When we think of 18th century forts on the Western Pennsylvania frontier, Fort Ligonier, Fort Necessity and Fort Pitt automatically come to mind.
Most people are unaware that there were also many private forts, or blockhouses, constructed to provide protection against Indian attacks. Walthour's Fort, located in North Huntingdon, just east of what became Irwin, was one of these structures.
Although they weren't military forts and did not quarter troops, these defenses were critical to the settlers who chose to remain here rather than flee to the safety of the east during Indian hostilities. The essential difference is that the private forts were maintained by volunteer militia companies or groups of settlers, while the military forts were manned by paid British or Colonial troops.
In 1768, the Iroquois and the English signed a Treaty at Fort Stanwix, N.Y., paving the way for settlement of the western frontier. The following year, Col. John Irwin, the chief commissary officer at Fort Pitt, purchased land near the future site of Fort Walthour. Irwin erected a log structure where he engaged in a fur trading business.
As pioneers moved into the Brush Creek watershed, there was a constant threat of Indian attack. The Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary dispute, known as Lord Dunmore's War, also led to armed conflicts. Finally, during the Revolutionary War, the British bribed the Indians to harass the frontier settlements.
By the spring of 1774, violence escalated as the Native Americans tried to drive the English east of the Alleghenies. That year, Christopher Walthour (originally spelled "Waldhower") built a stockade, surrounding his home and a two-story blockhouse, for the protection of his family and neighbors. Walthour's Fort served as the primary place of refuge for the Brush Creek settlers.
The majority of the settlers were German Reformed or Lutheran. When there was a threat of an Indian attack, church services were held at the nearby fort. It provided the only location for safe worship.
Many tales have been told about kidnappings, scalpings and plundering in the immediate vicinity of Walthour's Fort. In March 1781, James Davis and his son were killed near the fort, while two other people were captured.
In time, the settlers' situation had become so desperate that they petitioned General Irvine for military protection during the critical harvest time. The Brush Creek petition read in part:
"That since the commencement of the present war the unabated fury of the savages hath been so particularly directed against us, that we are at last reduced to such a degree of despondency and distress that we are now ready to sink under the insupportable pressure of this very great calamity. That from our fortitude and perseverance in supporting the line of the frontier and thereby resisting incessant depredations of the enemy, our bravest and most active men have been cut off from time to time, by which our effective force is so greatly reduced, that the idea of resistance is now totally vanished."
The petition, dated June 22, 1782, included signatures of four Walthours, Abraham and Joseph Studebaker, Michael and Jacob Byerly and Frederick Willard.
It was signed three weeks before the last hostile act of the Revolutionary War, the July 13, 1782, attack and burning of Hanna's Town by a raiding party of Indians and British Tories. The requested troops never arrived.
A "Fort Walthour" historical marker was erected in 1936 along Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Irwin-North Huntingdon border. At the time, the land was owned by the Clohessy family. Later, it was purchased by the G.C. Murhpy Co., which eventually constructed a Murphy's Mart there. The marker is the only remaining evidence of the fort's existence.
Now the marker overlooks the Kohl's parking lot, which was previously a wetlands area, as well as GetGo and Giant Eagle. Unfortunately, the exact location of the fort has been lost with the passing of time. It was once described as being "nine miles west of Greensburg, one and a half miles west of Adamsburg, and a mile or more east of Irwin. The blockhouse and stockade were located about 250 yards south of the highway close to the barn between two springs of water."
In recent years, the site has been a source of controversy. When Murphy's Mart was built, opponents of the project argued that the land should not be bulldozed because it was the site of historic Fort Walthour. When Kohl's was constructed, extensive archaeology digs turned-up no evidence of the fort. Finally, before construction began on the yet to be completed Mills Pointe retail development, it was pointed-out that the archaeologist's research at the Kohl's site indicated that the fort may have been established south of Route 30 on the property now being developed.
In each case, pleas were made to protect and preserve local history that, otherwise, might be lost in the name of progress.
