The Horn papers; early westward movement on the Monongahela and upper Ohio, 1765-1795

L I B R.A R.Y

OF THE
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OF ILLINOIS

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For a review of this work see:

American Historical Review, v. 51 #4,
July 1946, pp. 771-772.
Reviews by Alfred P~ James and
Julian P. Boyd.

Also see:

Middleton, Arthur P. and Douglas Adair
"The Mystery of the Horn Papers,"
William & Mary Quarterly, Ser. 3,
v. 4 #4, October 1947.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

http://archive.org/details/hornpapersearlyw01horn

THE HORN PAPERS

EARLY WESTWARD MOVEMENT ON

THE MONONGAHELA

AND

UPPER OHIO 1765-1795

By
W. F. HORN

In Three Volumes
VOLUME I

Published for a committee of the

Greene County Historical Society, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania

by the Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania

1945

Copyright 1945

By

Wl F. Horn, J. L. Fulton, A. L. Moredock

The Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania

Printed in U. S. A.

H'

n

CONTENTS— VOLUME I

PART I

Page

I Jacob Horn's Diary \

II Christopher Horn's Notes 40

J III Diary of John Horn, The Elder 65

IV Day Book of John Horn, Jr 6g

V Camp Cat Fish Court Docket 1772 71

VI Miscellaneous Papers and Maps 128

PART II
Chapter

1 Spanish and French Explorations 147

2 Colonial History 169

Pennsylvania 170

New York 171

Maryland 173

Virginia 174

Iron Manufacturing in Virginia 184

3 George Washington and the Ohio Company 197

The Ohio Company 213

The Walpole Grant 220

The Battle of Flint Top 221

4 Christopher Gist 225

5 Jacob Horn 243

6 The French Lead Plates 247

7 A Summary of the Causes Which Led to the American

Revolution 251

8 Indian Wars and Massacres 279

William Thomas 281

Battle of Lower Ten Mile 282

The Spicer Massacre 2834

The Roeferty Massacre 287

The Armstrong Massacre 288

The Crow Sisters 290

Cayuga-Seneca Indians in Eastern Greene Co 291

John Canon and Dunmore's War 293

9 Pictured Rocks and Indian Trails 294

The Nemacolin Trail 302

.? vii

THE HORN PAPERS

10 Some Noted Indians 306

Mathias Splitlog 306

Chief Bluejacket 309

White Eyes 312

Oppaymolleh 313

Wa-ha-wag-lo 314

Bald Eagle 315

Bowlegs 318

Cannesatego's Speech 319

Logan and the Mingos 321

Extracts from Colonel Frye's Notes 322

1 1 First Courts and Courthouses 327

12 Early Forts 333

Fort Morris 333

Fort Queen Elizabeth 334

Grayble Blockhouse 335

Fort George 338

Fort Martin 339

Forts Jumonville and Burd 340

Fort Harrod 342

Other Forts 347

13 Mason-Dixon Line 354

Setting of the Post 362

Virginia Surveys 364

14 Forgotten Towns 367

McCullough Town 367

Augusta Town 368

Razortown 374

Logstown 376

1 5 Modern Towns 379

Waynesburg 379

Clarksville 385

Greensboro 393

Jefferson 395

Hillsboro 404

Brave 405

Mt. Morris 406

Carmichaels 408

Wind Ridge 410

Vlll

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I

Christopher Horn's Cabin Frontispiece

The Fur House of Jean Le Beau g

Bar at Half Moon Bend of the Potomac 16

Turkey Foot Rock 24

Map of Site of Lead Plate No. 3 30

Aliquippa's Spring 56

Site of Battle of Flint Top 57

First Page of Court Docket 72

Court Estimate of 1772 84

Cat Fish Court Boundary 89

Indian Lands 91

Camp Cat Fish Lands — C. Horn 94-95

Camp Cat Fish — John Hardtman 96

Map of Virginia — C. Bryce Following 128

Trails in Vicinity of Catfish Run and Main Delaware Camp ... 128
Trails in Vicinity of Catfish Run and Main Delaware Camp —

Detail " 128

French Claims and Tribal Lands — Richard Lewis 1747 128

French Claims and Tribal Lands — Detail 128

Ohio Lands — Richard Lewis 1752 128

Ohio Lands — Detail 128

Trail from Snow Creek to Camp Cat Fish 128

French and Indian Lands — Richard Lewis 128

Gist's Map of Monongahela Country 1750 128

Christopher Gist's Trails in 1750 — John Gibson 130

Gist and Frazier Survey of Virginia — 1749 131

Lewis' Map of Lower Ten Mile — 1751 136

Gilbert's Map of Virginia 1754 137

Map of Trail and Turkey Foot Rock 142

Gist's Store House 228

Lead Plate No. 3 Following 248

Small Plate Found on Castile Run — 1936 248

Small Plate Found on Castile Run — 1936 — Reverse Side 248

Small Plate Found on Castile Run — 1936 248

The Bowlegs Stone 318

District of West Augusta ' ^26

Harrod's Fort Following 348

Van Meter House 34£

Turkey Foot Rock Site Looking East Following 356

Turkey Foot Rock Site Looking West 356

McCulloughtown in 1816— John Horn ^

AUGUSTATOWN — By JOHN HORN

McCulloughtown — By John Heaton 37~

Court House— Waynesburg Following 380

Waynesburg College

Jefferson Borough and Vicinity — 1876 3^

tw\ 404

Monongahela College — 1900

ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To the many friends who have helped make this work possible,
I hereby express my fullest appreciation. To those who have so
generously contributed to the advancement of the project by pre-
subscriptions, I acknowledge my sincere thanks. These loyal sup-
porters are so numerous and their contributions so varied that it
would take too much space to name them individually or even to ap-
proximate the many, many acts and helpful services rendered. I can
only say that it is my sincere hope that they will be at least partially
repaid by what they find herein.

I particularly want to express my appreciation to Chesney C.
Wood, Clarence Taylor, and John B. Carter, County Commissioners
of Greene County, and their solicitor, J. I. Hook, Esq., and to
Albert E. Moredock, John R. Conklin and Miss Louise M. Hook, of
Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, for the financial assistance which made
possible the inclusion of a third volume.

It has been a pleasure to collaborate with the other members of
the historical committee of the Greene County Historical Society,
J. L. Fulton and A. L. Moredock, in the extended effort to produce
these volumes.

Owing to the fact that through the years the work has been in
progress there were frequent interruptions, at which times I jour-
neyed to my home in Topeka and then returned and resumed the
task, I ask lenity for any errors that may be found in this publication,
which is a sincere effort to preserve some heretofore unknown facts
of colonial history of the Monongahela and Upper Ohio. I sincerely
hope that these volumes may stimulate study and research to
broaden our knowledge and deepen our appreciation of what we

have.

W. F. Horn

Nothing that was worthy in the past departs;
no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies,
or can die; but is all still here, and recognized
or not, lives and works through endless changes.

Thomas Carlyle

INTRODUCTION

Source material relating directly to the early history of that
part of Southwestern Pennsylvania which now comprises Greene
and Washington counties has always been rare. As a result, there
have been many unexplained and little understood details connected
with the history and settlement of this region. The source material
upon which this work is based consists of various diaries and Vir-
ginia court records, maps, and other records handed down to the
present day through the Horn family, descendants of Jacob Horn,
who was one of the judges of the first Virginia courts in this region
which in early days was part of Virginia. Jacob Horn was associat-
ed with Christopher Gist, an important but little understood figure,
and the information on Gist alone is of great value in connection
with other published information on his life and activities, particular-
ly that of W. M. Darlington who recognized the importance of Gist
in the settlement of the region of the Monongahela, and in
1 893 published "The Journals of Christopher Gist." Other material
includes tax and other lists which give the names of the first settlers
of this territory. The value of these lists cannot be overestimated,
particularly in connection with the patent maps for Greene, Wash-
ington, and Fayette counties. These patent maps, made originally
in connection with the tracing of titles for coal lands, are available
in the courthouses of the county seats at Waynesburg, Washington,
and Uniontown. Their publication may be regarded as unique, and
the information to be obtained from them will be of untold value to
future historians of this region.

Jacob and Christopher Horn were acquainted with William and
James Harrod, Michael Cresap, Zackwell Morgan, and others
whose influence on the Westward Movement was considerable. As
a majority of the men of George Rogers Clark's expedition against
Kaskaskia and Vincennes in 1778 were recruited on the Mononga-
hela, they knew these also.

The Greene County Historical Society has considered all of
this material of sufficient interest for publication and preservation.
The first part of the work contains the various records and diaries
published word for word as they have been handed down. The
second part consists of a series of chapters by the author which ex-
plain many of the details contained in the original papers and their
correlation with other published historical material relating to
Southwestern Pennsylvania.

xiii

THE HORN PAPERS

' Jacob Horn died in 1778 and his diaries passed into the hands of
his son, Christopher Horn. After the territory west of the Monon-
gahela became part of Pennsylvania in 1781, Jacob Horn's diaries
and other family papers and various records of the Virginia courts
were boxed up in 1795 by Christopher Horn, together with some
of his own records. Christopher Horn had been the clerk of the
Camp Catfish Court. During Christopher Horn's lifetime the box
containing these records remained at his home at Aliquippa's Spring.
After Christopher Horn's death in 1809, the records passed into
the possession of John Horn, his son. In 1854, the chest contain-
ing the records was given to Solomon Horn, of Jefferson Township,
father of the author. In 1882, Solomon Horn moved to Kansas,
and the chest was taken there. In 1891, the chest was opened in a
search for family records. J In addition to the records, the chest con-
tained cooper's tools belonging to Jacob Horn, the Bowlegs stone,
and glass made at McCulloughtown in 1786./nPart of the rec-
ords and maps were in a bad state of preservation. Their impor-
tance was realized, however, and copies were made of all that could
be read. jMany, including the court docket, were preserved^ Be-
tweerTTSvl and 1931 the records passed into the possession of var-
ious members of the Horn family in Kansas. At that time the author
became actively interested in their preservation and they were par-
tially collected and presented to the Greene County Historical
Society.

As is well known, the Draper collections, now in the Archives of
the Wisconsin Historical Society, at Madison, Wisconsin, contain
much source material relating to the early history and settlement
of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Only a
small part of the Draper manuscripts has been published. Verifica-
tion of much of the material in the Horn Papers is contained in
both the published and unpublished Draper manuscripts. The Horn
Papers are also substantiated by the writings of other local histori-
ans, particularly A. J. Waychoff and L. K. Evans.

It is believed that the publication of this material will be an im-
portant addition to the existing information on the Colonial West-
ward Movement, and thejjart played by the settlers of this territory
in that interesting period.

THE HORN PAPERS

PARTI

THE HORN PAPERS

Jacob Horn's Diary 1735-1777

March 30, 1735. This day, I, Jacob Horn by order of Conwell,
hath finished the setting up my first water tub and making it all like
unto the one Conwell set by me to liken. Conwell say in one year, he
will make me a master cooper, and pay me three shillings each six
days beside, keep for full time labor. My father say: Jacob shall
have one shilling each six days until I Jacob be turned 18 years.

July 16, 1735. John, with father, went to the Watson settle-
ment to cut an hew the logs to be set in Robert's fort and house of
3 parts. Mother say, in 20 days all will be made done and John will
return to the shop.

September 2, 1735. By consent of Conwell, and Mother, I am
to be a fisherman with John, and John Hardtman on the up river,
on the morrow, and the next morrow day. Conwell say: James will
be one of us to fish, at Snooks Bend.

October 24, 1735. Being a day of no labor at Conwell's Cooper
shop in Penns Row. We trailed four leagues to Hoges "corners on
this day to Uncle John's" home but returneth by night fall.

December 25, 1735. Being Christmas day at Penns Point, and
wild turkey day at Penn's Inn, all make merry on this cold winter
day. William, Joseph, and Ann, with roasted apples, and tree sugar
balls, they rejoice, while Aunt Ann, and Mother at rest from their
wheel, sing of the "Babe in Bethlehem."

May 10, 1736. William, and Joseph, with Mother's advice, hath
on this day planted the seeds in the home garden. I, Jacob Horn,
did on this day make repairs on four chairs and one stool. This day
Conwell, hath ftiy clogs repaired. A new chintz by mother.

September 1, 1736. The ship "Hampton, came to the lower
port landing late on this day, with seventy seven English and Irish
colonists. Conwell say: Penn's Point, being next to Baltimore's
home town, is fast growing into a big town. The Inn, have in all, 17
Colonists of late landing, all seeking some home place in Penn's
Colony. William Hardtman, and father, are setting in a new iron
shop for Bouthwell, and say it is to be the first in size in Penn's Row."

January 21, 1737. It being mid winter, Conwell, with James,
and Jacob Hardtman, and self, set out for Barker flat woods, to
chop Oak and Cedar trees, to be rived into tub staves and all toil

2 THE HORN PAPERS

hard, and return by night fall, only to rest and take meat, then re-
turn to labor on the same on the morrow.

February 4, 1737. The last of 12 thousand pieces of rived wood
being set in place near Conwells shop, he say: no labor on the mor-
row, the same being the third day of the week, John Hardtman and
self, set out for wild turkey in Glenn dale, and by close stalking, we
get three of the many found there.

February 21, 1737. This being my own day, and 16 years of
life, Conwell gave me 10 shillings for my needs, where upon, I buy
some Irish cloth and a ringlett for mother. No labor on this day
for Jacob Horn. Mother by wieve, hath set me out in new chintz,
and new legons, and feet wools, for my own day remembrance. Ann,
say: Jacob, you are set to be a full man on this day. I say Ann, I
am a man now. I have my trade made now.

April 6, 1737. The new hard iron axes, hew axes, and hoes, of
Sheffield make, did reach Penn's Point, on the 4 day of this same
month, and by call, many are taken from the shop, for needs by the
claiments as by agreement. Peter Friend, a freeman's son, of 20
years, is now a first man to set log houses with the kings notch at
all corners."

October 10, 1737. The season being one favorable to the growth
of all kinds of garden vegitation, much green food is being stored
by the settlers round about Penn's Point.

Conwell being ill for one month I, Jacob Horn, being his cooper
man, have labored long and hard for the shop's name.

October 20, 1737. This day, I, Jacob Horn, of Penn's Point,
commonly called Philadelphia, do here and now, set down my line
of parentage to be true and lawful, if by chance, I meet with inquiry
from Colonists, or officers outside of Penn's Colony.

I am the second son, and second in the family of eight children,
of my father, George, and Mary Watson Horn, a grandson of Jacob
Christopher, and Ann Hamilton Horn, and a great grandson of
Jacob Cromwell Horn, who came from Chestershire, England, to
this Post, September 5th, 1694, and who expired at Penn's Point,
October 27th, 1712.

By this line, I make it clear, that I have the lawful claim of a
full Colonial freeman.

My parents, George and Mary Watson Horn, were both born
in the same year, 1696 and were united by God's law, and the Lu-
thuran Creed, in 1717, in the second month, and on the twelfth day.

John being the oldest, being born August 4, 1719, and I, Jacob
Horn, was born Feb. 21, 1721.

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 3

In 1728, I was made to learn the king's English, and write it
in part, and learn all of God's commandments, and say the Book of
Matthew in full. At twelve, I made an end to being tutored, and
began to tutor, William, and Joseph, but soon, began to learn the
cooper trade under father, and William Conwell. At 16, I had
mastered it, and began to set up water tubs in the shop of William
Conwell, in Penn's Row.

In this same year, 1728 and in the month of March I learned to
chop the score, and make the Yoke, which in this year, 1737 is a
trade unto itself, and useful to me. I, Jacob Horn, did fulfill all
agreements made by Conwell and worked well for him, so say he,
until I closed with him four days hence.

By father's consent and approval of Conwell, I was made my
own full master on the first day of September this year, 1738.

On this day, October 20, 1738 I, Jacob Horn, with brother
John, John Hardtman, and Peter Friend, of Penn's Point, do make
agreement with one Jonathan Hager, a fur trader of this colony,
to set out in March, next, to meet him at his chosen site in Balti-
more's Colony where he proposes to build a fort and fur trade
house directly between the London Fur Company Post set up by
one Thomas Cresap and the French Fort, and fur trade house, at
"Half Moon" bend of the Potomac Waters.

Jonathan Hager, the young German "stowway," from Siegen,
came to this town late in the year 1736 at the age of 17 years, but
he now in appearance, he is all the ship Master took him to be, six
full feet and more. With a mild face, and a clean look, we say to
him that his wife, Elizabeth, made a good choice. He say: I am
the one that made the good choice. We do not know Elizabeth
Kershner, and cannot say Yea, or Nay.

He say: for two years, he has been a fur trader with the Indians
on both sides of the Susque de Lahanna River, and being a good
observer of prime furs, he has set himself at the front of all the fur
traders trailing into this town with the mark of "prime" set on his
list at the Colonial Fur Company store house.

By his say, we are to assist him to build his log fort, and fur
storehouse at Swamp Springs where he wants to take his wife, and
child, to live as soon as it can be made safe for them.

He say: I married Elizabeth Kershner in 1736, and that she
consents to live in Baltimore's Colony.

I now make this agreement one in faith, and fact, by this pay-
ment of thirty shillings to each of you, and set in witness, before
all, that this agreement to be kept as one, man to man, we all say,
we will keep our part in full.

4 THE HORN PAPERS

All things said and done in the king's English, and Jonathan
after setting to meat, say: I will see you at my camp in March, each
of you, with his own "flintlock," and his "hard iron" axe. He- takes
our hands, then he departs with his supplies, to the home of the
Kershners, where he say, his wife and child are this day, and that
his brother David, and wife, Katrina, are abiding there at this time.

February 22, 1739. This day we are hailed by one David Hager,
the elder brother of Jonathan Hager, our master for this year 1739.
He say: I hail from Siegen to this Colony in December 1736 and
now abide at Kershiner's "Harle" about ten leagues distance, where
on we say: "abide with us," and so be it.

By his say: we determine that Jonathan Hager, being born in
1719 was an escaped guard in the army in Wettgenstein, and was
full acquainted with Elizabeth's people at Siegen. They being free
emigrants from Clearance at Emden, and bound from Amsterdam,
to this Port, in the good ship "Harle."

Jonathan by Elizabeth's wish, escaped and was made a "stow-
way" in the sail cloth hold on the same ship "Harle." When at mid
sea, he was made a prisoner, and set before the Master, and harsh-
ly set upon by that officer, but Jonathan claiming to be twenty two,
years of age, and a free man, from Siegen, and say: the Kershners,
know me, where upon, they say Jonathan is a free man, and belongs
to Elizabeth, a cleared emigrant. Elizabeth make it appear that by
right, Jonathan should be her man, where up on the Master doth
set the Moravian marriage law upon them, and compelled Jonathan
to work his way into port. Elizabeth being born in 1712, is now
seven years older than Jonathan.

I, David Hager, by my father, the officer in command, in the
District, set out to overtake Jonathan, and return him to Siegen,
but I found him married to Elizabeth, a free emigrant, and a free
Colonist, and by these terms, this made him a freeman in Penn's
Colony, and he refused to go to Siegen, then I, David, say, I shall
not return to Siegen. I stay, and marry Katrina Kershner, in 1737
and now abide with her father, Henrich, and her Mother Elizabeth
Kershner, at their "Harle."

By his say: Jonathan is depending on us to set our faces on the
trail early in March, and say for us to trail to Kershners "Harle,"
and abide one day, then set out for Jonathan camp at Swamp Springs,
near the French Post, at "Half Moon" waters in Baltimore's Col-
ony. We all say: Yea, we will do so, and hail at Kershners. He
abide with us three days, then set out for his home.

February 27, 1739. It is now made clear that the Johns, Peter
and self, are claimed by Jonathan Hager, and we must set out by

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 5

the 10 day of March, for the unknown site of Fort Hager, and fur
trade house. It being in agreement, that each of us must have his
own ''flintlock" and 'axe' before leaving Penn Point, I now have
made this part fulfilled, as have the others. Conwell say the axes
are "prime" being of the Sheffield make, and of the best order.

March 6, 1739. All being made ready for the trail, we make
our way to places of meet in common, and say : We will be off to the
new lands to morrow. Conwell say: lads; look sharp, speak easy,
and beware of all Indians not on the trail.

We say: one year away, and then the town again, and with all
day to you all, each of us make his way to his own home.

This day, I, Jacob Horn, have much talk with Mother, and
Aunt Mary Horn. The Johns, and Peter Friend, do all make
merry, while I beheld a long, long time from home, and family. But
our word being given to set out our faces into the wilds of Balti-
more's Colony, it is just, that we keep this promise.

This day being a bright cheerful one, we all feel up in spirit,
but dwell on the division of the family on the morrow. Mother :
how she looks, and say: Jacob, be brave, and work well, and return
home next year. The young children ask what it is all to be. . . .

March 7, 1739. The last day at Penn's Point, is a bright one,
and we toil to make our "kersacks" and our rolls, portable, but keep
in mind, both our needs, and the long trail over strange lands.

With a strong shake of hands and not a few tears from Mother
and Rosanna, we grimly set out on the trail to Kershners.

April 4, 1740, Snow Creek, Colony of Virginia. We set out
from Penn's Point and reached Kershners "Harle," on the 7 day of
March, last year, and received the blessings of that great hearted
family. Henrick Kershner, and his consort, Elizabeth, being part
and part, German, and English, in talk, say: they have sons,
Rudolph, and Henrick and daughters, Elizabeth, Katrina, Ruth and
Rosanna.

They say Elizabeth belongs to Jonathan Hager, and our Kat-
rina, she belongs to David Hager, but Ruth, and Rosanna, are not
claimed by any man.

We like all very much, but cannot tarry with them. Elizabeth
say, you all, are my friends, because you are Jonathan's friends.

We set out from Kershners after one days rest, and having each
received the "kiss of peace," from all the family, joyously jorned
on the strange trails through Castle, and Cecil, and reached the
Susque de Lahanna River, where we were met by two fur traders
who carried us across in Indian Canoes, to their Camp on the west

6 THE HORN PAPERS

side shore. From there, we set our faces to the western sun set, and
finally after 10 dreary toilsome days, we reached the waters of the
Potomac, at a point about three leagues, below "Half Moon" Bend,
where as then, we believed must cross the river, in order to reach
Swamp Springs.

After Crossing on a log raft boat, we found on the bank of the
stream, we ascended the bank of the river all the day, and at night
fall, reached the site of the French Fort and fur trade house of
Jean Le Beau, near the "Bar of Half Moon."

We made inquiry of two Indian boys as to where, Jonathan
Hagers Camp at Swamp Springs is to be found? They say: Nay,
Nay.

By common mistake it ruled that we crossed the river twice, and
two days trailing, all because we did not have the knowledge of just
where Jonathan's Camp is set up.

[ We received meat and rest at the French Post. Jean Le Beau,
was friendly to us, and ask us to take meat and rest with him. He
ask us where we hailed from? and where we are trailing to? Where
on John Hardtman, say: Have it known, we are Jonathan Hager's
men, and we are trailing to his camp, where he is to build Fort
Hager. Jean say: Have two drams each, on Jeans friendship. The
two Johns now declare no mistake was made in crossing the river,
for Jean's Rum paid for all trailing.

We find four half French Indians men around the fur house,
about six perches from the Fort, which is one of strength, being of
hewn logs, set in "bound and tie," and all in shop order.

We rested on the earthen floor surrounded by lighted tapers,
and many holy crosses, and it was a strange camp to us.

Jean say: By the grace of the Holy Father. I bestow this Holy
Cross on thee, Jacob, as my desire to possess thy friendship. Where
on, John Hardtman say: it is well with thee Luther.

I still have this cross, and shall retain it all my days, as a token
of Him who died on a similar one for all mejij

I, too, say: we made no mistake in crossing the river on this day,
March 19, 1739.

It was said at Penn's Point, that the French set their Claims to
the best places in North America, and as a fact, this is the best of
all places we have beheld since leaving our home. We are taken over
the river in Le Beau's boats, and directed to the east by north, and
at the close of day, we espied some white men felling trees, and in
one part of an hour, we sat down in Jonathan Hagers Camp. We
found him and one Levi Funk, hewing the logs to be set in the Fort.

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 7

A great rejoicing in the camp lasted for sometime, with a large
share of roasted bear meat, and Indian meal bake. With many say-
ings ask, and all made clear to Jonathan, all now feel at home, and
at rest in camp.

In the days following, we all set in full days labor, and all labor-
ed hard to set the time short to build the Fort and fur house, before
demands may be set up by the French, or by Thomas Cresap, the
two-contesting claimants. Swamp Springs, being two in number,
and of great flow, and pure water are at head of swamp bottom.
The house being, set one perch from house spring, moat spring, be-
ing about one perch from house spring.

The Fort and Trade house being set in this manner,
each 24 x 18 feet and the home 18x18 feet set in two-
parts above the sleepers and girder floor and the cook-
room below on earthen floor.

John Hardtman being a stone workman as well as a wood work-
man, set a wall of dressed stone around the house spring.

In the weeks that followed, every man labored early and late.
In three weeks time after we arrived at the camp, all the logs were
cut and hewed, and ready to be set in the building. In the second half
of April, the build was raised to 8 feet on high side of the ground
and 14 feet on the low side, and at the end of April, the building was
under one third pitch roof, covered with split clapboards. The
chimneys, three in number, set at base and at capital of the stem,
and the third at face of cookroom.

Early in the month of May, Jonathan turned all directions over
to John Horn, and Levi Funk, and set out his mules for Philadelphia,
and the Kershner home for his wife Elizabeth, and little son David.
On June 2, he returned into the Camp with two extra mules heavily
ladened with Elizabeth's needs. How each man did prepare his
person to receive Elizabeth, was long talked in camp, but all trea-
sured her kind friendship and her consideration for each man's wel-
fare. It was at this time, that the Indian Chief Connochneeh, and
ten of his tribe appeared in Camp and smoked the peace pipe with
Jonathan, and all had a feast of deer and fowl, and Dutch oven
Indian meal bread, made by Elizabeth's own hands. The Indians
gave 10 fish of huge size to Elizabeth, who made friends with them,
all being friendly to all the camp. By this stroke of peace, the Chief
promised to bring all the furs, pelts, and hides of his entire band of
three hundred Indians to Jonathan's trade house, much to the dis-
gust of Thomas Cresap. The French say nothing.

8 THE HORN PAPERS

About the middle of April, a lone Indian from the Susque de
Lahanna country came into camp with three fine Indian stone axes
made by Indians in Penn's colony and wanted to trade them to Jon-
athan Hager for Baltimore Town tobacco, saying, "heap good for
chop tree." Jonathan gave him some tobacco, but looked at the axes
with disgust but say nothing.

When "Lone Wolf" saw John Hardtman swing his heavy hard
iron axe, and how quickly, and how easily he felled a large tree, he
threw his stone axes, at the foot of a large tree, and said: "Me want
it, Me trade heap furs for white man axe." Hardtman seeing far
ahead said: "Lone Wolf," this axe say no trade now. In three
moons from now, the sign will be just right to trade to you. Now
heap bad for Indian. Great Spirit say, John, no trade now. "Lone
Wolf," the Great Spirit say, "catchum" fish, and fowl, and deer,
all three moons, for Jonathan and I will give you my axe, and I will
tell it to the White man's Great Spirit, to be heap good to "Lone
Wolf," To the surprise of all, "Lone Wolf" accepted John Hardt-
man's terms, and carried it out most faithfully. For three full
months the Jonathan Hager camp never was in want of deer, meat,
fish and fowl, and at times much wild fruit. After Elizabeth came
to the Fort, she said : John, You must keep your word, and deal hon-
estly with that faithful Indian. John became sober minded, and
thought of the day he would see it no more. He kept his axe in the
best of care : About the first days in August, "Lone Wolf" came into
camp with four fine wild turkeys, and some sweet berrie, and John
Hardtman say: "Lone Wolf," thy work is now done. I beseech
you to listen to what the white man's <JreaJi5pirit-say : It say : "Lone
Wolf," never let this axe taste human blood, or harm a white man
with it, for if thou do, it will strike you dead. It is the same Great
Spirit that makes it chop tree better than the Indians stone axes,
Be good to it. "Lone Wolf" was amazed at the power of the white
man's axe, and say: Me never let heem taste blood, and with a long
last look at all of us : he departed and not seen again at Fort Hager,
while John, and I, remained there.

In October, Jonathan Hager, and John Horn, set out for Balti-
more Town to obtain needed supplies, and did return on the last
day of the month, ladened with every needed supplies.

Elizabeth's kind consideration for the men's welfare, made all
her friends. It being her desire that all the men take land round
about Hagers Choice, but only John Heister, Peter Friend, and Levi
Funk adhered to her wish. In the month of September, David
Hager, and wife, Katrina, came to Fort Hager, and Jonathan and
Elizabeth, made them happy, and all the eleven men liked them

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 9

much, for they were fine cheerful people. They sojourned at the
Fort until the third week in November, when they went to Balti-
more Town, where their first child, Rosanna, was born in December
and died at birth. This being December 19, 1739.

The Fort and trade house being made done, the stockade and
moat likewise, about the middle of August, and the men spent some-
time at "Half Moon" on the river, and hunting in the wilds of the
border lands of Virginia. Jean Le Beau went with us, on a four
day journey, one half way to this Snow Creek, but no man knoweth
of this place. We explored some fine land, but set our faces to "Half
Moon bend" of the river, which is to say: Chief Half Moon's Vil-
lage site. He being named after the half moon bend of the waters
of the Patomac.

This, Jean say: is the same place his father beheld in 1694, be-
fore Chief "Half Moon" became chief of the Fish Clan of the Tus-
wannah Indians on the border of the river. Chief Round Tree, still
alive in 1694 was the head of the Fish Clan on this same site. Jean,
he say: he made "Chief Half Moon," a feast and much supplies in
1735, and say: this is French lands whereupon, the Fish Clan set
up many miles to the westward.

With two days at Jean's Post, we returned to Fort Hager, and
set to clear the land of timber, which Jonathan bounds as 200 and 8
acres of fine land, which he say is "Hagers Choice." By February
15, 1740 we had 60 acres of Hagers Choice, clear of timber, except,
certain trees preserved, by request of Elizabeth. She say : some trees
must be in my town, which Jonathan say, shall be Elizabeth's Town.
The log house set up on "High Point" by Levi Funk, being the first
house set up in her town, the same one half acre lot, being Levi's full
payment, same as our agreement set down on October 20, 1738.

It was late in November, 1739, that Johathan Hager, made de-
mands for a road from his Fort Hager to join the old Frederick
road to "Half Moon," where on Thomas Cresap, did enter com-
plaint, that Jonathan Hager was making his Fort a stronghold for
the French, and hailed him into Baltimore's Corte, by the Sheriff. By
Jean's say: Jonathan is a Penn Colony man, and a lawful land set-
tler in Baltimore's Colony, having no dealings with the French, and
by Jonathan's declared statements and land claims, the Sheriff did
not set Jonathan in bondage, but dismissed him, and Jonathan re-
turned to the Fort, and set out to secure a warrant for Hagers
Choice in Frederick.

This Christmas season of 1739 at Jeans post is like unto no
other we ever beheld. The trade house held 62 ^gs>of Canada Rum.
This is said to be the first of its kind ever kndwn on the Potomac

10 THE HORN PAPERS

Waters. The Indians came from afar, and near, with their catch,
and traded furs of "prime quality" for Jean's Rum, then a rest in
the dungeon. For two weeks time, the frontire spirit was displayed
by all who chanced to meet at Jean's Post. Jean Le Beau, always
the sharp, friendly, deep thinking host, never lets the Indians get
free of debt, but always maintain their friendship, and secure most
of their trade, which is bitter to Cresap's mind of peace.

This is now, and has been, the best fur trading Post on the Upper
Patomac River. Cresap, being on the Indian Trail has since 1728
purchased huge stacks of furs, pelts, and hides for the London Fur
Company, but his log buildings was destroyed by fire in January,
1734 and much fur was lost. He set in place a stone house of good
dimentions, in the next year which with the new log store house is
now his Post, and home, which Jonathan's men call "New Ireland,"
as the said Thomas Cresap, being from County, Armah, Ireland, in
1721.

Levi Funk, being one of Jonathan's most faithful men, departed
for his home in Chester, to spend Yule days. Some say he will bring
a wife with him to live in his house on the Point, but he sayeth noth-
ing. Elizabeth say more women folks are needed at Hager, but no
one knoweth what Levi thinketh.

John Horn say: I think I will take land in the spring, or return
home. Early in March, 1740, I, Jacob Horn, and John Hardtman,
being of one mind, was making preparations to return to Penn's
Point, when destiny designed other plans, for us, not known of be-
fore. On March 4, 1 740, Stuyvest Von Reisseiller, a Holland Dutch-
man, on his way from Snow Creek, Virginia, to Baltimore Town,
paused at Ft. Hager, one day, to secure the help of two men to ac-
company him to Baltimore Town, to purchase two ox teams, and
two wagons to haul two mill stones and gear back to Snow Creek,
where he say: he is building a water power mill. No man did say:
Yea, or nay, because no man except, Jonathan Hager, could under-
stand his talk, Jonathan talked to him, then to Hardtman, and self,
and say: he is a fine man, then and will do well by you, if, you want
to go with him, so John Hardtman, and I, Jacob Horn, agree to go
with him, and Jonathan say: so be it. Von Reisseiller shake our
hands and say something, but we did not know what it was.

It was now the hardest part to leave Hager, and all our friends
there. Elizabeth say: My friends, it is with a heavy heart that I
give my consent to your leaving us, but you came here one year ago,
to lend service to us, which I shall never forget. Be the same clean
honest men you have been here at Hagers Choice, and I will ever

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 11

remember you, and with the "kiss of peace" bestowed on each of us,
with tears in her eyes, she departed from us.

Jonathan Hager talked to us in a kind bold spirit, and said, how
Hagers Choice would be enlarged and that Elizabeth's Town would
be made a town next in size to Baltimore's Town, and that he hoped
to see us a part of it. He said: I promised Elizabeth to set aside
50, one half acre lots, one to each man there in. We will set the
same for each of you, and on your return you are each to build your
house, and live in it three years, where upon Elizabeth, will give each
of you all, full claims to your home, and share each, in her Town.

Upon, this, he gave each of us, 4 new Virginia Colonial Coins,
in remembrance of our being at Fort Hager, and of our departure
there from.

We took hands with all the men, and John Horn said: Jacob,
you are leaving here, I may return to our father's home this year,
you should do the same, so now, I bid you a safe journey, and a safe
return.

I, Jacob Horn, looked at all the men, and said : peace be unto you
all, and set my face to Stuyvest Von Reisseiller, and by sign make
it clear that we are ready to take the trail with him into more strange
lands.

The men being James Carter, William Andrews, John Horn,
Peter Friend, John Heister, Levi Funk, Jonathan Funk, John Har-
ris, Samuel Martin, John Hartman and self. David Hager labored
two months, September to November 1729.

April 1740. Being of one mind, John Hardtman and self, de-
cide to remain here in labor on the mill. By his signs and friendly
looks, we do agree, that Stuyvest Von Reisseiller, and his Dutch
wife, do wish us to set our hands in labor in making all parts of his
water mill ready for use. Be it so. We set the two mill stone in the
place he did make for them, the larger one set placed nearer the set
up gear by tie to the great water wheel, the other stone set, being
less in size, being the Indian corn stones, is set 4 paces to the right,
and tie in by use of two gear wheels.

John say: I, be a mill man, and do make Von Reisseiller have
peace in mind, and our labor doth hasten the end of building of this
mill in the trail to the Devils low pass over the mountains to the very
head of the Green Brier, which is said to be about 12 English miles
from the waters of Snow Creek. By Snow Creek being one part of
the north flow of the Main waters it is a good mill creek, of east-
ward trend, feeding by springs from the slope of the mountain. It
is said by the Indian at the mill on the 14, four waters do set forth

12 THE HORN PAPERS

from the Devils divide unto four parts of the country. Snow Creek
being the least in waters.

April 26, 1740. Indians of tall in size, and friendly in manner,
halt at the mill. They say they be on the trail from the south lands,
to the lake country.

They make it known that a band of their people are on the trail
beyond the Devil's Pass, trailing by us.

Von Reisseiller indicate to us to clear the timber from some fine
land above the reach of the waters of the mill dam. He look with
favor on my axe, then by looks say: John, where is your axe? "Lone
Wolf" being afar with John's axe, Stuyvest, by clear understanding,
march to his log house and find two half chop, half hew axes, and
give John one, and he keep the other one, and all do set to clear the
timber from 10 acres, to be in part planted in flax and Indian corn.
We all do labor hard for 10 days time. John Hardtman say: it is
same as Jonathans, labor, but no Jonathan, no Elizabeth, no deer,
and fowl, but fish — fish all the days.

May 17, 1740. The season being good we do now have three
acres of flax, and some of Indian corn in green, and doing well.
Duschea, do labor both by the house and in the timber to enlarge
the cleared land. She be friendly and say much, but we say nothing
because she say all in Dutch to us. John say Jacob, she looks well
but talketh the same as the wild duck do in the mill waters. John
say : I will never talk her talk in all my days, but I, Jacob Horn, may
understand her talk after many days.

May 27, 1740. This day we are made happy by meeting face
to face the Indian fur trader, Christopher Gist who speaketh the
king's English and who make us happy by his talk. By his say: he
abides on the south and west shores of the Yadkin waters but makes
many journeys into the northwest Indian country, into the lands of
the Delaware and Shawanoes. He being born in Baltimore's Town
in 1709 say I journed to Turkee Foot Rock with Dr. Samuel Ecker-
lin and his brothers Tom and Bernard in June 1737 and did set him-
self agreeable with the high Chief Wa Ha Wag Lo and his brother
the prophet Oppaymolleth. By his say he was in the same lands in
1731 to Tingooqua's Camp and Peter Chartier tepee by Aliquippa's
clear water stream. Christopher Gist say he have rested here at
Snow Creek many times. He can talk to Duschea with knowledge
and we get him to make plain to us her say of us. He say Stuyvest,
and Duschea do say how they like us and want us to remain at Snow
Creek. Duschea or Dutchie say much to us by Gist who rest his mules

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 13

three days. He say John, and Jacob, I will set you up as my fur trad-
ers, but we say we are coopers and carpenters, not, fur traders. On
the morning of June 3, he departed on his journey with his mules
ladened with Tobacco, and his needs. He say: I will take rest and
meat again, and behold us next year.

John Hardtman say: he is the same furtrader that Jean Le Beau
say: he met in 1737 in the La Belle regions.

October 23, 1741. By all we have ever been set face to face with,
this day, is the first unto us. By Stuyvest Von Reiseillers death by
the hand of an Indian not on the trail. By this fate it is too "griev-
oust" to "Dutchie," and too much for us to behold.

It being the hour of sunset Stuyvest did talk to Dutchie, and then
set out over the log bridge and reached the bank top across the mill
dam, when a wild Indian behind a great tree espied him, and shot
an arrow through his upper body from which we found him dead
soon after. No Indian being around about. Duschea is broken, and
sad. She take our hands and look at us with pain in her eyes. We
show her by our grief that we are her friends in all this lone trouble
for her, and for each of us.

We set at once to make a wood "Kask" for the dead body of
Stuyvest Von Reiseiller, our strange friend in life, and our close one
in death. All the night Dutchie sat by the side of her lost one, and
paid no heed to us.

October 24, 1741. By her indications this morning she look at
us, and make ready to lay the dead to rest. John set to dig the pit
above the house by the lone tree, but we await the hour of sunset to
place the "Kask" in the pit, and John said "Be at rest." Dutchie's
soul is gone. We lead her to the house, and take her hands, then
depart for one hour to council with each other, and for the lone
woman. How our hearts do hunger for Elizabeth's council on this
day.

November 4, 1741. Dutchie appear to be more cheerful in
mind by signs do mean to remain here. We by sign, do make it
known that we go home to Penn Point but she by some words, and
signs, give us axes, and points to the mill with one hand an take our
hand with the other. John by nod of head make it known we will
cut her wood and grind the rye and the corn now in the mills, and
the barley corn not yet beaten out of the stem, so be it.

December 25, 1741. It is the season of feasting. John Hardt-
man and John Watson the elder set out on the 20 to hunt deer, and
fowl, and by good sight secure two deer and six wild turkey, Dutchie

14 THE HORN PAPERS

now being more agreeable and fully risigned to do make us a feast,
and John say it is like unto "Kershner's Harle."

This day we keep from toil except to fire the Dutch oven, and
set the feed to the 10 goats, and two mules and four oxen.

Being a bright day, we think of home, and Conwell's shop, and
of Hagers Choice, but only Watson, the elder and Blitz, make their
appearance at the mill on this day. Dutchie, in part, do talk of Horns
and Blitz say, Dutchie cannot set out from here, and cannot
abide alone, so far from her people in upper Philadelphia. By this
say, John say we must help her.

January 18, 1742. Being a cold day we set to clear the South
lot of trees, and make it ready for flax and tobacco, by our own
choice. No bounds being set to the lands by Von Reisseiller, we now
set bounds to lands on both sides of Snow Creek, to beyond the head-
waters of the mill dam, and to the foot of the hill, all by the Virginia
rights by tomahawk claims set there to. The same claims being
about one "100" acres. We say it is Dutchie's Choice.

But John Hardtman, say: Jacob, all is not well here. Our moth-
ers say, Boys, it be not good in the sight of God, or man for us to
be Dutchie's men, and one of us not her master. I say, Jacob, be it
for one of us to take her by the laws of God, and of Penn's Colony.
What say you, Jacob Horn? I, Jacob Horn do say: How can we
say which one she look upon with pleasure. John say: Jacob, break
two twills one some greater in length than the other, hold both be-
fore you out of your sight, and say: John, take thy choice, by the
longer one you shall say, Dutchie you are made my wife by your
Bible law. So be it. John make his choice, but ah? he taketh the
lesser one. I, Jacob, say, I have no choice, but John say: it must be
so, and you Jacob, shall say, by signs I am to be your man, and John
will be our friend, and so be it.

February 21, 1742. Being my own day, and 21 years of age, I
set this day, to set Dutchie, by marriage claims as my lawful wife,
which, she did fully consent by her understanding of John's plans,
by signs set before her.

By her own hands she takes the Holland Dutch Family Bible,
and read some portions, and say one long prayer to the living God
of all. Then we placed each our hand on God's Words, and held the
other one in bond of marriage, while she say some holy scripture,
then she took hands with me, and did set the kiss of peace on me.
She take John's hand, and say much, but did not set the kiss of peace
on him. John say: Jacob, my lord, and master, what will thou now,
have me do. I say, John, we have been by each other for three years,
now abideth here, and all will be well.

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 15

Duschea by her manner is much pleased, but could only say uYea-
kab" "Yeakab." But I hope to understand her talk, soon. By this
same agreement, Dutchie now is my wife, and John Hardtman say
he will remain and take the mill, and keep it well in order and all
will be well and so be it.

April 20, 1742. This day, John Hardtman and Watson, the
trader set out for Williamsburgh, for many needs. I, Jacob Horn
plant flax in the south lot, by the rye tall in green. Snow Creek being
in full water the mill was set in use on this day. Dutchie keep her
wheel in spin all the days of one month. Dutchie is a good wife, but
her talk is the same, but I can now make clear some parts of it. She
is low in speech, mild in manner and works well for us.

May 16, 1742. A great fall of rain set in on the 1 lday, and the
waters of Snow Creek, are in flood stage, but the log wall do make all
water flow over the mill dam. The water gates keep the mill, and
Water Wheel free of the flood waters.

The 3 Men returned from Williamsburgh on the 14 day of this
same month. John Hardtman say: It be much like Penn Point, at
Williamsburgh, With shops or Inns here, and there, but he say: the
Colony's House, and His Majesty, the Royal Governor's Castle be
of great size and splendor.

The Indian Corn in the long field is in 4 leaves, and looks well.
Dutchie, set out in early morning to the springs in the foothills, to
pick some fine watercress, and returned late in the day with much
watercress, and 5 fine fish, she obtained in the run above the head-
waters of the mill dam.

May 29, 1742. The day being bright, and heated by the sun
John Hardtman, and self, did labor in the Indian Corn lot, all the
day. It make the appearance now of growing much corn, this same
year, for us, and for meal for trade with the Indians on the trail,
who camp by the Mill. Rye meal being little known by the Indians,
but after eating of it, they make it known that they be ready to trade
good dressed hides for the White man's meal.

May 30, 1742. On this day we are hailed by Christopher Gist
the furtrader, from the Yadkin Waters. He trail from his home up
the Greenbrier Indian Trail, with 4 Indians and 4 mules, and 4
pack animals. He crossed the divide from the headwaters of the
Greenbrier, to the waters of Snow Creek, by the low divide, the
same being the Devils Pass, and did reach the mill at the hour of
noon : Now it is clear that he hath not known of the death of Stuy-
vest Von Reisseiller for he say, I have some Indian made Woeffel
for your Master. Tell him I have come into camp, for the time of
3 days. John Hardtman, say, Jacob, is now Master, at the mill,

16 THE HORN PAPERS

Stuyvest Von Reisseiller, he is dead, killed by an Indian in late Oc-
tober, and Jacob set Duschea in marriage in February. It was of
Johns sayings that did make Gist, get from his mule, and face us,
with hard looks, and say : Let me know about this killing of Stuyvest
Von Reisseiller, when and where? John, said: set thyself down at
rest, and thou shall be told all the sad fate of our master. Gist did
set at rest on the mill walk, but say not a word, Whereupon John
Hardtman did relate all from Gist departure, one year hence, to
this same day, John talk for 2 hours, but Gist, did make no word
until John said: I have made known all that did take place, then
Gist, say, behold Duschea, I will talk with her, before I make camp.
Christopher Gist being a man of great reserve, and wide in the
knowledge of men, did say neither yea, or Nay, to Johns talk, but
with 3 hours talk with Duschea by the house, Christopher Gist and
Duschea came to us at the Mill, and shook hand with each of us, and
say: I am much grieved at Stuyvest's death. She say the same about
all that you related to me. Jacob Horn you, did well to marry the
widow, for she tells me she was more pleased than you have been.
To take her, not being able to converse with her, is clear to me, that
she did better than you did, at this time, but, I will lend my hand to
you to make the Mill, and the Snow Creek settlement a trail trade
post. By years of honest life, you, and Duschea will fully understand
each other, not only in talk, but in all matters of the home, and in all
the trails of life. I, say, peace be unto you, set your self at rest, and
take meat with us. He talk with Duschea, and she did make haste to
set meat for all. The Indians did feast unto themselves, of the
smoke deer meat, and meal bake ponpon, with Barley soup, and
the roast potatoe, did they eat. Gist say: Jacob, your days be as
mixed as my own. I will make at least a season's rest, and 3 days
rest in camp, here, each year, when on my outward journey to the
Delaware Indian country. He say: John, what are your plans? and
John say: Mr. Gist, until Jacob, say go. I am staying here, to help
him run the Mill, and build Duschea's Choice into a Chester land
home. Gist, by appearance, seem to be satisfied that all is well.

June 2, 1742. Gist, and his Indian guides, have rested and feast-
ed well. He made a trail of the bounds of the tomahawked land,
and did see Duschea's mark set there in, and did say: it be wise to
set bounds to her lands. Gist say: the mill be the only one of its
kind in the western frontier of the Virginia Colony, but beyond, the
Colony's set boundary. Being in no man's land. Christopher Gist,
the furtrader, is by birth, a Baltimore Town man. He say that he
do know both, Thomas Cresap, and Jean LeBeau, who have Posts
on the Potomac Waters, but Gist holds to the Royal Colony, but

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 17

with his family, he maintains his home on the shore of the Yadkin
River, where the London Fur Company, hath no power to make
claims agains his person/He say: I, take the trail, the Indian Coun-
try this day. We say: abide with us another day, but he did set out
on the trail, after much talk. He say: I, will trail this way at this
season next year. I may trail here in the late fall season, if, I make
it to Williamsburg^ John Hardtman, did prepare three measures
of Indian meal, and one half measure of barley corn meal for Gist.
He take Dutchy by his hand, and say some things, but we do not
know what he did say: John say: Jacob, he tell her to watch us by
day, and all the night, but John hath many sayings for himself, and I,
Jacob Horn, take no part there in, but say : so be it.

July 4, 1742. The waters of Snow Creek being in flood on this
day, the water being 3 feet above any set point since Stuyvest Von
Reisseiller set the wall foundation for the mill, but by chance no
water did reach the drive gear, of the mill stones, or cause destruc-
tion John, and Wiever both do say, that the log wall, and flood
gates, did save the mill much destruction.

Being the 4 day of the week, and the 4 day of the month, Dutchie
made it known that it is feast day at the Mill, and John Hardtman
say: See, Jacob, how wise we be, to remain at Snow Creek, and
you take Duschea, to wife. By this we have by count, 10 feast
days since you, Jacob became Master at the Mill, by my say: I
Jacob Horn, have much thoughts of many things beyond feast days,
but tell John to fire the Dutch oven, even as Dutchie do indicate.

By chance, Dutchie hath 10 persons in all, to take meat on this
feast day. She be happy to see all faces before her, and see how all
do like the fowl, and roast potatoes, and leeks. Gibson, say her
jowanie corn, be fine. John, declare, all is like unto the many days
at Fort Hager. When Elizabeth say, Boys, being a hard work day
for you, I set more "stoff" before you. Be good, and take more of it
John, never failed to obey her wish. Peter Friend say: John never
did hold aloft, for Elizabeth to say boys, help thyself to all I have
set before thee but John be a first, and fast, workman, and no one
did make known any complaint of him, for Elizabeth say: many
men, have many minds, and I have mine — I like all, because all of
you, are my friends. No man could say Nay of her, Jonathan, he say :
you all are my men, but are Elizabeth's friends hearken to her
advice, and labor well for her, and all will be well.

This day be one of much heat, the sun being bright, we all keep
in the shadow of the great sycamore most of the day, and look at
the flow of Snow Creek and talk of the days that have passed by.

18 THE HORN PAPERS

In all, we have had a feast day that Mother and Aunt Ann Horn
would say: The Lord hath bleest our home and all is well.

August 12, 1742. The waters of Snow Creek are very small in
flow, the mill dam being only one small part filled. The Indian Corn
is ripe, golden and of good size. The Rye, and Wheat being pelted
from the straw, is now in the Mill ready to grind when Snow Creek
flows water from Snow Mountain by the September rains. Oats,
flax, and barley are kept in the straw.

John Hardtman, and self, did take up the mill stones, and set
new faces and furrow to each one, and reset them, ready for use.
Conwell would say boys this is a Penn Point Man's work. We say
it is too, but we say, it had to be done, and only our hands was at
Snow Creek, to do it. It being the season for wild fruits Dutchie
hath dried and stored much for home use. Nuts of the timber are
limitless this season. Deer, Elk, Wild turkey, and lesser animals of
man's needs are in great numbers close at hand for the winter needs.

Snow Creek regions is one of great use to mankind, and want of
human food in plenty, is one that no one need hold in question.

(With no king, or crown, to hold in fear the small) Snow Creek
Settlement are outside of Virginia Colonial directions. All men are
their own masters, and say their own laws, and each doth what he
knows is righteous by his Lord, and all is well. It is well that the
King, and Colony make no claims to Snow Creek, for no man would
heed their claims, nor pay tribute to either, but declare his own
rights to all that God have set before HimM Jacob Horn, fear God,
and his Holy Laws, but fear no man, or his self made laws, for all,
are full of iniquity. /Snow Creek said Christopher Gist, is beyond the
Colonial Claims of Virginia, at this time, but has been no part of
New France, by French Claims, therefore, it is solely the land of
the settlers, and no king, or colony hath a say over it.

October 24, 1742. The season being one of great growth of all
planted crops, the harvest of all in due time has filled all our needs
in abundance. Snow Creek by nature, has returned to her usual wa-
ters, and is in flow for full use of the mill, which has been in use for
some days.

John Hardtman, being a man of much judgment devised, and
set up, a new part of millwright shaker, geared from the larger mill
stone shaft, whereby all the ground wheat and rye meal is fed into
one end of the shaker and passeth over a course linen bed, and by
this means both clear fine meal and common meal is made, and both
being set apart from the shell of the grain making it of direct use
for Dutch oven bake. Much hand labor being set aside. All, who
see it say, John is a good mill man.

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 19

The Indian Corn, and tobacco have been harvested, and in cure.
John say: one half English ton of prime tobacco, free of all waste
is in cure for trade, and 300 measures of corn is set aside for trade.
Home needs being no part of it, but all is clear of the fodder.

The tow, and flaxseed being of good supply, our home needs are
much less than the stored foods for man and beast, and the fowls
now on "Duschea's Choice."

By desire of John Hardtman, and Wiever, the elder, one year
hence, I, Jacob Horn, have set up 5 tubs, and 5 cegs, of water tight
hold, for common use at the house, and at the mill. These being the
first to be set up by self, since Conwell say: Jacob, your work is
now finished in my shop.

The Cooper trade being unknown at Snow Creek, much ob-
servation by all, is made, and all do say: the tubs, and cegs are of
much use. Having had a desire to obtain domestic cattle for use on
"Duchea's Choice," it fell to my lot to obtain 3 Cows, and 3 bullocks,
near Augusta, in the month of September. Stuyvest Von Reisseil-
ler's 4 work oxen purchased in Baltimore in March 1740, being
well in use at this time but are set down, as Dutchie's own cattle. All
animals purchased by self after March 1, 1742 being part in part
Dutchie's and self. John Hardtman, by his own right, being the
owner of 2 Mules, say: they be for common use at the Mill. With
all, no mention of anything is set down for the Colony's Council
Snow Creek being no part thereof.

The log storehouse set up for common use is now filled with
many home needs.

Dutchie, keep at her spin wheel, most of the days of October,
and labor hard early, and late each day, and do set all things in good
order.

November 20, 1742. Being reminded of our days with Jonathan
and Elizabeth Hager, at Fort Hager, now Elizabeth Hagers Town,
I say it be both wise in worldly keep, and in the spirit of the Creator
of all, to strive in keeping Duschea's possessions like unto Eliza-
beth's plans to make great strides in the wilds of Frederick like unto
Siegen, and Hager, in her native German land. Furtrade, and land
now being Jonathan's main plan, much in likeness to Jean LeBeau,
but Elizabeth see afar, and set her plans to make it so, and Jonathan
being a wise, and just man, say so be it. Now David, and Katrina,
look to Jonathan, plan, not being in mind with Elizabeth's set plan
to make her town like unto Baltimore Town.

Duschea like Katrina, appear to make land hold her first plans
at Snow Creek, with only Stuyvest's Mill, as a place of habitation.
I say: it be afar, but in the course of time, Virginia will reach unto

20 THE HORN PAPERS

Snow Creek, and this Post be common unto Williamsburgh, the
same as Elizabeth Hager's Town be unto Baltimore Town. Jean
LeBeau did say in 1739 that Elizabeth's plans was set in wisdom,
courage, and determination, and I say: both Jean, and Elizabeth do
see afar beyond this day. John do say that by Elizabeth's plans there
will be an end to fur trade on the Potomac waters. Thomas Cresap
say that the axing of timber on the upper Potomac must cease to
make the land a land of fur animals, whereby furtraders, do make
them meet the wants of the people in Brittan. Elizabeth say: work
men need houses to live in: Logs must be axed to make the log
houses, Work men need feet wear, as well as "skin breeches." Flax
must be grown, broken, hackled, combed, spun, and woven, and
trees must be cleared from the land to grow the flax. I, Jacob Horn,
say: Fort Hager, like Penn's great Oak tree, will stand amidst a
.'"bisy'* Village where Jonathan and Elizabeth's plans will make the
people, enlarge their own plans, until Elizabeth's town will be known
far and wide on the frontier borders of both Maryland, and Vir-
ginia. This I say, and so be it.

December 12, 1742. It being good hunting season, John Hardt-
man, and Wiever the elder made their way into the Mountains be-
yond the head waters of Snow Creek, and got four deer, ten Wild
turkey, and some "plumage birds" for home needs. I, Jacob Horn,
made four measures of rye meal on the 10 day. On the next day
John, and self set to make fire wood for the Christmas season and
today set six cord feet of wood by the end of log house in all 20 cord
feet are now ready for Dutch Ooven, and the great fire stone.

Duschea's looms being in use all the days of the season, but are
now quiet. She is cheerful and sings much. Amidst all at Snow
Creek, I Jacob Horn do remember the days at our old home at
Penns Point, and of all there with much desire to see all again, but
it now seems to be one of desire, but without much thought of trail-
ing home.

February 10, 1745. By the grace of God, we are this day made
known that our father and Mother George, and Mary Watson
Horn at Penns Inn are alive and faring well and that I now have
one more sister in the home, whom John and I now claim but had no
knowledge of, being born two years hence John Hardtman who
this day having returned from Penns Inn by Ft. Hagar say all is
well in the home, but they bid me to return in haste for a season but
I Jacob Horn deem it best to await another season believe Dutchy
should not be void of myself this season. Dutchy makes it known
that I should trail to Penns Inn for a short season, but having deter-
mined the matter no other word is made of it.

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 21

March 6, 1745. The Indians with James Riley and his man
One Eye did halt and take rest and meat, and abide one day, then
set out on the Indian James River trail to Rileys Post on Indian
Fishing Creek in the La Belle regions for more furs for Williams-
burgh traders.

March 10, 1745. Wiever and Richardson has made ready two
acres for black leaf tobacco this same season. Water in full stage,
and the mill run being at any time set for the needs of the settle-
ment. Dutchy did finish 70 hands of linen weave and 15 runs of
sheep weave. All in store for use.

March 30, 1745. Christopher Gist from Baltimores settlement
and Gist Post, did trail to this settlement and by our wish and his
consent abide the time from 21 day to sun rise this day, before trail-
ing to his holdings beyond Turkee Foot he declared I Jacob Horn
be made one of his men to Tingooquas land, but by the same mind
of not trailing to Penns Inn I made known to Gist that next season
or sometime later I Jacob Horn will set out with him to the upper
Country the land of the Delawares and the Shawanes Indians where
Gist say that the land of Wa Ha Wag Lo, (that being Rileys name
for the Delaware War Chief) is a rich but rather hill country filled
with wild animals of every kind whos furs and hides make much
trade between him and the Indians. Gist having his scribe and his
camp man and two mule men did set forth from this outpost with
our blesings for Turkee Foot and Gist Point by where Eckerlin
awaits his trail to their fur Camps in Tingooquas own land where
the great Delaware tribe hath the tribe great Camp, and 70 out lay
camps by which the fur traders hath made peace, and trade with
the English but Gist being both English and French he keepeth his
promise to the Chief that he set down no French trade in the land
of the Delawares, but pay in Virginia tobacco. (Christopher Gist
was at Jacob Horn's home on Snow Creek from March 21st., to
sunrise on March 30th. Jacob Horn says Gist was on his way to his
holdings beyond Turkey Foot but evidently he went to his mule
claim lands and returned to the Jacob Horn homestead, for under
date of April 10th., eleven days later, Jacob Horn records that he
makes his agreement with Gist to hold these mules on his Snow
Creek lands. Gist did not set out from Snow Creek for Turkey
Foot and Gist Point until after he made his second visit to Jacob
Horn's home on April 10th., instead of on March 30th., as he first
intended and recorded by Horn on March 30th., 1745.)

April 7, 1745. The spring season being full at hand Hardtman
is planting Indian corn this day by the Rocks below the mill. Snow
Creek or South Fork branch being in full water, the mill is made

22 THE HORN PAPERS

busy all the last six days. Dutchy made great thanks to John Hardt-
man for the small Virginia Spin wheel he did make at the Mill all
for her own, being made of Virginia Oak, the same being from the
seasoned log which all say did fall down 60 years ago, but which
no white man did ever know as in truth. The King and Parliament
hath set no seal to any people on Snow Creek, neither hath the Royal
Governor made known any decrees unto us, and be it known that I
Jacob Horn hath his own rule set down, by which every frontiers
man is at peace and rest with meat, while abideth with us.

September 22, 1745. The season being well spent, Dutchy and
our son Christopher of two months, and his brother John of two
years, are all in good spirits and with much food in store our home
is in peace, and I Jacob Horn am a loyal Virginia subject, so long as
the King and Parliament set down no Ords which doth include this
Snow Creek settlement.

April 10, 1746. The season being very wet no flaxseed has been
put into the ground or Indian Corn planted but the season is not yet
beyond the Oak and beach growth, and will mature the flax before
the September sun doth smuth it. This being the first season that
the Mill stones has been lifted since made in place in September
five years hence. John Hardtman faced the right one while I have
cut, or am at work on the second or left mill stone. Christopher Gist
by his lot and interest in the fur trade did set aside his south Country
claims, for one landed estate, whereby he set aside one part of same,
to make one half of the claims held in London in part payment of
all sums due the London Fur Company. The Virginia claim on the
James River Trail being by his say, the mule claim which being
nearer to his fur settlement now says only one small part of his
south river plantation being his the main part being his sisters and
husband by deed of rightful claim to the same in 1738. By Gist
consent, I Jacob Horn do now agree to hold on this land twenty
four mules from his river plantation as my rightful own, when Gist
has set a sum value on his mules and received in payment the same
if not otherwise made use of in trade. John Wiever being at hand,
he and his son, and McCullough the elder, by consent of Gist and
his man do agree to trail the mules from the river plantation to this
land where by they shall rest and feed before, any sum be declared
the made value of the mules.

June 1, 1746. Dutchy by her own hand killed a deer by the upper
waters of the dam when she set out to pick wild greens by the Creek.
John Hardtman returned from the settlement with the salt and the
sharp axes and the gin having the gin put in the Kings glass flask with
seal set Hardtman did get no part of the gin before he set it down at

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 23

the Mill. Hardtman say that my brother John did leave Ft. Hagar
and go to Wills Creek waters at the outpost of London Fur Com-
pany in 43, but no word hath been heard of him at Penns Inn since
we left them 1739.

James Riley declare the French has set their mark on Tingoo-
quas very village doors and make it known that Virginia fur traders
must seek new outpost, not being in favor in Tingooquas land but
Oppahemolleh declares the French belong on La Belle waters not
in Fishing Creek head waters, or by the Waters of Queene Aliquip-
pas Second Waters in the regions of the Delawares Flint point store
house where Eckerlins and Gist first set up trade in 1737 after hav-
ing set up their fur houses in Tingooquas Villages.

February 20, 1747. Being a bright spring day, Wiever and
John Hardtman set out for the land of Black Water, or Cheathe
river crossing of the same on the James River Trail. Being two
days trail by mule pack. Jarome Salem set his Post at that Place
and makes it known as Salem's Post, in the year that Dr. Samuel
Eckerlin and Gist set in the fur trade. Jarome Salem having two
daughters. James Riley by artful design did make Peggy Salem
his lawful wife and set her family at Salem Post as a mark of place
whereby the fur traders could take meat and rest at home, when
on the James River trail. Turkee Foot Camp, being the first camp
and Little Laurell Hill Camp being the second camp, Salem Post
the 3rd, Furnace Point being next to Snow Creek, all in line of travel
on James River Trail to the land of the Delawares, which Gist say
is in the Mohingalo country.

February 27, 1747. John Hardtman with Wiever did reach
Salem Post, and take meat and rest with Jarome Salem two days
made inquiry for gold and iron. They declare that the Indians
knowledge of these ores there are without being a fact. Gist de-
clared 8 years hence no gold was to be found on this side of Turkee
Foot Crossing of Eckerlins own Creek. Wiever declare iron in
sheets is marked on two side of Fair faxes trail near the James River
Trail 17 English miles from Snow Creek settlement. This being
the same as claimed by old Spottsilvania for the king and colony in
1723 by Logan and Clark.

March 7, 1747. By the grace of God, we now have three sons.
Dutchie say three sons but no mother's daughter. Dutchie is happy
but knows no English talk to this day, but I, Jacob Horn can make
clear all her home land talk and we did by signs get along well when
neither one could understand the other. John Hardtman declare
he is pleased that it was I, Jacob Horn that drew the bargain to
Marry Dutchie.

24 THE HORN PAPERS

June 6, 1747. Be it known that the Colony of Virginia is now
declaring herself enlarged by all lands to the La Belle Waters and
unto the French Lakes. Gist say the centre of the Mountains west
of the Sus de La Hanna is the line between the Virginia lands and
the French claims. Gist own land being on French claims, the Dela-
wares land. If it be the Delaware lands it cannot be French because
it is known that the Delaware Indians are English Indians, not
French Indians. So say Wiever and McCullough, and say we all.
By agreed time set on March 12, Gist did reach his first camp at
Turkee Foot Hill on the 23 of the same month, and departed from
Riley the next day, Riley and his 15 carriers reaching this place on
the 12 day of May. Gist now being on the Sus de La Hanna on his
trail from Philadelphia. By his own consent he agrees to take rest
and meat in our old home and make known our family to our dear
father and Mother George and Mary Horn. Gist say he will be in
trail to Snow Creek by September 10.

July 22, 1747. Water very low. Mill not in use. Dutchie and
John Hardtman turned the flax. I, Jacob Horn have made the mill
stones sharp for use.

September 22, 1747. Much rain fell on the 10th day hence.
Water in full stage. Made 2 tubs of Rye meal on this day. Hardt-
man, Wiever and Watson set out for Williamsburgh on the 3rd
day hence for home needs.

October 4, 1747. This day being Dutchie's born day, we did
set aside the flax breaking, and all labor and make the day Holy
unto the Lord. Day and the foremost part of the nite be one of
song and grace to God. John Hardtman, With Wiever being on the
trail to the Greenbrier ford killed a black bair, and 6 wild fowls, and
two turkee. Water in Snow Creek by more than all needs of the mill.
Mill being in use on the 2nd and 3rd. The same being the 2nd and
3rd of the first week of October, 1747.

October 12, 1747. This day C. Gist, scribe and 10 mule packs,
and White Eye, and Eagle Feathers with 8 Indian carriers did bring
many prime furs from the land of the Delawares, the same to be
the furs of the Indian fur Company of Williamsburgh. Gist and
scribe Lewis, took meet and rest for 2 days and all the carriers did
make great marching in the waters in the dam while Gist and self
set down many plans for next season in the land of the Delawares.
He say all is well in our old home at Penn's Inn, and that I shall
return next season. Gist say the fur trade is large in the same ter-
ritory by which he and Bernard Eckerlin set their fur cabins 10
years hence. Gist now declare that James Riley has set his cabin on
his own run one part of a mile from White Snake's own village

-

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 25

where the French set their claim between the two springs high on
the hill below the trail of Spotted Tail. The same being Delawares
own land. Gist declare the French say so long as the Virginia fur
traders share with the French, all the furs, pelts and skins the French
will not claim their lands, and all make trade with the Village Chief,
but Riley declare no Delaware Indians be permitted to trade with
the French. Gist say while he measured the distance this season,
from Fishers Crossing of Sus de La Hanna to Jumonville waters
on the Mohongalo river, the French surveyor declare that the Dela-
ware land shall be French lands by order of Concentrecuer. I say
no man on Snow Creek do make clear all Gist Talk, but Gist de-
clare the land to be rich, and much great timber covers the most
of that territory.

June 1748. I, Jacob Horn, father of three sons. John, born in
1743, Christopher, born in 1745 and Hardtman born in 1747. With
my beloved wife have not consented to leave Snow Creek, the home,
and Mill to make a home in Philadelphia.

June 21, 1748. Indians entrail west of the Ridge. Water in —
middle stage. Mill running two days.

July 12, 1748. Heavy rain Snow Creek in flood, log bridge
carried away by flood. _

September 12, 1748. By agreement I Jacob Horn do make the
trail to Williamsburgh on Gist's say that John Canon demands the
persons and voices of ten frontier settlers to make protests^against
the kings grant of Virginia lands) on La Belle waters, the same to
be set down at Williamsburgh on the 10th day the next month of this
A. D. McCullough the elder, Joseph Freye, Frazier the elder, Pat-
terson, Enoch O'Brine the elder, and William Gibson and self do
agree to trail with Gist to Williamsburgh on the 8th of the month
hence.

September 22, 1748. The rapair all being made on the mill
dam, the flood water did make no loss at the mill, the upper reach
of Snow Creek branch being the greatest in flood since Von Reis-
seiller set the mill on the creek. Both millstones running today and
flax stone in part. John Hardtman by desire to learn of brother
John is setting out for Fort Hagar on the morrow. McCullough
declares that he will not trail with John, by consent of Watson to
make the trail, McCullough declare Samuel will run the mill and
keep watch on the Indians now on the trail.

September 28, 1748. This day fifteen Cherokee Indians from
the West branch of La Belle waters above Indian Point made clear
the needs of some cornmeal and being agreeable to my demands the
same was given to them whereupon they shake our hand and depart

26 THE HORN PAPERS

on the James River trail to the Warm Springs and Yadkin River
trail, which they say trail to South Yadkin country.

October 4, 1748. Christopher Gist arrived at the mill this day
from his home at uGist Trail End" south and west of the Yadkin,
and declare that the King's intention to declare so large a landed
estate in the French Domains will embitter both the French and the
Delaware Indians and war will continue between the French and
whoever sets up obstructions to the French Claims west of the moun-
tains, since by neither desire or claim did Virginia set their boundary
beyond the second crest of the mountains north of the Shawanee
Indian lands until one year ago hence. Great turmoil prevails by
Virginia's Blue-bloods desire to lay claims to the French La Belle
waters. In time, Gist declares Snow Creek will be forced into Vir-
ginia's settlements, and that the King and Colony will set bounds
to all here, and collect tax from this settlement, but I, Jacob Horn,
declare the King and Colony hath no jurisdiction over any part of
this frontier settlement, and so say every one of the sixteen settlers
living on this creek.

October 7, 1748. Fine weather. Tobacco cut and strung. Flax
ready for breaking. John Hardtman killed one deer and two turkees.

October 16, 1748. We set out as agreement on the 8th for Wil-
liamsburgh and after one encampment at "Gists Mule Ranch,"
above the main James River trail, we did reach the home of John
Canon on the eve of the 9th day of the month, and all did drink to
the health of Canon and his royal mother, but no man aye for the
King. Each man did say his thoughts boldly to the Virginians in
council on the 10th, and Gist declare to all that he had no say, being
^only the guide to all whom he was directed to trail to the council.
Canon did assail the King and the royal governor as traitors to
Virginia's interest. The snow Creek settlers all assured the council
of Virginia that they stood by Canon and Gist in extending the boun-
dary of the colony, butlby^no right do we favor the power of the
King, beyond the power now at hand. It is now believed the colonial
friends will assail all frontier border settlements now free of colonial
rule. ...

December 6, 1748. Dutchie has many days at the wheel. Abel
McCullough, with son John, were timely saved from a wild beast
by Hardtman in the cleared camp below the ford.

January 14, 1749. It is now known that the French have seized
all the Delaware lands and will make no place West of the old agree-
ment open to the Virginians, either of the Blue-blood line, or to the
fur traders who have traded with the Delaware Indians, Gist being
one man who can meet. . . .

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 27

^ March 17, 1749. This day being the day to plant seed in the
soil. I placed there in a goodly portion. Good stage of Water at
the mill.

September 1, 1749. I have minded to form an iron smelter of
two ports. Iron ore found by Hardtman is of first value in Williams-
burgh.

November 11, 1749. Hardtman and John Watson returned
from Williamsburgh with supplies, for the home and Mill. Indians
at the Mill, all are friends. Water at Middle stage. John Hardt-
man at work on main shaft of Water wheel to set more speed to
mill stone.

November 25, 1749. Christopher Gist by appointed time, with
Hardtman at Williamsburgh, arrived at the homestead on the eve.
of 20th on his way to the Mohongalo Valley and abide with us three
days.

January 20, 1750. I returned home from two weeks at Wil-
liamsburgh. John Canon and Richard Yeates his counsellor pardner
gave advice on Virginia's iron rights and declared Parliament Acts
to be more of speech than of force.

March 30, 1750. John Hardtman Wiever, and Freye are at
work on the iron furnace. The Char Pit is now ready to be opened.
The ore pit was cleared and some iron ore digged out. Mill at work
for many days.

June 1, 1750. Christopher Gist with Esq. John Canon arrived
at the Mill seat on the 26th of May and partook of our hospitality
until today. Many new theories are abroad in the Colony. John
Canon of great ability for one of his age, although of Blue Blood
heeds not the threats of the King nor the Acts of Parliament. Mill
at work, with Abel McCullough in charge.

June 4, 1750. First iron ore and Char put in the first furnace
today, and fired. This being the first iron smelter ever set up on
Snow Creek.

July 6, 1750. Made some Rye meal today. Good stage of
Water in Snow Creek.

October 4, 1750. Smelter is filled and fired today. A scarcety
of Char on hand at this time. The Indians are on the trail, All are
friendly. The tobacco all cut and dried. Dutchie run the Wheel all
the days of September, and much linen and Chintz is stored.

April 4, 1751. Indians on the trail to Lake region. This day
being a bright warm spring day we placed seeds in the ground. The
water is abundant to keep the Mill at Work.

May 10, 1751. Planted some Indian Corn, acrost the creek,
below the Mill this day. Wiever, and Hardtman fashioned heavy

28 THE HORN PAPERS

axe, like one used at Hagar. Abel McCullough fell three trees to
make beams for the Wheelpit at the Mill. The great Mill stone
was taken up, and made a new face there to, and re set for use.

May 26, 1751. Two French Surveyors from Philadelphia and
Williamsburgh, Came to Snow Creek this day with Christopher
Gist to make a trip to the Mohongalo River Valley and desire I,
Jacob Horn to go on the trail with them, but cannot do so.

May 30, 1751. Much assurance being given I am now ready to
take the trail with Gist, and two Frenchmen to Tingooqua's Camp.
Gist being gide for Grendelier and Beaumont.

June 4, 1751. Christopher Gist and self, joined the two French-
men, and all took trail to French Creek, in north Country to make
surveys and degrees, and Chart the same from Tingookahs Creek,
to mouth of on Mohongalo river.

August 24, 1751. With Christopher Gist, and the two French-
men we set out from Snow Creek on the bright summer morning of
June 4th, and followed the trail in all its windings until we reached
Little French Creek where we made surveys of the Creek, and found
the degrees of lattitude and longitude and made a chart of the loca-
tion at Turkey Foot. We set the First of the French Lead Plates
declaring to all the people, that the territory belongs to France.
This Plate was planted 100 paces North of Little French Creek, at
the trail crossing and 20 paces to the West of said trail. The French-
men making true degrees of the same, on Chart of trail. Gist being
on the Creek in 1737 and 1741 made it known by a heap of stone
on both sides of the said Creek and he called it Gist Creek, but the
French surveyors set it down on this day, — as Little French Creek,
by rightful authority and so shall it be, to the French, but never so
by the Royal Colony. Turkey Foot Rock so Marked and named
by Eckerlins 1736. From the Lead Plate, we set out for where Gist
declare Mont. Tingooqua, and Peter Chartier his brother, by mar-
riage, of wife's sister, The two Delaware Indians are in Camp at
the Spirit Spring, where the Fish Stone Sacrifice is declared, by
Tingooqua, and Wessameking. We passed on the same trail as
marked by Gist in 1749, Crossing two wide streams of clear water
no survey being made at this time. On the eve of the next day, we
made camp by Spirit Spring at Tingooqua's Camp, in Tingooqua's
own rightful region. Tingooqua, Peter Chartier Wessameking, Bow
legs, and some Wariors, made a feast and Counselled with Gist
and the French Surveyors. On the next sun-day the Frenchmen
determined the point by degrees, and there on the trail by the small
stream, planted Lead Plate 2. By the Authority of France, the
Frenchmen called the two Creeks we passed over to be forever

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 29

known as Tingooqua's Creeks, by statement of Gist to be one, and
the same Creek, at the old Delaware Common Council Camp the
same, acknowledged by Tingooqua and Chartier. From the useful
Indian guide, Wessameking who, supplied us greatly with Cat Fish
the Frenchmen Set down this Camp as Camp Cat Fish 1. Spirit
Spring. Said Spring to be known as Spirit Spring, because the great
spirit who ruled all matters, made this Spring, to flow only, when,
the great Spirit was good to his Children and they, good to him. The
little stream was named Cat Fish Run, in size, to Wessameking's
authority, so ordered, and set in the Records by the French surveyors
on June 14th, 1751. From Camp Cat Fish 1, we trailed under Tin-
gooqua, Chartier, and the Indian gide to a point on the Said Tin-
gooqua Creek, now so named, and there made Camp, and called it
Camp Cat Fish 2 the same being on level land, 20 paces from the
water, and we made a survey of one days march, both up, and down
said Creek, from the Camp, but, set no lead plate there, on. On
the third day, we broke camp and trailed over to South branch of
the same Tingooqua Creek by the Common Council grounds and
up stream, to the mouth of what Tingooqua described as Crooked
Run, and so determined by the records, and then 50 paces from the
bank of the said Tingooqua Creek, and 20 paces from Crooked
Run, over against high hill, we planted the French lead plate 3 de-
claring this to be French territory by Rights of the King. From
there, we went to the mouth of Tingooqua's Main Creek on Mohon-
galo River, and on west bank, 100 paces back, and the same from
the said Creek on level ground, planted the large French lead Plate
4^ feet in the earth, said plate being 16 x 24 English inches while
No 2-3 were 8^ x 14 English inches. Returning to Camp Cat Fish 1,
at Spirit Spring on Cat Fish Run, where we rested in Camp four
days feasting by consent, and good will of Tingooqua but, on the
second day, at Camp, all went to the site of the great and final bat-
tle-ground of the Delaware where they met defeat and death and
overthrow and loss of all Mohongalo territory, and were made
Children and Sqaws. This great Indian battle was fought three
years hence, being the 17 and 18 days of the 9th month, and year
of 1748. The Frenchmen agreeing with Gist that twelve thousand
Indians were killed in the field below Flint Top, and only two white
men saw that battle. These two were Buck Eckerlin and his broth-
er with an Indian gide the same being Bowlegs.

Now at the beginning of the fifth day at Camp Cat 1 Spirit
Spring The French surveyors, Gist and self with Tingooqua, Peter
Chartier and Wessameking we trailed up to ridge and on same to
the highest peak, and there Grendelier placed the French flag of

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 31

Authority on a Signal Rock and followed Tingooqua's trail on said
ridge down around, over, and across, to the dividing of the waters
of the South-east, and North-east flow, passing the three springs
near the foot of what the Frenchmen set down as Signal hill Grende-
lier Forte, the same being in Indian meaning Spring on top of hill
and reached the Spring nameing it Wessameking Spring, this same
spring being one half up the hill from the low land and there we
made Camp and called it Upper Camp Cat Fish and then set down
the direct point of degrees in the record and from there surveyed
to the small stream, and down said stream to main stream, and
from this point we surveyed the main stream following it to its
mouth, the same being measured by paces there in, and by all agree-
ment the Creek of Main stream was named Chartier Creek and so
recorded on this 11 day of July, 1751. The small stream being de-
clared a branch of main stream was not given a separated name.
Near the Spring at the Camp at Upper Camp Cat Fish, the French-
men depicted the French flag and ate on the rock thirty paces over,
and above the spring, and set this same large rock as a warning unto
all people that this same region was a part of the Kings territory in
America.

Now Tingooqua being of good faith and of good spirit declared
to Gist that the Delawares had no power to make, or refuse, Rights
in the Mohongalo territory a treaty to the French, or the English,
only fight by force of the Five Nations made this of no considera-
tion but, Tingooqua, and Chartierr agreed to give support to him,
who, came after them, in Authority, by force, or by rightful posses-
sion of this land round about, and gave a feast, as declaring it in
good faith, Christopher Gist, at this time trailed with the two
French surveyors and two Indians of well known knowledge of the
Lake region trail, to the Mohongalo River and crossed below the
mouth of Tingooqua's Main Creek and traile to a point, said to be
thirty-six miles, and there, parted from the French surveyors, and
the Indian gides who made their way to the North Lake and to
the east borders coast. Christopher Gist after six days returned to
Camp Cat Fish, Spirit Spring.

By agreement, Gist, and self, bid Tingooqua a warm farewell,
and set out on our return to Snow Creek by the same trail we made
in June, meeting with the Eckerlins on Little French Creek. Gist
made them known to the French surveyors Chart of Tingooqua's
domains, and we abide there one day, and one night in the Camp,
thence trailed on, to Snow Creek where we with the blessings of
God arrived on the Close of the day of August 20— this year 1751,
and find All in good care of the Mercy of God.

32 THE HORN PAPERS

September 16, 1751. By the grace of God, and good of all, our
little girl came to earth, on the day before this, and both Dutchie
and self give thanks to God, and place her name in the Bible of her
grand-father. John Hardtman, and Abel McCullough have, with
Weavers help filled the pit and fired it in August, and the Char will
make the smelter ready to fire, as plan agreed to be in October.
Snow Creek very low, and Mill not at work.

October 16, 1751. Tobacco dried and pressed on this day.
Plenty of water in Snow Creek, Smelter at full heat, and forge re-
paired. Dutchie works at the Wheel and loom all the days after
end of September.

March 23, 1752. Christopher Gist from Williamsburgh came
to abide with us for three days. He talks much of Tingooqua's
rights but the Delawares fate no man can change. The Nations
will never be good with Frenchmen on the trail with them. The
Royal Colony has granted outposts in the Mohongalo River lands,
but John Canon, of Blue blood, has set the Colony, against the
King and Parliament there by declaring it a great arrogence to all
good Virginia people.

September 1, 1752. Replace Oven at long house. Indians on the
trail, all are friends, no Chief near. Water in full head to turn the
mill every day. Flax crop very good this year with Indian Corn and
Rye all safely matured.

January 1753. John Hartman, Wiever, killed three deer with
four turkee and Abiga Hough killed two deer and one turkee of
which all is common to our board. Made Rye Meal and Corn Crox
at mill today.

May 1, 1754. Furnace in heat. Iron heated and forged. Two
pits of Char ready to fire smelter. Abel McCullough set out for
Williamsburgh on the day before this for home needs. Cut off six
Pine trees in opposition to the will of King and Parliament. I, Jacob
Horn, first, Virginia next, and Parliament when it is good to my
will. Many Virginia gentlement think our home run iron is not a
part of Parliament affairs, since they, not the King receives the tax
paid, or iron for their use, which they so desire.

July 17, 1760. Building stone water wall at Mill. Christopher
Gist, John Canon, John Gibson and R. Yates with Wiever and self
set out on trail for the upper Cuntry in Tingookahs land, and did
find the Afforsaid Chief at Camp Cat Fish 2. and all sat in counsil
and after some delay the Chief, and two braves trailed with us to
Cat Fish Camp 1, by the big Spring known as Spring where we made
surveys and degrees with measures of distances to, and from the
camp; the same being made by Ords of Virginia Burgess.

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 33

October 30, 1760. Gist and gides, abide with us a week at the
Mill and Partake of Good, and rest. Iron Smelter ready to fire, and
son John, and Christopher now at the forge have made many home
made articles of common usage, and have a pit of Char ready to
open. Abel McCullough and John Heaton trailed to James River
Settlement, and their did obtain the needs of the home.

May 1, 1762. At work on Mill, Water low. John Hardtman
made part of big water wheel. Christopher Gist, and one Indian
returned from Tingooqua Country and abide three days, and trail
to Williamsburgh. He talked much, and said the Eckerlins had
changed Little French Creek to Dutch Creek, or Dunkard Creek but
the Lead plate was there.

January 1763. The Indians are on the War trail, but no Indians
are near the Mill. Son John, and son Hardtman killed three deer
and a bear above the log bridge. Son John, and son Christopher,
McCullough and John Hardtman are making Char for Smelter.

February 14, 1764. I, Jacob Horn, am this day, and date there-
of commissioned as Justice, en Corte Man for Snow Creek settle-
ment and in Spottsilvania Parish, west of established line, not here
prescribed in previous Ords. By and for Augusta County. All
persons making claims to any portions of land, or to the owner of
cattle, or other prescribed animals, or the raiser of tobacco, are sub-
ject to the King's tax and I have set the day, and date of March 1st,
1764 as the date of hearing, and therefore ye all take heed that after
said date, that Snow Creek settlement will be subject to the Kings
tax, and to the Burgess on the part of the colony.

March 24, 1765. John Horn, Christopher Horn, John Heaton,
with Abiga Hough made exploring trail over the west ridges into
Tagarts River, thence north to Laurel Point thence to Camp Wetzel
and to the divide thence by main trail to the Mill. Gist abide with
us a week we have much rain about April 1 all kep at the Mill.

May 1, 1765. I, Jacob Horn, make return on the Colony's
scroll as set forth.

Families as 14 Bundles of lint 250

Single freemen as 12 Sheep-wool not used

Maids of past age 9 20 bags

Horses 14 R-aw iron slabs ^5U

Goats 65 Iron of Kings make —

Cattle 45 Iron of home run

Mules held by owners of same at this date 36

Sheep 80 Bibles Dutch

Spinning wheels 12 Kings Bibles 4

Looms 10 Mill stones set ^

Time clocks 2 Flax stones set 1

Sun clocks 4

34 THE HORN PAPERS

Charcoal burned in 1764 said to be 1250 measures (bushels)

Indian corn made to meal t 108 bags

Indian corn made to crox 250 bags

Rye ground 300

Wheat ground 70 measures
Pine trees axed by consent of Kings council
Pine trees axed by rights of settlers — not set down

Virginia made axes 200 — made by my consent 50

Oven doors made set down as 50

Hard iron knives about 200

Fire bars, second heat, 300

Link bars 10

June 4, 1765. Gist, ever on his hunt for gold and lead, had no
knowledge that by Canon's desire that I, Jacob Horn, was made a
justice for Snow Creek until four days hence, but say it is well with
him. He now say, "I hold no land. To the Virginia settlers, I gave
my French lands, and the Ohio lands to my sons, except that land
at the slave quarters which I gave to my wife, White Rose, and my
two daughters." Gist say Snow Creek lands have no kings warrents
made for them, but I say whose lands are they, if not the settlers?
Dutchy says it is all Stuyvests land when he lived, but now it is the
settlers land. So say we all. Flood in creek, log bridge washed away.

June 21, 1765. The iron furnace and forge were cleaned and
made ready to fire when the ore is carted down to the smelter. A
violent storm befell two upper Virginia settlers on top of the moun-
tain ridge in Devil's Pass from Snow Creek to the head of the Green-
brier River trail to the Spottswood or New River claims in 1750.

August 4, 1765. John Hardtman is now making a Virginia
"waggon" of four wheels for use of two yoke of oxen, same as Mc-
Cullough made in '51. The Von Reisseiller waggons are no longer
in use being well worn in parts after 25 years time and four trail
trips to Baltimore. The clock, chess and china being hauled from
there on the long waggon in 1742 by Hardtman and Abel McCul-
lough in October.

August 1765. Smelter at full heat, and forge is kept at work.
John and Christopher with John Hardtman making Char, and ready
to fire furnace. Tobacco in South field very good.

June 11, 1767. Wiever killed a grown bair this day. The Mill
made ready to work, and New log wheel with Kog pins joined to
pit post, (Shaft) made by John and Chris, is good work. The flax
and tobacco grow well at this season. Again we made trail to Tin-
gooqua Creek by old trail to Laurel Point to French Creek, now

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 35

Sed Creek being Dutch or Dunkird Creek to Camp Cat Fish 1. on
head land of Tingooquas Creek the same being as directed by Ords.
Trail to Camp Cat Fish 2. about same as 1751 trail Spirit Spring
same Clear Cold Water. Stone heaps made 20 perches each way
from Spring by Ords and Camp Cat Fish 1 set down on marked plan
as Augusta out post by Virginia Royal Claims.

Indians at peace, but Frenchman lost to them, even French Creek,
French run are no more but are called Dunkard, and Crooked run
as Gist called the run in 1751.

September 1767. Christopher Gist, John Hunter, John Gibson
and self, made the trip to Tingooquas Camp, Camp Cat Fish 1,
South-east of the divide between the headwaters of the Ou Mohon-
galo river and those of Upper Cat Fish Run, the same being on the
head waters of Tingooquas Creek, thence to Cat Fish Camp 2,
thence over to Camp Cat Fish 3. at the Mouth of Crooked Run on
the South branch of the same Creek, above the point of the two
branches of the afforsaid Tingooqua Creek. Here we rested two
days, thence returned to Camp Cat Fish 1, to the same place we
marked for the Colonys first post in Tingookahs domains in 1751,
60-2 and now 1767 and so advise that agreable to all, the same may
be established at This same place.

October 6, 1767. Hunter, Heaton, and self, made the trip by
same trail as made in 1751 to Crooked Run and camped on the
same place as on first trip. We located more iron ore at Iron Point
as named by the French in 1749 and Heaton scouts over some of
the hill to make some sign of markings of the French.

Beyond finding a digged pit no other mark of authority was to
be found. Iron Point by Tingooqua word, has for long years been
the territory of the Delawares but after their defeat at Flint Top
in Sept. 1748 it was Made Common lands but the French made claim
to all there round about, but the Royal Colony of Virginia has all
lawful rights there to, and all loyal Virginians will fight to hold that
land as a part of Augusta Co. and Ords as set down at Williams-
burgh, neither the French nor the Lake Indians now have claim to
this land but the fight will be to keep the Penn peepul from becom-
ing settlers, but Canon thinks to burn them out on the first, peepul
will heed the Royal Colony, and make the Mohongalo Valley Vir-
ginia soil, as it should be by all right acts.

October 24, 1767. Surveys made on Tingooqua's Creek, and of
Camp Cat Fish 1 were made Ords at Williamsburgh.

December 4, 1767. Much smelting, and purifiing was done this
year. The mill we helped build in 1740, now after twenty seven years

36 THE HORN PAPERS

run, is still the only one up here on Snow Creek, at this date of
Christmas Day, 1767.

April 6, 1769. The season at Snow Creek being well advanced
Gist having returned from his people in Baltimore's Colony, did
reach this place on the third day hence with John Canon as by agree-
ment at his old homestead to Williamsburgh trail, where only his
squaw son met him, and there did await the set time on the 29th for
them to trail to Snow Creek whereby they and self have made agree-
ment to take 6 mules on the trail to Little French Creek, but Gist
now declare they will be taken to Teegardens Fort, where one Tay-
lor and his slaves will trail them to Gist Plantation at the foot of
the Mountains, and all being made ready we may hope to set out on
the James River trail to Turkey foot early on the 10th of this same
month, and to trail by Canon and self to Camp Cat Fish on the 15th,
as ordered by Canon to the runners to Tingoqua's Camp early in
March. The tobacco, fire arms, and salt being all in skins, the same
to be trailed by Gists mules to Teegardens Fort, where Teegarden
and Hupp will make such of these to the peace Indians as Tingooqua
and Chartier may direct, but must be agreeable to John Canon who
being the Commissioner in the Virginia regions on the Mohongalo,
makes all agreeable to his law and his wishes. Being the set time for
our trailing to Camp Cat Fish to build the Blockhouse and open the
Corte and collect the King's and the Colony's tax, but Canon by
direct authority say the Lake Indians are on the war trail on French-
Indian trail on the south border of Tingooquas claims and the Block-
house and Corte must not be set down this season, but to make dili-
gent search and inquiry among the settlers west of the river, their
safety and of their loyalty to the Royal Colony, and to make known
that no tax be set against them there at this time, and to Post do
Notices that no Bedford County people be allowed to settle on any
land within the Virginia territory of the Ohio River Country, on
pain of death and being quartered as fellinus criminals. The same
being set down by Christopher, I have all Canon's Ords set ready
to post at such places as the Bedford Criminals may make tomahawk
homesteads, Bowlegs to direct the places where Virginia rights are
set at nought by these obnoxious violaters of the Kings law. Gist
with Canon are in haste to get on the trail, but Hardtman, and Mc-
Cullough have not reached this place with three of Gist's mules for
the 8th day, was the time set for all the six mules to be made ready,
and fitted with tree saddles by Jacob. Wiever, Abiga Hough for the
trail. Gist, Canon and self keeping his own mule for his own journey
Cristoball will ride the lead pack animal, and look to all our cares.
Gist now being second to John Canon but far more advanced in

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 37

years and knowledge of the Ohio country is a tired and very much
reserved man. No man knoweth Gist plans and he sayeth little be-
yond what he make in agreement for payment in return, but he of
all Virginia men knows the Indians, the French, and the Virginians
of every tribe and class, and how to serve them best, making him-
self the first in all his agreements. Being well in the grace of Wa
Ha Wag Lo and his delaware band, he is still the friend of Bow-
legs and Tingooqua but sayeth Queen Aliquippa is proud and
haughty, and make her dress of too many colors, and make white
men seek her favors, but Tingooqua is faithful, and to him we pro-
pose to keep faith.

January 20, 1770. At this time no two settlers tell the same life
of Gist, and this is why no agreed statement between William Craw-
ford, and John Canon could be reached as to Gist's real loyalty to
either colony or to why he held no common usage for Captain Trent.
Christopher Gist was not likend to any other man on the border,
for while he accepted service from both the French and English
leaders, he held both in contempt because, both sides lent their
best efforts to ruin his fur business in Baltimore, and left him a
hunter and trader among the Indians as his portion, and con-
tinued to harass him for debt for all his days, but at periods of
time, he was much in demand as explorer, surveyor and chart maker
of new territory for those who paid him well. He had neither fear
of confidence in any human being beyond that which he observed,
and made of use to his own plans. No colonist had so clear a knowl-
edge of what the western wilds would mean to future eastern shore
settlers during the years from 1725 to 1745. His first trail to the
Forks in 1737 with Buck Eckerlin gave him the knowledge that both
the French and English would in time do battle to gain first posses-
sion of the Ohio country, and through Buck Eckerlin the Virginia
gents gained their first knowledge of the country beyond the Moun-
tains, who gave him his commission to explore, chart and set down
his findings. Knowing what they wished to obtain, he suited his
findings to his agreement with them, at the same time never failed
to keep faith with Tingooqua and Wa Ha Wag Lo and the Dela-
ware tribe, and gain posession of the best of the hides and furs taken
by them in their domains, but his greatest wish was to obtain knowl-
edge of the gold and lead minerals that the French assured him were
to be found in three separate regions between the Monongahela and
Ohio rivers north of Little French Creek, with iron in three places
one of which he was aware of 20 years before the French made this
claim at Iron Point. Gist stated in 1766 that Englands iron made
supplies would never be common on these borders, because even

38 THE HORN PAPERS

Virginia Planters used Virginia iron horse shoes and home smelted
dog irons in secret at first and now in open defiance of England.

With having held two plantations east of the river, Gist which
the Virginia Malitia complained to Washington in 1754 of living in
state on his Plantation given to him by the Colony, yet would lend
them no assistance above his consideration for the Indians, was not
given to favor Washington more than he did Gen. Jumonville, who
was often his guest, because as he stated it was not plain which na-
tion would claim his plantation or hold his slaves as their property.
Gist early meditated to leave the plantation to his lawful children
to make clear denial to the Baltimore claims, which he often stated
were black pirates with a just claim only, to the Devils own region.
To him General Edward Braddock was likened unto a willful dis-
obedient child, who was at the Forks, but Edward Ward who re-
ceived many favors from Gist, after the French drove him from
the Forks in March 1754, stated to Governor Dinwiddie that had
he appointed Gist instead of Washington to command the Virginia
malitia the French never would have gained a hold and set up Ft.
DeQuesne at the Forks. The Trent, Washington, Gist contention
for leadership in 1753, cost Braddock his life, and utter ruin to the
English Controll at the Forks in 1755 and all too because Creaux
Bozarth, set his hand to defeat Governor Dinwiddie's plan to hold
the Forks for the English, and it proved a surprise that he had drawn
off William Trent, then defeated Braddock by his French Indian
hatred of Washington treatment of Jumonville, and his envoys, on
the way to Williamsburgh.

December 14, 1772. Be it known that the Camp Cat Fish Corte
grounds as set down by Richard Lewis is part the Corte lands but
Wiever doth claim the land where in he make his own burying ground
Wiever's one day old child being laid there in the 12 of this same
month and year.

John Canon makes it clear the bounds of the Corte site be held
at 8 acres of land but that all the land from Rock Point to Grende-
lier is by common consent set down as Jacob Horn's homestead. But
I Jacob Horn now have no wife no daughter, declare that Jacob
Wiever can tomahawk all the land on Grendelier run to Cat Fish
Run to Rock Point on no man's run to the Ridge on head waters
of Grendelier run to head waters of Beaumont run except the land
from his camp to the trail crossing of Cat Fish Run thence down the
run to McCullough's spring thence up the dry run 100 paces to the
bare land of the Fish Stone Camp site set there in.

Spirit Spring being the corte spring one half way from McCul-
loughs Spring to the trailcrossing at the steep trail mark on Cat

JACOB HORN'S DIARY 39

Fish run. All the land set down inside about 8 or 12 acres shall be
marked the Camp Cat Fish Court lands as declared by Canon in
March. Canon declare no part of this land round about shall be
his land, but all this same land shall be for loyal Virginia settlers
by royal decree.

The Indian Peter, Bowlegs and White Snake say the Fish Stone
hath no spirits great or evil since Tingooqua did die this year be-
yond the Ohio Waters.

By Bowlegs say Tingooqua died same night Dutchie did leave
us. John Hardtman did on this day clean all the brass wheels in
the Kings clock and set with the sun at the hour of noon.

Joseph Baylee by his own time set came into corte on this day
and seek 10 pounds for Fort Marten and one Jacob Stattlers Fort
on Little French Creek the same being Gist land mark to Turkee
Foot Rock.

September 20, 1777. With the long years of time since Gist and
his scribe made their appearance at Snow Creek, and the many
changes made leaves the old days now forgotten by the new order
of life, but War not peace is at hand. Gist and Canon declared in
1748 that the Virginians would drive the French across the sea,
then would have to tie the King's hand in Virginia rule. The Vir-
ginians made the French run in 1768, and now no man believes the
king will ever once more tell us what to do with our own. In 1747
Gist and the French Commissioner were as one, but in 1748, Gist
seeth afar, and became equal with French demands, and Ohio lands
for the Virginia gentlemen.

II

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 1772-1795

October 4, 1772. Father, Hardtman and self have made the
graves of Mother and Sister to look well with Bowlegs shells from
Tingooqua Creek, and the stones from the river at Teegardens
boat fery. Abel McCullough and John Canon from the Indian vil-
lage Mounds on Chartiers Creek was in the Cort on the day before
this, and are with Bowlegs and Indian Peter to march to the Forks
to see that no Bedford settlers have set their camps there on Virginia
land. Father will not go with them. Canon warns Father to
make all settlers be named and made out, with names and where
from and on which colony they belong. This Ord by Virginia must
be fulfilled by one year hence.

October 9, 1772. Being a bright day after a little frost John
Hardtman, Bowlegs and John Wiever did set out for hunting deer
in the south in the hills on the head forks of Little Shawane Creek
on the west side of the French-Indian Trail.

We have now one acre of Rye in green and three acres made
clear for Indian Corn and flax for next years planting. Camp Cat
Fish Court lands number eight acres by common consent, but no
settler being homesteaded near by, no claims are set forth for the
neat bounds of the Corte lands.

October 14, 1772. The hunters returned with two deer and
many squirrels. Bowlegs spied a warrior Indian and killed him by
the rocks where he say they keep watch on Morris Fort, and the
few white settlers along Eckerlin's Run. One Kent, and his man did
seek out and kill one Indian, and drive three more Huron warriors
from these White Rocks in 1767 and no Lake Indians is said to
have been seen there since, until in April this year. Father declares
the French are preparing to assail the settlers in the Mohongalo
valley, and the return of their indian friends is to give them some
knowledge of the settlers West of the river. The French emisary
Creaux Bozarth by Daniel Moredock knowledge died in 1759, and
his family are now Virginia loyalists, the French have only their
Indian runners to inform them that the south borders are filled by
English people from Eastern Penn land and the Ocean border lands
but all are loyal Virginians by the common rights of the Colony.

Father by the law set forth found the whole Zellar family to
be loyal to the settlers and to Virginia, and did so decree, and to
make it clear that no other complaint would stand against them did

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 41

by Ord of the Corte Change their names to Sellers, and posted the
same in the name of the King, and Colony.

October 29, 1772. The first snow of the late season made its way
here today.

Daniel Moredock Sen. George Teegarden, James Carmichael,
Edward Dougherty, Samuel Lucas, and James Burson appeared at
the Camp Cat Fish Court on the second day hence, and made known
that they demanded the Colony to make defense for the settlers
against the threatened French and Indian war on the settlers west
of the River. Much talk was made, whereupon the Corte declared
that Daniel Moredock, Sen. Jonathan Morris, Sen. and James Car-
michael should be sent to Wmsburg to address the General Assem-
bly, and there get Ords to be carried out by the Corte to defend
all loyal Virginia Settlers from the Lake Indians in Northwest
Augusta County.

November 8, 1772. John Horn and John Hardtman, Enoch
O'Brine and Abel McCullough trailed over the Delaware Indian
trail by the gide of Bowlegs, to Dupratz's Island near which Sam
McCullough and John Wetzel lives on their homsteads on the border
of the Ohio River, and there killed two bears, two dear and thirty
wild turkey in two days hunt. Morgan Morgan, and Jacob Dillinger
were surprised and nearly became prisoners of the Huron warriors,
on the river bank at old Fort Redstone some days ago, but these two
hardy settlers did fight about twenty warriors, killed three, and the
others ran into the river at the mouth of Jumonville Creek and
made their escape down stream. William Teegarden who settled on
the old Indian village site recently stated that several bands of Ind-
ians had passed below the Ackley Ford on Ackley Run but no camps
were made near by.

November 24, 1772. Much salt and lead with the skins of
powder sent for in September, was brought to Fort Morris by the
slaves of Joseph Morris of Staunton. This will all be made common
to the settlers on the South borders west of the river. Bowlegs
found a French gun between Dyces Inn and Fort Redstone and did
bring it here, whereupon Father claimed it to be Christopher Gist
own gun stolen by William Crawford in 1755, butjnow that Gist-
being dead four years>, Father gave the gun to John Hardtman to
hold in right, until Thomas could be made aware of the fact. Bow-
legs was given two pounds of Virginia tobacco in place of the gun,
for he preferred his six foot bow and ten arrows to any fire gun,
and he could shoot well, scarcely ever missing his game. Bowlegs,
the Joshua of the wilds of the frontier, could in many things do what
no white man could do, one of these was to be made aware of a

42 THE HORN PAPERS

strange Indian who might be a mile from him. No Indian could
shape a stone pipe, and cut it better than Bowlegs, and no man,
white or Indian could walk so far in one day, or one night as the
bold daring Bowlegs whom Christopher Gist wished to make his
gide in 1748, but who made no agreement to do so.

December 4, 1772. This day we have gathered together all the
belongings of our Mother and Sister who have passed on to God
who gave them life, and who took them from us, and have preserved
several of these, for our children's children to behold what their
kindred possessed in their day, but we cannot look upon their posses-
sions with peace of mind, while so great a grief faces us daily. To
put these from our sight, is in accordance with the buriel of the dead.

February 12, 1773. After the hard freezing weather of the
past weeks, the sun again feels like the spring days at Snow Creek
in the days of long ago. George Morris, Sam Jackson and William
Archer made their appearance at Court on the sixth day, and de-
manded that the white rock cliff, and Cavern be destroyed as a mat-
ter of rights to all the settlers, to keep the Lake Indians from mak-
ing this cave their hiding place, where upon the Corte made the Ord
that this old landmark near Tingooqua Creek not far from Sam
Jackson's Post be destroyed by Virginia powder at a time near by.
Bowlegs lamented of this, he said these White Rocks held many
Indian secrets and that for a long time Chief Wa Ha Wag Lo held
these as sacred, and death would come to any Indian enemy who
made use of this white stone. This white cliff was of stone not like
any other far or near, and sometimes soft and sometimes very hard
but the Delaware Indians used this stone to make plates, cooking
bowls, and many of their smoking pipes being made from this white
stone, the few peace Indians now on Tingooqua Creek lament this
Ord being made but the threatened trouble from the French and
Indians in Canada, the Ord must be followed by a complete destruc-
tion of this enemy stronghold.

February 24, 1773. One, Robert Heathe, and Samuel Frazier
from the Forks on their way to Richmond took rest and meat with
us two days before taking the James River trail. The weather be-
ing free of frost, John and self trailed with them to Turkey Foot
Hill, where we found Bowlegs, and three white men at the First
Crossing of Little French Creek preparing to obtain some sugar
sap from the great sugar trees nearby, and no talk could make Bow-
legs return to Camp Cat Fish with us. Deer and Bear are so abun-
dant on this Creek that no traveler need to be in want of food.

March 2, 1773. John Moredock the father of Daniel, and
James Moredock of Moredock's Flats and grandfather of Daniel

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 43

Moredock Jun. of Moredocks Spring trailed from Staunton to
Camp Cat Fish with Barney Rice of Virginia, to obtain some knowl-
edge of the settlers habitation and welfare in Northwest Augusta
County, and to tarry with his kindred, and desires to Father where-
upon father knowing him to be a loyal Virginian, and a public man
of Augusta County proper, did grant him full rights to go and come
where he wished, and to obtain any knowledge of the settlers and to
make such reports of the settlements that the officers at Staunton
may have need of at this time. . . .

We made ready to boil the sap from sixty sugar trees. Hardt-
man did make the first sugar of this season on this day, while Wiever
and self did make water troughs to hold the sap. The furnace being
made ready in February we now have two hundred fine sugar trees
which Bowlegs say were large trees when he was a small brave.

March 24, 1773. One foot of snow fell on this date, and a
severe snow storm reached all over the river valley, cold weather
following the spring like weather in February. John Canon abide
with us one week to set all in order to open Corte on April 4th as
the day when the King's and the Colony's laws are set forth in North-
west Augusta County which hence shall be the rightful law west of
the river.

April 4, 1773. This day Corte opened, and John Canon gave
the law to all the settlers present, and set all finds, and punishments
for Bedford County settlers with the same for any Virginia settler
to make friends with the Bedford County people who make attempt
to homestead in Virginia soil.

This day being one to be long remembered, as the first jury Corte
ever convened west of the Mountains. The King and Colony against
one Jacob Clarstow for accepting summons of Witness at Bedford
against Virginia rights west of the river.

Many settlers being at Corte, the names of James Carmichaels,
Richard Wise, James Burson, George Teegarden, Robert Arnold,
David Cox, Robert Russell, James Stackles and James Culver, being
agreeable to Canon and the Corte, as freemen, and loyal Virginia
settlers, did hear Canon's talk of Clarstow's evidence at Bedford,
whereupon the jury did all agree that he was guilty of the crime, and
that he be find L 50, and L 10 Cost, and that his two slaves be sold
to Thomas Hughes, for the sum of all the Cost. This the Corte di-
rected be made and end to, on the next day April 5, 1773.

April 6, 1773. We planted some flax above the trail to Indian
Ridge on this date. Grass along the Catfish Run, above the several
little falls, has made its appearance, and this, Bowlegs declare, is
the first place the green is ever seen in the spring of year, because

44 THE HORN PAPERS

the Great Spirit sets the time for his Children to fish in the waters
of the Run, Camp Cat Fish being on a line between the Rock Cover-
ed high point on the Delaware Indian Trail and Aliquippa's Spring,
is on low land, and well kept from the North winds, and grass is
seldom out of season on both sides of the Run. The high ridge di-
rectly opposite trailing to Tingooqua Creek being all covered with
beech, sugar, Oak and hickory. The storms from the river Country
never strike down on the Block-house, but does make a point of
strong force higher on the ridge trail that divides the waters of No
man's run or Pine Run from the waters of Cat Fish Run. Likewise
the Delaware Indian village site being well protected from the high
lands between No Man's Run and Queen Aliquippa's Camp. Bow-
legs declare Spirit Spring to be the largest of twelve springs of clear
water between Rock Point at the mouth of Cat Fish Run, and the
head waters of the same at low gap on the Delaware Indian Trail
above the high Rock Ridge trail divide to Camp Cat Fish, and the
one to Tingooqua Creek.

May 2, 1773. We planted some Indian Corn on this date. The
season being good for planting and the growing of cropts. John,
and his sons Daniel, and David with John Hardtman and Bowlegs
and One eye, went to Tingooqua Creek below Camp Cat Fish 2. to
catch fish and hunt some game for the Camp.

May 24, 1773. Several Lake Indians are said to be on the River
trail below Teegarden's Fort. Bowlegs set out in the darkness to
assail any wild Indians that may be on this side of the river, no Lake
Indian can escape Bowlegs for he has the wisdom of both his own
race, and the best judgment of the white men. Christopher Gist
stated to father in 1766 that no man had been so great a friend and
spy for him since he first trailed with him in 1737, but that he would
kill an enemy as soon as he would kill a snake, and that he could
trail a human anywhere without fail, but he seldom spoke ten words
at any one time, except, when making some point clear to white
men, but he never failed to listen for hours to white men who talked
much. He would say "Me am Indian, not know much." "Me no
talk," "Talk make white man big trouble." He probably learned
this from Christopher Gist, who never let one friend know that he
had another, or that he often accepted pay from two opposing forces
at the same time, taking no sides with either. He advised Father in
1751, to allow no man to guess at his private business, or give him
a direct anser to any plans that he might have in mind, and this he
lived until his death at Haystack Knob while on the trail from Vir-
ginia to his former plantation in October, 1769. So like Gist Bow-
legs was and is yet a very reserved being.

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 45

August 24, 1774. The Huron and Cayuga Indians being much
in favor of the French and by them advised against the settlers in
the Mohongalo Valley these Indians appeared on the war trail on
the east side of the river killing two settlers near Augustine Dilling-
er's homestead at the mouth of Little French Creek the same being
one Cephas Conwell and Isaac Brown of the river ford and boat
crossing. No settler believed the Lake Indians would trail on the
west side of the river but by the darkness of nite these two score of
Wild savages made their way to Hughes Run to the log house near
Tingooqua Creek where Stephen Ackford set his claim in 1766 to
fourteen Acres of James Carmichaels homestead now claims of
Thomas Hughes, the slave trader, and killed the family and burned
the log house, and were killing the cow, and goats when ten of the
white settlers by the Captain Archer and his man Joel McClure fell
upon them in the open on the right side of the Creek one mile above
Crooked Run, and killed eight Huron, and four Cayuga warriors,
and did skin the Indians and now in way to make powder and ball
dry pouches. When the Indians were skinned their bodies were
burned to dust where the ashes of the Ackfords family of five lay in
the ashes of the log house. Joseph Blackledge killed two Hurons
with a dry drift wood, but was slashed on his arms by the hard iron
tomahawk or forked axe. Much fighting was at hand for a short
period of time, but the wild savages fled to the river at the mouth
of Turky Run where they escaped to the east side. Being the first
Indian fight on Tingooqua Creek below the old Delaware Camp
since in June, 1 768, the settlers are now at work preparing three forts
on Tingooqua Creek for safe quarters for all settlers if the French
set the Indians on a murderous war on the settlers before the malitia
can drive the savage Indians beyond the Ohio.

October 21, 1777. Now that Yohogania County has come to
stay, and Canon's ambition is to become Royal Governor when Gen-
eral Washington has driven the British out of the Colonies, and has
become the First Consul of the Colonies it is the duty of every patri-
ot to lend hTs every~sTiiIling, his every support, his bodily support and
life to drive the British from the American shores, and thereby gain
our freedom, and forever be free from paying taxes for the support
of any government except that which each settler may wish to as-
sume. This, Canon, declares is what Washington promises, and the
only freedom worth fighting for. Canon states that when he be-
comes Military governor of the Monongahela valley region, he
will set a line on the ridge of the Allegheny Mountains for the west-
ern bounds of the Penn claims and that a new state be established
beyond the boundary of the Colonies, and the Colonies, Washington

46 THE HORN PAPERS

nor Virginia shall have ought to say to the settlers and all those
west of the river who remain faithful to the cause of the War, and
to Canon, will become the leaders in the new State of Vandalia.
No man in North-west Augusta has so much force behind him as
John Canon, the patriot friend of the common settlers. Neither
Washington, Lee, or Patrick Henry, have the common interest of
the settlers, that John Canon holds for, neither will any man lend
his support to destroy all Bedford County settlement or Virginia,
or Vandalia soil as readily as John Canon. This is the common
knowledge of every settler inside of the three counties, and it is the
prayer of every righteous person that the Colonies may become free,
and that we may too, become free of them and be our own Lord and
masters.

October 29, 1777. This great explorer hunter and surveyor is
now gone from Northwest Augusta, as well as from all the living
settlers with whom he brought here, but Christopher Gist was as si-
lent in life as he is in death. Father only ten days hence declared
with Gist gone the 7 years have reacted a new order of things that he
declared in 1753 would come to pass if the English laid claim to the
lands west of the boundary in 1761. Christopher Gist deceived no
man but made no man his full sharer of his plans or his thoughts.
He said in 1751, both the English Pound Sterling and the French
gold would pay the same account in Baltimore.

When Gist made his last trail to Snow Creek at the end of June
1769, after which he trailed to Baltimore, he said to father, I will
probably take meat and rest no more with you here at Snow Creek,
but will find you and Canon both at Spirit Spring and will take meat
and rest with you there while we assure both Tingooqua and Bow-
legs the same good thoughts of them are maintained as in 1751.

But Gist did not fore see that was the last trail to fathers above.
With his Indian son he spent the month of August on his mule home-
stead and then trailed to the homestead of the Fraisers and the
Lewis homes spending the sunshine of September 1769 in hunting
the deer and wild Turkee off the wilds on the Fair fax Plantation.
On the 24th of the month he set out from the Lewis homestead for
Mt. Braddock by the northern Virginia trail, reaching Salem Post
on the 27th, and camped by the waters of the Mohongalo at double
horse shoe bend on the last day of the month. Being desirous to
fish, his son passed down the river some miles for two days, Gist was
compelled to await his return^ Being without much of his usual sup-
plies, he ate much of the wild grape, and much of the red plums and
became weak and his mule travel was very disagreeable. /When they
reached Laurel Hill, or Little Haystack Knob, they set in camp on

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 47

the second of October. Being very much disturbed in mind and body
on the third, he addressed his son to make haste to Turkey Foot to
receive Bowlegs presence. He grew more and more weak, and with-
out any clear knowledge of his sons presences, and he did die at the
half hour after 4 O'clock on the 4 day of October, 1769. By his
stated will of mind in 1759, he was buried one thousand feet above
his magazine beneath the shade of the great oak tree, at the foot of
Dunbar's trail to the Slave quarters, at the time of sunset on October
6th 1769. By his own say in June of this same year, 1769, he was
60 years of age, but two centuries in all his knowledge of the fron-
tier life among the French and Indians, as well as the Virginians with
whom he served with strick honesty under all conditions.

Christopher Gist knew the Mohongalo Valley and upper Ohio
River borders more than any other white man in his day, and with
Joshua (Bowlegs) knew every Indian trail from the Sus de La Han-
na to the Ohio before the Old French and Indian War. Being of a
sound mind, and a tall but lithe body, he could travel fast and long
in duration never giving much thought to himself, but much care to
his mules. He feared no man or animal. Sharp in expression of
feature, strong in all his likes, and dislikes. He would kill an enemy
without a minutes warning, but would share his Virginia tobacco
with all his friends.

Bowlegs declare Yist to be the Great Spirits hunter Chief in the
Happy Hunting Ground, where the Delawares shall have the best
of all food animals, and fish for their own, and Yist shall eat in Bow-
legs own tepee.

The Virginians who settled east of the river on Gist French
lands in 1763, are now among the first families west of the river,
and these did offer much praise and many prayers for his souls peace.
Bowlegs did build a fire, cook a fish and place it somewhere on one
of Gist trails to remind him that hei, Bowlegs is still his faithful
friend./ The great Gist is departed from us, and John Canon has"
well said, he was the first and greatest of all Virginians, but was
made a slave instead of a leader, because he like Canon would not
bow to the will of the Crown, and his councillors. Let no man say
nay to the greatness of Christopher Gist as friend to a dying race
of God's free people, the Indians.

November 6, 1777. The Delawares Indians bring their com-
plaints to father, and Declare the English people by their say make
Logan a wild French Indian, full of fury and a warrior, where as
he is a peaceful Indian, a friend to all Virginian people and never
did kill any one, Indian or white man because he was faithful to
William Penns treaty, and of his good treatment of the Delaware

48 THE HORN PAPERS

tribe. Bowlegs declare Cayuga, and Hurons drink French rum
"fire water" and wear red stripes of the French, then kill all the
French say kill. By this same knowledge it is known that Logan did
become the enemy of William Crawford in Bedford in 1772, who
by design set the Virginia Militia against Logan, and declared he
did rob the Militia, and kill two Virginians, where upon the militia
attacked the Delawares and murdered Logans family because they
were Indians.

John Canon declares that Dunmore was a man without a sound
mind to be deceived by Crawford's unholy design to set the Indians
on the Ohio against the Virginia settlers in the Mohongalo Valley.
Enock O'Brine being Logans first friend carried Logan's talk in per-
son to Dunmore, loudly denounces Crawfords set plans of 1774, to
make it known that the militia was a traitorous body to the Virginia
cause, and to all the settlers on these borders.

November 20, 1777. With the war at hand and the great
changes in the Virginia claims and the three Cortes past and gone
and now the Yohogania and Monongalia Counties threatened to be
set into Pennsylvania territory, the settlers have great cause to make
complaint to the colony for redress. John Canon declares the war
will prove favorable to the colonies and that every patriot will be
free to exercise his own rights. This alone brings every settler forth
in some measure to set British claims at an end. No peace of mind or
general welfare can be attained while the Red Coats assail the col-
onies. These boasted invaders do not dare to make their faces ap-
pear among the Virginia settlers of the Mohongalo Valley, but com-
pel us to fight them in their selected fields. Salt and lead ara fast
disappearing, and bringing the settlers to great needs of driving
Britain to terms of settlement. This day is set before us as a very
need of calling on the Lord in common council for his direction and
support.

Yohogania County at this season is toil worn with war in the
field and strife at home, made so by the pacifiers in Westmore land
who direct the Indians to raid the territory west of the river while
the settlers are abroad in the front lines of battle to clear the land
of the British foe.

November 23, 1777. Great Consternation is being felt in Au-
gusta Town over the capture of Marmaduke Van Swerangen by
the Turtle Clan of the Shawanes Indians at or near by the John
Whetzel homestead close by the Delaware Indian trail from Middle
Springs to Du Pratz Island. A number of persons trailed the Indians
to the Ohio River, where the Indians with their captured prisoner
escaped by swimming the river, and made their way to their village

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 49

on the Scioto River. Enoch O'Brine states that he is on friendly
peace terms with these Indians, and will trail to their village to see
if it is true that Marmaduke desires to become a member of their
tribe.

Much snow has fallen this month and the winter appears to be
coming on in all its severity. Many settlers have great hardships,
but comfort to some extent by the side of the fire place in our log
house here at our homestead, "Baltimore" at the close of a long
hard season is a gracious blessing that Jehovah hath given us.

Some Indian trouble has been reported from the settlers on
Little French Creek one David Brown a lad of War age, was found
killed, and scalped near their old ferry landing on the river three
days ago. Much trouble is expected from the Indians in the spring,
and some care must be given to man the forts and hold all the French
Indians from this region.

December 1, 1777. Andrew Heath from his homestead by the
side of the old Fort Queen Elisabeth, appeared at the Block-house
on the 26th to recall the agreement Canon made to Jacob Horn on
June 8th 1774. By same agreement John Connolly should lay no
claims to the land at Fort Queen Elisabeth, nor at any point above
the Forks, but not being set down for his claims below the Forks.
This agreement Canon set against John Connolly on the 8 day of
June 1774 by witness of John Gibson and self.

Be it known that until this time no knowledge of any change in
agreement by Connolly has been declared void by him or his next
friend.

February 1, 1779. The War being continued and the needs be-
ing great, and the supply exhausted on the borders, with lead and
iron in great demand, John Canon as usual with him, made plans
to supply these needs, did come to us to consult with Abel McCul-
lough, John, and self, about forming plans to work the old French
Iron Claims at Teegarden's Point between the Creek, and Indian
Peter's village, and there dig out and smelt the iron ore and make
such material as is needed. He proposes to set a dam across Tin-
gooqua Creek at the second bend of the south branch of Tingooqua
Creek, and raise the surface of the water eleven feet at the dam, and
dig a mill race across half moon bottom and build a forbey to carry
the water on the same level as one foot above the top of the dam,
whereby a twenty four foot fall can be had to power the overshot
waterwheel to run the mill stone, the fan to feed the smelting fur-
nace, and to operate the reducing ram. John Canon being a man of
much money says that he makes the whole into one hundred shares
of L 20 each, and that he will take fifty-five shares, and that nine

50 THE HORN PAPERS

more of us must take five shares each, making in all one hundred
shares — two thousand pounds of Virginia money made in shares to
each man according to his lot signed for, and that Virginia will fur-
nish the money to the whole, with each man made responsible for
his own total amount, at the end of three years. Upon this agreement
a meeting was called at the Indian Council Fire Stone, January 25,
and every point made plain, John Canon and Abel McCullough be-
ing made the officers, with this first business opened west of the
Mountains, was named the McCullough Iron Smelter and War sup-
ply Company. John Canon opened the Book with

Fifty five shares at L20 each L 1100

C. Horn, with 6 shares at L20 each 120

John Horn, with 6 shares at L20 each 120

George Teegarden, 6 shares at L20 each 120

Abel McCullough, 6 shares at L20 each 120

John Heaton, 6 shares at L20 each 120

Richard Yeates, 8 shares at L20 each 160

John Watson, 6 shares at L20 each 120

Jacob Wiever, 6 shares at L20 each 120

Total L 2100

The total of L 2100 being set down and the name of each man with
the name of his homestead and his holdings being signed to the book
with his own hand, it was agreed that John Canon and Abel McCul-
lough should go to Staunton at once and close the business, and re-
turn with the money in hand, and that Canon be made responsible
for all the money, and for all claims to be paid, also that he be made
to manage all public accounts in favor of, and against the Smelter
Company.

The general work of building the dam, digging the mill race,
building the mill, the smelter, the re-heating furnace and the building
of the road to the iron pits and Char pits will begin on the tenth day
of this month. It is agreed that sixty men will be put to labor on this
work. John, and Abel McCullough, with the help of Abiga Hough,
and E. McClain will build the Mill and set the large water wheel
and build the log forbey leading the water from the mill race to the
mill. It is made in agreement that all shall be made ready to fire the
smelter on September 1st of this year, 1779.

On this date John Gibson became a share holder of the Com-
pany. John Canon sold him four shares at L30 each leaving Canon
Fifty one shares.

CHRISTOPHER HDRN'S NOTES 51

February 14, 1779. Much snow fell on this date, and all the
men felled trees for the log dam near the place of the mill race. The
logs for McCullough's Inn are ready for the raising on the bank of
the Creek two days hence.

The Augusta Town, and Razortown gents gave the word that
they with Dave Shepard would bring the whiskey to McCullough
for the big day and the raising, where upon Canon declared this was
no law Court, or training day affair but all must labor hard, or he
would pay no man his four shillings as agreed by all. John paced
the length and width of the mill, and set his mark on all four
corners, 28x44 feet on the ground floor, with two floors above. Bow-
legs with One Eye killed two deer on this date by Gist-Eckerin ford
on Tingooqua Creek, and Emmon Polke killed two deer at Cat Fish
2. at the same time. The deer are in great numbers.

March 10, 1782. This day being set aside as Vandalia Day by
order of Canon and Pentecost, whereby every settler far and near,
did appear at Razortown for the knowledge of the plans set forth
by Canon, and agreed upon by Pentecost, who in all his wisdom
made a long and very strong talk to all the people of the three
counties how Washington was not standing for Canon, but favored
Hoge who in turn was the Westmoreland people's leader, and how
by fraud the Penn leaders sought to steal the territory west of the
Monongahela River for Pennsylvania which has been held by Vir-
ginia for many years, even before the French set their claim upon it,
and now the General Assembly has with Washington withdrawn all
claim to this territory and by the Pending law, Pennsylvania will
claim our homesteads, or people and force us to be loyal to their
Dutch notions. Shall we see, said Pentecost those cowards our mas-
ters, never, never. The line from the river to Turkey Foot must be
destroyed, and so every man who attempts to set it up. A new county
will be set up on this soil soon, but we can overthrow it since we are
Virginian and not Quaker pious hypocrits, and can controll all the
say as to the leaders. What say you all? Where upon the people
gave long and loud consent to the plan to set aside both Colonies,
and set up the new state of Vandalia. With Canon as Military
governor. This being a righteous plan all the settlers including many
Westmoreland people see the way to settle all the old boundry
troubles, and leave both Virginia and Pennsylvania as being two of
the thirteen Colonies whose authority ends on the eastern bounds
of Vandalia. Neither the King or Parliament or the Continental
Congress, said Canon have one word of Authority to direct us, we
are beyond their Claims. We shall fight every attempted force to
deprive us of our rights to set up our own state, free from every

y6 of ill. i

52 THE HORN PAPERS

whim of Washington, and his parliament. Col. John Minor, the
temporary leader said the Baltimore agreement gave Penns the
right to establish the line full five degree, and no one knew just
where that would end, probably to the Ohio, but Pentecost said,
"We, not they, will set the end at the east bank of the Monongahela
River, and make them see we are of the same mind, as when we
furnished the men to fight, and end the two last Wars for the col-
onies." This day has seen the end of the war but not the end of the
Virginia trouble, for Washington County will be in Pennsylvania
but the people in Washington County will be Virginia people or
directly more determined Vandalia people, by their common rights.

April 4, 1782. Indians from the Lakes and the Allgheny
Country are on the War trail east of the river, and some have been
killed in ambush on Blockhouse run where two white men were
killed some days hence. Statlers Fort is a center of Indian attacks.
First the Hurons made war on this Forte then the British did assail
this place where by twenty-one British soldiers and nine of Archers
gards did die by musket balls and from time to time the French-
Indians have made war at the fort and along Little French Creek.
No French-Indians have set their face on Indian Ridge, or at Camp
Cat Fish, or on this side of Sam Jacksons fort but the old trouble
with the French Bozarths on Eckerlin Creek, called White Clay
Creek by them keeps the Lake Indians ever ready to massacre all
the settlers as well as the Bozarths, for the French in Canada seek
to end Colonial rule north of Little French Creek and west of the
river, but the settlers are in full supplies to make war on the Indians,
but small bands hide in the timbered hills and kill lone settlers on
their homesteads. Neither Virginia or Westmoreland make assist-
ance to the settlers for driving out these warriors that ever make
trouble on the borders, but say a treaty only will make peace, leaving
the settlers to band in force at forts and strongholds for their own
safety. Canon declares that he will become the Assembly man from
Washington County, and set up a war at Philadelphia in Penns own
Colony whereby the settlers west of the river shall be set into the
new state, and wage war on the French-Indians, and declare the
settlers their own protectors, free from any laws set by the Colonies
either in war or in peace. This being a just ending to a long bitter
trouble that Virginia started in 1747.

August 16, 1782. This day, we returned on the trail from Up-
per Camp Cat Fish where we trailed to behold the ruin of Augusta
Town, not having seen the place, or on the land since the Hannas-
town Criminals did burn the whole village, the Corte house, gaol,
stocks, and every log house but Richard Yeates planter home, and

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 53

Martin Hough's iron shop and forge. The desolation is so much,
such as to make every Virginia settler want to destroy Hannastown
on the morrow, but Canon declares the time is not ripe for the
destruction of that wicked settlement, nor shall any of his loyal sup-
porters burn Hannastown. He declares that he will commission the
Indians to wipe out that village, and kill the leaders when the war is
over, and they are of no use to us. The very truth is that Canon has
a trade in with Logan and desires to keep us out of this righteous
retribution for some purpose not made known but we all do know
that most all the Penn. settlers are not now, or ever have been more
than a body of long hair, big hatted set of loud talkers for freedom
and peace, while these Virginia frontier settlers did the fighting that
have wiped out the Red Coats wherever the Virginia soldiers fell
upon them. The Virginia malitia has done more to drive the British
into exile, and break down Georges rule than any body of Washing-
ton's recruits yet Canon decrees the time is not ripe to set Virginia
Authority over these Criminals who hath declared they are the
rightful people to hold this old age Virginia soil.

Augusta Town, where Gist, Father and the Frenchmen, with
Tingooqua, Peter Chartier, Bowlegs, the Indian and Wessameking
the Cat fish catcher, set up their camp in July 1751, when the French-
men surveyed, and named Chartier Creek from Peter Chartier who
paced it in measurement, is now all wiped out and all in dead ashes,
and Yeates has made claim to the land, for no man did buy any
homestead, for Yeates did set aside the land for the Village if
Canon would make it the county town for Northwest Augusta
County second to Staunton the County town in Augusta County
proper. This Yeates and Canon and Resin Virgin did in July 1775,
while the Corte was yet at Queen Elisabeth Fort. Augusta Town
being the largest village west of the Mountains at the time it was
burned, but unlike McCullough it has no smelter, but did have
Houghs iron shop and forge, hide and fur House, two Inns, and
two general goods store houses and about sixty log houses beside
the Corte house gaol and two weaving loom houses. Only Richard
Yeates and John Canon homes had an upper story and a stone chim-
ney. They being gents of blue blood did make an ord that all other
houses should be one storey high with a log chimney. We did find
Jack Campbell's house Acey Van Swerangen's house only in part
burned, but it doth appear that these houses had no habitation when
the town was burned on the nite of June 12, the same year. Now that
Augusta Town is no more, Joel Razortown's village will enlarge
but will not be set as the County town.

54 THE HORN PAPERS

Seven years time have gone by since Canon and Yeates deter-
mined to set up their frontier border County town to oppose any
movement at the Forks that John Gibson and William Crawford
was now making, but these were bitter strenuous years for every
settlers on these borders with the Indians never at rest by the French-
men in Canada cause, and George's Red Coats we have had more
fight than the boundary ever gave rise to the troubles that each
settler have endured since the first settlers made their homes east
of the river by Gists trade, before these same Virginia loyalists
came to the Delaware lands on this side of the river in 1766. Augusta
Town by Yeates and Canons plan in 75 was to make it a strong-
hold where by no Penn people could homestead round about but even
in 72 the Bedford settlers did make settlement on White Clay Creek,
all against Canon's Ord sent forth, but not until this same year did
they make bold to set up a homestead near Augusta Town and
Razortown, for since George Wilson has declared that his territory
is north, but not west of the line Westmoreland settlers have a right
to settle in Yohogania County. This being treason by his own state-
ment, and will not appear in person for he doth remember what we
set down in terms on Georges Creek when we burned his Corte
house, but spared his life against Canons orders, only to hear the
Penn People make terms with this native born Virginia traitor.
Canon was wise when he said to John, since you will not hang him,
he like a snake, will bite you for having saved him for one more
Penn Criminal for us to fight in the end.

The Justies who made Augusta Town known from the Corte
house to Williamsburg and Richmond, have lost much of their
desire to aid Canon in his new plans and like Henry, and Lee, set up
Washington as their leader who has joined with Penna people
against Canon, after our every effort and our every shilling had been
given to drive the British from this territory and the end is not at
hand, for the British must be driven from the Colonies before
Canon can make his plans to set his free Colony in our midst, but
no man knoweth the end, for the day of peace and happiness that
we did have at Snow Creek, was ended when we left the old long
log house, where God gave His Blessing and Care to our home. In
time when strife and warfare hath run its course, this Tingooqua,
Country will become a goodly land because it is filled with every one
of natures gifts for the requirement of the settlers habitation.
Augusta Town was hated by every Westmoreland settler, just as
Hannastown was so obnoxious to all the Virginia settlers and in
truth both sides did make it appear that each were more in made
in crime than the other, when in fact only the leaders on both

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 55

sides agitate the border trouble. To obtain some form of titleship
to his homestead is the first thought of every settler from Little
French Creek to Chartier Creek while Canon, Pentecost, and Cox,
say that is second to the driving the Penn Claims back to Gist Rock
on the crest of the Gist Ridge between the two east branches of the
Mohongalo where Canon and Pentecost say that Penns rightful
Claims ends by the survey made by Gist, Eckerlin and Fort in 1745
for the French by claims by Jaques Pointon that no Penn Claim
was set up to territory beyond, before Gist and Eckerlands explored
the land at the Forks in 1737. It is known no Virginian did make
inquiry of the Country around the Forks before Sam and Buck
Eckerland made claim to their rights to trade in furs with the
Indians in the Ohio Valley beyond the mountains in 1731 the same
year that Gist made his first trail to the Susquehanna for the French
Fur Co. by Gist own statement the whole being one of the great
hardships and did get but four Indian loads of fur whereby he
turned to Eckerlins and Peter Chaffer to gain some knowledge of the
lower French and Indian Country on La Belle waters of which
Wa Ha Wag Lo and Oppehmolleh and their Delaware Indian
tribe held claims which the French Claims over set.

Gist stated in 1766, that he and James Riley did explore the
Delaware lands and was at Middle Springs and here at Spirit
Springs in 1736, but it was not until the next year in the month of
June, that he and Buck Eckerland did set up their log fur houses on
Eckerlin Run and farther to the north on Gist Run, the same being
by Consent of the War Chief Wa Ha Wag Lo, in the domains of
the Delawares. It was stated at Augusta Town in April 77 that
Gist had never been to Upper Camp Cat Fish, but he who so made
this claim was not yet born when he first trailed its site, and he set
by this knowledge when he directed Father and Frenchmen by Con-
sent of Tingooqua and Chartier to this same site in July 1751, and
did survey and measure Chartier Creek by paces set by Peter
Chartier. William Crawford made known that Gist never set foot
on the soil in Tingooqua land until 1745 but Gist own statement
at Snow Creek in 1762 did set Crawfords statement at naught, and
by their own say they never made known the name of Gist until the
General Assembly did made a commission to him for the Kings gift
to his Councillors, to explore the land for the Royal Ohio Company
in 1748. Thus do they argue but Canon declare the Penn people
are without knowledge first, and without reason on all things set
up by Virginians. It being only by personal meet and home cares
that we have known Gist from 1745 to his death in 1769 and that
Canon not Crawford is right in his say that Gist while a Virginian

56 THE HORN PAPERS

never held with the Royal set, and when Governor Dinwiddie set
George Washington above Gist, it was one that Gist never over
looked but did on divers occasions save Washington from destruc-
tion in the wilds because of his common knowledge of the frontier
wilds but he never accepted pay from Washington, whom he looked
upon a willful, determined boy grown fond of the wild fame made
known by the fur traders and by his name he held opportunity to
obtain his wishes. Gist being divided between his own disappoint-
ment and Washington rashness but bold and fearless disposition
remained his natural self and looked on without committing hisself
to any Partisian disagreement between Washington and Trent.

There is not a Virginia settler within the boundaries of the three
late counties that has not had some hardships from both the War
and from the hands of the Westmoreland invaders for the past
fourteen years, and it appears that the old days of peace and plenty
have been given over to a new age, when no settler can make his
own homestead and his own rule free from all other border troubles,
but by force, must declare thyself, and force the measures that must
declare where thy feet stand. There is much talk of the new town
which the Hoges have set up on Hoges Knob, and may be the main
town if the Penn people get control of this territory west of the river
but no man knoweth how long the border war will hold on, for
Canon and Pentecost declare it must not abate until the yellow
striped Westmoreland brigands have been pushed back over the
mountains, but the Razortown settlers of the strong belief that if
Virginia make terms with Pennsylvania on the boundary issue, we
will be lost, and left to our own fate, which will be for us more war or
become Penn settlers, which death seems more to our own liking
than either of these measures, because the settlers have lent their
every shilling, and many have become sorely wounded and afflicted
while more than fifty bold and fearless patriots have been killed by
British musket balls, while waste of time in War from our home-
steads and our families no settler can rest until Georges Red Coats
have given up the fight and left the country. Canon declared in open
speech, at Augusta Town, on April 4, 1778 that ten of the border
Virginia riflemen were worth all the long whiskered peace loving
brethren from the Susquehanna to the Ohio in freeing the country
of the foe, and bring the war to a close. It is said that there are some
Bedford and Westmoreland who will fight boldly, but no Virginia
soldier has ever seen one of them do so. The spirit that was set up
against the Iron Act, and the King's Pine Tree Measure 30 years
hence, have made Virginians able to withstand all the British bluster,
such as no Bedford county peace brother could ever hope to do.

AKquippa's Spring Near Christopher Horn's Cabin — Photographed in 1943

to

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 57

Pentecost declare that when the Virginians have finished the fighting
that the Westmoreland people should put their sayings in common
usage, and then all will have a long season of peace. The Augusta
Town Court being set at Razortown for three days in September, 16
17 and 18 to finish the business of some land titles, and claim of L20
for claim by Yeates for Ohio prisoners in his gaol before it was
burned, will give Canon and Pentecost much time to declare them-
selves to the settlers, but Augusta Town is gone, Upper Camp Cat
Fish will never be set up again, only scars mark the site of this first
town west of the Mountains on the hill face at Upper Camp Cat
Fish.

1785. After John Canon took father's Court from Camp Cat
Fish on June 8th, 1774, to Heath log house, on the very next day,
June 9th, 1774, He then, and there, set himself at the head of
Virginia Rule in Old Augusta County, west of the Mountains, and
being well advanced in the law of the Colony and an over power of
influence of his Royal Uncle Dunmore, he determined to break
down every movement of the Penn Ords in his territory and doubt-
ing father's extreme desire to offset the West Moreland people,
siezed the Court, and set it at Queen Elizabeth Fort with himself a
Justie in Chancery, and surrounded himself with Virginia loyalists,
but father lost all faith and hated Canon to his death, wishing daily
he, had remained at Snow Creek. When Canon met with strong op-
position at Heath's by his own friends and Common Justices he
became a fox at bay, but well it was for him, for Richard Yeates
Canons next friend proposed to found a new County Town at Upper
Camp Cat Fish at the old Wessameking spring on the old Hunter
lands, and he quietely joined Yeates and erected first, some log
houses, and his home on this site, and when after a long bitter fight,
about rank, and authority, in North west Augusta Co. lasting some
days, Canon siezed the Court Records and Seal, set out for his home,
in now, the new Augusta Town, at Upper Camp Cat Fish on the
Yeates homestead, and opened the Court in his home on Sept. 19th,
1775 and made Ords to suit his Authority. Now the first Heath
Court continued to dispense Justice until June, 1776 under Old
Augusta County. In October 1775 John Canon, Yeates and Isaac
Cox made agreement with Brother John Horn to build the Augusta
Town Court House, and secured the . . . for John, to build the Pow-
der House and the Patriots Store House for Gen. Washington, and
with the common help of other men, did erect these, between that
time, and May 20th, 1776. The wily Canon, seeing the Colony would
not hold two Courts in this territory of Old Augusta Co. impressed
the Burgess the needs of Creating the District of West Augusta, and

58 THE HORN PAPERS '

having cleared himself of any restraint, from the Royal Governor,
who suddenly took to the hills of Scotland, he became the real leader
for a time, and in November 1775 the General Assembly passed his
Act and created The District of West Augusta with Augusta Town
as the County-Town. The old Heath Court raised the question of
Canon's authority to set up his Court, without Authority from any
source, this was done in May, 1776, after the Augusta Court House
had been made complete and Many Ords passed, so Canon decided
to show his hand, and make a master stroke, so he, took Richard
Yeates, and Isaac Cox, and went to old Ft. Dunmore, now Pitts-
burgh, in June 1776, and placed Isaac Cox on the Justice Bench, and
there, and then, Passed the famous Ords, Making Augusta Town the
County Town that was already done, for the Ords were just as the
Ords of Augusta Town Court of October, 75. and the Court House
already built by Yeates and Canon, now was the County Court By
same Ords, the old Heath Court was finished, as that Court was
a continuation of father's Court, at Camp Cat Fish in 1773, and
1774, for Old Augusta County, and had no authority in the new
District of West Augusta. The Justices were bitterly set back at
Canon's move, but Canon having won his point invited them to
join forces at Augusta Town, and most all did so, until the District
at Washington's demand divided it into the three counties which only
continued the old division, but this is now forever settled by the
continuence of the Boundry Line and the setting of the Post and
now Washington Co. Pennsylvania, not Virginia Courts will settle
all disputes and deal out justice, now . . . forward.

1775. Canon's authority was feared at Hannastown, he said —
"You build another Court House for Penn's interest, and we will
hang every man who labors on it." This was Canon's way. No man
ever admitted he was against Virginia Rule but Canon of all the
Company, would not take their Word but often ordered them whip-
ped to confession, but we grew to believe that Canon was more to be
blamed than were many of the settlers, who cared little which Col-
ony they lived in, but somewhat like old Dunmore, he never let us
forget he was a bl,uebIe^LYirginian_ and was born to rule. The
Court House was burned just North of the Mouth of Dunkard
Creek West of the River on the Dillinger Claims in 1774.

February 6, 1787. Being Clear and frosty I have made with the
help of John and Jacob and John Hardtman, two fields clear of all
trees and Indian bones which we finished burning the log heaps on
this date. In all John, and Jacob say the number of Indians burned
be set at six and one half thousand, since the clearing of Flint Top
field was begun in 81 and four hundred beech and Oak trees were

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 59

cut and burned with them only the Lyn trees were burned to Char.
Bowlegs declares that the Indians being burned make them safe
from all their enemies, and all dead Indians at Flint Top are happy
for they fight no enemy on the Happy Hunting Grounds because
Great Spirit plenty land, plenty game for all Indians. No white man
in Happy Hunting Ground. Evil Spirit make place for white men
only Yist (Gist) and Yacob be in Bowlegs Happy wigwam and the
Great spirit says they make Bowlegs friend and Tingooqua friend
too, and Bowlegs and Yesameking catch many fish and wild turkey
for Yist and Yacob. Bowlegs never say that I. C. Horn or any of us
will ever go to his Happy Hunting Ground. John declares that he
sees plenty of the old fox here since we come to the Blockhouse.
Bowlegs hath made clear many things that father and Gist talked
about at Snow Creek when I was a boy and Bowlegs known only
to Christopher Gist.

Bowlegs declare that Gist never steal, or make Indian furs his
own, with Virginia tobacco, where upon the Indians catchum fish
and wild turkey, and many grapes and blueberries but Bowlegs is
growing old and sits by the Sugar tree above the Spring for long
seasons, say no word to any one, then disappear from us with great
stealth but nobody knows where he goes, or what to see, but no Lake
Indian has ever come to the Blockhouse or to Aliquippa Spring, for
Bowlegs seem to make them much affraid to come onto the North
branch of Tingooqua Creek. He has killed many of them on the
trail, but no word of it is made by him.

Bowlegs great stone pipe is ever silent when on the trail, or
hunting in the timber but his well made Turkey Foot pipe is known
to every Indian and white settler in the County, and next to Long
Tom is the few Indian peace pipes left of the White Rock stone
destroyed in 74 the other being Gist pipe made of the pure white
stone which the Indians set much value thereupon, but the White
stone fade to brown, or blue when used or carried on the person for
a time. This stone is not used in fireplaces, not being good in great
heat like the sand-stone by Fish Pot and Cooked Run. White Rocks
known as robbers den, as murderer cave, was directly on Gist trail
from the river by Wa Ha Wag Lo camp to the old French-Indian
Cave on upper Block-house Run, by which Gist set down as his own
place of rest for self and the Virginia scribe for the Ohio people.
Richard Lewis was the scribe who assisted Christopher Gist, from
1746, until 1753. In 1772, when the Camp Cat Fish boundary was
in question, John Canon sent for this noted scribe to settle some
point of Contention, and to make the map of the Court District,
which he did at Camp Cat Fish in April 1772.

60 THE HORN PAPERS

October 9, 1789. Baltimore Homestead, Washington County
Penn. The death of Bowlegs on last day of the week, two days ago,
makes all of us feel that the old days have gone, and all the new
and great changes are strange to us. Bowlegs being the greatest and
last of the 70 Delaware Indians of the great Delaware tribe that
remained here on Indian Ridge after the destruction of this tribe
here on this ground on September 17th and 18th 1748. Inl772 we
found 64 of these peace Indians at Spirit Spring and at their Sacred
Dance in September of the same year, with Bowlegs, Indian Peter
and One Eye having authority and directing that no one but them-
selves should enter the stockade or lay hands on anything that the
White Chief claimed. Father selecting John Heaton, Abel Mc-
Cullough and Abiga Hough solemnly made their appearance in the
midst of the little band of Indians and presented to Bowlegs 10
pounds of Virginia tobacco and the same of salt, for them and they
each made talk to the Indians by Bowlegs who could talk both
English and Delaware. The Indians were very friendly when father
declared that he was a friend of theirs because they were a great
people, and that he had been a friend of Christopher Gist who gave
them much Virginia Tobacco, salt, and 2 horses at Flint Top in 1747.
He told the Indians that so long as Spirit Spring gave forth water,
they would let the Indians have all they wanted. The Indians by
order of Indian Peter, the Medicine Man who followed Oppahmol-
leh, the Indians danced so rapid and so long that all fell, and appear-
ed without life while these leaders smoked long and hard of the
tobacco, then when they one and all stood up Peter gave each one his
pipe full of tobacco. Some pipes held four times as much black
leaf as others but all were equal happy, while Peter made safe all
the rest to smoke while holding his daily musings with the Great
Spirit and planning a return of great power to the Delaware tribe.
They gave Bowlegs much tobacco, but told him to hide it while dark-
ness was at hand. This pleased Bowlegs who declared they were like
the Great Spirit, know much say little, and for several days Bowlegs
enjoyed his smoke while the Indians gathered certain leaves and
smoked them. This, Bowlegs never failed to remember, and in his
more friendly moments of his last days, would exclaim — "Chief
Yakob heaps smart man. Yist, he heap smart man, Yakob trail with
him. Like Yist, like Yakob." Bowlegs made a stone pipe as the
Delawares usually make them with stack and stem in one peace for
Gist about 1746, which Gist carried, and frequently used when trail-
ing with the Delaware chiefs but lost this pipe at Tingooquas Camp
in 1769 some months before he died at Hay Stack Knoob, and Bow-
legs by the powers of the great Spirit walked on this pipe again three

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 61

years hence, and great joy, with much feeling, he related that he
made this stone pipe for C. Gist from stone he took from the much
noted White Rocks at the Indian Cave near the banks of Tingooqua
Creek above Flat Rock Crossing. Bowlegs gave me this pipe to
lay beside his own, and the Delaware Peace pipe, he made for the
tribe sometime before 1751, saying smoke them when Bowlegs with
Great Spirit, but we who smoke at times, and use an Alder joint pipe,
could never want a stone pipe. John declared the stone pipes, like
Bowlegs, have passed from us, and should be remembered as great,
only in their day, when the Indian, the French, and the English,
each claimed all, far and near, and made war, then again smoked
peace pipes. These pipes are now at rest, since Gist, father, and
now Bowlegs, have all passed to the Great Spirit. With the passing
of Bowlegs, many of the early day trail events will be lost to men for
in this new age, the trails on these borders before the French and
Indian war are now only here, and there remembered.

The Eckerlins, Gist, Riley, Frazier, Chartier, Tingooqua, Wa
Ha Wag Lo, Queen Aliquippa, Snow in Face, Oppaholleh, Indian
Peter and now Bowlegs, all gone from this place, where I made my
home in 76. will like the Camp Cat Fish Corte and Blockhouse soon
pass to other generations and be forgotten by the people who shall
follow after many changes have destroyed the life and ways of
Colony during its brightest days, before the people become clamer-
ous for war, and freedom, but what hath we gained. We drove out
the rule of the King and Parliament, who blustered much, but never
reach us, on these borders, and in their place set up a government
that all Europe will fight to obtain controll of in the years to come.
We lost in our rights to set up the new state of Vandalia. We are
now in the persecuted corner of Penns Colony, we set up in good
faith the first primative iron industry west of the mountains to make
haste in the war, and through McCullough, we reached the strong-
hold of the British, and one by one reduced them to surrender, and
finally to freedom, all for what? Canon is correct in saying what is
the difference in taxes, or where they go, if they are made against
us, and the end is not here for it doth appear that Virginia and
Pennsylvania leaders hath joined hands to reduce the settlers to
slavery, and say what the homesteaders shall plan, and grow and
then tax them for support of those who live in idle manners, and
rule the toilers. This if continued will produce open rebellion in
our very midst, and all wise men will prepare to meet the new
trouble and overcome it by common force. Washington County has
some traitors that have gone over to the Federal cause, but it is
stated that in South Washington County there is not one settler
who now will support Washington and his government except a few

62 THE HORN PAPERS

who are seeking a place in his government and these too are in
harmony with Pennsylvania whose border people are mainly hired
criminals just as they were in 1773-74, when they set up their law
courts on Virginia soil. Such might is not right, but in all truth, the
law of justice has not prevailed since the French and English fought
the Delaware Indian tribe, the only peaceful Indians in America
were destroyed in 1748, to make room for white people who doth
not remember, that as ye sow, so shall ye reap. Strife and disconten-
tion shall follow the people all the days in this valley where only
contentment should exist, because poluted with so much human
blood sacrificed for worldly gain. If the French and Indians com-
mit murder in these borders it is not due to the Delaware, because
hatred between these are stronger than between former and the
English, but the Delaware Indian tribe ceased in 1748 to be a power
of contention and are only a weak tribe of Indians who are often
charged with crimes they never committed while the guilty Indians
escape back to their French protectors.

The first whisky made on Crooked Run in 1767 was made by
Samuel Jackson, Henry Jackson, Enock O'Brine and Jack Archer.
It likewise was the place where the first Virginia water saw and
stone mill set up west of the mountains. By consent of these men
only, did set a dam on Crooked run, above the bend, and digged the
mill race to the turn of the base of the hill and at wheel pit set two
beech hollow logs to carry the water from the race to the 18 feet
water wheel which did power both the saw mill on a 12 feet of log
movement, and the stone which was set to grind the rye and Indian
for the mash. Enock O'Brine declares that all did well but the
Cayuga Indians on the trail became beggars and he did give them
whisky in the fall season of 1768 and they became great beggars,
and Samuel Jackson, the leader did set it down that no Indian
could have the taste of whisky, or be allowed at the mill, and for
a time all was well, but early in March a band of Indians headed
by the Cayuga Chief, Al hi gu me, did come to Crooked Run and
set fire on the mill in the darkness of early day, and did destroy the
mill and the still-house and four casks of good whisky. The burned
parts of the building left standing were still plain evidence last
year, and the dam and mill race are still there the lower part of
the great wheel is in place but no whisky has been made since the
fire.

1795. After John Canon's traiterous dealings with father in
June 74 directing father to have his Court turned over to Heath
by False records from Williamsburgh We never liked to hold con-
versation with him, but was often made to join forces with him until
the War came on, and then most all felt that a change was at hand,

CHRISTOPHER HORN'S NOTES 63

so that Canon in the end was against the town of Washington, would
never make a home there stating in a public speech in Razortown
that Washington was a traitor town, and that he would build him-
self a town, where his word was the law and that Virginia Rights
would not be slandered. His town of Canonsburg is now a small
village, but appears to be well as a new settlement.

No date. Hunter's Court House. Sometime about the first of
May 1769, My Father, Jacob Horn who had been commissioned
in October, 1768, to go to Camp Cat Fish 1 at Spirit Spring to
build the Block House, and Stockade, and there open Court for
that part of Augusta County west of the Monongahela River ex-
tending to the Ohio River and north to supposed boundary line, did
make the trip to Camp Cat Fish 1 and there in Council with Tin-
gooqua, and Five of the Indian leaders who were Confirmed friends
of Christopher Gist notified Jacob Horn that since he and Gist, were
friends and both loyal to Tingooqua, that he must wait sometime,
before making a settlement at Spirit Spring, as the Lake Indians were
going to take the War Traihin June, 1769 and that Tingooqua did
not know if he could council trie war bands, from the Indians Camps
on Tingooqua Creek, and it be best to not build the Block House at
the set time of March, 1769.

At the same time in May 1769, there was some of Penn's
sympathizers ready to make settlement near. The Hunters, Abra-
ham, Joseph, and a Sister known as Martha, was permitted by an
order to take homesteads of about one thousand acres in the Dist
of Wessameking Run which was in violation of Virginia law, and the
Hunters was bid to begone, as no Penn People could hold land where
Tingooqua had assigned to Virginia the soil and the rights thereto
but the same was surveyed late in the same year but so far the Hunt-
ers never entered claim rights to this land, but sold their rights to a
relative, one David Hoge of Shippensburg who after hearing of the
Proclamation Notices posted on the trail that the head and body
would be duly separated of any Cumberland County homesteaders
holding land between the Monongahela River, and the Ohio River,
south to the Mouth of Middle Island Creek so that Dave Hoge
although sheriff, of Cumberland County, Pa. never laid more than
mere claim to the Hunter homesteads until the Virginia rule became
envolved in the War of the whole colonies, and in June 1779, gave
to John Canon, and the Yohogania County Court, full permission
to establish a pestilence Camp for the Indians who, were then hav-
ing a severe season of Small pox and being on the trail the disease
made it mandatory that this Camp should be made, a prison, for a
time. This Camp was established on about 300 Acres of land
surrounding Hoges Springs on the low lands, below, Hunters knob

64 THE HORN PAPERS

and this Indian Camp was maintained until the Virginia Court
ceased to hold Jourisdiction in the District of Yohogania County
Sept. 18th, 1780, When the Razortown Court Ords were declared
no longer Virginia Jourisdiction, and on this very same day, John
Canon made clear, the long supposed trouble, and ending of Abra-
ham Hunter, who twice made plans to burn the Augusta County
Court House, the first time, when only half made, and the second
time, when most of the Records were destroyed in July 1776. It
was found by the Virginia Committee of Loyal Rights, that Abra-
ham Hunter a hired criminal by the Cumberland Westmoreland
authorities to set aside the Court of the District of West Augusta
by violence, against all Royal Authority, that the one Abraham
Hunter should be whipped nine strokes, between the hours of 9 and
12 Oclock in the Public yard at the Court House in Augusta Town,
on the 24th day of July, 1776, thence to be placed in the Gaol to
await further sentence, but sometime, between the hours of 6 Oclock
P.M. on July 24, and 6 O'clock A.M. on July 25th the same Crimi-
nal, Abraham Hunter, was hanged by a loyal party, of unnamed
people, on the great Oak nearby, and thus the Court House, and the
Oak became famous as Hunter's Court House, and Hunter's Oak.
Gist days were ended just as John Canon began to gain control!
of the region that he had trailed over, and over for more than 32
years. Gist and Canon were much alike in their nature make up but
widely different in their ambitions to establish civilization and
settlements in the Monogahela river valley, but if the present one
sided page of misstatements are handed down to the future gener-
ation, neither of these colonial leaders will be known for the great
labors they performed in their day of the strong influence they
wielded in this territory before the old age came to an end. Chris-
topher Gist by his own hand decided the last eleven years of his life,
became by choice an explorer of wider regions than in his former
years, reaching as far west as the land of the Peorias, thence return-
ed by Lakes to the Great Falls, and Huron trail reaching Snow
Creek in October 1764, where he took meat and rest of 2 weeks
before trailing to Baltimore settlement.

John Horn, son of Christopher Horn, and grandson of Judge Jacob
Horn, was born at Snow Creek, Virginia, July 11, 1767. Married first
Catherine Watson in 1791, and in 1839 married Polly Shape. He had seven
sons and three daughters by his first wife, and four daughters and three
sons by his second wife. John Horn lived on the same homestead from 1809
to 1856, that his father homesteaded in 1775, and settled upon in 1776
when this son was nine years of age. John Horn died at his home in West
Bethlehem Township, September 6, 1856. He was buried in the Horn's
cemetery at the Horn's Church in West Bethlehem Township, Washington
County, Pa.

Ill

DIARY OF JOHN HORN THE ELDER

Snow Creek, Virginia, September 1768. I John Horn, eldest
son of Jacob and Duschea Horn was born in June 1743 and married
Sarah Gardner and am a native Virginian, a freeman, and able to
deny the acts of the King and Parliament when the same are directed
against the settlers of the Colony. Be it known by each settler on
Snow Creek that the distress against the settlers has not abated
since the close of the war three years hence but these frontier bor-
ders have never been subdued by the threats of the King and Colony.
It is stated by Gist and Canon that the war will reopen in the East-
ern settlements but they say too the French are not willing by any
chance to renew the war. No one makes much talk of a war because
of Grenvil's acts and tax claims. He is in Britian and we are in the
remote settlement of the Royal Colony and our interests are in these
regions. The old iron law and the pine tree measure are remem-
bered with much hatred and defiance by every settler and so be it
with Grenvil's tax law by our every means of evasion. This I de-
clare the voice of each settler known to us from Snow Creek to
Salem Post. Christopher Gist by his longtime knowledge of the
frontier regions did make it known here on his late trail to his old
home on the Yadkin this same season that no man seeth the end of
these many villinous liberties by his royal hand and seal. The mill
for the first time is set in the Colony's tax law record but so made
by father's own hand by wish of both Gist and John Canon who hath
found it agreeable to gain Dunmore's consent to set father as Justie
in the new Corte in the Delaware Indian lands where they have
long made peace with these same Indians not killed in 1748. McCul-
lough, Wiever and Gibson with Gist and father made their way to
this same camp last season and all do say many Virginians do now
hold their claimed homesteads in the same nearby territory.

December 4th, 1768. By agreement made between father and
mother and James McCullough, the father of Abel, Samuel, John,
Richard William — he is to take lawful controll of the home and
mill for two years at 10 pounds per year and keep of same. Much
talk by many of the settlers of trailing to North West Augusta is
now declared to be their choice, since Gist say it is a rich country.

January 1769. By Colonial decree and will of Dunmore John
Canon says the change to Camp Catfish shall await the Governor's
Ords to trail to there. Being by statement that the Lake Indians are

66 THE HORN PAPERS

planning to make war in Tingooqua's land. By this Ord the home-
life at the mill is now continued to be the same as in past seasons.

March 21, 1769. The plan made by Gist and John Canon on
this day for trailing to Tingooqua's camp on their return from
Williamsburgh early in April was agreed to by father, Wiever and
Abel McCullough. Time of trailing North set to be April 10th
being agreeable to all. The furnice not being in use for two years
hence it was agreed by all present that Frenier be given the right
to mine iron ore and smelt the same. This being the first iron smelt-
ed in Western Virginia, no record being made of it until this same
year, but was set up in 1750 by father, Jacob Yardly and John Lewis
as home needs for the colonists in place of Britian iron as decreed by
the King and Parliament. No royal decree was ever made against
its use. Every colonial man in authority was not adverse . . .

June 16th, 1774. The marking of the end of the Camp Catfish
Corte on the 8th day hence is now known to the South and West
boundry of the corte district. Is known to be for reasons set against
Westmoreland fight to control the territory in the Monongahela
Valley. The Virginia legal corte at Fort Queen Elizabeth makes
Canon and Cox face to face with Bill Crawford's agreed list of
mediators appointed by Dunmore to set bounds to Bedford County
claims for Penn's Colony. It is well that Canon is led by his desire
to set Westmoreland claims at an end, and takes all the fight on him-
self which the Hannastown free-booters charges to John Connolly
but George Wilson has felt the hand of fate and keeps beyond
Canon's reach, while a hireling for the Philadelphia leaders.

June 17th, 1774. Every settler to the South has his eyes set for
the Cayuga Seneca Indians who are known to be in small bands in
the South part of the territory. Bowlegs declare they will not cross
North Tingooqua Creek.

October 21, 1774. By agreement of Canon and Cox, Edward
Ward and the Royal Governor's appointed Justice, be made a part
of the Queene Elizabeth Corte on and after the first of the year
1775. The same to be set for Fort Queene Elizabeth Corte but John
Connolly being a commissioner of Dunmore he is made a part of said
corte on all such matters not made a part of the old Ohio Company
land claims or of Dunmore's rights thereto. Canon declares Connol-
ly's place be at the Forks and not in the Corte district but by common
consent it makes the Westmoreland Corte in a state of defense by the
Governor's plan to set up a strong corte by . . . power of Hanna and
Bill Crawford with George Wilson say will be able to hold Connolly
on complaint set against him. Canon declares the Royal Governor's
plan will overthrow the Northwest Augusta Corte in the end since

DIARY OF JOHN HORN THE ELDER 67

the end of Connolly must be as declared in agreement made with
John Gibson Esq. by Canon on June 8th 1774. By Connolly say he
agrees to be set in trail before Hanna in the month of April next
but by Canon and Cox's say Hanna will be set at naught by the
authority of the Virginia Militia. Then Connolly be forced to re-
sign as being a traitor to Virginia for agreeing to be tried in Hanna's
unlawful Corte set up on Virginia soil against the Royal Governor's
orders that all lands West of the Youiogny is Virginia land as de-
clared by Gist in 1766. By Canon's determination . . . Connolly
along with Hanna ....

October 26,1774. The demand made by Samuel Jackson and
Robert Morris for 30 pounds each for keep at forts of Virginia
Loyal subjects against Indians be directed to Fort Queen Elizabeth
Corte as the rightful corte set up by Canon on June 9th. The Cat-
fish Corte being set therein on the same date and do now make all
Ords and pay all claims set against Northwest Augusta County.
Jacob Wiever desire to make his tomahawk mark to reach from
small run above Spirit Spring to larger run above, called by father
French run, is aggreable to Canon. McCullough's land affixed to the
land next to the Council Stone, called Fish Stone, is set up in claim
by him, and his spring near his log house be separated by a line from
Catfish Run to Tingooqua's home by a margin of ten paces, leaving
the Camp Catfish Corte lands, as the home lands of Jacob Horn, as
stated by the Virginia Commissioner lying between the said claims
of McCullough and Wiever as approved by Canon and Isaac Cox.
Jacob Horn, by agreement, is made the controller of the said Indian
Spirit Spring and of Catfish run from McCullough's spring outlet
up through the falls to McCullough's land, in the trail forty-five
East of North from Blockhouse trail at Catfish run to East Indian
ridge trail. The land on the low divide of land above McCullough's
house being about five acres cleared last year and planted by Hardt-
man Horn to corn, is by consent to be Hardtman's land for four
years. Be it known that all in agreement set in order their names
that the French Lead Plate planted in good faith by the French at
the crossing of the run by the Delaware Indian branch trail is to be
untouched by the hand of man at this late date or by our children's
children.

(signed) Jacob Horn Jacob Wiever Sen.

Abel McCullough John Gibson

John Waston John Heaton Abiga Hough

IV

JOHN HORN'S DAY BOOK— 1782-1818

"Our first fort, called Jacob Horn's Block House (log house
flattened on two sides) was begun about 20th of March, 1772. This
was the first house in North-West Augusta County, four years be-
fore Augusta was divided into West Augusta or District of West
Augusta, and three years before the Post was established North-
West of town, before Washington County was separated from
our old Colony of Virginia.

Jacob Horn's Block-House was 23 feet wide by 34 feet long,
by 11^ feet high with a look-out 10 ft. x 12 ft. square by 8 ft. high
on South-west end of the house with four Port holes on each of
the four sides and a light hole in each of the two ends next to the
roof. The lower part was 7^ ft. high and the top camp room was
four feet at sides, and man high in center. Two windows three
logs high, (about 3^ x 4 ft.) were made in each side of the house, but
none in the farther end. The main end had a big door, (4 ft. wide

7 feet high) and two windows (small ones) in the camp room.

Uncle John and father made the iron hinges and lock bars, and
iron-pins (nails) at Snow Creek two years before grandfather
was ordered to build the new Court house Ord fort on lower Cat
Fish Run, the head waters of Cat-Fish Creek branch of North Ten
Mile Creek this side of the divide, from North-west, Cat Fish Run
where the new settlers their made camp, Augusta Town.

Court was ordered to be held at Jacob Horn's Block House in
Sept. 1773, and Convened on the 6th of September and lasted

8 days, then adjourned to meet the first Monday in June, 1774, and
continued three days, then adjourned. Whereas the Corte was
taken to Heath, thence back to Augusta Town where it remained
until Washington Co. elected the town as the place of holding Court.

Christopher Gist, (whom my father Christopher Horn was
named after) and my grandfather, Jacob Horn, surveyed a tract
around the head of Cat Fish Run and along Tingooqua . . . the same
year I was born, and marked the site for the Block House which
Burgess had ordered and was to be built in 1769. Lake Indians went
on the war path, and the General Assembly withheld the Commission
until 1771, when Jacob Horn was given the Commission to proceed
with the Ords in March, 1772. Being notified of Ords by Gist from
Williamsburgh, Old Tingooqua had a camp near where we built the
Block House, but was friendly and his braves gave us fish from the
Monongahela River.

DIARY OF JOHN HORN THE ELDER 69

Col. William Wallace's Mill was built on another one of Tin-
gooqua's campsites, on North Tenmile Creek Camp Cat Fish 2.

Cat Fish Run, or Hunter's Creek, was the old Indian trail from
West Augusta Town, down the river to Ft. Bird. Now Ft. Browns-
ville crossing the River at Teegarden's Ferry. On Chartier's Creek,
or Gabby's Run, there are the remains of the powder quarters es-
tablished by General Washington in 1775 and near there stood the
Court House of Augusta Town where court was held when we left
the Block House in 1776.

Hardtman Horn planted some Indian Corn, an acre or more,
in 1773, near the run, below the old trail, and that was the first
corn ever grown in Washington County, and Daniel and Dave grew
the first wheat in Washington County on their father's homestead
in 1779, but grew rye in 1777.

Father and Uncle John sent to James River, and each got
twenty apple trees, and planted them. All are doing well, these first
seven trees, above the fence are now, Feb. 11th, 1812, sound, and
bearing good fruit after 32 years. For some years these were the
first apples ever grown in the County.

Dutch Ann Horn died at the old Block House in July 1772, and
my grandmother Dutchie died only a month later, both being
burried 100 paces below the Block House, 20 paces back, and 20
paces above the walled Spirit Spring, the same being almost due
South-west.

1785. Uncle John and Hardtman by mother's wishes planted
flax on the hillside field across from the Mill in 1761 and it was of
good length and was said to be the first flax to be taxed in the
settlement. John, after McCullough's pattern, made Mother the
small wheel to spin this same flax, some of which Gist took to Wil-
liamsburg in 62. John and family have this old wheel in the home
in Armwell Town at this time, but have a larger one they use. Dan
made the new wheel, like unto the one Elizabeth uses.

1809. Uncle John came up to see father, and they talked much
of the old days on Snow Creek, and of Mother and Sister Ann's
last days, and father is not like he was with the shakes, but cast
down in health.

1811. Uncle John Horn with self measured site of Creek for
the Mill at Tingooqua's Middle Camp in March 1791 and in May
did then and there lay the stone for the walls of the mill, but in June
water overtook us. In September water became low, and by October
the walls and roof were made done, and we labored most of the
days until the wheel's burr-stones were set, and about the last of
April we built the great wheel to power the Mill. This wheel turned

70 THE HORN PAPERS

backward by the water from under half, in place of water on over-
head as like one at Snow Creek. John made it so to meet the water
high mark. The mill first worked on May 10th, 1792, and has
made continuous since that time.

1812. Uncle Hardtman's death last month (Jan. 16th, 1811)
left Elizabeth some good wheat to be made up, so Martin tells me.
Elizabeth's health is good but feels alone now, and keeps much in
the home.

1813. Daniel set out for the Lake Boat shop on Era last fall,
and has not yet come home. Daniel is like his grandfather, not
long in the same place but the days we were boys at the Block
House made us many days of exploring the places all new to us.
Daniel will surely push west into the Indian Country.

1817. Tingooqua Creek, the site of, after old Chief Tingooqua
who made father and Chritopher Gist his main host in 1760, at the
same place we put up the Mill up in 1791-92 is not frequently made
mention of now at this late date. Tenmile came to be the same,
shortly after we came to the Block House in 72, but not generally
so until after the close of the War, and Washington Co. and the
Line put us into Penn's Colony. Tingooqua Creek Mill, Cat Fish 2
cut on the big face stone by Uncle John before he set it in the wall,
and is still so named there, but North Ten Mile Creek Mill is now
known to all.

1818. The last family meeting of the three Horn Brothers, and
all the family of each was at John's home in Amwell Township on
Christmas Day in 1807. When in all thirty-five met to see John and
family and eat of the Wild Turkey at his board, after awaiting upon
the Lord in Grace. All made a time of the event, and a great day of
it. Sarrah used the great Pewter plate, that grandmother brought
to Snow Creek in 1736. The snow, made the day one long happy
fireside visit, and old and young have never forgotten the Christmas
at Uncle John Horn's in 1807.

COURT RECORD, APRIL 1772

Camp Cat Fish Corte House built as directed in size and man-
ner as set down by Alexander Block of Williamsburgh and set forth
by the Commissioners September 11, 1768.

By Offis Of Justie
Jacob Horn — Justie In Chancery
John Canon Esq. — The King and Colony's Council and Corte
director for Camp Cat Fish Corte — Spirit Spring.

Book One (1)

By Corte Ord — all Corte records — Corte Ords — Corte esti-
mates— and all records set in Corte books be set forth in English
print — no record be written in Dutch or French writing in said
records by demand of John Canon councilor. C. Horn Clk. (2)

Camp Cat Fish Corte an Block House Stockade as set forth and
now made ready as directed, being — a Block House made of one
half hewn logs 23 feet by 34 and 1 \\ feet high to top of side walls
and man high in centre, with a lookout 10 by 12 feet on Southwest
end — roof of one third run — the lower story being 8 and one part
feet high with a petition running lengthwise in centre — having a
petition crosswise 19 feet from front wall line — two doors and
windows as may be agreed upon — the same being six, each two logs
high, with 12 glass set to each window — the doors having logue bars
and nibs well pinned — the chimney made of logs above the log fire-
place— set by fire stones — the Block House being set round about
by stockade 50 by 70 feet. All being now done this 28th April 1772
as commanded by Rese and Canon. C. Horn Clk. (3)

Camp Cat Fish Corte— April 4th, 1772

Opened by John Canon by and for the King and Colony for
Northwest Augusta County, Colony of Virginia, and for all subjects
herein. All Virginia Ords being made known at this time by John
Canon, the General Assembly the King and Colony's Commissioner,
he now declares Jacob Horn on his oath to take the Camp Cat Fish
Corte — Spirit Spring — and make Ord I known to all ye settlers now
known as Gist Frontier Settlers being loyal to the King and Colony
— and a warning to all Bedford County to be removed from Vir-
ginia soil on penalty of death — if found by the Sheriff after Sep-
tember 1st this same year — the Corte now sets up his own Ords for

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COURT RECORD 73

the Cat Fish Corte and the order of the Ords of the Justie in Chan-
cery, by C. Horn Clk. (4)

Camp Cat Fish Corte Notis of Appointe of Sheriff and Clk. of
said Camp Cat Fish Corte and County — be made from settlers
agreement of any persons set forth by a petition to the Corte on or
before April 10th, 1772, at which time the Corte will set in hearing
of claims for appointment of said sheriff and said Clk. and recorder.
Camp Cat Fish this 24th day of March 1772.

Jacob Horn, Justie (5)

Camp Corte Spirit Spring April 5th, 1772.

The Justie in Chancery by his authority and his first duty did
bring into the Corte all the members of the home and camp, with
the ten Indians now here in camp above the Fish Stone — and made
known all his mandidates and his admonitions and set the days and
hours for the Corte to open and close — with no personal distraction
from the King and Colony's business.

The Corte by Canons Council, made Bowlegs acquainted with
Virginia's Ords and set Bowlegs as his chief of the Camp members
of the Delawares — he by his long trailing with the white men, is
made the Camp Cat Fish Corte advice man of his tribe — and of the
savage Indians. The Corte now set the 10th day next as Corte Day
— by agreement, for the appointment of a Sheriff.

By C. Horn Clk. (6)

Camp Cat Fish called Corte at 7 on the morning April 10th, By
agreement of the settlers one Augustine Dillinger was the polled
elector for approval of the Corte's Sheriff of Northwest Augusta
County — but the said Augustine Dillinger by agreement came into
Corte and did set his objections as ten — why he was not able to make
claims to the settlers petition — and ask the Corte to name another
man as Sheriff — whereupon the Corte set the seal of Sheriff on Dan-
iel Moredock, with the name of John Horn as the assist, for one
year. Being agreed, the Colony tax set for the year 1773, be not
made before the poll set for the same even tener. No tax propor-
tioner or no tax receiver — before the middle of the year 1773.

Complaint being made by two settlers Conrad Sycks and Jere-
miah Glasgow — two loyal Virginia homsteaders living on the two
sides of Eckerlin Creek, now called White Clay Creek, that one
Elizabeth Bozarth, known as Experience Bozarth, the French
Commissioner's widow, did destroy by fire the bridge built across
the aforesaid Creek, because the French in Quebec have conspired
to drive out all the English homesteaders from these frontier bor-
ders. The Corte signed the complaint and set the 4th day of June

74 THE HORN PAPERS

1772 for the trial of Sycks and Glasgow against Elizabeth Bozarth
for race hatred and destruction of property on Virginia soil, in
Northwest Augusta County, Colony of Virginia. The Corte charg-
ed the duly sworn Sheriff to bring the said Elizabeth Bozarth into
the Camp Cat Fish Corte at the hour of eight A.M. June 4th, 1772,
by ye Ord of this Corte without fail. C. Horn Clk.

Jacob Horn — Justie in Chancery (8)

Camp Cat Fish Corte April 11, 1772.
By authority of the General Assembly of the Royal Colony of
Virginia the Camp Cat Fish Corte make known to all ye settlers the
Camp Cat Fish Corte set up as a part of the Corte by — in — and for
— Augusta County — for Northwest Augusta by the Ord of Septem-
ber 1 1th, 1768 by the hand and seal of the Royal Govenor, by John
Canon his nephew and private councilor — I, Jacob Horn duly com-
missioned and sworn as Justie of the said Corte do now this day —
April 11th, 1772, declare the acts of the Genearal Assembly to be
now and henceforth the same in and for this territory — now there-
fore I, Jacob Horn, make Corte Ord I — to be in full power on and
after June 1st, 1772. (9)

Ord I — Be it known that the Cat Fish Corte do make Ord I this
day, for the first day of June 1772 to all settlers within Northwest
Augusta County that all laws decreed by the King and Colony are
set down in Ord I by Ord of the Commissioners at Williamsburgh
C. Horn Clk. and Recorder Jacob Horn Justie

Ord I made to Sheriff on this 25th day of April 1772.

C. Horn Clk.
The sheriff made full returns of his post notice on April 20th.

C.Horn Clk. (10)

April 21st, 1772 — Camp Cat Fish Corte opened at 7 A.M. to
hear complaint of James Mclntyre against Nate O'Brine for keep-
ing his milk goats in stockade for three days and claiming the goats
as wild animals, feeding along Tingooqua Creek. The Corte made
the said Nate deliver the goats to his neighbor within two hours — or
the Corte would make Ord to the Sheriff to lay 12 lashes on the
said Nate O'Brine at 4 P.M. this day. The Corte set the cost at two
shillings to be paid the next day without fail — on penalty of twenty
lashes. The sheriff being at Staunton, by Ord of the Corte the assist.
John Horn, made the returns to the Corte on the 22nd, that the
goats was in peaceful possession of James Mclntyre and the two
shillings was in the possession of the Clk. of the Corte.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie (11)

Dismissed April 22nd at 10 A.M.

COURT RECORD 75

Camp Cat Fish Corte May 1st, 1772.

By authority and demand of John Canon the Camp Cat Fish
Corte now makes the decree that no Bedford County people are by
any agreement made after this date — be allowed to homestead any
land West of the Mohongalo River, from the Lakes to the Green-
brier, on pain of being executed, quartered and burned. Any Vir-
ginia settler giving assistance or comfort to any Bedford County
settler will be made to pay the same full penalty of the law now set
down by Canon in the Mohongalo Valley West of said River. Not-
ice of warning will be posted in each settlement by Daniel Moredock
Sen. Sheriff, by Ord of the Corte.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

Sheriff return to be made in ten days. (12)

Camp Cat Fish Corte held May 10th, 1772. By Ord six of the
corte the sheriff is now directed to collect the sum of five pounds
from George Teegarden at Teegarden Ferry — on the Mohongalo
River — in the name of the Royal Colony — as made in agreement on
June 1st, 1767 — the sheriff now makes his returns to the Corte and
same is accepted by the Corte — and Ord made to place the same in
the Corte record book II — pages 22-23.

By complaint made by Samuel Jackson for redress in loss by fire
set by the Indians and destruction of his whisky house and water
saw mill — built on Crooked Run — by Iron Point in 1767 and
burned in February 1769, the Corte called Bowlegs and made much
inquiry — who and why — the Indians did burn Jacksons home Bow-
legs declare. The Delawares did not set the fire. It was some
Cayuga Indians who Jackson at first gave whiskey for furs. Then
denied them whiskey when they had no more furs for him. ( 13 )

The Corte having no authority over the Cayuga Tribe of In-
dians now dismiss the complaint but set the cost of 10 shillings on the
Colony, by reasonable conclusion of Samuel Jackson loss and his
service rendered to the settlers in Tingooqua Creek Valley, and at
Fort Morris. The Court now set the term of the next court to open
on June 4th as set for trial of Elizabeth Bozarth. Having no furth-
er business of the King or Colony — before the court — the Court
now adjourns at 4 P.M. May 11, 1772.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie ( 14)

Camp Cat Fish Corte cases entere for redress at June term of
Corte 1772.

I Conrad Sycks and Jeremiah Glasgow against Bozarth.

II Thomas Huges against Robert Morris. Cost of two slaves.

76 THE HORN PAPERS

III Sale claim to be made in a witness contract by and between

Conrad Sycks and one "Parson" John Corbley.

IV Petition for a road from the Delaware Fire Council Stone to
Teegarden's Ferry — By George and David Teegarden.

V Claims against George Brown for ferry rights.

VI Claims against the Colony of Virginia — By Thomas and Nate
Gist — William Harrod — George Wilson and John Ackford. (Dis-
missed by Ord of John Canon, June 4, 1772.)

C. Horn Clk. and recorder (15)

Camp Cat Fish Cort opened at 7 A.M. June 4, 1772 as set down
in agreement with John Canon — the Corte and County Council,
many witnesses being present to make testimony. The Cort set
each hearing for its own two hours of hearing as Canon demanded.
Hearing I — Having been set by agreement for June 4, the Cort
called the complainants to make known all the facts in the cause of
complaint which in no way did prove the charge made against the
said Elizabeth Bozarth. For want of testimony on the part of the
complainants that she caused the destruction of the bridge — in
person — or by any authority given to any person — the Corte
— on the plea of the Council did dismiss the charge of com-
plaint and made the Ord that the said complainants pay charges
of five pounds ten shillings on this day or seven pounds on the 5th
day next. Complaint dismissed.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie (16)

The complainant by choice pays one pound ten shillings in
French gold and is made settled in full.

John Canon, Council C. Horn Clk.

Book III Contains all testimony. (17)

Complainant II

The agreement by and between Thomas Hughes and Robert
Morris two lawful slave traders being in disagreement of two slaves
do now agree to pay each his ten shillings and be dismissed.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

Received twenty shillings from Thomas Hughes this 4th day of
June 1772. (18)

No. Ill Peace Agreement. An agreement made by Conrad
Sycks and one Parson John Corbley on April 10th, 1770, the said
Conrad Sycks did trade his tomahawked rights to his 274 acres of
land on the North Shore of White Clay Creek — with all his rights —
his good will and peace of life to the said John Corbley for the
sum of 36 pounds — and six live goats. All his own free property
from Staunton, Colony of Virginia. The said parties ask con-

COURT RECORD 77

firmation of this agreement by the Camp Cat Fish Corte. The
Corte made each state under oath their agreement and on payment
of 10 shillings made Ord that this first land title made by Ord of this
Corte be set in the Cort records — payment being made this 4th day
of June, 1772. The same is set down in Book III.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

J. Canon, Council (19)

IV Road Petition by George Teegarden. No Ord being made
on this day the petition of Teegarden — Hupp and John Gibson
being on record — the Corte set the 4th day of September 1772 as
the day of hearing and directs the Sheriff to direct the petitioners to
make a chart of trail between Tingooqua Creek and Base of Hill
from Teegarden's Ferry — to Teegarden's Point — at the Delaware's
Council Stone — and place the same in the hand of the clerk on or be-
fore the 20th day of August 1772.

C. Horn Clk. June 4, 1772 (20)

Camp Cat Fish Corte — Colony Against George Brown — Brown
Brown's Ferry.

In agreement made between the Colony of Virginia and George
Brown at the request of Christopher Gist, on the 9th day of
March 1762, George Brown did agree to build and maintain a ferry
— of one boat of 44 x 12 feet — for passage on Gist French Trail,
and pay Virginia a tax of five pounds each year. No tax being paid
after 1766, the Corte being directed to make claims and receive 30
pounds sterling in the name of the Colony, the Sheriff being directed
to claim the same on or before this date, or bring the one George
Brown into Corte at his peril. The said Daniel Moredock, Sheriff,
by reason of the need of the ferry received 17 pounds in gold and
a Virginia warrant for 13 pounds. Being settled in full the com-
mandment is now dismissed.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie (21)

Camp Cat Fish Corte called in open session at 7 A.M. the sev-
eral requests made known and review by the Corte and Council —
and all other Corte business having been ended. The Camp Cat
Fish Corte ended the first session and adjourned at 12 A.M. June
5th, 1772.

C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie ( 22 )

Camp Cat Fish Corte Spirit Spring, June 24, 1772. By his own
request — for reasons set forth — Daniel Moredock Sen. now makes
his plea for his withdrawal as sheriff of North West Augusta County
and the Corte Executioner. He makes the statement that he with
four settlers beyond Tingooqua South Creek and his brother on the

78 THE HORN PAPERS

Grenbrier River, have desire to make Fort and settlement 25 miles
south of the Falls in the Ohio River. On this fact, being made
known, the Corte do now agree to take the name of the said Daniel
Moredock from the Corte record, as sheriff, without malace ( ?) or
demerit left from said Corte record. Being an able sheriff — a well
known settler — and versed in all Gist settlers — makes known his
recommend to the Corte — that his assist. — John Horn — be set in
as sheriff of the Corte and North West Augusta County — by the
Corte on this same day. The Corte not being advised by the Council-
or of the Virginia Acts of Law do await until the 28th of this
same month to make choice of sheriff and a tax apportioner — as
made known by the Royal Governor by John Canon in person.
C. Horn, Clk. and recorder— June 24th, 1772. (25)

(26)

Camp Cat Fish Corte June 28. By agreement made on June
24th the appointment of sheriff and a tax apportioner of house
possessions — be made on this day of June 28th. Twenty settlers
present. Daniel Moredock now sets forth his plans and names
John Horn to be sheriff — and C. Horn tax apportioner, and asks
for the approval of all settlers. All settlers present say ay — ay — ay.
John Canon council for Corte and County declare the Corte have the
courts rights to name John Horn the Legal Sheriff for such time
as may be made known to the Colony. But by agreement no settlers
household tax be made returnable before June 1, and not later than
September 1, 1773. No tax apportioner be made named in person
on this date. John Horn being duly appointed sheriff and sworn to
carry all Ords in the name of the King and the Colony — to their
end — now declare his full intentions to maintain Virginia Law and
Virginia Rights on Virginia soil.

John Canon now declared the Camp Cat Fish Corte to be set
in the record in like manner. Camp Cat Fish Cort Spirit Spring
Northwest Augusta — Colony of Virginia. (27)

Jacob Horn, Justie in Chancery

John Canon, Esq. King and Colony Councilor

John Horn, Sheriff

C. Horn, Clk. and Recorder

James Carmichaels

George Teegarden

Daniel Ryerson

County Committee

C. Horn, Clk. and Recorder ( 28 )

COURT RECORD

79

Names Of Settlers Recorded At Camp Cat Fish Cort in June 1772

Richard Wise
John Carr
John Canon
Daniel Moredock
Morgan Morgan
David Morgan
Ellis Bailey
George Moredock
Conrad Sycks
Jack Morris
Enos Rosebery
Georg Ackford
John Corbley
Conrad Sycks
Augustine Dillinger
Jacob Clarstow
William Harod
Daniel Moredock Jr
Georg Brown

Samiel Bozarth
Jacob Dyce
Simon Moore
Georg Ely
John Hargus
Enoch Day
James Burson
Isaac Cox
James Rush
Edward Doughty
Jacob Casteel
Georg Haver
Edward Scott
John Frazier
Thomas Gist
Nate Gist
Jeremiah Glasgow
Jacob Clarstow
Elizabeth Bozarth

Thomas Huges
John Gibson
William Crawford
John Minor
Samuel Jackson
Georg Teegarden
Georg Hupp
Michael Cresap
Georg Chrogan
George Newland
Edward Ward
Joseph Morris
Enoch O'Brine
Michael Jones
Jackson Henderson
George Campbell
James Carmichaels
Daniel Ryerson
John Heaton
George Hill

The said George Teegarden
James Carmichaels
Daniel Ryerson

County Committee (23) (24)

Camp Cat Fish Corte Ord Proposed Out of Cort by John Canon.

Be it set down in the Corte Records for Northwest Augusta
County Colony of Virginia, that the site of and plan of Camp Cat
Fish Cort Block House, on Cat Fish Run, set up by the recommend
of Christopher Gist and Patrick Henry be made a Cort Ord — and
the same entered in Cort record book I — for Camp Cat Fish Corte
— for all claims of Bedford County to this territory are illegal and
treason, to the King and Colony — therefore — the first Corte west
of Penns rightful claims and of Augusta County Proper be described
and recorded in full claims to all rights and Ords made in this terri-
tory after April 1, 1772. (29)

The Jacob Horn Block Corte House planned by Alexander Block
of Williamsburgh, in August 1765 for the commissioners of Augusta
by John Canon — was first made by Ord of Council to be erected in
April 1769 — but by second Ord it was directed to be set up in April
1772 — and by the same Ord it was finished on April 28, 1772. After

80 THE HORN PAPERS

two sessions of Cort was held at the Delaware Fish Stone, but on
April 20th at the hour of noon all the plans being finished — all the
ten men bowed their heads in righteous submission to God while
John Watson gave all the souls into His keeping and declared this
earthly house a part of His law and commandment, and bid all per-
sons to enter therein thus by this saying of Canon — In the name of
King and Colony I now declare the Camp Cat Fish Corte House open
to all public business. C. Horn Ok.

June 30, 1772 — By Ord made for the opening of Camp Cat Fish
Cort House on April 20, 1772. C. Horn Clk. (30)

Plan of Camp Cat Fish Corte House. The Camp Cat Fish
Block Corte House shall be builded of logs hewn on two sides, 23
feet wide, 34 feet long and 14 feet high, with one-third run roof.
With lookout 10 by 12 feet and 8 feet high on southwest end. Face
to trail to Aliquippa Spring — Flintop Hill. The lower story shall
be 7 feet high, the upper story shall be 4£ feet high on wall line and
man high in centre. The lower story shall be petitioned into four
parts. By petition lengthwise in centre and cross petition 19 feet
from outside front wall. One outside door, 3x7 feet, for corte room
door. One outside door, 3x7 feet on rear side door to Spring Path.
Windows two logs high and same in width — 7 in all. The lookout
shall have four parts in each one of 4 sides. The chimney shall
be 8 feet firebed and 4 feet by same above fire wall. Same to be of
logs, one log high above ridge of roof — set in clay mix. The Block
House to be set round about with stockade 50 by 70 feet and 7 feet
high — with one gate well pinned and lock bars. Doors to have iron
bar hinge swing and lock bar stay with latch strap.

C. Horn Recorder (31)

Camp Cat Fish Corte Homestead by agreement is set off in 8
acres more or less — no bound being set to the site. Spirit Spring
at foot of right side bank of Cat Fish run being a low spring — and
all year spring — the strongest of 12 springs on margin of Cat Fish
Run. Cat Fish main run from its waters at Rock Point — with No
Man Run — makes to the right — makes many changes up its pathway
to the little stone falls in its course to Spirit Spring. Footpath 30
paces below Spirit Spring at end of spring outrun. The footpath trail
to crest of opposite ridge being the main trail 45 north of east to trail
to Tingooqua Creek at Gist Creek Ford. Bowlegs Fish Hole below
the little falls — 3 in all — being 70 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10
deep, was the way to Cat Fish Cache — by name set up by Gist —
Horn and Frenchmen in 1751 — Pine Run, and No Man Run, being

COURT RECORD 81

more of mill stream power, did not hold Indian tradition like Cat

Fish Run, or Aliquippa Run — by Indian Ridge.

C. Horn, Recorder— July 4, 1772 (32)

Camp Cat Fish Corte Petitions. Be it known by all ye settlers
that Robert Morris, in the name of Joseph Morris, of Staun-
ton, do now make known the need of a wheel road from Ft. Morris
to Flat Rock Ford of Tingooqua Creek, below White Rock Cavern
— to Gist River Trail — and the well worn wheel trail from Little
French Creek to Camp Cat Fish. Thereby make one wheel road
from Ft. Morris to Ft. Vanmetre and river direct by Indian Crown
Point and Thomas Hughes Tan Hide House, at the Pines. To
Harrods Fur and Salt House on Gist River Trail to trail divide of
Trail I to Teegarden and Trail II — to Gist River Ford below
mouth of Carmichael's and Moredock's Creek in Mohongalo River
waters. This same petition declares slaves of Joseph Morris — 10
by name — the same number of slaves of Richard Hickman — 20
by Thomas Hughes — and 6 slaves by Harrod — shall labor one
month — September — to layout and road in order for wheel carts
and 4-wheel wagons of Virginia make. If the Camp Cat Fish Corte
makes Ord of same and appoint one layman to direct all plans and
all labor, and 3 slave lashers, and make full payment of 2 shillings
each for each full day — set down in record. Now I, Jacob Horn,
make known that on September 4 next a hearing of all Ye settlers
on Tingooqua's South Creek to the river, will be heard in the Corte
of Claims, for and against, the petition — as set forth by Ye Vir-
ginia Settlers. Take Ye heed of day — September 4 and hour of
8 A.M. for public hearing.
C. Horn Ok. Jacob Horn, Justie (33)

(34)

Camp Cat Fish Corte House July 12, 1772. The Royal Gover-
nor, Lord Dunmore at Camp Cat Fish Corte House, July 9th and
10th, 1772. John Canon arrived on the 7th to advise the Corte and
family that the Royal Governor was on the James River Trail
bound for the Gist Homestead and the Forts. Do desire to take
rest and meat at Camp Cat Fish. Canon, by desire, name John
Gibson, Abel McCullough, to meet with him the Royal Governor
and 10 horsemen at Turkee Foot Rock — and trail to Fort Morris
for noon camp. Then to Camp Cat Fish. Bowlegs being the front
guide — by honor of Canon. His Royal Majesty, the Governor,
addressed the Corte and 45 settlers at the Fish Stone on the next
day, July 10, at 9 A.M. He do make Ord that a poll be made in
one year of all settlers in the bounds of the Corte authority — by

82 THE HORN PAPERS

act of General Assembly. By sick of sister for one week, the Royal
Governor declared no Corte be set in long session until all was well
at Camp Cat Fish. A feast being set before the whole party by the
camp men, did make free on every hand and at one — the same day —
all, by Thomas Gist's right hand of honor, did set out for his home-
stead at Mt. Braddox — by Teegarden's Ferry. The Royal Gov-
ernor in some ways being a very common place man, being of Scotch
type in looks, but a real Virginian in all other things. He declared
neither the King or the British Parliament could find their Cat Fish
subjects — for any reason — not common to all Virginians. He bid
us all a kind farwell and made his mount and with Bowlegs long
and strong Indian friend-like shout of peace, they made their way
to the trail to Camp Cat Fish II — and the Delaware Council Ground
— to Teegarden Ferry by Ord made by Canon — this same day — the
day and date be set down in this Corte record book I.
C. Horn, Clk. and Recorder— This 10th day of July 1772.

(35) (36) (37)

Camp Cat Fish Corte, July 15, 1772. By direct Ord of Director,
the Camp Cat Fish Corte is now declared closed — to be opened on
September 4 to make road Ord as answer to petition set forth on
September 4 by George Teegarden and Hupp and — for same — of
petition by Robert Morris, Esq. of Ft. Morris for road to river. For
complaint of Virginia settlers by right of their claims against Bed-
ford County claimants on Virginia lands and for — proclaim of act of
General Assembly — to make poll of all not taxed Virginia settlers
after June 1, 1773 as set forth by the Royal Governor and directed
by John Canon, Esq. — Councilor for Camp Cat Fish Corte.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie (38)

September 4, 1772. Camp Cat Fish Corte Notice. To all Ye
settlers in North West Augusta County, west of Mohongalo River,
take Ye heed — by act of the commissioners of June 5, 1772 and
made mandatory by the Royal Governor on July 10 of this year —
that the Corte make full notice to all Ye Virginia Settlers — that a
poll of each and all — with year of settled homestead — and that a
common tax made by tax apportioner and to be paid to poll men, set
up by the Corte, this act be declared for the year 1773 between June
1 and September 1. All settlers in this territory to make true record
of the year and Colony from which they be from, on day and year
made known, to poll men, no tax for any settler to be less than one
shilling, or more than 20 shillings for each homesteader for the year
1773. Take Ye heed.
C.Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie (40)

COURT RECORD 83

Camp Cat Fish Corte Estimates For First Part Of Year 1772

Building Of Block House By All Assist. L XV— X

Books I, II, III, IV and gavil X— O

Acts Of Virginia Assembly XI — X

Likeness Of King V— O

Likeness Of Royal Governor II — X

Sheriff Ringlets and Seal Of King I — X

Fill Box and Measure I — X

One Pair Stelyards — England I — X

Finale L XLIX— O

For Jacob Horn Justie XX — X

For John Canon Council XX — O

For Daniel Moredock Sheriff XX — O

For C. Horn Clk. XV Days I— X

For II Witnes For King O — X

Finale L CXI— X Agnst

By Virginia Warrents XLV — O For

By Sheriff Returns XX— O For

By C. Horn Clk Returns X— X For

By Advice To Slave Traders V — O For

By Teegarden Ferry Tax V — O For

L LXXXVI— O
Grand Finale Bal. L XXV— X Agnst
I, C. Horn, Corte Clk. of Camp Cat Fish Corte Make Oath To
The Sheriff True Estimates As Set Forth By Me This XV Day Of
July 1772

C.Horn Clk. (39)

Camp Cat Fish Corte Spirit Spring, September 4, 1772. By
agreement made and set down in Corte record Book I on June 4th,
the hearings set down by common agreement for this day, be now
made in full and Ord made of each finding of the Corte. George
Teegarden — John Gibson — George Hupp — Bernard and IV set-
tlers from Red Stone Territory, set forth their claims and needs
and do agree to lay out said road and labor on it for one month, the
Corte to make Ord that the sheriff notify all settlers that the be-
ginning of labor be set for 6 A.M., September 10, without fail —
each settler to use his axe and earth tools. The Corte to set in record
that no tax be made for use of this road by the petitioners, their
heirs, or by Virginia Colony, forever. The Corte now declares that
the need of roads be the first need of all the settlers in Northwest
Augusta County, and do now make Ord that the petition be set

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Facsimile of Court Estimate for First Part of Year 1772

COURT RECORD 85

down as asked for, and that the sheriff shall make known to all set-
tlers that each and all settlers, from Tingooqua south branch, at
Crooked Run, to Red Stone, be made by Ord to labor on said road
for 15 days — each — on the call of George Teegarden, on days set
down by him — any settler not heeding the said call — shall be given
10 lashes by the sheriff — for each day not at labor — the petitioners
being charged to keep in meat and rest all settler at labor on Coun-
try road — the said Teegarden, Gibson, and Hupp, to be made by
Ord — the open of road a fact — and valid — on penalty of 50 pounds
of sterling. By sworn agreement of all — this Ord be made known
as Road Ord I, and so recorded in record Book I this 4th day of
September 1772.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

By agreement and time set on the 6th day of July as the time
of road petition day being September 4th, for hearing of Robert
Morris as principal, in road petition from his Fort — by Gist Trail
— at Flat Rock crossing of Tingooqua Creek — at or near White
Rock Indian and French Cavern, thence by Gist River Trail by
Indian Crown Point to Wa Hawag Lo Camp site — now the Pines
at Thomas Hughes, the slave dealer, Hide and Tan House. To
Harrod Fur and Salt House on Gist River Trail to his river ford —
below Wild Cat Den — at mouth of Carmichael's Run — the said
Robert Morris now being in Corte and 24 man settlers — all home-
steaders— as seconds. The Corte now set in all the hearings of claims
set forth in said petition by all settlers — by common agreement of
all — Thomas Hughes be settlers Council and did set forth much
long time known facts of the French and Indian Trails as made first
by the Shennoah Indian Tribe on now Tingooqua Creek long back
in 1648 — 100 years before the Delaware Tribe their followers met
with destruction at the site and on Indian Ridge on the 17th and
18th days of September 1748. He declares that he do now hold
by Tomahawk claim the Indian Village of Chief Wa Hawag Lo
and a loyal Virginian — a slave dealer — Esq. of first standing at
Williamsburg and one of Christopher Gist's first 63 settlers on the
east shore of the river before William Crawford the elder con-
spired to make Penns claims reach the river. By which of reason of
fact Gist advised in January 1766 all Virginia settlers — all your
Justie now beholds — did set the river between us and Crawford's
band of Penns hired Dutch tresspasser ( ?) and today I now declare
that being a settled land — a land of first order in any Colony — I ask
your voice and hand to lend your right to make Ord as petitioned for
by fellow settlers of Northwest Augusta County so be it I prey —

86 THE HORN PAPERS

the Corte being in mind of making end to all talk out of petition,
called each settler for his Aye or Nay, and all say Aye. The Corte
now set Ord one before the said Robert Morris and declared that
the same Ord made for George Teegarden, John Gibson and George
Hupp be common to all in road petitions in view of each slave
owner to make this road by slave labor it now becomes my duty — in
heeding and set in Ord the record — the full request of said petition —
that the Corte make Robert Morris and Thomas Hughes each in
bond of 50 pounds sterling to open said road as preyed for — and
now made mandatory. The Corte now make the name of Jack
Morris, Abraham Hickman, and Elias Estel, the slave labor laymen,
and each of which to be paid 6 shillings for each day from sun to sun,
to be paid in two parts — one part by Northwest Augusta County
and one part of settlers tax on road for one year — after which said
road be open to all Virginia settlers for wheeled wagons, mules and
ox carts — by Ord of Camp Cat Fish Corte this 4th day of September
1772.
C. Horn Clk. and Recorder Jacob Horn, Justie

Camp Cat Fish Corte. Complaint made by Edward Scott and
ten settlers of Upper Tingooqua Creek and Eckerlin Run against
one Jacob Zeller and four sons as being Bedford County settlers on
Virginia soil and being obnoxious to said complainant. The Corte
being of desire to hold this Virginia territory as made in agreement
with Gist and Canon in 1767 — that no Penn settlers be allowed to
make Tomahawk claims on Virginia lands — did set Ord on Septem-
ber 2nd — the sheriff bring the Zeller family into Corte on this day,
September 4th, 1772, and make clear to the Corte and County their
land of birth, and to which Colony they be loyal, by claims of settled
homestead. Jacob Zeller declare he being born in Zurich, Switzer-
land, in 1696, come by sailboat to Philadelphia, and to Chester
thence to Shippensburg and to Northwest Augusta County in spring
of last year 1771 — know not one Colony — from other Colony. They
each and all do agree to be loyal Virginia settlers if the Corte set
down his Ord for Virginia — in their prayer book — no Ord being
made for this — the Corte by the statement of the sons, Leonard,
George, Christian, and Jacob Zeller — they did not claim to be Penn
settlers on Virginia land by Crawford or Hanna's desire — to hold
this territory as one part of Penn claims. The Corte do find no ob-
noxious claim made by Zellers, now declare Edward Scott — com-
plaint set by — and make clear all the Ords of Virginia Rights — and
same being made to them — the Zeller name being changed to Sellers
— by Ord of the Corte and made by oath and so made in this Corte

COURT RECORD 87

record by Ord of Camp Cat Fish Corte this 4th day of September

1772.

C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

Camp Cat Fish Corte, September 5, 1772. On complaint of
Saml. Jackson that George Hupp be tight and very obnoxious at
Teegarden's Ferry — and charged with throwing his Indian wife in
the river — the Corte make ord that the sheriff — with Saml. Jackson
— and John Teegarden — each lay seven lashes on the said George
Hupp, between the hour of ten and twelve, this day, and the same
to be made witness to by any two settlers at the Forte. The Corte
do now ord all cost and tax money be set in Corte record Book I and
III, same to be made to John Canon, Councilor and Corte Director.
No set business before the Corte, I, Jacob Horn, do now close the
Corte as directed.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

Book II contains all testimony of Corte hearing and councilors
for and Against matters set in the name of King and Colony.

Book III is one part of Book I — with sheriff returns made to
Corte set therein in part.

C. Horn Clk.

Camp Cat Fish Corte, April 10, 1773. By reason of no agree-
ment between John Canon, Councilor, at Dunmore Fort, and John
Connolly, Councilor, and Virginia Commissioner of the same Fort
— John Canon now declare the said Camp Cat Fish Corte be
set by decree for April 29, 1773, at the hour of seven, and
to direct the sheriff to bring George Wilson into Corte at same hour
— for charges of giving aid and advice to Bedford County Corte
Justie. The same by reason of the act as charged, be treason, and
crime of first degree, and death by hang. Canon declare persons of
evil mind — by design — make George Wilson a felon — but he in
Corte — be by his own statement — to council — be declared aye — or
nay — by the justie in chancery — now therefore, I, Jacob Horn,
Justie in Chancery, do make ord and decree of same — that the said
George Wilson, a Virginian man by birth — and of known loyalty to
King and Colony — be made free to make clear his aye — or nay — do
now set this day and hour for hearing as prayed for — and ode set
on the sheriff — to make known to George Wilson — the decree set
forth by the Corte this 10th day of April 1773.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

88 THE HORN PAPERS

Camp Cat Fish Corte Estimates For And To End Of
September 1772

Balance Due Corte July XV

LXXV-

-X

Due Daniel Moredock Sheriff

I-

-V

Due John Horn Sheriff

II-

-X

Due Justie

V-

-X

Due C. Horn Ok., and Recorder

II-

-X

Due John Canon Councilor

X-

-0

Jack Morris

X-

-XVI

Abraham Hickman — Each

X-

-XVI

Elias Estel

X-

-XVI

For Corte Map Of Gist Trails Of 1739 & 1747 V-

-0

Enoch O'Brine Repd Clock

0-

-X

Final Estimate Agnst Corte

L LXXXV-

-III

By Ferry Tax By Teegarden

V-

-0

By Ferry Tax By Brown

V-

-0

By Finds

0-

-XV

By Council Advice

V-

-X

By Sheriff Returns

I-

-X

L XVIII-

-V

Grande Final Balance

L LXVI-

-XVIII

Agnst Corte and County

C. Horn Clk. and Recorder
October 4, 1772

CAMP CAT FISH CORTE ORD

By direct demand of Council that bounds be set for Camp Cat
Fish Corte Claims. It is made by Ord that Map of Indian Claims
of 1746 be attested to by Christopher Gist hand scribe, and map
Chartman of Frederick.

Be by Court-Commissioner directed to appear at Camp Cat
Fish Corte on or before May 24th, this same month, and year, to
attest to map set forth by him as Gist Map of 1768, by which all
Indian claims are then, and now, declared on said map, by which
the Delaware Indian lands are laid down on said map. Same
being One Part, and Shawanes. Part Two of bounds of Camp Cat
Fish Corte.

This Ord made, and set in Corte Record, this 6th day of May,
1772.

Jacob Horn Justie
C. Horn Clk and Recorder
His Seal

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90 THE HORN PAPERS

Camp Cat Fish Corte Record of Indian land Claims as set
down in 1737, to 1748, to destruction of the Delaware Indians at
Flint Top, 1748. Gist-French survey by trail in 1745 give Chart
as now directed by his scribe, and set in Corte Record Book One.
This map of Gist own make and true knowledge of same, by
Gist and said scribe, by name Richard Lewis, a Virginia surveyor,
and trail man of distance, and degrees, set for Gist by agreement in
1746, and same for Gist to end of year of 1752.

By this map set down by scribe no claims can be made to any
land between the Mohingalo, and Ohio Rivers by Bedford
County. This same land declared to be French by agreement of
Virginia in 1732. By French defeat, is Virginia now, by Resolu-
tion of October 1758, and is now by Canon's Rule the Ohio Land
Company is no part of Northwest Augusta County, but the Camp
Cat Fish Corte hold full authority over all bounds of Delaware,
and Shawanes land which by agreement with Canon, would not be
set down as good land of large territory for the Ohio Land Com-
pany in 1749, and 1752. This agreement now attested to by Gist
scribe, Richard Lewis, the map is set down with the Indian Claims
before the Ord of September 11th, 1768, was set down, and map
of Two Parts is by Ord of Corte set down in Record Book One
with bounds of Ohio Land Company Charter, and bounds of
Camp Cat Fish Corte. The same be now attested to is set in this
Corte Record, this 30th day of May, 1772.

Jacob Horn Justie
C. Horn Clk and Recorder

His Seal

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Facsimile from Court Docket, Showing Indian Land

COURT RECORD 93

By Ord of September 11th, 1773

No part of the Ohio Lands be made a part of Camp Cat Fish
Corte bounds. The said lands be on both sides of Mohongalo, from
the Waters of Onida Creek, on Ohio waters, by French Bottoms,
to Mohongalo River one part mile from Queen Elizabeth's Fort,
to Gist Post, now said M. Braddock, to Gist-Lemercer Trail from
Shennopin Village to Lemercer ferry on Susqu deLahanna — Logs
Town Village lands on Ohio waters, making the Forks all in bounds
of Ohio Land Claims.

By Ord of the Royal Governor, as set forth by John Canon, in
September 1772. A new Corte, or a military post is set up at the
Forks for lands of Ohio Company. Same being claims of Bedford
County. John Connolly by Royal Governor's direct act and Corte
director for Ohio Lands. In no part of Camp Cat Fish Corte for
1772-1773. By Canon, Council, the same being an act of favor to
Connolly. By royal decree, no act, or Ord made by Connolly be of
force in the Camp Cat Fish Court, by Councillor ord, as Corte Com-
missioner ord this 6th day of March 1773.

C. Horn Clk.

'74 A P dP 2?A-MP?A T Pl/H t'ANQ /iT [.A hi /j LANOl
Pfiou C HAW AK £ TAAJL To TlN&oogiiA <Sauk-
P/tOM SaT PIfH e:/T-lNDJAN TKAJL-Tc PAIn;?H
Bt>TT*7« La/ID-AT JNDJAN MtUHOjdLA; Csvtn /3y

fif £oAD By 0kO of v<XT? A NO o<iua/v ji„.
JtT.Dtvs/H TNI/ till PA) Ci MAy*ft[D-g^"ETll&~

0-^n f A A A A'
V A AAA

'0 0

v.. J N D TA H \Jjl i

Umt:m

#.

^1

Camp Catfish Lands — By C. Horn

e

\\ v »• '. — v » * i.

-Mo r z l x x v-

COURT RECORD 97

Camp Cat Fish Corte by reason of two deaths on Jacob Horn's
homestead on July 19 and August 17, the royal governor by John
Canon on September 5, 1772 made ord that the Camp Cat Fish be
closed for a time set by plan of Canon and Royal Governor — to set
one John Connolly as the Royal Governor Councilor at the Forks.
This, Canon say, he did make no agreement thereto, but abide his
time to set John Connolly at naught, by reason of bringing a Penn
settler on Virginia soil, and by favor of the Royal Governor to be
his Councilor and next friend, at the Forks. By Canon's authority as
Councilor of Camp Cat Fish Corte he declares George Wilson be
made to appear at Camp Cat Fish Corte. Corte in place of be for
John Connolly by right of charges made by settlers on White Clay
Creek — and at Brown's Ferry. This, Canon, by direct command,
makes set in Corte record as his objection to Connolly.

C. Horn Clk. and Recorder

Camp Cat Fish Corte, April 11, 1773. The Corte by reason of
making Jack Morris in hearing of the layout, and building of road,
petitioned for by Robert Morris, and opened by slave labor in
September and October 1772, being now open to use of four wheel
Virginia wagons, mule and ox carts of all size and make, from Ft.
Morris to Flat Rock Fort, to Gist River Trail, and by same to Gist
Fort of Mohongalo River, as set down by him in 1747, and set in
chart in 1751, for Virginia Land Company make now — a river road
to Fort Morris and to Eckerlin Run, by agreemen of Thomas Kent,
for his mill on said run, where by wagons are being dragged to his
very mill door; the sum of 18 pounds tax, paid in common, is now
and here laid down to the Corte — do now ask Corte — make a full
settled end of petition as prayed for in same, and pay in full, balance
of shillings due Jack Morris, Abraham Hickman, and Elias Estel,
for slave lashing as set down by Oath in this brief, made by Robert
Morris and Thomas Hughes, Esq., of all labor and slaves, days and
miles of road laid out, and made as set forth in petition being charg-
ed, to make demand that the Corte make "General Ord" that the
Ft. Morris, Tom Hughs Pines and River Road — be now open to all
Virginia settlers — free of tax — after April 15, 1773. The Corte
by direct agreement "make one general Ord" for full settlement of
all claims — and make Ord that bonds of 50 pounds sterling set a-
gainst Robert Morris — and Thomas Hughes — be set off — from
Corte record — placed therein — on September 4, 1772, by said
Corte. By agreement, the sheriff be made to trail said road — and
declare the same a "County Road" open to all settlers on April 16,
1773, and pay all shilling due slave lashers — Ord of all returns

98 THE HORN PAPERS

made to the Corte to be now set in Corte record Book I, and brief
set down by Ok. — with days labored — shilling paid in full to slave
lashers. No tax is paid to Robert Morris for road layman. By
agreement the said Robert Morris to be layman and layout road —
to be on trail and best site to river from Ft. Morris — Independence
Hall as prayed for in petition for Road III. The sheriff be — and
now — directed to declare said road open to all Virginia settlers — on
and after April 16, after trailing on same from Ft. Morris to River
Fort, and declare same made to be wagon and cart road. The set-
tlers road tax of 30 pounds been made by Jack Morris — this day —
the Corte declare the road to be opened as a no tax road — to all
Virginia settlers.

C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

Sheriff returns made to Clk. of Corte for Robert Morris Road
from Ft. Morris to Gist Trail on Mohongalo River at Heise Home-
stead Fort — of River.

The sheriff by trail of said road on April 16, from Ft. Morris
with persons of Jack Morris — Abraham Hickman and Elias Estel
to White Rock Cavern Crossing on Flat Rocks of South Fork of
Tingooqua Creek — find road well made for 4-wheel wagons and ox
carts and mule foot — Flat Rock Crossing to Gist Trail Divide — and
on trail to Gist Run the road is of hill site — at Gist Run Ford the
bed is wide, shallow and of easy rise to Tingooqua Creek Ridge —
trail by Richard Hickman Homestead to Indian Crown Point is
less hilly and of easy Trail to Hickman's Ford of to the same Tin-
gooqua Creek which is of an even Ford on Gist Trail and road to
Tom Hughes' Tan and Hide House on Hughes' Little Run — this
same be called flat — from there to Hughes' big Run Head about
same. From Tom Hughes' Tan and Hide House at Center of
Pines on Little Run — the road is made through lofty pines and easy
trail. From end of Wa Ha Wag Low Pines to Harrods Salt and
Fur Log House at Warm Spring Run — the road is made to pass
over low divide ridge. At end of Indian Trail up by Tingooqua
Creek from Indian Peter Village to Chief Camp, from said salt and
fur house to divide of Gist Trail to Teegarden and White Clay
Creek regions — the road is made to pass through the Great Oak
Timber Flats. No labor is made on road — no stone and no low
trees to be axed from divide to David Shepards Homestead. The
road is of easy trail through some timber but is set more and more
in the hills to the River Ford Hill — some difference in mind as to the
best way down to Rock Ford — by wind on Long Hill at Heise
Homestead at waters of Mohongalo River where Gist and son and

COURT RECORD 99

scribe had to swim their mules on his journey 20 years hence. By
all in agreement the road is now open to Virginia wagons of both
open wheel, 4 wheels and same of solid wheels — ox carts, mule carts
of all size and kind — much labor be of use to make a good Virginia
Road-
Miles of road said to be 16.
Number of slaves declared to be 67.
Days labored to be 36.
Ox Carts 10.
Axe Men 10.
Ox Drag 5.

By Ord — paid in full all shillings due the said Jack Morris —
Abraham Hickman and Elias Estel — for slave lashing on said road
— and set as in Corte Ord the Morris, Pines, Harrod and River
Road open to all Virginia settlers on April 16, 1773.

Sheriff Returns

By — C. Horn Clk. and Recorder
This 18th day of April 1773
Camp Cat Fish Corte Estimates to end of April 1773.

Pounds Shillings

Balance due Corte and County 66 18

Due Jacob Horn, Justie 20 0

Due John Canon, Councilor 20 0

Due C. Horn, Clk. and Recorder 5 0

Due Sheriff 10 0

Due Robert Morris on Note of Bond 1 0

Due Thomas Hughes on Note of Bond 1 0

For John Canon to Williamsburgh 5 0

For Delaware Indian Council 5 0

For II Virginia Record Books 1 0

For Map of Camp Cat Fish Corte Boundry 0 15

For Need of Fort Statler 5 0

For Need of Ft. Van Metre 10 0

For Need of Ft. Ryerson 10 0

For Need of Ft. McClellan 5 0

For Need of Ft. Henderson 5 0

For Need of Ft. Morgan 5 0

175 13

By Corte Tax on Service 20 7

By Ferry Tax 10 0

By Finds 0 20

100 THE HORN PAPERS

By Virginia Warrents, By John Canon 20 0

By Settlers Road Tax Return 30 0

81 7

Finual Estimate 94 6

C. Horn Clk. and Recorder
May 2, 1773

Camp Cat Fish Corte open at day and hour set forth on April
10, for hearing of George E. Wilson — charge of treason — by trade
of his Virginia rights and his Virginia loyalty to King and Colony —
to William Crawford — a Bedford County obnoxious leader — of
Penn. Council claims — for a Justie in chancer — by and for Bedford
County — in Penns Colony — the same being within bound of the
Camp Cat Fish Corte — the Virginia Corte on Virginia soil — the
same be by against one of treason — and death by hang — if same be
found to be true. John Connolly Military Leader at the Forks de-
clare the said George Wilson be of guilt. Canon declare that Con-
nolly do have no authority of Wilson and demand the said George
Wilson be directed to appear on this day — in Corte to make known
his aye or nay but he declare the Camp Cat Fish be not valid and
a Virginia Corte — on Bedford County soil — and refused to appear
in Camp Cat Fish Corte — and returned to his homestead east of
Mohongalo River. John Canon by Council asks for Ord by the
Corte to declare the said George Wilson a felon of great crime —
and direct the sheriff to kill him as an act of justice — if the said
criminal do appear on lands west of Mohongalo River. The Corte
set the same in Corte Ord but did make the same for one year —
from this day and so direct the sheriff of Corte Ord, set in Camp
Cat Fish Corte record this 29th day of April 1773.
C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

Camp Cat Fish Corte Record as set forth by Samuel Jackson of
Upper Tingooqua Creek, of May 8, 1773. The Upper Battle of
Tingooqua Creek was caused by the Cherokee Indians hatred of
Lewis Wetsel, the Indian killer, who being a white man, son of John
Wetsel, the same being a brother of the Bonnet family on Little
French Creek. In March 1772 Lewis Wetsel killed 3 Cherokee
Indians at Col. Gray's Log House on low divide between the head-
waters of Grey's Run and Ackley Ford Way on Wetsel Creek
Divide of Upper waters. In October 1772 the Cherokee and
Huron Indians made war on Captain John Seal's Fort at mouth of
Riley Run on Tingooqua Creek. Captain Seal and Samuel Jackson
killed 3 of the twenty Indians and did drive the others to the Ohio

COURT RECORD 101

waters at Fish Creek. In May 1773, 8th day, 45 Cherokee Indians
by Chief Cax — he No Man Turtle Eye — by night trail fell upon
four white families — Sam. Hargus, Robert Riley, Jacob Shafer,
Richard Huffman, at same Fort at mouth of Riley Run and did
make much war on the Fort but the logs did shelter all from the
Fire Guns of the foe — now two Delawares — No Nose and Little
Fish — by Jackson desire did make their camp hard by escaped to
Fort Morris and did bring by count ten persons with French Rifles
and ambushed 22 of the Indians killing all of them and the Chief.
For six hours the battle did rage. But the Indians did break and
escape to the Ohio Waters. Thus this battle is here set down as the
Upper Battle of Tingooqua Creek. David Teegarden, Jacob
Casteel, Christian Sellers are now — May 22 — made Virginia guards
for Samuel Jackson's workmen at his fort at Little Peters Spring —
by Ord of the Camp Cat Fish Corte this 22nd day of May 1773.

C. Horn Clk.

The list of settlers in Northwest Augusta County, Colony of
Virginia, North of Gist Point — and West of Mohongalo River,
as found by the two pollmen, Daniel Moredock, Sen. and Hardtman
Horn, appointed by the Corte on June 8, 1773, by Ord of Septem-
ber 4, 1772. Daniel Moredock, by Ord made to be pollman and
tax receiver of all territory south of South Tingooqua Creek to
Gist Point, from Mohongalo River to Fish Creek and to Wetsel
Creek, Hardtman Horn to be Pollman and tax receiver of the ter-
ritory north of South Branch of Tingooqua Creek to Chartier Creek,
to such settlements as the Corte may direct the said Hardtman
Horn. The Corte set Ord that the said Daniel Moredock, Sen. and
Hardtman Horn be fined 20 shillings for falling to make poll re-
turns on or before September 1, 1773, at the opening of the Camp
Cat Fish Corte for same poll returns to be made to the Royal
Governor and for . . . (Next few pages in book missing)

DANIEL MOREDOCK POLL FOR 1773

All tax records for the year 1773. List polled and tax received
by Daniel Moredock, Sen.

Daniel Moredock
Daniel Moredock, Jr.
Michael Cresap, Sr.
Creaux Bozarth
Elizabeth Bozarth, Widow
James Culver

Shillings

Va.

1763

10

Va.

1763

15

Va.

1748

5

French Quebec

1747

10

French Quebec

1747

0

Va.

1754

5

102 THE

HORN PAPERS

Jacob Dyces

Va.

1762

3

Augustine Dillinger

Md.

1760

20

Conrad Syckes

Va.

1760

15

*Enoch Enix

Pa.

1763

Refused Pay

David Morgan

Va.

1763

10

Thomas Brown

Va.

1765

5

Jacob Clarstow

Va.

1765

5

James Flanegan

Va. & Md.

1775

10

James Carmichels

Va.

1763

20

William Crawford

Va.

1764

5

Henry Enix, Son.

Pa.

1764

5

John Martin 1 R
Samuel Martin J

Va.

1764

10

Jeremiah Glasgow, Father

Va.

1764

5

Michel Cresap, Son.

Va.

1766

0

Patrick O'Brine

Va.

1764

0

Joseph Brown

Va.

1766

2

John Burris "1 R
Joseph Burris J

Va.

1775

5

John Armstrong f R
Robert Armstrong J

Va.

1763

20

John Allen

Va.

1766

0

Ashford Taylor

Va.

1766

0

Henry Beeson "1 R
Jacob Beeson J

Va.

1767

10

Ichabod Ashcraft

Va.

1767

5

John Alley

Va.

1767

5

William Allen

Va.

1767

5

Jeremiah Beeks

Md.

1767

0

Thomas Blacklidge

Va.

1762

20

James Burson

Va.

1707 (?)

15

Samuel Davidson

Va.

1766

5

Edward Doughty

Va.

1766

10

John Devolve

Va. & Md.

1766

5

Morgan Estel

Va.

1766

15

Nathan Priggs

Va.

1766

0

John Glasgow

Va.

1766

5

Samuel Garett

Va.

1766

5

Samuel Harrod

Va.

1763

10

Thomas Hews (Whiterocks) Va.

1766

5

Thomas Hughes, Esq. (The

Pines) Va.

1763

20

Samuel Adamson

Va.

1767

5

COURT RECORD 103

Robert Adams Va.

Robert Aisles Va. & Md.

Alexander Buchanon, Esq., Staunton Va.
Nicholas Boker Bros.

Va
Peter Boker Gist Point

Eberhart Bierer Switzerland
Thomas Kent N. J.

William Landes Va. & Md.
James Bryce Va.

Joseph Morris, the homestead of Ft. Morris and
Brother of Jonathan Morris, Sr. and Richard Mor-
ris, Sr. — hold homestead for sons, he be at Staunton,
Va. homestead in 1766.

1767

0

1767

10

1777

20

1767

10

1767

0

1766

20

1766

5

1766

0

Jacob Morris

John Morris

Jonathan Morris

»

Va.

1766

30

Robert Morris

George Morris

Richard Morris

Daniel Rice

Va. & Pa.

1768

5

George Brown, Tingooqua Creek Va.

1767

5

William Crawford

N.J.

1767

10

William Conwell 1 R
Jehu Conwell J

N.J.

1766

5

Barney Craft

Va.

1767

5

John Barcley

Va.

1766

10

Ellis Bailey

Va. & N. J.

1766

20

George Brown, Brown Ferry

Va.

1763

20

Michael Cox

Va.

1766

0

Resin Clutter

Va.

1766

5

Louis Cragow

Va.

1766

10

Gist Culver

Va.

1766

10

Samuel Evans, Father

Va.

1766

5

Andrew Fisher

Va.

1766

0

David Fox

Va.

1766

0

Samuel Goodwin

Mass. Colony

1766

10

Jacob Gilmore

Va.

1767

5

Henry Hants

Va.

1767

0

Jacob Swan

Va.

1767

5

Abraham Teegarden

Va.

1763

0

William Teegarde

n, Son

Va.

1766

5

104

THE HORN PAPERS

Bros,

Bros.

Henry Van Metre

Jacob Van Metre

Charles Van Metre

Jese Van Metre

Abraham Hickman

John Hickman

Abner Hoge

William Harrod

George Huckleberry

Jonathan Morris, Sr.

Jonathan Morris

Joseph Morris

John Morris

Robert Morris

George Morris

George Newland

Theoplieus Philips

Henry Brenton

George Crow, Wetsel Creek

George Calvin, Wetsel Creek

Abner Keener

Sons

James Keener
John Keener
Ulrich Miers
George Miers
Morgan Morgan
George Morgan
James Neil
John Nichols
James Nichols
William Davidson
Louis Davidson
David Hoge
Michael Jones
Jonathan Jones
John Jones
George Jones
Samuel Knisely
George Knisely
Samuel Lucas
Thomas Lucas
Richard Lucas

Bros.

Bros.

Bros.

}

Bros.

Va.

Va.

Va.
Va.

Va.

Va.

Md.

Va.

Va.

&Pa.

&N.

J-

Bros.

Bros.

Bros.

Va. & N. J.

Va.

Va.

1766

1766

1767

1767

1767

1767

1768

1769
1763

1769

1768
1768

20

10

Va. & Pa.

1767

0

Va.

1767

5

Md.

1768

0

Va.

1767

10

20

Va.

1766

IS

Del.

1768

5

Va.

1768

0

Va.

1768

10

Va.

1768

10

10

Va.

1764

10

Va.

1764

10

Va.

1767

0

0
10

0

0

10

COURT RECORD 105

Ahimon Polloch -.

JohnPolloch I Bros. Va. & Md. 1768 15

David Polloch J

Nathan RineharU

Uriah Rinehart I Bros. Va. 1768 10

Jacob Rinehart J

Henry Deever Va. 1767 0

John Swan, Son Va. 1768 0

James Downard 1 Bros. v i7££ 0

Albert Downard J Fish Creek

Jeremiah Davis „ tv^, c Tr *n,n -

¥ir-ir t^ • r Bros. Md. & Va. 1767 5

William Davis

William Shepardl 0 xr *ncc 1A

n .JCL r, ^ Bros. Va. 1766 10

David Shepard

Thomas Slater, Mth. Eck. Run Va. 1769 10

Jacob Slater, Ft. Statler Homestead Va. 1764 10

Richard Evans

John Evans Va. 1769 10

Hugh Evans

John Frazier, Son

Gist Frazier „ Tr \ncc\

r>. , j ^ . > Bros. Va. 1769

Richard Crazier J

Returned to East Side of Mohongalo River in

March 1770. D. Moredock, Poll Man
John Craig Va. & Del. 1770 0

George Craft Va. & Del. 1770 0

Patrick Cooney 1 ^
Michael Cooney J

Gabriel Cox Va. 1770 0

John Cline, Sr. Va. 1766 5

Jacob Cline

John Cline Va. 1770 0

Wm. Cline

Henry Debolt Va. 1770 5

Robert Kelly Va. 1770 5

James Jenkins Va. 1770 0

John Long T Bros G po.nt Va 17?0 1Q

James Long

James Lindsay

George Lindsay Va. 1770 0

Hiram Lindsay

106 THE HORN PAPERS

James Kendall Va.

Joseph Mains Va.

George Haver Va.

Owen Hughes Va.

Richard Parkin, Son, Pines Va.

Nathaniel McCarthy Va.

David White Va.

John Worley Va.

Asa Murphy Va.

Edmond Police Va.

John Carr Va.

Zachariah Huffman Va.

Samuel McCroy Va.

William Reese, Riley Run Va.

James Murron, Riley Run Va.

Richard Parr Va.

Thomas Swan Va.

James Campbell, Sr., Esq. Va.

George Campbell

Robert Campbell Va. 1771 15

Benjamin Campbell

Sir Robert Campbell of Williamsburgh being an
uncle of James Campbell, Sr., Esq. makes the Camp-
bells free from tax but they say they pay set tax.

D. Moredock

1770

5

1770

0

1767

10

1769

5

1779

0

1770

0

1770

5

1770

5

1770

5

1770

0

1771

0

1771

5

1771

5

1769

5

1769

5

1771

0

1770

0

1768

IS

George Debult

Va.

1772

5

John Garrad, Son

Va.

1772

0

William Thomas

Va.

1772

5

Joseph Goodwin

Thomas Goodwin

Md. & Va.

1772

15

William Goodwin

Charles Hickman

Va.

1772

0

John Polloch, Son of Ahimon

Va.

1772

0

John Purman

Va.

1772

5

James White

Va.

1772

5

Robert Lenox

Va.

1772

0

James Paramore

Va. & Md.

1772

5

John Huffman

Va.

1771

10

William Hartz

Switzerland

1772

0

Jesse Leonard

Va.

1772

0

George Meir

Va.

1772

5

Jacob Stilwell

Va.

1771

5

COURT RECORD 107

John Canon, Esq. Va. & England

1740 and Councilor for Northwest
Augusta County 1772 20

Jacob Zeller by Father
Jacob Sellers

Va.

Switzerland

1771
1771

10
10

Christian Sellers

Va.

1772

5

George Sellers
Jacob Sellers
Leonard Sellers

Va.

1772

John Wetsel ]
Lewis Wetsel

y Bros.

Va.

1762

0

The Wetsels names obtained from Crow on Big Fish-
ing Creek and so set down — after rides — to home-
stead. D. Moredock, Sr. Pollman and tax receiver.
ByClk.

William Minor TR Va. 1765 20

John Minor J ar0S' Va. 1766 10

William Crawford, Sr., Bedford County, 1754-1763,
refused to be polled, pay Virginia tax and make any
agreement. The Corte made demand that sheriff
bring the said William Crawford into Corte for just
hearing of his act of denial of Virginia rights where-
upon the said William Crawford do now trail to East
of River beyond the boundry of Camp Cat Fish
Corte — By Council Agreement. If the sheriff find
him on Virginia territory, the sheriff be Ord to kill
the said William Crawford for TREASON, against
King and Colony, Clk.

William Crawford, Son Bedford County 1765

returned to East Side of River in 1767.

Richard Wise Va.

1778

10

Henry Clinton Va.

1768

10

James Russell Va.

1768

5

David Cox "1 „ v
Richard Cox

1768

0

John McClelland, Gist Run II— Fort

1768

10

James Bailey Phila. & Va.

1770

5

Robert Arnold I R y
Jacob Arnold

1771

10

108 THE HORN PAPERS

Jacob Dillinger, Chester County, Pa. in 1746 to 1768

Va. 1768 0

John Wiseacre Va. 1768 0

Richard Meighen Va. 1768 5

Cornelius O'Conor Ireland & Va. 1778 0

Samuel Harrod

James Harrod Va. 1768 10

Levi Harrod
Leonard Garrison
George Garrison

Bros. Garrison Forte II 1768 10

}

James Kincaid 0 „ .n/ro n

r> u s. v -a r Bros. Va. 1768 0
Robert Kincaid

James Rinehart Md. &Va. 1768 5

Samuel Zimers Va. 1768 0

*John Rogers "1 R French Trail Run on Tingooqua Creek

David Rogers J Dros* Va. 1768 10

Daniel Walton, Esq. of Bierer Fort Va. 1768 10

Boltzar Loar, Block House Run Va. 1769 5

William Pennock 1 Bros. v 176Q C

John Pennock J Pennock Run

David Irons Bait. & Va. 1769 0

James Rush — Father 1 «., r 1 Tr in/rA in

•; r> u c y Fish Creek Va. 1764 10
James Rush — son

J°hn,Af.Y JBros.
David Ackley

Lived on Ackley Run from April 1767 to 1769

by trade homestead to William Teegarden for 30

shillings and 6 goats — no tax set. D. Moredock,

Poll Man. By D. Horn, Clk.

David Burson

Va.

1769

10

Benjamin Maple

Va.

1769

5

Samuel Keeghley

Va.

1769

0

David Morris 1 Bros.

1769
>r.

0

John Morris Sons of

Jonathan Morris, S

George South

Carolina & Va.

1769

0

John Keigher

Va.

1770

0

James Rhodes

Va.

1770

5

James Yardley 1 R
Jacob Yardley

Va.

1770

5

James Bailey

Va.

1771

0

George Wilson, Esq. Bedford County, Pa., a West
Moreland settler on Virginia soil, a Virginian by

COURT RECORD

109

birth but loyal to Penns. claims — because by trade
— to William Crawford — to West Moreland Justie,
refused to recognize Virginia claims and laws, re-
fused to pay the 15 shillings tax laid down by C.
Horn, tax proportioner, D. Moredock, Poll Man
and Tax Collector of the King's and the Royal
Colony's tax. The Corte directed the sheriff to set in
force, same Ord agreed on for like refuse of William
Crawford.

David Finley 1 D
r» . t?- i r Bros.
Peter Finley

Va.

1772

0

Jacob Staggers

Va.

1772

5

Abner Howell

Va.

1772

5

Rev. John Corbley

Va.

1770

10

David Shepard, Esq.

Va.

1753-1773

David Fox of Blockhouse Run

Va.

By his own Ord

20

David Fox

1767

10

Samuel Lappin

Va.

1768

5

Samuel Ullem, Esq.

Va.

1770

10

Adam Newland

Va.

1770

0

Edward Scott

Va.

1767

5

William Kerr N.

J. & Va.

1767

5

Hugh Jackson

Va.

1767

5

Jacob Sutton

Va.

1769

0

Bernard Eckerlain

Va.

1733

1763-1773

10

John Hawkins

Va.

1767

10

John Hupp

Va.

1770

0

John Vance

Va.

1767

0

Jacob Funk "1 R
Martin Funk J

Va.

1766

10

Henry Hartly

Va.

1767

5

John Hargus T Bros.
Thomas Hargus J Hargus Run

Va.

1766

20

Davis Ankrom

Va.

1766

10

John Ankrom

Va.

1766

10

Jackson Henderson, Esq., Blockhouse Run — Fort
Indian, Peters Village and Gist Camp, Settled by
right of Gist consent there in 1758, and is set down
as first homesteader in the poll, made in territory
west of the river, by a Virginia Homesteader, as
set forth in returns.

110 THE HORN PAPERS

Jackson Henderson, Esq.

Va.

1758

20

John Henderson 1 R
Thomas Henderson]

Va.

1766

5

Bemas Lightner

Va.

1770

5

James Church

Va.

1770

0

James Riley

Va.

1738

to 1748 and 1756, 1763 and now set down Va

. 1766

10

William Riley, Son 1 R
John Riley, Son J

Va.

1767

0

Samuel Mclntyre

Va.

1767

5

Samuel Orndorff

Va.

1767

5

James Russel

Va.

1767

5

Baney Whitchlatch

Va.

1767

5

William Stewart

Va.

1768

0

David Hook

N.J.

1769

0

Abraham Culver

Va.

1768

10

John Hathaway

Va.

1763

10

Joseph Parkinson

Va.

1772

0

John Strossnyderl R
Wm. Strossnyder J

Va.

1771

10

James Crago

Va.

1770

5

Richard Philips

Md.

1766

5

John Syckes

Va.

1772

0

John Snyder

Va.

1771

0

James Rosenberry T ^
tud u r Bros.

John Rosenberry J

Va.

1771

5

James Blackledge

Va.

1768

5

David White

James White It, r, d
Thomas White} Bros- Fish Run

Va.

1767

10

James Fonnar, Blockhouse Main

Run Va.

1768

5

John Martin -. Bros.
George Martin L Martins Inn
Jack Martin J At Divide of C

Va.

1772

20

jist Trail on M

[orris River

Roa<

Robert Fleniken N. J.,

Va., and Del.

1769

10

John Heise

Va.

1771

10

Yerkyese Cowel

Va.

1771

0

George Tyson

Va.

1771

0

Thomas Grims

Va.

1770

0

David Ruff, Gist Run

Va.

1770

10

Azari Davis, Riley Run

Va.

1770

10

Jason Brown, Riley Run

Va.

1771

10

Daniel Ryerson, Esq., Porte Ry<

:rson Va.

1766

20

COURT RECORD

111

George Ryerson

David Ryerson

Va.

1772

0

Wm. Ryerson

Patrick McCormick

Ireland

1772

0

Michael O'Riley

Va.

1772

0

Thomas Lucas

Va.

1772

0

James Lindsey

Va.

1771

0

Robert

Va.

1771

0

James West

Va.

1771

0

William Davidson

Va.

1771

0

Peter Gosline

Va.

1771

0

Jacob Richill, Esq.

Va.

1766

20

John Titus, Little French Crk.

Va.

1767

10

Alexander Mapel, Mapel Inn

Va.

1771

10

John Miller, Ft. Enix

Va.

1772

10

David Mason

Va.

1767

10

George Mason T R
Richard Mason J

Va.

1771

0

Benjamin Garrison

Va.

1767

10

Daniel Evans, Little French Crk. Va.

1769

10

Elias Furman

Md.

1769

0

John Ross

Va.

1772

5

John Johnson

Va. & Md.

1771

0

Nathan Mitchener

Va.

1769

0

Benjamin Areford, Sr.

Va.

1770

10

John Fordyce

Va.

1770

10

Ezekiel Braden

Va.

1769

10

John Clutter, Ft. Ryerson

Va.

1770

5

Samuel Beebout

Va.

1771

5

Benjamin Kiger

Va.

1770

10

Daniel Ackley

Va.

1766

0

William Moredock 1 Bros., Sons of George

Moredock,

John Moredock

Va.

1773

0

Thomas Heaton

Va.

1773

0

Samuel Hughes, The Pines

Va.

1773

0

James Milliken

Va.

1772

0

John Lemley 1 Bros., French Creek

George Lemley J

Va.

1773

0

James Barnes, Sr.

England

1767

10

James Barnes 1 0
t i r> Y Bros.
John Barnes

England

1773

0

Jacob Rush, Esq., Tingooqua Creek Va.

1770

10

Jacob Zook

Va.

1769

5

112 THE HORN PAPERS

Jacob Fletcher

Va.

1770 0

John Harris 1 Bros., Crc

>oked Run

Abraham Harris J

Va.

1767 0

James Loar

Va.

1768 0

324— Whites

115 (?) 15 Shillings

Slaves Known

124

Sheep

216

Goats

352

Mules

62

Oxen

326

Horses

24

Poll Returns made by D. Moredock. Sr. August 24, 1773,
C. Horn Clk. and Recorder

HARDTMAN HORN POLL FOR 1773

John Allen

Va.

1766

5

Wm. Allen

Va.

1767

0

Richard Ankrom

Va.

1766

5

Peter Bachus

Va.

1766

0

George Hupp

Va.

1765

15

Enoch O'Brine

Va.

1763

5

Nate O'Brine

Va.

1765

5

Robert Anton

Va.

1767

5

James Black, Redstone

Pa.

1766

10

Jeremiah Henderson, Chartier

Creek Va.

1766

10

John Smith T R
Robert Smith J

Va.

1767

10

John Houston

Va.

1768

10

John Alison

Va.

1762

5

Ephson Brownfield, Bedford

1768

5

Israel Cox

Va.

1767

5

Jonathan Chambers

Va.

1768

10

Zephaniah Dunn 1 R
Benjamin Dunn J

Va.

1767

5

Henry Enox, Redstone

Va.

1768

10

John Carr, Redstone

Va.

1768

0

Thomas Scott 1 0
T c _ V Bros.
James Scott

Va.

1768

10

Edward Taylor 1 grQs
Wm. Taylor J

Va.

1768

10

William Holms

Va.

1767

5

COURT RECORD

George Teegarden

Va.

1766

20

David Teegarden

Va.

1768

0

Samuel Teegarden

Va.

1768

0

Isaac Teegarden

Va.

1768

0

John Teegarden

Va.

1768

0

Edward Taylor \
William Taylor J

Va.

1768

5

Edward Thomas

Va.

1768

0

John Moore

Va.

1768

10

Michael Ely

Joseph Ely
George Ely
Jacob Ely

Bros., From James River Flats,

Va. 1769

20

John Ely

Jacob Streker

Va.

1770

5

Robert Sair 1
James Sair

Va.

1770

10

Samuel Stilwell

Md. & Va.

1769

15

John Casteel "I
Jacob Casteel J

Va.

1768

10

Joseph Cox
Isaac Cox, Esq. J

Va.

1769

20

John Gibson, Esq.

Va.

1754-1773

10

John Watson

Va.

1772

5

John Watson and John Gibson by Wife's

sister are broth

ters-

law. Clk.

George Watson, Son

Va.

1772

0

Jacob Horn, Father

Va.

1772

20

John Horn

Christopher Horn

Va.

1772

20

Hardtman Horn

John Hardtman

Pa. & Va.

1772

0

Abiga Hough, Father

Va.

1772

0

Martin Hough, Son

Va.

1772

0

Jon Beall 1 r»

Joseph Beall

Va.

1772

10

Benjamin Hardin, Father

Va.

1772

10

William Hardin T „

TV K • TT T > brOS.

Martin Hardin

Va.

1772

0

Adam Penter

Va.

1772

0

Stephen Styles

Va.

1772

0

Jacob Ten IV

tile

Va.

1769

10

113

114 THE HORN PAPERS

Robert Ten Mile. R
Frank Ten Mile

| Bros.

Tingooqua Creek
Va.

1769

20

Md.&Va.
Va.

1768
1768

10

5

N. J., Va., Md.

1768

10

Va., N. J., and Md.

10

Va.

1763

10

Va.

1768

0

Va.

1767

0

Va.

1772

20

James Ten Mile

John Bowel

David Black, Redstone

Robert Fulton 1 n
t it k r Bros.

James Fulton

Daniel Keys 1 R

David Keys J

Joseph Hill, Father

George Hill D

Jacob Hill J Bros-

James Stackels

Andrew Heathe

Jacob Heathe

Andrew Heathe and Jacob Heathe, Brothers,
Virginia Militia at the forks in 1754, did build Fort
Queen Elizabeth, same year, on Ohio Land Com-
pany lands and set the out post of same for Christo-
pher Gist at Walnut Tree 100 paces south of Fort
as set down by Gist in 1752, as end to Ohio Lands on
border of Tingooqua's rightful claims. Heathes, by
Gist consent, made Fort Queen Elizabeth their
homestead in 1758 but set same down in 1763 to
hold Ohio Lands. William Crawford by claims,
set same for Cumberland County by Ord of 5 de-
grees west by charter which Gist made known in
1763 to be at Gist Rocks on crest of Le Merciers
Mt. Ridge, now Fort Queen Elizabeth is by all Vir-
ginia rights declared the homestead of Andrew
Heathe, Esq. and his brother, being west of river
on Virginia soil. Clk.

Peter Hewt Md., Pa., and Va. 1769 0

John Kraft Va. 1764 0

Peter Dodridge 1 0 Tr tn*n c

t u T-k j -j r Bros. Va. 1769 5

Jacob Dodridge

Richard Yeates, Esq., Assembly man and planter of

upper Camp Cat Fish by Chartier Creek, Va. 1772 20

James Barnard Va. 1766 10

Resin Virgin I Bros Va $

Jesse Virgin J

COURT RECORD

Robert Buckingham! R
Enoch Buckingham J

Va.

1771

10

James Trowbridge

Va.

1772

5

Samuel McCullough

Va.

1764

10

James McConol

Va.

1764

10

115

James McConol and Samuel McCullough being the
first Virginia homesteaders at DuPratz Island open-
ed ferry at Rock Point in 1766, but water flood in
ferry, 1767, destroyed boat, Jack and access to boat
and no ferry is set down for Eagle Nest. Clk.

John Heaton, Esq.

Va.

1772

10

Abel McCullough, Sr.

Va.

1772

10

John Greenlee

Va.

1772

0

John Estel, Redstone

Va.

1771

0

John Pinyard 1 Bfos
Jesse rinyard

Va.

1771

0

David Gossett

Va.

1769

0

Samuel Adamson

Va.

1771

0

John Roberts

Va.

1771

0

James Ackford

Va.

1767

0

David Greenlee

Va.

1771

0

David Gray

Va.

1772

10

John Barney

Va.

1772

5

John Dunn

Md. & Va.

1772

5

Jacob Clevengor

Va.

1772
(?)-'

0

« Shillings

Slaves Known

21

Sheep

72

Goats

120

Mules

32

Oxen

72

Horses

10

Poll returns made by Hardtman Horn September 1, 1773.
Horn Clk.

Camp Cat Fish Corte Estimates to End of September 1773

Balance Due Against Corte and County
Due Jacob Horn, Justie
Due John Canon, Councilor

Pounds

Shillings

S3

10

20

0

20

0

165

0

10

0

106

0

0

10

20

0

116 THE HORN PAPERS

Due C. Horn, Clk. and Recorder 5 0

Due John Horn, Sheriff 20 0

Due Daniel Moredock, Pollman and Tax Recorder 30 15

Due Hardtman Horn, Pollman and Tax Recorder 10 15

Due Jacob Dillinger for Need at Fort Garrison 5 0

By Ferry Tax

By Corte Tax Record

By Fines

By Corte Charges

136 10

Final Estimates against 28 10

Corte and Northwest Augusta County On October 1, 1773.

C. Horn Clk.

Camp Cat Fish Corte Ord— June 4, 1773. By Corte Ord of this
even date, that from this time, all, Corte Ords and council plea, be
set in Virginia Cort Record Books, of common form, and the King's
seal, be set to each Ord, set therein. By Ord of Royal Governor as
directed by John Canon, Councilor for the Corte and Northwest
Augusta County, Colony of Virginia. No record set down in this
record Book I and Book III, are by Ord made a part of Virginia
Corte record Books I to V, of same form.

C. Horn Clk. Jacob Horn, Justie

This 4th day of June 1773

PRIVATE NOTES OF CHRISTOPHER HORN

The Old Camp Cat Fish Corte and site in public land claims
after June 1, 1778. The block Corte House build in March and
April, to May 4 on stockade, 1772, same site be the home of Jacob
Horn to his death in February 1778 and John Hardtman home to
the month of January 1782, at which time fire did burn the roof off
from the block house with two end logs, and in 1785 ten logs, be
taken from Corte block house and set in Jacob Wiever and son
Jacob Horn by assist for Wiever's homestead one part of half
mile by flow of Cat Fish Run, by Indian Camp Site, 8 acres of Corte
land be by no claim there to did become public last year, 1786.
C. Horn

COURT RECORD 117

Upper Camp Cat Fish Ord — 1769

By statement of facts by Peter Chartier, that George Croghan,
a man of many minds, and act of authority, by Cumberland County,
by force of same, declare that the said Peter Chartier be an enemy
of the English, whereby both Virginia and Cumberland County
should set a seal on the head of Chartier, as a Frenchmen or traitor
of evil mind, Christopher Gist now declare Chartier to be loyal to
King and Colony of Virginia, but by reason of Croghans attempt to
set Cumberland County Ord on Virginia soil, Gist did set his hand
direct against Croghan and so advise Jacob Horn of this at Upper
Camp Cat Fish in 1769. John Canon, Commissioner, with Tingoo-
qua and Chartier, direct Jacob Horn, Justie, to post notice that any
Cumberland County settlers making by claim the homestead on
Virginia soil in this territory, be executed, quartered and burned,
as a righteous act for said criminal act. Tingooqua and by watch
of Bowlegs, be directed to destroy any Penn. settlers making home-
tledsteads round about in this Virginia territory. This same to be
set down at this place, Upper Camp Cat Fish this 14th day of May
1769.

By — Jacob Horn, Justie

By — John Canon, Commissioner

By — Christopher Gist

By — Tingooqua

By — Peter Chartier
This same Ord by the Corte was set in full force, to the destruc-
tion of Augusta Town in June 1780.
C.Horn September 20, 1787

DEATH OF SOME INDIANS OF MUCH KNOWN IN
TINGOOQUA'S TERRITORY

By Bowlegs knowledge and count he makes the fact known of
the Indians killed round about in Tingooqua lands.

1. Eagle Feathers killed by French and Lake Indians, by French
and Indian Trail on Mohongalo, 1725.

2. Old One Eye — Delaware Village Chief, killed by French at
his village on Upper Tingooqua Creek, 1727.

3. Chief Wan Gu-Ka-Ke killed by French, James Riley and
Delaware at Indian Village on Riley Run, 1738.

4. Tin-Gu Wa-La-Mo Trail man killed by Cayuga warriors on
Tingooqua Creek by common council ground, 1728.

5. Five Delaware Indian Flint Workers killed and scalped on
Crows Creek, 1734.

118 THE HORN PAPERS

6. Tall Tree— An-Gan-Ne-Wa-Ke killed at Wa Ha Wag Lo
High Rock Cliff on Tingooqua Creek, 1738, by two Huron
Warriors.

7. Pale Face Chartres, brother of Peter Chartres, Peter Chartier
by French, was killed in fight by Gist Fur House, 1746.

8. Great Indian Chief Wa-Ha Wag Lo was killed in two-day
fight at Flint Top September 18, 1748.

9. The Village Chief, Little Eagle Eye of Indian Peter Village
on block house run, killed by French Indian carriers in 1748.

10. Light Foot killed by Christopher Gist, the guide and explore-
man, 1753 at Le Mercier Mountain.

11. Two of Creaux Bozarth Indian Runner was killed by Bowlegs
in 1752.

12. Ten thousand Indians in all were killed by Indians, at Flint

Top, 1748.

13. Long Fish Tail, Brother of Bowlegs, was killed in battle of
Flint Top, 1748.

14. Gray Wolf, The Trailer, with Bowlegs, the Silent killer, killed
four Onida, in river at Sumonville Creek, in October 1752.

15. Tingooqua died on Scioto River, 1770.

16. Wessameking, The Cat Fisher, was killed in Dunmore Battle,
1774.

17. Peter Chartier, killed by George Chrogan, as a French lookout
man, and a traitor to the English, 1773. (The death was a
true fact, but the charge was of malicious and of evil mind.)

18. Twenty Indians killed at the Forks, 1772.

19. Four Indians killed by Elizabeth Bozarth in April, 1769.
(These French Indians from Canada made raid by French
Ord, to destroy all English settlers in Tingooqua Lands.)

20. By common knowledge of Enoch O'Brine, Bowlegs and Canon,
the Logan family was killed by plans of Crawford, to set
Indians in war on Ohio River to end all claims to Ohio Lands,
at the Forks, and Penn. claims to be set on same, by Ord of
Bedford Corte.

Bowlegs died at his Fish Stone October 9, 1789.

Snow In Face, the daughter of Oppaymolieh, beloved by all
Indians, by Devil's Itch Pox at Aliquippa Spring in winter season,
died in March, 1737 ( ?). (Snow In Face was by Bowlegs say, a full
sister to Queen Aliquippa the friend of Gist and Washington, and
Virginia).

Bowlegs declare 100 squaws and maidens of Delaware Tribe
be killed by French Indian Warriors by throw from high cliff on end
of Indian Ridge to rocks in Tingooqua Creek at base of cliff. (The

COURT RECORD 119

Indan skeleton bones lay over 75 acres of land, by thousand, when
I, C. Horn, made Flint Top Battle Land my homestead 1775.

(Bowlegs declare all his family was killed in this battle, of which
he declare, no other Indian battle in America did ever see so many
Indians in battle, and so great a number killed at one time.)
C. Horn— 1790

By statement of facts by Enoch O'Brine, in December 1779, that
the Virginian intrigue of Crawford and Hanna, did set the militia
against Logan, the Indian who at all times was the friend of the
Virginia colonists, and made all agreeable to his wigwam, by act
of said militia in war on Logan, the Virginia settlers become Logan's
enemy. Canon and Enoch O'Brine did council with Logan, but by
reason of so great a loss, by death, Logan be most bitter and broken
in friendship, said by direct word, UI am now in war, and make clear
that Logan be an enemy to white people because they made Logan
so." Logan was pleased by his friend's talk and did make a long
talk. By Enoch O'Brine, to the Royal Governor, and by Canon's
consent, did set the Governor's observance. Enoch O'Brine did by,
and in person deliver Logan's complaint to Dunmore. Crawford
by word to Dunmore, declared he did not by word or act send the
word to set war on Logan. Canon declare that both Crawford and
Dunmore be shot for lives of Logan's family massacre, all for pos-
sesion of Ohio Lands, at the Forks, contested for not by the English
and French, but Virginia and Penn claims to same in 1774. In 1775
when the district of West Augusta did set aside all of North West
Augusta County, it did include all the Ohio Land Claims of 1748-
52, thereby annul all Penn claims not only to Forks, but all of West-
moreland Lands. This, Canon declares will end all trouble both
John Connolly and West Moreland be at his mercy for the year
1776.
C.Horn 1786 October 30

Jacob Horn born at Penn Inn, Philadelphia, in Penn Colony
in 1721, lived by Snow Creek from 1742-1772. He married Dus-
chea Von Natta Von Reisseiler February 21, 1742. He, by Gist
and Canon, was made Justie of Snow Creek settlement in April
1765, and Justie of Camp Cat Fish Corte of same bounds as made
by Ord of John Canon, June 20, 1768, and made under Ord and
seal of Royal Governor September 11, 1768. He with family
and 19 of Snow Creek settled at and round about Camp Cat Fish
in March 1772. Justie in Chancery of Camp Cat Fish Corte March
30, 1772 to June 8, 1774. He was made a Home Guard of Trust

120 THE HORN PAPERS

of the few Delaware Indians in Yohogania County — County Ord
in March 1777 by Augusta Town Corte. Jacob Horn by reason of
mind, made no choice in person, of America and Britain be divided
in government, but charged his sons and all settlers to defy King and
Parliament troops in the Colonies. Jacob Horn died at Camp Cat
Fish Corte Block House on the morning of February 24, 1778,
age 57 years and 3 days, and laid at rest by side of wife and
daughter on Corte Land on February 26, 1778.
C.Horn April 10, 1781

Much disagreement is now set-up against Washington County
for making the names of streams and forts of well known names be
set down by new and strange names of which no man of reason do
agree. The name "Tingooqua," one of long standing, a name of
much known to all settlers by all rights be set in Penn records as
name of his creek, but by some agreement the names of Gist, Ecker-
lin, Tingooqua, Grendelier, and Beaumonte are all made end thereto
and other names set in place thereof. Tingooqua be a name long in
the mind of man when Jacob Ten Mile be lost by name or place of
his homestead. Eckerlin by name be one of first to set his name to
the same White Clay Creek set down by County Ord. Richard
Yeates, Esq. by his objection to Hoges Creek by name, Chartier
Creek be set down by same name and be known when Tingooqua
Creek be lost to memory of men. Pine Run and Cat Fish Run not set
in records is the same to all settlers round about. Teegarden is
not so set in the rocord. The Pierson Mill by ferry makes it Mill
Town or Mill-Boro. The main village being neither changed or
set down by Canon's Ord for he declares McCullough, like the
British, will soon be forgotten by all but the claim holders and
each man's tax claim demands which he hold as his rightful share
to McCullough Town, and to the first iron furnace in the Mohon-
galo Valley, 1779 to this time, December 4, 1786. The great change
made in 15 years in war, in settlements, in all things, even in death,
no man now do make known the times of 15 years in days to come.
The old times and old names are being lost to all who doth not set
in record all things of today for the next reading of the same.
John Canon and Isaac Cox declare little is left to be set in record
for our children's children to behold in records of the old days,
before the Mason and Dixon line divided us from old Augusta.
C. Horn, 1787

COURT RECORD

121

AUGUSTA TOWN, YOHOGANIA COUNTY, VIRGINIA

June 1, 1779

By General Orders issued by John Canon, Military Command-
er of Yohogania and Monongalia Counties, declare that each and
every settler in war service, in said counties, be set down in each
division in their regular order at Yohogania County Corte House
in Augusta Town. By appointment, by John Canon, Esq. Chief in
Command in said County, I. C. Horn, have made and set down as
directed, the names of each man in service of Patriot Army. The
same being set down for County and like list set in post on door of
said Corte House from time to time as made by Ord of Canon.
The said list to date, set in post by me, I, C. Horn, now declare by
oath the same be true as set forth for Commander In Chief by
said Counties by Colony of Virginia.
C. Horn, Vol. In Rifel Corps and Provo Marshall

HOME GUARD SERVICE FOR 1777

PATRIOTS

George Morris

Virginia

1766

Jonathan Morris, Sr.

Virginia

1776

Jacob Sellers, Sr.

Switzerland

1777

Jacob Cronch

Virginia

1777

Abner Hoge

Penn

1776-77

Zenas Mitchel

1776-77

George Sellers

Jacob Sellers

1776-77-78

David Hickman

Virginia

1777

Cephas Yoders

Virginia

1777

James Dougherty, Elder

Virginia

1777

John McCormick

Maryland

1777

Jacob Hickman

Virginia

1777

Daniel Moredock, Jr.

Virginia

1777

John Estel

Virginia

1777

James Burson

Virginia

1777

Jacob Dillinger

Virginia

1777

Robert Fulton

Virginia

1777

John Stackels

Virginia

1777

John Ryerson

Virginia

1777

Richard Hickman

Virginia

1776-77

William Crawford

Virginia

1778

John Poloch

Virginia

1777-78

122

THE HORN PAPERS

HOME GUARDS FOR YEAR 1778

William Teegarden

Virginia

1778

Michael Ely

Virginia

1778

Hugh Jackson

Virginia

1778

David Fox

Virginia

1778

William Fomer

Virginia

1778

John Ankrom

Virginia

1778

John Miller

Virginia

1778

John Barney

Virginia

1778

William Black

Virginia

1778

William Kerr

Virginia

1778

Jacob Sutton

.Virginia
MILITIA

1778

Captain George Hill

Virginia

1776-77-78-79

C. Horn

Virginia

1777-78

Acy Conwell

Virginia

1777-78

Jacob Morris

Virginia

1777-78

Conrad Sycks

Virginia

1777-78

George Teegarden

Virginia

1777-78

Daniel Moredock, Sr.

Virginia

1777-78

Christian Sellers

Penn

1777-78

Henry Huppman

Virginia

1777-78

Samuel Black

Virginia

1777-78

Resin Virgin

Virginia

1777-78

Jesse Virgin

Virginia

1777-78

George Strossnider

Virginia

1777-78

Jacob O'Brine

Enoch O'Brine

Virginia

1777-78

Thomas Hews

Virginia

1777-78

Rev. John Corbly

Virginia

1777-78

Jacob Ten Mile

Virginia

1777-78

Adam Penter

Virginia

1777-78

David Cox

Virginia

1777-78

William Frannegan

Virginia

1777-78

*Joseph Allen

Virginia

1777-78

David Morgan

Virginia

1777-78

Eberhart Bierer

Virginia

1777-78

John Horn

Virginia

1777

Hardtman Horn

Virginia

1777

John Houston

Virginia

1777

Robert Sair

Virginia

1777

COURT RECORD

Thomas Scott

Virginia

1777

James Black

Virginia

1776-77

Benjamin Dunn

Virginia

1777

Peter Bachus

Virginia

1777

James Newland

Virginia

1776

Isaac Teegarden

Virginia

1777

Samuel Teegarden

Virginia

1777

Jacob Ely

Virginia

1777

George Ely

Virginia

1777

John McClellan

Virginia

1777

Ellis Bailey

Virginia

1777

Robert Ailes

Virginia

1777

Robert Adams

Virginia

1777

James Culver

Virginia

1777

Louis Cragow

Virginia

1777

William Ackerman

Virginia

1777

Levi Harrod

Virginia

1777-78

David Polloch

Virginia

1777

*George Huckleberry

Virginia

1777

*Henry Brenton

Virginia

1777

Ulrich Meir

Virginia

1777

Samuel Knisely

Virginia

1777

George Knisely

Virginia

1777

William Cline

Virginia

1777

Acy Murphy

Virginia

1777

*Demas Benington

Virginia

1778

*Killed in battle.

123

VIRGINIA RIFLE CORPS

Morgan Morgan, Va. organized the Virginia Rifle Corps and
Captain of same and John Henderson Lieutenant, enlistment being —

Jacob Statler
Enos Rosenberry
David Keener
John Morris
Benjamin Maple
Robert Kincaid
David Irons
James Rush
James Rush
James White
Michael White

Robert Campbell
Richard Park
John Frazier
John Wetsel
*Richard Evans
Jesse Leonard
Eberhart Bierer
Samuel Orndorff
James Kincaid
*William Riley
* Killed in battle.

124 THE HORN PAPERS

OFFICERS HOME GUARDS

Captain William Archer Captain William Kincaid

Captain John Rogers, Sr. Lieutenant Jack Morris

Captain John Corbly Lieutenant John Moredock

Captain Joseph Parkinson Lieutenant Isaac Clutter

For years of 1776-77-78 as posted at Augusta Town
C. Horn, Postman

MONONGALIA COUNTY MEN IN BATTLE IN GENERAL

GREEN'S ARMY

Virginia Malitia
Lieutenants

John Maple Daniel Crago

James Freye Hiram White

James O'Neal *George Crawford

Robert Stackles *Edward Doughty

Richard Myers *Killed in battle

OFFICERS POSTED

Virginia Regulars in Service
Captain William Minor
Captain George Mier
Captain George Hill
Captain George Cragow
Captain John Canon
Captain David Shepard
Captain Morgan Morgan
Captain Morgan Jackson
Lieutenant John Henderson
Lieutenant John Rogers, Jr.
Lieutenant Jacob Statler
Lieutenant Eberhart Bierer
Lieutenant David Burson
Colonel William Wallace
Colonel John Minor
Colonel John Walton
Colonel Gist Culver
Colonel Daniel Rice
As posted at Augusta Town.

C. Horn, Postman

COURT RECORD

125

VIRGINIA REGULARS IN SERVICE

Henry Hartly

Dave Shepard

John Morris

Adam Newland
*Edward Doughty

James Burson

George Strossnider
*George Brown

Edward Scott

Martin Funk
*John Hargus

Elias Estel

John Staggers

James Mclntyre

Hugh Kenon

Thomas Meighen

Bultzer Loar

John Pennock

William Pennock

Thomas Kent

John Rush

David Lazeare
* Joshua Irons

James Lappin

Samuel McCullouch, Jr.

John Jones, Block House Run

Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia
Monongalia

MONONGALIA COUNTY REGULARS IN SERVICE AT
BATTLE OF COWPENS

Colonel William Minor

Lieutenant John Henderson

Elias White
*Noah Virgin

John Barnett

Silas McClain

David Glasgow

John Fraser
*John Rush

Hugh Jackson

Richard Swan
George Meir
John Baird
Samuel Sedgwick
James Hughes
James Bailey
Richard Craft
Levi Harrod
*John Miller
*Killed in battle

126

THE HORN PAPERS

YOHOGANIA COUNTY

Jacob Wiever

John Watson, Sr.

John Watson, Jr.

Adam Deever

Nate O'Brine

Christopher Horn

John Horn

Hardtman Horn

George Campbell

William Poole

George Poole

John Van Sweringen

Robert Buckingham

Robert Arnold
*Samuel Harris

Jacob Ten Mile

David Teegarden

Enoch O'Brine

John Heaton

Isaac McClain

James Ross

Samuel Wiever

James Trowbridge

James Wylie

Acy Van Sweringen

John Zook

Adam Tyford

Jacob Hill

Robert Jenkins

Samuel Jenkins

Robert Sair
tEdward Ward
Justie
tlsaac Cox

David Black

Robert McConnell

John Jones, Redstone

John Bachus, Redstone

David Beall, Pine Run

John Beeson, Redstone

Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogan
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani

Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani
Yohogani

tNot in Field Service

COURT RECORD 127

John Canon by C. Horn, List Clk. and Postman Provo Marshall
1778 and 1779 to June 1

Ohio County Virginia Patriots, posted at Augusta Town for
1777 and 1 778 by Richard Yeates, by Ord of David Shephard, Esq.,
Justie in Chancery for Ohio County Virginia, by consent of John
Canon. C. Horn

VI

MISCELLANEOUS MAPS AND PAPERS

Camp Catfish
CorteOrd. 1.
Be it known that the Catfish Corte do make Ord 1. the first day
of June 1772 to all ye settlers within North West Augusta County
that all laws of the King and Colony are set down in Ord 1. By
Ord of the Comisioner at Williamsburgh on September 11, 1768.
Take heed all ye settlers.

Recorded By C. Horn Jacob Horn, Justie in Chancery

June 1, 1772

Camp Cat Fish Corte
September 4, 1772
Being advised that some Bedford County settlers beyond South
Tingooqua Creek are not loyal to the King and the Colony of
Virginia the Corte did make known their intentions whereupon
Christian Zeller did make known his rights to homestead in Virginia
territory. He did make it known that he was the son of Jacob Zeller,
born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1706, and did come to Bedford
County and marry Katherine Reiler, and that John, Jacob, Ace,
Leonard, Christian, and Barbara was born. He, Christian, make
it known he was born in Bedford in 1744 and homesteaded in Spring-
hill in 1771 and did say by word of agreement that he and all the
Zellers be under Virginia law, whereupon the Corte did find them
loyal to Virginia and did set down the name of Sellers as the lawful
name. Hence, the other persons made in complaint did all make
known the same agreement and all are set down on Camp Cat Fish
Corte records as loyal Virginia settlers by Ord of Jacob Horn, this
day, September 4, 1772.

Jacob Horn, Justie
By C. Horn, Recorder

Ords 29

Be it known by all the settlers of that land now claimed by Bed-
ford County West of the Monongahelo, and South and east of the
Ohio River who claim rights under the authority of Penn's Council-
ors, are traitors to the Virginia Rights in the described Boundary,
and will be openly dealt with military law, under the authority of
the laws of Vrginia. Now, I, Jacob Horn, by Commission of
Authority under date of September 11th, 1768, declare, and em-
power John Canon, by Governor Dunmore's direction, to organize

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Map of Virginia in 17 j2 as Drawn by C. Bryce in 1771

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French Claims and Tribal Lands— Map on Stone by Richard Lewis, IJ4J

MMl TRAILS

Mohonga/o

Opposite Page Redrawn, Showing Details

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Sketch of Trail from Snow Creek to Camp Catfish as Made by Christopher Horn

in 1780

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND MAPS 129

a full Company of settlers loyal to the Virginia Cause, to overcome
all "opisitun" to us and destroy all Bedford authority on the soil of
land in the Boundary, as named.

We hold it to be unlawful and of traitors talk to acknowledge
any Ords of Bedford County as lawful righteous, or patriotic and
direct that moves be made to set aside any Ords not favored by
Dunmore's Party. Be it known that no Ords will be tolerated that
have not been set up by Virginia Authority and signed by, and under
my Seal.

Ords of Jacob Horn, Justie, March 11th, 1773.
On the same day and place, the organizing of the law's first
Ord, John Canon, as Captain, made ready to fulfill the King's Laws
by governor Dunmore's demand.
Signed.

Christopher Gist by x John Swan

John Horn William McConnelly

Christopher Horn Ezra Loughmiller

John Heaton Joel Van Reeves

Hardtman Horn Andrew Heathe

Resin Virgin Joel Van Ruth

Isaac Cox John Canon, Captain

Martin Hough Jeremiah Glasgo

Abel McCulloch John Gibson

Daniel Moredock, Sen. Richard Yeates

James Moredock Benjamin Kirkendal

George Morris Benjamin Frye

James Wright John Neville

Conrad Sycks Thomas Hughes

William Teegarden George Teegarden

John Armstrong Henry Van Meter

Signed — Jacob Horn, Justie

By My Name and Seal for Augusta County this 1 1th day of March,

1773

Jacob Horn's Seal ***

Camp Catfish
May 4, 1773
Corte Notice

Know ye all ye settlers in northwest Augusta County Colony of
Virginia the Ord set down in September, 1772, to make the poll of
each settler for the King and Colony will be subscribed to by each
settler's hand to the Cortes officers of Poll Men the same being
Daniel Moredock, the elder, J. Horn and Hardtman Horn. By

10

130 THE HORN PAPERS

Ord of this Corte know ye all take notis that all settlers must make
known his name and colony to the Poll Men before the 15th day of
August next by Order of Justie J. Horn, Justie in Chancery Camp
Catfish Corte this 4th day of May, by our Lord's year 1773.

J. Horn, Justie
By I. C. Horn, Clk and Seal Man
Camp Catfish Corte

Ord 7 Camp Cat Fish Corte
June 8th, 1773

Be it known as set forth by Ord 7 of the Cat Fish Corte this
eighth day of June, 1773, that the Cort, Jacob Horn by Justie in
Chancery by a Ord make the names of the Cort officers as the same
set forth for each man with his prescribed labor. John Horn be and
hereby named Sheriff of all the prescribed territory and jourisdiction
of said Cat Fish Corte. Christopher Horn to be Tax Aportoner of
the same territory. Daniel Moredock Elder to be Tax Receiver of
that portion of territory south of South Tingooqua Creek to Turkee
Foot Hill to be the Mohongalo River to Gist Point. Hardtman
Horn the same of that portion of territory north of said creek and
to such other habitations as the Corte may direct the said Hardtman
Horn to Tax Receiver by and for Virginia for the said year of 1773
by order of the Corte this eighth day of June, the hour of noon being
set down.

Jacob Horn, Justie
John Watson, Clk
C. Horn — Recorder
1773

Camp Cat Fish — June 4, 1773

Bowlegs declare Spirit Spring to be the place to where the Dela-
ware guide set his camp in 1653 ( ) One Hundred And Thirty
Years hence and the Great Spirit has only made the waters dry up
to times hence.

It was stated by Tingooqua and Peter Charters in 1751 no other
Spring was like unto Spirit Spring in flo of its water and so clere in
look. The fish stone being set on this ground in 1695 by Chief Wa-
Ha-Weg-Lo the same being a part Indian of the Delaware tribe —
The same being kild at Flint Top in 1748. Bowlegs declare Wa-Ha-
Weg-Lo comes to Spirit Spring once every moon and Bowlegs can
see him when he gives the Peace Call. John Hardtman Wiever and
McCullough all declare no person did appere at the Spring but
Bowlegs declare he did see the Chief at this time but no white man
believe it so. For no man think old Wa-Ha-Weg-Lo was here

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Gist and Frazkr Survey of Virginia in 1/49

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND MAPS 131

after he was kild at Flint Top in 1748. No man tell Bowlegs what
he think for he is the gard of peace and can hear and see an enemy
two miles before any white man se them. It is known by many that
Bowlegs did track one Lake Indian from Camp Sat Fish 2 to
Turkee Foot Rock in the hours of darkness and return to this
place when the sun was one hand high in the east. No word did he
say of it only bad Indian look at Camp Cat Fish me kil him by
French Creek. He a Frenchman Indian. Bad ah bad. He One
Lake Indian. How many Indians Bowlegs killed no man knoweth
but Bowlegs never did harm to white people so far as known at this
time. Being by his count 89 years of time in the land and did battle
at Flint Top in 1748 and did gide Christopher Gist to the Ohio
country in 1749 and stated in 1751 he did go with Buck Eckerlin
and brother and to Indians at Turkee Foot Camp to a place set up
at mouth of east branch of Mohongalo River named Eckerlin Point
in 1736 but set down as Gist point in 1747 and so it is to this day. Be
it known that Bowlegs and Peter Charters with Buck Eckerlin and
brother was the only people to behold the great Indian battle at
Flint Top in 1748. They did behold the fite and did see Indians in
great numbers on the 17th day and in 9th month in this year. Where
upon Bowlegs did assail the enemy of Delaware inn battle and the
Eckerlins being the only white man to behold this greatest of all
Indian battles, did pas on to east side of Mohongalo River to Gist
Homestead where they camped for some days before they trailed
to Williamsburgh early in October 1748 it being set forth in public
that the Eckerlins was killed by Indians on the cheat or east branch
river made known to be not so in fact they being in Virginia in 1748.
This statement being set down at this day and date in order to hold
it for the Village of Delaware to be set up on this Tingooqua's
Camp by self for a public village under the laws of Virginia as set
forth by my hand at this time.

C. Horn
Added To The Document At A Later Date By C. Horn

Plans and size of the Jacob Horn Block House was made by
Alexander Block of Williamsburgh in the year 1768 by order of
Virginia Council. Being twenty three wide thirty four feet long
eleven and one half feet to top of wall line lower part seven and one
half feet high the upper part being three and one half feet on wall
line and man high in center with lookout ten by twelve feet by eight
feet high roof to be one therd run. The lower part to be patetioned
in center lengthwise and cross patetion to be nineteen feet from front
wall with two doors three by seven feet and four windows two logs
high. Lookout to have four portholes on all four sides door to have

132 THE HORN PAPERS

lock bar and well pinned stockade fifty by seventy feet and eight feet
round about the block Court House.
Seat and bench for Justice and Clk.

Camp Catfish Corte
September 6th 1773
Be it known all ye settlers in Northwest Augusta County that by
the poll made by Ord 12 of this Corte now made the Corte Record
by Ord 27 ther being set down by the names of 377 Loyal Virgin
settlers and 10 Bedford County settlers and 3 French settlers and
2 settlers not polled in person. This notis to ye all be known by
Ord 38 of this Camp Catfish Corte this day September 6th in the
year of our Lord, 1773.

(signed) J. Horn, Justie
C. Horn, Clk — recorder

Camp Cat Fish Aug 4th
Reed ten shillings in payment for road making to Tegarden
Forts in the this date August 4th in the year of our Lord 1774.

Reed in payment
(signed) John Heaton.
(On reverse) Camp Cat Fish Corte

Payment in full made to John Heaton
by me C. Horn
August 4th, 1774

Camp Cat Fish 1774 — October 6
This day, I, C. Horn, have made this mark of survey to Tin-
gooqua's battleground of Flint Top for my homestead under
Virginia laws in and for Augusta County Colony of Virginia in
bounds of fourteen hundred and fifty acres and thirty one parts.

This land being the same that Christopher Gist and Father
made much talk of at our old home at Snow Creek in 1760. I then
made it understood that I desired Flint Top site for a home but
did not think it would be settled in years and in 1772 when we came
to Camp Cat Fish and Bowlegs trailed over the battlefield and
made mention of all the Delaware Indians killed on September 17th
and 18th, 1748, as Gist made mention of it was all covered with
the bones of the dead Indians in the low ground on all the north
side of Tingooqua's Creek and Cat Fish Run. The green trees
were fired in 1748 by the Indians in battle and are marked by flint
points by hundreds.

Bowlegs claimed 12,000 Indians are killed on this land. Tingoo-
qua and Wessemeking with Father Gist and the French man in 1751
gave the number of Indians engaged in battle to be 23,000. Indian

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND MAPS 133

warfare marked the site on Eckerlin and Gist Trail to Tingooqua
Creek on trail crossing to Cat Fish Run to Indian Ridge by trail set
up by the Delawares. This land being all timber on high ground.
Tingooqua's band made camp near mouth of Cat Fish Run. The
stone set by Gist in 1751 is now in place where Wessameking set
camp in June of same year for the French mark. Spirit Spring has
one of the stones set by Hardtman last year when he walled up
this spring in September.

(Map on reverse side of Flint Top Battle Field) Dated 1774.

Queen Elizabeth Corte
1774
Jacob Horn
Camp Cat Fish
Spirit Spring

It being well known that the Bedford settlers are making claims
to his Majesty's lands on the river at old Ft. Jumonville on Redstone

being treason to Virginia Justie Cox decree that all ye loyal
Virginians as settled by Gist in 1763 that no man goeth over

to the enemy for made to make it more in force. The Cat

Fish Corte being by the trail to Hannastown the Bedford settlers
can be whipped and drove over the mountains. Canon declare by the
law he will hang every Bedford settler on Virginia Soil with Craw-
ford and Hanna first. Georg Wlson being a trator Canon will have
him burned for his crimes. This will make an end to the trouble.
The place where the corte is set up is not one of but one of great

to Virginia. The Bedford settlers being made of hard criminals
you (u) will be only right (Cox?) to bring them into Corte

and set them in bonds. Cat Fish Corte hold no fears for Hanna
but now it is one of to them

(signed) Joh Gibson.

Queen Elizabeth Corte
March 10, 1775
John Horn :

By Ord Set by Cox Justie on the 7th
Be you directed to Command
One hundred Virginia Deputies to servis
Captain Canon as Garde in servis
to Hannastown in April by Ord 21st.
Take you heed and set this servis
to be April 3rd. By Ord of Canon
Michel Church

134 THE HORN PAPERS

Camp Cat Fish
1775 December 4

The Virginia Line as agreed upon and set down for the year of
1776 is now lawful place for said year the line being set on the
place at mouth of Crooked Run on South Tingooqua Creek and this
set all at los to Virginia at Camp Cat Fish and Augusta Town.
But Canon and Cox declare the line as set down in October to be of
no consideration on the part of ether Colony so be it, we are in
Virginia same as in 1772.

It being agreed by Virginia and Penns peepul that the French
lead plate planted by Gist Jacob Horn and French serveys in 1751
be digged up and made in fact of be seing the sam lead plate wrer
upon Jacob Horn Richard Yates Isaac Cox, John Canon with
George Teegarden and Thomas Lee at Williamsburgh and Robert
Wilson at Bedford did by the gide and knowledge of Jacob Horn
go to Crooked Run in October this year and did dig up this French
lead plate and all the men did behold this mark as set up by the
French in 1751 and did plant it in the same like manner about four
feet in the earth to forever as a mark to the French claims in 1748
to 1758, and all set his mark to this place as the Virginia line for the
year 1776.
C. Horn

Augusta Town Ord Notice

Of Patriots In Service

April 1, 1777

Be it known that John Canon on being commissioned military
commander did demand the name of every patriot set down in
service of his country on April 1 and posted in public for all people
on training day April 10, 1777. By and for the northwest district
of Virginia.

By Ord Augusta Town Corte

John Canon Commander
Homegards 8 — James Dougherty Elder

Captain Archer 9~l°h" ^cCormick

« T , ^ , 10 — Jacob Hickman

1 — Jacob Crouch J

2 — Abraham Hoge ^ , . Ci. tj

3— Zenas Mitchel Gards At St0re H°USe

A r> c ii Augusta lown

4 — George tellers

5 — Jacob Sellers 1 — Martin Hough

6 — David Hickman 2 — Jacob Hill

7 — Cephas Yoders 3 — Ace McMerty

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND MAPS 135

Virginia Militia 14 — Thomas Hews

~ t . r> TT.,, 15 — Dennis Rice

Captain George Hill i6_Robert Sair

1 — C. Horn 17 — George Campbell

2 — Acy Conwell 18 — John Crumrine

3 — Jack Morris 19 — Georg Allen

4 — Conrad Sycks 20 — John Heaton

5 — Georg Teegarden

6 — Daniel Moredock Gards at Powderhouse

7 — Christian Sellers < T , r?

8-Henry Huffman 1-Joseph Frye

n c i r»i i 2 — James Scot

9 — Samuel Black ~ Jn . . n tj.,,

i a r» • XT- • 3 — Captain Georg Hill
10 — Resin Virgin r 6

1 1 — George Strossnider Captain Georg Hill

12 — Jacob O'Brine Gave 60 man command to Captain

13— Enoch O'Brine Mier in 1777.

Be it known the afore names were posted at Augustatown as
was made in orde of the Corte. Each man named being set down in
the Virginia Roll Of Patriot Soldiers. I, C. Horn, by Canon's di-
rection did witness the same at Augustatown on April 10, 1777,
this being my record set down by law.
C.Horn April, 1777

Augustatown
May 4, 1777.

By Ord of John Canon, Military Commander of Monongalia
and Yohogania Counties Colony, Va., I, C. Horn, by his hand post
the first cast of this patriot Ord to be set on door of Court House
whereby all the settlers know ye the name of each patriot set down
this day as being in war services on the first day hence.

Patriot

J. Morgan George Hup

Andrew Scot Minor Hufman

Wm. Beall John Henderson

Jason Rice Silas Doty

Jackson Morris William Crofford

John George Strossnider

Samuel Rush Gabril South

Christian Sellers James O'Coner

Jacob Sellers David Cline

William Matson John Aimes

David Black Joel Pentecost

James Ely Charles Hacheus ( ?)

136 THE HORN PAPERS

Frank Tenmile Martin McMullen

Joseph Taylor Leonard Sellers

William Jones George Kraft

William Vanmetre Henry Barnard

Joseph Mordock Peter Dunson

David Cox Edward Pentree (?)

John Russel John Bar

Edward Cunningham William Ross

Amos Carstoe (Garstoe) Jef Virgin

Leonard Parkinson Will Jackson

William Rosenberry John Hoge

John Grim Barny Whitlay
Stephen McClain

Camp Catfish
September 4 1773
Be it known that I Jacob Horn Justie do set the day of October
1 as the time for all Indians now in peace on Delaware claims to
make known their and marks before Crofford marks you in

the Nations tribe as inemis of the King and Colony. Set this day by
Ord 40.

Jacob Horn, Justie

Camp Catfish Cort
October 4, 1772
Ord 12.
By order of the Commissioner at Williamsburgh this Corte
is dirrected to take the name of each and every settler within the
borders of Northwest Augusta County West of the Monongahela
River, North to the dividing yaters of the Ohio River. All loyal
Virginia settlers to be set down on the Corte record and all others
be directed to leave this land on peril of their lives. The sheriff to
make known the names of all persons in resistance after December
10, 1772 to the Corte. The homesteads of all settlers of agreement
made with Christopher Gist to the year of 1766 to be set down as
loyal Virginia claims. From the end of sed year to this time all
homesteads settlers shall be made loyal by oath of loyalty to the
King and the Royal Colony. All other settlers will be find whipped
and driven from the land within the jourisdiction of this Corte.

Jacob Horn, Justie in Chancery
John Watson Clk.
1772.

>

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND MAPS 137

Camp Catfish
May 4th 1774
Bowlegs the Prophet Joshua's brother Opamolehu did die at
the Queen Village in June two years hence. Bowlegs is now the
one Delaware Indian to come to Spirit Spring. Bowlegs declare
he will make his camp by the Spring where he lived since 1696.
Bowlegs lerned much from Gist and Riley and Buck Eckerlin. One
James Crow did bild his cabin on the Delaware village lands ten
leagues to the West of the Council Stone being one of the outposts
by the lands of the Shawanese. Bowlegs declare the French did
bid the Shawanese to make war on the Delawares at this village
in 1738 but Gist Eckerlin and Riley did each and all avowed to
join the Delaware band and drive the Shawanese out of the lands
whereupon they all did depart for their village on the Ohio River.
Opamolehu did set the tribe much afraid smalpox on the Chiev.
Bowlegs Shawanese say is one evil spirit. He say we all same
Indians only French make Shawanese bad same as Lake Indians.
The war Chief Wa-ha-wag-lo hatted all Shawanese for trading
with the French. Now no other but peace Indians have been at
Camp Catfish so far as be it known since in 1748. Bowlegs declare
will trail here so long as he is on the trail.

C. Horn

Be it known to the Court, and to the County of North West
Augusta, the undersigned persons do here set forth their legal
lawful claims to the provisions made by the General Assembly to
the Owners and Maintainers, of duly erected forts on the Western
frontier borders for protection of all settles in time of threatened
danger from Indians engagements, by an allowance of 50 per
annual, for 1772 to 1774. By, and under said Act, we petition for
such allowance, by order of the Court.

Signed.

Captain John Seals Henry Vanmetre

Samuel Jackson John Rice

George Morris Robert Lemley

Daniel Ryerson John Huston

George Teegarden James Lindley

Richard Hickman Zacharia Martin

Robert Morris Jackson Henderson

Michael Snider Michael McClelland
James Moredock

138 THE HORN PAPERS

Statement sworn to by Captain John Seals, October 4th, 1772,
in open Court at Camp Cat Fish before Judge Jacob Horn, Judge
in Chancery, and John Canon Councilor.

I, John Seals, Sen, born in Jersey, October 21st, 1701, a lawful
and loyal Planter of the Royal Colony of Virginia from 1728, to
this day, served in the late French and Indian War, as a private,
subordinate teamster, under Major Washington, in 1754, and
raised to Captain in 1755. Marched under the orders of General
Edward Braddock, to Dunbar, and there guarded entrained sup-
plies, and I was at the Battle of Quebec, therefore an English
subject. In 1761, I became a Vrginia frontier border settler on
South Tingooqua Waters, above White Rocks, and built the
strongest fort now standing in this Virginia County, and keep it
open to all Virginia subjects in time of threatened Indian Raids
therefore the 50 Sterling Claims petitioned for, from the Colony
is to be used for supplies, only for the public use when quartered in
the safety of Fort Seals.

Sworn to and subscribed to by Capt. John Seals, this day Oct.
4th, 1772.

C. Horn, Clerk.

John Canon Councillor.

Revolutionary War Soldiers

Names of the Settlers in the Revolutionary War 1775 to 1781,
as Posted By Christopher Horn, Samuel McCullough, and William
Myers at Augusta Town from 1775 to 1781, as directed by Col.
John Canon, and Zacwell Morgan.

1775 — Captain Michael Cresap Senior's Rifle Corps, Marched
from Fort Teegarden via Wells Creek, to Boston in September,
1775.

1.

Thomas Brown

11.

Samuel Martin

2.

Jacob Clarstow

12.

John Alley

3.

Joseph Brown

13.

Jacob Beeson

4.

John Allen

14.

Henry Beeson

5.

William Allen

15.

Richard Dyce

6.

Ichabod Ashcroft

16.

Hiram Teegarden

7.

Jeremiah Beeks

17.

William Harris, Sen

8.

Richard Ankrom

18.

Pattrick O'Brine

9.

John Burris

19.

David Blair

10.

Michael Cresap, Jr.

20.

David McGuire

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND MAPS

139

21.

Frank Ten Mile

52.

David Fox

22.

Thomas Nichols

S3.

Richard Weaver, Jr.

23.

Edward Giles

54.

Abner Howell, Lieu't II

24.

George Zellar Sellars

SS.

David Shepard

25.

Henry Clinton

56.

Jesse Virgin

26.

David Cox

57.

Isaac Teegarden

27.

Richard Cox

58.

John Miller (Miller Run)

28.

James Bailey

59.

William Stewart

29.

Robert Arnold

60.

John Gibson

30.

John Rice, Jr.

61.

Daniel Morgan

31.

Jacob Wiseacre

62.

John Glasgow

33.

Cornlious O'Conor

63.

William Minor

34.

David Black

64.

Jacob Dillinger

35.

James Russell

6S.

James Rush, Jr.

36.

John Roggers

66.

Jacob Yardley

37.

David Rogers

61.

David Owen

38.

David Barns

68.

Leonard Rice

39.

George Garrison

69.

Richard Ebberhart

40.

James Kincaid

70.

John Pennock

41.

George Hill

71.

Robert Patterson

42.

Peter Morris

72.

John Seals, Jr.

43.

George Heather

73.

Robert Anton

44.

Edward Ward, Lieu't I

74.

James Brice

45.

John Keigher

75.

Edward Taylor

46.

James Rhodes

76.

Robert Casteel

47.

James Rush

77.

Joseph Mains

48.

George South

78.

Hugh West

49.

Henry Jackson

79.

McHenry Neel

50.

Samuel Fulton

80.

William Findley

51.

Demas Benington

Posted List set by John Cannon's front Post line, by I, Jacob
Horn on this 27 day of September — 1775.

My seal,

List of Rev. War Soldiers posted at Augusta Town, by Samuel
McCullough, November 10th, 1775, by order of Col. John Canon
as set forth by the Col. of Virginia.

Lewis Clarstow
George Beeks
William Lemley
Casper Beeson
Jacob Beeson

1.

John Artman

6,

2.

Samuel Clinton

8,

3.

Christopher Horn

9

4.

Jacob Wiever, Jr.

10

5.

Samuel Pierson

11

140

THE HORN PAPERS

12.

Robert Ailse

25.

George Seals

13.

George Brown

26.

John Corbley

14.

John Allen

27.

William Syckes

15.

Jacob Dillinger

28.

Lewis Headlee

16.

John Bell

29.

George Stone

17.

Roger Beall

30.

David Bonnett

19.

Henry Enochs

31.

Samuel Lappin

20.

Samuel Clarke

32.

George Black

21.

Morgan Cline

33.

John Henderson

22.

George Cowell

34.

Caleb Grimes

24.

John Boreman

3S.

Hugh Jackson

23.

Peter Boreman

36.

George Boone

Samuel McCullough, Postman

By his Seal # Nov. 10th, 1775.

List of Rev. War Soldiers posted at Augusta Town, April 6th,
1776 by C. Horn as directed by Col. John Canon, and David Mor-
gan, Esq.

1.

Resin Virgin

25.

Robert Fulton, Jr.

2.

Edward Ward

27.

Michael Snider

3.

Isaac Cox

28.

Jacob Dowell

4.

James Yeates

29.

Jacob Statler

5.

John Horn

30.

Eli Lantz

7.

Peter Bryan

31.

Bazil Lemley

8.

Eli Leonard

33.

John Heims

9.

David Rose

34.

Samuel Keighley

10.

James Rice

31.

Cornelius Brackenridge

11.

James Price

32.

Jacob Sellers

12.

John Moredock

33.

William Hickman

13.

Samuel Anderson

34.

John Huges (The Pines)

15.

John Morris

3S.

John Hewses

14.

Samuel Jackson

(Harrods Flats)

16.

Yerkis Cowell

36.

Peter Davis

17.

James Morand

37.

Thomas Ackford

18.

William Heaton

38.

Ephson Brownsfield

19.

Samuel Patterson

39.

John Carr.

20.

Bernard Eckerlin (Scouts)

40.

Edward Taylor

21.

Thomas Eckerlin

41.

John Teegarden

(Range Scouts)

42.

Edward Thomas

22.

John Whetsel

43.

Edward Doughty

23.

David Canon

44.

Robert Doughty

24.

James Huston

45.

Gabriel Cox

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND MAPS

141

46.

Henry Enix

56. Jacob Ruch

47.

John Moore

57. Azriah Davis

48.

Samuel Moore

58. David Ryerson

49.

Robert Orndorff

59. William Ryerson

50.

Zephaniah Johnson

60. George Ryerson

51.

Jacob Ely

(Virginia Militia.

52.

George Ely

Captain, Andrew Heathe.

S3.

James Sair

Lieutenant, James Yeates.

54.

Robert Sair

Chaplin, John Corbley.

SS.

James Milliken

Volunter Service for year of
1776.)

11

/tefl of Trv// J W 7iir~/cey foot /?oc£

^^ Caf/z<sA
Jacob McrTt , <?■& 2&rc?? 33^^/7^/

Map of Site of Turkey Foot Rock Made by Jacob Horn — 1751

THE HORN PAPERS

PART II

AUTHOR'S NOTE

From the foregoing papers it will be seen that many things
happened on the Monongahela and the Upper Ohio during the
Revolution and for several years preceding, which have not hereto-
fore been fully understood. Some misconceptions can be corrected.
Many loose threads of colonial history may be woven into a con-
nected whole.

A study of what has been written about Virginia's Northwest
Augusta, and a study of the maps of the district prior to 1800, con-
vince one that, as to place and time in history, that territory has
been neglected and misunderstood.

There are many reasons for this. Though five generations of
my ancestry lived and died there, though the first twelve years of
my life were spent there, and since moving to Kansas in 1882 my
immediate family have been interested in Greene and Washington
counties, yet I was not fully aware of the importance of many things
mentioned in the old papers until three or four years after I began
writing the material for this work. It was not until inquiries con-
cerning how this or that were possible impelled me to further study
and investigation that I came to realize the full import of many
references to important events of the early settlements. This in-
vestigation leads me to the conclusion that the western writers know
more about what occurred on the Monongahela in revolutionary
and prerevolutionary times than do the eastern historians. Yet the
westerners, being so far removed from the actual scene of action,
have not had a very clear conception of the geographical setting.
This, however, is partly explained by the fact that through the genius
of the greatest of all collectors, Dr. Lyman C. Draper, a vast a-
mount of the source material, as well as the preservation of tradition
by letter and personal interview, found a final home and zealous
protection in the Wisconsin Historical Society of Madison. It is
significant that the five volumes of assembled papers, interviews,
etc., the result of Mr. Draper's far-reaching search, ably collected
and edited by Reuben G. Thwaites and Louise M. Kellog, are in
relation particularly to the Upper Ohio. These five volumes, The
Upper Ohio Series, published 1905-1920 by the Wisconsin Histori-
cal Society, covering the years 1774 to 1781, are convincing evidence
of the importance of the events under consideration both in time and
place.

Anything relating to the efforts of France and of England to
gain for themselves individual control and dominion in America is
of interest. The story of the lead plates planted by France at the

AUTHOR'S NOTE 145

streams on which the English colonists were soon to swarm is
doubly interesting.

After the manuscript for these volumes was completed, what
seems to be one of these plates, planted in 1751, was found in the
the bottom of an old trunk belonging to a deceased sister. A photo-
graph of this plate will be found herein. The original, with the
smaller auxiliary ones, marked by Christopher Horn and Nate
O'brien in 1795, is in the custody of Greene County Historical So-
ciety of Waynesburg. How this plate found its way to the bottom
of a forgotten trunk in Kansas may never be known. Like many
other things brought to light after long years of hiding, this too is
of interest.

Erosion of its banks by the Ohio River uncovered two of the
six plates planted by the French, in 1749, at the mouths of the Mus-
kingum and the Great Kanawha Rivers. By the merest chance these
were found. Another was dug up by the Indians immediately after
its deposit and was rushed by runner to Governor William Johnson,
with the message, "Here is one of these devilish things."

The many references to Christopher Gist by the Horns and
others challenge research as to the activities of that great explorer.
There is also much added to what has been heretofore known about
the Eckerlin Brothers, William and James Harrod, John Findlay,
David Shepard, John Cannon, John Minor, John Heaton, John Cor-
bly, Michael Cresap, Abner Howell, James Seals, Samuel Jackson,
Zackwell Morgan, the Zanes, and a host of other patriots of that
stirring time. The same may be said of Logan and many other
Indians who were their friends and acquaintances. We also learn
more about the notorious Dr. John Connolly and his sponsor, Lord
Dunmore, Governor of Virginia.

In the long list of settlers who came to the Monongahela in
1763 and soon afterwards (opening the Ohio for the settlement of
Kentucky in 1775), and who later moved on to the Northwest
under George Rogers Clark and General Wayne, we find sufficient
numbers to convince us that the major part of the pioneers to the
Middle West traveled by the Ohio and not over the wilderness
trail. Futhermore, as we learn more about them, we find that they
were not principally the lawless class of adventurers, as some would
have us believe.

Herein we learn that the first iron furnace west of the mountains
was on the South fork of Tenmile Creek, that the first court was on
the waters of the North fork of that historic stream, and that
George Rogers Clark's boats were built at Greensboro in 1777
and 1778.

146 THE HORN PAPERS

The maps are of interest. By comparing them with contempor-
ary maps of the district, they become particularly interesting. Their
accuracy is remarkable. These must have been made by men on the
ground — by those who knew.

Long lost trails are traced. Ancient stream crossings are men-
tioned. The forgotten towns, McCulloughtown, Augustatown, Ra-
zortown, and Teagardens Ferry are brought to light and located.

In the old papers frequent references to the Indian tribes ex-
plode the often-repeated theory that the Tenmile-Dunkard country
was a no man's land when the white man came, that it was a mutual
hunting ground between the tribes of the north and those of the
south. We find that the white traders had long known many of
these Indians, and the first settlers found many of the friendly Dela-
wares here where their numerous village sites dot the district. That
these were comparatively recent is evidenced by the well-preserved
skeleton remains with which are found artifacts showing contact
with the whites. The mysterious battleground, on which it has often
been said that the Delewares were destroyed, takes form.

Though in the beginning of these volumes we expressed the
hope that they would renew interest in our early history, it will bear
repeating here, in substance, that in these rather disjointed jottings
of those early pioneers will be found many things worthy of preser-
vation and much to stimulate further research into our colonial
history.

CHAPTER I.
SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS

In the year 1540, Coronado led an army from Mexico to the
Santa Fe regions of the valley of the Rio Grande. He had gone in
search of the wealthy villages of which Cabeza de Vaca had heard
in his wanderings and concerning which he had many mysterious
things to say after he arrived in New Spain.

These villages were later investigated by Marcos de Niza, who
made such a glorious report that the viceroy, Mendoza, determined
to send an army to conquer the rich realm, which was called the
"Seven Cities of Cibolo. " It has been fully established that this
army encountered the first pueblo at what is now the site of "Old
Zuni," passed the rock of Acoma, the Sanda range of mountains,
and to certain villages of these hills, and from many later historical
statements, the site of this village was convincingly located, by
Bantelier, Hodge, and other able historians, at the ruins of an old
pueblo near the modern town of Bernalillo.

Coronado was greatly disappointed and showed no concern in
anything beyond, except what gave promise of great wealth. While
at the villages of Cibolo, the village of Zuni, pueblo of Hawikuh,
there came to him from a town more than a hundred leagues beyond
the Rio Grande a deputation of Indians who had the hide of a bison
with certain figures tattooed on it. This fired the minds of the Span-
iards to see the great plains over which bisons roamed by the mil-
lions and to investigate the strange story the Indians told of the
great cities that existed far out on the plains, with great quantities
of gold, which was common to the land of Quiviras.

Quiviras, to which the Spaniards under Coronado marched in
1541, lay between the present towns of Junction City and Council
Grove, south of the Kansas River, where many signs of the Spanish
Conquest have been discovered. To these lands the Spanish Gov-
ernment laid claim one hundred forty-one years before William
Penn landed in Philadelphia and made peace with the Delaware
Indian tribe and representatives of the Shawnee tribe, and called
his purchased land Pennsylvania.

There are several sites in central Kansas that have been fully
identified as places visited by Coronado in 1541, and later by other
Spanish explorers in the early years of their conquest of the Indians
on the plains of Kansas long before any other white man set foot
on the soil in the Ohio Valley.

148 THE HORN PAPERS

Articles of Spanish manufacture, of Coronado's day, bearing in-
scriptions that leave not a single doubt of their presence here in
1541, have been found in excavations made at the sites of Indian
villages in central Kansas, indicating that their eastern terminal
reached Kansas, and Osage Indian villages on the Missouri River.
The Spanish people, however, always in search of gold and other
treasures of wealth, did not plant a colony in Kansas to hold their
claims, but left the territory to the Indians.

Later, the French laid claim to the eastern portions and drove
a sharp bargain with the Indians to hold the Spaniards in check, and
to assist them and the Five Nations to drive the English and the
Delaware tribe out of the territory west of the Susquehanna River,
which the French claimed under two rights, viz., first, as being a
part of the Louisiana Territory, and, second, by a treaty made with
the Delaware Indians in 1664. The Spanish, while leaving traces of
their march from Mexico to the Missouri River, left no permanent
settlement within the territory of what is now the State of Kansas.

We will now let the Spanish Government and their claims in
America rest for a time, and take up the French explorations and
their settlements in America and their plan to establish a French
Empire in America with the capital to be known as Duquesne at the
head of the Ohio River.

THE FRENCH EXPLORATIONS AND FRENCH
SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA

It is not precisely known at just what date the French sea captains
first attempted to follow the pathway of Columbus and Cabot across
the Atlantic; but in 1497, the French Court discussed plans to fol-
low Columbus to the shores of India. However, no plan was com-
pleted or carried out before the year 1500. In 1503, the French
mariners prepared to make a voyage westward to the India Coast;
and later that year some deep sea fisherman from Normandy secured
a charter to sail to the Northwest and fish in the waters of the
Northwest Passage.

It was as early as 1504 that the fisherman of Normandy and
Brittany began to ply their craft on the banks of Newfoundland.
A map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was drawn by a Frenchman in
1506. Two years afterward, a French ship carried home for the
astonishment of the Court of Louis XII some of the Huron Indians,
and in 1518, the colonizing of the New World was planned by
Francis I. In 1523, the exploration of New France led by Giovanni
Verrazano, a native of Florence, was begun.

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 149

It was near the end of 1523 that Verrazano left Dieppe on the
frigate, "Dolphin," to begin his voyage. He reached the Madeira
Islands, but did not depart from them until in January of the follow-
ing year. The weather was stormy, the sailing was very difficult, and
it required fifty-five days of hard struggle against the wind and
wave to reach the American shores. He reached the latitude of
Wilmington, Delaware, and coasting northward discovered New
York, also Narragansett Bay. He made landings and opened traffic
with the natives. The Indians were found to be kind and gentle.
They gave the Frenchmen some food and animal skins and invited
them to visit their village.

They reached a point on the coast of Rhode Island where they
anchored for fifteen days, and continued to trade with the Indians.
Passing the east coast of Nova Scotia, the bold navigator reached
Newfoundland in the latter part of May 1524, and took possession
in the name of his King. On his return to Dieppe in July 1524, he
wrote for Francis I a detailed account of his discoveries. His work
was recognized by the sovereign, and the name of New France was
given to this part of the continent, the coast line of which had been
traced by the adventurous crew of the "Dolphin."

VOYAGE OF JAMES CARTIER

Like some of his predecessors, Cartier had expected to discover
somewhere in those waters a passage westward to Asia. Disap-
pointed in this hope, he changed his course to the north and followed
the coast as far as Gaspe Bay. Here, upon the point of land, he set
up the cross bearing the shield with the lily of France, and pro-
claimed the French king monarch of the country.

Following his explorations, he next entered the estuary and St.
Lawrence River. Thinking it an impractical plan to pass the winter
in the New World, Cartier turned his prows toward France and one
month later reached Saint-Malo in safety.

As was the case in England, the youth of nobility in France be-
came ambitious to seek fortune in the New World. After the return
of Cartier, there was a lull for five years. At length, Francis de la
Roque, known as Lord Roberval in Picardy, revived the project of
planting a colony beyond the Atlantic. He received from the Court
of France a commission to carry an expedition with emigrants to
the country of the St. Lawrence. He was given the title of Viceroy
and Lieutenant-General of New France, and much vain-glorious
ceremony attended his preparations. Lord Roberval was wise
enough to avail himself of the experiences and abilities of his pre-

150 THE HORN PAPERS

decessor. Cartier was retained in the service and was induced to
conduct the new expedition with the titles of Chief Pilot and Cap-
tain General.

A COLONY OF DESPERATE CRIMINALS

We here reach one of the astonishing circumstances which have
recurred time and again in the founding of distant states. The pro-
moters of such enterprises find difficulty in securing a sufficient num-
ber of emigrants. Hereupon the Government comes to the rescue
with the offer to discharge its criminal classes through the vent of
colonial enterprise.

Lord Roberval made but little progress in collecting his colony,
and appealed to the Court for aid. The Government responded by
opening the prisons of the kingdom and giving freedom to whoever
would join the expedition. There was a rush of robbers, swindlers,
and murderers, and the list was immediately filled. Only counter-
feiters and traitors were denied the privilege of gaining their liberty
in the New World. The equipment of the squadron was completed,
and the emigrant colony was made up for the most part of criminals
and the refuse of French society.

Five ships, under the command of Cartier, left France in May
1541 and reached the St. Lawrence in safety. Cartier and Lord
Roberval were never of the same mind, and harmony never pre-
vailed between them. In June 1542, Cartier secretly got together
his part of the squadron and returned to Europe. Lord Roberval
found himself alone in New France with three shiploads of crim-
inals, some of whom had to be whipped and others hanged.

During the autumn, Lord Roberval, instead of laboring to
establish his colony, spent his time in trying to find the Northwest
Passage. The winter was passed in gloom and suffering, and spring
was welcomed because of the opportunity it gave them for return-
ing to France. Thus the enterprise, which had been undertaken with
so much pomp, came to naught. In 1549, as Sir Francis de la Roque,
he again gathered a large company of emigrants and renewed the
project of colonization. The expedition departed under favorable
omens, but the squadron was never heard of afterwards.

Such was the effect of these failures and such the weakness of
French adventures that a half century elapsed before the effort to
colonize America was renewed by the Government. Private enter-
prise, however, and religious persecution in the meantime worked
together to accomplish in Florida and Carolina what the Govern-
ment of France had failed to accomplish on the St. Lawrence. Prot-

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 151

estantism had appeared in France, and had begun to suffer at the
hands of the King and the Catholic Church. It was about the middle
of the sixteenth century when the celebrated Gaspard de Coligny,
leader of the French Huguenots, and now serving as the Admiral
of France, formed the design of establishing in America a refuge
for his persecuted fellow countrymen. The King was willing that
the Huguenots should escape from the country to the St. Lawrence
regions, and in 1562, Coligny obtained from Charles IX the priv-
ilege of planting a French Protestant colony in the New World.
John Ribault, of Dieppe, a brave and an experienced captain, was
selected to lead the Huguenots to the land of freedom.

AN ASYLUM FOR THE PERSECUTED HUGUENOTS

A company of the exiles was soon collected. The squadron sailed
and reached the coast of Florida in safety. The St. John River was
entered and named the River of May. The fleet then sailed north-
ward to the entrance of Port Royal. The colonists landed on an
island, where a stone engraved with the arms of their native land
was set up to mark the place. They built a fort in honor of Charles
IX, and named it Carolina.

Here, Ribault left a garrison of twenty-six men and returned to
France for additional emigrants and supplies. However, Civil War
was now raging in the kingdom, and it was found impossible to
secure the needed supplies or other emigrants. Meanwhile, the men
left in America became mutinous with long waiting and killed their
leader. They then constructed a rude brig and put to sea. For a
long time they were driven at the mercy of the winds and waves,
but were picked up, half starved, by an English ship and carried
back to France.

Admiral Coligny, however, resolved to prosecute his enterprise.
He planned a second expedition and collected a company of emi-
grants, appointing as leader, Rene de Landonnier. But the char-
acter of the second company of emigrants was bad. The record
shows that these members were mostly idle men, some being crim-
inals. The leader, on reaching the American coast, avoided the
harbor of Port Royal and chose the land on the St. John for the
proposed colony. Here he built a fort; but about one half of the
emigrants under an outlaw leader obtained possession of two ships
and sailed away. These emigrants took to piracy, and, after a sea-
son of criminal record, they were caught, brought back, and hanged.
The remainder of the settlers were on the eve of breaking up the
colony when Ribault, who had commanded the first colony, arrived

152 THE HORN PAPERS

from France with a cargo of supplies. It was at this juncture that
the Spaniard Melendez discovered the Huguenots, and, as he re-
garded them as intruders and invaders of Spain, fell upon and de-
stroyed the entire company.

A DREADFUL VENGEANCE

The news of this atrocity created great sorrow and indignation
among the Huguenots of France. Dominic de Gourges, a soldier
of Gascony, prepared to avenge the death of his countrymen. He
planned an expedition against the Spanish settlements in Florida
and soon came down upon them with a vengence. He fitted out
a squadron of three ships and fifty seamen at his own expense,
and in January arrived off the coast of Cuba and prepared for
action; he then pushed on to the Florida shore. With this small
company he surprised successively the three forts on the St. John
River and made prisoners of the garrisons. When he was unable
to hold his position any longer, he condemned and hanged his lead-
ing captives to the branches of trees, putting up this inscription to
explain what he had done: "Not Spaniards, but murderers."

Thus the sixteenth century drew to a close. It was not until
1598 that the attention of the French Government was once more
directed to the claims which their early navigators had established
to certain portions of the American Coast. In this year the Marquis
de la Roche, a nobleman of great distinction, took up the cause and
obtained a commission authorizing him to found an empire in the
New World. Unfortunately, the colony was again to be made up
by opening the prisons and selecting such inmates as would emigrate.
This expedition soon reached Nova Scotia and anchored at Sable
Island, a place of desolation and gloom. Here the Marquis left
forty men to found the colony while he returned to France for sup-
plies. Soon after reaching the French port he died, and for seven
long dreary years the new French Empire, composed first of forty
convicts, was reduced to twenty-eight when at last they were picked
up by a passing ship and carried back to France. These poor un-
fortunate human beings were never remanded to prison.

At last, however, the time came when a permanent French Col-
ony should be established in America. In the year 1603, the Gov-
ernment of France granted the sovereignty of the country from the
latitude of Philadelphia to one and one-half degrees north of Mont-
real to the French Count, Pierre du Guast, known as De Montz.
He received from the King a patent giving him a monopoly of the
fur trade in the new country and conceding religious freedom for

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 153

all Huguenots who wished to emigrate to the New World. In
March 1604, De Montz sailed from France with two shiploads of
colonists and reached the Bay of Fundy. The summer was spent in
making explorations and in trade with the Indians.

Here the first copper wire and copper earrings the Indians ever
beheld were traded to them for furs by the French in Nova Scotia
in 1604.

At length Poutrincourt, the captain of one of the ships, dis-
covered an excellent harbor on the northwest coast of Nova Scotia.
He anchored and obtained a grant of land around the head of the
bay where he went ashore to plant a colony. The Viceroy, with the
remainder, crossed the bay and built a fort at the mouth of the St.
Croix River and there remained until in the spring of 1605, when
they joined Poutricourt. Here on November 14, 1605, the founda-
tion of the permanent French settlement in America was laid. The
name of Port Royal was given to the ford and harbor, and the
country was called Arcadia.

It was now that the famous Samuel Champlain appeared on the
scene. He was a great soldier and noted explorer. As early as 1603,
he had been commissioned by a company of Rouen merchants to ex-
plore the country along the St. Lawrence and to establish trading
posts. The discovery was made that the abundant furs of this region
were a greater and surer source of wealth than the much talked of
gold and silver deposits hidden in unexplored quarters in the New
World.

The expedition of Champlain reached the St. Lawrence in safe-
ty, and the spot on which Quebec now stands was chosen as the site
for a fort. In October, the leader returned to France and published
a detailed account of his enterprise. Champlain did not return to
America until the spring of 1608. On July 3, 1608, the foundations
of Quebec were laid. In 1609, De Montz and two other French ad-
venturers joined a company of Huron Indians, then at war with
the Iroquois tribe of the Delaware Nation. On this expedition
Champlain ascended the De Montz River (Sorel River) until he
reached the narrow lake which has ever since borne his name.

When Champlain joined forces with the Huron Indians, in
1609, against the Crow branch of the great Delaware Nation, he
established a basis of friendship with the Huron Indians that con-
tinued as long as the French remained in control of the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys.

A French map was made of the St. Lawrence River, the Niagara
Falls portion of Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, and by the close of
the year 1535, five years before the Spanish Coronado set out for

154 THE HORN PAPERS

Quivira, we find the Frenchman, James Cartier, enticing the King
of the Huron Indians to become friends of the French and to join
forces with the French Government to keep the Spanish and English
from gaining a permanent hold in America. However, it was not
until the beginning of the seventeenth century that the French made
a permanent settlement on the St. Lawrence and its tributaries.
This was made by Champlain through Conde, who was successful
in planting a company of the "Franciscans Friars" among the Hu-
ron Indians to preach to them. After having had trouble with the
Huguenots Protestants, and having been severely wounded, he re-
tired to the Huron Indian camp and remained with them until the
summer of 1617, when he returned to the colony. In the spring of
the year 1620, the foundation of the fortress of St. Louis was laid,
and in 1624, the structure was completed, a circumstance which se-
cured the permanence of the French settlement in the valley of the
St. Lawrence.

From this time down to their defeat and loss of all their claims,
the French during their attempt at colonization in America were
determined to gain the good will and assistance of the Indians, and
to turn them against the English and Spanish. With the exception
of the Delaware tribe, they were successful in their plans. They
gained the confidence of the Northern or Lake Indians, and the
Great and Little Osages of the Central West.

In 1664, the Delaware tribe was divided into the Delaware
tribe proper and the Shawnees. This separation was brought about
by the parent tribe's having two men who held rights to become
chief, and through the impossibility of deciding between the two
claimants, the tribe was divided by We-Ar-Ma-Lo. Big Eye became
chief of the Shawnee division, while Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo became chief
of the reduced Delaware tribe. From that date the Delawares and
the Shawnees remained separate tribes, but being kindred and pos-
sessing very similar characteristics, they remained friends and never
declared war on each other. The French gained the friendship of
the Shawnees, but never succeeded in gaining favors from the Del-
awares.

In 1666, a division of the Shawnees, the Rabbit Clan, took up
their camp in the swamps of North Carolina where they remained
until 1686, then settled at Conestoga, Pennsylvania. The Delaware
band, then living in eastern Pennsylvania, were not far from the
camp of Big Eye. The Rabbit Clan of Shawnees rejoined their
tribe on the Ohio River in 1698.

In 1682, the Delawares and Shawnees made a treaty with Wil-
liam Penn, but signed as separate tribes. By Penn's permission,

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 155

the Delawares were given full possession of the territory between
the two streams later named by Grendelier and Beaumont in 1751
as Tingooqua Creeks (renamed in 1785 as North Ten Mile Creek
and South Ten Mile Creek). The Shawnees were allotted settle-
ment on the east bank of the Ohio River near the present site of
Moundsville, West Virginia.

It is not the intention of the author of this history to follow up
all the many and widely separated settlements made by the French
in America between their first permnaent settlement on the St.
Lawrence and their final banishment from the country at the close
of the French and Indian War in 1763. It would be well, however,
to emphasize the power and influence of the French over the Indian
tribes with which they came in contact. The French were unable to
bargain with the Delawares and unable to drive this tribe into any
agreement that would achieve undisputed control of the territory
held by the Delawares in the Monongahela Valley.

The French, because of their discoveries and explorations, laid
claim to all the Mississippi Valley and to the headwaters of all its
tributaries. This, by interpretation, included all the territory with-
in the present limits of Greene, Washington, Fayette, and Allegheny
counties in Pennsylvania, and a large portion of West Virginia.
This they considered as being a part of Louisiana. The French map
of 1753 shows the French claims covering all territory west of the
Susquehanna River and north to Canada. Included also were the
Valley of the St. Lawrence, the Ohio and Mississippi valleys to the
Gulf of Mexico, and the Missouri Valley to the Spanish claims at
the base of the Rocky Mountains. These French claims were made
in their records between the years 1663 and 1724. In the year 1691,
the French platted a map of the Monongahela River and of the
Ohio River to the Mississippi, and, as the claims reached to the
headwaters of all streams included, many of which were unknown
to them at that time, it gave them the base to their claims to the
Monongahela Valley territory in 1724-1748. As the Delaware
Indian tribe settled on lands within this territory in 1696, the
French protested against their allegiance to the English while oc-
cupying French territory.

In 1747, Virginia declared her borders to be the Ohio River and
the Great Lakes on the north. This declaration so incensed the
French Governor in Canada that he began to prepare to establish
French authority over all their claims, and to confine the English
to the territory east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The French had
no thought of disturbing the English settlers east of the mountain,
nor did they expect any interference from them west of the moun-

156 THE HORN PAPERS

tain ridge. This ridge, the French claimed, was a natural dividing
line between the claims of the two nations; but, as already stated,
the Delaware tribe was occupying territory that the French wanted
for the French Huguenots to settle on, and which would be an out-
post to the French capital Duquesne as planned by the French Gov-
ernment in 1744.

In 1696, the Delawares established their council ground, and
located a Council Firestone between the two Tingooqua creeks, on
the land where Clarksville, Greene County, Pennsylvania, now
stands. Here they held council meetings concerning tribal matters,
from 1696 to 1748. On September 17, 18, 1748, the Delaware
tribe was broken up, having lost more than seven thousand killed
in the battle of Flint Top. The suvivors were reduced to the rank
of "squaws and children."

The French fur traders could deal with the Indians where no
English trader could get a chance to open trade with them. It is
well understood that the French explorers visited the Kansa and
the Osage tribes of Indians in their villages on the Missouri River
in 1705. Major Amos Stoddard says that in their failing to make
settlements in the Upper Mississippi Valley, the French turned their
attention to the Kansas River in 1705, where they met with a hearty
welcome. He further states that most historians overlook the fact
that the Indians of the Lake Region and the Ohio Valley were ac-
quainted with the French manners and customs, and their method
of dealing with them, and with their western brothers long before
the Indians had gained much knowledge of the English explorers and
traders on the frontier border.

The Indians had heard from French traders many strange
stories of how ferocious and barbarous the English were in their
customs. These traders maliciously circulated false statements to
further their own plans, and formed many treacherous schemes to
incite the natives. These they cautioned to give the English no
chance to steal their lands and then to murder them as the Spanish
people had done.

The French traders pictured the English people to the Indians
as a pure cannibal race who preferred living on the flesh of French-
men and Indians to any other mode of living. To those who under-
stand the mind of the Indian it is not difficult to discover their rea-
sons for killing the white settlers on the frontier borders, and raid-
ing their homesteads in the early days when they were outside the
confines of the forts or well-fortified homes. While the French were
encouraging the Indians of the North and West to destroy the
English, they impressed upon the minds of the Indians the need of

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 157

destroying their own tribal foes, especially the hated Delawares.
It was because of this friendly advice that the Indians fought so
bitterly at the Battle of Flint Top, on Indian Ridge, in 1748, and
at Braddock's defeat in 1755. The Frenchmen gave the Indians
all the glory as their virtuous rights for all the evil treatment re-
ceived from their enemies.

When the French delegate Bourgmont visited the Kansa Indians
at the Grand Village on the Missouri River in 1724, and the Osage
tribe, he formed an alliance with those tribes to establish the French
Empire in America. He advised them to punish by death every
Spanish explorer who might come from the West. At the same time,
he made an agreement with them that they were to join the Five
Nations in war against the Delaware tribe who were occupying
lands on the Mohongalo River and to the west along west branches
of this river.

Especially since the English had openly declared that Virginia
claimed all the territory to the Ohio River and to the Great Lakes,
Bourgmont gained the consent and promise of the chief of the
Osage tribe to assist the French in holding their claims in the Ohio
and Mississippi valleys. The tribe promised Bourgmont to join the
battle against the Delawares if Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo and his
tribe declared war against the French and favored the English
frontier explorers, traders, and settlers, who were moving nearer
to the crest of the mountains and reaching over into the coveted
territory of the French.

It is easy to understand how far in advance of the Battle of
Flint Top the Frenchmen were planning to establish their full claim
to this territory. They fully and honestly believed they were the
rightful and legal possessors of all their claims of American ter-
ritory, and took steps to hold it from the grasping English.

When Lieutenant Pike visited the site of the Kansa Indians in
1806, he found that although nearly a century had passed since the
French had first visited at Grand Village, and more than three
fourths of a century had passed since Bourgmont had formed his
alliance with the Kansa Indians and with the Osage tribe, they still
held a sincere friendship for the Frenchmen.

He stated that the great influence the French held over the
Indians was still manifested by the Allies. As an instance of this
great influence held by the absent French, the following interesting
fact is proof that these western Indians kept their promise made to
Bourgment and joined the northern tribes in their wars in the Mon-
nongahela Valley. Chtoko, alias Wet Stone, a Little Osage war-
rior told Pike, "I was at the great Indian Battle of Flint Top in

12

158 THE HORN PAPERS

September 1748, and at Broddock's Battle in 1755 and helped the
French drive Washington and his band into the log fort at Great
Meadows; and then when the great rain storm had passed we drove
Washington and his English soldiers into the mountains."

Chtoko stated that every warrior who could be spared from
the village had gone to help the Lake Indians and the French in
these battles to clear the hated Delawares and English from the
Mohongalo and Ohio lands of the French. He said the Indians
used their bows and arrows at Flint Top in 1748; that flint arrow
points in great numbers were carried to the battlefield by the Huron
and Cayuga tribes; and that the ground was covered with them on
Indian Ridge, the center of the battle. He also stated that only
white flint arrow points were used by the chiefs in this battle, but
that they used the white man's guns at Braddock's Battle in 1755.
He said further: "McCartie, who commanded at Ft. Chartress,
gave us fire guns with powder and ball, and the French promised all
Indians, 'When Braddock is killed and his men all dead, Indians get
fire water and roast deer two moons.' "

M. Stienne Venyard de Bourgmont was commissioned Military
Governor by the French Government in 1720 to cut off, curb the
growth of the Spanish and the English settlements in America, and
to establish friendship with the Indians who should be guided by
the French, and to destroy the tribes who would not assist in es-
tablishing French supremacy.

As to plans of the French Government in 1724, the following
is significant. While engaged in research work in Quebec for refer-
ences to the Jesuit Mission in Kansas in 1727, this interesting his-
tory was found by the author in some old French records from
Ontario : The French explorer, Du Pratz, and a gathering of Aben-
quis, Tadousac, and Huron Indians laid down the National or War-
rior Trail in 1702, from Lake Erie claims south along North River
(Allegheny) to where its waters joined with the Ohio, south along
the east side of the Mohongalo waters to the second stream beyond
the Delaware Council stream, (Tingooqua or Ten Mile) which
flows from the west, about twenty-two leagues from the Ohio waters.
There the explorers crossed the waters of the Mohongalo, one-third
league below mouth of the stream (Gist Creek 1737-1751, Little
French Creek 1751-1767, and now called Dunkard Creek). After
crossing the river, they followed the high divide (then known to
the Cargonquin tribe and the Huron Indians) along its many wind-
ing courses to the waters of the Ohio below the mouth of Kanown-
ara Waters (Wheeling Creek) where the Jesuit Mission at the
village of the Shawnees was established by common consent of

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 159

the French-Canada Jesuit priests. Having made the faith known to
the Shawnees, these Indians accepted it with the beads and colour
wampum and cognack, and declared Du Pratz to be their White
chief and his Great Spirit to be the Shawnees' Great Spirit.

This Indian National Trail, better known to the people in
Greene County as the Warrior Trail, was the one over which the
Lake Indian tribes crossed the territory of Greene County, from
the Monongahela River to the Ohio River, near where Mounds-
ville, West Virginia, now stands. It followed, in general, the trend
of the Allegheny River to near Pittsburgh; thence up the east side
of the Monongahela River to Redstone Creek; thence to Dyces Hill
about one mile from the river at Fort Louis II ; thence up the river
on the east bank to within one-half mile of the mouth of Dunkard
Creek, which flows from the west and discharges its water into the
Monongahela River on the boundary line between Monongahela
and Dunkard townships. After crossing the river the trail followed
in a general northwest direction and reached the western boundary
of Monongahela Township and ran directly on the line between
Greene Township and Dunkard Township ; thence west on the ridge
between Big Whitely Creek, and the drainage to Dunkard Creek;
thence somewhat to the northwest and west to the headwaters of
Smith Creek, a south branch of South Ten Mile Creek. The lowest
pass over the entire ridge from the Monongahela to the Ohio River
is at the head drainage of Smith Creek, and was known as Eckerlin
Gap. This Indian trail followed the high divide across Greene
County, Pennsylvania, to the west line of the county, then on to the
Ohio River to the Shawnee village site where they settled in 1696,
and lived until their departure, in the spring of 1748, for their new
home on the Scioto River between Chillicothe and Circleville.

In 1724, the French Catholic Missions in Quebec authorized the
French explorer to make a treaty with the Shawnees, and to es-
tablish a Catholic Mission in the camp of this tribe with the pur-
pose of converting them to the Catholic religion. The French Mis-
sions in Quebec promised to supply them partially with their tem-
poral needs as well as their spiritual guidance, and this was carried
out through Du Pratz. The Indians, with the exception of the
Delawares, declared they would be Catholics as long as the French
supplied them with provisions, and "white man clothes. " The Del-
awares spurned this offer, saying Penn was their friend and that he
was no Frenchman. The Delawares never held any business rela-
tions with the French, or believed the many stories told by the fur
traders of the superior powers of the French.

160 THE HORN PAPERS

When Dunkard Township was set off from Green Township,
there was a dispute as to which township should include the Indian
National Trail. The local leaders of each township claimed this
ancient landmark should be within her borders in honor of Albert
Gallatin, who had written a full history of the first trail-road ever
traveled by white men west of the Monongahela River, the Du
Pratz-Indian National Trail in 1724. However, the two townships
could not agree, and finally the Warrior Trail was made the bound-
ary line between Greene and Dunkard townships, by the County
Commissioners. The Hon. James Jennings published a full and
clear account of the Old Indian Trail in Greene County, in the
"Waynesburg Messenger" before the American Civil War.

In 1876, Mr. L.K. Evans and some other Greene County men
who were interested in the early history of the county, took up the
matter of marking this trail with the County Commissioners, Hon.
J. P. Morris, John Morris, and Wm. T. Pogue, who constituted the
Board at that time, but no action was taken and the trail was left
unmarked. Thus only a few people have a clear knowledge of its
pathway across Green County. The Indian Warrior Trail dates
from 1664, but no particular attention was given to it until the
French in company with the Huron Indians passed over it in 1701 ;
and it was not until Du Pratz trailed over it to the Shawnee Indian
village in 1724, that special mention was made of it.

The Du Pratz Crossing of the Monongahela River was known
as Browns Crossing from 1748, until 1781 after which no mention
was made of its history or name, until the time when the Monon-
gahela Slack Water Company was organized to build dams and
locks in the Monongahela River. The first plan was to build Lock
No. 6 at Millsboro, Washington County, at Fort Louis II on the
east side of the river, and Lock No. 7 at Browns Crossing on the
Indian trail. This plan, however, was overruled and Lock No. 6
was built at Rices Landing, Pennsylvania, through the influence of
C. A. Black and James Overholt.

The Eckerlin-Gist Trail, over which the Eckerlin Brothers and
Christopher Gist traveled in 1737, from Eckerlin Point (Point
Marion) down the river, crossed Dunkard Creek (then called Tur-
key Foot Creek by Gist, and Gist Creek by the Eckerlins) and
struck the Indian trail. It followed on the ridge in a general western
direction; thence more to the northwest until it reached the low gap
in the high divide, (which they named Eckerlin Gap) when it turned
almost due north, and struck the head waters of Eckerlin Run
(Smith Creek). The Eckerlins followed the Indian trail down the
valley until a suitable place was reached and there they built a log

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 161

fur-house, known as Ekerlin's Cabin. This log cabin stood about
three hundred feet from the old Uriah Inghram mills. It was torn
down in 1828. After having camped there for a month, they trailed
north, crossed the main stream (Ten Mile Creek), went on north
over the high ridge, and passed down and reached a smaller stream
which they named Gist Run (Ruff's Creek). After crossing the run
and passing below the mouth of a valley to the north, they built an-
other log cabin, known as Gist's Cabin, where the Delawares placed
the furs for trade. The Gist Trail followed down Gist Run (Ruff's
Creek) until it reached the Virginia Trail, direct from Turkey Foot
Rock, at the crossing of the creek. It crossed the Warrior Trail
about two miles east of Eckerlin Gap, went along the ridge north,
crossed the main stream (South Ten Mile) at Flat Rocks; thence
up the valley and over the divide reaching the second main stream,
(North Ten Mile) at Delaware Crossing, at the foot of the Del-
aware Indian Main Camp.

The Iron Bridge at Marianna, Washington County, was erected
on the old Horn Ford. This ford was on the old Gist-Delaware
Trail from the south.

As early as 1719, the French began actively to erect a line of
forts connecting Canada with the Ohio and the Mississippi, for the
purpose of holding the territory from the English, and to promote
fur trade with the Indians.

In the year 1728, the French advised the Shawnees to secure the
friendship of the Delawares for the French missionaries, and to
secure permission for them to plant Catholic priests within the Del-
aware camps. The Shawnees, however, while on friendly terms with
their relative tribe, did little to promote the French plans. Never-
theless, they did counsel with the Delawares in a general way about
making a treaty with the French. The Delawares refused to join
the Shawnees in their agreement with the French, and stood boldly
and firmly against the plan to set aside their treaty made with Wil-
liam Penn in 1682, and reaffirmed by Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo in
1695. At the time he set the Delaware tribe on their selected camp
sites on the lands of the "never failing waters" amid the "greene
tops" of the two urocks and ever changing hills" to the "setting sun
side" of the South River (Monongahela).

In the year 1724, in order to impress the Shawnees and Del-
awares with their great interest in the common welfare of the
Indians, the French started to establish a new religion for the Ind-
ians, by setting Catholic Missions within their territory, and to es-
tablish centers where they stored great quantities of supplies of all
kinds.

162 THE HORN PAPERS

One of these supply centers was established near the site of
Bristoria, Greene County. This supply station was a base from
which all allowances were made to the Shawnees from 1724 to
1748, or until they departed from their settlement on the east side
of the Ohio River, for their settlement on the Scioto. This supply
station was still filled with French merchandise in 1793.

The French historian, Mrs. M. E. Gail, claimed that the French
Governor of Montreal established storehouses in the rock caves in
what is now Richhill Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania, in
1728, and that a vast amount of material was still stored there in
1760, when the French abandoned that section of North America.

Some historians claim that the Shawnee Indians settled on the
Allegheny in 1728, but this is an error in part. The main band of
Shawnees lived on the east side of the Ohio River between Benwood
and McMeechen, West Virginia, from 1696 to April 1748. Several
members of this tribe were induced by Du Pratz to camp on the site
where they intended to establish Duquesne, to secure all the fur
trade "at and above" this place, and to dispatch the furs by canoe
down the river to the Shawnee Indian Mission, where the French
paid for them in beads and bright colored goods, and for furs of
extra quality with rum. Many of these furs were carried by Indians
over the Indian Warrior Trail, better known as Du Pratz Indian
National Trail, to Canada, where French fur companies took pos-
session of them and shipped them to Paris. In the spring of 1729,
Du Pratz took the Shawnee Indian guide, prophet, and interpreter,
Clear Eye, to Montreal, and there presented him to the governor,
who desired to have a report of the progress and the loyality of the
Shawnees on the Ohio, and to inquire what the Delawares were
intending to do about making a treaty with the French. The French
interpreter, Cahichtodo, with Du Pratz, went to the Shawnee coun-
cil grounds in 1731 to plan and build some houses for the Indians;
but some of the members of the Huron and the Cayuga tribes
entered a protest because they believed the Shawnees were going to
rejoin the Delawares and the English. This the Shawnees denied,
but the governor never permitted the houses to be built. Proud
says that the Indians on the Ohio chiefly consisted of hunters of the
several nations under the protection or subjection of the Six Na-
tions, including the Delawares, Shawnees, and Willinis.

The Indians themselves are their best historians of their past
lives and of the location of both permanent and temporary settle-
ments. The Delaware and the Shawnee Indians, now living on the
plains of Kansas and of Oklahoma, know every detail of their his-
tory back to the days of Columbus and the Cabots, and can give

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 163

a clear account of their former locations, of their many alliances,
of their subdivisions, and of their powerful Delaware Nation,
which included more than one third of all the Indians in North
America, east of the Mississippi River. These well-informed In-
dians did not gain this knowledge from written history or from
any recorded notes entered by the white people. Very clear knowl-
edge of these facts often produced such statements from the In-
dians as the following: "White men tell his people whole plenty
of lies about the Indians and he call it history of the Indians.
White man he make Indian history like want it. Indian tell white
men what he likes to put in his book. Indian history no like what
white men make it for his people. Many white men tell his own talk
about the Delaware and the Shawnees, all no alike. Indian all teach
his people same life of his people.

"White people forget after many moons; Indian, he never for-
get his people, their lands and wigwams by the waters of the streams
in yonder lands, where William Penn gave the Indians his hand and
heart, and made the Indians his children. White people never keep
his word, only Penn keep his word. By and by Penn he hears the
Great Spirit calling long and loud. Come to the happy hunting
grounds. He go.

"Soon the Frenchman, he say, this all our land, Englo steal
Frenchman land. Delawares be Frenchmen friend. Shawnees say,
Frenchy give them beads, all great big things Shawnees no see.
Shawnees say, Delawares heap big fool to get no beads, no bright
wire and squaw things. Delaware, he say, Penn, he no French. He
Englos. He gave us our land by Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, to be the Del-
aware all the days, like he make Shawnees happy on the great river
where French say, Ohio is French River.

"Shawnees like French. Delawares say, as long as the sun shines
we keep word with Penn. No Delaware like French, he say, Del-
aware steal their land. Delaware live on his own land when evil
spirit made Frenchy from some bad Indians never allowed in the
Happy Hunting Grounds. By and by, French say, Delawares must
be killed, all the squaws and papooses and medicine men must die,
and all the warriors that would not become French Indians were to
be killed, scalped, and their scalps sent to the King of England, as
a warning to the English of the French intentions to occupy the
Monongahela and Ohio Valleys."

The Indian history of all the dates, places, and events that
transpired from 1600 to the year 1796 was never written half so
accurately by the white historians as was related by various mem-
bers of the Delaware and Shawnee tribes in Oklahoma. The mem-

164 THE HORN PAPERS

bers of the Shawnee tribe, of which the Rev. Charles Bluejacket
was chief, were very much interested in the history of their tribe
back to its separation from the Delawares in 1664. In the year
1666, several families of the Shawnees left eastern Pennsylvania
and settled on the eastern shore of North Carolina, where they lived
until 1697, when the Rabbit Clan of the tribe removed to Conestoga
on the Susquehanna River; and, in 1699, rejoined their tribe on the
Ohio River, where they lived all as one tribe, but as separate clans,
until the summer of 1748, when they left the Ohio lands and settled
on the Scioto River.

The Delaware tribe proper left their eastern lands in Penn-
sylvania in 1696, according to the agreement entered into with
Penn's lieutenant, John Watson, and took up their homes on lands
located in what is now the northern half of Greene County, the
southern half of Washington County, and the western portion of
Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

The main camp site of the Delaware Indians was established
on Indian Ridge, Washington County, Pennsylvania, near the pres-
ent town of Marianna. This Indian village covered more than sixty
acres of land and extended from near the creek, up the hill to the
top of the ridge and beyond the ridge to the lower lands. The Sac-
rifiicial Fire Stone and the camp of Opaymolleh, the medicine chief,
and the Civil Chief Tingooqua, with Bowlegs and Wissameking
(Cat Fish Catcher) set their camp at Spirit Spring about two miles
to the northeast on Cat Fish Run, while the war chief and head
leader of the tribe established his permanent camp site on the rolling
ground just north of Main Street and west of Pine Street in the
town of Jefferson. This site was chosen by Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo
in the year 1695. Here he located in 1696 and here he lived with his
family and his selected advisers until he was killed in the Indian
Battle of Flint Top, September 17, 18, 1748.

The Delaware Indians had a direct line of signal communication
from the War Chief Camp at what is now Jefferson, Greene Coun-
ty, via their Common Council Ground on the level land in the center
of the present site of Clarksville, on to the Main Camp of the tribe,
just west of where Marianna, Washington County, is now located.
This line of communication was often referred to by members of
this tribe living in Oklahoma, as late as 1888. The high cairn at
Jefferson from which the signals were made was on the hill east of
Jefferson, Pennsylvania, and the second cairn was on the ridge road
on the old farm patented and owned by Jacob Rush. This ridge
forms one of the few natural sites in Pennsylvania where the two
towns can be seen plainly from the same point. From this point the

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 165

Indians signaled to the Fire Stone, in what is now Clarksville, on
the lawn of the old Amos Walton home. Cairn three was on the
Hupp Hill. And thus the line continued on from place to place, un-
till the last cairn was reached, located on Indian Ridge on the home-
stead taken up by Christopher Horn in 1775.

In the month of September, 1735, the Delawares and the Shaw-
nees had some serious trouble over affairs that originated with the
English and which were taken up by the French. It will be remem-
bered that through Penn's lieutenant, John Watson, the Shawnees
were given their lands on the east side of the Ohio River in 1696;
and this, if not done in favor of the English, was certainly with-
out the thought of advancing the cause of the French. At any rate,
through the efforts of the French missionaries and the fur traders,
the Shawnees became very favorable to the French and their in-
terests. This created a feeling of hatred on the part of the Del-
awares. Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo prevailed on the English author-
ities in Philadelphia to send messengers to the Shawnees to return
to their former homes east of the Susquehanna. The Shawnees so
hated the chief messenger, Sagahandechty, that they tied him to a
tree and left him to die of thirst and hunger; but, after seven days,
they cut holes in his ears, shaved his head, and sent him on his
return trip to Philadelphia. Sometime later, other messengers and
two chief men returned to their camp to induce the Shawnees to
abandon their lands and the French. These Indians, however, be-
came so aroused that they secured, through the French, two Huron
Indians to murder these messengers. This act aroused the Virgin-
ians and the Delawares to the utmost, and the Delaware tribe for-
bade any communication with their Shawnee relatives.

Note. — The above-mentioned cairn stood intact until about
1825. The cairn and Fire Stone in Clarksville were removed by
Reuben Teegarden in 1832.

The English settlers in Virginia took steps to assist the Del-
awares to punish the Shawnees; but Governor Thomas interfered,
and assured the Shawnees that the provincial officials wished to re-
new their friendship with the Indians, as they still felt that the
Shawnee tribe, like the Delewares, would remain loyal to the Eng-
lish. However, the French had planted too firm a foundation under
the Shawnees' new interest in life to leave any doubt as to which
side these natives favored. It was two years before the Delawares
would show any degree of friendship for their kindred tribe.

In the year 1737, the Ekerlin Brothers from the James River
Flats, with Christopher Gist, erected a log cabin on Eckerlin Run
for storing furs, and another fur cabin on Gist Run. The former

166 THE HORN PAPERS

was known as Eckerlin's Cabin and the latter as Gist's Cabin. These
were for the purpose of storing furs obtained from the Indians.
The Eckerlins were fur traders in the interest of the London Fur
Company.

The Delaware fur trader, Peter Cheaver, who was a French-
Indian, was friendly to both the Delaware and the Shawnee Indian
tribes. It was through him that the Eckerlins had obtained some
choice furs, which were stored in the Gist fur cabin, and had been paid
for in Virginia tobacco. When this tobacco had been consumed by
the Delawares, Peter Cheaver remembered those furs which were
still at the Gist Cabin. He knew that the French fur traders at the
Shawnee Mission on the Ohio River would give wonderful glass
beads, copper wire, and red cotton cloth for these same furs. He
had frequently caused trouble in the Delaware Indian camp, but
had escaped serious consequences, through the friendship of the
Delaware Civil Chief, Tingooqua, and the medicine or religious
chief, Oppaymoleah. Now, however, Cheaver made one too
many bad deals in the Delaware Indian village, and when Chief
Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo heard of it, he punished Peter to the extreme
limits of human endurance. Peter liked the Shawnee maidens be-
cause they wore beautiful beads, bright red pieces of cloth, and some
copper wire rings in their ears. These his Delaware maidens were
denied because they were furnished by the French. The Delaware
Chief refused to have anything to do with the French. He hated
them for having gained the confidence of the Shawnees, for
having established Catholic Missions in their midst, and for causing
the Shawnees to forget their promises made to William Penn. Peter
Cheaver thought all this was of little difference to his maiden
friends; so he made a neat pack of furs from the Gist fur house and
trailed to the Shawnee village on the Ohio, traded the furs to the
French trader for some bright beads, red cloth, and bright copper
wire, and carried them back to his maiden friends. Thus, they
were soon wearing the "French style" and were the envy of
every other Delaware maid. But when old Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo,
known as Eagle Eye, was in the main camp, he spied the four
maids having the works of the French on their person, and
ordered them brought before him for questioning. He charged
them with having made forbidden acquaintance with his most hated
foe, the French. This they denied, but, not wishing to have Peter
Cheaver punished, they did not tell just where or how they had
obtained these things. Finally, however, the angry chief obtained
the truth from them.

SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 167

Old Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo decreed a harsh punishment for all the
offenders. He ordered the four girls to bare themselves of their
clothing, go into the deep water, and remain two full days without
eating, on penalty of death. He then ordered two braves to seize
Peter Cheaver and cut off both ears, and two fingers from each
hand, after which he ordered two Delaware warriors to take the
marked Peter to the Shawnee Indian village and turn him over to
the French Mission as a warning to all other violators of the Del-
aware laws.

The deep pool of water in North Ten Mile Creek at Marianna,
Pennsylvania, was known in the early history of Washington Coun-
ty as "Death Pool." It was in this pool that the four Indian girls
were confined for two days.

The French were greatly disturbed over the Delaware Chief's
refusal to allow their neckwear to be worn in his village, and
planned Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo's death; but he managed to hold
off the French traders, and to keep in touch with the English in
Virginia through his recognized fur traders, the Eckerlins and Gil-
pens, who were welcomed in the Delaware village and traded with
Indians for their hides, furs, and certain kinds of barks.

One historian says the first sympton of war between France
and England was a dispute about boundaries, as early as 1747. The
English extended their claims to the St. Lawrence River, while the
French on their part contended for all the country to the west of the
Appalachian Mountains. It was not believed at that time that either
intended to insist on the extent of its claims; but it will appear in the
sequel that France was extravagant in her pretensions. Reflection
on this statement and careful observation of the situation will show
how far this is true.

The French claimed all the land in the Mississippi, Ohio, and
Monongahela valleys as being a part of Louisiana half a century
before the treaty of peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748 and a quarter
of a century before Virginia declared her boundaries to be the Ohio
River and the Great Lakes. The English Colony of Virginia had
made no claim to the Ohio Valley when the French established their
Catholic Mission at the Shawnee village in 1724. The first claim
ever made to any territory west of the crest of the Blue Ridge was
the act of the legislature of 1738, when Augusta County was created.

These writers all speak indirectly of the first main trouble lead-
ing up to the French and Indian War, but not one of them names
the direct cause nor gives a clear account of the Battle of Flint Top
between the Delaware tribe and all the other Indian tribes of the
North and West. This was the result of a conspiracy to destroy the

168 THE HORN PAPERS

Delaware tribe of Indians, and to confine the English to the territory
east of the mountains and of the Susquehanna River. There may
have been several minor causes that brought the French and English
to prepare for an open conflict before 1748, for the Indians had
been taking sides, with more than a three-fourths majority on the
side of the French. These latter groups of Indians, too, were very
aggressive, while the Shawnees were neutral and the Delawares
sided with the English, and were their friends, although occupying
territory claimed by France. But these several disagreements be-
tween the Delawares and Shawnees through the fur traders, and
the many raids made on the Delawares by the tribes of the North
and West, were all over-shadowed by the act of the King of Eng-
land in giving a vast tract of the choicest French territory to his
Virginia counselors. This act terminated in a declaration of war on
the part of France in 1748.

In the month of October 1747, the Virginia Assembly brought
up the question of the territory beyond the mountains on the north-
west frontier border and determined that all the territory un-
organized, claimed by the colony, belonged to the King and Par-
liament. But the King's counselor was directed to lay the matter
before the crown.

In April 1748, King George II, in the hour of generosity,
granted five hundred thousand acres of this land lying in the Ohio
Valley to his Virginia counselors. Notwithstanding his open declara-
tion, this was by every known right French land. This highhanded,
overt act brought forth a strong protest from the French Govern-
ment. The French Government notified the British that such a step
would be the open act of war, but neither King nor Parliament
heeded the protest, and this kindled the fires of indignation in
France, and the Government directed the French Governor in
Canada to take steps to seize all the French claims in the Monon-
gahela and Ohio valleys and adjacent territory.

CHAPTER II
COLONIAL HISTORY

•

Sir William Penn, the father of the Quaker preacher, became a
creditor to King Charles to the amount of sixteen thousand pounds.
The King could not liquidate this amount, and no means existed by
which the Government would assume this debt. The old admiral
was a favorite of the King and of the Duke of York. He obtained
a promise from them that they would protect his son, the persecuted
Quaker son, and in this they kept their pledge to some extent.

In 1681, William Penn obtained his grant from Charles, in
lieu of the sixteen thousand pounds due his father, with a charter
under date of March 4, 1681. This charter the King called "Penn-
sylvania" in honor of Penn's father, against the wishes of the son,
who wished to call this territory New Wales; but the King would
not alter the clause, and so it remained Pennsylvania.

The extent of this province was three degrees of latitude in
breadth by five degrees of longitude in length. After some ar-
rangements were made, several persons agreed to take up land and
make settlement in Penn's Colony, paying forty shillings per one
hundred acres, and an annual rent of one shilling forever. The
first settlers arrived at Penn's Point December 11, 1681. In August
1682, Penn with 2,117 persons sailed from England, reaching
Penn's Point in October 1682. Thus was formed the first per-
manent settlement in Pennsylvania.

The character of Penn, his policy, his dealings with the Indians,
and their mutual faith in one another are facts that were recorded
by historians and need not be repeated here.

Penn's example of just treatment of the Indians by extending
love and common kindness to these children of the forest is by far
more than a coincidence with their natural liking for fair and honest
treatment. As the Indians were just as sensitive to love and kindness
as are the white people, the wisdom exhibited by Penn toward his
wards paid the highest dividends ever paid to the frontier settlers
in America. The great Delaware Indian tribe, before the year
1664, was a powerful band of natives, who controlled the territory
from Philadelphia to the James River and to the Susquehanna.

In the year 1664, the Delaware Indian tribe was divided by
common consent of the Council. The Shawnees until 1663 were a
part of the Delawares, but there arose two rightful chiefs who by
every law held the claim to this title; and neither by peaceful re-
lations nor by physical force could they determine a superior right

170 THE HORN PAPERS

of either to be the chief of the Delaware tribe. The tribe deter-
mined to counsel twelve moons and to call on the Great Spirit to
direct them in their acts.

In 1664, a great feast was held, and after many promises had
been made and burned in rites, the two chiefs divided the tribe.
Shawano, one chief, called his division Shawanes, later known as
the Shawnee Indian tribe. The Delaware tribe proper continued
under Chief Clear Water, the father of Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo. This was
the chief who established the Council Stone on the council grounds
on the site of Clarksville, Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1695.

The Indians in their treaty with William Penn in 1682 acknowl-
edged their former connection, but signed the treaty as separate
tribes. No wars or depredations were committed against each other
after their separation in 1664.

The first great treaty with the Indians was held at Shorbanaxon,
later Kensington. This was the greatest civil treaty ever made by
the Indians and the only one never broken by the Indians. "Two
moons later," Penn gave the Delaware Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo and
his tribe the right to set their tribe on the branches of the western
shore of the Mohongalo River, near the Indian trail of the Cayuga
tribe to "Beautiful Waters."

The life history of William Penn has been written many times;
therefore the details that are connected with the first settlement in
the colonies, until about the years 1696 to 1700, are omitted. The
years from 1700 to 1800 are known as the Century of Preparation
for Self-government.

The English colonies established their settlements from New
England to Florida, but the Spanish and the French were very
aggressive in their claims to American territory. Although the
English gained the final control of the country, and left their de-
scendants a rich inheritance, our humble ancestors spent many of
their pioneer days in severe toil, and endured such hardships and
dangers as no modern mind is able fully to grasp.

THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA

In December 1682, William Penn, in accordance with the six-
teenth article of the constitution of his government, assembled all
the freemen of his province at Chester, as well as those of the
three districts of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. At this meeting
at Chester they discussed the question of annexing the three lower
counties of the Delaware. The act of union was passed, adding
these three provinces (now the State of Delaware) to the province

COLONIAL HISTORY 171

of Pennsylvania. William Penn, by and with the consent of the
first Assembly, divided the provinces of Pennsylvania into three
counties and named them Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester; the
territories retained the names of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex.
For each of the counties and territories sheriffs and other proper
officers were appointed by the proprietor; but the Councils and
Assemblymen were elected by the people. On March 10, 1683, the
Council and Assemblymen met in Philadelphia, each county having
returned three members for the Council and nine for the Assembly.

In the year 1684, William Penn returned to England, leaving
the Colony in the hands of commissioners, with a President. This
mode of government proved unsatisfactory to the three lower
counties, and was changed by Penn, in 1691. Separate Legislatures
were formed, and finally the provinces became separated.

In August 1699, William Penn sailed from England to Philadel-
phia, and reassumed the reins of government to the entire satisfac-
tion of the people. On October 28, 1701, he presented the Council
and Assembly with a new charter of privileges, and at that time
appointed Andrew Hamilton as Lieutenant Governor, and again
sailed for England. This charter continued to be the supreme law
of the province until the Declaration of Independance was adopted,
July 4, 1776. A court then assembled at Philadelphia July 8, 1776,
to form a constitution for the State of Pennsylvania ; and on Septem-
ber 28, a constitution was adopted by the representatives for the
city of Philadelphia, and the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks,
Chester, Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, Bed-
ford, Northumberland, and Westmoreland, the eleven counties
which then composed the State of Pennsylvania.

A second constitution was formed by the representatives of the
people September 2, 1790. A third constitution was adopted by
the people October 9, 1838, and a fourth constitution was adopted
by the people December 16, 1873.

NEW YORK

New York was first settled by the Hollanders, and for a half
century they ruled this territory. But in 1664, it was surrendered
to the English and with Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and
a part of Connecticut, was given by grant to the Duke of York by
his brother, King Charles II. The same year he granted New Jer-
sey to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret; this latter colony
was settled by Swedes and Danes.

172 THE HORN PAPERS

Several attempts were made by the Hollanders to settle on the
banks of the Delaware, but the Indians held out against them, and
their hostilities often led to bloodshed.

The Swedes were interested in the success of the Dutch West
India Company in trading with the Indians. They applied for
a charter to trade with the Indians, which was granted, and the
Crown directed Chancellor Oxenstein to command two vessels
to carry the Swedish colonists across the Atlantic. These colonists
arived on the Delaware in 1638. They settled on the Cape
of Henlopen and surveyed the west coast of Delaware to a place
above which Trenton now stands. The Swedes were reinforced
by their people from time to time and the Hollanders settled
there, too; and for a time these two people held Delaware in
common. The Dutch took the political lead, while the Swedes
gave character, prosperity, and happiness to the colony.

The English in 1664 conquered the whole country occupied by
the Dutch and this led to a war between England and Holland
which ended in a treaty ceding all the Dutch possessions in North
America to the English.

The title to the State of New Jersey passed through the Duke
of York, to whom it was granted by Charles, to Lord Berkeley and
Sir George Carteret. The first Legislative Assembly in this colony
was held in 1681. These grants were subsequently assigned to a
body of trustees for the benefit of creditors.

William Penn was one of that body, and it was through his
knowledge of the country, obtained while acting as trustee, that
he became interested and perceived its future greatness. He be-
came ambitious to found a commonwealth, having for its basis re-
ligious tolerance. Having been born in the line of aristocracy of
England, he held against the class to which he belonged and joined
the Quakers, at that time an obscure sect who were persecuted for
their religious views. Penn promised them to assist in their plans
and, if possible, to establish a home for these unassuming though
deeply religious people. Penn also was persecuted on account of his,
views, and as a preacher of the Quaker doctrine was imprisoned;
but at his trials he pleaded his own cause and procured his acquittal
from the English juries before which he was tried. Twice he was
fined for contempt of court because he refused to take an oath
which he claimed the court and the law had no power to demand
of him. He held it to be against all divine justice to connect his word
of honor in law with God in the prescribed oath, and that no Eng-
lish Court of Justice could compel him to follow the custom, and in
no case did he do so.

COLONIAL HISTORY 173

MARYLAND

The province of Maryland was founded by Sir George Calvert,
Baron of Baltimore in Ireland. He was a Roman Catholic. He was
English by birth and was very much interested in the settlements in
America. He went to Virginia, but being a Catholic he found much
opposition. On account of his religious views, there was but little
friendship shown. He then turned to the north of the Potomac
and obtained a grant of land from Charles I. This country he call-
ed Maryland, in honor of Queen Maria.

The charter granted by Charles to Baltimore is an honor to his
memory, since the original draft was made by Lord Baltimore him-
self. This charter contained provisions for religious toleration.
This was the first example in history of granting to people the right
to think and act in accordance with their personal views, and to
gain their eternal reward in their own way.

The eldest son of Lord Baltimore succeeded to the title of the
Maryland grant; but the second son, Leonard Calvert, was the
first Governor. He purchased land from the Indians, obtained their
good will, and peace and prosperity followed the early colonists.
Virginia persecuted dissenters from the Church of England; the
northen colonies were engaged in persecuting dissenters from the
primitive faith; while the Roman Catholics of Maryland established
religious freedom on the basis that all Christian churches were re-
ceived and protected. This was the source of their prosperity and
happiness.

The first colony was founded at an Indian town near the mouth
of the Potomac River. The infant colony, the humble village of
St. Mary's, flourished and was destined to have a great influence
on the prosperity of American life and liberty down the years of
history.

The land had been tilled by the Indians, and some of it was
ready for planting. Food was plentiful, for game of every kind was
in abundance. Tobacco was a staple from the beginning. Slaves
were introduced; and much the same manners and customs prevail-
ed as in Virginia. There was for a time a condition of affairs with
a colony of refugees from Virginia, led by Clayborn, that led to
serious difficulties. They refused to submit to the new government.

The Puritans came in such large numbers that they gained a
majority over the Catholics, which resulted in a bitter strife. Two
governors were elected, one a Catholic and the other a Protestant.
Confusion and then civil war followed, and the Catholics found
themselves disenfranchised in the very colony they had founded.

13

174 THE HORN PAPERS

In 1715, the fourth Lord Baltimore recovered the government of
the colony, religious toleration was again granted, a more prosper-
ous condition existed, and new settlements were made.

VIRGINIA

The retiring of Sir Edmond Andros as Governor of New York
in 1683, to be succeeded by Governor Dougan, brought a change
in the form of goverment in Virginia, as well as in New York. All
freeholders were granted the rights of suffrage; trial by jury was
established, and it was agreed that henceforth taxes should not be
levied upon the people except by consent of the General Assembly.
It was provided that soldiers should not be quartered on the people,
that martial law should not exist, and that men should not be dis-
tressed or persecuted on account of their religious beliefs. All these
rights and privileges were enjoyed by the people of Virginia until
the end of the year 1685.

The reactionary policy of James II led the Virginia people to
sow their first seeds of independence, that grew into defiance of
any acts of the King and Parliament that were directed against them.
Printing presses were forbidden and all the old abuses were heap-
ed upon the colony. The people were deprived of many advantages
they had formerly enjoyed; but they grew bold and established a
trait of character that marked the Virginians from that time down
until after the close of the Revolutionary War.

Virginia contained about 84,000 people when Governor Spots-
wood was appointed Governor in 1709. Governor Spotswood, be-
ing an Englishman of nobility, strongly emphasized the fact that
he believed that Charles I was the friend of Virginia, while Crom-
well's adherents were traitors. The Governor was strongly opposed
to the French and their schemes to make North America their
Western Empire. The Virginia colonists possessed no knowledge
of the French territory in the Ohio and the Mississippi valleys be-
fore this Governor assumed the reign of Virginia, and they were
indifferent to the settlement of lands beyond the Blue Mountains.
The English were far more apprehensive of the French encroach-
ments in 1720 than they were concerned with the lands over the
mountains, until they became interested in the reports made by the
early fur traders. For some years the stories told by the fur traders
at Williamsburg were not thought to be reliable. The common be-
lief was that the mountain chains extended to the Pacific Ocean.

The Virginia people gained their first knowledge of the country
west of the mountains through the English fur traders, who began

COLONIAL HISTORY 175

to trade with the Delaware Indians in the Monongahela Valley,
as early as 1721. In that year, John Harris and Jeremiah Logan,
the leaders of the Virginia Indian Company, made their way into
the land of the Delawares and crossed what is now Greene County,
from the James River Trail on Dunkard Creek to the main village
of the Delaware tribe at Indian Ridge. These first white men met
the great Indian 'Alichi' (Medicine Man), Oppaymolleh, and at-
tempted to make a treaty with the chief, and did gain some favors
from this tribe; but, when they returned and made their report to
the Governor, the Virginia people were so determined to resist the
plans of this enterprising leader that he became ill. He was so
bitterly disappointed that he dissolved the company, but kept send-
ing out couriers to learn more of the French and their encroach-
ments on the lands near the crest of the Allegheny Mountains. It
was not until in the month of October 1724, that Dr. Samuel Ecker-
lin succeeded in obtaining a commission to explore the Delaware
Indian lands west of the mountains. From the year 1726 to 1736
the three Eckerlin brothers, Samuel, Thomas, and Bernard, and
James Riley were commissioned fur traders.

Governor Spotswood incorporated the Virginia Indian Com-
pany in 1714. He was the head of this company. While he, as
Governor of the colony, used his authority to resist the encroach-
ments of the French against the western claims of Virginia, the
real claims were based upon statements made by Cherokee Indians,
that the lands west of the mountains were full of gold and iron and
that the Indians were the owners. This company was composed of
thirty persons, Jeremiah Logan being the Governor's Councillor.
But, the people were so determined to prevent an English settle-
ment west of the mountains that, one by one, the members resign-
ed until only the Governor, Logan, and Frazier remained as mem-
bers of the Virginia Indian Company. Governor Spotswood dis-
solved this company in 1717.

In 1744, Christopher Gist made his way to Lake Erie with the
intention of establishing a French fur cabin on the headwater branch
of the Allegheny River, as he did his English fur cabin on Gist
Run in July 1737. Finding the northern Indians more engaged in
drinking French rum than in trapping, he said he was not of the
opinion that they are so much interested in the sale of furs as they
are to obtain the control of the Five Nations. Gist returned to his
home on the Yadkin for a short season after giving up all plans to
establish his French fur cabin; but, the same year, with the Eckerlins
and James Riley, he carried twenty-four carrier loads of furs from
his cabin on Gist Run to Williamsburg.

176 THE HORN PAPERS

Christopher Gist, Thomas Frazier, Michael Heathe, Robert
McGwynn, and McNeely, from Virginia, found their way to the
banks of the Monongahela and made treaties with the Delaware
Indian chief to trade with the village Indians. These fur traders
all paid Virginia tobacco for the hides, furs, and pelts received
from the Indians. This vigorous trade aroused the French to action.
In 1741, the people of Virginia still adhered to the policy they as-
sumed in 1719-1721, and were unwilling to make terms with the
French, regardless of Christopher Gist's and Dr. Samuel Eckerlin's
suggestions.

The French set the center of the first ridge west of the Youghio-
gheny River as the national boundary line between the French and
English claims to American territory. While this agreement pleased
the large majority of the Virginia people, it created much opposi-
tion on the part of the fur traders and the London Fur Company.
Christopher Gist, being determined to continue his trading with the
Delawares beyond the new established boundary line, made terms
with the French Commander at Fort Menier in 1742. In 1743, he
gained the consent of Le Mercier to engage in trade in the French
territory, held by the Delaware Indians, who were friends of the
English. Gist agreed to sell one half of all his furs to the French;
thus by his policy of remaining neutral in all the differences con-
tended for by both the English and French, he held the good will
of both sides. Gist was the only English fur trader whom the French
would trust.

The fact that the English accepted the French boundary line
established in 1741 leaves no doubt that the English were the in-
vaders of the French territory in 1754. This boundary line was
agreed to and set down to be the center of the first mountain ridge
west of the Youghiogheny River. At that time the people of Vir-
ginia had not yet awakened to the value of the Monongahela Val-
ley country. The French had a clear knowledge of this same land
twenty years before, and claimed it as a part of the Louisiana
country. But, in 1737, the Virginia fur traders set out for the land
of the Delawares on an enlarged scale. They began to observe the
richness of the soil, the great forests, and the beautiful streams of
clear water. There fur traders were able to see the great advan-
tage of having an additional field to the Virginia territory west
of the mountains; but up to 1746, the English along the Atlantic
Coast did not share in this knowledge or in this belief.

Christopher Gist and the Eckerlin Brothers were unable to
convince the fur dealers in Baltimore and at Williamsburg of the
value of the country beyond the mountains in 1740. But, through

COLONIAL HISTORY 177

the united reports of a dozen or more of these explorers in 1741-
1742, the English people slowly awakened to the truth of the re-
ports brought back to them. They now realized that the French
had hemmed them in east of the mountains, and that too by their
own consent. This fact, said Gist in 1745, induced every Virginian
to try to obtain this rich land from the Delaware Indians who oc-
cupied this territory regardless of the boundary line established in
1741. Gist added that the powerful Delaware tribe were able to
contest the English claims, as wellas the French rights to the lands
upon which their many village sites now stood. The very fact that
the Delaware Indian tribe "held the treaty made with William Penn
sacred, led them to become friends of the English, and gave to the
Virginians the full permission to trade with their village chiefs in-
stead of the French traders who desired to obtain all the furs se-
cured by the Delawares.

This state of affairs existed in the summer and fall season of
1746; the French became alarmed in the winter season of 1746-
1747, and the French Governor in Canada made plans to halt the
further progress of the English into the territory held by the Dela-
ware tribe. In March 1747, the French Governor in Quebec com-
missioned Creaux Bozarth, the French Huguenot, to take up his
place of residence in the Delaware territory and take steps to stop
the threatened invasion of the English into this territory. In the
month of April 1747, Christopher Gist was called by the French
to lead Creaux Bozarth with his family and twenty Indian runners
and carriers over the mountains from Philadelphia to their home
on Eckerlin Creek, where the French Fort Louis I was established,
and which became the Bozarth homestead from April 1747 to
September 1783. This act of the French caused the Virginia leaders
in the General Assembly to bring the situation before the Assembly.

They invited Christopher Gist to appear in person, and give
an account of the place of the new French Fort Menier and the
intentions of the French officer, located now much nearer than in
Canada. Gist visited Williamsburg in September 1747. He stated
that he had no personal interest in the French Commissioner's
plans in the Monongahela Valley. He informed the members of the
Assembly that being a fur trader, a public guide, and an Indian
trail explorer, he was open to both the English and French in making
explorations. He said, "Sirs: For ten years I have kept you inform-
ed of the great country west of the mountains and not one of you
made a single trail over the mountain to seek the truth of the fur
traders' knowledge of the land now held by the Delaware Indians,
the only tribe in America that are the friends of the English. Now

178 THE HORN PAPERS

you say the French have no rights in the land of the Delawares.
Who first explored the upper waters of La Belle? Did not Virginia
agree to the French boundary line as set down in 1741 ? Sirs: I say
that land belongs neither to Virginia nor to France, but to the Dela-
ware Indians, the rightful owners."

On October 21, 1747, the General Assembly passed a measure
to enlarge the boundary of Virginia extending the same to Lake
Erie and the Ohio River. The Royal Governor, after considering
the act, refused to sign the bill. He stated that such a measure was
the duty of Parliament and the King. This placed the Virginians
at the disadvantage of the French. In March 1748, the General
Assembly again brought this matter before the members in the
form of a petition addressed to King George II and the British
Parliament, asking for the enlargement of the boundary as pray-
ed for in the petition.

The King made no answer to the "demands of the Assembly,
but he granted to his councillors five hundred thousand acres of land
on both sides of the Monongahela River around the forks of the
Ohio. This act of King George not only caused Christopher Gist
and young John Canon to declare open rebellion against this favor
to the King's councillors, but it set the French Government more bit-
terly against England. Notwithstanding King George's War end-
ed, a treaty of peace was signed at Aix la Chappelle in 1748;
the whole question of boundaries of French and English claims was
left open to be fought over again. Hardly one month had passed
after the treaty had been signed, when the French Government re-
opened the French and Indian War, by forestalling the English
claims to the territory occupied by the Delaware Indians in the Mon-
ongahela Valley west of the river.

The French in Canada had been kept informed on the advances
made by the Virginians by Bozarth, the French Commissioner.
On the first report of the action taken by King George II, of
England, in claiming the land around the forks of the Ohio, he
recommended that the French lay claims to this territory without
delay. The French now faced a serious state of affairs. They claim-
ed all the land drained by the headwaters of all the streams that
flowed into the Mississippi. They held all the land in the Monon-
gahela and the Ohio valleys, except that portion west of the Monon-
gahela and south of the Ohio which was being occupied by the Dela-
wares. The French were in doubt about either removing this tribe
peacefully or driving them from their lands. But one plan seemed
advisable to the French to gain possession of their claims. They
formulated the plan to set the Five Nations of the North and the

COLONIAL HISTORY 179

Great and Little Osage tribes of the Central West against their
old-time foes, and destroy this tribe to gain possession before the
English poured over the mountains to make settlements on this land.

The war between France and England, in Europe, naturally
involved the colonists of America. It was these quarrels which led
primarily to what is known in history as King William's War, from
1689 to 1697; Queen Anne's War, 1702 to 1713 ; and King George's
War, 1744 to 1748. While there were occasional pauses in the
strife, they were no more than truces. These wars emerged into
one continuous struggle to decide who should rule in America. The
close of King George's War in 1748 settled no quarrel, or the ques-
tion of territory in America. Therefore, when the Virginia As-
sembly in 1747 passed the Virginia Boundary Act, the French were
relieved when the Royal Governor refused to sign the bill; but when
the same Assembly passed the Resolution Act, the French declared
the time had arrived to settle once and for all their title to their
American claims. This was the first aggressive act on the part of
the French, that led to the French and Indian War, which many
historians state as extending from 1754 to 1763. The fact that the
Battle of Flint Top was fought on September 17, 18, 1748, and
that the Delawares were, in the main annihilated, and the French
assumed control of their lands, indicates that the treaty of peace
signed earlier in the year was only a truce, instead of permanent
peace. This barbarous act of their foes was followed by an equal
threat of the English, which they carried out by establishing the Ohio
Company in 1749. This company was granted five hundred thousand
acres of the French claims around the site of their proposed capital
city of the French American Empire. Can any fair-minded historian
say that a state of peace existed in 1748 and 1749, when these
overt acts on the part of both nations were being enacted? The
Battle of Flint Top, aided and abetted by the French, was followed
by the granting of the French land to the Virginia planters on the
part of the English. From 1748 to 1754, it was purely a stage of
polite war between the French and English in America over their
contended claims in the Mohongalo Valley and Upper Ohio.

The second overt act on the part of the French was their threat-
ened attempt to murder the English fur traders in 1751-1752. This,
was counteracted by Washington's attack on Jumonville's party
in July 1754, and the death of their leader.

Most historians have recorded that the French and Indian War
began with the shots that were fired by Washington's party on
Jumonville. This may or may not have been the first shot by the
English, but most certainly it was not the first overt act of the French.

180 THE HORN PAPERS

In 1753, Christopher Gist stated that the French maintained a
state of war on the frontier borders. He stated: "Being on equal
terms with both the French and English, I was not molested by
the French while in the services of the Ohio Company, for it was
believed the surveys made for the Ohio Company would not be
acceptable to the leaders of this company." But when the French
Commissioner learned that the Ohio Company was agreeable to
the lands selected by Gist, also that this company had given Gist a
plantation off the land selected, they questioned Gist's attitude on
the question of national claims. Gist's reply was: "The Indians
are the rightful owners and both the English and the French claims
to this territory are equally without a single just consideration."
When asked why he accepted his plantation from the English while
he never made a claim to his French grant, he replied: "The Dela-
ware Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo promised me a part of their lands
before either contestant had declared their claims to the lands be-
tween the mountains and the waters of the La Belle River." The
result of this neutral position left both the French and the English
in doubt as to Christopher Gist's support, but the Delaware's great-
ly reduced tribe was pleased, because he did not side with the
French and their hated foes. The forces that led Gist to declare
more and more for the English claims aroused from the French
Commissioner jealous interference in his plans as guide to English
explorers in the territory. It was in December 1753, that Bozarth
and Gist came to open rupture in their friendship. They had ob-
tained twenty Indian carrier loads of prime furs, and with these
they set out for Will's Creek about the middle of November, and
after their usual delays on the trail, they reached the fur station
and disposed of their packs.

While there, Gist's distant relative, George Washington, ar-
rived from Williamsburg, commissioned by Governor Dinwiddie
to carry an ultimatum to the French Commander at Fort Le Boeuf.
Washington, having no knowledge of the country through which
he must pass, insisted that Gist become his guide and leader of his
party. After some discussion of the nature of his commission,
Gist consented to lead the party to Fort Le Boeuf and back to Gist
Post. When Bozarth learned that Gist was going to become a guide
for Washington instead of accompanying him back to the Mohon-
galo River, he flew into a violent rage, threatened Gist, and advised
him to take no part in Dinwiddie's plans to remove the French
from their own territory, but Gist was firm. He stated that when
he served the French he served them well, and when he served the
English he was faithful to them, and could serve both well, without

COLONIAL HISTORY 181

taking sides, or becoming mixed in their quarrels. But this did not
satisfy the French Commissioner and he said, "If you lead Wash-
ington into the French Camp, I will send my Indian runner, Light-
foot, to meet you and kill Washington on the trail." This threat
maddened Gist beyond all reason. Gist made it clear that if Bozarth
sent his Indian to intercept them he would not only kill the Indian
but would kill the Frenchman on his return to his plantation. This
was his last talk with the man he had piloted across the mountains
in the spring of 1747.

Creaux Bozarth on his return from Wills Creek was determined
to defeat Dinwiddie's messenger from carrying any report of the
French back to Williamsburg. He formed his plans and acted with-
out delay. About the first of January 1754, Bozarth directed his
Indian runner, Lightfoot, to take the trail to the old French Fort
on the Cayuga Indian's land on the Beaver, or at some place on the
trail, and wait for Washington and Gist on their return trip from
the French Post at Fort Le Boeuf ; also, to kill Washington and
bring Gist to Fort Louis I, as a captive. The Indian, Lightfoot,
met the two in a ravine, when only ten yards from Washington.
Gist beheld the Indian who called him friend, then raised his gun to
fire at Washington. Gist, at the first glance, recognized the Indian
and the gun, and he made a swift movement and got between Wash-
ington and the Indian. The powder in the pan had become damp
and the gun fired slowly. The Indian, trying to elude Gist, lost his
aim on Washington and the discharge did no harm. Gist wanted
to kill the Indian, for he had promised to do so if he followed him,
but Washington, ignorant of all previous threats, told Gist to keep
the gun and allow the Indian to escape since no harm was done.
Gist gave the Indian a kick and sent him on his way. Gist thought
that Bozarth and other Indians were somewhere in the near-by
timber, and, in order to keep Washington from gaining a knowledge
of the source of the trouble, he advised that they travel all night,
and avoid any further trouble from the Indians. On his return to
Gist Post, he furnished Washington with a horse and Virginia sad-
dle to complete his trip to Williamsburg. Gist related in 1758 that
he killed the Indian, Lightfoot, at the foot of Dunbar's Hill in July
1754. He referred to this Indian in 1769, when he said, "There
are several Cherokee Indians that are going to eat the same kind
of medicine I gave to Lightfoot at Dunbar's Hill in 1754."

The following address was delivered by Christopher Gist to
the members of the General Assembly of Virginia in October 1747,
on the character and history of the Indians west of the mountains
and in the Lake Region :

182 THE HORN PAPERS

"You in your wisdom for the enlargement of the boundaries of
the colony at the expense of the native rights of the Indians on their
own lands, have asked me to tell you here something of the natives
with whom I and my fellow beings Dr. Samuel Eckerlin and his
two brothers, Thomas and Bernard, have traded with in their own
lands and now are more acquainted with you say than any other fur
traders in the colony. Therefore, I will give you my understanding
of the character and history of the Indians.

"In their physical character the great multitude of Indians liv-
ing on their lands west of the Susque La Hanna and in the La Belle
River regions have common resemblance, excepting the Esquimaux
of Labrador and other northern regions; these are a dwarfish race
peculiar to themselves and are inferior in mind and body to the
Indians living on the borders of this colony.

"The tribes known as the Five Nations of the North and West
and the Delaware Tribe with their kindred division, the Shawnees,
differ but little in looks, but much in character. They are tall and
straight in their persons; well proportioned, with long, straight,
black hair; small black eyes; teeth white and regular, many of them
well worn but no decayed teeth; with olive skins, and firm constitu-
tions. In their walk they carry their chin high, with a firm and manly
step. They are shrewd in their intellectual powers, with strong re-
tentive memories, the Indian never forgets a face, a kind deed or
an injury. Mild in peace; fierce and intrepid in war. Easily pro-
voked, but not easily appeased. Strong national pride, that disdains
to ask even life of an enemy, but takes delight and even glories in
the torture, and death of their enemies. They have no books but
nature's volume, wherein they learn the arts of war; and of the
chase by which they defend and support themselves. The same
volume teaches them how to construct their wigwams or their dwell-
ing places, their bows and arrows, as their weapons of war or the
chase; their wampum for ornament, stone hatchets and stone axes
as substitutes for our Birmingham tools and their stone mortars,
great and small to pound or grind their corn in are constructed
from solid stone, with great labor. Some of the larger mortars
required the labor of a squaw twelve months. The art of dressing
skins for clothing and the art of weaving mats from the barks of
trees or Indian hemp is all learned from natures needs and practical
experience. Their knowledge and experience in constructing canoes
from the bark of trees is beyond the imagination of the white man.
No race of men have so wide a knowledge of construct-stone smok-
ing pipes as the Indians. This is one handsome personal possession
that no Indian will permit the squaws to construct, each Indian de-

COLONIAL HISTORY 183

siring to have some mark of his own on his smoking pipe. Many
months of labor are required to shape and bore these stone pipes,
but no Indian expects to complete his one universal possession for
many days after he has selected the kind of stone and shade of
color he intends this pipe to be. You behold this stone pipe; it was
made by a friendly Delaware Indian more than ten years ago, and
presented to me at a time later when I gave the Indian two pounds
of colony tobacco for guiding me to a camp site of which he calls
'Curtchae' meaning a stone cave. The husbandry is confined to the
culture of only a few simple things such as corn, beans, potatoes,
melons, etc.; these supply with the flesh of animals, their wants for
natures wants are few and easily supplied.

"This same volume of nature teaches them how to heal their
diseases and cure their wounds by plants that grow in nature's
garden. Their diseases are few, their remedies are few. The em-
ployments of the men are more generally confind to war and hunt-
ing; the squaws till the ground, rear the children, nurse the sick, and
do all the hard labor in fine ; the squaws are the slaves of the In-
dian tribes. The amusements of the men are such exercises as are
best calculated to render them dexterous either in war or the chase.
Their council houses and war dances are held around a large fire;
here only they believe they are capable of making wise decisions.
Such a council ground and fire stone stands this day on the Dela-
ware's peninsula lands about one league from the Chiefs habitation,
which we visited two years ago and again this autumn. The squaws
seldom ever join in their amusements, or sports or enjoy but little
amusements among themselves.

"The dress of both sexes is very similar and is adapted to the sea-
son, in summer very light; in winter the skins of the chase keep them
warm. Their habitations or wigwams are mere pens inclosed and
covered with bark or the skins of animals with an aperture at the
top through which the smoke from the fire ascends. The earth is
their bedstead, and skins are their bed and covering.

"A belt of wampum is generally used as a confirmation of a
treaty or any other engagement, assurance or promise. The lan-
guage of the Indian is strong, bold and energetic; capable of power-
ful expressions. War is the study and delight of the savages, but
this art while carried on among the tribes of their own race is seldom
practiced against the white explorers and fur traders, except when
promised some emolument by the French governor or the Catholic
Missions.

"The governments of the tribes are absolute. The will of the
chief or sachem is fixed and binding on the whole ; but in all questions

184 THE HORN PAPERS

of war or peace the war chief assembles his Council of Warriors
and the subject is deeply and fairly discussed by the wise men of the
tribe; the young men often attend the Councils, but never speak.
The majority in most cases decide the issue; still it is in the power
of the chief to decide the matter in question.

"Members and fellow Virginians: I have at some length given
you a general description of the Indians as I have found them on
their own lands in my explorations and trade among the tribes and
I find the Delaware tribe the Only one wholly favorable to the Eng-
lish people and I stress my voice against the colony usurping the
lands and rights to this tribe's only possession. I do not think Vir-
ginia's need of territory so great that we can afford to destroy the
faith and trust they placed in the white men through the wise and
honorable treatment they received from the hands of William Penn.

"Let this Assembly ponder long and well before it concludes
that the Delaware claims are a part of the royal colony, and force
the loyal natives to leave their lands to settle in some portion of
the great western country." — Writings of Frederick Butler, 1788.

The above address was delivered to the Virginia Assembly by
Christopher Gist in November 1747, when the question was raised
as to the colony's boundary line being extended to the Ohio River.
This was before King George II of England gave the five hundred
thousand acres of land to the Ohio Company of which Gist became
the explorer and selector of the Ohio lands, which did not include
the Delaware Indian claims of 1747, and had it not been that the
French induced the Five Nations of the North, and the Osages of
the West to destroy the Delawares in 1748, they would probably
have lived on their lands in peace for many years.

IRON MANUFACTURING IN VIRGINIA IN 1750

Several iron pits were opened in Orange County and smelters
erected from 1740 to 1745, and the home production was made
useful and much sought after. England's products were used less
and less as the home blocks grew more common, so that by 1750
the trade became null; whereupon the British Parliament passed
the Iron Act in May 1750, forbidding the erection of iron works
in America, and the manufacture of hard iron (lately known as
steel) was specially interdicted; and (in 1751) the felling of pine
trees outside of lawful permits was a misdemeanor under penalty.
But the Virginians of 1750, while loyal subjects on one hand, were
constant violaters of the British laws on the other, and scarcely
had the news of this act reached the Virginia shores when a score

COLONIAL HISTORY 185

or more of iron furnaces were erected on the western frontier
borders between 1750 and 1752.

Iron was mined; charcoal was burned in pits; iron was smelted,
purified, and worked by hand into all kinds of useful articles, ac-
cording to use. Both hard and soft iron were made in the Virginia
contraband smelters of 1750-1760.

This act of Parliament was not repealed until in 1776, after
the colonies had manufactured enough iron and steel equipment to
develop America into a nation strong enough to whip England and
taunt Parliament about her foolish acts of 1750." (Henry Clay
1818)

Jacob Horn, a frontier settler on Snow Creek in Auugsta
County, on hearing that the King of England had forbidden the
Virginia settlers to use their own materials at hand, said: "Who
is he that can tell me the use of all I want, not he, the King, while
in England, and me on my homestead on Snow Creek. We set out
to open an iron pit and erected a smelter in October 1750, and dug
enough iron ore from the east pit to make two long tons of purified
iron in 1752. Virginia iron was sought for on every hand in 1753
and 1754, by planters and loyalists from Williamsburg, to the
French borders in 1754 to 1756. We made all kinds of tools, knives,
razors, sickles, great and little axes, chisels, shovels, and other
edged articles from hard iron; then we made fire-bars, oven doors,
swings (hinges) lock-bars and pins of many sizes, nails and spinning
wheel pins, many of which John made in 1757-58, are still in use
in lower Virginia at this time.

"The oven doors, swings, lock-bars, fire-bars, pins and other
iron materials used at the block-house in 1772, were made there on
the block, from iron the King forbade Virginia to use.

"The Parliament, the King and Council were far away. We did
not know them. We were Virginians, not Englishmen in London,
and gave no consent to act of 1750, and did not feel the need to obey
any part thereunto.

"The pines were felled and hewn when it pleased us to need
them. No settler remembered the obnoxious act of 1750, neither
did any man withhold his saying from the Virginia leaders for all
were of one mind.

"At this late day, the use of Virginia materials has made the
King's English remember, we have the same on every hand, (in
every colony) and never ask, 'Shall Virginians enquire of either
the Parliament or the King of their use? We have more than a long
ton of the King's iron made into home needs at this time, and who
shall say nay to us, or forbid their use in these borders."

186 THE HORN PAPERS

When Christopher Horn settled on his homestead in 1776, he
held 1450 acres and 31 perch under the laws of Virginia, but after
the Mason and Dixon's line had been completed, from the walnut
tree at Turkey Foot Rock to the southwest corner of the state of
Pennsylvania, in 1784, and Washington County had been establish-
ed, in 1781, Christopher Horn warranted his homestead of
about 350 acres of this tract, in 1785, as now shown on the records
in the County Recorder's Office, at Washington, Pennsylvania.

John Horn, eldest son of Christopher Horn and the great-
grandfather of the author, was born at Snow Creek, Virginia, July
11, 1767. He was five years old when his father and grandfather
settled at Camp Cat Fish, in 1772, and was nearly nine years of
age, when his father, Christopher, settled on his homestead in West
Bethlehem Township, and well remembered every detail of the
site of the Flint Top battlefield, as it appeared when they settled
there, in 1776. He described to his grandson, S. R. Horn, during
the years from 1840 to 1856, how they burned thousands of Indian
skeletons on "log heaps," when clearing the land for planting crops.
He stated that many large trees had been burned half way through
near the ground — but were still standing, as the signs of the battle
that had taken place there thirty years before.

John Horn, the son of Christopher Horn who tomahawk-
ed his homestead on the site of Flint Top in 1775, gave the follow-
ing statement to Hon. James Irons, editor of the "Waynesburg
Messenger," in October 1836: "My home farm now containing
340 acres of the original 1450 acres of land taken upon the site of
Flint Top on Indian Ridge by my father, in October 1775, does not
now take in all the old battlefield, but includes a part of the upper
camp site, where the old Delaware Indian, Bowlegs, declared a
portion of older Indians set their wigwams in 1696, when they
took their homes there at that time. When father built the log
house in 1776, he set it above the spring, where it now stands, and
walled up the spring with stones from the Delaware Indian fire
oven on Indian Ridge on the village site. The main Indian village
was on the second bottom of the land above Tingooqua Creek, on
the flat top of the lower ridge, within plain sight of where father
built the log house at the spring, but Indian sites covered all the
ground between the spring clean over to the main camp. When fa-
ther settled there in 1776, Indian skeletons were still lying at each
tepee just where they were killed in 1748. I helped to burn all these
skeletons on log heaps from 1785 to 1795, before I was married.
In all, I helped to burn more than ten thousand of these Indian
skeletons on the log heaps when clearing the land for the plough

COLONIAL HISTORY 187

between 1777 and 1797. All these Indians were killed in the battle
of Flint Top eighty-eight years ago, and there are still many parts
of skeletons in the ground at this time. Thousands of flint arrow
points and other Indian warfare material still mark the site on In-
dian Ridge. The village site was not ploughed until 1791, and the
ground is a bed of shell, even at this time, after years of farming.
More than a thousand tomahawks were found on this field when
we were clearing there in 1795-96-97. In 1822, several large grind-
ing stones were ploughed up by the boys on the north face of this
field. Some Huron Indian stone axes were piled beside a sugar tree
where they had been placed in 1748, and some strange flint darts were
taken out of the Cooking Camp Pitt in 1812. These pits, Bowlegs
explained, were the Delaware Indian cooking sites ever since they
located there in 1696, and were still there after the battle in 1748,
and a few of the remaining Delawares used these from 1748 to
about 1765, when all the Delawares except about a dozen who re-
mained among the whites, went into the state of Ohio and joined
their relatives on the Scioto River.

"The Indian, 'Bowlegs,' was a Delaware Indian, who escaped
the enemy in 1748, and lived here and there, among the whites from
1772 until his death, in 1789, and was at our home a long time and
told us of many things that happened long before the Delawares
met with defeat, at 'Flint Top.' He said the Delawares settled in
their camp in 1696, and set up their Council Firestone at their
Council grounds between the Two Tingooqua Creeks in 1696, as
agreed by William Penn in 1682. Bowlegs stated that some French-
men were in camp at the Mouth of Redstone Creek, while the In-
dians were engaged in battle on the 17 and 18th of September,
1748."

It was at the mouth of Redstone Creek, where Christopher
Gist, Jacob Horn, and the two French surveyors, in company with.
Tingooqua, Peter Chartier, and the camp cook, "Wessameking,"
planted the fifth and last of the "French lead plates" in June 1751,
and after the ceremonies Tingooqua made a long and appealing
speech to the Frenchmen lamenting the bad treatment they had re-
ceived from the French only three years before. He said, "The
Great Spirit will avenge the Indians by driving the Frenchmen into
the Great Waters, and we shall see them no more. Once we were
free, now we are all squaws. No braves — no lands. Delawares and
Penn big Friends. Now Delawares gone and Penn gone too. The
Great Spirit punish French like French punish the Delawares." Such
was the talk of the brokenhearted "Civil Chief," Tingooqua, in June
1751.

188 THE HORN PAPERS

The great Indian battle at Flint Top was not merely a local
battle between the Indians to settle tribal disputes and punish their
enemies; it was a nation-wide scheme of the French to establish a
French Empire in America with the capital at Duquesne.

Historians mention indirectly this battle, but do not state the
place or date; neither do they give any details pertaining to it.

Professor A. J. Waychoff had a definite knowledge of a great
Indian battle, but did not know just where it took place, or at what
date. He states, "I have found references to a great Indian battle
that was fought in southwest Pennsylvania. A great conflict between
the Indian tribes took place some place not far distant, but I have not
learned of the time or place." Hon. L. K. Evans spoke of this battle
in an address at Jefferson, Pennsylvania, in 1876, and was on the site
on Indian Ridge to gather some firsthand information, but so far
as the author has any knowledge, he did not publish the results of
his research.

French historians mentioned the Battle of Flint Top as being the
first battle of the French and Indian War.

Mrs. M. E. Gail, an eminent French historian, stated that the
Battle of Flint Top in 1748 opened the way to the French to the
middle waters of the Monongahela River, the Rhine of the West.
The French Regulars, commanded by N. Coulon de Jumonville, re-
mained in camp at Fort Jumonville and at Fort Louis II, and did not
take part in the Battle of Flint Top on September 17, 18, 1748.
No historian on either side of the Atlantic has ever charged Jumon-
ville with giving commands in that battle, although he knew the
Indians under his command would destroy the Delaware tribe. It
was necessary for the French Governor in Canada to secure control
of Tingooqua's territory since the War Chief, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo,
was so obstinate and determined to follow the English.

The French used every strategy known to their leaders, but
Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo would only remain a sullen, crafty ally of the Eng-
lish. Tingooqua, the Civil Chief, and Opaymolleh, the religious
chief and "Medicine Man," took no part in the Battle of Flint Top,
and lived to see the French driven from the American shores.

It was necessary to the French interests in 1748 to compel the
English to keep their agreement of 1741, that the crest of the Blue
Ridge Mountains was the boundary line between the French and
English claims in America. This direct violation of the "Pact" on
the part of King George led to the battle of Flint Top, and this
was the first stroke of the French and Indian War in America and of
the Seven Years' War on this continent. Certainly, had there been

COLONIAL HISTORY 189

no Battle of Flint Top, there would have been no French and Indian
War in America.

Historians need only to study the situation in the Monongahela
and Ohio country from 1724 to 1750 together with facts that no
English historian has compiled more than a brief reference to, but
this is no fault of the present writers of the truthful events of 1748.

Chtoka, alias "Wet Stone," a Little Osage warrior, told Cap-
tain Pike that he was familiar with the Ohio country. He said he
was at the Battle of Flint Top in Tingooqua's land in 1748, that he
killed General Edward Braddock in his battle in 1755, and that
the Frenchman allowed him to wear his red sash and have an extra
share of rum. Chtoka related to Pike that he was with the French
when they drove the boy Washington into the log fort (Fort Neces-
sity) and, when the great storm and rain had passed, they drove
Washington and his soldiers into the mountains.

These statements are recorded in the volumes of the Kansas
State Historical Collections.

Flint Top was so named by Tingooqua and Grendelier in 1751,
from the many thousand flint arrow points seen lying over this battle-
field in 1751, three years after the battle, when Christopher Gist,
Jacob Horn, X. Grendelier, M. Beaumont, Tingooqua, Peter
Chartier, Bowlegs, and Wessameking, the Cat fish catcher, were on
this battleground.

Thousands of these flint arrows, tomahawks, axes, and other
Indian weapons have been carried away from that battlefield on
Indian Ridge.

In 1776, when Christopher Horn built his log house (which is
still standing) by the spring, he had to remove forty Indian skele-
tons from the site where he erected the house. These were mostly
the skeletons of women and children.

Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, the War Chief of the Delaware tribe, whose
camp site was on the site of Jefferson, Greene County, from 1696
to 1748, was killed at the Battle of Flint Top on September 18,
during the second day's battle. (Statement of Bowlegs, made in
1785.)

The spring near the log house which Christopher Horn erected
in March 1776 had some stone around it, one of which "Bowlegs"
stated to Christopher Horn had been carried from the place where
William Penn stood when he made his promises to the Delaware
Indians in 1682. This stone was about one foot square and three
inches thick, and had the sun, moon, and some stars carved on it.
The Indians claimed Penn's "white friend" put the marks on the
stone to remind them of Penn, and that the squaws were to call on
u

190 THE HORN PAPERS

the Great Spirit to make the water run all the many moons of their
lives. That stone was on the John Horn homestead in 1854. It
was of peculiar formation, of a red speckled color; it had a smooth
surface and was very hard. The members of the John Horn family
called it "the moon stone."

In 1858, Christopher Horn, grandson of C. Horn, who home-
steaded Flint Top site, cut a beech tree that stood on Indian Ridge
north of the main village site. On this tree were two carvings, placed
there by their "Medicine Man" long before the Battle of Flint Top
in 1748. The carvings had overgrown to some extent, and broken
arrow points were buried in this bark growth, grown after the carv-
ings had been made, before the battle.

The following statements were furnished the author by the his-
torian, Mrs. M. E. Gail, of Paris:

UN. Coulon de Jumonville, the commander of one hundred and
sixty-four French soldiers and a combined Indian force of more
than fourteen thousand, determined to overthrow the Delaware In-
dian tribe, and seize the territory they occupied in the valleys of the
western streams of the Mohongalo River in the name of King Louis.
Jumonville after reaching the Forks went up the Mohongalo River
to Fort Jumonville at Red Rock on Jumonville Creek where the
French went into camp, and directed the combined Indians to trail
over the enemy's own trail to the Delaware camp on Indian Ridge
and capture the Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, and reduce the tribe into
submission, and destroy their power and influence with the English.

"The Delaware tribe were living on French territory but favor-
able to the English. This territory was a part of the Louisiana
which belonged to France. After the Indians departed from Fort
Jumonville, the French ascended the river to Fort Louis II, where
they went into camp and remained until the 22nd day of September.
The Battle of Flint Top was fought on the 17th and 18th days of
September, 1748. On the 22nd day Jumonville with the soldiers
fell back to Fort Jumonville where the Indians met them on the 24th
day, and on the 25th day they all set out on return to the North
River, where they promised to feast the Indians.

"The Indians held their feast, but the French returned to
Canada to assure Governor Gallisoniere that the French had gained,
and had taken full possession of Tingooqua's land, and that Chief
Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo had been killed in battle. The Delaware tribe was
broken and mainly destroyed, more than seven thousand of the tribe
being killed in the two days' fight. This was the greatest purely In-
dian battle ever fought in America, so far as known to the colonists.

COLONIAL HISTORY 191

"From the French pont of view in 1 748 it was necessary to defeat
the King of England, and Governor Dinwiddie's plan to appropriate
the choicest land belonging to the French for the Virginia Counse-
lors, and the Delaware Indians and peace Indians were the real peo-
ple that lost their all, territory, homes, and most of their lives, be-
cause each of the two nations determined to hold supremacy in this
territory which belonged to neither one.

"The Battle of Flint Top in 1748 opened the French and In-
dian War in America, and led to the seven years on this continent,
but it cleared America from British rule, for had there been no
battle at Flint Top, there would have been no French and Indian
War, which paved the way to the Revolutionary War of 1775 to
1783, and the end of the British Control in the American Colonies.

"I think you misunderstood my statement with connection to the
raising of the French Flag west of the Mohongalo River after the
battle in 1748. After this battle, the French set their claims to ter-
ritory west of the Mountains, and to the Lakes including all the
territory of the Delaware Indian lands in the Mohongalo Valley,
but no mention was made of the flag having been raised at that time,
but in 1751 when the French survey was made of this same territory
and the last five of the French lead plates were planted, the French-
men and party did raise the French flag nearby Flint Top on a high
cliff named by the surveyors as 'Grendelier.' Here the flag remain-
ed one month, and then removed but the French flag was pictured
on the rocks on the face of the cliff with proper designations of the
French claims, with all the names of the members of this party as
witnesses to this place set down as 'Grendelier,' the month being
June, the year being 1751. The name Grendelier being the name of
the Frenchman who set the descriptive markings on the great rock
below the flag on the face of the cliff. This was set on the rock in
Indian colors and burned with fire to preserve it, and unless destroy-
ed by the hands of man, this Picture Rock must assert its evidence
of both, the French Flag and Grendelier as the only place above
Du Quesne that the French flag ever was raised as their signet in
picture with date of same.

"Grendelier was mentioned as a commanding site for base of
defense and Chateau la France, but this was forgotten in the strug-
gles that followed and Grendelier like all the rest of the French-
American Empire perished with the French cause in 1763.

"From your statements as well as from fragments of French
Colonial history, I learn this site of Grendelier has a historical
record that outranks many European historical centers of fame.

192 THE HORN PAPERS

"First of human hands creating history in this nearby territory
were the Mound Builders. They lived, they toiled, ruled and passed
on, leaving only the signs of their great works, then in after centuries
the great Delaware Indian tribe moved in, lived in peace and plenty
for a short half century; then, they, too, were broken and scattered
by contending forces. The French and English nations claimed this
surrounding site and each in turn had to give way to American au-
thority, then even then, the site of Grendelier could not rest in peace.
Augusta, Virginia, the District of West Augusta, and Yohogania
County each in turn held control of this site as Virginia territory,
then Pennsylvania set her seal over this long contested historic site
and now rests as within the County of Washington, and established
first as the village of Hillsboro, now Scenery Hill.

"The Delaware Indians were the actual possessors of this tract
of land, and they, too, held with the English, and France determined
to destroy the Delaware tribe, and confine the English to the ter-
ritory east of the Allegheny Mountains, plant a French Empire in
Central North America with their Capitol at Ft. Du Quesne.

"In May 1754, the French general in Canada posted faithful
'sharp watchers,' or signal men in the Mohongalo Valley and as far
away as Fort Cumberland to hasten the movements of the English
on to the French Post at Fort Louis I, thence to Fort Louis II, to
Fort Jumonville, and to Fort Du Quesne.

"Fort Louis I had been set down in 1747 by Creaux Bozarth, by
order of the French in Quebec. This faithful frontiersman and
family were the sole white settlers located in Tingooqua's land be-
tween the Ohio country and the English in Virginia in 1747, to ap-
prise the French posts of affairs in Tingooqua's camp before the
month of June 1748, when the French established Fort Louis II
and Fort Jumonville on the Mohongalo River to lay claim to the
territory as French claims by rights of exploration and a part of
Louisiana.

"Early in the spring of 1755 this most worthy commander of
Fort Louis I with two other French emissaries made their way over
the Allegheny Mountains through unexplored forests, across dif-
ficult streams to Fort Cumberland, the most western post of English
settlement, to apprise themselves of the plans of General Edward
Braddock's forces then on their way over the mountains to destroy
the French Fort Du Quesne, and the posts on the Mohongalo River;
by observation and French-Canada Indians runners, they were able
to keep the French generals in the Ohio Valley informed of the in-
vading army, and the French divisions Indian chiefs ready to defend
the claims as sent forth by Britain. The French command were

COLONIAL HISTORY 193

ready to meet the haughty Braddock and his army when they neared
to Fort Du Quesne and all the world knows, and did know how he
met the French on that July day in 1755. Not one French bark was
destroyed, one hundred of these boats were pushed up the Mohon-
galo River to Fort Jumonville to keep the Indians from desertion
in the hour of battle, but be it said to their credit, the Indians did
the greater share of annihilating the English Army there on French
soil. This battle followed the Battle of Flint Top and gave to the
French the control of the Mohongalo Valley.

"You know as all the educated world has long known that the
great Mississippi Valley with all its tributaries to the headwaters
thereof together with all that portion of North America now held
as British territory was once held by France by right of discovery,
exploration and by treaties made with the Five Nations of Indians,
then the rightful owners of all that country.

"The Delaware Indian tribe as it was known from 1664 to 1748
was the more civilized of the Indian tribes of the Red Race in Amer-
ica, and were loyal to William Penn, and to all his English followers
in his colony as well as to White settlers in the colony of Virginia,
but this tribe held aloof from the French, would not either in spirit
or in alliance lend assistance to the French to establish the French-
Indian Empire that the French government was at that time plan-
ning to plant in America, and from the meagre sources now at hand
it appears that about the year of 1700 the Five Nations of the
North and their blood relatives beyond the Mississippi determined
to overthrow the great power held by the Delaware tribe who held
their domains on French territorial claims which the French could
not dislodge or make treaty with; this condition was made more
potent when it is understood that the Delawares held in common
with the English claims to the territory and were friendly, and in
harmony with the early English explorers west of the Mountains
from Virginia.

"The early colonial troubles culminated early in the year of
1748 when the King of England openly gave a large tract of land
in the Ohio Valley to his Virginia Councillors, this same land being
French territory but held by the Delaware tribe under the Civil
Chief, Tingooqua, who was a French-Indian whose bounds were
west of the Mohongalo River, but never fully set down by any
lines or by any agreements but the center of which was Tingooqua's
Camp at Spirit Spring near Flint Top where the allied Indian forces
of the North and Western bands met the Delawares and destroyed
their power and reduced the tribe to a dependent state on the 17 and
18 day of September, 1748.

194 THE HORN PAPERS

"The destiny of America was perhaps forever changed by the
misguided minds of both France, and England, the beginning of
which originated in the destruction of the Delaware Indian tribe
at Flint Top, followed by the defeat of the great English General
Braddock. The years from 1748 to 1763 laid the foundation for
the America Independence secured in 1783.

"The thinking minds of France date the loss of their American
colonial possessions beginning at Flint Top, which was finished and
sealed in 1763, in so far as the French were interested, and while
the same War started at Flint Top cited the English to overthrow
the French in America, it also cited the colonists of all classes that
they could drive the English Rule from the American shores. This
the French decided would be the result as mentioned in 1763.

"The French historians declared that:

"First — France did intend to plant an Empire in America and
build the Capitol at Ft. Du Quesne, as the one commanding site
west of the eastern range of mountains at the headwaters of the
Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

"Second — The Eckerlin Brothers were mentioned as the first
English explorers to invade the French claims on, and West of the
Mohongalo River in the year of 1724, but no claims were made by
these early frontiersmen on behalf of the English government: so
far as known, they were fur traders.

"Third — Christopher Gist, an Englishman from first the colony
of Maryland, later from the colony of Virginia, was first an ex-
plorer for a London-Paris Fur Co., then was a French explorer on
the headwaters of the Ohio River, on both North River and the
Mohongalo River, until in the year of 1747, he became an explorer
for the official colony of Virginia, and took a land grant on the
East side of the Mohongalo River, not claimed by the Delawares,
but adjacent to their lands, and at all times in harmony with Tingoo-
qua's interests before, and after the battle of 1748.

"Fourth — French Lead Plates were planted in the Mississippi
and in the Ohio valleys in 1749 and 1750, and in the year of 1751
the French government planted five additional Lead Plates; these
were planted on the West branches of the Mohongalo River begin-
ning at a point on Little French Creek to Tingooqua's Creek. These
were set down on a Map published in 1754.

"Fifth — There are no direct French records of the number of
Indians estimated in North America in the years following the
early French settlements.

COLONIAL HISTORY 195

"The French estimate of the number of Delawares killed at
Flint Top was over eight thousand, while less than three thousand
were the grand loss of all the other tribes in this battle.

"Sixth — The Delaware Indian Tribe with all their blood rela-
tives, numbered at one time nearly one-half of all the Indians in
Northern and Eastern North America, was sub-divided into many-
divisions and under different names. In the year of 1664, the
Shawnes, the last division of the great tribe, became a separate tribe.

"No single success greater in all the 'Seven Years' War marked
French success as did follow them in the Mohongalo river valley.
The years of 1756 and 1757 were equally favorable to the French
in America, but also, the sun of destiny was then descending on their
plans to plant their great empire in America, total darkness falling
over them in 1763, and this great pall was not lifted from the land
and foe until the hated English rule was driven from the colonies
in 1783.

"You cannot rejoice greater today over the same common fate
of these two contending nations determined to plant empires in the
Ohio Valley than the French people did in 1783 to see the English
defeat in America.

"The history of the events in the early days in the Mohongalo
and Ohio valleys will ever be associated with French dreams of
their lost empire in the heart of America.

"Brave loyal souls endured untold hardships in the wilds of Tin-
gooqua's territory to set up control and to develop a great empire in
their name, and for the French government, but only succeeded in
paving the way to American freedom, but that victory has, and will
ever bind two nations in unison that the defeated English leaders
cannot now understand and never will appreciate.

"Only historians can understand and appreciate the historical
events that transpired in your section of America in 1748-1763,
but let the readers of this history not forget that it was these fifteen
years of strife that gave birth to the great American Union as it
stands today.

"The life and destiny of nations have created many pages of
wonderful history, much of which is lost to the people of the present
day, but there are no pages of history more thrilling and less known
in common than the sections of the American colonial days from
the year of 1700 to the close of the American Revolution in 1783.
This is probably accounted for from intercolonial contention and
sectional strife between the manners and customs of the people
themselves than from the real intention to record no history of the

196 THE HORN PAPERS

French life and their just claims in territory that the English laid
false claim to through their ruler, King George II."

The Indian known as Bowlegs informed Christopher Horn that
the sister of Queen Aliqippa, called "Snow in Face," was one of the
Indian maids that Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo sentenced to the punish-
ment of remaining two full days in the water under the penalty of
death. He stated that she became sick from remaining in the water.
'Such Chunukabi' (pleurisy), and that the 'alikchi' (medicine man)
was informed by the Great Spirit that she was made evil by Peter
Cheaver and must die and go to the Happy Hunting Ground where
she would become a happy maid again and rule over a great white
tepee and feast all the moons long. Christopher Horn, to please
Bowlegs, built a stone wall around her grave and this wall remained
until about 1860. The site is still known but not marked. The pool
of water in which these girls were confined for two days was known
as "Death Pool" and was long known to the first settlers around
Marianna, Washington County, Pennsylvania.

CHAPTER III
GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY

The Washington ancestry is a noble one, showing that the family
maintained a high respectability through every variety of trials and
met all the demands of life with ability, fortitude, and success.
George Washington's genealogy reads: Father — Augustine Wash-
ington, born 1694; married Jane Butler April 20, 1715. She died
November 24, 1728. He married his second wife, Mary Ball,
March 6, 1730. Grandfather — Lawrence Washington. Great-
grandfather— John Washington, born at Sulgrave Manor 1629 and
died at his home on Bridge Creek, Virginia.

George Washington in his youth became a surveyor, and at the
age of sixteen years had completed a survey of a large tract of land
in the Shenandoah Valley for Lord Thomas Fairfax. After he had
completed this and other private surveys, he received from the presi-
dent of William and Mary College, in 1749, an appointment as a
public surveyor. At this work he spent about three years, living
most of the time in the forest, learning how to subsist by his own
resourcefulness.

On October 12, 1753, young Washington presented himself to
Governor Robert Dinwiddie and made a personal application for
the appointment of envoy to the French headquarters near Lake
Erie. Washington's commanding appearance, his self-confidence,
and his engaging manners gave Dinwiddie the impression that he
was a man of unusual talent, and the very one whom he desired to
carry a message to the French at Fort le Boeuf. He said, uThe nub
of the whole matter is to warn the French to get out of all the King's
territory from the Ohio River to Lake Erie."

Robert Dinwiddie was a Scotchman by birth. He had been sent
out from London as a clerk in the office of the custom collector in
the Bahamas. He learned that this collector was embezzling the
funds that were so much needed in London, and he at once sent word
to his superiors. His reward was the Virginia governorship. He
was appointed on July 20, 1751, arrived at Williamsburg on Novem-
ber 10, and assumed the duties of governor on November 20.

Washington left Williamsburg on October 13, 1753, with a
letter from Dinwiddie containing a demand that the French au-
thorities withdraw from the territory between the Lakes and the
Ohio River. The English declared that by a decree issued in 1747
the boundaries of the Royal Colony of Virginia were the Ohio

198 THE HORN PAPERS

River and the Great Lakes. Prior to that time it had been under-
stood between England and France that the crest of the Blue Ridge
Mountains marked the boundary between the English possession to
the east and the French possessions to the west. The Virginia au-
thorities had gained a knowledge of the wonderful country west of
the mountains and determined to lay claim to the territory beyond
the divide.

Washington, on leaving Williamsburg, secured his guns, horses,
and baggage at Winchester and set out for Fredericksburg, where
he engaged the services of his former tutor in swordsmanship, Jacob
Van Braam, as interpreter. At Wills Creek he met Christopher Gist,
who had been in the services of both the French and the English,
and requested him to go with him.

The party was completed on November 14, after having added
John Davidson, Henry Stewart, William Jenkins, Barney Curran,
and John McGuire. Gist, having had business relations with the
French in earlier years, and having acted as the agent of the Vir-
ginia Assembly, had traveled this same route a portion of the way,
and was familiar with the trail.

They left Wills Creek on November 15, over the Nemacolin
Trail, crossed a series of mountains, and reached the fur cabin erect-
ed in 1753 by the Fraziers. This was the place where John Frazier,
the English fur trader, had made his home near the mouth of Turtle
Creek, on the Monongahela. The cabin stood on the site where
the French later met General Braddock's Army in 1755. The Nem-
acolin Trail was laid out by Nemacolin and the Delaware Indians
for the benefit of the Ohio Company, but this same trail had been
used by the Indians before 1696, and was used by the French from
1701 to 1747. After a short rest at Frazier's Cabin, the party
traveled to the forks which Washington decided was a suitable site
for the Ohio Company's post. From there they traveled down the
right bank of the Ohio River about eighteen miles to Logstown,
where the French and Shawnees had set their fur camp in 1727.

Washington held a conference with some of the Shawnee In-
dians,, but they refused to make any agreement with him. They in-
formed him that Shingiss, the Delaware Chief of the "lower band,"
was near there on a visit to their blood relatives, and that Tenachari-
son the Iroquois half king, and some Indians of the Five Nations
might make terms with him.

Christopher Gist, having been there several times, and being
friendly with both the French and their allies, declined to take sides
or lend a hand beyond the duties of guide. A conference lasting
three days was held with the Indians at Logstown.

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 199

After having made the Indians some promises, the party left
Logstown on November 30 for Fort le Boeuf, to meet the French.
They took with them Tenacharison, Guyassuta, Jeskakakee, Misto-
gauk, and White Thunder. Guyassuta was a well-known Seneca
Chief whose history is well known in western Pennsylvania. This
Seneca Chief, although he was friendly to Washington and to his
party, was a trusted ally of the French, and gave the French a re-
port of all that Gist had led Washington to disclose on this journey
from Logstown to Fort le Boeuf. Tenacharison was of the Cayuga-
Seneca blood, and was a half king over the savage tribes who made
raids on the Delawares, whose Chief was Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo until
September 1748, when through Shingiss, and Civil Chief, Tingoo-
qua assumed the leadership of the Delaware tribe after their defeat
and partial destruction at Flint Top in that year.

Washington and his party reached Venango on December 4,
1753. From French records, uJean Cocur," a half-breed, the son
of a French officer and a Seneca squaw, erected the first cabin there
in 1721.

This old Indian village and French post, Venango, had about
sixteen cabins in 1753 and was under the command of Captain
Chabert Joncaire, a half-breed. The position of commander gave
him great influence with the Indians, and at the same time his re-
lationship gave the French the right to hold Venango.

Fort le Boeuf was in what is now Waterford in Erie County,
Pennsylvania. Here the Washington party arrived on December
11, and was courteously received by the commandant, Legardeur
de St. Pierre, and his staff. St. Pierre invited the visitors to quarters
prepared for them, but would not invite them into the fort, nor
receive the letter from Dinwiddie until his superior, Colonel Reparti,
arrived the next day from Presque Isle. The conference took place
at the fort on December 12, 1753.

This conference was one of great consequence. Here, the French
had established a strong post, and were prepared to defend their
claims to the Ohio and the Mississippi valleys, with the capital of
their French American empire at Fort Duquesne. On the other side,
Washington stood his ground with the old diplomat and soldier,
Colonel Reparti.

The negotiations continued three days, but the French had no
intention of leaving their territory to the English after having held
claim to it for half a century.

Washington, Gist, and Van Braam were the three Englishmen
present at this conference. The French representatives were Le-

200 THE HORN PAPERS

gardeur de St. Pierre, Colonel Reparti, and two French officers
who were connected with the post as secretaries.

The interpreter, Jacob Van Braam, made all statements to both
parties so clear that there was left no room for any doubt as to the
full meaning of the terms asked. Christopher Gist stated that his
mission was only as a guide to direct Major Washington and his
party over the many difficult places on the trail from Wills Creek
to this camp.

The French were surprised to receive such a demand from the
Royal Governor of Virginia, and immediately informed the French
Governor in Canada as to the nature of the communication; but
matters did not break into open war for some time. However, on
Washington's return to Williamsburg, to make his report to Gover-
nor Dinwiddie, matters reached a climax.

Washington knew the French had no intention of abandoning
the territory west of the Alleghenies, and that they intended to hold
their claims to the Ohio Valley. He, therefore, gave Governor Din-
widdie assurance that the English would have to fight to obtain
control of the Monongahela and Ohio Valley territory.

Soon after the conference with the French, Washington start-
ed back to Williamsburg on December 16. On the fourteenth, he
directed Curran to leave Fort le Boeuf with the horses, and go to
Venango, where he should await his arrival.

The French furnished canoes and provisioned them to carry
the party down French Creek to Venango. The party, after the
ease and contentment in their quarters at the fort, found traveling
by canoe a disagreeable and perilous trip, lasting six days. The
distance as stated by Gist was one hundred and twenty-two miles.
On French Creek they passed Cambridge Springs, Saegertown, and
Meadville, and then near by Cayuga's old Council ground near Carl-
ton in Mercer County. Washington reached Venango on December
22 and met Curran, who had arrived one day ahead of his party.
After some argument with Gist as to the desire of the Indians to re-
turn to the French, Washington consented to release the Indians
who were in his party. These had been secretly instructed by the
French at Fort le Boeuf to keep them informed of all that was dis-
cussed on the way down to the forks; but through some disagree-
ment between Gist and the Indians, he advised them to go no farth-
er. Washington also was determined to force the Indians to keep
their agreement. He delayed almost a day, but at last became ex-
asperated and ordered the party forward. The Indians returned to
Fort le Boeuf, but the French gained no information from the In-
dians.

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 201

After leaving Franklin blockhouse on December 23, the party
suffered in the heavy snow and extreme cold weather that followed.
Two horses died and others became unable to travel; a council was
held around a log fire, and Washington gave directions to the party.
All but Gist were to find their way to Frazier's Cabin, and to wait
there.

Washington and Gist then set out on foot, carrying their guns,
ammunition, and provisions, bound for Fort Menier ( Murdering-
town; Menacingtown). It was here that Washington and Gist met
the Indian whom Bowlegs called "Crowfoot" and who had been at
Gist Point in 1748. This was the same Indian Creaux Bozarth
dispatched to the French in 1748. Bozarth called this Indian
"Lightfoot" because he was a swift runner.

By a well devised plan, "Crowfoot," who knew Gist well, had
left them a short distance when they became tired and rested awhile.
Washington became suspicious of both Gist and the Indian and
directed Gist to ask the Indian to direct them to the forks. "Crow-
foot" told Gist to inform Washington that the Cayuga "Oto" was
on the warpath, and he (Crowfoot) would take him to his own
cabin. Gist was not able to determine what the Indian intended, but
he doubted if he had a cabin in that section of the country. However,
as Washington appeared to trust the Indian, Gist did also. The
Indian said, "My cabin on next water." Crowfoot led them more
than ten miles out of their direct way before Washington became
tired and suspicious and said, "We camp at the next water." But
Crowfoot said, "Go on to my cabin and you be safe." On reaching
the next stream, the Indian, fearing that Gist would in some way
give Washington the advantage, stepped ten paces ahead, then
turned and fired direct at Washington, but without harming him.
This so enraged Gist that he wanted to kill Crowfoot for the
treachery. Washington half believed the shooting to be an accident,
but Gist knew better. He knew Creaux Bozarth had directed the
Indian to kill Washington, but he did not think they would dare to
carry out the plan while he was the guide. Gist was faithful to his
trust and cared for the safety of his party, whether French or Eng-
lish. He had served both, and held no particular favorite, but the
French often took advantage of him at a most dangerous moment,
through their treacherous allies.

One historian says, "This Murderingtown story is constructed
from Gist's account of the incident, because it is fuller and more
dramatic than Washington's which says they were attacked by a
band of marauding French and Indians who had laid in wait for
them on December 26th." He adds that this discrepancy between

202 THE HORN PAPERS

Washington's tale of a band of French and Indians, and Gist's lone
Indian tale, is significant and inexplicable.

The truth of the matter is that Gist, who had served the French
and had accepted a large tract of land from them in what is now
Fayette County, in 1747, and who knew every step Creaux Bozarth
was taking to throw the English into confusion, knew that, while
only the lone Indian Crowfoot had tracked them, the French in-
tentions were to destroy the English. Only Washington's far-sight-
ed knowledge of the French and their methods led him by instinct
to realize that, while only one Indian made himself known, all of
the French and Indians were waiting to attack them.

It appears that historians have given this colonial history but
a one-sided view. They have considered the picture that one English
author described, and this was copied and added to by others, so
that the true facts have been recorded only in part. The story of
Washington's trip to Fort le Boeuf is known to almost every Ameri-
can schoolboy, yet historians argue over the route traveled.

Murderingtown site seems to have become as much of a puzzle
as the question of who killed General Edward Braddock; but the
same process of reasoning that led Washington to get a clear knowl-
edge that the French and Indians were lying in wait for him will
give us the truth in this matter of long dispute.

Murderingtown derived its name from the several French and
Indians murdered there in 1724, by the order of Jesuit priests, as
penalty for destroying the Holy Cross set on this site in 1722; two
years before the same priests established their mission in the
Shawnee village on the east side of the Ohio River, near Mounds-
ville, West Virginia. The former site, Fort Menier, was established
eleven years before George Washington was born. Fort Menier
was named by the French soldiers after the half-breed French-
Indian Cayuaga, who formulated the treaty between the French and
the Cayuga tribe in 1717.

Murderingtown was situated on the southeast fork of Beaver
Creek, known as Du Pratz Run from 1722 to 1747. From the
latter date, French and Indians called this stream Menier Creek,
and then it was renamed Connoquenessing Creek after Conno and
Ennessing, two French fur traders who had their fur house near
the old fort when Washington and Gist stopped there on the morn-
ing of December 27, 1753.

The French Fort Menier stood about one-eighth mile from the
run, and was built after the manner of the log Fort Louis on the
St. Lawrence. The Cayuga Indians had a village site near the fort,
from 1674 to 1748. When the French erected this fort in 1722,

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 203

they established a Catholic Mission at this Cayuga village. The
tribe did not pay much attention to the doctrine of the priests; but
they were interested in the French articles of merchandise and re-
mained on good terms with the soldiers. This was of greater im-
portance to the French Governor than their religious conversion.

The French Governor in Canada furnished the Cayuga Indians
with flintlock rifles in 1750. The Indians of the West have a direct
knowledge of the first firearms furnished them by the French. They
tell of the Indians' first experiences with these guns. Mathias Split-
log, Cayuga Indian, stated that his grandfather and two uncles
were full-blooded Cayugas. He said they lived at the village at
Fort Menier (near Murderingtown) and used bows and arrows at
Flint Top in 1748 ; but in 1750, the French gave them "white man's"
guns. The Indians, however, had some difficulty in learning how to
use them.

Splitlog related that Murderingtown was a fur trading place of
the French and Indians when Christopher Gist and Washington
wanted the Cayugas and the French to leave the village to the
English.

This historical site that Washington and Gist visited on that
cold morning of December 27, 1753, is one of the places of which
all trace seems to have been lost. It is not far from the town of
Evansburg, Butler County, Pennsylvania. Washington and Gist
reached the head of Piney Creek in Marshall Township, Allegheny
County. They traveled down this creek about twenty-five miles, and
reached its mouth on the evening of December 28, camping that
night on the north bank of the Allegheny, which was in flood at that
time.

It was here that these two hardy frontiersmen found a river
filled with floating ice. Crossing was dangerous; but they con-
structed a log raft and, late in the day, pushed off from the north
shore, and poled their way across. The distance directly across the
stream was less than one thousand feet, but the current then running
at flood carried them down a considerable distance before they
landed on the south shore. Losing one of their poles, they lost con-
trol of the raft, and both were forced to spring into the river and
swim upstream where they reached Wainwright's Island about
one hundred feet from the south shore. Later this channel between
the island and the mainland was filled in. It was on this little
island that the French stored some rum, in 1748, on which the
Indians were to feast after they had destroyed their foes, the Dela-
wares, at Flint Top.

204 THE HORN PAPERS

Washington and Gist lost their guns and food packs in the river.
The weather was very cold, all the fuel supplies were wet, and
neither one had matches to make a fire; but these two wet, and half-
frozen travelers selected some wood from a drift-pile and resorted
to the Indian method of making a fire. They were in a deplorable
situation. They realized that a hundred feet of flowing water
separated them from shore and that they could not pass that barrier
until morning. Some remarks passed between them about Indians
seeing the light from the fire. Gist said, "It is plain that while we
cannot get off this island, no Indians can get onto this place." They
passed the night trying to sleep on the ground close by the fire, but
Gist related years later, "We froze and burned by turn, and had
but a little rest that night of nights." At daybreak they discovered
that the ice had gorged in the river and the intense cold had frozen
a firm bridge between them and the shore. Although they suffered
severely from frost bites, they made their way from the island to the
shore. On reaching the shore, they decided to proceed to Frazier's
Cabin instead of going to the forks where the little fort of the Ohio
Company was situated, which was then under construction.

John Frazier and his brother, Richard Frazier, were the sons of
John Frazier who accompanied John Logan and Peter Freye to the
Ohio River for Governor Spottswood's Virginia Indian Company in
1717. These sons were born in Virginia and were in the fur trading
business with the Delaware Indians from 1746 to 1750. In 1752,
Christopher Gist employed them to build his stone magazine on his
homestead at Gist Post, later known as Mt. Braddock. In 1753,
these two hardy adventurers at Gist's advice, and through Queen
Aliquippa's friendship, built their log cabin near the mouth of
Turtle Creek. It was to this same log cabin that Gist led George
Washington when on his way to Fort le Boeuf in December 1753,
and on their return trip January 1, 1754.

The fourth son of John Frazier was James Frazier, who lived
in Washington County, Pennsylvaina, from 1774 to 1788. He was
a brother-in-law of Christian Garber, senator of Washington Coun-
ty. James Frazier died near Zollarsville, in 1788, and was buried in
the Jacob Wiever graveyard in West Bethlehem Township.

Those present at Frazier's cabin were Major Washington, Cap-
tain Gist, Barney Curran and Van McVan, two Irish and Welsh sub-
traders in the service of George Croghan, David Williams, a Scotch
employee of the Fraziers, and Shingiss, the Seneca Chief, who was
half Delaware and half Seneca. This Indian had come down the
river a short time before to learn something about the Ohio Com-
pany's plans at the forks.

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 205

These guests enjoyed a dinner of wild turkey and pheasant
served with wild plum sauce and persimmon butter, wild honey, and
cornbread, with plenty of rum from the Ohio Company storehouse.
This served to bring Washington and Gist back to a normal state
after their long exposure to the cold weather. "Cherry," the famous
Indian maid who assisted Mrs. Frazier as hostess of this memorable
banquet, was a Cherokee Indian girl of rare beauty and exceptional
intelligence. Many of her descendants in Oklahoma still claim their
relation to the beautiful Red Cherry whom Washington praised and
claimed as his friend.

It was just on the eve of his departure from the Frazier home
that Washington visited Queen Aliquippa who was then living in
a small village about one fourth of a mile from the Youghiogheny
River. Queen Aliquippa was the daughter of a Delaware Chief, a
brother of Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, who was killed in the Indian Battle of
Flint Top on Indian Ridge on September 18,1748. Her son was
Shingiss; and Queen Aliquippa was a relative of the noted Bowlegs,
or "Joshua," of Camp Cat Fish fame. Washington gave the
haughty queen a Red Coat and a quart of rum, which thereafter made
her royal highness the loyal friend of Washington and the English.

Washington left Frazier's home on January 1, 1754, and
arrived at midnight on January 2, 1754, at Christopher Gist's fur
cabin on the Gist homestead about six miles from the Monongahela
River.

The chronology of Washington's Expedition is as follows:

Left Wills Creek, November 15.

Arrived at John Frazier's Cabin, November 22.

Reached Logstown, November 30.

Arrived at Fort Venango, December 4.

Arrived at Fort le Boeuf, December 11.

Left Fort le Boeuf, December 16.

Reached Venango, December 22.

Left Fort Venango, December 26.

Crossed the Allegheny River, December 29.

Arrived at Frazier's Cabin, December 30.

Left Frazier's Cabin, January 1, 1754.

Arrived at Gist's fur cabin at midnight, January 2.

Left Gist's Cabin, January 5.

Arrived at Wills Creek, January 7.

Arrived at Williamsburg, January 16, 1754.

When Washington and Gist reached Gist's fur cabin at mid-
night, January 2, Washington wished to buy another horse. Gist

15

206 THE HORN PAPERS

stated that he knew of but two animals near by, one belonging to
Creaux Bozarth on Eckerlin Creek and the other to Wendal Brown
at Gist Point. Gist knew that the Frenchman would not sell him
the horse at any price, since he had determined to thwart every plan
that Dinwiddie and Washington were making to seize this French
territory. Therefore, Gist went to his friend Brown at the Point
and purchased the horse and saddle for Washington's mount back to
Wills Creek.

It is a curious fact that Washington, while having performed a
great service to the colony, received no pay for making this trip
through the wilds to Fort le Boeuf.

His companions were paid, but the young leader and future
general received no renumeration other than his personal feeling of
satisfaction in having demonstrated his loyalty to Virginia.

After leaving Gist's Cabin, Washington's journey to Wills
Creek and to Williamsburg was uneventful, but it was a disagree-
able trip to make during the cold season of the year. He reached
Williamsburg on January 16, 1754, where he held a conference with
Dinwiddie, and convinced the Governor that if the English were to
command the forks they must act promptly. He advised the Govern-
or that a strong force would be required to take possession and hold
the forks against the French. Buildings and stores of supplies in-
dicated that they were preparing to carry two thousand soldiers in
the spring to the forks of the Ohio. The French had planned this
movement six years before, after the Battle of Flint Top in 1748,
and had taken possesion in 1751, by planting the last five of the lead
plates and by declaring that Iron Point was French territory.

Governor Dinwiddie acted promptly, taking steps to keep the
forks controlled by England and the Ohio Company; however, he
sent too small a force into combat with the superior forces of the
French. Though the English force was small, they might have held
this site had not Captain William Trent been led away to Wills
Creek on a false mission planned and successfully carried out
through the schemes of Creaux Bozarth, who had promised the
French to look after the French interests in the Monongahela Val-
ley, and to check all movements planned by Dinwiddie.

Bozarth established a base for French interests at Fort Louis
I, and, soon after, in 1747, erected Fort Louis II. These French
posts were on the French claims, but the lands were occupied by the
Delaware Indians, whose Civil Chief was Tingooqua. Tingooqua
as Civil Chief was loyal to the Delawares, but he was French-Indian
and, through his connection with the French, was aware of the
French designs to seize this territory, and drive the Delawares from

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 207

their lands; but Creaux Bozarth took care not to inform Tingooqua
that the French were plotting their destruction, or that a united con-
federacy of the Five Nations of the North and the Great and Little
Osages from the West had been formed to carry out their plans.

This man was successful in all his attempts to defeat the plans of
the English, and to assist in establishing the French claims to the
lands west of the mountains from 1747 to 1753. Washington sus-
pected that the French planned to seize the Monongahela and Ohio
valleys in 1747, and had from his boyhood days declared that Vir-
ginia, not France, should control the territory.

The result of George Washington's trip from Williamsburg to
Fort le Boeuf intensified his desire to defeat the French plans to
occupy the territory at the forks.

Governor Dinwiddie, in failing to realize the danger from the
French, not only paved the way for Creaux Bozarth to defeat
Washington's recommendation, but defeated his own expedition to
establish British control in the Ohio Valley and to erect Fort Pitt to
defend the interests of the Ohio Company.

Early in 1754, Governor Dinwiddie, after receiving Washing-
ton's report of his trip, and of his conference with the French at
Fort le Boeuf, acted immediately. Four days later he commissioned
Captain William Trent to raise one hundred men and to equip them
with arms and all other needed supplies. The Governor directed
him to go to the forks of the Ohio and finish the fort and stockade
that Frazier and Dyce had started to erect late in November. This
Fort Frazier, as it was known from November until the arrival of
Trent on February 17, 1754, was renamed Fort Pitt on February
22. The fort and stockade were erected to protect and promote the
interests of the Ohio Company as well as to hold the Ohio Valley
for the English.

In August 1753, Trent was appointed by Governor Dinwiddie
to examine the site of land between the two rivers at the "Forks" as
to its value as a site on which to build a fort for holding this territory
for the English, against the French, The French Government had
previously marked this place as the site of their capital city, Du-
quesne, to be the head of the French American Empire. Work was
started on the fort and some progress had been made, when the
French representative, Bozarth, then living on Eckerlin Creek
(later Big Whiteley Creek, Greene County) determined to defeat
Dinwiddie's plans. He employed two Indians to trail to the forks,
and there to tell Trent that they were sent to inform him that he was
to take part of the soldiers and, with them, to return to Ft. Cumber-
land at the express desire of Dinwiddie. Trent left Edward Ward

208 THE HORN PAPERS

his ensign, in charge of the remaining forces to carry on the work of
completing the fort as best he could until he and his soldiers should
return. The Frenchman, Bozarth, had sent a report previously, to
the French Governor in Canada, of what the English were doing on
French territory, and advised the French to fall upon the small
English force, drive it out, build a stronghold, and lay out the
French capital site before Trent returned from Ft. Cumberland.
The French carried out this plan, drove out Ensign Ward and his
force, and set up the fort as Ft. Duquesne.

Governor Dinwiddie ordered Virginia to supply Trent with ten
cannon, one hundred barrels of powder, small arms, and other
needed supplies for one hundred Red Coats. They had thirty tents,
a half year's supply of flour, pork, beef, and beans, with more than
a liberal supply of rum. This rum was rationed daily to the soldiers,
and at that time was responsible for difficulties in carrying out
instructions. The rum provisions of these one hundred men amount-
ed to ten gallons daily. All this had to be transported from Alex-
andria, Virginia, to Wills Creek (Fort Cumberland), Maryland,
over rough mountain roads. These "Kaggs" had to be placed at
Wills Creek, where they with all other supplies, were safely stored,
as stated in the report made by Trent.

When Captain Trent arrived at Wills Creek he had but ninety-
seven men, but here he recruited his forces and arrived at the forks
on February 17, with one hundred twenty-one men. The Virginia
Assembly voted ten thousand pounds toward supporting this ex-
pedition, and the Governor was induced to increase the military
force to three hundred men, divided into six companies. Colonel
Joshua Frye was appointed to command the whole.

Major Washington was raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colon-
el, but remained at Alexandria until the second day of April. He
then marched with two companies of troops, arriving at Wills Creek
on April 17, one day after Captain Trent had received his message
from the two Indian runners to bring the most of his men and return
rapidly to Wills Creek to prevent the French from seizing all
their supplies. Washington, however, had no knowledge of what
was taking place at the forks. He first learned this news when
Ensign Ward reached Wills Creek on April 25. Washington
had not encountered Captain Trent until after Ward had reported
the surrender of the forks to the French. In the meantime the
recruits had scattered, leaving Trent to find out the purpose of his
recall. Finding no satisfactory explanation at Wills Creek, he
hastily dispatched five men to Williamsburg to find out what the
Governor's plans were. These men reached the Governor's office

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 209

about the same time as Washington's dispatch, denouncing Captain
Trent's actions as a traitor. Washington's action so enraged Trent
and Ward that they refused to make him any explanation of Trent's
recall. Trent and Frazier were both court-martialed, but the latter
was not imprisoned because he was not considered a part of the
military forces at the forks. He was working for the Ohio Company.
Jealousy existed between rival executives. There was bitter oppo-
sition to Trent's appointment in the beginning, and the unfortunate
accident to Colonel Frye, near Wills Creek, which caused his death
a few days later, placed Washington in full command, but did not
alleviate the existing conditions.

Washington was a true Virginian and a loyal supporter of the
Crown. He considered the French claims in America as being a
detriment to the colonial settlers. This strong impulse to lead cre-
ated much dissatisfaction among some of the officers and soldiers
during the French and Indian War, but was forgotten during his
long patriotic services as General of the Revolutionary forces.

While Trent was in command of the work at Fort Pitt, with
John Frazier as lieutenant, and Edward Ward as ensign, there was
an agreement with Frazier that he was to give most of his time to the
building of the stockade.

Frazier was not present when the two Indians brought Captain
Trent word to take the majority of his men and hurry back to Wills
Creek. Captain Trent did not delay in answering this call. He left
forty-one men under the command of Ensign Edward Ward to
complete the fort and stockade. John Davidson and Tenacharison
were with Ward after Trent's departure for Wills Creek, and were
there when the French commander took possession of the half-
finished structure. Ward and his assistants suggested a parley with
the French on the pretext that Ward held no authority to make any
terms of surrender, but must ask for time to communicate with his
superior for instructions. Contrecoeur would not agree to wait.

There was only one thing that Ward could do, and he did just
that. The French could have wiped him out utterly, but they did not
want war and desired only their own territory. Contrecoeur was a
man of honor and while he demanded that Ward evacuate, he allow-
ed him to march his Virginians to the Monongahela River and there
to embark in the French pirogues and push up the river to Fort
Jumonville, at the mouth of Jumonville Creek (Redstone), which
he reached on the third day.

After obtaining possession of the stockade, Captain Contre-
coeur finished and enlarged it with two additions, and called it Fort
Duquesne in honor of the governor-general of Canada. In three

210 THE HORN PAPERS

months' time this fort at the forks of the Ohio was made so strong
that it was considered the second fortification in America. The
noted French engineer, Chevalier Mercer, planned Fort Duquesne.
He was very capable and efficient, and his name was known on both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

It was many years before Washington learned of the duplicity
that led Captain Trent to leave Fort Pitt and return to Wills Creek,
and indeed but few people ever learned the true cause of his leaving
the forks, when he had but half finished his commission to erect Fort
Pitt to hold this strategic location for the English.

The French drove Ensign Ward out of Fort Pitt, and took pos-
session on April 17, 1754, at 9 :30 a.m. In 1761, Trent filed a claim
with the Virginia General Assembly for eight hundred pounds, but
the Assembly refused to recognize his claims, and sustained a
motion that he had bargained with Dinwiddie, and not with the
Assembly.

Trent was not with Braddock's forces, but was resting on the
estate of Christopher Gist on the east side of the Monongahela
River during the defeat and death of General Edward Braddock.
On the fourth day after the battle, he sent a message to Dinwiddie,
laying, "Braddock is dead, he never reached the Fort. I was there,
im still alive."

Trent, in 1768, in counsel with the Shawnee Indians at Ft.
Stanwix begged the Indians to grant him a gift of land embracing a
tract of sixteen thousand acres on the west side of the Ohio
River, and forty thousand acres between the Monongahela River
and the Kanawha River. The Indians granted his wish, and gave
him the land for twenty pounds of Virginia tobacco.

In June 1776, William Trent made a rousing patriotic speech at
Augusta Town (then in Virginia and now in Washington County,
Pennsylvania), and there, for the first time since the debacle, met
Edward Ward, with whom he had parted at the unfinished fort
before departing for Ft. Cumberland. This ensign Ward had be-
come a Justice of the Augusta Town Court in 1776, and had con-
tinued as one of the several justices in Yohogania County, Virginia,
before the new county of Washington was organized, in 1781.

In 1747, Trent, with Christopher Gist and the Eckerlin Broth-
ers, camped on a site near the present limits of Morgantown, West
Virginia, and later visited the French Cave storehouse in the "ter-
ritory of Du Pratz" not far from the present town of Bristoria, in
Greene County, Pennsylvania.

Trent was a trader of more than ordinary ability, but with all
his industry, and his many tracts of virgin land, he was unsuccesful

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 211

in business. Through speculation in London, he met with reverses,
and died a poor man on a farm not far from Harrisburg, Pennsyl-
vania, in 1778. His grave was in an old graveyard near the road,
and was plainly marked in 1876.

Captain Pierre Cland de Contrecoeur had six hundred French
Regulars and nearly a thousand Indians under his command, when
he descended the Allegheny River, and went into camp only about
eleven miles from the fort. When Captain Trent had left the
timber border of the range, the signal was given the French and
Indians, and Captain Contrecoeur led his forces to the fort and
took possession. The name was then changed from Fort Pitt to
Fort Duquesne, and so remained until 1758.

John Frazier, being of Scotch descent, was a fur trader, and
gunsmith at Fort Menier on the Cayuga Indian village site near the
Little Beaver (Connoquenessing Creek), west side. He became a
fur trader at Murderingtown in 1735, and worked as gunsmith for
the French at Fort Menier from 1743 until the spring of 1749, when
Bowlegs, the friend of Tingooqua, gave Frazier a permit, or made
him welcome to trade with the few Delaware Indians who were
left in the Monongahela Valley. He built his fur cabin in 1749 at
Turtle Creek, and in 1753 he erected his log cabin home, where he
lived when Captain William Trent started to build Fort Pitt at the
forks in February 1754.

When General Villiers burned Frazier's Cabin later in 1754,
he went to the mouth of Middle Island Creek, where he lived
until 1759. He then returned and located near the present site of
McKeesport. Here he died in 1769, at the age of seventy-seven
years.

DEPOSITION

Ensign Ward's — From Thacher's Virginia Records

"Governor & Council ye 7th, of May, 1754.

"Ye Governor and Council bear witness that I, E Ward Captain
Trent's Ensign now under oath make this statement to ye in Captain
Trent's performance at the Forks while making of the Ohio Com-
pany's Fort and Trade House safe against the French invasion from
the Lakes as ye directed to hasten before the ice was set free in
North River.

"When we reached the Forks on the 17th, the Captain Freasure
to set bounds to a measure of land to — furlongs and tomahawked it
in the name of the king, and of the royal colony. That four Indian
runners appeared in the camp and demanded to see one Freasure,

212 THE HORN PAPERS

saying in their own way, by interpreter Flat Fish the Owl of the
Mingows' Governor Dinwiddie hath great need of Captain Trent,
and most of his troop at Wills Creek, by double time march, to save
the stores from the French, under command of Le Mercier who hath
one hundred regulars and three hundred Nations. This on being
delivered to Captain Trent, he set his orders in motion, and on the
8th, he in full command, set out in march over the north trail by
Shamopins Town to Kamharon Creek to Le Mercier's Pass, to
Cairtuck, or Wills Creek, where he arrived in three full days time.
After Captain Trent had removed his 81 troops to Wills Creek,
leaving me but 41 men, of these thirty-three being militiamen, all
continued to work on the Ohio Company's log house for a few days.
The French made their first appearance at Shamopins Town, about
two miles from us on the 17th day of April, then trailed down to
one thousand paces of the camp-houses. Le Mercier, the French
Officer sent by Contrecoeur, the commander in chief of the French
troops to take full possession of the Forks, and the Ohio Company's
store-house and Fort, but finding the Owl there in camp, Le Mercier
made delay. The delay being made until all his Twelve hundred
French and Indian troops reached this ground to the more impress
us with their greater forces. Le Mercier soon gave the 'Owl his
'summon ordss and directed him to inform me, Ensign E Ward, to
fix his Resolutions in one hour, and at two by his, Le Mercier's dial,
come to the French camp with 'Detremination' in writing. I went
at once into the camp of the Half King, and took one half of
the time to acquaint him of Le Mercier's forces and his demands.
The Half King addressed me to acquaint the French that I
am no Officer of Rank, or invested with power to answer their de-
mands, and to request a delay until Captain Trent's return. I went
accompanied by Half King, one Robert Roberts, a militiaman, and
John Davidson, an Indian Interpreter, and the 'Owl' and Davidson
both being present, the Half King being able to understand the 'Owl'
addressed Le Mercier for the Commander in Chief, Contrecoeur,
and expressed the wisdom of the English tongue of the Half King.
The French Le Mercier said he had been ordered to not await one
hour for an answer from any person but to seize the Forks and all
the territory in the name of King Louis of France. Le Mercier said,
to ask now what I wanted or he would open fire, and take all by
force. I beheld twelve hundred French force on one side, and forty-
one with me, hesitated, then did what every other Virginian would
do, surrendered the Fort with the privilege to march out, and off
with all, by noon the next day, April 18th, 1754. That night being
obliged to camp about three hundred yards from the Fort with a

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 213

party of the 'Five Nations,' the French being determined my men
should not burn the Fort as the Half King secretly advised. That
the French commander, Le Mercier being in good spirits desired
to buy the carpenter tools, offering any money that I would name,
but I would neither answer his many questions, or sell him the tools
that he needed to finish the Fort and Fur-house, for I am assured
that Captain Trent was led out to Wills Creek by the foulest means
under a false statement made to him through the French themselves,
and thus they obtained by strategy what they had declared they
would take by force."

The Ohio Company

In the year 1741, France and England were in agreement that
both nations had a common right in North America, and that both
should hold to their claims as they then maintained them. The Eng-
lish held the territory bordering on the Atlantic Coast, while the
French occupied the territory west of the mountains, the division
line being on the crest of the ridge of the Alleghenies. The Virginia
Fur Trading Company was chartered in 1736 and sent representa-
tives to trade with the Deleware and Mingo Indians. Among those
who made their way over the mountains to the western branches of
the Monongahela River were Bernard, Samuel, and Thomas Ecker-
lin, James Riley, Andrew Crogan, George Barnaby, and Henry
Devoy. It was from these traders that members of the Virginia
Assembly gained knowledge of the country west of the mountains
and became interested in the region held by the French but occupied
by the Delaware and Shawnee Indians.

Christopher Gist, who had been engaged in the fur trade with
his father, failed in business and decided to travel through the wil-
derness to the French claims and purchase furs from the Indians.
He would thus become better acquainted with the fur business and
obtain a knowledge of the country west of the English possessions.
He joined with Dr. Samuel Eckerlin and his brother, Bernard Eck-
erlin, who were then in Williamsburg. After some delay, they
crossed Eckerlin Point to Turky Foot where they camped a week
and passed over the Indian James River Trail, then over the Du-
Pratz Indian National Trail to the low divide at the head of Eck-
erlin Run, later Smith Creek. They followed down that run and
here, in June 1737, erected a fur cabin. From here they followed
the run to its junction with Tingooqua Creek, crossed, and went
over the high divide and down onto another run which they called

214 THE HORN PAPERS

Gist Run, later Ruff Creek. Here, in July 1737, they set another
log cabin which they called Gist Cabin. These cabins were used
by the Indians to store furs for these traders. By these contacts
with the Indians, and their knowledge of the lands at the head
waters of the western branches of the Monongahela, the Eckerlins
and Gist aroused the desire of the Virginias to claim this western
territory. Their first reports, however, were not believed true at
Williamsburg and it was not until 1745 that the Assembly began
to give credence to reports of the great lands west of the moun-
tains, and began to take steps to claim the Monogahela Valley.
Gist had then been called by the French to act as guide and to as-
sist them in holding their claims to this same territory, and not
being allied with their interest he served both with the same de-
gree of fidelity.

In 1747, in order to secure his favors, the French gave him a
tract of land on the east side of the river not far from Gist Point,
but he made no attempt to settle there at this time. This tract of
land was six by nine miles, and lay in the neighborhood of what is
now Smithfield, in Fayette County. It was given for "merited
services," supposedly for guiding Creaux Bozarth's family from
Philadelphia across the mountains to the site of Fort Louis I, on
Eckerlin Creek (Big Whiteley), in April 1747.

The fur trade from 1746 to 1748 was a paying business and
Gist and his assistants traded with the Indians and bought furs
from all regardless of protests made by either the French or Eng-
lish. In October 1747, the Virginia Assembly attempted to extend
its boundaries to the Ohio River and to the Great Lakes, in order
to hold this valuable country as a part of the Royal Colony. On
being advised, however, that this power lay with the King and
Parliament, they asked the King to do so, but he did not attempt
to make so bold an encroachment on the French. Nevertheless,
he did grant to the Virginia Councilors five hundred thousand
acres of land situated between the Kanawha and the Monongahela
on the northern or eastern bank of the Ohio. This was known as
the Ohio Company grant.

The members of the Ohio Company included Robert Dinwid-
die, Governor of the Colony, Lawrence and Augustine Washing-
ton, and Thomas Lee, President of the Virginia Council. John
Hanbury, a merchant, became its London agent. The objective
of the company was to settle the land and to carry on the Indian
trade. The conditions of the grant were that the lands should be
held rent free for ten years, that within seven years a colony of
one hundred families should be established in the district, and

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 215

that the territory should be immediately selected. The true ob-
ject of the Ohio Company, declared John Canon in the House of
Burgesses, was to fatten the King's favorites, on the lands that
should belong to the commoners, and not the planters who now
hold this colony in bondage.

The first steps taken by the company were to order Mr. Han-
bury to purchase and ship goods suited to the Indian trade,
amounting on the whole to four thousand pounds sterling — one to
arrive in November 1749, and the other cargo to be shipped in
March 1750. They planned to build a road from the head of
navigation on the Potomac River across the mountains to some
point on the Monongahela, i.e., Fort Jumonville at the mouth of
Jumonville Creek, which later was known as the Hanguard, and
still later as Fort Brownsville. No attempt to establish settle-
ments could be made without some previous arrangements with
the Indians, and the company petitioned the Government of Vir-
ginia to invite them to a treaty council.

The Ohio Company sent Christopher Gist to explore the country
on the Ohio more in detail than he had done while in the same ter-
ritory on previous trips between 1737 and 1747. He was to keep
journals of his journey with a description of the country through
which he passed.

Christopher Gist had made almost the same trip in 1746 but
on a different mission, namely, to hunt and purchase furs from the
French and their Indian allies. He, therefore, knew more of con-
ditions in that country than any other man in Virginia.

On his first trip he traveled several miles north of the Ohio
and visited the Twightwee Indians (the western branch of the old
Cayuga tribe) at Fort Menier on Beaver Creek. He was absent
nearly seven months and traveled as far south as the falls of the
Ohio, returning to the Yadkin in May 1751.

On June 4, 1751, Gist and Jacob Horn and two French en-
gineers set out from Snow Creek, Virginia, for Tingooqua's Camp
in the land of the Delawares. This trip, from June to September
1, 1751, was made in fulfillment of an agreement with the French
in 1747. No journal was kept by Gist on this trip and, therefore,
must not be confused with his trips in the service of and for the Ohio
Company.

Jacob Horn who accompanied Gist and the Frenchmen stated
that he, not Gist, kept the diary of their travels, and made a report
to the French. Gist acted purely as a guide on this party. Some
articles of Indian artcraft secured from Tingooqua and Wes-
sameking on this trip are still preserved.

216 THE HORN PAPERS

In November 1751, he started on his second trip for the Ohio
Company and passed the winter in exploring and in making out his
report to the company. Evidently, up to this time, he had given the
company no more than a verbal detailed report of his journeys.
Meantime, the Indians had failed to assemble at Logstown where
they had been invited to meet by the Governor.

It was only natural that the traders, who had been through this
frontier region, should endeavor to influence the opinion of the
Indians, especially the French traders who strongly advised the
Indians to have no dealings with the English. The English traders,
while holding no common interest with the French, were throwing
obstacles in the way of outside interference from any quarter.

The company found that it would be in vain to expect much
progress with their plans until measures had been adopted for win-
ning over the Indians, and, in accordance with this view, they pro-
posed the treaty which was made at Logstown the next year when
Christopher Gist and William McCullough attended to look after
the interests of the Ohio Company in any settlements that might be
made southeast of the Ohio. This treaty was concluded June 1, 1752.
Colonel Frye, Richard Heathe, and one other commissioner were
present on the part of official Virginia, while Bowlegs, Tingooqua,
and Oppaymoleh represented the claims of Queen Aliquippa, the
Clear Water of Flint Top Camp of 1748.

It is remarkable that in the debates attending the negotiations
for this treaty, the Indians were careful to disclaim any recogni-
tion of the English title to any of these lands. In a speech to the
commissioners, Tingooqua said: "You desired our friendship to
maintain your own interests in all the territory to Turkey Foot
Rock; you acquainted us yesterday with the King's right to the
lands in Virginia, as far as settled, and back from thence to the sun-
setting whenever he shall think fit to extend his settlements. But
you did not raise your hand or your voice to aid our tribe when
destruction overtook them at Flint Top four years since. You say,
Give no heed to the French traders. It was not the traders or their
Indian friends that brought the great warriors of our tribe to suf-
fering and death; it was the French and the English, neither of
whom has kept faith with our people. It is your fight to cheat us,
then you declare war on each other without any rights. I say you
are both right. Neither of you has any right in the Monongahela
and the Ohio Valley. You also produce a copy of a deed from Onon-
daga Council at a treaty made at Lancaster in 1744, and you are
brethren of the Ohio Company, and expect us likewise to confirm a
deed of your own consideration. When the Delaware tribe was a

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 217

strong band of warriors and your allies, you felt proud and safe;
now that we are weak as squaws and little children you say, Sign the
deed. We well know that our Chief Council, at the Treaty of Lan-
caster, confirmed a deed to you for a quantity of land in Virginia
which you have a right to; but we never understood before you told
yesterday, that the land then sold was to extend to the farthest
sunset. We believed the Virginia people understood the mountains
to separate the English from the French. Had the English kept
their agreement to stay their government to the east of the moun-
tains, then I say, the French stay to the west and if the English did
not deal unjustly with the French, they would not deal unjustly with
the Indians. We have not forgotten our promises to your frontiers-
men last year at Cat Fish, and your Captain Gist understood we
treated with kindness both you and friend and the two Frenchmen
with the same consideration. Now you say, 'Keep clear of the
French, and make terms with the English.' Why now, because the
Ohio Company want both the French and the Indians to give them
the lands."

When the company was first formed, Mr. Thomas Lee was its
principal and most efficient member. However, he died soon after-
wards and the management went to Lawrence Washington, who had
engaged in the enterprise with great enthusiasm. He, too, died short-
ly after, due to ill health. At this time, several persons holding
shares in the company transferred their stock to other members, and
in 1754, Governor Dinwiddie and George Mason owned the full
twenty shares. There were originally but twenty shares and the com-
pany never consisted of more than twenty members.

Lawrence Washington had a plan for inducing German settlers
to take up lands. He wrote Mr. Hanbury, in London, as follows :
"Whilst the unhappy state of my health called me back to our spring
(at Bath in Virginia), I conversed with all the Pennsylvania Dutch
whom I met there and elsewhere, and much recommended their
settling on the Ohio Company's land. The chief reason against it
was the payment of an English clergyman when few understood him
and none made use of him. It has been my opinion, and I hope ever
will be, that restraints on conscience are cruel in regard to those on
whom they are imposed and injurious to the country imposing them.
England, Holland, and Prussia, I may quote as examples, and much
more Pennsylvania, which has flourished under that delightful liber-
ty so as to become the admiration of every man who considers the
short time it has been settled.

218 THE HORN PAPERS

"As the ministry has thus far shown the true spirit of patriotism
by encouraging the extension of our dominions in America, I doubt
not that they will still go further and complete what they have be-
gun by procuring some kind of charter to prevent the residents on
the Ohio and its branches from being subject to parish taxes. They
all assure me that they might have from Germany any number of
settlers, could they but obtain their favorite exemption. I have
promised to strive for it, and now do my utmost for it by this let-
ter. I am well assured we shall obtain it by law here. This colony
was greatly settled in the latter part of Charles the First's time,
and during the usurpation by zealous churchmen; and that spirit,
which was then brought in, has ever since continued, so that, except
a few Quakers, we have no dissenters. But what has been the con-
sequence? We have increased by slow degrees, except negroes and
convicts, while our neighboring colonies, whose natural advantages
are greatly inferior to ours, have become populous."

Soon after the treaty at Logstown, Christopher Gist was ap-
pointed the company's surveyor and instructed to lay off a town and
a fort. This was done under the supervision of Daniel Frazier, who
was appointed by Gist to do the work and make a plot of the forks
at Shurtees Creek, a little below the present site of Pittsburgh, and
on the east side of the Ohio. The company assessed themselves
four hundred pounds toward constructing the fort, and John Frazier
built a log cabin. In the meantime, Gist, who had made no effort
to take advantage of the land given him by the French, situated not
far from Gist Point, accepted from Virginia a tract of land and
homestead, known as Mount Braddock after the year 1755. He
induced eleven families to settle around him on lands he secured
for them. One of these families was his long-time friend, Daniel
Frazier, with his wife and three sons and two daughters. At that
time, it was supposed that all this land was within the grant of the
Ohio Company's domains. The goods which had been purchased
in London and shipped by Mr. Hanbury to Baltimore, and trans-
ferred to Alexandria, were never taken farther into the interior
than Wills Creek, where they were sold to traders and portions
traded to the Indians. The temper and actions of the Indians were
such as to discourage any attempt to make further shipments of
goods to trade with them. Thomas Frazier, the son of Daniel
Frazier, was engaged to build a cabin near Turtle Creek as an out-
post of the company. It was at this cabin that George Washington
and Christopher Gist took refuge after their terrible experience
in crossing the Allegheny River when on their return trip from Fort
Le Boeuf to Williamsburg in January 1754.

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 219

This was the state of things when the troubles on the frontier
broke out between England and France, involving the various tribes
on one side or the other. The Ohio Company almost ceased as the
grant was swallowed up in the French claims until after General
Forbes took possession of Fort Duquesne, re-established English
control over the forks in 1758 and named the site Pittsburgh.

In 1760, a statement of the company's case was drawn up by
John Mercer, a secretary to the Board, and forwarded to Charles
Palmer, a Solicitor in London, who was employed by the company
to apply to the King for such further orders and instructions to the
colony as might enable the company to carry out the terms of their
agreement and to put them into execution at once. The business
was kept in a state of suspense for more than three years, when the
company resolved to send out an agent with full powers to bring
the business to a close. Colonel George Mercer was appointed to
carry out this commission and was instructed to procure leave for
the company to take up their lands, according to the conditions of
the original grant, or to obtain reimbursement of the money which
had been paid on the faith of that grant. But, at this time, the con-
flicting interests of many individuals in Virginia caused much trouble
to the interests of the Ohio Company.

The officers and soldiers under Dinwiddie made claims to land
within the boundary of the Ohio Company's grant under the Gov-
ernor's proclamation. Schemes laid by the proprietors of Walpole's
grant also tended to destroy the purpose of the company.

Colonel Mercer remained in London six years without making
any apparent progress in his mission. At last he agreed to merge
the Ohio Company's interests in those of Walpole and formed the
Grand Company, as it was called, on condition of securing to the
former two shares in the latter company, amounting to one-thirty-
sixth part of the whole. The terms were not approved by the mem-
bers of the Ohio Company in Virginia nor was it clear that Colonel
Mercer held the authority to conclude such arrangements. While
the subject was being bitterly contested, the Revolutionary War
came on and put an end not only to the controversy but to the ex-
istence of the two companies. Thus the Ohio Company was in action
less than four years, never having revived after its setback when
the French drove the English from the forks in April 1754.

All persons concerned in the Ohio Company were losers to a
considerable extent, with the exception of Christopher Gist and the
eleven families who settled on the company's land around Mt. Brad-
dock. Gist received one thousand pounds sterling for his services
as explorer and for the reports made to the Ohio Company and also

220 THE HORN PAPERS

his second land grant on the east side of the Monongahela River,
which he selected as his frontier homestead at Mt. Braddock. Here
he was living in 1765, having given the land to his son in order to
prevent Mr. Hanbury's claim of six hundred pounds being set
against it and his slaves for value of goods sold to the traders at
Wills Creek.

The Walpole Grant

Immediately after the treaty of peace was signed at Paris in
1763, a plan was suggested for the settlement of the lands on the
Ohio River. During that year a pamphlet was published in Lon-
don, entitled "Advantages of a Settlement upon the Ohio in North
America," in which the subject was ably set forth. This pamphlet
was circulated in Virginia in 1763 and 1764, a copy of which was
preserved and is still in the possession of a relative of the author.
This pamphlet was published in the interest of Thomas Walpole.

In 1766, William Franklin, Governor of New Jersey, a son of
Benjamin Franklin, in conjunction with Sir William Johnson, Indian
agent for the northern colonies, proposed a scheme for establish-
ing a new colony on the Ohio. They wrote to Dr. Franklin, who was
at that time in London, requesting his help in securing a grant for
this purpose, including the territory described in Washington's let-
ter. He pressed the application for more than a year; but the change
of ministers and the conflicting interests of individuals prevented
his success, and the project seemed to have been suspended until
1770, when it was renewed. In April of that year, Thomas Pownall
wrote to Sir William Johnson as follows:

UA society in which some of the first people in England are in-
terested and in which you and Colonel Croghan have been made
included have made a bargain with the Treasury for a large tract
of land lying on the Ohio. Lord Hillsborough, having suggested
that we should have a charter in consequence of this bargain, we
appear next to apply to the Council Board so that the grant may be
issued. We may expect to meet with opposition both here and in the
colony; There will be objections in carrying this point as we have
settled the main point. As soon as the grant is issued we are to apply
to the Lords of Trade on the subject of the charter. It will naturally
occur to you, that on this matter, I shall be referred too, and the plan
I propose is, to take the charter of the province of Massachusetts
Bay for the model of our government, making some few alterations
therein, which practice and experience have shown to be necessary,
but such only as every constituent of the proposed province would

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 221

wish such as every man who desires to become a settler in it would
expect whatever may be his religious views.

"From our peculiar situation, as a frontier province connected
as it is with the Indian country, some additional department of gov-
ernment will be required, also an Indian department, formed to
negotiate in matters of policy, for a just and regular trade with the
Indians and to govern in time of war. Much opposition will be ex-
pected from John Canon and his Virginia free lancers living on the
middle branches of the Monongahela. Governor Dunmore may by
his relationship neutralize this source of opposition but too much
cannot be expected of Dunmore for he has already shown weakness,
while Canon and his frontier colony are growing bolder daily, if the
reports made by Washington's secretary are taken literally. As
stated before, the Ohio Company proved a failure and it must need
careful consideration of the Board to keep the Walpole grant on
the Ohio from a like tendency. The seventy-two shares of stock
must be divided between holders both in England and in America."

The managing board was composed of the following members:
Thomas Walpole, London; Thomas Pownall, Williamsburg; Dr.
Franklin, Philadelphia; and Samuel Wharton, Staunton. Daniel
Frazier represented the interests of Chrisopher Gist at the forks
in 1747.

The Battle of Flint Top

In October 1747, the Virginia Assembly declared the Virginia
borders to be the Ohio River and the Lakes, but found they could
not pass such an act legally. They petitioned the King and Parlia-
ment for possession of the Ohio Valley, and in March 1748 the King
granted five hundred thousand acres of land in the Ohio Valley to
his Virginia counselors. These counselors formed the Ohio Com-
pany and, wanting a survey made, employed Christopher Gist, the
well-known frontier guide who had been in the service of the French
interests.

This was the beginning of Christopher Gist's connection with
the interest of the Virginia Colony, and the French questioned his
position because they had given him his first tract of land on the
east side of the Monongahela River near, or between, Gist Point
(Point Marion) and Dyces Inn.

The French Government was highly indignant at the British
for giving five hundred thousand acres of the French territory to the
Ohio Company. King Louis immediately ordered the French Gov-
ernor in Canada to occupy and protect the French claims in the Ohio

16

222 THE HORN PAPERS

and the Monongahela valleys. The first step was to destroy the
power and influence of the Delaware Indian tribe who were occupy-
ing the territory of the French west of the Monongahela River, and
who were allies of the English. He commissioned N. Coulon de
Jumonville to command an expedition to the disputed territory.
With three hundred French regulars and an allied force of fourteen
thousand Indians of the north, and the Great and Little Osages
from the central west, they made their way from Venango down the
Allegheny to the forks and up the Monongahela River Valley to
Fort Jumonville (Redstone) on Jumonville Creek where the French
went into camp.

The French prevailed upon the Indians that the time was at
hand when they should fall upon their ancient foes and destroy their
power and influence and remove the tribe from French territory.
They promised the Indians that they should have all the glory and
that the French would feast the Indians "two moons, with eighty
kegs of rum."

Jumonville and his soldiers went into camp near the stockade,
while the Indian forces trailed from there over the Delawares'
own trail up the ridge almost to the place where Grendelier set the
French flag in June 1751. Here the Indians divided their forces and
marched south on the two Indian ridges, surrounding the Delaware
main camp or village on Lower Indian Ridge at daybreak, Septem-
ber 17, 1748. The Delaware tribe, while they had experienced some
trouble with French fur traders who stole into the outlying villages
of the Delawares during their hunting and trapping season and se-
cured their prime furs, did not know they were likely to be attacked
by a combined force of enemies. At the time of this attack nearly a
third of the Delawares were away from their main village on Indian
Ridge. They were divided among their several villages and had
no knowledge of the fate of their tribe until after their foes
had wiped out almost the entire number at the main camp. Only
about twenty warriors escaped.

It has been claimed that at least twenty-two thousand Indians
were engaged in this battle at Flint Top on September 17, 18, 1748.
After the Indians left for the Delaware village, Jumonville took his
soldiers up the river over the Warrior Trail to Fort Louis II, where
he remained in camp until September 22, and then fell back to Fort
Jumonville to await the return of the Indians. They were joined
by the Huron Chief and a large portion of his allies on September
24, and all retraced their line of march to a point near the site
marked for the French capital city of Duquesne, where the promised
feast took place. Jumonville and the French regulars immediately

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE OHIO COMPANY 223

returned to Canada to make a report to the Governor that the Ohio
county had been taken; that the Delaware Indian tribe had been re-
duced to squaws and children, and Tingooqua, the Civil Chief, had
sued for peace, and that New France had set her rightful claim to
all the territory west of the Monongahela River as well as to the
territory to the crest of the Blue Ridge.

The Time, place, and circumstances connected with this Indian
battle have almost been forgotten by white people, even those who
live on or near the site where this great battle was fought on Indian
Ridge. Only fragments of written history can now be found that
refer to this event. The French records mention this battle in a few
places without confirming any direct connection with it. The Eng-
lish records in 1752 mention a battle as being a bitter contest of the
French and Indians to control the territory of the Monongahela and
Ohio valleys.

The "History of Northwest Virginia, 1760-1780," published
in England in 1781, gave a clear account of this battle and a detailed
accounts of events that transpired from 1744 to 1780. (We had a
copy in our home before 1882.) It also gave a clear account of
Tingooqua and other early-day persons on the Virginia frontier
border. However, the clearest statement made of this noted Indian
battle, and the site where it took place, was obtained from the
notes and statements of Jacob Horn and Christopher Gist who,
with the two French surveyors, were on the ground of this battle-
field in June 1751, less than three years after this battle took place
in September 1748. These persons described the scene of conflict
as one of the greatest and saddest sights ever looked upon by any
people of their day. This battle was frequently discussed by Chris-
topher Gist, Jacob Horn, and others at the Jacob Horn home and
mill seat at Snow Creek, Virginia, between the years 1751 and 1772.
In 1772, Jacob Horn and family, and some others from Snow
Creek, trailed to Spirit Spring Camp Cat Fish, and there built the
Block-house. They made that site their permanent home and there
opened the first County Court ever established west of the Monon-
gahela River.

Christopher Horn, the second son of Jacob and Duschea Horn,
born in 1745 at the Horn home at Snow Creek, recorded the follow-
ing statement in 1785 when he obtained his patent for his home-
stead, which included the site of Flint Top battlefield:

"I heard Christopher Gist, John Canon and father talk of the
great Indian battle at Flint Top, at Tingooqua's Main Camp that
took place in 1748, when I was only three years old. They talked of
this in 1762 and in 1766 and in 1769 and I had made peace in mind

224 THE HORN PAPERS

to take a homestead on, or near this site before we settled at Camp
Cat Fish, in '72' because this site where this great Indian battle
took place interested me to a great part in taking my homestead. I
marked off a tract of 1450 acres and 31 Perch in October '75', and
built this house and settled here in April 1776, one month after
John settled on his homestead further up west. The land on which
the Indian battle took place was, and is now, covered with beech,
walnut, oak, hickory, and suger, but on the lower ground near the
Creek, where 'Bowlegs' say the Delawares were camped, when the
Nations, and the other tribes surrounded them, has great trees
scattered over the field, and it was here that many and great num-
bers of Indian skeletons covered the ground so thick, that no man
can walk on the ground. Bowlegs say, 'These all, are the dead Del-
awares' and the skeletons were over more than seventy acres in great
numbers, then more were found on Indian Ridge, and farther west,
and north with some on the bank of Tingooqua Creek, on both sides
of the 'Gist Trail' leading to 'Gist Cabin' on his run, and hence, to
'Eckerlin old settlement' on their Run, beyond Tingooqua's South
Creek. It is said some Delewares escaped, and ran all the trail to
Tingooqua's Cave back in the way of Turkey Foot Hill.

"Bowlegs walks here and there, and whoops and screeches to
the spirits of the dead Delawares, but no sounds approach me, but
Bowlegs say he hears 'The Warriors sing big,' and the 'squaws and
childs make big howl.' "

CHAPTER IV
CHRISTOPHER GIST

Christopher Gist I was an Englishman of more than common
ability for one of his day. Having learned surveying, he was often
called to survey the estates of the English nobility, and gained many
favors from those whom he served. The English historians, York
and Lockhaven, stated that Christopher Gist I, the father of Chris-
topher Gist II, who settled in Baltimore's Colony, married Anne
Washington of Gardsen Manor, England, and that his descendants
became numbered among the first families of Baltimore's Colony;
they also stated that his great-grandson, Christopher Gist III, the
French and Virginia explorer, was distantly related to George Wash-
ington, Governor Dinwiddie's Commissioner to Fort Le Boeuf.
Christopher Gist I and his wife, Anne Washington Gist, were
parents of three sons, Washington, Christopher, and Richard, and
three daughters, Violetta, Emma, and Anne.

Christopher Gist II, born in England in 1659, prepared to be-
come a naval officer, but by change in fortune he was sent to Balti-
more's Colony, in 1683, on a mission of some importance and re-
mained in the Colony. He opened a fur house and sold English
goods from 1685 to 1691. He died in Baltimore in March 1691,
and his wife, Edith Gist, died November 24, 1694. Captain Rich-
ard Gist, born in Baltimore County in 1684, was the only son and
the only child to survive the parents. Two daughters, Edith and
Emma, died in infancy.

Richard Gist grew up in Baltimore and learned the carpenter
trade, but later joined the militia and became captain of his com-
pany. He held property in Baltimore County and laid out certain
streets in Baltimore. The fur house and business opened by his
father in 1685, and operated by him until his death in 1691, were
continued under the management of an English relative until 1703,
when Richard Gist assumed full control of the business. One year
later, 1704, he married Zipporah Murray and set up his own home
in Baltimore, where he continued in business until 1718.

Zipporah Murray was the second daughter of George Murray,
the youngest son of the Scottish Earl of Dunmore, and an aunt of
Lord Dunmore, the last Royal Governor of Virginia. She was the
eldest sister of Elizabeth Murray Canon, who was the wife of
Richard Canon and the mother of John Canon, the founder and
promoter of the first iron industry west of the Allegheny Mountains

226 THE HORN PAPERS

at the village of McCullough from 1779 to 1789 and the founder
of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1787.

It should be noted that John Murray, known as fourth Earl of
Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, was a relative of
both Christopher Gist and George Washington. He was an uncle
of John Canon, and was thus placed between two opposing forces
during the days of heated argument over Lord Greenville's Stamp
Act. Lord Dunmore, in 1764, declared that if all his relatives in
America were going to oppose the King and Parliament he would
resign and leave the colony on the first approach of bloodshed. He
did this shortly after the Battle of Lexington, which occured April
19, 1775. After some trouble in eastern Virginia, he sailed for
Scotland while his distinguished relatives, General Washington and
John Canon, gave their services to the American cause to drive out
British rule and British tyranny and to establish American liberty.
Lord Dunmore's very last act of attempting to seize arsenals did
more to tarnish his name than all his official acts combined during
his administration in the colony.

Richard Gist and his wife, Zipporah Gist, became the parents
of four sons, Nathaniel, Thomas, William, and Christopher, and
three daughters. Christopher, who called himself Christopher Gist
III, was born May 12, 1709, in the Baltimore home, and died at
Little Haystack Knob, Virginia, October 4, 1769. His body was
taken to his Mt. Braddock plantation and there buried one
thousand feet above his stone magazine at the foot of Dunbar's
Hill by his white and one-fourth Indian children.

Christopher Gist's first wife was Sarah Howard, of Baltimore,
Vho bore him three sons and two daughters: Nathaniel, Richard,
Thomas, Anne, and Violetta. The family resided in Baltimore
until 1734, when the home was transferred to Yadkin River Planta-
tion, a part of which his sister and her husband had purchased in
1724. In 1738, he traded a small interest in the Baltimore property
for a plantation on the Yadkin near the place where he lived, and
later the same year traded it to his sister and husband. Through
trade and other sources he raised £5000 sterling. With this he
made payment to the London Fur Company, the sum of one half
their full claim. He still held his homestead on the Yadkin by rights
extended by his sister and her husband, but being in the fur trade
'in the Indian lands, he trailed the north country at all seasons. His
Srst wife, Sarah Howard Gist, died at the home on the Yadkin in
1747, and Gist and his children continued living there until the
spring of 1753.

CHRISTOPHER GIST 227

In 1752, he built his magazine at Gist Post, later Mt. Braddock.
The stone house, 20 x 24 feet outside measurement and eight feet
high with a half pitch roof, built by Christopher Gist on his Mt.
Braddock plantation in 1752, is in part still standing at this time
( 1938), and is a part of the house now occupied by Mr. Turner who
owns the site. The walls of this stone house built for his magazine
are thirty-three inches in thickness, and the house originally had one
door and two windows.

He transferred the whole of his family and property to his
Virginia plantation at Gist Post in April 1753, where he lived until
1758. In 1758, he transferred the Mt. Braddock estate to his chil-
dren, placing it under the management of his son Thomas, who was
to make provision for the other children. In 1759, Gist passed
most of his time exploring for gold and lead that the French had
assured him existed in three separate regions between the Monon-
gahela and the Ohio, north of the Little French Creek (Dunkard
Creek). During the time he was exploring for the Ohio Company
as well as after his work had been finished, up to the month of June
1769, and before he died on October 4 of this same year, he made
various trips to Snow Creek to the home of Jacob Horn. But Gist
did not locate gold or lead in paying quantities, nor did he make a
settlement. He lived with his half-Indian wife, White Rose, who
survived him four years, leaving his sons, Christopher, Jacob, Sam-
uel, and two daughters. Elizabeth Gist was the grandmother of
Gist Culver, an early settler of Morgan Township. Polly Gist, who
married Captain John Rogers of the Yohogania County Rifle Corps,
became a citizen of Greene County after it was separated from
Washington County in 1796. Christopher Gist's second wife White
Rose was a full sister of Tingooqua, the Delaware Civil Chief,
being of French and Delaware blood, and she was well liked by the
Virginia fur traders. White Rose was a favorite of Gist and he
married her, probably in 1748.

Richard Gist, the second son of Christopher Gist lived for a
number of years in a two-story log house near the present site of the
late David K. Bell home in Morgan Township, Greene County.
He lived there in 1826, for that year the author's grandfather
bought a yoke of oxen from Richard Gist for fifty-four dollars. This
small tract of land on which he lived was a part of the Culver estate.
Dr. Gailbreath, who lived and practiced medicine in Jefferson,
Pennsylvania, during the Civil War, was connected with this family.

S. R. Horn, the owner of the old Colonel Heaton Mill property,
tore down this two-story log house in 1880 for the hewn logs it
contained; these he used in rebuilding the mill dam that the heavy

Gist's Store House Built in 1752. Photographed in \9\2

CHRISTOPHER GIST 229

ice had swept away late in February. When this house was being
torn down a scrap of an old daybook was found in a niche on the
outside of the large stone chimney in the second story. This paper
contained some reference to a visit which Jacob Gist and his brother
Christopher made to Philadelphia in 1795, to make a plea for
someone regarding the Whiskey Rebellion. This document was
given to Dr. W. D. Rogers, who lived near by, and who was a dis-
tant relative of Jacob Gist. The name J. Gist was cut in a large
sandstone built in this large stone chimney. The author has no
knowledge of when Richard Jacob Gist settled here, but tradition is
that his son emigrated to Kentucky about 1819.

Christopher Gist's location on the Yadkin River and his main
route from the Yadkin to the James River Trail intersection was
near Snow Creek Settlement in Virginia. The homestead of Chris-
topher Gist on the Yadkin River from 1734 to 1753 was in what
is now Yadkin County, North Carolina, in the east bend and south
trend of the river which was but a few miles from where Gist located
the father of Daniel Boone in 1749.

Gist assisted the Boone family in transferring from Pennsyl-
vania to the south side of the Yadkin where they lived in the wilds
some miles to the west of Gist's former plantation. Butler, in his
sketch of Boone's life, says: "Daniel Boone by nature was a fron-
tiersman in every sense of the word, but his life was no doubt much
influenced by the narratives of frontier life by Christopher Gist,
when he was about thirteen years of age while in the company of that
great explorer in 1749."

The Southwest Indian Trail from the Yadkin passed Pilot
Mountain north through Pine Ridge, crossing the boundary into
Virginia, through Laurel Fork, Indian Valley, to Sulphur Spring
to the headwaters of Indian Creek, crossed the South Allegheny
Mountains, and reached the waters of the Greenbrier River at the
southeast corner of the great bend. From this point the trail fol-
lowed the east side of the valley to the headwaters of the Greenbrier
and ascended the high ridge, crossed the mountains through the
Devil's Pass, and passed over the divide directly between the head-
waters of Wild Turkey Back Creek flowing to the south, and the
headwaters of the South Branch of the North Fork of the Potomac,
flowing to the northeast. After descending into the valley, the
Southwest Indian Trail, which led to Kentucky and Tennessee,
joined the James River Trail from the eastern shores of Virginia to
Canada. It was on this high divide near the sources of four streams,
two flowing north and two flowing south, that Christopher Gist
placed a cairn in 1740 to indicate the dividing of the waters of the

230 THE HORN PAPERS

North and South and the beginning of the trail to the Yadkin, the
most western settlement at that time.

Old Booneville, on the site of the first settlement of the Boones
on the Yadkin, was later a small hamlet marking the site of the
boyhood home of this great explorer and Indian fighter.

James Bryan, a former acquaintance of Gist, had settled be-
tween the Yadkin and the Virginia border in 1750 and for some time
operated a ferry on the trail crossing of the river, but this ferry
was operated by a man named Finley from 1758 to 1764. The
Holden and Stewart families of the Yadkin River settlement in
1758-59 were the parents of the Kentucky and Missouri branch of
these well-known families of today. James Harrod, the founder of
Harrodsburg, Kentucky, was a relative of both these pioneer fam-
ilies.

It has been stated that the Gist settlement on the Yadkin fur-
nished the foundations for both the settlement in western Pennsyl-
vania and the State of Kentucky. Both, however, are traced to their
source in Virginia. Senator Thomas H. Benton's grandfather and
Christopher Gist were common fur traders from 1730 to 1740, in
the mountains east of the Ohio River, among the Delaware and
Shawnee Indians, before these tribes departed for land west of that
river in 1748.

In 1718, Richard Gist failed in business after his warehouse was
destroyed by fire. His son Christopher, having learned much about
furs as a boy and being much interested in the life and history of the
Indians, decided to become a fur trader among the tribes of natives
who hunted and trapped in the wilds beyond the range of civiliza-
tion. In 1728, after some experience as an employee in the fur
store, he became an agent of the British Fur Company in Baltimore,
and opened a small fur trade house. In 1732, his stock of furs in
Baltimore, ready for shipment to the London Fur Company, was de-
stroyed by fire. The company insisted that Gist was responsible and
claimed the sum of £10,000 sterling. This Gist denied, claiming
that he was in no way responsible for the loss, but agreed to pay
something later, as at present he was ruined and left without a
shilling. The fur company's agents in Baltimore continued to harass
Gist almost all his life. He paid them for more than he really
owed, but they pressed their claims until the transfer of all his
property to his children in 1758.

Gist, being a good judge of prime furs and in need of money,
became a partner of Le Tort in 1732, and trailed the Indian country
on the east side of the Susquehanna to Le Mercier's Ferry, and into
the French territory west of that river, among the remnants of the

CHRISTOPHER GIST 231

Mingo and Delaware tribes still remaining on the Susquehanna.
These sixteen months of service with the French trader, in these
French lands, gave Gist the idea of opening the Indian country to
the white people of the colonies bordering on the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1734, Gist left his native town, taking his family with him,
and erected a home on the Yadkin, on land given him by his sister
and her husband. For over two years he devoted his energies to the
management of his estate. It was the desire of his sister and his own
family that he should become a planter and permanently establish
himself there on the rich lands bordering on the Yadkin. If he
had done this, the Christopher Gist who explored Western
Virginia to the Ohio River, and served both the French and English
interests in the Delaware Indian country, would never have become
known on the frontier borders as the greatest explorer, guide, and
Indian interpreter in the colonies, nor would he have set out to find
the lands of the Ohio Company. The destiny of man lieth not in the
desire of his fellow being; but in that which is born a part of his
natural life and guides his footsteps in all the ways and all the days
of his earthly career. So it was with Christopher Gist. He gave the
English their first knowledge of the fertile lands in the upper Ohio
Valley and the Monongahela regions.

In October 1736, Christopher Gist became interested in Dr.
Samuel Eckerlin's report on the Delaware Indian tribe. The Dela-
wares had moved, in 1696, west of the mountains on the western
waters of the Monongahela in Tingooqua's domains. Gist held a
conference with Dr. Eckerlin and his two brothers, Bernard and
Thomas (Long Tom) Eckerlin, at Williamsburg, Virginia, early
in November 1736. Gist and the Eckerlins became partners in the
Delaware Indian fur trade. In March 1737, these men left Wil-
liamsburg and went over the Indian James River Trail by Snow
Creek to the north country, the land of the Delawares. They reached
Turkey Foot Rock at the first crossing of Eckerlin Creek, named by
Grendelier, M. Beaumont, Gist, and Jacob Horn as Little French
Creek, in June 1751. From there they trailed to the camp of Wa-
Ha-Wag-Lo, the Delaware War Chief, where they established the
right to trade with the members of his tribe, paying for furs in
Virginia tobacco. An agreement was made with the various Indian
village chiefs regarding places where furs could be stored by the
Indians.

In 1736, Bernard Eckerlin carved the mark of a turkey foot
on a large rock about three hundred feet north of the Delaware-
James River Trail Crossing of Little French Creek, and just a few
feet on the Virginia side of the Mason and Dixon line, and that

232 THE HORN PAPERS

carved marking is clearly visible at this date (1938). This turkey-
foot is the emblem of the Delaware tribe just as the beaver is the
emblem of the Huron tribe. These emblems, as tribal markings,
must not be confused with the secondary markings of the various
clans. Different tribes may describe a turkey clan or beaver clan in
another distinct tribe. This mistake has led many historians, not
familiar with the Indian dialect, or Indian sign language, to record
many mistakes.

The Pennsylvania Archives contain many errors connected with
the history of the various clans of tribes, which are mistaken for
tribes themselves. These errors were made because the persons
writing of them made no distinction between the beaver and the
turkey foot as a clan emblem and the same as a tribe emblem. This
was probably due to the fact that these persons had never been among
the various Indian tribes, nor could they understand the languages.
Bernard Eckerlin carved in outline the small turkey foot, the Indian
Camp, French Creek camp site, and the Delaware-James River
Trail and crossing, on the small oval stone of intense hardness at
Turkey Foot Rock in June 1736. This he gave to Joshua, the Bow-
legs of the Delawares, who kept it until 1789, then gave it to Chris-
torphe Horn. The same carved stone is now in the Greene County
Historical Museum.

In June 1737, the Eckerlin brothers and Christopher Gist erect-
ed a cabin on Eckerlin run, later Smith Creek, in Greene County,
Pennsylvania. One month later they erected another log fur house
on Gist Run, later Ruffs Creek. Gist and Bernard Eckerlin made
four trips from their fur houses to Williamsburg in 1737. In No-
vember 1737, Tingooqua and Oppaymolleh, the medicine man,
accompanied the fur traders to Williamsburg and for one month
beheld the English and their manner of living. This trip helped the
Virginians to establish more firmly their friendship with the Dela-
ware tribe, who believed Gist the greatest Virginian of the colony.

In May 1745, Christopher Gist stated to Jacob Horn that he
knew every hill and stream from Baltimore and Williamsburg to
La Belle River and Fort Menier. Gist had learned surveying when
young and, with Bernard Eckerlin, James Stinson, and three Dela-
ware Indians, surveyed a line for the French from Le Mercier Ferry,
later known as Harris Ferry, on the Susquehanna River, to the
mouth of Jumonville Creek (Redstone), on the Monongahela
River, in 1746. On September 6, 1746, they set a stone marker at
Gist Point.

Christopher Gist, who made his first appearance at the Jacob
Horn homestead on Snow Creek, in March 1740, found it con-

CHRISTOPHER GIST 233

venient to rest and visit there, and he perhaps found in Jacob Horn
a man much like himself. They seem to have had many views of the
times in common, as he returned in September of the same year
for two days. In Aril 1741, he again visited this home, and Jacob
Horn recorded in his diary: "Christopher Gist by his great interest
in the fur trade, did set aside his south country claims for one landed
estate; whereby he set aside one part of same in 1739 to settle one-
half of all claims held in London, in part payment of all sums
due the London Fur Company. He then entered claims to a small
land estate in Virginia on the James River Trail, being by his say,
'the mule claim,' which, being nearer to his fur settlement, is more
to his liking. He says now he has only a small part of his south river
plantation as his family home, the main part being his sister's and
her husband's, by deed of lawful claims of the same in 1738." Jacob
Horn says, "By Gist's advice and consent, I, Jacob Horn, do now
agree to hold on this land at Snow Creek twenty-four mules from
his Yadkin River plantation as my rightful own when Gist has set
a sum value on his mules and received in payment the same, if not
otherwise made use of in trade. John Wiever being at hand, he and
his son, Jacob Wiever, and McCullough, the elder, by consent of
Gist and his man do agree to trail the mules from the river planta-
tion over the Greenbrier Trail to this land, where they shall rest and
feed before any sum be declared the made value of the mules."

There are no records that indicate what became of the mules,
or why Gist did not transfer them to his Virginia mule claims in-
stead of turning them over to Jacob Horn under such a peculiar
agreement — which left the title to the mules with Gist — but which
became transferred to Jacob Horn if any third party presented any
claim to them for debt or claims against Gist.

Christopher Horn, born July 11, 1745, after Christopher Gist's
visit to the home from March 21 to 30, was named after the great
explorer and frontiersman. Gist insisted that Jacob Horn should
accompany him on this trip, but Horn says he declined for the same
reason that he had refused to leave his wife and accompany John
Hardtman to the house of Jacob Horn's father at Penn's Inn,
Philadelphia, only a short time before. He. promised Gist to go
at some later date, and he did go in June 1751, when Gist was in the
service of the French, from June 4 to August 25, 1751. It was on
this trip that Gist, Horn, Grendelier, Beaumont, Tingooqua, Peter
Chartier, and Bowlegs planted the last of the French lead plates,
changed the name Eckerlin Creek to Little French Creek (later
Dunkard Creek) , and gave the name Tingooqua to what is now Ten
Mile Creek, and surveyed and mapped Chartier Creek which they

234 THE HORN PAPERS

named after Peter Chartier who paced it from the mouth of Wessa-
meking Run. Jacob Horn recorded the number of paces made by
Chartier, while Gist charted the creek for the Frenchman. Bowlegs
carried the willow sticks on which Jacob Horn cut the notches, while
Wessameking was the camp cook, a duty he had performed at
Camp Cat Fish (Spirit Spring) , at Camp Cat Fish 2 (Zollarsville) ,
at Upper Camp Cat Fish at Wessameking Spring (Site of Augusta
Town) , and at the camp sites down Chartier Creek. For this service
Wessameking was given a fire gun and a red sash. His nickname,
Cat Fish, was given to the run by Tingooqua's Camp, and Cat Fish
Run was so named until 1826, when it became Daniel's Run. Tin-
gooqua Creek, named by the French and Gist in 1751, was named
Ten Mile Creek in 1780, after Jacob Ten Mile, the Yohogania
County Commissioner who lived on the flats above Indian Ridge.
Jacob Horn states that in December 1746, after Christopher
Gist had reported to La Mercier as to the distance from his ferry
on the Susquehanna to the French Fort on Jumonville Creek, on the
Monongahela River, the French commander set aside a tract of
land eight miles on all four sides, on the east side of the Mononga-
hela River, the near side being three miles from Gist Point. This
was the land that William Crawford said had been obtained by Gist
from the French in exchange for his promise to remain on favorable
terms with them. Gist never made settlement on this land, but in
April 1747 he was directed to guide Creaux Bozarth, his family,
and his twenty runners from Philadelphia across the mountains
to their home on Eckerlin Creek, or White Clay Creek (later Big
Whiteley Creek). Creaux Bozarth, a French Huguenot from
Quebec, was commssioned by the French Governor in Canada to
build Fort Louis I and II in Tingooqua's territory, and to keep
watch on the Delaware Indians and the movements of the English
fur traders who were becoming interested in the Monongahela terri-
tory, then a part of the French claims in America. Bozarth and
Christopher Gist had been acquainted for some time, but Gist had
at times acted for the English — a circumstance resented by Bozarth.
When Virginia called Christopher Gist to explore the Ohio River
country for the Ohio Company in 1749-1753, the Bozarth family
reproached Gist for aiding the English. He said, however, that he
could serve both sides without favoring either. The persistent
demands of Bozarth finally turned Gist against the French in 1753.
When Governor Dinwiddie commissioned George Washington to
make his famous trip to the French Commander at Fort Le Boeuf,
late in 1753, Christopher Gist and Creaux Bozarth were on a trip
with a shipment of furs to Wills Creek, the outpost of the reorgan-

CHRISTOPHER GIST 235

ized London Fur Company. Here Washington met his relative, and
after some persuasion, Gist consented to guide him to Fort Le
Boeuf, and back to Mt. Braddock or Gist Post, as it was then
known. The French Emissary, on hearing that Governor Din-
widdie had sent Washington, threatened to have his runners follow
and kill him. Gist replied that when he served the French he served
them honestly and well and that he would serve the English in like
manner. He also notified Creaux Bozarth that if he directed his
Indian runners to follow him while in Washington's service he would
kill them and settle with Bozarth on his return. Bozarth was so en-
raged at Governor Dinwiddie's attempt to drive the French from
their own territory that he determined to show Gist that no repre-
sentative of Dinwiddie could pass through French territory and live
to reach Williamsburg. He hastened from Wills Creek to his home
on Eckerlin Creek and made plans to defeat the mission of the dar-
ing young Washington. About the end of the year 1753, Bozarth
directed his Indian runner, Lightfoot, to overtake Gist and Wash-
ington, to kill Washington, and to bring Gist to him in captivity.
The story of this attempt on Washington's life is told elsewhere in
this work.

Gist stated to Jacob Horn in 1762 that he had spent much time
without avail in thinking how to punish Creaux Bozarth but he had
the satisfaction of killing Lightfoot at Dunbar in 1754, while he and
other Indians hired by the French were trying to burn his slave
quarters.

The Creaux Bozarth family, who settled on Big Whiteley Creek
and erected Ft. Louis I in April 1747, was the first white family to
settle in what is now Greene County, Pennsylvania. Their daughter,
Louisa Bozarth, born September 4, 1747, was the first white child
born in the county, and her brother, John Bozarth, was the first
white person known to have died and to be buried in a grave in
Mohongalia County, Virginia. He died June 10, 1747, at the age
of four years.

A council of war was held in the stone magazine at the foot of
Dunbar's Hill at Gist's plantation when word was received that
the French at Fort Duquesne were reinforced by three hundred
French Regulars and nine hundred Indian warriors and would
speedily march against the English. Gist stated that when he de-
livered eight quarters of salt to the French at Fort Duquesne on
June 16, the commander told him that if Washington passed beyond
the French-English boundary line set in 1741, they would drive the
English back over the line, which was the center of the mountain

236 THK HORN PAPERS

ridge west of the Youghiogheny River. Gist informed Washington
of this at the council at nine o'clock on the morning of June 28, 1754.

Gist advised Washington to retreat to Great Meadows where
he could claim that he was not on French territory as the line agreed
upon in 1741 was indefinitely stated. The French held that Great
Meadows was in the French territory, as outlined in their agreement
in 1741. It was never fully determined which mountain ridge was
understood in the treaty made between the English and French at
Paris in April 1741. Many maps of the period, however, show the
boundary between the French and British claims as the dividing
ridge of the Allegheny Mountains.

Jacob Horn states that after Christopher Gist moved from his
home on the Yadkin in the spring of 1753 and settled at Gist Post,
which after 1755 became known as Mt. Braddock plantation, he de-
layed his visits to Snow Creek until 1756 when he visited Jacob
Horn and his Snow Creek friends three days while on his way to
Williamsburg.

He thought of leaving his Mt. Braddock estate to his white
children, under the care of Thomas, and of exploring more of the
lands beyond the Ohio. He carried out this plan in 1758 and again
made a trip to Snow Creek and Baltimore before exploring further
for the gold and lead described by the French. Gist was a dis-
appointed man in his latter days, for in the spring of 1769, while
he and Jacob Horn were on their last trip from Snow Creek to
Camp Cat Fish, he said: "I am not sure to this day whether the
French Le Mercier spoke the truth about the gold and lead. I have
been on most every place they say but have never found it either in
the earth or out and now, I believe, Tingooqua speaks with knowl-
edge that these are not found in his territory, but I am getting be-
yond the wish or care to trail more for them. The lead and gold
are like the French themselves, departed from the Mohongalia ter-
ritory, but their bad influence is still in the land."

In 1763, when it was learned that the French and Indian War
was at an end, Christopher Gist, who had transferred his Mt.
Braddock plantation to his legal heirs in 1758, was authorized by
Virginia to settle the territory, now Greene and Fayette counties.
He was to receive five pounds for each family brought to hold this
territory for Virginia. In May 1763 sixty-three families were as-
sembled and brought from Staunton, Virginia over the James River
Trail, to the territory! east of the Monongahela River.y He settled
these families on the IancT that the French had given him in 1746,
but which he had never occupied. Among these settlers were John
Armstrong and his brother James, the Swans, the Van Metres,

CHRISTOPHER GIST 237

Daniel Moredock, Sr. George Brown, Elis Bailey, Cragow, Abraham
Teegarden, George David, William, John, Samuel, and Isaac Tee-
garden, Thomas Hughes, James Carmichaels, William Devol,#
James McClelland, Michael Jones, James Rush, Samuel McCul-
lough, and George Wilson. These sixty-three families tomahawked
their claims and lived on their lands east of the river from 1763
until April 1766. In the fall of 1765, information was received
from William Crawford (Indian Bill Crawford) that Virginia
and Penn's leaders had agreed to make the Monongahela River the
boundary line between the two colonies. This stirred the Virginia
settlers to action, and early in April 1766, all these settlers, being
strong Virginia sympathizers, left their cabins on the east side of
the river and crossed to the west side, settling in what is now Greene
County. At this time there were several white settlers already
established within the bounds of the present Greene County. Among
these were the Creaux Bozarth family who had settled on Eckerlin
Creek (now Big Whiteley) in April 1747, at Fort Louis I. Conrad
Sycks and Augustine Dillenger, fur traders from 1760-1763, set-
tled on Big Whiteley at what later became Garards Fort in May
1763. Jeremiah Glasgow settled on the opposite side of the creek
from the Conrad Sycks homestead in 1763 and lived there until
October 1764. He then returned to Staunton where he lived until
the spring of 1766, when he returned to his homestead on Eckerlin
Creek and made it his permanent home. Joseph Morris, with his
six sons and their families, from Virginia, took up 2,850 acres of
land and erected Fort Morris near the mouth of Coal Run on South
Tingooqua Creek, later South Ten Mile Creek. George Hupp
settled at Teegardens Fort (Millsboro) in 1766, and Enock O'Brine
and the Barnards erected log cabins on that site in 1767. In 1766
Abraham Teegarden and family settled there on their arrival from
east of the river, and in 1766 his son, George Teegarden, erected
Ft. Teegarden and established the Teegarden's Ferry across the
river to old French Fort Louis II, and homesteaded by Tomahawk
rights 2,844 acres of land near the mouth and up both sides of Ten
Mile Creek to the mouth of Crooked Run, now Casteel Run.

John Heaton said in 1802 that of the men who came to Mt.
Braddock in 1763, George Wilson was the only settler to remain on
the east side of the river in 1766. Because of his refusal to leave,
he was bitterly assailed and called a traitor, and it was only the
refusal of John Horn and eighteen deputies to hang him, on John
Canon's orders, that saved his life in 1774, when they burned the
Westmoreland County log courthouse at the mouth of Dunkard
Creek, and Wilson's home on George Creek. They drove him with

17

238 THE HORN PAPERS

his family back to Hannastown in May 1774, only to have more
trouble with him at the time of Dr. John Connolly's trial in April
1775. The Virginia militia was bitterly censured by Canon for not
having hanged George Wilson when he had ordered it. He said to
John Horn, then the Sheriff of Northwest Augusta County, "You
d— well need to be bitten by that snake, for he is a snake and will
turn and bite you for having saved his worthless life."

Christopher Gist was a trusted friend of but few people. As a
guide and explorer he was employed by various colonial officials,
but they probably never had his confidence. He did his work well
but held them all in a certain amount of contempt, as he did the
haughty Braddock and the selfish Dinwiddie. Unlike young Wash-
ington, Gist did not make Dinwiddie familiar with the ways of the
Delaware or the French west of the mountains after Washington
was chosen to deal with the French. Gist said in 1754, "Let Wash-
ington learn for himself all that we gained since he was born." When
Gist made the old French Commissioner his enemy by guiding Wash-
ington through the forests, he held it to be to his interest to do so.
Even the French knew Gist had the trail life more at heart than
which nation was to hold the forks. Gist's last act in making
homesteads for the sixty-three families on his French lands in 1763
was clearly in favor of Virginia.

William Crawford, of Bedford County, was the leader of the
Pennsylvania faction and aroused the Virginia settlers east of the
river. They placed the Monongahela River between themselves
and the Pennsylvanians in 1766, hoping that the territory west of
the river would remain Virginian.

No American frontiersman made greater exploration or suffer-
ed more hardships and lived more among the Indians of his day than
did Christopher Gist. Little has been known of this early day ex-
plorer beyond what he chose to record in his journals kept for the
Ohio Company. Historians do not record his connections with the
French interests from 1742-1748, but perhaps his own statement
made to Jacob Horn in 1751, "Let not your right hand know what
your other is in charge of, and place no confidence in any man," has
had much to do with so little general knowledge of this great
friend of the Delaware Indians. These he well knew both before
and after their defeat at Flint Top in September 1748. His state-
ments about them are in such detail as to leave no doubt as to when
and where their great defeat took place. Gist had but few friends
in whom he placed his confidence. Besides Jacob Horn, another
was John Frazier, at the forks from 1744-1754, of whom he said,

CHRISTOPHER GIST 239

"He is a man of much confidence and keepeth all to himself but
give rest and meat to all frontiersmen."

The name of Christopher Gist will ever stand among the early
Virginia explorers in what is now southwestern Pennsylvania.

In May 1752, Gist employed John Frazier and Joseph Freye
to build his stone magazine and storehouse (now standing, 1939).
After they finished the stone building, Gist directed them and John
Taylor to erect slave quarters near by, and in September and Oc-
tober of the same year they erected a four-room log house not far
from the stone magazine for Gist and his family, which was their
first at Gist Post, later Mt. Braddock.

After the workmen had completed these buildings, about
December 1, 1752, John Frazier and his wife and two children
lived in this house as caretaker until April 1753, when Gist and his
children with eleven slave families arrived from the Yadkin and
took possession of the house and the plantation. John Taylor
became the superintendent and millman. At Gist's request, John
Frazier removed to a convenient point on the lower Monongahela
River as a hold man for the Ohio Land Company until the company
could send out a number of homestead settlers. As Gist's plantation
at that time consisted of about twenty thousand acres of the extreme
southeast portion of the Ohio lands, he gave notice at Williams-
burg that he had eleven families established on the Ohio lands and
a superintendent at the forks to fulfill the provisions of the Ohio
Land Company. The eleven families he referred to were his slaves,
but it filled all requirements so far as Gist was concerned. He re-
lated to Jacob Horn in 1753 that he was to hold the Ohio Land
Company's land under this agreement until they made a settlement
at the forks and had John Frazier located in the same log house that
Gist and Washington stopped at when on their return trip from
Fort le Boeuf at the end of December 1753.

The first log house in which Gist lived from April 1753 until the
summer of 1756 stood until 1823, when it was partially burned and
then removed. The burial place of some of the slaves was in the
garden close by the stone magazine. In 1755, after the defeat of
General Braddock, Gist changed the name of his estate from Gist
Post to Mount Braddock, and the same year began the construction
work on his large permanent home to which he invited his Snow
Creek friends in June 1757.

In his last days he related that he had seen both sides of the
Monongahela River lands in 1737-1740 when the Delaware Indian
tribe was in a happy and prosperous condition and very friendly to
the Virginia fur traders, before the French gave more than a passing

240 THE HORN PAPERS

thought to their claims west of the river. He spoke of the conditions
of the Delawares in 1751 as being a lamentable loss to Virginia,
but stated that no man could now revive the tribe nor help what
their enemies did in 1748.

He took an active interest in the first settlers that he located in
Fayette County in 1763 and was the chief adviser directing them
to the fertile lands west of the river. In June 1769, Gist made his
last trip to Williamsburg in company with Jacob Horn, John Wat-
son, and Abel McCullough who were on their return from Camp
Cat Fish. At Snow Creek Gist rested at the home of Jacob Horn
before traveling on to Williamsburg. This was the last time he ever
visited that home or that any of the three men saw him. Some time
in July of 1769 Gist and his son stopped at the home of one of his
friends then living on a portion of the old Fairfax estate, then
went to the Lewis homestead where they remained until the last
day of September, when they set out on their return to Mt. Brad-
dock. They struck the old James River Indian Trail south of Salem
Post on Cheat River where they rested for a day. After crossing
Cheat River they rode the well-worn road in a northwestern direc-
tion to the lower western trend of the double horseshoe bend of the
Monongahela River where they camped for two days. Gist's son,
desiring to fish in the river and hunt for game along the eastern
shore, went down the river some five or six miles and was gone
most of two days, while his father remained in camp on the south
and east side of the river. While encamped there£(jist obtained a
quantity of wild plums and grapes of which he ate heartily and
shortly after became ill j but seemed not to be alarmed, from the
statement made later by his son. On their return home they crossed
the Monongahela and rode the main trail leading to the first cross-
ing of Dunkard Creek at Turkey Foot Rock, but during the ride
Gist became more ill and on the evening of October 3 when they
reached Laurel Hill, known as Little Haystack Knob, it was found
that he could travel no farther. They camped there and although
his son rendered all the assistance possible,\Gist continued to grQw
weaker from dysentery and died about 4:30 p.m. October 4, 1769,1
His son tied his body on the saddle and set out for Gist Point which
he reached on October 5. While there, the Delaware Indian Bow-
legs learned from two Indian women that some white man tied on
a mule was near by and there at the water's edge Bowlegs found his
faithful friend dead. The two men took the body on to Mt. Braddock
where they reached the slave quarters, and at sundown on Ocotber
6, at the direction of White Rose and the family, the slaves buried
Christopher Gist.

CHRISTOPHER GIST 241

The news of Gist's death reached Jacob Horn at Snow Creek
on October 21 and caused much grief and sorrow in that home and
in the settlement. In after years it was learned that Mr. Taylor
and Mr. Meason were at Gist's burial and saw White Rose throw
herself on the grave and refuse to leave it until the sun arose the
following morning.

Thus passed the great frontiersman whose life history has been
of interest to every reader of the early history of southwestern
Pennsylvania and western Virginia. His connection with the French
and with the Delaware Indians and their leaders, Oppaymolleh,
Tingooqua, Peter Chartier, and Queen Aliquippa, and with the
Ohio Land Company illustrates the type and character of the man
who paved the way for the English to gain control over the French
and their possessions in the Monongahela Valley.

Christopher Gist was given his plantation by Virginia in 1752,
and he named it Gist Post. At that time he had never heard of
Edward Braddock, who became General Braddock in 1754, and
who led the British forces against the French at Fort Duquesne in
1755. Gist Plantation, or Gist Post, contained twenty thousand acres
of land, occupying the southeast portion of the Ohio Company's
land which he had selected and surveyed for them in 1751-52.

General Edward Braddock, on reaching Alexandria, Virginia,
in May 1755, made his arrangements to lead his army across the
mountains to drive the French out of their possessions in the Upper
Ohio Valley. There was some contention over the matter as to
which was the better route from Alexandria to the Monongahela
River, but Washington's chosen route to Wills Creek, thence over
the Jaques Poynton-Nemacolin Trail to the Monongahela was
selected. General Braddock marched his army to Wills Creek,
went into camp, and rested for ten days. The army broke camp,
pressed on, and reached the Youghiogheny River where they paused
for a short time. While in camp on the Youghiogheny, the team-
sters found twenty-eight of their mules had been poisoned, and
were unable to take up the line of march to Dunbar's Camp. Gener-
al Braddock issued orders that the first division of the army and the
Virginia Militia would proceed at once, while the main portion of
the army was to wait until a fresh supply of mules could be obtained.

When the General reached Dunbar's Camp, Washington intro-
duced Gist to him. The British General seemed to feel that he was
superior to Gist and attempted to give him some semiofficial direc-
tions, which Gist in his bold, direct manner at once resented and
said: "Who in the — are you? Where are you from to tell me such
nonsense? I've been all over this territory. You mean all right but

242 THE HORN PAPERS

do not know the situation." The General, recognizing in Gist a man
of iron will, condescended to make peace and Gist, being favorable
to the same terms, they met on common ground. It was while in
camp at Dunbar that Gist consented to go to the Youghiogheny to
hurry forward the second division of the army. This part of
Braddock's Army reached Dunbar just in time to meet the retreat-
ing soldiers under Washington's command. It was here that
Washington and Gist had bitter words over the delay, and non-
support of the second division in the hour of great need. Gist
stated in 1757 that while gazing upon the dead General, he not only
forgave him for all his highhanded intolerance but resolved to re-
name his estate Mount Braddock.

CHAPTER V
JACOB HORN

Jacob Horn was a descendant of John Thadus Horn, born at
Gothenberg, Sweden, January 20, 1572, through the lineage of
General John Adolphus Horn, Jacob Cromwell Horn of Chester-
shire, England, Jacob Christopher Horn of Philadelphia, and
George Horn of the same place. Jacob Horn, the second son of
George and Mary Watson Horn, was born at Penn's Inn, Philadel-
phia, February 21, 1721. He was a pupil in a local school in his
boyhood days. He learned the shoemaker trade and followed this
occupation for a short time, then worked at the cooper and car-
penter trade which he preferred to making shoes.

Early in life, he showed a decided preference to leave his home
and become a frontiersman in the iwilds of the western borderl of
civilization, rather than become a permanent settler in the Quaker
City. In 1739, when eighteen years of age, in company with his
elder brother, John Horn, and John Hardtman, he left Philadel-
phia and went to Fort Hager in the colony of Maryland. Here
they remained until the spring of 1740, when he and John Hardt-
man joined with Stuyvest Von Reisseiller, a Holland Dutchman,
who was engaged in hauling two millstones and two bed stones to
his mill on Snow Creek, Virginia. The two hardy young men made
an agreement, through an interpreter, to assist Von Reissseiller,
who could speak no English, while they did not understand the
Dutch language. However, they managed to get along well. After
leaving Fort Hager and his brother, Jacob Horn recorded that
after a length of time on the trails they arrived at the mill seat on
Snow Creek. They helped to finish the mill and continued to work
about the mill and the homestead. They cleared some acres of
timber land and planted flax and tobacco in the spring of 1741.
Late in October 1741, while hunting below the mill in the timber,
Stuyvest Von Reisseiller was killed by an Indian who had hidden
himself behind a fallen tree. Jacob Horn and John Hardtman made
a coffin and buried the remains of their departed friend. They
continued to operate the mill at times and to cut wood to supply
the huge fireplace. At the Christmas season John Hardtman killed
a number of wild turkeys on which the three members of the house-
hold feasted. The two men decided that one of them should marry
the widow, and this fell to the lot of Jacob Horn. They were mar-
ried February 12, 1742, but it was nearly three years before the
husband could hold a conversation with his wife in her own Ian-

244 THE HORN PAPERS

guage. Duschea Van Natta Von Reisseiller Horn never learned to
speak the English language, but she proved to be a very noble wife
and mother, a thrifty companion, and strictly religious. Three sons
and one daughter were born to them: John in 1743; Christopher,
July 28, 1745; Hardtman in 1747, and Duschea Ann, September 6,
1751.

Jacob Horn was often visited by Virginians from Williamsburg
and other eastern sections of the colony. Christopher Gist made
his first appearance at the Jacob Horn homestead in the spring of
1740 and often took meat and rest there afterwards. The two be-
came friends for life. Governor Dinwiddie's secretary visited this
home on two occasions on tax business. John Canon, the nephew of
Lord Dunmore, made his appearance there with Gist in 1758, and
Jacob Horn entertained him in 1761, 1764, and 1769. In 1772
he trailed with the Jacob Horn party from Snow Creek to Camp
Cat Fish I and Spirit Spring. Jacob Horn was a native of Philadel-
phia, but the years on the frontier of Virginia made him an intense
partisan of that colony. He was bold and defiant on one hand, but
hospitable to all travelers and explorers, and his homestead was a
well-known station to most of the colonial patriots who kept an
eye on the frontier regions.

In 1765, he was made a Virginia Justice for Snow Creek settle-
ment, then composed of about fifty people. He held this commission
until January 1, 1769. In October 1768, he received a commission
to go to Camp Cat Fish at Spirit Spring (Tingooqua's Camp site)
to erect a blockhouse and a stockade, to open the Northwest
Augusta County Court, to make a list of the Virginia homesteaders,
and to collect the King's and the colony's tax. However, in January
1769, he received word not to carry out the terms of this commis-
sion in March as he was supposed to do, because the Lake Indians
threatened trouble in Tingooqua's former field. In the spring of
1769, wth Christopher Gist, Able McCullough, and John Gibson,
he went to Camp Cat Fish to ascertain some facts about the Indian
situation. They were advised by Tingooqua, Bowlegs, and some
other Delaware Indians not to set up his uwhite man" home at that
time, but to wait "many moons" because the Huron and the Cayuga
Indians were going to take the war trail next moon, and the Dela-
wares, who were friends of the English, could not stop the war
party. He returned to his home at Snow Creek and lived there until
March 2, 1772, when, with his wife and daughter, his three sons
and their wives and children, and several more from the settlement,
he left Snow Creek over the Indian-Gist Trail, or James River
Trail, with two log wheel wagons drawn by oxen and loaded with

JACOB HORN 245

supplies. They set out for Camp Cat Fish and made the trip by way
of Salem Post on Cheat River, the double horseshoe bend of the
Monongahela River, around Little Laurel Hill to Turkey Foot Rock
and camp on Little French Creek (Dunkard Creek), and from
there, in company with Bowlegs and a few other Delaware Indians,
over the trail to Camp Cat Fish. They crossed South Ten Mile
Creek on Flat Rocks about one mile east of Waynesburg and North
Ten Mile Creek at the old ford at Marianna, Washington County,
and followed Cat Fish Run up to Camp Cat Fish, where the party
arrived on March 22, 1772.

He had learned the carpenter trade in Philadelphia before he
emigrated to Snow Creek in 1740 and found that his experience in
that line of work became very useful to him. While he was running
the mill at Snow Creek he studied mill plans and in 1746 built an
addition to the original mill which had been erected in 1740, putting
in flax breaking machinery which was operated by water power.

The overshot water wheel built in 1740 was stated to be twelve
feet in diameter and six feet wide, but Jacob Horn and John Hardt-
man found that by raising the height of the dam two logs higher,
raising the water level, and building a new wheel they could double
the power of the mill. Jacob Horn says they went to work in May
1746 and raised the water level three feet in the dam, which gave
double of feet surface to water above the dam. They also rebuilt
the forebay and built a breast wheel eighteen feet in diameter and
eight feet wide. This gave them a head of eight feet of water on the
propelling blades of the water wheel nine feet from the pivot center
of the main shaft. They stated the reaction of the water wheel
compelled them to construct a second line of shaft with pin wheels
to drive the millstones to the right as intended by the stone cutter.
Jacob Horn says, "90 revolutions being the French burrh's speed
while the great mountain stone sung some faster and the new water
wheel gave much extra power."

From what has been learned from scraps of records found and
from the traditions handed down, the old wrater power mill was the
social center of the Snow Creek settlement. The home life of the
settlers living on the crossroads of the James River Trail and the
old Cherokee, or Southwestern Indian Trail, was one of mixed
pleasures and hardships during the years preceding the French
and Indian War. However, the Horns, McCulloughs, Wievers,
Watsons, Houghs, and other families living at Snow Creek from
1742 to 1772 seemed to have lived in peace and harmony. These
families, after living there as neighbors for many years, joined
Jacob Horn and his family in the change of location of their homes

18

246 THE HORN PAPERS

from Snow Creek to Camp Cat Fish in 1772 and again became
neighbors at Spirit Spring. They remained friends until death re-
moved first one and then another of those who had trailed from the
home of their birth, or their early day settlement, to this frontier
border. The descendants of these Snow Creek settlers, who settled
in Northwest Augusta County in 1772, are still living in Washing-
ton and Greene counties near where their ancestors located when
this same territory belonged to Virginia.

Judge Jacob Horn opened the Camp Cat Fish Court April 9,
1772, and sat as Justice in Chancery for Northwest Augusta County,
Virginia, until June 8, 1774. He died on the morning of February
24, 1778. He was buried beside his wife and daughter on the
court grounds on February 26, 1778.

CHAPTER VI
THE FRENCH LEAD PLATES OF 1751

The French lead plates buried by M. Beaumont and Xenaphon
Grendelier, Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn, Civil Chief Tingooqua,
and Peter Chartier in June 1751 were, according to their maps and
charts, buried in the following locations.

The first lead plate was buried by the two Frenchmen and Gist
and Horn "one hundred paces" north of Little French Creek at
the first crossing of the Indian-Gist-James River Trail and twenty
paces at right angles to the west of said trail. A dressed birch
bark map of the creek, trail, camp, and Turkey Foot Rock with
the branch trails to the spring camp site was made there on the
ground at that time and is now in the possession of the directors of
the Greene County Historical Society. This plate was buried near
the site of the famous Turkey Foot Rock and near the place where
the Mingo Indian Chief Flat Fish and his band of twenty warriors
stopped the surveyors of the Mason and Dixon Line in 1767. The
supposed burial place of this lead plate is only a few yards south
of this famous boundary line on the Lemley farm, which is located
on both sides of the boundary line between the states of Pennsyl-
vania and West Virginia.

The site of the burial of the second lead plate was recorded as
being "at the trail crossing of Cat Fish Run" (Daniels Run) on the
trail from Spirit Spring to the Delaware Indian Trail, from East
Indian Ridge to West Indian Ridge, the main Delaware village
site. This site was located on Little Daniels Run in West Bethlehem
Township, Washington County, and was near the site of the Camp
Cat Fish Court blockhouse.

The third French plate was planted on Casteel Run in what is
now Morgan Township on June 14, 1751. The French party con-
sisted of the two French surveyors, Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn,
Tingooqua, Peter Chartier, Bowlegs, Wessemeking, the camp
cook and cat fish catcher. The records read, "We buried the lead
plate sixty paces from Tingooqua's Creek, at French mark set on
tree, and on stone on opposite side of the creek, and twenty paces
from Crooked Run over against base of high hill."

They made a map and chart of this site at the time the plate
was buried and also recorded the manner of how it was placed in a
cut stone with another flat stone covering the plate. The stone was
planted about four feet in the earth.

After the material for volumes I and II had been completed a
lead plate 7" x 9", a photograph of which is reproduced on the
opposite page, was discovered among the effects of a deceased
sister of the author at Holton, Kansas. Its condition when found
in the bottom of a very old trunk, with the original deer skin wrap-
ping, indicates that Christopher Horn had placed it along with
other materials in the chest in 1795.

©

1 U M A 1

! -K Kf\Cl 1

(o

Ikl

v t

^11. l*,u

il I v»l |b U

QJ I KK* IK

k h n

1 k

l K i

i \ iii Ki: E a i ^

H ,i\. t\| U.v

unit*

i i

fc?

Vi''

Lead P/o/r Xo. .? Originally Planted at Crooked Run — Found in 1942 Among
the Possessions of Dora Horn (Size 7" x9")

i ) '. 1 J (

JJ' U

(i (t (* it

0»r of f/?f Small Plates Found on Castile Run in 1936

Reverse Side

Second of the Two Small Plates Found on Castih Run in 1936 (Reverse side is blank)

THE FRENCH LEAD PLATES OF 1751 249

In October 1775, the colony of Virginia and the colony of
Pennslvania agreed to a truce over the boundary question. It was
proposed to establish a temporary boundary line between the two
colonies, based upon a line east and west, passing directly over the
site of the French lead plate planted on Crooked Run. In this
same month and year, Thomas Lee, a commissioner appointed by
Virginia, and a Mr. Showalter from Pennsylvania came to Camp
Cat Fish, in company with Richard Yeates, Isaac Cox, and others,
to see Jacob Horn, the only living white man who knew the site of
this buried lead plate. Together with Abiga Hough, John Gibson,
Abel McCullough, and others, among them the Indian Bowlegs who
helped plant it in 1751, they repaired to this site on Crooked Run
and there dug up the French lead plate, verified it and the site, and
reburied it in the same manner. All present certified to the site and,
upon the facts being made known, the proposed boundary line was
agreed to by Virginia, but not fully accepted by Pennsylvania. How-
ever, Virginia insisted that it should stand for the year 1776. The
line was set down on the map of Virginia claims for 1776. There
was no further mention of this lead plate.

In July 1936, Frank B. Jones of Waynesburg, curator of the
Greene County Historical Museum, then the project head of a
W.P.A. historical and archaeological survey in Greene County,
made some research and spent a short time excavating on this site,
but failed to locate the original plate. In the midst of this work
two small-size lead plates were dug up near the recorded site of the
burial of the original plate. These plates bear the date of 1795,
giving reference to the site of the original and the date of its burial
in 1751. It is not fully determined what became of the original
plate, but it is believed that it was washed from its site some time
after 1775 by the change of the course of Casteel Run, because in
making the excavation in 1936 the workmen found a bed of gravel
and creek stone where the location of the plate was marked, and at
a greater depth than the plate was supposed to be buried they found
a scythe heel ring and a snath iron from a mowing scythe which
evidently had been washed into this place from somewhere above
this point. It is reasonable to suppose this took place after 1775 —
at least it must have taken place after the plate was planted in 1751
because the scythe, the implement of the white men, did not come
into this particular territory until after 1760. This plate was
mentioned by Gist in May 1769, when he, Jacob Horn, and Abel
McCullough were camped close by its site for a short time. The
great old tree, still standing in 1936, but greatly decayed in part,
was recognized as the one referred to in the surveyor's notes and

250 THE HORN PAPERS

upon examination by T. J. Barnard, who resurveyed this plot, he
found the French survey marks as referred to in the French records
and set down on the map made in 1751.*

The fourth plate was the largest of the five planted in 1751 and
was buried "one hundred paces from the west bank of the Monon-
gahela River, and the same distance from Ten Mile Creek" in
what is now Jefferson Township. This plate was stated to be the
same in size and design as the one buried at the mouth of the
Missouri River in 1750. The inscription on this plate read, "In
the name of King Louis XIV of France, this plate of lead with the
King's Seal set thereon, declaring his authority over all this land
which waters flow to Louisiana, is set in the earth as his mark of
'rightful possession' discovery and by exploration, as maintained
by arms and so set in the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle."

The last of the five lead plates was buried by this party at the
mouth of Jumonville Creek on the north side of the creek between
the fort and the Monongahela River on June 21, 1751. The French
flag then floating over the fort was the first flag ever raised on the
Monongahela River, and it was at this place and at this time that
Tingooqua and Peter Chartier made complaint to the two French-
men of the French in Canada and of their share in the destruction
of the Delawares in 1748. The Frenchmen made no reply and later
enjoyed a feast at this old French fort upon which the Hangard
was erected in January and February, 1754, and on this site ill-fated
Fort Redstone was erected in 1755.

The records of the planting of these French lead plates, in the
land where the Delaware Indians had lived for half a century and
had a hundred villages in the territory now known as Greene County
and a portion of Washington County, are plain and simple and bear
testimony of the French power and determination to rule the
Monongahela Valley.

*See map on page 30.

CHAPTER VII

A SUMMARY OF THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Although the narrow and illiberal policy of the British Govern-
ment toward her North American Colonies from the first settlement
was calculated to alienate the affections of the colonies from the
parent country, yet, from their exposed situation and their habitual
loyalty, their unworthy conduct long persevered in, produced no sen-
sible impression on the American. Their loyalty and attachment to
the interest of Britian were not in the smallest degree impaired,
down to the time of the Peace of Paris in 1763. Never had they
shown so much zeal, or made such great sacrifice in the cause of their
country, as during the French and Indian War, after having lost more
than twenty-five thousand men, expended all the revenues they could
raise, and involved themselves deeply in debt. Almost the whole
burden of the war in America had fallen on the colonies; their
exertions were altogether disproportionate to their means, and
tended greatly to impoverish and distress them. After eight years
of arduous struggle, attended with the greatest sacrifices and
coupled with insults from the British leaders, the successful termi-
nation of the war — the dominion of France in America being re-
linquished forever — brought universal joy to the colonies and they
forgot their sufferings and common distresses in the fair prospects
which the peace now afforded. They were indeed happy to know
that, at last, they were free from French dictation, and believed
Britian would advance their interests and create a new era in the
history of the colonies as well as greatly enlarge the powers of Brit-
ain. But these prospects were of short duration. The Peace of Paris
formed a new era in the views and conduct of Great Britain, towards
her colonies in America. The possessions of France in America
having been ceded to Britian, and having no longer any fear of her
power in this hemisphere, a system of measures was pursued towards
the colonies, that originated in jealousy and tended to despotism.
As soon as the colonies had fought their way to a condition which
afforded the prospects of rapidly increasing in wealth and popula-
tion, attempts were made to restrict their commercial and political
privileges, and gradually to reduce them to the most wretched state
of colonial vassalage. For a century and a half, the colonies had
been left to themselves as to taxation; their own local assemblies
had provided the necessary revenues to dafray the expenses of their

252 THE HORN PAPERS

governments, and the Parliament of Great Britain had neither
directly nor indirectly ever attempted to derive a shilling of revenue
from America. Although various acts had been passed from time
to time, regulating the trade and commerce of the colonies, yet
none of these were regarded, either in Britain or in America,
as being revenue laws. But in an inauspicious moment the British
ministry conceived the idea of taxing the colonies under the
pretense of providing for their protection, but in reality to relieve
the nation from the immense debt, the weight of which hung
heavily upon it.

This iniquitous scheme, originating with the Cabinet, was early
introduced into Parliament, and in March 1764, as a prelude to the
memorable "Stamp Act," the House of Commons resolved, "that
towards further defraying the expense of protecting the Colonies,
it may be necessary to charge certain stamp duties upon them," and
this was followed by what was commonly called the "Sugar Act,"
passed on April 5 and introduced by the following alarming pre-
amble: "Whereas it is just and necessary that a revenue be raised
in America for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting,
and securing the same; we, the Common House of Parliament
enact the law towards raising the same, give and grant unto your
majesty, after the 29th day of September, 1764, on clayed sugar,
indigo, and coffee of foreign produce and other articles most
needed in America." This was the first act adopted by Parliament
for the avowed purpose of raising revenue on the colonies. The
justice of this measure, which appeared so clear to the British
Parliament, was regarded in America as oppression and tyranny,
and caused great alarm. The deceptive pretext, that the revenue
was to be raised for the purpose of protecting the colonies, was
adding insult to injustice, as the colonies had long prided themselves
on being highly capable of taking care of their own affairs. This
act was rendered more disgusting by a provision that the money
raised by it must be paid in specie, and another, that those charged
with having violated the revenue laws might be prosecuted in the
Courts of Admiralty, whereby they were deprived of the privilege
of trial by a jury, and were liable to be condemned by a single officer
of the crown, whose salary was to be paid from the very forfeitures
decreed by himself. This was not all, or even the worst, as the trials
were conducted on such principles that the accused, contrary to every
maxim of law and justice, was obliged to prove himself innocent or
suffer the penalty of the law. These iniquitous proceedings destroy-
ed all security of property and left every one at the mercy of the
minions of the British law and the crown. Their pernicious in-

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 253

fluence was soon felt in the colonies and they no longer regarded
Great Britain as an affectionate mother, but viewed her in the light
of a selfish, cruel, and imperious stepmother. The designs of the
ministry were penetrated and caused great alarm. The press, that
great engine of truth and liberty, was called into requisition; the
subject was ably and widely discussed, and, the better it was under-
stood, the more strong and determined the opposition became. All
the colonies petitioned and remonstrated against these obnoxious
measures and most of them appointed agents to present their
memorials to Parliament or to the King. But, notwithstanding
the excitement and bitter opposition in America and the long list of
remonstrances from the colonies presented to Parliament, Mr.
Grenville, who was at the head of the Treasury, prepared the
Stamp Bill and introduced it into Parliament in February 1765, and,
although opposed with all the powers of eloquence by Alderman
Beckford, Mr. Jackson, Colonel Barre, Sir William Meredith,
and others, it was adopted by a large majority; only fifty-one voted
against the measure out of the three hundred and ten members
present. On the second reading of the bill, various petitions, not only
from the colonies but from merchants from all parts of England,
were offered in opposition (being presented by the clerk), but not
one of these was received, being refused on the grounds that no
memorial could be received on a monetary measure.

Having passed both houses of Parliament, the Stamp Act Bill
received the royal assent on March 22, 1765. Benjamin Franklin,
then in England as the agent for Pennsylvania, wrote to Charles
Thompson, afterwards Secretary of Congress, uThe sun of liberty is
set; you must light up the lamps of industry and economy." Mr.
Thompson, in a spirited reply, observed that he thought other lights
would be lighted up to resist these unconstitutional measures. It is
unnecessary to add that his prediction was soon fulfilled. John
Canon addressed a "Note of Protest" to Mr. Grenville in May
1765, stating that the British Parliament was a common servant
to obey Grenville's iniquitous schemes, but boldly asserted that no
Virginia freeman would ever become his servant to obey such a
mandate. It was stated by Patrick Henry that John Canon rushed
into the Royal Governor's presence and said: "Sir, if Grenville
ever sets his feet on Virginia soil, I will commission a body of
freemen to hang him as a common enemy of the Colony of Virginia."

This unjust and impolitic act of Parliament was the first great
cause which led to the American Revolution; indeed it was sub-
stantially the first scene in the bloody drama of that revolution. It
was passed in Parliament on February 7,1765, under the ministry

19

254 THE HORN PAPERS

of Lord Grenville, and was repealed on March, 18, 1766, because
of the strong power and influence in Parliament of William Pitt.
This period of thirteen months was the most eventful during col-
onial life up to this time, for the people both in England and in the
colonies were aroused to the highest pitch. The Americans had not
believed the Stamp Bill would be passed by Parliament, and on
receiving the intelligence, every one was struck with astonishment
and filled with consternation; they looked at each other with amaze-
ment, and for a short time did not know just what course to pursue,
but soon recovered from their consternation, and determined not to
submit to such flagrant outrages on their rights. In Boston, the
ships in the harbor, in token of the deepest mourning, suspended
their colors at half-mast; the bells were rung muffled; and the ob-
noxious act, with a death's head in front of it, with the motto, uThe
Folly of England and the Ruin of America," was carried in solemn
procession about the strrets. The discontent soon spread through-
out the colonies. In Virginia, the spirit of the common class burst
into flame. The people took the King's picture and placed it against
the side of a building, then stoned it into fragments, and for a short
time the colonial officers took refuge behind barred doors. At
Staunton, Virginia, a group of embittered and most determined re-
sisters of Britain's highhanded acts, cut the King's arms into frag-
ments and burned them in the street.

On May 28, 1765, Patrick Henry introduced in the House of
Burgesses his celebrated resolutions which declared that the inhabi-
tants of that colony were entitled to and had possessed and enjoyed
all the rights, liberties, and privileges of the people of Great Britain ;
that the General Assembly of the colony had always exercised and
all along possessed the power to levy taxes and imports on the in-
habitants of the colony, and that they were not bound to yield
obedience to any law or ordinance whatsoever, designed to impose
any taxation whatever upon them, than the law and the ordinances
of the General Assembly. So bold and so unexpected were these
resolutions that while the clerk was reading, one of the members
cried out, "Treason ! Treason !" but that member being told to hold
his saying, the situation became deathly silent for a full minute,
while members looked at each other with horror and astonishment,
such as had never been depicted on the faces of any body of
assemblymen who had ever come together in the majesty's name.

(John Canon in an address at McCullough, on September 9,
1782, said: "Patrick Henry was with me on the eve before he drew
out his resolutions that set the General Assembly in tumult, and
made them see that the King and Parliament was the same selfish

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 255

body of which I tried to gain the consent, when the King gave to his
friends the Ohio land that we now propose to include in the State of
Vandalia. Patrick Henry was a true Virginian and when that 'tory
aggressor' shouted 'treason,' I slapped his face into silence, just as
I will do to any man on the borders who declares the State of
Vandalia owes any allegiance to Washington or to Pennsylvania's
borderland jumpers. The General Assembly on the 28th of May,
'65, started the revolution that set us free of Britain, and this
meeting here is designed to set us free from the Colonies whose
claims end east of the river.")

These resolutions were communicated to all the colonies and
the spirit they breathed spread from one legislature to another.
Committees were appointed by the Assemblies of the colonies to
correspond with each other, and to meet for consultation, the object
of which was to secure harmony of feeling and concert action in some
direct plan. These measures had a very happy effect; in the mean-
time, the press teemed with constant publications, vindicating the
rights of the colonies; and many of them were of a highly inflamma-
tory character, calculated to raise the public mind to the highest
pitch. The pulpit, also, particularly in New England, labored in
the same cause with great zeal and effect; and the flame of liberty
kindled from breast to breast and spread from province to province,
until the conflagration became general. In some parts of Pennsyl-
vania the German element attempted to resist the influence of that
which was brought to bear on the settlers, and on the western
borders several of the "tory element" who refused to join the re-
sisting forces were whipped and their homes burned by the "com-
mittees of freedom." In Boston, the effigy of Mr. Oliver, the stamp
master, was burned, his house assailed and partially demolished, and
all his furniture destroyed; soon after, the house of William Storer,
Deputy Register of the Court of Admiralty, was attacked and the
books and the files of the court were destroyed; the house of Benja-
min Hallowell, Comptroller of the customs, shared a like fate.
These determined acts were followed by a more bold and daring
attack upon the dwelling of Mr. Hutchinson, Lieutenant-governor
of the province, and he was obliged to flee to save his life. The
house was destroyed except the bare walls and everything was made
into a heap and burned. One of the servants who attempted to save
some articles, valued highly by the master, was tied up and whipped
with a "cat of nine tails," then ordered to leave the colony. Many
similar outrages were committed in other places in the colony. In
Connecticut, Mr. Ingersoll, the stamp officer, was burned in effigy
in several different towns, and while he was proceeding from New

256 THE HORN PAPERS

Haven to Hartford, where the assembly was in session, he was
pursued and overtaken by a large concourse of people, some from
more than thirty miles distance. He was compelled to dismount
and was tied to a tree. Here he listened to long charges that the
people had been defrauded out of their rights. He was then com-
pelled to resign his office, which was followed by three hearty cheers
for "liberty and property." This took place at Wethersfield, from
which place the people, headed by militia officers, proceeded to
Hartford, where Mr. Ingersoll was compelled to read his resigna-
tion in the hearing of the Assembly. This reading was again fol-
lowed by loud acclamation of "liberty and property." In New York,
the stamp officer was burnt in effigy, then caught and compelled to
resign. As a private citizen he was then whipped and ordered to
leave. The Lieutenant-governor, Colden, was also burned in effigy,
with a stamp bill in his hand, suspended from his own coach, the
whole being consumed by fire, while great demonstrations of liberty
were performed. In the southern colonies, the public feeling ran
high, and in the determination to resist every order of Parliament
many bold and daring acts were committed; but these were not given
public mention like the deeds performed in northern colonies, be-
cause the press did not have the support in Virginia and in Carolina
that Philadelphia and New York possessed. In Virginia, almost
every officer, as well as every common settler, despised the acts of
Lord Grenville, but the King's Councillors refrained from giving
expression of their alarmed thoughts, and but a few clear-minded
leaders encouraged the people to resist every act that was not to
their colonists' interest. In many places, the King was burned in
effigy. John Cox and three of his band of the Indian War militia
entered the department of the Colonial Secretary, seized many
manuscripts, colonial records, and the British decree of the Stamp
Act, burned them, and gave orders that a body of his fellow men
would hang any or all officers who attempted to make objections to
this plan of resistance to the iniquitous scheme of tyranny and slav-
ery imposed upon the colony by the British Parliament. The Royal
Governor of Virginia attempted to stop all public demonstrations
of resistance to the Stamp Act and in a heated argument on Sep-
tember 12, 1765, with John Canon and Isaac Cox as their leaders,
a body of Virginia men entertained themselves in the presence of the
Royal Governor, while John Canon propounded the English law
and the rights of the colonists and openly declared that in direct
opposition to the mandate issued by the Royal Governor, in July,
they would organize the colony into a state of resistance against the
provisions of the Stamp Act. He further boldly declared he now

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 257

served notice that any attempt to deprive the Virginia settlers of
public expression would result only in great calamity. John Canon
said: "I am fully determined that no second act of the King and
Parliament shall be made in favor of the select, and against the
whole of Virginia, as the act set forth in the interest of the

Ohio Company. This I mean to lay before the Royal Secretary and
Parliament. Beware of what fires you kindle in this Colony; we are
British and possess British rights. We are British freemen and no
obnoxious acts of Parliament, or powers of the Crown, will ever
remove Virginia from her rights."

John Canon made the statement on September 12, 1765, at
Richmond, that he would lay the law and the rights of Virginia
before the Royal Secretary and Parliament at that time; but he did
not do this until the year of 1774.

The members of the various colonial assemblies were animated
and encouraged by the people who, in most of the towns, instructed
them to oppose the Stamp Act.

The most important measure to unite the colonies and give
energy and effect to their opposition was the convening of the
Continental Congress, consisting of deputies appointed by each
colony. This measure was the first proposed by the Assembly of
Massachusetts. The meeting was appointed to be held in New York
in October 1765. All the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia,
North Carolina, and Georgia sent deputies. The last three of these
colonies were prevented by their governors; and the first of these
excused itself on account of its peculiar situation. When the Govern-
or of Virginia opposed this plan and the General Assembly failed
to appoint deputies to this first Continental Congress, John Canon,
then a clerk in the General Assembly, proposed to Patrick Henry
that they attend as private Virginians opposed to the Stamp Act.
Consequently these two bitter opponents, with Richard Watson,
attended the Continental Congress and were freely consulted, but
held no part in the deliberations of that body.

The Congress, after deliberately considering the situation and
carefully weighing every previous act of Parliament, adopted a
Declaration of Rights, and a statement of the grievances of the
colonies, and asserted in the strongest terms against all taxes not
imposed by their own representatives. This congress also prepared
a petition to the common house of Parliament.

As the first of November approached, the time when the Stamp
Act was to go into operation, public feeling became still stronger
and was exerted to the utmost to prevent the execution of the law.
In New York, ten boxes of stamps, which had arrived there for the

258 THE HORN PAPERS

colony of Connecticut, were seized by the people and burned; and in
other ports, masters of vessels which brought out stamps were com-
pelled either to let the people have the stamps to be destroyed, or
to return to England with their detestable cargoes. In Boston and
many other principal towns, the first of November was kept as a
day of mourning and deep distress. All the shops were closed, the
bells were tolled muffled, and the effigies of the authors and abettors
were carried through the streets, and then torn to pieces and burned
in the fires that were kindled in certain places for their destruction.
The lawyers of the Supreme Court in New Jersey resolved that
they would not purchase the stamps their professional business
demanded and that they would relinquish their practice as a sacrifice
to the public good. The merchants, too, in great numbers, along
with many other classes of people, entered into an agreement not
only to refuse to use the stamps, but also not to import any more
goods from Great Britain until the Stamp Act should be repealed.
Associations were formed, called uSons of Liberty" and "Virginia
Rights/' the object of which was to assist and protect with force,
if necessary, every one who might be in danger from his resistance
or opposition to the Stamp Act. The former bold association or-
iginated in New York, and the latter in Virginia, and had not the
act been repealed, Civil War would have resulted. The restrictive
measures produced distress in England; large numbers of the
factories were forced to close down, and thousands of workmen
were thrown out of employment. More than forty thousand, with
black flags, appeared in the streets of London. These surrounded
the royal palace and the Parliament house, and threatened to de-
stroy both, unless the ministry would change its policy. Fortunately
a change in ministry took place in consequence of what was called
the "Regency Bill." Lord Grenville was succeeded by the Marquis
of Rockingham as lord of the treasury; and the Duke of Grafton
and General Conway were appointed secretaries of state. In
January 1766, the British Parliament met; the affairs of America
occupied the principal attention, and the first talents of the House
of Commons were engaged in the discussion. William Pitt, who
had been confined to his bed by sickness when the Grenville Stamp
Act was passed, now came forward as the great champion of
the Americans, and, with his manly and all-powerful eloquence,
bitterly opposed the unjust, unconstitutional, and dangerous mea-
sure. He even justified the Americans in their resistance of an act
of tyranny and oppression. After a long and animated discussion,
the act was repealed, accompanied, however, with a declaration
"that the king and Parliament had, and of right ought to have,

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 259

full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficiency
to bind the colonies and his majesty's subjects in them in all cases
whatsoever." An act of indemnity was also passed at that session of
Parliament.

The repeal of the obnoxious act occasioned universal joy, both
in Great Britain and in America. The ships in the Thames displayed
their colors and the whole city of London was illuminated; in the
colonies, great rejoicing prevailed everywhere. In Virginia, people
held reunions and feasted over the udeath and burial" of the "Stamp
Act." Some peculiar demonstrations of joy over this repeal took
place on the frontier borders of the colonies that indicated the dis-
gust that the settlers maintained for Lord Grenville and the obnox-
ious act.

An incident that took place at Snow Creek settlement in May
1766 was related in the diary of John Watson, in which he stated:
"With the word from Williamsburg, that the 'Stamp Act' was killed
by Pitt, and all England is happy as well as the colonists and that
no colonist will dare to speak the name of Grenville, I am reminded
that my off ox, whose name is the same, must now be killed and
burned up, for no settler would want to keep his ox bearing the name
of either Grenville or Rockingham, and to eat the . . . beast would be
like swallowing Grenville's Stamp Act which no settler did make
lawful mention of in this settlement on penalty of receiving five
hundred lashes by Hardtman. By the same thought Grenville being
burned so doth every man drink his ruin and to Mr. Pitt's everlast-
ing health in Britain."

The colonies hoped and believed that harmony would now
prevail and did everything in their power to promote this desirable
object. But the officers of the crown in many parts of the northern
colonies kept up a correspondence with the officers of the British
Government at home and attempted to promote their own selfish
views by misrepresenting their countrymen.

Governor Bernard of Massachusetts was the head of this
party which did so much to contribute to the difficulties that soon
followed and brought matters to a crisis. Although the declaratory
act still hung over the heads of the colonies like a portentous cloud,
it was not expected that the British Government would very soon
make another like experiment, for the Stamp Act gave the colonists
their first lesson in independence, unity, and self-government. It
was generally supposed that this had proved too dangerous an
experiment to be repeated by Parliament if it regarded the safety
of the home government or control of the colonies. But these rea-
sonable expectations, however, soon proved to be fallacious and all

260 THE HORN PAPERS

reliance on the justice and liberality of Britain was found to be
deceptive and dangerous. Notwithstanding the distraction into
which the colonies had been thrown by the Stamp Act, within a few
months after its repeal, and before the effect had passed away, the
chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Townshend, came forward with
a new scheme of taxing America, and was so sanguine in his views
that he pledged his character for the success of the project. The new
revenue scheme was to take off the duties on teas which were paid in
Great Britain, and to levy three pence per pound on all that was
purchased in America, and also to place a duty on glass, paper,
drugs, and several other articles.

A board of customs was established, and commissioners were
appointed to sit in Boston to collect the duties; the custom officers
were to be paid from the revenue raised. The Governor, Judges of the
Supreme Court, and other officers in Massachusetts who had hither-
to been dependent for their salaries on the Assembly, were now to
be made independent of the people, and more devoted to Great
Britain, because they were to be paid from these revenues. And to
carry this iniquitous system into effect, the powers of the Court of
Admiralty were greatly extended so as to deprive the people of
trial by jury in prosecution for violating the revenue laws. Writs
of Assistance, as they were called, issued by the Governor, or any
officer of the revenue department, authorized the searching of the
houses of the most respectable inhabitants in the province, on mere
suspicion of the concealment of contraband, or smuggled goods.

When intelligence of these new parliamentary measures reached
America, it created universal astonishment and great indignation,
and revived all the excitement and hatred which had prevailed dur-
ing the period of the Stamp Act. In the minds of reflecting men,
these measures were regarded as being more dangerous than the
obnoxious Stamp Act; for an indirect and disguised system of taxa-
tion had a more certain and fatal tendency to undermine the liberties
and enslave the people than had direct taxes.

The colonists, assailed by the same injuries, resorted to their
former measures of complaint and supplication; but their petitions
were not even read, and their remonstrances were treated with open
contempt, thus adding insult to injury and injustice. The fears and
indignities aroused the spirit of the colonists. A circular letter ad-
dressed to the other colonies by the Assembly of Massachusetts
contributed much to diffuse the flame, and led to concerted action.
This letter was dated February 11, 1768, and the sentiments it con-
tained were accepted by most of the colonial assemblies and viewed
as the proper measures to adopt. Because of the bold and de-

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 261

termined conduct of the Assembly of Massachusetts, it was pro-
rogued by the Governor. Another Assembly was convened in May
following, in which the Governor, in his first communication, in-
solently demanded of them, as required by the British Secretary of
State, that they rescind those resolutions of the preceding Assembly
which led to the circular letter, and intimated that unless they com-
plied immediately they would be dissolved at once. But the Assem-
bly acted with a firmness which became the defenders of liberty and
instead of complying with this haughty mandate, petitioned the King
for the removal of the Royal Governor and charged upon him a
long catalogue of crimes.

The Governor, exasperated at their conduct, immediately dis-
solved the mutinous Assembly and applied to the commander-in-
chief of the King's troops, then at New York, to have several ad-
ditional regiments sent to Boston. Alarmed at these circumstances,
the inhabitants of Boston beseeched the Governor to convene an-
other Assembly; but he treated them with contempt. The crisis re-
quired that something be done, and at once. Without delay, letters
were written to the people of every town in the colony, requesting
the appointment of delegates to meet in convention at Boston, be-
fore the arrival of the troops. Delegates from ninety-six towns met
on September 22, 1768. The Governor sent them an angry message
commanding them to disperse and threatening, in case of refusal,
that they would suffer the consequence of their temerity. The con-
vention, however, was not frightened into submission; they gave
their reasons for convening, and, continuing their deliberations,
prepared a petition to the King.

The troops arrived the first of October, landing on a bright
clear day, and with sword in hand, paraded through the streets of
Boston, which were filled with sullen, silent crowds of people who
plainly showed their resentment. However, no resistance ensued,
although the troops were quartered in the houses of the inhabitants.
The Assembly met in May 1769, and immediately adopted several
spirited resolutions among which were : that the placing of an armed
force where the legislature was convened, to overawe their de-
liberations, was a breach of privilege, and, that the quartering of
troops on the inhabitants in the time of peace was illegal and a viola-
tion of the rights of British subjects.

A standing army was now stationed in Boston for the avowed
purpose of coercing the inhabitants into submission. Their com-
merce fettered; their characters traduced; the Assembly prevented
from meeting; and the petitions of all classes to have the Assembly
convened, treated with contempt by an insolent governor who

262 THE HORN PAPERS

threatened to augment the troops and enforce, at all hazards, his
arbitrary and tyrannical measures, made imperative that something
must be done; and there was no other alternative but submission
or resistance. As petitions had been treated with contempt, it would
be impossible for the colonist to memorialize any branch of the Brit-
ish Government without its being equivalent to submission; and
there were but two ways of resistance, either an appeal to the sword,
or an entire suspension of all commercial intercourse with Great
Britain, which in a long speech Pitt declared "will lead to our own
oppression." uSuch conduct," said he, "will drive the American
Colonists into open rebellion and war." "There is no other way for
them to pursue, and they being mainly Englishmen will never submit
to the state of Vassalage." All the colonies were involved in one
common danger and being equally affected by the new tax scheme,
now entered into a solemn agreement that no British or Indian
goods should be imported, except a few specified articles of neces-
sary use. The effects of these arrangements were soon realized in
England and produced clamors and tumults throughout the king-
dom, but the partisans of the crown in America endeavored by their
correspondence to induce the ministry to preserve their oppressive
measures and represented in the strongest terms that the inter-
ruption of commerce was only an effort of desperation, and would
not last long, because the colonies could not hold out without the
use of British goods. They advised the ministry to purchase large
quantities of goods specially designed for the American market and
to allow the merchants engaged in American trade, a premium equal
to the profits of their stock in business. "If these measures are
adopted," said Mr. Oliver, Secretary in Massachusetts, in one of
his letters to Charles Townshend, "the game will soon be up with
my countrymen."

The Assembly which convened at Boston in May sat several
weeks without doing any business, as they refused to act so long as
an armed force was quartered in the town and surrounding the
house where they were in session. They finally adjourned in Bos-
ton, to reconvene in Cambridge. They sent several messages to the
Governor to have the troops removed, but, after evading the matter
for some time, he declared he had no authority over the King's
troops, thus admitting that the military was above the civil power
in the province. Governor Bernard sent a provoking letter to the
Assembly, stating the expenditures of quartering the troops on the
town must be provided for their pay and keep; also that he had been
ordered to repair to England to lay before the King the state of the
colony, and requested that his salary be provided for while in Eng-

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 263

land as well as his expenses of going there. The Assembly
unanimously refused both requests, and on receiving this message he
angrily prorogued the legislature. He soon set sail for Europe,
little thinking that he would never return to the colony and that his
violent temper had already plunged the colonies into a state of war.
His reception at court convinced the American colonists that he
had been used as a mischief making and dangerous emissary rather
than an impartial official from whom they could hope to obtain
honest evidence regarding the state of public affairs in the colony.

Thomas Hutchinson, the Lieutenant-governor, was now ap-
pointed to succeed Governor Bernard. Hutchinson was a native
of Boston, and was quite popular at home; but now he became very
desirous to gain favors from the British Government and began to
misrepresent his countrymen. He was artful and plausible, and
possessed of popular talents; but he was insidious, intriguing, and
ambitious, and extreme avarice marked every feature of his char-
acter. His appointment was announced at the close of the year
1769, and he immediately assumed a more haughty tone. He aimed
at more highhanded measures even than had his predecessor and
commenced his administration by informing the people that he was
independent of them, as his majesty had made provisions for his
salary. Secure in his position and sure of his sovereign's favors he
now treated every request of the people with contempt. James Otis,
the most active, old, and influential patriot of the day, having
published over his own signature some bitter statements of the con-
duct of the officers of the crown, was assaulted in a public room by a
band of hired ruffians with swords and clubs, and, being covered
with wounds, was left for dead. The assassins made their escape
and took refuge on board the King's ships in the harbor.

Mr. Otis survived; but his lamp of understanding, which glowed
with such effulgence, was overcast by clouds and darkness. John
Adams said, "He laid the foundation of the American Revolution,
with an energy and with those masterly talents which no other man
possessed, and became the first martyr to American liberty."

While this state of affairs was confronting the colonists in
Massachusetts, the people in other colonies were beginning to feel
the oppressive hand of England. They were aroused to the point of
indignation, and were observing the bold steps taken in Boston to
drive out General Gage and the King's troops. In Virginia, the
Royal Governor began to exhibit his haughty disposition and to
threaten the more bold settlers who extended sympathy to the pa-
triots of Boston, that no Virginia subject should sympathize with a
band of rebels such as existed in Massachusetts, but the Royal

264 THE HORN PAPERS

Governor of Virginia soon found that the whole colony possessed
an undercurrent of hatred and determined opposition to the British
Government that surpassed anything that had been demonstrated at
Boston. The frontier settlers had scarcely recovered from the
effects of the Stamp Act Law which had threatened the peace of
the colony and which Pitt declared would drive the royal colony into
exile, when Townshend's schemes reopened all the bitter hatred that
had existed during the Grenville ministry, and it was only through
the minds of the more able leaders of the colony that serious out-
breaks and retaliation on the part of the colonists against the King's
officers were prevented during the latter part of the year 1769 and
the early part of 1770.

In September 1769, a band of Cayuga Indians were trailing from
North Carolina to Canada over the Gist-Indian-James River Trail
and what is now Louisa County, Virginia. Two British soldiers,
believing them to be members of the Delaware tribe, and desiring
to talk with them, attempted to halt them, but the savages, knowing
the soldiers to be of the hated English, their foe of 1748, killed and
scalped them. When this same band of Indians had reached the
trail crossing of Snow Creek at the north ford, they met a party of
white men, armed with Virginia muskets, returning from deer
hunting to the Snow Creek settlement. Both parties halted. When
the hunters saw the two scalps of the soldiers, they demanded to
know who the Indians had killed. The Indians did not give any
information for some time, but finally one of them said it was two
"red coat" warriors and from among some skins produced two
coats of red material, indicating that their story was true. The
hunters counselled among themselves as to what course to pursue,
and finally agreed that the British soldiers were not on any favor-
able mission and probably had started the fight. They agreed not to
interfere further in the matter and, parting from the Indians, re-
turned to Snow Creek and their homes, with the understanding
that the colonial officers need not know of their meeting the Indians
on the trail. The party of white men on this hunting trip con-
sisted of Samuel McCullough, elder; Abel McCullough, son; John
Watson, Sen.; Richard Shriever, Abiga Hough, Enock O'Brine,
John Horn, John Hardtman, Jacob Wiever, James Mclntyre, John
Stackler, and Samuel Doughty. For some time after their return,
no word of the encounter with the Indians was given; but, early in
March 1770, some mention of the two unreported British officers
was made, and in some way the account of the affair with the Indians
in the previous year caused some commotion among the military cir-
cles. Because of this, a body of deputies went to Snow Creek set-

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 265

lement to investigate the case. At first Mclntyre denied knowing
anything about the matter, but, when all the parties were assembled,
Samuel McCullough gave a clear account of what they knew of the
affair and of their encounter with the Cayuga Indians. When he
had finished his narrative, every one confirmed his statements. The
officers, however, were not satisfied, and attempted to arrest them
for not having reported the matter to the colonial officials at the
time of the occurrence. This made some of them speak sharply, and
Samuel Doughty shouted, "All the King's d — d red coats had ought
to be scalped." He further told the officers that they stood a good
chance of meeting with the same fate, unless they departed at once,
for the frontiersmen were already preparing to join with the "Bos-
ton Boys" to whip the King's troops. Only the times and state of
public feeling saved the party from further trouble. John Canon,
well known to all the members of this party, adjusted the matter,
and that was the last we ever heard of the two red-coat scalps.
(John Horn, 1773.)

The men who composed the hunting party in September 1769,
and who met the Indians who had the two white men scalps on the
Indian-James River Trail, became homesteaders in North-west,
Augusta County in 1771-1772, and settled in what is now Washing-
ton and Greene Counties, Pennsylvania. Abel McCullough, for whom
the town of McCullough, Greene County, was named, first settled
on Chartiers Creek in 1772, and later at McCullough, 1779-1788.
His father, Samuel McCullough, Senior, remained at Snow Creek,
dying there in 1785. John Horn, eldest son of Justice Jacob Horn,
came with his father's party of nineteen persons to Camp Cat Fish in
March 1772, settled in Amwell Township in March 1776, and died
in 1826. John Hardtman, Jacob Wiever, John Watson, and Abiga
Hough were members of the Jacob Horn party in 1772, and all
settled in what is now Washington County, Pennsylvania. James
Mclntyre, John Stickles, and Enock O'Brine settled at Teegarden
Fort and Ferry, now Millsboro, in September 1770. Richard
Shriever (Shriver) settled in Richhill Township, Green County,
Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1771.

Waynesburg Messenger April 6, 1818

The insults which the inhabitants in several of the colonies
constantly experienced from soldiers increased their animosity
toward them and the British Government. In some of the colonies
the hatred was even greater than in Massachusetts, which, through
historians, has been made to appear to have taken the lead in re-
monstrating against the overt acts of the King and Parliament;

266 THE HORN PAPERS

however, Boston was the center of the colonial fight in the British
Parliament for some time. On March 2, 1770, an affray took place
between a party of soldiers of the twenty-ninth regiment and some
rope makers, in front of Mr. Gray's ropewalk. This was followed
by a more alarming outrage on March 5, when the indignant
populace pressed upon and insulted the soldiers while under arms.
They assailed them with stones, clubs, and snowballs with stones
in them, and dared the soldiers to fire upon them. Six of the soldiers,
more bold than the rest, discharged their muskets, killing three of
the citizens and severely wounding five others. The effect of this
act was electric: the whole town was instantly in commotion and the
mass of people were so exasperated that it required all the energy
the more conservative leaders possessed to keep them from driving
the British troops out of the town. Nothing but the assurance that
every soldier should be withdrawn, prevented this resort to force.
The captain and eight men were brought to trial; two of the men
were found guilty and the rest were acquitted. A general meeting
of the people was held in Faneuil Hall. It was resolved that no
armed force should reside in the capital, and a committee was
appointed to wait on the Governor and request the removal of the
troops. On the pretense that he had no authority, the Governor
refused to act. Colonel Dalrymple, alarmed at the state of affairs,
proposed to withdraw the twenty-ninth regiment, which was more
culpable than the rest, but was informed that not a soldier should
remain in town. He relunctantly yielded to the demands, and in
four days not a Red Coat remained. This tragic affair produced
the deepest impressions on the minds of the people everywhere in
the colonies.

In the spring of 1773, the schooner, Gaspee, was stationed at
Providence to prevent the smuggling of goods. The conduct of the
commander so exasperated the inhabitants that two hundred men
boarded the schooner at night and compelled the captain and crew
to go ashore. They then set fire to the vessel and burned it. The
government offered a reward of five hundred pounds for the ap-
prehension of any person engaged in this outrage, but such was the
spirit and the unanimous thought that this monetary inducement
produced no result, and the authors could not be discovered.

At this time the letters of Governor Hutchinson and Mr.
Oliver to their friends in England, urging the Government to
adopt more stringent measures and to coerce the colonies into sub-
mission, were discovered and sent back to America by Dr. Franklin.
These letters the Assembly of Massachusetts published. This great-
ly increased the hatred of the people against the officers of the

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 267

crown, who were justly charged with having shamefully betrayed
their trust.

While, through the effort of William Pitt, the tax on other
articles was removed, it was retained on tea, for the sole and avowed
purpose of maintaining the power, which Parliament had asserted,
of collecting a revenue in America. The ministerial scheme was cun-
ning and artful; but it did not, in the least degree, deceive the vigil-
ance of the Americans. The object was to cheat the colonies out of
their rights by collecting an indirect tax which, if submitted to, was
an admission of the principle that Great Britain had a right to tax
America. While the tax was nominal in amount it was a fraud to
obtain covertly, what they had failed to obtain openly by force.
Franklin declared: "Charles Townshend, the lord of the treasury,
is a man without a principle that binds honor and reason to his soul."
In the first place, measures were adopted open and explicitly for tax-
ing the colonies, the duties to be paid by the consumer; but being
unable to enforce this act, it was repealed. Accompanied with a dec-
laration of the right of Parliament to tax the Americans in all cases
whatsoever. This naked assertion of a right, when the application
of it had been attempted and abandoned, did not give the Americans
much concern; they would not have cared how long the British kept
that assertion on their statute book, provided they had not at-
tempted to exercise their assumed right. The Stamp Act was a
direct tax, as the duty constituted the entire value to be paid; but a
trifling import duty would not be perceived, as the duty would not
make any noticeable difference in the price of the article. It was, in
fact, no additional burden to the consumers of tea, whether paid in
England or in America, but it did make a wide difference in the mode
of collecting this tax, for, if collected in America, it gave Parliament
power to levy any and every revenue that Parliament might consider
necessary for the support of the home government. Measures were
immediately adopted to prevent the importation of tea into the
country, so as to avoid the payment of the duty. Public sentiment
was such that the people from New Hampshire to Georgia re-
solved to use no tea while this duty remained on it. In Virginia and
in western North Carolina, tea had been used to some extent years
before, but when the tax was placed on it, to be paid by the colonists,
the people discarded its use, and it was considered disloyal for any
person to use it, or to possess it; however, many people possessed
smuggled tea, and used it behind closed doors, believing their neigh-
bors would not be cognizant of their acts.

As had been the case with other matters of difference between
the two countries, the principal struggle growing out of the regula-

268 THE HORN PAPERS

tions on tea occurred at Boston, but was strongly backed by the lead-
ing opposition to the British Ministry, while the other provinces
avoided the alternative which was reserved for these, either suffer-
ing the tea to be disposed of, or to destroy it by violent means.
Knowing the spirit of the inhabitants of Boston, the India Company
was more cautious than with the other colonies in shipping cargoes
of tea, and the zeal of Governor Hutchinson, and the other officers
of the crown at Boston, greatly surpassed that of the crown officers
in the other colonies. In Virginia, the condition was just the reverse
of that in Massachusetts. Governor Dunmore, while a strong ad-
vocate of the British Government in maintaining control over the
colonies, avoided meeting the issue of America's paying the tax on
tea. As he stated, "I have the interests of the Virginia people at
heart, and have endeavored to maintain peace and contentment in
the colony." But the Royal Governor never realized how far the
undercurrent of resentment and discontentment had drifted in the
colonies when the ships, destined to the port of Boston, were all
consigned to the sons, cousins, and persons who were but tools of
Governor Hutchinson — the most arbitrary and revengeful leader of
British representatives in America. When these persons to whom
the ships were consigned were asked to resign, the only answer they
would give was that it was not within their power to do so. As the
consignees could not be induced or frightened into resigning, the
next plan was to compel the vessels to return without landing their
detestable cargoes; but the collector refused to give a clearance un-
less the vessels were discharged of their cargos of dutiable articles,
and the Governor refused to give a pass for the vessels until they
were properly qualified from the customhouse. To guard against
the vessels' being taken possession of and being conducted out of the
harbor, the Governor ordered Montague, who commanded the
naval forces, to keep vigilant lookout, and to suffer no vessel, coast-
ers excepted, to pass the fortress from the town without a pass
signed by himself. The rigorous adherence to these measures af-
forded great pleasure to the Governor and his minions and all the
British party. They flattered themselves that the "Sons of Liberty,"
after all their clamor, resolutions, schemes, and protests against
the tea system, were outmanaged and that it would be impossible
for them to prevent the landing of the cargoes of tea, and its sale.
These measures had been deemed wisely planned and their execu-
tions were entrusted to agents of such known fidelity to the crown,
and who were under the immediate influence and control of the
Governor, that they thought there was not a single loophole by
which the rebellious Americans could escape paying the hateful tax.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 269

They did not know the temperament of the people throughout the
colonies; they never even dreamed that the people would devise a
way to accomplish their ends, and would destroy the offensive ar-
ticle, which now became the bone of contention, and which was the
means whereby their liberties were being taken from them, as had
been so carefully planned in England. The Governor would have
had the vessels guarded had he even thought that the people would
dare to destroy a cargo of tea, no matter how great a hatred they
held against landing it. The Governor was advised against landing
the tea, but his answer satisfied the people that he was the adviser
of the measure and determined to carry it into execution. The
great question was whether the liberties of the people in the colonies
should continue or be ended; i.e., wnether Great Britain should
exercise the power of taxing the Americans in any way or not. This
question depended on the landing of a few cargoes of tea, which
had become contaminated with an unconstitutional tax. Both par-
ties had taken their measures and were prepared to act. During
this awful suspense, a report was initiated that was startling, and
which spread with lightning speed. It was that Admiral Montague
was about to seize the ships and dispose of the cargoes at public
auction within twenty-four hours. This was believed to be a cun-
ning device of Governor Hutchinson, as this plan would land the
tea, and the tax would be included in the sale of it. The report
electrified the whole town, and people rushed from their homes and
places of business into the streets with amazed and terrified coun-
tenances, saying: "What shall we do to prevent the consummation
of this bold and iniquitous scheme?" In a few minutes — as if by
instinctive impulse — a vast crowd repaired to one of the spacious
churches in Boston, and organized themselves into a public meet-
ing. The first step was to send a message to the Governor, but no
satisfactory answer was returned. Instead of complying with their
wishes, the Governor advised the sheriff of the meeting, and, while
this body was meditating on what course to pursue, the sheriff
entered with an order from the Governor, styling them an illegal
and seditious assembly and ordering them immediately to disperse.
But he did not bring with him the "posse comitatus," as the power
of the county was already assembled and it was that which the sheriff
had been ordered to disperse. This mandate was treated with
deserved contempt; the sheriff was hissed out of the house, mortified
and chagrined; and a confused murmur followed among all the
people both within the church and in the streets. Order, however,
was soon restored, and the meeting adjourned without having
adopted any vote or resolution.

20

270 THE HORN PAPERS

A bold measure was now conceived and proposed for execution
which surprised the whole civilized world, agitated the two coun-
tries, and hurried on that memorable revolution which made them
"enemies in war, and, in peace, friends." Its success, as well as its
danger, required secrecy and dispatch.

Just who planned this bold expedient has never been fully estab-
lished, but there is no reason to doubt that Mr. Samuel Adams and
William Kellam, along with other known leaders, met in the hall of
council which was in the back room of Edes and Gills printing office
at the corner of the alley leading from Court Street to Brattle Street
Church. It is a singular circumstance that this daring and des-
perate measure for the maintenance of the liberties of the country,
should have been counseled and contrived in an editorial closet of
a newspaper which was one of the organs of the public voice, and
a vigilant sentinel of the liberties of the people. Since that time
many political schemes have originated in the "back rooms" of
printing offices; but in most cases of a very different character from
"Edes' secret chamber session."

In a few hours after the adjournment of the public meeting, the
bold measure on the success of which the great question of taxation
hung suspended was contrived, matured, and ripened for execution;
and the public was surprised with the sudden appearance in the
streets of a large number of "SAVAGES," or persons disguised,
clad and in every way counterfeiting the aborigines of the country —
armed with a tomahawk in one hand, and a club over their shoulder
— who in a solemn and silent manner, not a voice being heard,
marched in Indian file through the streets amidst a host of spec-
tators, who were much surprised to see so many Indians in the
streets of Boston. The Indians who usually were strongly attached
to tobacco, now had a mortal antipathy for tea, and as if attracted
by its noxious qualities, they proceeded directly towards the wharves
where the tea ships lay, boarded them, demanded the keys, and,
without a moment's delay, knocked open the chests and emptied
their contents, comprising several thousand pounds weight of the
finest teas, duties and all, into the ocean. The deed was done in the
face of the world and although surrounded by the King's ships, no
opposition was attempted. All was silent amazement. The Indians,
having effected their object, showed no savage glee, and gave no war
whoop. Neither did these Indians commit any other depredations
or take any scalps while on this mission of tea distribution.

When the news of the "tea party" reached Virginia, Samuel
Henderson declared that the "Boston Indians" must have been some
representatives of the Five Nations who preferred tea to rum; and

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 271

that Virginia was short on tea, but if those Indian friends would
come down to "Eagles Nest" on the James River he would share
his drinks with them, since the tea in "Boston Bay" was much weaker
than his much-prized French tea which the French Indians brought
down from Canada over the Gist-Indian-James River Trail.

The success of the bold and daring measure so astonished Gov-
ernor Hutchinson and his British party in Boston that for once he
thought the "Sons of Liberty" held no equals either there or in
England, when they had fully determined to dispose of the tea ques-
tion.

When the intelligence of this event reached England, accom-
panied with all the exaggeration and coloring which Hutchinson
could give, it produced the utmost excitement and indignation with
the ministerial party, and even the opponents of the American
revenue party could not justify so rash and desperate a measure.
Parliament at once determined to crush Boston, which they decided
was the seat of the highhanded resistance to their supremacy. All
the wrath of the King and Parliament was concentrated and di-
rected against the rebellious town.

A bill was immediately introduced "discontinuing the landing
and discharging, landing and shipping of goods, wares and mer-
chandise at this town of Boston, or within the harbor." This bill,
called the "Boston Port Bill," was passed on March 25, 1774. When
it became known in Boston, a month later, that the ministry had
adopted these crushing measures, the inhabitants were thrown into
the utmost consternation. A general meeting was called and spirited
resolutions were adopted, expressing in strong terms their sense of
the oppressive measures, and they requested all the colonies to unite
in an engagement to discontinue all importations from Great Brit-
ain. Most of the colonies resolved to make common cause with
Massachusetts in her opposition to the unconstitutional measures of
Parliament. The first of June, when the port bill was to go into
operation, was appointed to be kept as a day of fasting and prayer.
This act was soon followed by another, "for the better regulating
of government in the province of Massachusetts Bay," the object of
which was to alter the charter so as to make the judges and sheriffs
dependent on the King and removable at pleasure. This act was
soon followed by a third, which provided that any person indicted
for murder, or other capital offense, committed in resisting the
magistrates in enforcing the laws, might be sent to England or any
other colony for trial. The Quebec Bill followed in rapid succession,
enlarging the boundaries of that province and conferring many
privileges on the Roman Catholic, the design of which was to se-

272 THE HORN PAPERS

cure the attachment of that province, and prevent it from joining
the other colonies in their measures of resistance. These measures,
instead of intimidating the colonies into submission, only confirmed
their fears of the settled designs of Great Britain to deprive them of
their chartered rights and to reduce them to the lowest state of
political degradation and oppression. A sense of common danger
led the people in all the colonies to the opinion that it was expedient
to convene a general congress to meet and form some plans which
might in some measure alleviate the trouble with the ministry.

This congress met in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, and
among its members were some of the most distinguished patriots,
statesmen and orators in the country or perhaps as great as could be
found in any other country. No greater demonstration of the pa-
triotism and cool deliberation of free and equal rights of the people
was ever exhibited in a congress of representatives than in that
which sat in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774.
They published a long and solemn declaration of rights, as British
subjects, and maintained, in the strongest terms, their exemption
from taxation by Parliament; besides this, they prepared a petition
to the King which was refused an answer, and an address to the
people of Great Britain, and another to the people of America.
These documents were drawn up by masterly minds and firm and
able hands, and were in every way superior to any English docu-
ments ever presented to the crown and Parliament. They were in
every respect worthy of the men to whom were confined the liberties
of their country and the destinies of three million of their country-
men, threatened with slavery.

It was while in attendance at the First Continental Congress at
Philadelphia in 1774 that John Canon, John Minor, Thomas
Hughes, James Carmichaels, Clark Beeson, and Richard Yeates
assured the members that Northwest Virginia would adopt more
stringent measures against the British Parliament than a long gold-
edged petition, and the first named assured the deputies that he,
John Canon, would be understood in terms that even the "dullards"
would know how his Virginia fellow men looked upon their acts.
The following is a verbatim copy of the letter John Canon ad-
dressed to the British Government from Camp Cat Fish on October
4, 1774.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 273

"Camp Cat Fish,
District of Northwest Virginia,
October 4, 1774.
"To the Royal Secretaries
and
The British Parliament,
London, England
"Lords and Commons:

"By birth, by the grace of God, I am a Virginian of the linage of
the Scotch-English nobility, having read the English law, and di-
gested every portion of the Acts of Parliament during the long
career of your noble history, since English freedom cleared the
world of the shadows of the dark days from which the loyal sub-
jects have established their common rights. I now protest against
the base and damnable acts of tyranny set up by his noble person,
Lord Grenville, and his successors. By the laws of the British na-
tion and the laws of the Royal Colony of Virginia, I speak in justice
to all the frontier border subjects who by their loyalty and bold
determination gave to the British Empire the rights and claims to
the American Territory which the French made lawful claim to by
the Louisiana rights. The Royal Colony by degrees became, through
the fur-traders, acquainted with the natural resources of the ter-
ritory west of the mountains and gained the confidence of the Del-
aware Indian Tribe who gave the Royal Colony their first conception
of obtaining possession of the Ohio River Country, but His Majesty
the king by his unwise and selfish decree gave his councillors the
Ohio River in place of extending the whole boundary of Virginia to
the Ohio, as prayed for in the Petition. The Parliament made no
response to the Virginia claims. The frontier settlers by their bold
and resolute desire to move westward over the mountains and en-
dure the hardships of frontier life, and face the French and Indians,
their common foe for a season then when the French and Indian
War made it necessary to preserve life only by driving the French
from the Colonies and gave to Britain the full control of the coun-
try, your first thought was to make slaves of these royal defenders
of both king and parliament.

"Never had any people shown so much zeal or made such great
sacrifices in the cause of their country as these border Virginia set-
tlers made to establish the English sovereignty over the Colonies,
but no sooner had these loyal people fought their way to a condition,
which afforded the prospect of rapidly increasing in people and
wealth, than attempts were made to restrict their commercial and
political rights and to reduce them to the wretched state of vas-

274 THE HORN PAPERS

salage. For a century and a half these colonists have been capable
of manage their own taxation. The British parliament has neither
directly nor indirectly ever derived a shilling from the American
colonist in the form of revenue, until you conceived the iniquitous
scheme to force the colonist to pay for certain stamp duties on
English goods such as the Sugar Act and other oppressive measures
that no colonist will endure, and such as no border Virginian can
meet in their struggles to set their homesteads free of the Indian
menace and other hardships now facing Northwest Virginia. Both
the king and parliament have set up an impolitic and unjust state of
authority that no colonist will adhere to, or do less than openly
violate as our fathers of 1750 did, when the king and parliament
created the Iron Act and soon the Pine Tree Act. No Virginia set-
tler with the spirit of an Englishman failed to set those Act at
naught, by immediate action to make common usage of 'smelted
iron pigs' and pine trees for no other purpose than to overthrow
such felonious measures created by a villainous parliament; but
those measures were of mild endurance compared to the notorious
schemes that your royal hands have dared to set up as forced
measures which we are to obey and respect. Again, I state that I
have been a Virginia loyalist, a strong advocate of British law in
days past, but I would be without honor or reason to remain an
obedient servant to such acts of oppression and tyranny as is being
directed toward the Colonist, and if by strength of influence, and
will power, I persuade the Virginia frontiersman to openly with-
stand any measures that place the colonist at disadvantage to
an Englishmen's full rights.

"I shall be most happy to set Northwest Virginia in open defiance
against any such demands and likewise give full support to the
Colonies to resist the same felonious measures. The western fron-
tiersmen of Virginia would gladly have hanged the commander of
the Gaspee instead of placing him safely on shore while burning the
vessel, and with the spirit of freemen, will hang any known infor-
mant of this or any similar action that may attempt to diminish the
rights of the colonist. Virginiamen of all colonists will tolerate no
fraud demands made of them by any scheme that the present lord of
the treasury may direct against the American Colonies. Neither
coercion nor insults will gain the Virginia colonist consent to obey
the mandates of parliament that fail to create equal rights to all
Englishmen in like manner. This failing, other fires of justice will
be kindled into flame on the frontier borders of Virginia that will
reach into every colony. With belief in God and English justice for
all Englishmen, I am yours in justice. "John Canon."

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 275

The proceedings of Congress did not tend to allay public feeling,
and, as the royal agents in Massachusetts seemed determined to
push matters to extremities and to reduce the people to uncondi-
tional submission, everything wore the appearance of civil war.
New judges and a new council were appointed by the crown; and
these attempted to enter into the execution of their offices. But the
juries refused to be sworn under them, and in some counties as-
sembled to prevent the juries from serving. When Governor
Hutchinson found that the people of Boston had outwitted him and
were threatening his life, he resigned to be succeeded by General
Gage, and now the whole matter soon developed into a state of war.
Governor Gage, now apprehending danger from a general muster
of the militia, caused the magazines and ammunition at Charles-
town and Cambridge to be removed to Boston and also fortified the
neck of land which joins Boston to the mainland at Roxbury. This
caused a panic. Delegates from all the towns in the country of Suf-
folk met and adopted spirited resolutions and sent a remonstrance
to the Governor; but he spurned their resolutions. The Assembly
had been called to meet at Salem; but, under the condition of com-
motion, the Governor issued a proclamation countermanding the
order. In defiance of the Governor, however, ninety-two members
met and resolved themselves into a provincial congress; they chose
Mr. John Hancock, President, and adjourned to Concord, nine-
teen miles from Boston.

At Concord, they fearlessly proceeded to business. After ad-
dressing the Governor and reiterating their grievances, in the face
of British law and British troops, they proceeded to adopt the first
measure which was taken directly and avowedly preparatory to an
appeal to the sword in defense of their rights and liberties. They
regulated the militia, made provisions for furnishing arms for the
people, and made recommendations that the provisions be enforced.
Governor Gage was filled with rage at these daring proceedings,
and issued a proclamation in which he insinuated that they amounted
to rebellion.

In January 1775, Parliament passed the fishing bill, which pro-
hibited the colonies from trading in fish with Great Britain, Ireland,
and the West Indies, and from taking fish on the banks of New-
foundland. These acts were aimed purely at Boston, which had be-
come the main object of ministerial oppression, but they served to
produce great wrath among the people of the other colonies, for they
sympathized with their Boston brethren in all their trouble and in
their opposition to British tyranny. The policy of the British Gov-
ernment was not only oppressive, but mean and contemptible. The

276 THE HORN PAPERS

King and Parliament took delight in passing unconstitutional laws
that would injure the town of Boston. In Virginia, North Carolina,
and western Pennsylvania, the people openly violated acts of British
law, in such a manner as the people of Massachusetts dared not think
of; and the Virginia frontiersmen took pleasure in expressing their
views to the Royal Governor, Governor Dunmore, of what they
would do to the King and Parliament if they would come over to the
colony. While Dunmore was a loyal representative of the crown
and ministry, he was slow to oppose the bold and fearless acts of
the Virginia settlers, especially those who were outside his own cir-
cles. He possessed some fine qualities, and sympathized with the
frontier settlers to some extent, especially with those who were ex-
posed to the Indian warfare waged by the savages whom the French
had induced to make raids on the English settlements.

(In July, 1772, while on his way to the "Forks," Governor Dun-
more stopped two days at the home of Jacob Horn at Camp Cat
Fish, and finding that the only daughter, Duschea Ann Horn, was
very ill and with little hope of recovery, he deeply sympathized with
the family and directed that Jacob Horn need not give the court
matters any consideration until the beginning of the year 1773. He
stated that he would direct John Connolly, his military commis-
sioner, to keep Pennsylvania settlers out of the Monongahela Val-
ley, and to keep him informed of the conditions on the border during
that time. Governor Dunmore gave Catherine Horn a British gold
coin that she treasured many years after he had returned to Scotland
and the Revolutionary War had closed and made him a foreigner
to America ; but she often declared that he was a fine man, even if he
was a Britisher, and that her husband, (Christopher) had rebelled
against British rule and had given nearly four years in the Patriot
service to drive the British out of the country.)

In March 1775, the public indignation was greatly aroused, and
the people in all the colonies were greatly excited by the base and
most shameful transactions: the people from the country whose
business called them into Boston were suspected by the officers of
purchasing guns from the soldiers. In order to furnish an oppor-
tunity to inflict punishment, and raise occasion for a serious quarrel,
Lieutenant Colonel Nesbit, of the forty-seventh regiment, ordered
a soldier to offer a countryman an old rusty musket. A man from
Billerica was caught by this trick and purchased the gun for twelve
shillings. The unfortunate man was immediately seized by Nesbit
and confined in the guardhouse all night. Early the next morning
they stripped him entirely naked, covered him with warm tar and
feathers, and, placing him on a cart, conducted him through the

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 277

streets as far as the Liberty tree. Here the people began to as-
semble. Nesbit, being a great coward though an officer, fearing for
his own person, dismissed the man, and retreated to his barracks
with flags, and with drums beating. The cad, Nesbit, kept hid for
two days in fear of the people's tearing him from limb to limb.

There remained no alternative but slavery or the sword, and,
being of English blood, the people would never become slaves;
therefore the sword and the musket became their choice. Measures
were adopted to train militiamen to the use of arms, and to provide
for the manufacture of gunpowder. The collecting of military
stores of every description began at once. This soon came to the
notice of Governor Gage, who resolved to counteract this move-
ment. He determined to seize the stores collected at Lexington,
in order to destroy their means of resistance. To do this Gage sent
secretly a regiment of grenadiers who undertook to disperse a
party of militia at Lexington, several of whom were killed. This
was the first blood spilt in that long and bloody war, the American
Revolution, which forever separated Great Britain from America,
and gave to the latter not only a rank among the nations of the earth,
but taught England a lesson that she has well remembered. It also
established national liberty for the Americans, and founded free
institutions which are the durable foundations of every great and
prosperous nation. No one colony, in reality, brought on the Amer-
ican Revolution, or crisis that opened the campaign that led to the
first shots that were fired at Lexington, in April 1775. The British
Government was as unfaithful, and had been as tyrannical with
their American subjects since the close of the French and Indian
War, as they had been in keeping their agreement with the French
in 1738. All of the colonies were ripe for war and separation in
1775: from center to circumference of their American territory
their patience had been tried beyond endurance, and they had
reached the limit of British injustice and tyranny. It was only the
natural result of the long-standing bitter conditions that had pre-
pared the colonists for the final ending of both the English and
French claims in the colonies.

The American Revolutionary War came and ended just as
"Justice" would have it, America for Americans.

Frederick North, Earl of Guilford, commonly known as Lord
North, statesman, was born on the same day and in the same year
as George Washington. He became chancellor of the British ex-
chequer in 1767, and from 1770 to 1782 was Prime Minister. After-
wards he formed a coalition with Fox and was joint secretary with
him for a few months. He was the favorite of King George III, but

278 THE HORN PAPERS

an avowed enemy of General Washington, and had held a bitter
hatred for the American leader since General Braddock's defeat and
death in 1755. Lord North had aided and abetted Lord Grenville to
enforce the Stamp Act in 1766, and was a persecutor of the American
colonists from the day he assumed the control of the Government
in 1770 until the war began in 1775. He died at London in 1792.

It was stated by the London Papers in 1782 that both the King
and Lord North became ill and seemed to have partially lost their
reason on hearing of the defeat of Lord Cornwallis' army in Amer-
ica, and for some weeks both were placed under medical care and
close observation.

CHAPTER VIII
INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES

The European wars of the seventeenth century, in which Eng-
land, France, and Holland were involved, spread into the respective
colonies of those States in America. The Conflict which was ended
by the treaty of Ryswick involved the English possessions in New
England and Virginia, and those of France in Nova Scotia and the
upper valley of the St. Lawrence, in a serious war which continued
for nearly eight years. The results, however, were indecisive, and
in 1697, when the treaty was concluded between the parent king-
doms, the boundary lines of their respective colonies in America
were established as before, but some of the bloody incidents which
preceded this settlement and the causes leading thereto, may be here
profitably recounted.

The wars between France and England in Europe naturally
involved the colonists of America. It was these quarrels which led
primarily to what is known in history as King William's War, 1689
to 1697; Queen Anne's War, 1702 to 1714; King George's War,
1744 to 1748; and the French and Indian War, which was the
outgrowth of the destruction of the Delaware Indian tribe at the
Battle of Flint Top in September 1748, but which did not break into
open conflict until 1754, continuing until 1763. While the French
Government in Europe was setting its seal to the peace treaty Aix-
la-Chapelle, England, on behalf of Virginia, was enlarging the
boundary lines of that colony at the epense of the French interests
in America. This breach of faith led the French to seize the Ohio
and the Monongahela valleys. As they held the Allegheny since
1722 and had founded Fort Menier in 1722, their claims were well
established south of Canada and west of the mountains. The one
stronghold within this region that threatened the French ascendancy
west of the Monongahela River was the Delaware Indian tribe.
The Delaware Indians had been assigned this territory in 1696,
at a time when the French had given but little consideration to the
land on which the Delawares settled, and long before the English
had ever penetrated this country west of the mountains. By the
terms entered into by the Delaware Chief, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, the
Delawares favored the English and were friendly to their explor-
ers, fur traders, and early frontiersmen, although they were occupy-
ing French soil which was a part of the Louisiana territory.

These four wars, even though there were occasional pauses in
the strife, constituted a period of prolonged struggle wherein the

280 THE HORN PAPERS

question to be settled was which should rule in the New World, the
English or the French. This contention led to some of the most
horrible massacres and thrilling episodes in the annals of American
history. In all the early wars, the Indians took an important part,
and were almost invariably allies of the French. This was true down
to the close of the French and Indian War, and, with the exception
of the Delaware tribe, which opposed the French, and the Shawnees
who were neutral, these same Indians continued to harass the
English settlers until the white people drove them from this region.

In 1748, the French, just after the King of England had openly
violated the terms of Aix-la-Chapelle treaty and had given away
French territory, encouraged their Indian allies to destroy the
Delaware tribe, and thus to remove their mutual foes from the
French claims west of the Monongahela River. This plan was con-
sumated at Flint Top in September 1748. But while the destruction
of the Delaware tribe gave the French full control of this territory,
they attempted to make no settlement within Tingooqua's domains.

The French held Fort Louis I and II in this territory until
they retired from the Monongahela in the fall of 1758. The last
five of the French lead plates were planted in this conquered ter-
ritory in 1751. Iron ore from Iron Point was sent to Paris in 1749
and again in 1751. These samples were said to be the best found in
America at that time. Some of this iron is still in the French
museum in Paris. This same vein of iron ore was worked by the
McCullough Iron Company from 1779 to 1789.

Some historians assert that if it had not been for these bar-
barous foes, the English would have gained an impregnable ascend-
ancy in the New World fifty years before they did; but having such
wily and numerous enemies to contend with, whose tactics were
stealth, treachery, surprise, and assassination, the English settlers
were unsafe at best, and even with every precaution taken, many
lost their lives. This statement is true and the records bear testi-
mony to many Indian massacres having taken place, but the truth
of the whole matter remains that the early white settlers drove
the Indians from their own lawful territory and took possession of
land, that both the English and French laid claims to, as their own
territory. This led to war between the contestants, and the real
owners of the claims looked on in despair. Since the French people
who had been accepted as their friends were the defeated parties,
it is not difficult to understand why the Indans attempted to crush the
English settlers on the frontiers in the years following the French
and Indian War. The French had been defeated but were alive;
the Cayuga, Huron, and Chippewa Indians were led to believe that

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 281

their lost lands could be regained if they would carry out the French
orders, and destroy the English settlers who lived in the more
sparsely populated districts. No place was harassed more by the
Indians than were the English settlements in districts where the
French were interested in establishing their outposts and strong-
holds in the Monongahela and Ohio valleys in 1724-1758.

In this chapter several of the Indian fights and massacres which
took place in or near Greene County will be described.

Indian Massacres

About 1785, William Thomas and his bride, the daughter of
Henry Van Meter of Carmichaels, Greene County, moved to the
waters of Dunkard Creek on a branch of the creek now known as
Miracle Run. They occupied the land which is now the home of
Ralph Thomas, in Battelle District. Monogahela County, about two
and one-half miles west of Blacksville, West Virginia, near the Ma-
son and Dixon Line. At this time there were no other settlers
closer than the town of Blacksville and this part of the country was
a wilderness. He took with him a team of horses, a plough, and
other farm implements, built a log cabin, and proceeded to clear
his land.

On April 21, 1789, the Mingo Indians were scouring the coun-
try for horses and other loot. George Washington had just been
elected the first president of the United States and was about to be
sworn into this high office in the city of New York. Late in the
afternoon of that day, when William Thomas was working with his
horses in a field near the log cabin, a band of roving Indians ap-
peared at the edge of the clearing on the point above the house and
fired several shots at him. One or more of the bullets hit him, but
he leaped over the bank of a small stream in the edge of the clearing
and hid himself in the top of a large fallen tree. There he stuffed
leaves into the wound in order to prevent bleeding to death.

His wife and infant son were in the cabin at the time. Hearing
the shots, she snatched the infant from his cradle and ran to the
thicket. That night she made her way to the old fort at Blacksville,
where a posse was organized and sent to the scene of the massacre.
There they found Thomas' body and buried him in what is now the
family cemetery, a few yards from where he died. The posse then
trailed the Indians, who had taken the horses with them, and
crossed the Ohio River a short distance below Wheeling, where the
pursuit ended.

282 the horn papers

Battle on Lower Ten Mile Creek

The Huron and Cayuga Indians were much in the favor of the
French, who advised them to destroy the settlers in the Mononga-
hela Valley because of the old hatred held against the English who
had settled on their claims before the French and Indian War.

In August 1774, a band of these Indians appeared on the Great
Warrior Trail on the east side of the Monongahela at Gist's cross
trail, but it was not expected that they would attempt to cross to
the west side of the river because more than two hundred armed
settlers were on watch, and ready to defend themselves. However,
Indians crossed the Monongahela near the homestead of Augustine
Dillinger on the night of August 6, at the mouth of Dunkard Creek,
and killed Cephas Conwell and Isaac Brown while they were tying
their boat to a sycamore tree on the west side of the river about
one-fourth mile below the trail crossing. Jacob Dillinger, one of
the wood rangers, discovered the mutilated bodies of Conwell and
Brown early the next morning and hastily departed to Garard's
Fort to spread the alarm. From there he went to Fort Van Metre
where he( secured eight armed men and returned to the homestead
of Reverend John Corbley where twelve more armed men were
ready and mounted. The Reverend Corbley was selected as leader
of the twenty Virginia scouts. They buried the two bodies at sunset,
then built a fire, but left it and took post in the timber on the hill,
and waited until dawn of the next day to follow the Indians. They
tracked the Indians to the old trail crossing of the river at the
mouth of Muddy Creek. In the timber beside an oak tree, about
three hundred paces from the river, the scouts discovered three
Indians who were engaged in cutting up a sheep. The rangers
crept through the timber in a semicircle and reached the brow of
the hill about one hundred paces from the Indians where twelve
of the rangers could see them in plain sight. As each was filled with
determination to kill an Indian, each fired his musket and all three
Cayuga Indians fell. They were buried close by. No other savages
were seen, and it was believed this would end the Indian raids west
of the river.

This first raid, however, was followed by the massacre of the
Stephen Ackford family on Lower Ten Mile Creek on the night of
August 14. A band of these same Indians crossed the Monongahela
River at the mouth of Hughes Run, went to the log house near
Tingooqua Creek where Stephen Ackford had a claim of fourteen
acres from the James Carmichael tract of 1766, and killed the fam-
ily and burned the log house.

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 283

Captain Archer and Joel McClure, with eight wood rangers
on their way from Teegarden's Fort to Samuel Jackson's Fort,
discovered the reflection of the fire in the sky and hastily went to
the scene. From a distance the rangers saw the Indians killing the
cow and goats, and then the settlers fell upon the Indians in the
open on the right side of the creek one mile above the mouth of
Crooked Run. The rangers, riding in, killed eight Huron and four
Cayuga warriors. Joseph Blackledge, who arrived near the scene,
killed two of the Cayuga Indians with a limb of driftwood when
they were escaping up the creek bank.

The rangers skinned the Indians and had their skins made into
powder and ball pouches. When the Indians were skinned, their
bodies were burned to dust, where the ashes of the five members
of the Ackford family lay in the ashes of the log house. Much hard
fighting took place in a short space of time; two of Archer's men,
William Fletcher and Abner Cowell, were wounded, but recovered.
The Indians escaped through the timber to the mouth of Rush Run
(Hughes Run) and crossed to the east side of the river. This was
the first battle on Tingooqua Creek below the old Delaware Chief's
Camp, since June 1768. Details of this battle were revealed in a
letter written by Jacob Horn to the officials at Staunton, under date
of August 24, 1774. This battle of Lower Ten Mile took place on
the land near where George Heise built his mills, which are better
known as the old Pollock Mills in Morgan Township. The site of
the Stephen Ackford log house was marked by a cut stone on the
Patterson Pollock farm in 1874, one hundred years after this battle
took place.

Another battle of Ten Mile Creek, known as Riley's Run Bat-
tle of Tingooqua Creek, took place in 1773 between the settlers and
a branch of the Cherokee Indians from the mouth of the Great
Kanawha. In this battle Captain Archer, Samuel Jackson, and the
wood rangers killed twenty-one of the warriors and their chief,
and drove the band to the mouth of Fish Creek and across the
Ohio River.

The Spicer Massacre

For more than one hundred sixty years the people who have
read the account of the Spicer massacre, in the neighborhood of
Willow Tree, have been led to believe that Logan, the outraged
Indian, was the leader of this murderous band who killed the Spicer
family on June 3, 1774. The John Spicer family of nine lived in a
two-room log house where they had settled in 1767. On June 3,
1774, he and his wife and five children were killed by a band of

284 THE HORN PAPERS

Cayuga and Huron Indians, who had been paid by the French to
destroy the settlers in this territory, because of the old grudge held
against this section for having been acquired by the English. The
lives of John Spicer's son and daughter were spared by the Indians.
They were carried into captivity beyond the Ohio River.

Historians have blamed Logan for this massacre. They have
only followed the mistake made at the time of the massacre in not
rightfully charging this to the Cayuga-Huron Indians who com-
mitted the crime, instead of Logan's band who had been outraged
by the white people. John Horn, who was then sheriff of Northwest
Augusta County, was at the scene of the massacre two days after
it occurred, and stated that Logan had no more to do with this
murdering band than he did. He stated that John Connolly and
Deveaux Smith, at Fort Dunmore, were responsible for naming
Logan as the leader of this affair.

Dr. John Connolly and Deveaux Smith hated John Canon and
Jacob Horn and all their adherents including Logan, because they
wanted to crush Logan and show that the Camp Cat Fish Court
was incapable of handling affairs on the border, and wanted to
govern the territory under Connolly's commission.

John Horn stated that Connolly and Deveaux Smith wrote a
letter and sent it by carrier to John Canon at Camp Cat Fish, calling
his attention to the awful massacre on "Muddy Creek" within the
Camp Cat Fish Court jurisdiction, and that Connolly would hold
Canon and Horn responsible for Logan's crime. This letter was
dated Fort Dunmore, June 10, and reached Camp Cat Fish late in
the day June 1 1, 1774. In the meantime, on June 5, two days after
the Spicer family had been killed, and only two hours after Henry
Van Metre made his report to Jacob Horn, the sheriff and five men
were on their way to the place of the crime, under the leadership of
Henry Van Meter and Blackledge. They found the bodies of the
members of the family and buried them, making a memorandum of
the events, and all signed the statements which were filed with the
Camp Cat Fish Court. At the time of the massacre, no one knew
who the Indians were, beyond the fact that they had no connection
with Logan or Flat Fish, Chief of the Mingo tribe. On June 20,
1774, John Canon, at Fort Queen Elisabeth, addressed a com-
munication to John Connolly at Fort Dunmore, accusing him of
deliberately lying to William Crawford about Logan's having com-
mitted this massacre. He admitted that Logan had been at Turkey
Foot Rock Camp, but said he had no connection with the Spicer
murders. This massacre led to a far more bitter fight between
Canon and Dr. Connolly than has been believed. Connolly, who was

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 285

a Virginian, appointed by Dunmore to be a military leader at Fort
Dunmore, was not above currying favors from the Westmoreland
officials before he doublecrossed them, and was arrested by them
and held in the Hannastown jail for fifteen days in October 1774.

There was no truth in the statements made by John Crawford
that his father helped bury the bodies of the Spicer family. Events
in 1773 and 1774 took place so fast in the Monongahela Valley
that it was difficult even at that time to keep a true record of all the
various factions, within each of the main forces — the Virginia
"loyalists" and the Pennsylvania "land jumpers" as they were
termed.

A man named Keener was killed on Big Whiteley Creek just a
week after the Spicer family massacre was charged to Logan by
Crawford, but that statement was false, for the records showed
that John Canon and Isaac Cox had Logan at Fort Queen Elisabeth
for investigation at the very time Keener was killed.

Due to the fact that Indians did commit many murders in the
Monongahela Valley between the years 1773 and 1784, writers
did not make any distinction between the peaceful or friendly In-
dians living in the community and the Indians whom the French in
Canada persuaded to raid this territory. While many persons
have written of Indians committing outrages on the white people
in the Monongahela Valley, scarcely more than one or two have
ever mentioned the fact that more Indian scalps were taken in this
same region by their own race to obtain the bounty paid on them
than all the loss of white people combined.

The Indian families of the "Meekers," "Shakhouse," and "Con-
nox" were killed in Washington County territory in 1771, and the
French paid the Cayuga tribe a stipulated sum for their scalps. This
statement was made by the Cayuga-Seneca Splitlog in a speech
delivered in 1879, in which he stated how stupid the white people
were to hold Logan for the murder of the Spicer family in 1774,
and declared his grand-uncle "Splitnose" was one of the members
who committed the deed. It was by this illustration that he con-
tended the Indians had made more progress in civilization and en-
lightenment since that time than the white people had done in the
same length of time. No one who ever conversed with this Indian on
the subject of his race, could doubt his sincerity and his wide knowl-
edge of the history of the Indian tribes, and of the many crimes
committed by his tribe in the Upper Ohio Valley in the eighteenth
century.

Thus again the records made in 1774 by the court were sus-
tained by this representative of the very people who committed the

21

286 THE HORN PAPERS

Spicer massacre. However, this is only one of many events of the
early days where history has been repeatedly wrong in assertions
that have left mistaken impressions as to the actual truth of the mat-
ter. This, however, was probably due to the fact that writers did
not doubt the source of their information, and handed it down as
fact; thus a once mistaken report is handed down from time to time
until it becomes accepted history, all because the other side of the
question has never been presented.

Professor A. J. Waychoff states in his article No. 186, as fur-
nished by some descendant of the Spicers, that John Spicer and his
family were massacred in 1763. This is an error, for John Spicer
was polled on his homestead on July 18, 1773. This record is
filed in the Camp Cat Fish Court Record Book One, and shows that
he paid five shillings Virginia Tax for the year 1773.

The Camp Cat Fish Court ordered Sheriff John Horn to seize
Logan, and on June 6, 1774, he went to Logan's home on the Ohio
to bring him into court. The sheriff, however, found Logan
suffering from an injured leg which had kept him in his camp for
two weeks, so he returned without him, but notified him to come
into court in one week. Logan never came into Camp Cat Fish
Court, for this court was closed on June 8, 1774, but John Canon
had him brought into the Fort Queen Elisabeth Court on June 14,
where he was discharged. He was in the court there when David
Brown reported that Logan had killed James Keener two days be-
fore. The court, knowing Logan to be in their presence, dismissed
all complaints against him on June 15, 1774.

Elizabeth Spicer was about thirteen years old and her brother
William was eleven years old when the other seven members of
their family were massacred. These two members were captured
and taken over the Great Warrior Trail to the Ohio River, where
they were held captive for about two years. Elizabeth was liberated
at the close of Dunmore's War, the same year, but William clung to
the Indian life. His sister therefore refused to leave the Indian
camp on the Scioto River until he would leave with her and return
to civilization. Enoch O'Brine volunteered to go to Fisheye's camp
and bring these children back to Teegarden. He did succeed in
bringing Elizabeth back with him, but William loved Indian life
too well to return to civilization, and with the Indians escaped to
the Wabash lands.

Matthias Splitlog, a Cayuga-Seneca Indian, gave a clear ac-
count of this Spicer massacre. He stated that the French promised
his old uncle a gun, a keg of rum, and a red shirt for each member
of the tribe who would join the raid to kill every family living in the

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 287

Monongahela Valley, but he stated that too many "long knives"
lived there in 1774 to please the Cayugas. They killed only three
families, then had to cross the French River to save their lives. He
declared Logan to be only a usquaw Indian."

Harris' History states: "Like many of his brethren, Logan was
charged with the Spicer massacre because of the threats he made
after Greathouse murderer his family, but the Cayugas committed
the deed, and so stated, but Connolly and Crawford saw that Logan
received all the blame for it."

The Roeferty Massacre

Joseph Roeferty, an Irish settler living in Maryland in 1758,
and in Virginia in 1767, with his family, consisting of his wife, one
son and three daughters, settled on the site of the old Indian Peter's
Village in 1770. This site occupied the top of the hill east of the
mouth of Casteel Run, on the site where the wood charcoal pits for
the McCullough Iron Company were dug in 1779.

He built a two-room log house and with his family took posses-
sion of about sixteen acres of land which were claimed by both Ed-
ward Burson and George Teegarden. Both, however, agreed to let
Roeferty have this home and live there. These two adjoining land
holders employed the father and son at times. Joseph's wife,
Margaret Roeferty, was an excellent woman, skilled in the art of
spinning and weaving. From 1770 to the spring of 1774 the fam-
ily was industrious and quite well known in the neighborhood. In
the last week of April 1774, Joseph Roeferty and his son James
went to Teegarden's Ferry to work on a stone road leading to the
boat landing, leaving the wife and three daughters at home engaged
in household duties.

Just at noon ten Indians suddenly appeared at the home. These
pioneers had never seen an Indian. Knowing, however, that there
were a few Delaware Indians still around Camp Cat Fish, they
mistook these wild savages for the friendly Indians and offered them
some baked corn bread. But these savages were bent on murder
and destruction. Seizing a rough homemade chair, one of the
Indians knocked the women to the floor, while others scalped them.
The two grown daughters attempted to fight the Indians, and suc-
ceeded in cutting one of the Indians so that much blood was found
some distance from the house. The Indians finally left them for
dead and went to a rail pen where the family cow was housed, killed
her, and were eating portions of the meat when they were suddenly
surprised by Edward Burson and his neighbor, Blackledge. Which

288 THE HORN PAPERS

party was the most astonished was never determined. Both
parties fled from the scene of murder. The Indians were tracked
toward the river, but not seen again. Edward Burson and Black-
ledge rode to the Burson home, secured each a musket and a French
saber, and dashed back to attack the Indians, but by this time they
had escaped. Edward Burson and Blackledge entered the house and
at first thought all were dead. However, after removing the bodies
from the floor, the wife and mother revived and sat up for a few
minutes. One of the daughters revived also but fainted when she
remembered the horrible butchery. Blackledge rode swiftly to
Teegarden Fort and soon eight armed men rushed to the scene of
the crime. The father and son were inconsolable. The mother
died at sunset, and two of the daughters were killed outright by the
Indians. Jane, however, revived and was taken to the home of
Edward Burson, where she hovered between life and death for a
month. Being of a strong physical make-up, she at last recovered
and made her home with the Burson family. After a few days at
Fort Teegarden, Joseph Roeferty and his son returned to their
ruined home and took up their broken lives again. They lived there
until 1777. James served one year in the war, and in May 1777,
set out for the Harrod settlement in Kentucky. The father became
the ward of Thomas Blackledge. He died in 1791. Jane Roeferty
lived and enjoyed good health, but always wore a woolen cap to
protect her head. She married William Haines who lived for a
few years in a log house on the Christopher Cox farm (part of
the George Teegarden land), then settled somewhere in the south-
eastern part of the county.

The McCullough Iron Company used the site of this tragedy
as their charcoal field from 1779 to 1787. The log house still stood
in part until about 1860, when it was finally removed by Aaron De
Good. There were several hundred bushels of wood charcoal left
on this place after the iron smelter was closed in 1787. Some of this
charcoal was used at Clarksville as late as 1860. The stone base of
the chimney of the Roeferty home remained until 1870.

The Armstrong Massacre

John Armstrong, Jr., son of John Armstrong, a native of
Virginia, came with his parents to what is now Fayette County in
1763, and in April 1766, settled in what is now Cumberland Town-
ship. Here the Armstrong family lived as pioneers and shared in all
the hardships that came to the first settlers. John Armstrong, Jr.,
the eldest son, took part in guard service along the Monongahela

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 289

River in 1773 and 1774 and became a wood ranger in 1774. He
married Jennie Mason and in October 1793 moved to Ohio with
his wife and eight children, where they passed the winter in the
blockhouse of Isaac Barker, a little above the head of Blennerhas-
set's Island. Barker and Peter Mixner, another frontiersman, had
erected a small floating mill which was moored in the rapid water
at the head of the island on the Virginia shore. Being inconvenient
for them to cross the river so often, they decided to build a log house
on the Virginia side above the mill and move their families over.
John Armstrong thought it was a hazardous move, but he decided
that if Barker moved over, he would go along, build a log house,
and live there too. At that time a strong blockhouse stood on the
island, and it was believed that the Indians would not cross the
river to molest them on the Virginia shore.

After the three log houses were built and the families settled in
their homes, Mixner, for some reason never made clear, built a
second log house about a hundred yards above in the midst of trees
and moved his family into it, leaving the first unoccupied only a few
days before the attack on the morning of April 24, 1794. The
barking of his dog aroused John Armstrong. Without waiting to
put on his clothes, he seized his rifle, unbarred the door, and rushed
to the aid of his dog which was barking at an object he could not
distinctly see. He moved forward some distance and caught a
glimpse of three Indians partly hidden behind trees. He instantly
fired at them and hallooed, "Indians! Indians!" then retreated
into the house, barred the door, and climbed up into the loft where
the older children slept. By the time he reached the loft, the Indians,
with the aid of a heavy rail and their tomahawks, had burst open the
door and taken possession of the lower part of the house. Finding
he could make no effectual resistance, he tore some clapboards from
the roof, jumped to the ground, and retreated to the mill.

When the Indians entered the house, Mrs. Armstrong, with an
infant in her arms, tried to escape through an unfinished log chimney,
but her foot slipped and she fell back, breaking her leg in the fall.
The Indians killed her and the two youngest children and scalped
them. They then climbed into the loft and captured Jeremiah, John,
and Elizabeth, taking them prisoners. In the meantime, Barker and
Mixner heard the commotion and started for the Armstrong cabin*
When they saw the Indians coming with the children, they rushed
for their guns and, getting his family, Mixner hurried them to the
boat, pushed off into the river, and drifted down, landing on the
island. They made their way to the blockhouse, then Mixner hur-
ried back to the mill where the two oldest sons of John Armstrong

290 THE HORN PAPERS

had spent the night. The father and two sons and Barker were
hurriedly preparing to trail the Wyandotte and Cherokee Indians.
They gave the alarm and twenty-six men and boys from the island
and Stone's garrison took their trail. There were about twenty
Indians in the party. They had crossed the Ohio River and sunk
their canoes for safe keeping before they made the raid on the Arm-
strong family.

The Indians adopted the three Armstrong children. Jeremiah,
who was about eight years of age, was adopted by the celebrated
Crane who lived on the site of Columbus, Ohio. Elizabeth, who was
born in Cumberland Township sixteen years before the county was
organized, never returned to her native home. After several re-
movals from one Indian camp to another, she married a man by the
name of Dolson and lived near Maiden in Upper Canada.

The bodies of Mrs. Armstrong and the massacred children were
taken back across the Ohio River and buried near the place where
the family made their first pause in October 1793. The same fate
that befell Mrs. Armstrong in 1794 had befallen her parents in
Mifflin County ten years before.

Crow Massacre

On September 14, 1936, Wylie L. Crow of Richhill Township
gave the author the following information regarding the massacre
of the three Crow sisters on May 1, 1791. Susan, Katharine, Eliza-
beth, and Christina Crow left their home on Crow Run for a day's
visit with an aged couple living near the site of Ryerson Station.
Their brother Michael had left home earlier in the day in search of
a stray horse, but finding no trace of it he started his return trip
down the creek and met his sisters near the mouth of Wharton Run.
After talking with them a few minutes he left, but before he had
passed from sight two Indians and a white man, said to be named
Spicer, sprang from behind the rocks, seized the girls, and led them
onto the higher bank, where they questioned them about the location
of forts and about the settlers who liver near. After partly answer-
ing the questions, the girls started to leave but the Indians attacked
three of them. Christina escaped into the bushes and made her way
home where she reported the horrible affair. The parents, Jacob
and Susan Crow, and the following children — Frederick, Martin,
Peter, Michael, and Mary — walked up Stone-Coal Run to Lindley's
Fort, near the present town of Prosperity, where they remained
from Sunday evening, May 1, until Tuesday morning, May 3, 1791,
fully believing that all the girls were dead. But on the way back

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 291

from the fort it was discovered that one of the sisters was still liv-
ing. The family brought the three girls home and buried Susan and
Katharine in the graveyard near the home on May 3. Elizabeth
died the following day and was buried beside her sisters on May 5.

John Crow, another brother, had been killed by the Huron
Indians in 1787, while he was fishing and hunting on Fishing Creek,
now Crow Run, in Whetzel County, West Virginia.

Christina Crow lived at her home until her marriage to a Mr.
McBride, who later settled in Noble County, Ohio. She left many
descendants. See Other Massacres.

Cayuga-Seneca Indians in Eastern Greene County

John Hardin, the Kentucky pioneer, on a visit to his old home
at Millsboro in 1800, related how he, George Teegarden, George
Hupp, and wood rangers punished a band of Cayuga-Seneca Indians
for making raids in Morgan and Jefferson townships in June 1774.
(See "Waynesburg Messenger," June 1818.)

The Cayuga-Seneca Indians were the main tribes that were
forever waging war on the Delawares way back in the early days
when the Delaware tribe were numbered by thousands, but at
peace with the white fur traders. The Cayuga-Senecas were far
inferior in their mode of living and in their ability to live at ease
from the crops of natural growth that the Delawares had here on
every side.

When the French set out to destroy the Delawares in 1748, it
was the Cayuga-Seneca tribes that led the murderous bands to
Flint Top, to end their old enemies' hold in the land that once was
filled with their relatives, the Shennoah tribe, who drove the similar
bands of Wyandot, or Crin Indians, out of hiding, and took these
lands at a time when neither Frenchmen nor Englishmen knew of the
lands. But the Creator of all sets bounds to all races and all things,
and in time, about 1664, the all-powerful Shennoahs died off,
leaving one lone maiden, who became the grandmother of Pegleg
Nemacolin. As the Shennoahs passed, their offspring came up,
with all the savage customs that the redskins could practice on
their foes.

When the Delawares were gone from here, the living Cayugas,
by French leave, were going to set in here as holders of these lands,
but Virginia long knives were here. The tribe held aloof but made
yearly raids on the settlements. Sometimes they made a feast and
a clean escape, but on the massacre of the Spicers, Thomases,

292 THE HORN PAPERS

Bennetts, and others, it was determined to end the Cayuga-Seneca's
claims in the country west of the river. In the winter of 1773-1774,
several settlers set to work to build a fish pot wing of stone at the
mouth of Wolf Run, and throw the flow of the river into one swift
narrow stream. This was directly below the old Cayuga-Seneca
ford on the rocks where, for decades, they had crossed without a
mishap. Their next lower crossing was at the Redstone Bar.

In April 1774, a band of these Indians from Westmoreland
crossed at this lower crossing to the west side, and were preparing
to raid the settlements around Fort Teegarden, but the settlers
were prepared to defend themselves. All cattle, mules, and sheep
were driven into the timber on Crooked Run, and one hundred
wood rangers, scouts, night riders, and settlers, all well-armed,
determined to drive these Indians to destruction. Not a white
person showed a hand until the Indians were above the fish pot.
Forty riflemen then closed in below them, and Teegarden and I gave
orders to fire and rush the Indians, knowing that they would at
once break for their old crossing. About three score ran to the
crossing, but here they found four or five feet of water that was
forty paces wide, with a current that even an Indian could not
brace. Several of them were swept down through the pot, where
twenty riflemen on the rocks pierced every Indian with balls, and let
their bodies float on down the river. Only a very few of the Indians
were allowed to escape. It was agreed to let every tenth Indian
escape, but it was believed that only four of them were left to carry
the white settlers' law back to the Cayuga-Seneca chiefs. This
final punishment was the last of the twenty-year raids made by the
Indians on the Monongahela River.

From 1767 to 1774, I was on the alert for the sights of these
wild Indians. I was accustomed to meeting and exchanging "Hows"
with the lonesome, wandering Delawares every few days, and would
also lend them some tobacco, but these harmless and homeless
fellows were far more afraid of their foes than I or the rest of us
were.

Every massacre of whites in the settlements between the Mo-
nongahela and the Ohio rivers was committed either by the Cayuga-
Senecas from the north and east or by their confederate Cherokees
on the west and south, with two exceptions. The Huron Indians
were sent in by the French to kill the Bozarth family in April 1769
and destroy the white settlement on Eckerlin Creek near by. The
Huron Indians made a raid on Little French Creek headwaters in
1774, but were driven off by Colonel Morgan's militia. It is clear at
this time that the settlers, many of whom never saw an Indian, de-

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 293

clare that the Delawares were the savages who threatened the
settlers, but no Delaware Indian has raised a hand against the white
settlers in this region in fifty years.

Governor Dunmore was led into a mistaken idea of the Indians
by the fight on John Connolly and Colonel Crawford, whereby
Connolly used the Virginia Militia to start Indian troubles for the
purpose of driving John Canon and his justices to overthrow the
Pennsylvania backers of the Cayuga massacres in the Cat Fish
Court district, in order to give Connolly favor with the Delawares
and Mingoes on the Ohio lands. The Indian scare after April 1774
was much more of a factional fight than one created by Indians. The
Cayuga-Senecas feared the Virginia long knives, and the Delawares
were reduced to a small band, mostly living at this time on the
Shawnee lands in Ohio country, with only here and there a live
Indian to remind the settlers that the punishment meted out to the
offenders at Fish Pot in April 1774 had ended Indian strife in this
region.

John Canon and Dunmore's War

With reference to the causes which led to the Indian hostilities
of 1774, John Canon wrote a statement which he made at Fort
Redstone on the Monongahela River in December of the same year,
immediately after the close of Lord Dunmore's successful campaign
against the Shawnees.

The author of Crumerine's History was not acquainted with
the fact that John Canon was a nephew of Lord Dunmore, or that
Canon wrote the following letter at the Queen Elizabeth Court-
house near the Monongahela River, but for reasons stated he dated
it at Fort Redstone.

"Since you Justices in this Court have demanded to hear how
and why Governor Dunmore became involved in this war, I shall
now attempt to give a true statement of the facts as I find them to
exist.

"It will not be improper to investigate the cause of the Indian
War which broke out last spring, before I give you a sketch of the
history of the expedition which his Excellency Lord Dunmore has
carried on so successfully against the Shawnees, one of the richest,
proudest, and bravest of the Indian Nations in America, being ex-
cepted only by their parent tribe, the Delawares. In order to do
this, it is necessary to look back as far as the year 1764, when
Colonel Bouquet made peace with that nation. The Shawnees
never complied with the terms of that peace, they ignored it on
every hand, they quoted the French to us. They dared to tell us the

294 THE HORN PAPERS

French and not the English, are the superior people with whom they
wish to deal, and gave us to understand that Virginia was a second
consideration with them. They did not deliver up the white prison-
ers, if they be English, there was no lasting impression made upon
them by a stroke from the troops employed against them in that
campaign. They were proud, haughty and self-reliant. They barely
acquiesced in some articles of the treaty by the command of the
Five Nations. Red Hawk, a Shawnee Chief, insulted Colonel Bou-
quet, and an Indian killed the Colonel's footman the day after peace
was made. The murderer was not punished, and caused many out-
rages committed immediately afterwards, and led the Shawnees to
believe the English were afraid of them.

"This, my fellow men, cannot and will not be tolerated by
Englishmen anywhere.

"In the year following, several murders were committed by the
Indians on New River, and soon after several men employed in the
service of Wharton and Company were killed on their passage to
Illinois, and their goods which belonged to the company were car-
ried off. Sometime after this outrage, a number of men employed
to kill meat for the garrison of Fort Chartier were killed, and their
rifles, blankets, etc., were carried off to the Indian towns. These
repeated hostilities and outrages committed by them with impunity
made the Indians bold and daring. Although it was not the
Shawnees alone that committed all these hostilities, yet, letting one
nation pass with impunity when mischief is done, inspires the rest of
the tribes and nations with courage; so that the officers commanding
his Majesty's troops on the Ohio at that time, not having the power
or the spirit to pursue the Indians, they were sure to kill and
plunder whenever it was in their power. It is probable you will see
Lord Dunmore's speech to some chiefs of the Five Nations who
waited on his Lordship. It mentions the particular murders and
outrages committed by them every year successively since they
pretended to make peace with Colonel Bouquet.

"The most recent murders committed by the Indians before
the white people began to retaliate were: that of Captain Russell's
son, three more white men and two of his negroes, on October 15,
1773 ; that of a Dutch family on the Kanawha, in June of the same
year, and one Richard, in July; and that of Mr. Hogg and three
white men on the Great Kanawha early in April 1774. These mur-
ders were committed by the Indians through the influence of the
French; Bowlegs, the Delaware Indian spy at Camp Cat Fish, has
made us familiar with all these murders committed by the Shawnees,
Cayuga and Huron Indians. With things in this situation, a message

INDIAN WARS AND MASSACRES 295

was sent to the Shawnees, inviting them to a conference in order to
bury the tomahawk and brighten the chain of friendship. They fired
upon the messengers, and it was with great difficulty that they es-
caped with their lives. Immediately on their return, three letters
were written by gentlemen below here on the river and sent by the
messenger, Bowlegs, to Colonel Frye and John Gibson on the Ohio,
assuring them that a war with the Shawnees was unavoidable, and
desired them to be on their guard, as it was certain they would strike
there first because they were looked upon as enemies of the Indians
in opposition to the English rule. In the meantime, two men of the
name of Greathouse and Baker sold rum to some Indians near the
mouth of Yellow Creek, after which two Indians were killed. Lord
Dunmore has ordered that the manner of their being killed be
inquired into. The three men appointed to investigate this matter
were Enoch O'Brine, John Watson, and James Taylor. They found
that all had been drunk. A camp fire had been made by two Indians,
and when Greathouse took possession of it the Indians threatened
to shoot him, whereupon he killed the two Indians.

"Many officers and other adventurers who were down the Ohio
in order to explore the country and to have lands surveyed; upon
receiving the above intelligence and seeing the letters from Monon-
gahela Country to Colonel Frye and John Gibson, thought proper
to return to the more settled country. Captain Michel Cresap, one
of these gentlemen, Samuel McCullough, Joseph Vanmeter, and
Isaac Wiever were there too, in the midst of this turmoil last year.
On their return up the river, they fell in with a party of Indians,
and being apprehensive that the Indians were preparing to attack
them, as appeared by their manoeuvers, the white people, being the
smallest in number, thought it advisable to have the advantage of
the fire, whereupon they engaged, and after exchanging a few shots,
killed three of the Indians and dispersed the rest. This was the
beginning of hostilities, and on both sides the matter became serious.

"John Gibson made a hurried trip to Camp Cat Fish, and
through your humble servant, I enlisted a score of our faithful
Virginia settlers and placed them under Horn and Virgin, and
urged no delay to reach the Ohio below Cutlet, or Fish Creek, to
confine the Indians to the Ohio. Hastening to the more thickly
settled portions to the south, I gathered two score more and under
Morgan, directed them to join their brethren on the Ohio, with
directions to take all the Indians captives or kill all they could not
take captives. I well understand the frame of mind in which his
Excellency now observes the situation, and therefore I have acted
in accordance with his wishes in endeavoring to place the weight of

296 THE HORN PAPERS

the white man's law of obedience on these unruly savages. When
we have conquered the Indians to the extent that hostilities, murder
and robbery shall come to an end, then the white settlements will
begin a new era, and this is what Governor Dunmore intends to
carry out in Northwest Augusta County. Dunmore only knows
what he is told and that is little on my part, but Connolly is over-
reaching his authority on every hand, as you are here aware of his
assumptions. He is carrying favors from George Croghan and
'Black Bill' Crawford, but put on his 'holy looks' when addressing
the Governor, and tells him this Court is not directing the best in-
terests of Virginia in the Monongahela Valley. He was once a
Virginian. . . ."

CHAPTER IX
PICTURED ROCKS AND INDIAN TRAILS

The pictured rocks of the Indians and their settlements in Greene
County and near its borders in the early days gave a far truer state-
ment of them than any late historian has been able to compile from
records of the white officials even when dealing in person with the
Indians themselves. The Indian's true name bore a significance
which naturally distinguished him from all other Indians. The
names of Indian chieftains in the National Records of Indian Af-
fairs and in colonial archives have been confused with the names of
other Indians. The historians have written and handed down what
they assumed was the correct name of a certain Indian, when, in
fact, they were recording the names of additional members of the
race. In the English language the spelling of Helaquantagechty is
distinctly three names and was used as such but corrupted into one
and has been so accepted. Neither the first nor the second name bore
any relation to the last in the Indian language. This was proved
conclusively by the Indian pictured rocks, which contained a true
history of the Delaware and Shawnee Indian tribes and their con-
nection and disagreements with the French.

One of these pictured rocks, about sixty feet in length and six
feet high, was located on the face of the cliff on the Jefferson Town-
ship side of South Ten Mile Creek, opposite Crooked, or Casteel,
Run. This rock was carved in the Indian language and below the
Indian pictographs the French left a clear account of their explora-
tions and the finding of iron ore in 1749. It was pictured clearly in
the Indian symbolic language that the Delaware Indians held the
turkey foot as their nation's emblem; the Huron tribe adopted the
beaver; and the Cayugas held the weasel to be their mark of re-
cognition. This was confirmed by members of all three tribes in the
West as late as 1886.

Many pages of direct Indian history were recorded on this great
rock face and it was plainly marked as late as 1882, but later, when
the railroad was built up Ten Mile Creek from Clarksville to
Waynesburg, this long-time history was blasted away to make room
for modern transportation. If all the history written on that rock
face had been preserved, many of the half-hidden mysteries of the
Indian village sites and their connections with other tribes would be
more fully understood. More of these carvings were depicted on
the rocks on both sides of the river at Millsboro.

298 THE HORN PAPERS

The pictured rock at Stony Point, a mile west of Jefferson,
was known as the Indian Point in 1767 and contained many petro-
glyphs of the Delaware type although the Huron Indians had left
good markings of their presence here before the white men entered
this territory. Abraham Hickman, the father of Solomon Hickman,
stated that when he settled near Stony Point in 1767 this rock wall
face contained many good pictures of the Indians and of Indian life.
Some of these were carved in life size, some were small, and others
were painted in bright colors. Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo's camp site and his
profile were carved on this rock as well as the "Washbowl" and
spring at Mud Run, and some portions of these tracings were there
in 1880, but in late years every sign of these has been destroyed.
Enough of the characters of the rock at Stony Point have been
remembered and interpreted to prove, first, that the Delaware
Indians had suddenly encountered an enemy equal to their own num-
ber and a battle took place at the foot of the hill on the old John
Bell farm; and, second, that white men and Delaware Indians had
smoked peace pipe there; and, third, that their camp was near the
west side of Ten Mile Creek. The rabbit with an arrow pointing to
two cross lines was a direct statement that the Delaware Indians
had their camp on both sides of the creek. The rabbit couched in-
dicated that they were on the lookout for an enemy. Christopher
Gist passed this point several times during his travels through
Greene County, as did the Eckerlin brothers and other fur traders
whose marks were depicted in the rocks at Stony Point. Ten Mile
Creek, from Rogersville to the Monogahela River, contained
pictured rocks along its banks. The author well remembers the pic-
tures on the rock that formed the abutment of the mill dam at the
Colonel Heaton Mills at Jefferson. This rock was the base of a
heavy ledge on the Morgan Township side of Ten Mile Creek. The
picture represented a number of Cayuga Indians on the trail up the
creek in the land of their enemy, the Delawares. When the mill dam
was full of water, these pictures were buried several feet under
water.

Petroglyphs of the Delaware and of the Cayuga type have been
found along the Monongahela River about fifty miles south of Pitts-
burgh and near the town of New Geneva. These were first reported
by Bernard Eckerlin and Christopher Gist in 1747 and mentioned
in the records of "Early Life on the Monongahela" by Colonel John
Minor in 1782. In 1783, John Canon stated in his Journal that the
pictured rocks near Fort Burd were immense and would long pre-
serve the history of Jaques Poynton, Nemacolin, Flat Fish, and the
Mingo Indians. In 1882, some mention was made of them by J. S.

PICTURED ROCKS AND INDIAN TRAILS 299

Wall of Monogahela City. A fine and unusually interesting petro-
glyph near old Fort Hill, later Sugar Grove, in Greene County, was
reported by Mr. Crago in 1793. In 1932, George Fisher of Finley-
ville photographed these records and reported them as eroding
rapidly. The figures fully express the outlying camp life of the
Delaware Indians between the main camp on Indian Ridge and their
outside limits at Turkey Foot Rock on the hill on the east side of the
Monongahela River not far from Point Gist, now Point Marion.

In September 1936, the author, with Miss Marguerite McCurdy,
Mrs. Oma Waychoff Hill and her son, Bernard Hill, of Waynes-
burg, and John Moore of Point Marion, made a visit to this out
boundary site of Turkey Foot Rock which the Delawares marked
in 1696 as their boundary between their lands and the land of the
Huron and Cayuga tribes. He made an examination of all the
petroglyphs and was able to interpret most of the writings through
the Delaware Indian language. Just down the hill and over by the
road stand some very old beech trees which contain some Huron
Indian markings with an arrow pointing to the site of the Delaware
Turkey Foot Rock which Tingooqua speaks of in his address at Fort
Jumonville in June 1751 as "our mark on the border-land of the
Hurons and Cayugas beyond Point Gist."

The pictured rocks at Fort Grendelier where the party hoisted
the French flag in June 1751 were a fine representation of the Indian
Queen Aliquippa Camp and Spring, and the French and Indians
engraved the name of the members of this party on these rocks,
which were plainly marked in 1868.

Historians have made examinations and have given their opin-
ions of the writings, but in most cases they failed to make a report of
the true facts contained on these Indian pictured rocks because they
have never lived among the Indians to learn the language and side
meanings. The more educated Indians declare the white man's
history of the Indians is so full of false statements that the Indians
are made to look like animals of the forest. Chief Dullknife said:
"One look at the Indians' record should be enough for any white
man who claims to be so superior to the Indian, but," he added,
"does he know so much as he thinks?" Little Crow Foot of the
Delaware tribe, living in the Indian territory before the state of
Oklahoma was organized, stated that the historians had the Dela-
wares and Shawnees scattered all over Pennsylvania and Ohio before
they settled west of the Ohio River in 1748. "From 1696 to 1748
our tribe under Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo lived in peace and plenty
on the western side of the Monogahela River while the Shawanes
lived on the eastern bank of the Ohio. To be sure, members of

300 THE HORN PAPERS

both tribes were to be seen from the place where the main village
on Indian Ridge was the central camp of our tribe."

Pictured rocks were found near Willow Tree and near Greens-
boro on both sides of the Monongahela. Several traces of Indian
carvings were found on the west side of the county and in West
Virginia where the carvings of the Shawnee Indians were made
from 1700 to 1748. Chief Bluejacket stated in 1891 that one hun-
dred different accounts of the Shawnee tribe had been left on the
rocks on the east side of the Ohio River, below Wheeling.

in Springhill Township the pictured rocks on Fish Greek in the
earlier years of Greene County contained a clear account of the
Shawnee Indians and of their settlement on the Ohio in 1696. In
1820, a copy of these tracings was made of what was called Stone
Point by a Mr. McGlumphy. He partially interpreted the symbols
and the figures that were carved there about 1718.

Directly across the Monongahela River from Millsboro, Wash-
ington County, were the most noted and best preserved carved rocks
in all southwestern Pennsylvania. The carvings were of ancient
origin. Among these were the tracks of human footprints crossing
each other, of crows, and bears; figures of turkeys, rabbits, fish, and
birds. The rain and flood signs showed plainly that the Indians
living along the river from 1616 to the end of the year of two cross
tracts, 1664, before the division of the Shawnees and Delawares,
had nearly all been drowned but that some remained not more
than one day's travel and that this remaining village camp was on
a high hill and was the last of the Shennoahs or ubob step" tribe.
These tracings were still plainly visible in 1880. In this illustration
we find that although the Indians were fast disappearing, the birds
and animals were fast increasing. This very interesting bit of
Indian history bore direct testimony to the many valuable bits of
Indian artcraft found in the pits on the present Bruckner farm on
the hill south of Jefferson. These excavations, made in the late fall
of 1936, show that they belong to a more ancient date than any
other burials excavated in this section of the country. In no case did
Frank B. Jones and his assistants find any signs of contact with the
white race in the material obtained from these burials in this ancient
village. The material taken from this site bears out the history
contained on the pictured rock of East Millsboro. This was found
to be one of the richest fields in the study of Indian life in any section
of the country, showing that which has long been claimed as a mutual
hunting ground for the Indians has indeed been the central inhabited
Indian land of the country east of the Mississippi River.

PICTURED ROCKS AND INDIAN TRAILS 301

Professor A. J. Waychoff in his sketches describes the pictured
rocks of the various sections of this territory in an interesting man-
ner. He perhaps gave more thought to these carvings than any
other person who ever attempted to describe them. If these had
all been interpreted, the history of this section would have been far
different from what has been published concerning the Indians in the
past. But the late archaeological survey has furnished ample proof
of these errors.

La Conde says: "From the hundreds of tons of flint left east
of the Ohio, it would be logical to assume that no less than fifty
thousand aborigines lived east and north of the Ohio in 1736. In
lower Canada the French had seven thousand of these under Papal
instruction in 1738."

In 1795, it was stated that there were seventy distinct Indian
pictured rocks within the borders of Greene County, with several in
Washington and Fayette counties, while many more were to be
found in near-by Virginia territory. Some small Indian carvings of
figures and signs were found on lower Dunkard Creek about 1848.
A very clear marking of the Indians engaged in fishing and hunting
was carved on a bedrock in the Monongahela River at the mouth of
Muddy Creek. This large picture was well preserved and easily
observed before the slack water covered the rock several feet.
These pictured rocks contain just as clear a record of the Indian
history, estimated from the Indian's point of view, as does the writ-
ten history of the white race, and they are far more reliable. The
Indian language and the meaning of the figures are not difficult to
understand when you have lived among them and observed their
habits and customs.

No two nations have just the same everyday manners and cus-
toms, and no two Indian tribes under the same nation have exactly
the same habits, neither do all the clans of the tribe have the same
views or hold to certain customs. Many people fail to recognize the
different clans of the nations. Thus, the Shawnees and Delawares
are of the same nation but of different tribes, each of which has
certain clans, such as the beaver, rabbit, turkey, bear, fox, weasel,
squirrel, etc., but each nation as a whole has a certain emblem of its
own, such as the turkey, beaver, weasel, eagle, etc. The rabbit clan
of the Delawares is very widely separated from the rabbit clan of
the Cayuga tribe. The pictured rocks readily indicate the nation
and tribe to which they belong, just the same as do the arrow points
which they use in hunting game and in warfare.

Indian tradition that these marked rocks would attract the Great
Spirit to give the clan or the tribe superior knowledge and strength

22

302 THE HORN PAPERS

led certain ones to practice placing these carvings on rocks, but the
educated Indians say only a small per cent of the Indians ever prac-
ticed this art; however, in no section of all the country were there
so many pictured rocks of ancient Indian history in so small a ter-
ritory as there were between the Monongahela and the Ohio rivers
from Morgantown to Pittsburg.

The Nemacolin Trail

In compiling historical data, many writers confuse the readers
by stating only part of the facts, or by crowding many facts into one
brief statement. The story of the Nemacolin Trail is a good exam-
ple of this.

In 1750, the Ohio Company built a fortified warehouse or stor-
age depot as a base of operation and supplies at Wills Creek (now
Cumberland, Maryland) , on the upper waters of the Potomac. This
storehouse was erected near the site of the London Fur Company's
log storehouse which was burned in 1763.

Colonel Thomas Cresap, an agent and guide of the company,
was directed to widen the trail over Laurel Hill to the Monongahela.
Cresap knew the Indian, Nemacolin, and through him learned that
Nemacolin's grandfather, Jaques Poynton, had used this foot trail
in 1669-1675. He therefore, employed Nemacolin as his guide to
widen this path into a pack horse trail. At that time Nemacolin's
camp was at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, where later Fort Burd
was established, and which afterward became the site of Browns-
ville. This camp was about a mile above the site of Fort Jumonville
(near the mouth of Jumonville Creek), which the French erected in
1746 and held until 1753. It was this old fort that John Gibson re-
paired early in February 1754, and called "The Hangard." In
April of the same year, it was burned by the French officer, De Vil-
liers, after Bozarth had induced Captain Trent to return to Wills
Creek, and Ensign E. Ward had been driven from the unfinished
fort at the forks by the French.

The terminus of the pack horse trail as laid out by Colonel
Cresap and Nemacolin was at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek on the
Monongahela River and not at the mouth of Redstone, as some
writers declare. However, the main trail divided at the point where
it crossed the French-Indian National Trail. One branch led to the
mouth of Dunlap's Creek. The other branch, the original Jaques
Poynton Trail, led to the mouth of Jumonville Creek, which the
French named in 1746, and which Gibson renamed Redstone Creek
in February 1754, when on his way to the forks.

PICTURED ROCKS AND INDIAN TRAILS 303

In 1758, this place was known as Fort Redstone, which had been
erected on the site of the Hangard by a detachment of General For-
bes' soldiers, and thus became the third fort on this site. Fort Red-
stone was commanded first for a short time by Captain McCullough,
then by Captain Audley Paul. The Indians, incited by the promises
of the French, destroyed a portion of the fort and stockade and
besieged the garrison. They would have annihilated all of them but
for the timely arrival of John Gibson, who with thirty men reached
the fort, killed some of the Indians, and drove the rest across the
river.

Thirty-six men, under the command of Captain McCullough,
left Wills Creek and made their way over the Nemacolin Trail to
the mouth of Redstone Creek some time before General Forbes and
his army reached Fort Duquesne. John Gibson, with thirty men on
the march down the river, found the French had deserted Fort
Duquesne. After making some examination around the forks, he
marched his men into camp about ten miles up the Monongahela
River. It was while encamped here, late at night, that Bowlegs, the
Delaware Indian, known as Joshua, reached Gibson and told him
that McCullough had left, and that the Cayuga Indians were hold-
ing Captain Paul and his men prisoners at Fort Redstone. An all-
night march brought them to the rescue just at the time the Indians
were firing the main portion of the fort. The Indians were subse-
quently defeated.

Captain Samuel McCullough's notes described this fight which
took place at the old fort (Redstone) before Colonel James Burd
decided to change the site of his fort to the terminus of the Nema-
colin Trail at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek. He built this new fort
(Redstone) in 1759, a year after the old fort was almost destroyed.

It was not until 1759 that Colonel James Burd of the Pennsyl-
vania forces erected Fort Burd, at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek,
which he miscalled Redstone.

In "Border Warfare," page 79, the statement that Captain
Audley Paul commanded at Redstone is true. The author, however,
is mistaken about John Gibson, whom he says was not at the fort in
the fall of 1758, and that General Forbes did not taken Fort Du-
quesne until November 25, 1758. That statement is true from the
records, but Fort Duquesne had been evacuated and partially burned
when General Forbes had reached the site. John Gibson with thirty
men reached the same site some days before General Forbes arrived.

Fort Burd, which was erected at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek in
1759, was not erected until after Fort Redstone had been deserted
by Captain Audley Paul, and the records of 1762 say: "One fort on

304 THE HORN PAPERS

the Monogahela remains, but it is a new fort, not the French fort,
neither is it Paul's Redstone fort, but Captain Burd's fort on old
Ziek Dunlap's run, above the trail."

The fact that the French had a knowledge of the Jaques Poyn-
ton Trail long before it bore the distinction of Nemacolin led the
French Governor to direct Creaux Bozarth from Philadelphia over
the mountains by this pathway, under the guidance of Christopher
Gist, in 1747. Two Pennsylvania fur traders traveled this pathway
in 1737, and it was mentioned in Baltimore in 1729 that there was
a path across the Allegheny Mountains by which it was possible to
reach the Ohio Valley.

In 1751, when Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn, and the French
surveyors, Tingooqua, Peter Chartier, Bowlegs, and Wessameking,
were at Fort Jumonville, and planted the fifth and last of the French
lead plates at the mouth of the Jumonville Creek, about two hun-
dred yards from the fort nearer the river, this fort was still stand-
ing, and the French flag floated over it. It was in front of this fort,
and standing on a long log, that Tingooqua made his speech to the
French, for their consent to the great cruelty received from their
allies at the Battle of Flint Top in 1748. The fort was partially
burned in 1752, but repaired by Gibson in February 1754; however,
it was finally destroyed by the French in April 1754. Fort Redstone
was erected on its site in the early summer of 1755 and destroyed in
January 1759 by Bozarth's Indians. This was the last of Bozarth's
raids made on the English. He died in July 1759.

In April 1750, Cresap induced Nemacolin to widen the Poynton
Trail over Laurel Hill to the Monongahela, promising to rename
it the Nemacolin Trail. After completing the work, a dispute oc-
curred as to who should pay for it, and Cresap seized Nemacolin's
fort and land. In May 1751, Cresap demanded that Nemacolin and
his people leave the fort, or be sent to prison for debt. Some time
after this Nemacolin joined a few Delaware Indians on Wheeling
Creek near the Crow farm, where Nemacolin was made chief of
about one hundred twenty members of his tribe. He remained there
until 1754, then settled on an island in the Ohio River where he
died in 1767.

In 1659, Jaques Poynton and twenty Shennoah Indians trailed
over the Allegheny Mountains from Wills Creek to the Mononga-
hela River at the very place where Coulon de Jumonville set his
stockade and camp near the mouth of Jumonville Creek. Some
years later this became known as Fort Redstone on the Redstone
Creek, and still later as Brownsville. When Jumonville set his camp
in the low land near the Monongahela River in 1747, it was at the

PICTURED ROCKS AND INDIAN TRAILS 305

request of Creaux Bozarth. From this very fort (Jumonville) the
allied Indian forces trailed over the Poynton path of 1669, known
as the Delaware Indian Trail from 1696 to 1810, to the Delaware
Indian village in September 1748, when they fought and defeated
the Delaware Indians on Indian Ridge.

Nemacolin was a half-Shennoah-Seneca and a grandson of
Jaques Poynton. He married a Delaware Indian, and lived for
some years at the western base of the mountains east of Uniontown.
In 1745, Nemacolin and Christopher Gist traveled this path trail
to Wills Creek, and back to the mouth of Dunkard Creek, or Gist
Creek, as it was then known. In 1747, when the French Governor
in Canada commissioned Creaux Bozarth to build Fort Louis I on
Eckerlin Creek in Tingooqua's territory, it was Christopher Gist
who guided Bozarth and his family over the Poynton Trail from
Philadelphia to a point east of Uniontown, thence to the Du Pratz
Indian National Trail crossing of the Monongahela River, then
on to the French Bottom, on the north side of Eckerlin Creek.

In 1747, Nemacolin and Bowlegs brought Cresap on his first
journey over the mountains to Fort Louis II on the Monongahela
River. Both Cresap and Bowlegs, at Nemacolin's advice, tried to
induce Tingooqua and Chartier to join in a plan to make the old
Poynton Trail a regular one from Fort Louis II to Wills Creek, but
Tingooqua and Chartier refused to assist in making this trail a pack
horse trail. Cresap visited the Delawares in 1750 who were then
living on the Scioto River. In June 1751, Tingooqua and Bowlegs
appealed to Gist and Jacob Horn to intercede with Cresap for
Nemacolin who was at Camp Cat Fish, and they also sought
advice about giving up his land to Cresap.

In 1769, Jacob Horn mentions the burning of Cresap's home
and the fort as some of the things Bowlegs (Joshua) was known to
have accomplished. There is no doubt that Cresap tricked Nema-
colin into widening the Poynton Trail. This Poynton-Nemacolin
Trail has been one of the most famous roads in America. It has
also been called Cresap's Road, Washington's Path, Braddock's
Road, and the National Pike.

Waychoff, in speaking of Chief Nemacolin, does not inform
the reader that he was but a village chief, although he was in service
for a time under Colonel Burd at Fort Burd, not at Fort Redstone.

CHAPTER X
SOME NOTED INDIANS

Statement by Matthias Splitlog, 1892

Matthias Splitlog was a Cayuga-Seneca Indian. He was born on
the south shore of Lake Erie in 1816, and lived in Ohio until 1823.
He married Eliza Charloe, a Wyandotte. In 1828 they came to
what is now Wyandotte County, Kansas. They had eight children
and, under the Indian Regulation Laws, the wife and the eight
children took up nine quarter sections of land, which later occupied
the center of Kansas City, Kansas, a part of which is now in the
Union Stock Yards. He lived in Kansas City for years and was
known as the Millionaire Indian of Wyandotte.

He built and operated one of the first mills in old Wyandotte.
Later he constructed a private railroad from Neosho, Missouri to
the Arkansas state line, having land at both ends of his railroad.
That railroad is now a part of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf
Main Line. He sold all property in Kansas City, except four city
blocks, in 1877, and went to the Indian Territory, where he took
up a thousand acres of land. He built a church and a schoolhouse,
and paid all expenses to maintain both, refusing any outside finan-
cial help.

He gave a very clear historical account of both the Indian Bat-
tle at Flint Top and of General Braddock's defeat, as related to
him by his grandfather and two granduncles, all Cayuga Indians.
He said: "None of them received a scar in either battle, but poor
savage deluded Indians, to fight the French men's battles for noth-
ing but glory, which the French made them believe was a great thing
to do."

The following statement was made by Matthias Splitlog at his
home in Oklahoma in 1892, while the author was in search of data
regarding Charles Blue Jacket:

"The direct cause leadng to the 'Council of War,' and to
strike the first blow against the Delaware tribe at Flint Top before
they could aid the English in holding the Ohio Valley, was that
the King of England in October, in 1747, gave his consent to
establish the English domains in the Ohio Valley; and gave Gov-
ernor Dinwiddie the authority to plant settlers in that territory,
and this bold act excited the French to a state of frenzy. As soon as
this news reached Canada the French Governor called a 'Council of
War' and sent word to all the Indians far and near that the English

SOME NOTED INDIANS 307

were coming to drive the French out of the country, and to kill all
the Indians, except the Delawares. These were to have white men's
homes, and ponies with some Indian enemies as their slaves, and
this had the effect planned by the French. The Delawares' fate was
sealed from that day, for the Indians from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Missouri River took the Trail to the French-Indian Camp on Lake
Erie, where the Indians were told 'many tales of woe.' The French-
men rested, while the great army of Indians trailed on to the Dela-
ware Camp, on the Delawares' own Trail, a thing no Indians had
ever done — to follow the enemy's trail. I think the French leaders
told the Huron chief to do this to surprise the enemy. It was a big
success. My grandfather and two granduncles were at Flint Top
in 1748, and at Braddock's defeat in 1755 and never got a scar,
but grandfather got a gun said to be the General's but with the
wisdom of the White man, I won't say it was his own gun, but was a
good gun.

"The White people blame Chief Pontiac for his great plan to
destroy the town, or settlement of Detroit, and make all Indians
into one tribe, to destroy all the English people after the French
were driven away from this country, but why did not your best
historians tell the truth, tell how the French made all the plans
for Pontiac to carry out to revenge the French, who promised Pon-
tiac that they would make him 'King of France' when he had killed
all the English, and destroyed all their settlements. The French
made it all so easy, that the 'old fool' chief believed all they said.
Most of the tribes went their own way leaving Pontiac to fight
his own battles, but he was betrayed and forced to leave in despair.
He remembered the French, and their promise to make them all
Frenchmen and himself 'King' and he put up a big fight, but he died
an Indian, not a king. Neither did the 'Five Nations' and the
'Osage' get back all the Delaware's land, and Hunting grounds,
after they killed eight thousand of the tribe at Flint Top, in Septem-
ber 1748.

"I am an Indian who has had a wide knowledge of both the
Indians in many tribes, and of white men, and will I say they are
much alike, both made enemies, and enemies make bad blood, when
the enemy drive the 'English from over the sea,' drive the French
from their territory they make big war. But, the Indians and French
were no better than the white men of today. They make a big
noise but are not 'honest' with one another, but the 'White people'
made me much money, and treat me just as well as they treat their
own people, so I have no difference between the people any more,
and it is a pleasure to talk to you about the site of Flint Top where

308 THE HORN PAPERS

you say your ancestors settled in 1772. That was after all the 'good
Delawares were dead.' Yes, it was the greatest Indian Battle ever
fought, so far as any of the tribes knew about.

"The French, he wanted to make all Cayugas Catholics and
about the white man's time of 1722, Big French Chief in Canada
he say, the priest go down to the Cayugas head village on Conquist
(Little Beaver) Creek and set up the white man's Holy Cross and
make all Cayugas heap big Catholics. 'He Fat face' (The priest)
came to Fort Menier in 1734, and two hundred French soldiers and
make the Holy Cross and log tepee and give the Cayugas little cross
and beads to wear and some of them be Catholics, but some bad
Frenchman and fifty Cayugas they made big fire, and burned the
Holy Cross and the priest tepee. The priest he made the French
soldiers shoot twenty-two French and two times as many Cayugas,
for being drunk by French rum. This the Frenchman say Murder-
ingtown, and my people all say Murderingtown too. The French
he stay there on Cayugas's land so long as his people stay in America.

"My grandfather White-log, and my uncle Bear Face, lived at
Murderingtown when Gist and his boy Washington, was there
when he say the French you must go back beyond the Lakes.

"The Cayugas lived there before the Frenchmen came in 1722.
The Cayugas, the Senecas, and the Hurons helped the Frenchman,
Du Pratz, to carry packs into nearby territory, where Wa-Ha-Wag-
Lo and Tingooqua and the prophet Bowlegs, the 'Joshua of the set-
ting sun' say no Frenchman was to be seen in Tingooqua's, he a
smart man like 'Peter Chartiger' whom the English say Peter Char-
ters and the French say he is Peter Chartier. These see the French
when not near Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo. When they see Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-
Lo, they never see the Frenchman for Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, the War
Chief, he kill the Frenchman, like he kill the Cayugas and the
Hurons when they meet the Delawares.

"The Frenchman he make Catholics of the Shawanes, but he
afraid to make Catholics of the Delawares, because Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo
he never like Frenchmen, he never like Catholic. Joshua he say, Tin-
gooqua a fine Civil Chief and he be one part French and Delaware.
Bowlegs or Joshua, he be all Delaware. He shoot far and kill two
Cayugas when crossing the river by French Fort Louis 2. My uncle
he did try to kill Joshua.

"Bowlegs was known as Joshua, Corn man, as Trail Fox, and
other appellations.

"The Cayuga Indians were too smart to let the French priest have
their children to make Catholics of any longer the French make the
Cayuga warriors wear white man's dress.

SOME NOTED INDIANS 309

"Bye and bye the Frenchmen burn the Fort, and the Cayugas be-
came dissatisfied, and about 1767 they went to lands on the Maumee
River in Ohio and later to Illinois."

Chief Bluejacket

In the summer of 1890, the newspapers of Kansas City, Mis-
souri, published an article regarding Rev. Charles Bluejacket of
Bluejacket, Oklahoma, that led me to believe that he was a descend-
ant of the boy stolen by the Shawnee Indians at Augustatown in
November 1777. In August 1891 while in Bluejacket, I called on
this Indian Chief and he gave me the full history of the Bluejacket
family and some history relating to Yohogania County, Virginia,
which I have since found to be correct.

The information obtained was the same as that given to the
Kansas State Historical Society, which was published in Volume X
of their collection. It will be seen that this Indian gave information
regarding Western Pennsylvania history, which had been passed
down by succeeding generations of his tribe.

This particular bit of the history of the Bluejacket family began
at Augustatown in Yohogania County, Virginia, in 1777 and is yet
unfinished because the Bluejacket lineage still exists in Kansas and
Oklahoma.

Bluejacket's story is as follows: "It seems to have dropped out
of the memory of white men in this generation, if indeed it was
generally known, that the first Chief Bluejacket was a white man
and a Virginian by birth. Chief Bluejacket's correct name was Mar-
maduke Van Swerangen, son of James and Eliza Van Swerangen of
Staunton, Virginia. His family had settled at Augustatown in the
spring of 1777 and lived there until Augustatown was destroyed by
fire June 12, 1780.

uThere were several children in this family. One brother set-
tled on Pursley Creek in Monongalia County, Virginia, and later in
South Washington County, and Steele, Joseph, and Vance removed
to Pittsburgh. John, William, and their sister Sarah stayed in
Washington County. Elizabeth married John Ackley, Jr., and lived
on All Eye or Ackley's Run, about one-half mile from where John
Ackley, Sr., settled at his fort in 1764.

"The capture of Marmaduke Van Swerangen by the Shawnee
Indians occured in November 1777 while he and his brother Vance
were hunting near the Wetzel cabin on the John Wetzel place, site
of the present town of West Alexander, Washington County. When
captured he and his brother were together and he agreed to go

310 THE HORN PAPERS

with the Indians provided they would not harm his brother and
would allow him to return to Augustatown in safety. This proposal
was agreed to by his captors and carried out by both parties.
Marmaduke Van Swerangen dropped his real name and took the
name that the Shawnees gave him there on that November day.
When captured, Marmaduke was dressed in a blue linsey blouse
hunting jacket from which he was given the name 'Bluejacket.' '

Mrs. Hester Kelly-Watson of Belvue, Kansas, has given the
Kansas Historical Society a piece of blue woolen goods, the same
material as that worn by Marmaduke Van Swerangen when cap-
tured by the Indians in 1777. This was woven on the old loom in
Augustatown in 1777 and came to Mrs. Watson through her moth-
er, Mary Louise Marsh-Kelly, who was a granddaughter of Sarah
Van Swerangen, the sister of Marmaduke.

The old loom and the old reeds that once stood in the log house
on the side hill above the old Virginia Courthouse in Augustatown in
Yohogania County, Virginia, was set up in Razortown inl 779. It
was later taken to Ohio and to Kentucky and handed down from
generation to generation, until finally placed in the museum of the
Kansas Historical Society by Mrs. Howard B. Chamberlain of
St. George, Kansas.

"After arriving at his newly adopted home on the Scioto River,
Marmaduke, or Bluejacket, entered into the manners and customs
of the Indians with such vigor and cheerfulness that he soon won
the good will of the Indians, and he proved so faithful to them
that before he had reached twenty-five he was made chief of his
tribe and as such, took part in all their councils and in all the cam-
paigns of his time. When captured by the Shawnee Indians, Mar-
maduke Van Swerangen was a little over eighteen and large and
strong, a trait that the Indians greatly admired, and he was fully
trusted by all the tribe.

"It will be remembered that at one time, long before that, the
Shawnees and the Delawares belonged to the same tribe, but sep-
arated in 1664, and in 1682 they treated with William Penn as
separate tribes. In 1696, when the Delawares took up their camp
on a creek some distance west of the Monongahela River and set
up their council grounds between Two Creeks, later called Tingoo-
qua Creek, after their civil chief, the Shawnees took up their camp
on the east side of the Ohio River, a full day's march from the
Delaware camp. In 1747, when the Confederacy of the Indians was
formed, the Shawnees did not join but departed for their lands on
the Scioto River, between where Chillicothe and Circleville now

SOME NOTED INDIANS 311

stand. It was to this place that the Shawnee Indians took Van
Swerangen in 1777.

"Bluejacket married a Shawnee maiden, Clear Water, and had
eight children including one son, James Bluejacket, a wild and reck-
less fellow who was well known on the upper Miami River during
and after the War of 1812. James Bluejacket married a Delaware
girl in Ohio and left a family of several children, who settled with
the Shawnees in Kansas territory, and lived there for years, finally
settling in the Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma.

"Bluejacket's Indian name, as set down in the Indian records,
was Weh-Yeh-pih-ehr-seh-wah. He commanded the Indian forces
that were defeated by General Wayne in 1794. This defeat was so
crushing and so complete that the Shawnees sued for peace and nev-
er again made war on the white people as a tribe. His name is
signed to the Treaty of Peace made with the United States by the
Shawnees, Wyandottes, and the Delawares in August 1795.

"In June 1797, Chief Bluejacket visited his brother John and
sister Elisabeth in Greene County and his former home near Wash-
ington but found that Augustatown had been burned and a different
state and a new country existed at Razortown, where he had helped
lay the logs of Razor Inn and some other houses in 1777. He found
but two men who had lived near them in Augustatown in 1777.
After looking over his former home site on the hillside, not far
from Wessameking Spring, from which the people of Augustatown
obtained much of the water used and which was half way up the
hill, he then viewed the place some miles away on the Delaware-
Shawnee Trail, where he had been captured and had said farewell
to his brother Vance, near the old Wetzel Cabin on that November
day ninteen years before. He retraced his steps on to the Wes-
sameking Spring, trailed around Middle springs over the Delaware
Trail to Spirit Spring and the site of the Flint Top battlefield and on
to the Delaware Council Ground near Iron Point. Here, where
many great deliberations had been settled between 1696 and 1748,
he found the ancient Fire Stone on the peninsula between Tingoo-
qua's Two Creeks, cold and silent. Finding nothing favorable to
his tribe, he returned to his Indian home and never again visited in
Washington County."

Rev. Charles Bluejacket, who related this story to the author,
was a son of James Bluejacket and grandson of Marmaduke Van
Swerangen Bluejacket. He was born in the state of Michigan in
1816, came to Kansas in 1832, and moved to the Indian Territory
in 1871. He gave the writer a clear and concise statement of his
grandfather's life and of many things that took place both before

312 THE HORN PAPERS

and after his capture by the Indians in November 1777. He also re-
lated several things which transpired at Augustatown that fully cor-
responded with the records of events from 1773 to 1785 left by
John and Christopher Horn, Colonel John Heaton, and others. He
was past sixteen years of age when his grandfather, the chief, died
in 1832 at the age of seventy-three years. He was educated at the
Methodist Mission and became both a chief of his tribe and a
Methodist minister. He died at his home at Bluejacket, Oklahoma,
October 29, 1897, at the age of eighty-one. The Bluejackets had a
little religious school primer called, "The Royal Lessons," which
the Rev. Bluejacket said was one of the books used in the school in
Augustatown in 1776 and 1777 by Mrs. John Canon and Phoebe
Strosnyder-Poole.

The uncle of Marmaduke Van Swerangen who settled in
Monongalia County, Virginia, in 1764 was John Van Swerangen.
In 1769, he located between Pursley Creek and Hargus Creek in
what is now Center Township. He was the fourth man in Monon-
galia County to bring sheep over the mountains from Virginia to
the territory now known as Green County. Thomas Hughes of the
"Pines" and Joseph Morris of "Independence Hall" brought sheep
into Greene County before this time.

Many of the surviving members of the Shawnee and Delaware
tribes, located in the West, could trace with accuracy the course of
the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh to Fairmont with every
stream joining it. These Indians gave the writer the location here
in this county of springs, marked beech trees, small streams, high
rocks, lookouts, and caves. More than a score of these early day
landmarks have been located and proved to be as stated.

White Eyes

White Eyes, the Delaware Chief who was born in 1737 at the
village on French Bottom, on North Ten Mile Creek, was but ten
years old when all his people were killed at Flint Top in September
1748. He was raised by Tingooqua's sister, who was the French-
Indian wife of Christopher Gist. White Eyes, being friendly and
trustworthy, grew to be a great favorite of the white people, and he
and "Bowlegs" were the tribe's scouts who never failed to warn
the Camp Cat Fish settlement of danger when hostile tribes came
into the Tingooqua Creek district. Jacob Horn gave White Eyes
a woolen coat in 1769, which so pleased him that he was a friend
for life. White Eyes was still living at Spirit Spring when the Jacob
Horn party reached there in 1772. He married Julia Doddridge,

SOME NOTED INDIANS 313

a daughter of Philip Doddridge, who lived on the west side of the
river, below the mouth of Cheat and who later moved to the Wash-
ington land at West Middletown, Washington County. White Eyes
wanted his two sons and two daughters to live and dress like the
white people. He induced John Canon to place his eldest son, James
Roberts, in a white man's school, and, after having gained a primary
education at Mrs. Canon's school he was sent to Princton College,
New Jersey, where he remained some months, then returned to
his home near Morgantown.

Some of the descendants of this family lived in Greene County
as late as 1882. Although White Eyes was a Delaware Indian, he
was a faithful friend to those who treated him kindly and proved
to be a faithful husband and father. He died in Virginia in 1822.
His son James Roberts, died in West Virginia in 1857. Descendants
of this family lived in Jefferson from about 1865 to 1900.

Oppaymolleh

Oppaymolleh, the Religious Chief or Medicine Man of the
Delaware Indian tribe, was a brother of Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, or King
Oulamopess, the War Chief of this tribe. Oppaymolleh, or
Helaquehantagheny, as he was known, was three years younger
than his brother, the King Chief, and was held in great respect by
the members of his tribe.

Some historians record the name of Helaquehantagheny as
Helaehquantagechty. The latter is a mistake by some writers, be-
cause the Indian authorities do not express the Indian meaning of
his name. Anyone familiar with the Indian languages will see the
mistake at once.

Oppaymolleh was a brave Indian of great natural talent and re-
sources, and not only guided the members of his tribe in all the
ancient rites of the Red Man's religion but very often counseled
with his white brethren. He attended a Council Meet in Phila-
delphia in Octobber 1734. He informed the English that the Shaw-
nees on the Allegheny at their village on the Ohio were in harmony
with the French, and were trading with the French in Canada. The
Ohio River to the mouth of the Kanawha was called the Allegheny
River from 1720 to 1745. Oppaymolleh asked that the officials of
Pennsylvania prevail on the Shawnees to return to the Susquehanna,
otherwise the French and the Nations would have the Swawnees
move northward near to, or into Canada, and would join in the
French confederacy. Oppaymolleh was called into council many
times by the English leaders. Christopher Gist made Oppaymolleh

314 THE HORN PAPERS

a present of two ponies in December 1751, one for his personal
use, and one for Tingooqua, as he had agreed to do late in the same
summer. Oppaymolleh, like Tingooqua, escaped the wrath of the
Five Nations and the Great and Little Osages of the West at the
Battle of Flint Top, because these two chiefs with some score of
Delawares were in camp on "Cuttle" Creek, some twelve leagues
from Indian Ridge in September 1748.

Oppaymolleh, or Helaquehantagheny, remained at his camp
at Spirit Spring until Aliquippa and Shingiss left their ancient site
and made their camp on the lower Monongahela in 1749. Tingoo-
qua, with Peter Chartier, made their camp on the lower Allegheny
River, now the Ohio, below the old Shawnee village. Oppaymolleh
died at the lower Logstown Camp in 1769.

King Oulamopess, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo

King Oulamopess, better known as Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, was
War Chief of the Delaware tribe from 1680 to 1748. According
to Indian records, he was born near the Delaware River and Sho-
hola Creek in 1660. He was a full-blooded Delaware, tall in stature,
and very strong in his physical make-up, being able to lift a heavier
weight than any other member of the Delaware tribe. He claimed
to have killed and scalped four Huron Indians in a hand-to-hand
fight, before he was fifteen years of age. He was chosen the chief
of his tribe in 1680, and was one of the Indian chieftains who ne-
gotiated with William Penn. He never forgot his promises made
to Penn, nor violated them.

The Delaware tribe, by consent of Penn's lieutenant, were
transferred to the territory bounding on the western branches of
the middle reaches of the Monongahela River in 1696. This ter-
ritory included at that time all the land in what is now Greene
County, a portion of each of Washington and Fayette counties, and
some near-by territory in what is now West Virginia.

Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo chose as his village site land where a century
later Thomas Hughes and Colonel John Heaton's settlement was
established and which finally became the town of Jefferson.
The Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, or Indian Spring, in the west end of Jefferson
borough, known to the early white people as the "soft spring," was
where these Indians obtained most of their drinking water. The
"Indian bowl" or "Mud Run" was where the Delaware Indian
women washed all their clothes and other materials used in the
village.

SOME NOTED INDIANS 315

King Oulamopess lived at his camp site with a number of his
warriors. He frequently visited his brother Oppaymolleh, the
Medicine and Spiritual Chief, and the Civil Chief, Tingooqua. The
latter had his village camp at "Spirit Spring" with Bowlegs (called
Joshua by Gist), while the main Delaware Indian village site was
on Indian Ridge, above the creek as far as Queen Aliquippa's Spring.

King Oulamopess was loyal to the English interests and ever
held the French with contempt, and forbade French fur traders
from invading his domains or trading with any member or his tribe.
This loyalty to the English led to the final destruction of the power
and influence of the Delaware tribe. His refusal to make a treaty
with the French led to the overthrow and the death of the greater
portion of the members of his tribe, as well as to his own death at
the Battle of Flint Top in September 1748.

The famous chief was killed in the second and last day's fighting
at Flint Top, on September 18, 1748. In June 1751, Tingooqua,
Bowlegs the prophet, and Wessameking the Catfish Catcher,
described the life and death of Wa-Ha- Wag-Lo to the Gist-Horn
and the French party at Camp Cat Fish. Bowlegs, as late as 1788,
frequently gave much history of the Delaware Indian tribe and of
the great chief who fought bravely in his last and greatest fight, and
who gave his life in defense of his tribe, but all in vain, for almost
every member of the Delaware tribe then in the main camp was
killed in battle at this camp in Indian Ridge.

Washington in his Journal of 1770 speaks of his trip on the
Ohio. He said, "We came to a very large creek to the eastward,
called by the Indians 'Cut' Creek from a town and tribe of Indians
which they say was cut off entirely in a very bloodly battle between
them and the Six Nations." "Cut" Creek was the name given to Fish
Creek up to 1752.

George Croghan, in his Journal of 1751, relates that he ad-
dressed the representatives of the Delawares at Logstown in the
name of the Honorable James Hamilton, Esq., Governor of the
Province of Pennsylvania, and sympathized with them on their
loss of so great a chief in battle three years before. He advised
them to select from their wisest counselors a new chief, who, when
chosen, would be accepted as one with whom all public business
should be transacted.

Bald Eagle

In April 1772, Bald Eagle, a friendly Indian of the Delaware
tribe from the Ohio River near the mouth of the Little Kanawha,
complained to Colonel Morgan of threats against his life made by

316 THE HORN PAPERS

Nicholas Harpold, Henry Judah, and William Harcker, all of
whom had been known to receive pay from the French for Indian
scalps, and who had openly defied the settlers to interfere in their
work of killing off the Indians that were friendly to the English.
This policy of the French in Canada had not ceased in the Monon-
gahela Valley with the close of the French and Indian War of 1754
to 1763, and appeared to have broken out more violently in 1773.

In May 1772, Colonel Morgan brought Bald Eagle to the
Camp Cat Fish Court and gave Justice Jacob Horn and John Canon
some evidence of Bald Eagle's friendly assistance to the Virginia
settlers west of the Monongahela and of the practice and further
threats made by the French to exterminate every Indian on the Ohio
known to be friendly to the English. Morgan asked for some
protection for Bald Eagle. John Canon drew up an Ord, setting
a price of ten pounds sterling on the heads of the persons of Nicho-
las Harpold, Henry Judah, and William Harcker, and any others
known to be in the service of the French, for the purpose of scalp-
ing the Indians for pay.

These renegades were creating considerable excitement among
the white settlers and the few friendly Indians then at Camp Cat
Fish who were frantic, but these head-tranters did not come near
the settlement, and it was believed'they had ceased their foul work
of killing the Indians for their scalps. Bald Eagle remained in the
Delaware Indian camp with Bowlegs, Wessameking, Eagle Feath-
ers, and a few more of the tribe, and a few of the Mingoes, who
lived near the courthouse, but in July, with Bowlegs, he made his
way to Gist Point, where Morgan was in camp and met with no
sign of either the Cayuga-Senecas or the "White Head Hunters."
After three days, Bowlegs returned to Camp Cat Fish and de-
clared that the French white killers were gone.

About one week later Bald Eagle, taking one of the canoes
held at Gist Point, set out down the river for Fort Teegarden to
deliver a message from Morgan to George Teegarden. George
Brown, who operated Brown's Ferry below the mouth of Dunkard
Creek, saw Bald Eagle in his canoe, alive and exhibiting some of the
Indian method of running the channel. Later he testified that he
saw him as he passed down within a hundred feet of the rear end
of his boat, then on the west shore of the Monongahela River. Bald
Eagle passed on down and nearly a mile below was seen to have
been drawn ashore where he was killed and scalped, then seated in
the canoe and allowed to drift. When the boat passed the old
Dillinger home at Greensboro, several persons on the bank recog-
nized Bald Eagle and were surprised that he did not halt or give

SOME NOTED INDIANS 317

them any sign, but they did not know until the next day that the
well-known and friendly old Indian had been killed. A leather girth
worn only by the whites was used to tie the body upright in the
canoe. The canoe drifted to the west shore above the bar at the
mouth of Muddy Creek where it was discovered by some persons
late the next day. The word that the French head hunters were on
the Monongahela flew from post to post. Fort Swan and Van
Meter hurriedly made preparations for a siege, and a raid on the
surrounding territory. Fort Teegarden was up in arms at the first
word received. Word was hastily sent to Camp Cat Fish, and
David Teegarden mounted his mule and made a bold ride to
Morgan's Camp, spreading the news. Late the same day George
Archer carried the news of Bald Eagle's murder to Daniel Ryer-
son's Blockhouse where a watch was set to observe all movements
of both Indians and whites on the trails.

For some weeks all was quiet along the border, when the same
trouble occurred on the Ohio River, near the mouth of the Little
Kanawha River. Near this point at that time in 1772, there was
an Indian village called Bulltown, where a few families of Delaware
Indians had assembled. They were friendly to the English at Fort
Fincastle, and traders on the Ohio. They were both harmless and
defenseless, merely living in peace with themselves and giving no
consideration to the outside world, when these hired assassins fell
upon these helpless families, murdered six of them, and took twenty-
one Indian scalps, which were paid for by the French in Ontario.

In 1774, John Canon made an arder, and it was stated that he
offered Louis Wetsel a horse, a gun, and five pounds in money if he
would hunt down and kill all these men who then sent him some
indication of their intention to kill him. In the spring of 1774, word
was sent all up and down the Monongahela Valley that the Indians
had stolen many horses belonging to some land speculators on the
Ohio River, from the Kanawha up to the Two Creeks, and William
Crawfords at Stewart's Fort demanded that the Virginia Court at
Cox's Fort put a stop to all their stealing. The court appointed
Enoch O'Brine, Hupp, and Dave Shepard to investigate the claims,
and after some time they found the charges to be false, but did find
that the Indians were going to take up the hatchet and punish some
of Croghan's leaders for making bad bargains for them.

When this report was made known in the Camp Cat Fish
Court in April 1774, John Canon declared he had known before-
hand that it was all a lie. However, John Connolly, for some
reason not clearly known, joined Crawford in informing Dunmore
that Canon was upholding the Indians on the Ohio in destroying

23

318 THE HORN PAPERS

the interests of the white people, whereupon Dunmore declared he
himself would take the field and clear the Indians from the Ohio.
The Indians, not the Virginians, were the ill-treated ones. But
Canon declared no man could understand Dunmore's plan except
that he had set his hand and seal to the old Ohio land claims, which
Canon now declared belonged to Vandalia.

Bowlegs, or Joshua

The Delaware Indian, commonly known as Bowlegs, but called
by the English and French fur traders by the name of "Eagle Eye,"
"Joshua, " "Trail Fox," and "Shingoosh," was one of the wisest
and most capable Indians in the Monongahela Valley from 1696
to 1789. He seldom ever referred to his Indian name Attchecho-
hela, which he bore from birth. He stated his name referred to the
river Mochohela, Indian for Delaware.

Bowlegs was born in 1692, near the Delaware River on the Lit-
tle Bushkill Creek, and came with his tribe to the Monongahela
in 1696, living with the tribe from his youth until the main portion
of the Delaware tribe was destroyed at Flint Top in 1748. Bowlegs
married Star-Cloud "Stosewaga" in 1722, but this woman, said to
be the most beholding maiden of the tribe, died of smallpox in 1737.
This Indian never again beheld another maiden who could appease
his aching heart, and he became a trailer of the foes of his tribe,
the Five Nations. Bowlegs, or Eagle Eye, trailed from the
Susquehanna to the River Beautiful (the Ohio) in the years from
1737 to 1747, and from the Lakes to the far south on James River.
He never forsook the English, nor forgave the French for the
destruction of King Oulamopess (War Chief Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo)
and most of his tribe at the Battle of Flint Top in September 1748.
He made two trips to Philadelphia, one with a French Indian
named "Crogahen," and one for his white brother with whom he
lived in his old age. After the Five Nations of the North and the
two nations of the West made "Squaws" and "Children" of his
tribe in death, he joined his faithful Tingooqua and Oppaymolleh
and a small number of the Delawares in a new agreement to hold
their loyalty to those in authority at Spirit Spring and at Queen
Aliquippa's Camp at Indian Ridge.

The French set their mark on Tingooqua's land in 1751, but
never made it their home. Later this site faded from the great
Indian land into the English settlement at Camp Cat Fish, after the
French were forced to leave the Monongahela Valley. Bowlegs
lived by the side of his white brothers many years, and was buried

77/r Bowlegs Stone, Showing Site of Turkey Foot Rock, Dunkard Creek
and Crossing, and the Indian Camp Ground

SOME NOTED INDIANS 319

by them at the side of his faithful "Star-Cloud" in the year 1789,
he being past ninety-seven years of age. Bowlegs never killed an
English man, or harmed a white woman, but he killed two French-
men on the Ohio River, and many Lake Indians, because they were
enemies of the tribe, and that was the law of preservation that the
members of all tribes took of their enemies, before the white man
set up his Majesty's law.

Bowlegs knew every fur trader that trespassed on the Delaware
lands. The English he tolerated, but the French he drove away or
killed. He knew the first white man to invade his lands. It was one
named Le Tort. Next came the French trader, Peter Chiever, whom
he made swim the little river, Island Creek, and hurry away to the
Shawnees on the Ohio. Peter Chiever, a half French and half
Shawnee Indian, was one of the fur traders that the Delaware Chief
disbarred from the tribal lands because he acted as a French spy, and
traded French goods to the Delaware Indians instead of Virginia
tobacco, as the chief commanded all traders to do.

Some historians have referred to Peter Chiever as Peter Chartier
believing that these two persons were one and the same man. Christ-
pher Gist refers to both, and stated that Peter Chiever was a Shaw-
nee trader, while Peter Chartier was a French-Delaware, and his wife
and Tingooqua's wife were sisters, both being the daughters of
Oppaymolleh.

Then came the Eckerlin boys who made Bowlegs presents and
"The Charm of Life" in 1736, which made Bowlegs the friend of
these English boys and of the great Mr. Gist, who was a friend to
all the Delawares and to both the French and the English. Bowlegs
took council with Tingooqua and the English at Logstown, and
advised the great Washington of the French and the Lake Indians,
receiving his thanks and much tobacco.

Perhaps no Delaware Indian had a wider knowledge of the
early English traders and first settlers in the Monongahela and
Ohio valleys than did Bowlegs, the prophet Joshua, of Tingooqua's
lands, on Tingooqua's own creek.

Cannasstego's Speech in 1744

Cannasstego, the Chief of the Onondago clan of Indians and
branch of the Cayuga-Senecas, made the following address at
Lancaster in 1744: "You know our ways and our practices. If the
white man trails to our wigwam, we all treat him well. If he is
cold, we warm him. If he is hungry, we give meat and drink, and
spread soft furs for him to sleep on. We ask no thing from him,

320 THE HORN PAPERS

but when I go into white man's cabin and say, 'Me hungry,' he say,
'Get out, you Indian dog.' White man he say Indian dog. Indian
no dog, he is brave, he is kind, and live for his children. He, white
man cheat, he kill Indian for no fight, no steal no thing, just kill, kill.
White man steal Indian fur. Sometime he say, pay Indian, but
Indian never see pay.

"Brother, we must let you know that we love our children too
well to let the white men to make them like their own children.
When Indian children become like white children they are bad run-
ners; catch no game in the woods; catch no fish in the waters. They
cannot stand cold or hunger; they could take no deer, or kill an
enemy. They are not fit for hunters, warriors, or councillors in the
tribe. To show you we are the white man's friend if the Virginia
men will give us ten of their white boys we will teach them how to
hunt, fish, and to trail an enemy, and live in the forest. The Indian
make a fire when he need fire; white man cannot make Indian fire.
Indian make little fire and be close to it; white man make big fire
be far away.

"The Indian make smoke-fog for his friends to trail by; white
man he see but no understand. Many things the Indian see and hear,
that the white man say the Indian lie; but Indian practice like
white man. White man see little, tell much. Indian see much, tell
little. White man very good when he want to cheat Indian. Indian
cannot cheat white man, he can kill him when he make Indian his
enemy. White man he make much fine talk, but do not make it so.
Indian make little talk and make it all so. The Indian and the white
man can be friends, but the Indian can never be a white man because
they are not honest with each other when peace is made. The
white man is too proud to be an Indian, but he steal Indian's
hunting ground. He make Indian feel he has no land. All land
except Penn's land is the Indian's land. The French he say, 'our
land,' you say, 'our land.' You are not French. The Indians want
their own land. I speak for my people as Joshua speaks for the
Delawares and set his claim to their lands, held to be Virginia
claims and French claims but the Indians' own land."

This land claimed by the Onondago Indian band lay east of the
Cayuga claims in Butler County. Gist's map of the Indian trails in
1747 shows the location of both tribes of Indians.

Joshua, referred to by Cannasstego, or Bowlegs, as the Vir-
ginians called him, was a Delaware Indian who was widely known
in the Monongahela River Valley from 1720 to the time of his
death at Spirit Spring in 1789. Joshua made three trips to Phila-
delphia, and at least one trip to Williamsburg before the close of the

SOME NOTED INDIANS 321

French and Indian War in 1763. He often stated that George
Croghan did one thing and said another, that no Indian placed any
confidence in him, but all took his tobacco along with his promises
made to them.

Logan and The Mingo Indians

Logan, a Delaware Indian having a wife of the Mingo tribe,
was a friend of the English, and often appeared at Spirit Spring
in 1772 and 1773.

In the spring of 1774 a robbery was committed near now the
city of Wellsburg, West Virginia, by a band of Cayuga-Seneca
Indians. This aroused Dr. John Connolly, the Military Com-
mander over the old Ohio lands and stationed at Fort Dunmore at
the Forks of the Ohio. Connolly had at that time forty Virginia
Militiaman under his command. There was more or less contention
between Dr. Connolly and John Canon over Virginia rights on the
frontier border and Governor Dunmore was, to some extent, placed
between these bitter opponents.

Dr. Connolly sent eighteen of the Militiamen under Daniel
Greathouse, with orders to kill all the Indians found along the Ohio,
and stop all depredations. Greathouse overtook some of the Cayuga
Indians and killed several members of the party while a part of the
band escaped into Ohio.

The Indians west of the Ohio River, including the Shawnee
Tribe on the Scioto, were in a state of unrest and threatening war.
The settlers on the east side of the Ohio were alarmed. Michael
Cresap with a few Scouts descended the river to the Mouth of the
Kanawha River, and met with some of the Cherokees, and he
admitted they killed a few and the rest made their escape.

On ascending the river to Wheeling, Captain Michael Cresap
and party received a message from Dr. Connolly at Pittsburgh
informing him of the outlook and requesting him to hold his position
for a few days. Soon after, a second messenger arrived from Dr.
Connolly stating that war was inevitable, and begging Cresap to
notify the inhabitants to take steps to fortify themselves. William
H. English, in his Life of George Rogers Clark, Vol. 2, Pages
1029-1033 inclusive, gives the full text of a letter written by Geo.
Rogers Clark to Dr. Samuel Brown, under date of June 17, 1798,
giving a clear account of the attack made on the Logan family and
some other women and children by some of the Militiamen and
others who did not know that the party were friendly Indians and
had harmed no one. He states that Michael Cresap's conduct was
above reproach, and he in no way had a hand in the murder of

322 THE HORN PAPERS

Logan's family, and that, after leaving Wheeling, they marched
about five miles up the river toward Logan's Camp, which was
about thirty miles above Wheeling and rested for refreshments.
There, they argued the matter and decided that this hunting Camp
was composed of men and women who had not hostile intention
but were merely hunters. This was two days before the attack was
made on the Logan family. Cresap himself proposed that they
abandon the project. All present agreed to this plan and, the same
evening, they recamped and set out for Redstone on the Monon-
gahela. Logan, hearing that the Cresap party was at Wheeling,
naturally thought that it was Michael Cresap who was responsible
for the murder of his family, and knew no better until he was
informed by Enoch O'Brine who was one of the Cresap party.

Logan made his famous speech to Enoch O'Brine, and charged
him to convey it to the Governor. Others may have been present
when O'Brine, as interpreter, took Logan's statement. Anyway,
Enoch O'Brine seems to have been the one who conveyed the speech
to Dunmore.

Extracts from Colonel Freye's Notes

The Indians declared the "Long Knives," as they called the
Virginians, were taking privileges which they did not think were
due them, and many of the Indians were in favor of going to war.
However, they called a council meeting in which Logan took an
active part. He admitted that the Indians had room for complaint,
but at the same time reminded them that they too had aggressed the
white people along the Ohio and its branches, and that if they went
to war they could at best harass the white frontier settlers for only
a little while until the Long Knives would come as thick as the trees
in the forest and drive them from their good lands. He begged them
to remain at peace with the whites. He said, "Promise me you
will remain at peace until I see a just reason for war." To this they
all agreed, buried the hatchet, and everything went along well until
the Indians arrived from Yellow Creek and reported that Logan's
mother, brother, and sister were murdered by white man. Logan,
who had forced the Indians to remain at peace with the whites, was
stung to frenzy. He had been their friend, had proved faithful to
the English settlers and to Virginia, and had kept Lord Dunmore
posted on the movements of the Indian troubles on the Ohio. He
now raised the war hatchet with this utterance, "I will not ground it
until I have taken ten white lives for each one of my family." Later,
when he made his famous speech to Enoch O'Brine and directed
him to deliver it to Lord Dunmore, he stated that he had kept his

SOME NOTED INDIANS 323

word, and when he had killed thirty white men and women he had
grounded his hatchet and had no fear of the consequence. Only
sorrow filled his heart for his lost ones.

Thomas Nicholson, Enoch O'Brine, and Colonel Joseph Parkin-
son were at the village when the information from Yellow Creek
was given, and Bowlegs and his assistant advised these three friend-
ly whites to leave the Ohio for the time being and return to their
own people on the west side of the Monongahela, as John Canon's
message directed them to do.

(Cononel Joseph Parkinson, who in his latter years erected the
first inn or hotel in Jefferson in 1797, was the Parkinson referred to
in Freye's Notes. Parkinson, as well as Colonel John Heaton, was
on the Ohio River at the time of the trouble at Yellow Creek, and
they were with Colonel Cresap. They often referred to their ex-
perience with the Indians on the Ohio in 1773-1774. Freye and
Parkinson were related. Some of their descendants drifted into the
west, and they often referred to the border days on the Ohio.)

It must be remembered that what is now Greene County was
much more thickly settled in 1774 than any other portion of south-
western Pennsylvania, because the settlers came in over the Gist-
Indian James River Trail to Turkey Foot, and into southern Greene
County from 1760 to 1770. On June 8, 1773, the Camp Cat Fish
court at Spirit Spring in West Bethlehem Township, Washington
County, appointed Daniel Moredock, Sr., Virginia Tax Collector
and Poll Man. On September 4 of the same year, he turned in a list
of three hundred forty-six names within the borders of Greene
County, and in 1774, when Dunmore's War was on, the increase
had reached three hundred ninety people who flocked from the east
side of the Monongahela into the territory now composing Greene
County. Two reasons may be given for this influx. First, they came
to get farther away from the Huron and Cayuga Indians who were
being induced by French interests in Canada to lay waste the English
settlements. These Indians came mainly over the Allegheny River
Trail to the southeast corner of Butler County, to near Greensburg,
and to the Monongahela River. They threatened the settlers in
1773-1774, many of whom took refuge west of the river until the
Indian scare was over. Fort Brown on the west side of the Monon-
gahela had twenty-two persons from the east side of the river with-
in her stockade in April 1774. Second, from the year 1765 to 1775
the Monongahela River was the supposed dividing line between
Virginia and Pennsylvania. Most of the Virginia sympathizers set-
tled west of the river, and more than eighty per cent of the settlers
from 1760 to 1774 remained and patented their land in and after

324 THE HORN PAPERS

the year 1785. The list of settlers made in 1773, substantiates this
fact.

Queen Aliquippa, daughter of the Delaware Spiritual Chief,
Oppaymolleh, and twin sister of "Snow in Face," was born in 1706
at the main Delaware Indian village on Indian Ridge near Aliquip-
pa's Spring. Her next younger sister was the wife of Tingooqua,
the Civil Chief of the Delawares, and her youngest sister was the
wife of Peter Chartier.

Queen Aliquippa was a beautiful girl, and she and Snow in Face
were inseparable during their girlhood. Snow in Face died in 1737
and was buried on Indian Ridge in West Bethlehem Township,
Washington County. Her grave was marked from 1775 to 1856,
and its site is still known to a few people.

Queen Aliquippa was brokenhearted at the loss of her twin sister
and often spent much time wandering through the timber and in
many outlying Delaware villages. She was away from Indian Ridge
with Oppaymolleh, Tingooqua and his wife, Peter Chartier and
his wife, and a small band of her tribe, and thus escaped the terrible
battle and destruction of her tribe at Flint Top on September 17,
18, 1748.

In 1749, she lived on Gist land in Fayette County near Gist
Point, but in 1750 she and her small band of Delawares left this
camp and went to Logstown, living there until late in the year,
when, after some trouble with George Croghan, she left and settled
three miles below the mouth of the Youghiogheny River. She lived
here when visited by George Washington on January 2, 1754.

Her brother, Cashuwayon, informed the Pennsylvania Council
at Philadelphia in November 1747 that the French threatened the
destruction of the Delaware tribe by the Five Nations. Governor
Morris thanked him for his information but gave no heed to it.
After the death of the War Chief, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, on September
18,1748, Cashuwayon was selected as the temporary chief of the
remnant of the Delaware tribe, but Aliquippa was the real leader.
In the "Wilderness Trail" by Charles A. Hanna, page 79, the author
says: "The son's name is variously given as Canachquasy, Cashu-
wayon, Kanuksusy, Ah Knoyis, Kosshoweyha, Cashiowayah, and
Cashunyon." Thus he gives the names of four different Indians and
applies them all to the son of Aliquippa, while in fact Cashuwayon
was the correct name of her brother, the son of Oppaymolleh who
presented this son to William Penn at New Castle in 1701. On page
80, the same author says : "On August 27, 1748, Conrad Weiser, on
his way to Logstown, dined with Queen Aliquippa at her Seneca
town where an old Seneca woman reigns with great authority." That

SOME NOTED INDIANS 325

woman was neither a Delaware nor did she bear any relation to
Queen Aliquippa; neither did Conrad Weiser see Queen Aliquippa
at that time since she and her father, Oppaymolleh, and their party
left Indian Ridge in July 1748. According to Christopher Gist's
statement, they were in camp on the east side of the Ohio River below
Moundsville, West Virginia, and were there when the Delaware
tribe was mainly destroyed at Flint Top on September 17, 18, 1748.

Queen Aliquippa made two trips to Philadelphia, and in 1755
she spent three months at John Harris' home on the Susquehanna
River. She visited her native camp site at Aliquippa's Spring in
1766 and mourned over her sister's grave at that time. In 1769,
Aliquippa and Bowlegs held a feast at Aliquippa's Spring for Jacob
Horn, Christopher Gist, John Watson, and Abel McCullough, and
at that time she gave a clear account of her family and of her broth-
er and sisters.

In 1772, on his arrival at Camp Cat Fish, Jacob Horn made
inquiry of Bowlegs about Queen Aliquippa and was informed that
she died in April 1771.

Queen Aliquippa was early taught that she was a born sovereign,
and was loyal, with a few exceptions, to the English, but had a hatred
for the French. She quarreled with George Croghan over the
matter of his calling so many of the Indians "Chief" merely to se-
cure their favors.

Dr. Samuel Eckerlin told how the Queen and Snow in Face
entertained him at a feast at Alquippa's Spring on his first trip to
the Delaware main camp in May 1729. She informed him that the
French were enemies of the Delawares and that he should bring no
Frenchmen to the Delaware lands. She was at her home on Indian
Ridge and again feasted Dr. Eckerlin, his brothers, and Christopher
Gist on Gist's first visit to her home early in June 1737.

Queen Aliquippa and her husband were the parents of two chil-
dren. One of them died at Aliquippa's Spring in 1742. The other,
Eagle Eye, was the Village Chief of the Bird Clan of the tribe. He
had his village near the site of Graysville. There was no Indian
woman in any of the tribes from 1700 on who was so well known to
the fur traders as Queen Aliquippa. She desired to meet and know
personally every Virginia fur trader who came into the Delaware
lands.

From Crumrine's History

District of West Augusta Showing Boundary Line Proposed by Virginia 1775-1776

CHAPTER XI
FIRST COURTS AND COURTHOUSES

Much has been written and many discussions have taken place
about the old Virginia Courts that were held in that section of the
colony of Virginia which, by the establishment of the Mason and
Dixon Line, became Pennsylvania territory in 1781 by an agreement
made in Baltimore in 1780 and which was finally ratified by these
contesting colonies in 1784.

A clear statement of these existing courts has not been given
the general public for a century and a half, mainly because neither
contesting faction wished to prolong the strife that was caused by
these courts from 1772 to 1780.

At the close of the contest in 1781, neither Virginia, which lost
in the contest, nor Washington County, which gained control, would
accept the court records or the papers left undestroyed of the acts
and reports of the courts and general business that had been trans-
acted on the border from 1772 to 1781. Most of these records
were destroyed when the courthouse was burned at Augusta Town
on the night of June 12, 1780, and some of the remaining docu-
ments, held in the possession of Richard Yeates, the proprietor of
Augusta Town, in 1780, were in the hands of the Virginia justices
at Razortown in the following September.

The last session of the Virginia Court ever held on Pennsylvania
soil, convened at Razortown on September 16, 1780, at eight
o'clock in the morning and continued throughout the following
day and until noon of September 18. It was to continue the rest
of the day on confirming land titles and granting Virginia certifi-
cates; however, John Canon gained the floor and made a two-hour
address to the court and to the threescore of settlers who had ar-
ranged to see the ending of the Virginia Court.

A state of ill feeling existed at the time between John Canon
and several of the justices, and Canon, after a lengthy review of all
the early day events and transactions of matters issued out of the
Camp Cat Fish and Fort Queen Elizabeth courts, and in the interest
of the settlers, now openly attacked the honesty and designs of the
court and accused the justices of dishonorable conduct, which they
resented. A general turmoil followed. Canon and his crowd drove
the justices from the inn, broke up the seats, the tables, and some
record holders, and burned these with all records and books in
sight, and a general fight ensued. Some attempt was made to draft

328 THE HORN PAPERS

a new set of the Augusta Town Court Records and some records
that were supposed to have been made at Fort Pitt, but only a few
scraps of these were preserved, which in time became the purported
original records. Even these did not throw a clear light on the true
history of the line of Virginia Courts and, while the Horn papers
do not give more than a fractional part of the total transactions of
these courts, they do state the day and date of the setting up of old
Virginia Courts, and the preserved original documents are clear and
authentic as to the time and place of the holding of these courts.

"The Camp Cat Fish Court at Spirit Spring
April 1772 to June 8th, 1774"

The Camp Cat Fish Court was set up under the commission
issued to Jacob Horn under date of Lord Dunmore's seal as Septem-
ber 11, 1768. However the court was not established or opened
until April 1772. It was the first Virginia Court west of the
mountains and one year earlier than the Pennsylvania Court set
up at Hannastown in 1773. This court continued as the County
Court to June 8, 1774. One of the original court dockets and a por-
tion of the official county records, with a complete poll of all the
settlers in the district now known as Washington and Greene
counties, Pennsylvania, and a portion of those living in Mononga-
lia and Ohio counties, West Virginia, for the year 1772 are pre-
served. The Camp Cat Fish Court terminated at noon on June 8,
1774, and reopened at Fort Queen Elizabeth on June 9, 1774.

"Fort Queen Elizabeth Court, Cox's Fort
June 9th, 1774 to September 17th, 1775"

In May 1774, a disagreement arose between Jacob Horn and
John Canon over the question of how to deal with the settlers of
Bedford and Westmoreland counties, who persisted in taking home-
steads in this territory against the law of Virginia. This question
caused much discussion and produced a bitter feeling throughout
the settlement. Neither Horn nor Canon would moderate their
views and each asserted the other to be radical in his contention. At
length the matter came to an end on the morning of June 8, 1774,
when John Canon came into the Camp Cat Fish Court and de-
manded that Judge Jacob Horn yield to his demands or resign
from his office. Horn would do neither at first; however, after four
hours of personal argument, he yielded, and gave Canon the gavel,
seal, and list of civil cases then before the court, but withheld his
commission, and about eighteen pounds sterling which were in his
possession at the time.

FIRST COURTS AND COURTHOUSES 329

Deeply disappointed but resigned to the situation, Jacob Horn
closed the Camp Cat Fish Court at high noon. Canon, after having
dined and wished Jacob Horn a prosperous life of contentment,
accompanied by John Horn, the eldest son of Jacob Horn, who was
sheriff at the time, departed for Fort Queen Elizabeth (also known
as Cox's Fort), which they reached the same day.

The second Northwest Augusta County Court was opened at
eight o'clock on the morning of June 9, 1774, with Isaac Cox on
the bench. The first move made was the reading of a prepared
article addressed to all the loyal Virginians, asking them to stand
by the Royal Governor, and to hold the Monongahela Valley for
Virginia, against the encroachment of Westmoreland settlers. It
also directed Dr. John Connolly to allow no Westmoreland settlers
to locate at the forks. Dr. John Connolly was at Fort Teegarden
a short time in 1770 and 1771, but he had been requested to return
to Williamsburg in October 1771. He returned to Fort Teegarden
in May 1772, and remained there and at Fort Burd until July. On
July 12, 1772 he, with George Teegarden, Thomas Gist, and
Robert Heathe, was at the Camp Cat Fish Courthouse, along with
many other frontier settlers, to receive the royal Governor, Lord
Dunmore, who was then on his way to the forks of the Ohio to
establish a military post. On recommendation of John Gibson and
Daniel Ryerson, the Governor appointed Dr. John Connolly as the
military commissioner of that territory around the forks of the
Ohio which constituted the old Ohio Land Company grant, which
was outside of the Camp Cat Fish Court district. This appointment
was made on the morning of July 12, 1772, and Dr. Connolly, in
company with the Governor, Thomas Gist, John Canon, Robert
Heathe, and some followers, left for Fort Teegarden where they
crossed the Monongahela River and proceeded to Dyce's Inn, on
the headwaters of Dunlap's Creek, and from there to the Gist home,
then in charge of Thomas and Anne Gist. Dunmore made an elab-
orate address on the life and history of the late Christopher Gist,
telling how he helped Virginia to become the possessor of the French
claims of the Monongahela Valley, and of the site of Fort Duquesne
at the forks of the Ohio River. In honor of his visit at the home,
he issued a Virginia Justice of the Peace Commission to the son,
Thomas, and a Royal Badge of Honor to the daughter, Anne.

On the arrival of the Royal Governor and Dr. Connolly at Fort
Stanwix, Connolly became the Governor's representative of that
outlying district, but had no jurisdiction over the Gist estate, which
the Governor laid no personal claim to, because that southeastern

330 THE HORN PAPERS

portion of the Ohio Land Grant had been awarded to Gist by the
colony of Virginia, in 1754.

The Royal Governor promised the Fort Queen Elizabeth Court,
in July 1774, that he would enlarge that court, and in the following
December, he appointed additional justices, among them Dr. Con-
nolly, all of whom were sworn into office at the courthouse at Cox's
Fort in January 1775. Connolly termed this the Pittsburgh Court,
but the court had no other connection with Fort Dunmore, as it
was then known, except that Dr. Connolly held both the military
commission and a justice commission in the Civil Court at Cox's
Fort on the Monongahela River near West Elizabeth town. This
action on the part of the Governor aroused the anger of John Can-
on, the nephew of the Governor, and the leader in the court district,
and while that court had to defend Dr. Connolly, who had become
involved in the controversy of the Hannastown Court, which claimed
jurisdiction over the joint territory as governed by Dr. Connolly as
military commissioner and of the court of which he was a justice,
the Pennsylvania claimants from further interference, which they
subdued at Hannastown in April 1775. After the matter was ended,
Canon began to lay his plans to clear Connolly from the Virginia
Courts.

Two events took place soon after that gave Canon the advan-
tages he had been striving for since the appointment of Connolly on
July 12, 1772. First : Shortly after the battle of Lexington and Con-
cord in April 1775, Governor Dunmore hurriedly made prepara-
tions to leave America, and dropped all matters pertaining to the
Virginia interest in the Upper Ohio regions, and Canon, being
strongly anti-British and a personal friend of Washington and
Patrick Henry, assumed full authority in the Monongahela Valley.
Second: In June 1775, Richard Yeates tomahawked a homestead
around Wessameking Spring and Upper Cat Fish Run, and set his
plans to lay out a town that would become the center of the western
border of civilization. He determined to make it the court seat. He
and John Canon took Justice Isaac Cox into their confidence, and a
little later Resin Virgin, who at that time was sheriff, and all of them
erected houses on Yeates town site in order to be ready for sudden
action. The month of July 1775, at Cox's Fort, was a period of
much disagreement among the several justices and there were not a
few personal fist battles, but the court adjourned on July 24, to
open on September 15. Canon and Cox were getting ready to over-
throw Dr. Connolly and put his power to an end, and were awaiting
only a chance to make a transfer of the court to Yeates town site.
This chance came two days after the convening of the fourth session

FIRST COURTS AND COURTHOUSES 331

of the second Virginia Court on September 15, 1775. On the
morning of September 17, the justices present got into a general
quarrel over the question of their personal position in accordance
with the. time and manner of their appointment. Canon declared
that Isaac Cox, being the first appointed justice to sit in chancery,
was the chief justice, and held the right to make the other justices
accept his appointed position; and he placed Dr. John Connolly at
the foot of the seven members. This started a personal, bitter, and
most aggressive fight.

At the hour of noon, John Canon seized the royal seal, the court
docket, the gavel, and the court papers, and after some direct
language made to the opponents, he and Justice Cox, E. Ward,
and the sheriff set out from Cox's Fort for their new settlement
on Richard Yeates' plantation, arriving there the following night.

On September 19, 1775, court was opened in the front room of
Canon's home and it continued to meet until October 4, when John
Canon went to Williamsburg to have West Augusta County and
Fincastle County set aside and the district of West Augusta formed,
making Augustatown the district seat.

By this bold stroke, Canon not only wiped out the old courts but
overthrew Dr. Connolly, and placed the other justices at his mercy.
After the district of West Augusta was formed, the third Virginia
Court was organized, and Canon then invited his defeated oppon-
ents to join him at Augustatown. All but Connolly again became
justices, with Hon. David Shepard as a chief justice. The district of
West Augusta in October 1776 was found to be a disadvantage for
the best interest of the prosecution of the Revolutionary War, and
was divided into the three counties of Yohogania, Mongalia, and
Ohio, each having a court seat. The Augustatown courthouse and
jail continued to be the seat of Yohogania County, although court
was held for about two years at the Andrew Heathe homestead,
alternately with Augustatown, until the destruction of the court-
house on June 12, 1780.

Monongalia County erected her first courthouse on the Eberhart
Bierer land, now the site of Maidsville, West Virginia. Ohio
County set her first courthouse at Shepard's post, on the site of Elm
Grove, near Wheeling, West Virginia, and Hon. David Shepard
became the first judge of that court on January 8, 1777.

The Andrew Heathe home, where the Yohogania County court
was held alternately with Augustatown from 1777 to October 1779,
stood about three hundred yards from Fort Queen Elizabeth
(built in 1758, and called Cox's Fort from 1766 to 1781) where the

332 THE HORN PAPERS

second Virginia Court was held from June 8, 1774 to September
17, 1775.

In 1777, Robert Heathe, the brother of Andrew, refused to let
Yohogania County hold court in the same room in which the second
court was held in 1774-1775. Andrew built a log room to his home
for a courtroom, but no jail was built there.

An election was called in December to vote on a county seat
for Yohogania County. The election was set by Isaac Cox to be held
at the home of Richard Yeates and on Sunday, purely to make the
election illegal.

The vote carried to reinstate the court at Cox's Fort near the
Monongahela River, but Robert Heathe appealed to the court at
Augustatown on December 29, 1776, to place it at some other point,
whereupon the judges, except Isaac Cox, decided five to two that
the election held on Sunday was illegal. However, to appease the
settlers, the judges agreed to hold the court alternately between
Augustatown and Andrew Heathe's home, but all prisoners were
to be dealt with and all punishments meted out at Augustatown,
since Richard Yeates was the proprietor of the latter place and had
a legal right to collect for the rent of the courthouse, jail, ducking
stool, and whipping post, which except the courtroom did not exist
at the Heathe homestead. Except for the cost of some powder and
lead, and the cutting of some firewood, Andrew Heathe never
received a shilling for the use of his house for court sessions, and
in October 1779, closed his home for all such purposes. The last
court held at Augustatown was on May 27, 1780.

CHAPTER XII
EARLY FORTS

Fort Morris

In May 1766, Joseph Morris of Virginia took up a tract in
what is now Jefferson Township, containing twenty-eight hundred
and fifty acres, and built the first two-room hewn log house ever
erected in Greene County. It included a stone fort joined to the log
house. This stone addition was about thirty feet wide and fifty feet
in length, and consisted of a rounded two corners with each side
wall joined to the wall of the house. The wall was about three feet
thick and eight feet high, with portholes about four feet above the
ground.

Joseph Morris located this site, marked it off, and assisted his
sons to build the home and the fort, but never owned the land except
by tomahawk claims. His wife and daughter lived in Staunton and
so far as known never made their home in Greene County, but the
records show that the head of the family, Joseph Morris spent
most of his life in later years among his sons and those nephews who
settled on this Greene County land in 1766. Jonathan Morris with
his family occupied the fort site, while five of his brothers occupied
log houses in the valley, across Cricket Run. These brothers, with
their families, often left their homes and took their way up the
hill to the stone fort when the Indians put in their appearance on the
trail nearby.

Late in the autumn of 1767, Jonathan Morris, Sr., a brother
of Joseph Morris, settled on a small tract given him by the latter.
This tract was on the ridge north of "Independence Hall," and
here he and his family lived until 1771.

His eldest son, Richard Morris, was a Revolutionary War
soldier as was his younger brother, Robert Morris. Jack Morris,
the third son of Joseph Morris, Sr., enlisted in the Virginia Militia,
while his brother, George Morris, joined the Virginia Regulars
under Captain Abner Howell.

Fort Morris, better known as Independence Hall, probably had
the first glass windows of any house in this territory. Each window
was taxed four shillings by Virginia in 1773. Jonathan Morris, Sr.,
tomahawked a claim where Fordyce was later established. His
sons lived near Gerards Fort.

The Joseph Morris homestead as taken up in 1766 consisted of
a hilly tract along the banks of South Tingooqua Creek and Morris

24

334 THE HORN PAPERS

Run, later named Braden's Run, covered mostly with heavy timber.
This original tract, taken in 1766, was divided and subdivided
among the Morris sons and two nephews before the organization
of Washington County in March 1781. It was not until after the
Mason and Dixon Line had been extended from Turkey Foot Cross-
ing to the southwest corner of the state of Pennsylvania in 1784 that
it was determined just where the boundary line was between the two
colonies. But soon after the first of the year 1785 every homesteader
rushed to obtain a patent to his claims, and it was at this time that
the Morrises obtained their papers to their claims. The original
site of the Joseph Morris Independence Hall was patented by
Robert Morris in 1808 as "Liberty." He married Sarah Rhinehart
and reared a large family of children in Greene County.

The site of Fort Morris is plainly visible on the farm now owned
by Mr. William Rhodes, who was born there sixty-eight years ago.
The grave of Robert Morris above the road in the old orchard is
marked by headstone and footstone markers, the same site where
he set his cane as the place where he desired to be buried.

Fort Queen Elizabeth (Coxe's Fort)

Fort Queen Elizabeth on the west side of the Monongahela
River, opposite the present town of Elizabeth, was built by the
Virginia Militia in 1753 under the direction of Jacob Heathe, who
commanded thirty-six men. The object was to form an English
base between the French Creaux Bozarth forces at Fort Louis I,
Fort Louis II, and the French at Fort Duquesne. Fort Queen Eliza-
beth was built of logs, consisting of three rooms, end to end, and
surrounded by a stockade about eight feet high.

John Gibson rested his men in this fort when on his way
from Fort Redstone to the forks, in November 1758, to aid
General Forbes in his attack on the French at Fort Duquesne. In
1761, Jacob Heathe tomahawked this site as his homestead, and
with his brother Andrew, lived in the fort from 1763 to 1777,
when he built his own houses about three hundred yards to the west
of the fort. In 1777, when the sessions of the Yohogania County
Court were held there, Andrew Heathe built an additional room on
the house for the court. It was to this Fort Queen Elizabeth that
John Canon transferred the West Augusta County Court from
Camp Cat Fish, when he closed the Jacob Horn Court, on June 8,
1774, and reopened court in the north room of Fort Queen Eliza-
beth the next day.

EARLY FORTS 335

Fort Queen Elizabeth was known as Coxe's Fort from 1774 to
1780, but in all the records preserved, it was called the Fort Queen
Elizabeth Court. Many things took place at this court that modern
historians refer to as having taken place at Pittsburgh. The so-called
Pittsburgh Court of 1774-1775 was the court at Fort Queen Eliza-
beth, for at that time Pittsburgh consisted mainly of Fort Dunmore
and a number of traders who were temporarily located there, and
was governed by Dr. John Connolly, the Military Commissioner
who was appointed by Governor Dunmore, at Camp Cat Fish, on
July 12, 1772.

It was in this courtroom at Fort Queen Elizabeth, that the plan
for the erection of a new state was drafted and addressed to Con-
gress. This meeting was held October 24, 25, 1775, and among
those present were John Canon, John Heaton, John Horn, William
Minor, Thomas Hughes, Richard Yeates, and Abel McCullough.
The committee, of which John Canon was chairman and Dorsey
Pentecost, secretary, drafted an able paper which was headed: "The
Memorial of the Inhabitants of the Country West of the Allegheny
Mountains Represents."

After the death of Jacob Heathe, Fort Queen Elizabeth fell
into disrepair, and was destroyed by fire in 1792. One of the brass
andirons used in this old court was still in the possession of a de-
scendant of the Heathes in 1892.

Fort Queen Elizabeth stood about three fourths of a mile over
on the land of the old Ohio Company north of the Camp Cat Fish
Court boundary line from the mouth of Onida Creek on the Ohio
River to the Monongahela River. In April 1772, when the court
district boundary line was surveyed, John Canon changed the
course of the Ohio lands and took this site into the court district,
while all the land to the north fell under the military rule of Dr.
John Connolly, who was responsible only to Governor Dunmore.
This military rule, as well as all of Northwest Augusta County, was
set aside when the district of West Augusta was formed in October
1775, and Augustatown became the district seat and took over the
Virginia Court as a new court, for the Fort Queen Elizabeth Court
had ceased to exist.

The Grayble Blockhouse

Grayble's blockhouse, just west of South Brownsville, was
located at the place where Le Mercier, the French Commander,
halted his troops in September 1748, when the French and united
Indian forces were on their way from Contrecoeur Fort to Flint

336 THE HORN PAPERS

Top. It was on this site that the French camped while their allies,
the Five Nations of the North, and the Great and Little Osages of
the Central West, marched on to the Delaware's main camp at Flint
Top at Indian Ridge and destroyed the Delawares on September 17,
18, 1748. The French troops carried three kegs of rum from the
Indians' allotment of rum stored in camp near the Allegheny River,
about ten miles above the mouth, where the Indians were to receive
this part of their pay for the destruction of their foe, the Delawares.

The site of this blockhouse was where Christopher Gist and
Creaux Bozarth set a wooden cross in October 1747, after the
French Fort Louis II had been erected. It was in the shape of an
"L." The long part, thirty-eight feet long and eighteen feet wide,
was built with round logs. The short angle was built of stone and in
1767 was used as the magazine room. Jacob Horn stated that he,
Jacob Wiever, and Bowlegs slept in this log fort in 1767, where
Enoch O'Brine lived at that time. The place was known as
"The Three Kegs." When O'Brine built the stone house in 1774,
and started the inn, he gave it the name of the "Three Kegs," and
this was the beginning of Brownsville. The old French Fort at the
mouth of Redstone was built in 1747, and upon its ashes the
Hangard was built by the English in 1752, at the advice of
Christopher Gist. It was agreed that Virginia should maintain a
fort and a post at the mouth of Jummonville Creek on the Monon-
gahela within a day's march of Gist Post. Fort Burd, which some
historians mention as being at Redstone, had no connection with
the site of Fort Jummonville and the terminal of the Nemacolin
Trail, while the end of the Jaques Poynton, or so-called Braddock's
Road, was at the mouth of Redstone, where the French lead plate
was buried in June 1751.

Christopher Gist had now made all his plans and was moving
from his former homestead on the Yadkin to Gist Post. He asked
the colony of Virginia to maintain a post at the mouth of Jumon-
ville Creek. This was done, and the Virginia militia named the
creek Redstone from the red color of the water in the creek.
Historians have given many reasons for the selection of this site,
some even stating that George Washington ordered the post estab-
lished at the mouth of Redstone.

A. J. Waychoff, in his historical notes, describes Nemacolin as
a chief of the Delaware tribe. Nemacolin was a Delaware Indian
and a village head chief of about sixty members of the uFish Clan"
of the Delaware tribe. His village site before 1748 was on the old
Barnard Farm, between Clarksville and Millsboro. The site of
his village and graveyard on this place is still known. There are

EARLY FORTS 337

several "V" shaped headstones there, where Nemacolin's clan lived,
died, and were buried, prior to 1748. The late T. J. Barnard of
Clarksville was born on this farm and in his boyhood dug into some
of these graves. Later he plowed over this graveyard and re-
moved thirty or forty of the headstones, some of which are still
piled in the corner of the field. Nemacolin's grandmother, the last
of the Shennoah tribe of Indians, lived on this site in 1663, when
Jaques Poynton, the French pathfinder over the mountains, found
this lone member of the tribe and married her. These were the
grandparents of Nemacolin. The histories of Jaques Poynton and
Nemacolin were pictured on the rocks at East Millsboro as late as
1882, but were destroyed when the railroad was built up the river.
Additional history was pictured on the rocks at the mouth of Cas-
teel Run in Jefferson Township, before the railroad was built up
Ten Mile Creek. When Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn, and the
Frenchmen buried the fifth and last French lead plate at the mouth
of Redstone Creek in June 1751, Nemacolin was living in a log cabin
in West Brownsville, and was at the feast held on the bank of Red-
stone. The story of Nemacolin's furnishing Colonel Cresap with
a number of his people to widen the Nemacolin Trail is one of the
many inaccuracies woven in with facts to make up the history of the
Monongahela Valley.

Andrew Heathe stated in his notes that Nemacolin lived in
Yohogania from 1749 to 1767, but had no following after 1748,
most of his Fish Clan having gone west of the Ohio after the
defeat of the Delawares in 1748. Nemacolin, with Colonel Cresap,
did trail this pathway to the Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny
and set a stone basin at the waters of Jaques Poynton's great spring
on the western slope of the Allegheny Mountains in 1752.

In 1774, the Grayble blockhouse was attacked by fifteen Cayuga
Indians, four of whom were killed on the spot and another was
killed in the river while trying to make his escape. This was sup-
posed to be part of the same band that murdered the Stephen Ack-
ford family on South Ten Mile Creek at the time of the Battle of
Ten Mile. Daniel Boone and William Harrod, who visited Mc-
Cullough in 1783 to secure iron supplies, stopped two days at Gray-
ble's Fort before passing down the river in one of John Minor's
boats. The settlement at Redstone from 1770 to 1776 was far in
advance of the post at Pittsburg.

John Canon stated in 1774 that "notwithstanding the location
of the forks at the head of the Ohio River, Redstone would become
a large commercial center in Northwest Virginia, but in 1783, Can-
on declared Pittsburgh must be detached from Penn's Claims be-

338 THE HORN PAPERS

cause it will mean much to the State of Vandalia, for it will become
a noted place in our children's day."

A close connection between the sympathizers of the Whiskey
Rebellion in 1794 and 1795 existed between the people at Redstone
and Razortown, and any government men arriving over the Brad-
dock Trail would be entertained at Brownsville until word was
well on the way to Razortown to prepare for their reception. Not
a few of them were the guests of Enoch O'Brine at the old "Three
Kegs."

Fort George

The whole site of the peninsula on which Clarksville now stands
was the old Delaware Council lands from 1696 to 1748 and
Virginia Claims from 1750 to 1781.

In 1766, George Teegarden tomahawked all the land, 2,850
acres, as his homestead, from the mouth of Ten Mile Creek to
Casteel Run, including all the old Indian Council grounds. In 1771
and 1774, the Cayuga Indians made raids on Ten Mile near Clarks-
ville and up to the present site of Waynesburg. In 1773, on the site
of Clarksville, the only family living was that of Ebenezer Harris.
His log cabin stood where the old Walton graveyard was laid out
in 1792 and was near the Clarksville schoolhouse built in 1853. The
Harris log house was built in two parts with a large stone chimney
between two rooms, having an arched open fireplace serving both
rooms. This house was enclosed by a split log stockade and was
known as George's Fort, named after George Teegarden, who had
it built for Harris. Harris had worked at Teegarden's Ferry on
the river from 1768 to 1773, but was severely injured by the felling
of a tree near Fort Teegarden in February 1778 and was unable
to do much labor. His son, William Harris, became one of the
boat men in 1778 and continued until 1779 when he became one of
the workmen on the McCullough dam and millrace. After Ebene-
zer Harris was injured, George Teegarden settled the old man and
his family in the log house, as he afterwards stated, "to keep the
Hupps from his bottom land." At this time just across North Ten
Mile Creek the Mcintosh family lived in a log house on the site
where the Walton stone house was built in 1793. In 1774, when
the Cayuga Indians were constantly causing trouble on the west side
of the river, the Mcintosh and Harris families joined forces for
mutual protection and lived at this fort, which Nate O'Brine named
"McGeorges Fort." Ebenezer Harris and his wife, Polly, had
three sons — William, John, and Abraham, and three daughters —
Margaret (Polly), Jane, and Ann.

EARLY FORTS 339

Polly Harris married John Hupp, son of old George and his
Delaware Indian wife, who patented a portion of the Teegarden
tract. Harris died in this log house in 1787 and his wife died in
1791. They were buried inside the stockade. This house burned in
1801 after it became tenantless in 1790. John Harris, the second
son of Ebenezer Harris, emigrated to Kentucky in 1785. Abraham
was one of the four persons drowned in the Ohio River while on
their way to the Falls in the Ohio in 1801.

William Harris married Peggy Rush and lived at Millsboro for
some years. They had two sons, John and Abraham, and a daugh-
ter, Margaret, who was married to Raphael Drake and lived in
Clarksville. She died in 1829. Abraham and John Harris lived
in Clarksville until about 1870.

After fire destroyed Fort George in 1801, the Waltons, who
then owned this site, cleared away the stockade and set aside a plot
two hundred by one hundred feet for a graveyard. This became the
first graveyard in Clarksville. Nathan Briggs, a Revolutionary War
soldier, was the third person to be buried in this graveyard in 1791.

Fort Martin

In 1751, John Snyder and Samuel Martin were fur traders
in the valley of Little French Creek, trading with the Mingo
Indians of Chief Flat Fish's tribe. They erected a fur cabin on
Crooked Run, or Flat Fish Run, and for some years the Indians
delivered furs at this cabin to these two frontiersmen. In 1762,
Snyder returned to this locality to hunt and trap, and interested
others in settling along Crooked Run. Among the six families who
did so was the nephew of Samuel Martin, known as "Big John"
Martin. This man tomahawked three hundred thirty acres, and
erected a fort and stockade which he named Fort Martin. In 1769,
the three neighbors jointly built a milldam and a mill to grind corn
and rye, and in 1771 built a small sawmill and a distillery, making
the same dam divide the waters through two races to the mills. The
dam and the lower mill were constructed of logs. Earth and stone
were used to make the side wall up the run to the sawmill and dis-
tillery. The building of the sawmill was the first attempt at lumber-
ing in what is now Greene County. This distillery was the second of
its kind in Greene County. Samuel Jackson erected the first distill-
ery near the mouth of Casteel in 1769 and 1770, before he built
Fort Jackson in 1774.

Fort Martin was built of heavy logs and the door was well
pinned, and stood against the attack by the British soldiers during

340 THE HORN PAPERS

the Revolutionary War. David Reece became a partner in 1774,
but in 1776 he volunteered under Colonel Morgan, and served three
years in the war. The distillery and the sawmill were burned during
the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. Neither of the distilleries survived
the raids of the government in 1794.

Fort Jumonville and Fort Burd

Fort Jumonville was built by the French in 1746 as their out-
post on the Monongahela River, under the direction of General
Jumonville, to keep watch on the Delaware Indians who lived south
of that place and on the west side of the river. The Delaware
Indian tribe occupied the territory claimed by the French, but were
favorable only to the English. Fort Jumonville stood until late in
1753, when it was destroyed by fire.

In January and February 1754, John Gibson, John Frazier,
Jacob Heathe, and Enoch O'Brine built the Hangard on the ashes
of the French Fort at the mouth of Jummonville Creek, but in April
1755, the French Regulars and Cayuga-Seneca Indians burned the
Hangard. Later, the English built Fort Redstone on the same
foundation. Fort Redstone stood until 1758, when the French and
Indians attacked the fort and the twenty Virginia militiamen. This
was about one week after the French evacuated Fort Duquesne at
the forks, and about eight days before General Forbes' advance
guards reached the forks and found Fort Duquesne in ashes.

John Gibson and thirty militiamen had left Fort Redstone in
November, and marched down to Fort Duquesne only to find
it destroyed. A week before General Forbes' advance guards
reached the forks, Gibson and his company set out to return to Red-
stone. They had reached a point ten miles up the river and made
camp. Late in the evening the Indian, Bowlegs, rushed into Gibson's
camp and notified him that the French and Cayuga Indians were
attacking his men at Fort Redstone. Consequently, Gibson and
his men made a hurried night march to the rescue. When he reached
Fort Redstone, he found it surrounded by a few Frenchmen and
about fifty Cayuga-Seneca Indians. The roof was on fire and the
Indians were screeching at a terrible rate. Gibson and his militia
killed several of the attackers; the rest jumped into the river,
swam downstream, and escaped. Two Frenchmen were captured.
The imprisoned men were released, but Fort Redstone was de-
stroyed. This ended all attempts to maintain a fort at the mouth
of Redstone Creek.

EARLY FORTS 341

The next year, 1759, Colonel Burd, who had settled there in
1757, erected his second house and stockade, and named it Fort
Burd. This fort was on Dunlap's Creek, a mile or more up from
old Fort Jumonville, and had no connection with the lower forts
where the French set their standard in 1746.

The Jaques Poynton-Nemacolin Trail across the Allegheny
Mountains divided at the Indian National Trail. The old Jaques
Poynton Trail terminated at Fort Jumonville, but the Nemacolin
Trail terminated at Fort Burd. Jaques Poynton, the grandfather
of Nemacolin, founded this trail sixty-five years before Nemacolin
was born, but Jaques Poynton trailed his grandson over this buffalo
and deer pathway when Nemacolin was only seven years of age, and
gave the Nemacolin name to this trail. Christopher Gist led the
Creaux Bozarth family over this trail from the Susquehanna River
to Eckerlin Creek in 1747.

When Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn, Grendelier, M. Beau-
mont, Tingooqua, Peter Chartier, Bowlegs, and Wessameking
buried the fifth and last French lead plate at the mouth of Jumon-
ville Creek on June 18, 1751, the French flag was floating over the
fort and mission. It was on this day, standing on a log near the fort
stockade, that Tingooqua, the Civil Chief of the Delaware tribe,
made his famous speech to the French commissioners, assailing the
French Government for their plan to destroy the Delaware tribe
at the Indian Battle of Flint Top, on Indian Ridge, on September
17, 18, 1748.

Fort Redstone and Fort Burd have been mentioned time and
again without differentiation by various writers and the general
impression is that these two forts were on the same site.

It was here at Old Redstone that the boats built at Greensboro
for the G. Rogers Clark expedition were fitted out. Redstone had
twenty white families in 1770, when Pittsburgh had about the
same number of half-breed fur trading families, but not a single
white family. The territory, now known as Greene County, had
four hundred forty-seven families living within her borders at that
time. Both iron and glass were manufactured in Greene County
several years before they were manufactured lower down the river,
but Brownsville became the glass successor of Glasstown at New
Geneva, and held that record for ten years before another lower
river town manufactured glass.

Professor A. J. Waychoff in his writings says: "Hangard was
the first fort built at or near Brownsville." If Waychoff meant that
this was the first fort erected by the English, he is correct, but if
he thought this was the first fort ever erected there, he is mistaken.

342 THE HORN PAPERS

McCullough village manufactured iron and Revolutionary War
supplies from 1779 to 1789, and ceased business just twenty years
before its neighboring town, Clarksville, was laid out by Samuel
Clark in 1809. Brownsville was laid out as a village in 1784 and had
about sixty families in 1787, when John Canon laid out his third
and last town. Uniontown was laid out by Henry Beeson, October
6, 1772.

Fort Harrod

Fort Harrod was erected in what is now Jefferson Township,
Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1767, by Samuel and William
Harrod, with the help of George Brown and his brother, William
Brown.

The Harrod brothers, Samuel and William, tomahawked a
large tract of land on Warm Springs Run, a branch of Ten Mile
Creek, in 1766. They erected their fur, salt, and hide house directly
on the Christopher Gist Trail from the Monongahela River to the
Delaware Indian Chief Wa-Ha- Wag- Lo's camp, at what is now
Jefferson. This log house of two rooms was a well-known landmark
in pioneer days, and was used for many different purposes in after
years. One of its special uses was as a schoolhouse from 1832 to
1840. This pioneer building stood, as a sample of the early-day
house construction, until about 1914, when it was removed.

Fort Harrod was erected farther up the valley on a slight
elevation above Warm Springs Run, near a spring, and not far
from the spring which the Delaware Indians called "Kalioka patali."
This building, erected on a stone foundation, was constructed of
logs hewn on two sides, and was the first two-story house ever built
in Greene County. It was well constructed, and the stone chimney
was long referred to as a good example of the early-day stone mason
work. A large fireplace in both stories was one of the special fea-
tures that made Fort Harrod a noted place.

The main purpose the Harrod brothers had in erecting this
Fort was to provide a home for their sister-in-law, Sarah Harrod,
the widow of their brother, John Harrod, deceased, and her family,
consisting of the sons, Levi, James, William, and Samuel, and three
daughters. Sarah Harrod and her family lived at this fort from
the fall of 1767 to the time when her brother-in-law, Samuel Har-
rod, traded this land for a tract in Morgan Township and erected
the Hill Fort Harrod on the land which was later patented by Levi
Harrod, son of Sarah Harrod, and nephew of Samuel Harrod, who
never patented any land in the county.

EARLY FORTS 343

It was at Fort Harrod on Warm Springs Run in what is now
Jefferson Township that Daniel Boone, the Browns, and others
met in a public meeting in October, 1772, to discuss and lay plans
for forming the first permanent settlement in Kentucky. Daniel
Boone was the leader in this movement, but James Harrod became
the local leader and at once took active steps to organize a company
to form a permanent settlement in the "dark and bloody regions,"
as it was then termed. James Harrod's mother and his Uncle Sam-
uel Harrod at first protested to the plans of James, but after hear-
ing the pleas made for James, and the Kentucky settlement, by
Boone, George Brown, and his brother, David Brown, they with-
drew their objections and gave James Harrod their full support to
his plans to make this Kentucky settlement.

In the winter and early spring of 1773, James Harrod decided
that, before making a settlement in Kentucky, he, with his company,
should see the Indian country of the Illinois before meeting with
Boone in Kentucky, as it appears that he had agreed to do. This
party, with James Harrod as their leader, left the Monongahela
Valley late in the spring of 1773, and made their way down the
Ohio River, then overland into the land of the Illinois, and reached
the outpost of the French. Finding no particular place, however,
in which they desired to found a settlement, they then set out for the
place they had agreed to meet Daniel Boone in Kentucky.
They arrived in the late fall, but did not find Daniel Boone there.
Boone and his party had been turned back by the Indians on
October 12. Harrod's party spent the winter there, and decided
upon forming a settlement in the near future. Early in February,
they ascended the river and reached Fort Henry, and then went
overland to Fort Harrod on Warm Springs Run. They recruited a
number of new members, built two new boats, and made prepara-
tions for the founding of the new settlement. They again departed
early in April, 1774, for their former location in Kentucky. James
Harrod and his party reached there, and, after some further in-
vestigation, decided to take land around the site where James
Harrod founded Harrodsburg the next year, 1775.

These Upper Virginians had tomahawked their claims and had
started to build their log houses, and some had been almost com-
pleted, when they first learned that the Indians were on the war-
path. These frontiersmen were not alarmed at the threats of
the natives, however, for they had lived on the frontier borders most
of their days. They therefore delayed their departure and were
planning to bring their families to this new settlement late in the fall
season. But destiny designed a delay in their plans.

344 THE HORN PAPERS

Governor Dunmore, having received the intelligence that the
Indians were going to war on the frontier settlers, sent word to the
white people in Kentucky to abandon their settlement and return to
Virginia. They still delayed, and a second warning was sent, making
it mandatory for them to return. After having buried their tools
and implements, with some supplies, in ravines, they departed,
making their way overland to the mouth of the Great Kanawha
River, and reaching Point Pleasant on October 11, 1774, just one
day after the battle there.

James Harrod and party pursued the Indians with the determin-
ation to end the Indian troubles, but Dunmore ordered a truce and
arranged terms of peace to the disgust of this party.

After their return to Point Pleasant, this party ascended the
river to Zane's Ferry, thence overland to Fort Harrod, where
Abraham Newland then occupied this fort and home. On Novem-
ber 11, 1774, James Harrod called another meeting to be held
on the eighteenth of the same month to make further plans for a
final attempt to carry out their original agreement. It was then
that William Harrod and his nephew, Levi Harrod, gave James
and his company their full support and helped to enlist new members.
Preparations were made during the winter months for an early
return to their Kentucky claims. Several keelboats were built
under the direction of John Hardin who had been a member of the
parties on the previous trips.

It was not, however, until early in April, 1775, that all the boats
were finished, and loaded at Fort Teegarden, and the party was
ready to descend the river. In after years George Teegarden told
of this departure of the Kentucky-bound settlers. He said: "All day
Sunday, and Monday, these fearless frontiersmen camped around
Fort Teegarden, while women were making a hunt for every article
of anything useful. Ten sheep were dressed and put in the stern
closet of the Brown's Dunmore keelboat, and every gill of whiskey
I had was stowed aboard 'Harrod's Terrior.' At last about Ten
O'clock, on the bright April day, we pulled them into the current of
a fresh rise in the river, and they departed, singing, God Bless Old
Virginia, and God Save the King."

Perhaps Fort Harrod was one of the least of all the forts west
of the Monongahela River to be molested by the Indians from the
day it was finished in 1767 down to the close of the Indian days in
Greene County. However, it was not altogether free from Indian
threats.

Levi Harrod and William Brown killed two Seneca Indians who
were attempting to burn the tanyard log house in 1769. In 1771, the

EARLY FORTS 345

daughter of Sarah Harrod, who later married Mr. Packer, shot and
killed a Cayuga-Seneca Indian on Warm Springs Run, between
the fort and the fur house of her Uncle Samuel, who was then
engaged in hanging tobacco to dry.

All the Harrods, except James Harrod and his family, who were
buried in Kentucky were buried in the Harrod Graveyard on the old
Bell Farm, in Morgan Township, Greene County, where the author
often read the names and dates of all the members of the Harrods
who once lived in the Hill Fort near this graveyard.

David Brown of Boonville, Missouri, a descendant of the
Browns mentioned herein, was the owner of Timothy Flint's Bio-
graphical Memoir of Daniel Boone, published in Cincinnati in 1846.
He was a grandson of George Brown of Brown's Ferry on the
Monongahela. On the front leaves of this book under date of
June, 1846, signed by David Brown, we find the following:

"The first Kentucky meeting was held in the widow Harrod's
home at Warm Springs Run on Ten Mile Creek in October, 1772.
Was held by William Harrod, Daniel Boone, Jack Morris, James
Hughes, David Brown, Daniel Moredock, Jr., Natty Friggs, Henry
Enix. James Harrod, the nephew, was the first to set his name to
Boone's company. William Newland and William Rice made up the

meeting that was ever held to settle in Kentucky. All

these went to Illinois in 1773, to Kentucky in 1774 and most of them
in 1775.

"The Brown whom Christopher Gist made his new ferry boat
man in 1763 was my paternal grandfather. He married Sarah
Harrod, cousin of R. Boone, the wife of Daniel Boone, and lived
in upper Virginia on the Monongahela River. He died at Boonville
in 1818. The George Boone in upper Virginia was one cousin of the
great Daniel Boone and was the brother of John Boone in James
Harrod's company in Kentucky in 1774 and in Dunmore's war was
at the point on their way to upper Virginia for recruits and supplies
on the banks of the Monongahela River where the Harrod's Fort at
Warm Springs and the Kentucky meeting was first held in 1772."

Other notations on the margins of this by David Brown:

"William Brown born at the ferry 1769 was from April 21,
17-8 in upper Virginia near Harrod's Fort on Warm Springs Run.
He died at Boonville, Mo., September 12, 1854.

"C. Gist led the Boone family to North Carolina by his old Vir-
ginia trail by Salem Post, Snow Creek and Devil's Pass and the
Greenbriar River trail.

"This man's name was Findlay. He was from upper Virginia.

346 THE HORN PAPERS

"The Virginia and East North Carolina people went to Kentucky

by Virginia trail to the upper Ohio mostly by boat to Kentucky.

"John Findlay died 1817 at St. Charles, Mo. (Mo. Notes.)

"George Brown was with Samuel and William Harrod at Gist

Camp in 1763 by the salt house near Fort Harrod on Warm

Springs Run.

"Daniel Boone's wife, Rebecca Boone, was one of the six girls of
Bill Bryan, she being a sister to Mary Harrod, widow mother of
James, William, and Levi Harrod of Warm Springs Fort. Samuel
and William Harrod were the uncles of these brothers. Sarah
Harrod Brown was the wife of David Brown. George Brown's
wife was Mary Bryan.

"James Harrod's party of ten men in 1774 at the point were
William Reese, William Moredock (Greenbriar Bill), David Baily,
Jack Morris, William Findlay, Natty Friggs, John Boone, David
Brown, William Newland, Daniel Moredock, Jr. All these first
went to Illinois, then to Kentucky in 1773.

"William Moredock and brother George, David Taylor, Arnold
and Enix were with Boone and Logan.

"When C. Gist died in 1769 David Brown received 6 of 20
mules which he kept with Brown at the ferry home on the west side
of the Monongahela River. This Indian son was at the home of
George Brown until 1771 when they set out for Kentucky.

"More than fifty of the pioneer settlers of Kentucky were Vir-
ginians from the banks of the Monongahela.

"Daniel Boone was the first white man to make his way by
river from the falls of the Ohio up the Ohio to Brown's ferry in
1772. He made the Harrods acquainted with his Kentucky plans
and the first Kentucky meeting was held October 1772 before Boone
returned to North Carolina.

"Boone was on the Monongahela in 1794 when he visited his
cousins before he left for Kentucky. He bought ten oxen on White
Clay Creek in 1798. His flat boat that reached St. Charles was
a Monongahela Keel Boat.

"Daniel Boone's family lived at St. Charles until 1813 then
came to Boonville and lived there until his death in 1818.

"The first home of the Boones in North Carolina was 35 miles
west of the great bend of the Yadkin and south of the river and 20
miles west of Gist's old home.

"James Harrod's sketch book of his settlements in upper Vir-
ginia in 1766 with his mother, two brothers and three sisters say

EARLY FORTS 347

his two uncles Samuel and William's family were of the Gist land
members in 1763 and salt traders in 1765-66, at the Harrod's log
house on Indian trail at Gist first camp west of the river.

"My own grandfather George Brown and brother David gave
help to build this fort and tanyard at Warm Springs Run in 1767.

"It was in this fort that the Kentucky meeting was set in 1772 by
James and William Harrod, Jack Morris, David Gray, Henry
Enix, and Natty Friggs. All of these were of the first party to set
down the river to Illinois and Kentucky in 1773. They returned in
May, 1774.

"George Brown's ferry on the Monongahela River set by C.
Gist in 1763 was made by the Virginia Court a Colony ferry in 1772
and a tax set on it by the Camp Catfish officers in 1772.

"George Brown and William Harrod made the boat their
river travel to the falls on the Ohio in 1774. While in Kentucky the
Indians destroyed the boat. They made their way to the point on
the Virginia river when the Indian battle was directly before them.
James Harrod with ten more men in his party killed several of the
Indians before passing to Fort Fincastle. This was my grandfather's
first trip down the Ohio."

Forts in the Monongahela Valley

Fort Louis I was built by Creaux Bozarth in 1747. This fort
stood on the north side of Big Whiteley Creek in Greene Township,
one mile west of Garards Fort, Pennsylvania.

Fort Louis II was built by Creaux Bozarth in 1747-48. This
French fort stood on the east bank of the Monongahela River at
Fort Teegarden.

Fort Brown was built by George Brown in April 1763, on the
west_hank of the. Monongajiela River near Brown's Ferry, about
one mile below the mouth of Dunkard Creek.

Fort Seals was built by Captain John Seals in 1763. It stood
near the mouth of Brawn's Run, West Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

Fort Swan and Van Metre was built by John Swan and Jesse
Van Metre in 1766. It stood on the home site of Andrew Jackson
Young in Cumberland Township.

Fort Statler was built by Jacob Statler in 1766. It stood on the
north side of Dunkard Creek near the Mason and Dixon Line,
Monongalia County, West Virginia.

348 THE HORN PAPERS

Fort Teegarden was built by Abraham Tccgarden and sons in
1767. It stood about one hundred feet from the Monongahela River
near the old Emeery distillery at Millsboro, Pennsylvania.

Fort Ryerson was built by Jacob Ryerson in 1762. It stood two
miles south of Ryerson Station.

Ryerson Blockhouse was built by Daniel Ryerson in 1768. This
building stood on the border of the highway east of Ryerson Station.

Fort McClelland was built by William and John McClelland in

1766. This fort stood near the M. M. McClelland home in Wash-
ington Township.

Fort Province was built by Lawrence Province on Shanons Run
in 1767.

Fort Crago was built by James Crago in 1767. This fort stood
near the site of the Green Woolen Mill in Cumberland Township.

Fort Armstrong was erected by John Armstrong on his home-
stead in the spring of 1766. This was in the eastern part of Cumber-
land Township.

Fort Minor was erected in 1766. This fort stood near Big
Whiteley in Monongahela Township near the Minor Mills.

Fort Casteel was built by Jacob Casteel and Robert Adams on
Crooked Run in Morgan Township in 1767.

Garards Fort was first marked and the cave dug by Creaux
Bozarth in 1749, and in 1751 he started to erect a French Fort but
disbanded the place in 1754. In 1763, Conrad Sycks made some
preparations to erect a fort, but it was not until 1769 that the cave
was cleaned and the fort was erected by Reverend John Garard
and his son.

Fort Hickman was built by Abraham Hickman in 1766. This
fort stood at the junction of the Waynesburg-Jefferson and Ruff's
Creek Roads and was used as a place of residence until about 1890.

Fort Enix was built by Enoch Enix in 1763. This fort stood on
the north side of Dunkard Creek about two miles above the mouth
of the creek. It was burned in 1774.

Fort Enochs was built by Henry Enix, son of Enoch Enix, in

1767. This fort was built at Graysville and later became the prop-
erty and home of David Gray and family.

Fort Hopewell was built by Richard Clinton in 1771. This fort
stood on the Gist Trail, west of Waynesburg.

Fort Jackson was built by Samuel Jackson, Thomas Slater, Cap-
tain William Archer, James Archer, David White, and George
Hickman in 1772, but enlarged and finished in September 1773.
This well-known fort stood in East Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

*

n

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It

EARLY FORTS 349

Fort Sellers was built by Christian Sellers at the mouth of Hargis
Creek in 1773.

Fort Martin, or Dry Tavern, was built by Richard and Amos
Martin in 1773. This was on the Indian trail from Fort Teegarden
to Minors Fort near the present village of Dry Tavern.

Fort Kline was built by John Kline on upper Muddy Creek
in 1774.

Fort Garrison was built by David Garrison and Jack Morris
in 1771.

Fort Henderson was built by Jackson Henderson on the site of
Indian Peter's village on Blockhouse Run in 1759. This was the old-
est English fort west of the Monongahela River.

Fort Lemley, West Virginia was built by Richard Lemley in
1767.

Fort Bierer, West Virginia was built by Eberhart Bierer in 1772.
This fort stood on the site of Maidsville, West Virginia.

Fort Morgan was built by Morgan Morgan in 1769. This fort
was later taken over by Zackwell Morgan and became the first house
in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Fort Bonnett was built by Jarome Bonnett and Samuel Houston
in 1768. It was on Dunkard Creek in Wayne Township.

Fort Wetsel was built at the mouth of Wetsel Run on Wheeling
Creek in 1767 by John Wetsel and Abraham Bonnett.

Fort Harrison was built by Azariah Davis one mile west of
Fort Martin in 1768.

Fort Richhill was built by Jacob Richhill and James Rush on
Ely's Run in 1773.

Fort Jumonville was built by the French in 1 747. It was the site
of the Hangardin 1754 and of Fort Redstone, 1755 to 1758. These
forts were at the mouth of Jumonville Creek, later Redstone Creek.

Fort Burd was erected on Dunlaps Creek by Colonel Burd in
1759.

Fort Contrecoeur was erected on Mt. Mont Calm over the
French Boquet Cavern by French soldiers in 1747. It was blown up
by the French in May 1758.

Fort Queen Elizabeth (Cox's Fort) was erected by Virginia
Militia in 1754. It was held by Jacob and Andrew Heathe, and
was the site of the Second Virginia Court in 1774-1775.

Fort Gist was built by Robert Kniseley in 1768 on South Tin-
gooqua Creek, half way between Fort Seals and Fort Hopewell.

Fort Jenkins was built by Robert and James Jenkins at Hills-
boro in 1772.

25

350 THE HORN PAPERS

Fort Lindley was built by Abner Howell and John Lindley on
Lindley's Run in 1773.

Fort Zane at Wheeling, West Virginia was built by Ebenezer
Zane in 1764. It was renamed Fincastle in 1767 and Fort Henry
in 1774.

Fort Logan was erected by George Hupp about one mile from
Fort Teegarden on the highland above the Monongahela River in
1767, but was destroyed by fire in 1773.

Courtwright's Fort was built on Courtney's Run by David and
James Courtwright in 1767. This was one of twelve forts that
received public financial aid from Virginia in 1772-73.

Fort Shephard was built by George Shephard in 1766. This fort
stood on part of the land enclosed in the graveyard at the Shephard
Meetinghouse. It was the home of David Shephard when he was
appointed the first Judge of the Ohio County Court on December
18, 1776. David Shephard was the eldest son of George and Mary
Heise Shephard who settled at Fort Shephard in 1766.

Fort Russell was built in 1768 by James Russel and John Fulton.
This fort was near the Center schoolhouse in Morgan Township.

Fort Rush stood near the west line of Richhill Township on the
Rush tomahawked plantation which afterward became the property
of Jeremiah Fisher and which was called old Yahoo. The fort
contained four log houses and stockade which Jacob and James Rush
built in 1766. In 1767 Gilmore lived in the southeastern house, and
in 1768 Jacob Gilmore and James Rush fought a hand-to-hand fight
to see who should retain the Yahoo homestead. Rush whipped
Gilmore and severely punished him, but when the freebooter was
able to chop and hew, James Rush and his sons, John and James,
and their uncle Jacob built the Gilmores a two-room log house one-
half mile east of Yahoo, which they called Gilmore's Red Bank.
This land became the property of David Jackson in 1774.

Fort George Morris was built by George Morris, Samuel
Keeghley, and Samuel Evans in 1768. This fort was built on the
site of Mount Morris village and was called Morris Mount Etna or
Fort George. This fort and home was destroyed by fire in 1780.
The George Morris family was the founder of Mount Morris.

Fort Gray was built by David Gray on his tomahawked home-
stead of 2,174 acres of land, including the one hundred ten acres on
which Henry Enix built his Fort Enoch and tomahawked in 1768.
In 1769, Henry Enix traded this homestead to David Gray for one
mule, six goats, and a French musket. David Gray erected Fort
Gray in 1769, a three-room log house built end to end with an open-
ing between two rooms on one end and the room on the other end,

EARLY FORTS 351

but the open space of about twenty feet was roofed the same as the
houses, making it in all seventy-four feet long and twenty feet wide.
In 1774, it was known as Gray's Parliament House.

Fort Dillinger was built on the site of Greensboro by Augustine
Dillinger in 1764. Augustine Dillinger and Conrad Sycks were
partners in hunting and trapping along the Monongahela River
from Gist Point (Point Marion) to the mouth of Eckerlin Creek
(Big Whiteley) from 1760 to 1763. Then they each tomahawked
a homestead on the north side of the creek at the site which later
became Garard's Fort. These two partners disagreed over the
ownership of a spring, and in 1764 Augustine Dillinger moved to a
site which he called Fort Dillinger. This name was retained until
the site became Minorstown in 1767. Fort Dillinger stood until
1841, when it was torn down by John Hamilton.

George's Fort was built by George Teegarden in 1768 for his
father, Abraham Teegarden, and family. It was a small two-room
log house. It stood on the Greene County side of Ten Mile Creek
near the old trail crossing of the Creek near the Simmons lower
home. Abraham Teegarden first settled east of the river in 1763.
Then in 1766 he settled at Fort Teegarden (Millsboro), but in
1768 took up his place of residence at Fort George, where he lived
until his death in 1818.

Fort Hawkins (also known as Fort Wise) was built in 1776-
1777 by Joseph Hawkins and Richard Wise on the Greene County
side of North Ten Mile Creek near the head backwater of the Wal-
ton milldam. Richard Wise, a brother-in-law, repaired the original
fort after the Cayuga Indians partially destroyed Fort Hawkins in
1786.

(J^ort Harrod was built in 1767 by tjn££__sjons of Sarah Harrod.
It was locateclat Warm Springon the site thatTtheir uncle, Samuel
Harrod, tomahawked in 1766. Here the sons erected their fur, salt,
and hide house the same year. The log house erected by Samuel
Harrod in 1766 consisted of two rooms. It was used for many pur-
poses during the year it stood on the original site where Samuel
Harrod settled. The tanyard, set up in 1767, was the first of its kind
west of the mountains and was up the valley, nearer the fort which
was built the same year. The fort was built partly of stone and
finished with logs hewn on two sides. It contained four rooms and
was the first two-story house ever erected west of the Monongahela
River. This building is still standing ( 1939 ) , and is the oldest build-
ing in Greene County.

In 1775, the year after James Harrod and Brown emigrated to
to Kentucky, Samuel Harrod traded this tract of three hundred fifty-

352 THE HORN PAPERS

four acres of land to Leonard Price for his hill site situated north of
Jefferson, in Morgan Township. This tract contained six hundred
forty-seven acres of high land, most of which was covered with good
timber. Here the Harrod brothers erected the Hill Fort and called
it Aberlard after Levi Harrod's wife, Jane Aberlard. Samuel Har-
rod died in 1779 at the age of 81 years. The sons, with the two
daughters of Sarah Harrod, lived at this Fort Hill until their deaths.
One of the daughters of Sarah and John Harrod married John Bell.
The other married David Packer, the father of Samuel Packer of
Packer's Valley. The foundation and a few of the logs of the Hill
Fort Aberlard were standing in 1880. The grave markers of the
Harrods and their family connections were in place and plainly
marked from 1876 to 1880. It was stated in 1842 that the father,
John Harrod, died in Pennsylvania in 1754. The old Harrod home-
stead was divided after the death of Levi Harrod, who had this
tract of land of 341 acres surveyed in 1786 and patented in 1796.
Part was taken by John Bell, and the valley tract was given to the
Packer family. This land became known as the Bell property
through John Bell and his sons, Harrod and Jesse. At the time the
Harrod families lived at the old fort his land contained two thou-
sand sugar trees. Some of these cut in late years, showed an age of
more than two hundred years. In 1877, S. R. Horn, in sawing one
of these old sugar trees on the Jefferson water power mill, dis-
covered an iron pin near the center of the log after it had been
squared but which narrowly escaped the saw as the log passed
through. It was estimated that this pin had been driven in this tree
at least eighty years before. This tree, according to J. K. Bell, was
one of the trees that Levi Harrod left standing when they first
cleared the land in 1780.

"Measons Blockhouse, Christopher Gist's magazine, and the
slave quarters near by, as well as Dyces Inn, all in what is now
Fayette County, were fortified posts from 1754 to 1773, and were
termed forts from 1772 to 1781." This information was obtained
from the City Directory of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1838, by
Sanford C. Hill.

The David Shephard papers in the State Historical Library at
Madison, Wisconsin, mention almost all of these forts. Among
these papers are many receipts for powder furnished many of these
forts during the years from 1777 to 1780.

Courtney's Fort and Blockhouse was erected on the point of land
between the junction of McCourtney's Run and Hargus Creek by
the McCourtney Brothers, James and Robert, in 1774. This fort
was erected after the Courtright Fort (built by David and James

EARLY FORTS 353

Courtright at the mouth of Hargus Creek in 1767) had been turned
into a distillery and tanyard in 1778.

The Dillinger Fort, as it was known in 1772, was erected on the
site of Point Marion by Bernard and Thomas Eckerlin in 1747.
This was partly destroyed by the French soldiers under General
Jumonville in April 1753. It was repaired by Jack Dillinger in 1767,
and became his home until 1774. In April of that year, while the
family were at the home of Augustine Dillinger, the fort was burned
by the Cayuga-Seneca Indians, and his two cows were killed and
eaten by the Indians.

This fort stood almost in the center of the town. A well dug
by Jack Dillinger in 1768 was still used in 1876.

Cox's Fort, No. 2 on the Ohio River

Cox's Fort on the east side of the Ohio River was south of
Joel Wellsburg's claims in 1769-1770. This Fort was just south
of Wellsburg, West Virginia, and was a noted place in 1772-1774.
The Gabriel Cox home and Fort was destroyed by fire in 1776.

This Cox's Fort, and the Isaac Cox's Fort at Fort Queen
Elizabeth, so named by Dr. John Connolly, in derision of Justice
Isaac Cox when the second Virginia Court was being held there in
1774-1775, have often been confused with each other.

CHAPTER XIII
MASON AND DIXON LINE

The Mason and Dixon Line was fixed by the two distinguished
mathematicians, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, during the
years from 1763 to 1767, from the Delaware River to the first
crossing of Little French Creek (now Dunkard Creek) at Turkey
Foot Rock. Thence this line was continued to the southwest corner
of the state of Pennsylvania in the summer of 1784.

The line properly begins at the northeast corner of Maryland
and runs due west. The Indians were of much trouble to the sur-
veyors (especially did they annoy the camps), but by treaties, and
the donation of much Virginia tobacco, the surveyors were per-
mitted to proceed as far west as the Indian-Gist Trail, within thirty-
six miles of the whole distance to be run, as claimed by the Penn
claims, when the Mingo Indians under Flat Fish directed the sur-
veyors to cease their labors. This order was based upon the state-
ment, made by Christopher Gist, in October 1747, to the Five
Nations, that Penn's full claims ended at the trail crossing of Gist
Creek at Turkey Foot Rock. Gist Creek was renamed Little French
Creek in June 1751. When the claim was made, 1747, that Penn's
claims ended here, it was the contention of the French that this was
the true and full limit to which he was entitled. This old claim was
made in 1762 on the part of Virginia, as the possessors of the
French claims, after the French gave up all claims to this territory.
The surveyors stopped at a walnut tree on the north bank of Little
French Creek; hence the difficulty between Pennsylvania and
Virginia.

This black walnut tree which marked the end of the Mason and
Dixon Line, as laid down at that point in 1767, was the same tree
through which the Delaware Indians claimed that they could talk
to departed spirits and could receive direct replies from their long-
departed friends. In 1751, when Gist, Horn, and the Frenchmen
camped on this site and planted the French lead plate, the Indian
Bowlegs and Flat Fish held this walnut tree as the sacred place
where the great spirit came to direct the Delawares in all their
tribal affairs. The Indians discovered that a swarm of bees found a
hollow limb high up in this tree and that the colony had filled it with
honey. The Indians bored holes into the tree and drove wooden
pins into these holes, thus forming a crude ladder up the tree, in
order to obtain the honey. These holes are still seen on the Lemley

MASON AND DIXON 355

farm in old walnut boards which were sawed from this famous tree.
A piece of one of the boards sawed from this tree years ago is at
present in the Greene County Historical Museum.

It is evident that Penn's grant of land from King Charles was
to lie west of the Delaware River and north of Maryland, because
the charter by Lord Baltimore for Maryland included all the land
to the Delaware Bay, uwhich lieth under the fortieth degree north
latitude where New England terminates. " Hence the only mode
by which the form and extent of Pennsylvania could be determined
was by two natural landmarks, viz., New Castle town and the
Delaware River. This river being her eastern boundary, New
Castle was to be used as the center of a circle of twelve mile radius
whose northwestern segment was to connect the river with the be-
ginning of the fortieth, while the province was to extend westward
five degrees in longitude, to be computed from the eastern bounds.

The Penn heirs claimed, for the western boundary, a line be-
ginning at thirty-nine degrees at the distance of five degrees of long-
itude from the Delaware; thence, at the same distance from the
river, in all the measurements to north latitude forty-two degrees,
which would take into the province of Pennsylvania about fifty
miles square of northwest Virginia, west of the west line of Mary-
land. Lord Dunmore, however, insisted that this was an error, and
maintained that it should be a meridian line run on the end of five
degrees from the Delaware, south, to forty-two degrees. This
claim on the part of Dunmore and the Assembly would have thrown
the western line of Pennsylvania fifty-four miles east of Pittsburgh.

The general supposition in Virginia in 1764-65 was that Penn's
claims ended at a point about twelve miles west of the western bound-
ary of Maryland, but Christopher Gist held that Penn's claims ended
at the Delaware Indian and James River Trail crossing of Little
French Creek (Dunkard Creek) southwest of the present town of
Mount Morris.

The foundation of the Mason and Dixon Line was based upon
an agreement entered into on July 4, 1760, between Lord Balti-
more, of the province of Maryland, and Thomas and Richard Penn,
of the province of Pennsylvania, and the three lower counties of
New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on the Delaware. This agreement
was finally reached after long litigations and bitter contests between
these provinces, dating from 1683.

These parties agreed, among other things, to appoint a sufficient
number of discreet and proper persons, not more than seven on each
side, to be their respective commissioners, with full power given to
the said seven, or any three or more of them, for the actual laying

356 THE HORN PAPERS

out, running, and marking the said part of the circle as mentioned
in the charter from Charles II made to William Penn. The com-
missioners were to set a time not later than October 1 in the same
year as the time to begin their duties of commencing said line, and to
proceed with all fairness, candor, and dispatch, marking said line
with stone and posts on both sides, and to complete the same before
December 25, 1763. The Board of Commissioners met at New
Castle in November 1760, and each province selected its own sur-
veyors.

The commissioners and their surveyors, after some discussion,
agreed that the peninsular lines from Henlopen to the Chesapeake,
made under Lord Hardwick in 1750, were correct, and agreed to
fix the courthouse at New Castle as the center of the circle. The
surveyors proceeded on this date to measure and mark the lines,
and laid them out and marked them by stone set as per agreement.
This survey, commenced in 1760 at New Castle, was a long-drawn-
out work and did not reach final completion until the setting of the
marker at the southwest corner of the state of Pennsylvania on
December 24, 1784.

In August 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon of Lon-
don, were selected by Lord Baltimore and the Penns to complete
their lines as per agreement made on July 4, 1760. They arrived
in Philadelphia in November for that purpose. They had been
furnished with the most improved and correct instruments of their
day, among which delicate instruments was a four-foot zenith sector.
They went to work at once. The first thing they did was to erect
an observatory on Cedar Street, in Philadelphia, to facilitate the
ascertainment of latitude at that point. This building they used in
January 1764. They then went to New Castle, adopted the radius
as measured and the lines marked by their predecessors, and, after
some tracing of the tangent line, adopted their tangent point and
declared that they could not make the tangent line pass one inch
to the eastward or to the westward of that marked point. On finding
these lines absolutely correct, they adjourned to Philadelphia to
find its Southern limit on Cedar or South Street. This they made to
be 39° 56' 29". They then proceeded to extend that latitude suffi-
ciently far to the west to be due north of the tangent line point.
Thence they measured down south fifteen miles to the latitude of
the great due west line, and ran its parallel for a short distance.
Then they went to the tangent point and ran due north to that
latitude, and at that intersection in a deep ravine, near a spring,
they directed their chainmen and axmen to plant the cornerstone,
at which begins the celebrated Mason and Dixon Line.

*

MASON AND DIXON 357

The point of intersection in this ravine was found to be on a rock
near the roots of a tree. While chopping down the tree the axmen
became thirsty, and on the hunt of drinking water they found this
spring of fresh water and dug a basin to form a pool of clear water,
which they named "Jerry Spring." This spring was known by this
appelation until after the close of the Revolutionary War. Ben-
jamin Franklin once, in stating some evidence relating to a certain
case, said: "The evidence is as clear as the water in Jerry's Spring."

Thus they ascertained the latitude of the line to be 39° 43' 32"
minus. This is a fraction over nineteen miles south of 40°. They,
under instructions, ran its parallel to the Susquehanna, twenty-three
miles, and having verified the latitude there, they returned to the
tangent line point from which they ran the due north line to the
fifteen mile corner. This part of the circle which it cuts off to the
west was given to New Castle County.

This little arc of territory is nearly one and a half miles long,
and at the center has a width of one hundred fourteen feet and nine
inches. From its north end, where the three states join, to the
fifteen mile point, where the great Mason and Dixon Line begins, is
about three and one-half miles, and from the fifteen mile corner
due east to the circle is about three quarters of a mile. The point of
the circle forms the corner of three states and is well marked, being
an important landmark in the surveys of American territory. The
work was finished at the end of the year 1764. This work of arriv-
ing at the correct tangent point was one that required the greatest
skill and knowledge of skilled surveyors and mathematicians, and
these noted experts performed their work well. They established
this part of the line so accurately that no error has ever been dis-
covered.

They resumed their labors in June 1765. While it did not re-
quire so much skill to extend this line as it did to establish the fine
adjustments of the lines and their intersections forming the circle,
it did require more men, and men of great endurance. A tented
army penetrated the forest, but their labors were for peace, and
their object was to establish a line that would make for permanent
peace between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Besides
the surveyors, there were eight assistants, six chain bearers and
eight rodmen, a crew of axmen, baggage carriers, cooks, personal
servants, and about twenty laborers. Three commissioners accom-
panied this band of workmen on their line of march across the moun-
tains. Camps were established and provisions were carried from
Philadelphia to these camps. Guards were set over each camp to
keep the Indians from carrying off their supplies. At times as many

358 THE HORN PAPERS

as a hundred Indians followed the surveyors on their way through the
forest. These Indians offered no harm, nor did they endanger the
workmen in the performance of their duties, but were constant
beggars in the camps, and often succeeded in carrying off articles
they wished to possess.

James Watson stated in his diary that it was his duty to keep
the Indians from entering the supply tent where the surveyors had
additional instruments, rods, and chains, and that their curiosity
was so great to see the objects that he obtained two deer and six
wild turkeys for the privilege of looking at a compass. The Indians
could not understand its use, and he gave them the story that the
needle pointed directly at the Indians in Canada, and that if they
started on the warpath the instrument would show which way
they were going, and what they were doing.

On October 24, the surveyors reached Kittatinny Mountain,
ninety-five miles from the Susquehanna, where the temporary line
of 1739 terminated. Captain Shelby took the surveyors and the
commissioners with him to the summit, to show them the course of
the Potomac, and to point out the Allegheny Mountains, and the
general direction of their line of survey. Here it was decided to
end the year's work.

The commissioners, surveyors, and assistants, after putting
everything in shape and under the care of twenty guards, with the
remainder of the party, marched back over the line to the Delaware
to the settlements. Here they passed the winter of 1765-66.

Early in 1766 they were again at their posts, and by the first of
June they were on the top of the little Allegheny Mountains, the
first ridge west of Wills Creek. The line from the corner of the
arc had been completed westward a distance of one hundred
sixty miles.

The Indians into whose ungranted territory they were penetrat-
ing grew uneasy, and were more and more threatening in their
manner, but the surveyors kept pushing ahead. Soon the red and
white band reached the western border of Maryland, on the same
meridian as the most western fountainhead of the Potomac. Here
it was supposed that the surveyors would terminate their work, for
this point ended the distance of the proposed line, as stated in the
contract in 1750, between Lord Baltimore and the Penns. But now
enters a new phase of the matter. The French had claimed all the
territory west of the Susquehanna, before they lost all control in
America, and as the colony of Virginia had laid claim to the French
claims west of Maryland, the question now arose: How far west
did Penn's claims extend? In 1747, Christopher Gist asserted that

MASON AND DIXON 359

Penn's claims ended at Turkey Foot Hill, and so advised Chief
Flat Fish and the Mingoes. The surveyors were advised that they
had finished the line so far as Lord Baltimore was concerned.
Nevertheless Penn's full claims had not been established, and Vir-
ginia, determining that the frontier settlers should have knowledge
of where Penn's claims terminated, ordered the surveyors to con-
tinue on to a point not to exceed the distance to the point held by
Gist in 1747. The survyors reached the crossing of Braddock's
Road on August 24, and established their camp and prepared to
finish the last division of the line. By this time several of the axmen
and laborers became restless and uneasy because the Indians had
made threats that the surveyors would be stopped, or killed, if they
persisted in going on, but they continued with great vigor and
reached the Monongahela River, two hundred thirty-three miles
from the Delaware River. While camped on the east side of the
Monongahela River, twenty-six laborers, three cooks, and twelve
of the axmen deserted, and returned to Wills Creek, leaving fifteen
axmen to assist the surveyors. The remnant of the Delawares and
the Shawnees began to question the surveyors about their work. The
commissioners had returned to Philadelphia in August, and left
the chief surveyor in charge.

The surveyors crossed the Monongahela River and set up their
starting point, and having sent to Wills Creek for ten axmen, three
cooks, and some supplies, took up their work and ignored the
Indians until they came to where the Indian-Virginia Trail crosses
Dunkard Creek, a little to the west of Mount Morris. Here they
met Flat Fish, and about twenty of his warriors, who commanded
the surveyors to halt their work, and stop at that point. After a
brief fight, in which three of the party were killed, the surveyors
closed their work of establishing the Mason and Dixon Line, broke
camp, and returned to Philadelphia. The line remained unfinished
for eighteen years, when it was again taken up and completed to the
southwest corner of the state on September 24, 1784.

(Abiga Hough was one of the active chainmen on this line, hav-
ing joined the force in March 1765, and continued with the survey-
ors until they reached the first crossing of the waters of Little French
Creek. At the Indian-James River Trail the surveyors were stopped
at the famous walnut tree on the west bank of the creek. Two
laborers and one axman were shot here by the Indians from the
timber on the east bank of the creek, because the Indians thought the
men were going to destroy this tree, which to them was a sacred
tree of great renown. It was by the order of John Canon and

360 THE HORN PAPERS

Dorsey Pentecost that Flat Fish and the band of Indians stopped
the surveyors at Turkey Foot in 1767. — Statement by Hough.)

The commissioners caused stones to be erected upon the line,
at the two corners, and at intersections around the main points of
the three counties of Delaware.

The width of a degree of longitude varies according to the de-
gree of latitude it traverses, lengthening in distance from the pole
to the equator. In the latitude of this line, Mason and Dixon com-
puted it at fifty-three miles and one hundred sixty-seven and one-
tenth perches. They figured Penn's five degrees of longitude from
the Delaware to be two hundred sixty-seven miles, and one hundred
ninety-five and one-sixteenth perches. When they reached the
stopping place at the walnut tree on Dunkard Creek, they declared
they had measured two hundred forty-four miles, one hundred
thirteen perches, and seven and one-fourth feet. Hence they left
as computed, twenty-three miles and eighty-three perches, and three
fourth of a foot to be run, to reach the end of Penn's full claims.
But in 1784, it was ascertained that this was nearly one and a half
miles too much; the surveyors made it two hundred sixty-six miles,
and ninety-nine and one-fifth perches.

After a long controversy with Virginia over the boundary line
between the two colonies, Pennsylvania insisted that her rightful
territory included all the land within the bounds of the unsurveyed
territory of the five degrees west, while Virginia held that Penn's
claims had been extended into Virginia territory. They at last
reached an agreement in 1780, but the line was not set down until
1784.

It was not until after Washington County, Pennsylvania, was
organized that the settlers could determine their rightful position
concerning which colony they belonged to, and no settler in the ter-
ritory west of the terminal of the line at the walnut tree on Dunkard
Creek could obtain a patent for his claim until after January 1, 1785.

In September 1783, the colony of Pennsylvania took steps to
close the business of laying down the line from the point where the
surveyors stopped in 1767 to the southwest corner of the colony.
The matter as agreed upon in 1780 being approved, Pennsylvania
and Virginia appointed the Rev. Dr. John Ewing, David Ritten-
house, John Lukens, and Thomas Hutcins on behalf of Pennsyl-
vania, while Virginia appointed the Right Reverend James Madison,
the Bishop of Virginia, and Rev. Robert Andrews, John Page,
and Andrew Elliott, of Maryland, as commissioners to provide the
necessary instruments, and to make all necessary preparations for
running the rest of the line.

MASON AND DIXON 361

John Canon on behalf of Virginia raised the question of Penn's
claims extending beyond the Monongahela River, and challenged
the commissioners to prove the rights of Penn to extend beyond
that point, whereupon the commissioners undertook to prove that
the true point of the five degrees west of the Delaware was actually
located. They undertook a plan to establish facts never attempted
in any country before and never used since that time. To solve this
problem two of the artists from each colony, provided with proper
astronomical instruments and with good timepieces, repaired to
Wilmington, Delaware, nearly on the line, where they erected an
observatory. The other four, furnished with commissary, soldiers,
and a score of servants, proceeded to the west end of the temporary
line, near which on the highest hill on the head waters of Fish Creek,
they also erected a rude laboratory of stone and logs. At these
stations each party, during six weeks of day and nights, preced-
ing the autumnal equinox of 1784, continued to make observations
of the heavenly bodies for the purpose of determining their respec-
tive meridians and latitude, and to find adjustment of their time-
pieces. This done, two of each party left their stations, and traveled
on the line until they met. This determined that their stations were
twenty minutes and one and one-eighth seconds. The Wilmington
station was one hundred fourteen pole chains and thirteen links west
of the Delaware. Knowing that twenty minutes of time were equal
of five degrees of longitude, they made the allowance for the one
hundred fourteen chains and the thirteen links, and for the one and
one eighth seconds equal to nineteen chains and ninety-six links, and
upon this date they shortened back on the line to twenty-six minutes
from the Delaware. Here they fixed the southwest corner of the
colony, and on September 24, 1784, they set a temporary white
oak post as the true distance west of the Delaware where Penn's
claims ended at right angles with the north and south line of
boundary of the western border of Pennsylvania.

The large white oak post set on December 24, 1784, was heaped
about with a pyramid of stone, and stood unmolested until 1883,
when Pennsylvania and West Virginia by common consent set a cut
stone post about four feet high, and marked properly to indicate
both states. This stone post established the western end of the
great Mason and Dixon Line, as well as the southwest corner of
Greene County, and the southwest corner of the state of Pennsyl-
vania.

The following men were found among the seventy soldiers who
were ordered to accompany the surveyors in 1784, to complete the
Mason and Dixon Line, from Turkey Foot to the southwest corner

362 THE HORN PAPERS

of the colony: James Pursley, William Crawford, George Wilson,
Jacob Rush, William Rogers, George Staggers, Andrew Young,
Stephen Gappen, James Ball, Robert Downey, Samuel Adamson,
Nicholas Shriver, Jacob Beall, Joseph Reed, John Hopkins, David
Ackley, Andrew Courtright, Jack Morris, Zackwell Morgan, and
Frank Ten Mile.

With the final act of the setting of the post at the southwest
corner of the colony, on December 24, 1784, all the old border
troubles were ended. The celebrated Mason and Dixon Line clearly
and fairly defined the boundary between Pennsylvania and Virginia,
and the settlers soon took advantage of their rights to take out
patents for their homesteads. By the close of the year 1786, most
of the land in what is now Greene County was patented, and occu-
pied by permanent settlers. A great proportion of the land had
been occupied from fifteen to twenty years by the settlers before
they became the legal owners of their homesteads.

The readers of history will readily observe that the first settlers
who tomahawked their homesteads from 1760 to 1776, in what is
now Washington and Greene counties, lived on these claims several
years and had considerable improvements before they were able
to obtain patents for their land.

The list of settlers polled in 1773 shows their claims at that
time, and later in 1785-1786, the land they patented with the name
of their homestead and acres of land patented. It is clear that most
of the first people to obtain land patents west of the Monongahela
River were already old settlers in this same territory, and had
cleared some portion of their land, and made other domestic im-
provements before they held any legal title to their homesteads.

The Setting of the Post
(From Christopher Horn's Diary — 1785)

Be it known by all ye people that in the year 1767 and month
of September and 23rd day, the Dixon Line was made at an end at
Turkee Foot Rock, as set down by Virginia and Penn's Claims by
order of Christopher Gist in 1747, and directed by Mingo, Flat
Fish and warriors in 1767. That the Claims should end and the
mark be set on the French Black Walnut Tree by the waters of
Little French Creek at the trail crossing, for the end of Penn's lands
on the James River Trail.

All the land to the Ohio being Virginia land to Venango, but by
this Penn's Claims did not agree to Virginia Claims and the settlers
being in dispute and unable to say which Colony had just claims to

MASON AND DIXON 363

the land tax, the settlers had until this day paid no land tax by an
Ord to Augusta County, District of West Augusta, Yohogania, or
to the new Washington County.

In September and last year the same being 1784, and 23rd day
of the month, the Dixon Line was made an end thereto, to the South-
west corner of Penn's full claims, leaving all of Washington County
in Penn's Colony. It being in agreement by both Colonies that the
day be set as December 24th, as the fit time to set the Post and
establish peace and good will with all. Some of Penn's friends made
much big talk how the Virginia settlers at this time were made
Penn's people by the setting of the Post, but Canon declared it was
the whisky that made them dig up the old differences. We met and
heard the talk of the great day, at the Inn at Razortown, December
20, that every settler to take part, and it being agreed each man
carry his own rations and his own jug of whisky. Canon declared
no whisky should be carried but all present did rebuke Canon as
being weak in spirit, whereupon he declared every man for himself.
It became John's lot to carry the hew axe, and Abe Hickman to carry
the timber axe, and to all to appear on Mount at Eckerlin's stone
mark on Indian National Trail by high noon, 23rd day of Decem-
ber, 1784.

Three score settlers to the north and west of old Camp Cat
Fish all being in high spirits, John Canon was made Captain and
Jack Morris guide, we set forth for the place set up by the surveys
and did reach the camp late the same day to find two score Virginia
settlers from Fort Morgan to Whetzel. Great was the talk around
the camp fires all the night hours. Much whisky was partaken, the
war and every measure was made in argument, but no man was more
than peaceful. The night being clear, the weather cold, camp fires
being agreeable to all.

At dawn of day the axemen feld an oke tree and scored the
same five paces long and the hewers hewed the log 14 inches on all
four sides, and we did dig 3 feet in the earth and set log on end at the
very same place the stones were marked. "This is the rightful
place," exclaimed Lee, "for Virginia." "This is the rightful place
to be forever the Southwest corner of Pennsylvania," declared
Crawford of Penn's Colony.

So say every man present and then every man did drink from his
own jug. Much talk, strong talk was made how this Dixon Line
to the Delaware should forever mark Virginia and Pennsylvania
claims and strife be at an end over claims.

Every man gathered stone and heaped them around the post
until a pyramid ten feet high was made, and all declared the work

364 THE HORN PAPERS

well done, and with face marks set there on near the top of the Post
by Nate O'Brine, the work that begun in 1766 was made and ended
to in 1784. With much roast wild turkee and deer every man feast-
ed and did drink his own whisky, and of his friends and all departed
late in the day, all peaceful, some very happy, some very loud in
voice. But all now knew to which colony he owes his loyalty and
his taxes.

Christmas Eve found all the party well on the way to their
homesteads but it was talked in Razortown that some did not
reach that place until the close of Christmas Day.

John Canon had no patience with those delayed on the Trail.
This setting of the Post was a great memorable day, the time and
place that marked the final end to a score or more of years of
bitter strife and great trouble. This contention begun with the
French in 1748 and did not abate until the close of the War, but
ended on December 24 last.

Be it known by our children's children, that the setting of the
Post, the last of the disputes are made an end there to. Every man
agreeing that a common interest in the Dixon Line has forever
marked peace and our right to secure patents to our homesteads.

Virginia Surveys 1777 to 1780

It will be remembered that when Christopher Gist was direct-
ing a number of the eastern seaboard citizens to become settlers on
the Northwestern Virginia lands from 1760 to 1766, they were
promised their homesteads free, if they subscribed their names as
Virginia settlers, and remained loyal to the Royal Colony.

The General Assembly of Virginia, realizing the justice due
the homesteaders, and their rightful claims, passed an act in May
1779, "for adjusting and settling titles of claimants to unpatented
lands on western waters." They created districts with four com-
missioners to each, to hear proofs of settlement rights and grant
certificates to claimants.

The commissioners appointed for Yohogania, Monongalia, and
Ohio counties were Francis Peyton, Philip Pendleton, and George
Merriweather. These land title commissioners came west to the
Monongahela River, in December 1779, and sat in sessions at Fort
Queen Elizabeth, then called Coxe's Fort, and granted many
certificates to claimants under Virginia settlement rights.

On recommendations of John Canon, Esq., Colonel William
Crawford was appointed county surveyor for Yohogania County,
with John Brock, George Green, Thomas Bond, Benjamin Johnston,

MASON AND DIXON 365

Daniel Leet, Martin Hough, John Wells, William Lowery, and
Isaac Greathouse as deputies. It is well known that by the time the
Pennsylvania Executive Council became alarmed in March 1780,
the land title commissioners in session at Cox's Fort had warranted
to Virginia settlers many homesteads of the public lands in what is
now Greene County, and portions of Washington County, which the
colony of Pennsylvania was forced to acknowledge as the prior
rights of these land settlers, who had taken land and made im-
provements on it. Virginia maintained her far-sighted interests in
the welfare of her people who settled the Monongahela Valley,
and made provision for the settlers to retain their homesteads in
the territory north of the Mason and Dixon Line, when the final
amendments made by the Virginia Senate were approved, and the
ratification of the boundary agreement was passed by the General
Assembly of Virginia on July 1, 1780. The resolution was trans-
mitted at once to Philadelphia, where it was laid before the General
Assembly of Pennsylvania on September 7, and was ratified by that
body on Saturday, September 23.

26

CHAPTER XIV
FORGOTTEN TOWNS

McCullough Town

McCullough Town was organized in October 1778 by John
Canon, at the instigation of Zackwell Morgan and Colonel Dave
Shepard, and was heartily endorsed by Patrick Henry. The purpose
of this organization was to establish an iron manufacturing center.
John Canon was the prime actor, the leader, and the largest share-
holder in the enterprise. In February 1779, the total shares were
taken, and 2,100 pounds sterling were raised and placed in John
Canon's hands. In the same month, thirty men were set to work
to build the milldam in South Ten Mile Creek, to dig a millrace, to
build the mill and blast furnace, and to erect log houses for the
employees. In March 1779, twenty-five additional men were set to
work to build the reheater and to assist in burning charcoal. In May
the total number on the payroll reached sixty-seven able-bodied men.
John Harris, Jr., was the proprietor of the McCullough Inn and
general superintendent of the work. The town was named for Abel
McCullough, one of the stockholders. The town consisted of the
mill, the blast furnace, the reheating furnace, the forge, the com-
missary storehouse, the inn, and twenty-six log houses, ten of which
contained two rooms. The rest had but one room twenty feet square.
The mill was 32 x 50 feet and three stories high, having one mill
stone, a reducing ram, and a huge fan that furnished air through
log pipes that fed the blast furnace. The raw iron was mined on
Furnace Hill. Cannon, cannon balls, gun steel, and handmade rifles
were made at McCullough for Revolutionary War use before any
other smelter was set up west of the mountains. Springhill furnace
was the successor to the McCullough blast furnace.

There was a small race track at the upper end of the town from
1781 to 1785. This town was, next to Augustatown, the largest
center west of the Monongahela in the spring of 1780. After 1783
the town commenced to decline, and on John Canon's retirement in
1787 several of the families living there moved to other places. In
1789, only the John Harris family lived there. In 1801, he moved
across the creek into what is now Clarksville. The town was desert-
ed from 1801 to 1832 except on occassions when some hunters or
fishermen would camp in some of the vacant houses. In February
1800, ice carried out the center of the dam, which ended the mill.
In 1832, when John Walton built the milldam and mills on North

368 THE HORN PAPERS

Ten Mile Creek at Clarksville, all the buildings on the site of Mo
Cullough, except Harris' Inn, were torn down and the logs used in
building the new dam and abutments. The sites of the McCullough
milldam, the millrace, and mill seat are still plainly visible. Iron
buried in the ground is still found around where the smelter stood.

John Harris and his family, William Rush, Enoch O'Brine,
Hiram Teegarden, Cornelius O'Conor, William Peirson, Frank
Ten Mile, and John Casteel and family were among those who
lived and worked at McCullough in 1779 and 1789.

A well dug near the John Harris Inn in 1779 is the only re-
maining untouched landmark on the site of this lost town, which was
the center of great activity in Revolutionary War days.

Augusta Town

Augusta Town was founded by Richard Yeates, John Canon,
Isaac Cox, and Resin Virgin in the month of July 1775, and in
October of the same year became the district seat of the district of
West Augusta, colony of Virginia.

The land on which this town was laid out was taken up by
Richard Yeates in October 1774, but he made no improvements on
this homestead until April 1775, when he erected a two-room log
house. In the month of June 1775, while the second Virginia Court
in West Augusta County was in session at Cox's Fort at Fort
Queen Elizabeth on the Monongahela River, Richard Yeates
appeared there and made the proposition to John Canon and Justice
Isaac Cox, that if they would transfer the court to his plantation
he would donate land for a town, free to the settlers. This propo-
sition at first was looked upon by the several Virginia justices as a
highhanded method of controlling the general interests in the
Monongahela Valley. The judges whom Governor Dunmore had
appointed in December 1774 to this court believed that the court
should remain there, and under the leadership of Dr. John Connolly
the military commissioner at Fort Dunmore, who in March 1775
was appointed a justice to this court. Trouble arose and long and
bitter discussions followed. But at that time the court still managed
to postpone this matter and, in spite of the bitter personal differences
between John Canon and Dr. Connolly, Canon hated Judge Hanna
and William Crawford far more than he did Connolly. He ordered
an armed guard of one hundred Virginia settlers to march with him
to Hannastown to see that the Westmoreland authorities dismissed
all charges against Dr. Connolly. After Connolly's return to Cox's
Fort, instead of joining Canon and Cox's party interests, he became

FORGOTTEN TOWNS 369

more determined to overthrow John Canon; however, he was
no match for Canon and Cox's shrewdness. The matter dragged
along until July 1775, when Richard Yeates urged the transfer
of the court. He stated that it was agreeable both to Governor
Dunmore's plan of the year before and to the plans of Patrick
Henry at that time. John Canon acted but, unknown to Con-
nolly, he with Isaac Cox and Resin Virgin wTent to Yeates' home-
stead at Upper Camp Cat Fish and selected the hillside around and
above Wessameking Spring for a town, and at the end of three
weeks three new log houses stood on this town site. Yeates' home
and John Canon's home were, with the exception of the courthouse,
the only two-story buildings ever erected in Augusta Town. Yeates
directed Resin Virgin to build a back room to his home, which was
the fourth house, and make it fit for a jail room.

Canon and Cox returned to the court at Cox's Fort and for a
short time business proceeded smoothly, but on September 17, 1775,
a heated argument took place and bitter words passed between them.
The matter culminated in John Canon's seizing the court docket, the
royal seal, the gavel, and some court papers, and after telling Dr.
Connolly, now that Dunmore had fled the country, that he, Canon,
intended to remove him from any further service to Virginia, he,
together with Isaac Cox and Resin Virgin, set out from the court
for their new quarters, not yet named, and reached there late on
the same day. The next move on September 18, wTas spent in mak-
ing preparations for the opening of the third Virginia Court on the
next day. They hired John Horn to make log seats and a flat top
log desk for the convenience of the court, promising to pay him
sixteen shillings. He accordingly wrorked all of the night of Septem-
ber 18 to finish the work, for which he never received any pay.

The old West Augusta County Court convened in John Canon's
"front room" at 8 o'clock a.m., September 19, 1775, with Isaac Cox
on the bench as justice in chancery. The first thing the court did
was to appoint Resin Virgin sheriff. On investigation, the court
found that his "back room" was the only place fit for the safe
keeping of prisoners, so he was directed to "feed and rest" all
prisoners assigned to him by the court.

Now a general tumult arose over Canon's actions. The court
at Cox's Fort denied Canon's authority, and the legality of his
court. No doubt they were correct in their opinions, but Canon
soon silenced all opposition by joining forces with Patrick Henry,
wrho succeeded in annulling West Augusta and Fincastle counties,
and forming the district of West Augusta with the court site marked
as Augusta Town, the district seat of justices.

370 THE HORN PAPERS

Now this act not only annulled the acts of the first two courts
and set them aside, but it dropped Dr. Connolly from his military
authority at Fort Dunmore.

Augusta Town now became the leading center west of the
mountains. In November 1775, the court for the district of West
Augusta let the contract for the courthouse, stocks, ducking stool,
and whipping post to John Horn and Abiga Hough. This work was
to be finished by the second Tuesday in January 1776. But, in the
meantime, through Colonel Morgan at Canon's request, these same
two men were awarded the contract to build the official colonial
powder house and the military storehouse. This latter work was
completed on March, 10, 1776. The courthouse was not finished
until about the middle of April 1776. By this time many families
had moved to this new center. Martin Hough was commissioned
to make rifles, knives, and such war weapons as were needed by the
soldiers and field scouts. A six-room log tavern with bar was built
and opened to the public May 15, 1776.

At the end of the year 1776, Augusta Town had forty-one
houses besides the Colonial buildings and the district buildings.
However, the latter, including the courthouse, were all claimed by
Richard Yeates as his private property since he was the proprietor
of Augusta Town. The town continued to grow and prosper. "The
Maryland Advertiser" of Baltimore, in the spring of 1777, said:
"The flourishing town of Augusta Town will now become the
center of trade west of the mountains. The colonial quarters as re-
ferred to by Colonel Morgan are among the best in the colonies."

In the winter and spring of 1777, the colonial officials purchased
ten thousand pounds of powder from the Spanish Government
officials in New Orleans. This was shipped to Fort Henry by boat.
It landed at Zanes docks, Wheeling, West Virginia, on May 2, and
was transferred to Augusta Town on May 2, 3, 1777.

The following letters will give the reader a clear account of the
powder which was landed at Wheeling and transferred to Augusta
Town in 1777, as recorded in Colonel David Shepard's papers. It
seems as though this should forever settle the often disputed
question concerning where and how this shipment was disposed of.

To John Horn at Augusta Town.

I am directed by Colonel Morgan to inform you that the arrival
of ten thousand pounds of Spanish powder will be landed at Fort
Fincastle in a near day and you are to take twenty military men with
Resin Virgin as checkmen and make the transfer of the powder to

FORGOTTEN TOWNS 371

the official powder house at Augusta Town without delay and store
same and guard it against all hazards. By Capt. McClure.

Col. David Shepard

Ohio County Lt.

Wheeling Creek.

April 23, 1777

Ohio County, Virginia Court,
May 6, 1777.

Ord to John Horn at Augusta Town.
I am directed by Colonel Morgan to inform you to guard the
colonial powder against all hazards at your own peril. Command
a number of guards to hold the magazine and store house against
every source of destruction, and await Ords to dispense powder and
other supplies. Col. David Shepard,

Ohio County Lt.

Ohio Co. Court May 13, 1777.
To John Horn at Augusta Town.

By direct command of Col. Morgan, I am directing you in the
presences of Resin Virgin, Richard Yeates and Judges Isaac Cox or
John Canon, or any two of them to deliver to Col. John Gibson
three thousand and one-half hundred weight of the Spanish powder
to be stored at the late Fort Dunmore magazine. You are directed
with the usual guards to transfer this powder to Fort Teegarden
where Col. Gibson and guards will take command of same. Make
proper record and send same by Resin Virgin on or before the
twentieth of this same month.

Col. David Shepard

Ohio Co. Lt.

Ohio Co. Court
Wheeling Creek, June 10, 1777
To John Horn
Augusta Town.

Col. Zac Morgan directs me to make known his Ords for the
following amounts of Spanish powder, to be given into the hands
of these mentioned men, Daniel Ryerson, 100 pounds, Samuel Jack-
son, 100 pounds, John Statler, 100 pounds, By my slave Alexander,
100 pounds, William McClelland, 100 pounds. Each, Thomas
Hughes, Mary Newland, John Huston, and William Sairs, to have
10 pounds on demand. Col. David Shepard

Ohio Co. Lt.

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FORGOTTEN TOWNS 373

Augusta Town remained the county seat of Yohogania County
after the three counties were formed from the district of West
Augusta in December 1776. But the court, by Canon's orders, was
held alternately between Augusta Town and the Andrew Heathe
homestead during the year 1777-78. In June 1779, the court was
closed at the Heathe homestead by common consent, and was con-
tinued as the docket shows until May 18, 1780. On the night of
June 12, 1780, Augusta Town, with the exception of Richard
Yeates' home and Martin Hough's iron shop, was entirely destroy-
ed by fire at the hands of the Hannastown foes of the Virginia
leaders.

In April 1777, Joel Razor, a Virginia free booter, was drummed
out of Augusta Town and founded Razortown. It was in the
Rogers Inn in this town that the last session of the old Virginia
Court ever held on what is now Pennsylvania soil, convened on
September 17,1780, and ended on the afternoon of September 18.
These two Virginia towns were busy centers in their days.

Augusta Town on April 1, 1780, numbered three hundred
seventy-seven persons over one year old. Razortown, in 1795, had
two hundred twenty people and boasted of being the center of the
whisky rebellion. The first common public school ever held west of
the mountains was taught by Mrs. John Canon in their home in
Augusta Town from May 21 to June 27, 1776. Mrs. Phoebe
Strosnider-Poole taught the second term in the room in the Canon
home from May 4, to June 24, 1777. Reports sheets for both terms
and a copy of the New England Primer are still preserved.

A stone marker was placed on the site of Augusta Town in 1905,
which in a general way marks the site the town, but the third court
site instead of the first court site west of the Monongahela River,
as marked at that time.

Augusta Town, like many other western Pennsylvania lost town
sites is merely tradition to the present generation. Only a few
people possess any knowledge of old Augusta Town where such
famous men as General Washington, General Nathaniel Greene,
General Arthur St. Clair, Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry, as well
as many local orators, addressed the frontier settlers on the issues
of their day.

A new age and new people came to take the place of the first
frontier settlers to this territory who labored, fought, and died that
this country might be a free and prosperous home for their de-
scendants.

374 THE HORN PAPERS

Razortown

Razortown, Washington County, was founded by Joel Razor
in April 1777. This frontier village was located on land which had
been tomahawked by Ephriam Wise in 1769, but had been aband-
oned in 1774.

Joel Razor, who had married Juelda Wise, the second daughter
of the former claimant, was living in Augusta Town in 1776. In
September 1776, some trouble arose between him and Richard
Yeates, the proprietor of the town, over the amount of land
claimed by him.

This difference of opinion arose in March 1777, when the
Yohogania County Court directed Joel Razor to leave Augusta
Town and the Yeates plantation within one month. He obeyed
the court order, but did not go far to resettle. He built a four-room
log house on the land which his father-in-law had claimed. This
site was less than two miles across the ridge from Augusta Town.
He surveyed a tract into four blocks with Razor Street and "Wise
Road" crossing at right angles in the center of the village, and
named the place Razortown.

Joel Razor now became the proprietor of the second town in
Yohogania County, and adopted plans similar to those made by
Richard Yeates. He offered free home sites to all who would locate
in his "Independent town."

There was much opposition between the leaders of Augusta
Town and Joel Razor and his friends during the first two or three
years of Razortown's history.

Augusta Town, which had been founded by Richard Yeates,
John Canon, and Isaac Cox, in 1775, and made the district seat of
the district of West Augusta for the year 1776, was the greatest
social center west of the mountains from 1776 to 1780. It was far
more aristocratic and cultured than Razortown.

At first the growth of Razortown was" slow, but by the end of
the year 1778, twenty families were living there. The famous
Open Door Inn, erected in 1778, contained the finest barroom in
Northwest Virginia and was patronized by many of the settlers of
that day.

Razortown was from the beginning the very center of the whis-
ky trade west of the mountains, and it was in the office of this inn
that a score of secret anti-whisky tax meetings were held from 1792
to 1795. It was in the old log barn near by that the Committee of
Home Rights had three hundred barrels of local made whisky

FORGOTTEN TOWNS 375

stored in 1794, which the federal revenue officers failed to find
when they made investigation.

The last session of the Yohogania Court (the last Virginia
Court ever held in the territory of what is now Pennsylvania) was
held at Razortown on September 17, 18, 1780. This was following
the destruction of Augusta Town in June of the same year.

Joel Razor, having a certain number of friends still living in
Augusta Town at the time of its destruction in June 1780, invited
these to take up their residence in his town. By the end of the year
1780 and early 1781, Razortown boasted of having three hundred
inhabitants.

Martin Hough, who had set up his "iron shop" at Augusta
Town in 1776, transferred it to Razortown in September 1780,
where he continued to operate it until February 1796.

At the peak of Razortown's commercial life it contained the
inn with bar and accommodations for twenty guests and their steeds,
two provision stores, one uniform tailor shop, a blacksmith shop,
a cooper shop, a wagon and sled shop, two gun shops, four weaving
looms, twenty spinning wheels, and a tanyard.

Public well dug in the center of the crossed streets by John Horn
of Amwell Township in September 1777, and walled up later the
same year, is the only remaining land mark on the site of Joel
Razor's town (1777-1817).

It was in this well that the body of an unknown man, supposed
to have been a government whisky spy, was found in 1814. This
well was closed from 1795 to 1814, when it was again opened,
cleaned, and used by the public until late years.

A race track near the village attracted the attention of the
settlers of the surrounding territory from the time it was opened
in 1786 until it was closed in 1805.

So far as known, the first livestock and grain exhibit ever shown
in Washington County was opened to the public on October 3, 4,
1784, by the "Razortown Patriot Rangers."

Joel Razor and his wife made provisions for instruction of the
children living at this place. Having two daughters and three sons
of their own, they opened a day school in the summer of 1779.

They secured Dr. William Crago to teach a term of school of
forty days. He received his keep, sixteen shillings, and a home-
spun suit of clothes for his services as teacher of the Razortown
school.

Reverend Thaddeus Dodd, at that time a minister of the gospel
and schoolteacher at Upper Ten Mile, frequently preached to those
who assembled in the barroom at the "Open Door Inn." He had

376 THE HORN PAPERS

published his Colonial Spelling Book shortly before, and presented
Dr. Crago with ten copies of his later work for use in the Razor-
town school.

Like many other frontier towns and villages that were the pride
and ambition of the founders in their day, Razortown has long since
become one of several lost towns in southwestern Pennsylvania.

LOGSTOWN

This once noted Indian and French village stood on the first and
second bottoms on the north bank of the Ohio River, about fifteen
miles below Pittsburgh, in Beaver County. The town was first de-
scribed by Christopher Gist and Dr. Samuel Eckerlin in 1738. They
stated that the French and Cayuga Indians had a village of con-
siderable size and that the Indians were of a much more savage type
than the Delawares with whom they were trading in the land of the
Civil Chief Tingooqua.

Conrad Weiser visited Logstown ten years later, in 1748. In
his journal, under date of August 1748, he describes some of the
features of this Indian town. Darlington, speaking of Gist's journal
of 1750-51, says, "The Shawnees established themselves here prob-
ably soon after their migration from the Upper Potomac County,
and Eastern Pennsylvania in 1727-30." This statement is not in
harmony with the statements made by Chief Bluejacket of the
Shawnee Indian tribe who was an authority on the history of the
Delaware and Shawnee tribes from 1664 to 1890. He stated that
the main portion of the Shawnees lived on the east bank of the Ohio
River, below the site of Wheeling, West Virginia, from October
1696 to June 1748, at which time they removed to their settlement
on the Scioto River. This emigration took place in June before the
great Indian Battle of Flint Top in September 1748. The Rabbit
Clan of the Shawnee tribe, numbering about one hundred forty
Indians, settled at and around Logstown in 1747, purely as French
landholders against the encroachments of the English fur traders.

Arthur Lee, in his "Journal of 1784," mentions Logstown as
formerly a settlement on both sides of the Ohio. A settlement on
the south side of the river is called Indian Logstown in "Western
Navigation," edition of 1814, page 76.

George Croghan, in his journal of 1765, describes Logstown as
"an old settlement of the Shawnees situated on a high bank on the
South side of the Ohio River, a fine fertile Country around it." This
is one of the many errors made by George Croghan in his journals.

Tanacharison, the Half King, with Monakatoocha and a num-
ber of Cayuga-Seneca tribes lived at Logstown in 1753 and 1754.

FORGOTTEN TOWNS 377

Queen Aliquippa, after her departure from Aliquippa's Spring on
Indian Ridge in 1749, settled at Logstown, where she lived until
1752. She then removed to her home on Turtle Creek, where she
lived at the time George Washington visited her home on January
2, 1754.

Gist, in his statement to Jacob Horn in 1756, says, "Queen
Aliquippa is a woman wearing too many colors. She prefers rum to
a dress of one color." After Menier was destroyed in 1747.
and the Cayuga Indians were scattered, Logstown began to decline.
Some fur trade was carried on with the Indians, but in 1758, after
the French evacuated Fort Duquesne, Logstown became a disband-
ed settlement, with but two home sites in 1767. In 1771, John
Gibson and Isaac Wiever set up a trading post on this site, and
tried to revive trade, but in 1777 they left the old Logstown site on
the north side of the Ohio, and became active in the war.

Bowlegs and Peter Chartier went to see Aliquippa in 1753, and
carried her ten pounds of tobacco that Jacob Horn sent her from
Snow Creek. Gist stated in 1762 that Aliquippa longed for more
Virginia tobacco, and some rum of the home make, but neither
Jacob Horn nor Gist made her happy with either of these articles
of trade.

In 1774, John Gibson stated to Jacob Horn that John Connolly
was as great a menace to the Virginia cause at the forks as George
Croghan had been to the Indians at Logstown in 1753.

Christopher Horn and Chief Charles Bluejacket are authority
for the following regarding Croghan.

"George Croghan traded for a storehouse built of logs that the
French had deserted in 1752, known as the Logstown fur house.
This was estimated to be worth ten pounds. Seeing that trade was
leaving Logstown, he set fire to this building, then made claims to
Penn's Colony for 150 pounds loss to George Croghan and Com-
pany.

"Canon says that George Croghan and Bill Crawford are the
foundation stone of Penn's Colony, but neither ever dared to show
his 'yellow hide' west of the river but kept stirring up strife among
the Indians down the river ever since Gist first made his way to Logs-
town in 1738."

Gist, once stated to the Horns: "George Croghan, the Agent at
Logstown, has bartered all the Indian presents sent to them by
Rembaugh and Sott, and then pleads that Virginia is not their friend.
But Aliquippa gave voice to Croghan's council, and said that Virginia
fur traders treated the Delawares good, and always paid them
Virginia tobacco, instead of in promises as he did."

CHAPTER XV
MODERN TOWNS

Waynesburg

The tradition history of the lands on which Waynesburg now
stands dates far back into the misty past.

The Delaware Indians maintained that this site was one of the
ancient places where the Shennoah Indian tribe lived before the
white race settled in America.

The Delaware Indian Civil Chief, Tingooqua, held that the
powerful Shennoah tribe occupied the Ten Mile Valley, from 1500
to 1664, at which time there remained but a single member of that
tribe, a maiden who became the wife of Jacques Poynton. They
became the grandparents of Nemacolin. It was claimed by the
Delaware Chief that the Shennoahs had a sacred firestone near the
creek on which William Archer made his camp in 1767. But tradi-
tion is not a safe foundation on which to establish true history.

The true history of this territory begins with the first settle-
ment of the Delaware Indian tribe in the Ten Mile Valley in 1696,
but is not clearly known until 1724.

From 1724 to 1736, the French fur traders and some mission-
aries visited this valley and marked certain places on which they
camped. One of these sites was in East Waynesburg. While the
French claimed this region, it was occupied by the great and power-
ful Delaware Indian tribe, who had no relations with the French,
but welcomed the English fur traders.

The first English fur traders to penetrate the forest region of
the Ten Mile Valley were Thomas Frazier and James Letort in
1724, followed by Dr. Samuel Eckerlin in 1729. In 1731, Dr.
Eckerlin and his brother Thomas visited the Delaware War Chief,
Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, in his camp and village at Jefferson and at "Red
Wing" village on Smith Creek, south of Waynesburg. In 1733, Dr.
Samuel Eckerlin with his brothers, Thomas and Bernard, made a
tour over the greater portion of what is now Greene County and
south Washington County, and into Fayette County, as far as the
site of Fairchance.

In 1736, Bernard Ekerlin marked the sites of Turkey Foot
Rock and Dunkard Creek, and Flat Rock Crossing of Ten Mile
Creek East of Waynesburg, which are still preserved.

In January 1737, the Eckerlin brothers decided to enlarge the
fur trade business and consequently formed a partnership with

380 THE HORN PAPERS

Christopher Gist. In June of the same year, they erected a fur house
on Eckerlin Run, now Smith Creek, and in July erected the second
log fur house on Gist Run, now Ruff's Creek. In that year the Ecker-
lins and Gist camped for some time near the spring which the
Indians called "Oka Kapasa" and which was near the place where
Samuel Jackson erected Fort Jackson in 1772-1774.

From 1737 to 1750, Christopher Gist crossed and recrossed the
site of Waynesburg, and 1751 he led the party composed of Jacob
Horn and the two French surveyors across Greene County from
Turkey Foot Rock to Spirit Spring, at Camp Cat Fish in Washing-
ton County, passing over Flat Rock Crossing of South Ten Mile
Creek and the "Delaware" Crossing of the North Ten Mile.

In 1751, while in the service of the Ohio Land Company, he
crossed Greene County from the mouth of Muddy Creek to Indian
Peter's village on Block House Run, and made camp on the site
of Waynesburg, probably at this old camp site at Oka Kapassa
Spring. From 1751 to 1762, James Riley, who had previously set-
tled on Riley's Run and maintained a fur trading station, mentioned
that the Cherokee Indians of the South frequently made the
White Rock Cavern their camping grounds.

In 1763, Captain John Seals, a veteran of the French and Indian
War, erected Fort Seals in West Waynesburg, and in 1767 toma-
hawked the land on the borough site, but in 1769 he let all the land
east of Richhill Street revert to the public domain.

When this land was released from claim in 1769, a Delaware
Indian, known as "Red Pale Face" who lived on the site of Zollars-
ville, changed his camp site to a place on the north side of South
Ten Mile Creek, near where the south line of the stockade of Jack-
son's Fort was erected. Here he made claim to a small tract of
land, built his bark tepee, and lived for about one year.

During this time, Red Pale Face was in constant fear of the
ancient foes of his tribe, but met with no serious trouble from them.
On one occasion the Delaware Indian Bowlegs defended him from
three Huron Indians who made an attack on him while the two were
hunting south of the creek. Bowlegs dispatched two of the Hurons,
but the third escaped.

While the Indian, Red Pale Face, was living in his bark tepee,
a white man by the name of James Eden brought his family from the
south branch of the Potomac River and located on a small piece of
ground farther up the creek from the claim of Red Pale Face. Here
he built the first log house ever erected on the borough site of
Waynesburg, east of Richhill Street, and tomahawked his claim,
but never took steps to obtain a legal title to this homestead.

■MHPMHHHSMS

Courtesy William Fletcher

Court House, Waynesburg — Built in 1850

MODERN TOWNS 381

The Indian, Red Pale Face, now became restless, and longed to
change his place of abode. Eden began to see that he could hold the
good will of the Indian and at the same time secure his claim for a
mere trifle. He gave the Indian a musket, ten rounds of ammuni-
tion, five pounds of Virginia tobacco, and two pounds of salt for
full possession to all the land lying between the claim of John Seals
and that held by the Archers. Eden lived on this homestead and
was buried in the Seals graveyard.

Thomas Slate, a robust Virginian, who married Sarah, the
daughter of James Eden, and became associated with Samuel Jack-
son and his brothers, Hugh and Henry, William Archer, and the
Morris families, now laid claim to the land that his father-in-law
had tomahawked.

Thomas Slate, being an industrious man, managed to increase
his land holdings which extended on both sides of South Ten Mile
Creek. In 1780, he was granted a Virginia certificate for this land,
but this did not complete his title to it. In 1785, a contest over this
land arose, but he, having had it surveyed on March 6 of that year,
held a prior claim, and succeeded in obtaining his patent on March
7, 1789.

This land was cleared and some improvements made on it be-
fore Greene County was separated from Washington County in
1796.

Colonel John Minor, a pioneer resident of Cumberland Town-
ship, who had opposed several measures that the officials of Wash-
ington County had adopted prior to 1789, became the settlers'
candidate to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1791. He made a
memorable campaign, and was elected on the issue of "Separation
from Washington County." He was re-elected in 1793 and again
in 1795. During these years the contest over this matter was bitter.

He was elected three times and defeated twice on the same issue.
Twice he succeeded with the people but failed with the Legislature.
But during the third term his measure passed both branches of the
Legislature, and received Governor Thomas Mifflin's approval on
February 9, 1796.

On the same day, David Gray, Stephen Gapen, William Meet-
kirk, Isaac Jenkinson, and James Seals were commissioned trustees
of Greene County and authorized to purchase a tract near the center
of the county, not exceeding five hundred acres, upon which to erect
a courthouse, a county jail, and other necessary buildings.

On the appointment of the trustees, the one question of locating
the county and court seat absorbed all others for the months of
March and April, 1796. It had been decided in 1795 that if Colonel

27

382 THE HORN PAPERS

Minor succeeded in getting his measure through the Legislature, he
should have the naming of the site for the county seat, but the
appointment of trustees to select the site changed the situation.
When the trustees first met in Carmichaels, after having viewed
several sites, a spirited meeting was held in which all but two sites
were dropped. These were Carmichaels and Clinton. The settlers
from the west end of the county favored the site of Clinton, because
it was located almost in the center of the county. The settlers in
the east end of the county declared that Carmichaels was near
enough the center of the county for the county seat. It was at this
point that David Ryerson declared that the county seat could just
as well be located at Fort Ryerson as at Carmichaels. This meeting
adjourned to meet somewhere at a later date, but the settlers never
got another chance to debate on the question of their favorite site.
The trustees, Colonel Minor, John Boreman, James Hook, James
Carmichael, and William Crawford met at Fort Jackson and view-
ed the land held by Thomas Slater. They decided that this land
should be purchased by the trustees for the "seat of justices." Thus
it was twenty-nine years after Captain John Seals had set his mark
to the land now occupied by the borough of Waynesburg that these
trustees selected this site as the permanent county seat of Greene
County. The land was surveyed into lots and plotted the same year.
The first log courthouse and jail built at Waynesburg were erected
in May and June, 1797, and opened on September 2, 1797.

From 1796 to 1804, the new town of Waynesburg made slow
progress, but from that time down to about 1825, Waynesburg
gained considerably in population, and became the social as well
as the business center of the county.

Following is a copy of the call made for the first public meeting
ever held on the site now occupied by the borough of Waynesburg,
and also of the minutes of the meeting held on September 12, 1773.

The Call

Call made September 3rd, 1773.

We, the County Committee of West Augusta County, Colony
of Virginia, by the rights invested by the King and Colony, do set
the day of September 12th, 1773, as a day for preparation for the
present day defenses from the Indians and obnoxious settlers and
for the submission of our lives to God, the Creator of all the earth,
and His servants therein; for our loyalty to His Royal Majesty,
King George the Third, and to his Virginia Governor, the Earl of
Dunmore. We do proclaim to all ye settlers on the bounds of South
Branch of Tingooqua Creek from the Pines, to Clinton's Fort

MODERN TOWNS 383

Hopewell to assemble ye all at Samuel Jackson's Fort on the above
prescribed day as set forth, at the hour of eight o'clock, for consider-
ations and instructions as may be made necessary for the general
welfare of all ye settlers within the prescribed bounds.

Hail ! Hail all ye settlers, take ye notice of the Ord as set forth
by the Camp Cat Fish Court, of the time and place, and of the
urgent needs, as prayed for by the petition of Robert Morris,
Abraham Hickman, Thomas Hughes, Captain John Seals, Samuel
Jackson, Henry Jackson, Thomas Slater, Richard Morris and
Abner Keener, all duly known to be loyal Virginians as certified to
by the Camp Cat Fish Court on this Third day of September, of the
year A.D. 1773.

George Teegarden

James Carmichaels

Daniel Ryerson

County Committee
C. Horn, Clk.
J. Canon, Councilor
King and Colony

Minutes of First Public Meeting

By due notice the Tingooqua Creek settlers assembled at
Jackson's Fort at the hour of eight o'clock on September 12th,
1773, and the following matters were set forth:

Samuel Jackson and Thomas Slater's log seats approved and
accepted by the assembly and all approved by the County Committee.

By call made by order of George Teegarden each settler an-
swered Aye, and added the number of his household. Twelve men
were present, and added seventy-six additional members of Vir-
ginia families.

The reading of three chapters of God's laws unto all mankind
by Parson John Corbley, and Prayer by Parson Hoge being in or-
der, the same being done the call being read and set down.

Thomas Hughes of the Pines being set down as the head man
of the meeting by all present. He dwelt for some time on his
knowledge of the sovereignity of the King, and the laws of Vir-
ginia, and of her rights and intentions on these frontier borders.

James Carmichaels made known the powers invested in the
Camp Cat Fish Court and of the duties of the County Committee.

George Teegarden gave the full account of the sixty-three
families who became Christopher Gist's lieutenants in 1763, and of
their homesteads on both sides of the Monongahela River. He
revered the name of Gist, and gave the account of his death in

384 THE HORN PAPERS

October 1769 and of his burial, and asked a standing vote of Mem-
ory of the meeting.

Abraham Hickman made known his knowledge of Creaux
Bozarth's French Huguenot history, and of his rules and contests,
during his father, Robert Hickman's life, at Gist Point, from 1740
to 1756, and of the crimes of the Huron, Cayuga, and Seneca
Indians committed at the instigation of the French authorities on the
borders.

Samuel Jackson declared that he was giving aid and protetcion
to all who stood in need from the threats of the Indians of the
North and West, but do now ask for Virginia help to buy provisions
for all settlers while at his fort.

Thomas Kent and the Smiths by agreement made ten bushels of
corn meal and same of rye flour for use at Jackson's Fort by author-
ity of the County Committee. The same agreement being made with
Richard Morris; he agreed to furnish three head of oxen to Jackson
to furnish provisions for winter use.

Ten Shilling each was paid to Parson Corbley and Parson Hoge,
by James Carmichaels, the same being charged to West Augusta
County and returns made to the Camp Cat Fish Court.

The care and needs of the settlers at home, and on the trail,
the need of salt and lead being set forth, the County Committee
gave Samuel Jackson an Order for one quarter of salt and same of
lead. This same amount was given to Henry Clinton for use at
his Fort Hopewell.

By agreement, Abner Keener gave Jackson two grinding stones
suitable for grinding corn, acorns and chestnuts into meal.

Samuel Jackson then declared that he had fourteen quarters of
Virginia powder in his possession, whereupon the County Com-
mittee ordered him to deliver two quarters of this powder to Clin-
ton, and the same to William Harrod of Warm Springs, and or-
dered Harrod to set down four quarters of salt and same of Vir-
ginia smelted bar lead for Fort Jackson.

Thomas Hughes gave due notice unto all settlers that the Pines
will make war on all Indians not wearing John Canon's "Scarlet
Papie," and directs all settlers to do the same.

Six goats and two cows being the property of Thomas Slater,
he agreed to make allowance of milk for the women and children
held in Fort Jackson.

Captain John Seals being declared the holder of most family
needs of any settler in the valley, agreed to set apart both wool and
lintz for all emergency needs, and such amounts of corn and rye, as
may be needed for use at Fort Jackson and Fort Hopewell.

MODERN TOWNS 385

The day being one of feast and of wide consideration to all the
settlers, George Teegarden and Thomas Hughes declared the day
well done, and by common consent all the settlers departed for their
habitation at "sun fall."

Clarksville

Clarksville Borough, in Morgan Township, lies between the
north and south branches of Ten Mile Creek which unite at this
point and continue for about two miles where Ten Mile joins the
Monongahela River.

The site on which Clarksville now stands was one of the earliest
places visited by white men in Greene County. The French had
visited this "land of the treeless bottom surrounded by high
hills" before the settlement of the Delaware Indians in this territory
in 1696. Jaques Poynton, a Frenchman from Canada, came down
the Contrecoeur River (north branch of the Susquehanna) and fol-
lowed the southwest Indian Trail to Wills Creek, thence over the
animal trail which many years later became known as the Nema-
colin Trail. He reached the Monongahela River at East Millsboro,
Fayette County, where he met an Indian maiden who declared that
she was the last living member of the Shennoah Indian tribe. They
became husband and wife and camped on the site of Clarksville in
September 1664. These two early day people returned to the
French Camp on the headwaters of Contrecoeur River and in time
became the grandparents of Nemacolin, for whom the grandfather
named the famous trail when the grandson was seven years old.

The site of Clarksville is mentioned in French records in 1721.
Mention is also made that the Delaware Indians took possession of
the surrounding territory in 1696. They erected their Council Fire-
stone on the site now the center of Clarksville in October 1696, and
this was their main council ground until their defeat in September
1748. This Fire Council Stone was circular in form, having a
diameter of 32 feet and was about 2£ feet high, walled with flat
stone and filled with loose stone, on top of which they built log fires
when the Council of Chiefs was held. This firestone stood in the
center of Clarksville until 1832, when it was removed by Christo-
pher Horn, Reuben Teegarden, Abraham Harris, and George
Rider. The stones forming this ancient cairn were used in the abut-
ment of the milldam, then being built by John Walton on North
Ten Mile Creek. The stones were also used in walling up the head
of the mill race on the Washington County side of the creek.

In 1767, George Teegarden tomahawked all the land from
Teegarden's Ferry up Ten Mile Creek above high water mark to

386 THE HORN PAPERS

"Barnards Point," thence up and across North Ten Mile Creek to
the trail crossing of the creek, thence southwest, including the Del-
aware Indian village site of Village Chief White Eye's Camp, to
the mouth of Casteel Run, then southeast, taking in Indian Peter's
village site, and on to the Monongahela River. This included the
site of Clarksville. He held this large tract under the "Tomahawk
Right" from 1767 to 1779 when he traded his rights to all the
Washington County land and all the land on the Morgan Township
side of Ten Mile Creek in Greene County, except the peninsula, to
the McCullough Iron Company of which he was a charter mem-
ber. When the Mason and Dixon Line was established and his
Virginia land claims became Pennsylvania territory, George Tee-
garden found that he was limited as to the amount of his claims.
He held and warranted a tract containing 401 acres of the lower
end of Jefferson Township, which he named "Indian Altar" and
which he had surveyed on a Virginia Certificate, dated December
7, 1778, entered April 14, 1780, warranted to accept March
23,1787, patented March 24, 1787. This being the limit of the
land he could patent, but not wishing to release his claim to the
site of the land in the peninsula on the opposite side of Ten Mile
Creek, he made an agreement with Henry Enoch, Jr., to warrant
and patent the tract that he had traded to the McCullough Iron
Company, including the site of Clarksville which the Iron Company
had lost control of in 1789. This land was named "Mount Pleas-
ant." It consisted of 395 acres, surveyed June 13, 1786, patented
June 2, 1799, on warrant to accept dated December 28, 1798.

In 1801, George Teegarden repurchased this land on the
peninsula from a point on North Ten Mile Creek to the site of
the McCullough milldam, which he had held on a lease from Henry
Enoch, Jr. In 1791, the land on which the town now stands con-
tained sixteen large sugar trees, two large beech trees, and two
walnut trees, with the Delaware firestone and two large sycamore
trees that stood near the junction of the two branches of Ten Mile
Creek. In this same year all the land was planted in corn and was
all planted again in 1792 and in 1793 in flax by John Harris, then
living at the Harris Inn, across South Ten Mile Creek. After
this it became a bluegrass field, except a small flax lot, a tobacco
patch, and a garden plot which James Rush cultivated from 1798
to 1800.

In 1801, Hiram Teegarden and family lived in a log house in the
northwest part of the present town. In 1794, Hiram Teegarden,
son of Abraham Teegarden, and a brother of George, who had
lived at what is now Millsboro for several years and whose log

MODERN TOWNS 387

house partially burned, built this two-room log house which was
removed by Aaron Bonnell about 1864.

John Harris removed the log house built for Samuel Mc-
Cullough, Jr. at McCullough across the creek, and rebuilt in the
same year. In October 1801, with his wife, two daughters, and
two sons, Abraham and George, he took up residence there on the
west side of the peninsula.

In 1799, shortly before his death, John Canon, through some
business relations, induced Samuel Clark, then living near the
Canon home at Canonsburg, to take steps to reopen McCullough
Town and operate the mill, still in repair, but Clark made no move
to revive the old town. However, in January 1809, he made a
contract to survey and lay out a town on the peninsula of "Tee-
garden's Point" between the two branches of Ten Mile Creek, and
after the six families then living there had selected their lots on
which they lived, Teegarden and Clark were each to take every
other lot, and the town was to be called Clarksville. This was
just twenty years after the stockholders had abandoned the old
iron smelter in 1789.

The following families lived on the site of Clarksville in 1806,
three years before Samuel Clark laid out the town: John Harris,
Hiram Teegarden, William Pierson, Nathan O'Brine, George
Hupp, Jr., James Rush, and John Rider.

Samuel Clark built his home in the summer of 1809. In 1810,
several Irish families settled in the village, and William Pierson,
a Virginian, opened a tanyard and shoeshop. William Hupp was
a hewer of timber and a carpenter. James Filby was a gunsmith.
Richard Cox, from old Razortown, settled in Clarksville in 1810.
He ran a small still and made maple sugar. In 1811, William
Drake, an Englishman, looking over Greene County territory, de-
cided to build a woolen factory in Clarksville and soon had a
large stone building ready for the machinery, such as it was at
that time. In 1812, ten men were working in the first woolen factory
west of the Monongahela River, and this number was increased to
sixteen in 1817. During the century of life of the Clarksville
Woolen Factory, William Drake and his son Raphael, the first
proprietors, were followed by the Stevensons, and Thomas Ross
and sons, all of whom were well-known business men.

The woolen fulling mill, the first of its kind ever established in
southwestern Pennsylvania, was erected by William Drake in 1811.
He was an Englishman, a native of Leeds, and had worked in the
woolen factories in his native city and at York. He first came to

388 THE HORN PAPERS

America in 1807 and remained until 1809, when he returned to
England, remaining there until September 1810.

While first in America, he spent most of his time at New Gen-
eva, on the Monongahela River. He decided to set up a mill at
New Geneva, or somewhere near by, but before doing so he re-
turned to England, purchased needed machinery, and brought his
family to his new field of industry. With his family and supplies,
he arrived in Millsboro, Washington County, in September 1810.
Samuel Clark, who had now purchased all of George Teegarden's
interests in the town, except the reservations made for certain lots
held for his sons, induced William Drake to consider this town as
a site for building the woolen mills. Drake examined sites at Old
Clinton, at the mouth of Hargus Creek, and at New Geneva, where
a site was promised free to him. He decided upon Clarksville and
at once prepared to erect the large stone building in the lower
bottom land between the two creeks. At this time, the heirs of the
charter members of old McCullough, who still held the site of
McCullough on the opposite side of South Ten Mile Creek, tried to
persuade him to use the old mill and the log houses as his factory.
Drake declined and pushed his own plans to completion. By the
end of August 1811, he had the building under roof.

The stone masons, twelve in all, were paid six shillings per ten-
hour day. This building was fifty by eighty-four feet, two full
stories and garret above the ground, with a basement below, con-
taining the line shaft and drive machinery, which at first was driven
by a sixteen-foot overshot water wheel and later by a turbine water
wheel. A steam engine was added to furnish power to operate the
machinery. The stone dam built across North Ten Mile Creek was
about three feet high, but the long mill race through the Teegarden
bottom fields leading to the factory gave an eighteen-foot head of
water on the water wheel at the factory, which was sufficient to
drive all the various machines used in the fulling, carding, spinning,
and weaving of woolen goods.

William Drake and his two sons, Raphael and William, Jr., and
ten other men were employed during the first two years, but in 1814
the total number of persons employed was increased to seventeen.
James Hamilton, nicknamed "Sherlock Negus," was the foreman
of the weavers, and Richard Boose was the operator of the dye
tank and coloring room. This factory for years used the long thorns
from thorn trees in the neighborhood for pins. The boys of the
neighborhood cut these thorns from the trees, sorted them accord-
ing to size, and found a ready sale for them at Drake's Woolen
Factory. Some of the finest woolen broadcloth goods ever sold in

MODERN TOWNS 389

the country was woven in this factory. Both Henry Clay and
President Andrew Jackson bought woolen goods in large quantities
from here and had it delivered to them at Brownsville. The Clarks-
ville Woolen Factory was a scene of great activity in 1830, 1832,
and 1833.

After John Walton built his water, flour, and saw mills on
North Ten Mile Creek, he set up the largest distillery then in Wash-
ington County. There were then four dry goods stores, four wagon
shops, two gunsmith shops, three blacksmith shops, and a half dozen
cooper shops in Clarksville. It was one of the best business centers
in Greene County in 1850. From 1766 to 1854, Ten Mile Creek
was held to be a navigable stream to Jefferson, and keel boats,
eighteen feet wide and seventy-two feet long, passed up and down
South Ten Mile Creek from 1791 to 1836, carrying flour, dressed
pork, beef, whisky, and other products to Cincinnati and St. Louis.

The Drakes continued to operate the woolen factory for years.
After the death of the son, Raphael Drake, this property passed
into the hands of the Stevensons, then to Thomas Ross, who con-
tinued to operate the business in a small way until about 1890.
When the railroad was built through Clarksville up Ten Mile
Creek, this old stone building had to be torn down and removed
from the right of way. The furnace and mill of McCullough Town,
Drake's Woolen Factory, and the Walton Mills and distillery, as
well as the wagon shops, cooper shops, gunsmith and blacksmith
shops, are only a matter of history to the present generation of
citizens living in Clarksville. Only a few people living there re-
member of the stone woolen factory.

Clarksville organized and built a log church in 1814. One of
the provisions in the contract between George Teegarden and
Samuel Clark, made on January 16, 1809, stated: UA House
of God and for His Worship shall be erected within one year
after the date of survey and open to all who may desire to worship
the Lord therein." In 1811, a small body of members, calling
themselves "The Disciples of Christ," organized the first church
in Clarksville and in 1814 erected a log church building which
stood until the winter of 1823-1824 when it was destroyed by
fire. The following summer, the local people made plans to
build a brick church. Under the leadership of Thomas Brown
and John Walton, a brick kiln was set up, the bricks were
burned close by, and the brick church was erected and dedicated
in April 1825. It is still standing as the first permanent church
building in the town.

390 THE HORN PAPERS

Jonathan Clark was the eldest brother of George Rogers
Clark, the explorer of the Northwest. He was born in Caroline
County, Virginia, in 1750, where he lived until 1768. He then
located on Ten Mile Creek in Morgan Township. In 1774, John
Canon induced him to locate on Chartier Creek. He was commis-
sioned captain in the eighth Virginia regiment. He was also a colon-
el. In 1780, he was captured at Charleston but was released in 1781.
After the war, he settled in the Flats in Shenandoah County. He
married Elizabeth Hite and had four sons, George, Samuel, John,
and Jonathan. These sons all lived in Yohogania County from
1777 to 1781, and in the same territory until 1788, when they went
to Kentucky.

William Clark, a cousin of George Rogers Clark and of
William Clark, settled in the Ten Mile district in 1779 and was in
the military service in 1781-1782. He was a member of the Board
of the Illinois grant. He died in 1791. He had three sons who
remained in Washington County. They were George, Samuel (the
founder of Clarksville in 1809), and John. George removed to
Ohio in 1804. John Clark emigrated to Kentucky in 1812 and
died in Missouri in 1828.

George Clark married a McGinnis who lived in Washington
County.

Samuel Clark, the son of William Clark, removed to Indiana
in 1822 where he died in 1868.

The nature of the many events that took place on and near the
site of this small town has led French historians to declare that
no part of America is more historic than the lower region of Tin-
gooqua Creek, where the French found the iron ore in 1751.

In 1858, a company of men in Clarksville organized themselves
into a body known as the Ten Mile Oil Company, with one hundred
shares at fifty dollars each, to sink an experimental oil well. They
did not get fully organized and started until May 1859. After
some disagreement as to where to sink the well, it was agreed to
sink it on the Washington County side of North Ten Mile Creek,
about one hundred feet from the creek and the same distance above
the Millsboro Road. The rig was built and an engine and boiler
were purchased in Brownsville, and finally on May 10, 1859, they
started drilling. The drillers were from near Pittsburgh and, for
that day, were fairly well equipped and capable men. For some
time they made good progress, but when they reached a depth of
492 feet they broke the drill bit, leaving about two feet of drill in
the well. This delayed them for some time, but they finally succeeded
and started to drill again, striking gas strong enough to blow water

MODERN TOWNS 391

from the well. The drilling was continued until they reached a depth
of 792 feet. Then, by an accident, the drill was lodged in the well
and could not be pulled up. After more than a month's time spent in
trying to remove it from the well, the stockholders called a meeting
and decided to let the matter rest for a time until some further
steps could be taken to alleviate the trouble. For two years the
well remained at a standstill; then the Civil War came on, and first
one, then another of the stockholders sold out their interest at a re-
duced price. In 1862, the company disposed of the engine, boilers,
and rig, and capped the well several feet below the surface. Thus
ended the development of the Ten Mile Oil Company's well at
Clarksville. This well is still capped and untouched. It has re-
mained as a silent reminder that this section of the county was
ever ready to promote new industries.

The following were some of the stockholders in this company:
Henry Luse, Amos Walton, Christopher Horn, Christopher Cox,
Fletcher Allman, William Litzenberg, Reuben Teegarden, Amos
W. Teegarden, S. R. Horn, Morgan Bonnell, Adam Bottenfield,
James Hawkins, Daniel Simmons, John C. Fleniken, C. A. Blacky
and R. H. Phalen, all local citizens except the latter three, who
were business men, then located in Waynesburg.

In 1772, George Teegarden presented a petition to the Camp
Cat Fish Court for a road to be laid out and opened to travel from
Fort Teegarden (Millsboro) to Teegarden's Point (Clarksville).
The petition was granted and the road opened as asked for. This
road was built on the land then claimed by George Teegarden.

The Delaware Council Stone

After the settlement of the Delawares on the Indian Ridge in
1696, the Delaware Council Ground was situated on the peninsula
between the two forks of Tingooqua Creek, where Captain Clark
laid out Clarksville in 1809, twenty years after the sister village
across the creek had been abandoned.

The Delawares believed that no safe conclusion could be arrived
at on any question unless they had a fire near by to destroy the evil
spirits that came to confuse them while they were engaged in solemn
deliberations. In order to prevent the evil spirits from advising
them wrongly, they set up their Council Firestone and never failed
to build a fire on it. It was of stone, in the form of a walled circle
about thirty feet in diameter and two and one-half feet high. The
Indians stood in a circle around this stone facing the fire, with the
Civil Chief, War Chief, or Spiritual Chief always in his own special

392 THE HORN PAPERS

place, according to the nature of the matter to be discussed. Bow-
legs, known as Joshua, related that he had been in council there
many times between 1724 and 1748, when the tribe was broken up by
the Five Nations of the North and the Great and Little Osages of
the West.

This firestone was just halfway between the two creeks. It was
visited by Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn, and the two French sur-
veyors in June 1751. They made mention of it when they passed by
on their way up to the mouth of Crooked Run to plant the French
lead plate.

In 1779, when the hamlet of McCullough was laid out on the
opposite side of South Ten Mile Creek, and the milldam and the mill
were being built, the "Firestone" was the subject of many jokes by
the men at work there. All agreed, however, that it should not be
disturbed.

This old firestone on the "diamond" in Clarksville was removed
in 1832 by Christopher Horn, Reuben Teegarden, Abraham Harris,
and William Rider, citizens of that village. A description of this
stone and its removal was given to S. R. Horn about 1844. They
said that they removed this last old relic of the Indians from Clarks-
ville in 1832 after it had stood there for more than a hundred years.

It was said in 1779-1780 that in 1749 the French had taken
samples of iron ore from "Iron Point" to Paris, and that the ex-
amination of this decided the planting of the lead plate at the
mouth of Crooked Run at the place from which they had taken a part
of their samples. Other samples were taken from the hill overlook-
ing the Delaware Indian Firestone and Council Grounds.

The Indian religion was very simple and their creed was a short
one. They believed in a great first cause as the giver of life, and the
creator of all things, the "Great Spirit," and that worship and ado-
ration were to be paid to him. They believed in the immortality of
the soul, and of a future existence in what is generally spoken of as
the "Happy Hunting Ground."

Their idea of the future abode of all Indians, friend and foe alike,
was that it possessed all that is desirable in this life with none of this
world's evils, a land where there was to be no sickness, death or
enemies, and where game was inexhaustible.

They held feasts and dances for almost every conceivable pur-
pose, often continuing without intermission until completely exhaust-
ed. They held a council, a feast, and a war dance, before going into
battle in order that they might be successful in killing their enemies,
and in securing many scalps, and if successful they held a "scalp
dance" praising the Great Spirit for his favors. All enemies were to

MODERN TOWNS 393

be killed, because the Great Spirit killed all the evil spirits in the
happy hunting ground, and no enemies could live there. If the
Indians were unsuccessful in battle, they held dances bemoaning
their sins for having angered the Great Spirit.

They worshiped the clouds, the sky, the sun and moon, trees and
water. They praised the Great Spirit for the springs and running
streams, and offered certain prayers or chants to keep their flow
constant, leaving for them and for all animals water; for without
water the Indians would all perish, leaving none to follow them on
the earth and none to bring the account of their tribes to the happy
hunting grounds.

John Horn and Adam Weaver mentioned the few Delaware
Indians who were at Spirit Spring, Camp Cat Fish, in 1772.
These told Jacob Horn and other white men that if they wanted
Spirit Spring (then one of very strong flow) to be good and to give
the white man water, they must keep the Great Spirit happy, and
at certain times take certain branches of trees, and dip them into
its waters, then chant a thankful message to the Great Spirit. If
they failed to do this, the spring would not run for the white man.
In 1785, John Horn, in his records, said that no Horn had sent a
message to the Great Spirit, but that the spring was still running an
abundance of clear water, and that it was the best near the block-
house. When Hardtman Horn cut some stone, and walled up this
spring in 1773, the Indians objected to his interference with their
spring. A few transient members of the tribe used the spring until
the close of 1789. No Indians came around the blockhouse after the
end of the year 1789, but several Indian raids were made in South
Washington County as late as 1792 by the Indians from the Lake
Country.

Spirit Spring was located by the author and others in 1936 from
the notes made in the diary of Christopher Horn. This site of the
blockhouse and Spirit Spring was confirmed by the map and the
statements contained in the official Camp Cat Fish Court Record for
the years of 1772-73.

Greensboro

Greensboro site was known as Minorstown from 1768 to about
1780. Elias Stone laid out a town there in 1801 and called it
Greenboro.

The village of Greensboro, the rival of Fort Teegarden from
1768 to 1780, is situated on the west side of the Monongahela
River at the head of the slack water, pier number six. It is nearly

394 THE HORN PAPERS

opposite New Geneva, in Fayette County, and close to the famous
Friendship Hill, the home of Albert Gallatin.

The site of Greensboro has a historical record that dates back
to the days when the French first set their feet on the soil in the
Monongahela Valley. Vogundy wrote of the waters of Monon-
gahela in 1724-1726. Dr. Samuel Eckerlin and his two brothers,
"Long Tom" and "Buck," camped on the site of this town in 1736,
and Christopher Gist states that he, with the same three men and
James Riley, camped there in May 1737, and found many Indian
canoes that had not been used for half a century. These pioneers
made a stone heap to mark their camp site. It was this same stone
heap that Augustine Dillinger recognized in 1762 as the old site of
Gist and Dr. Eckerlin's camp of a quarter of a century before, and
about two years later, in October 1764, after a year and a half of
frontier life at "Syckes Corner's" on Big Whiteley, he relocated
on the town site of Greensboro, and became its first permanent
settler. Two years later, Samuel Martin and Richard Dyce built
log houses on the site, in the upper end of the town, and lived there.
They were soon joined by David Brown and his cousin William Bry-
an, both of whom were cousins of the great pioneer hunter, Daniel
Boone, the first Virginian to enter the state of Kentucky. In May
1769, while at Camp Cat Fish, Christopher Gist and John Gibson
visited this place and were warmly received by the Dillinger family,
and David Brown, who related that Colonel John Minor and his
brother William each had a log house there, although neither lived
there at that time. In 1771, for some reason not clearly known,
Augustine Dillinger and family removed from this town site to the
site of his old fur camp of 1760-61, just below the mouth of Dunk-
ard, near the river. The few settlers on the site of Greensboro in
1771-72 built a fort and stockade and called it Brown's Fort, but
it was soon changed to Minor's Fort. So far as known this was
the first place on the river or west of the river where a general
supply store, on a small scale, was opened to the settlers who were
in want of such supplies as lead, powder, salt, and at times, corn
meal, rye meal, and tobacco.

It was a general understanding among the settlers from 1769
to 1775 that if fresh river fish were desired, two husky fishermen
would take them from the river while the purchaser waited on the
bank of the river near Minor's supply house. This new supply
house created no end of commotion at Fort Teegarden in 1769-70,
and George Teegarden soon opened the "Snade's Den" and gave
out the word that salt, lead, powder, Virginia tobacco, and some

MODERN TOWNS 395

iron cooking vessels could be had for such prime furs, hides, and
pelts as the settlers were able to obtain on their homesteads.

Greenboro was a common river hamlet in the earlier years of its
existence, but it burst into a prominent Virginia frontier town early
in 1778, when Colonel John Minor gave out the word that he
had been ordered by Virginia to build a number of boats for the
George Rogers Clark expedition.

The near-by settlers planned to take some part in the first busi-
ness enterprise. Colonel Minor organized his forces. He selected
Samuel and Jacob Pringle as the designers of the boats, and hired
Jack Dillinger as carpenter foreman of the timber hewers and
framers, of which thirty were selected who could score and hew to
a line. It was but a few days until Colonel Minor's camp on the
Monongahela River was the busy scene of the first boat yard ever
established on the Monongahela.

Minorstown was known from Baltimore to the Ohio River
from 1778 to the close of the Revolutionary War. The Minor
boat yard built boats for the McCullough Iron Company from 1779
to 1786.

After the main boat building had ceased, Greensboro started up
the first glassworks west of the mountains and for a few years en-
joyed a large trade in the glass business. Glassware was shipped
to points on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Later in the history
of this town, plants were established where much fine potter's clay
was turned into all kinds of earthen ware and tile which the man-
ufacturers sold in many places, both at home and abroad.

The firm of Hamilton and Jones, proprietors of the Star
Pottery Works, was known all the way from their home town to
New Orleans where quantities of their pottery were reshipped to
Cuba. The town early established churches and schools, and became
one of the more advanced civic centers in the country.

Jefferson

Jefferson occupies a unique position in the history of south-
western Pennsylvania. No other place in the Monongahela Valley
has as early a historical record as the territory on which the town of
Jefferson now stands.

According to the Delaware Indian, Bowlegs, some members
of the Shennoah tribe lived there in the year 1643, while others
had their village on the hill south of town, but we will not contend
that the Delawares lived at Jefferson before October 1696, when
Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, the War Chief of this tribe, located his camp on

396 THE HORN PAPERS

the south edge of the pine grove, north of Main Street. The chief
and his councilors, with about sixty Indian runners and Oppaymoleh,
the Religious Chief or medicine man, made their place of abode at
this camp part of the time. The remainder of the time was spent
at Spirit Spring where Tingooqua, the Civil Chief, made his camp.

In May 1721, six hundred Delaware Indians held a feast of
six days' duration on the ground on what is now the center of the
borough of Jefferson, and Bowlegs was the "arch shooter" with his
bow and arrow. This bow he still had at the time of his death in
1789.

The Indian Spring, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, situated not far away, was
made famous because Oppaymoleh cast green pine cones into it,
which made it soft or everlasting water ; it should flow the same kind
of water as long as the sun and moon shone on Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo's
camp site. Just west of the chief's village site, down on Bowl or
"Wash Run," for many years known as "Mud Run," was where the
Indians had their bath pools before the white people settled the
land in and around Jefferson.

The French commander, M. Le Mercier, visited Wa-Ha-Wag-
Lo's village on the site of Jefferson in October 1752. He burned
every vestige of the Delaware Indian camp and proclaimed the
region French territory, and it so remained until about 1757.
During the years that followed, little mention was made of this
site until 1762, when Tingooqua and Peter Chartier mentioned the
destruction of the chief's village in 1752.

The first white settler to tomahawk a homestead here was James
Carmichaels, who took up this land, which included all of the site of
Jefferson, in April 1766. In May of the following year James
Carmichaels traded this pine land to Thomas Hughes for the
Hughes homestead southwest of the present town of Carmichaels,
which Hughes had homesteaded in 1766. These two homesteaders
traded even. The Hughes homestead extended from East Jefferson
to Tingooqua Creek, north and west of Jefferson. Thomas Hughes
held this until after the Mason and Dixon Line was finally estab-
lished in the summer of 1784. In 1785, Thomas Hughes patented
his homestead but reduced it to only a third of his tomahawked
land.

This homestead occupied the land from East Jefferson, west to a
line which in after years became Pine Street. All land west of this
line from the foot of the hill to the creek was returned to the public
grant. This same land which Hughes disclaimed in 1785 was home-
steaded by Colonel John Heaton by tomahawk in 1789. Here he
built his famous big house in 1791, and built the mills in 1792. Thus,

MODERN TOWNS 397

the land that Colonel Heaton took as his homestead in 1789 had
been held by James Carmichaels and Thomas Hughes, but it had
never been patented by either one of those men. That part of the
town west of Pine Street was laid out in 1814 by Colonel John
Heaton and was called Hamilton; the part east of Pine Street was
laid out the same year by Thomas Hughes and called Jefferson.
These two places were incorporated under the name of Jefferson
by an act of the legislature in 1827. The town of Jefferson, one
hundred nine years since that date, has perhaps one of the most in-
teresting historical lineages pertaining to claims to its territory of
any town on the North American continent.

Prior to 1664, the territory on which Jefferson now stands was
part of the Shennoah Indian hunting grounds; then by a grant
from the King of England it became part of William Penn's claims,
who in turn granted the Delaware Indians permission, in 1696,
to occupy this same land. From that time down to 1748 the Dela-
ware Indian Chief, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, and his band lived there.
In the year 1724, the French laid claim to this territory. They
destroyed the Delaware Indian tribe at the Battle of Flint Top in
1748 and held full control until 1758. When the English defeated
the French in the Monongahela Valley in 1758, the land on which
Jefferson stands became English territory for the first time in
reality. But soon after becoming English territory, it became con-
tested land between Virginia and Pennsylvania.

On the part of the colony of Virginia, the town site of Jefferson
was claimed by Queen County in 1700. In 1720, Spottsylvania
County assumed control of this land, and in 1730 Orange County
took over this title. In 1738, Augusta County was erected from
Orange, and by its boundary line included all of Greene County.
In 1768, northwest Augusta County was given a separate court and
colonial tax division of Augusta County and assumed full control of
the territory until October 1775, when the district of West Augusta
was established and Augusta Town became the district seat. One
year later, October 1776, the legislature of Virginia passed an
act to divide the district of West Augusta into three distinct counties
— Ohio, Yohogania, and Monongalia. The land upon which Jef-
ferson now stands came within the jurisdiction of Monongalia
county, whose county seat was established on the Eberhart Bierer
homestead near the present village of Maidsville in Monongalia
County, West Virginia. This country held jurisdiction over Jefferson
land until an agreement was reached between the colony of Virginia
and Pennsylvania, in June 1780, that the extension of the Mason and
Dixon Line should be the permanent boundary line. Thus, after a

28

398 THE HORN PAPERS

period of sixty years, during which claims were made to the site of
Jefferson, Virginia renounced all claims to the land situated in
Green County and Washington County.

The site of Jefferson may be recorded thus : Shennoah Indian
land prior to 1664; Cayuga-Seneca Indian land 1664 to 1682; Del-
aware Indian village 1696 to 1748; French claims 1742 to 1758;
British territory 1763 to 1783; Virginia claims 1720 to 1780;
Pennsylvania claims 1682 to the present time.

The borough of Jefferson is surrounded by a more level section
of territory than is found in most sections of Greene County, being
a plateau, well adapted for agriculture and grazing. For a period
of thirty-six years the Jefferson fairs were held on the ground where
the Delaware Indian War Chief, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, had his village
camp from 1696 to 1748. The Pine Grove was mentioned by the
Delaware Indians in 1712. In 1869, the Baptist denomination
chartered Monongahela College and erected a three-story brick
building and a large president's house on the fourteen-acre tract of
level land that belonged to the Jefferson Fair Association until sold
to the Board of Directors of the college in 1868.

Colonel Heaton's Mills, his large distillery, the tanyards, the
several stores, a saddlery and harness establishment, blacksmiths,
and wagonmakers, located in Jefferson in her earlier days, gave her
the record of being the main town in the county with the exception
of Waynesburg, the county seat. Up to the beginning of the year
1795, the town now called Jefferson had but six houses. Jacob
Fletcher built the first log house after Colonel John Heaton had
finished his two-story frame house in 1791. Thomas Hughes built
a stone barn in 1768, while living in the pine log house by James
Carmichaels close by in 1766. In 1771, Thomas Hughes built the
stone house near the place where his log house stood from 1876 to
1880.

Thomas Hughes was a justice of the peace for Cumberland
Township, Washington County, for the years 1791-1792. The
Hughes, Lindseys, Vanmeters, Swans, and Hillers were all related
to Thomas Hughes.

Colonel Joseph Parkinson was the next settler in Jefferson
after Jacob Fletcher settled there. Samuel Pryor built a log house
in what is East End Jefferson in 1796. He was the grandfather of
John Prior, who lived in the town from 1854 to 1863 and then pur-
chased the Christopher Horn farm near Clarksville in 1865.

The town council ordered a public well to be dug and walled
at public expense in 1836.

MODERN TOWNS 399

John West lived in Jefferson in 1807 and was a miller for John
Heaton. He lived on Heaton's land from 1812 to 1822. A daugh-
ter was born to him and his wife, Ann West, in their log house in
1821. In 1796, the revenue officers tried to find some whisky that
Thomas Hughes had made and stored in a rock cave, but they found
only a four gallon keg at the distillery, of which they consumed a
portion, then bade the owner good-by and departed to continue
their mission of finding more liquor subject to tax.

The borough of Jefferson, once a frontier town that created
much history in a local way (which has never been compiled), has
reached an age when it can now be classed as one of the old towns
of southwestern Pennsylvania. Many of the old landmarks are
gone and forgotten. The early day citizens have passed away,
leaving scarcely a trace of her colonial history to the people of the
present day. The memory of the many associations with Jefferson
and vicinity, of a half century ago, brings back to the author a
feeling similar to that expressed by the Delaware Indians in Okla-
homa for their lost land in Tingooqua's territory, "Same country,
same land; all new people, never like old days."

When the workmen under the direction of S. R. Horn were dig-
ging the trenches for the foundation of the walls of the college
building in 1869, they found the grave of two Delaware Indian
adults. The remains of these Indians were found about three feet
below the surface. The graves contained some flint arrow points
and some burned corn. The pine lumber used in the college building
and in the president's house was sawed from the pine trees cut on
this tract. S. R. Horn, the owner and operator of the Jefferson
gristmill and sawmills at that time, stated that several of these pine
trees were three hundred years old, estimated by their growth
rings. Several Delaware Indian arrow points were imbedded in
these logs, which made some trouble in sawing the large logs into
lumber.

The author of this history was born only a short distance below
Monongahela College on the Colonel Heaton homestead and spent
his boyhood days around Jefferson, camp site of the Delaware
chiefs. The descendants of these Indians in the West have a clear
knowledge of this place as their territory from 1696 to 1748.

The homesteads of Colonel John Heaton and Thomas Hughes
joined on Pine Street; but in 1797, Peter Slater and Robert Pat-
terson, Sr., each secured a right from Thomas Hughes to select
ground to build a house. Patterson built his house on ground which
in after years was occupied by Resin Calvert's store. Slater erected
a log house where the first Methodist Church was built, which was

400 THE HORN PAPERS

later occupied by the Jefferson Public School Building. This middle
section was known as "Harmony." Colonel Heaton was a staunch
Federalist and named his part of the town Hamilton while Thomas
Hughes believed the Democratic party was the American party,
and named his east-end town Jefferson.

Many personal combats and much bickering between the few
settlers in each village kept up the political warfare for some years
between the Heaton and the Hughes factions. The few families
who built on the Harmony tract took no part in the fight for
supremacy of the town. One set of boys and men would paint the
doors of the settlers in the opposite village with pine tar and wood
ashes, while the other side would climb to the roofs of the log
houses and fill the tops of the chimneys with stone, to smoke out the
occupants. These petty annoyances continued for some years. Some
boys were caught and whipped for this work, but finally the matter
was settled and all three sections were named Jefferson in 1828.

The Shennoah Indian tribe had a village site south of Jefferson
on the hill on the Bruckner farm. This village site was commonly
known to the community from 1876 to 1880, but no excavations
were made until October 1936. Many remains of these Indians
were found with shell beads, arrow points, and other articles used
by the Shennoah tribe.

Colonel John Heaton had ten slaves in 1796. "Bobbie," the
butler, was brought from eastern Virginia in 1778, and "Aunty
Jane" was purchased by Colonel Heaton in 1784. These two were
made man and wife by Colonel Heaton, as Justice of the Peace, in
1791 when he settled at Jefferson. In October 1792, he purchased
the four male slaves that Abner Hoge owned before his death in
1790. They were sold at public auction in Washington, Pennsyl-
vania. These, and the three children born to Bobbie and Aunty Jane
made nine. Through a business deal in 1796, Heaton also became
the owner of a mulatto slave called Jarrott Rhoades.

This Jarrott Rhodes, a large, strong slave, was very helpful
on the homestead and around the mills. A log house located in the
bottom near the still was the slaves' living quarters. All these
buildings were standing in 1866 when the author's father took
over this homestead.

In 1814, Colonel Heaton sold Jarrott Rhoades to William
Fletcher, who declared his intention of setting this slave free. On
May 20, 1823, he posted a public notice saying that because Jarrott
Rhoades had rescued a boy, John Culver, from drowning in the dam
of the Heaton mill on May 17 he was setting Rhoades free. This
statement was acknowledged before William Kincaid, June 6, 1823.

(MODERN TOWNS 401

Aunty Jane Meeker and her two children died of smallpox in
the fall of 1810 and were buried on the Heaton homestead near
the run above the upper falls, where she loved to pick flowers for her
mistress. Bobbie Meeker returned to Virginia after the War of
1812.

The rock-sheltered spring on the west side of the little run below
the second falls was known for many years as the Meeker spring;
here these slaves obtained water for their use while living near by,
from 1792 to 1812.

After S. R. Horn sold the Colonel Heaton homestead to
David K. Bell on January 8, 1882, Mr. Bell cut the last one of the
original three hundred pine trees that stood on this section of the
original homestead. This huge pine was five feet in diameter and by
its growth rings indicated an age of three hundred seventy-seven
years. It was just east of this pine tree that the author and his
elder brother found the remains of an Indian and some flint arrow
points under a flat stone, which a plow point had struck in the
spring of 1879.

Colonel Joseph Parkinson built his inn in Jefferson in 1797
and opened a store in one room, carrying such supplies as were
needed at that time by the few settlers in the neighborhood. Tobac-
co and snuff of the best quality were among the articles carried
in stock. Homemade leather and Philadelphia tan were sold in his
store before Jefferson had established a name on the map of the
state.

In 1878, Richard Hiller, a young man of more than ordinary
talent, started the "Jeffersonian," a small paper. The first issue
bore the date of August 15, 1878. This biweekly paper contained
much local news and carried a number of advertisements of local
business firms. The editor wished to make it clear to the readers
of his paper that he had never been in a newspaper office, nor laid
any particular claim to being brilliant, but asked to be given a trial.
This Jeffersonian newssheet continued for only a few months. A
copy of the first issue of this paper is now in the Greene County
Historical Museum at Waynesburg.

The first number of the Jeffersonian mentions the well-known
firms of Ewing McCleary, Henry Davis, Frank B. Wise, T. R.
McMinn, William Black, J. Cal Gwynn, The Milliken Brothers,
who were the Jefferson undertakers, and Will T. Daugherty, who
was the barber.

Just west of the borough and west of the college was "Bear-
Hole" where the Indian Chief, Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo, killed two Cayuga
Indian braves in 1711. "The Picture-Rock" that used to be under

402 THE HORN PAPERS

the water in the milldam exhibited an interesting sight when the
water was at a low stage in the creek. Christopher Gist visited the
site of Wa-Ha-Wag-Lo's camp on the site of Jefferson in 1751.
He found Bowlegs, or Joshua, and Oppaymoleh, when he reached
this camp; the old War Chief had been killed in the Battle of
Flint Top on September 18, 1748.

In March 1767, the Harrod brothers established the first tan-
yard west of the mountains, in connection with their fur house. It
was located at the west end of "Stocton's Lane" on the farm long
owned by Daniel Moredock. They tanned various kinds of wild
animal hides and dressed furs at their log fur and hide house in
1767 and 1768. In 1772, they tanned two hundred deer hides.
This tannery was burned by the Indians in 1774. The territory
adjoining Jefferson was the first section in western Pennsylvania
to establish tanyards for tanning hides into leather.

In 1781, Thomas Hughes, whose homestead occupied at that
time the site of Jefferson, became interested in tanning leather for
local use, and from that time to 1800 he furnished much of the
tanned leather that the several local shoemakers used in making
shoes for the people throughout the country. From 1786 to 1796,
Christian Sellers operated a tanyard on his homestead at the mouth
of Pursley Creek. For some years these were the only two tanyards
in Greene County.

In January 1801, Colonel John Heaton had a man from
Brownsville open a tanyard and a leather store on his homestead
north of Jefferson, near his mills. This tanyard continued in oper-
ation until 1856. The combined house and bark mill stood until
1872, when it was dismantled and torn down by S. R. Horn, who
had purchased the Heaton homestead.

In 1792, Gist Culver set up a tanyard which was operated by
his slaves until 1796. This tanyard was on the W. D. Rogers farm
in Morgan Township, on the opposite side of Ten Mile Creek from
Jefferson.

In February 1818, Colonel John Heaton, the proprietor of the
Jefferson water-power mills, loaded three flatboats with eighty-
four barrels of flour each, one hundred sides of leather on each of
two boats, and on the other, one thousand skeins of yarn from his
woolen mill and these were shipped direct from this place to the low-
er Mississippi trade points. This was the only time so far as known
that South Ten Mile Creek was used as a line of transportation to an
outside market.

From 1779 to 1783 flatboats loaded with iron products from
the McCullough smelter were shipped to various points on the Ohio

MODERN TOWNS 403

River and into Kentucky. In 1795, several boats, loaded with
whisky at Teegarden's Ferry, were shipped to St. Louis. James
Hardman and William Shepard, having charge of the two boatloads
of whisky from this point in April 1795, narrowly escaped the rev-
nue officers at Pittsburgh on their way down the river and had some
trouble at Cincinnati, but finally reached St. Louis, where they sold
the whisky and received in payment three kinds of money — French
gold, English pound sterling, and American money. They then
made their way back overland to Brownsville in September and
turned this money over to James Walton who was the shipper for
the small distilleries of the lower end of Greene County. "Old
Monongahela" rye whisky, made at the stills in the Ten Mile coun-
try, was an article of trade and sale, and was well known in every
river town from Brownsville to New Orleans before the year 1800.

John Horn and his three brothers distilled six hundred twenty
gallons of whisky in 1793 and purchased four hundred fifty gallons
distilled on North Ten Mile Creek. They then sold the entire stock
to James Walton at thirty-two cents per gallon on March 6, 1794.

Colonel William McCleery, one of Christopher Horn's friends,
lived in Morgan Township, Greene County, from 1774 to 1781.
From 1778 to 1781 he ran a distillery and a tanyard on South Ten
Mile Creek, where the Battle of Ten Mile had occured in 1774
in which the entire Ackford family was killed by the Cayuga
Indians. This battle took place near the site of the old Pollock
Mill in Morgan Township. In 1781, this distillery was destroyed
by fire by the Cayuga Indians. This was their second raid and
burning of property on this site and so enraged Colonel McCleery
that he secured the aid of Christopher Horn, David Teegarden,
Samuel McAlistor, Nat O'Brine, and Abel McCullough, all well
armed, and trailed the Indians to near Greensburg, but did not
overtake them in their flight to their village on the Allegheny River.

Colonel McCleery was killed on Wheeling Creek, south of
Elm Grove, in 1787. The Delaware Indian, Bowlegs, stated to
Christopher Horn shortly after McCleery's death that it was the
same band of Cayuga Indians that they had trailed in 1781.

From statements made in 1793 it appears that this was the
same band of savages who committed most of the depredations
and murders in Greene County from 1769 to 1789. The raid
on Mrs. Bozarth and the burning of the Sykes- Glasgow bridge in
April 1769 were the activities of the same Indians who destroyed
Samuel Jackson's distillery on Casteel Run in February 1769, and
who made the raid at Pollock's Mill in 1774 and 1781. The last

404 THE HORN PAPERS

known raid made by these Indians in this territory was in 1797 on
Dunkard Creek where three of them were killed.

Hillsborough

The town of Hillsborough, Washington County, occupies the
site of Grendelier, where the two French surveyors hoisted the
French flag in June 1757. Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn, Tin-
gooqua, Peter Chartier, Bowlegs, and Wessameking, the cat fish
catcher, camped on this site, with the Frenchmen, on June 27, 1751.
It was on this high point that the French determined to erect a
strong fort in 1752, but since Fort Duquesne at the forks of the
Ohio River was their first objective, they did not attempt to erect
Fort Grendelier as planned.

The first white man known to settle on the site of this town was
Joseph Hill ,in 1767. He was the father of Jacob and George Hill,
and the grandfather of George, who secured the larfd from Isaac
Bush, who surveyed it on February 23, 1785, and called it "Spring-
town." Then on June 18, 1796, he transferred his rights to George
Hill. On February 13, 1800, George Hill conveyed the tract "Spring-
town" to his son Stephen Hill, who in 1817 made an agreement with
Thomas McGiffin to lay out a town on this site to be called Hills-
borough after Joseph Hill, the first white family to settle there.
However, it was not until May 1819 that the final terms were
agreed upon. At that time the land was surveyed and the plot of
the town was made. This town was situated on both sides of the
old Delaware Indian Trail, upon which the National Road was
built, and about equidistant between Brownsville and Washington.
The plan of the town contained 106 lots. The main street, which is
the state road, was sixty feet in width, while the back streets were
forty feet wide. George Hill, Sr., kept an inn on this site in 1788,
and in 1792 the inn was transferred from the log house into the
"Stone Tavern," kept by Jacob Hill, and his son, George, Sr. The
first shop or store on this site was kept by Frank Ten Mile for a
time in 1792, but when the Whisky Insurrection became the
absorbing question, he closed his store, and became one of the
guards at Razortown, where the main portion of the "nontaxed"
whisky was stored. At this time there were nine families living
at Hillsborough.

Jenkins and Samuel Stanley came here with the latter's father,
who was a wagonmaker and carpenter, and set up a wagon shop
in 1794. Samuel Stanley became the first postmaster of the town,
September 1, 1819. The Hill families continued to live here for

MODERN TOWNS 405

many years and left many descendents, some of whom left here
in the early days and moved to various sections of the Central West.

Hillsborough became one of the principal points on the National
Highway at which the coaches of the different stage lines stopped.
Henry Clay referred to this village in 1824, and in 1832 Andrew
Jackson, who was then President of the United States, when on
his way to his home in Tennessee, picked up at this place an order
of woolen goods from the Drake Woolen Factory at Clarksville.
This town, now called Scenery Hill, contains churches, schools,
stores, and other places of business, which with the many homes,
mark the site where the French government once dreamed of mak-
ing one of the strongest fortifications in America.

The "Pictured Rocks" at Hillsborough, before 1851, were
considered among the finest of their kind in southwestern Pennsyl-
vania. The one hundredth anniversary of the party which camped
there in 1751, was celebrated on the same site on June 27, 1851,
at a community picnic. On that occasion, an address, made by
Joseph Wise on the "Changes of a Century in the Delaware Lands
and of the French Claims to This Site," was delivered in a very
able manner to a large audience.

Brave

The town now Brave, in Wayne Township in Greene County,
Pennsylvania with its surrounding territory has a well established
background that dates back to the close of Queen Ann's War. It
was near Brave, or between there and Blacksville, West Virginia,
that James La Torte planted the French flag for Jean Du Pratz
in 1717. In 1721 the French claimed all the Valley of Little
French Creek, now Dunkard Creek, and from that time down to
1758, the entire valley was French territory.

In 1751, when Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn, and the two
Frenchmen, M. Beaumont and Xenaphon Grendelier planted the
French Lead Plate at Turkey Foot Rock, these Frenchmen refer-
red to the French Camps on the upper waters of this stream at
"Double Bend," which was the double Curve of Dunkard Creek,
between Blacksville and Little French Flats, now Brave, Pennsyl-
vania. In 1758, Jacob Ryerson, and James Rush, two French and
Indian War Veterans camped on the site of Brave, and fully in-
tended to tomahawk each a homestead but circumstances so pre-
vented their plans, that neither of these pioneers ever made claim
to any land on Dunkard Creek.

406 THE HORN PAPERS

Jacob Ryerson founded and erected Fort Ryerson in 1762 and
James Rush built Fort Rush on Fish Creek in new West Virginia
the same year.

James Phillips and Emmon Gump were the first two white
families to locate on the site of Brave, in 1766, but in 1770 James
Phillips removed to a new location on Shepherdson Run. Emmon
Gump with his family remained there until in 1777. It was in the
month of September 1777 that twenty British soldiers appeared
on Dunkard Creek at Blacksville, and were headed for the
Forts on Ten Mile Creek, but the woodrangers spread the alarm
and Lieutenant John Henderson with one hundred of the local
militiamen fell upon these British Red Coats killing four of them
and driving the others beyond the Monongahela River at Fair-
mont. Emmon Gump was the first man who saw the British scouts
on Dunkard and gave the alarm. He made his way to Fort Hen-
derson on Blockhouse Run and there borrowed a horse to ride
to Fort Seals, Fort Morris and to eastern Greene County where
Col. Minor and Col. Crago hastily enrolled sixty mounted men
and set out for where the British were camped on Dunkard Creek.
Emmon Gump, then given the name of "Brave Gump," led the
entire party with Captain John Seals at his side to the British
camp in broad daylight charging as they advanced on the invaders
without a halt. The British made their escape but lost four of
their twenty men. On this sudden appearance of the British on
Dunkard Emmon Gump's wife, Lucy Thomas Gump refused to
live there in Gumps choice and they removed to a small tract
on Hargus Creek in Center Township.

John Bown, George Shins, Joseph and John Ross took up
land around the Gump settlement in 1778 and most of these
patented land there in 1785-1786. It was David Warley who
patented the land called "Tower," that originated the town of
Brave in 1815 in honor of Emmon Gump, the hero of Dunkard
Creek in 1777.

Mount Morris

The section of territory surrounding the town of Mount Morris
was first spoken of by Jean DuPratz in 1701. He stated that the
crossing of a large run on the Indian and James River Trail leads one
to the higher lands to the north and east where countless deer, elk,
and black bear abound. This he says was the outward lands of the
Shennoah tribe of Indians, now extinct by war, famine, and disease.

In 1696, the Delaware Indians took possession of all the land
between the Monongahela and beyond the western boundary of

MODERN TOWNS 407

Pennsylvania, and two of the twenty-eight clans of the tribe set
their village sites in near-by territory. The Village Chief, Tall Tree,
of the Squirrel clan with one hundred and thirty warriors, in all three
hundred and sixty Delawares, set their village on the lands to the
east of the present town of Mount Morris.

The subdivision of the Fish clan of the Delawares, under their
village chief, Light Eye, set their village on the high land above the
Trail Crossing of Dunkard Creek at Turkey Foot Rock. This tribe
buried many of their dead under the overhanging cliffs between their
village and the creek. A small number of Light Eye's band were
living there in June, 1751, when Christopher Gist, Jacob Horn,
and the French engineers planted the lead plate, and rested in the
camp at Light Eye Spring, near the creek, almost directly on what
is now the Mason and Dixon Line.

From 1721 to 1736, Dr. Samuel Eckerlin and his brother
Thomas (called Long Tom by the Indians) visited both of these
Indian villages and traded with them for furs in exchange for Vir-
ginia-grown tobacco. In June, 1736, while there at White Eye's
village, on his first trip to this territory, Bernard Eckerlin, the
youngest brother, cut the famous turkey foot on the large surface
rock which has remained there for more than two centuries, and
which is widely known as Turkey Foot Rock. At the same time the
three brothers set their names and their seals on a large beech tree
near what is now the center of Mount Morris.

In March, 1766, George Morris, in company with his brother
Joseph Morris, late of the Morris Plantation in Virginia, who was
on his way into the Monongahela Valley to lay claims to the Virginia
land under the tomahawk rights, camped for a week at Turkey
Foot, then camped for sometime at a spring near the town of Mount
Morris. Here George Morris declared to his brother Joseph, "I
have trailed just as far as I am going to find land. I am going to
take this old Delaware Indian village site and all the land around
it as my tomahawked land." The Morris brothers tomahawked
2450 acres and set a stone, with the name "Mount Etna," as the
claim of George Morris.

Joseph Morris objected to not seeing more of this new land
and induced his brother George to trail on to the Eckerlin old
claims on Eckerlin Run, now Smith Creek, to seek more favorable
land. They reached the Eckerlin Cabin, but Thomas Kent was one
week ahead of them, and was then setting his claim to all the
valley. Kent informed the Morrises that a fine section not yet
claimed lay to the east. These land seekers then went to the head of
Morris Run, later Laurel Run, where Joseph Morris found land

408 THE HORN PAPERS

that suited him, and they tomahawked 2880 acres and called it
"Independence Hall." Now each had a tract of Virginia's free land.
George Morris proceeded to make his Mount Etna his future home.
They returned to Staunton for supplies and some needed tools to
erect their log houses, and then hurried back with their slaves to
build these before others would take their claims.

George Morris erected the first log house ever built in the terri-
tory around what is now Mount Morris. This was late in March,
1766. George Morris brought his family to this log house at Mount
Etna early in April, 1766. The family, besides the head, consisted
of his wife, four sons — Joseph, Jonathan, Robert, and George, Jr.,
and daughters — Sarah, Caroline, Emily, and Martha.

The family lived on this tract until 1784. When Pennsylvania
assumed full control of this territory, several others who desired
land traded or purchased portions of this Morris land until they had
only 406 acres left. This land was traded to Amos Taylor in 1783
for fourteen head of cattle, four head of French stock horses, and
£300 Virginia Warrants.

George Morris died in 1781. He never warranted or patented
land. His son, George Morris, purchased some portion of his
father's tomahawked claims.

Amos Taylor traded this land to Stephen Gapen who warranted
it and surveyed it September 23, 1795, and patented it under date
of September 16, 1796. Mount Etna, as the place was called before
1800, was known as Staunton and James Franks had a blacksmith
shop and a bar on this site in 1792. June Lemley did spinning and
weaving for the public at that time.

The borough of Mount Morris was founded and laid out by
the grandson of the first settler, George Morris.

The town is surrounded by high and rugged hills, but the soil is
very fertile, and the fine timber that formerly covered these hills has
mostly been cleared; however, timber of later growth adorns this
territory.

In 1862, the discovery of oil along Dunkard Creek created much
excitement, and this gave a new interest to Mount Morris and the
surrounding neighborhood.

The town at this time is one of the business centers in Greene
County.

Carmichaels

The territory around the town of Carmichaels is less hilly than
almost any other section of Greene County.

MODERN TOWNS 409

It was related by the Delaware Indians that the Great Spirit, in
making so many nice hills, ran out of material to make any hills for
the Little Fish clan of the Shennoah tribe, who once lived on a lake
with an island in the lake; but since the Indians wanted to live on a
hill, the Great Spirit dried up the lake, leaving the land level, with
a mud creek only, to remind them of this lake where their chief could
make the water all muddy when his people refused to catch him
many fish.

The Indians did not attempt to state just when this (fable)
really took place, but at least, centuries have passed since the Del-
awares themselves declare the land on all sides of "Cross Trails"
was the same in 1696, as it is today.

When the Delawares settled in what is now Greene County, in
1696, it was near Cross Trails that .the Village Chief, Big Bear,
located his village, and watched over his three hundred members
of the deer clan of this tribe from 1697 to 1748.

In 1744, Jean Paul, a Frenchman, came to the territory some-
where near Cross Trails, now Carmichaels, and lived for two years
in a stone cone-shaped house to watch the Delawares who would
make no terms with the French.

This Frenchman was the predecessor of Creaux Bozarth, the
French Commissioner, who with his family, settled at Fort Louis
on Big Whiteley Creek in April, 1747.

Jean Paul was not a permanent settler on Greene County soil,
while the Bozarth's were, and the very first permanent family to
settle in the county.

Jean Paul, according to the Bozarths, died in the winter of
1746 of smallpox contracted from the Cayuga-Seneca Indians.

The modern history of the land on which Carmichaels now
stands begins in February, 1766, when Thomas Hughes toma-
hawked twelve hundred acres of land in and around the town of Car-
michaels, then known as "Cross Trails." Thomas Hughes held this
land one year, then made an even trade with James Carmichaels
for his same acreage at the "Pines," now Jefferson, Pennsylvania.
For some years after their trade, each one would relate how he
got the best of the other. Both of these gentlemen were slave own-
ers, and their slaves often ran away from their own quarters to fight
the slaves of their opponent master.

In 1779, James Carmichaels built a house on the left bank of
Muddy Creek. This was the first house in the town of Old Lisbon,
named for Abraham Lisbon. The same year, Isaac Price built a
house near the Lisbon home. In 1780, Old Lisbon had four houses,
but James Carmichaels' home was on the right side of the creek until

410 THE HORN PAPERS

in 1784, when he erected his new house near the place where John
Crago built his house in 1766, while Thomas Hughes owned or held
the tomahawked claim to all the land. In 1785, Old Lisbon lost two
houses by fire, and one house was torn down and enlarged. The
old name was then discarded, and no name was given to this place
until about 1804, when the name New Lisbon was applied to it by
Colonel Hathaway. Some of the first settlers around this town,
along with James Carmichaels and Colonel John Crago, were John
Swan, Jesse Van Metre, Isaac Long, Isaac Price, Luke Armstrong,
and Dr. Medrith.

Perhaps the greatest advantage the community around Car-
michaels ever had over the other sections of the county, was that it
was the seat of the Greene Academy, the first place of higher ed-
ucation as an academy in the county but not the first in instruction in
the higher branches. The Greene Academy was the outgrowth of
Prof. John McMillen and Mrs. John Canon's Course of Higher
Instruction at the Colonel John Minor home, in the years 1767 and
1768. Colonel John Minor gave a full history of the efforts made
in 1768 to continue the courses in English, Latin, Surveying, Natural
Philosophy, and Geology.

The Greene Academy was a flourishing local institution for
many years, but rival institutions of a higher rank finally forced this
institution to close its doors, and at present it is scarcely remembered
as an educational institution.

The town of Carmichaels in Cumberland Township was laid
out in 1830, but was not incorporated until 1853. The first borough
election was held in 1855.

The town is one of the more thriving centers of Greene County,
having all the advantages of modern life, with the usual number of
business houses, churches, and schools that are found in any similar
town throughout the country.

Jacksonville Wind Ridge Post Office

Jacksonville — Wind Ridge Post Office, commonly called Jack-
town, occupies a commanding site on a beautiful ridge long known as
Elk Ridge. Elk Ridge was one of the more memorable sites of the
pioneer days of the white people between the Monongahela and the
Ohio rivers. This site was held by the Delaware Indians to be the
most commanding site in all their lands west of the Monongahela.
They called it "Iklanna," meaning halfway, or in the middle of, for
they counted it halfway between the Monongahela and the Ohio
rivers.

MODERN TOWNS 411

Just what tribe or clan of Indians claimed this site in prehistoric
days is not clearly known, but it was supposed to be the village of
the Elk clan of the Conchoi tribe of Indians at the time Columbus
discovered America. The English word Elk is taken from the In-
dian compound word "Isa Chita," which has several meanings : first,
high, look beyond, high between two low lands; it also means vast
herds of game; a place where large wild animals congregate. Chito
alone, as expressed by the Indians, means grand, majestic, sublime,
and when taken as a whole the Indians meant that Elk Ridge was
a high ridge, having a majestic view of the lower lands on both
sides and a place where vast herds of elk, deer, and buffalo met in
common.

It is not clearly known how long Elk Ridge had been void of
Indians prior to the arrival of the Delaware tribe into this territory
in 1696, but on their arrival the high war chief portioned out cer-
tain village sites to each of the twenty-eight clans in his tribe, while
he and his official members selected the "Pines" as his war camp
site, and Spirit Spring as the site of the spiritual head where Opay-
molleh made his camp, and which was near the main undivided por-
tion of the tribe.

In the disposition of the village sites made to the different clans,
in 1697, " White Eagle," the village chief of the Eagle clan, was
given the village site north of what is now Graysville, where he
established his four hundred members in their permanent homes.
Here the Eagle clan lived and multiplied from that time until after
the main portion of the Delaware tribe was destroyed in 1748.

In 1730 the Eagle clan numbered about seven hundred and sixty
members. Chief White Eagle then appointed his son, "Eagle Eye,"
chief man of his second village which he set up on Elk Ridge, and
gave his son "pokoli" (eighty) of the members as his subjects, but
both villages remained under the general control of the Village
Chief White Eagle. Both of these village sites were visited by Chris-
topher Gist and Jacob Horn in June, 175 1, in company with the high
Civil Chief Tingooqua and his brother-in-law, Peter Chartier, all
being honored guests in both villages. But these were not the first
white men to visit these villages. Dr. Samuel Eckerlin and Peter
Freeman visited White Eagle's village in 1724 and traded for furs.

James Riley, Robert Stewart, and James Ross were there in
1737, and other Virginia fur traders visited these villages before
1748.

The first white man to make a claim to the land on Elk Ridge
was George Ryerson who tomahawked it in the spring of 1765,
three years after his father, Jacob Ryerson, built the Ryerson Fort

412 THE HORN PAPERS

near Barney's Run in 1762. George Ryerson erected a log block-
house near the entrance of the fair grounds, and lived there until in
September, 1768, when he removed to the Ryerson blockhouse, which
he and his brother, Daniel Ryerson, erected near what is now
Ryerson Station.

In the summer of 1765, George Ryerson erected the "tree
tower" on the ground near the site where the Pettit Inn was long
afterwards erected. This tree tower was also a signal tower which
was made to give off smoke signals to inform the outlying settlers
that Indians were on the trail, or known to be in the neighborhood.
Two large beech trees stood close together, having large limbs on
each tree parallel to each other on the same level about thirty feet
above the ground. After trimming all the brush from the trees up to
those limbs he split heavy broad rails sixteen feet long and hauled
them up by a grapevine cable and laid them from limb to limb, mak-
ing a platform sixteen feet square. He placed several inches of clay
gravel soil over this platform, then some thin stone upon which he
kindled fires and smothered them to hold the smoke, which he allow-
ed to pass up and out through a hollow log in signals which could be
seen for miles and read with accuracy. This old smoke signal tower
remained there until in the fall season of 1803 when the platform
gave way and fell to the ground, and this long-time landmark on
Elk Ridge became only a matter of history.

George Ryerson still held this claim after he located in his
blockhouse in 1768, but in 1780, he traded all his claims to land
on Elk Ridge to James Graham for an ox team, ten cows, two
muskets, and twelve pounds in Virginia money.

James Graham traded this same land to Thomas Leeper, who
patented it in 1798. Robert Brister purchased Elk Ridge from
Thomas Leeper and laid out the town of Jacksonville, which has
become one of the modern towns in Greene County. Descendants of
two Virginia fur traders, James Ross and Robert Stewart, were
among the first settlers of the town, and some of the Ross descend-
ants were still living there in late years. Mr. Frank Ross of Chicago,
Illinois, is a descendant of the James Ross who presented Chief
White Eagle with some fine decorations and ten pounds of Virginia
tobacco on Elk Ridge in 1737, in recognition of the Delaware
Chief's reception of the fur traders in Eagle Eye's village at that
time. "Elk Ridge" and "Jacktown" are two unforgotten names in
Greene County history.