Penn bought the land from the Indians, making a treaty of peace with them which remained unbroken for more than fifty years. “We shall never forget the counsel he gave us,” said an Indian chief at Conestoga in 1721. ---------- Colonel Daniel Brodhead Arrives at Fort Pitt to Fight Indians, March 5, 1779 Colonel Daniel Brodhead was sent to Fort Pitt to relieve General Edward Hand, and he arrived there March 5, 1779. He was a trained soldier and knew how to fight Indians. General Hand turned over to him seven hundred militiamen. Some of these were stationed at Fort McIntosh, at what is now Beaver, some at Fort Henry, now Wheeling, W. Va., a few at Fort Randolph, now Point Pleasant, details at Fort Hand, near Kiskimimetas, near Apollo, and another guard at Fort Crawford, now Parnassus. Forts Hand and Crawford were intended to protect the northern border of Westmoreland County from the raids of the Iroquois who lived on the upper waters of the Allegheny River. With the first mild weather of spring the incursions of the savages began. The Seneca and Munsee descended the Allegheny in canoes and scattered in little bands throughout the country. They burned cabins, killed and scalped men, carried off the women and children and household goods. Colonel Brodhead put into operation a system of scouting along the border from one fort to another. From his regulars at Fort Pitt, he selected his boldest and most experienced frontiersmen and organized ranging parties and sent them on extended tours through the forests. To the command of these important details he selected three of the bravest woodsmen in the Eighth Pennsylvania, Captain Van Swearingen, Lieutenant Samuel Brady and Lieutenant John Hardin. It was in this service that Brady won his fame as an Indian fighter. Samuel Brady’s hatred of the savages was personal and he made it his business to kill them. In this he was justified in the cruel death of his brother, James, August 8, 1778, which was followed by the treacherous murder of his father, the celebrated Captain John Brady, April 11, 1779. Samuel Brady received the news of his father’s death about the time he was chosen by Colonel Brodhead to the command of forest rangers. This increased his hatred of the red men and moved him to execute vengeance. Brady and his scouts were clad entirely in Indian fashion. In the forest excursions they even painted their bodies and faces and wore feathers in their hair, in imitation of savage warriors. An attack was made on Ligonier settlement in April. On April 26, one hundred Indians and Tories attacked Fort Hand, in both affairs defenders were killed and many captured, and other places were attacked and habitations burned. During May, Brodhead kept his scouts out along the upper Allegheny to give warning of the approach of hostile bands.