The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-11-09
Our Line of Defence Against Indians.
16S7-l696.
Read Before the hartford County Histori-
cal Snciety, October %, 1884.
BY DIR. GEO. W. ARCHER.

believe that the following facts, CLEANED
mostly from the published Archives of Mary
land" while recountlng an exciting episode II
the earliest days of baltimore county, Wal
throw SOM light upon tie important, though
lOng-forgutten subject vi our old line OF de-
Tense against the Indians treated OF i'll REV
Mr.. Lcakin's recent interesting paper entitled
IAN Old Colonial Fort" that is, the old Carl
son Fort built in 1928, which is still to be seer
about mile north of Pikesville, in Baltimore
county.
In June 1857, the Emperor of the friendly
Nunticoke Indians complained that one OF MS
subjects (whO is subsequently called the mad
lndiannJ, had been murdered at Bush RlVer,
ut or near the house Of Mrs. Stanshye lproba-
bly, Stunsbury. 1t was charged that the deed
was done by three whites, one of whom was u
servant OF Mrs. StansOyc, another At freeman
i'll her house, and the third IL nei2hh'r. On liz
veStiyatun. the charges proving Ia ne true, III
jury the sheriff was ordered by tic council t.
bring the mUrdererS before the Justices o1 tnC
next Provincial Court mt st. Mary :. whether
not they We're ever brought To trial is not re
corded IL is probable, however. ;nut iuIl JUS
ticr Was not done in the case :fors. ! two Nan
tcukeS who Were ! III 70 the ma. ICu "ic,
bent on revenge, went to the house of Richard
Enock, on Middle river, but not finding him III
home, were content for the time, to cut off the
ears and tails of his pigs i'll the presence oil ms
wife. 1t was not long, however. be-
tore zone of them returned at night aid fell
upon Enock no doubt Stcalth'iy rs h" was
heating com al the mortar" but lie heroic " ne
seized the pcstie which had falicn from his
hands and welded il so well that she broke the
SaVage's head. She then, woman like bound
up the wound she had inflicted, and they
thought that would he the end of it. Next
morning, however, "thc brother Of the wound
ed Indian, and another came and fell upon
Enock and Francis frecnan," who were ut
work, unarmed, near the formers house. Inc
brave womnn, on seeing t!r:n, ran TO her nus.
bands aid as before, but WAS at once knocked
down, and remained unconscious until EnocS
was killed and Freeman lett Tor dcad-though
lie finally recovered.
ftnr ir1S .E,k
four others, went to the cabin that the Indians
belonged to- for the purpose, no doubt OF ar
resting them, but were kept of with guns. lie
then procured more men and went Il second
time to the cabin, but found il vacated 1t
was subsequently aScertained that on the 9th
OF March the murdereIs with two other Indian
men, two women, and child, were about
Deer Creek in SuSquehanna river" on their
way it is supposed, to join the northern In
dams.
20th of March. while hunting. lie said he was
very sorry and much troubled. and would do
what he could to deliver up the nurdcrers ac-
cording to the treaty. In April, the court be-
ing Informed that the Indians, doubling
Enock's death, wishing to have his grave open
ed, very reluctantly granted this request. The
sheriff was ordered TO open tne grave TaI III .ne
convinced of his death (though the
record is silent OH that point, for Ill May the
two murderers were given up, ana II was order,
ed that they be brought to the next Provincial
Court ut ST. Marys, The Emperor was invited
to come over Chat is across the 6ay), to the
trial and it was ordered that he ana MS friends
be furnished with such attendance as they
should want. | have seen no record OF TINS
trial, or of its result; but the trouble with the
NanticokeS was allaytd
The garrsons of the three forts ordered to he
built in 1928 were probably the success OF the
rangers who had hitherto guarded the frontiers;
or rather, the rangers were continued III ser.
vice, their numbers being now increased ana
the forts built tor more effective defence in the
face of new perils that threatened- Inc duties
Of the rangers were not only 10 Keep an eye on
the Indians but to bring III from me Iorest al
struyed CATTLE horses or hogs col whlcn they
were allowed onc-thlrd as perquiStles), 10 seize
runaway servants and tugitiveS from Justice,
and to examine suspicious persons entering OF
leaving the province by lana.
| cannot resist giving here my impression
though it may be thought fancitul-that the
HEADQUARTERS of the Baltimore county rangers
were near Bush, and that The large tract taken
up Whereabouts in 1868 or 4 by David Jones,
rs Rangers Lodge (by which name 1t is still
known, was so called by reason OF That Iacti
During the year Immediately preceding the
building of tile forts the following events Oc-
CURED in addition to those described IN Mr..
Leakins paper:
pointed Thomas Richardson Chief Ranger OF
the part of Baltimore county from the Falls OF
Back river upward to the extent OF the county
This included all of what is now Hartford and
a portion of the present Baltimore county. On
the very next day it was ordered that me
rangers appointed TO watch and guard the
ardson with twelve men be appointed to range
Oh the frontier of Baltimore county: inns
was double the number OF rangers that had
heretofore been allowed To each county. Two
months later Capt. Richardson was transferred
to the command of the frontier from the
FrcShes of the Patuxent to the Falls OF the Pa
tapsco," and Capt; James Maxwell was TO COM
mand from the Falls of the Patapsco to the
river" Thus, Richardson was
to defend Anne Arundel, and Maxwell, Balti-
more county.
to be built, each to have Il dwelling house for
IA captain and nine soldiers, and one small
cabin for four Indians. to be furnished by the
Emperors of the NunticOkcS, Plscatuways ana
tn" ChOpticos, four lndi lis each One OF the
forts was to be lin Bulti = ore county, towards
or near the Susquehanna river. which Is To be
by Capt. Thomas Richardson"
The Emperor of the NanticokcS to furnish four
Indians for the [cabin OF thel Baltimore County
Fort, to he relieved from time to time by other
four The Indians to be employed IN hunting
deer aud other game for the use of the forts,
to be paid in matchcoatS ut the rates allowed
them elsewhere for hunting. constant in
tercourse to be kept up between the three
forts"
These cabins, as ! take it, were at, or very
near tn forts, and could not have included
either of the three cabins subsequently, referred
to as built later on the frontier OF baltimore
which was peculiarly exposed to Indian incur
sions. In the other counties there were
no intermediate cabins connecting
the forts the danger of incursiOns being less
in those situations. Rev. Mr.. Leakin has very
lately written me that in the original journal
OF the council from 1893 to 81 there are fire.
quent directions as to the duties OF these In
dams i'll the cabins rs scouts, not only to fur-
nish the forts with provisions but to announce
ut headquarters the appearance OF the enemy.
This, think, refers exclusively to the three
cabins, two of which were within the bounds
of the present Hartford county, the third being
in the Fork of the Gunpowdcr.
| infer from the above account of the events
caused by Enock's murder, that cabins for In
dams had been part of line of defence here
abouts at least as early us 1857, probably much
earlier. MY reasons for this inference are as
follows: ID When jenkins went to the cabin
to punish or seize the murderers he was kept
off with guns; whereas very Few Indians, IN
deed, had guns at that time, unless especially
favored by the whites or in their employ. l2J
Ii is designated as the cabin to which the In
dams belonged" (3) They were "NanticOkes''
as We're those who were to occupy the cabin
mt the Baltimore county fort IL few years later
under The order of 1929. The home of this
tribe Was on Nantcoke river. in the southern
part of the Eastern Shore, and none of them
would have been so far from their native heath
unless employed by whites; and especially
would they not have cabin here unless so en-
poyed. az There were two other Indian men
in the cabin, making with the two murderers
the exact number required for each cabin by
the order for building the forts.
The probability therefore is that u line
of cabins already existed at least as early as
1857 and that when the murderers fed from
their own cabin ITO Deer Creek it was to an
other cabin on or near that stream, occupied
by some of their own tribe as scouts, like
themselves. When the forts were ordered to
be built similar cabins would naturally be eS-
tabliShcd. somewhat further back, perhaps,
from the settlements, to be more in line with
the forts themselves, the positions of both forts
and cabins being, of course, determined by the
growth of the settlements, which, as we well
know, had extended considerably since the
original line Of cabins was established suppos-
ing that there was such line.
With the very meagre knowledge that is at
hand it Is impossible at present to Indicate the
site of any one of these cabins, or even the
vicinity of such site. Yet a little speculation
on the subject may be allowable.
The official report of Capt. John Oldham,
made in 1896 and entitled, An Account of
the Rangers of Baltimore county. :" states that
the course of the road between the cabins is
northeast. This course, however, as was
common in those rude times, was, no doubt,
determined by u conjecture and not by a COM
pass; and hence could have been only approx
mately correct at best. A line drawn N. T..
from the old Garrison Fort would run five or
six miles north of Bel Air, striking the Susque-
hanna two or three miles above the Pennsyl-
vaniu line; and old certificates of survey show
that lands had been taken up to within three
before 1855. And if the law which was pass
ed twenty years before, FORGETTING all lands
taken up if not seated one year alter date of
patent, settlers, at the time the cabins were or
dered to be built, must have lived within two
or three miles along almost the entire length of
so much of that imaginary line as lay within
the present Hartford county and in the fork of
the GunpoWder, where the most westerly one
of the cabins was located.
AS regards the site of these cabins, as before
intimated. unless local tradition comes i'll to
supplement the vague official report (the only
record, of them now eXtanu, and unless that
tradition is verified by the discovery of some
portion of their remains, | am afraid we shall
have to abandon this interesting search as
hopeless. For the difficulties are manifold.
In the first place, as before limited, at that re-
mote period, courses given Of roads as well us