Notes |
- DAR: Born 35 minutes after 5 o'clock in the morning.
Annals of Buffalo Valley pg 287
The Whisky Insurrection.
1794
September 30. The summer and fall of this year are noted for the excitement through the State, culminating in the whisky insurrection. Some of the whisky boys determined to erect a liberty pole, at Northumberland; Judge William Wilson, of Chillisquaque, and Judge Macpherson, of Dry Valley, hearing of it, determined to prevent it. They called upon Daniel Montgomery, also a justice, to assist them.
He told them he would pull at the rope if the people required it. He, however, went with them, but rendered them no assistance in suppressing the disturbance. A fight took place Judge Wilson read the riot act, as he called it, to disperse the crowd, but they paid no attention to it. One of them presented his musket at the judge, but the old revolutionary captain cocked his pistol and made him put down the musket, under the penalty of having his brains blown out. They arrested the judge. He would not give bail, and they were afraid to put him to jail. In the melee, Jasper Ewing, the prothonotary, drew his pistol and snapped it at William Cooke. See the case reported in
1 Yeates, 419. Kennedy's Gazette, of 3d December, has General Henry Lee's proclamation to the people of western Pennsylvania, dated at camp, at Parkinson's ferry, November 8, in command of the troops of New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Also, an advertisement of Doctor Priestly's works, he was then publishing.
Indictments were found versus Robert Irwin, Daniel Montgomery, John Frick, WILLIAM BONHAM, John Mackey, senior, and Samuel McKee. Mr. Meginness says they were tried in Philadelphia, convicted, and sentenced, and that General Washington pardoned them at the end of twenty days. His account of the riot is, that the liberty pole was erected at the corner of Second and Market streets, in Northumberland. The arsenal was under care of Robert Irwin, (grandfather of the Nesbit brothers of Lewisburg.) The rioters took possession of the arsenal,
and distributed the arms. The pole was driven full of nails, and guarded day and night. John Brady,
1794 ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY. 287
junior, was deputy marshal, and a very determined man. A collision was imminent, when Captain Robert Cooke's company, from Lancaster, arrived, and dispersed the rioters at the point of the bayonet. An axe was called for to cut the pole down. Mrs. Bernard Hubley came running with one, her sister, Mrs. Jacob Welker, met her and tried to take the axe. Mrs. Hubley got past her, and the pole came down.
This company passed through Buffalo Valley. At Andrew Billmyer's, a little beyond Lewisburg, a pole had been erected, but the report of the advancing troops got there before they did, and the pole was cut down and hid. The soldiers could not find it, and took their revenge in drinking up all the whisky, eating everything in the house, leaving word that Uncle Sam would pay the bill.
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