Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from University of Pittsburgh Library System http://www.archive.org/details/historyofwashingOOcrum HISTORY WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OP MANY OF ITS PlOI^EERS AND PROMINENT MEN. EDITED BY BOYD ORUMRINE. VcV; ILXjTJSTR.^TEID. "1/ I.,.' PHILADELPHIA: L. H. E V E R T S & C O. 188 2. PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.. PHILADELPHIA. Copyright, 1882, by BoTD CRTTiTRiNE. PREFACE. An apologetic preface is not intended by what is liere written, for it is believed that in this History i>f Wasliington County there are perhaps as few errors and imperfections as any reason- able critic ought to expect in so comprehensive a work. "Whatever defects may appear (and what work of man is free from defects ?), they are certainly not chargeable to a want of effort and care to avoid them ; and those who have been engaged in the preparation of this work only ask the favor that before it be subjected to unfavorable comment it be carefully examined, not in isolated portions, but in its whole scope and character. Far from being unwilling to submit to honest and intelligent criticism, they will be glad to have any substantial inaccuracies pointed out. By such criticism alone can this work be affected ; captious fault-finding, often arising out of unworthy jealousies, cannot prevail with intelligent men. But it is rather desired here to make a remark or two as to the history of the book now de- livered to those for whom it was written. And in this connection it may be premised that if any one individual, on his own account, could have devoted the necessary time and industry to the preparation of a full and accurate history of the county, covering the ground the writers of this history have endeavored to cover, it is confidently believed that, there being but a local demand for such a work, it would have been vain to hope that it could have been pub- lished and sold so a.s to repay the author for the time, labor, and expenditure involvetl. To those who wished to see something like an approach to a complete history of Washington County, the proposals of the enterprising publishers to publish the work after a plan and method of their own seemed to offer the only opportunity within reach, and hence it wa-s that the writer of these lines, after the approval of good friends, on whose judgment he could rely, was led to aid the enterprise, not only by a contribution to its pages, but, by way of general oversight and direction of the whole. It was soon found, however, that, beyond the chapters contributed, there was but little need of his assistance, for Major Franklin Ellis, of !N"ew York City, the gentleman by whom much the larger part of the work was prepared, brought with him long experience and great skill in historical investigation, an enviable facility of composition, together with laborious industry and carefulness. And he was aided by gentlemen — one of whom, Austin X. Hunger- ford, Esq., of Ithaca, N. Y., deserves special mention — who also were possessed of special fitness for the gathering from all sorts of sources of the innumerable and disjointed details which have gone to make uj) the history of localities; and, not only that, they have all along received con- stant 'encouragement and valuable suggestions from leading men in the county, too manv in number to acknowledge by name here. It may be unusual, but, as his associates came here as strangers, the writer desires in this place to bear witness to all who may be interested in this PKEFACE. work that in the labor performed by the gentlemen named they have evinced at all times while it progressed the most absolute good faith and painstaking desire for accuracy and completeness. In explanation of the method adopted, more especially in the preparation of the chapters upon the civil and legal history, the writer would state that the idea of presenting original docu- ments, in full or by quotation, as they lay before him, rather than to paraphrase their contents in his own language, was followed from deliberate choice as the best method of presenting local history. Thus the actors speak for themselves, and the reader is not asked to take upon faith the statements of another as to what is really contained in their communications. True, a sen- tence often might have represented the substantial contents of a letter or paper of some length, but the reader is supposed to desire rather to see and read the letter or paper for himself. This will, no doubt, be appreciated by the thoughtful. One word as to the matter of the portraits, other illustrations, and biographical sketches not immediately connected with the historical character of the work, a feature, however, with which those entjaged as investigators and writers have had nothing whatever to do, as being outside of their employment. This feature sometimes is made the subject of thoughtless criticism. Let it here be said the work is intended, to some extent, to indicate the present development of the county, side by side with the history of its past. For obvious reasons, then, wait for twenty, thirty, forty years of our future to elapse, when the present and its people shall have become more in- teresting. Then, it is submitted, this very feature of the work in which there are present( d the portraits and biographical sketches of a few of the representative men of each condition oij life, as well as illustrations of their homes and their surroundings, showing the county of tovday, will of itself have become of very great interest and importance. Time, indeed, will place this feature of the work in its proper light. This history, thus the work of many hands, is now with the reader, a record of our past, for present and future instruction and entertainment. The longer it is possessed perhajjs tlie more it may be prized. Not a i)age has been stereotyped, and only copies enough have been printed to supply the subscribei'S and those who labored upon it; hence it cannot hereafter be found in the market, and year by year it will become a possession more and more valuable to the owner. B.C. WA.SHINUTON, Sept. 20, 1882. CONTENTS. PAGE I CHAP I. — Washington County in History — Looatiov, Boundaries, and Topookai'iiy — The In- dian Occupation II. — The French and English Claims to the Trans - Alleguenv Region — George AVashingtox's Visit to the French Forts IN 1753 III. — French Occupation at the Head op the Ohio — Washington's Campaign of 1754 . IV. — Braddock's Expedition in 1755 . V. — Incursions and Ravages during the French Occupation — Capture ok Fort du quesne and expulsion op the French— Expeditions under Bouquet VI. — Dunmore's War .... VII. — The Retolution .... VIII.— The Revolution— ( CoiK/niierf) . IX. — The Civil and Legal History . X. — The Civil and Legal Histor tinned) XI.— The Civil and thmed) XII.— The Civil and XIII.— The Civil and tlnued) XIV.— The Civil and tinucd) XV.— The Civil and thmed) XVI.— The Civil and tinned) XVII.— The Civil and tinned) . XVIII.— The Civil and tinned) XIX.— The Civil and tinned) XX. — The Whiskey Inschrec XXI.— War of 181 2-15— Texan and Mexican Wars XXII. — War of the Rebellion XXIII. — War of the Rebellion — [Cnntinned) XXIV. — War of the Rebellion — {^Continued) XXV. — War of the Rebellion — (Continued) XXVI. — War of the Rebellion — (Continued) XXVII. — War of the Rebellion — (Caniinned) XXVIIL— War of the Rebellion— (fo»(/n.(crf) XXIX. — War of the Rebellion — (Continued) Legal History — Legal History — Legal History — Legal History — Legal History^ — Legal History — Legal History — Legal History — Legal Histoiiy — (Con- ( Con (Con Con- Con- Con- Con- Con (Con Con- n 110 138 249 262 306 310 319 322 329 334 342 346 349 XXX. — M'au of the Rebellion — (6'(/i(((ii(( XXXr. — War of the Rebellion — (6'on(i'iin XXXII. — Geology — Mining XXXIII. — Internal Improvements XXXIV. — Religious History XXXV. — Religious History — (Continued) . XXXVI. — Educational History . XXXVII. — County Buildings — Civil List Agricultural Societies — Popul.i t, as a subjugated people and vassals. At a treaty couq^U held in Philadelphia^ in July, 1742, a Six Nation chief named Cannassatego gave a 1 The Iroquois confederation, at fii-st embracing the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondugas, Cayugas, and Senecaa, was then called tlie Five Nations, but afterwards became the Six Nations by the addition of the Tnscaroras, who emigrated to the North upon being expeUed from their earlier faunt- ing-gronuds in the Carolinas. 2 At a time when a strong French force was reported to be on the upper Allegheny on its way to the Ohio, the Delawares living at the head of the latter river sent runners to the Six Nation council at Onondaga, with belts and a message, in which they said, "Uncles, the United Na- tions,— We expect to be killed by the French your father. We desire therefore that you will take off our Petticoat that we in.iy light for our- selves, our wives and children. In the condition we are in, you know we can do nothing." — Colon'ml Recorth, vi. 37. 3 Col. Rec, iv. 680. 16 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. most withering reproof to some Delawares who were present, in reference to the conduct of their nation in some of their transactions with the whites. He told them they were not warriors but women, and that they deserved to have their ears cut off for their be- havior, and after a long and extremely abusive and contemptuous speech to them in the same strain, in which he told them their people must remove forth- ■■%vith from the Delaware, that they could have no time to consider about it, but must go at once to the Susquehanna, but that considering their behavior he doubted whether they would be allowed to remain there, he handed them a string of wampum and con- tinued, " You are to preserve this string in memory of what your uncles have this day given you in charge. We have now some other business to trans- act with our brethren [the English], therefore depart this council, and consider what has been said to you." The humiliated Delaware chiefs dared not disobey this peremptory command. They left the council at once, and the last of their people removed immedi- ately afterwards to Wyoming, where they remained only a short time, and then went to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and from there a large part of them emigrated to the Ohio, whither a considerable number of their tribe had removed many years before, as early as 1725.' The Shawanese, who were originally inhabitants of the country now embraced in Southern Georgia and Florida, were driven from that country by a hostile tribe,^ and came to Pennsylvania about the year 1697, and removed from the Susquehanna to the head of the Ohio about 1728. An account of their coming 1 Conrad Weiser, the Indian trader, Indian agent, and interpreter, in a speecli to tlie cliiefs of the Six Nations at Albany in Jnly, 1754, said, Eoad to Oliio is no new Road. It is an old and frequented Road ; the Shawltinifl|yL]>d Delawares removed thither above thirty years ago from mia, e«r since which that Koad has been traveled by our tradere at their iOTfttSbai, and always with safety until within these few years that the Freooh with their usual faithlessness sent armies there." % 2 Zeislierger, the Moravian, says, "The Shawanos, a warlike people, lived in Florida, but having been a^tdued in war by the Moshkos, they left their land and moved to Susquehanna, and from one place to another. Meeting a strong party of Delawares, and' relating to them their fojlorn condition, they took them into their protection as grajidchildrm ; the Shawanos called the Delaware nation their grandfather. They lived thereui)nn in the Forks of the Delaware, and sattled for a time in Wy- oming. When tbey bad increased again they remWed by degrees to the Allegheny." Wlien they came from the Ea»t to the Ohio, they located at and near Montour's Island, below the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongabela. The Delawares came with them to the West, both tribes having been ordered away from tlie valleys of the Delaware and Susquehanna by the Iroquois, whom they were compelled by conquest to recognize as their mastere. Some writers have said that the Shawanese came from the countr}' west of the Ohio to Pennsylvania, but this is shown to be a mistake by the language of Hetaqnantagetchy,a Six Nation chief.at a council held at Philadelphiii Sept. 10, 1735. He gave an account of the murder of one of the Iroquois Indians by a small band or tribe of the Shawanese who were then located on the Allegheny, and added, " That the tribe of Shawanese complained of is called Shaweygira, and consists of about thirty young men, ten old men, and several women and children ; that it is supposed they are now returned to the place from whence they first came, wJiich is below Carolitiay and subsequent movements is found in the minutes of a treaty council held at Philadelphia with the chiefs of the Six Nations, Aug. 26, 1732. The Shawanese were then settled on the Ohio, and it was desired to induce them to remove back to the Susque- hanna, to remove them from the influence of the French, who, as it was reported, had made their ap- pearance on the Allegheny. The Governor of Penn- sylvania proposed to the Six Nations to use their in- fluence with the Shawanese to that effect, and on the occasion of the council referred to recited to the as- sembled chiefs as follows : " They were told that the Shawanese, who were set- tled to the Southward, being made uneasy by their Neighbours, about Sixty Families of them came up to Conestogoe, about thirty-five years since, and de- sired leave of the Sasquehannah Indians who were planted there to settle on that River ; that those Sas- quehannah Indians applied to this Government that they might accordingly Settle, and they would be- come answerable for their good Behaviour. That our late Proprietor arriving soon after, the Cliiefs of the Shawanese & of the Sasquehannahs came to Phila- delphia & renewed their Application ; that the Pro- prietor agreed to their Settlement, and the Shawanese thereupon came under the Protection of this Govern- ment; that from that time greater Numbers of the same Indians followed them and Settled on the Sas- quehannah and Delaware; that as they had joyned themselves to the Sasquehannah Indians, who were dependent on the five Nations, they thereby also fell under their Protection. That we had held several treaties with those Shawanese, and from their first coming were accounted and treated as our own Indi- ans ; but that some of their young men having, be- tween four and five years since, committed some Dis- orders, tho' we had fully made it up with them, yet, being afraid of the Six Nations, they Inid removed backwards to Ohio, and there had lately putt them- selves under the Protection of the French, who had received them as their children. That we had sent a message to them to return, & to encourage them had laid out a large Tract of Land on the West of the Sasquehannah round the principal Town where they had last been settled, and we desired by all means that they would return thither." But the Shawanese could not be induced to return to the lands which had been laid out for them "near Pextan, which should always be kept for them and their children for all time to come." In response to a message to that eflfect, four of their chiefs, — Ope- kethwa, Opakeita, Quassenungh, and Kataweykeita — went from the Ohio to Philadelphia, where they ar- rived on the 28th of September, 1732,^ and after a council of three days' duration with the Governor, duringwhich heused all his powers of persuasion to in- duce them to consent to the removal, " They answered 3 Col. Rec, iii. 459. THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 17 that the place where they are now settled Suits tlicm much better than to live nearer; that they thought they did a Service to this Province in getting Skins for it in a place so far remote; that they can live much better tliere than they possibly can anywhere on Sasquehannah ; that they are pleased, however, with the Land laid out for them, and desire that it may be secured to them." On the following day at a council held with the chiefs, "They were told there were Coats making for them, and other Cloaths,' with a Present, was providing ; the Proprietor presented their Chief with a very fine gilt Gun, as a mark of respect for their Nation, and told them he would send a Surveyor to run Lines about the Land in- tended for them, and that none but themselves and Peter Chartiere should be allowed to live on it." The attempt to remove them eastward from the Ohio was relinquished, and they, with the Delawares, were found tliere when the first white men (other than a few traders) came to this region. In 1748 the strength of the Delawares at the head of the Ohio was one hundred and sixty-five warriors; that of the Shawanese one hundred and sixty-two;'^ these figures being given by Conrad Weiser. Their chief settlement or village was Logstowu' (called by / the French Chinigue, or Chinique), which was then' located on the right bank of the Ohio, several miles below the mouth of the Allegheny, and where also was the residence of the Iroquois sachem, Tanachari- son, called the Half-King, whose authority over- shadowed that of the Delaware and Shawanese chiefs, because he represented the power of the dreaded Six Nations. The seat of the Delaware " king," however, was not at Logstown, but higher up, near the head of the Ohio, on its left bank. In the journal of Maj. George Washington's trip to the French forts on the 1 The four chiefs received " each of them a blue Cloth Coat lined witli Salloon, a Shirt, a Hatt, a pair of Stocliings, Shoes and buclcles. . . . And for a present to their Nation was ordered and delivered a piece of blue Strouds for blankets, one hundred weight of Powder, four hundred 18 Rum, and two dozen Knives. And to John ) came down with them, five pounds." Two of taken sick with smallpox and died in Phila- " buried in a handsome manner" by the orders weight Bullets, ten gj Wray, the interpreter the chiefs, however, w delphia, where they w of the Governor. 2 Eleven years later (in 1759) George Croghan, deputy Indian agent under Sir William Johnson, in a report made to Gen. Stanwix of the numbers of the several Indian tribes in the West, gave the numbei*s of the Delawares and Shawanese (who prior to that time had removed west- ward from their first location on the Ohio) as follows: "The Delawares residing on the Ohio, Beaver Creek, and other branches of the Ohio, and on the Susquehanna, tlieir fifilitiug men are 600." [A considerable number of the Delawares being still residing on the Susquehanna, and these not being included in Weiser's return of their strength in 1748.] " The Shawanese on Scioto, a branch of Ohio, 400 miles below Pitts- burgh, 3U0 warriors." a When the Indians notified the French to quit the country in 1753 they said, " We have a fire at Logstown, where are the Delawares and Shawanese." — Colonial Recoyds^ v. 667. * .\ later village also called Logstown was Ohio. Logstown was '* the first of the Indian tov caster to Allegheny."— Cb(. Bee, viii. 289. I the opposite side of the Allegheny in the fall of ITiOJi he says, "About two miles from this [the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela], on the southea-st side of the river, at the place where the Ohio Company intended to erect a fort [at or very near the mouth of Chartiers Creek], lives Shingiss, king of the Delawares. We called upon him to invite him to a council at Ijogstown." This same Shingiss, who was generally styled " king," was in some of the official coinmunicationa of that day mentioned as the chief sachem of the Delawares; his brother, Pisquitomen, being also a high chief in the nation. The " king" of the Shawanese in 1753 was Nochecona.'' In 1756, King Shingiss had re- moved his residence from the mouth of Chartiers Creek to "Old Kittaning" on the Allegheny, which was alsp a town of the Delawares. Maj. Edward Ward (who when an ensign, in command of a small force engaged in the spring of 1754 in building a fort at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela, was compelled to surrender the' work to the French, who then named it Fort Du Quesne) said," "That in the year 1752, and before his surrender to the French, there was a small Village Inhabited by the Delawares on the South East side of the Allegheny River, in the neighborhood of that place [the mouth of the Alle- gheny], and that Old Kittaning, on the same side of the said River, was then Inhabited by the Delawares ; that about one-third of the Shawanese Inhabited Loggs Town on the West Side of the ()liio, and tended corn on the East Side of the River, and the other part of the nation lived on the Scioto River." From his stronghold at Kittaning, Shingiss led his Delaware warriors against the settlements east of the mountains in the fall of 1755, after the defeat of Braddock, and at that time and through all the * year 1756 he carried desolation and massacre through all that country from the Potomac to the Dgjj^i^WrtC 1 He was one of the most implacable andjrerocious of I all the savage leaders. " Were hii^War exploits all ^ on record," says Heckewelder, " tjsey would form an "^^ interesting document, though a sHocking one. Cono- J cocheago, Big Cove, Shearman's Valley, and other settlements along the frontier felt his strong arm suf- ficiently to know that he was a bloody warrior, cruel in his treatment, relentless in his fury. His person was small, but in point of courage, activity, and sav- age prowess he was said to have never been exceeded by any one." It appears that he was succeeded by Tomaqui, or "King Beaver," as the latter name is ' found mentioned as that of the head of the Delaware nation in and after 1758. And in a list of Indians s See Colonial Records, v. 685. « In a " Deposition taken March 10, 1777, at the house of Mr. John Ormsby in Pittsburgh, etc., Agreeable to Notice given to Col. Geoi^ Morgan, Agent for the Indiana Company, before James Wood and Cliarles Simms, pureuant to a resolution of the Hon''>", the Convention of Virginiii, appointing them Commissionere for collecting Evidence on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginiaagaiust the several Persons pre- tending to claim Lands within the Territory and Limits tliereof under Deeds of Purchases from Indians." Si IX. I VA ^x^; f- 18 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. present at a treaty council held at Fort Pitt on the 5th of July, 1759, Shingiss, George, and Kickeusking were named as "chiefs and captains," the first named having been deposed from his higher dignity, doubt- less on account of his bloody record as an inveterate enemy of the English, who were then masters of the country. In or about 1753 the Delawares and Shawanese who had previously lived at Logstown removed to Sacunk, or Salt Lick Town, which was located at the mouth of Beaver Creek ; but in 1759 the Delawares had migrated from that place to Kuskusky, or Kus- kuskees, which was some miles above Sacunk, on the Beaver. At a council held on the 25th of February in that year at Fort Pitt (which, as Fort Du Quesne, had been taken from the French by Gen. .Forbes three months before), King Beaver, of the Delawares, said, "The Six nations and you [Col. Hugh Mercer, afterwards Gen. Mercer, who was killed at Princeton, Jan. 3, 1777] desired that I would sit down and smoke my pipe at Kuskusky. I tell you this that you may think no ill of my removing from Sacunk to Kus- ku.sky, for it is at the great desire of my brothers, the English, and my uncles, the Six Nations ; and there I shall always hear your words." From Kuskusky, Sacunk, and Kittaning the Delawares and Shaw- anese not long afterwards migrated to the Muskingum and Scioto. The white traders were persons of no little conse- quence among the Indians. The French traders were here somewhat in advance of those of the English- speaking race, though the latter made their appear- ance among the Delawares and Shawanese soon after their settlement on the Allegheny and Ohio, certainly as early as 1730. The first French trader known to have been among the Indians on the Allegheny was James Le Tort, who probably came as early as 1720. One of the speakers of the Shawanese at a treaty council held in 1732 said that when they (the Shawa- nese) came over the mountains from " Patowmack" (about 1728), they met a French trader, who told them that the French Governor was exceedingly anxious to see them at Montreal, and that upon his advice they went there. This was doubtless the "French gentleman" whom the Indians called Ca- hictodo, and who was frequently mentioned in the proceedings of the Pennsylvania Council in 1731-32. Peter Chartier, whose name was afterwards given to one of the principal streams flowing through the pres- ent county of Washington, went out from Philadelphia to the Allegheny at or very soon after the time when the Shawanese migrated there.' He was the son of a French glover who had been established in that business in Philadelphia,^ and was himself French 1 Chartier had before that time become possessed of a tract of six hun- dred acres of land, near the place from which the Shawanese removed, and mentioned as *' near Pextan." 2 On the 24th of February, 1707, a message " from the Queen of the Con- estogoe Indians**" was received by the Provincial Council of Pennsylva- in all his sympathies and inclinations, though he went to the wilderness ostensibly as an English trader. It is told that he at one time had a trading- post on the Ohio at the mouth of the creek which still bears his name (where King Shingiss was also located, as before mentioned) ; but he also estab- lished himself at a Shawanese village situated on the Allegheny, about twenty miles above the site of Pitts- burgh. This place became known as " Chartier's Old Town." In 1744 he had decided to boldly take the side of the French, who were using great efforts to secure the Indian trade; and on the 18th of April in that year he, with a large body of Shawanese whom he had induced to join him for the purpose, surprised and took prisoners two other traders on the Alle- gheny, robbing them of their entire stock of goods, amounting to sixteen hundred pounds. The names of these two traders were James Dinnew and Peter Tostee. For this and numerous other villanies Char- tier was severely reprimanded and warned by Gov- ernor Thomas, of Pennsylvania, and this was his pretended excuse for joining the French interest, which he did at once, and on the 25th of April, 1745, the Governor announced the fact to the Pro- vincial Council of Pennsylvania. During the same year Chartier persuaded the Shawanese at the Old Town to abandon their settlement at that place and remove to the Scioto. He was rewarded by a com- mission in the French service, but his subsequent career is not known. In 1735, Abraham Wendall, a German trader, was living among the Indians on the Allegheny, this fact being mentioned by one of the Six Nation chiefs at a council held in Philadelphia on the 10th of Septem- ber in that year. The chief also presented a letter from this Wendall, "written in low Dutch, giving in- formation of some violence which had been committed by one of the tribes of the Shawanese." A very early English trader who lived with the Indians on the Allegheny was John Eraser, who was referred to in a letter dated Sept. 9, 1753,' written by Edward Ship- pen, as follows : " Weningo [Venango] is the name of an Indian town on Ohio [as the Allegheny was then often called], where Mr. Eraser has had a gunsmith- shop for many years ; it is situate eighty miles up said river beyond Logs Town." In the summer of 1753, when the French came down the Allegheny in force to build the forts at Le Boeuf and Venango, Eraser was driven away from the latter place and came down the river. Soon afterwards he located on the Monongahela, where he had a trading-post. George Croghan (afterwards deputy Indian agent) nia, informing " that divers Europeans, namely, Mitchel (a Swiss), Peter Bazalion, James Le Tort, Martin Chartiere, the ffrench Glover of Phil- adelphia, ffrank, a young man of Canada who was lately taken up here, being ail fff^climen, and one from Virginia, who also spoke ffrench, had seated themselves, and built Houses upon the branches of the Pa- towmack within this Gov'mt, and pretended that they were in search of some Mineral or ore.*' 3 Col. Kec , V. 660. -^^ "^^kJV THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 19 came among the Ohio River Indians as a trader as early as 1748. Andrew Montour and Conrad Weiser (both afterwards trusted agents of the provincial gov- ernment) came at about the same time. Hugh Craw- ford, John Gray, John Findley, David Hendricks, Aaron Price, Alexander McGinty, Jabez Evans, Jacob Evans, David Hendricks, William Powell, and Thomas Hyde were trading on the Allegheny, Mo- nongahela, and Ohio in 1762, and the six last named were in 1753 taken prisoners on the Allegheny by the French and Indians and sent to Montreal. Be- sides the traders above named, there were several others (whose names are not known) in the region contiguous to the head of the Ohio between 1748 and 1754, when they were all driven out by the French. Their trading-places were principally on the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, with Eraser's and a few others on the Monongahela below the mouth of the Youghiogheny, but none, as far as ascertained, ou the smaller streams or in the interior. There is nothing found either in written history or in tradition, to show that the section of country which now forms the county of Washington was ever the permanent home of any considerable number of Indians. These lands, like all those on the upper Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela, and east- ward to the mountains, though claimed and partially occupied by the Delawares and Shawanese, were owned by their masters, the redoubtable Six Nations,' I The fact that the Six Nations were the acknowledged owners of this region of country, and that the Shawanese and Delawares were here only on sufferance, seems clear. At the treaty council held at Pliiladel- phia, July 12, 1742 (Col. Rec, iv. p. 580), and which has been already mentioned, the Six Nation chief, Canassatego, after a severe reprimand to the Delawares for having presumed to claim and sell lands to the whites, in which he said, " Why did you take it upon you to sell lands at all ? You are women ! you know you are women, and can no more sell lands than women," continued, "After our just reproof and absolute order to depart from the land, you are to take notice of what we have further to iay to you. This string of Wampum serves to forbid you, yourchildren and grandchildren to the latest posteritj', from ever meddling in land affairs ; neither you nor any who shall descend from you are ever here- after to presume to sell any land," At the treaty held with the Indians at Fort Pitt, in May, 1768, a Shawanese chief complained bitterly to the English of their encroach- ments, and said, "We desired you to destroy your forts, . . . Wealsode- sired you not to go down the river," In the next day's council, Guya- Butha, a chief of the Six Nations, rose with a copy of the treaty of 1764, and said, " By this treaty you had a right to build forts and trading, houses where you pleased, and to travel the road of peace from the sun rising to the sun setting. At that treaty the Delawares and Shawanese were with nie and they know all this well, and they should never have spoken to you as they did yesterday," Soon after the Shawanese chief, Eissiiiaughta, rose and said, apologetically, to the English, " You desired US to speak from our hearts and tell you what gave ns uneasiness of mind, and we did so. We are very sorry we should have said anything to give oflTense, and we acknowledge we were in the wrong." In the same year (1768) when the Pennsylvania commissioners, Allen and Shippen, proposed to the Indians to send a deputation of chiefs with the white messengers, Frazer and Thompson, to warn off the white settlers who had located without authority on the Monongahela Kiver and Redstone Creek, the " White Mingo" (whose " Castle" was on the west side of the Allegheny, a few miles above its mouth) and three other chiefs of the Six Nations were selected to go on that mission, but no notice was taken of the Delaware or Shawanese chiefs in the matter, which shows clearly enough that these two tribes were not regarded as having any ownership in the lands. and by them regarded as merely a hunting-ground. At a meeting of the Council of Pennsylvania in August, 1753, "The Governor informed the Council . . . that he had seen Andrew Montour after hi.s Re- turn from Onondago, who told him that the Six Nations (as well as he, Mr. Montour, could learn from the Indians, though there were but few at home whilst he was at Onondago) were against both Eng- lish and French building Forts and settling lands at Ohio, and desired they might both quit that country, and only send a few Traders with Goods sufficient to supply the wants of their Hunters; that they did not like the Virginians and Pennsylvanians making Treaties with these Indians, whom they called Hunt- ers, and young and giddy Men and Children ; that they were their Fathers, and if the English wanted any- thing from these childish People they must first apeak to their Fathers." ' On another occasion (July 31, 1753) the Governor of Pennsylvania received by hand of Andrew Mon- tour a message from the Six Nation chiefs, in which they said, "We thank you for the notice you are pleased to take of those Young Men [the Indians on the waters of the Ohio] and for your kind intentions towards them. They stand in need of your Advice, for they are a great way from us. We, on behalf of all the Indians, our Men, Women, Children, entreat you to give them good Advice. It is a hunting country they live in, and we would have it reserved for this use only, and desire that no Settlements may be made there, though you may trade there and so may the French. . . . We therefore heartily thank you for your Regards to us and our Hunters at Ohio, which we testify by A String of Wampum." The Iroquois owners of the territory extending from the head of the Ohio to the AUeghenies merely per- mitted the Delawares and Shawanese to use it as a hunting-ground, yet they always boldly claimed these lands as their own, except when they were confronted his account of a treaty council i 1751, that " A Dunkard from fe to settle on the Yo-yo-gaine And it is related by George Croghan, i held with the Six Nations at Logstown Virginia came to town and requested le [Yonghioghenyl River, a branch of the Ohio, He was told that he must apply to the Onondiiga Council, and be recommended by the Governor of Pennsylvania," The Onondaga Council was held on a hill near the present site of Syracuse, N.Y., and the central headquarters of the Six Nations. Another fact that shows the Six Nations to have been the recognized owners of this region of country is that when the surveyors were about to extend the Mason and Dixon line westward, in 1767, the proprietaries asked not of the Delawares and Shawanese but of the Iroquois (Six Na- tions) permission to do so. This permission was given by their chiefs, who also sent several of their warriors to accompany the surveying party. Their presence afforded to the white men the desired protection, and the Shawanese and Delawares dared not offer any molestation. But after the Iroquois escort Ieft(a8 they did at a point on the Maryland line), the other Indians became, in the absence of their mastei-s, so de- fiant and threatening th.-vt the surveyors were compelled to abandon the running of the line west of Dunkard Creek. Finally, it was not from the Delawares and Shawanese but from the Six Nations that the Penns purchased this territory by the treaty of Fort Slanwix in 1768. 2 Col. Kec, vol. V. pp. 636-37. "^ 20 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. and rebuked by the chiefs of the Six Nations. At a conference held with the Indians at Fort Pitt in 1768, " the Beaver," a chief, speaking in behalf of the Dela- wares and Mohicans, said, "Brethren, the country lying between the river and the Allegheny Mountain has always been our hunting-ground, and the white people who have scattered themselves over it have by their hunting deprived us of the game which we look upon ourselves to have the only right to. . . ." Washington, in his journal of a trip which he made down the Ohio from the mouth of the Allegheny in 1770, says, "The Indians who reside upon the Ohio, the upper part of it at least, are composed of Sha- wanese, Delawares, and some of the Mingoes. . . ." And it is certain that, though the Iroquois were the owners of these hunting-grounds, they were occupied almost exclusively by the Delawares and Shawanese. From their towns and settlements in the vicinity of the head of the Ohio, went forth from time to time the hunting parties of these tribes, which formed the prin- cipal part of the Indian population of the territory of the present county of Washington, as their temporary camps were almost the only Indian settlements in all the region lying between the Monongahela and the Ohio. On the Monongahela, at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, where the town of Brownsville now stands, was the residence of old Nemacolin, who, as it appears, was a chief, but with very few, if any, warriors under him, though it is not unlikely that he had had a re- spectable following in the earlier years, before the whites found him here. It was this Indian who guided Col. Thomas Cresap across the Alleghenies in the first journey which he made to the West from Old Town, Md., for the Ohio Company in 1749. The route which they then pursued was known for many years fas "Nemacolin's path." Later in his life this Indian j removed from the jMonongahela and located on the / Ohio River. It is believed that the place to which he removed was the island now known as Blennerhas- sett's Island, in the Ohio, below Parkersburg, W. Va. ; the reason for this belief being that there is found, in Gen. Richard Butler's jouraal of a trip down that river in 1785, with Col. James,.Monroe (afterwards President of the United States), to treat with the Miami Indians, mention of their passing, in the river between the mouths of the Little Kanawlia and Hock- ing, an island called " Nemacolin's Island." This was, without nuich doubt, the later residence of the old chief of that name. An old Indian named Bald Eagle, who had been a somew^hat noted warrior (but not a chief) of the Delawaretribe, had his home somewhere on the Up- per Monongahela, but at what point is not precisely known. He was a very harmless and peaceable man and friendly to the settlers, yet he was killed without cause about 1770, and the cold-blooded murder was charged by the Indians upon white men. Of the Bald Eagle and the circumstances of his death Veech says, " He was on intimate terms with the early set- tlers, with whom he hunted, fished, and visited. He was well known along our Monongahela border, up and down which he frequently passed in his canoe. Somewhere up the river, probably about the mouth of Cheat, he was killed, by whom or on what pretense is unknown." His dead body, placed upright in his canoe, with a peace of corn-bread in his clinched teeth, was set adrift in the river." The canoe drifted ashore on the east side of the Monongahela, a short distance above the mouth of Ten-Mile Creek, where the wife of a settler recognized the old Indian and wondered that he did not leave his canoe. She ex- amined more closely and found he was dead. This murder was regarded as a cold-blooded and unpro- voked outrage by both Indians and whites. It is said that the early settlers who came into what is now Washington County found here several In- dian villages or camps ; one of these being on Ten- Mile Creek, a short distance from the Monongahela, one on the Dutch Fork of Buffalo Creek, one on Rac- coon Creek, in what is now Hanover township, and another on Mingo Creek. But this is only vague tradition, and it is by no means certain that any such ever existed at the places mentioned; and if they were there, it is not probable that they were anything more than tempoi'ary camps. The only Indian set- tlement of which there is any authentic account as having existed in Washington County was the one known all over Western Pennsylvania as Catfish Camp, located on ground that is within the limits of the present borough of Washington, on the small stream called by the Indians Wissameking, one of the ( branches of Chartiers Creek. This settlement, how- ' ever, was not an Indian village, but merely for a time the residence or camp of the old Delaware, Tingooqua, or Catfish, who had been in his younger days a war- rior (but not a chief) of that nation.^ Mention of 1 Withere. in his " Chronicles of Border Warfare," states the case dif- ferently, and gives the names of the murderers. He says, •' The Bald Eagle was an Indian of notoriety, not only among his own nation, hut also with the inhabitants of the Northwestern frontier, with whom he was in the habit of associating and hunting. In one of his visits among them he was discovered alone by Jacob Scott, William Hacljer, and Eli- jah Runner, who, reckless of the consequences, murdered him, solely to gratify a most wanton thirst for Indian blood. After the commission of this moat outrageous enormity, they seated him in the stern of a canoe, with a piece of journey-cake thrust into his mouth, and set him afloat in the Monongahela." 2 In some accounts of this Indian he is mentiooed as " a celebrated Indian Chief, whose Indian name was Tingoocqua, or Cattish, who be- longed to the KuBkuskee tribe of Indians, and occupied the huuting- grounds between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River." But from his own words at the treaty council, as quoted in the text, it appears clear that he was not a chief, for he says, " I am only a messenger," that is, the bearer of a message from the chiefs of his people. As to his hav- ing been a member of '* the Kuskuskee tribe of Indians," it is proper to mention that Kuskuskes was a place or settlement, to which the Dela- wares had then recently removed from their older town of Sacunk at the mouth of Beaver. Of this new settlement of the Delawares Ch. Frederick Post said in July, 1758," Kuskuskee is divided into four towns, each at a distance from the otliei-s,and the wholecunsistsof about ninety houses and two hundred able warriors." That Kuskuskes was the name of the place where Catfish then came from, instead of being the name ^ ^tt- k/ /I- THE FRENCH AND EiNGLISH CLAIMS TO THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY REGION. 21 this Indian is found in the proceedings of a treaty council held in the State-House at Philadelphia, Dec. ! 4, 1759, on which there were present among others Tingooqua and Joshua, "messengers from the Ohio." j " Tingooqua, alias Catfish,' arose, and taking four ; strings of Wampum, held two of them in his Fingers ' separate, and spoke: 'Brother, — I have not much to ' say; I am only a messenger; I came from Kuskus- kes ; The Nation I belong to, as well as many others to the West of us, as far as the setting of the sun, have lieard that you and Teedyuscung sat often together in council, and at length agreed upon a Peace ; and We are glad to hear that the Friendship and Harmony whfch of old always subsisted between our and your ancestors was raised up again and established once more. This was very agreeable to us, and We came here to see if what was related was true ; and we find it is true, which gives us great Satisfaction.' " Then taking hold of the other two Strings he pro- ceeded : ' Brother, — Now that Teedyuscung and you have, thro' the goodness of Providence, brought about a peace, we entreat you to be strong ; don't let it slip; don't omit anything to render it quite secure and last- ing ; hold it fast; consider our aged Men and our young Children, and for their sakes be strong, and never rest till it be thoroughly confirmed. All the Indians at Allegheny desire you to do so, and they will do all they can likewise.' Gave a String of Wampum. " ' Brother, — We make eleven Nations on the West of Allegheny who have heard what you and Teedyus- cung have concluded at the Treaty of Easton, and as we all heartily agree to it, and are determined to join in it, we have opened a Road to where Teedyuscung Lives, and we, the Messengers, have traveled much to our satisfaction on the Koad wliich he has made from his habitation to this Town. We have found it a very good Road, and all our Nations will use this Road for the time to come. We say nothing of the Six Nations ; We do not reckon them among the Eleven Nations. We leave you to treat with them yourselves. We make no Road for them ; This is your own affair. We only tell you we do not in- clude them in anything We say. I have done.' Gave four Strings of Wampum." Neither the time when old Catfish withdrew from the main body of his tribe and took up his residence on the banks of Wissameking nor the duration of his stay at that place is known. He was found living there as early as 1770, and remained several years (making in that time two or three slight changes in the location of his camp or cabin), and afterwards mi- of bis tribe or nation, is proved by his own words, given in the minutes of the treaty council referred to, viz.: "The messenger observing one Sarah Gladdin amongst tlie people that were present, atUhessed the Gov- ernor, and told him ' That he had in his house a son of this woman's, a prisoner, tU A'nstu«ite«,and that he would take care he should'be delivered in the spring.' " Kuskuskes, then the principal settlement of the Del- awares, was at that time the home of Catflsb, who was himself a Dehi- grated to the Scioto country, where he died. For many years after his removal the place where he had lived in this county continued to be occasionally mentioned as " Catfish's Camp," and the name is still well known at the present day. Beyond the story of old Catfish, and the doubtful traditions already mentioned of the existence of a few Indian settlements within the present limits of Wash- ington County, there is, with reference to tiiat terri- tory, no Indian history to be given for the years prior to the opening of " Dunmore's war," in 1774. From that time on through the border warfare that raged until after the close of the Revolution the annals of this region are full of stirring events, — Indian incursions, ma.ssacres, and alarms, — which are to be narrated in succeeding chapters covering the period from 1774 to 1783. CHAPTER II. 1 Col. Records, vol. . p. 417. THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIM.< TO THE TRANS- ALLEGHENY REGION— GEORGE WASHINGTON'S VISIT TO THE FRENCH FORTS IN 1753. The earliest written annals having reference to the region of country bordering the head-streams of the Ohio River date back to the year 1669, in which year the great French explorer, Robert Cavelier La Salle (having first obtained permission from the Governor- General of Canada), fitted out at his own expense an expedition having for its ultimate object the discovery and exploration of a great river (the Mississippi), which Indians reported to exist five hundred leagues westward from Montreal, and which was then sup- posed to flow into the Vermillion Sea, or Gulf of California. Setting out from La Chine, onytfee'Siri Lawrence, in July of the year named, h^goon reached the western end of Lake Ontario, wfttre he was taken ill with a fever, and during his sickness a part of his men deserted, which made it impracticable for him to continue by the route which he had originally de- cided on, which was through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron, and Michigan to a point near the site of the present city of Chicago, and thence overland. This plan of La Salle being thus frustrated by the loss of his men, he nevertheless determined not to give up the enterprise, and as soon as he had fully re- covered he again started on his way with the remainder of his followers, crossed the Niagara River between the falls and Lake Erie, passed through the country of the Five Nations, found the Allegheny River, built canoes, embarked, and paddled down that stream to its confluence with the Jlonongahela, and thence down the Ohio to where they found its current broken by rapids, these being the same now known as the Falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, Ky. There his men positively refused to proceed farther down the river, and he was compelled to return, little thinking, prob- ^ 22 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. ably, how near he had approached to the great river which it was the object of his journey to discover. Thirteen years later he reached it by a more northern route, passed down its swift current to the mouth, where, on the 9th of April, 1682, in full sight of the blue expanse of the Gulf of Mexico, he reared a cross, and a column inscribed with the name and arms of the French sovereign, and took possession for hira of the valley of the Mississippi and a con- tiguous country of indefinite extent, which he named Louisiana, embracing, according to the French theory of possession, all the valley of the mighty stream and all the regions watered by its tributaries discovered and to be discovered in the future. There is no doubt that La Salle and the party who came with him down the Allegheny in 1669 were the first Europeans who ever saw that stream, the Monon- gahela, or the Ohio. Very little is known of any white visitors who came after them to this region during the eighty years next succeeding, for there is no definite account of the presence in this section of country of any other people than the native Indians and occasionally a white trader until near the middle of the eighteenth century, at which time both France and England were asserting their respective claims to the dominion of this wilderness region west of the mountains. It was in the conflict which resulted from the attempts of each of these rivals to expel the other, and to enforce their own alleged rights by the fact of actual possession, that the events occurred that are here to be narrated, and which mark the be- ginning of the history of the southwestern counties of Pennsylvania. The English claimed the country by virtue of a treaty made with the Six Nations at Lancaster in June, 1744, when the Indians ceded to the British / king an immense scope of territory west of the royal ! grant to Penn,' co-extensive with the limits of Vir- ginia, which at that time were of indefinite extent. A^^ At a subsequent treaty held (in 1752) at Logstown, on the Ohio, below Pittsburgh, one of the Iroquois chiefs, who had also taken part in the Lancaster treaty, declared that it had not been the intention of , his people to convey to the English any lands west y , of the Alleghenies, but that, nevertheless, they would T I not oppose the white man's definition of the bound- l / aries. / The Six Nations in council had also decided that, notwithstanding their friendship for the English, they would remain neutral in the contest which they saw was imminent between that nation and the French, boch of which were now using every effort to strengthen themselves in the occupation of the territory bordering the head-waters of the Ohio. The claim which France made to the ownership of the territory at the head of the Ohio was based on 1 It was supposed at that time that Penn's western boundary would not fall to the westward of the Laurel Hill. La Salle's discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi nearly seventy years before, and on the possession then taken for the French king of all the regions watered by that river and all its affluents. To fortify and confirm this claim they took measures to occupy the country bordering on the head-streams of the Ohio, and in this they were somewhat earlier, as well as more active and energetic, than the English. The first mention found in any public document of the actual or probable presence of French people on any part of the territory of the province of Pennsyl- vania with intent to occupy the same under authority of their government is that which occurs in the records of a session of the Provincial Council^ helcl at Philadelphia, Aug. 4, 1731. The message of the Governor which was on that occasion laid before the Council, and " being approved was ordered to be sent down to the House," concluded with these words : " I have also another Affair of very great Import- ance to the Security of this Colony & all its Inhabit- ants to lay before you, which shall speedily be com- municated to you," and " The Governor then proceeded to inform the Board that the Matter mentioned in the close of the preced- ing Message related to Indian Affairs, & would be found to be likewise of very great Consequence to the whole Province, the Detail whereof His Honor said he would leave to Mr. Logan, to whom the Infor- mation had been first given, and who, from his long experience and knowledge in those affairs, could give the best Account of it. " That Gentleman then producing the Map of Louisiana, as inserted in a book called a New Gen- eral Atlas, published at London in the year 1721, first observed from thence how exorbitant the French Claims were on the Continent of America ; that by the Description in the said Map they claimed a great part of Carolina and Virginia, & had laid down Sas- quehannah as a Boundary of Pensilvania. Then he proceeded to observe that by Virtue of some Treaty, as they alledge, the French pretend a Eight to all Lands lying on Rivers, of the Mouths of which they are possessed. That the River Ohio (a branch of Mississippi) comes close to those mountains which lye about 120 or 130 Miles back of Sasquehannah, within the boundaries of this Province, as granted by the King's Letters Patent; that adjoining thereto is a fine Tract of Land called Allegheny, on which sev- eral Shawanese Indians had seated themselves; And that by the Advices lately brought to him by several Traders in those parts it appears that the French have been using Endeavours to gain over those Indians to their interest, & for this End a French Gentleman had come amongst them some years since, sent, as it was believed, from the Governor of Mon- treal, and at his Departure last year carried with him some of the Shawanese Chiefs to that Governour, ' Colonial Becords, vol. iii. pp. 401, 402. THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS TO THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY REGION. 23 with whom they, at their Return, appeared to be highly pleased ; That the same French Gentleman, with five or six others in Company with him, had this last Spring again come amongst the said Indians, and brought with him a Shavvanese Interpreter, was well received by them, had again carried some of their Chiefs to the said Gov'r, & the better to gain the Affections of the said Indians brought with him a Gunsmith to work for tliem gratis. Mr. Logan then went on to represent how destructive this At- tempt of the French, if attended with Success, may prove to the English Interest on this Continent, and how deeply in its consequences it may affect this Province, & after having spoken fully on these two heads. Moved that to prevent or putt a stop to these designs, if possible, a treaty should be sett on foot with the five Nations, who have an absolute author- ity as well over the Shavvanese as all our Indians, that by their means the Shawanese may not only be kept firm to the English Interest, but likewise be in- duced to remove from Allegheny nearer to the Eng- lish Settlements, and that such a treaty becomes now the more necessary because 'tis several years since any of those Nations have visited us, and no opportunity ought to be lost of cultivating & improving the Friendship which has always subsisted between this Government & them. . . ." In the following year, on the 2oth of August, at a council held at Philadelphia with several chiefs of the Six Nations,' further iuformation was gained con- cerning the movements of a certain Frenchman among the Shawanese on the Allegheny River. At this convention with the Six Nation chiefs, Hetaquan- tagetchty, the principal speaker, said, " That last Fall the French Interpreter, Cahictodo, came to Ohio River (or Alleganey) to build houses there, and to supply the Indians with goods, which they no sooner understood than they went out to forbid him, telling him that the lands on the Ohio belonged to the Six Nations, that the French had nothitig to do with them, and advised him to go home; but he not re- garding their advice proceeded, upon which they sent to the French Governour to complain, but their Messengers were not returned when they came from home. That they know nothing certainly of what passed between Cahictodo and the Shawanese at Ohio." The speaker was then asked, " Were not the French angry with those People for passing them and bring- ing their Peltry to trade with the English, and did they not endeavour to hinder them ?" To which he replied, " The French are angry, and not only en- deavour to stop them, but threaten them, and some of those nations expect the French will fall on them ; but they regard it not ; they find better usage from the English, and will have no more dealings with the French." 1 Colonial Records, vol. lii. pp. 439-40. The Frenchman whom the Iroquois speaker called Cahichtodo was doubtless the same one who was men- tioned in the proceedings of the Provincial Council in August of the previous year as above quoted ; but it does not appear from the account that he came to the Allegheny in any other capacity than that of a trader desirous of furnishing the Shawanese with goods in exchange for their peltry. The first attempt on the part of either government to enforce their claims by taking actual possession of the region west of the Alleghenies in what is now the State of Pennsylvania was made by the French in 1749, in which year the commandant-general of Canada sent out an expedition under command of Louis Bienville de Celeron, with orders to proceed to the head of the Ohio,'' and thence down that stream, taking formal possession of its valley and the con- tiguous country; not, however, according to the En- glish method, by establishing military posts and buildings and garrisoning forts, but by planting crosses and posts bearing devices representing the royal arms and insignia of France, and burying me- tallic plates duly inscribed with a record of the event, as evidences of actual occupation. The commander of the expedition performed the duty assigned to him, and in the manner indicated, erecting monuments and burying plates of lead at various points along the Allegheny and Ohio. Some of the Indians in the Seneca country (which embraced all the val- ley of the Upper Allegheny) obtained possession of one of these plates by some artifice (probably by digging it up after it had been buried by Celeron), and it was taken by a Cayuga sachem and delivered to Col. (afterwards Sir William) Johnson, as will be more fully mentioned hereafter. The plate was of lead, three-eighths of an inch in thickness, and ab'ourt eleven by seven and one-half inches on the face, upon | which was stamped and cut^ in rude capitals the fol- ^ lowing inscription in old French, viz. : h'A'S 1740, DV EEGNE DE LOVIS XV. ROY DE FRANCE NOVS CELERON COMMANDANT D VN DE- TACHMENT ENVOI PAR MONSIEVE LE MARQUIS DE LA GALISSONIERE COMMANDANT GENERAL DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE POVR RETABLIR LA TEANQUIL- 2 Meaniug the haodoftbe river since known as the .\Uegheny, which having been discovered by tlie French explorers many years before any- thing was known of the Monongahela, was in those early times regarded as the main stream. The Iroquois name of the Allegheny was 0-hee-go, and the French adventurers who passed down its current to the present city of Pittsburgh rendered the name Ohio (or sometimes Ojjo), in con- formity with the orthography of their language. In the English the protnuiciatioii only is changed. It was not the French alone who re- garded the Allegheny as the main Ohio, for we find that Washington in his journal and dispatche.s mentioned Venango as being situated "on the Ohio." Another name which the French gave to the Ohio, and ap- plied to the stream even to the head of the .\Ilegheny, was " La Belle Riviere,"— The Beautiful River. 3 The whole inscription was stamped except the date and place of inter- ment. These were cut with a knife or other sharp instrument in spaces which had been left blank for the purpose. The name " Paul de Brosse" was stamped on the back of the plate. 2-t HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. LITE DANS QTTELQUES VILLAGES SAUVAGES DE CES CANTONS, AVONS ENTEERE CE PLAQVE AtT CONFLU- ENT DE L'OHIO ET DE TCHADAKOIN CE 29 JVILLET PRES DE LA RIVIERE OYO, AUTREMENT BELLE RIVIERE, POUR MONUMENT DE RENOUVELLEMENT DE POSSESSION QVE NOVS AVONS PRIS DE LA DITTE RIVIERE OYO ET DE TOVTES CELLES QVI Y TOM- BEXT, ET DE TOVTES LES TERRES DES DEUX COTES JVSQVE AUX SOVECES DES DITTES RIVIERES AINSI QV'EN ONT .TOVI OU DV JOVIR LES PRECEDENTS ROIS DE FRANCE ET QVILS s'y SONT MAINTENVS PAR LES AEMES, ET PAR LES TRAITES SPECIALEMENT PAR CEVS DE RISVICK d'VTRECHT ET d'AIX-LA- CHAPELLE.' The expedition, sent out by command of the Mar- quis de la Galissoniere, as indicated by the inscrip- tions on tlie plates, was composed of the commandant, De Celeron (who was a captain in the French service and a chevalier of the Order of St. Louis), the Rev. Father Bonnecamps, a Jesuit, who was chaplain, " mathematicien," navigator, and astronomer for the party. Messieurs Contrecoeur, de Saussaye, Le Borgne, Philip and Chabert Joncaire,^ and Coulon de Villiers (the last mentioned of whom, as also Contrecoeur, afterwards took jjrominent parts in the campaigns against Washington and Braddock), two other officers and six cadets of the French service, twenty four French soldiers, including petty officers and a gun- smith, fifty Indians of the Canadian tribes friendly to the French, and nearly two hundred voyageurs, who were to perform the severe labor of the expe- dition.^the paddling of the canoes, the transporta- tion at the portages, and other kinds of heavy work. The detachment was abundantly supplied with arms, military equipments, and ammunition. The embarras ,'of the cainpaign consisted of the necessary camp equipage, tool^and implements, leaden slabs to be / buried at promiii^nt points, provisions, and a large ^' amount of merchandise intended for presents to the Indians of the Ohio Valley. A journal of the expe- ! dition was kept by Cel'erou. Father Bonnecamps / also kept a journal, and made a map of the route, or I what purported to be one, but which was very incor- f rect with regard to the rivers and smaller streams. The officers and men of the expedition, having em- barked in canoes, with their equipment and material, at La Chine, on the St. Lawrence, a few miles above 1 Translation : In the year 1749, of the reign of Louis XV., king of France, we, Celeron, commandant of a iletaclimentsentby Monsieur the Marquis de la Galissoniere, commandant-general of New France, tore- store tranquillity in certain Indian villages of these districts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Oliio and Tchadakoin [Chautaucjua], this 20th of July, near the River Oliio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession tliat we have taken of the said river Ohio and of all those which fall into it, and of all tlie lands on both sides as far as to the sources of said rivers, which the preceding kings of France have rightfully enjoyed and njairitaiiied by arms and by trea- ties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-CliapHlle. - Sons of Chabert Joncaire, who lived among the Iroquois for many years, and died at Niagara in 1740. Montreal, left the former place on the 15th of June, 1749, and proceeded up the great river to Lake On- tario, thence along the southern shore of that lake to Fort Niagara, where they arrived on the 6th of July. They made no halt here, but moved at once to the portage, and commenced the work of trans- porting their material and stores by land around the cataract. This labor occupied a week, and on the 13th they were again afloat on the waters of Niagara River above the rapids. From the river they entered Lake Erie, and pulled along its southeastern shore towards the landing-place of the portage over which they were to pass to reach the lake now called Chau- tauqua. Twice they were compelled by strong head winds to disembark and encamp on the shore, waiting for a favorable change of weather, but finally in the afternoon of the 16th they reached the landing-place, where the company disembarked, and the commander sent out two of his officers with a party of men to mark and clear the first part of the portage route. They had heavy work before them, — to carry the canoes, laden with all their impedimenta, tons in weight, to be relaunched on the waters of an inland lake more than seven hundred feet higher than those of Erie,' and with an intervening ridge of fully two hundred feet additional altitude to be crossed in the portage of nearly ten miles in length. But it appears that Celeron took little account of the obstacles con- fronting him, and here, as at other stages of his long and difficult journey, he pushed on without hesitation and with remarkable energy. At dawn in the morn-- ing of the 17th he put his men in motion, and although the way was rugged, steep, and in many places appar- ently impassable, and a serious delay was caused by a heavy rain-storm, they traversed the portage, heavily laden as they were, in less than six full days, arriving on the shore of the highland lake on the 22d. It is not improbable that the small stream since known as Chautauqua Creek afforded them some little facility for water carriage, but if so it could only have been for a very small proportion of the distance between the two lakes. At the end of the portage they halted a while to repair the canoes and give the wearied voyageurs an opportunity for a little rest after their fatiguing march from the shore of Lake Erie, but early in the day on the 23d the flotilla moved briskly on through the bright waters of Chautauqua, and in the same even- ing the men bivouacked on its shore within a league of the outlet through which the surplus waters of the lake flow to Conewango Creek, and with the current of the latter stream to the Allegheny. At this camp- ground some of the Iroquois warriors of Celeron's party came on and reported that w-hile fishing during the afternoon they had seen Indians, apparently 3 Chautauqua Lake is seven hundred and twenty-four and a half feet above the level of Lake Erie. The distance, as now traveled, between the two lakes is about eiglit and a half miles, but there is do reason to suppose Celeron made it in less than ten. THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS TO THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY REGION. 25 scouts, watching the movements of the canoe fleet, and that these had immediately disappeared when they found they were discovered. This circumstance gave Celeron no little concern, and at the end of the next day's journey he convened a council, hy which it was decided to send out an officer with a party of the Canadian Iroquois who accompanied the expedi- tion, taking belts of wampum and some presents, to find the scouts who had caused the alarm, accompany them to their villages, and there use all means to con- ciliate the people and allay their fears with regard to the objects of the advancing French column. In ac- cordance with this decision, a party of the Canadian Indians was sent out under command of one of the Joncaires, who, failing to find the scouts on the path, proceeded to the Indian village of Broken Straw (called by the French Faille Couple), where, as it appears, he was known, as had also been his father (Chabert Joncaire) before him. There he made some friendly and conciliatory speeches, to which the In- dians in turn replied in equally friendly terms, yet still remained distrustful of the French and of the objects of the expedition. The progress made by Celeron's force on the 24th of July was small. Embarking in the morning of that day, they soon reached and entered the outlet- stream, but the water was so low that it was found necessary to lighten the canoes, and carry a part of their loads overland to the deeper water below, so that at night the canoes had not advanced more than two miles down the stream. During the five days next succeeding their progress was but little more rapid, on account of low water, shoals, and tortuous chan- nel, so that it was not until midday of the 29th that they debouched into the broad current of the Alle- gheny, which they called La Belle Riviere. At the place where Celeron entered the Allegheny from the Conewango, " at the foot of a red-oak on the south bank of the Ohio River, and opposite a little island at the confluence of the two rivers, Ohio and Kanaugon" ' (Conewango), he buried one of his leaden plates in token of French occupation and dominion. The arms of the king of France were affixed to a tree near by the place, and the other ceremonies usual among the French when taking pretended possession of new countries in the name of their sovereign were observed on this occasion. Every movement of the French was seen and noted by the Indian scouts who were constantly lurking along their flanks, and who, of course, knew the spot where Celeron buried the metallic tablet. It is there- fore probable that the plate which was buried oppo- site the mouth of the Conewango on the 29th of July was afterwards disinterred by the Indians, and that it was the same which was carried by the Cayuga sa- chem to Col. Johnson. The principal reasons for supposing this to have been the case are, first, that the date on the tablet was the same as that on which Celeron buried the plate opposite the mouth of the Conewango, and, second, that the inscription is to the effect that it was buried on the bank of the (Jliio (Allegheny) at its confluence with another stream, the only discrepancy being that the name of that other stream as cut upon the plate differs from tliat which Celeron in his journal gives to the Conewango. But this fact is by no means fatal to the supposition that the plate brought to Col. Johnson was the .same which Celeron buried at that place, for at that time among the Indians a stream was frequently known by as many as four or five diflferent names. The name of the stream in question (the Conewango) was spelled by Celeron in his journal in one place Kanaaiagon. and in another place Chanougon, while his "mathe- maticien," Bonnecamps. spelled it Kananouangon. It seems very reasonable to suppose that the stream down which the French came from the lake, Tchada- koin (Chautauqua), should have been called by them by the same name, and that they should have that name on the slab, with the date, at the time they buried it. There was an Indian village on the Cone- wango near its mouth called Kanaouagon, which the French visited after the ceremony of burying the plate. The Indian residents of this place called the stream and their village by the same name, which, as it appears, was then adopted by Celeron in place of the other name, Tchadakoin. But these are mere speculations, the facts can never be certainly known. On the last day of July the expedition left the Indian settlement at the mouth of the Conewango and proceeded down the Allegheny, passing several Indian villages. At night the canoes were made fast to the shore, and the company encamped on the bank of the river, with sentinels regularly posted in accord-_ ance with military usage. This precautftMj,KwJt9-^ inclined to form an alliance with the French or to yield the possession of the country to them, and they were too well disposed towiuds tlie English traders to relish their summary expulsion. The French commandant made a speech to them which they thought insulting, telling them that all the valley of the Beautiful Eiver was owned by his master, the king of France ; that Frenchmen would supply them with goods, and that none others would be permitted to do so ; that he was then on his way down the river to reprimand the Wyandots and other Western Indians, and to whip them to their homes for having traded with the Eng- lish. All this had the effect to incense the savages against (he French. There were at Logstown a con- siderable number of Iroquois and Abenakis, and the dissatisfaction felt by these being communicated to their Canadian kinsmen who were with Celeron, caused them to refuse to go fjirther with the expedi- tion. They returned to their homes in the north, passing up the Allegheny River, over the route by which the expedition came, and tearing off the cop- per plates blazoned with the royal arms of France from the trees to which they had been afiixed by Cel- eron's orders. Whether they also dug up the leaden slabs which had been buried on the shores of the Allegheny is not known, but it is not unlikely that they did so. On the voyage down the Ohio from Logstown (or Chiningue) Celeron caused plates to be buried at four different points, viz. : at Kanououara or Wheeling Creek, on the 13th of August; at the mouth of the river Muskingum,' on the 15th of the same month ; at the mouth of Chinondaista (now known as the Great Kanawha), on the 18th ; and at the mouth of the Big Miami, on the 31st of August. This was the end of Celeron's voyage down the Ohio. From this point the expedition passed up the Miami to the head of canoe navigation, then marched through the wil- derness to the Miami of the Lake (now the Maumee), and floated down that stream to Lake Erie. Thence, by way of that lake, the Niagara River (portaging round the falls as before). Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River, Celeron and his party returned to Montreal, where they arrived Nov. 10, 1749. In theory they had taken actual and permanent possession of the Upper Ohio Valley, and those of its tributaries (the lower river to the Gulf of Mexico being already in French occupation), but in fact they had accom- plished nothing, for instead of securing the friend- ship and alliance of the Indians living on the Alle- gheny and Ohio Rivers, they had intensified the distrust and enmity of those savages. The Pennsyl- vania and Virginia traders, too, who had been driven away by Celeron returned to Logstown immediately after his departure,^ and were made welcome by the Indians, who made haste to renew their assur- ances of undiminished friendship for their brethren, the English. In reference to the expedition of Celeron and his planting of the leaden plates, intended as a memorial and proof of the French occupation of the valley of the Ohio River, some extracts are here given from the minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania,* viz. : 1 The plates buried at the Muskingum and Kanawha were afterwards discovered, the former in the year 1798 by some boys who were bathing in the stream. Seeing a part of it protruding from the bank they dug it out, and knowing nothing of its historical value, cut off a part of it and melted the lead for bullets. The other part, however, was obtained from the boys by a gentleman, who sent it to Governor DeWitt Clinton, of New York, and it is still in existence in Boston, Mass. The plate which was buried at the mouth of tlie Kanawha was found in March, 184G, by a boy (a son of J. W. Beale, of Point Pleasant, Va.), who in playing along the river-bank saw the edge of the plate a few feet below the surface. It was dug out and preserved, witli the inscription, entire. - George Croghan, who was sent out by the Governor of Pennsylvania in August, 1749, with presents and belts to the Ohio Indians, reached Logstown Boou after the French left, and in his report to the Governor he mentioned that "Monsieur Calderon with two hundred French soldiers" had left the village and gone down the river a short time pre- vious to his arrival there. 3 See Colonial Records, vol. v. p. 507, et aeq. THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS TO THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY REGION. 27 " 2d February, 1750. " The Governor having received by the last Post a Letter from Governor Clinton [of New York] with some Papers relating to Indian Affairs, the same were read and sent to the Assembly, and are as follows : " A Letter from Governor Clinton to Governor Hamilton. "Sir, — Your Favour of the 22d instant I have re- ceived, and am glad that you are of the same opinion with me in relation to Indian Affairs. I send you a copy of an Inscription on a leaden Plate stolen from Jean Coeur [Joncaire] some months since in the Sen- ecas' Country as he was going to the River Ohio, which plainly demonstrates the French Scheme by the ex- orbitant claims therein mentioned ; also a copy of a Cajuga Sachim's Speech to Colo. Johnson, with his Reply, on the subject matter of the plate, which I hope will come time enough to communicate to your Assembly." This letter of Governor Clinton was dated " Fort George, 29th January, 17.50." The speech of the Ca- yuga sachem, who, with a number of other Indians of the Five Nations, was at the house of Col. John- son, is given in the minutes, as follows : " Brother Corlear and Warraghiyagee [Gray Eyes]. I am sent here by the Five Nations (with a Piece of writing which the Senecas, our Brethren, got by some Artifice from Jean Caur) to you Earnestly beseeching you will let us know what it means, and, as we put all our confidence in you our Brother, hope you will explain it ingeniously to us. [The speaker here de- livered the square leaden plate and a wampum belt, and proceeded.] I am ordered further to acquaint you that Jean Coeur, the French Interpreter, when on his Journey (this last summer) to Ohio River, Spoke thus to the Five Nations & Others in our Alliance : " ' Children, — Your Father [meaning the French Governor] having, out of a tender regard for you, considered the great difficulties you labour under by carrying your Goods, Canoes, &c., over the great Car- rying Place of Niagara, has desired me to acquaint you that, in order to ease you all of so much trouble for the future, he is resolved to build a House at the other end of said carrying Place, which he will fur- nish with all necessaries requisite for your use. . . .' Jean Cceur also told us that he was now on his way to Ohio River, where he intended to stay three years, and desired some of Us to accompany him thither, which we refused ; whereupon he answered he was much surprised at our not consenting to go with him, inasmuch as it was for our interest and ease he was sent thither to build a House there ; also at the carrying place between said River Ohio and Lake Erie,' where all the Western Indians should be supplied with whatever Goods they may have occa- 1 The land carriage between Late Erie and Cbatitauqiia Lake, N. Y., and that between the lower end of that lalie and tlie Conewaiigo Creek, which flows into tlie Allegheny. sion for, and not be at the trouble and loss of time of going so far to Market as usual [meaning OswegoJ. After this he desired to know our opinion of the Affair and begged our consent to build in said Places. He gave us a large Belt of Wampum thereon de- siring our answer, which we told him we would take some time to consider of" To this speech Col. William Johnson replied, as- suring the Cayuga sachem and his associates that he was always glad to see the Indians at his house, but particularly so on that occasion, as it gave him an opportunity of convincing them that their friends, the English, were worthy of their fullest confidence, while the French were and had always been their worst enemies. " But their scheme," added he, " now laid against you and yours (at a time when they are feeding you up with fine Promises of serving you in several Shapes) is worse than all the rest, as will appear by their own writing on this Plate.* This is an aflfair of the greatest Importance to you, as nothing less than all your Lands and best Hunt- ing places are aimed at, with a view of secluding you entirely from us and the rest of your brethren, viz., the Philadelphians, Virginians, etc., who can always supply you with the necessaries of life at a much lower rate than the French ever did or could, and under whose protection you are and ever will be safer and better served in every respect than under the French. These and a hundred other substantial reasons I could give you to convince you that the French are your implacable enemies, but, as I told you before, the very Instrument you now brought me of their own writing is sufficient of itself to convince the world of their villanous designs ; therefore I need not be at the trouble, so shall only desire that you and all other Nations in Alliance with you seriously consider your own Interest, and by no la^aflS^ submit to the impending danger which now threatens I you, the only way to prevent whigh is to turn Jean ' Coeur away immediately from Ohio, and tell him that the French shall neither biiild there or at the carrying Place of Niagara, nor have a foot of land more from you. Brethren, what I now say I expect and insist upon it being taken notice of and sent to the Indians of the Ohio, that they may immediately know the vile designs of the French." A belt of wampum was then presented, and the Indian speaker replied, — " Brother Corlaer and Warraghiyagee, I have with great attention and Surprise heard you repeat the substance of that Devilish writing which I brought you, and also with pleasure noticed your just Re- marks thereon, which really agree with my own sen- 2 At this point in his speech to the Indians Col. Johnson translated to them the words upon the leaden plate. " I repeat here," he says, ia hia report of the conference, " the Substance of saiii writing, icUh sume necessnry addUions, Giving a large Belt of Wampum to confirm what I said, which Belt, with the rest, are to be sent to all the nations as far as the Ohio River." ^ 28 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. timents on it. I return you my most hearty thanks in the name of all the nations for your brotherly Love and cordial advice, which I promise you sincerely (by this belt of wampum) shall be communicated immediately and verbatim to the Five N.ations by myself, and, moreover, shall see it forwarded from the Senecas' Castle with belts from each of our own Nations to the Indians at Ohio, to strengthen your desire, as I am thoroughly satisfied you have our in- terest at heart." Information of the French exjjedition down the Allegheny and Ohio Elvers under Celeron having been promptly forwarded to England, considerable anxiety was felt there a,s to the effect it might have upon the Indian tribes; and the proprietaries of Pennsylvania wrote at once from London to Governor Hamilton a letter, which was received in January, 17.50 (during a session of the Assembly), and from which an extract, having reference to the subject in question, is here given, viz. : " The Account you give of a Party of French hav- ing come to Allegheny and laid claim to that Country, and tlie Tribes of Indians with whom we have lately entered into Treaty, a good deal alarms me ; and I hear that Party is returned to Canada, threatening to return with a greater Force next year. I have com- municated the French Commandant's Letter and Paper, with an account of the Affair, to the Duke of Bedford and Lord Halifax, and I think something should be done immediately, if it can by consent of the Indians, to take possession. This, I think, you should advise with the Council and Assembly about, as it is of great Import to the Trade of the Province to have a Settlement there, and an House a little more ■secure than an Indian Cabbin. I make no doubt the Indians would readily consent to such a Settlement; ftHiiM there is Stone and Lime in the neighborhood, 1 I think'"%KHouse with thick walls of Stone, with I small BastirfBBivJBJght be built at no very great Ex- ^ pence, as it is litiie matter how rough it is within- side; or a wall of tiiat sort perhaps fifty feet square, with a small Log Housp in the middle of it, might perhaps do better. The oonimand of this might be given to the principal Indian Trader, and he be obliged to keep Four or Six Men at it, who might serve him in it, and the House be a magazine for Goods. If something of this sort can be done, we shall be will- ing to be at the expence of four hundred Pounds Currency for the building of it, and of one liundred Pounds a Year for keeping some rnen with aVew Arms and some Powder; this, with what the Assembly might be induced to give, will in some measure pro- tect the Trade, and be a mark of Possession. How- ever few the Men are, they should wear an uniform Dress, that though very small it may look Fort like." But the Assembly did not favor the project. "Dur- ing the course of this Session,' the Governor had 1 Col. Rec, vol. V. p. 616. several private Conferences with the Speaker and some of the principal Members of the House on the state of Indian Affairs, and was in hopes that the Proposal of the Proprietaries would have induced them to encourage him to order the Persons intrusted with the Delivery of the Present at Ohio [George Croghan and Andrew MontourJ to make the Indians some overtures of this sort ; but the Members ap- peared extremely averse to it, which obliged the Gov- ernor to desire Mr. Croghan to do no more than sound the Indians in a private manner, that he might know their Sentiments before he should do anything further in the matter, well knowing that unless the Assembly would go heartily into the Affair and make some Pro- vision along with the Proprietaries for the mainte- nance of the Fort or Block House, and the People to be appointed for this service, it would be to no purpose to stir in it." He therefore did no more than lay before the Assembly the preceding extract from the proprietaries' letter, on which no action was taken. During the year following that of Celeron's expe- dition the Frenchman Jonc.aire was again among the Indians on the Allegheny endeavoring to remove the ill feeling which Celeron's overbearing conduct had occasioned, and to secure for his countrymen the friendship and confidence of the savages. George Croghan (who, with the half-breed, Andrew Montour, had been sent to the Ohio by Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, with presents to the Indians in that vicinity), in a letter dated " Logstowu, on the Ohio, Dec. 16, 17.50," said to the Governor, — '■ Sir, — Yesterday Mr. Montour and I got to this town where we found thirty warriors of the Six Nations going to war against the Catawba Indians. They told us that they saw John Cceur [ Joncaire] about one hundred and fifty miles up the river at an Indian town, where he intends to build a fort if he can get liberty from the Ohio Indians. He has five canoes loaded with goods, and is very generous in making presents to all the chiefs of the Indians he meets with. He has sent two messengers to this town, desiring the Indians here to go and meet him, and clear the road for him to come down the river, but they have so little respect for his message that they have not thought it worth while to send him an answer as yet." Croghan was again among the Indians on the Ohio in the spring of 1751, and kept a journal of events which occurred during his stay. From that journal the following extracts are given as showing some- thing of the movements of the French at that time, viz. : " May 20. — Forty warriors of the Six Nations came to town [the Indian town of Chinique, other- wise called Logstown, located on the Ohio some miles below Pittsburgh] from the head of the Ohio with Mr. Joncceur and one Frenchman more in com- pany." " May 21. — Mr. Joucauir, the French interpreter, THE FKENCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS TO THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY REGION. 29 called a council with all the Indians then present in town, and made the following speech. | Here follows Joncaire's speech to the Indians, in which he told them he had come for an answer to the speech made to them by Celeron two years before, viz. : that Onontio, the Governor of Canada, desired them to turn away the English traders and deal wholly with the French. To this one of the Six Nation cliiefs replied, saying that they would not turn the English away, but would continue to trade with them as long as they lived, and that if he, Joncaire, had anything to say, and was the man he pretended to be, he should 'say it to that man,' pointing to Croghan]." " May 25. — I had a conference with Monsieur Jon- canir ; he desired I would excuse him, and not think hard of him for the speeches he made to the Indians requesting them to turn the English traders away and not to suft'er them to trade, for it was the Gov- ernors of Canada who ordered him, and he was obliged to obey them, though he was very sensible which way the Indians would receive them, for he was sure the French would not accomplish their de- sign with the Six Nations without it could be done by force, which he said he believed they would find to be as difficult as the method they had just tried, and would meet with the like success." There was probably at that time no other French- man who was so popular among the Indians as was this same Joncaire, yet he found it impossible to accomplish the object for which he came, — to draw the savages into alliance with the French, and procure the expulsion of the English-speaking traders, — and he was compelled to relinquish the design and retire up the Allegheny, after having recorded his pro- test, and re-notified Governor Hamilton, of Penn- sylvania, of the French claims to the country in a letter of which the following is a translation : " De Chiniqof. (Logstown), June 6, 1751. " Sir, — Monsieur the Marquis de la Galissoniero, Guvernor of the wliule of New Fi-ance, having honored me with his orders to watch that tiie English slioukl make no treaty in the country of tlie Ohio, I have di- rected tlie traders of your government to withdraw. You cannot be ignorant, sir, that all the lands of this region have always belonged to the King of France, and that the Knglish have no right to come here to trade. Sly superior has commanded me to apprise you of what I have done, in order that you may not afiect ignorance of the reasons of it; and he has given me this order with so much the greater reason because it Is now two years since Monsieur Celeron, by order of the Marquis of Ga- Hssoniere, then Commandant-General, warned many English who were trading with the Indians along the Ohio against so doing, and they promised him not to return to trade on the lands, as Monsieur Celeron wrote you. (Signed) "Joncaire, " LieiUeitayit of a Detachvieut of the Navyy In the year 1750 the " Ohio Company" (acting under an English charter and royal grant, obtained in 1749, sent its agent, Christopher Gist, to the Ohio River, to explore the country along that stream, with a view to its occupation and settlement. Under these instructions he viewed the country along the west bank of the river, from the mouth of the Allegheny southwestwardly to the FalU of the Ohio (opposite the present city of Louisville, Ky.), and in the fol- lowing year (1751) he explored the other side of the stream down to the mouth of the Great Kanawha. In 1752 he was present, a.s agent of the "Ohio Com- pany," at the Log.stown treaty, already mentioned, and took part, with Col. Joshua Fry and the two other commissioners of Virginia, in the proceedings with the chiefs of the Six Nations. These and other movements on the part of those acting under authority of the British king caused the French to bestir themselves and move more en- ergetically towards the occupation of the country west of the AUcghenies. Early in 17.'>3 they began to move southward from Lake Ontario through the wilderness towards the Allegheny River, and on the 21st of May in that year intelligence wa.s received that a party of one hundred and fifty French and Indians " had arrived at a carrying-place leading from the Niagara to the head of the Ohio." On the same day, in the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, " The Governor laid before the board several let- ters from Governor Clinton, inclosing accounts from Col. Johnson, and from the commanding officer at Oswego,' that a large Armament of French and In- dians had passed by that Fort, destinated, as was su.s- pected, for Ohio, in order to take Possession of that Country, and to build Forts on that River; where- upon he had dispatched Messengers to the Governors of Maryland and Virginia, and likewise Mr. West was sent to Sasquehannah, there to procure and send away two Messengers, one by Patowmack, and the other by Juniata to Ohio, to give the Indians no- tice of this, and to put them on their guard." • Information was also received by Andrew Montour, who had then just come in from the country of the Six Nations, to the effect " that he found the India not a little intimidated at the large armament of French and Indians which had gope by Oswego, on their way to Ohio, especially after,' hearing what was said by seven Indians who came; into Council while he was present and declared,they were sent by the Governor of Canada to intbrm their Council that the ^ The comnmiidiug officffV«ferred to (Lieut. Holland) wrote as fol- officffrel "Oswego, May 15, 1753. " Yesterdny piissed by here thirtj' odd Frencli canoes, part of an Army going to Bell Kiviere to make good their claim there ; auil by a French- nmn who passed this also yesterday, on his way to Cajoclm, gave me the following account, which he said he learned from common Report iu Canada, viz. ■ That the Army consisted of Six Thousand French, com- manded by Monsieur Martin, who is ordered to Ohio to settle the Limits between US and them; that they lay claim on all the Landsonany of the Rivers or Creeks descendingor terminating iu the great Lake; that if be meet with any opposition, he is to make good hie claim by Force of Arms, and to build Fort* in such Places as he shall think most cunveuient to secure their Right ; that one Fort is to be built at Kasauosaij'ogo (a car- rying Place), and another at Dioutan.>go; they are also to oblige all the English they meet with, whether Traders or othere, to evacuate the Place, as they look upon all we possess now as their undoubted Right, which they mean to support by Foi-ceuf Arms. ..." 2 Col. Kec, voL v. pp. 607-S. 30 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. ' rli Kiag of France, tbeir Master, had raised a number of soldiers to cliastise the Twightwees and drive away all the English traders from Ohio, and take those lands under their own care, because the Indians acted a foolish part, and had not Sense enough to take care of their own Lauds. It is true, Mr. Montour said, they ordered those seven Indians to tell the Governor of Canada they would not suffer him to build Forts there, nor take possession of those Lands, nor drive away the English ; that those Lands belonged to the Indians, and that neither French nor English should have anything to do with them ; that the Indians were owners of the soil, and independent of both, and would keep the Lands in their own hands; but not- withstanding this answer, Mr. Montour said he saw plainly the Indians were frighted, and that there was a strong party for the French among the Indians, and the Senecas particularly were in their interest and countenanced the proceeding." On the 2oth of May further intelligence of the ad- vance of the French towards the Allegheny was brought to Philadelphia by Michael Taafe and Robert Callender, Indian traders, who had just returned from the head of the Ohio. Callender reported that on the 7th of that month, when he was at Pine Creek, about twenty miles from the Indian village of Logstown, on the Ohio, in company with Capt. William Trent, of Virginia, George Croghan, and several other traders, they received a letter addressed to all the traders by John Eraser, also a trader, living at Weuingo (Ve- nango), about one hundred miles up the Allegheny, which letter informed them that he (Fraser) had re- ceived intelligence from the Mingo Indians "that there were then, and had been since March last, one hundred and fifty French and Indians at a carrying- place' which leads from Niagara to the heads of the io, building canoes and making other preparations for the reeeption of a large body of French and In- dians who were.-expected there every day with eight pieces of brass cannon and a large quantity of ammu- nition and provisions ; that on the 8th of May they received full confirmation of the above account by two Indians who were seat by the Council at Onon- daga to give the Ohio Indians notice of the prepara- tions the French were making to attack them." When this intelligence came to the villages on the Ohio there was great excitement among the Indians, and one of the Miiigoe.s at Logstown went to a French- man^ who had been there for some time^.told him of 1 At Cliautauqua Lake, New York. ~ The person referred to, who was known among the Indians as " the White Frenchman," was Monsienr La Force, the same one who was witli JumoQville when Col. Washington attacked and killed the latter near Fort Necessitj', in May, 1754, and who in several accounts is mentioned as having been then in command of the French force. On this occasion he had comeamong the Indians at Logstown to secure their alliance with the French, and having failed to accomplish it had become abusive to them. In the Colonial Records, vol. vi. pjtge 22, is given " A speech made by Monsieur La Force, the French Gentleman tliat was at Logs Town when Mr. Montour and I [George Croghan] left it, to the Sis Na- tions there," viz. : the news, and said that he (the Frenchman) had been amusing the Indians during the past winter with stories " as sweet as if his tongue was sweetened with sugar," but warned him that he should certainly be the first man to lose his .scalp if liis countrymen should make any attempt to attack the Indians or their friends, the English. The French forces which had been seen passing through Lake Ontario and at the Chautauqua carry- ing-place moved by the same route which had been pursued by Celeron four years before to the Alle- gheny, and down that river to Weningo (Venango), where they at once proceeded to erect a stockade fort. Another French force disembarked at a point far- ther west on Lake Erie, moved across the country to French Creek, then called La Riviere aux Boeufs, and built upon that stream the fort called by them Le Breuf. Both these forts were finished before the end of September, that at Venango being completed as early as August, as is shown by the following extract from a letter written by John Fraser (the trader who had formerly been located at Venango, but was driven away from there by the French) to Mr. Young,^ dated "Forks [present site of Pittsburgh], Aug. 27, 1753," viz. : "... Capt. Trent was here the night before last, and viewed the ground the fort is to be built upon, which they will begin in less than a month's lime.* The money has been laid out for the building of it already, and the great guns are lying at Williamsburg, Va., ready to bring up. " The French are daily deserting from the new Fort. One of them came here the other day with Capt. Trent; he has him along with him to Virginia; he has given the true Account of the Number of the French and all their Designs ; there are exactly Twenty-Four Hundred of them in all ; here is in- clo.sed the Draught of the Fort the French built a little way the other side of Sugar Creek, not far from Weningo, where they have Eight Cannon. . . . The Captain of the French that took John Trotter from " Children, — I came here to know your minds, whether you intend to side with the English or not; and without asking you I am convinced that you have throwm away your fathers and taken to your brothers, the English. I tell you now that you have but a short time to see the Sun, for in twenty days you and your brothers the English shall all die I" Whereupon the speaker of the Six Nations made him this reply, — "Fathers,— You tell us in twenty days we and our Brethren the English must all die. I believe you speak true,llint is, yott intend to kilt us if yon can ; but I tell you to be Strong and bring down yonr Soldiers^ foi' We are ready to receive you in battle, but not in Peace. We are not afraid of you, and after an Engagement you will know who are the best Men, you or we." 3 Colonial Records, v, G.59. * Referring to a fort which the Ohio Company were preparing to build at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny. It was not, however, commenced "in less than a month's time" from that date as told in the letter, but was commenced in the following Feb- ruary by the same Capt. Trent, and surrendered to the French before completion, as will be noticed hereafter. It then became the historic Fort Ou Quesne. GEORGE WASHINGTON'S VISIT TO THE FRENCH FORTS IN 1753. 31 Weningo was the White French Man that lived last Winter at Logs Town." This last named being the same one (La Force) before mentioned as having been threatened by the Indian with the less of his scalp if his countrymen should make any attempt to attack the Indians or their English friends. Tiie alarm ofthe Indians at the head of the Ohio was very great when they heard of the building of the forts at Le Bwuf and Venango, and of the large French force which was gathered at the two posts. The old Half-King, Tanacharison (an Iroquois sachem living at Logstown, and representing the power of the Six Nations on the Ohio), immediately went up the Allegheny to remonstrate with the French com- mandant at Le Btt'uf against the occupation of the country belonging to the Indians, but the French officer treated him very contemptuously, told him the country was owned by the king, his master, " and dis- charged him home, and told him he was an Old Woman, and that all his nation was in their [the French] Favour only him, and if he would not go home he would put him in Irons. He came home and told the English to go off the place, for fear they should be hurt, with Tears in his Eyes." And when other chiefs afterwards went up the river to warn the French to abandon their designs, the commandant treated them in much the same way in which he had treated the Half-King. " But this I will tell you," said he, "lam commanded to build four strong houses, viz. : at Weningo, Monoiigalio Forks, Logs Town, and Beaver Creek, and this I will do."' On learning of the great alarm of the Indians at the Forks of the Ohio, and knowing them to be stead- fast in their friendship for the English, Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, immediately sent them " One hundred Small Arms, Powder, Shot, and some Cloath- ing," to be placed in charge of Capt. William Trent, Christopher Gist, and Andrew Montour, " who were empowered to distribute them to the Indians as their Occasion and Behaviour should require." The Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania too, on receiving the intelli- gence conveyed in John Eraser's letter of August 27th (before quoted), laid the matter before the As- sembly, who thereupon voted £800, to be placed in the Governor's hands, and expended by him at his discretion for the safety of the Indians and traders at the Forks of the Ohio, the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela. The intelligence of the aggressive movements of the French caused the English home government to adopt more energetic measures than had previously been employed to meet and resist their advance into the Ohio River country. Among the official commu- nications addressed by the Earl of Holderness, sec- retary of state, to the governors ofthe several Ameri- can provinces was one to Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, containing directions concerning the French encroachments. The letter of the secretary was sent by a government ship, and reached Dinwiddie in Oc- tober, 17r)3. In pursuance of the instructions con- tained, the Governor appointed and commissioned^ George Washinoton, then a youth of only twenty- one years, but one of the adjutants-general of the military forces of Virginia, as bearer of dispatches to the commanding officer of the intruding French on the Ohio ;■' charged, also, with the duty of ascertain- ing the numbers and equipment of the French forces there, what forts, if any, they had erected, and vari- ous other items of military intelligence, which are made clear in his letter of instructions, of which the following is a copy : '■ Wlu-rmi-1. I have received iiiformatioii of a body of French forces lieiug aasenililoil iti a hostile niunnor on tim river Ohio, intending by force of anna to erect certain forts on the said river within titis terri- tory, and contrary to the dignity and peace of our sovereign, the King of Groat Britain, " These are therefore to require and direct you, the said George Wash- ington, forthwith to repair to Logstown, on the said river Ohio, and, having there informed yourself where the said French forces have posted themselves, thereupon to proceed to such place, and, being there arrived, to present yo\ir credentials, together with uiy letter, to the chief com- mauding offlcer, and in the name of his Britauuic Majcoty to demand an auswer thereto. "On your arrival at Logstown you are to address yourself to the Half- King, to Monacatoocha, and the other sachems of the Six Nations, ac- quainting them with your orders to visit and deliver my letter to the French commanding officer, and desiring the said chiefs to appoint you a sufficient number of their warriors to be your safeguard as near the French as you may desire, and to wait your further direction. "You are diligently to inquire into the numbers and force of the French on the Ohio and the adjacent country ; how they are likely to be 1 Colonial Records, v. 6G7. ~ Following is a copy of the c "To George Washington, Esquiee, one or the Adjutants-General OF the Tkoops and Forces in the Colont op Virginia. " I, reposing especial trust and confidence in the ability, conduct, and fidelity of you, the said George Washington, have appointed you my express messenger; and you are hereby authorized and empowered- to proceed hence with all convenient and possible dispatclut