Scalped: The Bloody Truth

A scene on the frontiers as practiced by the "humane" British and their "worthy" allies / Wm. Charles

  Lithograph from Library of Congress

The Enoch Brown event might have been America's first school massacre.  Certainly this event was the first to inflict the gruesome custom of scalping on a room full of school children.

That the Indians took scalps was not surprising. But searching the history of frontier Pennsylvania, the discovery that the settlers on the frontier could collect a bounty for Indian scalps was a shock.  Christian scalpers? Could this be true?

Henry James Young, archivist for Pennsylvania State writes, "It is abundantly clear that Pennsylvania’s government proclaimed general bounties for Indian scalps on three occasions, in 1756, in 1764, and finally in 1780".  Pennsylvania was not the first. New England colony had been buying Indian scalps through the first half of the 1700's."
 

Scalp bounty proclamation, Pennsylvania Gazette, 12 July 1764, Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, University of Pennsylvania.n

"WE HAVE thought fit, and do hereby offer a Reward of THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS for ever, Indian Prifoner, or Tory aiding in Arms with them, and a Reward of Two THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for every Indian Scalp,
Given Order of the Council, under the Hand of His Excellency JOSEPH REED,Eirf President, and the Seal of the State, at Philadelphia, the Twenty-fiecond Day of April, in the year of our Lord One' fnhoufd Seven Hundred and Eighty. (1780)

In 1780 Tory or Indian prisoners would fetch a handsome bounty.   This is a serious amount of money. Three thousand dollars is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 in todays dollars.

Young says, “Had it not been for the handsome rewards offered for scalps by the white men's governments, the vindictive and gruesome practice might never have spread. It did spread, however, over most of the United States….. "

Scalping was not a custom peculiar to American soil. The practice was known in some European, Asian and African cultures.  Of course it was hard to know if the trophy hair was male or female or from an enemy or friendly head. Still taking a scalp was so much more convenient than taking a whole head as a trophy and offered proof that the victim was dead, though not always. There was an occasional scalped survivor, as in the case of schoolboy, Archie McCollough.

Most Americans believe that scalping was an American Indian practice used to terrorize innocent white settlers.  The truth is more complex;  both sides participated in this bloody custom. The colonists offered bounties for Indian scalps to whom ever harvested them. Later colonists offered bounties for Tory scalps, and vice versa. Offering bounties was an act of war, only slightly less aggressive than actually wielding the knife.  

Source: A Note on Scalp Bounties in Pennsylvania, Henry James Young, Pennsylvania History vol. 24, no. 3, July 1957 

 Link to Journal 

The Enoch Brown Massacre

"During the Pontiac war on the 26th day of July, 1764, a worthy Christian schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and ten scholars, viz.: Ruth Hart, Ruth Hale, Even Taylor, George Dunstan and five others whose names are unknown, were ruthlessly slaughtered by the Indians in a little log school-hose located in Antrim township, three miles north of Greencatle, Pa.

Francis Parkman, the historian, says it was an "outrage unmatched in fiendish atrocity through all the annals of the war.” Four savages presented themselves at the door as the teacher, with Bible in hand, was inducting the opening serves of the school. He was shot down while begging for the lives of the children, all of whom were also knocked in the head and scalped by the bloodthirsty fiends.  The master and scholars were buried in a common grave near the side of the school-house, by the horror-stricken settlers."

This account of the massacre was written by the  Reverend Cyrus Cort in an article titled, “The Horrors of Border Life".  He writes for a Sunday school audience in The Guardian, a Christian magazine, from a safe distance of about 120 years.

   

Reverend Cort fails to mention that there was one survivor: "One student, Archie McCullough was scalped but the Indians did not realize he had not been killed. He hid in the fireplace inside the schoolhouse for some time before making his way to the nearest spring. There he washed his head before a nearby neighbor to the school found him. Archie lived to be quite old; however, he was mentally scarred from that day on. According to Archie’s story, “two old Indians and a young Indian rushed up to the door soon after the opening of the morning session. The master, surmising their object, prayed them only to take his life and spare the children, but all were brutally knocked in the head with an Indian maul and scalped.” Farmers who had been concerned with the silence surrounding the schoolhouse discovered the bodies of Enoch Brown and his ten students a few hours after the attack; but days would pass before the people of Antrim Township lay the bodies to rest.”

Source: The Pennsylvania Center for the Book - Enoch Brown School Massacre

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book - Enoch Brown School Massacre

The Reverend Cort also fails to mention that the year before that in:

"…1763, a white gang, the Paxton Boys, murdered six Indians; and then a few days later, killed fourteen members of a peace-loving Indian settlement that for more than seventy years had lived at Conestoga near Lancaster."

"The white man and Indian story isn't one sided. The grim irony was intensified by the fact that, just a few weeks before the Enoch Brown incident, Governor John Penn formally announced the promise of bounties to be paid to the white man for Indian scalps."

Source: A Disquisition Portraying The History Relative To The Enoch Brown Incident, 

Address presented by Glen L. Cump, Secretary, Enoch Brown Park Association

http://greencastlemuseum.org/enoch-brown.html

 Enoch Brown

Historians of the 1800s portray the Indians as fiendish savages, preying on good Christians who fought to bring civilization to a terrifying and disordered wilderness. Historians today tend to see the Indians as noble Native peoples, living in perfect harmony with nature, simply defending their lands.  

History forgets and remembers.  Events are almost always infinitely more complex than any single account or viewer describes. Historians future just might see this human struggle between Europeans and Native Americans with no more bias than a scientist observing colonies of bacteria trying to colonize the same petri dish. 

William Allison 1696: Rough Justice

Nine out of ten settlers in Pennsylvania abandoned the frontier for safer territory during the French and Indian Wars.  William Allison stood his ground. Did he send his family away to safety? Probably not. Likely he needed all the manpower his four boys could provide and they were conscripted into fort building.

Indian attacks were not theoretical… a family was murdered at nearby Rankin’s Mill. Farms were burnt. A schoolhouse full of children and their teacher Enoch Brown was hatcheted to death, then scalped. The bloody Indian War years were the same years that William was Justice of the Peace. He was not hunkered down at Fort Allison. He rode his horse along the forest tracks appearing at county meetings and court proceedings. Business as usual. 

What kind of character was this William Allison?

 

Armed.  Apparently he preferred being killed by Indians to abandoning his homestead.  Willing to kill to protect his farm and family.

Respected.  William commanded the trust of his community to be elected to the post of Justice of the peace.

A law and order man.  William believed in sticking to agreements, even contracts made with the "savages" as the native people were called. He sentenced wrongdoers with a fiery punishment: 

"In the rugged northwestern corner of what became Franklin County, pioneers of Irish origin built homes where the Path, Amberson and Horse Valleys occupy the narrow space between the Tuscorora and Kittatinny mountain ridges.  In 1750 the original European settlers were driven out and their cabins burnt—but not by Native Americans.  When Indians objected to the occupation of their lands by a growing number of pioneers, provincial authorities acted “to expel the interlopers.”  Officials, among them Cumberland County magistrates Benjamin Chambers, William Maxwell and William Allison, oversaw the evictions. (The place-name Burnt Cabins recalls those events; the village is in Dublin Township, Fulton County, close by the border with Huntingdon and Franklin Counties.)  Among those suffered fines imposed by the magistrate’s court—as well as burnt homes—were Moses Moore, Alexander McCartie, Felix Doyle and Samuel Ramage. Once the land had been purchased from the Indians by the province in 1758 most of these pioneers returned."

Source: From Rostrevor to Raphoe: An Overview of Ulster Place-Names in Pennsylvania, 1700-1820 

By Peter Gilmore

Tough. Resilient. Inventive. Industrious. Born in Ireland, William and his kin traveled an ocean to an unmapped territory filled with tribal peoples speaking many languages.  His family had to make shelter, food, and medicine out of the raw forests.  It was a brave endeavor that required problem solving and grit every step of way. This life was not for sissies.

  

Able. William ran a distillery, managed a farm, built houses and barns, added acres to his empire. He fathered six children. Still he had time to bring rough justice to the Pennsylvania frontier in his capacity as Justice of the Peace for Cumberland County.

Christian. Likely William was a devout Presbyterian with an abiding trust in the Almighty. His actions tell us he was not easily intimidated, perhaps even pugnacious. William was not adverse to a fight.  It's likely he felt he had the grace of God on his side. William was cut from the same cloth as the local cleric, the “Fighting Preacher, Reverend John Steel”.

Reverend Steel: Amen and Grab My Gun

Fighting Reverend Steel became a legend.
This account written in 1896 describes his armed

preaching style.  The Presbyterian settlers had friendly relationships 
with the native people until the onset of the French and Indian Wars. Here a story of one on the Reverend's Sunday services: 

"At one time, it is stated, that Revered Steel was in charge of Fort Allison, located just west of the town, near what afterward became the site of McCauley's Mill. At this time the congregation had assembled in a barn, standing on the farm now owned by Adam B. Wingard, Esquire. During this period, when Mr. Steel entered the Church and took his place back of the rude pulpit, he hung his hat and rifle behind him, and this was also done by many of his parishioners. 

On one occasion, while in the midst of his discourse, some one stepped into the church quietly and called a number of the congregation out and related to him the facts of a murder of a family by the name of Walker by the Indians at Rankin's Mill. The tragic story was soon whispered from one to another. 

As soon as Mr. Steel discovered what had taken place he brought the services to a close, took his hat and rifle, and at the head of the members of his congregation, went in pursuit of the murderers. His meeting house was turned into a fort, was stockaded for defence, and often was the refuge of the laboring people when the country was invaded by the Indians.

It was subsequently burned by the savages, in one of their forays. About the year 1763 or ‘64, in consequence of these frequent attacks of the Indians, Mr. Steel took charge of the Presbyterian church at Carlisle, where he spent the remainder of his days.

Mr. Steel was a man of great intrepidity of character, and often did he lead forth companies of armed men to repel the invading savages. He was a good preacher and a sound Divine, but his labors here were of too short duration, and the country too much disturbed to have been as greatly or as extensively useful as he would have been under more favorable circumstances. The conditions of life at that time, as compared with those of the present, were vastly different. It was theirs to toil and struggle and ours one of comparative ease and safety."

Source: REPORT OF THE COMMISSION TO LOCATE THE SITE OF THE FRONTIER FORTS OF PENNSYLVANIA, Volume 1, Clarence M. Busch, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1896 

Fort Allison

A Fort in our family history?  Intrigued, I

searched and found a tiny postcard image of
Fort Allison.

Really, this is it? My picture of a fort is a building surrounded by a high stick fence with pointy ends. There's a big gate that swings open to welcome cavalry officers into a log stockade. Old Glory flies overhead. So, what's wrong in my picture? My fort is based on the old West cowboys and indian version of a fort.  Allison's Fort was built around 1750, an era is before the American flag even existed. 

Fort is short for fortified. Forts on the Pennsylvania frontier were fortified houses: buildings with stone walls and lead roofs that offered protection against Indian torches. Forts were placed near a spring for water, a necessity for surviving an Indian siege. They were centrally located, so when the Indian alarm went up people, could run for their lives to seek shelter. Forts were stocked with food and ammo. 

Here is what various historians say about Fort Allison:

"This was a brutal time for everybody on Pennsylvania’s western frontier. Raids by settlers and Native Americans alike were often vicious and deadly. The area’s population dropped from about 3,000 in 1755 at the start of the war to about 300, with most settlers not returning until after 1764 when the peace treaty was signed. Over 20 forts sprouted up around the area, built by settlers to offer collective protection from Native American raids. These forts include McCauley’s Fort near Greencastle, Allison’s Fort near Waynesboro, Chambers’ Fort present day Chambersburg, Sharp’s Fort, and Aull’s Fort."

Source: http://franklincountypa.gov/index.php?section=archives_blog/doctor_johnston

from: The Life & Times of Dr. Robert Johnston, An exploration of one of Franklin County's most extraordinary sons. By: Justin McHenry 

"As the records show, at a meeting of the General Committee, of Cumberland county, convened by order of John Potter, sheriff of the county, at the house of Mr. Shippen, October 30th, 1755, at which eighteen persons were present, it was then resolved "to immediately build five large forts, namely, Carlisle, Shippensburg, Col. Chambers, Mr. Steel's Meeting House, and at William Allison, Esquire, in which the women and children were to be deposited, from which on alarm intelligence was to be sent to the other forts."

Source: REPORT OF THE COMMISSION TO LOCATE THE SITE OF THE FRONTIER FORTS OF PENNSYLVANIA. VOLUME ONE. CLARENCE M. BUSCH.STATE PRINTER OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1896. From: The Frontier Forts in the Cumberland and Juniata Valleys, by Jay Gilfillan Weiser.

"As more white men came into the colony of Pennsylvania Indian uprising became a menace to the people living in the Cumberland Valley. The Conocoheague settlement was plagued by raiding parties and during the French and Indian War and the Pontiac Rebellion people living in the Greencastle-Antrim community suffered from these raids. 

Two fortified places for protection against the Indians are known to have existed in the local area. One as located southwest of Greencastle in the field west of the present Hovey-Stanter gilding along South Antrim Way. It is identified by early records as Fort Allison at the McCauley Spring."

Source: Conococheague: A History of the Greencastle-Antrim Community 1736-1971, W.P.Conrad, 1971, p. 7

"Hundreds of pioneer families settled along the Conococheague Creek... The “Conococheague Settlement” and “East Conococheague Settlement” became the homes of settlers among whom numbered Allisons, Craigs, Davidsons, McClellans, Poes and Watsons.

William Allison acquired a large tract of land in the Conococheague Settlement and built a fort for the community’s protection (and to safeguard his investment).  Fort Allison became a nucleus of settlement, as did a blacksmith’s shop located at the intersection of the King’s Highway and a pioneer trail. The community’s first church, “the old red meeting house,” was built circa 1737 and located at Moss Springs.  The first pastor to this Presbyterian congregation, Rev. Samuel Cavin, ministered to both sides of the Conococheague Creek, as did the steely John Steel in the mid-1750s."

Source: From Rostrevor to Raphoe: An Overview of Ulster Place-Names in Pennsylvania, 1700-1820, By Peter Gilmore. page 12