Part 54
The mob here made a discrimination. All the young colored men who could be found were brutally assaulted, because the colored youth were generally saucy and impudent, but the old men and women of color were not molested or in any manner injured.
During the proceedings “Red Row” was set on fire and all the houses destroyed. The mob had now become so infuriated that they were unrestrained even by the presence of police, and from the burning homes in “Red Row” they proceeded to Christian and Ninth Streets, where several brick and frame houses occupied by colored people were attacked.
Several of those houses were defended by the owners, and others who had sought refuge in them. Several shots were fired from behind doors and windows, and two persons in the mob were wounded. By the time the houses were finally entered the residents had escaped.
The houses in flames in “Red Row” had brought the firemen to the scene, but when they set up their apparatus, they were opposed by the mob. The hose was cut and no water could be brought into play. The firemen, however, fought their way and succeeded in saving from total destruction all the houses, except the one in which the fire was started. The mob became even more determined and attacked houses which had been passed by at the beginning of the attack.
By these occurrences the colored people in the lower part of the city were frightened to a degree of terror which had not affected them in previous years.
On the day after this riot hundreds of families moved out of the neighborhood, or, locking up their houses, sought refuge where they could find it. Numbers of men, women and children bivouacked in the woods and fields, and not a few fugitives were given shelter in barns and outbuildings.
On Tuesday evening, July 14, crowds again began to assemble in the vicinity of Sixth and South Streets, on the rumor that a house on St. Mary Street was garrisoned by armed Negroes.
The mob proceeded to this house and upon their arrival found that the statement was true. Fifty or sixty colored men were in the building, armed with knives, razors, bludgeons and pistols, besides a great stock of bricks and paving stones, which were stored on the third floor, where they could be hurled with effect upon an attacking party. These men were desperate and were rendered savage by the occurrences of the two previous days.
The city police force was promptly upon the scene and prepared to prevent the assault intended to be made by the whites upon the house. The police, at the same time, had the difficult task of getting the colored men away from the building in safety. This they were able to do.
With this attack frustrated, the trouble was finally quieted and there were no further racial disturbances.
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Hannastown, Seat of Justice for Westmoreland County, Burned by Indians July 13, 1782
The county of Westmoreland was established by the Provincial Assembly, February 26, 1773, and the courts directed to be held at Hannastown. This was the first place west of the Allegheny Mountains where justice was dispensed according to the legal forms by the white man.
Hannastown contained about thirty habitations and a few crude cabins. Most of the former were two stories high and built of hewn logs. There was also a wooden court house, a jail and a stockade, both built of logs.
Robert Hanna, the first presiding Judge, was a member of the family from whom the town derived its name. Arthur St. Clair, afterward the distinguished general in the Continental Army, was the first prothonotary and clerk of the courts.
On the morning of July 13, 1782, a party of townsfolk went to O'Connor’s fields, about a mile north of the village, to cut wheat. The reapers had completed one field when one of their number reported that he had seen a number of Indians approaching. Every one rushed for town, each intent upon his own safety, each seeking his own wife and children, to hurry them into the stockade.
After a period of frightful suspense, it was agreed that some one should reconnoiter and relieve the balance from uncertainty. David Shaw, James Brison and two other young men, armed with rifles, started on foot through the highlands between the fort and Crabtree Creek, pursuing a direct course toward O'Conner’s fields.
An officer who had been on duty in the town pursued a more circuitous route on horseback, and no sooner arrived at the fields than he beheld the whole force of the savages there assembled. He turned his horse to escape, but was followed. He met the four others who were on foot and warned them to fly for their lives.
The four young men were hotly pursued by the Indians, who did not fire upon them, for they expected to take the inhabitants by a surprise attack. Shaw rushed into the town to learn if his kindred had gone into the fort. As he reached his father’s threshold he saw all within desolate and, as he turned, discovered the savages rushing toward him with their brandished tomahawks, and yelling the fearful warwhoop. He counted upon making one give the death halloo, and raising his rifle, the bullet sped true, for the savage at whom he aimed bounded in the air and fell dead. Shaw then darted for the fort, which he reached in safety.
The Indians were exasperated when they found the village deserted, pillaged the houses and then set them on fire.
An Indian who had donned a military coat of one of the inhabitants and paraded himself in the open was shot down. Except this one and the Indian killed by Shaw, it is not believed any others were killed.
Only fourteen or fifteen rifles were in the fort, and but few of the men of military experience, as a company had been recruited there but a short time before and marched away with Lochry’s ill-fated campaign, leaving not more than a score of men in the village. A maiden, Janet Shaw, and a child were killed in the fort.
Soon after the Indians had set fire to the buildings of the village some of them were observed to break away from the main body and go towards Miller’s Station.
Unfortunately there had been a wedding at that place the day before and many guests were still at the scene of the festivities. Among them was John Brownlee, known along the frontier for his courage in scouting against the savage marauder. The bridal party was in the midst of their happy games, when, like a lightning flash, came the dreaded warwhoop.
Those in the cabins and the men in the fields made their escape. In the house, where all was merriment, the scene was instantly changed by the cries of women and children mingled with the yell of the savage. Few escaped.
Among those who got away are two incidents of intense interest. A man was carrying his child and assisting his aged mother in the flight, the savages were gaining on them, the son and father put down and abandoned the child, the better to assist his mother. The next morning the father returned to his cabin and found his little innocent curled up in his bed, sound asleep, the only human thing left amidst the desolation.
The other incident occurred when a powerful young man grasped a child, who stood near him and made his escape, reaching a rye field and taking advantage of some large bushes, he mounted a fence and leaped far into the tall rye, where he lay down with the child. He heard the quick tread of the savages as they rushed by and their slower steps as they returned, voicing their disappointment.
The wedding party were made prisoners, including the bride and groom, and several of the Miller family.
When the Indians were all assembled and the prisoners secured, the latter were loaded with plunder and the march commenced. They had proceeded less than a mile when one of the Indians recognized Brownlee and communicated it to the others. As he stooped to readjust the child on his back, who he carried in addition to the luggage they had put on him, an Indian buried a tomahawk in his head. When he fell the child was killed by the same Indian.
One woman screamed at the sight of this butchery and the same tomahawk ended her agony. These bodies were found next day and decently buried.
At nightfall thirty men assembled and determined to give succor to those in the fort. They armed themselves and hastened with great caution, knowing that if the Indians intended to attack the fort at dawn that they had retired to the low land at Crabtree Creek.
Fifty rifles were too few to attack 300 Indians and sixty white savages, so they put in action strategy which won. They mounted all the horses they had and trotted back and forth across a bridge of plank, near the stockade, two drums and a fife completed the deception that re-enforcements were arriving in great numbers. The ruse had the desired effect. The cowardly Indians, fearing the retribution they deserved, stealthily fled during the night.
The prisoners were surrendered by the Indians to the British and taken to Canada. After the peace eighty-three prisoners who survived were freed and returned to their homes.
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George Ross, Lawyer, Iron Manufacturer, Soldier, Statesman, Patriot, Signer of Declaration of Independence, Died July 14, 1779
The Philadelphia Packet, July 15, 1779, contained this item:
“Yesterday died at his seat near this city, the Honorable George Ross, Judge of Admiralty of this State.” He was interred in the churchyard of Christ’s Church, Philadelphia, the day following his death. The Supreme Executive Council attended the obsequies in a body.
George Ross, the son of Reverend George Ross, minister of the Established Church, and Catherine Van Gezel Ross, was born in New Castle, Lower Counties, May 10, 1730. He was of excellent Scotch stock, his family traced their descent from the Earls of Ross.
George received an excellent education, with special instruction in the classics; studied law in Philadelphia, with his half brother, John, and was admitted to the bar at Lancaster in 1750. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was interested in the manufacture of iron, which he continued to the time of his death.
Soon after settling at Lancaster, in 1751, he married Miss Anne Lawlor.
He was made prosecutor for the Crown and took a deep interest in the welfare of the growing town of Lancaster, which was soon recognized by his neighbors and he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1768. From this time on his short life of forty-nine years was crowded with civic and patriotic duties; while the State and Federal Governments honored him with many positions of trust.
He immediately became a leader in the Assembly where he was a most pronounced Whig. By successive elections he was continued in that body until 1774, when he was a member of the Provincial Conference and then a member of the first Continental Congress.
George Ross was one of a committee to whom was referred the patriotic communication of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, recommending a Congress of the colonies for the purpose of resisting British arbitrary enactments, and in Congress he consistently furthered those measures which finally led to American Independence.
In 1775, Governor John Penn having written a message disapproving any protective measures on the part of the colonies, Mr. Ross drew up a strong and convincing reply.
He was a true friend of the Indians, and served as one of the Commissioners to Fort Pitt in 1776.
Mr. Ross was made a member of the Committee of Safety for Pennsylvania; vice president of the Constitutional Convention of 1776; colonel of the First Battalion of Associators for Lancaster County; and as a fitting climax, he signed the Declaration of Independence.
During his service as a member of the Continental Congress he was named on the committee with General George Washington and Robert Morris to prepare a design for a new flag. It was through his suggestion that the committee called on his niece, Betsy Ross, and with her help the beautiful flag of the United States was designed and adopted.
Ill health forced Colonel Ross to resign from Congress and on leaving office the citizens of Lancaster voted him a piece of silver to cost £150, which he declined to receive.
After varied and valuable labors in the service of the colonies and of Pennsylvania he was appointed a judge of the Court of Admiralty, as a minute of the Supreme Executive Council for March 1, 1779, records the following:
“Resolved, That the Honorable George Ross, Esquire, be commissioned Judge of the Admiralty of this State, under the Act of Assembly; that this Board highly approve the firmness and ability he has hitherto shown in the discharge of his said office.”
During his incumbency, which lasted but a brief period, he was regarded as learned and prompt, a happy combination.
Judge Ross probably knew the standing of every merchant in Philadelphia.
His house in Lancaster stood on the site of the present Court House, and his country home was a farm in what was then a suburb of Lancaster, now a part of the city, called in his honor, Rossmere.
He was interested in several iron furnaces, the most important of which was the Mary Ann furnace of York County. This was the first blast furnace west of the Susquehanna. His partners were George Stephenson, one of the first lawyers in York County, and William Thompson, the latter’s brother-in-law, later distinguished as a general in the Revolution. George Ross also owned Spring Forge III, also in York County, and he was a partner with George Taylor, of Easton, another signer of the Declaration of Independence, in a furnace in New Jersey called Bloomsbury Forge.
His half brother John Ross, was also much interested in the iron business, and seems to have been a rather picturesque character. He was an officer of the King, and Graydon says of him: “Mr. John Ross, who loved ease and Madeira much better than liberty and strife, declared for neutrality, saying, that let who would be king, he well knew that he would be a subject.”
His health seems to have been poor for some time before his death as a letter from Edward Burd to Jasper Yeates, July 16, 1779, says:
“Poor Mr. Ross is gone at last. I was one of his Carriers. He said he was going to a cooler climate, and behaved in the same cheerful way at his exit as he did all thro the different trying scenes of life.”
He was a Churchman by inheritance, and was vestryman and warden of St. James’ Church, Lancaster, contributing liberally to its varied interests. Genial, kind and considerate, his sense of humor evidently lightened the cares of his strenuous life.
A memorial pillar was erected in 1897, on the site of his house in Lancaster.
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Provincial Convention Ends Proprietary Government July 15, 1776
During the debate in the Continental Congress upon the Declaration of Independence, the old Provincial Government of Pennsylvania received such a mortal blow, that it soon expired without a sigh, ending forever the proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania.
In the meantime the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees calling for a conference in that city on June 18, 1776. This conference unanimously resolved “that the present Government of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and that it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the express purpose of forming a new Government in this Province on the authority of the people only.”
The delegates to this convention to frame a constitution for the proposed new Government consisted of the representative men of the Province. It is only natural that in time of excitement the men chosen for such important duty should be those most active in the military organizations, or local committeemen, men whose ability, patriotism and personal popularity was unquestioned. It was to be expected that the old statesmen would be crowded out unless they were leaders in the revolutionary movement.
As such they met in Philadelphia, July 15, each taking without hesitancy the prescribed test oath and then organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president; George Ross, of Lancaster, vice president, and John Morris and Jacob Garrigues, secretaries.
On July 18, Owen Biddle, Colonel John Bull, the Reverend William Vanhorn, John Jacobs, Colonel George Ross, Colonel James Smith, Jonathan Hoge, Colonel Jacob Morgan, Colonel Jacob Stroud, Colonel Thomas Smith and Robert Martin were appointed members of a committee to “make an essay for a declaration of rights for this State.”
On July 24 the same persons were directed to draw up an essay for a frame or system of Government, and John Lesher was appointed in place of Colonel Morgan, who was absent with leave.
The same day the convention established a Council of Safety to exercise authority of the Government until the new Constitution went into effect. At the head of the Council was Thomas Wharton, Jr.
During the convention the delegates not only discussed and perfected the measures for the adoption of a Constitution, but assumed the supreme authority of the State, and legislated upon matters foreign to the object for which it was convened. Not only did it form the Council of Safety, but it approved of the Declaration of Independence, recently adopted by the Continental Congress, and also it appointed justices of the peace, who were required, before assuming their functions, to each take an oath of renunciation from the authority of King George III, and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania.
July 25, Colonel Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Colonel James Potter, David Rittenhouse, Robert Whitehall and Colonel Bertram Galbraith were added to the Committee on the Frame of Government.
The convention completed its labors on September 28, by adopting the first State Constitution, which went into immediate effect, without a vote of the people.
The Constitution as finally adopted vested all legislative power in the General Assembly of the Representatives of the freemen to be composed for three years of six persons annually chosen from the City of Philadelphia and six from each county of the State including Philadelphia, outside the city, afterwards the representation to be apportioned every seven years to the number of taxable inhabitants.
Laws, except in sudden necessity, were not to be passed until the next session after proposal. The executive power was vested in a Supreme Executive Council of twelve elected members, one from the City of Philadelphia, and one from each of the counties, including Philadelphia, so chosen that one-third would retire each year and no member, after serving three years, should be eligible within four years.
A president and vice president were to be annually chosen from this body, by the joint ballot of the Councillors and Assemblymen. New counties were each to have a councillor. The president and the Council, five of whom constituted a quorum, were to appoint all Judges, the Attorney General, etc.
The right to vote was given to all freemen over twenty-one years of age who had resided within the State a year before the election and paid taxes, but the sons, twenty-one years old, of Freeholders were not required to pay taxes. The freemen and their sons should be trained and armed for defense of the State under regulations and with exceptions according to law, but with the right to choose their own colonels and officers under that rank.
A debtor, except for fraud, should not be kept in prison, after giving up his real and personal estate for the benefit of his creditors. A foreigner having taken the oath of allegiance could purchase and transfer real estate and after a year’s residence have all the rights of a natural-born subject, but be ineligible as a member of Assembly until after two years’ residence.
A Council of Censors of two members chosen from each city and county every seven years beginning with 1783 should inquire into the violation of the Constitution and whether the legislative and executive branches of the Government had exercised greater powers than they were entitled to, and could impeach or, by a two-thirds vote of those elected, call a convention to amend the Constitution.
Articles to be amended were to be published six months before election, in order that the people might have opportunity of instructing their delegates concerning them.
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Gibson’s Lambs Start on Expedition for Powder, July 16, 1776
Powder has always been an essential product in every epoch of the stirring history of our country. The situation was always serious, but on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains there were many times when the settlers were in desperate situation on account of little or no powder.
In times of peace the powder used in these western counties was purchased with furs, and every farmer had a quantity in his home for both hunting and defense, but when the Revolution broke out the demand was greater than the supply, and the Indian hostilities stopped the fur trade.
Companies of rangers were organized and a patrol maintained along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, so that the Indian marauders could be detected and pursued. The work of the frontiersmen was of no use without gunpowder, and in their desperation these hardy pioneers planned an exploit to New Orleans, where they could purchase a quantity from the Spanish Government.
The band of volunteers was under the leadership of Captain George Gibson and Lieutenant William Linn. The former, the son of a Lancaster tavern keeper, was a trapper and had gone to Pittsburgh with his brother John, where they engaged in the fur trade. In his youth he had made several voyages at sea and nearly all his life had traveled through the Indian country. William Linn was from Maryland, a farmer and skilled hunter. He had fought under Braddock and had been used as a scout along the Monongahela River.
Captain Gibson selected fifteen of the hardiest and bravest of his command. These came to be known as Gibson’s Lambs, on account of their fearlessness. Flatboats were built in Pittsburgh and the expedition started from that place Tuesday, July 16, 1776. A trip down the Ohio was extremely dangerous, as all along the river and especially the lower part, the Indians kept a constant watch.
The “Lambs” left behind them every evidence that they were soldiers. They retained rifles, tomahawks and knives, but were clad in coarse clothes resembling boatmen or traders. So clever was their disguise that even when in Pittsburgh their errand remained a secret. The impression was that they were venturing on a trading trip. The expedition successfully passed the British posts at Natchez and reached New Orleans in safety after five weeks on the water.
Louisiana was then a Spanish province, under the governorship of Don Luis de Ungaza, to whom Captain Gibson bore letters of commendation and credit, as well as to Oliver Pollock and other American merchants, then resident in New Orleans. Pollock was a wealthy Philadelphian and exercised great influence with the Spanish authorities. He assisted in negotiating for the powder. Spain was at peace with Great Britain, but willing to give secret aid to the Americans.
The British agents in New Orleans soon learned of the arrival of the Gibson party and, sensing their mission, made complaint to the Spanish authorities that rebels against the British Government were in the city.