under its auspices, it was named the Farmer's High School of Pennsylvania. The act of incorporation is dated April 13, 1854. In 1862 its name was changed to "The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania." In 1867, the institution having then come under the law of Congress of July 2, 1862, was compelled to extend its course of instruction, in order more fully to comply with the educational requirements of that act, which directs that "the leading PENNSYLVANIlA STATE COLLEGE. object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanical arts, in such manner as the Legislature of the State might prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." The scope of the institution being thus greatly extended, thie name was again changed (January, 1874) to " the Pennsylvania State College." In 1863 the Congressional land grant was accepted by the State, and subsequently the scrip for the 780,000 acres of land granted, sold and properly invested as an endowment fund for the State College. Since the year 1872 the annual income from this fund has been $30,000. The college property consists of a tract of four hundred acres, of which one hundred are set apart as a model and experimental farm, and worked separate from the main college farm of three hundred acres, though under the supervision of the professor of agriculture. The main building is a -_ =._. _ _ --M 6: I V--2 .......t I..........AT C..E. -object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanical arts, in such manner as the Legislature of the State might prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." The scope of the institution being thus greatly extended, the name was again changed (January, 1874) to 11the Pennsylvania State College." In 1863 the Congressional land grant was accepted by the State, and subsequently the scrip for the 780,000 acres of land granted, sold and properly invested as an endowment fund for the State College. Since the year 1872 the annual income from this fund has been $30,000. The college property consists of a tract of four hundred acres, of which one hundred are set apart as a model and experimental farm, and worked separate from the main college farm of three hundred acres, though under the supervision of the professor of agriculture. The main building is a HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. plain substantiai. structure of limestone, seated on a pleasant rise of ground, and is two hundred and forty feet in length, eighty feet in average breadth, and full five stories in height, exclusive of the basement, with ample lodging rooms, chapel, library, society halls, laboratories, cabinets, and refectory for three hundred and thirty students, the whole well heated and supplied with water. A large campus for exercise and drill and extensive pleasure grounds adjoin th, buildings. A full college course is pursued, consisting of instruction in agriculture, chemistry, geology, botany, surveying and engineering, telegraphy, physics, language, and literature, combined with military instruction. No charge is made for tuition. The faculty consists of twelve professors, of whom Rev. James Calder, D.D., is president. The State College is at present in. - a flourishing condition. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIps.-The original townships of Centre county were Upper Bald Eagle, Lower Bald Eagle, Centre, Haines, Miles, Patton, Potter, and Warrior Mark. In January, 1801, the name of Upper Bald Eagle was changed to that of Spring township, and at the same session Ferguson was erected, including Centre furnace. January session, 1802, the name of Warrior Mark was changed to that of Half Moon. On the 26th of March, 1804, Clearfield and M'Kean counties were erected and placed under the jurisdiction of the several courts of Centre county. Accordingly at August session, 1804, M'Kean was erected into a township called Ceres, and Clearfield into a separate township called CHINKLACAMOOSE, by the Quarter Sessions of Centre county; and roads laid out in those counties by the Court in 1806. At August sessions, 1807, Bradford and Becaria townships were erected in Clearfield county. At January sessions, 1810, Howard and Walker townships were erected out of Centre township, and the latter name abolished. Howard was called after the great philanthropist Howard, and Walker after Judge Walker, at the request of the inhabitants. At November sessions, 1810, Sergeant township was erected in M'Kean county, and called after Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant. At January sessions, 1813, Sergeant township was divided into Ogden, Walker, Cooper, Burlington, and Shippen. At November sessions. Chinklacamoose, in Clearfield, was divided, and Lawrence and Pike erected. At April sessions, 1814, Rush and Jenner townships were erected out of Half Moon, the former called after Dr. Benjamin Rush, the latter after Dr. Jenner. (On 26th January, 1815, the name Jenner was changed back to Half Moon.) In August of same year Spring township was divided, and one part called Allen, after Captain W. W. Allen, of the sloop Argus; the other Covington, after Leonard Covington, who fell at Williamsburg. At April session, 1815, Allen was changed to Boggs, after the late Robert Boggs, and Covington back to Spring. In April, 1817, Gibson was erected out of Lawrence, in Clearfield, and called after Colonel George Gibson. In August Bald Eagle was divided, and the part adjoining Walker called " Lamar, after Major Lamar, who fell at the surprise at Paoli, in the midst of the British on the retreat. His last words were,' Halt, boys, give these assassins one fire.' He was instantly cut down by the enemy. Shall he not be remembered by a grateful country? He shall. In honor of this 512 CENTRE COUNI Y. martyr in the cause of his country, we name the within township, Lamar. N. B The above order of Major Lamar was distinctly heard by Colonel Benjamin Burd." Signed by Jonathan Walker and James Potter. Major Marien Lamar commanded a company in Colonel Philip de Haas' battalion in the campaign of 1776, in Canada; was promoted Major of the Fourth Pennsylvania Line, and killed at Paoli, September 20, 1777. On the 27th of March, 1819, that part of the township of Bald Eagle beginning at the river opposite the mouth of Quinn's run, thence along the division line of the counties of Centre and Lycoming, one mile, thence by a direct line to the mouth of Sinnemahoning creek, was annexed to Lycoming, and attached to Dunstable and Chapman townships. L/ GAP NORTH OF BELLEFONTE. [From a Photograph by Moore, Bellefonte.j April, 1819, Logan appears among the list of townships. No record of its formation can be found. January 25, 1821, Sinnemahoning township erected in Clearfield county. Gregg township was erected November 29, 1826, and called for Hon. Andrew Gregg; Harris out of Potter, Ferguson, and Spring, April 27, 1835, and called after the late James Harris. Huston appears among the list of towns"ips in April, 1839; no record of its erection can be found. Snow Shoe was erected out of Boggs, January 31, 1840. Marion, August 26, 1840, out of Walker. Penn appears among the list of townships in April, 1845; Liberty was erected August 28, 1845; Taylor, January 27, 1847, out of Half-Moon; Worth, January 27, 1848, out of Taylor; Union November 25, 1850, out of Boggs; Burnside in April, 1857, and Curtin, November 25, 1857. OFFICIALS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790, UNTIL JANUARY 1, 1839. President Judges.-James Riddle (Centre being annexed to the Fourth 2H 513 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. District of which he was then, 1800, President Judge); Jonathan Walker, commissioned March 1, 1806; Charles Huston, commissioned July 1, 1818; Thomas Burnside, commissioned April 20, 1826. Associate Judges.-James Potter, commissioned October 20, 1800, died 1818; John Barber, commissioned October 22, 1800; Adam Harper, commissioned December 1, 1800, died November, 1827; Robert Boggs, commissioned December 2, 1800; Isaac McKinney, commissioned January 8, 1819; Jacob Kryder, commissioned December 10, 1827. Deputy Attorney-Generals.-Thomas Burnside, January 12, 1809; William W. Potter; Gratz Etting, July 17, 1819; James M. Petriken; Ephraim Banks; James MacManus, February 28, 1833. Prothonotaries.-Richard Miles, October 22, 1800; John G. Lowrey, May 10, 1809; John Rankin, February 2, 1818; John G. Lowrey, February 8, 1821; John Rankin, January 22, 1824; William L. Smith, March 3, 1830; James Gilleland, March 23, 1831; George Buchanan, January 12, 1836. Registers and Recorders.-Richard Miles, October 22, 1800; William Petriken, May 10, 1809, re-commissioned February 2, 1818; Franklin B. Smith, February 8, 1821; William Pettit, January 22, 1824; William C. Welch, January 12, 1836. Sheriffs.-James Duncan, October 28, 1800; William Rankin, October 25, 1803; Roland Curtin, November 14, 1806; Michael Bolinger, November 11, 1809; John Rankin, November 6, 1812; William Alexander, December 1, 1815; John Mitchell, October 23, 1818; Joseph Butler, October 22, 1821; Thomas Harkness, Jr., November 17, 1824; Robert Tate, December 19, 1827; William Ward, October 22, 1830; George Leidy, October 31, 1833; William Ward, October 29, 1836. Commissioned Deputy Surveyors of Districts of which its Territory formed part.-John Canan, September 20, 1791; James Hiarris, October 19, 1791; Frederick Evans, November 9, 1791; Joseph J. Wallis, January 18, 1792; Daniel Smith, August 10, 1795. William Kerr, May 11, 1815; Joseph B. Shugert, June 4, 1826. First Justices of the Peace.-Bald Eagle (Lower)-Matthew Allison, October 22, 1800. Bald Eagle (Upper)-William Petriken, October 22, 1800. CENTRE.-William McEwen, October 22, 1800; William Swansey, October 22, 1800; Thomas McCalmont, October 22, 1800. HAINEs.-Michael Bolinger, October 22, 1800; James Cook, October 22, 1800; Adam Harper, October 22, 1800; John Matthias Beuck, December 6, 1800. PATTON.-Thomas Ferguson, October 22, 1800; David Killgore, June 5, 1801; ('-trles P. Trezizulny, June 5, 1801. POTTER.-William Kerr, October 22, 1800; William Early, December 1, 1800. The first County Commissioners were John Hall, David Barr, and Matthew Allison; Commissioners' Clerk, William Kerr. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICEs.-The space accorded Centre county will only admit of some notice of the early prominent characters of the county, leaving to the county annalist the names of Charles Huston, Thomas Burnside, W. W. Potter, Bond Valentine, John Blanchard, H. N. M'Allister, and others, ornaments of the bench and bar. General PHILIP BENNER was born in Chester county. His father was an active 514 CENTRE COUNTY. Whig of the Revolution, was taken prisoner by the British, and imprisoned. Philip, then a youth, took up arms under General Wayne, his relative and neighbor. When he went forth to the field, his patriotic mother quilted in the back of his vest several guineas, as a provision in case he should be taken prisoner by the enemy. After the war he became a successful manufacturer of iron, at Coventry forge, in Chester county. He removed to Centre county in 1792. At that early day the supply of provisions for the works had to be transported from a distance, over roads that would now be deemed almost impassable, and a market for his iron was to be found alone on the Atlantic seaboard. He succeeded, and enjoyed for several years, without competition, the trade in what was termed by him the "Juniata iron," for the Western country-a trade now of immense importance. He held the rank of major-general in the militia of the State, and was twice an elector of President of the United States. He was a Democrat throughout his life. The borough of Bellefonte bears testimony to his enterprise and liberality. He adorned it by the erection of a number of dwellinghouses, and aided in the construction of works to give it advantages which nature denied. He established the Centre Democrat, in 1827. General Benner died at his residence, in Spring township, July 27, 1832, aged seventy. He was remarkable for his industry, enterprise, generosity, and open-hearted hospitality. ANDREW GREGG was among the early settlers in Penn's valley. He was born on 10th June, 1755, at Carlisle. He acquired a classical education at several of the best schools of that day, and was engaged for some years as a tutor in the University of Pennsylvania. In the year 1783, Mr. Gregg, having saved a few hundred dollars from his salary as a teacher, changed his employment, and commenced business as a storekeeper in Middletown, Dauphin county. In 1787 he married a daughter of Gen. Potter, then living near the West Branch, in Northumberland county; and at the earnest request of his father-in-law, in 1789, moved with his family to Penn's valley, where he settled down in the woods, and commenced the business of farming, about two miles from Potter's Old Fort. On the place he first settled, he continued improving his farm from year to year, pursuing with great industry the business of a country farmer. There all his children were born, and some married, and there he resided until the year 1814, when he removed to Bellefonte, having some years before purchased property in that neighborhood. In 1790 Mr. Gregg was elected a member of Congress, and by seven successive elections, for several districts, as they were arranged from time to time, including one by a general vote or ticket over the whole State-was continued a member of that body for sixteen successive years-and during the session of 1806-7, was chosen a member of the Senate of the United States. At the expiration of this term, on the 4th of March, 1813, he returned to private life, attending to the education of his children and the improvement of his farms, until December, 1820, when he was called by Governor Hiester to the position of Secretary of the Commonwealth. In 1823 he was the nominee of the Federal party for Governor, in opposition to John Andrew Shuize. He died at Bellefonte, May 20, 1833. MARTHA WALKER COOK, the authoress and poetess, was born in Bellefonte, in the year 1807, daughter of Judge Jonathan Walker, and sister of Hon. Robert J. Walker She was married to General William Cook, of New Jersey, January 1, 515 5HISTORY OF PETNS YL VANYIA. 1825, and died at Washington, D. C., September 15, 1874. Mrs. Cook edited and conducted the Continental Monthly magazine, translated the life of Chapin from the original of Liszt, etc. She was the mother of E. B. Cook, author of works on Chess. Colonel JOHN PATTON, who built the first iron works in the territory of Centre county, was a major in Colonel Samuel Miles' rifle regiment, appointed March 13, 1776. He participated in the battle of Long Island, was appointed October 25, 1776, major of Ninth Pennsylvania regiment, and after the organization of the Pennsylvania Line in 1777, commanded one of the additional regiments. He and his old friend Colonel Miles became associated in the iron business in Centre county, and together owned vast tracts of land extending from near Rock Forge up to Centre Furnace. He died in 1802, and is buried in a grave yard on SlabCabin branch of Spring creek. Major-General JAMES POTTER died in the fall of 1789. He was assisting in building the chimney of one of his tenant houses, and in turning suddenly, injured himself internally. He went to Franklin county to have the advantage of Dr. McClelland's advice, and died at his daughter's, Mrs. Poe's, a few miles west of the present station of Marion on the Cumberland Valley railroad. He is buried, it is said, in an old grave yard at Brown's Mills, not far from Marion. He was a son of John Potter, the first sheriffof Cumberland county, and was a lieutenant, in 1758, in Colonel Armstrong's battalion; and next appears, July 26, 1764, in command of a company in pursuit of the Indians who had murdered a school master near Greencastle. His brother Thomas was killed by the Indians in one their inroads into Cumberland county. He was a large land-holder in Penn's Valley, owning, in 1782, nine thousand acres, and spent the principal part of his time, whlen he was at home from the army, there; but his residence was on the Ard farm, still in the ownership of his descendants in White Deer township, Union county, a mile or so above the town of New Columbia. He is assessed there with negroes, servants, etc., as late as 1788. Timothy Pickering, in his Journal, speaks of visiting him there. Andrew Gregg was there married to his daughter, January 29, 1787. His services during the Revolution are beyond the limits of any notice here. He erected a stockade fort on the Odenkirk place, a little south of where the Old Fort Tavern now stands, at the junction of the Mifflinburg, Bellefonte, and Lewistown roads. In personal appearance he was short and stout, and the native force of his intellect overcame in war and civil business the obstacles of a limited education. He always had a hopeful disposition which no troubles could unjoint. In a letter, dated May 28, 1781, he says: " Look where you will, our unfortunate country is disturbed, but the time will come when we shall get rid of all these troubles." He was appointed Brigadier-General April 5, 1777; Major-General May 23, 1782. He was Vice-President of the State in 1781, member of the Council of Censors in 1784, and on one occasion came within one vote of being made President of the State. SAMUEL PORTER, of Lamar township, died in January, 1825, aged 79. He served three years in the Revolutionary war, was with the Pennsylvania detachment of riflemen under Colonel Morgan, at the capture of Burgoyne, and also served through Sullivan's campaign. He participated in twenty-two engagements or skirmishes. He was a highly respected citizen. Four children survived him. 516 CHESTER COUNTY. BY J. SMITH FUTHEY AND GILBERT COPE, WEST CHESTER. HESTER COUNTY is one of the three original counties established by William Penn in 1682, and originally included Delaware county and all the territory (except a small portion of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties) southwest of the Schuylkill, to the extreme limits of the Province. It was the first of the three counties organized, at what precise date is not known, but it was within two months after the arrival of Penn. CHESTER COUNTY COURT HOUSE. (From a Photograph by T. W. Taylor.) The landing place of the Proprietary was at Upland (now Chester), and he resolved-it would seem without much reflection-that its name should be changed. Clarkson, in his life of Penn, says that "turning round to his friend, 517 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. representatives of the Indian tribes at other localities, for the aborigines themselves alluded to the treaty of amity and peace held with the great and good Onas, on all public occasions-and true it is that for a period of forty, if not fifty years, it was not broken, and the Land of Penn was preserved during all that time from the reeking scalping-knife and the deadly tomahawk. INI; William Penn, on the fourth of December following, oonvened a General Assembly at Chester, of which Nicholas Moore, president of the Society of Free Traders, was chosen Speaker. During a session of four days this Assembly 3nacted three laws: 1. An act for the union of the Province and Territories; 2. An act of naturalization; and 3. The great law, or code of laws, consisting of sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon in England and several others afterwards suggested. HISTORY OF PENNSYLYAYNIA. Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him in the ship Welcome, he said, Providence has brought us safe here. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I should call this place? Pearson said,' Chester,' in remembrance of the city from whence he came. Penn replied that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name." The western boundary of Chester county was established by the erection of Lancaster county in 1729, and the northern and northwestern, by the erection of Berks county in 1752. Philadelphia county formed the northeastern and eastern boundary, until the establishment of Montgomery in 1784. The town of Chester, although located at the extreme southeastern border, continued to be the seat of justice for more than a century, but as the settlements extended into the northern and western parts of the county, a sense of its inconvenience to the great majority of those having business to transact at the county seat, at length induced a vigorous effort for its removal to a more central location. That effort was strenuously resisted by the inhabitants of the town of Chester, especially by that class who derived their chief sustenance from the gleanings incident to a county seat, and a controversy was maintained with varying success, and much acrimony, for several years. At length the removalists were successful, and an act of Assembly was passed in 1784, authorizing the sale of the old county buildings at Chester, and the erection of new ones at a point to be selected by commissioners named in the act. These commissioners fixed upon a central point, near the " Turk's Head Tavern," at the intersection of the great road leading from Wilmington to Reading, and the road leading from Philadelphia to Strasburg, in Lancaster county, and erected the necessary buildings, and the court records and prisoners were removed thither in 1786. In 1788 the new seat of justice was incorporated into a borough, and styled " West Chester," obviously because of its location some sixteen miles northwest from the former county seat at Chester. The people of the old town of Chester, finding themselves deprived of the advantages of having the county seat, soon took measures to procure a division of the county, with a view to the re-establishment of a seat of justice in their midst. In this they were successful, and by an act of Assembly, passed on the 26th of September, 1789, the county was divided, and a new one formed from the southeastern portion, under the name of Delaware. This new county embraced all the old and originally settled parts of the county, with Chester as the county seat. It may be questioned whether any advantage has resulted from the sundering of the noble old bailiwick. The act of Assembly erecting the new county provided that the line of division should be so run as not to divide plantations. The commissioners, John Sellers, Thomas Tucker, and Charles Dilworth, acceded to the wishes of the land-owners, as to which of the counties they desired their farms to be in, and ran the line accordingly. The result was an exceedingly crooked line, there being in one part of it no less than forty courses, and a line twentyeight miles long, in a direct distance of seven miles. Chester county, as reduced by the erection of the new county, is about thirty-six miles from north 518 VIEW OF THIE GREAT OR CHESTER VALLEY. HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. to south, and twenty-one miles from east to west, and contains about seven nundred and sixty square miles. The county embraces every variety of soil and surface. The northern part is rugged; the Welsh mountain, a sandstone chain of considerable elevation, belonging to the lower secondary formation, forms the north-western boundary. A wide belt of red shale and sandstone, and a considerable area of gneiss rock, lies to the south of the mountain, and to this succeeds the North Valley hill. The " Great Valley," or Chester Valley, as it is now generally called, of primitive limestone, forms a most distinguishing feature of the county, and constitutes one of its greatest sources of wealth. This valley, which is generally from two to three miles wide, crosses the county a little north of the centre, in a south-east and north-west direction. It is shut in on both sides by parallel hills of moderate elevation, generally densely wooded, and from either of these the whole width of the valley may be comprehended at one glance, presenting, with its white cottages and smiling villages, one of the most lovely scenes in the United States. Its numerous quarries furnish great abundance of lime, to fertilize the less favored townships of the county. It received its name of" Great" in the earlier days of the Province, when the greater limestone valleys of the Cumberland and Kittatinny, and those among the mountains, were yet unknown. Compared with these, it is rather diminutive. This valley yields marble of all shades, from black and dark blue to nearly pure white, one of the most extensive deposits of which is at Oakland, between the Pennsylvania and Chester valley railroads, now owned by Dr. George Thomas. It was from this quarry that the marble for building Girard College was, in a great measure, procured. The Corinthian capitals and other sculptured work are constructed from it. The stone stands the exposure of years without the least appearance of disintegration, and retains its color without stain or blemish. In these respects it differs from the greater part of the marble found in this country. An analysis of it shows no talc, and but little earthy matter; that it is composed of nearly pure carbonate of lime, and with considerable silex, and although hard to work, it finishes smoothly. These characteristics render it valuable for monumental purposes. To the south of the Chester Valley lies an extensive primitive formation of gneiss and mica slate, covering the greater portion of the southern section of the county, and forming a gently undulating country, with occasionally a few abrupt elevations. In this formation there occur frequent beds of serpentine, hornblende, trap-dykes, and deposits of pure feldspar. Limestone is found in various parts of the county besides the Chester valley, particularly along the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad, and an extensive trade in the article is carried on. In former times, when wood was abundant, the farmers, generally, had large kilns on their farms, and hauled the stone from the quarries and burned it themselves, but this practice has for many years been almost wholly abandoned, and the business of lime-burning is now carried on by the proprietors of the quarries. The State of Delaware is largely supplied with lime from the quarries of Chester county. In the south-western part of the county, the mineral known as " chrome" is extensively found, both in the rock and sand, and is dug and shipped to Europe, where it commands a high price. For many years this trade was under 520 CHESTER COUNTY. the almost exclusive control of Isaac Tyson, of Baltimore, who procured from the farmers the right to dig and remove the minerals found on their plantations. He amassed a fortune from this trade. The soil is generally very sterile where this mineral appears, and almost valueless for agricultural purposes. Plumbago or graphite, of a superior quality, and in apparently inexhaustible quantities, is found in Upper Uwchlan and adjoining townships, near the line of the Pickering Valley railroad. Works have been recently erected with the view of turning it to account, and the prospect of a large annual production is flattering. In Charlestown and Schuylkill townships are deposits of lead and copper. The existence of these minerals in this locality has long been known. As early as 1683, mining was done by Charles Pickering and Samuel Buckley, and the productions used in the manufacture of coin. In that year these men were tried before William Penn, for debasing the coin, and convicted. It was not, however, until about 1850, that mines were regularly opened. Before that time the operations were confined chiefly to the surface. Since 1850 considerable quantities of lead have been taken out, chiefly by Charles M. Wheatley. The mines opened by him are now owned by the New York and Boston silver-lead mining company. Copper is found, but not in sufficient quantities to render its production profitable. The greater portion of the serpentine or green stone, now so popular in Philadelphia as a building material for the outer walls of houses and which has been used in the construction of the University of Pennsylvania and many churches and other buildings, comes from this county. An extensive quarry is situated in Birmingham township, about four miles south of West Chester, from which large quantities are shipped to Philadelphia and other points. It is owned by Joseph H. Brinton. Fine building stone is to be found in every part of the county, and it is extensively used in the erection of buildings. Frame houses are very rare. In New Garden township is a hill several miles in length, bearing the Indian name of Toughkenamon, signifying Fire-brand Hill-which contains inexhaustible quantities of stone. Considerable deposits of clay formed from the decomposition of feldspar, and known in the market as " kaolin," are found in New Garden, Pennsbury, and other townships, and used in the manufacture of china-ware, porcelain, and fire-brick. In Newlin township is an extensive deposit of the rare and valuable mineral known as " corundum," where large operations are carried on. In the vicinity of Coatesville is an excellent quality of sand. which is shipped to Pittsburgh, and used in the manufacture of glass. Valuable deposits of iron ore are found in almost every section of the county, but especially in the northern hills and in the Chester valley, and its preparation for the market is a source of large profit to the owners. There are extensive iron works in different parts of the county, but especially at Phcenixville and Coatesville. The Phoenix Iron company is one of the largest establishments in the United States. It is engaged, among other things, in the manufacture of railroad iron and in the construction of bridges, and gives employment, when in full operation, to about fifteen hundred men. During the war the celebrated Griffen wrought iron cannon were manufactured by this company, and about twelve hundred of them were supplied. The new Girard Avenue bridge in Philadelphia was erected by it, as well as bridges in various 521 FRATRICIDE OF WVYOMING. CHESTER COUNTY. parts of this country and of Canada. At Coatesville, Parkesburg, and Thorndale, on the line of the Pennsylvania railroad, are a number of large rolling mills, owned by Charles E. Pennock & Co., Huston & Penrose, Hugh E. Steele, Horace A. Beale, William L. B.iley, and others, which do an extensive business in the manufacture of boiler plate. At Spring City, on the Schuylkill river, is a large manufactory of stoves and hollow ware. At West Chester, spokes and wheels are extensively manufactured. Woolen and cotton factories, paper mills, and flour and saw mills, are numerous on the various streams which flow through the county. These streams furnish excellent water power, which is extensively utilized. Agriculture is the great business of the county, and a more intelligent, industrious, thrifty, and orderly set of farmers are not to be found in the State. They are largely the lineal descendants of the early Welsh, English, and ScotchIrish pioneers, who came over in the time of the Proprietaries, and of the Germans, who came in at a somewhat later date. In former years stock grazing and feeding was extensively engaged in, but latterly this branch of business has fallen off very much, owing to the high price of stock-cattle compared with their value when fatted for the market, and the farmers are now turning their attention largely to the business of dairying and furnishing supplies for the Philadelphia market. Large quantities of milk and butter are transmitted on the various railroads leading to that city. The farm buildings are generally of a very superior character, and indicate the thrift and intelligence of the people. The old system of what are called worm fences is gradually giving way to fences made of posts and rails; stone is used for fencing to a very limited extent. What is known as the Eastern Experimental Farm is situated in Londongrove township, in the southern part of the county, near the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad, and contains about one hundred acres. It is now under the care and superintendence of John I. Carter, a gentleman in every way suited to the position. The experiments carried on at this farm have already been of great benefit to the farming community, and its means of usefulness will increase as its operations become more extensive. A club is maintained at the farm, at which a large number of intelligent farmers meet monthly, to read essays and discuss matters pertaining to the business of agriculture. The farmers of Chester county are a reading people, and scarcely a house will be found, however humble, to which the daily newspaper and the monthly magazine do not find their way. Their tables will vie with those of the inhabitants of the towns in the elegance of their appointments, and the grace and dignity with which they are presided over. There are a number of extensive nurseries and greenhouses in the county, the productions of which are forwarded to various parts of the country; notably among these are the establishments of Hoopes, Brother & Thomas, Otto & Acheles, and Joseph Kift, of West Chester, and of Dingee & Conard, of West Grove. The growing of evergreens with Hoopes, Brother & Thomas, and of roses with Dingee & Conard, are specialties. The surface of the county is almost wholly susceptible of cultivation. There is scarcely any broken land. Each farm has usually a proportion of woodland sufficient for the uses of the farm-generally about eight acres in the hundred. 523 BISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. The principal streams are the Octorara, Brandywine, Elk, White Clay, Red Clay, Chester, Pocopson, Ridley, and Crum creeks, flowing southwardly, and the Pickering, Valley, French and Pidgeon creeks, tributaries of the Schuylkill. There are a large number of other smaller streams, and the county is remarkably well watered. Nearly all the farms have running water on them, many of them in every field. The Octorara creek forms the western boundary of the county, and the Schuylkill river skirts it on the east. The Brandywine, at its upper end, is composed of two branches, called the east and west branches. The Pennsylvania railroad crosses the east branch at Downingtown, and the west branch at Coatesville. They unite at a point nearly west of West Chester. The Brandywine has been generally supposed to have derived its name in consequence of the reported loss of a vessel in its waters, laden with brandy-in the Dutch language, brand-wijn. This, however, is shown by recent investigation to be a mistake. It most probably derived its name from one Andrew Braindwine, who, at an early day, owned lands near its mouth. It was very common in the olden time, in the lower counties-now the State of Delaware-to name streams after the dwellers upon their banks. This creek is shown by the old records to have been known as the Fish-kill, until the grant of land to Andrew Braindwine; immediately after which it is referred to, on the records, as Braindwine's kill or creek, and the name was eventually corrupted into its present form of Brandywine. The Indian name of the Brandywine is not certainly known. It is spoken of by tradition, both as Suspecough and Wawassan. Octorara and Pocopson are of Indian origin, the latter signifying rapid or brawling stream. Excellent public roads cross the county in every direction. These are usually sold out by the supervisors to the lowest bidder, to be kept in repair for a term of years, the farmers in the vicinity being generally the purchasers. There are also a number of turnpike roads, the principal of which are the Philadelphia and Lancaster, West Chester and Wilmington, and Downingtown, Ephrata, and Harrisburg. The Schuylkill canal traverses the eastern part of the county, near the Schuylkill river. The county is well supplied with railroad facilities, almost every part being within convenient reach of this mode of travel. The Pennsylvania railroad passes across the centre of the county from east to west, and the Reading and Wilmington railroad from north to south, while the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad traverses the entire southern part of it. The West Chester and Philadelphia railroad connects West Chester with Philadelphia, and the West Chester, with the Pennsylvania railroad, at Malvern station, near Paoli. The Pennsylvania and Delaware railway runs from the Pennsylvania railroad at Pomeroy station to Delaware City; the East Brandywine and Waynes, burg railroad, from Downingtown to Waynesburg; the Chester Valley, from Downingtown to Norristown, and the Pickering Valley, from Uwchlan to Phoenixville. The Wilmington and Western connects Wilmington with the Pennsylvania and Delaware railway at Landenberg; the Reading railroad passes along the eastern boundary of the county, and the Perkiomen railroad connects with the Reading railroad, between Phoenixville and Valley Forge. The Peach Bottom railroad-a narrow gauge-is in process of construction from Oxford to York, several miles of which, from Oxford, westward, have been constructed, 524 CHESTER COUNTY. and are in operation. These thirteen railroads have about two hundred miles of track within the limits of the county. The territory now included in Chester county was honorably purchased of the Indians by William Penn, and was conveyed in several distinct deeds. The first, bearing date June 25, 1683, and signed by an Indian called Wingebone, conveys to William Penn all his lands on the west side of Schuylkill, beginning at the first falls, and extending along and back from that river, in the language of the instrument, " so far as my right goeth." By another deed of July 14th, 1683, two chiefs granted to the Proprietary the land lying between the Chester and Schuylkill rivers. From Kikitapan he purchased half the land between the Susquobanna and Delaware, in September, and from Malchaloa, all lands from the Delaware to Chesapeake bay, up to the falls of the Susquehanna, in October. And by a deed of July 30th was conveyed the land between Chester and Pennypack creeks. Another conveyance was made on the 2d of October, 1685, for the greater portion of the lands constituting the present county of Chester. This last instrument is a quaint piece of conveyancing, and will show the value attached by the natives to their lands: " This indenture witnesseth that we, Packenah, Jackham, Sikals, Portquesott, Jervis, Essepenaick, Felktrug, Porvey, Indian kings, sachemakers, right owners of all lands from Quing Quingus, called Duck cr., unto Upland, called Chester cr., all along the west side of Delaware river, and so between the said creeks backwards as far as a man can ride in two days with a horse, for and in consideration of these following goods to us in hand paid, and secured to be paid by William Penn, Proprietary of Pennsylvania and the territories thereof, viz.: 20 guns, 20 fathoms match coat, 20 fathoms stroud water, 20 blankets, 20 kettles, 20 pounds powder, 100 bars of lead, 40 tomahawks, 100 knives, 40 pair of stockings, 1 barrel of beer, 20 pounds of red lead, 100 fathoms of wampum, 30 glass bottles, 30 pewter spoons, 100 awl blades, 300 tobacco pipes, 100 hands tobacco, 20 tobacco tongs, 20 steels, 300 flints, 30 pair of scissors, 30 combs, 60 looking glasses, 200 needles, 1 skipple of salt, 30 pounds of sugar, 5 gallons of molasses, 20 tobacco boxes, 100 jews-harps, 20 hoes, 30 gimlets, 30 wooden screw boxes, 103 strings of beeds-do hereby acknowledge, &c. &c. Given under our hands and seals, at New Castle, 2d of the 8th month, 1685." The title of the particular Indian chiefs to the lands claimed by them was not always very clear, but it was the policy of the Proprietary government to quiet all claims which might be made, by purchasing them. Accordingly, purchases were made from time to time, of claims made by chiefs, which they alleged had not been extinguished. The Indians, after the sale of their lands, continued to occupy them until needed by the settlers, and gradually abandoned them as the whites advanced and took possession. They were an amiable race, and when they left the burial places of their fathers, in search of new homes, it was without a stain upon their honor. Considerable numbers, however, remained in the county, inhabiting the woods and unoccupied places, until the breaking out of the French and English war in 1755; about which time they generally removed beyond the limits of the county, and took up their abode in the valleys of the Wyoming and Wyalusing, on the Susquehanna. At the making of the treaty of St. Mary's, in 1720, there 525 HISTOB Y OF PEYNSYL VANIA. were present some chiefs of the Nanticokes, one of whom, who had withstood the storms of ninety winters, told the commissioners that he and his people had once roamed through their own domains along the Brandywine. At the close of the Revolutionary war, the number of Indians resident in the county was reduced to four, who dwelt in some wigwams in Marlborough township. After the death of three of them, the remaining one, known as Indian Hannah, took up her abode in a wigwam near the Brandywine, on lands of Humphrey Marshall, or as she considered it, on her own lands. During the summer she traveled through different parts of the county, visiting those who would receive her with kindness, and selling her baskets. As she grew old she quitted her wigwam and dwelt in friendly families. Though a long time domesticated with the whites, she retained her Indian character to the last. She had a proud and haughty spirit, hated the blacks, and did not even deign to associate with the lower order of the whites. Without a companion of her race-without kindred-she felt her situation desolate, and often spoke of the wrongs and misfortunes of her people. She died in the year 1803, at the age of nearly one hundred years-the last of the Lenni Lenape resident in Chester county. The early settlers of the county were of various nationalities. The Swedes, who came first, established themselves along the banks of the Delaware and Schuylkill. The Welsh-who settled in considerable numbers-occupied the eastern townships, and extended up the Great Valley and into the northern and north-western parts of the county. The English-principally of the Society of Friends-settled all the central portion of the county, and extended into the south and south-west, some of them taking up lands bordering upon the Maryland line. The Scotch-Irish gradually spread over the whole of the western part of the county, from the Maryland line to the Welsh mountain, while the Dutch and Germans filled up the north-eastern townships. It is a singular fact that the white races in Pennsylvania are remarkably unmixed, and retain their original character beyond that of any State in the Union. These distinctly marked races are the English, Scotch-Irish, and German. Emigrants from other countries contributed to swell the population, but their numbers were small compared with the races just mentioned, and their peculiar characteristics, through admixture with the people of other nationalities, and the mellowing influence of time, are scarcely recognizable. These different peoples have impressed their peculiar characteristics upon the portion of Chester county in which they settled. While to the eye of the stranger this may not be apparent, yet to one long resident in the county, and familiar with its inhabitants, the difference is quite perceptible. Throughout all the eastern, central, and a portion of the southern part of the county, the plain language of the Society of Friends is still largely used, their meeting houses are numerous, and the descendants of the early settlers have inherited their simple manners and style of living. The western part of the county is largely peopled by the descendants of the Scotch-Irish settlers, and the peculiarly energetic, positive, enterprising, and intellectual character of this people has descended from generation to generation. They are chiefly Presbyterian, and a large number of churches of that denomination are scattered over this region. In the northeastern part of the county, any one familiar with the peculiar expressions of the 526 CEESTER COUNTY. English speaking Pennsylvania German, would know that he was among the descendants of that race, although scarcely any of them speak the German language. They possess the thrift and industry of their forefathers, and are an orderly and law-abiding people. The first court after the granting of the Province to William Penn was held at Upland, on the 13th of September, 1681. This was the day to which the court, at its last session under the government of the Duke of York, had adjourned. The records of the county from that time to the present have been preserved, and are all in the public offices at West Chester. When the county seat was removed to West Chester, in 1786, these records were removed there from Chester. Delaware county, although having the old county seat, was a new county, and its records date from its erection in 1789. A portion of these old records having become much worn and difficult to decipher, were, by an order of the court made in 1827, copied into a large book, labelled " Old Court Records," which is now in the office of the clerk of the court of quarter sessions. They contain much curious and interesting matter. The first entries are of two cases of assault and battery, and appear to have been what are in these days called cross-prosecutions. As a specimen of court proceedings in those early days, these first entries are given: " Province of Pennsylvania, at the court at Upland, September 13th, 1681. Justices present: Mr. William Clayton, Mr. William Warner, Mr. Robert Wade, Mr. Otto Ernest Cock, Mr. William Byles, Mr. Robert Lucas, Mr. Lasse Cock, Mr. Swan Swanson, Mr. Andreas Bankson. "Sheriff, Mr. John Test; clerk, Mr. Thomas Revell. " An action of assault and battery. Peter Erickson plaintiff; Herman Johnson and Margaret, his wife, defendants. " Jurors: Morgan Drewitt, William Woodmansen, William Hewes, James Browne, Henry Reynolds, Robert Schooley, Richard Pittman, Lassey Dalboe, John Ackraman, Peter Rambo, Jr., Henry Hastings, and William Oxley. " Witness: William Parke. The jury find for the plaintiff, give him 6d. damages and his costs of suit. " An action of assault and battery. Herman Johnson and Margaret, his wife, plaintiffs; Peter Erickson, defendant. " Jurors, the same as above. Witnesses: Anna Coleman, Richard Buffington, Ebenezer Taylor. The jury find for the plaintiffs, and give them 40s. damages and their costs of suit." In a case tried at the next court, it is recorded that " Katharine Winchcombe's evidence was rejected as a lie." The title Mr., which had theretofore been appended to the name of the justices and officers of the court, was at this court omitted, and does not appear to have been thereafter used. Soon afterwards, the manner of calling the names of the days of the week and month, was changed to the style used by the Friends, the Assembly having directed " that ye days of ye week, and ye months of ye year shall be called as in Scripture, and not by heathen names (as are vulgarly used), as ye first, second, and third days of ye week, and first, second, and third months of ye year, beginning with ye day called Sunday, and ye month called March." This style was continued for a considerable period of time. Corporeal 527 GENERAL HISTORY. 51 On the 19th of the same month, Penn, by appointment, met Lord Baltimore at West River, but their interview led to no solution of the vexatious question of boundary. About this time the Province and territories were divided by the Proprietary each into three counties; those of the former were called Bucks, Philadelphia, and Chester; those of the latter, New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. Sheriffs and other officers having been duly appointed for the several counties, Writs for the election of members of Council and Assembly were issued conformable with the Constitution, and on the 10th day of the first month, 1683, Penn met the Council at Philadelphia, and the Assembly two days later. The number of members for both the Council and Assembly was twelve for each county, viz., three for the Counil and nine for the Assembly, making in all seventy-two. At this time Penn was probably renewing his negotiations with the Indians, as would appear from two deeds on record for land purchased. The 1683. first, dated June 23, 1683, between William Penn and Kings Tamanen and Metamequan, conveys their land near Neshemanah (Neshaminy) Creek, and thence to Pennapecka (Pennypack). The second, dated July 14, 1683, is for lands lying between the Schuylkill and Chester Rivers. During the spring or summer of this year, the Proprietary visited the interior of the Province, going as far west as the Susquehanna. The result of his trip he embodied in a letter to the " Society of Free Traders," in London, but its length precludes its insertion here. His description of the aborigines is full and interesting. It was while on this expedition that William Penn planned the founding of a great city on the Susuehanna, an idea never realized by himself. The controversy with Lord Baltimore concerning boundaries became a subject of great anxiety to Penn, who resisted the high-handed and 1684. aggressive measures of the former with gentle and courteous firmness. In the beginning of 1684, a number of people from Maryland made a forcible entry on several plantations in the Lower Counties, whereupon the Governor and Council at Philadelphia sent a written remonstrance to Lord Baltimore's demand, with orders to William Welsh to use his influence to reinstate the persons who had been dispossessed, and in case mild measures should prove unavailing, legally to prosecute the invaders. The remonstrances had, temporarily, the desired effect, but some inhabitants were threatened the next month with similar outrages, if they should persist in refusing to be under Lord Baltimore. The Governor issued a declaration showing Penn's title, and such other requisites as were thought most likely to prevent such illegal proceedings in future. The important interests involved in this controversy and other weighty matters requiring Penn's presence in England, he provided for the administration of the government. The executive power was lodged with the Provincial Council, of which Thomas Lloyd, a Quaker from Wales, was made presidentto whom the charge of the great seal was specially committed. Markham was created secretary of the Province and the territories; Thomas Holmes, surveyorgeneral; Thomas Lloyd, James Claypoole, and Robert Turner, commissioners of the land office; and Nicholas Moore, William Welsh, William Wood, Robert HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. punishment for crime was quite common, and the whipping post, stooks, and pillory are frequently mentioned in these old records. The first sentence of this character recorded is that "J- M-, being convicted of stealing money out of the house of William Browne, was ordered twelve stripes on his bare back, well laid on, at the common whipping post, the fourth instant, between the tenth and eleventh hours in the morning." This system of punishment appears to have continued until after the middle of the eighteenth century, when it fell gradually into disuse, and punishment by fine and imprisonment became general. The grand jury frequently presented persons for being intoxicated, for selling liquor without license, and for keeping disorderly houses, and the disposal of such presentments occupied much of the attention of the court. The following are extracts of early cases: " James Sanderlaine was fined 5s. for suffering Robert Stephens to be drunk in his house. " Neil Juist paid 5s. for being drunk at Chester." Margaret Matson, of Chester county, was tried before William Penn, at Philadelphia, in February, 1684, for witchcraft. It is recorded that " the jury went forth, and upon their return brought her in guilty of having the common fame of a witch, but not guilty in manner and form as she stands indicted." The proceedings are given at length in the first volume of the Colonial Records, pages 93-96. The first court after the removal of the county seat to West Chester, was held on the 28th of November, 1786, the following justices being present: William Clingan, William Haslett, John Bartholomew, Philip Scott, Isaac Taylor, John Ralston, Joseph Luckey, Thomas Cheyney, Thomas Lewis, and Richard Hill Morris. It will be remembered that in those days the ordinary county courts were held by the justices of the peace. At August term, 1791, they sat for the last time, and at November term following, the judges appointed under the constitution of 1790 took their seats. The following is a chronological list of the president judges who have occupied the bench in West Chester, viz.: William Augustus Atlee, from November, 1791, to August, 1793; John Joseph Henry, from February, 1794, to February, 1800; John D. Coxe, from May, 1800, to May, 1805; William Tilghman, from August, 1805, to February, 1806; Bird Wilson, from April, 1806, to November, 1817, when he left the bench for the pulpit; John Ross, from February, 1818, to May, 1821, when the judicial district was divided, and he accepted the new district composed of Bucks and Montgomery; Isaac Darlington, from July, 1821, to his death, in May, 1839; Thomas Sloan Bell, from May, 1839, to October, 1846, when he was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court, and Henry Chapman, the last of the appointed judges, from April, 1848, to November, 1851. Townsend Haines, elected by the people, occupied the bench from December, 1851, to December, 1861, when he was succeeded by William Butler, who has presided from that time to the present. Between the resignation of Judge Bell, and the appointment of Judge Chapman, John M. Forster, of Harrisburg, and James Nill, of Chambersburg, occupied the bench for a time, by appointment of Governor Shunk, but were not confirmed by the Senate. The influence exerted in this county by the example of the Society of Friends 528 CHESTER COUNTY. is very marked. The simple affirmation taken by their members as witnesses and in judicial proceedings is now generally used by those of all creeds, and of no creed. Even the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who formerly always took the oath with uplifted hand, now generally follow the example. The long period of ninety years that elapsed between the settlement of the county and the war of the Revolution was a peaceful era, unfruitful of incident. During all that time the settlers were left to pursue their peaceful occupations, uninjured and unmoved by the commotions that shook the rest of the world. They plied the arts of commerce, brought new lands into culture, established schools and churches, and advanced with uniform progress towards a state of opulence and refinement. The contests which occurred within this period had little effect on the settlers here. They were largely Friends, took no active part in military concerns, and were not molested by them. The cloud, however, which had so long been gathering and rumbling on the horizon, had at length spread itself over the land, and the moment arrived when it was to burst. The citizens of Chester county were now to see their fields crossed by hostile armies, and made the theatre of military operations, while they themselves, throwing aside the implements of husbandry and forgetting the employments of peace, were to mingle in the general strife. When the difficulties between the Colonies and the mother country became serious, a large meeting of the inhabitants of the county was held at the court house at Chester, in December, 1774, to devise measures for the protection of their rights as freemen, in pursuance of the resolution of the Continental Congress. A committee of seventy was chosen, at the head of which stood Anthony Wayne, and among his colleagues were such resolute men as Francis Johnston, Richard Riley, Hugh Lloyd, Sketchley Morton, Lewis Gronow, Richard Thomas, William Montgomery, Persifor Frazer, John Hannum Patterson Bell, Richard Flower, and Walter Finney. The object of this committee was to aid in superseding the Colonial government, and to take charge of the local interests of the county. The first military force raised in the county was a regiment of volunteers. commanded by Colonel Richard Thomas, of the Great Valley. In the beginning of the year 1776, a regiment was organized, commanded by Anthony Wayne as colonel, and Francis Johnston as lieutenant-colonel, and consisting of eight companies, with the following named captains: Persifor Frazer, Thomas Robison, John Lacey, Caleb North, Thomas Church, Frederick Vernon, James Moore, and James Taylor. All these officers were citizens of Chester county, except John Lacey, who then resided in Bucks county, and Thomas Church, who resided in Lancaster county. Another regiment was subsequently raised and officered, principally by the inhabitants of Chester county. Samuel J. Atlee, of Lancaster, was appointed colonel, and Caleb Parry, of Chester county, lieutenantcolonel, and among the captains were Joseph McClellan and Walter Finney. Among the citizens of Chester county who rose to eminence as military men during the revolution, were Anthony Wayne, Richard Thomas, Francis Johnston, Jacob Humphrey, Caleb Parry, Joseph McClellan, Walter Finney, Richard Humpton, Persifor Frazer, Benjamin Bartholomew, William Montgomery, Allen Cunningham, James McCullough, John Harper, Stephen Cochran, 21 529 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Robert Smith, and Andrew Boyd. The last two were lieutenants of the county, and had charge of the raising and equipping of the militia levies. Among the civilians who rendered efficient service, were John Morton, Thomas M'Kean, William Clingan, Thomas Cheyney, John Hannum, Samuel Futhey, John Jacobs, Dr. Joseph Gardner, John Beaton, Caleb Davis, William Gibbons, Richard Riley, John Ralston, Stephen Cochran, and Reverends John Carmichael, William Foster, and David Jones. It will thus be seen that Chester county not only contributed a full proportion of men for the service, but evinced a spirit scarcely to be expected among a people, so many of whom were opposed in principle to the practice of war. It is to be remembered, however, that when the Revolution dawned upon us, the Scotch-Irish element had become very strong-almost the whole of the western part of the county was peopled by them and their descendants-and they became a powerful element in the contribution of the county to the cause of liberty. As an instance of their devotion, it is stated that in the region known as Brandywine Manor, in the campaign of 1777, not a man capable of bearing arms remained at home, and the farm labor devolved upon the old men, women, and children. Among the most active in promoting the cause, were the Rev. John Carmichael, of Brandywine Manor, and Rev. William Foster, of Upper Octorara, Presbyterian clergymen, and the Rev. David Jones, of the Great Valley, a Baptist clergyman, the effect of whose preaching was to send many a valuable recruit into the army. The Welsh element was generally favorable to independence, and contributed to swell the ranks of the patriots. The British, on their route from the head of Chesapeake bay to Philadelphia, in September, 1777, entered Chester county in the lower part of New Garden township. They rested the night of the tenth at Kennett Square, and on the next morning formed in two divisions, one under General Knyphausen, pursuing the direct road eastward to Chad's ford, and the main body, under General Cornwallis, and accompanied by the commander-in-chief, taking a circuitous route, crossing the west branch of the Brandywine at Trimble's ford, and the east branch at Jefferis' ford, and approaching Birmingham meeting house from the north. The object of this movement was to hem in the American forces between the two divisions of the British army. In this they were successful, and the Americans, after a brief but severe struggle, were routed and compelled to seek safety in flight. The particulars of the battle of Brandywine are given in the general sketch, and need not be repeated here. The question has been frequently mooted, whether the fact that the British had divided their forces, should not have been discovered sooner than it was, and the disastrous defeat which took place have been prevented? The writer, from a knowledge of the entire section of country near where the battle was fought, entertains the opinion that there was somewhere the most culpable and inexcusable negligence, in not having sooner definitely ascertained the movements of the British army. The fords of the Brandywine, where the British were at all likely to cross, were all comparatively near to the Americans, and were easily accessible; the country was open, and the roads were substantially the same as now, and with proper vigilance, the movements of the British could 530 CHESTER COUNTY. have been easily discovered in time to have enabled General Washington to have disposed of his troops to the best advantage. It is now known that small bodies of the British light troops crossed at Wistar's and at Buffington's fords, which are between Jefferi's ford and Chad's ford, some time before the main body of the army crossed at Jefferis' ford, and yet no information of these movements appears to have been communicated to the commander-in-chief. The first reliable information which he received was from Thomas Cheyney, an intelligent and patriotic citizen, whose residence was a few miles distant. He had passed the night at the residence of John Hannum, where the present village of Marshalton stands, and the two set out on the morning of the eleventh to visit the American army. As they descended towards the west branch of the Brandywine near Trimble's ford, they discovered, coming down from the hills opposite, a numerous body of British soldiers. This very much surprised them, and they moved round the adjacent hills, in order to observe the direction taken by them. Finding they were going towards Jefferis' ford, and believing them to constitute the main body of the British army, they resolved at once, and at some personal risk, to proceed with the intelligence to General Washington. Cheyney being mounted on a fleet hackney, pushed down the stream until he found the commander-in-chief, and communicated the tidings to him, but the information came so late _ that there was not time to properly meet the emergency. It has been usual to attribute the loss of the OLD BIRMINGHAM MEETING HOUSE. battle to this want of timely intelligence of the movements of the enemy, but it is problematical whether the Americans could have been successful under any circumstances. The British army was well appointed and highly disciplined; a large part of the American army, at that time, was a mere militia levy, and this superiority of the British troops over the Americans would probably have enabled them to gain the day under any circumstances. The meeting-house at Birmingham had been taken possession of by Washington some days previously, with a view to its occupancy by the sick of the American army, but before it was in readiness for that purpose the battle was fought, and it was used by the British as an hospital for their wounded officers. There is a tradition which has long been current, that a member of the House of Northumberland, named Percy, was killed in the engagement, and buried in the graveyard at Birmingham meeting-house, and the supposed place of interment has been pointed out to the writer. This tradition, which we see occcasionally given as history, is unqestionably a myth. We have no reliable evidence of its truth. Very few officers of conspicuous rank, in either army, were slain in the HISTORY OF PENIVS YL VANIA. battle of Brandywine, and if it were true that a "Percy of Northumberland" had fallen there, General Howe assuredly was not the person to ignore the death of a companion in arms who could trace his family name back to the days of Chevy Chase. Hugh, Earl Percy, afterwards second Duke of Northumberland, was in this country in the early period of the Revolution, and commanded some forces at the battle of Lexington, but he left America previous to the battle of Brandywine. The British army remained some days in the neighborhood of the field of battle, and during this time had a cattle pen, where they collected large numbers of cattle and other animals, and slaughtered and preserved them for the use of the army. Nearly all the live stock in the country for a considerable distance around was taken from the inhabitants. In some instances payment was made in British gold, but generally no compensation was given. On the 16th of September they proceeded northward towards the Great Valley, by what is known as the Chester road. Washington, after resting his army, marched from Philadelphia up the Lancaster road, with the view of again offering battle. On the 17th the armies met in Goshen township, about four miles north-east of West Chester; skirmishing began between the advanced parties, and a sanguinary battle would probably have been fought, but a rain storm of great violence stopped its further progress, and rendered it impossible for either army to keep the field. A few soldiers were killed in the conflict. The Americans retired to the Yellow Springs, where, discovering that their ammunition had been greatly damaged by the rain, and that they were not in a condition to engage in a conflict, the march was continued to Warwick Furnace, in the present township of Warwick, in the northern part of the county, where a fresh supply of arms and ammunition was obtained. After a detention of two days on account of the weather, the British moved down the Great Valley into Tredyffrin township. A detachment under General Wayne was dispatched by Washington to the rear of the British army, to harass and annoy it, and endeavor to cut off the baggage train, and by this means to arrest its march towards the Schuylkill, until the Americans could cross the river higher up and pass down on the east side, and intercept the passage of the river by the British. On the night of the 20th of September, the command of Wayne, who were encamped in what is now known as the Paoli Massacre ground, in Willistown township, was surprised by General Grey, and many of his men slain. Information of the whereabouts of the forces of Wayne had been given to the British commander by Tories residing in the neighborhood, by one of whom General Grey was guided in his cowardly midnight assault. The dead were decently interred by the neighboring farmers in one grave immediately adjoining the scene of action. After the affair at Paoli, the British army moved down the valley, intending to cross the Schuylkill at Swedes' ford, but finding it guarded, they turned up the river on the west side, for the purpose of effecting a passage of some of the fords higher up. The American army, in order if possible to prevent the British from passing the river, had in the meantime moved from Warwick Furnace and crossed the Schuylkill at Parker's ford, at or near the present village of Lawrenceville, in this county, and moved southward 532 CHESTER COUNTY. on the east side. They were unable, however, to prevent the passage of the British, who crossed in two divisions-at Gordon's ford, now Phcenixville, %nd at Fatland ford, a short distance below Valley Forge. On the 20th of September, 1817, being the fortieth anniversary of the massacre, a monument was erected over the remains of those gallent men by the Republican Artillerists of Chester county, aided by the contributions of their fellow-citizens. It is composed of white marble, and is a pedestal surmounted by a pyramid. Upon the four sides of the body of the pedestal are appropriate inscriptions. It stands on the centre of the grave in which the slaughtered heroes were buried, in the south-east corner of a large field, owned and used by the military organizations of Chester county for parades and encampments. The grave itself is about sixty feet long by twenty wide, and is surrounded by a stone wall. The scene of this conflict is probably the best preserved of any that marked the progress of the Revolutionary war. The monument has become so much battered and broken by relic hunters that it is proposed to erect a new one during this Centennial year, and funds are now being contributed for that purpose. The point is a short distance south of Malvern station, at the intersection of the West Chester and Pennsylvania railroads. In the year 1794, what is popularly known as the Whiskey Insurrection, in western Pennsylvania, became so threatening, that when President Washington made a requisition for a military force, Governor Mifflin came to Chester county, and in a speech at West Chester called upon the patriotic citizens of the county to volunteer their aid in its suppression. The Governor, who was good at astump speech, addressed the meeting with such effect that the people responded in the most patriotic manner. A troop of cavalry was promptly raised by Colonel Joseph McClellan, Major Samuel Futhey, and others, and a company of artillery by Aaron Musgrave. These companies joined the expedition to the west, and faithfully performed their tour of duty as good citizen soldiers. In the war of 1812-14, with Great Britain, Chester county did her share in raising men to resist the encroaches of the enemy. A number of companies were recruited and prepared for duty. Those from the western part of the county marched to Baltimore, and those from the eastern part to Philadelphia, and from thence to Marcus Hook, where they were received into the service of the United States, and served until they were regularly discharged. Colonel Isaac Wayne, Major Isaac D. Barnard, Captain Christopher Wigton, Captain Titus Taylor, and Captain George Hartman, were among those who recruited men for the service. Major Barnard was actively engaged in the field during the entire war, and won for himself honorable distinction. On the 26th of July, 1825, General Lafayette visited the Brandywine battlefield, where he had been wounded in 1777, and was thence escorted by the volunteer soldiery and assembled citizens to West Chester, where he was entertained by a committee with a public dinner in the court house. The following day he proceeded to Lancaster. He was accompanied by his son, George Washington Lafayette. In the.var for the preservation of the Union, Chester county, in common with the c aure North, responded most nobly to the calls made upon her. Where 533 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. all did so well, it would be invidious to claim for one greater distinction or regard than another. It is estimated that this county furnished not less than six thousand five hundred soldiers, of whom about five hundred were colored men. When the three months men were called for, four companies were furnished, one of which was connected with the 4th and the other with the 9th regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers. The others, so far as we have any record of them, were distributed as follows: In the 1st Pennsylvania reserves, two companies; 4th reserves, one company; 1st Pennsylvania rifles (Bucktails), one company; 49th Pennsylvania volunteers, one company; 53d, two companies; 71st, one company; 97th, seven companies; 116th, one company; 124th, eight companies; 175th, eight companies; 7th cavalry, one company; 16th cavalry, one company; 20th cavalry, one company. In addition to these, hundreds of men left the county, singly and in squads, and became connected with regiments in other places-largely in Philadelphia. Drafts were also made from time to time, which furnished a large number. Camp Wayne was established at West Chester early in the war, and many of the regiments were fitted there for active duty. General Galusha Pennypacker, formerly colonel of the 97th Pennsylvania, now in the regular army, is a native of Chester county. Among her citizens who fell in the service were Colonels Frederick Taylor, Thomas S. Bell, Henry M. McIntire, and George W. Roberts. The earliest educational institution of note in the county was the New London Academy, established by Rev. Dr. Francis Allison in 1743. It became justly celebrated, and served to aid in furnishing the State with able civilians, and the church with well-qualified ministers. Among those who were wholly or partially educated here were Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. David Ramsay, the historian, the celebrated Dr. Hugh Williamson, one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and historian of North Carolina, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Gov. Thomas M'Kean, George Read, and James Smith. Hugh Williamson and Thomas M'Kean were both natives of Chester county, and born within a few miles of the location of this school. Dr. Allison subsequently became Vice Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, was an unusually accurate and profound scholar, and to his zeal for the diffusion of knowledge, Pennsylvania owes much of that taste for solid learning and classical literature for which many of her principal characters have been distinguished. About the same, time Rev. Samuel Blair established a classical school at Fagg's Manor, from which came forth many distinguished pupils, who did honor to their instructor. Among them was Rev. Dr. Samuel Davies, who was one of the Presidents of Princeton College, Rev. Dr. John Rodgers, and Rev. Robert Smith, the father of Samuel Stanhope Smith and John Blair Smith, all eminent as scholars and divines. The West Chester Academy was erected in 1812, and was a flourishing institution for many years. It was finally merged in the State Normal School. Anthony Bolmar, a native of France, established a school in West Chester in 1840, which he conducted until his death, in 1859. It was one of the best regulated and most complete institutions for the education of young men in the United States. His pupils are scattered over the country, and many of them 534 CHESTER COUNTY. occupy prominent positions. He was the author of several educational works on the French language. After his decease Colonel Theodore Hyatt conducted the Pennsylvania Military Academy in the same building for some years, and was succeeded by William F. Wyers. After the death of Mr. Wyers, the property passed under the control of the Catholic church, and is now occupied by the Convent of the Sacred Heart. In 1826, Rev. Francis A. Latta established, in Sadsbury township, the Moscow Academy, which he successfully conducted for several years. Among the most distinguished of the seminaries of learning in the county is the Westtown Friends boarding school. It was established in 1794, and has ever since been in successful operation. It is exclusively for the education of youth of both sexes belonging to the Society of Friends. The buildings are located on a farm of six hundred acres. The Kimberton boarding school was established in 1817, by Emmor Kimber, and was conducted by him and his accomplished daughters for many years. The State normal school, for the district composed of the counties of Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks, was opened in 1871, and under the superintendence of George L. Maris, and a corps of efficient teachers, is doing a noble work. The building is a massive structure, constructed of the beautiful serpentine stone, so abundant in this region. The grounds contain ten acres, laid out in drives, walks, croquet and ball grounds, and ornamented with trees, shrubbery, and flowers. During the last year, there were two hundred and eighty-seven scholars, about equally divided between the sexes. Lincoln University-an institution for the education of young men of color-was incorporated by the Legislature in 1854, under the title of Ashmun Institute. In 1866 the name was changed to Lincoln University, and its sphere of usefulness enlarged. The buildings are situated on a tract of eighty acres, in Lower Oxford township, on the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad, and near the borough of Oxford, and occupy a commanding position upon one of the highest hills in that undulating district. There are four University buildings and four professors' houses. The institution is completely equipped with a corps of fifteen professors and teachers, who are zealous and earnest in the work. Students are fitted in the preparatory department, and in college pursue the regular course of four years, and on graduating receive the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Full instruction is also given in the law, medical, and theological departments, and.the regular degrees conferred. The University is doing a noble work in sending out educated colored men, fitted to instruct and elevate their race. The number of students in all the departments at the present time is about two hundred. Rev. I. N. Rendall, D.D., is president. A soldiers' orphans' school was established at Chester Springs, in West Pikeland township, at the close of the war, and has always had a full attendance. Chester Springs was once a noted watering place, but is not now kept as such, and the buildings are in the occupancy of this school. Among them is a large structure which was erected by General Washington during the Revolution, for the sick and wounded of the army. It has long been known as Washington Hall. Numerous institutions of learning are scattered over the county, among 535 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. which may be mentioned the Unionville academy, R. M. McClellan's school for young men and boys at West Chester, the Eaton academy at Kennett Square, and the Kennett Square academy of Dr. Frank Taylor, the Ercildoun seminary, Mary B. Thomas and sister's seminary at Downingtown, and Mrs. Cope's boarding school at Toughkenamon. In speaking of the literary institutions of Chester county, honorable mention must be made of John Forsythe, Philip Price, Enoch Lewis, author of several mathematical works, Jonathan Gause, Joshua Hoopes, Thomas Conard, Joseph C. Strode, and Hannah P. Davis, as successful educators and proprietors of boarding schools. Jonathan Gause and Joshua Hoopes each taught over fifty years, and always had a large number of pupils. There are ten boroughs in Chester county. ATOLEN, formerly the village of Penningtonville, is a new borough, and was incorporated by decree of court, December 20, 1875. It is situated on the Pennsylvania railroad, in the Great Valley, about one mile from the Octorara creek, which forms the western boundary of the county. It contains a large manufactory of sad-irons. COATESVILLE, named in honor of the Coates family, was incorporated in 1867. It is situated in the Great Valley, where it is crossed by the west branch of the Brandywine. This has of late years become a thriving town, its prosperity being due in great part to the extensive iron works of C. E. Pennock & Co., Steele & Worth, Huston & Penrose, and others. There are also a number of paper mills, woollen and cotton mills, flouring mills, and other industries, within a short distance. The Pennsylvania railroad crosses the Brandywine on a magnificent bridge, 836 feet in length, and seventy-three feet high. The Wilmington and Reading railroad also passes through the town. Moses Coates, the ancestor of the family from whom the place derives its name, came from Ireland about 1717, and settled in Charlestown township, whence some of their children removed to East Caln. William Fleming was a settler near this place. His wife was a sister to John and Thomas Moore, who settled at Downingtown. DOWNINGTOWN is in the midst of the Great Valley, on the east branch of the Brandywine. In 1702, surveys were made here in right of purchases made in England. Among the early settlers were Thomas and John Moore, George Aston, Roger Hunt, Thomas Parke, and Thomas Downing. Thomas Moore erected a mill before the year 1718, which afterwards became the property of Thomas Downing, from whom the place received its present name, having been previously known as Milltown. During the early years of its history Downingtown was a peculiarly staid and respectable place, and resisted the project of making it the county seat, when its removal from Chester was under consideration, and not a lot could be obtained on which to erect the county buildings. No parallel can probably be found in the history of any town in the country. They were opposed both to parting with their lands, and to the noise and brawling of a county town. Not even the passage of the railroad along its southern border could seduce the old-fashioned citizens from their quiet, staid, and thrifty ways, into the delusive dream of making haste to be rich. Of late years, however, new men have taken hold, and it now possesses its full share of enterprise, and bids fair to become a large and prosperous town. Among its industries is a manufactory of sewing 536 CHESTER COUNTY. machines. It is a prominent station on the Pennsylvania railroad, and the point of junction of the branch road to Waynesburg and New Holland, and of the Chester Valley railroad to Norristown. It was incorporated as a borough in 1859. HOPEWELL is situated in the south-western part of the county, and contains a large number of cotton and woolen manufactories and flouring mills. The Dickey and Ross families were enterprising and leading operators here for many years. KENNETT SQUARE is situated on the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad, in the midst of an exceedingly fertile district of country, at the head of the Toughkenamon valley. The inhabitants-who are largely the descendants of the original settlers-are noted for their intelligence and culture. The anti-slavery sentiment has always predominated strongly, and in the days of slavery it was esteemed a hot-bed of abolitionism. The inhabitants, however, gloried in their sentiments, and many a way-faring bondman received aid and comfort from them on his passage towards the North Star. It would have been a dangerous experiment, in those days, for any of its inhabitants to have proclaimed their nativity, south of Mason and Dixon's line. Its academies and seminaries have for years ranked high, and many youth from a distance are educated here. The prosperity of the place is largely due to the extensive manufacture of agricultural machinery. The old Unicorn tavern, said to have been the scene of one of the outlaw Fitzpatrick's exploits, was burned during the past year. Gayen Miller was the first settler in this neighborhood. OxFORD is also on the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad, and at the junction of the Peach Bottom railroad to York. It has grown rapidly since the completion of the first named railroad, and bids fair to become a large and prosperous town. It was incorporated in 1833. PARKESBURO, incorporated in 1872, is a prominent station on the line of the Pennsylvania railroad, and contains a population of about six hundred. The State shops were formerly located here, but a few years since were removed to Harrisburg, and the buildings have since been occupied as a rolling mill. It received its name from the Parkes, an old and influential family in this section of the county. PH(ENIXVILLE, incorporated in 1849, is situated on the Schuylkill river, and on the line of the Reading railroad. It owes its prosperity largely to the very extensive iron works located here, which give employment to several hundred families. The families of Coates, Starr, and Buckwalter, were among the early settlers. Population, about six thousand. SPRING CITY, originally Springville, is situated on the Schuylkill river, opposite to Royer's Ford, on the Reading railroad. The American Wood-Paper company have their works here, and there is also a large manufactory of stoves and hollow ware. Incorporated in 1867. WEST CHESTER was incorporated in 1788, and contains a population of about six thousand five hundred. The original court house, erected in 1784, was replaced by a new one in 1846, and the old prison by a new one-conducted on the penitentiary system-erected in 1838, and enlarged in 1872. The public buildings reflect great credit on the enterprise and taste of the citizens. This town is one of the most attractive in the State. It is well built, the streets well HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Turner, and John Eckley, Provincial judges for two years. The Proprietary sailed for Europe on the 12th of June. At his departure, the Province and territories were divided into twenty-two townships, containing seven thousand inhabitants, of whom two thousand five hundred resided in Philadelphia, which comprised already three hundred houses. Penn wrote a farewell letter to his Province, from on board the vessel, couched in the most endearing terms. After a voyage of seven weeks he reached England. Charles II. died the 12th of December following, and was succeeded by James, Duke of York, whose accession was greatly dreaded by the Protestants, who apprehended a revival of the persecutions during the reign of Mary. Penn might have taken advantage of these apprehensions to in, duce more emigrants to settle C 0 s in Pennsylvania, but he was x SY y--- 1disinterested, and used his in. C Mzr Srx 4. fluence with the King to grant V A: W liberty of conscience to all re ligionists, and more especially 1TIN.'r 40"to the Quakers. Penn had S- stood high in the King's favor Slong before he ascended the throne, for the friendship > which James entertained for ,oD the father, who had bravely y fought under his flag, was en a joyed in a still higher degree " by the son, who by that means succeeded in obtaining from MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA-1685. MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA-1685. the King's Council a favorable decree in his dispute with Lord Baltimore. On the first day of the second month, 1685, the lines of separation 1685. between the county of Philadelphia and those of Bucks and Chester, were confirmed by the Council. "The county of Chester was to begin at the mouth, or entrance of Bough creek, upon Delaware river, being the upper end of Tenicum island; and so up that creek, dividing the said island from the land of Andrew Boone and company; from thence along the several courses thereof, to a large creek called Mill creek; from thence, along the several courses of the said creek to a west-southwest line; which line divides the liberty lines of Philadelphia from several tracts of land, belonging to the Welsh and other inhabitants; and from thence eastnorth-east, by a line of marked trees one hundred and twenty perches, more or less; from thence north-north-west by IHaverford township, one thousand perches, more or less; from thence east-north-east by the land belonging to John Humphrey, one hundred and ten perches, more or less; from thence northnorth-west by the land of John Eckley, eight hundred and eighty perches, more or less; from thence continuing said course to the bounds of Sculkill river; which said Sculkill river afterward to the natural bounds." HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. paved and lighted, and lined with shade trees. One looking on it from an elevated position would suppose it situated in a forest. It is remarkable for salubrity, and is surrounded by a beautiful, undulating country. West Chester is pre-eminent among the towns of the State for its highly cultivated state of society, and the general diffusion of intelligence among its citizens. The natural history of the county has been very fully explored and written upon by citizens engaged in the ordinary pursuits of life. It contains private collections of minerals, shells, and botanical specimens, scarcely equalled in public institutions. A taste for such studies was much fostered by the " Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science," a society organized in 1826-the library and collections of which are now in charge of the State Normal school, located here. As an educational centre, West Chester has always enjoyed a high rank, and the graduates of its schools are to be found in every department of public life. It is also noted for the number of people who resort to it from other places, to pass the remainder of their lives in ease and retirement. Its inhabitants were, for a long time, chiefly of the Society of Friends, and this has given tone to society, although its character is fast changing, from the influx of those of other creeds. Chester county, in addition to the incorporated boroughs, is studded with villages, which have grown up in the progress of years, at the crossings of the great roads, and at or near thle sites of the ancient inns, with which the county abounds. Many of these old taverns were famous among the travelers of the olden time, and not a few have been distinguished in the annals of the Revolution. Among these were the Paoli, Warren, Chatham, White Horse, Black Horse, Ship, Buck, Red Lion, Wagon, Anvil, Hammer & Trowel, Compass, Turk's Head, Unicorn, and Spread Eagle. The most noted of these villages are Waynesburg, Lionville, Marshalton, Wagontown, Doe Run, Unionville, New London, Cochranville, Chatham, Avondale, West Grove, Landenberg, and Toughkenamon. There are fifty-six townships in the county. BIRMINGHAM was probably named by William Brinton, one of the earliest settlers, who came from the neighborhood of the town of that name in England. It was surveyed about 1684 to various persons in right of purchases made in England. Upon the division of the county, the greater part of the original township fell into Delaware county, but to the remainder an addition was made from the southern end of East Bradford in 1856. The battle of Brandywine was fought in this township. The descendants of William Brinton, the first settler, are numerous, and very many of them occupy highly respectable positions in society. It is believed that all bearing the name of Brinton, in Pennsylvania, are descended from him. For more than a century the name was pronounced Branton. A public library was established in this township as early as 1795, which is still kept up. BRADFORD was probably named from Bradford, in Yorkshire, or the town of the same name on Avon, in Wiltshire. It was divided into East Bradford and West Bradford, in 1731. Some of the early surveys were made in 1686, others in 1702, and later. Among the early settlers were the names of Buffington, Jefferis, Taylor, Woodward, Martin, Townsend, Strode, and Marshall. Abiah 538 CEESTER COUNTY. Taylor settled on the Brandywine in 1702, and built a mill on a branch,,f that stream. In 1724 he erected a brick house, with bricks imported from Engi.id, which is still standing. Humphrey Marshall, one of the earliest American botanists, and author of a work on the Forest Trees of the E nited States, published in 1785, planted a botanical garden at Marshallton, in West Bradford, and his name was given to the village. BRANDYWINE was erected in 1790, and named from the stream, by the two branches of which it was bounded on either side. It was formerly the northern part of East Caln, and was divided into East Brandywine and West Brandywine in 1844. CALN (now divided into Caln, East Caln, and West Caln), was named from Caln, in Wiltshire, England, whence some of the early settlers came. In 1702, surveys were made, extending from the Welsh tract on the east, to the west branch of Brandywine on the west, mostly confined to the valley. These were afterwards extended northward and westward. In 1728 the township was divided into East Caln and _West Caln, the Brandywine being the dividing line. __ East Caln was reduced in 1790, by the erection of Brandywine on the north, and in 1853 by the formation of Valley township on the west. In 1868, it was again divided, the part east of Downington retaining the name of East Caln, and the remainder, with a part of Valley, taking the name of Caln. The greater part of Caln and East Caln lie in the Great Valley, and contain beautiful farming lands, while West Caln is more hilly. HOUSE OF ABIAH TAYLOR, CHARLESTOWN was so called in honor of Charles- uitin 1m24. Pickering, of Asmore, in the county of Chester, England, who purchased a large amount of land from Penn. His surname was given to the stream which flows through the township. This township was divided in 1826, and the eastern part lying on the Schuylkill river, called Schuylkill township. - The early settlers were mostly Welsh, followed by some from Germany. COVENTRY township doubtless received its name from Samuel Nutt, an early settler who came from Coventry, in Warwickshire, England. He arrived in this country in 1714, bringing a certificate of recommendation from Friends in England, and after his arrival married Anna, widow of Samuel Savage, and daughter of Thomas Rutter, one of the early iron masters of Pennsylvania. Samuel Nutt, after his arrival here, turned his attention to the manufacture of iron, and established the first iron works in Chester county. He took up land on French creek in 1717, and about that time built a forge there. A letter written by him, in 1720, mentions an intention of erecting another forge that fall. His step-son, Samuel Savage, married a sister of John Taylor, who erected Saruin forge, on Chester creek, and a step-daughter, Ruth Savage, became the wife of John Potts, the founder of Pottstown. Robert Grace, an extensive iron master, resided in this township, and the Merediths, from Radnorshire, were among the prominent settlers. The date of the erection of the township is not certainly known, but supposed to have been about 1723. In 1841 the town. 539 HISTORY OF PENNSYL YANIA. ship was divided into North Coventry and South Coventry, and in 18449 East Coventry was formed by a division of North Coventry. EASTTOWN was erected in 1704, and so named on account of its position. It was included in the original survey made for the Welsh, and was settled by them. In 1722, Anthony Wayne, a native of Yorkshire, emigrated from the county of Wicklow, Ireland, and settled in this township, where he died in 1739. His son Francis appears to have done something at surveying. Another son, Isaac, was the father of General Anthony Wayne, who was born in this township. ELK was formed in 1857, from the township of East Nottingham, and named from the stream which skirts its eastern side. Its southern boundary is Mason and Dixon's line. FALLOWFIELD is supposed to have been named in honor of Lancelot Fallow field, of Westmoreland, pm- is -m England, who was one of ANN the first purchasers of land from William Penn. John Salkeld, a noted Quaker I preacher, who came from that part "of England, bought the right of Lance lot Fallowfield, and took up land in this township in 1714, and may have sug I I i.iI I -i. I._..........gested the nam e. The township was erected about 1724. In 1743 it was di vided into East Fallowfield BIRTH PLACE AND RESIDENCE OF GENERAL WAYNE. and West Fallowfield. the [From a Photograph by A. W. Taylor, West Chester.] stream called Buck run being the dividing line. At this time we find among the inhabitants of the eastern part, the names of Bentley, Dennis, Filson, Fleming, Mode, Hannum, and Hayes; and in the western part, the names of Adams, Cochran, Moore, Parke, and Wilson. In 1853 Highland township was formed from the eastern part of West Fallowfield. FRANKLIN was formed from the eastern part of New London in 1852. GOSHEN was included in the original survey for the Welsh, but many surveys were made there for other purchasers, owing to delay on the part of the Welsh to settle the land. It was organized as a township in 1704. Among the early settlers were Robert Williams, Ellis David (or Davies), George Ashbridge, and Mordecai Bane. Griffith Owen had a house here, at which Friend meetings were held as early as 1702. This meeting was probably the first within the present limits of the county. It was also held at the house of Robert Williams for a time, previous to the erection of a meeting house. Tradition says that he was called the king of Goshen, and that on one occasion when his fire went out, he was obliged to go several miles to get it renewed. George Ashbridge, a son of the settler of the same name, was a member of Assembly from this county from 1743 till his death, in 1773, a period of thirty years, probably the longest 540 CHESTER COUNTY. term the office was ever held by one man. Men of experience were sought after in those days to fill public positions. The Haines, Matlack, and Hoopes families became numerous here. In 1817 tne township was divided into East Goshen and West Goshen. The borough of West Chester was taken from this township in 1788. Goshen Friends meeting house, still standing, was erected in 1736. HIGHLAND was formed from the eastern part of West Fallowfield in 1853. It lies between West Fallowfield and East Fallowfield. Among early settlers were the names of Adams, Boggs, Boyd, Cowpland, Futhey, Glendenning, Gibson, Haslett, Hamill, and Wilson. IHONEYBROOK was formed from West Nantmeal in 1789. The name Nantmeal (or Nantmel, as originally spelled), which is Welsh, signifies Honeybrook, and the translated name was given to the new township. Among the early residents were the families of Ralston, Buchanan, Macelduff, Talbot, Trego, Suplee, and Long. KENNETT (originally spelled Kennet), is first mentioned on the court records as a township in 1704. It is thought the name was suggested by Francis Smith, who came from Wiltshire (where there is a village of that name), and took up land in 16SG, at the mouth of Pocopson creek. Pennsbury and Pocopson were originally included in Kennett, while the greater part of what now bears the name was included in a survey made about 1700, for William Penn's daughter Letitia, and called Letitia's Manor. The land was sold to settlers by her agents. LONDON BRITAIN.-A considerable part of this township was included in the survey made for the London company. Settlements were made at an early date by Welsh Baptists, in the southern part of the township, and a church was established amongst them. The oldest tombstone in the grave-yard bears date 1729. John Evans, from Radnorshire, about 1700, was prominent among these settlers, and his son of the same name, who died in 1738, held large tracts of land, together with fulling mills and grist mills, on White Clay creek. An Indian village was formerly on the creek, near Yeatman's mill. LONDONDERRY derived its name from Londonderry, Ireland. Nearly all the early settlers were Scotch-Irish. The greater part of the present township was in Sir John Fagg's Manor, and the large Presbyterian church of Fagg's Manor is in this township. It was separated from Nottingham in 1734. Oxford was taken off in 1754, and further divided in 1819, and the southern part called Penn. LONDON GROVE was organized in 1723. In 1699, William Penn sold to Tobias Collet and three others, among other lands, sixty thousand acres, not then located. These persons admitted others into partnership with them, and formed a company, generally known as the London company, for the improvement of their property, the number of shares eventually reaching eight thousand eight hundred, and the shareholders several hundred. As a part of the sixty thousand acres, a survey was made of seventeen thousand two hundred and eighteen acres in Chester county, including all the present township of London Grove, and a large part of Franklin (formerly New London) and London Britain. A large number of the settlers in London Grove were Friends, and among them were the names of Chandler, Jackson, Lamborn, Lindley, Allen, Morton, Pusey, Scarlet, HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Starr, and Underwood. The villages of Avondale and West Grove are in this township. MARLBOROUGH was named from Marlborough, in Wiltshire. The eastern part was laid out about 1701, in right of purchases made in England. As first designed by Penn, the eastern part was to be rectangular-the "Street" road passing through the middle, and the land on the north, was described as in Bensalem township, but afterwards added to Marlborough. The township was divided, in 1729, into East Marlborough and West Marlborough. Among the early settlers were Joel Baily, Thomas Jackson, Caleb Pusey, Francis Swayne, John Smith, and Henry Hayes. In West Marlborough. Joseph Pennock was among the first settlers, and there he built "Primitive Hall," which is still standing. His descenants are very numerous. Cedareroft, the home of Bayard Taylor, is in East Marlborough, less than a mile north of Kennett Square. The name Hilltown was originally applied to West Marlborough and lands to the westward, probably from its topography. NANTMEAL is a Welsh name, and the early settlers were chiefly from that country. The township was divided in 1740 into East Nantmeal and West Nantmeal. The signatures to the petition for division indicates the character of the population at that time. On this petition are the Welsh surnames of Pugh, David, Roger, Williams, Stephens, Griffiths, Rees, Edward, Jones, Meredith, Roberts, and Philips. There are also the names of Frayley, Marsh, Kirk, Savage, and Speary. NEw GARDEN was named from New Garden, in the county Carlow, Ireland. This township was included in a survey made about 1700, for William Penn, Jr., being part of 30,000 acres surveyed for him and his sister Letitia, part of which lay in New Castle county. It was largely settled from 1712 to 1720, by Friends from Ireland, one of whom, John Lowden, is supposed to have suggested the name, in remembrance of his former home. Thomas and Mary Rowland settled in the valley, near Toughkenamon, in 1706, being, perhaps, the first settlers who purchased land in the township. Among the early settlers were John Miller, Michael Lightfoot, Joseph, John, and Nehemiah Hutton, Joseph Sharp, Benjamin Fred, Robert Johnston, and the Starr family. The township is now intersected by three railroads. Landenberg, in this township, is the seat of extensive woolen mills, and at Toughkenamon is a large manufactory of spokes and wheels, and one of hard rubber goods-also a large boarding school. NEWLIN, formerly called Newlinton, was named in honor of Nathaniel Newlin. This township was surveyed in 1688, for the Free Society of Traders. It was purchased in 1724, by Nathaniel Newlin, who sold parts of it, and the remainder was divided among his heirs in 1730. An Anabaptist congregation held meetings at the house of John Bentley, prior to 1747, with Owen Thomas as their minister, and a meeting house was erected some years after, on land of thq Bentleys. NEW LONDON was probably so named because it contained land of the London company's purchase. A survey was made for Michael Harlan, in 1714, at a place called Thunder Hill, while near it, on Elk creek, a large tract called Pleasant Garden, was taken up under a Maryland right. About 1720, a survey was made for Susanna M'Cain, who was doubtless the grandmother of Governor Thomas 542 CHESTER COUNTY. M'Kean. The names of Hodgson, Mackey, Scott, Moore, Cook, Finney, Johnson, and Allison, were among the early settlers. The most of these were ScotchIrish Presbyterians. NOTTINGHIIAM.-In 1702 a survey of eighteen thousand acres was made by direction of Penn's commissioners, and divided amongst several persons who took an interest in the settlement, except three thousand acres, which was reserved for the Proprietary. This settlement received the name of Nottingham When the line between the Provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland was finally settled, all of the original survey fell into Maryland, except one thousand three hundred and forty-five acres. Prominent among those who settled upon these lands, were the names of Brown, Beeson, Beal, Churchman, Gatchell, Job, Rey nolds, Ross, and Sidwell. The township was divided into West Nottingham and East Nottingham, about the year 1720. The celebrated Hugh Williamson was born in West Nottingham, in 1735. OxroRD was formed by a division of Londonderry, in 1754. A survey of five thousand acres was made in the eastern part of this township for William Penn, Jr., and afterwards known as Penn's Manor. Between this and the Octorara creek, surveys were made from 1730 to 1750 and later, as desired by settlers. Those who had seated themselves on the Manor did not get title until 1747, and afterwards. The township also included a portion of Fagg's Manor, which lay to the east of Penn's Manor, and on this the settlers were also seated a consider able time before getting titles to the land. A majority of the early settlers were Scotch-Irish. It was divided into Upper Oxford and Lower Oxford in 1797. PENN was formed by a division of Londonderry in 1817. The greater part of it was originally included in Fagg's Manor, and the settlers were largely from Ireland. PENNSBURY was formed from the eastern part of Kennett, in 1770, and com prised the earliest settled part of that township. There were few settlements made until after 1700. The names of Smith, Peirce, Way, Hope, Harlan, Few, and Bentley, were among the first to take up land, and after these came the Harveys, Mendenhalls, Webbs, and Temples. John Parker, an eminent minister among Friends, was settled there in the time of the Revolution. At the battle of Brandywine, Knyphausen's forces were posted in this township, at and near Chad's ford, until the fighting commenced with the forces under Cornwallis, at Birmingham meeting-house, when he crossed the Brandywine and attacked the forces under General Wayne, who were guarding the ford. PIKELAND was granted by William Penn to Joseph Pike, by patent made in 1705. It contained over ten thousand acres. By various devises and convey ances, it became the property of Samuel Hoare, of London. He, in 1773, con.veyed it to Andrew Allen, and took a mortgage on it for sixteen thousand pounds sterling. Allen sold parcels of it to over one hundred persons, and received the purchase moneys. The mortgage not being paid, it was sued out, and the entire township sold by the sheriff in 1789, and re-purchased by Samuel Hoare. The persons to whom Allen had made sales, and whose titles were divested by this sheriff's sale, generally compromised with Hoare and received new deeds from him. It was divided into East Pikeland and West Pikeland in 1838. 543 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. PocorsoN, named from the stream which flows through it, was formed in 1849, from parts of four adjoining townships. It is bounded on one side by the Brandywine. Benjamin Chambers took up a large quantity of land on the Brandywine, which he sold to settlers. Joseph Taylor purchased from him in 1711, and afterwards built a mill on Pocopson creek. The Marshalls settled the northern part, and were succeeded by the Bakers. The name Pocopson is Indian, and signifies rapid or brawling stream. SADSBURY was a township as early as 1708. That part of it lying in the Great Valley was taken up at an early date in right of purchases made in England. The erection of Lancaster county, in 1729, took off the part of it west of the Octorara. The early settlers were a mixture of Friends from England, and of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The families of Boyd, Cowan, McClellan, Marsh, Moore, Parke, Truman, Williams, Hope, Gardner, and Richmond, were here early. Upper Octorara Presbyterian church, which dates from 1720, is in this township. SCHUYLKILL was formed from Charlestown in 1826. In the southern part was Lowther's Manor of Bilton, which was surveyed very early for (it is supposed) the children of Margaret Lowther, who was a sister of William Penn. The land in the northern part was taken up by David Lloyd, and settled by the Buckwalter, Coates, Starr, Longstreth, and other families. THORNBURY was named from Thornbury in Gloucestershire, England. It comprises but about one-fourth of the original township, the greater part being in Delaware county. This was all surveyed in right of the "first purchasers." Thornbury, Birmingham, and Westtown are the only townships within the present limits of the county which were organized before the year 1704. TREDYFFRIN is situated in the Great Valley, in the most easterly part of the county, and was part of a large tract surveyed for the Welsh, and principally taken up by them. The name is Welsh, and signifies valley-town, or township Tre or tref is the Welsh for town or township, and Dyffrin is a wide cultivated valley, hence the compound, Tredyffrin, the town or township in the valley. This township was sometimes called Valley-town or Valleyton, in old writings, an evident effort to anglicize the name. It has been said by some writers to signify stony valley, but this is not correct. UWCHLAN was principally settled by Welsh Friends about 1715 and later, under the auspices of David Lloyd. A Friends meeting was established, and a house erected, in which the preaching was in Welsh. Among the early settlers were John Evans, Cadwalader Jones, James Pugh, Robert Benson, Noble Butler, John Davis, Griffith John, and Samuel John. The latter two were preachers, and sons of John Philips, taking their father's christian name for their surname, as was the custom among the Welsh. The present inhabitants are largely the descendants of the early settlers. The name is Welsh, and signifies upland, or higher than or above the valley. The township was divided in 1858, and a new township formed, to which the name of Upper Uwchlan was given. VALLEY was formed in 1852, from parts of four adjoining townships, and was reduced in size by the formation of Caln in 1868. The greater part of the present township was formerly in Sadsbury. VINCENT.-On the earliest map of Pennsylvania this township is given in 544 CHESTER COUNTY. the names of Sir Matthias Vincent, Adrian Vreosen, Benjohan Furloy, and Dr. Daniel Cox. French creek, which passes through the township, was sometimes called Vincent river, and the tract of land was most frequently described as Cox & Company's 20,000 acres. The earliest inhabitants were supplanted by the Germans, whose descendants still, to a considerable extent, enjoy the lands of their fathers. Garret Brombac-now corrupted into Brownback-established in this township the first tavern north of the Lancaster road, in a house of rude construction, where he performed the duties of host many years. He was a merry German, and accumulated considerable means. The township was divided into East Vincent and West Vincent in 1832. WALLACE was formed in 1852, by the division of West Nantmeal. The name given to it by the court was Springton, but the Legislature changed it the next year to Wallace. The Manor of Springton, laid out about 1729, and containing ten thousand acres, included nearly, if not quite all, the lands in this township, and it is to be regretted that the name given by the court was not retained. Wallace post office is a prominent point in the township. Among the names of early settlers are Murray, Henderson, Starret, Parker, and McClure. WARWICK, named from Warwick iron works within its limits. The name came originally from the county of Warwick, in England, and was conferred on the works by Samuel Nutt, who was from that county. This township was formed by the division of East Nantmeal, in 1842. The Warwick iron works were originally erected in 1736, by Samuel Nutt. During the Revolution, they were in constant operation for the government, and cannon were cast there. In 1857 they produced 759 tons of boiler plate iron, from the ore of the neighboring mines. These works have been owned by the Potts family for over a century, by one of whom, David Potts Jr., they were carried on successfully for more than fifty years. WESTTOWN was organized about 1700. The early settlers were Daniel Hoopes, Aaron James, Benjamin Hickman, James Gibbons, and John Bowater. The Gibbons tract, of six hundred acres, was purchased by the Society of Friends in 1794, and there was established the well known Westtown boarding school, in which, at the present time, are about 220 pupils of both sexes. WHITELAND was organized about 1704. This is the north-western part of the original Welsh tract of forty thousand acres, which was laid out to them in 1684, with the expectation that they should be a separate Barony, with liberty to manage their municipal affairs in their own way. It appears they also desired to retain their own language, but the tide of subsequent events rendered this impracticable. The north and west lines of this survey are still chiefly retained, but the others are obliterated. Richard Thomas was one of the early settlers, and took up five thousand acres of land, in right of a purchase made by his father, Richard ap Thomas, of Whitford Garden, in Wiltshire, North Wales, in 1681, the greater part of which was located in this township. One of his descendants, Colonel Richard Thomas, was an officer during the Revolutionary war, and occupied a prominent position, both in civil and military affairs. The township is situated almost wholly in the choicest part of the Great Valley, and was divided into East Whiteland and West Whiteland in 1765. WILLISTOWN was organized in 1704. A large part of this tract was within the 2K 545 546 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. lines of the Welsh tract, but many surveys were made for other persons, especially in the southern parts. The families of Hibberd, Massey, Smedley, Thomas, and Yarnall, were among the earliest and most numerous. A tribe of Indians, called the Okehockings, held lands in this township, by special grant from the Commissioners of Property. ANNUAL VALUE OF PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE IN PENNSYLVANIA-1870. COUNTIES. Adams...................... Allegheny..................... Armstrong............... Beaver................... Bedford.................. B erks......................... Blair.................... Bradford...................... B utler......................... Bucks................... Cambria.................. Cameron..................... Carbon.................... Centre................... Chester.................. Clarion................. Clearfield.................... Clinton...................... Colum bia..................... Crawford..................... Cumberland.................. D auphin...................... Delaware................ Elk..................... Erie..................... Fayette.................. Franklin................ Fulton................... Forest................... Greene.................. Huntingdon................. Indiana...................... Jefferson................ Juniata...................... Lancaster.................... Lawrence.................... Lebanon...................... Lehigh........................ Luzerne.................. Lycom ing..................... M'Kean...................... M ercer..................... Mifflin................... Monroe................. Montgomery................. Montour................. Northampton............. Northumberland.......... Perry......................... Philadelphia.............. Pike..................... Potter................... Schuylkill................ Somerset..................... SnYder.................. Sullivan...................... Susquehanna................. Tioga...................... Union....................... Venango...................... Warren.................. Washington.................. Wayne....................... Westmoreland.............. Wyoming................ York..................... CD~ o $3, 820,438 $2,920 $498,545 4,043,871 69,875 472,794 2, 507,100 9,632 394,227 1,760,626 2,487 348,199 1,906,253 12,667 256,393 16,179,483 10,195 1,263,649 1,447,840 357 187,971 4,720,050 20,245 752,712 5,490,959 19,997 1,151,645 2,964,622 14,703 518,968 1,074,925 16,155 173,344 201,179 200 12,520 292,943 50 42,390 2,626,469 1,550 354,207 5,.759,638 80,075 2,181,799 1,568,836 6,932 311,902 1,371,084 7,272 248,426 1,068,566 1,957 126,217 1,790,979 4,730 282,616 3,784,832 123,690 765,210 8,544.509 5,902 555,707 2,843,888 14,997 475,479 1,368,141 38,566 406,920 211,944 48 34,856 3,810,413 14,093 656,260 2, 348,090 14,507 605,767 155,560 1,466 23,769 3,975,245 24,876 579,709 629,816 3,518 100,966 1,859,632 21,586 398,572 2,133,806 32.836 242,017 2,607,107 17,879 455,.914 1,256,455 6,750 191,075 1,320,283 2,378 159,332 9,727,074 39,708 2,371,860 1,706,439 1,172 299,796 2.718,700 4,804 477,381 2,393,.336 19,528 457,683 2,738,362 18,585 410,612 1,963,217 416,625 135,940 462,617 5,222 84.579 3,118,007 21,273 710,626 1.414,232 1,089 187.526 834,915 12,063 149,864 4,498,190 1,894 1,298,321 703,930 2,446 116,453 2,643,357 1,271 435,294 1,995,774 1,787 300,667 1,726,438 10,843 260,014 1,873,869 5,075 63,967 374,442 581 50,346 824,923 10,239 95,064 1,656,723 182,789 259,295 1,204,996 3,067 170,035 1,879,158 36,933 262,306 433,155 6,758 80,501 3,104,024 18,244 572,688 2,742,723 13,813 323,737 1,311,345.......... 230,239 1,313,560 13,915 217,484 1,270,993 4,768 185,901 4,146,805 4,432 870,401 1,697,178 3,255 272,558 4,243,247 10,292 675,021 1,127,323 12,103 174,000 6,408,657 14,072 982.874 171,703,301 1,503,737 28,413,110 r 1,722,610 3,015,224 1,915,150 1,576,277 1,298,205 4,544.490 798,164 4,262,095 4,357.108 2,467,001 8.33,361 73,220 202,974 1,332,555 5.192,517 1,317,708 931,661 530,152 1,064,968 3,702,266 1,909,461 1,660,572 1,605,657 206,706 2,930,156 2,095,444 127,114 2,270,161 474,654 1,875,272 1,434, e48 2,174,542 941,012 635,850 6,044,215 1,373,251 1,620,335 1,949,157 2,056,063 1,244,900 372,162 2,784,612 808,039 677,047 3,835,237 419,606 1,900,042 1,113,983 948,988 659,695 309,090 672,291 951,979 651,113 1,666,233 351,901 3,277,763 2,074,117 658,911 1,150,153 1,063,503 3,938.335 1,731,055 3,028,081 822,811 4,013,452 115, 647,075 0 319,240 $13,148 $4,567 490,734 154,237 39,382 323,682 63,034 6,861 318,178 210,953 17,030 152,451 30,352 8,086 901,761 5,429 12,817 101,877 9,8338 3,643 1,262,561 61,126 40,521 1,054,315 8,759 10,040 483,176 112,110 11,046 145,733 23,772 7,522 16,421 1,064 1,315 28,332 615 234 174,552 26,724 363 1,078,463 15,888 12,147 188,556 44,398 3,358 150,971 28,536 3,012 74,139 13,574 1,880 156,886 11,163 4,531 804,257 115,332 20,234 290,317 14,069 5,526 268,993 4,981 8,384 512,642 500 227 36,311 3,554 501 688,520 85,412 18,539 231,516 143,376 48,816 21,055 3.307 1,179 301,249 15,581 3,949 57, 390 10,220 1,184 253,554 222,244 47,863 155,717 27,0.55 4,211 368,415 62,995 6,959 166,018 28,310 4,730 100,122 8,469 1,997 844,002 10,046 24,867 241,389 134,063 7,979 292,957 2,603 6,475 320,656 4,384 15,203 372,904 19,277 10,246 150,176 12,902 4,624 69,942 14,008 5,193 535,840 123,319 21,022 140,811 10,228 1,465 99,583 6,019 2,936 1,340,112 2,804 7,049 65,027 3,378 401 297,104 7,135 6,903 164,815 7,879 2,152 12,583 10,224 1,935 125,186 150 905 55,191 1,608 1,300 160,548 26,230 12,484 134,289 3,342 7,772 80,421 4,683 1,384 448,180 40,088 89,550 76,683 10,608 251,793 869,500 54,292 15,275 562,619 44,894 30,63 88,684 4,269 3.391 172,052 46,283 4,496 255,916 25,403 8,140 395,.060 931,376 19,637 336,231 24,763 5,713 407,951 89,325 19,148 150,992 9,807 9,502 596,781 19,547 22,192 21,542,289 3,285,057 983,422 o $6,381,468 8,286,117 5,219,686 4.233,750 3,664,407 22,917,824 2,549,685 11,119,310 12,092,823 6,571,626 2,274,812 305,919 567,538 4,516,420 14,320,527 3,441,690 2,740,962 1,816,485 3,315,873 9,315.821 11,325,491 5,277,294 3,932,653 493.920 8,203,393 5, 487, 516 333.450 7,170,770 1,277,748 4,678.723 4,030,290 5,693,811 2,594,3 50 2,228,431 19,061,772 3.764,089 5,123,255 5,159,947 5,626,049 3,928.384 1,013.723 7,314,699 2.563,390 1,782,427 10,983,607 1,311,241 5.291,106 3,587. 057 2,971,025 2,728,847 792,558 1,801,779 3,196,199 2,115.699 4,422.448 1,211,399 7,911,786 5,792,539 2,295.839 2,917,943 2,814,624 10,306,048 4,070, 753 8,473,065 2.306,538 12,057,575 343, 077,991 CLARION COUNTY. BY REV. JAMES S. ELDER, CLARION. LARION COUNTY was erected by act of Assembly, passed March 11 1839, from parts of Armstrong and Venango counties. The boun daries of the new county were defined in the act as follows: " That all those parts of Armstrong and Venango counties lying and being within the following boundaries, viz.: Beginning at the junction of Red Bank creek with the Allegheny river; thence up said creek to the line of Jefferson and Armstrong counties; thence along said line to the line dividing Farmington and Tionesta townships, in Venango county; thence along said line to the _ _northwest corner of Farmington town- __ ship, in Venango county; thence by a _ straight line to the mouth of Shull's __ Run," afterwards called Ritchie's Run, -- "on the Allegheny River; thence down __ said river to the place of beginning, be -. and the same is hereby declared to be erected into a county, henceforth to be called Clarion." The straight line from " the northwest corner of Farmington township to Shull's Run," on account. of running diagonally through large tracts of unseated lands, was afterwards changed so as to avoid such divisions, rendering it angular and irregu- _ lar. Thus Clarion county is bounded - on the north by Forest county, on the I E- - east by Jefferson county, on the south by Red Bank creek and the Allegheny CLARION COUNTY COURT HOUM. river, and on the west by Venango (From a Photograph by A. Bonnet.) county. Average length of the county 25 miles; breadth, 24 miles; area, 600 square miles. In 1840, the townships comprising Clarion county and the population of each, although reported in the census returns of the county to which they had formerly belonged, were as follows: Townships from Armstrong countyClarion, 2,239; Madison, 1,305; Monroe, 1,151; Perry, 1,122; Red Bank, 3,070; Toby, 1,829. Townships from Venango county-Beaver, 1,611; Elk, 585; Farmington, 799; Paint, 491; and Richland, 1,385. Total population, 15,587. The population of the county in 1850 was 23,565; in 1860, 24,988; and in 1870 26,537. Within the past five years lar e numbers have been attracted to the 547 GENERAL HISTORY. The period of William Penn's absence from the Province is marked chiefly by unhappy differences between the legislature and the executive, and between the members from the territories and those of the Province proper. Our limits, however, will compel us to give merely a resum4 of the more important events and incidents, In 1685, the Proprietary appointed Nicholas Moore, from London a lawyer, and president of the Company of Free Traders, and a member of the Assembly, to the office of chief justice. The Assembly, jealous of its prerogatives, disregarded the fundamental laws of the Province in enacting statutes without previously publishing them as required by the constitution. Moore, by opposing some of the measures of the Assembly, and more particularly their attempt to alter the organization of the courts of justice, had incurred the enmity of the House, which proceeded to impeach him. He was charged, says Ebeling, with violence, partiality, and negligence, in a cause in which the Society of Free Traders was interested. Ten articles were preferred against him, which he refused to answer, though frequently summoned by the Council, and he was saved from conviction by some technical obstacle in the form of proceeding. But this did not protect him from punishment. He was expelled from the Assembly, and was interdicted all places of trust by the Council, until he should be tried upon the articles of impeachment or should give satisfaction to the board. His offence was not of a heinous character, since he retained the confidence of the Proprietary; and, in noticing his punishment, it should be remarked, that he had incurred the displeasure of the House by having entered thrice in one day his single protest upon its minutes against the passage of bills which had been introduced without the publication directed by the charter. The anger of the Assembly was extended to Patrick Robinson, clerk of the provincial court, who had refused to produce before them the minutes of that court. They voted him to be a public enemy and a violator of their privileges, and ordered him into the custody of the sheriff. When brought before the House he complained of arbitrary and illegal treatment, refused to answer the questions put to him, and in a fit of sullenness cast himself at full length upon the floor. An address was presented to the Council requesting that the prisoner might be disqualified to hold any public office within the Province or territories; but this punishment was not inflicted, as Robinson subsequently held the clerkship of the Council and other offices. Neither Moore nor Robinson were Quakers; they were charged with enmity to that sect, or, in the language of Penn, "were esteemed the most unquiet and cross to Friends." There were other disturbances at this time in the Province. A certain John CurtisT a justice of the peace, was charged with uttering treasonable and dangerous words against the King. He was ordered to be tried by commissioners from the Council, and, though no bill was found against him, he was dismissed from his office and compelled to give surety of the peace, in the sum of three hundred pounds. Charges were made against several officers of government for extortion; and gross immoralities were practiced among the lower class of people inhabiting the caves on the banks of the Delaware. These things were reported with great exaggeration in England, by the enemies of Penn and the Quakers; they prevented emigration, and greatly affected the reputation of the Society of Friends and the Proprietary. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. county by the oil business, and from the last election returns, it is safe to estimate the present population at a little over 31,000. The marked increase from 1840 to 1850 was owing to the rapid development of the iron and lumber interests, especially the former. At the organization of the county, many of the above townships embraced a wide territory. As the population increased, the following townships have been erected: Ashland, Brady, Highland, Knox, Licking, Limestone, Mill Creek, Piney, Salem, and Washington. Also, the following boroughs have been incorporated: Callensburg, Clarion, Curllsville, East Brady, New Bethlehem, Rimersburg, Strattanville, and St. Petersburg. By the same act, March 14th, 1839, James Thompson, John Gilmore, and Samuel L. Carpenter, were appointed commissioners to view the relative advantages of the situations offered, select "a proper and convenient site for a seat of justice," and transmit their report to the Governor on or before the 1st day of the following September. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Thompson resigned, and by the act of June 25, John P. Davis, of Crawford county, was appointed to fill the vacancy. A number of places were offered as sites, and the claims and advantages of each were warmly pressed by the citizens of the respective locality. The contest was finally ended by the selection of a site, the most central, and afterwards called Clarion, situated on the Bellefonte and Meadville turnpike, about one mile from where that road crosses the Clarion river. At that time only a very small part of the grounds were cleared, and only one house was standing where the future town should arise. It was also provided by the act of March 11, 1839, that the organization of the county for judicial purposes should go into effect on the 1st day of September, 1840. It was attached to the Sixth Judicial District. consisting of the counties of Erie, Crawford, and Venango. The first court was held on the first Monday of the following November. Hon. Alexander McCalmont, of Franklin, was appointed president judge; Messrs. Christian Myers and Charles Evans were commissioned associate judges. All these gentlemen were honored with a second appointment. The court convened for the first time in the front room of an unfinished house belonging to Captain Robert Barber, now owned by Captain A. H. Alexander. In this room, the floor yet covered with shavings, a rude platform was extemporized for the Court and Bar. There were twentythree lawyers present, many of them residents, who took the prescribed oath. The amount of business to be transacted was small, and was soon dispatched. When the site for the seat of justice was selected, the lands belonged to General Levi G. Clover, James P. Hoover, Peter Clover, Jr., (heirs of Philip Clover,) and Hon. C. Myers, who donated the town site to the county, on the condition of receiving half the proceeds from the sale of lots. Grounds for the county buildings, and a public square, were reserved from sale. At this time a dispute arose about a strip of land lying between these tracts, and which would be the central part of the future town. This ground being needed for lots before the question of ownership could be settled by law, the parties agreed in writing to release their claim to the title of the land, reserving the privilege of contesting the right to the purchase money. Application was made to the Legislature, and the Governor, by act of June 25, 1839, was authorized to appoint three citizens of the county, who were empowered to take deeds in trust 548 CLARION COUNTY. from persons donating lands, to lay out the town in lots, to sell the same, and to make contracts for the public buildings. Accordingly, the Governor appointed George B. Hamilton, Lindsay C. Pritner, and Robert Potter, commissioners, who proceeded to the discharge of the duties of their appointment. It was but a short time before 1839 that any part of the chosen site had been cleared out, and even then only a small portion. There was only one house in all that is now included in the borough limits. The greater part of the site was still covered with large pine and dense underbrush. It was previously esteemed good hunting grounds, where wild game had been frequently caught. As the commissioners entered upon their work, they laid out the town in lots, employing Mr. John Sloan as surveyor, who, for a long series of years before and afterward, was identified with the interests of the county. The first sale of lots was in October, 1839, and a second sale was made in the following spring. The court house and jail were put under contract in the fall of 1839. Much of the work of building was _ done during the summer of 1840, - _ though neither was completed that -_ season. The jail being further advanced, was used for other purposes Il than that of detaining alleged lawbreakers. Indeed, its loft for several years served for court room, church for all denominations, and for town hall. Both buildings were fine structures, remembering the time in which, they were built. The court house was ready for occupancy in 1843. This - building was destroyed by fire in -,March, 1859. The work of rebuild- CLARION COUNTY PRISON. ing was a once commenced, and (From a Photograph by A. Bonnet.) pushed forward with commendable energy. The new court house stands on the old site, and presents a fine appearance, though its cost was only $23,000, a marvel of economy and cheapness. The old jail, in 1874, was supplanted by a most complete and substantial structure of stone, with brick front, at a cost of about $122,000. These buildings reflect honor on the county that erected them, and are indicative of the public spirit and enterprise of the citizens. The first election in the county was held on the 13th of October, 1840, when only two thousand and five votes were polled. The following officers were chosen: sheriff, James Hasson; prothonotary, James Goe; coroner, John Reed; commissioners, George L. Benn, Jacob Miller, and Gideon Richardson; auditors, John Elliott, Joseph C. King, and George Means. The surface of the county is greatly diversified. Along the streams it is broken, and in many places precipitous. On the uplands between it is rolling and often hilly. The soil, in some parts, is of a good quality and quite produc549 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. tive. Other parts are better adapted to grazing purposes. On the whole it is susceptible of a very high state of cultivation. The iron interest, once so prosperous, has now fallen into decay. While formerly, for a number of years in succession, the furnaces of this county produced not less than fifty-five thousand tons of iron per annum, now there is but one furnace in blast. And yet the hills contain almost inexhaustible mines of ore, and there are immense supplies of charcoal and coke. There are indications, however, of a revival of this industry in the county, and many anticipate a future in this interest, bright with prosperity. For many years considerable amounts of fire clay were taken to places beyond the county for manufacturing the various articles made from this material. Within the county that business was conducted in various places on a small scale. Recently, additional establishments have been erected, where fire brick and all kindred wares are made. Clarion county lies in the northern end of the Allegheny coal field. Though near the out-cropping of that field, yet much of the coal of this region is of excellent quality. Beds of this mineral underlie large portions of the county. Frequently there are two veins, and sometimes three. While it has long beel. mined for domestic use, yet it is only lately that it has been sent to more distant markets. Within a short period a number of collieries have been established along the southern border. For many years the lumber business has been the leading interest. At present it has received a partial check. A heavy amount of capital is invested in tracts of land in the northern section of the county, covered with pine forests. The energies of a large number of the people have been directed to this industry. At present petroleum is the source of greatest wealth. The oil field extends over a large part of the county in the south-west, and is steadily advancing further to the interior. While " prospecting " for oil was carried on in Clarion county early in the history of the development of that article, yet the success was partial until the year 1870. In the early summer of that year it is believed there were only five producing wells. During the year other wells were put down across from Parker City, which yielded rich returns of oil. The business then began to assume a distinct form in this county. Each year it has been rapidly increasing, until the development is marvellous. The success gave a multiplied value to every spot of land where there was a prospect of finding oil. Population flowed in, wells in large numbers were put down, villages sprung up, business activity has been displayed to an astonishing extent, and that, too, sometimes in places that had been most quiet. A. W. Smiley, superintendent of the Union pipe line, estimates that five thousand wells have been drilled in this county. Reports show that forty-seven wells were finished being drilled in the month of January, 1876, with an aggregate daily yield of six hundred and sixtytwo barrels. S. HI. Stowell, compiler of the Petroleum Reporter, Pittsburgh, has also kindly furnished us with statistics. He says: " The reports in my possession do not separate Clarion county production from that of Butler and Armstrong counties. I should judge about one-third of the production in the district composed of these counties comes from Clarion. Whole production from Pennsylvania oil fields for the year 1875 was 8,942,938 barrels, of which CLARION COUNTY. Clarion, Butler, and Armstrong produced 7,621,479 barrels-one-third of which estimated to have come from Clarion, 2,540,495 barrels. This would make a daily average yield of six thousand nine hundred and sixty barrels in Clarion county, and the development is still widening. Every day new " rigs " go up as new sources are penetrated, and new wells tested. The county is well drained by numerous streams which intersect it in almost every direction. The Clarion river, formerly called Stump creek, and sometimes Toby's, from the names of two Indian trappers, is a beautiful stream, its waters so clear and pure, and its banks lined with scenery so fair. Having its source in Elk county, it flows directly through the interior of the county within half a mile of the county seat, and empties into the Allegheny river. Red-bank creek, the south branch of which rises in Clearfield county, and the North fork, which rises in Jefferson county, forms the southern boundary for some distance before it empties into the Allegheny river. Neither of these streams are navigable for steamboats, but rafts in vast numbers and coal boats are run down on high water. In addition to these, there are many smaller streams, yet sufficiently large to afford much valuable water-power, as Mill creek, Beaver, Deer, Paint, Canoe, Hemlock, Little Toby, Leatherwood, Piney, Licking, etc. The facilities for public travel and transportation of goods have greatly increased within a few years. Formerly steamboats on the Allegheny river for part of the year, and at very irregular times, together with the old stage coach, furnished the only means of travel; the former alone the only public facility for exchanging commodities with outside markets. Now the Allegheny Valley railroad traverses twenty-five miles of the southern border of the county, and the Eastern Extension, or Bennett's Branch, twenty-eight miles more. At Lawsonham, the Sligo Branch leaves the Eastern Extension, and running for ten miles towards the centre of the county, reaches the town of Sligo. This furnishes a greatly improved outlet. Educational interests receive much attention. The common school system being early adopted, there is a commendable enterprise manifested in keeping abreast of the improvements of the age. There are one hundred and eightyeight school buildings, providing two hundred and three school rooms, with an attendance of about seven thousand two hundred scholars. Besides these schools there are a number of seminaries, academies, and select schools in the county. The Clarion Academy was incorporated by the act of June 12, 1840, and an appropriation of two thousand dollars was made by the State to secure grounds and erect buildings, with the stipulation that four children, of limited means, from each township might enjoy the benefits arising from such an academy, without paying tuition. No further appropriations being made, the building had to be kept in repair by the borough, until finally, in 1865, it was transferred to the school board of the borough of Clarion, and is now used for public school purposes. Reid Institute is located in Reidsburg. In 1863, a young lady taught a select class in the vestibule of Zion church. Following this, increased efforts were made, and a school was established of no little celebrity. Hard by the church, now stand Prescott and Reid Halls, on the bluff overlooking the village below. Efforts are being made to secure sufficient funds to enlarge and endow. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Clarion Collegiate Institute was established in 1858, in the borough of Rimersburg. Its three story building, located in a beautiful grove of native growth, was erected in 1859. It is in successful operation, and its influence on all the surrounding community been marked and healthful. Callensburg Institute was chartered in 1858. Previous to that time there had been two or three sessions of select school. Rev. David M'Cay-now of precious memory-was deeply interested in its success. Many of the citizens in the town and surrounding community joined him in earnest efforts for its advancement. After some time a handsome building was completed, which is still an ornament to the place. Its students are now widely scattered, many of them filling with honor their professions or callings. For some time its prosperity has declined, but located as it is, there is no reason - -- why it should not greatly surpass its former usefulness. ___ _Carrier Seminary, on the hill at the east end of the borough of ---- __ Clarion, was erected in 1868, at a __total cost, including furniture and -_ __ apparatus, of seventy-five thousand Idollars. It is built of brick, and the main edifice is one hundred feet in length and seventy-five in width, and is three stories high. The grounds comprise about ten acres, handsomely laid out, and CARRIER SEMINARY. planted in shade and ornamental trees. It has received a good measure of patronage, and has been attended with a good degree of prosperity. At East Brady a select school has been successfully started within the past year, under the management of Rev. J. A. Ewing; and still others are in operation within the county. In all these institutions, for the year 1875, there were gathered nine hundred and fifteen pupils, and twenty-nine instructors. The early history of the region now embraced in the limits of Clarion county should not be overlooked. Very much is lost. Of that which remains, much is only fragmentary. The first settlers had earnest work to do in planting homes in the wilderness and subduing the forest. They had but little time to put on record the events transpiring around them, and which would now be read with thrilling interest. One after another of the pioneers has passed away, until now scarcely any remain. Hence, many of those early incidents of real historic value can only be gathered from conflicting tradition. But few conflicts with the Indians are known to have taken place in what is now Clarion county. There is one incident, however, that should not be suffered to pass into oblivion. It occurred at Brady's Bend, in the south-western line of the county, in June, 1779. The incursions of the Indians had become so frequent, and their outrages so alarming, that it was thought advisable to retaliate upon them the injuries of war, and to carry into the country occupied by them the same system with which they had visited the settlements. For this 552 CLARION COUNTY. purpose an adequate force was provided, under the immediate direction of Colonel Brodhead, the command of the advance guard of which was confided to Captain Brady. The troops proceeded up the Allegheny river, and had arrived near the mouth of Red-bank creek, now known by the name of Brady's Bend, without encountering an enemy. Brady and his rangers were some distance in front of the main body, as their duty required, when they suddenly discovered a war party of Indians approaching them. Relying on the strength of the main body, and its ability to force the Indians to retreat, and anticipating, as Napoleon did in the battle with the Mamelukes, that, when driven back, they would return by the same route they had advanced on, Brady permitted them to proceed without hindrance, and hastened to seize a narrow pass, higher up the river, where the rocks, nearly perpendicular, approached the river, and a few determined men might successfully combat superior numbers. In a short time the Indians encountered the main body under Brodhead, and were driven back. In full and swift retreat they pressed on to gain the pass between the rocks and the river, but it was occupied by Brady and his rangers, who failed not to pour into their flying columns a most destructive fire. Many were killed on the bank, and many more in the stream. Cornplanter, afterwards the distinguished chief of the Senecas, but then a young man, saved himself by swimming. The celebrated war chief of this tribe, Bald Eagle, was of the number slain on this occasion. After the savages had crossed the river, Brady was standing on the bank wiping his rifle, when an Indian, exasperated at the unexpected defeat and disgraceful retreat of his party, and supposing himself now safe from the well-known and abhorred enemy of his race, commenced abusing him in broken English, calling Brady and his men cowards, squaws, and the like, and putting himself in such attitudes as he probably thought would be most expressive of his utter contempt of them. When Brady had cleaned his rifle and loaded it, he sat down by an ash sapling, and, taking sight about three feet above the Indian, fired. The Indian, as the rifle cracked, was seen to shrink a little and then limp off. When the main army arrived, a canoe was manned, and Brady and a few men crossed to where the Indian had been seen. They found blood on the ground, and had followed it but a short distance when the Indian jumped up, struck his breast and said, " I am a man." It was Brady's wish to take him prisoner, without doing him further harm. The Indian continued to repeat "I am a man." "Yes," said an Irishman, who was along: "By Saint Patrick, you're a purty boy," and, before Brady could arrest the blow, sunk his tomahawk into the Indian's brain. About the year 1792 this region was visited by four land companies-the Peters, the Holland, the Bingham, and the Pickering-for the purpose of locating land warrants. As nearly as can be ascertained, they came in the above-named order, and all within a year of each other. Their warrants were all dated from 1792 to 1794. They were laid in sections of a thousand acres each, and covered the principal part of the lands within the present limits of Clarion county. By an act passed in 1785, actual settlers were allowed to take up tracts of four hundred acres. No settlements, however, were made in what is now Clarion county till 1801. In the fall of that year, two bands of pioneers came out, one 553 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. from Westmoreland county, under the patronage of General Alexander Craig, the other from Penn's Valley and neighboring localities. It is estimated that about one hundred and fifty persons, in all, came out that year. As the winter approached, some of these visited their old homes, and returned with their families in the spring. The streams from these two sources continued to flow for ten or twelve years. Those who settled in the southern part, near where Callensburg now stands, supposed they were taking up vacant lands. But in the course of time they discovered their mistake, and were compelled to purchase of the Bingham company. The toils and hardships of all those first settlers were almost incredible. Journeying through long stretches of forests, over dim and ill-defined paths, and across unbridged streams, they could bring but a small supply of the necessaries of life with them. Finding a home in a vast unbroken wilderness, they could not provide these necessaries at once. Thus the want of proper food and sufficient raiment caused no little suffering. Ofttimes they were compelled to encamp under trees, and use bread made of flour mingled with water and baked on the coals. There were times in the experience of many when a supply of even this fare would have been deemed a luxury. Their first dwellings were hastily built, and of the simplest architecture. One of the first articles manufactured by these hardy pioneers was "pine tar," extracted from the knots of decayed pine trees. The product thus obtained was put in kegs, taken down the river in canoes to Pittsburgh, and there exchanged for flour and other necessaries. Many paid for their lands, at least in part, by money raised in this way. At once small clearings were made, and patches planted in that which would most fully relieve pressing necessity. By and by farms began to be opened out and a greater competency to be enjoyed. Churches were built, schools were started, and the wilderness began to blossom. Though the beginnings were small, yet the foundations were laid that would bear a noble superstructure. The character of these men, very generally, was of a manly type. As a rule they were not only men of great courage and endurance, but likewise men of sterling integrity. Many of them were men of great Christian worth. Their wives were equally patterns of excellence. "Such men and women were made to match." All honor to the memory of those fathers and mothers who toiled so unweariedly, and suffered so patiently that they might secure homes for themselves and their children, and lay the foundations of a worthy community. How well they did their work is seen in the rich fruitage we now enjoy. The county that covers the region they settled has made amazing strides in wealth, and now takes a high rank among the counties of the Commonwealth in all those interests that are deemed valuable and precious. CLARION, the county seat, is a handsomely laid out town. It was erected into a borough by the act of April 6, 1841. In its early history it has been asserted that its growth was too rapid. Public buildings to be erected and so many new houses to be built, people flocked in, in too great numbers for the permanent growth of the town. In 1840 the census showed a population of eight hundred. But if this mistake was made it was soon remedied. The place has acquired a healthy growth. Building has been greatly stimulated within the past two years, more houses having been built during that time than for a number of years previous. The neatness and good taste which mark both the public and private 554 CLARION COUNTY. buildings, and the sound financial basis on which business is conducted, attest its growing prosperity. One of the most important improvements was the construction of water works in the fall of 1875. Water is forced from the Clarion river by Eclipse pumps, to an elevation of four hundred and eighty-four feet, at a possible rate of three hundred barrels per hour. The influent pipe is of wrought iron of three and a half inches diameter, and three thousand three hundred and thirty-six feet in length. The water is discharged into two tanks, having a united capacity of twenty-five hundred barrels. They are located on Seminary hill, eighty-five feet above the average level of the town. From these tanks the water is distributed. In this way an abundant supply of pure water, for the requirements of the whole town, has been provided at a cost not exceeding thirteen thousand dollars. The works have been pronounced very complete in their construction. Located as Clarion is, on high ground, this improvement has added greatly to the comfort and convenience of the citizens, and to l)protection against fire. SHIPPENVILLE, located on the turnpike, five miles west of Clarion, was laid out in 1826 by Hon. Richard Shippen. For some years after the decline in the iron manufacture it remained nearly stationary. Recently, however, the oil field has extended almost to its doors, imparting new vigor and awakening a growing activity. It is a point of considerable importance. ST. PETERSBURG is in the south-western part of the county, about three miles north of Foxburg, a station on the Allegheny Valley railroad. It is in the midst of an oil-producing district. For many years prior to 1870 it was only a small village. After that time it suddenly sprang into prominence, rising like an exhalation from the earth, and now presents a busy aspect. Its population is fluctuating, and is variously estimated at from fifteen hundred to two thousand. EAST BRADY, situated on the Allegheny river, opposite Brady's Bend, is a borough of rapid yet steady growth. Its situation and surroundings are favorable to its permanent increase. CALLENSBURG, built on an eminence, and near the confluence of the Clarion and Licking streams, is seven miles east of Parker City. It was laid out in 1826, by Hugh Callen. It has a fine location and is a beautiful town. SLIG is among the towns recently laid out. Its location is near the noted Sligo furnace, where, until recently, large quantities of iron have been manufactured. It is the terminus of the Sligo Branch railroad, and a point where large amounts of oil are shipped by the Atlantic Pipe company. NEW BETHLEHEM is an important town on the Eastern Extension. Its improvement is marked since the completion of the railroad. The various coal works in the immediate vicinity have increased its importance and business activity. STRATTANVILLE is on the turnpike, three miles east of Clarion. John Strattan was its proprietor, who laid it out in 1830. It has been incorporated as a borough, and is the centre of an agricultural region. GREENVILLE is a pleasant village, eight miles south-east of Clarion. Crowded into a small area, it nestles in one of the narrow and romantic valleys of Piney. Bordered with evergreens, it is protected by the surrounding hills. 555 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Near by is an extensive woolen factory, which has been in operation for ten years, furnishing a market for wool, and manufactures excellent cloths and kindred goods. Besides the foregoing boroughs and villages there are many others, as Tylersburg, Freyburg, Edenburgh, Turkey City, Salem City, Foxburg, Perryville, West Freedom, Monterey, Phillipsburg, Lawsonham, Millville, Shannondale, Rimersburg, Curllsville, Reidsburg, and others still smaller. OLD LIBERTY BELL, PHILADELPHIA. 556 CLEARFIELD COUNTY. BY WILLIAM D. BIGLER, CLEARFIELD. LEARFIELD COUNTY was brought into existence by an act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania passed the 20th of March, 1804. The same act provided also for the erection of Jefferson, M'Kean, Potter, Tioga, and Cambria counties. Clearfield was formed out of the counties of Huntingdon and Lycoming, and its boundaries were set forth in the law which created it as follows: "Beginning where the line dividing Canan and Brodhead's district strikes the West Branch of the Sus.....-M VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF CLEARFIELD. (From a Photograph by J. K. Bottorf.) quehanna river, thence north along said district line until a due west course from thence will strike the southeast corner of M'Kean county, thence west along the southern boundary of M'Kean county to the line of Jefferson county, thence southerly along the line of Jefferson county to where Hunter's district line crosses Sandy Lick creek, thence south along the district line to the Canoe Place on the Susquehanna river, thence an easterly course to the southwest corner of Centre county on the heads of Moshannon creek, thence down the Moshannon creek the several courses thereof to the mouth, thence down the West Branch of the Susquehanna river to the beginning." A portion of the territory included in the above boundaries was taken in 1843 to form a part of Elk county, and a small portion in 1868 was annexed to Jefferson and Elk counties. 557 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. Penn, however, in 1686, changed the form of executive government 1686. to a board of five commissioners, any three of whom were empowered to act. The board consisted of Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas Moore, James Claypoole, Robert Turner, and John Eckley. The next session of the Assembly was marked by the usual want of unanimity and the objectionable act of laying on its members a solemn 1688. injunction of secrecy. This measure was not without an exhibition of undignified violence, resisted by the Council, and the lack of harmony greatly obstructed legislation. Lloyd, in consequence, requested to be released from the public affairs of government. His request was reluctantly granted, and on his recommendation, the Proprietary changed the plural executive into a single deputy, making choice of Captain John Blackwell, formerly an officer of Cromwell, under whom he had earned a distinguished reputation in England and Ireland. He was in New England when he received his commission, dated July 25, 1688. Governor Blackwell met the Assembly in the third month, 1689; but, by reason of some misunderstanding or dissension between him and some of the 1689. Council, the public affairs were not managed with harmony and satis faction; and but little done during his administration, which continued only till the twelfth month this year, when he returned to England, and the government of the Province, according to charter, devolved again on the Council, Thomas Lloyd, president. The appointment of Captain John Blackwell, who was no Quaker, to be Deputy Governor, appears, by the Proprietary's letters to his friends in the Province, "to have been because no suitable person, who was of that society, would undertake the office." By the Revolution of 1688, which drove James from the throne, the Proprietary lost all influence at the English court. His intimacy with that unhappy monarch covered him with dark suspicion. His religious and political principles were misrepresented; he was denounced as a Catholic, a Jesuit of St. Omers, and a self-devoted slave to despotism, and was charged with conspiring the restoration of James. It is now unnecessary to disprove these accusations; for though his enemies caused him to be thrice examined before the privy council, and to give bail for his appearance in the King's Bench, he was discharged by that court, no evidence appearing against him. The ties which bound him to Europe having been thus broken, he prepared to revisit his Province, accompanied by another colony of five hundred persons, which he had assembled by publication of new proposals. A convoy was appointed by government for his protection, and he was on the eve of sailing, when his enterprise was marred by another persecution. A wretch, named Fuller, subsequently declared infamous by parliament, and pilloried, accused him, on oath, with being engaged in a conspiracy of the Papists in Lancashire to raise a rebellion, and restore James to the crown. He narrowly escaped arrest on his return from the funeral of George Fox, the celebrated founder of the Society of Friends. Hitherto he had met his accusers with a courage worthy of his character and his innocence, yet such was his dread of the profligacy of the witness who now appeared against him, that he deemed it prudent to seek retirement and privacy. His contemplated colony failed, and the expenses of its outfit were lost. HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. By authority of this law, Governor M'Kean appointed Roland Curtin, James Fleming, and James Smith, commissioners, who, after receiving several proposals for the location of the county seat, finally selected, in the year 1805, for that purpose, a tract of land belonging to Abraham Witmer, being the site of the old Indian town of Chincklacamoose, and the site of the present town of Clearfield. It was not tor some time after its creation that Clearfield county was regularly organized and assumed absolute management of its own internal affairs. The commissioners of Centre county, by virtue of a legislative enactment of March 14, 1805, took charge of the infant county, and exercised a provisional authority over it from that time until 1812, when Clearfield county selected its first board of commissioners, to wit: Robert Maxwell, Hugh Jordan, and Samuel Fulton, who at their first session appointed Arthur Bell, Sr., county treasurer. The connection between the two counties for judicial purposes continued until the 29th of January, 1822, when the Legislature passed a law " organizing Clearfield county for judicial purposes, and empowering her to elect county officers." From the adoption of this law dates the complete organization of the county. Clearfield county occupies a central position in the State, and is situate on the west side or rather behind the main ridge of the Allegheny mountains, on the sources of the West Branch of the Susquehanna river. The surface is generally hilly and broken-in some parts mountainous, with occasional level plateaus as you approach the heads of the streams. There are no continuous mountain ranges which can be distinctly traced, but a succession of ridges and hills, irregular in outline and deeply indented by small streams, which indicate the close proximity of a mountain range. There is considerable flat land along the larger streams. The river, more particularly in the southern and central portion of the county, is bordered with a valley of rich bottom land, which spreads out at times to considerable width. But following the course of the river through the north-eastern part of the county, the country assumes a bolder aspect-the valleys and bottom land gradually narrow, in places disappear, and high, rugged hills, from whose summits are opened long vistas of beautiful mountain scenery, hem the river on either side. The entire county is traversed from the southwest to the northeast by the West Branch of the Susquehanna river, which takes its rise in the adjoining county of Indiana. The upper West Branch is a beautiful mountain stream, and while there is a prevailing sameness in the general outline of its scenery, yet it exhibits an interesting variety in its tortuous course, alternately sweeping toward the middle of narrow valleys and back again to hug the base of gently sloping ridges or steep, forest-crowned hills-at times a gently flowing current, and again a torrent of waters rushing in wild tumult through narrow and rocky channels. It is also a useful stream, being the great outlet for the material wealth of the county; and every year, when swollen by freshets, it is a scene of life and activity, and its bosom is freighted with the valuable crafts of the sturdy lumberman, on his way to the markets in the eastern part of the State. Cush, Chest, Anderson, Clearfield, and Moshannon creeks, and Bennet's Branch of the Sinnemahoning, are its principal tributaries in the county, and partake of 558 CLEARFIELD COUNTY. the characteristics of the main stream, both in topographical feature and scenery. The line of water shed, which separates the streams of the Atlantic from those which flow into the Gulf of Mexico, passes through the western end of the county, and within a few rods of each other. Within the limits of the county are springs whose water form a part of this widely diverging drainage. In the one case they traverse a distance of over two thousand miles, watering twelve States, in the other they reach the same tide water line, in a distance of three hundred miles. Territorially, Clearfield is one of the largest counties in the State. Its length is forty-five miles, and its average breadth thirty-two miles; its area one thousand four hundred and forty square miles, and embracing in its boundaries over eight hundred thousand acres of land. The soil is generally fertile, but varies a great deal with the surface of the county. The valleys and the bottom lands along the banks of the streams are rich and productive. The soil on the higher lands is naturally thin, but yields good crops, and by careful husbandry will compare favorably with some of the recognized agricultural districts in the State. There are occasional strata of limestone of good fertilizing qualities to be found throughout the county. Whilst its agricultural resources are naturally good, Clearfield county has suffered a great deal from poor farming. The original fertility of the soil in many cases was exhausted, and lands being plenty and cheap, it was found to be more profitable to clear new fields than to bring back old ones to a proper state of cultivation, and thus in many Clearfield farms the eye is pained with the sight of large fields of abandoned soil, with scarce a blade of grass to hide the naked earth. It is only within the last few years that the subject of agriculture has received the attention in this county which its importance demands. Lumbering has always been the principal industry, a more attractive industry than farming, because it has been more profitable, and affords more variety in its pursuit; and in the early spring, or, in local parlance, in rafting time, the season most essential to the interest of the agriculturist, the farm was neglected for a " trip down the river." This neglect, with the consequent bad results, has been the authority for the familiar remark that the "soil is poor, and farming don't pay here." But the rapidity with which the pine forests are disappearing before the axe of the lumberman, and the early prospect of their complete exhaustion, and also the recent stagnation or rather prostration of the lumber interest throughout the State, has compelled many of the citizens to turn their attention to some other occupation as a means of subsistence and profit. This has given a strong impetus to the cause of agriculture, and of late there has been an uplifting of the business of farming from a condition where neither knowledge or skill were used to the higher plane it occupies elsewhere. Recent efforts have demonstrated not only the natural capacity of the soil, but what is an essential element to the prosperity of an agricultural people, its capability to produce an amount equal to and in excess of home consumption. Hitherto Clearfield exported lumber to bring back flour and grain, and thus was dependent upon her neighbors for her daily bread; but the day is not distant when her hills and valleys will blossom as the rose, through the efforts of the skilled husbandman, who has recognized 559 RISTOR Y OF PEYNS YL VANIA. farming as a science and an art, and not a thing of chance, and whose return for his labors are proportioned to his advancement by careful study and experiment in the knowledge of his occupation. Its pine trees have been the county's great source of wealth. Before the advent of the settler this county was a vast wilderness of pine and hemlockplenteously intermingled with many varieties of hard wood, such as oak, maple, beech, birch, poplar, etc. To the early settler the value of the pine was unknown, because there had not yet been any markets established for that commodity on the river below, and on account of its bulk was most troublesome to dispose of in clearing up the land. Hence he was wont to take its life by girdling it with his axe, and leave it stand; and in different parts of the county can be seen many fields covered with those dead standing pines-mute monuments of man's wastefulness. The first trade of the county was in bituminous coal. This was engaged in as early as 1810, and carried on for many years. The coal was loaded in arks, which were built to contain from one thousand two hundred to one thousand five hundred bushels; and when the freshets came these arks were run down the river to the larger towns, and the coal disposed of at prices ranging from twelve to twenty-five cents per bushel. The building of dams on the Susquehanna put an end to this trade, as the schutes in these dams interfered with the success for navigation of these primitive vessels-the least mishap sending them and their cargoes to the bottom of the river. It was not until the year 1837 that lumbering in square timber was carried on as a business, nor with any degree of success until about the year 1842, and the prices even then (four to six cents per cubic foot) would not be considered very remunerative now, when the same quality of timber brings in the market from fifteen to twenty cents per cubic foot. But the wants of the lumberman of those early days were few, his expenses small, and smaller profits satisfied him than would satisfy the operator now-a-days. But with occasional reverses the business rapidly grew, until it has become one of the most important industries in the State. There are different processes by which the business of lumbering is carried on-one of the principal modes is by felling the trees generally during the fall and winter season, hewing them, i. e., squaring them up on all sides with axes made for the purpose-hauling them on sleds to the river and larger creeks; and then when the freshets come in the spring, they are rolled into the stream and fastened together, generally enough sticks to make five to eight thousand cubic feet, with a semblance of regularity and neatness, by lash poles of hickory or white oak couplings. Large oars or sweeps are put at either end. When completed this is called a raft, and being provided with a crew of hands, in charge of a pilot, is started down the river to market. The current is the propelling power, and the oars are used to keep the craft from striking the shore or staving on the numerous rocks and obstructions in the channel. Mishap sometimes overtakes the unskillful navigator, and then the "trip" is attended with a great deal of hard work, and occasionally with risk to life and limb. The occupation of a raftsman has just enough of excitement and danger in it to make it attractive, and begun in boyhood is generally adhered to through life. 560 CLEARFIELD COUNTY. Another process was to "raft and run" the manufactured lumber. This branch of the business was carried on extensively for many years, and there were at one time, within the county, no less than four hundred saw mills-principally small water mills with an average capacity each of sawing one hundred thousand feet per annum. The establishment of large booms at Lock Haven and Williamsport has revolutionized this branch of the business, and board rafts on the West Branch are almost a thing of the past. These booms are located at points on the river where there are good facilities for shipping lumber by railroad and canal to the markets all over the country, and it was found more profitable to "drive " the loose logs from the heads of the stream into these booms, and manufacture them there, than to manufacture them at home and send the lumber in rafts to the uncertain markets on the river. The advent of railroads to Clearfield county within the last few years has been gradually working a second revolution in this business. Large steam saw mills are being erected along the lines of the new railroads, and itf the pine forests would hold out, not many years would elapse before the most of her lumber would again be manufactured within the limits of the county. To show the rapidity of the growth of this lumber trade and its importance now, it is estimated that during the year 1840 the amount of lumber rafts out of the county would not exceed one hundred and fifty rafts, or seven million five hundred thousand feet board measure. For the last twelve years, from 1862 to 1874, the amount inclusive of both the logging and square timber will equal two hundred and forty million feet annually. There has been, in addition, within thile same period, ani average annual shipment by railroad of twenty to forty million feet of manufactured lumber. A reasonable valuation on this lumber exhibits an annual trade to the county of over two millions of dollars. It also exhibits another fact, and a warnful one to the lumberman-that thile end of this large white pine lumber trade is not far distant. These noble forests are fast disappearing before the axe of the woodman, and at the present rate of operating another decade of years will witness their entire exhaustion. What will Clearfield have to depend on when her pine trees are all gone? Where will her capital find investment, and her surplus labor employment? That question has been already answered. In addition to the steady development of her agricultural resources, since the year 1862, a new industry has been growing up which will in a brief period overshadow her lumber trade. Clearfield county lies in the centre of the largest bituminous coal basin in the State. An idea of its extent may he gatlhered from the following brief sketch made by one who has given the subject much attention. The full depth of the coal strata is yet unknown, but there is no difficulty in tracing its lateral bearings in any direction. The numerous tracts of land extending to the head of the Moshannon, and those embracing the vast region between Moshannon creek and Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, cover a coal region of about one hundred square miles, which is only the undisturbed part of the coal territory lying in Centre county. Trout run, Bear run, and WTilson run course through this part of Centre county, and the ravines in which they flow afford splendid openings for striking the heavy coal beds that crop out along the hill-sides. 2L HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Westward of the Moshannon, the coal extends throughout the regions coursed by Beaver run, Whiteside run, Muddy run, Clearfield creek and its numerous tributaries, Chest creek, and Susquehanna river, embracing an area of nine hundred or one thousand miles. Following southward into Cambria county, the continuation of the coal region covers an additional area of about three hundred square miles; and if we take in Jefferson and Indiana counties we have a coal territory embracing the greater part of five counties, with Clearfield as the great central basin, the whole covering an area of about five thousand square miles. In some places there are not less hdian twelve seams of coal, and these will average at least four feet in thickness. The vein worked in this region is six feet from top to bottom, while many other veins measure only three feet, but over on Clearfield creek, at the mouth of Beaver Dam branch, fifty feet below water level, a seam of coal was found, which measures fourteen feet in thickness, and there is no doubt this same body of coal underlies the whole extent of our coal territory. Bennett's Branch extension of the Allegheny Valley railroad, or what is familiarly known as the low grade railroad, which was recently completed, passes through the northern and western ends of the county, and has opened up and brought into market the bituminous coal lands of the famous Reynoldsville basin. The Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, a branch of the Pennsylvania, enters the county at its south-east corner, and is extended more than half way through it. This is the outlet for the coal of the Moshannon basin. From this main branch numerous smaller branches and lateral roads are building and extending every year, and penetrating this vast coal field in many different directions. The first coal shipped from this region was from the Powelton colliery in the year 1862. Now there are in the Moshannon region twenty-five large collieries, employing over three thousand men, and with an aggregate daily capacity of twelve thousand tons. The total amount of coal now annually shipped from the county is not less than two millions of tons. This coal has become a great favorite in the eastern markets, and for steam generating purposes is preferred to other varieties of bituminous coal. The coal trade of Clearfield county is only in the infancy of its development, yet its rapid growth in the short time of its existence, the many superior qualities of the coal, the extended area of its basin, warrant the prediction that it is destined to be, in the not far off future, the largest and most active bituminous coal trade in the world. Fire clay is also among the valuable resources of Clearfield county. It abounds in great quantities all through this bituminous region. It has been subjected to the most severe tests, and found to be in all respects equal to the celebrated Scotch clay, or the Mount Savage clay of western Maryland. There are three large establishments in the county, one at Clearfield town, and the other two within five miles, at Woodland, with a total capacity of thirty thousand brick per day, engaged in the manufacture of fire brick, and also some forms of terra cotta ware. These brick have established for themselves a good reputation, not only among the iron men of Pennsylvania, but find a ready market as far west as Chicago and St. Louis. 562 (CLEARFIELD COT NTY. Iron ore is also found in considerable quantity throughout the county, but not in veins of sufficient size or richness to attract capital from other localities, in a State that is so famous for the abundance and superiority of that precious metal. In 1814, Peter Karthaus, a native of Hamburg, Germany, but afterwards a resident merchant of Baltimore, a man of large means and energies, with great eccentricities of character, established a furnace at the mouth of the Little Moshannon or Mosquito creek, in the lower end of the county. It was a stupendous undertaking, and called forth more than the ordinary attributes of human sagacity and skill to build up iron works in an almost unbroken wilderness, so far from market, and with few facilities for transportation. But Karthaus possessed all these qualities, and made his works a partial success for several years. They afterwards, about the years 1833-6, passed into the hands of different owners, who carried them on until the year 1840, when they succumbed to the fluctuations of the times, the disadvantages of distance of market, and the cost of transporting their products. Within a few years a railroad has penetrated to a short distance from Karthaus, and projected branches into these lands have already been surveyed. Capital has found its way back after a long absence, and in a brief period of time the clank of the forge-hammer, and the busy hum of industry may soon again be heard where it has been silent for over a quarter of a century. The territory now included in the limits of Clearfield county was, until the close of the last century, an unbroken and almost unexplored wilderness, visited only by venturesome hunter and the surveyor. It was the undisturbed habitation of the bear, the wolf, the panther, the moose, and the deer. The colonial struggles for liberty had been over many years, our nationality had been achieved, and America had a place in the family of nations, and hee people had gradually settled down to the arts of peace long before the white man had penetrated these wilds to build himself a home, and therefore the early settlement of this county was not attended with those stirring scenes and tragic incidents of border warfare which marked the early history of the white settlement in the valleys of the lower West Branch. Tihe Indian was still here, but lihe had already succumbed to his inevitable destiny, and was peacefully receding before the onward march of civilization. Although their slumbers were not broken by the war whoop of the savage, nor their families live in hourly dread of his tomahawk and scalping-knife, yet these hardy pioneers exhibited the same stern and unbending heroism in strifes where no world could look in upon and applaud, in unceasing daily toil, a courage and self-devotion in hand-to-hand struggle with hardship and want as would have made them heroes on fields of war. With few exceptions, they have long since passed away; but many of them lived long enough to reap some reward for their early trials and sufferings in the enjoyment of the local honors of their fellows, and the material comforts of life which their labors had gathered around them. Ogden, Leonard, Bell, Reed, Kyler, Bloom, McCracken, Ferguson, Fulton, Irwin, are historic names in the annals of Clearfield county, and although the achievements and fame of these pioneer settlers may not have crossed the mountains which surround their former homes, and the story of their lives go unrecited to the world outside, family tradition will long preserve the record of their ancestral deeds. 563 1STORY OF PENNSYLVAMIA. CLEARFIELD, the county seat, was laid out in 1805 by the commissioners appointed by the Governor to make selection of a site for a county seat for Clearfield county. It was incorporated into a borough by an act of the Legislature, approved 21st April, 1840. Its location is one of great natural beauty, on the bank of the river, and embosomed in an amphitheatre formed by surrounding hills, from whose summits a fine panoramic view can be had of the town and the narrow valley which borders the river for several miles. It is located on the site of the old Indian town of Chinklacamoose, and the openings or clearings made by the Indians, which the first settlers found upon their arrival here, gave the name of Clearfield to the town and county. The town derives its importance from its connexion with the lumber trade of the county, it being the residence of many of those who were the pioneers of the timber business, and are still prominently engaged in that pursuit. Its public buildings, the court house and jail, are both new structures, modern in their styles of architecture, and of a size and capacity to meet the growing wants of the county for many years to come. It contains six churches-Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, and Lutheran. The two first named are fine large edifices, models of architectural skill, and a credit to the enterprise and liberality of the community that erected them. It contains one of the finest public school buildings in the central part of the State, the result of the munificence of one of its citizens, Judge James T. Leonard, who donated the ground and erected and furnished the building at an expense of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars. Judge Leonard is the oldest inhabitant of the town, and one of a few still living of the early settlers of the county, having come here with his father in 1803, when he was only three years old. He endured all the privations and hardships incident to the life of a pioneer in the wilderness, when the means of subsistence were only obtained by unceasing toil. By his never-failing industry and prudent management, he has made his life a success, and for many years has been at the head of the business of the county. The present population of Clearfield is something over two thousand. The Tyrone and Clearfield railway passes through the town. It presents an appearance of neatness and comfort in its wide and finely shaded streets, its numerous spacious and tasty homes, and its business and manufacturing establishments, all indicative of the enterprise and thrift of its citizens. CURWENSVILLE, named after John Curwen, of Montgomery county, upon whose land the town was laid out. It was made a borough by an act of the Legislature, approved 3d February, 1832. It is pleasantly situated on high rolling ground, near the confluence of Anderson creek with the West Branch of the Susquehanna. It is noted for its many handsome private residences, its numerous business establishments, and the enterprise and public spirit of its citizens. Curwensville is the present terminus of the Tyrone and Clearfield railway. Since the advent of the railroad the town has been making marked strides in the increase of population and growth of its trade. It has many natural advantages in its location. Surrounded by a large and prosperous agricultural district, and possessed of ample water power for manufacturing purposes in its adjoining stream, these, with the business activity and spirit of improvement which animate her people, warrant the belief that the town will never stand still. 564 GLEARFIELD COUNTY. OSCEOLA was laid out by a company of capitalists from Centre county, in the year 1859. It was located in the centre of a vast pine and hemlock forest, all of which covered immense deposits of bituminous coal. The Tyrone and Clearfield railroad was completed to this point in 1862, and since that time the growth of the town has been rapid and substantial. Thirteen large lumber manufactories were erected and in operation in and about the town within a circuit of a few miles, the largest of which was that of the Moshannon land and lumber company, with a capacity of sawing seventy-five thousand feet of lumber per day, and in its arrangements and improvements one of the finest mills in the United States. The development of the coal trade, soon after the arrival of the railroad, gave additional impetus to the town, and caused its rapid expansion. The Moshannon Branch railroad, projected in 1864, which penetrates the coal basin in different directions, connects with the parent road at this point. The town was made into a borough in 1864. In 1875 its population had increased to two thousand. Many tasteful and costly dwellings and large and substantial business houses had been erected. The valuable resources of this region had attracted capital from all parts of the country. Its future was bright and promising until the 20th May, 1875, when the town was almost entirely destroyed by fire. Fifteen hundred people were made homeless, and the result of years of toil and industry was swept out of existence in a few brief hours. Discouraging as the prospect was, the pluck and enterprise of the citizens soon came to the surface, and while still a smoking ruin, the scene of the conflagration was dotted over with the rude shanties and tents of those determined to commence the battle of life anew. Not a year has elapsed since the fire, and although it has been a year of unusual depression of the industries in which her people are largely engaged, Oscedla has come up phoenix-like from its ashes. The din of the hammer and saw has been unceasing day and night. More than two hundred buildings have been erected in that short time. Scarce a vestige of the great fire remains, and the scenes and the incidents of that day already belong to the historic past. HIOUTZDALE was laid out in the year 1870 by G. N. Brisbin, on land of Dr. Houtz. It is located six miles west of Osceola, on the Moshannon Branch railroad. It was incorporated into a borough in 1871, and has a present population in the town and neighborhood of three thousand. Houtzdale is like some of those famous western towns that spring into existence already incorporated, and spread out faster than the woodman can fell the forest in advance of them. It is an outgrowth of the coal development of this region; is surrounded on all sides by collieries, which secures a large trade and business activity to the town. Athough one of the youngest towns in the county, it is rapidly coming to the front in size and importance. NEW WASHINGTON is a thriving little town, situate in the southern part of the county, and was incorporated by the Legislature on the 13th of April, 1859. It is in the midst of a rich agricultural region, and only needs the advent of a rail road to rouse its latent energies. LUMBER CITY is situated on the river, six miles above Curwensville, and derives its name from its connection with the lumber trade of the county. It was made a borough in 1857. It is a busy place in the spring of the year, during the freshets in the river, being the head of navigation for full-length rafts. 565 5ISTORY OF PENNiS YL VANIA. WALLACETON was laid out in 1868, and incorporated in 1873. Its population is about two hundred. It is on the line of the Tyrone and Clearfield railway. Is the seat of a large steam saw mill, and is a point of shipment for considerable manufactured lumber, railroad ties, etc. BURNSIDE borough was incorporated in the year 1874. It is in the extreme south-western part of the county. Is located on the bank of the river, and her citizens are largely interested in lumbering. It is an enterprising town, and is in the full tide of expectancy for a railroad outlet for her valuable material resources. FRENCHVILLE, in Covington township, is a large and flourishing French settlement, which was commenced in 1832. It is composed of over two hundred industrious and thrifty families. Its pioneers were from Normandy and Picardy, and the location of a French colony in the then wilderness of the Upper Susquehanna was brought about by the failure of a Philadelphia banker having a large indebtedness in France. M. Zavron, a wealthy French creditor, got possession of these lands, and through the assistance of John Keating, his agent, established a colony of his countrymen. GLEN HOPE, in Beccaria township, is an enterprising town, situate on the head-waters of Clearfield creek. It is within the limits of the Clearfield bituminous coal basin, and is on the line of proposed railroad extensions. GRAHAMTON, in Graham township, both named in honor of Hon. James B. Graham, the largest landholder in the township, and for many years a resident therein. Mr. Graham came to the county in 1822. He commenced life without any means, but possessed of a willing heart and an energy that could master any difficulty, he has, by a life of well directed industry, secured not only competency, but the respect and esteem of his fellows, and his name is always found at the head of every enterprise, public and charitable. GRAMPION HILLS, in Penn township, includes one of the oldest and most productive farming districts in the county. It was first settled about the year 1805, and the name was given to it by Dr. Samuel Coleman, one of thile early settlers, a man of ability, but eccentric in his habits, on account of the resemblance to the celebrated hills of his native country. This region was settled principally by Quakers, and is noted for its many finely cultivated farms, and the intelligence and general prosperity of the farmers. KYLERTOWN, in Morris township, is yet a small town, but has a promising future, because of its close proximity to large coal operations, and on the line of projected railways. LUTHERSBURG, in Brady township, is situate in the centre of the finest agricultural district in the county. Tihe settlers in the township are principally Germans, noted for their industry and thrift. The town has always been a good business point, but new railroad towns in the vicinity have of late diverted some of its trade. PENNFIELD, in Huston township, is a new and thriving railroad town, on the line of Bennett's Branch of the Allegheny Valley railroad, and growing rapidly. RUMBERGER, in Brady township, on the line of the Bennett's Branch Extension railroad, although a town of few years' existence, is fast increasing in size and importance. It is within the Reynoldsville coal basin, and several collieries 566 CLEARFIELD COUNTY. 567 are in operation around it. It is also the location of one of the largest saw mills in the United States. WOODLAND, in Bradford township, six miles east of Clearfield, on the line of the Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, is the seat of two large fire brick manufactories and a steam saw mill, and under the influencc of these industries is improving rapidly. PENNSYLVANIA STATISTICS-CENSUS OF 1870. MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. Adams.............. Allegheny....... Arllmstrong.......... Beaver............... Bedford............. Berks............... B lair................ Bradford........... Bu!ks............... B utler............... Cambria............ Cameron........... Carbon............. Centre............... Chester............. Clarion............. Clearfield............ Clinton.............. Colunmbia........... Crawford........... Cu(.nlberlaiid........ Dauphin........... Delaware.......... E lk.................. E rie................. Fayet to............. Forest.............. F ran kiln............ 'Ful ton........... Greelle.............. Ittingdon......... Ilndlaia.......... Jefferson............ J 1liuiata............. Lalncaster........... Lawrence........... Lebanoln............. Lehigh........... Luzerne............. Lycoming........... '.K ialu............. M er.............. % ifflin............... Monroe............. Mottgolnery........ Montour............. Northampton....... Northumnberland.... Perry............ Philadelphia........ Pike............... Potter.............. SchuNlkil.......... Snyder.............. Somlerset............ Sullivan............. Susquehanna........ Tioga............... Uni Ln........... Venaugo........... Warren.............. WVashington......... Wayne........... WVest moreland...... IVyoming........... York................. 502 1,844 276 500 369 1,414 440 531 739 387 373 44 161 362 996 279 245 241 258 743 449 587 314 81 928 402 37 529 65 162 324 473 232 204 1,616' 181 481 694 896 608 3f, 458 134 254 1,089 158 635 424 282 8,184 67 41 844 496 98 83 376 282 106 278 450 402 291 390 194 1,111 $1,415,126 00 88,789,414 00 4,337, 8570 (0 4,024,083 00 1,587,024 00 16,243,453 00 6,428,. 00 2,738,395 00 4,732,118 00 1,4,032 00 8,641,813 00 896,810 00 2,955,783 00 3,047,674 00 11,494,543 00 1,355,506 00 1,109,405 00 3.646 526 00 2.706,290 00 10,157,009 00 3,249,032 00 13,514,156 00 11,041,654 00 1,524,392 00 9,697,987 00 3,527,404 00 393,191 00 3,621,349 00 512,433 00 573.050 00 2,319,152 00 1,393,408 00 1,238,613 00 678,345 00 14,034,180 00 3,439,740 00 4,160,084 09 15.480.848 00 17,493,463 00 9,081,406 00 358.94 00 6,4,1277 00 1.616,985 00 2.232.530 00 16, 33.74:,' "I 4,8:7. 0 v0 12.530,h38 00 4,207.83 00 2,412.66 00 32.004.517 00 692.3113 00 229,724 00 9.5M. 114 00 1,240,671 00 591.449 00 390,877 00 3, 225.0 54 00 2.190.852 00 1.288,692 00 4.516,566 00 3.224,768 00 2,037.441 00 3,714.075 00 2.592.487 00 1,013,831 00 7,028,934 00 711,894,234 00 IMPROVED AND UNIMPROVED LANDS. $2,122,689 00 133,184,121 00 6.506,035 00 6.036,124 00 2,380,536 00 24.365,179 00 9,642.549 00 4,107,592 00 7,098,177 00 1,995,048 00 12,962.719 00 1,345,215 00 4,433,674 00 4,571,511 00 17.241.814 00 2,033,259 00 1,684,107 00 5,469,789 00 4,059,435 00 15,235,513 00 4.873,548 00 20,271,234 00 16,562.484 00 2.286.538 00 1,046,980 00 5,291.106 00 589.786 00 5,432,023 00 768,649 00 859, 575 00 3.478.,728 00 2.090.112 00 1,857,919 00 1,017.522 00 21,051,270 00 5,159,550 00 6.240,126 00 28. 221.272 00 26,239,694 00 13,622,109 00 538.976 00 9,816,415 00 2,425.477 00 3,348,808 00 2,400.554 00 7.286,403 00 18.796.251 00 6,311.282 00 3,618.939 00 483,006.775 00 1,038,469 00 374.586 00 14.379.171 00 1,861.006 00 887.173 00 ,586.315 00 4,8 7.581 00 3.286.278 00 1,933,8 00 6,774,849 00 4.837,152 00 3.056,161 (0 5,.571,112 00 3,888.710 00 1,520.746 00 10.543,401 00 1,067,841,351 00 Adams.............. Allegheny........... Armstrong........ Beaver.............. Bedford............ Berks................ B lair................ Bradford............ Bucks............... Butler.............. Cambria............. Camleron............ Carbon............. Centre.............. Chester............. Clarion............. Clearfield........... Clinton.............. Columbia............ Crawford.......... Cumberlad......... Dauphin............. D)elaware............ E lk................. Etie................. Fayette.............. Forest............... Franklin............. Fulton.............. Greene.............. Huntingdon......... Indiana.......... Jefferson........... Junliata............. Lancaster........... Lawrence.......... Lelbanon.......... Lehigh............. Luzerlne............ Lycoming........... M'Kean............ Mercer........... I Mifflin........... Monroe............. Mlontgonmery........ Montour............ Norl halnmpton....... N ortlhumberland.... Perry........... Ilhiladelphia........ P ike................. 'otter............ Schuylkill......... Snyder............... Solmerset............ Sullivan.............. Susquehianlna........ Tioga............ UnIlioln........... Venango............ N'arren.............. Washington......... Wayne.............. West inoreland...... SVyolnilg........... York............... 11,515,965 6,478,235 iy _ 214,516 292,089 230,915 176,861 197,250 374,560 98,285 366,851 315,833 273,158 93,438 6,485 25,782 152.238 374.759 162,747 116,218 54,852 136.710 328, 555 2349,784 172,586 89,438 16,124 279,868 235,006 10.890 265.517 86,995 230.594 168.818 256.023 104.220 97,,509 462.833 148.509 139,481 181,097 194,115 163,892 28.,164 260,109 97,687 85,663 256,909 53.182 170.062 147,129 136.809 37,518 27,303 56,307 109,135 92.580 249.615 36,689 290.997 187,305 70,752 122.874 83.762 409.863 110,718 342.083 87,953 411,341 CD $14.611,060 56,448,818 13,681,426 14,198,713 9.495,119 43.638,465 8, 098,146 25.158.245 40,289,213 18.230.848 4,834,076 1,332,188 1,484,210 13.565,198 46.737.688 7, 74,127 5,1131,360 4,797,040 9.015,460 21,905, 661 22.474.577 19,053,433 19. 288,727 1.019,820 23,991,607 18, 2.50,958 619,398 23,775.174 2.565,042 13,554,374 9,445.678 12.945,C69 5.362,623 6,351.175 70,724,908 11,614,044 19.016.88 23.5.55.476 21,565.724 11,212.366 1, 566,250 22.048,239 9,133.277 4.459,114 40,902,050 4,615,655 20,991,169 12,430.987 8.750,895 18.945,('00 2, 213,325 2. 942,348 8. 643, 6.55 5.769,403 12.043.715 1,,.58,109 16,707.011 10, 923.925 7.891,77 7.211,006 6,976.674 39.015,006 8,816,220 28.210,826 6. 633.160 36,358,484 1,043,431,582 58.509 93.570 126,155 71.974 211.527 97,448 52,500 226,464 48,786 157,883 136.457 62.777 34.620 90, i62 68,154 111,317 156,955 72,519 68,445 197,68.5 49,758 61.249 11,316 28.,739 134.,889 145.066 37,256 92. 703 117.902 107,748 186, 076 172,164 135.722 66.57 76, 588 50.665 43.883 39,217 174.381 143.291 50. 689 129.056 60.763 110.311 27.877 I1i 4J3 15,404 46.452 126,225 2,786 88,459 111,727 75.318 45,313 2.54.442 69, 3533 150,016 166.798 19,075 98. 340 134.5(-8 114.1,04 200,880 144,014 72,212 133,181 GENERAL HISTORY. After Blackwell's departure, in 1690, the Cotncil elected Thomas Lloyd their president, and according to the constitution, assumed executive 1690. functions; but, six councillors from the Lower Counties, without the knowledge of the president, formed themselves into a separate Council, in 1691, appointed judges for those counties, and made ordinances. The President and Council of Pennsylvania forthwith published a proclamation declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal. The latter made proposals towards an accommodation, in which they principally required that the judges and all officers of the government should be appointed by the nine councillors from the Lower Counties. But this was not allowed them. On the other hand, Penn tried to restore a good understanding between the two sections of the Province, between whom the breach was widening, by giving them the choice of three modes of executive government, viz., by a joint council, by five commissioners, or by a lieutenant-governor. The majority favored the last mode, but seven of the members for the Lower Counties protested against it, and declared for the commissioners, which form of government, in case the members for Pennsylvania should persist in favor of a lieutenant-governor, they meant to introduce into their territories until the will of the Proprietary should be known. Their principal objections against a lieutenant-governor were the expense of his support and the fear lest the officers should be arbitrarily dismissed. The efforts on the part of the Council of Pennsylvania to effect a good understanding proving fruitless, the three Upper Counties chose Lloyd for their Governor, while the Lower Counties rejected him. Penn, therefore, perceiving it impossible to bring about a union, confirmed the appointment of Lloyd, and conferred the government of the lower counties on William Markham, the former Secretary of the Province, who had joined with the protesting members. This was done by William Penn much against his will, and had the consequence he predicted, viz., that the King, as will presently appear, annexed the two colonies to the government of New York. William Penn foresaw that these dissensions would furnish the crown a pretext for depriving him of his Province. His fears were soon verified. William and Mary seized with avidity this opportunity to punish him for his attachment to the late King; and they were well pleased to clothe an act of naked power with such justification as the disorders of the Province presented. Their Majesties' commission to Benjamin Fletcher, Governor-General of New York, constituting him Governor of Pennsylvania and the territories, was notified to Thomas Lloyd on the 19th of April, 1693. There was no 1693. notice in this commission, of William Penn, nor of the Provincial con stitution. Governor Fletcher was empowered to summon the General Assembly elected by the freeholders, to require its members to take the oaths and subscribe the tests prescribed by act of parliament, and to make laws in conjunction with the Assembly, he having a veto upon their acts; and was directed to transmit copies of such laws, for the approbation of the crown, within three months from their enactment. Official information of this change was not given to the constituted authorities of the Province, either by the King or Proprietary; yet, on the arrival of Colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, thle government was surrendered to him without objection; but most of the Quaker EMIGH'S GAP. ON THE TYRONE AND CLEARFIELD RAILROAD. CLINTON COUNTY. BY D. S. MAYNARD, LOCK HAVEN. REVIOUS to March 11, 1752, the territory embraced within the present limits of Clinton county was a portion of Chester, one of the three original counties into which the Province of Pennsylvania .. was divided by William Penn; but on that date Berks county was formed, taking that part of Chester which contained what is now Clinton. By act of March 21, 1772, Northumberland county was taken, in part, from Berks, including the present Clinton. When Lycom ing county was cut off -. from Northumberland in _ 1795, it also comprised'-_-. ___ all the area now in Clinton, a portion of which was taken in the forma- __ tion of Centre in 1800._ _ Therefore, when Clinton __ was organized by the act _ of 1839, it took portions of Centre and Lycoming. The townships of Bald Eagle, Lamar, and Logan I were stricken from Cen I tre, the others from Ly-'K, coming. The first section of the act organizing the county is as follows: " That all those parts That all theu ose py CLINTON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LOCK HAVEN. of the counties of Ly- [From a Photograph by D. Malloy, Lock Haven.] coming and Centre, and lying within the following boundaries, viz., beginning at Pine creek, where the north line of Lycoming county crosses said creek; thence a straight line to the house of William Herrod; thence following the Coudersport and Jersey Shore turnpike, the several courses and distances thereof, to the middle of Pine creek; thence down the said creek, the several courses thereof, to its junction with the West Branch of the river Susquehanna; thence a straight line to the north-east corner of Centre county; thence to include Logan, Lamar, and Bald Eagle townships, in Centre county; thence along the Lycoming county line to the southwest corner of said county; thence by the lines of Clearfield, M'Kean, Potter, 569 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. and Tioga counties to the place of beginning; and the same is hereby created into a separate county, to be called'CLINTON,' the seat of justice to be fixed by commissioners hereinafter appointed." Clinton county, as well as Lock Haven, the county seat, owes its origin to the indefatigable exertions of an exceedingly eccentric individual, the irrepressible and indomitable Jerry Church, a "York State Yankee," whose name (if not face) was once familiar to every citizen of the county. The efforts made by this man to organize the county were strenuously opposed by leading citizens of both Centre and Lycoming counties. In a unique and amusing book called " Travels of Jerry Church," published in 1845, that worthy gives his own account of the organization of the county as follows: "I now undertook to divide the counties of Lycoming and Centre, and make a new county to be called Clinton. I had petitions printed to that effect, and sent them to Harrisburg, to have them presented to the Legislature, and then went down myself to have the matter represented in good order. My friend John Gamble was our member from Lycoming at that time, and he reported a bill. The people of the town of Williamsport, the county seat of Lycoming, and Bellefonte, the county seat of Centre county, then had to be up and be doing something to prevent the division; and they commenced pouring in their remonstrances, and praying aloud to the Legislature not to have any part of either county taken off for the purpose of making a new one, for it was nothing more or less than some of Jerry Church's Yankee notions. However, I did not despair. I still kept asking every year, for three successive years, and attended the Legislature myself every winter. I then had a gentleman who had become a citizen of the town of Lock Haven, by the name of John Moorhead, who harped in with me-a very large, portly looking man, and rather the best borer in town; and, by the bye, a very clever man. We entered into the division together. We had to state a great number of facts to the members of the Legislature, and perhaps something more, in order to obtain full justice. We continued on for nearly three years longer, knocking at the mercy-seat, and at last we received the law creating the county of Clinton. In the year 1839, the county was organized by the Hon. Judge Burnside." "Eagle" was the name originally selected for the new county, but after several unsuccessful attempts to get the required legislation, that name was dropped and "Clinton" substituted as a ruse, intended to mislead the opponents of the new county movement. As the opposition in the Legislature had been so long and vigorously made against the forming of Eagle county, when that name, which had become familiar to every member, ceased to be presented, and Clinton appeared, the required act was passed, before many of the legislators knew that the name belonged to the same territory they had been voting against for several successive winters. Immediately after the county was organized, three commissioners, Colonel Cresswell, Major Colt, and Joseph Brestel were appointed to locate the county seat. After viewing and considering various locations, Lock Haven was chosen as the most desirable and appropriate place. Accordingly a site was selected for the public buildings near what is now the lower end, at that time the centre of the town plot, three squares from the river; and sufficient land for the purpose 570 CLINTON CO UNTY. donatcd by Jerry Church. Soon after, the building of the court house was commenced by John Moorhead, Robert Irwin, and George Hower, and completed in 1842, at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. In the meantime the courts were held, and other business of the county transacted in the public house of W. W. Barker, a portion of which was rented for " county purposes." Barker's tavern, as it was called, was located upon Water street, a short distance below the present court house, on the lot now occupied by the residence of John Quigley, Esq. Clinton county is located near the centre of the State, and is bounded as follows: on the south by Centre, the central county of the State; on the west by Clearfield and Cameron; on the north by Potter and Lycoming; and on the east by Lycoming and Union. The county was originally divided into twelve townships: Allison, Bald Eagle, Chapman, Colebrook, Dunstable, Grove, Lumber, Limestone, Lamar, Logan, Pine Creek, and Wayne. The subsequent formation of several new townships, among others, Grugan from Chapman and Colebrook, in 1855; and Keating from Grove, in 1860; and the taking of Lumber and the balance of Grove in the formation of Cameron county; the organization of Noyes from Chapman, in 1875; the division of Keating into East Keating and West Keating, the same year, and the absorbing of Allison by Lock Haven city and Lamar township, in 1870, makes the entire number of townships in the county at the present time nineteen, as follows: Bald Eagle, Beech Creek, Chapman, Colebrook, Crawford, Dunstable, Gallauher, Greene, Grugan, East and West Keating, Lamar, Leidy, Logan, Noyes, Pine Creek, Porter, Wayne, and Woodward. This county is of irregular shape, being nearly sixty miles long and twenty wide, and contains nearly one thousand square miles. Its surface is varied by mountains, hills, and valleys, which were at one time entirely covered with a heavy growth of timber, consisting mainly of pine and oak, interspersed with chestnut, walnut, hemlock, maple, ash, hickory, etc. There are several beautiful and highly productive valleys within the limits of the county, the most important being the West Branch, the northern terminus of which is just above Lock Haven; the Bald Eagle, through which the Bald Eagle creek finds its way to the river; Sugar, lying parallel with and near to the line of Centre county, and Nittany, which lies between the Bald Eagle and Sugar valleys, and might truthfully be called the garden of Clinton county. The principal stream in the county is the West Branch of the Susquehanna, which flows nearly the entire length of its territory, a distance of over fifty miles, and at the lower end "breaks through the Allegheny mountain, which at this point seems to lose much of its loftiness, as if in courtesy to the beautiful stream." The Indian name of this stream was Otzinachson. In flowing through the county the West Branch takes a south-easterly course; in passing Lock Haven, however, it runs almost due east. The other streams are the Sinnemahoning creek, which takes its rise in Potter county, and empties into the West Branch at Keating station; Kettle creek and Youngwoman's creek, both of which also rise in Potter and join the river, the former at Westport, the latter at North Point; Pine creek, which also originates in Potter, and after flowing through Tioga and Lycoming, forms the boundary for a short HISTORY OF PENS YL VANIA. distance between the latter and Clinton, and reaches the river at the point where it enters Lycoming; then the Bald Eagle, which flows from Centre county and unites with the river just below Lock Haven; Beech creek, also originating in CenLre, flows into the Bald Eagle at Beech Creek borough; Fishing creek, having its source in the extreme eastern end of Sugar valley, near a point where the corners of Clinton, Centre, Lycoming, and Union counties meet, flows the entire length of said valley, breaking through the mountain at the western end, thence into Nittany valley, c losing itself in the waters of Bald Eagle creek, at Mill Hall. The principal mountain LREAT AND in the county having a name -oadto, -61Z and distinctive features, is \ s. ) the Bald Eagle or Muncy mountain, which extends , ~diagonally across the entire width of the county. This mountain is the continua tion of a range which, in MAP OF THE GREAT OR BIG ISLAND. almost a straight line, runs from Blair county in a north-easterly direction along the Bald Eagle creek, to the West Branch of the Susquehanna. It takes its name from the noted Indian chief Bald Eagle, who long years ago roamed in its fastnesses. The first important public improvement made in Clinton county was the West Branch canal, which was completed to Lock Haven in 1834, and the Bald Eagle branch extended to Bellefonte in 1846. This great enterprise did away with keel-boat navigation. After its construction the canal became the great thoroughfare, not only for freight, but passengers as well, who considered themselves highly favored when they had the privilege of riding in a packet boat drawn by horses or mules, at the rate of five or six miles per hour. When the Sunbury and Erie railroad (now Philadelphia and Erie) was completed to Lock Haven, in 1859, a great impetus was given to all branches of industry in the county. It was the beginning of a new era in the march of enterprise. It greatly enhanced the value of real estate, the price of which has been steadily advancing ever since. On the opening of the Bald Eagle Valley railroad, in 1864, a new impetus was given to the growth and prosperity of the county, especially that portion lying along the Bald Eagle creek. Very few realize the extent to which the manufacture of lumber has been carried on in this county during the past twenty years. It is estimated that the average per year since 1860 has been one hundred million feet, making an aggregate of over fifteen hundred millions up to the present time, the value of which was not far from twenty-six million six hundred thousand dollars. The cost of cutting and manufacturing this has been not less than eleven dollars per thousand, amounting in the aggregate to the sum of fifteen million four hundred thousand dollars. Besides the lumber estimated, there has been great quantities of lath, pickets, and shingles manufactured. In addition to the vast amount 572 CLINT'ON COUNTY. manafactured in the county, the value of the logs and square timber cut and run down the river to various points has been as much more. This immense business has given employment to several thousand men each year. The mineral wealth of this county consists of coal, iron ore, fire-clay, potter's clay, and an abundance of sand, suitable for the manufacture of glass; also an inexhaustible supply of limestone, all of which exist, to some extent, in nearly every township. The north-western portion of thile county is especially rich in mineral deposits. It lies within the limits of the Clearfield coal basin, and contains bituminous seams, belonging to that region, aggregating a thickness of not less than thirty feet. The quality of this coal, as is well known, is superior. In various other parts of the county, coal, for many years, has been known to exist, and for more than forty years has been more or less extensively mined, principally on Lick and Queen's [Quinn's] runs, and Tangascootac creek. Iron ore (mainly hematite) is quite plentifully distributed throughout the county. It has been found of various degrees of purity, yielding from fifteen or twenty per cent. to seventy-five or eighty of metallic iron through the furnace. The manufacture of iron from native ore has been to some extent engaged in during the past thirty years; even as long ago as 1829 a man by the name of Friedley erected a furnace near the east end of Sugar valley, where there was plenty of ore of a good quality, but owing to the want of capital he suspended operations in a few years, after having made large quantities of good iron. A furnace was constructed, and iron also manufactured at Farrandsville, near the mouth of Lick run, in 1832 or 1833, but the works were allowed to go to ruin. About the same time Washington furnace, on Fishing creek, about eight miles from its mouth, was built, and has been in operation most of the time since. The ore used at this furnace is of the variety known as " pipe," and obtained in the immediate vicinity. The iron produced is of a very fine quality, being especially adapted to the manufacture of boiler plates, etc. In 1831 George Bressler, in company with Messrs. Harvey, Wilson, and Kinney, erected a furnace at Mill Hall, near the mouth of Fishing creek. The ore was procured from the Bald Eagle mountain, near at hand. The undertaking proved unsuccessful, and after passing through a number of different hands, the works were abandoned. The manufacture of fire brick has been an important branch of industry in this county for many years, extensive works having been constructed at Queen's [Quinn's] run and Farrandsville. Only the ones at the latter place are now in operation. The material, both clay and coal for fuel, is obtained near by. Extensive beds of potter's clay have recently been found on the north side of the West Branch, nearly opposite Lock Haven. This clny has been thoroughly tested, and found to be of superior quality for the manufacture of stoneware, and is now being used for that purpose at an establishment in operation at Lock Haven. Lime of a good quality has for some time been manufactured in this county and shipped to other points at a distance. Marble of different degrees of fineness and various hues exists on Fishing creek, in Sugar valley, and also in Nittany valley, but as yet no extensive effort has been made to ascertain its extent and real value. As compared with other sections of the State, it cannot be claimed that 573 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Clinton is an agricultural county. In directing their attention to the lumber interests, the citizens of this region have unfortunately lost sight of the fact that beneath the surface of the " broad acres" of Clinton there is more wealth than ever existed upon it. As a general thing the soil of the county, both on the highlands and in its valleys, is sandy, and, to a great or less extent, intermixed with loam, this being especially the case along the streams. Probably there is not a single acre of mountain land in the upper West Branch region, that is not more or less strewn with sandstone, and the soil composed to a considerable degree of sand, as a result of disintegration; yet this land is nearly all susceptible of a high state of cultivation, as has been demonstrated by occasional clearings, some of which are at a height of more than a thousand feet above the West Branch, and produce fine crops of wheat, oats, corn, buckwheat, and hay. Of such lands, now in market at from five to ten dollars per acre, there are many thousand acres in the county. The first actual settlement within the present limits of Clinton county was made previous to 1769, of which Meginness, in his "History of the West Branch Valley," speaks as follows: " The earliest settlement, of which I have any account, that was made up the river on the south side was by a man named Clarey Campbell, from Juniata. His cabin stood on the river, in the upper part of Lock Haven. In 1776 a trial took place between him and William Glass, who claimed his land. Charles Lukens, deputy surveyor, of Berks county, being a witness, testified as follows:' When I went up in March, 1769, to make the officer's surveys, I found Clarey Campbell living on this land with his family.' " The other principal early settlers of the region were John McCormick, John Fleming, William Reed, Colonel Cocksey Long, and John Myers, who all settled near the site of Lock Haven; and Alexander and Robert Hamilton, William McElhatton, and the Proctors and Bairds. who located a few miles further down the river; and William Dunn, the original owner and settler of the Great Island, which lies about two miles below Lock Haven. These persons mostly came from the lower counties of the State, and were principally, if not all, of Scotch or Irish descent, and possessed intelligence and energy. At the time they located on the West Branch, which was between the years 1768 and 1785, the country all around was a dense wilderness, and, as may be supposed, infested with wild beasts and wilder Indians. A favorite route taken by predatory bands of red-skins in their descent upon the frontier settlements lay along the Sinnemahoning creek and the Susquehanna river, and during the early days of the settlement, on many occasions, the hardy " squatters" were aroused from their midnight slumbers and forced to fly to their arms in defence of their homes, oftimes being compelled to leave them to be plundered and destroyed by the merciless savages. One of the most important events of pioneer life in the West Branch Valley was what is known as "the big runaway," which occurred in June, 1778. At that time "Reed's Fort," located where Lock Haven now stands, was garrisoned by a "fearless few," under command of Colonel Long. It is said that William Reed and his five sons constituted one-third of the fighting strength of the fort, and that the Reeds and Flemings were a majority of the whole number. During the year 1777, the Indians became very troublesome, and killed a 574 CLINTON COUNTY. number of the settlers. From various indications it was evident that a general invasion of the white settlements was imminent, and accordingly, preparations were made to repel any attack that might be made. Considering the scarcity of fire-arms and military equipments generally, and the thinly settled condition of the country, it is a wonder that the inhabitants entertained the least hope of successfully opposing a horde of blood-thirsty savages; but strange as it may appear, a number of the settlers, among them the Flemings, held out to the last against abandoning the fort. Early in 1778, a lone Indian appeared on the bank of the river opposite the fort. Hle made various signs for some one to come with a canoe and take him over. The occupants of the fort being suspicious that his object was to entice some of the whites across the river for the purpose of betraying them into the hands of confederates who might be concealed near at hand, hesitated to comply with his request, still he insisted, and waded some distance out into the stream, to show that his intentions were honorable. It has been said that at this juncture Mrs. Reed, wife of William Reed, "seeing that none of the men would venture, jumped into a canoe, crossed over alone and brought him with safety" to the fort. It is now stated, on the best authority, that it was not Mrs. Reed who took the Indian over, but a son of Job Chillaway, a friendly Indian, who, with his family, was at the time under the protection of the garrison. On being taken into the fort, the strange Indian proved to be friendly, and had come a great many miles to warn the settlers of the approach of a large and powerful band of warriors, who were "preparing to make a descent upon the valley, for the purpose of exterminating the settlements. Being very much fatigued after his long journey, and feeling perfectly secure in the hands of those to whom he had just rendered such important service, the Indian laid down to rest, and soon fell asleep." In giving an account of this occurrence, Meginness says: "A number of men about the fort were shooting at a mark, amongst whom was one who was slightly intoxicated. Loading his rifle, he observed to some of them that he would make the bullet he was putting in kill an Indian. Little attention was paid to the remark at the time. He made good his word, however; instead of shooting at the mark, he fired at the sleeping Indian, and shot him dead. A baser act of ingratitude cannot well be conceived. The murder was unprovoked and cowardly, and rendered doubly worse, from the fact that the Indian had traveled many miles to inform them of their danger. The garrison were so exasperated at this inhuman and ungrateful act, that they threatened to lynch him on the spot; when, becoming alarmed, he fled, and was suffered to escape." Immediately after being apprised of their danger, a "council of war" was held by the garrison, when it was decided to evacuate the fort, and with all the inhabitants of the neighborhood go to Fort Augusta (now Sunbury) for protection. Accordingly preparations were made to depart; live stock, and supplies generally, were placed upon rafts hastily constructed from whatever available material could be obtained. Many articles, such as household utensils, etc., that were considered too cumbersome to take along, and too valuable to lose, were hidden with the hope of getting them again when peace should be restored. Among other things that were thus secreted was a stone crock filled with sand for scouring tinware, etc.; this was buried by the thoughtful Jane Reed, daughter 575 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. of William Reed, under the floor of her father's cabin. There was not much time to spare in arranging preliminaries; whatever was done had to be performed quickly, and in a few hours the settlers bade adieu to their homes, and began their flight to a place of safety, and the setting sun of that memorable day in June, 1778, shed its rays upon their deserted dwellings. In their flight down the river the people from Reed's Fort and vicinity were joined by the other inhabitants of the valley, and all found refuge, as before stated, at Fort Augusta. After being driven from their possessions, the Reeds, Flemings, McCormicks, and perhaps others, returned to their former homes in Chester county, remaining there till after the declaration of peace, in 1783, when again, five years after their flight, and ten years from the time they first settled on the West Branch, they returned to take possession of their homes, where they remained, most of them, to the end of their lives, never after having occasion to flee from the tomahawk and scalping knife. During the five years' absence of the settlers, their buildings, though left to the "tender mercies" of the savages, were not destroyed, with the exception, perhaps, of one or two; and when their owners came to inspect them they were found to be in a tolerable state of preservation. After their return the people went to work with a will to fit up their homes, and it seems that the house, of William Reed, being probably the most substantially built, had withstood the action of the weather better than any of the others, and was therefore the first to be put min order. While engaged in repairing the floor, some of the men discovered what they pronounced hidden treasures-a crock of silver. The result was quite an excitement among the people for a time, till Jane "put in an appearance" and claimed her "pewter sand," as it was called, which she had deposited under the floor five years previous. That identical crock, now over one hundred years old, is still in possession of the Reed family. During times of comparative peace the settlers were often visited by the Indians, whom they always treated kindly, giving them food, etc., whenever they came around. Time after time Miss Jane Reed (who seems to have been chief cook not only for her father's family, but also of the garrison) exhausted her entire supply of bread in feeding bands of visiting red-skins. As it always gave offence to the Indians if they were not all treated alike, Jane was often at her wits' end to know how to make her bread reach around if she happened to have a scanty supply on hand when they made their appearance. On one occasion the young lady was trying on a hat which she had just purchased, when suddenly a band of savages entered the cabin, and gazed with astonishment at what they, no doubt, considered a new fangled head dress. At length one of them, who was more bold than the rest, deliberately walked up to Miss Jane, and took the hat from her head, and after giving it a thorough examination, handed it to his companions, by each of whom, in turn, it was closely scrutinized and then replaced upon the head of its owner, after which the band departed without having the least apparent inclination to appropriate the singular looking article. It seems that Miss Jane had not a very exalted opinion of the Indians, at least as far as their stomachs were concerned, for one morning she found a mouse drowned in her cream pot, and exclaimed, with a twinkle in her eye, that she would give the cream to the Indians, for it was good enough for them. Accord576 CLINTON COUNTY. ingly she made it into butter, and the next time the scamps paid her a visit, she had the grim satisfaction of seeing them feast on butter and buttermilk to their hearts' content. Many of the early settlers of the county rendered valuable service to the country during the Revolutionary and Indian wars; in fact, during those times nearly every able-bodied man was a soldier. Living on the extreme western border of civilization, as the pioneers of Clinton then did, it may be supposed that they had their full share of duties to perform in protecting their homes and their lives from invading Indians. Consequently, as long as danger threatened their own families and firesides, very little fighting material could be spared to join the Continental troops in their various campaigns against the British. After the close of the Revolution, quite a number of persons who had taken part in that struggle settled within the present limits of the county. Among them was Major John P. De IHaas, who located on Bald Eagle creek, about nine miles above its mouth, and Thomas and Francis Proctor, who acquired possession of a large tract of land on the river just below the mouth of the same stream. Thomas Proctor was captain of the first Continental company of artillery raised in Philadelphia. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of colonel, and his brother Francis, who was lieutenant of the same company, became captain. William Dunn, the owner of the " Big Island," also served some time as a soldier of the Revolution, participating in the battles of Germantown and Trenton. Mr. Dunn, with Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Hughes, were appointed a Committee of Safety at the beginning of the Revolution for Bald Eagle township (then Northumberland county). Immediately after the restoration of peace, in 1783, a number of families, in addition to those who had been driven away by the Indians, came to the West Branch and settled. The lands lying between the river and Bald Eagle creek, being especially desirable, owing to their fertility and favorable location, particularly attracted those seeking frontier homes, alid by the beginning of the year 1800 quite a settlement had there sprung up. To give the reader something of an idea how the land where Lock Haven now stands appeared seventy years ago, it may be stated that all of the territory, comprising about two thousand acres, lying in the angle formed by the junction of Bald Eagle creek and the Susquehanna river, was then covered with a vigorous growth of pine and oak, with the exception of about a dozen cleared patches of a few acres each, scattered here and there over the tract. Fifteen hundred acres of said angle was granted to Dr. Francis Allison, in 1769, by the Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania. A few years after receiving his patent, Dr. Allison sold his purchase to John Fleming, who took possession in 1773, and located on the lower end of the tract, where he died in 1777. In accordance with the provisions of his will, the estate after his death was divided among his heirs. About the year 1800, Dr. John Henderson, of Huntingdon, married Margaret Jamison, one of the Fleming heirs, and through her came into possession of a portion of the original " Allison tract," as it was called. The completion of the West Branch division of the Pennsylvania canal from Northumberland to Dunnsburg, opposite Lock Haven, in 1834, was the beginning of a new and important era in the history of the West Branch valley. For 2M 577 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. magistrates refused to accept from him the renewal of their commissions. The Proprietary condemned this ready abandonment of his rights, and addressed a cautionary letter to Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment, which might have restrained the latter from exercising his authority had it been timely received, as he was attached to Penn by personal favors. At the very beginning a misunderstanding arose between the Governor and the Assembly, who attempted the introduction of a mode of summoning and electing the representatives at variance with the fundamental laws of the Province, which he was bound to observe. The Assembly, consisting of members from the Upper and Lower Counties, but reduced to about sixteen in number, on convening, took steps to maintain their own and the peoples' rights. The Governor, on the majority of the members refusing to take the oaths, honored their conscientious scruples in permitting them simply to subscribe, but told them that this was an act of grace and not of right, which must not be used as a precedent. In this Assembly two important subjects were considered; the confirmation of the old laws, and a grant of aid in men or money to the King for the then existing war with France. The Assembly used the latter in order to secure the former, hoping that Fletcher would yield this point for the sake of obtaining the other, as his Province of New York was much exposed to the Indians, who were supported by the French in Canada. Fletcher maintained a firm attitude, insisting upon the rejection of eight of the old laws, chiefly penal, as in conflict with and less rigorous than the laws of England. Long negotiations ensued, but he finally confirmed them all (one concerning shipwrecks excepted), subject to the King's pleasure. The Assembly, on their part, granted the required subsidy, after considerable delay, they insisting that their grievances should first be redressed. Fletcher claimed the right of altering the new laws, even without the deliberations of the Assembly. This was strenuously resisted by a party in the Assembly, which, though in the minority, had their protest against Fletcher's pretensions entered upon the journal of the House. The Governor threatened to annex the Province to New York, and then the moderate party, rather than submit to this, preferred receiving the confirmation of their rights and liberties as a favor at the hands of the Governor. Prior to his departure for New York, in 1694, Fletcher appointed 1694. William Markham, the Proprietary's kinsman, Lieutenant-Governor. Governor Fletcher, being engaged at New York, did not meet the Assembly at its first session of this year. At the second he earnestly solicited them to make further appropriations for the public defence. He endeavored to excite their emulation by the example of New Jersey, which had freely contributed troops and money, and tried to engage their compassion by describing the sufferings of the inhabitants about Albany, from whence "fourscore families," he said, "had been driven, rather by the negligence of their friends, than by the force of their enemies." Experience having taught him that it was vain to ask men, whose religion forbade the use of arms, to organize a military force, or appropriate funds for its support, he sought to frame his demands in a less questionable shape. Putting out of view all warlike intentions, he solicited their charity "to feed the hungry and clothe the naked," by supplying the Indian HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. several years the work of building the canal had progressed, and finally culminated in the construction of the Lock Haven dam. During the construction of these works, a large number of adventurers from various parts of the country visited the locality; some of them remained and took an active part in the affairs of the community for years after. Several of the Irish laborers located on lands in the vicinity, and made industrious, law-abiding citizens. Of the speculating spirits who were attracted thither by the prospect of a bright future, Jerry Church was the most original, enterprising, and venturesome, and although the region round about and above the mouth of Bald Eagle creek had been looked upon for many years, by the settlers and others, as desirable for agricultural purposes, and destined to become populous, productive, and wealthy as a farming district, it remained for the energetic Jerry to conceive and consummate the idea of laying out a town on that beautiful plain. Accordingly, in October, 1833, he purchased Dr. Henderson's farm of two hundred acres, for which he paid twenty thousand dollars, and immediately proceeded to lay out the tract into lots, streets, and alleys. On the 4th of November, 1833, a public sale of lots took place, when quite a number were disposed of to the "highest and best bidders." The first lot sold was the one on which the Montour House is now located. It was bought by Frank Smith, Esq. The name Lock Haven was given to the town because of the existence in its vicinity of two locks in the canal, and a raft harbor or haven in the river. It was not long after Lock Haven was laid out before it assumed the proportions and characteristics of a thriving town. The impulse given to its growth by the building of the public works soon caused it to rank among the enterprising and prosperous inland villages of the State. The circumstances attending its origin were such as to render its inception almost an absolute necessity, and after viewing the location and its surroundings, it did not take the shrewd Jerry Church long to realize that such was the case. The influx of strangers to the neighborhood, in consequence of the building and opening of the West Branch canal (and the extension to Bellefonte), at once created a demand for business places of various kinds. Hotels became necessary, to acconmmodate those connected with and having charge of the works; stores were needed to furnish boatmen and others with supplies. In fact nothing but some providential calamity could have prevented the springing up and development of a flourishing town just where Lock Haven is situated. The location itself has natural attractions sufficient to justify the assertion that, aside from its acquired advantages, a more desirable sight for a large town could not well have been found within the confines of the State. A healthful climate, fertile soil, grand and romantic scenery, pure air and water, all conspire to render the location especially desirable as a place of residence. Nature is accused of partiality in the distribution of her favors. She is charged with scattering them with a lavish hand in some places and parsimoniously withholding them in others. Whether this charge is true or false, it is indisputable that the region of which Lock Haven is the geographical centre has received a full share of her richest bounties, of which fact Jerry Church and his coadjutors were not unmindful when Clinton county was organized and Lock Haven made the seat of justice. The formation of Clinton county, and the selection of Lock Haven as a site for the public buildings, was 578 CLINTON COUNTY. the consummation of a wish dear to the heart of Jerry Church. From the time he made the purchase of Dr. Henderson he had exerted himself to the utmost to bring about that result. After the building of the court-house, the next important event in the history of Lock Haven was the construction of the West Branch boom, in 1849, concerning which H. L. Deiffenbach, Esq., formerly editor of the Clinton Democrat, says: " From this period the rapid growth of Lock Haven commenced. Property doubled, trebled, and quadrupled in value, and soon the fields around the town were dotted with houses, and the streets filled with an industrious, energetic, and prosperous population." The completion of the Sunbury and Erie (now Philadelphia and Erie) railroad to Lock Haven, in 1859, was another important event in the history, not only of the town, but of Clinton county and the entire West Branch valley. The building of this road placed Lock Haven in direct and easy communication with the principal commercial cities of the country, and at once gave the community advantages and facilities which greatly increased its growth and prosperity. LOCK HAVEN was incorporated as a borough April 25, 1840, and became a city March 28, 1870, having a population at that time of six thousand seven hundred and eighty-six. The first jail in Clinton was built soon after the county was organized. It was constructed of logs, and stood near where the present one is located. On October 1, 1851, Colonel Anthony Kleckner was awarded the contract to build a new jail, which was completed the following year, at a cost of five thousand five hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1871 the building was remodeled and enlarged, which cost twenty-two thousand two hundred and forty dollars. As the population and business of the county increased, it was found that the court house, built in 1842, was not large enough; therefore it was decided to erect a new one. Accordingly a location was selected on Water street, just above the river bridge, and the present structure erected, costing ninety-three thousand dollars. It was dedicated on Monday, February 8, 1869, on which occasion addresses were delivered by the Hon. C. A. Mayer, president judge of the district, and H. T. Beardsley, Esq. The following extract from Mr. Beardsley's remarks is given, because the circumstances under which it was delivered, and the facts which it contains, render it a part of the history of the county: " This county was organized, and the first court held in December, 1839. The court then, and for the years 1840 and 1841, was held in a part of a two-story building that then stood on Water street, above the canal, known as'Barker's Tavern.' That house was burned down in 1855. It was what is known as a double front, that is, two rooms in front, with a hall between those rooms. The part on the east side of the hall was the court room, and was about twenty-eight feet in length by sixteen in width. Think of it, a court room twenty-eight by sixteen. Over this court room, in the second story, were the county offices, being two in number, and in size about fourteen by sixteen feet each. The front one was used as the commissioners' and treasurer's office; and the back one as the office of the prothonotary, register and recorder, clerk of the courts, etc., one man easily performing all the duties in the last mentioned office. You may be curious to know where the sheriff's office was.' Old Sheriff Miller' discharged 579 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. PULPIT ROCKS, NEAR ROUND ISLAND, CLINTON COUNTY. GLINTON COUNTY. the duties of that office at the period of which I am speaking. I recollect him well. A dark-visaged, good-natured, genial man; but that does not inform you where he had his office. It was not in the court house, nor was it in his own dwelling in Dunnstown, nor, I may add, was it in any other house in Lock Haven, Dunnstown, or in Clinton county. All who recollect him will witness that he wore a high-crowned hat, and allow me to inform you, that in that hat he kept his office. He placed an empty cigar box in the prothonotary's office, in which that official placed the writs that were occasionally issued, marking the day and hour of their being so deposited, and that was considered a delivery to the sheriff, who, upon coming to town, would transfer them to his hat, and the records of this court will show that very many of them never found their way back to the court house." In all the wars in which the United States have been engaged, Clinton county has furnished her full share of troops. Quite a number of her citizens participated in the war of 1812, and several from the county took part in the war with Mexico. During the great Rebellion, the various calls of the government for troops met with patriotic and ready responses, and the county not only contributed her full quota of able-bodied private soldiers, but furnished a complement of brave and efficient commissioned officers, many of whom did honor to themselves and to the country by especial acts of gallantry on the field of battle. The following are their names: Colonels Phaon Jarrett, C. A. Lyman, H. C. Bolinger, I. M. Bassert. Majors Jesse Merrill, afterwards major-general N. G. of Penn'a., Charles Wingard, Sylvester Barrows. Captains W. C. Kress, R. S Barker, W. W. White, C. W. Walker, J. W. Smith, John B. Johnson, now colonel in the regular army, George B. Donahay, W. S. Chatham, A. II. McDonald, B. K. Jackman, William Shank, Thomas B. Quay, Samuel H. Brown. First Lieutenants John S. IHaynes, John A. Cogley, George Curtin, R. R. Bitner, Alexander Blackburn, J. W. Devling, William Hollingsworth, Joseph Showers, William Kauffman, William Crispin, Austin Stull, George W. Thomas, John P. Straw. Second Lieutenants James R. Conly, David Hayne, Thomas C. Lebo, now captain in the regular army, Edward Barnum, Daniel Wolf, Samuel W. Philips, E. P. McCormick. Lock Haven has sixty streets, the aggregate length of which is over twentyfive miles, and more than two hundred business places, thirteen church structures, and fourteen church organizations. It has fifteen secret societies, and four fire companies, three banks, and four printing offices, each issuing a weekly newspaper. The latitude of Lock Haven is 410 5' 30" north; the longitude, west of Greenwich, 770 30'; west of Washington, 20 12'. The average rain-fall per year, including water contained in snow, forty inches. The mean temperature in the summer is 671; in the winter, 4710 Beside Lock Haven the most important town in Clinton county is RENOVO, located on the west branch of the Susquehanna, twenty-seven miles above the former place. It is emphatically a railroad town, that is, it owes its existence to the erection at that point of extensive car-shops by the Philadelphia and Erie railroad company, in 1863. The town is beautifully situated in a delightful valley, surrounded by high mountains on all sides. It contained a population of 1,940 in 1870, which has steadily increased. It has an elegant hotel, owned by the railroad 581 VIEW OF RENOVO STATION, PHILADELPHIA AND ERIE RAILROAD. CLINTON COUNTY. 583 company, and named after the town. It contains three churches, eleven public schools, a public hall, a bank, and a weekly newspaper. Renovo was incorporated as a borough in 1866. There are but three other incorporated villages in the county: Mill Hall, Beech Creek, and Logansville. MILL HALL was laid out in 1806, by Nathan Harvey, and became a borough in 1850. Its population is now about five hundred. BEECH CREEK was started about the year 1812, by Michael Quigley. The first store in the place was kept by. " Buck " Claflin, father of Victoria Woodhull. It was incorporated in 1869. Its population in 1870 was 384 LOGANSVILLE was laid out in 1840, by Colonel Anthony Kleckner, and incorporated in 1864. Its population in 1870 was 414, now about 500. The other principal villages in the county are, Salona, Clintondale, Tylersville, Hyner, North Point, and Westport. COLUMBIA COUNTY. BY JOHN G. FREEZE, BLOOMSBURG. OLUMBIA COUNTY was taken from Northumberland by an act of 22d March, 1813. By the bill organizing the county, the Governor S was authorized to appoint the commissioners to select and locate the county seat, and they recommended Danville as the site. Thereupon, on the 21st February, 1815, Turbut and Chillisquaque townships were stricken off, and re-annexed to Northumberland. This act placed Danville largely upon one side of the county, and the question of removing the county seat to Bloomsburg immediately commenced. To check it, on the 22d January, S 1816, part of the above townships was re-annexed to _-_ Columbia county. -___ --On the 3d March, 1818, a portion of Columbia county - - was annexed to ............:--:: __:2= Schuylkill, and was called Union township. The removal question still continuing to agitate the )public j mind, on the 24th February, 1845, the Legislature passed an act au thorizing a vote COLUMBIA COUNTY COURT HOUSE. on the question of a re-location of the county seat of Columbia county, and at the October election following, it was decided by a popular vote to remove it to Bloomsburg; and thus ended a long and bitter local contest. On May 3, 1850, the county of Montour was erected out of part of Columbia; and a fierce contest arose as to the repeal of that act, which finally resulted in the passage, on the 15th January, 1853, of an act to straighten the division line between the two counties, by which a portion of the territory was re-annexed to Columbia. The county still contains about five hundred square miles, and has now nearly thirty thousand inhabitants. It occupies a part of the Apalachian mountainous 584 COLUMBIA CO UNTY. belt, between the anthracite formations on the S.E., and the Allegheny mountains on the N.W. The county is quite broken, though the mountain ranges are not high. The arable land is mostly red shale and limestone. Little mountain, Catawissa, Long mountain, and Knob mountain are the principal elevations. The Muncy hills send some spurs into the county. A heavy belt of limestone runs the entire length of the county. The Susquehanna river enters the county at Berwick, dividing about onethird to the east side, and two-thirds to the west side. Its principal tributaries upon the east side are Catawissa creek and Roaring creek, and on the west Fishing creek, which is a large stream, being itself fed by Huntington, Hemlock, and Little Fishing creek, besides smaller streams, and which flows into the Susquehanna near Bloomsburg. There is a passenger bridge over the river at Berwick, and another at Catawissa, and the bridge of the Catawissa branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at Rupert, at the mouth of Fishing creek. There is a rope ferry at Bloomsburg, one at Espy, and another at Mifflinville. There are large deposits of iron ore at Bloomsburg, as well as limestone, and a considerable anthracite coal basin at the southeast end of the county, bordering on Schuylkill. The North Branch canal passes along the right bank of the Susquehanna through the county. The Catawissa railroad, now under lease to the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, runs through the county, crossing the Susquehanna river at Rupert, near the mouth of Fishing creek. The Danville, Hazleton, and Wilkes-Barre, running from Sunbury in Northumberland county, to Tominhickon in Luzerne county, passes along the left bank of the Susquehanna to Catawissa, and then up the Scotch run, leaving the county near Glen City. The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg, from Scranton to Northumberland, passes along on the right bank of the Susquehanna, through Bloomsburg, the whole length of the county. These are all in successful operation. The projected improvements are the North and West Branch railroad, to run from Wilkes-Barre by Bloomsburg to Williamsport. It passes down the left bank of the Susquehanna, crosses at Bloomsburg, and up the valley of the Fishing creek. Considerable grading has been done on this road. The Hunlock Creek and Muncy railroad intersects the northern portion of the county. A preliminary survey has been made, but the work is not at present continuing. The earliest historical bands of Indians on the territory of Columbia county were the Shawanese, who had a village on the flats about the mouth of Fishing creek near Bloomsburg, another at Catawissa, and another at the mouth of Briar creek. The Delawares were also within the valley, vassals to the Six Nations. The territory lay in the route of travel for hunting or for war. " The Wyoming path" left Muncy on the West Branch, ran up Glade Run, then through a gap in the hills to Fishing creek, passed on into Luzerne county, through the Nescopec gap, and up the North Branch to Wyoming. The Fishing creek path started in the flats near Bloomsburg, up Fishing creek by Orangeville, to near Long Pond, thence across to Tunkhannock creek. It was on this very path, about six miles above Bloomsburg, that Van Campen, the great Indian fighter, was captured. In the year 1772, Mr. James McClure settled upon the west bank of the 585 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. North Branch of the Susquehanna, about one mile above the mouth of Fishing creek, in what is now Columbia county. He obtained a patent for his farm, under the name of " McClure's Choice." He was a man of position and influence, and when the war of the Revolution was raging was prominent in the councils of his country. On the 8th February, 1776, the members of the Committee of Safety for Wyoming township were Mr. James McClure, Mr. Thomas Clayton, and Mr. Peter Melick, whose descendants are still in the county. Major Moses Van Campen married James McClure's eldest daughter. Within the same year of 1772, Evan Owen located himself on a farm at the mouth of Fishing creek, and above Mr. James McClure, came in their order, Thomas Clayton, John Doan, John Webb, George Espy, and the Gingles family. There was also, previous to the Revolution, a settlement at the mouth of Briar creek. The territory of what is now Columbia county was considerably overrun by the Indians during the border and Revolutionary wars. Upon several occasions the inhabitants were massacred by or fled before their savage enemies. They protected themselves as well as their numbers and strength enabled them, and erected forts at several points in the county. But little more than the location can now be ascertained, and even that is sometimes uncertain. Fort Bosley was on the Chillisquaque, on the site of the present borough of Washingtonville. Fort Rice was also on the Chillisquaque, near its head-waters. It was attacked unsuccessfully in September, 1780, being relieved by a force under General Potter, who followed the enemy about fifty miles up Fishing creek without reaching them. Fort Wheeler was on the Fishing creek, about three miles above its mouth. It was begun by Van Campen, in April, 1778, and was a stockade sufficiently large to accommodate all the families of the settlement. It was attacked before it was entirely completed, in May, 1778, but withstood the assault. It was near Light Street. Fort Jenkins was on the Susquehanna river, near Briar creek, on the farm of Jacob Hill, and on the very spot where his house now stands. It was attacked in April, 1779, and again in 1780, in the spring, and it was evacuated in the fall, and burned by the Indians about September, 1780. Fort McClure was built by Van Campen, in 1781. It was on the spot on which the dwelling-house now stands, on the James McClure farm, about one mile above the mouth of Fishing creek. Here he made his head-quarters, and thence led his scouting parties. Having alluded to the Indian forts located wfthin the county, we insert a portion of the " Narrative of Van Campen," who erected the fort just named. Major Moses Van Campen, or Van Camp, as it was usually pronounced, and his brother Jacobus, or Cobus Van Camp, were famous in the border wars of the Susquehanna. The father of the family was a Low Dutchman, probably from the Minisink settlements on the Delaware. In the winter of 1838, then living at Dansville, New York, he sent a petition to Congress for a pension, from which the following passages are extracted: " My first service was in the year 1777, when I served three months under 586 COLUMBIA COUNTY. Colonel John Kelly, who stationed us at Big Isle, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Nothing particular transpired during that time, and in March, 1778, I was appointed lieutenant of a company of six months' men. Shortly afterward I was ordered by Colonel Samuel Hunter to proceed with about twenty men to Fishing creek (which empties into the North Branch of the Susquehanna, about twenty miles from Northumberland), and to build a fort about three miles from its mouth, for the reception of the inhabitants in case of an alarm from the Indians. In May, my fort being nearly completed, our spies discovered a large body of Indians making their way towards the fort. The neighboring residents had barely time to fly to the fort for protection, leaving their goods behind. The Indians soon made their appearance, and having plundered and burnt the houses, attacked th6 fort, keeping a steady fire upon us during the day. At night they withdrew, burning and destroying everything in their route. What loss they sustained we could not ascertain, as they carried off all the dead and wounded, though from the marks of blood on the ground, it must have been considerable. The inhabitants that took shelter in the fort had built a yard for their cattle at the head of a small flat, at a short distance from the fort; and one evening in the month of June, just as they were milking them, my sentinel called my attention to some movement in the brush, which I soon discovered to be Indians making their way to the cattle yard. There was no time to be lost; I immediately selected ten of my sharp-shooters, and under cover of a rise of land, got between them and the milkers. On ascending the ridge we found ourselves within pistol shot of them; I fired first, and killed the leader, but a volley from my men did no further execution, the Indians running off at once. In the meantime the milk pails flew in every direction, and the best runner got to the fort first. As the season advanced Indian hostilities increased, and notwithstanding the vigilance of our scouts, which were constantly out, houses were burnt and families murdered." In 1779 Van Campen, as quarter-master, accompanied General Sullivan's expedition to ravage the Indian towns on the Genesee. He distingushed himself in several skirmishes at Newtown and Hog Back hill. " On the return of the army, I was taken with the camp-fever, and was removed to the fort which I had built in'78, where my father was still living. In the course of the winter I recovered my health, and my father's house having been burnt in'78 by the party which attacked the before-mentioned fort, my father requested me to go with him and a younger brother to our farm, about four miles distant, to make preparations for building another, and raising some grain. But little apprehension was entertained of molestations from the Indians this season, as they had been so completely routed the year before. We left the fort about the last of March, accompanied by my uncle and his son, about twelve years old, and one Peter Pence. We had been on our farms about four or five days, when, on the morning of the 30th of March, we were surprised by a party of ten Indians. My father was lunged through with a war-spear, his throat was cut, and he was scalped; while my brother was tomahawked, scalped, and thrown into the fire before my eyes. While I was struggling with a warrior, the fellow who had killed my father drew his spear from his body and made a violent thrust at me. I shrank from the spear; the savage who had hold of me turned it with his hand 587 GENERAL HISTORY. nations with such necessaries as might influence them to continue their friendship to the Province. But even these instances proved powerless. For, although another tax, similar to the last, was voted, no part of it was appropriated to the war or relief of the Indians. As a considerable sum had been given to Governor Fletcher, justice demanded that the services of the Proprietary deputies should also be rewarded. The Assembly, therefore, directed two hundred pounds each should be given to Markham and Lloyd, and that the balance to be raised by the bill should defray the general expenses of the government. Fletcher rejected their bill, because the whole sum was not granted to their Majesties, with a request that they would appropriate it to the use of the deputies, and to the defence of New York and Albany; and the Assembly, refusing to modify it, and asserting their right to appropriate their money at their pleasure, was dissolved. The Proprietary, whose political views were rarely obscured by his religious principles, reprehended strongly this resolute refusal; nor was he blind to the effects which such opposition to the wishes of the crown might have upon his particular interests. The clouds of suspicion, which had long enveloped William Penn, were at length broken. He had many friends among the nobles who surrounded the King, and his true character was at last made known. He was heard before the privy council, and was honorably acquitted, and was restored to his Proprietary rights by patent, dated August, 1694, in which the disorders in the Province were ascribed solely to his absence. Shortly before his reinstatement, Penn lost his wife, Gulielma Maria, in the twelfth month of the preceding year. Penn appointed William Markham his Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania and territories, on the 24th of September, 1694. The restoration of the former government, however, did not bring with it contentment and a good understanding between the different branches of the legislature. Governor Fletcher was disliked because he had innovated upon the legislative forms, but the Assembly, summoned by Markham, in Sep 1695. tember, 1695, was as much dissatisfied with him, although he had summoned them according to forms prescribed by the charter. The great bone of contention still being the subsidy to be granted to the King, Penn's letter shows that he disapproved of their conduct. Markham presented to the Assembly a new act of settlement, which was readily agreed to, but not finally adopted until the following year, because the Governor, no doubt on account of their obstinacy in refusing to pass the subsidy act, unexpectedly dissolved the Assembly. After a long remonstrance to the Governor had been found without effect, the proposal of a joint committee of the two branches of the Legislature was acceded to, by which it was agreed to accept the new constitution, provided Penn should approve of it, and immediately a new subsidy of ~300 was granted for the support of the royal government and of the suffering Indians. This was done by a tax of one penny on the pound on all assessed property. The new Constitution was more democratic than the former one. The Council, chosen biennially, consisted of two, and the Assembly, elected annually, of four members from each county. The right of the latter to originate bills, to sit on its own adjournments, and to be indissoluble during the term for which it HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. so that it only penetrated my vest and shirt They were then satisfied with taking me prisoner, as they had the same morning taken my uncle's little son and Pence, though they killed my uncle. The same party, before they reached us, had touched on the lower settlements of Wyoming, and killed a Mr. Upson, and took a boy prisoner of the name of Rogers. We were now marched off up Fishing creek, and in the afternoon of the same day we came to Huntington, where the Indians found four white men at a sugar camp, who fortunately discovered the Indians and fled to a house; the Indians only fired on them, and wounded a Captain Ransom, when they continued their course till night. Having encamped and made their fire, we, the prisoners, were tied and well secured, five Indians lying on one side of us, and five on the other; in the morning they pursued their course, and, leaving the waters of Fishing creek, touched the headwaters of Hunlock creek, where they found one Abraham Pike, his wife and child. Pike was made prisoner, but his wife and child they painted, and told Joggo, squaw, go home. They continued their course that day, and encamped the same night in the same manner as the previous. It came into my mind that sometimes individuals performed wonderful actions, and surmounted the greatest danger. I then decided that these fellows must die; and thought of the plan to dispatch them. The next day I had an opportunity to communicate my plan to my fellow-prisoners; they treated it as a visionary scheme for three men to attempt to dispatch ten Indians. I spread before them the advantages that three men would have over ten when asleep; and that we would be the first prisoners that would be taken into their towns and villages after our army had destroyed their corn, that we should be tied to the stake and suffer a cruel death; we had now an inch of ground to fight on, and if we failed, it would only be death, and we might as well die one way as another. That day passed away, and having encamped for the night, we lay as before. In the morning we came to the river, and saw their canoes; they had descended the river and run their canoes upon Little Tunkhannock creek, so called. They crossed the river and set their canoes adrift. I renewed my suggestion to my companions to dispatch them that night, and urged they must decide the question. They agreed to make the trial; but how shall we do it, was the question. Disarm them, and each take a tomahawk, and come to close work at once. There are three of us; plant our blows with judgment, and three times three will make nine, and the tenth one we can kill at our leisure. They agreed to disarm them, and after that, one take possession of the guns and fire, at the one side of the four, and the other two to take tomahawks on the other side and dispatch them. I observed that it would be a very uncertain way; the first shot fired would give the alarm; they would discover it to be the prisoners, and might defeat us. I had to yield to their plan. Peter Pence was chosen to fire the guns, Pike and myself to tomahawk; we cut and carried plenty of wood to give them a good fire; the prisoners were tied and laid in their places; after I was laid down, one of them had occasion to use his knife; he dropped it at my feet; I turned my foot over it and concealed it; they all lay down and fell asleeD. About midnight I got up and found them in a sound sleep. I slipped to Pence, who rose; I cut him loose and handed him the knife; he did the same for me, and I in turn took the knife and cut Pike loose; in a minute's time we disarmed them. Pence took his station at the guns. Pike and myself with our 588 COLUMBIA COUNTY. tomahawks took our stations; I was to tomahawk three on the right wing, and Pike two on the left. That moment Pike's two awoke, and were getting up; here Pike proved a coward, and laid down. It was a critical moment. I saw there was no time to be lost; their heads turned up fair; I dispatched them in a moment, and turned to my lot as per agreement, and as I was about to dispatch the last on my side of the fire, Pence shot and did good execution; there was only one at the off wing that his ball did not reach; his name was Mohawke, a stout, bold, daring fellow. In the alarm he jumped off about three rods from the fire; he saw it was the prisoners who made the attack, and giving the war-whoop, he darted to take possession of the guns; I was as quick to prevent him; the contest was then between him and myself. As I raised my tomahawk, he turned quick to jump from me; I followed him and struck at him, but missing his head, my tomahawk struck his shoulder, or rather the back of his neck; he pitched forward and fell; and the same time my foot slipped, and I fell by his side; we clinched; his arm was naked; he caught me round my neck; at the same time I caught him with my left arm around the body, and gave him a close hug, at the same time feeling for his knife, but could not reach it. "In our scuffle my tomahawk dropped out. My head was under the wounded shoulder, and almost suffocated me with his blood. I made a violent spring, and broke from his hold; we both rose at the same time, and he ran; it took me some time to clear the blood from my eyes; my tomahawk had got covered up, and I could not find it in time to overtake him; he was the only one of the party that escaped. Pike was powerless. I always had a reverence for Christian devotion. Pike was trying to pray, and Pence swearing at him, charging him with cowardice, and saying it was no time to pray-he ought to fight; we were masters of the ground, and in possession of all their guns, blankets, match coats, etc. I then turned my attention to scalping them, and recovering the scalps of my father, brother, and others, I strung them all on my belt for safe-keeping. We kept our ground till morning, and built a raft, it being near the bank of the river where they had encamped, about fifteen miles below Tioga Point; we got all our plunder on it, and set sail for Wyoming, the nearest settlement. Our raft gave way, when we made for land; but we lost considerable property, though we saved our guns and ammunition, and took to land; we reached Wyalusing late in the afternoon. Came to the narrows; discovered a smoke below, and a raft laying at the shore, by which we were certain that a party of Indians had passed us in the course of the day, and had halted for the night. There was no alternative for us but to rout them or go over the mountain; the snow on the north side of the hill was deep; we knew from the appearance of the raft that the party must be small; we had two rifles each; my only fear was of Pike's cowardice. To know the worst of it, we agreed that I should ascertain their number, and give the signal for the attack. I crept down the side of the hill so near as to see their fires and packs, but saw no Indians. I concluded they had gone hunting for meat, and that this was a good opportunity for us to make off with their raft to the opposite side of the river. I gave the signal; they came and threw their packs on to the raft, which was made of small, dry pine timber; with poles and paddles we drove her briskly across the river, and had got nearly out of reach of shot, when two of them came 589 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. in; they fired-their shots did no injury; we soon got under cover of an island, and went several miles; we had waded deep creeks through the day, the night was cold; we landed on an island and found a sink hole, in which we made our fire; after warming, we were alarmed by a cracking in the crust. Pike supposed the Indians had got on to the island, and was for calling for quarters; to keep him quiet we threatened him with his life; the stepping grew plainer, and seemed coming directly to the fire; I kept a watch, and soon a noble racoon came under the light. I shot the racoon, when Pike jumped up and called out,' Quarters, gentlemen; quarters, gentlemen I' I took my game by the leg and threw it down to the fire.' Here, you cowardly rascal,' I cried,' skin that and give us a roast for supper.' The next night we reached Wyoming, and there was much joy to see us; we rested one day, and it being not safe to go to Northumberland by land, we procured a canoe, and with Pence and my little cousin, we descended the river by night. We came to Fort Jenkins before day, where I found Colonel Kelly and about one hundred men encamped out of the fort. He came across from the West Branch by the heads of Chillisquaque to Fishing creek, the end of the Nob mountain, so called at that day, where my father and brother were killed; he had buried my father and uncle; my brother was burnt, a small part of him only was to be found. Colonel Kelly informed me that my mother and her children were in the fort, and it was thought that I was killed likewise. Colonel Kelly went into the fort to prepare her mind to see me; I took off my belt of scalps and handed them to an officer to keep. Human nature was not sufficient to stand the interview. She had just lost a husband and a son, and one had returned to take her by the hand, and one, too, that she supposed was killed. " The day after, I went to Sunbury, where I was received with joy; my scalps were exhibited, the cannons were fired, etc. Before my return a commission had been sent me as ensign of a company to be commanded by Captain Thomas Robinson; this was, as I understood, a part of the quota which Pennsylvania had to raise for the Continental Line. One Joseph Alexander was commissioned as lieutenant, but did not accept his commission. The summer of 1780 was spent in the recruiting service; our company was organized, and was retained for the defence of the frontier service. In February, 1781, I was promoted to a lieutenancy, and entered upon the active duty of an officer, by heading scouts; and as Captain Robinson was no woodsman nor marksman, he preferred that I should encounter the danger and head the scouts. We kept up a constant chain of scouts around the frontier settlements, from the North to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, by the way of the head-waters of Little Fishing creek, Chillisquaque, Muncy, etc. In the spring of 1781, we built a fort on the widow McClure's plantation, called McClure's Fort, where our provisions were stored." Mr. Van Campen, the same summer, went up the West Branch. He was taken prisoner by the Indians. On arriving at the Indian village of Canandaigua, on the Genesee, he says: "We were prepared to run the Indian gauntlet; the warriors don't whip, it is the young Indians and squaws. They meet you in sight of their council-house, where they select the prisoners from the ranks of the warriors, bring them in front, and when ready, the word joggo is given; the prisoners start, the whippers 590 COLUMBIA COUNTY. follow after; and if they outrun you, you will be severely whipped. I was placed in front of my men; the word being given, we started. Being then young and full of nerve, I led the way; two young squaws came running up to join the whipping party; and when they saw us start, they halted, and stood shoulder to shoulder with their whips; when I came near them I bounded and kicked them over; we all came down together; there was considerable kicking amongst us, so much so that they showed their under-dress, which appeared to be of a beautiful yellow color; I had not time to help them up. It was truly diverting to the warriors; they yelled and shouted till they made the air ring. They halted at that village for one day, and thence went to Fort Niagara, where I was delivered up to the British. I was adopted, according to the Indian custom, into Colonel Butler's family, then the commanding officer of the British and Indians at that place. I was to supply the loss of his son, Captain Butler, who was killed late in the fall of 1781, by the Americans. In honor to me as his adopted son, I was confined in a private room, and not put under a British guard. My troubles soon began; the Indians were informed by the Tories that knew me that I had been a prisoner before, and had killed my captors; they were outrageous, and went to Butler and demanded me, and, as I was told, offered to bring in fourteen prisoners in my place. Butler sent an officer to examine me on the subject; he came and informed me their Indians had laid heavy accusations against me; they were informed that I had been a prisoner before, and had killed the party, and that they had demanded me to be given up to them, and that his colonel wished to know the fact. I observed,' Sir, it is a serious question to answer; I will never deny the truth; I have been a prisoner before, and killed the party, and returned to the service of my country; but, sir, I consider myself to be a prisoner of war to the British, and I presume you will have more honor than to deliver me up to the savages. I know what my fate will be, and please to inform your colonel that we have it in our power to retaliate.' He left me, and in a short time returned and stated that he was authorized to say to me that there was no alternative for me to save my life but to abandon the rebel cause and join the British standard; that I should take the same rank in the British service as I did in the rebel service. I replied,' No sir, no; give me the stake, the tomahawk, or the knife, before a British commission; liberty or death is our motto;' he then left me. Some time after a lady came to my room, with whom I had been well acquainted before the Revolution; we had been schoolmates; she was then married to a British officer, a captain of the Queen's rangers; he came with her. She had been to Colonel Butler, and she was authorized to make me the same offer as the officer had done; I thanked her for the trouble she had taken for my safety, but could not accept of the offer; she observed how much more honorable would it be to be an officer in the British service. I observed that I could not dispose of myself in that way; I belonged to the Congress of the United States, and that I would abide the consequence; she left me. and that was the last I heard of it. A guard was set at the door of my apartment. I was soon afterwards sent down Lake Ontario to Montreal, whence a British ship brought me to New York. In the month of March, 1783, I was exchanged, and had orders to take up arms again. I joined my company in March at Northumberland; about that time Captain Robinson received orders 591 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. to march his company to Wyoming, to keep garrison at Wilkes-Barre fort. He sent myself and Ensign Chambers with the company to that station, where we lay till November, 1783. Our army was then discharged, and our company likewise; poor and pennyless, we retired to the shades of private life." In the war of 1812, Columbia county furnished a company, but I have not recovered any particulars or names. In the Mex iKican war, the Guards, com manded by Cap S -- tain Frick, achieved a high reputation. 10 V 0 In the Union war Columbia ,county sent a " I large number of ______ Ii!!i; -- 4men into the o field, and some Sof her citizens Lim secured a high military posi i tion, notably i~P, NlI: Wi.. I General Wel Ii' lington H. Ent, Colonel Samuel ! Knorr, Captain I,- Charles B. ___i:____i_ _| Brockway. ______ The general "educational'in -terests of the __ county, under the common school system, are in a very Al. t satisfactory condition, and X need not be - ~ particularized. But the State Normal school at Bloomsburg is an enterprise that should not be passed over. A charter for the incorporation of the Bloomsburg Literary Institute having been secured, on the 2d of May, 1866, the corporators and others met, organized, and adjourned to meet again on the 4th, when measures were resolved upon to put the Institute in permanent condition. A building, costing about twenty-five thousand dollars, was erected, and formally opened on 592 COLUMBIA COUNTY. the 3d day of April, 1867. The situation and building so pleased Mr. Superintendent Wickersham that he urged the addition of grounds and building for a State Normal school, and on 9th March, 1868, it was resolved upon. The cornerstone of the building was laid by Governor Geary, June 25, 1868. On the 8th February, 1869, application was made by the Board of Trustees to have the Institute recognized as a State Normal school. A committee was appointed, who, on 19th February, 1869, made the official visit and examination. On the same day the committee reported favorably, and on the 22d of February, 1869, Hon. Mr Wickersham, State Superintendent, formally recognized the said Bloomsburg Literary Institute as the State Normal school of the Sixth district. The school continued in operation, with increasing success, until September 4, 1875, when the boarding hall took fire and burned down. It was a total loss. The trustees took immediate measures to rebuild, and on the 14th October following let the new building for forty-seven thousand and ninety-eight dollars. It is one hundred and sixty-two feet front, with elevation and projection, and one hundred and fifteen feet deep, in the form of a T. It was finished by April 1, 1876, and occupied for the spring term. There is no finer view in the State than that from Institute Hill, overlooking the town and the surrounding country. BLOOMSBURG lies upon a bluff on the south bank of the Fishing creek, and about one mile from the Susquehanna, the Fishing creek emptying into the Susquehanna, about two miles below the town. The location is beautiful in all respects. Between the mouth of the creek and the town the Shawanese Indians had a village, and in 1772 Mr. James McClure located his farm near the same point, and in 1781 a fort was erected there. In 1802 the town was laid out by Ludwig Eyer, by the name of Bloomsburg. In 1846 it became the county seat of Columbia county; in 1869 was made the educational centre of the north-eastern portion of the State by the completion of the buildings for the Sixth Normal School district of the State. In 1870 it was organized as the town of Bloomsburg, and includes as such, the whole of what at that date was Bloom township. It contains within its borders the furnaces of the Bloomsburg iron company, and the furnace of William Neal & Sons; the foundry of Sharpless & Son, of Turnbach & Hess, and of Harman & Hassert, the car and machine shops of Lockard & Brother, and the planing mill of the Bloomsburg lumber company, besides other smaller manufacturing establishments of various kinds. It has an Episcopal, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Lutheran, a German Reformed, a Baptist, and several other places of religious worship. It has five hotels, an opera house, and a dozen or more school houses, besides the Normal School buildings. It has three money institutions, the First National, the Bloomsburg and Columbia connty banks. The North Branch canal and the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad both run through the town, and the projected North and West Branch railroad also is located within its limits. It contains about four thousand five hundred inhabitants. There are published in it The Columbian, The Republican, The Sentinel, The Home Trade Journal, and by the students of the Normal School, The Normal Mentor. CATAWISSA is a large village, on the left bank of the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Catawissa creek, about four miles south of Bloomsburg. The scenery 2N 593 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. about the place is fine and picturesque. The town contains about one thousand of a population. The furnaces in the neighborhood have been demolished, but the paper mill, the tanneries, the car shops of the Catawissa railroad, and other industries, give the place a lively aspect. The places of worship are a Lutheran, a German Reformed, a Methodist, and an Episcopal church. There is also yet standing, a Friends' meeting house, and there has been lately erected a fine Masonic and town hall. The German race at present prevails about Catawissa. It was originally a Quaker settlement, and on a beautiful shady knoll, a little apart from the dust and din of the village, stands the venerable Quaker meeting house, a perishable monument of a race of early settlers that have nearly all passed away. "And where are they gone?" we inquired of an aged Friend sitting with one or two sisters on the bench under V the shade of the tall trees that - overhang the meeting-house. "Ali," ANCIENT FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE, CATAWISSA. said he, " some are dead, but many are gone to Ohio, and still further west. Once there was a large meeting here, but now there are but few of us to sit together." Pennsylvania exhibits many similar instances in which the original settlers have yielded to another and more numerous race. Catawissa was laid out in 1787, by William Hughes, a Quaker from Berks county. Isaiah Hughes kept the first store. Among the early pioneers were William Collins, James Watson, John Lloyd, Reuben Fenton, Benjamin Sharpless, and other Quakers. John Mears, a famous Quaker preacher and p)hysician, a man of great energy of character, afterwards became proprietor of the town by buying up the quit- ents. In 1796 James Watson laid out an addition to the town. Among the Germans, Christian Brobst came about 1793, and George Knappenberger had previously taken the ferry. The place was then noted for its shad fishery. John IIauch was one of the first to build a furnace in this region, on the Catawissa, in 1816. Redmond Conyngham, Esq., who has devoted much research to the aboriginal history of the State, says the Piscatawese or Gangawese or Conoys (Kenhawas), had a wigwam on the Catawese at Catawese, now Catawissa. It is a good plan to identify the Indian name of a place with its present name. The Catawissa railroad passes through the village, and the Danville, Iazleton, and Wilkes-Barre, within a few hundred yards. The Catawissa deposit bank is located in the town, and a fine new passenger bridge spans the Susquehanna. BERWICK was originally settled by Evan Owen in 1783. It was organized as a borough in 1818. It is built on a bluff on the right bank of the Susquehanna, on the eastern boundary of the county, on the very line of Luzerne county. It is twelve miles east from Bloomsburg. The Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, have large congregations and commodious houses for public worship. There is a fine Odd Fellows hall, and a large public school house. There are 594 OOLUMBIA COUNTY. several hotels, a large foundry, car shops, and rolling mill in operation, mainly under charge of Jackson & Woodin. The North Branch canal and the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad pass along the foot of the bluff upon which the town is built. It is the terminus of the Berwick and Towanda turnpike, leading to Newtown, in New York; as it is also of the Nescopec and Mauch Chunk. There is a bridge over the Susquehanna at this place, and there is also located here a national bank. It was at Berwick, May 3, 1826, that the steamboat Susquehanna, Captain Collins, of Baltimore, blew up, ascending Nescopec Falls. And it was at Berwick on July 4, 1828, that ground was broken for the construction of the North Branch canal. The population is about one thousand five hundred. The Berwick Independent is published here. RUPERT is in Montour township, two miles south of Bloomsburg, at the intersection of the Catawissa and the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroads, at the mouth of Fishing creek. It has about twenty dwellings, hotel, blacksmith shop, etc. The railroad depots make it a well-known point. BUCKHORN is in Hemlock township, four miles west of Bloomsburg. It has about forty dwellings, two stores, a tavern, blacksmith shop, wheel-wright shop, large threestory school house, and meeting house. JERSEYTOWN is in Madison township, twelve miles west from Bloomsburg. It has about fifty dwellings, meeting house, school house, two taverns, stores, etc., etc. MILVILLE is in Greenwood township, and about twelve miles north-west of Bloomsburg. The township is mainly settled by the Friends. The village has about twenty dwellings, hotel, grist mill, shops, etc., etc. EYER GROVE is also in Greenwood, has twelve or fifteen dwellings, grist mill, meeting house, and shops and stores. ROHRSBURO is also in Greenwood; was laid out about 1825, by Frederick Rohr; has twenty to thirty dwellings, and the usual number of shops, stores, meeting house, and hotel. COLE'S CREEK is in Sugarloaf township, twenty miles north from Bloomsburg, at the confluence of Cole's creek and Big Fishing creek. Has grist mill, post office, store, smith shop, meeting house, etc. BENTON, in township of same name, sixteen miles north from Bloomsburg, has hotel, meeting house, stores, shops, and thirty to fifty dwellings. It is on Big Fishing creek. ORANGEVILLE, in Orange township, was settled before 1785. Clement G. Ricketts opened a store there in 1822. It has sixty to seventy dwellings, two meeting houses, an academy, stores, taverns, grist mill, tannery, foundry, etc., etc. It is also on Big Fishing creek. LIGHT STREET is in Scott township, three miles north of Bloomsburg. It has seventy to eighty dwelling houses, meeting house, stores, school houses, tannery, etc. ESPYTOWN is also in Scott township, three miles east of Bloomsburg. It is about the same size as Light Street, and is one of the depots of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad. MIFFLINVILLE is a staid village, in Mifflin township, nine miles east of Bloomsburg, on the east bank of the Susquehanna. It contains about seventy dwellings. The North and West Branch railroad will, when built, pass through the village. MAINVILLE, in Main township, six miles south-east from Bloomsburg, has fifteen to twenty dwellings, grist mill, and forge, etc. It is on the Catawissa creek, and a depot of the Catawissa railroad. BEAVER VALLEY, in Beaver township, twelve miles south-east from Bloomsburg, has half a dozen dwellings, and is a depot of Catawissa 595 HISTOR 1I OF PENNSYLVANIA. railroad. CENTRALIA borough in Conyngham township, twenty miles south-east of Bloomsburg, in the coal mining region, contains several hundred dwellings, Episcopal and Catholic churches, and several denominational meeting houses. SLABTOWN, in Locust township, on Roaring creek, with a dozen dwellings, stores, shops, hotel, etc., eleven miles south-east of Bloomsburg; and NUMIDIA, two miles beyond, in same township, of about the same size. GLEN CITY, in Beaver township, twenty miles south-east from Bloomsburg, a mining village, has about twenty dwellings, shops, etc. TOWNSHIPS AND BOROUGHS.-When Columbia county was organized in 1813, it contained the following twelve townships, viz.: Bloom, Briar Creek, Chillisquaque, Catawissa, Derry, Fishing Creek, Greenwood, Hemlock, Mahoning, Mifflin, Sugarloaf, and Turbit. The erection of Montour county carried off the following four of these originals, The townships and boroughs as follows: Bloom.,............. Briar Creek.............. Catawissa................ Fishing Creek............ Greenwood............... Hemlock................. Mifflin................... Sugarloaf................ M adison.................. Mount Pleasant........... Berwick borough.......... Roaring Creek............ M ontour................. viz.: Chillisquaque, Derry, Mahoning, and Turbit. of Columbia county, and date of organization, are Original. 1817 1818 1818 " 1832 1837 44 64 66 66 66 1817 1818 1818 1832 1837 Jackson.................. Orange.................. Franklin................. M ain..................... Centre................... B eaver................... Benton................... P ine..................... Locust................... Scott.................... Conyngham............... Centralia borough......... The Town of Bloomsburg.. 1838 1839 1843 1844 1844 1845 1850 1853 1853 1853 1856 1866 1870 MAY10-I,1OT-ISER10"N1876. A'A x - ~o A - -- X........... MAIN EXHIITI0N ERUILE,11C4. k * " MAIN EXHIBITION BUILDING-1876. CRAWFORD COUNTY. BY SAMUEL P. BATES, LL.D., MEADVILLE. HE first representative of English speaking people in America to traverse the forests, then unbroken by the hand of cultivation, which afterwards became Crawford county, was George Washington, then a major of the Virginia militia, destined to be largely instrumental in the establishment of the American name and nation, and create for himself undying renown. in the first years of European colonization upon this continent, two nations played important parts, the French and the English. In point CRAWFORD COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MEADVILLE. [From a Photograph by J. D. Dunn.] of numbers and power they were, for a time, quite equally matched. While the English held the seaboard, from Massachusetts bay to Georgia, the French laid claim to Canada and the Mississippi valley, stretching away to the Gulf. About the middle of the seventeenth century, the French Jesuits showed great zeal in their attempts to proselyte the Indians, and to spread the French name and power. In 1679, Robert Cavalier de la Salle constructed, beneath the sombre shades of the forest which fringed the northern shore of Lake Erie, a craft of sixty tons burden, which he named the Griffin, and, setting sail, ploughed 597 (2 -7 Copyright secured. 1876. D. C. GOODRICH & COMPANY. BENJAMIN SINGERLY, Printer, Stereotyper, &c., HARRISBURG, PA. HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIlA. was elected, was explicitly established; and the powers and duties of the several officers were accurately defined. This instrument was never formally sanctioned by the Proprietary, and it continued in force only until his arrival in the Province, in 1699, or rather until 1701, when a new and more lasting one was substituted in its place. Under it the people were content, and calmly and industriously applied themselves to the improvement of the country. William Penn, accompanied by his second wife and children, sailed from England in the ship Canterbury in September, and after a tedious 1699. voyage of more than three months, arrived in the Delaware on the 1st day of December, 1699. Penn was cordially welcomed, it being generally believed that he had come resolved to spend the remainder of his life in the Province. Still he did not encounter that warm affection and unbounded confidence among the colonists which on his first visit had enabled him to lead them entirely according to his will. The Proprietary, believing everything ready for the introduction of a new form of government, free from the defects of the former ones, and 1700. calculated to impart strength and unity to the administration, called an extraordinary meeting of the Assembly in May following, which consisted of a larger number of members than those which preceded it, and held a session of unusual length. The new charter, although frequently discussed by the two houses jointly and separately, was not carried through at this and the next General Assembly, which was held in October of the same year at New Castle. The formation of a code of laws securing the titles to landed property, and a grant for the support of the government in addition to the new charter, were the chief objects of said Assembly. Its enactment failed to be accomplished, chiefly on account of the exacting and unreasonable conditions stipulated by the Lower Counties. The Proprietary endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to obtain additional legislative restrictions upon the intercourse with the Indians, in order to protect them from the arts of the whites. Nor was he more happy in his renewed exertions to instruct the aborigines in the doctrines of Christianity-their language, according to the report of the interpreter, not affording terms to convey its mysteries. This reason, however, was not well founded, and was the subterfuge of the agent to cover his own ignorance or indolence. The success of the venerable Elliot, and of the Moravian missionaries, has proven that the Indian language is competent for the communication of the most abstract ideas. But, resolute to improve their temporal condition, Penn conferred frequently with the several nations of the Province and its vicinity, visiting them familiarly in their forests, participating in their festivals, and entertaining them with much hospitality and state at his mansion at Pennsbury. He formed a new treaty with the tribes located on the Susquehanna and its tributaries, as also with the Five Nations. 1701. This treaty was one of peace. In the Spring of 1701, William Penn took a second journey into the interior of the Province. The Proprietary's situation becoming uncomfortable, in consequence of mischief to his government brewing in England, he made preparation for a speedy return. Since the Revolution, it had been a favorite measure of the crown to purchase the Proprietary governments in America. Jealousy of the power of BISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. the waters of the great lakes, hitherto unvexed by the keel of civilized man. Moving up Erie, Huron, and Michigan, and crossing over to the Mississippi, he descended the Father of Waters to the Gulf, and laid claim to all the territory which the river drains, even to its remotest tributaries, the French maintaining that the right to the mouth of a river governs its sources. Had this claim been vindicated, Pennsylvania and Virginia would have been despoiled of the half of their heritage. Against this pretension the Governors of both States loudly protested, and prepared to defend their rights. In Virginia was formed the Ohio company, organized to promote emigration and settlement in its western territory; and so eager were its hardy pioneers to possess the choicest lands, that they pushed far into the boundaries of Pennsylvania, though supposing they were still on Virginia soil, and commenced building a fort at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which afterwards became fort Duquesne, now the very midst of the city of Pittsburgh. The French in Canada, learning of this occupation bj the Ohio company, sent an armed force, which dispossessed the Virginians and continued the fortifications on French account. By the treaty of Utrecht, of 1713, Louisiana was confirmed to the French, but it was provided "that France should never molest the Five Nations, subject to the dominion of Great Britain." The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which concluded a four years' war between France and England, in 1748, confirmed the rights of Great Britain. But the boundaries of the Five Nations-now become the Six Nations-were indefinite, and the French were determined to hold the entire valley of the Mississippi. To that end they built a line of forts, commencing with Presqu'Isle, near the city of Erie, and continuing it at Le BoLuf, now Waterford-at Venango, near Franklin-at Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, and so on down the Ohio, and planted plates of copper or lead along the route, on which were inscribed their claims. To ascertain what was the temper and what the purposes of the French, Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent Major Washington, in 1753, to confer with the French commandant at Le Bcouf. It was a tedious journey, made in mid-winter, and required nerve and resolution to accomplish it. On arriving, he was politely received, but referred to the chief in command in Canada. It was evident that the troops in possession would yield to no argument but force, and Washington ascertained, in the progress of a conversation with a subordinate officer, that it was the intention to maintain their occupation of this territory. Virginia, intent on defending the interests of the Ohio Company, sent a force of militia, under Major Washington, who surprised a body of French at the Great Meadows, on the morning of the 28th of May, 1754, and routed it completely; but on the 4th of July following, having been confronted at Fort Necessity by a superior force, was obliged, after nine hours of severe fighting, to surrender. Early in the spring of 1755, General Braddock, with a body of regulars brought direct from Ireland, accompanied with a force of militia under Washington, again marched against the French. But when nearing Fort Duquesne, he was attacked by French and Indians lying in ambush, and his little army completely routed. Again, in July, 1758, General Forbes, with a force accompanied with militia under Colonels Bouquet and Washington, advanced upon the foe on the Ohio, and, after severe fighting in 598 front of Fort Duquesne, the French were driven out, and, henceforwardNno more encroached upon the territory of the colonies. But the western portion of Pennsylvania was still subject to the savages, having never been acquired by either treaty or purchase, and so it remained till after the close of the Revolution, and, consequently, was not open to white occupancy. In October, 1784, a treaty was concluded at Fort Stanwix, with the Six Nations, whereby the authorities of Pennsylvania gained by purchase all the territory, not before acquired, within its chartered limits, and this purchase was confirmed by a treaty concluded by the Wyandots and Delawares, in January, 1785, at Fort McIntosh, situated at the mouth of the Beaver river. But though the Six Nations were quieted by treaty, the Indian tribes along the Ohio were still intent on preserving, in their own right, the lands to the north of that river and east of the Allegheny, to which they may have been prompted by the emissaries of the French, who still held Louisiana. Hence, all visitors from the colonies upon the territory in question, for the purpose of settlement, were met by roving bands of these Indians who maintained a hostile front. To overawe and subdue them, military expeditions were undertaken by McIntosh in 1778, by Brodhead in 1780, by Crawford in 1782, by Harmar in 1789, by St. Clair in 1791, and by Wayne in 1792, which resulted with varying fortune. During all this time the frontier was lit up by the blaze of savage warfare, and the tomahawk and scalping knife were busy with their fell work. Finally, the campaign, conducted by General Anthony Wayne with his characteristic energy and skill, ended in triumph in 1795, and the treaty, by him concluded, for ever put an end to this sanguinary struggle, wherein neither helpless infancy nor trembling age was exempt, and which was accompanied by every crime which debases manhood and effaces from the human character every trace of its heaven-born attributes. Hence, though the purchase was fairly made in 1785, it was ten years later before the territory could be said to be fairly open to settlement. It was well known, however, that the lands west of the Allegheny were of excellent quality, and naturally tempted the cupidity of the adventurous, even though still subject to savage sway. Washington, in passing up the Venango river (French creek), on his journey to Le Boeuf, in 1753, made this entry on the 7th of December: "We passed over much good land since we left Venango (Franklin), and through several extensive and very rich meadows, one of which I believe was nearly four miles in length, and considerably wide in some places." There is no doubt that these expressions of Washington, "much good land," and "extensive and very rich meadows," were recurring in the minds of many, and caused them to look with longing eyes towards this goodly country, even during the long and gloomy years of the Revolution. When that war came to an end in 1783, and in 1785 these lands were purchased of the Indians, the disposition to acquire titles to them was active. Three separate companies, with large capital, each sought to secure vast stretches of this territory. They were the Holland Land company, the Population company, and the North American Land company. By the act of 1792, titles could only be perfected by actual settlement for the space of five years, which must be begun within two years from the date of its location. But an important proviso was attached, that if settlers were prevented CRAWFORD COUNTY. l 599 600 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VYANIA. by armed enemies of the United States from settlement, the title was to become valid the same as if settled. This left the question open and indefinite, and gave rise to endless litigation, the Holland Land company contending that, Indian hostilities having prevented actual settlement for the space of two years, they could then perfect their titles without actual settlement, and without waiting for the end of the five years. It was decided pro and con in the lower courts repeatedly, and taken up on appeal, until it finally reached the Supreme Court of the United States, when Chief Justice Marshall delivered an opinion in favor of the company, Mr. Justice Washington declaring: " Though the great theatre of the war lies far to the north-west of the land in dispute, yet it is clearly proved that this country during this period was exposed to the repeated irruptions of the enemy, killing and plundering such of the whites as they met with in defcnceless situations. We find the settlers sometimes working out in the day-time in the neighborhood of forts, and returning at night within their walls for protection; sometimes giving up the pursuit in despair, and returning to the settled part of the country; then returning to this country and again abandoning it. We sometimes meet with a few men daring and hardy enough to attempt the cultivation of their lands; associating implements of husbandry with the instruments of war-the character of the husbandman with that of the soldierand yet I do not recollect any instance in which, with this enterprising, daring spirit, a single individual was able to make such a settlement as the law required." Such "daring and hardy" men as are here referred to by Judge Washington, were those who first settled Crawford county. In 1787, David Mead, in company with his brother John, sons of Darius Mead, of Hudson, New York, having taken up land in the Wyoming Valley, and been dispossessed through the conflicting claims of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, made their way through the forests, and across mountains to the mouth of the Venango river, and thence up that stream till they reached a broad valley, nearly five miles in length, on whose bosom now reposes the city of Meadville, and the one, undoubtedly, referred to by Washington. Two years previous, at the instance of the general government, a party of engineers, headed by William Bowen under military escort, made a survey of a large body of land in this corner of the State, embracing the sixth, seventh, and eighth sections, which had been set aside for the payment of bounties to soldiers of the Revolution. Having had some experience in selecting lands for settlement, these two pioneers made a thorough examination of the territory, and chose this valley for their future habitation. They found the flats above the confluence of the Cussawago with the Venango river cleared, and covered with luxuriant grass, having been previously cultivated by the natives, and perhaps by the French, who had a fort on what is now Dock street, Meadville. Returning to the Susquehanna, in the spring of the following year, they came again, accompanied by Thomas Martin, John Watson, James F. Randolph, Thomas Grant, Cornelius Van Horn, and Christopher Snyder. With the exception of Grant they all selected lands on the western side of the river, now Valonia, and the tracts above. Grant chose the section on which is now Meadville, and made his home at the head of Water street. Soon tiring of the frontier, he transferred his tract to David CBRAWFORD COUNTY. Mead, who thus became the proprietor and real founder of the city which took his name. In the spring of the following year came the families of some of these men. Sarah Mead, daughter of David, was the first child born within the new settlement. Subsequently came Samuel Lord, John Wentworth, Frederick Hlaymaker, Frederick Baum, Robert Fitz Randolph, and Darius Mead. These were the pioneers; but as the report of fine lands upon the Venango spread, settlers came in great numbers. There were a few families of Indians inhabiting the neighborhood, who became the fast friends of the white men, prominent among whom were Canadochta and his three sons, Flying Cloud, Standing Stone, and Big Sun, and Half-town, a half brother of Cornplanter, Strike Neck, and Wire Ears. To the beginning of 1791, few disturbances from hostile Indians occurred, and little danger was apprehended; but the defeat of the army under General Harmar, and subsequently that led by St. Clair, left the hostile tribes of Ohio and western Pennsylvania free to prosecute their nefarious schemes of murder, arson, and fiendish torture, upon the helpless frontiersmen. Early in this year, Flying Cloud, the ever faithful friend of the whites, gave notice that the savages were upon the war path. For safety, the settlers repaired to the stockade fort at Franklin. It was seed time, and these provident men were loath to let the time pass for planting, and thus fail of a crop for the sustenance of their families. Accordingly, four of them. Cornelius Van Horn, William Gregg, Thomas Ray, and Christopher Lantz, returned with their horses, and commenced ploughing. Vengeful Indians came skulking upon their track, and, singling out Van Horn, when the others were away, seized him and his horses, and commenced the march westward. Eight miles away, near Conneaut lake, they stopped for the night, where Van Horn managed to elude them, and made his way back, when he found that Gregg had been killed, and, as subsequently ascertained, Ray was made captive and led away to Detroit. Hostilities continued during 1792; but General Anthony Wayne, who had now been placed at the head of the troops sent against the savages, gave them sufficient employment. Early in the year, a company of twenty-four men, under Ensign Bond, was detailed from Wayne's army to protect this settlement, and was quartered at Meadville. But as the campaign became active, it was summoned away, and the families of the settlers again retired to the stockade at Franklin. The numbers had considerably increased by 1794, and a militia company was formed for self-protection, Cornelius Van Horn being elected Captain, and a block-house was erected near the head of Water street. On the 10th of August, James Dickson, a resolute Scotchman, was fired upon by Indians in concealment near the outskirts of the settlement, and severely wounded in the hand and shoulder. By dexterous management with his gun, of which he held the fire, he baffled the endeavors of his assailants to capture him, and, though bleeding profusely, reached the block-house. The alarm was given, and pursuit promptly made; but the wily foe escaped. Ten days luter General Wayne inflicted a crushing defeat, and Indian warfare in this part of the State was at an end, though occasional depredations were committed by isolated parties for some time, James Findley and Barnabas McCormick having been murdered in cold blood, in June of the following year, six miles below Meadville, on the river valley. HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. The tide of settlement now began to set strongly towards this portion of the State, stimulated, no doubt, by the organized efforts of land companies to gain titles to the best lands, and by the settlers themselves to perfect their claims. What afterward became Meadville, Mead, Rockdale, and Vernon, were settled simultaneously in 1787; East Fallowfield, Greenwood, Hayfield, Oil Creek, and Titusville, in 1790; Fairfield and Woodcock in 1791; Venango in 1794; Bloomfield, Cussawago, Randolph, Richmond, South Shenango, and Spring, in 1795; Cambridge and West Fallowfield in 1797; Conneaut, North Shenango, Pine, and Sadsbury, in 1798; Athens, Beaver, Rome, and Summit, in 1800. The remaining townships, with the exception of Wayne, have been subsequently erected from the territory of other townships, Sparta, Summer Hill, and Troy, in 1830; Steuben in 1861; West Shenango in 1863, and Union in 1867. The opening of the year 1795 marked a new era in the history of these settlements. During the three preceding years the pioneers had labored under great depression and discouragement. At times, when the labors of the husbandmen should be performed, their work was interrupted, and they were driven with their families for safety to the common fort. But a better day seemed now dawning, and a reasonable prospect that the fierce sounds of savage warfare would be no longer heard, and that the sons of the forest would cease from their trade of blood. Buildings erected were of a more permanent character, and the settlement, though far away from the sunny abiding places where clustered their early associations, began to be looked upon as home. A saw-mill was constructed near the block-house as early as 1789, from which the settlers were supplied with lumber, and the surplus was rafted to Pittsburgh; but as late as 1795 grain was ground by hand-mills or broken in a mortar. The thought of establishing the location of a town which should serve as a centre for distribution and supply, early occupied the minds of the settlers, and none seemed more fit than this goodly valley, where three considerable streams, two from the west, the Cussawago and Watson's run, and one, Mill run, from the east, poured their currents into the Venango, leaving in their tracks fertile valleys and easy grades for highways to lead Out in all directions. Though the earliest settlements had been chiefly made on the west side of the river, above the mouth of the Cussawago, doubtless on account of the lands having been previously cleared and cultivated, and because there was a deep alluvial soil producing fine crops with little labor, yet the site for the town was chosen on the opposite side, probably on account of the surface being higher, and not liable to overflow, as had been the sad experience on the right bank, and also, it may be, because the will of David Mead, who had established himself here, was more imperious than those of his companions. In 1792 the part immediately upon the river was laid out, lots offered for sale, and the embryo city was named Meadville. Through the exertions of Major Roger Alden, a soldier of the Revolution, and the first agent of the Holland Land company, and Doctor Kennedy, the plan of the town was greatly enlarged and improved in 1795. Only a small portion of the valley, along the river front, was at that time cleared, all the lower part being covered by a dense hemlock forest, the covert of the deer, and the more elevated portions, where are now some of the finest residences, had a massive growth of oak, and beech, and chestnut. 602 CRAWFORD COUNTY The thought of these hardy pioneers was early given to provision for the education of their children, and a school was established in the block-house, to which allusion has been made, situated on the triangular lot at the corner of Water street and Steer's alley. It was originally built for defence, was of logs, twostories in height, surmounted by a sentry box; the second-story projecting over the first, and was provided with a cannon. This building stood until 1828. The lot was donated by the founder for school purposes. David Mead was the first justice, and the Governor having failed to provide him with one, hlie acted as his own constable. He had served as justice in the Wyoming settlement, and continued to hold that office until 1799, when he was made associate judge. Prior to the year 1773, all this section of the colony, held under the charter of King Charles II., though not yet purchased from the Indians, formed a part of the county of Bedford. At that date the county of Westmoreland was organized, and this portion of the State, by that act, was embraced in its limits. In September, 1788, the county of Allegheny was organized, which was made to embrace all the territory north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers. Till the end of the century it remained thus. By an act of the Legislature of the 12th of March, 1800, the county of Crawford was erected and was made to embrace all the north-western portion of the State, including Erie, Warren, Venango, and Mercer, with the county seat at Meadville. Erie became a separate county on the 2d of April, 1803, and Venango and Warren, April 1, 1805. It was named for the unfortunate General William Crawford, who was burned by the Indians at Sandusky, on the 11th of June, 1782. What finally became Crawford county was entirely surrounded by the parts thus stricken off, with the exception of its western boundary, where it meets Ohio, Erie forming its northern limit, Warren and Venango its eastern, and Venango and Mercer its southern. Its length from east to west is forty-one miles, and its width twenty-four, and contains nine hundred and seventy-four square miles, nearly as much arable land as the entire State of Rhode Island. Its surface is for the most part heavily rolling, the State road, running from the south-western corner to the north-eastern, crossing nearly at right angles what seem an interminable series of earthy billows, at nearly regular intervals of eight or ten miles. The soil is unsurpassed for grazing, for corn and oats, and, along the rich valleys, for wheat. Copious springs of pure water are everywhere abundant, and shade, grateful to flocks and herds, has been left in profusion on hillside and vale. In some portions are dense forests, still the lurking places of the deer. Its principal stream is the Venango, meandering through it from northwest to south-east, which is fed by the Conneautee, the Cussawago, and the Conneaut outlet on its right bank, and by Muddy creek, Woodcock creek, Mill run, and the Sugar creeks on its left. The sum of four hundred pounds was appropriated by Congress, in 1791, to improve the navigation of this stream; and, before obstructed by mill dams, was navigable to Waterford, for boats of twenty tons burden at certain seasons of the year, and is still employed for rafting lumber. Extensive lumber and flouring mills are situated upon it at intervals of a few miles. The western portion is watered by the Shenango, a considerable stream running south and emptying into the Beaver, and by the Conneaut creek, which runs north and empties into lake Erie. In the east is the Oil creek, which 603 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. empties into the Allegheny at Oil city, six miles above the mouth of the Venango. The great water-shed, which divides the waters that descend to the gulf from those which flow to Lake Erie, and marks thile boundary between the Mississippi basin and that of the great lakes, cuts into the western portion, and upon its summit, where are dead flats of considerable extent, is Conneaut lake, a sheet of five miles in length by two in breadth, and the Conneaut marsh and Pymatuning swamp. The lake is the largest body of water in the State. The Pymatuning swamp undoubtedly at one time formed the basin of an extensive lake, but was partially drained by the deepening of its outlet, and has been filling with sediment and the annual accumulations of rank growths of vegetation. In cutting trenches through it, fallen timber and the stumps of trees are found in perfect preservation. It is now mostly covered by a growth of tamaracs, where, in the autumn, vast flocks of pigeons make their roosting place. In the eastern part are Sugar and Oil Creek lakes, smaller but picturesque sheets. The slates and shales of the Chemung and Portage groups underlie its surface, but it is destitute of calcareous rock, with the exception of a bed of marl, of over thirty acres in extent, situated near the head of Conneaut lake, from which, by burning, a dark grayish lime is made, and also a deposit of similar marl in the Pymatuning swamp. Sedimentary flag stone abounds in most parts, though as yet no quarry of the best quality has ever been opened. Red and yellow sandstone, yielding and easily wrought when first taken from the quarry, but which hardens by exposure to air and light, are found in abundance. Iron ore exists inp. the southern section, as also bituminous coal. From the earliest knowledge of the valley of the Oil creek, an exceedingly volatile substance was known to exist, which, when floating upon the surface of the water, reflected in the sunlight the most beautiful and variegated colors. In the extensive flat lands upon this stream are found many acres of pits dug in the soil and lined with split logs, doubtless constructed for the purpose of collecting this fluid, as the water which rises in them is found to be covered with it. By whom they were constructed is not known; but it must have been long ago-as no traces can be discovered of the stumps where the timber used in lining them was cut, and huge trees are growing in the very midst of the cradles-and by an intelligent people, as much skill, involving the use of effective tools, is shown in their construction. The French of a generation or two before its settlement may have fashioned them. They were certainly not the work of the nomadic Indians of our day. The more probable view is that they must be referred to the mound builders of a much earlier period. The composition of this substance is believed to be akin to that of the bituminous coal of the fields below. It was used by the natives as a medicine and in their strange worship. Assembling at certain points, having drained the waters of the streams on which it floats, quantities by this means having collected, they applied the torch, and while sheets of flame were ascending heavenward, uttered demoniac yells. It was known to the French two centuries and a half ago, their missionaries and military explorers having been led to the springs by the natives. Joseph Delaroche Daillon, in a letter of the 18th of July, 1627, published in Sagard's " History du Canada " describes it. Charlevoix, an agent of the French government, in his journals of 1720, makes mention of it, and Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, very minutely de604 CRAWFORD COUNTY. scribes it as taken from the earth in the Kanawha valley. Considerable quantities were collected of the surface oil, and it was sold for medicinal purposes and for lighting; but it was never an article much consumed till 1859. In that year Mr E. L. Drake commenced drilling, with the expectation of finding it in quantities He was not disappointed, and the current which he thus diverted has been united with similar ones, till the volume would equal a considerable stream steadily flowing. It is used chiefly for illumination, but largely for lubrication and in the mechanic arts. In a single year nearly seven million barrels have been produced. The act of the Legislature authorizing the formation of the county, empowered the commissioners to fix the county seat at Meadville, provided the people of that place would contribute $4,000 towards the establishment of an institution of learning. This sum was speedily raised, and the commissioners had no further discretion. The school, as has been noticed, was commenced in the block-house; but in 1802 an act of the Legislature was passed incorporating the institution. David Mead and six others were appointed trustees. Grounds were subsequently acquired on the south-west corner of Chestnut and Liberty streets, and a one story brick building with two rooms was erected thereon. In the fall of 1805 the Meadville Academy was opened under the charge of the Rev. Joseph Stockton, who, in addition to an extensive scientific course, taught also Latin and Greek. This building remained for twenty years, and at successive periods Cary, Kerr, Douglas, Reynolds, and De France taught therein. It was finally purchased, and gave place to a private residence, and the building now used for the public high school was erected. McKinney, Leffingwell, and Donnelly, among others, were at its head, the latter for a period of seventeen years. It received donations from the State at various times, and had a small endowment fund that was used for keeping the building in repair. In 1852 it entered upon a sphere of enlarged usefulness as a county academy, being attended by over three hundred pupils annually for several years. In 1861, by act of Assembly, the property and funds were given into the hands of the board of control of the city of Meadville for the use of a public high school, to which pupils from the county may be admitted. During the early history of the county, and until 1834, when the Iree school law was enacted, schools were established as the settlers could unite for the purpose, and were supported by their patrons. In sparse settlements it was impossible to accommodate all in this way. Some few of the indigent were taught at the expense of the county under the law of 1809, which provided for the "instruction of the poor gratis." But most parents were too independent to report themselves too poor to pay for the tuition of their children. There were in various sections men of great learning who gave instruction in the languages, notable among whom were Mr. Gamble, of the Shenangoes, and David Derickson, of Meadville. In 1838 the free school system began to go into operation, and rapidly the whole school-going population was gathered in. In 1854, upon the revisal of the law, a regeneration of the schools occurred; new buildings were erected, with improved furniture and appliances, and teachers were held to a strict examination and accountability. With opportunities so meagre as were afforded in that early period, it is a matter of congratulation that education was so general and so good as it was. 605 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Especially is it a subject of pride that the early settlers entertained so exalted an idea of higher education, which led them early to make provision for an academy, making it a condition of securing the county seat; but also, not many years after, and while yet the county was new and the means of realizing money were few, to found a college and make it the seat of the most advanced culture of the period. On the evening of Thursday, the 20th of June, 1815, at a public meeting held at the court house in Meadville, at which Major Roger Alden presided, and John Reynolds acted as secretary, it was resolved to establish a college, which should be called Allegheny, from the river which drains all this region; that Timothy Alden, a brother of the major, a native of Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard University, and an eminent teacher at Boston, and also at New York, should be president, and the Rev. Robert Johnson, a learned Presbyterian divine, should be vice-president. A committee was appointed to ask the Legislature for a charter, another to prepare rules for its government, and a third to open books for receiving subscriptions. The sum of six thousand dollars was subscribed, and a charter was obtained on the 17th of March, 1817, with the following named persons as the Board of Trustees: Roger Alden, William McArthur, Jesse Moore, John Brooks, William Clark, Henry Hurst, Samuel Lord, Samuel Torbett, Ralph Martin, Patrick Farrelly, Thomas Atkinson, John Reynolds, David Burns, William Foster, and Daniel Perkins, and two thousand dollars, which were subsequently increased to seven thousand, were appropriated. The site for a building was selected upon the hillside, a mile to the north of the town, which it overlooked, a most delectable spot, commanding a view of the charming valleys, which approach from every point of the compass, and the beautiful hills, half covered with forest, which tower up on all sides and kiss the sky in seeming nearness. A plot of five acres, subsequently enlarged to ten, and lately to twenty, was contributed by Samuel Lord, upon which a substantial and imposing structure of brick, with fine cut freestone trimmings, was erected, and the infant institution was fairly launched. The president, Dr. Alden, was a man of versatile talents, a prodigy in lingual acquirements, to whom difficulties and seemingly insurmountable obstacles were meat and drink. Ile organized, he taught, he visited the cities of New York and New England soliciting aid. His plans were successful. The institution took form beneath his plastic hand. To the plea of the necessities of his dear college, valuable private libraries dropped into its alcoves. That of the Rev. Wm. Bentley, D.D., of Salem, Massachusetts, was especially rich in lexicons, theological books, and such treasures of the Latin and Greek fathers as few colleges in the United States possessed; and those of Isaiah Thomas, LL.D., of Worcester, Mass., and James Winthrop, LL.D., of Cambridge, Mass., comprised the best miscellaneous writings, making the entire collection in the different departments of literature and science "most rare and valuable." Contributions were also made to cabinets in natural history, and apparatus for chemical and philosophical experiments. But though fortune seemed to smile upon the early labors of its founders, yet the period of growth was one beset by many hardships. Money was difficult to command, and few of the sons of the frontiersmen could spare the time or secure 606 (JRAWFORD COUNTY. the means requisite to compass a liberal education. A proposition was made to found a German professorship with a view to enlisting that element of the population; likewise one to have a mathematical professorship endowed by the Masonic fraternity, to secure their active co-operation; and finally, to change it to a military school. But none of these projects were successful, and in 1833, its management was assumed by the Erie and Pittsburgh conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, under which it has remained to the present day. At this date Dr. Alden gave place, as president, to Martin Ruter, D.D., who was succeeded by Homer J. Clark, D.D., in 1837; John Barker, D.D., in 1847; George Loomis, D.D., in 1860; and Lucius H. Bugbee, in 1875. Its alumni number over five hundred, among whom are men adorning all the learned professions. MEADVILE, FROM TIfEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, LOOKING NORTH-WVEST. [From a Photograph by J. D. Dunn, Meadville.] In 1851, a large building, designed for chapel, library, laboratory, and cabinets, was erected, and in 1864 a boarding hall, capable of accommodating one hundred students was added. The cabinets in the various departments of natural history, mostly collected under the administration of Dr. Loomis, are equalled in few institutions of the United States. The Meadville Theological school was established mainly through the influence of the late H. J. IHuidekoper, a native of Holland, who succeeded Major Alden in the agency of the IHolland Land company, and was one of the most influential and intelligent of the early settlers. It was opened in 1844, under the presidency of Rufus P. Stebbins, D.D., and in 1854 a commodious and substantial building was erected on an elevated site to the east of the town, commanding a beautiful GENERAL HISTORY. these governments, says Gordon, had grown with their growth, and a bill was now before the Lords to change them into regal ones. The friends of Penn, and others interested in the Province, had succeeded with difficulty in obtaining a postponement of the bill until his return, which they earnestly represented to him should be immediate. Penn forthwith convened the Assembly on September 16, 1701. The completion of a new constitution, and the enactment of such laws as required his special sanction, made the session important and laborious. The address of the Proprietary was most frank and conciliatory. He apologized for having summoned them before the customary time, expressed his regret at being so unseasonably called away, and assured them of his unceasing love and regard. "Think," said he, "therefore (since all men are mortal), of some suitable expedient and provision for your safety, as well in your privileges as property, and you will find me ready to comply with whatever may render us happy by a nearer union of our interest." Yet actuated by his duty to the crown, he again drew their attention to the King's demand for money, and mentioned a late treaty of peace, concluded with the Indians by the Governor of New York in behalf of all the Provinces, as worthy of their acknowledgments. The House replied to the address with grateful thinks, but refused the war contribution for the reasons already given. The Assembly then prepared an address detailing their wants and wishes, which related particularly to the appointment of a Lieutenant-Governor in his absence, the security of their land-titles, and the allowance of ten for every hundred acres connected with them, which they claimed by virtue of the Governor's promise. They proposed the establishment of a patent office, and that the quit-rents should be made redeemable. The Lower Counties, in the twenty-one articles of which the address consisted, had asked much for themselves in direct opposition to the Proprietary's interest, yet he granted the most of what was asked, refusing only some unjust demands and others of a private character, with which the Legislature had no right to interfere. The Assembly, on the other hand, pressed their demands, although Penn's complaisance went so far as to invite them to nominate his Lieutenant, which, however, they modestly declined. While they were debating on a bill to confirm the laws at New Castle, and the majority seemed to be in favor of its passage, the misunderstanding between the representatives of the Province and the Lower Counties was again revived, with more violence than ever, so that several of the members for the Lower Counties left the House. It needed all of Penn's weight of character and earnest interposition to prevent an open rupture. He promised to agree to the separation of the two colonies. But then, continued the Proprietary, it must be upon amicable terms, and a good understanding.. That they must first resolve to settle the laws; and that, as the interest of the Province and that of those Lower Counties would be inseparably the same, they should both use a conduct consistent with that relation. Matters were adjusted temporarily with the provision for a conditional separation, if they chose it, within the space of three years. The constitution, which had been under consideration for more than eighteen months, was finally adopted on the twenty-eighth of October, six parts in seven of the Assembly having formally surrendered the previous charter granted by Penn. The new charter was as comprehensive on the subject of civil and reliHISTOR V OF PENNSYL VANIA. view of the Cussawago valley and the dark pine forests which skirt its mouth. It was principally endowed by the Unitarian denomination, though the Society of Christians extended some aid. It has a productive endowment fund of over one hundred thousand dollars, and property in buildings and library amounting to over thirty thousand dollars. Rev. Oliver Stearns, D.D., became president in 1856, and the Rev. A. A. Livermore, D.D., in 1864. The school has a library of over twelve thousand volumes, and numbers over one hundred and fifty graduates. It is a circumstance for which it may claim credit that nearly all the periodical and newspaper publications of the Unitarian denomination are under the editorial charge of its alumni. On the 2d of January, 1803, was issued at Meadville the initial number of the Crawford Messenger, the first paper published in this portion of the State. and for a long series of years held its place as the most respectable. It was founded by Thomas Atkinson and W. Brendle. In an editorial of September, 1828, Mr. Atkinson makes the following interesting record: "In two months more, twenty-five years will have elapsed since we arrived in this village with our printing establishment, being the first, and for several subsequent years, the only one north-west of the Allegheny river. HoW short the period, yet how fruitful in interesting events! Our village at that time consisted of a few scattered tenements, or what might be properly termed huts. It is now surpassed by few, if any, in West Pennsylvania, for its numerous, commodious, and in many instances, beautiful dwelling houses, churches, academy, court-house, with a splendid edifice for a college; all affording pleasing evidence of the enterprise, the taste, and the liberality of its inhabitants. Then we were without roads, nothing but Indian paths, by which to wend our way from one point to another. Now turnpikes and capacious roads converge to it from every quarter. Then the mail passed between Pittsburgh and Erie once in two weeks-now, eighteen stages arrive and depart weekly. Then we had not unfrequently to pack our paper on horsback upwards of two hundred miles; on one hundred and thirty of this distance there were but three or four houses-now, however, thanks to an enterprising citizen of the village, it can be had as conveniently as could be desired. Our country is marching onward." Since the time when Mr. Atkinson congratulated himself and his readers on the great changes which had occurred, a half century has elapsed, and the progress which has been made far out-reaches the contrasts of that early day. There are at present published in Meadville, the Crawford Journal, weekly; the Crawford Democrat; the Crawford county Post (German), weekly; the Meadville Republican, daily and weekly; in Conneautville, the Conneautville -Courier, weekly; in Titusville, the Herald and Courier, both daily and weekly, and the Sunday Press; in Cambridge, the Index, weekly; and in Linesville, the Linesville Leader, weekly. As we have noted, David Mead was the first commissioned justice, which office he continued to hold until 1799, when he was made a judge, and in 1800 was held the first court, Judges Mead and Kelso presiding. At the session of April, 1801, Alexander Addison presided as president judge, and David Mead having resigned, William Bell was commissioned in his place. Judge Addison has been succeeded in the office of president judge by Moore, Shippen, Eldred, Thompson, Church, Galbraith, Derickson, Brown, Johnson, Vincent, and Lowrie. 608 CRAWFORD COUNTY. By an act of the Legislature of March 5th, 1804, the commissioners were directed to erect a court-house upon the public square. The present edifice was commenced on the 10th of September, 1867, and was completed in October, 1869. It occupies a commanding location, is constructed of pressed brick, with red sandstone trimmings, and is one of the most pleasing pieces of architecture, of the renaissance style, which the State, outside of Philadelphia, can boast. The contrasts of twenty-five years in the means of travel and communication as depicted by Mr. Atkinson, convey some conception of the difficulties experienced. It was not uncommon for salt to be carried on pack horses, and even on the backs of men, long distances in that early day. But in 1828, the Beaver and Erie canal was constructed, stretching from Lake Erie, near the village of Girard, to the mouth of the Beaver river, on the Ohio, and thence to Pittsburgh, which greatly improved the means of transportation. The summit between these two points is Conneaut lake, which, as we have seen, is upon the divide which separates the Mississippi river system from that of the great lakes. Boats were accordingly locked up from Pittsburgh to the Conneaut lake, and from there down to Lake Erie. Conneaut lake was hence made the reservoir for feeding the canal in both directions. To make it at all times serviceable, its mouth was dammed and its surface raised eleven feet, greatly increasing its size, and to feed it the water was taken from the Venango river, two miles above Meadville, conducted by the left bank to Shaw's landing, seven miles below, where it was led across the stream by an aqueduct, high above its natural level, and thence forward to the lake. This feeder gave Meadville all the advantages of the main line which followed the valleys of the Shenango and Conneaut creeks, leaving Meadville twenty miles away. In its day it served an important purpose. But the hour was rapidly approaching, then little dreamed of, when this vast public work, with its miles of solid masonry, executed with vast labor, would be thrown aside as a cast-off garment. As late as 1857 there was not a mile of railway within the borders of the county. In less than ten years from that date it had more miles than any other county in the State. The Erie and Pittsburgh railroad follows substantially the course of the canal, traversing the whole length of its western border, and was completed in 1858. The Atlantic and Great Western, with broad gauge to correspond to the Erie, was constructed in 1861-2, and passes in a somewhat circuitous course from north-east to south-west through the central part, having large and substantial shops of brick and stone at Meadville. At about the same time the Oil Creek and Allegheny Valley road, extending through the whole length of the eastern part, was built, and likewise the Franklin branch of the Atlantic and Great Western, reaching from Meadville to Oil City. Subsequently the Union and Titusville was constructed, giving complete rail communication with every part. The two most important were projected before oil was discovered, and hence independently of the necessities which it created. The others were the outgrowth of the surprising development of that wonderful fluid. Though considerable manufacturing in iron and wood and wool has, from an early day, been carried on, to which may now be added those of oil, and the wants which the production of oil has given rise to, yet it cannot be properly termed a manufacturing county. Conneautville, a village in the western part, on the line o0 609 HIISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. of the canal, was for many years the rival of Meadville in enterprise and business capacity, and far outstretched Titusville, the principal village of the extreme east; but upon the discovery of oil in 1859, the latter suddenly sprang into importance, and shot forward until it had surpassed Meadville in population, and is still a place of much wealth and business, though, since the subsidence of oil, has fallen behind its more staid and sedate neighbor. Mosiertown, Ilarmonsburg, Evansburg, Linesville, Espyville, Hartstown, and Adamsville, in the west, are all villages long settled, and the centres of a prosperous population. In the centre are Cambridge, Venango, Saegertown, Geneva, and Cochranton, and in the east Spartansburg, Riceville, Centreville, Townville, Tryonville, and Oil Creek, which share in the general prosperity. The population of the county in 1800 was 2,346; in 1830 it had increased to 16,030; in 1870 to 63,832. The early settlers were chiefly German, Scotch-Irish, and emigrants from New England and New York, and such, substantially, the population has continued to be. Wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, and hay were the staple products of the soil, of which in the early settlement more was produced than consumed. From the first, however, the soil seemed better adapted to grazing than to grain, and to within a recent period the chief product for export was stock, though not in a profitable way. Immense numbers of cattle were raised, but they were not usually kept until they were more than three years old. They were then sold for a price that barely covered the cost of production, and were driven away to the luxuriant meadows of Lancaster and Chester, where they attained great weight, and were sold at high prices for the Philadelphia market. That custom has now almost entirely ceased. Some twenty years ago a great impetus was given to stock breeding by the introduction, especially in the western portion, of fine blooded horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, and the county fairs held at Conneautville and Meadville, served to stimulate competition and local pride in securing perfection. The agents of Louis Napoleon bought horses here for the imperial stables, and many of the proudest stepping animals that make their appearance on Broadway and Chestnut street were gathered from the rich pasturage of Crawford. A limited number of farmers in different sections of the county made excellent butter, which did not suffer by comparison with the noted Orange county makes of New York. But the true sphere of the farmers had not yet been reached. To raise enough buckwheat for home consumption, to fatten a few bullocks and swine and sheep, and to furnish a few pounds of butter carried to market on cabbage leaves, was not putting the rich grasses of its hillsides and intervals to their most profitable and natural use. It was not until 1870 that any considerable concert of action was secured in cheese-making at factories. Since that period this business has rapidly increased, until now nearly every section in its broad domain is covered by it. The great increase in the amount of money realized from the dairy products has stimulated production, and now the pure water, the fine shade, and the excellent grass are utilized in the production of milk. Already the Meadville cheese exchange rivals that of the famous Little Falls. During the year 1875 there were sixty nine factories in operation, giving an aggregate product of ten million pounds, valued at one million dollars. A large number of the early settlers had served in the Revolutionary army, 610 CRAWFORD COUNTY. of whom Major Roger Alden, mentioned before, was one of the most prominent. They were among the best citizens, and showed by their sober and industrious habits that the fortunes of the camp and the battle-field had not destroyed their capacity for usefulness in private life. In 1812-15, the war was brought near to our borders, and when Perry prepared his fleet at Erie, he found among the most useful and resolute of his mechanics, men from thi3 county, and when he set sail to meet the foe, that those same brawny arms were skillful and ready-in handling the musket. Seeing that this part of the State was exposed to invasion from its near contiguity to Canada, and reflecting upon what the consequence might have been had the British fleet been victorious instead of the American, the Legislature of Pennsylvania ordered the erection of an arsenal at Meadville, and concentrated there several powerful batteries of artillery; this location being just far enough away from the border to be secure from sudden seizure, and near enough to be of service should an enemy attempt invasion. In 1855, through the influence of Senator Darwin A. Finney, the necessity for keeping a military depot at this point having passed away, on account of the improved means of rapid transit, the Legislature donated the property which had now become centrally located, to the city of Meadville for school purposes, and in 1868 a beautiful structure was erected thereon. But it was the war of Rebellion which called out the military strength and powers of the county, and illustrated the nerve and stern qualities of which its citizens are composed. In the three months' service the Erie regiment was largely made up of volunteers from its borders. In the three years and veteran service the Ninth and Tenth Reserves, the Fifty-seventh, the Eighty-third, the One IHundred and Eleventh, the One Hundred and Forty-fifth, the One Hundred and Fiftieth, One Hundred and Sixty-third (Eighteenth cavalry), and One Hundred and Ninetieth regiments were composed largely of its hardy sons. Colonel Henry S. Huidekoper, of the One Hundred and Fiftieth, lost his right arm at Gettysburg; Major A. J. Mason, of the One Hundred and Forty-fifth, was killed in the battle of Fredericksburg, and numbers of others of various ranks were killed or wounded, there being few townships throughout its borders but have some graves of soldiers to cherish and decorate. Company K, of the One Hundred and Fiftieth regiment, better known as the Bucktails, was selected on its arrival at Washington for the body guard to Mr. Lincoln, which office it faithfully performed for two years, winning the respect and confidence of the President and his family, and served as escort at his funeral. No troops won a more enviable reputation in the great army of the Union than the Bucktails, and to wear its significant emblem was a proud distinction. 611 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. BY I. DANIEL RUPP. [With acknowledgments to E. S. Wagoner and J. A. Murray, D.D.] UMBERLAND county was named after a maritime county of England, bordering on Scotland. The name is derived from the Keltic, S Kimbriland. The Kimbrie, or Keltic races, once inhabited the County of Cumberland in England. Cumberland county was, when erected, the sixth county in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester having been established in 1682, Lancaster ___ __:_ 4 4 CUMBERLAND COUNTY COURT HOUSE, CARLISLE. [From a Photograph by Choate, Carlisle.] 1729, and York 1749. Among other inhabitants of North or Cumberland Valley, were James Silvers and William Magaw, who presented petitions to the Assembly, praying for the establishing of a new county. An act for that purpose was passed January 27, 1750. The commissioners appointed to carry out the provisions of the act of Assembly were Robert McCoy, Benjamin Chambers, David Magaw, James McIntire, and John McCormick. The act provided, establishing Cumberland, formed of part of Lancaster 612 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. county, says: "That all and singular lands lying within the Province of Pennsylvania, to the westward of the Susquehanna, and northward and westward of the county of York, be erected into a county, to be called CUMBERLAND; bounded northward and westward with the line of the Provinces, eastward partly with the Susquehanna and partly with said county of York; and southward, in part by the line dividing said province from that of Maryland." To the end, that the boundaries between York and Cumberland may be better ascertained, it was further enacted that commissioners on the part of York county should be appointed to act in conjunction in the premises with the commissioners of Cumberland. The commissioners of York county were Thomas Cox, Michael Tanner, George Swope, Nathan Hussey, and John Wright, Jr. When the commissioners of both counties met to fix the boundary line between York and Cumberland, they disagreed. The commissioners of Cumberland wished that the dividing line commence opposite the mouth of the Swatara creek, and run along the ridge of the South mountain (or Trent hills or Priest hills), while those of York county wished that the Yellow Breeches creek should form part of the dividing line. The difficulties were settled by an act passed February 9, 1751. The ample limits of Cumberland, when first established, were gradually reduced by the formation of other counties, viz., by the erection of Bedford, 1771; of Northumberland, 1772; of Franklin, 1784; of Mifflin, 1789; and of Perry, 1820. Cumberland, as now formed, is bounded on the north by Perry; on the east by the Susquehanna river, which separates it from Dauphin; on the south by York and Adams; and on the west by Franklin. Length, thirty-four miles; breadth, sixteen; area, five hundred and forty-four square miles-three hundred and fortyeight thousand one hundred and sixty acres, of which about two-thirds are improved. The natural boundary of Cumberland is the Blue mountain on the north, called by the Indians Kau-ta-tin- Chunk, Kittatinny, Main, or Principal mountain; and south by the South mountain. Between these two natural boundaries the greater portion of the county lies. The surface is comparatively level, especially the lime-stone portion. The slate region, north of the Conodogwinet creek, is somewhat uneven and hilly. South and north, along the South mountain, where ridges abound, the surface is mostly rough, and only partially cultivated; much of it is covered with timber. The geological formation of these ridges is almost wholly composed of hard, white sand-stone. At the Pine Grove furnace, on Mountain creek, is a detached bed of limestone, of limited extent, surrounded by mountain sand-stone and connected with a deposit of brown argillaceous and hematite iron ore, which is productive, and has been worked for many years. All along the northern side of the South mountain, near the contact of the white sand-stone with the lime-stone, iron ore is abundant, and is extensively used for the supply of furnaces. Further north, and wholly within the lime-stone formation, pipe ore and other varieties of excellent quality may be obtained in many places. The rocks of the Blue mountain are the coarse gray and reddish sand-stones. From elevated points on the Blue mountain one has a commanding or 613 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. imposing prospect of a most charming and beautiful broad valley, extending south and east, between the two natural boundaries. A wide and diversified landscape of woodland, highly improved farms, and numerous villages and towns, spread before the view like an immense picture, stretching away in the distance until fading in the dim horizon, and the eye wanders in delighted admiration of the beautiful, varied, and extended scene. The Conodogwinet is the largest stream of water in the county. It rises in Franklin county, moving steadily in a sinuous course until it reaches the Susquehanna at West Fairview, affording ample water power to many mills on its banks. Means' run, the main south tributary of the Conodogwinet, rises at the foot of the South mountain. It flows along the boundary line between Franklin and Cumberland, through Shippensburg, a distance of eight miles, until it empties into the Conodogwinet. The Yellow Breeches rises from many large springs in the south-western part of the county, along the South mountain, flowing through and along the southern portion of the county, emptying into the Susquehanna at New Cumberland, three miles below Harrisburg. It is a clear and rapid stream, scarcely freezing over in the winter. It affords a vast amount of water power to mills, forges, and furnaces upon it and its several branches. Other large springs rise within this county. One at Springfield, south of Newville, affords much water power. It runs northward and empties into the Conodogwinet, having its banks studded with mills. LeTort's spring, south of Carlisle, also yields water power. Silvers' spring, in Silvers' Spring township, has its source about one mile south of the Conodogwinet, into which it empties, and affords water power to two mills. A number of springs exist near the head of the Yellow Breeches, in the south-western part of the county, and several in the south-eastern part. Near Doubling gap, at the foot of the Blue mountain, is a spring strongly impregnated with sulphur. Carlisle springs, four miles from the town, acquired some note in years gone by as a fashionable place of resort. At Mount Rock, seven miles west of Carlisle, a large spring issues from a limestone rock, the water from which, after running a short distance, sinks again into the earth and passes under a hill, once more re-appears on the north side and pursues its course to the Conodogwinet. Cedar run, in the eastern part of the county, affords water power to a mill, near where it empties into the Yellow Breeches creek. Green spring rises a few miles north of Oakville, runs northward, and empties into the Conodogwinet creek. The agricultural resources are equal to any other county of the same population in the State. None can boast of more highly cultivated and productive farms than Cumberland. Many of the cultivators of the soil are of German descent, of whose ancestors Governor George Thomas, of the Province of Pennsylvania, wrote to the Bishop of Exeter, April 23, 1747: "The Germans of Pennsylvania are, I believe, three-fifths of the population (whole population then two hundred thousand). They have, by their industry, been the principal instruments of raising the State to its present flourishing condition, beyond any of his Majesty's colonies in North America." Of the three hundred and forty-eight thousand one hundred and sixty acres of land, more than two-thirds, i. e., two hundred and thirty-nine thousand seven hundred and eighty-four acres, are improved. 614 CUIMBERLAND COUNTY. Iron manufactories of different kinds are carried on to considerable extent. There are eight or nine furnaces and five or six forges, in which large quantities of pig metal and forged iron are made from the'ore found in this region. The furnaces and forges, the rolling mills and nail factory, give emyloyment to a large number of working men, to miners of ore, wood-choppers, furnace tenders, forge men, and other operatives. Timber of various kinds is abundant in the mountains, affording a sufficient supply for iron works and for domestic purposes. Prior to the whites settling in the North Ataley, now Cumberland Valley, the Shawanese Indians had fixed habitations on the west side of the Susquehanna, on the Conodogwinet creek, as also at the mouth of the Yellow Breeches. With the migration of that nation to the Ohio, on the advent of the European, about 1725, these villages were deserted, and the Cumberland Valley ceased to be the home of the aborigines. The first settlers in Cumberland county were principally Scotch-Irish, with some English. The immigration of the Scotch-Irish into P'ennsylvania began about 1715, and the number annually increased to such an extent that the Provincial Secretary, in writing to the Proprietaries, says: " It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabitants, for last week not less than six ships arrived, and every day two or three arrive also. The common fear is that they thus crowd where they are not wanted." The early Scotch-Irish settlers of Cumberiland Valley were of " the better sort "-a Christian people. Prominent among them were the families of Calhoun, Kenny, Spray, Shannon, Dickey, Bigham, Chambers, Irwin, Berryhill, Noble, Crawford, Fulton, McClellan, Rose, Sample, West, Huston, Buchanan, Reed, McGuire, McMeans, Caruthers, Quigly, Morton, Armstrong, Nelson, McCormick, Elliot, Dunning, Junkin, Gray, Star, Silvers, Stevenson, Hunter, Douglass, Mitchell, Holmes, Finley, Irvine, Hamilton, Orr, McDonald, Parker, Denny, Lamberton, Murray, and Blair. After 1734 the influx of immigrants into the Cumberland Valley increased fast. By reason of feuds in 1749, between the German and Irish in York county, the Proprietaries instructed their agents, in order to prevent further difficulties and disturbances, not to sell any more lands in York county to the Irish, but hold strong inducements by advantageous overtures to settle in the North or Kittatinny valley. The first settlers were being supplanted by Germans as early as 1757-60, many of the Scotch-Irish removing further west after the Revolution. We find among the German families in Cumberland county, as early as 1761, the inames of Wertzberger, Gramlich, Stark, Albert, Kunckel, Huber, Renninger, Weber, Legner, Kast, Seyler, Diehl, Hamuth, Kistner, Senzenbach, Hausman, Bucher, Kimmel, Herman. After 1770, Rupp, Schnebele, Schwartz, Seiler, Longsdorff, Kuhn, Emhoff, Braun, Strack, Boor, Grieger, Bernhardt, Bielman, Brandt, Tarne, Bollinger, Kreutzer, Scholl, Schopp, Coover, Krisecker, Stegmuller, Kauffmann, and Frankenberger. Between 1750 and 1755 there figured a character of some note in Cumberland county. Captain Jack, the " black hunter," the "black rifle," the "wild hunter of Juniata," the "black hunter of the forest," was a white man. He entered the woods with a few enterprising companions, built his cabin, cleared a little land, and amused himself with the pleasures of fishing and hunting. He felt happy, for he had not a care. But on an evening, when he returned from a day of sport, 615 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. he found his cabin burnt, and his wife and children murdered. From that moment he forsook civilized man, lived in caves, protected the frontier inhabitants from the Indians, and seized every opportunity for revenge that offered. He was a terror to the Indians; a protector to the whites. On one occasion, near Juniata, in the middle of a dark night, a family was suddenly awakened by the report of a gun. They jumped from their huts, and by the glimmering light from their chimney, saw an Indian fall to rise no more. The open door exposed to view the " wild hunter." " I saved your lives," he cried; then turned and was buried in the gloom of night. He never shot without good cause. His look was as unerring as his aim. He formed an association to defend the settlers against savage aggressions. On a given signal they would unite. Their exploits were heard of, in 1756, on the Conococheague and Juniata. He was sometimes called the Half Indian; and Colonel Armstrong, in a letter to the Governor, says: "The company, under the command of the Half Indian, having left the Great Cove, the Indians took advantage and murdered many." He also, through Colonel Croghan, proffered his aid to Braddock. " He will march with his hunters," says the Colonel; "they are dressed in hunting shirts, moccasins, etc., are well armed, and are equally regardless of heat or cold. They require no shelter for the night-they ask no pay." What was the real name of this mysterious personage has never been ascertained. It is supposed that he gave the name to "Jack's mountain"-an enduring and appropriate monument. Soon after the defeat of the Virginia forces and the capitulation of Fort Necessity, July 4, 1754, the inhabitants on the frontiers of Cumberland Valley were in imminent danger of being surprised by the Indians. The people petitioned Governor Hamilton for protection, by furnishing them arms and ammunition. After the defeat of General Braddock the alarmed people once and again begged of the Governor for a supply of arms and ammunition. Governor Morris, Hamilton's successor, summoned the Assembly to meet in November. No sooner assembled when he called their attention to the true, but sad, state of affairs. In order to protect the inhabitants against the incursions of the Indians west of the Susquehanna, a chain or line of block-houses, stockades, and forts, was erected from the Susquehanna to the Potomac, some at the public expense, others by individuals at their own cost. To these places of protection, hundreds of refugees resorted to escape the tomahawk and scalping knife, or worse yet, captivity and the stake. In this chain or line of places of defence, they may be named in the order, beginning at or near the Susquehanna-McCormick's fort, in East Pennsboro' township, near the Susquehanna; Fort Pleasant, or Hendrick's fort; Fort Lowther, at Carlisle; Forts Morris and Franklin, at Shippensburg; Fort Loudoun, at the base of the Blue mountain; Chambers' fort, McDowell's fort, a private fort erected as early as 1756; fort at Rev. Steel's, three miles east of Mercersburg; fort at Maxwell's; Davis' fort, near the Maryland line. There were other forts north of the Blue mountain. Notwithstanding this cordon and the vigilance of the people, the hostile savages made marauding incursions into Cumberland Valley, along the Blue mountain for the distance of eighty miles. Governor Morris, in his message to the Assembly, in August, 1756, sets forth briefly what the Indians had done in the summer of that year. " The French 616 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. and their allies made several invasions, and have, in the most inhuman and barbarous manner, murdered great numbers of our people, and carried others into captivity, being greatly emboldened by a series of successes, not only attempted but took Fort Granville (now Lewistown) on the 30th of July, then commanded by Lieutenant Armstrong, carried off the greater part of the garrison, from whom, doubtless, the enemy will be informed of the weakness of the frontier, and how incapable we are of defending ourselves against the incursions, which will be a great inducement for them to redouble their attack, and in all probability, for the remaining inhabitants of the county to evacuate it. Great numbers of the inhabitants are fled already, and others preparing to go off, finding that it is not in the power of the troops of this government to prevent the ravages of the restless, barbarous, and merciless enemy. It is, therefore, greatly to be doubted that without a further protection, the inhabitants of this county will shortly endeavor to save themselves by flight, which must be productive of considerable inconvenience to his majesty's interest in general, and to the welfare of this Province in particular." The savages still made incursions and continued the work of blood and butchery. The people of East Pennsborough township were in imminent danger of being murdered by the direful fiends. To save themselves, many of the people fled. Those who remained supplicated government for protection. The following petition was sent to Secretary Peters at Philadelphia: "August 24, 1756-The humble supplication of the remaining inhabitants of East Pennsborough township, in Cumberland county, letting your worship know something of our melancholy state, we are at present, by reason of the savage Indians, who have not only killed our Christian neighbors, but are coming nearer to us in their late slaughter; and almost every day numbers on our frontiers are leaving their places and travelling further down among the inhabitants, and we are made quite incapable of holding our frontiers good any longer, unless your worship can prevail with our honorable Governor and Assembly to be pleased to send us speedy relief. May it please all to whom this shall come, to consider what an evil case we will be exposed to, in leaving our places, grain, and cattle; for we are not able to buy provisions for our families, much less for our cattle. And to live here we cannot, we are so weak-handed, and those not removed are not provided with guns and ammunition; and we have agreed with a guard of fourteen men in number; and if it were in our power to pay for a guard, we should be satisfied, but we are not able to pay them. Begging for God's sake you may take pity upon our poor families, and that their necessities may be considered by all gentlemen that have charge of us." Signed by William Chestnut, John Sample, Francis McGuire, James McMullen, Samuel McCormick, Tobias Hendricks, John McCormick, Rodger Walton, Robert McWhinney, James Silvers. In the spring and summer of 1757 the Indians invaded East Pennsboro'. In May, 1757, William Walker and another man were killed near McCormick's fort, at Conodogwinet. In July, of the same year, four persons were killed near Tobias Hendricks'. For the greater security of the inhabitants, Colonel Armstrong, of Carlisle, strenuously recommended "the people's working together in parties as large as possible, and have from William Maxwell's fort, near the temporary line (between Pennsylvania and Maryland), to John McCormick's, near the 617 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. gious liberty as the former ones. Whilst it secured, by general provisions, the most important of human rights, it left minor subjects to be detailed and enforced by the laws. Penn likewise, by letters-patent, under the great seal, 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." And, in his absence, or on the death or incapacity of his deputy, they, or any five of them, were authorized to execute all the Proprietary powers in the administration of the government. The members of the Council were removable at the will of the Governor, who might increase their numbers at pleasure. Andrew Hamilton,* one of the Proprietaries of East Jersey, and formerly Governor of East and West Jersey, having been appointed Deputy Governor, and James Logan Provincial Secretary and Clerk of the Council, William Penn sailed for England in the ship Dalmahoy, and arrived at Portsmouth about the middle of December. The bill for reducing the Proprietary into regal governments, pending in Parliament, was entirely dropped. King 1702. William died on the 18th of the first month, 1701-2, and was suc ceeded by the Princess Anne of Denmark, with whom William Penn was in great favor. Governor Hamilton's administration was very brief, for he died in the month of April, 1703. His chief efforts had been unsuccessfully directed to the consummation of a union between the Province and territories. Upon his death the government devolved upon the Council, Edward Shippen being President. During this time of dispute, or endeavors for an union between the representatives of the Province and territories, not much other public business of importance appears to have been transacted in the affairs of the government. The latter persisted in an absolute refusal to join with the former, in legislation, till it was finally, in the year 1703, agreed 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; which clause was said to have been there inserted by the particular and special request of the representatives of the territories, with previous full intention of the separation which ensued; and in this capacity they had ever acted since that time. The Proprietary's choice of a successor to Governor Hamilton fell on Mr. John Evans, a young man of six and twenty years of age, and of Welsh extraction. He was earnestly recommended to Secretary Logan, under whose direction he *ANDREW HAMILTON was a native of Scotland. Originally a merchant of Edinburgh, he emigrated to America in 1685; was one of the Council of Lord Neil Campbell, whom he succeeded as Deputy Governor of New Jersey, in 1686. In 1689, while on a voyage to England, was made prisoner and detained some time in France. He devised the scheme for the establishment of post-offices in the Colonies, and received the appointment, April 4, 1692, of Deputy Postmaster-General for all the plantations. He was Governor of New Jersey from 1692 to 1698, and again from 1699 to 1701, when he received the appointment of Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania. He died while on a visit to Amboy, April 20, 1703. HISTORY OF PEN-NSYL VANIA. Susquehanna, placed about twenty guards, and changing the stations as well as the number of each guard according to the necessity and convenience of the people." Companies of rangers scoured, in the summer of 1757, the country between the Conodogwinet creek and the Blue mountain, from the Susquehanna westward, as far as Shippensbuig, to) route the savages who usually lurked in small parties, stealing through the woods and over fields to surprise laborers, to attack men, women, and children in the "light of day and dead of night," murdered all indiscriminately whom they had surprised, fired houses and barns, abducted women and children. On July 18, 1757, six men were killed or taken away near Shippensburg, while reaping in John Cesney's field. The savages murdered John Kirkpatrick, Dennis Oneidan; captured John Cesney, three of his grandsons, and one of John Kirkpatrick's children. The day following, not far from Shippensburg, in Joseph Stevenson's harvest field, the savages butchered inhumanly Joseph Mitchell, James Mitchell, William Mitchell, John Finlay, Robert Stevenson, Andrew Enslow, John Wiley, Allen Henderson, and William Gibson, carrying off Jane MeCammon, Mary Minor, Janet Harper, and a son of John Finlay. July 27, Mr. McKisson was wounded, and his son taken from the South mountain. A letter, dated Carlisle, September 5, 1757, says three persons were killed by the Indians, six miles from Carlisle, and two persons about two miles from Silvers' old place. A longer list of the names of slain and captured might be added. In the summer of 1761 and later, many fled for shelter and protection to Shippensburg, Carlisle, and the lower end of the county. In July, 1763, 1,384 of the poor distressed back inhabitants took refuge at Shippensburg. Of this number there were three hundred and one men, three hundred and forty-five women, and seven hundred and thirty-eight children-many of them had to lie in barns, stables, cellars, under leaky sheds-the dwelling houses were all crowded. In the lower end of the county every house, every barn, and every stable was crowded with miserable refugees, who having lost their horses, their cattle, their harvest, were reduced from independence and happiness to abject beggary and despair. The streets and roads were filled with people, the men distracted with grief for their losses; and the desire for revenge, more poignantly excited by the disconsolate females and bereaved children, who wailed around them. In the woods for miles, on both sides of the Susquehanna, many families, with their cattle, sought shelter, being unable to find it in towns. Many of the inhabitants were Presbyterians, of whom it is said: " They were patriots, haters of tyranny, known abbettors of the earliest resistance to their civil rights." Who, then, can dispute that patriotism was the leadin_ trait among the people of the Cumberland Valley. No sooner had the port of Boston been closed, and fifty-three days before the Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, when "a respectable meeting of the freeholders and freemen from several townships in Cumberland county, was held at Carlisle, on Tuesday, the 12th day of July, 1774, John Montgomery, Esquire, in the chair. At that meeting the following resolutions were offered and unanimously adopted: 1. Resolved, That the late act of the Parliament of Great Britain, by which the port of Boston is shut up, is oppressive to that town and subversive of the rights 618 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. and liberties of the colony of Massachusetts Bay; that the principle upon which that act is founded is not more subversive of the rights and liberties of that colony than it is of all other British colonies in North America; and, therefore, the inhabitants of Boston are suffering in the common cause of all these colonies. 2. That every vigorous and prudent measure ought speedily and unanimously to be adopted by these colonies for obtaining redress for the grievances of the same, or of a still more severe nature, under which they and the other inhabitants of the colonies may, by a further operation of the same principle, hereafter labor. 3. That a Congress of Deputies from all the colonies will be our proper method for obtaining these purposes. 4. That the same purposes will, in the opinion of this meeting, be promoted by an arrangement of all the colonies not to import any merchandise from, nor to export any merchandise to, Great Britain, Ireland, or the British West Indies, nor to use any such merchandise so imported, nor tea imported from any place whatever, till these purposes be obtained; but that the inhabitants of this county will join any restriction of that agreement which the general Congress may think it necessary for the colonies to confine themselves to. 5. That the inhabitants of this county will contribute to the relief of their suffering brethren in Boston at any time when they shall receive notice that such relief will be most seasonable. 6. That a committee be immediately appointed for this county to correspond with the committees of this Province, or of the other provinces, upon the great objects of the public attention; and to co-operate in every measure conducing to the general welfare of British America. 7. That the committee consist of the following persons, viz.: James Wilson, John Armstrong, John Montgomery, William Irvine, Robert Callender, William Thompson, John Calhoun, Jonathan Hoge, Robert Magaw, Ephraim Blaine, John Allison, John Harris, and Robert Miller, or any five of them. 8. That Jaiies Wilson, Robert Magaw, and William Irvine be the deputies appointed to meet the deputies from other counties of this Province, at Philadelphia, on Friday next, the 22d July, in order to concert measures preparatory to the general Congress. On receiving thile news of the battle of Lexington, the county committee met, May 4, 1775, on a very short notice. It is recorded that about three thousand men had associated; the arms returned to be about fifteen hundred. The committee voted five hundred effective men, besides commissioned officers, to be immediately drafted, taken into pay, armed and disciplined, to march on the first emergency; to be paid and supported as long as necessary by a tax on all estates, real and personal, in the county; the returns to be taken by the township committees; and the tax laid by the commissioners and assessors; the pay of the officers and men as usual in times past. Among other subjects proposed was the mode of drafting, or taking into pay, arming and victualling immediately the men, and the choice of fields, and other affairs formed the subject of deliberation. "The strength or spirit of this county," said one present, "perhaps may appear small if judged by the number of men proposed; but when it is considered that we are ready to raise fifteen hundred or two thousand, 619 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. should we have support from the Province, and that independent, and in uncertain expectation of support, we have voluntarily drawn upon this county a debt of about twenty-seven thousand pounds per annum, I hope we shall not appear contemptible. We make great improvements in military discipline. It is yet uncertain who may go." Soon after the meeting, held July 12, 1775, several volunteer companies were raised and marched to Massachusetts. The first was that of Captain William Hendricks, who was killed at Quebec, and of whom Provost Smith, in his funeral oration on the death of General Montgomery, delivered before Congress, February 19, 1776, says: " I must not omit, however, the name of the brave Captain Hendricks, who commanded one of the Pennsylvania rifle companies, and who was known to me from infancy. He was indeed prodigal of life, and courted danger out of his tour of duty. The command of the guard belonged to him on the morning of attack, but he solicited and obtained leave to occupy a more conspicuous post." Hendricks' parents resided at what is now known as Oyster's Point, two miles west of Harrisburg. His first lieutenant, John McClellan, perished on the march through the wilderness. Lieutenant Nichols, afterwards General Nichols, was for many years after the war a prominent citizen of Cumberland county. One of his sergeants, Dr. Thomas Gibson, of Carlisle, was appointed assistant surgeon, and died at Valley Forge in the winter of 1788. The only other members of his company whose names have come down to us were Henry Crow, of Dauphin county, Sergeants Grier (whose wife accompanied the expedition, and who is very honorably mentioned by Judge Henry), and William McCoy; privates John Blair, John Carswell, James Hogge, David Lamb, who died in Centre county, in 1825; Thomas Lesley, who was afterwards killed at Fort Mifflin, in November, 1777, John McMurdy, who resided in the westera part of this State in 1816; John McChesney, and Henry McEwen, who died in Centre county, in October, 1823. James Chambers, the oldest son of Benjamin Chambers, raised a company of infantry from the neighborhood, which he commanded as a captain, and in 1775, marched, accompanied by two younger brothers, William and Benjamin, as cadets, to join the American army, then encamped on the high ground of Boston, where the royal army was besieged. They were also with the army during the arduous and trying campaigns of 1776-77 in the Jerseys, and were engaged in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, 1777. In October, 1794, General Washington rendezvoused some days at Carlisle with twelve thousand soldiers, on his'way westward to quell "the Whiskey Insurrection." On the 1st of October Governor Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, arrived at Carlisle, and in the evening delivered an animated address in the Presbyterian church. On Saturday, the 4th, George Washington, President of the United States, accompanied by Secretary Hamilton, and his private secretary, Mr. Dandridge, and a large company of soldiers, besides a great mass of yeomanry, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, arrived. A line was formed, composed of cavalry, with sixteen pieces of cannon, with the infantry from various parts of Pennsylvania, amounting in the whole to near four thousand men. The court house was illuminated in the evening by the Federal citizens, a transparency exhibited with this inscription in front: "Washington is ever 620 GUMBERLAND COUNTY. Triumphant." On one side, "The Reign of the Laws; " on the other, "Woe to Anarchists." Two companies, a troop of light horse, and the old company of Carlisle light infantry, promptly offered their services to the Government, and joined the troops which assembled October 11, 1794, and which joined Washingtonmarched to the west-the field of the Whiskey Insurrection. After a long and fatiguing march to Fort Pitt, their services being over, they were ordered to return to Carlisle, and were honorably discharged. In the war of 1812, the Carlisle infantry company, organized in 1784, again traversed the ground which they had in part passed over in 1794, in their march to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection. On the 24th of February, 1814, these pitched their tents, and about the first of March following took up the line of march with a detachment consisting of the Mount Rock infantry, Captain James Piper, the Carlisle rifle company, Captain George Hlendal, Captain Roberts' company, Captain David Mouland's company, and Captain Mitchell's company, mustering in all a detachment of five hundred and sixty, of as fine-looking and brave men as ever marched to the lines, and when there, their deeds on that occasion are not forgotten. On their arrival at the Lake, the Carlisle infantry, Mount Rock infantry, and Captain Mitchell's company stepped aboard the fleet then on Lake Erie, and under the command of the late Jesse D. Elliot, commander, after a cruise to the head of the Lake. In thirty days they returned to Erie, and in a few days shipped again for Upper Canada, and after burning a town and breaking up the enemy's camp and destroying their stores, they returned to Erie, then marched to Buffalo, to join General Brown's army. Some of those gallant soldiers were at the capture of Fort Erie and Upper Canada. Shortly after the Carlise infantry was detached by order of Major General Brown to the city of Albany, with three companies of British prisoners captured at Fort Erie. Captain James Piper's company was stationed at Buffalo ready for fight. The Carlisle infantry, with British prisoners, on the arrival at their place of destination at Greenbush barracks, delivered the British prisoners, did garrison duty there to the 28th of August, at which time the commanding officer received orders from General Brown to give that company an honorable discharge from the United States service. One of the privates, Edward Armor, attained the rank of brigadier general. The Carlisle Guards, under Captain Joseph Halbert, marched to Philadelphia, and the Patriotic Blues, under Captain Jacob Squier, were some time in the entrenchments. at Baltimore, in September, 1814, at the time when General Ross, the British commander, made an attack on Baltimore. In the late conflict, or civil war, between the North and South, Cumberland county was equally prompt with any other county in the State to take arms in the defence of our common country against the Southern chivalry, who would have moved heaven and earth to destroy the national government. Many of the citizens of Cumberland offered up their lives upon the altar of their country, to maintain the honor, integrity, and supremacy of the national government in the war for an individual union from the north to the south, from east to west, from Maine to Florida, from the Atlantic to the Pacific-bound inseparably by the mutual friendship of the victorious and subdued. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. On the 16th of June, 1863, General Jenkins, of the Southern Confederacy, with nine hundred and fifty cavalry, entered Chambersburg. On the 23d his advance force re-entered, when the Union troops in town fell back. On the 27th this advance force moved eastward toward Carlisle. General Knipe, commanding the Union troops, abandoned Carlisle, considering it folly to offer resistance to so formidable an enemy. At ten o'clock, A.M., Saturday, June 27, 1863, the advance of Lee's forces (Jenkins' cavalry) entered Carlisle from the west end of Main street. There were about four or five hundred mounted cavalry. They passed down Main street to the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg roads, where some of them proceeded to the Garrison; some returned to the town and halted in the public square. General Jenkins made a requisition, on the borough authorities, for fifteen hundred rations, to be furnished within one hour, and to be deposited in the market house. The demand was complied with, but not so soon as required. Jenkins' men having regaled themselves, and baited their steeds, re-mounted them; the riders passed up and down the different streets, visited the Garrison and other places of note. At two P.M. General Ewell's corps came in. They moved along shouting, laughing, playing and singing "Dixie," as they went through town to the Garrison. Dole's brigade encamped in the College campus. Soon after their arrival the town was filled with officers. Most of them were perfect gentlemen in their manner. General Ewell and staff, numbering nearly thirty men, established their head-quarters at the barracks. General Ewell dispatched one of his aids to town. with an extravagant demand on the authorities of the borough for supplies. The General wanted one thousand five hundred barrels of flour, large supplies of medicine, several cases of amputating instruments. He did not forget to demand a large quantity of quinine and chloroform. The authorities did not comply with the unreasonable demand, because the articles demanded were not to be had in Carlisle. Before nightfall Rodes' division of Ewell's corps passed through the town, and encamped in and around the military post. Guards were posted on the corners of the principal streets, who carried out the orders of General Ewell, "that no violence and outrage would be permitted." The authorities having failed to meet the unreasonable requisitions, on Sunday morning squads of soldiers, each accompanied by an officer, were commanded to help themselves, which they did by taking from stores and warehouses such articles as were needed. On Monday the railroad bridge was destroyed. Towards the close of the day the citizens breathed somewhat easier than they had since Saturday at five P.M., for it was rumored that an order had been issued for the entire force to leave. The citizens were kept in suspense till early Tuesday morning, when the trains of Rodes' division began to move, and brigade after brigade passed, until the main army had disappeared between six and nine o'clock. About two hundred calvary were left in town doing provost duty. They too left on Tuesday evening. As usual, soon good feeling prevailed in the borough. Rebel pickets thronged both the turnpike and the Trindle Spring road, and some of them were near Carlisle. At two o'clock P.M., a cavalry force of four hundred made their appearance on the Dillsburg road, and in the evening entered the town. They 622 CUIMBER?LAND COUNTY. were commanded by Colonel Cochran. At about eleven o'clock r.m., General Jenkins' command, which had been doing picket duty between Carlise and Harrisburg, returned to the town. Before Wednesday morning's dawn the town was clear of rebels. At sunrise on Wednesday, Captain Boyd's efficient command entered the town. Having fed his men and baited their steeds, he started after the departing enemy. During the day regiment after regiment arrived and took position on the public squares. A battery of artillery also arrived and took position along Hanover street. At half-past six General Smith arrived, preceded by three regiments of infantry and about one hundred cavalry. Ile selected a. eligible point or prominent position for his artillery. Scarce had this been don6 when, at about seven o'clock, a body of the cavalry of the enemy made their appearance at the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg road. Soon there was a call to arms. The infantry flew to their positions. The members of Captain Low's, Captain Kuhn's, Captain Black's, and Captain Smiley's companies of the town militia, each man on his own account, hurried to the eastern section of the town, and selecting secure pcG.tions, opened a very telling fire on the force, which compelled them to fall back. Soon the shelling of the town commenced, which the enemy kept up for half an hour. This was followed by raking Main street with more deadly missiles, "grape and canister," till near nightfall, when a rebel officer came in with a flag of truce to General Smith's headquarters, demanding an unconditional surrender of the town. No such surrender was promised to be made. Thile bearer of the flag of truce returned to the rebel command, reported the result of his interview with General Smith. Vexingly chagrined, a second shelling of the town, more terrific than the first, was commenced. To increase the already general consternation of the citizens of the town, the rebels applied the burning torch; the gas works, the barracks, private dwellings, etc., were fired, and while the smoke and flames rose in volumes skyward, a truce-bearer again interviewed General Smith, touching the surrender of the town. The General refused to comply with the demand; which was soon followed by a third shelling, which, however, did not last as long as either of the others. By three o'clock, Thursday morning, the officer, with his command, left by way of the Boiling Spring road, thence to Papertown, then across the South mountain for Gettysburg, to join Lee's forces in battle. Providentially not one of the citizens was personally injured. Not a soldier was killed; some fifteen were wounded, viz.: Stewart Patterson, First Ihiladelphia Artillery; George McNutt, Blue Reserves; William Prevost, lieutenant Thirty-seventh New York; Robert Welds, Second Blue Reserves; John Codey, Thirty-seventh New York; H. C. McCleo, corporal, Twenty-seventh New York; W. B. Walter, First Gray Reserves; Mr. Ashmead, Philadelphia Artillery; P. Garrat, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania; Walter Scott, Philadelphia Battery; A. T. Dorets, Thirty-seventh New York; J. W. Collady, Gray Reserves. The principal sufferers were Lyne & Saxton, hardware dealers; Haverstick & Elliot, druggists; R. Moore, shoe dealer; Ehy, Myers, Halbert, & Fleming, grocers; Woodward & Smidt, IIenderson & Reed, forwarding merchants; James & Bosler, blacksmiths, were relieved of all their tools, the bellows and anvil excepted. CARLISLE, the seat of justice, was so named from Carlisle, in Cumberland 62S HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. county, England, was originally a Roman station called " Luguvallum," abbreviated by the Saxons to Luel, to which "Caer," or city, being prefixed, the result is Caerluel or Carlisle. Carlisle was laid out in 1751, in pursuance of letters of instruction and by the direction of the Proprietaries. A survey of the town and lands adjacent was made by John Armstrong, 1762. After Carlisle was laid out, the courts were removed from Shippensburg. The removal of the courts produced not a little excitement among the settlers of the western portion of the county. In a petition from inhabitants of Cumberland county to the Assembly, they say: " That a majority of the trustees, to purchase a piece of land, had made a return to the Governor of a place at a branch of the Conecochague creek, about eight miles from Shippensburg by the Great Road (laid out 1735) to Virginia, was selected as a location for the court house and prison there, and withal submitting Shippensburg to the Governor's choice, which they were fully persuaded would have quieted the citizens, although it be north-east of the centre; yet it had pleased the Governor to remove the courts of justice to the LeTort's spring, a place almost at the end of the county, there it seems, intending the location of the court house, to the great grief and damage of the far greater part of the county." The first courts in Carlisle were held in a temporary log building, on the northeast corner of Centre Square. In 1753 there were only five dwellings in the place. In a letter from John O'Neal to Governor Hamilton, dated at Carlisle, May 27, 1753, he writes: " If the lots were clear of the brushwood, it would give a different aspect to the town. The situation, however, is a handsome one; in the centre of a valley, with a mountain boundiig it on the north and south, of a distance of seven miles. The wood consists principally of oak and hickory. The limestone will be of great advantage to future settlers, being in abundance. A lime kiln stands on the centre square, near what is called the'deep quarry,' from which is obtained good building stone. A large stream (Conodogwinet) of water runs about two miles from the village, which may, at a future period, be rendered navigable. A fine spring flows to the east, called LeTort, after the Indian interpreter, who settled on its head about the year 1720. The Indian wigwams in the vicinity of the Great Beaver pond, are to men an object of particular curiosity. A large number of the Delawares, Shawanese, and Tuscaroras continue in this vicinity; the greater number have gone to the west. The Irish immigrants here have acted with inconsiderate rashness in entering upon Indian lands not purchased. [The land in Cumberland valley was not purchased by the Proprietaries from the Indians until 1736.] It is a matter of regret that they do not conciliate and cultivate the good will of the red men. I have directed several block-houses to be erected agreeably to your desire." In the same year, 1753, another block-house, or stoccade, was erected, of curious construction. The western gate was in High street, between Hanover and Pitt street, opposite lot number one hundred. It was constructed of oak-logs, about seventeen feet in length, were set up-right in a ditch, dug to the depth of four feet; each log was about twelve inches in diameter. In the interior were platforms made of clapboard, and raised four or five feet from the ground. Upon these the men stood and fired through loop holes. At each corner was a swivel gun, and fixed as occasion required, to let the Indians know that such kind of 624 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. guns were within. " Three wells were sunk within the line of the fortress, one of which was on lot number one hundred and twenty-five; another between lots one hundred and nine and one hundred and seventeen; a third on the line between lots one hundred and twenty-four and one hundred and sixteen. This last was for many years known as the' King's well.' Within this fort, called Fort Lowther, women and children from the Green spring, and the country around, often sought protection from the tomahawk of the savage. Its force, in 1755, consisted of fifty men, and that at Fort Franklin, at Shippensburg, of the same number." From a pamphlet containing the charter and ordinances of the borough of Carlisle, we learn that in October, 1753, a treaty of "amity and friendship " was held at Carlisle with the Ohio Indians, by Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Morris, and William Peters, commissioners. The expenses of this treaty, including presents to the Indians, amounted to fourteen hundred pounds. Shortly after this period, the dispute arose between the Governor and Council, and the Assembly, on the subject of a complaint made by the Shawanese Indians, that the Proprietary government had surveyed all the lands on the Conodogwinet into a manor, and driven them from their hunting ground, without a purchase, and contrary to treaty. The first weekly post between Philadelphia and Carlisle was established in 1757, intended the better to enable his honor the Governor and the Assembly to communicate with his Majesty's subjects on the frontier. The town of Carlisle, in 1760, was made the scene of a barbarous murder. Doctor John, a friendly Indian of the Delaware tribe, was massacred, together with his wife and two children. Captain Callender, who was one of the inquest, was sent for by the Assembly, and, after interrogating him on the subject, they offered a reward of one hundred pounds for the apprehension of each person concerned in the murder. The excitement occasioned by the assassination of Doctor John's family was immense, for it was feared the Indians might seek to avenge the murder on the settlers. About noonday, on the 4th of July, 1763, one of a party of horsemen, who were seen riding rapidly through the town, stopped a moment to quench his thirst, and communicated the information that Presqu'Isle, LeBceuf, and Venango, had been captured by the French and Indians. The greatest alarm spread among the citizens of the town and neighboring country. The roads were crowded in a little while with women and children, hastening to Lancaster for safety. The pastor of the Episcopal church headed his congregation, encouraging them on the way. Some retired to the breastworks. Colonel Bouquet, in a letter addressed to the Governor, dated the day previous, at Carlisle, urged the propriety of the people of York assisting in building the posts here, and "sowing the harvest," as their county was protected by Cumberland. The terror of the citizens subsided but little until Colonel Bouquet conquered the Indians in the following year, 1764, and compelled them to sue for peace. One of the conditions upon which peace was granted, was that the Indians should deliver up all the women and children whom they had taken into captivity. Among them were many who had been seized when very young, and had grown up to womanhood in the wigwam of the savage. They had contracted the wild habits of their captors, learned their language and forgotten their own, and were bound to them by ties of the strongest affection. Many a mother found a lost 2P 625 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VAN'IA. child; many were unable to designate their children. The separation between the Indians and their prisoners was heart-rending. The hardy son of the forest shed torrents of tears, and every captive left the wigwam with reluctance. Some afterwards made their escape and returned to the Indians. Many had intermarried with the natives, but all were left to freedom of choice, and those who remained unmarried had been treated with delicacy. One female, who had been captured at the age of fourteen, had become the wife of an Indian and the mother of several children. When informed that she was about to be delivered to her parents, her grief could not be alleviated. " Can I," said she, "enter my parents' dwelling? Will they be kind to my children? Will my old companions associate with the wife of an Indian chief? And my husband, who has been so kind -I will not desert him I " That night she fled from the camp to her husband and children. A great number of the restored prisoners were brought to Carlisle, and Colonel Bouquet advertised for those who had lost children to come here and look for them. Among those that came was an old woman, whose child, a little girl, had been taken from her several years before; but she was unable to designate her daughter or converse with the released captives. With breaking heart, the old woman lamented to Colonel Bouquet her hapless lot, telling him how she used many years ago to sing to her little daughter a hymn of which the child was so fond. She was requested by the colonel to sing it then, which she did in these words: " Alone, yet not alone am I, Though in this solitude so drear; I feel my Saviour always nigh, He comes my every hour to cheer," and the long-lost daughter rushed into the arms of her mother. Quietude being secured to the citizens by the termination of the Indian war, they directed their attention to the improvement of their village and the cultivation of the soil. No important public event disturbed them in their peaceful occupations, until the disputes which preceded the war of the Revolution arose between the colonies and the mother country. The tyrannical sway of the British sceptre over the colonies found but few advocates among the inhabitants of Carlisle, and when a resort to warfare became necessary, many of them unhesitatingly obeyed their country's call, and bore arms in her defence. During the war Carlisle was made a place of rendezvous for the American troops; and in consequence of being located at a distance from the theatre of war, British prisoners were frequently sent hither for secure confinement. Of these, Major Andre and Lieutenant Despard, who had been taken by Montgomery, near Lake Champlain, while here, in 1776, occupied the stone house at the corner of South Hanover street and Locust alley, and were on a parole of honor of six miles; but were prohibited going out of the town except in military dress. Mrs. Ramsey, an unflinching Whig, detected two Tories in conversation with these officers, and immediately made known the circumstance to William Brown, Esq., one of the county committee. The Tories were imprisoned. Upon their persons were discovered letters written in French, but no one could be found to interpret them, and their contents were never known. After this Andr6 and Despard 626 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. were not allowed to leave the town. They had fowling-pieces of superior workmanship, but now, being unable to use them, they broke them to pieces, declaring that " no rebel should ever burn powder in them." During their confinement one Thompson enlisted a company of militia in what is now Perry county, and marched them to Carlisle. Eager to make a display of his own bravery and that of his recruits, he drew up his soldiers at night in front of the house of Andr6 and his companion, and swore lustily he would have their lives, because, as he alleged, the Americans who were prisoners of war in the hands of the British were dying by starvation. Through the importunities, however, of Mrs. Ramsey, Captain Thompson, who had formerly been an apprentice to her husband, was made to desist; and as he countermarched his company, with a menacing nod of the head he halloed to the objects of his wrath, " You may thank my old mistress for your lives." They were afterwards removed to York, but before their departure, sent to Mrs. Ramsey a box of spermaceti candles, with a note requesting her acceptance of the donation, as an acknowledgment of her many acts of kindness. The present was declined, Mrs. Ramsey averring that she was too staunch a Whig to accept a gratuity from a British officer. Despard was executed at London, in 1803, for high treason. With the fate of the unfortunate Andrd every one is familiar. The first Presbyterian church of Carlisle is the lineal and ecclesiastical representative of two earlier congregations. The earlier of these was composed of nearly all the first settlers in this part of the valley, who were almost exclusively emigrants from the north of Ireland, and were decided Presbyterians. Their first place of meeting was in West Pennsborough, about two miles north-west of the present town of Carlisle, now called Meeting House Springs. Their house of worship must have been erected within a year or two of the first settlements west of the Susquehanna river (1730-33), and their pulpit was supplied by Rev. Thomas Craighead and others. Their first regularly settled pastor was Rev. Samuel Thompson, who was ordained and installed over them, November 14, 1739, and continued with them until 1747. For some years after this, owing to some "unhappy controversies and jealousies" in the general church of that period, the congregation, like most others in this region, was " reduced and disordered," and no preacher could be settled until 1756, when Rev. John Steel was installed over them. In 1759, owing doubtless to those dissensions, a separate congregation was formed and commenced building a house of worship in Carlisle, and Rev. George Duffield (afterward chaplain to the Continental Congress) became its minister. About the same time Mr. Steel's congregation also began to erect a house of worship in the borough, and both congregations appeared to have been engaged in zealous rivalry of each other on the same ground. The house in which Mr. Duffield's people worshipped was situated near the north-west corner of Hanover and Pomfret streets. The building erected by Mr. Steel's people was the same which is now occupied by the First Presbyterian Church. Some preparations had been made for the building as early as January 30, 1757, but it was not sufficiently advanced to be occupied for worship until the beginning of 1773. In 1776 the two congregations united to finish off the building and to worship in the same house. Mr. Duffield had been removed (about 1772) to the third church of Philadelphia; the building 627 GENERAL HISTOR Y. had promised to place himself. He arrived in the Province in February, and soon after increased the number of the Council, calling to that board, with others, William Penn the younger, who had accompanied him to the Province. Pursuant to the instructions of the Proprietary, he earnestly applied himself to re-unite the Province and territories; and his want of success in this measure produced an unfavorable disposition towards the former, which embittered his whole administration. John Evans* was a young man, uncommonly zealous and active in whatever affected the Proprietary's interests; deficient neither in wit nor talents, he lacked experience, prudence, and tact; his private life was, moreover, highly offensive to the steady and quiet ways of the sober and moral Quakers. Hle early attached himself to the interests of the Lower Counties, and induced their Assembly to pass laws manifestly designed to produce unpleasant effects in the Province. England being then at war with France and Spain, he had been ordered by the Queen to raise an armed force in Pennsylvania, but his efforts 1706. proved unsuccessful. He affected to treat the peaceful of the Quakers with contempt, and, unable to argue them out of their principles, endeavored to gain his object by a stratagem, which completely failed, and tended to make him odious to the people of Philadelphia, which occurred almost simultaneously with an unwise and unlawful measure, greatly offending the merchants of the Province. He had authorized the Assembly at New Castle to erect a fort near the town, where it could be of little use to the safety of the two Provinces. For the maintenance of this fort, inward bound ships, not owned by residents, were obliged to deliver their half a 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 uninterruptedly. This being refused, Hill, who had been bred to the sea, stood to the helm and passed the fort with no other injury than a shot through the mainsail. French pursued in an armed boat, was taken alone on board, while his boat, cut from the vessel, fell astern, and was led prisoner to the cabin. Governor Evans, apprized of the matter, followed their vessel by land to New Castle, and after she had passed the fort, pursued her in a boat to Salem, where he boarded her in great anger, and behaved with great intemperance. Lord Cornbury, Governor of New Jersey, who claimed to be vice-admiral of the Delaware, being then at Salem, the prisoners were taken before him, and having, together with Governor Evans, been severely reprimanded, and giving promise of future good behavior, was dismissed with the jeers of the captors. After this spirited action, the fort no longer impeded the navigation of the Delaware. * JoHN EVANS, though of Welsh descent, was born at London in 1678. At the time of his appointment as Deputy Governor of the Province he was an officer of the Queen's house hold. His administration, from 1704 to 1709 was not a successful one. Of his subsequent career little is known. He returned to England, and died there about 1730. HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. in which he ministered was soon afterwards consumed by fire. During the confusion incident to the Revolutionary war, however, so many of the people and ministers were absent in the patriot army, that public worship was but irregularly maintained, and the house was therefore not actually completed until 1785, when the two congregations agreed to worship alternately in it, on condition that Mr. Duffield's people should erect a gallery in it, and otherwise complete what was unfinished. Both congregations finally consummated their union in 1785, and called the Rev. Dr. Robert Davidson, of Philadelphia, to be their pastor, who was also a professor in Dickinson college. The pastorate of Dr. Davidson continued until his death (December 13, 1812). In September, 1815, Rev. George Duffield (grandson of the former minister of Carlisle) was invited to take charge of the church, and in September, 1816, he was ordained and installed pastor. After a suc cessful ministry of - ~about twenty years he resigned, and was suc ceeded by the Rev. W. T. Sprole, as stated supply, for about six years. In 1844 Rev. Ellis J. Newlin was in stalled pastor, and re mained until 1847, and soon after Rev. Con * way P. Wing was called, and was in stalled as pastor in W-_:Al 1848, in which office he remained until Oc tober, 1875, when he resigned; and in April, 1876, the Rev. Joseph Vance was installed SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, CARLISLE. pastor of the church. [From a Photograph by Choate, Carlisle.] Carlisle is situated in the midst of the Cumberland valley, seventeen miles west of HIirrisburg. Its streets are wide, with a spacious public square in the centre. Through the centre of High street runs the Cumberland Valley railroad. The turnpike to Chambersburg and to Pittsburgh passes through the town, and another turnpike runs to Baltimore. Being pleasantly situated, in the midst of a healthy and fertile country, handsomely laid out, and well built, inhabited by a well-bred and intelligent population, Carlisle is one of the most agreeable places in the interior of Pennsylvania. The county buildings are a court house and jail. In 1766 a court house of brick was erected on the south-west of the centre square, which was destroyed by fire on the night between the 23d and 24th of March, 1841. Soon after the destruction of the former court house another was erected, south of the former, 628 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. in the north-west angle of the public square, at a cost of forty-five thousand dollars. The United States barracks, located within the borough limits, north-east of the town, about one-half mile from the court house, were built in 1777 by Hessians captured at Trenton. They were for many years a school for cavalry. When Lee's advance forces invaded Cumberland county the barracks were laid in ashes by them, in June, 1863. For several years the barracks have been abandoned by the government. The churches are: two Presbyterian, one Episcopal, one German Reformed, two Lutheran, two Methodist, one Church of God, one Evangelical Association, one Roman Catholic, and three African churches. Dickinson College, beautifully and favorably located at Carlisle, was chartered by the Legislature in 1783, and named in honor of John Dickinson, President of the Supreme Executive Council, in memory of his great and important services to his country, and in commemoration of his very liberal donation to the institution. In 1784 the first faculty was organized, and the Rev. Charles Nisbet, D.D., of Montrose, Scotland, was elected president. The following year he arrived in America, and soon afterwards was installed in office, which position he occupied till his death, in 1804. He was a man of extensive and varied learning, who, amid great discouragements, labored earnestly and prodigiously in his new sphere, and doubtless the college grew and flourished as much as those early times would permit. In Conrad's edition of " Sanderson's Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence," it is stated that the distinguished Dr. Benjamin Rush, himself one of the immortal signers, " was a principal agent in founding Dickinson College at Carlisle, and was chiefly instrumental in bringing from Scotland Dr. Nisbet, who for several years presided over that institution." The first, or "old college" building, stood on the south side of Liberty alley, a short distance west of Bedford street. The first edifice on the present grounds was erected in 1802, but burnt down in 1803, and rebuilt in 1804, and is now known as the West College, to distinguish it from the East College, built in 1836-'37, and from the South College, reconstructed the year following. A large stone building, erected many years since for a different purpose, but, in later times transformed into "North College," was destroyed by fire some years ago, and has never been rebuilt. The Rev. Robert Davidson, D.D., a member of the faculty, worthily and acceptably succeeded Dr. Nisbet in the presidency, pro tempore, until 1809, when he resigned, for the full work of the pastoral office, and the Rev. Jeremiah Atwater, D.D., was elected president. Under his directions the college was comparatively prosperous. In 1815 he resigned, and then the Rev. John McKnight, D.D., served as president one year. Afterwards the operations of the college suspended till 1821, when, by legislative enactment, six thousand dollars in cash, and an annuity of two thousand dollars for five years were granted, in exchange for certain lands belonging to the corporation, and the Rev. John M. Mason, D.D., was chosen president. He commenced and continued his administration under favorable auspices, but failing health obliged him to resign in 1824. In the same year the Rev. William Neill, D.D., succeeded Dr. Mason. During his presidency the Legislature donated three thousand dollars a year for seven years-which kept it 629 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. in existence, but a want of proper harmony between the trustees and faculty, and among the trustees as well as among the faculty, led Dr. Neill, in 1829, to resign. He was succeeded by the Rev. Samuel B. Howe, D.D., who had been a tutor in the college in 1811, and who, having received a legacy of dissensions, which accumulated while he remained, also resigned the presidency, in 1832, to accept of a pastoral charge, and the college again suspended operations. Although the career of the college, under the old regime, had been one of many and varied changes, yet it has been very justly acknowledged that among the presidents and professors were men of distinguished ability and professional skill, and old Dickinson had the honor of educating many persons who became eminent in subse T_, -.5 DICKINSON COLLEGE, CARLISLE. (From a Photograph by Chapman, Carlisle.] quent life. " Among its four hundred and forty alumni one became President of the United States, one chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, one justice of the same court, two district or territorial judges, three justices of State supreme courts, two senators in Congress, ten representatives in Congress, eleven presidents of colleges, sixteen professors in colleges, sixty-eight ministers of the gospel, one bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church, and one governor of a State." In 1833, the college was transferred to the Methodist Episcopal Church by the resignation, from time to time, of the old trustees, and by the election of others, until finally a complete change was effected in the control and management of the institution. The first president under the transfer was the Rev. John P. Durbin, D.D., whose able and successful administration continued till 1845, when he resigned, and the Rev. Robert Emory was elected his worthy successor. He died in 1848, beloved and lamented, and was succeeded by the Rev. Jesse T. Peck, D.D., who resigned in 1852, when the Rev. Charles Collins, D.D., was chosen to fill the place. He was a man of dignity, learning, and educational ex630 GUMBERLAND COUNTY. perience. In 1860 he resigned, to take charge of a literary institution in Tennessee. The Rev. H. M. Johnson, D.D., succeeded to the office. He had been a professor in the college, a superior classical and biblical scholar, and of fair executive talent; he died in 1868. He was succeeded by the Rev. R. L. Dashiel, D.D., alike eloquent and popular, and the first graduate of the college who had attained to its presidency. At this time all the members of the faculty were alumni of the institution. Dr. Dashiel resigned in 1872, having been elected, by the General Conference, missionary secretary of his church; and the Rev. J. A. McCauley, D.D., an alumnus of the college and a scholarly gentleman, was elected to succeed him, who is still at the head of the institution, having associated with him in the faculty, professors Charles F. Himes, Ph.D., Henry M. Harman, D.D., James H. Graham, LL.D., Rev. J. A. Lippincott, A.M., William R. Fisher, and Rev. Charles J. Little, A.M. The permanent endowment funds of the college amount to over two hundred thousand dollars, distributed among the educational boards of the patronizing conferences and the board of trustees, the larger proportion being held by the Baltimore Conference. In the libraries are twenty-seven thousand volumes, and among these are many rare and valuable books. The appliances for scientific instruction have been greatly improved, and are increasing from year to year. According to an historical sketch, by Dr. Wm. H. Allen, it appears that under the regime of the Methodist church the number of students exceeds that of the former regime, and "their names are found in almost every position of usefulness and honor. In the forum and the field, in the sacred desk and legislative halls, in foreign missions and in bishops' chairs, in science and literature, in the cabinet and on the bench of justice, in manufactures, agriculture and commerce, they are doing manly work for God and men, and conferring new honor on the institution which was the nurse of their youth.... Among many whom Dickinson honors and who honor her, are many names: in the office of bishop, Cummins and Bowman; as pulpit orators, Tiffany and Ridgaway; in the fields of science, Baird and Himes; in literature, Deems, Conway, and Crooks; in jurisprudence, Fisher; in politics, Cresswell, Todd, and Albright; in classical and biblical learning, professor Harman. Add to these no small number of the younger alumni, who emulate the fame of those just named, and who will in due time gather laurels as green as theirs. Happy is the mother who has reared such sons." SHIPPENSBURG, on the western border of Cumberland county, is the oldest town, except York, west of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. After Cumberland county was organized the courts were held here, and then removed to Carlisle. Great excitement was caused by the removal of the courts. During the French and Indian war two forts were erected here-Fort Morris in 1755, and Fort Franklin in 1756. The dwelling-houses, prior to 1756, were built of stone or wood. In the spring and summer of 1755, it was a magazine to store provisions for General Braddock's army. The supply for Braddock's forces were very inadequate. The incidents in the early history of this place are replete with thrilling interest. Years ago Shippensburg was a very brisk town, made so by hundreds of wagons stopping on their way from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and on their returning eastward. Since the railroad has been in HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. operation, wagoning through this place has nearly ceased. The town will, however, always command a reasonable share of business by way of trade and manufacture. The Cumberland Valley railroad passes through the place. The town is situated in the heart of a fertile country, twenty-one miles south-west of Carlisle, thirty-seven miles from Harrisburg, and eleven miles east from Chainmbersburg. It was incorporated into a borough in 1817. Thile Cumberland Valley State Normal school of the seventh district is located at Shippensburg. The present principal is Rev. I. N. Hayes. MECHANICSBURG is a beautiful and flourishing borough, in the heart of the most fertile and best improved regions of Cumberland valley, eight miles from Harrisburg and ten from Carlisle. It was incorporated as a borough, April 12, 1828. Its local advantages are many, being situated on the Cumberland Valley railroad, and also accessible by well improved roads from various sections of the country. The surrounding __vicinage is densely settled __ ___by a wealthy and indus _ -_ -trious population. The town has rapidly increased, and now [1876], has a population of three thou sand one hundred. It is finely laid out, and in the - older portions well and compactly built. A gas and water company supplies the town with these neces sary elements of comfort IRVING FEMALE COLLEGE, MECHANICSBURG. and conveence. An im and convenience. An imposing town and masonic hall, with market house attached, adds also to the appearance and advantage of the place. The only manufacturing interests of special mention are a foundry and car shops, agricultural implement factory, steam saw and planing mill, and the Trindle Spring paper mill, adjacent to the town. Few towns of the same size can boast of as many and as fine churches, seven of which, with their beautiful towering spires, point the devout worshipper to Heaven. The educational interests of the town are well provided for. The public schools, under a local board of directors, are systematically and carefully graded. In addition to these two private educational enterprises have been in successful operation for several years. The Cumberland Valley Institute, the older of the two, is situated at the west end of the town, Rev. O. Ege and Son, principals, and was founded in 1853 by Rev. Jos. Loose, and was by him successfully conducted for several years. It has been under the present management since 1860. The Irving Female College is situated at Irvington-a name given to the eastern end of the town of Mechanicsburg-in the midst of a beautiful grove and grounds. It was founded in 1856 by Solomon P. Gorgas, and incorporated as a college by the Legislature of the State in 1857, since which time it has enjoyed a good and sub632 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. stantial patronage from this and adjoining States, about two hundred young ladies having graduated from her halls. The buildings are imposing in appearance, substantially built of brick, conveniently arranged, and comfortably fitted up with the modern conveniences, and every thing calculated to make it an attractive and safe home, with full and thorough educational advantages for young ladies. Rev. T. P. Ege, A.M., is the present proprietor and president. NEWVILLE borough is located on Big Spring, twelve miles north-west from Carlisle, within half a mile of Cumberland Valley railroad. The town was incorporated February 26th, 1817. It is a thriving place. NEWBURGH borough, in Hopewell township, was laid out by Mr. Trimble, about 1836. SPRINGFIELD village derives its name from a large spring, which throws out a volume of water to turn several mill wheels within a few rods of the spring or head. It is fourteen miles south-west of Carlisle. PAPERTOWN, or MOUNT HOLLY, a post-village, south of Carlisle, on the Carlisle and Hanover turnpike, laid out some forty years ago by Barber & Mullen, then owners of an extensive paper mill. It is quite a business place. The original paper mill has grown into three, and are still owned by the sons of the original Mullen, who established the first mill. ROXBERRY is a small village, strung along nearly one-half mile on the road leading from Mechanicsburg to Carlisle. It is two miles west of Mechanicsburg. Sixty years ago Paul Reamer erected the first house here. HOGESTOWN, a post.village on the turnpike leading from Harrisburg to Carlisle, is nine miles west of Harrisburg. It contains about forty houses. A small stream called Hoge's run flows hard by the village, and empties into the Conodogwinet not far off. MIDDLESEX, a post-village on the turnpike from Harrisburg to Carlisle, is three miles from Carlisle, near the confluence of LeTort's creek with the Conodogwinet. It contains twenty houses, a grist mill, saw mill, and woolen factory. NEW KINGSTON, a post-village, on the turnpike from Harrisburg to Carlisle, six miles from the latter, was laid out by John King about fifty years ago. It is situated in a well improved portion of the county. At an early period in the history of Cumberland Valley, Joseph Junkin, the ancestor of the Junkins of Pennsylvania, took up five hundred acres of land, including the present site of New Kingston. On this tract he built a stone house, now owned by Mr. Kanaga. In this house his son, Joseph Junkin, was born, January 22, 1750. He took an active part in the Revolution of 1776, and commanded a company at the battle of Brandywine, where he was severely wounded. It is recorded of him, " he was self-taught." He had been a justice of the peace and practical surveyor. He died in Mercer county, Pa., February 21, 1831. His son, Rev. George Junkin, D.D., LL.D., was born in the stone house, November 1, 1790; who closed his eventful life in Philadelphia, May 20, 1868. LISBURN, a post-village on the Yellow Breeches creek, on the road leading from Carlisle to York, sixteen miles from the former, was laid out in 1760, by Gerard Erwin. It consists of fifty houses. CHURCHTOWN is a post-village, so named because of a church held in common by Lutherans and German Reformed, which had been erected here twenty 633 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. years before the town was commenced. It is on the main road from Shippens. burg to Mechanicsburg, six miles from Carlisle, and contains between forty and fifty dwellings. Seventy years ago Jacob Wise built the first house here. WORLEYSTOWN, in Monroe township, on the main road leading from Carlisle to Dillsburg in York county, seven miles east from Carlisle, is near the Yellow Breeches creek. It was laid out about sixty years ago. SHEPHERDSTOWN, a post-village in Upper Allen township, on the State road, leading from near the Susquehanna to Gettysburg, is situated on a hill, having a commanding view of the Cumberland Valley. SHIREMANSTOWN is a post-village, partly in Lower Allen, and partly in Hampden township, on the road from Carlisle to New Cumberland, usually called Simpson's Ferry road, five miles west of Harrisburg, twelve miles east of Carlisle. The first house erected here, and occupied by the widow of George Snavely (Schnebely), was in the summer of 1813. About the year 1823, Martin Zearing erected the first brick house in the village. NEW CUMBERLAND, a post-town and borough, was known for some years as Haldeman's town, laid out by Jacob M. Haldeman, about 1810. It is a thriving place, three miles below the Cumberland Valley railroad bridge, at the confluence of the Yellow Breeches creek with the Susquehanna. The York turnpike and the Northern Central railroad pass through the borough. The lumber business is carried on extensively. In the early part of the last century, the Shawanese Indians had a village here. Peter Chartier, Indian agent, had his station here. About the year 1724, he left for the western part of Pennsylvania, settled on or near the Allegheny river, forty miles above Pittsburgh, at Oldtown, or Chartier's Old town. He proved treacherous to the English, accepting a military commission under the French. He prevailed upon some Chawanoes, or Shawanese, of Old Town, to remove to the French settlements on the Mississippi. BRIDGE PORT, at the west end of Cumberland Valley railroad bridge, consists of some five or six dwellings, and a warehouse. At this point the Northern Central railway, from Baltimore to Sunbury, intersects the Cumberland Valley railroad. WORMLEYSBURG, immediately above the Harrisburg bridge, on the right bank of the Susquehanna, was laid out in 1815, by John Wormley, whose name it bears. WEST FAIRVIEW, a post-village at the confluence of the Conodogwinet with the Susquehanna, about two miles above the Harrisburg bridge, was laid out in 1815 by Abraham Neidig. Contiguous to it are the Messrs. McCormick's extensive rolling mill and nail factory. The Northern Central railway passes through the village. WHITEHILL, on the Cumberland Valley railroad, one mile west of the Susquehanna, consists of nine or ten dwellings, and a warehouse. This place sprung up nearly forty years ago. It was named after Robert Whitehill, who settled in 1770, in Cumberland county. CAMP HILL is a post-village on the Harrisburg and Carlisle turnpike, two miles west of the Susquehanna. It contains one church, and a school building, in which " are taught, clothed, and fed," orphans of Union soldiers who fell in the 634 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. late conflict between the North and South. The place is noted in the early history of the county as the station of an Indian agency, under Tobias Hendricks, Esq. OYSTER'S POINT is one half mile west of Camp Hill. Near this point there occurred a skirmish, June 28, 1863, in one of Jacob Rupp's fields, between the rebel advance and Captain E. S. Miller's Battery of Philadelphia. MILLTOWN, or Cedar Spring mills, a post-village in Lower Allen township, contains a church, a grist mill, saw mill, etc., pleasantly situated in a dell, about two minutes walk of the Susquehanna. Caspar and Adam Weber erected a mill here upwards of a hundred years ago. VIEW ON THE WISSAHICKON. 635 VIEW OF THE CITY OF HARRISBURG. DAUPHIN COUNTY. BY A. BOYD HAMILTON, HARRISBURG. HE territory now forming the counties of Dauphin and Lebanon was erected into the county of Dauphin, March 4, 1785, with an area of 821 square miles, containing 313,000 acres of surface; a length of fifty miles, and a breadth of thirty-three. In 1813 the inhabitants of the eastern end of the county pressed a claim, and were successful in convincing the Legislature of its propriety, for the erection of a new county to be called SLebanon, o which was according ly erected February 16, 1813 - more than ninet e n-t we ntieths of it taken from Dauphin. Additional territory was 6 taken from Lancaster and Berks, to. remedy some irregularities "'.'.0 I in its boun in its boun- THE HARRIS MANSION, BUILT IN 1766. dary. This [From a Photograph by D. C. Burnite-1863.] left Dauphin as it is at present, with 533 square miles of area, and 173,000 acres of surface. The name " Dauphin " was suggested by the prime movers for the formation of the new county in honor of the title at that time held by the eldest son of the King of France. This county is bounded on the north by Northumberland, east by Lebanon and Schuylkill, south by Lancaster, west by York, Cumberland, Perry, and Juniata counties. The western line is forty-eight miles in extent along the western shore of the Susquehanna river, including the whole stream, with all its picturesque islands, from the Mahantango creek north, to the Conewago falls south. Going in either direction, the tourist looks upon one of the most delightful and romantic landscapes that is to be found in this region of gorgeous scenery. The surface of the county is generally susceptible of cultivation, and 637 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. On the 27th of June, 1707, it is narrated in the Provincial Records, the Governor, in company of several friends and servants, set out on a journey to the Indians, occasioned by a message from the Conestoga and other Indians, 1707. upon the Nanticokes' designed journey to the Five Nations. Hle visited in turn the following places: Pequehan, on the Pequea, Dekonoagah, on the Susquehanna, about nine miles distant from Pequehan, Conestogoe, and Peixtang, had friendly intercourse with them, and 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. From the articles of remonstrance, addressed to the Proprietary by the Assembly, subsequently, it seems that the Governor's conduct among the Indians was not free from censure, it being described as "abominable and unwarrantable." The unhappy misunderstanding between the Governor and his secretary, Logan, on the one hand, and the Assembly on the other, almost paralyzed legislative action, and led to the most lamentable exhibition of ill-temper onl the part of the latter, which first produced articles of impeachment against Logan, and afterwards, determined to have Evans removed, a remonstrance against both addressed to William Penn. The language of that instrument was intemperate, many of its charges exaggerated, and some unfounded. This remonstrance was not only unjust, but also unwise and inconsiderate, for it tended to produce the very steps which they were desirous to guard against, by provoking the Governor to relinquish a troublesome and ungrateful Province to the crown of England, which had long wished.to repossess it. In the beginning of this year, 1709, Governor Evans was removed, and Charles Gookin* appointed his successor. Gookin was an officer in the army, but, in the language of Penn, a man of pure morals, mild temper, and mode 1709. rate disposition. When he arrived, the Assembly was in session. That body, instead of waiting for the propositions of the Governor, hastened to present to him a statement of grievances, in which they repeated the weightiest of their complaints against his predecessor, and demanded immediate satisfaction. In vain Gookin endeavored to convince them that he had no right to sit in judgment over the acts of his predecessor. These beginnings were not promising. Lloyd was almost always at the head of the Assembly, and Logan had as much influence on Gookin as on his predecessor. The spirit of discontent which reigned in the Assembly probably originated in the embarrassment of Penn, whose means were now greatly curtailed by his generosity towards his Province and the cause of the Quakers. Already, in 1707, he was involved in a heavy lawsuit with the executors of his former steward, who preferred large claims against him, the injustice of which he could not sufficiently prove, since even the Court of Chancery could not liberate him from imprisonment until he had satisfied the complainants. The income of his European estate was inadequate to pay his other debts, and he had to borrow ~6,600 sterling, for which he mortgaged his Province. The knowledge of his situation may have prompted * CHARLES GOOKIN, a captain in Earle's Royal Regiment, was born in Ireland in 1760. He was well advanced in years on being appointed Provincial Governor, in 1709, an office he held for eight years, although not to the satisfaction of the Assembly. He returned to England, and died in London about 1725. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. containing a very small area of swamp, in fact it is almost insignificant, as all its water courses find their way to their main receptacle, the Susquehanna, by a rapid descent. The Swatara creek, a stream of large capacity, pierces a productive valley, and receives in its course the important affluents of Manada, Bow, and Beaver creeks, entering the Susquehanna at the thriving borough of Middletown. The Little Conewago creek is the boundary between Dauphin and Lancaster, discharging its waters at Conewago falls, at which point the river descends about sixteen feet in a mile. The Paxton creek rises in the Kittatinny mountain, and after a course of eight or ten miles finds its outlet at Harrisburg. Fishing creek, rising near the head of Manada, discharges its waters at Fort Hunter. Stony creek, a fine stream, rises in Schuylkill county, with almost its entire course through the township of Middle Paxton, has its mouth at the town of Dauphin. Then we have, with steady volume, Clark and Powell, Armstrong, Wiconisco, and Mahantango creeks, the latter forming the boundary between Dauphin and Northumberland. All these are useful streams, affluents of the Susquehanna, and utilized for many industrial purposes. The mountain region of the county is a marvel of beauty, at certain periods brilliant beyond the "pen's descriptive power." Below or south of the "endless chain of hills "-the Kittatinny-there are hills, perhaps five hundred feet above the low water of the Susquehanna, but frequent depressions afford access to a more elevated region, complicated, useful, a picture so natural, that no word description can do justice to its wonderful beauty. Here are fertile valleys, rapid streams, exuberant forests, and a mass of mountains: Peters', Berry's, Bear, Mahantango, Mahanoy, inhabited by a stalwart race. The eye embraces an acute triangle from the river to the eastern border of rough aspect, but of exceptionable value. Many descriptions of the surface of this county are to be found in printed works, the careful labor of competent persons. Their general agreement is remarkable. No county in the State has been more correctly portrayed. The features given by Scott, in 1805, are reproduced with uncommon uniformity by Trego, Haldeman, Strickland, the State Surveys, and in Day's Collections, all works of value and presented to the world after deliberate revision. All these descriptions agree that that portion of the county east and south of Harrisburg is quite as thoroughly cultivated and as substantially improved as any part of Pennsylvania. It is a region of, softly rolling hills, gushing rills, and fertile vales. Its general geological features are underlying limestone, with an occasional outcrop. So of the Kittatinny, covering all its territory from the Lebanon and Lancaster boundaries to the Susquehanna, with its northern limit in the ridges, upon the first slope of which stands the State Capitol building at Harrisburg. Belts of slate are contained within this area of limestone, but the whole so peculiarly situated, that at no point south of the mountain which bounds it on the north is it necessary to transport lime, for building or for the farm, more than three miles. On the northern slope of Kittatinny, along the courses of Fishing and Stony creeks, are variegated shales nearly vertical, and, of consequence, presenting an unusual geological feature in these narrow valleys. Some coal has been discovered near the head-waters of Stony creek. Red shale is the distinguishing 638 D)AUPHIN COUVTY. feature of the valleys north of these creeks, enclosing all the coal formation of the county, unless it be those of Big Lick and Bear mountains. Most of the free burning coal east of the bituminous fields is obtained in the Lykens valley. The ridges or mountains in this region have less than one thousand feet of elevation, with the coal strata descending towards the centres of the valleys at an angle of about forty-five degrees, affording great facilities for economical mining. The geological survey of the State, now in progress, may develop information of value in relation to other mineral formations in the county, but to this period the searches for copper near Hummelstown, for iron ore at other points, for lead in the Swatara ridges, have not developed into profitable enterprises. Unless they do so, these deposits will not add to the wealth of the county or of the State. In the territory north of the Kittatinny the valleys are narrow, yet fertile. Some of them are cultivated with great intelligence and consequent profit. The free use of lime, judicious rotation, a profitable market, have so constantly added to the value of the farm lands above Peters' mountain that their owners are among the most prosperous and wealthy of the county, notwithstanding the abruptness of its hills or the frowning aspect of its mountains. This portion of our contribution could be extended to great length, but sufficient has been said to form a judgment of the productiveness of the soil of Dauphin county, of its surface, of the material wealth drawn from it, and such general information as can be condensed in this brief statement. At the time of the organization of the county it contained a population of nearly 16,000, although in 1790, when the first census was taken, the number was only 18,177, due probably to the emigration of great numbers of the ScotchIrish, who removed either westward or southward. In 1800-22,270; in 181031,883; in 1820-21,653, a decrease, owing to the formation from it of the county of Lebanon, February 16, 1813, which, by this census, had a population of 16,975; the separate enumeration of 1830 was 25,243; in 1840-30,118; in 1850 -35,754; in 1860-46,756; in 1870-60,740; in 1876-at least 75,000. At what eventful era the footstepls of the white man trod the green sward of this locality there is no certainty. After the founding of Philadelphia, William Penn planned the laying out of a city on the Susquehanna, yet it is not certain that the founder, in his several visits to that majestic river, ever came farther north than the Swatara. The first persons therefore to spy out this goodly heritage of ours were French traders, one of whom located at the mouth of Paxtang creek, towards the close of the seventeenth century. Of this individual, Peter Bazalion, little is known, but until the period when the intrigues of the French and especially the encroachments of Lord Baltimore, began to be feared, he acted as principal interpreter at Indian conferences. He subsequently went to the Ohio. with the remaining French traders, and after 1725-6 he is lost sight of. At this period there were Indian villages at the mouths of the Swahadowry (Swatara) and Peshtank (Paxtang), on Duncan's Island, and perchance at the Mahantango. It being considered necessary to license English traders so as to prevent communication with the French on the Ohio, among the first was John Harris, a native of Yorkshire, England, who came to America previous to 1698. He entered 639 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. this then lucrative field, the Indian trade, at the suggestion of his friend, Edward Shippen, who was a member of the Provincial Council. In January, 1705, John Harris received a license from the Commissioners of Property, authorizing and allowing him to "seat himself on the Susquehanna," and "to erect such buildings as are necessary for his trade, and to enclose and improve such quantities of land as he shall think fit." At once he set about building a log house near the Ganawese (Conoy) settlement, but the Indians made complaint to the government that it made them "uneasie," desiring to know if they encouraged it. It was during one of his expeditions that Harris first beheld the beauty and advantages of the location at Paxtang. It was the best fording place on the Susquehanna, and then, as now in these later days, on the great highway between the north and south, the east and west. At the period referred to, the lands lying between the - Conewago or Lechay hills, and the Kittatinny moun tains, had not been purchased from the Indians. Of course neither John Harris nor the early Scotch-Irish settlers -could locate, except by the right of squatter sovereignty or as licensed traders. About the years 1718 or '19, an attempt was made to burn John Harris by a ma rauding band of drunken In THE GRAVE OF JOHN HARRIS-1876. dians the details of which [From a Photograph by Lerue Lemer.] dians, the details of which our limited space forbids giving. The remains of the tree to which Harris was bound by the savages who had doomed him to a death of torture, but providentially delivered, yet stands in IHarris Park, at the foot of which he was subsequently buried at his own request in 1748. From 1720 to 1730 came the Scotch-Irish immigration, among whom were the families of Allen, Allison, Armstrong, Boyd, Berryhill, Barnett, Bell, Black, Campbell, Chambers, Clark, Carothers, Crain, Cowden, Carson, Calhoun, Craig, Caldwell, Cunningham, Cochran, Dixon, Dickey, Dougherty, Elder, Espy, Foster, Ferguson, Gilmore, Green, Gray, Graham, Galbraith, Henderson, Hays, Hampton, Jones, Johnson, Kelly, Laird, McCormick, McClure, McNair, McCord, McCreight, McDonald, McKee, McArthur, McMurray, McKnight, McKeehan, Mitchell, Murray, Montgomery, Ramsey, Rogers, Rutherford, Reed, Robinson, Sloan, Sterrett, Snodgrass, Strain, Stewart, Smith, Simpson, Sturgeon, Todd, Wilson, and Wallace. These settled principally on the Swatara and its tributaries, although there were scattered settlements along the foot of the first range of mountains. Soon after followed isolated families of the German Palatinate immigration, among which were those of Brightbill, Fisher, Gilchrist, Gingerich, Hetrick, Hummel, Hoover, Keller, Miller, Meyers, Rife, Rickart, Sees, Scheetz, Nisley, Neidig, Backenstoe, and Schneider. 640 DAUPHIN COUNTY. By virtue of a patent from the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, bearing date January 1, 1725-26, five hundred acres of land were granted to John Harris, father of the founder of Harrisburg, and subsequently, on the 17th of December, 1733, by a second patent, three hundred acres of allowance land, upon which he had commenced a settlement on the present site of the city, about the year 1725. The land included in the latter patent extended from what is now the line of Cumberland street, some distance south of the present northern boundary of the city, and including also a part of the present site of the city, with its several additions. Until the year 1735-36, there was no regularly constructed road to the Susquehanna. At a session of the Provincial Council, held in Philadelphia in January of that year, on the petition of sundry inhabitants of Chester and Lancaster counties, it was ordered that viewers be appointed to locate one. Subsequently this was done, and the highway opened from the Susquehanna to the Delaware river, and in years after continued westward to the Ohio. The second John Harris, son of the pioneer and the founder of Harrisburg, was a prominent personage during the Indian wars, and the principal military storekeeper on the frontier. His letters to the governors of the Province, and other officials, would make an interesting page in the annals of the locality. By a grant from Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Proprietaries, to John Harris, Jr., bearing date of record "ye 19th February, 1753," that gentleman was allowed the right of running a ferry across the Susquehanna, from which originated the first name of the place, which, previous to the organization of the county, was known as Harris' Ferry. There are a number of letters from John Harris, Conrad Weiser, and others, at this period, to Edward Shippen, complaining of the insecurity of life and property, owing to the depredations of the Indians, and their tenor is a continual and just complaint of the outrages committed by the savages, and requests to the authorities for protection and arms. The most interesting event of this period was the extermination of the so-called Conestoga Indians by the Paxtang rangers, full notes of which we have given in the General History. It is not to be wondered at, that when the first mutterings of the storm were heard, the inhabitants of this entire section were ripe for revolution. As early as the spring of 1774, meetings were held in the different townships, the resolves of only two of which are preserved. The earliest was that of an assembly of the inhabitants of Hanover, in the upper part of Lancaster county, now Dauphin, held on Saturday, June 4, 1774, Colonel Timothy Green, chairman, "to express their scntiments on the present critical state of affairs." It was then and there "unanimously resolved:" " 1st. That the recent action of the Parliament of Great Britain is iniquitous and oppressive. " 2d. That it is the bounden duty of the inhabitants of America to oppose every measure which tends to deprive them of their just prerogatives. "3d. That in a closer union of the colonies lies the safeguard of the people. "4th. That in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upun us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to Heaven and our rifles. 641 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. " 5th. That a committee of nine be appointed who shall act for us and in our behalf as emergencies may require." The committee consisted of Colonel Timothy Green, James Carothers, Josiah Espy, Robert Dixon, Thomas Copenheffer, William Clark, James Stewart, Joseph Barnett, and John Rogers. Following in the footsteps of these brave men, on Friday following, June 10, 1774, a similar meeting was held at Middletown, Colonel James Burd, chairman, at which stirring resolves were concurred in, and which subsequently served as the text of those passed at the meeting at Lancaster. Not to be behind their Scotch-Irish neighibors, the German inhabitants located in the east of the c'ounty met at Frederickstown (now Iummelstown), on Saturday, the 1 th of June, at which Captain Frederick Hummel was chairman. The resolves presented by Captain Joseph Sherer were somewhat similarly drawn. The inhabitants, as Governor Penn prophesied two years before, were ripe for revolution, and when the stirring battle-drum aroused the new-born nation, the I)eople of Dauphin valiantly armed for the strife. One of the first companies raised in the colonies was that of Captain Matthew Smith, of Paxtang. Within ten d(lays after the receipt of the news of the battle of Lexington, this company was armed and equipped, ready for service. Composing this pioneer body of patriots was the best blood of the county. Archibald Steele and Michael Simpson were the lieutenants. It was the second company to arrive in front of Boston coming south of the Hudson river, and was subsequently ordered to join General Arnold in his unfortunate campaign against Quebec. The most reliable account of that expedition was written by a member of this very Paxtang company, John Joseph Henry, afterwards president judge of Lancaster and Dauphin counties. They were enlisted for one year. The major ty, however, were taken prisoners at Quebec, while a large percentage died of wounds and exposure. In Marc!-, 1776, Captain John Murray's company was raised in Paxtang township, attached to the rifle battalion of Colonel Samuel Miles. This company participated in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Princeton, and Trenton. Captain Patrick Anderson's company was raised in the lower part of the county in January, 1776. It was attached to Colonel Atlee's musketry battalion, suffered severely at Long Island, re-organized under Captain Ambrose Crain, a gallant officer, placed in the Pennsylvania State regiment of foot, commanded by Colonel John Bull, and subsequently, in the re-arrangement of the line, the 13th Pennsylvania, under Colonel Walter Stewart, so conspicuous in the battle of Yorktown. Captain John Marshall's company was from Hanover, enlisted in March, 1776, and attached to Colonel Miles' battalion, participating in the various battles in which that brave command distinguished itself. Of this company the remaining officers were First Lieutenant John Clark, March 15, 1776; Second Lieutenant Thomas Gourley, March 15, 1776, promoted to first lieutenant of the 9th Pennsylvania, December 7, 1776; Third Lieutenant Stephen Hanna, March 19, 1776. 649 DAUPHIN COUNTY. Captain Smith's company, on the expiration of its term of service, re-enlisted in the 1st Pennsylvania (Colonel Hand), with Captain Michael Simpson, December, 1776, who retired from the army January, 1, 1781. David Harris commanded a company in this regiment, July, 1776 (resigned, October, 1777), of which also James Hamilton, formerly lieutenant in Captain John Murray's company, was promoted major (retiring January 1, 1783). Major Hamilton was captured at the battle of Brandywine. In the 10th Pennsylvania (Colonel Joseph Penrose) were Captain John Stoner's company, December 4, 1776; and Captain Robert Sample's, December 4, 1776 (retired January 1, 1781). John Steel, first lieutenant of the former company, was killed at Brandywine, September 11, 1777. In the 12th Pennsylvania (Colonel William Cook) was the company of Captain John Harris, October 14, 1776; First Lieutenant John Reily, October 16, 1776 (subsequently promoted to captain, and mustered out with the regiment, November 3, 1783); Second Lieutenant John Carothers, October 16, 1776 (killed at Germantown). The foregoing were the different companies raised in this part of the country at the outset of the Revolution. Following these in succession were the associators, the minute-men of Pennsylvania; and at one period the entire county was so bare of men that the old men, the women, and the lads of ten and twelve years not only done the planting and harvesting, but took up arms to defend their homes in the threatened invasion by Indians and Tories after the massacre of Wyoming; and at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown, the militia of Dauphin fought and bled and died. There were over one hundred and fifty commissioned officers, and the number of patriots who saw active service, from Dauphin county, was over two thousand. In the war of 1812 the military organizations from Dauphin county which armed for the conflict were the companies of Captains Thomas Walker, Richard M. Crain, John Carothers, Jeremiah Rees, Thomas McIlhenny, Peter Snyder, John B. Moorhead, James Todd, Richard Knight, John Elder, Isaac Smith, Philip Fedderhoff, and Gawin Henry, quite a formidable array. Some of these marched as far as Baltimore at the time of the British attack on that city, while others went no further than York. In the war with Mexico, consequent upon the annexation of Texas, among the troops which went out to that far-off land to vindicate the honor of our country and preserve its prestige, were the Cameron Guards, under command of Captain Edward C. Williams. They made a good record, their gallant conduct at Cerro Gordo, Chepultepec, and the Garreta, won for them high renown, and the commendation of their venerated commander-in-chief. Coming down to later times, when the perpetuity of the Union was threatened, and the great North rose up like a giant in its strength to crush secession and rebellion, the events are so fresh in the remembrances of all that we shall only refer to them in brief. The first public meeting held after the firing upon Fort Sumter, in the State of Pennsylvania, was in the court house at Harrisburg, General Simon Cameron being chairman thereof. Dauphin county, foremost in tendering men and means to the government for that bitter, deadly strife, furnished her full quota of volunteers. Twice Harrisburg was the objective 643 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. point of the Confederate troops, and at one time (June, 1863) the enemy's pickets were within two miles of the city. Active preparations were made for its defence, and fortifications erected on the bluff opposite, and named " Fort Washington." This was the only fortification deserving a name erected in any of the Northern States. Rifle pits were dug along the banks of the river, in front of Harris park, and every preparation made to give the enemy a warm reception. The Union victory at Gettysburg checked the further advance, and with it the last attempt to invade the north. Six hundred of the citizens of our county lost their lives on that bloody field. Within the present limits of Dauphin county there were organized in the - early days of the Province of Penn sylvania three Presbyterian church es. The worshipers, however seized by the restless spirit of the age, have scattered, and on the altar of one alone are the fires of Presbyterianism kept burning. In as brief a manner as possible we shall refer to these relics of the past. On the line of the Lebanon Val.ley railroad, at Derry station, stands a weather-beaten log edifice, erected as early as 1729, the congregation having been organized previous to 1725. It is located on what was Of D DERRY CHURCH -1870. then termed, in the old Penn [From a Photograph by Lerue Lemer.] patents, the " Barrens of Derry." The building is constructed of oak logs, about two feet thick, which are covered over with hemlock boards on the outside. The inside is in tolerable preservation, the material used in the construction of the pews and floors being yellow pine, cherry, and oak. The iron-work is of the most primitive and antique description, and the heavy hand-wrought nails by which the hinges are secured to the pews and entrance doors are extremely tenacious and difficult to loosen. The window-glass was originally imported from England, but few panes, however, remain. In the interior, pegs are placed in the wall, and were used by the sturdy pioneers to hang their rifles upon, as attacks by the Indians in the Provincial days were of frequent occurrence, and there is still to be seen many a hostile bullet imbedded in the solid oak walls. The pulpit is quite low and narrow, crescent-shaped, and is entered by narrow steps from the east side. Above it on the south side is a large window which contains thirty-eight panes of glass of different sizes. The sash is made of pewter, and was brought from England. The communion service, which is still preserved, consists of four mugs and platters of pewter, manufactured in London, and presented to the church by some dissenting English friends one hundred and fifty years ago. At the main entrance lies a large stone as a stoop, which is greatly worn by the tread of the thousands who have passed over it. About 644 DAUPHIN COUNTY. thirty paces north-west stands the session-house and pastor's study during the days of public worship. The burial-ground is a few yards north of the study. and is enclosed with a stone wall, capped and neatly built. There is only one entrance, which is at the centre of the west side. The Rev. Robert Evans, church missionary, ministered to the congregation during its early years, having founded the church. lIe died in Virginia, in 1727. Rev. William Bertram was the first regular minister. His remains lie in the graveyard, near the south-west corner. He died May 2, 1746. His successor, Rev. John Roan, is buried near by, dying in October, 1775. Many ministers of note have preached at Derry, among whom were the Rev. David Brainard, Rev. Charles Beatty, and .....IllII... ,IEIr ____ l II III I II,.... -- tIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIII.'LLLLLLL, IIIIIIIIIIII IIIIII111I11 lll1 INTERIOR VIEW OF DERRY CHURCH. [From a Photograph by Lerue Lemer.] that galaxy of early missionaries, Anderson, Evans, McMillan, Duffield, Gray, the Tennents, Carmichael, etc. At present no services are held in Derry church. Paxtang church wa3 organized in 1729, and Rev. James Anderson of Donegal preached there. On the 11th October, 1732, Rev. William Bertram accepted a call, and was installed, in November following, pastor of Derry and Paxtang. The Rev. John Elder, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, accepted a call in 1738, and came with the promise of a stipend of sixty pounds in money. The Rev. Mr. Bertram was paid " one-half in money, the other half in hemp, linen yarn, or linen cloth at market price." The present church building was erected about 1740. It is a plain, unpretending, limestone fabric, erected on the site of the original log house. The building is not large, and is entered by two doors. Formerly the pulpit stood in the middle of the house, fronting the southerly door. It became a receptacle for squirrels and hornets before it was removed. It is now remodeled, and the entire room neatly furnished. Formerly, at the 645 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. south-east corner of the church building was a log house about fourteen feet square, long used by Parson Elder as his study, and subsequently as a schoolhouse. From this building the Rev. Elder on Sundays would march to his pulpit, his crowd of hearers parting for him to pass without his speaking a word to them, s ) dig:nified was S- the sacre 1 office es tee mn e d. Into this building trusty fire'T arms were taken for some years by those who worshipped there, and, onmore than one occasion, the l)pairson himself, who was a colonel in the Prio vincial service di,m uu r ring the 1--rench and Indian war, had his Ofr T) PAX'rAN(4 CHURCH. own musket within [Fronri a Photograph by Lerue Lemner.] reach. To the southeast of the church is the burial-ground, surrounded by a firm stone wall. There lie in calm repose men who were prominent in the State before and (during the Rlevolution. Rev. John Elder, William Maclay, who, with Robert Morris of Philadelphia, represented Pennsylvania in the first Senate of the United States; John Harris, the founder of the city of Harrisburg, General Michlael Simpson, and General James Crouch, heroes of the Revolution; the MeClures, the Forsters, the Gilmores, the Grays, the Wills, the Rutherfords, the Espys, and generation. of ScotchIrish settlers-,. _ Nearly eleven miles from 1lrr'sburg, on the Maniada, a tributary of - - -- the Swatara, are the remains of an ancient stone structuire, which, with the walled grave-yard, are the only monuments of old Hanover church, once prominent in the early history of our State. A few years since it was deemed OLD HANOVER CHURCH. expedient to dispose of [From a Photograph by A. G. Keet.] the church edifice (the building being in a tumble-down condition), the brick school-house, an other property belonging thereto, the congregation having long since passed away, for the purpose of creating a permanent fund to keep the grave-yard in repair. It was a plain, substantial, stone structure, corresponding somewhat to the build646 DAUPHIN COUNTY. 647 ing at Paxtang. The original name of the old Hanover church was Monnoday (Manada). The first record we have is of the (late of 1735, although its organization must have been some years earlier. In that year Donegal Presbytery sent Rev. Thomas Craighead to preach at Monnoday, and this appears to be tilhe first time the congregation was known to that body. The year following, the Rev. Richard Sanuckey was sent there, who _ for thirty years, ministered to that flock. Subsequently to the....ml D celebrated Paxtang affair at a-- _ ti L r S i Conestooga and Lancaster, the o i m bes mkRev. Richardaditlietites.I183tere.Je...gss Sancke, with thirty or forty - a - families of his-. c o n g regation, FIRST ENGLSH CHURCH AT HARRISBURG-1809 I LFrom a Pencil Sketch by Hugh Hamilton, M.D.] emig[rated to the Virginia Valley, and Captain Lazarus Stewart, with an equal number, removed to Wyoming, taking sides with the Connecticut intruders. These immigrations cost the church most of its members, and the county some of its most industrious and intelligent citizens. In 1783, the Rev. James Snodgrass, whose remains lie in the grave-yard, came to be the pastor. For fifty-eight years he served the congregation, and was its last minister. The first church erected within the corporate limits of Harrisburg was a hewn log edifice, on the corner of Third street and Clierry alley, in 1788, by the German Reformed --.. and Lutheran congregations, who previously wor _ shipped in a small log school-house on the north orner of Third andl Walnut streets. Thlo church was subsequently used as a school-house, until in the march of improvement it was removed. The first English, or Presbyterian church, was commenced in 1802, on the corner of Second .. - street and Cherry alley, and formally dedicated ' February 12, 1809. It was constructed of brick. Until 1826 these were the only religious denomina FIRST GERMAN CHURCH-1788. [From a Sketch by J. M. Beck-.] tions that had a local habitation. Subsequently the Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Baptists, and other congregations erected places of worship. At this time few towns present finer specimens of church architecture than are to be found in Harrisburg. HARRISBURG, the capital of Pennsylvania, and the county seat of Dauphin, was created a borough by the act of 13th April, 1791. On the formation of the GENERAL HISTORY. the Assembly to extort more privileges from him, and to limit his prerogative. On the other hand, necessity compelled him to be attentive to the collection of his revenue from the Province, and to increase it as much as possible. This conduct of the Assembly, however, contributed not a little to disgust him with the whole undertaking. Repeatedly urged to restore the Province to the crown, but long struggling against the abandonment of the brilliant hopes he had cherished to found a religious nation and a model of true freedom, his growing necessities and the constant opposition of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, finally compelled him to take that step. Several circumstances which occurred during the administration of Gookin contributed to produce this resolution. The Queen required the aid of the Province towards the conquest of Canada, in which the New England colonies assisted her with zeal. Pennsylvania was required to furnish and support 150 men, at an estimated expense of ~4,000. The Assembly voted a free gift to the Queen of ~800. To this was added the Governor's salary of ~200, which, however, they would not allow until he should have passed the bills presented to him, and redressed their grievances, which bore chiefly on the retention of Logan. The latter being about to visit England on the Proprietary's business, at the next sitting of the Assembly demanded a trial, instead of granting which, the Assembly ordered the sheriff to take him into custody; the Governor prevented his arrest by issuing a supersedeas. This put the Assembly quite out of temper and arrested all business, besides the entering on their minutes of a protest against the Governor's illegal and arbitrary measures. Logan went to London, fully justified his conduct, and returned to the Province confirmed in his office, and enjoying more than ever the favor of the Proprietary. Penn addressed a touching letter to the Assembly, in which he detailed and described their unjust and illegal pretensions, taxed them with ingratitude, took the part of Logan, and finally informed them that if they should persist in their opposition to his government, he must seriously consider what he should do with regard to his Province, and his determination should be governed by the conduct of the future Assembly. This letter effected an instantaneous change in the minds of the people. A new Assembly was chosen in 1710. Harmony of action ensued between 1710. it and Governor Gookin. They completed by their laws the organiza tion of the courts of justice, and voted to the Queen the sum of ~2,000, although they were well informed of her determination to go to war with France. The expedition to Canada, says Gordon, proved most disastrous. Colonel Nicholson, under whom served Colonels Schuyler, Whiting, and Ingoldsby, mustered at Albany two thousand colonists, one thousand Germans from the Palatinate, and one thousand of the Five Nation Indians, who commenced their march towards Canada on the twenty-eighth of August. The troops from Boston, composed of seven veteran regiments, of the Duke of Marl 1712. borough's army, one battallion of marines, and two provincial regi ments, amounting to six thousand four hundred men, sailed on board of sixty-eight vessels, the 30th of July, and arrived off the St. Lawrence on the 14th of August. In ascending the river, the fleet, by the unskilfullness of the pilots, or the obstinancy and distrust of the Admiral, was entangled amid HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. county of Dauphin, in 1785, the seat of justice was fixed at Harris' ferry, but in the commissions of the officers of the county the town was named Louisburg, in honor of Louis XVI., then King of France. On the minutes of the second court held in the town, the following endorsement appears on the docket: " The name of the county town, or seat of the courts, is altered from' Harrisburg' to 'Louisbourg,' in consequence of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth so styling it." It was not, however, until the act of incorporation passed that this gross injustice was remedied. In the year 1792 the first newspaper was established in the borough by John Wyeth. During the so-called Whiskey Insurrection, President Washington remained over night in the town, receiving the congratulatory address of the inhabitants, to which he courteously replied. An academy was opened in 1790, which was formally incorporated as the Harrisburg Academy in 1809. By the act of February, 1810, the offices of State government were removed to Harrisburg in 1812, since which period it has remained the capital of Pennsylvania. On the 31st of May, 1819, the corner-stone of the Capitol was laid by Governor Findlay, with appropriate ceremonies. The building was completed in 1821, and first occupied by the General Assembly on the 3d of January, 1822. On the 30th of January, 1825, the great Lafayette arrived on a visit to Harrisburg. On March 14, 1827, the first corner-stone of the locks of the Pennsylvania canal was laid in lock No. 6, at the foot of Walnut street, Harrisburg, in the presence of the Governor, members of the Legislature, and a great concourse of citizens. By the act of the 11th April, 1827, the Lanricasterian system of education was established. In the month of September, 1836, the first locomotive arrived over the Harrisburg and Lancaster railroad. This was the forerunner of that system of internal improvements which has so largely assisted in develop. ing the material wealth of this locality. The Cumberland Valley railroad was opened in July, 1837; the Pennsylvania, westward, in 1848. With these means of transit, Harrisburg began to take rank as a manufacturing town, and, in 1860, it received its highest corporate honors, that of a city. A new impetus was thus given to its growth, and from that time forward its industrial establishments have increased marvelously, the most notable of which are the Lochiel iron works, the Harrisburg car and machine shops, the Paxton, Price, and Wister furnaces, the Chesapeake nail works, Eagle machine works, six foundries, Harrisburg cotton mill, and many others in all departments of manufacture, with an invested capital aggregating twelve millions of dollars. As in wealth and importance it has largely increased, so it has in population. Its pleasant location and admirable facilities for transportation, with nearness to the iron and coal mines, has invited capital, and it is destined to be one of the greatest manufacturing centres in the State. Five miles north of Harrisburg lies a narrow elevation of gravel and boulders, bounded on the west by the broad Susquehanna, projecting boldly into the stream; eastward stretching into the narrow valley of Fishing creek, the waters of which wash the northern base of this projecting knoll... A faint trace of the family, the first to avail itself of this beautiful location, is found as early as 1704. Benjamin Chambers, the senior of four brothers, sturdy Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, himself a man of remarkable determination, was the name of 648 DAUPHIN COUNTY. the person who "took up" Fort Hunter. It is stated, he came to this then Province as "adventurers in ye old Pennsylvania comp'y,"-why called "old" eighteen years after Penn landed at Upland is calculated to puzzle the present generation of inquirers. Benjamin, however, seems to have Leen one of its managers, as he is called upon by the Council to lay " his acc's. before ye Council on the 4th mo., 1704." We then hear of Benjamin, James, Joseph, and Robert Chambers, about 1720, at the " mouth of Fishing creek;" whether at what is now known as Little Conewago, dividing Dauphin from Lancaster county, or Fishing creek at Hunter's, we have no means of determining. In 1725-6, a title under the fashion of that period was acquired " at the mouth of Fishing creek," for one thousand acres, from Robert Hunter, a straggling white trader, who had wedded "Mrs. Corondowana, alias Mrs. Montour," a chieftainess of the Conoys, "about a year and a half" before April, 1723, of which marriage loud complaint was made to " Pat'ck Gordon, Esq., Lt.-Gov'r, and the Coun'l." This transaction on the borders made a commotion at the council board of the Penn family, and therefore fixes the date of the settlement of Chambers and its certain location. Subsequently the provincial authorities confirmed all that had taken place, through land office forms, about 1733-37. A few hundred yards from what afterwards was the fort a mill was built, about 1736, part of which yet remains on the west side of the Pennsylvania canal, and is used to this "FORT HUNTE oorap D. nite.] [From a Photograph by D. 0. Burnite.3 day for its original purpose. The site of this Indian fort was in the possession of the McAllisters for threequarters of a century. It is now owned by Daniel D. Boas, of Harrisburg. MIDDLETOWN was so named from its being located midway between Lancaster and Carlisle. It is the oldest town in Dauphin county, having been I!id out thirty years before Harrisburg, and seven years before Hummelstown, and is nine miles by the turnpike south-east of Harrisburg on the Pennsylvania railroad, near the confluence of the Susquehanna and Swatara, at which the Pennsylvania and Union canal unite. It was laid out in 1755, by George Fisher, in the centre of a large tract of land bounded by the streams alluded to, conveyed to him by his father, John Fisher, a merchant of Philadelphia. The site was that of an ancient Indian village. The town was incorporated into a borough, February 19, 1828. Portsmouth, between Middletown and the Susquehanna, was laid out in 1809, by George Fisher, son of Mr. Fisher who laid out Middletown, and at first called Harbortown. The same was changed to Portsmouth in 1814. 649 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. The Union and Pennsylvania canals, the Harrisburg and Lancaster railroad all intersect here. By the act of Assembly, March 9, 1857, it was consolidated with Middletown, and the name Portsmouth is rarely heard. Between Portsmouth and Middletown, on the plain, stands the Emmaus Institute, devoted to the education of poor orphan children, where it is said the children "are to be carefully trained in the doctrines of the Evangelical Lutheran Church." Instruction is given in thile German and English languages, and the charter has been so altered by the Legislature as to permit the establishment of a literary and scientific department in connection with the orphan house, in which all the branches of modern learning are taught. The institution owes its origin to the liberality of Mr. George Frey. Middletown is a thriving manufacturing town, and contains an enterprising population. The original proprietor of the town being a Friend, several of this denomination from the city and the lower counties followed him; and these, with several Scotch-Irish merchants, formed the first inhabitants of the village, who enjoyed, up to the period of the Revolution, a very extensive and lucrative trade with the Indian nations and others settled on the Susquehanna and Juniata, and also with the Western traders. Several of the Scotch-Irish merchants entered the army, whence few returned. During the Revolutionary war a commissary department was established here, where the small boats for General Sullivan's army were built, and his troops supplied with provisions and military stores for his expedition against the Six Nations. After the war, trade again revived, and flourished extensively until 1796, after which it gradually declined. Until then the mouth of the Swatara was considered the termination of the navigation of the Susquehanna and its tributary streams. So far down it was deemed safe; below this it was thought to be impracticable, on account of the numerous and dangerous falls and cataracts impeding its bed. In 1796 an enterprising German miller by the name of Kreider, from the neighborhood of HIuntingdon, on the Juniata, appeared in the Swatara with the first ark ever built in those waters, fully freighted with flour, with which he safely descended to Baltimore, where hlie was amply compensated for his meritorious adventure. His success becoming known throughout the interior, many arks were built, and the next year many of them, fully freighted, arrived safely at tide-water. This trade increasing, a number ef enterprising young men were induced to examine critically the river from Swatara to tide-water, by which they became excellent pilots. The enterprise of John Kreider thus diverted the trade of this place to Baltimore, where it principally centred, until the Union canal was completed, when it was aga'in generally arrested to its old post. It would probably have so continued if the Pennsylvania canal had not been Qontinued to Columbia, by which the principal obstruction in the river, the Conewago Falls, was completely obviated. 1UMMELSTOWN, situated on the line of the Lebanon Valley railroad, was laid out by Mr. Frederick Hummel, October 26, 1762. It was for many years called Frederickstown; the precise date of the change in the name of the town is unknown. It joins Derry township, though, of course, since its incorporation as a borough in 1874, enjoying a separate and distinct municipal government, nine miles from Harrisburg, on the old turnpike road leading to Reading; seated in a fertile limestone region, highly cultivated by wealthy and industrious farm650 DAUPHIN COUNTY. ers of German descent. Among its oldest settlers were Jacob Hummel, Sr., John Fox, Frederick IHummel, George Gish, George Fox, Christian Spayd, Frederick Richert, Daniel Baum, Adam Dean. During the Revolution of 1776, HIummelstown was made a place of deposit for arms, ammunition, etc., whence the garrisons on the West Branch were supplied. It is a place of considerable -business activity, located as it is in a fine farming country. About a half mile south-west of the town is a large cave which in former days was widely celebrated It is a quarter of a mile in length, and contained at one time large numbers of beautiful stalactites. The curiosity-hunter has broken these, while the walls, blackened by the torches of numerous visitors, render it less a curiosity than formervly. M ILLERSrURG borough was laid out in 1807, by Daniel Miller, after whom it is named. It is pleasantly situated north of Berry's mountain, at the mouth of the Wiconisco creek, on the line of the Northern Central and the terminus of the Lykens Valley railroad. The first settlers of this region were Huguenots. Francis Jaques, or Jacobs, resided some time at Halifax, but afterwards located here, where he had " taken up " several thousand acres of land. Among others, Kleim Larue (Laroi), Shorra or Jury, Werts, Daniel Stoever, Shutts, were early settlers here. Millersburg is a place of considerable importance, being situated near the coal regions, with which it communicates by the LNkens Valley rail road, and with Harrisbug by the Wiconisco canal and the main line. Thie site of the present town was formerly a pine forest, and the original lot owners could procure enough of pine lumber to build a comfortable dwelling. The place was settled some years prior to the time it was laid out. Daniel Miller, the proprie tor, and John Miller, his brother, emigrated from Lancaster county about the year 1790, and " took upl) " some four hundred acres of land and commenced a settlement, probably in the year 1794, which was finally laid out into town lots, as above stated. On the 8th of April, 1850, an act was passed and approved by the Legislature of Pennsylvania incorporating Millersburg into a borough. DUNCAN'S ISLAND is a flourishing settlement, at the mouth of the Juniata, fourteen miles above Harrisburg. The name properly belongs to the narrow alluvial island, about two miles in length, at the point of which the village is situated. This islandl and its fellow, IHaldeman's island, although apparently in Perry county, are really in Dauphin, Perry having been formed from Cumber land, and the original boundary of that county having been the western shore of the Susquehanna. Haldeman's island is not of alluvial origin, but is elevated above the neighboring p)latcau. The river here is nearly a mile in width, and is crossed by a wooden bridge, on the Burr plan, resting upon many piers, the whole constructed with an elegance and strength equal to, if not surpassing, those of any public work in the country. A dam across the river, just below the bridge, creates a pool, upon which boats cross by means of the double towing path attached to the bridge. The canal continues up Duncan's island, diverging at its upper end into the Juniata and Susquehanna divisions. The Juniata division then crosses the Juniata river on a splendid aqueduct, with wooden superstructure, and continues up the right bank to the rope-ferry, twelve miles above. There is also a fine bridge across the mouth of the Juniata. HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. BERRYSBURG borough is on the road leading from Millersburg through Lykens Valley into Schuylkill county. It was laid out about 1838, and incorporated as a borough May 24, 1871. UNIONTOWN borough (Pillow post office), situated about four miles north of Berrysburg, on the Northumberland county line, is a thrifty town. It was incorporated April 20, 1864. BALDWIN (Steel Works post office) was laid out by Rudolph F. Kelker in April, 1866. It owes its origin and importance to the location of the Pennsylvania steel works, around which extensive establishments have gathered a population of nearly fifteen hundred. These works are one of the greatest industries in the United States. Between the limits of Baldwin and the city of Harrisburg lies the town of Ewington, laid out in 1875 by Messrs. Purdy and Ewing. Its close proximity to the great manufacturing establishments adds materially to its growth and prosperity. HALIFAX was laid out in 1794 by George Sheafer and Peter Rise. It derived its name from being the location of the celebrated provincial fort erected in 1756. Fort Halifax was constructed at the mouth of Armstrong creek, about half a mile above the town, the well of which yet exists. LYKENS and WicoNIsco are two of the most important towns in the northern part of the county, located in the midst of the celebrated Lykens Valley coal mines. The former town was laid out by Edward Gratz in 1848. It was, however, an old settlement, and lots were sold as early as 1838, although it did not come into importance until the development of the coal trade. Coal was discovered here as early as 1825 by Jacob Burd and Richard Kimes. Lykens was incorporated as a borough April 3, 1872. Wiconisco, separated from the former by Wiconisco creek, was laid out by Thomas Gooch and Peter W. Sheafer, in 1848. It was first settled twenty years previous. The Lykens Valley railroad runs to both towns. Among the early settlers in the Lykens valley was Andrew Lycan, after whom the locality is named. His house, which stood until about 1870, was situated near the present site of Oakdale, a few yards north of the bridge that crosses the Wiconisco creek. It was built of hewn logs, with windows about nine inches square, which were used as port holes. From the Provincial records we learn that on the 7th of March, 1756, his house was attacked by the Indians. Lycan had with him his son, a negro man, a boy, and John Revalt, and Ludwig Shutt, two of his neighbors. Lycan and Revalt, whilst engaged early in the morning foddering the cattle, had two guns fired at them, but, unhurt, ran to the house, and prepared for an engagement. In order to get a shot at the enemy, John Lycan, Revalt, and Shutt, crept out of the house, but were instantly fired upon by five Indians, and were all wounded. Lycan, the father, perceiving over the hog-house an Indian, named Joshua James, fired upon and killed him; he also saw two white men run from the hog-house, and get at a little distance from it. The people in the house now endeavored to escape, and were pursued by sixteen Indians. John Lycan and Revalt, unable from their wounds to continue the fight, fled with the negro, whilst Andrew Lycan, Shutt, and the boy faced the foe. One of the Indians approached the boy, and whilst in the act of striking him with his tomahawk, was shot dead by Shutt, and at the same instant Lycan killed another. These two heroic men con652 DAUPHIN COUNTY. tinued the combat for some time, and killed and wounded several of their adversaries. Their bravery daunted the enemy, who did not dare to close upon them, even though they were compelled, from fatigue and loss of blood, to sit down upon a log to rest themselves; and they finally succeeded in making good their retreat to Hanover township. Several of the Indians were recognised as Delawares, and were well known in the neighborhood. GRATZ borough was laid out by Simon Gratz, after whom it was named, in 1805. It was incorporated a borough by act of Assembly, April 3, 1852. It contains a population of about five hundred. WILLIAMSTOWN, in Williams township, was laid out in 1869. It is located on the Summit Branch railroad, near the colliery named for it. Besides the foregoing towns there are a number of others of which we shall simply give the date of laying out: Highspire, 1814; Linglestown, 1765; Union Deposit, 1845; Rockville, 1839; Fisherville, 1848. The townships of Peshtank, Lebanon, and Derry covered the territory within the bounds of the county of Dauphin and Lebanon in 1729, when Lancaster county was formed. From the time of the organization of the former county until- 1813, when Lebanon was separated therefrom, the townships were as follows, with the date of erection: Paxton, 1729; Lebanon, 1720; Derry, 1729; Hanover from Derry, 1737; Bethel from Lebanon, 1739; Heidelberg, 1757; Londonderry, 1768; Upper Paxton, 1767; West Hanover, 1785; East Hanover, 1785; Middle Paxton, 1787; Swatara, 1799; Annville, 1799; Halifax, 1804, and Lykens, 1810. When Lebanon county was created, the townships of Lebanon, East and West Hanover, Heidelberg, Bethel, and Annville, were lost to Dauphin. Since that period there have been erected in this county: Susquehanna, 1815 Mifflin, 1819; Rush, 1820; Jackson, 1828; Wiconisco, 1840; Lower Swatara, with new lines for Swatara, 1840; South, East, and West Hanover, all in 1842; Jefferson, 1842; Washington, 1846; Reed, 1849; Conewago, 1850; and Williams, 1868. A~GIUUUiTUjALi H.UIUIi.NL. 876. AGRICULTURAL HALL, CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 653 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE, DELAWARE COUNTY. DELAWARE COUNTY. BY H. 0. ASHMEAD, CHESTER. w ITHIN the boundaries of Delaware county, the first settlement of Europeans, of which we have authentic record, in the State of Penn sylvania, was made. So, too, many of the most important acts of government were, for the first time in the Province, exercised within its limits, although it did not receive its distinctive organization until September 26th, 178J9, when, by act of Assembly, John Sellers, Thomas Tucker THE OLD TOWN HALL AT CHESTER. [Fac-simile of an Old Engraving.] and Charles Dilworth, or any two of them, were empowered commissioners " to run and mark the lines dividing the counties of Chester and Delaware." This was done by a zig-zag line " so as not to split or divide plantations" from Chad's ford, by the way of Dilworthstown to Montgomery county. The new county was sixteen miles in length, eleven in breadth, its area being 177 square miles, and containing 113,289 acres. It is bounded on the north by Philadelphia and Montgomery counties, on the west by Chester, on the south and west by the 655 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. State of Delaware, and on the south and east by the river Delaware. In 1790, when the first national census was taken, and which was but a short time after its formation, its total population was 9,483; in 1875 it was 39,403. During the first fifty years immediately following its establishment, the growth of the county was tardy, and it is only within the last thirty years that it has exhibited much progressive energies. The surface of the county is gently undulating, although towards the northwestern boundary it is decidedly hilly. The principal streams draining the territory and emptying into the Delaware are Cobb's, Darby, Crum, Ridley, Chester, Hook, Naaman's creeks, and the Brandywine, which forms its western boundary. Geologically the county lies entirely within the primitive formationj with the exception of the alluvial tract along the Delaware, the prevailing rock being granite, gneiss, and feldspar, the quarries of the former furnishing much of the building material used in Philadelphia and its vicinity. The breakwater at Cape Henlopen is almost entirely constructed of this stone. Whetstones of an excellent quality are procured near Darby creek, and exported to all parts of the Union. In Newtown, Middletown, Providence, and Edgmont townships are quarried the beautiful serpentine stone so extensively used in ornamental architecture in New Yoik, Philadelphia, and other cities. The first woolen mill in the county was established by an English family named Bottomley, in 1810, who converted an old saw mill, in Concord, into a factory, to the amazement of the residents in the neighborhood. About the breaking out of the war of 1812, Mr. Kelly erected a factory on Cobb's creek, in Haverford, and from these small beginnings the enormous manufacturing interests of Delaware county have grown, until there were, in 1875, 314 factories, employing 6,448 persons, requiring a capital of $5,927,187, and producing goods annually to the value of $11,641,654. There are also six ship-yards in Chester and South Chester borough, which, when business is active, employ fifteen hundred workmen. There are twenty-seven flouring mills, employing seventynine hands, $150,000 capital, and producing annually $612,400. There are 89,438 acres of improved farming lands, which in 1870 prcduced 121,398 bushels of wheat, 6,209 of rye, 379,417 of oats, 2,417 of barley, which, together with market gardening, orchard produce, the hay crop, and the value of animals sold for slaughter, amounted to $3,430,578. The value of all farm lands was $19,288,727; farming implements and machinery, $524,363. In 1870 there were 4,219 horses, 12,776 milch cows, 454 oxen, 3,138 beeves, 2,142 sheep, and 7,759 swine. In the present township of Tinicum the first European settlement in Pennsylvai iia. of which we have record, was made. Here it was that Colonel John Printz, a Swedish military officer of note, accompanied by a few adventurers of the same nationality, located in 1643, erected a fort of "groenen" (?) logs, and named the settlement New Gottenburg. A short time thereafter, Governor Printz built near-by a pretentious mansion house, the bricks being, it is said, brought from Sweden for that purpose. This dwelling received the name Printzhoff, and, we are told by Ferris, after standing over one hundred and sixty years, was accidentally destroyed by fire during the early part of the present century-a statement, however, which has frequently been questioned by local 656 DELAWARE COUNTY. historians. In 1646 the colonists erected a commodious wooden church, which was consecrated by Rev. John Campanius, on the 4th of September of that year, and located a grave-yard at that point, in which " the first corpse that was buried was Andrew Hanson's daughter Catherine, and she was buried on the 28th of October, which was Simon's and Jude's day." Martin, in his history of Chester, informs us that there is good reason to believe that the site of Printz hall, the church, and burial place, have been washed entirely away by the encroachments of the river, and that in the early part of this century human bones and pieces of coffin wood were frequently found protruding from the river bank as it receded. It is not proposed in this county sketch to recapitulate those incidents, which have been treated at some length in the General History of the State. The Swedish settlement having been considered elsewhere, it is unnecessary to more than refer to it here. The same course will be followed in respect to other events as the narrative advances. The marriage of Governor Printz's daughter, Armegard, to John Papegoya, at Tinicum, in 1644, is believed to have been the first instance in which a matrimonial ceremony was performed between Europeans within the limits of the present State of Pennsylvania. Over the meadows at that place the sound of the first "church-going bell " on the American continent called the worshippers together in the old Swedes' church. In May, 1673, Armegot Printz-she so wrote her name in the receipt-to obtain money, of which she appears to have been much in need, sold that bell to the congregation of the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, at Laus Deo. To re-purchase it the Swedish settlers gave their labor for two years at harvest time as the consideration. What subsequently became of the bell after its return to Tinicum is not known. The church building, as well as Printz 11:ill, were certainly uninjured by Peter Stuyvesant when he captured New Gottenburg, in 1655; notwithstanding we are told by Campanius that the Dutch conqueror destroyed that place. When Governor Andros visited the Delaware, in 1675, the New Castle court decreed, when designating places of meeting for worship, "that the church at Tinicumn Island do serve for Upland and parts adjacent," which was twenty years after Stuyvesant's conquests. Lewis, in the history of Chester county, says that the Swedes came from New Castle and places along the Delaware, both above and below, to worship in that building. The first mention made of a settlement at Upland, the site of the now thriving city of Chester, ccurs at the interview between Iuddie and the Passayunk Indians, in 1648. Campanius, who left New Sweden in the same year, spoke of Upland to his grandson as " a fortified place in which some houses were built." Martin believes that 1645 is probably the precise date of the settlement of the town, an opinion generally accepted as correct. The settlement consistcd of a few scattered dwellings, sufficient at the time to demand recognition as a point of considerable importance, although from Campanius' description it would appear that the houses were located within the enclosure of the fortress. A court, crude in its procedure, was held here by the Swedish settlers. The precise date of its establishment is unknown, but it must have been previous to 1658, for at that time "one Jurgin, the Finn on Crooked Kill," was appointed court mes 2. 657 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. rocks and islands on the northern shore, and ran imminent hazard of total destruction. Several transports, and near a thousand men, perished. Upon this disaster the remainder bore away for Cape Breton, and the expedition, by the advice of a council of naval and military officers, was abandoned, on the ground of the want of provisions, and the impossibility of procuring a seasonable supply. The Admiral sailed directly for England, and the colonists returned to Boston, whilst Colonel Nicholson, thus Jeserted, was compelled to retreat from Fort George. Want of skill, fortitude, and perseverance were eminently conspicuous in the British commanders of this enterprise. In 1712, William Penn entered into an agreement with Queen Anne to cede to her the Province of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties, for the sum of ~12,000 sterling. But before the legal forms were completed, an apo 1714. plectic stroke prostrated his vigorous mind and reduced him to the feebleness of infancy. The Queen died on the first of August, 1714, and was succeeded by George the First. Two years subsequent, Governor Gookin arrayed against himself all the Quaker interest in the Province, in consequence of construing a provision in the statute of 7 and 8 William III., "that no Quaker, by virtue thereof, could be qualified or permitted to give evidence in any criminal case, or serve 1716. on juries, or hold any place or office of profit in the government." This act had been made perpetual in Great Britain, and was extended to the colonies for five years by an act of Parliament of 1 George I. In the opinion of Gookin, the extension of this act to the Provinces repealed the provincial law, and disqualified the Quakers from giving testimony in criminal cases, from sitting on juries, and from holding any office. Notwithstanding the desertion of his Council, and the remonstrances of the Assembly, Gookin tenaciously adhered to his construction of the statute. His good genius had now entirely abandoned him, for he now charged Richard Hill, Speaker of the Assembly, Isaac Norris, and James Logan, with disloyalty to the King and devotion to the Pretender. These allegations were utterly unfounded, and the Assembly, whither the parties charged had carried their complaint, com pletely exonerated them. Expostulation with Gookin having proved 1717. vain, his Council unanimously joined in an address to William Penn, praying his recall. He met the Assembly for the last time in March, 1717, and extorted from their compassion the sum of ~200, a valedictory donation. Sir William Keith,* on the first of May, 1717, superseded Governor Gookin, * SIR WILLIAM KEITH, son of a Scottish baronet of the same name, was born in the North of Scotland about 1669. He long held a position under the royal government, and was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Pennsylvanit in 1717. One of the most successful of the Proprietary executives, on being superseded in 1726, he was immediately thereafter chosen to the Assembly. His course, however, in creating dissensions between the legislative and executive branches of the government, served to alienate his friends. He died in obscurity, in London, November 17, 1749. Lady Ann Keith had deceased in Philadelphia, July 31, 1740, at the age of sixty-five, and lies entombed at Christ Church graveyard. Governor Keith published a "History of the British Plantations in America, Part I.," containing the History of Virginia, 1738; and " Collections of Papers and Tracts," 1749. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. senger. In the same year Evert Pieterson held the position of school-master, with twenty-five pupils under his charge. This was twenty-five years before Enoch Flower established his school in Philadelphia, thus showing that the latter was not the first pedagogue mentioned in our State annals. In 1661 the first application for divorce, of which we have record, was made to the Upland court. A Finn and his wife, who are supposed to have resided in the vicinity of Marcus Hook, lived together in a state of constant strife, the wife being almost daily whipped by the husband, and "often expelled from the hous9 like a dog," until the priest, the sheriff, the commissioners, and the neighbors, united in petitioning the court for a divorce. The whole subject was referred to the Governor, but with what success is not known. Tradition states that the first highway laid out in Pennsylvania was the present Essex street, which was to the west of the famous Essex House. Whether that be so cannot now be determined. Martin claims that Edgmont street had that honor, while Armstrong states that the road to Darby was the first highway. It is known, however, that in the early part of 1677, the New Castle court, which had concurrent jurisdiction with the Upland court, made an order that " highways should be cleared from place to place," which decree is said by Dr. Smith, in his valuable History of Delaware county, to be the first road law ever promulgated in the Province. In the same year, on the records of Upland court, occurs the first appointment of a guardian for minors. In 1669 Marcus Jacobus, popularly known as " the Long Finn," and Henry Celeman, both residing below Upland, were charged with inciting an insurrection. The only treasonable (?) act shown on the trial of Jacobus was "raising of speeches, very seditious and false, tending to the disturbance of his Majesty's peace and the laws of the government." The commissioners who were appointed to try the case found that, although the prisoner had merited death, his ignorance was such that in justice his life might be spared, and they sentenced him " to be publicly and severely whipped and stigmatized or branded in the face with the letter R, with an inscription written in great letters and put upon his breast, that he receive that punishment for attempting rebellion," after which he was to be sent to Barbadoes or some other of the remote plantations and sold. In January, 1670, the prisoner, after having undergone the former parts of his sentence, was put on board the Fort Albany, a vessel bound for Barbadoes, after which all record of the unfortunate man ceases. Coleman, his confederate, it is thought, took shelter among the Indians, with whom he was on friendly terms, and remained among them several years, until in the lapse of time his offence was entirely overlooked. This instance of punishment by branding with the letter designating the crime is the only one which occurs in our annals. The custom, however, of compelling convicts to wear a letter upon their breasts as a punishment, was frequent in colonial times. In 1717, the court at Chester sentenced a prisoner found guilty of theft to pay four-fold the cost of the article stolen, and "to be whipped with twenty-one lashes, and wear a Roman T of a blue color for the space of six months, not less than four inches long each way, and one inch broad." In 1732 wearing the letter of the crime ceased to be part of the sentences pronounced upon culprits, although in 1753, one Owen Oberlack, alias John Bradley, was convicted of speaking seditious words, and was sentenced to 658 DELAWARE COUNTY. stand in the pillory, at Chester, one hour, with the words " I stand here for speaking seditious words against the best of kings," written in a large hand and affixed to his back. The records of Upland court, in 1678, show the first commitment of a lunatic in the State, and the erection of the first asylum for the insane. The circumstances are thus briefly stated: "Jan Cornellissen, of Ammasland, complaining to ye court that his son Erick is bereft of his natural sences, and is turned quyt madd, and yt hee being a poore man is not able to maintain him-ordered: that three or 4 p'rsons bee hired to build a Little Block house at Ammasland for to put in the sd madman, and att the next court order will bee taken yt a small Levy bee La,id to pay for the building of ye house and the maintayning of ye sd madd man according to Laws of ye government." These records, which have been published t.. -~ HOUSE WHERE PENN RESIDED WHILE AT CHESTER. by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, afford an interesting field to the antiquary and historian. In them are found the earliest instances of the common law usages in this State, usages with which, we are taught, much of the liberty of the citizen is connected. The first jury that is known to have been empanelled in Pennsylvania was in a trial at Upland, in 1678. On September 12th, 1682, the first grand jury summoned in the Colony sat at Upland, and the first order for filing an administrator's account was made at that court. In 1675, Robert Wade, who had emigrated from England in the ship Griffith, settled at Upland, on the west side of the creek, on the Printzdorp estate, which had been granted Armegard Printz, by the Swedish sovereign. How Wade acquired title to the property is unknown, but, certain it is, that in that year William Edmundson, a prominent minister of the Society of Friends, found Wade at Upland, and at his house a meeting occurred, which was the first known 659 tHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. to have been held by members of that Society in Pennsylvania. It is believed that in that year several Quaker families, the first of that denomination in the Province, settled at Upland. This fact is evidenced by the journal of George Fox, who in returning from a religious visit to New England, in 1672, passed through the whole extent of Delaware county, and does not record that in his ride to New Castle he met with a member of the society, of which he was the founder, although hlie mentions having stopped over night at the house of a Swede. In the present city of Chester, Deputy Governor Markham organized the Proprietary government, on the 3d day of August, 1681, and it was there, in the same year, the interview occurred between Lord Baltimore and Markham, during which, by astronomical observations, it became manifest that the parallel of 400, the southern bounlary of Pennsylvania, was twelve miles further to the north. In this discovery began the memorable controversy between the Lords Baltimore and the family of Penn, which lasted seventy years, until it was finally set at rest by a decree of Lord Chancellor Hardwick, resulting in a line being surveyed by Mason and Dixon, two London surveyors, which, more than half a century after, during the Missouri Compromise debate, was declared by John Randolph to be the line that divided the free from the slave-holding States, and accepted as such, its name has since become as " familiar as a household word." Proud tells us that the Bristol Factor, Roger Drew, commander, " arrived at the place where Chester now stands on the 11th of December, 1681, where the passengers seeing some houses, went on shore at Robert Wade's landing, near the lower side of Chester creek; and the river having froze up that night, the passengers remained there all winter." These emigrants built huts to accommodate themselves and families, while others made excavations in the earth in which to obtain shelter. In such a cave Emanuel Grubb was born. Ile was said to have been, but the statement is inaccurate, the first born of English parentage in the Province. In 1682, more than two months before Penn's arrival, John Sharpless and family settled on Ridley creek, two miles to the north-west of Chester, and were compelled to harbor under the shelter of the branches of a large tree that the father felled for that purpose. In six weeks thereafter he had completed a house, which was placed in such a way against a solid rock that tl.he latter served as a chimney. The cold weather had set in by the time it was completed, and when the family occupied their new dwelling the glowing fire against the chimney rock warmed the rattlesnakes that had sought shelter there from their winter torpor, and they crawled forth into the cabin in great numbers. Upon the rock Sharpless cut his initials, " I. S.," and the date " 1682," and they are distinguishable to this day. Martin asserts that William Penn landed at Upland, on Sunday, the 29th of October, 1682, but Dr. Smith maintains that "neither the hour, the day, nor the manner of his landing is certainly known." The landing is believed to have been made near the Essex House, then occupied by Robert Wade, which stood, although in ruins, until the beginning of this century, at what is now the northwest corner of Penn and Front streets. When the present building was erected in 1850, the foundations of the old structure were found, and a well that had in time been filled in was disclosed, in which an ancient bucket in tolerable good 660 DELAWARE COUNTY preservation was discovered. In 1850 the Pennsylvania Historical Society located a pine tree on the exact spot at which the landing occurred, but that has since been cleared away before the steady pressure of material improvement. Had the tree remained it would have stood some distance in the roadway of the street. Traditions cluster very thickly about this important event in the history of the State. It seems unquestioned that Penn changed the name of Upland immediately after he landed there, but the dramatic story, that he turned to Pearson, one of his fellow voyagers (?), and said: "Providence has brought us here safely; thou hast been the companion of my perils; what wilt thou that I should call this place? " and that the latter replied: "Chester, in remembrance of the city whence I came," is seriously doubted by many of our best informed historians. Of a similar dubious character is the tradition that in discharging a portion of the stores from the Welcome, a large cask or bale fell upon the leg or arm of one of the crew and injured it so seriously that it became necessary to amputate the limb. At that time but one physician was with the colony at Upland, and the rude system of leechcraft, then in vogue, which did not accept Ambrose Parc's idea that the arteries could be tied, employed boiling pitch to arrest the flow of blood. After the completion of his work, the surgeon unfortu-.. nately diopped some of the blazing pitch _ upon himself, which ignited his clothing, and hlie was burned so severely that he subsequently died in great agony. This latter story may have had its origin in the fact that when Penn visited his colony a second time, in 1699, before going on his vessel the next morning to FIRST MEETIN G HOUSE OF FRIENDS proceed to Philadelphia, he visited the AT CHESTER. town and crossed from the west to the east side of the creek in a boat. As he landed, several young men fired salutes in his honor from two small cannon. One of the artillerists, by inserting the cartridge before the piece had been sponged out, caused a premature discharge, wounding him so badly that it was necessary to amputate his left arm. On the 4th of December, 1682, the first Assembly of Pennsylvania convened at Chester, lasting several days, when it was dissolved by the Proprietary in person. Tradition connected an old building which stood until within recent years on the west side of Edgmont street, nearly opposite Graham street, as the place where this body sat, and in commemoration of that event it was known as the Old Assembly House. Investigations of Dr. Smith, Martin, and others, has established the now undoubted fact that that structure was the first meeting-house of Friends in Chester, and was not erected until 1693, nearly eleven years subsequent to the meeting of the Legislature. All the historians mentioned unite in the opinion that the House of Defence was the building made use of for that purpose, and that in the same structure court was held in 1683, over which the Proprietary in person presided. William Penn, however, is said frequently to have preached in the old meeting-house. Penn, it is thought, resided principally at Chester during the winter of 1682-3, 661 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. and is said to have made his home in an old building that was standing until within thirty odd years, a short distance below the creek, on the east side of the King's highway. In early days it was a noted tavern, known throughout the colony as the " Black Bear Inn." Penn was in Chester on the 10th of March, 1683, two days before the Assembly met in Philadelphia, at which the plow was designated as the official seal of the county of Chester. In this year the noted Chester Mills, the first ever erected by English settlers, were constructed on the site of the present village of Upland. The frames and machinery had been brought from England in the Welcome. By the verbal agreement of the ten shareholders in the enterprise, Caleb Pusey was appointed agent and manager for the interest of all. This selection was most happy, for Pusey showed energy in contending with unlooked-for difficulties in carrying out the project. Lewis states that William Penn was present when the first log was laid in the first dam on Chester creek. The best information respecting these mills is furnished in an old deed, dated December 19th, 17057 by which Samuel Carpenter of Philadelphia transferred his half interest in the mill property to Caleb Pusey. It is stated therein that in 1683 Pusey did erect, at the joint charge of all the owners, acorn mill and dam near his new dwelling, still statnding at Upland in excellent preservation. After the mill and dam were swept away by a flood, Pusey, with the consent of the share-holders then in the Province, erected another mill and dam further up the creek, but that was swept away also, and he constructed a third one at a considerable distance beyond the others, and a race was made to convey the water to the mill. The expense attending these constant repairs was so great that the outlay far exceeded the earnings of the mill, and as the parties refused, with the exception of Penn and Pusey, to pay their proportions of the costs, suit was brought, and the interest of the remaining share-holders sold to Samuel Carpenter, in satisfaction of the judgment obtained. Thus he became a partner, and a rude iron vane in commemoration of that circumstance was placed on the building. It bore the initials W. P. (William Penn), S. C. (Samuel Carpenter), C. P. (Caleb Pusey), and the date 1699. This ancient relic now surmounts the building of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In 1705, Carpenter sold his interest to Pusey, and the interest of Penn seems to have become a charge upon the land, which was recognized until the Revolution extinguished the title of the " Chief Lords of the Fee." About 1745, a new mill was built by Joseph Pennell, the then owner of the property, the old structure having been injured by fire, and a dam-breast was erected in 1752, by Samuel Shaw. That stone mill stood until 1858, when it was totally destroyed by an accidental fire. The circumstances connected with this old millsite have been given with some fullness, because it wa3 the second enterprise of that character in the colony, the first being the Swede's mill on Cobb's creek, ot which little is known, and whose exact site cannot now be ascertained. In 1684, four years before the Salem witch-craft delusion exhibited itself in New England, an old woman, Margaret Matson, residing near the mouth ox Crum creek, in the present township of Ridley, was indicted for witch craft, and was tried before Governor Penn. his council, and a jury, sitting as a Superior Court at Philadelphia. The accused pleaded not guilty. The evidence was of a similar character to that which was presented in all such cases-general rumor 662 DELAWARE COUNTY and absurd circumstances. The verdict of the jury was that the prisoner was "Guilty of haveing the Common fame of a Witch, but not Guilty in manner and forme as Slihee Stands Indicted." She was subsequently discharged, upon entering bail for her good behavior for six months. The last Indian title to lands in Delaware county was extinguished in October, 1685. The peaceful process by which Penn strove to obtain the actual and undisputed possession of the territory comprised in his charter from the Crown, has been much commended by historians, and while it is proper that he should receive just credit for that course, it should not be forgotten that the Swedes, Dutch, and other settlers in this locality, had pursued that policy for two and thirty years before a member of the Society of Friends is known to have been a resident of Pennsylvania. In 1688, a rumor prevailed that the Indians had conspired to destroy the entire white inhabitants, which plot had been discovered by a Dutch settler near Chester. On the day designated as the one appointed for the massacre, about ten o'clock at night, a man rode hastily into Chester and reported that three families about nine miles distant had been murdered by the savages. Three persons went to those places and found the houses deserted, but no signs of violence were present. Rumor stated that five hundred warriors had gathered at Naaman's creek, and a scout from Marcus Hook reported that such an assemblage had actually taken place, but it was seven miles further down the Brandywine, and that the aged Indian king, who was lame, the women and children, had been removed to a place of safety. When this report was brought to Philadelphia, one of the council-Proud says it was Caleb Pusey, but Dr. Smith shows that Pusey was not at that time a member-volunteered to proceed to the Indian town, without arms, to learn the truth, provided five others would accompany him. The party rode to the town, were received in a kindly manner by the Indians, learned that no hostilities were contemplated, and the report was without foundation. A recent writer in the Penn Monthly declares "that Caleb Pusey going out unarmed into the forest to meet a threatened attack of the savages, is a more heroic figure than blustering Miles Standish, girt with the sword he fought with in Flanders." The records of the courts of Chester county, before the eastern section became Delaware county, abound with interest, but we cannot devote much space to the history that lies recorded within those age-discolored documents and papers. In 1689, a jury of women, the first ever empanelled in Pennsylvania, was called to examine a female convict and report whether she could physically undergo the corporal punishment the court had ordered. In 1690, Robert Roman, of Chichester, was indicted for practicing geomancy, pled guilty, and was ordered by the court to pay five pounds fine, the costs, and promise never to practice that art, but behave himself well for the future. From 1714 to 1759, the punishment for most offences seems to have been confined to public whippings. In 1722, three persons at one time were under sentence of death at Chester, and the Governor was petitioned in their behalf. Two of these culprits, of whom one was a woman, were respited, but the other, William Battin, who had been convicted of "divers horrid, complicated crimes," was ordered to be executed " and hung in chains." The progress of Chester county, including that portion which subsequently became Delaware county, up to the Revolutionary war, was steady but not rapid, 663 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. which may be accounted for by the system of land starving, practiced in early times, by which the soil became so much exhausted that it would not return the cost of planting, and many of the inhabitants were compelled to seek other localities where the ground would yield bountifully until it was in turn robbed of its strength. The history of the county until the cloud of war began to threaten the colonies, is of but little interest, and that confined almost exclusively to its own locality. In 1748, a regiment of soldiers, called the " Associators," were organized to resist the depredations of French and Spanish privateers, of which Andrew McDowell was commissioned colonel, but whether they ever saw active service is not known. Certain it is, that a military organization with a similar name was in existence in Pennsylvania in 1776. The time was hastening on when the patriotic spirit of the people was to be earnestly aroused. When the passage of the Boston Port bill was announced, messengers were dispatched from Philadelphia to the surrounding counties, urging them to take active steps to protect their liberty. On the 4th d(lay of July, 1774, a public call was issued to the people to assemble at the court house, in Chester, on the 13th, and at that meeting Anthony Wayne was appointcd on the committee to act for the county. In December following, Wayne was chosen chairman of the committee then appointed, and on September 25, 1775, he published an address, in which he declared that " the abhorrent idea of separating from the mother country was pernicious in its nature." In the fall of 1775, chevaux-de-frize were thrown across the main channel of the Delaware, nearly opposite the Lazaretto, and two tiers of the same obstruction were sunk near Marcus Hook. In April, 1776, the recruits of Chester county assembled in cantonment at Chester and Marcus Hook, and in May of that ye,r the first powder mill in the Province, for the use of the colonists, located by Dr. Robert Harris "' on Crum creek, about three miles from Chester," began operations, and was expected to deliver one ton of powder on the first of June, "and the same quantity weekly," thereafter. When Howe was menacing Philadelphia, in August, 1777, by the Delaware, a camp of instruction was formed at Chester, and on the 16th of that month, a thotusand troops are mentioned as being l)present, who were forwarded as rapidly as expedient to the front. A private letter states that on the 29th of August, 1777, eighteen hundred of these men, indifferently drilled, had been ordered away. Recruiting and organizing were continued until the eve of the battle of Brandywine. It is unnecessary to refer to that disastrous battle in this sketch, its story has been told elsewhere in this volume, and the more its details are examined the more it becomes evident that " somebody blundered " outrageously on the part of the American commanders, but to whom the blame rightly attaches is not so c'ear. In that conflict the Marquis de Lafayette was wounded. Washington, in his letter from Chester on the night of the defeat, reported him as wounded in the leg, but the Marquis, when on his visit in 1824, stated that his wound was in the left foot. Wounded as hlie was, the brave Frenchman stationed a guard at Chester bridge to arrest stragglers. and return them to their several commands. The army appears to have been much demoralized, and extended even to those divisions that preserved some order as they fled to Chester by different routes, and arriving at different hours of the night. On the second day following the battle, an encampment of the British army was made in Delaware county, and 664 DELAWARE COUNTY. General Howe established his head-quarters in an old stone house still standing in Village Green, in Aston township. While the army lay there in cantonment, three Hessians entered the dwelling of Jonathan Martin, in Middletown township, and compelled the inmates to point out to them where articles they desired were secreted, and one of them inflicted a slight wound on the hland of one of the Martin daughters. From thence they visited the house of Mr. Cox, in Chester township, and appropriated trinkets, money, and other valuables belonging to the family. Miss Martin and Miss Cox next day called at Howe's head-quarters and personally compl)lained of these outrages. lie ordered the soldiers to form in line, when the girls pointed out the three men that had been to their houses. Various evolutions were resorted to so that the positions of the men might be changed, but at every trial the same men were indicated. They were then searched, and part of the stolen property was found upon them. A court-martial sentenced two of them to be hung, while the third man was to act as executioner, the choice to be decided by lots. This sentence was carried out fully. Two of the men were hung on an apple tree in Ashton, and when the British army moved away the bodies were left still suspended from the fatal limb. On the 23d of October, 1777, when the English fleet sailed up the river, the frigate Augusta, which subsequently was destroyed by an explosion of her magazine in the attack on Fort Mifflin, opened fire on Chester as she sailed by, several of her shot telling on the houses still standing, which marks are now shown with pride by the owners of the buildings. After the capture of Philadelphia by the British, the frigate Vulture lay off Chester, and was used as a prison ship. One day while thie American army was encamped at White Marsh, Montgomery county, Samuel Levis, of Upper Darby, an aged Qtuaker and a sterling Whig, met a party of American soldiers who were reconnoitering the English lines. The old man, who would not take an active part in the war for conscience sake, volunteered to aid them in learning the movements of the enemy. With that object he fastened his horse to a tall hickory tree which grew on the dividing line of Upper Darby and Springfield townships, and began ascending the tree. His hat was in the way as he clambered up. Tossing it to the ground, he mounted to the topmost branches, and with a telescope began to scan the country in the direction of the city. While thus employed, a scouting party of British dragoons appeared, and noticed Friend Levis perched in the tree, so intent on his observations that he was unaware of the approach of thie enemy. He was compelled to descend to become a prisoner, and he was refused permission to recover his hat. He and his horse were taken to Philadelphia, where he was thrown into jail, detained several days, and finally dichlarged, but he never succeeded in recovering possession of his horse or hat. With the evacuation of Philadelpl)hia the war cloud lifted from Delaware county, and from that time the feet of hostile armed troops have not trodden its soil. The town of Chester was the seat of justice until 1786. After the Revolutionary war had closed, strong efforts were made to remove the county buildings to a more central locality. In 1784 an act of Assembly was procured to remove the county seat to the Turk's Head, since West Chester. and buildings for that purpose were being erected under the supervision of Colonel Hannum. That act 665 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. was afterwards repealed, and a number of citizens of the borough of Chester determined to demolish the buildings in course of construction. Major Harper commanded this force, which, with a field piece, marched directly upon the oljective point. At the General Greene tavern, a few miles eastward of West Chester, they quartered for the night, determined to begin the work of demolition the following morning. Colonel Hannum was apprised of the meditated attack, and during the night made preparations. Arms and ammunition were collected, loopholes cut in the walls for musketry, and men collected in the building. In the morning Harper advanced, placed his artillery in position, and was about to open fire, when wise counsel prevailed, and hostilities were suspended. Amicable relations were established, and the cannon was repeatedly fired in honor of the peace that had been made between the rival factions. In 1786 another removal act was passed, and under - - its provisions the transfer of the seat of justice was fully consummated. In 1789 the county of Dela ware was created, and the old town of Chester be came the county seat, and remained such for sixty two years, when the old argument that its position was too far eastward was urged against it. In 1847 S the Assembly enacted a law providing for the RIDLEY PARK LAKE. removal of the seat of justice, should the people of the county at the October election, to whom the question was to be left, decide for such change. The removalists obtained a majority of seven hundred, and in 1851 the courts and county offices were removed to Media, the present seat. On Saturday, the 5th of August, 1843, a furious rain storm, followed by a tornado, visited Delaware county. The largest trees were uprooted, fences torn away, and crops levelled to the ground; rain fell in torrents for hours; the small streams in all parts of the county were immediately swollen, and in several cases horses were drowned in attempting to ford them. About six o'clock in the evening the severtal creeks rose to an unprecedented height, and the water rushed with irresistible force to the Delaware, carrying everything before it. Houses, bridges, stacks of hay, trees, carriages, carts, furniture, and everything was swept before the mighty torrent. The water rose in Chester creek, at Chester, in one hour, twenty-two feet, and the rise was much greater in the creeks farther up the stream. In Chester the damage exceeded thirty-five thousand dollars, while the loss throughout the county exceeded a quarter of a million. Nineteen persons were drowned, and travel on the railroads and highways was greatly impeded. The military history of Delaware county in the Revolutionary war has been 666 DELAWARE COUNTY. given elsewhere in this sketch. During the whiskey insurrection a company of infantry, in command of Captain William Graham, marched with the army under Governor Lee to the scene of the outbreak. In the war of 1812 the Delaware County Fencibles, eighty-seven men, commanded by Captain James Serrill, and the Mifflin Guards, Captain Samuel Anderson, volunteered forthe war, but being sent into cantonment, they with others were ordered to defend the Delaware from General Ross and Admiral Cockburn's threatened attack in the summer of 1814. During the civil war her record is most honorable. Under President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, the Union Blues, seventy.eight men,commanded by Captain Henry B. Edwards, were mustered into the 9th Pennsylvania, and were actively engaged. Company K of thile 26th Pennsylvania, Colonel W. F. Small, was recruited in the county and commanded by Captain William L. Grubb. The Delaware County Fusiliers, Captain Samuel Litzenberg, became company B of the 124th Pennsylvania Volunteers, while Gideon's Band, Captain Norris L. Yarnall, became company 1), and the Delaware County Volunteers, Captain James Barton, Jr., became company 11 of the same regiment. Slifer Phalanx, Captain Samuel A. Dyer, became company F of the First Pennsylvania Reserves, or the thirtieth of the line. In July, 1861, Captain W. L. Laws recruited a cavalry company in this county, which was mustered into service as company I, 60th Regiment Third Pennsylvania cavalry, William K. Grant being substituted as captain. Thirtytwo other men recruited by Laws were distributed in other companies in the same regiment. Besides these organizations, there were emergency companies that respon(led previous to the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg. Companies B13, C, D), E, F, and I of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania militia, were recruited in this county; as were also Company I of the Twenty-fourth, G of the Twentyeighth, A of the Thirty-seventh, A of One Hundred and Ninty-seventh Regiments. Chester Guards also responded to the call. Among the officers from the county who attained the command of regiments by promotion were Brevet Brigadier-General William Cooper Talley, Colonel Samuel A. Dyer, Colonel Charles L. Leiper, and Lieutenant-Colonel William C. Gray. In the other branch of the public service Delaware county furnished to the regular navy Admiral David D. Porter, Rear-Admiral Frederick Engle, Commander William D. Porter, and Captain Pierce Crosby. Under the provisions of the Constitution of 1873, Delaware county became a separate judicial district, and in 1874 Governor Hartranft ap)pointed Hon. John M. Broomall president judge. At the ensuing election, in November, Thomas J. Clayton, Esq., was elected to that position, and took his seat in January, 1875. We append in a concise form an account of the various townships in the county, setting forth their formation, with other local information appertaining to each. ASTON was organized into a township in 1687, and is supposed to have derived its name from the town of Aston in Berkshire. in old England. At Village Green, in this township, during the Revolution, General Howe was encamped for several d(lays, and it was there that the incident of the execution of the Hessian marauders, heretofore recorded, occurred. The manufacturing villages of Rockdale, Cooperville, Llewellyn, and Lenni, are also located in this township, and are thrifty, busy places. The West Chester and Philadelphia 667 GENERAL HISTORY. 65 having held for some time the office of the King's surveyor of the customs for the Southern Provinces, and on his occasional visits to Philadelphia manifested much interest in the political discussions of the Province, and acquired the good will of Logan, Norris, and other prominent inhabitants. He was strongly recommended for the position of Lieutenant-Governor by the Provincial Council and chief inhabitants, by their friends in London, by William Penn, Jr., Mr. Logan, and others. Keith was the first Governor who ventured to espouse the side of the popular party and to support its interests with the Proprietary and the Crown, on disputed subjects. He arrived at Philadelphia on the 31st of May, and convened an Assembly on the 19th of June. Having thoroughly studied the errors of his predecessors, he sought to benefit SIR WILLTAM KEITH. by their experience. Governor Keith displayed the policy he meant to pursue in his first address to the Assembly. The Assembly testified their satisfaction with his address, and his kind and conciliatory manners, by an immediate grant of five hundred and fifty pounds, payable from the first moneys received in the treasury, which they replenished by an additional bill of supply. In return, Keith framed an address to the Throne on the interesting subject of affirmation, which had the good fortune to please the House in all respects, save that the plural number was used instead of the singular. On the 30th day of July, 1718, William Penn died at Rushcombe, near Twyford, in Buckinghamshire, England, aged seventy-four. As the 1718. honorable Proprietary and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, his loss was a severe one to the Province. He discovered and adored the great truths, that happiness of society is the true object of civil power, and that freedom exists only "where the laws rule, and the people are parties to the laws." On these foundations, says Gordon, was his Province erected. His merit will be the more justly appreciated by adverting to the state of the American colonies planted antecedently to the year 1680. These were Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. The New England colonies sprang from the natural and selfish desires of their founders to withdraw themselves from power and oppression. Religious toleration and civil liberty were not appreciated by them as rights essential to the happiness of the human race. The rights of conscience the Puritans of those Provinces demanded, were such as protected themselves from the gibbet and lash, which they applied to force the consciences of others. Their civil rights they regarded as exclusive property, acquired by purchase, the evidence of which was in their charter. Whilst Penn was offering to the world a communion of religious and civil freedom, the saints of Massachusetts excluded from the benefits of their government all who were not members of their church, and piously flagellated or hanged those who were E HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. railroad, and the Baltimore Central railroad, traverse this township, the stations of the former being Lenni and Pennelton, and on the latter Morgan's, Knowlton, Glen Riddle, and Baltimore junction. There are a Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, and two Methodist churches, and six public schools in Aston. BETHEL, the smallest township, except Tinicum, is believed to have been organized in 1694, before which time it was a part of Concord. Its name is supposed to have been derived from the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Beth, with the termination el, signifying the "house of God." Bethel Hamlet, Dr. Smith states, is spoken of at a very early date, and it was probably built closely together by the early settlers to contribute to their safety from attacks by the Indians. The first road in the township was laid out in 1686, and was known as the Concord and Chichester road, a name it still retains. Booth's Corner, and Chelsea, thriving villages, are located within its borders, each of which contains a Methodist church. There are three school houses in the township. BIRMINGHAM was among the earliest of the townships designated by the Pro prietary government, but the precise date of its settlement cannot now be ascer tained. Mr. Lewis states that it was originally called Burmagham, and that it so appears upon a map, entitled "A map of the improved parts of Pennsyl vania," a work which was commenced by the order of William Penn, in 1681, although the date of its publication must have been several years later. This valuable relic was in the possession of Mrs. Deborah Logan, of Stenton, where Mr. Lewis saw it while writing his Si history of Chester county, in 1824. Dr. Smith lplaces the ( date of its formation into the township as probably about SV 1686, where Friends' meetings are spoken of at William GLEN OF GLENOLDEN Brainton's (Brinton's) residence, and as he migrated from InRidley Township. the vicinity of Birmingham, England, that name was given to the new township in commemoration of his early home. In 1718 a Friends meeting-house, said to have been constructed of cedar logs, was built on or near the site of the present edifice, and the old grave-yard was dedicated some eight years previously. About 1762, the present structure, one of the scenes of the duplex battle of Brandywine, was erected, and the grave-yard enclosed with a stone wall. After the battle the meeting-house was made an hospital, and during the conflict the American riflemen are said to have used the cemetery wall as a breast work, and within its enclosure a number of the killed of both armies were interred. Dark spots on the oaken floor are yet pointed out as the stains made by the blood of the wounded. In 1717, the Brandywine Baptist church, the first regularly Baptist religious congregation established 668 DELAWARE COUNTY permanently in Delaware county, was located in this township. From a remote date the Brandywine, at a point on the property of Francis Chadsley, was fordable, and was known as Chadsley's ford. In 1737 public travel had become of such consequence that John Chads (the name had then been changed) entered into a contract with the commissioners of the county to maintain a ferry boat there, and it seems to have been continued until within a short time before the outbreak of the Revolution. The old houses where Lafayette and Washington had their head-quarters are still standing near the ford. In 1789, the line dividing Delaware from Chester county was run so as to include about two-thirds of the original township within the limits of the former county. Near the site of the battle field, the village of Chad's Ford has been erected, and manufacturing interests are being rapidly developed in that vicinity. The Baltimore Central railroad traverses the township from cast to west, with stations on Brandywine Summit and Chad's Ford. The city of CHESTER has been heretofore mentioned in this sketch. It is believed to have been settled in 1645, and in the early times was a place of considerable importance. The main prominent events connected with its history have been related, and under the present head the purpose is to refer especially to its antiquities, its torpor, and its recent marvelous growth. Friends graveyard, on Edgmont avenue, above Sixth street, was laid out in 1683, and is the most ancient memorial of former times in the city. Within this ancient " God's acre," the remains of many of the most active men in the colony are interred. Among these are the bodies of David Lloyd, chief justice of the Province from 1717 to 1731; Caleb Cowpland, an associate judge of the supreme provincial court; Henry Hale Graham, who was appointed president judge of this district, but who died in January, 1790, while a delegate to the convention that framed the first constitution of the State, and before taking his seat on the bench; Davis Bevan, a gallant and brave soldier of the Revolution; John Salkeld, a noted Friends preacher, nearly a century and a half since; Dr. Preston, the founder of Preston's Retreat, in Philadelphia, and other personages of considerable local renown. The Yeates or Logan House, on Second street, near Edgmont, built by Jasper Yeates, in 1700, is the oldest structure in the city, and in former years its pictured tiled chimney-places were much admired. At the foot of Welsh street, and now the pyrotechnic works of Professor Jackson, stands the Greenbank mansion-house. This noted memorial of the past was erected in 1721, by David Lloyd, the ablest man in the colony at that time, and the date of the building, and his own and his wife's initials, are cut upon a large stone in the gable end of the house. Many years afterward the estate passed into the possession of Commodore David Porter, and here Admiral David D. Porter, and Commander William Porter, whose capture of Forts Donaldson and Henry in the late war made him famous at the cost of his own life, were born. Here, too, Admiral Farragut and other distinguished naval officers spent their boy hood years as inmates of the Porter household. In 1724 the present city hall, formerly the court house of Chester, and afterwards of Dela ware county, until the removal of the seat of justice in 1850, was built, and it is at this time one of the most substantial structures in the city. About 1735 John 669 BISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Salkeld built the house on Norris street, near the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroad, which was for many years used as the tenant house on the Kenilworth estate. In 1736 the present Friends meeting-house, below Market square, was erected. Chester contains several hostelries that exceed in age any others to be found in the State. The present City hotel, at Third and Edgmont streets, was conveyed by William Preston to Solon Hanley, in 1750, by the title of" Blue Anchor Tavern." The Washington house, opposite the city hall, was built previous to 1755, and the exact date of the erection of the Columbia hotel is not known, but before and during the Revolution it was kept by Mrs. Mary Withey, and it is said during her lifetime to have been the best kept tavern in America. The Steamboat hotel, at the foot of Market street, is one of the old landmarks. When the ill-fated British frigate Augusta passed up the river in 1777, she opened fire on the town, and a cannon ball passed through the upper story of the building. At the north-east corner of Market and Second streets stands an ancient house that in former days was known as the " Blue Ball Inn," from its peculiar sign, and is believed to have been erected about the middle of the last century. A peculiar incident connected with the structure are the holes where the scaffolding fitted into the walls while building have never been filled in, owing to the fact that in former times, when masons were not paid for their work, they refused to fill in these holes, and no others of the same trade would do it until the builders had been paid their claim. In the old house at the corner of Third and Edgmont streets, Lafayette was taken after the battle of Brandywine, and therein his wounds. were dressed. In the old mansion, built by Major Anderson, a Revolutionary officer, in 1803, at the corner of Fifth and Welsh streets, Lafayette was entertained during his visit to Chester in 1825. The service of china used on that occasion is still in the house in excellent preservation. St. PaUl's Episcopal church-yard is one of the most noted points in the ancient borough. The present edifice is comparatively a recent structure. The old building, which was opened and dedicated on St. Paul's day, July, 1702, was taken down in 1850 and the present one substituted. The church organization have still in their possession two silver chalices, one bearing the inscription, " Annae Reginae," and the other a gift from Sir Jefferis Jefferies. They were both presented in 1702. In the vestibule of the present church is inserted in the wall a memorial stone-the first known to have been used in the colony-to James Sanderland, which in early times formed the front part of the Sanderland pew, having been placed on its edge for that purpose. The slab is gray sandstone, six feet high, four wide, and about six inches in thickness. The emblems upon it are clearly cut and executed with much artistic skill. Along its border, in large capital letters, are the words: " HERE LIES INTERtD TIHE BODIE OF JAMES SANDELANDES, MERCHANT, IN UPLAND, IN PENNSYLVANIA, WHO DEPARTED THIS MORTAL LIFE APRILE 12, 1692, AGED 56 YEARS, AND HIS WIFE ANN SANDELANDES." The face of the stone is divided into two parts, the upper bearing in cypher the initials I. S. and A. S. and the arms of the Sandelandes family. Around the border, and dividing the upper from the lower half, are many emblems of mortality, the tolling bell, skull and cross bones, the empty hour glass, an upright coffin, bearing on its side the words: "Memento mori, tempus Deum," and in either corner crossed a sceptre and mattock, and a mattock and spade. An old stone, now 670 DELAWARE COUNTY for safe keeping in a closet in the Sunday-school rooms, states: "Here lyeth the body of Charles Brooks, who Dyed [no date], also Frances Brooks, who Dyed August ye 9th, 1701, aged 50. "In barbarian bondage and cruel tyranny Fourteen years together I served in slavery; After this, money brought me to my country fair, At last I was drowned in the river Delaware." In the old church-yard is a slab to the memory of Paul Jackson, A.M., who died in 1767. He was the first person who received a degree (A.M.) in the College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), and was a surgeon in the Braddock expedition. Major William Anderson also reposes in this ancient enclosure. He was a captain during the Revolutionary war, participating in many of the most important battles, and was present at the siege of Yorktown. After the formation of the Constitution he represented this district in Congress for many years. His daughter became the wife of Commodore David Porter, and mother of Admiral David D. Porter and Commander William Porter. But the most important memorial is the obelisk to John Morton, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was the first of those men to die, his death occurring in April, 1777. It is not necessary to transcribe the inscriptions, except that on the east side of the shaft, which is as follows: " In voting by States upon the question of the Independence of the American Colonies, there was a tie until the vote of Pennsylvania was given, two members from which voted in the affirmative, and two in the negative. The tie continued until the vote of the last member, John Morton, decided the promulgation of the glorious diploma of American Freedom." Unfortunately there is no contemporaneous historical account to establish these facts, and this stone, erected sixty odd years after the event, can hardly be accepted as of much authority. An interesting incident connected with " Old Chester," is that in 1739 George Whitefield preached there to about seven thousand people, and was accompanied thither from Philadelphia by almost one hundred and fifty gentlemen on horseback. Chester was for many years a place of but little importance and without any indications of future prosperity. When it was determined([ to remove the county seat, it was believed it would become of much less consequence. About 1850, several enterprising men who saw its capability as a manufacturing site, purchased large farms in the vicinity, laid out streets, solicited manufacturers to locate, offering them inducements to do so, until in 1876 it is one of the most flourishing cities of its size in the Union. Chester and South Chester borough, which are divided from each other by Lamokin run, and must within a few years be united, form busy hives of industry, are estimated to contain a population of thirteen thousand people, and have within their incorporated limits twenty-five cotton and woolen factories, six ship yards-one of them the mammoth estabhlishment of John Roach & Son, from whence was launched the City of Peking and City of Tokio, the largest steamships, with the exception of the Great Eastern, ever built in the world-one rolling mill, one planing mill, one car shop, one sugar refinery, one brass foundry, three carriage factories, one axe factory, and lesser industrial establishments. There are two National and one State bank; five 671 IIISTO R? Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. Methodist, three Presbyterian, two Baptist, two Episcopal, two Catholic, and one Friends meeting house, and a young men's Christian and several literary associations. The Chester Library company, organized in 1769, still exists, but with little, except its old age, to attract attention. It has eight hundred or a thousand volumes upon its shelves. The Pennsylvania Military academy was located in this city in 1868 by act of Assembly. The buildings, which are spacious and attractive, are located in the north ward, nearly at the edge of the city limits. Colonel Theodore Hyatt is President of the academy. It is a popular institution, and is well supplied with apparatus, and a library of fifteen CHESTER MILITARY ACADEMY. hundred volumes. Chester has been a mausoleum of newspapers; more journals have been born, died, and buried there than in any city of a like size in the State. At the present time there are five weeklies and one daily paper published in this city, and they are edited with good taste and much ability. The Delaware County Republican, founded by Y. S. Walter, in 1833, and owned and edited by him; the Delaware County Democrat, owned and edited by Colonel W. C. Talley; Delaware County Advocate, owned and edited by John Spencer; Weekly Mail, by Joseph Desilver & Company; Democratic Pilot, by William Orr; The Public Press, by Higgins & Simpson; The Delaware County Paper, edited and published by Ashmead & McFeeters, and Daily News, by William A. Todd. There are twenty-eight public schools in the city of Chester. The borough of SOUTH CHESTER was incorporated by act of Assembly in 1870, and is an active progressive borough, containing one Methodist and one Baptist church, six public schools, and a population now estimated at 672 DELAWARE COUNTY. about sixteen hundred. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore, the Reading, and the Chester Creek railroads, afford access to Chester from every section of the country, and its communication with Philadelphia is close, by reason of the constant trains going to and coming from that city. NORTH CHESTER borough was incorporated by act of Assembly, March 14, 1873. It includes within its area the villages of Powhattan, Waterville, and Shoemakerville. It has a Baptist chapel, Friends meeting, and four public schools. Chester rural and the Catholic cemeteries are located within it. In the former the Delaware county soldiers' monument-a handsome bronze figure of a soldier standing at ease-has been placed. CHICHESTER township, comprising Upper and Lower Chichester, was among the most ancient settlements in the county. The name first appeared in 1682, when the inhabitants of Marcus Hook petitioned Governor Markham to change the name to Chichester, after the ancient city in Sussex, England, and although the request was complied with, the ancient settlement is known to this day as Marcus Hook. The "old King's highway " passes through both these townships, as does also "the road from Concord to Chichester," laid out in 1686, and the road from Birmingham to Chester, laid out in 1687. In 1722 the separation of the original township into Upper and Lower Chichester had taken place, but the exact date of the establishment of the separate townships is not known. Lower Chichester contains the borough of MARCUS HOOK, which was "taken up by a company of six persons, under a patent granted by Sir Edward Andros." In 1701 it was created a borough by William Penn. The first Friends meeting was established there in 1682, and in 1685 James Brown conveyed two acres of ground to the Friends, upon which to build a meeting-house and lay out a burial place. In 1702 St. Martin's Episcopal church congregation occupied an old frame building on the site of the present edifice, when the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent over Rev. Henry Nichols as missionary. The frame building was used as a church until 1746, when the present structure was erected. The ancient borough has now and then shown a disposition to throw off the sluggishness that has retarded its progress, but it fails to effect much material growth, and the principal business is fishing, although at no distant day it must become an active thrifty community. There are three churches in the borough-a Baptist, founded in 1789; St. Martin's, in 1702; and a Methodist. The population of Marcus Hook is about one thousand. CONCORD, the largest township in the county, was organized in 1683, and received its name from the harmonious feeling that had been noticeable among the settlers there. The first road laid out in Concord was that from Birmingham to Chester, constructed in 1687. Friends meeting was established there in 1684. In 1697 John Mendenhall leased to trustees land for a meeting-house and graveyard at an annual rent of " one pepper corn yearly for ever." The meeting-house that was erected thereon stood until 1728, when a brick one took its place, which was in turn in 1788 partially destroyed by fire. St. John's Episcopal church was built originally in 1727, but the present edifice by that name was erected in 1833. In 1730 the first Roman Catholic church in the county was located at Ivy Mills, by the Jesuit society from Maryland, and for a century and a quarter religious 673 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. services were held at the residence of the Wilcox family, until the present church structure was erected. One year before this, in 1729, Thomas Wilcox purchased a tract of land and built the second paper mill in the Province of Pennsylvania, although at this time most of the business of the Messrs. Wilcox has been removed to Glen Mills. The small old, ivy-covered mills, in which the bank notes, papers for the country, including much that was used for the Continental currency, was made, is yet standing, and paper is still made there by hand. The Baltimore Central traverses the county from east to west, with stations at Ivy Mills, Woodland, and Concord. DARBY and Upper Darby, included in one township, was settled in 1682, and the name is doubtless derived from Darby, in England. In 1747 the townships were practically divided by an agreement made in town meeting, in 1786, that division was confirmed by the court, and the present line of demarcation indicated. That portion lying to the north of the line was designated as Upper Darby. Darby was one of the oldest settlements in the Province, and here, about 1695, thile Darby mills were erected. A deed in 1697 mentions "three water grist mills and fulling mills," the latter believed to have been the first erected in the State. The present borough of DARBY was one of the most ancient settlements. In 1684 Friends meetings were first held there, in 1688 a meeting-house of logs was erected, and in 1699 the present structure was built. In 1743 the Darby Library company was founded, and in 1871, the company, then one hundred and twentyeight years old, erected a commodious hall and library room. This association, after lingering along for more than a century, began to develop considerable strength, and it has now a valuable collection of books, which in all probability will constantly increase in numbers. In 1777 five thousand militia were ordered to rendezvous at Darby, and after the battle of Brandywine the American army marched through the town on its way to Philadelphia. On March 3d, 1853, the ancient settlement was incorporated, since which time it has been making steady and rapid growth. It contains a Friends meeting-house, one Methodist and two Presbyterian churches. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroad traverses the township. Upper Darby is much the larger portion of the ancient township. The principal village is Kelleysville, located on Darby creek, and was named in honor of the late Charles Kelley, to whose exertions its prosperity is mainly due. The town contains six cotton and woolen, two paper mills, and three churches. The West Chester railroad passes through the village. Clifton, which is in close proximity to Kelleysville, is also constantly increasing in importance. In Upper Darby is Clifton Hall, a private insane hospital. The Friends have a meeting-house, the Methodists have several churches, and there is also a New Jerusalem church, the only one in Delaware county. The Burd orphan asylum, also located in this township, was founded by Mrs. Eliza Howard Burd, who bequeathed in trust to the rector, warden, and vestry of St. Stephen's Church, in Philadelphia, a large estate to be applied to the establishment of an asylum for poor white female orphans, who should be baptized in the Episcopal church. The building was dedicated in 1866, and is built in the form of a Cross, in plain English Gothic architecture. EDGMONT is believed to have been organized into a township in 1687, and the name is supposed to have been given it in meiaory of the place of the same name 674 DELAWARE COUNTY. min Shropshire, England. Dr. Smith relates the following tradition respecting the laying out of the road from Chester to Edgmont: "Henry Hollingsworth, the surveyor, caused an apple tree to be planted at the end of every mile. The surveyor happened to be at variance with Richard Crosby, who then resided in Middletown township. It so happened that one of the miles ended on Richard's lands, but instead of planting an apple-tree, the surveyor took an axe and bent two saplings so as to cross each other at the spot, saying at the time, I Richard Crosby, thee crosses me, and I will cross thee.' " Some of th3se apple-trees were standing within a quarter of a century since. A curious upheaval of rocks, known as Castle rock, occurred in Edgmont, and is often visited by tourists. The township contains the villages of Howellville and Edgmont. HAVERFORD township is wholly located in what was known in early colonial days as the " Welsh Tract," and its name is derived from Haverford West, Pembrokeshire, South Wales. The first settlement was made there in 1682, by three families, and they appear to have suffered much from the Indians, who slew their hogs. In 1684 a burial-ground was located at Haverford, and in 1700, Haverford Friends meeting-house was built. The original structure, although it has been enlarged at its north end, still stands, and in that old building William Penn preached to Welsh Friends, who sat quietly listening to an address from the Proprietary, of which they did not understand a word. The timbers of which this house of worship were built are heavy, and show the marks of the saw and axe upon them to this day. A number of chestnut boards, which were the first lining of the building, are still doing service. It was in going to this meeting that Penn, overtaking a little girl, Rebecca Wood, walking in the same direction, caused her to mount behind him," and so rode away upon the bare back, and, being without shoes or stockings, her bare legs and feet hung dangling by the side of the governor's horse." The road from Haverford to Darby was laid out in 1687, and upon it are still some of the old mile-stones, bearing the Penn arms, that were brought over from England by order of the Proprietary. " Clifton Hall," a manor-house erected in the township by Henry Lewis, in 1682, was noted in early colonial times for its sumptuousness, is still standing, although modernized. It is now known as " The Grange," and owned by John Ashhurst. Cooperstown is a small and the only village in this township. Haverford College was established in 1832, by the orthodox branch of the Society of Friends. The buildings are large and commodious, and its reputation as an institution of learning is deservedly high. It possesses a well-selected library of ten thousand volumes. MARPLE became a township early in the year 1684. The derivation of this name is not known. Dr. Smith informs us that in many of the anoient records the name is spelt Marpool; but Holmes, the first surveyor-general, in his map gives it the modern spelling. About 1833 the Presbyterians erected a church in Marple village, which was the first religious body organized in the township, since which time a colored Methodist church has been built there. Several whetstone quarries are located in this township, as are also chrome mines. MIDDLETOWN, which appears on the old map mentioned by Mr. Lewis, as Middle township, and derived its name from its supposed central location, was orga675 HISTORY OF PEYNSYL VANIA. nized at an early date, but Dr. Smith has failed to find any notice of it, as such, previous to 1687. The Edgmont great road, which was formerly known as the road from Edgmont to the King's Highway in Chester, was laid out in 1687. The old Middletown church, as it is affectionately termed, the first Presbyterian church organized in Delaware county, is located in this township; the precise date of its erection is, however, not known. In 1736, Dr. Isaac Watts, the poet, presented a copy of Baxter's Directory to this church. According to the instructions of the donor, which are written on the inside of the cover, it is "intrusted to ye care of Protestant Dissenting Ministers who preaches there, and to his successors, to be used by him or them in their weekly studys, when they please, and to be secured and devoted to the use of this Congregation on ye Lord's days." This volume is yet preserved as a sacred relic. The earliest inscription in the old churchyard is dated 1724, but the most noticeable is a stone to the memory of Dr. Barnard Van Leer, a prominent man of his day, who died in 1790, aged 104 years. After he had become a centenarian, he rode thirty miles on horseback in one day, and, when 102 years old, was cruelly beaten by burglars, because of his refusal to disclose where he had secreted his money. From these injuries he never recovered. The Friends have also two meeting-houses in the township, and the Methodists a church. The Pennsylvania Training School for Feebleminded Children is located in Middletown. This institution was organized in May, 1853, and located on School lane, near Germantown. It being cramped, the Legislature authorized its removal, and the present site was purchased and building erected at a cost of $140,000. In the fall of 1859 the new institution was opened, and its importance became so manifest that liberal bequests to it by individuals, and generous appropriations by the State, were made to it. Dr. Isaac N. Kerlin is the superintendent, and as each year rolls by, its importance as a noble charity becomes more and more apparent. The county house for Delaware county is also located in Middletown. The West Chester and Philadelphia railroad and the Chester Creek railroad traverses this township. On the former are stations at Greenwood, Glen Riddle, Lenni, Baltimore Junction, Pennelton, and Darlington, while on the latter are Knowlton, Presbyterian Ford, Glen Riddle, Lenni, and Baltimore Junction. The site of Knowlton, says Dr. Smith, until " 1800 was a wilderness." Near the head gates of the mill there were formerly the marks of a grave, the occupant of which tradition named "Moggey," and from that circumstance the crossing of the creek was named Moggey's ford. As Moggey had the reputation of making her appearance occasionally, it required no little courage in the traveler in early times to cross the ford at night. Lenni, located near the centre of the township, contains a general store, school-house, and other evidences of thrift; it is the only village entirely within the township, although parts of Glen Riddle and other manufacturing places extend into its borders. NEWTOWN was organized in 1686. Its original settlers were Welsh emigrants. Dr. Smith states that it was laid out in what was called a townstead in the centre, and the first purchases of land in the "town" ship were entitled to a certain number of acres in the townstead or village, and from that fact the name of the township is probably derived. The Goshen road, which traversed the township from east to west, was laid out in 1719. When St. David's Episcopal church was 676 DELAWARE CO UNTTY. established is not definitely known, but tradition records that a log church was erected, and towards the latter part of the seventeenth century the settlers garrisoned themselves against the Indians within it. The present foundation of the brick church edifice was laid in May, 1715, and finished during that year. In the niche of the north wall of the church is this inscription: "A.D. 1717." The stone was placed there many years after the church was built, in a vacant place caused by the fall of a stone bearing a similar date. That date is an error, since documentary evidence shows conclusively that the church was finished two years prior to that, and is the oldest church edifice in Delaware county. The oldest tombstone in the yard is to Edward Hughes, the rector, who was interred on the 16th of December, 1716. On the 4th of July, 1809, the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati removed the remains of General Anthony Wayne from Presqu'Isle to this old grave-yard, and erected a plain marble shaft to his memory. Friends meeting was established in the township in 1697, and a meeting-house erected in 1710; also, in 1832, a Baptist church was built. NEWTOWN SQUARE, NEWTOWN CENTRE, originally the "townstead," and CENTRE SQUARE, are thrifty villages located on the West Chester and Philadelphia turnpike. PROVIDENCE was settled among the earliest of the tier of townships, back of and immediately along the river side. It is first mentioned in the records of the October court, 1683, when "the inhabitants of Providence make application for a highway to the town of Chester." In 1686 Upper Providence was recognized as a separate township, and in contradistinction, the lower part of the municipality was designated as Nether Providence. In the former is located the borough of MEDIA, the county seat of Delaware county, to which circumstance it owes its past and present importance. After the removal act was passed the commissioners purchased forty-eight acres of land from Sarah Briggs, at a cost of $5,760, upon which the future town was plotted. It was first proposed to designate the inchoate seat as Providence, but, although its location was a special dispensation to those persons having land to sell in the vicinity, the name of Media was adopted. It was incorporated as a borough, March 11, 1850, and, owing to the removal of all the county offices there, grew rapidly for a few years, since which time it has increased slowly, both in population and private improvements. The Delaware County Institute of Sciences, located in the borough, has a commodious hall, which was erected at a cost of $10,000. This society was organized in 1833, and has become since that time an active body, which has done and is still doing much to popularize scientific and historical knowledge among the people of the county. The library contains many costly books, together with a number of valuable MSS. and papers relating to the history of the county. The museum has a number of interesting and curious articles, and specimens illustrative of the natural sciences. In 1855 the first number of the Delaware County American was issued from the county seat, by Vernon & Cooper, since which time it has grown until it is one of the largest papers published in the State. There are one Episcopal, one Presbyterian, and a Methodist church in the borough. The population of Media in 1870 was 1,045, and the assessed value of real and personal property in 1875 was $1,114,975. The population of Upper Providence, independently of the borough of Media, in 1870, 617 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. not convinced of its infallibility. RIoger Williams, proscribed and expelled for his own opinions, was the first to teach that the civil magistrate might not interfere in religious matters, and that to punish men for opinion was persecution. New York, without a charter or an Assembly, was subject to the caprice of its governors, in civil as in ecclesiastical matters. New Jersey had a free, a liberal, but an impracticable constitution. The attempt to establish in that Province the basis of a free government, though unsuccessful, and throwing the administration into the hands of the Crown, was not useless. The people were introduced to the knowledge of sound political principles, which were never altogether abandoned. Maryland, possessing the most liberal and the best digested constitution that had emanated from a British monarch, and the most independent of the royal power, had been involved in civil war and religious persecutions during the Rei,olution, and was then reduced to order and good government, by the resumption of executive power by the Calverts. But the Roman Catholic faith of its governors and principal inhabitants rendered its policy suspected by Protestants. Cirolina was the subject of a most fanciful experiment of the renowned Locke, who framed for it an aristocratical constitution, totally inconsistent with the light of the age in which he lived; establishing an hereditary nobility, with large and unalienable landed estates, and the Church of England as the religion of the State. Penn wisely modelled the royal charter for his Province as closely as possible upon the Maryland grant; and, though at the first institution of the government, he was doubtful of the propriety of giving the Assembly the power to originate laws, experience soon taught him the wisdom of this measure. His government secured the blessings of property and personal freedom alike to Christian and to infidel; placed all persons on an equality before the laws, and admitted Christians of every denomination to a full participation of political rights. The experience of almost two hundred years, during which political science has been widely extended, has added nothing essential to human happiness which his system had not provided; unless it be found in those constitutions which make no discrimination in the religious faith of the citizens. PENN'S BOOK PLATE. HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. was 758; the number of public schools three, and the assessed value of real and personal property was, in 1875, $693,795. Nether Providence township was organized in 1686, as heretofore mentioned. A portion of Media and an addition to it, designated South Media, is located in this township. There are also Briggsville, Hinkson's Corner, Waterville, the extensive woolen mills at Wallingford, Bancroft's Bank, and the Lenni paper mills. The West Chester and Philadelphia railroad passes through both the Providence townships. RADNOR was said to have been settled by emigrants from Radnorshire, Wales, about 1683, although no documentary evidence of a prior settlement can be found by Dr. Smith before 1685. Almost the entire land included within the DELAWARE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MEDIA. boundaries of the township was patented in 1681, to Richard David or Davies, but it nowhere appears that the owner of the estate of five thousand acres ever saw his purchase. In 1688 the Welsh inhabitants of Radnor and Haverford refused to recognize the validity of the line that located them within Chester county, and in 1689 they cast their vote for members of Assembly with the county of Philadelphia, but the poll was rejected by the Governor and Council, and a new election ordered so far as related to the members for whom they had voted was concerned. In 1693 a Friends meeting-house was built in Radnor, and in 1718 the present Radnor Friends meeting-house was erected. In the grave-yard attached to the meeting-house the first body interred was that of Gwenllian, wife of Howell James, 11th mo., 31st, 1686. Villanova College, named in honor of St. Thomas of Villanova, was founded in 1846, by the Augustinian Fathers, and incorporated in 1848 by the State, with power to confer 678 DELAWARE COUNTY. degrees in the arts and sciences. It employs twelve professors, and its average attendance of students is about one hundred. The college building is capacious, and in connection with it is a hall capable of seating four hundred persons. The Methodists early made a lodgment in this township, and the congregation of that denomination in Radnor is one of the oldest in the county. The Pennsylvania railroad touches Delaware county only in this township, and the stations on that road are Villanova, Upton, Radnor (otherwise Morgan's Corner), and Wayne, where a pretty village, called Louella, has sprung up around the station. The Baptists have a church in the township, their place of worship, Radnor Hall, having been constituted in 1841. RIDLEY, which was named in honor of Ridley, who died at the stake in 1554, originally under the government of the Duke of York, embraced the neck of -_... land known as Calkoen's Hook (Tur- __ key Point), Ammaslanud, and Tinicum. --. In 1686 Calkoen's -- Hook was annexed to Darby, and in the following year Ridley township was organized. At Leiperville, Thomas Leiper, a man of position arid a brave soldier of the Revolution, constructed, in October, 1809, the second railroad ever laid in the United States, the first _ being that laid at RIDLEY PARK STATION, P., W. AND B. R. R. Beacon Hill, Boston, by Silas Whitney, in 1807. It has been said that the Leiper road was constructed in 1806, but subsequent investigation has demonstrated that date to be erroneous. The old Darby Creek ferry-house, which for many years was used as a hotel, is still standing, and on one of the mantles are the figures 1698, which is believed to be the date of the erection of the building. Leiperville, which was laid out by Thomas Leiper, and named after him, is the only village of any size in the township, although Ridley Park, Prospect Park, and Norwood are rapidly gathering together a number of ornate, and in some instances, imposing suburban dwellings. There are one Baptist, one Presbyterian, and one " Bible Christian" churches located in Ridley. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore rail road traverses this township, and has stations at Crum Lynne, Ridley Park, and 679 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL YANIA. Moore's. At Ridley the number of school-houses are five. The population in 1875 was one thousand one hundred and forty-two, and the assessed value of real and personal property in 1875 was $1,616,840. SPRINGFIELD township is believed by Dr. Smith to have been regularly organized in 1686, but two years previous to that time Robert Taylor, one of the early settlers of the county, was appointed supervisor "from Chester creek to Croome creek " early in 1684. In 1688 the Ammasland road was laid out. On the lefthand side of the road leading from Springfield meeting-house to Chester stands the house in which Benjamin West was born, on the 10th of October, 1738. In 1874 the upper part of this building was injured by fire, but the room in which West was born was untouched by the flames. The old structure has been renovated as when first constructed, and is now occupied as a residence by two of the professors of Swarthmore College. There is a tradition that a picture from the youthful pencil of West could be seen on the breast of one of the chimneys in one of the attics, but the story is as apocryphal in its character as the oft-told narrative of West drawing in ink, at seven years of age, the portrait of the child who hlie was instructed to watch in the cradle. The old Springfield meeting-house, built in 1738 and taken down in 1850, was the scene of the inquiry among the good Friends of that day, whether the society would permit Benjamin West to paint. Swarthmore College, under the management of the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends, is located in this township. It was founded in 1866, and is now in a flourishing condition. The building is spacious and imposing, and the institution has a creditable museum, the nucleus of a library, and a depository of relics connecting with and relating to George Fox and William Penn. The board of managers consists of thirty-four members, who must be members of the Society of Friends. Professor Edward IH. Magill is president of the college. Dr. Smith relates an extraordinary instance of the freaks of electricity that occurred in this township on the 3d of November, 1768. The lightning struck the house of Samuel Lewis, and, among other remarkable things, tore the lower part of the apparel entirely from off his daughter Margaret, rent her garters into a number of pieces, tore the upper leather of her shoes into fragments, and melted part of one of her silver shoe-buckles, without materially injuring the young lady. In 1810 "Indian Nelly," the last native known to have resided in Delaware county, made her home in Springfield. Wallingford, Hayville, and Beatty's Hollow, are manufacturing places of considerable importance. The West Chester and Philadelphia railroad passes through the southern section of this township, and has stations at Morton, Oakdale, and Swarthmore. The population of the township in 1870 was one thousand two hundred and sixtyseven, and the assessed value of real and personal property in 1875, $1,075,720. THORNBURY was organized as a township in 1687, and dero ed its name from Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England. When Delaware was set apart from Chester county the line of division was such that one-fourth of the old township was retained in the latter county. About forty years since the township was enlarged so as to include a portion of Aston, in which Glen mills, the establishment of Mark & James Wilcox, the manufacturers of all the paper used bythe Government in legal tender and National bank notes, is located. There are considerable settlements around the manufacturing localities of Glen mills, Cheyney's 680 DELAWARE COUNTY. shops, and Thorntonville. The Philadelphia and West Chester railroad passes through the township, with stations at the two former mentioned places. An old road in the western part of the township is laid out, and follows the course of an old Indian trail. TINICUM, the smallest municipality in the county, was made a separate township on the petition of thirty-three of the inhabitants, by order of the August court of Chester county in 1781. During the Revolutionary war, when it was thought that General Howe was menacing Philadelphia by water, a temporary fortification was located at the mouth of Darby creek, on the present island of Tinicum. In 1782 the Supreme Council confiscated a large tract of land in this township, belonging to Joseph Galloway, who had taken part with the mother CROZER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT UPLAND. country. The Lazaretto was established at Tinicum, and spacious buildings were erected to meet the requirements of a post which, when the quarantine was located, held the commercial supremacy of the nation. UPLAND was created a borough by the Court of Quarter Sessions, February 22, 1869. The borough is the site of the noted Chester mills. The greater part of the property is owned by John P. Crozer's family. It is a busy manufacturing place, neat and attractive. It contains four public schools, a Baptist church, and the Crozer Theological seminary; the seminary receiving an endowment fund of $390,000 from the Crozer family, and they are constantly aiding to its usefulness. The Pearl library, a gift of a daughter of John P. Crozer, contains between six and seven thousand volumes, many of which are rare and original, although composed almost exclusively of theological works. ELK COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to C. R. Earley, M.D., Jesse Kyler, Erasmus Morey, and Lyman Wilmarth.] ROM 1835 to 1842 applications were annually made to the Legislature for a new county, to be formed out of portions of Jefferson, M'Kean, and Clearfield; and in the spring of 1843 the bill passed creating the county of ELK, and was organized for judicial purposes the year following. The commissioners to fix the county site, and to perform other duties in the organization of the county, until the proper officers could be elected by the VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF RIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY. [From a Photograph by C. R. Slade, Ridgway.] people, were Timothy Ives, of Potter, James W. Guthrie, of Clarion, and Z. H. Eddy, of Warren. They received offers of land sufficient in quantity for all the public buildings from persons in different parts of the county. Matthew McQuoin offered one hundred acres at the forks of the road leading to Brandy Camp, four miles east of Ridgway, now known as Boot Jack, and in addition would give a year's work toward the erection of the public buildings. Reuben Winslow promised that the expense of the buildings would be provided for, if the 682 commissioners would fix upon his place at the mouth of Trout run. The citizens of Ridgway, aided by a donation from John J. Ridgway, guaranteed the expense of erecting the buildings, also giving ground, with a never-failing spring attached, which offer the commissioners accepted, and located the seat of justice at Ridgway. They laid out the site for public buildings, and entered into a contract with Edward Derby for the erection of the court-house. This action of the commissioners was, however, violently opposed, and delays were created in the erection of the county buildings. Finding their efforts unavailing, the opposition for a while ceased. The county seat having been fixed by the commissioners, the buildings completed, and the courts in regular session, it was supposed that the time for disturbing the county by its removal was past. It was doomed otherwise. At the session of the Legislature in 1848-49, A. I. Wilcox was the member in the House, and Timothy Ives in the Senate. Will. A. Stokes, a lawyer of Philadelphia, was interested in selling lands around St. Mary's to actual settlers, at a profit of some seven or eight hundred per cent., which sales would be accelerated by having the county seat at St. Mary's, where his political aspirations had led him to settle. He therefore procured the introduction, in the Legislature, of a bill to remove the county seat to St. Mary's; but the people from Ridgway and other parts of the county entered such a vigorous protest that the plan failed. The name of the county was derived from the "noble animal which, upon the arrival of the first settlers, in large droves had a wide range over this forest domain." The encroachments of civilization, and the wanton destruction of these creatures, have completely exterminated them. The first court in Elk county was held at Caledonia, December 19, 1843. The first officers of the county were James L. Gillis and Issac Horton, associate judges; W. J. B. Andrews, prothonotary; Reuben Winslow, Chauncey Brockway, and - Brooks, commissioners. The first attorneys at this court, at which little business was done, were Benjamin R. Petriken, George R. Barrett, and Lewis B. Smith. The second court was held at Ridgway, in the schelhouse, on February 19, 1844. Present-Alexander McCalmont, president judge; Isaac Horton, associate; and Eusebius Kincaid, sheriff. The resources of the county consist in the main of coal and lumber. The fourth coal basin, according to Rogers, extends through the county from the north-west to the south-east, embracing perhaps fifty thousand acres, and passing near the centre of the county. On the Little Toby creek the aggregate thickness of the veins of bituminous coal that have been discovered has been found to average twenty-eight feet, and are seven in number, and two veins of cannel coal, averaging each about three feet in thickness. There are also two beds of lime, one of eight and one of four feet. The former is of excellent strength, being of a fossiliferous character, though dark in color. There are several deposits of iron ore, containing from thirty to forty per cent. of metallic iron, being the ores of the carboniferous regions. In the western portion of the county, and also in the eastern portion, are found the fifth and third basins respectively. The veins of coal and minerals compare favorably, as reported by Professor Rogers. The developments of the coal fields of the county are as follows: the St. Mary's coal company and the Benzinger coal and iron company, in the vicinity of St. Mary's ELK COUNTY. 683 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. They are shipping coal of good quality, but, from the fact of the slight covering over the veins worked, the coal has a rusty and stained appearance. The North-western mining and exchange company own about thirty-three thousand acres of land, mostly underlaid with coal, situate in Fox and Horton townships, Elk county, and Snyder township, Jefferson county. This company include, with their former lands, also the properties of the Daguscahonda improvement company and the Shawmuk coal company. They are now operating quite largely at the old works of the Daguscahonda company, shipping their production by way of the Earley branch of the Pennsylvania and Erie coal and railway company. This latter corporation is formed by a consolidation of several railroad companies whose lines are at present built, or to be constructed. One line, leading from the Philadelphia and Erie railroad to Earley, six miles in length, also the Shawmuk branch, about seventeen miles of track, both in this county, are under its control. The lumber and tanning business forms an active industry. There are three large tanneries (one said to be the largest in the world), employing many men, and the numerous saw mills in the various parts of the county contribute greatly to the prosperity of its inhabitants. A large body of land, containing about one hundred thousand acres, lying in what is now Benzinger, Fox, Horton, and Houston townships, the latter in Clearfield county, was patented to Samuel M. Fox, and was offered for sale and settlement by his heirs. Their agent, William Kersey, opened a road from the State road (now Bellefonte and Erie turnpike) to what is called the Burned Mill, alongside of the Daguscahonda railroad, thirty-three miles in length. These lands lay in what was then Jefferson, M'Kean, and Clearfield counties, most of it in the latter, which at that time could not poll over one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy votes, and was attached to Centre county. It had but one township, called Chinklacamoose. Amos Davis was the first actual settler. He resided, prior to 1810, some two or three years, on the tract north of Earley, where the steam saw mill stands. In the spring of the above year, John Kyler, who lived in Centre county, came to see the country, and located his place at Kyler's Corners, on Little Toby creek. That year and the summer following he packed his provisions on a horse to do him while clearing some land and putting up a cabin, and the last of May or first of June, 1812, moved his family to the country. Elijah Meredith had moved in a few days previous, and Jacob Wilson, Libni Taylor, and Samuel Miller at the time Kyler came. Miller located at Earley, and the year following Jonah Griffith located on a farm where Centreville now is. Miller and Griffith both left the succeeding year. The flaming hand-bill of the land-owners, in 1811, is a curiosity. From it we learn, "Within ten miles of the tract, and immediately upon the Sinnemahoning, salt works have been erected by a company who are interested in the property, and considerable quantities of salt have been already manufactured. Iron and coal may be had in the neighborhood, adequate to the most enlarged system of operations.... It is confidently believed that, taking into consideration the situation, soil, and general advantages that belong to this tract, there seldom has existed a more favorable opportunity for industrious and enterprising men to acquire a handsome property upon more liberal terms.... The proprietors, duly estimating the advantages, both in a private and a national 684 view, from a system of education and the encouragement of moral and religious habits, have resolved upon appropriating one hundred and fifty acres of land, nearly in the centre of the tract, for the promotion of these salutary purposes. This tract will be granted to a church and school, the use of it remaining in the clergyman and preceptor who may be of competent abilities and approved of by the proprietors.... The subscribers purchased the property after a full and complete inspection of the soil and other local advantages, and a satisfactory investigation of the title. It is intended for the present to sell to actual settlers at two dollars per acre, at a credit of five years, two years without interest. A large company, who may be desirous to fix themselves permanently upon the tract, will meet with liberal encouragement from the proprietors." Settlers from the New England States and New York were informed that the most direct route to these lands was from "Chenango Point to Dr. Willard's, at Tioga, thence to Ellis's, on the State road, by the way of Crooked creek, thence through Couder's Port to the Canoe Place on the Allegheny, seventeen miles west of Couder's Port, from whence a road is opened by the Portage branch of the Sinnemahoning, about twenty-three miles in a southern direction to the tract." In the spring of 1812, quite a number of settlers, induced by the very favorable and flattering terms of Messrs. Shippen, McMurtrie & Co., land owners, located on Bennett's Branch of the Sinnemahoning, having been preceded by Dr. Daniel Rogers, the agent, in the autumn previous. The more prominent were Leonard Morey, who selected land one mile below Caledonia, on Bennett's Branch, the year following, settled in Medoc run; Captain Potter, who chose a flat opposite the mouth of the Medoc run; Elder Jonathan Nichols and Hezekiah Warner, at Caledonia. Captain Potter finding no mill in the locality, burned out one end of a hickory log and made a mortar, fastened a pestle to a spring pole, and in that manner, to use his expression, "pounded our corn and made our' Johnny cake.' " In 1813 Clearfield was divided into two townships-one Lawrence, in honor of the gallant commander of the Chesapeake, and the other Pike, after General Zebulon M. Pike, killed at York, Canada, in April, 1813. The latter township comprised all what is now Elk county. By this division the township of Chinklacamoose became extinct. During this season one of the proprietors came into the county, and made provision for cutting roads and erecting a mill. It was not, however, for two years after that the latter was built. It was the second, or old Kersey mill, now known as Conner's, superintended by William Fisher, from Centre county. Settlers from various sections began to find their way into the wilderness. Some made improvements, intending to locate, but never brought their families, or left soon after, if they did, discouraged atthe prospects of "life in the woods." Among the permanent settlers in 1817-18, were William McCauley, James Reesman, James Green, Smith Mead, and Consider Brockway. The latter was the best prepared to make improvements of any family at that time, having a large family of boys, and of some means. He settled about four miles west of Kersey run. Between the years 1818 and 1823, Conrad Moyer, Libni Taylor, John Keller, Joel and Philetus Clark, Isaac Coleman, Uriah and Jonah Rogers, Colonel Webb, Milton Johnson, Anson Vial, and Isaac Horton, ELK COUNTY. 685 IHISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. were added to the settlement, and remained permanently. The latter located on Brandy Camp branch of Little Toby, now Horton township, and the following named, Dr. William Hoyt, John J. Bundy, James R. Hancock, Chauncey Brock way, James Iddings, and Robert Thompson, remained a number of years and then left; but all have some of their descendants living here. The first settlement nearest to Ridgway was at " the forks," where the east and west branches of the Clarion river unite, and was made by a Mr. David Johnson, from Salem county, New Jersey. This was long before Ridgway had a habitation or a name, and long previous to the organization of Potter, M'Kean, and Jefferson counties for judicial purposes. It was laid down upon the maps as Coopersport, named after a well-known and large land-holder, by which name it was called until within a few years, when it was changed to Johnsonburg, in honor of its first founder. From 1825 to 1845, the plan of Fourier-that of communities with a union of labor and of capital, and working under fixed rules-was actively put into operation in this section of Pennsylvania. On the main road, from Ridgway to Smethport, are the remains of Teutonia, once a large community, but jealousies grew up, and the members dispersed among the people at large and became industrious and useful citizens. The sudden advent and exit of this community had its prototype within half a mile of Teutonia. The mouldering wood and growth of trees of half a century mark the spot where was laid out the town of Instanter. Its plot is duly recorded in M'Kean county. Mr. Cooper, a large land owner, was the instigator if not the forerunner of the settlement. As the streets were marked out the buildings went up like magic; but Madam Rumor spread a report that the land title was unsound, and on investigation such was found to be the fact. Work suddenly ceased, and the settlers left. Jacob Ridgway, of Philadelphia. was the owner of a large body of land in M'Kean county, the centre of which was about thirty miles from the York State line, also another large body of lands in Jefferson (now Elk county), the centre of which was near Montmorency, six miles north-east of Ridgway. To commence and carry out his improvements in M'Kean was not so difficult as in Jefferson. The former location was only eight miles from the established seat of justice in the county, and settlements had been pushed to within four miles of his location on that side, and within two or three miles of settlements on Potato creek. Mr. Ridgway selected high ground long since known as Bunker Hill, though it was first known as Clermontville, under which cognomen its post office was established. Mr. Ridgway here, as well as at Montmorency, selected elevated ground on which to make his improvements. That at Bunker Hill is probably three hundred feet above the waters of Potato creek, and Montmorency about four hundred and fifty feet above the Clarion at Ridgway. The superintendence of the work on Bunker Hill was confided to Paul E. Scull, and the settlement progressed rapidly under his supervision and the abundant resources of Mr. Ridgway. The latter, in turning his attention to his lands in Jefferson county, found that the selection of a location was a more difficult undertaking,from the fact of its remoteness from all human companionship. It was twenty-five miles from Bunker Hill, and twenty-three miles from Judge Bishop's, through a dense and heavy timbered wilderness. The nearest settlement 686 ELK COUNTY. on the south-east was Mr. Reesman's, a distance of sixteen miles. Mr. Ridgway secured James L. Gillis, a relative by marriage, as his agent. This was in 1821, when he entered upon the arduous task of carrying out the designs of the proprietor, and commenced what was called Montmorency. Mr. Gillis was a native of Washington county, New York. He served in a cavalry company in the war of 1812, and was at the battle of Lundy's Lane. He was taken prisoner in a scouting expedition and sent to Quebec, and finally exchanged. From the close of the war until 1821 he held various official positions in Ontario county, whither he had removed at the age of nineteen. Such, in brief, was the history of the individual who, in 1821, commenced what was called the Ridgway settlement. From 1822 to 1824, Gillis had pushed his work rapidly on, with ample means, and by his herculean efforts nearly four hundred acres were cleared, a saw and grist mill erected on Mill creek, three miles west of Montmorency, and a carding machine was also put in operation. By great watchfulness and folding the sheep at night, and warned by their watch dogs, the settlers in Kersey contrived to raise sufficient wool to clothe themselves. A carding machine might heretofore have been considered a convenience, rather than an article of necessity. It was surely not from any profit expected to be derived, that prompted Gillis to such an expense. From the fact that the grist and saw mills were placed upon Mill creek, Gillis and Ridgway expected that settlements would tend towards that quarter. The Olean road from Armstrong county to the New York State line crossed Gillis' road west from Mill creek, at right angles, some three miles west of the mill, where the land was highly favorable for cultivation. The laying out of the Olean road was a State work, and the land owners and settlers were quite enthusiastic with regard to it. It was never used except by returning lumbermen on foot from Pittsburgh to Allegheny and Cattaraugus counties, New York, for a number of years, and until the underbrush precluded all pedestrianism no teams passed over it. The failure of this road in stimulating settlement, suggested the gigantic project of that day and age, of opening the county by the construction of a turnpike, under the direction of a stock company, from Bellefonte to the New York State line, near Olean, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles-any and every mile of which was denominated a wilderness. In the winter of 1824 Mr. Gillis drew up a petition to the Legislature for a charter, his Kersey neighbors signed it, and with his sleigh and horses he crossed the Bennett's Branch near Morey's settlement, and thence to Karthaus, the first team that ever was driven through that twenty-three miles of wilderness. At Bellefonte his petition was signed by a few. He then proceeded to Harrisburg. Judge Burnside was then Senator, and General John Mitchell a member of the House-both were from Centre county. The bill granting the charter passed that winter and became a law, but gave no help. Before the next meeting of the Legislature the feasibility of making the road was more apparent, and Mr. Gillis succeeded in obtaining a subscription of twenty thousand dollars from the State to its stock. After innumerable difficulties, the road was finally completed. In the winter of 1832 and 1833, Messrs. L. Wilmarth, Arthur Hughes, and George Dickinson purchased of J. L. Gillis and Mr. Aylworth land and water power requisite for a lumbering establishment. At this period there were not exceeding seven families in Ridgway, to wit: Mr. Alyworth and Caleb Dill, on CHAPTER IV. PROPRIETARY RULE. ADMINISTRATIONS OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR KEITH, GORDON, LOGAN. THOMAS, PALMER, AND HAMILTON. 1718-1754. ECUNIARILY involved at his death, the Province was encumbered by the Proprietary's mortgage of 1708 and his contract with the Crown for the sale of the government. His will, dated 1712, was made ante cedently to, but in contemplation of, this contract. He provided for the issue of his first marriage by the devise of his English and Irish estates; which, producing fifteen hundred pounds sterling per annum, were estimated of greater value than his American possessions. From the latter he made provision for the payment of his debts, and for his widow and her children. The government of the Province and territories he devised to the Earls of Oxford, Mortimer, and Pawlet, in trust, to sell to the Queen, or any other person. His estate in the soil he devised to other trustees, in trust, to sell so much as should be necessary for the payment of his debts; to assign to his daughter Letitia, and the three children of his son William, ten thousand acres each, and to convey the remainder, at the discretion of his widow, to her children, subject to an annuity to herself of three hundred pounds sterling per annum. He appointed her sole executrix and legatee of his personal estate. Three questions arose on his devise of the government: 1, Whether it was valid against the heir-at-law, who claimed by descent? 2, Whether the object of the trust had not been already effected, by the contract of the Proprietary with the Queen? 3, Whether, by consequence, his interest was not converted into personality? In which case it passed in absolute property to the widow. From their doubts on these points, the trustees refused to act, unless under a decree of the Court of Chancery, whose interposition was also required by the commissioners of the treasury, before payment of the balance due on the purchase, to the executrix. A suit in this court was accordingly instituted, which kept the family property in a state of great uncertainty for many years; during which Mrs. Penn, as executrix and trustee, assumed the superintendence of provincial affairs. In the year 1727, the family disputes, the Proprietary's will having been established in the Exchequer, were compromised; and the crown lawyers and ministry concurring in opinion, that the Proprietary's agreement was void, from his inability to make a proper surrender of the government, it devolved, on the death of William Penn the younger, and his son Springett, to John, Thomas, and Richard Penn. The almost unbounded confidence of the Province in Keith enabled him, in 1720, to establish two measures hitherto repugnant to the Assembly, an 1720. equity court, dependent on the Governor's will, of which he was chan cellor, and a militia organized by like authority. The great influx of foreigners alarmed the Assembly, who dreaded their settleHISTOR?Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. the west side of the creek; Enos Gillis, J. W. Gallagher, H. Karns, Thomas Barber, and Joab Dobbin, on the east side. The commencement of building mills, etc., by Hughes & Dickinson, and the settlement by Colonel Wilcox this same year, tended much to encourage these denizens of forest life, and matters began to wear a more lively aspect. The Messrs. Gillis had succeeded in having several mail routes established which centered at Ridgway, as follows: from Kittanning via Brookville to Ridgway, from the south; from Bellefonte via Karthaus to Ridgway, from the east; from Ridgway to Smethport and Olean, and from Ridgway to Warren, each weekly. The year 1833 was an era in Ridgway's history marked by the commencement of the Wilcox settlement, the building of the mills, etc., alluded to. Millwrights and others advised putting the mills on the banks of the streams, but experience had demonstrated its dangers. James L. Gillis built a saw mill in 1824 at the windfall, a mile and a quarter above the present village, and the first or second ice flood gorged and carried it away, and he was opposed to further trial of that sort. Although settlement commenced at Montmorency in 1822, and at Ridgway in 1825, yet not a single death occurred during that whole period of time to 1833, eleven years. Whilst grubbing for the race one workman from Armstrong county was killed by the falling of a tree, and within the period of six months thereafter there were four deaths. There were no other deaths until about the year 1840 or'41. Whilst the surveys of the Sunbury and Erie (now the Philadelphia and Erie) railroad were in progress in 1836-37, there were no houses nor clearing between Shippen and Ridgway, and with the exception of a cabin at Johnsonburg, there were none between Ridgway and Tionesta waters. St. Mary's settlement was commenced a year previous to the organization of the county of Elk. It is now a large town, and a prominence is given to it as well as all other towns which are on the line of a railroad. Had it, however, not been for the church, headed by Father Alexander, St. Mary's settlement would have been deserted, and the clearings that were first made would have grown up to briars-the carnival ground of bears and foxes, a second edition of Instanter. Early in the summer of the year 1842, a number of Germans in the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore associated themselves to form a German settlement on the community plan, and appointed John Albert, Nicolaus Reimel, and Michael Derleth, a committee to select a suitable place for such a settlement This committee came to Elk county during the summer of the same year, and selected thirty-five thousand acres of land-the site where the borough of St. Mary's and part of the settlement now is-and made a contract with Mr. Kingsbury for the purchase of them. In October of the same year the first instalment of the intended settlement from Philadelphia came out and took up their residence at John Green's, in Kersey. A few days after the instalment from Baltimore came and joined the other party at Kersey. From Kersey these men opened a path to where the borough of St. Mary's now is, and, late as the season was, put up some log shanties along where now is St. Mary's street. Late in December of the same year, as they had built enough shanties, they took their families in, and began to cut down trees along St. Mary's road. All the work done was made in common, so also had they a common store where 688 they drew their rations. The clearing and the work in general progressed slowly. The community plan of working proved a failure, and during the first year only a few town lots were cleared, although in the spring of 1843 the number of colonists was increased by the second instalment from Philadelphia and Baltimore. In the fall of the year 1842, Father Alexander, from Baltimore, came to the colony by invitation. This gentleman, a man of great learning and experience, and a lover of rural life, became soon convinced that the community plan would not work, and that the settlement was bound to break up, and the labor and money already spent in the undertaking lost. He conceived another plan to save it, but this could only be carried out by some person of influence and VIEW OF WILCOX, ELK COUNTY. [From a Photograph by D. W. Baldwin, Ridgway.] means. He, therefore, after consultation with the colonists, went back to Baltimore, and laid his plans before Colonel Matthias Benzinger, a man known for his kindness, enterprise, and experier -e. He prevailed on Colonel Benzinger to come and look at the settlement. Late in the fall of 1843 Colonel Benzinger came to the colony, and after examination concluded to buy the lands. The Community society had their contract annulled with Mr. Kingsbury, and Colonel Benzinger then bought the colony lands, with some others adjoining, making about sixty-six thousand six hundred acres. The following year, as soon as the season was favorable, part of the lands were laid out in farms of twentyfive, fifty, and one hundred acres, as also part of the village of' St. Mary's, and ELK COUNTY. 689 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. gave each of the colonists of the Community society that remained twenty-five acres and one town lot free. Now each one was for himself, and the work and improvement went on well from that time. In the fall of 1844, George Weiss came to the colony. In the following spring he built his store-house and store on the north side of Elk creek. About the same time Colonel Benzinger engaged Ignatius Garner as agent and general director of the colony, and early in the year 1845 Mr. Garner went to Europe and came back in July with a good number of substantial settlers. From that time the colony made rapid progress; settlers came from Europe and all parts of the United States. A large threestory log building was built on the south of Elk creek, with twenty-four rooms, where the colonists found shelter until they could build houses for themselves. At the same time a neat church was built, and also the large saw-mill on Elk and Silver creeks by Father Alexander, who made his residence here, and by his good example, cheerfulness, and liberality, contributed largely to the success of the colony. RIDGWAY, the county seat of Elk county, is situate upon the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, at the junction of Elk creek with the Clarion river. It is surrounded by hills where the largest and best springs of pure cold water exist, which is conveyed to the houses in pipes, supplying every dwelling and public building in the town with the very best water known. It is one of the oldest and most flourishing towns in the county, being laid out in 1833. The town was named in honor of John Jacob Ridgway, who at the time owned a large amount of land in that locality. Among the leading business enterprises may be mentioned two large tanneries and a machine shop and foundry. It contains four churches, court house, and county buildings, and a splendid public school building in which is held a graded school. ST. MARY'S borough is situated in Benzinger township, on the line of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, and where the Centreville road crosses, leading to Williamsville. It was incorporated into a borough, March 3, 1848. The principal business enterprises are coal mining, lumbering, etc. Among the prominent buildings may be mentioned three churches-two Roman Catholic and one Presbyterian, monastery of the Benedictine society, convent of the Benedictine Sisters, also a seminary under their direction, public school and town hall. The first Roman Catholic church under the management and direction of the Benedictine society, is a handsome stone edifice. The town has also two machine shops and foundries, a tannery, and planing mill. WILCox is situated on the line of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, fourteen miles west of Ridgway. The village was named after the Hon. A. I. Wilcox, and is a flourishing town, settled by energetic and enterprising citizens. It is the location of the Wilcox tanning company, said to have the largest tannery in the world. It is expected that the Pennsylvania and Erie coal and railway company's road, soon to be built, will pass through this place, which upon completion will add greatly to the prosperity of the town and its citizens. WILLIAMSVILLE is situated in Jones township, near the M'Kean county line, and on the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike. It was the old residence of the late Hon. William P. Wilcox, and is one of the oldest post offices of the county. WILMARTIH is situated on the line of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad. 690 ELK COUNTY. nine miles west from Ridgway, and is near the old site of Johnsonburg or Coopersport. It was established and built up by Lyman Wilmarth, Esq., for whom it was named. The principal business is lumbering. ARROYO is situated in Spring Creek township, on the Clarion river, ten miles below Ridgway. It was located by Thomas Irwin, Esq., who yet resides there. The principal business engaged in is lumbering. BENEZETTE is situated in Benezette township, on the line of the Low Grade division of the Allegheny Valley railroad, sixteen miles west of Driftwood, on the Bennett's Branch of the Sinnemahoning. It was founded by Reuben Winslow, a very energetic and enterprising man, who lost his life in a collision of trains upon the Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Westport. CALEDONIA is situated in Jay township, on the Bennett's Branch of the Sinnemahoning creek, twenty miles east of Ridgway, upon the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike, and was among the earliest settled portions of the county. Among the first settlers were Zebulon and Hezekiah Warner. EARLEY is situated on the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike, and at the terminus of the Daguscahonda railroad, eight and one-half miles east of Ridgway, and one and one-half miles west of Centreville. It was laid out in 1865 by Dr. Charles R. Earley, an enterprising physician who came from Allegheny county, New York, to Elk, in 1846, after whom it is named. It is a mining town, and contains at present a depot, engine-house, tannery, stores, and a Presbyterian church, in which other denominations are allowed to worship when not in use by the society. HELLEN is situated in Horton township, on the road leading from Ridgway to Brookville, and upon Little Toby creek, one-half mile below the junction of Brandy Camp creek with Little Toby. Among the first settlers were the Clarks, Daniel Oyster, Brockways, and others. KERSEY post office is situated at the town of Centreville, Fox township, and where the road from St. Mary's to Brookville crosses the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike. It was established by settlers of the old Kersey land company, and laid out in November, 1846, by John Green. The mail in olden times was carried on horseback from Milesburg to Smethport, once a week and return, a distance of one hundred and forty-five miles, by Conrad Caseman. RAUGHT'S MILLS is situated in Millstone township, on the Clarion river, seven miles below Arroyo. Principal business engaged in is lumber. WEEDVILLE post office is at the mouth of Kersey run, on the Low Grade railroad. The first settler was John Boyd, who came there in 1816. He bought several tracts of the company's land, and built a saw-mill. In 1817, Frederick Weed and Captain Weed, the father of Judge Charles Weed, of Ridgway, purchased Boyd's improvements. On the organization of the county, in 1843, the townships then formed were Benzette, Benzinger, Fox, Gibson, Jay, Jones, Ridgway, Spring Creek, and Shippen. Gibson and Shippen were subsequently absorbed by the formation of Cameron county. Highland and Horton were formed April 8, 1850, and Millstone, March 9, 1870. VIEW OF THE CITY OF ERIE, FROM THE LAKE. If.iL,I I ERIE COUNTY. BY ISAAC MOORHEAD, ERIE. HE first occupants of the land embraced in our favored county, of whom we have any knowledge, were the Erie or Cat Indians. The Eries occupied the land on the south shore of Lake Erie, eastward to the foot of the lake. Very early in the seventeenth century, we find the Neutrie Nation and the Eries spoken of by the French priests, and we know that Jean Brebeuf and Jos Marie Chaumonot were on the south side of Lake Erie. Ketchum, in his History of Buffalo, says "from their (the Iroquois) own traditions, confirmed by the earliest records of history, their most powerful enemies and rivals were the Eries _.__ _... or the Cat Nation, living upon the south side of the lake which bears __ - - their name." The Eries were anni ------ ~hilated as a nation by the Iroquois -in 1655 or thereabouts, in a terrible - _-_ -battle of the former's own seeking, - - east of the Genesee river, while en route to fight more particularly with the Senecas. Jealous of the power of the confederacy of the Five Nations, they staked all in one desperate battle on the soil of their enemies, and lost. Tradition has it OLD BLOCK HOUSE AT ERIE. that a fragment of the tribe escaped (FromaPaintingby Dr. Thomas H. Stuart.) to the far west, and long years thereafter, according to Ketchum, ascended the Ohio, crossed the country, and attacked the Senecas. A great battle was fought near Buffalo, in which the Eries were again defeated and slain to a man, and their bodies were burned and the ashes buried in a mound, which is still visible near the old Indian Mission Church, a monument at once of the indomitable courage of the terrible Eries and their brave conquerors, the Senecas. La Salle and his party, in their journey through the region lying south of Lake Erie, in the winter of 1680, encountered the wolves in such numbers as to be in danger of being overpowered by them. The extraordinary quantity of game of all kinds upon the south shore of Lake Erie is spoken of by several of the early travelers from 1680 to 1724, and is accounted for by the fact that since the terrible war between the Eries and the Iroquois no one resided there. "It was not considered safe to even pass through the country." From "Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York," 693 ERIE COUNTY. I note the following, a portion of the deposition of Stephen Coffen, who was taken prisoner by the French and Indians of Canada, at Menis, in the year 1747: "... In September, 1752, the Depon't was in Quebec, and endeavoring to agree with some Indians to convey him to his own country, NewEngland, which the Indians acquainted the Gov't of, who immediately ordered him to Goal, where he lay three months; at the time of his releasement the French were preparing for a march to Belle Riviere or Ohio, when he offered his service, but was rejected by the Gov'r, General Le Cain; he, the said General, setting out for Montreal about the 3rd of January, 1753, to view and forward the Forces, Deponent applyed to Major Ramsey for liberty to go with the army to Ohio, who told him he would ask the Lieutenant De Ruoy, who agreed to it, upon which he was Equipped as a soldier, and sent with a Detachment of three hundred men to Montreal, under the Command of Mons. Babeer, who sett off immediately with said Command by Land and ice for Lake Erie; they in their way stopt a couple of days to refresh themselves at Cadaraghqui Fort, also at Taranto, on the North side of Lake Ontario; then at Niagara Fort 15 days; from thence set off by water, being April, and arrived at Chadakoin [now Portland, Chatauqua county, N. Y.], on Lake Erie, where they were ordered to fell Timber and prepare it for building a Fort there, according to Govr's instructions; but Monsr. Morang coming up with 500 men and 20 Indians, put a stop to the erecting of a Fort at that place, by reason of his not liking the situation, and the River of Chadakoins being too shallow to carry any craft with provisions, ettc., to Belle Riviere. The Deponent says, there arose a warm debate between Messrs. Babeer and Morang thereon, the First insisting on building a Fort there, agreeable to his Instructions, otherwise on Morang's giving him an Instrument in writing to satisfy the Gov'r in that point, which Morang did, and then ordered Monsr. Mercie, who was both Commissary and Engeneer, to go along said Lake and look for a good situation, which he found, and returned in three days, it being 15 Leagues to the S. W. of Chadakoin.; they were then all ordered to repair thither; when they arrived there were about 20 Indians fishing in the Lake, who immediately quit it on seeing the French. They fell to work and built a square fort of Chestnut Loggs, squared and lapt over each other to the height of 15 foot; it is about 120 feet square, a Log-house in each square, a Gate to the Southward and another to the N. ward; not one port-hole cut in any part of it; when finished they called it Fort la Briske Isle. The indians who came from Canada with them, returned very much out of Temper, owing, as it was said among the army, to Morang's dogged behaviour and ill usage of them, but they, the Indians, said at Oswego, it was owing to the Frenche's misleading of them, by telling them falsehoods, which they said they had now found out, and left them. As soon as the Fort was finished they marched southward, cutting a waggon Road through a fine, level country, twenty-one Miles to the River of Boeff (leaving Capt'n Depontency with a hundred Men to garrison the Fort la Briske Isle), they fell to work cutting timber boards, etc., for another Fort, while Monsr. Morang ordered Monsr. Bite with 50 Men to go to a place called by the Indians Ganagarah'hare, on the Banks of Belle Riviere, where the River O Boeff empties into it. In the meantime Morang had got 3 large Boats or Battoes made to carry down the Baggage and provisions, ettc., to said place; Monsr. Bite on 694 ERIE COUNTY. coming to said Indian place was asked what he wanted or intended; hlie upon answering, it was their Father the Govr. of Canada's intention to build a trading house for their and all their Brethren's conveniency, was told by the Indians that the Lands were theirs, and they would not have them build upon it; the said Mr. Bite returning met two Englishmen traders, with their horses and goods, whom they bound and brought prisoners to Morang, who ordered them to Canada in irons; the said Bite reported to Morang the situation was good, but the wate[r] in the River O Boeff too low at that time to carry down any Craft with provisions, ettc. A few days after, the Deponent says, that about [one] hundred Indians called by the French Loos, came to the Fort La Rivi6re O Boeff to see what the French were adoing; that Mons. Morang treated them very kindly, and then asked them to carry down some stores, ettc., to the Belle Rivi re on horseback for payment, which he immediately advanced them on their undertaking to do it; they sett off with full loads, but never delivered them to the French, which incensed them very much, being not only a loss but a great disappointment. Morang, a Man of very peevish, choleric disposition, meeting with those and other crosses, and finding the season of the year too far advanced to build the Third fort, called all his officers together, and told them that as he had engaged and firmly promised the Govr. to finish the three Forts that season, and not being able to fulfill the same, was both affraid and ashamed to return to Canada, being sensible he had now forfeited the Governour's favour for ever; wherefore, rather than live in disgrace, he begged they would take him [as he then sat in a carriage made for him, being very sick sometime] and seat him in the middle of the Fort, and then set fire to it, and let him perish in the flames; which was rejected by the officers, who, the Deponent says, had not the least regard for him, as he had behaved very ill to them all in general. The Deponent further saith that about eight days before he left the Fort La Briske Isle, Chev: Le Crake arrived express from Canada, in a birch canoe, worked by 10 men, with orders (as the deponent afterwards heard) from the Governour Le Cain to Morang to make all the preparation possible again the spring of the year, to build then two forts at Chadakoin, one of them by Lake Erie, the other at the end of the carrying place at Lake Chadakoin; which carrying place is 15 miles from one Lake to the other; the said Chevalier brought for Mons. Morang, a cross of St. Louis, which the rest of the officers would not allow him to take until the Govr. was acquainted of his conduct and behaviour; the chev: returned immediately to Canada, after which the Deponent saith when the Fort la Rivi6re O Boeff was finished [which is built of wood stockadoed triangularwise, and has two Logg Houses in the inside] Mons. Morang ordered all the party to return to Canada, for the winter season, except three hundred men, which he kept to garrison both forts and prepare materials ag'st the spring for the building other Forts; he also sent Jean Coeur, an Officer and Interpreter, to stay the winter among the Indians at Ohio, in order to prevail with them, not only to allow the building Forts on their Lands, but also persuade them if possible to join the French interest against the English. The Deponent further saith that on the 28th of October inst. he sett off for Canada under the command of Captn. Deman, who had the command of 22 Battoes with 20 men in each Battoe; the remainder being 760 men, followed in 695 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. a few days, the 30th arrived at Chadakoin where they staid four days, during which time Monsr. Peon with 200 men cut a Waggon Road over the carrying place from Lake Eric to Lake Chadakoin [Chautauqua] being 15 miles, viewed the situation, which proved to their liking, so sett off November 3d for Niagara, where we arrived the 6th; it is a very poor, rotten, old wooden Fort with 25 men in it; they talked of rebuilding it next summer. We left 50 men here to build Battoes for the Army again the spring, also a Store House for provisions, stores, ettc., and staid here two days, then sett off for Canada; all hands being fatigued with rowing all night, ordered to put ashore to breakfast within a mile of Oswego Garrison, at which time the Deponent saith, that he with a Frenchman slipt off, and got to the Fort, where they both were concealed until the Army passed; from thence he came here. The Depnt. further saith that besides the 300 men with which he went up first under the command of Mons. Babeer and the 500 men Morang brought up afterwards, there came at different times with stores, ettc., 700 more, which made in all 1,500 men; three hundred of which remained to garrison the two Forts, 50 at Niagara, the rest all returned to Canada, and talked of going up again this winter, so as to be there the beginning of April; they had two 6-pounders and 7 four-pounders which they intended to have placed in the Fort at Ganagarah'hare, which was to have been called the Govr's Fort, but as that was not built, they left the guns in the Fort La Rivi6re O Boeff, where Morang commands." The instructions to General Braddock, before setting out on his fatal expedition, were, after reducing Duquesne, to proceed by way of Forts Le Bceuf and Presqu'Isle, to Niagara. In a letter from Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey, of New York, to Secretary Robinson, dated August 7, 1755, we find that " The third method of distressing the French is by the way of Oswego. To go thither we pass, as I observed before, through the country of our friendly Indians. We pass by water, a much less expensive carriage than by land. From Oswego we may go westward by water through the Lake Ontario to Niagara. If we become masters of this pass, the French cannot go to reinforce or victual their garrisons at Presqu'Isle, Beeve river, or on the Ohio, but with great difficulty and expense, and by a tedious long passage. From the fort at Niagara there is a land carriage of about three leagues to the waters above the falls, thence we go into the Lake Erie, and so to the fort at Presqu'Isle, and if we take that, the French can carry no supplies of provisions nor send men to the head of Beeve river, or to the fort DuQuesne, on the Ohio, and of course the forts will be abandoned. The same Battoes which carry the train, provisions, ettc., for the army to Oswego may carry them to Niagara, and being transported above the falls, the same may carry them to Presqu'Isle, the fort on the south side of Lake Erie, so that it will be practicable to bring the expense of such an expedition into a moderate compass, far less than the expense of wagons, horses, etc., which are necessary in an expedition by land from Virginia to the Ohio; besides that, proceeding from Virginia to fort DuQuesne, if it be taken, is only cutting off a toe, but taking Niagara and Presqu'-Isle, you lopp off a limb from the French, and greatly disable them." The New York colonial papers contain a letter addressed to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, from which we read, " Presqu'Isle is on Lake Erie, and serves as a 696 ERIE COUNTY. depot for all the others on the Ohio; the effects are next rode to the fort on the River au Boeuf, where they are put on board pirogues to run down to... The Marquis de Vaudreuil must be informed that during the first campaigns on the Ohio, a horrible waste and disorder prevailed at the Presqu'Isle and Niagara carrying places, which cost the King immense sums. We have remedied all the abuses that have come to our knowledge by submitting those portages to competition. The first is at forty sous the piece, and the other, which is six leagues in extent, at fifty.... Hay is very abundant and good at Presqu'Isle. S'Tis to be observed that the quantity of pirogues constructed at the River au Boeuf has exhausted all the large trees in the neighborhood of that post; it is very important to send carpenters there soon to build some plank bateaux like those of the English.... M. de Vaudreuil has read in the letter of Sieur Benoist, the commandant at Presqu'Isle, the dangers the people are exposed to by this cursed traffic in brandy, which is maintained and protected, and whose source he will soon ascertain." Thus we see that the French, with the unceasing activity peculiar to their country, had, in the first half of the eighteenth century, established no less than four forts within the present bounds of Pennsylvania-two of them within the borders of what is now known as the county of Erie, and known respectively as Presqu'Isle and Rivibre au Bceuf. From a letter of William Smith, D.D., of Pennsylvania, to a friend in London, printed in that city in 1755, I quote: " The French, well apprised of this defenceless and disjointed State, and presuming on the religious Principles of our ruling People, have, the Year before last, invaded the Province, and have actually thre- Forts now erected far within the Limits of it. Justly, therefore, may we presume that, as soon as war is declared, they will take Possession of the whole, since they may really be said to have stronger Footing in it than we, having three Forts in it supported at Public Expense, and we but one Small Fort, supported only by private Gentlemen.'Tis true our Neighbors, the Virginians, have taken the Alarm, and called on our Assistance to repel the common Enemy, knowing that if the French hold Footing in Pennsylvania, their Turn must come next. In like manner, the several Governors, and ours among the rest, have received his Majesty's gracious Orders to raise Money and the armed Force of their respective Governments on such an Emergency; and had these orders been complied with last Winter, the French would neither have been able to drive the Virginians from the Fort they had begun in the back Parts of Pennsylvania, nor yet to get Possession of one-third Part of the Province, which they now have undoubtedly got thro' the Stubborness and Madness of our Assemblies." The principal employment of the Quakers of the lower counties of Pennsylvania, at this time, was getting gain, keeping themselves in the offices of trust and profit in the Province, and shutting their eyes to the condition of the defenceless people in the border counties. With great tact they had pushed the Palatines and other Germans into the country just west of their own, and still beyond them; close upon the savages, they had placed that hardy and historic race, the Scotch-Irish, whose hands were as deft in the use of fire-arms as the plough or the loom. The border line of settlements were lighted up with the burning cabins of the people, and nearly every household counted its member PREFATORY. 0 WRITE the History of an Empire State, which Pennsylvania now is, should properly be the work of a lifetime, since the startling events of three centuries crowd its pages. For a long period we have been collecting material for such an undertaking, in the hope that as the years sped on we might present our contribution to the bibliography of this great Commonwealth. Believing, however, that the present time is opportune for the publication of a faithful resume of the transactions, local and general, which have transpired in the Past, after several years of labor we have essayed to offer to the good people of our native State the result. While the volume may not be as comprehensive in its details as some may desire, yet for general and popular perusal and information, we trust it will supply a want felt everywhere, containing as it does the complete story of the Commonwealth and the County, briefly and simply rehearsed. Following in the footsteps of ACRELIUS, CAMPANIUS, THOMAS, SMITH, EBELING, PROUD, GORDON, SCOTT, DAY, BURROWES, TREGO, and SYPHER, whose volumes relating to the History of Pennsylvania are of inestimable value, and of that glittering array of local historiographers, of whom the venerable RUPP, heads the list, we have endeavored to give a fair and accurate representation of the History, the Resources, the Progress, and the Development of the Colonies on the Delaware, of the Province, and of the Commonwealth. To the many kind friends who have aided us by their pen in the preparation of this volume, we tender at this time our warm acknowledgments, and in doing so, crave their pardon in the liberty we were compelled to take in limiting their sketches. In doing so, we endeavored not to omit more important matters than those given. When it is recollected there are sixty-six counties in the State, and that an average of ten pages to each would make of themselves, a formidable volume, our friends, we trust, will fully appreciate our position when we also inform them that the MSS. in our possession would have made almost thrice the number of pages required. As it is, the Histories of the Counties have exceeded in length by two hundred pages the space originally assigned for that portion of tle work, and the volume thereby increased in size. The enterprising Publishers, in their determination to send forth a thorough, full, and complete sketch of every county, notwithstanding the additional expense, deserve the patronage of the reading public of Pennsylvania. In the matter of engravings, the great difficulty has been in several Counties to secure subjects for illustration. In a few cases, after a great deal of HISTORY OF PENNSYL INIA. ment on the frontier. Attempts to naturalize them were treated with coldness. Even the Germans, whose industry and utility were proverbial, could not remove the prevailing 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, provided they should individually obtain from a justice of the peace a certificate of the value of their property and nature of their religious faith. A bill to that effect, presented to the Governor in the bfollowing year, was forthwith returned by him 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 to the force of his reasons, and did not insist upon their bill, but it was not until some time afterwards that the privileges of subjects were granted to the Palatines. Indeed, the timidity of the Assembly induced them to check the importation of foreigners by a duty on all coming to reside in the Province. A disagreement relating to hunting-grounds, between the Southern and Pennsylvania Indians, threatened to disturb the peace of the Province. To avert this, says Proud, Keith paid a visit to the Governor of Virginia, with 1721. whom he framed a convention, confining the Indians on the north and south of the Potomac to their respective sides of that river; which the Pennsylvania and Fixe Nation Indians, at a general conference, held at Conestoga, on the 6th of July, 1721, fully ratified. This visit was made with much state. Keith was attended by a suit of seventy horsemen, many of them well armed, and was welcomed on his return, at the upper ferry on the Schuylkill, by the mayor and aldermen of Philadelphia, accompanied by two hundred of the most respectable citizens. The Governor of Maryland proposed at this time to make surveys on the Susquehanna, within the bounds claimed by Pennsylvania, and within the present county of York. Keith resolved to resist this attempt by force, and ordered out a militia company from New Castle. His Council, however, discouraged every resort to violence, even should the Marylanders employ force to effect their object. The Indians became alarmed at the proposed encroachment from Maryland, and after much hesitation, consented to convey to Keith, that he might have a better title to resist the Marylanders, a large tract of land for the use of Springett Penn, the grandson of William Penn, afterwards known by the name of Springettsbury Manor. The fears of the Province were soon after again awakened by a quarrel between two brothers named Cartlidge and an Indian near Conestoga, in which the latter was killed, with many circumstances of cruelty. The known principles of revenge professed by the Indians gave reason to apprehend severe retaliation. Policy and justice required a rigid inquiry, and the infliction of exemplary punishment on the murderers. The Assembly commanded a coroner's inquest to be holden on the body, though two months buried in the interior of the country, and the arrest of the accused. Messengers were dispatched to the Five Nations to deprecate hostilities, and, to prevent further irregularities, the prohibition of the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians was re-enacted, with additional penalties. The Indians invited Keith to meet them, with the Governors of Virginia, New York, and the NeW England Colonies, in HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. slain or carried into captivity. The Scotch-Irish appealed in vain to Philadelphia for help of men and arms, but the peaceful Assembly turned a deaf ear to the frontiers of their Province, and left the people to battle alone for their homes. They were not dismayed, for they had grown with the neglect and persecution of the government in their old home, and had still the arms of defence in their hands which they had used in the bitter wars of religious persecution beyond the sea. But Virginia had shown more care of her borders than we, and Robert Dinwiddie, the Governor of that Province, sent Major George Washington, late in 1753, with a letter to the commandant of the French forces on the Ohio, desiring to be acquainted "by whose Authority and Instructions you have lately marched from Canada with an armed Force; and invaded the King of Great Britain's Territories," and requiring his peaceable departure. Washington, when he arrived at Fort La Rivibre au Bwuf on the 11th of December, remained until the 16th, and returned to Governor Dinwiddie with the answer from Le Gaideur de St. Pierre, the commandant whose absence detained Washington, in which he said, "I shall transmit your Letter to the Marquis Duquisne. His Answer will be a Law to me; and if he shall order me to communicate it to you, Sir, you may be assured I shall not fail to dispatch it to you forthwith." And so the white lilies of France continued to wave over Presqu'Isle. The batteaux and canoes of silver birch, laden with French soldiers and their savage allies, came from and departed to Montreal with great regularity. At Presqu'Isle, after their long and wearisome voyage of six hundred miles, by water, the soldiers and the officers, many of them gray-haired veterans, decorated with numerous and brilliant orders of distinction, gathered around the elevated cross, while their self-denying priests (who were always with them) chanted praises to Him who is over all, for protection vouchsafed in the journey past, and supplicating Divine favor and assistance to them as they entered the wilderness on their march to La Belle Rivi6re. In 1759 Burinol commanded at Presqu'Isle, and had one hundred and three men, exclusive of officers, clerks, and priests. During this year the available forces were drawn from the Pennsylvania forts for the defence of Niagara, which was besieged and taken by Sir William Johnson, who promptly sent word to Presqu'Isle, and the other forts, ordering the departure of the French. In 1760, Major Rodgers, of the English army, took possession of Presqu'Isle, and in 1763 a treaty of peace was signed at Paris. In 1763 Pontiac's grand scheme of destroying all the English forts was completed, the attack to be made simultaneously upon the 4th of June. Henry L. Harvey, editor of the Erie Observer, gives the following account of the attack upon Fort Presqu'Isle: " The troops had retired to their quarters to procure their morning repast; some had already finished, and were sauntering about the fortress or the shores of the lake. All were joyous, in holiday attire, and dreaming of nought but the pleasures of the occasion. A knocking was heard at the gate, and three Indians were announced in hunting garb, desiring an interview with the commander. Their tale was soon told; they said they belonged to a hunting party who had started to Niagara with a lot of furs; that their canoes were bad, and they would prefer disposing of them here, if they could do so to advantage, and return 6198 ERIE COUNTY. rather than go further; that their party were encamped by a small stream west of the fort, about a mile, where they had landed the previous night, and where they wished the commander to go and examine their peltries, as it was difficult to bring them, and they wished to embark from where they were if they did not trade. " The commander, accompanied by a clerk, left the fort with the Indians, charging his lieutenant that none should leave the fort, and none but its inmates be admitted until his return. Well would it probably have been had this order been obeyed. After the lapse of sufficient time for the captain to have visited the encampment of the Indians and return, a party of the latter-variously estimated, but probably about one hundred and fifty-advanced toward the fort, bearing upon their backs what appeared to be large packs of furs, which they informed the lieutenant that the captain had purchased, and ordered to be deposited in the fort. The stratagem succeeded, and when the party were all within the fort, the work of an instant, threw off the packs and the short cloaks which covered their weapons-the whole being fastened by one loop and button at the neck. Resistance at this time was useless or ineffectual, and the work of death was as rapid as savage strength and weapons could make it. The shortened rifles which had been sawed off for the purpose of concealing them under their cloaks and in the packs of furs were once discharged, and of what remained the tomahawk and knife were made to do the execution. The history of savage war presents not a scene of more heartless or blood-thirsty vengeance than was exhibited on this occasion, and few its equal in horror. The few who were taken prisoners in the fort were doomed to the various tortures devised by savage ingenuity, until, save two individuals, all who awoke to celebrate that day at this fort, had passed away to the eternal world. " Of these two, one was a soldier who had gone into the woods near the fort, and on his return, observing a party of Indians dragging away some prisoners, he escaped, and immediately proceeded to Niagara. The other was a female who had taken shelter in a small building below the hill, near the mouth of the creek. Here she had remained undiscovered until near night of the fatal d(lay, when she was drawn forth, but her life, for some reason, was spared, and she was made prisoner, and ultimately ransomed and restored to civilized life. She was subsequently married and settled in Canada, where she was living since the commencement of the present century. From her statement, and thile information she obtained during her captivity, corroborated by other sources, this account of the massacre is gathered. Others have varied it so far as relates to the result, particularly Mr. Thatcher, who, in his Life of Pontiac, says:' The officer who commanded at Presqu'Isle defended himself two days, during which time the savages are said to have fired his block-house about fifty times, but the soldiers extinguished the flames as often. It was then undermined, and a train laid for an explosion, when a capitulation was proposed and agreed upon, under which a part of the garrison was carried captive to the north-west. The officer was afterward given up at Detroit.' He does not, however, give any authority for his statements, while most writers concur that all were destroyed. The number who escaped from Le Bceuf is variously estimated from three to seven. Their escape was effected through a secret or underground passage, 699 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. having its outlet in the direction of the swamp adjoining Le Boeuf lake. Tradition, however, says that of these only one survived to reach a civilized settlement." So adroitly was the whole campaign managed, that nine of the garrisons received no notice of the design in time to guard against it, and fall an easy conquest to the assailants. These were, besides the three already named, Sandusky, Washtenaw, on the Wabash river, St. Joseph's, on Lake Huron, Mackinaw, Green Bay, and Miami, on Lake Michigan. Niagara, Pittsburgh, Ligonier, and Bedford, were strongly invested, but withstood the attacks until relief arrived from the eastern settlements. The scattered settlers in their vicinity were generally murdered or forced to repair to the forts. Depredations and murders were committed as far east as Carlisle and Reading, and the whole country was generally alarmed. Colonel Bradstreet, in 1764, at the head of three thousand men, arrived at Presqu'Isle in five days from Niagara. He was on his way to Detroit. Colonel Bouquet at the same time was moving westward from Carlisle, by way of Fort Pitt, in a parallel line. Both armies were under orders from General Gage. Colonel Bouquet tells us that while he was at Fort Loudoun, dispatches came to him from Colonel Bradstreet, dated at Presqu'Isle, August 14th, announcing the completion of a treaty at that place with the Delawares and Shawanese. Bouquet knew the Indian character better than Bradstreet, comprehended at once the treacherous plans of the savages, declined to observe Bradstreet's treaty, and reported to General Gage that he should push ahead in the execution of his work. One of Bradstreet's messengers to Bouquet was killed by the Indians, between Presqu'Isle and Fort Pitt, and his head stuck upon a pole beside the path. General Gage cordially approved of Bouquet's plans, and notwithstanding the utter failure of good results from Bradstreet's operations, Bouquet conquered the Indians everywhere on his route, and far away "in the forks of the Muskingum" dictated terms of peace, received a large number of persons who had been carried into captivity from Pennsylvania and Virginia, and on his return was everywhere hailed as a deliverer by the people, and received the hearty thanks and congratulations of "the Representatives of the Freemen of the Province of Pennsylvania," and " the Honourable members of his Majesty's Council, and of the House of Burgesses for the Colony and Dominion of Virginia." The Indians everywhere sued for peace and brought in their prisoners and promised good conduct in future. Pennsylvania at first had but four miles of territory on Lake Erie, which was at the west end of the county, and adjoining the State of Ohio. There was much trouble concerning that portion of Erie county known as the triangle, until finally the claims of the Six Nations, Massachusetts, and New York, became merged in the United States. In March, 1792, Pennsylvania bought the celebrated triangle for about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, giving her near fifty miles of frontage on the lake, and more than two hundred thousand acres of additional land, which is now embraced in Erie county. In April, 1795, the legislature authorized the laying out of a town at Presqu'Isle and at Le Beuf (Erie and Waterford). The Governor appointed commis700 ERIE COUNIVTY. sioners to lay out sixteen hundred acres for town lots, and thirty-four hundred acres for out-lots at Erie, the town lots to contain about one-third of an acre. and the out-lots to contain five acres. In addition, sixty acres were reserved for the use of the United States near the entrance of the harbor, for forts, etc. Upon completion of the surveys, the Governor was authorized to offer at auction one-third of all the lots, conditioned upon the building upon the lots within two years a house with a stone or brick chimney. The Indians still being troublesome, troops were employed to protect the surveyors. Miss Sanford, in her admirable History of Erie County, says: "Thomas Rees, Esq., for more than half a century a citizen of Erie county, made a deposition in 1806 as follows: Thomas Rees, of Harbor Creek township, in Erie county, farmer, being sworn according to law, etc. I was appointed deputy surveyor of District No. 1, north and west of the rivers Ohio, Allegheny, and Connewango creek, now Erie county, in May, 1792, and opened an office in Northumberland county, which was the adjoining. The reason of this was, all accounts from the country north and west of the rivers Ohio, Allegheny, and Connewango creek, represented it as dangerous to go into that country. In the latter part of said year I received three hundred and ninety warrants, the property of the Penn Population company, for land situated in the Triangle, and entered them the same year in my book of entries. In 1793 I made an attempt to go; went to the mouth of Buffalo creek to inquire of the Indians there whether they would permit me to go into my district to make surveys. They refused, and added that if I went into the country I would be killed. At the same time I received information from different quarters which prevented me from going that year. In 1794 I went into district No. 1, now Erie county, and made surveys on the three hundred and ninety warrants mentioned above in the Triangle, except one or two for which no lands could be found. Among the surveys made on the warrants above mentioned, was that on the warrant in the name of John McCullough. Before I had completed I was frequently alarmed by hearing of the Indians killing persons on the Allegheny river, in consequence of which, as soon as the surveys were completed, I removed from the country and went to Franklin, where I was informed that there were a number of Indians belonging to the Six Nations going to Le Beuf to order the troops off that ground. I immediately returned to Le Bwuf. The Indians had left that place one day before I arrived there. I was told by Major Denny, then commanding at that place, that the Indians had brought General Chapin, the Indian agent, with them to Le Bceuf; that they were very much displeased, and told him not to build a garrison at Presqu'Isle. There were no improvements made, nor any person living on any tract of land within my district during the year 1794. "In 1795 I went into the country and took a number of men with me. We kept in a body, as there appeared to be great danger, and continued so for that season. There was no work done of any consequence, nor was any person, to my knowledge, residing on any tract within my district. In the course of the summer the commissioners came on to lay out the town of Erie, with a company of men to guard them. There were two persons killed within one mile of Presqu'Isle, and others in different parts of the country. Such were the fears that though some did occasionally venture out to view the lands, many would HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. not. We all laid under the protection of the troops. I sold, as agent of the Penn Population company, during that season, seventy-nine thousand seven hundred acres of land, of which seven thousand one hundred and fifty acres were a gratuity. The above quantity of land was applied for and sold to two hundred persons. That fall we left the country. "In the spring of 1796 a considerable number of people came out into the country, and numbers went to the farms that they had purchased from the Population company. The settlements during this year were very small." Captain Martin Strong, of Waterford, said to William Nicholson, Esq., of Erie, " I came to Presqu'Isle the last of July, 1795. A few days previous to this, a company of United States troops had commenced felling the timber on Garrison hill, for the purpose of erecting a stockade garrison; also a corps of engineers had arrived, headed by General Ellicot, escorted by a company of Pennsylvania militia commanded by Captain John Grubb, to lay out the town of Erie. We all were in some degree under martial law, the two Rutleges having been shot a few days before (as is reported) by the Indians near the site of the present railroad depot. Thomas Rees, Esq., and Colonel Seth Reed and family (the only family in the Triangle) were living in tents and booths of bark, with plenty of good refreshment for all itinerants that chose to call, many of whom were drawn here from motives of curiosity and speculation. We were then in Allegheny county. In 1795 there were but four families residing in what is now Erie county. These were the names of Reed, Talmadge, Miles, and Baird. The first mill built in the Triangle was at the mouth of Walnut creek; there were two others built about the same time in what is now Erie county; one by William Miles, on the north branch of French creek, now Union; the other by William Culbertson, at the inlet of Conneauttea lake near Edinboro." The " two Rutleges " spoken of by Captain Strong were a father and son, settlers here, who came from Cumberland county. The father was shot dead. The son was badly tomahawked, and was taken to Fort Le Boeuf, where medical aid was afforded, but died seven days thereafter. Persons in captivity at this time in Detroit said that these murders were committed by the Wyandotts and Pottawatamies, who reported at Detroit that they lay in ambush and watched the movement of the troops while building the fort at Presqu'Isle. July 25, 1796, the Harrisburg and Presqu'Isle company was formed "for the settling, improving, and populating the country near and adjoining to Lake Erie." The company consisted of Thomas Forster, John Kean, Alexander Berryhill, Samuel Laird, Richard Swan, John A. Hanna, Robert Harris, Richard D'Armond, Samuel Ainsworth, and William Kelso, and each one paid in to the company's treasury ~200 in specie, save Thomas Forster, who subscribed for three shares of ~200 each. The agents of the company attended the land sales at Carlisle upon the 3d and 4th of August, 1796, and purchased a large number of lots in Erie, Waterford, and Franklin. The prices ranged from $3 to $260 per lot; $3 was paid for lots on 8th street near Parade, and $260 for lot corner of 2d and German. Corners on Market square sold for $152, $70, and $112. The price paid for out-lots averaged $50. Robert Harris was elected treasurer, and John Kean secretary. The purchases at Carlisle amounted to ~2,583. Thomas Forster was appointed agent of the company, and repaired to Presqu'702 ERIE COUNTY. Isle, with power to build mills upon Walnut creek, etc. Thomas Duncan, of Carlisle, was called upon for legal advice; then it was deemed necessary " to have a law character engaged in Harrisburg to put the affairs of the company in a proper train," and William Wallace of Harrisburg was engaged. The existence of this company and its operations so early in our county brought us that large and sterling emigration from the county of Dauphin and vicinity. In August, 1795, Augustus Porter, Judah Colt, and Joshua Fairbanks, of Lewiston, came from the foot of the lake, in a row boat of Captain William Lee, to Presqu'Isle, and found surveyors laying out the village now called Erie, and a military company under the command of General Irvine, sent by the Governor of the State to protect the surveyors from the Indians. Colonel Seth Reed was there with his family, living in a bark house, having just arrived. They report having seen Thomas Rees at Erie, who was the agent of the Pennsylvania Population company. These facts we glean from " The Holland Purchase." In 1797 the Mr. Rees before named entertained Louis Phillipe and party for some days at Erie. They had much admiration for the beauties of Presqu'Isle bay and the lake region. Mr. Rees sent a guide with the party to Canandaigua. They visited one of the Robert Morris family of Philadelphia at Canandaigua, and went from thence to Elmira on foot, following the Indian trail for seventy miles. Mr. Tower, of that place, fitted up an ark and conveyed the party to Harrisburg. General Anthony Wayne, having broken up and defeated the Indian tribes in the West, was sent by Government to conclude a treaty with them in 1796. This he accomplished, and embarked in a schooner at Detroit for his home in Chester county. He was taken ill with his old complaint, the gout, and landed at Erie in great physical distress. Dr. John C. Wallace, an army surgeon of much skill, was absent at Pittsburgh. An express was started for him in haste, but before the arrival of Dr. Wallace, General Wayne was dead. He died in the Block-house, December 15, 1796. " Bury me at the foot of the flag-staff, boys," he ordered, and his command was obeyed. A stone, marked with his initials, was placed over his remains, and a neat railing surrounded his grave. Thirteen years later his son came and carried his remains to the family home in Chester county. The body was found in a wonderful state of preservation. March 12, 1800, the territory, as it exists to-day, was set off as Erie county, and Erie named as the place for holding courts of justice, but it was not organized judicially until April, 1803, when Judge Jesse Moore held the first court near French and Third streets. The county contains 460,800 acres. A ridge running parallel with the lake, rising gradually from its banks (which are about fifty feet in height) and extending back for ten miles, makes a summit, which divides the water courses. The 4, 6, 12, 16, and 20 mile creeks, together with Mill creek, Walnut, Elk, and Crooked creeks, flow into Lake Erie, and French and Le Bceuf creeks flow southwardly to the Allegheny. North of the ridge the land is warm and gravelly, producing wheat, rye, corn, barley, etc., in great luxuriance. Apples are abundant and of excellent quality. All the other fruits of the climate abound, and grades, particularly, are abundant and superior in quality and flavor. The original townships were sixteen in number, viz., North-east, Harbor 703 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Creek, Mill Creek, Venango, Greenfield, Union, Broken Straw, Conneauttee, Waterford, Le Boeuf, Fairview, Springfield, Conneaut, M'Kean, Elk Creek, and Beaver Dam. The names of some were subsequently changed. Beaver Dam, Broken Straw, and Conneauttee are now unknown, and to the other names mentioned are added Amity, Concord, Wayne, Girard, Washington, Greene, Franklin, and Summit. Mill Creek is divided into East and West Mill Creek. Settlers continued to arrive from New York and New England, but the greater number came over the mountains from the lower counties of Pennsylvania. The first court house was erected in 1807. This building was destroyed by fire in 1823, and with it were destroyed the valuable records and papers of the county, a sad loss for the people, and a sore annoyance to our local historians. Another building was at once erected similar to the old, and placed in the western part of the public square. In 1852 the corner-stone was laid for the present court house on West Sixth Street. THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. In June, 1812, war was declared by the United States against Great Britain, and unusual anxiety was felt at Erie, being unprotected, lying within sight of Canada, and easy of access by the lake. In this county, as in other portions of the land, there was a strong party opposed to the war, and this opposition was manifested by indifference to the preparations made, and expressions of contempt for the character of the men sent here to build and organize a fleet for the defence of the lakes. Perry was but twenty-seven years old, was a stranger from Rhode Island, and arrived in Erie the evening of the 27th March, 1813, in a sleigh, having come up on the ice from Buffalo. It was the good fortune of Perry to find a man in charge of the building of the fleet of wonderful energy and executive ability, a man thoroughly acquainted with the country and the whole chain of lakes. We allude, of course, to Captain Daniel Dobbins, who had come out to Erie from what is now known as Bradford county, in 1795. Captain Dobbins, by his determined spirit, had successfully overcome the opposition of Lieutenant Elliot, of the navy, to the building of the fleet at Erie, and having been appointed a sailing master in the navy, and empowered to commence building the fleet, he engaged the master carpenter, cut the first stick of timber with his own hands, and with all the discouragement attendant upon the drawing of workmen, supplies, and material, from the seaboard and from Pittsburgh, and the transportation of the same through the wilderness of a new country with horses and oxen, he drove the work rapidly forward. The differences existing among the people in regard to matters in dispute, concerning the battle on Lake Erie, in 1813, are many and apparently insurmountable. In printed books we have the histories of Cooper, Mackenzie, Elliot, and others, and without adopting the theory of either, we prefer to print the account furnished by a gentleman of Erie, who has had unexampled facilities for information, and writes without prejudice or favor. It is here inserted: At the time war was declared with Great Britain, in 1812, the Canadian frontier was in advance of us in commerce and agriculture. A goodly portion of our supplies of merchandise, particularly groceries, came to us from'Montreal. In regard to agriculture, the Tory emigration from the United States during the 704 ERIE COUNTY. Revolution, had done good work in this line, assisted by emigration from the old country and the Canadian French. Then their military posts were well kept up, and having something of a navy in the way of several heavily armed vessels, classed by the British Government as a " Provincial Navy," and not regular. These vessels also transported passengers and merchandise. In another point of view, they were well prepared, viz.: " They were on the best of terms with the numerous tribes of Indians, not only in Canada, but many on this side of the line, as the British government pursued a course calculated to attach the Indians to their interests. Their treaties with their red brethren were always strictly kept, and no Indian agent was allowed to defraud them; consequently, their supplies were of the best. For one hundred years they have had little or no trouble with the Indians, although the British possessions are full of them. There the trader was safe at his post in the wilderness, and the Roman Catholic priest on his mission through their midst.. On the American side of the line, say from the Black Rock, on the Niagara river, to Sault St. Mary's river, the outlet of Lake Superior, things were in a poor condition to go to war with our neighbor.... To show how deficient we were in the way of postal communication, the first news of the declaration of war along the frontier west of Black Rock, N. Y., was through Canadian dispatches to their several posts. When Mackinaw was taken, the first notice of the declaration of war was a heavy force of British and Indians landing upon the eastern and uninhabited portion of the island in the night, and capturing the post without the firing of a gun....." In July, 1812, Captain Daniel Dobbins was at Mackinaw, in command of a merchant vessel named the Salina, belonging to himself and a merchant of Erie named Rufus S. Reed, who was also on board, and was taken at the surrender of that post. His vessel and one other of the captured were made cartels to convey the prisoners and non-combatants to Cleveland, Ohio. Upon their arrival at Detroit, they were taken possession of by General Hull, and again fell into the hands of the enemy on the surrender of that post. Captain Dobbins obtained a pass, through an old friend in the British army, and accompanied Colonel Lewis Cass, who was in charge of wounded prisoners, in boats to Cleveland. He worked his way to Erie, and on arrival there, was sent with dispatches to Washington, by General Mead, who was there in command of that post, and gave the first information of the surrender of Mackinaw and Detroit, at the seat of government. A cabinet meeting was held, to whom he gave a full account of matters, including the situation of the frontier, and a most suitable point for a naval depot upon the upper lakes. He recommended Erie, which was adopted. Hle was then solicited to accept a sailing master's position in the navy, which he accepted, and was at once ordered to Erie, with instructions to immediately commence the construction of gun boats, which work he speedily began in October following. To give some idea of the difficulties encountered in this early work, I will state that there were no ship carpenters to be had, although he managed to secure one at Black Rock, whom he appointed the master carpenter, the balance being a few house carpenters and laborers; other mechanics were equally scarce. The iron had to be brought from Pittsburgh, a distance of 150 miles, over the worst of roads, and all else of a like character. 2u HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Three gunboats were nearly completed, and by orders from Commodore Chauncey, through Henry Eckford, who visited Erie on a tour of inspection during the winter, the keels laid for the two large vessels, when Commodore Perry arrived in March, 1813, preceded by Noah Brown, the master shipwright, by a few days. The task of transporting heavy cannon and other armament from Black Rock, including naval stores, on the ice, and over the worst of roads during the spring, and by way of boats as soon as the lake was clear of ice, was a work calling forth the best energies of Sailing-master Dobbins, who did the most of it. Gangs of carpenters, blacksmiths, riggers, and sail-makers, soon arrived from Philadelphia and New York, and the work went bravely on. In May the gunboats were launched, the Lawrence on or about the 25th of June, and the Niagara on the 4th of July. Such haste was manifested that the schooner Ariel was _ __-_ _ ___'VII PERRY'S FLAG SHIP " LAWRENCE," As she appeared when raised in Misery Bay, Erie Harbor, September 17, 1875. [From a Photograph by Viers & Dunlap, Erie.] built and afloat inside of two weeks. The government had also purchased some merchant vessels at Black Rock, all of which Commodore Perry managed to get to Erie, despite the vigilance of the British fleet to intercept them. On the 3d of August, the squadron being ready, moved down to the bar at the entrance of the bay. Then commenced the heavy work of getting the heavy vessels over into deep water, which was done with large scows, called camels, to lift them. By the evening of the 5th they were all over, and re-armed, the guns of the larger vessels having been removed to lighten them. The British fleet frequently showed themselves in the offing, which made the task more hazardous, fearing an attack, although prepared for such an emergency. Perry at once sailed for the Canada coast, to encounter them before they were joined by their new and large ship Detroit, then being fitted out at Malden. Not finding them, they having sailed for the head of the lake, he returned to Erie, where he was joined by Lieutenant J. D. Elliot, with a draft of officers and men from Lake Ontario. On the 12th of August Perry sailed with the squadron for 706 ERIE COUNTY. the head of the lake, in search of the enemy. On the 17th they anchored off Sandusky, and were visited by General Harrison and staff, with other officers and some Indian chiefs. On the 22d the schooner Ohio, Sailing-master Dobbins, was dispatched to Erie for additional armament and stores. On the 23d they sailed for Put-in-Bay, and subsequently reconnoitered Malden to see the condition of the enemy, and his disposition to come out and try the result of the fight. While at Sandusky, Perry received a reinforcement of one hundred men from General Harrison, to serve as marines on board the vessels. Some were lake and river men, but most of them were Kentucky militia. Much sickness prevailed in the squadron at this time, rendering this reinforcement the more valuable. The Ohio, having returned to the squadron, was again dispatched to Erie on the 6th of September, the supply of meats having become unfit for use, and sickness prevailing in consequence. Perry now rendezvoused at Put-in-Bay, with look-out vessels watching the movement of the enemy, until the morning of the 10th. The evening of the 9th September, 1812, was one of those beautiful autumnal nights peculiar to the lake region. The moon was at its full, the gentle land breeze was rippling the waters of the beautiful haven, and rustling the leaves of the surrounding forest. Occasionally was heard the hum of voices at the camp fires on shore, accompanied by the peep of the frogs in Squaw harbor, a small inlet on the west side of Put-in-Bay. Heaven appeared to smile upon those here gathered for the deadly strife of the succeeding day. The officers were sauntering around the quarter-deck, enjoying social converse, or canvassing the probable result of the coming fight, which they knew must be near at hand. In the circle on board the Lawrence, none was more jovial, none more gay, than the gifted and gallant Brooks. Ever noted for his genial spirit, fine social qualities, as well as manly beauty, he was a favorite wherever he went, and yet alas, so soon to be sacrificed upon the altar of his country I At the other end of the ship, Jack was enjoying himself, seated upon a guncarriage, hatch-combing, or upon the forecastle, cracking jokes, spinning yarns, or discussing the prospects of prize-money. Shortly the scene was changed, the announcement " eight bells," and the sharp note of the boatswain's call, " All hands stand by your hammocks," was followed by the shrill note of the fife and tattoo on shore. The "watch below " were soon quietly sleeping in their hammocks, dreaming probably of distant dear ones and quiet homes, or mayhap, the booming of cannon, slaughter, and carnage were fretting their slumbers. Alas I many now sleeping so quietly, ere the same hour of the subsequent night, would be resting with mangled bodies upon the bottom of Lake Erie, wrapped in the same hammocks they were now enjoying. As the sun rose on the beautiful morning of the 10th of September, " Sail, ho! " was shouted by the look-out at the mast head of the Lawrence. " Where away?" responded Lieutenant Forrest, the officer of the deck. 1 To the northward and westward, in the direction of Detroit river," replied the look-out. The news was immediately communicated to Perry, and all were astir on board. Soon the enemy's vessels lifted one by one above the horizon until six were counted. Immediately the signal " under weigh to get," was flying from the mainmast head of the Lawrence, and in half an hour the whole squadron was beating out of the narrow passage, GENERAL HISTORY. council at Albany, where, with great magnanimity, they pardoned the offence of the Cartlidges, and requested they might be discharged without further punishment. The address of the King merits a place here: "The great King of the Five Nations," said the reporter, "is sorry for the death of the Indian that was killed, for he was of his own flesh and blood; he believes the Governor is also sorry; but, now that it is done, there is no help for it, and he desires that Cartlidge may not be put to death, nor that he should be spared for a time and afterwards executed; one life is enough to be lost; there should not two die. The King's heart is good to the Governor, and all the English." The Governor was attended on his journey to Albany by Messrs. Hill, Norris, and Hamilton, of his Council. A part of the emigration to the colonies was composed of servants, who were of two classes. The first and larger, poor and oppressed in the land of their nativity, sometimes the victims of political changes or religious intolerance, submitted to a temporary servitude, as the price of freedom, plenty, and peace. The second, vagrants and felons, the dregs of the British populace, were cast by the mother country upon her colonies, with the most selfish disregard of the feelings she outraged. From this moral pestilence the first settler shrunk with horror. In 1682 the Pennsylvania Council proposed to prohibit the introduction of convicts, but the evil was then prospective to them only, and no law was enacted. But an act was now passed, which, though not prohibitory in terms, was such in effect. A duty of five pounds was imposed upon every convicted felon brought into the Province, and the importer was required to give surety for the good behavior of the convict for one year; and to render these provisions effectual, the owner or master was bound, under a penalty of twenty pounds, to render, on oath or affirmation, within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the vessel, an account to the collector of the names of the servants and passengers. But such account was not required when bond was given conditicned for the re-exportation of such servants within six months. In the year 1722, owing to various circumstances, but chiefly by a deficiency in the circulating medium, commercial embarrassments ensued. 1722. Governor Keith proposed to overcome this difficulty by the intro duction of paper money. The Assembly proceeded, with the utmost caution and circumspection, in this important affair, for, with full knowledge of the examples and mistakes of the other colonies, they felt it chiefly incumbent upon them to prevent the depreciation of their bills, "which nothing could so much effect as an over-quantity, defect of solid security, and of proper provisions to recall and cancel them," so in this, their first experiment of the kind, they only issued ~15,000 on such terms as appeared most likely to be effectual to keep up their credit, and gradually to reduce and sink them. For which purpose the act, among several others, was passed by the Governor on the second of March following. But from the advantage which was 1723. soon experienced by this emission, together with the insufficiency of the sum, the government was induced, in the latter end of the same year, to emit ~30,000 more on the same terms. Governor Keith, in espousing the popular cause, secured the approbation and confidence of the Assembly, but unfortunately incurred the displeasure of the HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. with the wind light at southwest. Rattlesnake island, lying immediately in front, Perry was endeavoring to weather it, and keep the weather gage. Much time was taken up in this effort, and Perry, becoming impatient, had given the order to bear up and go to the leeward, as he " was determined to fight the enemy that day," when the wind shifted suddenly to the southward and eastward, which enabled them to clear the island to windward, and secured the wind of the enemy. About this time, 10 A.M., the enemy seeing our squadron clearing the land, hove to, in line on the port tack, with their heads to the westward, the two squadrons being now about eight miles apart. The American squadron had been formed with the Niagara in the van, as it was expected the Queen Charlotte would lead the enemy. It was now discovered the enemy's line had been formed differently from what had been expected. Perry now ordered the Niagara to heave to until the Lawrence came up with her, when Perry held a conversation with Captain Brevoort, the acting marine officer of the Niagara, who was well acquainted with all the vessels of the enemy, except the Detroit, and gave the names and force of each vessel. The line of the enemy had formed as follows, viz.: schooner Chippewa in the lead; next barque Detroit, then brig Queen Charlotte, brig Hunter, schooner Lady Prevost, and sloop Little Belt, in the order named. Perry now changed his line, which was the work of only a few moments, and arranged it as follows: Lawrence to lead in line with the Detroit, with the Scorpion and Ariel on her weather or port-bow-they being good sailors-to act as dispatch vessels, and to support any portion of the line, should it be required; the Caledonia next, to meet the Hunter, the Niagara to meet the Queen Charlotte; the smaller vessels, viz., Somers, Porcupine, Tigress, and Trippe, in line as named, to engage as they came up, without naming their particular opponents. There was a three-knot breeze at this time, 10:30 A.M., and the line being formed, they all bore away for the enemy in gallant style. Perry now brought forth his " Battle Burgee" or fighting flag, previously named, and having mustered the crew aft, unfolded it, and mounting a gun slide, addressed them: "My brave lads, the inscription on this flag is the last words of the late gallant Captain Lawrence, after whom this vessel is named; shall I hoist it?" "Aye, aye, sir," was the unanimous response, when away it sped to the mainroyal mast-head of the Lawrence; and when the roll was broken, and the folds given to the breeze, three hearty cheers went up for the flag, and three more for their gallant commander, the spirit of which was taken up by the crews of the different vessels, as the flag was descried, and one continuous cheer along the line was the response to the motto, " Don't give up the ship." As the ordinary dinner hour would find them in the midst of deadly strife, Perry ordered the noon-day grog to be served, when the bread bags and kids were produced for a lunch. Perry now visited every portion of his vessel's deck, and examined each gun and fixture. For every man he had a pleasant and encouraging word, the Constitutions, the Newport boys, and the hunting-shirted Kentuckians, each were kindly and encouragingly greeted. For a time a death-like silence prevailed, and the men appeared to be deeply absorbed in thought. The lake was smooth, and the gentle breeze wafted the 708 ERIE COUNTY. vessels along without apparent motion. This lasted for an hour and a half, as our squadron gradually approached the enemy, steering for the head of their line on a course forming an acute angle of fifteen degrees. All necessary arrangements had been made for the coming strife; the decks had been sprinkled and sanded, to give a good foot-hold when blood began to flow; and this season of stillness was occupied mostly in arranging and the interchanging of friendship's offerings in case of death, disposing of their effects among their friends, distant and present, and such like kindly offices for the survivors to execute. As our vessels moved along and neared the enemy, all eyes were upon them. The British vessels at this time presented a fine appearance. Their line was compact, hove to with their heads to the westward. They had all been newly painted, their sails were new, and their bright red ensigns were tending to the breeze-all looking splendidly in the bright September sun. Their appearance and movements showed that a seaman and master spirit held them in hand. At half-past eleven, A.M., the wind had become very light, though all our leading vessels were all up in their stations, viz., within a half cable's length of each other, but the gunboats were somewhat distant and scattered. The Trippe, the last of the line, was nearly two miles astern. At this moment the mellow sound of a bugle was heard from the Detroit, the signal for cheers along their line, and which was followed with "Rule Britannia" by their band. Directly a shot from one of the Detroit's long guns was thrown at the Lawrence, but fell short, the distance being about a mile and a half. Thus the long silence was ended. A few minutes later a second shot from the Detroit, which took effect upon the Lawrence, and then a fire was opened with all the long heavy guns in their squadron upon the Lawrence; they being in compact order, were within range of that vessel and the two schooners. Perry now ordered Lieutenant Yarnall to hail the Scorpion and order her to commence fire with her heavy gun, which was instantly complied with, and was soon followed by a shot from the Ariel. Finding these shots took effect, the Lawrence opened with her chase-gun forward, which was followed up by a discharge from the Caledonia. The long guns of the enemy began to tell heavily upon the Lawrence, when Perry brought her by the wind, and tried a broadside with the carronades. It was at once discovered they fell short. At this moment Elliot ordered the Caledonia to bear up and make room for the Niagara to pass to the assistance of the Lawrence. Perry now bore up and ran down within half musket shot, when the Lawrence was brought by the wind on the port tack, with her main-topsail aback, taking her position abreast of the Hunter, and equal distance between the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte. The Caledonia having followed the Lawrence, was closely engaged with the Lady Prevost, with the Scorpion and the Ariel on the weather bow of the Lawrence, using their heavy guns to good advantage. The Niagara, however, instead of following the Lawrence into close action, kept her wind, with her main-topsail aback, using her two long twelves, being completely out of range with the carronades, her broadside battery; consequently the battle for a time was mostly the Lawrence, Caledonia, Scorpion, and Ariel fighting the whole British squadron, assisted only by the two twelves of the Niagara, and the distant random shots from the headmost gunboats. 709 710 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. At this juncture, the Queen Charlotte, finding her carronades would not reach the Niagara, ordered the Hunter to make room for her to pass and close with the Detroit, from which position she could use her short guns to advantage upon the Lawrence, which vessel was within range. In this situation the Lawrence sustained the fire of these three vessels, as also most of that from the others, for over two hours, and until every gun was dismounted, two-thirds of her crew either killed or wounded, and so badly cut up aloft as to be unmanageable. The gallant Perry, finding he could do nothing more with the Lawrence, ordered the only boat left alongside, and leaving Lieutenant Yarnall in command to surrender her to the enemy if necessary, took his " Fighting Burgee" under his arm, and pulled for the Niagara, then passing her weather beam, to gain the head of the enemy's line. In the meantime the enemy, seeing they had rendered the Lawrence hors de combat, and in the act of striking her colors, filled away with their heads to the westward, cheering along their line, and feeling certain the day would be theirs, the while temporarily repairing damages, evidently with the design of getting their vessels on the other tack, and gaining the weather gage, or if not that, to wear and bring their starboard broadsides, which was comparatively fresh, to bear upon our vessels. Perry, on reaching the Niagara, was met at the gangway by Elliot. He was somewhat despondent and out of humor at the gunboats not getting up in time. Elliot spoke encouragingly, and anticipating Perry's wish, offered to take the boat, pull astern, and bring the gunboats up into close action, which proposition was thankfully accepted by Perry, when Elliot started immediately on his mission. A breeze at this time, half-past two, springing up, both squadrons gradually drew ahead, the Lawrence dropping astern and out of the line. By apparent consent of both parties, for a few moments, there was a general cessation of firing; and as it would appear, both preparing for the desperate and final struggle. Under the freshening breeze the Niagara had obtained a commanding position abreast of the Detroit, the Queen Charlotte following immediately in the wake of the latter vessel. In the meantime the gunboats, by using every exertion, were getting up within good range with their heavy guns, using round shot, grape, and canister upon the enemy's two heavy vessels, having been ordered by Elliot to cease firing upon the smaller ones, and taking command of the Somers, the headmost one, himself. At forty-five minutes past two, the gunboats having got well up, the Caledonia in a good position on the Niagara's lee quarter, and all ready for the final effort, Perry showed the signal for "close action" from the Niagara; then, under fore-and-aft mainsail, fore-and-main topsails, top-gallant sails, foresail, and jib, bore up for the enemy's line under the freshening breeze, reserving his fire until close aboard, wore round just before reaching the Detroit, which vessel bore up rapidly to prevent being raked. The enemy, in the meantime, having discovered the intention of Perry to break through their line, the Queen Charlotte bore up to pass the Detroit to leeward, and meet the Niagara broadside on, the Detroit to bearup and follow. However, the Queen Charlotte had not taken room enough, and lay becalmed ERIE COUNTY. under the lee of the Detroit, which vessel in paying off fell foul of the Queen Charlotte. While they were in this predicament, the Niagara came dashing down, pouring her starboard broadside into these two entangled vessels, within half pistol shot, and her port broadside into the Lady Prevost, which vessel had got to the head and leeward of their line, and the Chippewa; then rounding to on the starboard tack under their lee, with her main-topsail to the mast, kept throwing her broadsides into them. In the meantime, the gunboats and Caledonia were raking them with their heavy guns. So fierce was this contest, and the destruction so great on board these two vessels particularly, that in fifteen minutes after the Niagara bore up, an officer appeared on the taffrail of the Queen Charlotte with a white handkerchief fastened to a boarding pike, and waved it as a symbol of submission. They had struck. The Detroit followed-the hail was passed from vessel to vessel, and the firing ceased. Two of their smaller vessels, the Little Belt and Chippewa, attempted to escape, but were promptly pursued and brought to by the Scorpion and Trippe. As soon as the smoke cleared away, the two squadrons were found to be intermingled to some extent. The Niagara lay close under the lee of the Detroit, Queen Charlotte, and Hunter; the Caledonia, Trippe, and Scorpion, near the Niagara-having followed that vessel through the enemy's line-with the Lady Prevost and Chippewa at a little distance to the westward and leeward, and the Somers, Porcupine, and Tigress abreast of the Hunter. The shattered and disabled Lawrence was some distance to the eastward, drifting like an abandoned hulk with the wind. At this juncture the gallant Perry wrote his laconic notes, so renowned in history, to General Harrison and Hon. William Jones, Secretary of the Navy, dated on board the Niagara, at four P.M., and dispatched a schooner with them to the mouth of Portage river, distant ten or twelve miles. And now was to be performed the proud but melancholy duty of taking possession of the captured vessels. On board the Detroit, Commodore Barclay was found to be severely wounded, and her First Lieutenant Garland, mortally, as also Purser Hoffmeister, severely. On board the Queen Charlotte, Captain Finnis, the commander, and Lieutenant Gordon of the marines, were killed, with First Lieutenant Stokes and Midshipman Foster, wounded. On board the Lady Prevost, Lieutenants Buchan and Roulette; and on the Hunter, Lieutenant Commandant Brignall and Master's Mate Gateshill were wounded. On the Chippewa, Master's Mate Campbell, commanding, was wounded. The Little Belt had little or no casualties. The Detroit and Queen Charlotte were much shattered in their hulls, as also badly cut up aloft, and the Lady Prevost had her rudder shot away. The list of killed and wounded on board of each vessel was never given to the public, only in sum total, viz.: forty-one killed and ninety-four wounded, as per Commodore Barclay's report to Sir James Yeo. In our own fleet, on board the Lawrence, twenty-two were killed and sixtyone wounded. John Brooks, lieutenant marines, Henry Laub, midshipman, Christian Mayhew, quartermaster, were among the killed; and John J. Yarnall, first lieutenant, Dulaney Forrest, second lieutenant, William N. Tayler, sailing master, Samuel Hamilton, purser, Thomas Claxton and Augustus 711 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Swartwout, midshipman, etc., etc., were among the wounded. On board the Niagara, two were killed, and twenty-five wounded. Among the latter were Lieutenant Edwards, Acting-master Webster, Midshipman Cummings. On the Caledonia three wounded. On the Somers two wounded. The Ariel had one killed, three wounded. The Trippe had one wounded, and on the Somers, Midshipman John Clark was killed, as also one landsman. The vessels were all anchored and made as secure as circumstances would permit; the wounded of both squadrons cared for to the extent of the surgical force, and temporary repairs made upon such of the vessels as were necessary upon emergency. "The battle o'er, the victory won," Perry returned to the Lawrence. In the words of Dr. Parsons, the surgeon of the Lawrence, "it was a time of conflicting emotions when the commander returned to the ship. The battle was won and he was safe..... Those of us who were spared approached him as he came over the ship's side, but the salutation was a silent one-not a word could find utterance." During the day Perry had worn a round jacket; he now resumed his undress uniform to receive the officers of the captured vessels, in tendering their swords. Lieutenant O'Keefe, of the Forty-first Regiment, was charged by Commodore Barclay with the delivery of his sword. It was said that the lieutenant was in full dress, and made a fine appearance on coming aboard the Lawrence. The officers picked their way among the wreck and carnage of the deck, and on approach, presented their swords to Perry, who, in a bland and low tone, requested them " to retain their side arms." Perry then inquired with deep concern in regard to the condition of Comodore Barclay and the wounded officers, and offered every assistance within his reach. In the course of the evening, Perry visited Barclay on board the Detroit, and tendered him every sympathy, promised to assist in procuring an early parole, as Barclay was anxious to return to England as soon as possible on account of his health. It being deemed inadvisable to try and save the killed, more particularly those on board the Lawrence, for burial on shore at nightfall, they were all lashed up in their hammocks, with a thirty-two pound shot for a companion, and committed to the waters alongside, the Episcopal burial service being read over by the chaplain, Thomas Breeze. "Thus they sank without a moan, Unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown." On board the British vessels the dead had been disposed of, tney naving been thrown overboard as they fell and died. At 9 A.M. on the morning of the 11th, the combined squadrons having made temporary repairs, weighed anchor and stood into Put-in-Bay, where they were all anchored again. After safely mooring the vessels, preparations were made for the interment of the officers who had fallen in battle. The morning of the 12th was clear and calm. All arrangements being complete, at 10 A.M., the colors of both nations being at half-mast, the bodies were lowered into boats, and then with measured stroke and funeral dirge, moved in line to the shore, the while minute-guns being fired from the shipping. On landing, a procession was formed in reversed order, the corpse of the youngest and lowest in rank first, 712 ERIE OU.NTY. and so on, alternately American and British, the body of Captain Finnis coming last. As soon as the several corpses were taken up by the bearers and moved on, the officers fell in line, two Americans and two British, and marched to the solemn music of the bands of both squadrons. On reaching the spot where the graves were prepared, they were lowered into the earth in the order in which they had been borne, and the beautiful and solemn burial service of the Episcopal church gone through with by the chaplains of the respective squadrons. " Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," the volleys of musketry followed, and all was over. The Ohio was at anchor in the roadstead at Erie, taking in additional armament and stores on the day of the battle, and Sailing-master Dobbins distinctly heard the cannonading, wind light at south-west. On the 13th she returned to Sandusky, and found the squadron absent. Mr. Dobbins felt certain a battle had taken place, and of course was anxious to know the result, as also how to shape his future course. Soon a couple of boats were discovered in shore of him, and chase was made for them. He succeeded in cutting one off, which proved to be American, and from the men on board learned that there had been a battle, but no details other than that the Americans were supposed to be victorious, as all the vessels had been taken into Put-in-Bay. Mr. Dobbins immediately bore up for that place, where he found the squadron at anchor with their prizes. The arrival of the Ohio with fresh supplies was a godsend to the sick and wounded, which was followed by the arrival of a boat from Cleveland and another from Sandusky with vegetables, adding much to the comfort of the afflicted, as also the able-bodied. In noting the incidents of the battle, I will be as laconic as a statement of facts, fully corroborated by impartial testimony and the circumstances, will permit. Shortly after the victory a spirit of crimination and recrimination sprung up, which culminated in a most bitter feud between Perry and Elliot and their adherents, and which probably would have resulted in a duel between those gentlemen had not Perry been ordered to sea, in command of a special expedition to Venezuela, composed of the sloop-of-war John Adams and schooner Nonesuch. Perry died during the cruise of yellow fever. To begin. In the first place, the line with the Niagara in the van was changed for manifest reason, as before stated. Much stress has been placed on this by some of the friends of Elliot, without cause, as I believe, the vessels being a long distance from the enemy at the time. When the Lawrence was first brought by the wind to try the carronades, the shot of which were found to fall short, the Niagara was in her allotted position, and when the order was given "Engage as you come up, each vessel against her opponent," the Niagara did not follow the Lawrence when that vessel bore up to further close with the enemy, though Elliot had ordered the Caledonia out of her place to make room for the Niagara to close up with the Lawrence within the prescribed distance, " halfcable's length," but kept her wind, using the two long 12-pounders to advantage, having shifted the port gun over to the starboard side. I would ask, was this not breaking the lines? The Lawrence was the commanding and leading ship, and it was the duty of 713 HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. the Niagara to follow her and engage the Queen Charlotte, her opponent. The excuse " that there was little or no wind " is not admissable. If there was wind enough for the Lawrence to close, there was certainly enough for the Niagara to follow. The Caledonia, on the other hand, when ordered to bear up for the Niagara to pass, kept on down, in company with the Lawrence, and engaged at close quarters. The Scorpion and Ariel also bore up with the Lawrence, and kept their places on the weather-bow of that vessel. Circumstances show that the Niagara must have kept this long-shot position for nearly or quite two hours. The Lawrence was closely engaged for over two hours with her main-topsail aback, as were also the three heavy vessels of the enemy she was engaged with. The last hour she must have been so cut up aloft as to be unmanageable, consequently she must have remained in nearly the same position. When Perry left the Lawrence for the Niagara, the latter vessel was but just passing the Lawrence's beam to windward, the distance being variously estimated at from thirty yards to a quarter and a half mile; the Niagara having but a short time before filled away in order to reach the head of the enemy's line, they having filled away and were standing to the westward on a wind. Elliot said, in consultation with Purser Magrath, that he suspected the contemllated manoeuvre of the enemy was " to stand to the westward for room enough to get their vessels on the starboard tack, thereby securing the weather gage," and therefore filled away so that he could keep company with them and prevent it. At the same time he concluded that the senior officer (Perry) was killed, as the Lawrence was silenced, and no signal was made from her. This, as to time. I will now show as to position. The Queen Charlotte retained her allotted position abreast of the Niagara for some time, and until Finnis found that vessel was not disposed to place herself within reach of his 24-pound carronades, and being unable to close with her, as she was to windward, ordered the Hunter to make room for the Queen Charlotte to pass up to the Detroit, and open his battery upon the Lawrence. The range of 24 and 32 pound carronades is the same, the only difference being the weight of metal thrown. Consequently, if the Queen Charlotte's shot would not reach the Niagara, those of the Niagara would not reach the Queen Charlotte. However, in the meantime, Elliot was using his long 12's briskly, as he got out of shot and sent Purser Magrath, with a boat, down to the Lawrence for an additional supply. Elliot might have excused himself for not immediately closing with the enemy, by claiming that Perry was impetuous in rushing into close action with only a portion of his force available. In fact, it was claimed by several skillful nautical warriors that "no commander ever went into battle in a worse shape, and came out of it better." It was the opinion of such that Perry should have held off at long-shot until his vessels were all up, and then in a compact line hAve borne up and engaged at close quarters-that he should, in some measure, have imitated his adversary, whose experience was with squadron as well as single ship engagements. As some backing to this opinion, Perry had twelve long guns on board the leading vessels, with which to battle with the enemy until the gunboats could get up. In the meantime the gunboats could be using their long 32, 24, and 18 guns as they approached within range. But Perry, like all young warriors of the 714 ERIE COUNTY. right metal, became impatient when the shot of the enemy began to tell upon his ship. However such excuse does not exculpate Elliot from remaining aloof, and allowing the Lawrence to be cut to pieces by an overwhelming force without bearing down to her assistance. The gunboats lagging astern may be deemed by some as dilatory. It is well known to all nautical men, that fore-and-afters have not the advantage of square rigged vessels in light winds, as the latter have their heavy sails aloft, and, besides, have more light canvas. The Scorpion and Ariel were fast sailors, and were thus enabled to keep up with the larger vessels. For instance, the Trippe, which was the last vessel in the line, although quite a good sailor, could not keep her place in consequence of the lightness of the wind, but as soon as she got a breeze, passed several of the other vessels, and was the first of the boats to close with the enemy. The trip of Perry from the Lawrence to the Niagara, it appears to me, is not properly comprehended, or rather the act is eulogized instead of the motive. "If a victory is to be gained, I'll gain it," said Perry, when he left the shattered Lawrence. Such was his intention, and therein was the merit. The mere passing from vessel to vessel was nothing but what had been frequently done where squadrons had been engaged, and which had been done that same day. Elliot took the same boat and crew, and twice traversed the entire length of the line, then stepping on board the Somers, which vessel he took command of in person. It was an error that Perry took his young brother with him on board the Niagara. The fact is, when the victorious commodore returned on board the Lawrence after the battle, search was made, and the youngster was found quietly sleeping in his hammock, being worn out with the excitement and fatigues of the day, as also having received a severe slap from a hammock which a shot had thrown against him. There is some discrepancy in the various accounts as to the sail the Niagara was under, and the additional canvas which Perry ordered set after he got on board of her. I have the statements of one of the Niagara's main-top menBenjamin Fleming. He says, " When Commodore Perry came on board, we were under fore-and-aft mainsail, fore and main topsails, and jib, the courses were hauled up and the top-gallant sails furled. When Perry came over the side, Elliot met him, and they shook hands. They then had some conversation, which I could not hear from the top. Captain Elliot then went over the side into the same boat, and pulled astern in the direction of the gunboats. Some little time after he left, and when the gunboats had got pretty well up, as we were now getting a breeze, Commodore Perry set the signal Iclose action,' and immediately gave the order, 4'Loose top-gallant sails, board the fore-tack, haul in the weather-braces, put the helm up, and keep the brig off.' I helped to loose the main top-gallant sail myself. We bore up gradually, at first, with the wind on our quarter. Just before we got abreast of the Detroit, to the best of my memory, we were before the wind-jibed the fore-and-aft mainsail and brailed it up at the same time, settled the top-gallant sails, hauled the foresail up, and fired our starboard broadside into the Detroit and Queen Charlotte as they lay foul of each other, and our larboard guns into the Lady Prevost and another schooner, and then coming by the wind on the starboard tack, with our main 715 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. top-sail to the mast, under the lee of the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, kept up a brisk fire until they struck." In regard to the British vessels, it is conceded by all that they were gallantly fought, though laboring under several disadvantages, the two most important of which were, the loss of the services of the first and second commanding officers, Commodore Barclay being severely, and Captain Finnis mortally wounded, as also the executive officers of both ships, Lieutenant Garland of the Detroit, mortally, and Lieutenant Stokes of the Queen Charlotte, severely wounded-both regulars-leaving the command of the Detroit to Lieutenant Ingles, and the Queen Charlotte under Lieutenant Irvine, a provincial; and then the American squadron had the weather-gage. It was also stated by the officers of the Detroit that her gun-carriages were imperfect, and some were dismounted with the discharge. Their last evident manceuvre was well conceived, and could they have carried it out, the battle would have at least been prolonged. But the sudden, bold, and daring (lash of Perry with the Niagara, frustrated and confused them. The manceuvre was-when they noticed by the movement of the Niagara, that Perry was determined to break through their line-the Queen Charlotte was to bear up, pass to the leeward of the Detroit, and meet the Niagara, broadside on, as she passed, the Detroit to bear up on the approach of the Niagara, and follow. Then as the Niagara and Queen Charlotte passed down before the wind, exchanging fires at pistol-shot range, the Detroit to haul up, shoot athwart the stern of the Niagara, and give her a raking fire from the starboard broadside; then taking position on the quarter of the Niagara, keep up this raking fire, while the latter was engaged with the Queen Charlotte, a vessel of equal force-all three going off before the wind, and separating from the smaller vessels of both squadrons. The Queen Charlotte did not bear up in time to keep from being becalmed by the sails of the Detroit, and that vessel bearing up in haste, to keep from being raked, fell athwart the bow of the Queen Charlotte, as the latter vessel lay becalmed under her lee. The day after the battle an incident occurred worth relating. Some of the British officers inquired, "What has become of the two Indians?" Search was made, and they were discovered snugly stowed away in the cable tier. Some questions were asked, and in reply they said, " No more come with one armed Captain (Barclay) in big canoe-shoot big gun too much." This sort of warfare did not suit them. They were evidently taken on board as sharp-shooters, to pick off the officers, and were stationed in the main-top of the Detroit. When the bullets began to fly aloft, they thought they were all aimed at them, and hastily retreated to the deck, where they found it no better, and then to the hold. I think they were sent to Malden with some paroled British officers who had families there. As the Lawrence was so much injured that she would require extensive repairs to make her fit for service, Commodore Perry transferred his pennant to the Ariel, and made her the flag-ship for the time being. The Lawrence was repaired temporarily, converted into a hospital ship, and dispatched to Erie, under the command of Lieutenant Yarnall, with the badly wounded of both squadrons. The chief medical officers were Dr. Parsons, of the American, and Dr. Kennedy, of the British fleet. The Lawrence arrived at Erie on the 23d, 716 ERIE COUNTY. having lost but two of the invalids on the passage. All the prisoners able to march were landed at Sandusky, and sent to Chillicothe, under the supervision of General Harrison. Commodore Barclay and other wounded British officers remained on board the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, which vessels were safely moored in Put-in-Bay for the time. It has been claimed by the Perry men that the conduct of Elliot in not hastening to the rescue of the Lawrence manifested cowardice. Now, it should be borne in mind that the previous and subsequent conduct of Elliot, both on Ontario and Erie, as also in volunteering to bring up the gun-boats, does not manifest cowardice. The writer was told by an admiral of our navy that "it was a mistake in regard to Elliot being a coward." I will give his language as near as may be. "1I made a cruise with Elliot some years since, and think I know him like a book; cowardice is the last sin that could be laid at the door of old Jesse. He was somewhat egotistical and austere, yet a good officer and a thorough seaman. He was no coward, I assure you." Commodore Perry stated in a letter to Captain Elliot, 19th September, at Put-in-Bay, in answer to a note from the latter of the previous day:.. "I am indignant that any report should be in circulation prejudicial to your character, as respects the action of the 10th inst. It affords me pleasure that I have it in my power to assure you that the conduct of yourself, officers, and crew was such as to meet my warmest approbation. I consider the circumstances of your volunteering to bring the smaller vessels into close action as contributing largely to our victory. I shall ever believe it a premeditated plan of the enemy to disable our commanding vessel by bringing all their force to bear upon her; and I am satisfied, had they not pursued this course, the engagement would not have lasted thirty minutes. I have no doubt if the Charlotte had not mad( sail and engaged the Lawrence, the Niagara would have taken her in twenty minutes." This showed at least Commodore Perry's kindness of heart. "There was glory enough for all," said he, and particularly requested the officers to refrain from making remarks in any way prejudicial to the character and conduct of Captain Elliot. A joint letter of all the officers of the Niagara gives great credit to Captain Elliot for his meritorious conduct throughout the action. These letters are not without weight. They are given on the honor of brave and honorable men, and it is not for a moment to be supposed that they would shield cowardice and treachery on the part of their commander. After all, it is a mooted question. We know the Niagara did not bear up and engage the Queen Charlotte at close quarters, and by so doing keep the weight of her fire from the Lawrence. Again, when Elliot saw the Lawrence was silenced and no signal shown, he presumed the "commanding officer was killed," and filled away for the head of the British line, no doubt with the intention of assuming command. Commodore Perry having received dispatches from the Navy department that he had been promoted, and giving him a leave of absence to visit his family, sailed with the schooner Ariel for Erie. General Harrison and General Gaines accompanied him. On their way they stopped at Put-in-Bay, where Commodore Barclay was, on board the Detroit. Finding him able to travel, he and his surgeon accompanied them. On their arrival at Erie, October 22d, the rejoicing HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. Proprietary party and its leader, James Logan. Complications arose, which eventuated in the triumph of the latter and the deposition of the former, who was decidedly the best of the Proprietary deputies. "Differing," wrote Franklin, " from the great body of the people whom he governed, in religion and manners, he acquired their esteem and confidence. If he sought popularity, he promoted the public happiness; and his courage in resisting the dem'ands of the family may be ascribed to a higher motive than private interest. The conduct of the Assembly towards him was neither honorable nor politic; for his sins against his principals were virtues to the people, with whom he was deservedly a favorite; and the House should have given him such substantial marks of their gratitude as would have tempted his successors to walk in his steps. But fear of further offence to the Proprietary family, the influence of Logan, and a quarrel between the Governor and Lloyd, turned their attention from him to his successor." After his removal, Sir William Keith resided some time in the Province, and was elected to the Assembly. He shortly afterwards returned to England, where he died. Patrick Gordon* was appointed successor of Governor Keith by the family, and formally proposed to the Crown, by 1726. Springett Penn, their heir-at-law. lHe seems to have first met the Assembly in the beginning of the 6th month, 1726, though he arrived in the Province, with his family, some time before. The increase of foreigners, particularly of Germans, from the Palatinate, again produced serious apprehensions in the Province, even the mother country fearing that Pennsylvania was S about to become a colony of aliens. Under instructions from the ministry, the Assembly passed "an impolitic act," imposing a duty of forty shillings per head on all foreigners. The PATRICK GORDON. PATRICK ORDON. rapid immigration, however, of the Scotch Irish, changed the course of the Quaker opposition to the Swiss 1727. and Germans, for the interests and dispositions of the former being ever antagonistic to the Friends, the " foreigners " were more cajoled, and the odious law repealed. By this stroke of policy the Quakers retained their supremacy in the legislative councils of the Province far longer, for we have it on the authority of Mr. Sypher, that prior to 1727 over fifty thousand persons, mostly Germans, had found new homes in Pennsylvania. In May, 1729, the county of Lancaster was set off from that of Chester. It was the first move towards that rapid division of the Province, which, 1729. in the present days of the Commonwealth, comprises sixty-six counties. Although the population of the new county was nearly as great as * PATRICK GORDON, born in England in 1664, was bred to arms, and served from his youth to near tihe close of Queen Anne's reign, with a high reputation. He was LieutenantGovernor under the Proprietaries, from 1726 to 1736. lIe died at Philadelphia, August 5, 1736. He published "Two Indian Treaties at Conestogoe," 1728. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. of the citizens was unbounded, as this was the place from which Perry sailed, and now he returned a conquering hero. In regard to the force of men in each squadron, that of the British could be justly computed at five hundred, all fresh and in health, while that of the American could not be estimated at more than four hundred available men, as one hundred and sixteen were on the sick list the morning of the battle. Of these about one hundred in all had been obtained from the Pennsylvania militia at Erie. They were enlisted as landsmen or marines. Of this number was the unfortunate James Bird, of whom there has been so much said and sung. Although Bird had behaved gallantly during the battle, yet he commited crimes which were considered unpardonable by the government, and was executed at Erie, in October, 1814, although an effort was made by the officer in command, and the court that tried him, to get his sentence commuted. Jesse D. Elliot succeeded Perry as commanding officer of the naval station at Erie, and in succession was followed by Arthur Sinclair, Daniel S. Dexter, David Deacon, and George Budd. In 1825 it ceased to be a naval station. It has been for many years, and is still, the home of a revenue vessel. The present one is of iron, a steamer, and commanded by Captain Douglas Ottinger. About 1842, a United States naval steamer of iron was built here, named the Michigan, and Erie has always been her home. During the summer of 1875 the hull of Perry's flag ship, the Lawrence, was raised from the bottom of Presqu'Isle bay, and numerous battle relics were found therein. Erie county was fully represented in the army and the navy during the war of the rebellion. April 21st, 1861, Captain John W. McLane issued a call for volunteers, and in four days twelve hundred men had hurried to camp at Erie. McLane was chosen colonel, and ordered to accept but ten companies of eighty men each. They reached Camp Wright, Pittsburgh, 29th April. They returned home at the time of the receipt of the news of the battle of Bull Run. Colonel McLane proceeded to organize another regiment, which was known as the Eighty-third. They were mustered out of the service about July 1st, 1865, at Harrisburg. The Erie county companies were C, D, E, I, K. The 111th regiment was organized at Erie in the fall of 1861, by M. Schlaudecker, who went with the regiment as colonel. It was mustered out, July 19th, 1865. The 145th regiment was organized at Erie in September, 1861, Hiram L. Brown, of Erie, colonel, and were mustered out 31st May, 1865. Companies A, B, C, D, I, K were recruited in Erie county. A battery of artillery was put in the service from Erie county by.the liberality of William L. Scott, Esq. The county also sent a company of cavalry, and many hundred men, who enlisted for the navy at the naval station in Erie. The census returns for 1870 showed a population of 59,655 in Erie county. The city of Erie had a population of 19,646; the city of Corry, 6,809. In 1874 Erie city numbered 27,000. The Erie canal, from Erie to Beaver, was opened December, 1844. The first train of cars came into Erie, from the east, January, 1852. The same year the city was connected by rail with the west. In November, 1853, the gauge of the road to the New York State line was changed to conform with the road westward from Erie, and was the occasion of bitter 718 ERIE COUNTY. controversy among the people, which permeated all classes of society. The Philadelphia and Erie road was finished in 1864. The Atlantic and Great Western road passes through the city of Corry. The harbor of ERIE has long been known as one of the best on the northern lakes, and government has repeatedly recognized the fact in the reports of its officers and in its liberal appropriations for its preservation and improvement. It has erected three light-houses at Erie, one on the main land, near the eastern end, one at the channel or entrance from the lake to Presqu'Isle bay, and the third on the north side of the peninsula. The harbor is about five miles in length, by one in breadth, the peninsula or island starting, so to speak, from the main land at the west end, and running out into the lake about a mile, and then running parallel with the main shore, in an easterly direction, four or five miles. The island is from one half to one mile in width, and is covered with timber, and belongs to and is protected by government. When the French first came to Erie they found Indians fishing in Presqu'Isle bay, and from that time until the present it has been a noted fishing ground. Great quantities of Mackinaw trout, white fish, black bass, etc., etc., are sent every year from Erie to all parts of the adjacent country. The trade of the port is immense, and consists in part of coal, iron- lumber, petroleum, etc., etc. The Philadelphia and Erie, and the Pittsburgh and Erie railroads have branches extending to their extensive docks at the harbor; and here, in season, may be seen vast fleets of vessels discharging iron ore from Lake Superior for the Pennsylvania furnaces, and lumber from Canada and Michigan, and freighting back with anthracite and bituminous coal from Pennsylvania mines, to all the ports on the western waters. A magnificent line of iron propellers, owned by the Pennsylvania company, leave their docks regularly for all the principal ports on the western lakes, carrying many passengers, and vast amounts of machinery and manufactured articles, the products of the skill of the mechanics and manufacturers of Erie. Within a few years the price of real estate has greatly advanced in Erie, owing to her extraordinary increase in manufactures, a simple enumeration of which our limited space precludes. The Pennsylvania company own and operate two first-class grain elevators of great capacity. There is also a dry dock and ship-yard at the harbor. The bay is a place of great resort in the summer season, and abounds in pleasure boats and yachts of sail and steam, and parties are every hour in the day passing and repassing from the island, from the groves of Massassauga Point, the wreck of Perry's ship, the Lawrence, and other points of interest. The buildings of the city, both public and private, are stately and elegant, among which may be mentioned the custom-house of white marble; the Reed House, which has thrice been destroyed by fire and as often re-built; Scott's block, which has no superior in any western city; the court house, the marine hospital, St. Paul's Episcopal and Central Presbyterian churches, which are of stone; the First Presbyterian church, the German Cathedral, the Opera house, etc., etc. The churches are some twenty-five in number. Erie has two fine parks in the centre of the city, known as Perry and Wayne. They are ornamented with maple and elm trees of about thirty-five years' growth. A handsome fountain stands in the centre of each park. In the west park, and near State street, there was erected, in the fall of 1873, a monument to the memory of 719 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. the brave soldiers and sailors of the county who died in defending the union of the States. The Erie Dispatch gives the following description of the same: "The monument in the west park, erected by the voluntary contributions of the people of Erie county, in memory of our departed heroes, was completed on Saturday. It consists of a granite base, on the top of which stand bronze statues of a soldier and sailor united in defence of the flag. The soldier wears a regulation cap and overcoat, and with his right hand grasps the flag, while a rifle in the left trails along his side. The sailor wears the low cap, loose shirt, and baggy trowsers of the navy; his left foot presses a coil of rope, and both of his hands rest on a cut S lass. Each figure is one ___.._-_- and a half times the size - of life, and they are quite fair representations of the two classes of our country's defenders in the late war. On the east and west side of the pedestal are inscrip tions-the first stating the object of the monu ment, and the other being an extract from - Lincoln's speech at Get tysburg. The monument -.=i!i'' -.. cost about ten thousand ------ dollars, and is the most SM-E-00" F showy for its purpose in the western part of the SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, ERIE. State. For this tribute [From a Photograph by Wilber & Bassett, Erie.] to our dead soldiers we are indebted to the perseverance and patriotism of Mrs. Isaac Moorhead, Miss Helen Ball, and Miss Sarah Reed. They have labored incessantly for a number of years to raise the needed amount, and deserve to have their services kindly remembered." Erie is well supplied with educational facilities. The Erie Academy, early endowed by the State, and in which many of her most prominent citizens received their education, and numerous fine buildings used by the common schools of the city. The city is well lighted with gas, and supplied with water in inexhaustible quantities from the bay, by the Erie water works. The Erie cemetery has seventy acres of wooded ground, in the south part of the city, and is a beautiful and quiet resting place for the dead. It was incorporated in 1850. The Young Men's Christian Association have a reading-room, which is free, and a fine library. There is a home for the friendless, supported by contributions from the public, and occupying elegant buildings and grounds donated by Hon. M. B. Lowry; and the Roman Catholics have an orphan asylum, a Sisters' school, and an academy. 720 ERIE COUNTY Many of the streets of the city, which are all at right angles, are well paved with Medina stone and Nicholson pavement. Street cars run from the lake to Federal Hill, a distance of two miles. The geographical location of Erie, its proximity to coal, iron, lumber, and petroleum-the extended railroad connections, unbounded water communication, and consequent cheapness of freights, the thorough drainage of the city, and above all, the healthfulness of the region, all combine to make a future of great promise to this peculiarly favored city. Many of the business establishments and dwellings are lighted and heated by the natural gas springs which are abundant in and about the city. They were "scovered many years since in boring for oil, and although but little oil was found, yeA4n abundance of the more valuable gas was discovered in the bowels of the earth, to the great advantage of the adventurers. Many of our manufacturing establishments drive their engines, in whole or in part, with this comparatively inexpensive fuel. We turn a small wheel, and drive our machinery, heat and light our buildings, and cook our food, as the result. NORTH EAST township and borough are on the Lake Shore railroad. The township adjoins the lake and the New York line. The land is good and peculiarly adapted to the growth of the grape and small fruits, as are all the townships on the lake shore. The borough has a population of about two thousand eight hundred, and is growing more rapidly than any other borough of the county. The seminary is a large and handsome building of brick, and is in a flourishing condition. The place is well supplied with churches and banks. A fine cemetery in wood land is situate at the western end of the village. There are extensive industrial establishments located here. The South Shore wine company have between one and two hundred acres in grapes, and many thousands of gallons of wine are annually made. GIRARD township and borough are also on the Lake Shore railroad. The township adjoins Springfield and Lake Erie. It was named for Stephen Girard, who had large landed possessions in its limits. The borough is finely situated. It has an academy, several churches, numerous very tasty grounds and residences. There is a monument of white marble in a prominent street of the village erected by Dan Rice to the memory of the Erie county volunteers in the civil war. LOCKPORT borough is in this township, and is a place of considerable manufacturing business and trade. The CITY OF CORRY, in the south part of the county, and in Wayne township, was not incorporated until 1866. It is at the junction of the Atlantic and Great Western, Philadelphia and Erie, Oil Creek and Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroads. There is no beauty of location, and the place naturally grew because of railroad crossings and proximity to the oil wells. Fifteen years ago it was a ragged and tangled forest of hill and swamp. It was named for a farmer living in the locality. It has a population of about eight thousand. The oil works and refining facilities of Corry are upon a grand scale, and embrace the manufacture on the premises of everything connected with the carrying, refining, barreling, and p)acking of oil. UNION township and UNION CITY is at the junction of the Philadelphia and Erie, Atlantic and Great Western, and Union and Titusville railroads. Union City is a stirring and active borough. 2v 721 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. WATTSBURG borough is in Venango township and on French creek. The water power is good, and the village contains several manufacturing establishments. Two miles from Wattsburg is the ruins of old Middlebrook Presbyterian church. It is of logs, was built in 1801, and the first church building erected in Erie county. WATERFORD township and borough was formerly known as Fort Le Bceuf, and the condition of the place in early times has been spoken of in this article. Waterford is situated on the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, and immediately adjacent to Le Bouf creek and a little lake of the same name. It is an old borough, was laid out in 1795, and was settled by the hardy ScotchIrish race from the Susquehanna valley. It has been rather noted for the early culture and courtesy of its people. Michael Hare died here in 1843. He was more than one hundred and fifteen years old, was in the French and Indian war, and with Braddock at his defeat. He had been scalped by the Indians in some fight in the West near the close of the century. Prior to 1820, Waterford was busy in the salt trade, which was wagoned from Erie and put in the Le Bceuf warehouses and thence taken down the river in broadhorns and batteaux. Erie county did herself credit in honoring many of the citizens of Waterford with places of trust. Of judges we have had from Waterford two of the name Vincent, Judge Smith, Judge Hutchins, and Judge Benson. The Kings have filled important county offices, and Judges John P. Vincent, Wilson Smith, and Samuel Hutchins, have represented us in the Legislature. The Waterford academy was organized about 1820, and was endowed by the State. The existence of this institution explains in a measure the prominence of Waterford men in our city and county. General Strong Vincent, who fell gloriously at the head of his brigade at Gettysburg, was a native of Waterford. WASHINGTON township is east of Waterford, and adjoining Crawford county. The chief village is EDINBORo, which has a State Normal school in flourishing condition. It was settled very early, and was known by the name given to the beautiful lake upon its borders " Conneauttee." M'KEAN township is north of and adjoining Washington. Among the early settlers were the Sterretts from Cumberland and Fayette counties, and the Dunns from Ireland. MILL CREEK township adjoins the city of Erie, and lies upon the lake shore, and is divided into East and West Mill Creek. The Reeds, Russells, McNairs, Caugheys, McCrearys, Grubbs, Nicholsons, McClellands, Saltsmans, Browns, Riblets, Weiss', Millers, etc., were among the first settlers. Their names indicate their origin. It is a township rich in good farms and good men. Captain N. W. Russell, the able county historian, is a resident of BELLE VALLEY, a pleasant village in this township. Future generations of our people will honor his memory, for the exertions made and unpaid labor he has expended in saving from destruction countless historical details of every town in the county. HARBOR CREEK joins Mill Creek on the east, and lies upon the lake shore. The Prindles, Elliots, Moorheads, Jacks, Allens, Backus', Hintons, etc., were some of the early settlers. We have from Miss Sanford's history the record of the first Sabbath school in the county. It was established in a log school-house, at Moorheadville, in 1817, by Colonel James M. Moorhead and Rev. Mr. Morton. 722 ERIE COUNITY. FAIRVIEW township and borough joins Mill Creek on the west. It is one of the best townships of land in the county. Among the early settlers were the McCrearys, Moorheads, Caugheys, Arbuckles, Reeds, Sturgeons, Eatons, Swans, Vances, Ryans, Farges, Baers, etc. It was almost wholly settled from Dauphin and Lancaster counties. The first pastor to settle here was the Rev. Johnston Eaton, from Franklin county, and his was the first church. It belonged to the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and was situate near the present village of Manchester, near the mouth of Walnut creek, and within sight of the waters of Lake Erie. It was built of hewn logs, about 1807, and was the mother church of all in this region. FAIRVIEW borough, SWANVILLE, and MANCHESTER are all with. in the township of Fairview. SPRINGFIELD township was one of the original townships of the county-is celebrated for its first-class farms. It joins the Ohio line on the west, and Lake Erie on the north. The Lake Shore railroad passes through the township. The Millers, Rees', Hollidays, Eagleys, and Dunns were among the early settlers. EAST and WEST SPRINGFIELD are its villages. It contains a moral, intelligent, and enterprising population, and is noted for its tasty and substantial homes and surroundings. CONNEAUT township occupies the south-west corner of the county. The Pittsburgh and Erie railroad passes through the eastern portion of the township. It was early settled, many of its inhabitants coming from New York and the Eastern States. The borough of ALBION is in this township. ELK CREEK township joins Conneaut on the east. It was settled chiefly by eastern people. WELLSBURG borough and CRANESNILLE are villages in this township. The Cranes and the Coltons were among the early settlers. GREENFIELD township is south of North-East, and joins the New York line. It was settled in 1795, by Judah Colt. It attracted much attention early in the century, but has not kept pace with the lake townships in growth, not having the advantages of soil and situation. AMITY township is in the south-east portion of the county, south of Venango, and is known as a good grazing township. CONCORD township is bounded by Warren and Crawford counties on the east and south. The Pittsburgh and Erie railroad passes through the township. William Miles and William Cook came into this township as first settlers. FRANKLIN township is comparatively new, and was formed from portions of M'Kean, Elk Creek, and Washington about 1844. It is chiefly a dairy township. GREENE and SUMMIT townships were made from what was known as Beaverdam township. The Browns and Phillips were early settlers. The Coovers came from the Susquehanna valley in an early day; the Grahams about 1802. The townships are extensively engaged in the manufacture of cheese. LE B(EUF township is south of and adjoining Waterford, and is the only one in the county retaining the name of the first occupants, the French. The Pitts burgh and Erie railroad passes through it. The Kings and the Blacks were among the early settlers. It contains the best quarries of stone in the county. WAYNE township joins Warren county and New York. It is well watered and adapted to the dairy business. The Smiths, Grays, and Kincaids were among its first settlers. 723 FAYETTE COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to James Veech, Emsworth, Allegheny county.] AYETTE COUNTY was erected out of Westmoreland, by act of Assembly of September 26, 1783, as to the part south-west of the Youghiogheny, to which the part north-east of that river was added by act of February 17, 1784. It was named in honor of the distinguished Frenchman who had been so largely instrumental in securing our independence. When first began to be settled (1767), and until March 9, 1771, it was within Cumberland county. From that date until March 28, 1773, it waq VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF BROWNSVILLE. [From a Photograph by E. K. Abrams & Co., Brownsville.] part of Bedford county; thence, until its separation as above, it was part of Westmoreland. The burning of Hiannastown (the old county seat of Westmoreland) by the Indians, July 13, 1782, led to the erection of Fayette. Into its territory the Indians, except in connection with the French in 1754 and 1755, seldom came for mischief. The settlement, in 1779 and 1780, of the boundary dispute with Virginia, occasioned the formation of Washington out of territory chiefly acquired from that State. Virginia, as related heretofore, began in 1752 to assert a claim to all of south-west Pennsylvania, and actually maintained a divided sway over most of it from 1774 to 1780. In 1776 she erected out of what was before her West Augusta district, three counties, Monongalia, Yohogania, and Ohio. 724 FAYETTE COUNTY. Fayette was partly in each of the two first named, the line of division over its territory being Dunlap's road, of which hereafter. The county seat of Monongalia was for a while on the "plantation" of Theophilus Phillips, near New Geneva. Woodbridgetown, by the name of Mifflintown, was laid out for its county seat. The county seat of Yohogania was on the west bank of the Monongaliela, near the line of Washington and Allegheny, a little above Elizabeth. There was really no township division of Fayette territory while it was in Cumberland county. It, however, had two justices of the peace, appointed May 23, 1770-Colonel William Crawford and Thomas Gist. The earliest land office titles within bear date April 3, 1769. Surveys began August 22, 1769. In the residue of that year, 1770, official surveys were made within its limits. In 1770, eighty; in 1771, twelve; in 1772, fourteen; in 1773, eleven; in 1774, seven; in 1775, two. Then none until 1782 and 1783, in each of which there were three. Then none until 1784, when there were twenty; in 1785, two hundred and fiftyeight; in 1786, one hundred and fifty, decreasing in rapid ratio until 1792, after which they somewhat increased. Many settlers took up their lands under Virginia, she selling them as low as ten shillings per one hundred acres, while the Penns sold at five pounds sterling. By the boundary compromise, Pennsylvania recognized these Virginia titles, if the oldest, being therein governed generally by certificates issued by a Virginia commission, which sat to adjust land titles in her three western counties, in 1779 and 1780, at Redstone Old Fort (Brownsville), and Cox's fort, which was on Buffalo creek, in Donegal township, Washington county. While part of Bedford county, so much of Fayette territory as is northwest of a straight line from the mouth of Big Redstone to the mouth of Jacob's 'creek (on the Youghiogheny) was part of Rosstrevor township, which included all between the rivers below that line. All of the county south-east of that line was Tyrone and Spring Hill, except that part lying north-east of the Youghiogheny between Chestnut ridge and Laurel hill seems to have been included in Fairfield township. Between Tyrone and Spring Hill the line was from the mouth of Redstone up (fourteen and one-fifth miles) to where it was crossed by Burd's road (at Vance's mill), thence by that road to Gist's (Mt. Braddock), by what is still the line of North Union and Franklin and Dunbar. The other bounds of Tyrone were Jacob's creek, the line of Fairfield to the Youghiogheny, and along the foot of Laurel hill to Gist's. Spring Hill took in the mountain region southeast of the Youghiogheny, and reached indefinitely south and west, "as far as the Province extended," covering Greene and part of Washington. Upon becoming part of Westmoreland, in April, 1773, Tyrone and Rosstrevor remained unaltered. Menallen was formed out of the;outhern part of Spring Hill by a line due east from the mouth of Brown's run to the top of Laurel hill, and west "as far as the Province went." And in July, 1783, a few weeks before Fayette was erected, Wharton was formed out of all of Spring Hill east of the top of Laurel hill to the Youghiogheny river. At the first court for Fayette, December, 1783, the then county was divided into nine townships, viz.: Washington, Franklin, Menallen, Luzerne, German, Spring Hill, Georges, Union, and Wharton. Their bounds are defined in the minutes of that court. The addition to the county, by the act of 1784, confined 725 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Tyrone to all of the county north-east of the Youghiogheny, including the Fairfield part. In March, 1784, however, Bullskin was taken from Tyrone. In December, 1797, Redstone was taken from Menallen, and Saltlick from Bullskin; from which also Connellsville township was taken in October, 1822. In 1793, that part of Dunbar which is east of Laurel hill was taken from Wharton and added to Franklin; and in December, 1798, Dunbar was erected out of Franklin, including that part of old Wharton. In November, 1817, Brownsville township was taken from Redstone. Henry Clay was taken from Wharton in January, 1823; Perry from Tyrone, Franklin, and Washington, in March, 1839; Jefferson from Washington, in June, 1840; Nicholson from Spring Hill, Georges, and German, in June, 1845; Youghiogheny from Saltlick in December, 1847, but its limits changed in December, 1848, when Springfield was erected. Stewart was erected out of parts of Wharton, Henry Clay, and Youghiogheny, in November, 1855, and what was left of Youghiogheny was annexed to Springfield, and like its Virginia county namesake, it became a "lost pleiad." Union was divided into North and South by the National road, by act of Assembly of March 11, 1851. Minor alterations have been made in the lines of several of the townships since their original formation. The first general election ever held within the county limits was at Spark's Fort (near Burns' Ford on the Youghiogheny), July 8, 1776, for members of the convention to form the Constitution of 1776. Until 1790,all general elections were held only at the court house in Uniontown. At the first election, November, 1788, for eight members of Congress (general ticket), seventy-nine votes were polled. By act of March 3, 1790, the county was divided into four election districts, as follows: 1. Union, Franklin, and Wharton, to vote at court house, Uniontown; 2. Spring Hill, German, and Georges, to vote at Nicholas Riffle's, in German; 3. Luzerne, Menallen, and Washington, to vote at Fort Burd (Brownsville); 4. Tyrone and Bullskin to vote at Samuel HIicks', in Bullskin. Not to notice the old Indian forts, of which there were many in Fayette territory, nor, here, Fort Burd or Fort Necessity, we enumerate as settler's forts, for refuge from apprehended Indian aggression, the following: Minter and Stevenson's fort, on John Minter's farm, late Ebenezer Moore's, near Pennsville, in Tyrone. Cassell's fort, on the old William Goe farm, just above mouth of Little Redstone. Gaddis' fort, on Thomas Gaddis' farm, now Bazil Brownfield's, in South Union. Pearse's fort, on the Jones land in North Union. Swearingen's fort, in Spring Hill, near Mount Moriah church. Lucas' fort, on the old Brown farm, now William Parshall, in Nicholson township, near frame meetinghouse. McCoy's fort, in South Union, near W. H. Bailey. Ashcraft's fort, on Mrs. Evans Wilson's farm, in Georges township. Morris' fort, in Preston county, West Virginia, just outside the line of Wharton township. Fayette county, as shown by a map, has in large extent prominent natural boundaries. There were many Indian paths which traversed Fayette county as well before as after the advent of the white man. The majority of these have become entirely effaced, and can be known only from references in early travel and exploration. The great Catawba war-path, running north and south, entered the county from the south, at the State line, at the mouth of Grassy run, thence northward by Ashcraft's fort, along by the Diamond Spring, crossing Redstone 726 FAYETTE COUNTY. creek at Uniontown, proceeding by Pearse's fort to Opossum run, down it to the Youghiogheny, crossing it where Braddock crossed (Stewart's crossing), thence it bore on through Westmoreland and Armstrong counties up the Allegheny to the headwaters of the Susquehanna into western New York, the domain of the Six Nations. Braddock's road, the most important of all the old roads to Fayette and the "early west" was originally an Indian trail from Old Town by the mouth of Mill's creek (Cumberland, Md.), across the mountains to the head of the Ohio (Pittsburgh). This was the case also with Colonel Burd's road, which was in great part originally an Indian trail, from the Great Rock, on Laurel hill, where many.old roads converged, to the mouth of Redstone. The first white settlement made in Fayette county was under the auspices of the Ohio Land company, to which reference has already been made. Soon after the treaty at Logstown, in 1752, Mr. Gist made a settlement and built a cabin on the tract of land since called Mount Braddock, and induced eleven families to settle around him on lands presumed to be within the company's grant. His dwelling stood a few paces from the elegant mansion of the late Colonel Meason, distinguished as an enterprising proprietor of iron works at an early day in Fayette county. The Ohio company appears to have erected a storehouse at the mouth of Redstone creek, and to have made a small establishment at the Forks of the Ohio, but the disturbed state of the frontier prevented them from bringing any large amount of goods beyond the Allegheny mountains. The French war interrupted their operations entirely; and the company was afterwards, in 1770-72, merged in a more extensive one, in which Thomas Walpole, Dr. Franktin, Governor Pownal, and others, were concerned. The Revolution breaking out about that time, put an end to both companies, and the title to their lands was never perfected. Of the subsequent events transpiring in this locality, the journey of Washington as messenger of the Virginia governor to the French commandants at Le Boeuf, the defeat of Jumonville, followed by the French victories, and subsequently their overthrow, accounts are given elsewhere. Dunbar's camp, and the scene of Jumonville's defeat are near the Laurel hill, between the present National road and the gorge of the Youghiogheny, about five miles east of Uniontown. After the disastrous termination of General Braddock's expedition, Fayette county remained a desolate wilderness unoccupiel by civilized men until 1759, when Colonel James Burd was sent by Colonel Bouquet, then at Carlisle, to continue the cutting of Braddock's road where incomplete, as far as the mouth of Redstone creek, the present site of Brownsville. The opening of Colonel Burd's road afforded facilities of communication for pioneers, and previous to the Revolution, a considerable number were established throughout the county. Colonels Crawford, Paul, and Cresap, were among the more distinguished. The courts of Monongalia and Yohogania caused several roads to be laid out on Fayette territory. The records of those ordered by Monongalia are lost; those by Yohogania are yet in being, but they have long since been abandoned or superseded by roads made under authority of Pennsylvania. The very first road petition acted upon by the court of Westmoreland, after its election, was in April, 1773, by inhabitants of Spring Hill township, west of the Monongahela. for a road from opposite the mouth of Fish-pot run (half-way GENERAL HISTOR Y. Bucks or Chester, it was allowed one-half the number of representatives in the Assembly. During this year the old State House, or Independence Hall, was commenced, although not completed before 1734. ............. THE OLD PROVINCIAL STATE HOUSE. The enterprising public spirit of Benjamin Franklin, says Sherman Day, now began to display itself, by founding one of those monuments which will perpetuate his memory long after the plain marble slab that covers his grave shall have decayed. The promotion of literature had been little attended to in Pennsyl vania. Most of the inhabitants were too much immersed in business to 1731. think of scientific pursuits; and those few whose inclinations led them to study, found it difficult to gratify them, for the want of libraries sufficiently large. The establishment of a public library was an important event. This was first set on foot by Franklin, about the year 1731. Fifty persons subscribed forty shillings each, and agreed to pay ten shillings annually. The number increased, and in 1742 the company was incorporated by the name of the Library Company of Philadelphia. The Penn family distinguished themselves by donations to it. In 1732 Thomas Penn, and in 1734 John Penn, his elder brother, both Pro prietaries, arrived in the Province, and received from the colonists and 1732. the Assembly those marks of respect due to their station, and to the sons of the illustrious founder. John Penn returned to England in 1735, to oppose the pretensions of Lord Baltimore; but Thomas Penn remained for some years in the Province, spending his time much after the manner of an English country gentleman. Hle was cold and distant in his intercourse with society, and consequently unpopular. On his departure for Europe, in 1741, the Assembly presented him with an affectionate address, for which he returned them his warmest thanks. This year, 1733, the Provincial government first became apprehensive of the designs of the French in the western country, by establishing trading 1733. posts on the head waters of the Allegheny and Ohio, claiming, by virtue of some treaty, all the lands lying on those rivers. With a view to frustrate their designs, which obviously tended to alienate the Indians from the HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. between Ten Mile and Redstone), "to the forks of Dunlap's path and General Braddock's road on the top of Laurel H1ill." A year afterwards, inhabitants of Tyrone, Menallen, and Spring Hill, asked for a road "from near Redstone Old Fort to Henry Beeson's Mill, and thence to intersect Braddo'ck's road near the forks of Dunlap's road, and said road on the top of Laurel Hill; " giving as a reason that "we, who at present live on the west side of the Monongahela, are obliged frequently to carry our corn twenty miles to the mill of Henry Beeson, near Laurel Hill, and in all probability at some seasons of the year will ever have to do so! " This mill was a tub mill, between the court house, at Uniontown, and the Donner tan yard. Its " pit" is yet visible. Old Henry Beeson was a blacksmith, and made his customers dig his race, while he made or sharpened their plough irons, etc. It was the second mill in the county; Philip Shute's on Shute's run, being the first. From these ancient pack-horse highways we turn to a road of more modern and enduring structure, the National or Cumberland road. This once grand highway between the east and the west was constructed by the United States, in pursuance of a compact with Ohio upon its admission as a State into the Union, by which, in consideration that Ohio would not tax lands sold by the United States within it for five years after sale, they would apply two per cent. of the proceeds of those sales to making a road from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the Ohio river opposite that State. Hence the National road through Zanesville, Columbus, etc. The road from Cumberland to Wheeling was undertaken under an act of Congress, passed March 29, 1806, the early execution of which was under the favorable control of President Jefferson until 1809, and of Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury, until 1815. It was projected and constructed on a much more grand and expensive scale than the compact required, or than the two-percent. fund justified. The importance of easy intercourse with the West, in which the nation had its great landed interests magnified by incipient secession proclivi ties in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Southern Ohio, so alarmingly developed by the Burr and Wilkinson "conspiracy " of 1806-7, conduced much, if not chiefly, to the magnitude in structure and expenditure upon this great bond of union. The commissioners appointed to select the route of the road were Eli Williams and Thomas Moore of Maryland, and Joseph Kerr of Ohio. They, in 1806, readily adopted the route, but not invariably, the precise location of Braddock's road to Gist's, and thence Burd's road to Brownsville. From Cumberland to Brownsville, or rather to Sandy Hollow, the route as to the principal points, and the location, subject to minor changes, was determined in 1807. This was the eastern division; thence to Wheeling, the western, some of which was not settled until 1817. The road, when completed, was opened sixty-six feet-road bed from thirty to thirty-four feet-paved twenty feet wide, eighteen inches deep in the middle to twelve inches at the edges. The lower stratum, or bed, was in parts of the road a pavement of stone closely set vertically, and in other parts of stone broken to go through a seven-inch ring; all covered six inches with a stratum of stone broken to go through a three-inch ring. The maximum grade of the eastern division was five degrees; of the western, four and a half. 728 FAYETTE COUNTY. In 1832-35 the road was thoroughly repaired by the United States, and surrendered to the States through which it passed upon terms the most important of which provided for keeping it in repair by tolls. It is a monument of a past age; but like all old monuments it is venerable. It carried thousands of population and millions of wealth into the west; and more than any other material structure in the land, served to harmonize and strengthen, if not to save the Union. The borough of UNION, popularly known as UNIONTOWN, is the capital of the county. It is twelve miles distant from Brownsville. The town was laid out about the year 1769, by Henry Beeson, a member of the Society of Friends, who emigrated from Berkeley county, Virginia, and settled upon the tract of land now occupied by the town, his cabin occupying the spot on which at present stands the residence of Mr. Veech. As late as 1794 the place was called Beeson's town. The first court house and market house were erected in 1796. In February, 1805, the first newspaper was established, called the Genius of Liberty, which, after the lapse of seventy-one years, is still published. Through a long series of years Uniontown appears to have been a prosperous inland village. Lying upon the great thoroughfare from the east to the west, called in the early day Braddock's road, and afterwards the National road, her mercantile interests prospered under the demands of the masses of emigration passing through the borough, and the wants'of the rich agricultural country around her limits. During the time of the great stage-coach lines from east to west, upon the National road, the name of the town became as a t household word " in the mouth of every traveler, and population gathered rapidly within her borders, and caused further increase in business and the development of some classes of manufactures. The diverting of travel from this route, by stage coach, caused by the various lines of railway, occasioned for several years a partial stagnation in the previously bustling place, during which, supported by the business derived from her populous and productive back country, she held her own with greater success than could have been expected under the circumstances. The construction of the Fayette County railroad, however, re-linked the town to the busy, bustling world, and business has not only regained its olden vigor, but as the terminus of this railroad, the borough has become the shipping point of a large and extremely rich mineral and agricultural country, as well as a gathering point for travel. This railroad, thirteen miles in length, runs through a fine agricultural section of Fayette county, connecting with the Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad at Connellsville, and thence by the various connections of the latter road with all the eastern and western cities. It is one of the few railroads in the country whose construction has hampered no corporate body with bonds. It was built entirely for cash, at a cost of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, raised solely from individual subscription. Among the natural curiosities of the neighborhood is Delaney's cave, nine miles south-east of the town. The well-known Fayette springs are also near, being in Wharton township, eight miles from the borough. Madison College, originally established as an academy, in 1808, is located here. It became a college in 1825, and was incorporated as such in 1827. It took its name from President Madison, who gave it a liberal donation. CONNELLSVILLE is situated on the right bank of the Youghiogheny, about 729 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. fifty miles above its junction with the Monongahela at McKeesport. The town was laid out by Zachariah Connell, in 1790. Its incorporation as a borough was in 1806. The first settler in this locality was the unfortunate Colonel William Crawford, who was burnt by the Wyandotts, at Sandusky, in 1782. Colonel Crawford visited this locality in 1767, and fixed upon the plateau on the left side of the river, opposite the lower end of Connellsville, as a site for a settlement, to which he removed in 1768, erecting thereon a log cabin. He was one of the bravest men on the frontier, and saw much service, not only as a leader of the rangers, but as an officer in Forbes' expedition, and as a colonel in the army of the Revolution. In 1782 he accepted, much against his wishes, the command of the expedition against the Wyandotts, the result of which we have already referred to. Connellsville is situated in the heart of a mineral district, abounding in the finest iron ores and bituminous coal, and her recent marvelous growth is due to this fact. As a manufacturing town Connellsville is an important adjunct to that great centre, Pittsburgh, with which it is connected by the Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad. BROWNSVILLE, a thriving manufacturing town, is situated on the Monongahela, sixty-three miles, by the river route, above Pittsburgh, at the point where the great National road crosses the river. There are three boroughs located at this point, and although separately incorporate(l, they are one community in interests. The corporate titles of these are BROWNSVILLE, BRIDGEPORT, and WEST BROWNSVILLE. The two first lie upon the right bank of the river, in Fayette county, divided by a small creek, the latter on the left bank, in Washington county. Brownsville first appears in history by the construction of Fort Burd, in October, 1759. This fort became more widely known as " Redstone Old Fort," from its location; and in the incidents of Western life and adventure, the latter name is used as designating Brownsville instead of its proper military title. Colonel Burd's fort continued long to be the favorite rendezvous for those hardy men who kept watch upon the movements of the Indians inhabiting the head-waters of the Ohio. The brave Colonel Michael Cresap made this fort his favorite rallying-place for the men under his direction, and at an early day secured a Virginia title to several hundred acres, embracing the fortifications, by "a tomahawk improvement." Not content with this claim to a location, in 1770 he built a house of hewn logs, with a nailed shingle roof, which is believed to be the first shingled house west of the mountains erected in that section of the county. This title he retained for some years, and then disposed of it to two brothers by the name of Brown, who came from Maryland, one of whom, Thomas, died in 1797, and was buried in the old grave-yard, with the inscription: " Here lies the body of Thomas Brown, who was once the owner of this town, who departed this life March, 1797, aged 59 years." Brownsville was laid out in 1785. For many years, and really until the completion of the Pennsylvania canal, it was a point of much celebrity among emigrants to the Western and Southwestern States, where, wearied by their journeying by land, they could take water and float down to their destination, and a brisk business was carried on, especially in the construction of flat or keel boats. With the building of railroads this enterprise passed away. Brownsville had many natural advantages, and these, its agricultural and mineral resources, continued to increase its 730 FAYETTE COUNTY. prosperity, and it has grown to be one of the most important towns in Western Pennsylvania. It has many beautiful private residences, and its churches, picturesquely located, are creditable specimens of architecture. It contains varied industrial establishments which, with the large deposits of the finest quality of bituminous coal, add to its importance as a manufacturing town. NEW HAVEN is a thriving borough on the left bank of the Youghiogheny, opposite Connellsville. It was laid out by Colonel Isaac Meason, in 1796. Its close proximity to the latter borough, and it sexcellent water-power privileges, have added greatly to its prosperity. NEW GENEVA is situated on the Monongahela, thirty-five miles above Brownsville. It is especially celebra-... ted as being the - residence of Albert Gallatin, and _-- named from his native place, Geneva, in Switzerland. Mr. Gallatin purchased his plantation in 1785, _-_ and built a log - house, which subsequently gave place to a stone RESIDENCE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. structure, yet standing. New Geneva is noted as the location of the first glass house in Western Pennsylvania, which was put into operation by Mr. Gallatin, in conjunction with John Nicholson and two Messrs. Kramer, Germans. BELLEVERNON was laid out in 1813 by Noah Speer. It is on the Monongahela, forty miles above Pittsburgh. The land upon which the town is laid out is rich in minerals, partaking of the general characteristics of the surrounding country. The top of the hill, on which a portion of the town is built, is two hundred and fifteen feet above the river, twenty-two feet below which lies a strata of glass sand. At the height of one hundred and thirty feet above the river is the base of a bituminous coal strata, between which and the base of the glass sand strata lies a fine strata of cannel coal, as also a strata of iron ore from ten to fourteen inches. At the height of one hundred and twelve feet there is a strata of sandstone, between which and the base of the bituminous coal strata lies a strata of limestone. These strata really underlie the whole neighborhood, yet the ease with which these are entered upon from the face of the hill at Bellevernon adds importance to the town for manufacturing purposes. It is a thriving flourishing place. FAYETTE CITY, fourteen miles below Brownsville, on the Monongahela, was settled in 1794. It was laid out by Colonel Edward Cook, and named Freeport, subsequently changed to Cookstown, and by act of incorporation Fayette City. It is an enterprising and flourishing town. HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. PERRYOPOLIS is situated about three-quarters of a mile from the Youghio. gheny, and opposite Layton's station, on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad. The tract of land on which it was built was originally patented by General Washington, of whom it was purchased by Lewis Seares, who sold it to Thomas Hursey. The latter, in connection with Thomas E. Burns, laid out the town, and the first lot sold in the spring of 1814. The town contains several manufacturing establishments. There are a number of other prosperous towns and villages in Fayette, the principal of which are MASONTOWN and MCCLELLANDTOWN, in German township; FALLS CITY, on the Youghiogheny; and DAWSON, a station on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville raiload. OLD PINE STREET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 732 FOREST COUNTY. BY SAMUEL D. IRWIN, TIONESTA. HE county of Forest, as first organized for judicial purposes, consisted of but four townships, viz., Jenks, Barnett, Millstone, and Tionesta, afterwards changed to Howe, and was formed from parts of Jefferson S and Venango, April 11, 1848. Of this territory, Marion, a small village or hamlet, situated about the centre, was made the county seat. It was VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF TIONES1[A. called Blood's Settlement for many years, and was founded by Colonel Blood, who cleared up a large farm in the very heart of the wilderness. As to the village, there was more in the name than the place; a common frame two-story building was, after the judicial organization of the county, pressed into service as a court house. That portion of thle county to this day is called "Old Forest," to distinguish it from that territory added by act of Assembly, approved October 31, 1866, which consisted of the townships now known as Tionesta, Kingsley, 733 HISTORY OF PENIVNS YL VANIA. Green, Hickory, and Harmony. This addition gave Forest county an area of four hundred and forty-five square miles, being just about double its former dimensions, and increasing its population more than fourfold. In November, 1866, the commissioners named in the act, Jacob Ziegler, James A. Leech, and Cornelius Fulkerson, ran out the county lines, and made Tionesta the judicial seat of the county as reorganized, it being the centre of population, though not the geographical centre; they also selected a site for the county buildings. A court house and jail were built within two years. Forest county is traversed by many streams; the hills along the borders of these streams are usually from five hundred to eight hundred feet high; the valleys are deep, and often the slopes of the side hills steep and precipitous. The Allegheny river enters the county near White Oak schute, and runs from thence nearly due south to Tionesta, where it receives Tionesta creek, it then takes nearly a west course until it leaves the county limits; its average width in this section is about seven hundred feet. The principal tributaries of the Tionesta are Salmon creek, the Branch, Lamentation, and Blue Jay. Large portions of the land of the county are worthless and unfit for cultivation, others are adapted to the growth of timber, while the high elevations are excellent for agriculture; especially is this the case at Neillsburg, Dutch Hill, and that portion of Jenks near Marion. This is true also of the alluvial flats along the streams, which are generally of unsurpassed fertility. In the oil excitement of 1860, many of the best farms went into the hands of oil companies, that burned up the fences and made the country look as desolate as if an army had marched over it. Valuable farms were, for a while, exposed as commons, thistles and briars showing evidence of neglect. Fertile fields, signs of thrift and industry, are rapidly annihilating these waste spots. T'hree-fourths of the country remains uncultivated and unsubdued. The hills, thcugh steep) and useless to the farmer, are clothed with the original forest trees. With regard to the mineral resources, little can be said, as naught has yet been done to develop them. Bituminous coal has been found in Howe, Jenks, and Kingsley townships. Cannel coal also exists. Burr stone, well calculated for mill-stones, is found in various parts of the county. Iron ore, in abundant quantities, can be shown in almost every township, yet to-day not a forge or furnace exists in the county. Beds of good iron ore exist along the hills of Coon creek, and also Little Hickory. As early as 1828 a bloomery or small furnace was located at Tionesta, but it was a primitive affair, and the metal had to be transported in canoes down the river. On the Wentworth place, near Tionesta, and also on the west side of the river, beds of potter's clay, of excellent quality, exist. Petroleum exists in the county. New oil fields having been discovered in M'Kean county, and there being oil in Warren and Venango, Forest county is in the centre of the oil basin. Successful, regular paying wells, in the neighborhood of Fagundas, in Harmony township, have been in operation since 170. That Moravian apostle to the Indians, Rev. David Zeisberger, was without doubt the first white man that ever entered the wilds of Forest county. This was in the autumn of 1767. Goschgoschiink had then a history of two years, having been founded by Monseys from Machiwihilusing and Tioga, in 1765, and comprising three straggling villages. The middle one, at which Zeisberger arrived, 734 ZEISBERGER PREACHING TO THE INDIANS IN THE WILDS OF FOREST COUNTY-1767. HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. lay on the eastern bank of the Allegheny, near the mouth of the Tionesta. Two miles up the river was the upper village, and four miles down, the lower. The latter, located on what is now known as Holeman's Flats, went by the general name Goschgoschiink, the upper one Lawunakhannek. Barbarism had full sweep, and their general reputation among the various Indian tribes was bad. Zeisberger had been warned by the Senecas not to attempt his visit to Goschgoschiink, but as the mission had " resolved upon an exploratory journey, in order to ascertain whether anything could then be accomplished for the Saviour," accompanied by two Christian Indians as guides through the impenetrable forests, the devoted missionary reached his destination on the 16th of October, 1767, where they were entertained by the friends of one of his Indian guides. After resting from the fatigues of his journey, religious services were appointed for the evening. The Indians flocked together and seated themselves on the ground to hear the great teacher from Machiwihilusing. The wildest of the Indians were there-sorcerers and murderers, and some who had been engaged in a late massacre. It was a rough crowd even for Zeisberger to address by the light of the fire. The substance of the sermon is set forth in his journal, and is a type of propriety. Attention is an Indian virtue, so they were good listeners. He told them in his bold style that "the Gospel was made for men, whether white or black or brown," and proclaimed with force eternal life. It is said no one knew better how to address Indians. He says himself of this scene: "Never yet did I see so clearly depicted in the faces of the Indians both the darkness of hell and the worldsubduing power of the Gospel." The next day all the three villages met. Allemewi, a blind chief, was there, and Wangomen, an Indian preacher. Zeisberger preached most of the day, and in the evening all went to their homes. He soon saw that the innate wickedness of these Monseys had not been overdrawn; Wangomen was full of blasphemy, the young people were full of excesses, pow-wows, and sorceries, and Zeisberger writes, " I have never found such heathenism in any other parts of the Indian country. Here Satan has his stronghold-here he sits on his throne. Here he is worshipped by true savages, and carries on his work in the hearts of the children of darkness." The apostle soon saw he was in a den of paganism, and was in danger of being murdered, and after seven days he returned to Friedenshitten. The Monseys the next year sent for Zeisberger to come back, and he was a missionary during the years 1768-1769. Hie came back in the latter part of the spring, accompanied by Senseman, and on June 30tih put up a log cabin at Goschgoschiink, twenty-six by sixteen feet. The place had changed. Many of the worst Indians had gone, yet still there were sorcerers who juggled and performed feats of magic. In 1769 the Senecas claimed the land on which the mission had been started, and wanted the Monseys to leave. Soon a mysterious message came-a string of wampum, a stick painted red, and a bullet, accompanied the message: " Cousins, you that, live at Goschgoschiink on the Allegheny downward, and you Shawanese, I have risen from my seat and looked around the country. I see a man in a black coat. I warn you avoid the man in the black coat; believe him not; he will deceive you." A grand council was held. The Indians were divided. The second attempt was made on his life. Soon after there was an emigration. 736 FOREST COUNTY. From there Zeisberger went to Lawanukhannek (or Meeting of the Waters, Beaver and Hickory), Forest county, and was there during 1769. Over two thousand deer were killed, and some Indians converted. He says in his journal: " For ten months I have now lived between these two towns of godless and malicious savages, and my preservation is wonderful." And here is what he says about oil in that same journal: "I have seen three kinds of oil springs, such as have an outlet, such as have none, and such as rise from the bottom of the creeks, From the first water and oil flow out together, in the second it gathers on the surface a finger's depth, and from the third it rises to the surface and flows with the current of the creek. The Indians prefer wells without an outlet. It is used, medicinally, for tooth-ache, rheumatism, etc. Sometimes it is taken internally. It is of a brown color, and burns well, and can be used in lamps." It was on the 17th April, 1770, that the missionary with the converts left Lawanukhannek in fifteen canoes. In three days they reached Fort Pitt, and subsequently on the Beaver river founded Friedenstadt, whither eventually many of the Monseys from Goschgoschiink followed. Eli Holeman, father of Hon. Alexander Holeman, was the first permanent settler in Forest county. He located on the site of the Indian Goschgoschiink, then called by Cornplanter " Cush-cush," now named Holeman's Flats. Shortly after HIoleman settled, came Moses Hicks, a squatter, who left in a boat in 1805. The first pioneer on the east side of the river was John Range, a lieutenant in the army of the Revolution, who took up the tract on which Tionesta now stands. About 1816 he built on the land, although he had taken out a warrant as early as 1785. That place was then called Saqualinget, or " place of the council." William Middleton moved on to what is now known as Jamieson Flats, and built a large house near the Allegheny, about the year 1803. He afterwards sold to Quinton Jamieson, from Scotland, whose descendants still occupy it. Ebenezer Kingsley settled at an early day on Tionesta creek, at Newtown Mills. Hle was from Genesee county, New York, came down the Allegheny on a raft, but stopped by the winter, he located first about three miles above Tionesta, at what was called by the settlers, Old Town, the site of an Indian village. Kingsley was a man about six feet in height, well proportioned, possessing good judgment, yet lacking education; was kind and hospitable to every stranger that came to his cabin. He was a hunter by instinct, training, and desire, a regular Pennsylvania " Leatherstocking." His adventures, if written, would read like Daniel Boone's, leaving out Indians, and would furnish the basis of a romance for the pen of a Cooper. Among the other prominent early settlers were: Rev. Hezekiah May, who died in 1843, at Tionesta; he was widely known in this section of the State; James Hilands and Mark Noble, a surveyor, who settled at the mouth of Tionesta creek; Cyrus Blood, who was the first associate judge who lived at what was afterwards called Marion, the former county seat; Poland Hunter, who settled on the west side of the river, opposite Tionesta, and who died in 1838, many of whose descendants now reside within the limits of the county; Hicks Prather, who settled at the mouth of Hickory creek, on the site of the old Indian town of Lawunkhannek, who, like Kingsley, was a mighty hunter; Henry Gates, who came from Lancaster county, was the first settler on Tionesta creek; he died in 1807, at the place he 2w 737 IlSTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. English, James Logan proposed that a treaty should be holden with the Shaw anese and other tribes, and that they should be invited to remove nearer the English settlements. According to his suggestion a treaty was held at Philadelphia with the Six Nations, who confirmed the designs of the French, and promised perpetual friendship with the English. In the minutes of the Provincial Council we find the following record of violent transactions on the Maryland frontier west of the Susquehanna: "At a council, held at Philadelphia, May, 14, 1734, the Proprietary (Thomas Penn) informed the Board of some very unneighborly proceedings of 1734. the Province of Maryland in not only harassing some of the inhabitants of this Province who live on the borders, but likewise in extending their claims much farther than had ever heretofore been pretended to by Maryland, and carrying off several persons and imprisoning them; that some time since they carried off John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall from their settlements on Susquehanna, and still detain them in the Goal of Annapolis; that of late two others have been taken from the borders of New Castle County, and carried likewise to Annapolis; that as these men will probably be brought to a trial at the ensuing Provincial Court of Maryland, he had spoke to Andrew Hamilton, Esq., to appear for them, but as these violent proceedings tend manifestly to the breach of his Majesty's peace, and rendering all the borderers insecure, both in their persons and estates, he was now to advise with the Council on such measures as are most fit to be proposed, for maintaining peace between his Majesty's subjects of both Provinces. "Then was read a letter from the Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland to the Lieutenant-Governor of this Province, dated the 24th of February last, with an answer of the latter thereto, dated the 8th of March following, on which some observations being made, the Proprietor said that he intended to make use of the opportunity of Mr. Hamilton's going to Annapolis, to press the LieutenantGovernor of Maryland to enter into such measures as should be most advisable, for preventing such irregular proceedings for the future, and as he designed that his secretary, Mr. Georges, should accompany Mr. Hamilton, he had drawn up instructions for them, which being laid before the Board, were read, as was likewise a draught of a letter from the Lieutenant-Governor of this Province to the Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland. On consideration thereof had, the Board are of opinion that the proposed measures are absolutely necessary at this time, for securing the peace of his Majesty's subjects, and the said instructions, together with the foregoing draught, being. approved and ordered to be entered on the Records of Council, the Governor is desired to grant such credentials to the persons entrusted with the negotiations, as may show them fully authorized by this government for the purposes in the said instructions contained." Messrs. Hamilton and Georges, the persons named in the preceding paragraph, having been appointed commissioners for the Proprietaries to execute certain articles of agreement concluded between the said Proprietaries and Lord Baltimore, bearing date May 10, 1732, for the running, marking, and laying out the lines, limits, and boundaries between the two Provinces, visited Annapolis, and on their return presented the report of their negotiations, which was far from satisfactory. Thereupon, in consequence of a representation addressed 8ISITORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. first located. Among those who came later was Herman Blume, one of the founders of the German settlement on " Dutch Hill," east of Tionesta, a native of Hesse Cassel, in Germany. Many of his countrymen followed. They bought up lands and formed a prosperous settlement. These German settlers are noted for their industry, thrift, and economy. TIONESTA, the county seat, was organized as a borough, April, 1852, while it was within the limits of Venango county. It more than doubled in population after it was made the county seat of Forest in 1866. It is a place of considerable trade. HICKORYTOWN is an old settlement at the mouth of Hickory creek. NEWTOWN mills is a small village commenced about thirty years ago. BALLTOWN, on Tionesta creek, is a small lumber village commenced about 1840. NEBRASKA, on the Tionesta, at the mouth of Coon creek, was formerly called Lacytown. It is a small village. MARIONVILLE, the old county seat, is a hamlet of five or six houses; it is marked on most of the State maps, yet there never were ten families living in it. NEILLSBURGH, in the extreme north-east corner of the county, is a thriving village. It is situated in the midst of a fine agricultural section, has two churches, an academy, etc. It was founded by W. T. Neill, about 1830. CLARINGTON, on the Clarion river, is a large village. TIONESTA township was inll Allegheny county until June, 1825, and as Judge John A. Dale quaintly remarks, "was then supposed to embrace all the civilized world as far east as Balltown, in then Jefferson county, a distance of some twentyfive miles." HICKoRY was organized for township purposes in April, 1848, out of a part of Tionesta. KINGSLEY was organized in the fall of 1848, out of Tionesta. HARMONY was formed out of that part of Hickory, in 1852, that lay on the west side of the river Allegheny. GREEN was organized out of parts of Tionesta and Hickory, February 28, 1872. BARNETT was made a township January 8, 1854. HowE township was called Tionesta originally in 1852, and the name was changed to Howe by the Court of Quarter Sessions in 1869. JENKS township was erected January, 1852. The last three were originally taken from Jefferson county. 738 FRANKLIN COUNTY. BY BENJAMIN M. NEAD, CHAMBERSBURG. N the 27th of January, 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. For a quarter of a century the county of Cumberland thus constituted, remained intact, when the wants of the steadily thriving "dwellers on Conococheague," the inhabitants of the southwestern portion of Cumberland, led them to petition the General Assembly of 1784 that their territory might be named a new county, with concomitant privileges, setting forth in glowing terms the hardships they were compelled to endure in traveling the long distance from their homes to the seat of justice in Carlisle; the trouble they had in collecting their debts; and the license given to "felons and misdoers " by the difficulties in the way of conveying then and their accusers to the seat of justice. In compliance therewith, the General Assembly, on the 9th of April, 1784, passed an act allowing certain the southern and western portions of Cumberland, marked by the following metes and bounds, to be erected into a new county, to be named " Franklin," in honor of lBeiijuniin Franklin: "Beginning on York county line in the South mountain, at the intersection of the line between Lurgan and Hopewell townships, in Cumberland county; thence by line of Lurgan township (leaving Shippensburg to the eastward of the same) to the line of Fannet township; thence by the line of the last mentioned township, including the same to the line of Bedford county (now Fulton); thence by line of same county to Maryland line; thence by said line to line of York county (now Adams); thence by line of the same county along the South mountain to the place of beginning." In 1790, some doubt arising as to the correct boundary between Cumberland and Franklin counties, the Assembly, by an act dated the 29th of March in that year, re-adjusted the lines by running a new one so as to leave the entire tract of land owned by Edward Shippen, and upon which Shippensburg stands, in Cumberland county. On the 29th of March, 179S, a portion of the then county of Bedford, known as the " Little Cove," was detached from that county and annexed to Franklin, to be a part of Montgomery township. The c,unty thus erected has for its greatest length, from north to south, a distance of 38 miles; from east to west, 34 miles, containing an area of 734 square miles, or 469,730 acres, with a population, in 1790, of 15,655; and in 1870, of 45,365, being an increase of population in eighty years of nearly 30,000. By the terms of the act establishing the county of Franklin, James Maxwell, James McCalmont, Josiah Crawford, David Stoner, and John Johnston were appointed trustees on behalf of the county, and were directed to take assurance 739 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. of and for two lots of ground in the town of Chambersburg, or Chamberstown, in the township of Guilford, within the said county of Franklin, for seats of a court house and of a county gaol or prison for said county. For the purpose of constructing these buildings the county commissioners were directed to levy a tax and raise a sum not exceeding one thousand two hundred pounds, said sum to be paid over to the trustees of the county, upon their giving sufficient security, and by them to be expended for the purpose named. The court house erected at this time was "a two-storied brick building, surmounted by a tall conical cupola and a spire. In the belfry was suspended a small bell of Spanish make-an ancient storied bell. Long years before it reached the exalted position which it occupied on the court house, full many a time had it waked lazy monk and drowsy nun to their matin prayers, or attuned its silvery notes to the sound of their vesper hymn as it rose on the quiet air, and died away in musical cadence through the shadowy valleys around some old convent.... The whole of the ground floor of this building was occupied by the court hall-a rather spacious room, paved with brick, well lighted, but poorly ventilated, heated by ten-plate stoves, so large that uncut cord wood was used as fuel. The judges' bench was at the north side of the room, flanked on the right by an elevated box, where the grand jury sat, and on the left by the traverse jury box. In front a railing enclosed a space which was reserved for the members of the bar. In the upper portion of the building were several rooms used as offices." By the same act the establishment of courts of common pleas and quarter sessions was also regulated. They were to meet "the Tuesday preceding the Fayette county courts." The court of quarter sessions was to sit three days only, at each session, and no longer. All suits begun in Cumberland county were to be disposed of in that county, just as though no division had been made. The first court of Franklin county was held on the 15th of September, 1784, in the stone house erected on the north-west corner of the "Diamond," or public square, in the borough of Chambersburg, in 1770, by J. Jack-an old landmark up to the destruction of the town by confederate cavalry on the 30th of July, 1864, when it was burned, and with it the bodies of two Confederate soldiers, who met their fate within its walls at the hands of the then owner. This court was held before Humphrey Fullerton, Thomas Johnston, and James Findley, Esqrs. Edward Crawford, Jr., commissioned September 10th, 1784, was prothonotary and clerk. The second court was held on the 2d of December, 1784, in the same building, above stairs, before William McDowell, Humphrey Fullerton, and James Findley, Esqs. Jeremiah Talbot, commissioned October 20th, 1784, was sheriff. The following named persons sat as a grand jury: James Poe, Henry Pawling, William Allison, William McDowell, Robert Wilkins, John McConnell, John McCarny, John Ray, John Jack, Jr., John Dickson, D. McClintock, Joseph Chambers, and Joseph Long. On the 11 th of March, 1809, the counties of Cumberland, Bedford, Franklin, Huntingdon, and Adams, were erected into the southern district of the Supreme Court, and the term was held at Chambersburg during the first two weeks of October annually. The annual session was limited to two weeks, but power was granted to the court to hold adjourned sessions, if necessary. At the time of 740 FRANKLIN COUNTY. the organization of this district, William Tilghman was chief justice of the Supreme Court, and Jasper Yeates and Hugh H. Brackenridge, associate justices. The first general election was held in Franklin county on the second Tuesday of October, 1784, when the independent freemen of the newly formed county of Franklin met in the town of Chambersburg and cast their votes for a councillor; three representatives to serve in the ninth general Assembly of Pennsylvania, to meet in Philadelphia, on Monday, the 25th of October, 1784; a sheriff and a coroner. James McLean was chosen councillor; James Johnston, Abraham Smith, and James McCalmont were selected representatives; Jeremiah Talbot, sheriff; and John Rhea, coroner. The difficulties incident to having but one election district were remedied by an increase of districts as circumstances required. By act of Assembly of the 13th of September, 1785, the county was divided into two districts. The township of Fannett was one, and the remainder of the county the other. The votes of Fannett township were polled at the house of the " widow Elliott," and the rest of the county at the court house in the borough of Chambersburg. On the 10th of September, 1787, four districts were formed; the first district comprised the townships of Guilford, Franklin (?) Hamilton, Letterkenny, Lurgan, and Southampton, voting at the court house; the second, the township of Fannett, voting at the house of the widow Elliott; the third, the townships of Antrim and Washington, voting at the house of George Clark in Green Castle; the fourth, the townships of Peters and Montgomery, voting at the house of James Crawford in Mercersburg. In 1807 the county of Franklin contained eight election districts, and was entitled to three members of the House of Representatives, and one senator. At present writing, 1876, the county has twenty-eight voting districts, and has a representation of three members of the house, and in conjunction with luntingdon county, one State senator. The principal part of Franklin county lies in the Cumberland Valley proper, between the South and Blue mountains. The western portion of the county is divided into three small but highly cultivated valleys by t e Blue, the Dividing, and the Tuscarora mountains. Rogers gives the following description of these valleys; Burns' valley is a small area lying between the "Round Top" and the Dividing mountain, enclosed to the north-east by the union of these and opening into Path valley to the south-west. It is separated from North Horse valley (in Perry county) by a knob of Round Top, which, ending south of Concord, the two valleys unite into one, and are called, from this point south-westward, " Path valley." Path valley, a pleasing valley, is bounded on the north-west by the Tuscarora mountains. Its north-east extremity for six or seven miles is bounded on the south-east by the Dividing mountain, which separates it from Amberson's valley. The Dividing mountain is synclinal, and ends five miles north-east of Fannettsburg, where the two valleys unite under the name of Path valley. From the union of Amberson's valley with it, it is bounded on the south-east by a high straight mountain of the Levant sandstones, without name, which terminates near Loudon, in Jordon's Knob. This mountain and the Tuscarora mountain gradually converge, so that the south-west extremity of Path valley is narrow where it opens into the great Appalachian valley, about Loudon. The length of HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Path valley is twenty-two miles. Between the Dividing mountain and the Tuscarora it is nearly three miles wide, and south-west of the end of the Dividing mountain it is wider. Toward the south-west it is much narrower, the distance between the mountain bases being about a mile and a half. The waters draining Path valley pass out in opposite directions to the Conococheague and Tuscarora creeks. The main portion of Amberson's valley lies between the Dividing mountain and a mountain called the Kittatinny, which is a prolongation of the south-east dipping stiata of Bower's mountain. Two synclinal knobs of the Levant sandstone stand forward into the north-eastern end of Amberson's valley, and three subordinate little valleys, like so many fingers from a hand, extend between and on either side of the knobs. They are without names. In a line with the more south-eastern of tihe two knobs, and four miles south-west of it, is a mountain summit called Clark's Knob. A narrow and unnamed valley extends between Clark's Knob and Kittatinny or Bower's mountain. By the presence of Clark's Knob the south-west portion of Anberson's valley is much narrowed between that knob and thile D)ividing mountain. The width of Amberson's valley, between the Kittatinny and Dividing mountain, is a mile and a half, and between the latter and Clark's Knob and the mountains extending from this south-westward, it is only half a mile wide. It opens into Path valley by the ending of the Dividing mountain, being eight or nine miles in length. On the east side of the county, the South mountain extends for many miles. Portions of this range are nine hundred feet above the middle of the valley. It consists principally of hard, white sandstone. The mountain ranges in the north and north-west are composed of the gray and reddish sandstone. The valley between the mountains l)presents a diversified aspect. The greater part is limestone land. The soil here is unsurpassed in fertility, and highly cultivated farms, iml)roved with neat and elegant buildings, are to be seen on every hand. Franklin county is well supplied with water. The streams are numerous but not large, fed by copious and never failing mountain runs, they afford abundant motive power for the many mills and manufactories, the forges and furnaces which utilize the products and hidden wealth of the county. The Conodogwinit, rising by several branches in the north-east of the county, flows eastward through Cumberland. The Conococlheague, Indian name Gu-ne-uk-is-schick, meaning " Indeed a long way," the main branch of which rises in the South mountain, running a north-western course to Chambersburg, thence southward througLh Maryland, receiving several smaller tributaries, empties into the Potomac at Williamsport. The west branch of Conococheague rises near Path valley, flowing southward by Fannettsburg and Loudon, turning south-eastward, empties into the main branch two miles north of the State line. Antietam creek, consisting of two main branches, both rising in the south-east l)part of the county, passing through Maryland, empties into the Potomac. There are many smaller streams in the county, viz., Falling Spring, Black creek, Brown's run, Rocky spring, Dickey's run, Campbell's run. Marsh run. The C)ommonwealth of Pennsylvania boasts no more productive region within its borders than the Cumberland Valley, and no section of this valley under the shadow of its sentry mountains is richer in agricultural, mineral, and manufac742 FRANKLIN COUNTY. turing resources than the fertile, fields, rugged hills, and busy towns of Franklin. The productions of an agricultural character are such as are common to the counties of the Cumberland Valley, viz., wheat, rye, corn, oats, etc. Very little wheat is exported, most of it being mian'factured into flour, which finds a ready market in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. The mineral resources have been moderately well developed. Iron ore of good quality abounds in different parts of the county, principally along the base of the South mountain, supplying not only the furnaces of Franklin, but many of those along the line of the Reading railroad, and at other points. In the western part of the county, Franklin, Carrick, and Richmond furnaces are in active operation. In the eastern part of the county, Mont Alto furnace, the property of George B. Wiestling, is situated on a branch of the Antietam creek, about eight miles from Chambersburg, near the foot of the outer sandstone ridge of the South mountain. This furnace is supplied from extensive excavations lying about a fourth of a mile north-east of it, on a declivity of the first sandstone ridg(e. The ore occurs, as in other similarly situated mines, in the loose soil of the mountain side in nests and irregular layers, varying greatly in their dimensions, but the whole deposit seems to be of prodigious magnitude. The progress and development of the mineral interests of the county have been very marked during the past decade. Railroad branches now join Richmond and Mont Alto with the main line of the Cumberland Valley, and trains laden with ore and manufactured metal, daily wend their way to market. Franklin county, strictly speaking, is an agricultural and not a manufacturing county, but in preparing her own products for market, manufactories have sprung up and rap)idly increased, and their present prosperous condition gives fair promise for the future. Of flouring and grist mills the county contains one hundred; saw mills, one hundred and twenty; fulling mills. eight; woolen factories, ten. Straw boards are manufactured at the mills of lHeyser & Son, in Chambersburg, and a good quality of printing paper at thie Iollywell mills, near that town. Since the completion of the Cumberland Valley railroad in 1834, and its branch roads later, the facilities for the transportation of the l)produce of the county to the most distant markets have been unsurpassed. This railroad spans the valley from the Susquehanna to the Potomac, and forms the connecting link between the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads. Its shop$ are situated in Chambersburg, and are among the most noticeable industries of the town, affording labor to a large number of workmen. As late as 1748 there were "many Indians" within the limits of Franklin county, but these were "well disposed and very obliging, and not disinclined towards Christians when not made drunk by strong drink." So wrote Rev. Michael Schlatter, but it is doubtful if there were any save strolling bands of natives from the Ohio at the time of the organization of Cumberland county two years later. The first settlers of Franklin county were Scotch-Irish, many of whose descendants yet remain, but the larger proportion migrated west or south, giving way before the German element coming from the eastern counties of the State. Among the early pioneers of the former class are the names of Allison, Armstrong, Alexander, Brown, Baird, Campbell, Crawford, Culbhertson, Caldwell, Chambers, Dunbar, Duncan, Douglas, Davies, Dickey, Findley, Graham, 743 HIST'ORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Hamilton, Henderson, Irwin, Jack, Johnston, Kirkpatrick, Magaw, McKibben, McCoy, McDowell, McLanahan, McBride, Murray, Patterson, Pauling, Reynolds, Reed, Semple, Stevens, Scott, and Stoner. These located here between the years 1728 and 1740. So steadily did this settlement increase, that at the period of the French and Indian war it is estimated that no less than three thousand people were located within the limits of the present Franklin county. It seems to be a matter of dispute at what time the Chambers settled on the Conococheague. It is not probable that Joseph and Benjamin Chambers located at the Falling Spring earlier than 1730. They had previously built at Fort Hunter, on the Susquehanna, but an accidental fire consuming their mill on the Fishing creek, they wandered westward, finally locating at the point named, erecting a log house, and eventually a saw and grist mill. It is stated that Benjamin Chambers had, when living east of the Susquehanna, been attracted to the spot by a description he received from a hunter, who had observed the fine waterfall in one of his excursions through the valley. From his acquaintance with the art and business of a millwright, and the use and value of water-power, his attention was directed to advantageous situations for water-works. He maintained a friendly intercourse with the Indians in his vicinity, who were attached to him; with them he traded, and had so much of their confidence and respect that they did not injure him or offer to molest him. On one occasion, being engaged in haymaking in his meadow, he observed some Indians secretly stalking in the thickets around the meadow. Suspecting some mischievous design, he gave them a severe chase, in the night, with some dogs, across the creek and through the woods, to the great alarm of the Indians, who afterwards acknowledged they had gone to the meadow for the purpose of taking from Benjamin his watch, and carrying off a negro woman whom hlie owned, and who, they thought, would be useful to raise corn for them; but they declared that they would not have hurt the colonel. He used his influence with his acquaintances to settle in his neighborhood, directing their attention to desirable and advantageous situations for farms. As the western Indians, after Braddock's defeat in 1755, became troublesome, and made incursions east of the mountains, killing and making prisoners of many of the white inhabitants, Colonel Chambers, for the security of his family and his neighbors, erected where the borough of Chambersburg now is, a large stone dwelling-house, surrounded by the water from Falling Spring. The dwelling-house, for greater security against the attempts of the Indians to fire it, was roofed with lead. The dwellings and the mills were surrounded by a stockade fort. This fort, with the aid of fire-arms, a blunderbuss and swivel, was so formidable to the Indian parties who passed the country, that it was but seldom assailed, and no one sheltered by it was killed or wounded; although in the country around, at different times, those who ventured out on their farms were surprised and either slaughtered or carried off prisoners, with all the horrors and aggravations of savage warfare. From this time onward the Indian depredations were horrifying, and the record of the three or four subsequent years is one of death and desolation. Benjamin Chambers, writig from Fallng Spring, on Sabbath morning, November 2, 1755, to the inhabitants of the lower part of the county of Cumberland, says: " If you intend to go to the assistance of your neighbors, you need wait no longer for the certainty of the news. The 744 FRANKLIN COUNTY. Great Cove is destroyed. James Campbell left his company last night, and went to the fort at Mr. Steel's meeting-house, and there saw some of the inhabitants of the Great Cove, who gave this account, that as they came over the hill they saw their houses in flames." A few days after Great Cove had been laid waste, and forty-seven persons of ninety-three settlers were killed or taken captive, the merciless Indians burnt the house of widow Cox, near McDowell's mill, in Cumberland (now Franklin) county, and carried off her two sons and another man. In February, 1756, two brothers, Richard and John Craig, were taken by nine Delaware Indians, from a plantation two miles from McDowell's mill. In February, 1756, a party of Indians made marauding incursions into Peters township. They were discovered on Sunday evening, by one Alexander, near the house of Thomas Barr. He was pursued by the savages, but escaped and alarmed the fort at McDowell's mill. Early on Monday morning, a party of fourteen men of Captain Croghan's company, who were at the mill, and about twelve other young men, set off to watch the motion of the Indians. Near Barr's house they fell in with fifty, and sent back for a reinforcement from the fort. The young lads proceeded by a circuit to take the enemy in the rear, whilst the soldiers did attack them in front. But the impetuosity of the soldiers defeated their plan. Scarce had they got within gun-shot, they fired upon the Indians, who were standing around the fire, and killed several of them at the first discharge. The Indians returned fire-killed one of the soldiers, and compelled the rest to retreat. The party of young men, hearing the report of fire-arms, hastened up; finding the Indians on the ground which the soldiers had occupied, fired upon the Indians with effect; but concluding the soldiers had fled, or were slain, they also retreated. One of their number, Barr's son, was wounded, would have fallen by the tomahawk of an Indian, had not the savage been killed by a shot from Armstrong, who saw him running upon the lad. Soon after soldiers and young men being joined by a reinforcement from the mill, again sought the enemy, who, eluding the pursuit, crossed the creek near William Clark's, and attempted to surprise the fort; but their design was discovered by two Dutch lads, coming from foddering their master's cattle. One of the lads was killed, but the other reached the fort, which was immediately surrounded by the Indians, who, from a thicket, fired many shots at the men in the garrison who appeared above the wall, and returned the fire as often as they obtained sight of the enemy. At this time, two men crossing to the mill, fell into the middle of the assailants, but made their escape to the fort, though fired at three times. The party at Barr's house now came up, and drove the Indians through the thicket. In their retreat they met five men from Mr. Hoop's, riding to the mill-they killed one of these and wounded another severely. The sergeant at the fort having lost two of his men, declined to follow the enemy until his commander, Mr. Crawford, who was at Hoop's, should return, and the snow falling thick, the Indians had time to burn Mr. Barr's house, and in it consumed their dead. On the morning of the 2d of March, Mr. Crawford, with fifty men, went in quest of the enemy, but was unsuccessful in his search. In April following (1756), McCord's fort on the Conococheague, was burnt by the Indians, and twenty-seven persons were killed or captured. William Mitchell, an inhabitant of Conococheague, had collected a number of reapers to cut down his grain; 745 BISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. having gone out to the field, the reapers all laid down their guns at thle fence, and set inll to reap. The Indians suffered them to reap) on for some time, till they got out inll the open field, they secured their gulls, killed an(l cAtptured every one. On July 26, 1756, the Indians killed Joseph Martin, took captive John IlMcCuil. lough and James McCullough, in the Conocoeliheague settlement. August 27, 1756, there was a great slaughter, wherein the lndiaiii kille1 thirty-nine persois, near the mouth of the Conococheague creek. Early in November followinL, some Indians were only a few miles hfrom McDowell's mill, where they killed the following named soldiers: James McDonald, William McDonald, lBarthololo ew McCafferty, and Anthiony McQuoid; and carried off Captain James Corkeim:md William Cornwall. The following inhabitants were killed: John Cullertson, Samuel Perry, Hugh Kerrell, John Woods and mother-in-law. and Eliz.beth Archer. Persons missing: Four children belonging to John Archer; Saw:ul Neily, a boy; and James McQuoid, a child. The following are the names of persons killed and taken captive on the Concocheague, on the 23rd of April, 1757: John Martin and WVilliam Blair were killed, and Patrick McClelland wounded, who died of his wounds, netir M.axwell's fort; May 12, Johln Martin and Andrew Paul, both old men, were c:iptured; June 24, Alexander Miller was killed, and two of his dauglhters, 1'rom Conococheagne; July 27, Mr. McKissen wounded, and his two sons captur.l, at the South mountain; August 15, William Manson and his son killed near C: o,sss fort; September 26, Robert Rush and John McCracken, with others, killed:andl taken captive near Chambersburg; November 9, John Woods, his wife a:,d mother-in-law, and John Archer's wife were killed, four children taken. amind nmne killed, near McDowell's fort; May 21, 1758, Joseph Gall.dy was killed. his wit'e and one child taken captive. In 1763, the upper part of Cumberland (F'ilklin county) was invaded by savages, who murdered, set fire to houses, barn, hay, and corn, and everything combustible. Most of the inhabitants fled, some to Shippensburg, some to Carlisle, some fled into York county with their families, and with their cttle. On the 26th of Ju ily, 1764, the Indians murdered a school master, named Brown, about three miles north of Green Castle, and killed ten small children, and sclped and left for (lead a young lad, Archibald MeCull-ugh, who recovered, and lived f,,r many years. Bard, in his " Narrative of Ca:1,tivit yv," says, " It was remarkable that, with flew exceptions, the scholars were mnuch averse to going to school that morning. And the account given by McCullough is that two of the scholars informed Mr. Brown that on th ir way they had seen Indians. The master paid no attention to what had been told him. lie ordered them to their books. Soon afterwards two old Indians and a boy rushed i, to the door. The master seeing them, prayed the Indians only to take his li(*... and sp,re the chihldrn; but unfeelingly. the two old Indians stood at the door, whilst the boy entered the house, and with a piece of wood in the form of an Indian maul, killed the master and the scholars, after which all of them were scalped. On the 4th of August, 143, several citizens repaired to the farm of Christian Kozer, about three miles north of Green Castle, in Antrim township, to the spot where Brown and his scholars were buried in one grave. Digging down to the depth of four feet, they found some human bones, buttons, and what appeared to be an iron tobacco box. 746 FRANKLIN COUNTY. The foregoing are but a few of the instances of savage cruelty which for a period of tenll years reigned over this section of country-scenes at which we in the p)resent days of peace and )prosl)erity shudider to contemplate. At one p)eriod nearly the entire country was depopulated, the treacherous and blood-thirsty Indian satiating his vengeance in the lives of the settlers and in the destruction of their prop.rty. The successive exp)e(litions of Bouquet, to which we have referred, finally brought quiet to this section, and with the emigration further west, the frontiers were extended beyond the Alleghenies. Settlers, therefore, filled in rapidly, and when the thunder-tones of the Revolution of 1776 awoke a new nation to life, this portion of the then Cumberland county had many strong arms to strike for liberty. Captain Hustonu organized a company in West Conococheague, and when about marching to the front, Rev. I)Dr. King addressed the company. An extract from his address shows the spirit of the man and of the citizen: "The case is plain; life must be hazarded, or all is gone. You must go and fight, or send your humble submission, and bow as a beast to its burden or as an ox to the slaughter. The King of Great Britain has declared us rebels-a capital crime. Submission, therefore, consents to the rope or the axe. Liberty is doubtless gone; none could imagine that a tyrant king should )e more favorable to conquered rebels than hlie was to loyal, humble, petitioning subjects. No! no! If ever a people lay in chains, we nmust, if our enemies carry their point against us, and oblige us to unconclitional sublmission." Other compalnies were organized, and out of a population of about three thousand, within the l)present limits of Franklin county, at least five hundred troops were furnished to the army of Washington. So, too, when the war of 1812-14 was declared, Franklin played an important part. Eight companies of sol(liers in all were organized in the county; Chambersburg furnished four, Green Castle, Mereersbuirg, Path Valley, and Waynesboro, each one. One company, Captain Jeremiah Snider's, marched to the Canada frontier, and wintered at Buffalo, 1812-13. Capain Henry Reoges' company marched to Meadville in September, 1812. The coml)anies of Captains Samuel P. Culbertson and John Findley marched to the relief of Baltimore in 1814. We now come to a period in which Franklin county bore an important part, as being the theatre of the several invasions of Pennsylvania by the Confederate forces in the war for the Union. To each of these we shall make special reference. STUART'S RAID-1862. Although lying almost within the confines of secession, Franklin county was, during the late war between the North and South, loyal to the Union. No braver soldiers breathed the air of lnttle on a Sountliern ficld than were her sons who went to swell the ranks of thie Armn of the l'otomav an(l the Cumberland, many of them never to return to mark upon their own harthstones the desolating touch of the hand of war. After the war was fully inaugurated, it became patunt to every one that the Cumberland Valley, and by its geographical situation, the county of Franklin, 747 GENERAL HISTORY. to him by the Assembly, the Governori under date August 19th, 1734, wrote to the justices of the counties of Chester, Lancaster, and of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, as follows: " You are not, I believe, insensible how much the whole country has been disappointed in the just hopes which had been entertained of seeing a final period put to those long depending disputes between this government and that of Maryland, touching their respective boundaries, by the execution of the solemn agreement concluded between the Proprietaries of each. It is, however, no small satisfaction to me, that I can now acquaint you that this agreement, with the proceedings of the commissioners thereon, having been laid before his Majesty's attorney and solicitor general, we have had the pleasure of lately receiving their opinion, that the agreement still remains valid and binding on both Proprietaries, although their commissioners, by reason of difference in sentiments, have not carried it into execution. Now, as the northern bounds, formerly set by the Lord Baltimore to himself, differ not much from those lately agreed upon, I know not how we can judge better or with more certainty, of any bounds by which we can limit our present jurisdiction, than near the place where it is known they will fall when the lines shall be actually run. "In the meantime, that a stop may be put to any further insults on the people of this government, and encroachments on lands within the bounds of the same, I am again to renew to you those pressing instances I have repeatedly made, that agreeable to the duty of your stations, you exert your utmost endeavors for preserving peace throughout your county, and protecting all the inhabitants in their just and right possessions, in the legal and necessary defence of which every person ought to be encouraged to appear with boldness, and to be assured of receiving all the countenance that lawful authority can give. And as the late disturbances have been in a great measure owing to the unjust attempts of those who, pretending right to, or claiming disputed lands, under that pretence, have come many miles into this Province, and with force possessed themselves of lands for which they can have no lawful grant from any other persons but our Honorable Proprietors only, and have likewise committed very great violences upon sundry of our inhabitants, you are to give strict orders for apprehending and securing all such who have been principals or accessories therein, as well as those who hereafter shall presume to offer any injury to the persons or professions of his Majesty's peaceable subjects, or encroach on any lands within the known and reputed limits of your county, that they may be brought to condign punishment. But as in the year 1724, it was agreed' that Vor avoiding all manner of contention or difference between the inhabitants of the two Provinces, no person or persons should be disturbed or molested in their possessions they then held on either side,' you are desired still to have a particular regard to those entitled to the benefit of that agreement, while they behave themselves peaceably. "And to the end that these directions be punctually observed and complied with, you are to order the sheriff of the county, with his officers, frequently to visit your borders, and those parts where either late disturbances have happened, or anything to the prejudice of the people is liit to be attempted, giving all needful assistance wherever it may be requisite. I should likewise promise myHISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. would be the objective point in the event of an inroad of the Southern army into Pennsylvania. Easy of access from the Potomac, with her mountain fastnesses affording safe hiding-places, and her fertile fields fresh foraging ground for guerrilla cavalry, it was not long until a successful raid right into the heart of the county confirmed into a dreadful fact that which before was scarcely recognized as a possibility. Pen cannot portray the feelings of the people of Franklin county from that time until the close of the war. The inhabitants, especially of the rural districts, lived in almost constant dread of the approach of some raiding party. Business of all kinds was paralyzed. Military companies for home protection were formed on every hand, and the trying ordeals to which the people were subjected were met with a bravery and a cheerfulness of spirit which, to any one acquainted with the facts, gave the lie to certain unauthenticated statements in the press of sister States in the North, that the people of Franklin county were cowards and Southern sympathizers and unworthy of governmental support. The military situation of the border, in general, and the then unprotected condition of Franklin county favoring, the first Confederate raid into Pennsylvania was planned and successfully executed on the 10th of October, 1862, by Generals J. E. B. Stuart and Wade Haml)ton, with a following of about two thousand men. Crossing the Potomac river, this force, by hurried marches, penetrated into Pennsylvania, reaching the vicinity of Chambersburg, the county seat of Franklin county, on the 10th of October, near evening. With the fall of night came a shower of drizzling rain, in the midst of which the sound of a bugle was heard on " New England Hill," heralding the app)roach of a squad of officers under a flag of truce, who rode into the public square, or " Diamond," and demanded the surrender of the town in the name of the Confederate States of America. There being no representative of military authority in the town to treat with the visitors, and withal no warrant for resistance, the civil authorities, represented by the burgess, formally delivered up the place into their custody, and in an incredibly short time the streets of the town were filled with their first, but by no means last, instalment of gray-coated soldiery; the tramp of their horses, the rattling of their sabres and spurs, and the dull thud of their axes busied with the demolishment of store doors, and the felling of telegraph poles, madle sorry music for the pent-up inhabitants, who had betaken themselves within doors when the presence of their Southern visitors became an established fact. Chainmbersburg could scarcely have been in a worse condition for a raid than it was at this time. Entirely divested of any military protection, with a large quantity of military stores within its confines, it lay at the mercy of the foe. The work of the raiders during the night was confined to the ransacking of stores, and the demolishing of the shops and office of the Cumberland Valley railroad and the office of the Western Union Telegraph company. The coup de grdce of the expedition-the attack upon the military stores-was reserved for the next morning. These stores, which were placed in the large brick warehouse of Messrs. Wunderlich & Nead, near the northern end of the town, consisted of a large quantity of ammunition, spherical and conical shells, signal rockets and lights, and small arms of every description, which had a short time before been captured from the Confederate General, Longstreet; and in addition about two 748 FRANKLIN COUNTY. hundred stands of navy revolvers and cavalry sabres, entirely new, which had been stored there by the Federal government, to equip two companies of cavalry which were then being raised in the county. Daylight discovered to the raiders the whereabouts of the government stores. An entrance into the warehouse was easily cffocted. All moveable property, such as pistols, sabres, etc., was quickly transferred to the saddles of their horses, ready for transportation, when the work of destroying the remainder immediately began. New lumber was taken from a yard near by, cut in pieces, saturated with kerosene oil, and fired. The flame soon reached the powder, when explosion after explosion took place like a quick cannonading, alarming the country for miles around, and impressing the affrighted farmers with the belief that a battle was in progress in town. The warehouse was blown to atoms; the adjoining buildings were fired, when the raiders took a hasty departure, cutting across the country in a south-easterly direction to the Potomac river and thence into Virginia, taking with them a large quantity of spoils, including some twelve hundred horses. The inhabitants of Chambersburg were left in a terrified condition, many of them seeking in their cellars safety from the flying shells, and others endangering their lives to save their property from burning. The fire, however, in the main, was restrained to the neighborhood of the warehouse and the depot buildings, lying contiguous, where the damage done did not fall far short of $150,000. LEE'S INVASION-1863. The summer of'sixty-three brought a critical period in the existence of the Southern Confederacy. The star of secession was at its culmination. Lee's army was never in better spirits, and on the other hand the memory of the fateful field of Chancellorsville was still fresh in the minds of Hooker's men, whose ranks were daily being decimated by the departure of the short-term regiments. Forgetful of the disasters of the Maryland campaign, the southern press and people clamored unceasingly for a coup de main that would transfer the seat of war to free soil, and thereon, whilst the starving legions of the south revelled in the plenty of the rich fields of Pennsylvania, conquer a peace. Wooed by this siren song, in the face of his better judgment, Lee planned his northern campaign, and by a military movement that has scarcely an equal, transferred his whole army across the border, only to meet his Waterloo at Gettysburg. At the inception of the movement, the surprised and baffled Hooker stood aghast, and the affrighted Halleck, in the midst of his cogitations over a change in the leadership of the army of the Potomac. stopped and trembled, while the smouldering excitement of the inhabitants of the southern border of Pennsylvania grew into a mighty panic, which shook the Capitol City of the Keystone State with fear, and rang the alarm bells of her metropolis until old Indepl)endence Hall re-echoed with their sound. Hasty preparations for the defence of the invaded State were at once made by the National, assisted by the State authorities. A new department, named the "Department of the Susquehanna," was formed, and General D. N. Couch assumed command on the 12th of June, with headquarters at Chambersburg, 749 HISTORY OF PENIS YL VANIA. Franklin county. A proclamation calling upon the citizens to turn out in defence of their State was issued by Governor Curtin, and troops were enrolled and equipped as rapidly as possible. Then in rapid succession, followed on the 13th the fight at Winchester between the forces of General R. 11. Milroy, the only barrier to Lee's approach, and the rebel General Ewell; the retreat of Milroy; the occupation in succession of Martinsburg and Hagerstown by the rebel General Rodes on the 14th, and the climax of the excitement in Chambersburg on that memorable Sunday evening, when General Couch removed his headquarters to Carlisle. The following description of the occupation of Chambersburg by the Confederate General Jenkins, the advance guard of Lee's army, is taken mainly from the Franklin Repository of June, 18(3: " On Monday morning, June 15th, the flood of rumors from the Potomac fully confirmed the advance of the rebels, and the citizens of Chambersburg and vicinity, feeling unable to resist the rebel columns, commenced to make )prompt preparation for the movement of stealable prol)erty. Nearly every horse, good, bad, and indifferent, was started for the mounta ins as early on Monday as possible, and the negroes darkened the different roads northward for hours, loaded with household eflfects, sable babies, etc., and horses and wagons and cattle crowded every avenue to places of safety. About nine o'clock in the morning the advance of Milroy's retreating wagon-train dashed into town attended by a few cavalry and several affrighlited wagon-masters, all of whom declared that the rebels were in hot pursuit; that a large portion of the train was cal)tured, and that the enemy was about to enter Chambersburg. This startling information comillng from men in uniform, who had fought valiantly until the enemy had got nearly in sight, naturally gave a fresh impetus to the citizens, and the skedaddle commenced in magnificent earnestness and exquisite confusion. " Oa Monaity moraing the rebAl Gen~rtl Jenkins, with about one thousand eight hundred mounted inflantry, entered Green Castle, Franklin county, a town five miles north of the Maryland line. and ten miles south of Chambersburg, in the direct route of the rebels. After a careful reconnoisance, this town being defenceless, was occup)ie:l and rap)idlly divested of everything moveable, contraband and otherwise, which struck the fincy of the freebooting visitors. " Evidently under the impression that forces would be thrown in their way at an early hour, the rebels pushed forward for Chambersburg. About eleven o'clock on Monday night they arrived at the southern end of the townv, and again the streets of Chambersburg resounded to the clatter of rebel cavalry, and a second time the town fell their easy prey. This visit continued three (days, and was marked by a general l)lundering of the town and vicinage. Horses seemed to be considered contraband of war, anJ were taken without pretence of comp.msation; but other articles were deemed( legitimate sul)jects of commerce, even between enemies, and they were generally paid for after a fashion. True, the system of Jenkins would b considered: a little informal in business circles, but it was his way, and the people agreed to it perhaps, to some extent, because of the novelty, but mainly because of the necessity of the thing. But Jenkins was liberal-eminently liberal. He did'nt stop to higgle about a few odd pennies in mnaking a bargain. 750 FRANKLIN COUNTY. " Doubtless our merchants and druggists would have preferred greenbacks to Conflederate scrip, that is never p)iyable, and is worth just its weight in old paper; but Jenkins had'nt greenbacks, and he had Confederate scrip,and such as he had lhe gave unto them. Thus he dealt largely in our place. To avoid the jealousies growing out of rivalry in business he patronized all the merchants, and hought pretty much everything he could conveniently use and carry. Some people, with the antiqu:ted ideas of business, might call it stealing to take goods and pay for them in bogus money; but Jenkins called it business, and, for the time being, wimat Jenkins called business, was business. In this way hlie robbed all the stores, drug stores, etc., more or less, and supplied himself with many articles of great value to him. ' Jenkins. like most doctors, did not seem to have relished his own prescriptions. Several horses had been captured by some of our boys, and notice was given by the Confederate commanding that they must be surrendered or the town would be destroyed. The city fathers, generally known as the town council, were appealed to, in order to avert the impending fate threatened us. One of the horses and some of the equipments were found and returned, but there was still a balance in favor of Jenkins. We do not know who audited the account, but it was finally adjusted, by the coun(il appropriating the sum of nine hundred dollars to p:ty the claim. Doubtless Jenkins hoped for nine hundred dollars in 6greenmcks,' but hlie had flooded the town with Confederate scrip, pronouncing it better than United States currency, and the council evidently believed him; and desiting to be accommodating with a conqueror, decided to favor him b)y the paymvent of his bill in C(onfederate scrip. It was so d(lone, and Jenkins got just nine hundred dollars worth of nothing for his trouble. Ile took it, however, without a murmur, and doubtless considered it a clever joke. " Sore was the disappointment of Jenkins at the general exodus of horses from this place. It limited his booty immensely. Fully five hundred had been taken from Chambersburg and vicinity to the mountains, and Jenkins' plunder was thus made just so much less. But hlie determined to make up for it by stealing all the arms in the town. Ie, therefore, issued an order requiring the citizens to bring him all the arms they had, public or private, within two hours, and search and terrible vengeance were threatened in case of disobedience. Many of our citizens complied with the order, and a committee of our people was appointed to take a list of the l)ersons p)resenting arms. Of course very many did not comply, but enough did so to avoid a general search and probable sacking of the town. The arms were assorted-the indifferent destroyed and the good taken along. SThe route of Jenkins was through the most densely populated and wealthiest portion of the county. Fiom this point, on the 18th of June, he fell back to Gieen Castle and south of it, thence hlie proceeded to Mercersburg, from where a deltchment crossed the Cove mountain to AlcConnellsburg, and down the valley from there. The main body, however, was divided into plundering parties, and( scoured the whole southern portion of the county, spending several days in and about Green Castle and Waynesboro', and giving Welsh Run a pretty intimate visitation." On Tuesday, the 23rd of June, Chambersburg was again re-occupied by the HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. rebels under General Rodes, and the national troops, under the command of General Joseph Knipe, fell back toward Harrisburg. The forces of General Rodes were the vanguard of Lee's whole army, which was coming to pay more than a passing visit to the soil of Pennsylvania. Says an eye witness (Rev. B. B. Bausman), in his graphic description of the passage of the army: " For six days and five nights the legions of the south kept pouring through Main street. Columns and divisions of soldiers provokingly long, and immense lines of guns of various calibre, and army trains that seemed almost endless, passed before us like a weird, dream-like panorama. None but those who have witnessed such a migration have a correct idea of the vastness of an army of seventy thousand or eighty thousand men, with all their means of living and munitions of war. It was literally an out-pouring of Southern life and power, of the flower as well as of the dregs of their population. Some divisions were composed of noble warriors, able-bodied, of a fine bearing and presence, hosts of them educated, refined gentlemen, serving in the private ranks. Others rough, rude, insulting men, such as the' Louisiana Tigers,' and the Texans, who howled and whooped through the streets like wild beasts. But for the rigid rule of Lee's army, these fellows would have made our streets run with blood. Every day we expected the last to pass through, and still they came. "On Friday, the fourth day, he (Lee) came. Up to that time we knew not which way his army would turn-towards Gettysburg or Harrisburg. Hitherto they had turned both ways. He stopped in the Diamond, where the two roads fork. A single glance revealed him to be a man of mark, a leader of the host. Around him were gathered his generals, all on horseback, the two Hills, Longstreet, and others. Young looking men they were aside of the veteran, none of those named more than thirty-five or forty years of age. They had preceded him a day or two. Approaching their leader, they gracefully saluted him by faintly raising their hats or caps. The form of greeting was free and familiar, hardly such as we might have expected due to their great chief. lie had the poorest horse, the commonest and cheapest garments, the most unassuming, unmilitary exterior of the whole group. The poorest rider, too, he seemed to be. Rode as if very tired, as if riding of this slow plodding kind was a great burden to him. No wonder that an old man of his age should seem thus. His generals looked like earnest men, but perfectly at their ease, calm and collected, as if they were consulting about a proposed summer tour in the north. Their conversation was in a suppressed tone of voice. The horses seemed to feel the importance of the occasion, trying to stand very still and seemingly listening to every word that was said. It is a novel scene, which would furnish a fine subject for a painter. The central figure everybody scans with intense interest. Somehow, in spite of his unpleasant, his rebellious mission, I feel kindly towards the man, and cannot suppress a sense of admiration for his military genius. There he sits unarmed, and unsuspecting of personal peril. From many an open window a deadly ball might be sent through his heart. From this mixed crowd of southern and northern people, how easily a loyal enthusiast might lay the head of the Southern Confederacy low in death! He seems not to think of such a possible event. The whole group apparently is unconscious of any presence but their own. 752 FRANKLIN COUNTY. " With almost bated breath we watch for the close of their interview. Which way will he take his army; which way turn his sleepy-looking sorrel horse? Now his head is turned toward Harrisburg. At length the venerable rider and his generals salute; they retire to their divisions; he gently pulls the rein, turns his horse to the right toward Gettysburg, followed by his staff. Part of Lee's army went around by Carlisle and York. He tarried a day or two near Chambersburg. The best regulated armies are encumbered with plundering stragglers. Such hung on to Lee's army and took all they could lay hands upon. Hats were snatched from dignified heads, and boots pulled from feet unused to walking home unbooted." Such was Lee's army on the way to Gettysburg. How different their return. Where they demanded before, they begged now. Franklin county saw but little of the army on its retreat, comparatively speaking. Chambersburg was left to the right for prudential reasons, and cutting across the south-eastern portion of the county, Lee made good his escape into Maryland. McCAUSLAND'S FORAY AND BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG-1864. The deliberate sacking and burning of Chambersburg by the forces of McCausland and Johnston, on the 30th of July, 1864, is one of the darkest stains upon the pages of the record of the late rebellion. The cause assigned by the perpetrators of the act was that it was done in retaliation for property destroyed by Union troops in the valley of the Shenandoah. Yet it has been hinted that this was not the true cause of the act. That in the minds of certain Southern leaders there lurked an ill-suppressed hatred of the inhabitants of Chambersburg and vicinity, a feeling that did not extend to other towns in Pennsylvania, on account of an erroneous idea that Chambersburg and neighborhood had given tacit aid to John Brown, of Harper's Ferry notoriety, in his fanatical attempt at inciting the slaves of the South to insurrection against their masters. It will be remembered that for a short time Brown had hovered around Chambersburg, and had used the mountains in the vicinity as a sort of base of operations for the collection of arms, etc., but without the knowledge of the inhabitants, as is evidenced by the fact, that as soon as it was discovered, by an unlooked-for accident to one of the packages, that the goods being shipped to "Brown & Co.," in the " Cove mountain," contained arms, prompt notice was given to the State authorities. At a council held by the rebel officers outside of Chambersburg on the night of the 29th of July, the proceedings of which were overheard by a Union scout, it transpired that the town of Chambersburg had been specifically and irrevocably marked out for destruction by order of the rebel General Early, who was then miles away. The question under discussion by these officers was not whether the town should be destroyed-that was settled-but whether it should be burned that night or the following morning. A spark of humanity still glimmering in the breasts of his subordinate officers, caused a slight infringement of Early's peremptory order of destruction, and the town was sacked and burned by daylight, and the ill-fated inhabitants were spared the additional horrors of such an event shadowed by night. 2x 753 HISTORY OF PENYNSYL VANIA. How terrible an event this was for the people of Chambersburg may be gathered from the following account, condensed mainly from the Franklin Repository: The defeat of Crook and Averill, near Winchester, when pursuing the retreating rebels, was the first intimation given the border of another invasion, and even then little danger was apprehended, as Hunter's army was known to have been brought to Martinsburg and rested and reorganized, and the sixth and nineteenth corps were also known to be on the line of the Potomac. General Couch had no troops-not even an organized battalion-on the border. He had organized six or seven regiments of one hundred days men, but as fast as they were office ed and armed they were forwarded to Washington, in obedience to orders from - ___ the authorities. He was ... _.. _-- left, therefore, with no _- - - -_ _force whatever to defend -. the border. S- On Thursday, the 28th .of July, the rebels re S crossed the Potomac at three different points-Mc Causland, Johnston, and Gilmor, with three thou sand mounted men and two batteries-below Hancock, and moved towards Mer cersburg. They reached Mercersburg at six P.M., where they met Lieutenant McLean, a most gallant young officer in the regu 4 lar service, with about CHAMBERSBURO BEFORE THE FIRE-1864. twenty men. His entire [From a Photograph by Bishop Bros., Chambersburg.] command numbered forty five, and he had to detach for scouting and picket duty more than one-half his force. So suddenly did they dash into Mercersburg, that they cut the telegraph wires before their movements could be telegraphed, and it was not until ten o'clock that night that Lieutenant McLean got a courier through to General Couch, at Chambersburg, with the inform ation. The rebel brigades of Vaughn and Jackson, numbering about three thousand men, crossed the Potomac about the same time, at or near Williamsport. Part of the command advanced on HIagerstown; the main body moved on the road leading from Williamsport to Green Castle; another rebel column of infantry and artillery crossed the PIotomac simultaneously at Shepherdstown, and moved towards Leitersburg. General Averill, who commanded a force reduced to about two thousand six hundred, was at Hagerstown, and being threatened in front by Vaughn and Jack. 754 FRANKLIN COUNTY. son, and on his right by McCausland and Johnston, who also threatened his rear, and on the left by the column which crossed at Shepherdstown, he therefore fell back to Green Castle. General Averill, it is understood, was under the orders of General Hunter, but was kept as fully advised by General Couch, as possible, of the enemy's movements on his right and on his rear. General Couch's entire force consisted of sixty infantry, forty-five cavalry, and a section of a battery of artillery-in all less than one hundred and fifty men. At three o'clock, A.M., on the morning of the 30th of July, Lieutenant McLean reported to General Couch that he had been driven into town at the western toll-gate, and urged the immediate movement of the train containing army stores, etc. As the stores were not yet all ready for shipment, Major Maneely, of General Couch's staff, took one gun with a squad of men, and planted it on the hill a short distance west of the Fair Ground. As it was yet dark, his force could not be reconnoitered by the enemy, and when he opened on the rebels, they halted, until daylight showed that there was no adequate force to oppose them. By this gallant exploit, the rebels were delayed outside of town until the stores were all saved, and General Couch left the depot as the rebels entered the western part of the town. Lieutenant McLean and his command, and Major Maneely being well mounted, escaped before the rebels got into the main part of the town. Major Maneely killed one rebel and wounded five by the first fire of his gun. The rebels being interrupted in their entrance into the town until daylight, they employed their time in planting two batteries in commanding positions, and getting up their whole column fully three thousand strong. About six A.M., on Saturday, they opened with their batteries, and fired some half a dozen shots into the town, but they did no damage. Immediately thereafter, their skirmishers entered by almost every street and alley running out west and south-west, and finding the way clear, their cavalry, to the number of about four hundred and fifty, came in, under the immediate command of General McCausland. Soon after his occupation of the town, General McCausland gave notice that unless five hundred thousand dollars in greenbacks, or one hundred thousand dollars in gold, were paid in half an hour, the town would be burned. He was promptly told that Chambersburg could not, and would not pay any ransom. He had the court house bell rung to convene the citizens, hoping to frighten them into the payment of a large sum of money. No one attended. Infuriated at the determination of the people, the notorious Major Harry Gilmor rode lup to a group of citizens: Thomas B. Kennedy, William McLellan, J. McDowell Sharpe, Dr. J. C. Richards, W. H. McDowell, W. S. Everett, E. G. Etter, and M. A. Foltz, and ordered them under arrest, telling them he would hold them for the payment of the money, and if not paid, he would take them to Richmond as hostages, and also burn every house in the town. While thus parleying with them to no purpose, his men commenced the work of firing. No one was taken as a hostage. The main part of the town was enveloped in flames in ten minutes. No time was given to remove women, children, the sick, or even the dead. They divided into squads, and fired every other house, and often every house, if there was any 755 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. prospect for plunder. They would beat in the door, smash up furniture with an axe, throw fluid or oil upon it, and ply the match. They rifled drawers of bureaus, stole money, jewelry, watches, and any other valuables; would often present pistols to the heads of inmates, and demand money or their lives. No one was spared. In a few hours three million dollars of property was sacrificed, three thousand human beings left homeless-many of them penniless-without so much as a pretence that the citizens of the doomed town, or any of them, had violated any accepted rules of civilized warfare. Such is the deliberate, voluntary record made by General Early, a corps commander in the insurgent army. The scenes presented on that terrible occasion beggar description. Says the Rev. Joseph Clarke: "The aged, the sick, the dying, and the dead were carried out from their burning _ homes; mothers, with - W - babes in their arms and S- - - surrounded by their fright ened little ones, fled - through the streets jeered and taunted by the brutal soldiery; indeed, their es cape seemed almost a mir acle, as the streets were in a blaze from one end to the other, and they were compelled to flee through a long road of fire. Had Snot the day been perfectly calm many must have pe 1rished in the flames. l The moment of greatest alarm was not reached un Itil some of the more hu CHAMBERSBURG AFTER THE BURNING. mane of the rebel officers [From a Photograph by Bishop Bros., Chambersburg.] warned the women to flee if they wished to escape violence." Says another, J. K. Shryock: " For miles around the frightened inhabitants fled they knew not whither, some continuing their flight until they dropped to the ground with exhaustion. Pocket books and watches were taken by wholesale, bundles, shawls, and valises were snatched out of women's and children's hands, to be thrown away. Cows and dogs and cats were burned to death, and the death cries of the poor dumb brutes sounded like the groans of human beings. It is a picture that may be misrepresented, but cannot be heightened." CHAMBERSBURG, the seat of justice of Franklin county, is fifty miles southwest of Harrisburg, and seventy-seven miles north-west of Baltimore, and was founded in 1764 by Benjamin Chambers, whose name it bears. The intercourse with the western country being then very limited, and most of the trIde and travel along the valley toward the south, he was induced to lay his lots in that direction, and the town did not extend beyond the creek to the west. Some of the 756 FRANKLIN COUNTY old trees of his orchard were standing until recently on the west of the creek. The increasing trade with the western country, after the Revolution, produced an extension of the town oni the west side of the creek, which was located by Captain Chambers, son of the Colonel, about 1791. The first stone house erected in the town was at the north-west corner of the Diamond, built by J. Jack, about 1770. The first courts holden in the county were in this house, up stairs; and, on one occasion, the crowd was so great as to strain the beams and fracture the walls, causing great confusion and alarm to the court and bar. During the French and Indian wars of 1755 and the Revolution, and the intermediate wars, " Chambers settlement" was a small frontier village, almost the outpost of civilization. A considerable trade was carried on with the most remote settlements on the Pittsburgh road by means of pack horses. The old town of Chambersburg grew rapidly in trade and population. Its destruction by rebel cavalry, on the 30th of July, 1864, has been previouly noted. The public buildings of Chambersburg are numerous, and present an attractive appearance. The court house has been but recently rebuilt, and is the third structure of the kind which has been erected on the site it occupies. The offices all have either fire-proof vaults or safes for the protection of the public records. The court hall is a prettily finished and furnished room. The cupola of the building, in which there is a handsome clock with illuminated dials, is surmounted by a statue of Benjamin Franklin, after whom the county is named. The Chambersburg Academy buildings are situated on an eminence commanding a view of the surrounding country, with the North, South, and Blue mountains in the distance. The first charter for this school was obtained from the State in 1797, and the institution has been in existence ever since. It is now in a flourishing condition. Wilson Female College is situated a short distance north of Chambersburg. It is one of the most promising institutions in the country. It was handsomely endowed by its founders and is rapidly acquiring a reputation of which its friends may well be proud. Young ladies from all parts of the country are in attendance. The buildings are commodious, well ventilated, and comfortable, while the ample grounds which surround it are laid out in artistic style. There are twelve churches in the town-Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, and Reformed, each two; Protestant Episcopal, United Brethren, Church of God, and Roman Catholic, each one. Besides a large woolen factory, which manufactures some of the finest goods in the country, Chambersburg boasts a straw board mill, a paper mill, a powder mill, an axe factory, numerous saw, planing, and grist mills, and quite a number of other industries. MERCERSBURG borough is situated in the south-western part of the county, near the Cove mountain, on an elevated site commanding a view of picturesque scenery. At this point, in the year 1729, James Black built a mill, which was the first foot-print of civilization, and the nucleus of the settlement there. In the year 1780, William Smith became the owner of this mill, and in 1786, his son, William Smith, Jr., laid out a town, which at its inception was called " Smith's settlement," but subsequently Mercers-burgh, in honor of General Hugh Mercer, who was killed at the battle of Trenton. In early days Mercersburg was an important point for the trade carried on amongst the Indians and frontier settlers. HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. self much good from some of your number making a progress through these parts, when your conveniency would admit, or any exigency may require it, depending on your prudence that whatever measures you shall take for the defence of the inhabitants, and for seizing and securing offenders, will be such as that we may be at no loss whenever called upon to justify them." The intercourse with the Indians at this period continued to be of an amicable nature, notwithstanding occasional disturbances, almost uniformly caused by the too liberal distribution of rum. A specimen of the kindliness with which the children of the forest turned to the white man is furnished in the following extract from a speech of Hetaquantagechty: " That he comes hither from the Six Nations, on business relating to the last Treaty held between them and this Government; that on his road hither he heard the melancholy news of the Governor's loss, by the death of his spouse; that he once resolved to turn back lest the Governor's affliction should prevent him from attending to business, but thinking it better to proceed forward, he is pleased to find the Governor present with them; that he takes part in his grief, and if he had a handkerchief good and fine enough to present to the Governor, he would give it to wipe away his tears;" then presenting some strings of wampum to the Governor, he desired that the Governor would "lay aside his grief and turn his thoughts to business, as he had done before." By the death of Springett Penn and Mrs. Hannah Penn, the Assem 1735. bly conceived that Governor Gordon's authority 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. But a new commission, signed by John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, in whom the government was now vested, was received in October. In the approbation given to this appointment by the King there is an express reservation of the right of the Crown to the government of the Lower Counties on the Delaware. In August, 1736, Governor Gordon died. " His administration," 1736. says Gordon, " was in all respects a happy one. No circumstance oc curred requiring him to weigh in opposite scales his duty to the people and to the Proprietaries. The unanimity of the Assembly, the Council, and the Governor, gave an uninterrupted course to the prosperity of the Province. The wisdom which guided her counsels was strongly portrayed in her internal peace, increased population, improved morals, and thriving commerce." On the 19th of September, 1737, the famous "Indian Walk " was 1737. performed by Edward Marshall, an account of which is given in the sketch of Bucks county. This walk, according to Charles Thomson, was the cause of jealousies and heart-burnings among the Indians, which eventually broke out in loud complaints of injustice and atrocious acts of savage vengeance. The very first murder committed by them after this transaction was on the very land they believed themselves cheated out of. The Indians always contended, says Mr. Buck, that the walk should be up the river by the nearest path, as was done in the first day and a half's walk by William Penn, and not by the compass across the country, as was done in this instance. On the death of Governor Gordon, the administration of the govern. 1738. ment devolved on the Council, of which James Logan was president, which he held until August, 1738, when George Thomas, a planter of HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Governor William Findlay, who filled the executive chair of Pennsylvania in 1817, and who died in Harrisburg, November 12, 1846, was born in Mercersburg, June 20, 1768. About three miles above Mercersburg is a wild gorge in the Cove mountain, and within the gorge an ancient road leads up through a narrow, secluded glen encircled on every side by high and rugged mountains. Here, at the foot of a toilsome ascent in the road, which the traders of the olden time designated as the " Stony Batter," are to be seen the remains of a decayed orchard and the ruins of two log cabins. Many years ago a Scotch trader dwelt in one of these cabins, and had a store in the other, where he drove a small but profitable traffic with the Indians and frontiermen, who came down the mountain, by exchanging with them powder, fire-arms, etc., for their " Old Monongahela," and the furs and skins of the trappers and Indians. Here, on the 23d of April, 1791, to this Scotch trader was born a son, and " Jamie," as he called him, was cradled amid the wild scenes of nature and the rude din of frontier life. The father, thriving in trade, moved into Mercersburg, and after a few years was enabled to send his son to Dickinson college, at Carlisle, where he graduated in 1809. " Jamie," of " Stony Batter," was James Buchanan, fifteenth President of the United States. Mercersburg was incorporated into a borough in 1831, and up to their removal to Lancaster was the seat of Marshall college, and the Theological seminary of the German Reformed Church. Mercersburg college, a young but thriving institution, took the place of Marshall. During the late war, the rebels paid hostile visits to Mercersburg, in the forays of 1862,'63, and'64. LOUDON village lies at the terminus of the Southern Pennsylvania railroad, and on the turnpike from Chambersburg to Pittsburgh, fourteen miles from the former place, at the base and in the shadow of the mountain. Near Loudon stood one of the line of forts erected during the French and Indian wars. This town played a somewhat important part in the events transpiring between the years 1755-1776. GREEN CASTLE is a flourishing borough on the line of the Cumberland Valley railroad, midway between Hagerstown and Chambersburg. It was laid out in 1782, and was first settled by the Irwins, McLanahans, Watsons, Crawfords, Nighs, Clarks, McCullohs, Davisons, Grubbs, Lawrences, McClellands. It is in the midst of a fertile and highly cultivated country, and it possesses excellent school advantages. Its public buildings consist of a town hall, large public school, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, and German Reformed churches. The inhabitants of this place and region round about were exposed to the incursions of marauding merciless parties of Indians from 1755 to 1765. Near Green Castle, at the farm of Archibald Fleming, in 1863, William Reels, the first Union soldier killed on Pennsylvania soil, fell in a skirmish with rebel cavalry. WAYNESBURG, incorporated into a borough with the name of Waynesboro', in 1818, was laid out about the year 1800, by Mr. Wallace, whose name it bore for some years. It lies near the base of the South mountain, on the turnpike leading by way of Green Castle and Mercersburg across the Cove mountain to McConnellsburg. It is a flourishing town in the midst of a region of country of great fertility. It boasts of manufactories of no mean character, notably, the "Geyser Company," for the manufacture of agricultural implements. 758 FRA2o'KLIN COUNTY. MARION, a post-village, midway between Chambersburg and Green Castle, contains between twenty-five and thirty dwellings. The Cumberland Valley railroad passes within sight of the village. Near Marion is the point where the Southern Pennsylvania railroad joins the Cumberland Valley railroad, of which it is a branch. It passes through Mercersburg to Loudon, a distance of twentyone miles, and was built principally for the transportation of the iron ore which abounds in the neighborhood of Loudon. SNOW HILL or SOHNEEBERG is on the Antietam creek, near the South mountain. Its situation is pleasant, with charming surroundings. It is principally a German Seventh Day Baptist settlement. A branch of the original society of Ephrata was established many years ago at Snow Hill, under the eldership of Peter Lehman and Andreas Schneeberg. ST. THOMAs, a thriving post village, seven miles north-west of Chambersburg, was laid out by the Campbells more than three-quarters of a century ago. When General Stuart, during the raid into Pennsylvania, mentioned elsewhere, passed through St. Thomas en route for Chambersburg, General Wade Hampton, one of his party, was fired upon by a zealous denizen of the place, and great difficulty was experienced in restraining the troops from destroying the town. UPPER STRASBURG is a post village on the old "Three mountain road," twelve miles in a direct line north-west of Chambersburg. It lies in a secluded spot at the base of the mountains, and in the olden time was a favorite resting place for teamsters hauling goods from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. SCOTLAND, on the line of the Cumberland Valley railroad, five miles northeast of Chambersburg, is one of the oldest towns in the valley. The Conococheague creek flows by it, and is spanned by a railroad bridge which was destroyed by rebels under General Jenkins, in June, 1863. The old wooden bridge has been replaced by a substantial iron one. FAYETTEVILLE, a post-village on the turnpike from Chambersburg to Gettysburg, is seven miles from the former, and eighteen miles from the latter place. This town lay within the line of the rebel communications with Richmond during the invasion of July, 1863, and the enemy's mails were carried through the place. On one occasion a mail was captured by some of the citizens. This act of temerity so incensed a force of rebel cavalry near the place as to cause them to arrest a number of innocent citizens, who experienced considerable difficulty in regaining their liberty. MONT ALTO is a post office, and the seat of Mont Alto furnace, at the terminus of the Mont Alto railroad, which was built for the transportation of the ore mined and the iron manufactured at that place. The homes of the miners and furnace men make quite a village. Mont Alto park is a favorite place of summer resort. It is seventeen miles from Chambersburg by rail. Other important towns are FUNKSTOWN, in Quincy township; UPTON, four and a half miles from Green Castle; BRIDGEPORT, three miles from Mercersburg; ORRSTOWN, laid out by John and William Orr, in 1834; FANNETSBURG, DRY RUN, and CONCORD, in Path valley; ROXBURY, lying at the opening of a precipitous mountain pass into Path and Amberson's valleys; and GREEN VILLAGE, five miles east of Chambersburg. 759 FULTON COUNTY. BY JAMES POTT, M'CONNELLSBURG. ULTON COUNTY was erected out of that part of Bedford county lying east of Ray's hill, which, in the main, forms its western boun dary; being bounded on the north by Huntingdon county; on the east by the North and Tuscarora mountains, and on the south by the Maryland line, having an average length of about twenty-six miles, and breadth of seventeen miles, with an area of four hundred and twenty square miles. It was organized under act of April 19, 1850, which designated Andrew J. Fore, David Mann, Jr., and Patrick Donahoe ._as commissioners _------"to fix the bounda ries, etc. Popula. tion in 1870,9,360. The county re ceived its name through the ca price of Senator -_Packer, of Lyco ming county, who was unfriendly to wards the new county, though not absolutely 1 Ho Zhostile. In the pe - tition asking for ., -.' ~ the new county, FULTON COUNTY COURT HOUSE. the name "Liber ty" was designated. The success of the measure in the House of Representatives was largely due to the efforts and personal popularity of Hon. Samuel Robinson, then one of the representatives from Bedford county. In the Senate its passage depended on the action of Senator Packer. A citizen of the proposed county, a personal friend of Senators Packer and Frailey, both of whom were opposed to the bill, waited on those gentlemen, requesting them to forego their objections. Mr. Frailey readily yielded. Mr. Packer was more tenacious, but finally agreed to support the bill, on condition he should be permitted to name the new county. This was accorded him, and when it came before the Senate, Messrs. Packer and Frailey moved to amend, by substituting " Fulton," wherever "Liberty" occurred, and its passage was secured. 760 FULTON COUNTY. The county is mountainous and hilly. The North, or Kittatinny, and Tuscarora mountains, rise like a huge barrier on its eastern boundary, while Ray's hill, scarcely of less magnitude, forms its western rampart. Between these, and nearly parallel with them, range Big and Little Scrub ridges, Sideling hill, Town hill, and a number of other mountains of lesser magnitude, but all ranging in the same general northeasterly and southwesterly direction, prominent among which are Dickey's mountain, Tonoloway, and Stilwell's ridges, Negro mountain, Black-log mountain, Shade mountain, and Broad Top mountain. Sidney's Knob rears its head aloft in the northeasterly corner of the county, formed by a junction of Scrub ridge and Cove mountain, while in the southeasterly quarter Lowry's Knob, being the northerly terminus of Dickey's mountain, but separated therefrom by a gorge, raises its sugar-loaf peak high above the adjacent valley. The county is well watered with numerous streams, fed in large part by splendid limestone springs. Prominent among the streams are Cove creek, Licking creek, Big and Little Tonoloway creeks, running southward, and emptying their waters into the Potomac; Aughwick creek, Woodenbridge creek, and Sideling Hill creek, running northward, and emptying into the Juniata. The valleys formed by these mountains, and watered by these streams and their numerous tributaries are, in the main, fertile and romantic. The mountains and uplands, and much of the arable lands, are yet covered with luxuriant forests of timber of all the varieties indigenous to this State. The Chambersburg and Pittsburgh turnpike passes through the centre of the county, and going westward, crosses successively North mountain, Scrub ridge, Sideling hill, and Ray's hill, affording to the traveler ever-varying and delightful landscape views. The turnpike was built about 1814-15. The chief industry of the county, at present, is agriculture. All the cereals and fruits common to this latitude flourish well, and yield remuneratively under careful attention of the husbandman. Limestone soil of great natural fertility largely predominates in the Big Cove. Pigeon Cove, Brush Creek valley, Wells' valley, and the Aughwick valley, and the productiveness of these sections is evidenced in the splendid farm improvements. The red shale lands along the old State road, in Licking Creek valley, on Timber ridge, in Whips' Cove, and in Buck valley, are scarcely less productive, under careful tillage, than the richer limestone soils. The county being mountainous, there is naturally much rough and broken land, considerable of which is thin and light, and yields but a poor return for the labor bestowed upon it. Next to agriculture, the principal industry is the manufacture of leather. There are a number of extensive tanning establishments in the county; the two principal ones are located, respectively, at Emmaville in the western part of the county, and the other in the eastern part of the county, eight miles south of M'Connellsburg, known as Big Cove tannery. These are establishments of large capacity, and rank among the first in the State. Besides these, there are a number of others doing a large business, prominent among which is the Saluvia tannery, near the centre of the county; Wells' tannery, in Wells' v-lley, and one at Franklin Mills, in the southern part of the county, all of which are HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. scarcely inferior to the first two mentioned, and all doing a large business, and using only oak for tanning. Two iron foundries and machine shops, for the manufacture of agricultural implements, are located one in McConnellsburg and the other in Fort Littleton. Grist mills, lumber mills, and woolen mills comprise, in the main, the remainder of the manufacturing industries of the county. The great element of the future wealth of this county lies in its vast store of minerals, as yet scarcely developed further than to demonstrate its existence. Iron ore, in many varieties and of great abundance and richness, is found in almost every mountain, hill, and valley, and bituminous coal in the north-western part of the county, where the Broad Top coal basin extends within the borders of the county to a considerable extent. Both iron o,e and coal remain practically undeveloped by reason of the absence of railroads, but several railroad projects are now pointing in this direction, attracted by the rich mineral fields. Iron ores abound everywhere in great profusion-hematite, fossil, pipe, micaceous, and others-but the richest veins and deposits exist in the eastern portion, from the Maryland line to the northern end of the county, while in all parts are found rich deposits of the different varieties. The dense forests of timber which cover the mountains and dot the valleys can supply charcoal, and the bituminous coal fields in the northern part of the county the coke, for smelting the ores, in unlimited abundance. Dickey's mountain, in the south-eastern part of the county, is exceedingly rich in both hematite and fossil ores, while Lowry's Knob, at the northern terminus of Dickey's mountain, six miles south of McConnellsburg, is a mass of richest hematite ore, and the same is found in different parts of the contiguous valley and surrounding hills. In early times, beginning as far back as 1827, and coming down to 1847, there were iron works, known as "Hanover Iron Works," located in this vicinity, at a point nine miles southward of McConnellsburg, where exists the best water power in the county. These were considered extensive works in their day, consisting of two furnaces and two forges. The ore for the use of these works was the hematite, mined, mainly, out of Lowry's Knob, about one mile from the works. It was not until about 1841 that the fossil ore in Dickey's mountain, near the works, was discovered. But the iron business was then languishing, and no extensive mining was done in this field, though enough to demonstrate both its quantity and quality. The utter depression and destruction of the iron business was completed in 1846-7, at which time operations at these establishments were suspended, and the works finally abandoned-the result of the free trade tariff of 1846, and not from want of either ore or fuel. For more than twenty years iron ore was mined from Lowry's Knob in immense quantities, and yet scarcely an impression has been made, so vast is the body in that locality. The ore used in the Hanover furnaces was, in greater part, obtinced by surface mining, though the main body was pierced, by shafting, to the depth of eighty feet in solid ore, with no indication of its limit being reached. In 187 1, a practical miner and geologist made a scientific examination of the iron ore deposits and veins in this locality, and in his report of the hematite in Lowry's Knob, he says: " The lay, or deposit, extends for a distance of about six hundred yards; the quality of the ore is very good, and would yield above fifty per 762 FULTON COUNTY. cent. in furnace. The old openings in the Lowry's Knob bank indicate the lay t be about forty feet thick or wide, and there is no telling how deep it may go, without shafting. In the former workings it had b, shafted to the depth of about eighty feet in solid ore, with no indications of' bottom.'" Of the Dickey's mountain formation he says: " It contains the Montour's Ridge or Danville ore measures; one of these strata, called fossil ore, I consider one of the best and most reliable veins of ore, outside of the primitive formation, in Pennsylvania, and always of nearly uniform character. This ore, whenever used, even with inferior ores, makes the best of iron, it being free from sulphur and phosphorus, and generally yields from fifty to sixty per cent. metallic iron. The block ore is also found in these measures, as also other irregular seams. There is an abundance of good limestone, for smelting purposes, near by." In the vicinity of Fort Littleton and Burnt Cabins, in the northern end of the county, is an immense field of the richest quality of iron ore. Its proximity to the Broad Top coal fields will eventually make this a great centre of iron manufacturing when railroad facilities shall have opened it to market. The final survey of the People's Freight railway passes through the heart of this iron ore field. From the old Hanover iron works, the whole belt of country between the North mountain and Scrub ridge (including these mountain ranges), to the northern end of the county, is interspersed with valuable and extensive iron ore veins and deposits, awaiting only the hand of enterprise and public spirit to develop and utilize the crude material and reap a rich reward. Of many other parts of the county the same can be said. It is asserted, and with much show of truth, that no territory of equal extent, in this State, is so rich in iron ore and of so many varieties, as is Fulton county. That part of the Broad Top coal basin lying within the borders of this county remains undeveloped (except several openings, worked on a limited scale to supply local demand), for want of railroad outlet. But the iron track of the East Broad Top railroad is pointing thitherward, and in due time will reach and develop the coal and iron in that interesting region. Dr. H. S. Wishart owns and operates the principal coal mine for local traffic. Strong indications of coal exist in other parts of the county, southward of Broad Top, along Sideling hill, Scrub ridge, and Dickey's mountain; but no systematic effort has yet been made to demonstrate its existence or non-existence. Many years ago, antedating 1770, and before any roads were made through that section (other than, perhaps, "bridle paths," over which no bulky material could be conveyed), a mine was opened by some adventurous spirits, in a gap of Sideling hill, some eight or ten miles south of where the Chambersburg and Pittsburgh turnpike now crosses that mountain. The oldest inhabitant has no knowledge of the time when this was done, other than what he has heard told by his ancestors, and they knew only what they had received by tradition, which said that silver had been mined there. Some of the earliest surveys of lands in that locality refer to " an old mine," as a permanent and well established landmark. The "mine," as found by the earliest settlers, consisted of a deep shaft, carefully cased with timber which was then in a decayed condition. Certain it is that somebody, long before the feet of white settlers trod that locality, found, 763 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. or expected to find, something there that had value in less bulk than iron or coal, because there was then no use for these, so remote from the habitation of man and no facilities for transporting such bulky materials. The story of gold and silver is traditional only, but that a mine of many feet in depth and skillfully timbered existed there before that section was settled hy whites, is a fact for which there is unquestionable evidence. The earliest settlement within the territory now comprising Fulton county is somewhat shrouded in uncertainty. Among the first settlements within what is now Franklin county, was made about 1730 by Benjamin Chambers, who rapidly gathered around him a prosperous colony of Scotch-Irish, on the Conococheague. From thence radiated out toward the west some of the most daring and adventurous pioneers, who were not long in discovering the fertility, resources, and attractiveness of the Great Cove west of the North or Kittatinny mountain. When these venturesome and intrepid Scotch-Irish first set their stakes in this valley is not exactly known, but it was somewhere between 1730 and 1740. The oldest title to land in this valley is believed to be a Proprietary warrant, dated November 6, 1749, granted to David Scott, but the land was not surveyed until 1760, though it was settled upon previously. The land west of the Kittatinny mountains was not purchased from the Indians until 1758, nine years after the issuing of the warrant to David Scott. These early settlers were subjected to forays by predatory bands of Indians, who, besides plunder, secured scalps and made captives from among them frequently. But there is no record of any complaint on the part of the Indians against the whites for trespassing on their lands until 1742, when they formally lodged complaint to the authorities against this invasion of their domain by the settlers in the Great Cove, on the Aughwick and on Licking creek. The Governor of the Province, on this complaint, issued a proclamation warning these settlers off the lands of the Indians, but the proclamation was not heeded. At that time the territory was included in Lancaster county, if it was included under any authority at all. Cumberland county was organized in 1750, and it was not until then that the Provincial authorities interposed legal force to eject the settlers. They found one Carlton, and a few other settlers on the Aughwick; a number in the Great Cove, and some on Licking creek, "near the Potomac." The number of settlers found at these points at this time (1750) numbered sixtytwo. These were expelled by the officers of the Provincial government, with the aid of the magistrates and sheriff of Cumberland county. They were ejected "with as much lenity as the execution of the law would allow, and their cabins were burnt." But the restless spirit of adventure impelled these ejected pioneers to return to their desolated homes, and with them came others, willing to risk the dangers of extreme frontier life. Again they were harrassed by the Indians and again ejected by the Provincial authorities, and again they returned, followed by others, their numbers steadily increasing. After the defeat of Braddock by the French and Indians, in 1755, the weight of savage ferocity fell heavily on the sturdy frontiersmen, and the pluck of these pioneers was sorely tried, and in many instances they paid dearly for their temerity in pushing off into the wilderness to carve out homes for themselves and their posterity. A terror to the wild Indians of this region was " Half 764 FULTON COUNTY. Indian," who, with a company of picked men, scoured the frontier, awed the Indians, and saved the lives of many of the settlers. It is recorded that in 1756, " Half Indian," with his company, left the Great Cove, and the Indians taking advantage of this, murdered many and carried others into captivity. This disquietude was, however, in a large measure, settled by the purchase from the Indians of the land west of the Kittatinny mountains, known as the " Purchase of 1758." In the spring of 1757, as we learn from a certificate of Governor Denny, "the savage Indians came and attacked" the house of William Linn, residing on Tonolloway creek, in Ayr township, "killed and scalped his eldest son, a man of twenty-three years of age, took another son away with them of seventeen years of age, and broke the skull of a third son of twelve years of age, and scalped him and left him for dead, of which he afterward recovered.... That the enemy Indians repeating their attacks, the inhabitants living in those parts were obliged to desert their plantations, and leave their 77 effects behind." The settlements on the Aughwick and in the Great Cove were composed mainly of Scotch-Irish, while those " on s the Licking Creek hills, near the Potomac," came mostly under Maryland rights, were of different nationalities, and more cosmopolitan in their character. The Provincial boundary line had not then ARoadoFed odof been extended by survey beyond the - summit of the Kittatinny mountain, and X O kern9marter-, much uncertainty existed as to how much of the Licking Creek hills and the Great PLANI OF FORT LYTTLETON-1755. Cove were within the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, and the difficulty was not settled until the survey of the line by Mason and Dixon in 1767. The first general bloody and murderous slaughter of defenceless settlers and their families on this uncertain jurisdiction was made by the Indians and their French allies in 1755. A private stockade was erected in early days on the farm now owned by James Kendall, Esq., and on the spot occupied by his dwelling, two miles south of McConnellsburg; and another in the southern end of the county, on the farm now owned by Major George Chesnut, for a refuge from Indian ferocity; while Fort Littleton, in the northern end of the county, one of the chain of government forts from the east to Fort Pitt, served the same purpose in that locality. Neither record nor tradition cites any other posts for defence or security within the limits of this county. Among the very earliest who settled in this county were Scott, the Kendalls, and the Coyles, with a few others whose names have passed from the memory of the oldest living descendant of the early pioneers. The widow Margaret Ken765 IHISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. dall, with her sons John and Robert, were among the earliest, and she was the first white person who died a natural death in the Great Cove, which occurred in 1750. Her posterity is numerous, and occupies a large portion of the best lands in the valley. Closely following these, came the Owens, Taggarts, Pattersons, Sloans, McConnells, McCleans, Alexanders, McKinleys, Wilsons, Beattys, Brackenridges, Hunters, Rannells, Gibs, etc., all unmistakable Scotch-Irish names. From among these the names of Kendall, Scott, Taggart, Sloan, Patterson, and Alexander still live in the valley in their posterity of the third, fourth, and fifth generations. The tract of land on which McConnellsburg is located was granted to William and Daniel McConnell, by warrant dated 1762, though there is record evidence that the land was settled some years earlier. The land granted to David Scott by Proprietary warrant in 1749 adjoins this McConnell tract, and adjoining the Scott tract is one warranted to James Galbraith in 1755. The settlement of the valleys of the Big and Little Tonoloway creeks, in the southern part of the county, was nearly or quite cotemporaneous with the earliest settlements elsewhere. Here, as on Licking creek, jurisdiction was uncertain, and claims were made and subsequent warrants for land obtained under both Pennsylvania and Maryland authority, and often covering the same ground, which, in later years, gave rise to vexatious and expensive litigation, involving titles to lands. Among the earliest settlers on Licking creek and the Tonoloways appear the names of Brown, Evans, Mills, Truax, Gillyland, McCrea, Linn, Stilwell, Leech, Mann, Slaughter, Critchfield, Yeates, Shelby, Gordon, Comb, Breathed, and Graves; and on the Aughwick, Henry, Burd, Wilds, and Thompson figure among the early pioneers. The settlement of Wells' valley and along the east base of Sideling hill, began only after Braddock's defeat and the purchase of 1758. The first settler in Wells' valley was a Mr. Wells, in 1760. as a hunter. In 1772 the first permanent settlement was made by Alexander Alexander, but he was driven out by the Indians several times, and returned finally only after the close of the Revolutionary war, and remained until his death, in 1815. Among the earlier settlers who followed Alexander into Wells' valley, were Hardin, Wright, Stevens, Woodcock, Moore, Edwards, Wishart, and others. Doctor David Wishart was the first resident physician in Wells' valley. He was a Scotchman from Edinburgh, first located at Hagerstown, Maryland, whence his practice extended to the Broad Top country, and when the settlement of Wells' valley had begun in earnest he removed and settled there. Among the first settlers along Sideling hill, and around the head waters of Tonoloway and some of the westerly tributaries of Licking creek, were Francis Ranney, the Mortons, the Crossans, and the Mellotts. Of the latter it can almost be said that their progeny is "as the sands of the sea shore." Little is known or recorded of the part taken by the settlers of this county in the Revolutionary war, other than that a number of them joined their brethren of the Cumberland Valley in that struggle. Of the veterans of the war of 1812, some still remain to tell the young soldiers of the present times of the days when they went soldiering and how it was done in those days. In the late war for the suppression of the rebellion, this county, though small in numbers, contributed 766 FULTON COUIVTY. more than its quota to the armies of the Union. The majority of the townships were poor in taxable property, and could not afford to pay local bounties, while the wealthy counties of the State could offer tempting inducements, and so attracted large numbers of the young men, leaving the quota demanded to be filled from what was left. By this process the county furnished not only its own quota to the Union armies, but contributed much material toward filling the quotas of some of the wealthy eastern counties, and in this way it is that this county contributed, in proportion to its population, more men to the service, for the suppression of the rebellion, than any other in the State, and was drained of its arms-bearing men more closely than any other community. MCCONNELLSBURa borough, the county seat, is pleasantly located in the heart of the Great Cove, and is surrounded by fertile and well cultivated farms. The town was laid out in 1786, by McConnell, and was incorporated into a borough, March 26, 1814. The court house is a commodious structure of brick, and surpasses similar buildings in many of the older and wealthier counties of the State. The Presbyterian, Reformed, Lutheran, and Methodists, have neat and commodious church buildings. FORT LITTLETON and BURNT CABINS are prosperous villages, situate on the old State road, and in the midst of a fertile iron and agricultural district. The former derives its name from one of the frontier forts, located near that place, and the latter obtained its name from the circumstances of the burning of the cabins of some of the early settlers, near that spot, by the Provincial authorities. NEW GRENADA is a brisk village, situated in the gap of Sideling hill, near the coal fields, from which it drives a considerable trade. HARRISONVILLE, KNOBSVILLE, HUSTONTOWN, SPEERSVILLE, DUBLIN MILLS, WATER FALL MILLS, AKERSVILLE1 GAPSVILLE, EMMAVILLEI NEEDMORE, WARFORDSBURG, FRANKLIN MILLS, WEBSTER MILLS, BIG COVE TANNERY, and WELLS TANNERY are all post villages of some pretensions, and centres of trade for the surrounding country. The formation of AYR township is nearly coeval with the date of the erection of Cumberland county (of which it was then a part), which occurred in 1750. But no record of the date of the formation of Ayr township can be found in the Cumberland county records. At the time of the formation of this township it comprised all the territory from "Provincial line" (Maryland) northward to and embracing part of what is now IHuntingdon county, and westward to, or even beyond, Sideling hill. After the erection of Bedford county, in 1771, it embraced all the territory of what is now Fulton county, and also that of (now) Warren township, Franklin county, whichi was part of Ayr township prior to the erection of that county, in 1784. At April court of Bedford county, in 1771, when the new county was divided into townships, it is recorded "Air township as fixed by the Cumberland county court," but before this the Cumberland county court had formed Dublin township, out of the northern part of Ayr. Ayr township was most likely formed and organized in 1758, immediately after the purchase of that year of this territory from the Indians. BETHEL township, formed January 12, 1773, wa; the first township, now wholly within Fulton county, that was organized under Bedford county juris. diction. It embraced the Tonoloway settlements, and extended westward GENERAL HISTORY. Antigua, was appointed by the Proprietaries.* Difficulties still ensuing between the people of Maryland and of Pennsylvania, consequent on the unsettled state of the boundary, Governor Thomas at once gave his attention to the question of jurisdiction over the disputed territory. It was mutually agreed, therefore, "that the respective Proprietaries should hold and exercise jurisdiction over the lands occupied by themselves and tenants at the date of the agreement, though such lands were beyond the limits thereinafter prescribed, until the final settlement of the boundary lines, and that the tenants of the one should not interfere with the other." The Proprietary land office having been closed from 1718 to the year 1732, during the minorities of Richard and Thomas Penn, emigrants seated themselves without title on such vacant lands as they found convenient. The number of settlers of this kind entitled them to great consideration. Their rights accruing by priority of settlement, were recognized by the public, and passed, with their improvements, through many hands, in confidence that they would receive the Proprietary sanction. Much agitation was produced when the Provincial proclamation required all who had not obtained and paid for warrants, to pay to the receiver-general, within four months, the sums due for their lands, under penalty of ejectment. As a consequence, great difficulties arose; the Assembly sought to compromise the matter, payment of the purchase money being postponed for several years longer. On the 23d of October, 1739, war was declared between Great Britain and Spain. Prior to this, Governor Thomas endeavored to stimulate his peo 1739. ple to active measures of defence. To the solicitations of the Governor the Assembly " pleaded their charter and their consciences." Unfortunately, he run a tilt with the religious opinions of a people who measured their merit by the extent of suffering for conscience sake. The communications which passed between the Governor and the Assembly show neither a forbearing spirit on one side, nor an even-tempered one on the other. At length tihe demand of the home government for troops compelled thile Executive to raise by his own exertions the number of men required. Four hundred men was the entire quotk, and these were raised in the space of three months, many of the recruits, however, being bond-servants, willing to exchange their service and freedom dues, for nominal liberty and soldier's pay. The year 1740 is remarkable in the annals of Pennsylvania, by the labors of the renowned Whitfield. He landed at Lewes, early in November, 1739, 1740. and came thence to Philadelphia. His arrival, says Gordon, disturbed the religious harmony which had prevailed for so many years. IIe drew to himself many followers from all denominations, who, influenced by the energy of his manner, the thunder of his voice, and his flowing eloquence, were ready to subscribe his unnatural and incomprehensible faith. Especially in the Scotch-Irish sections of the Province, between the Delaware and the Susquehanna, * SIR GEORGE THOMAS, the son of a wealthy planter, was born at Antigua, about 1700. He was a member of the Council of that island at the time of his appointment of Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, a position he held from 1738 to 1747. From 1752 to 1766, he was governor of the Leeward and Carribee Islands. In 1766, he was created a baronet. He died in London, January 11, 1775, HISTORY OF PENIVNS YL VANIA. along the Provincial line to the present line between Bedford and Fulton counties. The first record of BELFAST township in the Quarter Sessions of Bedford county, is in the Docket No. 3, in 1795. It was then an organized township. Docket No. 2, which contains date of organization, could not be found, though diligent search was made. BRUSH CREEK township was formed out of part of East Providence, which was separated from Bedford county in the erection of Fulton, but no record of the date of its organization can be found. It was subsequently enlarged by the annexation of a part of Bethel township. DUBLIN township, erected out of a part of Ayr, was organized by the Cumberland county court, but, like Ayr, search in the Cumberland county records reveals nothing as to date, and, as in the case of Ayr, the Bedford county records of April 16, 1771, say: "Dublin, as fixed by the Cumberland county court." Like the names of Ayr, Bethel, and Belfast, the name of this township indicates with unequivocal exactness that the Scotch-Irish element preponderated in the early settlements. LICKING CREEK township was formed September 21, 1837. TAYLOR was formed November, 1849. The name of this township is derived from the then President of the United States-General Zachary Taylor. THOMPSON was formed February 12, 1849, and named in honor of Judge Thompson. ToD formed March 20, 1849, and named in honor of Judge Tod. UNION formed January 9, 1864, out of part of Bethel during the late war for the Union, and as the sentiment of the people-Republicans and Union Democrats being largely in the ascendant-was against disunion and secession, they expressed their feelings in the name of the new township. WELLS township was organized September 1, 1849, under the name of "'Aughwick," while yet in Bedford county. Subsequently the name was changed to " WELLS," but there is no record of the change, either in the Bedford and Fulton courts, nor is the motive of the change recorded. The valley composing the principal part of the township, and the principal streams running through it are named " WELLS," from the first white settler in there. 768 GREENE COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to Alfred Creigh, LL.D., and W. J. Bayard.] REENE county was erected into a county on February 9, 1796, being taken entirely from the southern portion of Washington county, which at that time constituted five townships, viz., Franklin, Greene, Morgan, Cumberland, and Rich Hill. It was named after Nathaniel Greene, whose military abilities were appreciated by General Washington, and whose counsel and advice in all __ - _ cases of doubt and difficul - ty were adopted. He was __ appointed a major-general on August 26, 1775, and was a prominent actor in __, the heart-thrilling scenes of the Revolution, but more particularly in the southern _ department of the United States. David Gray, Stephen Gapin, Isaac Jenkin- -7 son, William Meetkirk, and James Seals were appointed the commissioners by the Legislature to organize the county, attend to the laying out of its boundaries, and procure land within five miles of the centre of the county upon which should be erected the court house, GREENE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, WAYNESBURG. prison, and other county [From a Photograph by S. G. Rogers, Waynesburg.] buildings. The act also provided that until the court house was erected, the courts should be held at the house of Jacob Kline, Esq., on Muddy creek. Greene county is the south-western county of the State of Pennsylvania, being bounded on the east by the Monongahela river (which has a front of twenty-five miles), north by Washington county, west and south by West Virginia. Its length east and west is thirty-two miles, and its breadth nineteen, having, therefore, an area of six hundred square miles. Its central latitude is 390 50' north, longitude 30 15' west, from Washington City. The act of 2y 769 770 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Assembly of February 9, 1796, thus defines its boundaries: "Beginning at the mouth of Ten Mile creek, on the Monongahela river; thence up Ten Mile creek to the junction of the North and South forks of the said creek; thence up said North fork to Colonel William Wallace's mill; thence up a south-westerly direction to the nearest part of the dividing ridge between the North and South forks of the Ten Mile creek; thence along the top of the said ridge to the ridge which divides the waters of Ten Mile and Wheeling creeks; thence in a straight line to the head of Enslow's Branch of Wheeling creek; thence down said branch to the western boundary of the State; thence south along the said line to the river Monongahela; and thence down the said river to the place of beginning." This boundary continued in existence until 1802, when the Legislature of Pennsylvania changed the lines between Washington and Greene counties as follows: "Beginning on the present line on the ridge that divides the waters of Ten Mile and Wheeling creeks near Jacob Bobbett's; thence in a straight line to the head-waters of Hunter's fork of Wheeling creek; and thence down the same to the mouth thereof, where it meets the present county line." The same act declares that so much of the county of Greene as lies west of the road called Ryerson's road, is hereby annexed to Findley township, and that part which lies east of the said road is hereby annexed to Morris township. Governor M'Kean had authority to appoint commissioners to run and mark the aforesaid line, the expense to be equally divided between Washington and Greene counties. The county is well watered. The principal stream is the Monongahela river, which affords navigation the entire year, and is considered very safe. It rises in the western spurs of the Appalachian range of mountains, and receives many small streams before it reaches Pennsylvania, and flows along the eastern side of the county. Ten Mile creek rises in Rich Hill township, flows east through the whole county, several miles beyond Clarksville, and empties into the Monongahela. Dunkard's creek is a considerable stream, and flows along the south boundary of the State (sometimes deviating into Virginia), the whole length of the county, to the Monongahela. Whitely creek has a source of about fifteen miles, and flows into the Monongahela. The remaining streams are Muddy, Ruff's, Bates', Brown's, Bush, and Gray's Fork, etc., Wheeling and Fish creeks; the two latter in the western part of the county, and flowing into the Ohio river. The valleys of the foregoing streams are among the most delightful in the State, and where the forest has not yet been cut down, every variety of timber, of the largest growth, stands to beautify the scenery. The intervening ridges, running east and west, are also overshadowed by luxuriant forest trees. The northern sides of the hills have a deep rich soil adapted to corn and grass, and the south, though generally less fertile, produces wheat and rye abundantly. Within the county are 389,120 acres of land, of which 230,594 are improved, and the balance unimproved. The improved land is divided into 2,310 farms, ranging in size from three to five hundred acres. Greene county belongs to the great secondary formation of the State of Pennsylvania, and has a due proportion of the three minerals, coal, iron, and salt. Bituminous coal is found almost everywhere, in inexhaustible quantities, and in many instances along water courses within one, two, or three feet of the surface. Whitely creek has for its bed strata of coal in some places for miles GREENE COUNTY. which, during the summer months when the water is low, is taken for the supply of the surrounding country. The labor of digging and transporting it constitutes the entire cost. There are extensive beds of iron ore on Dunkard and Ten Mile creeks. Formerly a forge and furnace were in operation on Ten Mile creek, but they have been long idle. Salt licks are known on Dunkard creek, near the south-east corner of the county, but no salt works have been erected. Until recently Greene county had no railroad facilities, but the construction of the narrow-gauge road from Washington to Waynesburg will open up to the citizens of the county a cheap mode of transportation, whereby they will be enabled to send their produce to market. The benefits which the borough of Waynesburg will receive will be incalculable, resulting in increase of population, erection of new buildings, and the impetus given to trade and the development of its industrial resources. Greene county was originally settled by adventurers from Maryland and Virginia while yet in the possession of the Indians. As early as 1754, David Tygart had settled in the valley which still bears his name in north-western Virginia. Several other families and individuals came into the region in the course of five or six years afterwards. These early adventurers were men of iron nerves and stout hearts-a compound of the hunter, the warrior, and the husbandman; they came prepared to endure all the hardships of life in the wilderness; to encounter its risks, and defend their precarious homes against the wily natives of the forest. For some ten or fifteen years the possession of the country was hotly contested, and alternately held and abandoned by the English on the one hand, and the French and Indians on the other. Families were frequently murdered, cabins burnt, and the settlements thus for a time broken up. Stockade forts were resorted to by the inhabitants for the protection of their families in time of invasion. One of these, called Garard's fort, was situated on Whitely creek, about seven miles west of Greensburg. Settlements were made at a very early date by the Rev. John Corbly and his family, and others, on Muddy creek. From a letter of the latter, under date of July 8, 1785, he states: " On the second Sabbath in May, in the year 1782, being. my appointment at one of my meetinghouses, about a mile from my dwelling house, I set out with my dear wife and five children for public worship. Not suspecting any danger, I walked behind two hundred yards, with my Bible in my hand, meditating; as I was thus employed, all on a sudden, I was greatly alarmed with the frightful shrieks of my dear family before me. I immediately ran, with all the speed I could, vainly hunting a club as I ran, till I got within forty yards of them; my poor wife seeing me, cried to me to make my escape; an Indian ran up to shoot me; I then fled, and by so doing outran him. My wife had a sucking child in her arms; this little infant they killed and scalped. They then struck my wife several times, but not getting her down, the Indian who aimed to shoot me, ran to her, shot her through the body, and scalped her; my little boy, an only son, about six years old, they sunk the hatchet into his brain, and thus dispatched him. A daughter, besides the infant, they also killed and scalped. My eldest daughter, who is yet alive, was hid in a tree, about twenty yards from the place where the rest were killed, and saw the whole proceedings. She, seeing the Indians all go off, as she thought, gt up, and deliberately crept out from the hollow trunk; HISTORY OF PENNSYL VAVIA. but one of them espying her, ran hastily up, knocked her down, and scalped her; also her only surviving sister, one on whose head they did not leave more than an inch round, either of flesh or skin, besides taking a piece of her skull. She and the before-mentioned one are still miraculously preserved, though, as you must think, I have had, and still have, a great deal of trouble and expense with them, besides anxiety about them, insomuch that I am, as to worldly circumstances, almost ruined. I am yet in hopes of seeing them cured; they still, blessed be God, retain their senses, notwithstanding the painful operations they have already and must yet pass through." Many incidents of pioneer life occurred in this locality. The warrior, with his gun, hatchet, and knife, prepared alike to slay the deer and bear for food, and also to defend himself against and destroy his savage enemy, was not the only kind of man who sought these wilds. A very interesting and tragic instance was given of the contrary by the three brothers Eckarly. These men, Dunkards by profession, left the eastern and cultivated parts of Pennsylvania, and plunged into the depths of the western wilderness. Their first permanent camp was on a creek flowing into the Monongahela river, in the south-western part of Pennsylvania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard creek, which it still bears. These men of peace employed themselves in exploring the country in every direction, in which one vast, silent, and uncultivated waste spread around them. From Dunkard's creek these men removed to Dunkard's bottom, on Cheat river, which they made their permanent residence, and, with a savage war raging at no considerable distance, they spent some years unmolested, indeed, it is probable, unseen. In order to obtain some supplies of salt, ammunition, and clothing, Dr. Thomas Eckarly recrossed the mountains with some peltry. On his return from Winchester to rejoin his brothers, he stopped on the south branch of the Potomac, at Fort Pleasant, and roused the curiosity of the inhabitants by relating his adventures, removals, and present residence. His avowed pacific principles, as pacific religious principles have everywhere else done, exposed him to suspicion, and he was detained as a confederate of the Indians, and as a spy come to examine the frontier and its defences. In vain did Dr. Eckarly assert his innocence of any connection with the Indians, and that, on the contrary, neither he nor his brothers had ever seen an Indian since their residence west of the mountains. He could not obtain his liberty until, by his own suggestion, he was escorted by a guard of armed men, who were to reconduct him a prisoner to Fort Pleasant, in case of any confirmation of the charges against him. These arbitrary proceedings, though in themselves very unjust, it is probable, saved the life of Dr. Eckarly, and his innocence was made manifest in a most shocking manner. Approaching the cabin where he had left and anxiously hoped to find his brothers, himself and his guard were presented with a heap of ashes. In the yard lay the mangled and putrid remains of the two brothers, and, as if to add to the horrors of the scene, beside the corpses lay the hoops on which their scalps had been dried. Dr. Eckarly and the now sympathizing men buried the remains, and not a prisoner, but a forlorn and desolate man, he returned to the South Branch. This was amongst the opening scenes of that lengthened tragedy which was acted through upwards of thirty years. 772 GREENE COUNTY. The more permanent and peaceful settlement of the county was not made until after the close of the Revolution and when all fears of Indian depredations had passed. From that period onward Greene county began gradually to fill up with settlers from the eastern portion of the State, and also of a due proportion of the foreign immigration. Although not favorably located, and yet with abundant resources, Greene county has kept her place in the march of progress. The population in 1800, which was 8,605, increased to 25,787 in 1870, and since then has steadily augmented. WAYNESBURG, the county seat of Greene county, was laid out in 1796, on land purchased by the commissioners from Thomas Slater. It was named after General Anthony Wayne, the hero of Stony Point. It was incorporated as a borough, January 20, 1816, and is situated nearly in the centre of the county, in a fertile valley, on the banks of Ten Mile creek, eleven miles from the Monongahela river, forty-six miles south of Pittsburgh. The public buildings consist of a fine brick court house, the dome surmounted by a full-length statue of General Greene, and contains the county offices. On the same lot the prison is erected. Within the borough limits is a Presbyterian church, a Cumberland Presbyterian church, a Baptist church, a Methodist Protestant church, a Methodist Episcopal church, a Roman Catholic church, and an African church, Waynesburg College, and a union school-house for the education of the children of the people. Waynesburg College was organized in 1851, to provide the means for a liberal education of both sexes, and received a charter from the Legislature, which empowered the college authorities to confer all the degrees usually conferred by colleges and universities. It has seven male and four female teachers, with three literary societies, halls, and libraries. The trustees are engaged in the erection of another college edifice, which, while it will be an ornament to the ancient borough, will add greatly to the comfort and convenience of professors and students. It presents a front of one hundred and fifty feet in length and eighty feet in breadth, built of brick. Jackson's fort is near the eastern limits of the borough, and was built by the early settlers as a protection against the incursions of the Indians, who at that time prowled about the settlement. CARMICHAELS borough is situated on Muddy creek, twelve miles east of Waynesburg, in a rich and beautiful valley. On March 20, 1810, Greene academy was incorporated, and two thousand dollars were given to it on condition that not exceeding six poor children should be educated therein. The town was originally named New Lisbon, and is one of the oldest in the county. GREENSBORO' is a thriving town on the left bank of the Monongahela river, at the head of the slackwater navigation of that stream. It was laid out in 1791, by Elias Stone, from a tract of land called "Delight," patented by Stone and others in 1787. The original town plot consists of eighty-six lots, of half an acre each, and is laid out upon pleasant bottom lands and high banks, which extend to a second bench rising at a very gentle slope, back into the country, affording an eligible site for a large town. It is the shipping point of a fine district of back country. Contiguous to the town are large deposits of fire-clay, superior to any west of the mountains. There are a number of industries which add largely to its material wealth and prosperity. RICE's LANDING, in Jefferson township, is a brisk village on the Monongahela. 773 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. It was settled the latter part of last century by a Mr. McLane, who kept for many years a hostelry at that point. It has considerable trade with the surrounding towns. JEFFERSON is a flourishing borough. It is the seat of a college in successful operation, under the patronage of the Baptists. MOUNT MORRIs, in Perry township, is located on Dunkard creek, near the Virginia line. It is a thriving village. The original townships, which were struck off from Washington to form Greene county, were Cumberland, Franklin, Greene, Morgan, and Rich Hill. These have had an existence since July 15, 1781, when the metes and boundaries of the townships of Washington were laid out. From them have since been formed, from time to time, as the wants of the people required, Aleppo, Centre, Dunkard, Gilmore, Jackson, Jefferson, Monongahela, Morris, Perry, Spring Hill, Washington, Wayne, and Whitely. MEMORIAL HALL, CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 774 HUNTINGDON COUNTY. BY J. SIMPSON AFRICA, HUNTINGDON. HE entire valley of the Juniata was included in the county of Cum berland. From this county Bedford was formed in 1771. Hunting don was erected from Bedford by an act of Assembly, passed on the 20th day of September, 1787. By this act, Benjamin Elliott, Thomas Duncan Smith, Ludwig Sell, George Ashman, and William McElevy, were appointed trustees, who, or any three of whom, were directed to take assurances - _ __ _ VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF HUNTINGDON. [From a Photograph by L. B. Kline, Huntingdon.] of ground in the town of Huntingdon for the site of a court house and jail. By an act passed on the 2d day of April, 1790, Andrew Henderson and Richard Smith were added to fill vacancies that occurred by the death of one and the removal from the county of another of the original trustees. The immense territory of the county, stretching from the line of Franklin county over the Allegheny to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, was cur tailed by the erection of Centre county, February 13, 1800; Clearfield and Cam 775 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. bria counties, March 26, 1804; Blair county, February 26, 18469 and by the annexation of a small corner to Mifflin county. This county lies wholly within the central mountainous region, consequently its surface is very much broken. On the south side of the Juniata there occur, in passing from the east toward the west, ranged in almost parallel lines, Tuscarora, Shade, Black Log, Jack's, Sideling Hill, Terrace, and Tussey's mountains; and on the north side, Jack's, Standing Stone, Broad, Bare Meadow, Greenlee, Tussey's, and Canoe mountains. Intervening between these mountains are numerous ridges of less elevation, called: Pine, Sandy, Saddle Back, Blue, Owen's, Chestnut, Rocky, Clear, Allegrippus, Piney, Warrior's, Shaver's Creek, BaldEagle, and many others of minor importance. Broad Top mountain is situated at the southern line of the county, between Sideling Hill and Terrace mountains. Its broad summits tower above the adjacent mountains. The existence of semi-bituminous coal in this mountain was known a hundred years ago. Mines were opened for the supply of blacksmiths and others, and the products hauled in wagons to Huntingdon, Bedford, Chainm, bersburg, and other towns, and carried from Riddlesburg in arks to towns along the Juniata and Susquehanna. Two railroads, the Huntingdon and Broad Top, and the East Broad Top, are now employed in the transportation of the coal. The entire county is drained by the Juniata. Its chief tributaries are: Raystown branch, Little Juniata river, and Tuscarora, Aughwick, Hare's, Mill, Standing Stone, Vineyard, and Shaver's creeks. Other branches of these streams are called: Black Log, Shade, Little Aughwick, Sideling Hill,Three Springs, Trough, James, Shy Beaver, Sadler's, and Spruce creeks. These streams afford numerous and valuable water-powers, many of which are utilized in driving manufactories of various kinds. Between the mountains are a corresponding number of valleys of every variety of shape and soil. Some of these contain as fertile land as is found in the State. The rich soil of the river flats and the valleys attracted the settler, and long before the final expulsion of the hostile Indians flourishing settlements of industrious farmers dotted the territory of the county. Of the 575,360 acres of land estimated to be included within its boundaries, not more than one-third are under cultivation. By the census of 1870, the farms were valued at 9,445,678 dollars. About the close of the war of the Revolution the abundance and superior quality of the iron ores of the county began to attract attention, and a furnace was built on ground now within the limits of the borough of Orbisonia. It was named BEDFORD, after the county that then embraced its site. A good article of iron was manufactured, and the success of this enterprise induced the erection of Huntingdon, Barree, Union, Pennsylvania, and numerous other iron works. " Juniata iron " soon became famous throughout the country, and it continues to be a popular brand. The melting of the forests before the woodman's axe, rendering charcoal expensive and scarce, the increase in the price of labor, and competition with foreign iron and with that at home more cheaply made from anthracite coal and coke, rendered many of these furnaces and forges unprofitable, and they have been permitted to decay. A few only are now being worked. Extensive and valuable iron mines are worked in many 776 HUNTINGDON COUNTY. localities. From Woodcock valley large quantities of ore have been carried by rail to Danville, Johnstown, and other points. The abundance, variety, and value of the ores, the rich and convenient deposits of limestone, contiguity of the Broad Top, Allegheny, and Cumberland coal fields, and facilities for transportation by rail and canal, combine to indicate that by the judicious employment of the necessary capital this county can take a more advanced place in the future than it has ever done in the past in the manufacture of iron. The experience of the Kemble iron company's furnaces at Riddlesburg, on the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, and those of the Rockhill coal and iron company at Orbisonia, on the East Broad Top railroad, all run on Broad Top coke, has demonstrated its economy and value in the smelting of iron ores. Several quarries of " Meridian " sandstone are being worked in the vicinity of Mapleton. The sand rock is crushed and pulverized in mills or crushers erecLed for that purpose, and is transported in large quantities to the glass works of Pittsburgh and other cities. Mines that give promise of excellent ochre and umber are being opened in the vicinity of Mapleton. It is to be regretted that an accurate census of the manufacturing establishments has never been taken. There are in the county furnaces, forges, rolling mills, foundries, car, and industrial works, water and steam flouring and sawmills, water and steam sand-crushers, tanneries, furniture, chair, carriage, broom, shoe, and woolen manufactories, planing mills and numerous other industrial establishments. The first highways were Indian paths which traversed the county in many directions. Along these the traders and pioneers found their way. They were only bridle paths, and did not admit the passage of a wheeled conveyance. After farms were opened and mills built, necessity prompted the opening of a wagon road along the Juniata. This was followed by the cutting of roads in other directions from "Standing Stone." The river was used for floating arks and keel-boats, laden with the products of the county, to various points as far southeastward as Baltimore. A turnpike was constructed from Lewistown to Huntingdon about 1817, and was extended by the Huntingdon, Cambria, and Indiana company to Blairsville, a distance of seventy-seven miles, soon thereafter. The Pennsylvania canal extended through the county from Shaver's Aqueduct below Mount Union to the line of Blair county above Water Street. This improvement was completed to the borough of Huntingdon in November, 1830. It is now abandoned above the Huntingdon dam. The line of the Pennsylvania railroad enters the county below Mount Union, and following the Juniata and Little Juniata, finally leaves the county between Birmingham and Tyrone. On the 6th day of June, 1850, the road was completed to Huntingdon. The opening to Pittsburgh of this great highway of travel and traffic marked an important era in the history of the Commonwealth, and has materially increased and facilitated the development of the resources of the valley of the Juniata. In 1853 the construction of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad was commenced. The main line from Huntingdon to Hopewell, a distance of thirty.one miles, was opened for business in 1855. It has since been extended to Mount Dallas, where it connects with the Bedford and Bridgeport road, running to the 777 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. were the numbers of his hearers immense. At Fagg's Manor, it is stated that twelve thousand people were congregated at one time to listen to this great revivalist of the eighteenth century. For a while, no one opposed the wild extravagance of Whitfield and his converts, until at the location named, the Rev. John Roan boldly stood up and controverted the doctrines of the enthusiasts. In March, 1744, hostilities were openly declared between France and Great Britain. The peaceful era of Pennsylvania was now at an end, and 1744. the dark cloud of savage warfare began to gather on the western frontier. The lands acquired by the Indian walk, and by purchasing the Shawanese lands without their consent, were now to be paid for by the blood of the colonists. The Delawares refused to leave the Forks of Delaware. The Six Nations were called on to order them off, which they did, in the overbearing tone of conquerors and masters. They retired to Wyoming, with the repeated wrongs rankling in their breasts. Benjamin Franklin now became prominent as a public man, and published his " Plain Truth," to endeavor to conciliate the Executive and Assembly, and awaken them both to the importance of military preparations. He was appointed a colonel, but declined; hlie preferred to wield the pen. James Logan,* too, who justified defen sive war, assisted the cause with his means. A battery was erected below the city of ___Philadelphia, from funds raised by lottery, in which many of the Quakers were adventurers. " These military preparations were necessary to Sintimidate a foreign enemy, and to curb the hostile disposition of the Indians. On the eve of a war with France, the alienation of the natives was greatly to be dreaded. Governor JAMES LOGAN. Thomas dispatched a messenger to Conrad Weiser, the Provincial interpreter, directing him to proceed to Shamokin, to renew the assurances of friendship, and to propose his mediation between the Indians and the government of Virginia, occasioned by an unpleasant rencontre between some Onondagas and Oneidas with the English, while on an excursion against the Tallapoosas, resident in * JAMES LOGAN was born at Lurgan, Ireland, October 20, 1674, of Scottish parentage. At the age of thirteen he had acquired Latin, Greek, and some Hebrew, and afterwards mastered mathematics, and the French, Spanish, and Italian languages. While engaged in trade between Dublin and Bristol, William Penn made proposals to him to accompany him to America as his secretary, which he accepted, and landed at Philadelphia in December, 1699. By Penn he was invested with many important trusts, which he discharged withi fidelity. Although he never received the appointment of governor of the Province, on several occasions he assumed the executive functions. Ile tilled the offices of provincial secretary, commissioner of property, and chief justice. He was thie warm friend of the Indians, possessed uncommon abilities, great wisdom, and moderation. Ile died at his country seat, near Philadelphia, October 31, 1751. le was the author of " Exporimentm Meletemnate Plantarum Generatione," 1739; of two other Latin treatises of a scientific character, published in Holland; of an English translation of Cicero's 1 De Senectute," 174.4; and of Cato's "Distichs," besides a variety of papers on ethics. HISTORY OF PENNS YLVANIA. Maryland line, and connecting there with roads entering the Cumberland coal region. Over four million dollars were expended in the construction and equipment of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad. The length of the main line is forty-five miles, and of the branches fourteen miles. During the last fiscal year it carried over three hundred and eighty thousand tons of bituminous coal and forty-six thousand tons of iron ore. The East Broad Top railroad (three feet gauge) extends from Mount Union to Robertsdale in the Broad Top region, a distance of thirty miles, and cost about one million dollars. It was opened in 1873, and during the last fiscal year carried sixty-three thousand tons of coal. The earliest permanent settlement effected within the limits of the county was at the Standing Stone (now Huntingdon). The compiler was informed some years ago by one of the old citizens that the Indians living at Standing Stone had cleared land and cultivated corn. In 1754, Hugh Crawford was in possession of the land, and continued to hold it until the first day of June, 1760, when he conveyed the tract, containing four hundred acres, to George Croghan, who, on the 10th day of December, 1764, obtained a warrant from the Proprietaries, authorizing a survey and return thereof to the land office. In 1754 Peter Shaver commenced a settlement at the mouth of Shaver's creek. In 1760 or 1761, James Dickey commenced an improvement on the south-east side of Shaver's creek, near Fairfield. Other improvements were made along Shaver's creek, and on the upper branches of Standing Stone creek, as early as 1762. The bottom lands along the Juniata, the Raystown branch, and the Aughwick creek, and the fertile lands of Tuscarora, Black Log, Germany, Kishicoquillas, Plank Cabin, Woodcock, Hart's Log, Canoe, Spruce Creek, and Warriors' Mark valleys, were dotted with improvements in 1761-2. In 1748 Conrad Weiser was sent on a mission from the Provincial government to the Indians at Ohio. His route was through this county, and in the journal of his trip, the Black Log sleeping-place, the Standing Stone, and other points are mentioned. John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, in an account of the road from his ferry to Logstown on the Allegheny, taken in 1754, mentions localities on his route, now in this county, as follows: Cove Spring, Shadow of Death, Black Log, Three Springs, Sideling Hill gap, Aughwick, Jack Armstrong's narrows, Standing Stone, and Water Street. The Cove Spring is supposed to be what is now known as the Trough Spring in Tell township; the Shadow of Death was applied to the water gap in the Shade mountain, now called Shade Gap; the Black Log was near Orbisonia; the Three Springs are in the vicinity of the borough of that name; Aughwick was on the site of Shirleysburg; Jack Armstrong's narrows, now curtailed to Jack's narrows, designates the narrow passage cut by the Juniata through Jack's mountain above Mount Union; and the Water Street to a gorge between the mountains, through which the waters of the Juniata pass, above the village bearing that name. The Standing Stone stood between Allegheny street and the Juniata, above Second street in the borough of Huntingdon, and was described by John Harris in 1754, as being fourteen feet high and about six inches square. It was erected 778 HUNTINGDON COUNTY. by the Indians, a branch of the Six Nations, and was covered by their hieroglyphics. The natives, who seem to have regarded this stone with great veneration, after the treaty of 1754, by which their title to the lands of the valley of the Juniata was relinquished to the Proprietary government, migrated, and as it is generally supposed, carried the stone with them. Another stone, erected soon after by the white settlers, was covered with the names of traders, residents, and colonial officials. It was broken by a carelessly thrown "long bullet." A part of it, bearing numerous interesting inscriptions, is in the possession of Mr. E. C. Summers. I... Although Dr. Smith, after laying out the town in 1767, changed the name to Huntingdon, the old appellation, " Standing Stone," continued for many years thereafter to be used by the residents of the valley. That name is still borne by the creek, valley, ridge, and mountain in the vicinity, and its Indian equivalent, " Oneida," CINCORPORATED has been applied to a township through which.. 17 9 6 the creek flows. The seal of the borough has as,.. its central figure a representation of the stone. All I Soon after the treaty of the 6th of July, 1754, settlers commenced improvements in choice spots throughout the present county, and early in the next year a number of warrants were granted by the land office, authorizing the survey and appropriation of tracts applied for. The Indian troubles following the defeat of Braddock prevented the making of any official surveys in pursuance of these warrants earlier than 1762. Three Proprietary manors, Shaver's Creek, Woodcock Valley, and Hart's Log, and a part of Sinking Valley are included in this county. The following list contains the names of early settlers in various localities in the county. The figures following the names respectively indicate the earliest year in which those persons are known to have resided in the county. Many of them may have settled still earlier. Dublin and Tell townships.-James Coyle, John Appleby, James Neely, James Morton, Samuel Morton, and John Stitt, 1778; Samuel Finley; George Hudson, 1786. Cromwell township.-James, Gavin, George, Robert, and Thomas Cluggage, 1766; Thomas Cromwell, 1785. Shirley township.-James Carmichael, 1762; James, Robert, and Patrick Galbraith, 1771; James Foley, 1772; Charles Boyle, 1773; William Morris, 1780; Bartholomew Davis, 1774. Clay township.-John and Abraham Wright, 1776; Henry Hubble, 1786; George Ashman, 1779; John Hooper, 1785. Springfield township.-John and Robert Ramsey, 1778; Hugh Madden. Trough Creek valley.-Peter Reilley, Law. Swope, 1779; Richard Chilcott, 1784; Samuel Lilly, 1788; Thomas H. Lucket, Richard Dowling, 1785; Thomas Cole, 1784; Peter Thompson, John Dean, 1784. Plank Cabin valley.,-Eli McLain, 1784; George Knoblehoff, 1785; Edward Dormit, 1784. Raystown branch.-John and George Weston, 1766; Samuel Thompson; Martin Kisling, 1791; William Corbin, William Shirley, George Buchanan; Sebastian Shoup, 1775. Broad Top mountain.-Anthony Cook, 1786; Walter Clark, 1775; Gideon Hyatt, 1787; John Bryan. Mapleton.-Jacob Hare and Gideon Miller, 1762. Brady township.779 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Peter Van Devander, 1775; David Eaton, 1775; Joseph Pridmore, 1781; Caleb Armitage. Henderson township.-John Fee, 1775; John Dorland; Joseph Nearon, 1781; Daniel Evans, 1778; Benjamin Drake, 1785. Huntingdon.-Hugh Brady, 1766; Michael Cryder, 1772; Benjamin Elliott, Adam Bardmess, Abraham Haines, 1776; David McMurtrie, 1777; John, Matthew, and Robert Simpson, 1789; Alexander McConnell, 1786; Rev. John Johnston, 1790; Michael Africa, 1791; John Cadwallader, Andrew Henderson, Peter Swoope, Frederick Ashbaugh, Ludwick Sells. West township.-Peter Shaver, 1754; Hugh Means, 1773; George Jackson, 1772; Thomas Weston, 1772; Henry Neff, 1780; Alexander McCormick, 1776; Nicholas Grafius, 1778; Patrick Maguire, James Dearment, 1779; Samuel -nderson, James Dickey, 1760 or 1761. Jackson township. -William McAlevy, 1767; - O'Burn. Barree township.-Gilbert Chaney, 1786; George Green; Richard Sinkey, David Watt, Matthew Miller, John Forrest, William Hirst, Chain Ricketts. Oneida township.-William Murray, Nathaniel Gorsuch, 1787. Hart's Log valley.-David and Charles Caldwell, 1767; John Mitchell, 1774; Peter Grafius, 1778; John Canan, John Spencer, 1779; Moses Donaldson, Jacob and Josiah Minor. Woodcock valley.-Henry Lloyd, Joshua Lewis, George Reynolds, 1774; Nathaniel Garrard, 1776; James Gibson, 1781; Solomon Sell, 1785; - Elder; Hartsock. Morris township.John Bell, Edward Beatty, 1779. Franklin township.-Benjamin Webster, Absolem Gray, 1779; Alexander Ewing, 1786; Abraham Sells, 1785; James Hunter, 1784. Warrior's Mark township.-Thomas Ricketts. The following list contains the names of the owners, location, and date of erection, as nearly as can be ascertained, of the early grist-mills of the county. Robert Cluggage's, Black Log creek, Cromwell township, before 1773; Bartholomew Davis', Shirley township, before 1774; Michael Cryder's, Juniata river, Walker township, about 1773; Abraham Sell's, Little Juniata, Franklin township, about 1776; Sebastian Shoup's, Shoup's run, Hopewell township, 1787; Huntingdon, Juniata river, Huntingdon borough, about 1793; N. Garrard's, Vineyard creek, Walker township; William McAlevy's, Standing Stone creek, Jackson township; Joseph Pridmore's, Mill creek, Brady township; McCormick's, Shaver's creek, West township; Little's, Laurel run, Jackson township; Minor's, Little Juniata, Porter township; Crum's, Trough creek, Tod township. At least two of the companies sent from Bedford county for the defence of the colonies during the war for independence were composed of men who lived within the present limits of Huntingdon county. One of these, attached to the first battalion, was commanded by Captain William McAlevy, afterward known as Colonel and General McAlevy, and was in the service in January, 1777. After faithful service in the defence of American liberty, Captain McAlevy returned to his home in Standing Stone valley, where for many years he was an active and influential citizen, and until his death enjoyed the universal respect of his neighbors. His name is perpetuated in that of the village called McAlevy's Fort, located upon the tract of land where he resided. Thomas Holliday was ensign of his company. Thomas Cluggage, afterwards known as Major Cluggage, was appointed captain, Hugh Means first lieutenant, and Moses Donley second lieutenant, of a 780 *(Ivouqivla VINVArlxsKgqa a!-IL No & Ko'lauavlq llvqtl'SAkoullvm S'llow 75 HISTORY OF PENNS Y17 VANIA. company of rangers organized in 1779. This company among other duties was engaged in defending the settlements on the Juniata. In October, 1779, when Captain Cluggage occupied Fort Roberdeau, in Sinking valley, he reported that his company had been reviewed and passed muster with three officers and fortythree rank and file; one of the latter "killed or taken." A company, commanded by Captain Cluggage, was in the Continental service in New Jersey in 1776-7, and formed a part of the battalion under Colonel John Piper. In 1781, Dublin, Shirley, Barree, Hopewell, Frankstown, and Huntingdon townships, then embracing the whole of the counties of Huntingdon and Blair, composed one of the battalions of Bedford county. This region was too far removed from the Atlantic coast to be the scene of any conflicts with the British invaders, save detached parties sent out on marauding expeditions, or for the purpose of encouraging the Indians and Tories. From these the inhabitants constantly suffered. People were murdered or carried into captivity, buildings burned, crops destroyed, cattle driven off, and all manner of injury perpetrated by roving bands of the enemy. Many of the families were removed to the eastern counties. Those that remained were compelled during the darkest hours of the conflict to seek protection within the walls of the forts. These were situated as follows: STANDING STONE, east of Third and south of Washington street, in the borough of Huntingdon. It was built of stockades, and it included dwellings and magazines. A blacksmith shop that stood at No. 205 Penn street, was constructed of oak logs from the fort, probably a part of a magazine. In 1778 the inhabitants were much alarmed at a threatened assault by a band of Tories and Indians, variously estimated at from three hundred to one thousand in number. General Roberdeau wrote from Standing Stone, under date of April 23d, 1778, confirming the reports of the alarm of the inhabitants, and recommended that the militia be called out and sent forward to meet the enemy. In July, Colonel Brodhead's regiment, then on a march from the east to Pittsburgh, was directed to stop here, and three hundred militia from Cumberland, and two hundred from York county, were ordered to join them. On the 8th of August, the council informed Dr. William Shippen, director-general, that there was a body of five hundred men at Standing Stone that would require a supply of medicine. ANDERSON's was near the mouth of Shaver's creek, and near the borough of Petersburg. McALEVY'S, on Standing Stone creek, in Jackson township, seventeen miles north-east of Huntingdon. IJARTSOCK's, in Woodcock valley, between McConnellstown and Marklesburg. SHIRLEY was one of the cordon of Provincial defences erected during the French and Indian troubles that followed the defeat of General Braddock. It was built about 1755, on the bluff at the northern end of the borough of Shirleysburg, on or near the site of the Indian town of Aughwick, often mentioned in colonial annals. In the autumn of 1756, the royal forces evacuated the fort, and it does not appear to have been afterward used for defensive purposes. On the 4th day of May, 1812, the "l Huntingdon volunteers " tendered their services to President Madison, in the war with Great Britain, and on Monday, 782 HUNTLINGDON COUNTY. the 7th day of September following, under Robert Allison, captain, and Jacob Miller, first lieutenant, they marched to Niagara. On the 2d of October they arrived at Buffalo. Other companies from Huntingdon county were commanded by Captains Moses Canan, William Morris, and Isaac VanDevander. Dr. Alexander Dean, of the borough of Huntingdon, was chosen surgeon of the Second Pennsylvania regiment. When war with Mexico was declared, a number of patriotic citizens, probably equal in number to a full company, separately volunteered their services and were attached to different companies formed in neighboring counties. They, without exception, behaved gallantly; and most of them, after having participated in many battles of the war, returned home at the close of the contest. The avidity shown by the sons of "old Huntingdon," in rallying to the support of their country in the rebellion of 1861, exhibited a patriotism not less commendable than that of the sires of'76. On the 13th or 14th of April, 1861, one or two days after the telegraph had flashed the intelligence throughout the Commonwealth that "war had commenced," the Standing Stone Guards, of the borough of Huntingdon, tendered their services to Governor Curtin. Official notification of their acceptance was received by the company on the 19th, and on the 20th, Saturday, numbering over ninety men, proceeded to Harrisburg, and after discharging all but seventy-seven, were mustered in as Company D of the 5th Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers. The company was officered as follows: Benjamin F. Miller, captain; George F. McCabe, first lieutenant; James D. Campbell, second lieutenant. The field officers of the regiment were: R. P. McDowell, of Pittsburgh, colonel; Benjamin C. Christ, of Schuylkill county, lieutenant-colonel; R. Bruce Petriken, of Huntingdon, major. The county was represented in other Pennsylvania regiments as follows: 34th Regiment, 5th reserves-mustered into service, June 21, 1861; mustered out June 11, 1864; George Dare, promoted from major to lieutenant-colonel, August 1, 1862; killed at Wilderness, May, 6, 1864; Frank Zentmyer, promoted from captain, Company I, to major, August 1, 1862; killed at Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862; James A. McPherran, promoted from captain, Company F, to major, May 7, 1864, mustered out with regiment; Company G, commanded successively by Captains A. S. Harrison, John E. Wolfe, and Charles M. Hildebrand, and Company I by Captains Frank Zentmyer and James Porter. 41st Regiment, 12th reserves-mustered into service, August 10, 1861; mustered out June 11, 1864; Company I, commanded by Captain James C. Baker, who died July 7, 1862, and was succeeded by Captain C. W. Hazzard. 49th RegimentJohn B. Miles, captain of Company C, mustered into service, August 5th, 1861; promoted to major, October 16, 1862; to lieutenant-colonel, April 23, 1864; killed at Spottsylvania, May 10, 1864; Company C, commanded successively by Captains Eckebarger, Hutchinson, and Smith, and Company D, commanded successively by Captains James D. Campbell, Quigley, and Russell; were mustered out July 15, 1865. 53d Regiment-Company C, commanded successively by Captains John H. Wintrode and Henry J. Smith; mustered into service, October, 17, 1861; mustered out, June 30, 1865. 77th Regiment-Company C, mustered out, December 6, 1865. 92nd Regiment, ninth cavalry-Company M, commanded 783 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. successively by Captains George W. Patterson, James Bell, Thomas S. McCahan, and D. A. Shelp; mustered out, July 18, 1865. 110th Regiment-Isaac Rodgers, promoted from captain, Company B, to major, December 21, 1862; to lieutenantcolonel, December 5, 1863; wounded at Spottsylvania, and died May 28, 1864; Company B, commanded successively by Captains Seth Benner, Isaac Rodgers, and John M. Shelly; and Company D, by Captains Samuel L. Huyett and John B. Fite; mustered out June 28, 1865. 125th Regiment, John J. Lawrence, major-Company C, Captain William W. Wallace; Company F, Captain Wililam H. Simpson; Company H, Captain Henry H. Gregg; Company 1, Captain William H. Thomas. 149th Regiment, George W. Speer, majorCompany I, commanded successively by Captains George W. Speer, promoted to major; Brice X. Blair, lost an arm at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863; Samuel Diffenderfer, discharged May 4, 1864; David R. P. Neely, who was mustered out with the company, June 24, 1865. 185th Regiment, 22d cavalry-Company A, commanded by Captain John D. Fee, nine months' service; Company K, commanded by Captain John H. Boring, three years' service. 192d Regiment, one year's service, William F. Johnston, major-Company B, commanded by Captain Thomas S. Johnston. 195th Regiment, one hundred days' service-John A. Willoughby, quartermaster, Company F. 202d Regiment, one year's serviceCompany K, commanded by Captain A. Wilson Decker. 205th Regiment, one year's service-Company D, commanded by Captain Thomas B. Reed. 3rd Regiment, militia of 1862-William Dorris, Jr., colonel; Company F, commanded by Captain George W. Garrettson. 12th Regiment, Henry S. Wharton, majorcompany D, commanded by Captain Edwar- A. Green; Company I, commanded by Captain George C. Bucher. Rev. George W. Eaton was born in Brady township, July 3, 1804, and died at Hamilton, New York, August 3, 1872. He graduated at Union College in 1829; was professor of ancient languages in Georgetown College, Kentucky, from 1831 to 1833. Became connected in 1833 with Hamilton Theological Institute, incorporated in 1846 as Madison University, and was successively professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, of civil and ecclesiastical history and of theology. Was president of the college from 1856 to 1868, and president of the theological seminary from 1861 to 1871. John Canan settled in Harts Log valley during the Revolutionary war. On the 3d February, 1781, he was commissioned as one of the justices of Bedford county. In 1787 he was one of the members of the Assembly for that county at the time of the separation of Huntingdon county. The same year he was appointed deputy surveyor for the county of Huntingdon, and held that office until 1809. Joseph Saxton, born in the borough of Huntingdon, March 22, 1799; died at Washington, D. C., October 26, 1873. He learned, in youth, the trade of watchmaking. He was the inventor of numerous mechanical machines, and was widely known and highly esteemed for his scientific acquirements. In 1843 he became a resident of Washington, and was employed in the Coast Survey office, where he designed and superintended the construction of the apparatus used in that department. He remained in the service of the government until his death. 784 HUNTINGDON COUNTY. Rev. John Johnston, born at or near the city of Belfast, Ireland, 1750; died at Huntingdon, December, 1823. In November, 1787, he was installed as pastor of the Hart's Log and Shaver's Creek Presbyterian congregations. In 1789, his pastoral relation to the Shaver's Creek congregation was dissolved, and in 1790 he accepted a call from the Huntingdon congregation for one-half of his time. From this date until the year of his death-a period of thirty-three years-he continued as pastor of the two congregations. Hugh Brady, a brigadier-general in the United States army, was born at Huntingdon, in 1768. He entered the service in 1792 as lieutenant; served under Wayne in his campaign against the Western Indians, and in the war of 1812 was distinguished for his gallantry and bravery. The township of Brady was named in honor of the general. ALEXANDRIA is situated on the north bank of the Juniata, seven miles northwest of Huntingdon. It is surrounded by the fertile and well cultivated lands of the valley of Hart's Log, a name derived from a log hollowed out and used by John Hart, an Indian trader, in feeding his pack-horses. It was laid out in 1798, and incorporated as a borough April 11, 1827. It contains three churches and three public schools. BIRMINGHAM, on the north bank of the Little Juniata, on the opposite side from the Pensylvania railroad, seventeen and a half miles north-west of Huntingdon, laid out by John Cadwallader, of Huntingdon, and called after the city of the same name in England, was incorporated April 14, 1838. It is the site of Mountain seminary, and has Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Brethren churches. BROAD TOP CITY, near the summit of Broad Top mountain, and near the eastern terminus of the Shoup's Run branch of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, 27.5 miles south-south-west of Huntingdon, was incorporated August 19, 1868, and contains the Mountain house, a well-kept summer resort, a Baptist church, and an Odd Fellows hall. CASSVILLE, in Trough Creek valley, 17.5 miles south of Huntingdon, was incorporated March 3, 1853, and has Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, and Methodist Protestant churches, two potteries, and was, until recently, the site of the Cassville Soldiers' Orphan school. COALMONT, on the Shoup's Run branch of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, twenty-eight miles by rail south-south-west of Huntingdon, was incorporated November 22, 1864. HUNTINGDON is situated on the north bank of the Juniata, at the mouth of Standing Stone creek, two hundred and two and a half miles west of Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania railroad and canal pass through the borough, and it is the northern terminus of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad. Although settled as early as 1754, and widely known to traders and the Provincial authorities as "Standing Stone," it was not regularly laid out as a town until 1767, when Rev. Dr. William Smith, the proprietor, at that time and for many years thereafter provost of the University of Pennsylvania, called the town " Huntingdon," in honor of Selina, countess of Huntingdon, in England, a lady of remarkable liberality and piety, who, at the solicitation of Dr. Smith, had made a handsome donation to the funds of the University. 2z 785 SPRUCE CREEK( TUN NEL, PENNSYLVANIA LIVLROAD. HUNTINYGDON COUNTY. During the troublesome times following the defeat of General Braddock, in July, 1755, until the peace with Great Britain in 1783, this place and its vicinity was the scene of many important incidents. In 1787, it became the county seat, on the erection of Huntingdon county, and on the 29th day of March, 1796, it was incorporated as a borough. Before the completion of the canal this place commanded the principal trade of the county. This improvement compelled Huntingdon to share the business, of which it had almost a monopoly, with several smaller towns, and for many years there was no material increase of business or population; but a marked improvement followed the completion of the Pennsylvania, and Huntingdon and Broad Top railroads, until it has become, with a single exception, the most flourishing and populous town in the valley of the Juniata. The error committed by Dr. Smith of making the streets too narrow and omitting alleys, has been avoided in the plans of lots since laid out. The public buildings are nearly all, and the residences erected within the last decade are generally, built of brick. The streets are lighted with gas, and the sidewalks in all of the built portions of the town paved with brick. The view from the adjacent hills, taking in the town, the Juniata and Standing Stone creek with their bridges, the railroads, canal, cemetery, and the surrounding scenery, is grand. The cemetery, located on an eminence having an elevation of about one hundred and fifty feet above the river, the nucleus of which was a small plot of ground donated by the proprietor of the town, and enlarged from time to time, embraces an area of about twelve acres, is used as a place of sepulchre by all religious denominations save one, and as a place of resort during pleasant weather by the entire population. It is owned and controlled by the borough authorities. The borough contains the court house, jail, eleven churches, an academy, incorporated March 19, 1816, three public school buildings, accommodating fourteen schools with eight hundred and ninety-six scholars. The industrial establishments are numerous and varied. The population, according to the census of 1870, was 3,034; it is now (1876) estimated to be 4,100. The local government consists, besides the usual borough officers, of three burgesses and nine councilmen, one-third of whom are chosen annually for a term of three years. These officers constitute the town council, and meet statedly on the first Friday of each month, the senior burgess acting as chief burgess and presiding at the meetings. This town occupies a pretty location. It contains numerous public and private buildings, having the appearance of elegance and comfort, is well and economically governed, has about a fair admixture of the conservative and "young America" elements; few, if any, towns in the interior of the State excel it in wealth, or in the intelligence, hospitality, and social qualities of its people; and with the great natural advantages it possesses, should become, by a judicious combination of the capital, enterprise, and energy of its citizens, one of the most populous and flourishing boroughs of central Pennsylvania. MAPLETON, situated on the Juniata river and Pennsylvania railroad, eight and one-half miles south-east of Huntingdon, was incorporated August 18, 1866. 787 GENERAL HISTORY. that colony. Happily this attention induced them to hold a treaty the ensuing spring, and to refrain from hostility in the meantime. A conference was held with the Deputies of the Six Nations at Lancaster, commencing on the 22d of June, 1744, and ending on the 4th of July following, which was attended by Governor Thomas in person, and by the Commissioners of Virginia and Maryland. All matters of dispute were satisfactorily settled, and the Iroquois engaged to prevent the French and their Indian allies from marching through their country to attack the English settlements. This conference, however, did not remove causes of future disquiet. These lay in the encroachments of the settlers and in the conduct of the traders. The attempt of Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, to enlist the other colonies in a design for attacking the French settlements at Cape Breton, found no favor in Pennsylvania, the Assembly refusing assistance, upon the specious plea that they had not been consulted. The plan, however, having been approved by the British Ministry, directions were sent to the Provincial authorities to furnish men, provisions, and shipping for the expedition. The Assembly acting upon the matter, resolved to grant the sum of four thousand pounds to be expended in the purchase of bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat, or other grain. The enterprise against Louisburg terminated honorably for those who had projected and executed it. The Shawanese Indians on the Ohio, who had long shown symptoms of disaffection to the English, and subserviency to the French cause, now 1745. openly assumed a hostile character. The policy of the French had been long directed to seduce all the Indian tribes from the English interest, and their efforts at this juncture upon the Six Nations produced great alarm in Pennsylvania. Commissioners were dispatched to a convention at Albany, held in October, 1745, by the Governor of New York, and commissioners from the Province of Pennsylvania and Colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut, with the Indians of the Six Nations, to induce the latter, if possible, to take up the hatchet against the French and become parties in the war. The Six Nations showed no disposition to enter the contest, and the result of the conference was far from satisfactory. In May, 1746, instructions were forwarded to the Provincial Government to raise forces to attempt the conquest of Canada. Governor Thomas 1746. forthwith summoned the Assembly, who, after considerable delay, voted five thousand pounds. The Governor raised four companies of over one hundred men each, commanded by Captains William Trent, John Shannon, Samuel Perry, and John Deimer, which were forwarded at once to Albany. Though the attempt on Canada was abandoned, the troops were retained nearly eighteen months on the Hudson River, with the view of over-awing the Indians. On the 5th of May, 1747, the Governor communicated to the 1747. Assembly the death of John Penn, one of the Proprietaries, and his own resolution, on account of ill-health, to resign the government. On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive administration devolved on the Council, of which Anthony Palmer was president, until the 1749. arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, former Speaker of the Assembly, as Lieutenant-Governor, November 23, 1749. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. The ground upon which the principal part of this borough stands was owned and occupied by Jacob Hare, a notorious Tory of the Revolution. This, with all his other real estate, was confiscated and sold. MARKLESBURG, on the Bedford road, in Woodcock valley, and near the station of the same name on the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, twelve miles south-west of Huntingdon, was incorporated November 19, 1873. MOUNT UNION, on the Pennsylvania canal and railroad, eleven and one-half miles south-east of Huntingdon, was incorporated April 19, 1867. It is the second town in the county in population, and has a Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Brethren churches, Odd Fellows hall, etc. ORBISONIA, on the Black Log creek and East Broad Top railroad, was incorporated November 23, 1855. The borough limits include the site of old Bedford furnace. Winchester and Rock Hill furnaces were located on the creek, a short distance east of the borough, and the two coke furnaces of the Rock Hill coal and iron company, now producing thirty-five tons of pig metal per day, are on the southern side of the creek. The population of the town has greatly increased since the construction of the railroad. PETERSBURG, on the Pennsylvania railroad, at the junction of Shaver's creek with the Juniata river, six and one-half miles north of Huntingdon, was incorporated April 7, 1830. It contains a Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, Juniata forge, a flouring mill, etc. Stages run to Williamsburg and McAlevy's Fort. SHADE GAP, in Dublin township, thirty miles south-east of Huntingdon, was incorporated April 20, 1871. There is in the borough a Methodist and near its limits a Presbyterian church. SALTILLO, on the East Broad Top railroad, twenty-three miles south of Huntingdon, was incorporated November 10, 1875. SHIRLEYSBURG, on the East Broad Top railroad, twenty miles south-east of Huntingdon, was incorporated April 3, 1837. This borough is located upon the site of the Indian "Aughwick old town," and the Provincial Fort Shirley. From the latter it derived its name. It contains Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. THREE SPRINGS, on the East Broad Top railroad, twenty-five miles south of Huntingdon, was incorporated November 10th, 1869; has Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, and United Brethren churches. Beside these boroughs the following villages may be named: BARNET, on Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, in Carbon township, at the Barnet mines; COFFEE RUN, on the same railroad, in Lincoln township; DUDLEY, on same railroad, in Carbon township; EAGLE FOUNDRY, in Tod township; ENNISVILLE, in Jackson; FRANKLINVILLE, in Franklin; FAIRFIELD, in West; GRAFTON, on Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, in Penn; GRAYSVILLE, in Franklin; MANOR HILL, in Barree; MILL CREEK, on Pennsylvania railroad in Brady; MCALEVY'S FORT, in Jackson; MCCONNELLSTOWN, in Walker; NOSSVILLE, in Tell; NEWBURG, in Tod; ROBERTSDALE, on East Broad Top railroad, in Carbon; SHAFFERSVILLE, in Morris; SAULSBURG, in Barree; SPRUCE CREEK, on Pennsylvania railroad, in Franklin and Morris; WATER STREET, in Morris; and WARRIOR'S MARK, in the township of the same name. 788 IIHUNTINGDON COUNTY. 789 TOWNSHIP.-At the time of the erection of Huntingdon county in 1787, the territory within its present limits was included in six townships, to wit: Barree, Dublin, Hopewell, Shirley, Frankstown, and Huntingdon. Frankstown, much reduced in area, is now one of the townships of Blair county, and in the division of Huntingdon, in 1814, one end was called Porter and the other Henderson. There are now twenty-five townships in the county. Twenty-one were formed since the erection of Huntingdon county, as follow: Franklin, March, 1789, from Tyrone; Springfield, December, 1790, from Shirley; Union, June, 1791, from Hopewell; Morris, August, 1794, from Tyrone; West, April, 1796, from Barree; Warrior's Mark, January, 1798, from Franklin; Tell, April, 1810, from Dublin; Porter, November, 1814, from Huntingdon; Henderson, November, 1814. from Huntingdon; Walker, April, 1827, from Porter; Cromwell, January, 1836, from Shirley and Springfield; Tod, April 11, 1838, from Union; Cass, January 21, 1843, from Union; Jackson, January 15, 1845, from Barree; Clay, April 15, 1845, from Springfield; Brady, April 25, 1846, from Henderson; Penn, November 21, 1846, from Hopewell; Oneida, August 20, 1856, from West; Juniata, November 19, 1856, from Walker; Carbon, April 23, 1858, from Tod; Lincoln, August 18, 1866, from Hopewell. INDIANA COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to A. W. Taylor, Indiana, and J. M. Robinson, Saltsburg.] NDIANA county was created by act of Assembly of 1803 out of parts of Westmoreland and Lycoming counties. That part south of the purchase line was taken from Westmoreland county, and that north of the purchase line from Lycoming county, consisting then of two townships, Armstrong and Wheatfield. The county derived its name from its first denizens. Indiana county was by the same act annexed to Westmoreland county for judicial purposes, and the courts of Westmoreland were to levy and collect the taxes. By ... =the act of 1806 it was de ---l dared a part of the Tenth - judicial district, then com posed of the counties of - "_ Somerset, Cambria, In diana, Armstrong, and -Westmoreland. The area - of the county is seven hun dred and seventy-five _square miles. Indiana county is bounded on the north by ___ Jefferson county; on the S east by Clearfield and Cambria; on the south by Westmoreland, and on the west by Armstrong. It lies between 400 23' and 400 56' north latitude; and 10 49' and 2' 14' west longitude, from Washing INDIANA COUNTY COURT HOUSE, INDIANA. (From a Photograph by B. B. Tiffany.] ton City. The Conemaugh river (called Kiskiminetas from its junction with Loyalhanna creek) flows along the entire southern boundary of the county from east to west. The West Branch of the Susquehanna river touches the county on the north-east. Some of the spurs of the Allegheny mountains run into the county on the northeast. Laurel hill is on the east. Chestnut ridge enters on the south, and runs in a northerly direction, about half the length of the county. The dividing ridge, or water-shed, in the north-eastern part of the county, divides the waters of the 790 INDIANA COUNTY. Susquehanna that flow into the Chesapeake bay from the streams emptying into the Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers flowing southward into the Gulf of Mexico. The lowest part of this water-shed is one thousand three hundred feet above tide. The county is well watered by numerous small streams and creeks-the largest of them Black Lick, Yellow creek, Two Lick and Black Legs, emptying into the Conemaugh; Crooked creek, Plum creek, Little Mahoning, and Canoe into the Allegheny; Cushion and Cush-Cush into the Susquehanna. Those streams flowing into the Conemaugh have a fall of from twenty to thirty feet to the mile; those flowing into the Allegheny from ten to fifteen feet to the mile, and those into the Susquehanna, from thirty-five to forty feet to the mile. Inundations are very rare. Owing to the rolling character of the surface there is but very little marsh land. It is cut into small valleys and hills by the numerous small streams. The principal eminences are called " round tops," which rise from three to five hundred feet above the general surface of the county. Doty's Round Top, on the line of Grant and Canoe townships, is the highest point in the county. Oakes Point, highest peak of Chestnut ridge, is one thousand two hundred feet above the Conemaugh river at its base. In about one quarter of the county (the eastern part) the timber is principally white pine, spruce, and hemlock. The balance of the county is covered with white oak, black oak, chestnut oak, red oak, poplar, chestnut, hickory, sugar maple, walnut, cherry, locust, cucumber, etc. The principal minerals are bituminous coal, salt, iron ore, and limestone. The soil in the eastern part of the county is loam and sand, as far as the pine timber extends. In the balance of the county the soil is loam and slate, with clayey admixture in spots. The subsoil is clay and slate. The subjacent rock in the low lands is a peculiar hard blue micaceous sandstone. In the higher table lands it is variegated blue and red. In the Conemaugh valley there are several salt wells, from which are manufactured an excellent quality of salt. About the year 1812 or 1813 an old lady named Deemer discovered an oozing of salt water at low-water mark on the Indiana side of the Conemaugh river, about two miles above the present site of Saltsburg. Prompted by curiosity, she gathered some of the water to use for cooking purposes, and with a portion of it made mush, which she found to be quite palatable. This discovery very shortly led to the development of one of the most important business interests in the county. About the year 1813 William Johnston, an enterprising young man from Franklin county, commenced boring a well at the spot where Mrs. Deemer made the discovery, and at the depth of two hundred and eighty-seven feet found an abundance of salt water. Trhe boring was done by tramp or treadle, the poles being connected with open mortice and tongue, fastened with little bolts. The salt was manufactured by boiling the water in large kettles, or graimes, using wood for fuel. Until with the opening of additional wells, some fifty or sixty acres of wood land had been consumed for this purpose. Originally the pumping was done by blind horses, and the salt sold at five dollars per bushel retail, but as the wells multiplied the price came down to four dollars. With the increase of the trade, came new machinery and appliances in the manufacture of the salt. The unwieldy kettles HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. were dispensed with, and large pans of half-inch iron, some twenty feet long, ten to eleven feet wide, and eight inches deep, were used instead; coal was used as fuel, and the blind horses were put aside, and the steam engine introduced for both boring and pumping. The place was called the Great Conemaugh salt works, from the name of the river upon which they were located, and a post office with that name was established there. The following is an enumeration of the Salt wells now or formerly in operation in that region: Alonzo Livermore, one mile above Saltsburg (a dry well churning up); next Sugar Camp well; Andy Stewart well (salt in limited quantity); Dick Lamarr well (good producing well, but gas in it); next Lamarr well (the water pumped through logs under the river by two men on each side to Samuel Reed's well and works; after some time works erected there); next Dick Lamon and S. Reed's well and works (a good producing well); the Johnston & Reed well in the river (this was the first well, two hundred and eightyseven feet, and is now near one-third across the river); the Levi Hillery (one of the oldest wells), works still in blast-the well about eight hundred feet; the Barker & McConnell well, some fifteen rods from the river (a new well, but not a success); Joe Black & Christian Latshaw well (an old and good producing well); James R. Porter well (an old and rich producing well, the best No. 1 salt on the river for curing meat); J. R. Porter well, on a hill side some twenty rods from the river, and cut off from the canal by the West Pennsylvania railroad buildings; the furnaces and chimneys of the works are up, but further operations are delayed in consequence of a law-suit with the railroad company; the John McKowan well (a good well in its time); the S. Waddle well, not old, but only a well; next, forty rods distant, the Edward Carlton, now Samuel Waddle, well and works; next, the McFarland well and works, which twenty years ago produced much salt. For the three last mentioned wells, three small engines pump the water into one set of pans, which, when in blast, produce a large amount of salt. Four miles on the Westmoreland side of the river, are the James McLanahan & Andy Boggs well (an old well, producing a great deal of salt down to about 1858, when it was abandoned); next, the Samuel Reed well, (fed in part by hand pump); the M. Johnston & A. Stewart; next, the Nathan M. D. Sterritt & David Mitchell wells (both good; the latter not abandoned until about 1855); the Deep Hollow, Pete Hammer well (forty rods from the river, rather new, and not paying, was abandoned); the Walter Skelton well made a great quantity of salt while in blast; the Winnings and Morrison works are of recent date, and produce a small amount of good salt. Of the twenty-four wells, and say twenty-one set of works, we have mentioned above, only three are now in blast, viz.: the Hillery, owned by Harry White, and leased to Johnston, Boyle & Son; the Waddle group, owned and run by Samuel Waddle; and the Wineings, owned by Wineings. We should state here that the wells enumerated are named after their original owners; and that the twenty-one set of works attached to the wells, had at least two, and some of them five, proprietors. The most of these were excellent men, but with the exception of Samuel and William Waddle, who ran the Porter works for many years, not one who survive, or their families, live in affluent circumstances. The seven wells along the river on the Westmoreland side were all put down prior to 1820 and 1822; and from that 792 INDIANA (YOUNTY. date till 1830, the group of hills on both sides of the river was like a great beehive; yet the expenses of production in many instances exceeded the income. The coal and machinery had to be hauled from Pittsburgh by wagon, or brought by the river in keel-boats-both expensive means of transportation. The western division of the Pennsylvania canal once passed through the Conemaugh valley, but the completion of the Pennsylvania railroad to Pitts. burgh, in 1852, rendered it useless, and it has gone to decay. The Western Pennsylvania railroad was completed in 1864. The Indiana branch, connecting with the Pennsylvania, was built in 1856, through the exertions of some of its prominent citizens. The first attempt at making a settlement within the limits of Indiana county was made in the year 1769, in the forks of the Conemaugh and Black Lick. The country had been explored as early as 1766-7, and the explorers were particularly pleased with the country. It was clear of timber or brush, and clothed in high grass-a sort of prairie. In the spring of 1772, Fergus, Samuel, and Joseph Moorhead, and James Kelly, commenced improvements near the town of Indiana. Moses Chambers was another early settler. Having served several years on board a British man-of-war, he was qualified for a life of danger and hardship. Moses continued to work on his improvement till he was told one morning that the last johnnycake was at the fire. What was to be done? There was no possibility of a supply short of the Conococheague. He caught his horse and made ready. He broke the johnnycake in two pieces, and giving one-half to his wife, the partner of his perils and fortunes, he put up the other half in the lappet of his coat with thorns, and turned his horse's head to the east. There were no inns on the road in those days, nor a habitation west of the mountains, save, perhaps, a hut or two at Fort Ligonier. The Kittanning path was used to Ligonier, and from thence the road made by General Forbes' army. Where good pastures could be had for his horse, Moses tarried and baited. To him day was as night, and night as the day. He slept only while his horse was feeding; nor did he give rest to his body nor ease to his mind until he returned. with his sack stored with corn. Moses Chambers was not the only one who had to encounter the fatigue and trouble of procuring supplies from Franklin county. All had to do so, such was the condition of this country, and such the prospect of settlers after the peace of 1763. A scarcity of provisions was one of the constant dangers of the first settlers, and, to make their case worse, there were no mills, even after they began to raise grain. The first year some Indian corn was planted. It grew, and in the form of " roasting ears" was gladly gathered for food. I can almost see the hardy dame, with her home-made apron of "lye color and white" pinned round her waist, stepping cautiously between the rows of corn, selecting the finest, that is to say, the best, ears for dinner, ay, and for breakfast and supper too. About the year 1773, William Bracken built a mill on Black Lick, which was a great convenience to the settlers. They marked out a path, by which they traveled to Bracken's mill. Around and near him gathered John Stewart, Joseph McCartney, John Evans, Thomas Barr, and John Hustin. About the year 1774, Samuel Moorhead commenced building a mill on Stony run, but before it was completed the settlers were driven off by the Indians. They fled to what was then called the Sewickley settlement. This 793 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. was during the Dunmore war. However, they returned in the fall to their improvements, and Moorhead completed his mill. Along and near Crooked creek located Andrew Sharp (killed by the Indians in 1794), Benjamin Walker, Israel Thomas, James McCreight, Jacob Anthony, David Peelor, and John Patison. Among the early settlers along the Conemaugh river, Black Lick creek, and its tributaries, and in the southern part of the county, were Charles Campbell, Samuel Dixon, John McCrea, John IHarrold, Philip Altman, Patrick McGee, Archey Coleman, George Repine, Malachia Sutton, William Loughry, Jonathan Doty, Jacob Bricker, James Ewing, James Ferguson, Peter Fair, James McComb, Samuel McCartney, John Neal, Alexander Rhea, William Robertson, Daniel Repine, John Shields, Robert Liggot, David Reed, William Graham, Ephraim Wallace, George Mabon, the Hices, Hugh St. Clair, James McDonald, and William Clark. The northern part of the county, in the early days called " the Mahoning country," was settled at a more recent date. Among the early settlers were the Bradys, the Thompsons, William Work, Hugh Cannon, John Leasure, William McCall, John Park, William McCrery, the Pierces, Robert Hamilton, Joshua Lewis, and John Jamison. In addition to those named, among the early settlers, in the central portion of the county, were Andrew Allison, Thomas Allison, Gawin Adams, George Trimble, Alexander Taylor, John Lytle, Daniel Elgin, Conrad Rice, Thomas Wilkins, Daniel McKisson, James Mitchell, Andrew Dixon, John Agey, Blaney Adair, Thomas McCrea, Thomas Burns, William Lowry, John Wilson, Robert Pilson, John Thompson, Patrick Lydick, James Simpson, Christopher Stuchal, and William Smith. Little is known or recorded concerning the adventures of the settlers during the war of the Revolution, and the subsequent campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne. It is probable their residence here was precarious and unsettled. Every settler was a soldier, and preferred, indeed, occasionally the use of the rifle to that of the axe or the plough. John Thompson was one of the very few who remained here. He erected a block-house six miles north-east of Indiana borough, where he resided throughout all the troubles of the frontier. After Wayne's treaty in 1795, the settlers:again returned to their homes, and resumed the occupations of peace. The early settlers of Indiana county came from the eastern counties of the State, in great part from the Cumberland valley. They were mostly of ScotchIrish descent; in faith, Presbyterians. They came with their Bibles, their Confession of Faith, their catechisms, and their rifles. They were a brave, determined, self-denying race, by no means deficient in education and love of learning. It is A notable fact that in spelling, penmanship, and accuracy of style and manner, the early records of the townships and county will compare favorably with those of more recent date. As early as 1790, Rev. John Jamison, a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (or Seceder) church, settled on a farm on Altman's run. He was a Scotchman by birth and education, and was the first minister of the gospel who settled in this county, coming here from Cumberland county. He had an organized congregation near his residence, and another at Crete, now in Centre township, and much of his time, for a number of years, he preached from settlement to settlement, in the cabins, or barns, or 794 INDIANA COUNTY. in tents in the woods-a sort of missionary. The first Presbyterian minister settled in the county was Rev. Joseph Henderson, who was installed pastor of the congregations of Bethel and Ebenezer in 1798, and had charge of these congregations for many years. The first Presbyterian minister located in the town of Indiana was Rev. James Galbraith, from 1809 to 1816, when he removed to Huntingdon county. Rev. John Reed succeeded him. In 1818 he was placed over the congregations of Indiana and Gilgal, and f6r a number of years he also taught the classics in the Indiana Academy. Among the early settlers were a number of Lutheran families, who, from the first, managed to have occasional preaching. Rev. M. Steck, of Greensburg, commencing in 1798, for several yea.rs rode through the wilderness, once in three months, to preach to his brethren in Indiana county. Then followed Rev. J. G. Lambright, Rev. Schultz, Rev. Reighart, and others. Rev. N. G. Sharretts was the pastor at Indiana and Blairsville from 1827 till his death, on the last day of 1836. The first Catholic church in the county was located at Cameron's Bottom, in 1821, under the charge of Rev. T. McGir. The first Baptist church was organized in 1824, in a settlement in Green township, mostly of Welsh origin. At a very early day there were a number of Methodist families here. Half a century ago, when Robert Nixon was the only Methodist in the town of Indiana, and when that good old Methodist minister, Rev. James Wakefield, occasionally came over from Wheatfield township to preach in the old court-house, with his white hat, plainly cut garments, and plain earnest manner of preaching, he was something of a curiosity, and attracted the attention of old and young, never failing to draw a full house. INDIANA, the county seat, comprising the separate boroughs of Indiana and West Indiana, is near the geographical centre of the county. It was laid out in 1805, by Charles Campbell, Randall Laughlin, and John Wilson, trustees appointed for the purpose. The "fork" of Two Lick and Yellow creeks, near the present site of Homer City, was a competitor for the honor of being the county seat. This site was not without its advantages, among which were its abundance of water, its water power, and the near proximity of coal. But George Clymer, of Philadelphia, with the view of enhancing the value of his adjacent lands, offered the present site of two hundred and fifty acres as a gift. This, with the beauty of the situation and its central position, turned the scale in its favor. The main street, running east and west, was named "Philadelphia street," in honor of the residence of George Clymer. He was further honored by naming the principal street running north and south " Clymer." Originally thie public grounds, where the court house stands, extended from Philadelphia street to Water street, and from Clymer street to Sutton alley, nearly three acres. The square upon which the Lutheran, Presbyterian, and United Presbyterian churches stand, originally extended from Clymer street to Vine street, and from Church street to the then southern limit of the town, embracing about two acres and a half. Unfortunately, many years ago, building lots were sold off these public squares, to save the county a pittance of taxes; and thus was the beauty of the town marred and the comfbrt of the inhabitants impaired. This was worse than a crime-it was an unpardonable blunder. The proceeds of the sale of the town lots were applied to the erection of the county buildings, and thus the old court 795 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. house (a most creditable building in its day) and the old jail were built without taxation and without cost to the people. The court house was built in 1808-9. The present court house, a substantial and beautiful structure, was completed in 1871. As early as 1814, the people of the county manifested their interest in the cause of education, by taking steps to erect an academy. The building was erected of stone, at the southern edge of the town of Indiana, and was completed in 1816. In 1818, it was opened for pupils under the direction of Rev. John Reed. Recently the State Normal school has been completed, and is now in successful operation. It is the largest building of the kind in the State, and unequaled in the comfort and convenience of its appointments. Indiana was incorporated as a borough March 11, 1816. The town of Indiana, with its beautiful and healthful location, its wide streets and side-walks, its churches, superior schools, excellent markets, railroad, and telegraph, is a home that should satisfy the most fastidious. BLAIRSVILLE, the principal town of the county, is situated on the Conemaugh, seventy miles from Pittsburgh by river and fifty-seven by railroad. It was laid out in 1819. James Campbell was the original owner, but in the latter part of the year 1818 sold a portion of the land to Andrew Brown, when they at once proceeded to lay out a town, which they named in honor of John Blair, of Blair's Gap. It began to fill up rapidly, and upon the completion of the western division of the Pennsylvania canal, in 1828, to this point, it came to be an important depot, and the town was full of bustle and prosperity. It had previously (March 25, 1825) received corporate honors. It has retained its supremacy as the leading town, by the thrift and enterprise of its citizens. It being the terminus of the West Pennsylvania railroad, the offices and shops of that corporation are located here, giving employment to a large number of men. It contains several handsome churches, two flourishing schools, and a number of industrial establishments. SALTSBURG is on the right bank of the Conemaugh, near the site of an old Indian town. It derives its name from the many salt works there located, to which reference has been made. While in the full tide of the salt business in 1817, Andrew Boggs laid out the town. It was incorporated a borough April 16, 1838. Notwithstanding the abandoning of the State canal, which added greatly to its prosperity, the town is in a flourishing condition. - ARMAGH is an old village, settled by several Scotch-Irish families about the close of the last century. It is located in the centre of a fine farming country. Was incorporated as a borough April 9, 1834. Among other prominent towns in the county are SMICKSBURG, SHELOCTA, MARION, MECHANICSBURG, and HOMER CITY, the latter place once a competitor for the county seat. FORMATION OF TOWNSHIPS.-ARMSTRONG was formed soon after the organization of Westmoreland county. It was settled shortly after the close of the Revolution.... BANKS was formed from Canoe, in 1869.... BLACK LICK from Armstrong in March, 1807.... BRUSH VALLEY from Wheatfield in 1835.... BURRELL from Black Lick in 1854.... BUFFINGTON from Pine in 1868.... CANOE from a part of Montgomery in 1868. 796 INDIANA COUNTY. 797 ... CHERRY HILL from Green and Pine in 1855.... CENTRE from Armstrong in 1807.... CONEMAUGH from Armstrong in March, 1807.. EAST MAHONING, WEST MAHONING, NORTH MAHONING, and SouTH MAHONING were formed by the division of Mahoning township in 1846.... GRANT from Montgomery in 1868.... GREEN from Wheatland in 1834..... MONTGOMERY from Green in 1835.... PINE from Wheatfield in 1850. ... RAYNE from Washington and Green in 1847.... WASHINGTON from Armstrong in 1823.... WHEATFIELD, one of the original townships at the formation of the county. WEST WHEATFIELD was formed from it in 1861.... WHITE, formed three miles around the borough of Indiana, in 1848.... YOUNG from Black Lick and Conemaugh in 1834. PREFA TOR Y. trouble and expense, we have failed. It was the intention of the Publishers to fully illustrate every County, and yet, when the entire number of engrav ings are taken into consideration, it must be acknowledged that this volume is unequalled in that respect by any historical publication ever issued. To the photographers and others who have rendered us their assistance, we can only say "thank you." The Photo-engraving Company of New York, to whose care most of the local views have been committed, have, by their (the Moss) process, given accurate representations of the photographs and designs sent us; while Messrs. Crosscup & West, of Philadelphia, to whom the portraits of the Governors have especially been confided, in the main have succeeded in their portion of the work. It may not be out of place, in this connection, to state that we have endeavored to preserve a uniformity in the orthography of the Indian names. The admirable work of the devoted HECKEWELDER has been taken as authority. Scarcely two authors write the same names alike. For instance, MJloshaonon is spelled Me.8han7on, Mushannon, and uMoshannin. In the neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Allegheny is thus written, but in the northern part of the State, it is given Allega,y and Alleghany. Although Kitlochtinny is undoubtedly far more correct than Kiltatinny, yet the latter is so frequently used that we have adhered to it. Attention is called to the tendency there is in many instances in destroying the orthography of the names of streams, etc. Most writers call the Tonoloway creek, in Fulton county, Conolloway, while Quinn's run, in Centre and Clinton, is denominated Queen's. These errors should be carefully guarded against, not only by the historian but by writers generally. If our friends object to the alterations we have made in this respect, we can only refer them to the works of one who made the Indian language a study, Vand whose authority on such matters is unquestioned. It is proper to state that we have omitted the given meanings of streams in certain instances, and Sinserted those furnished by the Indian lexicographer referred to. In conclusion, we commit the work to the general reading public of the State of Pennsylvania. If it will give the young especially an incentive to learn more of the history of our old Commonwealth,-if it will stimulate all to search among the archives of the Past and gather up the records that none be lost,-if it enable every citizen to appreciate the greatness of the Keystone State of the Union, it will have served its purpose. The volume should be viewed as an entirety, and not simply regarded as a sketch of this or that county, but as covering the whole State;-subjects purely local giving place to facts in which the general reader should be properly interested. Realizing fully the responsibility resting upon him, the author has avoided in the main thrusting his opinion in preference to facts. Where, however, material difference as to date or intention existed, he has endeavored to diffuse light and correct error. With the objects heretofore expressed, and in the hope, briefly set forth, we present this contribution to the bibliography of our State to the candid appreciation of the citizens of Pennsylvania. WILLIAM H. EGLE. IIARRISBURG, PENN'A, JULY 4, 1876. HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. The cereal crops were very abundant in 1751 and 1752. An extract, translated from the German in the Chron. Ephrat., 190, is quite a curiosity: "The years 1751 and 1752 have been so fruitful in wheat and other grain, that men in wanton carelessness sought to waste the supply; for the precious wheat, which might have supported many poor, they used to fatten hogs, which afterwards they consumed in their sumptuousness. Besides, distilleries were erected everywhere, and thus this great blessing was turned into strong drink, which gave rise to much disorder." These years of plenty were followed by a season of scarceness, covering the years 1753-1755, and on the heels of it.came Indian hostilities. The progress of the white population, says Gordon, towards the west continued to alarm and irritate the Indians. The new settlers, impatient of the delays of the land oflice, or unable or unwilling to pay for their lands, or in search of richer soils, sought homes in districts to which the Indian title had not been extinguished. Especially was this the case with the Scotch-Irish, who seated themselves on the west of the Susquehanna, on the Juniata and its tributary streams, in the Tuscarora Valley, in the Great and Little Coves formed by the Kittatinny and the Tuscarora hills, and at the Big and Little Connolloways. Some of these settlements were commenced prior to 1740, and rapidly increased, in despite of the complaints of the Indians, the laws of the Province, or the proclamations of the Governor. An alarming crisis was at hand. The French, now hovering around the great lakes, sedulously applied themselves to seduce the Indians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawanese had already joined them; the Delawares waited only for an opportunity to revenge their wrongs; and of the Six Nations, the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, were wavering. To keep the Indians in favor of the Province required much cunning diplomacy and expensive presents. In this alarming juncture the old flame of civil dissension burst out with increased force. The presents to the Indians, with the erection of a line of forts along the frontier, and the maintenance of a military force, drew heavily upon the provincial purse. The Assembly, the popular branch, urged that the Proprietary estates should be taxed, as well as those of humble individuals. The Proprietaries, through their deputies, refused, and pleaded prerogative, charter, and law; the Assembly in turn pleaded equity, common danger, and common benefit, requiring a common expense. The Proprietaries offered bounties in lands yet to be conquered from the Indians, and the privilege of issuing more paper money; the Assembly wanted something more tangible. The Assembly passed laws, laying taxes, and granting supplies, but annexing conditions; the Governors opposed the conditions, but were willing to aid the Assembly in taxing the people, but not the Proprietaries. Here were the germs of revolution, not fully matured until twenty years later. In the meantime, the frontiers were left exposed, while these frivolous disputes continued. The pacific principles, too, of the Quakers, and Dunkards, and Mennonists, and Schwenckfelders, came in to complicate the strife; but as the danger increased, they prudently kept aloof from public office, leaving the management of the war to sects less scrupulous. The pulpit and the press, says Armor, were deeply involved in the discussion, and the population was divided into opposing factions upon this question. JEFFERSON COUNTY. BY G. AMENT BLOSE, HAMILTON. 'EFFERSON COUNTY was organized from a part of Lycoming county, by an act erecting parts of Lycoming, Huntingdon, and Somerset counties into separate county districts, approved March 26, 1804, by Thomas M'Kean, then Governor of the State. By the 13th section of the same act it was placed under the jurisdiction of the courts of Westmoreland counity. An act - - passed in 1806 authorized the -- - commissioners of Westmoreland county to act for Jefferson county. __ __ _ In the se'-sion of 1806 it was annexed to Indiana county for judicial purposes. On the 1st of April, 1843, a *- portion or the territory was taken from the northeastern part of the county to form a part of Elk lcounty; and on the 11th of April, 1848, all that part of the county tnorth of Clarion river was formed into Forest county. Jefferson county is bounded on the north by Forest and Elk coun ties; on the east by Elk and Clear IMI ifi field; on the south by Indiana; and . ton the west by Armstrong and Clarion. The original length of JEFPERSON COUNTY COURT-HOUSE. (From a Photograph by E. Clark Hall) the county is said to have been 46 miles; breadth, 26; and its area, 1,203 square miles. The present length of the county is 33 miles; width, in narrowest part, 21 miles, in the broadest part, 25 miles; area, 412,800 acres -645 squire miles. No mountains lift their lofty heads within the limits of Jefferson county; but hills-many of them steep and rugged-line the water courses of every stream. In many places the larger streams flow through deep and narrow valleys, bordered by high and precipitous hills, the combination of which furnishes many of the elements of the beautiful in natural scenery. The land on the elevations is level, or, usually gently undulating. There are some fine pieces of valley land along a few of the large streams. The greater portion of the county is well watered. Big Mahoning creek flows in a 798 JEFFERSON COUNTY. slightly southwesterly direction, through almost the entire width of the extreme southern portion of the county. Little Sandy creek flows in a westerly direction, through the west middle portion of the southern half of the county. Sandy Lick creek flows in a northwesterly direction through the central part. MNill creek, rising in the northeastern part, takes a southwesterly direction, and empties into Sandy Lick near its confluence with North Fork. North Fork, from the extreme northern part of the county, flows in a southwesterly course to join the Sandy Lick a few miles northwest of the central part. By their union Red Bank creek is formed, which pursues a southwestern course, leaving the limits of the county about 81 miles from the southwestern corner. Little Toby creek flows in a northwesterly direction through the northeastern corner of the county; and Clarion river forms a great portion of the northwestern boundary. Many smaller streams flow through different parts of the county. All those named are highways on which the lumber of the county is carried to market. Farming and stock raising is followed in nearly every settled locality in the county. The soil in many places is very fertile, and yields rich crops of wheat, rye, buckwheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and hay. In other parts, the soil is sterile and unproductive. The land in the pine and hemlock lumber districts is usually very hard to clear, but when cleared, and the pine stumps removed by their powerful stump-machines, it makes fine farming land, and is very productive. Along the streams are some bottom lands that contain excellent soil for corn raising and grazing purposes. Bituminous coal underlies nearly every hill in the county. The veins range from two to twelve feet in thickness. A vein eleven feet in thickness is said to have been found in the vicinity of Troy, at a depth of about one hundred and twenty feet below the surface. The veins in the western and northwestern part of the county have a thickness of from two to four feet. The veins in the vicinity of P'unxsutawney are from six to eight feet thick. Those in the neighborhood of Reynoldsville are from six to twelve feet in thickness, and cover an area of about twenty miles long by five wide. The veins around Reynoldsville and Punxsutawney are easily accessible by opening a drift in the side of a hill. The coal is obtained in this way, at the present time, all over the county. Sandstone, suitable for building and other purposes, is abundant. A good quality of limestone is found in many localities. Salt water can be reached at a depth of five or six hundred feet below the surface. Iron ore has been discovered; but whether or not it is of such a quality and in such quantities as will pay for working it, has not yet been tested. Many large saw mills have been built on the numerous streams for manufacturming boards and other sawed lumber; and planing mills for the preparation of' lumber for building and other purposes. The lumber trade is carried on extensively during the winter season in the northern, eastern, southeastern, and central parts of the county. Foundries, chair factories, and shops for the manufacture of other kinds of furniture, have been erected in various localities throughout the county. A few woollen factories, also, have been built, and are in successful operation. 799 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. For many years after its establishment this county was little more than a hunting ground for whites and Indians. Large bodies of land in the best locations were held for years by rich proprietors at a distance, who would neither improve their lands nor sell them at a fair price to those who would. For several years the lumber business was the chief occupation of the citizens, but re-actions in commercial affairs at different times have caused them to devote attention to farming. The speculations in the State of Maine gave to the lumber trade an impulse that had its influence upon this State. The Yankees, with their proverbial shrewdness, had discovered that vast bodies of pine-lands were lying around the sources of the Allegheny river, not appreciated at their full value by the pioneers who lived on them. They had learned to estimate it by the tree. " The Pennsylvanians still reckoned it by the acre." Between the years 1830 and 1837 individuals and companies from New England and New York purchased large tracts of land on the head-waters of Red Branch creek and Clarion river, from the Holland Land company and other owners of extensive sections. They proceeded to build saw-mills, and to conduct the lumber trade in the most approved manner. This caused quite a fermentation among the lumbermen and landholders of the county. " More land changed owners; new water-privileges were improved; capital was introduced from abroad; and during the spring floods every creek and river resounded with the preparation of rafts and the lively shouts of the lumbermen." This new impetus to emigration increased the population threefold in ten years. The land in the county has mostly passed from the hands of the large land-owners, and is held by farmers who till it and those engaged in the lumber interests. Large tracts have been bought up for the coal and other minerals from farmers and owners in the vicinity of the coal region about Reynoldsville, by P. W. Jenks, Esq., and others, between 1865 and 1875. The Low Grade division of the Allegheny Valley railroad was completed in 1874. It passes through the county along Red Bank and Sandy Lick creeks, and connects the Allegheny Valley railroad, at the mouth of Red Bank, with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Driftwood. Along the line of the railroad the county is rapidly filling with settlers. The first white settler in Jefferson county was Joseph Barnett. He served during the Revolution under General Potter, on the West Branch, and was in the State service against the Wyoming boys. It is stated in a sketch of the county, found in an old book, that Andrew Barnett, Jr., Esq., said Joseph Barnett settled at the mouth of Pine creek, in Lycoming county, after the close of the war; and perhaps was one of the Fair-play boys, and that he lost his property by the operation of the common law, which superseded the jurisdiction of fair play. However this may be, Joel Spyker, who is still living, and has paid a great deal of attention to the history of the county, and was well acquainted with Joseph Barnett, relates that Mr. Barnett told him that he brought his family here from Linglestown, Dauphin county, in 1797, penetrating the wilderness of the upper Susquehanna by the Chinklacamoose path, and passing between the sources of the Susquehanna and the Allegheny, he arrived on the waters of Red Bank, then called Sandy Lick, where he had bought lands of Timothy Pickering & Co. 800 JEFFERSON COUNTY. Barnett pitched his tent on Sandy Lick creek, and called the place Port Barnett. It is on the Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike, at the mouth of Mill creek. Here he built a saw mill. His brother Andrew and his brother-in-law, Samuel Scott, accompanied him on this occasion. Nine Seneca Indians of Cornplanter's tribe assisted him to raise the mill. They worked very well until they got a good dinner; after dinner they did nothing, it being the custom of the Indians not to work when their stomachs were full. He soon learned this and treated them accordingly. Leaving his brothers to look after the mill, he returned to his family, for the purpose of bringing them out. But Scott soon followed him with the melancholy news of the death of his brother, who had been buried by Scott and the friendly Indians. He was discouraged for a time by this news, but in 1799 he moved his family out, again accompanied by Mr. Scott, and a young man by the name of Graham, if the information is authentic, was brought with them, some of whose descendants are still in the county. "They sawed lumber and rafted it down to Pittsburgh, where it brought twenty-five dollars a thousand in those days." The adventures and hardships attending frontier life were felt by the early settlers. Mr. Barnett once carried sixty pounds of flour on his back from Pittsburgh, a distance of nearly one hundred miles; and many times had to canoe from Pittsburgh, flour, salt, and other necessaries for his family. The nearest grist mill was on Black Lick creek, in Indiana county. Mr. Barnett knew nothing of the wilderness south of him, and was obliged to give an Indian four dollars to pilot him to Westmoreland. The nearest house on the path eastward was Paul Clover's (grandfather of General Clover), thirtythree miles distant, on the Susquehanna, where Curwensville now stands; westward, Fort Venango was distant forty-five miles. These points were the only resting places for the travelers through that unbroken wilderness. The Senecas of Cornplanter's tribe were friendly and peaceable neighbors, and often extended their excursions to these waters, where they encamped, two or three in a squad, to hunt deer and bears. They took the hams and skins, piled up in the form of a hay stack, on rafts constructed of dry poles, to Pittsburgh, and traded them for trinkets, blankets, calicoes, weapons, and such things as suited their use or pleased their fancy. They were always friendly, sober, and rather fond of making money. During the war of 1812, the settlers were apprehensive that an unfavorable turn of the war on the lakes might bring an irruption of savages upon the frontiers through the Seneca nation. A Muncy Indian, called Old Captain Hunt, had his camp for several years on Red Bank, probably within the present limits of the south-western part of Brookville. He obtained his living by hunting, the results of which he enjoyed in drinking whiskey, of which he was excessively fond. One year he killed seventy-eight bears. He expended nearly all the price of the skins, which was probably about three dollars each, for his favorite beverage. Samuel Scott remained in the county till 1810, when, having gathered together by hunting and lumbering about two thousand dollars, he went down to the Miami river, and bought a section of land. About the year 1802 or 1803, John, William, and Jacob Vastbinder, a family from New Jersey, came and settled on Mill creek, three miles north-east 3A 801 HIS TOR Y OF PENN S YL VANIA. of Barnett. John Matson, Sr., came in 1805 or 1806. The Lucases, also, came into the county among the first settlers. Joseph Barnett's descendants have all left the county. John Bell settled in the southern part of the county, one mile north of the present site of Perrysville, about 1809 or 1810. He came here from Indiana county, to where he had moved about two years previously from Sewickley settlement. When he came into the county it was an unbroken wilderness for miles around him. Panthers, bears, and wolves roamed the woods undisturbed; deer traveled about in droves, and flocks of wild turkeys were numerous. Archie Haddan came into the county about 1811 or 1812, and settled a mile south-east of Bell. About 1814 or 1815 Hugh McKee settled half a mile east of Perrysville. In 1818 John Postlethwait, Sr., came from Westmoreland county with his family, and settled a mile and a half north-west of Perrysville. Near the same time a family by the name of Young settled about two miles west of Perrysville. Soon after 1816 people began to settle in the vicinity of where Punxsutawney stands. Abram Weaver is said to have been one of the first to settle there. About 1817 or 1818 Rev. David Barclay, Dr. John W. Jenks, and Nathaniel Tindle, families from New Jersey, settled in Punxsutawney. Charles C. Gaskill and Isaac P. Carmalt came some time later. Hon. James Winslow and others were among the first settlers in the neighborhood. Jesse Armstrong and Jacob Hoover settled near where Clayville now is, some time near 1822 or 1823. Adam Long came with them, but he removed to a place near Punxsutawney in 1824. James McClelland and Michael Lantz came into the present limits of Porter township, in the south-western corner of the county, previous to the year 1820. A Mr. Baker settled across the creek, east of Whitesville, about 1822; John McHenry, James Bell, and others moved into the Round Bottom, near Whitesville, somewhere near the year 1822. In the year 1822 David Postlethwait purchased a right of settlement to land from Benjamin McBride and William Stewart, who had settled in the Round Bottom, west of Whitesville, about a year before, and cleared a few acres. About 1820 or 1821 Lawrence Nolf settled on Pine run, about two miles south of Ringgold. He made no improvement; and about 1828 sold out to John Miller, who opened up a farm. In 1822 David Postlethwait and his brother John settled on Pine run, about two miles south-east of where Ringgold now stands. It was then Perry township. The same year Samuel Newcom settled about a mile up the run from Postlethwait. About 1818 or 1819 David, John, and Henry Milliron settled on Little Sandy; and near the same time Henry Nolf settled on Little Sandy, where Longville now stands, and erected a saw-mill. James Stewart settled in the county, three miles north-west of Perrysville, about 1821. Alexander Osborn, John McIntosh, John McGhee, Henry Keys and his brother, Matthew and William McDonald, Andrew Smith, William Cooper, William McCullough, and John Wilson were some of the first settlers in the north-eastern part of the county, in what is now Washington township. The one first named settled in 1824. John Wilson, without any means but his work, built a grist mill. He borrowed a "pair of country mill-stones" from Alexander Osborn, extemporized a blacksmith shop to make the irons, exchanged work with John McGhee, who was a millwright, received some assistance from 802 JEFFERSON COUNTY. the neighbors, and got it into successful operation. Bears were plenty, and several stories are related of persons chasing bears off their hogs with axes and clubs. Nancy McGhee, wife of John McGhee, and their hired man, had an adventure of this kind once, when Mr. McGhee was away from home. Mrs. Ann Smith, one of the early settlers, left Ireland at the age of ten, never went to school in America, was married at the age of sixteen, yet in her old age she taught school. When her husband was discouraged in the backwoods, she was so anxious to build up a home for her children in the country that she offered him one years' work if he would remain. For twelve months she went out to the fields to work as regularly as he did. About 1816, Lewis Long and his son William shot five wolves without changing their position. The first shot killed - W.~ - M vIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF PUNXSUTAWNEY. the leader, and they called the rest back by imitating their howling. Jackson Long, a son of William, shot a panther in its den, about 1850. The Indians, probably, never made this part of the county much of a resort. The Seneca Indians, from their reservation in Warren county, sometimes came to hunt and make sugar. The early settlers could see where they had made sugar. They had troughs that would hold about two quarts, in which to catch the sap. This they collected into a large trough, and dipped hot stones into it to boil it down. This sirup, no doubt, had a singed taste, and could not have been very clean; but they relished it. In the year 1831, George Blose moved his family from Westmoreland county, and settled half a mile east of Perrysville. He subsequently moved into the present limits of the village. In the fall of 1834, his son, George Blose, Jr., came into the county and settled near his father; but in the spring of 1836 he moved two miles west of Perrysville, and settled permanently. At that time the wolves were so numerous and 803 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. so bold that they would come within a few rods of the house at night and howl. That was about all they did, except to scare the children and kill one or two sheep. Soon after this a number of German families settled a mile or two north of Blose. J. McAnulty, a Mr. Barr, William B. Slack, A. Slack, William Love, and J. Ardry were among the first settlers near where Corsica now is. Frederick Kahle settled three miles west of Sigel, in 1838; Jacob Beer, David Silvis, George Wolford, Thomas Callen, George Catz, James McNeal, and others came into the same vicinity later. It was some place along Mill creek, a stream three or four miles from Sigel, that a Mr. Long and two of Kahle's boys, John and Jacob, caught eight young wolves in a den. John, the older, on going in the ninth time, as he done before, armed with a torch, a stick four or five feet long with a hook in it to fasten it into the wolves, and a rope tied to his foot to pull him out, caught the old one. They thought she was out. He pulled the rope and they drew him out; but he was unable to take her with him. When he told Long, he tried to hire him, for ten dollars, to go in again, but he would not. Long then tried to hire his brother, and he would not go in. Then Long whet his knife, fixed his gun and started in, but came back before getting out of sight. At about the fourth trial he came out, and said he had seen the wolf; they did not shoot her, however. John Fuller settled near Reynoldsville about 1822, Andrew McCreight about 1831, Tilton and William Reynolds about 1832, Thomas Reynolds about 1835. William Best and Jacob Smith were among the first settlers in Paradise settlement. Joshua Vandevort settled near Mayville, in Warsaw township, about 1825; Byron Gibbs and others, in 1834; Elihu Clark and Isaac Temple, in 1835; James Moorhead settled in the vicinity of Richardsville, in 1835, and John Humphrey about the same time; William Richards came in 1837, and built a saw mill, grist mill, and woolen factory; James and Alonzo Brockway came into the county and settled on Little Tobey creek, within the limits of the present town of Brockwayville; Dr. A. M. Clark built a grist mill and saw mill at the same place in 1828 or 1830; Jacob Shaffer, Joel Clark, and a Mr. Washburn settled about two miles above Brockwayville, in 1825. At one time Pine Creek township was the only one in the county. It was established by act of Assembly in 1806, and named in honor of so many pine trees in its boundaries, and water enough to float them. Perry, the second township, was organized from Pine Creek in 1818, and named after Oliver Hazard Perry. Young, the third township, was organized from Perry in 1826. Rose, the fourth township within the present limits of the county, was taken from Pine Creek in 1827. Barnett was formed from Rose in 1833, and named after Joseph Barnett, the first white settler in the county. Snyder was erected from Pine Creek in 1835, and named after Governor Simon Snyder. Eldred was organized in 1836 from Rose and Barnett, and named after Nathaniel B. Eldred, president judge of the district. Washington was formed from Pine Creek in 1836, and named after General Washington. Porter was taken from Perry in 1840, and named after David R. Porter, who was then governor. Clover was formed from Rose in 1841, and named after Levi G. Clover, who was then prothonotary. Gaskill was organized from Young in 1842, and named in honor of Charles G. Gaskill. Warsaw was taken from Pine Creek in 1843, and named by 804 JEFFERSON COUNTY. the people after a city of Poland. Winslow was formed from Washington, Pine Creek, and Gaskill, in 1846, and named after Hon. James Winslow, an associate judge. Heath was taken from Barnett in 1847, and named after Elijah Heath, once an associate judge. Ringgold was organized from Porter in 1848, and named in honor of Major Ringgold, who was killed on the eighth of May, 1846, at Palo Alto. Union was organized in 1848 from Rose and Eldred, and named from a Union of the citizens to form the township. Beaver was formed from Clover and Ringgold in 1850, and named after a run that flows through it. Polk was organized from Warsaw and Snyder in 1851, and named after James K. Polk. Oliver was formed from Perry in 1851, and named after Oliver H. Perry. Knox was taken from Pine Creek in 1853, and named after Hon. John C. Knox, the president judge. Bell was organized from Young in 1857, and named in honor of James H. Bell, an old resident, and once an associate judge. McCalmont was formed from Young in 1857, and named after John S. McCalmont. Henderson was organized from Gaskill in 1857, and named after Ion. Joseph Henderson, an associate judge. Three townships, Ridgway, Jenks, and Tionesta, and parts of Barnett, Heath, and Snyder, were taken from the county. BROOKVILLE, the county seat, is situated on the line of the Allegheny Valley railroad-Low Grade division-forty miles from the mouth of Red Bank, the western terminus, and sixty-six miles from Driftwood, the eastern terminus. By an act passed, and approved by Governor J. Andrew Shulze, in April, 1829, the Legislature appointed John Mitchell, of Centre county, Robert Orr, Jr., of Armstrong, and Alexander McCalmont, of Venango, commissioners, to meet on the first Monday in September, 1829, at the house of Joseph Barnett, to fix a proper site for the county seat of Jefferson. The inducement to locate on the ground where it now stands was on account of its being on the Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike, and at the confluence of Sandy Lick and North Fork creeks. Lots were sold in June, 1830, and building was begun. It was organized as a borough in 1843. The population in 1870 was 1,942. PUNXSUTAWNEY is the oldest town in the county. It had a store long before there was one in Brookville. Rev. David Barclay laid out the town in 1818 or 1819. It was organized as a borough in 1851. The population in 1870 was 553. Punxsutawney is situated on Big Mahoning creek, eighteen miriles south-east of Brookville. CORSICA is on the Waterford and Susquehanna turnpike, seven miles northwest of Brookville. The Olean road from Kittanning to Olean passes through the place. The town was laid out in August, 1847, by John J. Y. Thompson and J. McAnulty. It was organized as a borough in 1859. The population in 1870 was 372. At present it is about 500. On the 2d of June, 1873, nearly the entire town was consumed by fire. All the business places and hotels in the town were destroyed. The estimated loss was $125,000. It was not more than two or three hours in burning. The place has three public schools and an academy. CLAYVILLE became a borough in 1864. The town was laid out by William and James Gillespie. Population in 1870 was 189. It is one mile west of Punxsutawney. 805 JUNIATA COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to Silas Wright, Millerstown, Perry county.] "UNIATA county was formed by the act of March 2,1821, out of that part of Mifflin county south-east of the Shade and Black Log moun tains. The name Juniata, given to this county, was doubtless sug gested by the river which comes within its boundaries through the long narrows of the Shade and Blue mountains, and flows in a south-eastward JUNIATA COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. [From a Photograph by Joseph Hess, Mifaintown.] direction for a distance of twenty miles, passing between and separating Tuscarora and Turkey hills, till it reaches Perry county. The creeks which rise within 806 JUNIATA COUNTY. or pass through its boundaries are Lost, Tuscarora, Licking, Cocolamus, West Mahantango, and Black Log. Lost creek originates from several sources, and flows into the Juniata. Tuscarora creek rises in Huntingdon county, and flows in a north-eastward course for thirty miles through the Tuscarora valley until it is joined by Licking creek, and falls into the Juniata river about two and onehalf miles below Mifflintown. Cocolamus creek rises in Greenwood township, Juniata county, and flows south-east through Greenwood township, Perry county, into the Juniata river one mile below Millerstown. West Mahantango creek rises in Monroe township, and flows east and south-east, forming the boundary line between part of Monroe and Susquehanna townships and Snyder county, and falls into the Susquehanna river at "McKee's Half Falls." Black Log creek rises in Tuscarora township, and flows south-west through Black Log valley, in Huntingdon county, into the Great Aughwick creek. Juniata county is irregular in shape, having an average length of forty miles, and being nine miles in breadth. It has an area of 230,400 acres (360 miles), of which 115,200 acres are cleared, and the balance form the groves that everywhere invite the weary to the refreshing cool of their shades in the valleys, or hide the bald ugliness of the rocks on her hill sides. A series of nearly parallel belts of various rock formations range across this county from north-east to south-west, following the direction of the mountain ridges, which are brought successively to the surface by lines of elevation and depression. The variegated and red shale overlying the mountain sandstone appears along the north-west side of Tuscarora mountain, and again on the Juniata above Mexico, having between these points a belt of the overlying fossiliferous limestone and sandstone, as seen between Thompsontown and Mexico, on the turnpike. A similar belt of this limestone, with the sandstone accompanying, appears at Mifflintown, above which place we find the red and variegated shale formation extending to the foot of Shade mountain. In Tuscarora valley, a few miles south-west of the Juniata, the fossiliferous sandstone divides into two branches, having between them the overlying olive slate, which further up the valley is itself overlaid by the red shales and sandstones next in the series. Tuscarora Valley was first settled in 1749, by the Scotch-Irish, who crossed the Tuscarora from Cumberland county. These settlers valued more the slate lands, with their abundance of pure spring water, than the rich limestone soil where deep wells were required to obtain water. The following facts were obtained from the histories of I. D. Rupp and U. J. Jones: The first four settlers in Tuscarora valley were Robert Hagg, Samuel Bingham, James Grey, and John Grey. They cleared some lands, and built a fort known in the Provincial records as Bingham's Fort. The first settlement on the river was made in 1751, by Captain James Patterson. Patterson and his companions cleared the land on both sides of the river, near where Mexico now stands. They built two large log-houses, and pierced them with loop-holes, that they might defend themselves from attacks by the Indians. Patterson's strategy for inspiring the Indians with fear is related to have been a target which he kept leaning against a tree. Whenever he saw a party of friendly Indians approaching he used to -stand in his door and blaze away at the target, always stopping when the Indians 807 GENERAL HISTORY. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was scarcely regarded more than a truce by the French in America. Eager to extend their territories, and to connect their northern possessions with Louisiana, they had projected a line of forts and military posts from the one to the other along the Mississippi and the Ohio. They explored and occupied the land upon the latter stream, buried in many places leaden plates with inscriptions declaratory of their claims to that river and the lands adjacent thereto. Establishing themselves at Presqu'Isle, the French proceeded southward, erected a fort at Au Boeuf, and one at the mouth of French Creek, known as Fort Machault. This intention being communicated to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, he dispatched George Washington, in the autumn of 1753, 1753. to inquire by what right these encroachments were made. Having performed his journey, which took about two months to accomplish, he reported the answer of Legardeau St. Pierre, the commandant upon the Ohio, dated at the fort on Le Bceuf River, which was evasive. The English government having learned the designs and operations of the French, who pretended they derived their claims to the Ohio River and its appurtenances from the discovery of La Salle sixty years previous, remonstrated with the Court of Versailles, but to no purpose. Deceived, they resolved to oppose force with force. Accordingly, to combine the efforts of the colonies, if possible, a conference was ordered by the ministry at Albany, in July, 1754, to which the Six 1754. Nations were invited. Governor Hamilton, unable to be present, com missioned Messrs. John Penn and Richard Peters, of the Council, and Isaac Norris and Benjamin Franklin, of the Assembly, who carried with them ~500 as the Provincial present to the Indians. Although not satisfactory in its results to the confederated council, the Pennsylvania commissioners secured a great part of the land in the Province, to which the Indian title was not extinct, comprehending the lands lying southwest of a line beginning one mile above the mouth of Penn's Creek, and running northwest by west " to the western boundary of the State." So far, however, from striking the western, it struck the northern boundary a little west of Conewingo Creek. The Shawanese, Delawares, and Monseys, on time Susquehanna, Juniata, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers, thus found their lands " sold from under their feet," which the Six Nations had guaranteed to them on their removal from the eastern waters. It was highly dissatisfactory to these tribes, and was a partial cause of their alienation from the English interest. In this convention, however, a plan was proposed for a political union, and adopted on the 4th of July. It was subsequently submitted to the home government and the Provincial Assemblies. The former condemned it, says Franklin, as too democratic; the latter rejected it, as containing too much prerogative. In Pennsylvania it was negatived without discussion. HISTORY OF PE-NNS YL VANIA. came near. They would examine the target and look at the distance, and shrug their shoulders with an ugh! which meant their determination to keep out of Patterson's way. Patterson held his lands in defiance of the Provincial government and the cowardly redskins until 1755, when the Indians ceased to visit his settlement to barter furs and venison for rum and tobacco, and instead began to prowl around painted for war, and armed with rifles, tomahawks, and knives. At length Patterson and his companions became alarmed at the hostile demonstrations of the savages, and took refuge in Sherman's valley. Several years after this time, when these settlers thought it safe to return, they found their lands parceled and occupied by others. Nothing daunted, their bold leader selected another piece of land without going through the formula of the land office to obtain an undisputed title. Patterson denied the Penn claim through the Albany treaty to the land. These settlers remained in undisputed possession of their "squatter rights" until the spring of 1763, when they heard the alarming intelligence that a body of Shawanese Indians were encamped in Tuscarora valley. Their moveable effects were placed upon pack-horses and they escaped safely, and again took up their residence in Sherman's valley. When the harvest was ready to cut, early in July, the settlers and a party of others went back to reap the grain. On the following Sunday, the 5th of July, while resting from their labors at the house of William White, they were attacked by a marauding party of twelve Shawanese Indians, who made the onset while the reapers were resting on the floor, by creeping up close to the door and shooting them while in that position. They killed William White and all his family that were there except one boy, who, when he heard the guns, leaped out of the window and made his escape. The reapers all escaped through the back door, excepting William Riddle. Some swam the river; others went in different directions. Riddle, hardly conscious of what he wa doing, walked toward the front door, where a savage met him and fired his gun, but the ball just grazed him. He was fortunately enabled afterwards to escape by flight. Riddle's conduct in this affair may have been due to the fact that his son, who had escaped without his notice, was believed to be in the house. Four years afterwards, 1767, perhaps, Riddle started for the frontier in search of his son. As the father approached the Indian village, he saw the warriors returned from the chase, and among them a young brave with an eagle feather in his cap, who proved to be his son, now a chief, and even refusing to recognize his father when he was convinced that he was not an Indian. The night after the first day's journey homeward, John Riddle escaped back to the Indians in the night, leaving his father asleep. The father returned, and sternly demanding his son, succeeded finally in bringing him home. Riddle grew to manhood, and reared a large family in Walker township, all of whom have since moved to the West. The same band of Indians stealthily approached the house of Robert Campbell, which was the largest in the settlement and pierced with loop-holes for defence, similar to that belonging to Patterson, and fired at the persons in the house. James Campbell was wounded in the wrist and taken prisoner, but there is no authentic account of any person being killed. As soon as the 808 JUNIATA COUNTY. Indians had discharged their rifles, one of them sprang into the house, and with uplifted tomahawk, rushed upon a bed on which George Dodds was lying, but fortunately his rifle was within reach, which he grasped and fired at random, wounding the Indian in the groin. The Indians retreated, and Dodds went up stairs, and escaping hastily through an opening in the roof, fled to Sherman's valley and spread the alarm. The same marauding party of Indians proceeded up Tuscarora valley, and came to the house of William Anderson in the dusk of the evening. The old man was seated at the table with the open Bible on his lap, conducting the evening worship, with his son and an adopted daughter around him. They shot the old man, and tomahawked and scalped his son and adopted daughter. Two brothers named Christy, and a man named Graham, who lived near Mr. Anderson, hearing the firing of guns at his place, fled and reached Sherman's valley about midnight. Their report spread new terror and alarm among the settlers. In order to save Collins' and James Scott's families, who lived farther up the valley, and had returned to reap their harvests, twelve men, consisting of three brothers Robinson, William and James Christy, Charles and John Elliot, John Graham, Daniel Miller, Edward McConnell, William McAllister, and John Nicholson, volunteered to go into the upper end of Tuscarora valley. They went by Bingham's gap, the outlet of Liberty valley, Perry, into Juniata county, and reached the valley early on Monday morning. When they came to Collins' they saw a broken wheel, and knew by the Indians' bark spoons, where they had breakfasted on water gruel, that there were thirteen of them. They tracked them down the valley to James Scott's, where they had killed some fowls; continuing the pursuit they came to Graham's, where the house was on fire and burned down to the joists. Here the men were divided into two parties, of which William Robinson was the captain of one, and Robert Robinson, the narrator, led the other. Here the party of twelve savages met the party of thirteen coming down the valley. They killed four hogs and dined at leisure, being satisfied that there were none of the settlers west of the Tuscarora mountains who would pursue them. The pursuers took the path by way of Run gap, north of Ickesburg. The path the Indians took and the one by which the settlers went in pursuit met at Nicholson's farm. The Indians arrived first, and being apprised of their pursuers coming, lay in ambush awaiting their approach. The Indians being twenty-five in number, and having the first fire, they killed five of their pursuers and wounded Robert Robinson. The particulars of this engagement will be given under Perry county, as Robert Robinson's narrative. From 1 49 to 1754, the four "first settlers " were joined by several other persons, among whom were George Woods and a man named Robert Innis. In the spring of 1756, John Grey and Innis went to Carlisle to purchase salt. As they were returning, while descending the mountain, Grey's horse frightened at a bear crossing the path, and threw him off and ran away. Innis, anxious to see his family, went on to the fort and was taken prisoner, but Grey was detained several hours in capturing his horse and righting his pack. The accident which caused Grey's detention saved him from death or captivity, for he reached the fort in time to find the logs well burned, and that every person in it had either been killed or taken prisoner by the Indians. Failing to find his 809 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. wife and only daughter among the charred remains of those who had been massacred in the fort, Grey concluded, and as the sequel will show correctly too, that they had been carried away by the Indians. Mrs. Grey and daughter, George Woods, Innis's wife and three children, and others of the settlers were taken across the Allegheny mountains to the old Indian town, now known as Kittanning, and thence to Fort Duquesne, where they were given over as prisoners into the custody of the French. Woods was a remarkable man. He purchased his own ransom, and subsequently followed surveying in Juniata, Bedford, and Allegheny counties. He assisted in laying out Pittsburgh, the Fort Duquesne of his days of captivity, and succeeded in having a street named after him-it is now called Wood Street. Woods' daughter married Ross, who was a candidate for Governor of the State. Mrs. Grey and her daughter were given to some Indians, who took them to Canada. In the ensuing fall, John Grey joined Colonel Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning, in hopes of recapturing, or at least gaining some intelligence of his family. Failing in this, he returned home, broken in health and spirits, made his will, and died. The will divided the farm between his wife and daughter equally. It provided that if the daughter did not return, a sister was to have her half in lieu of a claim of ~13 which she held against him. About a year after her captivity, Mrs. Grey was assisted by some traders to escape, and reached her home in safety, but had to leave behind her daughter, who was still retained in captivity. She proved her husband's will, and took possession of her half of the property. The conditions of the treaty of 1764 were, that the captive children were to be brought to Philadelphia to be recognized and claimed by their friends. There was no child that Mrs. Grey recognized as her little Jane. She was probably advised to claim a child of the same age to get possession of the entire property. In the time that intervened from 1764 to 1789, the child claimed as Jennie Grey grew to womanhood, developing coarse and ungainly features, awkward manners, and loose morals. The estate descending to her, she married a Mr. Gillespie, who either bequeathed or sold it to a Mr. McKee, a Seceder clergyman. In the meantime the children of James Grey, who became the heirs of the sister, obtained information and evidence sufficient to cause them to doubt the identity of the returned captive. Suit was brought by the heirs of the sister in 1789, for the recovery of the land, and lasted till 1834, when it was decided in favor of the heirs, and against the claimants in right of the captive. For a full account of this case, the reader is referred to 10 Sergeant & Rawle, commencing on page 182. Bingham's fort, burnt in 1756, was rebuilt in 1760 by Ralph Sterrett, who was an Indian trader, and absent with his family at the time it was burnt. His son, William Sterrett, born in this fort after it was rebuilt, was the first white child born in Tuscarora valley. In the spring of 1763, the fort was again burnt, but warned of the approach of the savages by a friendly Indian, the inmates and settlers who sought its protection were enabled to escape to Carlisle, then the only barrier of protection between them and their merciless foes. Lost Creek valley, including the larger and wealthier portion of the county, is said to have received its name from the circumstance of some Indian traders who visited it as early as 1740, and bar810 JUNIATA COUNTY. tered with the Indians of its one or two aboriginal settlements. The next year they attempted to return to the valley again for the purposes of trade, but were unable to find it. The following year the traders returned and found the valley and Indians again without much trouble, and named the valley Lost Creek. The Indians left this valley about 1754, in obedience to the provisions of the Albany treaty, by which the land from the Kittatinny to the Alleghenymountains passed into the possession of the whites, to be purchased as required by the Proprietary government. The Indians found in the Tuscarora Valley when the whites first entered were the Tuscaroras, from whom it derived its name. The Tuscaroras immigrated from the Carolinas, and joined the "Five Nations" in 1704. It was then probably that they had the fierce encounter with the Delawares, or Conoys, of the Tuscarora valley, an account of which their traditions give as follows: On the west side of Licking creek was a village of the Delawares, and on the other a village of the Tuscaroras. Both tribes lived harmoniously together, sharing the same privileges of hunting, fishing, etc., until one day their children began quarreling about a grasshopper; the women took up the children's quarrel, and finally the warriors took the part of their wives, when a long, fierce, and bloody struggle followed. It is probable that more than a hundred men, women, and children perished in this conflict-all for a grasshopper. It is further related that Sachems, desirous of peace, would revert to the folly of the "grasshopper war." The early settlers of Juniata county were nearly all members of the Presbyterian church. As early as 1795 mention is made of Rev. 4lugh Magill, who was pastor of Lower Tuscarora and Cedar Spring churches. These two places were doubtless the earliest preaching places within the limits of the county. Next to organize was Upper Tuscarora and Little Aughwick. They promised their pastor a salary of one hundred and fifty-one pounds, which was accepted by Rev. Alexander McIlwaine. Next the congregations of Middle and Lower Tuscarora became one charge, with Rev. John Coulter as pastor. Rev. Magill, by reason of infirmity, remained in charge of Cedar Spring churches until the next year, when Mifflintown and Lost Creek churches were united under the pastorship of Rev. Mathew Brown, D.D., who remained with them three years, and afterwards became president of Jefferson College. The oldest Lutheran congregations were Rice's church, in Tuscarora valley, and St. Mary's, at Mifflintown. Rev. John William Heim, the most remarkable early Lutheran minister in this section, preached his first sermons in these churches, on the 26th of June, 1814. At this time he preached to eight congregations-two in Juniata county, three in Perry, one in Snyder, and two in Mifflin-each once in four weeks. In Lost Creek valley there are Mennonites and Dunkards. The Mennonite churches are four in number, of which the oldest is about two miles from Richfield. The Dunkards have two churches, each about two miles from McAllisterville, in different directions. MIrFLINTowN, the county seat, occupies an elevated site on the left bank of the Juniata river, one hundred and fifty miles from Washington City, forty-three miles from Harrisburg, and twelve from Lewistown by the "old State pike 1 811 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. road. The Pennsylvania canal passes between the town and the river. It is connected with Patterson, which is opposite, on the right bank of the river, by a toll bridge. Mifflintown was laid out in 1791, by John Harris, who named it in honor of Thomas Mifflin, then President of the Supreme Executive Council of the State. It improved slowly until it was selected as the county seat, in 1831. - It was incorporated as a borough in 1833. Mifflintown contains a new court house, located on the site of the old one, on a lot three hundred feet in depth by two hundred feet in width. It is built of brick, and was erected in 1874-75. A soldiers' nionument was erected in the court yard, in 1870, by the citizens of the county, assisted by the county commissioners. It is eighteen feet high, crowned with a spread eagle, and bears the following inscription: " In memory of the Soldiers from Juniata County, who died in the war of the Great Rebellion, in defence of the Union of their fathers." It is surrounded by a neat iron fence. In 1871, this borough was visited by a terrible fire which destroyed all the town east of Bridge street, except the houses of William Allison and N. A. Elder, Chamberlin's tannery, and Ellis' blacksmith shop, including in the loss dwellings, hotels, printing offices, stores, warehouses, to the amount of $250,000, on which there was an insurance of $90,000. On Saturday, the 23d of August, 1873, the town was again visited by a second destructive fire, which consumed seventeen buildings, including dwellings, stores, offices, and stables. The loss was probably $70,000, on which there was an insurance of $58,467. Both fires were the work of incendiaries. Another town, lower on the river, was laid out by a Mr. Taylor, who owned the land in 1800, and christened Taylorsville. There were five or six houses at one time, of which a single one alone remains. PATTERSON is to Mifflintown what Brooklyn is to New York City, on a smaller scale. It contains the Pennsylvania railroad depot, scheduled "Mifflin," which is a regular stopping-place for all trains, and a round-house for repairing and cleaning engines. It is a separate borough, and had a population in 1860 of five hundred and forty, and in 1870, six hundred and fifty-nine, of whom but one was of the colored race. It supports three schools. It was laid out in 1849, by Mr. Fallen, of Philadelphia, and named Patterson. First it contained a few houses, with a railroad stopping place, but it has grown to be a town of some importance, having a large trade in coal from the coal schutes there erected. PORT ROYAL, formerly Perrysville borough, is a railroad stopping place, one hundred and fifty-one and a half miles from Philadelphia, forty years ago " a smart little village of neat white houses, at the mouth of Tuscarora and Licking creeks, two and a half miles below Mifflintown." It has long enjoyed the educational advantages of Airyview academy, in charge of Prof. David Wilson. Iron ore is found in the immediate vicinity. It was laid out in 1815, by Henry Groce. The post office at this place was called Port Royal, to distinguish it from Perrysville, in Allegheny county. Perrysville was incorporated as a borough in 1843. MExIco, a post village of Walker township, on the left bank of the Juniata river, five miles from Mifflintown, was laid out by Tobias Kreider, about 1804. It has a grist mill, saw mill, and woolen factory on Doe run. THOMPSONTOWN, the fourth borough of Juniata county, was laid out by Mr. Thompson, in 1790. 812 JUNIATA COUNTY. It is about half a mile north of the Juniata river, and a mile from the station of the same name, the first on the Pennsylvania railroad in the county. The river is crossed at this place by an excellent wooden toll bridge. The turnpike leading from Millerstown to Lewistown passes through the town, at a distance of five miles from the former and twenty-five miles from the latter; Delaware run passes through the town and flows into the Juniata river. Thompsontown was incorporated as a borough in 1868. WATERLOO, PERU MILLS, and SHADE VALLEY are post villages of Lack township. These villages are about four miles apart. Waterloo is seventy miles from Harrisburg. It has one principal street passing through the centre of the town, and one branch of manufacture, that of wind-mills. OAKLAND and McALLISTERVILLE are the post villages of Fayette township. McAllisterville, formally called Calhounsville, was laid out by a Mr. McAllister. It is fifty-five miles north-west of Harrisburg, and twelve miles from Mifflintown. In 1830 it contained six or seven houses. McAllisterville academy, in charge of Prof. George F. McFarland, was organized and continued until 1863, when the principal and many of the students enlisted in the Union army. McAllisterville Soldiers' Orphan School, with Colonel George F. McFarland as the first principal, was subsequently organized at this place. The grounds belonging to this institution comprise thirty acres. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPs.-The original townships were Fermanagh, Greenwood, Milford Lack, Tuscarora, Turbett, and Walker. From these have been formed: Beale, from Milford, February 8, 1843; Delaware, from Greenwood and Walker, February 3, 1836; Fayette, from Greenwood and Fermanagh, December 4, 1834; Monroe, from Greenwood, July 24, 1858; Spruce Hill, from Turbett, September 10, 1858; and Susquehanna, from Greenwood, July 24, 1858. IQm S WOMEN S PAV JLION CENTENNIA L EXHIBITION. WOMEN'S PAVILION, CE~NTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 813 LANCASTER COUNTY. BY SAMUEL EVANS, COLUMBIA. HE rapid increase of the settlements on the frontiers of the Province by the immense immigration into Pennsylvania made it necessary to have a county taken off the back parts of Chester county, and a num ber of petitions praying to have the division made having been sent to the Governor, they were presented to council on the 6th of February, 1729. On the 20th day of February, 1729, the Governor issued an order to run the line between Chester and the proposed new county. The following persons were named in said order as viewers to run said division line, and make report to the council-they were assisted by John Taylor, the surveyor of Chester county-to wit: Henry Hayes, Samuel Nutt, Samuel Hollingsworth, Philip Tay lor, Elisha Gatshal, and James James, all of whom resided S -within the present limits of Chester county, and John Wright, Tobias Hendricks, SSamuel Blunston, Andrew Cornish, Thomas Edwards, and John Musgrave, all of Swhom resided within the lim N1 its of the new county. The last six persons occupied very Sprominent and honorab l e positions in the new county for many years. They were evidently selected on account of their intelligence and worth. On the 2d day of May, 1729, THE OLD COURT HOUSE AT LANCASTER. [Torn down in 1853.-From an Old Print.] the order was returned to council, and on the 10th day of May, 1729, the Assembly and council established the new county, which comprised' all the Province lying northward of Octorari creek, and westward of a line of marked trees, running from the north branch of the said Octorari creek, north-easterly to the river Schuylkill." The county has since been reduced to its present limits by the erection into separate counties of York, Cumberland, Berks, Northumberland, Dauphin, and Lebanon. It owes its name to John Wright, who was a native of Lancashire, in England. The first justices appointed for the county were John Wright, Tobias Hendricks, Samuel Blunston, Andrew Cornish, Thomas Edwards, Caleb Peirce, Thomas Reid, and Samuel Jones, Esquires. A majority of them held commis 814 LANCASTER COUNTY. sions of the peace for Chester county, and resided at the time within the limits of Lancaster county before the division. The present boundaries of Lancaster county are, north by the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon, and Berks; east by Chester; south by Cecil county, Maryland; and south-west by the Susquehanna river. Its length is thirty-three miles, and breadth twenty-eight; area, nine hundred and twenty-eight miles. The general surface of the county, with the exception of a few hills named below, is that of a gently undulating plain. The South mountain, generally known as the Conewago hills, forms the northern boundary; to that succeeds a broad belt of red-shale and sandstone. South of this, and occupying the central townships, is a wide tract of the finest limestone lands in the State. Chicques hills and Welsh mountain are protruded through the limestone. A broken sandstone range, composed of Mine ridge, Martic hills, and Turkey hill, crosses south of the limestone. There is no finer agricultural land in the world than Pequea valley. The limestone land in Donegal, Hempfield, and Manor is equally fertile. There is no county in the State possessing such an amount and variety of the sources of natural wealth, and none where these resources have been more industriously developed. For many years the noble Susquehanna was the channel upon whose bosom immense quantities of produce, flour, grain, whiskey, and lumber found their way from northern and central Pennsylvania to Baltimore and other cities. The river is improved on both sides by canals, on the east side to Columbia, and from thence on thile west side to the mouth of the river. In 1828 the Conestoga was made navigable, by a series of slack-water pools, with dams and locks, extending from Reigart's landing, in Lancaster city, eighteen miles, to Safe Harbor, at the mouth of the creek. Since the wonderful improvement in railroads, the navigation was suffered to run down some years ago; and the dams are alone used as a power to drive various mills and factories. The first canal packet boat built in the State was a small craft called the " Red Rover," erected at Lancaster in 1828. On the 10th day of May, 1833, it was taken up the river to Columbia, and run as a packet between that place and Middletown by Thomas King, of Columbia. The Conestoga, Pequea, Conowingo, Octoraro, Chicques, and Conewago creeks, together with their various branches, afford splendid water power, which has been utilized. Before the era of railroads this county had long been proverbial for excellent turnpikes and stone bridges. One of the earliest, if not the first, turnpike of any considerable length in America was the one constructed between Philadelphia and Lancaster, in 1792-4, at an expense of $465,000. In a few years thereafter a turnpike was built between Lancaster and Harrisburg, and to " Anderson's Ferry " (Marietta), Columbia, and to Morgantown. There was also one running from Chester county, through Ephrata, in the north-eastern part of the county, and one from Newport, Delaware, to one mile west of Gap. Within a recent period turnpikes have been made diverging from Lancaster city to Millersville, Litiz, Manheim, Ephrata, Horse Shoe, Willow Street, and Danville. Similar roads have also been built, diverging from Columbia to Chestnut Hill ore bank, Washington borough, and Marietta, and from Marietta to Mount Joy and Maytown. There are also many excellent common roads. 815 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. At the close of the Revolution, Pennsylvania took measures to make her principal rivers navigable, and to ascertain the feasibility of the measure, a convention was called to meet at Lancaster, and a committee, selected from the counties bordering along the Susquehanna river, was appointed to examine the rapids at Conewago, and report, etc. Afterwards the Legislature appropriated several thousand dollars towards their improvement, as well as the Delaware and Schuylkill. After the era of turnpikes, artificial communications by water was urged, and the State was not slow to adopt the system. After the canals came the era of railroads, the first having been constructed between Columbia and Philadelphia in 1832-4. In 1857 the State transferred her public improvements to the Pennsylvania railroad company. Their road traverses the entire breadth of the county, from east to west, passing through the principal towns in the county. The Reading and Columbia railroad traverses the county from the south-west to the north-eastern part. There is a branch road running from the "junction " on the above road to Lancaster, passing through Petersburg. A new road has been built running from Lancaster to Quarryville, and a narrow gauge road from Oxford to Peach Bottom, as also a railroad extending from Waynesburg, Chester county, to New Holland, have been recently completed. There are several other branch roads which are in contemplation to build, or are now in course of erection. In a few years they will permeate every section of the county, and afford every one the means of transportation for themselves or their produce to market. It is now the largest grain and tobacco producing county in the State, and only excelled in those productions of the soil by three or four counties in the United States. Before the county was organized, iron and copper ores had been discovered. It is supposed that Kurtz was the first to establish iron works, as early as 1726, within the limits of the county. It is said that his iron works were situated on the Octoraro, and it is possible that they were thrown upon the Maryland side of the division line when it became permanently established. Peter Grubb followed him in 1727, at the Cornwall ore banks. He was the son of Henry Grubb, who emigrated from Wales at an early day. As was the case with other prominent iron masters in the county who came from Wales, were workers in iron in that country. Peter Grubb died in 1745. His sons, Curtis and Peter, inherited his estate. In 1783, they had Cornwall furnace, Hopewell forge, and Union forge, on the Swatara, at the foot of the Blue mountains. Peter and Curtis Grubb were both colonels in the Revolutionary army. Their furnaces supplied the Continental army with salt-pans and cannon. Curtis was also a member of Assembly for 1775, 1777, 1778, 1782. The descendants of Peter and Curtis own their estate, and have added largely to it, and are now some of the most extensive iron manufacturers in the State. Benezet & Co., of Philadelphia, carried on the Elizabeth iron works, under the management of Baron Henry William Steigel, before the Revolutionary war. In the year 1753, Lynford Lardner, an Englishman, and church warden of Bangor Episcopal church (Churchtown), erected an iron forge upon the Conestoga creek, known as Windsor forge, which afterwards came into the possession of Mr. Branson, of Philadelphia, who sold it to David Jenkins, from whom it descended to his son Robert and grandson David. In 1850, the property passed out of the hands of 816 LANCASTER COUNTY the family. Pool forge, which was about a mile further down the creek, was built in 1793, by James Old, who also built one in the adjoining township, west of Caernarvon. He became a wealthy and successful iron master. He was a member of the Legislature in 1791, 1792, and 1793. He came over from Wales and worked as a puddler in Windsor forge. Cyrus Jacobs married a daughter of James Old, and came into possession of Mr. Old's furnace property, and built others. He was even more successful than his predecessor, and became very wealthy. A portion of the property still remains in possession of his descendants. Robert Coleman emigrated from Ireland, and found employment with Peter Grubb, the proprietor of Hopewell forge. It was but a very short time before Mr. Grubb discovered his capacity for business. He was gradually promoted from one subordinate position to another. From manager of Elizabeth furnace he became part owner, and finally owner of the entire property. In fact, by his energy and perseverance, he became the most successful iron master in Lancaster county. He married the daughter of Robert Old. His descendants retain much of his property, and are reputed the richest iron-masters in the country. Large deposits of iron ore were discovered in the south-eastern section of the county at an early day, and as a consequence a number of iron works were erected. Probably the first furnace erected in that section was in Martic township, which stood within five hundred yards of the road leading from Lancaster to Port Deposit. Martic forge was built by Robert Coleman and Edward Brynn; Pine Grove forge on Octoraro creek, in Little Britain township, was built by Jonathan Webb, in 1800, and in a few years thereafter he erected a rolling mill and flouring mill. He died in 1824, after which it was carried on by his heirs, who sold the works to William and Enos Pennock. These works were on the Octoraro, about one mile below the junction of the east and west branches of that stream White Rock forge was about four miles above, on the west branch, and owned for some years by Spraul, Alexander, and Irwin. Black Rock furnace and forge, four niiles further up the same branch, was owned and worked by J. Caldwell, and built by Judge Clarke. Sadsbury forge, on the east branch, was also owned by Mr. Spraul. Mount Eden furnace, about the head-waters of the west branch aforesaid, was established by John Withers; Michael,. John, and George Withers erected Conowingo furnace; Conowingo rolling mill was built by Neff and Kendrick; Conowingo furnace passed from Withers to Good and Jenkins, and from them, in 1828, to James Hopkins and Samuel Derrick, then to James M. Hopkins and Charles Brooks; the works were owned and conducted for many years and are now owned by James M. Hopkins. These furnaces and forges have gone to decay, and are fast becoming relics of the past-many of them are numbered with the things that were. Whilst these charcoal works have gone down, others of more importance in various sections of the county have sprung up since the introduction of anthracite coal in the manufacture of iron. Immense beds of iron ore have been developed and worked, the Chestnut Hill iron ore bank, near Columbia, having furnished several million dollars worth of ore alone. The copper mines near the Gap were discovered by a German named Tersey, prior to 1733. They were worked with varying success until the water over 3 B CHAPTER V. PROPRIETARY RULE. FRENCF AND INDIAN WAR. BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION. INDIAN RAVAGES ON THE FRONTIER. 1754-1756. NSIGN WARD, while engaged in completing a stockade at the forks of the Ohio, was surprised by the appearance of a large French force, under Contrecceur. The Ensign was obliged to surrender his position and retreat. The driving of the Virginia troops from the Ohio and the erection of Fort Duquesne by the French force, aroused the Virginia authorities, and Governor Hamilton strongly urged the Pennsylvania Assembly to organize the militia in aid of Governor Dinwiddie's preparations against the French. This body, always factious, evaded the subject, by questioning the invasion of the Province, declaring the action of the Governor as imprudent, and adjourned. Virginia, however, raised a force of three hundred men, under command of Colonel Fry and Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, and near the Great Meadows, a detachment of the French force, under Jumonville, sent to intercept the Virginians, was defeated, and their commander killed. Near that point Fort Necessity was erected by Colonel Washington, who succeeded to the command by the death of Colonel Fry, being reinforced by two companies of regulars. Marching out with his little band to dislodge the French from Fort Duquesne, recently erected by them, the advance of a large force of the enemy compelled the young commander to fall back to his stockade, which they immediately prepared to strengthen. Before it was completed they were attacked by the French under M. de Villier. Notwithstanding an obstinate defence, Washington was obliged to capitulate. His courage and conduct, however, were greatly applauded. On receiving the news of Washington's defeat, Governor Hamilton convened the Assembly in special session on the 6th of August, but unpleasant altercations between the executive and legislative were produced, "and their labors were nugatory." Robert Hunter Morris* succeeded Governor Hamilton in October, the latter having requested to be relieved from his duties. A new Assembly had been elected about the time of his arrival. At its session in December, the Governor communicated to it the royal order for a concert with the other colonies, commanding them not only to act vigorously in defence of their own government, but to aid the other colonies to repel every hostile attempt. This body were well aware of the progress of the French, of their completion of Fort Duquesne, and their preparations to occupy the country of the Twightwees with numerous settlers. The * ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS was the eldest son of Lewis Morris, Chief Justice of New York and New Jersey, born about 1699. On the appointment of his father to the governorship of New Jersey, in 1731, the son succeeded him as Chief Justice of that State, a position he held until 1757, when he resigned the office. He was Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania from 1754 to 1756. He died the 20th of February, 1764. HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. flowed the mines. After the introduction of machinery, driven by steam, they were again opened and worked. At the present time there are six thousand tons of nickel ore taken out annually; two hundred men are employed. Eleven shafts have been sunk, ranging from one hundred and ten feet deep to two hundred and forty feet deep, connected by tunnels. Four immense engines are employed at the smelting works, and to keep the mines from overflowing with water. The works are owned by Joseph Wharton, Jr., of Philadelphia, and conducted by Captain Charles Doble. This is said to be the most productive nickel mine in the world. An extensive lead mine is being worked near Petersburg, in East Hempfield township. Valuable slate quarries are worked at Peach Bottom. In Little Britain there are large beds of magnesite, which is extensively manufactured into sulphate of magnesia, from which one million eight hundred thousand pounds of Epsom salts are manufactured annually. Chrome is found in large quantities in Fulton township. Granite is quarried very extensively near Falmouth, Conoy township. Red and gray sandstone are found north of Ephrata, which are used for building pur poses. Persons have traced the gold vein from North Carolina, through Virginia, and to Drumore town ship, in this county; but small quantities of the precious metal have been found, and the search for it has been abandoned. As early as 1608, there seems to have been three tribes of Indians who had a settlement along the east bank of the Susquehanna river, within the lim its of the county as it was first organized. The largest and most powerful of these tribes were the Susquehannocks. Recent discoveries have thrown much light upon the location of these Indian towns. INDIAN RELICS FOUND NEAR During the present year, Prof. S. S. Haldeman made SAFE HARBOR. a very valuable discovery in a cave near his house, [From a Photograph by L. M.William.] of several hundred pieces of pottery, arrow-heads, stone hatchets, etc., which he has arranged and classified. In the fall of 1873, Jacob Staman, of Washington borough, found in a single grave near his dwelling, Indian relics, consisting of an iron helmet, a skull, the principal bones of the legs and arms, a large iron axe, iron hoe, an iron instrument that might have been used for a sword, and a large clay pot, broken into a number of pieces; and more recently, cannon balls about two and one-fourth inches in diameter, some of iron, others of stone, have been found upon Mr. Wittmer's farm. These are interesting discoveries, and have some historical value. It is known that the Susquehannocks had settlements for several hundred years upon the banks of our principal river, two days' journey above the first falls in that river, and that their town was fortified by stockades to protect it from sudden attacks of the Iroquois, to which especial reference has been made in the General History, and also of the result of the terrible battle which took place between the Five Nations and the Susquehannocks. Miss 818 LANCASTER COUNTY. Barber, in her valuable journal, locates the battle at " Patton's hill " just below the dam at Columbia. As to that point she is probably mistaken. Messrs. Staman's and Wittmer's farms are upon a knoll, around the base of which winds a stream of never-failing water. Upon the top of these knolls large quantities of mussel shells have been ploughed up, and upon the north front great numbers of stone and iron hatchets have also been unearthed. The relics above mentioned evidently belonged to an Indian warrior who was probably killed in this battle. In the bed of the run, at the east base, there is a flat stone about three feet in diameter, with deep, smooth grooves, like the letters IIY. The single grooves are two feet long, the others about one foot. This may have been a sign to designate the western boundary which divided the hunting-grounds between the Susquehannocks and a tribe located at Paxtang creek. The figure Y may represent Chicques creek, east and west branch, and the grooves to the left of it, Conoy and Conewaga creeks, or the one at Shock's mill and Conoy. Mr. Bender, who left Mount Joy in 1839, and took up his residence in Wisconsin, writes, that when at the head of Rock river, an old Indian prophet, hearing that he was from the land of Penn, sent for him. He styled himself the XV Prophet in succession. He said his ancestors and predecessors in office lived upon the Susquehanna river, at the mouth of Arrauqas, which, according to his map, is Swatara creek. From that point, one day's journey down the river in a canoe, was another tribe. From his chart he described the principal creeks flowing into the Susquehanna river from the east. Chicques creek he described accurately, and stated that a battle had been fought in the angle of the east and north forks of that stream, in which seven hundred warriors were engaged. There were several other tribes of Indians, who settled in the county after the arrival of William Penn, who offered an asylum alike to the red man of the forest as well as to the white man from civilized Europe. A remnant of the Shawanese, from the Potomac, settled along the Pequea creek. At this time all of the French Indian traders were under suspicion on account of their Catholicism, there being a pending war in Europe between the Protestants and Catholics. This suspicion was not well grounded, for every one of the French Indian traders within the Province proved to be loyal to Governor Penn and the English. Claiborne, who had a trading post at the mouth of the river, bartered with the Indians along the river previous to 1631. Before that time the Canadian French traders found their way among these tribes. After the arrival of Penn, Peter Bezalion, who finally located among the Paxtang Indians; Martin Chartiere, whom Governor Penn gave a tract of land, extending from the mouth of Conestoga creek, along the Susquehanna river, to the run at the foot of Turkey Hill; Joseph Jessop and James Letort, who first lived upon the Conestoga, near the Indian town, in 1686; from thence he went to Donegal, and from thence to the Springs, west of the river (now Carlisle). They all became valuable citizens, and were of great assistance to Penn in his intercourse and dealings with the Indians. Edmund Cartlidge and his brother John, while trading with a tribe upon the Potomac, killed a drunken Indian who made an attack upon them. This was the cause of the first trouble between the Proprietaries and the Indians. They were both thrown into prison in Philadelphia, but after a full investigation they 819 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. were liberated. Edmund was commissioned as a justice of the peace for Chester county, before this county was laid off, and he took up his residence upon the banks of the Conestoga, near the Indian town, where he resided for many years. Several councils held with the Indians were held at his house. Although he seems to have been in disfavor on account of the above affair for some time, he regained the full confidence of the whites and Indians. Another affair took place at the trading house of John Burt, at Snaketown, on the 11th day of September, 1727, between the Indians and whites, which caused more trouble, and is the first recorded murder of a white man by the Indians in the Province after the first arrival of Penn. It seems that Thomas Wright and several others were drinking at Burt's, and while the former was singing and dancing with the Indians, Burt filled his hands with his own dung and threw it among the party, and otherwise abused the Indians whom he made drunk. This caused a disturbance, and Wright fled to a hen-house and endeavored to secrete himself, but the Indians pursued and killed him. Burt made his escape, and is next heard of at the forks of the Ohio. This affair was also settled without much difficulty. From the year 1710 to the organization of the county, there was a large inflow of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and Germans from the Palatinate. The former settled along Chicques creek, and the latter at Tulpehocken and Pequea. The Germans generally selected one of their principal men, who made all necessary arrangements with William Penn or his agents before they left the old country, for their settlement in Pennsylvania, and as soon as they arrived in Philadelphia were naturalized, and received patents for their land. The ScotchIrish were a different race, and had other views and aims. They were outspoken and independent, and could not brook the leadership of any one person. Having accepted renn's invitation to settle in his Province, they came in great numbers, and pushed out beyond the Germans to the extreme frontier of civilization. They generally selected the highest ground, which at that time was covered with lighter timber than the bottoms, and was more easily cleared. They gradually worked from Chicques creek to the Swatara and Paxtang creeks. The land upon which they settled was not placed in the market for sale or settlement by Penn. They refused to pay any quit-rents to the Proprietaries, who declined to issue any patents for their land. Many of them lived in Donegal fifteen years before they received a title for their land. They were a law unto themselves, and often proceeded in a summary way to enforce the squatter law. The following extract taken from the minutes of the Council, held February 2, 1727, gives a very good idea of the manner in which disputes among neighbors were settled: " Upon a Representation to this Board, that in remote Parts of this Province, where Lands have not been regularly Surveyed or granted, divers Persons not only Enter & Settle the Proprietors' Lands without any Grant or Permission, but sometimes have proceeded to Acts of Violence in forcibly ousting of others, a remarkable Instance of which has lately happened in or near the Township of Donnegal, on Sasquehannah, where one John Scott being with his Wife and Children in peaceable Possession of a House, which he had built, were not only ousted by Force but their house was pull'd down before their Eyes, to the very great Breach of the Peace & Terror of the King's peacable 820 LANCASTER COUNTY. Subjects; To which Proceedings, unless a timely Stop be putt, & an effectual Discouragement given, the Country and the Publick Peace thereof may very deeply suffer thereby." Notwithstanding the turbulent spirit manifested among the Scotch-Irish who were beyond the reach of the law, a large majority of them united themselves together for mutual protection and improvement, and built churches. On the 18th day of February, 1730, John Wright, Caleb Pierce, Thomas Edwards, and James Mitchell, were appointed by the Governor, and empowered to select and purchase a convenient piece of land, whereon to build a court house and prison. They selected the present site. Previous thereto a temporary court was held at Postlewhait's, in Conestoga, which lay along the route of travel between New Castle and the Indian town destroyed in 1763, and the principal settlements further west. Robert Barber was appointed sheriff when the county was erected. He owned a fine tract of land upon the Susquehanna, within the present limits of Columbia, and had a hope that the permanent county seat might be located upon his land, or in the vicinity, and erected a log prison near his dwelling. If he really had a design of securing so valuable a prize, he was completely thwarted. There was unquestionably much discussion, and efforts made by various land-holders to secure the county seat, which would insure to the successful competitor a fortune. The history of every new county records a conflict between individuals and rival communities, as to the location of the county seat. In the light of the present day, with the limits of the county as they now exist, no more central or available place could be selected to accommodate all her citizens than the one chosen in 1730, thus vindicating the judgment of those men who, in after life, filled a prominent position in the history of the county. The first political conflict between the Quakers (who belonged to the ruling class) and the Scotch-Irish took place in 1732. Andrew Galbraith, who resided on Chicques creek, offered himself for the suffrages of the people for a seat in the Legislature. The contest between him and John Wright, the foremost Quaker in the county, was so close that it was only decided in Mr. Galbraith's favor by the Assembly throwing out a few votes cast for Mr. Wright, which were informal. This seems to have ended the political rivalry between the Scotch-Irish and Quakers for many years. The former rendered prompt and valuable aid to the latter during " Cresap's war." The next important period in the history of the county was the conflict between the Marylanders and Pennsylvanians, in 1732-7, to get control of the land west of the Susquehanna river, north of the 40th degree of latitude. Conestoga township was originally organized about 1712. Prior to 1719, it was divided into East and West Conestoga. David Ferree was the first constable of East Conestoga, and James Hendricks of West Conestoga. The western boundaries of the latter were not defined until 1722, when Donegal was erected, and Chicques creek made its eastern boundary. Pequea township seems to have been to the north-east of Conestoga, with not very well defined boundaries, and was probably erected about the year 1720. John Wright and Samuel Blunston, in a joint letter to the Governor, October 30, 1732, from Hempfield, gives the following (among other matters, to be noticed in another connection). HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. " In the year 1729, when the Governor was pleased to Issue an order to divide this part of the Province from Chester County, and for Erecting the Same into a Distinct County, and Appointed Magistrates and Officers for the Conservation of the Peace, the more Easy Administration of Justice, and better Securing the Sober and Quiet Inhabitants in these remote parts of the Province from the thefts and Abuses Comited by Idle and Dissolute persons, who resorted hither to Keep out of the hands of Justice;" which experience has continued in more modern times, in the settlement of new sections of the country. The dispute between these rival governments waxed warm, and culminated in war and bloodshed, and was not settled finally until 1763. Lord Baltimore selected a pliant and bold adventurer for his agent, named Thomas Cresap, aged twenty-six years, a carpenter by occupation, and in religious faith a Catholic, to go to Conejohela valley and settle, where he established a ferry, March 16, 1730. Tobias Hendricks, who was a magistrate in the Manor for several years before Cresap's arrival, states in an affidavit made before Wright and Blunston, December 29, 1732 " That before the year 1729 he had been in the Commission of the Peace for the County of Chester for several Years, and During that time, Edward Parnel, Paul Williams, and some others, Fixed on the lands now possessed by Thomas Cressop," John Low, and their associates, "and that Parnel, et al, were removed from thence by order of the Governor of Pennsylvania, at the request of the Conestoga Indians." In a joint statement made by Wright and Blunston, to the Governor, October 30, 1732, they give some historical data of interest. They say, "About two years Since, Thomas Cressop, and some other people of Loose Morals and Turbulent Spirits, Came and disturbed the Indians, our friends and Allies, who were peaceably Settled on those Lands from whence the said Parnel and others had been removed, Burnt their Cabbins, and destroyed their Goods, And with much threatening and Ill-usage, drove them away; and by pretending to be under the Maryland government (as they were got far from their Laws, Sought to Evade ours). Thus they proceeded to play booty, Disturbing the Peace of the Government, Carrying people out of the Province by Violence, Taking away the Guns from our friends, the Indians, Tying and making them Prisoners, without any offence given; And threatening all who should Oppose them; And by Underhand and Unfair practices, Endeavoring to Alienate the minds of the Inhabitants of this Province, and Draw them (from Obedience) to their party. Their Insolence Increasing, they Killed the horses of Such of our people whose trade with the Indians made it Necessary to Keep them on that Side of the river, for Carrying their Goods and Skins; assaulted those who were sent to Look after them." Cresap's house was a convenient refuge for runaway servants and debtors. Samuel Chance, a runaway debtor of Edward Cartlidge, an Indian trader, who lived in the Manor, took up his abode with him, and assisted Cresap to row the ferry-boat over to the Blue Rock. A son of Cartlidge laid a plan to capture Chance, by decoying him to the east side of the river, where a gun was fired off (the usual signal for Cresap to come to the east side for passengers), on the last day of October, 1730. Cresap and Chance got into their boat and rowed over to the Blue Rock, where they found Edward Beddock, Rice Morgan, and a negro 822 LANCASTER COUNTY. servant of Mr. Cartlidge. After being taken into the boat, and rowed out into the stream a few yards, Beddock and Morgan threw Cresap into the river, and took Chance to shore with them. Cresap made his escape to an island near by, where he remained until after dark, when he was discovered by an Indian and rescued. Cresap made complaint to the Maryland authorities, and a sharp correspondence between the Governors of the two Provinces about the matter was the result. It must not be forgotten that a large number of settlers lived on the west side of the river, south and north of Conejohela valley, previous to Cresap's arrival, and afterwards. Lord Baltimore forced the settlement of Marylanders as fast as possible, and in a short time the adherents to Baltimore's cause were quite numerous, and many of the German settlers went over to his side. Cresap was commissioned as a justice of the peace for Maryland in 1732. James Patterson, an Indian trader who settled in the Manor upon the farm now owned by Jacob B. Shuman, in 1717, also owned some land in Conejohela valley, upon which he let his pack-horses range, and which were used to carry furs, etc., from the Indians along the Potomac. Cresap and Lowe shot eight of these horses. Procuring a warrant from Wright and Blunston for the arrest of Lowe, James Patterson placed it in the hands of Charles Jones, constable of Hempfield, who proceeded to the house of the Lowes in the night of November 26, 1732, accompanied by James Patterson, James Patterson, Jr., Alex. McCay, John Capper, John Hart, John Patton, James Patton, John Trotter, William McManname, and John Bayley, and arrested two of the Lowes, and, after considerable resistance, took them across the river on the ice and before Wright and Blunston, who bound them over for their good behaviour. This affair caused an angry and acrimonious correspondence between the Governors of Pennsylvania and Maryland. In the fall of 1733, Cresap came up to Wright's ferry and commenced to build boats and erect a house. Wright and Blunston had placed a number of men in the ferry house, who sallied out and took Cresap's men prisoners. On the 29th day of January, 1734, John Emerson, a lawyer, who lived in Lancaster, and was appointed ranger and keeper of Conestoga manor, and owned a ferry at Blue Rock, Knowles Daunt, and five others, went down to Cresap's house to arrest him. Cresap shot Daunt (Emerson's servant) in the leg, from the effects of which he died. Cresap made frequent raids into Kreitz valley with bands of armed men, dispossessing the German settlers of their property. He carried Joshua Minshal, a prominent Quaker, who resided two miles west of Wright's ferry, to Annapolis jail. In July, 1735, when John Wright was superintending the reaping of his grain upon his plantation, on the west side of the river, Cresap came with twenty persons, men, women, and lads, armed with guns, swords, pistols, and blunderbusses, and drum-beating, towards the said field. Mr. Wright approached Cresap and wanted to know what all this military display meant, and was told that they came to fight the Pennsylvanians. He drew his sword, and cocked his pistol at Mr. Wright's breast, but who, by his courage and knowledge of the law, completely cowed Cresap, who had brought wagons with him to carry off his grain, but which were now used to haul it to the east side of the river by the very persons he brought with him in martial array. Surveyors were sent up from Maryland, with an armed escort of thirty men, but were forced to return 823 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. by the men employed by Wright and Blunston, who made a fort of the ferry house on the west side of the river. Cresap returned to Maryland and had a conference with Governor Ogle, who called out the militia of Harford and Baltimore counties, to muster under the command of Colonels Hall and Rigby. Suspecting that this movement meant mischief to Pennsylvanians, John Wright engaged Benjamin Chambers (who married a daughter of James Patterson aforesaid) to go to this muster and ascertain, if possible, the designs of the Marylanders. Mr. Chambers gives a minute detail of his trip in Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. IV., page 535. He was taken prisoner as a suspected spy, but made his escape to Wright's ferry, and made a full report. From thence he went to Donegal at a house raising, and collected a number of Scotch-Irish (who would as soon fight as eat), and went to Wright's ferry, where they repelled two or three hundred armed men under Colonel Hall. Cresap built a fort (at the mouth of the creek, where Leber's mill stands), from which emanated bands of armed men, who raided through Kreitz's valley, destroying houses, maltreating the women, and taking the men prisoners to Maryland. Joshua Minshal and John Wright, Jr., were the only two men left in that valley. Cresap had forty tracts of land surveyed, which was owned and occupied by the Germans. The state of affairs had become so critical, and Wright and Blunston having exhausted all the means within their power to quell the disturbance, the Council finally concluded to have Cresap arrested for the murder of Knowles Daunt. On the 23d day of November, 1736, a warrant was placed in the hands of Samuel Smith, sheriff, who resided in Donegal. He called upon John Kelley, Benjamin Sterratt, Arthur Buchannan, Samuel Scott, David Priest, John Sterratt, John Galbraith, James, John, and Alexander Mitchell, James Allison, and nineteen others, to assist him. On the night of November 24, 1736, they surrounded Cresap's house, in which he had a number of armed men, who fired upon Sheriff Smith and party, and finally killed Laughlin Malone, one of their own party. John Capper, of the sheriff's party, was shot in the shoulder. Finding that Cresap would not surrender, Smith's men set his house on fire, which caused Cresap to get out of it. He was overpowered, and carried in triumph to Philadelphia and placed in prison. Colonel Hall and Captain Higgenbotham came to Cresap's fort with three hundred armed men, and at different times marched into Kreitz's valley in martial array. In. - January, 1737, a company made an attack on Cresap's fort and were repulsed, losing eight men. The Governor of Maryland offered ~100 reward for the arrest of John Wright, Samuel Blunston, Samuel Smith (sheriff), and John Ross. Rewards were also offered for Michael Tanner, Joshua Minshal, and Charles Jones (constable). The last three persons were arrested and taken prisoners to Annapolis jail. Captains Higgenbotham and Hall brought as many as three hundred armed men into the valley to attack the Pennsylvanians. The Marylanders were finally driven back to their State, and all efforts to colonize that part of Pennsylvania with Marylanders was abandoned in 1738. In 1736 Governor Ogle gave Cresap a deed for the " Isle of Promise," opposite Washington borough, for which he was to pay at the city of Saint Mary's, at the two most usual feasts in the year, 824 LANCASTER COUvTY. to wit: the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Michael the Archangel, by even and equal portions of the rent of four shillings sterling, in silver or gold, annually. The next important historic period in the history of Lancaster county was the colonial war between England and France, in 1754-55-56. Before actual hostilities broke out between those countries, the French commanders in the forts along the great lakes were busy with the Indians to induce them to take sides with the French against the English. Celeron, the commander at the fort at Detroit, offered a reward of one thousand pounds for the arrest of Colonel George Croghan and James Lowrey, an Indian trader of Donegal, because of their great influence with the Ohio Indians. On the 26th day of January, 1753, when Alexander McGinty, Jabez Evans, Jacob Evans, David Hendricks, William _ Powell, Thomas HIyde, and. James Lowrey, all Indian traders, and all from Lancaster county, were return- -- ing from trading with the _.. Cuttawas, a tribe of Indians __. - - in Carolina, and when on south bank of" Cantucky " river, twenty-five miles from Blue Lick town, were attacked by the Coghnawagos, a French tribe of Indians who lived upon the St. Lawrence river in New York. James Lowrey made his escape and returned to FRANKLIN AND MARSHAL COLLEGE, LANCASTER. Donegal. The others were [From a Frotograph by Win. L. Gill.] taken prisoners to Canada and sold. Jacob Evans and Thomas Hyde were taken prisoners to France. They all endured great suffering, but finally returned to their homes. In July, 1754, when Washington with his little army were moving forward to take possession of the forks of the Ohio, Lancaster county men were again the first to suffer. English John, a Mingo chief, when moving east to intercept and harass Washington, made an attack upon Lowrey's traders at Gist's. They took Andrew McBriar, Nehemiah Stevens, John Kennedy, and Elizabeth Williams prisoners. They all lived in Donegal. The Indians killed four others. Kennedy was shot in the leg. The rest were taken to Canada. The English fur traders, who mostly lived in Donegal, were the first to suffer from the fury of the savages. England declared war against France, and both of those countries sent European armies over to America, where they soon met in conflict upon the battle-field. The French had greatly the advantage, because most of the savages adhered to them. Braddock came with an army, and met with a terrible defeat near the Ohio, July 9, 1755. James Ewing, James Burd, and a number of others from this county were with Braddock's army. This 825 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. caused a panic among the back settlements, as they were exposed to the fury of the savages, who commenced murdering them indiscriminately. The Irish and Scotch-Irish sprang to their arms to protect themselves. Their undaunted courage checked the progress of the soulless savages. A chain of stockades and forts were built from the Delaware river at Easton to Bedford. The torch and tomahawk of the Indians were not idle; they murdered in cold blood several hundred of the frontier settlers. In 1758, another army, under the command of General Forbes and Colonel Bouquet, marched to the Ohio and chastised the Indians, and in 1763, during the Pontiac war, Colonel Bouquet again defeated the Indians at Bushy run, a few miles east of Braddock's battle-field. Colonel Alexander Lowrey of Donegal was Colonel Bouquet's guide during his march and at the battle of Bushy run, as he was also for General Forbes' army in 1758. In the same year the Hurons made an attack upon the camp of twenty-two Indian traders, four miles east of Fort Rays. They destroyed goods of the value of more than eighty thousand pounds, and killed several persons. William Trent, Joseph Simons, Alexander Lowrey, and perhaps two or three other of these traders were from Lancaster county. During these campaigns Lancaster county furnished several battalions. Burd, Shippen, Jamison, Ewing, and several others commanded companies from the county. The county enjoyed but a brief period of quiet. During that time a continuous influx of emigration poured into the country, and the settlements west of the Susquehanna were extended beyond the mountains. Everything indicated unusual prosperity and lasting peace. Furnaces and forges, and manufactures of domestic goods increased rapidly. This prosperity aroused the cupidity of the mother country, whose debt was enormously increased by the recent wars, and she sought to impose unjust duties upon glass, paper, printers' colors, and tea imported into the colonies. Tea was a luxury-the impost duty upon it was so large that it was only in the power of the wealthy to purchase it. The people in Boston were the first to resist this wrong, and in 1773, when a cargo of tea arrived at that port, they boarded the vessel and threw the tea overboard. When the news was carried back to England, the King sent General Gage with a number of troops to Boston, to " dragoon the Bostonians into compliance." They associated themselves together and refused to comply with the unjust demands of the King. Committees of correspondence were appointed, and Pennsylvania was one of the first to offer aid to the brave men of Boston; and in response to a call from Philadelphia, a meeting was held in Lancaster borough, on the 15th day of June, 1774, where resolutions were passed concurring with the patriotic citizens of Philadelphia, who sustained the action of the Bostonians. At this meeting Edward Shippen, George Ross, Jasper Yeates, Mathias Slough, James Webb, William Atlee, William Henry, Esquires; and Messrs. Ludwig Lauman, William Bausman, and Charles Hall, were appointed on a committee to correspond with a committee in Philadelphia. With the united efforts of all the committees throughout the colonies, they failed to procure from the King or parliament a redress of their grievances. On September 4, 1774, a Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia, which passed resolutions approving the course of the people of Massachusetts. At a meeting held in 826 LANCASTER COUNTY. Lancaster borough, on the 9th day of July, 1774, at which George Ross presided, the following persons were chosen a committee to meet and consult with the committees of the other counties of this Province, at Philadelphia, on the 15th instant, to wit: George Ross, James Webb, Matthias Slough, Joseph Ferree, Emanuel Carpenter, and William Atlee, Esquires; Alexander Lowery and Moses Erwin. The deputies from every county in the Province met in Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, and passed numerous resolutions condemning the King and Parliament for their unjust treatment of the Bostonians, and proposed to stand by and aid the latter. Open and decided hostilities eventuated in bloodshed at Lexington, April 19, 1775, followed by the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17th. To meet the emergency, meetings were held everywhere, and the patriotic citizens associated themselves together and formed military companies. Lancaster' county was one of the first to respond to these patriotic calls. The inhabitants of Lancaster and adjacent counties met at - Lancaster borough, July4, 1776. - The meeting consisted of the officers and privates of fiftythree battalions of the associations of the colony of Pennsylvania, to choose two brigadiergenerals to command the battalions and forces of Pennsylvania. Colonel George Ross was president of the meeting, and Colonel David Clymer, secretary. Colonel Daniel Roberdeau of Philadelphia was chosen first brigadier-general, - and James Ewing of York county, second brigadier-gene- LANCASTER COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LANCAS'rER. ral. These brigadier-generals drafted from the associators of each county a certain number to meet in conference. They met June 18, and adjourned to June 25, 1776. The delegates to this conference from Lancaster were William Atlee, Esq., Ludwig Lauman, Colonel Bertram Galbraith, Colonel Alexander Lowrey, Captain Andrew Graaf, William Brown, John Smiley, Major James Cunningham, and Major David Jenkins. At the time this meeting was held in Lancaster, the convention met in Philaphia, and passed a declaration of independence. After this the magistrates in the county who held appointments under the royal authority declined to serve longer. The business of the courts was suspended for some time. Although there was a hearty and prompt response to the patriotic call for troops among a majority of the citizens, yet there was a large element among the Quakers and Germans who were opposed to bearing arms, and some Episcopalians who GENERAL HISTORY. Six Nation Indians, now more numerous on the western waters than in their ancient seats, cold to the English cause, and divided among themselves, barely maintained their neutrality. The small body of English troops, collected on the frontiers, was weakened by desertion and corrupted by insubordination. The Indians who still adhered to the Province, and had retired before the French, were seated at Aughwick. They admired the courage of the enemy, contemned the pacific temper of the Assembly, and were scarcely kept in quiet by the liberality of the Province to their families, and its forbearance towards the license of their chiefs. The Assembly prepared a bill for the issue of forty thousand pounds currency, appropriating twenty thousand pounds to the use of the King, redeemable by the excise in twelve years, and the balance to supply the torn and defaced bills of former issues. But the Governor objected the royal instructions, so often urged by his predecessor, yet conceded, that, as he might dispense with the suspending clause in extraordinary cases, he would venture to sanction the bill, if the sum granted to the King were made redeemable within five years. This proposition was unhesitatingly rejected. The government of Great Britain had at length determined to oppose energetically the growing power of the French in America. Two regiments of foot from Ireland, under the command of Colonels Dunbar and Halkett, were ordered to Virginia, to be there reinforced; and Governor Shirley and Sir William Pepperell were directed to raise two regiments of a thousand men each, to be officered from New England, and commanded by themselves. Pennsylvania was required to collect three thousand men for enlistment, to be placed at the disposal of a commander-in-chief of rank and capacity, who would be appointed to command all the King's forces in America; to supply the troops on their arrival with provisions, and to furnish all necessaries for the soldiers landed or raised within the Province; to provide the officers with means for traveling; for impressing carriages, and quartering troops. And, as these were " local matters, arising entirely within her government, his Majesty expected the charges thereof to be borne by his subjects within the Province; whilst articles of more general concern would be charged upon a common fund, to be raised from all the colonies of North America." Toward this fund the Governor was directed to urge the Assembly to contribute liberally, until a union of the northern colonies for general defence could be effected. In answer to a message of the Governor, based on these requisitions, the House referred him to the money bill they had sent him; and, after a recapitulation of their arguments against his objections, they intimated an opinion, that his refusal to pass the bill was occasioned by the Proprietary instructions, which they requested might be shown to them. He evaded a direct answer to this request, but assured them that his instructions were designed to promote the real happiness of the inhabitants, and contained nothing which his duty would not have required had they never been given. And, though it was indecorous and unprecedented for the House to demand their exhibition, still he would communicate them when necessary for the public service; it was sufficient now, to say that he was instructed by the Proprietaries earnestly to recommend to them the defence of the Province, not only by the grant of money to the King, but by HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. adhered to the English cause, who gave Lieutenant Galbraith a great deal of trouble. They refused to enlist in the militia or pay taxes. On the 25th day of October, 1777, an order was passed by the council reciting these facts, and appointing Curtis Grubb, Esq., William Ross, and Simon Snyder, sub-lieutenants of the county to enforce the militia law. Large numbers enlisted in the Continental army, and participated in all of the principal battles. Three battalions of Lancaster county militia participated in the battle of Brandywine, and some of them at that of Germantown. Large barracks were erected in Lancaster borough to secure the Hessian prisoners taken at Trenton; other prisoners were also confined there. The prisoners at one time numbered over twelve hundred. Ephrata and Lancaster took charge of our own wounded. Congress repaired to Lancaster from Philadelphia in September, 1777, and LANCASTER CITY HIGH SCHOOL. [From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill.] James EDiscopal church organized; and on the 11th of the same month removed to York, where it remained until June 27, 1778. In the war of 1812, and the late rebellion, Lancaster county furnished its full quota of men, and some of the most distinguished officers in both wars. Much of the history of the county is so closely identified with that of the towns and townships, mention will be made of such facts as our limited space will justify. Des cription of a number of towns will be found under a notice of the adjoining townships. LANCASTER CITY was laid out by Governor Hamilton as a town in 1730. In 1734 the seat of justice was re moved from Postlethwaite's to Lan caster. In 1742 it was incorporated as a borough. In 1734 the first Lutheran church was built; in 1736, a German Reformed; in 1744, St. two years following the Roman Catholies built a log church. In Provincial times, during the Revolutionary period and since, Lancaster has been and is one of the most important places in the Union. It is situated in the heart of the finest agricultural region in the country, and there is not another county which can boast of as many wealthy and well-to-do farmers. They all pay tribute in some measure to the county seat. The numerous turnpikes and roads and railroads are convenient channels over which the vast produce of the country is laid in her lap. Her large and elegant stores attract hundreds of the wives and daughters of our farmers daily to their counters. There are ten banking houses where the business men can be accommodated. The hotels are 828 LANCASTER COUNTY. numerous and well kept. It is not an unusual circumstance on special occasions to see from five to ten thousand country people in the city. It has four public libraries, with an annual circulation of fifteen thousand volumes. It has six cemeteries; six cotton mills, employing over two thousand operatives; a watch factory, employing fifty hands; six machine shops for the manufacture of railroad and stationary engines, boilers, castings, bolts, agricultural implements, etc. It has several scientific associations, the most prominent of which is the Linnaean Society of Natural History, in the establishment of which Professor S. S. Rathvon was mainly instrumental. One of the most attractive objects to the visitor is the beautiful monument erected in Centre Square to the memory of the brave heroes who fell in defence of their country in the late rebellion. The monument was dedicated - on the 4th day of July, 1874. The space occupied -__ by the whole structure is _ _ _ -. - thirty-five feet each way, ____-_ the base occupying seven- - teen feet in height, and the__central shaft forty-three ---. feet-a correct representa- _______ tion of which is given. The names of the leading - battles inscribed thereon are " Antietam," " Gettysburgn IVicksburo," "Mal-. ven ll," " Wilderness," vern Htill,I " Chaplin Hills," " Petersburg," " Chickamauga." The cost of the structure was about twenty-three thousand dollars. Great credit is due to the monu- LANCASTER COUNTY SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, LANCASTER. From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill, Lancaster. mental association who carried to successful completion under many difficulties this grand structure. In 1872 a board of trade was organized, which is now composed of more than one hundred of the business men of the place, which is destined to advance the interests of the city and county. The newspapers are many, several of which are conducted with great ability, and have n marked effect in moulding a healthy public sentiment. The bar is justly celebrated as one of the ablest in the State. In times past it was the home of some of the greatest lawyers and statesmen in the country. Such men as Chew, Smith, Ross, Shippen, Atlee, Yeates, Porter, Montgomery, Iubley, Ellminaker, Rogers, Slaymaker, Buchanan, Hopkins, Champneys, Parke, Franklin, Reigart, Hays, Frazer, Fordney, Burrowes, Green, Bryan, Jenkins, Mathiot, Stevens, Kline, Dickey, North, Hood, Reynolds, Nauman, Livingston, Patterson, 829 HIS TOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. are selected from a large number of the great legal lights whose talents have shone with splendor. The Lancaster city water works are very extensive. Water is pumped from the Conestoga, a short distance above the poor-house. They were first erected in 1836. There are two basins at the eastern end of Orange and King streets, with a capacity of seven million gallons. A movement has lately been made to increase the supply of water, which will probably fail on aocount of the large expenditure required for the purpose. A few years ago a large " home" was erected in the south-eastern section of the city for the instruction of orphan children. There - ----- are several hundred in the --.-.. institution. There are no - - institutions of any kind within the county which present a higher claim to ____, the sympathies of the be nevolent and charitable. In fact it is almost sustained 7by the daily contributions of the citizens of Lancaster city and the farmers of the county, who furnish provi A sions when called upon. ICOLUMBIA, the leading and representative Quakers, Swho figured so prominently - -2 - ~in the early history of the county, settled within the present limits of Columbia. In the spring of 1726, Rob ert Barber, a Quaker of Chester, came to the banks of the Susquehanna river, MONUMENT OF THADDEUS STEVENS, LANCASTER. and selected one thousand [From a Photograph by Win. L. Gill.] acres of land. Returning to Chester for his family, he was joined by John Wright and Samuel Blunston and their families, all of whom traveled to the Susquehanna in the summer or fall of 1726. Blunston selected five hundred acres adjoining the hill, on the north side of the town; John Wright took two hundred and fifty acres adjoining on the south; and Robert Barber two hundred and fifty acres between Wright's and the hill, south of the town. Barber's was considered the choicest tract, on account of the fine timber with which it was covered and a stream of water flowing through it. Mr. Barber came from England when a lad, and was bound to his uncle Robert Barber, a cordwainer, who died in 1708, leaving a farm upon "Crum Creek," adjoining Chester, to his nephew Robert, who married Hannah Tidmarsh of Philadelphia. He was elected coroner for Chester county in 1721, and 830 LANCASTER COUNTTY. was one of the county assessors in 1725. He was probably thirty-six years of age at this time. When the county was organized he was appointed sheriff, and he erected a log jail within a few yards of his dwelling. He was disappointed in not having the permanent seat of the county located upon his farm. [Sir James Annesley was confined in this prison. His history was a romantic one, but for want of space we are compelled to omit a more lengthy notice of him.] He was county commissioner in 1740. He occupied several positions of trust, and rendered valuable aid to the Proprietaries in their controversy with the Marylanders. He died in 1749, leaving a widow, who survived him many years, and nine children. Samuel Blunston was the son of John Blunston, a Quaker preacher, who came over to America with William Penn and settled upon Darby creek. He was a member - ____ ___ of council for many years, also speaker of Assembly. He _... was regarded as a person of great abili- - ty and probity. He Nq died in 1723, leaving _ a widow, Samuel. and daughters, Sarah Fern and Catharine Rhoads, surviving him. Samuel Blunston was probably born at Darby. He received the best education the schools of that day afforded. He was a practical land surveyor. He VIEW OF TOWN HALL AND LOCUST STREET, COLUMBIA. [From a Photograph by L. M. Williams, Columbia.] married the widow of Samuel Bilton, who kept a ferry over the Schuylkill river. It was afterwards known as "Blunston's Ferry." He was the wealthiest o' the three, and was one of the first justices appointed in the county, and was also the first register of wills, a position he held until within a year of his death. He was appointed by Thomas Penn, in 1736, while on a visit to his house (in Columbia), to survey and issue tickets to the settlers on the west side of the river, who procured their patents of the proper officer when they were presented. He had been agent for the Penns several years before that. He was remarkably energetic, and showed great wisdom in circumventing the machinations of Cresap and other Marylanders. He employed men and 831 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. armed them. The Governor of Maryland offered one hundred pounds reward for his arrest. A plot was arranged to waylay him while he was returning from the funeral of Mrs. James Anderson in Donegal in 1736. He got wind of the matter and took another route home. He was consulted invariably when any repairs or alterations were made to the prison or court house. He was frequently appointed to confer with different Indian tribes, and surveyed a reservation for them in Cumberland county. He built the little stone mill ("corn mill ") upon Shawnee run, afterwards owned by James Wright. His correspondence with the Governor, James Logan, and council, display talent equal to or superior to that of any of his contemporaries. He died in September, 1746, leaving no children. His estate was large. A portion of the dwelling of Samuel B. Heise was his residence, where he also had his office. The property is now owned by the Heises and Mifflins, collateral heirs. John Wright was a noted man in his time. He was a native of Lancashi-e, England, born in 1667; came to America in 1714, and settled at Chester. He was soon after elected a member of the Assembly, and in 1720 appointed a justice of the peace for Chester county. Removing to the Susquehanna, continuing to represent the county in the Assembly, he ardently advocated the erection of a new county out of the western part of the former, and he had the honor of naming it after his native county in England. With one exception, he was annually returned to the Assembly, and continued to be selected until physical disability prevented him from taking his seat. He was one of the trustees of the general loan office in 1733-4. The governor of Maryland offered a reward of ~100 for his arrest. He died in 1751, aged eighty-four years. He left five children surviving him, Susannah, Patience, Elizabeth, John, and James. The descendants now living in Columbia come from James. Susannah Wright, John's daughter, was a remarkable personage. She was educated in England, and was the subject of much attention by the cultured men and women of her time. Samuel Blunston left her a life estate in six hundred and fifty acres of land, most of which is now within the limits of Columbia. She was born in 1700, and died A.D., 1785. She corresponded with James Logan and other dignitaries. Her advice and counsel were frequently sought by them in relation to disputed questions about land titles and other matters. She wrote poetry, painted landscapes, gave advice and administered medicine to the sick; was frequently called upon to act as arbiter to settle disputes between neighbors. She drew up legal papers, some of which are still in existence. She spun silk and sent large quantities to England to be woven into dresses, samples of which are now in the Philadelphia Historical society. This attracted so much attention in Europe that it was a subject of correspondence between Benjamin Franklin, while in England, and herself. James Wright was also a prominent personage. He was for many years a member of Assembly, and was actually elected when he was too feeble from age to attend the sessions. He was one of the Loan Commissioners, and was selected by the Proprietaries to furnish the Indians within the county with supplies, etc. The grain was ground at the little stone mill upon Shawnee run. From the same mill he also furnished flour for Braddock's army, in 1755, which was carried in kegs upon pack-horses to Raystown. During the panic among the settlers 832 LANCASTER COUNTY. caused by that defeat, the women and children were sent to Philadelphia, and James Wright fortified his house on Second street, where the able bodied men took refuge. During the campaign of General Forbes in 1758 against the Indians, several hundred troops were raised in the eastern and south-eastern section of Lancaster county, and from the Scotch-Irish settlements in the south-western part of Chester county. They assembled at Lancaster, but refused to go any further until they were furnished with supplies, etc. James Wright, son of John, agreed to keep the troops clear as far as Harris' ferry, and they moved forward. He died about the year 1774. In 1787, his son Samuel Wright laid out Columbia, and the lots were sold by lottery. It is the second town in population, and the first in importance in the manufacture of iron and as a railroad centre, it being the terminus of several rail- I-_roads and two canals. The town is beautifully located upon the left _ bank of the Susquehanna river, twentynine miles below Harrisburg and ten miles west of Lancaster city. One-half of the place occupies the slope of a hill which rises gently from the river. The magnificent river in front, dotted with islands and rocks, and a.. bridge spanning it, WRIGHT'S FERRY MANSION, COLUMBIA. more than a mile long, [From a Photograph by L. M. Williams.] with diversified hills presented to the view upon every side, is a scene which every lover of nature cannot help but be enraptured with. The town spread rapidly, and a number of the first business men in the State located in it. Before canals and railroads were built, Columbia was, as it is now, one of the most important inland towns west of Philadelphia. The collapse in business which followed the wild speculations of 1815, somewhat checked the rapid progress of the phl e for fifteen years, when a new impetus was given to the trade of the town by the completion of the Pennsylvania canal and the railroad to Philadelphia. An immense traffic was also carried on upon the shores of the river. Over fifty million feet of lumber were piled upon the shore annually, and great quantities of produce were received in keel-boats and arks, and re-shipped for eastern markets. Although Columbia was first settled by Quakers, who were the ruling class in its early history, it can boast of some of the best blood of the revolutionary period. Thomas Boude was commissioned second lieutenant, January 5, 1776, in Captain James Taylor's company of Colonel Anthony Wayne's battalion. He 3a 833 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. was on detached duty on recruiting service for Colonel Wayne's battalion during a portion of the year 1776. He was with Wayne, at Paoli, in 1777, where his brother Samuel was killed. Hle led one of the three volunteer squads of twenty, of the forlorn hope, which made an attack at midnight upon the fort at Stony Point, upon the Hudson. The fort was taken at the point of the bayonet, and Lieutenant Boude was the second man to enter the fort through a sally port. This was July 16th, 1779. For gallant conduct upon this occasion he was promoted to a captaincy in the First Pennsylvania Regiment. There was no braver or more accomplished officer in the army. In 1784 he married- Betsy Wright, sister of the founder of Columbia. She lived but a year thereafter. Several years subsequently he married a daughter of Colonel Samuel Atlee. He was a member of the Legislature for the years 1794-5-6, and a member of Congress in 1801. He was an honored and valued citizen. He died about the year 1819. The late Stephen Smith was purchased by him from the Cochrans, of Paxton, when he was six years old. Dr. John Houston served as surgeon for seven years during the Revolution, and was in a number of battles. He was appointed a justice of the peace by Governor Thomas Mifflin after the Revolution, which position he held until his death, in 1806. Francis Ottoman Ziegler, a native of France, came over with Baron de Steuben, as aid-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He served with great gallantry throughout the Revolutionary war, after which he settled in York, thence to Lancaster, thence to Columbia, where he died in 1800. The Friends had the first place of worship. In 1809 or 1810, the Presbyterians erected a meeting-house at the corner of Fourth and Locust streets, the first pastor being Rev. Stephen Boyer. They were quickly followed by the German Reformed, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, English and German Episcopal, and United Brethren, in succession. The colored people also have two places of public worship. In 1819, 1820, and 1821, several hundred emancipated slaves from Virginia settled in the place. Their locality, commonly known as "Tow Hill," was a great resort for fugitive slaves, and was the scene of many a conflict between them and their masters. February 25, 1814, the borough was incorporated, having a population of 1,500. The same year the bridge across the river was built, at a cost of $231,771, and a bank established with the surplus capital, the present " Co lumbia National Bank " having grown out of it. The bridge was swept away with an ice flood in February, 1832. It was re-erected, and destroyed by fire, June 30, 1863, to keep the rebel army fram crossing the river into Lancaster county. Samuel Wright generously donated the river front, when he laid out the town, for the use of the inhabitants of the place. The property has become valuable, and a large fund has been accumulated, from which has been erected a fine large school building, near Locust and Fifth streets. A beautiful park of several acres surrounds the premises. In 1874, it was leased to the School Board for twenty years, for a high school. There are four furnaces and two large rolling mills within the limits of the borough, and a large number of other industries. In 1787, Columbia came within one vote of being selected as the permanent seat of the National Government. The measure was only finally defeated in 834 LANCASTER COUNTY. Congress by delay and a combination between the Southern members and a few from New England. Mr. Wright set apart several acres of ground between Second and Third streets, and upon Cherry street, for the capitol buildings of the State, in 1812, with the expectation that the State capital would be located at Columbia. EPHRATA is an irregular enclosed village, lying in a triangle formed by the turnpike, the upper, or old Reading road, and the Cocalico creek, and belongs entirely to the Seventh Day Baptist Society. It contains a monastery and several other buildings for the accommodation of the society, to which is attached and belonging to the same about one hundred and forty acres of land, and a grist mill and saw mill. The post office which bears this name is a half mile from the original village. Ephrata, in former times, was known better among the German population by the name of Kloster (Cloister), or Dunkerstown-a - nick-name, from the word Dunker or -- -- Tunker, corruptions of Tauefer, Baptist. The Society of Ephrata, ihowever, are a -distinct sect from the denomination that now bears the name of Dutkers, with whom they have always been confounded. In the year 1708, Alexander Mack, of Schriesheim, Germany, with seven others, formed a society of First D)ay German THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS HOUSES At Ephrata. Baptists. Meeting with persecution, they emigrated to America in 1719, and located at Germantown, Skippach, Oley. Conestoga, and elsewhere. Soon after a church was established at Mill Creek, Lancaster county. Of this community was Conrad Beissel, who, with a number of adherents, left it in 1725, settling near each other in solitary cottages. In the year 1732, the solitary life was changed into a conventicle one, and a monastic society was estal)lished as soon as the first buildings erected for that purpose were finished, May, 1733. The habit of the Capuchins, or White Friars, was adopted by both the brethren and sisters, which consisted of a shirt, trowsers, and vest, with a long white gown and cowl, of woolen web in winter, and linen in summer. That of the sisters differed only in the substitution of petticoats for trowsers, and some little peculiarity in the shape of the cowl. Monastic names were given to all who entered the cloister. Onesimus (Israel Eckerlin) was constituted Prior, who was succeeded by Jaebez (Peter Miller); and the title of Father-spiritual father-was bestowed by the society upon Beissel, whose monastic name was Friedsam; to which the brethren afterwards added Gottrecht-implying, together, Peaceable, God-right. In the year 1740 there were thirty-six single brethren in the cloister, and thirty-five sisters; and at one time the society, including the members living in the neighborhood, numbered nearly three hundred. The first buildings of the society of any consequence were Kedar and Zion-a meeting-house and convent-which were erected on the hill called Mount Zion. They afterwards built larger accommo dations, in the meadow below, comprising a sisters' house called Saron, to which is attached a large chapel, and " Saal," for the purpose of holding the 835 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. agapas, or love feasts; a brother's house, called Bethania, with which is connected the large meeting-room, with galleries, in which the whole society assembled for public worship in the days of their prosperity, and which are still standing, surrounded by smaller buildings, which were occupied as printing office, bake-house, school-house, almonrye and others for different purposes, on one of'which, a one-story house, the town clock is erected. The buildings are singular, and of very ancient architecture-all the outside walls being covered with shingles. The two houses for the brethren and sisters are very large, being three and four stories high; each has a chapel for their night meetings, and the main buildings are divided into small apartments (each containing between fifty and sixty), so that six dormitories, which are barely large enough to contain a cot (in early days a bench and billet of wood for the head), a closet, and an hour-glass surround a common room, in which each sub-division pursued their respective avocations. On entering these silent cells and traversing the long narrow passages, visitors can scarcely divest themselves of the feeling of walking the tortuous windings of some old castle, and breathing in the hidden recesses of romance. The ceilings have an elevation of but seven feet; the passages leading to the cells, or " Kammern," as they are styled, and through the different parts of both convents, are barely wide enough to admit one person, for when meeting a second, one has always to retreat; the doors of the Kammern are but five feet high, and twenty inches wide, and the window, for each has but one, is only eighteen by twenty-four inches; the largest windows affording light to the meeting rooms are but thirty by thirty-four inches. The walls of all the rooms, including the meeting room, the chapels, the saals, and even the kammern or dormitories, are hung and nearly covered with large sheets of elegant penmanship, or ink-paintings-many of which are texts from the Scriptures-done in a very handsome manner, in ornamented gothic letters, called in the German Fractur-schriften. Many of the brethren being men of education, they established, at a very early period, a school, which soon gained for itself an honorable reputation, many young men from Philadelphia and Baltimore being sent here to be educated. A Sabbath-school was instituted about 1739. The building in which this school was held was used during the Revolution as a hospital. A few days after the battle of Brandywine had been fought, September 11, 1777, says Rupp, four or five hundred of the wounded soldiers were taken to Ephrata, and placed in the hospital. Doctors Yerkel, Scott, and Harrison, were the attending surgeons and physicians. The wounds and camp fever baffled their skill; one hundred and fifty of the soldiers died here; they were principally from the Eastern States and Pennsylvania, and a few British who had deserted and joined the American army. The first of those who died were buried with the honors of war; with a funeral sermon, preached by one of their own number appointed for that purpose. This practice was continued for some time, till they began to drop off too rapidly to allow time for the performance of the ceremony, when everything of the kind was dispensed with. The place where they rest is enclosed; and for many years a board with this inscription: " Hier Ruhen die Gebeine vieler Soldaten," was placed over the gate of the enclosure. The board with the inscription is no more. 836 LANCASTER COUNTY. At an early period a printing office was established at Ephrata, one of the first German presses in the State, which enabled them to distribute tracts and hymns, and afterwards to print several large works, in which the views of the founders are fully explained. Many of these books have been lost and destroyed. In the Revolutionary war, just before the battle of Germantown, three wagon loads of books, in sheets, were seized and taken away for cartridges. They came to the paper mill to get paper, and not finding any there, they pressed the books in sheets. When Congress left Philadelphia, and for safety met at Lancaster and York, the Continental money was printed at Ephrata. LiTIz is a beautiful Moravian village, eight miles north of Lancaster. In 1757, it was laid out by the Rev. Nathaniel Seidel and Mr. John Reuter, who were sent from Bethlehem for that purpose, and the name of Litiz was given to it in memory of a village in Bohemia, from which the forefathers of the United Brethren had emigrated. It is not saying too much, if we state, that it is probably the neatest and cleanest village in Lancaster county. Its location is nearly east and west, extending in that direction about three-fourths of a mile. There is not only pavement before all the houses through the whole village, but the different paths leading to the church, schools, etc., are well paved with bricks or limestone slabs. The square, around which are located the educational institutions, the church and parsonage, is, perhaps, not surpassed in beauty by any other spot in the county; such is its splendor in the summer season, that it frequently occurs that travelers stop in their journey to give it a closer examination than a mere transient notice. It is enclosed with a white fence, and tastefully laid out in gravel walks. Around it is an avenue of locust and cedar trees, and the interior is adorned with linden, cedar, and balm of Gilead trees, and a very great variety of shrubbery. The present church was consecrated on the 13th August, 1787. In 1857 the church, after having stood seventy years, underwent a thorough repair, and many alterations were made, so that its internal and external appearance became more modern. It is sixty-six feet in length, and fifty feet in depth, built of limestone, and has a very fine appearance. The mason work in its front is generally consid6red a master-piece of workmanship. It is ornamented with a neat spire, and has a town clock. It has two galleries, and is provided with an excellent organ. Originally there was no pulpit in the church, but merely a table, covered with black cloth, at which the minister officiated. In 1837 various alterations were undertaken, and among others, also that of placing a pulpit in the place of the table. In 1759, the brothers' house at Litiz was erected-which, however, is not used for its original intent at present. It is built of limestone, is three stories high, sixty feet in length, and thirty-seven feet in depth. In the year 1817 it was found proper to discontinue the brothers' house at Litiz, and after that period it was for a time occupied by several families, and at present is used for school purposes. During the Revolutionary war it was for a short period used as a hospital for invalid soldiers, a number of whom died there, and were burLed a short distance eastwardly from the village. The sisters' house was erected in 1758. It is likewise built of limestone, three stories high, ninety feet in length, and thirty-seven in depth. The internal arrangement is similar to that of the brothers' house. At this time it is not occupied for its original purpose, but it is used in connection with Linden Hall for school purposes. 1HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. the establishment of a regular militia, the purchase of arms and military stores, and the erection of magazines. He would add, he said, to his former reasons for negativing their bill, the present state of the treasury, which did, or ought to, contain. fifteen thousand pounds, and had an annual revenue of seven thousand per annum. With these resources, and a rich and numerous population, he deemed it unpardonable to disobey the royal instructions. The Assembly now seized on the Governor's denial of a precedent to the call for Proprietary instructions. They adverted to the right of Parliament to ask from the Crown such information as they deemed necessary, and thence inferred their own right to inspect his instructions, which they supported by examples from the administrations of Sir William Keith and Colonel Thomas. Then, assuming his instructions to be inconsistent with their views, they declined to proceed further in their public labors until, by a knowledge of the Proprietary designs, they might be enabled to labor successfully. The public service now required this; and, as they were about to address the King in support of their civil and religious liberties, the Proprietary instructions, their force, and validity, would form the great burden of their petition, unless satisfied by the Governor that remonstrance on that subject was unnecessary. But this threat availed not. Mr. Morris denied their right, and persisted in his refusal. The pertinacity of the Governor, says Gordon, produced from the House a long address, in which they reviewed all the objections that had been made to their money bills, and dwelt with much earnestness upon the injustice and tyranny of administering the government by Proprietary instructions, kept secret from the people, instead of their constitution. " These instructions," they said, " as they have occasionally been made a part of the public records, have been judged by Governor, council, and representatives, either-I, Inconsistent with the legal prerogative of the Crown, settled by act of Parliament; 2, or a positive breach of the charter of privileges to the people; 3, or absurd in their conclusions, and, therefore, impracticable; 4, or void in themselves: therefore, if, after exhibition of his instructions, the Governor, finding them to be such as had heretofore been given, should find reason, notwithstanding the bonds he may have given to follow them, to disobey them, they would cheerfully grant such further sums for the King's use as the circumstances of the country would bear, and in a manner least burdensome to the inhabitants." But that no doubt might exist of their disposition to obey the orders of the Crown in all things not forbidden by their consciences, the Assembly unanimously resolved to borrow, on the credit of the House, the sum of ~5,000, to be expended in the purchase of fresh provisions, for the use of the King's troops on their arrival, and appointed a committee to negotiate the loan. A series of long and angry messages and replies resulted in a determination on the part of the Assembly to address the King, in testimony of their loyalty and affection, and to represent to him the difficulties produced by Proprietary instructions. On the 14th of January, Major-General Edward Braddock, Sir John St. Clair, Adjutant-General, and the regiments of Dunbar and Halkett sailed 1755. from Cork; and they arrived early in March at Alexandria, in Virginia, whence they marched to Fredericktown, in Maryland. The place of HI STORY OF PENNSYLVANVIA. The Litiz Spring, which is visited by so many persons, is situated on the land of the Moravian society, about one-half mile westwardly from the village, and is probably one of the largest springs in Pennsylvania. There are two fountains from which all the water, which forms a considerable stream, is discharged, and has water sutlicient for some of the largest merchant mills in the county. From its head to the Conestoga, into which the stream " Carter's creek " empties, it is six miles, and in that distance there are seven mills. The water is the pure limestone, and very fresh. In former times, it formed a large pond, around which Indians resided, of which the number of Indian arrow-heads, Latchets, and stones used or throwing in their slings, give ample proof. About the year 1780. some of the inhabitants of Litiz began to improve it by enclosing it with a circular wall and filling up part of the pond, and in later years the re maining part was filled up, and where was formerly a considerable body of water, there is at this time a beautiful park of trees. -V a r i o u s improvements were undertaken from time Wto time; but at no period was it found in such an -1 A improved state as at this time. Around it are a number of seats, and on . the hill, from under which it has its source, are hand S_-somely laid out gardens, - arbors, and ornamental SPRING AND WALK AT LITIZ. shrubbery. From the [From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill] printo the village is an '.piing to the village is an avenue of linden and maple trees, winding along the stream, the path of which is partly covered with gravel, and partly with tan, which renders access to it easy in wet as well as in dry weather. The population of Litiz is about six' undred. Formerly there was an extensive chip hat and bonnet manufactory carried on by Mr. Matthias Tschudy, which gave employment to many. He was the only person in the United States that understood the art of manufacturing them, and supplied nearly all the cities and country with his hats. The palm leaf and straw hats coming into fashion, they were preferred, and consequently the factory was discontinued. Organs were also built in Litiz in former times, which, for tone and excellent workmanship, are very celebrated. A number of the best organs in Philadelphia, Baltimore, 838 LANCASTER COUNTY. and Lancaster are specimens thereof; and among others, the large and beautiful organ in the Lutheran church at Lancaster. In former times, the augurs which were sent from England had no screw, serving as a point, as we have them in our day. The invention of this screw was first made at Litiz, by John 11. Rauch, Sr., during the last century; the pattern was then sent to England by Judge Henry, after which the screw point was generally introduced. SAFE HARBOR is an important place at the mouth of the Conestoga. There that stream is connected with the T'ide Water canal on the opposite bank of the river, but the dam has been suffered to go down. Splendid rolling mills and furnaces, unfortunately not worked at present, are located here. Most of the iron used on the Pennsylvania railroad when first constructed was manufactured at this place. The scenery is very fine and picturesquely grand. A short distance below Safe Harbor are several rocks with Indian picture-writing, a facsimile of which is herewith given. From a report made by Professor Thomas.. C. Porter to the Linnman Society of Lancaster county we learn that in September 1863, the existence of figures chiseled out by the red men of our stone period on certain rocks in the Susquehanna became known to that society, who soon thereafter obtained casts of the - figures in plaster. Drawings of these -'- - casts were made by Jacob Stauffer, the. 9 V T distinguished naturalist. The upper ones belong to the larger rock, and those under to the smaller one. The Susquehanna river below the dam INSCRIPTIONS ON ROCKS AT SAFE HARBOR. [From a Photograph by Win. L. Gill.:] at Safe Harbor is filled with a multitude From a Photograph by N. L. Gill.] of rocks and rocky islets, various in size and extent, between which, the fall being considerable, the water rushes, forming a series of rapids and eddies, navigable only by channels. Among these rocks are the two in question. The larger one lies a full half-mile below the dam, in a line nearly due south from the mouth of the Conestoga, while the smaller one is situated about 250 yards further up, in the same line, at a distance of some 400 or 500 yards from the eastern shore. Each rock is composed of several masses overlying each other at an angle of 450 down stream, the lines of division running east or west, the southern crest being the highest. They consist of gneiss, which is rather friable within, but hard on the outside. The larger rock measures through the centre, from north to south, 82 feet, and from east to west 40 feet. It slopes gradually upward from north to south; the lowest part being 9 feet, and the highest 16 feet above low-water mark. This rock is said to be the highest in the river near Safe Harbor, and from its fiat summit the prospect is extensive and beautiful. The lower rock measures, from east to west, on the north side, 20 feet; on the south side, 29 feet 8 inches; from north to south, on the east side, 12 feet 9 inches; on the west side, 8 feet 6 inches. The height of the west side, above low-water mark, is 6 feet; of the east side, 12 feet 9 inches. 839 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. The two rocks contain in all upwards of 80 distinct figures, and a number more almost obliterated. They are much scattered, and seem to have been formed without regard to order, so that it is not possible for an unskilled observer to say that they bear any necessary relation to each other. They are probably symbolical, but it is left to those who are versed in American antiquities to decipher their meaning. Some points, however, are clear. They were made by the aborigines, and made at a large cost of time and labor, with rude stone implements, because no sharp lines or cuts betray the use of iron or steel. This, in connection with their number and variety, proves that they were not the offspring of idle fancy or the work of idle hours, but the product of design toward some end of high importance in the eyes of the sculptors. DONEGAL CHURCH, one of the most interesting Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlements in the county, was planted upon the banks of the " Shecassalungo " creek, as early as 1714. The settlement grew very rapidly. Among them, there were a number of Scotch-Irish of a turbulent and independent nature, which. leavened the whole. Many of them became restless, and changed their residence, moving further into the wilderness, and pushing back the frontiers, like a resistless wave, beating against the red man of the forest, and forcing him to retreat or be overwhelmed. Thus from this parent settlement in Donegal many others were established, all having the same characteristics. It was a most fortunate circumstance for the welfare and independence of the country that these men fostered independence among themselves, and would brook no oppression from any quarter. When Great Britain first sought to impose unjust burthens upon the people of Massachusetts Bay, and they resisted and called upon their countrymen for help, a ready echo was sent back from these Scotch-Irish settlements. They burnished their arms and were the first to strike for liberty when the time came. Our country owes them a debt of everlasting gratitude. Although worship was had at various private houses for ten years, I am not able to learn that any building was erected as a place for public worship before 1722. On or about that year a log church was erected a few yards east of the present structure. The pulpit was supplied by New Castle Presbytery, the Rev. David Evans being the first, in the years 1721-24. The Rev. Adam Boyd, of Octoraro church, was the supply in 1724-25. In September, 1726, the Rev. James Anderson, of New Castle, was called to preach at Donegal, and was on trial until August, 1727, when he was installed. He died at Donegal, July 16, 1740. During his pastorate the present stone meeting-house was erected. It was built with loose stone gathered up in the woods thereabout. A ground plan, as drawn by Bertram Galbraith on the 25th day of December, 1766, is in the possession of the writer. The church is about seventy-five feet long, by fortyfive in width. There were no doors at the end. The windows were narrow, and the aisles were of earth. There were no pews for many years after its erection. Benches of the homeliest construction were used. At the close of the Revolution the church was remodeled by Mr. Paden. The windows were widened, a door-way placed at each end; a new pulpit, with sounding board over it, with space paneled off in front for the clerk, was built with walnut boards cut from a tree on John Bayley's farm, now owned by John Graybill; new pew backs of walnut and yellow pine, paneled, which were as 840 LANCASTER COUNTY. high as the head of an ordinary person, with corner boards curved out to fit the back. Slcping shelves along the three rows of pews in front of the pulpit were used for hymn-books. The aisles and pews were paved with brick. The church was crowded on Sunday, and on Communion Sabbath service was held in the morning and afternoon, the congregation returning to the woods between sermons to take a lunch. The Rev. Joseph Tate followed Mr. Anderson. He died October 10, 1774, aged sixty-three. In the year 1732, the Presbytery of New Castle was divided, and the Presbytery of Donegal formed from the western portion of its territory. The Presbytery of " Carlisle " and " Old Redstone," and perhaps another, were taken from Old Donegal. For some reason, fifty years ago, the name of Donegal Presbytery was changed to New Castle, but again resumed in a few years. Recently the name has been again changed to " Westminister," to the everlasting disgrace of a few ministers who are not capable of appreciating the grand historical renown which is indissolubly connected between that church and her patriotic sons of Revolutionary memory. In 1775, after a sermon by that good man Colin McFarquhar, who but a short time before came from Scotland, and whose family were there and did not arrive in America for ten years thereafter, urged a conciliary course between the colonists and Great Britain. After the congregation adjourned, they met under the large oak tree which stands in front of the north-eastern end of the church. The men joined hands and vowed allegiance to the cause of the colonies, and pledged their faith to each other, that they would give their lives and fortunes to establish liberty. Then and there measures were immediately taken to form an association to defend their rights. They loved their pastor, and the reader can easily imagine the moral courage required to act so promptly and decisively against the wishes of their preacher. Mr. McFarquhar preached in Donegal for more than thirty years. He outgrew his early predilections in favor of the mother country, and became a great favorite. He died in Hagerstown in 1821. Hle was followed by Rev. William Karr, who preached in Donegal for fourteen years, and died September 22, 1822. Rev. Orson Douglass, followed by T. M. Boggs, each of whom preached fourteen years. Ten years ago the church was again remodeled by plastering the outside walls, closing the west and south doors, putting in a board floor, and, in fact, made the whole structure conform to modern ideas of a church building. No person who had not seen the building for forty years would recognize it. It is fortunate that the old Scotch-Irish have entirely disappeared from the neighborhood, or there might be another rebellion in Donegal. BART township was taken from Sadsbury township, in 1744. It was settled mostly by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians as early as 1717. Copper and iron ore mines of great value exist in this township. The villages are GEORGETOWN and BARTVILLE. The surface of BRECKNOCK township is very hilly, and until a recent period but little progress was made in agriculture. The soil is red gravel. The township is well supplied with water. The only village in the township is BOWMANSVILLE. CAERNARVON township is one of the original townships. The Conestoga creek flows through it from east to west. The Downingtown and Harrisburg turnpike crosses the southern angle, and the Morgantown turnpike centrally 841 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. from east to west. Churchtown is beautifully situated upon a ridge along this turnpike. A view is had from thile town of the Conestoga valley and surrounding country. It is nearly in the centre of the township. The surface of the township is generally hilly, the soil is red shale, and land in the valleys very rich, and under a good state of cultivation. A railroad is now being built through the southern corner. The settlement was made several years before the organization of the county. In the list of taxables for 1725 will be found the names of James Lloyd, Gabriel Davis, Philip David, George Hudson, David Jenkins, Edward Davies, and John Davis, all of whom settled in the township, along the Conestoga. In 1730 twenty-four families, all Welsh, came from Radnor town -- a - V1. -P"c to E,) z, &) STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT MILLERSVILLE. [From a Photograph by Win. L. Gill.] ship, Chester county, and settled at Churchtown. They erected a log church the same year, and gave it the name of " Bangor Episcopal Church." Since that time the third church has been erected upon or near the same spot as the original one. Large beds of iron ore were discovered, and the first forge was erected in 1753, as stated elsewhere. For one hundred years thereafter the iron business was controlled in that township by the Olds, Jenkins, and Jacobs, all of whom became very wealthy and owned all of the best land in the township. A number of slaves were owned by these ironmasters, and several of them were imported directly from Africa. Of the latter "Quasha," and " Cooba," his wife, became great favorites, and could be seen every Sunday following their master to church in a " gig." These Welsh settlers were nearly all members of the Episcopal Church. Robert Jenkins married Catherine M., daughter of Rev. John Carmichael, a celebrated Presbyterian divine. When Mr. Jenkins first 842 LANCASTER COUNTY. came to the valley he erected and lived in a block-house as a protection against the Indians, many of whom roamed about the neighborhood hunting and fishing for many years after these Welsh settled there. Churchtown was a village before the Revolution. EAST COCALICO joins Berks county and the townships of Brecknock, Earl, Ephrata, and West Cocalico. It has five grist mills. The Cocalico creeks crosses the township in a south-easterly direction. The most important towns are Adamstown, Reamstown, and Swartzville. ADAMSTOWN was laid out and settled at the close of the R1evolutionary war. The road from Lancaster to Reading passes through the place. There are several extensive manufactories of woolen hats, which give employment to a large number of men. " The People's railroad," when built, will pass through the place. REAMSTOWN was laid out upon the road leading from Lancaster to Reading about 1785. WEST CocALIco joins the latter township. The Reading and Columbia railroad passes through its south-east section, and the Cocalico creek and its tributaries traverse the township. Its villages are Cocalico, Reinholdsville, Schoeneck, Stevens, and Reinhold's Station. The neighborhood of Reinholdsville was settled between 1735 and 1740 by Germans, among whom Hans Beelman, Hans Zimmerman, and Peter Schumacher, were large landholders. COLERAIN was settled by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The main branch of the Octoraro creek bounds it on the east, and the west branch of the same stream on the west. Its surface is rolling, and soil, gravel and clay. Clonmell, Colerain, Kirkwood, Octoraro, and Union are thriving villages. CONESTOGA lies on the Susquehanna. The Conestoga creek flows along the west boundary, and the Pequea creek along the east. On both there are several mills. CONOY is the westernmost township in the county. Its most important place is Bainbridge, situated at the mouth of Conoy creek, on the site, it is supposed, of the ancient Dekawoagah, a Conoy or Ganawese settlement. John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, settled first in this neighborhood. John Haldeman, an early pioneer, built one of the first mills in the county at Locust Grove, near Bainbridge. Bainbridge was the home of Bartram Galbraith, and the town was laid out by his son Samuel Galbraith. CLAY township was taken from Elizabeth township in 1853. It joins Lebanon county and the townships of West Cocalico, Ephrata, and Elizabeth. It is largely settled by Germans, who are industrious and have well cultivated farms. Durlach and Newtown are small hamlets. Indian run flows for about a mile, and suddenly disappears and re-appears, after running beneath the ground for a mile, and then takes the name of Trout run. Great quantities of white and red sandstone are found upon the top of the ground, from which door and window sills are made. There are six grist mills on Middle creek, which traverses the township in a southerly direction. MARIETTA is situated on the left bank of the Susquehanna river, three miles above Columbia. The place was originally known as "Anderson's ferry," it having been established but a few years later than Wright's ferry, in 1733. The ground occupied by the borough was owned, from the ferry house at the upper station to Elbow Lane, by James Anderson, and from Elbow Lane to a line 843 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. running parallel thereto, near the public school-house, on the Lancaster turnpike, by David Cook. Jacob Grosh and others laid out the town below Cook's, above Anderson's land and the " green lane," which formed the boundary. Frances Evans sold one hundred and sixty acres of land to James Mehaffey, John Paden, and James Duffy, at the commencement of the war of 1812. They laid out a town, which is well built up, and is really a part of Marietta, but it was nicknamed " Irish Town," which it retains at the present time. On account of taxes, and perhaps for some private reasons, it never was included in or incorporated with Marietta borough, but belongs to East Donegal township. The part laid out by Anderson, in 1805, was called "New Haven," and that laid out by David Cook, in 1806, was named "Waterford." The charter for the turnpike from Lancaster made " Waterford " the terminus. Neither Anderson or Cook could agree upon a common plan for their towns, and their differences led to much inconvenience on the part of the public. In 1812 the two places were incorporated in one charter, and Marietta, a compound name, made up from the Christian name of Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Cook. During the war of 1812 Marietta grew very rapidly, and was the scene of the wildest speculation for the first five years of its history, which ended in disaster, the extent of which but seldom, if it ever, occured in the history of the State. The place did not recover from the shock until the completion of the Pennsylvania canal, and the location of the railroad in 1851. It has been gradually improving, and, at the present time, is one of the most important business places in the rural districts. Its population is nearly four thousand. From the energy and business tact of many of its leading citizens, it is destined to be an important city at no distant day. During the war of 1812, and the more recent ones, Marietta furnished her full quota of soldiers, many of whom rose to distinction by reason of their valor. MAYTOWN is situated two miles north-west of Marietta, in the heart of a fine agricultural district. It was laid out by John Doner, in 1755, and was one of the first and most important places west of Lancaster borough. The back settlers came many miles to purchase tea and coffee at a store kept by James Eagan, those luxuries not being for sale at any other place west of Lancaster. He was also the first person west of Lancaster to keep ironmongery for sale. During the Revolution Maytown was a lively place, and furnished a number of soldiers for that and the subsequent wars. It does not, however, occupy the important position it did one hundred years ago. FALMOUTH is at the mouth of Conewago creek, which is here crossed by a canal aqueduct. The famous Conewago falls are in the neighborhood. The descent of the river, within a distance of little more than a mile, is probably not less than seventy feet; forming rapids, whirlpools, snags, and every conceivable obstruction to the passage of a raft. The passage of this watery ordeal is a terror to the universal rafting community. Their frail platforms, creeping like snakes over the rocks, plunge, creep, and bend in every direction; the high waves rolling and splashing frightfully, renders the adventure at once exciting, novel, and perilous. Many old river-men make a livelihood by piloting rafts through these terrible falls. At an early day, says Professor Haldeman, the Conewago falls limited the boat navigation of the Susquehanna, so that the keelboats unloaded at Falmouth, whence their cargoes (chiefly of grain) were 844 LANCASTER COUNTY. transferred to wagons and distributed. This caused the construction of a turnpike road from Falmouth to Elizabethtown, which was superseded by Hopkins' canal, a disastrous speculation, which was a continual drain on the resources of Mr. Hopkins, a distinguished lawyer. The turnpike being thus rendered useless, grass grew upon it, and sometimes the stalk of a pumpkin would wander over it from an adjoining field, which caused it to be named " The Pumpkin-vine Turnpike." After being a constant expense to Mr. Hopkins, his canal was in turn superseded by the Pennsylvania canal, when he might have recovered a part of his losses by selling out to the State, but he asked too high a price, and the State canal was located independently. The workmen on the canal, during its construction, about two miles east of Bainbridge, came upon one end of an old Indian burial ground. A great many articles of use and ornament were discovered; there were crocks, hatchets, tomahawks, arrow heads, bullets, buck shot, thimbles, beads, pipes, etc. DONEGAL township was settled several years.before its organization in 1722, by a number of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who deserve more than a passing notice. Many of them occupied a prominent position in colonial times, and the records of the Revolutionary war and that of 1812 fully establish their claim to the purest patriotism and love of country. Whatever is said to their credit equally applies to tihe Scotch-Irish who settled in the south-eastern section of the county and the back settlements beyond Donegal. Of those who first settled in the township, and were there at the time of the organization of the county, and were brought into public notice, the Galbraiths deserve the first attention. James (probably the father), John, James, Jr., and Andrew Galbraith, came over to America with William Penn, from Queenstown. The family of Galbraiths are of the remotest antiquity. Its name is derived from the Celtic, and it originally belongs to the Lenox of Scotland. It was in the parish of Baldernoch chiefs of the name had their residence. The Galbraiths of the Isle of Ghiga descended from those of Baldernoch, having fled there with Lord James Stewart, youngest son of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, from the Lenox, after burning Dumbarton, in the reign of James the First of Scotland. They continued to hold that island until after A.D. 1500. The following lines, from the Scotch, show the estimation in wvhich the name was held: " Galbraiths from the Red Tower, Noblest of Scottish surnames." There is now a small island in Scotland called "Inch (Island) Galbraith." Upon it are many ruins of castles and villages, the strongholds built by the clan when war was the rule. A circumstance occurred a few years ago while Hon. W. A. Galbraith, of Erie, was traveling in Scotland which clearly establishes the origin of the family of that name in America. Hearing that a family of that name resided where he stopped for a few days, Mr. G. called upon them and showed them a coat of arms of the family in America. He was greatly surprised when they produced a precise counterpart of it. Three bears' heads muzzled, on a shield surmounted by a knight's helmet and crest, with the motto, " Ab obrice seairon " (stronger from opposition) seems never to have been forgotten by the Galbraiths. When 845 HISTORY OF PENNS VYLVANIA. the county was organized, Andrew Galbraith was app)inted the first coroner. The first jury drawn he was a member of, as well as his brother John, and several others from Donegal. In 1730 Andrew was appointed one of the justices of the peace and of the common pleas court, which position he held with honor until 1745, when we lose sight of him entirely. He also was elected a member of Assembly in 1732, after an animated contest, in which his wife conducted the election in person, she having mounted her mare " Nelly " and rode among the Scotch-Irish, who followed her to Lancaster, at the polls, where she addressed them most effectually. He was afterwards re-elected without opposition for several terms in succession. He resided upon Little Chicques creek, a short distance below the point where the Mount Joy and Marietta turnpike crosses Donegal run. John Galbraith was elected sheriff in 1731. HIe esided at the crossing above Andrew Galbraith, where he built a grist mill. lie owned large tracts of land along the river and at his residence. He died in 1754. Janet, his widow, and James Galbraith, of Lancaster, his executors, sold the mill property in 1757 to John Bayley. James Galbraith, first spoken of, removed to Swatara creek, and had probably been dead for some years before this. James Galbraith, Jr., was elected sheriff in 1742 and'43. He married Elizabeth, the only dau hter of the lev. William Bertram, who lived upon the Swatari, and rem v- I there in 1757. From thence he removed to Penusborough township, in Cumberland coun'y, in 1760. He was a justice in Lancaster county for many years, and took an active part to protect the settlers in Derry, Paxton, etc. from the savage fury of the Indians during the French war of 1755. During the Revolution he was appointed lieutenant for Cumberland county. Being too advanced in years to do active duty, he was consulted by others in matters pertaining to his county. The Galbraiths of Cumberland county all come from James Galbraith, Jr. Every one of his sons became prominent in the Revolutionary war on the side of the patriots. Bertram Galbraith, first lieutenant in Lancaster county, was his son, and did noble service in the cause of his country. Robert Buchannan, another of tl:ese early sAtlers in Donegal, was elected sheriff for the years 1732-'3-'4, and 1738-'9-'40. He rendered valuable aid to the Penns in the conflict with the Marylanders. Hlis brother Arthur was nearly killed by them. He was also in the Revolutionary army. He emoved to Cumberland county from Donegal. Samuel Smith, another of the frst settlers, was sheriff in 1735-'7. He resided upon the farm adjoining John Galbraith, on little Chicques. It was he, assisted by the Sterrats and twenty-four others of his neighbors, who went down and stormed Cresap's fort, and took him a prisoner to Philadelphia. John Sterrat was elected sheriff in 1744. His son James was elected to the same office, in 1745-'6-'7 and'8. John resided further up Chicques creek on thie east side, and James on the farm north of John Galbraith's. The family have always occupied a prominent position in public affairs. Their descendants are numerous in Tuscarora and Kishicoquillas valleys. Judge Sterrat of Pittsburgh comes of this stock. George Stewart, Esq., who resided upon the banks of the river three miles 846 LANCASTER COUNTY above Wright's ferry, was a prominent man. He was a justice, and resided there fifteen years before the county was organized. It was hlie who died in 1732, after being elected a member of the Legislature, and for which vacancy John Wright was elected after being ousted by Andrew Galbraith. The Allisons, Fultons, and several other prominent persons intermarried into his family. Ephraim Moore settled about a mile north-west from Donegal spring. His son Zachariah was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and was at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. James Mitchell was a land surveyor and a justice of the peace. He lived in the township before 1722. John French (of Delaware), Francis Worley (of Manor), and James Mitchel, surveyed Springets-bury Manor, containing seventyfive thousand five hundred acres, in 1722. July 12. 1722, he and James Letort held a council with the chiefs of the Conestogoes, Shawanese, Conoys, and Nanticoke Indians at Conoytown, in Donegal. He was elected sheriff of the county in 1741; member of Assembly in 1727, and in 1744-'5 and 1746. He was one of the trustees of Donegal church; Penns issued a patent to them in 1740. John and Thomas Mitchell were active men. Gordon Howard lived on Chicques creek near Sheriff Smith. He was a prominent Indian trader; was county commissioner in 1737. Hle was intermarried with James Patterson's (the Indian trader in Hempfield) family. The family removed from Donegal before the Revolution. The Hays, Kerrs, Hendricks, Dunlaps, Chambers, Cunninghams, Works, Clingmans, Wilkins, all come from this early stock in Donegal. There is a possible President among the descendants of the above. Andrew Work was sheriff in 1749-'50; Thomas Smith, sheriff in 1752-'3-'4; John Hay, sheriff in 1762-'3; William Kelly in 1777-'8; Joseph Work in 1779-'80-'81; Thomas Edwards in 1782-'3-'4; John Miller in 1785-'6-'7. It is likely two or three others filled that office from Donegal before the Revolution. The Quakers seem to have conceded the post of sheriff to the Scotch-Irish and Irish of Donegal, who, by virtue of their office, had to perform disagreeable and dangerous duties. The Irish and Scotch-Irish of Donegal were the first to follow the old French Indian traders in the traffic with the red man of the forest. Edmund Cartlidge (of Manor), Jonas Davenport, and Henry Baly, of Donegal, were the first to cross the Allegheny mountains and trade with the Indians along the Ohio and its branches. This was in 1727. At the first court held at John Postlewhaite's, James Patterson, Hemphill (now Manor), Edmund Cartlidge, and Peter Chartier (of Manor), and John Lawrence, Jonas Davenport, Oliver Wallis, Patrick Boyd, Lazarus Lowrey, William Dunlap, William Beswick, John Wilkins, Thomas Perrin, and John Harris, all of Donegal, were licensed by the court to trade with the Indians. Eight of them were licensed "to sell liquor by the small." The Wilkins lived on Chicques creek. John Harris settled first at Conoy, from there he went to Paxtang creek. Lazarus Lowrey lived upon the farm now owned by Mr. Cameron, between D)onegal church and Marietta. Dennis Sullivan lived next to L. Lowrey; Simon Girtee, Paxtang; David Hendricks, Manor; John Galbraith, Donegal; Francis Waters, Donegal; Peter Corbie, Donegal; Thomas Mitchell, Donegal; James 841 GENERAL HISTORY. debarkation was selected with that ignorance and want of judgment which distinguished the British ministry. The country could furnish neither provisions nor carriages for the army; while Pennsylvania, rich in grain, and well stocked with wagons, could readily supply food, and the means to transport the army to any point. The Assembly, apprehending the General to be prejudiced against them, sent Mr. Franklin to undeceive him, with instructions, however, not to assume the character of their agent, but to present himself as PostmasterGeneral, disposed to make his office subservient to the General's plans. While Franklin was with the army the return of the wagons obtainable was made, from which it appeared that there were not more than twenty-five, and not all of those serviceable. Braddock, says Gordon, was surprised, declared the expedition at an end, and exclaimed against the ministers for having sent them into a country destitute of the means of transportation. On Franklin expressing his regret that the army had not been landed in Pennsylvania, where such means abounded, Braddock seized eagerly on his words, and commissioned him, on liberal terms, to procure one hundred and fifty wagons, and fifteen hundred packhorses. Franklin, on his return, circulated advertisements through the counties of York, Lancaster, and Cumberland, and by an artful address obtained, in two weeks, all the wagons, two hundred and fifty pack-horses, and much popularity for himself. He stated in his address that he found the General incensed at the delay of the horses and carriages he had expected from Philadelphia, and disposed to send an armed force to seize the carriages, horses, and drivers necessary for the service. But that he, apprehending the visit of British soldiers, in their present temper, would be very inconvenient to the inhabitants, was desirous to try what might be done by fair and equitable means; and that an opportunity was now presented of obtaining ~30,000 in silver and gold, which would supply the deficiency of the Provincial currency. He expended ~800 received from the General, advanced ~200 himself, and gave his bonds for the payment of the value of such horses as should be lost in the service, the owners refusing to rely upon Braddock's promise, alleging that he was unknown to them. The claims made against him in consequence of this engagement amounted to ~20,000, and were not settled by the government until after much delay and trouble. The Adjutant-General, immediately on the arrival of the troops, required of Governor Morris that roads should be cut to facilitate their march and the supply of provisions. General Braddock demanded the establishment of a post between Philadelphia and Winchester, the Pennsylvania quota of men, and her portion of the general fund directed to be raised for the public service. The Assembly, specially summoned, met on the 17th of March, and immediately provided for the expense of a mail and the opening of the roads; and though they gave no direct encouragement to the raising of troops, they applied themselves assiduously to establish the necessary funds. As the French drew a considerable portion of their supplies from the English colonies, it became expedient to prohibit the export of provisions to French ports. This measure was adopted by the Assembly of Pennsylvania with great cheerfulness. A council of the Governors of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Denny, Donegal; James, John, Daniel, and Alexander, sons of Lazarus Lowrey, all of Donegal; Hugh Crawford, Donegal; George Croghan and John Frazier lived further up the river, and Joseph Simons of Lancaster borough, and William Trent, all of wh(m were well known throughout the Province. Many of them became wealthy. John Burt, John Kelly, and several others from Donegal, traded with the Indians often without taking out an annual license. They made the Indians drunk, and when in that state abused and took advantage of them, which caused no little trouble to the Governor and council. Of these traders Harris, Letort, Croghan, Hendricks, Davenport, Crawford, Simons, Trent, and the Lowreys were the most famous. In 1750 a drunken Indian set fire to a keg of powder, at the forks of the Ohio, which exploded and killed John Lowrey. A curious incident grew out of the affair. A French Indian trader was arrested and placed in irons at a fort between Detroit and the Pict's country. He made his escape to the Picts, who took him for a spy and were going to kill him. After consultation they gave him over to Lowrey's hands, who brought him a prisoner to Donegal, to be held as a hostage by James Lowrey until the Indian that killed his brother John was given up by the French. So writes William Trent to the secretary, from Lancaster, August 18, 1750. Lazarus Lowrey married twice. His last wife was the widow of Thomas Edwards (who was a member of Assembly in 1729-'32, 1735-'36, and 1739). He died in Philadelphia, in 1755. James Lowrey removed from Do)egal before the Revolution, as did also Daniel his brother. Alexander Lowrey remained. He purchased his father's and brothers' land in Donegal, and at the close of the Revolution was one of the largest landholders in the State. He was one of the twenty-two traders attacked by the Indians at Bloody run in 1763, and came very near losing his life there. He was guide to General Forbes' expedition in 1758, and to Colonel Bouquet's expedition in 1763, and was at the bloody battle of Bushy Run. He was one of the first and most active of the patriots in 1774; same year was on committee of correspondence and to confer with those of other counties, in Philadelphia; member of Assembly in 1775 and 1776; elected colonel of 3d battalion of Lancaster county militia in 1776; was senior officer and commanded the Lancaster county militia at battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777; a member of Assembly in 1778 and 1779; also a member of the Senate. In 1784, at the important treaty with the Indians at Fort McIntosh, the government appointed him messenger to go to.the different Indian tribes and gather them to the fort. He was also chosen by the government to bring in the Indians to Fort Detroit at a treaty. In a few weeks after leaving the fort, he returned to it at the head of several hundred Indians. These feats are somewhat remarkable when we come to consider that he was over sixty years of age. Governor Mifflin appointed him a justice of the peace for Donegal, Mount Joy, and Rapho townships. He retired to his farm at Marietta. He was honored and respected by every one. He died in January, 1805. Bertram Galbraith (son of James G., Jr.) resided at Conoy creek (Bainbridge). He was appointed lieutenant for the county, and performed the most trying and difficult duties during the gloomy period of the Revolutionary war. 848 LANCASTEI1 COUNTY. John Bayley lived upon the farm now owned by John Graybill, in Donegal, and was a member of the Council. James Bayley, Esq., was his brother, and lived on Donegal run, at the crossing of the Mount Joy and Marietta pike. He was wagon-master for the county during the Revolution. The constable was Walter Bell, of Maytown, who was at the battle of Brandywine. James Cunningham lived near Mount Joy; was lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Lowrey's battalion; was member of the Legislature for several terms, also surveyor-general of the State for the eastern section; was a large landholder. He died in Lancaster. John, David, and Robert Jameson, who lived near Elizabethtown, were officers in the Revolution, and were at the battle of Brandywine. They were large landholders. One of them left six pounds to Donegal church annually, so long as they should have a " pasture." Jacob, John, and James Cook were officers in the Revolution. In fact, every officer and soldier in Colonel Lowrey's 3d battalion were from Donegal and Rapho and Mount Joy townships. There are not half a dozen descendants of these patriotic forefathers who now reside in Donegal. They are scattered through the west and south-west, and have planted colonies everywhere. Old Donegal chtrch must not be forgotten. She was the centre around which these Presbyterians were wont to congregate. Upon one occasion, in the early stages of the Revolution, after the close of religious service, they met under the shade of a giant oak which stood a few yards from the north-east end of the church, around which they joined hands and pledged their faith to each other, and to stand by the patriotic cause until the shackles of the despot were riven asunder. CHICQUEs, abridged from Chicquesalunga, the name of the creek which receives a short distance north of this place the Little Chicquesalunga, and forms the south-east boundary of the township, is a romantic spot with a magnificent river view, and is the residence of Professor S. S. Haldeman, the distinguished naturalist and philologist. WEST DONEGAL joins Dauphin county and the townships of East Donegal and Conoy. The village of Newville, commonly called Eutstown, is near the north-western extremity of the township. DRUMORE is on the Octoraro creek, which forms its north-east boundary, while Muddy creek forms part of the north-west line. Conowingo creek crosses it, and upon this stream there is a forge, and Fishing and Fairfield creeks flow from it into the Susquehanna river. EARL, including East Earl, contains 31,317 acres. It comprises the villages of New Holland, Vogansville, Laurel Hill, Hinkletown, and Amsterdam. The Welsh mountain protrudes into the south-eastern extremity of the township. It is traversed by the Conestoga creek at the northern boundary in a westerly direction, and by Mill creek in the same direction near the southern boundary. EAST and WEST EARL townships are traversed by the Conestoga creek. The prominent villages of the former are Fairville and Toledo; of the latter, Brownstown, Earlville. and Fairmount. EDEN township adjoins Strasburg. At Quarryville is the terminus of the Lancaster and Quarryville railroad. This has given the town a wonderfiul start, and within the year numbers of dwellings have been erected, and gives great promise of future success. 3D 849 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. ELIZABETH township was formerly included in Warwick township. Robert Old, to whom reference has been made, named this township in honor of Queen Elizabeth. Its surface is hilly; the soil, limestone, gravel, and red shale at the northern boundary. Hammer creek traverses the township in a south-easterly direction, and derives its name from the forge hammers erected on it at an early date. This township is divided from Clay by Middle creek, so called from its course, which is midway between the Cocalico and Hammer creeks. Hopewell and Speedwell forges and Elizabeth furnace are located in this township. EPHRATA township is traversed by Trout creek, which, entering the township at the north boundary, flows into Cocalico creek. A small section of its eastern extremity is watered by Muddy creek, on which is located the village of Hinkletown. The central portion of the township is hilly, Ephrata ridge being a prominent point where, at an altitude of twelve hundred and fifty feet above tide-water, from an observatory over sixty feet high, a very extensive and beautiful view may be enjoyed. The observatory forms part of the Ephrata Mountain springs, a celebrated and much frequented watering-place, established about 1848. The water, sandstone and slate, is very pure and soft, and varies in temperature from 490 to 520 Fahrenheit. FULTON township, named in honor of Robert Fulton, who was born within its limits. The Conowingo creek crosses the township. HEMPFIELD township occupied a very prominent position in colonial times, and furnished many historical personages, several of whom have been mentioned under the head of Columbia. Thomas Ewing (the father of General James Ewing) lived in the valley adjoining the Shellabargers, two miles east of Columbia. He was a member of Assembly from 1739 to 1742. Professor S. S. Haldeman, whose fame is world-wide as one of the most accomplished scientific and linguistic scholars upon the continent, resides at Chicques Rock. He is an enthusiast, and follows with ardor his specialties, and is constantly making new discoveries and giving the world the benefit of them. It will richly repay any person to visit his hospitable mansion, and inspect his vast collection of beads, stone implements, etc. Hugh Paden lived upon Chicques creek, and was a captain in the Revolutionary army. WEST HEMPFIELD is a rich agricultural district, and can boast of some of the finest farms in the county. The farmers are wealthy and industrious. The township was divided in August, 1818. It contains an area of 13,700 acres; its greatest length is eight miles, greatest breadth, five miles. HEMPFIELD MANOR, belonging to Governor John Penn, was laid out upon Chestnut Hill. Chestnut Hill is very thickly settled, which presents to the eye of the beholder the appearance of a continuous town from the Columbia and Marietta turnpike to Mountville on the Lancaster turnpike. Within this semicircle are embraced the villages of Kinderhook, Ironville, and Heistandville, the latter of which was laid out by John Heistand, in 1804. MOUNTVILLE is, the principal village in the township. It is beautifully located upon a ridge four miles east of Columbia. The Lancaster turnpike runs through its length. The town is growing rapidly; several large tobacco warehouses have been built along the railroad at the station. It is a very desirable location for retired wealthy farmers, many of whom are moving into it and 950 LANUASTER COUNTY erecting comfortable dwellings. There are three furnaces, several mills, school houses, and churches in the township. In looking over General Ewing's papers, I find a deed from John Gardner, who owned six hundred acres of land on the south side of " Shecassalungo creek," for which he received a warrant as early as 1716. John Ros.sy, whose name appears frequently among the Scotch-Irish, who resisted Cresap, deeded two hundred acres of the same tract of land to Thomas Ewing (father of General Ewing), March 1, 1737. The name of the creek referred to above has suffered many mutations, but I believe the above ought to be adhered to. The principal villages in EAST HIEMPFIELD are PETERSBURG and HEMPFIELD, commonly called ROHiRERSTOWN, after its founder. Both places were laid out during the speculative times of the war of 1812. LANDISVILLE is also a thriving place. The Methodist Episcopal church camp-meeting grounds lie in the --.close vicinity. _____-__ EAST LAMPETER is traversed centrally by the Pennsylvania railroad, with a station at Bird-in I-and. Thisname is said to have originated in the sign of an inn, - displaying a man with a bird in his hand, and point- --_ __ ing to two other birds on a tree. THE NEW LANCASTER COUNTY HOSPITAl,. and pictorially il- [From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill.] lustrating the proverb "that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." LANCASTER township is the smallest township in the county. MANHEIM township joins Lancaster city and township. The Little Conestoga flows in a southerly course along the western, and the Conestoga in a south-western direction along the eastern boundaries of the township. The Pennsylvania railroad crosses the southernmost extremity, and after passing through Lancaster city, traverses the south-western part of the township, forming a bifurcation at Dillerville. MANHEIM borough was laid out about 1760 or 1761, by Wilhelm Heinrich Steigel, an eccentric German, who for many years had managed the Elizabeth iron works. He bought two hundred acres of land from Messrs. Stedman, of Philadelphia, built a large brick house, which the simplicity of the times described as a great castle, remaining to this day, with Dutch tiles in the fire places. and a coarse kind of German canvas tapestry hanging on the walls. It was built of imported brick, and contained a pulpit in the salon. Steigel was, in HISTOR Y OF PENNSYLVANIA. turn, ironmaster, glass manufacturer, a, preacher, and teacher, and died in the latter capacity very poor, a special act for his relief having been passed December 24, 1774. Manheim is improving very rapidly. Its business is extending, and it is destined at no distant day to be a city. MANOR township contains the borough of Washington, on the Susquehanna river, the village of Millersville, where is located the State Normal school, and the most interesting historical locality in the county, the famous Indian town of Conestoga, about seven miles distant from Lancaster city. Not a vestige of its Indian character remains, but the early annals of the county assign to it a prominence altogether unique. It is better known in history as Indian Town, because of the treaties held there and the extermination of the Indians, which is given in full in the General History. Its history dates but a few years back of the arrival of William Penn, in 1682. The largest and oldest settlement of Indians was upon the farm of Jacob Staman, extending along down the river beyond the farm of Jacob Wittmer, in Washington borough. In 1608, their town numbered over two thousand souls. For more than one hundred years, implements of various kinds belonging to the stone age have been ploughed up upon the site of this town. Many of these relics have been preserved, others given away to friends in distant parts of the country, and great quantities have been thrown away as objects of no interest. In the spring of 1876, while making some investigation as to the location of the town, by the writer, he awakened an interest in the matter, in consequence of which the boys have been hunting upon Mr. Wittmer's farm for Indian relics, and have been rewarded for their curiosity by finding more than one thousand beads of various kinds, some of which are similar to those used by the Phoenicians many centuries ago. They also found a number of stone implements and heads of animals carved in stone. A rich field is opened up to the archaeologist. Our space will not permit a more extended notice of these valuable discoveries. MARTIC township is well watered by the Pequiea creek along its northern boundary, Muddy creek on the south-east, and the Tucquan creek crossing it centrally. This township is very hilly, with fine river scenery, especially near McCall's ferry. MOUNT JoY township lies between the Conewago creek and the Little Chicquesalunga. From December, 1777, to May, 1778, General Anthony Wayne, with over two thousand troops, were encamped about one mile northeast of the borough of Mount Joy. One-third of the army were entirely destitute of shoes, stockings, shirts, or blankets. In consequence, their sufferings were terrible. Mount Joy borough was laid out by Jacob Rohrer, in 1812, and the lots disposed of by lottery. The adjoining village of Richland, not part of the borough, was laid out a year or two later by several persons. Mount Joy is a thriving place, containing several churches, a female seminary, and a boys' school. The latter has been converted into a successful soldiers' orphan school, under the superintendency of Professor Jesse Kennedy. PARADISE township is on the south side of Pequea creek. Kinzer's, Leaman Place, and Paradise are the prominent towns. The latter was originally settled by Mr. Abraham Wittmer, who built a mill there. When in 1804, it was made a post-town, and needed a name, Mr. Wittmer remarked that to him it was a 852 LANCASTER COUNTY. paradise, and thus it obtained its pleasant name. It contains se-eral churches, and, at present, a soldiers' orphan school. PENN township lies on the east side of the Big Chicquesalunga. The Reading and Columbia railroad crosses the southern section of the township. PEQUEA and PROVIDENCE are adjoining townships. The Conestoga flows along the northern, and the Pequea along the southern border of the former, while the Big Beaver flows along the north-eastern boundary of the latter, uniting with the Pequea, which forms its north-west boundary. New Providence and Smithville are prominent villages. RAPHO township borders on Lebanon county. The Little Chicquesalunga creek flows along its western boundary in a southerly direction, and joins the Big Chicquesalunga, which runs along the eastern and southern boundaries of the township, near Musselman's mill at its south-western extremity. Mastersonville, Mount Hope, Old Line, and Sporting Hill, are thriving villages. SADSBURY township borders on Chester county. The Octoraro creek rises near and flows along the eastern boundry, and gives motion to three forges within the township, and one immediately below its southern line. Mine ridge runs along the northern boundary, at the foot of which, on the Wilmington and Lancaster turnpike road, is a post-office called the " Gap." SALISBURY township, adjoining the foregoing, is centrally distant east from Lancaster about sixteen miles. It is drained by the Pequea creek, upon the branches of which are several mills and one forge. The Welsh mountain runs along the north, and Mine ridge upon its south boundary. STRASBURG township is on the Pequea. It contains the borough of STRASBURG. It is an old German settlement. A Mr. Sample, ancester of an old Lancaster county family, was the first and only English settler at the time of the Revolution. The place was formerly known as Bettelhausen, Beggarstown. The logs for the first house were hauled by a Mr. Hoffman. The first house in Strasburg was erected in 1733. The ancient road from Lancaster to Philadelphia ran through this place, and from it was called the Strasburg road. The old King's highway ran through Strasburg to the mouth of the Conestoga. It contains several churches, and a branch railroad connects with the Pennsylvania Central railroad at Leaman Place. The town was laid out before the Revolution. WARWICK township received its name from Richard Carter, one of the first settlers, and first constable appointed in 1739. On the farm of Simon Hostetter, part of the old Carter tract, is a lake two hundred feet in circumference, of great depth, which at one time was erroneously supposed to be bottomless. Rocks come up to the water's edge on one side, and if large stones are rolled over the rocks into the water, they may be heard for several seconds to bound from rock to rock in their descent. Its more prominent towns are Litiz, Rothsville, and Brunnersville. WASHINGTON borough was formed by the consolidation of Washington and Charleston, both places having been laid out between 1800 and 1810. Before the completion of the public improvements it was a place of great importance, and immense stores of grain and whiskey were sent down the river from the rich country back of it. The Columbia and Port Deposit railroad passes through the place. It is the site of an Indian town many hundred years old. 853 LAWRENCE COUNTY. BY D. X. JUNKIN, D.D., NEW CASTLE. AWRENCE county was erected out of portions of Beaver and Mercer, by an act of Assembly, approved the 20th day of March, 1849, the organization to take place September 1st of the same year. William Evans, of Indiana county, William F. Packer, of Lycoming, and William Potter, of Mifflin, were appointed commissioners to run and mark the boundary lines. Mr. Packer did not attend, and his place was supplied by James Potter, of work of running the boundaries. The county is bounded north and south by the counties from which it was taken, Mercer and Beaver, east by Butler, and west by the Ohio - line. New Castle was selected as the county seat, but -- -without prescription to the borough lim i Bi - II rIII I,}ll qhi ll hllut[lll.. I.i.I.It.its, for the site for ul the court house was selected upon a hill east of the borough, ----.__and outside of its boundaries. It is LAWRENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, NEW CASTLE. now, since New Cas [From a Photograph by A. W. Phipps, New Castle.] tle has been incor tle has been incorporated into a city, in the first ward of the city. The county was named after Perry's flagship in the battle of Lake Erie, which was named in honor of Captain James Lawrence, U. S. N., xhose 854 LAWRENCE COUNTY. brilliant naval career was terminated by his obstinate defence of the frigate Chesapeake against the British ship Shannon, in which conflict Lawrence was mortally wounded, and heroically uttered, as they carried him below, the memorable words, "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP I When the Commonwealth constructed her lines of canals and railroad from Philadelphia to Lake Erie, the Beaver division connected Pittsburgh with New Castle, by river navigation to the mouth of Beaver, and by canal and slackwater navigation up that river to New Castle, and thence, ultimately, by a similar improvement to Lake Erie, near to the city of the same name. This great improvement passed through the heart of Lawrence county, and contributed largely to the development of her resources. And although the canal is now disused, having given way to railroad transportation, it was of immense benefit to this county. Previous to the construction of the public works, comparatively little of the staple products of the country could reach a remunerative market. Some flour and grain were sent to New Orleans; whiskey could sometimes bear expensive transportation; hides and peltry were exported to some extent; but the chief dependence of these counties for purchasing dry goods, groceries, and other articles of necessity or of luxury, were cattle andi horses, which could transport themselves. Many "droves" of these were annually taken to eastern markets. At first the merchants were generally the purchasers of cattle and horses, exchanging their goods and other commodities for them, then driving them east, selling them and bringing back merchandise in return. This process rarely brought money to the country, and it was consequently very scarce; and for a long time, if you inquired the price of a commodity in a store you would be told " so much in cash" and "so much in trade"-the latter being a heavy percentage higher than the former. The writer remembers when freightage per wagon was ten dollars per hundred-weight from Philadelphia to any point in Lawrence county. Now it is less than a dollar. Lawrence county was originally covered with dense forests of oak, chestnut, hickory, poplar, pine, and other trees. To "clear" the ground ready for the plow was a herculean task. To get rid of the timber, it was "deadened" by girdling the sap wood-cut up, rolled into "log-heaps" and burned. Sometimes pot-ash was made out of the ashes; but oftener it was wasted or plowed under. The early settlers seemed to look upon forest trees as a sort of enemies that ought to be extirpated. Hence their slaughter of the forest was inconsiderate and blame-worthy. The present inhabitants deplore this destruction of the timber. So long as the wood for fuel was abundant, little effort was made to discover other material for that purpose. But, in the progress of years, rich deposits of bituminous coal were discovered and developed, and now it is the chief fuel used in the county, and vast quantities are used in furnaces and large quantities exported. Iron ore, rich and abundant, also exists, and beds of limestone inexhaustible, and the county has become a large manufacturer of iron. On Slippery Rock, at Wampum, on the Beaver, and at New Castle, smelting furnaces have been long in blast; and in the latter place rolling mills, nail and nut factories, and other forms of manufacturing iron in bars, rails, and sheets, have been introduced. Like most of the counties west of the Allegheny river and north of the Ohio, 855 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. it was settled chiefly by the Scotch-Irish, or the descendants of that race, who migrated from the older counties of Western Pennsylvania, the eastern counties, and some directly from Ireland itself. Cumberland, Franklin, Westmoreland, Fayette, and Washington furnished the greater number; but some came from other counties, and a few from the States of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. A considerable German element also was early introduced, and constituted a valuable portion of the population, whilst a few of English and Dutch ancestry came from New Jersey. The territory of this county, at the time of the battle of Miami Rapids, and of Wayne's treaty with the north-western Indians, was occupied by remnants of the Delaware Indians, with some admixture of Senecas, and it may be a few sporadic families of the Shawanese and other tribes. The Delawares, as the white population rolled around them, left the country lying between the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, came further west and occupied the lands along the Allegheny river, and between that river and the lakes on the north, and the Muskingum on the west. The names, Neshannock, Mahoning, and the like, applied to streams in this county, identify the tribes giving these names to them with the Delawares. who applied the same and similar names to Neshanick in New Jersey, and Mahoninq in eastern Pennsylvania. After the ratification of Wayne's treaty, and the extinguishment of the Indian claim to the region between the Ohio and the lakes, the white inhabitants began to settle on the north side of the Ohio, and to occupy the lands now composing Lawrence county. But long before this, a measure of civilization and the Christian religion had been introduced within the bounds of this county, by the godly and indefatigable labors of the Unitas Fratrum, usually called Moravian Brethren. David Zeisberger and Gottlob Senseman were the first white men who dwelt within the boundaries of Lawrence county. The story of their migration from what is now Bradford county, first to a site on the Allegheny river, in Forest county, and thence to the banks of the Beaver, within the present bounds of Lawrence county, is one of thrilling interest, and is briefly alluded to in the sketch of Forest county. While these devoted men were toiling in that wild and unpromising field, they were visited by Glikkikan, a captain and principal counsellor of Packanke, a chief whose tribe was settled within the bounds of Lawrence county. Glikkikan was renowned as a warrior, and celebrated amongst the natives as a man of peculiar eloquence. He made a journey to Lawunakhannek for the purpose of refuting the doctrines of Christianity. On his way up lihe disputed successfully with the French Jesuits at Venango (Franklin), and was very confident that hlie could put the Moravian missionaries to confusion. This distinguished chief and orator was escorted, with great pomp, by Wagomen and the heathen Indians, to the Christian village. Zeisberger was absent, but Anthony, a native convert and assistant, received them courteously, and made so impressive a speech, setting forth the Christian doctrine of a godhead, of creation, of the fall, of revelation, of the incarnation and death and resurrection of Christ, and of salvation through him, as astonished the visitors. And Zeisberger, coming in at the time, confirmed his words, and such was the effect upon Glikkikan, that, instead of delivering the elaborate speech which he had prepared against Christianity, he replied, " I have nothing to say; I believe 856 LAWRENCE COUNTY. your words." And when he returned to the heathen town, instead of boasting of a victory over the missionaries, he advised his fellow savages to go and hear the gospel. Shortly after this event there was a famine along the Allegheny, and Zeisberger and Senseman had to go to Fort Pitt for supplies, and were instrumental in preventing an Indian war, by convincing the authorities there that certain devastations and murders had been committed, not by the Indians on the Allegheny, but by a roving band of Senecas on their way South. Soon after their return, Glikkikan made them another visit, and informed them that he had determined to embrace Christianity, and invited them, in the name of his chief Packanke, to come and settle on a tract of land on the Beaver, near Kaskaskiinc, which he offered for the exclusive use of the mission. The result was that Zeisberger, Senseman, and their Christian Indians accepted the offer of the chief Packanke, and removed to the valley of the Beaver. On the 17th day of April, 1770, they left Oil creek in fifteen canoes, after a friendly parting with their former persecutors, Wangomen and his people. In three days they reached Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh), formerly the French Fort Duquesne. Proceeding down the Ohio to the mouth of the Beaver, they ascended that river, carrying their canoes around its rapids, and a rived at the locality on which they had determined to fix their settlement. It was two miles below the confluence of the Shenango and the Mahoning, which form the Beaver river, and about five miles below the present city of New Castle. They first settled and began to build on the east bank of the Beaver, where the hamlet of Moravia now stands; but not long after, deeming that site unhealthy, they selected another on the ridge west of the river, where they built their town and church. The site is close by, but a little north by west of the Moravia station on the Beaver Valley railroad. As the immigrants passed up the Beaver, they found an Indian village, which stood near to or upon the site of the present town of Newport. It was inhabited by a community of women, all single, and pledged never to marry. About a mile above thi point was their first encampment, where they built bark huts-the first site above mentioned. Thus encamped, they sent an embassy to Packanke, whose capital stood near or upon the site of the present New Castle,* at the junction of the Neshannock creek with the Shenango. This town was called New Kaskaskiink. Old Kaskaskiink, the former capital, was near the junction of the Shenango and Mahoning, where two railroads now meet. Abraham, a native convert, and Zeisberger were at the head of the deputation, and were received by the venerable chief at his own house. They thanked him for his grant of land and l:is kind tender of a home, and in response, he bade them welcome to his country, and pledged them protection. They soon began to build more substantial houses, to clear land and to plant, and by the close of autumn were prepared for the rigors of winter. The Indians from distant localities soon began to visit the town; to which Zeisberger had given the Indian name of Languntouteniink-(Friedensstadt-in English, City of Peace). Monseys from the former loc ilion of Goschgosch nk were first to come and cast in their lot with the Christian Indians. Glikkikan soon after came from * Dr. Schweinitz, the biographer of Zeisberger, to whom the writer is indebted for most of the above details, thinks it was at the junction of the Neshannock and Shenango; others think it was up the Mahoning, where Edinburg now stands. I think it was the former. 857 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, was held at the Camp at Alexandria, in Virginia, on the 14th of April, 1755, to settle with General Braddock a plan of military operations. Three expeditions were resolved on. The first, against Fort Duquesne, under the command of General Braddock in person, with the British troops, and such aid as he could draw from Maryland and Virginia; the second, against Niagara and Fort Frontignac, under General Shirley, with his own and Pepperell's regiments; and the third, originally proposed by Massachusetts, against Crown Point. to be executed altogether with colomnial troops from New England and New York, under Major-General William Johnson of New York. General Braddock removed his army to a post on Wills' Creek. since called BRADDOCK'S ROUTE. Fort Cumberland, where he awaited the wagons and other necessary supplies from Pennsylvania. From this place, confident of success, he informed the Governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that, should he take Fort Duquesne in its present condition, he would, after some additions, garrison it, and leave there the guns, ammunition, and stores he should find in it. But, should the enemy abandon and destroy the fortifications, as he apprehended, he would repair the fort, or construct another. In the latter case he required the necessary means of defence to be furnished by the colonies, and to be forwarded immediately, that he might not be delayed in his progress to Forts Niagara and Frontignac; he also gave information of the enemy's intention to attack the frontier settlements as soon as he should have marched beyond them. On the 8th of June General Braddock left Fort Cumberland. Scaroodaya, HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. Kaskaskiink, and became a decided Christian; and continued so until he was slain by Colonel Williams' men at Gnadenhiutten on the Muskingum. The conversion of his bravest warrior and most eloquent counsellor exasperated the chief Packanke. Lie reproached Glikkikan and denounced the mission. He taunted Glikkikan with deserting him and his counsel-with a desire to turn white, and other reproaches. " Do you expect to get a white skin? Not one of your feet will turn white. Were you not a brave man, and a good counsellor?... And now you despise all this. You think you have found something better. Wait! you will soon find how much you have been deceived." To which the converted warrior only replied, "You are right. I have joined the Brethren. Where they go I will go: where they lodge I will lodge; their people shall be my people, and their God my God." A few days afterward he was so affected under the preaching of the gospel as to sob aloud. "A haughty war captain," writes Zeisberger, "weeps publicly in the presence of his former associates! It is marvelous!" Packanke made opposition for some time, but an event soon after occurred which reconciled him. This was the adoption into the Monsey tribe of Zeisberger. This ceremony took place on the 14th of July, 1770, at Kaskaskiink; and the missionary was invested with all the rights and privileges of a Monsey. This proved the complete triumph of the missionary, and was the source of much influence for good among the red men. The new and larger town, on the west side of the Beaver, was laid out by Zeisberger, late in July, and was rapidly built. About the same time, John George Jungmann and his wife arrived at the mission, and Senseman returned to eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Jungmann understood the Delaware language thoroughly, and was of much assistance to Zeisberger in preaching and teaching. A great revival followed. Many were converted. Glikkikan was baptized, together with Gendaskund, on Christmas day, and soon others; so that by the beginning of 1771 the number of Christian professors in the town was seventythree. On the 20th of June, 1771, a log church was dedicated, and the church members had increased to one hundred. It would be interesting to trace the history of this town and settlement of Christian Indians up the time that they removed from the bounds of Lawrence county to the new settlements of Christain Indians on the Tuscarawas, in what is now Ohio, but it would exceed the space allotted to this sketch. Through Zeisberger's agency in exploring the country and recommending the enterprises, missions had been established by the Brethren on the Tuscarawas, in the Muskingum valley, Ohio. Zeisberger took active part in the enterprise, and left the care of the mission at Friedensstadt in the hands of Jungmann and others. Meanwhile difficulties began to surround the mission. Drunkenness was introduced among the heathen Indians by traders; and they would come from Kaskaskiink, and other towns, to Frcidensstadt, and howl along the streets in a drunken and threatening manner; and sometimes use violence to the Christian inhabitants. In view of these troubles Zeisberger called the Christian Indians to join him at Gnadenhiitten and Schiinbrun in Ohio; and in the spring of 1773, the migration was effected, the "City of Peace" was deserted, their sanctuary levelled with the ground, and the people migrated to the Muskingum. All that remains of this once pleasant 858 LAWRENCE COUNTY Christian town is the name MORAVIA, applied to a hamlet and to the railway station. When the white settlers began to pour in, after Wayne's treaty of Greenville, 1795, there were still some families of the Indians lingered in the territory now embraced within Lawrence county; and a few hunters were now and then found straying through the forests as late as 1814; an Indian village was located at Harboring bridge, but after the close of the war of 1812-'14 they disappeared. To Lawrence belongs a part of the history of that war; for a large proportion of her able-bodied young men bore a part in the conflict. After Hull's surrender, a call was made for troops, and two large companies of volunteers were gathered from the sparse population of Mercer county, and a similar force from Beaver, a large proportion of whom were drawn from those parts of these counties now constituting Lawrence. One of these companies (the Mercer -- B 1 u e s), numbering eighty-four - -- rifles, was commanded by Captain __ John Junkin, and another by Cap ---_ tain Matthew Dawson. Of the for- -. _ mer, quite a number went from what is now the north part of Lawrence, and of the latter a still larger proportion. - They did good service under the gallant Harrison in the North-western army, and were distinguished alike for gallantry and morality. It is a remarkable fact, that in Captain Junkin's company family worship was kept up by the mess in every tent but two, when not interrupted by military necessity. These men were the ancestors, to a considerable PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING, NEW CASTLE. [From a Photograph by A. W. Phipps.] extent, of the "Roundhead" and the " Bucktail" regiments, which did such effective service in tl e late war for the Union. Quite a number of the sons and grandsons of the men of 1812 tilled the ranks of the regiments of 1862-'64. But one of those old soldiers survives-Henry Jordan, of Lawrence county. NEW CASTLE is the county se,t, and is one of the most flourishing towns west of Pittsburgh in the State. It was laid out in 1802, by a Mr. C. Stewa t, who came to this locality from the neighborhood of New Castle, in Delaware, and the name was probably given in honor of that old Swedish town; suggested, it may have been, by the resemblance of the name of the Indian town which occupied the same site, New Kaskask ink. It continued a small and unimportant village until after the construction of the public works, when it began to grow in population and increase in business. It is located in a deep basin, and upon the encompassing hills a, and around the confluence of the Shenango and the 859 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Neshannock. It was incorporated as a city in 1867. Its census has not been taken since 1870, but it probably now is between ten and twelve thousand. It contains a court-house, a jail, a market-house, with a spacious opera hall above it; four Presbyterian churches, three Methodist Episcopal, one Episcopal Protestant, one Disciples, one Baptist, one Lutheran, two African, and one Primitive Methodist churches. The number of furnaces is seven, and rolling mills three. Excellent window glass is also manufactured within the city limits. There are two large and elegant buildings for public school purposes, one in the first and the other in the second ward, besides five or six other edifices that are used for school purposes, one of which is "the New Castle one study college." The Roman Catholics are about completing a large and handsome building for their schools, which are now kept in rented rooms. __The first courts in the county were ___ held in the edifice of the First Methodist Episcopal church, pending the erection _ _. of a court house. The Hon. John --- -Bredin, of Butler, was the first presiding judge, and after him Hon. Daniel .. Agnew, now of the Supreme Bench; Hon. Lawrence L. McGuflin, and now -__ the Hon. James Bredin (son of the first judge), and the Hon. Ebenezer McJun kin, who preside alternately. There are several thriving villages in the county. HARLANSBURG on the east, nine miles from the county seat; CHEWTON, WAMPUM, and NEWPORT, on S the south; MOUNT JACKSON, south-west - from New Castle; EDINBURG, west; DISCIPLES CHURCH, NEW CASTLE. PULASKI on the Shenango, north-west. IFrom a Photograph byA.W. Phipps.] NEW BEDFORD, three miles south of the latter, and NEW WILMINGTON, the seat of Westminster college, a flourishing institution, controlled by the United Presbyterian church. FAYETTE, EASTBROOK, WITTENBURG, PRINCETON, and CLINTON, are smaller villages. Lawrence county sent to the front in the late civil war many and very excellent soldiers. The celebrated "Roundhead " regiment, One Hundred Pennsylvania volunteers, Colonel Daniel Leasure, which rendered such effective service, was recruited chiefly from this county. Battery B, one of the most effective in the service, c.)mmanded by Captains H. T. Danforth, J. Harvey Cooper, William McClelland, was from this county, and parts of other regiments were recruited here. There are five weekly newspapers published at the county seat. Lawrence county is traversed by the Pittsburgh and Erie railroad, and by the Lawrence Transportation, and the New Castle and Franklin railroads, whilst others are projected; and one approaching New Castle from Allegheny City is now under construction. Some years ago, the county made heavy sub860 LAWRENCE COUNTY. scriptions to railways that were never constructed, and lost her investments, which adds considerably to her taxes, down nearly to the present time, 1876. Perhaps no county in the Commonwealth possesses a larger amount of the elements of wealth, both of surface and mineral resources, in proportion to its area, than LAWRENCE COUNTY. In the construction of Lawrence county several townships of the same name were thrown into it, as Mercer county and Beaver had each a Mahoning, a Slippery Rock, and a Shenango township. The Slippery Rock of Mercer county was for a time called North Slippery Rock, and the other Slippery Rock, both after the stream of that name. The original townships of Lawrence county were Big Beaver, Little Beaver, North Beaver, Mahoning, Neshannock, Pulaski, Shenango, Slippery Rock, Wayne, Perry, and New Castle borough. Hickory was formed out of Neshannock in 1859; Pollock out of Shenango and Neshannock, in 1858; Scott by dividing Slippery Rock in 1853; Taylor out of Shenango and North Beaver the same year; Union out of Neshannock and Mahoning, in 1858; Wilmington borough, in 18-; Plain Grove out of Slippery Rock in 1855; and Washington out of Plain Grove and Scott in February 15, 1859. Pollock township became the first ward of the. city of New Castle at the time of the charter of that city The old borough of New Castle is the second ward. PHILADELPHIA U S. AIRICA - MAY 10T" TO NOVEMTBR 10T" 1876 MACHINERY HALL, CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 1VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF LEBANON. [From a Photograph by J. H. Keim, Lebauon.7 LEBANON COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to I. D. Rupp and George Ross, M.D.] EBANON county was formed from parts of Lancaster, but mainly from Dauphin county, by an act of Assembly, passed February 16, 1813. By an act passed February 2, 1814, Thomas Smith, of Dauphin, Levi Hollingsworth, of Lebanon, and Jacob Hibshman, of Lancaster county, were appointed commissioners to run and mark the boundary lines between Lancaster, Lebanon, and Dauphin counties. The agricultural resources of Lebanon from her well cultivated farms are estimated at over three million dollars in value annually. The surplus produce finds an ample market in the coal regions of - Schuylkill. The agricultural skill of the county --- has all that German industry and perseverance can give it-there is no higher encomium for it. Nowhere in the United States ire the fqarms in such highly improved condition. Barns, almost like castles in their magnitude, and magnificent in their beauty and adornment, out-buildings, fences, etc., all show the same disregard of expense, and on many the barn alone will LEBANON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LEBANON. far exceed, in expense and attractions, the entire establishment of a well-to-do New York or New England farmer. Orchards and meadows show the same thrift and prosperity. It is, however, as a producer of iron that Lebanon county stands among the foremost. At Cornwall is found the most remarkable and valuable body of iron ore in the world. It consists of three hills of solid ore, called respectively the Big Hill, Middle Hill, and Grassy Hill, better known abroad as the Cornwall ore banks. Big Hill is over four hundred feet high, and the base covers more than forty acres. In shape it is like a cone, and around its sloping sides a spiral railway has been constructed, ascending to the summit on a grade of two hundred feet to the mile. The ore is mined in breasts, along which the cars are backed, 863 HISTORY OF PENNS VL VANIA. and the ore shoveled into them. There are no shafts sunk as in mining coal, but all the work is done in daylight, and in the open air. For many years the several owners of these ore hills mined just as much as each one needed to supply his filrnaces, but with the growth of the trade, and the construction of numerous furnaces in all parts of the State, came a demand for this ore. The ore is a magnetic oxide, containing a great deal of iron pyrites which, under atmospheric influences, changes into a soluble sulphate, and is washed away by the rain. The nearer it lies to the surface the freer it is of sulphur. Middle Hill is about two hundred yards from the Big Hill, and has an altitude of two hundred feet above the water level, and covers about thirty-five acres. The ore is the same as that mined at Big Hill. This hill ....shows the most perceptible ---..impression made by years of _steady mining, though amid -the surrounding mass it al -most escapes notice. It has been constantly worked for a period ante-dating the Revo lution. In the days of 1776 cannon and munitions of war were furnished the colonists by the proprietors of Corn wall. The Grassy Hill lies south-west of the Middle Hill, about one hundred yards away. It has been worked for more than twenty years. This hill is about one hun dred and fifty feet high, and covers thirty acres. Exami nations have been made to CORNWALL MINES, MIDDLE HIL L, THIROUGHI CUT. ascertain to what depth these [From a Photograph by J. I. Keim ] great bodies of iron ore extend, but that has not yet been determined. From their appearance the supply would seem to be inexhaustible for centuries yet to come. With such immense bodies of iron, the establishments for their conversion into metal located around them have made a reputation unequaled by any in the country. The famous charcoal furnace, the oldest in existence, which has supplied the iron trade for so many years, is still in blast. It was this furnace which supplied the iron for the cannon and ball made in the days of the Revolution. The old anthracite furnaces have been in continuous blast for a period of more than twenty-five years. The furnaces recently built, and especially Bird Coleman, modeled and con-trLcted by A. Wilhelm, Esq., the attorney of the Coleman heirs since 1857, is the most admirably equipped furnace in the world. It is the wonder and admiration of the visitor. Belonging to this vast estate are no less than eight furnaces, nearly all of which are in blast. The entire Cornwall estate, its huge hills of valuable ore, its iron producing establishments, its magnificent 864 LEBANON COUNTY. farms and improved stock, are unequaled in the world, and are far more worthy a visit than famed Niagara. Other iron furnaces have been constructed in different parts of the county, some of which, particularly the Lebanon furnaces owned by Hon. G. Dawson Coleman, are justly celebrated. Rapidly the county has been developing, and the next decade will show the marked progress of Lebanon county in population, wealth, and material resources. The first settlements made within the present limits of the county, in the western part, were in Derry township, by Scotch-Irish. Derry was located prior to 1720. About three-fourths of the county was originally settled by Germans, some of whom had come to New York in 1710 and 1711, and removed in 17231729 to Tulpehocken and Quitapahilla; others emigrated from Germany and settled in the eastern part of Lebanon county, extending their settlements westward into Dauphin county. In August, 1729, some seventy-five families, Palatines, arrived in Philadelphia, most of whom settled on the Quitapahilla. There was an early settlement of German Jews in the neighborhood of Sheafferstown. They were so numerous at one time as to to have a synagogue and a rabbi, a doctor of the law, to read the Scriptures to them. As early as 1732 they had a cemetery, or necropolis, around which there was a substantial wall built, nearly the whole of which is yet standing. The cement or mortar used must have been very adhesive, made of a larger proportion of lime than is usually taken, for it is even now as compact and solid as limestone. The cemetery is about half a mile south of Sheafferstown, one hundred yards east of the Lancaster road. A few hundred yards south is Thurm-Berg, or Tower Hill, an elevated point on which the famous Baron Stiegel erected a castle or tower. The one at Sheafferstown, like that at Manheim, was mounted with cannon, for the express purpose of firing a salute when he made his appearance at either place. Residing principally at Philadelphia, hlie occasionally invited his friends there into the country with him, to enjoy his baronial hospitality. The incidents of border and Indian wars, incursions, and massacres, are so completely merged in the sketch of the adjoining counties, that not much of interest, separately considered, remains to be noticed. Little, indeed, has been preserved, by tradition or record, of the Indian incursions into the parts embraced within the present limits of the county. We shall only give such incidents as are of undoubted authenticity. In August, 1757, John Andrew's wife, going to a neighbor's house, was surprised by six Indians, had her horse shot under her, and she and her child carried off. At the same time, in Bethel township, as John Winklebach's two sons, and Joseph Fischbach, a soldier in the pay of the Province, went out about sunrise to bring in the cows, they were fired upon by about fifteen Indians. The two lads were killed; one of them was scalped; the other got into the house before he died, and the soldier was wounded in the head. The same morning, about seven o'clock, two miles below Manada Gap, as Thomas McGuire's son was bringing some cows out of a field, a little way from the house, he was pursued by two Indians and narrowly escaped. Leonard Long's son, while ploughing, was killed and scalped. On the other side of the fence, Leonard Miller's son was ploughing, who was made prisoner. Near Benjamin Clarke's house, four miles from the mill, two savages surprised Isaac Williams' wife and the widow Williams, killed and scalped the former in 3E 865 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. sight of the house, she having run a little way after three balls had been shot through her body. The latter they carried away captive. A letter from Hanover township, dated October 1, 1757, says that the children mentioned as having been carried off from Lebanon township, belonging to Peter Wampler, were going to the meadows for a load of hay, and that the Indians took from the house what they thought most valuable, and destroyed what they could not take away, to a considerable value. On the 19th of June, 1757, nineteen persons were killed in a mill on the Quitapahilla creek. In September, Christian Danner and his son, a lad of twelve years, who went out into the Conewago hills to cut timber, were attacked by the Indians. The father was shot and scalped, the son taken captive, carried off to Canada, and kept there till the close of the war, when he made his escape. Following these and other outrages by the ruthless savages, many of the inhabitants fled to escape being murdered. When the danger was over nearly all returned to their desolated homes. Some few sought other localities for a settlement. A brief description of the two forts erected during the French and Indian wars, within the present limits of Lebanon county, may prove acceptable as interesting: Fort Henry was near the base of the Blue mountain, erected in 1756, at a pass through the mountain called Tolihaio or Hole. This fort was erected by Captain Christian Buss6, by order of Governor Morris, who named it Fort Henry. Governor Morris ordered, in January, 1756, Captain Buss6 "to proceed as soon as possible with the company under his command to the gap where the Swatara comes through the mountains, and in some convenient place there to erect a fort, of the form and dimensions herewith given, unless you shall judge the stockade already erected there conveniently placed, in which case you will take possession, and make such additional work as you may think necessary to make it sufficiently strong." During 1757 and 1758 Fort Henry was well garrisoned by eighty or ninety soldiers doing duty there. Fort Smith was located, about 1738, three-fourths of a mile north of Union Forge. The land on which the fort was erected was owned several years since by the widow Shuey. It is related that on a certain occasion the Indians appeared in great numbers, and nearly all the neighbors being in their own houses, Peter Heydrich gave immediate notice to the people to resort to the fort, and in the meantime took his drum and fife, marched himself in the woods, now beating the drum, then blowing the fife, giving at the same time the word of command as if he was giving it to a large force, though he was the only one to obey orders. By this sleight of war, it is stated, he succeeded to keep the savages away, and collected his neighbors securely. In the war of Independence many of the citizens of Lebanon county were in the ranks of the patriot army. Immense supplies were sent from this locality for the brave men at Valley Forge and Whitemarsh. After the battle of Trenton a large number of Hessians were confined in the Lutheran church at Lebanon. Among the principal men at that eventful period were Colonel Greenawalt and Major Philip Marsteller. The latter served as commissary of purchases almost during the entire war-a position by no means a sinecure. He was active and energetic, and his correspondence, much of which is found in the records of the Revolution, is highly creditable. 866 LEBANON COUNTY. As early as 1762 David Rittenhouse and Rev. William Smith, D.D., were appointed commissioners to examine into the feasibility of a canal to connect the Schuylkill river with the Swatara running into the Susquehanna. The events preceding and connected with the war for Independence caused public interest to die away, and nothing more was done until the year 1794, when operations were commenced and pushed with more or less vigor, and frequent cessations, in spite of discouragements, until 1837, when the Union canal was completed, and the first boat, the "Alpha" of Tulpehocken, passed Lebanon on its way westward. Although the construction of the different railroads in the county have in a great measure superseded this maritime highway, yet it can in truth be said that the projectors of the Union canal have done more to develop the resources, and add to the material prosperity of Lebanon county, than all other enterprises. The main line of the canal is seventy-nine miles in length, with a navigable feeder of seven miles. It extends from Middletown on the Susquehanna to Reading, where it connects with the Schuylkill canal... LEBANON borough was laid out in the year 1750, by George Steitz, by whose name the village was known for many years, especially among the German settlers. In the Provincial records the town is designated, as early as 1759, "Lebanon town, in Lancaster county, and Lebanon township." The name is a scriptural one. It was incorporated as a borough, February 20, "BERG-KIRCHE"-HILL CHURCH-LEBANON COUNTY. [g, y, From a Photograph by J. H. Keim.J 1821. Upon the completion of the Union canal a town began to be built along its line, which was called North Lebanon. Both towns prospered and grew in friendly rivalry, and when, in 1856-7, the Lebanon Valley railroad was completed, the line of that road being located between the two towns, and a depot erected thereon, improvements and manufacturing establishments sprung up, covering the intervening space. The two towns thus having grown together, were consolidated in 1869. Beside the communications referred to, Lebanon is connected with the coal fields of Schuylkill by a railroad to Tremont, while there are in contemplation a connection in the near future with roads in Lancaster county towards the north, and by the South Mountain railroad with the south. With these various communications, and her great industries, Lebanon is becoming one of the most important cities of Pennsylvania. Four miles north-west of Lebanon stands the Hill Church (Berg-Kirche), built in 1733, and in which Lutherans and German Reformed worshipped jointly. "Im Jahr, 1754, und spaeter," says Rev. George Lochman, "zur zeit die Indianer noch haeufige Einfaelle machten, man nahm oefters die Flinte mit zur 867 GENERAL H1STORY. successor to the Half-King of the Senecas, and Monacatootha, whose acquaintance Washington had made on the Ohio on his mission to Le Bo3euf, with about one hundred and fifty Indians, Senecas and Delawares, accompanied him. George Croghan, the Indian agent of Pennsylvania, and a frontiersman of great value called the " Wild Hunter " or Captain Jack, were also with him. The first brigade, under Sir Peter Halkett, led the way; and on the 9th the main body followed. They spent the third night only five miles from the first. A large spring, bearing Braddock's name, marks the place of encampment at the present day. The route continued up Braddock's run to the forks of the stream nine miles from Cumberland, when it turned to the left in order to reach a point on the ridge favorable to an easy descent into the valley of George's Creek. "It is surprising," says Mr. Atkinson, who faithfully surveyed the route trodden by that unfortunate army, " that having reached this high ground, the favorable spur by which the national road accomplishes the ascent of the Great Savage Mountain, did not strike the attention of Braddock's engineers, as the labor necessary to surmount the barrier from the deep valley of George's Creek must have contributed greatly to those bitter complaints which the General made against the Provincial government of Pennsylvania in particular, for their failure to assist him more effectively in the transportation department." Passing a mile to the south of Frostburg, the road approaches the east foot of Savage Mountain, which it crosses about one mile south of the national road, and thence by very favorable ground, through the dense forests of white pine peculiar to that region, it got to the north of the national road, near the gloomy tract called the Shades of Death. This was the 15th of June, when the gloom of the summer woods and the favorable shelter which these enormous pines would give an Indian enemy, must have made a most sensible impression on the minds of that devoted army of the insecurity of their mode of advance. This, doubtless, had its share in causing the council of war held at the Little Meadows on the day following. To this place, distant only twenty miles from Cumberland, Sir John St. Clair and Major Chapman had been dispatched on the 27th of May to build a fort. The conclusion of the council was to push on with a picked force of 1,200 men and twelve pieces of cannon, and the line of march, now more compact, was resumed on the 19th. Passing over ground to the south of the Little Crossings, the army spent the night of the 21st at the Bear Camp, supposed to be about midway to the Great Crossings, which it reached on the 23d. The route thence to the Great Meadows, or Fort Necessity, was well chosen, though over a mountainous tract, conforming very nearly to the ground now occupied by the national road, and keeping on the dividing ridge between the waters flowing into the Youghiogheny on the one hand and the Cheat River on the other. On the 30th of June, the army forded the former river at Stewart's Crossings, and thence passed a rough road over a mountain. A few miles onward they came to a great swamp, which detained them part of a day in clearing a road. They next advanced to Salt Lick Creek, now called Jacob's Creek, where a council of war was held, on the 3d of July, to consider a suggestion of Sir John St. Clair, that Colonel Dunbar's detachment should be ordered to johin the main body. This proposal was rejected, on the ground that Dunbar could HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL YANIA. Kirche um sich unterwegs gegen die Indianern zu verthei digen, und wenn man Gottesdienst hielte, wurden oefters Maenner mit gela denen Gewehren auf die Wacht gestellt." [In the year 1754, and later, when the Indians made frequent incursions, people often took guns with them to defend themselves against the Indians. During divine service, men with loaded guns were placed at the door as sentinels.] On the outskirts of Lebanon, at the Moravian station called Hebron, stands, quite near to their burial ground, an old stone church, built in 1750. The first meeting-house was a log one, erected in 1747, and in which a Moravian synod was held by Bishop John Nitschman, in 1751. But as the Indians were troublesome, the stone one was built as a place of refuge in times of danger. The organization was first called the " Congregation at the Quitapahilla," and afterwards Hebron. The lower story of the church contained four rooms and two kitchens, each kitchen having a huge fire-place and chimney. The second story contained the audience room, with the pulpit on the south side, in the centre, the males sitting on the west side and females on the east. Vestibules were at both ends, on the first and second stories, from which stairs ascended to the garret, it being built precisely like a dwelling house, to be used by two families, the second floor being used as a church, the minister using part of it as a parsonage, and keeping school in it too. After the battle of Trenton many of the Hessian prisoners were brought here, and the building was used as a military prison and hospital. It was used for church services until 1848, at which time the new church was built at Lebanon. It was then abandoned. It is now used for a barn. ANNVILLE is a thriving village five miles west of Lebanon. It was laid out about 1765 by Messrs. Miller, Ulrich, and Reigel. It was settled perhaps twenty years previously. For many years it was called Millerstown, after one of the original owners. Near the railroad depot is yet standing an old house which was used during the Indian troubles as a fort, to which the settlers took refuge in times of danger. Lebanon Valley college, under the auspices of the United Brethren, is located here. It is in a prosperous and flourishing condition, and promises to take a high rank among the many educational institutions of the State. JONESTOWN was laid out in 1761, by William Jones, on part of one hundred and fourteen acres of land granted him by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania Lots were sold with the proviso that purchasers, or their heirs or assigns, "shall make, erect, and build upon said lot or lots, one substantial dwelling-house, of the dimensions of 20 feet by 16 at least, with a good chimney of brick or stone, to be laid in or built with lime and sand, to be finished and tenantable on or before the 20th day of October, 1762." The yearly quit-rent of lots of one-half acre was seven shillings and sixpence sterling. The precaution as to the material used in building the chimney was necessary, as the general practice was to make chimneys of slabs of wood daubed over both inside and out with mortar made of clay. The town was originally called Williamstown. It is situated in the forks of the Big and Little Swatara, one half-mile above the junction, twentyfour miles east of Harrisburg, five miles north of Lebanon, on elevated ground, affording a picturesque view of the country south of the Blue mountain, six miles north of the borough. The town was incorporated August 20, 1870. One 868 LEBANON CO7-NTY. mile south of Jonestown is an eminence called Bunker hill, the highest point of the trap-rock hills. Upwards of thirty years ago, Judge Rank, on whose farm it is, suggested Bunker hill as a desirable point on which to erect a suitable edifice as an academy or school of advanced standing, believing as he did, greatly needed for the neighborhood. In August, 1858, the corner-stone of Swatara Collegiate Institute was laid, not on Bunker hill, but on an eminence immediately north of Jonestown. The institute was soon organized, with I. D. Rupp as principal, until 1860. In the spring of 1875 the building was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt, however, and is now owned and conducted by Rev. E. J. Koons, A.M., principal. Jonestown, by its position at the intersection of the South Mountain with the Lebanon and Tremont railroad, is destined to become a town of considerable importance. MYERSTOWN, on the Lebanon Valley railroad, seven miles from the countyseat, was laid out by Isaac Myers, about 1768. It is situated in one of the most enchanting valleys of Pennsylvania, near to mountain scenery of great celebrity, in the midst of a region unsurpassed for fertility of soil. Palatinate College, chartered in 1868, invested with full collegiate powers, is located here. It is under the auspices of the Lebanon classis of the Reformed Church. Rev. George W. Aughinbaugh, D.D., is president of the faculty. The college is highly prosperous. PALMYRA, called in early days Palmstown, is ten miles west of Lebanon. It is an old settled town, and about the commencement of the century was considered a thriving village. Owing to its location on the line of the Lebanon Valley railroad, it has recently taken a fresh start, and may in time again become an important town, situated as it is in the midst of a fine agricultural region. The Downington Ephrata, and Harrisburg turnpike, once a great thoroughfare, passes through the town. On this road, three miles south, is CAMPBELLSTOWN, settled in the past century. The early pioneers in this section were Scotch-Irish-the Campbells, Semples, Pattersons, Mitchells, and others, few of whose descendants remain. SHEAFFERSTOWN was laid out about the year 1741, by Mr. Sheaffer, after whom it was named. The inhabitants are of German descent. The town is pleasantly situated in a highly cultivated region. It contains an academy. FREDERICKSBURG, formerly known by the name of Nassau, and Stumpstown, after the notorious Frederick Stump, who laid out the town in 1758, is situated ten miles north-east of Lebanon, on the line of the South Mountain railroad. In 1783 it contained twenty houses. In 1827 it was almost wholly destroyed by fire. NEWMANSTOWN, in Mill Creek township, is a thriving village. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS.-NORTH and SouTH ANNVILLE were originally both included in one township, named Annville until 1845, when they were formed by its division. Annville was formed at the time of the organization of the county in 1813, from portions of Londonderry and Lebanon. The Scotch Irish were the first settlers in the eastern part of the township, which then belonged to Lebanon. CoLD SPRING lies between the Blue or Kittatinny or Second mountain on the south, and the Fourth mountain on the north, with the Third mountain in the centre. It was established by act of Legislature in 1853, from a portion of 869 HISTORY OF PENNSYL,YANIA. Union and East Hanover townships. In Cold Spring township is a celebrated cold spring, from which the township takes its name. EAST HANOVER was settled by Scotch-Irish, and was a part of Hanover township, Dauphin county. It originally included Union, Cold Spring, and a part of Swatara, in Lebanon county. Hanover was erected about 1736-'7, from Peshtank or Paxton, and for several succeeding years was divided into the East and West End. The latter is mostly embraced at present in the limits of Lebanon county. HEIDELBERG originally comprised, beside the present township, the three Heidelbergs in Berks county, and part of Jackson township in Lebanon county. The first division was made at the time of the formation of Berks county in 1752, when the larger part was incorporated with that county. BETHEL was, until 1739, a portion of Lebanon township, and when it was cut off included much more territory than at present. It has since been reduced, in 1752, by the taking off of Bethel, Berks county, and again in 1813, by the taking off of what now forms a portion of Jackson and Swatara. Among the early settlers in this locality were Grove, Oberholtzer, Sherrick, Weaver, and Schneberly. NORTH and SouTH LEBANON and CORNWALL were originally settled by Germans, about 1720, east of where Hebron now stands; and in 1723 several families had located within the eastern limits of North and South Lebanon, as they at present extend. LONDONDERRY was formed from Derry township, which was organized in 1729. As then bounded, it embraced all within its limits known as the West End and the East End of Derry, or as subsequently called, Derry and Londonderry. Derry was settled prior to 1720. SWATARA was originally included in Bethel and Hanover townships. Its boundaries have been changed since 1830, by erecting Union township. The surface is diversified; the north and south are hilly, and the central part level. Some of the soil is limestone, but the greater portion is gravel and slate, yet generally well improved. It is well supplied with water power, mills, etc. The Big Swatara is the dividing line between Swatara and Union townships their entire length. The Little Swatara crosses the townships a little south of the borough of Jonestown, and in its course across the township it propels two grist-mills and one saw mill. UNION became a separate township organization in 1842. Since then its boundaries, which then extended to the northern limit of the county, have been reduced by the erection of Cold Spring. MILL CREEK was formed from Jackson and Heidelberg, in 1844. The Muelbach, or Mill Creek, a beautiful stream of considerable size which flows through from west to east, gave to the township its name. On this stream, as early as 1720, the Dunkards had a settlement. Besides the Mill creek there are several other streams of smaller size. The South mountain, or Conewago hills, are in the southern part of the township. JACKSON township was one of the very first settled in the present county of Lebanon. It was formed from a part of Bethel and Heidelberg, in 1813. 870 LEHIGH COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to R. K. Buehrle and E. D. Leisenring, Allentown.] EHIGHI county was separated from Northampton, by act of Assem bly, March 6th, 1812. The act defines the boundaries as follows: "That all that part of Northampton county, lying and being within the limits of the following townships, to wit: the townships of Lynn, Heidelberg, Lowhill, Weissenburg, Macungie, Upper Milford, South Whitehall, Northampton, Salisbury, Upper Saucon, and that part of Hanover township within the following bounds, to wit: beginning at Bethlehem line where it joins the Lehigh river, thence along the said line until it intersects the road leading to Allen township line, thence along the line of Allen township, westwardly to the Lehigh, shall be,and the same - are hereby, ac- __________ cording to their - ------ _ present lines declared to be erected into a county to be henceforth called LEHIGH." This act also authorized the Governor to appoint three discreet and disinterested persons, not resi- LEHIGH COUNTY COURT HOUSE, ALLENTOWN. dent in the county of Northampton, nor holding property therein, to fix upon a proper and convenient site for a court house, prison, and county offices, within the county of Lehigh, as near the centre as the situation thereof will admit, and to report to the Governor, in writing, July 1st, 1812. The court house was built in 1814; the jail had been previously built. The first court held in the county met at the public house kept by George Savitz. The following is an extract from the court records: "At a court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, be_un and held at the borough of Northampton, for the county of Lehigh, on the 21st day of December, before the Hon. Robert Porter, president, and the Hon. Peter Rhoads and Jonas Harzell, Esqs., associate judges of said court, at the November term, 1813, November 30, HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. court met at the house of George Savitz, adjourned from thence to meet in the upper story of the county prison, prepared by the commissioners for holding courts of the county of Lehigh, until the court house be erected." Lehigh county is bounded on the north-west by the Blue (Kittatinny or North) mountains, separating it from Schuylkill and Carbon counties; north-east by Northampton; south-east by Bucks, and south-west by Montgomery and Berks counties. Length, 28 miles; width, 15; area, 389 square miles, or 249,860 acres, whereof 181,097 acres were improved in 1870, supporting a population of 56,266. Settled originally by Germans from the Palatinate, their language, now known as Pennsylvania German, is still largely used, especially in the home circle, while the high German is used in the newspapers and in the pulpit of the more numerous denominations. The people (as might be expected, considering their origin) are noted for their industry, economy, and frugality. Prosperity and thrift are found on every hand, and the soil is cultivated in the most approved manner. The physical features and geolo'ieal character of Lehigh county are similar to those of other counties which liL chiefly within the Kittatinny, Cumberland, or Great valley. The surface is generally undulating, although in some places rugged and somewhat broken. In the south-east are the hills and ridges belonging to the South mountain range (Blue ridge), of primary (protozoic or Laurentian) formation, consisting largely of Potsdam sandstone, and abounding in crystalline iron ore, much of it magnetic. North of this is a broad belt of lower Silurian limestone, and then the Hudson and Utica or dark slate, which extends to the sandstone of the Blue (Kittatinny or North) mountains, on the northern boundary. The climate is healthy and temperate. The whole county is well watered by many rills and creeks flowing into the Lehigh river, which, for the most part, bounds it on the east. The valley is highly cultivated, and the hills and mountains are covered with forests. No scenery can excel this earthly paradise, when from the summit of the Blue ridge, or North mountain, the spectator looks down upon the broad expanse of field, meadow, and wood land, dotted with farm-houses and barns, interspersed with thriving towns and villages, and enlivened by the hum of machinery, the rolling of the trains on five different railroads, and the smoke arising from the stacks of numerous furnaces. The Lehigh river (called by the Delaware Indians Le-chau-wiech-ink, Lechau-w'k-ink, or Le-chau-w4ek-i, compounded of Lechauwiechen, the fork of a road, and ink, the local suffix, signifying " at the place of the forks of the road," where there is a fork of the road, and shortened by the German settlers in Lecha, a name in current use at the present day), rises in Wayne, Pike, and Luzerne counties, with its various branches. Near Stoddartsville, Monroe county, the stream receives several mountain creeks, and continuing its downward and somewhat serpentine course, it may appropriately be called a " mountain torrent." The Lehigh Water Gap (called by the Monsey Indians Buch-ka-buch-ka, which, according to Heckewelder, the historian, implies "mountains butting opposite to each other), so named from the river Lehigh, which here steals its way through the Kittatinny or Blue mountains, the dividing line. between Carbon county and Lehigh and Northampton counties, presents to the spectator 872 LEHIGH COUNTY. one of the most picturesque prospects in Pennsylvania. From "the Gap" to Easton the river falls about one hundred feet, and forms the eastern boundary of the county, until at Catasauqua, below Allentown, it turns to the eastward, flows into Northampton county, and empties into the Delaware, at Easton. Saucon (corrupted from sak-unk, compounded of sa-ku-wit, the mouth of a creek, and ink, the local suffix, and signifying at the place of the creek's outlet, or where the creek debouches) is the name of a creek which rises in Upper Milford township, and running north-easterly, falls into the Lehigh river, two miles below Bethlehem. Jordan creek, so called by the first settlers, after the Jordan, in Palestine, rises at the foot of the Blue or North mountains, running a serpentine course to the south-east, falls into tihe Little Lehigh, about one hundred rods from its mouth. The Little Lehigh rises in Berks county, running a south-east course, it receives the waters of Cedar and Jordan creeks. It is a beautiful stream, affording water power to several mills; it falls into the Lehigh at Allentown. Cedar creek, which empties into the Little Lehigh near Allentown, is one of the lovelist streams in the State, clear as crystal, always full, never overflowing (having for its source a spring so large as at once to afford water power sufficient to drive a mill), it winds for two miles (turning in its course some four or five mills) through a meadow that is a perfect picture. Besides those named above, the following may be mentioned: Trout, Coplay, or Balliets, Crowner's run, Sinking run, Cavern spring, Antelawny, Lyon run, Willson's run, Schantz's spring, and Perkiomen creek. Coplay is the name of a creek erupting into the Lehigh near Catasauqua. The proper and original Indian name for this stream is Copeechan, signifying " that which runs evenly," or, a " fine running stream." As an agricultural county, there is none superior in the State, and especially do the rich townships of Saucon, the two Macungies, three Whitehalls, Salisbury, and Hanover excel in fertility of soil. Wheat and rye are the staple productions; the other cereals are Indian corn, oats, barley, and buckwheat. The total estimated value of all farm productions, including improvements and additions to stock, according to census of 1870, amounted to 3,085,841 dollars. The mineral resources of Lehigh are principally vast deposits of iron ore, rich and valuable beds of zinc, copper, manganese, cement, and slate. Iron ore is found in abundance in the Whitehalls, at Ironton, the Macungies, at Trexlertown (where it is found so highly charged with sulphuret of iron as to be used for the manufacture of copperas), the Milfords, Hanover, and Salisbury, in veins from four to forty feet thick, and so near the surface as to be mined with the greatest ease. It is of different kinds, such as rock, pipe, shell, kidney, and black and red sheer, yielding from seventy to ninety per cent. In S1870 there were twentythree mining establishments, employing three hundred and eighty-three hands with a capital of $223,447, producing material to the value of $384,168. In Upper Saucon township, at Friedensville, are the famous zinc mines, believed to be practically inexhaustible and surpassed by few in the world. They have been worked since 1853, though discovered in 1845. The ore found here is mostly silicate of zinc, though great masses of carbonate of zinc also occur, both 873 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. of most excellent quality. Geological observations and comparison with old European mines indicate that the ore continues, in all probability, to a depth of several hundred feet. These mines employ twelve engines (aggregating six hundred and seventy-six horse-power), among them probably the largest one in the country; four hundred hands, capital $400,000, producing material annually to the value of about $300,000. Hydraulic cement is manufactured from the lower beds of magnesian limestone in the neighborhood of Siegfried's Bridge and Coplay. These works have been in successful operation for a number of years, and the cement, which is manufactured here, is said to be equal in every respect to the celebrated Rosedale cement. Slate for roofing purposes, for school slates, for mantels, and for ornamental purposes, is found in various parts of the county, and large quarries are worked. The quarries in the neighborhood of Slatington, worked since 1849, are, without doubt, the largest, and furnish the finest quality of slate in the States. Blue limestone is found in all parts of the county, and is extensively used in fertilizing the soil and in the manufacture of iron in the numerous furnaces fofind within its borders. Excellent sandstone for building purposes are quarried in the mountains south-east of Allentown. The early history of Lehigh county is contained in that of Northampton, and among the voluminous records relating to the latter territory, the descriptions are frequently vague as to the proper location of certain incidents. The greater proportion of the early settlers within the present limits of the county were Germans. The Moravians principally settled around Emaus, while the Schwenkfelders spread into the lower portion of the county adjoining Montgomery. At present the population is of German descent. There were few if any settlements prior to 1723, although it is probable that some of the Dunkards, Mennonites, and Amish, who settled at and near Falkner swamp, in the present Montgomery county, had in 1708-1715 crossed over upon the lands now in Upper Milford township. In 1752, when the county of Northampton was formed, it contained a population within its borders of nearly six thousand, over one-third of which was in Lehigh. From 1755 to 1763, during the French and Indian war, Lehigh, with other frontier counties, was invaded by marauding parties of Indians, who murdered indiscriminately men, women, and children, and carried some off into captivity. In 1755 and'56, the greater part of the inhabitants of Heidelberg township and some other places fled to Bethlehem for refuge, to escape being inhumanly butchered by the savages. On the 14th of February, 1756, the Indians surprised the inmates of the house of Frederick Reichelsderfer, shot two of his children, set his house and barn on fire, burned up all his grain and cattle. Thence they went to the house of Jacob Gerhart, there killed one man, two women, and six children. Two of the children had slipped under the bed, one was burned, the other escaped, ran a mile to get to the people. On the 24th of March following, the Indians killed George Seisloff and wife, also a young man of twenty, a boy of twelve, and a young girl of fourteen years, four of whom were scalped. 874 LEHIGH COUNTY. The following petition shows the condition in which the inhabitants of a portion of Lehigh were placed, in these days of horror and dismay, by reason of Indian incursions: " A petition of the back inhabitants of Lehigh township, situate between Allentown and the Blue mountains in Northampton county, to the honorable Governor and General Assembly, October 5,1757, most humbly showeth: That the said township for a few years past has been, to your knowledge, ruined and destroyed by the murdering Indians. That since the late peace, thile said inhabitants returned to their several and respective places of abode, and some of them have rebuilt their houses and out-houses which were burnt; that since the new murders were committed, some of the said inhabitants deserted their plantations and fled to the more improved parts of the Province, where they remain; that if your petitioners get no assistance from you they will be reduced to poverty; that the district in which your petitioners dwell contains twenty miles in length and eight miles in breadth, which is too extensive for them to defend without you assist with some forces; that they apprehend it to be necessary for their defence that a road be cut along the Blue mountains through Lehigh township, and that several guard-houses be built along this said road, which may be accomplished with very little cost; that there are many inhabitants in said township who have neither arms nor ammunition, and who are too poor to provide themselves therewith; that several Indians keep lurking about the Blue mountains who pretend to be friends, and as several people have lately been captivated thereabouts, we presume it must be by them. May it, therefore, please your Honours to take our deplorable condition in consideration, and grant us men and ammunition, that we may thereby be enabled to defend ourselves, our property, and the lives of our wives and children, or grant such other relief, in the premises, as to you shall seem meet, and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray." The petitioners suggested to the Governor and Assembly that several guardhouses be built. Not long afterwards Fort Everett was erected, which appears to have been about twenty-five miles from Fort William, in Berks county. On the 8th of October, 1763, some fifteen or twenty Indians who had attacked the house of John Stenton made an attack upon the house of Nicholas Marks, Whitehall township. A detailed account of the attack is here given: "Early this morning, October 9th, came Nicholas Marks (to Bethlehem) and brought the following account, viz.: That yesterday, just after dinner, as he opened his door, he saw an Indian standing about two poles from the house, who endeavored to shoot at him; but Marks shutting the door immediately, the fellow slipped into a cellar close to the house. After this, Marks went out of the house with his wife and an apprentice boy, in order to make their escape, and saw another Indian standing behind a tree, who tried to shoot at them, but his gun missed. They then saw the third Indian running through the orchard, upon which they made the best of their way, about two miles off, to Adam Deshler's place, where twenty men in arms were assembled, who went first to the house of John Jacob Mickley, where they found a boy and a girl lying dead, and the girl scalped. From thence they went to Schneider's and Marks' plantations, and found both houses on fire, and a horse tied to the bushes. They also found Schneider, his 875 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. wife, and three children dead in the field, the man and woman scalped; and on going further, they found two others wounded, one of them was scalped. After this they returned with the two wounded girls to Deshler's, and saw a woman, Jacob Alleman's wife, with a child, lying dead in the road, and scalped. The number of Indians, they think, was about fifteen or twenty. I cannot describe the deplorable condition this poor country is in; most of the inhabitants of Allentown and other places are fled from their habitations. Many are in Bethlehem and other places of the brethren, and others farther down the country. I cannot ascertain the _number killed, but think it exceeds twenty." Adam Deshler lived on the .. north bank of Coplay ... creek, in a stone house built by him in the year 1760, which is yet in a good state Sof preservation and inhabited. Adjoining this house on the t, north was a large frame building, suffi DESHLER'S FORT7 LEHIGH COUNTY. [From a Pencil Sketch by Rev. W. C. Reichel.] ciently large for quar tering twenty soldiers and for military stores. This place was, during Indian troubles, a kind of military post. A representation of this house of defence has been furnished us by Rev. W. C. Reichel. From this period onward few outrages were committed by the Indians, owing to causes previously alluded to, and the country began to fill in by immigration, especially from the lower counties. When independence was declared, the people of this locality united in hailing the glorious event. Immediately, through the exertions of David Deshler and others, associations were promptly organized. Few held back for conscience-sake. The courage, fortitude, and self-denial of the German inhabitants of Lehigh were not surpassed in that emergency. Surrounding dangers, difficulties, and provocations were no obstacles to their unconquerable love of freedom and determined resistance to tyranny. There was no battle fought in Lehigh county, as has been erroneously stated, and the enemy never invaded its territory. From the Bethlehem Diary we learn that upon the refusal of the citizens there to have the laboratory for the manufacture of cartridges at that place, it was removed to Allentown. The quota of drafted men in Northampton county, as the proportion of the ten thousand men for the Flying Camp, as it was called, was three hundred and forty-six men; of this number about one hundred and twenty came from that portion of the county embraced in the present limits of Lehigh county. We learn from the Bethlehem Diary that, on the 30th of July, 1776, "one hundred and twenty recruits from Allentown and vicinity passed through this place to 876 LEHIGH COUNTY. the' Flying Camp in the Jerseys,' " and on the 10th of February, 1777, the Diary says, that, "for the past week, we have been informed of threats of some militia in the vicinity of Allentown, against us and our town." The threat, says Henry, we may suppose to have arisen from the Tory principles of many of the inihabitants of Bethlehem. The inhabitants of Lehigh county were not backward in showing their attachment to the principles of the Revolution. In the war of 1812-'14, the citizens of Lehigh were generally as prompt as those of other counties to offer their services at the call of their country, to march either to the northern frontier or elsewhere to fight in her cause. The following are the officers of a company of light dragoons: Peter Ruch, captain; William Boas, first lieutenant; George Keck, second lieutenant. In the Mexican war but few of the heroes hailed from Lehigh, yet there were about twelve or fifteen, among whom Andrew Yingling may be mentioned, as still wearing the bronze medal of the National Association of Veterans. In the war for the Union, " Little Lehigh" took a prominent part. Among the very first defenders of the Nation's Capital were the Allen Infantry, commanded by Captain, afterwards Major, Yaeger, to which special reference has been already made. These were followed by Company I, of the First Regiment, of which T. IH. Good of Allentown was chosen lieutenant-colonel. On the 21st July, 1862, the 47th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Colonel T. H. Good, was mustered into service for three years. The greater portion of this entire regiment was composed of men from Lehigh. It had seen service, says Professor Bates, in seven of the Southern States, participated in the most exhausting campaigns, marched more than twelve hundred miles, and made twelve voyages at sea. It was the only Pennsylvania regiment that participated in the Red River expedition, or that served in that department until after the surrender of Lee. After the disastrous battles on the Peninsula, the 128th Regiment was mustered into service. Companies D and G were composed of Lehigh county volunteers. This regiment participated in the battle of Antietam, where its brave colonel fell; afterwards it was stationed along the Potomac, until shortly before the battle of Chancellorsville, in which it took part, and was severely handled, losing many in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The 176th Regiment, also mustered in in 1862, was sent to Charleston, S. C., where it was mostly on fatigue duty. In addition to these, there were large portions of the 5th, 27th, 38th, and 41st Regiments of militia from Lehigh. ALLENTOWN was called Northampton until 1800, subsequently Allentown until 1811, then incorporated as the borough of Northampton until 1838, when the present name was finally adopted. It was laid out by James Allen in 1762, and is one of Pennsylvania's most beautiful cities. It is mostly situated on a wide plateau, on the right bank of the Lehigh river, and commands a fine prospect of the surrounding country, so that few cities in the State can vie with it in beauty of situation and loveliness of surrounding scenery. The houses are mostly of brick, the streets are wide, crossing each other at right angles, and are kept scrupulously clean and in excellent condition. The large and beautiful gardens, laid out with great taste, and displaying in some instances remarkable liberality in the culture of flowers, shrubbery, and fruit trees, surprise and astonish the stranger. The city is well lighted with gas, provided with a good HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA., not join them in less than thirteen days; that this would cause such a consumption of provisions as to render it necessary to bring forward another convoy from Fort Cumberland; and that in the meantime the French might be strengthened by a reinforcement which was daily expected at Fort Duquesne, and moreover, the two divisions could not move together after their junction. On the 4th the army again marched, and advanced to Turtle Creek, about twelve miles from its mouth, where they arrived on the 7th. This was the name of the eastern branch of Bushy Run, and the place of encampment was a short distance northerly of the present village of Stewartsville, Westmoreland County. It was General Braddock's intention to cross Turtle Creek, and approach Fort Duquesne, on the other side; but the banks were so precipitous, and presented such obstacles to crossing with his artillery and heavy baggage, that he hesitated, and Sir John St. Clair went out with a party to reconnoitre. On his return before night, he reported that he had found the ridge which led to Fort Duquesne, but that considerable work would be necessary to prepare a road for crossing Turtle Creek. This route was finally abandoned, and on the 8th the army marched eight miles, and encamped not far from the Monongahela, west of the Youghiogheny, and near what is called, on Scull's map, " Sugar Run." When Braddock reached this'place, it was his design to pass through the narrows, but he was informed by the guide, who had been sent out to explore, that the passage was very difficult, about two miles in length, with a river on the left, and a high mountain on the right, and that much work must be done to make it passable for carriages. At the same time he was told that there were two good fords across the Monongahela, where the water was shallow, and the banks not steep. With these views of the case, he determined to cross the ford the next morning. The order of march was given out, and all the arrangements were made for an early movement. About eight o'clock on the morning of t1hie 9th, the advanced division, under Colonel Gage, crossed the ford and pushed forward. After the whole army had crossed and marched about a mile, Braddock received a note from Colonel Gage, giving notice that he had passed the second ford without difficulty. A little before two o'clock the whole army had crossed this ford, and was arranged in the order of march on the river plateau. Colonel Gage, with the advanced party, was then ordered to march, and while the main body was yet standing on the plain, the action began near the river. Not a single man of the enemy had before been seen. To the brave grenadiers, says Patterson, who had stood firm on the plains of Europe, amid tempests of cannon balls cutting down whole platoons of their comrades, this new species of warfare was perfectly appalling, and unable longer to breast the girdle of fire which enveloped them, they gave way in confusion, involving the whole army in distress, dismay, and disorder. In such a dilemma, with hundreds of his men falling at every discharge, his ranks converted into a wild and reckless multitude, unable to rally and too proud to retreat, Braddock obstinately refused to allow the provincial troops, according to Watson, to fight the Indians in their own way, but with a madness incomprehensible, did his utmost to form the men into platoons and wheel them into close columns. The result was horrible, and the sacrifice of life without a HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. fire department, and supplied with the coolest of water from a spring within its limits. In fact, it presents an appearance of solid comfort and elegance rarely to be met in an inland city. Allentown has also great advantages for manufacturing purposes. Situated in the midst of a rich agricultural district, and surrounded by inexhaustible beds of iron, zinc, limestone, and cement, it is destined to become the centre of the manufacturing interests of the Lehigh valley. Excellent facilities for transportation are afforded by the Lehigh canal, the Lehigh Valley, Lehigh and Susquehanna, the East Penn. and the Perkiomen railroads, to all parts of the country. The principal manufacture is iron, of which probably one hundred thousand tons are produced annually. Besides furnaces for the manufacture of iron in the rough, there are foundries, rolling mills, and machine shops. Shoe, leather, and woolen goods are also largely manufactured. The tobacco and cigar trade is very extensive, and carriages and agricultural implements are sent hence to all parts of the country. The city supports three daily (two English and one German) and six weekly (two English and four German) newspapers, and one German monthly Sunday-school paper. Probably no city in the country excels Allentown in school-room accommodations for those who attend its public schools. The buildings are models of architectural taste and convenience, and no expense has been spared in their erection. Their value is estimated at $400,000. Higher education is also provided for by the establishment of Muhlenburg College, under Lutheran, and Allentown Female College, under Reformed auspices; these, together with the Business College and the Academy of Natural Science, Art, and Literature, including a museum and library, amply provide for the intellectual wants of the people. Their religious wants are supplied in twenty churches belonging to nine or ten different denominations. CATASAUQUA (signifying in the Indian language, " thirsty land ") originally called Craneville, derives its name from a creek flowing into the Lehigh at this place. It is a thriving town of about three thousand inhabitants. It was incorporated as a borough in 1852. Its iron works, almost its only industry, are on a gigantic scale, and being located in the midst of a rich iron ore and limestone region, bid fair to enjoy continued prosperity. The town also enjoys a good reputation for general intelligence and good schools. SLATINGTON, a thriving borough, received its present name about 1851, and owes its existence to the slate found in great abundance and of the best quality in its immediate vicinity. It is situated two miles below the Lehigh Water Gap, on the Lehigh Valley and the Berks County railroads, and is rapidly growing in size and importance. It was incorporated in 1864, with Robert McDowell as its chief burgess; in 1870 it contained upwards of fifteen hundred inhabitants. MACUNGIE (signifying "the feeding place of bears "), formerly called Millerstown, and incorporated as such in 1857, was laid out by Peter Miller about 1776. It is situated at the foot of the South mountain, on the East Pennsylvania railroad, about nine miles from Allentown. Among other towns in the county there are the following: COPLAY or SCHREIBERs, on the Lehigh river, five miles above Allentown, is of recent origin, but of rapid growth. The iron works of the Lehigh Valley Iron company are located here. EMAUS is at the foot of the South mountain, five miles south-west 878 LEHIGH COUNTY. from Allentown, on the East Penn. railroad. As early as 1747 the Moravians organized a church here. The first house in which they worshipped had been erected in 1742. FOGELSVILLE is nine miles from Allentown, at the junction of the Allentown and Millerstown road. It is situated in a fertile part of the county. HOKENDAUQUA is on the west bank of the Lehigh, a mile above Catasauqua. The village was laid out in 1855. It is the seat of the Thomas Iron works. TREXLERTOWN is a post town, eight miles from Allentown, on the Catasauqua and Fogelsville railroad. WHITEHALL, a post town, was known for many years as Siegfried's ferry, or as Siegfried's bridge. Colonel John Siegfried held several responsible positions in the Revolutionary army. He resided at this place. SAEGERSVILLE is a post town about seventeen miles north-west from Allentown, near the line of Heidelberg township. The country around the village is rough and broken. The original townships, on the organization of the county of Lehigh, were Hanover, Heidelberg, Lowhill, Lynn, Macungie, Milford, Salisbury, Upper Saucon, Weissenburg, and Whitehall. Since then Macungie was divided into Lower and Upper Macungie, in 1832; and Milford into Lower and Upper Milford in 1847; Washington township was formed from Heidelberg in 1847, and subsequently, from Whitehall was formed North and South Whitehall. SITE OF SHIKELLIMY'S TOWN, NEAR LEW\VISBURG. 8"9 THE INDIAN MASSACRE AT WYOMING. LUZERNE CO1NTY. I With acknowledgments to Steuben Jenkins, Wyoming; Stewart Pearce, Wilkes-Barre'; Thomas S. McNair, Hazleton; H. Hollister, M. D., Providence; and D. Yarrington, Carbondale.] PON the formation of the county of Northumberland, in 1772, compre hending within its limits the disputed territory of Wyoming, it was supposed, says Stewart Pearce, that the Provincial laws would be more readily extended over, and promptly enforced, against the Connecticut intruders. It was found, however, that the Yankees were as turbulent and ungovernable in Northumberland as they had been in Northampton county, and it was deemed advisable after the close of the Revolution to cut off the northern portion of the-- former county. Accordingly, by the act of the 25th of September, 1786, Luzerne county was established, and so named in honor of the Chevalier f De la Luzerne, then Minister of France to the United States. To perfeet the boundary lines LI of Luzerne in 1804, a portion of the north-western corner was annexed to Lycoming county, and in 1808 there was added to it a part of Northumberland lying west and south-west of the Nescoec creek. In 1810 a LUZERNE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, WILKES-BARRE. [From a Photograph by E. W. Beckwith, Plymouth.] portion of Bradford, then called Ontario, and Susquehanna counties, were set off from Luzerne. Wyoming county was formed out of the noith-western part in 1842, and in 1856 a small portion of Foster township was annexed to Carbon county, reducing Luzerne HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. to its present boundaries. The original territory of Luzerne embraced 5,000 square miles. Its present area is 1,427 square miles, being the largest county in the Commonwealth, containing 500 square miles more than Lancaster or Berks, and 67 more than the State of Rhode Island. Luzerne is very mountainous, yet notwithstanding its broken surface, boasts many beautiful and fertile valleys. Wyoming Valley is situated in the centre of the county, twenty-one miles in length from north-east to south-west, with an average breadth of three . miles. It contains forty - thousand acres of land, - of which twenty-five -! - _- _ - thousand are cultivated, Spthe remainder being oc -- _ cupied by groves, streams, etc. The Sus quehanna river grace fully winds through the -.. centre of the valley. The - mountains encompassing this valley vary in height from five hundred to ma nineteen hundred feet. ___ From Prospeet Rock, Campbell's or Dial Ledge, from Ross or Dilley's Hill, or upon a ny other prominent point of observation,' this valley presents a magnificent picture, - made famous in song and in story. The In dian name Maughwau wame, signifies large valley. Lackawanna Valley derives its name THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE WYOMING VALLEY. from the river which courses through its whole length. It is a delightful valley, with an undulating surface, extending in length thirty miles from north-east to south-west, and contains about eighteen thousand acres of land, a considerable portion of which is cultivated. Hunting ton Valley lies in the north-western part of the county. It comprehends portions of Fairmount and Ross townships, and nearly the whole of Huntington town ship. It is ten miles in length from north to south, and five miles wide, and contains more than thirty thousand acres of red shale land, three-fourths of which are cultivated. The Huntington creek flows through its whole extent. Sugar-loaf valley is situated in the south-western extremity of the county. 882 LUZERNE COUNTY. and includes part of Sugar-loaf, Butler, and Black Creek townships. It derives its name from an isolated cone-shaped mountain, five hundred feet high, towering near the centre of the valley. The Nescopec and Black creeks meander through the valley, uniting their waters in the south-west, where they break through the Nescopec mountain, and flow onward to the river. The mountains of Luzerne county belong to the main chain of the Alleghenies, which are here broken into high knobs, irregular spurs, and broad tablelands, crossing the north-western part of the county. Across the centre of the county runs the Shawnee and Lackawanna range; and parallel with it, and about six miles distant, is the chain of the Wyoming and Moosic mountains. The North mountain is the highest in the county, being two thousand feet above the Susquehanna river at Wilkes-Barr6. Capouse mountain, named from Capouse, the chief of the Monsey Indians, takes its rise in Ransom township, above the mouth of the Lackawanna river, and extends to Fell township in the north-east corner of the county. It forms the north-western boundary of Lacka wanna valley, and is eight hundred and fifty feet above the level of the river. Moosic mountain, formerly inhabited by the moose, bounds the Lackawanna valley on the south-east. Its average height is nine hundred and fifty feet. Nescopec mountain, a sharp, well-defined range, extends from Black Creek township on the south-western, to Jefferson township on the eastern boundary of the county. Its average height is one thousand feet, and it divides the waters that flow into the Lehigh from those flowing into the Susquehanna. Beside these, there are Shickshinny, Bald, Wyoming range, Buck and Crystal ridge. Campbell's rock, at the south-west point of Capouse mountain, is frequently visited by travelers and others, on account of the exceedingly beautiful and picturesque view of Wyoming presented to the eye from its summit. Lee's mountain, named from Colonel Washington Lee, extends along the Susquehanna. Pulpit rock, named by the early German settlers in Hollenbach township Kanzel Kopj, which it signifies, is a peak of this range. Honey Pot, the north-eastern terminus at Nanticoke, is eight hundred and sixty feet in height. This name was given to it by Major Alden, who, in 1772, discovered vast quantities of wild bees. Prospect rock and Penobscot knob are prominent points on the Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre range. The main stream is the Susquehanna river, which for a distance of forty-five miles courses through the county. The scenery along it is grand and picturesque -lofty mountains, craggy cliffs, green fields and groves, thriving towns, and crystal-bound islands, alternating along the winding stream. The Lackawanna river, rising in Susquehanna county, flowing south-west about fifty miles, unites with the Susquehanna river above Pittston. The principal creeks flowing into the Susquehanna in the north-west are Shickshinny, Hunlock, Harvey's, Toby's, Abram's, and Huntington. Harvey's creek is named from Benjamin Harvey, who located near its junction in 1775, and is the outlet of Harvey's lake, the largest body of fresh water in Pennsylvania. It is an immense spring of pure cold water, with a beautiful, clean, sand and gravel bottom, and varies in depth from five to two hundred feet. The principal streams emptying into the Susquehanna on the south-east are Nescopec, B* and Little Wapwallopen, Spring, Black, and Nayaug or Roaring creeks. The 883 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. main source of the Lehigh river is in Luzerne county. It forms the boundary line between that and Monroe county. Besides Harvey's lake alluded to, there are several others which for beauty are scarcely equaled, the principal of which are Crystal, Chapman's, and Henry. The latter is situated on the high range of the Moosic mountains, 1882 feet above the level of the sea. The principal anthracite coal formation of Pennsylvania underlies a great portion of Luzerne county. According to Professor Rogers, who says he measured it, the Northern coal field extends in length - fifty miles, from Beach's mine, one mile below Shick shinny, to a point some distance above Carbondale, and contains one hundred and seventy-seven square miles. The veins of coal vary in number from two to eight, ac cording to location, and in thickness from one to twenty eight feet. It is estimated that this entire field contains about 2,285,600,000 tons of good merchantable coal, to which we may properly add 128,000,000 tons, the amount computed to belong to that portion of the Eastern Middle coal field lying in Luzerne county. The knowledge of the use of coal seems to have been communicated by the Indians to the whites, who, how ever, remained a long time incredulous concerning its value. In 1768 Charles Stewart surveyed the Manor of Sunbury, opposite Wilkes-Barrd, and on the origi n- al draft is noted "stone coal" as appearing in what is now called Ross Hill. In the year follow ing, Obadiah Gore and his brother came from Connecticut with a body of settlers, and lilt used anthracite coal in his blacksmith shop. In 1766 Mr. Durham's boats were sent from below to Wyoming for coal, which was purchased from I1. Geer, and mined from the opening above Mill creek. The use of anthracite for domestic pur poses was discovered by Judge Jesse Fell. The following memorandum was made at the time on the fly-leaf of a book entitled LACKAWANNA FALLS. the "Free Mason's Monitor:" "February 11th, of Masonry, 5808. Made the experiment of burning the common stone coal of the valley in a grate, in a common fire-place in my house, and found it will answer the purpose of fuel. making a clearer and better fire, at less expense than burning wood in the common way. " February 11th, 1808. JESSE FELL." News of this successful experiment, says Stewart Pearce, soon spread through the town and country, and people flocked to witness the discovery. Similar ates were soon constructed by Judge Fell's neighbors, and in a short time were in general use throughout the valley. In the spring of that year, John and 884 LUZERNE COUNTY. 885 Abijah Smith loaded two arks with coal in Ransom's creek, in Plymouth, and took it down the river to Columbia, but on offering it for sale, no person could be induced to purchase. They were compelled to leave the black stones behind them unsold when they returned to their homes. The next year the Smiths, not discouraged by their former ill-success, taking two arks of coal and a grate, proceeded to Columbia. The grate was put up, and the practicability of using the black stones as a fuel was clearly demonstrated. The result was a sale of the coal, and thus began the initiative of the immense coal trade. Millions of money are now annually expended, thousands of miners employed, the dangers of damps, spontaneous combustion, and falling of the mines, are encountered to supply us with the black stones which were rejected as worthless only a little over half a century ago. Iron ore of various qualities has been discovered in Salem, Union, and Kingston townships, on the west side of the Susquehanna, and in Newport and Wilkes-Barrd townships on the east side; also along the Lackawanna and in the Moosic mountain. Iron works have been established in several sections of the county, but the most extensive in northern Pennsylvania are the Lackawanna iron works, belonging to the Lackawanna Iron and Coal company, located at Scranton. The blast furnaces comprise five stacks, two built in 1849, one each in 1852, 1854, and 1872. The rolling mills established in 1840 comprise one hundred and thirteen puddling furnaces, thirty-five heating furnaces, and twelve trains of rolls-steam and water power. The products of these mills are light and heavy railroad iron, merchant bar iron, and car axles, with an annual capacity of 112,000 net tons of rails, and 13,500 tons of merchant bar iron, etc. In 1875 Bessemer steel works were added, ccnsisting of two five-ton converters, four cupola furnaces, and four spiegel-melting cupolas, with an annual capacity of 45,000 net ton ingots. The first blow was made October 23, 1875; the first steel rail rolled December 29, 1875. Not long after the original settlement of the Province by Penn, a tribe of the Shawanese Indians had been permitted by the Six Nations, the lords of the Susquehanna, to settle upon the borders of that river at various points. One of their stations was on the western bank of the river, near the lower end of the Wyoming valley, upon a broad plain which still bears the name of the Shawnee flats. Here they built a town, cultivated corn upon the flats, and enjoyed many years of repose. When the encroachments of the whites interfered with the Delaware and Minsi or Monsey tribes above the Forks of the Delaware and Lehigh, and their lands were wrested from them by the subtlety of the "Indian Walk," the Six Nations assigned them also an asylum on the Susquehanna-the Monseys occupying the country about Wyalusing, and the Delawares the eastern side of the Wyoming valley, and the region at Shamokin, at the confluence of the North and West branches. Here, in the year 1742, with some aid from the Provincial government, as stipulated by the treaty of removal, they built their town of Maughwauwame, on the east side of the river, on the lower flat, just below the present town of Wilkes-Barr4. The Indian name of this town, modified and corrupted by European orthography and pronunciation, passed through several changes, such as M'ch wauwaumi, Wawamie, Waiomink, and lastly Wyoming. The Delawares had been removed from the east against their will, by the HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. dictatorial interference of the Six Nations, who supported the.pretensions of the Proprietary government in its claim to the lands at the forks. This wrong rankled in the hearts of the Delawares; and though fear of the superior strength of the whites and the Six Nations suppressed the wrath of the tribe for some years, yet Teedyuscung, their chief, did not fail to complain at every treaty of the wrongs inflicted on his nation. The smothered fire continued to burn, and years afterwards broke out in fearful vengeance upon the heads of the settlers at Wyoming. Soon after the arrival of the Delawares at Wyoming, in the same year, 1742, the celebrated Moravian missionary, Count Zinzendorf, for a season pitched his tent among the Indians of this valley, accompanied by another missionary, Mack, and the wife of the latter, who served as interpreter. Becoming jealous of the Count, unable to appreciate the pure motives of his mission, and suspecting him of being either a spy or a land speculator in disguise, the Shawanese had determined upon his assassination. The Count had kindled a fire, and was in his tent deep in meditation, when the Indians stole upon him to execute their bloody commission. Warmed by the fire, a large rattlesnake had crept forth, and approaching the fire for its greater enjoyment, the serpent glided harmlessly over the legs of the holy man, unperceived by him. The Indians, however, were at the very moment looking stealthily into the tent, and saw the movement of the serpent. Awed by the aspect and the attitude of the Count, and imbibing the notion, from the harmless movements of the poisonous reptile, that their intended victim enjoyed the special protection of the Great Spirit, the executioners desisted from their purpose, and retired. The Moravian mission was maintained here for several years, and many, both of the Shawanese and Delawares, became-apparently, at least-converts to the Christian faith. When the men of Connecticut began to swarm thickly in the valley, and collision was feared, the mission was removed to Wyalusing, where another station had been previously planted. As explained elsewhere, the Shawanese removed to the Ohio, and through the intrigues of the French became alienated from the English. During the war of 1755-'58, a variety of troubles continued to agitate the valley. The Nanticokes, fearful of proximity to the whites, removed to Chemung and Chenango, in the country of the Six Nations. The Delawares, after Braddock's defeat) openly declared for the French, and were doubtless active in many of the scalping parties that desolated the frontiers during the autumn of 1755. But they were conciliated by the Proprietary government, backed by the influence of Sir William Johnson and the Quakers of Philadelphia; their grievances were in a measure redressed, and their feelings soothed; new houses were built for them by the government, and munificent presents granted. A part of the nation had also removed to the Ohio, but Teedyuscung, and many of the Christian Indians, still remained at Wyoming. The first grant of lands in America, says Gordon, by the crown of Great Britain, were made with a lavishness which can exist only where acquisitions are without cost, and their value unknown; and with a want of precision in regard to boundaries, which could result only from entire ignorance of the country. In 1620, King James I. granted to the Plymouth Company, an association in England, a charter "for the ruling and governing of New England in America." This charter 886 LUZEUNE COUNTY. covered the expanse from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees of north latitude, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. There was an exception reserving from the grant all territories then actually in possession of the subjects of any other Christian prince or state. This exception operated in favor of the Dutch at Manhattan and Fort Orange, afterwards New York and Albany. The Plymouth Company in 1628 granted to the Massachusetts colony their territory, and in 1631 to the Connecticut colony theirs; both by formal charters, which made their western boundary the Pacific ocean. On the restoration of Charles II., he granted, in 1662, a new charter to the people of Connecticut, confirming the previous one, and defining the southern boundary to be at a point on the coast, one hundred and twenty miles southwest of the mouth of Narraganset bay, in a straight line. In 1764, the same monarch granted to his brother, the Duke of York, the territory then claimed and occupied by the Dutch, and extending westward as far as the Delaware bay. The same year the Duke conquered it from the Dutch, and took possession. A dispute arising between New York and Connecticut, concerning their boundary, it was determined by royal commissioners, in 1683, who fixed upon the present line between those States. This of course determined the southernmost point in the boundary of Connecticut, which is not far from forty-one degrees north latitude. This line, extending westward, would enter Pennsylvania near Stroudsburg, pass through Conyngham, in Luzerne county, and cross the Susquehanna at Bloomsburg, in Columbia county, cutting off all Northern Pennsylvania. In 1681, nineteen years after the date of the Connecticut charter, Charles II. granted to William Penn the memorable charter of Pennsylvania, by which the northern boundary of his Province was fixed at the forty-second degree of north latitude, where it is now established. Here, then, was a broad strip of territory granted by the same monarch to different grantees. The lands, however, like other portions of the wilderness, remained in possession of the Indians, and the pre-emption right only was considered as conveyed by the charters. The different principles involved in the charter of the Connecticut colony, and this Province, necessarily produced an essential difference in the manner of acquiring the Indian title to the land. In the colony, the right of pre-emption was vested irt the people; and the different towns in Connecticut were settled at successive periods, by different bands of adventurers, who separately acquired the Indian title either by purchase or by conquest, and in many instances without the aid or interference of the Commonwealth. In the Province, the pre-emption right was vested in William Penn, who made no grants of lands until the Indian title had been extinguished, and consequently the whole title in Pennsylvania was derived through the Proprietaries. In 1753 an association of persons, principally inhabitants of Connecticut, was formed for the purpose of commencing a settlement in that portion of the Connecticut territories which lay westward of the Province of New York. Agents were accordingly sent out for the purpose of exploring the country and selecting a proper district. The beautiful valley upon the Susquehanna river, in which the Indians of the Delaware tribe, eleven years before, had built their town of Wyoming, attracted the attention of the agents; and as they found the Indians apparently very friendly, and a considerable portion of the valley 887 GKENERAL HISTO R Y. parallel at that time, in Indian warfare. The Provincial regiments, unable to keep together, spread through the surrounding wood, and by this means did all the execution that was effected. Every man fought for himself, and rushing to PS ~V , J/ ~ _', ..J'b N> BRADDOCK'S FORCES SURPRISED BY AN AMBUSCADE. the trees from behind which gleamed the flash of the rifle, the brave frontiersmen often bayoneted the savage at his post. This perilous enterprise, however, was attended with a terrible sacrifice. Out of three full companies of Virginia troops, but thirty men were left. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. unoccupied except for purposes of hunting, they reported in favor of commencing their settlements at that place, and of purchasing the lands of the Six Nations of Indians residing near the great lakes, who claimed all the lands upon the Susquehanna. This report was adopted by the company; and as a general meeting of commissioners from all the English American colonies was to take place at Albany the next year, in pursuance of his Majesty's instructions, for the purpose of forming a general treaty with the Indians, it was considered that a favorable opportunity would then be presented for purchasing the Wyoming lands. When the general congress of commissioners assembled at Albany, in 1755, the agents appointed by the Susquehanna company attended also; and having successfully effected the objects of their negotiation, obtained from the principal chiefs of the Six Nations, on the 11th of July, 1754, a deed of the lands upon the Susquehanna, including Wyoming and the country westward to the waters of the Allegheny. In justice to the Pennsylvanians, says Stone, more or less siding with the Connecticut claimants, it must be allowed that they always protested against the legality of this purchase by their rivals, alleging that the bargain was not made in open council, that it was the work of a few of the chiefs only, and that several of them were in a state of intoxication when they signed the deed of conveyance. It is furthermore true, that in 1736 the Six Nations had sold to the Proprietaries the lands upon both sides of the Susquehanna, "from the mouth of the said river up to the mountains called the Kakatchlanamin hills, and on the west side to the setting of the sun." But this deed was held, by the advocates of the Connecticut purchase, to be quite too indefinite; and besides, as the "hills" mentioned, which are none other than the Blue mountains, formed the northern boundary not only of that purchase, but, in the apprehension of the Indians, of the colony of Pennsylvania itself, Wyoming valley could not have been included. In 1755, John Jenkins, as the surveyor of the Connecticut Susquehanna company, went on and proceeded to locate and survey the Susquehanna river. taking the latitude, etc. In the latter part of August, 1762, one hundred and nineteen of the proprietors went on to Wyoming and took possession of the lands in behalf of themselves and the company of proprietors. They took on with them horses, cattle, and farming utensils, and commenced operations in farming. They encamped on their arrival at the mouth of Mill creek, on the bank of the Susquehanna, where they built several huts for shelter and protection. They cut grass and made hay on the neighboring lands, sowed some grain, and continued there for some time, when, in consequence of the lateness of the season, and the scanty supplies of provisions, etc., the committee of settlers, John Jenkins, John Smith, and Stephen Gardner, advised a return to Connecticut until the next season, which was agreed to and accordingly done. Upon their arrival at Wyoming there were no white inhabitants there, and no Indians except a few families, with Teedyuscung as their chief. Teedyuscung, at a treaty held at Lancaster, on the 19th of November, 1762, says to the Governor: " You may remember that some time ago I told you that I should be obliged to move from Wyomink on account of the New England people, and now I acquaint you that soon after I returned to Wyomink from 888 LUZ ElNE COUNTY. Lancaster, there came one hundred and fifty of those people, furnished with all sorts of tools, as well for building as for husbandry, and declared they had bought the lands from the Six Nations, and would settle there, and were actually going to build themselves houses, and settle upon a creek called Lechawanock, about seven or eight miles above Wyomink. I threatened them hard, and declared I would carry them to the Governor at Philadelphia. They said they would go away and consult their Governor." Early in the month of May, 1763, the party that had been on the preceding year, with a large number of others, went on and renewed their possessions. They took with them horses, oxen, cows, and farming utensils, and proceeded to plowing, planting corn and sowing grain, building houses, and doing such things generally as their circumstances required. The settlements and improvements were extended into Wilkes-Barrd, Kingston, Plymouth, and Hanover. Several hundred acres were improved with corn and other grain, and a large quantity of hay cut and gathered, and everything was moving forward in a prosperous and happy manner, when, on a sudden and without the least warning, on the 15th day of October, the settlers were attacked while dispersed and engaged at their work, and about twenty of them slain. The others abandoned the settlement and fled back to Connecticut, or to Orange county, New York. There has always a mystery hung over the first massacre of Wyoming. An impression was made at the time, and successfully, to put it to the charge of the Indians, but facts subsequently brought to light would seem to indicate that it was the work of Pennamite soldiers. The Yankees in their report say that there were but few Indians when they went on there, and they friendly. On the other hand, it appears that in the latter part of September, 1763, a force under command of Rev. John Elder and Captain Asher Clayton-two hundred men for twenty days-had been organized and put in motion to march to Wyoming. " Their principal view was to destroy the immense quantities of corn left by the New England men at Wyoming, which, if not consumed, would be a considerable magazine to the enemy, and enable them, with more ease, to distress the inhabitants," etc. This was, at the time, the explanation of the motive for organizing and putting in motion the force spoken of, and seemed to answer the purpose, but in the light of subsequent events, shows to have been but a pretext for the damning atrocities committed on the 15th October. The report made of the expedition is as follows: "Our party, under Captain Clayton, has returned from Wyoming, where they met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been killed and scalped a day or two before they got there. They buried the dead-nine men and a woman-who had been most cruelly butchered. The woman was roasted, and had two hinges in her hands, supposed to be put in red hot; and several of the men had awls thrust into their eyes, and spears, arrows, pitchforks, etc., sticking in their bodies. They burnt what houses the Indians left, and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn," etc. After the return of the settlers in 1762, and during the winter, the committee, to wit: John Jenkins, John Smith, and Stephen Gardner, made report of the discovery of iron and anthracite coal at Wyoming, as also of the exceeding richness of the land; and the spirit of migration to that locality became very active 889 IllSTOR Y {)F PENNS YL VANIA. and earnest. " At a meeting of the Susquehanna company, held at Windham, April 17, 1763, it appearing that two hundred or three hundred of the proprietors of the lands on Susquehanna desire that several townships be laid out for the speedy settlement of the lands: it is, therefore, voted that there shall be eight townships laid out on said river, each of said townships to be five miles square, fit for good improvement, reserving for the use of the company for their after disposal all beds or mines of iron ore and coal that may be within the towns ordered for settlement." This would appear;' be the first discovery and mention of anthracite coal in the country. Iron tp "ught in those early days to be the most valuable, and was worked to a derable extent for more than fifty years after the discovery, but it is now g en up, and coal has become the great and absorbing industry at Wyoming-about eight millions of tons having been taken to market from the Wyoming field during the year 1675. The murder of twenty of the settlers, on the 15th October, 1763, and the subsequent destruction of their houses and corn, gave a serious check to the spirit of enterprise which was reaching out to the settlement of Wyoming, and turned the attention of many of those who had been at Wyoming to other localities. Dutchess and Orange counties, New York, and Sussex county, New Jersey, were made the future homes of those who had been at Wyoming, as well as those who had sold out their homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island, with intent to make their future homes t' ere. From the facts given it would clearly appear that Wyoming was not a that time the most pleasant nor the most healthy locality to settle in. Th, tide of migration, so suddenly and rudely checked, did not commence its flu ~or many years. In the meantime, the company was perfecting its organization and attempting "to procure his Majesty's confirmation of their said purchase and formation into a distinct colony, for the purpose of civil government. [Meeting at Windham, 6th January, 1768.] At a meeting held at Hartford, 28th December, 1768, after reciting the difficulties attending their former settlements, and giving the then condition of affairs respecting the lands at Wyoming, " it is voted to proceed and settle said land lying on and adjacent to said Susquehanna river, purchased from the Indians by said company, as soon as conveniently may be; voted that forty persons, upwards of the age of twenty-one years, proprietors in said purchases, and approved by the committee, nominated and appointed, proceed to enter upon and take possession of said lands for and in behalf of said company, by the first day of February next, and that two hundred more of said company, of the age aforesaid and approved as aforesaid, proceed and join said forty on the lands aforesaid, as early in the spring as may be for the purpose aforesaid, not later than the 1st of May next; and that, in order to encourage said forty persons to proceed to take possession and settle the lands aforesaid, for and in behalf of said company, that there be paid into the hands of a committee appointed and hereafter named, to and for the use of the said forty, the sum of two hundred pounds, to be laid out by said committee in providing proper materials, sustenance, and provisions for said forty, as the discretion of said committee shall be thought proper and needful, and for the further encouragement of said forty, as also for the encouragement of the said two hundred who may join them in the spring, accord890 LUZERNE COUITY. ing to the foregoing vote. It is further considered and voted to lay out five townships of land within the purchase of said company, and within the line settled with the Indians aforesaid, of five miles square each; three on one side of the river and two of them on the opposite side of the river, adjoining and opposite to each other, only the river parting; each of said townships to be five miles on the river. That the first forty have their first choice of the said five townships, the other four to belong to the two hundred-to be divided out to them oy fifties in a township, reserving and appropriating'three whole rights or shares in each township for the public use of a gospel-',inistry and schools in each of said towns, and reserving for their after di6jos-'1 beds or mines of iron ore and coal." In pursuance of the resolution of the commissioners f the Susquehanna company, which has just been given, the forty first settlers started on their journey in January, 1769, arriving in the valle on the last day of the month at WilkesBarr6, where they found, on the present site of Wilkes-Barre, Amos Ogden, a trader from New Jersey, with a few goods, chiefly trinkets, in possession of a log hut, and a few persons in possession of the lands at the mouth of Mill creek, where the massacre took place in October, 1763. On the 1st of February, these forty settlers passed over the river on the Kingston side and there located. They were under the direction of John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp, and Zebulon Butler, as a committee. They had brought with them horses and cattle, and utensils for farming, etc. The settlement was begun in the hea"t of a bitter cold winter, with the snow about eighteen inches deep on the groL L. They had brought but little forage,' and as their neighbors were indispc *d to favor their settlement among them, thei- horses and cattle were iii rcondition to perish for want of food. They, however, dug away the snow on which their animals fed, as also upon the young and tender twigs of the birch, etc. Yet notwithstanding this, nearly all of their horses died before spring opened. Unarmed by this unfavorable beginning, they went to work and built houses and established themselves as permanent settlers. The promised township was run out, surveyed, and laid out into lots, named meadow lots, house lots, and mountain lots, and divided among the settlers by lot, each receiving a forty-third part of thile township for himself, and three forty-third parts being set apart for public use, for the support of schools and the gospel ministry. They went to work and planted corn, sowed grain, gathered hay for winter, and were progressing prosperously, and as they supposed peaceably, with their work, when in the month of October, Sheriff Jennings of Northampton county, appeared in their mi(Ist with a writ for their apprehension. Yielding to civil authority they marched with the sheriff to Easton, where they were confined in jail on a charge of riot and forcible entry. And now commenced a bitter civil war, which lasted with the alternate success of the different parties for upwards of six years. In vain were the two colonial governments of Connecticut and Pennsylvania engaged in negotiations to adjust the question of jurisdiction. In vain had the Crown been appealed to for the same purpose, and in vain was the interposition of other colonial authorities invoked for that objekt. Now the colonists from Connecticut were increased by fresh arrivdls and obtained the mastery; and now again, either by numbers HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. or stratagem, did the Pennsylvanians become lords of the manors. Forts, blockhouses, and redoubts were built upon both sides; some of which sustained regular sieges. The settlements of both parties were alternately broken up-the men led off to prison, the women and children driven away, and other outrages committed. Blood was several times shed in this strange and civil strife, but, considering the temper that was exhibited, in far less quantities than might have been anticipated. Deeds of valor and of surprising stratagem were performed. But, strange to relate, notwithstanding these troubles, the population of the valley rapidly increased, and as the Connecticut people waged the contest with the most indomitable resolution, they in the long-run came nearest to success. The settlers, upon arriving upon the ground, or soon after, in connection with the other settlers from New England, organized a government of their own for the deciding of controversies and general management of their affairs. Their institutions were founded somewhat on the model of those of Solon, in which the principal authority was vested in the assemblies of the people. These assemblies made the laws, named or chose the judges and officers to administer them, and saw that they were executed. The meetings were held quarterly, or oftener, if need be, and the jurors sent up from the various towns chose the judges to preside over their deliberations. John Jenkins had the honor of presiding over the first and most of the subsequent meetings, and upon the change which took place subsequently, he was in 1777 appointed by the Legislature of Connecticut to preside a judge. The authority of commissioners in Wyoming was exercised by justices of the peace, constables, etc., upon the establishment of a court by sheriffs and other officers. The first intention of the commissioners of the Susquehanna company and of the settlers at Wyoming, was to establish a separate and independent government, but in consequence of the difficulty with the Pennamites, they were obliged to appeal to Connecticut for aid and protection, and finally to place themselves under her authority, which they did, and paid taxes into her treasury. They were at once the governors and the governed; the judges and the executive. Their authority consisted in superintending the education of youth, establishing schools and religious exercises, preserving morality and religion, and seeing that an industrious and honorable course of life be maintained, and that luxury, riot, extravagance, and error be suppressed. All these things were carried out through what were known as "town meetings," the peculiar institution of New England. In addition to the powers already enumerated, these town meetings organized the militia, and provided arms and equipments, chose jurors, elected representatives to the General Assembly, levied taxes, and exercised all other powers necessary for the existence of a State or Nation. In these town meetings grave public questions were discussed and decided upon, and one of their decisions had to them the force of the highest power of which they had knowledge, in fact more force than a law of the British Parliament-their supreme power in theory-for in town meeting it was declared that "taxation without representation is tyranny," while the Parliament said it was not, and they stood by the town meeting and made it the better authority. The New England settlers at Wyoming were governed by these town meetings 892 LUZERNE COUNTY. until 1774, when the whole district of country, then embracing eleven settled towns, was made into a township by the name of Westmoreland, and attached to Litchfield county, Connecticut. The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania concluded to assemble such forces as their personal exertions could raise for the recovery of Wyoming; and accordingly in September, a force of one hundred and forty men was placed under the command of Captain Ogden. A proclamation had been pi,blished at Philadelphia by Governor Penn, on the 28th June, 1770, directing all intruders to depart from Wyoming, and forbidding any settlements to be made there without the consent of the Proprietaries, and Ogden marched with his forces, accompanied by Aaron Van Campen, Esq., and other civil officers, ostensibly for the purpose of carrying this proclamation into effect. Ogden, knowing his strength was insufficient for the reduction of the settlement in case the settlers should be in garrison, concluded, if possible, to attack them by surprise; and to effect this the more safely, he commenced his march by way of Fort Allen, on the Lehigh, near the Water Gap, and thence by the Warrior's Path to Wyoming. Having arrived in sight of the Wyoming mountains, they left the Path for the greater safety, and on the night of the 21st of September encamped on the head-waters of Solomon's creek. In the morning of the 22d, Ogden, with a few attendants, ascended the high knob of Bullock's mountain, now called " Penobscot," which commands a view of the whole valley of Wyoming, from which, with his glasses, he observed the settlers leave the fort, and go into the fields in detached parties at a distance to their work. He concluded to attack them in this situatioi, unprovided with arms, and accordingly divided his forces into several detachments, which commenced their attacks nearly at the same time. The working parties were immediately dispersed in every direction, and many of them were taken prisoners and sent under an escort to Easton jail; the greater number succeeded in reaching the fort, where they immediately prepared for their defence. Night was approaching, and Ogden did not think proper to attack the fort. He accordingly removed his troops with their booty to their encampment at Solomon's gap. A consultation was held in Fort Durkee, and it was concluded, as they had provisions and ammunition to last some time, to send messengers to Coshutunk on the Delaware, for assistance. Accordingly about midnight the messengers departed, and thinking that Ogden and his party would be likely to guard the direct road to Coshutunk, they concluded to go out through Solomon's gap. Ogden's party for their better security had encamped without fires, and took the messengers prisoners in the gap; they learned from them the confused situation of the fort, filled with men, women, and children. Upon receiving this intelligence they concluded to make an immediate attack upon the fort. Accordingly Ogden's whole force was immediately put in motion, and a detachment, commanded by Captain Craig, suddenly entered the fort under cover of the night, knocked down the sentinel, and arrived at the door of the block-house before the garrison received notice of the attack. Several of the latter were killed in attempting to make resistance in the block-house, and Captain Craig's men having forced a number into a small room where they were trampling upon the women and children, knocked down Captain Butler, and were about to pierce him with their bayonets, when Captain Craig himself entered the apartment, drove the soldiers 893 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. back, and prevented further bloodshed. The fort being thus taken, the principal portion of the garrison were'again sent to prison at Easton, but Captain Butler and a few others were conducted to Philadelphia, where they were confined. Ogden and his party then plundered the settlement of whatever moveable property they could find, and having formed a garrison in the fort, withdrew with his booty to the settlements below the mountains, where most of his men resided. The Connecticut party having disappeared, the garrison considered themselves as secure, the fort being in a good state of defence; but on the 18th of December, about three o'clock in the morning, while the garrison were asleep, a body of armed men, consisting of twenty-three persons, from Hanover in Lancaster county, and six from New England, under the command of Captain Lazarus Stewart, suddenly entered the fort and gave the alarm to the garrison by a general huzza for King George. The garrison at this time consisted of only eighteen men, besides a considerable number of women and children, who occupied several houses erected within the ramparts of the fort. Six of the men made their escape by leaping from the parapet, and flying naked to the woods; the remaining twelve were taken prisoners, who, with the women and children, after being deprived of their moveable property, were driven from the valley, and Stewart and his party garrisoned the fort. Nathan Ogden, a brother of Captain Ogden, was killed in one of the subsequent sieges. Captain Ogden at the same time being closely besieged, and unable by any other mode to convey intelligence to Philadelphia, adopted a most ingenious stratagem to pass the enemy's lines. Having tied a portion of his clothes in a bundle, with his hat upon the top of them, and having connected them to his body by a cord of several feet in length, he committed himself to the river, and floated gently down the current, with the bundle following him at the end of the cord. Three of the redoubts commanded the river for a considerable distance above and below, and the sentinels, by means of the star-light, observing some object floating upon the river which excited suspicion, commenced a fire upon it, which was continued from two of the redoubts for some time, until observing that its motion was very uniform, and no faster than the current, their suspicions and their firing ceased. Ogden escaped unhurt, but his clothes and hat were pierced with several balls. There had settled on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and around the forks of the two branches, a race of men quite as resolute and pugnacious as the Wyoming boys; but, deriving their titles from Pennsylvania, they viewed with jealousy any attempt to occupy lands under Connecticut title. They had already routed an infant Connecticut settlement on the West Branch, and imprisoned the setil,rs at Sunbury. Colonel Plunkett, one of the We-t Branch men, not satisfled with this, was for carrying the war into the enemy's country; and accordingly, in 1775, about the 20th December, in the double character of magistrate and colonel, with a force of seven hundred armed men, and a large boat to carry provisions, he started up the North Branch, ostensibly on a peaceful errand, "to restore peace and good order in the county." The Wyoming boys knew all the strong points of their beautiful valley, itself a fortress, and intrenched themselves at the narrow rocky defile at Nanticoke falls, through which Plunkett's men must necessarily pass. The assailants were welcomed with a volley of musketry 894 LUZERNE COUNIY. on their first entrance into the defile, from the rampart on the western side. They fell back and deliberated. Pulling their small boat above the falls, they determined to pass their trodps over in small parties to the eastern side, and pass up into the valley under the beetling precipice that frowns upon the river there. The first boat load, which Plunkett accompanied, were attempting to land, when they were startled by a heavy fire from Captain Stewart, and a small party there concealed in the bushes. One man was killed-they tumbled into the boat and floated down the river as fast as the rapids would carry them. Another council was held. To force the breastwork on the western side was deemed impracticable; the amount of the force on the opposite shore was unknown; to ascend the steep rocky mountains in the face of a foe that could' reach the summit before them, and tumble down - rocks upon their heads, was equally impracticable; and ____ as in a few days the river STEWART'S BLOCK-HOUSE. might close, and leave them (Prom Stewart Pearce's Annals of lauzerne.] no means of exit by water, they concluded to abandon the enterprise. This was the last effort against Wyoming of the Provincial government, which expired the next year, amid the flames of revolution. For a time after the commencement of the Revolution, the valley of Wyoming was allowed a season of comparative repose. Both Connecticut and Pennsylvania had more important demands upon their attention. At the opening of the Revolution, "the pulsations of patriotic hearts throbbed with unfaltering energy throughout Wyoming. The fires of liberty glowed with an ardor intense and fervent." At a town meeting held August 1, 1775, it was voted, " That we will unanimously join our brethren of America in the common cause of defending our liberty." August 28, 1776, "Voted, that the people be called upon to work on ye forts without either fee or reward from ye said town." The same year, Lieutenant Obadiah Gore enlisted part of a company and joined the Continental army. Two other companies, each of eighty-six men, under Captain Robert Durkee and Captain Samuel Ransom, were raised under a resolution of Congress the same year, and joined the Continental army as part of the Connecticut line. These men were in the glorious affair at Mill Stone; they were in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and in the terrible cannonade at Mud Fort, where the gallant Spalding commanded the detachment, and where the brave Matthewson was cut in two by a cannon ball. In December, 1777, the town meeting voted, poor as they were, and almost all their able-bodied men away in the service-nobly voted-" that the committee of inspectors be 895 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. empowered to supply the sogers' wives and the sogers' widows and their families with the necessaries of life." Wyoming was an exposed frontier bordering on the country of the Six Nations-a people numerous, fierce, and accustomed to war. From Tioga Point, where they would rendezvous, in twenty-four hours they could descend the Susquehanna in boats to Wyoming. Nearly all the able.bodied men of Wyoming, fit to bear arms, had been called away into the Continental army. It was to be expected that the savages, and their British employers, should breathe vengeance against a settlement that had shown such spirit in the cause of liberty. They were also, beyond doubt, stimulated by the absconding Tories, who were burning with a much stronger desire to avenge what they conceived to be their own wrongs, than with ardor to serve their king. The defenceless situation of the settlement could not be concealed from the enemy, and would naturally invite aggression, in the hope of weakening Washington"s army by the diversion of the Wyoming troops for the defence of their own frontier. All these circumstances together marked Wyoming as a devoted victim. In November, 1777, many of the settlers on the North Branch of the Susquehanna, above Wyoming, who had moved into that locality from the Delaware, under the auspices of the Pennsylvania authorities, began to give manifest evidence of their sympathy with the British Crown, and of opposition to the American cause. Lieutenant John Jenkins, while out on a scout, in the latter part of the month, at Wyalusing, was betrayed by them into the hands of the Indians lurking about the locality, and was by them taken to Niagara. Upon report of this fact at Wyoming, Colonel Denison, of the 24th regiment of Connecticut militia, organized his little force and prepared to march into that locality. Ile reports that on the 20th of December, being informed that a band of Tories were forming on the westward of said town of Westmoreland, in order to stir up the Indians of Tioga to join said Tories and kill and destroy the inhabitants of Connecticut, he ordered part of his regiment to be immediately equipped and march to suppress the conspirators.... The party marched about eighty miles up the river, and took sundry Tories, over thirty, and happily contented the Tioga Indians, and entirely disbanded the conspirators. A number of these prisoners were sent to Connecticut to jail. Lieutenant Jenkins was the first prisoner taken from Wyoming, but he did not remain long alone, for in February, 1778, Amos York and Lemuel Fitch were taken by a band of marauding Indians, and also carried to Niagara. They were kept at this place during the winter, among a camp of British Indians and Tories of the most savage and degraded character. Many of the latter were from the upper Susquehanna, and bore a particular enmity to these prisoners, who, from this cause, suffered many insults, hardships, and injuries at the hands of their savage captors and keepers. The force wintering at Niagara during the winter of 1777-'78 had, most of it at least, been with General St. Leger in his attack on Fort Schuyler, in August, 1777, and in consequence of their defeat there by the American forces under Colonel Gansevoort, as brave a man as ever drew a sword, were greatly exasperated. For this reason they were exceedingly venomous and cruel in 896 LUZERNE COUNTY. their treatment of the prisoners in their charge. Their treatment is thus recorded in the "Annals of Tryon County:" " They had neither clothes, blankets, shelter, nor fire, while the guards were ordered not to use any violence in protecting the prisoners from the savages, who came every day in large companies with knives, feeling of the prisoners to find who were fattest. They dragged one of the prisoners out of the guard, with the most lamentable cries, tortured him for a long time, and the Tories and Indians said they killed and ate him, as it appears they did another on an island in Lake Ontario, by bones found there newly picked, just after they had crossed the lake with the prisoners. The prisoners were murdered in considerable numbers, from day to day, around the camp, some of them so nigh that their shrieks were heard. They were kept almost starved for provisions, and what they drew were of the worst kind, such as spoiled flour, biscuit full of maggots and mouldy, no soap allowed, or other method of keeping clean, and were insulted, struck, etc., without mercy by the guards without provocation." It was amidst such people, such scenes, and such sufferings,. that the Wyoming prisoners spent the winter, and of all which they suffered their full share. Early in the spring of 1778 they were taken to Montreal. At this place York and Fitch were put on board of a British transport, to be conveyed to some point in New England for release. Not having been found in arms, the British commander did not recognize or treat them as prisoners of war. Fitch died of a fever on the voyage. York survived until he reached Stonington, Connecticut, but died a few days after. As Lieutenant Jenkins was himself an active officer, and the son of one of the most distinguished men in Wyoming, the father having been several times chosen member of Assembly, and having been also judge of the court there, a proposal was made and accepted to exchange him for an Indian chibf, then a prisoner at Albany. Under an Indian escort he was sent to that city, and when they arrived it was found that the chief had recently died of the small pox. The rage of the young Indians who had escorted him could scarcely be restrained. They would have tomahawked Lieutenant Jenkins on the spot had they not been forcibly prevented. After remaining at Albany for a short time, the Indians started for Seneca Castle, taking Lieutenant Jenkins along with them, where it was declared they would immolate him to the manes of the dead chief for whom he was to have been exchanged. Their conduct toward their prisoner on the way assumed a frightful ferocity, and they would have put him to death in the early part of the journey but for the protecting care of a young chief, with whom he became acquainted at Niagara, and who formed a strong attachment for him. On the fourth night of the journey, Lieutenant Jenkins, with the assistance of the young chief, made his escape from the party and fled in the direction of home. lIe came upon the Susquehanna river near where the town of Union, N. Y., now stands, and by means of rudely constructed floats, drifted down the river to Wyoming, arriving home on the 2d of June, worn down with fatigue, exhausted and emaciated with starvation, almost naked, with feet torn and sore, for he had made the greater part of his journey barefooted. 897 TABLE OF CONTENTS. GENERAL HISTORY CHAPTER I. PAGE The Aborigines. The Susquehannas. The Delawares. The Shawanese. Indian Characteristics.......................................... 17 CHAPTER II. Discovery of the Delaware by Hudson. Settlement of the Dutch and Swedes. 1609-1681.......................................... 28 CHAPTER III. The Province of Pennsylvania granted to William Penn. The Proprietary Rule, until the Death of the Founder. 1681-1718................... 45 CHAPTER IV. Proprietary Rule. Administrations of Lieutenant Governors Keith, Gordon, Logan, Thomas, Palmer, and Hamilton. 1718-1754................ 67 CHAPTER V. Proprietary Rule. French and Indian War. Braddock's Expedition. In dian Ravages on the Frontiers. 1754-1756........................ 80 CHAPTER VI. Reward for Indian Scalps. Destruction of Kittanning. Expedition of General Forbes. Pontiac's Conspiracy. Bouquet's Expedition. 1756-1763.................................................... 93 CHAPTER VII. Indian Depredations on the Frontiers. The Destruction of the Indians at Conestoga. The so-called Insurrection of the Paxtang Boys. Bouquet's Expedition to the Muskingum. 1763-1764........................ 107 CHAPTER VIII. Relations between England and the Colonies. Mason and Dixon's Line. The outset of the Revolution. Resolves and Instructions of the Pro vincial Deputies. The Committee of Safety. 1765-1775............. 123 vii HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. This appalling scene lasted three hours, during which the army stood exposed to the steady fire of a concealed but most deadly foe, and men fell on every side like grass before the sweep of the sickle. Finally, General Braddock, after having five horses killed under him, fell mortally wounded by the hand of an outraged American named Faucett. At his fall all order gave way, and what remained of that so lately proud army, rushed heedlessly into the river, abandoning all to the fury of the savages and French. Artillery, ammunition, baggage, including the camp chest of General Braddock, all fell into the hands of the victorious enemy. The retreating army rushed wildly forward, and did not stop until coming up to the rear division. So appalled were the latter at the terrible disaster, that the entire army retreated with disgraceful precipitancy to Fort Cumberland. This, according to Smollett, " was the most extraordinary victory ever obtained, and the farthest flight ever made." It was the most disastrous defeat ever sustained by any European army in America. Sixty-three officers and seven hundred and fourteen privates were killed or dangerously wounded. There is, perhaps, no instance upon record, where so great a proportion of officers were killed. Out of the eighty-six composing the regiment, but twenty-three escaped unhurt. Their brilliant uniform seemed sure marks for the deadly aim of the savage. On that disastrous day the military genius of Washington shone forth with much of that splendor which afterwards made him so illustrious. His courage, energy, bravery, and skill displayed on this occasion marked him as possessed of the highest order of military talents. After the fall of Braddock with his Provincial troops, he covered the retreat, and saved the remnant of the army from annihilation. General Braddock was taken to Dunbar's Camp, on the summit of Laurel Hill, where he breathed his last, on the fourth day after the battle. His body was interred in the centre of the road, and the entire army marched over the spot in order that the remains of the unfortunate General might not be desecrated by savage hands. In 1802, according to the Hon. Andrew Stewart, while repairing the old military road, the remains of General Braddock were re-interred at the foot of a large white oak tree, except a few which found their way into the possession of Mr. Peale, of Philadelphia, and in the conflagration of his museum were finally destroyed. In the correspondence of General Braddock with his government, from the time of his arrival in Virginia to his defeat, he complains that Pennsylvania and Virginia would not give the aid he demanded. The disputes at that period in the Proprietary government, says Duponceau, account in some degree but not sufficiently for these results. The Quaker spirit in Pennsylvania may be supposed to have produced them, but it was used as a means instead of a primary cause. It is certain that at that time a leading Quaker, who was speaker of the Assembly, said in debate: " I had rather see Philadelphia sacked three times by the French than vote a single copper for the war." It is easy to see from this the difficulties Braddock had to contend with. Had he received the earnest support of the Province, his success would have been assured. The ScotchHISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. THE WYOMING MASSACRE. The year 1778 brought great distress and fear to the frontier generally, but particularly to Wyoming. The defeat and surrender of Burgoyne, at Saratoga, in October, 1777, had left the British without sufficient available force in America to carry on a regular campaign for this year, and as the war was to be continued, the only resource left to the British government and commanders in America, was to employ the Indians and Tories almost exclusively, in carrying on a war of desolation on the frontier. This was their declared policy, and it was at once suspected and feared that Wyoming would be among the first to be attacked, for who were so hated and exposed as the people at Wyoming? They had been amongst the first to declare against British usurpations, and had been the most earnest in supplying men and means to support their declaration. In this state of affairs the people of the ov' frontiers appealed to Congress for forces for )' o their protection. The people of Wyoming, ,- in particular, represented to Congress the *. " threatening situation of affairs in their local STOCKADE ity, and made an earnest appeal for aid. SMONOCKONOCK,& FTrDE Moved by their urgent entreaties, Congress S came to the rescue of Wyoming in the follow..-ing remarkable resolution: "March 16, 1778. USQUERATA Resolved, That one full company of foot be raised in the Town of Westmoreland, on the THE WYOMING BATTLE GROUND. East branch of the Susquehanna, for the de fence of the said Town and the settlements on the frontier in the neighborhood thereof, againt the Indians, and the enemies of these States; the said company to be re-enlisted to serve one year from the time of their enlisting unless sooner discharged by Congress, and that the said company find their own arms, accoutrements, and blankets." It would not be difficult to estimate how much this resolution of Congress added to the effective force at Wyoming. It was just equivalent to a suggestion of this sort: Wyoming has appealed to us for help; Wyoming needs help undoubtedly. Let Wyoming help herself; she has our permission to do so, provided she builds her own forts, and furnishes her "own arms, accoutrements, and blankets." This, however, was not satisfactory to the people of Wyoming. Immediately upon receiving intelligence of the action of Congress, they again informed Congress of the threatening danger, and their exposed and defenceless condition, and prayed that the two Wyoming companies of Durkee and Ransom be returned home to guard and protect them through the impending peril. They felt that there should be no difficulty about this demand being complied with, as those companies had been raised for the express purpose of defending their homes. When called upon, however, to go on the distant service of the Republic, and leave their homes defenceless, they marched with the utmost alacrity. Not a murmur was heard, for every man felt that the case was one of imperious necessity, and not one of them entertained a doubt but that the moment affairs were in proper condition to permit it, the pledge "to be sta898 LUZERNE COUNTY. tioned in proper places to defend their homes," would be regarded in good faith, and they be ordered back to the valley. Independent of a just regard for the pledge noticed, and without considering specially the interests of her people, policy would seem to have dictated the taking of early and ample measures to defend Wyoming. General Schuyler wrote to the board of war on the subject. The officers and men earnestly plead and remonstrated that their families, left defenceless, were now menaced with invasion, and adverted to the terms of their enlistment. History affords no parallel of the pertinacious detention of men from their homes under such circumstances. Treachery is not for a moment to be lisped, and yet the malign influence of the policy pursued, and the disastrous consequences, could not have been aggravated if they had been purposely withheld. Nothing could have been more frank and confiding, more brave and generous, than the whole conduct of the Wyoming people from the beginning of the contest, and it is saying little to aver that they deserved at the hands of Congress a different requital; but mercy, justice, and policy plead in vain. Wyoming, says Moore, seems to have been doomed by a selfishness or treachery which cannot be designated except by terms which respect forbids us to employ. The return of Lieutenant Jenkins, and the intelligence he brought, confirmed the worst suspicions of the people, and they became at once actively aroused to the true danger of their situation. He informed them that the great mass of the Indians and Tories up the river and in New York had wintered in Niagara, that they had been abusive to him there while in captivity, and had threatened to go to Wyoming in the summer, drive off the settlers, and take possession of the country for themselves; that a plan of this kind had been concerted before he left there. This was the first reliable information the settlers had received of the threatened invasion of Wyoming, although it was well known much earlier that an invasion of the frontiers somewhere was to be made from Niagara by the combined force of British, Indians, and Tories that wintered at that place, and although not certainly known, it was very strongly suspected that Wyoming and its neighborhood was the objective point. An express was immediately sent to the commander-in-chief and to Congress to inform them of the certainty of the threatened invasion, and to demand that the companies of Durkee and Ransom be immediately sent to Wyoming, together with such additional force as could be spared for the occasion. Captain Dethick Hewitt, who had been appointed to enlist and command the new company, raised under the resolution of Congress, which has been given, and who were to furnish their own arms, accoutrements, and blankets, was immediately sent up the river on a scout. On the 5th of June there was an alarm from the Indians and six white men, Tories, coming in the neighborhood of Tunkbannock, about twenty-five miles up the river from Wyoming, and taking Wilcox, Pierce, and some others prisoners, and robbing and plundering the inhabitants of the neighborhood. News of this incursion was brought to the valley on the night of the 6th of June, and on the 7th, although Sunday, the inhabitants began to fortify. The same day an alarm came up from Shawney. For a week or more after this there appeared to be a lull in the storm at Wyoming, but it was raging with great fierceness in other quarters. 899 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. The force that wintered at Niagara and in western New York, in pursuance of orders issued by Colonel Guy Johnson, assembled at Kanadaseago or Seneca Castle, early in May, and from this point sallied forth in divisions to carry on their hellish work. Although the objective point was Wyoming, yet they were to divide their force into parties and attack different points, lay them waste, spread terror, consternation, and, death on every hand, that their ultimate destination might not be positively known, and no force of sufficient size to offer successful resistance be concentrated against them; and by dividing their force and sending it into different localities, they would be the better able to learn the strength and direction of any force that might be sent to oppose them. Captain Joseph Brant, or Thayendenegea, with his Mohawks, some Senecas, Schoharries, and Oquagoes, went by way of the outlet of the Seneca and Cayuga lakes, and the head-waters of the Mohawk, and arrived in the vicinity of Cherry valley about the 25th of May. He secreted his forces on Lady Hill, about a mile east of the fort, to await a favorable opportunity to strike the fatal blow and slay or capture its inhabitants. A company of boys happened to be training as Brant was looking down from his hiding place upon the devoted hamlet. Mistaking these miniature soldiers for armed men, he deferred the attack for a more favorable opportunity. After killing Lieutenant Wormwood, a promising young officer from Palatine, who had left the fort but a few minutes before on horseback, and taking Peter Sitz, his comrade, prisoner, Brant directed his course toward Cobelskill. On the first of June, 1778, was fought the battle of Cobelskill. The Indian forces, commanded by Brant, amounted to about three hundred and fifty. The American forces, commanded by Captains Patrick and Brown, amounted to about fifty. Of the latter force, twenty-two were slain; among them, Captain Patrick. Six were wounded, and two made prisoners. The enemy had about an equal number killed. The battle was fought mostly in the woods, and both parties fought in the Indian style, under cover of trees. From here Brant, after committing further depredations in that quarter, led his forces to Tioga, where he joined the main body of the enemy marching to the invasion of Wyoming. Major John Butler, commonly known as Colonel Butler, with the British and Tories amounting to about four hundred, and a party of Indians under Guiengwahto and Gucingerachton, both Seneca chiefs, amounting to about four hundred, passed up Seneca Lake and proceeded to Chemung and Tioga, at which point they engaged in preparing boats for transporting themselves and their baggage down the North-east Branch of the Susquehanna. A considerable body of the Indians, about two hundred, under Gucingerachton, were detached at Knawaholee or Newtown, and sent across the country to strike the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and lay it waste, while Guiengwahto and Brant assisted in preparing the boats. Gucingerachion with his force swept the West Branch as with the besom of destruction. Consternation seized the people, and they fled in wild despair before the invading host, but death and desolation pursued them. Forty-seven were slain, and twenty-one taken prisoners. Wyoming is now becoming the gathering point of all these scattered parties. 900 LUZERNE COUNTY. A glance at the situation shows that the storm is forming dark and fearful in that direction, boding death and destruction through all its borders. On the 12th of June, William Crooks and Asa Budd went up the river to a place some two miles above Tunkhannock, formerly occupied by a Tory named Secord, who had been absent at Niagara since the fall before. Crooks was fired upon by a party of Indians and killed. On the 17th, a party of six men, in two canoes, went up the river to observe the movements of the enemy. The party in the forward canoe landed about six miles below Tunkhannock, and ascended the bank They saw an armed force of Indians and Tories running toward them. They gave the alarm, returned to their boats, and endeavored to get behind an island to escape the fire of the enemy which was being poured in upon them. The canoe in which were Mina Robbins, Joel Phelps, and Stephen Jenkins, was fired upon, and Robbins killed and Phelps wounded. Jenkins escaped unhurt, although his paddle was pierced and shattered by a bullet. In the party that fired upon this canoe was Elijah Phelps, the brother of Joel and brother-in-law of Robbins. Captain Hewitt, with a scouting party, went up the river on the 26th, and returned on the 30th of June with news that there was a large party up the river. At Fort Jenkins, the uppermost in the valley, and only a mile above Wintermoot's, there were gathered the families of the old patriot, John Jenkins, Esq., the Hardings, and Gardners, distinguished for zeal in their country's cause, with others. Not apprised of the contiguity of the savage, on the 30th of June, before Captain Hewitt's return, Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding, James Hadsall, and his sons James and John, the latter a boy, Daniel Weller, John Gardner, and Daniel Carr, eight in all, took their arms and went up the river, five miles into Exeter, to their labor. Towards evening they were attacked. That they fought bravely was admitted by the enemy. Weller, Gardner, and Carr were taken prisoners. Benjamin and Stukely Harding, James Hadsall, and his son James were killed. John Hadsall, the boy, threw himself into the river and lay concealed under the willows, his mouth just above the surface. He heard, with anguish, the dying groans of his friends. Knowing he was near, the Indians searched carefully for him. At one time they were so close he could have touched them. He lay until late in the evening, then got out and went to the fort. Colonel Zebulon Butler, of the Continental army, then at home, assumed command of the settlers. On the 1st of July, Colonel Nathan Denison and Lieutenant-Colonel George Dorrance, with all the force gathered at that time, marched from Forty Fort to Exeter, a distance of eleven miles, where the murders of the preceding day had been perpetrated. The two Hardings, it appeared, must have contended to the last, for their arms and faces were much cut, and several spear holes were made through their bodies. All were scalped and otherwise mutilated. Two Indians who were watching the dead, expecting that friends might come to take away the bodies, and they might obtain other victims, were shot-one where he sat, the other in the river, to which he had fled. The bodies of the Hardings, says Miner, were removed and decently interred near Fort Jenkins, where, many years afterward, Elisha Harding, HISTORY OF PENNSY LVANIA. their brother, caused a stone to be raised to their memory, with this inscription: " Sweet be the sleep of those who prefer liberty to slavery." The enemy, numbering about two hundred British provincials, and about two hundred Tories from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, under the command of Major John Butler, and Captain Caldwell, of Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, and about five hundred Indians, commanded by Guiengwatoh, a Seneca chief, and Captain Joseph Brant, Thayendenegea, a Mohawk, descended the Susquehanna river in boats, and landed near the mouth of Bowman's creek, where they remained a short time waiting for the West Branch party to join them. This party, as before stated, consisted of about two hundred Indians under the command of Gucingerachton. The whole force, after the junction, VIEW OF FORTY FORT IN 1778. [From Stewart Pearce's Annals of Luzerne.] numbered about eleven hundred, and these moved forward to the invasion of Wyoming. They left the largest of their boats at this place, and with the lighter ones passed on down to the "Three Islands," five or six miles below, and about fifteen miles from the valley. From this point they marched overland, and encamped, on the evening of the 30th of June, on Sutton's creek, about two miles from where the Hardings were killed. The Hadsalls were taken to this place and put to death, with the most excruciating tortures, which furnished nearly an hour's pleasant pastime to the demoniac crew. On the 1st of July, while the settlers were marching up the river to bring down the dead bodies of the Hardings, and if possible chastise their murderers, the enemy were marching toward the valley by a route back of the mountain 902 LUZERNE (OUNTY. which lay between them and the route the settlers took in marching up and returning. They arrived and encamped on the mountain bounding the valley on the north-west, at a point directly opposite Wintermoot Fort. Parties from the enemy passed in and out of Wintermoot Fort the same evening. On the morning of the 2d the gates of Wintermoot Fort were thrown wide open to the enemy and possession was taken by them. The inmates of the fort consisted chiefly of Tories, who treacherously surrendered it to the enemy. " The evening of the same day," says Miner, "a detachment, under the command of Captain Caldwell, was sent to reduce Jenkins' Fort. Originally the garrison consisted of seventeen, mostly old men, four of whom were slain and three made prisoners, as narrated above, so that no means of resistance being left, the stockade capitulated on honorable terms." During this and the following day the settlers were engaged in gathering all the force they had at Forty Fort. This stood a short distance below the site of Forty Fort church at Kingston, about eighty feet from the river. It covered half an acre of ground. Its shape, says Stewart Pearce, was that of a parallelogram fortified by stockades, which were logs set in the ground and extending twelve feet above, sharpened at the top. Its joints were covered by other stockades, which rendered the barrier of nearly double thickness. There was a gateway at each end and a sentry-box at each corner. The whole American force consisted of about three hundred, exclusive of the train band and boys. Colonel Zebulon Butler happened to be at Wyoming at the time, and though he had no proper command, by invitation of the people he placed himself at their head, and led them to battle. There never was more courage displayed in the various scenes of war. History does not portray an instance of more gallant devotion. There was no other alternative but to fight and conquer, or die; for retreat with their families was impossible. Like brave men, they took counsel of their courage. On the 3d of 4uly they marched out to meet the enemy. Colonel Zebulon Butler commanded the right wing, aided by Major Garret. Colonel Dennison commanded the left, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel George Dorrance. The field of fight was a plain, partly cleared and partly covered with scrub-oak and yellow-pine. The right of the Wyoming men rested on a steep bank which descends to the low river-flats; the left extended to a marsh, thickly covered with timber and brush. Opposed to Colonel Zebulon Butler, of Wyoming, was Colonel John Butler, with-his Tory rangers, in their green uniform. The enemy's right wing, opposed to Colonel Dennison, was chiefly composed of Indians. It was between four and five o'clock in the afternoon when the engagement began, and for some time it was kept up with great spirit. On the right, in open field, our men fired and advanced a step, and the enemy was driven back. But their numbers, nearly three to one, enabled them to outflank our men, especially on the left, where the ground, a swamp, was exactly fitted for savage warfare. Our men fell rapidly before the Indian rifles; the rear as well as the flank was gained, and it became impossible to maintain the position. An order to fall back, given by Colonel Dennison, so as to present a better front to the enemy, could not be executed without confusion, and some misunderstood it as a signal to retreat. The practised enemy, not more brave, but, besides being more numerous, familiarized to war in fifty battles, sprang forward, raised their 903 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. horrid yell from one end of the line to the other, rushed in with the tomahawk and spear, and our people were defeated. They deserved a better fate. One of the men yielding a little ground, Colonel Dorrance, a few minutes before he fell, with the utmost coolness, said, " Stand up to your work, sir." After the enemy was in the rear, "See! " said an officer to Captain Hewitt, "the enemy is in force behind us; shall we retreat? " "Never! " was his reply; and he fell at the head of his men. "We are nearly alone," said Westbrook; " shall we go?" "I'll have one more shot first," replied Cooper. That instant a savage sprang towards him with his spear. Cooper stretched him on the earth, and reloaded before he left the ground. When the left was thrown into confusion, our Colonel Butler threw himself in front, and rode between the two lines, exposed to the double fire. " Don't leave me, my children," said he; "the victory will be ours." But what could three hundred undisciplined militia effect against eleven hundred veteran troops? The battle was lost I Then followed the most dreadful massacre-the most heart-rending tortures. The brave but overpowered soldiers of Wyoming were slaughtered without mercy, principally in the flight, and after surrendering themselves prisoners of war. The plain, the river, and the island of Monockonock were the principal scenes of this horrible massacre. Sixteen men, placed in a ring around a rock, were held by stout Indians, while they were, one by one, slaughtered by the knife or tomahawk of a sqaw. One individual, a strong man, by the name of Hammond, escaped by a desperate effort. In another similar ring, nine persons were murdered in the same way. Many were shot in the river and hunted out and slain in their hiding-places (in one instance by a near, but adverse relative), on the now beautiful island of Monockonock. But sixty of the men who went into the battle survived; and the forts were filled with widows and orphans (it is said the war made one hundred and fifty widows and six hundred orphans in the valley), whose tears and cries were suppressed after the surrender, for fear of provoking the Indians to kill them, for it was an Indian's pastime to brandish the tomahawk over their heads. A few instances will show how universal was the turn-out, and how general was the slaughter. Of the Gore family, one was away with the army, five brothers and two brothers-in-law went into the battle. At evening five lay dead on the field, one returned with his arm broken by a rifle ball; the other, and only one, unhurt. From the farm of Mr. Weeks, seven went out to battle; five sons and sons-in-law, and two inmates. Not one escaped-the whole seven perished. Anderson Dana went into battle with Stephen Whiting, his son-in-law, a few months before married to his daughter. The dreadful necessity of the hour allowed no exemption like that of the Jewish law, by which the young bridegroom might remain at home for one year, to cheer up his bride. The field of death was the resting-place of both. Anderson Dana, Jr.-then a boy of nine or ten years old-was left the only protector of the family. They fled, and begged their way to Connecticut. Of the Inman family, there were five present in the battle. Two fell in the battle, another died of the fatigues and exposure of the day; another was killed the same year by Indians. About two-thirds of those who went out fell. Naked, panting, and bloody, a few, who had escaped, came rushing into Wilkes-Barrd fort, where, trembling with anxiety, the women and children were gathered, waiting the dread issue. LUZERNE COUNTY. Mr. Hollenback, who had swam the river naked, amid the balls of 1he enemy, was the first to bring them the appalling news-" All is lost!" They fled to the mountains, and down the river. Their sufferings were extreme. Many widows and orphans begged their bread, on their way home to their friends in Connecticut. In one party, of near a hundred, there was but a single man. As it was understood that no quarter would be given to the soldiers of the line, Colonel Zebulon Butler, with the few other soldiers who had escaped, retired that same evening, with the families, from Wilkes-Barrd fort. But-those left at Forty Fort? During the battle they could step on the river bank and hear the firing distinctly. For a while it was kept up with spirit, and hope prevailed; but by and by, it became broken and irregular, approaching nearer and nearer. "Our people are defeated-they are retreating!" It was a dreadful moment. Just at evening a few of the fugitives rushed in, and fell down exhausted-some wounded and bloody. Through the night, every hour one or more came into the fort. Colonel Dennison also came in, and rallying enough of the wreck of the little Spartan band to make a mere show of defend. ing the fort, he succeeded the next day in entering into a capitulation for the settlement, with Colonel John Butler, fair and honorable for the circumstances; by which doubtless many lives were saved. This capitulation, drawn up in the handwriting of Rev. Jacob Johnson, the first clergyman of the settlement, stipulated: " That the settlement lay down their arms, and their garrison be demolished. That the inhabitants occupy their farms peaceably, and the lives of the inhabitants be preserved entire and unhurt. That the Continental stores are to be given up. That Colonel Butler will use his utmost influence that the private property of the inhabitants shall be preserved entire to them. That the prisoners in Forty Fort be delivered up. That the property taken from the people called Tories, be made good; and that they remain in peaceable possession of their farms, and unmolested in a free trade through this settlement. That the inhabitants which Colonel Dennison capitulates for, together with himself, do not take up arms during this contest." The enemy marched in six abreast, the British and Tories at the northern gate, the Indians at the southern, their banners flying and music playing. Colonel Dorrance, then a lad in the fort, remembered the look anrd conduct of the Indian leader-all eye-glancing quickly to the right, then glancing to the left-with all an Indian's jealousy and caution, lest some treachery or ambush should lurk in the fort. Alas I the brave and powerful had fallen; no strength remained to resist, no power to defend I On paper, the terms of the capitulation are fair, 1 ut the Indians immediately began to rob and burn, plunder and destroy. Colonel Dennison complained to Colonel Butler. "I will put a stop to it, sir; I will put a stop to it," said Butler. The plundering continued. Colonel D. remonstrated again with energy, reminding him of his plighted faith. "I'll tel you what, sir," replied Colonel Butler, waving his hand impatiently, " I can do nothing with them; I can do nothing with them." No lives, however, were taken by the Indians; they confined themselves to plunder and insult. To show their entire independence and power, the Indians came into the fort, and one took the hat from Colonel 905 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Dennison's head. Another demanded his rifle-frock, which he had on. It did not suit Colonel D. to be thus stripped; whereupon the Indian menacingly raised his tomahawk, and the colonel was obliged to yield, but seeming to find difficulty in taking off the garment, he stepped back to where the women were sitting. A girl understood the movement, and took from a pocket in the frock a purse, and hid it under her apron. The frock was delivered to the Indian. The purse, containing a few dollars, was the whole military chest of Wyoming. Colonel Butler is represented as a portly, good-looking man, perhaps fortyfive, dressed in green, the uniform of his rangers. He led the chief part of his army away in a few days; but parties of Indians continued in the valley, burning and plundering, until at length fire after fire arose, east, west, north, and south. In a week or ten days it was seen that the articles of capitulation afforded no security, and the remaining widows and orphans, a desolate band, with scarcely provisions for a day, took up their sad pilgrimage over the dreary wilderness of the Pokono mountains, and the dismal " Shades of Death." Most of the fugitives made their way to Stroudsburg, where there was a small garrison. For two or three days they lived upon whortleb erries, which a kin Providence seems to have furnished in uncommon abundance that season-the manna of that wilderness. Soon after the battle, Captain Spalding, with a company from Stroudsburg, took possession of the desolate valley, and rebuilt the fort at Wilkes-Barr6. Colonel Hartley, from Muncy Fort, on the West Branch, also went up the North Branch with a party, burned the enemy's villages at Wyalusing, Sheshequin, and Tioga, and cut off a party of the enemy who were taking a boat-load of plunder from Wyoming. In March, 1779, the spring after the battle, a large body of Indians again came down on the Wyoming settlements. The people were few, weak, and ill prepared for defence, although a body of troops was stationed in the valley for that purpose. The savages were estimated at about four hundred men. They scattered themselves abroad over the settlements, murdering, burning,. taking prisoners, robbing houses, and driving away cattle. After doing much injury, they concentrated their forces and made an attack on the fort in Wilkes-Barr4; but the discharge of a field-piece deterred them, and they raised the siege. Most of the settlers had fled after the battle and massacre, but here and there a family had remained, or had returned soon after the flight. Skulking parties of Indians continued to prowl about the valley, killing, plundering, and scalping, as opportunity offered. In the summer of 1779, General Sullivan passed through Wyoming, with his army from Easton, on his memorable expedition against the country of the Six Nations. As they passed the fort amid the firing of salutes, with their arms gleaming in the sun, and their hundred and twenty boats arranged in regular order on the river, and their two thousand pack-horses in single file, they formed a military display surpassing any yet seen on the Susquehanna, and well calculated to make a deep impression on the minds of the savages. Having ravaged the country on the Genesee and laid waste the Indian towns, General Sullivan returned to Wyoming in October, and thence to Easton. But the expedition had neither intimidated the savages nor prevented their incursions. During the 906 LUZERNE COUNTY. remainder of the war they seemed to make it their special delight to scourge the valley; they stole into it in small parties, blood and desolation marking their track. In March, 1784, the settlers of Wyonfing were compelled again to witness the desolation of their homes by a new cause. The winter had been unusually severe, and on the breaking up of the ice in the spring, the Susquehanna rose with great ripidity; the immense masses of loose ice from above continued to lodge on that which was still firm at the lower end of the valley; a gorge was formed, and one general inundation overspread the plains of Wyoming. The inhabitants took refuge on the surrounding heights, many being rescued from the roofs of their floating houses. At length a gorge at the upper end of the valley gave way, and huge masses of ice were scattered in every direction, which remained a great portion of the ensuing summer. The deluge broke the gorge below with a noise like that of contending thunderstorms, and houses, barns, stacks of hay and grain, cattle, sheep, and swine, were swept off in the rushing torrent. A great scarcity of provisions followed the flood, and the sufferings of the inhabitants were aggravated by the plunder and persecution of the Pennamite soldiers quartered among them. Governor Dickinson represented their sufferings to the Legislature with a recommendation for relief, but in vain. This was known as the ice flood; another, less disastrous, which occurred in 1787, was called the pumpkin flood, from the fact that it strewed the lower valley of the Susquehanna with the pumpkins of the unfortunate Connecticut settlers. After the peace with Great Britain the old controversy on the subject of land titles was renewed, and soon grew into a civil war. This war, like the old one, was marked by sieges of forts; capitulations, made only to be broken; seizures by sheriffs; lynching-in which Colonel Timothy Pickering suffered some; petitions, remonstrances, and memorials. Captain Armstrong, afterwards General, and Secretary of War, figured as commander of one of the forts or expeditions on the Pennsylvania side. The opposite parties in that war were known by the nicknames of Pennamites on one side, and Connecticut boys or Yankees on the other. Affairs were eventually amicably settled-and from that time onward peace dawned over the land. Many of the descendants of the original Connecticut pioneers remain in the beautiful country their ancestors preserved " against foes without and foes within." In the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, Captain Samuel Bowman's company represented Luzerne in that expedition. Owing to the state of feeling in Northumberland county, these troops were stationed at Sunbury for some time, but eventually joined the main body of the army at Bedford. In the war of 1812-'14, there were from this locality, Captain Samuel Thomas' artillery company, attached to Colonel Hill's regiment; Captain Joseph Camp, 45th regiment; Captains Frederick Bailey and Amos Tiffany, 129th regiment; Captain George Hidley, 112th regiment; Captain Peter Hallock, 35th regiment; besides the " Wyoming Blues," and a detachment under Captain Jacob Bittenbender. In the war with Mexico, Company I, First regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Captain Edmund L. Dana, saw good service. They participated in all the battles from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, and won for themselves honor GENERAL HISTORY. Irish, who settled on the frontiers, were busy protecting their own homes, and although several companies offered their services to General Braddock, he did not accept them, not from the motives ascribed to him by most historians, but from the fact that they were actually required at their own firesides, which had already been invaded by the savage foe. After the retreat of the army, the savages, unwilling to follow the French in pursuit, fell upon the field and preyed on the rich plunder which lay before them. Three years after [1758], by direction of General Forbes, the remains of many of the slain in Braddock's army were gathered up and buried. The number of French and Indians engaged in this affair has never been fully ascertained, but variously estimated at from four to eight hundred. The commander of the French-Indian force was Captain Beaujeu. Contrecceur has generally been credited with the victory, but among the records of baptisms and deaths at Fort Duquesne during the years 1754 and'55, is this entry: " L'an mille sept cinquante cinq le neuf de Julliet a este tu4 au combat donn6 contre les Anglois et le mesme jour que dessus, Mr. Leonard Daniel, escuyer, Sieur de Beaujeux capitaine d'infenterie commandant du Fort Duquesne et de L'arm6e, lequel estoit ag4 d'environt de quarente cinq ans ayant este en confesse et fait ses devotions le mesme jour, son corps a est6 inhum4 le douze du mesme mois dans le cimiti re du Fort Duquesne sous le titre de l'Assomption de la Ste Vierge A. la belle Riviere et cela avec les ceremonies ordinaires par nous pre Recolet soussign4 aumonier du Roy au susdit fort en foy de quoy avons sign4."* Really it matters little to us at the present who was in command of the French and Indians, but in the light of history, "honor be to him to whom honor is due." Dunbar proposed to return with his army, yet strong enough to meet the enemy, to Philadelphia; but consented, on the remonstrance of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, to keep on the frontiers. He requested a conference with Governor Morris, at Shippensburg; but Governor Shirley having succeeded to the chief command of the forces in America, though at first he directed Dunbar to renew the enterprise on Fort Duquesne, and to draw upon the neighboring Provinces for men and munitions, changed his mind, and determined to employ his troops elsewhere, leaving to the populous Provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, the care of their own defence. The consternation at Braddock's defeat was very great in Pennsylvania. The retreat of Dunbar left the whole frontier uncovered; whilst the inhabitants, unarmed and undisciplined, were compelled hastily to seek the means of defencd or of flight. In describing the exposed state of the Province, and the miseries which threatened it, the Governor had occasion to be entirely satisfied with his own eloquence; and had his resolution to defend it equalled the earnestness of his appeal to the Assembly, the people might have been spared much suffering. * Translation.-" M. Leonard Daniel, Esqr., Sieur de Beaujeux, captain of infantry, com mander of the Fort Duquesne, and of the army, on the 9th day of July, in the year 1755, and in the forty-fifth year of his age. The same day, after having confessed and said his devotions, he was killed in battle with the English. His body was interred on the twelfth of the same month, in the cemetery of the Fort Duquesne, at the Beautiful River." 908 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. and glory. In the war for the Union, Luzerne county furnished her full quota. Her dead lie on almost every battle-field of that great civil conflict, and many of her sons won imperishable renown. WILKES-BARRE, the capital of the county, was so named in honor of John Wilkes and Colonel Barrd, distinguished advocates for liberty and the rights of the colonies. It was laid out by Colonel John Durkee, in 1772, and embraced two hundred acres. It was originally laid out in eight squares, with a diamond in the centre. The squares were subsequently divided into sixteen parallelograms, by the formation of Franklin and Washington streets. The first dwelling built within the town-plot was in 1769. Wilkes-Barr6 was incorporated a borough in 1806, and in 1871 a - --- city. Including a por _ ~tion of the township ______ which has been added -___ _______..... _ _ to the city limits, it contains a population _____ _of nearly twenty-five thousand inhabitants. l..... It is situated on the I' ~east side of the Susque hanna, about the centre of the Wyoming valley, Sconnected with the bo the Lackawanna and LUZER,NE COUNTY PRISON, WILKES-BARRE. Bloomsburg railroad [From a Photograph by E. W. Beckwith, Plymouth.] by a bridge over the river and a street railroad. The Lehigh Valley, and the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroads pass through the town, as also the Susquehanna canal. It contains a large and commodious court house, situated in the public square, erected at a cost of $150,000; the county prison, on the Pennsylvania system, of cut stone, costing $250,000; a city hospital, situated in a lot of five acres, in a healthy, airy location; a home for friendless children, commodious, well ventilated, to accommodate one hundred children; twenty-five churches of various denominations; five large public school buildings; an academy under the auspices of the Sisters of Mercy, and a fine public hall. The city is supplied with the purest spring water from Laurel run, the principal streets are paved, lighted with gas, with side-walks neatly "flagged." Of industrial manufactories, there are three large foundries and machine shops, wire-rope works, steam flouring mills, etc. Located in the centre of the Wyoming coal field, Wilkes-Barr4 is surrounded by numerous coal works belonging to the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre coal company, Delaware and Hudson canal company, Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western coal company, together with a number of private operators. The Wyoming Athenaeum has a fine library, while the Wyoming Historical and Geographical Society's collection is large and valuable. The city government consists of a mayor and a council of twenty-one members. There are well organized paid fire and police departments. Few towns in the LUZERNE COUNTY. State have increased in population and wealth equal to Wilkes-Barr4 within the past ten years, owing chiefly to the development of coal mines and the construction of the numerous railroads centering within it. The region now occupied by the city of SCRANTON was called Capouse, from a peaceful tribe of Indians whose wigwams disappeared in the summer of 1771. As the skin-clad red men withdrew from them with sullen reluctance, the whites began their clearings at Capouse. The Wyoming massacre in 1778 left no living soul upon the grounds now occupied by this city. The first cabin that rose from the banks of the Nayaug, or Deep Hollow, now the site of Scranton, was built in May, 1788, by Philip Abbott, who erected a primitive grist mill or corn cracker. In 1799 Ebenzer and Benjamin Slocum purchased the property, enlarged the mill, erected a distillery, started a forge, and built two or three houses, when the appellation of Slocums, and then Slocum Hollow, was given it. A post office was established here, but, like the forge and distillery, was abandoned, and the village of five brown houses relapsed into a silence from which it was aroused by William Henry and the Scrantons in 1840. It was named by them at first Harrison, then Lackawanna Iron Works, then Scrantonia, lastly SCRANTON, from Colonel George W., Selden T., and Joseph Scranton, who were the real founders of it. It is now the third city in the State in size, population, and importance. It is the southern terminus of the Delaware and Hudson canal company's railroad, which extends to Montreal; the northern termini of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad, and of the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central railroad of New Jersey. The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad passes through it. A street railway diverges to four portions of the city. Scranton is a place of vast mining and manufacturing interests, deriving its prosperity from its immense rolling mills, furnaces, forges, its great steel works, its locomotive, brass and iron manufacturing establishments, and its numerous miscellaneous manufacturing of wood, sheet iron, stoves, silk, edge tools, and leather. Besides these industries, under the control of twenty incorporated companies, representing many millions of dollars, there are thirty-four churches, a large opera house, a public library, the largest collection of Indian stone relics in America, a city hospital, and a home for the friendless. Scranton contains a population of fifty thousand inhabitants. HAZLETON is situated in the southern part of Luzerne county, near the middle of the Lehigh coal field, and at the intersection of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike with the public road leading from Wilkes-Barr4 to Tamaqua. Its distance from Tamaqua is fourteen miles; from Mauch Chunk sixteen miles; from Berwick seventeen miles, and from Wilkes-Barr6 twenty-six miles, reckoned by the old stage routes or wagon roads. It is the principal town in the populous and wealthy coal region in which it is located, and is the chief marketing centre for the highly cultivated agricultural region lying to its north and west. The leading industry of Hazleton is the mining and shipping of anthracite coal. The Hazleton coal basin lies in a gentle depression on the summit of the water-shed, which separates the river basins of the Lehigh and the Susquehanna. The discoverer of coal in this region was John Adam Winters, a native of Berks county, who moved into this vicinity in 1812. At a "deer lick" 909 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. near the spot where the old Cranberry school-house afterwards stood, the deer had pawed up some coal which Mr. Winters found in 1818. This place is about three-fourths of a mile west of the present town of Hazleton, and near this spot the mining of coal was commenced by a drift above water level. The formation of the Hazleton coal company, March, 1836, was the forerunner of a prosperous future for Hazleton. A steady increase in population and wealth throughout the region followed. Active work for the construction of the Hazleton railroad was pushed forward in the early summer of 1836, under Ario Pardee, as engineer in chief, and J. G. Fell, principal assistant. The business of the road for some years was the coal-carrying trade exclusively, which at first was done in connection with the Beaver Meadow railroad and Lehigh canal. This was confined to the summer season until the building of the Lehigh Valley railroad connecting with the New Jersey Central and North Pennsylvania railroads gave the Hazleton railroad its first opportunity of continued work throughout the year. Great numbers of hazel bushes once grew in the vicinity of Hazleton, giving name to the stream, and hence the name of the place. The present spelling Hazleton, which it is likely to retain, came through an orthographical mistake of the clerk in transcribing the act of incorporation of the company. Hazleton was laid out by the Hazleton coal company in 1836, immediately following the organization of the company, and the erection of buildings was then commenced. It was then in Sugar-loaf township, from which Hazle township, with an area of forty-nine square miles, was formed in 1839. It was incorporated as a borough August 7, 1856. The population of the borough in 1860 was 1,707, and 4,317 in 1870. In 1876 the population is estimated at 7,000. It contains ten church edifices, a school under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, and several private schools. The Lehigh Valley railroad company have large machine and car shops with foundry. There are also two steam flouring mills, three planing mills, and other important industries. There is a fine public library established by the liberality of Ario Pardee, Sr., a resident of Hazleton, whose liberal donations to Lafayette College are matters of history. KINGSTON township was laid out March 2, 1774, the first settlers having arrived four years previous, in 1770. Within the township are evidences of ancient fortifications of pre-historic races, which show a state of civilization far in advance of the Indian tribes found here by our fathers. This township is not entirely unknown in the history of the Revolution. Here are the remains of Forty Fort, which was surrendered July 4, 1778, after a brave defence by a few poorly armed men. The ground upon which the battle was fought on the day preceding, lies mostly within this township, and is often pointed out to the stranger. A plain substantial monument rises above the bones of the patriots who fell by the combined force of the British troops and their cruel Indian allies. There is another relic of a past generation here-the old Forty Fort church, built in 1807, near the fort of the same name. The old church yet stands with the interior the same as when our fathers listened within its walls to the preaching of Lorenzo Dow, Philip Embury, and Francis Asbury, the pioneer bishop, and is well worthy a visit from those interested in the history of the past. In this township are two villages, KINGSTON and WYOMING. Kingston is the most important of the two villages, and was doubtless so named by the early 910 LUZERNE COUNTY. inhabitants in honor of the reigning king. These villages grew up from the early days of our country, but within the last ten or fifteen years they have been incorporated, and attention has been given to a systematic laying out of the streets. The chief industry is the mining of anthracite coal, of which there are vast quantities. In Wyoming _. there are factories of terra 4 cotta and shovels. In the vil lage of Kingston are situated SIthe shops of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad, S which employ a large number of men. The village contains I Ii' two churches of modern archi tecture. Here is also located the Wyoming Seminary, a school capable of accommo dating two hundred boarders and the same number of day WYOMING SEMINARY, KINGSTON.-COMMERCIAL HALL. scholars. Rev. R. Nelson D.D., was for twenty-eight years the successful principal. In 1872, Riev. D. Copeland, Ph.D., succeeded him, under whose administration the school maintains its high position. CARBONDALE was the first incorporated city within the limits of Luzerne county, the act of Assembly creating it bearing date March 15, 1851. In 1850 it contained less than five thousand inhabitants. On the 15th of December of that year the greater portion of Carbondale was destroyed by fire, and as previously there had been no municipal regulations, a meeting of the citizens was held, and a suggestion to apply for a city charter rather than one for a borough. It carried unanimously,. and measures at once taken to secure it. From that time onward, located as it is in the mid st of valuable coal mines, the city increased rapidly, and contains at present about fifteen thousand of a population. Apart from its WYOMING SEMINARY.-CENTENARY HALL. coal interests the city contains several manufactories. It has a court house, and several fine structures. PITTSTON, although settled as early as 1790, only contained, up to the year 1838, eight or ten houses. At that period the establishment of Butler & Mallory's colliery gave an impetus to the town. It was incorporated as a borough in 1853, and in the year following its boundaries were enlarged. Within a radius of two and a half miles there is a population of twenty thousand, HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. most of whom are more or less directly interested in the coal trade. The most extensive collieries are owned by the Pennsylvania coal company. On the east side of the river there are many other collieries belonging to various parties. Beside these vast interests, there are a number of mechanical and manufacturing establishments located here. It is one of the busiest towns in Luzerne. It is situated on the Susquehanna river, where that stream enters the Wyoming valley, and is well connected with railroads running in all directions. WHITE HAVEN borough, incorporated in 1842, derives its name from Josiah White of Philadelphia. The town is delightfully located on the Lehigh river and canal, twenty miles south-east from Wilkes-Barr4. Until the destruction of the canal by a freshet, in 1862, it was at the head of slack-water navigation, and a shipping point of great activity. The principal business now is that connected with the lumber trade, of which it is the chief depot on the Lehigh. It contains a large number of saw mills, whose production amounts to upwards of thirty millions feet of lumber. In addition to these establishments, there is a large foundry and machine shop, with several smaller manufactories. The foregoing comprise the larger and more prominent cities and boroughs of Luzerne county. There are a number of others of importance, deserving a special notice, but a county which contributes cities, boroughs, and post-towns, exceeding two of the original States of the Union, cannot have full justice done her in our limited space, especially when her past history is of absorbing interest and requires to be fully dwelt upon. As remarked previously, Luzerne county has all the essential elements of wealth within herself, and is second to no county in the United States. 912 LYCOMING COUNTY. BY E. S. WATSON, WILLIAMSPORT. YCOMING county was formed from Northumberland in accordance with the act of April 13th, 1795. Thomas Forster, John IHanna, and James Crawford were the first commissioners. On the first day of December, of the year mentioned, they met in open court of general quarter sessions and took the oath of office, and on the fifteenth day of the same month met and appointed John Kidd to be treasurer of taxes. At that time a vast area of territory was embraced within the limits of the county, comprising all the north-western portion of the State beyond Mifflin, Huntingdon, and Westmoreland counties, and extending to the Allegheny river. Gradually its limits were contracted by the formation from it of Armstrong, Centre, Indiana, Clearfield, Jefferson, M'Kean, Potter, Tioga, and Clinton counties until, at the present time, it contains 1,080 square miles, or 691,200 acres. Probably in no county of the Commonwealth is the handiwork of nature more prominently displayed than in Lycoming, madle more impressive by the contrasts presented the tourist. Mountains rising to an altitude of 1,500 or 2,000 feet extend across the northern and central sections, ranges of the Allegheny and Laurel hill, while at the base is a sparse population, owing to the narrow valleys. But this wild, sterile region is offset by the beautiful valley of the West Branch, the subordinate limestone valleys to the south, and on the east the fertile and picturesque Muncy valley, with a dense and prosperous agricultural population. The West Branch valley is bounded on the south by a bold continuation of Bald Eagle mountain, while beyond, like a beautiful picture, lies Nippenose and White Deer Hole valleys, the White Deer mountain forming the southern boundary of the county. Nippenose valley presents a curious formation. It is an oval limestone basin about ten miles in length, surrounded by high hills, the streams from which, after descending a short distance towards the centre of the valley, lose themselves under the surface of the limestone rocks. Nippenose creek collects its waters from springs bursting up from the rocks on the north side of the valley, and conveys them to the West Branch of the Susquehanna. The course of this stream is through the southern portion of the county, and the volume of water is increased by receiving Pine, Larry's, Lycoming, Loyal Sock, and Muncy creeks from the north, and on the south or right bank, Nippenose, Black Hole, and White Deer Hole creeks. There are valuable beds of bituminous coal and iron ore in the county, but agriculture and lumbering form the principal occupations. There are rolling mills, factories, tanneries, and a general variety of manufacturing branches, but they do not come up to the standard of what might be called prominent branches of industry. In the years 1836 and 1843, Professor Rogers made a geological survey of Lycoming county, but being at such an early day it was not so complete 3 H 913 1IS TORY OF PENVNSYL VANIA. as to furnish a full knowledge of the mineral productions lying beneath the surface, as at that time there were little or no developments, and the country being heavily timbered rendered the points accessible very limited. His report, however, shows the location of several good bodies of coal and iron ore, such as the McIntyre, Frozen Run, Pine Creek, Hogeland Run coal basins which present indications of value for the future exploration and development. The McIntyre mine has been run very successfully for the past five years, commencing with a tonnage of 17,808 tons in 1870, 106,730 tons in 1871, 171,427 tons in 1872, 212,462 in 1873, and 138,907 tons in 1874. This coal is semi-bituminous. Fossil iron ore was mined and shipped from Cogan station, on the Northern Central railroad, as early as 1858, and has continued with varying amounts from 100 to 1,000 tons, shipped to Danville, Bloomsburg, and Pottsville. The use of this will be increased as its value as a good fluxing ore becomes known, and as the price of iron will warrant its transportation to such points as needed. The numerous limestone quarries located below Williamsport and Muncy turn out a fair quality of building lime, and for fertilizing the soil, making quite an important local trade of value to builders and to the farmers of the county. In Mosquito valley there has been a quarry of black marble opened, which promises to become quite an important addition to the marble of the State when developed, so as to secure perfectly sound marble (as the best black marble is imported from Belgium at quite a high figure). As the county becomes cleared up and better opportunities are afforded for fresh explorations, new discoveries may be looked for, and capital invested at such points where there is reasonable expectation of success. The new survey ordered in the State will doubtless more fully develop the mineral resources, as from the geological position of the county there is room for careful examination. Among the minerals found are good commercial black oxide of manganese, seventy per cent.; silver copper ore; gray carbonate of iron, fifty per cent., containing five to seven per cent. manganese. There are basins of good fossil iron ore, stoneware and fire clays, and some very fair outcrop specimens of zinc ores. From a specimen of rich copper mass, it is evident there must have existed some source where either the early French settlers or Indians procured their copper, for an inspection of old excavations on the edge of copper formations discloses remains where fire had been used at quite a depth below the present surface. Among other useful products that may have in the future a. commercial value, are several quarries of good flag stone in different parts of the county; also a very fair quality of pencil slate, and at four or five points a number of shades of good mineral paints. Originally the population of the county was composed of Scotch-Irish and Quakers, who moved in from the lower counties of the State. Their descendants still own lands along the valleys, but Germans and others from Pennsylvania and New York have located in such large numbers as to throw into obscurity, almost, the nationality of the original settlers. Previous to 1768 the valley was occupied by bands of Shawanese and Monsey Indians, from the lower valley of the Susquehanna, and the way for settlement by the whites was not opened until the 5th of November of the year above mentioned, which was effected by the treaty of Fort Stanwix-called the "new 914 LYCOMING COUNTY. purchase "-by the Proprietary government. Soon after this purchase, a difference arose between the government and the settlers whether the stream Tyadaghton, mentioned in the treaty, was Lycoming or Pine creek when translated into English. For sixteen years it remained an open question, until the second treaty at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, when the questiop w4 settled by the Indians, who decided that the name mentioned in the treaty meant the Pine creek. In regard to the early settlement, nothing could be more clear than the following, from volume 2 of Smith's Laws: " There existed a great number of locations of the 3d of April, 1769, for the choicest lands on the West Branch of Susquehanna, between the mouths of Lycoming and Pine creeks; but the Proprietaries from extreme caution, the result of that experience which had also produced the very penal laws of 1768 and 1769, and the proclamation already stated, had prohibited any surveys being made beyond the Lycoming. In the meantime, in violation of all laws, a set of hardy adventurers had from time to time seated themselves on this doubtful territory. They made improvements, and formed a very considerable population. It is true, so far as regarded the rights to real property, they were not under the protection of the laws of the country, and were we to adopt the visionary theories of some philosophers, who have drawn their arguments from a supposed state of nature, we might be led to believe that the state of these people would have been a state of continual warfare; and that in contests for property the weakest must give way to the strongest. To prevent the consequences, real or supposed, of this state of things, they formed a mutual compact among themselves. They annually elected a tribunal, in rotation, of three of their settlers, whom they called fair-play men, who were to decide all controversies, and settle disputed boundaries. From their decision there was no appeal. There could be no resistance. The decree was enforced by the whole body, who started up in mass, at the mandate of the court, and execution and eviction were as sudden and irresistible as the judgment. Every new comer was obliged to apply to this powerful tribunal, and upon his solemn engagement to submit in all respects to the law of the land he was permitted to take possession of some vacant spot. Their decrees were, however, just; and when their settlements were recognized by law, and fair play had ceased, their decisions were received in evidence, and confirmed by judgments of courts." In those early days, as now, the white man was pushing the Indian back, in spite of the proclamation of Governor Penn, notifying all persons not to settle on lands not purchased of the Indians and unsurveyed, and warning those that had settled to make haste and leave. But they did not vacate, and in the enforcement of their "fair-play" code, it became necessary to adopt rigid measures. Any person resisting the decrees was placed in a canoe, rowed to the mouth of Lycoming creek, and there set adrift. Subsequently a law was passed, allowing the settlers between Lycoming and Pine creeks a pre-emption right to not over three hundred acres of land each, upon satisfactory proof being presented that they were actual settlers previous to 1780. For seven years after the purchase, the pioneers swung the axe, felled the giant trees, builded their cabins, and tilled their fields unmolested; but just when they began to enjoy the comforts of their cabin homes, and reap the rewards of 916 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. their industry, the. cry of revolution was heard, and the Y-irdy backwoodsmen, trained to the vicissitudes of war during the frontier campaigns'of 1755-63, with true patriotism, seized their arms and wenit forth to battle for liberty, leaving their famil.. )nr,)vided for and exposed to the raids of hostile Indians, while they' w. z, %id of the imperilled at Boston. All along the West Branch, wherever there.' white settlement, stockade forts were erected-in some cases garrisoned by sett_-, and in others by Continental troops. Samuel Horn's fort was three miles above the mouth of Pine creek, and Antis' fort was at the head of Nippenose bottom; Fort Muncy was between Pennsborough and ....... - - - - - - -.-_ N- III. LYCOMING COUNTY COURT HOUSE, AT WILLIAMSPORT. [From a Photograph by J. F. Nice, Williamsport.] the mouth of Muncy creek. There were other forts below, but outside the present limits of Lycoming county. One of the most notable events that occurred at this time was what is known as the "big runaway." In the autumn of 1777, Job Chillaway, a friendly Indian, had given intimation that a powerful descent of marauding Indians might be expected before long on the head-waters of the Susquehanna. Near the close of that season the Indians killed a settler by the name of Saltzbrn, on the Sinnemahoning, and Dan Jones at the mouth of Tangascootac. In the spring of 1778 Colonel Hepburn, afterwards Judge Hepburn, was stationed with a small force at Fort Muncy, at the mouth of Wallis' run, near which several murders had been committed. The Indians had killed Brown's and Benjamin's families, and had taken Cook and his wife prisoners on Loyal Sock creek. Colonel Hunter of Fort Augusta, alarmed by these murders, sent LYCOMING COUNTY. orders to Fort Muncy,thet all the settlers in that vicinity should evacuate, and. take refuge at bunbury. Colonel Hepburn was ordered to pass on the orders to Antis' and Horn's forts above. To carry this message none would volunteer except Covenhoven and a young Yapkee millwright, an p;n-':o Andrew Culbertson. Purposely avoiding all roads, they took was ng the top of Bald Eagle ridge until they reached Antis' d nere they descended towards the fort at the head of Nippenose b -,n. At the bottom of the hill they were startled by the report of a rifle near the fort, which had been fired by an Indian at a girl. The girl had just stooped to milk a cow-the harmless bullet passed through her clothes between her limbs and the ground. Milking cows in those days was dangerous work. The Indians had just killed in the woods Abel Cady and Zephaniah Miller, and mortally wounded young Armstrong, who died that night. The messengers delivered their orders that all persons should evacuate within a week, and they were also to send word up to Horn's fort. On his way up, Covenhoven had staid all night with Andrew Armstrong, who then lived at the head of the long reach, where the late Esq. Seward lived. Covenhoven warned him to quit, but he did not like to abandon his crops, and gave no heed to the warning. The Indians came upon him suddenly and took him prisoner, with his oldest child and Nancy Bunday. His wife concealed herself under the bed and escaped. Covenhoven hastened down to his own family, and having taken them safely to Sunbury, returned in a keel-boat to secure his household furniture. As hlie was rounding a point above Derrstown (now Lewisburg), he met the whole convoy from all the forts above; such a sight he never saw in his life. Boats, canoes, hog-troughs, rafts hastily made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article had been put in requisition, and were crowded with women, children, and "4plunder." There were several hundred people in all. Whenever any obstruction occurred at a shoal or ripple, the women would leap out and put their shoulders, not indeed to the wheel, but to the flat boat or raft, and launch it again into deep water. The men of the settlement came down in single file on each side of the river to guard the women and children. The whole convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire line of farms along the West Branch to the ravages of the Indians. They destroyed Fort Muncy, but did not penetrate in any force near Sunbury; their attention having been soon after diverted to the memorable descent upon Wyoming. After Covenhoven had got his bedding, etc., in his boat, and was proceeding down the river, just below Fort Meninger, lie saw a woman on the shore fleeing from an Indian. She jumped down the river bank and fell, perhaps wounded by his gun. The Indian scalped her, but in his haste neglected to strike her down. She survived the scalping, was picked up by the men from the fort, and lived near Warrior's run until about the year 1840. Her name was Mrs. Durham. Shortly after the big runaway, Colonel Brodhead was ordered up with his force of 100 or 150 men to rebuild Fort Muncy, and guard the settlers while gathering their crops. After performing this service he left for Fort Pitt, and Colonel Hartley with a battalion succeeded him. Captain Spalding, from HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. The Assembly immediately voted fifty thousand pounds to the King's use, to be raised by a tax of twelve pence per pound, and twenty shillings per head, yearly, for two years, on all estates, real and personal, throughout the Province, the Proprietary estate not excepted. This was not in accordance with the Proprietary instructions, and therefore returned by the Governor. In the long discussions which ensued between the two branches of government, the people began to become alarmed, as they beheld with dread the procrastination of the measures for defence, and earnestly demanded arms and ammunition. The enemy, long restrained by fear of another attack, and scarce crediting his senses when he discovered the defenceless state of the frontiers, now roamed unmolested and fearlessly along the western lines of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, committing the most appalling outrages and wanton cruelties which the cupidity and ferocity of the savage could dictate. The first inroads into Pennsylvania were into Cumberland county, whence they were soon extended to the Susquehanna. The inhabitants, dwelling at the distance of from one to three miles apart, fell unresistingly, were captured, or fled in terror to the interior settlements. The main body of the enemy encamped on the Susquehanna, thirty miles above Harris' Ferry, whence they extended themselves on both sides the river, below the Kittatinny Mountains. The settlements at the Great Cove in Cumberland county, now Fulton, were destroyed, and many of the inhabitants slaughtered or made captives, and the same fate fell upon Tulpehocken, upon Mahanoy, and Gnadenhutten. Under date of October 29, John Harris wrote to the Governor: " We expect the enemy upon us every day, and the inhabitants are abandoning their plantations, being greatly discouraged at the approach of such a number of cruel savages, and no sign of assistance. The Indians are cutting us off every day, and I had a certain account of about fifteen hundred Indians, besides French, being on their march against us and Virginia, and now close on our borders, their scouts scalping our families on our frontiers daily. Andrew Montour and others at Shamokin desired me to take care; that there was forty Indians out many days, and intended to burn my house and destroy myself and family. I have this day cut holes in my house, and is determined to hold out to the last extremity if I can get some men to stand by me, few of which I yet can at present, every one being in fear of their own families being cut off every hour (such is our situation). I am informed that a French officer was expected at Shamokin this week with a party of Delawares and Shawanese, no doubt to take possession of our river; and, as to the state of the Susquehanna Indians, a great part of them are actually in the French interest; but if we should raise a number of men immediately as will be able to take possession of some convenient place up Susquehanna, and build a strong fort in spite of French or Indians, perhaps some Indians may join us, but it is trusting to uncertainty to depend upon them in my opinion. We ought to insist on the Indians declaring either for or against us. As soon as we are prepared for them, we must bid up for scalps and keep the woods full of our people hunting them, or they will ruin our Province, for they are a dreadful enemy. We impatiently look for assistance. I have sent out two Indian spies to Shamokin, they are Mohawks, and I expect they will return in a dayor two. Consider our situation, and rouse your IIISTO R Y OF PENN8 YL VANIA. Stroudsburg, also came down with a detachment by way of the Wyoming valley. Having built the barracks at Fort Muncy, they went up on an expedition to burn the Indian towns at Wyalusing, Sheshequin, and Tioga. This was just after the great battle at Wyoming, and before the British and Indians had finished getting their plunder up the river. After burning the Indian towns, the detachment had a sharp skirmish with the Indians from Wyoming, on the left bank of the Susquehanna at the narrows north of the Wyalusing mountain. Mr. Covenhoven distinguished himself in that affair by his personal bravery. He was holding on by the roots of a tree on the steep precipice, when an Indian approached him and called to him to surrender. Mr. C., in reply, presented his gun and shot the Indian through the bowels. Among the noted families in that trying period was that of Captain John Brady. The men were courageous, and always fought coolly but desperately. He had the fort near the mouth of Muncy creek, known as Fort Muncy. The Bradys, father and sons, joined the army at Boston at the first opening of the Revolution, but returned again when the exposed state of the valley seemed to need their services. They were again in service at the battle of Brandywine. They were at Fort Freeland when it capitulated, but escaped. Shortly after the return from camp of Captain Brady and his son, a company of six or seven men formed to aid Peter Smith in cutting his oats from a field at Turkey run, about a mile below Williamsport. James Brady, son of Captain John Brady, and a younger brother of the famous Captain Sam Brady, was one of the party. It was the custom of those days to place sentinels at the sides of the field to watch while the others were reaping, the arms being stacked at a convenient point for seizure. The sentinels in this instance were rather careless, and the Indians were down upon the reapers before they were aware of it. Brady, who was near the river bank, reached for his gun, but at that moment fell, wounded by an Indian. The latter struck him down and scalped him, but he was left alive. His companions had fled; but a party from the fort, out in pursuit of the Indians, found Brady with his skull broken in, but still living. He desired to be taken to the fort at Sunbury, where his parents were. Mr. Covenhoven was one of those who assisted in taking him down, and he describes the meeting between the mother and her wounded son as heart-rending. They arrived at the dead of night, and the mother, ever awake to alarms (although the party did not intend to wake her), came down to the river bank, and assisted in conveying her son to the house. On the way down he was feverish, and drank large quantities of water. He soon became delirious, and after lingering five days, expired. Captain John Brady, the father, was afterwards out with Peter Smith, near Wolf run, a tributary of Muncy creek. At a secluded spot, three Indians fired. Brady fell dead. Smith escaped on a frightened horse. Captain Samuel Brady was with Brodhead, at Pittsburgh, at the time he heard of his father's death; and hlie is said then to have taken a solemn vow to devote his life to revenge the death of his father and brother. A brother of Samuel Brady lived many years in Indiana county, and two sisters at Sunbury. General Hugh Brady, of the United States army, was a nephew of Captain Samuel Brady. This fearless incident of the patriotic spirit of the " Fair-Play" men, is recorded in Meginness' Otzinachson, as follows: 918 LYCOMING COUNTY Early in the summer of 1776, the Fair-Play men and settlers along the river, above and below Pine creek, had received intelligence from Philadelphia that Congress had it in contemplation to declare the colonies independent, absolving them from all allegiance to Great Britain. This was good news to the little settlement up the West Branch, that was considered out of the jurisdiction of all civil law, and they set about making preparations to endorse the movement, and ratify it in a formal manner. Accordingly, on the 4th day of July, 1776, they assembled on the plains about Pine creek in considerable numbers. A good supply of " old rye " was laid in as a sine qua non on this momentous occasion. The subject of independence was proposed, and freely discussed in several patriotic speeches, and, as their patriotism warmed up, it was finally decided to ratify the proposition under discussion in Congress, by a formal declaration of independence. A set of resolutions were drawn up and passed, absolving themselves from all allegiance to Great Britain, and henceforth declaring themselves free and independent! What was remarkable about this declaration was, that it took place on the very day that the Declaration was signed in Philadelphia. It was a remarkable coincidence that two such important events should take place about the same time, hundreds of miles apart, without any communication. When the old bell proclaimed, in thunder tones, to the citizens of Philadelphia that the colonies were declared independent, the shout of liberty went up from the banks of Pine creek, and resounded along the base of Bald Eagle mountain. The following names of settlers that participated in this glorious festival have been collected: Thomas, Francis, and John Clark, Alexander Donaldson, William Campbell, Alexander Hamilton, John Jackson, Adam Carson, Henry McCracken, Adam Dewitt, Robert Love, Hugh Nichols, and many others from below the creek not now remembered. Turning from the scenes of those eventful days, and following along the path of civilization down to the present day, we find now a prosperous city and thrifty villages and settlements, where once was a howling wilderness traversed by the red man. WVILLIAMSPORT, the county seat, was laid out and selected as such by the commissioners in 1796, the year after the county was organized. The site of the place was owned by Michael Ross, and in 1798, James Crawford, William Wilson, and Henry Donnell, commissioners, received a deed from Michael and Anna Ross for the land upon which now stands the court-house and jail. The city is handsomely situated on the north bank of the West Branch of the Sus quehanna river, about forty miles above its confluence with the North Branch at Northumberland, in a valley of surpassing beauty and loveliness. The river at this point runs almost due east for several miles, and on the south side from the city is a bold mountain chain-Bald Eagle-which rises to an altitude of about five hundred feet. North of the city the foot hills of the Alleghenies are spread to the right and left, adding beauty to the location of the city. The true origin of the name of the city is involved in some doubt. Two reasons are given, however, why Michael Ross gave it the name of Williamsport. The first, and probably correct one-because always given by his children and later descendants-is that he had a son William for whom hlie named the place. The other reason is, still maintained by some, that in consideration of William Hep919 HISTORY OF PEYNSYLYVANIA. burn rendering assistance in having the county seat located on land owned by Mr. Ross, the latter named the town for him. The weight of authority is that it was named for William Ross. The first brick court-house, which occupied the site of the present structure, was commenced in 1801, and completed in 1803. It was torn down and rebuilt in 1860. In 1806, the village was incorporated as a borough. It did not increase very rapidly, however, for a long series of years, as the United States census in 1850 only showed a population of about 1,600. In 1860 the population had nearly trebled, the census showing 5,664. In 1870 the population was given as 16,030. At the present date the population is estimated at not far from 20,000. Few cities in the Eastern States can show a more rapid growth, for as late as twenty-five years ago the vicinity of Williamsport cemetery, now in the heart of the city, was the favorite hunting ground of boys. The city was incorporated in 1867. It is noted for beautiful streets and elegant residences; in many instances the architecture of the public and private buildings gives eNidence of the thrift and enterprise of the citizens, while the larger number of graceful spires and cupolas that point heavenward indicate a pervading religious sentiment. Manufacturing interests are rapidly increasing. There is a large rubber factory, paint works, carriage manufactories, furniture establishments, machine shops and foundries, saw and tool works, boiler manufactories, oil works, flouring mills, tanneries, marble, belting, rope, brick, piano, and glue manufactories, with a great number of smaller industries, which in the aggregate constitute an important element of trade. But the leading industry is the manufacture of lumber, and although upon the small streanfs of the county there are many saw mills, yet Williamsport is the great manufacturing centre. The first mill at this point was what was known as the " Big Water Mill," erected by a Philadelphia company in 1838-9. It was destroyed by fire some thirteen years ago. Within the past sixteen years the lumber interest has made rapid progress, until at the present time the amount of capital invested will reach several millions of dollars. From the time the "old water mill " was built, about thirty-eight years ago, the number of mills has increased, until now there are between forty and fifty engaged in manufacturing lumber and dressing it in various ways. These mills will continue in operation for many years to come, as there are immense quantities of pine in the mountains yet, and when that is exhausted there is a sufficiency of hemlock to run the mills many years longer. The Dodge mills rank among the largest in the world. The main building is 95 by 200 feet, with two wings 18 by 22 feet. The machinery is driven by two engines of 350 horse power, and during the running season the mills have a capacity of turning out at least 45,000,000 feet, which could be increased by running over time. The interests of the manufacturers of lumber in Williamsport, and, indeed, of the West Branch valley, are protected by an association called the " Lumberman's Exchange," and they are now operating under a charter granted by the Legislature in 1872. The great boom in the river at Williamsport, which was erected for the purpose of holding the logs floated down the stream from the pineries above, until they could be taken out and manufactured into boards, is one of the largest in the United States. To briefly give the origin of this mammoth enterprise, it 9S0I LY COMING COUNTY. will be necessary to refer back to 1845, when James H. Perkins arrived in Williamsport in company with John Layton, for the purpose of establishing a boom. Soon after their arrival they fixed upon the Long Reach, a few miles above the town at that day, but now partly embraced within the city limits, as the best point for locating the boom. The Legislature was petitioned for a charter, which was granted, and bears date March 17, 1846. The logs, as they floated down upon the high water, continued to be caught by men in small boats and tied into rafts, up to the spring of 1849, when two temporary booms, with sunken cribs, were put in. In the fall of 1849 a boom company was formed, the experiment made in the spring proving conclusively that the project was a feasible one. The new boom was immediately commenced, and during the winter of 1849-50 it was made ready for receiving and holding the logs put into the river the following spring. At the end of four years it was manifest that the facilities for receiving and holding logs must be increased, and the work of extending the boom continued from time to time, unt4il now it is a work of vast magnitude and strength, extending for miles up the river. The great piers in position, the immense timbers securely bolted together which rest against them to hold the logs, and the erection of the dam, show that the undertaking was a colossal one. The boom has a capacity for holding over 300,000,000 feet of lumber, and in the spring months, when it is packed full of logs, so solidly that one can walk across the river on them, it is worth a journey of hundreds of miles to see. It requires a large amount of money to operate the boom every season. The most perinanent public structure of Williamsport is the county jail, erected in 1867-8. It is of stone, and surrounded by a high wall. The cells were constructed with a view to secure criminals, and are of extraordinary strength. The court house, in the public square, is another fine structure. The square is shaded with trees and enclosed with an iron railing. The city can boast of an excellent institution of learning-Dickinson Seminary-where young men have been educated who have figured largely in the political, literary, and ministerial fields. It is in a flourishing condition. JERSEY SHORE is located on the left bank of the West Branch, fifteen miles west of Williamsport, about two miles from the line of the Philadelphia and Erie branch of the Pennsylvania railroad, and three miles below the mouth of Pine creek. In 1840 it only contained a population of 525, but the completion of the public works increased it, until, in 1870, the census exhibited a population of 1,394, which has been slightly augmented since. A large lumber trade is carried on with the country on the head-waters of Pine creek, and the borough will receive a fresh impetus by the completion of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek, and Buffalo railroad, now in process of construction, which will directly connect the place with Williamsport. In 1800 the borough was named Waynesburg, but the title of Jersey Shore became so familiar that the former was finally dropped, and the name fixed by incorporation in 1826. MUNCY borough, formerly called Pennsborough, is situated near the left bank of the West Branch, a short distance below the mouth of Muncy creek, and fourteen miles by the road from Williamsport. The river here makes a graceful bend to the south. This is a neat and flourishing village, rapidly HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. increasing. It enjoys the trade of the rich and extensive valley of Muncy, which produces a vast quantity of wheat and lumber. Pennsborough was incorporated March 15, 1826, but, January 19, 1827, the name was changed to Muncy. About five miles north-east from Muncy, on Muncy creek, is the village of HUGHSVILLE, a thrifty place, with an enterprising population. The Muncy Creek railway, which is to connect with the Sullivan county coal mines, passes through the place. RALSTON is situated at the mouth of Stony or Rocky run, on Lycoming creek, twenty-six miles above Williamsport. There are S at this place valuable bituminous coal mines. The Williamsport and Elmira railroad (now embraced in one of the divisions of the Northern Central) was ""finished to this point in 1837. The place derived its name from Matthew C. Ralston, Esq., of Philadelphia, -deceased, president of the railroad company, to whose ) enferprise and capital both the village and the railroad owed their existence. Unfortunately, however, his large fortune was absorbed in the undertaking. Wil liam P. Farrand, the engineer of the railroad, also devoted himself most enthusiastically to the accom plishment of this enterprise. As the fruit of their labors in opening a way into this secluded region, seve I ral large iron works sprung up along 0 "'the val'dley of Lycoming creek. MONTOURSVILLE is a brisk borough, three miles from the city of Williams Hport. Its railroad communication is by way of the Catawissa branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad. There are several saw mills in the vi Scinity, and quite a lumber trade is -"'- carried on. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS. The dates of the formation of the RLT various townships are herewith given. RALSTON INCLINED PLANtE. Of a few it has been impossible to ascertain: Anthony, September 7, 1844; Armstrong, February 7, 1842; Brady, January 31, 1855; Bastress, December 13, 1854; Brown, 1812; Cummings, 1832; Clinton, December, 1825; Cascade, August 9, 1842; Cogan House, December 6, 1843; Eldred, November 16, 1858; Fairfield; Franklin; Gamble, 1875; Hepbufn, 1804; Jordan; Jackson, 1824; Loyal Sock, April 13, 1795; Lycoming, May 1, 1785; Lewis; Limestone; Muncy, 1772; Muncy Creek, 1804; Mifflin, 1796; Moreland; McHenry, August 21, 1861; McIntyre; Nippenose, 1792; Old Lycoming, December 2, 1858; Penn; Piatt, April 30, 1858; Porter, May 6, 1840; Plunkett's Creek; Pine, January 27, 1857; Shrewsbury, 1804; Susquehanna; Upper Fairfield, September 12, 1851; Wolf; Washington, 1789; Woodward, November 28, 1855; Watson, January, 1845. 922 M'KEAN COUNTY. BY WILLIAM KING, CERES. 'KEAN county was separated from Lycoming county by the act of 26th of March, 1804. It was named in honor of Governor Thomas M'Kean, who at that period filled the executive chair. Previous to 1814 the county was for a time attached to Centre county, and the records were kept at Bellefonte. In that year M'Kean was attached to Lycoming for judicial and elective pur- -- poses. The coun- MS ties of M'Kean and Potter were as for merly united, hay- 3 ing one treasurer, one board of corn-Y, missioners, and one of auditors. The commniissioners held their meetings at. N the house of Ben. ME j:imin Bents, on the I L - Allegheny river ard a little east of the county line. In 1826 M'Kean county was organized for judicial purposes, and the first court was held in Smethport, in September of that year. The same year a substantial M'KEAN COUNTY COURT HOUSE, SMETHPORT. brick court house LFrom a Photograph by J. B. Bergstresser, Smethport.] was erected. M'Kean county is situated on the northern border of the State, being the third county east from the west line thereof. It has a length on the State line of nearly forty miles, and a depth of about twenty-five miles, containing about one thousand square miles, or six hundred and forty thousand acres. It may be considered an elevated table, broken by numerous streams which have formed in many places valleys of considerable width. The principal streams are 923 924 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. the Allegheny river, which enters the county from the east, about midway of its width, and after running in a north-westerly direction about ten miles, it turns to the north, and passes into the State of New York about eight miles west of the north-east corner of the county. Its valley is from one to two miles wide. The upper half of the distance the river passes through this county, there is considerable fall, affording good water power. The lower half has very little fall. The Oswaya creek enters the county about two miles south of the northeast corner, and passes into the State of New York about five miles west of that point. Potato creek rises in the south-eastern portion of the county, and running west of north, joins the Allegheny river about midway of its course through the county. Its principal tributary is Marvin creek, which rises in the southern part of the county, and joins it at Smethport. Tuneungwant creek has its source near the middle of the county, and runs north, emptying into the Allegheny in the State of New York. This valley is traversed by the Bradford branch of the New York and Erie railroad, and is the New Oildorado of the State. Upon the west are Willow creek, Sugar run, Kenjua, and a branch of Tionesta creeks, putting into the Allegheny river in Warren county. On the south we have West Clarion and Instanter creeks, waters of the Clarion river, and the Sinnemahoning Portage, which runs into the Susquehanna. The Allegheny Portage enters the county from the east, about five miles north of the south-east corner, and running in a north-westerly direction, joins the Allegheny river at Port Allegheny. These streams have each many tributaries, which have their sources in innumerable springs of the purest water. The table land in the centre of the county is something over two thousand feet above tide. The beds of the streams are about one thousand five hundred, except the Sinnemahoning Portage, which is several hundred feet lower, so that for the most part the surface of the county is cut up into hills and valleys, the former of more or less steepness, and the latter of greater or less width, according to the character of the soil and rock upon which the waters have since time began been operating. The soil is well adapted to the cultivation of the grasses, and from the roughness of the surface, and the abundance of pure cold water, it seems peculiarly adapted to grazing and dairying purposes, and is destined, when improved, to equal any territory of equal extent in the Union in the production of butter, cheese, wool, and beef. The large mineral resources of the county, just beginning to be developed, will furnish a good home market for all that the land will produce. The pine timber has nearly all disappeared, but there are yet remaining immense quantities of hemlock and other valuable timbers, affording opportunities for a large business in lumbering and tanning. The sawing capacity of the mills already in operation is not less than one hundred millions feet of lumber per annum, and at Port Allegheny is one of the largest tanneries in the United States. The Bradford branch of the New York and Erie railroad has about twenty miles of track within the county, from the Lafayette coal beds north to the State line. The Philadelphia and Erie railroad runs for about twelve miles through the south-western portion of the county. The Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia railroad traverses almost the entire width of the eastern portion of M'KEAN UOUNTY. the county, and has a branch about twenty miles in length from Lanaba station, near the mouth of Potato creek, to the Clermontville coal fields. There are three boroughs, SMETHPORT, KANE, and BRADFORD. About the end of the last century a company of gentlemen, headed by John Keating, Esq., of Philadelphia, made an extensive purchase of wild lands in what are now M'Kean, Potter, Cameron, Clinton, and Clearfield counties. Francis King, an Englishman, member of the Society of Friends, then but recently from the city of London, was employed by the said company to examine different bodies of lands in this portion of the State, and spent nearly the whole of two summers in exploring the country, making careful and minute memoranda of the surface of the country, character of the soil, timber, rocks, streams, and natural routes for thoroughfares. Upon his report the selections were made, and the purchase consummated. In the spring of 1798, Mr. King left Philadelphia with a party of workmen; they proceeded to the upper settlement upon the West Branch of the Susquehanna river, in the vicinity of Jersey Shore. There they loaded their canoes, and taking their horses sometimes in the el annel of the river, and sometimes upon the banks, they pushed their canoes to the mouth of the Driftwood branch, and then up it to what is now Emporium. Here, on account of the smallness of the stream, they abandoned their canoes, and loading their tools and provisions upon their horses, they started in a northerly direction. Passing up a small tributary of the Drittwood, and down a branch of the Allegheny, they cut a bridle path through the forest very nearly over the ground now traversed by the Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia railroad from Emporium to Port Allegheny. This place was for many years known as the Canoe Place. At the latter place they halted, and having constructed more canoes from the trunks of the white pine, then abundant all along the valley of the Upper Allegheny, they loaded their baggage into them, and proceeded down the river to the mouth of the Oswaya, and up that stream about four miles, where they located, calling the place Ceres; built houses, cleared land, and commenced opening communications with other settlements. It was found that a small settlement had been commenced on the head-waters of a tributary of the Genesee river, and distant only fifty miles. This was the nearest white settlement in any direction. It was situated near the present village of Andover, on the New York and Erie railroad, and was known as Dike's settlement. A soit of road was soon opened between the two points, and also between Ceres and the Canoe Place, and between Ceres and the settlements on Pine creek, distant nearly one hundred miles. Progress in the work which was to make this little opening in the wilderness habitable for families was necessarily slow. The great distance from which supplies had to be brought, either in canoes or on the backs of horses, and the thick and heavy growth of timber to be removed from the land, were among the greatest obstacles to be overcome. The location was found to be exceptionally healthy, and the soil productive. Wherever an opening was made in th6 forest, the earth produced all the grains and vegetables indigenous to the climate, in almost miraculous quantities. The policy of love and kindness always practiced by the Friends towards the Indians was observed here, and had the effect of keeping up a kindly feeling among them towards Mr. King and his followers, and 925 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. they were very useful to him in procuring supplies of meat and fish, in piloting members of the party through the forest, in hunting up and bringing those who occasionally got lost in the woods, and the pack horses that sometimes went astray, and in many other ways. Indian corn, wheat, and rye flourished and produced abundant crops, but there were no mills in which to grind the grain. Generally it was cooked and eaten whole, but sometimes a boat load was taken to Pittsburgh to be ground, and sometimes the Indian method of mashing in a stone mortar was adopted. I In the first year of the present century Mr. King was joined by his family, and shortly after by several other families, mostly Englishmen and Friends like himself, and whose ignorance of pioneer life was as complete as his own. I must leave mostly to the imagination of the reader the story of the trials and sufferings of this period. To be for many days without food of any kind, except the roots and buds of trees-to be for many weeks together without meat, fish, or salt-to be lost in the woods or stopped in the forest paths by heavy falls of snow, without food or the means of making a fire-were among the common experiences of the early settlers. Among those who early joined the Ceres settlement and spent their lives and left their families there, were John Bell, with his sons William and John, and stepsons Thomas and John Bee, son-in-law Robert Gilbert; and Thomas Smith, with his sons John, William, and Henry. John Bell, Jr., and James King, second son of Francis King, spent most of their youth and early manhood in the older portions of the State, but were by no means strangers to the trials and privations of the new settlement. Francis King, the founder of this little settlement, died suddenly while in the prime of life, leaving not only the affairs of the land-holders, under whose auspices he came, but also a large amount of unsettled business, and the care and responsibility of a large family, in the hands of his eldest son John, who for nearly fifty years was the active agent of Messrs. Keating & Co., and intimately connected with every improvement, both public and private. Among the younger men upon whose shoulders fell the cares and responsibilities of the new settlement may be mentioned William Bell, whose name is prominent in all the records of the infant colony, and of the earlier history of the county. About the time that settlements began to be made in other parts of the county, Jacob Young and Asahel Wright came to Ceres. They both lived to be aged men, and though neither was ever particularly prominent in public affairs, they were both useful and esteemed citizens, and their names deserve a place in this record. In the year 1815, a large two-story frame building was erected at Ceres, under the direction of Messrs. Keating & Co., known as "The Land Office." This building was for many years occupied as a dwelling house, but was long ago taken down. The oldest building now standing at this place is a dwelling house, built by John King in the year 1819, in which a grandson now resides. Of the original families of the settlement, only three persons remain. These are Thomas Bee, Henry Smith, and Martha, daughter of Francis King and widow of William Bell. It is due to the memory of John Keating, Esq., of Philadelphia, to say that, from the earliest settlement of this county to the period of his death, his watchful care over it and anxiety for its progress, his sympathy with the sufferings and privations of the settlers, and readiness to help in every possi926 M'KEAN COUNTY. ble way, partook more of the character of the care of a father over his children, than that of the capitalist over a business enterprise. In the first year of the settlement, to supply the wants of the settlers, Mr. King set about the erection of a grist and saw mill, and ere long lumber was sawed and grain ground upon his own premises; and despite all discouragements the settlement began after a little to present a thriving appearance. Numerous dwellings and other buildings were erected, a town was regularly laid out, and the hope was indulged that the country round about would rapidly fill up with settlers. About this time the territory of Ohio became in the minds of the people of the Atlantic States the earthly paradise, and the restless and discontented, as well as the enterprising and ambitious, strained every nerve to reach it. In 1804 a road was opened through the State of New York, from the east to the Allegheny river at Olean, then and for many years called Hamilton, a point only ten miles distant from the Ceres settlement; and immediately a current of emigration was pouring over this route that would be astonishing even at the present day. At Olean, boats, skiffs,- canoes, and rafts were constructed, and the emigrants were floated down the streams to the country which was the Eden of their dreams. It may seem at the first glance that this would have helped instead of retarding the settlement of M'Kean county, but when we consider that the settlers in a new country are almost invariably poor, and that they are daily met by trials and difficulties which seem insurmountable, what wonder is it that the stories of the great fertility of the West, the comparative ease with which the forest could be cleared, and the small amount of labor necessary to win a subsistence for their families, which were constantly told by the emigrants, should engender a degree of discontent with their situation that doubled every obstacle, calamity, privation, and annoyance, and shrivelled every blessing and advantage into nothingness. The river offered to bear them away upon its bosom at no cost but that of subsistence, and in many cases even that was supplied and wages paid by those who had lumber to run or needed assistance in pulling the flat boats upon which they had loaded their goods and embarked their families. To go was easy, but to return was difficult and expensive, and to the very poor impossible. Another cause that materially retarded the development, if not the settlement of the county, was that the vast quantity and excellent quality of white pine timber offered to the settler a temptation to abandon his efforts to clear up and cultivate the soil, and embark in the lumbering business. The people were few, and wages consequently high. We were bordered on the north by a hard timbered district where land could be cleared for one-third to one-half what it cost here, and there was little or no pine timber to tempt men from their farms. Our lumbermen found that they could buy their supplies in the adjoining counties in the State of New York, and haul them to their camps cheaper than they could clear their own land and raise them; and this plan was very generally adopted, the inevitable consequence of such a course being that, after they had exhausted the natural wealth of the county, without giving anything back in the way of improvements, they found themselves the possessors of large tracts of land which were for present purposes absolutely worthless, and having for years given up the pursuit of agriculture, as a business, they had no taste for or 927 GBNERAL HISTORY. people downwards, and not let about fifteen hundred villains distress such a number of inhabitants as is in Pennsylvania, which actually they will, if they possess our provisions and frontiers long, as they now have many thousands of bushels of our corn and wheat in possession already, for.the inhabitants goes off and leaves all." In consequence of these melancholy tidings, the Governor summoned the Assembly for the 3d of November, when he laid before them an account of the proceedings of the enemy, and demanded money and a militia law. Petitions were poured in from all parts of the Province; from the frontier counties, praying for arms and munitions; from the middle counties, deprecating further resistance to the views of the Governor, and requiring, if it were necessary, a partial sacrifice of the property of the citizens for the defence of their lives; and that the religious scruples of the members of the Assembly might no longer prevent the defence of the country. By the middle of the month, the savages had "entered the passes o. the Blue Mountains, broke into the counties of Lancaster, Berks, and Northampton, committing murder, devastations, and other kind of horrid mischief," to use the language of Governor Morris, and yet the Assembly delayed the measures of defence required of them. The Governor, astonished at the obstinacy of the Assembly, for such he characterized it, again sent a message requesting that body to strengthen his hands and afford assistance to the back inhabitants, but they pled in excuse that they feared the alienating the affections of the Indians, and in a measure refused to grant the means necessary for the protection of the frontiers. In the meantime, the Proprietaries, alarmed by Braddock's defeat, now came forward and offered a donation for defence of ~5,000, to be collected from arrears of quit-rents; but they refused to grant it on any other ground than as a free gift. The Assembly waived their rights for a time, in consideration of the distressed state of the Province, and passed a bill to strike ~30,000 in bills of credit, based upon the excise. This was approved by the Governor. The cold indifference of the Assembly at such a crisis awoke the deepest indignation throughout the Province. Public meetings were held in various parts of Lancaster and in the frontier counties, at which it was resolved that they would "repair to Philadelphia and compel the provincial authorities to pass proper laws to defend the country and oppose the enemy." In addition, the dead bodies of some of the murdered and mangled were sent to that city and hauled about the streets, with placards announcing that these were victims of the Quaker policy of non-resistance. A large and threatening mob surrounded the House of Assembly, placed the dead bodies in the doorway, and demanded immediate relief for the people of the frontiers. Such indeed were the desperate measures resorted to for self-defence. To guard against the Indian devastations, a chain of forts and block-houses were erected at an expense of eighty-five thousand pounds,- by the Province of Pennsylvania, along the Kittatinny hills, from the river Delaware to the Maryland line, commanding the principal passes of the mountains, garrisoned with from twenty to seventy-five provincials, as the situation and importance of the places respectively required. The Moravians of Bethlehem cheerfully fortified HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. desire to return to it. They would generally leave for other pine timbered regions, taking with them nothing but added years and profitless experience, and leaving behind nothing but pine stumps and briar patches. The ease with which men could get away from here, and the high wages paid for pulling on rafts down the river, combined to make labor scarce, dear, and uncertain. Still the little settlement plodded on as best it could. Many came and few staid, and of the few, more turned their attention to lumbering and hunting than to farming. The idea of getting a living here without running a raft to market every spring had no existence in many minds. In the year 1810 six families from the state of New York, following up the Allegheny from Olean to the mouth of Potato creek, and up that stream some five or six miles, located themselves in the neighborhood now known as Farmer's Valley. Among them were three brothers, named Joseph, George, and Matthias Otto, whose descendants still reside in that neighborhood. George and Matthias both d(lied many years ago. Joseph lived to be very old, and was one of the prominent men of the county. Ile held at different terms most of the county offices. About this time a settlement was commenced at a place called Instanter, and familiarly known as Bunker Hill, by Joel Bishop, later and for many years one of the associate judges of the county, and upon lands owned by Jacob Ridgway, Esq., of Philadelphia; and here in 1821 or 1822 a fallow of four hundred acres was cleared, under the supervision of Paul E. Scull, Esq., late of Smethport, one of the most earnest and hopeful advocates of all projects which might have a tendency to advance the interests of the county. Near this farm of Mr. Ridgway, stone coal was early discovered, and was mined, first for the use of the few smiths in the vicinity, and later it became an article of export in a small way, being taken by teams in the winter season to the southwestern counties of the State of New York and exchanged for grain, pork, salt, and other necessaries of the new settlements. Not until within the last year has any railroad been constructed to this point. In 1815 ten families of Norwich, Chenango county, N. Y., exchanged their property with Messrs. Cooper, McIlvain & Co., for lands in the valley of Potato creek, some miles above Smethport, where they or their descendants still reside. This settlement was long known as Norwich settlement, and the present township of Norwich embraces the territory upon which they first located. Among the founders of this settlement were Jonathan Colegrove, Andrew Gallup, Rowland Burdick, David Comes, William Brewer, and Nathaniel White. Several beginnings were made along the valley of the Allegheny from Canoe Place, or Port Allegheny, to the State line, before the last-named settlements were begun. Among the earlier settlers along the river near Eldred were James Wright and his sons, Rensselaer, Micajah, and Wilkam P. Rensselaer Wright was from the first a prominent and influential citizen, and held at different terms nearly all the county offices. William P. Wright is still living. Jacob Knapp, who was the father of nineteen children, among whom was the celebrated revivalist of the same name, late of the State of Illinois. Joseph and Jacob Steele made beginnings near what is now Lanaba station, about the year 1810, where their descendants now reside. Lower down the river, Riverius Iooke and sons, James McCrea, John Morris, father of Rev. S. D. Morris, of State Line 928 M'KEAN COUNTY. 929 station, and others, made beginnings, their descendants still living in the neighborhood. Near Port Allegheny the earliest settlers were Judge Samuel Stanton, Jonathan Foster, and Dr. Horace Coleman. Judge Stanton and Dr. Coleman were active and public-spirited men, did all in their power to help on the settlement of the country, and were highly esteemed by the then few settlers of the county. Judge Stanton died many years ago while absent at Bellefonte upon some public business. Mr. Foster was accidentally shot by his son. He and his son were out hunting wolves. Each wore a wolf-skin cap and each was ignorant of the vicinity of the other. It was the custom with wolf hunters to howl in imitation of the wolf, and thus decoy their prey to within rifle shot. After being out some time one howled; the other thinking that he had heard a wolf, answered; both were deceived, and each began cautiously to creep towards his supposed prey A succession of calls and counter calls was kept up with sufficient accuracy of imitation to keep both deceived as to the real character of the other. Finally, after much manceuvring on both sides, and conducted after the known habits of the wolf, they approached very near each other, when the quick eye of the younger man caught sight of the wolf-skin cap of the elder as he raised M'KEAN COUNTY PRISON, SMETHPORT. his head to peer over a [Fromrn a Photograph by J. B. Bergstresser, Smethport.] his head to peer over a log, and he instantly fired. What must have been the feelings of that son as he walked triumphantly up to his prey, and found lying before him, not the body of the savage wolf, but that of his dying father. Could life be sufficiently long or busy to eradicate that scene from his memory. Dr. Coleman lived to ripe old age, and died respected by all, and surrounded by a large family, who do ample credit to the efforts of their sire in their behalf. A little later Solomon Sartwell, Sr., Nathan Dennis, John Wolcott, Allen and Justus Rice, and others, came into what is now Eldred township. My impression is that Dr. Golens, the Freemans, Fosters, Dikemans, and Buchanans, were among the earliest settlers in the valley of the Tuneunguant. Some thirty years ago Colonel S. C. Little came to Bradford, I believe, as the agent of a company known as "the Boston Land company," afterwards bought out by the late Daniel Kingsbury. Colonel Little was an active public spirited 31 HISTORY OF PENNSYLV ANIA. man, and grew in the good opinion of the people of the county to the day of his death. Few have been so much missed and so generally mourned. The Oswaya creek was declared a public highway in 1806-'7. In the fall of the latter year the constable of Ceres made return, under oath, to John C. Brevorst, justice of the peace, that there was no dam or weir upon said stream within the State of Pennsylvania. Of the readiness with which this county responded to the call of the government in 1861 little need here be said. The exploits of the Bucktails, under Colonel, now General, Thomas L. Kane, and the names of the brave men who fell in defence of the Union, are too fresh in the memories of all, and too well prederved in the still recent annals of the war, to need repeating here. Suffice it to say that, in proportion to its population, from this county more men volunteered and fewer were drafted, more went and fewer returned, than from any other county in the State, or probably in the Union. May their memory ever be green in the minds of the patriotic citizens not only of their native county, but of the great Commonwealth of which it is so very small a part. SMETHPORT, the county seat, was laid out under the direction of William Bell, Thomas Smith, and John C. Brevorst, but no settlement was made there until 1812, when Captain Arnold Hunter put up a log house within the town plot. Another house was built in 1812, but both were abandoned in 1814, and no permanent settlement was made until 1822. About this time the first county commissioners were elected, and held their office in a small building located within the plot. Among the early settlers at Smethport were William Williams, Solomon Sartwell, Squire Manning, Dea. James Taylor, Ira Oviatt, Gideon Irons, Isaac King; later came O. J. Hamlin, Esq., and brothers, O. R. Burnett, David Crow, Richard Chadwick, Dr. George Darling, Ghordis and B. C. Corwin, Dr. W. Y. McCoy, et al; and still later Henry Chapin, John Holmes, Nelson Richmond, A. S. Arnold, and others-active energetic business men and thoroughly identified with the history of the county. The first newspaper was published in March, 1832, by Hiram Payne. Recently new public buildings have been erected, and the town of Smethport has become a thriving and enterprising borough. Besides Smethport there are several towns of importance in the county, especially on the line of the Pennsylvania and Erie railroad. KANE, the largest town in the county, so favorably known as a salubrious and pleasant summer resort, is twenty-five miles from Smethport. This settlement was established. about the time of the completioR of the railroad, on a large tract of land owned by the family of Judge Kane, of Philadelphia. A large and elegant hotel was erected in the midst of a magnificent park. It is over two thousand feet above the ocean level, and in consequence enjoys an atmosphere of unrivalled purity. The town contains four churches. A vast lumbering business is transacted in the vicinity, six steam saw mills being in operation, employing a large number of hands. The machine shops of the railroad company are located here. SERGEANT, WETMORE, and LUDLOW, are important post towns on the railroad. BRADFORD borough, PORT KENNEDY, and FARMER'S VALLEY, are thriving towns. 930 MERCER COUNTY. BY WILLIAM S. GARVIN AND SETH HOAGLAND, MERCER. ERCER county, as defined by act of Assembly, 12th of March, 1800, lies between Crawford on the north and Beaver on the south, on the line dividing Pennsylvania and Ohio. Length, thirty-two miles along the State line, and breadth, eastward, where it is bounded by Venango, twenty-eight miles-the south-east corner jutting on Butler county, the square points of both being cut off to make a fitting adjustment. It was named in honor of General Hugh Mercer, the young surgeon in the army of the Pretender at the battle of Culloden, the companion of Washington in the Braddock campaign, and the indomitable American patriot who died from wounds received at the battle of Trenton, in 1777. The surface of the county is undulating, but little broken, and peculiarly well watered. It is covered with springs and small streams running into the larger creeks. The creeks consist of the Big Shenango on the western side, which rises in Crawford county, Neshannock in the centre, with heads all over the northern central, and Wolf creek on the eastern side. These streams all run in a southerly direction, and eventually are swallowed up in the Big Beaver, which empties itself into the Ohio river at Rochester. In addition to these there is the Little Shenango, that runs from east to west, across a considerable portion of the northern part of the county, rising five or six miles east of the central line drawn from south to north, that empties itself into the Big Shenango, a little above Greenville, and also Sandy creek, that takes its rise in Crawford county, and running diagonally through the north-east quarter of the county, to the south-east, enters Venango county, and empties itself into the Allegheny river about twelve miles below Franklin. Sandy lake, a sheet of water about a mile and a half long, and a half mile wide, very deep in the centre, discharges its surplus water into Sandy creek. The character of its general surface, the underlying limestone throughout its southern half, the bountiful supply of living water, and richness of soil, when known, were well calculated to invite the enterprising and hardy settler to the task of subduing its forests and making independent homes for themselves, with the hope that it would eventually become the foremost agricultural county in this part of the State. Their anticipations were not disappointed, for it is now not only a great agricultural, but a heavy and prosperous mining and iron county. Although declared a county, by act of Assembly in 1800, for all practical purposes it constituted a part of Crawford until February, 1804, when the first and second courts were held at the house of Joseph Hunter, situated on Mill creek, on the mill property near Mercer now owned by the Hon. William Stewart, in February and May of that year. The commission of Hon. Jesse Moore, as president judge of the circuit composed of the counties of Beaver, 931 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Butler, Mercer, Crawford, and Erie, was read; also the commissions of Alexander Brown and Alexander Wright as judges for Mercer county. The various commissions of John Findley (who was*the eldest son of the historic William Findley that was so prominent in Congress in the support of Thomas Jefferson), as prothonotary, clerk of the courts, etc., was also read; so also, that of William Byers as sheriff, James Braden as coroner, and John W. Hunter as deputy prosecuting attorney. The sheriff and coroner, as well as a board of county commissioners, consisting of Robert Bole, Andrew Denniston, and Thomas Robb, it is presumed were elected in October, 1803. The attorneys admitted to practice at the first court were John W. Hunter, Joseph Shannon, C. S. Sample, S. B. Foster, A. W. Foster, Ralph Marlin, Edward Work, Patrick Farrelly, William Ayres, Henry Baldwin, and Steel Sample. The two Fosters, Farrelly, Ayres, Baldwin, and Steel Sample, all afterwards turned out to be men of mark and ability, and forty and fifty years back from this writing it was a rich treat to hear the old men of that day recite the practical jokes, stratagems, and anecdotes of which they were the perpetrators. At the second term of court, held in May, the commission of William Amberson, as an additional judge for Mercer county, was read. This gave three associate judges. The writer of this, who, as a little boy, occasionally dropped into the court house, along between 1814 and 1820, was indelibly impressed with the grand dignity of the president judge. He was a heavy, solemn-looking man, retaining the costume of the old style gentleman-small clothes, shoe-buckles, kneebuckles, bald head, but hair long behind and done up in a cue, and head and hair and collar of the black coat covered with a white powder sprinkled thereon. He has since seen the Supreme Court of the United States in session. The black gowns of the judges sitting in a row, the low colloquial tone in which causes are argued, and the quietness enforced, certainly give it a very dignified aspect, but still there was lacking the grand old powdered head and cue that gave Judge Moore the advantage in solemn and imposing dignity. The first grand jury that assembled in the county consisted of Hugh Hamilton, Joseph McEwen, Thomas Scott, James Waugh, William Welsh, James Denniston, John Alexander, Cyrus Beckwith, Daniel Kelly, William Pangburn, John Grace, Duncan Carmichael, Robert Moore, William Nicholson, John Larimer, Alexander McCracken, James Montgomery, Jacob Loutzenhizer, Alexander Beans, and Joseph Smith, all of whom have long since paid the great debt of nature, but most of whom are yet alive in the generations that have followed and still reside in the county. The land on which Mercer, the shire town, was located, being very near the centre of the county, consisted of two hundred acres, presented by John Iloge, of Washington, Pennsylvania, who was the owner of large tracts in the vicinity. The trustees to lay out the town and dispose of the lots were John Findley, William Mortimore, and "Little Billy" McMillan, so designated to distinguish him from a larger man of the same name. It was with the funds arising from the sale of these lots that the first court house, standing in the centre of the public square, was built. On the 19th of May, 1807, John Chambers, John Leech, and William McMillan, the then county commissioners, contracted with Joseph Smith and John McCurdy for the building thereof, for the sum of 932 MERCER COUNTY. $7,116. It was a square brick building, two stories high, with wings for the offices. In 1840 there was an addition put to it to get better office accommodations, at a cost of about $2,000, and the whole was burnt to the ground in 1866, after which the present beautiful and substantial structure was erected, at the cost of $98,000. The first court house and jail, however, was a log structure on the ground now occupied by the First National Bank, the lower story for a jail being built of squared logs let down flat and dove-tailed at the corners, and the court room above, which was reached by stairs on the outside of the building. Until this construction was ready for prisoners, the county prison was a room in the house of James Braden, which the commissioners rented and fitted up for that purpose. At this time there were but six townships in the county, to wit: Salem, Pymatuning, Neshannock, Wolf Creek, Cool Spring, and Sandy Creek. In the journal of the county commissioners, at a sitting on July 1, 1805, it is entered that R. Bole, A. Denniston, and E. Sankey, contracted with David Watson, Jr., to run the lines of the townships agreeably to a plan or order of the court, at cents per mile, and after this the names of Delaware, West Salem, Shenango, Lackawannock, Mahoning, Slippery Rock, Sandy Lake, French Creek, and Springfield, were added to the list of townships, and Mercer, in virtue of being the county town, was given a separate existence. With the exception of Slippery Rock and Wolf Creek, which were accommodated to the cut-off corner adjoining Butler county, all townships were now eight miles long from south to north, and seven miles wide. This continued until Hickory was carved out of Shenango and Pymatuning in 1831, since which all the others have been carved up so that there are now (besides losing a fourth of territory to go to the makeup of Lawrence county) no less than thirty-one townships and twelve organized boroughs in the county of Mercer. The traveled route through north-western Pennsylvania was that established by the French in 1752-water communication up the Allegheny river to the mouth of French creek, then up that stream to Waterford, and from thence by an opened road to Erie. It was this route that was followed by General Washington in 1753, when sent by Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to demand from the French an explanation of their designs in establishing military posts on the waters of the Ohio. This route left Mercer county entirely to the west, and may explain why settlements in Venango, Crawford, and Erie, which it traversed, preceded those formed in Mercer. There were no settlements made in it until after Wayne's victory over the Indians, and the peace with them that followed in 1795. After this, in the fall of 1795, the surveyors began their labors, followed closely by the first settlers. Benjamin Stokely, who belonged to the first party of surveyors, remained alone when the others returned to their homes, and building himself a little cabin on the banks of the Cool Spring, was the first white man that spent a winter in the country. There was an encampment of two or three hundred Indians close to him, and he and they became very good friends. His youngest son, Bayne Stokely, now occupies the farm on which the father thus commenced the settlement. The wife of John Fell, and the maternal grandmother of the present Judge Trunkey, of Venango county, during lifetime, always claimed to be the first white female that wintered in the county. She was 933 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. the sister of the late Andrew Campbell, of Greenville, and when a little girl came with her father, who settled on the Shenango, leaving for a time the mother and other members of his family behind until he could prepare a home for them. Among the first settlers along the Shenango were the grandfathers of the present generations of the Quinbys, Budds, Carnes, Beans, McKnights, McGranahans, Campbells, Hoaglands, Mossmans, Leeches, Fells, Hunters, and Christys. In the Neshannock and Mahoning regions, the Byers, Sankeys, Fishers, Watsons, Chenowiths, and Pearsons made their first settlement. In the centre the Stokelys, Zahnisers, Garvins, Alexanders, Findleys, Junkins, Dennistons, McCulloughs, Pews, Rambos, Coulsons, and Hosacks. In the south-east corner the Roses, McMillans, Breckenridges, McCoys, and Courtneys. In the Sandy Lake and French creek region the Gordons, McCrackens, De Frances, Carnahans, Browns, Carmichaels, Carrols, Kilgores, Riggs, Condits, and McCloskeys. In the way of startling adventure, these men were not history makers. Their mission was to open up a wilderness for the use of civilized man, and secure to themselves and posterity comfortable homes. In striving to do this they underwent many privations. It took time to open out fields and get them under cultivation, so that bread could be got without transportation on horse-back from Pittsburgh or the settlements in Washington county, and before they could provide properly for the keeping of their stock over winter. The first stock was only wintered by the felling of maple and linwood trees to enable the cattle to browse on the buds. The forest then afforded them bear meat, venison, and turkey in abundance, but their appetites tired of this as the only food, and "hog and hominy," diversified with mush and milk, was the first change they could hope to make in their diet. Wolves, panthers, and bears were by no means scarce, but as other game was plenty, these animals did not indulge in the more dangerous chase of man. A wolf scalp then brought a premium of eight dollars out of the county treasury, and was a source of profit to quite a number of hunters. The first newspaper printed in the county was the Western Press, established in Mercer, by Jacob Herrington, in 1811, as a Democratic organ. It is still in existence, and is now published by William S. and E. L. Garvin, the first of whom entered the office as an apprentice in 1819. In addition to which, there is the Dispatch, in Mercer; the Times, Herald, and Eagle, in Sharon; the Advertiser, in Sharpsville; the Advance and Argus, in Greenville; the Sun, in Jamestown; and the News, in Sandy Lake-ten weekly newspapers in all. In the war of 1812, the people of Mercer county were frequently called upon to give their aid in the defence of Erie, where the fleet of Commodore Perry was being built. On these alarms, which were about as frequent as a vessel of the enemy hove in sight in the lake offing, the whole county would be aroused by runners in a day, and in a very few hours most of the able-bodied male population, whether belonging to a volunteer company or the militia, would be on their march to Erie. On one occasion the news came to Mercer on a Sunday, while the Rev. S. Tait was preaching in the court house. The sermon was suspended, the startling news announced from the pulpit, the dismissing benediction given, and immediate preparations for the march commenced. On the next day the military force of the county was well on its way to Erie. At another time the news of a threatened invasion came in the middle of the grain 934 MERCER COUNTY. harvest. This made no difference, the response was immediate. It was on this occasion that Mr. John Findley dropped the sickle in his tracks in the wheat field, hastened to his house, and seizing his gun, with such provisions as his wife had at hand to put in his haversack, started on his way to the defence of his country. On his return, six weeks afterwards, the sickle was found by him where it had been dropped. It was on one of these occasions that but a single man was left in the county town-Cunningham Sample, an old lawyer, completely unmanned by age and obesity. It then became the duty of the young boys left at home, among whom was John Davitt, now of Pittsburgh, Walter I. Hunter, and others, to look to the wants of the women and little folks of the community. Wood had to be chopped for their fires, grain milled, potatoes dug, etc., and thus did all contribute to the defence of their country. This was the spirit of the Mercer county people in the war of 1812. A rifle company, the Mercer Blues, under the command of Captain John Junkin, volunteered its services for six months under General Harrison, and was at Fort Meigs in the winter of 1813. Their time expiring before the expected seige by the British forces under General Proctor had commenced, on the occasion of the Virginians, under General Leftwick, leaving the fort, they were among the Pennsylvania brigade that re-volunteered to remain until General Harrison was able to relieve them. Afterwards a number of them re-volunteered again and remained to participate in the successful defence against the approaching siege of the enemy. It took time to get public roads opened through the county, so that packhorses could be done away with and wagons substituted. The first clay turnpike constructed was between Mercer and Meadville, about 1816. This was soon followed by a road from Butler to Mercer. The facilities for marketing the productions of the county were very inadequate. A large portion of the rye raised was turned into whiskey to render it portable, and in the winters, this, along with pork, deer skins, and furs, were loaded up in sleds and sent to Erie to barter for fish and salt. - The same articles were also sent in a similar manner to Bellefonte to trade for iron, nails, and castings. Groceries and dry goods were principally obtained from Pittsburgh. It was no uncommon thing in those days to trade a bushel of wheat for a pound of coffee. Butter sold at a regular price of six and one-fourth cents per pound. It was about 1816 that the driving of cattle was commenced by Jacob Herrington, and a trade in horses also established. Good milch cows sold for eight and ten dollars, and a horse that would now bring one hundred and seventy-five dollars, could then have been bought at sixty or seventy dollars. This condition continued until 1836, when the construction of the Erie extension of the Pennsylvania canal to Erie, along the valley of the Shenango, on the west side of the county, was commenced, which constituted a new era in the commerce of the county, letting it out of the woods, as it were, and bringing it into connection with Pittsburgh on the south and the lakes on the north. In due time railroads were established and the canal abandoned. The mining of coal in the Shenango valley, and the large iron establishments erected therein, soon drew a large population of consumers, affording the farmers a fair market for their surplus productions; and when Drake discovered a comparatively easy and cheap mode of reaching the petro935 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. leum of Venango county, on its eastern side, a fresh impetus was given to the business of Mercer county, for here was a new market created by the rush to the oil regions that was greedy for her agricultural products. There are now four prosperous agricultural societies in the county, to wit: the West Pennsylvania, with large grounds at Mercer; the Shenango Valley, which has beautiful and spacious grounds at Greenville; the Mercer County Society, that has fine grounds near Stoneboro, on the shore of Sandy Lake; and the Jamestown Society. There are various farmers' clubs, who hold public sessions for the discussion of agricultural questions; and as for Grangers, the county is full of them. Lawrence county was created in 1849, taking from the original Mercer county a little more than a fourth of her population, and nearly a fourth of her territory. The town of New Castle, which was five years older than that of Mercer; of New Bedford, started in 1813; of Harlansburg, in 1811; of Edinburg, in 1821; of Wilmington, in 1824; of Hillsburg, in 1825; and of Pulaski, in 1836, were all included in this partition. Beginning in the south-west corner of the county, on the line of the Erie and Pittsburgh railroad, we first have WEST-MIDDLESEX. It has one rolling mill, four furnaces, and a number of manufactories of various kinds. It is an incorporated borough. WHEATLAND is about three and a half miles north of Middlesex, and was laid out and built up by Wood & Sons, of Pittsburgh, on a property purchased from the heirs of George Schilling, and on which they erected what is said to be the largest railroad mill in the United States, as well as four furnaces. It was incorporated as a borough in 1870. SHARON is two miles above, and lies directly west of the county town, adjoining the dividing line between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Until 1836 it was a small cross-road village-a tavern, a country store, a blacksmith shop, with one or two tailors and as many shoemakers. An appropriation from the State Legislature for the extension of the Pennsylvania canal to Erie, in 1836, induced General Joel B. Curtis, of Mercer, to purchase a tract of coal land in the immediate neighborhood, with a view to a large coal trade with Erie and other places on the lake. The peculiar value of this coal was then unknown, but experiments followed, and it was soon ascertained that it had superior qualities for all iron purposes, and could be successfully used in furnaces without cokeing, getting a metal but little inferior to that produced by the use of charcoal. The building of furnaces in the neighborhood followed-and a strike among the puddlers of Wheeling and Pittsburgh enabled General Curtis to form a combination with many of them to build a rolling mill at Sharon. This led to a further combination with parties that had got hold of the Lake Superior iron ores, by which the interests of both were expected to be advanced; and thus it was that the Lake Superior ores were introduced into the market, the consumption of which has grown up to the stupendous proportions enjoyed at the present time. Sharon is now a thriving city, with a great deal of solid wealth. It has two large iron mills, besides several furnaces and other large manufactories, with a population of near seven thousand. General J. B. Curtis was its real founder, sustained by T. J. Porter, George Boyce, Matthew Murdoch, C. G. Carver, M. C. Trout, and a 936 .MERCGER COUNTY. few others. Porter and Boyce, far advanced in life, are the only ones of the party that are yet living. SHARPSVILLE, which lies about two miles north of Sharon, may be said to have been fathered by the late General Pierce, who purchased the ground on which it stands from Colonel Thomas Scott, the present president of the Pennsylvania railroad company. It has near fifteen hundred inhabitants, seven furnaces, and numerous manufactories. The finest and most costly residence in the county is located here, built by General Pierce a short time before his death. Sharpsville, by the many railroads running into and through it, has peculiar facilities in the way of travel and trade. It is an incorporated borough. CLARKSVILLE, four miles north of Sharpsville, was laid out in 1832, by William Clark, and is an incorporated borough. It has not grown since the abandonment of the canal, and being more than a mile from the railroad, has not reaped the advantages derived by other towns on its line. TRANSFER is a little village that has grown up at the point of transfer of freight and passengers between the Erie and Pittsburgh, and Atlantic and Great Western railroads, which for a distance of about three miles run side by side. It is not incorporated, but remains a part of Pymatuning township. SHENANGO is the next village north of Transfer, at the junction of the Shenango and Allegheny railroad with the Atlantic and Great Western. It is a small town, but is thriving. It is here that the coal and oil brought from Butler county by the Shenango and Allegheny railroad is transferred to the cars of the Atlantic and Great Western, made necessary by the difference in the gauges of the two roads. GREENVILLE is the second town in population and wealth in the county, and is two miles north of Shenango. It was laid out in 1819 by Thomas Bean and William Scott, on the west side of the Shenango. Numerous additions have been made to it on the east side, where the principal part of the town lies. It was incorporated in 1836, is a beautiful town, and contains an energetic and enterprising people. An excellent water power was utilized in the construction of the canal through this place, which has been employed in driving the machinery of a large flouring mill and various other manufactories. It has two banks, two newspapers, and a rolling mill near town. Population, over three thousand. Thiel College, the principal educational institution in the county, is located here. It is the only Lutheran college west of the mountains in Pennsylvania. JAMESTOWN is six miles north of Greenville, at the crossing of the Erie and Pittsburgh railroad with that of the Franklin branch of the Lake Shore road. It was laid out by James Campbell, in 1853, and is a very prosperous little borough. These comprise the towns along the Erie and Pittsburgh railroad, in the Shenango valley, in Mercer county. Following the Franklin Branch of the Lake Shore road south-east of Jamestown, HADLEY'S STATION and CLARK'S MILL constitute two thriving villages. STONEBORO, an incorporated town, standing on the shores of Sandy Lake, was laid out and built up by the railroad and coal company, the mines of which are in the immediate vicinity. It is a flourishing place, with a population of about one thousand. As a summer resort it has no mean claim-a fine hotel, a chalyFA -t-:4 o C+ CD' uq. (D CD BISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. beate spring, boating on the lake, etc., enable summer guests seeking rest and recuperation to enjoy themselves comfortably. Recently two immense structures have been erected for the storage of ice got off the lake, which is peculiarly clear and firm. SANDY LAKE is the next and last town 6n this road in Mercer county. It is but a mile from Stoneboro, on Big Sandy creek, where the outlet of the lake enters its waters. It is an incorporated borough, with a population of about eight hundred and fifty. The tract on which it is located was settled by Alexander Brown, who was one of the first associate judges of the county, about the year 1800, and was laid out by his son, Hon. Thomas J. Brown, another associate judge, in 1849. The splendid water power on the creek contributed very much to give it a fair start, and the building of the Franklin branch of the Lake Shore railroad, gave it a further impetus that has since driven it along in the road of prosperity in an eminent degree. Starting from Shenango, on the line of the Shenango and Allegheny road, eight miles hence, we have first the village of FREDONIA, now seeking incorporation; then five miles further on, OAKLAND, near Mercer; then, five more miles, PARDOE'S STATION, a mining town; then four miles, and we reach PINEGROVEall thriving and prosperous villages. Running across the northern range of townships, to the east of Jamestown, we have the incorporated borough of SHEAKLEYVILLE, founded by George Sheakley, in 1820. This is on the old turnpike between Mercer and Meadville. Population, four hundred. East of this, the village of NEW VERNON, the little borough of NEW LEBANON, and the village of MILLEDGEVILLE. Going south from Sandy Lake, on the eastern side of the county, along the drainage of Wolf creek, are the villages of HENDERSONVILLE, MILLBROOK, PINEGROVE (on the Shenango and Allegheny railroad), and NORTH LIBERTY. Between this latter place and Mercer, on the Butler turnpike, is located the villages of LOUDON and BLACKTOWN. On the road from Mercer to Harmony, in Butler county, stands the village of LEESBURG, six miles from the county town. On the road from Mercer to Middlesex, midway, is the village of GREENFIELD, commenced in 1847; and a mile farther on, the little borough of BETHEL. The village of CHARLESTON, on the road between Mercer and Sharon; DELAWARE GROVE, on the Greenville road; FAIRVIEW, on the road to Sheakleyviile, and JACKSON CENTRE, on the road to Franklin, each about six miles from Mercer, comprise the balance of the villages of the county. SMERCER, the county town, was laid out in 1803, and now has a population of near three thousand. Until the construction of the Shenango and Allegheny, and the New Castle and Franklin railroads it was insular from the great traveled routes, and having nothing but the trade of the surrounding agricultural population, and the little advantage from the holding of the county courts, did not prosper so rapidly as Sharon and Greenville; but since it has got two railroads crossing each other almost at right angles, has grown very rapidly, and for the last year or two has perhaps been the most prosperous town in the county. It has a number of thriving manufactories of various kinds. One of the schools established by the State for the maintenance and education of the soldiers' orphans is established here, having over three hundred pupils. 938 MIFFLIN COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to Silas Wright and C. W. Walters.] IFFLIN county was formed from Cumberland and Northumberland, by the act of September 19th, 1789. It was named in honor of General Thomas Mifflin, at that time President of the Supreme Exe cutive Council of the State. The county contains about 370 square miles, and is irregular in shape, presenting indentations and projections in its outline, some of which are due to alterations made in 1791 and 1792, and by the formation of Centre and Juniata counties in 1800 and 1831.. Iron ore of the best quality abounds in the county. That found in the Kishico- - quillas valley consists of __ the brown pyrated perox- -_ ide, occurring in compact masses, hematite, or of the stalactite structure, com- -__ - _ monly called pipe ore. Large quantities of ore are shipped from Anderson's station, on the Pennsylvania railroad. In Limestone ridge, extending from Kishicoquillas creek, facing the Juniata, underlying limestone, is found a hard, white compact sandstone, almost purely silicious, much used in the - manufacture of glass. This manufacture of glass. This MIFFLIN COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LEWISTOWN. sand is so compact that it [From a Photograph by J. M. Welmer, Lewistown.] requires the blast to loosen before it can be mined, but after being exposed to the action of the air for a short time, it crumbles under the pressure of the hand. Between Lewistown and McVeytown sand works have been constructed, which mine, in the aggre gate, nearly 20,000 tons annually. The material is shipped out of the county to be manufactured. In the limestone formations of this county quite a number of caves have been discovered, notable among which are Alexander's, in Kishicoquillas valley, which 939 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. abounds in stalactites and stalagmites, preserving in midsummer the ice formed in the winter. Naginey's, in the same valley, along the line of the Mifflin and Centre County railroad, near Milroy, is the most spacious and widely celebrated in the county. It was discovered by Charles Naginey while quarrying limestone. It is much visited in the summer season. Hanawalt's cave near McVeytown, is of vast dimensions, and contains calcareous concretions. Crude saltpetre has been obtained in it. Bevin's cave is on the summit of Limestone ridge. An Indian mound near Lewistown, containing bones, arrow heads, etc., was destroyed when the canal was made. Within the limits of the county are several celebrated springs, of which Logan's, near Reedsville, is most widely known. Mifflin spring, generally known as Bridge's spring, about half a mile from Painterville Station, on the Sunbury and Lewistown railroad, is a mineral spring recently discovered of undoubted medicinal virtues. A partial analysis shows the presence of ingredients similar to the waters of the more famous Avon springs. Two prominent Indian characters, whose names have been perpetuated in this locality, deserve a passing notice prefatory to an historical resum4 of the county. We allude to Logan, the Mingo chief, and Kishicoquillas. The former is especially distinguished in American annals. Logan was the son of Shikellimy, an Iroquois chief, who figured conspicuously in the Indian history of Pennsylvania. He resided, until 1771, near a large spring now bearing his name, in the Kishicoquillas valley, six miles from Lewistown. Removing to the West, he located on the Ohio river at the mouth of Yellow creek, about thirty miles above Wheeling, and was joined there by his relatives and some Cayugas from Fort Augusta, who recognized him as their chief. Logan's whole family was afterwards barbarously murdered on the Ohio, above Wheeling, by some white savages, without a shadow of provocation. It was not long after that act that his consent was asked by a messenger, with wampum, to a treaty with Lord Dunmore, on the Scioto, in 1774, when he returned the reply so familiar to every American child. Old Kishicoquillas had his wigwam near Buchanan's cabin, with whom he was always on friendly terms. Some of his followers are said to have given notice to the Buchanans of the expected attack on Fort Granville, and they fled with their families and cattle to Carlisle. But little is preserved relating to him, save his name, in that of the beautiful valley in Mifflin county. He was a chief of the Shawanese, well advanced in years, when the Burns, Maclays, Millikens, and McNitts came into the valley. The first settlers came from the Conococheague, by way of Aughwick. They were Arthur Buchanan, a brave backwoodsman, his two sons, and three other families, all of whom were Scotch-Irish. They encamped on the west side of Kishicoquillas creek, near its mouth, opposite the Indian town on the present site of east Lewistown, when Buchanan, who was the leader, proceeded to negotiate for land. At first he found the Indians unwilling, but meeting with the chief whom he christened Jacobs, from his resemblance to a burly Dutchman in Cumberland county, he succeeded in obtaining the land, now the principal part of Lewistown, west of the creek, extending up the river. This was in 1754. To this favored spot, this year and the forepart of the next, 1755, he induced so many persons to come to his settlement, that the Indians who adhered to Jacobs 940 LEWISTOWN NARROW, PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD 941 HISTORY OF PENNSYLYANIA. became dissatisfied, destroyed their town, and left. The council-house of the Indians was on the east side of the creek, opposite Buchanan's cabin, and a line of wigwams belonging to a number of different tribes stretched to the north along the stream. The destruction of the town so suddenly, and the departure of the Indians without a reason given, caused great fears of danger from their return; accordingly they determined upon a fort for mutual protection. This fort was built one mile above Lewistown at a spring near the river, and called Fort Granville. The spring and site of this fort were dug away when the canal was made. The fort was built in the fall of 1755. The settlers were not molested until the spring of 1756, when roving tribes on the war path made their appearance. They lived principally within the fort on account of the frequency of these marauding parties. Lieutenant Armstrong, with a militia force from Cumberland county, arrived in season to protect the settlers while reaping their grain, but soon after his arrival, learning of the exposed condition of the people in Tuscarora valley, he sent part of his force, under Lieutenant Falkner, to protect them while harvesting. This was in the early part of July. On the 30th of that month, Captain Edward Ward, who commanded the fort, with a well organized force in pay of the Province, detailed all but twenty-four men, with himself in command, to go and protect the settlers in Sherman's valley while harvesting, leaving Lieutenant Armstrong in command. The enemy learning of the departure of the troops, appeared in a force of "not less than a hundred and twenty," and assaulted the fort during the afternoon and evening of the 1st of August. About midnight they succeeded in setting the fort on fire, and Lieutenant Armstrong, exposing himself in trying to put out the flames, was shot by the Indians. There were twenty-two soldiers, three women, and several children taken prisoners, who were compelled to make forced marches to Kittanning, where they witnessed the cruel sacrifice of one of the soldiers named Turner. He was tied to a stake, and heated gun barrels were run through his body. After three hours of every torture that savage vengeance could invent, he was scalped, and an Indian boy held up who cut open his head with a hatchet. The fate of many of the other prisoners taken at Fort Granville was supposed to have been similar to Turner's, for they were never heard of afterwards. In 1769, the year after the treaty of Fort Stanwix, the whites returned to the Granville settlement, and some of them commenced exploring the Kishicoquillas valley. Judge William Brown was the first settler of the valley. The Brattons, Hollidays, Junkinses, Wilsons, Rosses, Stackpoles, and others, made an early settlement in the south-western part of the county. Of these the Brattons gave name to one of the townships. The early settlers were nearly all Scotch-Irish. The valleys filled in rapidly, and during the eventful scenes in the subsequent history of the State, Mifflin county took a prominent part. In the year 1789 a dispute ensued between Mifflin and Huntingdon counties, relative to the western line of division between them. A great deal of bad feeling was engendered, but fortunately there was no blood lost. In 1791 the harmony of the county was disturbed by the refusal of Judge Bryson, who had been recently appointed an associate judge of the new county, refusing to commission two colonels who had been elected by their regiments. The judge had, a short time previous, been brigade inspector, and the offended friends of the 942 MIFFLIN CO UNTY. officers were determined that he should not enjoy the honors of his station. Much excitement ensued, but the disturbance was finally quelled. On the 5th of November, 1829, the Pennsylvania canal was opened, and the first packet boat proceeded from Lewistown to Mifflintown. It was the occasion of much rejoicing. The construction of this great improvement gave a powerful impetus to the development of the county. Quite a number of thriving towns sprung up along the new route of traffic, manufactures were established, and business interests were greatly stimulated. In the second war with Great Britain, Captain Henderson's company of Lewistown responded to the call of Governor Snyder. A single member of DISTANT VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF LEWISTOWN. [From a Photograph by J. M. Weimer, Lewistown ] the company survives. In the war with Mexico, there went forward to that distant country the company of Captain William H. Irwin. It left Lewistown for the seat of war, March 26, 1847. Twenty-five of the members never returned. The company served until the end of the war, and in addition to fights with guerrillas on the march to Puebla, it participated in the battles of Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, Chepultepec, and City of Mexico. In June preceding, it was engaged in the fights at the National Bridge and Passa la Haya. Captain Irwin having been severely wounded at the battle of Molino del Rey, returned to the States in the fall of 1847, after which the company was under the command of Lieutenant T. F. McCoy. In the war for the Union, one of the first companies to march to the relief of the National Capital was Captain Selheimer's, the Logan Guards, referred to in the General History. Other compa943 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. nies and detachments followed, and during the entire four years of that terrible civil conflict, Mifflin county furnished men and means to crush out rebellion and secession. LEWISTOWN, the county seat of Mifflin, is located on the left bank of the Juniata river, at the mouth of Kishicoquillas creek. The town is pleasantly situated on elevated ground. It was laid out in 1790 by General James Potter, Judge William Brown, and Major Montgomery, owners of the town plot, and christened in memory of a celebrated island of the Hebrides group west of Scotland called Lewis. It was incorporated February 6, 1811. Two railroads pass through the town, the Lewistown and Sunbury railroad, connecting with the Pennsylvania at Lewistown station, and the Northern Central railroad at Selinsgrove; the other, the Mifflin and Centre County railroad running to Milroy, in Mifflin county. The State canal passes through the town, and the Pennsylvania railroad on the opposite side of the river. Next to Huntingdon, it is the most important and populous town on the Juniata river. The borough is lighted with gas, and supplied with pure spring water. It contains two furnaces belonging to the Glamorgan iron company, two tanneries, boiler works, three flour mills, besides other mechanical and manufacturing industries. Three newspapers are here issued-the Gazette, True Democrat, and Democratic Sentinel. It contains a brick court house, stone prison, and a large public academy. The borough and vicinity has been visited by several fearful calamities. On the 4th of July, 1874, a terrific tornado swept over the town with irresistible fury, prostrating buildings, destroying the bridge over the Juniata, crushing the Glamorgan furnace No. 2, as if its stone walls had been paper, and spreading desolation everywhere, leaving scarcely a property without some slight damage, and destroying a number of lives. The ice freshet of 29th of December, 1874, carried away the trestle bridge erected after the destruction of the one by the tornado. On Friday, February 26, 1875, the new county bridge was destroyed by the ice. This structure had only been in possession of the county authorities since the January court preceding. MCVEYTOWN, twelve miles west of Lewistown, is located on the left bank of the river, in Oliver township. The railroad station is on the right bank of the river, from which a bridge crosses some distance east of the station to Mattawana island, and from the island another spans the northern channel to the town. This town was formerly called Waynesburg. It was incorporated as a borough April 9, 1833. NEWTON HAMILTON, formerly Hamiltonville, known in Provincial times as Muhlenberg, is twenty-two miles west of Lewistown by railroad, and twenty-one by the turnpike. In the spring of 1828, this town contained only four log houses. Owing to the impetus given by the construction of the canal, which passed through it, the town increased rapidly. The grounds of the Juniata Valley camp-meeting association, belonging to the Methodist church, are located near this place. Newton Hamilton was incorporated as a borough April 12, 1833. FREEDOM FORGE, on the line of the Mifflin and Centre County railroad, is occupied principally by operatives in the extensive iron works at that place. YEAGERTOWN, in Derry township, is on the Lewistown and Bellefonte turnpike. 944 MIFFLIN COUNTY. It is occupied chiefly by operatives in the celebrated axe manufactory of the Messrs. Mann, located there. REEDSVILLE is in Brown township, formerly known as Brown's Mills. MILROY is the terminus of the Mifflin and Centre County railroad, nine miles from Lewistown, in Armagh township. From it the traveler has a full view of the " Seven mountains," the ascent of which commences about a mile from the town. BELLEVILLE, Union township, eight miles west of Reedsville, is in Kishicoquillas valley. Not far from it is the village of MECIIANICSVILLE. ALLENVILLE is seven miles west of Belleville, in Menno township. It contains a mill and a woolen manufactory. THE UNITED STATES MINT AT PHILADELPHIA. 3 K 945 MONROE COUNTY. BY WILLIAM S. REES, STROUDSBURG. [With acknowledgments to L. W. Brodhead.] N the first day of April, 1835, the county of Monroe was formed. It was enacted " that the townships of Ross, Chestnut Hill, Toby hanna, Pokono, Hamilton, Stroud, and Smithfield, north of the Blue mountain, and Northampton county, together with the townships of Middle Smithfield, Price, and Coolbaugh, in Pike county, shall be, and the same are hereby declared to be, erected into a separate county, to be called MONROE." By the same act, Moses W. Coolbaugh, Benjamin V. Bush, William Van Buskirk, Michael Shoemaker, and Joseph Track were appointed trustees to receive donations in real estate and money towards defraying the expenses of the lands and public buildings for the use of the county, and select a site therefor. Several offers were made them, but Stroudsburg was considered the most favorable location, and accordingly selected. The county was named in honor of the fifth President of the United States. In 1843, on the organization of Carbon county, the township of Penn Forest was taken from Monroe. With this exception, the limits of the county remain as when first named. The surface of Monroe county is generally mountainous, the greater portion of it being occupied by the lofty and desolate ranges of the Pocono, and other sandstone ridges and spurs, underlying the coal formation. In the north-western part of the county, on the head-branches of the Lehigh, lies an immense body of rather wet land, covered with a dense forest of pine. This place was called, by the forlorn fugitives from Wyoming, the Great Swamp, or the Shades of Death. The towering ridge of the Kittatinny mountain rises along the south-eastern boundary of the county, and would seem to shut it out from the world below were it not for the open doors of the far-famed Delaware Water gap, the Wind gap, and Smith's gap. Between this mountain and the Pocono are several subordinate parallel ranges, with long narrow valleys of the limestone and slate formations, exhibiting a striking contrast in their beauty and fertility to the rugged soil of the mountains. The county is well supplied with water-power for mills and other manufacturing purposes. The Delaware washes a portion of the south-eastern boundary. Its tributaries are Bushkill, Mill creek, Marshall creek, Brodhead's or Analomink creek, with several large branches, and Cherry creek. The tributaries of the Lehigh are the Tobyhanna, several branches of Big creek, and the sources of the Aquanshicola creek. One of the branches of Tobyhanna rises in a small lake called Long Pond. Within the present limits of Monroe county there were several Indian ivillages. It was a portion of the lands of the Minisinks, and it was here that the 946 MONROE COUNTY celebrated Delaware chief Teedyuscung long resided. He was born on the Pocono. No Indian warrior who trod the soil of Pennsylvania is more deserving of a place in history than that brave chieftain. He was the ablest of thile aborigines, and played a distinguished part during the border wars. The presumption is, the first settlement within the boundaries of the State of Pennsylvania was at Shawnee, in Monroe county, by the Low Dutch, or Hollanders. Reference has been made in the sketch of Pike county to the instructions of Surveyor-General Lukens to Samuel Preston, in regard to the early settlements above the Kittatinny mountains. In addition to what has been there stated, we learn that in 1730 the Provincial authorities appointed the famous surveyor, Nicholas Scull, as agent to go and investigate the facts concerning the settlement. John Lukens accompanied him. The narrative proceeds: "As they both understood and could talk Indian, they hired Indian guides, and had a fatiguing journey, there being then no white inhabitants in the upper part of Bucks or Northampton counties. That they had very great difficulty to lead their horses through the Water gap to Meenesink flats, which were all settled with Hollanders; with several they could only be understood in Indian; that Samuel Dupui told them that when the rivers were frozen he had a good road to Esopus from the Mine Hole, on the Mine road, some hundred miles; that he took his wheat and cider there, for salt and necessaries; and d(lid not appear to have any knowledge or idea where the river ran, of the Philadelphia market, or being in the government of Pennsylvania. They were of opinion that the first settlement of Hollanders, in Meenesink, were many years older than William Penn's charter; and as Samuel Dupui had treated them so well, they concluded to make a survey of his claim, in order to befriend him if necessary. When they began to survey, the Indians gathered around; an old Indian laid his hand on Nicholas Scull's shoulder and said,' put up iron string, go home!' that they quit and returned." Dupui's house stood near the Delaware, about five miles east of Stroudsburg. lie was a HIuguenot, settled originally at Esopus, and came to the Minisink prior to 1725. He purchased a large portion of the level land in which the present town of Shawnee is situated, of the Minsi Indians, in 1727, and likewise the two large islands in the Delaware-Shawano and Manwalamink. He subsequently purchased the same property of William Allen in 1733. The oldest survey in the county was made in 1727, "of a tract of land situated near the Minnesink," for William Allen, of Philadelphia. This land was at the Shawnee town alluded to. John Drake, Solomon Jennings, and John McMickle, took up the land now known as "Angle Swamp," in 1748,:-il it was hen called the "Big Meadow," and the run near, called Big Meadow run. Along the Brodhead's, or Analomink creek, from the Brodhead six hundred acre tract to near Spragueville, was the Proprietaries' Manor of fifteen hundred acres. General Robert Brown lived at the Brodhead place, on the six hundred acre tract. At Bushkill, James Hyndshaw settled at an early day. Among the early settlers in Hamilton township were John McDowell, Philip Bossard, Conrad Bittenbender, and others. The Hillborns settled at an early day on the Brodhead's creek, near Wywamic mountain, and the Solidays about the same time settled on the south-west branch CHAPTER VI. REWARD FOR INDIAN SCALPS. DESTRUCTION OF KITTANNING. EXPEDITION OF GENERAL FORBES. PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY. BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION. 1756-1763. O aggravating had the enemy's conduct become, so terribly desolated the homes of the frontiersmen, that Governor Morris issued a pro clamation on the 14th of April, offering the following bounties, hoping thereby to incite not only the energies of the soldiers, but to alarm those Indians who were still friendly: " For every male Indian enemy above twelve years old who shall be taken prisoner and delivered at any forts, 1756. garrisoned by the troops in pay of this Province, or at any of the county towns to the keepers of the common jails there, the sum of one hundred and fifty Spanish dollars or pieces of eight; for the scalp of every male Indian enemy above the age of twelve years, produced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for every female Indian taken prisoner and brought in as aforesaid, and for every male Indian prisoner under the age of twelve years, taken and brought in as aforesaid, one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for the scalp of every Indian woman, produced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of fifty pieces of eight; and for every English subject that has been taken and carried from this Province into captivity that shall be recovered and brought in and delivered at the city of Philadelphia to the Governor of this Province, the sum of one hundred and fifty pieces of eight, but nothing for their scalps; and that there shall be paid to every officer or soldier as are or shall be in the pay of this Province who shall redeem and deliver any English subject carried into captivity as aforesaid, or shall take, bring in, and produce any enemy prisoner, or scalp as aforesaid, one-half of the said several and respective premiums and bounties." This proclamation gave great offence to the Assembly, but the times were perilous, and the bounties were absolutely necessary to secure the protection of the borders. To the credit of the hardy pioneers of Pennsylvania be it said, no Indian was wantonly killed for the sake of the reward. On the 20th of August, William Denny* arrived in the Province, superseding Governor Morris. He was hailed with joy by the Assembly, who flattered themselves that with a change of government there would be a change of measures. Upon making known the Proprietary instructions, to which he stated he was compelled to adhere, all friendly feeling was at an end, and there was a renewal of the old discord. Before Governor Morris was superseded, he concerted with Colonel John * WILLIAM DENNY, a native of England, born September, 1718, was well educated and in high favor at Court. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania from August, 1756, to October, 1759. Returning to England on his removal from office, he spent the remainder of his days in retirement on an annuity from the Crown. He died previous to the War of Independence. 948 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. of the same stream, near its junction with the main creek, and were either killed or captured by the Indians. Price and Wissimer settled further up the Brodhead's creek, now in Price and Barrett townships, and, I believe, were never molested by the Indians. Russell settled on the flats below, now Bartonsville, and John Russell was killed, in 1764, by the Indians, and the last killing done by the Indians was George Larne and his wife and child, in 1780, at now the lower part of Tannersville, in Pocono township. About the year 1756 there was a line of forts erected to protect the frontier settlements. Fort Norris, at Greensweig's, now in Eldred township. This fort, says Captain Young, "stands in a valley midway between the North mountain and the Tuskarora, six miles from each, on the high road towards the Minnesinks; it is a square, about eighty feet each way, with four half bastions, all very completely stockaded, finished and defensible." Fort Hamilton, at Stroudsburg, the west end of the town, the same authority says: "This fort stands in a cornfield by a farm house, in a plain and clear country; it is a square, with four half bastions, all very ill-contrived and finished; the stockades are six inches open in many places and not firm in the ground, and may be easily pulled down. Before the gate are some stockades driven in the ground to cover it, which I think might be a great shelter to an enemy. I, therefore, ordered them to pull them down. I also ordered to fill up the other stockades where they were open." Fort Hyndshaw was at the mouth of Bushkill creek. During the old French and Indian war of 1755-60, the inhabitants north of the mountain were continually in danger of being massacred by the Indians; and in some places the Indians commenced operations in 1755. In December, 1755, the Indians made an attack upon the inhabitants in the neighborhood of Fort Hamilton. They also appeared at what is now called Pleasant Valley, in Polk township, while the entire country beyond Brodhead's was deserted. Nicholas Weiss was killed near Brinker's, now Fennersville or Sciota, and his family taken to Canada. At this date the Provincial records contain numerous allusions to the murderous attacks of the savage Indians, and during the period between 1755 and 1763 all the able-bodied men were required for the defence of the frontiers. Major William Parsons, writing to Governor Denny, gives accounts of the devastations of the settlements. With the return of peace the forays of the Indians into Monroe county ceased. During the Revolution Fort Penn was erected at the lower part of the town of Stroudsburg. General Sullivan, in 1779, on his way from Easton to Wyoming with his troops to chastise the Indians on the Susquehanna, passed through the county. In his journal he says: 1 On the 18th of June, 1779, hlie had encamped at Hillard's (Heller's) tavern, eleven miles from Easton; June 19th, marched to Larney's (Larne's or Learn's) tavern, at Pokanose (Pocono) Point; 20th, to Chowder Camp, which is now known as Hungry Hill, in Tobyhanna township, and at which place they halted several days and sent back to Fort Penn for provisions. While waiting they cut a road through the swamp there. At Hungry Hill there is a grave by the side of the old Sullivan road of one of the soldiers, and another grave at Locust ridge. During the war in the Wyoming valley, between the Connecticut claimants and the Pennsylvanians, called the Pennamite MONROE COUXTY. war, there was one battle fought within the boundaries of now Monroe county, at Locust ridge, in which one of the Pennamite soldiers, named Everitt, was killed. Locust ridge seems to have been an old place, as there was a survey made there in 1749, for Samuel Dupui. There was also an old settlement at White Oak run, and one where General Sullivan crossed the Tobyhanna." Among the highly distinguished officers of the army of the Revolution from Pennsylvania, were General Daniel Brodhead, Captains Garret and Luke Brodhead, and Colonel Jacob Stroud, of Monroe county. The latter was principally in command at Fort Penn. The Brodheads were especially patriotic, and nearly the entire male portion of that family, able to bear arms, saw service in the war of Independence. But little transpired after 1780 to record, except that in some parts of the oounty there had been destructive freshets in January, 1841; June, 1862; and October, 1869. Monroe county has improved steadily, and from a population of about 2,000, one hundred years ago, it now has a population of about 20,000, and an area of 384,000 acres of land; and instead of a few scattering mills, there are now thirty flouring mills, ten tanneries, several foundries, a woolen mill, a tanite factory for manufacturing emery wheels, etc., and a glass factory, while her hills and valleys are dotted with churches and school houses. STROUDSBURG, the seat of justice for Monroe county, is pleasantly situated in the lower valley of the Pocono. Three beautiful streams unite on its eastern border. It was first settled by Colonel Jacob Stroud, who owned about four thousand acres. Soon after the close of the French and Indian war, Colonel Stroud came to the valley. He died in 1806. The town was laid out about 1810, by Daniel Stroud, the son of the colonel, who, in addition to a liberal plan of broad avenues, enjoined in his deed of sale to all purchasers that they should set their houses thirty feet back from the side-walk. This gives to the resiflences of that beautiful town the quiet rural air of a New England village. 13esides the public buildings, there are several churches, and a number of local industries, with a population of about 2,500 inhabitants. Four miles below Stroudsburg, on the Delaware, the waters of that river gracefully sweeping from the north to the east, turn suddenly and pass through the Blue mountain, cutting it to the base, while its ragged sloping sides, towering up to an elevatioll of sixteen hundred feet, frown down upon the river as it calmly pursues its course toward the ocean. This immense chasm is called the DELAWARE WATER GAP, and has grown to be one of those delightful places of summer resort for which Pennsylvania is becoming famous. There are quite a number of thriving villages in Monroe county, the principal of which are BARTONSVILLE, in Pocono township, laid out by Joseph Barton about 1832; TANNERSVILLE, laid out by Joseph Edinger in 1825; KUNKLESTOWN, in Ross township; PocoNo, SAYLORSBURG, SHAWNEE, and KELLERSVILLE, the latter once the competitor for the county seat. 949 MONTGuMERY COUNTY. BY MORGAN R. WILLS, NORRISTOWN. EPTEMBER 10, 1784, the Legislature passed anl act " for erecting part of the county of Philadelphia into a separate county " to be called Montgomery. The act provided for the election of " four represent atives, one fit person for sheriff, one fit person for coroner, and three commissioners, and one member of the Supreme Executive Council." Henry Pawling, Jr., Jonathan Roberts, George Smith, Robert Shannon, and Henry Cunnard were by the same act au thorized to pur chase a tract of land " in trust and -- for the use of the inhabitants of the said county, and thereon to erect and build a court --- -- house and prison, sufficient to accom modate the public service of said county," which it appears they did, selecting the site of Norristown, upon which are now located the public buildings. They d(lid not erect a court-house and MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT HOUSE, NORRISTOWN. jail, however, until [From a Photograph by Stroud & Son, Norristown ] 1787, three years after the passage of the act authorizing them to do so. In the meantime, the courts were held wherever accommodations could be obtained. The first court was held at the public house kept by John Shannon, September 28, 1784, Frederick A. Muhlenberg presiding. By act of Assembly, 13th September, 1785, Montgomery county was divided into three election districts. Again, in 1797, the county was divided into five districts. Subsequent acts of Assembly further sub-divided the county, until at the present time there are eleven 950 MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 951 boroughs and thirty townships, forming fifty-four election districts. The population of Montgomery county in 1790 was 22,929; and in 1870, 81,612. There are no mountains in this county. The lands are agreeably diversified by undulating hills and valleys. Few valleys in any country can boast of more picturesque scenery than that of the Schuylkill river. Forming the south-western boundary for some distance, it meanders through broad cultivated fields, furnished with substantial stone houses and barns, with here and there an elegant country seat; again it sweeps past bold bluffs of rocks, grudging a passage to the railroad, and then past some bright and busy manufacturing town, to which its own sparkling waters impart the movement. Thile other streams are the Perkiomen, the Skippack, Gulf creek, Manatawny, and the upper branches of the Wissahickon, Pennepack, Tacony, and Neshaminy. Thile primary rocks, gneiss, and talcose slate, form a narrow belt across the south-eastern end of the county. The very valuable primitive limestone of the Great valley lies in a narrow belt, from one to two miles wide, from near Willow Grove to Recsville, crossing the Schuylkill at Swedes Ford and Conshohocken. The limestone and marble of this deposit constitute a source of great wealth. Land lime is manufactured in great quantity, the production per annum being not less than one million bushels. The chief market for it is New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, the average price for the same in the three States, delivered, being eighteen cents per bushel. This lime is burned with chestnut and stove coal in draw and set kilns. Building lime is also manufactured largely, the consumption per annum in Philadelphia being about one million five hundred thousand bushels, of which amount there are made in Montgomery county not less than nine hundred thousand bushels, the balance being manufactured in Chester county. Down to as late as 1850 building lime was chiefly made in Philadelphia, the stone from this region being sent down by canal. The average price of building lime at the kilns is twenty cents; to builders in Philadelphia thirty-four cents per bushel. This lime is made in blow kilns, the fuel being bituminous and anthracite coal. Iron ore is mined in large quantity, principally in Whitemarsh, Springfield, and adjoining townships, nearly all of which is hauled to the furnaces at Spring Mill and Conshohocken in the immediate neighborhood. The greater portion of the county is occupied by the red shales and sandstones of the "middle secondary" formation. The red shale makes an excellent soil, especially when treated with lime. The county is traversed in every direction by stone turnpikes and good common roads. Several of these turnpikes were made between 1800 and 1810. Of late years, however, there have been but one or two of these turnpike roads sufficiently traveled to warrant the managers in keeping them in proper repair, the Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania, North Pennsylvania, Perkiomen, Plymouth, and Stony Creek railroads and their branches, traversing the county so thoroughly, that people find it more convenient to patronize them. The Schuylkill river is spanned by bridges at all the towns along its banks, those at Norristown, Conshohocken, Pottstown, and Royers' Ford, each paying large annual dividends to stockholders. Copper, in limited quantity, has been mined on the Perkiomen creek, but the HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. company organized to operate the mines in this locality gave up in despair in 1860. Scott's old geography speaks of a silver mine and a lead mine in Providence township, discovered about the year 1800, the existence of which, however, appears never to have been known to the oldest inhabitant of that region. Montgomery is rich in agricultural, mineral, and manufacturing resources. No county in the State combines these elements of wealth to a greater extent. The Schuylkill river affords valuable water-power, and on its banks have been established for many years a number of large woolen and cotton mills. With an area of nearly 300,000 acres of land, the cash value of which, in 1870, was not less than $41,000,900, the farm productions in that year were estimated to be worth about $8,000,000. At present the yield of stone and marble is largely on the increase, while that of iron ore is only temporarily partially suspended on account of the universal dullness of the iron business. The county was originally settled in the south-east end by Welsh and Swedes; in the upper end by Germans. The early settlement of Montgomery county followed close upon the arrival of William Penn. Robert Townsend, one of the early settlers about Germantown, says: " In the year 1682, I found a concern on my mind to embark, with my wife and child, and went on board the ship Welcome, Robert Greenaway, commander, in company with my worthy friend William Penn, whose good conversation was very advantageous to all the company. About a year after our arrival, there came in about twenty families from high and low Germany, of religious good people, who settled about Germantown. The country continually increasing, people began to spread themselves further back. Also a place called North Wales was settled by many of the ancient Britons, an honest-inclined people, although they had not then made a profession of the truth as held by us; yet in a little time a large convincement was among them, and divers meeting-houses were built." Among the adventurers and settlers who arrived about this time, states Proud, were also many from Wales, of those who are called ancient Britons, and mostly Quakers; divers of whom were of the original or early stock of that society there. They had early purchased of the Proprietary, in England, forty thousand acres of land. Those who came at present, took up so much of it on the west side of the Schuylkill river as made the three townships of Merion, Ha,verford, and Radnor; and in a few years afterwards their number was so much augmented as to settle the three other townships of Newtown, Goshen, and Uwchland. After this they continued still increasing, and became a numerous and flourishing people. Divers of these early Welsh settlers were persons of excellent and worthy character, and several of good education, family, and estate -chiefly Quakers; and many of them either eminent preachers in that society, or otherwise well qualified and disposed to do good. Rowland Ellis was a man of note among the Welsh settlers, from a place called Bryn-Mawr, near Dolgelly, in the county of Merioneth. In 1682, he sent over Thomas Owen and his family to make a settlement. This was the custom of divers others of the Welsh, at first, to send persons over to take up land for them, and to prepare it against their coming. Rowland Ellis first came over in 1686, bringing with him his eldest son, Rowland, then a boy. About one hundred Welsh passengers came at the same time. They had a long passage-suffered much for want of provisions952 MONTGOMERY COUTTY. touched at Barbadoes, etc. Many died. Rowland Ellis, after remaining about nine months here, returned to Wales, leaving his son with his uncle, John Humphrey. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1697, with his family, and about one hundred other passengers, all from North Wales. He was then in his fortyfifth year. He was a preacher among the Quakers, and an acceptable man in every station. Hle lived long to do good, and died in his eightieth year, at his son-in-law's, John Evans' house, North Wales, now Gwynedd. Hugh Roberts was an eminent Quaker preacher; he removed from Wales to Pennsylvania about the year 1683, where he lived near eighteen years, to an advanced age. lie had suffered much for his religion in his native country prior to his removal. On his return from a religious visit to Wales, in the service of preaching the gospel, in the year 1698, a number of the inhabitants of North Wales removed to Pennsylvania in company with him, where he arrived on the 7th of the fifth month. In the latter end of 1698, William Jones, Thomas Evans, Robert Evans, Owen Evans, Cadwallader Evans, Hugh Griffith, John Hugh, Edward Foulke, John Humphrey, Robert Jones, and others, having purchased of Robert Turner ten thousand ares of land, began in the following year to improve and settle the same, and called the township Gwynedd-in English, North Wales. Some of the last mentioned passengers settled here, who, in general, did not, at first, profess with the Quakers; but afterwards they, with many others, as the neighborhood increased, joined in religious society with them, and were an industrious and worthy people. Ellis Pugh, one of the early Welsh settlers who arrived in the IProvinee in the year 1687, lived much of his time, and died here, 1718. He was convinced of the Quakers' principles in Wales about the year 1674. He became a minister among them in 1680, in which capacity hle continued till his death. This tract of forty thousand acres, extending across the lower end of Montgomery into Chester and Delaware counties, was known formerly as the Welsh line. Many of the Welsh who first came over were devout menibers of the Church of England. Of the early settlers of Gwynedd township, only John Hughes and John Humphrey were Quakers originally. The others, who were Episcopalians, were in the habit of meeting at Robert Evans', where Cadwallader Evans read the Bible to those assembled. Smith gives the dates of the establishment of Friends meetings: " In 1683 a first-day meeting was established to be held at Takoney or Oxford. Another was also established at Poetquessing. And afterwards in the same year a monthly meeting was set up, to consist of those two meetings and that at Abington, to be held by turns among them. The 24th of the seventh month, 1716, the meeting at Horsham was settled, at first only in the winter season; but Friends increasing, after some time a meeting-house was built, and it was fixed there constantly, and so continues. At N)rhli Wal s a meeting-house was built in the year 1700, which was but two years after the arrival of the Welsh Friends to that place, and meetings were kept therein by the consent of HIaverford monthly meeting, unto which they had at first joined themselves. Finding truth to prevail, and their numbers to increase, they found it necessary to build another meeting-house in 1712; and on the 19th of the ninth month that year, the first meeting for worship was held therein. Their number afterwards still 953 HISTORY OF PENNSYLYVANIA. increasing, as well among themselves as by the union of many adjacent settlers, Friends, belonging to North Wales or Gwynedd and Plymouth meeting, settled a monthly meeting of business among themselves, by the consent of Haverford meeting aforesaid and the quarterly meeting of Philadelphia. The said monthly meeting was first held the 22d day of the twelfth month, 1714 or 1715, at Gwynedd meeting-house, and called Gwynedd monthly meeting. Plymouth meeting-house was built a considerable time before this, and a meeting for worship held there as at this day. The said meeting was in being the 4th of the first month, 1688-9, and how long before is not certain." One of the venerable meeting-houses, founded by the early Friends from Wales, is that in Lower Merion township, about two miles west of Manayunk. It was erected, as appears by a date on a tablet, in 1695, and is the oldest place of worship in the State. Among the early settlers in Merion were the Roberts family; Edward Jones, a man given to hospital Sity, and generally beloved by his ac quaintances," who died in February, 1737, at the age of eighty-two; and Benjamin Humph __rey, who came over in 1683, and died in November, S 1737, aged seven ty-six. He was FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE AT LOWER MERION. also "remarked [Fac-Simile of an Old Print.] for his hospitality, and was a useful member among the Quakers." Mats Holstein and Peter Rambo, with their families, w2re the earliest Swedish settlers in Upper Merion. In 1765, the Swedish churches of Upper Merion, Wicaco, and Kingsessing, were unitedly incorporated by John Penn, and this original charter was amended and confirmed by the Commonwealth in 1787. The Germans who settled at Germantown soon made known by letters throughout all Germany the pre-eminent advantages, both physical and moral, of Penn's Province in the new world; and many came over from the Palatinate, and other parts of Germany, early in the eighteenth century, between 1700 and 1720 or 1730. These extended their settlements beyond the Welsh line, into the townships of Hanover and Frederick, about the head-waters of Perkiomen creek. An extensive neighborhood back of Pottstown, comprising New Hanover, and parts of Frederick and Douglass townships, is still known as "the swamp;" formerly as Faulkner's swamp, from one of the first settlers. Montgomery county was thus peopled by the Welsh, Swedes, and Germans, who, though of many different religious sects, agreed at least in one principle, to live peaceably with each other; while they diligently improved and cultivated 954 MONTGOMERY COUNTY. their possessions. The old French and Indian wars of 1755 and 1763, only alarmed, without injuring, the inhabitants of Montgomery; the scenes of the Revolution were brought nearer to their doors. On the west side of the Schuylkill, about six miles above Norristown, is a deep rugged hollow, at the mouth of Valley creek. An ancient forge established many years previous had given to the place the name of Valley Forge. Upon the mountainous flanks of this valley, which overlook all the adjacent country, Washington finally concluded, after the fearful battle of Germantown and the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, to establish his army for the winter. His soldiers were too ill-clothed to be exposed to the inclemency of that season under mere tents; it was, therefore, decided that a sufficient number of huts or cabins should be erected of logs, filled in with mortar, in which the troops would find a comfortable shelter. The army reached the valley about the 18th of December. They might have been tracked by the blood of their feet in marching barefooted,.. over the hard frozen ground between Whitemarsh and Valley Forge. They immediately set about constructing their habita- N tions, which were disposed in the order of a military camp, but had really the appearance of a regular city. Each hut was sixteen feet by fourteen. One was assigned to twelve privates, and one to a I smaller number of officers, accord-' ing to their rank. Each general occupied a hut by himself. The, whole encampment was surrounded VALLEY FORGE. on the land side by intrenchments, VALLEY FORGE. and several small redoubts were built at different points. Some of the intrenchments may still be seen about a mile from the forge. A temporary bridge was thrown across the river, to facilitate communications with the surrounding country. The army remained at this place until the ensuing summer, when the British evacuated Philadelphia. This was the most gloomy epoch of the Revolution. For many weeks the army, although sheltered from the wind, endured extreme sufferings from the want of provisions, blankets, and clothing. The commissary's department, through neglect in Congress, had been badly managed, and on one occasion the supplies of beef were actually exhausted, and no one knew whence the morrow's supply would come. General Washington says: " For some days there has been 955 RISTOR Y OF PENS YLVANIA. little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army have been a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire thile incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not ere this been excited to mutiny and dispersion. Strong symptoms of discontent, however, have appeared in particular instances." Such was the scarcity of blaukets and straw that men were often obliged to sit up all night to keep themselves warm by the fire, and many were too ill-clothed to leave their huts. The want of wagons, and horses too, was severely felt for procuring supplies, and almost every species of camp transportation was performed by tlhe men without a murmur, who yoked themselves to little carriages of their own making, or loaded their wood and provisions on their backs. The small-pox threatened those who had not been inoculated. Provisions continued to grow more and more scarce; the country had become exhausted by the constant and pressing demands of both armies, and no doubt many provisions were concealed from thile Americans by the disaffected Tories, who found a better market at Philadelphia, and better pay in British gold than in Continental money. Washington stated that there were in camp on the 23d December not less than two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men unfit for duty by reason of their being barefoot and otherwise naked, besides many others detained in hospitals, and crowded into farmers' houses, for the same causes. In the midst of these trying scenes, a strong combination was formed against Washington, in which several members of Congress, and a very few officers of the army were engaged. General Gates, exulting in his laurels recently gained at Saratoga, General Lee, and General Conway, neither of them native Americans, were believed to be at the head of this movement. Attempts were made in vain to seduce Lafayette to the interest of this faction. Hle openly and promptly avowed his attachment to Washington, with whom he shared for some months the hardships of Valley Forge. The failure of this conspiracy is well known. In June, 1778, when the British evacuated Philadelphia, General Washington immediately broke up the encampment at Valley Forge, hurried across the Delaware, and met the enemy on the plains of Monmouth, in New Jersey. NoaRdISTOWN, the county seat, was laid out in 1784, the year Montgomery was by act of Legislature made a county from a part of Philadelphia. It was erected into a borough in 1812, with an area of five hundred and twenty acres. All its territory was taken from Norriton township, excepting about one hundred and fifty-eight acres from Plymouth, which were acquired when thile limits of the borough were extended in 1853. It is now nearly two miles square, and contains an area of about two thousand three hundred acres. It has a river front on the Schuylkill of about two miles. Its population in 1870 was 10,753. It is now (18'76) estimated at 14,000. The tract upon which the town is located is a portion of that once belonging to William Penn, Jr., and which he sold, when in this country, to enable him to settle the extravagant debts incurred by his youthful follies. We are further told by the historians of the day that William Trent and Isaac Norris purchased it for ~850, from the latter of whom, who subsequently became the sole proprietor, the town took its name. The ground was a farm in the time of the Revolution, and belonged to John Bull, who, we are further informed, in spite of his name, was a staunch Whig, whose barn the British burnt 956 MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 957 as they passed on towards Philadelphia. The first house occupied in Norristown was said to have been framed at Valley Forge, and floated down the river. It was on the river bank at Norristown that the spade was set to excavate the first public canal in the United States. This was the old Schuylkill and Delaware canal, intended to connect the two rivers, and also to supply water to the citizens of Philadelphia. For this latter purpose, the canal was to be taken to Philadelphia on thile same level, without a lock. The company was incorporated 10th April, 1792. After completing some fifteen miles of the heaviest sections, and the expenditure of about $400,000, the undertaking was abandoned, the principal stockholders being themselves involved in commercial difficulties. Tile company was afterwards. merged in the Union Canal company, and the Schuylkill Navigation coimpany. The large stone house in the north- ___ west part of the town, now the property of and occupied by Thomas P. Knox, was formerly the residence of a i_ General Andrew Porter. He was a captain and colonel during the Revolution, and served with great gallantry...... at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and in other campaigns. Mr. Madison;111M I.. offered him the commission of briga- -'-, dier-general in the American army, and also the office of secretary of war;both of which he declined, lie was [f 1 appointed surveyor-general of Pennsylvania, by Governor Snyder, in 1812, and died at the age of seventy, while in that office, at Harrisburg. The Norristown Library company THE OLD NORRISTOWN FIRE COMPANY. [y From a Photograph by Stroud & Sonu Norristown.j was founded in May, 1796. The Norristown Herald, now published by Morgan R. Wills, was established by David Sower, June 14, 1799, as the Norristown Gazette. It was not called the Herald until 1800. The present publisher started a daily edition of the paper, December 20, 1869, the first daily newspaper established in the town. The Norristown Register, now published by E. L. Acker, another old journal, was established in 1801. St. John's Episcopal church was the first erected in tLe place, having been commenced in 1813. There are at present two Presbyterian, one Baptist, two Lutheran, three Reformed, five Methodist, one Mennonite, one Roman Catholic, one Episcopal, and one Friends church. The Bank of Montgomery county, now the National Bank of Montgomery county, was chartered August 29, 1815, and the First National Bank of Norristown in 1864. The present court house was erected in 1854. It is built in the Corinthian style, of blue and white marble, 94 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. Armstrong an expedition against the Indian town of Kittanning, on the Alle gheny, the stronghold of Captains Jacobs and Shingas, the most active Indian chiefs, and from whence they distributed their war parties along the frontier. On the arrival of Governor Denny, Morris communicated the plan of his enterprise to him and his Council. Colonel Armstrong marched trom Fort Shirley on the 30th of August, with three hundred men, having with him, besides other officers, Captains Hamilton, Mercer, Ward, and Potter. On the 2d of September he joined an advance party at the Beaver dams, near Frankstown. On the 7th, in the evening, within six miles of Kittanning, the scouts discovered a fire in the road, and around it, as they reported, three, or at most, four, Indians. It was deemed prudent not to attack this party; but lest some of them should escape and alarm the town, Lieutenant Hogg and twelve men were left to watch them, with orders to fall upon them at day-break. The main body, making a circuit, proceeded to the village. Guided by the whooping of the Indians at a dance, the army approached the place by the river, about one hundred perches below the town, at three o'clock in the morning, near a cornfield, in which a number of the enemy were lodged, out of their cabins, on account of the heat of the weather. As soon as the dawn of day made the town visible the troops attacked it through the cornfield, killing several of the enemy. Captain Jacobs, their principal chief, sounded the war-whoop, and defended his house bravely through loop-holes in the logs; and the Indians generally refused quarter, which was offered them, declaring that they were men, and would not be prisoners. Colonel Armstrong, who had received a musket ball in his shoulder, ordered their houses to be set on fire over their heads. Again the Indians were required to surrender, and again refused, one of them declaring that he did not care for death, as he could kill four or five before he died, and as the heat approached some of them began to sing. Others burst from their houses and attempted to reach the river, but were instantly shot down. Captain Jacobs, in getting out of a window, was shot, as also a squaw, and a lad called the king's son. The Indians had a number of small arms in their houses, loaded, which went off in quick succession as the fire came to them; and quantities of gunpowder, which were stored in every house, blew up from time to time, throwing some of the bodies of the enemy a great height in the air. A party of Indians on the opposite side of the river fired on the troops, and were seen to cross the river at a distance, as if to surround them; but they contented themselves with collecting some horses which were near the town to carry off their wounded, and then retreated without attempting to take from the cornfield those who were killed there in the beginning of the action. Several of the enemy were killed in the river as they attempted to escape by fording it, and between thirty and forty in the whole were destroyed. Eleven English prisoners were released, who informed that, besides the powder, of which the Indians boasted they had enough for ten years' war with the English, there was a great quantity of goods burned, which the French had presented to them but ten days before; that two batteaux of French Indians were to join Captain Jacobs to make an attack upon Fort Shirley, and that twentyfour warriors had set out before them on the preceding evening. These proved to be the party discovered around the fire, as the troops approached Kittanning. HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. obtained in the county. It contains, beside the court-room, the various county offices, and was constructed at a cost of about $150,000. The prison, another handsome structure, erected about the same time, cost nearly $86,000. The Pennsylvania Tack works constitute one of the principal industrial features of the town, as do also the Star Glass works, erected in 1866. A rolling mill and blast furnace, three wool and cotton mills, and the Eagle and Norris iron works, are among the prominent manufacturing establishments. Norristown has many very handsome private residences, and the delightful railroad ride of sixteen miles up the Schuylkill from Philadelphia, induces a large number of persons who transact business in that city to make it their per manent residence. The soldiers' monument, erected in the public square, and dedicated September 17, 1869, is a beautiful shaft of white and blue marble. The base consists of four parts. The first of the three blue marble bases is eight feet square by two feet deep; the second is six feet seven inches square by twenty inches deep; the third is five feet six inches square by sixteen inches deep. Above the blue bases is one of white marble, moulded. Next is the die, four feet square and four feet high, on which is engraved the names of not less than five hundred and forty-seven soldiers. On this rests an arched cap two feet high. Above this cap is a moulded die, two feet five inches high, having on its four sides, in relief, the coat-of-arms of Pennsylvania, that of the United States, and two wreathes of immortelles. The shaft is fifteen feet high, and two feet four inches square at its base, having on its four panels beautifully carved repre sentations of the four arms of the service. Above are wreaths of leaves and other appropriate devices. Surmounting this is an arched cap, above which is a die with shields carved on its four sides, and a bell upon which is perched an eagle with extended wings. The monument was erected under the auspices of the Montgomery County Soldiers' Monument Association, in commemoration of the services and death of the soldiers who enlisted from the county during the Rebellion. CONSHOHOCKEN was incorporated in 1850, George Richards, Mordecai R. Moore, Joseph Crawford, Isaac W. Roberts, Laurence E. Corson, and John M. Jones, being the commissioners appointed to lay out the borough. The streets are sixty-six feet wide. In 1870 the population was 3,300. It is now estimated at 4,500. The principal manufacture is iron, the product of which reaches between two and a half and three millions of dollars annually. There are two cotton mills, which turn out about 30,000 yards of goods a week, and a warp mill that consumes about 6,000 pounds of cotton per week. The largest sheet iron mill in the State, erected here, is a model of perfection. There are excel lent public schools in the borough, and a public hall. Gas was introduced in . 1874, and the town is well supplied with water. The splendid iron bridge at this place was erected in 1872. The Presbyterian church was the first place of worship, erected about thirty years ago. This was succeeded by the Catholic, Methodist, Episcopal, and Baptist churches. The first manufacturing operations were a grist mill and a marble saw mill. Following these were a saw manufactory and a silk mill. These have all given way to the other works to which we have referred. The scenery about Conshohocken is beautiful and picturesque in the extreme. 958 MONTGOME?RY COUNTY. POTTSTOWN was laid out in town lots in 1752, by John Potts, and incorporated into a borough the 6th day of February, 1815. With 3,100 inhabitants in 1870, it now numbers probably not less than 5,000. It has several large rolling mills, planing mills, nail factory, the shops of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company, employing many men, and various other industrial establishments. It has gas works, library, numerous churches, daily newspaper, etc. The Cottage Female seminary is located here. IIATBORo is a borough of one thousand population, situated on the line between Montgomery and Bucks counties, on the upper waters of the Pennepack creek, and on the road now called the old York road, laid out in 1722, by direction of the Proprietary Governors, Penn and his successor, Governor Keith, as the New York road from Philadelphia. This road was for many years a great thoroughfare between those cities in their early history. It is fifteen miles north of Philadelphia, fifteen miles east of Norristown, and ten miles south of Doylestown, on the North-East Pennsylvania railroad. It was erected into a borough in 1812, from Moreland township. Hatboro was so called in 1745, from the fact that hat manufacture was a prominent industry at that time. It has long since disappeared, however, and left but the name behind. Previous to that date, Hatboro was called the Crooked Billet, from the name of a tavern which pretentiously adopted the style and title of a more prominent tavern in Water street, Philadelphia, the same in which Franklin breakfasted on his first arrival in Philadelphia from Boston. By some old people Hatboro is still called the Billet to this day. In 1777 a battle was fought at this place between a strong detachment of British troops, sent out from Philadelphia by General Howe, under Colonel Simcoe, and General John Lacey, of the Continental army, in which the Continentals were ignominiously defeated, having been surprised, and retreated in confusion, leaving their dead, wounded, prisoners, and baggage in the hands of the enemy. A handsome monument is erected on the ground on which the surprise took place, by a patriotic people, governed by a generous public sentiment. A library of seven thousand volumes is a distinctive feature of the town of Hatboro, founded in 1755, possessing an endowment from Nathan Holt, and filling a handsome building especially erected for its reception. The building is in the Grecian style of architecture, and the library well patronized and highly appreciated by an intelligent and cultured people. HIatboro was the home of Nathaniel B. Boileau, once Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The school property was a legacy of Judge Robert Lollar, who, before the advent of the public school system in the State, founded the free Lollar academy here. In the immediate vicinity of Hatboro is the ancient property of Graeme Park-the home of Governor Sir William Keith. This house is still in excellent preservation, and is one of the most ancient in the State. Hatboro was connected with the North Pennsylvania railroad by the North-East Pennsylvania in 1873. This road was built by the people of this locality, and is a success. B13RIDGEPORT was incorporated February 27, 1851. It has an area of 460 acres, and was wholly taken from Upper Merion township. Located immediately opposite Norristown, and sloping gracefully up the river Schuylkill, its situation is at once picturesque and inviting. Its population in 1870 was 1,578. The 959 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. borough was laid out by Perry M. Hunter, L. E. Corson, M. McGlathery, and Alexander W. Supple. The Philadelphia and Reading railroad passes through the place, affording ample traveling facilities. WEST CONSHOHIIOCKEN, located on the opposite side of the river, has a population of about twelve hundred. It was incorporated in 1874. Extensive cloth mills are located here. JENKINTOWN was incorporated into a borough December 8, 1874. The territory was exclusively taken from Abington township, and according to the original plot contains an area of two hundred and forty-eight acres. It has a population of about eight hun dred. NORTH WALES was laid out in 1867 by David Moyer. It was incorporated into a borough August 20, 1 69. Population, last census, was eight ~. - hundred. LANS -DALE was incor ANCIENT LUTHERAN CHURCH AT TRAPPE. porated into a [Fac-Simile of an Old Printl.] borough August 24, 1872. It is one of the most flourishing towns in the county. It is here the Stony Creek and the Doylestown railroads intersect with the North Pennsylvania road. EAST GREENVILLE, incorporated a borough September 6, 1875, is also a prosperous place, located in the upper end of the county. GREENLANE, incorporated December 10, 1875, is the last, if not the least, of the boroughs erected in the county. It, also, is in the upper end. LA TRAPPE, eight miles west of Norristown, is an ancient village. The old Lutheran church at this place, erected in 1743, is one of the chief objects of note. The interior of the church is still preserved nearly in its original state, and is, if possible, more quaint and antique than the exterior. Not only every pew, but each seat in the pew, has its own number branded upon it with a hot iron. Over the door of the church, on a tablet, is the following inscription in Latin, which is deciphered with some difficulty: " SUB REMIGIO CHRISTI IIAS )EDES SOCIETATI AUGUSTANE CONFESS. DEDITE DEDICATAS EX IPSO FUNDAMENTO EXSTRUXIT IIENRICUS MELCIIIOR MULENBERG UNA CUM CENSORIBUS 1. N. CROSSMANO, F. MARSTELLERO, H. A. HEILMANO, I. MULLERO, H11. IIASIO, ET G. KEBNERO, A.D. MDCCXLIII." In the burial-ground in the rear, and near the southeastern angle of the church, is the grave of the Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg and his son, Gen. Peter Muhlenberg of the Revolution. EAGLEVILLE, EVANSBURGI FLOURTOWN, BARREN HILL, FORT WASHINGTON, COLLEGEVILLE, HICKORYTOWN, JEFFERSONVILLE, PORT KENNEDY, KING OF PRUSSIA, LIMERICK SQUARE, NORRITONVILLE, BRYN MAWR, ARDMORE, SIIANNONVILLE, SPRING MILL, SWEDESBURna, arc all flourishing villages. 960 MONTOUR COUNTY. [With acknowledgments to John G. Freeze.] ONTOUR county was erected by act of Assembly of May 3,1850, and comprised the townships of Franklin, Mahoning Valley, Liberty, Limestone, Derry, Anthony, and the borough of Danville, together with portions of the townships of Montour, Hemlock, and Madison. In 1853 the division line of the counties was re-adjusted, and a new township, called Roaring Creek, in Montour county, and parts of Franklin, Madison, and West Hamburg, were re- - __ annexed to Columbia - county. The Muncy hills lie along its north-western border, and Montour's - ridge passes through the county, furnishing to its industry immense quantities of iron ore of the best ,quality. It has, also, large bodies of the finest limestone, and although broken, has a good deal of level and fertile land. The Susquehanna river lies along its south-eastern border, and the county is watered and drained by Mahoning creek, which breaks through Montour's ridge at Mausdale, and empties into the North Branch of the Susquehan- MONTOUR COUNTY COURT HOUSE, DANVILLE. [na at Danville. The two From a Photograph by McMahan & Ireland, Danville.] na at Danville. The two branches of the Chillisquaque, rising in the Muncy hills, join at the borough of Washingtonville, and flow off into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, along the base of Montour's ridge. Big Roaring creek is the boundary line of Mayberry township, lying east of the river. The North Branch canal runs through the county. The Catawissa railroad, and the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg intersect it, and on the opposite side of the river from Danville, the Danville, Hazleton, and Wilkes-Barrd railroad passes. All these improvements give to the borough of Danville easy access, and a HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. convenient market with all parts of the country for its large iron product, which, unfortunately, is its sole important manufactory. DANVILLE borough is at the mouth of Mahoning creek, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna. It is built on a part of a tract of land surveyed on a warrant of John Penn to John Lukens, Surveyor-General, dated 31st January, 1769, and the survey was made on the 22d February following. Subsequently the land came into the hands of Messrs. Francis & Peters, of Philadelphia. It passed through several ownerships previous to the war, but I have not been able to fix the time or place of the first actual settlement. During the Revolutionary war, but subsequent to the hottest period of the contest, Captain Montgomery, of Philadelphia-the father-and Colonel, afterward General William Montgomery, the uncle of the late Judge Montgomery, resolved to come out and settle on the Susquehanna, then a wild and dangerous frontier, still occasionally disturbed by Indians. They purchased their farms at the mouth of Mahoning from one John Simpson. They had but just entered upon the hardships of frontier life, when the storm of savage warfare descended upon Wyoming. The Montgomerys, just retired from the campaigns of the Revolution, were no strangers to the alarms of Indian warfare; but Mrs. Montgomery had been reared amid the security and luxury of Philadelphia, and became so terrified in anticipation of being murdered by savages, that her husband was prevailed upon to remove with her and her little son, afterwards the judge, to Northumberland, where the settlements were protected by a fort. Previously, however, to their removal, they were often annoyed by the lurking foe, and frequent murders were committed in the vicinity. Their fears, too, were quite as often excited by merely imaginary dangers. Captain Daniel Montgomery, looking out one evening, about dusk, upon the river, saw a fine canoe drifting down the stream, and immediately pushed out with his own canoe to secure the prize. On coming up to it, and drawing it towards him with his hand, he was thunderstruck at seeing a very large muscular Indian lying flat on his back in the canoe, with his eyes wildly glaring upon him. He let go his hold and prepared for defence, but in a moment, reflecting that he had seen water in the bottom of the strange canoe, he again approached it, and found the Indian was dead. A paper on his breast set forth that he had been shot near Wyoming, and set adrift by some of the Yankees. The captain towed his prize to the shore with a lighter heart, and after a hearty laugh with his neighbors, sent the Indian on his mission. The following from the " Hazleton Travellers," by Mr. Miner, of Luzerne county, is the counterpart to the story: " Among the Indians who formerly lived at Wyoming was one known by the name of Anthony Turkey. When the savages removed from Wyoming he went with them, and returned as an enemy at the time of the invasion. With him and the people there had been before a good understanding, and it created some surprise when known that he was with the bloody band who had come on the errand of destruction. It was Turkey who commanded the party that came to Mr. Weeks' the Sunday after the battle (of 1778), and taking the old gentleman's hat, shoved his rocking-chair into the street and sat down and rocked himself. In the invasion of March following, Turkey was here again, and 962 MONTOUR COUNTY. in an engagement on the Kingston flats was shot through the thigh and surrounded by our people.' Surrender, Turkey,' said they, I'we won't hurt you.' Probably conscious of his own cruelties, he defied them, and fought like a tiger-cat to the last. Some of our boys, in malicious sport, took his body, put it into an old canoe, fixed a dead rooster in the bow, fastened a bow and arrow in the dead Indian's hands, as if in the act just to fire, put a written' pass' on his breast to' let the bearer go to his master King George or the d-l', and launched the canoe into the river, amid the cheers of men and boys." After the expedition of General Sullivan had quieted the frontier and expelled the Indians, the Montgomerys returned to Danville, where Daniel Montgomery, son of William, established a store, and laid off a few lots on a piece of land given him by his father. A few other settlers came in, and about the year 1806 we find Danville described in Scott's geography as "a small posttown on the East Branch of the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Mahoning." Judge Montgomery was at that time the postmaster, the first in the place who enjoyed that dignity. When it was proposed to erect Columbia county, and establish Danville as the county seat, the elder General Montgomery was opposed to the scheme, fearing annoyance in his farming operations by the proximity of the town; but his son, on the contrary, was eager for the success of the project, anticipating large gains from the sale of lots. After the county was fairly established, General Montgomery not only acquiesced, but entered with his whole heart into the enterprise for its improvement. He and his relatives endowed and erected an academy, and gave thirty lots as a fund for the support of the ministry here. He afterwards took a leading part in getting a charter for the Bear-gap road, which opened the place to the Pottsville travel; and also had great influence in inducing Stephen Girard to embark in the enterprise of the Danville and Pottsville railroad. A part of the road was made near Pottsville, and is now rotting in the sun without use. Girard and General Montgomery died nearly at the same time, other interests interfered, and the Danville and Pottsville railroad, with the bright visions of augmented wealth associated with it, existed only on paper. Mr. Wickersham, of Philadelphia, who owned a farm adjoining Danville, made a donation to the Presbyterian church of the beautiful knoll where the church and cemetery are now situated. The borough of Danville is a place of very considerable importance, owing to its iron production. Some idea of that can be gathered from the following summary: There are six iron foundries, owned respectively by Messrs. Huber, Biddle, Cruikshliank, Moyer & Co., National iron company, and Waterman & Beaver. There are seven blast furnaces-three of them owned by Waterman & Beaver, with an annual capacity of 24,000 tons; two of them owned by John Roach, capacity 14,000 tons; and two by Grove Brothers, capacity 14,000 tons. There are five rolling mills, owned as follows: Pennsylvania works, Waterman & Beaver, annual capacity, 40,000 tons of rails; John Roach, two mills, annual capacity, 30,000 tons of rails; Danville iron works, Wmin. Faix, annual capacity, 11,000 tons; Co-operative iron and steel works, capacity annually, 11,000 tons. It contains fourteen churches belonging to the leading denominations. The Grove Brothers have erected a magnificent residence near the Catawissa railroad, 963 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. at a cost of over $300,000, which for architectural beauty is not surpassed in the country. There are a number of other fine private dwellings which have been built within the last few years. The population of the borough is claimed to be about ten thousand. About one mile south-east of Dan ville is located the State Hospital for II I =i. the Insane, established by the act of _ Assembly of 13th April, 1868. The - Icorner-stone of the main building was laid by Governor Geary, 26th August, 1869, and on the 6th day of November, 1872, the building was go far completed as to admit patients. It is constructed of hard blue stone from the neighbor hood. When completed, there will be p one centre building, with a wing on each side, consisting of three longitudi nal sections three stories in height, c and three transverse, four stories in _l.so height. The heating, lighting, and Z ventilation are excellent, and in all its I various compartments and arrange mentis it is unequalled by any similar Sinstitution in the country. The suc cessful construction and efficient man i agement have been superintended by d S. S. Schultz, M.D., and the State hos Spital at Danville is one of those great Ie charities of our good old Common E- wealth of which we may all be proud. The borough of WASHINGTONVILLE S is situate at the forks of the Chillisqua que, in Derry township. It contains several churches, a grist mill, tannery, ,ietc. It is on the public road from Danville to Muncy, and about eight miles from the former place, and very i pleasantly located in the midst of a beautiful and fertile neighborhood. It 'is the site of the military post of Bos 1I n ley's Mills in frontier times. MOORES BURG, in Liberty township, is on the public road from Danville to Milton. The Catawissa railroad runs within a few hundred yards of it, and has a depot there. MAUSDALE, in Yalley township, on Mahoning creek, at Montour's ridge, lies on the Catawissa railroad, but has no depot. It is two miles from Danville. WHITE HALL, situated in Anthony township, contains about fifty dwellings and a church building. EXCHANGE, in 964 MONTOUR COUNTY. the same township, has a grist mill and an Episcopal church. It is situate on a branch of the Chillisquaque. LIMESTONEVILLE, in township of the same name, is in the midst of the finest agricultural district in the county, and there are few finer in the State. The place itself is unimportant. THE INCLINE AT ARNOT, TIOGA COUNTY. 965 n PARDEE HALL, LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, AT EASTON, PA. N) 1~ I r - 6 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. BY REV. W. 0. REICHEL, BETHLEHEM. HE history of Northampton, the seventh in order of time as to its erection, of the present sixty-six counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (it being erected a county during the joint proprietor Sship of Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn, in the spring of 1752), is rightly prefaced by some allusions to the so-called walking purchase, or the day and a half-day's walk; and this, because, by a performance of that walk, nine-tenths fully of the present county passed from the hands of its original Indian holders into those of the Proprietaries, thus enabling the latter, by extinguishing the Indian title, to encourage settlement within its borders, w h i c h was the first steptowards its constitution as a political division of l the Province. The main facts in the history of the famous walk have been heretofore m given. William Penn had purchased from May-. THE OLD INDIAN CHAPEL, BETHLEHEM.-1765. keerickkisho and Taughhaughsey, chiefs of the northern Indians on Delaware, "all those lands lying and being in the Province of Pennsylvania, beginning upon a line formerly laid out from a corner spruce tree by the river Delaware; and from thence running along the foot of the mountains, west-north-west, to a corner white oak, marked with the letter P, standing by the path that leadeth to an Indian town called Playwickey; and from thence extending westward to Neshaminy creek, from which said line, the said tract or tracts thereby granted doth extend itself back into the woods, as far as a man can go in one day and a half, and bounded on the westerly side with the creek called Neshaminy, or the most westerly branch thereof; and from thence by a line to the utmost limits of the said one day and a half's journey; and from thence to the aforesaid river Delaware; and from thence down the several courses of the said river to the first-mentioned spruce tree," etc. A map, however, drawn by Thomas Holme, sometime surveyor of the Province, 967 GENERAL HISTORY. Pursuant to his orders, and relying upon the report made by the scouts, Lieutenant Hogg had attacked them, and killed three at the first fire. He, however, found them too strong for his force, and having lost some of his best men, the others fled, leaving him wounded, overlooked by the enemy in their pursuit of the fugitives. He was saved by the army on their return. Captain, afterwards General, Mercer was wounded in the action at Kittanning, but was carried off safely by his men. The corporation of Philadelphia, on occasion of this victory, on the 5th of January following, addressed a complimentary letter to Colonel Armstrong, thanking him and his officers for their gallant conduct, and presented him with a piece of plate. A medal was also struck, having for device an officer followed by two soldiers, the officer pointing to a soldier shooting from behind a tree, and an Indian prostrate before him; in the back-ground Indian houses in flames. Legend: Kittanning destroyed by Colonel Armstrong, September the 8th, 1756. Reverse Device: The arms of the corporation. Legend: The gift of the corporation of Philadelphia. The destruction of the town of Kittanning, and the Indian families there, was a severe stroke on the savages. Hitherto the English had not assailed them in their towns, and they fancied that they would not venture to approach them. But now, though urged by an unquenchable thirst of vengeance to retaliate the blow they had received, they dreaded that in their absence on war parties, their wigwams might be reduced to ashes. Such of them as belonged to Kittanning, and had escaped the carnage, refused to settle again on the east of Fort Duquesne, and resolved to place that fortress and the French garrison between them and the English. On the 8th of November, 1756, began the Grand Council at Easton, between Governor Denny and the Delaware King Teedyuscung and other chiefs and warriors. Teedyuscung was the chief speaker on this occasion, and with an eloquence unsurpassed by any Indian chieftain, supported the rights of his nation with great dignity and spirit. Unfortunately he was not correctly reported, the Commissioners of the Council and Assembly striking out so much of his address as reflected upon certain transactions of the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania. The conference lasted nine days. All matters of difference were inquired into, particularly in relation to the "Indian Walk," and the purchase of lands on the West Branch and Penn's Creek at the Treaty of Albany in 1754. The necessity of a militia law was, in a great measure, obviated by the forces raised by the Governor and Provincial Commissioners. They consisted of twenty-five companies, amounting to fourteen hundred men. Eight companies, under the command of Major James Burd, called the Augusta regiment, were stationed at Fort Augusta; eight companies on the west side of the Susquehanna, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Armstrong, called the second battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, were thus divided: Two companies at Fort Lyttleton, on Aughwick Creek, which empties into the Juniata River; two companies on Conococheague Creek, which communicates with the Potomac; two companies at Fort Morris, in Shippensburg, and two companies at Carlisle. Nine companies, called the second battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. illustrating this historic walk, which, together with other valuable documents bearing on the transaction, was purchased from the heirs of the Penn family, a few years ago, by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has, once for all, put to rest the many erroneous statements extant in books in reference to the day and a half-day's walk. Setting out from Wrightstown, as was stated, on the morning of the 19th of September, 1737, the walkers pursued a northerly course, keeping along the old Durham road to Durham creek, thence deployed westerly, at about 2 o'clock P.M., forded the Lehigh a half-mile below Bethlehem, thence walked on in a north-westerly line through the plot of the present borough of Bethlehem, and passing through the north-east angle of Hanover township, Lehigh county, into Allen township, halted at sundown, not far from the site of Howell's mill on the Hockendauqua. Near their place of bivouac was an Indian town, at which resided Tishekunk, the counsellor of Lappawingoe Next morning, after having caught their horses which had strayed, they resumed the walk, and having crossed the Blue mountain at the Lehigh Water gap, after the lapse of six hours accomplished their task as related. The distance traveled did not exceed sixty or sixty-five miles. From the northern extremity of the line thus run by the walk, Surveyor Holme ran a line parallel to the head line of the previous purchase near Wrightstown, in a north-easterly direction to the mouth of the Lackawaxen-thus ending William Penn's purchase of 1686, whereby there passed into the hands of the Proprietaries, past all claim for ever from the side of the Indians, the upper portion of Bucks, full nine-tenths of present Northampton, a large slice of Carbon, and the fourth of Monroe and Pike each, containing together, at the lowest estimate, an area of twelve hundred square miles. The consummation of this purchase, by walking, which was done with a determination of purpose on the part of the whites not anticipated by the Indians, is usually regarded as one of the causes which led to the war of 1755; at any rate, as far as that was prosecuted within the limits of the disputed walking purchase. Northampton county was erected by virtue of an act of Assembly passed March 11th, 1752. It was divided from the county of Bucks, one of the original counties of Pennsylvania, " by the upper or north-western line of Durham tract, to the upper corner thereof; thence by a straight line to be run south-westwardly to the line dividing the townships of Upper and Lower Milford; thence along the said line to the line dividing Philadelphia and Bucks counties; and thence by a line to the extremities of the said Province.?' When the county was erected, and for eighty years afterward, Northampton comprised all the territory within its present limits, and all of what is now embraced by Lehigh, Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Wayne, and Susquehanna, and parts of Wyoming, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Bradford, and Columbia counties. It was named by Thomas Penn, who, in a letter from England, dated September 8th, 1751, to Governor Hamilton, says: " Some time since I wrote to Dr. Graeme and Mr. Peters to lay out some ground in the forks of Delaware for a town, which I suppose they have done, or begun to do. I desire it may be called Easton, from my Lord Pomfret's house, and whenever there is a new county, it be called Northampton." The same act authorizing the erection of Northampton county provided that Thomas Craig, Hugh Wilson, Thomas Armstrong, and James Martin, or any 968 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. three of them, were to purchase and take assurance to them and their heirs of a piece of land, situate in some convenient place, at Easton, on Lehietan, in the " Forks of the river Delaware," in trust and for the use of the inhabitants of the said county, and thereon to erect and build a court house and prison, sufficient to accommodate the public service of the said county, and for the ease and conveniency of the inhabitants. Three hundred pounds was raised by tax for building the court house, erected in 1763, and a jail in 1754. The first court was held in June, 1752. The "Forks of the Delaware " was the name long given to that triangular tract of country included between the Delaware and its west branch, the Lehigh, on the east, south, and west, and the Blue mountain on the north, including, therefore, all of present Northampton, excepting Saucon and Williams townships, and Hanover township in L e h i g h county. In a more restricted application, the site of Easton and its immediate vicinity were designated as the J Forks. 4: The second court held was a.... court'of record, October 3, 1752, IRST HOUSE IN BETHLEHEM.-ERECTED 1741. before T h o m a s ([Fac-Simile of an Old EngraviDg.] Craig, Daniel Brodhead, Hugh Wilson, James "Martin, Aaron Depui, and John Van Etten. The commissioners chosen for the county were Robert Gregg, Peter Trexler, and Benjamin Shoemaker. The assessors elected were Frederick Scull, George Custard, John Holder, James Ralston, John Walker, and Joseph Everhart. Northampton county lies between the Kittatinny mountain, originally called by the Indians Kautatinchunk, i. e., the main or principal mountain on the north and the South mountain on the south. The Blue mountain is a very regular ridge, nearly uniform in height, averaging twelve hundred feet, and is capped by compact gray and reddish sandstone. The southern portion of the county is mountainous and uneven, being traversed by the irregular chain of hills called Lehigh hills, or the South mountain. These hills are chiefly composed of gneiss and other primary rocks, which are overlaid by limestone in some of the narrow valleys. Iron ore is found at various points in the hills. North of these hills is a broad belt of the great limestone formation of the Cumberland valley, which stretches from the Delaware, south-westward into Maryland and Virginia, having a soil of the most fertile and productive character, and a comparatively level surface. Iron ore is abundant along the south side of the Lehigh. The northern border of the limestone formation extends eastward from the Lehigh, at Siegfried's bridge, by Bath and Nazareth, to the Delaware river at the mouth 969 HISTORY OF PENATNSYL VANIA. of Martin's creek. From this point to the base of the Blue mountain the rock formation is slate, excepting a narrow point of limestone on the Delaware, at the mouth of Cobus creek, below the Water gap, which, after extending a short distance westward, sinks beneath the overlying slate. The surface of this slate region is generally hilly, and the soil but moderately productive. Extensive slate quarries have been opened in this county, which yield slate of a superior quality, both for roofing and for manufacture into school slates. The Delaware and Lehigh rivers both pass through the Blue mountains by gaps apparently torn by the mighty force of the rushing waters coming down from the country above. The mountain flanking these gaps is high and precipitous, rising almost perpendicularly from the water, and presenting magnificent views of wild and romantic scenery. The look-out from their summits affords extensive and beautiful prospects. Nearly midway between the Delaware and Lehigh rivers there is a singular opening or pass through the mountain, called by the German settlers Die Wind Kaft, the Wind gap, through which no stream passes, but the almost level crest line of the mountain is here depressed nearly as low as the country on each side, forming a notch in the mountain of peculiar convenience for tihe passage of travelers and teams, and toward which the leading roads on both sides converge and pass through in one great thoroughfare. Between the Lehigh Water gap and the Wind gap, is Die Kleine Kaft, Little gap, and Smith's gap. Northampton county is unsurpassed by any in Eastern Pennsylvania in fertility of soil and in improvements of various kinds. The general appearance of the county indicates prosperity and plenty. Wherever the traveler turns his eye, he sees substantial and well built stone houses, spacious barns, fine churches, comfortable school houses, and beautiful orchards laden with fruit in their season, demonstrating the characteristic thrift and independence of the German farmer. The first settlers within the limits of the present Northampton county were Scotch-Irish, or Ulster Scots, descendants of those Scotch colonists whom the English government planted in the north of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, in the times of James I. In 1728, John Boyd, who had married Jane Craig, went with Colonel Thomas Craig, from Philadelphia to the Forks of Delaware, and settled at a place formerly called the Craig settlement, at the springs of the Caladaque creek, in the present East Allen township. Boyd was followed by others of his countrymen, among whom were Hugh Wilson and Samuel Brown. In 1731, there had accumulated a sufficient community to form a respectable settlement, says the Rev. John C. Clyde, in his" History of the Irish Settlement," and there is just reason for believing that these pioneers were organized a church by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, under the ministry of the Rev. Eleazer Wales, as early as 1731. The Rev. Richard Webster, in his notes of the "early history of Allen township," says, that " William Craig and Thomas Craig appear to have been the principal settlers; their residence was not far from where the Presbyterian church in Allen township now stands. Other men of property, influence, and religious character, were John Ralston, Robert Walker, John Walker, John McNair, John Hays, James King, Gabriel King, his only son, eminent for piety; Arthur Lattimore, Hugh Wilson, William Young, George Gibson, 970 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. Andrew Mann, James Riddle, John Boyd, Nigel Gray, Thomas Armstrong, and widow Mary Dobbin." Hugh Wilson, who was one of the commissioners appointed to select the site of Easton, was born in Ireland, in 1689, and is claimed by his descendants to have been the son of a Scotch laird. He died on his farm in Allen township, in 1773. Wilson was a man of influence in the county, and held in high esteem by his own people. A second wing of the Scotch-Irish, settled near the mouth of Martin's creek, in Mount Bethel (somewhat later than did the first mentioned), and here founded what was long known as the " Hunter Settlement." Brainerd's cabin during his career among the Delawares of this section (1744), is located by tradition about a mile north by east from the mouth of Martin's creek. Brainerd occasionally ministered to the Scotch-Irish seated on the springs of the Caladaque, as well as to those of Mount Bethel. The Germans followed the Scotch-Irish into the borders of the present county as early as 1739; a few years earlier, perhaps, into the two townships, south of the West Branch of Delaware or Lehigh. In 1752, when Northampton county was organized, there were nearly six thousand white settlers within the then extensive borders of the county-about three hundred Dutch, or Hollanders, several French families, eight hundred Scotch-Irish, and about four thousand Germans. In process of time the Germans measurably supplanted the Scotch-Irish. The Germans constitute at present about one-ninth of the population. It is a fact, once stated for all, that the Germans have supplanted the Scotch-Irish throughout the entire valley of the Kittatinny, from Easton to Maryland. The first inhabitants of Northampton county were scarce beginning to enjoy the advantages which the organization of 1752 brought with it, when in the summer of 1755 the peace in which they had thus far lived was rudely broken. It was French ambition and French aggression which provoked the first war in which the followers of William Penn engaged with the aborigines. Whatever other considerations may have moved the Indians to entertain unfriendly feelings towards the descendants of a man whose memory they revered-whether loss of confidence in their integrity, or a sense of injury, or a wild hope of regaining their ancestral seats, it is a question whether they would have followed up their feelings by acts of open hostility, had they not been incited by the insidious representations of the French of Canada. An alliance with tle Indian tribes of the Province, the latter well knew would enable them to carry on their military operations in the Ohio country successfully, and to realize their schemes of territorial aggrandisement. In this way, then, were the Delawares and lesser tribes residing on the Susquehanna and eastward seduced from their allegiance to the British crown, and led to inflict much suffering on the white settlements which stretched along the line of the Blue mountain, from the romantic point at which the Delaware has broken their barrier, to the confines of Maryland. Braddock's defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which it had been hoped would inflict a decisive blow upon the enemy, but proved the direct means of encouraging the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the Province the scene of a predatory warfare, in which old Northampton was severely scourged at intervals during a period of full two years. 971 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. The massacre of eleven Moravians at the Gnadenhiitten mission (Lehighton, Carbon county, Pennsylvania), in the evening of the 24th of November, 1755, was the first indication the inhabitants of the county had that the enemy was at their doors. Its remote settlements, and among these the scattered plantations that nestled in the small valleys immediately north of the Blue mountain, drained by the Big creek and its branches, by Brodhead's creek, McMichael's and Cherry creeks, and the Pennsylvania Minisinks, suffered most severely in the winter of 1755-'56. So emboldened were the savages grown in consequence of their successful forays, that in January of the last mentioned year, their scalp yell was heard within the precincts of the Moravian plantations at Nazareth, and Bethlehem was only saved from destruction at their hands by the exercise of extreme prudence, and by incessant watchfulness on the part of its inhabitants. The fear which now seized upon the dwellers on the frontiers is inde scribable, and as government moved slowly in devising means for their protection (December of 1755 was half gone, when Franklin, who had been prevailed upon to take charge of the northern borders, and to provide for the defence of the inhabitants by raising troops and building a line of forts, moved to the seat of war), they placed their safety in flight. In this way it came to pass, that within six weeks after the first inroads of the enemy, not only was transmontane Northampton almost deserted by the whites, but even the planta tions in the tier of townships resting against the south-eastern slope of the Blue mountain were left to their fate-invariably the torch of the Indian warrior. This condition of things reached its climax, it is true, in the winter of 1756 nevertheless, even pending negotiations for peace with the Indians as late as the autumn of 1757, there occurred repetitions of the horrors which had marked the inception of hostilities. The present townships of Smithfield, Stroud, and Hamilton, in Monroe county, were next invaded by the savages, after the massacre of the Moravians at Gnadenhiitten. On New Year's Day of 1756, the Moravian houses at Gnaden hiitten East (Weissport, Carbon county) were all destroyed, and the enemy entered Lehigh and Allen townships. The papers of that day, as well as the / Colonial Records, have preserved detailed accounts of these cruel marauds, of which the following are a few of the most interesting: The Rev. Nathaniel Seidel, a Moravian clergyman residing at Nazareth, under date of December 11, 1755, writes to Bishop Spangenberg, at Bethlehem, in the following words: " Mr. Bizman, who just came from the Blue mountain, and is the bearer of this letter, will tell you that there is a number of (two hundred) Indians about Brodhead's plantation (Stroudsburg). They have destroyed all the plantations thereabouts, and killed several families at Hoeth's."-Col. Rec. vi. 756. The Rev. J. Michael Graff writes to Bishop Spangenberg, under date of December 11, 1775, as follows: "An hour ago came Mr. Glotz, and told us that the 10th instant, in the night, Hoeth's family were killed by the Indians, except his son and the smith, who made their escape, and their houses burnt down. Just now came old Mr. Hart man with his family, who also escaped, and they say that all the neighborhood of the above mentioned Hoeth's, viz.: Brodhead's, Culver's, McMichael's, and 972 NOR THAMPTON COUNTY. all the houses and families thereabouts, were attacked by the Indians at daylight, and burnt down by them. " Mr. Culver's and Hartman's family are come to us with our wagons, and lodge partly here in Nazareth, partly in the tavern. Our wagons, which were to fetch some corn, were met by Culver's, three miles this side of his house, and when they heard this shocking news they resolved to return and carry these poor people to Nazareth. They say also that the number of Indians is above two hundred. We want your good advice what to do in this present situation and circumstances, and desire, if possible, your assistance."-Col. Rec. vi. 757. Timothy Horsfield, a justice of the peace and a resident of Bethlehem, wrote to Governor Morris, under date of December 12, 1755, in these words: " Hoeth and his family are cut off, only two escaping. The hbouses, etc., of Hoeth, Brodhead, and others, are actually laid in ashes, and people from all quarters are flying for their lives, and the common report is that the Indians are two hundred strong. " Your Honor can easily guess at the trouble and consternation we must be in on this occasion in these parts. As to Bethlehem, we have taken all precaution in our power for our defence; we have taken all our little children from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the greater security, and these, with the rest of our children, are near three hundred in number. "Although our gracious King and Parliament have been pleased to exempt those amongst us of tender conscience from bearing arms, yet there are many amongst us who make no scruple of defending themselves against such cruel savages. But, alas! what can we do, having very few arms and little or no ammunition; and we are now, as it were, become the frontier, and as we are circumstanced, our family (Economy) being so large, it is impossible for us to retire to any other place for security. " I doubt not your Honor's goodness will lead you to consider the distress we are in, and speedily afford us what relief shall be thought necessary against these merciless savages. "P. S.-Hoeth's, Brodhead's, etc., are situated a few miles over the Blue mountains, about twenty-five or thirty miles from Bethlehem." William Parsons, of Easton, writes to the Hon. James Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, Esq., under date of December 15, 1755: " The settlers on this side of the mountain all along the river side are actually removed, and we are now the frontier part of the country. Our poor people of this town have quite expended their little substance and are wearied out with watching, and were all along in hopes government would have taken measures for their relief and for the security of the town. But now, seeing themselves as well as the town neglected, they are moving away as fast as they can. So that if we have no help, nor orders from the commissioners to use means to get help, in a day or two we shall every one of us be obliged to leave the town, and all that we have in it, to the fury of the enemy, who, there is no reason to doubt, are lurking about within sight of us. Besides the losses which I have reason to sustain in this calamity, I have expended what little stock of cash I had, in public services, so that I am obliged to send this by private hands, not being able to pay a person to go express with it. Pray, do something, or give somt order for our 973 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. speedy relief, or the whole country will be entirely ruined. If you had but given encouragement to some persons that you could have confided in, for their employing people just for our present defence, till you could have agreed on a general plan, all this part of the country might have been saved, which is now entirely lost, and the enemy are still penetrating further and further, and if immediate measures are not taken, they will very soon be within sight of Philadelphia. This is my real opinion, for all the country is flying before them, and no means are employed to stop them."-Col. Rec., vi., 761. Captain Jacob Arndt, of the Province service, has left a list of the killed and prisoners made by the Indians from the beginning of the war till December 16, 1757. This record was completed at Fort Allen (Weissport, Carbon county), of which post Arndt was at the time commandant. According to this interesting statement, one hundred and fourteen men, women, and children were killed, and fifty-two taken captive. Of the latter, seven were returned by the Indians, or effected their escape. In January, 1759, there was published, by act of Parliament, a map of the Improved Part of the Province of Pennsylvania, drawn by Nicholas Scull, the well known surveyor, and sometime Surveyor-General. It contains the first authentic plot of Northampton county, and shows the following points of interest: The Kittatinny or Pehoquelin hills (also so called by Lewis Evans in his map of Pennsylvania, published in 1755); the folldwing tributaries of the Delaware-Cobus creek, Smalley's creek (Oughquoghton), and the Lehietan or Tatamy's creek, affluents of the Lehigh from the north-the Menakasy, Mill creek (now the Catasauqua), and the Hockendauqua; from the south, the Saucon. Scull notes but three mills: the mill at Bethlehem, Jones' mill above Easton on the Lehietan or Bushkill, and Cruikshank's mill (now John Knecht's), on the Saucon. Abraham Lefebre's public-house on the Bushkill, near Friedensthal, is also noted. Another point of interest presented in this valuable map is the site of the Healing Waters, a chalybeate spring, situate a few miles north of the Aquanshicola in the present Lower Towamensing township, Carbon county, to which public attention was drawn by the Moravian mission as early as 1746, and which subsequently, and even as late as the first decade of this century, was a resort for invalids. The admitted virtues of the waters of this historic spring, perhaps the oldest watering place in the Commonwealth, deserve to be again tested and rendered available for such as are in search of health. No more romantic spot could be found for a summer house than the site of the old Healing Waters of the Aquanshicola. The peace in which the inhabitants of Northampton were again beginning to live, after the adjustment of the differences with the Delawares and Shawanese in 1758, was a second time broken, when, in the summer of 1763, there came rumors of Indian incursions in the then far west, and of an impending Indian war. At the very time when the Ottawa chieftain, Pontiac, was prosecuting the siege of Detroit (12th May to 12th October), in the course of his mighty effort to drive the English from the country, lesser war parties, at the bidding of their great leader, had crossed the Alleghenies, and were committing depredations upon the frontiers of the Province. Before daybreak in the morning of the 8th of October, some Delawares attacked the house of John Stenton, in Allen townNORTHAIMPTON COUNTY. ship, on the main road from Bethlehem to Fort Allen, eight miles north-west from the former place, where Captain Jacob Wetterhold, of the Province service, with a squad of men, was lodging for the night. Meeting with Jean, the wife of James Horner, who was on her way to a neighbors for coals to light her morning fire, the Indians, fearing lest she should betray them or raise an alarm, dispatched her with their tomahawks.* Thereupon they surrounded Stenton's house. No sooner had Captain Wetterhold's servant stepped out of the house (he had been sent to saddle the cAptain's horse) than he was shot down. The report of the Indian's piece brought his master to the door, who, on opening it, received a mortal wound. Sergeant Lawrence McGuire, in his attempt to draw him in, was also dangerously wounded and fell, whereupon the lieutenant advanced. He was confronted by an Indian, who, leaping upon the bodies of the fallen men, presented a pistol, which the lieutenant thrust aside as it was being discharged, thus escaping with his life, and succeeding also in repelling the savage. The Indians now took a position at a window, and there shot Stenton as he was in the act of rising from bed. Rushing from the house, the wounded man ran for a mile, and dropped down a corpse. His wife and two children had meanwhile secreted themselves in the cellar, where they were fired upon three times, but without being struck. Captain Wetterhold, despite his sufferings, dragged himself to a window, through which he shot one of the savages while in the act of applying a torch to the house. Hereupon, taking up the dead body of their comrade, the besiegers withdrew. Having on their retreat plundered the house of James Allen, they attacked Andrew Hazlitt's, where they shot and scalped a man, shot Hazlitt after a brave defence, and then tomahawked his fugitive wife and two children in a barbarous manner. Finally they set fire to his house, and then to that of Philip Kratzer, and crossing the Lehigh above Siegfried's bridge, passed into Whitehall township. In this maraud twenty-three persons were killed, and many dangerously wounded. The settlers were thrown into the utmost distress, fleeing from their plantations with hardly a sufficiency of clothes to cover themselves, and coming into the town of Northampton (now Allentown), where, we read, there were but four guns at the time, " and three of them unfit for use, with the enemy four miles from the place." At the same time, Yost's mill, about eleven miles from Bethlehem, was destroyed, and all the people at the place, excepting a young man, cut off. This was the last invasion of the present Northampton county by a savage foe. Old Northampton, and especially that part of it which was erected into Monroe, by act of Legislature, in April, 1836, suffered subsequently, at intervals, from the Indians as late as 1765. On the 19th of April, 1775, the first blood of the Revolution was shed on the green at Lexington, Mass. The news of this beginning of hostilities spread from colony to colony, and before the first of May, New England had raised upwards of 10,000 men, who, without delay rendezvoused at Boston, *The following is her obituary record in the cemetery of the English Presbyterian church of Allen township: "In memory of Jean, the wife of James Horner, who suffered death at the hands of savage Indians, 8th October, 1763, aged 50 years." 975 IISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. and then formed into camps and built fortifications around the British army, which was in the city. The battle of Bunker's Hill was fought on the 19th of June following, and then the war of the Revolution was fully begun. To meet the emergency that now confronted the American people, Congress voted to raise 20,000 men, and appointed George Washington commander-in-chief. Pennsylvania was called on to contribute a quota of 4,300 men, and companies were accordingly organized in the various counties, which then numbered but eleven. On the 4th of July, 1776, a convention or meeting, consisting of the officers and privates of fifty-three battalions of the Associators of the Province of Pennsylvania, met at Lancaster to choose two brigadier-generals to command her battalions. Northampton was represented by Colonels Geiger, Stroud; Majors Labar, Siegfried; Captains Arndt, Schneider (Snyder), Kern, Jayne; Privates McFarren, Opp, Berghaus, Haas, Brown, Bert, J. McDawd, Jr., and D. Van Vleek. The following may serve to show the spirit manifested by the people of Northampton in the days when men's patriotism was put to the test: " The Independence of the United States being declared on the 4th of July, 1776, the news of this event became immediately known at Easton, and on the 8th of July was hailed by the citizens of this town and surrounding country by a public demonstration. Major Abraham Labar, with his company, paraded through the streets with drums and flying colors, and was followed and joined by the citizens en masse. They met in the court house, where the Declaration of Independence was read by Robert Levers."* At the time General Washington proceeded to Boston with troops to invest that city, and Pennsylvania took measures to raise the number of men apportioned to the Province, a company was formed at Easton, consisting of sixty-seven men, including officers. These men elected Alexander Miller, of Mount Bethel, as their captain, and James and Charles Craig as lieutenants. When New York was in danger of falling into the hands of the British, 10,000 men were ordered to be raised for its relief, called the Flying Camp. The quota of Northampton county was 346. In August, 1776, these men joined Washington's army on Long Island. One of these companies was commanded by Captain John Arndt, of Forks township. This company was part of Colonel Baxter's battalion of Northampton county, of the Flying Camp. After the defeat of the Americans on Long Island, in November of 1776, Washington with his forces retreated through New Jersey to Pennsylvania. From his headquarters in Bucks county, under date of December 22, 1776, the General writes to Colonel John Siegfried,t of Allen township, as follows: " Sir: The Council of Safety of this State, by their resolves of the 17th inst., empowered me to call out the militia of Northampton county to the assistance of the Continental army, that, by our joint endeavors, we may put a stop to the progress of the enemy, who are making preparations to advance to Philadelphia * Miller's German newspaper of July 10, 1776. Henry's History of the Lehigh Valley, p.99. t JOHN SIEGFRIED, sometime wagon-master of Northampton county, lies buried in a deserted and waste graveyard at Siegfried's Bridge. His grave is hardly to be found in the wilderness of briars and brambles, which grow rank in this resting-place of the dead. 976 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. as soon as they cross the Delaware, either by boats or on the ice. As I am unacquainted with the names of the colonels of your militia, I have taken the liberty to enclose you six letters, in which you will please insert the names of the proper officers, and send them immediately to them, by persons in whom you can confide for their delivery. If there are not as many colonels as letters, you may destroy the balance not wanted. "I most earnestly entreat those who are not so far lost to a love of country as to refuse to lend a hand to its support at this critical time, they may depend upon being treated as their baseness and want of public spirit will most justly deserve. "I am, sir, your most obedient servant, "GEORGE WASHINGTON." A number of companies of militia of the county, upon this requisition, immediately marched, and were engaged in the battles at Trenton, Brandywine, and Germantown. One of the earliest of those to take the field was a company, Captain Hays, enlisted in the Craig settlement in Allen township. The Rev. John Rosborough, the then pastor, accompanied the patriots of his flock in the capacity of chaplain, and with them reported for duty on the banks of the Delaware, near Coryell's Ferry, in Bucks county. Having taken part in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, the first action in which they participated, the next morning, Mr. Rosborough, while in a farm house near the village of Pennington, was surprised by a scouting party of British horse, and cruelly put to death. He lies buried in the graveyard of old " Trenton First Church." In the so-called Whiskey Insurrection, Northampton county was represented by two companies. One of them was commanded by Captain John Arndt, of Forks township. Although both were absent several months, they failed to see service, in as far as on their arrival at Carlisle, the status of the insurrection no longer demanding troops, they were ordered to return to their homes. In the war of 1812, Northampton county responded to the call made upon her, and sent forth her sons to repel the aggressor with an alacrity and heartiness worthy of her character and fame. The borough of Easton mustered several companies; Hanover township sent out Captain Fry's riflemen, and the Drylands, Captain Henry Jarrett's troop of light horse. These rendezvoused at Marcus Hook, but never saw service. There were no companies organized in this county for the war with Mexico, although recruits were enlisted at Easton and other points. Northampton county, in the late war of the rebellion, recruited the 153d regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers, entire; furnished five companies of the 1st regiment, four of the 129th-altogether some twenty-five companies at different times, and for different arms of the service. The original limits of Northampton county were gradually reduced. A portion was yielded to Northumberland on its erection in March of 1772; a second to Wayne, in March of 1798. In erecting Schuylkill, in March of 1811, William Penn and Rush townships were lost to old Northampton. In March of 1812, Lehigh; in April of 1836, Monroe, and in March of 1843, Carbon counties, respectively and in succession, were concerned in further reducing the county, leaving it with an area at present of about 370 square miles, and upwards of 3M 977 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. c6mmanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Conrad Weiser, were thus distributed: One company at Fort Augusta; one at Hunter's mill, seven miles above Harris' Ferry, on the Susquehanna; one-half company on the Swatara, at the foot of the North Mountain; one company and a half at Fort Henry, close to the gap of the mountain called the Tolihea Gap; one company at Fort William, near the forks of the Schuylkill River, six miles beyond the mountain; one company at Fort Allen, at Gnadenhutten, on the Lehigh; the other three companies were scattered between the rivers Lehigh and Delaware, at the disposition of the captains, some at farm houses, others at mills, from three to twenty in a place. In May of the following year, a conference was held at Lancaster, 1757. with deputies from the Six Nations, at which were present Governor Denny, Colonel Stanwix, and quite a number of the Council and Assembly. The negotiations for peace, which had been commenced with Teedyuscung, were not accelerated by this recent council, and the Province was still exposed to continued devastation from the French and the western Indians, who roamed in small parties over the country, avoiding or attacking the forts and armed provincialists as they judged most safe. The counties of Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, and Lancaster, were, during the spring and summer months of 1757, kept in continual alarm, and some of the savage scalping parties were pushed on to within thirty miles of Philadelphia. Many of these wretches paid, with their lives, the just penalty of their temerity. But their sufferings bore no comparison with those of the unfortunate inhabitants. Incessant anxiety pervaded every family in the counties we have mentioned; their slumbers were broken by the yell of demons, or by the dread of an attack, scarce less horrid than their actual presence. The ground was plowed, the seed sown, and the harvest gathered, under the fear of the tomahawk and rifle. Scarce any outdoor labor was safely executed, unless protected by arms in the hands of the laborers, or by Provincial troops. Women visiting their sick neighbors were shot or captured; children driving home cattle from the field were killed and scalped; whilst the enemy, dastardly as cruel, shrunk from every equality of force. Many of the richest neighborhoods were deserted, and property of every kind given up to the foe. Many instances of heroism were displayed by men, women, and children in the defence of themselves and their homes, and in pursuing and combating the enemy. According to Gordon there was certainly a great want of ability and energy in the constituted authorities and the people of the Province. United councils and well-directed efforts might have driven the barbarians to their savage haunts, and repeated the chastisement they received at Kittanning, until they sued for peace. But imbecility distinguished the British ministers and officers, and discord paralyzed the efforts of the Provinces, especially that of Pennsylvania. Despite the warlike attitude of England, nothing was done to annoy the French or to check the depredations of the savages, until a change of 1758. ministry, and the master mind of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, as sumed control of government. Endowed with a high order of intellect, eloquent, profound, and patriotic, it seemed as though the " heavens began to brighten and the storm to lose its power," the moment his mighty hand laid HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. 230,000 acres of land. This territory is divided into seventeen townships, and has within it eight boroughs, whose history will now be considered. LOWER SAUCON township (so named from the Saucon creek, a Delaware Indian word signifying "outlet of a stream ") was erected in 1743, when still within the limits of Bucks. The surface of the eastern half of the township is hilly, being traversed by successive and parallel outliers of the South mountain; the western section, on the other hand, is level, has a fertile limestone soil, and may not be surpassed anywhere for the fineness of its farms. The Saucon creek, which rises in Upper Milford township, in Lehigh county, with its east branch, or Laubach's creek, drains the rich valleys of old Saucon. Both these streams afford excellent water-power, and their banks have been the sites of mills from the earliest times. Old deeds and records go to prove that large tracts of land were taken up by speculators in Philadelphia, such as the Allens, Wistars, and Graemes, prior to 1730, and then sold out in smaller parcels to the first settlers, who were principally Germans, among them some German Baptists and Mennonites. These may have entered the lower part of the township as early as 1720. Many of the present inhabitants are descendants of the first settlers. Such are the Riegels, the Lerchs, the Labachs, the Hellers, the Boyers, the Beahms, the Bachmans, the Beils, the Lawalls, the Oberlys, the Stubers, the Ruchs, the Hes'ses, the Leidys, the Weitknechts, etc. In the year of the township's erection its population was estimated to be 300. Prior to the year 1737, Nathaniel Irish, sometime an agent for William Allen in the sale of lands, was seated near the mouth of the Saucon creek, on a tract of two hundred and ninety acres of land, to which he subsequently added five hundred acres. Here he built a grist and saw-mill. This property, in 1743, passed into the hands of George Cruikshank, a sugar planter from the island of Montserrat, and in 1769 to John Currie, Esq., late of Reading. Currie subsequently got a patent for a ferry over the Lehigh, just above the site of the present Freemansburg bridge. In 1809, William Currie conveyed a portion of the estate to Jacob Sheimer, for whom the present village of Shimersville is named. John Knecht's grist-mill, a foundry near by, a store, and a blacksmith shop, with a few dwellings, mark the site of the old Irish settlement. Higher up the Lehigh, and immediately below the site of the Bethlehem Iron company's buildings, Isaac Ysselstein, a Hollander from Esopus, settled about the same time as did Nathaniel Irish. The Moravians, who began to build Bethlehem in 1741, took up lands in Saucon, opposite their town, as early as 1743, and in 1745 built the Crown Inn. The " Crown " was the first public-house on the Lehigh. Adding purchase to purchase, the Moravians eventually acquired upwards of fourteen hundred acres in one contiguous body in this township. Here they laid out large farms, which materially aided them for years in the prosecution of their enterprises as a society and a church. The present borough of South Bethlehem occupies the site of the Moravian farms. The first church erected in the township was a log building, that stood as late as 1816, near the site of the present Lower Saucon church, which superseded its venerable predecessor in that year. It is not positively known when the old meeting-house was erected; certain it is, that three years after his arrival in the 978 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. country, in the autumn of 1742, the Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg, the well known founder of the Lutheran church in Pennsylvania, preached to the Germans of this section in the Saucon church. The first regular supply, however, was the Rev. Rudolph H. Schrenk, who began his pastoral labors in 1749. The second largest town in Saucon is HELLERTOWN, since 1873 a borough. It receives its name from one of the Hellers, the dominant family of early settlers in this section; lies in a fruitful valley near Saucon creek, and on a road which was the first one into this county from Philadelphia, having been laid out in OLD CROWN INN, BETHLEHEM. 1737. It is a brisk and growing place. A grist mill on the borough limits, stands on the site of an older one, near which the first proprietor, one Stoffel Wagner, kept a well-known public-house as early as 1759. The discovery of ores of zinc in Upper Saucon township, by W. Th. Roopper, of Bethlehem. in 1845, led, in 1853, to the erection of the Lehigh zinc company's works, on the south bank of the river, opposite the borough of Bethlehem. Here was next laid out the town of Augusta, which, changing its name several times, eventually developed into SouTrn BETHLEHEM, which was incorporated a borough in August of 1865. Zinc white, spelter, and sheet zinc, are the products of the afore-mentioned company's industries. The employees 979 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. are principally foreigners, Belgians, Germans, and Irish. The capacity of the oxide workLis 2,000 tons per annum; that of the spelter works, 3,600 tons. The annual y 1 of the mines is estimated to be 17,000 tons of ore. The Bethlehem Iron company, a portion of whose works lie within the LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, AT BETHLEHEM. precincts of the borough of South Bethlehem, erected their first stack in 1861, and in January of 1863 the first blast was fired. A mill for the rolling of iron rails was in operation in September of the same year. Rolling mill No. 2, built in the shape of a Greek cross, has an extreme length of 931 feet, and covers 980 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. upwards of four acres of ground. This is exclusively a steel mill, has two eightton Bessemer converters, with a capacity of 125 tons of steel inr -ts per day. The rolling department is able to turn out 1,100 tons of steel-- Als per week. Seven stacks, a spiegeleisen furnace, a foundry, and a machin 3hop, complete the company's works, which, at the present time, consume annually 70,000 tons of Pennsylvania hematites and New Jersey magnetic.,, and from 70,000 to 75,000 tons of coal. Upwards of 2,000 men are employed in this magnificent enterprise, one of the largest of its kind in the country. The borough of South Bethlehem is well laid out, principally on level ground. The Union depot of the Lehigh Valley and the North Penn railroads occupies the site of the old Crown Inn. The western part of the borough lies high, and consists of residences, many of which are conspicuous for the beauty of their architecture. St. Luke's Hospital, under the control of the Protestant Episcopal church, incorporated in 1872, has recently occupied the buildings of the Hydropathic Institute, on the slope of the Lehigh mountain, a short mile west of the Union depot, on the western line of Saucon township. Due south of the borough of South Bethlehem, on the ascent of the mountain, stands the Lehigh University, founded by the Hon. Asa Packer, of Mauch Chunk, in 1865. The main building, Packer Hall, is built of native sandstone, 213 by 70 feet, in the architectural style of the Renaissance, and is a magnificent structure. Handsome residences for the President and the professors, and Christmas and Saucon halls, with a woodland park of sixty acres of ground, constitute the noble gift which their benefactor presented to the young men of the country when he endowed the institute originally, with $500,000, since supplemented by large annual donations. The Lehigh University, with its schools of civil, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering, of chemistry, architecture, and construction, is governed by a board of trustees, of which the bishop of the diocese of Central Pennsylvania is the president ex officio. The Rev. John M. Leavitt, D.D., is the present President of the University. The faculty consists of nine professors and six instructors. Through the generosity of the founder, the trustees were enabled, in 1871, to declare tuition free. The mineral resources of this township are iron ore of the brown hematite variety, and limestone, much of which latter is burned to lime. WILLIAMS township, by the erection of Lower Saucon, at the March sessions, 1743, of Bucks county court, held at Newtown, contained the remaining portion of the lands in Northampton lying south of the Lehigh. A survey was accordingly deemed unnecessary. For a number of years the county records mentioned the name of this township as Williamston, a name which is presumed to have been given it for John Williams, an early and prominent settler. Settlements were made as early as 1725. When Easton was being commenced in 1752, William Parsons, in December of that year, remarks, "that most of the provisions supplying the infant town are brought from Williams and Saucon townships, which contain a considerable number of inhabitants." John Williams, Melchior Hay, Nicholas Best, George Best, Michael Shoemaker, George Raub, and Martin Lehr, were some of the early German settlers. The Richards were English. Nearly the whole surface of the township is covered by the Lehigh hills or South mountain, which are principally composed of gneiss and other HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. primary rocks, and overlaid by limestone in some of the narrow valleys. Magnetic iron ore is found in localities, and large quantities of the best of brown hematite, such as bomb-shell ore, etc. The soil in the valleys, especially next to the river, is rich, well cultivated, and very productive of wheat, corn, and grass. Fry's run, which by its tributaries receives the waters from the north and the south, and affords excellent power for grist and saw-mills, drains the greater portion of the township. There are several lesser water-courses. Hexen Kopf (witches' head or knob), an isolated prominence on one of the ridges of the South mountain, in the interior of the township, affords an extensive view of the surrounding country, and having been regarded by the first German settlers with superstitious awe as the scene of the witches' revelries, has become a place of resort for pleasure parties. As early as 1743, there was a church, or meet -_ ing-house,with -----. in the limits of this township, situate on the -__ road that led ------ from David Martin's ferry, over the Dela - --ware (erected Uin 1737), to the so-called great road from Phil adelphia to Na. ____ _.. - - - thaniel Irish's s mill, at the _-_- - _mouth of the THE OLD MILL AT BETHLEHEM.-BUILT 1751. Saucon, not far from the farmhouse of Barnet Walter. In 1752, the Rev. Rudolph Sbchrenck, one of Muhlenberg's associates, preached at this olden-time church. Subsequent to 1763, the congregation purchased a house of worship in Easton. There are two boroughs within the limits of Williams township-the borough of GLENDON, and that of SOUTH EASTON. The borough of Glendon, incorporated in 1867, has grown up around the Glendon iron works, situate along the right bank of the Lehigh, one and a half miles above South Easton, which were begun to be erected in 1843, by Charles Jackson and others of Boston, under the superintendence of Wm. Fermstone, the present acting manager. The first furnace was fortyfive feet high, twelve feet at the boshes, and was at the time and for several years afterwards, the highest anthracite furnace in the United States. There are at present three stacks, and a fourth one in South Easton, belonging to this company's works, which has the reputation of producing the best anthracite pig iron in the country. The ores principally used are hematite varieties, mined at the foot of the South mountain, near the junction of the limestone and gneiss, in the adjoining township. Magnetic oxide, from Morris county, N. J., is added to 982 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. their producing a most desirable mixture. Uhler's furnace, and the Keystone Iron Company's furnace, each one stack, lie within the limits of the borough of Glendon. It was incorporated in 1867. GLENDON is a station on the Lehigh Valley railroad, and lying on the Lehigh canal, has excellent conveniences for reaching market with its products. A short distance above Glendon, on the Lehigh, is the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company's dam, called the 1 chain-dam," because by means of a chain supported on piers in the pool of the dam the boatmen are enabled to cross with their craft without danger of being swept over the breast. Coleman's island is at this point of the river. The borough of SOUTH EASTON, so named because of its contiguity to Easton, situate on the right bank of the Lehigh, just above the junction of this river with the Delaware, was laid out in 1833 by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company, and incorporated a borough in 1840. It comprises part of three hundred acres of land owned by Melchior Hay, who, in 1750, assisted William Parsons and Nicholas Scull in laying out and surveying the county town of the projected county of Northampton. LOWER MOUNT BETHEL township was settled about 1728 or 1730 by emigrants from the north of Ireland, of Scotch descent, and hence called ScotchIrish, or Ulster Scots. They belonged to the same immigration which entered Allen township, and in contradistinction to the Craig settlement, called their settlement Hunter's settlement, for Alexander Hunter, the most influential of their number. At first they seated themselves near the mouth of Martin's creek, on land then heavily timbered and well adapted for farms. Others of these pioneers were the Lyles, the McCrackens, the Sillimans, the Nelsons, the Crawfords, the Campbells, the Lairds, the Galbraiths, and the Boyds. With that instinctive love of border life which has always characterized the ScotchIrish element of our population, these original settlers, after having made some improvements, moved farther into the interior of the Province, many to the Susquehanna, and were succeeded by Germans, or descendants of this industrious people. Lower Mount Bethel was separated and organized a township in 1746. The face of the country is diversified, the upper portion hilly; a level tract of land, however, extending from the Plainfield line to the Delaware river, at Belvidere, from one to two miles in width, forming a part of the Kittatinny limestone formation and excellent farming land. The soil in the northern part of the township is slate and gravel. The township is drained by Mud run, Martin's creek and its branches, and Richmond creek, or the Oughquoghton, all of which furnish power for grist and saw-mills. There is an iron ore deposit near the Delaware river, about two miles below Belvidere, and at Martin's creek, near the Delaware, the hydraulic cement stone makes its appearance. WASHINGTON township was formed from the upper part of Lower Mt. Bethel in 1871. As to the face of the country, there is a level marshy tract of several miles in width, running along the foot of the Blue mountain, in which are the springs of Martin's creek; the remainder of the township is of the slate formation, and decidedly hilly or rolling. It is well drained by said creek (written in old deeds by the Indian name of Moiawuquotenkc) and its branches. All these afford water-power. 983 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. BANGOR, in the upper part of the township, on Martin's creek, an outgrowth of the slate industry, which between 1863 and 1870 was dominant throughout the upper tier of townships in Northampton county, was incorporated a borough in 1875. It is a lively and growing town. Just within the borough limits are the Bangor Slate company's well-known quarry. The surface of UPPER MOUNT BETHEL township is hilly and rolling, excepting the belt of flat and marshy land that skirts the base of the Blue mountain; the soil is either a slaty gravel or limestone, and yields well in the valleys underlaid by the latter rock. In 1752, when Northampton county was erected, there were but few farmers residing in this portion of what was then simply Mount Bethel; a few Low Dutch and a few Scotch-Irish-such as the Van Ettens, the Middaghs, and the Nelsons. In 1787 Upper Mount Bethel was formed into the township as we have it at present. FORKS township adjoins the borough of Easton on the south. Prior to 1857, in which year old Forks, west of the Bushkill, was formed into Palmer, Forks had for its metes and bounds the same that were given it when in 1754 it was erected from the so-called Forks of Delaware; hence, too, its name. The surface of this township is generally level; the soil, limestone, well cultivated, and very productive. The first settlers were Germans, descendants of whom still occupy the paternal acres. PALMER township, until 1857, was a part of old Forks. It was named after George Palmer, a well-known deputy surveyor in the county in the last quarter of the last century, who resided sometime at Easton, and sometime in the Craig settlement, where he died. He is buried in the old graveyard of the Allen township Presbyterian church. Most of the surveying done in upper Northampton, subsequent to the Revolution, was done by George Palmer and his assistants. The face of the county and the quality of the soil in Palmer resemble those of the Forks. The Bushkill, or Lehietan, which is at the upper end of the township forks (the most easterly branch, formerly being known as Tatemy's creek) has, from the earliest settlement, been famous for its mills. A number of these are still active in converting the products of this rich grain-growing township into bread. Some of the first settlers were John Lefevre, John Van Etten, Robert Lyle, Garret Moore, and John Newland, from the " Hunter's settlement" on Martin's creek. These took up lands in the northern corner of the township. The Moravians made a settlement and built a mill on the west branch of Bushkill in 1752. In the spring of 1756, during the French and Indian war, this improvement, called by the brotherhood " Friedensthal," was stockaded, and afforded a place of refuge for many of the neighbors and refugees from the upper parts of the county and transmontane Northampton. On several occasions it was threatened by the savages, in the course of their predatory incursions. " Our dogs," writes one of the Moravians under date of January 22, 1756, "make a great noise every night till twelve o'clock, and run towards the island above the mill. I expect it is not without a good reason." This old mill was demolished some thirty years ago. Near its site stands one of more recent structure. The Proprietaries' Manor of Fermor, or the Drylands, one of the two manors in Northampton, invaded the western lim*ts of 984 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. Palmer, and belonged to what was locally at an early day called barren land or barrens. EASTON, the seat of justice of Northampton county, is situated at the confluence of the rivers Delaware and Lehigh (therefore in the very forks of Delaware), extending from the mouth of the latter along the former nearly half a mile to the Bushkill. It is therefore surrounded by water on three sides. For advantages of position as well as beauty of scenery it is unsurpassed by any inland town of Pennsylvania. Its site was selected, by order of the Proprietaries, by Nicholas Scull, Surveyor General, and it was laid out by William Parsons in the spring of 1752. Mr. Parsons was called by Thomas Penn from Lancaster to superintend the erection of the proposed new town; was at first invested with all the offices, proved an energetic agent for his employer, and died in December, 1757. He lies buried within the limits of the beautiful place over which he watched so faithfully in its infancy. There is every reason to believe that there was a cluster of dwellings in the forks of the Delaware when the site of Easton was selected, as David Martin, of Trenton, as early as 1739, had been granted a patent for ferrying over Delaware at this point. The panic created throughout the country by the sacking of the Moravian mission at Gnadenhiitten, in November of 1755, which preceded the invasion of cis-montane Northampton, struck terror into the inhabitants of Easton. It was during the continuance of hostilities between the Indians and their white neighbors that Easton, between 1756 and 1762, at various times, was the point selected by the former to treat with the latter in reference to their grievances. There is no place in Pennsylvania as rich in historical associations touching the original proprietors of the soil as is the borough of Easton. For it was built in the garden spot of the red man, in a spot which was dear to him by reason of its beauty and by reason of its cherished ancestral memories. " I will treat with you no where but in the Forks," were the words of the Delaware King, Teedyuscung, as often as the governors sought to meet him in conference. And hither the governors and their counsellors were compelled to come at the bidding of the haughty warrior. Parsons lived to see the completion of the jail, which was commenced in 1752 and completed early in 1755, at a cost of about ~400. The next great undertaking was the erection of a bridge over the Bushkill creek, at a cost of ~226 to the county. A church and school-house, built of logs, was erected in the last-mentioned year, and paid for by private subscription. The first courts, from June, 1752, to March, 1766, were held in different taverns. The plan of the court-house, which was not completed until the lastnamed year, was taken from Carpenter's Hall, in Philadelphia. It was built of limestone, stood in the public square, was graced by a whipping-post and pillory, and cost $4,589. The bell which is used at the present day was cast by a Moravian at Bethlehem, in 1768. This olden time building was demolished in 1861. The streets of the new town were well laid out, and bore the names of prominent persons, of members and friends of the Proprietaries' family, such as Pomfret, Fermor, Julianna, Hamilton, etc. These, unfortunately, have been exchanged for modern ones, which are entirely devoid of historical association. HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. George Taylor, the representative in Congress from Northampton in 1776, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, a native of the north of Ireland, was a resident of Easton between 1764 and 1769. He died at this place in February of 1781. A beautiful monument of Italian marble has been erected to his memory in the Easton cemetery. Easton was incorporated a borough September 23, 1789, and received the second charter of incorporation in 1823. It is at present divided into seven wards, and has a population rising of 13,000, being one of the largest boroughs in the Commonwealth. The first impulse given to business in this important town, independently of its character as the seat of justice, which circumstance will always ensure for it a large rural trade, was the discovery of, and the transportation of coal from the anthracite region of the upper Lehigh. The Lehigh slack-water navigation from Mauch Chunk to Easton, was opened in June of 1829; the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania canal, two years later; and the Morris canal somewhat earlier. Thus the place was destined to become an entrep6t of the coal trade, which position it still holds. Connected with the great emporiums of the Atlantic border, by the New Jersey Central railroad, the Morris and Essex division of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad,and the Belvidere and Delaware railroad i and with the anthracite region of Pennsylvania by the Lehigh Valley railroad, and the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central railroad of New Jersey, there are few places favored as is Easton in these important aids to trade and factors of prosperity. Easton is compactly and well built, with beautiful residences and handsome and spacious stores. There are nineteen churches and a public library. The present court house was erected in 1860 and 1861, at a cost of $53,000. Near it stands the county prison, a well-built and well-appointed structure, both as to exterior and as to its interior arrangements. The public and high-schools of the borough, under a special superintendent, are among the best in the State. Lafayette College, located magnificently on the high bluff north of Bushkill creek, was chartered in March of 1826, and named in honor of Lafayette, who had just completed his tour through the United States. It was designed to have been a military school; a project which, however, was soon abandoned. The first edifice erected was named Brainerd Hall, in memory of the devoted missionary who labored among the Indians of the Forks of the Delaware. In 1849 the institution was placed under the care of the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia. Since 1869 Lafayette College has been the recipient of munificent endowments from Ario Pardee, Esq., of Hazleton, through whose liberality a scientific department has been added to the classical deplrtment, and Easton been beautified by the erection of one of the noblest specimens of architecture in the country. Pardee Hall has an entire frontage of 256 feet. The centre building is 53 by 86 feet; the lateral wings are 61 by 31 feet, and the cross wings 42 by 84 feet. It is built of Trenton brown-stone, with trimmings of light Ohio sandstone. The faculty of this now prosperous college consists of the Rev. William C. Cattell, D.D., President, twenty-two professors and adjunct professors, and four tutors. ALLEN township was formed on the petition of thirty-seven signers (most of whom were Scotch-Irish) to the Court of Quarter Sessions of the county of 986 NORTHAMPTON COUlNTY. Bucks, held at Newtown, in June, 1748. It included the present townships of Allen, East Allen, and Hanover, besides that portion of Lehigh county which invades the forks of Delaware. The Scotch-Irish were the first settlers in this part of the county, and the thirty-seven afore-mentioned signers were doubtless all the taxables in the year 1748. Allen township received its present bounds and metes when, in 1752, its adjacents to the north were formed into Lehigh township, and when, in 1845, East Allen was cut off. The Allens of the present day retain the name given to old Allen, in honor of Chief Justice William Allen, of Philadelphia, who, subsequent to 1740, became the largest proprietor of lands in this section of the county. The upper half of the township is hilly and rolling, and the soil of the slate formation; the lower portion is more level, limestone, well cultivated, with as fine farms as the yeoman's heart may desire. The mineral products are hydraulic cement, slate, and iron ore. Slate was prospected for and worked in small quantities on the bank of the Hockendauqua as early as 1832. The township is drained by the Hockendauqua, Dry run, and the Catasauqua, which afford power for a number of grist and saw mills. The Scotch-Irish entered this part of old Allen soon after their first settlement on the head-waters of the Catasauqua. Few of their descendants, however, may be found on the ancestral acres, most of these having passed into the hands of strangers, principally Germans. The course taken by the walkers, Marshall and Yeates, in September of 1737, in their effort to walk out as much land as possible for Thomas Penn, ran from near the south-eastern to the extreme north-western corner of this township; and it was not far from Howell's grist-mill, on the Hockendauqua, where the walkers and their attendants passed the night of the 19th of September, prior to resuming the walk for six additional hours, on the morning of the 20th. When excavating a cut for the bed of the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroad in 1867, the workmen, not far from this point, came upon the remains of an Indian burial ground, which was probably the place of sepulture fo'r the village, where the Indians, we are told, passed that memorable night in a wild cantico. EAST ALLEN was separated from Allen in 1845. The surface is generally level; the soil limestone, and highly productive of wheat, rye, and Indian corn. The principal water-courses are the west branch of the Menakasy creek, and the springs of the Catasauqua or Caladaqua. It was within the limits of East Allen that the Ulster-Scot pioneers of Northampton county made their settlements as early as 1728. They seated themselves upon one of the richest limestone sections in the county, hewed out noble farms from the primeval forest-farms which are the admiration of the traveler to the present day-built churches and school houses, and for generations were a distinctive element in the population of the county. The first church was built in 1746; it was superseded by a second, and they in turn by the one which stands to the present day, near where are interred the remains of the first of those hardy yeomen who exchanged the comforts of home in the old world for the uncertainties of border life in an American wilderness. Both church and burial ground are near Weaversville. As has been stated earlier, this settlement of Scotch-Irish, which was long GENERAL HISTORY. hold of the helm of state. He seemed to possess in an eminent degree the full confidence of the nation and the command of all its resources. His plans of operations were grand, his policy bold, liberal, and enlightened, all which seemed greatly to animate the colonists and inspire them with renewed hopes. They resolved to make every effort and sacrifice which the occasion might require. A circular from the Premier assured the colonial governments that he was determined to repair past losses, and would immediately send to America a force sufficient to accomplish the purpose. He called upon the different governments to raise as many men as possible, promising to send over all the necessary munitions of war, and pledging himself to pay liberally all soldiers who enlisted. Pennsylvania equipped two thousand seven hundred men, while the neighboring Provinces contributed large quotas. Three expeditions were determined upon, and the most active measures taken to bring them to the field. The Western expedition, more properly connected with the history of Pennsylvania, is the only one to which we shall refer. It was placed under the command of General John Forbes, an officer of great skill, energy, and resolution. His army consisted of nearly nine thousand men, embracing British regulars, and provincials from Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. The troops from the latter governments rendezvoused at Winchester, while the Pennsylvanians, under Colonel Bouquet, assembled at Raystown. The Commander-in-Chief, with the regulars, marched from Philadelphia to effect a junction with the force at Raystown, but in consequence of severe indisposition, General Forbes did not get farther than Carlisle, when he was compelled to stop. He marched to Bedford about the middle of September (1M58), where he met the provincial troops under Colonel Washington. At the suggestion of Bouquet and the Pennsylvania officers, a new road was cut direct from Raystown to Loyal-hanna, a distance of forty-five miles, where Colonel Bouquet erected a fort. From this point Major Grant, with a select body of eight hundred men, was sent forward to ascertain the situation of affairs at the Forks, and to gain information as to the best mode of attack. During the night of the 20th of September he reached the hill near the junction of the two rivers now known by his name, and, at early dawn on the 21st, marched towards the fort. Presently, the French and Indians outrushed in great numbers, and ere the commander had time to press his men to the conflict, or even before they could bring their guns to bear, the foe were upon them, dealing death at every blow. Major Lewis, with his detachment of the rear guard, hearing the sound of battle, hurried to the relief of Major Grant, but this accession of strength was insufficient to check the headlong rush of the enemy, and both officers were taken prisoners. But a handful escaped to the camp of Colonel Bouquet. On the 1st of November, General Forbes reached Loyal-hanna, and with as little delay as possible pushed on toward Fort Duquesne. When within a few miles of the fort, the General was chagrined to learn that the French, becoming alarmed at the augmented force of the English, and having lost most of their Indian allies, determined to abandon their position. Unwilling to leave to their successors anything to rejoice over, the former fired all the buildings and placed a slow-match to their magazine. The whole party then descended the Ohio by water. About midnight, as the army of Forbes lay at Turtle Creek, HISTORY OF PElNNSLY VANIA. known by the name of " the Craig settlement," extended from the Menakasy on the east, to the Hockendauqua and the Lehigh on the west. Hugh Wilson erected a grist mill on the Hockendauqua creek as early as 1740. He and the Craig brothers were the most influential among this people. Names of other prominent individuals have been given on a previous page. David Brainerd preache I occasionally for the settlers here during his mission in the Forks of Delaware. During the French and Indian war, in January of 1756, immediately after the disaster which befell Captain Hays' company of Scotch-Irish at Gnadenhiitten (now Weissport), where he and his men were ambushed by the Indians and well nigh cut to pieces, the settlers fled from their farms and sought refuge among the Moravians at Bethlehem and Nazareth. " Soon after my arrival here," writes Franklin from Bethlehem, to Governor Morris, under date of January 14, 1756. "the principal people of the Irish settlement, such as Wilson and elder Craig, came to me and demanded an addition of thirty men to Craig's company, or threatened they would immediately, one and all, leave their country to the enemy." Captain Hays, mentioned above, resided on the site of Weaversville. On the 8th of October, 1763, the bloody affair at Stenton's public-house anew struck terror into the settlement, and its inhabitants for the last time were compelled to flee from their homes. The panic, however, was of short duration. In the Revolutionary war the Scotch-Irish of Northampton were among the first to take up arms in defence of their adopted country's liberties, and Captain Hays' company saw service at the battle of Long Island and at Trenton. General Robert Brown and General Thomas Craig, both officers in the Continental army, were natives of the Irish settlement. Immediately subsequent to the Revolution, when the estates of loyalist landholders throughout the Commonwealth were confiscated, a number of inhabitants of the Aliens (whose lands were then held in the name of James Allen, a son of William Allen the original proprietor), in order to avoid litigation, removed from their farms; some to the Genesee country, some to the Redstone country, and some to the Susquehanna; and thus it has happened that the names of the original settlers, save a few, such as the Horners, the Clydes, and the Hemphills, have become extinct. German farmers now hold the bulk of the farms first tilled by the Scotch-Irish. Not far from Odenwelder's tavern, in the centre of East Allen, George Wolf, the seventh Governor of Pennslyvania, was born in August of 1777. It was at the academy, established by the Presbyterians of his neighborhood, in 1791, that he received the rudiments of a classical education; and what was taught him here may have influenced him, later in life, to become the great advocate of a system of popular education. BATH, situated on the West Branch of the Menakasy, since 1856 a borough, was laid out several years prior to the Revolution, and named after Bath in England. It was in the last decade of the last century the seat of the land office, and in its vicinity resided George Palmer, the surveyor. The slate trade and the proximity of the Chapman quarry, have of late years given a decided impetus to its growth. Bath is a station on the Lehigh and Lackawanna division of the Central railroad of New Jersey. SIEGFRIED'S BRIDGE, a post village on the Lehigh river, and a station on 988 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central railroad of New Jersey (which road skirts the western boundary of Allen township in its entirety), gradually grew up about a feriy for which John Siegfried had a patent as early as 1774. In 1824 a bridge superseded the ferry. This was one of the many bridges which were swept away in the great freshet of January, 1841, when the Lehigh valley suffered incalculable loss of property, and also loss of life. Siegfried's Bridge is come to be a brisk and growing place. KREIDERSVILLE is named for one of the German families who settled here about 1765. It lies on the old King's road to Fort Allen, laid out by order of the court in 1747; and which, until 1756, was the road by which the Missionaries of Bethlehem were wont to travel to Gnadenhiitten (Lehighton), and others to the Healing Waters of the Aquanshicola. HANOVER township was a portion of old Allen until the year 1798. In 1812, on the erection of Lehigh county, full two-thirds of Hanover was assigned to that county. It lies between East Allen on the north, and Lower Nazareth and Bethlehem on the west. The surface is level, except at points along the Menakasy creek, and the soil is limestone. This little township is a continuous scene of agricultural prosperity, being in the highest state of cultivation, and in the hands of sturdy German farmers. The farms average about one hundred acres each. The early history of Hanover is included in old Allen. The mineral products are lime and iron ore. The latter, within the past twenty-five years, has been dug at numerous points, and is a superior quality of brown hematite. Getz's mine has yielded untold wealth continually for forty years. The Moravians were next in order to the Ulster Scots, to enter the Forks of Delaware, and settle within the limits of UPPER and LOWER NAZARETH and BETHLEHEM townships, as they are constituted at present. In the spring of 1740, the well-known Peter Boehler (sometime an intimate friend of the Wesley brothers) left Georgia with a handful of Moravians of Herrnhut, who had ineffectually attempted to establish a mission among the Creeks. On arriving at Philadelphia they were employed by George Whitefield, to erect for him a large stone house he proposed to use as a school for negroes, on a tract of five thousand acres of land (the present Upper Nazareth township) which he had purchased of William Allen. Here the Moravians worked for the remainder of the year; and having disagreed with Whitefield, and being discharged, were compelled to seek a new home. This they found when their Bishop David Nitschman secured a tract of five hundred acres at the confluence of the Menakasy creek and the Lehigh river, on which, in March of 1741, they began to build Bethlehem. This eventually became their principal settlement in the Province, and continues to be the seat of government of the Moravians of the church north. UPPER NAZARETH township lies in the very heart of Northampton, and has virtually the same metes and bounds as had the original Whitefield tract--which tract its proprietor named Nazareth. The tract was held by William Allen in right of Letitia Penn, and was invested with the privileges of court-baron. In 1762 the tract, in its entirety, fell into the hands of the Moravians, and was held by them intact till towards the beginning of the Revolution; subsequently they disposed of all save a few hundred acres. The township is well watered by the 989 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. numerous branches of the Menakasy, has partly slate-gravel and partly limestone soil, is productive, and boasts the very best of farms. Most of the inhabitants are of German descent. During the tenure of this noble domain by the industrious Moravians, they made, between 1743 and 1752, several improvements, to wit: Old Nazareth, Gnadenhiitten, Christian's Spring, and New Nazareth, the present borough of Nazareth. Nothing of Old Nazareth, save its ruins, remains. Near it stands the Whitefield house, one of the most interesting monuments of the olden time in this country extant. This staunch structure was recently purchased by a friend of the Moravians, remodeled, converted into a home for retired misNAZARETH HALI~, AT NAZARETH. sionaries, and donated in trust to that people. The Moravian Historical Society has it rooms on the upper floor. But little of Christian's Spring-of its mills, and workshops, and great stone barns-is left to tell of the early days. The Gnadenhiitten farms were sold to the county commissioners in 1836, and on the site of the Moravian dwellings is erected the county almshouse, The so-called Indian graveyard-an old Moravian burial-place a short mile west of the borough of Nazareth-contains the remains of several of the settlers who were killed by the savages in 1756. In 1755 the Moravians erected a spacious stone mansion west of the old Nazareth settlement, which they designed for the residence of Count Zinzendorf, who was expected to return to the country. Failing to do so, the house was converted into a school, and here, in October of 1785, was established that well 990 .NORTIAMPTO.T COUNTY known and popular boarding school of the American Moravian church, Nazareth Hall. During the French and Indian war, in 1756, several of the manor farms were stockaded, and afforded places of refuge to the fugitive inhabitants of the upper tier of townships. Provincial troops were stationed at these stockades. In 1760, a fifth settlement was made by the Moravians one mile north of Nazareth. It was called Schoeneck. In the spring of 1771, New Nazareth was laid out around Nazareth Hall. This became the principal place on the barony, and when it ceased to be a close denominational settlement, grew apace, and in 1856 was incorporated a borough. The borough of Nazareth is eligibly situated, and although destitute of the advantages which railroad connection invariably affords, is a thriving town. It contains four churches, the largest of which is the Moravian, a beautiful brick structure, and several industrial establishments. Nazareth Hall and the Whitefield house are in the borough. The Hall has now for upwards of ninety years sustained its reputation as an excellent institution of learning-having in that time sent out upwards of three thousand alumni. It has been presided over by fourteen principals. The Rev. Eugene Leibert is the present incumbent. Cottage Home is a charmingly situated family school, in charge of the Rev. E. H. Reichel. Nazareth is the seat of the fair grounds of the Northampton County Agricultural Society, incorporated in 1855. UPPER NAZARETH was until 1806 a part of Nazareth township, which latter was separated from Bethlehem in 1788. The mineral products are slate, limestone, and iron ore. LOWER NAZARETH township was formed from Bethlehem township in 1788. Totally different from its sister township of the same name, in the matter of being well watered, a great part of its border, along with portions of Palmer and Bethlehem, were at an early day denominated barrens, or drylands, twelve thousand acres of which region, between 1736 and 1770, constituted the Proprietaries' Manor of Fermor or the Drylands. The soil is heavy, limestone, and producing plentifully of wheat, rye, and Indian corn. The mineral products are limestone and hematite ores. BETHLEHEM township, as at present constituted, is a portion of old Bethlehem township, which, when laid out in 1746, embraced within its limits all of Upper and Lower Nazareth, together with what bears its name at present. It is bounded on the north by Lower Nazareth, on the east by Palmer, on the south by the Lehigh river, and on the west by Hanover and Lehigh county. The western part of Bethlehem is drained by the Menakasy creek; the south by small watercourses that empty into the Lehigh. A part of this township is so called dryland; its surface is generally rolling, the soil rich heavy limestone, producing excellent crops of the staple cereals. The Moravians were the first settlers, and at one time held some two thousand acres of land next to the town of Bethlehem. The Drylands were settled twenty years subsequent to the beginning of that place. BETHLEHEM the oldest and principal town of the Moravians in this country, and until 1844 a close denominational settlement, was begun to be built in March of 1741. Its founder was Bishop David Nitschman, a native of Moravia. 991 HISTORY OF PENNSYL VANIA. Between 1741 and 1762 the Moravians in the Province were united in an economy, or quasi communism, of which Bethlehem was the central part and seat of government. This place at an early day arrested the attention of travelers, who never failed to be struck with the industry and intelligence of its people. The society received many accessions from the mother country, and was thus enabled to prosecute a mission among the Mohicans of New York and the Delawares of Pennrsylvania. There are upwards of sixty of these dusky converts buried in the old Moravian graveyard at Bethlehem. During the Indian war of 1756 the place was at points stockaded, and afforded shelter to hundreds of settlers from the upper parts of the county. Count Zinzendorf was here in 1742, and Bishop Augustus G. Spangenberg, one of the revered fathers of the American branch of the church, superintended its concerns at Bethlehem for about twenty years. Since 1844 the - -- place has grown - - --rapidly. The ._- completion of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company's canal in 1829, the sale - t 1of the Moravian I farms on the I II H i tll south side of the SLehigh, the eree tion of zinc and iron mills, and the opening of - -three railroads, have in turn THE "SCHNITZ HOUSE," AT BETHLEHEM. stimulated old Bethlehem, infusing into it the life of rejuvenescence, so that from a business point of view it is behind none of its sister towns in enterprise and thrift. In 1845 the place was incorporated a borough. It is well built, on high ground that skirts the north bank of the Lehigh. The houses are brick, and without exception, slate roofed; the stores are beautiful and commodious, and many of the private residences elegant and luxurious. It has ten churches, two large public schools (one recently erected at a cost of $80,000), and a well appointed fire department. The Moravians have a commodious four-story building occupied as a denominational day school. The Moravian seminary for young ladies, established in 1785, enjoys a high reputation to the present day, having sent out during the past ninety years of its existence upwards of six thousand alumni. It has been presided over by seventeen principals. The present incumbent is the Rev. Francis Wolle. The Revolutionary experiences of this old town were peculiarly exciting; and although its inhabitants as a people scrupled to bear arms, and may not be 992 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. reckoned among the patriots of the camp-nevertheless they contributed freely of their substance to the common cause, and ministered, twice in the course of the great struggle, to hundreds of sick and wounded of the Continental army. Such was the case for the first time, when, in December of 1776, following the success of the British arms on Long Island, the removal of the general hospital from Morristown to points in the interior, became an imperative necessity. Bethlehem then received for its quota upwards of eight hundred of the two thousand in hospital. One hundred and ten of these lie buried on the borders of the present borough. With the beginning of September of 1777, opened the most eventful period in the Revolutionary history of Bethlehem. For scarcely had the excitement incident on the arrival of two hundred prisoners of war (one hundred of these THE MARRIED BRETHREN AND SISTERS HOUSE AND WATER HOUSE, DETHILEREM. were partisans of Donald McDGnald from the Cross Creek settlement, near Fayetteville, N. C.) fully subsided, when intelligence came of reverses to the patriot army, succeeded by a rumor that Bethlehem had been selected as headquarters. On the 11th of September was fought the battle of Brandywine, or Chad's Ford, at which point Washington had made an unsuccessful stand for the defence of Philadelphia. Following this disaster and Howe's movement upon the then federal city, the military stores of the army of the North were hurried inland from French creek, and by the 23d of the afore-mentioned month upwards of nine hundred army wagons were in camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Meanwhile Baron de Kalb and a corps of French engineers had arrived, their errand being to select an advantageous position for the army in the vicinity of the town, should Howe follow up his successes, and compel its shattered regiments once more to make a stand. A change in that general's programme, however, drew the main army away, and thus the town failed to witness what might 3N 993 HISTORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. have proved a decisive engagement in a most critical period of the American Revolution. "On Saturday, the 20th September, 1777," writes a chronicler of those stirring times, "we began to realize the extent of the panic that had stricken the inhabitants of the capital, as crowds of civilians as well as men in -military life began to enter the town in the character of fugitives. Next day their number increased, and toward evening the first installment of sick and wounded arrived. Among the latter was General Lafayette and suite, General Woodford, and Colonel Armstrong. Congress, too, was largely represented by'some of its most influential members, such as John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Henry Laurens, and Charles Thompson." In the month of December the number of soldiers in hospital at Bethlehem increased by daily accessions, and between Christmas and New Year upwards of seven hundred were crowded into what is the present central building of the Young Ladies' seminary. Three hundred of these died in the course of the winter. In the afternoon of the 15th of July, 1782, Washington, accompanied by two of his aids, on his way to headquarters, then at Newburg, arrived at Bethlehem. Having inspected various objects of interest in the town, he was shown through the house for the unmarried women, from whose bazaar, tradition states, he made a selection of "blue stripes for his lady and of stout woolen lose for himself." He also visited the house of the unmarried men, and in the chapel of the brotherhood sat down to a cold repast. On the morning of the 26th he resumed his journey. This was Washington's only visit to Bethlehem. FREEMANSBURG, so named for Richard Freeman, the first settler, is situated at the junction of Nancy's run with the Lehigh. It was incorporated a borough in 1856. The tier of townships resting against the Blue mountain are Lehigh, Moore, Bushkill, and Plainfield. LEHIGH township, the first of this group to be formed, originally extended from the Lehigh river as far east as the old Minisink road on the eastern line of Bushkill, and was, until 1752, called the " Adjacents of Allen." Its present metes and bounds were finally fixed in 1765. It is bounded on the north by Carbon county; on the east by Moore; on the south by Allen, and on the west by the Lehigh, which separates it from Lehigh county. The earliest record of this part of Northampton is one touching the surveys and laying out, in 1735, by order of Thomas Penn, of 6,500 acres of land, on which he designed to settle all the Fork Indians, which tract hence was known as the Indian Land. Penn's project was never realized. This and the Manor of Fermor were the only Proprietaries' reservations in present Northampton county. This township suffered much during the Indian war, and at times was almost completely depopulated, the inhabitants fleeing to Bethlehem and Nazareth for safety and protection. Franklin, when on his way from Bethlehem to Gnadenhiitten (Weissport), in January of 1756, writes from the first place as follows: "As we drew near this place we met a number of wagons and many people moving off with their effects from the Irish settlement and Lehigh township." Franklin was about setting out with several companies of Provincials, in command of Captains Foulke, McLaughlin, and Wayne, to build Fort Allen. The family of Dreisbachs was prominent before as well as during the Revolution. 994 NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. Joseph Dreisbach was colonel of the third battalion of militia in October of 1775, and Simon a member of Assembly from 1776 to 1779. Since the Revolution, Lehigh township has increased rapidly in wealth and population. The Lehigh water-gap, a point of interest to both tourist and geologist, in the northwest corner of the township, has been previously noticed. MOORE township, next in order to Lehigh on the east, is nearly six miles square, containing thirty.five square miles, and about 22,506 acres of land. It is drained by the springs and head-waters of Hockendaugua and Menakasy creeks. The face of the country is hilly and rolhing, and the soil, either gravel and slate, made by judicious culture to yield fair returns of the cereals, especially buckwheat and rye. In 1752, when Northampton county was erected, this portion of it was part of the "Adjacents of Allen," and Moore received its present bounds as late as 1765. At one time it was proposed to call the township Penn. Its present name was given it in honor of John Moore, a representative of the county in the Provincial Assembly in 1761 and 1762. In January of 1756, the Indians entered this township and committed a series of depredations and murders, firing Christian Miller's, Henry Diehl's, Henry Shopp's, Nicholas Heil's, Nicholas Sholl's, and Peter Doll's houses and barns, killing one of Heil's children and John Bauman. The latter's body was found two weeks after the maraud, and interred in the Moravian burial-ground at Nazareth. At an election held at Easton, May 22, 1775, Plhilip Drum, of Moore, was elected as a member of the committee of safety. BUSHKILL township, so named from the Lehietan. or Bushkill creek, whose head-branches have their rise within its limits, is the third in order of the upper tier of townships. It was erected in 1814. The surface is undulating, the soil slaty or gravel, overlaying the limestone, on its southern border-nevertheless, under proper culture it is productive. The early history of this township is merged in that of Plainfield, and its inhabitants, like those of Plainfield, were much exposed to the inroads of the Indians. The first settlers were Germans. The Moravians had several tracts of land adjacent to the Barony Nazareth, on one of which they erected a public-house in 1752, and called it the Rose, which was a place of refuge for the neighborhood in the war of 1756. William Edmonds, a member of the Provincial Assembly in 1755, kept a store near this tavern, in 1763 and later, and carried on a considerable trade with the Indians of the Susquehanna country. It was in this neighborhood that Governor Richard Penn, the Allens, and others of the gentry of the capital, were wont to resort for grouse shooting on the adjacent plains or barrens between 1760 and 1770. In the neighborhood of Jacobsburg, four miles from Nazareth, William Henry, in 1792, erected a manufactory for muskets, for several thousand stand of which he had contracted with the Governor of the Commonwealth. A forge, and subsequently a blast furnace and foundry, were in operation here between 1815 and 1824. Boulta gun factory was erected two miles lower down the Bushkill, by William Henry, Jr., in 1813. It is still in operation. During the Indian wars the isolated inhabitants were frequently obliged to flee for protection to the Moravian towns. A murder, committed at Joseph Yeller's farm-house, in September of 1787, led to the erection of a block-house about two miles south-east of the Wind Gap, whither the settlers might rendez995 HISTOR Y OF PENNSYL VANIA. vous in times of danger. This post, at which squads of Provincials were occasionally posted, is known in the records and reports of that time as Tidd's or Dietz's. Near this point a public-house had been erected as early as 1752, deriving its resources from the travel which passed its doors along the new Minisink road, through the Wind Gap. This tavern stand, at a later day, was long known as Heller's, and latterly as Stotz's. PLAINFIELD township lies between Bushkill on the west, and Washington and Lower Mount Bethel on the east. In 1763, Plainfield received its present metes and bounds; and the name given it pointed to the face of the country, which was almost entirely devoid of timber, excepting along the water courses, and overgrown with the dwarf oak. The first settlers, who were Germans, entered this region about 1740. The present area of Northampton county is about 370 square miles, containing upwards of 230,000 acres of land. It is divided into seventeen townships, and has seven boroughs. The population, according to the census of 1870, was 61,232; taxables, according to the assessment of 1875, 17,295; and the aggregate value of real estate taxable, $45,212,673. The great industries of the county are the production and manufacture of iron, slate, and zinc. There are twenty stacks or furnaces in the county. Northampton adopted the public school system at an early day. It has 276 schools, in which 290 teachers, male and female, are employed, and which have an average attendance of upwards of 10,000 scholars. The following are men of note who were reared or who spent their active lives in this county: William Parsons, the founder of Easton; George Taylor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; Generals Robert Brown, Thomas Craig, and John Siegfried, of Revolutionary fame; the Hon. Samuel Sitgreaves (died 1827, at Easton), an eminent jurist and a commissioner to settle claims against England under Jay's treaty; the Hon. George Wolf, the seventh Governor of the Commonwealth; the Hon. James M. Porter (died at Easton, 1866), Secretary of War during Taylor's administration; the Hon. Richard Brodhead (died at Easton, 1864), United States Senator from Pennsylvania; the late Hon. Andrew H. Reeder, Territorial Governor of Kansas; and the late Hon. Judge Henry D. Maxwell, consul to Trieste during Taylor's administration. Northampton is historically a democratic county. 996 NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. BY JOHN F. WOLFINGER, MILTON. [With acknowledgments to T. IH. Purdy and John B. Linn.] ORTHUMBERLAND county was formed March 12, 1772, out of Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, and Bedford. It was then bounded as follows: " Beginning at the mouth of Mahantango creek on the west side of the river Susquehanna; thence up the south side of said creek by the several courses thereof to the head at Robert Meteer's spring; thence west to the top of Tussey's mountain; thence southwesterly along the summit of the mountain to Little Juniata; thence up the north-easterly side of the main branch of Little Juniata to the head thereof; thence north to the line of Berks county; thence north-west along the said line to the extremity of the Province; thence east along the northern boundary to that part thereof which is due north from the most northern part of the Great Swamp; thence south to the most northern part of the Swamp aforesaid; thence with a straight line to the head of the Lehigh or Middle creek; thence down the said creek so far, that a line run west-south-west will strike the forks of Mahantango creek where Pine creek falls into the same, at the place called Spread Eagle, on the east side of Susquehanna; thence down the southerly side of said creek to the river aforesaid; thence down and across the river to the place of beginning." The same act directed that the courts be held at Fort Augusta until a court house was built, and William Maclay, Samuel Hunter, John Lowdon, Joseph Wallis, and Robert Moody were authorized to locate the county seat and erect the public buildings. Joshua Elder, James Potter, Jesse Lukens, and William Scull were authorized to run the boundary line. Since the original establishment of the county as thus formed, its limits have been reduced by the successive formations of Luzerne, Mifflin, Lycoming, Centre, Columbia, and Union counties. Its present boundaries are-on the north, Lycoming, Montour, and Columbia; on the east, Montour, Columbia, and SchLylkill; on the south, Schuylkill and Dauphin; and on the west, the Susquehanna river, separating it from the counties of Union, Snyder, Juniata, and Perry. Northumberland is well watered. The West Branch, the main stream of the Susquehanna, for a distance of forty miles, washes its western border, while the North Branch flows through the centre a distance of ten miles, joining the West Branch at Northumberland. The other important streams are Warrior's run, Limestone run, and Chillisquaque creek, tributaries of the West Branch, with Roaring creek and Gravel run of the North Branch, and Shamokin, Mahanoy, and Mahantango creeks, tributaries of the Susquehanna. The surface of the county is mountainous, especially the southern part; the middle portion is hilly, and the northern along the West Branch is more level. The principal mountains are Limestone and Montour ridges, above the forks of the river, and the Shamo 997