A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 25

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 25

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* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records, " IV : 338.

+ Their town on Pequea Creek, some five or six miles from Conestoga.

# "History of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Indians in North America," Livonia, 1788. ¿ Relative to the Shawanese who remained behind at Pequehan the following interesting items may be appropriately introduced here.

In June, 1707, Governor Evans of Pennsylvania, attended by interpreters and others, paid a visit to Pequehan and held a conference with the Shawanese and some "Mingoes," or Five Nation Indians, belonging to a Mingo town not far from Conestoga. Opessah, or Wo-path-tha, King of the Shawanese, speaking in behalf of the youth of Pequehan, said : "We are happy to live in a country at peace, and not as in those parts where we formerly lived ; for then, upon our return from hunting, we found our town surprised and our women and children taken prisoners by our enemies."

During Governor Evans' stay at Pequehan several Shawanese "from the southward" came to settle there under Opessah, with the Governor's consent; and at the same time "an Indian from a Shanois [Shawanese] town near Carolina came in and gave an account that 450 of the fflatt-headed Indians had beseiged them, and that in all probability the same was taken." It seems that some of the Shawanese of Carolina-presumably South Carolina-had killed several "Christians" (white people), whereupon the Provincial authorities raised a force of whites and "Flat-head" Indians and beseiged the principal town of the Shawanese.

In October, 1714, the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania was notified that "Opessah, the late King of the Shawanois, having absented himself from his people for about three years-living in the woods at a considerable distance from the tribe ; and. upon divers messages sent to him, still refused to return to them, they have at length thought it necessary to appoint another in his stead, and presented the person chosen to the Board as the new elected King of the Shawanois-desiring the approbation of the Govern- ment." In June, 1715, Opessah, the "late King," attended a Council at Philadelphia with certain Dela- ware Indians from the Schuylkill. In 1719 "Savannah" was chief, or King, of the Shawanese in the locality of Conestoga. (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," II : 388, 389 and 574, and III : 149.

VIEW UP THE SUSQUEHANNA FROM NEAR THE SITE OF THE ORIGINAL SHAWANESE VILLAGE IN WHAT IS NOW PLYMOUTH. From a photograph taken in July. 1904.

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coal-mining operations) this creek ran very near to Garrison Hill and then flowed due southi clear across the Flats, parallel with their eastern margin, to the river.

Col. H. B. Wright, in his "Historical Sketches of Plymouth," writ- ten in 1872, states (on page 90) with reference to "Garrison Hill" :

"This spot is at the turn of the 'Flat' road, and some seventy rods from the main traveled road through the town, and not far from the location of the old 'swing gate.' It was years ago, and within my recollection, the field where we went in search of Indian curiosities-arrow-heads, pipes, stone hatchets, pots, etc., and sometimes we would find leaden bullets and pieces of broken muskets."

Notwithstanding the fact that the "Shawnee" Flats have been diligently cultivated for the past century and a quarter, and that during this period they have been overflowed by the waters of the Susque- hanna at least once, but oftener twice, in each year, in times of freshets, yet, by the practised eye of the archæologist, many evidences of early Indian occupation may still be seen on and near the site of the old Shaw- anese village. After the big freshet of 1902 (which, at different points in the locality mentioned, stripped off the topmnost stratuin of soil) quite a number of interesting "finds" were made by Mr. Christopher Wren of Plymouth, who has a greater practical understanding of the early Indian remains discovered in Wyoming Valley, and has made a larger and more varied collection of them, than any other man now living.

For twenty odd years following the coming of the Shawanese to Wyoming little or nothing that is reliable is known with respect to · affairs or conditions in the valley. Then occurred the second recorded visit of the white man to the valley. In the Spring of 1723 thirty families of Palatines from Schoharie County, New York, passed down the North Branch of the Susquehanna on their way as emigrants to the valley of the Tulpehocken, in what is now Berks County, Pennsylvania. It is more than probable that these voyagers stopped, for one reason or another, at some or all of the few Indian villages that lay in their long and lonely course ; and as, at that time, the Shawanese village was the only settlement of human beings in Wyoming Valley-so far as 110w known-it may be presumed that the Palatines tarried there, if only for a few hours.

These Palatines-natives of the Palatinate of the Rhine, or the Pfalz, in Germany-had been settled since 1714 at what is now Middle- burg, Schoharie County. After years of patient toil they had become involved in trouble about the lands which they were occupying and cultivating. Lieutenant Governor Keith of Pennsylvania learned of their unhappy situation while he was in Albany on a visit, and he offered them a home in Pennsylvania. "The people got news of lands on the Swatara and Tulpehocken ; " the tidings proved attractive and a migration was begun. The Rev. Sanford H. Cobb, in "The Story of the Palatines" (page 282), says :

"The leader of the first company was Hartman Vinedecker [or Windecker], whom almost his entire village followed into Pennsylvania. The emigrants ascended the Schoharie for a few miles, and then, under the conduct of an Indian guide, crossed the mountains southwestwardly to the upper waters of the Susquehanna. On the bank of this river they constructed canoes for the carriage of the most of their number, with the women, children and furniture. In these canoes, while some of the men drove the horses and cattle on the land, the majority of the party floated down the Susquehanna so far as to the mouth of the Swatara. Turning into this stream they followed its upward course, until in the region of hills and vales and fertile meadow-lands, in which both the Swatara and Tulpehocken* have their rise, they found at last the object of their journey and a * See maps on pages 188 and 191.

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place of permanent habitation. To their first settlement they gave the name of Heidel- berg, and thence sent back word to their friends at Schoharie of the prosperous issue of the journey."

In the Summer of 1725 fifty other Palatine families from Schoharie passed through Wyoming on their way to the valley of the Tulpehocken ; and in the Spring of 1729 a third-and probably the smallest-company of Palatines passed down the Susquehanna to join their countrymen in the new Deutschland. Prominent among those who composed this company was Conrad Weiser,* who said concerning it: "There was want of leadership-each man did as he pleased." Not satisfied with being themselves removed from New York, these happily-settled Penn- sylvania Palatines "wrote to their friends and relatives, if ever they in- tended to come to America not to go to New York. This advice had such influence that the Germans, who afterwards went in such numbers to America, constantly avoided New York and went to Pennsylvania. It sometimes happened that they were forced to take ships bound for New York, but they were scarce got on shore when they hastened to Pennsylvania, in sight of all the inhabitants of New York."+

The great influx of Germans into Pennsylvania, which had begun sonne years before the first company of Schoharie Palatines journeyed down the Susquehanna, was very disquieting to some of the officials of the Province. As early as 1717 James Logan (previously mentioned), then Secretary of the Province, wrote :

"We have of late great numbers of Palatines poured in among us, without recom- mendation or notice, which gives the country some uneasiness, for foreigners do not so well among us as our own English people."

* CONRAD WEISER, the son of John Conrad Weiser, was born near Wiirteniberg, Germany, November 2, 1696, and in 1710 accompanied his parents to America with a colony of Palatines, who settled on Livingston Manor in Columbia County, New York. In 1714 the Weisers removed to Schoharie, which was in the Mohawk Indian country. When Conrad was seventeen years old he spent, at his father's request, eight months in the family of a prominent Mohawk chief. Returning home he did good service as interpreter between "the high-mettled Dutch and the tawny nation. There was plenty of business and no pay." Later he left his father's home, and during the greater part of the time for a period of fifteen years lived among the Mohawk Indians ; in this manner becoming familiar with their habits, customs and language, and fitting himself to render the invaluable services which he afterwards performed for the Government of Pennsylvania. His father was one of the leaders of his countrymen in resisting the encroachments of the Albany landholders, who eventually forced the Palatines to vacate their farms and emigrate to Pennsylvania, as described above.

Conrad Weiser settled near Womelsdorf, in Heidelberg Township, not far from Tulpehocken Creek and about fourteen miles west of the present city of Reading. Here he lived until within a few years before his death, when he removed to Reading. In 1732, by special request of certain deputies of the Six Nations, he was appointed by Lieutenant Governor Gordon of Pennsylvania Interpreter for the Iroquois Confederacy. From this time until his death he was identified with the history of the Province in all its relations with the Indians. He was referred to by chiefs of the Six Nations as a "Councillor" of their Confederacy. His Indian name was "Tharachiawagon." His popularity and his influence were great among the Indians of all nations with whom he had dealings. In 1734 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the Pennsylvania Government, and in the old French War was commissioned Colonel and appointed to the command of all forces raised west of the Susquehanna. The Provincial Council testified in 1736 "that they had found Conrad faithful and honest, that he is a true, good man and had spoke their [the Indians'] words and our words, and not his own."

At an important council held by the Provincial Government with a large number of Six Nation Indians at Philadelphia in July, 1742, the chief speaker of the Six Nations said concerning Weiser : "The business the Five Nations transact with you is of great consequence, and requires a skillful and honest person to go between us-one in whom both you and we can place confidence. We esteem our present Interpreter to be such a person, equally faithful in the interpretation of whatever is said to him by either of us-equally allied to both. He is of our nation and a member of our Council as well as of yours. When we adopted him we divided him into two equal parts-one we kept for ourselves, and one we left for you. He has had a great deal of trouble with us, wore out his shoes in our messages, and dirtied his clothes by being amongst us, so that he is as nasty as an Indian. In return for these services we recom- mend him to your generosity, and on our own behalf we give him five skins to buy him clothes and shoes with." (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IV : 581.)

"Weiser's Iroquois alliances. his skill in preventing Maryland and Virginia from becoming involved in an Indian war, his ability in securing the friendship of the Six Nation allies on the Maumee and Wabash, stimulated the fur trade in Pennsylvania. The exports of peltries from Philadelphia at this time exceeded those of New York and Baltimore. The protection offered by Weiser's Logstown treaty of 1748 revealed to Virginia the wealth of trade in territory which she had always claimed. The Ohio Land Company was formed, and the Virginia traders pushed rapidly into this Eldorado. * * * After the death of Weiser, Pennsylvania figured no longer in Indian affairs."

Weiser died July 13, 1760, while on a visit to his farm near Womelsdorf, and was buried there. It is said that Washington, standing at the grave of Weiser in 1794, remarked that the services of the latter to the Government had been of great importance aud had been rendered in a difficult period and posterity would not forget him.

+ Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, X : 388.

LOOKING UP WYOMING VALLEY FROM INMAN HILL, HANOVER TOWNSHIP. From a photograph taken in July, 1904.

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This "uneasiness" concerning the German immigration into Pent- sylvania continned for a number of years, and at one time Secretary Logan expressed a "fear lest the Colony be lost to the Crown" by reason of these immigrants. In January, 1742, Lieutenant Governor Thomas, i11 a message to the Pennsylvania Assembly, said* :

"I am not insensible that some look with jealous eyes upon the yearly concourse of Germans to this Province, but the Parliament of Great Britain see it in a different light, and have therefore given great encouragement by a late Act to all such foreign Protestants as shall settle in his Majesty's dominions. And indeed every man who well considers this matter must allow that every industrious laborer from Europe is a real addition to the wealth of this Province ; and that the labor of every foreigner in particular is almost so much clear gain to our mother country."

Nearly 200,000 Palatines came to America previously to the Revo- lutionary War, and their descendants-among whom to-day are some of the most solid and eminent men of the country-number now not far from four or five millions. Cobb states that so large was the Palatine element-particularly after the year 1710-in the immigrations into Pennsylvania, that "all the natives of other German States coming with them were called by the same name. Thus, though the Palatinate covered but a small portion of the German Empire, yet for forty years in Pennsylvania nomenclature all Germans were Palatines." Mainly, if not wholly, from those Palatines who settled in Pennsylvania in Colonial times are descended the "Pennsylvania Dutchinen" of to-day. The Palatine immigrants were generally taken to be of the same country as the Hollanders, or Dutch, who played an important part among the earliest settlers on the Atlantic coast, and accordingly the former were called "Dutch," or "Dutchmen." Two centuries and more have hardly been sufficient to teach the difference between the two nationalities.

The first German settlements on this continent were made in Penn- sylvania-the first colonists arriving in the Province in October, 1683. Their leader was Francis Daniel Pastorious, probably the most widely learned man in America in the seventeenth century, and one of the first who raised a written protest against slavery. These Gerinans, from the Palatinate and elsewhere-these "Pennsylvania Dutchmen"-made the forests of Penn blossom like gardens, and in later Colonial times formed, as their descendants form now, the brain, sinew and muscle of several Pennsylvania counties. The Bible was printed three times and the Testament seven times in German in this country before it came forth in English from an American press. The greatest publication of Colonial times was the "Martyr Book," which came from the press at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in 1748. About half the books published by Benjamin Franklin were in German for the Germans. The first paper- mill in America was erected by a "Pennsylvania Dutchman." The first type-founder in the country was a "Pennsylvania Dutchman," as was also the American to first attain eminence as ant astronomer and measure for the first time the distance from the earth to the sun.

Retracing our steps, now, to Wyoming, we will continue the story of the valley with the events of 1728-the year preceding Conrad Weiser's removal from New York to Pennsylvania.

The exodus of the Schoharie Palatines to Tulpehocken Valley seems to have first opened the eyes of the Six Nation Indians to the important value of their land claims in Pennsylvania, says Waltont ;

* "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IV : 508.

+ In "Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania," pages 11 and 16.

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and after that time they denied to the Delaware Indians the privilege to sell any territory in that Province, and pressed their own claims and rights with diplomatic skill. As previously noted (on page 113) the Iroquois claimed sovereignty over the Delawares and other Pennsylvania Indians, but they had not insisted on exercising the sole right to dis- pose of lands lying in Pennsylvania. The Delawares, in particular, had been selling the lands occupied by themselves to William Penn and his sons, his successors, at various times, apparently without any objections being raised by the Six Nations. However, early in 1728 the "Great Council" of the Six Nations at Onondaga Castle sent Shikellimy,* an Oneida sachem, to Pennsylvania to guard the interests of the Six Nations in that Province. He took up his residence at the mouth of Sinking Run, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, about three miles north of the present borough of Lewisburg, Union County, and in June, 1728, attended a council at Philadelphia for the first time in his official capacity. In the following October he attended a second council held at the same place.

Shikellimy had general oversight of the Shawanese, Conestoga and Delaware Indians in Pennsylvania. "These tribes were soon given to understand that in their future dealings with the Proprietary Govern- ment it would be necessary to consult him; that all their business would be done in the future in the same manner as the affairs of the Six Nations were accomplished." The grounds upon which were based the claims of the Six Nations to the "lands along the Susquehanna," at this time as well as in later years, were forcibly set forth by Canas- satego (mentioned on page 81) in a speech made at a council held by the Provincial authorities with certain Six Nation Indians at Philadelphia

* SHIKELLIMY was the name given this sachem by the Shawanese. His Iroquois name was Sawatane. He was of the Oneida nation, of the Bear clan, and was born about 1680, presumably in New York. Having located on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, he continued at the place mentioned above for a number of years. The locality was called for a long time "Shikellimy's Town" and then "Shikellimy's Old Town," and the stream there was known as "Shikellimy's Run." Between 1738 and 1742 Shikellimy removed to Shamokin (now Sunbury), near the confluence of the West Branch with the North Branch of the Susquehanna, as that place was recognized as a more central and accessible spot. (See maps on pages 188 and 191.) That he was living at Shamokin as early as 1742 is proved by statements in Zinzendorf's "Narrative," in Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church," page 84, et seq.

On account of its commanding position-being the converging point of the great trails north and south-Shamokin was the most populous and important Indian town in the Province at this time. When first visited by the whites in 1727 it contained upwards of 300 Indians, occupying about fifty lodges scattered over considerable territory. Here the Iroquois warriors, on their return from predatory expe- ditions against the southern tribes, would tarry for awhile and indulge in a final carouse before returning to their homes. Martin Mack, the missionary, described the town in 1745 as "the very seat of the Prince of Darkness"; and another missionary, David Brainerd, who was there in the same year, wrote of it : "The Indians of this place are accounted the most drunken, mischievous and ruffian-like fellows of any in these parts, and Satan seems to have his seat in this town in an eminent manner. Abont one-half are Delawares, the others Senecas and Tuteloes." Shamokin lay south-west of Wyoming Valley, distant from its center (the present site of Wilkes-Barré) fifty-seven miles in a bee-line, or sixty-five miles follow- ing the course of the river.

As Shikellimy was virtuous, sober, shrewd and possessed of marked executive ability, he was recog- nized hy the Six Nations as a man of much more than ordinary mind and character, and about 1745 was promoted by the Confederacy to the dignity of vicegerent, and was invested with unusual authority. He was wide-awake and earnest in his efforts to promote the interests of his people, "and was well aware that up to this time there had been little or no intercourse between the Government of Pennsylvania and the Six Nations." On account of his high standing and excellent judgment his influence was conrted by the Provincial authorities, and he and Conrad Weiser became warm friends. Scarcely a treaty or a con- ference took place between the years 1728 and 1748 (and there were many treatiesand conferences respect- ing the purchase of lands) but Shikellimy was present, and by his moderate counsels aided in an amicable solution of the intricate questions with which these events were concerned. Of all the Indians-of whom we have any account-who ever lived in Pennsylvania, Shikellimy was, in some respects, one of the most remarkable.

In 1747, while on a visit to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Shikellimy was converted to Christianity. He died at Shamokin-probably of fever and ague, then prevailing in that locality-December 17, 1748, in the presence of members of his family and David Zeisberger, the Moravian missionary. A coffin was made, the Indians painted the corpse in gay colors aud decked it with the choicest ornaments that had belonged to Shikellimy in life. Various implements were also placed with the corpse in the coffin, and interment was then made in the Indian burial-ground on the outskirts of Shamokin. In 1858 various Indian graves, including that of Shikellimy, in this old graveyard were opened, and of the relics then exhumed an interesting account will be found in Johnson's "Historical Record" (Wilkes-Barre), II : 179.

The wife of Shikellimy was a Cayuga, and she bore him four sons and one daughter, who were, according to the Indian law relating to pedigrees, Cayugas. The eldest of the sons was Tachnechdorus, or Tachnechtoris ("The Wide-spreading Oak"), who was commonly known as "John Shikellimy." He

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in July, 1742. The Onondagan orator said, among other things* : "That country belongs to us in right of conquest. We have bought it with our blood, and taken it from our enemies in fair war, and we expect as owners of that land to receive such consideration for it as the land is worth."

The ancient Delawares are now about to appear upon the scene again-this time at Wyoming; but before they are introduced it is important that we should look backward for a space, and view briefly their status from the time of their subjugation by the Five Nations-as mentioned on page 113.

The Delawares were loath to admit to their white friends that they were held in subjection by the Iroquois, and Heckewelder and the other Moravian missionaries were, in general, inclined to believe thie tales told them by the Delawares and to repeat some of those tales in the letters, reports and diaries which they wrote. Loskiel, whose "History of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Indians in North America" (written in Livonia in 1787 and 'SS) was based on the written reports and records of the Moravian missionaries-for he himself was never in this country-prints in his "History" the following interesting details concerning the Delawares.

"The Delawares lived formerly in the country about Philadelphia, extending to- wards the ocean, in the Jerseys, about Trenton, Brunswick, Amboy and other places. According to their own account they made continual inroads into the towns of the Cher- okees, who then lived on the banks of the Ohio and its branches. The wars between the Delawares and the Iroquois were more violent and of more ancient standing. According to the account of the Delawares they were always too powerful for the Iroquois, so that the latter were at length convinced that if they continued the war their total extirpation would be inevitable. They therefore sent the following inessage to the Delawares :

" 'It is not profitable that all the nations should be at war with each other, for this will at length be the ruin of the whole Indian race. We have, therefore, considered a remedy, by which this evil may be prevented-one nation shall be the woman ! We will place her in the midst, and the other nations who make war shall be the men. and live around the woman. No one shall touch or hurt the woman, and if any one does it we will immediately say to him, 'Why do you beat the woman?' Then all the mien shall fall upon him who has beaten her. The woman shall not go to war, but endeavor to keep peace with all. Therefore, if the men that surround her beat each other, and the war be carried on with violence, the woman shall have the right of addressing them : succeeded his father as vicegerent, and continued to reside at Shamokin ; but, as he did not possess the executive ability and the virtues of his father, he failed to command the respect of the Indians.

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A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 25

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