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lllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllHllllHIIIIIIIIIIIHIfllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltltllllllOur Readers WriteRevolution Came►To Indiana CountyDear Sir:I would like to respond to your March 22 editorial, “Get Involved in Bicentennial.”First, I agree with and support the general theme and purpose of the editorial and I hope our communities throughout Indiana County will be involved, as you urge.However, the editorial writer seems to have the idea that “there was little activity by pre-Revolutionary War whites in the area that is now Gazetteland,” and that “few of our communities have the opportunity of celebrating anniversaries of particular Bicentennial events.” I suppose this idea may have resulted because the writer knew of no big “battles” or major military events which occurred in this area. While it is true that nothing of the magnitude of the Battle of Bunker Hill or Washington's crossing of the Delaware took place, it is an unfortunate misconception to assume that nothing at all happened here during the Revolution. The fact is that our home area was involved in the Revolution just as much as in the East, but in a different way.It is fundamental to understand that here the enemy was not the British per se but the native Indians who were allied with the British, and who, with British urging and the inducement of British reward money paid for American scalps and prisoners, terrorized and killed many of the inhabitants living where we do now. Because of the rewards for scalps, the early settlers referred to Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor of Canada, as the “Hair Buyer.”In this letter I can only mention a few local events that we ought to commemorate.One date would be March 16, 1777 when Andrew Simpson was killed and Fergus Moorhead captured by Indians near Blanket Hill. Both lived in what is now Indiana or, more correctly then, Upper Westmoreland. Simpson was a soldier with a volunteer militia unit at Kittanning commanded by Samuel Moorhead, brother of Fergus. Both men had been on military duty at Kittanning. Fergus was taken to Canada and the Indiana left their declaration of war, a tomahawk, and a written warning in a pouch which was found beside the dead body of Simpson. This was the first casualty of the American Revolution on the Western Pennsylvania frontier. Due to this fact the incident received notice in Benjamin Franklin'snewspaper in Philadelphia, “The Pennsylvania Gazette.” It is also worth noting that Samuel Moorhead had earlier built one of the first grist mills in Indiana County on Stony Run in White Township. He later had to withdraw his volunteers from Kittanning because of its exposed strategic situation. At the direction of General Edward Hand, who had been appointed by Gen. Washington to command American forces on the Western Pennsylvania frontier, with headquarters at Fort Pitt, Samuel Moorhead withdrew to “Fort Hand south of the Kiskiminetas River near North Washington in Westmoreland County.Another date we ought to commemorate is September 25, 1777 when Charles Campbell, Sub-Lieutenant of the Westmoreland militia, along with Randal Laughlin and three other men, were captured by Indians and Canadians while at Laughlin’s cabin in Center Township and taken to Canada. Campbell later became one of Indiana County’s first Associate Judges. Proclamations from Hamilton the “Hair Buyer were found inside the cabin.Another date to remember is September 28, 1777 when George Findley was attacked by Indians in Wheatfield Township and a husky, young boy with him killed. Findley was one of the first settlers in Indiana County.Still another date to be observed would be April 16, 1778 when a band of some thirty Tories from Bedford and Cumberland Counties passed through Indiana County over the “Armstrong Trail on their way to join forces with the Indians at Kittanning. Their plans backfired when the Indians misunderstood their intentions and shot their leader, John Weston.Space precludes the mention of many other dates. On July 13, 1782 our thencounty seat at Hannastown in Westmoreland County was burned by a large party of Indians and Canadians, this beingthe last Revolutionary hostility in our area.All of this and more is treated in detail in one of the chapters of the four-volume history of Indiana County on which I am working, It is planned for publication in 1978 on the occasion of Indiana County’s 175th Anniversary. Persons interested may obtain a free prospectus by writing me.Sincerely yours,Clarence Stephenson
Newspaper Details
Indiana Evening Gazette
Indiana, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Apr 14, 1975
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
PA, USA 19 Oct 2019
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