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 55
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The treaty was formally opened on the 28th. Teedyuscung declared that he had been appointed by ten nations-ineaning the Six Nations and those who were then collected at Tioga-"a King, or Sachem, to transact public business, and that whatsoever he did in these conferences
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, II : 714, 722.
+ See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, II : 724.
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would be ratified by the Six Nations, who knew and were consenting to his coming, and were waiting with patience to hear what reception he and his people should find from Onas." He said further :
"Hearken to what I say. Abundance of confusion, disorder and distraction have arisen among Indians from people taking upon them to be kings and persons of authority. With every tribe of Indians there have been such pretenders who have held treaties- sometimes public, sometimes in the bushes. Sometimes what they did was come to be known, but frequently remained in darkness. To some they held up their belts, but others never saw them. This bred among the Indians heart-burnings and quarrels, and I can assure you that the present clouds do in a great measure owe their rise to this wild and irregular way of doing business, and the Indians will have no more transactions in the dark. * At the very time Newcastle came with your last message I was in treaty with the Six Nations, and received from thein this authority [exhibiting a large "Peace- belt"]. This belt denotes that the Six Nations, by their chiefs, have lately renewed their covenant chains with us. Formerly we were accounted women, and employed only in women's business ; but now they have made men of us, and as such we are now come to this treaty, having authority as a man to make peace."
Captain Newcastle then explained that Teedyuscung had brought this belt with him from the Council of the Six Nations to the Dela- wares gathered at Tioga early in July, with this message* :
"Cousins the Delawares-You will remember that you are our women ; our fore- fathers made you so, and put a petticoat on yon and charged you to be true to us and live with no other man. But of late you have suffered the string that tied your petticoat to be cut loose by the French, and you lay with them and so became a common bawd, in which you did very wrong and deserve chastisement. But notwithstanding this we will still esteem you ; and as you have thrown off the cover of your modesty and become stark naked, which is a shame for a woman, we now *
* * advise yon not to act as a man yet, but be first instructed by us and do as we bid you, and you will become a noted 111a11." .
The King then explained the meaning and significance of the belt in his hand-which he purposed to present to the Governor-which was to the effect that the square figure in the middle of it stood for the lands of the Indians ; the figure of a man at one end of the belt indicated the English, while the figure at the other end indicated the French. "Our uncles told us," said Teedyuscung, "that both of these coveted our lands." Newcastle advised the Governor to accept this belt without hesitation, and at the same time urged the propriety of returning another by way of response. "The King," he proceeded, "will want abundance of wampum, and if he has it not the cause will suffer." The Governor, the civil and military officers present and the Indians thien adjourned to an elaborate feast. Teedyuscung was so pleased with his reception and generous entertainment that, while at dinner, he declared in the warmest manner no endeavors of his should be wanting to promote the good work of peace. After dinner the Philadelphia Quakers came to bid him farewell, and he "parted with them in an affectionate manner." Later, he gave an account of his journey to Fort Niagara. The next day the Governor, taking up two belts of wampum joined together, addressed Newcastle and Teedyuscung and declared them to be messengers of peace for the Province of Pennsylvania in negotiations with the hostile Indians.
May 18, 1756, after a year of open hostility, England had formally declared war against France. The King's proclamation relative to this declaration was first published in Pennsylvania at Easton on Friday, July 30th, during the progress of the Indian treaty. The First Bat- talion of the Pennsylvania Regiment (in command of Lieutenant Colonel Weiser), formed in three divisions, the Governor, the members of the Council, other officials, the Indians and a considerable body of citizens
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VII : 218.
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assembled in the open air to listen to the reading of the proclamation. It was not published in Philadelphia until August.
The results of the Easton treaty, which was closed on Saturday, July 31st, were not definitive, although Teedyuscung gave the assurance that he would exert himself faithfully and to the utmost of his ability in the service of the Province, and that he would do all in his power "to perfect a general peace with the Indians." But, instead of repairing immediately to the Indian country, the King and his retinue journeyed as far only as Fort Allen (New Gnadenhütten). The Captain command- ing the fort was in Philadelphia, and a certain Lieutenant Miller was in charge. Teedyuscung had sixteen deer-skins which he said he was going to present to the Governor, but Miller, by a liberal use of rum, secured the entire number of skins for £3. Newcastle, in disgust, left the fort and went to Philadelphia, but Teedyuscung remained behind, demand- ing more rum, which Miller freely gave him from the Provincial sup- ply. The King and his company continued at Fort Allen, almost con- stantly drunk and obstreperous and frequently expressing themselves in terms inconsistent with their professions made at Easton. Finally, on August 21st, they set out for the Minisinks, the King purposing to put a stop to the Indian depredations which were being committed there. Elizabeth, the wife of Teedyuscung, accompanied by her three young children, went to Bethlehem to stay, being unwilling to accompany the King on his expedition. From the Minisinks the King and his party came to Wyoming, and then proceeded up the river to Tioga.
In the meantime, at Philadelphia, on the 20th of August, Capt. William Denny had succeeded Robert Hunter Morris* as Lieutenant Governor of the Province. The Proprietaries, desiring to be represented by a "military inan with a ready pen," had issued their commission on the 7th of May to Denny, who had been a Captain in the British army. The new Governor, as well as the Provincial Council, becoming appre- hensive that Teedyuscung was not sincere in his peace professions (and it being insinuated that the Easton conference was only a ruse on the part of the King to gain time), decided to send Captain Newcastle to the Six Nations "to inquire into the nature of the authorities he [Tee- dyuscung] said he had received from them, and to learn his character and in what esteem he was with them and how far the several matters mentioned by him in the conferences were to be depended on."+ New- castle being willing to go on this mission was sent via New York City and Albany, bearing letters to Sir Charles Hardy, Governor of New York, and to Sir William Johnson. In due time Newcastle returned to Philadelphia and reported to the Governor that he had had an interview with "Canyase, a Mohawk chief, one of the principal councilors of the Six Nations, who has [had] a regard for Pennsylvania." Canyase said to Newcastle# :
* ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS was born at Morrisania, New York, about 1700, the son of Lewis Morris who was Chief Justice of New York and New Jersey for several years, and Governor of New Jersey from 1738 to 1746. R. H. Morris was Chief Justice of New Jersey from 1738 until his death-it having been decided that his commission "conferred a freehold in the office, and that nothing had been shown to divest him thereof." It was during a part of this period that he held the office of Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. "He was comely in appearance, graceful in manners and of a most imposing presence. Benjamin Franklin said 'he was eloquent, an acute sophister and, therefore, generally successful in argumentative conversation.' " He was an uncle of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and also of Gouverneur Morris, sometime United States Minister to France. He died at Shrewsbury, New Jersey, January 27, 1764.
See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VII : 222, and "Documentary History of the Colony of New York," VII : 197.
# See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VII : 297.
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"Teedyuscung, on behalf of the Delawares, applied to me as Chief of the Six Nations. I told him that the Delawares were women and always treated as such by the Six Nations ; that the Delawares were the most nearly related to the Mohawks, who had given the Delawares protection and had permitted them to sit down and enjoy peaceably the lands on which they were seated. We, the Mohawks, are men ; we are inade so from above. But the Delawares are women and under our protection, and of too low a kind to be mnen ; and we have observed you, the Delawares, have suffered your petticoats to be cut away by strangers, and are running about naked and doing things that do not become you in the condition you know you are in, subject to us. We have seen you in all your proceedings, and do not approve your conduct. Since you have been so foolish as to obey that stranger's voice and cut off your petticoats, and have taken the tomahawk and now appear in the character of a Man, I join and help to cut off your petticoats, and so far make a Man of you-but do not put a tomahawk in your hand. I know what is for your good, and therefore I will not allow you to carry a tomahawk."
On the 10th of September Governor Denny ordered a further sus- pension of hostilities against the Indians on the east side of the Susque- hanna. A month later Major Parsons wrote* fromn Easton to the Gov- ernor that nine Indian men and one Indian woman with four white prisoners (one of whom was Henry Hess, mentioned on page 333) had arrived at Easton, sent on from Wyoming by Teedyuscung, who, with four other chiefs and a great number of Indians, had arrived there from up the river. The King sent word that he desired to have his wife and children (who were still at Bethlehem) sent to him. Major Parsons pro- ceeded to Bethlehem with some of the Indians and made known the King's desire to his wife, but she decided to remain where she was. Seven of the Indians who had arrived at Easton with the prisoners told Parsons that they "were not subjects of Teedyuscung, but were Mini- sinks [Monseys], of a different tribe, and had come to visit their Brethren and Sisters who were at Bethlehem, and desired to pass."
Near the end of October Governor Denny was notified that "Tee- dyuscung the Indian King," John Pompshire and some twenty-five or thirty more Indians-including one Mohawk and two Cayuga chiefs- had arrived at Easton, and that one hundred more Indians, formning a part of the King's retime, had remained behind, "at a little distance from Fort Allen, with design to see what reception their chief met with." The Governor sent Colonel Weiser to Easton, who met and greeted the Indians in behalf of the Governor, saying, among other things, as he presented Teedyuscung with a string of wampum : "By this he [the Governor] ordered ine to wipe off the sweat from your body, occasioned by your long journey, and that it should serve you as a dose of physic, which will act as a vomit to clear your body from that distemper usually occasioned from eating poisoned herbs or roots, and which causes the overflowing of the gall." Weiser concluded by inviting Teedyuscung to proceed to Philadelphia to meet the Governor, but the King refused to go and sent this message :
"Brother, you remember very well that in time of darkness and danger I came in here at your invitation. At Easton we kindled a small council-fire. * If you should put out this little fire our enemies will call it only a Jack-a-lantern, kindled on purpose to deceive those who approach it. Brother, I think it by no means advisable to put out this little fire, but rather to put more sticks upon it ; and I desire that you will come to it as soon as possible, bringing your old and wise men along with you, and I shall be very glad to see you here."
"The Governor was highly incensed over Teedyuscung's attitude and declared to his Council that it was ridiculous to humor the Indians, and that 110 treaty should be held outside of Philadelphia. Weiser's con- fidential letters about this time were in no way complimentary to the
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VII : 284.
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Governor. The Friends sent a memorial to Denny, begging him to finish the peace which Governor Morris had commenced, and offering to furnish a liberal present and asking permission to attend the treaty. The Governor, on condition that a heavy guard [should] attend him and be constantly around him at Easton, concluded to go. He accepted the Indian present from the Friends, and granted them permission to attend the treaty. Just before the Governor reached Easton it was rumored that the Indians whoin Teedyuscung had left near Fort Allen were bent on some treachery. Israel Pemberton, the leader of the Quaker delega- tion at Easton, went out immediately to investigate the report and allay the Governor's fears."*
The treaty was formally opened at Easton on Monday, November Sth. At three o'clock in the afternoon the Governor marched from his lodgings to the place of conference, attended by the imembers of the Council and by the Commissioners, and "guarded by a party of the 'Royal Americans't in front and on the flanks, and a detachment of Colonel Weiser's Provincials in subdivisions in the rear-with colors fly- ing, drums beating and music playing ; which order was always observed in going to and returning from the place of conference." Besides the Gov- ernor, Secretary Richard Peters, Commissioners Benjamin Franklin and John Hughes, and other officials of the Province, there were present at the opening conference : Colonel Weiser, Major Parsons and three other officers of the Provincial forces, Lieutenant McAlpin and Ensign Jeff- reys, recruiting officers of the "Royal Americans," Teedyuscung, four chiefs of the Six Nations, sixteen Delawares, two Shawanese and six Mohegans. John Pompshire, the Jersey Delaware, acted as interpreter for Teedyuscung, who opened the conference by stating that he had kept the promise made by him at the last treaty, having since then in- formed all the Indian nations of the disposition of the English for peace. On being asked by the Governor whether he, the Governor, or the Province had ever wronged him, and why he and his Indians had struck the English, Teedyuscung proceeded to state that the false-hearted French King had tampered with the foolish young men of his people ; but they had taken
* Walton's "Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania," page 340.
+ In the Spring of 1756 King George II of England, enabled by Act of Parlia- ment, appointed a number of German, Swiss and Dutch Protestants, who had served as officers or engineers, to be officers of a regiment which was to be called the "Royal American Regiment." These officers embarked for America, to assist in enlisting and commanding such of the "foreign Protestants in North America as should be able and willing to serve with the rest of the forces-it being repre- sented that a number of the foreign settlers in America might be more willing to enter the service if they were commanded by officers of their own country."
The original "Colonel-commandant of the First Battalion" of this regiment was JOHN STANWIX. He was born about 1690, and entering the English army at the age of sixteen years soon became Adjutant of his regiment. In January, 1741, he was commissioned Major in one of the new "marine" regiments. October 4, 1745, he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of a regiment raised by Lord Granby on account of the Jacobite insurrection. In 1749 he was appointed Equerry to Frederick, Prince of Wales (father of him who was later King George III of England). In 1754 (the Prince of Wales having died) Colonel Stanwix was ap- pointed Deputy Quartermaster General. His commission as Colonel of the "Royal Americans" (designated on the Register of the War Office first as the 62d Foot, afterwards the 60th Foot, and now "The King's Royal Rifle Corps") was dated Jannary 1, 1756, and later in that year he was ordered to America. He was then about sixty-six years of age.
During the year 1757 Colonel Stanwix was on duty with his command at various points in Pennsylvania. In January, 1758, he was promoted Brigadier General and sent to Albany ; later being ordered to "Oneida Portage," where, under his directions, Fort Stanwix (see post) was built and named. In June, 1759. he was promoted Major General. In August, 1760, he returned to England, and in the following January was promoted Lieutenant General. In May. 1763, he was appointed Governor of the Isle of Wight, and in October, 1766, while on his way to London, the vessel on which he was a passenger was lost at sea.
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up the hatchet chiefly because the English liad defrauded them of their lands. He continued :
"I have not far to go for an instance. This very ground that is under mne ( striking it with his foot ) was my land and inheritance, and is taken from me by frand. When I say this ground, I mean all the land lying between Tohiccon Creek* and Wyoming on the River Susquehanna. I have not only been served so in this Government, but the same thing has been done to me as to several tracts in New Jersey, over the river. Two years ago, moreover, the Governor went to Albany to buy some land of the Six Nations, and described the purchase by points of the compass (which the Indians did not under- stand), including lands both upon the Juniata and the Susquehanna, which they did not intend to sell. When all these things were known to the Indians they declared they would no longer be friends to the English, who were trying to get all their country away from them."
Teedyuscung assured the Governor, however, that the Delawares were nevertheless glad to meet again their old friends the English, and to smoke the pipe of peace with them. He also hoped that justice would be done thein for all the injuries they had received. The Gov- ernor thereupon offering him redress, Teedyuscung closed the confer- ence by stating that he was not empowered to accept of it, but that he would meet the Governor at some future time, when he would lay be- fore him the extent of the grievances of the Delawares and they could treat for a settlement of all their disagreements and for a lasting peace. The council continued nine days, and Governor Denny appears to have conducted himself with so much tact and judgment as greatly to con- ciliate the good-will of the Indians. By his candid and ingenuous treat- ment of them he "put his hand into Teedyuscung's bosom, and was so successful as to draw out the secret which neither Sir William Johnson nor the Six Nations could do"-as some of the Mohawks afterwards expressed it; and "from that time it was generally known that one cause of the alienation of their [the Delawares] friendship was some injustice they had received, or supposed to be done thein, in the purchase of their lands."+ Relative to the speeches made by Teedyuscung dur- ing this conference Moses Tatemy said to Conrad Weisert :
"Everything had been agreed upon in the Indian council what should have been said. Teedyuscung had everything in his heart, what to say, before he came to Easton, and there his memory was refreshed ; but being too often overcome with strong liquor he spoke confused, though nothing that was wrong or false. He should have given an account of the differences that arose some time ago between the Delaware Minising Indians and the Mingoes [Six Nations], and should have told the Governor how the lat- ter have cheated the former out of a good deal of land on the River Delaware ; and that the Mingoes had abused the Delawares greatly in Philadelphia, some years before, as if the Delawares and Minising Indians were their dogs, etc."§
Early in December accounts were received by the Government which led to the belief that some of the Indians who had been at the Easton treaty had, on their way home therefrom, murdered certain white settlers on the frontiers-thus making it appear that Teedyus- cung's authority over those Indians was very doubtful. About the middle of January, 1757, George Croghan|| sent Joe Peepy and Lewis
* This was not the Tohiccon, or Tioga, River mentioned on page 34 and noted on the map facing page 320, but a small stream heading near the present Quakertown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and empty- ing into the Delaware fifteen iniles east of that place.
+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VII : 645.
§ See page 198.
Į See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VII : 432.
| GEORGE CROGHAN (previously mentioned in the notes on pages 207 and 214) was, next to Sir William Johnson, the most prominent figure among British Indian Agents during the period of the later French wars and the conspiracy of Pontiac. He was born in Ireland and educated at Dublin, and immigrated to America in 1741. Then, or a year or two later, he settled in Pennsylvania near John Harris' Ferry on the Susquehanna. For several years he was an Indian trader, and at the same time was employed ill public services for the Province. In 1753 he settled at Anghwick, in what is now Huntingdon County. In 1755 he was commissioned Captain in the Provincial service. This office he resigned in 1756, and there- upon retired from the service of Pennsylvania. He then went to New York, where Sir William Johnson appointed him one of his deputies in the Indian service, with the rank of Colonel. "When he pre-
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Montour, previously mentioned, with a message to the Susquehanna Indians inviting them to attend a council, or treaty, at Lancaster, Penn- sylvania. Peepy and Montour delivered the message to the Indians assembled in council at Tioga, and immediately two messengers were despatched thence to the Ohio to inform the Delawares and Shawanese there of the proposed Lancaster ineeting, and to desire some of them to come to it ; but if none should choose to come, then these messengers were to insist that none of the Ohio Delawares and Shawanese should come to war against the English till this meeting was over. Upon their return from Tioga Peepy and Montour reported to Croghan "that all the Susquehanna Indians were disposed for peace except the Monseys, or Minisink Indians"; although the messengers believed that a number of those Indians would come down to the treaty with Teedyuscung.
On the 18th of February, 1757, Zaccheus, a Delaware Indian for- inerly of Gnadenhütten, arrived at Fort Allen, and on the following day seven Indian women and three children arrived there, all sent as mes- sengers from Tioga by Teedyuscung to announce to Governor Denny that he intended to come the next month to Easton to hold a treaty. Early in March Teedyuscung, with a large number of Delaware, Six Nation and Nanticoke Indians, who had come down the river from Tioga and beyond, arrived in the valley of Wyoming. After tarrying here a few days two of Teedyuscung's sons, his half-brothers Captain Harris and Sam Evans and several squaws and children-in all number- ing about fifty-set out for Fort Allen, where they arrived a few days later. Captain Arndt, the commandant of the fort, wrote Major Parsons under date of March 31st that these Indians had "built cabins about sixty perches from the fort, where they live and intend to stay till the King comes."* About the same time that the abovementioned band de- parted from the valley for Fort Allen, all the Six Nation Indians, the Nanticokes and a few Delawares of the company that had arrived in Wyoming with Teedyuscung, as previously mentioned, proceeded down the river to Fort Augusta, at Shamokin. On March 21st Governor Denny received informationt from Maj. James Burd, commanding the fort, that 150 Six Nation Indians had arrived there. These were mostly, wrote Major Burd, "Indians sent by Sir William Johnson to oblige the Dela- wares to lay down the hatchet, and to be present at the treaty proposed to be held between the Government and the Delawares." Teedyuscung, with a few of his retinue, remained at Wyoming for a time-as is sliown by the following extract from a letter written to Colonel Croghan by
sented himself to the Governor's Council in Philadelphia in December, 1756, the Council, knowing Mr. Croghan's circumstances, was not a little surprised at the appointment, and desired to see his credentials." Late in 1763 Colonel Croghan sailed for England on private business, but being shipwrecked off the coast of France did not reach his destination until February, 1764. Among the "Penn Manuscripts" men- tioned on page 30, ante, is the original draft of an affidavit prepared by Colonel Croghan some time after his arrival in England. It is, in part, as follows: "George Croghan of Cumberland County, Pennsyl- vania, Deputy Agent for Indian Affairs under Sir William Johnson, * * now residing in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, county of Middlesex, maketh oath : That he hath been resident in North America for twenty-three years next before his arrival in England, which was in the month of February last. That upon his first arrival in America he traded with the Six Nations and the other Indian tribes depend- ent upon and tributary to them, and was in such favor and confidence with the Council of the Six Nations that he was, in the year 1746, * * admitted by them to sit as a councilor in the Onondaga Council then sitting in Philadelphia-which is the Supreme Council of the Six Nations. * * That he understands the language of the Six Nations and of several other of the Indian Nations, and is acquainted with the manner in which the Six Nations dispose of their country and tracts of land." * *
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