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 41
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| See original letter of the Rev. Richard Peters to Henry Wilmot, Esq., London (under date of May 18, 1774), in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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Albany, which bears the proud distinction of being the oldest city in the United States (having received its charter in 1686), was almost 140 years old, as a settlement, in 1754, and had then borne its present name for exactly ninety years. But it was still a small town, with a population numbering less than 1,000 souls. Gideon Hawley wrote of it in 1753: "This city is very compact. In time of war it is always picketed, and in the many expeditions against Canada it has been the rendezvous of soldiers."
Within the palisaded limits of the town, at the north-east corner of what are now Hudson Avenue and Broadway, not far from the river, stood, in 1754-and for many years after-the old Dutch Stadt Huis, or Court-house. A part of the building was used for the city jail, while close at hand, in an open space outside its walls, stood the public pillory and whipping-post. Many historical associations were connected with this building. In it Governor Dongan met the Iroquois chiefs in 1685 ; Lord Howe's body rested there in state in 1758 ; the first general Con- gress of the English Colonies assembled there in 1764; the Declaration of Independence was publicly read there in 1776, and a mob drove the English judges from the Bench ; from 1797 till 1805 it was used as the New York State Capitol. In a room of this building the Commissioners, or Representatives, called together by Lieutenant Governor De Lancey, met for the first time on Wednesday, June 19, 1754, and began their work as a Congress.
Twenty-four Commissioners (including Lieutenant Governor De Lancey) were present, representing seven Provinces and Colonies. "It was found that Pennsylvania was not alone in appointing a distinguished citizen to represent her. On the roll of the Congress were the names of Lieutenant Governor De Lancey, of New York, who presided ; and from the same Province William Smith, the historian, and the future Sir William Johnson,* not yet made a baronet. *
* Lastly, the two Colonies which had so tenaciously preserved their charter governments through the vicissitudes of more than a century-Connecticut and Rhode Island-had acceded to the repeated solicitations of the home Government, and with unfeigned reluctance, we may be sure, had sent as Representatives men of such wide experience in their colonial con- cerns as Roger Wolcott, Jr., t and Stephen Hopkins.} 'America,' says Mr. Bancroft, 'had never seen an assembly so venerable for the states that were represented, or for the great and able men who composed it.' " § Colonel Stone (mentioned on page 19) calls this "the most august assem- bly which up to that time had ever been held in the western world."
* For his portrait, and a sketch of his life, see Chapter V.
+ ROGER WOLCOTT, JR., was the eldest child of Gov. Roger Wolcott (mentioned on page 259), who, as an officer in the military service upon several occasions, as a member of the Governor's Council, as Deputy Governor, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and as Governor of the Colony, performed many im- portant duties in a satisfactory and noteworthy manner. Besides, he was the progenitor of a famous family. He was born at Windsor, Connecticut, January 4, 1679, and died there May 17, 1767.
Roger Wolcott, Jr., was born at Windsor September 14, 1704. He served in the General Assembly of the Colony as a Representative from his native town ; was a Major in the Connecticut troops, a member of the Governor's Council, a Judge of the Superior Court and one of the revisers of the laws of the Colony. He died October 19, 1759, and "his death was felt as a public loss."
Į STEPHEN HOPKINS was born in Chapumiscook, Scituate, Rhode Island, March 7, 1707, son of William and Ruth ( Wilkinson) Hopkins. He served as a Representative in the General Assembly of Rhode Island fourteen terms-1732 to '52 and 1770 to '75-and was Chief Justice of the Colony in the years 1751-'55. He was a Delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774-'76, and as a member of that body was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. When about to affix his name to that document he remarked : "My hand trembles, but my heart does not !" In 1731 he laid out in streets and lots the town of Providence, Rhode Island, and took up his residence there. In 1750 he founded the Providence town library. He was the author of various pamphlets. He died at Providence July 13, 1785.
¿ From William E. Foster's "Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island Statesman."
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The Commissioners were detained in the hospitable old Dutch town of Albany for three weeks. On Sunday, June 23d, Commissioner Peters preached a sermon to the members of the Congress. Within the next few days the chiefs of the various Indian tribes who had been invited to a conference with the Congress began to arrive in Albany, until there were 103 of them present. Many of them were accom- panied by their families, so that there were altogether several hundred Indians in and about the city for two or more weeks. The first to arrive (on June 27th) was the deputation from the "Lower Castle"* of the Mohawks, headed by Can- adagaia, or "Johanis Canade- gair," their "speaker." The next day the "Canajoharies," or the Mohawks from the "Up- per Castle,"t accompanied by several sachems of each of the other nations' of the Iroquois Confederacy, arrived and were introduced to the Congress. They were headed by old "King" Hendrickt as their "speaker," who, in his opening speech to the Congress, inti- mated that, in a measure, the Six Nations were divided. He "KING" HENDRICK, said that the Mohawks were "blamed for things behind their
the famous Mohawk Sachem, from a picture in oils painted in England in 1710, during Hendrick's visit there.
*"Tehondaloga"-the present Fort Hunter, Montgomery County, New York, on the west side of Schoharie Creek, at its mouth.
" The "Upper Castle" of the Mohawks was located at that time in what is at present the town of Danube, in Herkimer County, New York, on the flat just below the confluence of Nowadaga Creek and the Mohawk River. This place is now known as Indian Castle, from the castle or fort which was built there by the Mohawks in 1710. Sir William Johnson built Fort Canajoharie there in 1756, previous to which time a block-house stood there. As early as 1746, and for many years later, this place was indis- criminately called Canajohare, Canajorha and Canajoharie Castle. It was also known as "Nowadaga." There was a mission church there in 1768-called by writers "the church at Canajoharie"-which Sir William Johnson had assisted in building.
Į Soi-en-ga-rah-ta, or Tejanoge, known as "Hendrick Peters" and as "King Hendrick," was born about 1676. He was one of the Indians who accompanied Colonel Schuyler to England in 1710, as mentioned on page 175. For many years he was chief of the Mohawks at the "Upper Castle"; later he was Principal Sachem of the Mohawk nation, and then, for a number of years preceding his death, Senior Chief of the Iroquois Confederacy. Hence his title, "King." In 1751 he was described, by a writer who met him at Sir William Johnson's table, as a "venerable and noble-looking old chief." He was then about seventy-five years of age, and in that same year he spent some time in the Stockbridge Indian mission-school (men- tioned in the note on page 257) as a student. Hendrick and all his family were christianized.
On September 8, 1755, the battle of Lake George was fought, when the French and Indian forces under Baron Dieskau were defeated by the Colonial and British forces under command of Maj. Gen. (later Sir) William Johnson and Maj. Gen. Phineas Lyman (mentioned on page 281), aided by their Mohawk allies under "King" Hendrick. This was the most important victory gained upon New York soil prior to the Revolution. "Confidence inspired by the victory was of inestimable value to the American army in the War of the Revolution. Defeat would have opened the road to Albany to the French."
The venerable warrior Hendrick was in the eightieth year of his life when the battle of Lake George occurred. He was a large, corpulent man, and upon that occasion wore a brilliant uniform. While riding at the head of his column of Indians he formed a conspicuous mark for the enemy, and was killed at their first fire. He was succeeded in the office of Principal Sachem of the Mohawks by Nicklaus Brant, father of the famous Joseph Brant ; but, says Buell (in "Sir William Johnson," page 158), "as to the other and more exalted distinction which Hendrick had so long held-that of Senior Chief of the Iroquois Confederacy, which was an elective position, not hereditary-it was left vacant for twenty years, until in 1775 Joseph Brant was chosen to fill it." For a further reference to the battle of Lake George and the fall of Hendrick, see note on page 269.
On September 8, 1903, there was unveiled in the State Park on the battle-ground of 1755, at the head of Lake George, a splendid granite and bronze monument erected by The Society of Colonial Wars to
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backs" that they did not deserve. Continuing, he said :
"We are looked upon by the other nations as Colonel Johnson's* counsellors, and supposed to hear all the news from hin1. If we had come first to [the conference] the other nations would have said that we made the Governor's speech, and therefore we remained behind. There are some of our people who have large, open ears, and talk a little broken English and Dutch, so that they sometimes hear what is said by the Christ- ian settlers near them, and by this means we come to understand that we are looked upon to be a proud nation-and therefore we staid behind. * * * 'Tis true, and known we are so, that we the Mohawks are the head of all the other nations. Here they are, and they must own it. *
* But it was not out of pride we Canajoharies staid behind."
The day following the arrival of the deputation headed by "King" Hendrick a considerable number of Stockbridge Indians (see note on page 193) arrived at Albany and were received in conference by the Congress-Timothy Woodbridge, previously mentioned, acting as inter- preter for the Indians. The conferences with the whole body of the Indians took place from day to day until the 9th of July, being, as usual in such cases, spread over a good deal of time and conducted with much speech-making and many other formal doings. It was necessary, in the then condition of affairs, for the English to pay court to the Indians -particularly the Six Nations-and there was no surer method of acquiring their good-will than by respecting their ancient mode of hold- ing councils, and paying due reverence to their ceremonial rites and customs.
To smoke a national pipe, to deliver a belt of wampum, to present a chief with a medal or a flag were, in their eyes, acts of the most momentous importance. To do nothing in a hurry, to deliberate slowly, to measure, as it were, the importance of events by the time devoted to the performance of their ceremonies, were to the Indians very pleasing evidences of capacity for negotiation. The Indian orator loved the pomp of ceremonies, and he felt complimented to see a Euro- pean official respect them. Light talk and flippant manners never failed to be estimated by the old Indian sages at their true worth. They were considered as evidences of the want of sober thought and fixed purpose.
Col. Timothy Pickering, who, between the years 1790 and 1800, as Commissioner in behalf of the United States, conducted several treaties with various Indian tribes, givest the following account of Indian con- ferences in general# :
"Public conferences with the Indians were accompanied with much ceremony, and the interchange of frequent formal addresses. Almost daily the whole body assem- bled, and were placed in order ; the old men and chiefs in front of the Commissioner, the warriors next behind them, then the younger men ; and the women and children in the rear. A speech was expected from the Commissioner and responded to by some famous warrior, or leading chief in the councils of the nations represented at the meet- ing, selected for the purpose. Silence was observed, and the utmost gravity and decorum prevailed. The speeches were uttered slowly, a sentence or brief passage at a time-the interpreter interposing between them the function of his office. To convey the ideas of the speakers of both sides fully and accurately-especially to make them intelligible to the Indian audience-required great care, skill and experience on the part of the in- terpreter."
commemorate the victory of the English and Indian forces. The bronze group of heroic figures which tops the monument represents Johnson and Hendrick in consultation before the battle, when the latter demonstrated to the former the futility of dividing his forces. "When Johnson advised to divide the detachment into three parts Hendrick objected, and to express the impracticability of the plan picked up three sticks, and, putting them together, said to the General: 'You see now that these cannot be easily broken, but take them one by one and you can break them at once.'" The sculptor of the monu- ment modeled the figure of Hendrick after the portrait herewith reproduced. The "King" is attired in Mohawk fashion, his hair shaved close to the scalp and crested with the hair of the deer's tail and feathers of the war-eagle-in the manner described on page 142. A buffalo robe richly ornamented is thrown over his left shoulder.
* Sir William Johnson, previously mentioned.
Į See also page 124, ante.
+ In "Life of Timothy Pickering," III : 70.
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As a result of the Indian conferences conducted by the Albany Congress it was agreed, on the part of the Indians, that they would furnish upon call a force of at least 1,000 picked warriors for general service, provided their commander-in-chief should be Col. William John- son. And in addition to these the Indians undertook to raise a force of at least 600 more to help repel any attempt the French might make against Oswego, or any other salient point within the territory of the Six Nations. On the other hand, the Indians stipulated that their war- riors, when in the field, should receive the same pay, rations and cloth- ing-allowance as the Provincial troops; also, that each warrior, when mustered for actual service, should receive a new blanket, a red flannel shirt, a blue hunting-jacket with red trimmings, and a pair of stout leather or buckskin leggings.
But alliances and compacts with the Indians were not the only matters discussed and determined by this Congress. A "Plan of a pro- posed Union of the several Colonies [eleven in number], for their mutual Defence and Security, and for the extending the British settle- ments in North America," was adopted after considerable debate on July 10th-almost exactly twenty-two years before the Declaration of Inde- pendence. With reference to this "Plan of a proposed Union"* Benjamin Franklin stated in his autobiography : "In our way thither [to Albany] I projected and drew a plan for the union of all the Colonies under one Government. * * As we passed through New York I had there shown my project to Mr. James Alexander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge in public affairs, and, being fortified by their approba- tion, I ventured to lay it before the Congress. It then appeared that sev- eral of the Commissioners had formed plans of the same kind. * *
Mine happened to be preferred, and, with a few amendments, was accord- ingly reported. The debates upon it in Congress went on daily, hand in hand with the Indian business. Many objections and difficulties were started, but at length they were all overcome and the plan was unani- mously agreed to."
Francis W. Halsey declarest that this "famous Plan of Union * in an organic sense marks the beginning of the history of the United States ; and John Bigelow has characterized it as 'the first coherent scheme ever propounded for securing a permanent federal union of the thirteen Colonies.'" President Garfield, in a speech delivered at Albany, declared that in. that city "the germ of the American Union was first planted by Benjamin Franklin in 1754." The fate of Franklin's "Plan" was singular. It was not approved by a single one of the Colonial Assemblies before which it was brought, and no action was ever taken on it in England. It was rejected in America because it was supposed to put too much power into the hands of the King ; and it was rejected in England because it was supposed to give too much power to the Assemblies of the Colonies.
Thus, as we have shown at some length, while the first sharp notes of war were ringing out over beyond the Alleghenies, the men of peace gathered at Albany were preparing for war. The Pennsylvania and Connecticut seekers after Indian land-titles were also, at the same time and place, making good use of their opportunities.
* The same is printed in full in Woodrow Wilson's "History of the American People," II : 342-356.
+ In "The Old New York Frontier," page 63.
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"One day during the public treaty Hendrick held up two belts of wampum, saying that they had been sent by the Proprietaries of Penn- sylvania for the purchase of a large tract in south-western Pennsylvania. The Governor of New York immediately wished to know how far north this purchase was intended to extend. He was told that it would in- clude all the West Branch of the Susquehanna, none of which was farther north than 41° 30'. Governor De Lancey then replied that since this matter concerned only Pennsylvania it might be transacted in private, and no record thereof should appear upon the minutes of the Conference. The Pennsylvania commission insisted that all their land purchases had ever been conducted in the most public manner, and they desired that this one might be recorded. In this they were overruled by the Joint-Commission (the Congress), and it was decided that the Clerk should take no notice on the minutes of what Hendrick had said. This ruling of the Joint-Commission threw all land negotiations out of the general conference and made them private, thus aiding the plans of the Connecticut agents, and sowing the seeds of distrust and suspicion among the Indians."*
It may, with truth, be stated that this ruling of the Congress bene- fited and aided the plans of the Pennsylvania agents just as much as it did those of the Connecticut agents. It did not, in any way, hamper or interfere with the rights or privileges of either party. The officers and agents of the Susquehanna Company had openly and freely announced, during many months previously, that they proposed to attempt to pur- chase the Wyoming lands from the Six Nations. On the other hand, the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, with all their prestige, power and wealth, had been racing to get ahead of and circumvent the New Eng- landers. As we have previously shown, they had sent "John Shikel- limy" early in the Spring of 1754 to some of the Six Nations, to pave the way for negotiations to be conducted later at Albany by Penn and Peters.
About the middle of June Shikellimy brought with him to Albany a certain Gagradoda, a Cayugan chief, who, under the influence of Shikellimy, had just persuaded the Cayugas and Oneidas into a will- ingness to sell lands to the Proprietaries. When Conrad Weiser arrived at Albany a few days later he "took Gagradoda to his lodgings, where, for a liberal reward, he engaged him to serve as a private councillor and to direct what measures should be taken to secure the cooperation of the Indians. This kind of lobbying had grown to be quite common among the Six Nations. After a few days spent in sounding the opinions of the most influential Indians, Gagradoda reported to Weiser that all the nations except the Oneidas were quite favorable to selling all south- western Pennsylvania. The objecting nation insisted that the affair should be deferred until the arrival of the Mohawks. This inovement put the control of the affair into the hands of Hendrick."t
As we have previously stated, "King" Hendrick and his followers did not reach Albany until June 28th, nine days after the Congress had begun its sittings. It was generally understood, by the Pennsylvanians and others, that Hendrick "was anxious to negotiate the sale" to the Susquehanna Company ; while the agents of that Company-the men
* Walton's "Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania," page 285.
+ From Walton's "Conrad Weiser" (previously referred to), page 285.
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who were "on the inside"-were firmly convinced that Hendrick was immovably committed to their interests .* He was well acquainted with, and apparently had great regard for, Timothy Woodbridge, whom he had first met at the Indian mission in Stockbridge. Besides, when the Six Nations had sold certain lands in south-eastern Pennsylvania to the Proprietaries some years previously, the Mohawks received no portion of the proceeds from that sale-it being held that they "had no con- quest rights" to the lands in question ; and it was now understood that the lands which the Proprietaries desired to purchase were, by right of conquest, strictly Cayuga and Oneida lands, and that in case of a sale of them the Mohawks, as before, would probably not derive any benefit. In the circumstances, therefore, it behooved each party to court the favor and secure the support of "King" Hendrick. As we shall show,t the agents of the Proprietaries won him completely over to their side.
As soon as the Congress had decided that the sale of lands from the Indians to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania should be neither discussed nor consummated at the meetings of that body, the agents of the Pro- prietaries arranged to meet the Indians at the house of Jaines Steven- son in Albany ; and there, on the 4th and 5th days of July, several con- ferences were held with some seventy Mohawk and other Indians. "King" Hendrick did most of the talking for the Indians, and from his several speechest we have extracted the following paragraphs :
"We desire you will content yourself with what we shall now grant you. We will never part with the land at Shamokin and Wyomink. Our bones are scattered there, and on this land there has always been a great Council-fire. We desire you will not take it amiss that we will not part with it, for we reserve it to settle such of our nations upon as shall come to us from the Ohio, or any others who shall desire to be in our alliance. * * * We have heard since we came here that our Brother Onas and our Brother of New England have had some disputes about the lands of Susquehanna ; but we desire you would not differ with one another about it, for neither shall have it. We will not part with it to either of you. *
* * We have appointed 'John Shikellimy' to take care of the lands. He is our representative there, and has our orders not to suffer either Onas' people or the New Englanders to settle there."?
As a result of these conferences at James Stevenson's a deed was executed on July 6th, which was signed by "King" Hendrick, his brother Abraham (mentioned on page 229, ante) and twenty other chiefs, representing all the tribes of the Six Nations. This deed con- veyed to Thomas and Richard Penn, in consideration of £400, New York currency, all the lands within the Province of Pennsylvania bounded by a line beginning on the west bank of the Susquehanna River at the Kittatinny Mountains ; running thence up the river to a point a mile above the mouth of what is now known as Penn's Creek (about four miles south of the junction of the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna) ; thence a straight course north-west "as far as the said Province of Pennsylvania extends to its western lines or bound- aries"|| ; thence along the said western boundary to the southern bound- ary-line of the Province; thence along the southern boundary-line to the Kittatinny Mountains, and thence along said mountains to the place of beginning.
* See the deposition of the Hon. Stephen Hopkins, page 291.
+ See also Miner's "Wyoming," page 91, and Walton's "Conrad Weiser," pages 283-289.
Į See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI : 116, 119.
¿ With further reference to this matter see "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 81.
" On the 1756 Map of Pennsylvania (reproduced in Chapter V) this north-west line is shown, extend- ing to the south-eastern shore of Lake Erie.
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This conveyance, in connection with the previous conveyances from the natives (as hereinbefore referred to) to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, put the latter in possession of the Indian title to all the lands within the Charter bounds of Pennsylvania except a section in the northern and northern-central part of the Province. That section of unsold territory was almost triangular in shape, being bounded on the north by the New York-Pennsylvania boundary-line, on the south-west by the line from the Susquehanna above Penn's Creek to Lake Erie, and on the south-east by the line from the mouth of Mahanoy Creek to the mouth of the Lackawaxen on the Delaware (as mentioned on page 232). Within this unsold section were included, of course, all the lands lying along the North Branch of the Susquehanna, and a small portion of those along the West Branch.
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