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1748]
Weiser's Journal
23
22d. Crossed Alleghany Hill & came to the Clear Fields, 16 Miles.[1]
23d. Came to the Shawonese[2] Cabbins, 34 Miles.
24th. Found a dead Man on the Road who had killed himself by Drinking too much Whisky; the Place being very stony we cou'd not dig a Grave; He smelling very strong we covered him with Stones & Wood & went on our Journey; came to the 10 Mile Lick, 32 Miles.
25th. Crossed Kiskeminetoes Creek & came to Ohio that Day, 26 Miles.[3]
- ↑ Of the plane where the Kittanning trail crosses the Allegheny Range, Jones writes (op. cit.), that the path is still visible, although filled with weeds in the summer. "In some places where the ground was marshy, close to the run, the path is at least twelve inches deep, and the very stones along the road bear the marks of the iron-shod horses of the Indian traders. Two years ago we picked up, at the edge of the run, a mile up the gorge, two gunflints,—now rated as relics of a past age.” Clear fields was at the head waters of Clearfield Creek, a branch of the Susquehanna River, in Clearfield Township, Cambria County. This is not to be confused with Clearfield (Chinklacamoos), an important Indian town farther north. See Post's Journal, post.—Ed.
- ↑ The Shawnees (Fr., Chaouanons), when first known, appear to have been living in Western Kentucky; they were greatly harassed by the Iroquois, and made frequent migrations which are difficult to trace. In 1692, they made peace with the Iroquois and the English, and portions of the tribe settled in the Ohio country and Western Pennsylvania. Intriguing with both English and French, they were treacherous toward both nations. The location of the cabins mentioned here by Weiser is not positively known—it was in the northern part of Indiana County; somewhere on the Kittanning trail.—Ed.
- ↑ Weiser turned aside from the regular trail that ended at the Delaware Indians' town of Kittanning, and followed a branch of the path that turned southwest; crossed the Kiskiminitas Creek at the ford where the town of Saltzburg, Indiana County, now stands; and reached the Allegheny River (then called the Ohio) at Chartier's Old Town, now Chartier's Station, Westmoreland County. It was at this point that in 1749, the French explorer, Céloron de Blainville, met six traders with fifty horses laden with peltries, by these sending his famous message to the governor of Pennsylvania to keep his traders from that country, which was owned by the French. Weiser calculated the distance of his journey by land as one hundred and seventy miles, and by deducting twenty miles for the detour at Black Log, made the distance from the settlements one hundred and fifty miles.—Ed.
