History of the Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley Part 4

Fearing that the savages would murder men engaged in harvesting farther up the valley, they endeavored to intercept them by crossing through Bigham's Gap early on Monday morning. They had no sooner entered the valley than they discovered traces of the enemy. Houses were pillaged, and some razed to the ground. At one place they had killed four hogs and a number of fowls, which they had roasted by a fire, fared sumptuously and dined leisurely. At Graham's there were unmistakable signs that they had been joined by another party, and that the entire force must number at least twenty-five Indians. From their tracks, too, it was evident that they had crossed the Tuscarora Mountain by way of Run Gap. The dread to encounter such a force would have deterred almost any small body of men; but the Robinsons, who appeared to be leaders of the party, were bold, resolute back-woodsmen, inured to hards.h.i.+p, toil, and danger, and, without taking time to reflect, or even debate, upon the probability of being attacked by the enemy from ambuscade, they pushed forward rapidly to overtake the savages.

At the cross-roads, near Buffalo Creek, the savages fired upon the party from an ambuscade of brush, and killed five. William Robinson was shot in the abdomen with buckshot; still he managed to follow Buffalo Creek for half a mile. John Elliot, a mere lad of seventeen, discharged his rifle at an Indian, and then ran. The Indian pursued him, but, fearing the boy would get off, he dropped his rifle, and followed with tomahawk alone. Elliot, perceiving this, threw some powder into his rifle at random, inserted a ball in the muzzle, and pushed it in as far as he could with his finger; then, suddenly turning around, he shot the Indian in the breast. The Indian gave a prolonged scream, and returned in the direction of his band. There is little doubt but that the Indian was killed; but, agreeably to their custom, his companions either concealed the body or took it with them.

Elliot went but a short distance before he overtook William Robinson, who was weltering in his blood upon the ground, and evidently in the agonies of death. He begged Elliot to carry him off, as he had a great horror of being scalped. Elliot told him it was utterly impossible for him to lift him off the ground, much less carry him. Robinson then said--

"Take my gun, and save yourself. And if ever you have an opportunity to shoot an Indian with it, _in war or peace_, do so, for my sake."

There is no record of the fact that he obeyed the dying injunction of his friend; but he did with the rifle what was more glorious than killing ignorant savages; he carried it for five years in the Continental army, and battled with it for the freedom of his country.

How many of his Majesty's red-coats it riddled before the flag of freedom floated over the land, is only known to the G.o.d of battles. The body of Robinson was not found by the Indians.

During the action Thomas Robinson stood still, sheltered by a tree, until all his companions had fled. He fired a third time, in the act of which two or three Indians fired, and a bullet shattered his right arm.

He then attempted to escape, but was hotly pursued by the Indians, one of whom shot him through the side while in the act of stooping to pa.s.s a log. He was found scalped and most shockingly mutilated. John Graham died while sitting upon a log, a short distance from the scene of action. Charles Elliot and McConnel escaped, and crossed Buffalo Creek, but they were overtaken and shot just as they were in the act of ascending the bank. Their bodies were found in the creek.

These b.l.o.o.d.y murders caused the greatest alarm in the neighborhood. The Indians, flushed with success, manifested no disposition to leave; and the inhabitants of the spa.r.s.ely-settled country fled toward the lower end of Sherman's Valley, leaving all behind them. A party of forty men, armed and organized and well-disciplined, marched in the direction of the Juniata for the purpose of burying the dead and slaying the Indians; but when they came to Buffalo Creek, they were so terrified at the sight of the slaughtered whites and probably exaggerated stories of the strength of the enemy, that the commander ordered a return. He called it _prudent_ to retire; some of his men called it _cowardly_.

The name of the valiant captain could not be ascertained.

Captain Dunning went up the valley from Carlisle with a posse, determined to overtake and punish the savages if possible. Before his arrival, however, some five or six men conceived the rash idea of giving the Indians battle, and attacked them while in a barn. The attack was an exceedingly ill-judged affair, for but few Indians were wounded, and none killed. They bounded out with great fury, and shot the entire party but one, who managed to escape. Those who were killed were Alexander Logan and his son John, Charles Coyle, and William Hamilton. Bartholomew Davis made his escape, and at Logan's house overtook Captain Dunning and his command. Judging that the Indians would visit Logan's for plunder, Captain Dunning ambuscaded his men, and in a very short time the savages came, boldly, and entirely unconscious of impending danger. They were greeted by a volley from Dunning's men, and but a short engagement followed. Three or four Indians fell at the first fire; and the rest, dismayed, fled in consternation toward the mountain, and were not pursued.

Thus it will be perceived that a large number of most cruel and cold-blooded murders were committed by these marauders before they were checked, simply because in treachery and cunning the white men could not cope with them.

CHAPTER VI.

TUSCARORA VALLEY--ITS EARLY SETTLERS--ITS MOUNDS AND ITS FORTS-- Ma.s.sACRES, ETC.

Tuscarora Path Valley, as it was formerly called, is one of the most fertile and beautiful within the Juniata range. It embraces an extent of probably thirty miles in length, beginning in Franklin county, and ending at the river at Perrysville, in Juniata county. The name of "Path" was given to it in consequence of the old western Indian path running through it nearly its entire length.

Tuscarora, in its day, must have been a famous place for the Indians.

Its great natural advantages, and the abundance of game it contained, must alone have rendered it an attractive place, independent of the fact that it was the regular highway between the East and the West, where the warrior, the politician, and the loafer, could lie in the

"Umbrageous grots and caves of cool recess,"

before the wigwam door, and hear from travellers all the news astir worthy of their profound attention.

Tradition, however, speaks of battles among them; for they would fight among themselves, and that, too, with all the relentless fury that characterized their warfare with the whites. But of these battles said to be fought in the valley the tradition is so vague and unsatisfactory that we omit any further mention of them.

There are two mounds in the valley,--one of them near its head, the other some twelve or fourteen miles from its mouth, at or near a place, we believe, now called Academia. Some persons who examined this mound about twenty years ago tried to make it appear that it had been enclosed in a fortification, as they averred that they had discovered fragments of a wall. This was probably a wrong conclusion, as a burial-place would not likely be within a fortification. If the mound was once enclosed within a wall for protection, it was an act that stands without a parallel in Indian history.

Near the lower mound is an academy; and during the last ten years the students used their leisure hours in exhuming the bones and searching for relics, so that by this time, probably, but a mere visible trace of it is left.

The first settlers in Tuscarora were Samuel Bigham, Robert Hagg, and James and John Grey,--all Scotch. They came from c.u.mberland county about the year 1749, or probably 1750. They were in search of a location for permanent settlement. The valley pleased them so well that they immediately staked out farms; and, notwithstanding the Indians of the valley treated them with apparent hospitality, they took the precaution to build themselves a fort for defence, which was named Bigham's Fort. By the year 1754 several other persons had settled in Tuscarora, among them George Woods and a man named Innis.

Some time in the spring of 1756, John Grey and Innis went to Carlisle with pack-horses, for the purpose of procuring groceries. On their return, while descending the mountain, in a very narrow defile, Grey's horse, frightened at a bear which crossed the road, became unmanageable and threw him off. Innis, anxious to see his wife and family, went on; but Grey was detained for nearly two hours in righting his pack. As far as his own personal safety was concerned, the detention was a providential one, for he just reached the fort in time to see the last of it consumed. Every person in it had either been ma.s.sacred or taken prisoners by the Indians. He examined the charred remains of the bodies inside of the fort, but he could find none that he could bring himself to believe were those of his family. It subsequently appeared that his wife and his only daughter, three years of age, George Woods, Innis's wife and three children, and a number of others, had been carried into captivity. They were taken across the Alleghany to the old Indian town of Kittaning, and from thence to Fort Duquesne, where they were delivered over to the French.

Woods was a remarkable man, and lived to a good old age, and figured somewhat extensively afterward in the history of both Bedford and Alleghany counties. He took his captivity very little to heart, and even went so far as to propose marriage to Mrs. Grey while they were both prisoners in the fort.

The French commander, in apportioning out the prisoners, gave Woods to an old Indian named John Hutson, who removed him to his own wigwam. But George proving neither useful nor ornamental to Hutson's establishment, and as there was no probability of any of his friends paying a ransom for him--inasmuch as he had neither kith nor kin,--he opened negotiations with George to let him off. The conditions made and entered into between the two were that the aforesaid George Woods should give to the aforesaid John Hutson an annuity of ten pounds of tobacco, until death should terminate the existence of either of the parties named. This contract was fulfilled until the ma.s.sacre of the Bedford scout, when Harry Woods, a lieutenant of the scout, and son of George Woods, recognised among the most active of the savages the son of John Hutson, who used to accompany his father to Bedford, where Harry Woods had often seen him. It is hardly necessary to add that old Hutson never called upon Woods after that for his ransom annuity.

Woods was a surveyor by profession, and a.s.sisted in laying out the city of Pittsburg, one of the princ.i.p.al streets of which bears his name, or, at least, was named after him, notwithstanding it is called "Wood"

instead of Woods street.

Mr. Woods, after he removed to Bedford, became a useful and influential citizen. He followed his profession, and most of the original surveys in the upper end of the Juniata Valley were made by him. He reared a large family, and his descendants are still living. One of his daughters was married to Ross, who was once a candidate for the office of governor of the State. He lived to a good old age, and died amid the deep regrets of a most extended circle of acquaintances.

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 Kittaning, in hopes of recapturing, or at least gaining some intelligence of, his family. Failing to do this, he returned home, broken in health and spirits, made his will, and died.

The will divided the farm between his wife and daughter, in case they returned from captivity. If the daughter did not return, a sister was to have her half.

About a year after the fort was burnt, Mrs. Grey, through the connivance of some traders, managed to escape from bondage, and reached her home in safety, but, unfortunately, was compelled to leave her daughter behind her. She proved her husband's will and took charge of the property. The treaty of 1764 brought a large number of captive children to Philadelphia to be recognised and claimed by their friends.

Mrs. Grey attended, in hopes of finding her child; but she was unsuccessful. There remained one child unclaimed, about the same age as Mrs. Grey's; and some person, who evidently knew the provisions of the will, hinted to her the propriety of taking the child to save the property. She did so, and in the year 1789, the heirs of the sister, having received some information as to the ident.i.ty of the child, brought suit for the land. The trial was a novel one, and lasted from 1789 to 1834, a period of forty-five years, when it was decided in favor of the heirs and against the captive.

Innis remained among the Indians until the treaty. His wife escaped a short time previous. Two of her children she recovered in Philadelphia, but a third had been drowned by the savages on their way to some place in Canada. By the exposure it became sick and very weak, and, to rid themselves of any further trouble with it, they put it under the ice.

When the captive children were at Philadelphia, some person had taken one of Innis's, and he had considerable difficulty to recover it. Had it not been for a private mark by which he proved it, the person who had it in charge would probably never have surrendered it.

The Indians of Tuscarora, before the French war, were on terms of great intimacy with the whites. They used to meet at the fort, and shoot mark, and, when out of lead, would go to the mouth of the valley, and return with lead ore, almost pure. Lead was a valuable article, and difficult to transport; hence the settlers were anxious to discover the location of the mine. Many a warrior was feasted and liquored until he was blind drunk, under a promise of divulging the precise whereabouts of the lead mine. Its discovery, if it contained any quant.i.ty of ore, would have realized any man a speedy fortune in those days; but, in spite of Indian promises and the most thorough search for years, the lead mines of Tuscarora were never found, and probably never will be until it is occupied by another race of cunning Indians.

The fort burnt down in 1756 was rebuilt some four years afterward, through the exertions of Ralph Sterrit, an old Indian trader. His son William was born in Bigham's Fort, and was the first white child born in Tuscarora Valley. At the time of burning the first fort, Sterrit was absent with his family.

It is related of Ralph Sterrit, that, one day, while sitting outside of the second fort, a wayworn Indian came along, who was hungry, thirsty, and fatigued. Sterrit was a humane man, and called the savage in, gave him bread and meat, a drink of rum, and some tobacco, and sent him on his way rejoicing.

The circ.u.mstance had entirely pa.s.sed out of Sterrit's mind, when, one night in the spring of 1763, when the Indians had again commenced hostilities, the inmates of the fort were alarmed by a noise at the gate. Sterrit looked out, and by the light of the moon discovered that it was an Indian. The alarm was spread, and some of the more impetuous were for shooting him down as a spy. Sterrit, more cool than the others, demanded of the Indian his business. The Indian, in few words, reminded him of the circ.u.mstance above narrated, and for the hospitality extended to him he had come to warn the white man of impending danger. He said that the Indians were as "plenty as pigeons in the woods," and that even then they had entered the valley, and, before another moon, would be at the fort, carrying with them the firm determination to murder, scalp, and burn, all the whites in their path.

The alarm was sounded, and it was soon determined, in consequence of the weakness of the fort, to abandon it. Nearly all the settlers of the valley were in it; but the number stated by the savage completely overawed them, so that they set to work immediately packing upon horses their most valuable effects, and long before daylight were on their way to c.u.mberland county.

The Indians came next night, and, after reconnoitering for a long time, approached the fort, which, much to their astonishment, they found evacuated. However, to show the settlers that they had been there, they burnt down the fort, and, on a cleared piece of ground in front of it, they laid across the path a war-club painted red--a declaration of war to the death against the whites.

The benevolent act of Sterrit, in relieving the weary and hungry Indian, was the means of saving the lives of eighty persons.

CHAPTER VII.

FORT GRANVILLE--OLD INDIAN TOWN--THE EARLY SETTLERS--CAPTAIN JACOBS--a.s.sAULT ON AND CAPTURE OF THE FORT.

Previous to the settlement by the whites, the flat on which the eastern part of Lewistown now stands was an Indian town of considerable importance. It was the outlet of a large and fertile valley, through which ran a north-western Indian path, and in which dwelt five or six tribes, who found this the natural outlet to the Juniata. The council-house stood upon the east side of the creek, near its mouth, and the line of wigwams stretched toward the north.

The first white settlers in this neighborhood came from the Conecocheague, by way of Aughwick. They consisted of Arthur Buchanan and his two sons, and three other families, all Scotch-Irish. Buchanan was a man of great energy, and very fond of roving in the woods, far from the haunts of men. He was the master-spirit of the party, and with great self-reliance pitched his tent opposite the Indian village, on the west bank of the creek. He then called upon the Indians, and signified his intention to purchase land. They were at first unwilling to sell; but Captain Jacobs, (as Buchanan christened the chief, in consequence of his close resemblance to a burly German in c.u.mberland county,) who was the head chief, having been liberally plied with liquor, decided that Buchanan should have the much-coveted land. What was paid for it never transpired, but it is more than probable that the remainder of the contents of Buchanan's rum-keg, a few trinkets, and some tobacco, made him owner of the soil. This was in 1754.

Captain Jacobs had always professed great friends.h.i.+p toward the British colonists; but he was among the very first won over by the French. He became very much dissatisfied with Buchanan, more especially as the latter had induced a number of his friends and acquaintances to come there and settle. By this means the lands of Jacobs were encroached upon, which greatly roused his temper; and one day, without deigning to give an explanation of any kind, the Indians destroyed their town and left. This was a movement the settlers did not understand; neither did they like it, for it seemed to forebode no good. After a very brief consultation among them, they resolved forthwith to build a fort for protection. They had for a time noticed a growing coldness on the part of Jacobs and his warriors, and, fearful that they might come down the valley, joined by other bands, and ma.s.sacre the people, Fort Granville was erected with as much despatch as possible. It was located about a mile above Lewistown, in order to be near a large spring. Contrary to expectations, the Indians did not come, and things generally prospered about Fort Granville settlement during the summer and winter of 1755.

In the spring of 1756 the Indians made their appearance in Kis.h.i.+coquillas Valley, in considerable numbers; and parties of roving tribes in search of scalps and plunder, emboldened by the success of the French and Indians the year previous, sometimes came down to the mouth of the creek, but, unable to ascertain the power of resistance concentrated within the fort, they never made an attack upon it. These incursions, however, became so frequent, that in the summer of 1756 the settlers only left the fort when necessity demanded it. Finally, succor reached them in July. The government despatched Lieutenant Armstrong from c.u.mberland county with a militia force to protect them while engaged in taking in their harvest, and, directly after his arrival, hearing of the exposed condition of the people in Tuscarora, Armstrong sent a portion of his command, with Lieutenant Faulkner, in order to guard them while reaping their grain.

In the absence of the latter, on or about the 22d of July, (the Indians having ascertained the strength of the garrison,) some sixty or seventy warriors, painted and equipped for battle, appeared before the fort and insolently challenged the settlers to combat. The commander pretended to treat the challenge with contempt, though in truth he was considerably alarmed at the prospect of an attack. The Indians fired at one man, and wounded him. He happened to be outside, but got into the fort without sustaining any serious injury. The Indians divided themselves into small parties and started off in different directions.

One of these parties killed a man named Baskins, a short distance from the river, burnt his house, and carried his wife and children into captivity. Another party took Hugh Carrol and his family prisoners.

On the 30th of July, Captain Edward Ward had command of Fort Granville, with a company regularly enlisted and in the pay of the province. He went, with all of his men but twenty-four, to Sherman's Valley, to protect the settlers while harvesting. The enemy soon ascertained this, and on the first of August, according to the affidavit of John Hogan, then and there taken prisoner, (Colonial Records, vol. vii. p. 561,) one hundred Indians and fifty Frenchmen made an attack upon the fort.

They a.s.saulted the works during the entire afternoon and part of the night without gaining any advantage. About midnight the enemy got below the bank of the river, and by a deep ravine they approached close enough to the fort to set fire to it before they were observed. The fire soon spread, and through an aperture made the Indians shot Lieutenant Armstrong, and wounded some two or three others who were endeavoring to put out the fire. The French commander ordered a suspension of hostilities, and offered quarter to all who would surrender, on several occasions; but Armstrong would not surrender on any condition. He was certainly a brave man, and held out n.o.bly almost against hope. Peter Walker, who was in the fort at the time and taken prisoner, after his escape from Kittaning gave an account of the capture of the fort to General John Armstrong. He said that "of the enemy not less than one hundred and twenty returned, all in health, except one Frenchman, shot through the shoulder by Lieutenant Armstrong, a little before his death, as the Frenchman was erecting his body out of the hollow to throw pine-knots on the fire made against the fort; and of this number there were about a dozen of French, who had for their interpreter one McDowell, a Scotchman."