USA > New York > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 16
USA > Pennsylvania > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 16
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No one was ever punished for the cruel Conestoga murders. A little after, Franklin's conquest, the governor issued a proclamation, offering a
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liberal bounty for scalps. One thing was attained Quaker pacifism was preserved, but Quaker serenity was disturbed by the bloody Presbyterians, who bombarded them with pamphlets and broadcasts of unseemly abuse, to which the Quakers rejoined them with productions of equal scurrility.1
NOTES-CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
1. Gordon, History of Pa., 406 to 410; Franklin's Works Vol. 4, 151, 152; Hazard's Register, Vol. 12; Rupp's History of Lancaster County, Chapter VII, beginning at page 350 contains many affidavits relating to the Conestoga murders and march of the rioters. Pamphlets and broadcasts are preserved in the City Library of Philadelphia. The inference from all written on the march of the rioters is that men belonging to neither faction and of sense, viewed the whole proceedings as a ridiculous exhibition of the weakness of the Pennsylvania government and the bitterness and inconsistency of religious contention.
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
FRIEDENSHUETTEN
Passengers, on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, may observe a plain, sub- stantial monument standing in the expansive, level meadow land lying between the railroad and the Susquehanna river, and about two miles below the station at Wyalusing. This marble shaft marks the site of a once con- siderable town, of happy and contented people, called by the Indians, Machwihilusing. There the Moravians established the famous mission of Friedenshuetten (Tents of Peace), in the year, 1765.
There were other ancient, native villages, near where the beautiful and meandering Wyalusing intermingles its waters with those of the great and winding river. Archaeologists, now explore the bluffs above the stream for vestiges of the first inhabitants, and, when the river floods bare the lowlands, gather the relics of a forgotten people. The scenic splendor, of the vicinity, allured successive generations of red men, who came and went with the vicissitudes of savage life. The rocks, rising to mountain summits on either side of the river, here and there, break away into broad intervales of fertile lowland. Nature enticed, not only, the bygone Indian, but the transient French nobleman and permanent English farmer to the romantic region of Wyalusing.
Thither came John Papunhank, the Indian moralist and there dis- coursed his philosophy to the inhabitants of Machwihilusing. The Mora- vian annalists called him a very sinful man, but as they failed to specify his sins, one suspects the principal one was not being a Christian of their own particular sect. Be that as it may, his derelictions could not have been so great, as he was the first of the sinners and with little probation con- verted at Machwihilusing, and there is no intimation, that he ever, after- wards, backslid the obligations of his conversion. David Zeisberger bap- tized him, in 1763.1
John Woolman, the celebrated Quaker evangelist came there, in June, 1763, and preached to the Indians, but, as they manifested a preference for the Moravians, went away.2 He described the place as follows :
"The town stands on the bank of Susquehanna and consists, I believe of about forty houses, mostly compact together ; some about thirty feet long and eighteen feet wide, some bigger, some less; mostly built of split
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plank, one end set in the ground, and the other pinned to a plate, on which lay rafters covered with bark. I understand a great flood last winter overflowed the chief part of the ground where the town stands ; and some were moving their houses to higher ground."3
Caught in the crossfire of the Pontiac War and threatened with destruction, by both the heathen Indians and the English, Papunhank and twenty-one of his followers fled to Bethlehem, and from thence were removed to Philadelphia. Upon their arrival there, they were joined with the Moravian Indians from Wequetance and Nain; and thenceforth, as their fortunes intermingled, they will be treated as one body and their vicissitudes will be briefly traced to their tragic end.
The Moravian mission of Wequetanc was established, in 1760, in the present Monroe county, and was on the flats on the north side of Wire creek, about a quarter of a mile north of the intersection of the state road with the road to Effort. It may have been the site of Captain Harris' vil- lage, and once the home of Teedyuscung.4 It consisted of good houses and extensive fields ; and was a very prosperous and successful mission, but English hatred of all Indians, kindled by the Captain Bull massacre, in 1763, placed it in great jeopardy. Consequently, all the inhabitants were removed to Nazareth, abandoning a plentiful harvest and most of their cattle.5
The settlement at Wequetanc was an overflow of the mission at Nain, near Bethlehem, established in 1757. A number of Indians went there from Nazareth, and the population increased so rapidly, it was deemed expedient to divide the congregation and many went from there to Wequetanc.6
The massacres, along the Lehigh, exasperated the settlers and Nain was blockaded on all sides. Fearing the Christian Indians would be killed, they were removed to Philadelphia, under the direction and protection of the sheriff. They were refused admittance to the barracks, and, for five hours, a mob of the city rabble reviled and cursed them, and the helpless creatures huddled together were threatened with destruction. Finally, they were taken to Province Island and lodged in the government buildings. They were constantly attended by the missionary, David Zeisberger, and they formed family groups and spent their time in prayer and devotion.
In January, 1764, the march, of the Paxtang Boys, alarmed the government and to be rid of them, they were taken across New Jersey to Amboy, but as New York would not receive them and New Jersey ordered them to get out, they were returned to Philadelphia. Escorted by a company of soldiers, they journeyed back by snow bound roads and over the frozen rivers, across which the aged and infirm crept on their hands and knees. They were quartered in the Philadelphia barracks and guarded day and night, as the mobs threatened their destruction, and the Paxtang Boys came on thirsting for their blood. They adjusted themselves to their surroundings and a school was started by the missionaries and the Indian children made good progress in the pursuit of learning.
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During the summer, the Indians could hardly endure their close con- finement. Unaccustomed to the strangely cooked but good food provided them, they craved the wild game and fish of their usual diet. They longed for the wild woods and mountain streams, languished and pined away and stricken with the smallpox, fifty-six of them died and were buried in the Potter's Field. In February, 1765, the government granted permission for their departure and ordered, sufficient flour, to sustain them until the har- vest of their own corn, be issued to them at Fort Allen. At Bethlehem, the Moravians clothed them.
The Indians all resolved to go to Machwihilusing and resume their wild life again. From Fort Allen, their journey was a toilsome one through the swamps and across the barren mountains. A late storm of wet snow beset them and some of the weaker ones died on the way. At the Lacka- wanna, they secured boats and paddled their way up the Susquehanna. On May 9th, they reached their haven of rest, and in the deserted huts of Papunhank's town, began their interrupted lives again.8
The mission of Friedenshuetten which was erected there, according to Loskiel, (Part 3, page 182) when completed :
"Consisted of thirteen Indian huts, and upwards of forty houses built of wood in the European manner, covered with shingles, and provided with windows and chimneys. A small but convenient house was provided for the missionaries, and in the middle of the street, which was upwards of eighty feet broad, stood the chapel, neatly built and covered with shingles. Next to the houses, the ground was laid out in gardens, and between the settlement and the river, about two hundred fifty acres were divided into regular plan- tations of Indian corn. Each family had its own boat. The burying ground was situated some distance back of the buildings."9
A meeting of the inhabitants was held and proper regulations and laws were adopted for the government of the community. Permission to build the mission was sought of the Cayugas, but their chief refused and desired them to remove to the Cayuga country, They promised to answer him when the corn was ripe, but delayed it to the following spring, when they received this peremptory message from the chief :
"That he did not know, what sort of Indian corn they might plant, for they had promised him an answer when the corn was ripe; that his Indian corn had been gathered long ago, and was almost consumed, and he soon intended to plant again; they ought, therefore to keep their promises."
Alarmed by this warning, Zeisberger went to Cayuga and persuaded the chief to permit them to remain, and he made them a much extended grant of land. Disturbed again, by a false rumor, that the Great Council at Onondaga had repudiated the Cayuga grant, Zeisberger and Senseman journeyed to Onondaga, and the Council confirmed the grant and said to them :
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"When your Indians, our cousins have anything to treat with us, they shall have full liberty to come straight to us, and settle their affairs with- out the interference of any other chief, who may not be of the same mind with us."10
From east and west, Indians came to visit the mission, and pro- nounced it the finest Indian town, they had ever seen. The Iroquois Council had warned them not to make it a seat of trade. Nevertheless, the nefarious traders came and sought to debauch and demoralize them for gain ; but the Indian committee, charged with the government of the place, politely and firmly told them, they could maintain no trading post there, and com- pelled them to depart.
The members of the mission chiefly supported themselves by hunting deer, elks and bears, and trapping foxes, racoons and beavers. One great article of food was maple sugar, which together with corn, beans and squashes made their principal diet. They made their own shovels, hoes, plows, harrows and sleds; and were able to do their own carpenter work. Some of them were coopers, making their own barrels, tubs and pails. Two schoolhouses were erected, and the schools held therein were largely attended by the Indian children.
The sale of their lands, at Friedenshuetten, to the English govern- ment, in 1768, by the Fort Stanwix Treaty, greatly disturbed them; but notwithstanding, the Moravians, in 1769, established another mission at Sheshequin about thirty miles up the river, and sent John Rothe to minister to the Indians in that vicinity. A chapel was built and a considerable number of Indians were converted, including the chief, James Davis.
By 1771, it was apparent the Indians could no longer maintain them- selves at Friedenshuetten and Sheshequin, because of the Iroquois sale of their land, the settlement at Wyoming, the increasing white settlers in their vicinity and the growing rum trade, which seduced their young people, and it was decided to remove the missions to Friedenstadt, a mission which had been established, by Zeisberger, in the Ohio country. John Rothe and John Ettwein were appointed to attend the congregations on their journey.11 It was decided to go in the spring of 1772.
It was a sad detachment from the place they so dearly loved, where :
"Fields, garden, fruit trees etc., were in such fine order, as to be a delight to the eye. The very streets were kept clean. The situation of the ground being level and the soil a mixture of sand and clay, they were regularly swept by the women with wooden brooms on Saturdays in sum- mer, when the ground was dry, and the rubbish carefully removed. The cleanliness of the place was also promoted by a post and rail fence, com- pletely surrounding the village, so as to keep out the cattle."
May 23rd, Ettwein, afterwards a bishop of the Moravian Church, arrived from Bethlehem, with many presents useful to them on their future journey. The congregation partook of the last holy communion. Whit-
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suntide was celebrated by administering baptism to a daughter of John Papunhank, father of their settlement.12 During the preceding days, the place bustled with their preparations. The clothing and utensils were packed, and the canoes, which were to carry their baggage and those who made the trip by water, were overhauled and coated with pitch. Day and night, the pestles of the corn mortars were plied, grinding the meal needed to sustain them on their journey. June 11, 1772, this remarkable exodus began, and as no more telling description can be given, it is best to quote the following from Bishop Ettwein's diary :
"Thursday, June 11th : Early we met for the last time in the town for divine worship .- At the close of the service, the canoes were laden, the bell was taken from its turret, the window sashes from out the church and the dismantled windows nailed shut with boards.
"At 2 P.M., Brother and Sister Rothe, in their canoes, set out, fol- lowed by the others, thirty in number. We had divided the voyageurs in six divisions, over each of which, we set one or two leaders. Timothy, who carried the bell, in his canoe, rang it for some time, as the squadron moved down the river, never again, to ring out its call to the house of prayer over the waters of the lovely Susquehanna."
Those, who went by water, by reason of a heavy rain, made only eight miles, the first day. Saturday, they passed the fort at Wilkes-Barre, where a large crowd gathered to see them. At Nescopeck, they were com- pelled to pass their canoes over the falls by means of ropes or carry them around the rapids. The remainder of their journey was without incident. Their course, up the West Branch, against the current of the stream, was the tedious and toilsome part of their trip.
Ettwein continues: "After all had left the town, I locked the doors of the chapel and the missionaries' dwelling-took leave of Job Chilloway and commended to him oversight of the houses and improvements-to which he consented, and at the same time made fair promises. He and his wife were the only two who appeared to regret our departure. All the others manifested satisfaction. With Brother and Sister Rothe went one hundred and forty souls; with me by the overland route fifty-four. Others also are to proceed by land from Sheshequin, so that the entire migration numbers two hundred and eleven souls.
"As we crossed the river, our way led us straightway to the moun- tain, and after proceeding two miles we entered a great swamp, where the undergrowth was so dense that oftentimes it was impossible to see one another at the distance of six feet. The path too was frequently invisible, and yet along it sixty head of cattle and fifty horses and colts had to be driven. It needed careful watch to keep them together. We lost but one young cow from the entire herd. Every morning, however, it was necessary to send drivers back, as far as ten miles, to whip in such, as would during the night, seek to return."
June 18th, they arrived at Schoonhaven's plantation, a mile above Samuel Wallis' place, on the West Branch, where two days later, they
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were joined by those who came by canoe. On Sunday, Rothe preached to the Indians and Ettwein to sixty English hearers, many coming a distance of sixty miles to hear him. It was deemed best to dispose of some of their effects, before beginning the long overland journey, and Mr. Wallis pur- chased fifteen cattle and a few canoes and others bought fowls, firkins, buckets, tubs, chain and iron ware. A trader came to their camp with kegs of rum, which were seized and detained by Mr. Wallis until they left. Ettwein purchased 2000 pounds of flour with money given by Quaker friends in Philadelphia, and this was distributed among the families to sustain them on their journey.
At Big Island, they encountered many rattlesnakes and one bit a horse in the nose from the effects of which the poor animal died. The reptiles invaded their camps at night and terrified the inmates. Miraculously, all their cattle escaped, as they brought up the rear and those in advance scared the reptiles away.
At the mouth of Bald Eagle creek, they sold their canoes, left with friends the windows of the church and thence proceeded by land. They were divided into six divisions, each commanded by an experienced leader ; and their march continued in an orderly and regular manner, but it was retarded by sickness among them and several died. They left the fertile lowlands and ascended the Alleghenies, and at a spring in a beautiful, widely expanded meadow, they had scarcely made their camp, when a frightful storm swept over them.
"The angry clouds like mountains piled themselves up in the heavens, the lightning like snakes leaped in forked flames over the sky, the thunder rolled like siege artillery, and the rain came down with the sound of many waters, or the roaring of a mighty cataract. It was a war of the elements. The tall oaks bowed before the storm, and when the timber failed to do obeisance, it was snapped like glass in the grasp of the roaring wind."
On their march, the Indian hunters killed one hundred and fifty deer and three bears, and, as killed, they were divided among the families. They reached the Allegheny river, July 20th and constructed canoes to carry the aged and infirm and heavy baggage down the stream. There, they were joined by John Heckewelder, one of the missionaries at Friedenstadt, who brought a convoy of horses, with the assistance of which, they concluded one of the most remarkable and painful migrations.13
The Indians did not long remain at Friedenstadt, but removed to the Muskingum country (in Ohio), where Zeisberger had established a new mission, called Schoenbrunn (the beautiful spring). There, they built another mission settlement, Gnadenhuetten, so called in memory of their old home on the Mahoning, destroyed during the French and Indian War. These missions were substantial Indian towns, and they experienced progress and prosperity. Lord Dunmore's War, in 1774, distressed them but they suffered no serious harm. Captain White Eye, a powerful chief became their constant friend and intercessor with the heathen Indians. In
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1775, John Papunhank, the father of Friedenshuetten died. For many years, he was one of the most noted Indians on the frontier, and freely exerted himself to foster peace between the English and Indians. He, ever, remained a faithful convert, and, at the time of his death, was warden of the congregation at Schoenbrunn and had the chief direction of its affairs.
At the close of 1775, these missions numbered four hundred fourteen Christian Indians; and the next year another mission was established on the east side of the Muskingum. It was called Lichtenau, but was later abandoned and its people removed to Salem, a new settlement five miles below Gnadenhuetten.
The Revolution ruined the Moravian missions on the Muskingum. Surrounded, as they were by hostile Indians, who hated them because every convert weaned away a warrior, the situation of the missions was pre- carious. In the beginning, both Americans and English desired the neutral- ity of the Christian Indians and assured them safety, but, as the struggle became intense, each distrusted them and accused them of friendship for the other. Most of the Indians joined the British, but the Delawares, for a time remained neutral, and their neutrality the English ascribed to the influence of the Moravian missionaries. The mission Indians were caught between the crossfire of American, English and heathen Indian hostility. Of the three, the Americans were the most friendly, and Colonel Morgan, the commander at Pittsburg was their special friend and treated them with kindly consideration.
The British, finally succeeded in wooing the Delawares and late in 1781, the situation became critical. The hostile Indians reported at Detroit, that the missionaries were spies for the Americans and the com- mander decided to remove the Moravian Indians and their missionaries. Accordingly, three hundred warriors, led by an English captain, the Half King, a Huron chief and Captain Pipe, an unfriendly Delaware chief, appeared in the vicinity of the missions, in August, and by intimidation, the destruction of their property and promises of protection, compelled the Christian Indians to submit to removal. Schoenbrunn, Salem and Gnad- enhuetten were forsaken. Two hundred of their cattle and four hundred of their hogs had been killed, their farming utensils and household posses- sions had been destroyed and they left behind them a great quantity of Indian corn and more than three hundred acres of ripening corn, besides fields of potatoes, cabbages and vegetables. The missionaries had been mistreated and made prisoners. Their wives were taken from their beds in their night clothes and treated to other indignities.
The missionaries and their Indians were taken to Sandusky, where their savage enemies and English abettors deserted them. They were left in a wilderness, where there was neither game nor provisions, and their situation, during the winter, became deplorable. In March, the mission- aries were removed to Detroit.14 To relieve the distress at Sandusky, at the approach of spring, in 1782, many returned to their deserted homes and engaged themselves in harvesting and securing the corn, they had left ripening at their forced evacuation, the preceding autumn.
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We now approach the fatal catastrophe, in the tragic history of Friedenshuetten, a deed done by white Americans, which exceeded in brutality, the Indian atrocities at Cherry Valley and Wyoming. Western Pennsylvania was settled, principally, by Scotch-Irish, whose cruelty to the Indians has been previously related.
Doddridge says that a band of militia, between eighty and ninety in number, was oganized, under the command of Colonel David Williamson, a gawky, irresolute and indiscreet young man, but a cunning politician, subsequently elected to positions of power and trust in Washington county. Dr. Doddridge, who was reared in the locality and knew some of the members of the company, gives, at page 201 of his book, a partial list of those who participated in the expedition ; and pronounces it a premedi- tated murder, at the outset and states they expected no opposition, as they well knew the gentle Moravian Indians, being noncombatants, would offer no resistance.
Colonel Gibson, commander at Pitssburg learned of their murderous intentions, but unable to prevent their designs, sent a messenger to warn the Christian Indians on the Muskingum, but he arrived too late. Rumors of the approach of the hostile expedition reached them, but trusting all Americans to be their friends, they did not believe the stories, and con- tinued to pursue their labors undismayed.
The murderous gang secretly approached Gnadenhuetten, and in the woods overtook a son of Isaac Schebosch, the Moravian missionary and his Indian wife and shot and scalped him. They then sourrounded the mission. The night before, an Indian runner arrived at Schoenbrunn, with an order that those in the three settlements should immediately return to Sandusky ; and in the morning, the messenger, on his way to Gnadenhuetten, came across the mutilated body of young Schebosch and approaching cautiously, saw the place was surrounded. He ran back to Schoenbrunn with the news and all there fled to the woods, from which they soon witnessed the burning of the town by a part of Williamson's force.
In the meantime, the murderers entered Gnadenhuetten, and at first expressed friendly intentions, assuring the simple inhabitants, they, only came to remove them to a place of safety near Pittsburg, and ordering them to immediately gather their belongings and prepare to leave. Trust- ing them, the Indians fully complied, delivering up their guns and hatchets, collecting food, even emptying the beehives of their honey. Having ren- dered them defenseless, the attitude of the band changed and the Indians were all seized and cast into prison.
A detachment had been sent to Salem, and all the people there were, likewise betrayed, bound with ropes and driven to Gnadenhuetten, where they were joined with the other prisoners. Then Colonel Williamson assembled his men, and ordered them to vote, whether the Indians should be removed to Pittsburg, as promised, or should die. Sixteen of the band, more manly than the others, voted for their removal, and to their eternal credit took no further part in the horrible proceedings.
The sentence of death was pronounced upon them, but they were
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told, that being Christians, they could have the night to prepare to die. Among them were many of those from Friedenshuetten, who had been faithful converts for years, including Samuel Moore, a well educated man, who in his youth had been a member of David Brainerd's congregation in New Jersey and later joined the Moravians, and the venerable Christiana, a woman of refinement who spoke English and German fluently.
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