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 62
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The conference with Teedyuscung and other chiefs having been held it was arranged that Post should set out from Philadelphia with- out delay, accompanied by Willamegicken and Pisquetomen, previously mentioned, and certain other Indians. On July 15th Post proceeded to Germantown, where he found all the Indians drunk. The following paragraphs, descriptive of Post's experiences at this time, are from his journal. §
"July 16, 1758 .- This day I waited for the said Willamegicken till near noon, and when he came, being very drunk, he could proceed no farther; so that I left him and went to Bethlehem. * * July 19 .- With much difficulty I persuaded the Indians to leave Bethlehem. 20th .- Arrived at Fort Allen. 21st .- I called my company together to know if we should proceed. They complained they were sick, and must rest that day. This day I think Teedyuscung laid many obstacles in my way, and was very much against my proceeding. He said he was afraid I should never return, and that the Indians would kill me. About dinner time two Indians arrived from Wyoming with an account that Teedyuscung's son, Hans Jacob, | was returned, and brought news from the French and Allegheny Indians. Teedyuscung then called a council, and proposed that I should go only to Wyoming and return to Philadelphia with the message his son had brought: I made answer that it was too late. * * 22d .- I desired my compan- ions to prepare to set out, upon which Teedyuscung called them all together in the fort and protested against my going. His reasons were that he was afraid the Indians would kill me or the French get me. * * 'It is plain,' said I, 'that the French have a public road to your towns, yet you will not let your own flesh and blood, the English, come near them, which is very hard; and if that be the case, the French must be your masters.' Immediately after I had spoken thus three rose up and offered to go with me the near- est way."
Post, accompanied by Pisquetomen and the other Indians, extended his journey to Kuskuskis, previously mentioned, then the home of King
* KEKEUSCUNG, whose name signifies "The Healer," was accounted a great warrior, and in earlier years had often joined the Six Nations in their wars against the Cherokees.
+ PISQUETOMEN was a Delaware captain and counselor of some note who lived on the Allegheny River; or, perhaps, at Kuskuskis, an important center for Delaware Indians, on the Mahoning Branch of Beaver River, in what is now Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Pisquetomen accompanied Post on his embassy to the western Delawares in July, 1758, and returned with him. He again accompanied Post on his embassy to the same Indians in October, 1758, after the treaty at Easton.
# See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, III : 437.
¿ See "Early Western Travels," I : 185. | Capt. John Jacob, who had been despatched by Teedyuscung in April to the Delawares and others on the Allegheny. See page 368.
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Beaver (see page 326). The latter was informed by Post that Teedyus- cung had said that he had "turned the hatchet against the French by advice of the Allegheny Indians." This information seemed to annoy King Beaver, and the next day he and his captains called on Post privately and wanted to hear what Teedyuscung had said about them. "I read to them," states Post in his journal, "what Teedyuscung had said, and told them (as Teedyuscung had said he would speak so loud that all at Allegheny and beyond should hear it) I would conceal nothing from them. They said they never sent any such advice, as mentioned, to Teedyuscung, nor ever sent a message at all to the Government. *
-X- In the afternoon the Indian kings and cap- tains desired me to read them the writings that I had. First I read part of the Easton treaty to them, but they presently stopped me and would not hear it. I then began with the Articles of Peace made with the Indians there, and they stopped me again and said they had nothing to say to any treaty or league of peace made at Easton, nor had they anything to do with Teedyuscung. * I then showed them the belts and strings from the Governor, and they again told me to lay aside Teedyuscung and the peace made by him, for that they had nothing to do with it." Evidently Teedyuscung had been enlarging upon his own importance, and to this end giving unwarrantable information, when, in March, 1758 (see page 366), he reported to the Government what he had been accomplishing.
While Post was performing his important work in the Ohio region Teedyuscung was urging the Senecas and some of the other Six Nations and the Minisinks to consent to send deputies to a great peace confer- ence. As a result of Teedyuscung's efforts there arrived at Wyoming in the latter part of July, 1758, five Minisink chiefs and Eyendeegen, or "John Hudson,"* a Seneca chief. Having spent several days with Teedyuscung they proceeded onward, accompanied by Capt. John Jacob and Sam Evans-Teedyuscung's son and half-brother, respectively. On August 3d this party arrived in Philadelphia, and there arrangements were made for holding a treaty at Easton. It was understood that this treaty was to be held, chiefly, for the adjustment of land boundaries, and for the purpose of extending and brightening the Chain of Friend- ship-not only between the Indians themselves, but between their nations collectively and the whites.
September 12, 1758, Governor Denny informed the Assembly that a general meeting of Indians in conference had been agreed upon, to take place at Easton ; that he had just received intelligence that many Indians had already arrived on the frontiers-128 having reached Fort Allen, where they intended to remain till the opening of the conference ; that the Governor of the Jerseys had agreed to attend, and that Sir Wil- liam Johnson and the Governors of New York, Maryland and Virginia had been invited to be present. The Assembly formally approved the project and appointed a committee of eight of its members to attend the conference. By the middle of September Teedyuscung and a number of Indians from Wyoming had arrived in Easton, where they proceeded to make themselves at home while waiting for the coming off of the im- portant event which had brought them thither. On September 25th, at a meeting of the Provincial Council in Philadelphia, there was read a
* See foot-note, paragraph "(i)", page 207.
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letter from Conrad Weiser "giving an account of the ill behavior of Teedyuscung and the Indians at Easton." Whereupon it was resolved that the Rev. Richard Peters (Provincial Secretary) be requested to go there immediately to keep the Indians in order. It was also ordered that there be prepared and printed a proclamation prohibiting the sale of rum to the Indians.
When the conference was formally opened on Sunday, October 8th, there were in Easton in the neighborhood of 500 Indians-males and females, young and old ; there being, according to the official records, some 350 exclusive of those from Wyoming. Among the whites who were present were Governor Denny, members of the Council and of the Assembly, the Commissioners for Indian Affairs in New Jersey, Conrad Weiser, George Croghan, and a large number of Quakers from Philadel- phia. Stone, Miner, Pearce and other writers of Wyoming history have stated that Sir William Johnson, also, was present. He was not, but was represented by Colonel Croghan, one of his Deputies. Governor Bernard of New Jersey joined the conference when it had been in session three days, and demanded that the Monseys deliver up the captives taken from his Province. All the tribes of the Six Nations took part in the treaty ; but the Mohawks were represented by only one man- Nikes Carigiagtatie, mentioned on page 279, ante-who was accom- panied by his wife and two sons, while the Cayugas were represented by a single chief, Kandt, or Tokahoyon, alias "Last Night." The Senecas were represented by Takeghsatu (mentioned on page 277, ante), "the chief man of all the Senecas," by Sayenqueraghta (mentioned on page 235), "a war captain," by six other chiefs, thirty-seven other men, twenty- eight women and several children. Of the Nanticokes and Conoys, Chief Robert White, thirty-seven men and women and eighteen children were in attendance. Saguhsonyont, alias "Thomas King," a chief of the Oneidas, was the principal man of his tribe present. He lived at Oghwaga, mentioned in the note on page 257. Tuteloes, Chugnuts, Wapings, or Pumptons (from Goshen, New York), Mohegans (with old Abraham from Wyoming at their head), Monseys and, last of all, Tee- dyuscung "with the Unamies" from Wyoming, were the other Indians in attendance. Capt. Andrew Montour interpreted for the Six Nations, and for the Delawares Isaac Still and Moses Tatemy served.
Early in the conference Takeghsatu, the Seneca, who was the principal speaker on the part of the Indians, addressed himself to Gov- ernor Denny and the Pennsylvanians in these words* :
"Brethren-I now speak at the request of Teedyuscung and our cousins, the Dela- wares, living at Wyoming and on the waters of the River Susquehanna. We now remove the hatchet out of your heads that was struck into them by our cousins, the Delawares. It was a French hatchet that they unfortunately made use of, by the instigation of the French. We take it out of your heads and bury it under the ground, where it shall always rest and never be taken up again. Our cousins, the Delawares, have assured us they will never think of war against their brethren, the English, any more, but will employ their thoughts about peace and cultivating friendship with them, and never suffer enmity against them to enter into their minds again."
Two or three days later Nikes, the Mohawk, stood up and, address- ing himself to Governors Denny and Bernard, saidt :
"We thought proper to meet you here to have some discourse about our nephew Teedyuscung. You all know that he gives out that he is a great man and Chief of ten nations. This is his constant discourse. Now I, on behalf of the Mohawks, say that we do not know he is such a great man. If he is such a great man we desire to know who
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 181.
+ See ibid., 190, 191.
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made him so. Perhaps you have; and if this be the case, tell us so. It may be the French have made him so. We want to inquire, and know whence his greatness arose."
Takeghisatu, on behalf of the Senecas, spoke next, as follows :
"Brethren, I for my nation say the same that Nikes has done. I need not repeat it. I say we do not know who has made Teedyuscung this great man over ten nations, and I want to know who made him so."
Then Assarandonquas spoke on behalf of the Onondagas, and said :
"I am here to represent the Onondagas, and I say for them that I never heard before now that Teedyuscung was such a great man ; and much less can I tell who made him so. No such thing was ever said in our town as that Teedyuscung was such a great man."
Then, in the same strain, spoke Thomas King (Chief of the Oneidas) "in behalf of the Oneidas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, Nanticokes and Conoys and the Tuteloes." Under this combined attack upon his kingly pre- tensions Teedyuscung sat like a stoic and said never a word in reply ; but Governor Denny arose and denied that he had made Teedyuscung "a great man." He said further :
"After the Delawares had gone to war against the English the Five Nations advised them [the Delawares on the Susquehanna] to sit still .* After this the Governor of Penn- sylvania invited the Delawares to meet in council at Easton. We received an answer to our message from Teedyuscung as a chief among the Delawares. At the time appointed he came and told us that he represented ten nations, amongst which the Five Nations were included ; that he acted as Chief Man for the Delawares, but only as a messenger for the United Nations [meaning the Six, formerly the Five, Nations], who were his uncles and superiors. We believed what your nephew told us, and therefore made him a counselor and agent for us. I must do him the justice to declare to you that at our former public treaties Teedyuscung never assumed any such power [or authority over the Five Nations], but on many occasions when he spoke of you called you his uncles and superiors."
Governor Denny was followed by Governor Bernard of New Jersey, who said :
"I know not who made Teedyuscung so great a man, nor do I know that he is any greater than a chief of the Delaware Indians settled at Wyoming. The title of 'King' could not be given him by any English Governor, for we know very well that there is no such person among Indians as what we call a King. And if we call him so we mean no more than a sachem or chief."
Five days after this discussion Teedyuscung arose in the public conference and, addressing himself to the deputies of the Six Nations, said :
"Uncles, you may remember that you have placed us at Wyoming and Shamokin- places where Indians have lived before. Now I hear that you have since sold that land to our brethren, the English. Let the matter now be cleared up in the presence of our brethren, the English. I sit here as a bird on a bough. I look about and do not know where to go. Let me, therefore, come down upon the ground and make that my own by a good deed, and I shall then have a home forever. For if you, my uncles, or I, die, our brethren, the English, will say they have bought it from you, and so wrong my posterity out of it."
In response to this Thomas King (Chief of the Oneidas), speaking in behalf of the Six Nations on the following day, addressed himself to the Delawares in these words :
"By this belt Teedyuscung desired us to make you, the Delawares, the owners of the lands at Wyoming, Shamokin and other places on the Susquehanna River. In answer to which we, who are present, say that we have no power to convey lands to any one ; but we will take your request to the Great Council fire for their sentiments, as we never sell or convey lands before it be agreed upon in the Great Council of the Six Nations. In the meantime you may make use of those lands in conjunction with our people."
Later, in the open conference, Thomas King presented Teedyus- cung with a string of wampum and saidt :
"This serves to put Teedyuscung in mind of his promises to return prisoners. You ought to have performed it before. It is a shame for one who calls himself a great man to tell lies."
* See page 315.
+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 221.
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"Last Night" and Nikes, the Mohawk, in behalf of the Six Nations, promised to satisfy the English as to the return of captives, adding : "If any of them are gone down our throats, we will heave them up again." Then Takeghsatu, the Seneca, told Teedyuscung that, the Six Nations having promised to return all captives, the Delawares and Mon- seys must do likewise.
One of the most important matters disposed of at this treaty related to the lands purchased by the Pennsylvania Proprietaries at Albany in 1754, as described on page 268. Great dissatisfaction having existed for some time among the Six Nations concerning the extent of that purchase, the Proprietaries finally authorized Richard Peters and Conrad Weiser to release and re-convey to the Six Nations all the territory lying to the northward and westward of the Allegheny Mountains which had been conveyed to the Proprietaries by the deed of July 6, 1754 ; "pro- vided they the said Six Nations did fully stipulate and settle the exact and certain bounds of the residue of the said lands included in the before-mentioned purchase." Proper conveyances were duly executed at Easton, and this matter, which had threatened to cause considerable trouble, was thus laid to rest.
During the progress of the Easton conference one of the Seneca chiefs in attendance died. He was publicly interred-the Indians and a number of the inhabitants of the town attending his funeral. On October 26th-the business of the treaty having been finished, after eighteen days of speech-making-"some wine and punch were ordered, and the conferences were concluded with great joy and mutual satis- faction." The Indians were supplied with hats, caps, knives, jewsharps, powder, lead, paints and walking-sticks (by which name the Indians sometimes referred to rum). In addition, Teedyuscung and other chiefs received each a military hat trimmed with gold lace, a regimental coat and a ruffled shirt. Evidently all the Indians from northern Pennsyl- vania and New York had come to Easton by way of Wyoming, inas- much as they desired, at the conclusion of the treaty, that they might be furnished with wagons to carry the infirm and the sick, as well as their goods, "at least as far as Wyoming, where," as they said, "we have left our canoes ; and then we will discharge the wagons."
Teedyuscung and his followers were now, at last, settled at Wyo- ming-satisfactorily to all concerned, apparently-their town being known as Wyoming, as previously mentioned .* Within a very short time after the Easton treaty Abraham (Schabash), the Mohegan chief, his family and a number of other Mohegan families erected their cabins at the site selected a long time before by Abraham, on the banks of the stream later known as "Abraham's Creek,"t near the present borough of Forty Fort. About the same time the Wanamies who had formerly dwelt at Matchasaungt renewed their settlement there, and in the course of time the level stretch of country upon which their village stood became known as "Jacob's Plains"-from the name of the then, or a later, chief of the band located there. Paxinosa and his Shawanese did not return to the Valley, but late in July, 1758, set out for the Ohio region from Seekaughkunt, where, and in the vicinity of which, they had been living since the Spring of 1756, when they forsook Wyoming. §
* See pages 317 and 371.
¿ See pages 371, 372, 373 and 375.
t See pages 194, 208 and 312.
# See pages 213, 315 and 321.
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Christian Frederick Post met some of these Shawanese when he visited the Indian towns on the Ohio in the latter part of August, 1758 .* In his journal he wrotet :
"We set off for Fort Duquesne, and went no farther this night than Logstown, where I met with four Shawanese who lived in Wyoming when I did. They received me very kindly and called the prisoners to shake hands with me, as their countryman, and gave me leave to go into every house to see them-which was done in no other town besides."
Miner erroneously statest that the Shawanese were represented at the Easton treaty of October, 1758; while Chapman and some later writers give a fanciful account of the final departure of the Shawanese from Wyoming. But Pearce effectually disposes of this unsubstantial story in the following paragraph§ :
"Mr. Chapman and all other writers on Wyoming have given an account of what they call the 'Grasshopper War.' It is said to have occurred between the Delawares and Shawanese on the flats below Wilkesbarre, and to have been a contest of the most san- guinary character. It resulted in the expulsion of the Shawanese from the valley. As the story goes, a few Shawanese squaws, with their children, crossed the river into the territory of the Delawares, and, with a number of the Delaware women and children, were gathering wild flowers, when a Shawanese child caught a grasshopper, which was claimed by a child of the Delawares. A struggle ensued, in which the women took part. The Shawanese being worsted, returned home and reported what had taken place, when the warriors armed, and, crossing the river, a terrible battle ensued, in which hundreds on both sides were slain. We can find no record of any disagreement between the Dela- wares and Shawanese. All statements made respecting them represent these two peoples living in peace and entertaining the Moravian missionaries, from 1742 to 1756, when they all departed for Diahoga. Neither party had hundreds of warriors to lose, for the whole number from Shamokin to Tunkhannock, including the Monseys on the Lacka- wanna, did not exceed 350. We therefore conclude, if there ever was a 'Grasshopper War' it was a very small affair, and probably closed as it commenced-with a few blows and scratches among women and children."||
* See page 378. + See "Early Western Travels," I : 201.
# "History of Wyoming," page 49.
{ "Annals of Luzerne County," page 51.
| By the beginning of the year 1763 it was believed by those competent to judge that nearly all the Shawanese in this country were located in the valley of the Ohio. They were estimated by Sir William Johnson and Col. Henry Bouquet to number at that time about 500 warriors, or a total population of 2,500. Early in 1763 they broke out in open hostility to the English, and, with certain Delawares, invested Fort Pitt at the forks of the Ohio. Later in the same year they joined in Pontiac's uprising. In January, 1772, Sir William Johnson wrote (see "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," X : 21) that the Shawanese, and certain other Indian tribes mentioned, "have been and are to be considered as dependents on the Five Nations, and having nothing to do with the western Indians further than in an intercourse common with all Indians in time of peace." During the Revolutionary War the Shawanese rallied under the British flag, and were fierce and cruel enemies to the Americans. Their fealty to the King's cause, it was asserted at the time, was cemented by a promise that their allies would stand by them and never consent to a peace which did not make the Ohio River the western boundary of the Colonies.
In 1795 the main body of the Shawanese nation was located on the Scioto River-another part of the nation having crossed the Mississippi, and still another having gone south. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the principal chief of the Shawanese was Tecumseh, declared by George Catlin as "perhaps the most extraordinary Indian of his age." He was one of three brothers-triplets-born at old Chillicothe, on the Scioto, in Ohio, in 1768. For some time prior to 1809 Tecumseh had been endeavoring to induce all the western tribes to abstain from whisky, return to the customs and weapons of their ancestors, embody themselves in a grand confederacy to extend from the Province of Mexico to the Great Lakes, and unite their forces in an army that would be able to meet and drive back the white people who were continually advancing on the Indians and forcing them from their lands towards the Rocky Mountains.
The territory of Indiana was erected in 1809, and William Henry Harrison was appointed its Governor. In the same year he held a treaty with certain Indian tribes, by which a tract of land on the Wabash above Terre Haute was ceded to the Federal Government. Tecumseh held that all the lands belonged to all the tribes, and none could be sold without the consent of all. Governor Harrison invited the chief and his followers to a friendly conference at Vincennes in 1810. During this conference (which just escaped ending in a massacre) Tecumseh, referring to the treaty of the preceding year, said : "What ! sell a country? Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?" Governor Harrison, with 2,000 men, went up the Wabash and established a post at Terre Haute in the Summer of 1811; and, on the 7th of the following November, having marched up the river some distance farther, fought with a large force of Indians commanded by Tecumseh, and won the battle of Tippecanoe. During the war between the United States and Great Britain in 1812-'14 Tecumseh, with the rank of Brigadier General, commanded the Indian allies of the British. He was killed fighting bravely at the battle of the Thames, in Canada, October 5, 1813.
One of Tecumseh's brothers was, in his way, almost as famous as the great warrior himself. This was Ten-squat-a-way ("The Open Door"), better known as the "Shawnee Prophet." He was an emis- sary of evil in the interest of his brother ; and his name, "The Open Door," was intended to represent him as the way, or door, which had "opened for the deliverance of the red men from the oncoming whites." He was blind in his left eye. As a speaker he was fluent, smooth and plausible, and was pronounced by Governor Harrison the most graceful and accomplished orator he had seen amongst the Indians. But he possessed neither the talents nor the frankness of Tecumseh, and was sensual, cruel, weak and timid. The following picture of the "Prophet" is a reduced reproduction of a drawing made by George Catlin from a portrait painted by himself in 1831 on the Kansas River. The "Prophet"
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is represented "holding his medicine-fire in one hand and his sacred string of beads in the other." Quills and feathered arrows are shown thrust through slits in his ears and worn as ornaments. (See note, page 105.)
Catlin, writing of the "Prophet," said: "With his mysteries he made his way through most of the north- western tribes, wherever he went enlisting warriors to assist Tecumseh in effecting his great scheme. In the most surprising manner this ingenious man entered the villages of most of his inveterate enemies, and of others who never had heard of the name of his tribe, and maneu- vered in so successful a way as to make his medicines a safe passport for him to all of their villages; and also the means of enlisting in the different tribes some eight or ten thousand warriors, who had solemnly sworn to return with him on his way back, and to assist in the wars that Tecumseh was to wage against the whites on the frontiers. I found on my visit to the Sioux, to the Puncahs, to the Riccarees and the Mandans [see page 94, ante], that he had been there, and even to the Blackfeet; and every- where told them of the potency of his mysteries, and assured them that if they allowed the fire to go out in their wigwams it would prove fatal to them in every case. He carried with him into every wigwam that he visited the image of a dead person of the size of life, which was made ingeniously of some light material and always kept con- cealed under bandages of thin white muslin. Of this he made a great mystery, and got his recruits to swear by touching a sacred string of white beans which he had attached to its neck. In this way, by his extraordinary cunning, he had carried terror into the country as far as TENSQUATAWAY. he went. I conversed with him a great deal about his brother, Tecumseh, of whom he spoke frankly and seem- ingly with great pleasure; but of himself and his own great schemes he would say nothing. The "Prophet" was an extensive polygamist, having an unusual number of wives, whom he forced to work for him. After the death of Tecumseh the "Prophet" dropped to the dignity of an ordinary Indian, and quietly passed away." In 1811 Tensquataway's town on the Wabash above Terre Haute was known as the "Prophet's town."
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