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 early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 32
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* AUGUST GOTTLIEB SPANGENBERG arrived with other Moravian Brethren from over the ocean at Savannah, Georgia, in March, 1735. In April, 1736, he removed to Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and began his labors among the Schwenkfelders who were settled in that locality. For many years Spangenberg was a Bishop of the Moravian Church. He wrote a "Life of Count Zinzendorf," which was first published in 1772.
+ "TAGHANANTY, the 'Black Prince,' perished in the jail at Montreal" in the Spring of 1748, having been taken prisoner by the French during their war with the English .- "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," V : 291.
¿ On their way from Shekomeko to Oley Schabash and his companions called on the Hon. James Logan (see note, page 179), who alluded to the visit in a letter to Governor Clarke of New York, in these words: "Some weeks ago two Moravians [Christian H. Rauch and Gottlieb Büttner] called ou me; by the Count's direction, with three of ye Mohican Indians in their company. One of the latter speaking good English served for an interpreter. All three were proselytes, exceedingly grave but with free and not ill countenances. Though the young Germans drank one glass of wine apiece with us, the others would taste nothing but water."
Upon his return to Shekomeko Abraham was appointed to the office of Elder in the mission. In August, 1742, Zinzendorf visited Shekomeko, and in his account of the visit, written at the time, he re- ferred to Abraham and three other converts as follows: "The four are in all respects incomparable Indians and men of God. When met in conference on affairs of the mission, they deliberated in a man- ner which astonished us."
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says Loskiel, "represented that Wajomick lay in the road of the warriors to the Catawbas, and in a country abounding with savages; that the women were so wanton that they seduced all the men, and consequently their acquaintance might prove very hurtful to the young people." The Pennsylvania embassy returned home without having accomplished inuch.
The persecutions at Shekomeko continuing, the situation became such as to make retreat necessary. Early in 1746, therefore, the matter of removing the Christian Indians "to Wajomick, in the free Indian ter- ritory," again agitated the Brethren at Bethlehem, and in March John Martin Mack was sent from Bethlehem to Wyoming in order to learn accurately the situation of the country and affairs there. Loskiel says that "he traveled in company with two Delawares of great respectability, who had visited Bethlehem. They showed the tenderest concern for his safety on the road, carrying him through brooks and rivers on their shoulders." All these labors were in vain, for the Shekomekoites would not remove to Wyoming. As a last resort, therefore, the Brethren invited them to Bethlehem, and, late in the Spring of 1746, the Sheko- meko and Connecticut Moravian settlements were broken up and the Christian Indians with their missionaries departed for Bethlehem in detachments.
The first detachment, consisting of ten families of forty-four per- sons, reached Bethlehem in April, and these people, together with those who came a few weeks later, were permitted to build temporary cabins and plant corn on a plot of ground near Bethlehem-which settlement received the name of "Friedenshütten" ("Huts of Peace"). July 24, 1746, these Indian emigrants were organized into a Christian congrega- tion, and shortly afterwards were removed to "Gnadenhütten" ("Huts of Grace"), a village and plantation occupying 197 acres of land on the right bank of the Lehigh, at the mouth of Mahoning Creek, a few miles above Lehigh Gap (see map on page 191). The site is now occupied in part by the town of Lehighton, Carbon County. The land for this site had been purchased in the Spring of 1746 by the Brethren at Beth- lehem, expressly for the use of their Indian converts and protégés, and the erection of buildings for their occupancy and that of their preachers and teachers had been hurried along as rapidly as possible. The farm-buildings stood near the creek at the foot of the hill; on the first ascent of the hill were the huts of the Indians, arranged in the form of a crescent ; behind these was an orchard, and on the summit of the hill lay the grave-yard. By the next year a blacksmith-shop, a grist and a saw-mill had been erected on the bank of the creek, and in the valley a small church. A path, or trail, from Bethlehem to the Sus- quehanna ran through the village-probably the path traveled by Mack and Fröhlich in 1744. The settlement rapidly increased in size, and. soon became "a regular and pleasant town." Between this new Christian Indian town and Wyoming a constant intercourse was soon established. "Hungry savages, in times of scarcity, flocked to Gnadenhütten, pro- fessing Christianty and filling themselves at the tables of the pious missionaries. Some, however, were sincere in their professions and died in the faith."
Towards the close of the year 1747 Bishop Spangenberg and other Brethren paid a visit to the Indians at Wyoming, by whom, says Los-
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kiel, "they were received as angels sent from God; and their words were heard with uncommon eagerness."
In June, 1748, the population of Wyoming Valley was increased by the arrival of a band of Nanticoke Indians,* under their chief Ullunckquam ("Robert White"). They numbered eighty persons, and in ten canoes had come up the Susquehanna from the mouth of the Juniata Rivert where they had been living-perhaps on Duncan's Island-since 1742. That this is so, and that they did not come directly to Wyoming from Maryland (as has been stated by other
* The Nanticokes and Conoys or Ganaweses (mentioned on pages 101 and 102) were originally, with- out doubt, clans or sub-tribes of the same nation, known about 1600-and perhaps later-as the Tockwock, of the Algonkin family. For many years the Delawares always referred to the Nanticokes as "Tawack- guános," while the Five Nations are said to have called them "Skaniataratigroni" ("Tide-water People"). Some writers have claimed, however, that "Nanticoke" and "Conoy" were simply synonymous terms for the same people.
Originally, or very early, the Nanticokes were located along the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay in what is now Maryland, where their tribal name is perpetuated by having been given many years ago to a river, and later to a post-village. The Iroquois, having conquered the Susquehannocks or Andastés, and driven them from their towns along the Susquehanna, as previously related, turned their attention to the Tockwocks, and, by the year 1680, had completely subjugated them. The time of their final overthrow is fixed by the statements of certain Nanticoke and Conoy sachems made to Governor Evans of Pennsyl- vania in 1707, to the effect that their tribes had then "been at peace with the Five Nations for twenty- seven years." (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," II : 386.) From all that can be learned it appears that the Nanticokes always lived at peace with the whites. In a council held at Fort Augusta (Shamokin) in 1769 "Last Night," the Conoy King from Chenango, New York, addressing Colonel Francis, command- ing the fort, said : "The nations to which I belong-the Nanticokes and Conoys-never yet since the beginning of the world pulled one scalp, nor even one hair, from your heads ; and this, I say, gives us a right to call ourselves your brothers." (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 617.)
About 1701, owing to troubles in Maryland, a number of the Ganawese Indians-then called Piscata- ways-fled to Pennsylvania with the intention of settling there. Accompanied by certain Conestogas and Shawanese they went to Philadelphia and obtained permission to locate along the Susquehanna near the Conestogas and Shawanese-the representatives of these two tribes agreeing to hold themselves respon- sible to the Government for "the peaceable deportment and behavior" of the Ganaweses or Piscataways. In June, 1706, it was reported to the Provincial Council that there was great uneasiness among the Indians "by reason of the Ganaweses who had fled from Maryland." The Secretary of the Council then reported that he and others had made a journey among the Ganaweses, settled at a place called Connejaghera, some miles above the Conestoga fort on the Susquehanna, and that these Indians since their settlement there had behaved themselves according to their agreement. It was then (June, 1706) reported to the Council that the Five Nations were "expected shortly to come down to receive the Nanticoke's tribute"; and the chief of the Conestogas, who was present, "laid before the Governor a large wampuni belt of twenty-one rows, with three hands wrought in it in black (the rest being white), which was a pledge of peace formerly delivered by the Onondaga Indians to the Nanticokes when they made the said Nanti- cokes tributaries."
In June, 1707, Governor Evans and a number of attendants journeyed from Philadelphia to Pequehan, the Shawanese town near Conestoga, and, being met by King Opessah and other chiefs, were conducted into the town and received by a volley of small arms. Later they went to Dekanoagah, on the Susque- hanna, nine miles from Pequehan, where a conference was held with Seneca, Shawanese, Conoy and Nanticoke Indians. These Nanticokes were from seven different villages in Maryland, and were on their way to the "Long House" of the Five Nations with twenty belts and several strings of wampum "as tribute, and in order to renew their league." Desiring to see the Governor of Pennsylvania at this time, they had sent for him, and for ten days awaited his arrival at Dekanoagah. At this conference the inter- preter, by order of the Conestoga sachems, spoke in English to the Nanticokes-who all understood that language-as follows : "You are going to the Onondagas. Be sure you keep on your way. * * * You will find the King of the Five Nations a very great one, and as good a king as any among the Indians." (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," II : 244, 246, 386, 387.)
In 1719 there was a Ganawese town in the neighborhood of Conestoga, Pennsylvania, and Winjack was its chief. In June, 1722, Governor Keith of Pennsylvania wrote to "Winjack, King of the Ganawese Indians on Sasquehanna : * * I have heard that your friends the Nanticokes are now at your town upon their journey to the Five Nations. I know they are a peaceable people, that live quietly amongst the English in Maryland, and therefore I shall be glad to see them, and will be ready to do them any kind- ness in my power."
In August, 1749, an important conference was held at Philadelphia between the Provincial Govern- ment and Pennsylvania Indians-comprising 280 Senecas, Mohegans, Delawares, Tuteloes and Nanti- cokes. Canassatego was present, with some attendants, to represent the Six Nations, and he was the prin- cipal speaker on the part of the Indians. It seems that certain white people had been settling along the Juniata River, which at that time was outside the bounds of the Proprietaries' purchases from the Indians -as we have shown on page 192. With regard to this territory Canassatego said : "This is the hunting- ground of our cousins the Nanticokes, and other Indians living on the waters of the Juniata. * * * We now speak in behalf of our cousins the Nanticokes. You know that on some differences between the people of Maryland and them we [the Six Nations] sent for them and placed them at the mouth of the Juniata, where they now live. They came to us while on our journey [hither] and told us that there are three settlements of their tribe left behind in Maryland, who want to come away, but the Marylanders keep them in fence and will not let them go. We desire, therefore (being urged thereto by our cousins the Nanticokes), that you would write to the Governor of Maryland and use your utmost interest that the fence in which they are confined may be taken away * * * that they may be allowed to come and settle where the other Nanticokes are, and live with them amongst us." (See "Pennsylvania Colo- nial Records," V : 401.)
Late in 1749, or early in 1750, the remaining Nanticokes in Maryland departed from their ancient homes to join their tribesmen on the Juniata, on the lower Susquehanna and in Wyoming Valley ; while some pushed on up the Susquehanna into New York and settled at Chenango, or Otsiningo, on the Che- nango River, about four miles above the present city of Binghamton. The Nanticokes had a peculiar vener- ation for their deceased ancestors and other relatives, and upon removing from one place to another it is said that they disinterred the remains of their dead, carried them to the new place of settlement and reinterred them. When the last of the Nanticokes removed northward from Maryland the bodies of some of their people who had only recently died were in a putrid state, but the Indians removed the flesh from, and scraped, the bones of these bodies in order that the same might be carried away.
+ See map on page 191.
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writers), is proved by the following. In August, 1751, at a meeting of the Provincial Council in Philadelphia there were present four Nanti- coke Indians from Wyoming, who said : "We passed about nine years ago [1742] by your door. We came from Maryland, and asked your leave to go and settle among our brethren the Delawares, and you gave us leave. We did for some time live at the mouth of the Juniata, but are now settled at Wyomen."*
These Nanticokes erected their wigwams on the left, or south, bank of the Susquehanna, on the Lower Hanover Flats mentioned on page 50. The site of their village is indicated on the facsimile of "A Plot of the Manor of Stoke" shown in Chapter VII, it being a short distance south-west of the mouth of Sugar Notch Creek (not shown on this plot), not far from the old "Dundee" mine-shaft, and almost oppo- site the Avondale mine in Plymouth Township. "Moses' Creek," noted on the Manor of Stoke plot, is now called Buttonwood Creek, and "Muddy Run" is one of the branches of Nanticoke Creek. Sugar Notch Creek-whose waters form the pond in Hanover Park-has been named "Warrior Run" on some maps published within recent years, and on others, "Warrior Creek." Both of these names have been erro- neously used, "Warrior Run" being, in fact, the name of a branch of Nanticoke Creek, as shown on page 55.
In July, 1748, the Moravian missionaries Mack (previously men- tioned) and David Zeisbergert came from Shamokin to Wyoming, fol-
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," V : 544.
+ DAVID ZEISBERGER, JR., who has been denominated the "Western Pioneer and Apostle of the Indians" and the "Hero of the American Black Forest," was born at Zauchtenthal in Moravia, Austria, in 1721. At the age of five years he removed with his parents to Saxony, where the family remained ten years. Late in the year 1735 the parents-David and Rosina Zeisberger-set sail for America with a company of Moravians on the ship Simonds, arriving at Savannah, Georgia, February 16, 1736. They formed part of a company of 300 immigrants to the Colony of Georgia, then in the third year of its life ; which company had been gathered together and was headed by James Edward Oletliorpe, the founder and Governor of Georgia, and included the well-known missionaries and evangelists John and Charles Wesley. In August, 1737, young David Zeisberger-then in his sixteenth year-joined his parents at Savannah. Here the family of three lived until April, 1740, when, with a number of other Moravians (in- cluding John Martin Mack, previously mentioned), they sailed from Savannah for Philadelphia as mem- bers of the little company gathered together and headed by George Whitefield, the famous evangelist and one of the founders of Methodism.
Whitefield, having purchased 5,000 acres of land in the "Forks of the Delaware," founded the present town of Nazareth, in Northampton County-the first buildings being erected by the Brethren who had accompanied the evangelist from Savannah. In the Spring of 1741 the three Zeisbergers, Mack and others "went out into the forest from Nazareth and began to build Bethlehem," as mentioned on page 202. (See Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church," I : 167.) Young Zeisberger about that time became interested in the study of the language of the Delawares, and soon showed great proficiency in the work. He then took up the study of the Mohawk tongue -the Mohawk dialect of the Iroquois language being the one which was commonly used at that time and later in intercourse with the Six Nations.
In 1744, only a short time before the outbreak of the Old French War, Zeisberger accompanied Chris- tian Frederick Post, previously mentioned, to the country of the Iroquois. There, early in 1745, being suspected as spies from the French, the two men were arrested by the New York authorities and thrown into prison, where they were kept six weeks. Following his release Zeisberger was engaged for ten years, or until 1755, in active missionary service in New York and in Pennsylvania, and in perfecting him- self in a knowledge of various Indian languages. In 1745 he was adopted into the Turtle clan of the Onòn- daga nation. In 1747 and '48 he was an assistant to John Martin Mack in the mission at Shamokin, and while there he began the preparation of an Iroquois dictionary, being aided by Shikellimy. Zeisberger's success was very great, particularly among the Six Nations. "Perhaps in all the history of this famous people," says Archer Butler Hulbert (in The Chautauquan, XXXVIII : 259), "there was no other man, with the exception of Sir William Johnson, whom the people trusted as much as they did David Zeisber- ger; * * and it is vastly more than a wordy compliment suggesting friendship to record that in his mission-house of Onondaga they placed the entire archives of the nation, comprising the most valuable collection of treaties and letters from colonial governors ever made by an Indian nation on this continent."
But, the war of the English against the French having been begun in May, 1755, Zeisberger was com- pelled to leave the country of the Six Nations and return to Pennsylvania, where, for the ensuing ten years, he was constantly employed in general missionary work among the Indians and often as an inter- mediary between the latter and the Provincial authorities. In April, 1765, he led from Bethlehem to Wyalusing, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna (in what is now Bradford County), a company of Christian Indians consisting of eighty adults and upwards of ninety children. After a tedious journey of thirty-six days through an unbroken wilderness they reached their destination, and there, about two miles south-east of the mouth of Wyalusing Creek, they founded the Moravian Indian town of "Friedens- hütten," named for the village which had formerly stood near Bethlehem. Here Zeisberger labored zealously as preacher and teacher until October, 1766. During this time he once wrote : "It often hap- pens, while I preach, that the power of the gospel takes such hold of the savages that they tremble with emotion and shake with fear, until consciousness is nearly gone and they seem to be on the point of fainting."
"About 1765 some bands of Monsey Indians from Wyalusing and Tioga Point migrated to what is now Forest County, in north-western Pennsylvania, and on the eastern bank of the Allegheny River estab- lished the village of "Goschgoschünk"; and later, at or near the mouth of Oil Creek, in what is Venango
F
PHILA-PHOTO-ELECTRO, CO.
DAVID ZEISBERGER PREACHING TO THE INDIANS. Photo-reproduction of a black and white drawing made by John Sartain in 1864, after the original painting by C. Schussele. Used by the courtesy of Dr. F. C. Johnson.
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lowing the trail running along the right bank of the North Branch of the Susquehanna. At Wyoming they found a famine prevailing. The diary of this journey was printed in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History for January, 1893 (page 430), and from it the following extracts have been made.
"July 23 .- * * By evening reached Nescopeck, and were taken over the river in a canoe. Found few at home, but were taken into a hut where we dried ourselves and, supperless, retired to rest.
"July 24 .- Our host cooked us some wild beans. We gave the old man in turn of our bread. He informed us that the people had gone among the whites to obtain food.
"July 25 .- Resumed our journey and came to Wapwallopen. Found only one family at home, who boiled the bark of trees for food. All the others had been driven by famine to the white settlements. At night we camped at the lower end of the flats* of Wyomick.
"July 26 .- Arose early and proceeded up the flats. People decrepit and scarcely able to move, and in danger of starvation. Lodged in one of the huts.
"July 27 .- Crossed the river and visited the Nanticokes who moved here last Spring from Chesapeake Bay, ; and found thein clever, modest people. They too complained of the famine, and told us that their young people had been gone several weeks to the settle- ments to procure food. In the evening the Nanticokes set us over the river. Visited some old people ; also an old man who fetched some wood to make a fire in his hut. He was so weak as to be compelled to crawl on his hands and knees. Mack made the fire, much to the gratitude of the aged invalid.
County, they established "Lawunakhannek." To the former of these villages Zeisberger went in the Autumn of 1767, being, without doubt, the first white man to enter the wilds of Forest County. He had been warned by the Senecas not to attempt this visit-probably because the reputation of the Indians at these two villages was bad-but he went, nevertheless, accompanied by two Christian Indians, and in the evening following his arrival at Goschgoschünk held a religious service. The wildest of the Indians were there-sorcerers and murderers, and some who had been but a short time before engaged in a massacre. It was a rough crowd, even for Zeisberger, to address by the flickering light of a dull fire. Writing of the incident afterwards he said : "Never yet did I see so clearly depicted in the faces of the Indians both the darkness of hell and the world-subduing power of the gospel." The apostle soon saw that he was in a den of paganism, and after a stay of only seven days he returned to eastern Pennsylvania. But the next year the Monseys sent for him to come back to them. He went, and, finding that many of the worst Indians had left that locality, continued as a missionary there during 1768, '69 and part of '70, first at Goschgoschünk and then at Lawunakhannek. Then the Senecas claimed the land thereabout, and in- sisted that the Monseys should leave. (The land at and near this particular place was subsequently granted to the Seneca chief "Cornplanter," as related on page 164.)
April 17, 1770, Zeisberger and his followers left their village on Oil Creek in fifteen canoes. In three days they reached Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg). Proceeding thence down the Ohio, past Logstown to the mouth of the Beaver, they ascended that river. Some fifteen miles up the stream, on its left, or east, bank, near the present town of Newport in Lawrence County, the emigrants found an Indian village inhabited by a community of women, all single and pledged never to marry. (On the 1756 map of Penn- sylvania reproduced in Chapter V there is an Indian town named "Kishkaskies" noted at about that point.) A mile north of this village of misogamists Zeisberger's company landed and erected their cabins. Some time later, however, they removed to a better site on the opposite side of the river, where they built their town, to which Zeisberger gave the name "Friedensstadt" ("City of Peace"). On the 14th of the fol- lowing July Zeisberger was formally adopted into the Monsey clan, with all the ceremonies usual on such occasions.
This new village grew steadily in size and population and many Indians were converted to Christian- ity. When the village was fourteen months old the membership of the Church had increased to 100, and a house of worship was dedicated. Through Zeisberger's agency Moravian missions were soon established in the "Black Forest" region on the upper Muskingum, in what is now the State of Ohio. In the Spring of 1773 the Christian Indians of Friedensstadt left there in a body and accompanied Zeisberger into the "Black Forest," where, in the valley of the Tuscarawas, in what is now Tuscarawas County, they founded three villages-"Gnadenhütten," "Schönbrunn" and "Lichtenau." Zeisberger was assisted in his work here by Heckewelder (mentioned on page 42) and other Moravian Brethren, and they formed the first settlement of whites in the present State of Ohio-excepting such French as had lived in the lake region. "The settlements were governed by a complete set of published laws, and in many respects the experi- ment was an ideality fully achieved. The good influence of the orderly and devout colony spread through the Central West at a time when every influence was bad and growing rapidly worse,"
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