A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 32

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 32

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Towards the close of the year 1747 Bishop Spangenberg and other Brethren paid a visit to the Indians at Wyoming, by whom, says Los-

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kiel, "they were received as angels sent from God; and their words were heard with uncommon eagerness."

In June, 1748, the population of Wyoming Valley was increased by the arrival of a band of Nanticoke Indians,* under their chief Ullunckquam ("Robert White"). They numbered eiglity persons, and in ten canoes had come up the Susquehanna from the mouth of the Juniata Rivert where they had been living-perhaps on Duncan's Island-since 1742. That this is so, and that they did not come directly to Wyoming from Maryland (as has been stated by other

* 'The Nanticokes and Conoys or Ganaweses (mentioned on pages 101 and 102) were originally, with- out doubt, clans or sub-tribes of the same nation, known about 1600-and perhaps later-as the Tockwock, of the Algonkin family. For many years the Delawares always referred to the Nanticokes as " Tawack- guános," while the Five Nations are said to have called them "Skaniataratigroni" ("Tide-water People" ). Some writers have claimed, however, that "Nanticoke" and "Conoy" were simply synonymous terms for the same people.

Originally, or very early, the Nanticokes were located along the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay in what is now Maryland, where their tribal name is perpetuated by having been given many years ago to a river, and later to a post-village. The Iroquois, having conquered the Susquehannocks or Andastés, and driven them from their towns along the Susquehanna, as previously related, turned their attention to the Tockwocks, and, by the year 1680, had completely subjugated them. The time of their final overthrow is fixed by the statements of certain Nanticoke and Conoy sachems made to Governor Evans of Pennsyl- vania in 1707, to the effect that their tribes had then "been at peace with the Five Nations for twenty- seven years " (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," II : 386.)"From all that can be learned it appears that the Nanticokes always lived at peace with the whites. In a council held at Fort Augusta (Shamokin) in 1769 "Last Night," the Conoy King from Chenango, New York, addressing Colonel Francis, command- ing the fort, said : "The nations to which I belong-the Nanticokes and Conoys-never yet since the beginning of the world pulled one scalp, nor even one hair, from your heads ; and this, I say, gives us a right to call ourselves your brothers." (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records, " IX : 617.)

About 1701, owing to troubles in Maryland, a number of the Ganawese Indians-then called Piscata- ways-fled to Pennsylvania with the intention of settling there. Accompanied by certain Conestogas and Shawanese they went to Philadelphia and obtained permission to locate along the Susquehanna near the Conestogas and Shawanese-the representatives of these two tribes agreeing to hold themselves respon- sible to the Government for "the peaceable deportment and behavior" of the Ganaweses or Piscataways. In June, 1706, it was reported to the Provincial Council that there was great uneasiness among the Indians "by reason of the Ganaweses who had fled from Maryland." The Secretary of the Council then reported that he and others had made a journey among the Ganaweses, settled at a place called Connejaghera, some miles above the Conestoga fort on the Susquehanna, and that these Indians since their settlement there had behaved themselves according to their agreement. It was then (June, 1706) reported to the Council that the Five Nations were "expected shortly to come down to receive the Nanticoke's tribute"; and the chief of the Conestogas, who was present, "laid before the Governor a large wampum belt of twenty-one rows, with three hands wrought in it in black (the rest being white), which was a pledge of peace formerly delivered by the Onondaga Indians to the Nanticokes when they made the said Nanti- cokes tributaries."

In June, 1707, Governor Evans and a number of attendants journeyed from Philadelphia to Pequehan, the Shawanese town near Conestoga, and, being met by King Opessah and other chiefs, were conducted into the town and received by a volley of small arms. Later they went to Dekanoagah, on the Susque- hanna, nine miles from Pequehan, where a conference was held with Seneca, Shawanese, Conoy and Nanticoke Indians. These Nanticokes were from seven different villages in Maryland, and were on their way to the "Long House" of the Five Nations with twenty belts and several strings of wampum "as tribute, and in order to renew their league." Desiring to see the Governor of Pennsylvania at this time, they had sent for him, and for ten days awaited his arrival at Dekanoagalı. At this conference the inter- preter, by order of the Conestoga sachems, spoke in English to the Nanticokes-who all understood that language-as follows : "You are going to the Onondagas. Be sure you keep on your way. * * * You will find the King of the Five Nations a very great one, and as good a king as any among thie Indians." (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," II : 244, 246, 386, 387.)

In 1719 there was a Ganawese town in the neighborhood of Conestoga, Pennsylvania, and W'injack was its chief. In June, 1722, Governor Keith of Pennsylvania wrote to " Il 'injack, King of the Ganawese Indians on Sasquehanna : * * I have heard that your friends the Nanticokes are now at your town upon their journey to the Five Nations. I know they are a peaceable people, that live quietly amongst the English in Maryland, and therefore I shall be glad to see them, and will be ready to do them any kind- ness in my power."

In August, 1749, an important conference was held at Philadelphia between the Provincial Govern- ment and Pennsylvania Indians-comprising 280 Senecas, Mohegans, Delawares, Tuteloes and Nanti- cokes. Canassatego was present, with some attendants, to represent the Six Nations, and he was the prin- cipal speaker on the part of the Indians. It seems that certain white people had been settling along the Juniata River, which at that time was outside the bounds of the Proprietaries' purchases from the Indians -as we have shown on page 192. With regard to this territory Canassatego said : "This is the hunting- ground of our cousins the Nanticokes, and other Indians living on the waters of the Juniata. * * * We now speak in behalf of our cousins the Nanticokes. You know that on some differences between the people of Maryland and them we [the Six Nations] sent for them and placed them"at the mouth of the Juniata, where they now live. They came to us while on our journey [hither] and told us that there are three settlements of their tribe left behind in Maryland, who want to come away, but the Marylanders keep them in fence and will not let them go. We desire, therefore (being urged thereto by our cousins the Nanticokes), that you would write to the Governor of Maryland and use your utmost interest that the fence in which they are confined may be taken away * * * that they may be allowed to come and settle where the other Nanticokes are, and live with them amongst us." (See "Pennsylvania Colo- nial Records," V : 401.)

Late in 1749, or early in 1750, the remaining Nanticokes in Maryland departed from their ancient homes to join their tribesmen on the Juniata, on the lower Susquehanna and in Wyoming Valley ; while some pushed on up the Susquehanna into New York and settled at Chenango, or Otsiningo, on the Che- mango River, about four miles above the present city of Binghamton. The Nanticokes had a peculiar vener- ation for their deceased ancestors and other relatives, and upon removing from one place to another it is said that they disinterred the remains of their dead, carried them to the new place of settlement and reinterred them. When the last of the Nanticokes removed northward from Maryland the bodies of somne of their people who had only recently died were in a putrid state, but the Indians removed the flesh from, and scraped, the bones of these bodies in order that the same might be carried away.

+ See map on page 191.

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writers), is proved by the following. In August, 1751, at a meeting of the Provincial Council in Philadelphia there were present four Nanti- coke Indians from Wyoming, who said : "We passed about nine years ago [1742] by your door. We came from Maryland, and asked your leave to go and settle among our brethren the Delawares, and you gave us leave. We did for some time live at the mouth of the Juniata, but are now settled at Wyomen."*

These Nanticokes erected their wigwams on the left, or south, bank of the Susquehanna, on the Lower Hanover Flats imentioned on page 50. The site of their village is indicated on the facsimile of "A Plot of the Manor of Stoke" shown in Chapter VII, it being a short distance south-west of the mouth of Sugar Notch Creek (not shown on this plot), not far from the old "Dundee" mine-shaft, and alinost oppo- site the Avondale mine in Plymouth Township. "Moses' Creek," noted on the Manor of Stoke plot, is now called Buttonwood Creek, and "Muddy Run" is one of the branches of Nanticoke Creek. Sugar Notch Creek-whose waters form the pond in Hanover Park-has been named "Warrior Run" on some maps published within recent years, and on others, "Warrior Creek." Both of these names have been erro- neously used, "Warrior Run" being, in fact, the name of a branch of Nanticoke Creek, as shown on page 55.

In July, 1748, the Moravian missionaries Mack (previously inen- tioned) and David Zeisbergert came from Shamokin to Wyoming, fol-

* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," V : 544.

+ DAVID ZEISBERGER, JR., who has been denominated the "Western Pioneer and Apostle of the Indians" and the "Hero of the American Black Forest," was born at Zauchtenthal in Moravia, Austria, in 1721. At the age of five years he removed with his parents to Saxony, where the family remained ten years. Late in the year 1735 the parents-David and Rosina Zeisberger-set sail for America with a company of Moravians on the ship Simonds, arriving at Savannah, Georgia, February 16, 1736. They formed part of a company of 300 immigrants to the Colony of Georgia, then in the third year of its life ; which company had been gathered together and was headed by James Edward Olethorpe, the founder and Governor of Georgia, and included the well-known missionaries and evangelists John and Charles Wesley. In August, 1737, young David Zeisberger-then in his sixteenth year-joined his parents at Savannah. Here the family of three lived until April, 1740, when, with a number of other Moravians (in- cluding John Martin Mack, previously mentioned), they sailed from Savannah for Philadelphia as mem- bers of the little company gathered together and headed by George Whitefield, the famous evangelist and one of the founders of Methodism.

Whitefield, having purchased 5,000 acres of land in the "Forks of the Delaware," founded the present town of Nazareth, in Northampton County-the first buildings being erected by the Brethren who had accompanied the evangelist from Savannah. In the Spring of 1741 the three Zeisbergers, Mack and others "went out into the forest from Nazareth and began to build Bethlehem," as mentioned on page 202. (See Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church," I : 167.) Young Zeisberger about that time became interested in the study of the language of the Delawares, and soon showed great proficiency in the work. He then took up the study of the Mohawk tongue -the Mohawk dialect of the Iroquois language being the one which was commonly used at that time and later in intercourse with the Six Nations.

In 1744, only a short time before the outbreak of the Old French War, Zeisberger accompanied Chris- tian Frederick Post, previously mentioned, to the country of the Iroquois. There, early in 1745, being suspected as spies from the French, the two men were arrested by the New York authorities and thrown into prison, where they were kept six weeks. Following his release Zeisberger was engaged for ten years, or until 1755, in active missionary service in New York and in Pennsylvania, and in perfecting him- self in a knowledge of various Indian languages. In 1745 he was adopted into the Turtle clan of the Onon- daga nation. In 1747 and '48 he was an assistant to John Martin Mack in the mission at Shamokin, and while there he began the preparation of an Iroquois dictionary, being aided by Shikellimy. Zeisberger's success was very great, particularly among the Six Nations. "Perhaps in all the history of this famous people," says Archer Butler Hulbert (in The Chautauquan, XXXVIII : 259), "there was no other man, with the exception of Sir William Johnson, whom the people trusted as much as they did David Zeisber- ger ; * * and it is vastly more than a wordy compliment suggesting friendship to record that in his mission-house of Onondaga they placed the entire archives of the nation, comprising the most valuable collection of treaties and letters from colonial governors ever made by an Indian nation on this continent."

But, the war of the English against the French having been begun in May, 1755, Zeisberger was com- pelled to leave the country of the Six Nations and return to Pennsylvania, where, for the ensuing ten years, he was constantly employed in general missionary work among the Indians and often as an inter- mediary between the latter and the Provincial authorities. In April, 1765, he led from Bethlehem to Wyalusing, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna (in what is now Bradford County), a company of Christian Indians consisting of eighty adults and upwards of ninety children. After a tedious journey of thirty-six days through an unbroken wilderness they reached their destination, and there, about two miles south-east of the mouth of Wyalusing Creek, they founded the Moravian Indian town of "Friedens- hütten," named for the village which had formerly stood near Bethlehem. Here Zeisberger labored zealously as preacher and teacher until October, 1766. During this time he once wrote : "It often hap- pens, while I preach, that the power of the gospel takes such hold of the savages that they tremble with emotion and shake with fear, until consciousness is nearly gone and they seem to be on the point of fainting."

"About 1765 some bands of Monsey Indian's from Wyalusing and Tioga Point migrated to what is now Forest County, in north-western Pennsylvania, and on the eastern bank of the Allegheny River estab- lished the village of "Goschgoschünk"; and later, at or near the mouth of Oil Creek, in what is Venango

PHILA-PUCIn-ELECTRO. CO.

DAVID ZEISBERGER PREACHING TO THE INDIANS. Photo-reproduction of a black and white drawing made by John Sartain in 1864, after the original painting by C. Schussele Used by the courtesy of Dr. F. C. Johnson.

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lowing the trail running along the right bank of the North Branch of the Susquehanna. At Wyoming they found a famine prevailing. The diary of this journey was printed in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History for January, 1893 (page 430), and from it the following extracts have been made.

"July 23 .- * * * By evening reached Nescopeck, and were taken over the river in a canoe. Found few at home, but were taken into a hut where we dried ourselves and, supperless, retired to rest.

"July 24 .- Our host cooked us some wild beans. We gave the old man in turn of our bread. He informed us that the people had gone among the whites to obtain food. "July 25 .- Resumed our journey and came to Wapwallopen. Found only one family at home, who boiled the bark of trees for food. All the others had been driven by famine to the white settlements. At night we camped at the lower end of the flats* of Wyomick.

"July 26 .- Arose early and proceeded up the flats People decrepit and scarcely able to move, and in danger of starvation. Lodged in one of the liuts.

"July 27 .- Crossed the river and visited the Nanticokes who moved here last Spring from Chesapeake Bay, t and found them clever, modest people. They too complained of the famine, and told us that their young people had been gone several weeks to the settle- ments to procure food. In the evening the Nanticokes set us over the river Visited some old people ; also an old man who fetched some wood to make a fire in his hut. He was so weak as to be compelled to crawl on his hands and knees. Mack made the fire, much to the gratitude of the aged invalid.

County, they established "Lawunakhannek." To the former of these villages Zeisberger went in the Autumn of 1767, being, without doubt, the first white man to enter the wilds of Forest County. He had been warned by the Senecas not to attempt this visit-probably because the reputation of the Indians at these two villages was bad-but he went, nevertheless, accompanied by two Christian Indians, and in the evening following his arrival at Goschgoschünk held a religious service. . The wildest of the Indians were there-sorcerers and murderers, and some who had been but a short time before engaged in a massacre. It was a rough crowd, even for Zeisberger, to address by the flickering light of a dull fire. Writing of the incident afterwards he said : "Never yet did I see so clearly depicted in the faces of the Indians both the darkness of hell and the world-subduing power of the gospel." The apostle soon saw that he was in a den of paganism, and after a stay of only seven days he returned to eastern Pennsylvania. But the next vear the Monseys sent for him to come back to them. He went, and, finding that many of the worst Indians had left that locality, continued as a missionary there during 1768, '69 and part of '70, first at Goschgoschünk and then at Lawunakhannek. Then the Senecas clainted the land thereabout, and in- sisted that the Monseys should leave. (The land at and near this particular place was subsequently granted to the Seneca chief "Cornplanter," as related on page 164.)

April 17, 1770. Zeisberger and his followers left their village on Oil Creek in fifteen canoes. In three days they reached Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg). Proceeding thence down the Ohio, past Logstown to the mouth of the Beaver, they ascended that river. Some fifteen miles up the stream, on its left, or east, bank, near the present town of Newport in Lawrence County, the emigrants found an Indian village inhabited by a community of women, all single and pledged never to marry. (On the 1756 map of Penn- sylvania reproduced in Chapter V there is an Indian town named "Kishkaskies" noted at about that point.) A mile north of this village of misogamists Zeisberger's company landed and erected their cabins. Some time later, however, they removed to a better site on the opposite side of the river, where they built their town, to which Zeisberger gave the name "Friedensstadt" ("City of Peace"). On the 14th of the fol- lowing July Zeisberger was formally adopted into the Monsey clan, with all the ceremonies usual on such occasions.

This new village grew steadily in size and population and many Indians were converted to Christian- ity. When the village was fourteen months old the membership of the Church had increased to 100, and a house of worship was dedicated. Through Zeisberger's agency Moravian missions were soon established in the "Black Forest" region on the upper Muskingum, in what is now the State of Ohio. In the Spring of 1773 the Christian Indians of Friedensstadt left there in a body and accompanied Zeisberger into the "Black Forest," where, in the valley of the Tuscarawas, in what is now Tuscara was County, they founded three villages-"Gnadenhütten," "Schonbrunn" and "Lichtenau." Zeisberger was assisted in his work here by Heckewelder (mentioned on page 42) and other Moravian Brethren, and they formed the first settlement of whites in the present State of Ohio-excepting such French as had lived in the lake region. "The settlements were governed by a complete set of published laws, and in many respects the experi- ment was an ideality fully achieved. The good influence of the orderly and devout colony spread through the Central West at a time when every influence was bad and growing rapidly worse."

During the latter part of the Revolutionary War the inhabitants of these three "Black Forest" villages were driven from their homes. Some months later ninety of them having returned to Gnadenhütten were murdered in cold blood by a party of Americans. The remnant of this body of Christian Indians was led by the now aged Zeisberger from one place to another during the next sixteen years, until finally, in 1798, they were able to return to Tuscarawas Valley, where the United States had given to the Moravian Church some 12,000 acres of land, embracing the sites of the three villages which had been established there in 1773. For fully ten years more the old missionary continued to labor among the "brown breth- ren" whom he had loved and led for so long, and then, at the age of eighty-seven years he died, and, in pursuance of his dying request, was buried at Gnadenhütten near the mound covering the remains of the ninety massacred Indians. To their memory a handsome monument has been erected, while only a little slab marks the hallowed grave of the missionary. "And yet," writes Hulbert, previously quoted, "no monument can be raised to the memory of David Zeisberger so valuable or so significant as the little pile of his own manuscripts collected by Edward Everett and deposited by him under lock and key, in a special case in the library of Harvard University. Here are fourteen manuscripts, including a Delaware Indian dictionary, a hymn book, a harmony of the Gospels, a volume of litanies and liturgies and a volume of sermons to children."

* Plymouth, or "Shawnee," Flats.

+ Mack and Zeisberger were at Shamokin in May, 1718, when the Nanticokes passed by that place int their canoes, en route from the mouth of the Juniata to Wyoming. They were known to be Chesapeake Bay Indians, and that they had just come from there it was natural for the missionaries to presume.

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"July 28 .- Found our host this morning busy painting himself. He painted his face all red, and striped his shirt and moccasins with the same color. * * * Set out on our return journey. Passed Wapwallopen, and thence over the country, across Wolf Mountain to Gnadenhiitten, which we reached July 30."

Zeisberger records that at this time the Indians at Wyoming shot two seals in the Susquehanna-"these strange animals attracting much attention. They were believed to be sent by God, and were accordingly eaten."

"In October, 1748," says Dr. Johnson in his paper previously referred to (see page 204), "Baron John de Watteville, a bishop of the Moravian Church, and son-in-law and principal assistant of Count Zinzendorf, arrived from Europe on an official visit, and one of the first things he undertook was a visit to the Indian country. He was accom- panied by Cammerhoff, Mack and Zeisberger, the latter as interpreter. Having visited Gnadenhütten [from Bethlehem], they proceeded along the great trail to Wyoming, which they reached four days later." At that period the path usually traveled from the Lehigh to Wyoming crossed over the intervening mountains to the little valley of the Wap- wallopen, down this to the mouth of the creek and thence along the Susquehanna (on the right bank) to Wyoming. De Watteville and his companions, however, took a somewhat different route. Having reached the valley of the Wapwallopen they evidently turned northward, passed by or near Triangle Pond (now Lake Nuangola) and entered Wyoming Valley through either Espy's or Lueder's Gap in the south-eastern sec- tion of Wilkes-Barré Mountain (mentioned on pages 44 and 47).

The following interesting paragraphs relating to this journey are from a translation of De Watteville's journal, published in part in John- son's Historical Record (Wilkes-Barre), II: 77, and in Dr. Johnson's paper previously mentioned.

"October 6, 1748 .- From the top of a high mountain we had our first view of the beautiful and extensive flats of Wyoming, and the Susquehanna winding through them. It was the most charming prospect my eyes had ever seen. Beyond them stretched a line of blue mountains* high up, back of which passes the road to Onondagat through the savage wilderness towards Tioga. We viewed the scene for several minutes in silent admiration, then descended the precipitous mountain side, past a spring, until we got into the valley. Up this we pursued our way and came to the first Indian huts of Wyo- ming, where formerly lived one Nicholas, a famous Indian conjurer and medicine-man. Since his death the huts stand empty. Moving on we crossed a creekt and soon came to the Susquehanna, up which we went a mile to a point where we forded the streani to an island, ? and crossed to the west bank. The river was low, and all got through without difficulty. Came to some cabins inhabited by Tuscaroras (whose squaws only were at home), and thence into the great flats, striking the pathf which Zinzendorf had followed.

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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 32

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