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 68
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About the middle of March, 1763, Sir William Johnson was hold- ing a conference with some Mohawk and Seneca chiefs at Fort John- son, § when, as we glean from the diary of Sir William, || Col. Eliphalet Dyer and Timothy Woodbridge, Esq., arrived there in order to learn whether or not the deputies of the Six Nations "were coming down to a meeting proposed to be held at Albany ye 22d inst. with them and
* JOHN SMITH, previously mentioned as a member of the Journeying Committee and of the Directing Committee of The Susquehanna Company and as one of the settlers at Wyoming in 1762 (see pages 255, 401 and 404), was an original member of the Company ; and, from the beginning of its life until the end of his own, was unceasing in his efforts to advance the interests of the organization and increase and maintain its settlements at Wyoming. He was born at Plainfield, New London (now Windham) County, Connecticut, December 18, 1708, the fifth child of John Smith, Jr., and his wife Susanna Hall, mentioned in the note on page 251. When eight years old he removed with the other members of his father's family to what later became a part of Voluntown, and is now Sterling, Windham County, and about 1730 was admitted an inhabitant of Voluntown. November 24, 1736, he was married at Plainfield by Judge Timothy Peirce to the latter's daughter Phebe, born at Plainfield February 19, 1714.
In May, 1747, John Smith was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut a Justice of the Peace in and for the county of Windham, and annually thereafter, for a period of twenty-five years, was reappointed to the office. As one of the Deputies from Voluntown he attended sessions of the General Assembly in 1752, '54, '55, '56, '57, '58, '59, '60, '61, '62 and '66. In 1760 he was chosen one of the Elders of the Voluntown Church, of which his brother-in-law, the Rev. Samuel Dorrance, was pastor. He died at his home in Voluntown in August or September, 1772. His wife Phebe survived him, certainly for a number of years ; but I have not been able to ascertain the date of her death.
John and Phebe (Peirce) Smith were the parents of four sons and six daughters, as follows: i. John (born September 4, 1737); ii. Susanna (born March 28, 1739); iii. Timothy (born April 28, 1740); iv. Hannah (born March 23, 1742); v. Ruth (born March 19, 1744); vi. Susanna (born June 23, 1746); vii. Abel (born August 31, 1748); viii, Jedidiah (born 1750); ix. Phebe (born April 23, 1752); x. Zurviah (born 1754).
For a fuller account of John Smith and his family see "The Harvey Book," published at Wilkes- Barré in 1899.
¡ At this period, as well as earlier, in New England particular attention was always paid to the pre- fixing or affixing of official titles, or titles of respect or honor (whenever due by courtesy or right), to the names of persons appearing in all documents and records of a public or quasi-public nature. Hollister, in his "History of Connecticut" (Edition of 1855), I : 424, says: "The prefix 'Master' (Mr.) belonged to all gentlemen, including those designated by the higher marks of rank [as for example, "Esquire"]. In Connecticut it embraced clergymen, and planters of good family and estate who were members of the General Court. * * To be called 'Master,' or to have one's name recorded by the Secretary [of the General Court] with that prefix 200 years ago, was a more certain index of the rank of the individual as respects birth, education and good moral character, than any one of the high-sounding appellations which in our day are applied to many men of no merit whatever. It may be observed, by reference to our colonial records, that there were scores of men of good family and in honorable stations who still did not possess all the requisite qualities of 'Masters.' * *
"Military titles were considered of a very high order, as we should naturally expect to find them in a Colony that was in an almost uninterrupted state of war from the time of the burning of the Pequot fort until the close of the American Revolution. * * The clerical prefix of 'Reverend' does not occur upon our colonial records until about 1670; the members of the profession bearing the simple titles of 'Mr.', 'Pastor', 'Teacher' or 'Elder.' Deacons were regarded with reverence, and were often employed in civil as well as in ecclesiastical affairs. The title frequently occurs in a list of Deputies and Commissioners. * * * Many of the officers of the army, who were regarded with deep reverence by the people, were the principal pillars of the aristocracy ; but the most thoroughly patrician body of men in Connecticut was the clergy, who exercised an almost unlimited authority over the inhabitants."
# This refers, undoubtedly, to the horse taken from Teedyuscung. See page 407.
¿ See note, page 296. | See Stone's "Poetry and History of Wyoming" (Third Edition), page 392.
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the New England people, who were now come to Albany for ye purpose and had with them between £300 and £400 as a present to give ye Six Nations in case they would consent to their (ye New England people's) settling and enjoying the land of and about Skahandowana* on the Susquehanna ; also six bullocks and three barrels of pork."
Quoting further from Sir William's dairy relative to this matter, we have the following :
"This invitation was sent last Autumn in writing by one John Smith * * and delivered to Thomas King of Oyhquago, who, I told them, had not, I thought, delivered it to the Six Nations-as I heard them say nothing about it when a few days ago assembled at my house. The beforementioned gentlemen [Dyer and Woodbridge] then made me an offer to be a partner in ye land, and to send up the money to me, also the bullocks and pork, etc., that I might call ye Six Nations and give it them, provided they agreed to their proposal-all which I refused with ye slight it deserved, and gave them my opinion on the whole affair; and also told them the unhappy consequences that would in all probability follow should they (as they often hinted) form a settlement in them parts. After many fruitless efforts to prevail on me to join and assist them, they returned to Albany. The Mohawks who were yet present being desirous to know their [Dyer and Woodbridge] business, were told it in part, and seemed very uneasy about it, giving it as their opinion that if the New Englanders persisted in their design of settling said lands it would be of very bad consequences.
"March 25, 1763, several of ye Mohawks came. * * Then Abraham,t their Chief, spoke as follows : 'Brother, we could not rest these two days past, since we heard that our brethren of Connecticut were so intent upon settling a number of their people at Skahandowana ; and being fully sensible of ye fatal consequences that must attend a proceeding of that nature, we, in a full meeting of all our people [the Mohawks of the "'Lower Castle," evidently] resolved to come to you and beg you would, with this belt of wampum [Chief Abraham here presented a belt] and a letter from yourself, acquaint our brother, the Governor of Connecticut, that there is to be a council of all ye Six Nations in a short time, where that affair (among other matters) will be thoroughly considered, and therefore desire they may not move from New England before they are made acquainted with the result thereof.'
" 'Brethren [responded Sir William Johnson], I think your proposal of sending a message to ye Governor of Connecticut to stop the people of his Government going to Wioming, or Skahandowana, until the result of the approaching meeting of ye Six Nations is known thereon, is a friendly and prudent step ; wherefore I shall comply with your request, and hope the Governor may agree thereto.' "
In pursuance of his promise Sir William Johnson forwarded to Gov. Thomas Fitch of Connecticut, without delay, the message and belt delivered to him by the Mohawks of the "Lower Castle"-accom- panying the same with a personal letter.
The Rev. Eleazar Wheelock-dissatisfied with the opinion expressed to him by Sir William Johnson (as previously noted) relative to the conditions existing in the unsettled parts of the country, but not dis- couraged in respect to his "design" to establish a school for Indian youth within the bounds of the Susquehanna Purchase-determined to appeal to Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst (mentioned on page 297), at that time commander-in-chief of all the British forces in the North American Colonies, and practically, in that capacity, viceroy of all those Colonies. Therefore, under date of April 2, 1763, Mr. Wheelock wrote to the General in part as followsţ: *
* * "That a tract of land about fifteen or twenty miles square, or so much as shall be sufficient for four townships, on the west side of the Susquehanna River, or in some other place more convenient, in the heart of the Indian country, be granted in favor of this school. The said townships to be peopled with a chosen number of inhabit- ants of known honesty and integrity, and such as love and will be kind to, and honest in their dealings with, Indians. That 1,000 acres of and within said grant be given to
* See page 60.
" This was, undoubtedly, "Little Abe" (mentioned on page 278), Sachem of the "Lower Castle" of the Mohawks, and not his father, old Abraham Peters, who had been one of the signers of the deed to The Susquehanna Company. The "Lower Castle" of the Mohawks was only a few miles distant from Fort Johnson.
Į See "Documentary History of the State of New York," IV : 315.
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this school ; and that the school be an academy for all parts of useful learning-part of it to be a college for the education of missionaries, interpreters, schoolmasters, &c., and part of it a school to teach reading, writing, &c. And that there be manufactures for the instruction both of males and females, in whatever shall be useful and necessary in life. "That there be a sufficient number of laborers upon the lands belonging to the school, and that the students be obliged to labor with them and under their direction and conduct, so much as shall be necessary for their health and to give them an under- standing of husbandry. And those who are designed for farmers-after they have got a sufficient degree of school learning, to labor constantly, and the school to have all the benefit of their labor and they the benefit of being instructed therein, till they are of an age and understanding sufficient to set up for themselves and introduce husbandry among their respective tribes."
What response General Amherst made to this communication the present writer has been unable to learn, but we find* that at the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut held in May, 1763, "on a memorial of Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, representing that for some years" then past he had had "under his care and tuition several youths [then numbering upwards of twenty] of the distant Indian tribes," the Assembly granted and ordered "a Brief throughout the Colony, recom- mending it to all inhabitants * to contribute [funds] to such purpose." There the matter rested for a few years.
Messrs. Dyer, Woodbridge and the other representatives of The Susquehanna Company, having found it impossible to hold a conference at Albany with deputies from the Six Nations, returned to their homes. Immediately a call was issued for a meeting of the Company, to be held at Windham on April 7th. A sufficient number of proprietors having met at that time and place it was resolved to lay out eight townships on the Susquehanna River "as near as may be to the town- ships granted as gratuity"-each to contain five miles square of land ; "reserving for the use of the Company, for their after disposal, all beds of mine ore and coal that may be within the towns ordered for settle- ment." It was voted to allow forty proprietors in each of said town- ships, and Timothy Woodbridge, Increase Moseleyt and Job Randall (of Scituate, Rhode Island), "Esquires," were appointed to lay out the said eight townships-Woodbridge to receive from the Company the sum of £20 per month "for not exceeding six months from the time of his setting out on said affair," and Moseley and Randall to be paid a reasonable sum for their services.
The sum of £30 was appropriated "for laying out, opening and clearing a road to the Susquehanna lands." Timothy Woodbridge, John Smith, Increase Moseley, Job Randall and John Jenkins were appointed a committee "to oversee, determine and regulate, both with respect to the manner and conduct of settling the two first and eight last towns voted to be settled, as also all persons concerned as settlers with respect to their conduct therein." Mr. Woodbridge was appointed "to be Chief, or President, of said committee." Colonel Dyer accepted the appointment of Agent of the Company, and determined "to pursue
* See "Colonial Records of Connecticut," XII : 151.
+INCREASE MOSELEY, son of Increase and Sarah Moseley, was born at Norwich, New London County, Connecticut, May 18, 1712. In 1735 he was married to Deborah Tracy of Windham, and about 1738 or '39 they removed to that part of the town of Woodbury which later became the town of Washing- ton, in Litchfield County, Connecticut. He was the first Deacon of the Church established there in 1742. He was a Justice of the Peace and Justice of the Quorum in and for Litchfield County from 1755 till 1780, and a Representative in the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1751-'56, 1763-'67 and 1772-'84. In 1783 he was Assistant Clerk of the "Lower House" of the Assembly. During the French and Indian War he was a Captain in the Connecticut militia, and for awhile during the Revolutionary War held the office of Commissary. Some years after the War he removed to Clarendon, Vermont, where he died May 2, 1795. His son Increase-the third of the name, in direct succession-was a lawyer in Woodbury, and in 1762 was a Second Lieutenant in the Second Connecticut Regiment. He was Colonel of one of the Connecticut regiments in the Revolutionary War.
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the business with all convenient speed"; whereupon it was "Voted, That Col. Eliphalet Dyer, the Agent of the Company, be allowed the sum of £150 per year, with his expenses, as formerly voted; and that he be further allowed for all necessary extraordinary clothing and apparatus for his proper appearance as Agent of this Company." And finally it was voted "that some proper, well-disposed person, or persons, be pro- cured by those persons (who shall undertake to settle on the Susque- hanna lands according to the above vote) in order to be as a head, or teacher, to carry on religious instruction and worship among those settlers-viz .: of such denomination as by any particular number may be agreed upon; and to be at the expense of those persons of such denomination as such person so procured shall be, until some further regulation can be had."
About the beginning of May, 1763, ten or twelve proprietors of The Susquehanna Company-some or all of whom had been at Wyoming in the previous Autumn-set out for the valley ; a few being accompanied by their wives and children. Excepting Parshall Terry, we are unable to give, with certainty, the names of those who composed that little band of hardy and venturesome immigrants. They arrived here about the 15th of May, and proceeded directly to the locality (near the mouth of Mill Creek) which they had previously occupied and begun to improve in a rude way. During their absence from the valley several interesting and important changes in local conditions had taken place. Teedyuscung the talker-resister and obstructionist-was dead ! While he was lying in a drunken stupor in his log house in the village of Wyoming, on April 19th, at dead of night, flames burst suddenly from the house, and soon it and all its contents-including the helpless King -were consumed. With reference to this occurrence Heckewelder (in his sketch of Teedyuscung mentioned on page 308, ante), after referring to the King's weakness for rum and stating that "this unfortunate pro- pensity is supposed to have been the cause of his cruel and untimely death," says :
"In the Spring of 1763, when the European nations had made peace, but the Indians were still at war, he [Teedyuscung] was burnt up, together with his house, as he was lying in his bed asleep. It was supposed, and believed by many who were pres- ent, that this event was not accidental, but had been maturely resolved on by his enemies, whoever they were, and that the liquor whichi was brought to Wyoming at the time was intended by them for the purpose of enticing him to drink, that they might the more easily effect their purpose. A number of Indians were witnesses to the fact that the house was set on fire from the outside. Suspicion fell principally on the Mingoes, who were known to be jealous of him and fearful of his resentment if he should succeed in insinuating himself into the favor of the English, and making good terms with them for his nation."
Concerning the tragic end of Teedyuscung Reichel (in "Memorials of the Moravian Church," I : 226) makes the following statement :
"The Iroquois, it is said, were the instigators of this cowardly act, for they hated the man who testified against their arrogant assumption and who opposed their lust of power. As long as he lived, therefore, he was a standing rebuke to their designing oppression, and although they no longer dreaded his arms, they feared his words, which left their guilty consciences no peace. Hence it was resolved in council that he ought not to live ; and when news was brought back to Onondaga that the lodge of the Dela- ware King and the lodges of his men of war had disappeared in flames, the perfidious Six Nations triumphed in having destroyed an enemy whose spirit they had failed to subdue."
My own impression is that the death of Teedyuscung by fire was the accidental result of a drunken debauch. It has been shown, con- clusively, in the preceding pages, that for at least two years prior to his
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death he had been acting in harmony with the Six Nations. When he began to complain about the Cushetunk settlements and the intended invasion of Wyoming by the New Englanders, the leading men of the Six Nations espoused his cause, and they as well as Teedyuscung pro- tested on every opportune occasion against the on-coming whites. On this subject the Delawares and the Six Nations appear to have been in perfect harmony. Again, as we have seen, Wyoming was the stopping- place-the half-way station-for all Indians traveling from the head- waters of the Susquehanna to Philadelphia, Easton or Shamokin, or returning from those towns to their homes. Whenever sufficient fire- water of any kind was to be had during the visits of those stranger Indians to Wyoming, drunken frolics always took place, during which serious casualties were apt to (and usually did) occur. The incident of April 19, 1763, was one of them.
Not all the houses in the village of Wyoming were destroyed by the fire that consumed Teedyuscung and his house, nor did all the Indians who survived their King desert the village. When the New Englanders arrived in the valley in May, as previously related, they found a number of Delaware families still occupying their homes in the village. There were also a few families occupying wigwams on Jacob's Plains, at or near the site of Matchasaung; while in the Mohegan village, near the mouth of Abraham's Creek, there were some two or three wigwams occupied-the majority of those who had dwelt there having departed from the valley shortly after the death of old Abraham at the beginning of the previous Winter.
Within a very few days after the advance party of Wyoming set- tlers had set out from Connecticut, Governor Fitch, of that Colony, received orders dated January 26, 1763, from Lord Egremont, the King's Secretary of State, "signifying it as His Majesty's pleasure that the Governor should use both authority and influence to prevent the prosecution of the settlement of the lands on the rivers Susquehanna and Delaware till the state of the case could be laid before the King." An announcement of this fact was made by various newspapers in Con- necticut, as well as by The New York Journal (in its issue of May 23, 1763). Governor Fitch wrote to Sir William Johnson that in conse -. quence of the communication received by him from England-with which he had "acquainted the principal gentlemen of the [Susque- hanna] Company"-those gentlemen had agreed to stop all proceedings towards a settlement, and acquiesce in the King's orders .*
It seems that the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania had, late in 1762, made up a case stated which they presented to Attorney General Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden) for an opinion as to the right of Connecticut to the territory certain of her citizens were claiming. That officer was clear in his opinion against Connecticut-holding that, by virtue of her adjustment of boundaries with New York, she was precluded from advancing a step beyond. It was upon this opinion that the King had based his orders.
A meeting of The Susquehanna Company was held at Hartford May 18, 1763 (at which place and time the General Assembly of Connec- ticut was in session), and the following resolution was adopted :
"Whereas, notwithstanding the utmost fairness and justice attending our late pur- chase of the Susquehanna lands, we became soon acquainted not only with Mr. Penn's * See Stone's "Poetry and History of Wyoming," page 394.
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claim and endeavor to create uneasiness among the Indians-which we had no reason to apprehend-but with his being about to make a prior entry thereon ; and having, as we supposed, reasonable assurance of said Indians' acquiescence, some time since voted and agreed to make seasonable and speedy entry thereon, and in the meantime to cultivate a most perfect harmony with them, and also to lay said affairs before His Majesty for final settlement and decision. And Whereas (whether by representation mistaken or un- friendly may be uncertain) His Majesty has been induced to inhibit all entries on said land by any party or person soever, till due inquiry be made into the state of the inatter, * * we do thereupon Vote, That no person belonging to the Company shall make any settlement, or enter upon, any of the Company's lands until the state of the case shall be laid before the King, and His Majesty's pleasure be known."
The Company then adjourned, not to meet again (so far as is dis- closed by its written records) for twenty months.
Under date of June 6, 1763, Sir William Johnson wrote to Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst as follows *:
"A few days before May 18th four deputies of the Six Nations arrived here [Johnson Hall], charged with a message and several belts of wampum to the Governor of Connecticut, to desire he would cause his people to desist from the settlement on the Susquehanna River. They desired that some Mohawks should accompany them, as also that I should send a Deputy with them to take care of them on the road and prevent imposition."
Sir William sent with these deputies his son-in-law, Lieut. Guy Johnson (mentioned on page 300), William Printup, an interpreter, and Toquerole, a Mohawk chief. The four Six Nation deputies were : Sogheres and Oghsegwarona, of the Cayuga nation, and Sayenquer- aghta (mentioned on pages 235 and 379) and Toguascantha, of the Seneca nation.t Sayenqueraghta had, only a short time before this, succeeded Takeghsatu (mentioned on pages 277 and 379) as chief sachem of the Senecas. It will be recalled that the Senecas were at this period the particular friends of the Delawares; that only one Seneca chief (Kahiktoton) had signed the deed conveying the Wyoming lands to The Susquehanna Company, and he was now dead ; that only one chief of the Cayugas had signed that deed.
The deputies and their associates proceeded from Johnson Hall to Hartford, where they arrived about the 25th of May. The General Assembly of Connecticut was still in session there, and on Saturday, May 28th, Governor Fitch held a public conference with the Six Nation deputies in the Council Chamber of the State House. Besides the Governor, the Indians, Lieutenant Johnson and Printup, the interpreter, there were present many members of both Houses of the Assembly, among whom were the following prominent and active proprietors of The Susquehanna Company : Judge Daniel Edwards, Col. Eliphalet Dyer, Col. Hezekiah Huntington, Col. Samuel Talcott, Samuel Gray, Esq. (Clerk of the Company) and William Williams, Esq. An account of this conference was printed in The New York Gazette of July 18, 1763, and from it the following paragraphs have been taken.
"The deputies, after being taken by the hand and bid welcome into the Govern- ment, seated themselves. Sayenqueraghta then arose and delivered a speech, which from the interpreter was taken as followeth, viz .: 'We heard grievous news this Winter, that you were about to come with 300 families to settle on our lands, which was very astonishing to us ; and that you designed to build forts and strong places on our lands. For that reason our sachems considered upon it, and have sent us down to this place. We are come down here to acquaint you with what news we hear-that you have got a design to settle on the Susquehanna River, and claim the land to the West Seas. We have heretofore given away lands to the white people, but of the sale of this land the Six Nations know nothing-either that they have ever given it away or sold it to any ; and
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