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 63
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According to a report made by the Rev. Jedidiah Morse in 1822 (see page 163, ante) there were then 800 Shawanese (or Shawnees, as they had come to be known) living at three different places in the State of Ohio, and 1,383 on the Meramec River, near St. Louis, Missouri, and at Cape Girardeau on the Missis- sippi, about eighty miles south of St. Louis. In 1825 the Shawnees in Missouri ceded their lands to the Government, and in 1831 those in Ohio did the same and went to new homes in Indian Territory. Those who removed from Missouri settled in Kansas, where, about 1840, two bands-the "White Turkeys" and "Big Jims"-seceded from the main body of the tribe and located in the northern part of Indian Terri- tory, on the southern section of the reservation now occupied by the Kickapoos. (As to the supposed relationship between the Shawnees and Kickapoos, see page 177, ante.) During the Civil War these Shawnees roamed and returned to Kansas; but in 1867 they removed to the vicinity of their old location in Indian Territory-now Oklahoma. Since then they have been officially known and designated as "Absentee Shawnees." Those of the Shawnees who emigrated direct from Ohio to Indian Territory (as previously mentioned) are designated as "Eastern Shawnees." In 1869 the Shawnees who had remained in Kansas since first settling there in 1825 became incorporated into the Cherokee Nation in Indian Terri- tory (see pages 163 and 165), under an agreement containing this clause: "That the said Shawnees shall be incorporated into and ever after remain a part of the Cherokee Nation, on equal terms in every respect, and with all the privileges and immunities of native citizens of said Cherokee Nation." In 1890 these Cherokee Shawnees numbered 694. For a number of years the "Eastern Shawnees" have been located at the Quapaw Agency in Indian Territory. They numbered 80 in 1886; 79 in 1890; 100 in 1902. The "Absentee Shawnees," on the Pottawatomie Reservation in that part of Indian Territory which is now Oklahoma, numbered 775 in 1886; 640 in 1890; 687 in 1902.
About the year 1840 George Catlin wrote as follows concerning the Shawnees: "This tribe and the Delawares, of whom I have spoken, were neighbors on the Atlantic coast, and alternately allies and enemies, have retrograded and retreated together, have fought their enemies united and fought each other, until their remnants that have outlived their nations' calamities have now settled as neighbors together in the western wilds, where, it is probable, the sweeping hand of Death will soon relieve them from further necessity of warring or moving, and the Government from the necessity or policy of pro- posing to them a yet more distant home. In their long and disastrous pilgrimage both of these tribes laid claim to and alternately occupied the beautiful and renowned valley of Wyoming; and after strew- ing the Susquehanna's lovely banks with their bones and their tumuli, they both yielded at last to the dire necessity which follows all civilized intercourse with natives, and fled to the Allegheny, and at last to the banks of the Ohio, where necessity soon came again and again and again, until the Great Guardian of all red children placed them where they now are. There are of this tribe remaining about 1,200, some few of whom are agriculturalists, and industrious, temperate, religious people; but the greater proportion of them are miserably poor and dependent, having scarcely the ambition to labor or to hunt, and a pas- sion for whisky drinking that sinks them into the most abject poverty."
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CHAPTER VI.
MORE INDIAN CONFERENCES AND POW-WOWS-ATTEMPTS AT SETTLE- MENT IN WYOMING BY THE WHITES UNDER THE SUSQUE- HANNA COMPANY-DEATH OF KING TEEDYUSCUNG- FIRST MASSACRE OF THE WHITE SETTLERS- WYOMING FORSAKEN BY THE INDIANS.
"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations ; ask thy father, and he will shew thee ; thy elders, and they will tell thee."-Deuteronomy, XXXII : 7.
Early in the year 1759 preparations were under way in New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere to carry out General Amherst's plans* for a simultaneous and formidable attack upon the principal strongholds of the French and their Indian allies. In March Brigadier General Stan- wix (see page 346) arrived in Philadelphia, having been ordered there by General Amherst to succeed Brigadier General Forbes in command of the King's troops in Pennsylvania and to the southward. Under date of May 31st General Stanwix suggestedt to Governor Denny "that it would be proper to send with all expedition Christian Frederick Post and Isaac Still with proper messages to the Indians; at the same time ordering them to proceed by the way of Wyoming, and to take four or five of the best disposed and most faithful Indians with them from thence, such as King Teedyuscung shall recommend." Within a day or two thereafter Governor Denny sent Post and Still to Wyoming with a written message addressed to "Teedyuscung, the Delaware Chief, and to all the Indians at Wyomink." The message contained, among other matters, the followingt:
"Mr. Frederick Post and Mr. Isaac Stille wait on you to inform you of what has passed at Allegheny, in consequence of the messages sent from Easton .? Their proceed- ings have given us great satisfaction, and I hope they will be agreeable to you. I have ordered them to hide nothing from you, being desirous you should be made acquainted with all the particulars that are worthy your notice. * *
* Isaac Stille chose to stay all Winter among the Indians, that he might spread far and wide the good tidings of the peace established at Easton between us. He is but lately returned. * * I re- quest you would be so good as to let all the Indians round you know that we have a most hearty love and regard for them. * I rely much on the continuance of your zeal
* See last paragraph on page 297. t See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 341.
# See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, III : 622.
¿ Immediately after the close of the conference at Easton in October, 1758, Post was sent by the Pennsylvania authorities to the Indians on the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers in Western Pennsylvania, to inform them of the treaty consummated at Easton. Isaac Still was one of Post's companions on this mission, although he did not return with Post-who arrived at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on his home- ward journey, January 10, 1759.
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and service. You know you are the counselor and agent of this Government, and I choose you should say for it, on this and all occasions, what you judge proper and neces- sary to engage your and the other tribes of Indians in the interest of the English. * * You are to hear and see for us. I therefore desire to be informed of what has happened among the Indians in any place where you or your young men have been or have heard from."
Immediately on receipt of this message Teedyuscung set off for Philadelphia, accompanied by two Mohegans. Being received by the Governor on June 11th Teedyuscung said, among other things *:
"Agreeable to my engagements at Easton I have spread far and wide the news of the peace there concluded. I have given the halloo, and many distant nations have heard it and let me know that the peace was extremely to their minds. * * I received this string of wampum from the Unamis on and beyond the Ohio. They had heard of the good work, and it gave them the utmost satisfaction. I received another string from the Indian nations settled on the heads of the Susquehanna. They likewise expressed their joy at the conclusion of a peace with their brethren, the English. * * Here are two Mohiccons from the Susquehanna. They came with me from Wyoming. They brought me a string from the Mohiccons and Wapings, t assuring me that they were heartily disposed for peace, and would put themselves under Teedyuscung and join with him and the Governor of Pennsylvania in the good work of peace. *
* I have a small complaint to make. My uncles, the Mohawks, have sold lands that they have not the least pretensions to-no, not to the value of a hickory-nut! I mean the Minisink lands. These always belonged to a tribe of the Delawares, and our uncles had nothing to do with them and could not dispose of theni."
Teedyuscung's reference to the sale of the Minisink lands was based on what he had heard relative to the purchase made by The Delaware Company in 1755, as described on page 293; but he had, apparently, been misinformed as to all the facts in the case, inasmuch as it was not the Mohawks, but the Delawares themselves, who had executed the deed conveying these lands to the whites.
October 4, 1759, Teedyuscung, his half-brother "Tom Evans" and "Abraham Locquis,"# accompanied by several attendants, having come to Philadelphia from. Wyoming, were met in conference by Governor Denny and several members of the Council-Isaac Still acting as inter- preter. Teedyuscung's visit was chiefly for the purpose of informing the Governor as to the situation of affairs among the Indians on the Susquehanna. Among other things he said§:
"Almost all the Indians are looking at us. They all see us both sitting together, and consider us as the first who began to make a Peace; are glad of it, and desirous we should finish it entirely. * * In what we have done I think we have acted with so much sincerity towards each other that the Peace will be everlasting. I am a King. You are a King. Your people or my people might otherwise say that we had made a false Peace; but now, that they have been witnesses of our mutual sincerity, they must and will acknowledge that we are a good people. *
* I hear from the outside of the country all that is doing in the back parts, and I always let you know what I hear, be it great or small. * * There are not above five prisoners among the Delawares on the Susquehanna River. The Monseys have a great number, but they join the Mohawks, and will deliver them together to be counted among the Delawares. The Mohawks have a great many prisoners among them. The English hold frequent conferences with the Mohawks, but I never know what passes between the English and the Mohawks."
Returning from Philadelphia to Wyoming Teedyuscung, accomn- panied by a seemly retinue, set out in a few days for Otsiningo (see note, page 219) to attend a great meeting of Indians to be held there. This meeting, it was understood, was to be preparatory to a general council which the western Indians purposed holding on the Ohio in the Summer of 1760, and to which Teedyuscung and the other chiefs on
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 345.
+ The "Wappingers," a small Algonkian tribe (see page 100) who, about the middle of the seventeenth century, and earlier, were located in what are now the counties of Ulster and Dutchess in New York, in close proximity to the territories of the Mohegans and the Minsis or Monseys. Where they were located in 1759 we have not been able to discover, but it was undoubtedly in New York, and probably on or near one of the branches of the Susquehanna River.
Į The father of "William Locquis" mentioned on page 337.
¿ See Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, IV : 75 (August 1, 1829).
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the Susquehanna had already been invited. Two messengers from the Ohio Indians-Tangoocqua, or "Catfish," and "Joshua"-were in attend- ance at the Otsiningo conference, and at its close accompanied Teedy- uscung to Wyoming.
July 19, 1759, Thomas and Richard Penn,* the Pennsylvania Proprietaries, appointed and commissioned the Hon. James Hamiltont
* WILLIAM PENN, the Founder, was married a second time at Bristol, England, March 5, 1696, to Hannah Callowhill (born 1664; died 1726). Three of their children were: (i) John (known as "the Ameri- can"), born January 29, 1700; died October 25, 1746. (ii) Thomas, born at Bristol, England, March 9, 1702. (v) Richard, born January 17, 1706; died 1771.
(ii) Thomas Penn was in his seventeenth year when his father died. He resided in London till 1732, when, setting sail for Pennsylvania, he landed at Chester on the 11th of August. The Governor of the Province, various members of the Council and a large number of citizens rode from Philadelphia to Chester to meet and welcome this son of the Founder. There was a general anxiety to see the visitor, for, since the brief stay of William Penn, Jr., twenty-eight years before, and his angry departure for home, there had been none of the family of the Founder seen here. The company of welcomers, together with Thomas Penn, dined at Chester, and then set out for Philadelphia. When they arrived near the city they were met by the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen, with a great body of people, who extended a civic welcome.
During Thomas Penn's residence in Philadelphia the State House, now Independence Hall, was built; the "Walking Purchase" (see page 194) was consummated, and the great Indian treaty of 1736 (see page 192) took place in the Friends' Meeting-house, at the corner of Second and Market Streets, Philadelphia. Thomas Penn, while in Pennsylvania, took a somewhat active part in the affairs of the Province- especially with regard to the treaties and conferences with the Indians. Late in the Autumn of 1741 he returned to England.
The death of (i) John Penn in 1746 left Thomas Penn the holder of three-fourths of the Proprietary and family estates in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and thenceforward for almost thirty years-until his death-he was the chief of the Penn family and a figure of the first importance in the public affairs of Pennsylvania. April 6, 1772, there was printed in the Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia) the following, dated "London, December 21, 1771"-shortly after the death of (v) Richard Penn, whose son John (men- tioned on page 262, ante) had thereupon become a co-Proprietary with his uncle Thomas in the Pennsyl- vania and Delaware estates. "Mr. [Thomas] Penn of Spring Garden is now the richest subject in Europe. His estate in the Province of Pennsylvania alone was, in the year 1759, estimated on his own principles at ten million pounds sterling; and his dignity and power are not less than his enormous wealth, for he is absolute Governor, Proprietor and Captain General of Pennsylvania, and nominates his Lieutenant Governor and all his Judges, Justices, militia officers, etc., during pleasure."
After his return to England from Pennsylvania Thomas Penn lived in London most of the time until his death; but during the latter years of his life he owned-and occupied during a portion of each year- a handsome estate at Stoke-Poges in Buckinghamshire. He was married in 1749 or '50 to Lady Juliana Fermor, fourth daughter of the first Earl of Pomfret, whose seat was at Easton-Neston, in Northampton- shire. (See note, page 254.) A daughter of Thomas and Lady Juliana Penn became the wife of Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh. Thomas Penn died in London March 21, 1775, and was buried at Stoke-Poges.
The portrait of Thomas Penn facing this page is a reduced photo-reproduction of a portrait in oils (owned by The Historical Society of Pennsylvania), copied from an original (in possession of the Earl of Ranfurly) which was painted at the time of the marriage of Mr. Penn. It represents "a perfectly dressed and somewhat precise gentleman, in the costume of the middle of the eighteenth century. He wears an embroidered grayish lilac silk coat and breeches, and a long white satin waistcoat. He stands at the open door of a wainscotted room, with an uncarpeted wooden floor. Through the door-way an ante- chamber can be seen, with a window opening upon a pleasant country view."
+ JAMES HAMILTON, the first native-born Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, was born at Phila- delphia in 1710, the son of Andrew Hamilton, a native of Scotland, who had settled in Accomac County, Virginia, about 1697. Prior to 1710 Andrew Hamilton had married and removed to Philadelphia. In 1717 he was appointed Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and in 1721 became a member of the Provincial Council. In 1727 he was appointed Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and Recorder of the city of Philadelphia. From 1737 to 1741 he was Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court at Philadelphia. He was an able lawyer and eloquent advocate, and through his successful defense in 1735 of the editor of a New York newspaper, who had been charged with "false, scandalous and malicious libel," the freedom of the press was established in this country. Andrew Hamilton died in Philadelphia August 4, 1741.
James Hamilton succeeded his father as Prothonotary of the Supreme Court, at that time the most lucrative office in the Province. In 1735 he succeeded Benjamin Franklin as Grand Master of Free Masons in Pennsylvania. From 1735 to 1740 he was a member of the Provincial Assembly; from 1746 to 1747 he was Mayor of Philadelphia, and in 1746 and '47 a member of the Provincial Council. Early in 1748 he visited England, and while there was commissioned (March 17, 1748) by Thomas and Richard Penn, the Proprietaries, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. His appointment was approved by the King in Council May 12, 1748, and on the 23d of the following November Hamilton, having returned to Philadelphia, assumed the reins of government. He served in the office of Lieutenant Governor until October, 1754, when, having requested to be relieved of his duties, he was succeeded by Robert Hunter Morris. In 1756 and '57 James Hamilton again served as a member of the Provincial Council.
Having entered upon the duties of Lieutenant Governor a second time in November, 1759, he con- tinued in the performance of them until November, 1763, when he was succeeded by John Penn, men- tioned on page 262, ante. From May 4 to October 16, 1771, and from July 19 to August 30, 1773, James Hamilton was, as President of the Provincial Council, acting Lieutenant Governor. He was unfriendly to the American Revolution, and shortly after the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence he and several other Philadelphia loyalists were required by the new Pennsylvania Government to give their paroles to stay within certain limits. August 15, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council of the State agreed, on motion, that these loyalists "have the bounds prescribed in their respective paroles enlarged to the whole State of Pennsylvania." (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," XI : 38.) Some time after the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British in June, 1778, James Hamilton removed to the city of New York, where he died August 14, 1783.
Hamilton's home in Philadelphia was known as "Bush Hill." The property, which had formed part of the Springettsbury Manor; and lay along the north side of what is now Buttonwood Street, between Sixteenth and Eighteenth Streets, consisted of a splendid mansion (built by Andrew Hamilton in 1740), surrounded by a beautiful and attractive garden. When John Adams was Vice President of the United States he lived for two or three years-circa 1790-in the mansion, and during the yellow-fever epidemic in 1793 it was used as a hospital. Later it became a tavern, and in 1808 was, with the exception of its walls, destroyed by fire.
The portrait of former Governor Hamilton facing this page is a reduced photo-reproduction of a por- trait in oils owned by The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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THE HON. THOMAS PENN.
THE HON. JAMES HAMILTON.
Photo-reproductions of portraits owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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"Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania and the counties of New Castle, Sussex and Kent on Delaware," to succeed Lieutenant Governor Denny. The latter had been for some time hampered in the performance of his duties by the hostility of the Provincial Assembly,* and in consequence not only the people of the Province but the Proprie- taries were dissatisfied with his administration of affairs. Finally, hav- ing been accused of accepting bribes to betray the interests of the Pro- prietaries for those of the Crown-in the matter of approving and sign- ing certain Acts of the Assembly for public supplies and for re-emitting bills of credit-he was removed from office. Returning to England he was appointed to an important position in the army, which he retained till his death, about 1766.
November 17, 1759, the commission of Lieutenant Governor Hamil- ton was publicly read at the Court House, Philadelphia, and once more he took up the reins of government. He had scarcely got them well in hand when the ubiquitous Teedyuscung appeared in Philadelphia (on December 3d), accompanied by his half-brother "Tom Evans," "Daniel" (mentioned on page 368), "Catfish" and "Joshua" (the messen- gers from the Ohio, mentioned on page 386) and four other Indians. men and women. With the Indians were four white prisoners (two elderly women and two boys) who had suffered "a tedious captivity" among the Delawares on the upper waters of the Susquehanna; and these, together with six horses which had been stolen by Delawares from Pennsylvanians, were turned over to Governor Hamilton by Tee- dyuscung. In thanking the King for the return of the captives and the horses the Governor saidt: "I have a just sense of the kind part you have taken in promoting the good work of peace, and shall be ready at all times to do you any service in my power."
Returning to Wyoming it is probable that Teedyuscung spent the remainder of the Winter here; but with the coming of Spring he repaired to Philadelphia, and March 29, 1760, had, in company with Moses Tatemy, Christian Frederick Post and others, a conference with Gover- nor Hamilton. Exhibiting a wampum belt of nine rows, two feet in length, upon which was represented a road passing through twelve towns, Teedyuscung said :
"I received this belt from all the warriors and young men who live on the Susque- hanna River, with a message pressing me to be strong and telling me they would reach out their hands and lift me on my legs to help me along; and that they were sitting and waiting for me, and desired I would be with them in six weeks, and they would collect themselves together from all their towns and meet at Otsiningo and there hold a council before my going to the great council over the River Ohio. I desire Frederick Post and another white man to go with me; also Moses Tatemy. I expect you will provide me with horses and other necessaries, and a sufficient quantity of wampum."
* In May, 1758, in reply to some strictures which Governor Denny had made relative to the Provincial Assembly, that body sent a long and fierce message to the Governor. (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 107-109.) The following passages have been extracted from it. "You assert that we seemed determined to see the Province brought to the utmost destruction, rather than that the fingering of the public money should not be in a few leading men of our House. * * The great relish for finger- ing public money, we apprehend, is rather to be found with the Governor; and we should be glad his connection were such with the people that we could safely confide in him. But when he looks on him- self only as a passenger, and regards not whether the barque entrusted to his care shall sink or swim- provided he can by any means reach the shore-it is our indispensable duty to take every measure in our power to preserve that economy and public justice in the laying out and appropriating the people's ** money for which this Government has ever been so very remarkable. * * Thus having answered
all the material parts of your unkind message, filled with the grossest invectives and misrepresentations,
we must assure you that we are desirous to submit our merit to the test of our actions. * * Have you
not continually usurped an arbitrary power of amending our Money Bills, and thereby repeatedly violated one of the most essential rights of the people? * * Have you not retarded and obstructed the granting of supplies to the Crown by tenaciously adhering to your instructions [from the Proprietaries]? Have you not had under your command 1,400 men, and yet permitted the most trifling parties of Indians to depopulate a great part of the Province, and captivate and murder the inhabitants, while our troops have been inactive in our forts ?"
+ See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 5.
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The King and his companions remained in Philadelphia until April 3d, when they were formally received in conference by the Gover- nor and the Council, and it was arranged that Christian Frederick Post, John Hays (a young Scots-Irishman who resided in Allen Township, Northampton County, in the neighborhood of Bethlehem), Moses Tatemy and Isaac Still should accompany Teedyuscung in his journey to the great council on the Ohio. They were to take with them copies of all the treaties and minutes of conferences theretofore made and held by the Pennsylvania authorities with Teedyuscung, and the latter was "to be fitted out with a good suit of clothes, hat, etc., that he may make an appearance answerable to the occasion." To Post Governor Hamilton said : "You are to take all the care in your power that Teedyuscung sets out time enough to be present at the opening of the council, and that he takes with him the wampum given him to use on this occasion." It was directed, also, that "necessaries be provided for Teedyuscung and his company," as per the following list *: "Two dozen shirts, two dozen handkerchiefs, one dozen blankets, one dozen strouds, one dozen pairs of shoes, one dozen hats, three good, strong [pack] horses, vermilion, knives, ribbons, awls, needles and thread, ten tin cups, one pound of tea, one-half bushel of salt, two axes, one dozen breech-clouts, two half- barrels of powder, and lead in proportion, thirty pounds of swan shot and pigeon shot, pipes and tobacco." The Government proposed, also, that Nutimus (who was then living near Tioga, as stated on page 226) and Paxinosa (who had removed to the Ohio region, as previously men- tioned) should accompany Teedyuscung to the council, and that "each should have a stroud and a shirt sent to him."
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