A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 23

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909-1930
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 734

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I > Part 23

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

When we call to mind the ravages of disease, exposure, starvation and the white inan, and then consider the number of Indians now here, in comparison with the number at the advent of the European on this continent, the Indian would seem to be a startling example of the sur- vival of the fittest. It must be noted, however, that of those who are now classified in the reports and censuses of the Government as Indians the majority are unquestionably not full-bloods. The increasing value of the reservations, the distribution by the National Government of great sums of money to certain tribes, the development of excellent educational institutions for the exclusive benefit of Indian children- these, as well as other advantages, have had the effect to draw into tribal relationship thousands whose claims to such relationship depend upon very small strains of Indian blood.

In several of the "Five Civilized Tribes" the title Indian includes Indians by blood, Indians by intermarriage and freedmen. The "Five Tribes," except the Seminole, all owned slaves prior to and during the Civil War. In 1860 the total number of slaves thus held was 7,369. These were freed by the Proclamation of Emancipation, which, how- ever, was not enforced and confirmed among the "Five Tribes" until the adoption of the treaty of 1866, and then only after much protest. These freedmen were then admitted to full citizenship in some of the tribes-particularly in the Creek Nation-and are entitled to share

166

in the distribution of the lands and inoneys of those tribes. Since the war there has been a very large increase in the negro population of Indian Territory by immigration from the old slave States adjacent. The negroes-both the new-comers and the natives of the Terri- tory-have intermarried with the members of all the tribes except the Choctaw-in which tribe any Indian who marries a negro is punished by death. In some parts of Indian Territory occupied by the "Five Tribes" the negroes predominate, the whites come next, and the red men are often pointed out as exceptions-rarities, one might almost say. And yet legally and technically a large proportion of these white inen and negroes are Indians, and are called such. Some years ago a prominent lawyer of Missouri went down into Indian Territory to transact some business with one of the tribes. When he returned home, after having driven a hard bargain for his clients, he commented on the people he had dealt with in these words: "Indians! Those fellows are not Indians. They are mighty smart Yankees, tanned a little."

In many other tribes throughout the country the intermarriage of Indians with whites and negroes has been going on for a long time, and in this way the Indian race is gradually losing its identity. When the reservation system shall have been abolished, and tribal relations brought to an end, the red mnen will begin to scatter, and the effect will be a general and rapid mixing up of the races. There are some scien- tists, however, who believe that the different white races of the United States are slowly converging to the type of the North American Indian, and that the Indians, as a race, will never become extinct, but will increase in numbers and be once more dominant when the physical forces now in operation shall have changed the white man into the Indian.

The notion that Caucasian settlers will be gradually Indianized in America and Africanized in Africa is an old one, and has been actively discussed at various times. Some seven years ago Prof. Frederick Starr of Chicago University, who is well known as a student of anthropology, made some careful investigations among the Pennsylvania Germans and summarized the results of his work in the statement that these people "are steadily approaching the physical type of the American Indian." Professor Starr measured the heads, heights, finger reaches and lengths of legs and arins of hundreds of school-children in Allen- town, Pennsylvania. Then he went to Kutztown-the heart of Penn- sylvania "Dutchdom"-and at the county fair collected photographs of great numbers of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" country people. Comparing these with the prevailing types of the German Palatinate of to-day he found that the "Pennsylvania Dutch" head had grown larger, the cheek bones higher and the eyes and hair darker, as a result of the American environment. A number of the photographs showed a striking sim- ilarity to the dominant features of the Indian face. Furthermore, he found that the "Dutch" of Pennsylvania have grown in stature over their compatriots in Europe, and they have a distinct tendency towards the strong, bony lankness of the American Indian. The American environ- ment is what has produced the physical unity of appearance among the Indians, says Professor Starr, and if it is capable of producing a com- inon type from the different peoples who first came to the country many hundreds of years ago, why may it not work a similar change in people

167

of different nationalities who came after them and in the wake of Columbus ?

Many people, other than the Indians themselves, sincerely regret that the American aboriginals are surely although slowly becoming extinct, either by amalgamation with other races or by death. They apprehend that the Amerind people having built no temples, reared no montinents of stone, iron or bronze and having no literature will be forgotten. In their opinion, "such has been the Indian's life, such the result, that if the entire remaining Indians were instantly and con- pletely wiped from the face of the earth they would leave no in01111- ments, no buildings, no written language save one, no literature, no inventions, nothing in the arts or sciences, and absolutely nothing for the benefit of mankind." But, if the theories and deductions of Pro- fessor Starr are to be relied upon, the Amerind people will not only continue to exist and be remembered, but will be increased and strength- ened by large numbers of the Indianized Americans of modern times- particularly the "Pennsylvania Dutch" ! In any event, how can the red man be forgotten ? He will be remembered in the coming centuries from the fact that he has impressed himself upon the laws of this country, and has indelibly stamped by characteristic names-either of his own giving or drawn from his vocabulary by the whites-so many of our States, Territories and towns, bays, lakes and rivers.

Fifty-one years ago, in reply to a generally expressed opinion that the red man was rapidly disappearing and would soon be forgotten, Mrs. Sigourney (mentioned on page 69) wrote the following stanzas :

"Ve say that all have pass'd away- That noble race and brave- That their light canoes liave vanish'd From off the crested wave ; That, mid the forest where they roan'd, There rings no hunter's shout.

But their name is on your waters- Ye may not wash it out !

"'Tis where Ontario's billow Like ocean's surge is curl'd, Where strong Niagara's thunders wake The echo of the world ; Where red Missouri bringeth Rich tribute from the west,

And Rappahannock sweetly sleeps On green Virginia's breast.

"Ye say their cone-like cabins, That cluster'd o'er tlie vale, Have disappeared as wither'd leaves Before the Autumn's gale. But their memory liveth on your hills, Their baptisin on your shore, Your everlasting rivers speak Their dialect of yore.

"Old Massachusetts wears it Within hier lordly crown, And broad Ohio bears it Amid her young renown ; Connecticut hath wreath'd it Where her quiet foliage waves,

And bold Kentucky breathes it hoarse Through all her ancient caves.

168

"Wachusetts hides its lingering voice Within his rocky heart, And Allegheny graves its tone Throughout his lofty chart ; Monadnock, on his forehead hoar, Doth seal the sacred trust- Your mountains build their monument, Though ye destroy their dust."

$00

CHAPTER IV.

EARLY INDIAN SETTLEMENTS IN WYOMING-EARLIEST VISITS OF WHITE MEN-MORAVIAN MISSIONARIES ON THE SUSQUEHANNA- CONNECTICUT LAND COMPANIES ORGANIZED- THE "WYOMING REGION" PUR- CHASED FROM THE SIX NATIONS.

"Here let me rest, by fair Wyoming's side, Where Susquehanna's placid waters glide ; While sparkling streams, 'mid meadows rolling free, Pay willing tribute to the distant sea." -Rev. Joshua Peterkin, D. D.

Chapman states in his "Sketch of the History of Wyoming"* that Count Zinzendorf, who visited the valley in 1742, "is believed to have been the first white person that ever visited Wyoming." Stone and Miner, writing years later than Chapman, adopted and gave expression to this view in their respective histories. At a still later date Pearce wrote that "the impression that the Count Zinzendorf was the first white man who ever visited the Wyoming Valley" was probably a mistake, and suggested that Conrad Weiser, the Indian agent and interpreter, had visited the valley some years previously to the coming of Zinzen- dorf. It is now known that Weiser was here more than once prior to 1742-as will be more fully shown hereinafter.

"In the year when Elizabeth of England died (1603) no white man, it is safe to say, had ever seen the region which we call Pennsylvania. * Neither John Smith nor Henry Hudson entered Pennsylvania. They approached or reached the open doorway, but did not come inside. The actual visit of a white man was not made for six years after Hudson's call at the Capes. Apparently the first of white pioneers in Pennsyl- vania was a Frenchman, who came from Canada, Etienne Brulé [Stephen Bruehle], a follower of Champlain, the first Governor of New France. He was Champlain's interpreter and guide-'the dauntless woodsman, pioneer of pioneers,' Parkman calls him."+

In September, 1615, when Champlain was preparing to join with the Hurons in the expedition against the palisaded village pictured on page 95, Brulé set out with a party of twelve Hurons from Upper Canada for the towns of the Carantouanis, to secure their co-operation against the common enemy. These people were allies of the Hurons

* See page 19, ante.

+ "Pennsylvania-Colonial and Federal," I : 1, 35.

169

170

and are mentioned in the description of Champlain's map as "a nation to the south of the Antouhonorons in a very beautiful and rich country, where they are strongly lodged and are friends with all the other nations except the Antouhonorons, from whom they are only three days distant." The Antouhonorons, says Dr. Beauchamp, were the Upper Iroquois, or, perhaps more strictly, the Senecas ; although the Dutch, at the time of their discoveries, called all the Upper Iroquois Senecas. On the maps of 1614 and 1616 the Carantouanis appear as the Gachoi, or Gachoos, mentioned on page 111, and they occupied the territory now compre- hended in the counties of Chemung and Tioga, New York. Immedi- ately to the south of these at the period mentioned were the Capitanasses, within the present limits of Pennsylvania.

Brulé, with his little band of Hurons, crossed from Lake Ontario to the Susquehanna, defeated on the way a small war-party of Iroquois and entered in triumph Carantouan, the chief town of the Carantouanis. This town was palisaded, and could send out when necessary 800 war- riors-which would indicate a total population of about 4,000 souls. Brulé secured here a force of 500 Carantonianis, and they set out to join Champlain and the Hurons ; but as they marched slowly they reached the Iroquoian town only to find that Champlain had attacked it with his force, had failed, had himself been wounded and had retreated to Canada. Brulé and the allies therefore returned to Carantouan, and here the former remained the rest of the Autumn and all Winter "for lack of company and escort home."

While thus waiting Brule explored the country and visited the tribes adjacent to that region, and early in the Spring of 1616 descended the Susquehanna River to at least the present Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary. Thence he returned through the same region (the valley of the Susquehanna), if not precisely by the same route, to Carantouan, and later rejoined Champlain-in whose "Voyages" Brulé's adventures on the Susquehanna were subsequently recorded. It may be well to note here the ultimate fate-as recorded by Sagard in his "History of Canada"-of this the first known white inan to visit the valley of Wyoming. In 1623 he was living in Quebec, leading a very dissolute life among the Indians. Later he went over to the English, and in 1629 was sent by them with a message to the Hurons. The latter provoked at his conduct, put him to death and devoured him !

The Rev. David Craft, D. D., formerly of Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, and now of Angelica, New York, and Gen. John S. Clark of Auburn, New York, who have given a great deal of time to the study of aborig- inal remains in the valley of the upper Susquehanna, and elsewhere, are positive that the Carantouan of Brulé was situated on a high hill, in the shape of a sugar-loaf, near the present village of Waverly, New York. This hill, which is level on top and has an area of eleven acres, is crossed by the New York-Pennsylvania boundary-line, and is now popularly known as "Spanish Hill." Evidences of a palisade, an en11- bankment and a ditch were apparent here in 1795-as noted by the Duke de la Rochefoucault in his "Travels Through the United States in 1795-'97." There was an Indian burial-ground at the foot of the hill. "Spanishı Hill," or Carantouan, is situated about six miles north of Tioga Point, mentioned on page 34, and 101 miles north-west of Wilkes- Barré-following the windings of the river.

171

Dr. Beauchamp states (Bulletin of the New York State Museum, No. 32, pages 12 and 15) that at about the year 1600 "the Susquehanna River was held in Pennsylvania by the Iroquois family. Of these the Gachoi, or Gachoos, alone had land in New York, nor did they live there long. Their Iroquois foes gave them scant room in New York, but they were in close alliance with others of the family in Pennsyl- vania. Below them were the Capitanasses and the Minquas ; the latter being the Andastés. Collectively and later, all these were known to the English as Susquehannas or Conestogas."*

Dr. Craft holds that from time immemorial until they were over- thrown by the Iroquois (in 1675, as noted on page 40) the Huron-Iro- quois Andastés were in possession of the valley of the Susquehanna in what is now Pennsylvania. Further, that the nation was composed of ten tribes, living in forty palisaded villages, of which the uppermost, the most populous and the strongest fortified was what Brulé and Champlain called Carantouan. Their second town was Oscului (mean- ing "The Fierce"), which stood on a bluff at the upper side of Sugar Creek, just where it empties into the Susquehanna, near the present borough of Towanda, in Bradford County. Here the path, or trail, lead- ing from the West Branch of the Susquehanna, joined the great Warrior Path which ran along the North Branch of the river. Their third town was Gahontoto (signifying "where there is an island," or "The Island Town"), and was situated on a bluff on the north side of Wyalusing Creek (in what is now Bradford County) at its junction with the Sus- quehanna. The site of this town lies north-west of Wilkes-Barré, thirty- six miles in a bee-line, or, following the windings of the river, 58 miles. The fourth town of this nation, so far as known, was Onachsae (signify- ing "A Cave"), situated south-east of Gahontoto, twelve miles in a bee- line, on a bluff on the north side of Meshoppen Creek at its junction with the river, in what is now Wyoming County.

Nothing is known concerning these towns, and others inhabited by the Susquehanna Indians, except what has been learned from tradition (and that is not much), from the meager information communicated by Brulé to Champlain and recorded by the latter in his "Voyages," and from a careful examination (made at an earlier day than the present) of the determined sites of these towns, and a study of the relics found there. All these towns had long been deserted by their original occupants when the white men-the recorders of history-began their settlements in the Wyoming region ; and neither the Indians then dwelling in, nor those from time to time frequenting, this region knew anything definite concerning the earlier inhabitants. Chapman, speaking of them gener- ally in his "Wyoming" (page 6), refers to them as aboriginals "of whom very little is now [1818] known, but of whom relics have been found indicating a people of more importance than those tribes who subse- quently occupied the country."

Almost up to the time (March 4, 1681) of the granting by King Charles II to William Penn of the territory described in the charter as the "Province of Pensilvania," that territory was wholly the Indians' land. "While they did not occupy it, in a strict sense of the word, they enjoyed its complete possession in the manner suited to their way of life.

* In this connection see pages 38 and 39, ante, relative to the Susquehannas or Andastés as Huron- Iroquois.

172

* How many there were of thein is wholly left to conjecture. It is agreed that they were few." Oldinixon states in his "British Empire in America," published in 1701, that three years after the Penn grant was made "there were as many as ten nations of Indians in the Province of Pennsilvania, comprising 6,000 in number."

When the first settlers under the Connecticut Susquehanna Com- pany came to Wyoming Valley they found here the remains-well- defined and easily discernible-of two ancient fortifications or enclosures, respecting the origin and uses of which the Indians then here could give no information. One of these earthworks was situated within the present limits of the borough of Dorranceton; Kingston Township, and the other was located in what was at one time a part of the township of Wilkes-Barré, but is now the township of Plains. Neither the early Wyoming settlers nor their immediate descendants were given to any sentiment with regard to the preservation of Indian remains or relics or, for that matter, of the Indians themselves. They had come here from New England, through an almost trackless wilderness, for the purpose of building new homes and wresting a living from the then untilled soil and unbroken forest. And so Indian earthworks were ploughed over, relics were ploughed under and other evidences of an earlier occupation were destroyed and soon forgotten. Fortunately, before all this destruc- tion was completed, there came into the valley as citizens thereof a few men possessing intelligence and some sentiment who foresaw that the time would arrive when the later descendants of the first settlers would be greatly interested in learning all that could be learned con- cerning the aboriginal inhabitants of Wyoming. Foremost among these few foresighted men was Isaac A. Chapman, previously mentioned, whose portrait and a sketch of whose life will be found in a subsequent chapter. He had come to the Susquehanna region in 1798 at the age of eleven years, and in 1809 had located at Wilkes-Barré as a surveyor and draftsman. The following paragraphs are from Mr. Chapman's "A Sketch of the History of Wyoming" (page 8), mentioned on page 19, ante :

"In the valley of Wyoming there exist some remains of ancient fortifications which appear to have been constructed by a race of people very different in their habits from those who occupied the place when first discovered by the whites. Most of these ruins have been so much obliterated by the operations of agriculture that their forms cannot now [1818] be distinctly ascertained. That which remains the most entire was examined by the writer during the Summer of 1817, and its dimensions carefully ascertained, although from frequent ploughing its form had become almost destroyed. It is situated in the township of Kingston, upon a level plain on the north side of Toby's Creek, about one hundred and fifty feet from its bank, and about half a mile from its confluence with the Susquehanna .*

"It is of an oval, or elliptical, forin, having its longest diameter from the north- west to the south-east, at right angles to the creek, 337 feet ; and its shortest diameter from the north-east to the south-west 272 feet. On the south-west side appears to have been a gate-way about twelve feet wide, opening towards the great eddy ['Toby's] of the river into which the creek falls. From present appearances it consisted probably of only one mound or rampart, which, in height and thickness, appears to have been the same on all sides, and was constructed of earth-the plain on which it stands not abounding in stone. On the outside of the rampart is an entrenchment or ditch, formed probably by removing the earth of which it [the rampart] is composed, and which appears never to have been walled. The creek on which it stands is bounded by a high, steep bank on that side, and at ordinary tinies is sufficiently deep to admit canoes to ascend from the river to the fortification.

"When the first settlers came to Wyoming this plain was covered with its native forest, consisting principally of oak and yellow pine ; and the trees which grew in the rampart and in the entrenchment are said to have been as large as those in any other

* It is about three-quarters of a mile from Toby's Eddy, mentioned on page 54.

173

part of the valley. One large oak, particularly, on being cut down was ascertained to be 700 years old ! The Indians had no traditions concerning these fortifications ; neither did they appear to have any knowledge of the purposes for which they had been con- structed. They were, perhaps, erected abont the same time with those upon the waters of the Ohio, and probably by a similar people and for similar purposes."

In a letter relative to this Kingston earthwork written by Mr. Chapman in 1817, and published in Hazard's Pennsylvania Register, V : 35, he stated that he had been assured by old Mr. Peirce and many others that the timber which had been found growing "on the rampart, or parapet, was as large as any of the adjoining forest ; and there were also old logs found upon these mounds, indicating that a foriner growth of timber had preceded that which was then standing."

From time to time during many years, after the occupation of the valley by white men had been begun, various Indian relics were picked up on the site of this earthwork. Among other implements found more than fifty years ago, and now in the collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, was a rudely wrought spear-head of copper, five inches in length by one inch in its broadest part.

This particular site being located on the very fertile Lower Kingston Flats (described on page 50), which have been regularly cultivated now for considerably more than a hundred years, all traces of the old eartlı- work and, without doubt, all relics of the aboriginal occupiers of it, have long since disappeared. However, about the time Mr. Chapman wrote his description of the remains of this earthwork he drew a map* of a part of the Lower Kingston Flats, and upon it he noted the site of the old earthwork-indicating its exact location by a reference to the determined and easily ascertained boundaries of certain official surveys. By the aid of a draft of these surveys and Mr. Chapman's map and printed description of the locality in question, the present writer was enabled recently to locate, beyond doubt, the site of the old-time Indian earthwork ; and he made a photograph of the same, reproduced on the next page. This site is on land which, a hundred years ago, was the property of Ezekiel Peirce, a well-known citizen of Kingston Township. It has been owned for some time now by Lawrence Myers of Wilkes- Barré. It is located about 300 feet south-west of Peirce Street, running from the North Street bridge to the borough of Kingston, and is distant about 150 feet from the north bank of the "short branch" of Toby's Creek mentioned on page 54. The row of trees growing on this bank, and seen in the middle-distance of the picture, indicates the course of the creek. The location of the site, with reference both to Wilkes- Barré and Kingston, may be readily seen by an inspection of the map in Chapter XXVIII entitled "Map of Wilkes-Barre and its Suburbs in 1872." In the matter of location, certain features of construction, natural surroundings, etc., there were remarkable resemblances between the Kingston earthwork, as described, and the works mentioned and pictured on pages 92 and 93.1

As to the remains of the earthwork found on Jacob's Plainst in what was formerly a part of the township of Wilkes-Barré, Charles

* Now in possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.

+ Since the above was put in type the writer has been informed by George H. Butler, Esq., a descend- ant of Ezekiel Peirce, that he remembers very well that in 1864 a small section of the embankment of this old earthwork was still distinguishable ; and at the nearest point to it on the bank of the creek was a fine bubbling, or live, spring.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 23

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray Publication date: 1909-1930 Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press Number of Pages: 734

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909-1930
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 734