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 69
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The Governor immediately forwarded a copy of this Proclamation to Colonel Burd at Fort Augusta, accompanying it with a "letter of in- structions" addressed to Colonel Burd and Capt. Thomas McKee (men- tioned on pages 349 and 351) .* This letter was, in part, as followst :
"I have lately received intelligence, with fresh complaints from the Indians at Wyoming, that the Connecticut people still persist in prosecuting their scheme of set- tling the lands about Wyoming ; and with the advice of the Council I have thought it proper to issue a third Proclamation, and to desire that you will immediately take a journey to Wyoming, with such assistance as yon shall judge proper, and use your best endeavors to persuade or drive away all the white people that you shall find settled, or about to settle, there, or on any lands not yet purchased from the Indians. Before you show yourselves amongst them you will gain all the information and light you can into their designs ; what their numbers are, and learn the names of as many as you can ; where settled, or about to settle; what numbers-and from whence-they expect to join them.
"On your arrival amongst them you will convene the heads of them, and, after reading the Proclamation, expostulate with them about the Injustice, Absurdity and Danger of their attempting to settle there, and let them know that I expect and require of them, by you, that they shall all immediately depart and quit their settlements. And if they shall agree to go away peaceably, you will then, after their departure, see all their buildings and improvements destroyed ; but in case they refuse to comply, you will then acquaint them that they may rest assured that, besides the danger they may be in from the resentment of the Indians, this Government will never permit them to continue there. If you find these expostulations and persuasive means shall not succeed, and that you can do it without danger of resistance from a superior force and the risque of bloodshed (which by no means hazard), I would have yon, either by Stratagem or Force, to get three or four of the ringleaders, or others of them, apprehended and carried to the goalt at Lan- caster-sending with them a proper force. * *
* And if that cannot be done, yon will endeavor to get the names of as many of them as you can, in order that they may be prosecuted at law. * * For this end I have armed you with a special commission, con-
* Capt. THOMAS MCKEE was the son of Patrick McKee, who was a settler in Paxtang as early as 1730. Thomas McKee was assessed in Paxtang as early, at least, as 1749. He was a famous Indian trader-ap- pointed by the Provincial Government prior to May, 1744-and lived at a point on the Susquehanna known to-day as "McKee's Half Falls." He died at his home in April, 1772.
+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," LX : 29.
# Gaol, or jail, was meant. "Gaol" was the old form of spelling, yet, in this country, during the eighteenth century, this word-although pronounced as now pronounced-was almost generally written and printed "goal." In time, owing to this bad spelling, the word came to he improperly pronounced gole.
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stituting you magistrates of the counties of Northampton, Berks and Lancaster ; but I imagine the lands where they are settling must be in Northampton County."
In transmitting the foregoing letter and proclamation to Colonel Burd, Governor Hamilton also sent to him a private letter, reading in part as follows* :
"As it is of great consequence to the Proprietary, as well as to the peace of the Province, to prevent, as much as possible, all jealousies and suspicions taking root in the minds of the Indians that the English intend to take possession of their lands against their consent, and without having first purchased and paid for the same, I am very desirous to do everything in my power to quiet their minds in that regard ; and con- sequently find myself under a necessity of endeavoring to remove these intruders before they are too firmly established. And, as I have a very good opinion of your prudence and discretion in the conduct of anything committed to your care, I earnestly desire that you will, with Mr. Thomas McKee (who, from his knowledge of the Indians, may be use- ful to you), repair forthwith to Wyoming and pursue the instructions herein inclosed with regard to the conduct you are to use to any persons you shall find settled there. **
"I have had much discourse upon this affair with Mr. Croghan, who, being Deputy Agent for Indian Affairs, gives his directions to Thomas McKee, and also writes to Sir William Johnson these opinions. * * Sir William having represented to His Majesty the dangerous tendency of this Connecticut intrusion, His Majesty has been pleased to signify to Sir Jeffrey Amherst and the Governor of Connecticut his high displeasure at the intended proceedings of these intruders, and to order then to forbear till a statement of the case can be laid before him ; and the Governor of Connecticut, on receiving these orders, publicly proclaimed the same-as appears in an article in the New York papers enclosed to you, which you will show to those people, and make the best use of, to con- vince them that their own Government disallows their proceedings."
Colonel Burd received the aforementioned documents at Fort Au- gusta on June 5th. He immediately turned over the command of the fort to Lient. Samuel Hunter and went down the river to find Captain McKee, in order to make arrangements to proceed to Wyoming. On the 7th of June Burd and McKee, accompanied by three or four attend- ants, set off from Fort Augusta for Wyoming. The next day a message was received at the fort, from a friendly Indian living a short distance up the West Branch, cautioning Lieutenant Hunter to be on his guard, as the fort might be attacked by hostile Indians at any moment. A inessenger was immediately despatched after Colonel Burd and his party, but failed to reach them until they had arrived at Wyoming. Burd sent the messenger back to Fort Angusta, post-haste, with a warning ines- sage to the commandant. In the meantime, on June 11th, John Shi- kellimy (frequently mentioned heretofore) arrived in his canoe at the fort and promised to be on the alert and give early information of any attacking party. In the evening of June 18th Colonel Burd and his party arrived at the fort from Wyoming, and the Colonel immediately assumed command of the post. What he and Captain McKee saw, said or did at Wyoming we are unable to state, as we have failed to find any record or report relating to their doings here.
In May, 1763, within a few days after the Connecticut settlers had arrived in Wyoming (as mentioned on page 413), David Zeisberger passed through the valley on his way from Bethlehem to Papoonhank's town (see page 389), in order to ascertain the prospect for introducing the gospel there. He reached Wyalusing on the 23d of May, and con- tinued there, preaching and teaching, till the 27th, when he set out for Bethlehem, bearing an earnest invitation from Papoonhank and all his people to the Moravian Brethren to speedily send a religious teacher to reside at Wyalusing. Each time, on his passage through Wyoming, Zeisberger preached to the Indians here.
* See "The Shippen Papers," page 199.
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About the time Zeisberger was at Wyalusing John Woolman,* of Burlington County, New Jersey, a member of the Society of Friends, and a tailor by trade-"zealous for the welfare of suffering and perishing humanity, and entertaining a love in his heart toward the natives of this land who dwelt far back in the wilderness"-conceived the project of paying a visit to the Indians at Wyalusing. An Indian man and three women from a village beyond that place being in Philadelphia, Wool- inan visited them and arranged to accompany them on their homeward journey up the Susquehanna. Inducing his friend Benjamin Parvin to go with him the two set out for Bethlehemn, where they were joined by the four Indians previously mentioned. The following paragraphs have been taken from Woolman's journal.
"On the 10th of June [1763] we set out [from Bethlehem] early in the morning, and crossed the western branch of Delaware- called the Great Lehie-near Fort Allen. The water being higli we went over in a canoe. Here we met an Indian, and had some friendly conversation with him, and gave him some bis- cuit ; and he, having killed a deer, gave the Indians with us some of it. Then, after travel- ing some miles, we met several Indian men and women with a cow, a horse and some household goods, who were lately come from their dwelling at Wioming and going to settle at another place. We made them some small presents, and some of them understanding English I told them my motive in coming into their country-with which they appeared satis- fied ; and, one of our guides talking awhile with an antient woman concerning us, the poor old woman came to my companion and me and took her leave of us with an appear- ance of sincere affection. So, going on, we pitched our tent near the banks of the same river, having laboured hard in crossing some of those mountains called the Blue Ridge. * * "Near our tent, on the sides of large John Woolman preaching to the Indians at Wyoming in 1763. Reproduced from an old engraving. trees peeled for that purpose, were various representations of men going to and returning from the wars, and of some killed in battle-this being a path heretofore used by war- riors. * * I walked about viewing those Indian histories, which were painted mostly in red, but some in black .; This was the first night that we lodged in the woods ; and being wet with traveling in the rain, the ground, our tent, and the bushes which we purposed to lay under our blankets also wet, all looked discouraging. * * We kindled
* JOHN WOOLMAN, the godly and devoted Quaker apostle of temperance and of the abolition of slavery, was born at Northampton, West New Jersey, in 1720. At a very early age he became distinguished for his attachment to religion, and in after life he became one of the most pious and indefatigable laborers in the cause of freedom and human happiness that the Society of Friends ever produced. "It may be safely asserted," stated a writer in Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania (X : 337) in 1832, "that for self-denial; purity of manners and conversation, firm, consistent and persevering prosecution of duty, and zealous and enlightened benevolence, he has rarely been equalled and, perhaps, never excelled." In 1746 he traveled as a minister of the Society of Friends through Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. He wrote that he "saw in those southern Provinces so many vices and corruptions increased by this trade [slavery] and this way of life-viz .: the whites living idly and luxuriously on the labor of the blacks- that it appeared {to him] as a gloom over the land."
In 1757 Woolman made a journey through the South with his brother, in order to convince persons, principally of his own Society, of the wickedness and impolicy of slavery. In 1758 he was appointed by the Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia one of the committee of that body for the purpose of discouraging slave-holding among its members. In 1753 he published Part I of his "Considerations on Slave-hold- ing," and in 1762 Part II was published. Early in 1772 he embarked for England, and shortly after his arrival there he endeavored to induce the Quakers in that country to importune the British Government to take some decided action in behalf of the oppressed Africans. He died of small-pox at York, England, in the latter part of 1772, aged about fifty-two years. A collection of his works was published at Phila- delphia in 1774, and in 1871 his "Journal," with an Introduction by John Greenleaf Whittier, the "Quaker Poet," was published at Boston. Many years ago Charles Lainh wrote: "Get the writings of John Woolman hy heart, and love the early Quakers."
f Trees similarly decorated stood at, or in the immediate neighborhood of, the village of Wyoming at that period-as we learn from other sources. It seems to have been a common custom, among certain tribes of Indians in Pennsylvania and New York, to depict important events and interesting happenings in the manner described. In the Sullivan Expedition of 1779 (referred to at length in Chapter XVIII) one of the principal officers was Lieut. Col. Adam Hubley. During the campaign he kept a journal, which he illustrated with pen and ink sketches. The original journal, now in the possession of The
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a fire, with our tent open to it, and with some bushes next the ground, and then our blankets, we made our bed. The eleventh day of the sixth month [June 11th], the bushes being wet, we tarried in our tent till about eight o'clock ; when going on we crossed a high mountain supposed to be upwards of four miles over-the steepness on the north side exceeding all the others. We also crossed two swamps. * * About noon, on our way, we were overtaken by one of the Moravian Brethren% going to Wehaloosing [Wyalusing], and an Indian man with him who could talk English, and we being together while our horses eat grass, had some friendly conversation ; but they, traveling faster than we, soon left us. This Moravian, I understood, had spent some time this Spring at Wehaloosing, and was, by some of the Indians, invited to come again.
"The twelfth day of the sixth month, and first of the week [Sunday, June 12th], it being a rainy day, we continued in our tent. Our guide's horse, though hoppled, went away in the night, and after finding our own, and searching some time for him, his foot- steps were discovered in the path going back again ; whereupon my kind companion [Parvin] went off in the rain, and after about seven hours returned with him. Here we lodged again, tying up our horses before we went to bed, and loosing them to feed about
*
*
* We
break of day. On the thirteenth day, the sun appearing, we set forward.
reached the Indian settlement at Wioming, and here we were told that an Indian runner had been at that place a day or two beforet us, and brought news of the Indians taking an English fort westward and destroying the people, and that they were endeavoring to
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has been published two or three times, but, so far as we are aware, the sketches have never been reproduced heretofore.
Through the courtesy of the Historical Society we are enabled to present herein reduced photo-repro- ductions of several of Colonel Hubley's sketches-one of which, shown on this page, represents "The Trees painted by the Indians, between Oswegy and Chukunut, on the head-waters of Susquehannah, with their characters." By "Oswegy" Colonel Hubley referred to Owegy (see map facing page 320), now Owego, Tioga County, New York ; and by "Chukunut" he referred to Choconut, or Chugnuts (signifying "The Place of Tamaracks"), a large Indian village on the south side of the Susquehanna, where the village of Vestal, Broomne County, New York, now stands. Certain Oneidas, Tuscaroras, Shawanese and Chug- Character nuts settled at that place in 1756, and when the village was destroyed by the American forces in 1779 it consisted of fifty houses. Colonel Hubley's notes written on the 1. H. .: 4 sketch, between the trunks of the two trees, are: "Representations. 1-Holding a death maul. 2-Num- ber of scalps taken. 3-Onondaga nation represented by ye pipe. 5- An Indian returning successful from his expedition."
In November, 1800, Charles . Miner, of Wilkes-Barré (later the author of a "History of Wyoming"), made a tour on horseback up along the Susquehanna, Chemung and Cohocton Rivers to Bath, New York. Writing in 1859 about this journey he said (see Record of the Times, June 8, 1859): "From Bath I passed west to Hornell's, the limit of my journey. Returning down the Can- isteo my path lay twelve miles witlı- out a house, but passed through a numerous lodge of Indians who were there encamped for hunting. It is matter of surprise to me that I had no fear, for these were the very fellows who, twenty-two years before, had committed the dreadful massacre at Wyoming, and inight not have lost their thirst for blood and plunder. * * Their main lodges were made by placing two long poles in the ground, ten or twelve feet apart, and, bringing the tops together, fastening them with withes. At suitable distances other sets of poles were put up, extending in a regular line perhaps sixty feet. These were covered with blankets and skins, so that, in fact, they had a house sixty feet long and twelve feet wide, running np to a sharp roof. Game in abundance lay at the door-among the rest the porcupine, the first I had ever seen. The Indians-old and young, the squaws and children-came out to gaze, looking squalid and dirty ; but they were not uncivil. So rapidly was that beautiful country then settling, that it is probable this was the last Indian hunting encampment ever erected there-the place of their proper residence, or home, being, I take it, considerably farther north.
"Descending the Canisteo seven or eight miles-seeing occasionally a hunter-I passed [over] the stream, and my attention was forcibly and agreeably arrested by paintings upon several trees (the bark of which had been smoothed for the purpose) of the heads and necks of ten or twelve animals, admirably drawn ; done so that the doe with her smooth forehead, the young buck with his spike-horns, or the old with his formidable antlers, the old and the young bear-not only distinguishable by size, but by expres- sion-and various smaller animals, were all portrayed with more than skill. * * I learned afterwards that this was the [Indians'] mode of giving information to their fellow-hunters as to how many animals they had taken."
These painted trees stood, without doubt, on the north bank of the Canisteo River, in what is 110w the township of Cameron, Steuben County, New York-about midway between the sites of the former Indian towns Canisteo (mentioned on pages 206, 207 and 341) and Assinnissink (mentioned on pages 327 and 389). Dr. Beauchamp says (in "Aboriginal Occupation of New York," page 147) that as late as 1804 there were temporary Indian camps in the locality last mentioned.
* This was DAVID ZEISBERGER, who was again on his way to Wyalusing, having left Bethlehem on the 10th of June. He arrived at his destination (having passed through Wyoming) in the evening of June 16th, and was welcomed by Papoonhank and his people. He remained there, preaching to the Indians and baptizing a few converts (Papoonhank among the number), until June 30th, when he was re- called to Bethlehem by the Brethren, on account of Pontiac's War.
+ At the time Colonel Burd and Captain McKee were in the valley, as previously mentioned.
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take another. Also, that another Indian runner came there about the middle of the night before we got there, who came from a town about ten miles above Wehaloosing, and brought news that some Indian warriors from distant parts came to that town with two English scalps, and told the people that it was 'War with the English !'
"Our guides took us to the house of a very antient man,* and soon after we had put in our baggage there came a man from another Indian house some distance off, and I, perceiving there was a man near the door, went out; and he, having a tomahawk wrapped under his matchcoat, out of sight, as I approached him took it in his hand. I, however, went forward, and speaking to him in a friendly way, perceived he understood some English. My companion then coming out, we had some talk with him concerning the nature of our visit in these parts ; and then he going into the house with us, and talking with our guides, soon appeared friendly and sat down and smoaked his pipe. Tho' his taking his hatchet in his hand at the instant I drew near to him had a disagree- able appearance, I believe he had no other intent than to be in readiness in case any violence was offered to him.
"Hearing the news brought by these Indian runners, and being told by the Indians where we lodged that what Indians were about Wioming expected, in a few days, to move to some larger towns, I thought that, to all outward appearance, it was dangerous traveling at this time. *
* In this great distress I grew jealous of myself, lest the * desire of reputation-as a man firmly settled to persevere through dangers-or the fear of disgrace arising on my returning without performing the visit, might have some place in me. Thus I lay, full of thoughts, the great part of the night, while my beloved com- panion lay and slept by mne. * On the fourteenth we sought out and visited all the Indians hereabouts that we could meet with-they being chiefly in one place, tabout a mile from where we lodged-in all, perhaps twenty. Here I expressed the care I had on my mind for their good, and told them that true love had made me willing thus to leave my family to come and see the Indians and speak with them in their houses. Some of them appeared kind and friendly.
"So we took our leave of these Indians, and went up the river Susquehannah about three miles to the house of an Indian called 'Jacob January,'į who had killed his hog, and the women were making a store of bread and preparing to move up the river. Here our pilots had left their canoe when they came down in the Spring, which, lying dry, was leaky, so that we, being detained some hours, had a good deal of friendly conversa- tion with the family ; and, eating dinner with them, we made them some small presents. Then putting our baggage in the canoe, some of them pulled slowly up the stream, and the rest of us rode our horses, and, swimming them over a creek called Lahawahamunk [Lackawanna River], we pitched our tent a little above it. On the 15th day of the month we proceeded forward till the afternoon, when a storm appearing, we met our canoe at an appointed place, and the rain continuing we stayed all night. * We seldoni saw our canoe but at appointed places, by reason of the path going off from the river. This afternoon [June 16th] Job Chillaway, § an Indian from Wehaloosing, who talks good English, and is acquainted with several people in and about Philadelphia, met our people on the river, and, understanding where we expected to lodge, pushed back about six miles and came to us after night ; and in a while our own canoe came, it being hard work pushing up stream. Job told us that an Indian came in haste to their town yesterday and told them that three warriors, coming from some distance, lodged in a town above Wehaloosing a few nights past, and that these three men were going against the English at Juniata. Job was going down the river to the Province store at Shamokin."
Woolman and his companions arrived at Wyalusing in the after- noon of June 17th, and Woolman and Parvin remained there, teaching and preaching, until the 21st, when they set out on their homeward journey. Woolman wrote in his journal :
"We expected only two Indians to be our company, but when we were ready to go we found many of them were going to Bethlehem with skins and furs, who chose to go in company with us. So they loaded two canoes, which they desired us to go in, telling us that the waters were so raised with the rains that the horses should be taken by such as were better acquainted with the fording places. So we, with several Indians, went in the canoes, and others went on the horses-there being seven besides ours. * * On the 22d day [of June] we reached Wioming before night, and understood the Indians were mostly gone from this place. Here we went up a small creek|| into the woods with our canoes, and, pitching our tent, carried out our baggage. Before dark our horses came to us. On the 23d day, in the morning, our horses were loaded and we prepared our baggage, and so set forward, being in all fourteen ; and with diligent traveling were
* Presumably this was old Moses, the Mohegan, who lived about a mile below the village of Wyo- ming, near the mouth of what was at one time known as Moses' Creek, and is now Solomon's, or Button- wood, Creek. See pages 312 and 373.
+ The village of Wyoming-Teedyuscung's old town.
Į This was the Indian from whom "Jacob's Plains," previously described, received their name.
§ See page 364. " Either Buttonwood Creek or Sugar Notch Creek.
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favored to get near half way to Fort Allen-the land on this road from Wioming to our frontier being mostly poor, and good grass scarce. On the 24th day we passed Fort Allen, and lodged near it in the woods. *
* Between the English inhabitants [at Bethlehem and thereabout] and Wehaloosing, we had only a narrow path, which in many places is much grown up with bushes and interrupted by abundance of trees lying across it. These, together with the mountains, swamps and rough stones make it a diffi- cult road to travel ; and the more so for that rattlesnakes abound there-of which we killed four."
June 23, 1763, Governor Hamilton at Philadelphia wrote to Timothy Horsfield (previously mentioned) at Bethlehem :
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