Part 20
Samuel Brady received the news of his father’s death about the time he was chosen by Colonel Brodhead to the command of forest rangers. This increased his hatred of the red men and moved him to execute vengeance.
Brady and his scouts were clad entirely in Indian fashion. In the forest excursions they even painted their bodies and faces and wore feathers in their hair, in imitation of savage warriors.
An attack was made on Ligonier settlement in April. On April 26, one hundred Indians and Tories attacked Fort Hand, in both affairs defenders were killed and many captured, and other places were attacked and habitations burned.
During May, Brodhead kept his scouts out along the upper Allegheny to give warning of the approach of hostile bands.
Brodhead learned, about June 1, that a large band of Seneca and Tories, under Colonel John Butler was preparing to descend the Allegheny, and he dispatched three scouts, in canoes as far as Venango, the present Franklin. The scouts were discovered and pursued, and narrowly escaped capture, but brought the news which confirmed the report received by Brodhead.
The savages penetrated into Westmoreland, where they killed and scalped a solitary soldier, then attacked the little settlement at James Perry’s Mills, on Big Sewickley Creek, killed a woman and four children, and carried off two children, many cattle and much plunder.
Two ranging parties were sent after these marauders. One was marched to the Sewickley settlement and an attempt was made to follow the trail. The other band consisted of twenty men under Brady, which ascended the Allegheny River.
As Brady’s detail advanced one evening along the beach within the mouth of the Big Mahoning where it empties into the Allegheny, they found many Indian canoes drawn up and hidden among the shrubbery. The Indians had gone into camp in the woods, on a little knoll north of the creek, and were preparing the evening meal when discovered by Brady. They had hobbled their horses and turned them out to graze. The stream was very high and the scouts were compelled to ascend it two miles before they could wade across.
After nightfall Brady and his men hid themselves in the tall grass near the Indian camp. Brady and Chief Nonowland, laying aside their tomahawks, knives, powder horns and bullet pouches, crept to within a few yards of the Indian camp to count the savages and ascertain the position of the captive children.
One of the Indians suddenly cast off his blanket, arose, stepped forth to within six feet of where Brady lay, stood there awhile, stretched himself and then returned to his slumber.
Brady and Nonowland then prepared for an attack at daybreak. The whole party of scouts made their way through the grass and weeds to a position as near the camp as was considered safe, and lay awaiting the dawn.
As daylight appeared an Indian awoke and aroused the others. They stood about the fire laughing and chatting when a deadly volley broke forth from the rifles of the scouts lying in the bushes. The chief and seven Indian warriors fell dead and the others, almost naked, fled into the dense forest, two of them severely wounded. Brady’s own rifle brought down the chief, and with a shout of almost fiendish triumph he sprang forward and scalped him.
The traditions of the Brady family say that the chief was none other than Bald Eagle, who had struck down and scalped Brady’s younger brother, James, ten months before. Brodhead reported to Washington that the chief was “a notorious warrior of the Munsee nation.”
The children captured at Sewickley were recovered unharmed and Brady and his men returned to Fort Pitt with the stolen horses and plunder, the blankets, guns, tomahawks and knives of the savages and many scalps.
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Settlers Attack Pack Trains Near Fort Loudoun, March 6, 1765
The period immediately following Colonel Bouquet’s successful expedition against the Indians at Muskingum October, 1764, was one of comparative peace, but this did not long continue.
A most interesting episode occurred about this time in the Conococheague Valley, from the North to the South Mountain. The people who had been driven off had gradually returned and were now determined to make a better stand against the enemy. They raised a sum of money and recruited a company of riflemen, of which James Smith was elected captain. They dressed in Indian fashion and painted their faces red and black like the Indian warriors.
Two of the officers had long been in Indian captivity, and they drilled their men in Indian discipline, and so expert did this company become that it was recognized by the British Government and Captain Smith received a commission in the regular service under King George III, and the following year was with Bouquet’s expedition against Muskingum.
George Croghan, the deputy agent for Indian affairs, went to Fort Pitt in February, 1765, and brought about the meeting with Sir William Johnson, whereby on May 8, 1765, a definite treaty of peace was made with the Delaware.
When Croghan set out from Philadelphia for Fort Pitt, March 1, 1765, he gave a pass for a large number of wagons belonging to Boynton and Wharton, of Philadelphia, loaded with merchandise, which was intended as presents for the Indians at Fort Pitt.
But the people of Cumberland County took the law into their own hands to prevent warlike stores being supplied to savages recently in arms against them. These goods were hauled to Henry Collins, at Conococheague, and there he contracted to pack them on eighty-one horses, by which they were to be delivered into Fort Pitt.
This large transaction alarmed the country and William Duffield raised and armed about fifty of the trained men of that valley and marched to Fort Loudoun, where Duffield made a request that this consignment of goods be stored up until further orders, but this was refused, and on March 6 the pack train proceeded on its journey.
The same morning a large company started from the house of William Smith, one of the Justices of Cumberland County. They came up with this pack train at Sideling Hill, about seventeen miles beyond Fort Loudoun, when sixty-three of the horse loads were burned or pillaged.
A sergeant and twelve men of the Highlanders sent from the fort, went through the neighborhood, saved the balance of the goods, captured several persons, five rifles and four smooth bore guns.
The traders, after losing their caravan, went back to the fort and complained to the commanding officer. It was then that three hundred riflemen marched to Fort Loudoun and encamped on the hill in sight of the fort.
James Smith, a relative of Justice Smith, and the captain who served with Bouquet, appeared in a few days at the head of a large crowd of his infuriated neighbors, and declared that they would suffer death to the last man, rather than let the prisoners be put to jail at Carlisle.
Two months later another caravan of horses laden with liquors, etc., for the troops at Fort Pitt, under a pass from the commander there, arrived at Fort Loudoun, about May 1, and were relieved of their burden in the fort. The drivers led their horses out to pasture, when about thirty men, with their faces painted black, rushed upon them, flogged the drivers, killed five horses and burned all the saddles. In the battle which ensued one of the attacking party was wounded.
Again Captain James Smith led his neighbors to the fort. He was accompanied by three Justices who demanded right to search the goods in store there, but intended for transportation to Fort Pitt.
Lieutenant Charles Grant, of the Highlanders, commandant of the fort, explained that the general had committed the goods to his care, but had ordered an inventory to be taken before a justice of the peace, but this inventory could not be taken in the presence of a mob.
The vigilance men threw off the restraints of decent appearance by issuing the following:
“Advertisement. These are to give notice to all our Loyal Volunteers to those that has not yet inlisted, you are to come to our Town and come to our Tavern and fill your Belly’s with Liquor and your mouth with swearing, and you will have your pass, but if not, your Back must be whipt and mouth gagged. * * * We will have Grant, the officer of Loudoun, whip’d or hanged. * * * The Governor will pardon our Crimes, and the Clergy will give-us absolution, and the Country will stand by us; so we may do what we please. * * * free toleration for drinking, swearing, sabbath breaking, and any outrage what we have a mind to, to let those Strangers know their place. * * * We call it Hell’s town, in Cumberland County, the 25th May, 1765. Peter’s Township.”
The crowning deed was reserved for May 28. Lieutenant Grant, while riding about a mile from the fort, was fired upon. His horse started suddenly at the crack of the rifle and he was thrown off. Captain James Smith and others seized him, carried him six miles distant and kept him a prisoner all night in the woods. He was there threatened unless he agreed to give up all the arms taken from the rioters.
Governor Penn and General Gage were humiliated by these insults to the King’s uniform and their inability to punish the offenders, but the more serious concern was in the obstruction of the communication for traders with their goods to reach the Illinois country, where the French across the Mississippi, were ready to obtain an influence by commerce.
While allegiance of the Indians was thus jeopardized, white men began to creep over the mountains and encroach upon land not yet sold by the aborigines. Red Stone settlement was thus made, at the risk of another war. Gage sent a detachment of Highlanders to this region to compel all whites west of the Alleghenies to return to their own provinces, but those who left soon went back again with others.
On June 4, 1765, Governor Penn declared trade with the Indians open from June 20 to all inhabitants of the Province who should apply for and obtain his license.
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Andrew Lycans Killed in Attack by Indians in Wiconisco Valley, March 7,1756
The Wiconisco or Lykens Valley includes that section of the “Upper End” of Dauphin County that is watered by the Wiconisco Creek and its branches, save where local names have been given to certain portions, such as Williams Valley, etc.
In 1732 Andrew Lycans settled on the Swartara Creek, where he took up 250 acres of land. In 1740 he removed to the west side of the Susquehanna, where he settled between Sherman’s Creek and the Juniata, in then Cumberland County.
This land had not been included in the last Indian purchase and the Shawnee Indians, who had a few scattered villages on the Juniata, complained of the encroachments of these settlers and demanded their removal. To pacify the Indians the provincial authorities sent, in 1748, the Sheriff of Lancaster County, with three magistrates, accompanied by Conrad Weiser, to warn the people to leave at once, but they remained, determined not to be driven away, at least by threats.
On May 22, 1750, a number of high dignitaries appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, held a conference at the house of George Croghan, in Pennsborough Township, Cumberland County. Subsequently, accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Andrew Work, of that county, they went to the place where Andrew Lycans and his neighbors lived, took them all into custody and burned their cabins.
Sheriff Work presented his account for the “removal of trespassers at Juniata,” in which he asked for ten days’ pay for his “attendance on the Secretary Magistrates of the County of Cumberland, by his Hon’s. the Governor’s command to remove sundry persons settled to the northward of the Kickitania Mountains.” This and the expenses of a messenger sent from Lancaster amounted to three pounds and seven shillings. Then he asked for “the Under-Sheriff’s attendance in taking down Andrew Lycan to prison to Lancaster; other expenses on the journey; two pounds ten shillings.”
Lycans and his neighbors were subsequently released by order of Governor Hamilton. Andrew Lycans removed with his family to the east side of the Susquehanna, beyond the Kittochtinny Mountains, and by permission of the authorities “settled on a tract of about 200 acres situated on the northerly side of Whiconesong Creek.” Here he made extensive improvements.
Until the spring of 1756 these pioneers were not disturbed, but following the defeat of General Braddock, everywhere along the frontier the savages began their work of devastation and death.
On March 7, 1756, Andrew Lycans and John Rewalt went out early to feed their cattle, when they were suddenly startled by the report of two rifles. Neither of them being harmed, they were able to reach the house, where they prepared themselves for defense in case of an attack.
The Indians concealed themselves behind a hog-house not far from the dwelling. John Lycans, a son of Andrew; John Rewalt and Ludwig Shutt, a neighbor, crept out of the house in an effort to discover the whereabouts of the savages and get a shot at them, but they were fired upon by five Indians and each one wounded, Shutt receiving a dangerous wound in the abdomen.
At this moment Andrew Lycans discovered one of the Indians named Joshua James near the hog-house and also two white men running away from their hiding place. Lycans fired and killed James.
Lycans and his party in the house believed this a favorable opportunity for escape and started from the dwelling, but they were observed and closely pursued by a score of the enemy.
John Lycans and John Rewalt were too badly wounded to put up much resistance, but with the aid of a Negro servant they escaped, leaving Andrew Lycans, Ludwig Shutt and a boy to engage the Indians.
The savages rushed in upon them, and one Indian in the act of striking the boy with his tomahawk was shot dead by Shutt, while Lycans killed another and wounded a third Indian.
The Indian killed by Shutt was named Bill Davis. Two others recognized by Lycans were Tom Hickman and Tom Hayes, all of the Delaware tribe, and well known in that neighborhood.
This upset in the plan of attack caused the Indians to momentarily cease their pursuit and Lycans, Shutt and the lad, being exhausted from loss of blood, sat down on a log to rest themselves, believing they were no longer in danger. The Indians stood some distance off to keep them in view, but in spite of this caution, Lycans managed to lead his little party to a place of safe concealment and later over the mountain into Hanover Township, where neighbors gave them assistance; but Andrew Lycans died from his injuries and exposure.
This pioneer martyr left a wife, one son and five daughters. These returned to their home soon as the danger was over, and on more than one subsequent occasion were compelled to flee before the marauding savages. The one attack in which Andrew Lycans was killed is the only occasion where a life was lost by the Indian incursions in the Wiconisco Valley.
John Lycans, son of Andrew, became an officer in the provincial service, commissioned July 12, 1762. In June, 1764, he was stationed at Manada Gap. His mother, Jane Lycans, in February, 1765, had a patent issued to her for the land on which her husband had located.
The original Lycans cabin stood until about fifty years ago. It was situated near the present site of Oakdale, a few yards north of the bridge that crosses the Wiconisco. It was built of hewn logs with windows about nine inches square, which were also used as port holes.
Andrew Lycans has given his name to the beautiful valley of the Wiconisco, owing possibly to his fatal encounter with the Indians, March 7, 1756.
Ludwig Shutt recovered from his serious wounds and lived until 1790, and left a large family, some of his descendants being present residents of Lykens Valley. John Rewalt subsequently removed to another part of the province as did John Lycans, following his tour of duty as an officer in the provincial service.
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Frightful Slaughter of Indians at Gnadenhuetten, March 8, 1782
In the fall of 1781, Pennsylvania frontiersmen decided that their safety would no longer permit the residence of the Moravian Indians on the Muskingum, which was about seventy miles from Fort McIntosh, in the present State of Ohio. Fort McIntosh was on the right bank of the Ohio River at the mouth of Beaver River, now Beaver, Pennsylvania.
Colonel David Williamson, one of the battalion commanders of Washington County, gathered a company of 100 men and on November 5 started for the Tuscarawa Indians to compel the Moravians either to migrate into the hostile country or to move in a body to Fort Pitt. They found the village deserted save by a few Indian men and women. Colonel Williamson conducted these Indians safely to Fort Pitt.
A small settlement of Delaware had already been established near Fort Pitt. After Colonel Daniel Brodhead destroyed Coshocton, in the spring of 1781, Killbuck, the chief sachem of the Delaware, with his immediate kindred and the families of Big Cat, Nonowland and other chiefs, who remained friends to the American cause took possession of a small island at the mouth of the Allegheny River, opposite Fort Pitt, where they built bark wigwams, planted corn and vegetables and otherwise supported themselves by hunting and the sale of furs. This place became known as Killbuck Island, afterwards Smoky Island.
Many of this settlement accompanied military scouting parties, and were of much service in the defense of the Western frontier. Chief Killbuck, also known as Gelemend, meaning “leader,” became a soldier and officer in the United States Army. He died in 1811.
In the spring of 1782, which was unusually early, came the marauding Indians. The first blow fell February 8, when John Fink was killed near Buchanan’s Fort, on the upper Monongahela. On Sunday, February 10, a large body of Indians visited the dwelling of Robert Wallace, on Raccoon Creek, Beaver County. The head of the family being absent at the time, the savages killed all his cattle and hogs, plundered the house of its contents and carried away Mrs. Wallace and her three children.
About February 15, six Indians captured John Carpenter and two of his horses on the Dutch Fork, of Buffalo Creek. They crossed the Ohio at Mingo Bottom and made off toward the Tuscarawa villages. Four of these Indians were Wyandot. Two spoke Dutch, and told Carpenter they were Moravians. On the morning of the second day, Carpenter was sent to the woods to get the horses. Finding them some distance from the camp fire, he mounted one of the horses and dashed for Fort Pitt, where he told his story to Colonel Gibson.
Gibson mustered 160 young men of Washington County, and placed Colonel Williamson in command of the expedition, which moved immediately. The Ohio was at flood height and they effected a crossing Monday, March 4, and hastened along the beaten trail toward Gnadenhuetten on the Muskingum. As may well be imagined Robert Wallace was an eager volunteer in this expedition.
They had not proceeded far until they found the torn corpse of Mrs. Wallace, impaled on the trunk of a sapling, just off the path. The mutilated body of her infant lay nearby. The infuriated frontiersmen remounted their horses, reached the environs of Gnadenhuetten in the evening of March 6, when their scouts brought back word that the village was now full of Indians.
Colonel Williamson divided his force into three parties, sending one command to strike the river below the town, a second to cross the stream above and cut off retreat in that direction, the third forming the center to advance upon the place directly.
The attack was begun on the morning of March 7, and not a shot was fired by the center or left. The presence of women and children warned the frontiersmen that it was not occupied simply by a war party, and Colonel Williamson quickly learned the Indians were Moravians. No resistance was made and soon the frontiersmen were conversing with the Indians who could speak English. In a council the colonel told them they must go to Fort Pitt, which the Indians appeared willing to do. The Indians sent messengers down the river to Salem to tell their people to come to Gnadenhuetten.
The right wing had a more thrilling experience when they found the Tuscarawas was in flood and too swift for their horses to swim. A young man named Sloughter swam across to get a canoe, which proved to be a maple sugar trough, but he paddled it across the swollen stream. The others stripped, placed their clothing and rifles in the trough, swam across, pushing the trough before them.
Advancing down the western shore, a solitary Indian was shot and wounded in the arm. This act was witnessed by another Indian named Jacob, who sought escape in a canoe, but was killed.
The company advancing upon the Indians working in the corn field, found them to be Moravians and led them to the village. Soon the Indians from Salem arrived to the number of 96, all of whom were confined in a log church, after being disarmed.
An Indian woman was found to be wearing the dress of Mrs. Wallace. The garment was identified by the bereaved husband. A search of the cabins was then made which resulted in finding stolen household effects.
The volunteers could hardly be restrained longer. Colonel Williamson consulted with his captains, some of whom favored the execution of the whole band. But during this council many Indians were brought before it, one at a time, and examined. Not one acknowledged his own guilt, but some confessed that others had been on the war path. Some were even then in their war paint. These revelations produced such an effect upon the borderers that the Colonel could no longer resist their outcry for vengeance. He put the question to a vote and only eighteen of the entire body of volunteers voted for mercy.
Friday morning, March 8th, the decree of condemnation was executed. The Indian men were led, two by two, to the cooper shop and there beaten to death with mallets and hatchets. Two broke away and ran for the river, but were shot dead. The women were led to another building and slain like the men.
Only forty of the volunteers participated in the execution of forty men, twenty women and thirty-four children. It is probable that even the frontiersmen who stood aside and looked on did not consider their deed a crime.
The volunteers then burned the Indian village at Schoenbrun, and before they departed from Gnadenhuetten they set fire to every building. Salem was also destroyed.
Two weeks later, on Sunday, March 24, some militiamen attacked the Indians on Killbuck Island. Several Indians were killed. Killbuck and most of his band escaped in canoes.
General Irvine returned to Fort Pitt from a visit to Philadelphia and Carlisle the day after the attack and immediately put a stop to the raids.
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County of Bedford Formed from a Part of Cumberland, March 9, 1771
The county of Bedford was erected March 9, 1771, by an act of the General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania.
The entire territory for the new county was cut from Cumberland County.
The commissioners appointed to “run, mark out, and distinguish the boundary lines between the said counties of Cumberland and Bedford,” were Robert McCrea, William Miller, and Robert Moore.