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ROBERT ROBISON

Account of Fort Robinson Perry County, Pennsylvania

By  D. A. Kline and Luke Baker

(Read at the unveiling exercises at the site of Fort Robinson on Saturday, October 11, 1924.)

Under their several treaties with the Indians prior to 1754, the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania had no title or pretence of title to any land in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna River and north of the Kittochtinny or Endless Hills, later known as the Blue or Kittatinny Mountain which separates Cumberland from Perry county. Up to the year 1754, the Indians had done nothing toward parting with their claim to the exclusive enjoyment of the lands north of the Endless Hills and west of the “long crooked river.” The valley of the Juniata River was highly prized by the Red Men as their best and only hunting ground for deer; for, as they said, :further to the north there was nothing but spruce woods and the ground was covered with laurel bushes so that not a single deer could be found or killed there.”

Because William Penn impartially offered liberty of conscience to all who were under religious persecution and made his province “an asylum for the good and oppressed of every nation;” because of the interesting and attractive natural features of the region; and because of the justice and liberality of the laws of the rapidly growing province; settles flocked into Penn's State and quickly occupied the desirable sites in the lands which had been purchased from the Indians at the times these new inhabitants came into the province.

As the country east of the Susquehanna River and south of the Kittochtinny Hills became more and more occupied by the ever-advancing tide of new settlers. Although it was well understood that the Valley of the Juniata was not to be encroached upon, yet the licensed Indian traders, of whom the elder Simon Girty was one, soon learned of its attractions and advantages; adventurous spirits found themselves drawn to this forbidden ground; and those who loved the chase as well as those who sought new fat lands to be acquired by simply taking possession of them, secretly but gradually and persistently occupied illegally the rich acres in the Juniata Valley and along Sherman's Creek.

Although the whites acquired their first claim to Perry County's soil as against the Indians, under the treaty made at Albany on July 6, 1754, yet for more than ten years prior to that date, the lands in the Juniata Valley were being appropriated by intruding squatters coming in from the older settlements in the purchased lands east of the Susquehanna and south of the Blue Mountain, as well as from Maryland and Virginia.

About the year 1740 or 1741, one Frederick Star, a German, with two or three more of his countrymen, made settlements on Big Juniata at the distance of twenty miles from the mouth thereof, and about ten miles north of the Blue Hills. This was the same place at which William White, George Cahoon, Daved Hiddleston, George and William Galloway and Andrew Lycon were established in 1750 and from which these intruding settlers were evicted on May 23, 1750. At the time of their eviction several of their cabins were burned. The exact location of this settlement cannot now be determined with certainty; but it was most probable in what is now Juniata County.

In July, 1742, when a delegation of Indians went to Philadelphia to receive their last payment on the sale of their lands made in 1736, they complained bitterly to the authorities against the settlement by the whites to the northward of the Kittochtinny Hills.

From 1742 to 1754 repeated complaints were made by the Indians to the provincial authorities of persistent and multiplying settlements on the unsold lands. It was truthfully stated by the Indians in 1747, that “some persons had the presumption to go into a place called Shearman's Creek, lying along the waters of Juniata and situate east of the Path Valley through which ran the road from Harris's Ferry to Allegheny, and that the settlements were extended to the Big Juniata.” They said that their hunting grounds were being every day more and more taken from them; and that there would certainly arise quarrels between their warriors and these intruding settlers, which in the end would break the chain of friendship between the whites and the red men.

Urged by the justice and persistence of these complaints, the provincial authorities issued proclamations against the squatters, commanding and warning them to withdraw from the lands. At the suggestion of the Indians a few white traders of reputation and probity were authorized to locate over the Hills with authority to trade with the Indians and, in return for this privilege, these government agents were empowered and directed to evict and keep out those who, without right, settled on these lands. Andrew Montour was one of these primitive policemen. He had his post on Montour Run near Landisburg; and because of this fact the run received the name it now bears.

But the strong voice of the Governor, in his repeated proclamation, was but faintly heard in the primeval forests north of the Blue Hills. The policing licenses found their beats quite too extended for a thorough and effective patrol, and these guardians of the public no doubt often winked at violations of the law committed by their friends.

In 1748 the government sent the sheriff of Lancaster county and three magistrates with Mr. Conrad Wiser, interpreter and agent, into this region to warn off the settlers intruding upon these unpurchased lands; but notwithstanding this the encroachments on the right of the aborigines continued.

To show that the authorities were really in earnest in their efforts to prevent these trespasses, in May, 1750. Richard Peters and Conrad Weiser with the under-sheriff and many of the justices of the peace of the newly created county of Cumberland, were sent to bring to a legal conviction all such as had presumed, in contempt of the laws repeatedly signified by proclamation, to settle upon the unpurchased lands beyond the Kittochtinny Mountains.

This delegation of officers visited Big Juniata, Sherman's Creek, Tuscaroro Path and Big Cove. At Sherman's Creek, or little Juniata, situated about six miles over the Blue Mountain, were found James Parker, Own McKeib, John McClare, Richard Kirkpatrick, James Murray, John Scott, Henry Gass, John Cowan, Simon Girtee and John Kilogh, who had settled lands and erected cabins or log houses thereon. These squatters were convicted of the trespass on view, and were bound in recognizance in the penalty of one hundred pounds to appear and answer for their trespasses on the first day of the next county court of Cumberland, to be held at Shippensburg. They were also bound in the sum of five hundred pounds to remove off immediately, with all their servants, cattle and effects. Some of the meanest of the cabins were burnt, where the families were not large nor the improvements considerable. These cabins were of no great value, being only such as the country people of those days erected in a day or tow, at the cost only of the charge of an entertainment. At the other places visited in what are now Bedford, Huntingdon, Juniata and Franklin counties, like proceedings were had against the squatters. The burning of the cabins or log houses on this occasion in May, 1750, in what is now Dublin township, Fulton county, gave name to the village of Burnt Cabins in that place.

By these drastic measures the provincial government was able to drive the intruding squatters from the unpurchased lands north of the Kittochtinny Hills. But with the seat of power so remote from the Juniata Valley, with the lure of the new lands strong upon the ejected settler, and with others crowding into the province from the east and from the south, the squatters soon returned to the forbidden region in increasing numbers; and the government decided that it would be best and cheapest to buy from the Indians their lands so much coveted by the settlers.

Accordingly by the treaty at Albany on July 6, 1754, for a consideration of four hundred pounds, there was conveyed to the proprietaries a tract of land bounded on the north by a line running from a mile above Penn's Creek on the Susquehanna northwest by west as far as the province extended; on the east by the Susquehanna River and the Kittochtinny Hills; on the south by the southern line of the province; and on the west by the western line of the province.

This was a conveyance of nearly all of the western part of the present state of Pennsylvania. The Indians soon declared that they never intended to convey such a vast tract, that they did not understand the points of the compass, and that they had been deceived and defrauded. Later this treaty was amended and modified so that the tract conveyed was reduced very considerably. The boundary on the north was changed to a line running from a mile above Penn's Creek “northwest and by wst to a creek called Buffalo Creek; thence west to the east side of the Allegheny or Appalachian Hills;” and the western boundary was fixed “at the east side of said hills.” As thus modified, the purchase still included all of the present counties of Perry, Juniata, Mifflin, Huntingdon, Bedford, Blair and Fulton, and parts of Snyder, Centre Union, Franklin, and Somorset.

By the acquisition of the title of the Indians to these lands, the illegality of settlements thereon was removed; and with the opening of the Land Office on Feb. 3, 1755, to sales of lands in this region, the further settlement of the Juniata Valley was given a wonderful impetus. In 1751, three years before the Albany Purchase, the number of taxables in Cumberland county north of the Kittantinny Mountain is said to have been 1134. By the time the Land Office was opened for sales in the new purchase the population had doubtless increased very greatly. But it must be remembered that the figures above given applied to all of what was the Cumberland county north of the Blue Hills and included a number of present counties besides our own. It is probable that by 1755 the population of what is now Perry county did not exceed 500.

Although during the year prior to the French and Indian War the relations between the settlers and the Indians had in general been friendly and peaceable; yet during this period there had been numerous caused of complaint by the Indians against the whites. The trickery of the “Walking Purchase,” the alleged over reaching in the Albany treaty, the persistent intrusions on the unpurchased lands, occasional interracial murders, robberies and larcenies and legal and illegal punishments of he perpetrators thereof, the natural effects of the immoderate use of “fire-water” by the settlers and the Indians, and the conflicting selfish interests of the two races, had frequently led to disputes, animosities and the local infliction of sometimes open and bold, and at other times stealthy, retaliation and vengeance.

When the armed conflict between the French and English arose in America, many of the Indians of Pennsylvania and the surrounding states were ready to join in the warfare. Whether they should join with the French or with the English depended generally upon the strength of the appeals to their cupidity alternately made by the belligerents, and upon the real or fancied grievances which each individual, band or tribe had against the one or the other party.

Shortly after the opening of the French and Indian War in 1754, the provincial authorities had established about 200 forts and stockades to defend the frontiers. A chain of forts were constructed extending from Delaware River to Sunbury. Fort Augusta, where Sunbury now stands, Fort Halifax, Fort Hunter, and the forts at Carlisle and Shippensburg were parts of this chain. To protect the country north of the Kittochtinny Hills directions were given to Capt. George Croghan in 1755 to proceed to Cumberland county and fix on proper places for the erection of three “stockades,” viz: one back of Patterson's, one upon Kishecoquillas, and one near Sideling Hill; each of them to be fifty feet square with a block-house on two of the corners, and a barrack within capable of lodging fifty men.

It appears that in 1756, on all sides of Perry county, forts had been erected by the provincial authorities; but Perry as now constituted was without any public fort within her borders. At the site of Sunbury was Fort Augusta; Fort Halifax, Fort Hunter and Harris's stockade were in what is now Dauphin county; Shippensburg and Carlisle in Cumberland county were fortified; Fort Loudon protected Franklin; Fort Lytellton guarded Fulton; Fort Shirley, Huntingdon; Fort Granville, Mifflin; and Pomfret Castle protected Juniata county.

The only reference to Robinson's Fort we have been able to find in the public archives of the State in the following contained in a communication from James Patterson to Governor Denny, written from Fort Hunter on January 10, 1758:

“I took with me 19 men & ranged from this Fort as far as Robinson's Fort, where I lodged, keeping a guard of six men & one Corporal on Sentry that night.”

That Sherman's Valley and the lower end of the Juniata Valley needed protection at this time is apparent from the following extracts from contemporary records:

The petition of the inhabitants of Cumberland County to Gov. Morris, presented on August 7, 1755, sets forth:

“That Your Petitioners are at present in A most Dangerous Situation, as we live upon the frontiers, Expos'd to the Inhuman Cruelty of Barbarous Savages, and the Nothing to Impede them or Defend us, but the Sovereign Benignity of Almighty God, for we are in A defenseless Condition, having neither arms nor Ammunition, and in this Lamentable Case Our Only Door of Hope (Next to the Divine Goodness) is in Your Honor's Compassion;” and praying that the Governor would order to them guns and ammunition.

On November 6, 1755, Adam Hoops, writing to Gov. Morris from “Canegogig,” says:

“The people of Sheer Man's Crick and Juneate, is all Cum a way and left there houses, and there is now about 30 miles of this County lead weast (laid waste), and I am afraid there will Be Soon more.”

On February 6, 1756, Rev. Thomas Barton of Reading writes to Rev. Richard Peters of Carlisle, as follows:

“I am heartily sorry that I must grieve you with an Account of a most inhuman Murder, committed by the Indians, at Juniata & Sherman's Creek, on the 27th f last month.

“Within three miles of Patterson's Fort was found Adam Nicholso and his wife, dead & scalp'd, his two Sons & a Daughter are carried off; William Wilcock & his wife, dead & scalp'd, Hugh Micheltree, & a Son of sd. Nicolson, dead and scalp'd, with many children in all about 17.

“The same Day, one Sherridan, a Quaker, his wife, three Children & a Servant, were kill'd & scalp'd, together with one Wm. Hamilton & his wife, daughter, and one French within Ten Miles of Carlisle, a little beyond Stephen's Gap.

“It is dismal, Sir, to see the Distresses of the People; Women & Children screaming & lamenting, Men's Hearts failing them for Fear under all the Anguish of Despair. The Inhabitants over the Hills are entirely fleeing, so that in two or three days the North Mountain will be the Frontier. Industry droops, & all Sorts of Work seem at an End. In short, Sir, it appears as if this Part of the Country breath's its last.”

On February 15, 1756, Gov. Morris wrote to Sir Charles Hardie, as follows:

“There has never since been any Intermission of their ravages & Murders upon our back Inhabitants, and so lately as on or abt. ye 28th of last Month they fell upon & destroy'd some of our Settlements. Upon Juniata at Shermans Valley, by Canaleways, and murder'd or carry'd off above 40 of ye people.”

In July, 1756, a detachment of soldiers from Carlisle was sent into Sherman's Valley to protect the farmers during the harvest. O twenty soldiers who sent inm on July 21st, eleven remained to protect the reapers. At this time the Indians were murdering the settlers within ten miles of Carlisle.

On July 23, 1756, from Carlisle, John Armstrong worte to Gov Morris that ithe Indians had begun to take advantage of the harvest season and had killed or carried off seven people on the south side of the Kittatinny Hills; and that (contrary to the fact) the enemy had not yet attacked any of the people over the Hills, but passed them by, probable on account of finding them better guarded, and disposed of.

On August 21, 1756, a part of the remaining inhabitants of Cumberland county petitioned Gov. Loudon's troops at the most important and advantageous posts in the county. In this petition they set forth:

“That the French and their Savage Allies, have from Time to Time made several incursions into this county, have in the most inhumane and barbarous manner, murder'd great numbers of People, and carried others into Captivity; that on July 30th had taken Fort Granvilee and carried off the greatest Part of the Garrison, Prisoners; and that great Numbers of the Inhabitants are already fled, & others preparing to go off.”

“On Wednesday last Lieut. Armstrong March'd with Forty Soldiers, accompan'd by Mr. Smith the Indian Interpreter, and Ten Indians into Share Mans Valley, where some of the Enemy had been discover'd. They were join'd by 30 of the Country people who wanted to bring over their Cattle from that place. On Thursday they found the tracts of Eight of the Enemy, and follow'd them with Spirit enough until evening, when the tracts made toward this Valley.”

In the year 1763, during Pontiac's War, “the whole frontier of Pennsylvania was devastated so completely that Indian history in America presents no parallel. The tomahawk first and the torch next, was the order which Pontiac had givon all along the line. Corpses and ashes marked the path of destruction. Although the harvest was ripe, the farmers abandoned their grain fields and fled through the mountain passes to the settlements beyond.”

In July, 1763, Shippensburg, Carlisle and other places south of the Blue Mountain were crowded with refugees. At Shippensburg alone 1384 of the poor distressed back inhabitants took refuge. Of the number there were 301 men, 345 women, and 738 children. Many of them had to lie in barns, stables, and cellars, and under leaky sheds. The dwelling houses were all crowded. In the lower end of the county every house, barn an stable was crowded with miserable refugees, who having lost their horses, their cattle, and their harvest, were reduced from independence and happiness to abject beggary and despair.

During the early part of the French and Indian War, the settlers in the central part of Sherman's Valley, realizing the gravity of their situation and fully recognizing the weakness of the means provided by the provincial government for their defense, undertook to protect themselves from the murderous assaults and ravages of their enemies, the French and Indians. The result of that resolution was the construction of that fort at whose site we have gathered to-day.

The exact date at which this fort was built is not now certainly known. It was not likely built before the treaty at Albany in 1754, as persons occupying these lands before that time were trespassers in contempt of the governor's proclamation. Clarence W. Baker states in Article No. 128, reprinted from the “Freeman” of Oct. 5, 1881, that he was reliably informed that Fort Robinson was standing in 1750. The late Prof. J. R. Flickinger, in his article on Madison Township appearing in the History of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys, states that it was built as early as 1755. Our latest local historian, H. H. Hain, gives the date as the year 1755. This is probably the true date.

The site of the Fort is now fixed with as much certainty as is any historical fact. Dadison Township, along Bixler's Run, formerly known as Ury's, Tousey's or the Big Run. It occupied the bluff in the northwest corner of the present orchard on the Andrew Loy farm now owned by E. R. Loy. This location was highly advantageous. It was near to an excellent spring; it occupied high ground overlooking the surrounding country in all directions; it was in the only conspicuous valley cutting across the main Sherman's Valley at approximately right angles; and it was centrally located in the valley. Excavations just recently made on the ground proved that the site was as stated in the inscription on the stone, ___”30 feet east” of the marker this day dedicated.

This fort was built be the joint labors of the early settlers in the neighborhood. It was evidently a considerable log structure in the nature of a block-house, and it was surrounded by a stockade. The fact that, in July, 1756, on the occasion of the Woolcomber massacre, “about forty went from the Fort to where the murder was done and buried the dead,” shows that at that time there were more than forty able bodied men quartered in the fort besides the women and children.

Of course, this structure was not occupied at all times, but upon the approach of danger the women and children of the settlement would gather within its rude walls while the men would keep guard and be on the alert against surprise and attack. When the danger would be past, the fort would be unoccupied and tenantless.

Why this fort was called Fort Robinson is manifest. George Robinson was the claimant and occupant of the land upon which the Fort was build and became the warrantee thereof on May 13, 1763. He was a justice of the peace under a commission from King George the Third, and he was a captain in the Revolutionary War. In 1797 he removed from Sherman's Valley to Kentucky and there resided until his death in 1814, at the age of eighty seven. He had a grandson, James F. Robinson, who became governor of Kentucky. This illustrious grandson thus describes his distinguished grandfather, the man upon whose land this fort was built:

“He was six feet tall, perfect in build, remarkably athletic and strong, with a fine large head, light hair, beautiful large blue eyes, and a benevolent and intellectual countenance. He was remarkable for his love of reading, especially that of the higher and more difficult kinds. His library contained such works as Locke on Government, Blackston's Commentaries, Stewart's Philosophy, and The Spectator.”

Robert, James, William, and Thomas Robinson were all brothers and Indian fighters and apparently sons of George. James was killed in the fight at Sideling Hill in 1756; William was the captain of the twelve who fought the battle at Buffalo Creek and was killed there; Thomas also lost his life in this battle; and Robert was the narrator of the incidents with which he was so intimately connected and which were published in Loudon's Narratives. Robert Robinson achieved eminence as a soldier in the numerous attacks sustained from, and the many expeditions made against, the savages in his day in different parts of the province. Archibald loudon, the author of Loudon's Narratives, attributes to Robert Robinson the character of a man of bravery and absolute truthfulness; and he adopts as certainly authentic the narrative furnished by him. Except for Robert Robinson's narrative, but little reliable information relative to this fort would now be available.

The oldest stone in the Centre Graveyard which is close to the site of this fort, is the one which marks the last resting place of Martha Robinson who died December, 1776. As to her relationship to the brave men of that name and day we can only conjecture.

That these Robinsons and their compatriots were brave and hardy pioneers is quite certain. That they were wily Indian fighters and acquainted with all the art and craftiness of their red-skinned enemies appears plainly in Robinson's narrative as contained in the Narratives written by Archibald Loudon, our earliest native county historian.

The following facts connected with this old fort are gleaned from this preserved bit of early Perry County history with but slight aids from other sources:

In July, 1756, in harvest time, because of Indian depredations occurring at this time in the neighborhood, the settlers in the vicinity of Fort Robinson came to the fort with their families and used the fort as a means of protection and as a base of operations while they harvested their crops. The reapers went from the fort to the fields together for mutual protection, took their guns with them to the harvest fields, and left only the women and children and a small guard at the stockade.

On one of these July harvest days, the Indians stealthily surrounded the fort, patiently awaiting their opportunity when the reapers were all in the fields, to work their will upon the women and children and the guard at the fort. None of the whites knew that the fort was surrounded. Robert Robinson, who gives the account, had not yet gone to his work for the day which was that of hunting deer for the company. James Wilson was slow about joining the party of reapers, and was standing at the gate of the fort with his gun on his shoulder. John Simmeson seems to have been on guard that day. Hugh Gibson, the fourteen year old son of the widow Gibson, and the widow were out in the woods looking for their cattle. The other women and children were about the fort and all the men but the three named were in the fields.

Apparently all was peaceful at this place on that sunny July morning. Robert Robinson asked permission of James Wilson to try Wilson's gun by shooting at a mark with it. Wilson, who was taking his gun with him to the harvest field, readily assented to the request and handed his gun to Robinson who discharged it at the mark. Those Indians who were secreted on the upper or rear side of the fort, not being able to see the source or occasion of this gun-shot, supposed that their ambush had been discovered and that the shot was fired at them.

Immediately from their hiding places on the east side of the fort the Indians rushed in upon the unmanned stockade, instantly killed a daughter of Robert Miller and shot at John Simmeson, the guard. Then with quick and vengeful shot and blow the guns and tomahawks and knives of the savages were brought into play. The wife of James Wilson and the widow Gibson were killed and scalped, and Hugh Gibson, son of the widow and Betsey Henry were carried off as prisoners. While an Indian was scalping Mrs. Wilson, Robert Robinson, the narrator, shot at and wounded him but not sufficiently severely to prevent the savage's escape. The gun-shots, the agonizing death-cries of the victims and the general tumult gave notice to the forty laboring reapers that the fort had been attacked. These warrior-husbandmen dropped their sickles and rakes, grasped their guns, rushed to the fort and drove off the Indians who, however, dragged with them as prisoners Hugh Gibson and Betsey Henry and bore away in savage triumph the streaming, clotted scalps of Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Gibson.

What became of the prisoner Betsey Henry we don not know. The Gibson lad's experiences during a captivity of five years and four months have been preserved in Loudon's Narratives. The boy was taken by his captors back to their owns where he suffered much from hunger and abuse. Many times he was beaten most severely, and on one occasion he was sent to gather the wood which he was told was to be used in burning him at the stake. He did not know whether his torturers really intended to carry out their threat or not. However, he was not killed, but, but was soon adopted into an Indian family where his Indian mother's regard for him saved him from a cruel death under the hunting-knife of his adopted father Busqueetam.

While Hugh was with the Indians, at a fixed time and place, all the white captives in the neighborhood, including Hugh, were collected together to be the unwilling spectators of the cruel death of a poor, unhappy female prisoner, who, before the eyes of all these pale - faced captives, was stripped naked and bound to a post. The Indians then applied red-hot irons to her body and seared and burned her while the skin stuck to the irons at every touch. The victim screamed in the most pitiful manner and begged for mercy; but the ruthless barbarians were deaf to her agonizing shrieks and prayers, and continued their cruelty till death released her from the torture of those hellish fiends.

After long years of captivity, Hugh Gibson underwent many hardships and privations during two weeks he was occupied in evading his captors. He then made his escape to Fort Pitt, and came back to near the scene of his capture where he lived for a time with his maternal uncle, William McClelland. Later he married, reared a large family, and after the Revolutionary War, moved to Crawford county, Pa;, where he died July 30 1826, aged about 84 years.

Another incident of the year 1756 is furnished by Robert Robinson's narrative. At the time that practically all of the inhabitants of Sherman's Creek were gathered at the fort at George Robinson's, during the harvest of 1756, the Woolcomber family, the head of which was a non-resistant Quaker, lived near by on Sherman's Creek. Whether “Woolcomber” was the family name or whether it merely indicated the occupation of the father is a question yet to be solved by our local Society. The exact residence of the Woolcombers should also be determined.

The sad fate of the Woolcombers may best be told in the exact language of Robert Robinson. He says:

“The next I remember of, was in the same year (1756), the Woolcomber family, on Sherman's Creek; the whole of the inhabitants of the valley were gathered to a fort at George Robinson's; but Woolcomber would not leave home; he said it was the Irish who were killing one another; these peaceable people, the Indians would not hurt any person. Being at home, and at dinner, the Indians came in, and the Quaker asked them to come and eat dinner; and Indian answered the they did not come to eat, but for scalps; the son, a boy about 14 or 15 years of age, when he heard the Indians say so, repaired to the back door, and as he went out he looked back and saw the Indian stride the tomahawk into his father's head. The boy then ran over the creek, which was near to the house, and heard the screams of his mother, sisters and brothers. The boy came to our fort and gave us the alarm, -- about forty went to where the murder was done and buried the dead.”

During what was often called Pontiac's Conspiracy, the second Indian was in which the citizens of Perry county were involved, in the spring of 1763, by reason of information received that a body of Shawnees were encamped in Tuscarora Valley in what is now Juniata county, the settlers to the north of the Tuscarora Mountain placed all their movable effects upon pack-horses and fled in safety to Sherman's Valley.

Early in July, the grain crop in the Tuscarora Valley being ready to cut, these settlers who had fled from their homes there, formed parties to go back to their crops and jointly to harvest them. Upon their arrival in the Tuscarora Valley they set vigorously to work, and, no traces of the savages being observed, they proceeded diligently with their labors, but prudently carried with them their trusty rifles wherever they went.

On Sunday, July 10th, 1763, some ten or twelve Shawnee Indians approached the house of William White which was on the Juniata between thirty and forty miles from Carlisle. Here four men and a boy were together resting from their harvest toil. The Indians killed four of the five reapers at this place, and after taking their scalps, burned the house with the bodies of the victims in it.

The same day at Robert Campbell's on Tuscarora Creek, a mile and a half from White's, an attack was made; and of six men in the house, none escaped death except George Dodds who retreated to the loft of the house and got out by the chimney. Dodds went directly to Sherman's Valley and spread the alarm which soon reached Fort Robinson.

This same band of marauding Shawnees proceeded up the Tuscarora Valley, laying waste the country as they went. In the dusk of the evening they came to the house of William Anderson, who lived six or seven miles up the Tuscarora Valley and twenty-eight or thirty miles from Carlisle. Old man Anderson was seated by the table with his open bible on his lap. Anderson was shot and his son and an adopted daughter were also killed and scalped by the Indians.

John Graham, and John and James Christy, brothers, who were neighbors, of Mr. Anderson, hearing the firing of guns, conjectured that the Indians had attacked the Anderson home; and feeling that their own means of defense were inadequate, fled to Sherman's Valley, and about midnight reached Fort Robinson where their alarming account corroborated that of Dodds which had reached the fort earlier that day.

This news spread consternation among the settlers who were now in Sherman's Valley. With the knowledge that the Indians had proceeded so far up the Tuscarora Valley, and knowing that the family of Collins and James Scott wee engaged in harvesting still father up the same valley, a party of twelve was raised to go over through Bigham's Gap (the Bealtown or Honey Grove Gap in the Tuscarora Mountain) in the hope of being able to warn the reapers and to intercept the savages before they should reach the places of Scott and Collins.

The following are the names of the fearless twelve who volunteered to risk their lives to save their friends: William Robinson who acted as captain, Robert Robinson, the narrator, Thomas Robinson, a brother of the two former, John Graham, Charles Elliott, William Christy, James Christy, David Miller, John Elliott, Edward McConnell, William McAllister and John Nicholson.

On Monday Morning, July 16th, the Robinson squad entered the Tuscarora Valley by way of the Bealtown Gap and went to the Collins place. Here the Indians had destroyed a spinning wheel, emptied a bed and helped themselves to flour with which they made water-gruel which they consumed by the use of thirteen spoons made of bark. These spoons they generously left at the house. The party tracked the Indians to James Scott's where some fowls had been killed by them. Farther down the Tuscarora Valley at Graham's the house had been fired and was already burned down to the joists. In general in this fair valley the twelve volunteers found the homes in flames or burned entirely down. The reaped grain had been burned in the shock and fences set on fire where the grain was uncut. The corpses of a number of murdered persons were found. The hogs had fallen upon and mangled several of the dead bodies.

At the Graham place, where the house was still vigorously burning, plans were laid by the Robinson party for an attack upon the Indians. A coat had been hung by the savages upon a post on the side of the fire opposite the band of twelve. This led to the belief that the Indians were still there. It was arranged that Capt. William Robinson with five othere should attack the Indians from behind the barn and that Robert Robinson and five companions were to approach through an oats field. Robert was to shoot first. As Robert Robinson and his party approached the coat, it proved to be absolutely stationary, and the oats-field party walked down to it and found that the Indians had just left it. At this place the marauders had killed four hogs and leisurely eaten their fill. The tracks of the Indians showed that two companies of them had met at Graham's and that at least twenty-five of them had gone over the Tuscarora Mountain.

“The dread to encounter such a force would have deterred almost any small body of men; but the Robinsons, who appeared to be the leaders of the party, were bold, resolute backwoodsmen, inured to hardship, toil and danger; and, without taking time to reflect, or even debate, upon the probability of being attacked by the enemy from ambuscade, they pushed forward rapidly to overtake the savages.” The Robinson party took the road through the Run Gap. The Indians probably crossed to the south side of the Tuscarora Mountain by the way of Liberty Valley. The two routes intersected near to what was known as Nicholson's, near to the Buffalo Creek, at what later became known as Buffalo Mills in Saville township.

The Indians reached the cross-roads first and, hearing the whites coming, lay in ambush to meet them. The Indians, twenty-five in number, thus had the first fire. William Robinson, the leader, was shot in the belly with buck-shot, but managed to drag himself a half mile down the Buffalo Creek, John Elliott, than a boy about seventeen years of age, having fired his rifle at the enemy, was pursued by an Indian with his raised tomahawk; and when the Indian was with-in a few rods of the lad, he poured some powder into his rifle at random from his powder-horn, and having a bullet in his mouth, put it into the muzzle of his gun; but having no time to ram it down, he turned and fired point-blank at his pursuer who clapped his hand to his stomach, gave an agonized groan, turned and fled. Elliott had run but a few rods farther when he overtook William Robinson weltering in his blood and in his last agonies. Robinson begged Elliott to carry him off, as the brave captain, like all the white settlers, dreaded more the thought of being scalped than of being killed. Elliott excused himself because of the impossibility of the proposed task and because of the great danger in which they were. They dying leader, admitting the validity of the lad's excuses, said to him: “Take my gun and save yourself. And, peace or war, if ever you have an opportunity of an Indian, with this gun, shoot him for my sake.” Elliott brought away the gun, and the gallant William Robinson perished; but his body was not found by the Indians.

During the battle of Buffalo Creek, Thomas Robinson stood his ground until all of his people had fled. The Indians did not offer to pursue him until all his companions had left the field. Thomas kept firing at the Indians from behind the shelter of a tree. A number of the Indians then fired at him at the same time, and thus succeeded in shattering one of his arms. He took his gun in the other hand and fled up a steep hill. In attempting to climb over a high log he clapped the hand in which he had his gun on top of the log to assist him in getting over it. While bending over the log a bullet from an Indian's gun passed obliquely through his body, and he sank down across the log. An Indian brained him with the butt of his gun, the lock of the gun penetrating his skull. He was then scalped and his body most shockingly mutilated.

While sitting on a log not far from the place of the attack, John Graham died with his hands covering his face and with blood streaming through his fingers.

Charles Elliott and Edward McDonell took a circle around where the Indians had lain in ambush and made the best of their way to Buffalo Creek. They were pursued by the Indians. Where they crossed the creek there was a high bank; and as they were endeavoring to climb this ban they were both shot by their pursuers, and their bodies fell back into the waters of Buffalo Creek. An old tradition communicated to the writer by Thomas E. McCoy of Saville township, and such recorded facts as we have, fix the place of the killing of Charles Elliott and Edward McConnell as near the Fuller farm in the upper part of Shenandoah Valley, where the Buffalo Creek makes its great turn in passing through Billman's Ridge, or, as the old chronicle has it, “near the narrows of Buffalo Creek hill.”

William and James Christy spent about a week in effecting their return to the Fort, being all this time narrowly surrounded by he watchful Indians. So near to them did the savages pass one night that the Christys could have touched the Indians with their guns.

After this engagement, the two Christys, Robert Robinson, David Miller, William McAllister, John Elliott, and John Nicholson got back to the Fort in safety; but William and Thomas Robinson, Charles Elliott, John Graham, and Edward McDonnell sacrificed their lives for the protection of their fellow settlers. As Robert Robinson says, “It appears as if the hand of Providence had been in the whole transaction. There is every reason to believe that the Indians had been spying upon Fort Robinson the night before, and that the savages were within three-quarters of a mile of the place from which the men had started. Had the Indians attacked the fort after the twelve had left it there would likely have been twenty to thirty men in the fields reaping, while all the guns that could be depended upon, except one, were with the squad of fighters. Those in and about the fort would then have proved an easy prey; and instead of but those five brave men losing their lives, many times that number would likely have been killed and scalped.

The foregoing are some of the harrowing events connected with Fort Robinson. What other sorrows, scalpings, butcheries, ravages and depredations occurred within and around its wooden walls must be left to the imagination to picture; since it is probable that an account of only the most notable events was given in the brief but thrilling narrative of Robert Robinson* as preserved by Archibald Loudon.

More than a hundred and fifty years have now passed since Fort Robinson protected the settlers in Sherman's Valley from the attacks of the Indians. The huge logs that formed the block-house and the stockade have decayed and mingled with the soil from which they grew. An inconspicuous mud of earth and buried pockets of top-soil commingled with the deeper clay are all that yet remain to tell the exact location of that defense which was erected by Perry county's pioneers without any aid from the provincial authorities. Since that fort was built, tiny, feather-light hemlock seeds, wafted thither by the friendly breeze, have sprouted beside that vital spring, and through the long, long years have developed into noble, towering trees which under their weight of years grew old and died; or else, having lived their time, were lovingly and tenderly removed to save them from a lingering death that soon must come. The hills and streams and valleys here to-day are much the same as when the startled fields and forests hereabout resounded with the agonizing screams and dying moans of the pale-faced victims of the Indian's brutal tomahawk and glittering scalping-knife.

But how different now are the modes of life, the customs and the thoughts and aspirations of the people of this region. Peace and security now reign; all available lands are occupied; the population has wonderfully increased; the comforts and luxuries of modern civilization are generally enjoyed; and the ameliorating effects of education and religion are felt in the remotest corners of the county. Now we sometimes turn aside from our daily vocations and forget the anxious thought about making a living, and we give some time and attention to matters of an elevating, esthetic and sentimental nature. Gradually, though slowly, we are learning how to live, and are not forever consuming and wearing out our lives in the sordid making of a living.

Today we have cast a look backward over our county's history, to try to discover what hardships ad trials our forefathers endured, and to perform an act that will permanently show our regard for those who preceded us and that will direct the attention of unborn generations to a most interesting and fascinating page of our local history.

Many have contributed to the success of this work and thanks to the citizens of the county.

May the history of the lives of the builders, defenders, and the occupants of Fort Robinson, and the recollection of the part which they so bravely took in the settlement and development of this central part of Sherman's Valley, live in the hearts and minds of our citizens as log as this massive Medina sandstone monument shall endure to testify to the events which happened on the soil it now so impressively occupies; and may this monument proudly and firmly stand in its present place for a period of time as long as that which has elapsed since this stone from the top of he Conecocheague Mountain rested as oozy sand at the bottom of some palaeozoic sea.

Remarks of D.A. Kline

Friends:-- Your committee, selected by the Perry County Historical society to mark the site of Fort Robinson, has been able to consummate that cherished and laudable project by means of the money and labor so generously contributed by those whose affectionate regard for their county is analogous to a feeling of reverence.

A noble shaft of Medina sandstone was transported from a remote point in the county, from near the summit of the Conococheague. Cleft from the mountain's crest ages ago by the silent hammer and chisel of nature, it lay prone in its dignity, and the occasional, errant huntsman whose eyes happened to behold it, little suspected that some day it should be accorded a useful station, and be given the proud privilege of publishing the spot on which and about which stirring and heroic scenes were enacted more than a hundred and sixty years ago.

At a later date the stone was briefly and authentically inscribed. It was erected to its present position, standing imbedded in a three-foot foundation of concrete. From the beginning to the end, all of the activities associated with the erection of this marker may be truthfully characterized as “a labor of love.”

The whole earth is God's footstool, and we are wont to believe further, that the Smile of God rested especially on that area which is designated as Perry county, and that the Smile lingers yet, despite the destructive hand of man. There is little wonder, then, why early pioneers passed by less inviting prospects to settle on the bosom of this beautiful valley that promised so well to reward the toil of her children.

About 1753, George Robinson settled on this farm. As early as 1763 he secured a patent from the colonial government for 209 acres and his improvements. Three sons, William, Robert, and Thomas belonged to the “Immortal Twelve” in the defensive warfare against the Indians. Another son, James, was killed in the Battle of Sideling Hill.

It is a matter of Record that as early as 1755, Hugh Alexander patented 344 acres of land on which the present Bixler mill property is located. There is no violence to the truth in assuming that Hugh Alexander resided upon his lands at least five years before he secured his patent. The lands of Hugh Alexander joined the lands of the Robinsons. It is only natural, there fore, to believe that Hugh Alexander helped to build this community fort, and that his family took refuge within it during periods of imminent danger.

A proper regard for the fitness of things controlled the action of your committee in selecting persons to unveil this commemorative shaft. We have selected Miss Eva Robinson, a descendant of the first George Robinson who was described as “tall, with a fine head, large, beautiful blue eyes, and a benevolent and intellectual countenance.” You will agree in a verdict that Miss Robinson is tangible proof in support of the old adage, that “blood will tell.” We have also selected Miss Helen Loy, a lineal descendant of that worthy pioneer, Hugh Alexander. Miss Loy is the accomplished daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Loy, the present occupants of this, the early Robinson farm.

I take pleasure in presenting Miss Eva Robinson and Miss Helen Loy, upon whom has been conferred the appropriate distinction of unveiling Perry count's first historical marker.

Printed at the office of, “The Perry County Democrat,” New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania.

·  Sources:

Repository:

Name: Family History Library

Salt Lake City, UT 84150

Title: Ancestral File - ver 4.19

Author: Donald Robert Long

Abbrev: Ancestral File - ver 4.19

Call Number: AF97-112527

·  (Research):<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/do/digitalbookshelf/26464472/26464472_whole.pdf#page=10>