Chapter 1
Historical Sketch of Armstrong County
Part 2
EXPEDITION AGAINST KITTANING.
Eight companies of soldiers, constituting the second battalion of the
Pennsylvania regiment, under the command of Lieut. Col. John Armstrong,7
were stationed at the forts on the west side of the Susquehanna. For the
purpose of carrying out the expedition against Kittanning, planned as above
stated, Col. Armstrong, with a part of the force assigned to him, consisting
of 307 men, marched upon Fort Shirley, Monday, September 3, 1756, and joined
his advanced party at Beaver Dam, near Frankstown, which they left on the 4th
and advanced to within fifty miles of Kittanning on the 6th, whence an
officer, one of the pilots, and two soldiers were sent forward to reconnoiter
the town. These men returned on the 7th and informed Col. Armstrong
that the roads were entirely clear of the enemy, but it appeared from what
else they said that they had not approached near enough to the town to learn
its situation, the number of persons in it, or how it might be most
advantageously attacked. The march was continued on the 8th with the intention
of advancing as near as possible to the town that night. A halt was, however,
made about nine or ten o’clock on account of information received from one of
the guides that he had seen a fire by the roadside a few perches from the
front, at which were two or three Indians. The pilot returned again in a short
time and reported that from the best observations he could make there were not
more than three or four Indians at the fire. It was determined not to surround
and cut them off immediately, lest, if only one should escape, he might
communicate their presence to his people in the town, and thus their well-laid
plan of attack would be, in a measure at least, frustrated. Lieut. James Hogg,
of Capt. Armstrong’s company, with twelve men and the pilot who first
discovered the fire, was ordered to remain, watch the enemy until the break of
day, on the 9th, and then cut them off, if possible, at that point, which was
about six miles from Kittanning. The tired horses, the blankets, and other
baggage, were left there, and the rest of the force took a circuit off the
road, so as not to be heard by the Indians at the fire, which route they found
to be stony. That condition of the route and the fallen trees along the way
greatly retarded their march. Still greater delay was caused by the ignorance
of the pilots, who, it seems, knew neither the real situation of the town nor
the paths leading to it.After crossing hills and valleys, the front reached the Allegheny river
shortly before the setting of the moon on the morning of the 9th,
about a hundred rods below the main body of the town, or about that distance
below Market street, at or near the present site of the poorhouse, on lot
number 241, in modern Kittanning. They were guided thither by the beating of
the drum and the whooping of the Indians at their dances, rather than by the
pilots. It was necessary for them to make the best possible use of the
remaining moonlight, but in this they were interrupted for a few moments by
the sudden and singular whistling of an Indian, about thirty feet to the
front, at the foot of a cornfield, which was at first thought by Col.
Armstrong to be a signal of their approach to the rest of the Indians. He was
informed by a soldier by the name of Baker that it was the way a young Indian
called his squaw after the dance. Silence was passed to the rear and they lay
quiet until after the going down of the moon. A number of fires soon flashed
up in various parts of the cornfield, which, Baker said, were kindled to keep
off the gnats, and would soon go out. As the weather was warm that night, the
Indians slept by the fires in the cornfield.Three companies of Col. Armstrong’s force had not, at daybreak on the 9th,
passed over the last precipice. Their march of thirty miles had wearied them
and most of them were asleep. Proper persons were dispatched to rouse them; a
suitable number, under several officers, were ordered to take the end of the
hill at which they then lay, and to march along to the top of it at least one
hundred perches, and so much farther as would carry them opposite the upper
part, or at least the body of the town. Col. Armstrong, presuming that the
Indian warriors were at the lower end of that hill, kept the larger portion of
his men there, promising to postpone the attack eighteen or twenty minutes,
until the detachment along the hill should have time to advance to the point
to which they had been ordered. They were somewhat unfortunate in making that
advance. The time having elapsed, a simultaneous attack was made as
expeditiously as possible, through and upon every part of the cornfield. A
party was dispatched to the houses, when Capt. Jacobs and several other
Indians, as the English prisoners afterward stated, shouted the warwhoop and
yelled: “The white men are come at last and we will have scalps
enough,” at the same time ordering their squaws, and children to flee to
the woods.THE BATTLE.
Col. Armstrong’s men rushed through and fired the cornfield, where they
received several returns from the Indians in the field and from the opposite
side of the river. A brisk fire commenced soon after among the houses, which
was very resolutely returned from the house of Capt. Jacobs, which was
situated on the north side of Market, a short distance above McKean street, on
Jacobs’ Hill, in the rear of the site at the northern end of the stone wall in
the garden, on which Dr. John Gilpin built, in 1834-35, that large two-story
brick mansion now owned and occupied by Alexander Reynolds. Thither Col.
Armstrong repaired and found that several of his men had been wounded, and
some had been killed, from the port-holes of that house and other advantages
which it afforded to the Indians within it. As the returning fire upon that
house proved ineffectual, he ordered the adjoining houses to be fired, which
was quickly done, the Indians seldom failing to wound or kill some of their
assailants when they presented themselves. Col. Armstrong, while moving about
and giving the necessary orders, received a bullet-wound in his shoulder from
Capt. Jacobs’ house. It is stated in “Robinson’s Narrative,” that
Col. Armstrong said: “‘Are there none of you that will set fire to these
rascals that have wounded me and killed so many of us?’ John Furgeson, a
soldier, swore he would. He went to a house covered with bark and took a strip
of it which had fire on it, and rushed up to the cover of Jacobs’ house and
held it there till it had burned about a yard square. Then he ran and the
Indians fired at him. The smoke blew about his legs and the shots missed
him.” That house contained the magazine, which for a time caused it to be
observed, to see whether the Indians, knowing their peril, would escape from
it. They, as we say nowadays, “held the fort” until the guns were
discharged by the approaching fire.Several persons were ordered, during the action, to tell the Indians to
surrender themselves prisoners. On being thus told, one of them replied:
” I am a man, and I will not be a prisoner.” Being told, in his own
language, that he would be burned, he said: “I don’t care, for I will
kill four or five before I die.” Had not Col. Armstrong and his men
desisted from exposing themselves, the Indians, who had a number of loaded
guns, would have killed many more of them. As the fire approached and the
smoke thickened, one of the Indians evinced his manhood by singing. A squaw
being heard to cry was severely rebuked by the Indians. But after awhile, the
fire having become too hot for them, two Indians and a squaw sprang out of the
house and started for the cornfield, but were immediately shot by some of
their foemen. It was thought that Capt. Jacobs tumbled out of the garret or
cockloft window when the houses were surrounded. The English prisoners who
were recaptured offered to be qualified that the powder-horn and pouch taken
from him were the very ones which Capt. Jacobs had obtained from a French
officer in exchange for Lieut. Armstrong’s boots, which he had brought from
Fort Greenville, where the lieutenant was killed. Those prisoners said they
were perfectly assured of Capt. Jacobs’ scalp, because no other Indians there
wore their hair in the same manner, and that they knew his squaw’s scalp by a
particular bob, and the scalp of a young Indian, called the king’s son.The report of the explosion of the magazine under Capt. Jacobs’ house, says
Patterson’s history of the Backwoods, was heard at Fort Du Quesne, whereupon
some French and Indians, fearing an attack had been made on the town
(Kittanning), instantly started up the river, but did not reach the place
until the day after the explosion and battle, when the troops had been
withdrawn. They found among the ruins the bodies of Capt. Jacobs, his squaw
and his son.Capt. Hugh Mercer, who was wounded in the arm early in the action, had
been, before the attack on Capt. Jacobs’ house, taken to the top of the hill
above the town, where several of the officers and a number of the men had
gathered. From that position they discovered some Indians crossing the river
and taking to the hill, with the intention, as they thought, to surround Col.
Armstrong and his force, and cut them off from their retreat. The colonel
received several very pressing requests to leave the house and retreat to the
hill, lest all should be cut off, which he would not consent to do until all
the houses were fired. Although the spreading out of that part of the force on
the hill appeared be necessary, it nevertheless prevented an examination of
the cornfield and river-side. Thus some scalps, and probably some squaws,
children and English prisoners, were left behind that might have otherwise
been secured.Nearly thirty houses were fired, and while they were burning, the ears of
Col. Armstrong and his men were regaled by the successive discharges of loaded
guns, and still more so by the explosion of sundry bags and large kegs of
powder stored away in every house. The English prisoners, after their
recapture, said that the Indians had often told them that they had ammunition
enough to war ten year with the English. The leg and thigh of an Indian and a
child three years old were thrown, when the powder exploded, with the roof of
Capt. Jacobs’ house, so high that they appeared as nothing, and fell into an
adjacent corn-field. A large quantity of goods which the Indians had received
from the French ten days before was burned.Col. Armstrong then went to the hill to have his wound tied up and the
blood stopped. Then the English prisoners, who had come to his men in the
morning, informed him that on that very day two batteaux of Frenchmen, with
Delaware and French Indians, were to join Capt. Jacobs at Kittanning, and to
set out early the next morning to take Fort Shirley, and that twenty-four
warriors who had lately arrived were sent before them the previous evening,
whether to prepare meat, spy the fort, or make an attack on the frontier
settlements, these prisoners did not know.Col. Armstrong and others were convinced, on reflection, that those
twenty-four warriors were all at the fire the night before, and began to fear
the fate of Lieut. Hogg and his party. They, therefore, deemed it imprudent to
wait to cut down the corn, as they had designed. So they immediately collected
their wounded and forced their way back as well as they could, by using a few
Indian horses. It was difficult to keep the men together on the march, because
of their fears of being waylaid and surrounded, which were increased by a few
Indians firing, for awhile after the march began, on each wing, and then
running off, whereby one man was shot through the legs. For several miles the
march did not exceed two miles an hour.BLANKET HILL
On the return of Col. Armstrong and his force to the place where the Indian
fire had been discovered the night before, they met a sergeant of Capt.
Mercer’s company and two or three others of his men who had deserted that
morning immediately after the action at Kittanning, who, in running away, had
met Lieut. Hogg, lying by the roadside, wounded in two parts of his body, who
then told them of the fatal mistake which had been made by the pilot in
assuring them that there were only three Indians at the fireplace the previous
night, and that when he and his men attacked the Indians that morning,
according to orders, he found their number considerably superior to his own.
He also said that he believed he had killed or mortally wounded three of the
Indians at the first fire; that the rest fled, and he was obliged to conceal
himself in a thicket, where he might have lain safely if “that cowardly
sergeant and his co-deserters,'” as Col. Armstrong stigmatizes them in
his report, had not removed him. When they had marched a short distance four
Indians appeared and those deserters fled. Lieut. Hogg, notwithstanding his
wounds, with the true heroism of a brave soldier, was still urging and
commanding those about him to stand and fight, but they all refused. The
Indians then pursued, killed one man and inflicted a third wound upon the
gallant lieutenant — in his belly — from which he died in a few hours,
having ridden on horse back seven miles from the place of action. That
sergeant also represented to Col. Armstrong that there was a much larger
number of Indians there than had appeared to them to be; that they fought five
rounds; that he had seen Lieut. Hogg and several others killed and scalped;
that he had discovered a number of Indians throwing themselves before Col.
Armstrong and his force, which, with other such stuff caused confusion in the
colonel’s ranks, so that the officers had difficulty in keeping the men
together, and could not prevail on them to collect the horses and baggage
which the Indians had left, except a few of the horses, which some of the
bravest of the men were persuaded to secure.From the mistake of the pilot in underrating the number of Indians at the
fire the night before, and the cowardice of that sergeant and the
other-deserters, Col. Armstrong and his command met with a considerable loss
of their horses and baggage, which had been left, as before stated, with
Lieut. Hogg and his detachment when the main force made their detour to
Kittanning.Many blankets were afterward found on the ground where Lieut. Hogg and his
small force were defeated by the superior number � about double � of their
Indian foes. Hence that battlefield has ever since borne the name of
“Blanket Hill.” It is on the farm of Philip Dunmire, in Kittanning
township, to the right, going east, of the turnpike road from Kittanning to
Elderton and Indiana, about four hundred and seventy-five rods, a little east
of south, from the present site of the Blanket Hill postoffice, and two
hundred and seventy-five rods west of the Plum Creek township line.Various other relics of that fight have been found from time to time, among
which a straight sword with the initials “J. H.” on it, which is
owned by James Stewart, of Kittanning borough, was on exhibition with other
relics at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia.It was impossible for Col. Armstrong to ascertain the exact number of enemy
killed in the action at Kittanning, since some were burned in the
conflagration of the houses and others fell in different parts of the
cornfield; but he thought there could not be less, on a moderate estimate,
than thirty or forty either killed or mortally wounded, as much blood was
found in various parts of the cornfield, as Indians were seen crawling from
several parts thereof into the woods, whom the soldiers, in their pursuit of
the others, passed by expecting afterward to find and scalp them, and as
several others were killed and wounded while crossing the river.THE RETURN MARCH.
When the victors commenced their return march they had about a dozen scalps
and eleven English prisoners. Part of the scalps were lost on the road, and
some of them and four of the prisoners were in the custody of Capt. Mercer,
who had separated from the main body, so that on the arrival of the main body
at Fort Littleton, Sabbath night, September 14, 1756, Col. Armstrong could
report to Governor Denny only seven of the recaptured prisoners and a part of
the scalps.RECAPTURED PRISONERS.
The English prisoners recaptured from the Indians at Kittanning were Ann
McCord, wife of John McCord, and Martha Thorn, about seven years old, captured
at Fort McCord; Barbara Hicks, captured at Conolloway’s; Catherine Smith, a
German child captured near Shamokin; Margaret Hood, captured near the mouth of
Conagocheague, Md.; Thomas Girty, captured at Fort Granville; Sarah Kelly,
captured near Winchester, Va.; and one woman, a boy, and two little girls, who
were with Capt. Mercer and Ensign Scott when they separated from the main
body, and who had not reached Fort Littleton when Col. Armstrong made up his
report.Not having met with a description of the manner in which the Indian
constructed their houses in Kittanning, which were burned by Col. Armstrong,
the writer inserts here the following from the “Narrative of James
Smith,” hereinafter mentioned, which, it is presumed, gives in the main a
correct idea of the manner in which they were constructed. He saw a cabin
erected when he was a captive among the Indians, along Lake Erie. “They
cut logs,” he says, “about fifteen feet long, and laid them upon
each other, and drove the posts in the ground at each end to keep them
together; they tied the posts together at the top with bark, and by this means
raised a wall fifteen feet long and about four feet high, and in the same
manner they raised another wall opposite to this, at about twelve feet
distance; then they drove forks in the ground in the center of each end, and
laid a strong pole from end to end on these forks; and from these walls to the
poles they set up poles instead of rafters, and on them tied small poles
instead of laths; and a cover was made of lynn [linden] bark which will run
even in the winter season. * * * At the end of these walls they set up split
timber all round except a space at each end for a door. At the top, in place
of a chimney, they left an open space, and for bedding they laid down that
kind of bark, on which they spread bearskins. There were fires along the
middle from one end to the other of the hut, which the squaws made of dry spit
wood, and stopped up whatever open places there were in the walls with moss
which they collected from old logs; they hung a bearskin at the door.
Notwithstanding our winters here are hard, our lodging was much better than I
expected.” Perhaps the Indian houses in Kittanning, especially that of
the chief, Capt. Jacobs, were somewhat better and differently built.KILLED, WOUNDED AND MISSING.
In Lieut. Col. Armstrong’s company � Thos. Power and John McCormick,
killed; Lieut. Col. Armstrong, James Carruthers, James Strickland and Thomas
Foster, wounded. Capt. Hamilton’s company � John Kelly killed. Capt.
Mercer’s company � John Baker, John McCartney, Patrick Mullen, Cornelius
McGinnes, Theophilus Thompson, Dennis Kilpatrick and Bryan Carrigan, killed;
Capt. Hugh Mercer and Richard Fitzgibbons, wounded; Ensign John Scott, Emanuel
Minshey, John Taylor, John ������� , Francis Phillips, Robert
Morrow, Thomas Burk and Philip Pendergrass, missing. Capt. Armstrong’s company
� Lieut. James Hogg, James Anderson, Holdcraft Stinger, Edward O’Brians,
James Higgins, John Lasson, killed; William Lindley, Robert Robinson, John
Ferrall, Thomas Camplin, Charles O’Neal; wounded; John Lewis, William Hunter,
William Baker, George Appleby, Anthony Grissy, Thomas Swan, missing. Capt.
Ward’s company � William Welsh, killed; Ephraim Bratton, wounded; Patrick
Myers, Lawrence Donnahow, Samuel Chambers, missing. Capt. Potter’s company �
Ensign James Potter and Andrew Douglass, wounded. Rev. Capt. Steele’s company
� Terrence Cannaberry, missing.Killed, 17. Wounded, 13. Missing, including Capt. Mercer, who reached Fort
Cumberland, 19.Col. Armstrong regretted that the advantages gained over the enemy were not
commensurate with the desire of himself and his command; and that they were
less than they would have been if the pilots had better understood the
situation of the town and the paths leading to it.Lieut. Gov. Denny, in his speech to the assembly, on Monday, October 18,
1756, among other things, said: “An express arrived from Major Burd, with
letters giving an account of our old friend Ogagradarishah’s coming a second
time to Fort Augusta on purpose to tell several things of consequence which he
had heard at Diahogo.” A part of that “Honest Indian’s
Intelligence,” given at Shamokin October 11, then instant, was: “Ten
days ago, being at Diahogo, two Delaware Indians came there from the Ohio, who
informed him that the English had lately destroyed the Kittanning town and
killed some of their people, but avoided mentioning to him the number.”
If that was the first intelligence received at Diahogo of the battle at
Kittanning, nearly a month must have elapsed before it reached there, that is,
in traveling from Kittanning to the junction of the Susquehanna and the
Cheming rivers. Ogaghradarishah belonged to a “village of the Six Nation
country.”AN ANCIENT PAY LIST.
The original of the following voucher and signatures thereto was recently
found among the papers of the late Judge Buffington, who obtained it, the
writer is informed, from a kinsman of Capt. Potter. For the privilege of
copying it here, the writer is indebted to Joseph Buffington, and a descendant
of Richard Buffington, born in Chester county in 1679, being the first
Englishman born in Pennsylvania, according to Hazard’s “Annals of
Pennsylvania,” which fact was peculiarly commemorated in the parish of
Chester May 30, 1739:“We the Subscribers Acknowledge that we have Received our full pay
from the time Capt. James Potter came into Colonell John Armstrong’s Company
to the first day of August, 1759.”Signed by John Brady Serg’t, Hugh Hunter, Sergt, Wm Brady Corp.,
his his his his
Andrew X Halleday, Joshh X Leany, John X Neal, George X Clark,
mark mark mark mark
his his his his
John X Cunningham, John X Cahaner, Jaremia X Daytny, Wm. X Craylor,
mark mark mark mark
his his
Robert X Huston, George Gould, John Mason, John X Dougherty, Wm. Kyle,
mark mark
his his
Wm. Bennet, Jos McFerren, William Layser, Alexander X Booth, Thos X Christy,
mark mark
his his his his
John X Devine, William X McMullan, Dennis X Miller, James X Lamon, James
Semple,
mark mark mark mark
his his his his
Thos X Canlay, Michael X Colman, Robert X Colman, Rob. X Huston, John Burd,
mark mark mark mark
his his
George Ross, Thos D. X Henlay, Potter X Lappan, Robert McCullough,
mark mark
his
James X McElroy, James Marces, William Waugh, Wm Little, Archibald Marshall,
mark
Andrew Pollock.
TESTIMONIALS.
The destruction of Kittanning and so many of its inhabitants was a severe
blow to the French and Indians, and afforded hope of security to those of our
own race who had settled along the then frontier of the Province.
For the signal success which Col. Armstrong and his force achieved in the
destruction of Kittanning, and thus breaking up a formidable base of French and
Indian incursions, the corporation of the city of Philadelphia, October 5, 1756,
voted him and his command the thanks of the city and other favors.
From the minutes of the common council:
“It being proposed that this Board should give some public testimony of
their regard and esteem for Col. John Armstrong, and the other officers
concerned in the late expedition against the Indians at Kittanning, and the
courage and conduct shown by them on that occasion, and also contribute to the
relief of the widows and children of those who lost their lives in that
expedition;
“Resolved, That this Board will give the sum of �150 out of their stock
in the Treasurer’s hands, to be paid out in pieces of plate, swords, and other
things suitable for presents, to the said officers and toward the relief of the
said widows and children.”
Description of the medal sent to Col. Armstrong:
“Occasion. � In honor of the late Col. Armstrong, of Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, for destroying Kittanning Indian towns.
“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 background Indian houses are seen in flames.
“Legend. � Kittanning destroyed by Col. Armstrong, September, 1756.
“Reverse Device. � The arms of the corporation of Philadelphia,
consisting of four devices: On the right a ship under full sail; on the left a
pair of scales equally balanced; in the right, above the ship, a wheat sheaf; on
the left, two hands locked.
“Legend. � The gift of the corporation of the city of
Philadelphia.”
To Col. John Armstrong:
Sir: The corporation of the city of Philadelphia greatly approve your conduct
and public spirit in the late expedition against the town of Kittanning, and are
highly pleased with the signal proofs of courage and personal bravery given by
you and the officers under your command in demolishing that place. I am,
therefore, ordered to return you and them the thanks of the Board for the
eminent service you have thereby done your country. I am also ordered by the
corporation to present you, out of their small public stock, with a piece of
plate and silver medal, and each of your officers with a medal and a small sum
of money, to be disposed of in a manner most agreeable to them; which the Board
desire you will accept as a testimony of the regard they have for your merit.
Signed by order,
January 5, 1757. ATWOOD SHUTE, Mayor.
To the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and Common Council of the Corporation of
the City of Philadelphia:
GENTLEMEN: Your favor of the 5th instant, together with the medals
and other genteel presents made to the officers of my battalion, by the
corporation of the city of Philadelphia, I had the pleasure to receive by Capt.
George Armstrong.
The officers employed in the Kittanning expedition have been made acquainted
with the distinguished honor you have done them, and desire to join with me in
acknowledging it in the most public manner. The kind acceptance of our past
services by the corporation gives us the highest pleasure and furnishes a fresh
motive for exerting ourselves on every future occasion for the benefit of His
Majesty’s service in general and in defense of this province in particular. In
behalf of the officers of my battalion, I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your
most obedient and obliged humble servant,
Carlisle, January 24, 1757. JOHN ARMSTRONG.
Governor Denny, April 9, 1757, wrote to the proprietaries: “After Col.
Armstrong’s successful expedition against the Kittanning and the conclusion of
peace at Easton, the back inhabitants enjoyed rest from the incursions of the
savages and the poor people who were driven from their plantations generally
returned to them. Since the affair of Kittanning the Indians on this side of the
Ohio [Allegheny] have mostly retired with their wives and children under the
French forts on that river.”
Hence it was that the legislature gave our county the name which it bears,
adding another testimonial to the memory of Col. Armstrong. As Herschel, by his
genius and astronomical discoveries, wrote his name upon a star, so Armstrong,
by his skill, prowess, patriotism and military achievements, wrote with his
sword his name upon the beautifully and ruggedly varied face of this county.
AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF KITTANNING.
Although the success of Armstrong’s expedition resulted in the removal of
hostile Indians from the east side of the Allegheny river, various other causes
operated to prevent this and other parts of northwestern Pennsylvania from being
rapidly and permanently settled by the whites. William Findley, in his history
of the Whiskey Insurrection, says: “The western and southwestern portions
of what is now Westmoreland, and the southeastern part of what is now Armstrong,
were settled about the year 1769, the next year after the proprietary of
Pennsylvania had purchased the country from the Indians as far west as the
Allegheny and Ohio rivers.” In 1769 the land office, for the sale or
location of the lately purchased land, was opened. Several thousands of
locations were applied for on the first day. The settlement on the east side of
the Monongahela and Allegheny was very rapidly extended from the Monongahela
forty miles northward, as far as Crooked creek, and the first settlers were
generally a more sober, orderly people than commonly happens in the first
settlement of new countries.”
At that time all of Pennsylvania west of the western boundary of Lancaster
was in Cumberland county. Whatever people had then settled in what is now
Armstrong county must have been few. Among the petitions sent to Gov. Penn, in
1774, from inhabitants near Hanna’s Town, imploring protection and relief, it
was, among other things, set forth that the petitioners were rendered very
uneasy by the order of removal of the troops, that had been raised for their
general assistance and protection, “to Kittanning, a place at least
twenty-five or thirty miles distant from any of the settlements,” and that
it was theirs, “as well as the general opinion, that removing the troops to
so distant and uninhabited a part of the province as Kittanning is, cannot
answer the good purposes intended, but seems to serve the purposes of some who
regard not the public welfare.”
Later in the chronological order of events occurred the following
correspondence:
Kittanning, the 5th December, 1776.
“Sir: I last night received your order from the Board of War, in
consequence of which I have this day issued the necessary orders and shall march
with all possible dispatch to the place directed. I beg leave to inform you at
the same time that scarcity of Provisions and other disagreeable circumstances
obliged me to permit a number of men to go to particular stations to be
supplied, but have directed a general rendezvous on the 15th inst.,
at a proper place, and from thence shall proceed as ordered.
“As I would not choose that the Battalion should labor under every
disadvantage when at Brunswick, being now in need of everything, I shall be
obliged to make Philadelphia in my route, in order to be supplied. I therefore
hope the proper Provision will be made of Regimental Camp Kittles and Arms, as
mentioned to Col. Wilson, per Capt. Boyd.
“Arn’s Mackey,8 C. 8th R. P. F.”
Directed to Richard Peters, Esq., Secretary of the Board of War,
Philadelphia.
“Hanna’s Town, April 18, 1777.
“Sir: We received yours, dated the 12th inst., informing us
of the incursions made by the Indians on our Neighboring Frontiers, for which we
return you our most hearty thanks. Any person appointed for the victauling at
the Kittanning is an appointment that’s not clear to us; but, we apprehend,
Devereux Smith, Esq., is appointed for that Post, which appointment we approve
of, and would be glad if some method could be introduced to furnish Mr. Smith
with money for victualing the troops at that Post, &c.
“The Delaware applying to you for Powder and Lead, &c., we refer
that to your wisdom, and will acquiesce with you in every measure that can be
taken to preserve peace with any Tribe or Nations of Indians on whose friendship
we can depend; and we are of the opinion that it would be advisable to supply
them with ammunition, &c., providing that confidence and trust could be
depended in them, which we look upon you the only person to judge in that
matter, and we repose confidence in your wisdom and abilities in Indian affairs.
We shall, therefore, readily concur with you in every measure that you may
recommend for the safety and defense of this Infant Country.
Your humble servants,
“Samuel Sloan, Chn.,
“James Hamilton, Cl’k.
“Signed by order of the Committee of Westmoreland County.
“Directed to Col. George Morgan, Agent for Indian Affairs, Pittsburgh.
“Laid before Council, June 18, 1777.”
Col. A. Lochery to President Reed.
“Hanna’s Town, July 20, 1779.
“MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY:
* * * “The two Companies raised by Gen. McIntosh’s orders are nearly
completed, and are now at the Kittanning, or scouting in that neighborhood, but
I am sorry to inform you their times will shortly expire, so that it will be
necessary for Council to give directions concerning them.”
“Read in Council Aug. 14.”
“Pittsburgh, Dec. 13, 1779.
“Dear Sir: I should have been glad to have had an earlyer information
respecting the Corps of Rangers. But being uninformed, I thought it very
extraordinary that they should be subsisted out of the public Magazines, and yet
be under the separate direction of a County Lieutenant. The Companies have
hitherto been stationed at Kittanning (Fort Armstrong) and Poketas (Fort
Crawford), but as the terms of the Men were nearly expired, and the river likely
to close with ice, I ordered the Troops to this place because I apprehended no
danger from the enemy during the winter season, and if provisions had been laid
in at those posts, they would have been exposed to loss, besides it would have
been quite impractical to have supplied them with provisions, and the Quarters
at those posts were too uncomfortable for naked men. For, though the State have
provided the Troops with Shoes and Blankets, they are not yet arrived.
* * * * * * *
(Signed) “Daniel Brodhead.9
“Directed to his Excellency Governor Reed.”
“Hanna’s Town, Jan’y 9, 1780.
“MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXELLENCY:
* * * “The two ranging Companies were stationed at the Kittanning and
Fort Crawford, at the mouth of a creek called Poketas creek, on the Allegheny
river, which posts were well calculated to cover the country.
“Col. Brodhead, for some reasons best known to himself, and without
consulting me, or any of the Gentlemen of this County, ordered both Companies to
Fort Pit. * * *
(Signed) “A. Lochery, Col.”
After Armstrong’s expedition there was a lull in Indian hostilities. They
were, however, afterward renewed, and the peace and safety of the early settlers
on and near Crooked creek, in what is now Plum Creek and South Bend townships,
and just over the western line of Indiana county, were thereby disturbed and
endangered.
There were several blockhouses along down the Allegheny river below
Kittanning, and one near South Bend, to which the families of the early settlers
sometimes fled for safety.
CAPTAIN SHARP AND OTHER PIONEERS.
Among the pioneers in the Plum Creek region was Capt. Andrew Sharp, who had
been an officer in the revolutionary service under Washington. He, with his wife
and infant child, emigrated to this region in 1784, and purchased, settled upon
and improved the tract of land, consisting of several hundred acres, on which
are Shelocta and the United Presbyterian church, near the county line, on a part
of which John Anthony and the Wiggins now live, being then in Westmoreland
county. The writer mentions his case in the general sketch of this county
because he has reliable information concerning it, because many of his
descendants now live in the county, and because it is illustrative of dangers
and hardships, varying in kind, encountered and endured by the inhabitants of
this region in those times.
Capt. Sharp, after residing about ten years on his farm, revisited his
kindred in Cumberland county, procured a supply of school-books and Bibles for
his children, and returned to his home in the wilderness. Determined that his
children should have facilities for education which did not exist there, he
traded his farm there for one in Kentucky. In the spring of 1794 he removed with
his family to Black Lick Creek, where he either built or purchased a flatboat,
in which he, his wife and six children, a Mr. Connor, wife and five children, a
Mr. Taylor, wife and one child, and Messrs. McCoy and Connor, single men, twenty
in all, with their baggage and household effects, embarked on the proposed
passage down the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh, and thence on
to Kentucky. Low water in the Black Lick rendered their descent down it
difficult. They glided down the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas to a point two miles
below the falls of the latter, at the mouth of Two Mile run, below the present
site of Apollo. Capt. Sharp tied the boat there, and went back for the canoe
which had been detached while crossing the falls. When he returned the children
were gathering berries and playing on the bank; the women were preparing supper,
and the men who led the horses had arrived. It was about an hour and a half
before sunset. A man then came along and reported that the Indians were near.
The women and children were called into the boat, and the men having charge of
the horses tied them on shore. It was then thought best that the party should go
to the house of David Hall, who was the father of David Hall, of North Buffalo
township, this county, and the grandfather of Rev. David Hall, D. D., the
present pastor of the Presbyterian church at Indiana, Pennsylvania, to spend the
night. While the men were tying the horses, seven Indians, concealed behind a
large fallen tree, on the other side of which the children had been playing
half-an-hour before, fired on the party in the boat. Capt. Sharp’s right eyebrow
was shot off by the first firing. Taylor is said to have mounted one of his
horses and fled to the woods, leaving his wife and child to the care and
protection of others. While Capt. Sharp was cutting one end of the boat loose,
he received a bullet-wound in his left side, and, while cutting the other end
loose, received another wound in his right side. Nevertheless, he succeeded in
removing the boat from its fastenings before the Indians could enter it, and,
discovering an Indian in the woods, and calling for his gun, which his wife
handed him, shot and killed the Indian. While the boat was in the whirlpool, it
whirled around for two and a half hours, when the open side of the boat, that is
the side on which the baggage was not piled up for a breastwork, was toward the
land, the Indians fired into it. They followed it twelve miles down the river,
and bade those in it to disembark, else they would fire into them again. Mrs.
Connor and her eldest son � a young man � wished to land. The latter
requested the Indians to come to the boat, informing them that all the men had
been shot. Capt. Sharp ordered him to desist, saying that he would shoot him if
he did not. Just then young Connor was shot by one of the Indians, and fell dead
across Mrs. Sharp’s feet. McCoy was killed. All the women and children escaped
injury. Mr. Connor was severely wounded. After the Indians ceased following,
Capt. Sharp became so much exhausted by his exertions and loss of blood, that
his wife was obliged to manage the boat all night. At daylight the next morning
they were within nine miles of Pittsburgh. Some men on shore, having been
signaled, came to their assistance. One of them preceded the party in a canoe,
so that when they reached Pittsburgh, a physician was ready to attend upon them.
Other preparations had been made for their comfort and hospitable reception by
the good people of that place.
Capt. Sharp, having suffered severely from his wounds, died July 8, 1794,
forty days after he was wounded, with the roar of cannon, so to speak,
reverberating in his ears, which he had heard celebrating the eighteenth
anniversary of our national independence, which he, under Washington, had helped
achieve. Two of his daughters were the only members of his family that could
follow his remains to the grave. He was buried with the honors of war, in the
presence of a large concourse of people. His youngest child was then only eleven
days old. As soon as his widow had sufficiently recovered, she was conducted by
her eldest daughter, Hannah, to his grave.
Major Eben Denny makes this mention in his military journal, June 1, 1794:
Two days ago, the Indians, disappointed in that attack” � on men in a
canoe on the Allegheny river, elsewhere mentioned � “crossed to the
Kiskiminetas and unfortunately fell in with a Kentucky boat full of women and
children, with but four men, lying to, feeding their cattle. The men, who were
ashore, received a fire without much damage, got into a boat, all but one, who
fled to a house not far distant. The Indians fired into the boat, killed two men
and wounded the third. The boat had been set afloat, and drifted down in that
helpless condition, twenty-four women and children on board.”
Col. Charles Campbell, in his letter to Gov. Mifflin, June 5, 1794,
respecting the stopping of the draft for the support of the Presque Isle
station, stated: “The Indians, on the evening of May 30, fired on a boat
that left my place to go to Kentucky, about two miles below the Falls of the
Kiskiminetas, killed three persons and wounded one, who were all men in the
boat, which drifted down to about twelve miles above Pittsburgh, whence they
were aided by some persons on their way to Pittsburgh.”
Mrs. Sharp � her maiden name was Ann Wood � and her children were removed
to their kindred in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. Having remained there three
years, they returned to the farm near Crooked Creek, of which they had been
repossessed, where the family remained together for a long time. The eldest
daughter, Hannah, married Mr. Robert Leason, who, for many years before his
death, resided at Scrub Grass, Butler county, Pennsylvania. He was probably a
descendant of John Leason, whose name appears as ensign on the list of officers
for Lancaster county, which then extended to the western limits of the province,
to whom commissions were granted between the entries of minutes in the council
books of the province of March 8 and 29, 1784. (See Col. Rec., vol. V, p. 210.)
It is from her statement, written by herself, August 3, 1863, that the writer
has gleaned most of the facts herein presented concerning Capt. Sharp and his
family.
Mrs. Leason further states that the Indians who had attacked and followed the
above-mentioned party on and down the Kiskiminetas River consisted of twelve,
who had previously been to Pittsburgh, and, because the people refused to trade
with them, became indignant and determined to kill all the whites they could. Of
three men, who had descended that river in a canoe shortly before her father and
the rest of his party did, one was shot dead and the other two were wounded, one
of whom died.
Such is a type of the hardships, inconveniences, dangers and sufferings to
which white settlers in this region were subjected prior to 1796.
Mrs. Leason, speaking of her father’s family after their return to the farm
on Crooked Creek, says, “Providence was very kind to them.”
Mrs. Sharp’s death occurred fifteen years after her husband’s. Their daughter
Agnes is said to have been the first white child born this side, or west, of
Crooked Creek, in this section of Pennsylvania. She was born on that farm
February 21, 1785; married to David Ralston in 1803, and, after his death, to
James Mitchell in 1810, and died August 2, 1862, and was buried in the Crooked
Creek cemetery.
OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT.
The Indian wars, the uncertainty of land titles, and the frequent litigation
growing out of unwise land laws, retarded the settlement of this in common with
other portions of the northwestern part of this state. Hence many emigrants who
would otherwise have been attracted to this region passed on to Ohio and other
parts of the Northwest Territory. Many who had even settled in northwestern
Pennsylvania, having been harassed with litigation, abandoned their claims and
went west, where land titles were settled.10 Less than a century ago
nearly all the region within the limits of Armstrong county was uninhabited by
white people � was a howling wilderness.
Source: Page(s) 13-59, History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania by Robert
Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883.
Transcribed January 1999 by Jeffrey Bish for the Armstrong County Smith Project.
Contributed by Jeffrey Bish for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project
(http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)
Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format, for any presentation,
without prior written permission.
Return to the Historical Index
Return to the Smith Project
About Author
