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 5

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 720

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 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

According to Henry R. Schoolcraft* and others who have written about the North American Indians, the Susquehannocks, Minquas, Gandastogués or Andastés were a powerful tribe-"a brave, proud and high-spirited nation"-of aboriginals who, at a very early day, inhabited, principally, the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, near its head, within what is now the State of Maryland. The first of the four names men- tioned above was, apparently, an appellation given these Indians by the Virginia tribes ; the second, that given them by the Algonkins on the Delaware; while Gandastogué as the French, or Conestoga as the English, wrote it, was their own tribal name, meaning "cabin-pole men" -natio perticarum-from andasta, "a cabin-pole."t On this point Prof. A. L. Guss, author of "Early Indian History on the Susquehanna,"# says : "We can rest assured that 'Sasquesahanocks' [Sus- quehannocks] is a Tock- wock, or Nanticoke, term, and not the term that those 'gyants' applied to them- selves. There is no subse- quent evidence that they called themselves by any such name as Sasquesahan- ocks, or that they were so called by any other Iroquois tribe, unless it was after they got it from the English."

Captain John Smith, who visited and circumnavigated Chesapeake Bay in 1608, furnishes in his "Generall Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles" (originally published in London in 1624) the first account of these Indians. He refers to them as the A SUSQUEHANNOCK CHIEF. "Sasquesahanocks," num- From an original sketch by F. O. C. Darley, in possession of the author. bering 600 warriors (which would denote a population of about 3,000 souls), and being a "gyant like people" who "spoke in

* See his "History of the Indian Tribes of the United States," edition of 1857, pages 128, 131, 137 and 142. ¡ See Larned's "History for Ready Reference," I : 105.

Į See[ Egle's "Historical Register," I : 252-267.

VIEW UP THE SUSQUEHANNA FROM THE NORTH STREET BRIDGE. From a photograph taken in 1901.

a hollow tone with a full enunciation," and who, "when fighting, never fled, but stood like a wall as long as there was one [Indian] remain- ing." Captain Smith was, without doubt, the first white man that met Indians who resided within the present limits of Pennsylvania.

In 1608 one of the towns of the Susquehannocks was exactly at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, and other of their towns were located at various points up the river for some distance. Professor Guss says that "the chief town of the Susquehannocks was at the time of Smith's exploration probably near the mouth of Conestoga Creek," on the Susquehanna River, within the present limits of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. On a very early map of the Province of Penn- sylvania* "Sasquahana Indian Fort" is indicated near the "Great Fall" in the Susquehanna, at no great distance from the river's mouth.

Prior to 1600 the Susquehannocks and the Mohawks came into collision, and the former nearly exterminated the latter in a war that lasted ten years. In 1608 Captain Smiith found them still contending with each other, equally resolute and warlike; the Susquehannocks being impregnable in their palisaded towns, and ruling over all the Algonkin tribes. About the year 1630 the Susquehannocks claimed the exclusive right to the country lying between the Susquehanna and Potomac rivers. This was their hunting-ground, and marked the boundary-line between their jurisdiction and that of the Powhatanic confederacy of Virginia. Whatever were the local names of the bands occupying the banks of the several intermediate rivers, these bands were merely subordinate to the reigning tribe, primarily located near the mouth and along the shores of the Susquehanna.

It is very probable that the Susquehannocks, or Conestogas, had occupied for many years not only the country about the lower Susque- hanna, but that as late as 1534, at least, their territory extended as far north as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and was contiguous to that of the Iroquois, or Five Nations-later the Six Nations-on the north before the Lenni Lenâpés, or Delawares, began their westward movement.t

The Susquehannocks were, undoubtedly, a branch of the great Huron-Iroquois family. From time immemorial they were friends and allies of the Hurons (a segregated Iroquois tribe), and not over friendly to the Five Nations. In 1647 the Susquehannocks, then able to place in the field 1,300 warriors (who had been trained to the use of fire-arms by three Swedish soldiers), despatched an embassy to Lake Huron with an offer to espouse the quarrel of the Hurons with the Iroquois, and a request that when the Hurons (who were then on the brink of ruin) needed aid they would call on the Susquehannocks. This proposed alliance failed, however.

In 1661 the Susquehannock towns were ravaged by small-pox, and the loss resulting from this scourge was such as to weaken the tribe greatly. In this same year, also, some of the tribe were cut off by the Seneca Indians (one of the tribes of the Iroquois, or Five Nation, con- federacy). In 1663 an army of 1,600 Senecas marched against the Susquehannocks and laid siege to a little fort defended by 100 warriors of that tribe, who, confident in their own bravery and of receiving assistance from their brethren, held out manfully. At last, sallying out

* See Egle's "History of Pennsylvania," p. 92.

+ See "Report on Indians in the United States at the Eleventh Census (1890)," page 277.

from the fort, they routed the Senecas, killing ten and recovering as many of their own people who had been captured by the Senecas.

Concerning the Susquehannocks George Alsop wrote as follows in 1666, in his "Character of the Province of Maryland" :

"They are a people lookt upon by the Christian Inhabitants as the most Noble and Heroic Nation of Indians that dwell upon the Confines of America. Also, are so allowed and lookt upon by the rest of the Indians by a submissive and tributary acknowledg- ment, being a people cast into the mould of a most large and warlike deportment, the men being for the most part seven foot high in latitude, and in magnitude and bulk suit- able to so high a pitch ; their voyce large and hollow, as ascending out of a Cave ; their gate and behavior strait, stately and majestick, treading on the Earth with as much pride, contempt and disdain to so sordid a Center as can be imagined from a creature derived from the same mould and Earth.

"These Susquehannock Indians are for the most part great Warriors, and seldom sleep one Summer in the quiet armes of a peaceable Rest, but keep, by their present power as well as by their former conquest, the several Nations of Indians round about them in a forceable obedience and subjection. Their government is an Anarchy. He that fights best carries it. * * ** They now and then feed on the carcasses of their * enemies. They intomb the ruines of their deceased conquest in no other Sepulchre than their unsanctified maws.

"They are situated a hundred and odd miles distant from the Christian Plantations of Mary Land, at the head [mouth?] of a river that runs into the Bay of Chesapike, called by their own name the Susquehannock River, where they remain and inhabit most part of the Summer time, and seldom remove far from it, unless it be to subdue any Forreign Rebellion. About November the best Hunters draw off to several remote places of the Woods, where they know the Deer, Bear and Elk useth. There they build several cottages, where they remain for the space of three months."

The Susquehannocks seem to have been in almost continuous war- fare with the Iroquois from the year 1663 until 1675, when the former were completely overthrown. In the year last mentioned a party of about 100 Susquehannocks, having retreated from Pennsylvania into Maryland, became involved there in a war with the colonists and were well-nigh exterminated. The remaining members of the tribe sub- mitted to the Iroquois, who removed some of them from their old position near the mouth of the Susquehanna to one farther up the river -perhaps to or near Tioga Point, previously mentioned. All the rest of the Susquehannocks were forced to dwell at their old town of Conestoga.

At a council held with the Six Nation Indians at Philadelphia, in October, 1736, at which the Hon. Thomas Penn, one of the Proprie- taries of Pennsylvania, was present, the Indians were told :* "The lands on Sasquehannah, we believe, belong to the Six Nations by the conquest of the Indians of that river."

On the first arrival (in 1681) of the English in Pennsylvania messengers from Conestoga came to welcome them with presents of venison, corn and skins ; and in June, 1683, the whole tribe-together with the Lenni Lenâpés and other Indian nations-entered into a treaty of friendship (the "Great Treaty") with the first Proprietary, William Penn, under the ancient elm at Shackamaxon on the Delaware, which treaty was "to last as long as the sun should shine or the waters run into rivers."+ In 1701 Canoodagtoh, styled "King of the Susque- hannas," made a treaty at Philadelphia with William Penn, who was preparing to return to England, and in the record of that treaty the Indians are denominated "Minquas, Conestogas or Susquehannas."

"Jealous of their tribal sovereignty, the Susquehannocks added, by intestine wars, to the natural deaths produced by decay and intemperance; and when, like the other tribes, they began to assert their rights and

* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IV : 94.

+ See "Pennsylvania-Colonial and Federal," I : 286.

sovereignty, and resist the encroachments of Europeans, they had already diminished so much in population that they lacked the ability to main- tain their ground. They were outwitted in diplomacy by a civilized nation, and if they did not disappear before the steady progress of arts, industry and genius among the colonists, they were enervated during peace and conquered in war."*

They still continued to hunt on their old grounds in southern Pennsylvania and in Maryland, and even ventured beyond the Potomac into Virginia. This caused a disagreement between them and the southern Indians, and the loss of their king in a skirmish in the year 1719. In consequence they applied to Governor Keith of Pennsylvania for protection, and in the Spring of 1721 the Governor went to Virginia to consult with the Governor of that Colony as to the best plan for the security or common safety of the Indians. As a result of this interview Governor Keith notified the Six Nations and the Susquehannocks, or Conestogas as they were now generally called, that he would meet their representatives in conference on July 5, 1721, at Conestoga. Thither the Governor journeyed from Philadelphia, accompanied by seventy well-inounted and armed horsemen. In the course of the conference, which lasted several days, the Governor addressed the Conestogas as his "children," and referred to the Six Nations as their "friends." He reminded the former that their oppressor, Nathaniel Bacon of Virginia, had fallen a victim.to his passions in 1677; that the then Governor of Virginia was their friend, and that he requested them not to cross the Potomac in future-promising that his Indians should not disturb the Conestogas in their hunting-grounds. "I have made this agreement, which you must keep," said Governor Keith. "It is but a few years since William Penn spoke to your nation in council, which your chiefs must well remember. Onast gave you good counsel, which you must never forget." A Conestoga chief replying to Governor Keith said : "The roots of the Tree of Friendship are planted deep ; the tree top is high ; the branches spread in warm weather when the weary Indian sleeps beneath its shade. So is the Indian protected by Onas when danger threatens from the deep and dark thicket. We have not for- gotten Onas ; he promised us protection at Shackamaxon."}

At a treaty held in 1742 the Conestogas appeared as a tribe, but they were then dwindling away. In 1763 the feeble remnant of the tribe was exterminated by the "Paxtang Boys."§

Variou's origins and meanings have been ascribed by historians and etymologists to the name "Susquehannock." Some of the earliest writers on the subject assumed that the Indians gave their naine to the river ; but this seems highly improbable, for the word "Susquehannock" describes clearly and appositely the well-known peculiar characteristics of the river upon whose banks this particular tribe of Indians had its home. It was looked upon, and spoken of, as their river, and naturally, therefore, to the Indians themselves the name of their river

* Schoolcraft's "History of the Indian Tribes," page 135.

+ An Indian word signifying "feather" or "quill." By it William Penn, during his lifetime, was usually designated by the Indians; but later they used the word generally as their name for the Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania.

Į See Hazard's Pennsylvania Register (February, 1835), XV : 138.

¿ See "The Harvey Book," page 747.

came in time to be applied by other tribes or nations. Heckewelder* states :

"The Indians (Lenâpé) distinguish the river which we call Susquehanna, thus : The North Branch they call M'chweuwamisipu, or, to shorten it, M'chweuwormink, from which we have called it Wyoming. The word implies : The river on which are exten- sive, clear flats. The Six Nations, according to Pyriæus [a Moravian missionary], call it Gahonta, which had the same meaning. The West Branch they call Quenischachachgek- hanne ; but to shorten it they say Quenischachachki. This word implies : The river which has the long reaches, or straight courses, in it. From the forks, where now the town of Northumberland stands, downwards, they have a name (this word I have lost) which implies the Great Bay River. The word Susquehanna, properly Sisquehanne, from Siska for mud and hanne a stream, was probably at an early time of the settling of this country overheard by some white person, while the Indians were at the time of a flood or freshet remarking : 'Jah ! Achsisquehanne,' or 'Sisquehanna,' which is How muddy the stream is ! and therefore taken as the proper name of the river."

Professor Guss, however, declines to accept this theory and says (see Egle's "Historical Register") : "Heckewelder was long a missionary among the Delawares. He was so prejudiced in their favor that he could 'Delawareize' almost any word." Nevertheless, in 1884 certain Delaware chiefs who, in all probability, had never heard of Heckewelder (who had then been dead for more than sixty years), stated that the name Susquehanna was derived from "A-theth-qua-nee" in their language, meaning "the roily river."t

Roberts Vaux, a Philadelphia Quaker, who, at an early date, was a diligent inquirer into matters relating to the Indians, gave "Saosqua- hanunk" as the original name of the Susquehanna ; its meaning being "a long, crooked river." J. R. Simms, in his "Frontiersmen of New York," originally published in 1845, describes the name Susquehanna as "an aboriginal word said to signify crooked river "; and J. Fenimore Cooper (whose home was at the source of the Susquehanna) gives that meaning to the river's name in his novel "The Pioneers." John Binns, familiar for a period of many years (beginning in the latter part of the eighteenth century) with the hydrography, history and traditions of the Susque- hanna, states in his "Life": "Susquehanna is the Indian name of the river. The ineaning of the word is said to be 'the river with the rocky bottom.' Never was a river more correctly named."

The Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, S. T. D., of Syracuse, New York, who is recognized as one of the leading and most reliable authorities of the present day on the Iroquois and other Indian languages, customs, etc., gives "Quenischachschgekhanne as a word from which Heckewelder once thought Susquehanna might have been derived by corruption." This word means "river with long reaches"-a fair equivalent for "long, crooked river," and one giving a more accurate description of the river than the word meaning "muddy stream."

F. W. Halsey says (page 19 of "The Old New York Frontier", previously mentioned) :

"The Iroquois had another name for the Susquehanna, Ga-wa-no-wa-na-neh, which means 'great island,' and to which Gehunda, the common word for river, was added to get Great Island River. At the mouth of the stream, lying squarely athwart it, is an island perhaps a mile long, that was formerly known as Palmer's Island, but later has

* JOHN G. B. HECKEWELDER, born in England in 1743 ; died at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1823. From 1765 to 1771 he was employed as a teacher at the Moravian missions at Friedenshütten and Sheshe- quin, in Pennsylvania. He then became an evangelist and was appointed assistant to David Zeisberger, with whom he labored in Ohio. He studied carefully the language, manners and customs of the Indians- particularly the Delawares. In 1810 he returned from Ohio to Bethlehem, where he engaged in literary pursuits until his death. Among the various books concerning the Indians which he published was one (in 1822) bearing this title : "Names which the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware, Indians gave to Rivers, Streams and Localities within the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia ; with their Significations."

+ See "Transactions of the Buffalo (N. Y.) Historical Society" (1885), III : 102, 103.

been called Watson's Island. It lies exactly where lived the Susquehanna Indians. The mainland opposite has been found to be very rich in weapons, domestic utensils, etc., many thousands of specimens having been found. * * * The Susquehanna is remark- able elsewhere for the number and size of its islands, especially in Pennsylvania."

Professor Guss, in his article previously referred to on page 38, says that he knows "of no authority" for the meaning "long, crooked river" applied to the word "Susquehannock" or "Susquehanna"; and that the word signifying "the river with rocks" is of Shawanese origin. As will be shown in the chapter following this, the Shawanese Indians did not become occupants of the Susquehanna River region in north- eastern and eastern-central Pennsylvania until about the years 1725-'28 ; therefore it is hardly probable that prior to this period a name of Shaw- anese origin would have been selected by the Susquehannock or any other Indian tribe for this important and well-known river. It was at a still later period than this that the Shawanese, Delawares and other Indians living on the upper branches of the river were referred to as "the Susquehanna Indians."

Professor Guss entertains the opinion that the Susquehannock Indians derived their name from that of the river, and he holds that this name means "brook-stream" or "spring-water-stream"; wherefore the Indians living along, or at the mouth of, this stream were called by other tribes "Susquehannocks, or brook-stream-land-ers, or spring-water- stream-region-people." This may appear to some readers to be a fanciful meaning, but it is not more so than some of the other meanings given to the word. It really accurately describes the character of the river, for, from its source to its mouth, it is fed by a remarkably large number of brooks, creeks and small rivers that have their rise in mountain springs. This fact being generally known to the aboriginals, the tribe or nation living along the shores of this river would, very probably, be referred to by contemporary tribes as the people living in the region of the river fed by spring-water brooks ; or, in the picturesque language of the Indians, as "brook-stream-land-ers."

In line, apparently, with the opinion of Professor Guss it is stated in "Bulletin No. 197 of the United States Geological Survey" (page 248), published in 1902, that "Susquehanna is derived from an Indian word, suckahanne, meaning 'water'."

It may be that the true meaning of the word "Susquehannock," or "Susquehanna," has vanished, never to be recovered, just as the nation that bore this name long ago disappeared ; but, whether this be so or not, the name of that nation will be perpetuated by their noble river, which is a more enduring memorial than the perishable monu- ments erected by man.

Of the many valleys through which the Susquehanna courses its way seaward the most noted in history, poetry and legend, the richest in material wealth and, in the opinion of many, the most charming and attractive in physical features is Wyoming Valley-"an island of beauty in a sea of billowy mountains." It is situated in Luzerne County, in north-eastern Pennsylvania, and is formed by detached, outlying ranges of the Allegheny mountain-system. Its shape is that of a long oval, or elliptical, basin, a little more than sixteen miles in length from north- east to south-west, with an average breadth of three miles .* Its upper

* See the maps and reports of the United States Geological Survey relating to Pennsylvania, pub- lished in 1894. According to these it is 16.1 miles in a bee-line from the face of Campbell's Ledge to Nanticoke Falls.

end lies in latitude 41° 21' north, and in longitude 75° 47' west from Greenwich ; while its lower end is in latitude 41° 13' north, and in longitude 76° 1' west.

Nearly in the center of the valley, chiefly on an oblong plain elevated from twenty-five to thirty-five feet above the surface of the river at its lowest level, lies Wilkes-Barré, the latitude of whose Public Square (almost centrally located in the town) is 41° 14' 40.4" north, and its longitude 1° 10' 4.6" east from Washington, or 75° 49' 55.4" west from Greenwich, as shown by the second geological survey of Penn- sylvania, made in 1881. According to the United States survey previ- ously referred to, however, the longitude of Public Square is 75° 52' 55" west. The elevation of Wilkes-Barré above mean sea-level ranges from 531.5 feet at the base of the monument on the River Common near Northampton Street, or 541 feet at the base of the geological survey monument in Public Square, to 731 feet on the heights in the eastern and south-eastern parts of the town. The low-water level of the Susquehanna at Wilkes-Barré is 506 feet above mean sea-level .*

Wilkes-Barré lies south, 57° 50' west, 149.8 miles in a bee-line (212 miles by railway) from Albany, New York ; north, 70° 34' west, 107.5 miles in a bee-line (176 miles by railway) from the city of New York ; north, 25° 8' west, 97.9 miles in a bee-line (145 miles by railway) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and north, 36° 59' east, 89.3 miles in a bee-line (118 miles by railway) from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The short mountain-range forming the north-eastern, eastern and south-eastern boundary of Wyoming Valley is known as Wilkes-Barré Mountain, and that forming the north-western, western and south- western boundary is called Shawanese Mountain. The continuation of the Wilkes-Barré range in a north-easterly direction from the head of Wyoming Valley is known by the name of Lackawanna Mountain ; while the continuation of Shawanese Mountain beyond and north-east- wardly from the Susquehanna at the head of the valley is called Capouse Mountain. That part of Wilkes-Barré Mountain lying between Laurel Run and Solomon's Creek was called in 1809-'13 (and, perhaps, before those years as well as later) "Bullock's Mountain"-evidently from Nathan Bullock, who, with his family, was an early settler on the mountain.

Paralleling the Wilkes-Barré-Lackawanna range on the south-east, and lying near it, is a much longer and higher, although more broken and irregular, range bearing different names in different localities. At its south-west end, and thence for several miles north-easterly, it is known as Penobscot Mountain ; next for some distance it has the name Wyoming Mountain ;; then, farther on in a north-easterly direction, its name is Bald, then Jacob's, then Moosic, and then, near the boundary- line of the counties of Lackawanna and Wayne, Cobb's Mountain.

That part of Wyoming Mountain which lies in an easterly and a south-easterly direction from Wilkes-Barré is, in a marked degree, a

* On the records of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Luzerne County an entry was made in 1865 setting forth that at that period the low-water level of the Susquehanna at Wilkes-Barre was 512.9 feet above tide-water. (See Pearce's "Annals of Luzerne County," Appendix, page 561.) It has since been shown, however, that at the time mentioned the true low-water level was only 506.93 feet above tide-water. (See "Collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society," I : 23.)

¿ Locally this mountain was often called in earlier years "Five-Mile Mountain", for the reason that its north-western face, near the summit, is, for a considerable stretch, five miles distant from the Sus- quehanna.

VIEW OF WYOMING VALLEY FROM PROSPECT ROCK.

broad plateau or table-land, having an elevation ranging from 1,500 to 1,800 feet above sea-level, with here and there knobs and short ridges rising up from 100 to 300 feet higher. One of the most elevated of the knobs (2,100 feet above sea-level) is five and a-half miles, "as the crow flies," in a south-easterly direction from the left bank of the river opposite Richard's Island (mentioned on page 52), and about a mile and a-quarter north of Crystal Lake in Bear Creek Township; and at this elevated point the boundary-lines of the borough of Laurel Run and the townships of Hanover, Fairview and Bear Creek meet. South-west of this about one and three-quarters miles is Penobscot Knob-with an elevation of 2,140 feet-which commands a view of nearly the whole of Wyoming Valley and a wide extent of territory besides.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 5

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press Number of Pages: 720

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 720