History of the Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley Part 23

The most prominent friendly Indian that ever resided in the valley, however, was Captain Logan. This, of course, was not his proper name, but a t.i.tle bestowed upon him by the settlers. He is represented as having been a n.o.ble and honorable Indian, warm in his attachment to a friend, but, like all Indians, revengeful in his character. A kindness and an insult alike remained indelibly stamped upon the book and page of his memory; and to make a suitable return for the former he would have laid down his life--shed the last drop of his heart's blood. He was a man of medium height and heavy frame; notwithstanding which he was fleet of foot and ever on the move.

He came to the valley before Chillaway did, and settled with his family in the little valley east of Martin Bell's Furnace, which is still known as Logan's Valley. He had previously resided on the Susquehanna, where he was the captain of a brave band of warriors; but, unfortunately, in some engagement with another tribe, he had an eye destroyed by an arrow from the enemy. This was considered a mark of disgrace, and he was deposed; and it was owing to that cause that he abandoned his tribe and took up his residence in the Juniata Valley.

One day, while hunting, he happened to pa.s.s the beautiful spring near the mouth of the Bald Eagle--now in the heart of Tyrone City. The favorable location for both hunting and fis.h.i.+ng, as well as the charming scenery, fascinated Logan; and he built himself a wigwam, immediately above the spring, to which he removed his family.

Here he lived during the Revolutionary war, not altogether inactive, for his sympathies were on the side of liberty. During that time he formed a strong attachment to Captain Ricketts, of Warrior's Mark, and they became fast friends. It was to Ricketts that Captain Logan first disclosed the plot of the tories under John Weston; and Edward Bell gave it as his firm conviction that Logan was among the Indians who shot down Weston and his men on their arrival at Kittaning.

Although Logan had learned to read from the Moravian missionaries when quite a lad, he knew very little of the formula of land purchases; so he failed to make a regular purchase of the spot on which his cabin stood, the consequence of which was that, after the war, some envious white man bought the land and warned the friendly savage off. Logan was too proud and haughty to contest the matter, or even bandy words with the intruder; so he left, and located at Chickalacamoose, where Clearfield now stands, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

Captain Logan continued visiting the valley, and especially when any of his friends among the pioneers died. On such occasions he generally discarded his red and blue eagle-feathers, and appeared in a plain suit of citizens' clothes.

But at length Logan came no more. The Great Spirit called him to a happier hunting-ground; and all that is mortal of him--unless his remains have been ruthlessly torn from the bosom of mother earth--lies beneath the sod, near the mouth of Chickalacamoose Creek.

It is to be regretted that more of his history has not been preserved, for, according to all accounts of him, he possessed many n.o.ble traits of character. Unlike Logan the Mingo chief, Captain Logan the Cayuga chief had no biographer like Thomas Jefferson to embellish the pages of history with his eloquence. Well may we say, "The evil that men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with their bones."

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

CONCLUSION.

Pus.h.i.+ng the light canoe on the lagoons in search of fish and la.s.soing the wild horse on the pampas of the South, chasing the buffalo on the boundless prairies and hunting the antlered stag in the dense forests of the West, is now the Indian's occupation; and there he may be found, ever shunning the haunts of civilization.

The Delaware Indians have been exterminated, and their very name (_Lenni Lenape_) blotted from existence, save where it appears upon the pages of history.

Of the Shawnees, once the powerful warlike tribe that was known and feared from the seaboard to the lakes, but a few degenerate families reside in the Far West.

Of the Great Confederation of the Iroquois but a remnant exists to remind us of its former greatness, its councils, its wars, and its "talks." They reside in Western New York, in a semi-civilized but degraded state, and are but sorry representatives of the once proud and stately warriors the crack of whose sharp and unerring rifles made the woods ring, and whose canoes danced upon the waves of the blue Juniata more than a hundred years ago.

But they are all gone, and the bones of their ancestors are the only relics which they have left behind them. The hand of the same inscrutable Providence that suffered them to march as mighty conquerors from the West to the East, crus.h.i.+ng out the existence of a weaker people in their triumphant march, stayed them, blighted them in the noonday of their glory, and, like the receding waves of the sea, drove them back in the direction whence they came, where they scattered, and the ties which bound them together as tribes dissolved even as would ice beneath the rays of a tropical sun.

The reader of the foregoing pages may sometimes think it strange that the savages committed so many depredations with impunity, killed, scalped, or carried so many into captivity, while but comparatively few of the marauders were destroyed. The cause of this can be easily explained. The savages always made covert attacks. As will be remembered, very few ma.s.sacres occurred in the valley by open attack,--nearly all their depredations being committed while in ambuscade or when they had a foe completely in their power. Their incursions were always conducted with great caution, and no sooner did they strike a decisive blow than they disappeared. To guard against their ferocity was impossible; to follow them was equally futile. The settlers were too few in number to leave one force at home to guard against them and to send another in pursuit of them; for, during the Revolution, the belief was prevalent that a large force was ever ready to descend into the valley, and that the incursions of a few were only stratagems to lure the settlers to destruction by following them to where a large number were concealed. It was frequently proposed to send a strong force to waylay the gaps of the mountain; but the settlers refused to trust the protection of their families to the raw militia sent by government to defend the frontier.

In extremely aggravating cases, men, driven to desperation, followed the savages to the verge of the Indian settlements; but they never got beyond the summit of the Alleghany Mountains without feeling as if they were walking directly into the jaws of death, for no one could otherwise than momentarily expect a shower of rifle-b.a.l.l.s from the enemy in ambuscade. The want of men, ammunition, and other things, were known to and taken advantage of by the Indians; but when an abundance of these things was brought to the frontier they prudently kept out of the way, for their sagacity instinctively taught them what they might expect if they fell into the hands of the settlers. But it may here be remarked that the savage mode of warfare, which by them was deemed fair and honorable,--such as scalping or maiming women and children,--was held in the utmost horror and detestation by people who professed to be Christians; and they equally detested shooting from ambuscade as an act fit for savages alone to be guilty of. It was only the more reckless and desperate of the community that would consent to fight the savages after their own mode of warfare.

It is, therefore, but a simple act of justice to the memory of the pioneers to say that the savages did not go unpunished through any fear or lack of zeal on their part. Their concentrated energies were used to check the frequent invasions, and many of them spent their last dollar to protect the defenceless frontier; yet it is to be deeply regretted that in those primitive days they lacked the knowledge of properly applying the power within their reach.

But they, too, are all gone! "Each forever in his narrow cell is laid."

Beneath their kindred dust the rude forefathers of the valley sleep. We have endeavored to give a succinct account of the trials and sufferings of many of them; but, doubtless, much remains untold, which the recording angel alone has possession of. While we reflect upon the fact that it was through the privations and hards.h.i.+ps _they_ endured that _we_ enjoy the rich blessings of the beautiful and teeming valley, let us hope that they are enjoying a peace they knew not on earth, in that valley "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest."

APPENDIX.

THE VALLEY AS IT IS.

The preceding pages fulfil the original intention of presenting to the public, as far as possible, a "History of the _Early_ Settlement of the Juniata Valley." Its modern history, fraught with rare incidents, is left to the pen of some future enterprising historian, who may collect the incidents necessary to construct it when but a moiety of the generation (still numerous) who know the valley and its multifarious changes for half a century past shall be dwellers in our midst. Still, such prospect shall not deter us from giving a synopsis of the history of the valley as it is, not promising, however, to make the record complete, or even notice in detail the growth and progress of the valley during the last thirty years.

When the early settlers were apprised of the fact that some of the more enterprising contemplated cutting a pack-horse road over the Alleghany Mountains, through Blair's Gap, they shook their heads ominously, and declared that the task was one which could not be accomplished. But it _was_ accomplished; and, after its completion, it was not many years until the pack-horse track was transformed into a wagon-road. People were well satisfied with this arrangement; for no sooner was there a good road along the river than some daring men commenced taking produce to the East, by the use of arks, from the Frankstown Branch, the Raystown Branch, and the Little Juniata. With these advantages, a majority of the inhabitants labored under the impression that they were keeping pace with the age; but others, endowed with a fair share of that progressive spirit which characterizes the American people, commenced agitating the project of making a turnpike between Huntingdon and Blairsville. The old fogies of the day gave this innovation the cold shoulder, spoke of the immense cost, and did not fail to count the expense of travelling upon such a road. But little were their murmurings heeded by the enterprising men of the valley. The fast friend of the turnpike was Mr. Blair, of Blair's Gap, west of Hollidaysburg. His influence was used in the halls of the Legislature until he injured his political standing; nevertheless, he persevered until the company was chartered, and he soon had the satisfaction of seeing the turnpike road completed. Once built, it was found to be rather a desirable inst.i.tution, and its value soon removed all opposition to it.

Anon came the startling proposition of building a ca.n.a.l along the Juniata, and a railroad over the Alleghany Mountains, to connect the waters of the Juniata and the Conemaugh. To men of limited information the project seemed vague and ill-defined; while knowing old fogies shook their heads, and declared that a ca.n.a.l and a turnpike both could not be sustained, and that, if the former could accomplish the wonders claimed for it, the teams that carried goods between Philadelphia and Pittsburg in the short s.p.a.ce of from fifteen to twenty days would be compelled to suspend operations! But the opposition to the ca.n.a.l was too insignificant to claim notice; and when the building of it was once commenced an improvement mania raged. The stately and learned engineer, Moncure Robinson, was brought all the way from England to survey the route for the Portage Road. Like a very colossus of _roads_, he strode about the mountain, and his nod and beck, like that of imperial Caesar upon his throne, was the law, from which there was no appeal. By dint of long labor, and at a vast expense to the commonwealth, he demonstrated clearly that a road could be built across the mountain, and rendered practicable by the use of ten inclined planes. Alas! for the perishable nature of glory! Moncure Robinson had hardly time to reach his home, and boast of the honor and fame he achieved in the New World, before a Yankee engineer discovered that a railroad could be built across the Alleghany Mountain without the use of a single plane!

Of course, then he was thought a visionary, and that not a quarter of a century ago; yet now we have two railroads crossing the mountain without the use of a plane, and the circ.u.mstance appears to attract no other remark than that of ineffable disgust at the old fogies who could not make a road to cross the Apalachian chain without the tedious operation of being hoisted up and lowered down by stationary engines.

The era of "flush times" in the valley must have been when the ca.n.a.l was building. Splendid fortunes were made, and vast sums of money sunk, by the wild speculations which followed the advent of the contractors and the sudden rise of property lying along the river. As an instance of the briskness of the times in the valley when the ca.n.a.l was building, an old settler informs us that Frankstown at that time contained fourteen stores, five taverns, and four roulette tables. At present, we believe, it contains but two or three stores, one tavern, and no gambling apparatus to relieve the reckless of their surplus change.

The completion of the ca.n.a.l was the great event of the day, and the enthusiasm of the people could scarcely be kept within bounds when the ponderous boats commenced ploughing the ditch. This will be readily believed by any one who will read the papers published at the time.

From a paper printed in Lewistown on the 5th of November, 1829, we learn that a packet-boat arrived at that place from Mifflin on the Thursday previous, and departed again next day, having on board a number of members of the Legislature, as well as citizens and strangers. The editor, in speaking of the departure, enthusiastically says:--"The boat was drawn by two white horses, when she set off in fine style, with the 'star-spangled banner' flying at her head, and amid the roar of cannon, the shouts of the populace, and the cheering music of the band which was on board." Reader, this was a little over twenty-six years ago; and the jubilee was over a packet capable of accomplis.h.i.+ng the mighty task of carrying some forty or fifty pa.s.sengers at the rate of about four miles an hour.

The climax of joy, however, appears to have been reached by the editor of the _Huntingdon Gazette_, on the 15th of July, 1831, when he became jubilant over the launch of a ca.n.a.l-boat, and gave vent to the following outburst:--"What! a ca.n.a.l-boat launched in the vicinity of Huntingdon! Had any one predicted an event of this kind some years back, he, in all probability, would have been yclept a wizard, or set down as _beside himself_!"

These gus.h.i.+ngs of intensified joy, although they serve to amuse now, do not fail to convey a useful lesson. Let us not glory too much over the demon scream of the locomotive as it comes rattling through the valley, belching forth fire and smoke, or the miraculous telegraph which conveys messages from one end of the Union to the other with the rapidity with which a lover's sigh would be wafted from the Indies to the Pole; for who knows but that the succeeding generation, following in the footsteps made by the universal law of progress, will astonish the world with inventions not dreamed of in our philosophy, which will throw our electric-telegraphs and railroads forever in the shade?

For eighteen years, with the exception of the winter months, the ca.n.a.l packet held sway in the Juniata Valley, carrying its average of about thirty pa.s.sengers a day from the East to the West, and _vice versa_.

When h.o.a.r old winter placed an embargo upon the ca.n.a.l craft, travel used to dwindle down to such a mere circ.u.mstance that a rickety old two-horse coach could easily carry all the pa.s.sengers that offered.

Who among us that has arrived at the age of manhood does not recollect the packet-boat, with its motley group of pa.s.sengers, its snail pace, its consequential captain, and its non-communicative steersman, who used to wake the echoes with the "to-to-to-to-toit" of his everlasting horn and his hoa.r.s.e cry of "lock ready?" The ca.n.a.l-packet was unquestionably a great inst.i.tution in its day and generation, and we remember it with emotions almost akin to veneration. Right well do we remember, too, how contentedly people sat beneath the scorching rays of a broiling sun upon the packet, as it dragged its slow length along the sinuous windings of the ca.n.a.l at an average speed of three and a half or four miles an hour; and yet the echo of the last packet-horn has scarcely died away when we see the self-same people standing upon a station-house platform, on the verge of despair because the cars happen to be ten minutes behind time, or hear them calling down maledictions dire upon the head of some offending conductor who refuses to jeopardize the lives of his pa.s.sengers by running faster than thirty miles an hour!

At length, after the ca.n.a.l had enjoyed a sixteen years' triumph, people began to consider it a "slow coach;" and, without much debate, the business-men of Philadelphia resolved upon a railroad between Harrisburg and Pittsburg. The project had hardly been fairly determined upon before the picks and shovels of the "Corkonians" and "Fardowns"

were brought into requisition; but, strange to say, this giant undertaking struck no one as being any thing extraordinary. It was looked upon as a matter of course, and the most frequent remarks it gave rise to were complaints that the making of the road did not progress rapidly enough to keep pace with the progress of the age. And, at length, when it was completed, the citizens of Lewistown did not greet the arrival of the first train with drums, trumpets, and the roar of cannon; neither did any Huntingdon editor exclaim, in a burst of enthusiasm, on the arrival of the train there, "What! nine railroad cars, with six hundred pa.s.sengers, drawn through Huntingdon by a locomotive! If any person had predicted such a result some years ago, he would have been yclept a wizard, or set down as one _beside himself_."

The Pennsylvania Railroad once finished, although it failed to create the surprise and enthusiasm excited by the ca.n.a.l, did not fail to open up the valley and its vast resources. Independent of the great advantage of the road itself, let us see what followed in the wake of this laudable enterprise. The railroad created the towns of Altoona, Fostoria, Tipton, and Tyrone; its presence caused the building of three plank roads, and the opening of extensive coal and lumber operations in the valley, and kindred enterprises that might never have been thought of. Nor is this all. A rage for travel by railroad has been produced by the Pennsylvania Company; and there is good reason to believe that it will increase until at least three more roads tap the main artery in the Juniata Valley,--the railroad from Tyrone to Clearfield, from the same place to Lock Haven, and from Spruce Creek to Lewisburg. These roads will unquestionably be built, and at no remote period. The Pennsylvania Road has now facilities for doing business equal to those of any road of the same length in the world; and, when a second track is completed, it is destined, for some years at least, to enjoy a monopoly of the carrying trade between Pittsburg and Philadelphia. Much as we regret it, for the sake of the Commonwealth which expended her millions without any thing like an adequate return, the ca.n.a.l is rapidly falling into disuse, and we see, with deep regret, that it has become entirely too slow for the age in which we live. With all the vitality forced into it that can be, we confess we can see no opposition in it to the road but such as is of the most feeble kind; yet all will agree that this opposition, trifling as it is, should continue to exist until such a time as other routes shall be opened between these points, and healthy compet.i.tion established. But let us not dwell too much upon our modes of transit through the valley, lest the historian of a hundred years hence will find our remarks a fitting theme for ridicule, and laugh at us because we speak in glowing terms of a single railroad, and that road with but a single track for more than half its distance!

In order to give the reader a little insight into the progress which has been made in the valley, let us turn statistician for a time, with the understanding, however, that we shall not be held responsible for the accuracy of dates.

Less than twenty-six years ago, George Law sat upon the left bank of the Juniata, two miles west of Williamsburg, cutting stones for building two locks at that place. Now the aforesaid Law is supposed to be worth the snug little sum of six millions of dollars, and not long since was an aspirant for the presidential chair!

Thirty years ago, when Frankstown was a place of some note, Hollidaysburg contained but a few scattered cabins. In fact, twenty years ago it was "to fortune and to fame unknown;" yet it now contains a population (including that of Gaysport) that will not fall much short of four thousand.

Less than twenty-five years ago, Dr. P. Shoenberger, while returning from Baltimore with $15,000 in cash, fell in with the celebrated robber Lewis on the Broad Top Mountain. The intention of Lewis, as he afterward acknowledged, was to rob him; but the doctor, although he was unacquainted with his fellow-traveller, had his suspicions awakened, and, by shrewd manoeuvering, succeeded in giving him the slip. Had the $15,000 in question fallen into the hands of the robber, Dr.

Shoenberger would have been bankrupt, and the probability is that he would have lived and died an obscure individual. Instead of that, however, the money freed him from his embarra.s.sments, and he died, but a few years ago, worth between four and five millions of dollars--more than one-half of which he acc.u.mulated by manufacturing iron in the Valley of the Juniata.

Less than sixteen years ago, a gentleman named Zimmerman was a bar-keeper at the hotel of Walter Graham, Esq., at Yellow Springs, in Blair county, afterward a "mud-boss" on the Pennsylvania Ca.n.a.l, and subsequently a teamster at Alleghany Furnace. At the present day the said Samuel Zimmerman owns hotels, palaces, a bank of issue, farms, stocks, and other property, at Niagara Falls, in Canada, which swell his income to $150,000 per annum. He is but thirty-eight years of age.

Should he live the length of time allotted to man, and his wealth steadily increase, at the end of threescore-and-ten years he can look upon ordinary capitalists, who have only a few millions at command, as men of limited means.

Let it not he presumed, however, that we notice these capitalists from any adoration of their wealth or homage to the men, but merely because their history is partially identified with the valley, and to show in what a singular manner the blind G.o.ddess will sometimes lavish her favors; for hundreds of men without money, but with brighter intellects and n.o.bler impulses than ever were possessed by Zimmerman, Law, or Shoenberger, have gone down to the grave "unwept, unhonored, and unsung," in the Juniata Valley. Neither will the soughing of the west wind, as it sweeps through the valley, disturb their repose any more than it will that of the _millionaires_ when resting from "life's fitful fever" in their splendid mausoleums.

Less than ten years ago a railroad from Huntingdon to Broad Top was deemed impracticable. Since then, or, we may say, within the last four years, a substantial railroad has been built, reaching from the borough of Huntingdon to Hopewell, in Bedford county, a distance of thirty-one miles; and the cars are now engaged in bringing coal from a region which, but a few years ago, was unexplored. In addition to the main track, there is a branch, six miles in length, extending to Shoup's Run. The coal-field contains eighty square miles of territory; and from the openings made at Shoup's Run and Six Mile Run semi-bituminous coal has been taken the quality of which cannot be surpa.s.sed by any coal-fields in the world. Along the line of the road quite a number of villages have sprung up. The first is Worthington, some thirteen miles from Huntingdon. The next is Saxton, twenty-six miles from Huntingdon.

Coalmont is the name of a flouris.h.i.+ng village growing up on Shoup's Run, about a mile below the lowest coal-veins yet opened. Barret is located about two miles farther up; and Broad Top City is located upon the summit of the mountain, at the terminus of the Shoup's Run Branch, at which place a large three-story stone hotel has been built, and a number of lots disposed of, on which purchasers are bound to build during the summer of 1856.

Less than eight years ago the author of these pages, while on a gunning expedition, travelled over the ground where Altoona now stands. It was then almost a barren waste. A few fields, a solitary log farm-house and its out-buildings, and a school-house, alone relieved the monotony of the scene; yet now upon this ground stands a town with between three and four thousand inhabitants, where the scream of the engine is heard at all hours of the day and night,--where the roar of fires, the clang of machinery, and the busy hum of industry, never cease from the rising to the setting of the sun, and where real estate commands a price that would almost seem fabulous to those not acquainted with the facts. But of this enough.

Let us now proceed to examine the products of the valley. The lower end of it is a grain-growing region, the upper an iron-producing country; and it is owing to the mineral resources alone that the valley maintains the position it does and boasts of the wealth and population it now possesses. The Juniata iron has almost a worldwide reputation; yet we venture to say that many of our own neighbors know little about the immense amount of capital and labor employed in its manufacture.

The following is a list of the iron establishments in the valley:--

BEDFORD COUNTY.