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 69
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* See "Documentary History of New York," VII : 522.
" The newspapers of that day, in which were printed reports of the conference held at Hartford by Governor Fitch with these Indians, erroneously referred to the Seneca deputies as Onondagas. Stone, in his "Poetry and History of Wyoming," has made the same mistake.
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what little we have left we intend to keep for ourselves. We know not of any such sale, and if any such thing has been asked, it must have been done by particular persons in a separate manner, and not in any General Meeting, or Council, of the Six Nations-as has been the usual manner of their giving or selling their lands.
" 'Brothers, our custom is not to keep anything secret. We have heard that one Lydius, at Albany, has endeavored to purchase some land at Susquehanna, and (it is not the manner of the Six Nations to keep anything in reserve) he was up among the Six Nations to obtain a sale, but could not obtain it ; but we have heard that he has since got a deed from the Indians, which he obtained from them singly, or one by one, and that from stragglers and such as we know nothing of. We have often sold lands to the white people, but then it was done by the consent of the whole, in some General Meeting-and this is land which we have reserved for ourselves, as we have little left. * * *
for this land, which we know nothing of. *
" 'We have been told that Lydius has reported that he paid a great deal of money *
* Brothers, seriously take into con- sideration, and think how you would like it to have lands taken from you in an unfair and injurious manner. You are a praying people, better acquainted with books and learning than we, and must needs know better what is right. *
* * Brothers, as I have told you before, that we have been sent here by our chiefs to let you know that we have heard about your design of entering upon our lands, and we deliver in this belt to show the minds of the Confederate Nations-that you do not incroacli on these lands which we have reserved and design to keep for ourselves and our children to the latest posterity, and will not part with them. Brothers, if you proceed to incroach on our lands we shall not be easy, but will return home to our own places and apply ourselves to the King, our father, to obtain justice ; and I, myself, will [now] go, and on my going out of the house will return home'.
"Then the Governor directed the interpreter to desire them to stay till the begin- ning of the [next] week for an answer. To which they answered that their chiefs had directed them to make no delay, but as soon as they had made their speech they were to return ; but, at the Governor's desire, they would stay for an answer.
"At the Council Chamber, Hartford, [Monday], May 30, 1763. Present as before.
The Governor made answer to the foregoing speech. *
* * 'We assure and tell you this Government has not given any orders for any such settlement. We are no ways concerned in that matter, only as friends to you [we] have endeavored to prevent the people from going to settle those lands. We have, indeed, been told that a number of particular persons-some living in Connecticut, some in Massachusetts, some in New York and some in other Governments were about to settle on those lands, but we advised them not to proceed in their attempts. Lately I received orders from the King commanding me to use my authority and influence to prevent the people from attempt- ing to settle on those lands till the matter should be laid before the King. In obedience to His Majesty's commands I acquainted the chief men among them with the King's order, and I am well informed that those people have had a meeting and have unani- mously agreed that no person whatever of their Company shall enter upon, or make any settlement on, any of those lands until His Majesty's pleasure be known in that matter.' * * *
"To which the deputies of the Six Nations replied as follows : 'Brethren, we have heard with attention what you have said, and are well pleased with the same, and we hope you will endeavor to prevent any more people from making purchases of us; and as to those lands we have talked about, we do not at present design to part with them, but if ever we do, it shall be to those purchasers of your people before any others-if they desire it. We are to receive no presents on this occasion ; but as to your offer to dis- charge our expenses while in this town, we gratefully accept and acknowledge the same, and heartily bid you farewell.' "
The correspondent of the Gazette who furnished the foregoing account of the Hartford conference appended to it the following com- ments, which were printed in the same issue of the newspaper.
"These were the only causes of uneasiness mentioned by them [the deputies] and consequently all they had a pretense to mention ; and this was not an actual injury, but only an incroacliment they heard we intended to make upon them. But it is plain that this was a mere pretense-for it was with some entreaty they were prevailed upon to wait for the Governor's answer. They intended their remonstrance should be a declara- tion of war! About the tinie these Indian deputies might be supposed to have made their remonstrance, and to be on their return, the Indians began their murderous war, in which the Delawares and other Indian nations were confederates with the Six Nations."
The "murderous war" referred to by this writer was what is known in history as "Pontiac's War." The conspiracy, fomented by Pontiac, the Ottawa chieftan, was unmasked at Detroit (in what is now Michi- gan) on the 6th of May, 1763, and then was begun the war which con-
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tinued until late in the Summer of 1764. Fort Sandusky was captured by the Indians May 16, 1763; Fort Ouatanon (now Lafayette, Indiana), May 31st-the day following the close of the Hartford conference ; Fort Presqu' Isle (now Erie, Pennsylvania), June 17th ; Fort LeBœuf (in Erie County, Pennsylvania), June 18th : Fort Venango (in Venango County, Pennsylvania), June 18th, and the military posts at Carlisle and Bedford, Pennsylvania, on the same day. On June 22d a large body of Indians surrounded Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg, Pennsylvania) and opened fire on all sides, but were easily repulsed. The western Dela- wares and Shawanese joined in Pontiac's conspiracy, and took a very active part in the war ; but the Senecas-more especially the Western Senecas-were, as we have stated on page 121, the only Indians of the Six Nations in alliance with Pontiac. In The New York Gazette of August 1, 1763, appeared this item :
"On Thursday last arrived the Albany post, by whom we learn that a congress was lately held by Sir William Johnson at the German Flats, at which were present the chiefs of all the tribes of the Six Nations except the Senecas, who refused to send any."
Before the close of the May session of the Connecticut Assembly Colonel Dyer informed the "Lower House" of his purpose to make a voyage to England in the interest of The Susquehanna Company, and requested the "House" to recommend him to Richard Jackson, Esq., the Agent of the Colony residing in London. This that body, by vote, desired the Governor to do .* Shortly afterwards Colonel Dyer and other influential proprietors of The Susquehanna Company journeyed to Albany, New York, where, on or about June 24th, they had, in consequence of a previous arrangement, a conference with five of the principal sachems of the Mohawk tribe and a few of the chief men of some of the other tribes of the Six Nations. As a result of this confer- ence the representatives of the land company, in return for a satisfactory considerationt then paid to the Indians there present, received from the latter the "affidavit" and "address" mentioned on pages 291 and 307, ante, together with a brand-new deed (carefully engrossed and properly executed) conveying to The Susquehanna Company the Wyoming lands. This deedt was intended, evidently, either to confirm or to supersede and take the place of the deed of July 11, 1754.§ Armed with these documents and others of importance, Colonel Dyer sailed from Portsmouth for England August 18, 1763.
May 19, 1763, Col. James Burd (mentioned on page 360), in com- mand at Fort Augusta, wrote to Governor Hamilton that he had just received information that ten or twelve families from New England had settled at Wyoming, and that "a great many more" were daily expected. A few days after the receipt of this information the Gover- nor "received fresh complaints from the Indians at Wyoming that the Connecticut trespassers were still obstinately prosecuting their settle- ments on the lands there and at Cushetunk." Thereupon the Gover- nor, on the 2d of June, issued another proclamation (his third in rela- tion to this matter) requiring the intruders to remove from said lands. From it|| the following paragraphs have been extracted.
* See "Connecticut Colonial Records," XII : 299.
+ Perhaps the £400, the bullocks and the pork mentioned on page 411.
į Neither the original deed of 1763 nor a copy of it is known to be in existence. Further and more extended reference to it is made in Chapter XX.
§ See pages 271-276. | See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 197, 200.
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"WHEREAS divers persons ** * have, without any license or grant from the Honorable the Proprietaries of this Province, or authority from this Government, made several attempts, in bodies, to possess themselves of and settle upon a large tract of land within the limits of this Province, but not yet purchased from the Indians-lying at and between Wyoming on the River Susquehanna, and Cushietunck on the River Delaware, and in the upper parts of Northampton County ; and have also endeavored to persuade and inveigle many of the inhabitants of this and the neighboring Provinces to confederate and join with them in such their illegal and dangerous designs. * * *
"AND WHEREAS the Delawares and other tribes of Indians who reside within that tract of country between Wyoming and Cushietunck, and also the Six Nation Indians, have, as well at public treaties as at divers other times, repeatedly made complaints and remonstrances to me against the said practises and attempts, and in the most earnest manner requested and insisted that the said intruders should be removed by the Govern- ment to which they belonged, or by me, and declared if this was not done the Indians would come and remove them by force, and do themselves justice. *
"AND WHEREAS I have already issued two proclamations * to apprize the said intruders of their danger, and to forbid their settling on the said lands,
* yet I have lately received information and fresh complaints from the said Indians that divers persons *
are now actually settling * * about Wyoming and Cushietunck.
"WHEREFORE, as well to continue my endeavors to preserve the Peace and Friend- ship which is now so happily restored and subsisting between us and the Indians, and. to prevent the mischievous and terrible consequences of their carrying into execution such their threats (from which I am greatly apprehensive the Indians cannot any longer be restrained), * * I do issue this my third Proclamation, hereby again strictly en- joining and requiring, in His Majesty's name, all and every person and persons already settled and residing on said lands-Indians excepted-immediately to depart and remove away from the same. And I do hereby forbid all His Majesty's subjects of this or any other Province or Colony, on any pretense whatsoever, to intrude upon, settle or possess any of the said lands, or any other lands within the limits of this Province not yet purchased of the Indians."
The Governor immediately forwarded a copy of this Proclamation to Colonel Burd at Fort Augusta, accompanying it with a "letter of in- structions" addressed to Colonel Burd and Capt. Thomas McKee (men- tioned on pages 349 and 351) .* This letter was, in part, as followst :
"I have lately received intelligence, with fresh complaints from the Indians at Wyoming, that the Connecticut people still persist in prosecuting their scheme of set- tling the lands about Wyoming ; and with the advice of the Council I have thought it proper to issue a third Proclamation, and to desire that you will immediately take a journey to Wyoming, with such assistance as you shall judge proper, and use your best endeavors to persuade or drive away all the white people that you shall find settled, or about to settle, there, or on any lands not yet purchased from the Indians. Before you show yourselves amongst them you will gain all the information and light you can into their designs ; what their numbers are, and learn the names of as many as you can ; where settled, or about to settle; what numbers-and from whence-they expect to join them.
"On your arrival amongst them you will convene the heads of them, and, after reading the Proclamation, expostulate with them about the Injustice, Absurdity and Danger of their attempting to settle there, and let them know that I expect and require of them, by you, that they shall all immediately depart and quit their settlements. And if they shall agree to go away peaceably, you will then, after their departure, see all their buildings and improvements destroyed ; but in case they refuse to comply, you will then acquaint them that they may rest assured that, besides the danger they may be in from the resentment of the Indians, this Government will never permit them to continue there. If you find these expostulations and persuasive means shall not succeed, and that you can do it without danger of resistance from a superior force and the risque of bloodshed (which by no means hazard), I would have you, either by Stratagem or Force, to get three or four of the ringleaders, or others of them, apprehended and carried to the goalt at Lan- caster-sending with them a proper force. * *
* And if that cannot be done, you will endeavor to get the names of as many of them as you can, in order that they may be prosecuted at law. * * For this end I have armed you with a special commission, con-
* Capt. THOMAS MCKEE was the son of. Patrick McKee, who was a settler in Paxtang as early as 1730. Thomas McKee was assessed in Paxtang as early, at least, as 1749. He was a famous Indian trader-ap- pointed by the Provincial Government prior to May, 1744-and lived at a point on the Susquehanna known to-day as "McKee's Half Falls." He died at his home in April, 1772.
+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 29.
# Gaol, or jail, was meant. "Gaol" was the old form of spelling, yet, in this country, during the eighteenth century, this word-although pronounced as now pronounced-was almost generally written and printed "goal." In time, owing to this bad spelling, the word came to be improperly pronounced gole.
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stituting you magistrates of the counties of Northampton, Berks and Lancaster ; but I imagine the lands where they are settling must be in Northampton County."
In transmitting the foregoing letter and proclamation to Colonel Burd, Governor Hamilton also sent to him a private letter, reading in part as follows* : * "As it is of great consequence to the Proprietary, as well as to the peace of the Province, to prevent, as much as possible, all jealousies and suspicions taking root in the minds of the Indians that the English intend to take possession of their lands against their consent, and without having first purchased and paid for the same, I am very desirous to do everything in my power to quiet their minds in that regard ; and con- sequently find myself under a necessity of endeavoring to remove these intruders before they are too firmly established. And, as I have a very good opinion of your prudence and discretion in the conduct of anything committed to your care, I earnestly desire that you will, with Mr. Thomas McKee (who, from his knowledge of the Indians, may be use- ful to you), repair forthwith to Wyoming and pursue the instructions herein inclosed with regard to the conduct you are to use to any persons you shall find settled there. * *
"I have had much discourse upon this affair with Mr. Croghan, who, being Deputy Agent for Indian Affairs, gives his directions to Thomas McKee, and also writes to Sir William Johnson these opinions. * * Sir William having represented to His Majesty the dangerous tendency of this Connecticut intrusion, His Majesty has been pleased to signify to Sir Jeffrey Amherst and the Governor of Connecticut his high displeasure at the intended proceedings of these intruders, and to order them to forbear till a statement of the case can be laid before him ; and the Governor of Connecticut, on receiving these orders, publicly proclaimed the same-as appears in an article in the New York papers enclosed to you, which you will show to those people, and make the best use of, to con- vince them that their own Government disallows their proceedings."
Colonel Burd received the aforementioned documents at Fort Au- gusta on June 5th. He immediately turned over the command of the fort to Lieut. Samuel Hunter and went down the river to find Captain McKee, in order to make arrangements to proceed to Wyoming. On the 7th of June Burd and McKee, accompanied by three or four attend- ants, set off from Fort Augusta for Wyoming. The next day a message was received at the fort, from a friendly Indian living a short distance up the West Branch, cautioning Lieutenant Hunter to be on his guard, as the fort might be attacked by hostile Indians at any moment. A messenger was immediately despatched after Colonel Burd and his party, but failed to reach them until they had arrived at Wyoming. Burd sent the messenger back to Fort Augusta, post-haste, with a warning mes- sage to the commandant. In the meantime, on June 11th, John Shi- kellimy (frequently mentioned heretofore) arrived in his canoe at the fort and promised to be on the alert and give early information of any attacking party. In the evening of June 18th Colonel Burd and his party arrived at the fort from Wyoming, and the Colonel immediately assumed command of the post. What he and Captain McKee saw, said or did at Wyoming we are unable to state, as we have failed to find any record or report relating to their doings here.
In May, 1763, within a few days after the Connecticut settlers had arrived in Wyoming (as mentioned on page 413), David Zeisberger passed through the valley on his way from Bethlehem to Papoonhank's town (see page 389), in order to ascertain the prospect for introducing the gospel there. He reached Wyalusing on the 23d of May, and con- tinued there, preaching and teaching, till the 27th, when he set out for Bethlehem, bearing an earnest invitation from Papoonhank and all his people to the Moravian Brethren to speedily send a religious teacher to reside at Wyalusing. Each time, on his passage through Wyoming, Zeisberger preached to the Indians here.
* See "The Shippen Papers," page 199.
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About the time Zeisberger was at Wyalusing John Woolman,* of Burlington County, New Jersey, a member of the Society of Friends, and a tailor by trade-"zealous for the welfare of suffering and perishing humanity, and entertaining a love in his heart toward the natives of this land who dwelt far back in the wilderness"-conceived the project of paying a visit to the Indians at Wyalusing. An Indian man and three women from a village beyond that place being in Philadelphia, Wool- man visited them and arranged to accompany them on their homeward journey up the Susquehanna. Inducing his friend Benjamin Parvin to go with him the two set out for Bethlehem, where they were joined by the four Indians previously mentioned. The following paragraphs have been taken from Woolman's journal.
"On the 10th of June [1763] we set out [from Bethlehem] early in the morning, and crossed the western branch of Delaware- called the Great Lehie-near Fort Allen. The water being high we went over in a canoe. Here we met an Indian, and had some friendly conversation with him, and gave him some bis- cuit ; and he, having killed a deer, gave the Indians with us some of it. Then, after travel- ing some miles, we met several Indian men and women with a cow, a horse and some household goods, who were lately come from their dwelling at Wioming and going to settle at another place. We made them some small presents, and some of them understanding English I told them my motive in coming into their country-with which they appeared satis- fied ; and, one of our guides talking awhile with an antient woman concerning us, the poor old woman came to my companion and me and took her leave of us with an appear- ance of sincere affection. So, going on, we pitched our tent near the banks of the same river, having laboured hard in crossing some of those mountains called the Blue Ridge. * *
John Woolman preaching to the Indians at Wyoming in 1763. Reproduced from an old engraving.
"Near our tent, on the sides of large trees peeled for that purpose, were various representations of men going to and returning from the wars, and of some killed in battle-this being a path heretofore used by war-
riors. *
* * I walked about viewing those Indian histories, which were painted mostly in red, but some in black.| This was the first night that we lodged in the woods ; and being wet with traveling in the rain, the ground, our tent, and the bushes which we purposed to lay under our blankets also wet, all looked discouraging. * * We kindled
* JOHN WOOLMAN, the godly and devoted Quaker apostle of temperance and of the abolition of slavery, was born at Northampton, West New Jersey, in 1720. At a very early age he became distinguished for his attachment to religion, and in after life he became one of the most pious and indefatigable laborers in the cause of freedom and human happiness that the Society of Friends ever produced. "It may be safely asserted," stated a writer in Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania (X : 337) in 1832, "that for self-denial; purity of manners and conversation, firm, consistent and persevering prosecution of duty, and zealous and enlightened benevolence, he has rarely been equalled and, perhaps, never excelled." In 1746 he traveled as a minister of the Society of Friends through Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. He wrote that he "saw in those southern Provinces so many vices and corruptions increased by this trade [slavery] and this way of life-viz .: the whites living idly and luxuriously on the labor of the blacks- that it appeared [to him] as a gloom over the land."
In 1757 Woolman made a journey through the South with his brother, in order to convince persons, principally of his own Society, of the wickedness and impolicy of slavery. In 1758 he was appointed by the Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia one of the committee of that body for the purpose of discouraging slave-holding among its members. In 1753 he published Part I of his "Considerations on Slave-hold- ing," and in 1762 Part II was published. Early in 1772 he embarked for England, and shortly after his arrival there he endeavored to induce the Quakers in that country to importune the British Government to take some decided action in behalf of the oppressed Africans. He died of small-pox at York, England, in the latter part of 1772, aged about fifty-two years. A collection of his works was published at Phila- delphia in 1774, and in 1871 his "Journal," with an Introduction by John Greenleaf Whittier, the "Quaker Poet," was published at Boston. Many years ago Charles Lamb wrote: "Get the writings of John Woolman by heart, and love the early Quakers."
+ Trees similarly decorated stood at, or in the immediate neighborhood of, the village of Wyoming at that period-as we learn from other sources. It seems to have been a common custom, among certain tribes of Indians in Pennsylvania and New York, to depict important events and interesting happenings in the manner described. In the Sullivan Expedition of 1779 (referred to at length in Chapter XVIII) one of the principal officers was Lieut. Col. Adam Hubley. During the campaign he kept a journal, which he illustrated with pen and ink sketches. The original journal, now in the possession of The
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a fire, with our tent open to it, and with some bushes next the ground, and then our blankets, we made our bed. The eleventh day of the sixth month [June 11th], the bushes being wet, we tarried in our tent till about eight o'clock ; when going on we crossed a high mountain supposed to be upwards of four miles over-the steepness on the north side exceeding all the others. We also crossed two swamps. * ** About noon, on our way, we were overtaken by one of the Moravian Brethren* going to Wehaloosing [Wyalusing], and an Indian man with him who could talk English, and we being together while our horses eat grass, had some friendly conversation ; but they, traveling faster than we, soon left us. This Moravian, I understood, had spent some time this Spring at Wehaloosing, and was, by some of the Indians, invited to come again.
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