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 46
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* For the territory included within these bounds see the "Map of a Part of Pennsylvania" in Chapter XI.
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mentioned on page 281. Another member was Capt. Robert Dixson (mentioned on page 251), who, in 1768, was a member of the Executive Committee of the Company. Shortly after the execution of this deed John Curtis, Asa Peabody and Joseph Skinner went upon the land (at Cushetunk-later Cochecton-in the present county of Wayne) and formally took possession for the body of grantees.
Tench Coxe, for some years Secretary of the Land Office of Penn- sylvania-and in his time one of the most energetic and tireless opposers of the "pretensions made upon the Pennsylvania lands by the unincor- porated Companies of Connecticut claimants"-wrote and published in May, 1801, a small pamphlet entitled "An Important Statement of · Facts." On page 15 is this paragraph :
"It is remarkable that the best-informed people of Connecticut and Pennsylvania do not furnish, or cannot procure, any evidences of the pretended Title, or Indian Deed, to 'The Delaware Company.' Even Colonel Franklin spoke of that Company's claim as of no value, before the Committee of the House of Representatives at the last session. Yet the impositions under it have been very gross, and not inconsiderable."
The original deed to The Delaware Company was recorded about the year 1782 in "Book No. 4," folio 668, &c., of the Public Records of Connecticut. There is also a MS. copy of it among the "Pickering Papers" (LVII : 21) mentioned on page 29, and a copy was printed, in part, in The Luzerne County Federalist (Wilkes-Barré), April 13, 1801.
CHAPTER V.
THE SUSQUEHANNA COMPANY STIRS UP A HORNET'S NEST-SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON AND THE SIX NATIONS-FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR- WYOMING TEMPORARILY DESERTED BY THE INDIANS- INDIAN CONGRESSES AND CONFERENCES IN PENNSYLVANIA -- THE DELAWARE INDIANS ESTABLISHED AT WYOMING.
"Smiling Peace, bound with victorious wreaths, 110 longer liolds sway over the once fair fields. Instead, grim-visaged War hatlı turned the merry meetings of the in- habitants into stern alarumis, their delightful measures into dreadful marches."
The agents and counselors of the Pennsylvania Proprietaries at Philadelphia were considerably excited and confounded by the various reports which they received from New York and New England relative to the doings and intentions of The Susquehanna Company. Some of these reports were rather confusing, as we have already shown, but nevertheless they contained sufficient indisputable testimony to the effect that the New Englanders were accomplishing, in a measure, what the Pennsylvanians had determined they should not be permitted to do.
In October, 1754, Conrad Weiser wrote to the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania as follows* :
"As to the Connecticut affair I am clear of opinion that by order of the Governor you should write to Hendrick, putting him in mind of his promise he made the Commis- sioners of this Province in Albany when he said he would come to us upon any occasion to advise with the Governor as in the presence of the Most High-that the Governor wants to see him in this critical time. Daniel Claus might come-he knows the way by land. If Hendrick refuses to come he may be suspected to have [had] a hand in it, and we must then act by Shikellimy and Jonathan, as secret as possible ; otherwise, Lydius and that wicked priest at Canajohariet will defeat our designs. I would advise in the meantime to have belts of wampum provided, and two or three belts all black. You will want a couple to send to the southward before long, and one must be made use of to demolish Lydius' proceeding. Mr. Claus must be ordered to keep everything relating to this affair as a secret, and to search very diligently whether Hendrick had any hand in signing the deed to the Connecticut people. If he had not, we shall succeed no doubt. He must have liberty to bring one or more Indians with him."
Following Weiser's suggestion, Gov. Robert Hunter Morris (who had succeeded Governor Hamilton a short time before) wrote to "King" Hendrick under date of November 15th, stating that it was necessary for him to have a private conference with the "King," and desiring the latter to make a visit to Philadelphia "in order to consult on some
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI : 248.
+ Miner (see "History of Wyoming." page 97) states that the person here referred to was the Rev. Jacob Johnson-mentioned on page 82, ante. This, for several reasons, is very doubtful.
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affairs in which the safety of the Indians and His Majesty's Colonies" were "very much concerned"! This letter was sent under cover to Daniel Claus, who was directed to consult with Col. William Johnson "as to when to deliver it, and what to say to Hendrick." At the same time Governor Morris wrote to Colonel Johnson as follows *:
"If Hendrick can be prevailed upon to come down, and shall have all these matters laid down properly before him, he would find out a method of laying the whole before the Six Nations, and preventing a settlement of these lands. Should he be told before- hand that this is the business that he is sent for, he may decline coming. For this reason it is thought best not to mention a word of this matter to Hendrick, but-inasmuch as when he took leave of the Commissioners [at Albany] he made this Government a tender of his services, and declared in a solemn manner that he would at any time come to Phila- delphia whenever the Governor should think it necessary to send for him-to write him a general letter, and leave it to you to give him what impression you please of this journey, and to persuade him to take it immediately."
From "Mount Johnson," under date of December 9, 1754, Colonel Johnsont wrote to Governor Morris as follows (see "Pennsylvania Colo- nial Records," VI : 268) :
*"Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI : 251, 252.
+ WILLIAM JOHNSON was born in 1715 at Warrenpoint, County Down, Ireland, son of Christopher and Anne ( War- ren) Johnson. Christopher Johnson, who was at that time a local magistrate for the bailiwick of Carlingford, had been from 1692 till 1708 an officer in a regiment of heavy cavalry known as Cadogan's Horse, and in a charge at Oudenarde was wounded in the leg and disabled by a French bullet. His wife, Anne Warren, was the daughter of a Commodore and the sister of an Admiral (Sir Peter Warren) in the British Navy.
William Johnson served for some time as a magistrate's clerk in his father's office, at the same time diligently study- ing law and history. He was listed for examination in the Spring of 1737 for admission to the Bar, but about that time a new field of work was thrown open to him by his uncle, Admiral Warren. The latter, whose home was then in the city of New York, had purchased some years previously, under a royal grant, a large tract of land in the valley of the Mohawk, west of Schenectady, New York. The settlements of the Palatines (see page 181) and the Holland Dutch were being pushed up the Mohawk Valley, so that by the year 1737 Admiral Warren's lands had become somewhat valuable and were worth looking after. Therefore young Johnson, then in the twenty-second year of his life, sailed for America late in the Summer of 1737 to act as the general agent of all his uncle's real estate interests in this country.
Sir Peter Warren's wife was Susannah, the daughter of Stephen De Lancey, one of the richest merchants in New York, and "the family held leadership in the most refined SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. From a portrait in the State Library, Albany, New York. and aristocratic society of the Colonial metropolis." A few years later Sir Peter was a citizen of considerable consequence in New York. He had then returned from Martinique, where he had captured many French and Spanish prizes with his squadron of sixteen sailing craft. These prizes were sold for him by De Lancey & Co., and netted him a considerable fortune, and it is said that "he bought his Greenwich farm of 300 acres with a part of the money." The present Abingdon Square, with its little park, in the city of New York, is a memento of Warren's Greenwich farm-the eldest of Sir Peter's three daughters having married the Earl of Abingdon, for whom the square was named.
William Johnson spent the Winter of 1737-'38 with his aunt in New York, but as soon as navigation was opened in the Hudson River in the Spring of 1738 he sailed with a sloop-load of stores and imple- ments and several mechanics for Albany. Thence the party journeyed overland with their material to a point near the mouth of Schoharie Creek, where, on Sir Peter Warren's land, they founded a settlement which became known as "Warrensburg" and as "Warrensbush." Here William Johnson passed five years. In 1741, however, he purchased a tract of land lying north of the Mohawk River and comprising several thousand acres-upon a portion of which part of the present city of Amsterdam stands. He. at once began building upon this tract a substantial stone house (still standing, about one mile west of Amsterdam), which subsequently became known as "Mount Johnson," and later as "Fort Johnson." To this mansion he removed from Warrensbush in the Spring of 1743, with his wife Katharine (née Weisen- burg), to whom he had been married in 1739, and their two children-Anne, born in 1740, and John, born in 1742. In 1744 a third child-Mary-was born.
With his removal to Mount Johnson the active and effective public career of William Johnson may be said to have begun. In the Autumn of 1743 he was appointed by Governor Clinton to fill a vacancy on the Board of Indian Commissioners, caused by the resignation of Col. Peter Schuyler ; and about the same time he was appointed Colonel of a militia regiment. In April, 1745, he was commissioned a magis- trate for the district in which he lived.
In 1744 he established an Indian trading-post on the Susquehanna opposite the village of Oghwaga, mentioned in the foot-note on page 257. When he applied to Governor Clinton for a license he said : "I wish to create this trading-post not any more for the profits it may bring to me than to show by actual example that trade with the Indians can be conducted honestly as well as any other commercial business." This post was maintained for a number of years, being managed for the owner by agents, and a large vol- time of very profitable business was transacted.
In September, 1746, Colonel Johnson was appointed Sole Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Col- ony of New York, and about the same time was commissioned a Colonel ou the permanent establishment. In the Autumn of 1747 preparations were made in the northern Colonies for an expedition against Canada
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in the ensuing Spring. Sir William Pepperell was selected for commander-in-chief of the Provincial forces, and Colonel Johnson was to be second in command, besides being in immediate command of a brigade of Provincials and 1,000 Indians under "King" Hendrick. The frontier was strongly guarded during the Winter, and in February, 1748, Colonel Johnson took command of the whole line of frontier forts. By April it became known that the war was practically over, and in July news came that preliminary articles of peace had been signed. (See page 229.) The French evacuated Crown Point, the Indians on both sides buried the hatchet, and what was known as the "Okl French War," or "King George's War," was ended. Referring in 1755 to this war "King" Hendrick said : "During the time of the last war Colonel Johnson prevailed on nis, and we listened to him. He was our Captain when no others did anything. He alone persuaded us, and we obeyed him and engaged in war against the French. We put ourselves under his protection. He promised to live and die with us." ("Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI : 281.)
In 1746 Colonel Johnson was invested by the Mohawks with the rank of a chief of that nation, the Indian name of " l'arragh-i-ya-gey" was bestowed upon him and he was given a seat in the "Long House" at the Grand Councils of the Iroquois Confederacy. Not long afterwards, dressed in full Indian costume, he led the Mohawk tribe to a council, or conference, at Albany. He frequently accompanied the Iroquois deputies who went to Albany to transact business with the Government, and on all occasions he paid the utmost deference to the ancient ceremonial forms observed by the Indians in transacting public business. He received at his mansion with great ceremony the delegates from various tribes, listened to them patiently and answered them carefully : made them liberal presents, and ordered every attention to be paid to their personal wants. No Indian who came to him ever went away hungry or in want, and no one ever complained that he had not received an audience. He sent formal messages to the head men of the Six Nations desiring their attendance at Mount Johnson whenever occasion required it. This careful attention greatly pleased the Indians. Distance was immaterial to him, as he found it was nothing to them. "No one," states Schoolcraft, "can peruse the history of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland or Virginia-nay, even of the States farther south-from the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury to the era of the Revolutionary War, without observing how intimately the Indian policy of these Colonies was connected with the Iroquois supremacy, and how completely Sir William [Johnson] con- trolled it through a well-established system of subordinates."
The Rev. Gideon Hawley, in his account of his journey to Oghwaga in 1753 (mentioned on page 257, ante), refers to a visit he and his companions made to Colonel Johnson. "Friday," he wrote, "we left Albany for Mount Johnson, about thirty-six miles off, on the Mohawk River, to pay our compliments to Colonel Johnson and obtain his countenance in favor of our mission. At sunset we were politely received by Colonel Johnson himself at his gate. Here we lodged. His mansion was stately, and situate a little distance from the river, on rising ground, and adjacent to a stream which turned his mill." Dr. Eleazar Wheelock, sometime President of Dartmouth College, writing of Colonel Johnson's life about this period, said : "I have seen at Mount Johnson, and also at Johnson Hall, sixty to eighty Indians at one time lodg- ing under tents on the lawn, and taking their meals from tables made of pine boards spread under the trees. They were delegations from all the Iroquois tribes, come to pow-wow with their great white brother. "They say,' said the Baronet to me once, 'that it is not right or fair that I should be Superin- tendent over the Indians and an Indian trader at the same time. Why, bless me, Doctor, my profits from the Indian trade do not reimburse me for my outlay in entertaining these delegations.' "
A writer in The Gentleman's Magazine (London), in 1755, said of Colonel Johnson : "Besides his skill and experience as an officer, he is particularly happy in making himself beloved by all sorts of people, and can conform to all companies and conversations. He is very much the fine gentleman in genteel company ; but as the inhabitants next to him are mostly Dutch, he sits down with them and smokes his tobacco. drinks flip and talks of improvements, bear- and beaver-skins. Being surrounded with Indians he speaks several of their languages well, and has always some of them with him. He takes care of their wives and old Indians, when they go out on parties, and even wears their dress. In short, hy his honest dealings with them in trade, and his courage-which has often been successfully tried with them-and his courteous behavior, he has so endeared himself to them that they chose him one of their chief Sachems, or Princes, and esteem him as their father."
By the Autumn of 1754 the French and Indian War (referred to on page 261) was well under way, although a formal declaration of war was not made by England until May, 1756. In February, 1755, Maj. Gen. Sir Edward Braddock arrived in this country as commander-in-chief of all the British forces in North America-regular, Provincial and Indian. Within less than a month after his arrival he, in the name and by the authority of King George, appointed to the important post of "General Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the whole of British North America," Col. William Johnson, who, some four years previously, had resigned the office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs in New York. At the same time General Braddock outlined the plans for an expedition for the reduction of Fort St. Frédéric, or Crown Point, then the southernmost fortress of the French on the New York frontier, and as commander-in- chief of this expedition he appointed Williant Johnson, with the rank of Major General. On the 9th of July. following, occurred Braddock's disastrous defeat in western Pennsylvania.
The campaign against Crown Point was begun early in August by the building and garrisoning of Fort Edward, and on September 8th the battle of Lake George was fought. (See pages 264. 269 and 281.) Although this battle was won by the English, General Jolinson advanced no farther against Crown Point, but contented himself with building Fort William Henry on the site of his camp. As soon as the news of the battle of Lake George reached England King George created General Johnson a baronet of the hered- itary class, and promoted him to the rank of Major General in the British Regular Army, on the Colonial establishment, while Parliament voted him a gratuity of £5,000. He was censured, however, for not pur- suing the enemy and capturing Crown Point. The victory at Lake George was the turning point in the ascendency of the British influence with the Iroquois and their allies, which had been at a very low ebb at the beginning of the Old French War in 1744; and the fame which followed this victory aided greatly in raising Sir William Johnson in the estimation of the Indians. From this date the Indian political hori- zon in New York began to brighten.
In the Summer of 1756 a royal commission was issued to Sir William Johnson appointing him "Agent and Sole Superintendent of the Six Nations and all other Indians inhabiting British territory north of the Carolinas and the Ohio River" ; and at the same time orders were issued "forbidding any Colonial Gov- ernor to transact any business with the Indians or hold any communication with them except through Sir William Johnson."
At the beginning of 1758 a powerful French armament at Louisbourg on Cape Breton threatened the New England Colonies, and there was a call for men to defend them. In May an expedition under com- mand of Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst was sent to attack Louisbourg, and at the same time an army under General Abercrombie and Lord Howe set out to capture from the French Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The French forces were widely distributed, of necessity, since the frontier to be guarded was so vast, but the three points of greatest strategic importance were Louisbourg on the east, Fort Niagara on the west and Fort Ticonderoga in the center. Early in July Abercrombie was defeated at Ticonderoga -losing 2,000 men and retiring almost as if in flight ; but on the 25th of the same month Louisbourg was surrendered to Amherst, who, a few months later, became commander-in-chief of all the British forces in North America.
During the Winter of 1758-'59 General Amherst matured plans for a comprehensive invasion of Canada. It was proposed to attack the French in all of their strong posts at once ; to fall as nearly as possible at the same time upon Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara and the forts to the south of Lake Erie, while a great naval armament and a considerable body of land forces should attempt the capture of Quebec. General Amherst was himself to lead the attack upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point : for the command
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of the expedition against Quebec Gen. James Wolfe was selected, while Gen. John Prideaux was appointed to the command of the Niagara expedition, with Sir William Johnson second in command. Fort Niagara was regarded at this time as the most important post in America, for the reason that it secured the great- est number of communications. It was located on the eastern bank of the Niagara River, at the very entrance of the river into Lake Ontario. The original fort at this point consisted of "a stockade and
Niagara River.
ONTARIO
LAKE
AVIEW of NIAGARA FORT, taken Byje Sir William Johnson, on the most of July 1759' .. Crown mit Hit ·Spot- in - 1758.
FORT NIAGARA IN 1758. Photo-reproduction of an old print. .
cabins" erected in the latter part of the seventeenth century by French troops under the command of the Marquis de Denonville. The stockade had "four bastions," upon which were mounted "two great guns and some pattareras." (For the locations of Fort Niagara and Fort St. Frédéric, and for a ground-plan of the latter, see the map on page 33.)
The force sent against Fort Niagara consisted of 3,000 white troops and 980 Indians-the latter being directly under the command of Sir William Johnson. (See "Jean Montour," page 206, ante.) The siege of Niagara was begun on July 7th, 1759, and twelve days later General Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a shell ; whereupon the chief command devolved upon Sir William Johnson. On the 24th of July a severe engagement between the French and English took place at some distance from the fort, resulting in the defeat of the French, and on the following day Fort Niagara, with its garrison of 618 men, was surrendered to Sir William. In the meantime, on July 7th, Fort Ticonderoga had been abandoned by the French and taken possession of by General Amherst, who, on the 14th of August, also gained possession of Crown Point.
August 10, 1760, General Amherst set out from Oswego, New York, with an army of 6,000 Provincials, 4,000 British Regulars and 1,350 Indians to make an attack upon Montreal. The Indians were under the command of Sir William Johnson, and composed the largest force of that race ever assembled on this continent up to that time. (See first paragraph of note on page 164.) On September 9th not only Mont- real, but "Canada, with all her dependencies," was surrendered to the Crown of Great Britain. This event practically terminated the war.
Having acquired a large tract of land a little distance north of the Mohawk River, Sir William John- son built thereon in 1762 a manor-house to which he gave the name of "Johnson Hall." It is still stand- ing, about four miles from the river and about eight miles from "Mount Johnson," near the present city of Johnstown-which he at the same time founded-and is, perhaps, one of the most historic buildings in the United States. Sir William moved into it in the Spring of 1763, leaving "Mount Johnson" and the estate connected with it in possession of his eldest son and heir-afterwards Sir John Johnson. "John- son Hall" was, in the time of its original owner, the most commodious and imposing edifice west of the Hudson River. It was the scene of many notable gatherings of distinguished people in the British service and famous chiefs of the Six Nations. Gideon Hawley referred to it in 1765 as "a very superb and elegant edifice, surrounded with little buildings for the accommodation of Indians when down upon treaties or conferences with Sir William." (See "Library of American Literature," III : 137, for "Sir William John- son's Baronial Hall.") Here, until his death, the baronet lived and exercised the duties of Superin- tendent of Indian Affairs for the District of North America. Intimately acquainted with the mental characteristics, the wants, the wishes and the fears of the Indians, he, as it were, with one hand wielded the power of government in keeping them in order and subjection to the laws, and, with the other, exer- cised the duties of a Mentor, in teaching them how to promote their own best interests.
Sir William Johnson, who, it is said, had had a presentiment of his death, died of cerebral apoplexy July 11, 1774, after only a few hours' illness. This was about seven months after the tea riot had taken place in Boston, and his admirers believe that had he lived a few years longer the course of the Revolu- tionary War in the Mohawk Valley would have been changed, and that lie would have been found side by side with Washington, enlisted in the cause of independence. "He disappeared from the scene of action at a critical period, when-to employ an Indian allegory-two thunder-clouds, black with anger, seemed rushing into conflict, leaving no one of sufficient capacity to cope with or control the storm." It is thought that Sir William's nature would have revolted at the bloody massacres of settlers at the hands of the red men and Tories, which were incited by his son, Sir John, and his nephew Col. Guy Johnson, together with the infamous John and Walter N. Butler. No other inan in this country, however, was under such great obligations to the King-obligations which, had Sir William lived until the breaking out of the
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