Transcribed by: Nancy Wilkinson. For an explanation and caution about this transcription, please read this page.
Surnames in this chapter are:
ALEXANDER, ANDERSON, BRADY, BRODHEAD, BUHL, CARTER, CELORON, CORTUS, CROSIER, CROZIER, CURRAN, DAVIDSON, DAVIS, DE JONCAIRE, DINWIDDIE, FERGUSON, FORRESTER, FRAZIER, GALLISSIONERE, GIBSON, GIRTY, GIST, HARBISON, HICKMAN, HICKOMEN, JENKINS, JONCAIRE, LA FORCE, DE ST. PIERRE, MCCABE, MCCOLLOUGH, MCGUIRE, DE BONNECAMP, POST, REPARTI, SIMMERS, ST. CLAIR, STEWART, SUTTON, THOMPSON, VANBRAAM, WASHINGTON, WHITE, WIGTON, WINTER, WOLF
THE trails and villages of the Indians, within the boundaries of Butler county, may be said to have been the only evidences of Indian occupation found here by the pioneers of 1796. The story of the purchase of the Indian country is told in the next chapter. The Senecas were the occupants of this part of the State so far as history speaks; but, at the time when the tide of immigration halted on the left or east bank of the Allegheny, several tribes claimed the country, such as the remnant of the Delawares, with the Shawanese, Munceys and Senecas. During the Revolution they were allies of the British, and most terrible ones too. Under the leadership of that Tory Scotch-Irishman, Simon GIRTY, they brought death into many a promising settlement and spread terror throughout all the frontier villages.
The Indian towns of what is now Butler county, as shown on the map of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, published in 1875 by that society, were Cushcushking, on the stream now known as Wolf creek, in Slippery Rock township; Kaskaskunk, west of the hamlet of Holyoke in Centre township, on the Franklin township line, and Sakouk or Saconk, on the west line of Alexander's district, where it intersects the Connoquenessing, near Harmony. Another Indian town named Sakouk or Saconk stood near the mouth of Beaver river; Logstown was located on the north or east bank of the Ohio, a few miles southwest of the southwest corner of this county; while Shannopin Town stood across the Allegheny river, opposite the Indian town of Allegheny. On the map named there is no trace of an Indian trail in Butler county made, not even from Cushcushking to the town where Mercer now stands, or to that where is now New Castle, or to Saconk on the Connoquenessing. Leading east from Kittanning was a trail; while north, along the river bank to the site of Franklin, and west from Fort Machault, on the site of the present town of Franklin, were well beaten paths. The Kushkushkee, mentioned by POST, is no doubt the Cushcushking of the Historical Society. In 1758 it was divided into four separate towns, and in the four were ninety houses or cabins, 200 braves and a large number of women and children.
While the map referred to shows the principal villages of the aborigines in Butler county, it does not give the smaller towns, such as that in Forward town- [p. 25] ship, near BUHL's mill, the camp on the SIMMERS farm in Buffalo township, the camp on the FORRESTER farm in Franklin township, or the Indian village above Martinsburg, which was tenanted by a small band down to 1796, when they left their cornfields and hunting-ground forever. The Indian town which occupied a large area near Mechanicsburg, in Worth township, and the Indian cornfields, which were cultivated on the site of the present town of Harrisville, down to 1796, are not shown on the map, nor is mention of them, or of the trails in Cranberry, Jackson and Buffalo townships, made in the Colonial or State documents. They all existed, however, and, as related, were the property of the Cornplanter tribe and sundry nomads down to the period when the pioneers came to occupy the lands.
In 1796, while John GIBSON and William FERGUSON were en route to Butler county, they discovered a canoe full of Indians on the river, near BRADY's Bend. William FERGUSON bore the red-skins little love, for more than one of his relations had been murdered by the savages. Now he had an opportunity presented for revenge, and, availing himself of it, fired on the party. It is said he killed one savage and then fled toward Butler county. The following year John, Alexander, James and Hugh GIBSON settled permanently on land selected the previous year. Soon after their arrival, as Hugh (then a boy of fifteen years). was alone, two giant Indians appeared at the cabin. The boy was somewhat scared, but the Indians merely asked for something to eat, and when their hunger was satisfied with some cucumbers and cake furnished by young GIBSON, one signified his pleasure by smiting his breast and exclaiming: "Ugh! Indian strong now."
Indeed, it was customary for the Cornplanters to visit Butler on their annual hunt down to 1818. Here they could always rely upon well-stocked preserves; for the forest was full of deer, bear and other large game. As the animals would fall, the wild hunters would dress them carefully, and then hang them high up beyond the reach of wolves and in places where the bear would not venture. In later years straggling Indians from the Seneca Reservation visited the county, but from 1843, when the savage Mohawk, murdered the WIGTON family, down to 1893, the representatives of the aborigines avoided Butler.
In the summer of 1893, six Indians appeared at the farm of J. H. WIGTON, in BRADY township, and asked permission to search for relics which they claimed had been left there by their ancestors. They were remnants of the Delaware tribe. Their request being granted, they began digging with spade and mattock, working away far into the night, and taking only time to eat and sleep by turns. They were watched, as first, with some curiosity, but as they seemed to find nothing they were left to themselves. They dug ten large holes about twelve feet deep and the same in diameter. One night about two weeks after they partially filled up several of the holes they had dug, leaving others as they had finished them, and disappeared from the neighborhood. They gave no information to anyone, and left nothing to indicate whether they found what they were after. These excavations were made on the same property, and near the spot where Sam Mohawk killed the WIGTON family fifty-one years ago.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Indians on the Allegheny river were well [p. 26] known to the French soldiery in 1753-59, the names of but a few have been carried into American history. Custaloga, and Kiashuta or Guyasutha, the Hunter, were the great chiefs here in the middle of the Eighteenth century. In 1753, WASHINGTON met the first on French creek, and was accompanied thither by the latter. Both, after proving recreant to the French, became earnest supporters of the British, and during the Revolution led many a bloody foray into the American settlements. At this distance, in time, we may look back, measure their character and sympathize with one of them, who wrote or suggested the following lines:
I will go to my tent and lie down in despair,
I will paint me with black and will sever my hair,
I will sit on the shore, when the hurricane blows,
And reveal to the God of the tempest my woes
I will weep for a season on bitterness fed,
For my kindred are gone to the hills of the dead.
But they died not of hunger or lingering decay,
The hand of the white man hath swept them away.
The French were the pioneers of Western Pennsylvania, as they also were of the Mississippi and Ohio valley. In 1749 Governor GALLISSIONERE, of Canada, organized an expedition, which he placed under the command of Captain Pierre Joseph CELORON, Sieur de Blainville, a fearless and energetic officer. It came from Canada via Lakes Erie and Chautauqua, and Conewango creek, to the Allegheny river, thence down that stream to the Ohio. CELORON took formal possession of the country in the name of Louis XV., King of France, and buried leaden plates at certain points as evidences of possession, should that fact be disputed. A prominent member of the command was Rev. Joseph Peter DE BONNECAMP, a Jesuit mathematician and scientist, who filled the position of chaplain and geographer to the expedition. In passing down the Allegheny the expedition crossed the northeast and southeast corners of what is now Butler county, and, therefore, takes rank as the first Caucasian exploration of this part of the State.
Four years after, in 1753, the French erected Fort Presque Isle, on the site of Erie, and Fort Le Boeuf, on the site of Waterford, both of which they garrisoned, and also took possession of a deserted trading post near the mouth of French creek, on the site of Franklin, previously occupied by John FRAZIER, who combined the business of Indian trader with that of general repairer of fire arms for the savages. Upon the crest of this cabin Captain Chabert DE JONCAIRE, a half-breed French officer, placed the flag of France, and here he made his headquarters until the erection of Fort Machault (called by the English Venango), in the spring of 1754.
These actions aroused the jealousy of the English, and Governor DINWIDDIE, of Virginia, sent George WASHINGTON, afterwards immortalized in American history, to learn from the French commandant his intentions, and to protest against the French occupying this valley, to which the English laid claim. Early in 1754 the Governor of Virginia sent a small force to the confluence of the [p. 27] Allegheny and Ohio rivers, and commenced the erection of a fort for the purpose of heading off the French; but the latter descended the Allegheny, drove away the English, and completed what they had begun, naming the fort, Duquesne. This was the beginning of the long and bloody contest known as the French and Indian War, which closed in 1759, with the expulsion of the French from Western Pennsylvania.
The country was then nominally occupied by the English until the great Pontiac conspiracy of 1763, which caused widespread havoc and wiped out the three forts north of Fort Pitt. The last mentioned was garrisoned by the English until the Revolution, when the Americans became masters of the country and the English flag went down in ignominious defeat.
The journey of WASHINGTON to the post at Venango, and Fort Le Boeuf, in 1753, was undertaken by order of Governor DINWIDDIE, of Virginia. At Wills creek he engaged the services of Barney CURRAN and John MCGUIRE, Indian traders, and of Henry STEWART and William JENKINS, servitors. They, with Jacob VANBRAAM, a French interpreter, hired at Fredericksburg, and Christopher GIST, hired at Williamsburg, formed the party on arrival at Logstown. On setting out for Venango, November 30, 1753, John DAVIDSON, an Indian interpreter, the "Half-King" or Tanacharison, Jeskakake, White Thunder and the Hunter were added to the party. On December 4, WASHINGTON arrived near the mouth of French creek, after a trip of seventy miles, and was received by Captain JONCAIRE, a French half-breed, with proverbial French courtesy. To transact business, however, the captain referred him to the commander of Fort Le Boeuf, sixty miles up French creek, and detailed the commissary officer, LA FORCE, and three private soldiers to accompany his party thither. On December 11, the expedition arrived at the upper fort, and, on the 12th, he was introduced to Legardeur DE ST. PIERRE, a Knight of the Order of St. Louis. Later in the day, Captain REPARTI, from Fort Presque Isle, arrived, when the commander and REPARTI received the message and then retired. WASHINGTON made calculations of the size and strength of the fort, its advantages and disadvantages, and his mission being finished on the 14th, he sent his weak horses forward, in care of CURRAN, to Venango; but, having to wait for Half-King and other savages, he did not leave until the 16th, when the party entered canoes en route to Venango, where they arrived December 22. There another difficulty was experienced in getting the Indians away, but he succeeded in moving the expedition. Owing to the feeble condition of the horses, he ordered that the men pack the provisions, and leaving the outfit in charge of VANBRAAM, set out with GIST, on December 26th, to make the journey to Logstown through the wilderness. On the 27th the two travelers passed Murdering Town, whence they agreed to proceed through the forest to the Indian town of Shannopin, near the forks of the Ohio. Shortly after they were fired upon by an Indian at point-blank range; but the shot missed its mark and the Indian was made prisoner. They held him until nine o'clock that night, then released him, and fearing pursuit walked all night without halting and [p. 28] continued to push forward rapidly, so that they arrived at a point two miles above Shannopin before sundown on the 28th. The river was found to be but partially frozen; so that Washington and his fellow-traveler were compelled to make a raft. Completing a rude craft in a short time, they embarked; but the ice threatening to crush the rough frame, WASHINGTON set the pole so as to swing the raft out of the ice flow, when the current swung the raft, casting the unwary navigator into the cold, deep water. He saved himself by grasping the raft and then aided GIST in an effort to make a landing. The feat appeared impossible, so they determined to abandon the idea for the night and seek safety on a small island. There GIST's fingers and a few of his toes were frozen, while WASHINGTON himself suffered from his immersion and the extreme cold. The morning brought relief, for the ice-bound river offered the travelers a road to the Indian town.
In GIST's journal, the circumstances attending the encounter with the Indian are detailed, and the haste exercised, in flying from the scene, are referred to. GIST states that they arrived at the head of Piney creek on the morning of December 28. To-day he would describe the place as Pine creek, Franklin township, Allegheny county, while, to the place where the Indian fired on him, he would apply the name-"Evans City,"-and to the Indian village of Sakonk, where the young savage probably resided, he would give the name-Eidenau; for, in pioneer days, a deserted Indian town stood in the valley not far from the mill of the present time. The trail from Logstown to Venango intersected the Shannopin and Venango trail, and, it is reasonably certain, that WASHINGTON's party struck the Shannopin-Venango trail at or near Zelienople, and proceeded northeast by the Indian town of Cushcushking, on the creek, near the corner of Butler, Mercer and Lawrence counties.
The Moravian missionary and political messenger, Frederick POST, sent among the Indians in 1758, to detach them from their friendly relations with the French, commenced his journal July 15, 1758. His topographical references connect him with this county; but it is evident that he did not always distinguish between the headquarters town of the savages and their hunting towns of the same name. In the spelling of names, too, he never observed regularity; so that his intention must be often taken for the deed. The character of his mission may be learned from a minute made at Fort Machault, called by the English Venango, August 8, 1758, which reads as follows:
8th.-This morning I hunted for my horse, round the fort, within ten yards of it. The Lord heard my prayer, and I passed unknown till we had mounted our horses to go off, when two Frenchmen came to take leave of the Indians and were much surprised at seeing me, but said nothing.
His companion, making the we, was Pesquetum, or Pisquetumen, who was as anxious as POST himself to flee from Venango. They intended to visit Cushcushking, in the Slippery Rock district; but on August 10, learned from an English trader, whom they met, that they were within twenty miles of Fort Duquesne. On the 12th, they came to the Connoquenessing (written in the journal Conaquanashon), where was an old Indian town, and there heard that [p. 29] Cushcushking (written Kosh-Kosh-Kung and Kushkushkee) was fifteen miles distant. In approaching the town, POST sent his Indian companion, with four strings of wampum, to announce his arrival and to deliver the following message:
Brother, thy brethren are come a great way, and want to see thee at thy fire, to smoke that good tobacco, which our grandfathers used to smoke. Turn thy eyes once more upon that road, by which I came. I bring the words of great consequence from the Governor and people of Pennsylvania and from the King of England. Now, I desire thee to call all the kings and captains from all the towns, that none may be missing. I do not desire that my words may be hid or spoken under cover. I want to speak loud that all the Indians may hear me. I hope thou will bring me on the road and Iead me into the town. I blind the French that they may not see me, and stop their ears that they may not hear the great news I bring.
This strange message from a preacher of the gospel was received by the assembled chiefs. Meantime, Shawanese from the Wyoming valley, came on the scene. They knew POST well, and when messengers from King Beaver came to lead the visitor to the village, the preacher knew that his political mission would prove successful. King Beaver lodged POST and his friends in a large house, and then sixty young savages called on their guests. Beaver arrived immediately, and addressing them, said:
Boys, harken! We sat here without ever expecting again to see our brethren, the English; but now one of them is brought before you, that you may see your brethern [sic], the English, with your own eyes, and I wish you to take it into consideration.
Then addressing POST, be said:
Brother, I am very glad to see you. I never thought we should have the opportunity to see one another more, but now I am very glad, and thank God, who has brought you to us." In response, the crafty white man said: "Brother, I rejoice in my heart. I thank God, who has brought me to you. I bring you joyful news from the Governor and people of Pennsylvania and from your children, the Friends; and, as I have words of great consequence, I will leave them before you, when all the kings and captains are called together from the other towns. I wish there may not be a man of them missing; but that they may be all here to hear.
In the evening Beaver called again on the preacher to say that a council ordered the men to be summoned, but that they could not assemble before five days. Later ten chiefs came into the house and sat by POST's fire until midnight. On the 13th, which was Sunday, POST does not appear to have transacted business. On the 14th, however, he resumed his mission, received many savages, witnessed fifteen French mechanics building houses for the very people who were now promising aid to the enemies of their benefactors; but he never hesitated to push his advantage. Indeed, Delaware George was so interested in the welfare of POST and the people he represented, that the cunning Indian declared he could not sleep o' nights, and POST pretended to believe him. Delaware Daniel prepared a banquet on August 15th for the guest, to which all the chiefs (thirteen in number) were invited. The tenor of the after-dinner speeches was: "We have thought a great deal since you have been here - we have never thought so much before." That night there was a dance before POST's fire, the men dancing first, the women next. The festivities continued until the wee sma' hours, when the dawn of the 16th brought a renewal of their talks.
On the 17th of August, a space intended for holding the council, in the cen- [p. 30] ter of the town, was cleared and preparations were made for the assembling of the braves. About noon two messengers (Kuckquetackton and Killbuck) from the Duquesne savages arrived, accompanied by a French captain and fifteen soldiers. The messengers wished POST to go at once to Duquesne, where representatives of eight nations wished to speak with him. They stated that if the English would quit war, they desired to live on terms of amity; but until POST would give assurances of this desire, the two Indian chiefs gave him a sample of the contempt with which the Indian nations would treat him. One offered his little finger to POST, while the other refused to shake hands, and the meeting was so formal that King Beaver took the preacher to his own big wigwam. On August 18th, the five days having expired, Beaver spoke to his visitors as follows:
Brother, you have been here now five days by our fire. We have sent to all the kings and captains, desiring them to come to our fire and hear the good news you brought. Yesterday, they sent two captains to acquaint us they were glad to hear our English brother was come among us, and were desirous to hear the good news he brought; and since there are a great many nations that want to see our brother, they have invited us to their fire, that they may hear us all. Now, brother, we have but one great fire; so brother by this string we will take you in our arms and deliver you into the arms of the other kings, and when we have called all the other nations there, we will hear the good news you have brought.
King Shingas and Delaware George also made speeches and night closed in before the meeting dissolved. Affairs on August 19th took the same form as in the past; but the demand of the Governor for hostages was combated, the Indians saying they believed he thought they had no brains. On the 20th, POST, accompanied by twenty-five mounted men and fifteen men on foot, set out from Kushkushkee for Sakonk. On their arrival in the afternoon, POST was received with hostile demonstrations, but the Indians coming forward, spoke for him, and the displeasure of the inhabitants subsided. On the evening of the 21st fifteen savages from Kushkushkee arrived at Sakonk, bringing the number of male Indians present up to 120. On the 22nd twenty savages of the Shawanese and Mingo tribes appeared, who informed POST that he was wanted at Duquesne, and to be ready to set out the following day. Next day the preacher offered no objections to their demand. Their travels on the 23rd brought the party to Logstown, whence they proceeded on the 24th to Duquesne. At many of these meetings one or more French officers would be present; but though suspecting the object of POST's mission, did not once outrage French courtesy by ordering him off. In fact he reposed so much faith in French honor that on the 27th he was back at Sakonk en route to Kushkushkee. King Shingas and nineteen other savages accompanied him, and, through their aid, POST arrived at the Indian town that night. Shortly after arriving, on the night of the 29th, a party of nine Tawa Indians passed through the town en route to the French fort. The 30th and 31st of August were given up to feasting; but on September 1st the savages began to consider the proposals for alliance with the English, submitted by POST. When they told him that the English wanted their lands, he called God to witness that such an idea was never entertained by his employers, saying further:
Brothers, as for my part. I have not one foot of land, nor do I desire to have any; and if I had any land, I had rather give it to you than take any from you. Yes, brothers, [p. 31] if I die you will get a little more land from me, for I shall then no longer walk on that ground which God has made. * * * * My brothers, I know you have been wrongly persuaded by many wicked people, for you must know there are a great many Papists in the country, who appear like gentlemen and have sent many Irish among you, who have put bad notions in your heads and strengthened you against your brothers, the English.
POST said many things that September day which the Indian chiefs knew to be without foundation, but which they overlooked in their desire to be able to deceive the English, as they had been and were then deceiving the French. On September 3rd, a treaty of friendship with the English was signed by the following named councilors [sic] and captains: King Beaver, Captain Peter, Awakanomin, Delaware George, Macomal, Cushawmekwy, Pisquetumen, Killbuck, Keyheynapalin, Tasucamin, Popauce, John HICKOMEN, Washaocautaut, and Cochquacaukehlton.
The astute ambassador of the English left Kushkushkee in the afternoon of September 8th, POST, Pisquetumen and Tom HICKMAN, making ten miles before night fell upon the forest. On the 9th, "the Lord" helped them out of a mire, but in other respects it was disagreeable for the travelers. POST reported at Fort Augusta, September 22, 1758, with a long story of Indian treachery, narrow escapes, etc., etc. He called Pisquetumen "a perfidious scoundrel," who was a source of trouble to the ambassador himself, as well as to the French soldiers and Indians.
The adventures of Captain BRADY, so well described in 1832 by MCCABE, of Indiana, cover a large territory, embracing Butler county. Some story-tellers have made this county the scene of one of his daring exploits, though the site of Kent, Ohio, was the point where he made his great leap for life. That he was often in the forests of Butler in 1780 and 1781, must be conceded, for during the period that General BRODHEAD commanded at Fort Pitt, BRADY was the great scout of that period, who was depended upon to undertake hazardous enterprises against the Indians. The affair on the Allegheny river, at the mouth of the Mahoning, near Orrsville, was one of such enterprises. It appears that BRODHEAD dispatched a force, under competent officers, to punish the Indians who massacred the settlers at Sewickly. BRADY, at the request of the officers, was not permitted to accompany the troops; but he craved permission to go in another direction, with a small party, in search of the marauders.
Taking five men and his favorite Indian, and crossing the Allegheny, at Fort Pitt, this little party proceeded up the river to the mouth of the Big Mahoning, where he discovered the canoes of a war party drawn up on its western bank. Retiring down the river, where in the darkness he made a raft, he crossed to the Kittanning side, then went up the creek and found that the savages had crossed to the northeastern bank. Three or four miles up the stream, BRADY and his scouts waded to that side, kindled a fire, dried their clothes, and inspected their arms. This done, they proceeded toward the Indian camp, which they found on the second terrace. A stallion captured at Sewickly, which grazed quietly near the camp and near the position of the scouts, was visited at short intervals by his [p. 32] captor, but the visits soon ceased and the Indians settled down to pass the night in rest. Before darkness fell upon the scene, BRADY advanced cautiously, approaching the wary savages so closely, that one rose up suspecting danger near; but the alarm was not given and the band now rested in seeming security.
When the sun peeped in among the trees next morning the Indians were alert, some calculating the number of scalps taken at Sewickly, others the goods and provisions taken from the settlement. In the midst of their enjoyment seven rifle shots rung out on the morning air, five Indians bit the dust, and BRADY's war cry drove the others to flight. One, who was wounded, left a trace of blood to lead the victors for a time, but the trail was lost until BRADY's Indian gave the cry of a young wolf twice, when the unfortunate savage answered it. He soon learned it was a decoy and fled into a windfall, where pursuit was useless. He died there, for three weeks later the fearless BRADY was led to the spot by the ravens which were feeding on the dead Indian.
The scouts returned to Pittsburg with the canoes and property of the savages and the stallion. The party of soldiers also returned with the story that the Indians escaped from them. BRADY's prowess was vindicated, and the jealous officers and soldiers never again pretended that they could play the same part as the scouts.
The story of Massy HARBISON's abduction by the Indians and her escape from their camp, at the salt lick, two miles above the present town of Butler, is one which has been and ever will be interesting and instructive. The hatred inculcated in the Indian by the English colonists, returned upon the teachers, and led the savages to perpetrate upon the Caucasian invaders cruelties more horrible, because less refined, than the Caucasian heaped upon the Indian. The lex talionis was applied by the aborigines and the invaders alike; so that it is not a matter for surprise to learn that women and children, of each race, fell victims to the marauders of the red and white tribes. The story is summarized from the graphic narrative of John WINTER, as given in a history of Western Pennsylvania, published at Pittsburg in 1850, which was compiled by "A Gentleman of the Bar." Massy HARBISON was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, and was a daughter of Edward WHITE, a soldier of the Revolution. Her husband, John HARBISON, served under ST. CLAIR, and was present in Ohio when the Indians defeated the Americans in November, 1791. Returning to his home on the Kiskiminetas, near Freeport, and not far from the southeast corner of Butler county, he nursed his wounds until March 22, 1792, when he was detailed on the spy service. The Indians did not take kindly to this system, and evidently resolved to take such action as would confine the male settlers to their villages beyond or east of the Allegheny. In May, 1792, this resolution was put into effect, when bands of Indians were detailed to make reprisals and scare the settlers. On May 15, while the heroine of this story was at the spring, she heard a sound like the bleating of a lamb or fawn, and felt that the savages were in the neighborhood of the block-house on the Kiskiminetas. On May 22nd, at dawn, two spies-.DAVIS and SUTTON-who were staying at the HARBISON cabin, went over to the fort; but returning and finding the woman and her children asleep, fastened the door and retired.
[p. 33] Her awakening was rude in the extreme. The cabin was full of savages, each carrying a gun in the left and a tomahawk in the right hand. They were pulling her out of the bed by the feet, when she embraced her infant and freeing herself, jumped to the floor. A petticoat, which she was about putting on, was taken from her, and the two feather beds, on which her two children slept, were taken out and emptied by the visitors. The work of plunder was then commenced; but the woman, holding the infant in her arms and leading one little toddler of five years, left the cabin, leaving a third child of three summers among the Indians.
Once outside, she looked toward the fort for help, but seeing a man named WOLF in danger of being cut-off from the fort by the savages, she shouted an alarm and WOLF escaped with a shattered arm. An Indian approached to kill her, another covered her mouth with his hand, while a third was about to strike, when the first parried the blow and claimed the woman as his squaw. The commissary and his servant, who slept in the store, near the fort, hearing the firing, appeared; but seeing the Indians, fled, leaving the servant to be killed. The fire opened upon the savages drove them to cover, while those round the HARBISON cabin, finding out from their captive the strength of the white force, counseled retreat. She thought to conciliate her captors by giving this information, but instead she aggravated them and they flogged her with their wiping sticks, driving her along with her infant and eldest child. The other boy, crying within the cabin, refused to leave, when a merciless savage caught him by the feet, beat the child's head against the threshhold, then stabbed and scalped him. The mother, witnessing this tragedy, cried out in anguish, but the Indians struck her on the head and face until she was silenced. Proceeding forty to sixty rods, they halted to divide the plunder taken that moning [sic], there being thirty-two in the party, two of them being white men. Forty rods farther on, they caught two of John CURRY's horses, and detailed two of the party to lead the captives into the wilderness, while thirty of them went in the direction of Pucketv. At the brow of the bank, leading down to the Allegheny, the woman, still carrying her infant, threw herself from the horse and walked down; while the Indian, who had her boy in charge kept on his way until the horse fell, when the Indian, boy and horse rolled pellmell to the foot of the hill. The boy was picked up by the Indian, who had Mrs. HARBISON in charge, and carried to the bank of the river. There, being unable to make the animals swim across, they abandoned the idea, and placing the captives in canoes, pushed off for the island between the Kiskiminetas and the Buffalo. Landing on the point of that island, the boy complained of being hurt and also lamented for his brother, whose murder he witnessed. The Indians determined on his death, and ordering the mother forward, carried this determination into execution. Mrs. HARBISON describing this second murder, says:
The other then took his tomahawk from his side and, with this instrument of death, killed and scalped him. When I beheld this second scene of inhuman butchery, I fell to the ground senseless, with my infant in my arms, it being under, and its little hands in the hair of my head. How long I remained in this state, I know not. The first thing I remember was my raising my head from the ground and feeling myself exceedingly overcome with sleep. I cast my eyes around and saw the scalp of my dear little boy, fresh and bleeding from his head, in the hand of one of the savages, and sunk down to earth again, upon my infant. The first thing I remembered after witnessing this spec- [p. 34] tacle of woe, was the severe blows I was receiving from the hands of the savages, though I was unconscious of the injury I was receiving. After a severe castigation they assisted me in getting up and supported me when up.
Proceeding across the island to the shallows in the river, they drove the woman before them into the water and led her across, the water then being up to to [sic] her breast. In crossing Big Buffalo creek, they also assisted her, and on their march across the country, via the present village of Sarversville and borough of Butler, treated her with more care than they were accustomed to bestow on women,-the three attempts to make her carry a large powder-horn, and the terrible grimaces of one of the savages, when she cast it away for the third time, being the only incidents of the journey. The first Indian, who claimed her as his squaw, now formed the rear guard, as if he suspected his brother savage would kill the determined woman, and in this order the party proceeded to a canon a short distance above the present site of Butler, where they arrived before dark. At this point was an Indian cabin, constructed of chestnut bark, supported on stakes. From it pathways led in every direction and it had all the appearances of being a regular camping-ground of the warriors. The woman and infant were not permitted to share its shelter, but were led a short distance up a rivulet, where a blanket was spread and she was ordered to rest. Then pinioning her, so as to permit the care of the infant, they stood by like sentinels until the weary creature slept.
Her first night in captivity ended on the morning of May 23, 1792. She saw one Indian leave to keep watch on their trail of the 22nd and the other (who claimed her) preparing a hoop on which to stretch the scalp of her murdered boy. At noon the sentry reappeared, and he who remained with the captive woman and infant went out on the trail. The new guard examined his share of the plunder in presence of the woman, and she saw him take from her pocket-book ten dollars in silver and a half-guinea in gold. He repeated his kindness of the day before by giving her some dry venison, which she broke and gave to her child, being herself unable to eat, owing to the soreness of her cheeks from the blows received on the 22nd. The next night they moved their prisoners to another place in the canon, and, on the morning of the 24th, with great caution, began guard on the trail as on the previous day. The Indian watch now fell asleep, and, a little after noon, seeing a chance to escape, Mrs. HARBISON grasped a pillow-case, a short gown, a. handkerchief and a child's frock, lying among the plunder, and fled with her infant into the forest.
Knowing, as she did, the character of her new guardians, she traveled away from the Kiskiminetas country, crossed a hill and then followed a course southeast. Two miles from the place where she first crossed the Connoquenessing, she struck the river, and followed the stream until about two o'clock in the afternoon, when she changed her course toward the Big Buffalo. On the summit of a hill she rested until sunset, and there made a bed of leaves on which to sleep. The 25th of May witnessed her progress toward the Allegheny river, and when night came on, hope inspired her. She tried to gather leaves for her bed; but each time she laid her infant down he would cry, and knowing what this would convey to the quick Indian ear, she held the child and listened. She heard [p. 35] the steps of a man on her trail and looked around for a hiding place. A fallen tree rewarded her search and into its branches she crept, finding shelter under its spreading limbs. Immediately, in the dim light, she beheld an Indian, who advanced to the spot where the infant cried, halted, grounded his gun and listened. She heard the wiping stick strike against the gun and feared that her infant would give the signal for her recapture. For two hours she saw that savage and heard the beating of her own heart, and then the ting-a-ling of a bell and the cry of a night-owl. They were signals to retire, which the savage answered by a piercing yell and then ran forward to join his friends.
No one who has not experienced a hair-breadth escape can conjure up the solid wall of hope for safety which this scene engendered in the mother's heart. She waited not for the morning to leave that spot; but set out, exhausted as she was, to gain the fort or die. A mile or two away she halted until the morning of the 26th, when she resumed the journey and crossed Pine creek. Some new-made moccasin tracks alarmed her, but as the travelers were in advance of her, she held the trail for three miles, to a hunters' camp, where the fires were still burning. Leaving the path, she crossed a ridge and came upon another trail, when she beheld three deer approaching her in full chase. The animals turned to look back, when there was a gun-shot and a stampede of deer hounds. In this emergency, Mrs. HARBISON sought a hiding-place behind a log, and even while there, was threatened with death as sure as that of the Indian; for, as she placed her hand on the ground to raise herself, there was a bed of rattlesnakes, with a huge rattler capping the pile, ready to strike the innocent and unwilling intruder on their domain. She ventured forth again, this time changing her course to the left; arrived at the headwaters of Squaw run, and traveled down that stream until night compelled her to halt. The rain now poured down, and to protect her child she placed him on her lap, and, then bending forward until her head touched the tree, guarded off the rain from the little one.
It was with difficulty she arose on the morning of the 27th to resume her journey. A mile away she arrived before an untenanted cabin and thought of entering it to die; but the sound of a cow-bell arrested her attention and this sound she followed until she halted opposite the fort on Six Mile island. Three men stood on the river bank, to whom she called for help. Not knowing who the woman was, and fearing a decoy, they wished to learn more and she telling them, they sent James CROSIER over in a canoe, while they covered his advance with their rifles. CROSIER, landing on the right bank of the river, did not know his old neighbor, and asked, "Who in the name of God are you?" He soon learned and hastened to transport the wretched woman to the settlement. She was carried from the canoe to the CORTUS cabin, while her infant was placed in equally friendly hands. The arrival of Major MCCOLLOUGH on the scene saved the woman's life at the hands of her friends. The heat of a great fire for the famished and the mountains of food for the starving,-all provided with the best intentions,-were set aside by the Major, who ordered her removal to a cooler place, and insisted that only whey of buttermilk be given to her. He was the physician and attendant, while Sarah CARTER and Mary Ann CROZIER acted as surgeons on the occasion, removing the thorns from her feet and limbs. Six days in the wilderness, as a [p. 36] captive of the Indians first and then as a refugee, changed the young mother into a haggard, aged woman. Naked, starving and hunted, she was truly a daughter of a Revolutionary hero, for she met and braved Indian vengeance and suffered everything but death at the hands of her captors. The hunters who were after the deer, seen by the woman, were James ANDERSON and John THOMPSON, belonging to the detail known as spies. Had her thoughts not been disturbed by the rattlesnakes, she would have discovered them to be friends and escaped a day which felt like eternity. Mrs. HARBISON subsequently settled in Buffalo township, Butler county, where some of her descendants still live.
[End of Chapter 2 - Aborigines and Explorers: History of Butler County Pennsylvania, R. C. Brown Co., Publishers, 1895]
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