Part 75
During that summer a number of settlers arrived in Turbot Township from the State of New Jersey, among whom were John, Cornelius and Peter Vincent and their families. John and Peter were brothers and Cornelius was the son of John. They settled on a plantation one mile below the mouth of Warrior Run, which is two miles north of the present borough of Milton.
John immediately became the leader of this pioneer settlement and dominant factor and partisan of the Connecticut interest. In May, 1775, the Governor of Connecticut appointed him a justice of the peace for Litchfield County. Accompanied by his son and several others, he went to Wyoming in August and requested a number of people to go to the West Branch and make settlements.
Major William Judd, Joseph Sluman, Esq., and about eighty others arrived at Vincent’s September 23, and two days later Judd and Sluman wrote a jointly signed letter to Judge William Plunket, in which they acknowledged they had come with a view of settling, and stated that as this might be a “matter of much conversation among the inhabitants, we are willing to acquaint you with the principles on which we are come. In the first place, we intend no hostilities; we will not disturb, molest or endeavor to dispossess any person of his property, or in any ways abuse his person by threats or any action that shall tend thereto. And, as we are commissioners of the peace from the Colony of Connecticut, we mean to be governed by the laws of that colony, and shall not refuse the exercise of the law to those of the inhabitants that are now dwellers here on their request, as the Colony of Connecticut extended last May their jurisdiction over the land. Finally, as we are determined to govern ourselves as above mentioned, we expect that those who think the title of this land is not in this colony will give us no uneasiness or disturbance in our proposed settlement.”
If Major Judd and his party really supposed that their movements would meet with no opposition, they were egregiously mistaken. It is also quite evident they prepared for defense.
According to the deposition of Peter Smith, one detachment was on guard at a schoolhouse at Freeland’s Mills, three miles above the mouth of Warrior Run, and another at John Vincent’s house.
The report reached the county seat at Sunbury that the settlers had brought along entrenching tools, also swivels to be used in the entrenchments.
A petition was immediately prepared and sent to Governor John Penn, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, which was signed by William Cooke, Sheriff; James Murray, Coroner; William Plunket, President Judge; Samuel Hunter, County Lieutenant and Justice; Benjamin Alison, Robert Moodie, Michael Troy, Ellis Hughes and William Maclay, Associate Justices.
The petitioners set forth that their utmost efforts had failed to halt the “ambitious designs and enterprises of the intruders from the Colony of Connecticut. That they had been re-enforced with fresh numbers: Officers, civil and military. Swarms of emissaries are seducing the ignorant, frightening the timorous, and denouncing the utmost vengeance against any who may be hardy enough to oppose them—In fine, to such a situation we are already reduced as to be under the hard necessity of keeping constant guards, not only to prevent the destruction of our jail, but for the security of our houses and persons, all of which are violently threatened.”
Without waiting for action on the above petition the militia of Northumberland County was called out, and September 25 a company of fifty men left Fort Augusta to join companies from other points, to demand the reason for “this intrusion and hostile appearance.”
On September 28 the Yankees at their encampment at John Vincent’s were attacked by the Provincial forces under Colonel Plunket. Just how much resistance was offered is not a matter of record, but that there was a battle fought is evidenced by the fact that one Yankee was killed and eight wounded.
Plunket’s militiamen collected all the movable property, which was then and there divided among the victors. The torch was applied and all the buildings burned. They then marched the men, as prisoners, to Sunbury, where they were confined in jail. The women and children had been sent back to their friends and relatives at Wyoming.
At the hearing of the prisoners, Major Judd and Joseph Sluman, the leaders, were sent to Philadelphia, where they were confined in gaol, until December 20, when they were released by resolution of Congress. Three others were detained ten days in the gaol at Sunbury, and the remainder were dismissed.
This action of the county authorities and militia was approved by the Provincial Assembly in a resolution which was passed October 27, 1775:
“Resolved, That the inhabitants of the County of Northumberland, settled under the jurisdiction of this Province, were justifiable and did their duty in repelling the said intruders and preventing the further extension of the settlements.”
No doubt this expedition resulted in breaking up the Connecticut settlements on the West Branch, and the Pennsylvania claimants remained undisturbed in full possession of the territory.
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Captain John Smith Who First Meets Native Pennsylvanians Sailed for England, September 29, 1609
There seems to be no doubt but that the first European to meet the Indians who resided in what is now Pennsylvania was Captain John Smith.
This adventurer explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in 1608, and made a map of his observations, which with the one he made at a later date, of his explorations along the New England coast, were for many years recognized as the authority for this hemisphere.
The Dutch who first came to these shores formed an acquaintance with the Indians in 1615, and the Swedes first met them in 1638.
It seems, therefore, that a story about this intrepid navigator, statesman, soldier, and writer is timely.
Captain John Smith, founder of the Virginia Colony, was an English soldier, a native of Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, where he was born January, 1579; he died in London, June 21, 1631.
From early youth he was a soldier, enlisting in 1596, in the French Army to fight against Spain, but after the peace of 1598, he transferred his services to the insurgents in the Netherlands, and there remained until about 1600.
Returning home he almost immediately started on a career of marvelous adventure.
He sailed from France to Italy, where he was thrown overboard because it was learned he was a Protestant, but he was rescued by a pirate and landed on Italian soil.
He traveled through Italy and Dalmatia to Styria and fought with the Austrian Army against the Turks, distinguished himself in Hungary and Transylvania, for which service he was ennobled and pensioned.
Taken prisoner by the Turks, Smith was sent a slave to Constantinople, where he won the affections of his young mistress. He was sent by her to her brother in the Crimea, with a letter avowing her attachment. The indignant Turk cruelly maltreated Smith, when the latter one day slew his taskmaster, put on the Ottoman’s clothes, mounted a horse and escaped to a Russian port.
On his return to England, in 1605, Bartholomew Gosnold persuaded Smith to engage in founding a colony in Virginia, and at the age of twenty-seven years, already greatly renowned, he sailed from Blackwell for America, December 16, 1606, with Captain C. Newport, who commanded three vessels that bore one hundred and five emigrants.
Smith was accompanied by men of property, and the voyage being by the southern route was long and tedious. They landed, May 13, 1607, about fifty miles from the mouth of the river they called the James, where they built Jamestown, and chose that for the seat of the new empire.
Captain Smith, with Newport and twenty men, explored the James River as far as the falls, the site of Richmond, and made the acquaintance of Powhatan, emperor of thirty Indian tribes.
On the voyage to Virginia, Smith had become boastful and arrogant, causing him to be much disliked by Wingfield, of the London Company.
On his return from the first exploration trip Smith found Wingfield had set himself up as president, and that he was under arrest, but was acquitted at the trial and took his seat in the council, when that body demanded that the president should pay Smith £200 for false imprisonment.
All of Wingfield’s property was seized to pay it, when Smith generously placed it in the public store for the use of the colony.
Sickness prostrated the colony before the close of the summer.
Smith was soon made the leader of the colony, and brought order out of chaos, made the Indians bring in stores of corn, and had the colony well supplied with food for the ensuing winter.
After erecting fortifications Smith began a series of excursions into the surrounding region. He proved an excellent leader and became in fact the principal head of the colony.
He went up the Chickahominy in an open boat. Leaving the craft, he with two others and two Indian guides penetrated the forest, when Smith was seized by savages under Opechancanough, King of Pumunky, an elder brother of Powhatan, and conducted to the presence of the emperor.
At a great council presided over by Powhatan, Smith was doomed to die. Matoa, or Pocahontas, a daughter of Powhatan, begged her father to spare the prisoner’s life, but in vain.
Smith’s head was laid upon two stones, and two warriors had raised heavy clubs to crush it, when Pocahontas sprang from her father’s side, clasped Smith’s head with her arms, and laid her own on his.
The emperor yielded, and Smith was released and returned to Jamestown, where only forty persons were left, the little church burned to the ground, and the inhabitants on the point of abandoning the settlement.
On September 10, 1608, Smith was elected president of the colony; and, upon assuming this office, he enforced discipline, strove to convert their unthrifty methods, had them rebuild the church, strengthen the defenses, and make provision for agriculture and fishery.
Smith made two voyages, covering hundreds of miles, about the coast of the Chesapeake and its tributaries.
When his successor was elected Smith refused to surrender the government and served until September 29, 1609, when he sailed for England, and never again returned to Jamestown.
This was unfortunate for the colony, as his better leadership was necessary at that time to save it from frequent and serious disturbance.
In 1614 he made a voyage of exploration to New England and prepared a map of the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod.
When Captain Smith sailed his barge up the Chesapeake, entered the Susquehanna River and pushed as far up that stream as was possible, he made the first exploration of that great river from its mouth for several miles, and if he did not actually enter Pennsylvania, he was very close and certainly did meet some of the Susquehanna Indians, who resided in what is now called Lancaster County.
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Washington Started March Through Pennsylvania During Whisky Rebellion, September 30, 1794
Virginia claims George Washington as her native son, but most of the deeds which made Washington famous and the greater part of both his military and official life were passed in this State.
While Philadelphia and the counties of the East have stories, legends and traditions innumerable of the great Father of His Country, while Western Pennsylvania was the scene of his early military training, Central Pennsylvania, and the Cumberland Valley especially, have also their Washington traditions.
A Lancaster County almanac, published in the latter part of 1778, is credited by many with first having called Washington “Father of His Country,” while Lebanon, Hummelstown, Harrisburg, New Cumberland, Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg and many other valley towns and places have Washington traditions as part of their historic past, because of Washington’s trip to Bedford during the “Whisky Insurrection” of 1794.
A force of 12,900 men was to be raised against the rebellion, and Carlisle was the rendezvous for the Pennsylvania contingent of 5200. Cumberland County furnished 363 men, including officers. These, with similar quotas from York, Lancaster and Franklin Counties, were under command of Brigadier General James Chambers, of Franklin County.
The President set out from his home on Market Street, Philadelphia, September 30, 1794, accompanied by Secretary Hamilton, his own private secretary and a colored servant.
Accounts of the trip say that Washington was much interested in the canals and locks between Myerstown and Lebanon; that he lodged at Lebanon for the night, breakfasted at Hummelstown, the next morning and reached Harrisburg in time for dinner October 3.
Washington’s diary mentions the First Regiment of New Jersey, about 560 strong, which he found drawn up to receive him.
He spent the rest of that day in Harrisburg, received an address delivered to him by the burgesses[8] in behalf of the citizens, and departed the morning of October 4 for Carlisle, fording the Susquehanna in his carriage, which he drove himself.
Footnote 8:
Conrad Bombaugh and Alexander Berryhill.
Washington’s diary says: “On the Cumberland side I found a detachment of the Philadelphia Light Horse, ready to receive and escort me to Carlisle, seventeen miles distant, where I arrived about 11 o’clock.”
The President remained seven days in Carlisle, the guest of Colonel Ephraim Blaine. With him, according to one account, were “the members of his Cabinet and Governor Mifflin, many Senators and Representatives from Pennsylvania, and those, together with the New Jersey troops, formed a brilliant and numerous assemblage.”
The day after his arrival General Washington attended public worship. Before his departure a number of the principal inhabitants presented him with an address.
Sunday morning, October 12, Washington set out from Carlisle on the Walnut Bottom road. Near what is now Jacksonville stood the residence of Colonel Arthur Buchanan, relative of the later President James Buchanan, a large land owner and proprietor of Pine Grove furnace.
Verification of Washington having accepted Buchanan’s hospitality, for a short time at least, is said to have been founded on the story of “Polly” Buchanan, a daughter of the host. She died in Shippensburg in 1884 at the age of 104.
As Washington and his party came down Shippensburg’s one long street the citizens were at their doors. One account says:
“He was treated with great courtesy and respect by a majority of those who came to see him. Yet there were those who sympathized with the insurgents and did not join in the general rejoicing. This class, in order to manifest their disapproval of the employment of the military force for suppression of the rebellion, collected secretively a few nights after the visit of Washington and erected a liberty pole on the corner upon which the council house now stands. This was the cause of much ill feeling and many a black eye and bloody nose. The pole was cut down at night.”
After dining at Shippensburg the party set out for Chambersburg, entering that town by the Harper’s Ferry road the same evening. Many of the citizens paid their respects to him and the night was spent at Colonel William Morrow’s stone tavern.
At daylight on Monday morning, October 13, Washington left Chambersburg. The people were at their doors and the President acknowledged their salutations as he rode through the streets on horseback, followed by his black servant carrying a large portmanteau.
After ten miles’ travel they reached Greencastle. While Washington was breakfasting at Robert McCullough’s tavern, Tom McCullough, the landlord’s ten-year-old son, who later represented the district in Congress and became the first president of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, was discovered under the table. Washington intervened as the tavern keeper was about to send his son from the room for punishment, and patted the young fellow on the head.
Leaving Greencastle, General Washington and his party went on to Bedford, from which place the return journey was started on October 21.
The journey of thirty-seven miles to Burnt Cabins is said to have been the longest of the entire trip. Leaving there the morning of October 22, Washington crossed Tuscarora Mountain, passing through Fannetsburg, where earlier a liberty pole had been erected.
The feeling of opposition had largely passed away by the time Washington reached the town. After a hearty welcome, he proceeded to Strasburg and then through Pleasant Hill.
On the west side of Herron’s Branch Washington and his party halted at a tavern called the Black Horse. Here Washington inquired if dinner could be served the retinue. “We have nothing but an old-fashioned potpie ready, to which you are welcome,” replied the maid. The great general partook and thus rescued one more hostelry from oblivion.
Four miles farther he reached Shippensburg again, coming back into the town he had left ten days before.
After spending the night at Captain William Ripley’s Black Horse tavern in Shippensburg, where much entertainment was provided, the President set out early the next morning and by evening had reached New Cumberland, then called Simpson’s Ferry, in honor of Gen. Michael Simpson, who as a boy of fifteen had marched with Colonel Bouquet’s forces.
Washington spent the night of October 23 with his friend, General Simpson, and the next day journeyed to York. The next afternoon, it is said, he rode through the rain from York to Wright’s Ferry, now Columbia, where he remained over night.
On Sunday, October 26, he proceeded to Lancaster, and on Tuesday October 28, it was noted in Philadelphia that the “President of the United States with his suite arrived in Philadelphia from Bedford and resumed his duties at the seat of government.”
Commenting on his trip, Washington wrote to Alexander Hamilton from Wright’s Ferry on Sunday, October 26:
“Thus far I have proceeded without accident to man, horse or carriage, although the latter has had wherewith to try its goodness, especially in ascending the North Mountain from Skinners by a wrong road, that is, by the old road, which never was good, and is rendered next to impassable by neglect.”
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Sailors Cause of Bloody Election in Philadelphia October 1, 1742
One of the early Mayors of Philadelphia was the distinguished Quaker, Isaac Norris, who had been a member of the Provincial Assembly and the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He had also served as a member of the Governor’s Council for more than thirty years, and was named by William Penn in his will as one of the trustees of the Province. He died June 4, 1735, and was succeeded by his son of the same name, known in the history of Pennsylvania as “The Speaker.”
Isaac Norris, “The Speaker,” married one of the daughters of James Logan, and soon retired from commercial life. He was a member of the Assembly for thirty years and for the latter half of that time its Speaker.
Notwithstanding his connection with Logan, and the further fact that he was a grandson of Hon. Thomas Lloyd, one of the Commissioners of the Province from December, 1686, to December, 1688, and Deputy Governor from March, 1691, to April 26, 1693, he was a leader of the strict Friends in the Assembly who differed in politics from Logan, “who represented the Proprietary, or Governor’s party,” on all questions relating to the Province.
So persistently did Speaker Norris oppose the Proprietaries in the various disputes between the Governor and the Quakers, or “Norris Party,” that there resulted such bitter contests for office as would be fashionable in modern times.
The re-election of Norris to the Assembly in 1741 could not be prevented, and the Quakers gained much ground with Norris in that body, and with his brother-in-law, Griffiths, and uncle, Preston, who were aldermen of the city of Philadelphia.
The corporation was too important a political factor to submit to his influence and the Proprietary Party succeeded in electing four new aldermen and five new members of the City Council who would further the Governor’s plans, but it was no easy matter to defeat Norris at a popular election.
In 1742 a most important session of the Assembly had been held, the Speaker was the head of every committee, and he worked indefatigably in superintending the completion of portions of the State House and in purchasing a site and devising plans for a public pest house or municipal hospital, and in these activities gave some reason to believe he could be defeated. The wealthy Recorder of the City, William Allen, contended for his seat in the Assembly.
Then ensued what is since known as “The Bloody Election,” but Norris proved himself an astute politician and won the support of the German settlers, who constituted a large part of the electorate.
The Germans had invariably voted with the Quakers, and it was charged that the “Norris party” would take possession of the polls, crowd out their opponents, and thus elect their candidate with the aid of unnaturalized voters.
The Governor’s friends cried “fraud” but they were not in possession of any evidence of it.
On October 1, 1742, the day of the “Bloody Election,” a party of sailors, coopers, and others, strong enough in numbers to make havoc in the little city, marched uptown from the wharves, armed with clubs, and, when they arrived at the Court House, a fight took place in which several were wounded, and the disciples of peace and order were driven from the historic building.
The affair made a great stir, and is well perpetuated in the caricatures made at the time which were drawn with the intention to traduce and stigmatize the political leaders in those days.
In the appendix to the “Votes of the Assembly” is published the interesting testimony relating to this “Bloody Election.”
The witnesses were “examined in a solemn manner,” and it appeared that some fifty to seventy sailors, armed with clubs, made their appearance at the Court House, at Second and High Streets, in support of the Proprietary Party.
William Till, Mayor of the city, was called upon to interfere against the sailors, but he declined to do so, saying, as was testified: “They had as much right at the election as the Dutchmen.”
It appears by the statement of the time, that a wagonload of hop-poles, easy to cut into clubs, made its appearance at a point so convenient that the other party availed itself of the boon.
Among the witnesses, Robert Hopkins testified that, “when the sailors were moving off, and came by William Allen one among them being a squat full-faced, pock-fretten man, with a light wig and red breeches, as he supposes, said, 'Let’s give Mr. Allen a whorrah! And said Allen reply’d: 'Ye villians begone: I'll have nothing to do with you'.”
After this we are not surprised at that staunch Friend, Israel Pemberton, the last witness examined, being able to testify that upward of fifty sailors were arrested and secured in prison, “and then,” he goes on to say, “the Freeholders proceeded to the choice of the Representatives to serve in the Assembly, and the other officers, which was carried on very peaceably the remainder of the day.”
A petition was read in the Provincial Council, November 5, 1742, which was addressed to Lieutenant Governor George Thomas, and among other statements the petitioners stated that the rioters attacked the constables and broke their staves and beat them up and grievously wounded divers citizens, among whom was one of the Aldermen.
They claimed many were knocked down with stones without regard to age or station. Sure enough a bloody election; especially must it have seemed so to the staid Quakers of the City of Brotherly Love.
In September, 1759, Speaker Isaac Norris resolved to relinquish his public duties and declined a re-election which was sure to be in his favor. He made his announcement in the House, and among other things said: