Transcribed and donated by Batha Karr <batha.karr@gmail.com>. After the season of the white rains, green spears of grass sodded the glades and open meadows of the forest. With the exception of Fort Pitt, Fort Ligonier, and Fort Bedford every British military fort on the frontiers of Penn's Woods crumpled under the barbaric impact, leaving the isolated settler's cabin, the hunter's camp, and the trader and his pack horse exposed to the merciless Red hordes. "I cannot help thinking," he said, "that the enemy will collect, after cutting of the little posts one after the other, and bend their whole force upon the frontier." It was only natural that the interests-the hunting grounds-of the various tribes must overlap, and being savages they resorted to war, which. Harmon Husband, better known as The Old Quaker, Toscape Death, and one of Somerset County's earliest pioneers slowly settles back in his saddle, and breathes deeply of the clean, bitter scent of the pines. In the role of a reformer he was instrumental in marshalling the forces of the common people in that province. Wild turkeys, grouse, and wild pigeons fattened themselves on the purple clusters of wild grapes, acorns, and chestnuts, while wedges of wild geese and ducks circled low over the quiet forest pools. Mmbers of the British Parliament across the Atlantic fingered their snuff boxes, and filled the sacred halls with vindictive oratory. Early German settlers of York County Pennsylvania - Schlow Library . Some had fallen and were completely plastered over with it. Pontiac's savage hordes still lurk in these woods thirsting for revenge. With bow and arrow, spear and tomahawk he slew the elk, the deer, and the buffalo, and feasted on savory haunches of meat roasted over the slow fires of green hickory logs. The young schoolmaster, after surveying and questioning his home spun class for a few minutes dismissed school with the admonition, "Och! Following Nemacolin's Trail, they arrived at the Turkey Foot and the Great Crossing where Mr. Washington carefully observed the lay of the land with a military eye. And indeed, the history of Somerset County no doubt would have taken a different turn during the fateful year of 1763 if a less capable man than Colonel Henry Bouquet had been assigned to command the wilderness campaign against Pontiac. The history, traditions, and legends of Somerset County are colorful threads interwoven in the evolving pattern of American Civilization. EARLY NEW JERSEY HISTORIES - Genealogy Village A candle was lit at Headquarters. There were the hunter, the trader, the land speculator, the pioneer settler who based his land claims upon squatter rights, and the Indians. Jehovah watched over the smoking chimneys of the clearings in the forests of the Alleghenies and the Laurel Hills, while Manitou shrieked in vain protest when the winter winds whistled between the black teeth of the spiked stockades. Facing Page 52. The wife of Casper Statler had been a captive among the Indians for a number of years, and Casper's feelings toward the Shawnees and Mingos was well understood. The ablest fighters had emptied the buck horn racks of the best rifles, and had marched eastward to meet the Red Coats, leaving the older men and boys with worn and rattling flintlocks to guard their cabins and families against Indian raids from the west. Divisions or partitions of logs separated the cabins from each other. Doe skins, smoked and chewed to the softness of velvet, clothed the naked savage when the north wind muffled the long drawn howl of the wolf, and closed the forest aisles with the ever mounting drifts of white rain. The Gardners were also early settlers, but not much earlier than 1790, even if so early as that. They discussed the four days ride that would take them to the Turkey Foot of the Youghiogheny, and thence to the valley of the Ohio. In the towns of Somerset and Berlin "Liberty Poles" were raised on which banners bearing the inscription, "Liberty and No Excise" fluttered in the breeze. An officer came ahead and told us to lock up everything about the premises, as they could not keep the soldiers from stealing everything that was not under lock and key. The names of the very early hunters are officially unrecorded in the ledgers of Somerset County, but legends, based upon authentic records of surrounding counties, lead into the Glades, the Turkey Foot, and along the Quemahoning long before a log of the first permanent settler's cabin was notched. Allegheny County. The mountains still belonged to the Indians by sovereign right, and the Penns, by lip service at least, respected the Red Man's claim. ; The settler's keen axe was biting deeper and deeper into the bush. Those who did were introduced to them by the way of well thumbed Bibles. These men were the first to glean for themselves the abundant harvest of the woods, and by so doing they found themselves not only at cross purposes with the Penns, but in bold competition with the Indians. He had 47 acres of land with 3 cleared and a house. His skin varied from a pale golden yellow to a deep mahogany. Gist recorded the distances and directions between the various points in his Journal. Other settlers soon arriving on the scene were: Ulrich Bruner, Henry Bruner, George Bruner, Richard Brown, Richard Wells, Michael Huff and John Ferguson. Amos McCreary, where John B. Miller lives, and Joseph Hewitt, on the farm now occupied by George Moore, were among the early settlers. 1945 The average Indian mind could conceive little more than immediate revenge against the British for trespassing on the Red Man's ancestral homeland. In January, 1768, a law was passed by the Pennsylvania Assembly which read in part: "persons so neglecting or refusing to remove with his or their Family or returning to settle as aforesaid or they shall settle on any such lands after the Requisition or Notice Aforesaid being thereof legally convicted by their own confession or the verdict of a Jury shall suffer Death with benefit of clergy.". The British, now fully awakened to the dangers that threatened, organized an army of six thousand men with the determination to end, once and for all time, the French peril. Pennsylvania Early County Maps and Atlases - Sites at Penn State The history of Somerset County dates to the French and Indian War, when military expeditions carved roads through the wooded hills of what would become western Pennsylvania, opening the area for settlement. At least seven of these knots were within the present bounds of Somerset County. Harmon Husband, the Insurgent When I ventured to object to this, they told me to hold my tongue or they would send me to the devil. --"Says he wishes to be reborn again, and so they go to the promised land.". Moccasins served as footgear. Henry Abrahams located on a point of land situated between the junction of the Youghiogheny and the Casseleman rivers. George STINCHCOMB and George PLANTS settled in 1796. They called them "log rollins." The records of the exploits of these early traders have long since vanished. On the 25th of July, 1763, Bouquet assembled his army at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains. Among the many colorful characters of this region was "Axie" Yoder. Maryland authorities encouraged settlers with both a liberal land policy and religious tolerance, attracting persecuted Quakers and others to settle in Somerset County in the early 1660s. by William H. Egle, 1876.) "This morning a party of the enemy attacked fifteen persons who were mowing in Mr. Croghan's field, within a mile of the Garrison, and news is brought in of two men being killed. These demonstrations were mild in comparison with protests that were staged in the surrounding counties. The publication covers the history of the area from indian times onward, including discussion of its early settlers and pioneers. Early Somerset County, MD Land Records - Salisbury University Historical collections: annals of the early settlements of Somerset County : as printed in the Somerset Standard 1893-1894 ; originally published in the same publication 24 years earlier (1869-70) FamilySearch Library History of Bedford and Somerset Counties US Gen Web All English Subjects Registers of births, etc > Pennsylvania > Somerset County. 00:48. The log cabin, the long rifle, the axe and the plow took the place of the bark huts and the stone hatchets of the Shawnees and the Mingos. After their departure three freeholders were called to assess the damages, which were paid by the commissary.". ", Relieved at finding neither French, English nor Indians at his first sign of human habitation in the mountain country Husband replied: "From Hagerstown. Thereafter the wide valley between the mountain ranges was known by these names each in his respective tongue. Washington, who read between the lines, pardoned and released all of the offenders and sent them back to their families. Eight o'clock. With the first new cut stars that sparkled over the southern ridge came the long drawn howl of a wolf. "The tongues of the panting oxen hung lolling from their jaws; while the pine trees, scorching in the hot sun, diffused their resinous odors through the sultry air. After a night's rest under the Wagerline's roof, Husband explained during the course of a breakfast of venison, boiled rye, and boiled potatoes, his mission into the wilderness. A band of backwoodsmen led the way, followed by pioneers; the wagons and the cattle were in the center, guarded by the regulars; and a rear guard of backwoodsmen closed the line of march. It then highlights the progress and development of the town, its major industries and other aspects of civic life. This survey, along with the chart of Nemacolin's Trail, was one of the first official charted routes through Somerset County. This garment was fitted with a belt upon which hung the tomahawk and scalping knife. The smack of a beaver's tail on the still waters near the breast of his dam warned of the stealthy approach of the panther. Girls were taught the tunes of the rhythmic whir of the spinning wheels and the intricate steps of the hand loom. With him were Christopher Gist as the leader of the party, John Davidson, Indian interpreter, Jacob Van Braam, French interpreter, and two frontiersmen. A Mingo or a Shawnee crouched in the forks of a red oak awaiting the cover of darkness oft-times shattered the stillness of the forest with his signal of attack. Sickness and death have always dogged the footsteps of even the most hardy pioneers. The Old West was gone. Bridges of this type began to be built in Pennsylvania in the 17th century and remained popular into the early 20th century, until stone masonry was supplanted by reinforced concrete. Pontiac was the one Indian, and possibly the only one, whose mind could embrace the full significance of the French defeat on the American Continent. More than two and a half centuries passed; seven generations measured by the sun and the moon and the stars, and the births and deaths of the great warriors. The forts that dotted the county at Confluence, Ursina, Salisbury, Berlin, Somerset, Jennerstown, and Stony Creek stood as grim reminders of the taut bow-string of the Iroquois and Delawares. Suddenly the stillness of the mountains explodes with Indian war whoops and the roar of musketry. The keen eye of the hunter caught the wolf in the crotch of his buckhorn sight. Wells, A. Kiefer, G. Young, P. Brougher, Jacob Loute, Peter Ankney, J. Unsill, Woolerick Bruner, T. Wells, S. Wright, J. Washabaugh, H. Husband, Christian Ankney, Fred Unsill, D. Loute, George Bruner, Fred Mostallor, Bowlin, John Penrod, Jr., Michael Huff, P. Barnhart, John Penrod, Sr., J. Kimberly, J. Doom, James Black. This was rectangular in shape with a range of cabins forming one side of the stockade. The year was 1768. Before coming to the Glades Husband had spent his early boyhood days in Chester County, Pennsylvania and Cecil County, Maryland. Yet, fur being the coin of the realm, the people's money, with which they bought gun powder, flints, salt and meal, the hunters penetrated deeper and deeper into the wilderness as the fur crop diminished. They staggered along, whooping, singing, and swearing altogether. They are most common in the southeastern part of the state, but examples can be found in almost every county, including Somerset. Signed: Jacob Morningstar, A. Wright, Henry Bruner, J. That was before the Red Man heard the echo from the Dawn Land. Whether the war-whoop sounded or not, the result was the same. 1669 - Earliest French exploration of western Pennsylvania. Would General Forbes meet the same fate that the French and Indians had prepared for Braddock? John Markley's name heads the list of pioneers. The flaps were ornamented with fringes of crude embroidery. (Shade Township, November, 1777). By mutual understanding among themselves each one was to be limited to such quantity of land as he could walk around in a single day. The final draft of a peace treaty between England and America was signed on September 3, 1783, leaving the swaggering young Republic to face the cynicism of the adult nations of the world. North of the Mason and Dixon line the poet tells us that it was at Concord where the "shot heard round the world" was first fired on the 19th of April, 1775. Judging from the report of the county assessors dated February 16, 1779, with Henry Abrahams and Hugh Robinson from Turkeyfoot and Brothers Valley as two of the members of that body we may be assured that while death may be certain, taxes were not. Email Us 814.237.6236 Ask a Librarian Help & FAQs Fort Pitt, May 31, 1763. Contrasting the mental attitudes of these early pioneers in their respective clearings we find one settler in the southern area of the Glades pondering: "I, always a noncombatant of the Quaker school, in the midst of a howling wilderness, not a fellow-being within ten miles of me that I knew of, a stranger to the use of firearms left in my care and for my defense, liable at any moment to be attacked by the primitive claimants of the domain on which I was a trespasser-then again the thought of shedding the blood of a fellow creature would rise up in all its horrible features." He built his campfires at the headwaters of the Ohio, the Susquehanna, and the Potomac. THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE These settlers had been previously warned in 1763 by a royal proclamation of both the Pennsylvania and Virginia governors, and upon other occasions. Facing up stream he could see the sharp curve of a new moon shearing into the rippling waters of Stony Creek. The New Early Settlers of Maryland database is a great place to start searching for immigrants who had arrived in the colony by the 1680s. Bouquet stated that it was of the utmost importance to hold the few remaining forts along the Road which contained stores and munitions, the capture of which by the Indians would lead to the worst consequences. When the traditions of these trails began to be recorded there was a ring of familiarity with these old paths in a new world. You will note that many names are still familiar ones in the township and county. Such must have been the general plan at Fort Stony Creek at the time it was successively commanded by General Forbes, Colonel Bouquet, Colonel St. Clair, Colonel Washington, and Captain Ecuyer. They shaped them from the hardest flint, and clearest quartz, beveling the edges of the points so that the shaft would spin true to its mark; piercing the heart of a deer or the enemy tribesman at fifty or a hundred paces. Twelve years later, 1762, Jacob Heckewelder, a Moravian missionary, with Charles Frederick Post came over this same route, leaving a written record of their findings. Beyond the stockade in the open meadow between the creek and the fort, pack horses, freed of their burdens, but belled and hobbled, cropped the dwindling blades of grass. Petitions to the Delegates of Pennsylvania in Congress were filled with pleas of: "The distressed situation of our county is such that we have no prospect but dislocation and destruction. Buffalo Twp. His canoe paddle flashed along the willow. History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania, with First Settlers - PA-Roots At the time Christopher Gist, George Washington, General Braddock, and General Forbes were pondering over the problem of opening a road through the tangled wilderness across the Allegheny Mountains and the Laurel Hills to the Ohio Valley, Spanish settlements were old; their government buildings, churches, schools, and market places were green with the moss of two centuries, and their halls were filled with ancient intrigue. We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.-I wish we could make use of the Spanish method, to hunt them with English dogs, supported by rangers and some light horses, would, I think, effectually extirpate or remove that vermin.". Without sheriff or justice, the thief and the liar were humiliated by public condemnation until the culprit sought peace of mind and body in some distant settlement where his sins could not find him. Frontispiece Express riders, the spearhead of civilian defense, galloping from the Forbes Road to the Cox's Creek Glades and Brothers Valley shouted to the panic stricken settlers: "James Wells from Jenner Fort shot by the Indians! They left only a few vague directions for the later pioneers to follow, and accounts of those who came to stay-and did stay-overlap to a point of confusion. With the Turkeyfoot settlers as their nearest neighbors these families flourished like the green bay tree; establishing permanent landmarks which are now known as the Jersey Settlement, Jersey Church, Draketown, Drake's Mill and King's Mill (two of the first grist mills in Somerset County) Harnedsville, forts and block houses which formed the nuclei of the present towns of Ursina and Confluence. Fredric Doyle, SOMERSET COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Somerset County (Pa.) > Genealogy.
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