Part 2 (1/2)
”Brethren,--We have thought a great deal of what you imparted to us, that ye were come to turn the people off who are settled over the hills; we are pleased to see you on this occasion; and, as the council of Onondago has this affair exceedingly at heart, and it was particularly recommended to us by the deputies of the Six Nations when they parted from us last summer, we desire to accompany you. But we are afraid, notwithstanding the care of the governor, that this may prove like many former attempts. The people will be put off now, and next year come again; and if so, the Six Nations will no longer bear it, but do themselves justice. To prevent this, therefore, when you shall have turned the people off, we recommend it to the governor to place two or three faithful persons over the mountains who may be agreeable to him and us, with commissions empowering them immediately to remove every one who may presume after this to settle themselves, until the Six Nations shall agree to make sale of their land.”
To enforce this they gave a string of wampum, and received one in return from the magistrates, with the strongest a.s.surances that they would do their duty.
On Tuesday, the twenty-second of May, Matthew Dill, George Croghan, Benjamin Chambers, Thomas Wilson, John Finley, and James Galbreath, Esqrs., justices of the said county of c.u.mberland, attended by the under-sheriff, came to Big Juniata, situate at the distance of twenty miles from the mouth thereof, and about ten miles north from the Blue Hills--a place much esteemed by the Indians for some of their best hunting-ground; and there they found five cabins or log-houses; one possessed by William White, another by George Cahoon, another not quite yet finished, in possession of David Hiddleston, another possessed by George and William Galloway, and another by Andrew Lycon. Of these persons, William White and George and William Galloway, David Hiddleston, and George Cahoon, appeared before the magistrates, and, being asked by what right or authority they had possessed themselves of those lands and erected cabins thereon, they replied, by no right or authority, but that the land belonged to the proprietaries of Pennsylvania. They then were asked whether they did not know that they were acting against the law, and in contempt of frequent notices given them by the governor's proclamation? They said they had seen one such proclamation, and had nothing to say for themselves, but craved mercy. Hereupon the said William White, George and William Galloway, David Hiddleston, and George Cahoon, being convicted by said justices on their view, the under-sheriff was charged with them, and he took William White, David Hiddleston, and George Cahoon into custody; but George and William Galloway resisted, and having got at some distance from the under-sheriff, they called to us, ”You may take our lands and houses, and do what you please with them; we deliver them to you with all our hearts, but we will not be carried to jail!”
The next morning, being Wednesday, the twenty-third of May, the said justices went to the log-house or cabin of Andrew Lycon, and finding none there but children, and hearing that the father and mother were expected soon, and William White and others offering to become security jointly and severally, and to enter into recognisance as well for Andrew's appearance at court and immediate removal as for their own, this proposal was accepted, and William White, David Hiddleston, and George Cahoon entered into a recognisance of one hundred pounds, and executed bonds to the proprietaries in the sum of five hundred pounds, reciting that they were trespa.s.sers, and had no manner of right, and had delivered possession to me for the proprietaries. When the magistrates went to the cabin or log-house of George and William Galloway, (which they had delivered up as aforesaid the day before, after they were convicted, and were flying from the sheriff,) all the goods belonging to the said George and William were taken out, and the cabin being quite empty, I took possession thereof for the proprietaries; and then a conference was held what should be done with the empty cabin; and after great deliberation, all agreed that if some cabins were not destroyed, they would tempt the trespa.s.sers to return again, or encourage others to come there should these trespa.s.sers go away; and so what was doing would signify nothing, since the possession of them was at such a distance from the inhabitants, could not be kept for the proprietaries; and Mr.
Weiser also giving it as his opinion that, if all the cabins were left standing, the Indians would conceive such a contemptible opinion of the government that they would come themselves in the winter, murder the people, and set their houses on fire. On these considerations the cabin, by my order, was burnt by the under-sheriff and company.
Then the company went to the house possessed by David Hiddleston, who had entered into bond as aforesaid; and he having voluntarily taken out all the things which were in the cabin, and left me in possession, that empty and unfurnished cabin was likewise set on fire by the under-sheriff, by my order.
The next day, being the twenty-fourth of May, Mr. Weiser and Mr.
Galbreath, with the under-sheriff and myself, on our way to the mouth of the Juniata called at Andrew Lycon's, with intent only to inform him that his neighbors were bound for his appearance and immediate removal, and to caution him not to bring him or them into trouble by a refusal; but he presented a loaded gun to the magistrates and sheriff; said he would shoot the first man that dared to come nigher. On this he was disarmed, convicted, and committed to the custody of the sheriff. This whole transaction happened in the sight of a tribe of Indians who had by accident in the night time fixed their tent on that plantation; and Lycon's behavior giving them great offence, the s.h.i.+ckcalamies insisted on our burning the cabin, or they would do it themselves. Whereupon every thing was taken out of it, (Andrew Lycon all the while a.s.sisting,) and, possession being delivered to me, the empty cabin was set on fire by the under-sheriff, and Lycon was carried to jail.
Mr. Benjamin Chambers and Mr. George Croghan had about an hour before separated from us; and on meeting them again in c.u.mberland county, they reported to me they had been at Sheerman's creek, or Little Juniata, situate about six miles over the Blue Mountain, and found there James Parker, Thomas Parker, Owen McKeib, John McClare, Richard Kirkpatrick, James Murray, John Scott, Henry Ga.s.s, John Cowan, Simon Girtee, and John Kilough, who had settled lands and erected cabins or log-houses thereon; and having convicted them of the trespa.s.s on their view, they had bound them, in recognisances of the penalty of one hundred pounds, to appear and answer for their trespa.s.ses on the first day of the next county court of c.u.mberland, to be held at s.h.i.+ppensburgh; and that the said trespa.s.sers had likewise entered into bonds to the proprietaries, in five hundred pounds penalty, to remove off immediately, with all their servants, cattle, and effects, and had delivered possession of their houses to Mr. George Stevenson for the proprietaries' use; and that Mr. Stevenson had ordered some of the meanest of those cabins to be set on fire, where the families were not large nor the improvements considerable.
On Monday, the twenty-eighth of May, we were met at s.h.i.+ppensburgh by Samuel Smith, William Maxwell, George Croghan, Benjamin Chambers, William Allison, William Trent, John Finley, John Miller, Herma.n.u.s Alricks, and James Galbreath, Esquires, justices of c.u.mberland county, who informed us that the people in the Tuscarora Path, in Big Cove, and at Aucquick, would submit. Mr. Weiser most earnestly pressed that he might be excused any further attendance, having abundance of necessary business to do at home; and the other magistrates, though with much reluctance, at last consenting, he left us.
On Wednesday, the thirtieth of May, the magistrates and company being detained two days by rain, proceeded over the Kittochtinny Mountains and entered into the Tuscarora Path or Path Valley, through which the road to Alleghany lies. Many settlements were formed in this valley, and all the people were sent for, and the following persons appeared, viz.: Abraham Slach, James Blair, Moses Moore, Arthur Dunlap, Alexander McCartie, David Lewis, Adam McCartie, Felix Doyle, Andrew Dunlap, Robert Wilson, Jacob Pyatt, Jr., William Ramage, Reynolds Alexander, Robert Baker, John Armstrong, and John Potts; who were all convicted by their own confession to the magistrates of the like trespa.s.ses with those at Sheerman's Creek, and were bound in the like recognisances to appear at court, and bonds to the proprietaries to remove with all their families, servants, cattle, and effects; and having voluntarily given possession of their houses to me, some ordinary log-houses, to the number of eleven, were burnt to the ground; the trespa.s.sers, most of them cheerfully, and a very few of them with reluctance, carrying out all their goods. Some had been deserted before, and lay waste.
At Aucquick, Peter Falconer, Nicholas De Long, Samuel Perry, and John Charleton, were convicted on the view of the magistrates, and having entered into like recognisances and executed the like bonds, Charleton's cabin was burnt, and fire set to another that was just begun, consisting only of a few logs piled and fastened to one another.
The like proceedings at Big Cove (now within Bedford county) against Andrew Donnaldson, John MacClelland, Charles Stewart, James Downy, John MacMean, Robert Kendell, Samuel Brown, William Shepperd, Roger Murphy, Robert Smith, William d.i.c.key, William Millican, William MacConnell, James Campbell, William Carrell, John Martin, John Jamison, Hans Patter, John MacCollin, James Wilson, and John Wilson; who, coming before the magistrates, were convicted on their own confession of the like trespa.s.ses, as in former cases, and were all bound over in like recognisances and executed the like bond to the proprietaries. Three waste cabins of no value were burnt at the north end of the Cove by the persons who claimed a right to them.
The Little Cove (in Franklin county) and the Big and Little Conolloways being the only places remaining to be visited, as this was on the borders of Maryland, the magistrates declined going there, and departed for their homes.
About the year 1740 or 1741, one Frederick Star, a German, with two or three more of his countrymen, made some settlements at the place where we found William White, the Galloways, and Andrew Lycon, on Big Juniata, situate at the distance of twenty miles from the mouth thereof, and about ten miles north of the Blue Hills,--a place much esteemed by the Indians for some of their best hunting ground; which (German settlers) were discovered by the Delawares at Shamokin to the deputies of the Six Nations as they came down to Philadelphia in the year 1742, to hold a treaty with this government; and they were disturbed at, as to inquire with a peculiar warmth of Governor Thomas if these people had come there by the orders or with the privilege of the government; alleging that, if it was so, this was a breach of the treaties subsisting between the Six Nations and the proprietor, William Penn, who in the most solemn manner engaged to them not to suffer any of the people to settle lands till they had purchased from the Council of the Six Nations. The governor, as he might with great truth, disowned any knowledge of those persons' settlements; and on the Indians insisting that they should be immediately thrown over the mountains, he promised to issue his proclamation, and, if this had no effect, to put the laws in execution against them. The Indians, in the same treaty, publicly expressed very severe threats against the inhabitants of Maryland for settling lands for which they had received no satisfaction, and said that if they would not do them justice they would do justice to themselves, and would certainly have committed hostilities if a treaty had not been under foot between Maryland and the Six Nations, under the mediation of Governor Thomas; at which the Indians consented to sell lands and receive a valuable consideration for them, which put an end to the danger.
The proprietaries were then in England; but observing, on perusing the treaty, with what asperity they had expressed themselves against Maryland, and that the Indians had just cause to complain of the settlements at Juniata, so near Shamokin, they wrote to their governor, in very pressing terms, to cause those trespa.s.sers to be immediately removed; and both the proprietaries and governor laid these commands on me to see this done, which I accordingly did in June, 1743, the governor having first given them notice by a proclamation served on them.
At that time none had presumed to settle at a place called the Big Cove--having this name from its being enclosed in the form of a basin by the southernmost range of the Kittochtinny Hills and Tuscarora Hills; which last end here, and lose themselves in other hills. This Big Cove is about five miles north of the temporary line, and not far west of the place where the line terminated.
Between the Big Cove and the temporary line lies the Little Cove,--so called from being likewise encircled with hills; and to the west of the Little Cove, toward Potowmec, lie two other places, called the Big and Little Conollaways, all of them situate on the temporary line, and all of them extended toward the Potowmec.
In the year 1741 or 1742 information was likewise given that people were beginning to settle in those places, some from Maryland and some from this province. But as the two governments were not then on very good terms, the governor did not think proper to take any other notice of these settlements than to send the sheriff to serve his proclamation on them, though they had ample occasion to lament the vast inconveniences which attend unsettled boundaries. After this the French war came on, and the people in those parts, taking advantage of the confusion of the times, by little and little stole into the Great Cove; so that at the end of the war it was said thirty families had settled there; not, however, without frequent prohibitions on the part of the government, and admonitions of the great danger they run of being cut off by the Indians, as these settlements were on lands not purchased of them. At the close of the war, Mr. Maxwell, one of the justices of Lancaster county, delivered a particular message from this government to them, ordering their removal, that they might not occasion a breach with the Indians, but it had no effect.
These were, to the best of my remembrance, all the places settled by Pennsylvanians in the unpurchased part of the province, till about three years ago, when some persons had the presumption to go into Path Valley or Tuscarora Gap, lying to the east of the Big Cove, and into a place called Aucquick, lying to the northward of it; and likewise into a place called Sheerman's creek, lying along the waters of Juniata, and is situate east of the Path Valley, through which the present road goes from Harris's Ferry to Alleghany; and lastly, they extended their settlements to Big Juniata; the Indians all this while repeatedly complaining that their hunting-ground was every day more and more taken from them; and that there must infallibly arise quarrels between their warriors and these settlers, which would in the end break the chain of friends.h.i.+p, and pressing in the most importunate terms their speedy removal. The government in 1748 sent the sheriff and three magistrates, with Mr. Weiser, into these places to warn the people; but they, notwithstanding, continued their settlements in opposition to all this; and, as if those people were prompted by a desire to make mischief, settled lands no better, nay not so good, as many vacant lands within the purchased parts of the province.
The bulk of these settlements were made during the administration of President Palmer; and it is well known to your honor, though then in England, that his attention to the safety of the city and the lower counties would not permit him to extend more care to places so remote.
Finding such a general submission, except the two Galloways and Andrew Lycon, and vainly believing the evil would be effectually taken away, there was no kindness in my power which I did not do for the offenders. I gave them money where they were poor, and telling them they might go directly on any part of the two millions of acres lately purchased of the Indians; and where the families were large, as I happened to have several of my own plantations vacant, I offered them to stay on them rent free, till they could provide for themselves: then I told them that if after all this lenity and good usage they would dare to stay after the time limited for their departure, no mercy would be shown them, but that they would feel the rigor of the law.
It may be proper to add that the cabins or log-houses which were burnt were of no considerable value; being such as the country people erect in a day or two, and cost only the charge of an entertainment.
RICHARD PETERS.
July 2, 1750.
From this summary proceeding originated the name of the place called the Burnt Cabins, the locality of which is pointed out to the traveller to this day.
That these ejected tenants _at will_ did not remain permanently ejected from the fertile valley of the Juniata is evident from the fact that their descendants, or many of them, of the third and fourth generations, are now occupying the very lands they were driven from.