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Re-enactors capture Whiskey Rebellion spirit at Oliver Miller Homestead

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read
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Harry Funk / The Almanac

Joe Hanczak portrays a defiant William Miller, son of homestead founder Oliver Miller.

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Mary Pat Swauger serves as narrator for the Whiskey Rebellion day presentations.

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Mark Pearson gives a presentation on 18th-century firearms during Whiskey Rebellion Day at the Oliver Miller Homestead.

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Tom Noonan gives a presentation on 18th-century firearms during Whiskey Rebellion Day at the Oliver Miller Homestead.

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Jared Dallas, left, and Max Bader portray Marshal David Lenox and Gen. John Neville, respectively.

The rivalry between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia certainly predates Penguins vs. Flyers.

Back when the U.S. capital was in the so-called City of Brotherly Love – folks there generally believed it couldn’t possibly end up amid swampland next to the Potomac – the federal government decided to levy an excise tax on whiskey. And folks out on the frontier near the not-yet Steel City had no intention of paying.

By the summer of 1794, three years into being stiffed, President George Washington, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and others who would not end up pictured on currency decided they’d had enough.

“They decide that they’re going to send U.S. Marshal David Lenox to Western Pennsylvania,” Mary Pat Swauger told visitors to the Oliver Miller Homestead in South Park, explaining that Lenox would be armed with 60 writs of noncompliance for tax evaders. “He goes out and he serves them, and then finally he has one last one to serve, on July 15 of 1794.”

Exactly 224 years later, Swauger, past president of the Oliver Miller Homestead Associates, served as narrator for a trio of re-enactment skits during Whiskey Rebellion Day at the actual site of that particular chapter of American history.

Perhaps that long-ago day was as hot and humid as the 2018 edition, which would have exacerbated the tendencies of then-homeowner William Miller as described by Gen. John Neville: “He is a man of quick temper. Let us proceed with caution.”

And so started the first skit, “Serving the Writ,” which had Max Bader as Neville accompanying Jared Dallas as Lenox to the front door of the preserved and restored Miller cabin.

“Be it know that one William Miller,” Dallas read aloud, “citizen of Allegheny County, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, shall set aside all manner of business and excuses to appear without fail in his proper person before the judge of District Court of the United States of Philadelphia upon Aug. 17, 1794, and shall deliver a fine of $250 in silver pieces for violation of the amended federal excise law.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Dale Main, left, portrays James Miller learning that his brother has given him the family still. Also pictured are Mark Pearson, center, as Thomas Miller and Jim Chatham as family friend (and suspected saboteur “Tom the Tinker”) John Holcomb.

Quick temper or not, Miller – Joe Hanczak can take a bow for his portrayal – had every right to react to the writ the way he did, by shouting Neville and Lenox off his property.

After all, it wasn’t as if he could hop on the turnpike and arrive in Philly several hours later. And silver in the 1790s was extremely scarce in and around Allegheny County, especially for a farmer whose whiskey distilling pretty much represented a side project.

The interlopers’ exit also was prompted by warning shots from field hands whose leanings were with the Mingo Creek Association, the paramilitary group that formed in nearby Washington County in the wake of the excise tax.

Following the Miller confrontation, the irate Mingo Creek boys went on to burn down Neville’s house and, at the insistence of Washington attorney David Bradford, organize a militia to march on Pittsburgh.

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Casey Klos portrays Rachel Miller, William’s wife.

William Miller was among the men who reported for duty, and his pregnant wife, Rachel, was none too happy.

“I know William really did not want to leave, but he had no choice,” Rachel’s alter ego, Casey Klos, lamented in the second skit, “The Women Speak.”

“If he had stayed here, they would take it as if he had sided with the government. And they don’t care if I have a baby in the next few days or the next few hours.”

The would-be Pittsburgh invasion resolved itself relatively peacefully, but Washington and Hamilton were determined to put down once and for all what they considered to be a challenge to the authority of their government. They led a 15,000-man army toward Pittsburgh, news of which provided the impetus for the third Whiskey Rebellion Day skit, the self-explanatory “William Miller is Kentucky Bound.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Mike Kuhlman gives a presentation of firing an 18th-cetury rifle during Whiskey Rebellion Day at the Oliver Miller Homestead.

“I fear that my family is in more danger if we stay,” Hanczak-as-Miller explained. “And the worst thing that could happen to my family is to have me arrested, hauled off to Philadelphia and hung for treason.”

And he told his brother:

“Oh, by the way, James, I’m giving you the still. That thing is entirely too heavy for me to take with us when we are in such a hurry.”

The reaction of Dale Main, as James Miller:

“Ah, the family still. It’s a blessing.

“And a curse!”

For more information about the Oliver Miller Homestead, a Pioneer Landmark and Whiskey Rebellion site, visit www.olivermillerhomestead.org.

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Max Bader as Gen. John Neville listens while Jared Dallas, portraying Marshal David Lenox, reads the federal writ against William Miller.

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