Pitcairn High School - Retrospect Yearbook (Pitcairn, PA)

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PITCAIRN IN 1889 Before Creek was Changed PITCAIRN 1907 , Jr , A After Hump Was Constructed Both Pictures were taken from about the same location

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Right Here In Pitcairn In the night view of Pitcairn from the top of the Sixth Street steps, there is a curious magic which works its spell upon all who find pleasure in glimpsing into the past. The myriad lights, creek, and darkened hills somehow conjure scenes of real living char- acters long enshrouded in the mists of the years. Through the lights and shadows of the valley can be visioned the solitary form of old John Frazier, Chief Pontiac and his motley tribes of murderous Indians, gayly decked Scottish Ilighlanders marching under the banner of the gallant Bouquet, and Colonel McKay looking wistfully over his broad acres, as he hears the call of General VVashington to fight and die for his country. These pages are written in an attempt to recover certain facts, either lost or forgotten, to travel again the old Indian Trail beaten out by moccasiu feet, and to bring forward into clearer view certain persons and events forgot- ten in the land of long ago. Ilntrodden by the feet of White men lay the Turtle Creek Valley of two hundred years ago. However, about 1744 certain shadows be- gan to fall on the long day of Indian supre- macy. The white man was moving in, first the ever-moving hunters, trappers, and trad- ers, then the soldiers, and lastly the settler, hewing out his rude cabin in the wilderness. Since the story of Pitcairn carries us back two centuries we shall write of four segments of time of fifty years each. Chapter I-1744-1794 Since the Atlantic Seaboard was first set- tled in 1607, why was Western Pennsylvania, including the Turtle Creek Valley which was only about 300 miles to the west, allowed to remain unknown and neglected for 137 years? The answer is three fold: mountain barriers, savage Indians, and tangled claims of Na- tional and State ownership. The wall of the Allegheny Mountains seem- ed to hold back the men of the Eastern Shores just as effectively as did the Great Wall of China bar the way of the yellow hordes. Embittered and revengeful, the Indians, driven by the white men from their hunting grounds in the East, moved their tribes in great numbers over the mountains into West- ern Pennsylvania. Into this hornets-nest of Indian savagery the early settlers of Eastern Pennsylvania, the Quakers, the Germans, and the Dutch, refused to venture. However, other new settlers were beginning to make their presence known both in Eastern and 1Vestern Pennsylvania. These were the Scotch Irish who came first about 1700 from Ireland. This group of pio- neers were fitted for life on the frontier. They were not men of peace, like the Quakers, Ger- mans, and Dutch, but men ready to fight their way, whether it be with their peaceful neigh- bor in the East or tl1e savage Redskin of the Vlfest. These born pioneers were quite ready to invade the wilderness, and when the land beyond the Alleghenies was opened to set- tlers they pushed forward into it, carrying the frontier of Pennsylvania far towards its western border. Neither wild beasts nor savage Indians could stop them, for they came of a fighting race. They were the best people to endure the hardship Eillfl danger of the frontiers, and the strength and energy they developed made them just the men to face the struggles that were to come. The third cause of our slow development was that of tangled claims of ownership. France claimed ownership through early French discoveries in the north along tl1e headwaters of the Allegheny River. England asserted its claim because of English explor- ations along the eastern shore. The English claim was complicated further by both Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania claiming almost the whole of Allegheny County, each state set- ting up its own system of government, which they attempted to force on our early settlers. Then, of course, the oldest and perhaps the most just claim of ownership was that of the Indians. This, for many years, they asserted i11 the wake of burning cabins and scalping knives. It can thus be seen that our own Turtle Creek Valley, being in the center of all the above complications, was not an inviting spot for the pioneer. Had we been alive two hundred years ago, then as now, the burden of our conversation would have been about NVar. For i11 1744, war between England and France involved America. But in the Turtle Creek Valley something then seemingly unimportant was happening. White men were beginning to mingle their foot prints with those of the Indian. fConti11ued on page 112 nine

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As a rule these early traders and trappers built no cabins and left nothing of perman- ence, but it chanced that one of the earliest hunters and traders in the valley left much that remains permanent even to this day. This early trader of two hundred years ago made the first clearing in the wilderness, built the first log cabin, and with his wife and fam- ily established the first white man 's home in the valley. This rude log home was built on the north bank of the Monongahela River west of its junction with Turtle Creek, a short distance below East Pittsburgh. The exact time of the coming of John Fra- zier to our valley is unknown, but we do know that when visited by George Washington in 1753 a well-established cabin, built doubtless several years before, was occupied by the Frazier family. The name Turtle Creek is the oldest his- toric name in Pitcairn, or in the Valley, the name being first recorded by George Washing- ton in his journal entry of November 22, 1753 when he wrote, The excessive rains and vast quantities of snow which had fallen prevented our reaching Mr. l razier's, an Indian trader, at the mouth of Turtle Creek on Monongahela River, till Thursday the 22nd. Knowledge of the name of the Creek by the side of the cabin could only have been impart- ed to the illustrious guest of November 22, 1753, by John Frazier, for he was the first white man to know anything about the creek. The second oldest name in Pitcairn is The Dirty Camp. The story back of this uncouth name is of real interest to all who would know the earliest days of our town. The Indians in 1763 became alarmed because the coming tides of white men, ever surging westward over the mountain trails, were driving them slowly but surely away from their hunting grounds west of the Alleghenies. For the first time in the history of the various tribes of the victimized Indians they banded together under the leadership of Chief Pontiac, a natural born leader. Fort Pitt, being one of the outposts of the white man, was marked for destruction. In the early summer of 1763 the Fort was besieged and cut off from all outside aid by the greatest army of Indians ever assembled. News of the plight of the Fort having reach- ed Philadelphia, an army of relief was hastily recruited and sent westward over the old Forbes Road under command of Colonel Bou- quet. The Indians, through spies, learning of the coming of the army of relief, planned to way- lay and destroy the advancing white men, as they had done at Braddock's field just nine years before. In carrying out this plan, the Indians sud- denly abandoned their siege of Fort Pitt and hurrying a day's journey towards the East. intended to trap Colonel Bouquet before his arrival at the Fort. At the end of the day's march, the Indian Army pitched their camp along the north bank of Turtle Creek at the junction of an- other small creek Howing from the north. In this great meadow the Indians built a city of wigwams, while their scouts hurried towards the east to watch for the approach of Colonel Bouquet. While the spies were out on this mission, the main Indian Army remained in their camp, during the last part of July and the early days of August, 1763. During the night of August 4, 1763, Indian spies hurried into the camp bringing news that Colonel Bouquet and his army had moved out of Fort Ligonier and were on their march to Fort Pitt. At daybreak, August 5, 1763, the whole In- dian camp was astir with preparation to am-I bush and destroy the army of Colonel Bou- quet. About one o'clock in the afternoon, the white men marching west from Ligonier, and the red men moving east from their camp along Turtle Creek, met in savage combat about one mile east of Harrison City. The details of this famous battle of Bushy Run may be found in many histories, but for our purpose it is sufficient to note that the In- dians were totally defeated and fled in wild haste down the valley to their camp on Turtle Creek where they hurriedly gathered such belongings as would not impede their Hight. Next day Colonel Bouquet marched his army down the Indian trail, until they came to the abandoned camp on Turtle Creek. Conditions in and about the camp on that hot August day in 1763 were so disgustingly filthy, that Bouquet, in identifying its loca- tion, marked the site The Dirty Camp, and the smaller creek flowing down from the north Dirty Camp Run. The probable site of The Dirty Camp was the land now cover- ed by the P.R.R. Yards, between the Passen- ger Station and Wall Boro. When six years later in 1769, the land on Turtle Creek at the mouth of Dirty Camp Run was transferred by the Commander of CContinued on page 135 el efven