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Gc 974.801 D26k v.1 1128616
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02219 7096
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofdauphin01kelk
HISTORY
OF
DAUPHIN COUNTY
PENNSYLVANIA
BY
LUTHER REILY KELKER,
Custodian of Division Public Records of Pennsylvania.
WITH GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS
ILLUSTRATED.
Ic 974.801 D 26 K v.1
VOL. I.
NEW YORK
CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1907
au
Copyright 1907 The Lewis Publishing Company
1128616
Publishers' Announcement.
The present work, "History of Dauphin County, Pennsyl- vania," will, it is confidently believed, commend itself to the people of that historic old region of Pennsylvania, and not only to them but to various Libraries, Historical Societies, and also to many in- dividual investigators throughout the Commonwealth and Nation.
These volumes contain much valuable information which has hitherto lain inaccessible to the people at large. Of special import- ance are the numerous lists of Taxables and Land Owners, the Mil- itary Rolls of the Dauphin County Territory in the wars with the French and Indians, of the Revolution, the Whiskey Insurrection, the War with Great Britain in 1812-14, the Mexican War, the War of the Rebellion, and the Spanish-American War; also the early Church Records of Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths .* These compilations have been made with painstaking care, in large part by Mr. Luther R. Kelker, and in their entirety under his immediate supervision. To this monumental labor, as well as to directing the compilation of the general history, that gentleman has brought the highest qualifications-diligent study of local history for many years, warm enthusiasm based upon reverence for the pioneers who here planted the institutions of civilization, and a laudable pride of ances- try. He was possessed of a love of historical and genealogical sub- jects from his youth. During his convalescence following a serious illness he began a systematic study of what had been gathered in the Colonial Records and Pennsylvania Archives, and on recovering his health procured permission to examine the unpublished records in the basement and attic of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg. While he was thus engaged the American Historical Association ap- pointed a committee to examine into the condition of published and unpublished archives in the various States of the Union. Dr. Her- man V. Ames, Professor of American History in the University of Pennsylvania, represented that body for investigations in Pennsyl- vania, and, on reaching Harrisburg, consulted with the various
*The reader will understand that in all ancient lists the original orthography and punctuation have been preserved.
iv
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT
heads of departments, by whom he was referred to Mr. Kelker on account of his familiarity with the subjects in question, and, in his report in 1901 to the American Historical Association, Dr. Ames gave credit to Mr. Kelker "for generous services and valuable in- formation." About this time Mr. Kelker took up historical and genealogical research as a profession. On April 14, 1903, Gover- nor Pennypacker approved a bill constituting a new department to be called the Division of Public Records, and on June Ist following Mr. Kelker was appointed to organize it. This duty he successfully performed, and it was his distinction that this department was the first of its class in the United States, and of which he has had charge from its inception, his official designation being Custodian of Divi- sion of Public Records of Pennsylvania. He has performed dili- gent labor upon the twenty-two volumes of the Pennsylvania Ar- chives, the editor of which testified to Mr. Kelker's devotion by say- ing that the production of that series would have been practically impossible without the aid of one whose enthusiasm was so well sustained. Mr. Kelker's plans in the organization and conduct of his department met the warm approval of leading historical students throughout the country, and proved a great stimulus to the investi- gation of original documents by students for universities and colleges throughout the country. In a letter to the publishers of this work, John W. Jordan, LL.D., of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, says of Mr. Kelker: "He is an enthusiastic delver in the historical mine, and in his knowledge of the German counties of the State, the people and their history, he is well considered. As Custodian of Public Records he is efficient and energetic."
As a proper accompaniment to the narrative history contained in this work, is presented a department of Genealogical Memoirs, linking the active people of to-day with their honored forbears, in the conviction that
"It is indeed a blessing when the virtues Of noble races are hereditary, And do derive themselves from the imitation Of virtuous ancestors."
The pages of these genealogical and personal memoirs have been prepared with all due care from such data as were accessible from the hands of family representatives and from extant records. In each case the sketch has been submitted to the immediate subject or to his proper representative for correction and revision. It is be- lieved that the present work, in both its features-historical, and genealogical and personal-will prove a real addition to the mass of
V
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT
literature concerning the people of the historic region under consid- eration, and that without it much valuable information therein con- tained would be irretrievably lost, owing to the passing away of many custodians of family records, and the disappearance of such material.
THE PUBLISHERS.
Table of Contents.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE .. Indian Occupancy-The Susquehannas-Mohawks-Iroquois -Algonquin Tribes-The Five Nations-Many Indians Burned Alive-Treaty of 1683-The Shawanese Stay of a Quarter of a Century on the Conestoga and Pequea Creek-Indian Manners and Customs-Penn's Descrip- tion of them-Streams of the County
I
CHAPTER II.
Early Settlement-Captain John Smith of Virginia Comes up as Far as Great Falls-The French People First to Lo- cate at Mouth of Paxtang Creek-The Appearance of John Harris-The Quakers and French Papists-John Harris the Trader-Trouble With Indian Bands-The Scotch-Irish-William Penn's Visits-Persecution of the Scotch-Irish-Original Letter of Harris-Penn's "Arti- cles of Concession"-Produce Values in 1740-Invasion of the French and Indians-A Regiment of "Fighting People"-Murder of John Armstrong by the Indians .. .
CHAPTER III.
Formation of the County-The Origin of the Name "Dau- phin"-First County Officials-Courts-Original Town- ships-Lebanon County Taken from Dauphin-Present Townships-Recorded Plots
43
CHAPTER IV.
Dates of First Events-Freemasonry Before County was formed-Arrested for Sedition-Indian Visitors-In- dians at the Grave of Harris-Traveling a Century Ago -Indian Council at Harris Ferry-First Courts-First Newspapers-A Slave Advertised-Indians' Revenge-
15
CONTENTS
vii
PAGE.
Dauphin Against the Amendment-List of Slaves-To- matoes First Used-The Last Slave in the County-Ma- ple-Sugar Making in 1864-The Centennial Anniversary -Celebrated Mill Dam Case. 84
CHAPTER V.
County Government-The Several Court Houses-Early Court Cryers-The County Prisons-Alms Houses-Fi- nances-National and State Representation-Judges- Biographers of First Judges-County Officials-Biogra- phy of Alexander Graydon, First Prothonotary . IO5
CHAPTER VI.
Military Record-The French and Indian War-Whiskey In- surrection-Revolutionary War-War of 1812-14- The "Buckshot War"-Mexican War-Civil War- Spanish-American War. I30
CHAPTER VII.
Forts of Dauphin County-Fort Harris-Fort Hunter-"In- dian Fort Hunter"-Fort Halifax-Manada Fort and Fort McKee 189
CHAPTER VIII.
Religious History-The First Church Founded-First Edifice Built-Old Derry Church-Hanover Church-Paxtang Church - Derry "Memorial Church" - Harrisburg Churches-Middletown Churches-Lykens Churches- Upper Paxton Churches-Steelton Churches-Berrysburg Churches-Lower Paxton Churches-Hill Church-Hal- ifax Churches - Dauphin Churches - Hummelstown Churches-Earliest Mennonite Church-"Parson Eld- er's" Sermon Heads-Biographies of Pioneer Ministers -Rev. William Bertram and Rev. John Elder-The Old Conewago Church.
224
viii
CONTENTS
PAGE ..
CHAPTER IX.
Grant of the "Harris Ferry" Right-Navigation and Rail- roads-Proposed Sloop and Steamboat Navigation-Con- victs Executed at Harrisburg-Assessed Valuation of County-School Statistics-Political-Postoffices-Pop- ulation 1790 to 1900-County's Development-Current Prices in 1800-Agriculture-Prices in 1903-Coal Mines-The Brownstone Quarries-Dauphin Historical Society 305
CHAPTER X. .
The Newspapers-The Legal Profession-The Medical Pro- fession 330
CHAPTER XI.
Townships: Derry-Londonderry-Paxtang-Lower Paxton. 373
CHAPTER XII.
Townships : West Hanover-East Hanover-Middle Paxton
-- Conewago 405
CHAPTER XIII.
Townships: South Hanover-Hanover (Original)-Rush-
Jackson-Jefferson-Wayne-Reed-Upper Paxton. .. 419
CHAPTER XIV.
Townships: Wiconisco-Washington-Susquehanna-Lykens Mifflin-Williams-Halifax-Lower Swatara-Swatara. 444 -Mifflin-Williams-Halifax-Lower Swatara-Swa- tara 444
History of Dauphin County.
CHAPTER I.
INDIAN OCCUPANCY-THE SUSQUEHANNAS-MOHAWKS-IRO- QUOIS-ALGONQUIN TRIBES-THE FIVE NATIONS-MANY INDIANS BURNED ALIVE-TREATY OF 1683-THE SHAWA- NESE STAY OF A QUARTER OF A CENTURY ON THE CONESTOGA AND PEQUEA CREEK-INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS- PENN'S DESCRIPTION OF THEM-STREAMS OF THE COUNTY.
Prior to 1600, but how long before is not known, the Susque- hanna Indians were seated upon the river of that name. By the "Relations" we find that they had previously come into collision with the Mohawks, then the most eastern of the Iroquois, by which, in a war that lasted for ten years, the former nearly exterminated the latter. According to Captain John Smith, who explored the Chesapeake and its tributaries, the Susquehannas were then (in 1608) still at war with the tribe referred to. In 1633 they were at war with the Algonquin tribes on the Delaware, maintaining their supremacy by butchery. They were friendly to the Dutch, and . when the Swedes arrived on the Delaware, in 1638, they renewed the friendly intercourse begun by the former. According to Haz- ard, they purchased lands of the ruling tribe, and thus secured their friendship. Southward, also, they carried the terror of their arms, and from 1634 to 1644 they waged war on the Yaomacoes, the Piscataways, and Patuxents, and were so troublesome that in 1642 Governor Calvert, by proclamation, declared them public enemies.
When the Hurons, in Upper Canada, in 1647, began to sink under the fearful blows dealt by the Five Nations, the Susquehannas sent an embassy to offer them aid against the common enemy. Nor was the offer one of little value, for the Susquehannas could put into the field one thousand three hundred warriors, trained to the use of fire-arms and European modes of war by three Swedish sol- diers, whom they had obtained to instruct them. Before interposing, however, they began a negotiation, and sent an embassy to Onon- daga to urge the cantons to peace. The Iroquois refused, and the
1
2
HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY
Hurons, sunk in apathy, took no active steps to secure the aid of the friendly Susquehannas. That tribe, however, maintained its friendly intercourse with its European neighbors, and in 1652, Sawahegeh, and other sachems, in presence of a Swedish deputy, ceded to Mary- land all the territory from the Patuxent river to Palmer's island, and from the Choptauk to the northeast branch north of Elk river.
Four years later, the Iroquois, grown insolent by their success in almost annihilating their kindred tribes north and south of Lake Erie, provoked a war with the Susquehannas, plundering their hunters on Lake Ontario. During that year the smallpox, that terrible scourge of the aborigines, broke out in their town, sweeping off many, and seriously enfeebling the nation. War had now begun in earnest with the Five Nations, and though the Susquehannas had some of their people killed near their town, they in turn pressed the Cayugas so hard that some of them retreated across Lake Ontario to Canada. They also kept the Senecas in such alarm that they no longer ventured to carry their peltries to New York, except in caravans escorted by six hundred men, who even took a most circuitous route. A law of Maryland, passed May 1, 1661, author- ized the Governor of that province to aid the Susquehannas- (Egle's History of Pennsylvania.)
Smarting under constant defeat, the Five Nations solicited French aid, but in April, 1663, the western cantons raised an army of eight hundred men to invest and storm the fort of the Susque- hannas. This fort was located about fifty miles from the mouth of the river. The enemy embarked on Lake Ontario, according to the French account, and then went overland to the Susquehanna. On reaching the fort, however, they found it well defended on the river side, and on the land side with two bastions in European style, with cannon mounted and connected by a double curtain of large trees. After some trifling skirmishes the Iroquois had recourse. to stratagem.
They sent in a party of twenty-five men to treat of peace, and ask provisions to enable them to return. The Susquehannas admit- ted them, but immediately burned them all alive before the eyes of their fellows. The force of the Iroquois numbered sixteen hundred warriors, while that of the Susquehannas was only one thousand. On the retreat of the Iroquois, the Susquehannas pursued them with great slaughter.
After this the war was carried on in small parties, and Sus- quehanna pioneers were from time to time burned at Oneida, Onon- daga, Seneca and Cayuga. In the fall of 1669 the Susquehannas, after defeating the Cayugas, offered peace, but the Cayugas put their
.
3
HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY
ambassador and his nephew to death, after retaining him six months -- the Oneidas having taken nine Susquehannas and sent some to Cayuga, with forty wampum belts to maintain the war.
At this time the great war chief of the Susquehannas was one styled Hochitagete (Barefoot), and raving women and crafty chief medicine men deluded the Iroquois with promises of his capture and execution at the stake, and a famous medicine man of Oneida appeared after death to order his body to be taken up and interred on the trail leading to the Susquehannas, as the only means of saving that canton from ruin. Towards the summer of 1672 a body of forty Cayugas descended the Susquehanna in canoes, and twenty Senecas went by land to attack the enemy in their fields; but a band of sixty Andasté, or Susquehanna boys, the oldest not over sixteen, attacked the Senecas and routed them, killing one brave and taking another. Flushed with victory, they pushed on to attack the Cayu- gas, and defeated them also, killing eight, and wounding with arrow, knife, and hatchet fifteen or sixteen more, losing, however, fifteen or sixteen of their gallant band. At this time the Susquehannas were so reduced by war and pestilence that they could muster only three hundred warriors.
In 1675, according to the Relations Inédites and Colden, the tribe was completely overthrown, but unfortunately we have no details whatever as to the forces which effected it or the time or manner of their utter defeat. The remnant, too proud to yield to those with whom they had long contended as equals, and by holding the land of their fathers by sufferance to acknowledge themselves subdued, yet too weak to withstand the victorious Iroquois, forsook the river bearing their name, taking up a position on the western borders of Maryland, near the Piscataways. Shortly after they were accused of the murder of some settlers, apparently slain by the Senecas. They sent five of their chiefs to the Maryland and Vir- ginia troops, under Colonel John Washington, great-grandfather of General George Washington, and Major Thomas Truman, who went out in pursuit. Although coming as deputies, and showing the Baltimore medal and certificates of friendship, these chiefs were cruelly put to death. The enraged Susquehannas, dwelling in their ancient seat, all had disappeared. Some few vagabond families of the Iroquois remained and occupied the deserted towns of their conquered and expelled enemies. These were the individuals rep- resenting themselves as Conestogas-not by blood, but simply by occupation. They were Cayugas and Senecas. Whether by per- suasion we know not, but certainly by permission of the Iroquois, came the Shawanese to Pennsylvania. They originated in the South,
4
HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY
and doubtless belonged to the Algonquins, as they spoke the same language. From the most authentic information it appears that the basin of the Cumberland river was the home of the Shawanese before the settlement of the Europeans on the continent, and that they connected the various sections of the Algonquin families. At the treaty of 1683 the Shawanese were a party to that covenant, and they must have been considered a very prominent band from the fact of their having preserved the treaty in their own possession or keeping, as we are informed that at a conference held many years after, that nation produced this treaty on parchment to the Governor of the Province. It was the custom with the Indian tribes who made a joint treaty with the whites to commit the preservation of the papers containing the treaty, etc., to such of the bands as were con- sidered most to be trusted. From the best authority, it appears that as early as 1673 upwards of seventy families of that nation removed from the Carolinas and occupied some of the deserted posts of the Susquehannas. Others of the tribe soon followed.
In the year 1698, some Shawanese applied to the proprietary government of Pennsylvania for permission to settle on the Cones- toga and Pequea creeks, under Opessah, their principal chief. Here they remained a quarter of a century, when, with other families settled on the Swatara, Paxtang, and the Susquehanna streams on the east, they branched off to the westward. As early as 1728 we find the Shawanese as far west as the Ohio, and by the middle of the eighteenth century the entire tribe had settled on the branches of that river. In the year 1732 the number of fighting braves of that nation in Pennsylvania amounted to seven hundred. The Shawanese, says Colden, were the most restless of all the Indian tribes. In 1745, he says, one tribe of them had gone to New Spain. This band of four hundred and fifty, who located themselves on the head- waters of the Mobile River, probably never returned to Pennsyl- vania.
The latter were merely residents on the Susquehanna by suf- ferance, not only of the whites, but the Five Nations of New York, and yet they became the most perfidious, and to them-their savage brutality, their fiendish atrocity-are we indebted for most all the bloody transactions of a later period.
INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
While more recent days have caused the English speaking peo- ple to not hold the highest regard for the once called "Noble Red Man," it is of interest to note what William Penn thought of the
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HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY
Indian, as he first found him. It is given in his letter addressed to the Free Society of Traders in London, and bears date of "Phila- delphia, the 16th of the 6th month, called August, 1683":
"The natives I shall consider in their persons, language, man- ners, religion, and government, with my sense of their original. For their persons, they are generally tall, straight, well-built, and of singular proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin. Of complexion, black, but by design, as the Gyp- sies in England. They grease themselves with bear's fat clarified, and using no defense against sun or weather, their skin must needs be swarthy. Their eye is little and black, not unlike a straight- looked Jew. The thick lip and flat nose, so frequent with the East Indians and blacks, are not common to them, for I have seen as comely European-like faces among them, of both, as on your side the sea ; and truly an Italian complexion hath not much more of the white, and the noses of several of them have as much of the Roman.
"Their language is lofty, yet narrow ; but, like the Hebrew, in signification full; like short-hand, in writing, one word serveth in the place of three, and the rest are supplied by the understanding of the hearer ; imperfect in their tenses, wanting in their moods, partici- ples, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections. I have made it my busi- ness to understand it, that I might not want an interpreter on any occasion, and I must say that I know not a language spoken in Eu- rope that hath words of more sweetness, or greatness in accent and emphasis than theirs; for instance, Octocockon, Rancocas, Oricton, Shak, Marian, Poquesien; all which are names of places, and have grandeur in them. Of words of sweetness, Anna, is mother; Issi- mus, a brother ; Netcap, friend; Usqueoret, very good; Pane, bread; Metsa, eat; Matta, no; Hatta, to have; Payo, to come; Sepassin, Passijon, the names of places; Tamane, Secane, Menanse, Secater- eus, are the names of persons; if one asks them for anything they have not, they will answer Matta ne hatta; which to translate is, not I have, instead of I have not.
"Of their customs and manners there is much to be said; I will begin with children; so soon as they are born they wash them in water; and while very young, and in cold weather to chuse, they plunge them in the rivers to harden and embolden them. Having wrapt them in a clout, they lay them on a straight, thin board, a little more than the length and breadth of the child, and swaddle it fast upon the board to make it straight; wherefore all Indians have flat heads; and thus they carry them at their backs. The children will go, very young, at nine months commonly; they wear only a small clout round their waist till they are big; if boys, they go a fishing, till ripe for the woods; which is about fifteen; then they hunt; and after having given some proofs of their manhood, by a good return of skins, they may marry; else it is a shame to think of
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HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY
a wife. The girls stay with their mothers, and help to hoe the ground, plant corn and carry burdens; and they do well to use them to that young, which they must do when they are old; for the wives are the true servants of the husbands; otherwise the men are very affectionate to them.
"When the young women are fit for marriage, they wear some- thing upon their heads, for an advertisement, but so, as their faces are hardly to be seen, but when they please. The age, they marry at, if women, is about thirteen, and fourteen; if men, seventeen and eighteen ; they are rarely elder.
"Their houses are mats, or barks of trees, set on poles, in the fashion of an English barn, but out of the power of the winds; for they are hardly higher than a man; they lie on reeds, or grass. In travel they lodge in the woods, about a great fire, with the mantle of duffils they wear by day wrapt about them, and a few boughs stuck around them.
"Their diet is maize, or Indian corn, divers ways prepared; sometimes roasted in the ashes; sometimes beaten and boiled with water; which they call homine; they also make cakes, not unpleasant to eat. They have likewise several sorts of beans and pease, that are good nourishment ; and the woods and rivers are their larder.
"If an European comes to see them, or calls for lodging at their house, or wigwam, they give him the best place and first cut. If they come to visit us, they salute us with an Itah; which is as much as to say, Good be to you, and set them down; which is mostly on the ground, close to their heels, their legs upright; it may be they speak not a word, but observe all passages. If you give them anything to eat, or drink, well, for they will not ask; and be it little or much, if it be with kindness, they are well pleased, else they go away sullen, but say nothing.
"They are great concealers of their own resentments; brought to it, I believe, by the revenge that hath been practiced among them. In either of these they are not exceeded by the Italians. A tragical instance fell out since I came into the country: a king's daughter, thinking herself slighted by her husband, in suffering another woman to lie down between them, rose up, went out, plucked a root out of the ground and ate it; upon which she immediately died; and, for which, last week, he made an offering to her kindred, for atonement, and liberty of marriage; as two others did to the kindred of their wives that died a natural death. For, till widowers have done so, they must not marry again. Some of the young women are said to take undue liberty before marriage, for a portion; but when mar- ried, chaste. When with child they know their husbands no more, till delivered; and during their month they touch no meat they eat but with a stick, lest they should defile it; nor do their husbands fre- quent them till that time be expired.
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