Source:Fleming-uprising
George T. Fleming. "Tory uprising here in 1778 recalled: Flight of McKee from McKees Rocks due to trip ordered to York: Hassler's account." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Feb. 18, 1917, sec. 5, p. 2. Newspapers.com 85848428.
MANY letters come to The Gazette Times and direct to the writer of these articles, written by people who are interested in them. Some are long, many offer suggestions, some comment on the articles; some recite family history, some are personally reminiscent and not a few contribute facts of history.
These latter should receive notice and in whole or in part be published, especially when well authenticated.
Family histories, unless connected with some historic event or some event of local interest, cannot be given much if any mention. These serve a good purpose, however. They tell of family pride in the records of the ancestors who helped constitute the nation, either by service in the Revoluntionary [sic] or Colonial wars or by some civil procedure. It is evident from the number of such letters received that there are in Pittsburgh and in Western Pennsylvania and adjoining states many descendants of our pioneers who are justified in making themselves known and in voicing their appreciation of the efforts of The Gazette Times to furnish historical facts that appeal not only to them but to the masses who delight in reading the records of the past.
Some of these letters have come from distant points, attesting the widespread circulation of The Gazette Times. Numerous requests come for information such as records of service of Revoluntionary [sic] ancestors, dates of settlements hereabouts, and even geneological [sic] lines are requested. Such information as can be had, or mention of records, where it can be obtained, is always given. Much cannot be given for lack of records or their inaccessibility.
Our main libraries do a good work along these lines, especially the reference department of the Carnegie Library. Everything pertaining to Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh history is garnered carefully, arranged, catalogued and filed. Many do not know of this system of historic records; many who do appreciate it greatly. Then again the libraries have many volumes of Pittsburgh papers securely bound, many scrapbooks that have been donated containing historical matter and, in fact, everything in the way of local history that can be picked up—story, song and sketch.
Not only do letters come expressing appreciation of the history stories herein, but many telephone calls. There are offers of material for future stories, mention of pictures, offerings of loan and views of heirlooms and rare books and old newspapers. All such receive thanks for their kindnesses and interest and much of this matter has been used.
Henry Haymond of Clarksburg, W. Va., historian of Harrison county, that state, wrote:
I have read with great pleasure from time to time your articles on the early settlements of the Monongahela valley as printed in The Gazette Times.
My apology for troubling you is that I am seeking the facts regarding the Tory uprising at Pittsburgh in 1778, and will be very glad if you can refer me to any report, history or official documents that will aid me in collecting material for the purposes of my history.
There is a tradition that wild excitement was created by the discovery of a plot or an uprising in favor of the King and that some sort of court was held at Redstone Old Fort for the trial of the conspirators.
But whatever occurred it is certain that the trouble was considered of sufficient importance to receive the attention of Congress and the Virginia Assembly.
An act was passed by the latter body reciting that Congress had appointed Samuel Washington, Gabriel Jones and Joseph Reed commissioners to repair to Fort Pitt to investigate the rise, progress and extent of the disaffection in that quarter.
The Virginia act conferred similar powers upon the committee and authorized it to apprehend such inhabitants of the counties of Ohio, Monongalia and Yohogania as should appear to have been engaged in any plot or conspiracy and to deliver the offenders to the proper authorities to be prosecuted according to law.
My great grandfather, William Haymond, settled near Morgantown in 1773. Previous to that time he had served three years in a Virginia regiment at Fort Pitt, Presque Isle, Redstone, and surrounding territory. I have his discharge dated at Fort Lewis, Va., in 1762, and signed by Adam Stephen, lieutenant colonel. Washington had in the Forbes expedition to Fort Duquesne in 1758 been colonel of this regiment.
At the time Mr. Haymond wrote but slight reference to this attempted uprising could be found. Our Pittsburgh historian, the late Edgar W. Hassler, makes some mention of it in his work, "Old Westmoreland," a history of Western Pennsylvania during the revolution.
The uprising was fomented by Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott during 1777, but Gen. Edward Hand, in command at Fort Pitt, was most wary and before the plot was fully under may [sic] McKee and Elliott fled to the British, taking Simon Girty with them, in March, 1778.
Hassler's account is substantially as follows:
The one event of the Revolutionary history of the border which had the most calamitous results was the flight of the tories from Fort Pitt in the spring of 1778. From the beginning of the struggle for liberty many partisans of King George were to be found on the frontier. Some of these men had been in the British service; most of them were members of the Church of England. Others were animated by that natural reverence which many men feel for their sovereign; many were adventurous and ambitious spirits seduced by British promises of reward. There were some who did not believe that the Revolution would succeed and others grew dissatisfied with the hard circumstances of frontier life in time of war. A few were simply scoundrels, desiring turmoil and plunder. The failure of Gen. Hand's two expeditions had much to do with the dissatisfaction with the American cause which developed on the border in the Spring of 1778. During the winter the British had been in possession of Philadelphia, the American Congress had been driven to York, and Washington's Army was reduced to a half-naked and half-starved remnant at Valley Forge. The cause of liberty languished and there were many defections.
This indeed was the darkest period during the long struggle of the colonies for independence and it is not strange that dissatisfaction and consequent plotting were widespread. The fort at the head of the Ohio which the British had abandoned in 1774, became desirable again and to this end they strove by secret agents, fomenting trouble for the patriots. Hassler goes on:
Governor Hamilton at Detroit, sent many agents, red and white to penetrate the border settlements to circulate offers of pardon and reward and to organize the tories. In February and March, 1778, a daring and shrewd British spy visited Pittsburgh and carried on his plotting under the nose of Gen. Hand. A British flag was set up for a short time in the King's Orchard which bordered the Allegheny River within gunshot of the fort, and there meetings were held by the disaffected among the soldiers of the garrison. Most of the tory gatherings in this neighborhood were at the house of Alexander McKee at what is now McKees Rocks. Another place of assembly was Redstone, where a British flag flew during all of that winter.
The King's Orchard lay east of the fort stretching from what was afterwards Marbury street subsequently Third street, to about Fifth or Sixth street, now Federal street. Redstone was the first name of the town of Brownsville, an important place in border days, and for many years afterward.
Hassler's account continues:
The Tory leader at Pittsburgh was Capt. Alexander McKee, a man of education and wide influence on the border. He had been an Indian trader and for 12 years prior to the Revolution had been the King's deputy agent at Fort Pitt. For a short time he had been one of the justices of the peace for Westmoreland county. He was intimately acquainted with most of the Indian chiefs, and even had a family in the Shawanese nation. In 1764 he received a grant of 1,400 acres of land from Col. Bouquet at the mouth of Chartiers Creek, and he divided his time between his house in Pittsburgh and his farm at McKees Rocks, Bouquet's grant to him.
In the spring of 1776 McKee was found to be in correspondence with British officers in Canada. He was put on his parole not to give aid or comfort to the enemies of American liberty, and not to leave the vicinity of Pittsburgh without the consent of the Revolutionary committee. In February, 1778, Gen. Hand had reason to suspect that McKee had resumed or was continuing his correspondence with the British authorities, and was ororganizing [sic] disaffection, and he ordered McKee to go to York, Pa., and report himself to the Continental Congress. For a short time McKee avoided compliance with this order on the plea of sickness, but not being able to shirk obedience permanently, he decided to escape to Detroit and openly ally himself with the British cause.
McKee was not alone in fomenting trouble. He had able assistants and they worked energetically and were only too successful.
Hassler tells of them:
About a year before this (1777) a young trader named Matthew Elliott, who understood the Shawanese language, had been employed by the Americans to carry messages from Fort Pitt to the Shawanese and other tribes to the westward, in the interest of peace. He had been made captive by hostile savages and carried to Detroit, where after a short imprisonment, he had been released on parole. He returned to Pittsburgh by way of Quebec, New York and Philadelphia, all then in British possession. He had been impressed with the show of British power in the East in contrast with the miserable condition of the American forces. He became convinced that the Revolution would be a failure, and on his return to Pittsburgh got into communication with McKee and others of the Tory party.
It seems that Hassler's deductions are reasonable, but the subsequent nefarious conduct of Elliott, who became a captain in the British service, shows what manner of man he was.
Elliott was suspected of influencing McKee by the story that McKee was to be waylaid and killed on his journey to York, a long, toilsome, desolate road. It is known that McKee heard such a story and believed it fully. A Tory at heart, it was not difficult to persuade him to violate his parole and plan the successful escape of himself and party from McKees Rocks March 28, 1778. With him fled Elliott and Simon Girty. This was an evil day for the borderers.
Perahps [sic] there are other records of the Tory uprising requested by Mr. Haymond, but with the works at hand the foregoing is all that has been found so far. This will prove an interesting topic of research for the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society. Thomas C. Bradley, a local historian of note, writes the following, for which he asks insertion. He contributes much historical matter not generally known.
Mr. Bradley says:
In your article "Old Residents Tell About City," which appeared in a recent Sunday edition of The Gazette Times. Actuated by the present motives, and without any ulterior purposes, save to give you what I thought would be appreciated by you as well as the thousands of readers of The Gazette times, namely, that the first fort and the first chapel in what is now the Greater City of Pittsburgh, was named in honor of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, afterwards changed to that of Fort Duquesne. While it is true that two histories—considered the most prominent ones of Pittsburgh—viz., "The Standard History of Pittsburgh," and "A Century and a Half of Pittsburgh and Her People," start with the saying "That the fort was finished and called Fort Duquesne, and while Father A. A. Lambing was a staff member of each history's corps of writers, yet the preface of each will convince you that the extracts from Father Lambing's works were made by others and not himself personally, and I view the matter that owing to the large volume of data that was necessary to go over in the compilation of these volluminous [sic] works that the editors condensed matters wherever they could and hence left out some important details. Even Father Lambing himself, in the several works of his to be found in the Carnegie Library, commences with references to the fort being called Fort Duquesne. Yet in his principal work, "The History of The Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny," published in 1880, and which had the high approval of Cardinal McCloskey of New York, and Bishop Twigg of Pittsburgh we learn from page 32 "that the first fort and first chapel was called 'The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary," and in June of 1754 changed to Fort Duquesne. This book is not in the Carnegie Library, but I possess a copy of it. Father Lambing's statement is corroborated by Charles McKnight in his work, "Our Western Borders in Early Pioneer Days" (Page 22); other authoritie [sic] are John Gilmary Shea Parkman, and some French writers.
You also alluded to Judge McKenna's statement of Bishop Domenec's secret mission to Spain in behalf of the United States government, and finally closed by reference to the flag floating from the spires of St. Paul's Cathedral in April, 1861.
Regarding 'Bishop Domenec's Patriotic Services" you will find my article in The Gazette Times under that title December 28, 1912. I also have in my possession a personal letter from the very Rev. John Hickey then bishop's vicar general, in which he states that he saw the Bishop's Commission from President Lincoln.
And finally regarding the flag on the Cathedral, Father Lambing in his history, page 88, says "that one of the front towers had been raised to the top of the roof" even on that tower a pole could have been fastened yet we find that it was the high tower as you will see by the following: "A Daring Feat.—On Saturday a large flag was placed over the pinnacle of St. Paul's Cathedral, the highest spire in the city. The flag staff was fastened to the cross by F. B. M. Bonsall, a naval officer, who has served 16 years at sea. It was witnessed by thousands of people." The Pittsburgh Gazette, April 22, 1861. The Post, The Dispatch and The Pittsburgh Catholic state the same facts almost verbatim.
Trusting that you will insert this letter so as to place Judge McKenna and myself in the proper light before your readers, I am, very sincerely yours,
THOMAS C. BRADLEY.
The reference is to Bishop Michael Domenec of Pittsburgh, a native of Spain, and his secret mission to Madrid in 1861 by request of President Lincoln, in order to thwart the efforts of the Confederate emissaries there seeking to have Spain recognize the Southern Confederacy as a nation. In this mission Bishop Domenec was successful, but the facts were not fully known until later years.
Frank B. M. Bonsall, who placed the flag on the middle spire of the old Cathedral at Fifth avenue and Grant street, was a well-known Pittsburgher for many years, following the painting trade. He served through the Civil War in Company H, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and attained the rank of captain. The front towers of the old cathedral were not erected until 1868–69. The middle spire, having become dangerous, was taken down in the early eighties.
That the front towers were not there in 1861 is attested by reference to page 10 of St. Paul's Cathedral Record, published in 1903. Referring to the Rev. Hickey's pastorate the Record states:
"The next year (1867) Father Hickey began the erection of the two front towers of the cathedral, one was finished in 1868 the other in 1869. They are (were) of unequal height, the one on the Fifth avenue side being 285 feet in height and the other 282 feet."
Again on page 12, the Record says: "Between 1861 and 1876 great additions and improvements had been made on the cathedral. The two front towers were built, the central tower over the transept, being deemed unsafe, was removed, and the dome as we now see it (1903), was erected."
This proves conclusively that no flag could fly from the front towers in 1861, yet there are pictures showing a flag on a rope stretched from the Fifth avenue tower to the dome of the old court house.
The picture of William Pitt shown today was made from a halftone engraved in London from a mezzotint by E. Fisher, from Brompton's portrait. It shows Pitt at full length standing in a large building with columns, in his peer's robes, his left hand pointing to a table on which are papers. Among these are those entitled, "A motion made in 1775 for the recall of troops from Boston;" a provisional act for the settling the troubles in America offered to the House of Lords in 1775; "the Magna Charta," a map of North America showing Long Island and Staten Island, and a long scroll beginning: "It is doing nothing to repeal a few scraps of paper or pieces of parchment called acts of Parliament, but our business is to repeal the illwill [sic] and the animosty [sic] unfortunately now subsisting between Great Britain and North America."
This picture is in size 23¾ inches by 18¾ inches, the original by Brompton painted in 1789. The catalog price was 50 pounds sterling.
The picture of Washington is made from a half tone engraving executed in London from a fine mezzotint by Valentine Green, a copy of Trumbull's celebrated portrait. It shows Washington, standing in uniform, his right hand holding his hat and leaning on his sword, the left holding a scroll. He leans on right hand, right foot place on an elevation, at his left is his Negro servant with his horse, in the distance is a river with ships firing on a fortification to the left from which the American flag is flying. Under, in a center shield of arms an Indian is depicted supporting the insignia. This picture was priced at 75 pounds sterling. The picture is 23¾ inches by 16 inches; the original by Trumbull was painted in 1781.
The reproductions today are made from a beautifully printed catalog of a celebrated London firm, dealers in antique books and rare pictures and curios. Notwithstanding the war, catlogs from such merchants are received regularly in Pittsburgh. However, it is not known whether these portraits of Pitt and Washington were sold.
These portraits are historic and pertinent at this time, that of Washington particularly so, his natal day occurring next Thursday. The picture of Pitt is so different from those usually shown of the great British Premier that it is of more than ordinary interest.
