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 68
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The sum of £30 was appropriated "for laying out, opening and clearing a road to the Susquehanna lands." Timothy Woodbridge, John Smith, Increase Moseley, Job Randall and John Jenkins were appointed a committee "to oversee, determine and regulate, both with respect to the manner and conduct of settling the two first and eight last towns voted to be settled, as also all persons concerned as settlers with respect to their conduct therein." Mr. Woodbridge was appointed "to be Chief, or President, of said committee." Colonel Dyer accepted the appointment of Agent of the Company, and determined "to pursue
* See "Colonial Records of Connecticut," XII : 151.
+INCREASE MOSELEY, son of Increase and Sarah Moseley, was born at Norwich, New London County, Connecticut, May 18, 1712. In 1735 he was married to Deborah Tracy of Windham, and about 1738 or '39 they removed to that part of the town of Woodbury which later became the town of Washing- ton, in Litchfield County, Connecticut. He was the first Deacon of the Church established there in 1742. He was a Justice of the Peace and Justice of the Quorum in and for Litchfield County from 1755 till 1780, and a Representative in the General Assembly of Connecticut it 1751-'56, 1763-'67 and 1772-'84. In 1783 he was Assistant Clerk of the "Lower House" of the Assembly. During the French and Indian War he was a Captain in the Connecticut militia, and for awhile during the Revolutionary War held the office of Commissary. Some years after the War he removed to Clarendon, Vermont, where he died May 2, 1795. His son Increase-the third of the name, in direct succession-was a lawyer in Woodbury, and in 1762 was a Second Lieutenant in the Second Connecticut Regiment. He was Colonel of one of the Connecticut regiments in the Revolutionary War. 1)
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the business with all convenient speed"; whereupon it was "V'oted, That Col. Eliphalet Dyer, the Agent of the Company, be allowed the sum of €150 per year, with his expenses, as formerly voted; and that he be further allowed for all necessary extraordinary clothing and apparatus for liis proper appearance as Agent of this Company." And finally it was voted "that some proper, well-disposed person, or persons, be pro- cured by those persons (who shall undertake to settle on the Susque- hanna lands according to the above vote) in order to be as a head, or teacher, to carry on religious instruction and worship among those settlers-viz .: of such denomination as by any particular munber may be agreed upon ; and to be at the expense of those persons of such denomination as such person so procured shall be, until some further regulation can be had."
About the beginning of May, 1763, ten or twelve proprietors of The Susquehanna Company-some or all of whom had been at Wyoming in the previous Autumn-set out for the valley ; a few being accompanied by their wives and children. Excepting Parshall Terry, we are unable to give, with certainty, the names of those who composed that little band of hardy and venturesome immigrants. They arrived here about the 15th of May, and proceeded directly to the locality (near the mouth of Mill Creek) which they had previously occupied and begun to improve in a rude way. During their absence from the valley several interesting and important changes in local conditions had taken place. Teedyuscung the talker-resister and obstructionist-was dead ! While le was lying in a drunken stupor in his log house in the village of Wyoming, on April 19th, at dead of night, flames burst suddenly from the house, and soon it and all its contents-including the helpless King -were consuined. With reference to this occurrence Heckewelder (in his sketch of Teedyuscung mentioned on page 308, ante), after referring to the King's weakness for rum and stating that "this unfortunate pro- pensity is supposed to have been the cause of his cruel and untimely death," says :
"In the Spring of 1763, when the European nations had made peace, but the Indians were still at war, he [Teedyuscung] was burnt up, together with his house, as he was lying in his bed asleep. It was supposed, and believed by many who were pres- ent, that this event was not accidental, but had been inaturely resolved on by his enemies. whoever they were, and that the liquor which was brought to Wyoming at the time was intended by them for the purpose of enticing him to drink, that they might the more easily effect their purpose. A number of Indians were witnesses to the fact that the house was set on fire from the outside. Suspicion fell principally on the Mingoes, who were known to be jealous of him and fearful of his resentment if he should succeed in insinuating himself into the favor of the English, and making good terms with them for his nation."
Concerning the tragic end of Teedyuscung Reichel (in "Memorials of the Moravian Church," I : 226) makes the following statement :
"The Iroquois, it is said, were the instigators of this cowardly act, for they hated the inan who testified against their arrogant assumption and who opposed their huist of power. As long as he lived, therefore, he was a standing rebuke to their designing oppression, and although they no longer dreaded his arms, they feared his words, which left their guilty consciences no peace. Hence it was resolved in council that he ought not to live ; and when news was brought back to Onondaga that the lodge of the Dela- ware King and the lodges of his inen of war had disappeared in flames, the perfidious Six Nations triumphed in having destroyed an enemy whose spirit they had failed to subdue."
My own impression is that the death of Teedyuscung by fire was the accidental result of a drunken debauch. It has been shown, con- clusively, in the preceding pages, that for at least two years prior to his
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death he had been acting in harmony with the Six Nations. When he began to complain about the Cushetunk settlements and the intended invasion of Wyoming by the New Englanders, the leading men of the Six Nations espoused his cause, and they as well as Teedyuscung pro- tested on every opportune occasion against the on-coming whites. On this subject the Delawares and the Six Nations appear to have been in perfect harmony. Again, as we have seen, Wyoming was the stopping- place-the half-way station-for all Indians traveling from the head- waters of the Susquehanna to Philadelphia, Easton or Shamokin, or returning from those towns to their homes. Whenever sufficient fire- water of any kind was to be had during the visits of those stranger Indians to Wyoming, drunken frolics always took place, during which serious casualties were apt to (and usually did) occur. The incident of April 19, 1763, was one of them.
Not all the houses in the village of Wyoming were destroyed by the fire that consumed Teedyuscung and his house, nor did all the Indians who survived their King desert the village. When the New Englanders arrived in the valley in May, as previously related, they found a number of Delaware families still occupying their homes in the village. There were also a few families occupying wigwams on Jacob's Plains, at or near the site of Matchasaung; while in the Mohegan village, near the mnouth of Abraham's Creek, there were some two or three wigwams occupied-the majority of those who had dwelt there having departed from the valley shortly after the death of old Abraham at the beginning of the previous Winter.
Within a very few days after the advance party of Wyoming set- tlers had set out from Connecticut, Governor Fitch, of that Colony, received orders dated January 26, 1763, from Lord Egremont, the King's Secretary of State, "signifying it as His Majesty's pleasure that the Governor should use both authority and influence to prevent the prosecution of the settlement of the lands on the rivers Susquehanna and Delaware till the state of the case could be laid before the King." An announcement of this fact was made by various newspapers in Con- necticut, as well as by The New York Journal (in its issue of May 23, 1763). Governor Fitcli wrote to Sir William Johnson that in conse- quence of the communication received by him from England-with which he had "acquainted the principal gentlemen of the [Susque- hanna] Company"-those gentlemen had agreed to stop all proceedings towards a settlement, and acquiesce in the King's orders .*
It seems that the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania had, late in 1762, made up a case stated which they presented to Attorney General Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden) for an opinion as to the right of Connecticut to the territory certain of her citizens were claiming. That officer was clear in his opinion against Connecticut-holding that, by virtue of her adjustment of boundaries with New York, she was precluded from advancing a step beyond. It was upon this opinion that the King had based his orders.
A meeting of The Susquehanna Company was held at Hartford May 18, 1763 (at which place and time the General Assembly of Connec- ticut was in session), and the following resolution was adopted :
"Whereas, notwithstanding the utmost fairness and justice attending our late pur- chase of the Susquehanna lands, we became soon acquainted not only with Mr. Penn's * See Stone's "Poetry and History of Wyoming," page 394.
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claim and endeavor to create uneasiness among the Indians-which we had no reason to apprehend-but with his being about to make a prior entry thereon ; and having, as we supposed, reasonable assurance of said Indians' acquiescence, some time since voted and agreed to make seasonable and speedy entry thereon, and in the meantime to cultivate a most perfect harmony with them, and also to lay said affairs before His Majesty for final settlement and decision. And Whereas (whether by representation mistaken or un- friendly may be uncertain) His Majesty has been induced to inhibit all entries on said land by any party or person soever, till due inquiry be made into the state of the matter, * * we do thereupon Vote, That 110 person belonging to the Company shall make any settlement, or enter upon, any of the Company's lands until the state of the case shall be laid before the King, and His Majesty's pleasure be known."
The Company then adjourned, not to meet again (so far as is dis- closed by its written records) for twenty months.
Under date of June 6, 1763, Sir William Johnson wrote to Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst as follows *:
"A few days before May 18th four deputies of the Six Nations arrived here [Johnson Hall], charged with a message and several belts of wampum to the Governor of Connecticut, to desire he would cause his people to desist from the settlement on the Susquehanna River. They desired that some Mohawks should accompany them, as also that I should send a Deputy with them to take care of them on the road and prevent imposition."
Sir William sent with these deputies his son-in-law, Lieut. Guy Jolinson (mentioned on page 300), William Printup, an interpreter, and Toquerole, a Mohawk chief. The four Six Nation deputies were : Sogheres and Oghsegwarona, of the Cayuga nation, and Sayenquer- aghta (mentioned on pages 235 and 379) and Toguascantha, of the Seneca nation.t Sayenqueraghta had, only a short time before this, succeeded Takeghsatu (mentioned on pages 277 and 379) as chief sachem of the Senecas. It will be recalled that the Senecas were at this period the particular friends of the Delawares; that only one Seneca chief (Kahiktoton) had signed the deed conveying the Wyoming lands to The Susquehanna Company, and he was now dead ; that only one chief of the Cayugas had signed that deed.
The deputies and their associates proceeded from Johnson Hall to Hartford, where they arrived about the 25th of May. The General Assembly of Connecticut was still in session there, and on Saturday, May 28th, Governor Fitch held a public conference with the Six Nation deputies in the Council Chamber of the State House. Besides the Governor, the Indians, Lieutenant Johnson and Printup, the interpreter, there were present many members of both Houses of the Assembly. among whom were the following prominent and active proprietors of The Susquehanna Company : Judge Daniel Edwards, Col. Eliphalet Dyer, Col. Hezekiah Huntington, Col. Samuel Talcott, Samuel Gray, Esq. (Clerk of the Company) and William Williams, Esq. An account of this conference was printed in The New York Gazette of July 18, 1763, and from it the following paragraphs have been taken.
"The deputies, after being taken by the hand and bid welcome into the Govern- inent, seated themselves. Sayenqueraghta then arose and delivered a speech, which from the interpreter was taken as followeth, viz .: 'We heard grievous news this Winter, that you were about to come with 300 families to settle on our lands, which was very astonishing to us ; and that you designed to build forts and strong places on our lands. For that reason our sachems considered upon it, and have sent us down to this place. We are come down here to acquaint you with what news we hear-that you have got a design to settle on the Susquehanna River, and claim the land to the West Seas. We have heretofore given away lands to the white people, but of the sale of this land the Six Nations know nothing-either that they have ever given it away or sold it to any ; and
* See "Documentary History of New York," VII : 522.
+ The newspapers of that day, in which were printed reports of the conference held at Hartford by Governor Fitch with these Indians, erroneously referred to the Seneca deputies as Onondagas. Stone in his "Poetry and History of Wyoming," has made the same mistake.
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what little we have left we intend to keep for ourselves. We know not of any such sale, and if any such thing has been asked, it must have been done by particular persons in a separate manner, and not in any General Meeting, or Council, of the Six Nations-as has been the usual manner of their giving or selling their lands.
" 'Brothers, our custom is not to keep anything secret. We have heard that one Lydius, at Albany, has endeavored to purchase some land at Susquehanna, and (it is not the manner of the Six Nations to keep anything in reserve) he was up among the Six Nations to obtain a sale, but could not obtain it ; but we have heard that he has since got a deed from the Indians, which he obtained from them singly, or one by one, and that from stragglers and such as we know nothing of. We have often sold lands to the white people, but then it was done by the consent of the whole, in some General Meeting-and this is land which we have reserved for ourselves, as we have little left. * * * " 'We have been told that Lydius has reported that he paid a great deal of money for this land, which we know nothing of. * * * Brothers, seriously take into con- sideration, and think how you would like it to have lands taken from you in an unfair and injurious manner. You are a praying people, better acquainted with books and learning than we, and must needs know better what is right. * * * Brothers, as I have told you before, that we have been sent here by our chiefs to let you know that we have heard about your design of entering upon our lands, and we deliver in this belt to show the minds of the Confederate Nations-that you do not incroacli on these lands which we have reserved and design to keep for ourselves and our children to the latest posterity, and will not part with them. Brothers, if you proceed to incroach on our lands we shall not be easy, but will return home to our own places and apply ourselves to the King, our father, to obtain justice ; and I, myself, will [now] go, and on my going out of the house will return home'.
"Then the Governor directed the interpreter to desire them to stay till the begin- ning of the [next] week for an answer. To which they answered that their chiefs had directed them to make no delay, but as soon as they had made their speech they were to return ; but, at the Governor's desire, they would stay for an answer.
"At the Council Chamber, Hartford, [Monday], May 30, 1763. Present as before. The Governor made answer to the foregoing speech. * * * 'We assure and tell you this Government has not given any orders for any such settlement. We are no ways concerned in that matter, only as friends to you [we] have endeavored to prevent the people from going to settle those lands. We have, indeed, been told that a number of particular persons-some living in Connecticut, some in Massachusetts, some in New York and some in other Governments were about to settle on those lands, but we advised them not to proceed in their attempts. Lately I received orders from the King commanding me to use my authority and influence to prevent the people from attempt- ing to settle on those lands till the matter should be laid before the King. In obedience to His Majesty's commands I acquainted the chief men among them with the King's order, and I am well informed that those people have had a meeting and have unani- mously agreed that no person whatever of their Company shall enter upon, or make any settlement on, any of those lands until His Majesty's pleasure be known in that matter.' * * *
"To which the deputies of the Six Nations replied as follows : 'Brethren, we have heard with attention what you have said, and are well pleased with the same, and we hope you will endeavor to prevent any more people from making purchases of us ; and as to those lands we have talked about, we do not at present design to part with them, but if ever we do, it shall be to those purchasers of your people before any others-if they desire it. We are to receive 110 presents on this occasion ; but as to your offer to dis- charge our expenses while in this town, we gratefully accept and acknowledge the same, and heartily bid you farewell.' "
The correspondent of the Gazette who furnished the foregoing account of the Hartford conference appended to it the following com- ments, which were printed in the same issue of the newspaper.
"These were the only causes of uneasiness mentioned by them [the deputies] and consequently all they had a pretense to mention ; and this was not an actual injury, but only an incroachment they heard we intended to make upon them. But it is plain that this was a mere pretense-for it was with soune entreaty they were prevailed upon to wait for the Governor's answer. They intended their remonstrance should be a declara- tion of war! About the time these Indian deputies might be supposed to have made their remonstrance, and to be on their return, the Indians began their murderous war, in which the Delawares and other Indian nations were confederates with the Six Nations."
The "murderous war" referred to by this writer was what is known in history as "Pontiac's War." The conspiracy, fomented by Pontiac, the Ottawa chieftan, was unmasked at Detroit (in what is now Michi- gan) on the 6th of May, 1763, and then was begun the war which con-
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tinued until late in the Summer of 1764. Fort Sandusky was captured by the Indians May 16, 1763 ; Fort Ouatanon (now Lafayette, Indiana), May 31st-the day following the close of the Hartford conference ; Fort Presqu' Isle (now Erie, Pennsylvania), June 17th ; Fort LeBœuf (in Erie County, Pennsylvania), June 18th : Fort Venango (in Venango County, Pennsylvania), June 18th, and the military posts at Carlisle and Bedford, Pennsylvania, on the same day. On June 22d a large body of Indians surrounded Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg, Pennsylvania) and opened fire on all sides, but were easily repulsed. The western Dela- wares and Shawanese joined in Pontiac's conspiracy, and took a very active part in the war; but the Senecas-more especially the Western Senecas-were, as we have stated on page 121, the only Indians of the Six Nations in alliance with Pontiac. In The New York Gazette of August 1, 1763, appeared this item :
"On Thursday last arrived the Albany post, by whom we learn that a congress was lately held by Sir William Johnson at the German Flats, at which were present the chiefs of all the tribes of the Six Nations except the Senecas, who refused to send any."
Before the close of the May session of the Connecticut Assembly Colonel Dyer informed the "Lower House" of his purpose to make a voyage to England in the interest of The Susquehanna Company, and requested the "House" to recommend him to Richard Jackson, Esq., the Agent of the Colony residing in London. This that body, by vote, desired the Governor to do .* Shortly afterwards Colonel Dyer and other influential proprietors of The Susquehanna Company journeyed to Albany, New York, where, on or about June 24th, they had, in consequence of a previous arrangement, a conference with five of the principal sachems of the Mohawk tribe and a few of the chief men of some of the other tribes of the Six Nations. As a result of this confer- ence the representatives of the land company, in return for a satisfactory considerationt then paid to the Indians there present, received from the latter the "affidavit" and "address" mentioned on pages 291 and 307, ante, together with a brand-new deed (carefully engrossed and properly executed) conveying to The Susquehanna Company the Wyoming lands. This deedt was intended, evidently, either to confirm or to supersede and take the place of the deed of July 11, 1754.§ Armed with these documents and others of importance, Colonel Dyer sailed from Portsmouth for England August 18, 1763.
May 19, 1763, Col. James Burd (mentioned on page 360), in com- mand at Fort Augusta, wrote to Governor Hamilton that he had just received information that ten or twelve families from New England had settled at Wyoming, and that "a great many more" were daily expected. A few days after the receipt of this information the Gover- nor "received fresh complaints from the Indians at Wyoming that the Connecticut trespassers were still obstinately prosecuting their settle- ments on the lands there and at Cushetunk." Thereupon the Gover- nor, on the 2d of June, issued another proclamation (his third in rela- tion to this matter) requiring the intruders to remove from said lands. From it|| the following paragraphs have been extracted.
* See "Connecticut Colonial Records," XII : 299.
¡ Perhaps the $400, the bullocks and the pork mentioned on page 411.
į Neither the original deed of 1763 nor a copy of it is known to be in existence. Further and more extended reference to it is made in Chapter XX.
§ See pages 271-276. || See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 197, 200.
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"WHEREAS divers persons * have, without any license or grant from the Honorable the Proprietaries of this Province, or authority from this Government, made several attempts, in bodies, to possess themselves of and settle upon a large tract of land within the limits of this Province, but not yet purchased from the Indians-lying at and between Wyoming on the River Susquehanna, and Cushietunck on the River Delaware, and in the upper parts of Northampton County ; and have also endeavored to persuade and inveigle many of the inhabitants of this and the neighboring Provinces to confederate and join with them in such their illegal and dangerous designs. * **
"AND WHEREAS the Delawares and other tribes of Indians who reside within that tract of country between Wyoming and Cushietunck, and also the Six Nation Indians, have, as well at public treaties as at divers other times, repeatedly made complaints and remonstrances to me against the said practises and attempts, and in the most earnest manner requested and insisted that the said intruders should be removed by the Govern- ment to which they belonged, or by me, and declared if this was not done the Indians would come and remove them by force, and do themselves justice. * *
"AND WHEREAS I have already issued two proclamations to apprize the said intruders of their danger, and to forbid their settling on the said lands, * * yet I have lately received information and fresh complaints from the said Indians that divers persons * are now actually settling about Wyoming and Cushietunck.
"WHEREFORE, as well to continue my endeavors to preserve the Peace and Friend- ship which is now so happily restored and subsisting between us and the Indians, and to prevent the mischievous and terrible consequences of their carrying into execution such their threats (from which I am greatly apprehensive the Indians cannot any longer be restrained ), * I do issue this my third Proclamation, hereby again strictly en- joining and requiring, in His Majesty's name, all and every person and persons already settled and residing on said lands-Indians excepted-immediately to depart and remove away from the same. And I do hereby forbid all His Majesty's subjects of this or any other Province or Colony, on any pretense whatsoever, to intrude upon, settle or possess any of the said lands, or any other lands within the limits of this Province not yet purchased of the Indians."
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