same direction as I was, I concluded I could see them as soon as they could see me, and therefore I pressed on in that path for about three miles, when I came to the forks where another branch empties into the creek, where was a hunter's camp, where the two men, whose tracks I had before discovered and followed, had been, and kindled a fire and breakfasted, and had left the fire burning. I here became more alarmed, and came to a determination to leave the path. I then ascended a hill, and crossed a ridge towards Squaw run, and came upon a trail or path. Here I stopped and meditated what to do; and while I was thus musing, I saw three deers coming towards me in full speed; they turned to look at their pursuers; I looked too with all attention, and saw the flash of a gun, and then heard the report as soon as the gun was fired. I saw some dogs start after them, and began to look about for a shelter, and immediately made for a large log, and hid myself behind it; but most providentially, I did not go clear to the log; had I done so, I might have lost my life by the bites of rattlesnakes; for s I put my hand to the ground, to raise myself that I might see what was become of the hunters, and who they were, I saw a large heap of rattle-snakes, and the top one was very large, and coiled up very near my face, and quite ready to bite me. This compelled me to leave this situation, let the consequences be what they might. In consequence of this occurrence, I again left my course, bearing to the left, and came upon the head waters of Squaw run, and kept down the run the remainder of that day. During the day it rained, and I was in a very deplorable situation; so cold and shivering were my limbs, that frequently in opposition to all my struggles, I gave an involuntary groan. I suffered intensely this day, from hunger, though my jaws were so far recovered from the injury they sustained from the blows of the Indians, that wherever I could, I procured grape vines, and chewed them for a little sustenance. In the evening I came within one mile of the Allegheny river, though I was ignorant of it at the time: and there, at the root of a tree, through a most tremendous night's rain, I took up my fifth night's lodgings; and in order to shelter my infant as much as possible, I placed him in my lap, and placed my head against the tree, and thus let the rain fall upon me. On the sixth (that was Sabbath) morning from my captivity, I found myself unable for a very considerable time, to raise myself from the ground; and when I had once more, by hard struggling, got myself upon my feet, and started upon the sixth day's encounter, nature was so nearly exhausted, and my spirits were so completely depressed, that my progress was amazingly slow and discouraging. In this almost helpless condition, I had not gone far, before I came to a path where there had been cattle travelling; I took the path under the impression that it would lead me to the abode of some white people, and by travelling it about one mile, I came to an uninhabited cabin! and though I was in a river bottom, yet I knew not where I was, nor yet on what river bank I had come. Here I was seized with feelings of despair, and under those feelings I went to the threshold of the uninhabited cabin, and concluded that I would enter and lie down and die; as death would have been to me an angel of mercy in such a situation, and would have removed me from all my misery! Such were my feelings at this distressing moment, and had it not been for the recollection of those sufferings which my infant would endure, who would suvive me for some time after I was dead, I should have carried my determination into execution. Here, too, I heard the sound of a cow bell, which imparted a gleam of hope to my desponding mind! I followed the sound of the bell till I came opposite to the fort at the six mile Island. When I came there, I saw three men on the opposite bank of the river. My feelings at the sight of these were better felt than described. I called to the men, but they seemed unwilling to risk the danger of coming after me, and requested to know who I was. I replied, that I was one who had been taken prisoner by the Indians on the Allegheny river on last Tuesday morning, and had made my escape from them.They requested me to walk up the bank of the river for a while, that they might see if the Indians were making a decoy of me, or not; but I replied to them that my feet were so sore that I could not walk. Then one of them, JAMES CLOSTER, got into a canoe to fetch me over, and the other two stood on the bank, with their rifles cocked, ready to fire on the Indians, provided they were using me as a decoy; when Mr. Closier came near to the shore, and saw my haggard and dejected situa tion, he exclaimed, " who in the name of God are you?" This man was one of my nearest neighbors, before I was taken; yet in six days I was so much altered that he did not know me, either by my voice or my countenance. When I landed on the inhabited side of the river, the people from the fort came running out to the boat to see me; they took the child from me, and now I felt safe from all danger, I found myself unable to move, or to assist myself in any degree.. Whereupon the people took me, and carried me out of the boat to the house of Mr. Cortus. Here, when I felt I was secure from the ravages and cruelties of the barbarians, for the first time since my captivity, my feelings returned with all their poignancy! When I was dragged from my bed and from my home, a prisoner with the savages; when the inhuman butchers dashed the brains of one of my dear children out on the door-sill, and afterwards scalped him before my eyes; when they took and tomahawked, scalped, and stabbed another of them before me, on the island; and when with still more barbarous feelings, they afterwards made a hoop, and stretched his scalp on it; nor yet when I endured hunger, cold, and nearly nakedness, and at the same time my infant sucking my very blood to support it, I never wept!!! No! it was too, too much for nature! A tear then would have been too great a luxury! And it is more than probable, that tears at these seasons of distress, would have been fatal in their consequences; for savages despise a tear! But now that my danger was removed, and I was delivered from the pangs of the barbarians, the tears flowed freely, and imparted a happiness, beyond what I ever experienced before, or ever expect to experience in this world! When I was taken into the house, having been so long from fire, and upon me. having endured so much from hunger, for a long period, the heat of the fire, and the smell of the victuals, which the kindness of the people im. mediately induced them to provide for me, caused me to faint. Some of the people attempted to restore me, and some of them put some clothes But the kindness of these friends would, in all probability, have killed me, had it not been for the providential arrival, from down the river, of Major M'Culley, who then commanded the line along the river. When he came in and saw my situation, and the provisions they were making for me, he became greatly alarmed, and immediately ordered me out of the house, from the heat and smell; prohibited my taking any thing but the whey of buttermilk, and that in very small quantities, which he administered with his own hands. Through this judicious management of my almost lost situation, I was mercifully restored again to my senses, and very gradually to my health and strength. Two of the females, Sarah Carter and Mary Ann Crozier, then began to take out the thorns from my feet and legs; and Mr. Felix Negely, who now lives at the mouth of Bull creek, twenty miles above Pittsburgh, stood by and counted the thorns, as the women took them out; and there were one hundred and fifty drawn out, though they were not all extracted at that time, for the next evening, at Pittsburgh, there were many more taken out. The flesh was mangled dreadfully, and the skin and flesh were hanging in pieces, on my feet and legs. The wounds were not healed for a considerable time. through my feet, and came out on the top. ble to put my feet to the ground to walk. Some of the thorns went Besides which, the rain to which I was exposed by night, and the heat of the sun, to which my almost naked body was exposed by day, together with my carrying my child so long in my arms, without any relief, and any shelter from the heat of the day or the storms of the night, caused nearly all the skin of my body to come off, so that my boly was raw nearly all over. The two men's tracks which I had followed down the run, referred to before, and which made me so much afraid, were two spies, James Anderson and John Thompson, who arrived at the station very soon after me. The news of my arrival at the station spread with great rapidity.The two spies took the intelligence that evening, as far as Coe's station, and the next morning to Reed's station, to my husband. It also reached Pittsburgh that same evening. And the next morning, a young man who was employed by magistrates of Pittsburgh, came for me to go im. mediately to town, to give in my deposition, that it might be published to the American people. Being unable to walk, or ride on horseback, some of the men took me and carried me into a canoe on the river, and took me down in this manner; and when I arrived in Pittsburgh, I was taken from the canoe, in the arms of the men, to the office of John Wilkins, Esq., the father of the Hon. William Wilkins, Judge of the United States' Court. The deposition which I then gave in, was published throughout the Union, in the different newspapers of the day, and has since been preserved, and may be read in Loudon's Narrative of outrages by the Indians, vol. 1. p. 85. As the intelligence spread, the town of Pittsburgh, and the country for twenty miles round, was all in a state of commotion. About sunset the same evening, my husband came to see me, in Pittsburgh, and I was taken back to Coe's station on Tuesday morning. In the evening I gave the account of the murder of my boy on the island. The next morning, (Wednesday,) there was a scout went out, and found it by my direction, and buried it, after being murdered nine days. [NO. XXXVI.] CLARION COUNTY. Clarion county was established by an act passed March 11th, 1839, which defines the boundaries as follows:-"That all those parts of Armstrong and Venango counties, lying and being within the following boundaries to wit: beginning at the junction of Red bank creek with the Allegheny river, thence up said creek to the line dividing Toby and Saratoga townships, in Venango county, thence along said line to the corner of Farmington township, in Venango county, thence a straight line to the mouth of Shull's run, on the Allegheny river, thence down said river to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby declared to be erected into a county, henceforth to be called Clarion." By the same act James Thompson, John Gilmore and Samuel L. Carpenter, were appointed commissioners, to fix upon a proper and convenient site for a seat of justice. Mr. Thompson resigned, and by the act of June 25th, John P. Davis, of Crawford county, was appointed to supply the vacancy.* Clarion is bounded on the north by Venango county, on the east by Jefferson, on the south by Armstrong, and by the Allegheny river on the west, separating it from Armstrong, Butler and Venango. By the return of the census of 1840, its population, and general statistics, are included in that of Armstrong and Venango counties. The number of inhabitants within the new county exceed 15,000. Average length 25 miles, breadth 24, area 595 square miles. The surface of this county is considerably diversified, generally rolling or hilly. The soil in some parts is of a good quality and productive. Agriculture is advancing with the other improvements of the county. In its mineral resources, which have been only partially developed, it is not surpassed by any in Western Pennsylvania. It abounds in linestone, bituminous coal, iron ore, &c. A number of blast furnaces and forges are in successful operation. * Laws of Pennsylvania of 1838-9, pp. 50, 465. The following table exhibits at one view the names of the furnaces, in operation, and the amount annually produced. Lucinda Furnace, owned by J. Reynolds & Co. produces 12,000 tons. Hemlock-Fitzhugh & M'Guire, 2,000 1,000 66 1,200 " Perry-Welsh & Co. Licking Creek-Ohler, Ligworth & Co. - 1,700 " These furnaces produce annually between fifty and fifty-five thousand tons of iron, which is chiefly sent down the Clarion and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburg. The amount of iron annually produced in this county is equal to all the iron manufactured in the different forges in Pennsylvania, ninety-five years ago. At the close of this article we have added a paper, exhibiting the amount of iron made at the several forges in Pennsylvania, at the time alluded to-to which the reader is referred. Clarion river, formerly called Toby's creek, is the principal stream, flowing in a western direction, nearly through the middle of the county, and within a mile of the county seat, and falls into the Allegheny river. It is navigable, at high water for boats, arks, rafts. A large amount of lumber, iron and other produce, is floated down it from Clarion and Jefferson counties. The Redbank creek, the south branch of which rises in Clearfield county, and the north branch in Jefferson county, forms the southern boundary, separating this county from Armstrong, falling into the Allegheny river. Lumber and produce are also floated down this stream. Besides these streams there are several smaller ones, viz: Kern's creek, Beaver creek, Elk creek, Deer Paint creek, Licking creek, Pine creek, &c. The townships in 1840, and their population, were Beaver, with a population of 1,611; Clarion, 2,239; Elk, 585; Fermington, 799; |