USA > New York > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 18
USA > Pennsylvania > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 18
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submit to the degradation and pain of a public whipping, interposed and suggested, that if Clark would leave and abandon his settlement, he was satisfied the culprit should not be flogged. Clark accepted the proposition, and was placed in a canoe and rowed down to Lycoming creek, where he was put ashore, an exile in a Siberia of government by weak governors, corrupt assemblies, prejudiced courts, petty politicians and "tired lawyers with endless tongues."
Once, when Chief Justice Mckean was holding court, in the district, which included the territory of the former Fair Play Republic, he inquired, from curiosity, although incident to the case before him, of Peter Rody, a witness and who had been a Fair Play man, what the provisions of the Fair Play court were. The shrewd and witty old Irishman could not quite recall the details. He scratched his head, as he thought for a few moments, and cunningly replied : "All I can say is, that since Your Honor's courts have come among us, fair play has entirely ceased, and the law has taken its place."
It is to be presumed, the judge joined in the laughter that followed, and that the old Irishman was right.
Miles southward of the Fair Play Republic and within the govern- ment of Pennsylvania, with its courts, judges and lawyers, on January 10, 1768, occurred one of the most atrocious crimes committed on the frontier. Frederick Stump lived in the present Snyder county, not far from the mouth of Middle creek. On that day, according to Stump's story, six Indians came to his house. They were drunk and disorderly, and he endeavored to get them to leave, but they refused. Fearing they would injure him, he killed them all, dragged their bodies to the creek, cut a hole in the ice, and pushed the corpses in the water under the ice. Then, afraid the news of his deed might arouse other Indians, he went, the next day, fourteen miles up the creek to the vicinity of the present Middleburg, where there were two Indian huts. One was occupied by an Indian woman, two young girls and a child. These he murdered, set fire to the cabin, in which were the bodies of his victims, and saw it burned to ashes.
This story, Stump related nine days later to William Blythe, who went to investigate, and it seems most improbable, especially the motive. An examination, of the burned cabin, disclosed the bones of four bodies in the ruins. Blythe had Stump and his companion, a man named Iron Cutter arrested and taken to Carlisle jail. On the fourteenth, a mob of frontiersmen released Stump from the jail and concealed him, for a time, in the vicinity of Fort Augusta, from whence he fled the province. It was reported he went to Virginia, where he died many years later.
The crime caused a great uproar among the Indians, but Pennsyl- vania made no attempt to reclaim the fugitive, and the authorities were content to ignore the affair, very unlike the Fair Play men, who severely punished those who abused the Indians.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CUSHIETUNK
From where the eastern and western branches intermingle their waters in the main stream at Hancock, New York, the Delaware river, mostly, pursues its winding way, for many miles in a deep and narrow gorge, to Port Jervis and the open valley below. Encompassed by lofty and densely wooded mountains, which with sharp declivity descend to its very verge, the clear thread of water, untarnished by pollution, ripples along unvexed, save where the rapidly falling water breaks on the rocky rifts into foam and spray. Unscarred cliffs and unbroken wilderness prevail, and natures enchanted view is unsurpassed in scenic splendor. Except, where the rumbling railroad train and whirring automobile race on roads, clinging to the precipitous mountain sides, the solitude is unbroken by the progress of man. Isolated homesteads appear, now and then, where the scant low- lands poke their way into the curving current ; and a few white painted railroad vilages, on the steep bluffs, glisten in the summer sunshine. Still undefiled, the pathless forest and winding river allure a throng of trans- ients and passers-by, and, since long ago, mountain and stream have abundantly yielded game and fish. Unchanged, this romantic region has charmed and enticed the wild red men and white denizens who followed them.
1
Two hundred years ago, on the scant meadow-lands along the river, were pitched the numerous villages of the Ninneepauues, belonging to the Monsey tribe of Delaware Indians. At one of their towns, May 6, 1755, twelve of their chiefs or sachems gathered in Indian council with John Curtis, Asa Peabody, and Joseph Skinner, agents of an association formed at Norwich, Connecticut, and known as the First Delaware Com- pany. We have a complete record of the day's transactions and may con- ceive the conclave assembled in an open field, with warriors, curious squaws and naked children crowding around. Present were, Thomas Not- tingham, the interpreter, Benjamin Oldrick, Gabriel Cullam, Thomas Quick, Cornelius Westbrook and other descendants of the ancient Dutch settlers, who had associated all their lives in familiar friendship with the river Indians and were, probably, employed by the Connecticut agents in negotiating the purchase.
A parchment deed was produced, and Thomas Nottingham read and
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interpreted its meaning to the chiefs who signed it by their marks. The consideration, five hundred Spanish milled dollars and a quantity of Indian goods, was delivered to them This conveyance, being made on the ground, possession was accomplished, according to the ancient and formal English procedure, by livery of seizen. The Indian chiefs tore from the ground a clod of earth or turf, plucked from the tree under which they were standing a twig and handed to the New England agents, as a token of their delivery of possession. The agents in behalf of themselves and their associates, then broke the ground and sowed a few seeds of grain, as evidence they had taken actual possession. This purchase has been minimized, but it was attended with more solemnity and formality, than most sales of Indian land ; and, moreover was made by those who, actually occupied it, and never, thereafter, repudiated the sale, but defended the people, who settled thereunder, and lived in continued friendship with them. There is no evidence the Iroquois, who claimed the paramount title, ever interferred.1
The grantors were the twelve Indian chiefs and the grantees were three hundred sixty two individuals, who took as tenants in common, but in different proportions. One hundred thirty-six, each took two five hun- dredth parts, and the remainder each took one five hundredth part. The deed was witnessed by Thomas Nottingham, Benjamin Oldrick and Gabriel Cullman. It conveyed, by the first description, a large tract of land on the west side of the Delaware river, beginning at the mouth of the Lacka- waxen ; thence north by the Delaware to the Pankatooma river (the west branch of the Delaware), thence west by the southern boundary of lands owned by the Mohawk Indians to the easterly line of the Mohawks, which was the limit of the Susquehanna purchase, ten miles east of the Susque- hanna river. The southern boundary ran along the Lackawaxen river and its tributaries to the Moosic mountains, supposed to be the eastern line of the Susquehanna purchase. In other words, this deed was intended to con- vey all the land between the Delaware river and the Susquehanna pur- chase and between the southern-most line of the Lackawaxen river and the New York line.
This deed also confirmed a former conveyance made, December 20, 1754, by five of the same chiefs and witnessed by Thomas Nottingham, Cornelius Westbrook and Thomas Quick, and the second description com- prehended the land then conveyed, which was on the east side of the river in the colony of New York. It began at the southern boundary of the Great Hardenburg Patent2 and ran thence south by the Delaware river to the Jersey line (near the present Port Jervis) ; thence easterly by said line to land previously sold ; thence northerly to a point a little west of the old mine road to the Minnisinks, the reputed corner of the Hardenburg patent ; and thence by it westerly to the beginning. It included most, if not all, of Sullivan county, a part of Orange county and a part of Ulster county, and was all in New York.3
Three of the aforesaid chiefs and probably a fourth, the spelling being different conveyed, October 29, 1755, by deed witnessed by Thomas
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Nottingham and Eleazer Midate, to two hundred forty-one grantees, resi- dents of Connecticut and New York, including many of those named in the two former deeds, and associated together, as the Second Delaware Company, all the land south of the Lackawaxen river and not before sold. In this deed, it was evidently intended to include all the territory to the 41st degree of latitude, the southern limit of the Connecticut charter.
By these deeds, the Indians purported to convey, besides the land in New York, all the territory comprised in Wayne and Pike counties, parts of Monroe, Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties, and all of Warren, and parts of Windham, Orwell and Pike townships in Bradford county.
Occupation, under these grants, was made on both the New York and Pennsylvania sides of the Delaware river, the first settlement being made by Joseph Skinner, who came to the present Damascus township, Wayne county, about September 4, 1755. A little later, Simeon Calkin, Moses Thomas Sr., Bezalell Tyler, Robert Land, Nathan Mitchell, John Ross, John Smith, Irvin Evans, James Adams, Jesse Drake, and Nicholas Conklin located nearby. Whether all of these settled in Pennsylvania or some on the opposite side of the river is unknown. These settlements were all made near a place, designated by the Indians at Cushietunk. In 1755, Timothy Skinner and Moses Thomas Sr. built a sawmill and grist mill on Calkins creek, near the present village of Milanville, where the first settlement was made.
In 1759, Joseph Skinner Sr. was shot and killed at Taylor's Eddy, about a mile above the present Cochecton, supposedly by some lurking savage, of the northern tribes, who opposed the encroachments of the New England people. The Cushietunk Indians, who were well disposed, were not blamed for this murder.4
The governments of New York and Pennsylvania took no notice of the settlements at Cushietunk until September, 1760, when the governor of the latter sent Aaron Depui, Louis Klotz and John Moore to investi- gate and warn off the settlers. They reported, that the New England peo- ple had erected three townships, each ten miles in length along the Dela- ware and eight miles broad. In the middle township, a large town had been laid out, consisting of some eighty lots of two hundred acres each, having a frontage on the river of ten acres. The settlement, then, consisted of a sawmill, grist mill, three log houses and thirty other cabins, occupied by about forty men, besides women and children. They also learned from Thomas Nottingham, the interpreter, whom it seems had quarelled with the New England people, the names of some of the settlers.5
In February, 1761, Governor Hamilton protested, in a letter to Gov- ernor Fitch of Connecticut, that the settlement at Cushietunk was an intrusion on Pennslyvania lands.6 The proprietaries of Pennslyvania were greatly perturbed and Thomas Penn attempted to have the English authori- ties interfere; but the only assurance he received was that although Con- necticut had given good service in the late war, an Indian war would not be entered into for the benefit of that colony and the matter should be referred to Sir William Johnson.7
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The situation was, that unless an Indian war was threatened, because of the Connecticut settlement, there would be no interference by the crown officials, either in England or America. Teedyuscung was used to make this threat imminent. Penn, in his letter to the governor, says: "I wait with impatience to receive Teedyuscung's complaint, which I hope will be to the King." In the previous September, Teedyuscung had stated, in a conference at Philadelphia: "Yesterday, I was told that some of the New England people are gone on the west side of Susquehanna, (prob- ably intended for Delaware) with intent to settle the lands at Wyoming. It is the Indian land and they will not suffer it to be settled."8 As he was told but "yesterday," he must have been informed in Philadelphia, and, as will be observed, his apprehension was about the land at Wyoming and not Cushietunk. One is led to the suspicion, the words were put into his mouth, so as to make it appear the Indians were very indignant and about to begin a war and thus impress the British officials. As evidence, of the above suspicion, is the report, of Captain James Hyndshaw, sworn to before Governor Hamilton, (Susquehanna Papers, volume 1, pages 81 to 84) to the effect that he was informed the Indians, living on the Delaware, had sent word to Teedyuscung, that if he intended to give any opposition to the Connecticut settlement at Cushietunk, they would join the Connecticut people, and were resolved to settle them by force, in spite of Teedyuscung and his Indians.
Unwilling or unable to do anything themselves, the Pennsylvania authorities appealed to General Amherst, complaining of the Cushietunk settlement, stressing Teedyuscung's complaint, suggesting the grave possi- bility of an Indian war and imploring him to interfere. But the farsighted Amherst was not misled. He wrote a friendly letter to Governor Fitch, intimating that an Indian war, at the time, might be of fatal consequences. To Hamilton, he replied, rather severely, reminding him of the little success the king had in securing the number of troops required by the Province of Pennslyvania, and stating: "His Majesty's Ministers must undoubtedly be astonished to see two Provinces, at this juncture, disputing their rights and at the same time alarmed at the consequences that may happen, if the Indians should be irritated at it. I shall not interfere in any dispute about the right of land between Province and Province."9
Rebuffed by Amherst, and Thomas Penn being unable to make Teedyuscung's protest go with the crown officials, Governor Hamilton September 16, 1761, issued another proclamation warning the Cushietunk settlers. In the meantime, Chief Justice Allen issued a warrant, in June, for the arrest of Daniel Skinner, Timothy Skinner, Simeon Calkin, John Smith, Jedidah Wallis Jr., James Adams, Ervin Evans and others, for an intrusion on Indian Lands about Cushietunk, but they were not appre- hended.10
Learning of the destruction of the settlement at Wyoming, in October, 1763, the women and children at Cushietunk were placed in the fort, and preparations were made to sustain a siege. The hostile Indians invaded the place, and in a surprise attack killed Moses Thomas Sr. and wounded
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Hezikiah Willis. A valiant defense of the fort was made and several of the Indians were killed. The defeated savages, then, withdrew, but killed some cattle and burned the gristmill, sawmill and some dwelling houses.11
There was no further molestation of Cushietunk, during the Pontiac War, and it remained undisturbed until the Revolution.
NOTES-CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
1. Susquehanna Company Papers 1, 260 to 272.
2. Map prepared by C. J. Gauthier, Doc. Hist. of N. Y. 1, 174.
3. Susquehanna Company Papers, 1, 196.
4. History of Wayne County, Pa. by P. G. Goodrich, who based his account of Cushietunk on a manuscript history of the Skinner family written by Nathaniel Skinner, who had in his possessison documents belonging to his grandfather, from which he obtained the facts and dates of the first settlement. Mr. Goodrich had access to this manuscript history, from which he secured the information con- tained in his book.
5. Susquehanna Company Papers, 2, 24 to 34.
6. Ibid 54.
7. Ibid 38.
8. Ibid 24.
9. Ibid 88 to 96.
10. Goodrich, History of Wayne County, 122.
11. Ibid 122.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE SEVENTEEN TOWNSHIPS
The inception of the Susquehanna Company, its purchase of the Wyoming lands, the settlement at Mill creek, and its destruction by the Indians have been related in previous chapters. After the Indian massacre, in 1763, for a period of several years, no attempt, by either Pennsylvania or the New Englanders, was made to occupy the Wyoming Valley ; but the interval was consumed in a paper warfare by pamphlets and the public journals.
In 1761, Thomas Penn submitted a case stated of the respective claims to Charles Pratt, then attorney general and afterwards lord chan- cellor ; and his opinion was that the agreement, in 1664, between Con- necticut and New York, settling their boundary line, "precluded Connecti- cut from advancing one foot beyond these limits." He did, however, remark, that in the absence of other circumstances limiting the boundaries, "posterior grants would in point of law be superseded by prior charters."1 Charles Yorke, the solicitor general also gave Mr. Penn a similar opinion.2
In 1763, Eliphalet Dyer, agent of the Susquehanna Company presented to the King in Council a petition for a charter incorporating the lands of the Susquehanna and Delaware purchases, as a new colony. This was referred to a committee.3 As objection might be made to the incorporation of a colony, on the ground it lay within the original bounds of Connecticut, the assembly of that colony, as early as 1756, declared that, if His Majesty should think proper, to grant a new colony, Connecticut acqui- esced.4 Dyer, upon a case stated, secured the opinions of Edward Thurlow and Alexander Weddeburn, both afterwards lord chancellors and Richard Jackson and John Dunning, eminent English lawyers, to the effect that : "The agreement, between the Colony of Connecticut and the Province of New York, can extend no further, than to settle the boundaries between the respective parties, and has no effect on other claims, either of them has in other parts; and as the Charter of Connecticut was granted but eighteen years before that to William Penn, there is no ground to contend that the Crown could, at that period, make an effectual grant to, him of that country, which had been so recently granted to others."5
Eight days before the Fort Stanwix deeds were executed, Governor Penn directed Surveyor General Lukens to lay out the Manor of Sunbury,
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consisting of 20,000 acres on the west side of the Susquehanna river ; and the Manor of Stoke on the east side of the river, both comprehending the best part of the Wyoming Valley. A lease, of one hundred acres in the Manor of Stoke, was granted to Amos Ogden, John Jennings and Charles Stewart, upon condition they established an Indian trading post and defended themselves from intrusion. These men built a trading post at Mill Creek on the site of the Connecticut settlement of 1762-63.6
This was the situation, when the arena of conflict shifted, from the intrigue and deception of Indian, Colonial and English politics, to the decisive and effectual means of force and arms. When it was ascertained the Fort Stanwix line lay westward of the Wyoming lands, the members of the Susquehanna Company felt assured the prohibition of settlement made by the king, in 1763, no longer prevailed, as its purpose, encroachment on Indian lands, did not apply to them. Accordingly, preparations, for occupation of that part of their purchase, lying east of the line, were made ; and at a meeting held at Hartford, December 28, 1768, it was resolved :
"That forty persons, proprietors in the purchase and to be selected by a committee, enter and take possession of the lands in behalf of the company, by February 1st next; that two hundred more members join the said forty not later than May 1st ; that two hundred pounds be appropriated for their support; that five townships, each lying five miles on the river and running back five miles be laid out ; that the said forty should have their choice of the townships, and the remaining four townships should be divided among the two hundred; and that, in each township, three whole rights or shares should be appropriated and set apart for the public use of a gospel ministry and schools." Committees were appointed to carry, the foregoing resolution into effect.7
Late in January, 1769, there assembled at Windham Connecticut, some twelve of the "first forty," provided for in the foregoing resolutions. Mounting their horses, this little cavalcade, the beginning of the mighty migration from New England which settled the northwestern part of the United States, waved adieu to the crowd gathered in front of Windham court house and took the western road. They crossed the Shetucket river below the site of the present city of Willimantic and gained the winding road, which led them over the snow capped hills to the town of Lebanon. It was the same old Lebanon road, you take today, flanked by stone fences built more than two centuries ago, and passing the cemetery on the hill- side, where so many of Connecticut's famous sons lie in their last sleep. We may well imagine the postboys loitered at their task of changing the four horse teams on the Boston mail coach, and joined the eager throng in front of the Alden Tavern, which expectantly watched the Windham road, that cold January morning long ago. The men from Windham, who dismounted at the tavern, found there awaiting their arrival, a dozen more from Colchester, Norwich and Lyme; and while we may assume that Jonathan Trumbull, soon to be become governor of Connecticut, looked upon the scene from the narrow panes of his old counting house with a
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discreet but approving eye, we may be assured his famous son-in-law. William Williams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was there, and, over the drinks of good old Connecticut apple-jack, counselled with Stephen Gardner, John Jenkins and the other leaders of the "forty." Perhaps, the Rev. Solomon Williams, in his mansion across the "green" offered a silent but fervent prayer for the success of the enterprise, in which his distinguished son was so vitally interested.
At Hartford, they were joined by several more; and thence they journeyed through Litchfield county to Dutchess county, New York, where their numbers were augmented. They then continued across New York to the Delaware river, crossing it at Andrew Dingman's and proceeded to Lower Smithfield, now in Monroe county, Pennsylvania, where Benjamin Shoemaker Sr. and his son Elijah joined them, making forty in number. These forty men, known as the "First Forty" were the pioneers of the Wyoming Valley.8
From Lower Smithfield, they passed through the wild region, now embraced in Pike and Monroe counties, and from the Moosic mountains gazed on the promised land, probably, on the 6th of February, 1769. Before them was the far famed valley, then covered with a growth of oak and pines, save the rich bottom lands, which in part had been cleared for tillage by the Indians. The whole territory of the five gratuity towns was in their view, nearest the broken and hilly land of Pittston and beyond the undulating plains of Wilkes-Barre, while far to the south could be seen the Hannover hills and opposite the rolling land of Plymouth. Within the great bend of the river was the rich bottom land of Kingston, and this they chose as their prize.
They entered the valley, near the mouth of the Lackawanna, but did not cross the river and make an immediate settlement on the land they had chosen. Summoned by Sheriff Jennings of Northampton county to the Pennsylvania block house at Mill creek, Isaac Tripp, Benjamin Follett and Vine Elderkin were arrested and sent to Easton jail, where after four days imprisonment, they were released on bail given by William Ledlie, a merchant of that town. They then joined their companions, who had retired to the home of the Shoemakers in Lower Smithfield. About March 1st, the reunited "Forty" returned to the valley and erected a few tem- porary cabins within the present limits of Pittston city.
There, thirty-one of them were arrested, but on their way to Easton jail, eleven escaped, and the remainder were released, bail being furnished by Mr. Ledlie. They were indicted, tried and convicted of breaking the close of Thomas and Richard Penn. A few paid their fine of £60 and the rest were lodged in the Easton log jail. The feeding of so many was a heavy burden to the county and with the connivance of the Northampton county officials, Judge Richard Peters of Philadelphia, who had defended them, went to the jail and advised his clients to leave.9
At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company held April 12th, it was voted :
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"That the Committee form the whole number, placed on the land, into one body joined together in one common interest and settled as compact together as may be properly fortified, without any regard to any particular township or townships, which may be afterward laid out, and also to divide and part out the men into parties for the various businesses, hus- bandry, tillage, labor, fortifying, scouting, hunting and other parts neces- sary and convenient for the Whole."10
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