A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 28

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 28

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In response to this the Lieutenant Governor said :

"You have taken this matter perfectly right. All bargaining for land within this Province is, to be sure, a manifest breach of your contract with the Proprietaries, and what we know you will not countenance. We have hitherto found the Six Nations faith- ful to their engagements, and this is a fresh instance of their punctuality. We desire you will, on your return home. give public notice to ail your warriors not to bargain for any land, or if they do that you will not confirm such bargains."

On the seventh day of the conference the Lieutenant Governor referred to the trouble with the "Forks" Indians, and informed the depu- ties of the Six Nations that the former had continued to grumble and make disturbances, and had "had the insolence to write letters to some of the magistrates of this Government, wherein they had abused the worthy Proprietaries and treated them with the utmost rudeness and ill- manners." Various deeds, letters, and drafts of surveys relating to the lands in dispute were then exhibited, and the Lieutenant Governor stated tliat hie expected the Six Nations would "cause these Indians to remove from the lands in the Forks of the Delaware, and not give any further disturbance to the persons in possession." Canassatego replied that the deputies would take the matter into consideration and give an answer in a few days. Three days later, at the largely-attended gather- ing in "the Great Meeting-house" previously referred to, Canassatego arose and said: :

"The other day you informed us of the misbehavior of our Cousins the Delawares, with respect to their continuing to claim and refusing to remove from some land on the Delaware, notwithstanding their ancestors had sold it by deed upwards of fifty years ago. and notwithstanding they themselves had about five years ago ratified that deed and given a freslı one. *

* * We have examined these papers and several writings and see that they have been an unruly people. We have concluded to remove them and oblige them to go over the river Delaware and to quit all claim to any lands on this side for the future, since they have received pay for them and it has gone through their guts long ago.'

Then, turning towards the Delawares, and holding a belt of wall- pum in his hand, Canassatego spoke as follows :

* See foot-note, page 81.

+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IV : 559 et seq.

# See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IV : 579.

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"Cousins-Let this belt of wampum serve to chastise you. You ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shak'd severely till you recover your senses and become sober. You don't know what ground you stand on, nor what you are doing. Our Brother Onas' case is very just and plain, and his intentions [are] to preserve friendship. On the other hand your cause is bad, your lieart free from being upright, and you are maliciously bent to break the Chain of Friendship with our Brother Onas. We have seen with our eyes a deed signed by nine of your ancestors above fifty years ago for this very land, and a release signed not many years since by some of yourselves and chiefs now living to the number of fifteen or upwards.

"But how came you to take upon you to sell land at all? We conquered you ! We made women of yon ! You know you are women, and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it. This land that you claimn; has gone through your guts. You have been furnished with clothes and meat and drink by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it again like children, as you are. But what makes you sell land in the dark? Did you ever tell us that you had sold this land? Did we ever receive any part-even the value of a pipe-shank-from you for it? You have told us a blind story that you sent a messenger to us to inform us of the sale ; but he never came amongst us, and we never heard anything about it. This is acting in the dark, and very different from the conduct our Six Nations observe in their sales of lands. On such occasions they give public notice, and invite all the Indians of their United Nations and give them a share of the present they receive for their lands. This is the behavior of the wise United Nations, but we find yon none of our blood. You act a dishonest part, not only in this but in other matters. Your ears are ever open to slanderous reports about our brethren. You receive them with as much greediness as lewd women receive the embraces of bad men. And for all these reasons we charge you to remove instantly !

"We don't give you the liberty to think about it. You are women! Take the advice of a wise man and remove immediately. You may return to the other side of the Delaware where you came from, but we don't know whether-considering how you have demeaned yourselves-you will be permitted to live there, or whether you have not swallowed that land down your throats as well as the land on this side. We therefore assign you two places to go-either to Wyomin or Shamokin. You may go to either of these places, and then we shall have you more under our eye, and shall see how you behave. Don't deliberate, but remove away and take this belt of wampum !"

This speech having been interpreted into English by Conrad Weiser, and into the Delaware language by Cornelius Spring, Canas- satego, taking a string of wampum in his hand, stood up and said :

"You are now to take notice-this string of wampum serves to forbid you, your children and grandchildren to the latest posterity, ever meddling in land affairs. Neither you nor any who shall descend front you are ever hereafter to presunie to sell any land ; for which purpose you are to preserve this string in memory of what your Uncles have this day given you in charge. We have some other business to transact with our brethren, and therefore [you] depart from the council and consider what has been said to you."

"There was no diplomatic mincing of words in the speech of the Onondaga chief. He spoke not only with the bluntness of unsophisti- cated honesty, but with the air of one having authority." Walton says (in "Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania," pages 66 and 68) that the statements of Canassatego, "which sound as if they had been inspired by the Governor's Council, seem to have wholly overlooked the fact that when John and Thomas Penn were persuading the chiefs of the Delaware Indians to confirmn the deeds which covered the 'Walking Purchase,'* they promised that said papers would not cause the removal of any Indians then living on the Mini- sink lands.+ Whoever furnished the material for Canassatego's speech was careful that he should not be aware of this promise. * * A careful examination of Canassatego's address on this matter suggests that he drew inost of his facts from the Governor's representatives. Whether Conrad Weiser assisted in inspiring this rebuke or not is un- known, yet he with the others permitted it and thus scattered seed which in time caused more bloodshed in peaceful Pennsylvania than the 'Walking Purchase' ever did."

* See page 19.1, ante.

+ See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, I : 541.

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John Watson of Bucks County, father of John Watson, compiler of the "Annals of Philadelphia," writing in 1815 an account of the con- ference of 1742, stated with reference to the speech of Canassatego :

"When this terrible sentence was ended, it is said that the unfeeling political phi- losopher [Canassatego] walked forward, and, taking strong hold of the long hair of the King of the Delawares [Nutimus], led him to the door and forcibly sent him out of the room, and stood there while all the trembling inferiors followed him. He then walked back again to his place like another Cato, and calinly proceeded to another subject as if nothing had happened. The poor fellows [Nutimus and his company], in great and silent grief, went directly home, collected their families and goods, and, burning their cabins to signify they were never to return, marched reluctantly to their new homes.""

'Tlie deputies of the Six Nations were well cared for during their stay in the Quaker City. We learn from contemporary records that "handsome dinners were provided for them, and the healths of King George, the Proprietaries, the Lieutenant Governor and others were drunk in high good humor." Near the close of the conference the deputies complained of their treatment at the hands of traders and their agents, and begged for more "fire-water." "We have been stinted in the article of rin in town," they pathetically observed, "and we desire you will open the rum bottle and give it to us in greater abundance on the road." Again, they said : "We hope, as you have given us plenty of good provision whilst in town, that you will continue your goodness so far as to supply us with a little more to serve us on the road." The first, at least, of these requests seems to have been complied with, for the Council voted them twenty gallons of rum-in addition to the twenty-five gallons previously bestowed-"to comfort them on the road."

The chiefs of the Six Nations and their followers departed in an amiable mood, although, from the valedictory address made them by the Lieutenant Governor, we might perhaps infer that they had found reason to contrast the hospitality of civilization with that shown in the savage state, to the disadvantage of the former. "We wish," said the Lieu- tenant Governor, "there had been more room and better houses provided for your entertainment, but not expecting so many of you we did the best we could. "Tis true there are a great inany houses in town, but as they are the property of other people who have their own families to take care of, it is difficult to procure lodgings for a large number of people, especially if they come unexpectedly."+ Watson says ("Annals," II : 160) that during the sojourn of these Indians in the city a fire occurred which consumed eight houses, and in subduing the flames the red men "gave great assistance."

In the latter part of the year 1756 a committee was appointed by the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania to draw up a report relative to the alleged and supposed reasons for the depredations and massacres which the Indians had been committing for some time in eastern Penn- sylvania. In the reportt subsequently submitted to the Council the committee stated relative to the Philadelphia conference of July, 1742 :

"Accordingly we find the Delawares (acquiescing and satisfied with their Uncles' judgment and determination of their differences with the Proprietaries about said land) did in obedience thereto settle on the River Susquehanna at Wyomink, Shamokin and other places thereabouts, taking with them several Jersey and Minisink Indians ; and continued ever since (till their late ravages on our borders ) to live in harmony with the Six Nations, and a kind and friendly intercourse and good agreement with the people of this Province."

* See Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, VI : 210, 211 (October, 1830).

+ See Hasard's Register of Pennsylvania, VI : 210, and The American Magazine and Historical Chron- icle (Boston), October and November, 1743.

I See Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, VI : 341 (November, 1830).

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Stone, writing in 1840, states in his "Poetry and History of Wyo- ming" (page 97) :

"The removal of the Delawares from the 'Forks' to Wyoming was as speedy as the order to that end had been peremptory. * * The Delawares selected as the site of the town they were to build the beautiful plain on the eastern side [of the Susquehanna], nearly or quite opposite the Shawanese town, a short distance only below the present borough of Wilkesbarre .* Here was built the town of Maugh-wau-wa-me-the original of Wyoming."

Pearce, in his "Annals of Luzerne County" (edition of 1866, page 27), states :

"Leaving their wigwams on the banks of their favorite Makeerikkitton ( Delaware), the once powerful Lenni Lenâpé commenced their march westward. A portion went to Shamokin, * *

* a few settled on the Juniata, near Lewistown, but the greater number of them, under their chief Tadame, went to Wyoming, where they built a village (1742) on the flats below the present town of Wilkesbarre."

From a careful study of the most authentic and reliable records and documents of early days now accessible, it is evident that in each of the three foregoing statements there are errors relative to the exodus of the Delawares from the "Forks" of their river, as well as to their settle- ment in the Susquehanna region-more particularly in Wyoming Val- ley. These errors have been repeated by other writers, from time to time, and thus, in a measure, have been perpetuated. The following are the real facts respecting these matters, as nearly as they may be ascertained at this time.

In 1742 the Indians who were inhabiting the region at and about the "Forks" of the Delaware were members of the Minsi, or Monsey, and the Unami, or Wanamie, clanst-chiefly the latter-of the Dela- ware tribe. At that time Allummapeest was the so-called "King" of the tribe and resided at Shamokin, where, and in the neighborhood of which, there were several small bands of Delawares settled. Nutimus, or Notamaes, was one of the chief sachems of the Delawares, and, judging by his totemic device (a tortoise), must have belonged to the Wanamie clan. For a number of years he had resided at the "Forks." All the Indians located there had been for some time commonly called the "Forks Indians," regardless of tribe or clan. Nearly, if not quite, all the Indians then inhabiting New Jersey along the Delaware River belonged to the Delaware tribe. §

The Indians, therefore, who migrated westward from the "Forks" of the Delaware in 1742 were Monseys and Wanamies ; and it is quite probable that they did not burn their cabins and "march reluctantly to their new homes" until some time in October or November-after they had harvested their corn. This probability is based mainly upon the fact that in October, 1742, when Zinzendorf, Weiser and others were at Wyoming (see page 208 et seq.) the only Indian settlements in the valley below the village of Asserughney were the Mohegan and Shawanese towns in what is now Plymouth Borough. Moreover, in view of the following paragraphi which appears in Count Zinzendorf's "Narrative," || it is very possible that the exodus from the "Forks" did not take place until early in the Spring of 1743. Writing at Shamokin, under date of September 29, 1742, the Count refers to the Philadelphia conference of the previous July, and to the orders given by the Six Nations to the Delawares, and then states :

* In 1840 the lower or south-western boundary of the borough was at South Street.

+ See page 103. # See page 186. ¿ See pages 101 and 103.

| See Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church, " I : 74.

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"The Delawares thereupon asked time for consideration, and a few weeks ago an ambassador from them arrived here and brought the following reply. 'Uneles, you spoke the truth when you said that we were children, devoid of understanding, and unable to govern ourselves. We confess that we do not know what to do, and what not to do, and that we need fathers and guardians to watch over and counsel us. We thank you for your reproof, and next Spring we will come here and occupy the lands you promised to give us.'"'

Some of the Delawares in this enforced migration of 1742-'3 went to the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania ; others went to Shamokin on the Susquehanna and the region nearby, while Nutimus and a small band settled on the south, or left, bank of the Susquehanna near the month of Nescopeck Creek, south-west of Wilkes-Barre twenty-two and a-half miles in a bee-line, or twenty-six and a-half miles following the windings of the river .* By far the largest body of the emigrants journeyed from the Delaware up the Lehigh, or West Branch of the Delaware, for some distance, and then crossed over the mountains to Wyoming Valley. Here they settled on the elevated portion of the flats not far from the right bank of Solomon's Creek, in the locality of what is now known as the "Firwood" tract, within the limits of the Fifteenth (formerly a part of the Twelfth) Ward of Wilkes-Barré. Upon or near that spot there had stood many years previously, without doubt, a village of the Andasté, or Susquehannock, Indians, as at this time "a respectable orchard of apple trees" was flourishing there.t The site of this Dela- ware town is noted on the "Map of Wilkes-Barre and its Suburbs" in Chapter XXVIII; while, with reference to the illustration facing the next page, the site lies about one-quarter of a mile due west, or beyond and slightly to the left, of the large house at the extreme left of the picture ; and in the illustration facing page 56 it lies in the middle- distance at the extreme left.

· The Delawares who settled here belonged to the Unami, or Wan- amie, clan. Who their chief was cannot now be stated, but his name was not Tadame, as has been asserted by various writers-some of whom have even confounded Tadame with the famous "Great Sachem" Tam- anend, or Tammany.# Tundy Tad-a-me, or Tatemy, was a Delaware of the Wanamie clan, originally from New Jersey, who in the Summer of 1742 was farming in a small way on a tract of 300 acres of land in the "Forks" of the Delaware (near what is now Stockertown, in Forks Township, Northampton County). This land lay along what was for some time called Tatemy's Creek, but is now the Bushkill, and had been granted by the agents of the Proprietaries to Tadame in considera-

* See Map of Luzerne County in Chapter XXIII. + See page 224.

# Heckewelder (see page 42), writing about 1820, said : "The name of Tamanend is held in the highest veneration among the Indians. Of all the chiefs and great men whom the Lenape nation ever had, he stands foremost on the list. Bitt although many fabulous stories are circulated about him among the whites, but little of his real history is known. * * All we know, therefore, of Tamanend is that he was an ancient Delaware chief who never had his equal."

The first authentic account we have of him is in a deed to William Penn, dated June 23. 1683. for land lying between Neshaminy and Pennypack Creeks. As late as July, 1697, Tamanend executed what was. so far as known. his last deed. In this he was denominated the "Great Sachem." His death occurred probably about 1700, and he is said to have been buried near Doylestown, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

When, in 1789, there was organized in New York a society having for its objects "resistance to the centralization of power, and to connect in indissoluble bonds of friendship American brethren of known attachment to the political rights of human nature and the liberties of the country," its founders gave it the name of "The Tammany Society, or Columbian Order." The name "Tammany" was derived from the great Lenni Lenâpé sachem, and Tamanend was dubbed the patron saint of the Order. In time branches of this Order were established in different States, but to-day all that is left of the Order is the famous political organization of New York City (still bearing its original name) whose stamping-ground is Tammany Hall.

At a Fourth of July celebration held at Wilkes-Barre in 1822 the following was one of the toasts pro- posed : "The memory of Tamanend-the true titular saint of America. May our Tammany societies imitate his virtues and practice fewer of the savage customs of his countrymen."

For an interesting sketch of "Tamanend, or St. Tammany," by the Rev. J. G. B. Heckewelder (previ- ously mentioned) see The Wyoming Herald ( Wilkes-Barre), February 9, 1821. Also, for a later and fuller sketch by a recent writer, see The Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XXV : 434 (1992).

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tion of services rendered by him as interpreter and messenger to the Indians. He was a chief, and had formerly been the active leader of his clan, but on account of increasing years had retired in favor of a younger man. In November, following the conference of July, 1742, Tadame went to Philadelphia and presented a petition to the Lieutenant Governor of the Province in which he set forth that he was an old man, had embraced the Christian religion "and grown into considerable knowl- edge thereof," and was in lawful and peaceful possession of a grant of 300 acres of land-as we have previously noted. In the circumstances, Tadamne desired permission to live on this land in peace and friendship with the English. He was informed that he might remain provided he could obtain the consent of the chiefs of the Six Nations. This was obtained, evidently, for Tadaine continued to reside at the "Forks," at least for several years .* Heckewelder states that in the fore part of 1754 he was "murdered in the Forks settlement by a foolish young white man." This, however, is undoubtedly an error. In the Summer of 1757 young "Bill" Tatemy was murdered near Bethlehem by a white boy. "Bill's" father was "Moses Tatemy"-evidently Moses Fonda Tatemy, men- tioned in the note below-who was then, and had been for some time, active as an assistant interpreter in connection with various Indian con- ferences. In February, 1758, he was registered as a "Mountain" Indian -that is, a Minsi, or from the Minisink country. If Tadame was alive in 1757 and '58 he must have been a very old man, inasmuch as he was referred to as "an old man" in 1742.

What name was given to this first Delaware village within the present limits of Wilkes-Barré, either by the villagers themselves or by other Indians, cannot now be ascertained. It was not "Wyoming" (in any of its modified forms), however, nor was the village the "original Wyoming"-as so many writers have stated-for we have already shown that the original town, or village, called "Wyoming" within the historic period was the old Shawanese town on the Plymouth flats.

Between the years 1734 and 1741 the Brethren of the old Bohemian Protestant Church of the Moravians, or Herrnhuters, had established several missions in this country. Early in the Spring of 1741 David Zeisberger, Sr., David Zeisberger, Jr., John Martin Mack and some four or five more of these Brethren began a new missionary settlement in the "Forks" of the Delaware, on land derived from William Allen, Esq., of Philadelphia, and lying at the confluence of the Lehigh River (or West Branch of the Delaware) and Monacasy Creek, in Bucks (now North- ampton) County. (See maps on pages 188 and 191.) On Christmas- eve of the same year this settlement received the name of "Bethlehemn" from Count Zinzendorf, ; who had arrived there a few days previously. Ever since then Bethlehem has been the headquarters in this country of the Moravian Church (now known as the "Church of the United Breth- ren in the United States of America").

* DAVID BRAINERD, the well-known missionary, began his labors among the Indians at the "Forks" of the Delaware in May, 1744, and continued them until February, 1746. During this time his interpreter was Moses Tatemy, a son of old Tadame, and he was baptized "Moses Fonda Tatemy" by Brainerd in July, 1745. For further references to Tadamne see Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church," I : 26, 27, 219, 278 and 338 ; Walton's "Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania," pp. 73 and 75, and Rupp's "History of Northampton, Lehigh and Carbon Counties" (1845), page 477.

+ NICOLAUS LUDWIG, COUNT VON ZINZENDORF, was born at Dresden, Saxony, May 26, 1700. In August, 1727, on his estate at Herrnhut ("The Lord's Keeping") in Saxony, he organized some 300 per- sons (emigrants from Moravia and Bohemia) settled there into a religious organization known indiscrim- inately as "The Church of the Brethren," "The Unity of the Brethren" and "Herrnhuters"-the fore- runner of the United Brethren, or Moravian Church, in America. In 1733 this Society had become a

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VIEW OF THE LOWER WILKES-BARRE FLATS. From the corner of Hanover Street and Carey Avenue. The white fence in the middle-distance extends along " Old River Road." From a photograph taken in 1901

203

sanim

Dich

"du Boffes

Dein Ater fen mir Deine Jugend nulla dies fine linea"

COUNT ZINZENDORF.

From "Pennsylvania-Colonial and Federal," by courtesy of the publishers.

distinct Church, and in 1737 Zinzendorf was consecrated Bishop, and was the "Advocate" of the Churchi until his death.

The members of the Herrnhut Community were divided into "bands," which met to exchange exper- iences, to study the Bible, to sing and to pray ; and there was a special division into "choirs," which con- sisted respectively of unmarried men, unmarried women, married couples, widowers, widows, boys and girls. Every morning the Brethren and Sisters were supplied with a text from the Bible as a "watch- word." Love-feasts were introduced by Zinzendorf, and are still held, though the practice of feet-wash- ing before the communion has been abandoned. As Zinzendorf taught that death was a joyous journey home, the departure of a Brother or Sister was announced by blowing a trombone, or other species of trumpet-each "choir" having its own peculiar air.

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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 28

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