HISTORY: Historic Huntingdon, 1767-1909, Chapter 3, Forts, Huntingdon County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Nancy Lorz

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Historic Huntingdon, 1709-1907.  Huntingdon Old Home Week, September 
5-11, 1909.  Souvenir Edition.  Huntingdon, Pa.: Historical Committee 
of the Old Home Week Association, 1909.
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                              CHAPTER III

                        Forts in Juniata Valley.

DURING the winter of 1755-56 a cordon of forts was built across the 
province from the Susquehanna, as follows:  Augusta, at Shamokin, now 
Sunbury; Pomfret Castle, Granville, on Juniata, above Lewistown; 
Shirley, at Aughwick; and Littleton, in Fulton county.

                             Fort Shirley.

  Probably Croghan's fort enlarged or strengthened, named by Governor 
Morris in honor of Gen. William Shirley, stood on the high bank of Fort 
Run, on the western side of the main street of Shirleysburg, on or near 
the ground occupied by the dwelling of David Douglas.  A map of the 
survey of the tract, made while the fort was yet standing, shows that 
it stood very close to the run.  The last four named forts were 
completed about February, 1756, and each garrisoned by a company of 
seventy-five men, exclusive of officers.  Capt. Hugh Mercer, commandant 
at Shirley, reported April 19th, that he had only thirty men, who were 
engaged to remain there until the 1st of May, by which time he is in 
hopes of completing his company.  Col. John Armstrong, August 20th, 
reported to Governor Morris that "as Fort Shirley is not easily 
defended and their water may be taken possession of by the Enemy, it 
running at the Foot of a high bank eastward of the Fort, and no well 
Dugg, I am of opinion, from its remote situation, that it can't serve 
the Country in the present circumstances, and if attacked I doubt will 
be taken if not strongly garrisoned, but (extremities excepted) I 
cannot evacuate this with-

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out your Honour's Orders."  Acting upon the suggestion of Col. 
Armstrong, William Denny, who had succeeded Robert Hunter Morris as 
Lieutenant Governor, ordered the evacuation of the fort, and reported 
his action to the Council October 15th.

  The destruction of Fort Granville and capture of prisoners by the 
French and Indians added to the terrors of the frontier settlers, and 
impelled the government to resort to more decisive measures to protect 
the people from the murderous assaults of the enemy.  Accordingly 
Governor Morris, acting upon information received from escaped 
prisoners that Shingas and Jacobs, the leaders of the hostile Indians, 
lived at Kittanning, from which point bands were fitted out for 
depredations in this and adjacent provinces, concerted an expedition 
against that town, to be conducted by Col. John Armstrong, who was to 
have under his command the companies officered by Captains Hamilton, 
Mercer, Ward and Porter, and such volunteers as could be enlisted.  The 
expedition was to be conducted as secretly as possible, and was to be 
organized at Fort Shirley.  About the end of August the command 
proceeded en route for Kittanning "at the Beaver Dams, a few miles from 
Frankstown, on the North Branch of Juniata," the sections of the 
command that marched separately were consolidated and proceeded via. 
the Kittanning path to the objective point.

  The expedition was, considering the times and circumstances, well 
planned and promptly executed. By the 14th of September, Armstrong had 
reached Fort Littleton on his homeward march and from that point sent 
by express to Governor Denny his official report.  This bold and 
determined move stayed for a time the incursions of the enemy, but 
there was a sense of insecurity felt in the valley until about the 
beginning of 1762.  On January 5, 1757, the corporation of 
Philadelphia, as a reward for his services, presented Col. Armstrong 
with a piece of plate, caused a medal with appropriate legends to be 
struck, and 

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addressed him a letter thanking him and his officers for their gallant 
conduct.
  In 1758 an army under Gen. John Forbes, comprising commands officered 
by Cols. Boquet and Washington set out via.  Fort Bedford to dislodge 
the French at Fort Duquesne and with the exception of a sanguinary 
engagement between advanced bodies under Major Grant and Lewis and the 
French and Indians, the main army reached the fort without serious 
loss, but found it in ruins.  The French, unable to cope with the 
superior force of the English, chose to apply the torch rather than to 
surrender the fortress.  Forbes erected defensive works, which the next 
year were supplanted by more substantial ones, and in honor of the then 
British premier, were named Fort Pitt.  The same year (1758), at a 
council held at Easton, the boundaaries of the Indians' deed of 1754 to 
the proprietaries were curtailed and more clearly defined, and their 
title to the lands in the valley of the Juniata confirmed.
  The Pontiac war, begun in 1763, again alarmed the frontiersmen, and 
quiet and peace was not assured until the successful terminatin of Col. 
Boquet's expedition in the autumn of 1764.

                          Fort Standing Stone

  This fort stood in the vicinity of Penn and Second Streets, in the 
Borough of Huntingdon.  Its dimensions or precise locality cannot be 
ascertained, for no one now living ever saw its lines of defense.  The 
only parts of it remaining in modern times were the logs from one of 
the magazines that had been removed from their original place in the 
fort to No. 205 Penn St. and there re-erected and utilized as the lower 
story of a building which was long occupied as a blacksmith shop by 
John Simpson, David Snare, and others.  They were of heavy oak timber, 
hewn on four sides, and "dove tailed" at the corners so as to fit 
closely together.  This building was torn down about 1854 to clear the 
ground for the erection of the residence of Theodore H. Cremer, Esq.  
The accepted tradition relative to

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the time of the erection of this fort fixed the date about the 
beginning of the war of the Revolution, but on an interesting map of 
the territory embraced between the Hudson on the east, the central part 
of Ohio on the west, the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario and the River 
St. Lawrence on the north, and Maryland on the south, constructed by 
Captain Pouchot, in the French military service, and transmitted by him 
to Marshal de Belle Isle in a letter dated Montreal, 14th of April, 
1758, quite a number of the English defenses and other prominent 
objects are located.  Among those in Pennsylvania are Philadelphia, 
Lancaster, Frankstown, Raystown, de la Susquehana, Juneata R., Belle 
R., F. Comberland, F. Standen Stone, F. du Quesne, Laudon, Liteton, 
Loyalanon, etc.  Viewed in the light of our present geographical 
knowledge the map presents many inaccuracies, but it is nevertheless, a 
remarkable exhibit of the district it essays to represent when we 
consider the time at which it was prepared, and the meager data 
obtainable a century and quarter ago in the then western wilds.
  This map gives Fort Standing Stone an existence at a date much 
earlier than that fixed by any English records that have been found.  
The French having, by the treaty of paris in 1763, surrendered all 
their northern possessions to the British, were no longer interested in 
this region, and after that time could have no motive to revise 
Pouchet's map, which as now printed purports to be a fac-simile of the 
original.
  OTHER FORTS. - Almost at the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle 
the settlers of the valley felt the necessity for providing safe 
retreats from invading parties of Indians, and forts were from time to 
time erected throughout the settlements.  They were usually constructed 
of logs and provided with loop holes to serve the double purpose of 
"outlooks" and for the use of the rifle in case of attacks.  Those most 
elaborately built were made of timbers set on end and firmly embedded 
in the ground, and were called stockades.  Inside were magazines for 
the safe storage of

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ammunition, and barracks for the accommodation of soldiers or those 
seeking protection.  FETTERS was above Hollidaysburg, near where 
McCahan's mill stands.  Holliday's about a mile below that town was 
Peter Titus'log barn transformed into a military defense.  LOWRY's was 
built in CanoeValley, three miles southwest of Water Street, where the 
German Reformed church now stands.  This being small, the house of 
Matthew Dean, farther up the valley, was used temporarily.  The people 
of Sinking Valley were accommodated by a fort built near the residence 
of Jacob Roller.  HARTSOCK'S in Woodcock Valley, near Marklesburg, and 
LYTLE'S, in Hart's Log, three miles south of Alexandria, served the 
inhabitants in their respective localities.  On the southwest side of 
Shaver's Creek near its mouth, was ANDERSON'S, while farther up the 
creek Alexander McCormick's house was used for the same purpose.  
MCALEVY'S, a short distance east of the village of McAlevy's Fort, was 
the refuge of the inhabitants of Standing Stone Valley.
  The demand for lead in the Revolutionary struggle stimulated search 
for that metal and sufficient indications were found in Sinking Valley 
to warrant mining operations there.  In the explorations made, tracings 
of ancient workings were found, and these were supposed to have been 
the work of the French, to whom the Indians had communicated the 
information that lead existed in the valley.  John Armstrong, then a 
major general, in a letter from Yorktown, February 23, 1778, to 
President Wharton, mentions this locality, and suggests that the mine 
(on the proprietaries tract) should, "at least for the present, be 
seized by and belong to the State."  Gen. Daniel Roberdeau, then a 
member of Congress, asked and obtained leave of absence for the purpose 
of going to the valley and conducting mining operations, and on the 
17th of April was at Carlisle on the road thither.  On the 23rd of that 
month he was at Standing Stone, and on the 27th writes from "Sinking 
Spring Valley" encouragingly about the discovery of a new vein of ore 
that promises an ample supply.  To protect his

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workmen a stockade was built, which was called Fort Roberdeau, but by 
many was designated the Lead-Mine Fort.  During the autumn of 1779, 
Capt. Thomas Cluggage was in command of the fort with a company of 
Rangers.  In March of that year the provincial authorities decided to 
raise five companies of Rangers, making three hundred and eighty men in 
all for the defense of the frontiers, and on April 7th the Council 
appointed Thomas Cluggage captain, and - Means first Lieutenant of the 
company to be raised in Bedford county.  At the captain's suggestion, 
Moses Donley was appointed second Lieutenant, June 26th.  October 10th 
he reported that his command had been reviewed and passed muster; three 
officers and forty-three rank and file, one of the latter "killed or 
taken."
  Numerous parties of hostile Indians fell upon the settlers of the 
valley from time to time, murdering inhabitants,, carrying off 
captives, and burning dwellings.  The business of the land office is a 
pretty good indication of the sense of security felt by the people of 
the province in these perilous times.  From February 3, 1755, to the 
month of June of that year a dozen or more warrants were granted for 
land in Huntingdon and Blair.  During the seven years immediately 
following there does not appear to have been any issued.  On May 31, 
1762, several warrants were taken out for lands, on the Aughwick, on 
the Frankstown Branch, and in other localities, and from that date 
business was quite active during the balance of that and the first half 
of the succeeding year.  The only entry for 1764 appears to be George 
Croghan's application for a warrant for the Standing Stone tract, then 
held by improvement.  The next year, 1765, a dozen or more warrants 
were taken out, and in 1766 a much greater number.  In the latter year 
the "application system" was introduced. and hundreds of persons 
availed themselves of the opportunities it afforded of obtaining land 
on advantageous terms, and from the time at which this plan was put 
into operation, August 1, 1766, until the close of the land office 
during the war of the revolution but few warrants were issued.