HISTORY: Historic Huntingdon, 1767-1909, Chapter 8, Rev. Fithian's Diary, Huntingdon County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Nancy Lorz Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm _____________________________________________________________________ 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. _____________________________________________________________________ 52 CHAPTER VIII Rev. Philip Fithian's Diary. The following is copied from a manuscript diary of Rev. Philip Fithian, who left his home at Greenwich, N.J., May 9, 1775, for a tour through Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and at a Presbytery held at West Conococheague Church (near Mercersburg, Pa.) was commissioned to visit Central Pennsylvania as a supply to the scattered Presbyterian churches. On his return from Kishacoquillas Valley he passed through the territory of Huntingdon County. Under date of Monday, August 21, 1775, he draws near the town of Huntingdon, and the diary continues. - "As I drew near I could not help thinking myself on the borders of some large town. There was a drum beating, several antic loud singers, every now and then a most vociferous laugh, and candles thinly scattered, shining here and there from the houses. I expected to find a few of our American bedlams. These small towns, especially when they are growing fast, and a new thing, go before every other place in most sort of vice, but especially drinking and a few of its nearest allied attendants. I had cautiously put on my riding coat to disguise the clerical cloth, for I was not certain that I should escape some black- guard embarrassment, for too much liquor makes 53 many "over wicked;" but it makes some "over good," and sets them in a tune to ask more questions in divinity, especially explanation of parts of Scripture, than unexperienced I or any other Dr. of Divinity in America could have the patience, if he had the ability, to resolve. Fearing all this, and knowing in such a case I should escape no better myself, before I arrived within a mile of town I put on my suitout and cocked up my hat in the best manner. " 'You seem to be a stranger,' said a tall youngster to me as I put my first foot on the porch. " 'Is the hostler here?' I answered. " 'Are you from below stranger?' " 'Bring in the saddle-bags and let the horse cool before you give him a gallon of oats.' " 'Are you a stranger, sir?' " 'Yes, sir, a stranger.' " "I could hear one another whispering about me on the porch. Some thought I was one of the delegates appointed to the treaty with the Indians which is soon to be held at Fort Pitt. Some thought I was a land jobber, some that I was a broken absconded merchant, some that I was a Tory flying from knobstick vengeance. I supped, however, and soon retired. "Tuesday, August. - I spent the night quite contrary to my expectations, in peace. 'Squire Hall, a storekeeper, came in late, found me a stranger and took me in with another young man, Mr. Cluggage of Shirley, to his house. Here was a late paper; it said His Excellency Gage had resigned his commission to Gen. Howe, etc. 'Squire Hall told me that he is now selling salt by the bushel at fourteen shillings current. He told me further that many in this town and neighborhood are under present alarming apprensions of danger from the Indians. It is certain the Indians now show temptation; the Governor of Canada with all his agents are employed and bribed to set them on us. "I rose from my bed early in order to be at the 'Warm Springs,' for I came about by the village wholly to see 54 them. I rode through the wet bushes quite alone. The path is single and not over stony, but all the way bushy. These springs rise in what is called Standing Stone Valley, a little west of the mountain, and five miles north of Juniata River. The water rises boiling up with sand and much air in bubbles in a piece of land which is almost level. There is a small descent of a few feet from the highest part of the neighboring land to the place of the water rising; and below is a watery flat covered with marsh flowers, flags, touch-me-nots, water lilies, etc. The water rises up in nearly equal quantities in two places at about three perches distance. One is used by the invalids for drinking; the other for bathing. They both stand as great nature formed them, edged with moss and overhung with boughs; only delicacy has the present year's inhabitants urged to assist nature a little by adding a few more boughs to the bathing part, which are laid in the form of an arch, and wholly conceal such as choose to bathe alone. They have also scooped out the bath into a kind of hollow basin, about six feet long and four feet wide. The water is quite clear, without any floating scum whatever. The bottom is covered by a white sand and small gravel, which makes the place in bare appearance desirable. I could not but wonder at the rising wind. In both springs it ascends continually and at times in large quantities, bubbling up through the sand and breaking with a small noise when it comes to the surface of the water, which is two or three feet deep. I am not qualified by reading or experience to judge for myself or inform others of these springs from any information I can get by being present and seeing and tasting them. I have said the water is quite clear. It has no unusual or unpleasant taste. It is not indeed cold. I think it like some springs which I have seen running without a shade in summer. "The water is sensibly soft to the mouth and those who are trying it tell me it may be drunk without injury in great quantities. I drank out of curiosity, near a pint, but it was to me in taste and effect like other common water, and I 55 feared that a pint would be as much as I would choose to swallow at once. The water must be used some days before the perspiration fully begins. On this account it cannot be used at first in so large a measure as it may be after used. As to the virtue of these waters, the people say it is chiefly in rheumatic cures, violent pains in the limbs and different parts of the body, and some that have been long fixed, the steady use of these springs has entirely recovered. Weakness and debility of the system have been much assisted, and in some few cases quite restored. I heard one person say - I will not vouch for the credit of his assertion - that it is an effectual asylum for all barren women, etc. There are now twenty-two persons prefessedly indisposed. Seven I took from their afraid appearance to be unmarried virgins, two with their husbands, and one of them is very old. A young hag said of this venerable silver-haired matron that she came filled with the hope of finding these springs possessed with the quality to heal old age. The remaining thirteen were men of different ages. It looks indeed like an infirmary hospital. Many of them are by no means in health. The most in strong belief at least, are indisposed, or they could not submit to the inconveniences for any length of time which the situation of the place makes necessary. It is quite in the woods, not a single house or any cleared land between it and town. They must carry all their provisions and supply themselves; they live in low cabins built with slabs and boughs and cook their dinners all at one great common fire; the men for exercise play at quoits, hunt deer, turkeys and pheasants; with their hardships however, they live in friendship and are steadily cheerful, conquering by society the uneasiness of infirmity and labor and making them almost constantly pleasant. In a brook at some distance from the springs are many remarkably blue stones; their shape chiefly I admire; every size of these stones is an oblate spheroid, and they are very dense in contexture; some not larger than an 56 ordinary tea kettle was nearly a load for a common man. On the smooth surface of several of these which people had brought to their cabins and used as seats are inscribed the names in large and initial letters, of great numbers who have been here before. Partaking of the general desire deeply fixed in all the human race for every method of passing down notice of our existance, I also with my spur wrote at full length in italic letters my three names. Having at last, with as much accuracy as possible, viewed and reviewed the whole, I mounted and rode back to town. In this town I parted not without reluctance with an able, steady, useful friend - I mean my horse. Bob Orr, of Kishacoquillas, gave me a small neat black horse of four years old and a half for my old companion "Jack." "Having adjusted matters I left town in company with Mr. Cluggage, and rode down the river, a stony path, through Jack's Narrows, where the high mountains on each side of the water came down to its very bank. So that in places we were forced to go down on the water's edge. We crossed over the water. 'This is one end of Hell Valley,' said Mr. Clugage to me, as we were jogging along in silence, about ten miles onward is a gap between the hills which is called the Shades of Death. What! are the shadows of death and hell here? Death and hell so easily passed through! Vain man, how daring to make these tremendous subjects so common. We crossed Ofwick (Aughwick) Creek and arrived about eight in the evening at Mr. Fowley's who lives within the walls of of Fort Shirley. Distance from town twenty miles. "Wednesday, August 23d. - I had almost forgotten to tell the person who shall read these pages a couple of hundred years hence that there is now standing in a garden at Huntingdon a tall stone column or pillar nearly square, which has given to the town and valley the name of Standing Stone Valley.' The column is seven feet above the ground. "After breakfast with Mrs. Fowley, a smart, neat, woman (her pewter in the dresser glistened, her wooden 57 dishes, pails and the like were white and sweet), and after appointing sermon to be here Sunday we rode up Ofwick six miles to Mr. Clugage's. The good little woman received me with great kindness. She looked to be an old woman, very healthy, and indeed florid in her appearance, yet she wears neither shoes nor stockings. It is the custom in these backwoods almost universal to go barefooted. Men in common, I observe, wear moccasins, or Indian shoes. When I had seated myself for a few hours, impatient of confinement, I rambled out. Here are two fine brooks. Near the N. and S. are two high mountains; from them the streams came trickling down. As I was strolling along the water I found two sorts of plums. The one is a red or streaked plum not yet quite ripe and very tart. The other is by far the best; is a yellow and when rubbed is a bright orange colored plum, now nearly ripe, and very juicy and sweet. Both kinds are nearly of a size, and grew upon a low, scrubby thorny bush. We received intelligence that Gen. Gage, in some fit of surprise, has burned down the town of Boston and with all his army gone off. This in my opinion wants confirmation, it came by an unprinted letter. Thursday, August 24th. - The weather is wet and very muggy. All the inhabitants in these back settlements are remarkably strong, fresh, and cheerful. I have seen only one, the young man in Northumberland at all indisposed with any kind of fever. With Mr. Clugage, I rode after dinner three miles to the Shades of Death to fish. Ofwick Creek runs between two high mountains. These narrows are overhung with high spruce, elm, ash and interspread with ivy, laurel, etc., which make a dismal gloom. "Friday, August 25th. - As I was with eagerness looking through Mr. Dunlap's paper of the 7th, impatient to hear from oppressed Boston, in my hurry of reading I passed over the astonishing sentence, 'On Friday, the 20th of July, died at his home, in Cohausie, New Jersey, the Rev. Andrew hunter, A. M., etc.' 58 "I am aided in averting grief by Mrs. Clugage's pathetic sorrow. One of her sons has gone captain of a company of riflemen to Boston, just now gone. Her tears are not yet dried since his departure. She seems to be a woman of sedate, philosophical temper; carries a kind of dignity that is persuasive in her presence. The young gentleman that has gone was a magistrate here and in high reputation. Since his departure another of the good, kind woman's sons has been chosen by company of militia for captain. There are five brothers, all grown and appear to be young men of prudence and understanding. "Sunday, August 27th, Shirley. We held sermon in Mr. Fowley's barn. A rainy, stormy day. Many however, were present - fifty or more. On my way to sermon I was met by a message from a poor dying man urging me on that I might converse a little with him before his departure - a stranger and here dying. He came to Mr. Fowley's last Thursday on his way to Virginia. He appeared ill when he came in; he was exceedlingly ill. He begged the liberty of a bed to rest a while. But, poor youth, it was the bed of death. His disorder was consumption, when I came he was too far wasted to converse. His body, even his head was cold; his legs were much swollen; he was in a deep sweat; his breath, too, was cool and short. He had his understanding in full and I asked some questions, which he answered with calmness and great judgment. He told me he was near his end, and begged that I would remember him in public assembly and recommend him to God's mercy. I summed up to him in the plainest manner, a few of the greatest necessary evidences of union to God by Christ and assured him of the willingness of our great Redeemer "to save to the uttermost." Before the last sermon was finished, poor yourh, he expired. This settlement is broken with religious divisions. There is a Baptist Society, now under the direction of Mr. Lane. There is also a Methodist Society, but no stated minister. These, when the whole settlement is not large, makes every society quite inconsiderable in number and power. Good Mrs. 59 Clugage stayed with Mrs. Fowley to assist in directing the funeral. After sermon I stopped at Young Mr. Clugage's and stayed over night. For my supply, one of the hearers, I know not who, gave me twenty shillings. "Monday, August 28th. - A damp, muddy, sickly morning, I setout over the rocky path to Loudon.