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 40
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"I beseech your Honor further to consider, that the Six Nations will be highly offended if these lands on Sasquehannali be overrun with white people, for they are their favorite lands and reserved for their hunting ; and many of them live there, and they have the faith of this Government-solemnly and repeatedly plighted-that no white people shall settle there. * * * I cannot conceive how the inhabitants of Connecticut, whose laws as well as ours prohibit and render invalid all private contracts with tlie natives, ¡ could go in so clandestine a manner to treat with the Mohawks about these lands. Surely they are worthy of much censure on many accounts." * * *
A letter of like tenor addressed to Lieutenant Governor Thomas Fitch was written at the same time by Governor Hamilton-both letters being delivered into the hands of John Armstrong, Esq., who was in- structed to carry them to Connecticut and fetch back the answers of Messrs. Wolcott and Fitch as quickly as possible. Armstrong was a resident of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and a firm adherent of the Proprietary Government, being at that time one of its Surveyors of Lands as well as a member of the Provincial Assembly.
He set off on his errand without delay, and on the 13th of March delivered to Governor Wolcott at Windsor, Connecticut, the letter ad- dressed to him, to which the Governor immediately replied at consider- able length. He digressed, somewhat, from the subject under disciis- sion to enter into details of the siege of Louisbourg§ (which had occurred nearly nine years previously)-stating the number of the French troops engaged, the strength of their fortifications, the width of the walls, the depth of the trenches, the number of cannon-balls fired by the enemy, the quantity of land plonghed up by the shot, etc. Then the Governor expatiated on the military prowess of his countrymen, the New Eng- landers, who, although the enemy was superior in number, took the "Gibralter of America" after a siege of forty-nine days. He imputed the success of his countrymen to the fact that they were freeholders and the sons of freeholders, and intimated that the Pennsylvanians might be glad to have such people settle among them, for they would be handy in time of war. In response to the particular matters mentioned by Governor Hamilton Governor Wolcott wrote as follows|| :
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, II : 120.
t See page 247 as to the laws and customs of Connecticut on this subject. By an Act passed by the Pennsylvania Assembly February 7, 1705, it was declared : "That if any person presume to buy any land of the natives, within the limits of this Province and Territories, without leave from the Proprietary thereof, every such bargain or purchase shall be void and of no effect."
Į For a brief sketch of his life see Chapter XXI.
¿ When, in 1745, Connecticut furnished 500 troops for the famous expedition against Louisbourg. Roger Wolcott (then sixty-six years of age) was placed in command of them. with the rank of Major General. During the siege he was second in command to Sir William Pepperell.
| See folio 33 of the "Penn Manuscripts," mentioned on page 30, ante.
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"There being now no unimproved lands with us, some of our inhabitants hearing of this land at Susquehannah, and that it was north of the grant made to Mr. Penn, are upon a design of making a purchase of the Indians, and hope to obtain a grant of it from the Crown. This appearing to be a design to promote His Majesty's interest and render the country more defensible, we were all well-wishers to it. But Mr. Armstrong [the messenger ] informs me that this land is certainly within Mr. Penn's grant. If so, I don't suppose that our people had any purpose to quarrel with Pennsylvania. Indeed, I don't know the mind of every private man, but I never heard our leading men express themselves so inclined."
Under the same date, at Hartford, Lieutenant Governor Fitch wrote, in part, as follows* :
"I do well approve of the notice you take of the attempt some of the people of this Colony are making, and the concern you manifest for the general peace of the British in- terests and His Majesty's service. I know nothing of anything done by this Government to countenance such a procedure as you intimate and I conclude is going on among some of our people, and am inclined to believe this wild scheme of our people will come to naught-though I certainly can't say."
Having received these communications from the Connecticut offi- cials Governor Hamilton based upon them and the previous letters of Justices Parsons and Brodhead a case stated, which he submitted for an opinion to the Hon. Tench Francis, Attorney General of the Province. Two of the paragraphs of the Governor's document were as follows :
"This [the Wyoming] tract of land has not yet been purchased of the Six Nation Indians, but has hitherto been reserved and is now used by them for their hunting-ground. The Government of Pennsylvania, by their treaties with those Indians, stands engaged not to permit any persons to settle upon lands within the bounds of the Province that have not been purchased from them. Hence, it is apprehended, those Indians may inter- pret such a settlement a violation of our treaties, and may be induced to commit hostili- ties that would be attended with consequences most dangerous at this juncture. * * *
"If any persons give out in speeches that they are going to possess themselves of this tract of land, and persuade others to go with them, and are making preparations to go ; or, if they shall presume to go and settle there-is it lawful for the Justices of the Peace to cause such persons to be apprehended and imprisoned ?"
This question the Attorney General answered in the affirmative. t
At this time Governor Hamilton had "standing instructions from the Proprietaries to take all opportunities of making another purchase of lands from the Six Nations." Therefore, in view of the declared objects of the formidable Susquehanna Company-the purchase and settling of a large body of land within the supposed limits of Pennsyl- vania-Governor Hamilton deemed it needful to try at once, by all means, to steal a march on this Company by making a purchase from the Indians-"and the larger the better." To facilitate this necessary work he despatched "John Shikellimy" (Tachnechdorus, mentioned on page 184) early in the Spring of 1754 with a message to the Six Nations, informing them of "the necessity of another purchase, by reason of the increase of the inhabitants," and desiring that they would enter into a treaty with Messrs. John Penn and Richard Peters, who were to "be at Albany in the Summer, and would have full powers for that purpose."#
In the Autumn of 1753, only a few months before the French actually established themselves in fortified posts at Niagara, at Le Bœuf and at Venango, and Contrecœur drove a colonial officer out of the post which he had held for a short time at the "Forks" of the Ohio, and Fort Duquesne arose on the ruins of an English stockade-in short, just before the French marchied into and erected forts upon the known domain of Pennsylvania, and, in addition, redoubled their efforts to withdraw the friendship of the Indians from the English colonists-the
* See folio 35 of the "Penn Manuscripts," mentioned on page 30, ante.
+ "Pennsylvania Archives, " First Series, II : 167.
+ See ibid.
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British Lords of Trade directed James De Lancey, the new Lieutenant Governor of New York, to hold at Albany an "interview" with the Six Nations, for the purpose of conciliating them and "securing more effect- ually their affections to His Majesty and the British interests" by hear- ing and redressing their complaints, by delivering presents to them, by "burying the hatchet" and by renewing the Covenant Chain.
It was arranged by De Lancey that this proposed "interview" with the Indians should take place at a conference, or congress, of commis- sioners from the different Colonies and Provinces, called to meet at Albany in June, 1754. In this year there was no security to the Eng- lish colonists either on the frontiers from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania or in the whole of western New York. The year was characterized by alarıns, apprehensions and murders, the formation of plans and their failure. On the 17th of April, in what is now western Pennsylvania, were begun the actual hostilities in the French and Indian War, or in what became known in Europe as the "Seven Years' War"-the final struggle of the French and English for supremacy in America.
By the middle of May there were in the field, beyond the Alleghe- nies, about 1,000 troops from Virginia, Maryland, New York and North and South Carolina-among them the young Virginian, Col. George Washington. Near the close of May, when, one day, Washington "found a party of French lurking at his front in a thicketed glade, he did not hesitate to lead an attacking party of forty against them. The young commander of the French scouts [de Jumonville] was killed in the sharp encounter, and his thirty men were made prisoners. Men on both sides of the sea knew, when they heard that news, that war had beg1111. Young Washington had forced the hands of the statesmen in London and Paris, and all Europe presently took fire from the flame hie had kindled."* Then followed Washington's advance to Great Meadows (in what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania) and the building of "Fort Necessity," only to be followed by an honorable capitulation a few days afterwards-on the 3d of July-to a force of about 700 French and Indians. The next day the French commander, Captain de Villiers, let Washington "go untouched, men and arms, with such stores as he could carry."
On the last day of July Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia wrote to the Governor of Pennsylvania :
"Mr. Washington had many of the Indians with him, but I observe these people remain inactive till they see how affairs go, and, generally speaking, side with the con- querors. Little dependence is to be put in them. The 'Half King't and several other Indians are now among the back settlements of this or your Government."
* Woodrow Wilson's "A History of the American People," II : 82.
+ TANACHARISSON, known as the "Half King." was a Seneca chief who, as early as 1748, at least, resided at Logstown, mentioned on page 214. Schoolcraft says ("History of the Indian Tribes of the United States," page 213): "Tanacharisson, who was the head sachem of the Mingo-Iroquois of the Ohio Valley, was the presiding chief in the first council, or consultation, in which Washington took part. In fact, he was well known among the tribes, and performed at the place of his residence the duties of a chargé d'affaires in modern diplomacy." He was faithful to the English interests, and, accompanying Washington on his expedition in 1754, was present at the skirmish mentioned on the preceding page, and claimed to have killed de Jumonville with his own hand.
Just before the fight at Great Meadows the "Half King," Scarooyady (mentioned on page 227) and several other Indians who were with Washington, withdrew from the latter's command and with their wives and children retired over the mountains into Virginia ; but before the middle of August they re- moved thence to Aughwick (on the site of which Shirleysburg now stands, in Huntingdon County, Penn- sylvania). At this place then lived George Croghan, an Indian trader, who for some years had heen ein- ployed by the Provincial authorities in making treaties and assisting in various negotiations with the Indians. "Next to Sir William Johnson, George Croghan was the most prominent figure among British Indian agents during the period of the later French wars." In the Autumn of 1754 Croghan was in charge at Aughwick of certain Six Nation and other Indians who had left the Ohio region and put themselves under the protection of the Pennsylvania Government.
Under date of September 3, 1754, Conrad Weiser made the following report to the Provincial Council relative to the "Half King" (see Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, IV : 329): "Tanacharisson, otherwise
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While the "men of war" west of the Alleghenies were busy during the Spring and Summer of 1754, the "men of peace" east of the moun- tains were also busy, but in a different manner. On the 30th of May Governor Hamilton issued a commission to John Penn,* Richard Peters, Isaac Norrist and Benjamin Franklin, § naming them as delegates (the first two to represent the Proprietaries, the Lieutenant Governor and the Council, and the latter two to represent the House, or Assembly) to the Congress called to convene at Albany. "This being deemed a proper time to get a purchase from the Indians of more land," wrote Mr. Peters in 1774,|| "and which was become absolutely necessary by the numbers of people that had come into the Province, and could not be kept within the bounds of the purchased lands, Mr. John Penn and myself were instructed and empowered to make as extensive a purchase as the In- dians could be prevailed upon to make." Agreeably to the desire of Lieutenant Governor De Lancey Conrad Weiser was sent with the Penn- sylvania Commissioners, to serve as one of the Indian interpreters at the Congress. Weiser objected, however, to acting in the capacity of interpreter-in-chief.
called the 'Half King,' complained very much of the behavior of Colonel Washington to him-though in a very moderate way, saying the Colonel was a good natured man, but had no experience-saying that he took upon him to command the Indians as his slaves, and that he would by no means take advice front the Indians. That he made no fortifications at all, but that little thing upon the Meadows, when he thought the French would come up to him in the open field. That had he [Washington] taken the 'Half King's' advice and inade such fortifications as the 'Half King' advised, he would certainly have beaten off the French. That the French had acted as great cowards and the English as fools, and that he, the 'Half King,' had carried off his wife and children (so had other Indians) before the battle began, because Colonel Washington would never listen to them, but was always driving them on to fight by his directions."
Early in October, 1754, the "Half King, " Scarooyady and about eighteen other Indians from Aughwick, were at the house of John Harris, an Indian trader at Paxtang, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where, on the 4th of the month, the "Half King" died after a very brief illness. Concerning his death John Har- ris wrote to Governor Hamilton: "Those Indians that were here blame the French for his death, by bewitching him, as they had a conjurer to inquire into the cause a few days before he died, and it is his opinion, together with his relations, that the French have been the cause of their great man's death, by reason of his striking them lately. * * All the Indians that are here are in great trouble."
Scarooyady, or Scaronage, alias Monecatootha, succeeded Tanacharisson as "Half King." He was an Oneida chieftan who had resided for a number of years on the Ohio. At Aughwick he exercised for the Six Nations a general jurisdiction over the western tribes similar to that performed by Shikellimy at Shamokin. In the Spring of 1755 he accompanied General Braddock on his campaign, at the head of a force of 150 Senecas and Delawares. Before the middle of August following Scarooyady and a number of other Indians who had survived the disasters of that campaign proceeded to Philadelphia in charge of Conrad Weiser. On the 15th of August, at a meeting of the Council in Philadelphia, Lieutenant Governor Hunter-who had succeeded Hamilton-addressing by name Scarooyady, Kahiktoton, and other Six Nation Indians who were present, said : "You that are now here, * * * you fought uuder General Braddock and behaved with spirit and valor during the engagement."
* JOHN PENN, the eldest child of Richard and Hannah (Lardner) Penn, and grandson of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia in 1728. His life, from 1752 to his death in Feb- ruary, 1795, was mostly spent in Pennsylvania. He served as a member of the Provincial Council from 1753 to 1755, when he went to England. In the Autumn of 1763 he returned to this country as Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania for his father and uncle ( Thomas), the then sole Proprietaries of the Province. His arrival at Philadelphia, October 30, 1763, was thus chronicled by a writer of the period : "Our new Governor, John Penn, arrived here on the 30th ult. and landed at the wharf with little previous notice ; and his introduction among us was attended with no ceremony, though a remarkable event happened about two hours after [viz. 4:20 o'clock P. M.] * * * our city being shaken by an earthquake, which broke up most of ye places of worship." Governor Penn held his office until April, 1771, when he was succeeded by the Hon. James Hamilton, previously mentioned, whom he had succeeded in November, 1763. From September, 1773, to September, 1776, John Penn was again Lieutenant Governor-having the dis- tinction of being the last Proprietary Governor of Pennsylvania. He continued in this country during the Revolutionary War.
+ RICHARD PETERS (who is also mentioned on page 256) was born in Liverpool, England, in 1711, and was educated at Wadhan College, Oxford. About 1735 or '36 he came to this country with his brother William and settled in Philadelphia, where, about 1741, he became Rector of Christ Church. In 1770, being then Rector of this Church and St. Peter's, Philadelphia, the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Oxford University. In 1741 he became Secretary of the Provincial Council, and this office he held until 1762, when he was succeeded by Col. Joseph Shippen. He died at "Belmont Hill, "Philadelphia, July 10, 1776. The Rev. Richard Peters was never married. Richard Peters, 2d, of Philadelphia, Secretary of the Continental Board of War, Commissioner of War, Member of the Continental Congress and Judge of the United States District Court from 1792 to 1828, was his nephew. For an interesting letter written by Judge Peters relative to his uncle Richard, see the Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XXIII : 205.
ĮISAAC NORRIS was at this time Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, in which body he had been for some time the leader of the strict Quakers, or the "Norris party." He was the son of Isaac Norris (a close friend of William Penn), for whom the town of Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, was named, and his wife was a daughter of the Hon. James Logan, imentioned on page 179. About 1740 Isaac Norris, Jr., became a member of the Provincial Assembly, being at the same time one of the Alder- men of Philadelphia. He was annually re-elected to the Assembly during a period of many years, and for a good part of the time served as Speaker.
{ This was the famous Dr. Benjamin Franklin-printer, philosopher and patriot.
See original letter of the Rev. Richard Peters to Henry Wilmot, Esq., London (under date of May 18, 1774), in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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Albany, which bears the proud distinction of being the oldest city in the United States (having received its charter in 1686), was almost 140 years old, as a settlement, in 1754, and had then borne its present name for exactly ninety years. But it was still a small town, with a population numbering less than 1,000 souls. Gideon Hawley wrote of it in 1753: "This city is very compact. In time of war it is always picketed, and in the many expeditions against Canada it has been the rendezvous of soldiers."
Within the palisaded limits of the town, at the north-east corner of what are now Hudson Avenue and Broadway, not far from the river, stood, in 1754-and for many years after-the old Dutch Stadt Huis, or Court-house. A part of the building was used for the city jail, while close at hand, in an open space outside its walls, stood the public pillory and whipping-post. Many historical associations were connected with this building. In it Governor Dougan met the Iroquois chiefs in 1685 ; Lord Howe's body rested there in state in 1758; the first general Con- gress of the English Colonies assembled there in 1764; the Declaration of Independence was publicly read there in 1776, and a mob drove the English judges from the Bench; from 1797 till 1805 it was used as the New York State Capitol. In a room of this building the Commissioners, or Representatives, called together by Lieutenant Governor De Lancey, met for the first time on Wednesday, June 19, 1754, and began their work as a Congress.
Twenty-four Commissioners (including Lieutenant Governor De Lancey) were present, representing seven Provinces and Colonies. "It was found that Pennsylvania was not alone in appointing a distinguished citizen to represent her. On the roll of the Congress were the names of Lieutenant Governor De Lancey, of New York, who presided ; and from the same Province William Smith, the historian, and the future Sir William Johnson,* not yet made a baronet. Lastly, the two Colonies which had so tenaciously preserved their charter governments through the vicissitudes of more than a century-Connecticut and Rhode Island-had acceded to the repeated solicitations of the home Government, and with unfeigned reluctance, we may be sure, had sent as Representatives inen of such wide experience in their colonial con- cerns as Roger Wolcott, Jr., t and Stephen Hopkins.} 'America,' says Mr. Bancroft, 'had never seen an assembly so venerable for the states that were represented, or for the great and able men who composed it.'" § Colonel Stone (mentioned on page 19) calls this "the most august assem- bly which up to that time had ever been held in the western world."
* For his portrait, and a sketch of his life, see Chapter V.
+ ROGER WOLCOTT, JR., was the eldest child of Gov. Roger Wolcott (mentioned on page 259), who, as an officer in the military service upon several occasions, as a member of the Governor's Council, as Deputy Governor, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and as Governor of the Colony, performed inany in- portant duties in a satisfactory and noteworthy manner. Besides, he was the progenitor of a famous family. He was born at Windsor, Connecticut, January 4, 1679, and died there May 17, 1767.
Roger Wolcott, Jr., was born at Windsor September 14, 1704. He served in the General Assembly of the Colony as a Representative from his native town ; was a Major in the Connecticut troops, a member of the Governor's Council, a Judge of the Superior Court and one of the revisers of the laws of the Colony. He died October 19, 1759, and "his deathi was felt as a public loss."
Į STEPHEN HOPKINS was born in Chapumiscook, Scituate, Rhode Island, March 7, 1707, son of William and Ruth ( Wilkinson) Hopkins. He served as a Representative in the General Assembly of Rhode Island fourteen terins-1732 to '52 and 1770 to '75-and was Chief Justice of the Colony in the years 1751-'55. He was a Delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774-76, and as a member of that body was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. When about to affix his name to that document he remarked : "My hand trembles, but my heart does not !" In 1731 he laid out in streets and lots the town of Providence, Rhode Island, and took up his residence there. In 1750 he founded the Providence town library. He was the author of various pamphlets. He died at Providence July 13, 1785.
¿ From William E. Foster's "Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island Statesman."
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The Commissioners were detained in the hospitable old Dutch town of Albany for three weeks. On Sunday, June 23d, Commissioner Peters preached a sermon to the members of the Congress. Within the next few days the chiefs of the various Indian tribes who had been invited to a conference with the Congress began to arrive in Albany, until there were 103 of them present. Many of them were accom- panied by their families, so that there were altogether several hundred Indians in and about the city for two or more weeks. The first to arrive (on June 27th) was the deputation from the "Lower Castle"* of the Mohawks, headed by Can- adagaia, or "Johanis Canade- gair," their "speaker." The next day the "Canajoharies," or the Mohawks from the "Up- per Castle,"t accompanied by several sachems of each of the other nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, arrived and were introduced to the Congress. They were headed by old "King" Hendrick as their "speaker," who, in his opening speech to the Congress, inti- mated that, in a measure, the Six Nations were divided. He "KING" HENDRICK, said that the Mohawks were "blamed for things behind their
the famous Mohawk Sachem, from a picture in oils painted in England in 1710, during Hendrick's visit there.
* "Tehondaloga"-the present Fort Hunter, Montgomery County, New York, on the west side of Schoharie Creek, at its mouth.
+ The "Upper Castle" of the Mohawks was located at that time in what is at present the town of Danube, in Herkimer County, New York, on the flat just below the confluence of Nowadaga Creek and the Mohawk River. This place is now known as Indian Castle, from the castle or fort which was built there by the Mohawks in 1710. Sir William Johnson built Fort Canajoharie there in 1756, previous to which time a block-house stood there. As early as 1746, and for many years later, this place was indis- criminately called Canajohare, Canajorha and Canajoharie Castle. It was also known as "Nowadaga." There was a mission church there in 1768-called by writers "the church at Canajoharie"-which Sir William Johnson had assisted in building.
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