\ 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DDDElbE7S13 
 
F 152 
 . V94 
 Copy 1 
 
 George Croghan and the 
 Westward Movement, 
 
 1741-1782 
 
 ALBERT T. VOLWILER 
 
 I. THE INDIAN TRADER 
 
 Reprint from "The Pennsylvania 
 Alagazine of History and Biography," 
 Vol. xlvi, No. 4, October, 1922 
 


 George Croghan and the Westward 
 Movement, 1741-1782. 
 
 I. The Indian Tradee. 
 
 The mainspring which kept the Indian trade in North 
 America in operation during the eighteenth century 
 was the demand for furs and skins in western Europe. 
 The customs and styles of dress among European 
 nobles and courtiers, ecclesiastical and university of- 
 ficials, and wealthy burghers created the demand for 
 furs ; the demand for skins rested chiefly upon the needs 
 of the more humble classes of society. A second great 
 market for furs and skins was in China. Until towards 
 the close of the period under consideration this market 
 only indirectly affected the Indian trade by absorbing 
 the cheaper grade of Eussian furs and skins and thus 
 decreasing the supply available for western Europe. 
 By the time of the American Revolution, however, a 
 considerable number of American furs and skins were 
 sent from London to China, either through Russia or 
 in the ships of the East India Company, thus fore- 
 shadowing the trading ventures of John Jacob Astor 
 and Stephen Girard. 1 
 
 From the earliest days of the Greeks and Romans 
 until the sixteenth century the people of central Asia 
 and western Europe were supplied with furs and skins 
 from the great northern plains of Eurasia. Here the 
 Russian traders' frontier was gradually pushed east- 
 
 1 Chambers Papers relating to Canada, 1692-1792. (N. Y. Pub. Lib.) 
 
2 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 ward until in the latter part of the eighteenth century 
 it was moving rapidly down the western coast of North 
 America. 2 At the time of the discovery of America, 
 Vienna, Danzig, Liibeck and Hamburg were the great 
 fur marts of Europe, and the bold voyages of English 
 navigators to Muscovy were based in part upon the 
 demand for furs. The furs and skins from the second 
 great region of supply — northern North America — had 
 to compete with those from Russia and Siberia in the 
 markets of Europe. So successfully was this done that 
 the great fur marts were shifted to London, Amster- 
 dam and Paris, and the quest for furs took the place of 
 the quest for gold, silver and precious stones in luring 
 the white man to penetrate into the vast unknown 
 regions north of Mexico. 
 
 If the trade in furs and skins is looked at from the 
 point of view of the uncivilized native who could 
 furnish peltry and hides, one finds equally strong 
 economic forces influencing his conduct. In his esti- 
 mation of values, based upon the laws of supply and 
 demand, the exchange of a fine beaver pelt for a sharp 
 knife was a great bargain and gave him as much satis- 
 faction as it did to the more civilized trader. The 
 mutual immense profits of the trade in furs and skins 
 and other irresistible economic forces involved, led 
 both savages and civilized men to desire to establish 
 and maintain trading relations in spite of the heavy 
 risks to life and property to all concerned in such 
 trade. 
 
 The desire to control the lucrative trade in furs and 
 skins with the natives in North America was one of the 
 numerous causes for the great rivalry of England and 
 
 2 The following quotation is suggestive for the colonizing movement 
 in North America: "Der Zobel (sable) hat die Erschliessung und Ero- 
 berung Sibiriens veranlasst; er hat auch einen grossen Teil der Kosten, 
 mit seiner Haut bezahlt." — Klein, Jos.: Der Sibirische Peltzhandel und 
 seine Bedeutung fur die Eroberung Sibiriens, p. i. — Cf . Golder, F. A. : 
 Russian Expansion on the Pacific, 1641-1850. 
 
 GIFT 
 AUfHOfi 
 
George Croghan and the Weshvard Movement. 3 
 
 France during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
 turies. Towards the close of the former century 
 they entered upon an important trade war in North 
 America for the control of this traffic which, unlike 
 their military conflicts, never ceased until after 1763. 
 In it the native tribes were mere tools and pawns 
 which both sides exploited. 
 
 The trader's frontier in this conflict was long, 
 wide, and constantly shifting. During the second 
 quarter of the eighteenth century French and English 
 traders met in the region between Lake Superior and 
 Hudson's Bay, but here there were such vast regions 
 to exploit that for a long time their rivalry was only 
 serious to those immediately involved. Similar com- 
 petition took place in the wilderness between New 
 England and Canada, but here also the rivalry was not 
 serious, for there were no longer rich fur fields to ex- 
 ploit in this region nor were there strategic lines of 
 communication to threaten. The Indian country be- 
 tween New York and New France controlled great 
 arteries of commerce ; here, however, the English forces 
 of expansion, which in earlier decades had begun to 
 penetrate the region around Lake Michigan, lost 
 vitality because of various conditions in colonial New 
 York. One of these was the establishment, in spite of 
 the opposition of both governments, of trading rela- 
 tions whereby Albany traders gave up their dreams of 
 trading directly with the far West in return for the 
 opportunity of exchanging English manufactured 
 goods for French furs near at home. In contrast to 
 the Indian traders of Pennsylvania, those of New York 
 generally did not penetrate far into the interior to seek 
 furs and skins at each Indian village, but utilized the 
 Iroquois as middlemen to bring furs and skins to them 
 at such posts as Albany and Oswego. In the extreme 
 south, Carolina traders had once planned to develop 
 the trans-Mississippi country and even the Ohio and 
 
4 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 Illinois regions. By about 1725 the French had limited 
 the activities of the English until their trade with tribes 
 which bordered on the Gulf of Mexico or on the Mis- 
 sissippi had almost ceased. 3 
 
 During the generation preceding 1754 the most 
 dynamic and significant phase of the Anglo-French 
 rivalry in the Indian trade was in the central and upper 
 Ohio Valley and in the region south of Lake Erie. In 
 preceding decades a few Carolina, New York and per- 
 haps Virginia, traders had reached this region, but 
 their visits were sporadic and not consistently followed 
 up. Later, Pennsylvania traders began to develop con- 
 sistently its rich trading possibilities. The expansion of 
 the field of their activities was based upon a sufficient 
 supply of low-priced merchandise and it was the result 
 of their own initiative and resourcefulness; not until 
 their influence had about reached its height did their 
 government aid them. Meanwhile the French had been 
 moving eastward into this region. They shifted their 
 main line of communication between the Great Lakes 
 and the Mississippi from the Fox- Wisconsin route to 
 the Chicago-Illinois route and then to the Maumee- 
 Wabash route. To control the latter, Ft. Ouiatenon was 
 erected by New France, about 1720, at the head of navi- 
 gation for large canoes on the Wabash, and Ft. Vin- 
 cennes by Louisiana, in 1731, on the lower Wabash. At 
 times, a small fort on the Maumee was maintained 
 which, with Detroit, completed this line of defense 
 against English penetration. The region east of this 
 line was left open to the English. The first "Winning 
 of the West" by the Anglo-Saxon followed; in almost 
 every important Indian village in this region one or 
 more Pennsylvania traders were to be found. 
 
 The growth of their influence is well shown by the 
 
 8 Crane, V. W. : "The Tennessee River as the Road to Carolina," Miss. 
 Valley Hist. Rev., 3: 3 ff; Crane: "The Southern Frontier in Queen 
 Anne's War," Am. Hist. Rev., 24: 379 ff. 
 
iL J*** *£? f 2^ 1^4/ 
 
 
 GEORGE CROGHAN TO SECRETARY RICHARD PETERS 
 OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 The original letter, of which the above facsimile is a reproduction on a smaller 
 scale, is the earliest document written by Crogiian that has been found. It is 
 preserved in the Provincial Papers in the State Library at Harrisburg. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 5 
 
 following incidents. In 1707, Governor Evans of Penn- 
 sylvania feared the influence of French traders even 
 east of the lower Susquehanna; he personally led a 
 party thither to capture Nicole Godin, a trader of 
 French birth, who was suspected of aiding the enemy. 
 The Governor reported to the provincial council that 
 after he had captured Nicole, ''having mounted Nicole 
 upon a horse, and tied his legs under the Belly," he 
 "brought him a Prisoner to Philadia, in the Common 
 Gaol of which he now lies." 4 Less than half a century 
 later, in the early fifties, Paul Pierce, a Pennsylvania 
 trader, had "4,000 Weight of summer skins taken at 
 another town on Wabasha. . . ." 5 
 
 These incidents illustrate the fact that the Pennsyl- 
 vania traders had assumed the aggressive and, in 
 spite of the Appalachian barrier, had pushed the trad- 
 er's frontier 500 miles westward in less than a half 
 century; in 1750 this line was near the Wabash and 
 Maumee rivers, nearly 500 miles in advance of the 
 settler's frontier in Pennsylvania, which was just 
 starting to move up the Juniata Valley and to cross the 
 Blue Mountains. Nor had the expansive force of this 
 movement been exhausted when it reached the Wabash 
 and Maumee ; it began to cross this line — a weak barrier 
 at best — and move on towards the Mississippi, bringing 
 anxiety into the hearts of the best French officials, who 
 felt the potential power of English influence even in the 
 distant Illinois country. 6 A contemporary map legend 
 
 4 Gov. Evans' Journal and Report, Pa. Col. Rec, 2: 385, 390. 
 
 6 Pierce's affidavit of losses, O. Co. MSS., 1 : 32. 
 
 8 In 1742 Bienville reported home that the Illinois were restless 
 and that some of them had gone east to meet English traders. — O 13A, 
 27: 81-84. (Archives Nationales, Paris.) Vaudreuil reported in 
 1744 and in 1745 recommending the establishment of a fort on the 
 lower Ohio to limit the activities of the English traders and to keep 
 control of the Kickapoo and Mascoutens. — C 13 A, 28: 245-250 and 
 C 13A, 29 : 69. In 1747 three Indian emissaries came to the Illinois 
 tribes to win them over to the English and were frustrated with 
 difficulty.— "Diary of Events in 1747," Wis. Hist. Coll. 17 : 487. An 
 
6 George Croghan and tlie West ward Movement. 
 
 described the attitude of the Indians in Illinois as fol- 
 lows : ' ' Illinois mostly inclined to the French at the 
 Treaty of Utrecht and to the English at that of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle." 7 
 
 Thus by 1750 the English were ready to take con- 
 trol of the Wabash-Maurnee route, the best line of com- 
 munication between New France and Louisiana, and 
 they threatened French dominion in the West. When, 
 during King George 's War, the highest French officials 
 came to realize the peril of this quiet penetration of 
 English power, they determined at any cost to secure 
 sole and absolute control of the entire Ohio country. 
 The Pennsylvania Indian traders were thus chiefly 
 responsible for the immediate opening of the French 
 and Indian War. 
 
 Their aggressive westward push during the period of 
 1730-1775, was aided by the moral and financial sup- 
 port of the wealthy merchants and colonial officials in 
 Philadelphia. During this period Philadelphia had be- 
 come the largest town in all America. Its virile energy 
 and the many-sidedness of its interests were typified in 
 the life of its greatest citizen, Benjamin Franklin. Its 
 large and profitable commerce, firmly buttressed upon 
 a prosperous and rich agricultural region resulted 
 in the accumulation of surplus capital, part of which 
 was available for projects to exploit and develop the 
 vast wilderness beyond the settler's frontier. 
 
 The man who played the most prominent part in this 
 
 official of Louisiana reported in 1750 that the influence of an English 
 establishment on the Riviere de la Roche (Great Miami) extended 
 even to Illinois and that it should be broken up. — C 13A, 34: 321-323. 
 In 1751, thirty-three Piankashaw Indians (an important tribe living 
 west of the Wabash whose friendship was to play an important part 
 in Croghan's activities) appeared among the French settlements in 
 Illinois to start an Indian uprising. — Alvord, C. W. : Centennial History 
 of Illinois, 1: 234. In 1752 Vaudreuil reported home that deserters 
 from the army in Illinois had gone over to the English. — C 13 A, 36: 81. 
 7 Gibson, John : Map of the Middle British Colonies in America. 1758. 
 (N. Y. Pub. Lib.) 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 7 
 
 highly important and significant phase of the westward 
 movement of Anglo-Saxon civilization was George 
 Croghan. Of his early life and the more personal side 
 of his career we know but little. No portrait of him 
 has been discovered 8 and in the course of this investi- 
 gation, not a single reference to his wife was found; 
 the date and exact place of his birth are also unknown. 
 We know that his early life was spent in Dublin, Ire- 
 land. 9 The education which he there received was so 
 meager that he was pronounced illiterate by Bouquet. 10 
 One finds the spelling in Croghan 's letters amusing, 
 provided it is not necessary to decipher many of them. 11 
 He migrated to America in 1741. 12 
 
 8 In J. S. Walton's Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Penn- 
 sylvania, there is a picture of Colonel George Croghan, famous in the 
 War of 1812, taken in a U. S. Army uniform, which is erroneously 
 ascrihed to the earlier George Croghan. 
 
 •Gov. Morris to Gov. Sharpe, Jan. 7, 1754, Pa. Arch., 2: 114. 
 
 10 Bouquet to Gen. Gage, Dec. 22, 1764, Bouquet Coll. (Canadian 
 Archives), A 23-2, p. 464. No evidence has been found to prove 
 the statement that Croghan was educated at Dublin University, made 
 both by C. R. Williams in an article on George Croghan in the 0. 
 Arch, and Hist. Pub., 12: 381 and by L. E. Keeler in an article on 
 the Croghan Celebration in the same publication, 16: 8. 
 
 "The legibility of Croghan's letters varies greatly. The following 
 postscript to a letter to Peters, dated Sept. 26, 1758, suggests one 
 cause of such variation: "You '1 Excuse boath Writing and peper, 
 and guess at my Maining, fer I have this Minnitt 20 Drunken Indians 
 about me . . . ." — Pa. Arch., 3 : 544. 
 
 "Various dates from 1740 to 1747 are given by writers on Penn- 
 sylvania history. The date 1741 is incidentally established by an 
 affidavit which Croghan made before the Board of Trade in London 
 on July 27, 1764, to aid the Penns in their case against Connecticut's 
 land claims. C. A. Hanna in The Wilderness Trail, 2 : 30, following 
 the copy in the Penn MSS., Penn Land Grants 1681-1806, pages 
 205-209, adds that Croghan was made a Councillor of the Six Nations 
 at Onondago in 1746, which would be rather significant. However, 
 this copy of the affidavit seems to have been drafted by a third party, 
 for it makes many inaccurate statements about Croghan. These are 
 corrected in Croghan's own handwriting in a copy in the Penn. MSS., 
 Wyoming Controversy, 5 : 71-75. The qualifying phrases which he 
 introduces beside the above statement make it appear that it was 
 incorrect, but that for the sake of Penn's case, it was so stated to 
 carrv weight in London. 
 
8 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 Because he came from Dublin he was charged during 
 the French and Indian War with being a Roman 
 Catholic. 13 We know, however, that he was an Episco- 
 palian. His signature, along with those of Robert 
 Callender and Thomas Smallman, his close associates 
 in the Indian trade, was attached to a petition in 1765 
 from the handful of Episcopalians in the frontier town 
 of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to their provincial assembly. 
 It asked for the authorization of a lottery for the benefit 
 of ten Episcopal churches; the one at Carlisle was to 
 receive £200 to aid its building fund. 14 In 1769, 
 Croghan wrote Sir William Johnson to recommend an 
 Episcopal rector for an appointment, modestly adding, 
 "for tho I Love ye Church very well I know I ought 
 Nott to Medle with Church Matters." 15 When 
 Croghan died his funeral was held in St. Peter's 
 Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. 16 
 
 These facts are significant. Evidently Croghan was 
 not a typical Scotch-Irishman, for he had the re- 
 ligion of the English Pale. The fact that he was inter- 
 ested in a church at once puts him on a higher plane 
 than most Indian traders who cared nothing for either 
 church or religion. Being a member of the Church of 
 England helped him to establish closer relations with 
 the Penns and with many British officials. In the 
 normal conduct of his business and in his official duties 
 Croghan was not often near any minister or church. 
 Even at Ft. Pitt, where he usually had his headquarters 
 from 1758 to 1777, there was no organized church till 
 after his death. 17 Army chaplains were sometimes 
 
 13 Gov. Sharpe to Gov. Morris, Dec. 27, 1754, Md. Arch., 188S : 153. 
 
 "Pa. Stat, at Large, 6: 382; Linn, J. B.: "The Butler Family of 
 the Pennsylvania Line." pa. mag. of hist, and biog., 7 : 2. 
 
 "Croghan to Johnson, Nov. 16, 1769, Doc. Hist, of N. Y., 4 : 419. 
 
 10 Wm. Powell's account with the Croghan Estate, 1804, MSS., Reg- 
 ister of Wills, County of Philadelphia. 
 
 "Dahlinger, C. W.: Pittsburgh: A Sketch of its Early Social Life, 
 9-10. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 9 
 
 stationed there and missionaries came to tarry a few 
 days. The latter were usually welcomed by Croghan, 
 at whose home they frequently dined. One of these in 
 describing his visit to Croghan in 1772, writes that the 
 latter presented him with "a bear's skin to sleep on, 
 a belt of wampum to present to the Indians, and 60 
 pounds of biscuit to supply me on my journey." 18 
 Croghan 's religion was reflected in his daily conduct in 
 business and in office to about the same extent as is 
 religion in the life of the average business man or office- 
 holder of today. 19 
 
 Croghan had a number of relatives in America who 
 had a common interest in developing the great West of 
 their day and to whom he was a guide and leader. 
 William Trent was his brother-in-law, Edward Ward 
 his half brother, Thomas Smallman his cousin, John 
 Connolly his nephew, William Powell and Daniel Clark 
 his kinsmen. 20 Clark emigrated from Ireland and be- 
 came a clerk to Croghan; after the Revolution he be- 
 came the most prominent American in New Orleans. 
 A Mohawk Indian daughter of Croghan became the 
 wife of the famous Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. 21 His 
 only white child, Susannah, for whom he had a tender 
 regard, which was reciprocated by her, 22 was born in 
 1750 at Carlisle and died in 1790. At the age of fifteen 
 she was married to Lieutenant Augustine Prevost, son 
 of the British General of the same name, with whom he 
 
 18 Jones, Rev. D.: Diary, 21; Cf. McClure, Rev. D.: Diary, 46, 101. 
 
 19 This statement is based upon a study of Croghan's entire life. 
 E. W. Hassler's statement in Old Westmoreland : a History of Western 
 Pennsylvania during the Revolution, p. 10, that "He was an Irishman 
 by birth and an Episcopalian by religion, when he permitted religion 
 to trouble him," is probably an incorrect deduction from the general 
 characterization of Indian traders. 
 
 20 Croghan's will, Register of Wills, County of Philadelphia. 
 "Brant MSS. (Wis. Hist. Soc), 1G2, 1F24, 13F103; Thomson C: 
 
 Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnees, 178. 
 
 "Croghan's will; Trent to Mrs. Prevost, Aug. 21, 1775, Hist. Soc. 
 of Pa. Coll. 
 
10 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 is sometimes confused. To them twelve children were 
 born at various places from Quebec to Jamaica in- 
 clusive, six of whom survived infancy and became the 
 chief heirs of Croghan. 23 Aaron Burr was related to 
 Prevost by marriage and served as his attorney; Burr's 
 interest in the West may therefore have emanated from 
 Croghan. 
 
 The immigrant who went west from Philadelphia 
 during the decade 1740 to 1750, as did Croghan, would 
 find that soon after he had left the Quaker city behind, 
 the German element became predominant and that as he 
 approached the frontier the hardy Scotch-Irish in turn 
 composed the majority of the population. The road 
 which he followed would take him through Lancaster, 
 the largest inland town in the British colonies; from it 
 one important road led through Paxtang Township, 
 which bordered the eastern bank of the Susquehanna 
 in the vicinity of the present city of Harrisburg. At 
 this place the river is not deep, but is a mile wide. John 
 Harris had settled here and was operating one of the 
 most important ferries which crossed it; Harris' Ferry 
 is shown on all contemporary maps of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The newcomer was now close to the settler's frontier 
 line. The region across the river towards Maryland 
 had been purchased from the Iroquois in 1736, though 
 squatters in this region were legally recognized since 
 January 14, 1734, when the first "Blunston License" 
 was issued to allow settlement before the Indian claims 
 
 23 Brant MSS., 16F 65, 16F 66, 16F 72; Draper MSS. (Wis. Hist. Soc), 
 16F 76. Dennis Crohan was an intimate friend but no relation to Cro- 
 ghan.— Etting Coll., Misc. MSS., 1 : 110. General Wm. Croghan of the 
 Revolution, who married a sister to George Rogers Clark and helped 
 develop the state of Kentucky, was a very intimate personal friend 
 of George Croghan.— Byars, Wm. V.: B. and M. Gratz, 175, 183, 185, 
 194. Col. George Croghan, son of Wm. Croghan and hero of the War 
 of 1812, is often confused with the elder George Croghan. Some of 
 the descendants of the Kentucky Croghans recognize a relationship 
 to the elder Croghan while others deny it. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 11 
 
 had been purchased. 24 The Juniata Valley with the 
 region south of it extending to the Maryland border 
 was not purchased till 1754. In the preceding decade 
 the most distant lands open to settlement in the 
 province were in the level and fertile Cumberland 
 Valley. This lay beyond Harris' Ferry, on either side 
 of the winding Condogwinet River, which empties into 
 the Susquehanna, and of the Conococheague River, 
 which flows in the opposite direction and empties into 
 the Potomac. South Mountain, later made famous by 
 Robert E. Lee, forms a wall on the southeast for this 
 physiographic unit. From its crest one can see on a 
 clear day the opposite rampart, North Mountain, also 
 known as the Kittatinny or the Blue Mountains. Be- 
 yond them in the primeval forest lay the Indian coun- 
 try, but to get to its most attractive regions it was 
 necessary to cross range after range of the mountain 
 barrier. This was done by the venturesome Indian 
 traders of the province. When the fur fields east of 
 the mountains had been exhausted, with no enticing 
 possibilities to the north or south, the traders were 
 presented with the alternative of either settling down 
 to a more prosaic life, or of somehow getting across the 
 barrier to the far western country. A contemporary 
 describes the result of their decision as follows: "Be- 
 tween 4 and 10 degrees of Longitude west from Phila- 
 delphia there is a spacious country which we call Alle- 
 genny from the name of a River which runs thro' it and 
 is the main branch of the Mississippi. ... In this 
 country all our Indian trade centers . . . the 
 most of our return is Deer Skins. The Indian traders 
 have had great credit with the merchants." 25 
 
 M Samuel Blunston was granted a special commission on January 11, 
 1734, authorizing him to issue special licenses upon which patents could 
 be obtained after the Indian claims had been purchased. The original 
 list of licenses granted, ending on October 31, 1737, has been found 
 recently and will soon be published in the Pennsylvania Archives. 
 
 2B Lewis Evans' Brief Account of Pa., 1753, in, Papers relating to 
 Pa., Carolina, etc., Du Simitiere Coll. (Library Co. of Philadelphia.) 
 
12 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 Various routes across the mountains had been pre- 
 pared for the traders by nature and by the buffalo and 
 the Indian, and have since become great arteries of com- 
 merce followed by trunk line railroads. The least im- 
 portant and most difficult of these followed the West 
 Branch of the Susquehanna. Another route passed 
 through Shippensburg and Bedford, utilizing the Rays- 
 town Branch of the Juniata; from 1758, when Forbes 
 constructed the road which bore his name, until after 
 1830, when the railroad and canal became important, 
 this was one of the most important routes to the West ; 
 as a turnpike it was the great rival of the Cumberland 
 Road. The oldest and most important route to the 
 West during the decade, 1740 to 1750, followed the Juni- 
 ata and Conemaugh (Kishkimentas) Rivers. 26 It was 
 almost always followed by the traders before 1754 in 
 going to the West and somewhat less frequently 
 on their return. Shortly before 1754, Pennsylvania 
 traders in returning from the West were beginning to 
 follow the fourth great route across the mountains, 
 which utilized the Monongahela, Wills Creek Water 
 Gap and the Potomac. 27 When they had once reached 
 the latter near the end of Cumberland Valley they 
 found available a " great road" recently finished, lead- 
 ing through the valley and connecting at Harris' Ferry 
 with the great highway to Philadelphia. 28 
 
 To traverse one of the great routes from the Susque- 
 hanna to the Ohio required about fourteen days. Until 
 after the French and Indian War transportation by 
 
 26 In 1855 the traces left by thousands upon thousands of warriors 
 and packhorses which traveled it for years were still plainly visible. 
 — Jones, U. J.: History of Juniata Valley, 135. 
 
 27 Washington to Bouquet, Aug. 2, 1758, Writings of George Wash- 
 ington, 2 : 62; Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 607. 
 
 28 Pa. Col. Rec, 6 : 302; Evans' Map of the Middle British Colonies, 
 Pa. Arch., Third Series, App. to Volumes I-X ; Instructions of Gov. 
 Hamilton to N. Scull and T. Cookson, surveyors, Early Hist, of Car- 
 lisle (1841), 1 : 6. 
 
George Croghan cmd the Westward Movement. 13 
 
 wagon stopped at the mountains; from there on only- 
 Indian trails were available. To the Pennsylvania 
 trader the packhorse took the place which the canoe 
 occupied among the " coureurs de bois;" even after he 
 was across the mountains and beyond the Ohio he pre- 
 ferred it to the canoe. Usually two or more men went 
 with a packhorse train, which seldom consisted of more 
 than twenty horses, each carrying about one hundred 
 and fifty pounds on their pack saddles. They followed 
 the trail in single file with one man in front and one in 
 the rear. At night the horses were turned loose to 
 secure their forage as best they could. Bells were 
 fastened to them to aid in finding them again. A pack- 
 horse equipped with saddle, surcingles and bells was 
 valued at from £7 to £25. From twenty to thirty per 
 cent was normally added to Philadelphia prices for the 
 cost of transporting goods by wagon and packhorse to 
 the Ohio. 29 
 
 The chief Indian tribes with whom the Pennsyl- 
 vanians traded were the Six Nations, who claimed 
 dominion over the entire Ohio region and several hun- 
 dred of whose representatives were scattered along 
 the Ohio and known as Mingoes; the Delawares, 
 living around the upper Ohio; the Shawnee, dwelling 
 along the Ohio and Scioto; the Wyandots or Hurons, 
 inhabiting the territory south of Lake Erie; and the 
 Miami or Twightwee, living on the Big Miami and be- 
 yond. 30 
 
 To them were brought rum; guns, gunpowder, lead, 
 flints, tomahawks and vermilion; strouds, especially 
 those of a "Deep Blue or Lively Red," blanketing, 
 matchcoating, linen and calicoes ' l of the brightest and 
 
 29 O. Co. MSS., 1:7; Md. Arch., 1888, 126; Pa. Col. Rec. 5 : 294, 
 295, 490, 498; ibid, 9 : 495; Evans, L. : Analysis of a Map of the Middle 
 British Colonies, 25. 
 
 80 Conrad Weiser's Journal, 1748, Pa. Col. Rec. 5 : 348-358; Croghan's 
 Journal 1751, Pa. Col. Rec. 5 : 530-539; Hutchins, T.: Topographical 
 Description, etc., App. III. 
 
14 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 flourishing collours"; wampum; lace, thread, gartering, 
 ribbons; women's stockings, "red, yellow, and green" 
 preferred, and all kinds of ready-made clothing; 
 knives of all kinds, brass and tin kettles, traps, axes, 
 hoes, brass wire, files, awls, needles, buttons and combs ; 
 jewsharps, bells, whistles, looking glasses, rings and 
 silver jewelry of all kinds. 31 
 
 These goods, with the exception of rum, came princi- 
 pally from England. For them were bartered deer, 
 elk, buffalo and bear skins ; beaver, raccoon, fox, cat, 
 muskrat, mink, fisher and other furs; food supplies 
 and sometimes personal services. 32 The annual value 
 of this trade was probably less than £40,000. 33 
 
 This trade involved a connected chain of credits 
 based in the end upon English capital. The English 
 manufacturer or merchant sold to the Philadelphia 
 merchant on credit; he in turn advanced the goods to 
 the larger traders and they to their employees ; finally 
 it also became more and more customary to trust the 
 Indians with goods in order that they could hunt suc- 
 cessfully. If, therefore, something should happen to 
 the Indian so that he failed to bring in skins and pelts, 
 bankruptcy and financial stringency would follow all 
 along the line. 34 Certain merchants in London, Bristol, 
 Philadelphia and Lancaster specialized in this trade. 
 The firm of Shippen and Lawrence and the Jewish firm 
 of Levy, Franks and Simon, with whom the Gratzs were 
 later connected, are examples of those groups of Penn- 
 sylvania merchants that served as factors in the Indian 
 trade. They were usually composed of one or more 
 residents in Philadelphia and a western representative 
 
 81 Lists prepared under Croghan's supervision are found in 0. Co. 
 MSS., 1 : 37 and in C. 0. 5 : 61. Cf. Wis. Hist. Coll., 18 : 245; Byars: 
 B. and M. Oratz, 114. 
 
 » 2 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 44. 
 
 33 Pa. Gaz., Sept. 20, 1754; cf. ibid, Apr. 25, 1754. 
 
 M Cf. Gov. Wright to Bd. of Trade, Dec. 29, 1754, Bd. of Tr. Pap., 
 Plan. Gen'l., 22 : 163. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 15 
 
 in Lancaster. The former often had his own ships and 
 imported suitable goods from England; under his 
 management the skins and furs for export were sorted, 
 examined for moth and finally packed for shipment; 
 the representative in Lancaster usually had charge of 
 warehouses where traders' supplies were kept and furs 
 and skins temporarily stored. Frequently these groups 
 were "concerned" with a prominent Indian trader in 
 active charge of a number of ordinary traders. Aside 
 from these regular partnerships and joint-stock com- 
 panies these men were often "concerned" together 
 in an "adventure;" i. e., when a particular business 
 opportunity presented itself they would pool a part of 
 their capital, goods, or personal services, sometimes 
 without even signing articles of agreement, and then 
 divide the profits or losses in proportion. Such a busi- 
 ness system was especially favorable to the young man 
 or the newcomer with little more than his personal 
 services to contribute. Such groups, especially when 
 united, were an important factor in trade, land specu- 
 lation and politics, particularly in relation to the 
 West. 35 
 
 It was into such an environment that Croghan en- 
 tered soon after coming to America. Shortly after 
 1741 we find him on the frontier in the lower Condog- 
 winet Valley, then organized as Pennsborough Town- 
 ship of Lancaster County. Here he patented in 1746, 
 1748 and 1749, three tracts of land totaling 474 acres. 
 Nearby were 354 acres which had been patented in 1744 
 and then conveyed to Trent and Croghan ; of this tract 
 Croghan became sole owner in 1746. In 1747 he added 
 210 acres, patented in 1742. In the same year he pur- 
 chased 172 acres in Paxtang Township, which had been 
 patented in 1738 and of which he became the fourth 
 owner. This was the only large tract east of the Sus- 
 
 ,! Byars, Wm. V. : The First American Movement West. 
 
16 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 quehanna which Croghan ever held. Richard Hockley, 
 Receiver General of Quit-rents for the Penns, Trent 
 and Croghan took out a warrant for 300 acres in this 
 region, but to it they never secured title. He also pur- 
 chased lots and built several houses in Shippensburg. 
 which was then being laid out. Altogether within four 
 years Croghan had acquired 1210 acres within a short 
 distance of Harris' Ferry. 
 
 The frequent changes in the ownership of these tracts 
 are indicative of the spirit of land speculation prevalent 
 among these early pioneers. Croghan early caught 
 this spirit. At the same time that he was acquiring 
 new lands he was mortgaging to Philadelphians who 
 had surplus capital to invest those lands which he had 
 only recently acquired. In 1747 he mortgaged two 
 tracts to Jeremiah Warder for £500, which he paid off 
 in 1749. In 1748 he mortgaged two other tracts to 
 Mary Plumsted for £300. In 1749 he mortgaged 
 four tracts to Richard Peters, Secretary to the 
 Provincial Council, for £1000. In 1751, after Cro- 
 ghan had held six tracts for only five years or 
 less, he conveyed them to Peters, thereby can- 
 celling all his mortgages and receiving £1000 besides. 
 His business relations with Peters and Hockley, two 
 influential colonial officials, are significant. 36 
 
 It was on the 354 acre tract, located but five miles 
 from Harris' Ferry, 37 Pennsylvania's gateway to the 
 West, that Croghan established his home. This he 
 made his headquarters during approximately his first 
 ten years in America. This point was strategically 
 located with reference to all of the routes across the 
 mountains; the newly-discovered and best approach 
 to the Juniata route passed by his home and crossed 
 
 "Deed Bk. A, I, p. 19, Register of Deeds, Carlisle, Pa.; Peters MSS., 
 2 : 86, 113, 114, 120; ibid, 6 : 87; Pa. Arch., 3d ser., 2 : 180; Magaw 
 to Shippen, Jan. 25, 1746, Shippen Corresp., 1 : 73. 
 
 "Pa. Arch., 2 : 135; Pa. Arch., 3d ser., Appendix to Vol. 1-10. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 17 
 
 the Blue Mountains through the best gap in the vicinity. 
 This soon appeared on all contemporary maps as 
 ' ' Croghan 's Gap. ' ' 38 His home, ' ' Croghan 's, ' ' likewise 
 appeared on these maps along with Carlisle and Ship- 
 pensburg, as being one of the three landmarks on the 
 important road through Cumberland Valley. It soon 
 became one of the places where traders and emissaries 
 often stopped on their way to and from the western 
 country. It also served as a convenient meeting-place 
 for whites and Indians. 39 
 
 Croghan made this place the eastern terminus for his 
 operations as an Indian trader. It served as his home 
 for a few weeks in each year and provided food and 
 shelter for employees and for his packhorses, which 
 could recuperate here after their hard trip over the 
 mountains. Log warehouses provided storage for 
 skins, furs, and Indian goods. On his adjacent tract 
 of 171 acres he had an extensive tanyard where an 
 additional value could be given to the deerskins which 
 he brought out of the West. 40 
 
 Croghan was probably able to acquire and develop 
 these properties through his profits from the Indian 
 trade. In all likelihood he came to America with little 
 or no capital, but fortunately for him, business methods 
 did not require much for the Indian trade. This trade 
 appealed to his restless spirit and adventurous nature. 
 He entered into it almost immediately upon his arrival 
 in 1741. 41 In 1744 and again in 1747, he was licensed as 
 an Indian trader. 42 His success is graphically shown 
 
 38 Today it is called Sterret's Gap and is still important, being 
 utilized by a state highway. 
 
 39 Prov. Pap. (State Library of Pa.), 10 : 31 and 11 : 57; Pa. Col. 
 Rec, 5 : 348, 358; Pa. Arch., J,th ser., 2 : 117. 
 
 40 Peters MSS., 6 : 87; C. Weiser to R. Peters, July 10, 1748, Pa. 
 Arch., 2 : 8. 
 
 41 Gov. Morris to Gov. Hardy, July 5, 1756, Pa. Arch., 2 : 689. 
 
 42 Pa. Arch., 2 : 14; Pa. Arch., 2nd ser., 2 : 619. This is the earliest 
 contemporary reference to Croghan that was found in the course of 
 this study. 
 
18 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 by the fact that only five years after he had left his 
 European environment he was trading on the distant 
 borders of Lake Erie aided by servants and em- 
 ployees. 43 
 
 In carrying on this trade beyond the mountains, 
 Croghan 's packhorse trains usually passed through 
 Croghan 's Gap and followed the Juniata-Conemaugh 
 route to the Ohio. Near its forks, he soon established 
 secondary bases of operations. About three miles from 
 the forks on the northwestern side of the Allegheny at 
 the mouth of Pine Creek, Croghan and his partner had 
 a storehouse, some log houses, numbers of batteaux and 
 canoes, ten acres of Indian corn, and extensive fields 
 cleared and fenced. The latter were probably used as 
 pastures. In 1754 the total estimated value of his 
 property was £380. At Oswegle Bottom, which was 
 located on the Youghiogheny, twenty-five miles from the 
 forks of the Ohio, he had another establishment similar 
 to the one at Pine Creek and which was valued at £300." 
 Another storehouse valued at £150 he had located at 
 the important Indian village of Logstown, about 
 eighteen miles below the forks. This storehouse was 
 used as living quarters by Croghan when at Logstown, 
 by his employees, and by Englishmen who happened 
 to be in Logtown for a short time. Farther down the 
 Ohio at the mouth of the Beaver Creek, in another im- 
 portant Indian village, Croghan also had a "trading 
 house." 45 Wherever Croghan had a storehouse he 
 probably had at least one person stationed to take 
 care of it and to carry on local trading operations. 
 
 From these bases near the forks of the Ohio trading 
 routes spread out like the sticks of a fan. These 
 routes were followed by Croghan often accompanied by 
 
 43 Min. of the Prov. Council, June 8, 1747, Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 72. 
 ** Croghan's Affidavit of Losses in 1754, made at Carlisle in 1756, 
 0. Co., MSS., 1 : 7. 
 
 4K Weiser's Journal to Ohio, 1748, Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 349. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 19 
 
 some employees, by men sent out by him, and by 
 rival traders. One route led up the Allegheny past the 
 present site of Venango. At this place Croghan com- 
 peted with another Pennsylvania trader, John Frazier, 
 who had here established a trading house and gun- 
 smith's shop. The favorite route of Croghan himself, 
 during his early years, followed the excellent "Great 
 Trail, ' ' which led towards Detroit. 46 It passed through 
 the Wyandot village of one hundred families near the 
 forks of the Muskingum, where Croghan had a promi- 
 nent trading house valued at £150. 47 This, however, 
 he regarded chiefly as a post on his trade route to Lake 
 Erie. To the exasperation of the French, he and his 
 men pressed on until Governor Jonquiere of Canada 
 complained to Governor Clinton of New York that the 
 English traders were even proceeding to within sight 
 of Detroit and under the very guns of Ft. Miami. Four 
 English traders, two of whom were Croghan 's men, 
 were captured here by the French in 1751, taken to 
 Detroit, Quebec, and then to France and were not re- 
 leased until the British Ambassador at Paris de- 
 manded it. 48 
 
 In 1747, Croghan is spoken of as "The Trader to the 
 Indians seated on Lake Erie, [ ' where he had a number 
 of storehouses. 49 He was especially fond of the region 
 around Sandusky Bay during this period, because of 
 
 " There is an excellent description of travel on this trail hy Croghan 
 in his Journal for 1761.— Mass. Hist. Coll., 4th ser., 9 : 378-379. 
 
 47 Christopher Gist's Journals, Dec. 14, 1750, 37. 
 
 48 Jonquiere to Clinton, Aug. 10, 1751, N. Y. Col. Docs., 6 : 731-733; 
 Pa. Arch., 2nd ser., 6 : 126; Wis. Hist. Coll., 18 : 112; John Patten's 
 account, Du Simitiere MSS., Pap. Pel. to Pa., Car. etc.; Raymond to 
 Minister, Nov. 2, 1747, Wis. Hist. Coll., 17 : 474; Vaudreuil to Minister, 
 Dec. 30, 1745, C 13 A 29: 89-92; Moreau, J. N.; Mtmoire contenant 
 le precis des faits, avec leurs pieces justifhcatives, pour servir de reponse 
 aux Observations envoyees par les ministres d'Angleterre, dans les 
 cours de VEurope, App. V, 89ff. 
 
 "Rich. Peters to C. Weiser, Sept., 1747 (?), Prov. Pap., 10 : 17; 
 cf. ibid, 9 : 64. 
 
20 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 several reasons. ". . . the Northern Indians cross 
 the Lake here from Island to Island, . . ." wrote 
 Evans in 1755, 50 and Croghan himself wrote: "We sold 
 them goods on much better terms than the French, 
 which drew many Indians over the Lakes to trade 
 with us." 51 Thus Croghan tapped the great eastward 
 flowing stream of furs which went to Quebec. He made 
 close friends among the Ottawas, allies of the French, 52 
 and probably had much to do with the Indian plot of 
 1747, whose timely discovery by the French prevented 
 an uprising somewhat similar to that of Pontiac. The 
 failure of this plot, together with the coming of peace 
 in 1748 and the more aggressive hostility of the French, 
 seem to have caused Croghan to shift his major atten- 
 tion to the Miami tribes. 
 
 The route to the Miami left the Great Trail at the 
 forks of the Muskingum and led west towards Picka- 
 willani, which was located on the upper Great Miami 
 a little below the mouth of Loramie Creek near the 
 present site of Piqua. Gist visited Pickawillani in 
 1751 and wrote in his Journal : ' ' This Town .... 
 consists of about 400 Families, & daily encreasing, it is 
 accounted one of the strongest Indian Towns upon this 
 Part of the Continent." 53 A contemporary identifies 
 it by writing, ' ' This is the Village where George Cro- 
 ghan generally Trades, all the Indians of which are 
 firmly attached to the English, . . . " 54 Here a 
 stockade was erected inside of which were storehouses 
 and log houses. One-fourth of the white men, who were 
 
 60 Evans, Lewis: Analysis of a Map of the Middle British Colonies, 
 30; cf. Hutchins, Thos.: Topog. Descrip. of Va., Pa., Md. and N. C, 96. 
 
 51 Croghan's Transactions, etc., N. Y. Col. Docs., 7 : 267. 
 
 62 Croghan states in his Journals that while he was traveling along 
 Lake Erie to Detroit in 1760 he met several Ottawas "who received 
 us very kindly, they being old Acquaintances of mine." — Mass. Hist. 
 Coll., J)th ser., 9 : 365. 
 
 68 Gist's Journals, Feb. 17, 1751, 47. 
 
 "B. Stoddert to Sir. Wm. Johnson, July 19, 1751, N. Y. Col. Docs., 
 6 : 730. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 21 
 
 captured when the French attacked this village in 1752, 
 were Croghan 's associates. 55 At the time of its de- 
 struction, Croghan was making it a new center for his 
 trading operations towards the Wabash. 
 
 Croghan also followed the Ohio below the forks 
 for several hundred miles. In 1750 we find him trading 
 at the large Shawnee village, Lower Shawnee Town, 
 near the mouth of the Scioto, where he had a storehouse 
 valued at £200. 56 His trading ventures probably did 
 not go beyond the falls of the Ohio. For this region he 
 used water transportation to some extent. 
 
 From Pine Creek and Lower Shawnee Town as bases, 
 his traders worked the region south of the Ohio in what 
 is today known as West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. 
 Here the curtain is lifted but once to show us a highly 
 significant and interesting incident and we are left to 
 surmise from this what took place during the years 
 before 1754. In January, 1753, a party of seven Penn- 
 sylvania traders and one Virginia trader were attacked 
 by seventy French and Indians at a place about one 
 hundred and fifty miles below Lower Shawnee Town 
 on the Kentucky River. All their goods were lost. Two 
 of the traders escaped and six were taken prisoners to 
 Montreal ; two of these were sent to France, and later 
 made their return home after many hardships. All 
 except one had been associated with Croghan in busi- 
 ness; their loss was stated to have been £267, 18s, of 
 which about forty-five per cent represented the cost of 
 transportation. 57 
 
 It is in the report of this incident that there occurs 
 one of the earliest uses of the word "Kentucky;" it 
 
 66 Jour, of Capt. Wm. Trent, July 6, 1752, 86-88; 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 7. 
 
 66 Croghan 's Deposition, 1777, in Gal. of Ta. State Papers, 1 : 276; 
 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 7. 
 
 " O'Callaghan, E. B. : Cal. of Hist. MSS. in Office of Sec'y of State, 
 603; Letter of the prisoners to R. Saunders, Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 627; 
 Trent to Gov. Hamilton, Apr. 10, 1753, Gist's Journals, 192; 0. Co. 
 MSS., 1 : 7. 
 
22 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 being spelled ' ' Kantucqui " and ' ' Cantucky. " 58 Lewis 
 Evans utilized information secured from members of 
 this party for his maps. These traders were trading 
 with the Cherokees in Kentucky and, according to one 
 statement, they had been even in Carolina trading with 
 the Catawbas. The friendly Indian, who was with the 
 party, may have guided them along Warriors' Path 
 into Carolina. No reasonable doubt exists, however, 
 that Croghan 's traders frequented Kentucky twenty 
 years before Daniel Boone made his famous excursions 
 into this region. 
 
 In a summary of Indian affairs, probably prepared 
 in 1754 for the new Governor of Pennsylvania, there 
 occurs the following unique description of Croghan 's 
 field of activities : "Croghan & others had Stores on ye 
 Lake Erie, all along ye Ohio . . ., all along ye 
 Miami River, & up & down all that fine country watered 
 by ye Branches of ye Miamis, Sioto & Muskingham 
 Rivers, & upon the Ohio from .... near its head, 
 to below ye Mouth of thee Miami River, an Extent of 
 500 miles, on one of the most beautiful Rivers in ye 
 world, . . . ," 59 With great daring and boldness 
 Croghan pushed out to the periphery of the English 
 sphere of influence where danger was greater, but 
 prizes richer, than in less remote regions. He did not 
 neglect the latter, however. His active and unceas- 
 ing efforts to push and develop his trade probably did 
 more than any other one factor to increase English in- 
 fluence west of the mountains. The export of furs and 
 skins from Philadelphia showed a marked increase dur- 
 ing the decades before 1754. The French came to regard 
 Croghan and his associates as poachers upon their 
 private beaver warrens. 
 
 68 Pa. Gaz., July 30, 1754; Deposition of one of the prisoners, Pa. 
 Col. Rec, 5 : 663. 
 
 "Detail of Indian Affairs 1752-4, Pa. Arch., 2:238; the use of 
 the phrase "Croghan and others" instead of "the Pennsylvania Traders" 
 or "the English traders" is excellent evidence of Croghan's pre-eminence. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 23 
 
 Of the number of men and packhorses employed by 
 Croghan we can but make an estimate. In his affidavit 
 of losses due to attacks by the French during the period 
 1749 to 1754, the names of about twenty-five employees 
 occur and more than one hundred packhorses are men- 
 tioned as having been captured. In all probability at 
 least a like number escaped attack. It is also probable 
 that on an average at least two men were stationed at 
 each of the half dozen or more posts maintained by 
 Croghan. Those of his traders who were paid a wage 
 received about £2 per month. 60 
 
 About half of his trading activities Croghan con- 
 ducted solely on his own responsibility ; about one-third 
 were carried on in association with William Trent, who 
 was Croghan 's partner from 1749 to 1754 and perhaps 
 even longer; in the remaining portion Croghan was 
 "concerned" with William Trent, Robert Callender 
 (Callendar) and Michael Teaffe (Taffe). These four 
 men were associated in trade from about 1749 to 1754. 61 
 Croghan 's chief competitors were the five Lowrey 
 brothers, who were closely associated with the Jewish 
 merchants, Joseph Simon and Levi Andrew Levy at 
 Lancaster; Callender and Teaffe; James Young and 
 John Fraser; the three Mitchells; Paul Pierce, John 
 Finley and William Bryan ; and the individual traders, 
 Thomas McKee, Hugh Crawford, John Galbreath, John 
 Owen and Joseph Neilson. 62 The field available was 
 large enough, however, so that cooperation rather than 
 competition was the rule among Pennsylvania traders. 
 The competition which they met from New York and 
 Maryland was slight and for a long time Virginia In- 
 dian traders had a tendency to drift southwest instead 
 of across the mountains. Probably a few entered the 
 
 60 O. Co. MSS., 1 : 7. 
 81 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 7. 
 « 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 85-S 
 
24 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 Ohio country before 1754. 63 However, one of the 
 motives in the formation of the Ohio Company in 1749 
 was to secure a share of the profitable trade which was 
 monopolized by the Pennsylvania traders and had it 
 not been for the coming of the French, in all likelihood 
 a bitter cut-throat competition between the Virginians 
 and the Pennsylvanians would have ensued. 64 
 
 Croghan 's eastern factors included Quakers, Episco- 
 palians and Jews. Probably his chief factor was the 
 firm of Shippen and Lawrence; the following quotation 
 from Croghan 's letter to Lawrence, dated "Pensbor- 
 row, Sept. 18, 1747," is illustrative: "I will Send you 
 down the thousand weight of Sumer Skins Directly, by 
 first waggon I Send Down, I have Gott 200 pisterens & 
 som beeswax To Send down to you, as you and I was 
 talking of, To Send To Medera. " 65 In September, 1748, 
 Croghan shipped "1800 weight of fall deer skins" to 
 Philadelphia. 66 He also had business relations with 
 Jeremiah Warder and Co., S. Burge and Co., Abraham 
 Mitchel and Co. and probably with others. 67 
 
 It is significant to note that even the most prominent 
 Pennsylvania trader after he had developed a prosper- 
 ous business, did not furnish much of the capital he 
 needed, but secured it in Philadelphia and Lancaster. 
 By far the largest amount was supplied by Richard 
 Hockley, Receiver-General of Quit-rents. 68 Richard 
 
 63 No mention of such traders was encountered in this study. The 
 various memorials sent to the Crown between 1756 and 1775 by the 
 Indian traders, asking restitutions for their losses in the Ohio country 
 from 1749 to 1754, include no Virginia or Maryland traders; had there 
 been many they probably would have pooled their claims in spite of 
 their great rivalry. 
 
 04 Croghan to , July 3, 1749, Prov. Pap. 10 : 62. 
 
 w Prov. Pap., 10:17. Cf. Croghan to B. Gratz, Mar. 15, 1779, 
 McAllister Coll. (Library Co. of Philadelphia). 
 
 " Geo. Gibson to Edw. Shippen, Sept. 28, 1748, Shippen Corresp. 1 : 75. 
 
 "Original accounts, O. Co. MSS., 1 : 12, 14, and 68; Peters MSS., 
 3 : 46. Etting Coll., Misc. MSS.; Votes of the Assembly, 4 : 524-525. 
 
 68 Shippen Corresp., 1:159; ra. Col. Rec, 5:743; O. Co. MSS.. 
 1 : 15. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 25 
 
 Peters, Secretary to the Council, also invested some 
 capital with Croghan, 69 as did other easterners. 
 
 Croghan had probably the largest trade of all the 
 Pennsylvania Indian traders in an age when they were 
 most enterprising. He is spoken of in 1747 in the 
 Minutes of the Provincial Council, as a "considerable 
 Indian Trader" and in 1750, as "the most considerable 
 Indian trader. ' ' 70 Governor Morris in 1756 wrote that 
 "For many years he has been very largely concerned in 
 the Ohio trade. •. ." n The lawsuits in the Common 
 Pleas Court of Cumberland County in which Croghan 
 was involved give a side-light on his business status. 
 From 1751 to 1753, eleven cases involving more than 
 £2500 came up. 72 The long list of Croghan 's eastern 
 creditors and the private moratorium for ten years 
 which they succeeded in having passed for him and his 
 partner, Trent, is one measure of the size and im- 
 portance of his activities. The best concrete evidence 
 which we have of the relative size of his business is 
 contained in the list of losses, due to the coming of the 
 French, of thirty-two individuals or partnerships en- 
 gaged in the Pennsylvania Indian trade. The total 
 losses were approximately £48,000; Croghan 's indi- 
 vidual losses were stated to be over £8000, or twice as 
 large as the loss of any other individual ; Croghan and 
 Trent's losses were placed at more than £6500, or twice 
 as large as the loss of any other partnership or indi- 
 vidual; Croghan, Trent, Callender and Teaffe's losses 
 were placed at almost £2500, and were among the larger 
 
 0J Deed Bk., A, 1, p. 19, Reg. of Deeds, Carlisle, Pa. We have a 
 long list of Croghan's creditors in 1754, but whether they had furnished 
 him capital or goods, or both is not evident. 
 
 70 Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 72, 461. 
 
 71 Gov. Morris to Gov. Hardy, July 5, 1756, Pa. Arch., 2 : 689. 
 
 72 O. Co. MSS., 2:114. George Ross, who was later to become 
 chairman of the United Illinois and Wabash Land Co., and Joseph 
 Galloway, later interested in the Indiana Co., served as Croghan's 
 attorneys. 
 
26 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 losses. Thus Croghan 's losses were about one-fourth 
 of the total losses. 73 This probably indicates the rela- 
 tive size of his trade. 74 
 
 That Croghan had so quickly reached such a position 
 of pre-eminence was due to several factors. In 1741 
 the Pennsylvania traders had opened up, but not yet 
 exploited, the rich resources of the upper Ohio country. 
 The French left it unoccupied for another decade and 
 for almost half that time war practically eliminated 
 them as competitors. During King George's War the 
 operations of the British navy made it so difficult for 
 the French to secure goods for the Indian trade that 
 prices advanced as much as one hundred and fifty per 
 cent. The effect of these conditions on Indian relations 
 is suggested in the following unusual episode reported 
 by Weiser in 1747. A French trader in the Ohio coun- 
 try offered but one charge of powder and one bullet to 
 an Indian in exchange for a beaver skin. Thereupon 
 "The Indian took up his Hatchet, and knock 'd him on 
 the head, and killed him upon the Spot." Several 
 factors made it also easy in time of peace for Croghan 
 and his fellow English traders to meet French competi- 
 tion. The English practically had a monopoly of rum 
 and strouds, two of the most important articles that en- 
 tered into the Indian trade ; other articles for this trade 
 could be manufactured more advantageously by the 
 English than by the French. Though the English trad- 
 ers were not directly supported by their government, 
 neither were they handicapped by minute regulations. 
 
 73 O. Co. MSS., 1 : 85-86; cf.. ibid, 1:7. In a letter to Sir Wm. 
 Johnson, May 15, 1765, Croghan estimates both his own and Trent's 
 losses at between £5000 and £6000, or about half of their government 
 claim.— Johnson MSS. (N. Y. State Library), 1 : 168. This would not 
 affect the relativity of his losses, however. Cf. Pa. Col. Rec., 5 : 663; 
 Gist's Journals, 192. 
 
 71 A modern French historian writes of the "fameux traitant George 
 Croghan l'adversaire acharne des Francais." — Villiers du Terrage: 
 Les Dernieres Annees de la Louisiane Francaise, 87 ; cf . Moreau : 
 Mcmoire contenant le precis des faits, etc., App. V, 89ff. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 27 
 
 The northern winter closed up the St. Lawrence for 
 nine months out of the year. Because of the rapids 
 in this river it took the French from twenty to forty 
 days to go from Montreal to the Niagara Portage, 
 whereas Pennsylvania traders could go from the Sus- 
 quehanna to the Ohio in less than twenty days. 75 
 
 Moreover, the character of most of the English 
 traders was such that it was not difficult for an able 
 man to surpass them. Governor Dinwiddie wrote to 
 Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania on May 21, 1753 : 
 "The Indian traders, in general, appear to me to be a 
 set of abandoned wretches," and the Assembly of Penn- 
 sylvania, in a message to the Governor, February 27, 
 1754, said: ". . . our Indian trade [is] carried on 
 (some few excepted) by the vilest of our own Inhabi- 
 tants and Convicts imported from Great Britain and 
 
 Ireland These trade without Controul 
 
 either beyond the Limits or at least beyond the Power 
 of our Laws, debauching the Indians and themselves 
 with spirituous Liquors. . . . " 76 Croghan, like 
 James Adair and Alexander Henry, was one of the few 
 men of ability who personally embarked in the Indian 
 trade. The malicious envy of his fellow traders, how- 
 ever, was seldom aroused by his success. Christopher 
 Gist, the agent of the jealous "Ohio Company, described 
 him as i ' a meer Idol among his Countrymen, the Irish 
 traders." However, when Gist was traveling in the 
 interests of the Ohio Company through what is now 
 Ohio and encountered the hostility of the Indians, he 
 used Croghan 's name to protect himself and was glad 
 
 " Vaudreuil to Minister, Apr. 12, 1746, C 13A, 30 : 57, 245, same 
 to same, Apr. 8, 1747, C 13A, 31 : 52-55; instructions to La Galis- 
 soniere, etc., Feb. 23, 1748, B 87 : 31; C 13A, 36 : 309; La Galissoniere 
 and Hocquart to Minister, Oct. 7, 1747, Wis. Hist. Coll., 17 : 470, 
 503; Beauharnais to Minister, Sept. 22, 1746, ibid, 17 : 450; Celeron's 
 Journal, ibid, 18 : 43, 57; Weiser's Report, Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 86. 
 
 76 Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 630, 749. 
 
28 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 to avail himself of Croghan 's company and influence 
 during the journey. 77 
 
 Neither did Croghan arouse the enmity of the natives, 
 as did so many traders, but instead, he furthered his 
 trading operations by making intimate friends among 
 the Indians, particularly of their chiefs ; these friends 
 were to stand him in good stead at critical times in later 
 years. 78 At Logstown, in 1752, when the treaty was 
 being made between Virginia and the Ohio Indians, the 
 leading Iroquois chief, Half King, spoke of Croghan 
 as "our brother, the Buck" who "is approved of 
 by our Council at Onondago, for we sent to them to 
 let them know how he has helped us in our Councils 
 here : and to let you and him know that he is one of our 
 People and shall help us still and be one of our 
 Council. ' m 
 
 The friendship of the Indians for Croghan was due 
 to various factors. He learned the Delaware and 
 Iroquois languages and could express himself in the 
 the figurative speech so dear to the Indian. 80 He had 
 an intimate knowledge of their customs and traits of 
 character. Most important of all, however, was the 
 fact that he regarded the Indian, not as a dog, but as a 
 human being. The Indian was ready to befriend the 
 trader who was reliable and fair in his dealings and 
 who was willing to render services to the red man in 
 need. 81 Not once do the records examined for this 
 study tell us that Croghan personally killed an Indian 
 
 "Gist's Journals, Nov. 25, 1750, 35. 
 
 78 Croghan's Journals and Letters in Thwaites, R. G. : Early Western 
 Travels, 1 : 82, 107, 142, 150. 
 
 n "Journal of the Va. Commissioners," Va. Mag. of Hist, and Biog. 
 13; 165; this report was made by rivals of Croghan. Thomson states 
 that Croghan, when in council, sometimes claimed he was an Indian: — 
 Alienation of the Delawares and Shawnees, 173. 
 
 80 Croghan's deposition, 1764, Penn. MSS., Wyoming Controversy, 
 5 : 71; N. Y. Col. Docs., 7 : 295. 
 
 61 At times Croghan cared for sick Indians in his home. — Pa. Arch., 
 2 : 13. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 29 
 
 or that he gloried in their destruction. He labored to 
 maintain peace between the Indians and the English, 
 knowing well that an Indian war might mean death to 
 many traders and would almost certainly mean bank- 
 ruptcy to him, since almost the whole of his fortune was 
 represented in packs of skins and furs several hundred 
 miles from the nearest white settlements across the 
 mountains. That Croghan was fearless is self-evident ; 
 every Indian trader accepted danger as a matter of his 
 daily routine. The average trader's life must have 
 been short. If a trader survived crisis after crisis 
 when others were ruthlessly struck downj it was usually 
 due to his Indian friends and his own superior intelli- 
 gence. The material weapons of the white man were 
 of but little value as a means of defense in the heart of 
 the Indian country. 82 
 
 Other personal qualities which helped to make 
 Croghan successful were his habit of early rising and 
 of putting in long hours of work, 83 his vigor, and his 
 shrewd tactfulness in barter. George Morgan in a letter 
 to his wife, July 8, 1766, in describing the members of 
 a rather large party going down the Ohio, said of Cro- 
 ghan: "But above all Mr. Croghan is the most enter- 
 prising man, He can appear highly pleased when most 
 chagrined and show the greatest indifference when most 
 pleased. Notwithstanding my warm temper, I know 
 you would rather have me as I am than to practice such 
 deceit." 84 
 
 While a number of factors were responsible for Cro- 
 ghan 's success, but one factor, over which he had no 
 control, was responsible for his bankruptcy, viz., the 
 aggression of the French in the Ohio country from 1749 
 
 82 Byars : The Fur Trade, the beginning of Transcontinental High- 
 ways as Trails followed by Fur Traders, Gratz Pap., 1st ser. (Mo. Hist. 
 Soc. ) , 6 : 1-35 ; cf . ibid, 6 : 44-50. 
 
 88 Day, R. E.: Cal. of Sir. Wm. Johnson MBS., 193. 
 
 "III. Hist. Coll., 11 : 316. 
 
30 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 to 1754. The Pennsylvania traders in a memorial ask- 
 ing restitution stated that the French forces and their 
 Indian allies "most barberously and unexpectedly at- 
 tacked" them in time of profound peace in Europe. 85 
 Croghan summarized the effect on himself as follows : 
 "Capt Trent & myself were deeply engaged in the In- 
 dian Trade. We had trusted out great quantities of 
 Goods to the Traders ; the chief of them were ruined by 
 Robberies committed on them by the French & their 
 Indians & those which were not quite ruined when the 
 French army came down as well as ours for what the 
 French and Indians had not robed us of, we lost by 
 the Indians being prevented from hunting, by which 
 means we lost all our debts. After this Coll. Washing- 
 ton pressed our Horses by which means a parcell of 
 Goods & Horses we had left fell into the Enemy's hands, 
 our whole losses amounts to between five and Six 
 Thousand Pounds." 86 
 
 This estimate included goods and horses taken at 
 Venango in 1749 and valued at approximately £1255; 
 goods valued at £329 taken with two traders on the 
 uj^per Scioto in 1749; seven horse loads of skins and 
 two men taken west of Muskingum in 1750 ; and three 
 men and their goods taken in the Miami country in 1751. 
 At the capture of Pickawillani, assuming that Croghan 
 had an equal share in those goods which belonged to 
 Croghan and Trent and to Croghan, Trent, Callender 
 and Teaffe, Croghan lost approximately £1000, or one- 
 third of the total loss. In 1753 goods valued at £267, 
 18s. were captured on the Kentucky River. The news 
 of other attacks by the French early in 1753 sent Cro- 
 ghan and some of his traders hurrying back through 
 the woods or up the Ohio and caused Trent to leave 
 Virginia with provisions for them. No longer was it 
 safe for an English trader to venture far beyond the 
 
 85 0. Co. MSS., 1 : s. 
 . *" Croghan to Sir Wm. Johnson, May 15, 1765. Johnson MSS., 1 : 168. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 31 
 
 forks of the Ohio. John Frazier, who had left Venango 
 and established himself fourteen miles south of the 
 forks, wrote on August 27, 1753: "I have not got any 
 Skins this Summer, for there has not been an Indian 
 between Weningo and the Pict Country hunting this 
 Summer, by reason of the French." 87 In the fall of 
 1753, the French occupied Venango. Callender and 
 Teaffe, Croghan 's associates, wrote home describing 
 conditions and added, "Pray, Sir, keep the News from 
 our wives, but let Mr. Peters know of it, . . ," 88 Cro- 
 ghan 's men and packhorses were near the Ohio in 
 1754 awaiting developments, when Washington com- 
 mandeered the horses to help carry his cannon and 
 stores on his retreat to Ft. Necessity, leaving to the 
 French goods of Croghan and Trent, valued at £369. 
 
 Croghan 's losses included, besides movable goods 
 and horses, boats, buildings, and improvements on 
 lands ; debts of the Indians, which made up one-half of 
 the total losses ; and most serious of all, the entire field 
 of his activities, where all of his customers lived, was 
 now entirely closed to him. The business which he 
 had built up through years of activity was ruined and 
 he himself was so deeply involved in debt that if he re- 
 turned to his home in the east -he would be imprisoned 
 for debt. 
 
 To a man who for years had known the freedom of 
 the western wilderness and to whom the sky had served 
 as a roof, night after night, death was preferable to 
 immurement in a cell of an eighteenth century debtor's 
 jail. .Croghan therefore kept out of the immediate 
 reach of the law and established a new home near the 
 path which he had traveled for many years. This he 
 located on Aughwick Creek near its confluence with the 
 Juniata, at the site of the present town of Shirleysburg. 
 
 87 O. Co. MSS., 1 : 7-8; Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 222; Trent to Gov. Hamilton, 
 Apr. 10, 1753, Gist's Journals, 192; ibid, 37; Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 660. 
 "Letter to Win. Buchanan, Sept. 2, 1753, Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 684. 
 
32 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 Here, surrounded by mountains on all sides, was a 
 small fertile valley which still belonged to the Indians 
 in 1753. Croghan had erected a house here as early 
 as September, 1753, and his whereabouts was well 
 known to the authorities of Pennsylvania. 89 ' ' I Live 30 
 
 Miles back of all Inhabitance on ye f ronteers " 
 
 wrote Croghan to Sir William Johnson, on September 
 10, 1755, 90 while to Governor Hamilton he wrote on No- 
 vember 12, 1755 : ' ' From ye Misfortunes I have had in 
 Tread, which oblidges me to keep at a Greatt distance, 
 I have itt nott in my power to forward Intelegence as 
 soon as I could wish. . . " 91 After Braddock 's defeat, 
 the oncoming tide of fire and slaughter threatened to en- 
 velop Croghan in his exposed position ; friendly Indians 
 came with intelligence of raids by the French and their 
 Indian allies and desired that Croghan be given 
 "speedy Notice to remove or he would certainly be 
 killed, ' ' and several times rumors came to Philadelphia 
 that he had been cut off. 92 
 
 Life at Aughwick was not so difficult, nor was Cro- 
 ghan so destitute, as might be supposed. He still had 
 at least fifty packhorses, and like the typical frontiers- 
 man, he had some cattle. He also had some negro 
 slaves and some servants ; the latter were probably in- 
 dentured servants. His brother staid with him and 
 doubtless some of his employees remained with him. 
 Conrad Weiser, who visited him, reported to the Gover- 
 nor that Croghan had butter and milk, squashes and 
 pumpkins, and between "twenty-five and thirty Acres 
 of the best Indian Corn I ever saw;" Croghan made his 
 home at Aughwick from 1753 to about July, 1756. To 
 protect themselves, he and his men erected a stockade 
 
 SB Pa. Col. Rec, 5 : 675. 707 ; Pa. Arch., 2 : 689. 
 
 90 Johnson MSS., 2 : 212. 
 
 91 Pa. Arch. 2 : 484. 
 
 02 Pa. Arch., 2 : 452, 454. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 33 
 
 around their log buildings. It is self-evident that this 
 was not an ordinary squatter's improvement. After the 
 French and Indian War Croghan secured legal title to 
 the lands which he had improved and to other nearby 
 tracts. 93 Under the circumstances, imprisonment would 
 be unjust. Croghan 's services as Indian Agent to 
 Pennsylvania deserved consideration. If imprisoned 
 he could not reengage in business and thus pay his nu- 
 merous creditors. But most important was the need by 
 the government for his great knowledge of Indian af- 
 fairs and for his influence with the Indians during the 
 critical times which followed Braddock's defeat. 
 
 In other similar cases where only a few small credi- 
 tors were concerned, the usual method of a general let- 
 ter of license was employed, 94 but Croghan 's creditors 
 were so numerous and scattered that this method was 
 not feasible in his case. As early as December 2, 1754, 
 he had written Peters asking if the Assembly could not 
 pass an act of bankruptcy for himself and Trent, and 
 if so, how he should proceed. 95 
 
 Some of his friends evidently interested themselves 
 in his cause, for on November 26, 1755, a petition was 
 introduced into the Assembly, signed by fifteen of his 
 creditors, asking leave to bring in a bill granting Cro- 
 ghan and Trent freedom for ten years from all legal 
 procedure to collect debts contracted before the passage 
 of the act. This was granted and the bill was promptly 
 passed and sent to the Governor. When he considered 
 it in Council, Richard Hockley appeared and stated that 
 he had not been notified of the proposed action, though 
 he had been in partnership with Croghan and Trent 
 and was by far their largest creditor; he suggested 
 
 M James Burd to , Mar. 11, 1755, Shippen Corresp. 1 : 173; 
 
 Croghan to Gov. Morris, May 20, 1755, Pa. Col. Bee, 6 : 399; Weiser 
 to Gov. Hamilton, Sept. 13, 1754, ibid, 149. 
 
 "Votes of Assembly, 4 : 524; Byars: B. and M. Gratis, 31. 
 
 95 Pa. Arch., 2 : 211; ibid, 214. 
 
34 George Croglian and the Westward Movement. 
 
 an amendment which the Governor and assembly ac- 
 cepted and the bill became law on December 2, 1755. 96 
 
 The charter of Pennsylvania required that all acts 
 be submitted to the crown for approval or disapproval 
 within five years of their passage. The act passed on 
 December 2, 1755, was not delivered by the agent of the 
 Penns to the Clerk of the Privy Council till January 20, 
 1758. On February 10, this body referred it to the 
 Board of Trade for examination. The Board of Trade 
 at once referred it to the Attorney-General, who 
 reported back to it on April 10, 1758, that there 
 was no legal objection to the act. The Board then 
 discussed the merits of the act, granting the Penns an 
 opportunity to state their attitude. On May 12, the 
 Board in a representation to the Privy Council 
 recommended that the act be disallowed. On June 
 16, an order in council was issued in almost the 
 exact words of the representation, disallowing the act. 
 A copy of this order was sent to the Board of Trade 
 on May 21, 1760, and read there on July 8. It then 
 informed the Governor and Colonial Agent of Penn- 
 sylvania of the action taken. 
 
 The order in council expressed surprise at the delay 
 in delivering the act, that such an extraordinary in- 
 dulgence should be granted on the petition of only a 
 portion of the creditors and that the bill should be intro- 
 duced one morning, read twice during the same morn- 
 ing, never committed, and passed on the afternoon of 
 the same day; it annulled the act as being unjust and 
 partial, irregularly passed, contrary to the rules of 
 justice in all cases affecting private property and a 
 dangerous precedent. By the time, however, that this 
 
 "Votes of Assembly, 4 : 524-527; Pa. Stat, at Large, 5 : 212-216; 
 Pa. Col. Rec, 6 : 743-745; Gov. Morris to Gov. Hardy, July 5, 1756, 
 Pa. Arch., 2 : 689; Hockley's amendment is not given. He had made 
 
 a special agreement with Croghan and Trent. — James Burd to , 
 
 Sept. 25, 1754, Shippen Corresp., 1 : 159; 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 15. 
 
George Croglian and the Westward Movement. 35 
 
 order reached America and came to the notice of the 
 various creditors, Croglian had enjoyed the benefits of 
 the act during about five of the ten years provided by it. 
 He had made some arrangements to meet his obliga- 
 tions and was now an imperial official performing much- 
 needed war services, and hence imprisonment from 
 debt no longer troubled him. 97 
 
 The traders who suffered losses as a result of the 
 French aggression, together with the eastern merchants 
 who were their creditors, soon began an active, well- 
 planned campaign to secure restitution. Efforts were 
 made by Croglian and Trent to collect, first from Vir- 
 ginia and then from Braddock, the losses incurred when 
 Washington impressed their horses. After these 
 efforts failed, Croglian, Trent, a number of their em- 
 ployees, and nine other traders gathered at Carlisle, 
 Pennsylvania, and made numerous detailed affidavits 
 of their losses. Croglian himself made five affidavits. 
 Governor Morris signed the complete document, which 
 listed about half of all claims made. A number of 
 traders also gathered at Lancaster and Philadelphia 
 and took similar action. 98 
 
 These thirty-two traders then authorized William 
 Trent to draw up a memorial in their behalf to be 
 presented to George II in Council. 99 It asked for reim- 
 bursement out of the money received from the sale of 
 French prizes taken before the declaration of war in 
 retaliation for French aggression. These prizes were 
 sold for £650,000 ; 10t> the total traders' claims amounted 
 
 07 Acts of the Privy Council, Col. Ser., 1745-1766, 341; Board of 
 Trade Pap., Prop., XX, W 14, W 20, W 49; Board of Trade Jorunal, 
 68; 189; Pa. Stat, at Large, 4 : 576, 577, 582, 584, 585, 592; Pa. Col. 
 Rec. 8 : 320. This is a good illustration of the way in which royal 
 disallowance of Pennsylvania laws actually worked. 
 
 88 O. Co. MSS., 1: passim, particularly 7, 85, 86. 
 
 90 O. Co. MSS., 1 : 5-7. 
 
 100 Acts of the Privy Council, Col. Ser., Unbound Pap., 353. 
 
36 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 to £48,572, 4d. The critical situation during the war 
 caused this memorial to be neglected. When peace 
 negotiations began, another memorial was sent to the 
 crown asking that the French be required to indemnify 
 the traders and merchants. Its failure ended the at- 
 tempts to secure restitution in money from the French. 
 Thereafter all efforts were directed towards securing 
 restitution in the form of a large grant of land from the 
 Indian allies of the French ; this promised greater 
 speculative opportunities. 
 
 Meanwhile many traders had transferred their inter- 
 ests in the project to the merchants whom they owed. 
 Croghan and Trent had agreed with Richard Hockley 
 that his debt should be paid first out of any money they 
 received; Hockley and Thomas Penn in England be- 
 came their attorneys to push their cause. After 1763, 
 the entire project became associated with the more 
 promising project of the "Suff'ring Traders" of 
 Pontiac's uprising for which it served as a precedent 
 and which led to the "Indiana plan," which will be 
 described in a later chapter. In December, 1763, Cro- 
 ghan, Trent, Samuel Wharton, David Franks and eight 
 other traders and merchants interested in both projects 
 met at Indian Queen Tavern, Philadelphia, to lay plans 
 which would take advantage of Croghan 's proposed 
 journey to England. Croghan and a merchant in Lon- 
 don, Moses Franks, were made the agents of the group 
 and £410 sterling was contributed for their expenses. 
 They were spurred on by the guarantee of five per cent 
 of all money or land secured. The agents were to 
 present a memorial in person. They sought the aid of 
 Generals Amherst and Gage, Colonel Bouquet, the Gov- 
 ernor, Assembly and the London Agent of Pennsyl- 
 vania, the Penns, and all the British merchants who had 
 any connections with the persons involved and who 
 might bring influence to bear on the Board of Trade or 
 the Privy Council. In spite of all these efforts, no re- 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 37 
 
 suits were secured. 101 An indirect approach was now 
 attempted as a last resort. Sir William Johnson was 
 requested to secure a grant of land from the Six Na- 
 tions at Ft. Stanwix for the claimants of 1754 similar 
 to the grant secured by the claimants of 1763. He 
 maintained that the Six Nations were not responsible 
 in the former case and refused the request. 
 
 Nevertheless, when Trent and Wharton went to 
 England to represent the claimants of 1763, they also 
 planned to secure some recompense for the claimants of 
 1754. Trent secured a renewal of his powers of at- 
 torney from thirteen of the latter, of whom Croghan 
 was one. To secure the necessary funds, Trent turned 
 over his powers to Samuel Wharton, David Franks, 
 Benjamin Levy, Thomas Lawrence, Edward Shippen, 
 Jr., and Joseph Morris. These were to receive one- 
 half of all money or lands secured in return for financ- 
 ing the project. They sent Moses Franks to London, 
 who, on February 22, 1771, presented to the Board of 
 Trade a memorial in behalf of George Croghan, 
 William Trent, and eleven other Indian traders. In 
 1773 he was still in England cooperating with William 
 Trent to secure favorable action. 102 
 
 Some of the other claimants of 1754 refused to give 
 precedence to the claimants of 1763, or to cooperate 
 with them. They presented a separate memorial in 
 1769 asking that no lands be granted to the claimants of 
 1763 unless all traders who had suffered losses from 
 1750 to 1763 be granted a proportionate recompense. 
 This division weakened the cause of all the claimants. 
 Their claims were still pending when the Eevolution 
 
 101 Minutes of the Meeting in Philadelphia, Instructions to Croghan 
 and Franks, and the Memorial are found in the Johnson MSS., 24 : 190- 
 191; cf. 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 15-16. 
 
 102 The legal papers drawn up in America are found in the 0. Co. 
 MSS., 1 : 57-71; Trent to Moses Franks, Jan. 1, 1773, ibid, 97; Royal 
 Hist. MSS. Com., Fourteenth Report, Appendix, Part X, MSS. of the 
 Earl of Dartmouth, 2 : 74. 
 
38 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 ended all hopes of securing restitution from Eng- 
 land. 103 
 
 Some of the traders who had lost so heavily in 1754 
 maintained that they were not bound to pay their debts 
 to the merchants unless they received restitution. "I 
 will pay them when I am reimbursed and surely that is 
 all they can ask of me or anybody else," wrote one of 
 them. 104 Croghan, however, tried to free himself of his 
 liabilities. As early as 1754 he had conveyed some 
 lands in the Cumberland Valley to Richard Peters. In 
 1761, Croghan and Trent paid £1000 to their creditors 
 and transferred to them some lands on Aughwick 
 Creek, receiving a full discharge from all their 
 creditors, even though this did not completely cover 
 their debts. They had, however, in addition, assigned 
 to their creditors a prior lien on all financial reim- 
 bursement which they might receive from the crown. 
 When it seemed as though they might be reimbursed in 
 land, their creditors tried to include it under the above 
 assignment, but to this Croghan would not submit. 
 The debts which Croghan did not pay in full remained 
 to trouble him to his last days. He felt morally bound 
 to pay the principal, but not the interest. On March 
 15, 1779, he wrote to Barnard Gratz ". . . . itt was 
 of my own free will I promised to pay all those old 
 Debts which was Nott Commonly Done by people that 
 failed in Trade." Some of his creditors insisted on 
 being paid both principal and interest and also asked 
 for payment in coin which during the Revolution was 
 very difficult to obtain ; consequently, they failed to se- 
 cure a settlement. 105 
 
 103 O. Co. MSS., 1 : 53, 57; Acts of the Privy Council, June 9, 1769, 
 2 : 114, p. 44. 
 
 101 Hugh Crawford to Trent, Dec. 10, 1768, 0. Co. MSS., 1 : 54. 
 
 105 Peters MSS., 6 : 87 ; Deed of D. Franks and J. Warder to Croghan 
 and Trent, July 19, 1761, Deed Bk. M, I : 402, Register of Deeds, 
 Huntingdon Co., Pa.; Croghan to J. Warder and D. Franks, Dec. 21, 
 1768, Gratz Pap. 1st ser., 8 : 105; Croghan to B. Gratz, March 15, 1779, 
 McAllister Coll. 
 
George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 39 
 
 Never again after 1754 did Croghan devote his major 
 attention to the Indian trade. At intervals he made 
 a few shipments of furs and skins to London or Phila- 
 delphia, and in the early seventies he was associated 
 with Thomas Smallman in the Indian trade. He also 
 assisted such friends as the Gratzs to make good 
 connections with the Indians. His chief attention 
 after 1754, however, was devoted to his work as an 
 Indian agent and later on to land speculation and 
 western colonizing projects. 106 Even before the in- 
 roads of the French into the Ohio region became seri- 
 ous, his interest was being transferred to furthering 
 the official relations between the Ohio Indians and 
 Pennsylvania. Private as well as public interests 
 caused such men as Croghan to enter into the service of 
 the government to aid in saving English rule in the 
 West. 
 
 Croghan 's wide experience for over a decade in the 
 actual field work as an Indian trader was the founda- 
 tion upon which his later career was built. During 
 these years he secured an intimate first hand knowledge 
 of the Indian, learning how to manage the red man and 
 making personal friends with some of the chiefs. He 
 also learned to know the frontiersman and the friends 
 he made among his more able white associates co- 
 operated with him in later years. And finally, he be- 
 came well known to the wealthy merchants and highest 
 officials in Lancaster and Philadelphia; these were 
 the men who gave him his first opportunities to show 
 his value as an Indian agent and to whom Croghan was 
 
 106 These statements are based on the lack of any evidence in the 
 records examined to show large and consistent trading activities. For 
 the exceptions see, Pa. Col. Rec, 9 : 495; Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., 
 37; 13, 194; 0. Co. MSS., 2 : 24; Croghan to M. Gratz, July 29, 1773 
 and to B. and M. Gratz, Aug. 26, 1772, Simon Gratz Coll. A striking 
 exception is a consignment of furs valued at £1200 sterling and shipped 
 via Detroit and Quebec to London: — Croghan to Richard Neave and 
 Son, June 24, 1767, Dreer Coll. 
 
40 George Croghan and the Westward Movement. 
 
 to bring a new interest in the great West beyond the 
 mountains. 
 
 During the period 1741 to 1754, Croghan left behind 
 him the life of Dublin and was transformed into a typi- 
 cal American frontiersman. He followed the roads 
 that led west from Philadelphia, and traveled practi- 
 cally every path and trail which began where the roads 
 left off, crossed the mountain barrier, and then spread 
 out over the region bounded by Lake Erie, the Maumee 
 and Wabash Rivers and the Cumberland Mountains. 
 He crossed and recrossed the mountains. His journeys 
 enabled him to spy out the finest lands strategically lo- 
 cated. As he lived day after day in the fertile valley 
 of the Ohio and on the Lake Plain in the primeval 
 forests, he unconsciously imbibed a deep-seated ap- 
 preciation of the vast possibilities of the region, which 
 was later to develop into a vision of the future great- 
 ness of the trans-Allegheny region. His deep love for 
 the western wilderness and his outlook towards the west 
 were to have a dynamic influence during the next two 
 decades upon the leaders who lived in the Delaware 
 Valley and whose outlook was towards the ocean. His 
 influence was also to be felt in Virginia, New York, New 
 Jersey and in London itself. 
 
 Albert T. Volwiler, 
 Harrison Research Fellow, 
 University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 (To be continued.) 
 
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