History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 4

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4
USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4

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Ileckewelder, however, attempts to rescue the good name of the humbled Delawares by giving some of their explanations, intended to show that the epithet "women," as applied to them by the Iroquois, was originally a term of distinction rather than reproach, and "that the making women of the Delawares was not an act of compulsion, but the result of their own free will and consent." He gives the story, as it was narrated by the Delawares, substantially in this way : The Delawares were always too powerful for the Iroquois, so that the latter were at length convinced that if wars between them should continue, their own extirpation would become inevitable. They accord- ingly sent a message to the Delawares, representing that if continual wars were to be carried on between the nations, this would eventually work the ruin of the whole Indian race; that in order to prevent this it was necessary that one nation should lay down their arms and be called the woman, or mediator, with power to command the peace between the other na- tions who might be disposed to persist in hostilities against each other, and finally recommending that the part of the woman should be assumed by the Delawares, as the most powerful of all the nations.

The Delawares, upon receiving this message, and not perceiving the treacherous intentions of the Iro- quois, consented to the proposition. The Iroquois then appointed a council and feast, and invited the Delawares to it, when, in pursuance of the authority given, they made a solemn speech, containing three capital points. The first was that the Delawares be (and they were) declared women, in the following words :

"We dress you in a woman's long habit, reaching down to your feet, and adorn you with car-rings," meaning that they should no more take up arms.

The second point was thus expressed : "We hang a calabash filled with oil and medicine upon your arm. With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of other nat- tions, that they may attend to good and not to bad words; and with the medicine you shall heal those who are walking in foolish ways, that they may return to their senses and ineline their hearts to peace." The third point, by which the Delawares were exhorted to make agriculture their future employment and means of subsistence, was thus worded : "We deliver into your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe." Each of these points was confirmed by delivering a belt of wampum, and these belts were carefully laid away, and their meaning frequently repeated.

"The Iroquois, on the contrary, assert that they conquered the Delawares, and that the latter were forced to adopt the defenseless state and appellation of a woman to avoid total ruin. Whether these ditfer- ent accounts be true or false, certain it is that the Delaware nation has ever since been looked to for the preservation of peace and intrusted with the charge of the great belt of peace and chain of friendship, which they must take care to preserve inviolate. Ac- cording to the figurative explanation of the Indians, the middle of the chain of friendship is placed upon the shoulder of the Delawares, the rest of the Indian nations holding one end and the Europeans the other."*

It is evident that the clumsy and transparent tale of the Delawares in reference to their investiture as women was implicitly believed by Heckewelder and other Indian missionaries, who apparently did not realize that which no reader can fail to perceive,- that if their championship and explanation were to have any influence at all on the world's estimate of their Indian friends, it conkl hardly be a favorable one, for it would only tend to show that they had suf- fered themselves to be most ridiculously imposed upon by the Iroquois, and that they were willing to ne- knowledge themselves a nation of imbeciles rather than admit a defeat which in itself brought no dis- grace on them, and was no impeachment of their courage or warlike skill.

Gen. William Henry Harrison, afterwards Presi- dent of the United States, in his " Notes on the Aborigines," said, in reference to the old missionary's account of the Delawares' humiliation,-

" But even if Mr. Heckewelder had succeeded in making his readers lu'lieve that the Delawares, whou they submitted to the degradation pro- pred to them by their enemies, were influenced, not by fear, but by the benevolent desire to put a stop tu the calamities of war, he has estul- lished for them the reputation of being the most egregious dupes and fools that the world has ever seen. This Is not often the case with Indian Muchom». They are rarely cowards, but still more rarely are they defici- ent In angacity or discernment to detect any attempt to impme on them. I sincerely wish that I could unite with the worthy German in removing the stigma upon the Delawares."

It was not a lack of bravery or military enterprise

. Notes on the Indians, by David Zelsburger.

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

on the part of the Delawares which caused their over- throw; it was a mightier agent than courage or energy : it was the gunpowder and lead of the Iro- quois, which they had procured from the trading Dutch on the Hudson almost immediately after the discovery of that river, which had wrought the down- fall of the Lenape. For them the conflict was a hopeless one, waged against immeasurable odds,-re- sistance to the irresistible. Under a reversal of con- ditions the Delawares must have been the victors and the Iroquois the vanquished, and no loss of honor could attach to a defeat under such circumstances. It is a pity that the tribes of the Lenape should vainly have expended so much labor and ingenuity upon a tale which, for their own sake, had better never have been told, and in which even the sincere indorsement of Heckewelder and other missionaries has wholly failed to produce a general belief.

When the old Iroquois chief Connossatego, at the treaty council in Philadelphia, before referred to, commanded the Delawares instantly to leave the council-house, where their presence would no longer be tolerated, and to prepare to vacate their hunting- grounds on the Delaware and its tributaries, the out- raged and insulted red men were completely crest- fallen and crushed, but they had no alternative and must obey. They at once left the presence of the Iroquois, returned to the homes which were now to be their homes no longer, and soon afterwards mi- grated to the country bordering the Susquehanna, and beyond that river.

This forced exodus of the Delawares, however, was chiefly from the Minisink and other sections of coun- try to the north and northwest of the counties of Somerset and Hunterdon, and had very little effect on the Indian population of the territory now com- prised in these counties ; for, however great may have been the state, and however numerous the subjects, of the traditionary " Raritan king" in earlier years, there were at the time in question (A.D. 1742) but very few Indians living within the territory of these counties, and those few were embraced in small roving bands, few, if any, of which had permanent villages or places of habitation. "The Indians living on the Raritan," says the Rev. Dr. Messter,* "were only a remnant of the large and numerous tribe once located there. It is said they left and went to live at Metu- chen because the freshets in the river spoiled the corn which they were in the habit of burying in pits on the lowlands. Another inducement was the fish, oysters, and clams so easily obtained on the shores of Raritan Bay. The immense heaps of shells found in several localities on its shores attest the rich har- vest which they gathered out of its waters. A few huts were found on the south side of the river, oppo-

site the village of Raritan, and they had a 'burial- place' on the second river-bank, at the gate of R. H. Garretson .; We may imagine, then, how the lonely river flowed on for centuries between its willow- fringed banks from summer to winter, while the rich grass on its meadows wasted because there were no animals except a few deer who fed upon it, and how the wild fruits afforded feasts for the squirrel and the forest bird or perished untouched because there was no living creature to enjoy the bountiful repast. It might almost without romance be called a 'retired paradise,' but without its 'Ethiopian emperor' to rule over it. ... Its primitive inhabitants, even, had de- serted it almost entirely and gone towards the sea- shore, attracted by the abundant food, and only the beasts claimed it as their home."

The following, having reference to the Indian bands which were formerly located in Hunterdon County, is from a series of papers entitled "Traditions of our Ancestors," published in the Hunterdon Republican about ten years since :

" There are extant many proofs of Indian tribes dwelling io the vicin- ity of Round Valley and Cokesbury. William Alpaugh, now (1870) somewhat advanced in years, living in the east end of the valley, says that when he was a boy he frequently spoke of [with ?] so aged man who had lived in that section before the Indians had quitted it. He often went, in company with other boys, to fish in the streams near by, and, while they used hooks, the Indians shot them with spears and arrows. When they came to divide the fish the Indians were always very precise about it, taking care that each one should have his exact share. Mr. Al- paugh says that he has seen, near Cokesbury, numerous Indian graves ranged io rows and surrounded by stones piled upright around each mound. . . . On the farm where Abraham Hunt now lives, near Cokes- bury, there were standing, fifty years ago, near a stream, a muunber of huts built of sticks, and from fonr to six feet high, very dilapidated ; and tradition does not give the time when they did not stand there. This fact is some evidence that the tribes of this section made their home here.

" The arrow spear-heads found in the Round Valley were once very numerous, and some fine specimens are still occasionally picked up. Mr. Alpaugh says that in passing over the mountain southeast of the valley he discovered, several years ago, a pile of stones in the forest ar- ranged in such a manner as left no doubt in his mind that they had been placed there, when the trees were small saplings, to mark au Indian burial-place. These were the customary monuments in this section. . . .

"There is a tradition among the descondants of James Alexander that while he was surveying over the most rugged part of Kushetunk Moun- tain he found a large heap of stones piled together with some regularity, which, being romoved, revealed a rudely-arched vault containing the remains of seven warriors, with their arms, ornaments, and ntonsils around them. There were beads of bone and copper, wrist- and arm- bands of the same metal, and a number of pipes, besides leather legging and other articles of Indian dress. The general appearance was that they were all warriors of the same tribe, and to each one was affixed the symbolic characters showing the order in which they had succeeded each other. There was nothing in common in these relics with those of the thon existing tribe to show that they wore the same people. The trees seemed to have grown there since this vault was built, and the proba- bility is that it was the resting-place of seven generations of kings who had roamed up and down here long before the white people came. . . .

¡ There was also an Indian burial-ground at the mouth of One-Mile Run, above Raritan Landing. In an ancient survey a line striking the river nt that place is described as " commencing at the bank of the Rar- itan, in an Indian burying-ground."

There was an Indian settlement on the east bank of the Millstone, at the month of Six-Mile Run. Many hatchets, pestles, and other imple- monts were found there in carly y'eurs.

* Centennial History of Somerset County, by Abraham Messler, D.D., pp. 33, 34.

INDIAN OCCUPATION .- THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE.

Mr. Alexander and his party enrofully replaced the stones, fearing lest the Indians, discovering his invasion of this ancient sepnichre, would be incensed against him. The spot may yut be rediscovered upon that wild nud rugged, unfrequented summit. There is no reason why there should not be found there mounds more snnkon, but still containing bones of thensands of the race that has passed away, like those of Vir- ginia aml the West."

Of the latter portion of this extract it seems hardly necessary to remark that the "probability" referred to by this writer-that the seven skeletons represented " seven generations of kings"-is not a very strong one, and that the same doubt may be telt as to the likelihood of the existence here of sepulchres con- taining the "bones of thousands of the race that has passed away," even if we admit the authenticity of the very doubtful tradition concerning Mr. Alexan- der's discovery and subsequent re-covering of the mysterious arched vault.

The Indian occupation of Hunterdon County and the country to the northward of it is mentioned by the Rev. theorge S. Mott, D.D., in a very excellent and common-sense account, found in the " First Cen- tury of Hunterdon County," as follows :

" They [ the Minisi or Wolf tribe, living to the northward of the Turtle and Turkey tribes, which inhabited this lower portion of the State] were a very warlike rare, as their name indicated. Their southern boundary in this direction was that range of hills which stretches along the upper line of Hunterdon and the branches of the Raritan. Thus the const- tribes and the mountaineers enme together in this county. Many fami- lies of these chose to live by themselves, fixing their alle in villages and taking a name from their location. Each of these had a chief, who, however, was in a measure subordinate to a heat-chief." A family was situated on the Neshanic, called the Neshanie Indians. There was an- other settlement a mile from Flemington, on n brouk called the Minisi. One was near the Branch at Three Bridges. There they had a burying- gruuml; another, one and a half miles southwest from Ringos, along a creek on Jacob Thatcher's farm. Traces of their village can yet be seen there. Yet another was near Mount Airy Station, on the Alexsocken. There was quite a large settlement of them at Rocktown. Indeed, the Amwell valley was populated with them. Ax already stated, In 17033 the proprietors purchased of Heinhummoo n large tract of land in Hunter- dun lying west of the South Branch, and they also bought the title to all other lunds of the Indians who were supposed to have any right to them. These soutu to have been contented, and Hved in their villages on the most friendly tornis with the whites. But the game diminished us the country was settled, so that the Indians were constrained to resort to trade in order to procure the necessaries of life. They made winnlen ladles, bowls, trays, etc., which they exchanged for butter, milk, chick- cas, and meat. They soon acquired a fondness for Intextenting liquors, and when under their influence would quarrel and fight in n terrible manner. This became so great an evil that the Legislature in 1737 laid a penalty upon persons selling strong drink to the Indians, su as to in- toxicato them, and declaring all Indian sales and pawns for drink void.

" The defeat of Gen. Braddock in the summer of 1555 produced grent consternation throughout all the colonies and led to disastruns conse- quences. A hatred of the whites hul for years been growing in the hirarts of the Indians, who snw themselves becoming more and more helpless undor the steadily-Increasing eneronchments of the settlers. The wrungs which were Inflicted upon them by designing men aggra- vated their dislike, so that it was an easy matter for the French, and the Indlaus already lengued with them in hostilities, to persuade those tribes which had remained nominally at peace with the Inhabitants to Join them In n general uprising and onslaught upon the settlers, The Show- ners and Delwares were drawn Into this defection also ; bands of Indians joined them, many going from the Pines to the Blue Ridge under this ingelse. Numbers who had ronmed around the country, much like the tramjes of to-day, went off to join the Indian troops and never returned.

* Heckeweller's Indian Nations; Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. xii. pp. 18-32.

The people of this section and to the north were greatly afarmed at this state of things. The first inroads of the savages were down the Susque- banna, through Berks and Northampton Counties, across the Delaware into New Jersey, Some of the scalping-parties penetrated within thirty miles of Philadelphia. A letter from Easton, dated Dec. 25, 1755, states that the country all alove this town for fifty miles is mostly evacuated and rined. The people have mostly tled into the Jerseys. .. . The enemy modo Imt few prisoners, murdering altnost all that fell into their hands, of all ages and both sexes' The inbaldtanta of New Jersey, roused by these sufferings of their neighbors and fearing for their own towns, prepared to resist the foe, Governor Belcher dispatched troops promptly from all parts of the province to the defense of the western front- tier. d'ol. John Anderson, of Sussex County, collected four hundred men and secured the upper part of the State. During the winter of 17% and 1756 maranding-parties of French and Indians hung around this western bonler. To guard against their incursions a chinin of forts and block- honses was oreeteil along the mountain and nt favorable points on the east bank of the Delaware. Although the inronds of the savages were infrequent, and consisted of small bands, yet the fear which all felt that their midnight slumber might be broken by the war-whoop was sufficient to keep them inn constant terror. Many left their homes.t A loud call was made upon the Assembly for increased means of defense. This was done, and the force was placed under the command of Col. De Hart.t

"As an additional measure of protection a treaty was made with Temlynseung, whereby the Delawares and Shawnees on the Susque- hanna wore reconciled. The Legislature appointed a committee, who met the Indians of this State nt Crosswicks in the winter of 1756. Their grievances were heard patiently and then reported to the Legislature, which passed nets in 1757 to relieve them, One of these grievances was that the Indians had not been paid for certain tracts of land which bad Iwon takon from them. The only portion of Hunterdon which came within these elalma was n truet of twenty-five hundred neres, claimed by Teudlynscung himself, 'beginning at Ringas, and extending along tho Brunswick road to Neshannock Creek, thence up the same to George Hatten's, thence in a straight course to Petit's place, and so on to a hill called Paatquacktung, thence in a straight line to the place of the begin- ning, which tract was reserved at the sale,'-i.e., between Ringos and Copper Hill. The Legislature gavo the commissioners power to appro- printe sixteen hundred pounds to purchase a general relase of all these cluits, one-half of which was to be devoted to paying the Indians re- siding to the south of the Raritan. This offer was accepted, and a treaty concluded Oct. 26, 1758, mil thus ended nll difficulties with the Indians in New Jersey .¿ This paciffi ation was greatly nided and quickened by an association founded in Philadelphia in 1755, called 'The Friendly Association, fur regaluing and preserving penco with the Indians by pa- cifie mensures.' Another cause which contrilmted to this happy result wils that Teedynscung, who was king of the Delawares and a chief of very wide influence, was a Christian. He became such in 1749, and was baptized by the mime of Gideon. Also we may suppose that the In- fuence of John Reading, from 1737 to June, 1754, the acting Governor while most of these negotiations were in progress, would be exerted in behalf of liberal measures towards the Indians, inasmuch as his early experience as surveyor in Hunterdon County when it was yet a wilder- news and his subsequent residence in this frontier region would well qualify him to know their wrongs and their needs, while the plety which adorned his life would lead him to that charity which overlooks ignorance."

There were traditions among the descendants of the Minisink people that the tribe from which that place derives its name made frequent expeditions down the river and came back with white men's scalps hanging at their belts. They stole down on the Pennsylvania side, and crossed over to this State a little below the Hopewell hills ; then, returning on this side of the river, they would lie in ambush along the yet wild and rugged shores and pick off' any unfortunate trav-

+ Tradition says that people bild themselves in the opening of the mines at I'nion.

I Gordon's " New Jersey," pp. 122 and 124.

" Smith's " Now Journey," chap, will.

From MISS, of Dr. studiiford.

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

eler who might be passing along the river-path. An old Indian sachem used to relate that the steep hills along the Delaware had been the scene of more than one ambush and murder.

It was only the Indians from the upper country, however, who committed these acts of violence and bloodshed. Those whose domain embraced what are now the counties of Hunterdon and Somerset were uniformly peaceable and friendly in their intercourse with the settlers, by whom they were treated with justice and consideration. Their numbers in this region steadily decreased as the years passed, but it was the natural decadence of their race, and not the steel of the white man, that swept them away. But a very small remnant of the tribe was left here at the opening of the Revolution, and of these a few served in the army under Washington. In a very few years after the close of the war they had entirely disap- peared.

The right of the Delawares to the ownership of the lands south of the Raritan was recognized by the English, and large purchases were made from them from time to time as the needs of the settlers required, so that most of their lands had been sold prior to the treaty of 1758, at which the whole of their remaining titles were extinguished, except that there was re- served to them the right to fish in all the rivers and bays south of the Raritan, and to hunt on all unin- closed lands. A tract of three thousand acres of land was also purchased at Edge Pillock, in Burlington County, and on this the few remaining Delawares of New Jersey (about sixty in number) were collected and settled. They remained there until the year 1802, when they removed to New Stockbridge, near Oneida Lake, in the State of New York, where they joined their "grandsons," the Stockbridge tribe. Several years afterwards they again removed, and settled on a large tract of land on Fox River, Wis., which tract had been purchased for their use from the Menominee Indians. There, in conjunction with the Stockbridges, they engaged in agricultural pur- suits, and formed a settlement which was named Statesburg. There, in the year 1832, there remained about forty of the Delawares, among whom was still kept alive the tradition that they were the owners of fishing and hunting privileges in New Jersey. They resolved to lay their claims before the Leg- islature of this State, and request that a moderate sum (two thousand dollars) might be paid them for its relinquishment. The person selected to act for them in presenting the matter before the Legislature was one of their own nation, whom they called Shawus- kukhkung (meaning "wilted grass"), but who was known among the white people as Bartholomew S. Calvin. He was born in 1756. and was educated at Princeton College, at the expense of the Scotch mis- sionary society. At the breaking out of the Revolu- tion he left his studies to join the patriot army under

Washington, and he served with credit during the Revolutionary struggle. At the time when his red countrymen placed this business in his hands he was seventy-six years of age, yet he proceeded in the matter with all the energy of youth, and laid before the Legislature a petition in his favor signed by a large number of respectable citizens of New Jersey, together with a memorial, written by his own hand, as follows :

"MY BRETHREN: I am old and weak and poor, and therefore a fit representative of my people. You are young and strong and rich, and therefore fit representatives of your people. But let me beg you for a moment to lay aside the recollections of your strength and of our weak- ness, that your minda may be prepared to examine with candor the sub- ject of our claims.

"Our tradition informs us-and I believe it corresponds with your records-that the right of fishing in all the rivers and bays south of the Raritan, aud of hunting in all uninclosed lands, was never relinquished, but, on the contrary, was expressly reserved in our last treaty, held at Crosswicks in 1758. Having myself been one of the parties to the sale, -I believe, in 1801,-I know that these rights were uot sold or parted with.

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History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 4

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170