Fort Horn was erected on a high flat extending out to the river and
commanding a good view of the river up and down, as well as the north side of
the river; is about midway between Pine and McElhattan Stations on the P. & E.
R. R., west of Fort Antes. It was a place of refuge for those hardy settlers on
the Indian lands on the north side of the river, as well as the residents on the
Pennsylvania lands on which it was built. The river lands on the north side were
outside the purchase of 1768, from the Lycoming creek up the river westward.
These settlers were adventurous, hardy, brave. When I say they were mostly
Scotch-Irish it will be understood they were also law abiding. As they were
outside the limits of the laws of the Province, they had formed a code of their
own and administered it impartially. In troublous times now upon these
communities they all stood shoulder to shoulder, proving the saying that blood
is thicker than water.
A few soldiers are said to have been stationed here and the settlers on both
sides the river joined them in scouting duty, sending word to those below of
approaching danger; several light skirmishes took place between the men of the
fort and the Indians, in which several lives were lost. On an alarm, the
inhabitants of the north side placed their families in canoes and paddled to
Antes, Horn and Reid's forts; when danger passed over their families would
return.
Accompanied by John F. Meginness, the historian, J. H. MacMinn, a great-grandson
of Col. Antes, and quite an antiquarian, we visited the sites of these upper
West Branch forts. A Mr. Quiggle, of Pine, accompanied us to Fort Horn. The old
gentleman pointed out to us the depression where, in his younger days, had stood
up the remains of the stockades. The P. & E. R. R. at this point has cut away
about one-half the ground enclosed by the fort.
This stockaded fortification was situated on a commanding point of land on the
West Branch of the Susquehanna river, in what is now the township of Wayne,
Clinton county, one mile west of the post village of Pine. At this point the
river describes a great bend, affording a commanding view for about one mile up
and down the stream from the elevation or point on which Samuel Horn chose to
erect his stockade. Looking across the river to the north, which, at this point
flows to the east, a magnificent view of the rich, alluvial valley is afforded;
in the rear, not more than one-fourth of a mile away, is the dark and somber
range of the Bald Eagle Mountain, varying in altitude from five to seven hundred
feet.
At the time Samuel Horn settled here the river was the Indian boundary line,
according to the provisions of the treaty of 1768, therefore, he was on the
northern boundary of the Province of Pennsylvania. From the point where he built
his cabin he could look over the Indian possessions for miles and plainly see
the cabins of a dozen or more sturdy Scotch. Irish squatters on the "forbidden
land." The tract on which Horn settled was warranted in the name of John L.
Webster in 1709. Since that time it has passed through a number of hands, and is
now owned by a Mr. Quiggle, whose ancestors were among the early settlers in
this part of Wayne Township.
Horn, when the Indians became threatening in 1777, with the assistance of his
neighbors, enclosed his primitive log dwelling with stockades, and it became a
rallying point as well as a haven of safety, in the perilous times, which
followed. The line of stockades can be pretty clearly traced to this day by the
depression in the ground and the vegetation and underbrush. The enclosure
probably embraced a quarter of an acre, thereby affording ample room lor a
number of families. A small stream of pure mountain water ran along the western
side of the enclosure, and it is probable that there was a way constructed so
that it could be reached from within with safety from the prowling foe. When the
Philadelphia and Erie railroad was built the line cut through the northern end
of what has been the stockaded enclosure, and the discolored earth showed very
plainly where the timber had decayed.
Horn's Fort and the others of the upper West Branch were recognized by the
authorities as defensive positions, and most of them, if not all, furnished with
troops, either militia or Continental, when troops could be procured for that
purpose; when not garrisoned by militia, these forts on this flank, were held by
the inhabitants of the Province of the south side of the river, assisted by
their neighbors of the Indian lands of the north side.
Colonel Antes was furnished militia to strengthen Antes Fort whenever Colonel
Hunter, the commander of Northumberland County, could procure them. Moses Van
Campen tells us Colonel Kelly's regiment of militia garrisoned Fort Reid, at now
Lock Haven, a few miles above Horn's, the most of the summer of 1777.
Tradition says that Horn's was a defensive work of no mean importance at that
time, and was of great value to the pioneers who had pushed their way up the
river in the advance guard, as it were. There was but one defensive work
(Reid's) a few miles west, and as it was on the extreme limits of the frontier
there a company of county militia was stationed for some time. Its location was
admirably chosen. In all that region no more eligible position could have been
formed. Standing on its ramparts, the eye swept the river right and left and the
Indian lands to the north, for several miles. As the current bore immediately
under its lea an Indian canoe could scarcely have glided past in the night
without having been detected by a vigilant sentinel.
One of the most remarkable incidents of Revolutionary times - an incident which
stands, so far as known, without its counter part in the history of the struggle
of any people for liberty and independence, occurred within sight of Horn's
fort, but across the river on the Indian land. This was what is known as the
"Pine Creek Declaration of Independence." The question of the colonies throwing
off the yoke of Great Britain and setting up business for themselves, had been
much discussed, both in and out of Congress. The hardy Scotch Irish settlers on
both sides of the river, in the vicinity of Horns, bore little love for the
mother country. The majority of them had been forced to leave their native land
and to seek a home where they would be free from religious oppression - where
they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. They
were all patriots in the broadest sense of the term, and a Loyalist or Tory
would not have been tolerated in their midst. They yearned for independence, and
when the discussion of the subject waxed warm they resolved on calling a public
meeting to give formal expression to their views. Accordingly, on the 4th day of
July, 1T7G, the meeting, assembled on the Pine creek plains and a resolution was
passed, declaring themselves free and independent of Great Britian. The
remarkable feature of this meeting was that the Pine creek resolution was passed
on the same day that a similar resolution was passed by the Continental Congress
sitting in Philadelphia, more than two hundred miles away, and between whom
there could be no communication for concert of action. It was, indeed, a
remarkable coincidence - remarkable in the fact that the Continental Congress
and the squatter sovereigns on the West Branch should declare for freedom and
independence about the same time.
It is regretted that no written record of the meeting was preserved, showing who
the officers were and giving the names of all those present. All that is known
is what has been handed down by tradition. The following names of the
participants have been preserved: Thomas, Francis and John Clark, Alexander
Donaldson, William Campbell, Alexander Hamilton, John Jackson, Adam Carson,
Henry McCracken, Adam DeWitt, Robert Love and Hugh Nichols. The meeting might
have been held at the cabins of either John Jackson or Alexander Hamilton, as
both were representative and patriotic men of the period. Several of these men
afterwards perished at the hands of the savages; others fought in the
Revolutionary Army and assisted in achieving the Independence which they had
resolved the country should have.
The majority of these men lived across the river from the fort on the Indian
land, and they all received patents for the land they had preempted after the
treaty and purchase of 1784, in consideration of their loyalty, patriotism and
devotion to the struggling colonies. The name of Samuel Horn is not found among
those that have been handed down to us, but it may be safely inferred that the
man who was sufficiently patriotic to build a stockade fort for the protection
of the neighborhood in which these men lived, was a sympathizer, if not a
participant, in the Pine creek movement for independence.
There is nothing on record to show that the fort was ever supplied with small
cannon. Its only armament was muskets and rifles in the hands of the hardy
settlers when they had collected there in times of danger. That the savages
regarded it with displeasure, and sought more than one opportunity to attack the
occupants, there is abundant proof. They prowled about in small bands or laid
concealed in the surrounding thickets ready to shoot down and scalp any
thoughtless occupant who might venture a few hundred yards from the enclosure.
Among the thrilling escapes that have been preserved is that of the young woman
named Ann Carson, just before the flight known in history as the Big Runaway.
She ventured out of the fort one day and was fired upon by a concealed savage.
The bullet cut through the folds of her dress, making fourteen holes in its
flight, but left her uninjured. About the same time another young woman named
Jane Anesley, while engaged in milking a cow one evening outside the enclosure,
was fired at by a lurking Indian several times. One bullet passed through her
dress, grazing her body so closely that she felt the stinging sensation so
severely that she was sure she was shot.
At the time Colonel Hunter sent up word from Fort Augusta for the settlers to
abandon the valley and flee to places of safety down the river, as he was
informed that a large body of savages was preparing to descend from the Seneca
country to devastate the valley and wipe out the settlements, that fearless
scout and intrepid soldier, Robert Covenhoven, bore the unwelcome news from Fort
Muncy to Antes Fort and had a messenger dispatched from the latter place to warn
the inmates of Fort Horn that they must fly if they valued their lives. The
meager records informs us that all the settlers within a radius of several miles
were collected at Horn's and that a great state of excitement prevailed. Those
living on the Indian lands across the river were gathered at the fort, anxiously
awaiting news from below. Judging from the extent of the settlements at the
time, a hundred or more fugitives must have been collected there.
The order to evacuate the fort was received with feelings of alarm, well nigh
bordering on despair. The frenzied settlers at once set about making
preparations to abandon their humble homes, their growing crops - for it was in
early June - and fly. Many of them buried chinaware and other household effects
that they could not well carry with them in places that they could recognize if
they were ever permitted to return.
Soon after receiving Colonel Hunter's message four men, Robert Fleming, Robert
Donaldson, James McMichael and John Hamilton started down the river in canoes
for Antes Fort to secure a flat in which to transport their families below. They
were squatters on the Indian land across the river from Horn's and they knew
that the savages had a grudge against them for trespassing on their territory,
and that they would fare badly if they fell in their hands. The dread of
impending danger had driven them across the river with their families to seek
the protection of the fort.
They reached Antes Fort in safety, engaged a flat and started on their return.
But the eye of the wily savage was on them. They had pushed their canoes up
through the Pine creek riffles, when they pushed over to the south side of the
river for the purpose of resting and to wait for other parties who were
following them with the flat. At this point the mountain comes down almost to
the edge of the river, and at that time it presented an exceedingly wild and
forbidding appearance. As they were about to land, and not suspecting danger,
they were suddenly fired on by a small band of savages concealed in the bushes.
Donaldson jumped out of his canoe, rushed up the bank and cried to the others,
"Come on, boys." Hamilton saw the Indians rise up, and at the same time noticed
the blood spurting from a wound in Donaldson's back as he was trying to reload
his gun. He soon fell from exhaustion and died. Fleming and McMichael were also
killed. Hamilton, who was untouched, gave his canoe a powerful shove into the
stream and, jumping into the water fell flat on the other side. Then, holding
the canoe with one hand between the Indians and himself, he managed to paddle
across the river with the other. Several bullets flew around his frail craft,
but he escaped without a scratch. When he landed his woolen clothes were so
heavy, from being saturated with water, as to impede his flight. He, therefore,
stripped himself of everything but his shirt and ran swiftly up the river. His
route was by the Indian path to the Great Island. He ran for life. Fear lent
wings to his flight. The flutter of a bird stimulated him to increase his speed,
and if a bush came in his way he cleared it with a bound. In this way he ran for
nearly three miles, passing the place where his father had settled, until he
came opposite Horn's fort, when he was discovered and a canoe was sent to rescue
him.
The men in the flat being behind and hearing the firing and, divining the cause,
hurriedly pushed to the north shore, below the mouth of Pine creek, which they
hurriedly forded and ran up the path, which Hamilton had so swiftly traveled.
James Jackson, who was one of the party on the flat, found a horse pasturing on
the Pine creek clearing which he caught, mounted and rode up to the point
opposite Horn's fort, when he was discovered and brought over in a canoe. The
other men made their way to the fort and escaped.
An armed body of men, as soon as the news was received at Horn's, made their way
down to the place of ambush. Here the dead and scalped bodies of Donaldson.
McMichael and Fleming were found, but the Indians had departed. They knew that
they would be punished and hurried away as quickly as possible. The rescuing
party secured the three dead bodies of their neighbors and carried them to Antes
Fort, where they were buried in the little graveyard, which had been started
outside of the enclosure. Nearly all of the men left families, and the cruel
manner in which they had been slain caused great excitement at the fort, as well
as intense grief on the part of their wives and children. It was a sad day at
Horn's. But no time was to be lost. Activity was the demand of the hour. The
savages were emerging from the forests on every hand bent on murder and pillage,
and the settlers collected at the fort saw that if they were to escape their
relentless fury they must fly at once.
The same day the bloody affair occurred at Pine creek, a party of men were
driving a lot of cattle down the river from the vicinity of the Great Island -
the thickest part of the settlement on the Indian land - when they were fired on
by a small body of skulking savages, almost in sight of Fort Horn. The whites,
who were well armed, returned the fire, when an Indian was observed to fall and
was quickly removed by his companions. This mishap seemed to strike terror into
the ranks of the survivors and they fled precipitately into the forest,
abandoning a lot of plunder, consisting largely of blankets, which fell into the
bands of the whites. A member of the cattle party named Samuel Fleming, was shot
through the shoulder and severely wounded. The Fleming family was one of the
earliest to settle in this neighborhood, and as the head thereof had several
sons, it is probable that Samuel was a brother of Robert, who was killed in the
ambuscade at Pine Creek,
The firing was heard at Horn's and added to the alarm of the women and children
assembled there, which only subsided when they found the party approaching on
the other side of the river with their cattle. Fleming was ferried over to the
fort, where he had his wound dressed. The cattle drivers continued on down the
river in search of a place of greater security for their stock.
Such were some of the incidents preceding the Big Runaway in the latter part of
June, 1778, when all of that part of the valley of the West Branch, west of the
Muncy hills, was abandoned by the white settlers to escape the fury of the
savages. The stockade forts, like the humble log cabins, were dismantled and
burned, so far as the remorseless foe was capable of carrying out their
intentions.
A description of the Big Runaway. which has no parallel in frontier history, is
not out of place in this connection. The best account is found in Sherman Day's
Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, p. 451. Mr. Day obtained it from the
lips of Covenhoven himself in 1842, more than fifty years ago, when the
thrilling incidents were comparatively fresh in his mind. After delivering the
order of Colonel Hunter to the commander of Antes Fort, and seeing that the
message was conveyed to Horn's, Covenhoven hastily returned to Fort Muncy and
removed his wife to Sun bury for safety. He then started up the river in a
keelboat for the purpose of securing his scanty household furniture and to aid
the panic stricken inhabitants to escape. Day reports his story in these
thrilling words:
"As he was rounding a point above Derrstown (now Lewisburg) he met the whole
convoy from all the forts above (Muncy, Antes, Horn's and Reid's) and such a
sight he never saw in his life. Boats, canoes, hog troughs, rafts hastily made
of dry sticks - every sort of floating article had been put in requisition and
were crowded with women and children and 'plunder' - there were several hundred
people in all. Whenever any obstruction occurred at a shoal or riffle, the women
would leap out and put their shoulders, not, indeed, to the wheel, but to the
flat boat or raft, and launch it again into deep water. The men of the
settlement came down in single file on each side of the river to guard the women
and children. The whole convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire
line of farms along the West Branch to the ravages of the Indians. They did not
penetrate in any force near Sunbury, their attention having been soon after
diverted to the memorable descent on Wyoming. * * * After Covenhoven had got his
bedding and furniture in his boat at Loyalsock, and was proceeding down the
river just below Fort Menninger (at the mouth of White Deer creek), he saw a
woman on the shore fleeing from an Indian. She jumped down the riverbank and
fell, perhaps, wounded by his gun. The Indian scalped her, but in his haste
neglected to tomahawk her. She survived the scalping, was picked up by the men
from the fort (Freeland) and lived on Warrior run until about the year 1840. Her
name was Mrs. Durham."
Strange as it may seem, nothing has been preserved to show who Samuel Horn was,
whence he came or whither he went after abandoning his fort. Neither do the
records show that he ever warranted any land in that vicinity. That he had a
family is reasonably certain, else it is not likely he would have gone to the
trouble and expense of building a stockade around his cabin for protection and
the protection of his neighbors, who made it a rallying point in time of great
danger. All that has been preserved about him is what has been handed down in
the form of tradition. It is probable that he never returned after the Big
Runaway, but settled in some of the lower counties. His name, however, has been
perpetuated in connection with the fort, and, although one hundred and sixteen
years have rolled away since he hurriedly bade it adieu forever, the site where
it stood is still proudly pointed out by the people in the neighborhood, who
hold his name in grateful remembrance.
This report would be incomplete if no further reference was made to the fearless
scout - Robert Covenhoven - who bore the last message up the river warning the
settlers to fly to Fort Augusta to escape the wrath of the red-handed
Ishmaelites who were bearing down on them from the north incited to commit the
most atrocious deeds by the promise of British gold.
Who was Robert Covenhoven? He was of Hollandish descent, and came with his
father's family from Monmouth County, New Jersey, where he was born December 7,
1755, and settled near the mouth of Loyalsock creek in 1772. A number of
relatives accompanied them. Our subject - the name has since been corrupted in
Crownover - was first employed as a hunter and axeman by the surveyors, and
early became acquainted with the paths of the wilderness and inured to the
dangers and hardships of pioneer life. This knowledge and service eminently
fitted him to perform the duties of a scout, and as he was fearless, strong and
sagacious and well acquainted with the wiles of the Indian, he became very
successful in his dangerous calling.
On the breaking out of the Revolution he joined Washington's army and
participated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In the spring of 1777 he
was sent to his home on the West Branch to aid in protecting the frontiers, and
few men in those stirring times endured greater hardships or had more
hairbreadth escapes. He married Miss Mercy Kelsey Cutter (also a native of New
Jersey), February 22, 1778, so that it will be seen that she was little more
than a bride at the time of the Big Runaway.
To give a history of his life in full would require the space of a moderate
sized volume. He was the principal guide for Colonel Hartley when he made his
famous expedition up Lycoming creek in September 1778, by direction of Congress
for the purpose of chastising the Indians at Tioga Point (now Athens), and was
the first man to apply the torch to the wigwam of Queen Esther at the Point.
He had a brother killed in a fight with Indians on Loyalsock, near where his
father settled, and had another taken prisoner. He was himself chased for some
distance along the creek, dodging up and down the bank alternately, that his
savage pursuers might get no aim at him. Doubtless, his swiftness of foot and
power of endurance saved him. He escaped to Fort Muncy and gave an account of
the tight. On the close of the war he purchased a farm in Level Corner, Lycoming
County, almost in sight of Antes Fort, and settled down to the quiet pursuits of
agriculture.
He had a family of five sons and three daughters, all of whom are deceased. His
wife died November 27, 1843, aged 88 years, 10 months and 8 days, and was buried
in a cemetery on what is now West Fourth Street, Williamsport. Her grave has
been obliterated by a church, which stands on the spot where it was made.
When the veteran grew old and was borne down by the weight of years, he went to
stay with a daughter who lived near Northumberland. There he died October 29,
1846, at the ripe and mellow age of 90 years, 10 months and 22 days, and was
laid at rest in the old Presbyterian graveyard in the borough of Northumberland.
A plain marble headstone marks his grave, and the inscription, now almost
illegible, tells who he was and what he did to help achieve our independence.
For years the old burial ground where his ashes repose has been a common, and
cattle graze on its green sward in summer time, pigs root among fallen
tombstones and listless vandals amuse themselves by defacing memorial tablets
reared by loving hands to perpetuate the name of a father or mother. The old
patriot left a request in his will to be buried by the side of his wife, but his
executor failed to carry it out, and from appearances his humble grave will soon
be obliterated, the corroding tooth of time will soon destroy his plain marble
tablet, and his numerous descendants will no longer be able to tell where his
bones were laid.
Notes About Book:
Source: The Frontier Forts Within The North and West Branches of the Susquehanna
River Pennsylvania, BY Captain John M. Buckalew, Read Before The Wyoming
Historical And Geological, Society, October 1, 1895. Reprinted From The State
Report, 1896. E. B. Yoruy, Printer, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Notes about Online Publication: This manuscript has been ocr'd and heavily
edited. Many of the Native American words have been reproduced as clearly as
online publication will allow us, but not all are exactly the way they were in
the original work. The structure of this manuscript has been changed to allow
better online presentation.