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 45
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103
For a number of years the real facts relative to the number, tribal connections and importance of the signers of the Indian deed to The Susquehanna Company were not generally known outside the Company. As late as 1761 it was frequently stated that "two Tuscaroras, one Oneida and one Mohawk had privately made the deed for the Wyoming land."t So much was said and written by the opponents of the Company, regarding the fraudulence and illegality of the conveyance, that the officers of the Company procured certain sworn affidavits from some of the men who had been present at the execution of the deed. These affidavits were attached to the deed, and all were then recorded, first, on pages 1-15 of Book "B" of the records of The Susquehanna Company, mentioned on page 28, ante, and later in the office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut, in "Book No. 4 of Records for Patents, Deeds and Surveys of Lands," folios 681-688. The first of these affidavits is that of Col. John Henry Lydius, sworn to before the Mayor of Albany, New York, December 23, 1760, and setting forth, among other things, the following :
"That on a certain day during the time of said Congress [of 1754], came into the deponent's mansion-house at Albany Maj. Ephraim Williams and Capt. Joseph Kellogg, Esquires-the said Kellogg, being master of the language of the Mohocks, has often im- proved as a publick interpreter, and was at this time improved in the abovesaid business of procuring a deed as above. And also the deponent further saith, that on the same day came into his said dwelling-house several of the sachenis and principal men of the Mo- hocks, or Five Nations, so called. One of said sachems name was called Kahiktoton, a sachem of the Senecas ; another, called Abraham Peters, elder [sic] brother to Hendrick and chief sachem of the Mohock tribe ; a third, whose name was William Tharigeoris, a Mohock chief, called of the Turkle tribe ; a fourth, whose name was Brant Conwignoge, a chief or principal man of the Mohocks ; a fifth, called a sachem named Gayswigtione ; a sixth, whose name was Canagegaie-two sachems of the tribe of the Anondaugehs [Onondagas]. And at that time a deed was produced, being brought to deponent's house by some of those gentlemen from New England, who were endeavoring to obtain a deed of the Five Nations of Indians.
"Said deed lying on the table, the deponent had full inspection of the same, and saw it to be a deed of release and conveyance of a large tract of land lying on the Susque- hanna River, to a great number of persons mostly belonging to the Colony of Connecticut. And at the same time the deponent saw all the above-named sachems or principal men sign the said deed, by making their marks thereto severally. And the deponent also, at the same time, saw the said Williams and Kellogg set their hands as witnesses-being both long since deceased-and that the deponent fully believes that the said sachenis were well acquainted and thoroughly understood what they transacted ; and that the said sachems were, at the time of their signing, sealing and delivering of said deed, sober and undisguised."
* From Egle's "Notes and Queries" for 1896, page 1.
+ See "Pennsylvania-Colonial and Federal," I : 523.
Į Colonel Williams and Captain Kellogg, two of the subscribing witnesses to the deed, being dead at this time, their affidavits could not, of course, be obtained.
290
Under date of August 6, 1761, Colonel Lydius made a second affi- davit, in which he set forth :
"That some time in the month of July, 1754, Timothy Woodbridge, Esq., who was employed by the people of Connecticut Colony to make a purchase of the Five Nations of a tract of land lying on Susquehanna, as contained in the foregoing deed, asked my assist- ance in the prosecution of said purchase, and the said Woodbridge left in my hands a considerable sum of money, to the amount of 1,000 or 1,100 Spanish dollars, to pay such sachems of the Five Nations that should appear to make sale of the aforesaid lands for their several tribes. * * Accordingly, as the sachems of the several tribes came to the deponent's house on said business, the deponent agreed with such as appeared, from time to time, to dispose of their interests in the premises, for such sums as they were satisfied with, and the same was paid by the deponent until the aforesaid sum was paid. Afterward, the deponent sent to the said Woodbridge for further supplies of money to go forward with the said purchase, and received between 400 and 500 dollars as aforesaid ; and still further supplies were remitted, until the deponent was enabled to pay the whole stipulated for with the several sachems of the several tribes-which whole payment, that the deponent made, was to the amount of 1,705 Spanish dollars."
Under date of December 23, 1760, James Sharpe, Martin Lydius, Sybrant Van Schaick, Jr., John J. Wendell and Jacob Van Woert, Jr., severally deposed before the Mayor of Albany as to their personal knowl- edge of the execution of the deed, and swore that it was "their firm belief that the sachems before-named were well acquainted with, and thoroughly understood, what they transacted ; and that they were sober and undisguised at the time." Sybrant Van Schaick also swore that "when he was called to evidence to the signing of several of the sacheins to the foregoing deed, at the house of Col. John Lydius in Albany, he saw a large bag of money delivered to the Indians by the said Lydius, in consideration of said purchase, which bag the deponent judged to contain 300 or 400 Spanish dollars." James Sharpe further deposed "that when he was called to evidence to several sachems signing the foregoing deed of sale, he saw the Indians that signed the said deed counting money in the said Lydius' stoop at his door, and they appeared to be possessed of a large sum." The same James Sharpe, in March, 1794, under a rule of Court granted in the case of Van Horne's lessees vs. Dorrance (to be more fully mentioned hereinafter), deposed and said on oath before Abraham Yates, Jr., Mayor of Albany* :
"That July 11, 1754, he was present at the house of John Henry Lydius in Albany when a great number of Indians of the Six Nations sold a large tract of land mentioned in the deed hereunto annexed. * That he the said deponent saw two of the said * Indians receive from the said purchasers named in the deed a large sum of money in Spanish milled dollars, for the said lands, which money was carried out of doors in a blanket and divided among all the Indians of the Six Nations then present on the stoop of the said John Henry Lydius ; but what was the exact amount of the said sum of money * * deponent does not know. That he at the same time saw Jestaraire, Johannes Sagehoware, Senosies, Johannes Canedegair, Nikes, or Nicholas, Carigiaghtake, princi- pal sachems of the Five Nations of Indians (as the deponent was then informed and verily believes to be true) severally set their marks to, and seal and deliver the said deed. * * He and Martinus Lydius then and there subscribed their names to the said deed as witnesses. Said Martinus Lydius is since deceased. That the said Indians were perfectly satisfied with the aforesaid bargain, and acknowledged in his presence that the same was fairly made, and that they the said Indians were fully paid for the aforesaid lands by the purchasers aforesaid ; and that the said deed now is in the same state with respect to the contents thereof that it was in at the time of its execution."
The Rev. Samuel Kirkland, t for many years a missionary among the Six Nations, made a deposition-under a rule of Court-about the same time that the deposition of James Sharpe was taken. The follow- ing paragraphi is from itį :
* The original deposition, being a part of the files of the law-case mentioned, is now (by permission of the United States Court) in the custody of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
+ For his portrait, and a sketch of his life, see a subsequent chapter.
Į See Miner's "Wyoming," page 69, and an article from the pen of Col. John Franklin, over the pseudonym "Plain Truth," published in The Luzerne County Federalist (Wilkes-Barre), May 18, 1801.
291
"That soon after he came to reside among the Five Confederated Nations of In- dians, which was in 1765, an Indian chief, with whom he resided near two years in the Seneca country, told him that the Five Nations (or Six Nations as they were then styled) had sold a large tract of land on the Susquehanna, or Wyoming, to the New England people, and had received a large sum of money for it ; and that one Lydius, of Albany, was concerned in the purchase as interpreter or principal agent. This informa- tion, with many other transactions of a similar nature, the said deponent received from the Indians at their own voluntary motion, while they were giving him an historical ac- count of their country and various negotiations of the white people. The same account of the Susquehanna purchase, and others similar to it, the deponent has frequently heard related by different Indians of the Five Nations, having resided in their territory for near thirty years, and scarce ever absent from them more than three months at a time during that term ; and never, to his remembrance, heard any of the said Indians complain of said purchase."
Colonel Franklin, in one of his "Plain Truth" articles (previously mentioned), publislied May 25, 1801, stated :
"I have also in my possession an affidavit of five Indians, principal sachems of the Mohawk tribe. This affidavit was subscribed to, and the deponents made solemn oatlı thereto, at Albany June 24, 1763. These deponents swear, 'that in 1754, at a general treaty held with the Five Nations at Albany, * that while the Indians were attend- ing said treaty a proposal was made by some English persons from New England to make a purchase of the Five Nations of a large tract of land lying on the Susquehannah River ; in which proposal, and the land described to be purchased, were included the lands called by the Mohawks Skaumuhdelwauhnuh (that is, Wyoming) ; that in the conclusion of the treaty the sachems of the Five Nations agreed to the sale of a large tract of land lying on the Susquehannah River, and did receive large sums of money therefor ; that several of the sachems at that time sealed a conveyance to the said New England people, and from time to time other sachems repaired to Albany and there received their considera- tion money and sealed the deed ; that the said sale was at the time of the said treaty, and has ever since been generally known and received among the Five Nations ; and said sale was made and done according to the usages, customs and manners of the Five Nations. " 'Further, that having reviewed the said deed lately at our Castle, it cannot be denied but that the lands contained in the deed executed to the said New England company ought to be held by them as a good and lawful purchase. Neither do the de- ponents imagine any difficulty would have arisen about the sale and settlement had it not been stirred up among the Indians by the white people-principally among whom are the Governor of Pennsylvania and Sir William Johnson.' "
In further support of The Susquehanna Company's contention that their deed had been honestly obtained, the following document is in- troduced. It is a copy of an original deposition to be found among the "Trumbull Papers," referred to on page 29, ante, paragraph (6). It was made in 1782 by the Hon. Stephen Hopkins mentioned on page 263, ante, and was, without doubt, intended to be used at the Trenton trial. So far as the present writer can learn it has never been previously printed.
"STEPHEN HOPKINS, Esq., of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, *
* aged seventy-five years, deposeth and saith : That some time in the Summer of the year 1754 he was at Albany at a treaty held there with the Indians of the Six Nations, many of the chiefs of whom, from each tribe, were present at that meeting and during the time that the treaty continued. Three gentlemen of the Colony of Connecticut, being agents from a Company since known by the name of The Susquehanna Company, were in treaty with said Indians, or many of them, for the purchase of a certain tract of land lying upon the River Susquehanna and its branches, and fully concluded a bargain with them, and towards the conclusion of said treaty received a deed from them of the said lands.
"That the deponent was present several times where the said Connecticut gentle- men and the Indian chiefs were in treaty about the bargain aforesaid, and, after they had finally agreed, was present at the making and executing of a deed from the chief of the said Indians to The Susquehanna Company, and was also present at the payment of the consideration money mentioned in said deed. That the deponent then thought that the bargain aforesaid was fairly made, as any negotiation with Indians for the purchase of land could possibly be. That the deed was made and signed by the proper chiefs deputed by the several tribes for that purpose. The noted sachem, Hendrick, was the principal negotiator* between the said Connecticut gentlemen and the Indians, in making and finishing the bargain aforesaid, as he was also in negotiating a bargain at the same Con- gress between the same tribes of Indians and the agents of Mr. Penn, the Proprietary of Pennsylvania. That both those bargains with the Indians for several parts of their lands
* See page 267.
292
were conducted and finished in as open and fair a manner as it is possible for any bargains with the Indians to be carried on and completed."
It would seem, from the testimony thus adduced, that the Indian deed to The Susquehanna Company was obtained, not by means of fraud or trickery, but openly and fairly ; and that the full amount of the con- sideration money stipulated to be paid was duly received by the Indian grantors.
A meeting of The Susquehanna Company was held at Hartford November 20, 1754, and Maj. Roger Wolcott, Jr., Maj. Phineas Lyman, George Wyllys, Esq., Daniel Edwards, Esq., and Maj. Eliphalet Dyer were appointed a committee "to prepare the case of the Susquehanna Purchase lately made of the Indians, and all proper exhibits relating thereto, in order to lay the same before His Majesty for his grant and confirmation." It was also voted to increase the number of whole-share members to 800, and 1,000 dollars was ordered to be sent to Colonel Lydius "in order to complete the purchase, and in compliance with the engagement of the former committee-and more, if necessary fully to discharge said former committee from said Lydius." At this same meet- ing George Wyllys, Esq.,* was elected Treasurer of the Company, and Samuel Gray, t Esq., was elected Clerk.
(Facsimile of signature written in 1776.)
* See page 282.
+ SAMUEL GRAY was born in Lebanon, New London County, Connecticut, April 6, 1722, the eldest child of Dr. Ebenezer and Mary (Gardiner) Gray. Dr. Ebenezer Gray (born at Boston October 31, 1697) was the ninth child of Samuel Gray, a native of Dorsetshire, England, and his wife Susannah Langdon of Plymouth, England, who immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1679. Ebenezer was educated at Harvard College, became a physician and practised his profession at Lebanon and then at Windham. When Windham County was organized in 1726 he was appointed Clerk of the County Courts, and this office he held for a number of years. He was also a Justice of the Peace for some years prior to 1747. He was twice married-first, June 28, 1720, to Mary, daughter of John Gardiner, the third proprietor of Gard- iner's Island, and grandson of Lion Gardiner the original proprietor (1639) of the island. (For an in- teresting account of this island and its owners see an article by George Parsons Lathrop in The Century Magazine of December, 1885.) Mrs. Mary (Gardiner) Gray died July 27, 1726, and Dr. Gray was married, second, February 20, 1728, to Mrs. Mary Coit, widow of Thomas Coit of New London, Connecticut. Dr. Gray died at Windham September 8, 1773.
In 1752 Samuel Gray was appointed Clerk of the Windham County Court, and this office he held until his death. From 1754 until his death he was a Justice of the Peace in and for Windham County ; and in 1755 he succeeded his brother-in-law, Col. Eliphalet Dyer, as Town Clerk of Windham, in which office he continuously served for upwards of thirty years. In 1758 he was first elected to represent the town of Windham in the General Assembly of Connecticut, and between that year and 1770 he served a number of terms as Representative. For many years he was a Deacon of the Congregational Church at Wind- ham. He held the office of Clerk, or Secretary, of The Susquehanna Company until his death. He resided at Windham Green, the present post-village of Windham, and there he died August 3, 1787.
Samuel Gray was married at Windham November 7, 1742, to Lydia (born July 12, 1724; died July 3, 1790), third child of Col. Thomas and Lydia (Backus) Dyer, and they became the parents of three sons and three daughters.
Ebenezer Gray, eldest child of Samuel and Lydia (Dyer) Gray, was born at Windham July 26, 1743. He was graduated a Bachelor of Arts at Vale College in 1763, receiving in 1766 the degree of M. A .- which same degree was also conferred upon him by Dartmouth College in 1773. Having studied law with Mat- thew Griswold of Lyme, Connecticut-later, Governor of the State-he was admitted to the Bar. He was in Wyoming Valley in 1769 and 1770, active in advancing the settlements here, as will be shown in a sub- sequent chapter.
When, in April, 1775, news of the Lexington skirmish reached Windham County, a large number of the enrolled militia of the County assembled and offered to march to the assistance of their Massachusetts brethren. From these men three provisional companies were immediately organized and sent forward to Boston. Ebenezer Gray was a member of one of the companies, and two other members of the same company were Willjam Hovey of Mansfield and Elijah Lincoln. Hovey was a combmaker by trade, and while his company was in camp at Cambridge he made a large powder-horn which he gave to Ebenezer Gray. The latter carved upon the horn several devices, including a rude plan, or plot, of Boston and its suburbs, together with the following inscriptions : (1) "Ebenezer Gray, his horn. Made at Cambridge, 1775." (2) "Made by William Hovey of Mansfield." When, on May 1st, 1775, Ebenezer Gray was ap- pointed and commissioned a Secofid Lieutenant in the 3d Connecticut Regiment, commanded by Col. Israel Putnam, he gave his powder-horn to Elijah Lincoln, mentioned above. Lincoln used the horn through the siege of Boston and in all his service thereafter until the battle of Germantown, Pennsyl-
293
The Susquehanna Company having been, apparently, successfully launched, a second land company was organized in the Autumn and Winter of 1754 by a large number of the inhabitants of Connecticut, many of whom were members also of the first-mentioned company. This new organization was named "The Delaware Company," but it soon became generally known as "The Connecticut Delaware Company." Its agents bought, with slight formality, the title of the Delaware In- dians to all land lying between the Delaware River and the eastern bound- ary-line of The Susquehanna Company's purchase (to wit, a line ten miles east of the Susquehanna River), and bounded on the north by the forty-second parallel of latitude and on the south by the forty-first parallel .*
The deed passing the Indian title to this large extent of territory -nearly the whole of the north-eastern section of the present State of Pennsylvania-was executed May 6, 1755, by sixteen "sachems and chiefs of the ancient tribe and nation of Indians called Ninnepauws, otherwise known by the name of Delaware Indians." These grantors-whose names are all unfamiliar-were, without doubt, members of the Minsi, or Monsey, clan of the Delaware nation living along the upper waters of the river. The deed purports to have been executed at the nation's "headquarters upon Delaware River." The consideration named in the deed is 500 Spanish milled dollars and. certain English goods valued at about 3,000 dollars. The names of the grantees number about 500, and the first name in the list is that of the Hon. Hezekiah Huntington,
vania, when, in the course of the fighting, the horn was torn from the strap, or cord, by which it was suspended, and was lost to its owner. In July, 1841, the Germantown Telegraph described the finding of this horn, nearly sixty-four years after its loss. It was found two or more feet under ground, when a grave was being excavated "in the burial-ground atttached to the new Lutheran Church" of Germantown. Ebenezer Gray served through the siege of Boston. Jannary 1, 1776, he was commissioned First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the Connecticut regiment commanded by John Durkee (see Chapter VIII), and with his regiment marched to New York, where, August 31, 1776, Brig. Gen. Samuel H. Parsons appointed him Brigade Major. January 1, 1777, he was promoted Major of the 6th Regiment, Connecticut Line, and October 15, 1778, he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of the 7th Regiment, Connecticut Line. He continued in service until June, 1783, when he returned to Windham and resumed the practice of law. He was an early member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Colonel Gray was married March 30, 1786, to Sarah Standiford. He died June 18, 1795, and she died in 1835. Their children were: (i) Ebenezer, born May 16, 1787 ; graduated at Yale College in 1805 ; died in 1844. (ii) Charlotte, born March 9, 1789 ; was married to Thomas Lynch, a native of Ireland, and became the mother of Anne C. Lynch, a poetess and writer, who became the wife of Professor Botta, the historian. (iii) Samuel, born 1792; died 1836.
Mary Gray, the second child of Samuel and Lydia (Dyer) Gray, was born at Windham October 14, 1744, and July 17, 1764, was married to the Rev. Enoch Huntington (born in Windhani December 15, 1739). son of Nathaniel, of Norwich, a descendant in the fourth generation of the original Simon Huntington, mentioned on page 281. Enoch Huntington was graduated at Yale College in1 1759, and from 1780 to 1808 was a Fellow of the College Corporation, and its Secretary from 1788 to 1793. On the death of President Stiles of Yale in 1795 Mr. Huntington was spoken of as his successor, but ill health compelled him to decline the honor. Having been installed pastor of the First Congregational Church of Middletown, Con- necticut, Jannary 6, 1762, he spent there the remainder of his life-dying June 12, 1809. His wife died December 15, 1803. They were the parents of six children, the eldest of whom was Enoch Huntington, born October 19, 1767 ; graduated at Yale College with high honors in 1785; married November 6, 1791, to Sarah Ward ; died in 1826. The fourth child of the last-mentioned Enoch was the Rev. Enoch Hunt- ington, Jr., who in 1825 became Rector of St Stephen's Episcopal Church, Wilkes-Barré. (For his por- trait, and a sketch of his life, see Chapter XXX.)
Samuel Gray, Jr., fifth child of Samuel and Lydia (Dyer) Gray, was born at Windham June 21, 1751. In 1769 and '70 he was a student in the school of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock at Lebanon Crank, Connecti- cut, and in the year last mentioned he accompanied Dr. Wheelock and a cavalcade of forty or fifty students through the wilderness to Hanover, New Hampshire, where they cut away the trees, erected a building and established Dartmouth College. Samuel Gray. Jr., was one of the four young men composing the first class graduated at this institution, August 28, 1771, as Bachelors of Arts. In1 1774 Mr. Gray received from his Alma Mater the honorary degree of M. A., and in 1775 he received the same degree fromn Vale College. In December, 1775, he was appointed an Assistant Commissary under Col. Joseph Trumbull, Commissary General of Issues of the Continental Army. He was at Cambridge with the army, and ac- companied it to New York. When Colonel Trumbull (a sketch of whom will be found in a subsequent chapter) resigned his office, Samuel Gray, Jr., was commissioned by Congress, in July, 1777, Deputy Com- missary General of Issues for the Eastern Department, and in this office he served under Col. Charles Stewart, Commissary General (see Chapter VII for his portrait and a sketch of his life), till near the close of the war. In 1779 he was stationed at Windham. Upon the decease of his father he was appointed Clerk of the Windham County Courts, and held the office for almost forty years. Samuel Gray, Jr., was married at Windham July 2, 1788, to Charlotte (born October 26, 1764), daughter of Col. Jedidiah Elderkin -whose portrait, and a sketch of whose life, will be found in Chapter V. Samuel Gray, Jr., died at Wind- ham December 13, 1836, and his wife died there December 13, 1797. They were the parents of three children.
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.