A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 41

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 41

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

Soi-en-ga-rah-ta, or Tejanoge, known as "Hendrick Peters" and as "King Hendrick," was born about 1676. He was one of the Indians who accompanied Colonel Schuyler to England in 1710, as mentioned on page 175. For many years he was chief of the Mohawks at the "Upper Castle" ; later he was Principal Sachem of the Mohawk nation, and then, for a number of years preceding his death, Senior Chief of the Iroquois Confederacy. Hence his title, "King." In 1751 he was described, by a writer who met him at Sir William Johnson's table, as a "venerable and noble-looking old chief." He was then about seventy-five years of age, and in that same year he spent some time in the Stockbridge Indian mission-school (men- tioned in the note on page 257) as a student. Hendrick and all his family were christianized.

On September 8, 1755, the battle of Lake George was fought, when the French and Indian forces under Baron Dieskau were defeated by the Colonial and British forces under command of Maj. Gen. (later Sir) William Johnson and Maj. Gen. Phineas Lyman (mentioned on page 281), aided by their Mohawk allies under "King" Hendrick. This was the most important victory gained upon New York soil prior to the Revolution. "Confidence inspired by the victory was of inestimable value to the American army in the War of the Revolution. Defeat would have opened the road to Albany to the French."

The venerable warrior Hendrick was in the eightieth year of his life when the battle of Lake George occurred. He was a large, corpulent man, and upon that occasion wore a brilliant uniform. While riding at the head of his column of Indians he formed a conspicuous mark for the enemy, and was killed at their first fire. He was succeeded in the office of Principal Sachem of the Mohawks by Nicklaus Brant, father of the famous Joseph Brant ; but, says Buell (in "Sir William Jolinson," page 158), "as to the other and inore exalted distinction which Hendrick had so long held-that of Senior Chief of the Iroquois Confederacy, which was an elective position, not hereditary-it was left vacant for twenty years, until in 1775 Joseph Brant was chosen to fill it." For a further reference to the battle of Lake George and the fall of Hendrick, see note on page 269.

On September 8, 1903, there was unveiled in the State Park on the battle-ground of 1755, at the head of Lake George, a splendid granite and bronze monument erected by The Society of Colonial Wars to

265

backs" that they did not deserve. Continuing, he said :

"We are looked upon by the other nations as Colonel Johnson's* counsellors, and supposed to hear all the news from him. If we had come first to [the conference] the other nations would have said that we made the Governor's speech, and therefore we remained behind. There are some of our people who have large, open ears, and talk a little broken English and Dutch, so that they sometimes hear what is said by the Christ- ian settlers near them, and by this means we come to understand that we are looked upon to be a proud nation-and therefore we staid behind. * * * "Tis true, and known we are so, that we the Mohawks are the head of all the other nations. Here they are, and they must own it. *

* But it was not out of pride we Canajoharies staid behind."

The day following the arrival of the deputation headed by "King" Hendrick a considerable number of Stockbridge Indians (see note on page 193) arrived at Albany and were received in conference by the Congress-Timothy Woodbridge, previously mentioned, acting as inter- preter for the Indians. The conferences with the whole body of the Indians took place from day to day until the 9th of July, being, as usual in such cases, spread over a good deal of time and conducted with incl speecli-making and many other formal doings. It was necessary, in the then condition of affairs, for the English to pay court to the Indians -particularly the Six Nations-and there was no surer method of acquiring their good-will than by respecting their ancient mode of hold- ing councils, and paying due reverence to their ceremonial rites and customis.

To smoke a national pipe, to deliver a belt of wampum, to present a chief with a medal or a flag were, in their eyes, acts of the most momentous importance. To do nothing in a hurry, to deliberate slowly, to measure, as it were, the importance of events by the time devoted to the performance of their ceremonies, were to the Indians very pleasing evidences of capacity for negotiation. The Indian orator loved the pomp of ceremonies, and he felt complimented to see a Euro- pean official respect them. Light talk and flippant manners never failed to be estimated by the old Indian sages at their true worth. They were considered as evidences of the want of sober thought and fixed purpose.

Col. Timothy Pickering, who, between the years 1790 and 1800, as Commissioner in behalf of the United States, conducted several treaties with various Indian tribes, givest the following account of Indian con- ferences in generalt :

"Public conferences with the Indians were accompanied with much ceremony, and the interchange of frequent formal addresses. Almost daily the whole body assem- bled, and were placed in order ; the old men and chiefs in front of the Commissioner, the warriors next behind them, then the younger men ; and the women and children in the rear. A speech was expected from the Commissioner and responded to by some famous warrior, or leading chief in the councils of the nations represented at the meet- ing, selected for the purpose. Silence was observed, and the utmost gravity and decorum prevailed. The speeches were uttered slowly, a sentence or brief passage at a time-the interpreter interposing between them the function of his office. To convey the ideas of the speakers of both sides fully and accurately-especially to make them intelligible to the Indian audience-required great care, skill and experience on the part of the in- terpreter."

commemorate the victory of the English and Indian forces. The bronze group of heroic figures which tops the monument represents Johnson and Hendrick in consultation before the battle, when the latter demonstrated to the former the futility of dividing his forces. "When Johnson advised to divide the detachment into three parts Hendrick objected, and to express the impracticability of the plan picked up three sticks, and, putting them together, said to the General: 'You sce now that these cannot be easily broken, but take them one by one and you can break them at once.'" The sculptor of the 11101111- ment modeled the figure of Hendrick after the portrait herewith reproduced. The "King" is attired in Mohawk fashion, his hair shaved close to the scalp and crested with the hair of the deer's tail and feathers of the war-eagle-in the manner described on page 142. A buffalo robe richly ornamented is thrown over his left shoulder.

* Sir William Johnson, previously mentioned.

# See also page 124, ante.

f In "Life of Timothy Pickering," III : 70.

266

As a result of the Indian conferences conducted by the Albany Congress it was agreed, on the part of the Indians, that they would furnish upon call a force of at least 1,000 picked warriors for general service, provided their commander-in-chief should be Col. William John- son. And in addition to these the Indians undertook to raise a force of at least 600 more to help repel any attempt the French might make against Oswego, or any other salient point within the territory of the Six Nations. On the other hand, the Indians stipulated that their war- riors, when in the field, should receive the same pay, rations and cloth- ing-allowance as the Provincial troops; also, that each warrior, when mustered for actual service, should receive a new blanket, a red flannel shirt, a blue hunting-jacket with red trimmings, and a pair of stout leather or buckskin leggings.

But alliances and compacts with the Indians were not the only inatters discussed and determined by this Congress. A "Plan of a pro- posed Union of the several Colonies [eleven in number], for their inutual Defence and Security, and for the extending the British settle- ments in North America," was adopted after considerable debate on July 10th-almost exactly twenty-two years before the Declaration of Inde- pendence. With reference to this "Plan of a proposed Union"* Benjamin Franklin stated in his autobiography : "In our way thither [to Albany] I projected and drew a plan for the union of all the Colonies under one Government. *

* As we passed through New York I had there shown my project to Mr. James Alexander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge in public affairs, and, being fortified by their approba- tion, I ventured to lay it before the Congress. It then appeared that sev- eral of the Commissioners had formed plans of the same kind. * * Mine happened to be preferred, and, with a few amendments, was accord- ingly reported. The debates upon it in Congress went on daily, hand in hand with the Indian business. Many objections and difficulties were started, but at length they were all overcome and the plan was unani- mously agreed to."

Francis W. Halsey declarest that this "famous Plan of Union -X- in an organic sense marks the beginning of the history of the United States ; and John Bigelow has characterized it as 'the first coherent scheme ever propounded for securing a permanent federal union of the thirteen Colonies.'" President Garfield, in a speech delivered at Albany, declared that in that city "the gerin of the American Union was first planted by Benjamin Franklin in 1754." The fate of Franklin's "Plan" was singular. It was not approved by a single one of the Colonial Assemblies before which it was brought, and no action was ever taken on it in England. It was rejected in America because it was supposed to put too muchi power into the hands of the King ; and it was rejected in England because it was supposed to give too much power to the Assemblies of the Colonies.

Thus, as we have shown at some length, while the first sharp notes of war were ringing out over beyond the Alleghenies, the men of peace gathered at Albany were preparing for war. The Pennsylvania and Connecticut seekers after Indian land-titles were also, at the same time and place, making good use of their opportunities.

* The same is printed in full in Woodrow Wilson's "History of the American People," II : 342-356.

¡ In "The Old New York Frontier, " page 63.

267

"One day during the public treaty Hendrick held up two belts of wampum, saying that they had been sent by the Proprietaries of Penn- sylvania for the purchase of a large tract in south-western Pennsylvania. The Governor of New York immediately wished to know how far north this purchase was intended to extend. He was told that it would in- clude all the West Branch of the Susquehanna, none of which was farther north than 41º 30'. Governor De Lancey then replied that since this matter concerned only Pennsylvania it might be transacted in private, and no record thereof should appear upon the minutes of the Conference. The Pennsylvania commission insisted that all their land purchases had ever been conducted in the most public manner, and they desired that this one might be recorded. In this they were overruled by the Joint-Commission (the Congress), and it was decided that the Clerk should take no notice on the minutes of what Hendrick had said. This ruling of the Joint-Commission threw all land negotiations out of the general conference and made them private, thus aiding the plans of the Connecticut agents, and sowing the seeds of distrust and suspicion among the Indians."*

It may, with truth, be stated that this ruling of the Congress bene- fited and aided the plans of the Pennsylvania agents just as much as it did those of the Connecticut agents. It did not, in any way, hamper or interfere with the rights or privileges of either party. The officers and agents of the Susquehanna Company had openly and freely announced, during many months previously, that they proposed to attempt to pur- chase the Wyoming lands from the Six Nations. On the other hand, the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, with all their prestige, power and wealth, had been racing to get ahead of and circumvent the New Eng- landers. As we have previously shown, they had sent "John Shikel- limy" early in the Spring of 1754 to some of the Six Nations, to pave the way for negotiations to be conducted later at Albany by Penn and Peters.

About the middle of June Shikellimy brought with him to Albany a certain Gagradoda, a Cayugan chief, who, under the influence of Shikellimy, had just persuaded the Cayugas and Oneidas into a will- ingness to sell lands to the Proprietaries. When Conrad Weiser arrived at Albany a few days later he "took Gagradoda to his lodgings, where, for a liberal reward, he engaged him to serve as a private councillor and to direct what measures should be taken to secure the cooperation of the Indians. This kind of lobbying had grown to be quite common among the Six Nations. After a few days spent in sounding the opinions of the most influential Indians, Gagradoda reported to Weiser that all the nations except the Oneidas were quite favorable to selling all south- western Pennsylvania. The objecting nation insisted that the affair should be deferred imtil the arrival of the Mohawks. This movement put the control of the affair into the hands of Hendrick."+

As we have previously stated, "King" Hendrick and his followers did not reach Albany until June 28th, nine days after the Congress had begun its sittings. It was generally understood, by the Pennsylvanians and others, that Hendrick "was anxious to negotiate the sale" to the Susquehanna Company ; while the agents of that Company-the men

* Walton's "Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania, " page 285.

+ From Walton's "Conrad Weiser" (previously referred to), page 285.

26S

who were "on the inside"-were firmly convinced that Hendrick was immovably committed to their interests .* He was well acquainted with, and apparently had great regard for, Timothy Woodbridge, whom he had first met at the Indian mission in Stockbridge. Besides, when the Six Nations had sold certain lands in south-eastern Pennsylvania to the Proprietaries some years previously, the Mohawks received no portion of the proceeds from that sale-it being held that they "had no con- quest rights" to the lands in question ; and it was now understood that the lands which the Proprietaries desired to purchase were, by riglit of conquest, strictly Cayuga and Oneida lands, and that in case of a sale of them the Mohawks, as before, would probably not derive any benefit. In the circumstances, therefore, it behooved each party to court the favor and secure the support of "King" Hendrick. As we shall show, t the agents of the Proprietaries won him completely over to their side.

As soon as the Congress had decided that the sale of lands from the Indians to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania should be neither discussed nor consummated at the meetings of that body, the agents of the Pro- prietaries arranged to meet the Indians at the house of Jaines Steven- son in Albany ; and there, on the 4th and 5th days of July, several con- ferences were held with some seventy Mohawk and other Indians. "King" Hendrick did most of the talking for the Indians, and from his several speechest we have extracted the following paragraphs :

"We desire you will content yourself with what we shall now grant you. We will never part with the land at Shamokin and Wyomink. Our bones are scattered there, and on this land there has always been a great Council-fire. We desire you will not take it amiss that we will not part with it, for we reserve it to settle such of our nations upon as shall come to us from the Ohio, or any others who shall desire to be in our alliance. * * * We have heard since we came here that our Brother Onas and our Brother of New England have had some disputes about the lands of Susquehanna ; but we desire you would not differ with one another about it, for neither shall have it. We will not part with it to either of you. * * * We have appointed 'John Shikellimy' to take care of the lands. He is our representative there, and has our orders not to suffer either Onas' people or the New Englanders to settle there."?

As a result of these conferences at James Stevenson's a deed was executed on July 6th, which was signed by "King" Hendrick, his brother Abraham (mentioned on page 229, ante) and twenty other chiefs, representing all the tribes of the Six Nations. This deed con- veyed to Thomas and Richard Penn, in consideration of £400, New York currency, all the lands within the Province of Pennsylvania bounded by a line beginning on the west bank of the Susquehanna River at the Kittatinny Mountains ; running thence up the river to a point a mile above the mouth of what is now known as Penn's Creek (about four miles south of the junction of the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna) ; thence a straight course north-west "as far as the said Province of Pennsylvania extends to its western lines or bound- aries"ll ; thence along the said western boundary to the southern bound- ary-line of the Province; thence along the southern boundary-line to the Kittatinny Mountains, and thence along said mountains to the place of beginning.

* See the deposition of the Hon. Stephen Hopkins, page 291.

+ See also Miner's "Wyoming." page 91, and Walton's "Conrad Weiser, " pages 283-289.

# See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI : 116, 119.

¿ With further reference to this matter see "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 81.

| On the 1756 Map of Pennsylvania (reproduced in Chapter V) this north-west line is shown, extend- ing to the south-eastern shore of Lake Erie.

269

This conveyance, in connection with the previous conveyances from the natives (as hereinbefore referred to) to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, put the latter in possession of the Indian title to all the lands within the Charter bounds of Pennsylvania except a section in the northern and northern-central part of the Province. That section of unsold territory was almost triangular in shape, being bounded on the north by the New York-Pennsylvania boundary-line, on the south-west by the line from the Susquehanna above Pen's Creek to Lake Erie, and on the south-east by the line from the mouth of Mahanoy Creek to the month of the Lackawaxen on the Delaware (as mentioned on page 232). Within this unsold section were included, of course, all the lands lying along the North Branch of the Susquehanna, and a small portion of those along the West Branch.

The representatives of the Susquehanna Company at Albany were equally as busy as the agents of the Penn family-but in a different way. They held no public conferences with the Indians, but, in a simple, direct and business-like manner, presented to the principal chiefs of the several Indian nations, whom they were able to approach, the Company's proposals for the purchase of the Wyoming lands. Tim- othy Woodbridge was early on the ground, accompanied by Maj. Eph- raim Williams, Jr.,* and Capt. Joseph Kellogg, t as well as two or three of the most prominent members of the Susquehanna Company. "Dea- con" Woodbridge, as the accredited agent of the Company, employed

* EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, JR., was the eldest son of Ephraim Williams, Sr. (born in 1691), of Newton, Massachusetts, who was descended from Robert Williams, who early immigrated from England and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Province. When the Stockbridge mission (mentioned in the note on page 193) was established Ephraim Williams, Sr., was one of those sent by the Massachusetts Govern- ment-under treaty with the Indians-to reside among them, "to anglicize and civilize, and to teach agriculture." In 1737 Mr. Williams (he is entitled "Colonel" by some biographers) removed with his family from Newton-which his father had helped to settle, and where he himself was born-to Stock- bridge. Here he lived and labored until the Summer of 1753, when, on account of failing health, he removed to the home of one of his sons, a practising physician at Deerfield, Massachusetts. There he died in the Spring of 1755. He was the father of seven children-his eldest daughter, Abigail, becon- ing the wife of the Rev. John Sergeant (as mentioned in the note on page 195), and after the death of Sergeant marrying Brig. Gen. Joseph Dwight of Massachusetts.

Ephraim Williams, Jr., was born in Newton and removed with his father's family to Stockbridge. As early as 1751 he had attained the rank of Colonel in the Massachusetts militia. In 1753 he was a Rep- resentative in the General Court, or Assembly, of the Province. In1 1754 and '5 there was a chain of rude forts extending along the Housatonic Valley for the protection of the feeble frontier settlements of Mass- achusetts against incursions from the hostile French and their Indian allies, who came down from Can- ada "through a great and terrible wilderness of several hundred miles in extent." These forts were commanded by Col. Ephraim Williams, Jr.

In the expedition led by Maj. Gen. William Johnson against Crown Point in 1755 Colonel Williams commanded the Massachusetts Provincials, and at the battle of Lake George (referred to in the note on page 264) he fell at the head of his troops. The following account of his death is from Buell's "Sir Wil- liam Johnson" (page 145): "Early the next morning [September 8th] Johnson sent out about SG0 Pro- vincials under Col. Ephraim Williams, and the whole force of Hendrick's Iroquois warriors-led by the venerable chief himself-to find the enemy. * * * Dieskau, advised by his Indian scouts of the move- ment of Colonel Williams and Hendrick, arranged an ambuscade, and the detachment, when about two and a-half miles from the camp, walked right into it -the column being led by Hendrick and his war- riors. * * * Volley after volley was poured with murderous effect upon the Indians in front and upon the left of Williams' Provincials. * * Colonel Williams was killed a few minutes after Hendrick [see note, page 264, ante], being shot through the head as he was in the act of mounting a rock in order better to direct the movements of his men, his horse having been shot under him a few minutes before."

By his will Colonel Williams left a bequest for the founding of a free school. In 1793 this school was incorporated as Williams College, at Williamstown, Massachusetts.

+ JOSEPH KELLOGG-known as "Captain" Kellogg as early as 1752-was born at Deerfield, Massachu- setts, between 1690 and 1700. He was a brother of Mrs. Rebecca (Kellogg ) Ashley, mentioned in the note on page 257. Concerning Captain Kellogg and his sister the Rev. Gideon Hawley wrote in 1794 (see "Doc- umentary History of New York, " III : 629: "She was captured at Deerfield when that town was de- stroyed [by the Indians] in 1703, and carried away-being three years old. Her two brothers, Martin and Joseph Kellogg, well known in their day, were both older than their sister, and were taken at the same time. The two boys got away before the sister, who lived in Canada among the Canghnawagas until she was a maiden grown. [The Caughnawagas, so called, were the "Praying Indians"- composed of Indians from various tribes in Canada and the several nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Their vil- lage, or "Castle," called Caughnawaga-"at the rapids"-was located near La Chine Rapids of the St. Lawrence River, not far from Montreal. "King" Hendrick went there on an embassy in 1746.] Rebec- ca's brothers, however, lived there long enough to be good interpreters, particularly Joseph Kellogg, Esq., who was the best in his day, that New England had, and was employed upon every occasion. For many years he was at Fort Dummer, on Connecticut River, and was at the Albany Treaty of 1754, which was attended by a greater number of respectable persons from the several Provinces and Colonies than had met on any similar occasion. In 1756, being persuaded by General Shirley to accompany him to Oswego, as an interpreter, he sickened and died, and was buried at Schenectady."

270

Col. John Henry Ly- dius* of Albany to assist in consummating a purchase from the Indians, and all the negotiations with the latter, at that time, were conducted at Ly- dius' house.

A skeleton form of a deed had been pre- pared for the use of the "Journeying Commit- tee" in 1753. Accord- ing to the statements of At the crossing of North Pearl and State Streets, Albany, circa 1830. The building with the terraced gable, at the north-east cor- ner of the crossing, was the home of John Henry Lydius in 1754. some writers Eliphalet Dyer had drawn up that form. The present writer, having compared the same with some original letters now in his possession written by Colonel Dyer in 1776, is of the opinion that the "skeleton forin" referred to was written by him. This "form" was pro-

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

A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 41

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