Incidents in the Early History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania
BY ALFRED HUIDEKOPER.
Meadville, August 1, 1846.
In reply to the circular received last year, from
the Society, I would say that, though a native of the county, I am too
young to be acquainted personally with its earliest history, but have
employed my first leisure time in procuring such information as I
could, from the most authentic sources within my reach. But few
of the first pioneers to this county are now living, and but a small
number of those who do survive have minds which have stood the wear of
time and infirmities of age sufficiently to retain and describe, with
satisfactory clearness, the events of early life.
In doing justice to one of them, at the present
time, I should say, that many of the facts hereinafter related, I have
gathered from the lips of Mr. Edward Randolph, now (with the exception
of Mr. Cornelius Van Horn) the oldest settler in the commonwealth, west
of French Creek. Though young at the time, Mr. Randolph took a
prominent part in the first settlement of the county,
was occasionally employed by the officers of government, and had
otherwise an opportunity of becoming well-informed about its early
history. For fifty-seven years he has lived in this county,
forty-nine of which have been spent upon the farm where he now resides,
about two miles west of Meadville. Tall, erect, venerable, and
active, his vigour at the age of seventy-four, adds another to the many
instances of a hardy constitution, acquired by exposure in youth to the
vicissitudes of a border life. When I called upon him, I found
him at work alone in his sugar camp, and while seated on a log in front
of his boiling-kettles, recounting his reminiscences of past events, he
seemed indeed an appropriate historian of times when men's homes were
the open air, and their whole stock of furniture and iron vessel like
the one before us.
That part of the state of Pennsylvania which is now
called Crawford County, was separated from the county of Allegheny in
the year 1800, and was first explored by white American citizens, with
the view of making a permanent settlement, in the year 1787.
North of it, at Leboeuf, the Vernon Township shares with Mead the honor of the
first settlement in Crawford. In 1788, when the primitive pioneer band
of nine resolute men penetrated the Western wilderness, after a weary
march, they reached their journey's end on the 12th day of May, on the
banks of French Creek, opposite the Cussewago. Their first evening was
passed beneath the canopy of a spreading wild cherry tree on the east
side of the stream near the present side of the creek. "This lovely
valley," said Cornelius Van Horne, "now redolent with life and industry,
was then reposing in the stillness of primeval solitude, with naught to
designate it as the former residence of man save occasionally a
deserted wigwam of the aboriginal owners of the soil. They had already
deserted its shady groves and murmuring streams, and retired still
further into the wilderness." The solitudes, remote from other
settlements, were however uninviting, and the majority of the explorers
sooner or later returned to the East. Two located in what is now Vernon
Township: John Mead and Cornelius Van Horne. John Mead settled
on the tract immediately above Vallonia. His first cabin was built
close to the west bank of French Creek, between it and the ravine, and
just east of the present fair grounds. By occupation he was a farmer.
He died here in 1819 leaving five sons: William, Joseph, John, Asahel
and Chambers, and one daughter, all of whom are now dead. David Mead
first selected land immediately below him, but built his cabin on the
site of Meadville, and became identified with its growth and
prosperity. Cornelius Van Horne settled about a mile and a half farther
down the stream, on a tract of 412 acres, upon part of which his son,
Judge Thomas Van Horne, still resides. Cornelius Van Horne, like the Meads,
had lands at Wyoming under the Pennsylvania title; he proved his title
in the Supreme Court and obtained a decision in his favor, but the
anarchical state of the settlements on the disputed lands rendered the
dispossession of the rival claimants difficult, and securing from the
Commonwealth a remuneration, he abandoned his lands and sought a home in
the West. He was a miller by occupation in Sussex County, N.Y., and
served as a Lieutenant in the Revolution. He tarried at the island for a
time, but during the summer took possession of an Indian cabin, which
stood on the tract he afterward patented. In October of the same year he
returned on a temporary visit to his mother in New Jersey. Indian
depredations rendered the occupation of his tract for a few years
impracticable. His capture by the savages near Meadville and his
subsequent escape are narrated in the early history of the county. When
quiet was restored he again settled on his tract, remaining till his
death. The patent for it is dated February 27, 1800, and states that a
settlement was there made April 15, 1793. Mr. Van Horne
was married in 1798 to Miss Sarah Dunn, of Meadville, and by this
marriage had six children. He died at the old homestead farm in 1846,
aged ninety-six years.
French Creek flows through Crawford County from north to south. It
was the chief means of shipping local lumber and New York State salt to
the market in Pittsburgh. Thousands of barrels of salt loaded on arks
or keel boats passed through the county when the water was at flood
stage. The only other means of transportation in those days was by
horses and wagons. The answer to the crying need for better
transportation seemed at hand in 1826. Major Douglass suggested forcing
the waters of French Creek to raise the water level of Conneaut Lake.
The French Creek Feeder of the Beaver and Erie Canal
would raise the lake eleven feet to assure a sufficient depth to get
canal boats over the summit and north to Erie. The Conneaut Lake
reservoir when full was 510 feet above Lake Erie and in the forty miles
between them there were 72 locks. The Beaver and Erie Canal crossed
the western part of Crawford County from north to south and was the
first transportation route constructed by man, other than turnpike toll
roads, in the county.
The following August when word spread that the Feeder Canal would be
built, the citizens of Meadville planned a celebration for the
breaking ground. On Monday, August 27, 1827, the people assembled in
Diamond Park and formed a procession. They marched down Chestnut
Street, up Water Street, then north on the French Creek Road (Terrace
Street) to a point opposite Tanner White's house. After a prayer by
Reverend T. Alden and an oration by Henry Baldwin, Jr., Robert Fitz
Randolph and Cornelius Van Horne "broke ground." Again the procession
formed and proceeded to Lord's spring where they partook of a cold
collation and stove in a barrel of whiskey. The procession then returned
to Diamond Park where it disbanded in high spirits.
Mead Township was the place of the first settlement in Crawford
County. As stated in a previous chapter of this volume, a company of
nine men on the 12th day of May, 1788, landed at the site of Meadville,
having journeyed into the midst of the vast wilderness from
Northumberland County. The outlook was a gloomy one. They were far
from any white settlements and poorly supplied with the means of making a
livelihood. Most of the men returned to the East, where if they must
live with less independence they could at least enjoy more of the
comforts of life. When Indian hostilities began all were obliged to
forsake their homes till the storm blew over. For several years prior
to 1795 there was doubtless little if any permanent settlement in the
township or county beyond the fort at Meadville, though for a few years
previous clearings were made and crops raised by the
venturesome pioneers, working in bands for mutual protection. David
Mead patented a tract on the west bank of
French Creek about one mile above Meadville, but in the fall of 1788
removed to the site of Meadville, abandoned by Thomas Grant. John Mead
and Cornelius Van Horn, two early pioneers, became life-long settlers in
what is now Vernon Township. James Fitz Randolph, another of the
original settlers of 1788, located a tract about two miles south of
Meadville in this township. Samuel Lord, John Wentworth and Frederick
Haymaker, among others, followed the Mead company to French Creek.
Samuel Lord settled on the tract "Mount Hope," the site of North
Meadville. He had been a Revolutionary soldier and a noted Indian
fighter. He kept a store in Meadville and had a large trade with the
Indians, whose good-will he possessed and whose speech he had acquired.
He was a Federalist in politics and took a leading interest in public
affairs.
The settlement was increased in 1789 by Darius Mead, Frederick
Baum and Robert Fitz Randolph. Mr. Fitz Randolph was born in Essex
County, N. J.; he married when young and removed to Pennsylvania. He
served during the Revolution, and at its close took up his residence in
Northumberland County. In 1789 he with his family immigrated to French
Creek, arriving at Meadville, July 6. He settled at once on a farm two
miles below, where he remained until his death, July 16, 1830, in his
eighty-ninth year. During the war of 1812, in one of the alarms
occasioned by the approach of the enemy at Erie, he mustered his
household, consisting of four sons and two or three grandsons, and
placing himself at their head marched to meet the expected foe. He was
then in his seventy-second year and before reaching Erie was induced to
return. His sons James, Edward, Robert, Taylor and Esaac were also
pioneers.
Frederick Baum settled on a tract which be patented, situated
about a mile farther down French Creek, in the southwest part of Mead
Township. He was a German. John Baum, who was one of the earliest
settlers in the same vicinity, was reputed the strongest man in the
settlements.
The northwest corner of Mead Township consists of a tract
patented by Thomas Ray. He was one of the earliest to migrate to the
western wilderness, and in the spring of 1791, on the day Cornelius Van
Horn was taken prisoner, he also was captured by Indians near Meadville, where his companion,
William Gregg, was killed. Ray was taken to Detroit, and after his
release returned to Mead Township and completed his settlement on French
Creek, where he remained through life. He was a native Scotchman, and
like many of his countrymen indulged freely in the potent cup. His
family is scattered, and one of his sons, Thomas, became a noted
Methodist minister.Of
Mead Township, Rev. Timothy Alden thus writes in the Allegheny Magazine, in 1817: "The Township of Mead, which obtained that
appellation in honor of the late Major-General David Mead, the first
citizen of the United States who explored and settled in this region, is about
eighteen miles in length, from east to west, and eight in width. It is
bounded on the west, about two miles and a half from French Creek on
the westerly side, by Sadsbury; &on the northwest corner to French Creek by Vanango; on
the north from French Creek by Rockdale; on the east by Oil Creek; on
the south, to French Creek by Wayne; and from French Creek to the
southwestern corner by Fairfield. it consists of 89,040 acres of land, of which
52,350 in the eastern part of the township consists of some of the
donation lands of the Seventh District. The township is agreeably
variegated with hills and dales, but sufficiently level for all the purposes of agriculture. Like
most of the county, it is in general better for grass than for grain.
For the former, no part of the United States is believed to be better
adapted, and of the latter, nothing but the hand of cultivation is wanted to furnish an abundance
for a numerous population From one-seventh to one-fifth may be
considered first-rate land. Of the residue a hundred acres in one body
can, perhaps, nowhere be found so broken or so ordinary in quality as to come under
the denomination of third rate. Springs of the purest water abound in
all directions, from which never-failing brooks proceed to irrigate
and enhance the
value of every plantation in the township.
Van Horn's
Run, Kossewaugo Creek, on the western side of French
Creek, Mill Run, rising in Wayne, taking a circuitous northwesterly
course and passing through the village of Meadville, some of the
branches of Little Sugar Creek, of Big Sugar Creek of Oil Creek and of
Woodcock Creek on
the east side of French Creek, afford many eligible sites for
water-works. At present there are four mills for grain, three for
sawing logs. and others are begun or contemplated. Two carding-machines
and one Billing-mill are also impelled by water. "Of forest trees the
following list, though imperfect, shows something
of the variety: white oak, red oak, black oak, chestnut, hickory in all
its species, beech, cherry, sycamore or buttonwood, white ash, black
ash, sugar tree, dark and light, soft maple, black birch, white pine,
hemlock; white
elm, red elm, slippery elm, sassafras, poplar or white wood, quaking
asp, cucumber, ironwood, dogwood, not the poisonous kind, called
boxwood in some parts, bass or linden, sumach, konnekonik etc. Of wild
fruit there
are: crab-apple, plums of several kinds, and of a delicious flavor,
haws, white, red and black whortleberries, blue and black in a few
places, strawberries, very fine and abundant, blackberries, high and
low in great plenty,
raspberries, white, red and purple, which are
excellent, wild currants, gooseberries, cranberries and nuts of
different sorts in vast quantities. Hops, high balm, ginseng,
bloodroot, evin root or chocolate root, and many other
kinds of roots and herbage, of valuable properties, are the spontaneous
growth of Mead as well as of other townships in the county of Crawford.
"Health, the greatest of all merely temporal blessings, is nowhere more
prevalent than in this part of the country. Instances of the goitres
are occasionally found, which are probably caused by the common family
use of pure, cold spring water, but are seldom accompanied with much inconvenience."
Mead Township was the place of the first
settlement in Crawford County.
As stated in a previous chapter of this volume, a company of nine men
on the 12th day of May, 1788, landed at the site of Meadville, having
journeyed into the midst of the vast wilderness from Northumberland
County. The outlook was a gloomy one. They were far from any white
settlements and poorly supplied with the means of making a livelihood.
Most of themen returned to the East, where if they must live with less
independence they could at least enjoy more of the comforts of life.
When Indian hostilities began all were obliged to forsake their homes
till the storm blew over. For several years prior to 1795 there was doubtless little if any permanent
settlement in the township or county beyond the fort at Meadville,
though for a few years previous clearings were made and crops raised by
the venturesome pioneers, working in bands for mutual protection David Mead patented a
tract on the west bank of French Creek about one mile above Meadville,
but in the fall of 1788 removed to the site of Meadville, abandoned by
Thomas Grant. John Mead and Cornelius Van Horn,
two early pioneers, became
life-long settlers in what is now Vernon Township. James Fitz Randolph,
another of the original settlers of 1788, located a tract about two
miles south of Meadville in this township. Samuel Lord, John Wentworth
and Frederick
Haymaker, among others, followed the Mead company to French Creek.
Samuel Lord settled on the tract "Mount Hope," the site of North
Meadville. He had been a Revolutionary soldier and a noted Indian
fighter. He kept
a store in Meadville and had a large trade with the Indians, whose
good-will he possessed and whose speech he had acquired. He was a
Federalist in politics and took a leading interest in public affairs.
The settlement was increased in 1789 by Darius Mead, Frederick Baum and
Robert Fitz Randolph. Mr. Fitz Randolph was born in Essex County, N.
J.; he married when young and removed to Pennsylvania He served during
the Revolution, and at its close took up his residence in
Northumberland County. In 1789 he with his family immigrated to French
Creek, arriving at Meadville, July 6. He settled at once on a farm two
miles below, where he remained until his death, July 16, 1830, in his
eighty-ninth
year. During the war of 1812, in one of the alarms occasioned by the
approach of the enemy at Erie, he mustered his household, consisting of
four sons and two or three grandsons, and placing himself at their head
marched to
meet the expected foe. He was then in his seventy-second year and
before reaching Erie was induced to return His sons James, Edward,
Robert, Taylor and Esaac were also pioneers. Frederick Baum
settled on a tract which be patented, situated about a
mile farther down French Creek, in the southwest part of Mead Township.
He was a German. John Baum, who was one of the earliest settlers in the
same vicinity, was reputed the strongest man in the settlements.
The northwest corner of Mead Township consists of a tract patented by
Thomas Ray. He was one of the earliest to migrate to the western
wilderness, and in the spring of 1791, on the day Cornelius Van Horn was
taken prisoner, he also was captured by
Indians near Meadville, where his companion, William Gregg, was
killed. Ray was taken to Detroit, and alter his release returned to Mead Township
and completed his settlement on French Creek, where he remained through
life. He was a native Scotchman, and like many of his countrymen
indulged
freely in the potent cup. His family is scattered, and one of his sons, Thomas, became a noted Methodist minister.
Of Mead Township, Rev. Timothy Alden thus writes in the Allegheny
Magazine, in 1817: "The Township of Mead, which obtained that
appellation in honor of the late Major-General David Mead, the first
citizen of the United States who explored and settled in this region,
is about
eighteen miles in length, from east to west, and eight in width. It is
bounded on the west, about two miles and a half from French Creek on
the westerly side, by Sadsbury; &om the northwest corner to French
Creek by Vanango; on
the north from French Creek by Rockdale; on the east by Oil Creek; on
the south, to French Creek by Wayne; and from French Creek to the
southwesterncorner by Fairield. it consists of 89,040 acres of land, of
which
52,350 in the eastern part of the township consists of some of the
donation lands of the Seventh District. The township is agreeably
variegated with hills and dales, but sufficiently level for all the
purposes of agriculture. Like
most of the county, it is in general better for grass than for grain.
For the former, no part of the United States is believed to be better
adapted, and ofthe latter, nothing but the hand of cultivation is
wanted to furnish an abundance
for a numerous population From one-seventh to one-fifth may be
considered first-rate land. Of the residue a hundred acres in one body
can, perhaps, nowhere be found so broken or so ordinary in quality as
to come under
the denomination of third rate. Springs ofthe purest water abound in
all directions, &om which never-failing brooks proceed to irrigate
and enhance the value of every plantation in the township.
The first persons who visited the
county to examine its character, with the intention of occupying it,
were David and John Mead, who, escaping from the difficulties they had encountered, in the conflicting claims between
Connecticut and Pennsylvania, left their homes in Northumberland, in
the summer of 1787, and, traveling westward, explored the valley of
French Creek.
They found the soil rich and productive, and many of
the finest portions of the valley covered with herbage and grass, the
forest trees having apparently been long previously removed by some
prior occupants of the county, giving to the cleared portions, at this
time, much the appearance of a natural prairie. Prepossessed with
the looks of the county, the Meads, on their return, made a favourable
report, and in the spring of 1788, a small company, consisting of David
Mead, John Mead, Joseph Mead, Thomas Martin, John Watson, James F.
Randolph, Thomas Grant, Cornelius Van Horn, and Christopher Snyder,
started from Sunbury, with the intention of making the valley of French
Creek their future place of residence.
Van Horn and Snyder arrived at Sunbury, from New
Jersey, about the time that Mead and his comrades were preparing to
leave, and they united themselves with the party. They reached
French Creek, as appears by a memorandum kept by Van Horn, on the 12th
day of May, and encamped and spent their first night under a large
cherry tree east of the stream, near where now stands Kennedy's
Bridge. The next day was spent in exploration, and the party then
moved across French Creek above the mouth of the Cussewago Creek, and
erected a temporary structure to live in. They then commenced
ploughing in one of the old Indian fields, with four horses to the
plough, and after breaking up some eight or ten acres,
they planted them with corn. A freshet in the stream soon after
destroyed their crop, and it was replanted again in the month of June.
In the selection of farms, Thomas Grant chose the
tract on which Meadville, the county seat, is now situated, but for
some reason left it again in the fall, and returned to live in
Northumberland.
The same autumn, David and John Mead brought out
their families. John chose for himself a farm west of the creek,
about a mile north of what is now Meadville, and David selected at
first the tract immediately south of his brother, but soon after
removed to the tract Grant had left, and built his cabin on the east
bank of the stream, in what is now the north part of the village
bearing his name, and where at present stands the tasteful residence of
Mr. William A. V. Magaw.
On the tract which Van Horn had surveyed for himself
stood an old Indian cabin, on the west side of the creek, into which he
moved, and remained until October; during this month, he received a
visit from Archibald Davison, Archibald's father, and Jacob Van Horn,
who spent about a week with him, and then all four returned to New
Jersey.
(1789.) In this year Frederick Baum, Robert
Fitz Randolph, and Darius Mead, the father of David and John Mead,
brought out their families. Sarah Mead, a daughter of David Mead,
was born during the same season, being the first birth in Crawford
County (as now organized). A saw-mill was commenced to be built,
by Matthew Wilson, for David Mead, and was completed the following
year. In the fall, Cornelius Van Horn made a second visit to French Creek, and remained until Christmas, when he
returned to New Jersey.
(1790.) In the spring of the following year
(1790), the saw-mill having been finished, the little colony, with
characteristic enterprise, assumed the importance of an exporting
community, and the first raft of boards that ever descended the
Alleghany River, was taken from this mill, and, together with a raft of
logs, was run to Pittsburg. The hands on board were, Edward
Randolph, John Ray, William Wilson, James Randolph, Frederick Baum,
Tunis Elson, and John Gregg. The lumber was sold at one dollar
and fifty cents per hundred, to Major Isaac Craig, quartermaster in the
army at Pittsburg.
A canoe loaded with baggage and provisions, for
Meadville, had been pushed up the river, by James F. Randolph and
Joseph Mead, as early as 1788.
In October (1790), Cornelius Van Horn, in company
with Thomas Lacey, Peter Colsher, and Matthew Colsher, having with them
a wagon and two horses, left New Jersey, and set out for Cussewago, by
the way of Philadelphia and Pittsburg. At the latter place, the
wagon was sold, the horses put out for the winter, and the party
ascended from thence to the Cussewago in a canoe. During the
whole of this year, the colony seems to have been undisturbed, and the
settlers worked in peace upon their farms.
At the time of its first occupation, Crawford County
appears to have been a kind of border or neutral territory, between
the eastern Indians or Six Nations, who had made treaties of peace with
the whites, and the western Indians, who still remained hostile.
The nearest settlement or village of the eastern
Indians, was that of Cornplanter, on the Alleghany River, at
Tinneshantago, a word which, in the Indian dialect, signifies, "burnt
town," the village having been once destroyed by fire, by order of
General Brodhead. The nearest settlements of the western Indians
were at Cuyahoga and Sandusky. The neutral ground was occupied
principally by nomadic parties of Indians, who lived by hunting, and a
few Indian families, who had cabins along the valley of French Creek,
and at the mouth of the Coneaut Creek, in Ohio. Among the latter,
living at the mouth of Coneaut Creek, was an Indian chief of the name
of Canadaughta, to whom, and his three sons (Flying Cloud, Big Sun, and
Standing Stone), the white settlers were indebted for many acts of
kindness, and friendly protection, bestowed upon them on their first
arrival in the west.
(1791.) About the first of April in this year
(1791), Flying Cloud gave notice to the settlers on French Creek, that
the western Indians (Wyandotts, Shawanees, &c.) were meditating an
invasion. Immediate preparation was made for the approaching
attack. On the second day of April, all the women and children
were collected and sent in canoes down French Creek to the garrison at
Franklin, a small military post established in 1787, under the care of
Captain Hart. In connexion with this incident, and the deeds of
blood perpetrated by the western Indians which followed it, it is
pleasant to record some of the strongly marked acts of kindness shown
to the settlers by the Indians who were friendly.
On the occasion referred to, Halftown (a
full-blooded Indian chief, and a half-brother to Cornplanter), of whose
fidelity the early settlers speak in the emphatic language, that he was as true a man as General Washington, sent six of
his warriors on each side of the stream, to keep pace with the canoes,
and guard them against an ambuscade and attack from shore.
Halftown then placed himself at the head of his
remaining force, amounting to some fifteen warriors, and with the white
settlers who had remained, lay in wait during the whole day, on the
east bank of the creek, at a fording-place (now Kennedy's Bridge), in
expectation that the hostile Indians (of whom eleven had been seen by
William Gregg in the morning, on Davis's Hill, four miles below) would
select that as the most convenient place for crossing the stream.
The day being spent without any further appearance of the enemy, the
Indian chief and his men passed the night at the house of David Mead, a
double log cabin, before alluded to. The next day, the settlers
took their cattle and movable effects, and left for Franklin.
They progressed but six miles, and encamped for the night on the east
bank of the creek, opposite Bald Hill, in one of the old prairie-like
clearings. On the fourth of April, they reached Franklin in
safety, having been accompanied the whole distance by Halftown, and his
men. Mr. Randolph, who was along on the occasion referred to, and
who was otherwise well acquainted with this chief, in describing his
personal appearance speaks of him as having been about five feet ten
inches high, well made, with an unusually good countenance, indicating
great intelligence and most unwavering firmness.
The garrison at Franklin was commanded at this time
by Ensign John Jeffers, from Connecticut. Two old and well-known
citizens of Crawford County, Samuel Lord Esq., and
John Wentworth (now both deceased), were soldiers under him, and had
assisted in the construction of the fort, in 1787.
The year of '91 was one of danger and anxiety to the
western settlers in Pennsylvania. About the first of May,
Cornelius Van Horn, Christopher Lantz, William Gregg, and Thomas Ray,
voluntered to leave the fort at Franklin, and return to Meadville, with
their guns in their hands, and endeavour to put in a crop of
corn. To do this, it was necessary that Van Horn should first get
his horses from Pittsburg; and accordingly he went after them. In
returning, he was obliged to follow a wild path through the woods, from
Pittsburg to Venango, and he describes his ride as lonely, desolate,
and disagreeable. Crossing the Slippery Rock Creek the first day,
he encamped for the night in a deep ravine. He had obtained some
bread and two pounds of butter at Pittsburg, out of which he made his
supper, and then threw himself on his blanket to sleep with his gun by
his side. Shortly afterwards, he was awakened by the crackling of
the fire, and found that, spreading among the dry leaves, it had
communicated itself to his butter. In his endeavours to
extinguish the flame, his hands were so severely burned, as to prevent
him from sleeping any more for the night. At daybreak he found
that his harness was much injured by the fire, and that the horses he
had turned out to browse had wandered away, so that it was ten o'clock
before he was able to find them, and resume his journey.
The second day, he progressed as far as Sandy Creek,
and slept again in the woods. On his route he encountered one
Indian, who was on his way to Slippery Rock, and whose
good will he endeavoured to gain by sharing with him, from his bottle
and his remaining stock of bread. On the third day, he reached
Franklin in safety, where he found the officer, with about twenty-five
of his men, preparing to set out in a few days for Erie.
On the fifth day of May (Christopher Lantz being too
unwell to accompany them), Cornelius Van Horn, William Gregg, and
Thomas Ray, having returned to Meadville, went to their field to plant
it with corn. They worked during the morning, Van Horn ploughing,
and the others planting until noon, when Ray and Gregg returned to
their cabin for dinner, leaving Van Horn ploughing alone, they engaging
to bring his dinner to him. Shortly after they left, Van Horn,
who had laid his gun on the bag of corn, at the end of the furrow,
observed his horses to appear frightened, and on turning round,
discovered two Indians running towards him. The foremost one
threw down his bow and arrows, knocked off Van Horn's hat, and drew his
tomahawk to strike. Van Horn, who, though short, was a
stout-built man, seized the tomahawk and held it with such force that
the Indian could not wrest it from him. The second Indian, having
laid down his gun, now came up, and endeavoured to get a stroke with
his tomahawk, but Van Horn managed to keep up so much action, and to
throw the other Indian so frequently between himself and the danger,
that he could not accomplish it. Van Horn pleading for his life,
the Indians conferred a moment together, when one of them, who spoke
English, after cautioning him with an oath to make less noise, told him
they would spare him, and that he might go with them. The Indians
commenced unharnessing the horses, but Van Horn
requested them to take the gears along, promising to plough for
them. They took each a horse, and Van Horn ran between
them. Crossing the Cussewago near its mouth, and going west, up a
ravine, for about a quarter of a mile, they came to where two other
Indians were waiting for them on the hill. Here the Indians
inquired of Van Horn the situation of the settlement, and on learning
how things stood, three of them took up their arms and went back,
leaving the remaining one, an elderly Indian, in charge of the
prisoner. After remaining about three quarters of an hour, the
Indian put Van Horn on one of the horses, while he rode the other, and
they pursued a dim Indian path until they came to Coneaut Lake.
After crossing the outlet they dismounted. The horses were
fettered so that they could not escape, and the Indian then tied the
rope, which confined the arms of his prisoner, to a tree, and left him;
going back upon the trail, it is supposed, either to fish in the lake
or to watch if they were pursued. When left alone, Van Horn, who
had given up his knife and powder-horn to the Indian who had captured
him, began to search in his pockets to see if he could find any
instrument to escape with. He fortunately discovered a small toy
knife, which he had picked up the day before. It was deplorably
dull, but, after whetting it on the key of his chest, and sawing
awhile, he succeeded in cutting off that part of the rope which
confined him to the tree. He immediately ran down the outlet,
crossed it, and after struggling through the swamp, succeeded in making
his way eastward, until he came to a path leading up French Creek,
which he followed until he reached a small nursery of apple trees he
had planted near Kennedy's Bridge. Finding the
nursery full of weeds, and apprehensive if the fire got among them that
his trees would be injured, he commenced weeding, as well as he could
with his arms fettered. He had been at work but a few minutes,
when he heard some one call him from across the creek. Fearful of
danger, he dared not to answer; but when the call was repeated, he
recognised the voice of John Fredebaugh, an old acquaintance. He
immediately left his work, and, though the water was deep and cold, he
waded through it to Fredebaugh, who conducted him to Ensign Jeffers,
who, with thirty soldiers and three Indians, was at Mead's house.
Jeffers cut the cord which bound Van Horn, and immediately ordered
sentinels to be posted, and sent part of his men to the island for his
horses, intending at once to leave for Franklin. The horses were
all found but the Ensign's, and he with his men left, leaving behind
two Indians and Van Horn, the latter refusing to go, until he had
collected some articles he wanted. He passed the night with the
two Indians under some oak trees, east of the present village, and in
the morning, finding he had nothing to eat, he returned to the field
where he had the day before been made a prisoner; and where he
discovered, in a bucket, the dinner which had been brought out for him
the day before, by Gregg and Ray. After breakfast, having
succeeded in catching the missing horse of Ensign Jeffers, he put his
own saddle upon it, and gave it to one of the Indians to ride, while
the other Indian and himself took a canoe, and descended to Franklin by
water. The Indian on horseback was not heard of afterwards, and
probably took his booty and rode off with it to the west.
William Gregg and Thomas Ray, whom we left going
to their cabin, after dinner went out to where they
had left Van Horn, and found that he was gone, and immediately after
discovered the three Indians approaching them. They retreated,
but as Gregg was crossing the Cussewago Creek, near its junction with
French Creek, he was shot through the thigh, and disabled for further
fight. He called to Ray to assist him. Ray stopped, and the
Indians came up. Both Ray and Gregg appear to have been
panic-stricken, or they might have defended themselves. The
Indians took Gregg's gun (their own being unloaded) and shot him with
it, as he was seated on the bank of the creek. They scalped and
left him, taking Ray with them as a prisoner. They followed the
trail of the Indian who had preceded them, and on arriving at Coneaut
Lake found their comrade, and learned from him that Van Horn had made
his escape; a circumstance which, the Indians told Ray, was entirely in
his favour, as they had determined to risk taking with them but one
prisoner, and that either he or Van Horn must have perished, if the
latter had not eluded them. Indeed Ray, throughout this matter,
seems to have had an unusual run of good fortune. After
undergoing the usual vicissitudes of Indian captivity on his way to the
west, his captors brought him at last in the neighbourhood of a British
garrison, near Detroit; here Ray, who was a Scot by birth, recognised
one of the British officers (a Captain White) as a fellow-countryman,
whom he had seen in Scotland. On making known his situation to
Captain White, the latter, with generous benevolence purchased his
liberty from the Indians, gave him a suit of clothes, and paid his
passage in a schooner to Buffalo. On reaching the latter place,
Ray met with a Mohawk chief, of the name of Stripe
Neck, who resided at Meadville, and who conducted him to
Franklin, and from thence he proceeded to join his family at Pittsburg,
to the agreeable surprise of his relatives and friends, who had
relinquished all expectation of having him return.
During this season Darius Mead (the father of David
and John Mead) was made a prisoner by two Indians, while ploughing in a
field adjacent to the fort at Franklin. The Indians conducted him
to near the Shenango Creek, in Mercer County, where he was found dead
the next day, by a friendly Seneca chief, named Conewyando, who sent
his daughter, a young squaw, to the fort at Franklin, to give notice of
it to his friends. It is supposed that Mead was killed in an
attempt to escape, as by his side, when found, was lying, also dead,
one of his captors, whom Conewyando recognised as a Delaware chief,
called Captain Bull. Bull was known to the settlers as a
professedly friendly Indian, but his fidelity had been suspected.
From appearances, Mead, during the night, had got Bull's knife, and
killed him with it, but was himself overcome, and killed by the other
Indian: the latter is reported to have afterwards died of the wounds he
received in the struggle. Two men (Luke Hill, originally from
Connecticut, and John Ray, a revolutionary soldier from Northumberland)
went out from the garrison at Franklin, and found Mead and Bull lying
together as above described, and buried them.
It was also during the month of April, in this year,
that seven men were killed in a cabin by the Indians, near Freeport, on
the Alleghany River, when Agnes Clark, wife of Richard Clark, made her
miraculous escape, with her child in her arms, by
leaping on the backlog on the fire, and springing from thence over the
low chimney of the cabin. This, however, belongs to the history
of another county.
These murders, and the frequent alarm of Indians
about this time, caused the settlement on French Creek, at Meadville,
to be for a time abandoned, and in 1792 no white settlers resided in
Crawford County.
(1793.) In the spring of 1793, some of the
first settlers, whose apprehensions had subsided, or regardless of the
danger, returned to their farms, and about twenty more persons came out
about this time, from the neighbourhood of the Susquehanna.
During the course of the summer, notice was received through Flying
Cloud, that the western Indians were preparing for another attack, and
the county was again deserted until late in the fall and winter, when
several persons returned to Meadville. Cornelius Van Horn and
Matthew Wilson, in the fall of '92, having obtained a couple of young
panthers, took them to the east, and appear, from notes kept by Van
Horn, to have exhibited them at Pittsburg, Philadelphia, New York, and,
after the intermediate places, finally at Boston, where Van Horn (who
had purchased Wilson's interest in the animals at New York) deposed of
them, and returned to Meadville.
Ensign Lewis Bond, with a small detachment of
twenty-four men, appears to have guarded, during a part of this season,
the house of David Mead, which had been fortified with a stockade, to
serve as a garrison,—but he and his men were called elsewhere before
notice of the Indian invasion was given.
(1794.) In the early part of this year (1794),
the settlers organized themselves into a military
company, and Cornelius Van Horn was chosen captain.
A blockhouse was also built for the protection of
the inhabitants, in the upper story of which was mounted a
cannon. It was a rough log building, with the second story
projecting beyond the lower one, and having a sentry-box on top.
It was situated east of Water Street, immediately south of the present
residence of J. W. Farrelly, Esq., where it remained standing until the
summer of 1828, when, in the progress of improvement in the village, it
was removed. In the month of May, a small garrison was
established at Waterford, twenty-two miles north of Meadville, by Major
Dennis.
The farms about Meadville were cultivated this year
by the inhabitants, who worked in small companies, ever on the alert to
anticipate the danger and avert the evil with which they were as
constantly threatened. On the tenth day of August, James Dickson
(commonly known, to distinguish him from a namesake, as Scotch Jemmy),
while in search of his cows, about half a mile north of the village, on
the farm of Samuel Lord, Esq., was attacked by a party of Indians in
ambuscade. He was wounded by the first fire of his adversaries in
the shoulder, in his hip, and his hand, and while stooping, to see if
he could discover any of his concealed foes that he might return their
fire, a ball passed through his hat, just grazing the crown of his
head. Whereupon the old man, who seems to have been of good
pluck, returned them a shout of defiance, exclaiming in broad Scotch,
"Come out of that, you rascals, and fight us fair." The Indians
showing no disposition to assent to so reasonable a proposition,
Dickson commenced a retreat for the village. The
Indians followed him with tomahawks, their guns being unloaded, but
were afraid to approach too near to him, he having retained his
fire. The old man insisted to the day of his death, that once,
when he was just in the act of firing, a low voice said to him, "Don't
shoot;" whereupon he reserved his load, and thereby preserved his
life. When Dickson came near to Mead's mill he shouted for help,
and was heard by Luke Hill, who gave the alarm. Flying Cloud, who
was here at the time, and three or four men, immediately started in
pursuit, and Dickson, wounded as he was, was with difficulty dissuaded
by his wife and friends from joining them. The hostile Indians,
however, escaped the impending retaliation, by a timely retreat.
Rumours of Indian invasions were rife during the
whole of this year; but this appears to have been the only attack made
upon the settlers at Meadville.
The wife of Darius Mead died this summer at
Meadville, being (except those occasioned by the Indians) the first
death in Crawford County among the white inhabitants.
(1795.) The year of '95 was distinguished in
Northwest Pennsylvania by the commencement of some improvements of a
public and permanent character. In the spring Mr. M'Nair was
employed to cut a road from Waterford to Presque Isle harbour.
Captain Grubb (since an associate judge in Erie County), Captain
Russell Bissell, and Captain Levant, commenced the construction of a
fort about the same time on the harbour near Erie. One of the
persons employed as carpenter in the construction of this fort, was Mr.
James Gibson (now deceased), well known both at Pittsburg and Meadville
as the keeper of an excellent hotel. The first
wagon which traveled the new road cut out by M'Nair was loaded with
tools for the fort, and was driven by Mr. Edward Randolph, of whom I
have before spoken. Mr. Randolph speaks of crossing, on this trip
a bridge built by the French, made of chestnut timber, and said to be
forty-five years old, the wood of which was still sound.
The year of '95 was also marked by several
sanguinary incursions of the western Indians. Early in June,
Thomas Rutledge and his son, a lad about sixteen years of age, were
killed by the Indians near the M'Nair road, about a mile south of
Erie. The boy when found still showed symptoms of life, and was
carried to Waterford, where his wounds were carefully dressed by Dr.
Thomas R. Kennedy (now deceased), a physician in Meadville, but he
survived but a few hours.
On the third day of June, James Findlay and Barnabas
M'Cormick, engaged at the time in splitting rails for John Haling,
below Meadville, about a mile west of the present aqueduct for the
canal, were destroyed by the Indians. A report of guns having
been heard, search was made for them, and they were found where they
had been at work, both dead, having been shot and scalped by their
savage assailants. Their bodies were brought to town, placed in
one coffin, and interred in the Meadville cemetery. On the fifth
day of June, the same band of Indians robbed the camp of Mr. William
Power, who was engaged as deputy surveyor, in making surveys of tracts
in what is now South Shenango Township. James Thompson, the hand
who had charge of the camp at the time, was taken prisoner, but
subsequently effected his escape. While in
custody of the Indians, he became aware of the misfortune which had
happened to Findlay and M'Cormick, from seeing their scalps in
possession of the Indians, which he recognised by the colour of the
hair. The scene where Power's camp was robbed is known to the
inhabitants at the present day, as the "White Thorn Corner."
For the purpose of establishing a town at Presque
Isle, and protecting the frontier, on the eighth day of April, 1793,
and again on the eighteenth day of April, 1794, the legislature offered
a bounty of a lot and outlot to each of the first two hundred persons
who should build and reside for three years at that place. These
acts, however, having failed in their object, were repealed on the 18th
day of April, 1795.
The treaty of General Wayne with the western
Indians, made on the 3d day of August, '95, and ratified on the 22d of
the following December, brought peace, so far as the Indian hostilities
were concerned, to the settlements in Northwest Pennsylvania.
From that period, this portion of the state began to improve more
rapidly, and though its prosperity was checked for a time by the
contest which immediately after arose between the actual settlers and
the warrant-holders under the act of '92, about the titles to lands
west of the Alleghany River, yet the interruption was but brief, and in
1805, the rights of those holding by warrant under the commonwealth,
having ultimately prevailed in the United States Court, (which decided
that where the warrant-holder had endeavoured to make his settlement
within two years, and was prevented by force of arms, or imminent
danger from the enemies of the United States, he was excused by doing
so subsequently,) repose again smiled upon the west,
and no barrier any longer presented itself to the occupancy of the
country by that hardy class of men, who, coming from the eastern
portions of our own country, or escaping from the over-populated
provinces of Europe, became here, on easy terms, proprietors of the
soil and found among the hills and valleys of the west abundance of
room and a peaceful home for themselves and families.
During the year of '95, the towns of Erie, Warren,
and Franklin, were surveyed and laid out by Andrew Ellicott, Esq.
(1802.) In 1802, an act was passed
incorporating a seminary of learning in Meadville, and David Mead,
James Gibson, with five other persons, were appointed trustees. A
brick building was erected for the purpose, which was completed in the
fall of 1805, when a school was opened in it, under the care of the
Rev. Joseph Stockton, who gave instruction in the Latin and Greek
languages, and the common branches of an English education. The
building was a one story edifice, containing two rooms; it was situated
in the extreme eastern part of the village, where it remained standing
for about twenty years, when the lot attached to it was sold to Mr.
Arthur Cullum, who removed the academy to make room for a
dwelling-house; the trustees have since erected a larger and more
commodious building for academic purposes in a central part of the
village.
In 1805, the first newspaper in the state west of
the mountains was established at Meadville, by Thomas Atkinson and W.
Brendle,—the latter, however, remained in the concern only some eight
months, when he sold out, and Mr. Atkinson became the
sole proprietor. The title of the paper was the "Crawford Weekly
Messenger," and the editorial leader in the first number, published on
the second day of January, 1805, announces the paper to be republican
in its politics, but that its columns will be open to all who think
their principles or political connexions injured, as freely to the one
side as the other, with the wholesome restriction, that the discussions
should be liberal, candid, and decent. This commendable rule
seems to have observed for the first few numbers of the new paper, but
shortly after, when the contest began to increase in warmth between the
friends of Mr. Snyder and Governor M'Kean, we find the political essays
in the Messenger marked with the same bitter personalities which mar
and disfigure similar contests at the present day; such, however, was
not the character of the editorial matter. The editor himself was
a man of mild disposition.
He continued to edit and publish his paper, until
within about four years of his death, which took place in '37.
Regular files of this Journal have been preserved, and were devised by
Mr. Atkinson to his son, Monroe Atkinson, who still retains them.
I had hoped from the files of the Messenger to have
obtained much relating to the early history of the county; but though
it is interesting to look over, as containing the marriages, and
deaths, &c., of many of the oldest citizens, to one who was
acquainted with them, yet its columns are principally occupied, (as it
perhaps is natural they should be,) rather with giving to its readers a
knowledge of what was going on in the world abroad, than in
communicating to those elsewhere, information of what
was transpiring in the little community at home.
It appears that in March, 1805, one of the highest
freshets ever known to the settlers occurred in French Creek, attended
with the destruction of considerable property. In December of the
same year we find a statement of the business done on this stream in
the salt trade, a business which now, with the improved facilities of
transportation, has been entirely transferred to other channels.
During the rise of water in this month, it appears that eleven
flat-boats and six keel-boats passed down French Creek, carrying about
2230 barrels of New York salt, valued at Meadville at $11 per barrel,
and worth $24,530, but selling at Pittsburg at $13 per barrel, and
amounting there to the sum of $28,990. The revenue that might be
derived from tolls in this trade is pointed out by the editor, as an
inducement for the opening of a turnpike to Erie. A matter worthy
of notice is the contrast between the present price of salt (which is
$1 37 per barrel) and that which it bore in 1805, when it sold for
eight times as much.
Though out of place, I may mention that I find, in
1805, a farmer in this county, recommending to argiculturists, as a
tried and successful remedy for the smut in wheat, to let the grain for
seed become more fully ripe than that which is used for grinding, a
remedy which is recommended as a discovery by some of the agricultural
papers of the present year.
At the time the Messenger was first published, the
paper on which it was printed had to be brought from Pittsburg on
horseback. The mail was carried in the same way,
arriving once a week, sometimes by the way of Franklin, sometimes
through Mercer; and the carrier who brought the foreign news, generally
brought with him the paper upon which it was to be republished at home.
The first volumes of the Messenger contain a history
of most of the contemporaneous events of any interest; the foreign
intelligence, the congressional and legislative proceedings, the
impeachment and trial of Judge Chase, and of the Judges of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania; of the times when the assertion of popular
rights was carried far towards the verge of ultraism, and when new
social and civil, commercial and political relationships and interests
springing up, developed individual character, modified old habits and
opinions, and made almost every man in the community a student of law,
and an imaginary, if not a real professor, of the science of
legislation.
On the 13th day of March, 1800, David Mead, and on
the 14th day of the same month, John Kelso, received commissions
appointing them Associate Judges for the county of Crawford.
Thomas Ruston Kennedy was appointed Prothonotary, &c., at the same
time, and on the second day of August in that year, the late Hon. Henry
Baldwin, was appointed as deputy prosecuting Attorney for the
commonwealth. The first court that appears, by the record, to
have sat in the county, was held by Judges Mead and Kelso, on the 6th
day of July, 1800. The number of suits, appeals, &c., brought
to this term, appears to be ninety-five. On the 20th day of
December, 1800, William Bell received a commission as Associate Judge,
in the place of David Mead, who resigned. And the third session of the Court was held at Meadville, on the 6th
day of April, 1801, by the Hon. Alexander Addison, President, and the
Hon. William Bell, associate judge. The average number of suits
and appeals to a term for the first year after the organization of the
county, was sixty-five. The average number to a term, during the
year 1845, was two hundred and forty-five.
Regretting that so much of the information collected
is confined almost entirely to the Indian invasions, which being of
paramount importance to the settlers at the time they occurred, are
remembered with more distinctness than anything else; the rest of my
paper will be occupied with a more methodical reply to the inquiries
made in the circular of the Historical Society.
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