Journals of Conrad Weiser (1748), George Croghan (1750-1765), Christian Frederick Post (1758), and Thomas Morris (1764)Croghan, George
History
Journals of Conrad Weiser (1748), George Croghan (1750-1765), Christian Frederick Post (1758), and Thomas Morris (1764)
Croghan, George
Mississippi River Valley -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
The jealousy of the Indians over the encroachments of the settlers upon
their lands west of the mountains on the Juniata, and in the central
valleys of Pennsylvania, determined the government to expel the settlers
rather than risk a breach with the Indians. In this task, which must have
been uncongenial to him, Croghan, as justice of the peace for Cumberland
County, was employed during the spring of 1750.[3] The autumn of the same
year, found him beginning one of his most extensive journeys throughout
the Ohio Valley, as far as the Miamis and Pickawillany, where he made
an advantageous treaty with new envoys of the Western tribes who sought
his alliance. To Croghan’s annoyance, the Pennsylvania government in an
access of caution repudiated this treaty as having been unauthorized.
In 1751 Croghan was again upon the Allegheny, encouraging the Indians
in their English alliance, and defeating Joncaire, the shrewdest of
the French agents in this region, by means of his own tactics. The
next year, he was pursuing his traffic in furs among the Shawnees, but
without forgetting the public interest;[4] and the following year finds
him assisting the governor and Council at the important negotiations
at Carlisle.[5] This same year (1753) Croghan removed his home some
distance west, and settled on Aughwick Creek upon land granted him by the
Province. His public services were continued early in the next year by
a journey with the official present to the Ohio, where he arrived soon
after Washington had passed upon the return from the famous embassy to
the French officers at Fort Le Bœuf.
The outbreak of the French and Indian War ruined Croghan’s prosperous
trading business, and brought him to the verge of bankruptcy. While at
the same time a large number of Indian refugees, desiring to remain under
British protection, sought his home at Aughwick, where he felt obliged to
provision them, with but meagre assistance from the Province. To add to
his troubles, the Irish traders, because of their Romanist proclivities,
fell under suspicion of acting as French spies, and Croghan was unjustly
eyed askance by many in authority.[6] Although he was granted a captain’s
commission to command the Indian contingent during Braddock’s campaign,
he resigned this office early in 1756, and retired from the Pennsylvania
service.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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