History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 9

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140

USA > New Jersey > Sussex County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 9
USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 9

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to cross the Delaware; when one of the four fired among them the savages immediately fled, setting up a most dismal yell, and leaving Cole's wife and son at liberty, who made the best of their way along the road to one McCarty's, to which place the soldiers soon after came. The woman said the Indians talked English and Dutch, and she was sure one was a white man. Capt. Gardner is gone with two parties to waylay the road to Wyoming and Cochecton. The Indians, thinking they were discovered, killed the two Ger- man prisoners, and after scalping them eut off one of their heads and fixed it on his breast, the two bodies being since found.

" On the Thursday following, the daughter of the Widow Walling, near Fort Gardner, between Goshen and Minisink, was killed by three Indians as she was picking up chips for the fire. Her shrieks alarming the house, her brother ran up-stairs, and, seeing the Indians scalping his sister, he fired at them from the garret-window, and is sure he wounded one of them. The mother and other daughter in the mean time made their e-cape, and the son likewise got off' clear."

The same magazine for June 30, 1758, has the fol- lowing:

"PERTH AMBOY, June 30 .- On the 12th instant one Walter Vantile, a sergeant of the forces stationed upon the frontier of this province in the county of Sussex, having received information that a party of Indians had crossed the river Delaware into Pennsyl- vanin, took nine soldiers with him and went over the river in pursuit of them. They made diligent search after the Indians in different ways, but could make no discovery of them. However, for that night they eneamped upon the river, about six miles above Cole's Fort, and in the morning they scouted back from the river about four miles ; at last they discovered an In- dian walking towards the place where they had lain the night before, whom they pursued, but he got into a swamp and made his escape. The sergeant and his party then took the same course towards the river which the Indian was steering, and when they came to the bank of the Delaware they heard some Indians chopping on a small island in the river, and saw ton of them making a raft in order to cross the river. Vantile and his men watched them very strictly the whole night. In the morning, early, the Indians packed up their clothes and other things and waded the river, drawing their raft after them. Vantile, per- ceiving by their course that they would land higher up than where he and his men were posted, crept pri- vately up the river until they came within one hun- dred yards of them, when they saw a smoke upon the shore and an Indian rise up, who came towards the soldiers, but he soon returned to the fire and took up his gun; upon which about fifteen Indians rose up and Inid hokl of their guns. The sergeant then or- dered his men to fire upon them, and the Indians re- turned the fire and advanced; the aforesaid ten In- (lians who were coming from the island also fired very

* This magazine was edited by Samuel Nevill, who preslted as princi- pai Judge during the first courts held in Sussex County. It was the first publication of the kind in New Jersey.

SUSSEX AND WARREN COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

briskly. The sergeant and his men sustained the attack with great courage, and after fighting six rounds and boldly advancing towards the enemy the Indians fled in great confusion, leaving behind them four guns, four tomahawks, three pikes, fifteen pairs of moccasins, fifteen pairs of stockings, and other sun- dry things. These are supposed to be the same In- dians who had attacked Uriah Westfall's and Abra- ham Cortwright's houses.

"His Excellency Governor Bernard hath sent up orders to the officers upon the frontiers to restrain the soldiers from leaving their quarters and straggling iuto the woods to hunt and shoot, as the same is cer- tainly a dangerous and pernicious practice; for on Friday last William Ward was shot and scalped as he was hunting within a half mile of No. 3, in the county of Sussex ; and the same day about noon a house was burnt on the opposite side of the river. The Indians shouted and fired several guns while it was burning.

"Some days since a man and a boy, traveling along the public highway in the said county of Sussex, werc attacked by the Indians. The man was shot dead; the boy was surprised, but, finding one of the Indians in pursuit of him, he had presence of mind, as the last refuge, to turn and fire upon him, and saw him drop. The other Indian still pursued, and the boy, perceiving that his gun so retarded his flight that he must be taken, broke it to pieces against a rock, that it might not fall into the enemy's hands, and made his escape from them. He then alarmed the people, who immediately went out upon the scout with guns and dogs, and, coming to the place where the boy shot the Indian, they found a great deal of blood, but not the body. They searched very diligently about the woods, when at last one of the dogs began barking ; and, going to see what was the matter, they found him barking at a bunch of brush, and, turning it aside, they found the Indian buried with his clothes and tomahawk, upon which they scalped him and brought away the things they found buried with him. On Tuesday, the 16th of June, Justice Decker, of the county of Sussex, brought the said Indian scalp and tomahawk to the city of Perth Amboy. This savage proves to be the notorious bloody villain well known by the name of Capt. Armstrong, a noted ring-leader of the Delawares, who, with other Indians, was con- cerned with Benjamin Springer (lately executed in Morris County ) in the murder of Anthony Swartwout, his wife and children."

VIII .- CONFERENCES-NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE.

The Legislature appointed a committee, who met the Indians of this State at Crosswicks in the winter of 1756. Their grievances were heard patiently, and then reported to the Legislature, which passed acts to relieve them.

In June, 1758, Governor Bernard, of New Jersey, consulted Gen. Forbes and Governor Denny, of Penn- sylvania, as to the measures best calculated to put

a stop to the unpleasant warfare, aud through Teedy- escung, king of the Delawares, he obtained a con- ference with the Minisink and Pompton Indians, protection being assured them .* The conference took place at Burlington, Aug. 7, 1758. On the part of the province, there were present the Governor, three commissioners of Indian affairs of the House of As- sembly, and six members of the council. Two Mini- sink or Mnnsey Indians, one Cayuga, one Delaware messenger from the Mingorans, and one Delaware who came with the Minsics were the delegates on the part of the natives. The conference opened with a speech from the Governor. He sat holding four strings of wampum, and thus addressed them : "Brethren, as you are come from a long journey through a wood full of briers, with this string I anoint your feet and take away their soreness ; with this string I wipe the sweat from your bodies; with this string I cleanse your eyes, ears, and mouth, that you may see, hear, and speak clearly, and I partien- larly anoint your throat that every word yon say may have a free passage from your heart; and with this string I bid you welcome." The four strings were then delivered to them. The result of the con- ference was that a time was fixed for holding another at Easton, at the request of the Indians, that being, as they termed it, the place of the "old council."

The act passed in 1757 appropriated sixteen hun- dred pounds for the purchase of Indiau claims; but, as the Indians living south of the Raritan preferred receiving their portion in lands especially devoted to their occupancy, three thousand and forty-four acres in the township of Evesham, Burlington Co., were purchased for them. A house of worship and several dwellings were subsequently erected, forming the town of Brotherton ; and, as the selling or leasing of any portion of the tract was prohibited, as was also the settlement of any persons upon it other than Indians, the greatest harmony appears to have prevailed be- tween its inhabitants and their white neighbors.t

On Oct. 8, 1758, the conference commenced at Eas- ton. It was attended by the lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania, six of his conneil, and an equal num- ber of members of the House of Representatives, Governor Bernard, of New Jersey, five Indian com- missioners, George Croghan, Esq., deputy Indian agent under Sir William Johnson, a number of mag- istrates and freeholders of the two provinces, and five hundred and seven Indians, comprising delegates from fourteen different tribes. The business of the confer- ence was conducted mainly by Governor Bernard, who in its management evinced no small degree of talent and tact. It was closed on the 26th of October, and the result was a release by the Minisink and Wapping Indians of all lands claimed by them within the limits of New Jersey for the sum of one thousand

* Smith's " New Jersey," pp. 447, 448.

+ Allison's " Laws," p. 221.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755.

pounds. Deeds were also obtained from the Dela- wares and other Indians, and it was declared " that by these two agreements the province of New Jersey is entirely freed and discharged from all Indian claims." At least, such was the opinion of Governor Bernard und the Indians; but the Assembly the ensuing March, in answer to the Governor's speech, mention a small claim of the Totamies and some private claims still outstanding. The minutes of this interesting confer- ence are printed at length in Smith's "History of New Jersey." The amicable relations thus happily begun remained undisturbed for several years.

In 1764 a frontier guard of two hundred men was again kept up some time in consequence of disturb- ances in Pennsylvania, but the alarm soon subsided. In 1769, Governor Franklin attended a convention held with the Six Nations by several of the colonial Governors, and informed the Assembly on his return that they had publicly acknowledged repeated in- stances of the justice of the New Jersey authorities in bringing murderers of Indians to condign punish- ment, declared that they had no claim whatever upon the province, and in the most solemn manner con- ferred on its government the title of Sagorighiviyogstha, or the "Great Arbiter," or " Doer of Justice," a name which the Governor truly remarked reflected high honor upon the province .*

IX .- TEEDYUSCUNG.

Teedyuseung, the last king of the Delawares, was in many respects a very remarkable and noble char- acter. AAlthough he took up the tomahawk against the whites in 1755, and was the chief leader in that struggle, it was because he believed he had a just cause. He was made king of the Delawares west of the mountains in 1756. In May of that year he and his Indians left their headquarters at Wyoming and repaired to Diahoga, a strong Indian town at the Forks of the Susquehanna, now Athens, J'a. In July, 1756, he visited Bethlehem, at the invitation of the Governor, preparatory to the first conference held at Easton, and is spoken of by Reichel as follows in his " Memorials of the Moravian Church :"

"Capt. Newcastle returned to Bethlehem on the evening of the 17th. With him came Teedyuscung and upwards of thirty other Indians, men, women, and children, pursuant to the Governor's invitation ; this was the first appearance of the chief within the settlement since he had taken up the hatchet. On the 18th he met Maj. Parsons in conference in Jus- tice Horsfield's office. It was u memorable interview, in as far as on that occasion Teedyuscung for the first time proclaimed his kingship. Ilis private coun- selor, Tapescawen, or Tapescohung, Newcastle, C'apt. Insley, from Fort Allen, and a few others, were present ; John Pompshire interpreted. Producing a string of wampum whereby to confirm what he de-

sired to say, he dictated this message to the Governor in reply to the invitation he had received to meet him at Tulpehocken : 'Brother the Governor of Pennsyl- vanin, I have received the word by your messenger kindly. Upon it I have come, as you have given me good words, which are called council-fire. At the Forks of Delaware we will sit down, and wait there, and shall be ready. I am exceeding glad that there are such thoughts and methods taken in respect to our women and children. I shall, I hope, be ready to let you know a little further when we shall meet. This what I have now in short spoken is not only from me, but also from my unele the Mohawk [the Six Nations), and from four other nations [the Delawares, Shawan- ese, Monseys, and Mohicans], which in all make ten; and these ten have but tico heads of kings between them.'"

Teedyuscung and his companions were escorted to Easton on the 19th, pursuant to the Governor's order issued to Maj. Parsons. On July 24, 1756, three members of the council were sent to notify Teedyus- cung that the Governor was come. On attempting to use John Pompshire, "one of the best and discretest of the Jersey Indians," as interpreter, the king ob- jected, and signified as his choice Indian Benjamin, "an impudent, forward youth who had enlisted in the Jersey companies and afterwards deserted, going over to the enemy at Diahoga." Upon this Pompshire de- clared he would not be concerned in interpreting if Benjamin were allowed to speak. He carried his point, and subsequently became the king's favorite interpreter.

After the treaty Teedyuseung loitered for a while at Fort Allen. Aug. 17, 1756, he returned to Beth- lehem with a few of his associates, for the twofokt purpose of enticing his niece Theodora away and of prevailing with the Christian Indians to accompany him to Diahoga; he set out the next day for the fort without having accomplished his object. On the 21st his wife and children arrived. The king, they stated, had gone to the Minisink to arrest his Indians in their depredations in that quarter.t

Monday, Nov. 8, 1756, the second treaty with Tee- dyuseung was opened at Easton. Besides the Gov- ernor, William Logan, and Richard Peters, of his council, there were present, of the commissioners, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Fox, William Masters, and John Hughes; of the officers of the Pennsyl- vania provincial forces, Lieut .- Col. Weisser, Maj. Parsons, C'apt. Withershold, Capt. John Van Etten, and Capt. Reynolds; several other officers und a large number of gentlemen and citizens from New Jersey and Philadelphia. Tedyn-cung was attended by sixteen of his nation, four Indians of the Six Nations, two Shawanese, und six Mohicans. John Pompshire was interpreter. The king opened the conference by stating that he had kept the promise

t Bethlehem Djarist.

* New York Jonrun1, Oct. 26, 1,69.

SUSSEX AND WARREN COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

made by him at the last treaty, having since then informed all the Indian nations of the disposition of the English for peace. On being asked by the Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania whether he, the Governor, or the province had ever wronged him, and why he and his Indians had struck the English, the chief pro- ceeded to state that the false-hearted French king had tampered with the foolish-hearted young men of his people, but chiefly they had taken up the hatchet because the English had defrauded them of their land. "I have not far to go for an instance," con- tinued the speaker : "this very ground that is under me" (striking it with his foot) "was my land and my inheritance, and is taken from me by fraud. I mean all the land lying between Tohicon Creek" (a stream heading near Quakertown and emptying into the Delaware fifteen miles east of that place) "and Wyoming." The Governor hereupon offering him redress, Teedyuscung closed the conference by stating that he was not empowered to accept it; that he would meet the Governor at some future time, and then he would lay before him the extent of his griev- ances, and they could treat for a settlement of all disagreements and for a lasting peace.

This opportunity came at the third treaty of Easton, July 27 to Aug. 7, 1757. Teedyuscung having de- manded a secretary to take down the minutes for his revision, the demand was reluctantly granted him, and he chose Charles Thomson, "master of the pub- lic Quaker school in the city of Philadelphia,"-the same Thomson who was afterward secretary of Con- gress and author of the "Enquiry," in which he calmly and truthfully sets forth the injustice of the treatment of the Delawares in the land transaction of 1737. After an exchange of the compliments usually preliminary to business on such occasions, and the utterances of mutual assurances of regret for the past and good hopes for the future, the king stated that the purchase of lands by the proprietaries from Indians who had no right to sell, and their fraud- ulent measurement subsequently, whether by miles or by hour's walk, had provoked the war. This charge he demanded should be closely investigated, and, on evidence appearing that injury had been done to the Indians, they should have redress. "In that case," he said, "I will speak with a loud voice, and the na- tions shall hear me." Hereupon he stated his pur- pose to settle with his countrymen in Wyoming, adding that he would build a town there such as the white men build, and provide for the introduction of the Christian religion among his countrymen and for the education of their children. In conclusion, he de- manded that the deeds by which the lands in dispute were held should be produced, that they be publicly read, and that copies be laid before King George and published to all the provinces under his government. " What is fairly bought and paid for," he went on to say, "I make no further demand about; but if any lands have been bought of Indians to whom these

lands did not belong, and who had no right to sell them, I expect satisfaction for these lands. And if the proprietaries have taken in more lands than they bought of true owners, I expect likewise to be paid for that. But, as the persons to whom the proprieta- ries may have sold these lands, which of right he- longed to me, have made some settlements, I do not want to disturb them or to force them to leave them, but expect full satisfaction will be made to the true owners for these lands, though the proprietaries, as I said before, might have bought them from persons who had no right to sell them."

After some hesitation on the part of the province,- in consequence of difference of opinion as to the pro- priety of complying with the Delaware's request, in as far as Sir William Johnson had been commissioned hy royal appointment to hear the particulars of the charge brought against the proprietaries and the pro- prietaries' defense, and in consequence of Teedyus- cung's reluctance to treat with the baronet and his Indians, some of whom, he said, were parties to the unauthorized sale of lands,-the deeds relating to the purchase north of the Tohickon were produced and read. Agreeably to his request, furthermore, copies of them were promised him to dispatch to Sir William Johnson, to be transmitted hy the latter to King George for his determination. Upou this the Dela- ware rose to his feet, and, taking up two belts tied together, spoke as follows : "I desire you would with attention hear me. By these two belts I will let you know what was the ancient method of confirming a lasting peace. This you ought to have considered, and to have done; but I will put you in mind. You may remember when you took hold of my hand and led me down, and invited my uncles (several of whom are present), with some from each of the Ten Nations, when we had agreed, we came down to take hold of one of your hands, and my uncles came to take hold of your other hand. Now, as this day and this time are appointed to meet and confirm a lasting peace, we,- that is, I and my uncles, as we stand, and you, as you stand, in the name of the great king, three of us stand- ing,-we will all look up, and by continuing to ob- serve the agreements hy which we shall oblige our- selves one to another we shall see the clear light, and friendship shall last to us, and to our posterity after us forever. Now, as I have two belts, and witnesses are present who will speak the same by these belts, brothers, in the presence of the Ten Nations, who are witnesses, I lay hold of your hand" (taking the Gov- ernor by the hand), " and brighten the chain of friend- ship that shall he lasting, and whatever conditions may be proper for us to agree to may be mentioned afterwards. This is the time to declare our mutual friendship. Now, brother the Governor, to confirm what I have said, I have given you my hand, which you were pleased to rise and take hold of. I leave it with you. When you please I am ready, brother, if you have anything to say as a token of confirming the

PARTITION-LINE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST JERSEY.

peace, I shall be ready to hear, and, as you rose, I will rise up and lay hold of your hand. To confirm what I have said I give you these belts."

" We now rise and take you into our arms," replied the Governor, "and embrace you with the greatest pleasure as our friends and brethren, and heartily desire that we may ever hereafter look on one another as brethren and children of the same parents. As a confirmation of this we give you the belts." Gave a very large white belt, with the figures of three men upon it, representing His Majesty King George tak- ing hold of the king of the Five Nations with one hand, and Teedynseung, the Delaware king, with the other, and marked with the following letters : " G. R., 5 N., D. K.," for " King George, Five Nations, Dela- ware King."*

By the request of Teedyusenng, he was permitted to spend the winter of 1757-58 at Bethlehem. Reichel gives the following account of his sojourn in that place : "He accordingly had a lodge built him near 'The Crown.' Here he held court, and here he gave andience to all the wild embassies that would come from the Indian country, from the land of the im- placable Monsey, from the gates of Diahoga, and from the ultimate dim Thule of the Alleghany or Ohio country. Occasionally he would repair to Phil- adelphia or to the fort to confer with the Governor or with the commandant on the progress of the work of peace he was apparently solicitons of consummating without delay. Thus the dark winter months passed; and when the swelling maple-buds and the whitening of the shad-bush on the river's bank foretokened the advent of spring, there was busy preparation going on in 'Teedyuscung's company over the water' for their long-expected removal to the Indian El Dorado on the flats of the Winding River."

In the spring of 1758, "Teedyuseung's town" was finished; it stood a little below the site of Wilkes- barre. Seull's map of 1759 notes it as "Wioming." Early in 1758 he removed to this town, which, agree- ably to his request and the conditions of treaty, had been built for him and his followers by the English in the historic valley of Wyoming, on the east side of the Susquehanna. Here he lived not unmindful of his long-cherished object, and here he was burned to death on the night of April 19, 1763, while asleep in his lodge.

The Iroquois, it is said, were the instigators of this cowardly act, for they hated the man who testitied against their arrogant assumption and opposed their Inst of power. " As long as he lived he was a stand- ing rebuke to their designing oppression, and, although they no longer dreaded his arms, they feared his words, which left their guilty consciences no peace." Henee it was resolved in council that he ought not to live; and when news was brought back to Onon- daga that the lodge of the Delaware king and the

lodges of his men of war had disappeared in flames, the perfidious Six Nations triumphed in having de- stroyed an enemy whose spirit they had failed to sublue."

Teedyuseung had three sons, Amos, the eklest, Kesmitas, and John Jacob. The first, Tachgokan- helle, was baptized at Gnadenhütten by Bishop Can- merhoff, Dec. 14, 1750. He was then twenty-two years of age. His wife, Pingtis, a sister of Agnes Post, was baptized the same day, and received the name of Justina. She was a Jersey Delaware.

CHAPTER VIL.

PARTITION-LINE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST JERSEY.

I .- ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NORTHL STATION- POINT.

THE settlement known as the Quintipartite Agree- ment, whereby the province of New Jersey was sepa- rated into its eastern and western divisions by its pro- prietors, on the first day of July, 1676, was ratified and confirmed by an act of the Legislature passed on March 27, 1719. This agreement and aet established the division-line between the two sections of the province upon what was subsequently known as Law- rence's line, although this line was not actually run out till 1743, when John Lawrence was employed to survey it under the direction of the proprietors of East Jersey.

Soon after the passage of the act of 1719 commis- sioners appointed by royal patent proceeded to as- certain and determine the northern station-point de- seribed in the grant of the Duke of York, at which, according to the Quintipartite Agreement, the di- visional line from the east side of Little Egg Harbor was to terminate on the Delaware in latitude forty- one degrees and forty minutes. The manner in which this duty was performed by the commissioners and surveyors-general is shown by the following docu- ment, called

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History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 9

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1140

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140