"The Journey to America and Establishing Settlements."
Part 3

"That there is such a province as New Jersey, is certain." With this assertion, made a dozen years after New Jersey had been established, William Penn hoped to lay to rest any spiteful rumors to the contrary. In a similarly defensive vein, he continued: "That it is reputed of those who have traveled in that country, to be wholesome of air and fruitful of soil, and capable of sea trade, is also certain; and it is not right in any to desire or dispraise it..." Thus early it seemed to be necessary to affirm the existence of New Jersey and to rebut and reprove hostile critics. "Even today, we feel obliged to reiterate Penn's declaration." It has frequently been noted that New Jersey has exhibited inadequate regard for its history and that its citizens have lacked the strong sense of pride in their commonwealth that characterized the inhabitants of many other states. An ardent Jerseyman, Bishop George Washington Doane gave eloquent expression to this sentiment in 1816: "We have well nigh forgotten that we have a history," he lamented. "We have almost lost the very sense of our identity. We have no center. We have made no rally.

"Our concern is with the beginnings of settlement within the area that we know today as the State of New Jersey. Here, between the Hudson and the Delaware, peoples of many nationalities came together at times in jarring conflict, but for the most part in peaceful harmony, to lay the foundations of a colony whose distinguished mark was to be its heterogeneity,"

"The Baptists, whose earliest churches in New Jersey had been established in Middletown, Piscataway, and Cohansey, readily adapted themselves to the American environment. According to each congregation a high degree of autonomy and not requiring elaborate training for ministerial candidates, they did not labor under the handicaps that hampered the growth of many other denominations. Although there was not a single Baptist church in any of the larger towns, a fact which is not easily explained, there were churches in all sections of the province and they were well supplied with settled pastors. Essentially a rural group made up of yeoman farmers, the Baptists furnished relatively few political leaders and engaged in no public controversies."

"When the New Jersey legislature met in November, 1765, it heard a report from its delegates to the Stap Act Congress. The assembly gave unanimous approval to the actions of the congress and endorsed a set of resolutions that forcefully and clearly set forth the basic issues. The key section declared: "That the only representatives of the people of this colony are persons chosen by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be imposed on them, agreeable to the constitution of this province, granted and confirmed by his Majesty's most gracious predecessors, but by their own legislature."

Source: "The Story of New Jersey", 1945, as edited by William Starr Meyers. This book, in a section entitled "draft toward reevaluation", generously quotes an English traveler and reporter, Andrew Barnaby of the early 18th century. Mr. Barbably toured New Jersey and neighboring colonies, described what he found, and catalogued all the good reasons why New Jersey and other colonies could never unite and/or gain independence from England. Neither Mr. Barnaby, nor his Countrymen, had ever hard of the style of war now known as "guerilla warfare" -- which had it beginning in 1776. At that time, power was maintained by sea, and land warfare still followed the old customs, formations, and tacticsdeveloped by the Roman Empire: Mr. Barnaby reported thusly: "They (Jerseyites) are composed of people of different nations, different manners, different religions, and different languages. They have a mutual jealousy of each other, fomented by considerations of interest, power, and ascendancy. Religious zeal, too like a smothered fire, is secretly burning in the hearts of the different sectaries that inhabit them, and were it not restrained by laws and superior authority, would soon burst out into a flame of universal persecution."

Mr. Barnaby continued: "After all, however, supposing what I firmly believe will never take place, a permanent union of alliance of all the colonies, yet it could not be effectual, or productive of the event supposed; for such is the extent of effectual, or productive of the event supposed; for such is the extent of coast settled by the American colonies that it can never be defended but by a maritime power: America must first be mistress of the sea before she can be independent, or mistress of herself. Suppose the colonies ever so populous; suppose them capable of maintaining 100,000 men constantly in arms (a supposition in the highest degree extravagant), yet half a dozen frigates wold with ease ravage and lay waste the whole country from end to end, without a possibility of their being able to prevent it; the country is so intersected by rivers, rivers of such magnitude as to render it impossible to build bridges over them, that all communication is in a manner cut off. An army under such circumstances could never act to any purpose or effect; its operations would be totally frustrated. "Further, a great part of the opulence and power of America depends upon her fisheries, and her commerce with the west Indies; she cannot subsist without them; but these would be entirely at the mercy of that power which might have the sovereignty of the seas. I conclude, therefore, that England, so long as she maintains her superiority in that respect, will also posses a superiority in America; but the moment she loses the empire of the one, she will be deprived of the sovereignty of the other..."

Source: "The Jersey Shore", by Harold F. Wilson, Ph. D. This excellent book is a social and economic history of the region occupied by our family during 1676-1764 in New Jersey. It ought to be of interest to the land-locked Truaxes of the mid-west whose only contact with shore and sea for centuries (until recent time of affluence and easy travel) had come when their sons boarded troop ships. Before quoting Doctor Wilson's report on the early New Jersey economy, we must include and old verse which he quoted. It explains the feelings of each and every Truax generation included in this tale of four centuries. It goes this way: "My grandpa notes the world's worn cogs,

On the subject of "wild youth", Dr. Wilson continues:

It was in their position toward contemporary "wild youth", however, that observers in each generation longed so heartily for the "good old days" when children seemed better behaved. In 1700, Lewis Morris of Monmouth County wrote to the Bishop of London, "The youth of the whole province are very debauched and very ignorant and Sabbath Day seems to be set apart for rioting and drunkenness. In a word, a general ignorance and immorality runs through the Youth of the whole Province.

The commodities of Cape May County are oyl and whale bone of which they make prodigious quantities every year; having mightily advanced that great fishery, taking great numbers of whales yearly. (Extravagant description of riches from the sea, written in 1698 by Gabriel Thomas) Even in colonial times, considerable sections of the shore area relied mainly on farming for the chief source of income. This was particularly true of many sections of Monmouth County and certain strips of Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May Counties. But most parts of the three southern counties which lay immediately on the ocean, and a number of the strictly shore communities in Monmouth County, looked to the sea for their means of livelihood.

Oyster beds are being wasted and destroyed by strangers and others at unseasonable times of the year, preservation of which will tend to great benefit of poor people and others inhabiting this province. (Preamble to the first protective measure for oysters, passed by the New Jersey Assembly in 1719) By 1719, the General Assembly of the Province already felt it necessary to pass the first oyster conservation law. On March 27th of that year it enacted that no persons should rake or gather up oysters or shells from May 10th to September 1st. These were the weeks of warm weather when oysters, without modern refrigeration methods, would spoil before they could reach the market. Thus the restriction started against oyster-taking during the months not having an "r" in them. This law also provided that non-residents could not gather oysters at any time to take away with them. The penalty was the forfeiting of their vessels and equipment.

"Sell none of ye land that lies convenient for whale fishing till ye hear further from us, for that we will not see." (Directions given agent for West Jersey proprietors in 1692.) The whaling industry had a marked influence on early life in the shore area, although it employed only a small proportion of the early pioneers. It provided an incentive for the first groups of people to settle along the actual seashore, rather than on the mainland. In all probability the first white men to come to the Ocean county shores were fishermen who landed on the beach to cure their fish or to try the oil from the whales that they had harpooned. In 1678 licenses were granted to a group of newcomers, "twelve persons or more," which allowed them to take the Wales "or like great fish" from Barnegat to the eastern end of the province (Sandy Hook)." In 1693 the West Jersey Provincial Assembly passed an act aimed especially at outsiders, probably New Englanders. The Act declared "Whereas the whaling in Delaware Bay has been in so great a measure invaded by strangers and foreigners, that the greatest part of oyl and bone received and got by that emply, hath been exported out of the Province to the great detriment thereof; Be it inacted, that any one killing a whale or whales in Delaware Bay or on its shore, to pay the value of 1/10th of the oyl and bone to the Governor of the Province."

It was in this New Jersey coastal area of some farming, salt manufacturing, oystering and whaling that La Rue Jacob Truax and his family lived as the last half of the 1700's began. It was a time of unrest. Winds of change were coming in gusts from many directions. La Rue Jacob Truax, then about 60 years old, had two sons, two daughters, and some grandchildren. Son Stillwell, a great hunter, knew of open land to the west, beautiful, and loaded with game. The Truax family moved onward in about 1764 to Bedford County, Pennsylvania -- and with them traveled a two-year old William Truax who was to grow up in the Pennsylvania mountains, move ever further westward, and find his resting place at the age of 74 in the hills of southern Indiana at Little Mount Baptist Cemetery.

As inscribed in bronze on the Statue of Liberty, Bedloe Island, New York Harbor

Pennsylvania was fifty years old when ancestor Benjamin Truax, Sr. was born in 1731 in the Monmouth County (Little Egg Harbor) area of New Jersey. William Penn had been granted Charter to Pennsylvania on March 14, 1681 by King Charles of England. It is not surprising that residents of New Jersey would have been attracted to Pennsylvania. William Penn's interest in colonizing was first evidenced in 1675 when he became associated with other Quakers as trustees of West New Jersey. In 1676, he helped write a constitution for this region which contained many of the provisions of the first constitution he would five to Pennsylvania in 1682. It was during this time that Penn learned of the land to the west, and requested of King Charles that it be given to him in repayment of a debt the King owed to Penn's father. Penn's first act upon receiving the Charter was to address a letter to the scattering of Dutch, Swedes, and English occupying Pennsylvania. In part, it said: "I hope you will not be troubled with your change and the King's choice, for you are now fixt, at the mercy of no Governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not resurp the right of any, or oppress his person." The "Holy Experiment" of Penn was being carried out under principles of self-government, and an impartial judiciary system. Unlike the other colonies, Pennsylvania had a high degree of independence from the Monarchy. The Truax family moved to Pennsylvania (population then 250,000) well before the Revolutionary War -- probably during the time that William Franklin, Jr. (Patriot Ben's son) had been appointed as the royalist governor for New Jersey. The probable date of movement was 1764. Making the decision to move were two brothers, Benjamin and Stillwell Truax. Stillwell, being a great hunter, had found and fallen in love with the Great Cove area of Bedford County, Pennsylvania (see footnote). They both claimed land, fought in the Revolution, and produced offspring which were to help settle land as pioneers of the "Old Northwest" region in the present states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Included in this Pennsylvania section id information about Benjamin and his family to the time of his death in 1801. By then, his son William and daughter Rebecca were living in Nelson County, Kentucky, and on their way to land in Owen County, Indiana. Benjamin's will is included, as well as a description of the land he owned which he called "False-Axe". He and his family were members of the Turkeyfoot Baptist Church, the first Baptist Church to be founded west of the Alleghenies. Both Benjamin Truax, Sr. and brother Stillwell fought in the Revolution as middle-age men. It is interesting to note that Joseph Truax (Benjamin's nephew) was six years old when he moved to Pennsylvania in 1764 with the family. At the age of 18, he volunteered and fought in a series of engagements within Pennsylvania. However, he returned for a period to his home state of New Jersey to serve under General Putnam at Princeton. In his last year of life, age 79, he received a veteran's pension of $24.98. Benjamin and his wife are buried at Tonoloway Baptist Church in what is now Fulton County, Pennsylvania. This is located about three miles north of Hancock, Maryland. May of his family's descendants still reside in this region. The cemetery is well-cared for, is on a hillside, nestled against a growth of trees. Benjamin's grave is officially marked by the U. S. government as a Revolutionary soldier. To relay information about the Truax family, and to tell of those times and people in the mountains and valley of south-central Pennsylvania, excerpts are reproduced from "The History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania, of its pioneers and Prominent Families," published in 1884. Subjects chosen deal with the culture, the Church, the history of the settlers, and the Whiskey Insurrection which played such a major part in the Nation's founding. This background is important to the "Indiana" Truaxes of Owen County because our Pennsylvania ancestor William lived the first thirty years of his life in this region, and lived the last dozen years of his life in Owen County, Indiana. Just as important is the fact that William married Alicy Coombs (now Combs) in Bedford County. She was the daughter of Major Edward Coombs who is listed among "those who at once became identified in the struggle for independence and national unity." He served with the First Battalion of Bedford County. Records show that he served as a volunteer, and received but little more pay and subsistence than the privates. Edward Coombs was a County Commissioner of Bedford in 1774. His descendents through daughter Alicy and William Truax honor his memory, and the name of Edward combs Truax is retained in today's generational line. He, together with some of his children and his daughter, Alicy, and her husband, William Truax, moved to Kentucky. Major Edward Coombs died in Nelson County, Kentucky. A copy of his will is included in the Northwest Territory section. Benjamin Traux, Sr.'s will was written for him. He signed it with a crudely drawn "B". Pennsylvania's 1790 Constitution called for a system of public education, but it was not until long after Benjamin's death that a genuinely democratic requirement to serve the class of citizens, such as Benjamin's family, was enacted into law. This delay in providing children with education did not match William Penn's view. In leaving home to visit Pennsylvania in September 1682, he wrote his wife, Hannah, expressing his concern for his children. He said, "For their learning, be liberal; spare no cost for by such parsimony, all is lost that is saved: but let it be useful knowledge. I recommend the useful parts of mathematics, building houses or ships, measuring, surveying, dialing, navigation, etc., but agriculture is especially in my eye..." Footnote: The Bedford-Fulton County region is part of the Appalachian chain of old mountains. Provincial maps of the 18th century identified them as "Endless Mountains" because they consist of a series of nearly impassable ridges and valleys. Travel was made possible only by a network of rivers and streams.

Last Will of Benjamin Trewex, Senior, In the Pennsylvania Archives, 5th Series, Vol. 4, p. 252 under Continental line, Depreciation Pay, under Bedford County Militia appears the name of Benjamin Truax His name also appears under Eighth Class (not called) in a return of Capt. James McKinney's Company Militia of the First Battalion of Bedford County, as they stand ented in the Class Roll with respect to the duty and delinquency of the said Company April ye 28th, 1783. Benjamin's grave was marked with a bronze plate in 1976 by his State and Nation during the American Bi-centennial. His name appears on tax lists of Ayr township in 1773 and in Bethel Township from 1774 to 1800; also in Belfast township tax lists of 1798, 1799 and 1800. He had a Warrant for land May 11, 1785. Return of Survey 15th Sept. 1786, a Draught for a Tract of Land situate in Bethel Township in the County of Bedford Containing Two hundred and thirty acres and one hundred twenty-seven porches with the usual Allowance of six per Cent for Rhods & c. Surveyed for Benjamin Truax the 8th day of December 1785. The Patent for this land, which is on heavy parchment about 14 x 16, was issued by the Supreme Executive Council of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Eighteenth day of September in the Year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty six. It carries the signatures of Chas. Biddle V. P. and (Attest) James Trimble for John Armstrong, Secy. This tract was called "False Axe" and adjoined the lands of Andrew Mann and Elias Stilwell by Stilwell's Ridge. For the tract he paid Sixteen pounds eleven shillings and four pence. Footnote: The Pennsylvania Archives records with several spellings of the name, which reflect the educational level of the 1700's. The spellings are: Truax, Truex, Thrax, Traux, Troax, Trucox, Trueax, Truix, and Trewex.

This region of our Pennsylvania settling was frontierland in the late 1700's. It was a turbulent area at the time of our Country's founding.** Evidence of this can be seen in the first eleven chapters which are entitled:

Undoubtedly the first white settlers of the region now embraced by the counties of Bedford and Somerset were Indian traders. French and English. The date of their first appearance here is not known, but it was certainly as early as 1732, when the attention of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania was called on the fact that Frenchmen were known to be among the Indians within the supposed western limits of the territory claimed by the Penns under the royal grant. This announcement caused considerable discussion and some vague action on the part of the council, and there is no doubt that the fact, which then became publicly known, had the effect to bring in the English-speaking traders (if, indeed, they were not already here) to gather their share of profits from a lucrative Indian trade.

Early local writers have asserted that the first settlement on the Raystown branch of the Juniata was made by a man named Ray in 1751, who built three cabins on or near the site of the town of Bedford; that this branch of the river derived its name from him, and that the locality was known for a decade or so of years as Raytown.

The Penns have now acquired the Indian title to this great tract, measures were immediately taken to prepare the newly purchased lands for sale to settlers. On February 23,1769, they published an advertisement for the general information of the public, the effect that their land office in Philadelphia would be open on 3rd April next following, at 10:00 a.m., to receive applications from all persons inclined to take up lands in the new purchase, upon the terms of 5 pounds sterling per 100 acres, and one penny per acre per annum quit-rent

Regarding the titles to land in Pennsylvania, we remark here that the charter dated March4, 1861, granting the province to William Penn, is the foundation of all land titles in the state. Subsequently, and at various times, as we have shown, the aboriginal titles were extinguished by purchase from the chiefs of the Six Nations. Thereafter the vacant lands continued to be owned by the heirs of William Penn until during the revolutionary war, when an act usually called the "Divesting Act" was passed (November 27,1779), and the wild or unoccupied lands of the defunct province thereby became the property of the commonwealth.

The manner in which the settler recorded his "tomahawk" claim was to dead-end a few trees near a spring, and to cut the initials of his name in the bark of others, an indicative of his intention to hold and occupy the lands adjacent to or surrounded by the blazed and dead-ended trees. These "claims" constituted no title, and were of no legal value, except so far as they were evidence of actual occupation. They were not sanctioned by any law, but were generally--though not always--recognized and respected by the settlers; and thus, in the applications which were afterward made at the land office for the various tracts, there were very few collisions because rival claimants for the same lands.

Bethel was organized as a township of Bedford county January 12, 1773. Several townships and parts of townships have been made from the territory originally included within its limits.

The following is a list of taxable inhabitants of Bethel township for the year 1774, copies from the Bedford county records: Micheal Sousel, Peter Smith, Elias Stilwell, Esq., John Shafer, John Truax, Jacob Truax,Jr., Stillwell Truax, Samuel Truax, Benjamin Truax, Joseph Warford, John Wilkins.

Benjamin Truax, Sr., was one of he early settlers of Bethel. He came from New Jersey before the revolution and settled within the present limits of Thomson township.

This organization, which is more commonly know as the Jersey Baptist Church, is the oldest Baptist church of any kind in Somerset county, and perhaps the oldest in Southwestern Pennsylvania. For many years after its organization, Maryland and Virginia settlers were among its members, while Sandy Creek Glades, Virginia formed a portion of its parish. The Turkey-Foot church is the parent of all the Baptist churches included in a region hundreds of miles in extent. The following is an exact copy of page seven of the minutes of the Turkey-Foot Baptist church:

Among the names of members belonging to the church we find the Whittakers, Melicks, Truaxes, Bosleys, Membles, Gordons, Kings, Joneses, Walls, Lobdills, Melotts, Manettas, Pitmans, Monys, Hannas, Tannehills, Woodmencys,and Reams.

Note: A "History of the Tonoloway Baptist Church -- Benjamin Truax is buried there -- is being reviewed.)

The Whiskey insurrection is a phrase which has been applied usually to a series of unlawful and violent acts committed--principally in 1794, but to some extent in previous years--by inhabitants more especially in the southwestern quarter of the states, yet there were many others residing in adjoining counties (notably in Bedford, which then included the present county of Somerset) who not only sympathized, but made common cause with the most violent and boisterous of the insurrectionists. These illegal and insurrectionary

acts embraced an armed resistance on several occasions in the operation of certain state and national laws imposing on excise tax on distilled spirits and stills used for the manufacture of such spirits. Although the tax was but a light one, comparatively, it was quite generally and particularly obnoxious tot he people of Southwestern Pennsylvania, because they regarded it as bearing with especial and discrimination severity on the industries of their section as compared with other portions of the commonwealth.

The first excise tax imposed in the province of Pennsylvania was that authorized by an act of assembly approved March 16,1684, entitled a "Bill of Aid and Assistance of the Government." As it was found to be objectionable to the major portion of the inhabitants, that part of the bill relating to the collection of excise duties was repealed soon afterward, and therefore no similar Legislation was enacted for more than half a century. In 1738, however, the provincial assembly passed "An Act for laying and excise on wine, rum, brandy and other spirits", but this act, like that of 1684, was received with such unmistakable disfavor that it remained in force only a few months. Again, in May, 1744, the assembly renewed the measure, "for the purpose of providing money without a general tax, not only to purchase arms and ammunition for defense, but to answer such demands as might be made upon the inhabitants of the province by his majesty for distressing the public enemy* in America." This enactment remained in operation but a short time. Another excise law was passed in 1756, but failed of execution; then for a period of nearly sixteen years the people of Pennsylvania were undisturbed by governmental attempts to collect duties on spirits.

In 1772 the subject was again considered by the assembly, and as a means of increasing the revenues a bill was passed levying a duty on foreign and domestic distilled spirits. At first no energetic attempt was made to execute this law, in reference to domestic liquors; but after Pennsylvania became a state, and her necessities were greatly increased by the revolutionary was, then in progress, the law was put into force, and a very considerable revenue obtained in that way. The measure was less obnoxious at that time, because the majority of patriotic men were opposed to the consumption of grain in distillation at a time when every bushel was needed for the subsistence of troops in the field fighting for liberty. A large part of the proceeds collected at that time was appropriated to the "depreciation fund", created in this state (as in others, in pursuance to the resolution passed by Congress in 1780) for the purpose of giving to officers and soldiers of the revolutionary army an additional compensation, a measure manifestly just and proper, because the value of their pay had been greatly diminished by the rapid depreciation of the continental currency.

Hence, laws imposing excise duties on distilled spirits remained on the statute books of Pennsylvania during the revolutionary was and until the year 1791, when they were repealed. During the period mentioned, however, from 1772 to 1791, although the excise laws of the state were by no means generally enforced, the collection of the revenue tax on spirits was several times attempted, but never successfully executed in the southwestern counties. In the year 1786, a Mr. Graham, excise officer of the district composed of Washington, Westmoreland and Fayette counties, made such an attempt. The treatment he received in the first named county is shown by a letter written by Dorsey Pentecost on the Executive Council of Pennsylvania. In part, it follows "...His Pistols, which he carried before him, taken and broke to pieces in his presence, his Commission and all his papers relating to his Office tore and thrown in the mud, and he was forced and made to stomp on them, and Imprecate a curses on himself, the Commission, and the Authority that gave it to him; they then cut off the Cock of his hat, and made him wear it is a form to render his Cue the most conspicuous; this with many other marks of Ignominy, they Impos'd on him, and to which he was obliged to submit and in the above plight they marched him admidst a Crowd from the frontiers of this County to Westmoreland County, calling at all the Still Houses in their way, where hey were Treated Gratis, and expos'd him to every Insult and mockery that their Invention could contrive. They set him at Liberty at the entrance of Westmoreland, but with threats of utter Desolation should he dare to return to our County.

Slavery in Pennsylvania began to disappear with the state's gradual emancipation act of 1781. Laws to protect fugitive slaves were on the books by 1826. The "Underground Railroad" is believed to have originated in Pennsylvania. Noted Black historian, Charles Blocker, identifies the Bedford-Fulton County area as being heavily involved in operating and supporting the "Underground Railway". This area was troubled by kidnappers seeking to return slaves to the South to obtain rewards.

* Meaning the French; both France and England having declared war against each other in 1744.

A book, "The Kernel of Greatness", published to mark the 200th birthday of Bedford County, records a strange experience of President and General George Washington during his stop-over in Bedford as the leader of the antiwhiskey-rebellion army.

He stayed at the fine old Espry House. Mrs. Espry, all sorts of lady volunteers, and her servants prepared a dinner for Washington, two cabinet officers and other distinguished guests. The "main dish" was to be a roasted wild turkey. According to "The Kernel of Greatness", here is what happened:

As the glittering assemblage forgathered at the table for the start of the many-coursed dinner, the turkey was removed from its roasting-fire and put temporarily on a window-ledge to cool until time for its presentation in all its glory on the Espry table.

"The President was never to sample that particular product of the Bedford County wilderness. An alert trooper, nameless in history, speared the bird with his bayonet from a horse and rode off with his prize. It was, in all likelihood, enjoyed by many of his fellow troopers encamped somewhere near the present Square of Bedford. It is unlikely that the visitors went hungry even without their intended piece de resistance, since history records that meals of the size tended toward a succession of seven courses of meat, baked delights, desserts and other embellishments."

THE CITIZENS NEED TO BEAR ARMS IN NOVEMBER 1777

When the Revolution began, Pennsylvania's responded. Among the requests they responded to was to ask individuals and their families to contribute their rifles and ammunition to the Continental army and its allied units. Bedford Countians did this, and also sent their sons and fathers to war.

However, through lack of weapons and the ammunition at home, they were almost defenseless against attack by enemies, among which were the Indians. In a long letter of appeal written 27 November 1777, Thomas Smith and George Woods of Bedford wrote to their Pennsylvania government. They described the death toll of men, women and children. They described the abandonment...the fleeing of whites. They attested to the fact that not more than one man among 12 had a weapon, and that much of the ammunition available to them was useless. In a few concluding words of that letter, its authors described the original need to give weapons to fight the British, and pleaded for a return of some of those weapons. We quote:

"The safety of our county then called loudly on us to send all the arms to the Camp that could be procured, and it now as loudly calls on us to entreat that we may be allowed some as soon as possible. As also some ammunition, as that which was entrusted to our care is now almost delivered out to the officers who are fortifying, and what remains of it is not fit for rifles."

"We need not repeat our entreaties that whatever is done may be done as soon as possible, as a day's delay may be the destruction of hundreds."

"We are in haste, Gentlemen".

"To the north of Ohio, stretching from Pennsylvania on the east to the Mississippi River, and bounded on the north by the Great Lakes, lies a region known in American history as the Old Northwest. Its area of 265,878 square miles constitutes a domain larger than France or Germany before 1918 and about twice as large as the British Isles. Physiographically this section of the United States falls within the large expanse of rolling country classified as the prairie plains or Central Lowlands.

Under the English from 1763 to 1783, the inhabitants of the Northwest felt but lightly the rule of the mother country; a few hundred French habitants, a few thousand Indians, neither was much disturbed. Colonial plans and British politics, however, were influenced by the problems of the vast area to the west of the settled colonies.

When, in 1774, for administrative purposes the region north of the Ohio was annexed to Quebec, Virginia, who claimed the land by charter grant, as well as other colonies who felt they were being cut off from westward expansion, regarded the act as one of the "Intolerabel Acts." During the Revolution, George Rogers Clark, acting under the authority of the Commonwealth of Virginia, seized the southern part of the territory and broke up British military plans in the West. At the peace in 1783 the western boundary of the United States was fixed at the Mississippi River.

By Act of Congress approved May 7, 1800, the Territory Northwest of the Ohio was divided by a line drawn from opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort Recovery and thence due north to Canada. The area to the east retained the title, "Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio," and anticipated early admission to statehood. The remainder of the Northwest Territory became Indiana Territory, Vincennes the seat of government, and William Henry Harrison was appointed governor. The Ohio enabling act of April 30, 1802, established the northern boundary of that state on a line east from the southern tip of Lake Michigan and added the territory to the north to Indiana Territory, as well as the triangular strip or "gore" lying between the Kentucky River - Fort Recovery line and a line drawn from the mouth of the Big Miami to Fort Recovery.

The people of Indiana Territory were exempted from that part of the Ordinance of 1787 which required 5,000 free adult males for second-grade territorial status and the privilege of electing a legislature. Within a year malcontents and office seekers, who feared a cleanup by Governor William Henry Harrison, were seeking to arouse sentiment for representative government.

Hardly distinguishable from the hunters were the first settlers, half hunter, and half farmer. These possessed more of the utensils for civilized life, but on the whole constituted a transition class who were equally likely to retrograde into the more primitive life by selling out their few improvements and moving on, or to enter their land and to join the permanent settlers.

The permanent settlers conformed to no type. Among them were hunters and squatters of another day, men from the older settled regions with money enough to start anew, enterprising young Lawyers, storekeepers, and mechanics, many of whom were to become the well-to-do farmers and businessmen of the community. There were men from the Middle States, western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, but in southern Indiana and Illinois few from New England.

Few are the descriptions of these people recorded by themselves. They were not literacy: many were illiterate. To the outsider, however, they were interesting studies, and from the abundance of observations may be gathered, as from case material, a fairly accurate estimate.

To nearly all the travelers the Hoosier appeared different, and at times be fared none too gently at their hands. To those who had recently left the beautiful Blue-grass region of Kentucky, with its proud society and appearance of culture. Indiana seemed a decided change for the worse. The country was different, and so seemed the people. Kentucky politeness and hospitality gave way to impudence, ignorance, and laziness. The Hoosier dialect, the nasal twang, and provincial expressions became more noticeable in the speech. We are "now quite out of society: everything and everybody, with some few exceptions, looks wild, and half-savage. Such was the reputation of the Hoosiers--Lawless, semi-barbarous vagabonds, dangerous to live among.

At the end of a long day's travel in the deep shade of giant poplars, walnuts, and oaks, which, notwithstanding the lack of underbrush in the virgin timber, seldom offered a view of two hundred yards in any direction, the traveler was glad to avail himself of whatever food and shelter was offered. Most likely it would be stewed pumpkin and cabbage, rye or parched-corn coffee, a bit of salt pork and hominy, or venison bones and corn bread, with sleeping privileges in the single room of the cabin not in the loft, frequently shared with eight to twelve members of the family, numerous dogs, and sometimes a calf or two. Or now and then the stranger might run into the more prosperous farmer, an important man in his community, by whom he would be given excellent shelter and regaled with a breakfast of venison, fowls, ham and bacon, hot johnnycakes, honey or maple syrup, and a dram of whiskey to keep the cold off his stomach. Also oats for the horses, all gratis, or at a nominal price.

The small cabin in the clearing, with its one room and perhaps loft, its floor of dirt or puncheons, and windows covered with greased paper or deerskins, was often the domicile for more than one family. It was necessary to shelter the newcomers until they could erect their own homes, and half a dozen mouths more or less seemed to make little differences, though in 1816 the inrush of newcomers was so great that at times the corn meal gave out and food became a problem. But there was always the forest with its abundance of game, and in a pinch the breasts of turkeys and dried venison could be regarded as bread. Split-log tables, benches, and bunks, a few wooden bowls and spoons, an iron spider or skillet, and an iron or copper kettle or boiling pot constituted the furnishings and equipment of the average family. Whatever agricultural implements were needed were of the same homemade construction as the furniture. The backwoods people were admirably adapted by nature and training to the surroundings in which they lived. Lean and sallow, curious, inquisitive, independent, as likely to be indolent and shiftless as industrious, crude in speech and as naively unaware of his picturesque profanity as he was innocent of underwear or a daily bath, the frontiersman was a product of his environment. "Lax morals: few principles, but chose deeply impressed on the mind: a careless haughtiness of manner, without and affectation, or consequential airs: and a quick perception of the ridiculous--these are some of the characteristics of a man born and reside in the backwoods.

There were few weak or infeminate men in the west. Physical and military courage were taken for granted, and little affection or respect was held for Easterners or those too dressed or finicky in their tastes, yet everywhere was readiness to accept the newcomer when he conformed to the ways of the frontier. Social comforts counted less than friendship and neighborliness. Equality was not a theory to creed: it was merely a natural circumstance.

Nature is a great lever and no respecter of persons. Before her the individual pioneer was just as good as his right arm, keen-sighting eye, and constitutional resistance to her vapors and pests. The pioneer realized this fact; on the one hand it led to effective informal co-operation, on the other to almost unrestrained individualism. But into all activities was carried the practice of democracy, whether politics, law, military, or religious life. The judge could leave his bench, shake hands, and retire to his plow, the preacher go from pulpit to stable work; the lawyer serve as private or lieutenant under his client who was a colonel in the militia. No one worked willingly as "hired man" and servants were out of the question.

William Faux, the most critical of the English travelers of the period, as a rule was over finicky and too often showed peevishness, yet beneath some of his most biting comments was an aptitude for shrewd observation which sometimes reached beneath the surface of dirt and lack of refinement to delineate character and characteristics. Wrote Faux: "The American, considered as an animal, is filthy, bordering on the beastly; as a man, he seems a being of superior capabilities; his attention to his teeth, which are generally very white, is a fine exception to his general habits. All his vices and imperfections seem natural; those of a semi-barbarian. He is ashamed of none of them." Yet "... however mean may be the exterior of a citizen of this free, equal country, there is a spirit and an intelligence, and often sprightliness about him, which decorate any thing and make even rags respectable." Politeness in manner and address Faux commented upon, and was partly correct in his conclusion that it was more necessary, especially among strangers, on the frontier than on Bond Street.

It was a land of early marriages, for the teamwork of man and woman was almost necessary in the primitive economy of the early settlements. Young people married first then looked around for a means of livelihood with little fear, for there was land in plenty--if not at home, a little father on--and most necessities for life could be had for the Labor.

Times were when the fight for mere existence left no surplus of time or energy for education or culture as commonly understood, and life degenerated into a vicious circle of days and years of grinding toil for the necessities to sustain the body, in order that other days would come in which to repeat the process. Yet at its worst the pioneer's world offered to even the most barren of lives something of amusement, of social relationships, of joys and sorrows over and beyond the material--and at its best a richness of background which afforded setting for lives more complete and rich in many respects than is possible to most under the unstable conditions of a highly specialized modern industrial society, often geared to a tempo beyond the capacity and power of humans.

Note: All of the information on this page is from a copy of "TRUAX" 1582-1981