About the first of August, a soldier having been killed by the
Indians, near Franklin, Captain
Heath wrote to Robert F. Randolph, for some men competent to act as spies. He
recommended Luke Hill, John Wentworth, John Baum, and Edward F. Randolph. Mr.
Randolph engaged in this service, and served from the beginning of August to
the beginning of September as a spy, and in carrying expresses from Waterford
to Pittsburg. His only roads were
Indian paths, and at night he bivouacked with no other protection than his blanket.
In August, 1795, Mr. Randolph and his brother Taylor,
were employed by Major Craig to go to Erie
as teamsters, to help build the fort. Robert Randolph, their father, furnished
three yoke, and Cornelius Van Horn one yoke of oxen
for this purpose. Mr. Randolph worked at Erie
until November, when he returned to Meadville.
In 1797, he married Benjamin Wilson's daughter, Elizabeth Wilson, and settled
on the farm where he now resides. In 1812, he was for three days at Erie
with the troops, and went to Buffalo
as teamster for the commissary.
Such “daring and hardy” men as are here
referred to by Judge Washington, were those who first settled Crawford
county. In 1787, David Mead, in company with his brother John, sons
of Darius Mead, of Hudson, New York, having taken up land in the
Wyoming Valley, and been dispossessed through the conflicting claims
of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, made their way through the forests,
and across mountains to the mouth of the Veanango river, and thence
up that stream till they reached a broad valley, nearly five miles
in length, on whose bosom now reposes the city of Meadville, and
the one, undoubtedly, referred to by Washington. Two years previous,
at the instance of the general government, a party of engineers,
headed by William Bowen under military escort, made a survey of
a large body of land in this corner of the State, embracing the
sixth, seventh, and eighth sections, which had been set aside for
the payment of bounties to soldiers of the Revolution.
Having had some experience in selecting lands for
settlement, these two pioneers made a thorough examination of the
territory, and chose this valley for their future habitation. They
found the flats above the confluence of the Cussawago with the Venango
river cleared, and covered with luxuriant grass, having been previously
cultivated by the natives, and perhaps by the French, who had a
fort on what is now Dock street, Meadville. Returning to the Susquehanna,
in the spring of the following year, they came again, accompanied
by Thomas Martin, John Watson, James F. Randolph, Thomas Grant,
Cornelius Van Horn, and Christopher Snyder. With the exception of
Grant they all selected lands on the western side of the river,
now Valonia, and the tracts above. Grant chose the section on which
is now Meadville, and made his home at the head of Water street.
Soon tiring of the frontier, he transferred his tract to David Mead,
who thus became the proprietor and real founder of the city which
took his name. In the spring of the following year came the families
of some of these men. Sarah Mead, daughter of David, was the first
child born within the new settlement. Subsequently came Samuel Lord,
John Wentworth, Frederick Haymaker, Frederick Baum, Robert Fitz
Randolph, and Darius Mead. These were the pioneers; but as the report
of fine lands upon the Venango spread, settlers came in great numbers.
There were a few families of Indians inhabiting the neighborhood,
who became the fast friends of the white men, prominent among whom
were Canadochta and his three sons, Flying Cloud, Standing Stone,
and Big Sun, and Half-town, a half brother of Cornplanter, Strike
Neck, and Wire Ears.
To the beginning of 1791, few disturbances from
hostile Indians occurred, and little danger was apprehended; but the
defeat of the army under General Harmar, and subsequently that led
by St. Clair, left the hostile tribes of Ohio and western Pennsylvania
free to prosecute their nefarious schemes of murder, arson, and fiendish
torture, upon the helpless frontiersmen. Early in this year, Flying
Cloud, the ever faithful friend of the whites, gave notice that the
savages were upon the war path. For safety, the settlers repaired
to the stockade fort at Franklin. It was seed time, and these provident
men were loath to let the time pass for planting, and thus fail of
a crop for the sustenance of their families. Accordingly, four of
them, Cornelius Van Horn, William Gregg, Thomas Ray, and Christopher
Lantz, returned with their horses, and commenced ploughing. Vengeful
Indians came skulking upon their track, and, singling out Van Horn
when the others were away, seized him and his horses, and commenced
the march westward. Eight miles away, near Conneaut lake, they stopped
for the night, where Van Horn managed to elude them, and made his
way back, when he found that Gregg had been killed, and, as subsequently
ascertained, Ray was made captive and led away to Detroit.
Hostilities continued during 1792; but General Anthony
Wayne, who had now been placed at the head of the troops sent against
the savages, gave them sufficient employment. Early in the year,
a company of twenty-four men, under Ensign Bond, was detailed from
Wayne’s army to protect this settlement, and was quartered
at Meadville. But as the campaign became active, it was summoned
away, and the families of the settlers again retired to the stockade
at Franklin. The numbers had considerably increased by 1794, and
a militia company was formed for self-protection, Cornelius Van
Horn being elected Captain, and a block-house was erected near the
head of Water street. On the 10th of August, James Dickson, a resolute
Scotchman, was fired upon by Indians in concealment near the outskirts
of the settlement, and severely wounded in the hand and shoulder.
By dexterous management with his gun, of which he held the fire,
he baffled the endeavors of his assailants to capture him, and,
though bleeding profusely, reached the block-house. The alarm was
given, and pursuit promptly made; but the wily foe escaped. Ten
days later General Wayne inflicted a crushing defeat, and Indian
warfare in this part of the State was at an end, though occasional
depredations were committed by isolated parties for some time, James
Findley and Barnabas McCormick having been murdered in cold blood,
in June of the following year, six miles below Meadville, on the
river valley.
