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 II > Part 5
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The treaty of peace between France and England-which was proclaimed in Philadelphia January 26, 1763, and marked the ending of the Seven Years' War-had been concluded but a few months when a new Indian war broke out, planned and fomented by Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas. (See Vol. I, page 416.) This war, although not of very long duration, was perhaps unsurpassed in the annals of border warfare. Immediately on the opening of hostilities organizations were formed throughout Pennsylvania for the defense of the frontiers (where, as during the French and Indian War, the situation was deplor- able), and the sturdy Scots-Irish and Germans settled along the frontiers were among the first to become enrolled in those organizations-one of which was the "Paxtang Rangers," mentioned on page 426. One of the companies of the "Rangers" was commanded by Capt. Lazarus Stewart.
Reference is made on pages 39-41 to the Conestoga Indians and their village in Lancaster County. In the Spring of 1763 those Indians numbered only twenty souls, living in a cluster of squalid cabins and dependent, chiefly, on the industry of the squaws. The men were wild, gipsy-like beings, and, in the troubled state of the country, while Pontiac was encircling Pennsylvania with an ever narrowing hedge of burning dwellings, excited suspicion by their careless if not threatening language. Then, too, they were charged with harboring roving, vagabond Indians-the tramps of the period-who infested certain parts of the country, robbing and killing with impunity. Finally the Indians at Conestoga were accused by the white inhabitants of the surrounding country of being guilty of many of the crimes of arson, theft and murder which had then recently been committed thereabouts. In particular, the white inhabitants of the Paxtang region charged that the influences and instruments of evil from which they suffered issued from the village of Conestoga. Appeals for relief or protection were made to the Provincial Coun- cil at Philadelphia, but the power there was in the hands of the Quakers, who shut their ears to the cries of distress and sternly refused to consider the facts presented by those who implored for relief. (See Vol. I, page 429.) "Remove the Indians from Conestoga !" was the cry of the people of Paxtang. "That is impossible, as no crime has been proved against them," was the response of the Government at Philadelphia.
"The condition of the frontiers now became most alarming," says Pearce in his "Annals of Luzerne County" (page 104). "The depredations of the savages grew more frequent, and the remote settlements were deserted. In the midst of the peace and quiet of our day we cannot form an adequate conception of the perils which encompassed the Paxtang settlers at that time. * * * A feeling of hostility was awakened against the Moravians and Quakers, who were disposed to conciliate and protect the Indians. The people in and about Philadelphia and those parts of the Province secure against the fire and toma- hawk of the savage, looked with a lenient eye on his bloody depredations. He was a savage, unchrist- ianized, said they, ignorant of his duty and his destiny, encroached upon by the white man, and driven from his hunting-grounds. We should pardon much to his wild, untamed nature, and reform rather than punish him. This was the glorious doctrine of toleration, calculated for the benevolent and non-resist- ing Quaker, secure in his life and property. But it was ill-suited for the frontiersman who had seen his harvest desolated, his house burned, and was burying forever from his sight the scalped and mangled forms of his family."
Under the date of September 13, 1763, the Rev. John Elder (Colonel commanding the "Paxtang Rangers") wrote to Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania : "I suggest to you the propriety of an immediate removal of the Indians from Conestoga, and placing a garrison in their room. In case this is done, I pledge my- self for the future security of the frontiers." To this communication Gov. John Penn-who had succeeded Hamilton early in November, 1763-replied : "The faith of this Government is pledged for their protec- tion. I cannot remove them without adequate cause." The "Rangers," finding appeals to the authorities useless, resolved to take the law into their own hands. Early in December, 1763, several Indian murderers were traced to Conestoga, and it was determined to take them prisoners. The destruction of the Indians was not contemplated. Some fifty-seven of the "Rangers," mounted and well armed, and in command of Capt. Lazarus Stewart, reached the Indian village just about daylight, December 14, 1763. Their presence was made known to the inhabitants by the barking of some dogs; whereupon a number of strange Indians rushed from several of the huts brandishing their tomahawks. This show of resist- ance was all that was needed to provoke the visitors from Paxtang to violence, and without ado they fired upon the Indians, six of whom fell dead. All the others in the village fled in dismay and disorder, whereupon the "Rangers" set fire to the huts and departed to their several homes. On December 22d Governor Penn issued a proclamation relative to this affair, calling upon the people to apprehend the offenders. The people, however, outside the Quaker and Moravian settlements, heartily approved the doings of the Paxtang men.
The Indians who escaped destruction at Conestoga fled for protection to the authorities of Lancaster County, by whom they were placed in the work-house in the town of Lancaster. Among the Indians thus harbored were supposed to be two who were well known to Captain Stewart and his men as vagabonds. The Captain proposed to capture one of these-the principal miscreant of a band which, a short time be- fore, had murdered with great barbarity a family near Paxtang-and take him to the jail at Carlisle, there to be held for trial. This was heartily approved of, and December 27, 1763, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, fifty men from Paxtang and Donegal, armed with rifles, hangers and tomahawks, gal- loped into Lancaster with Captain Stewart at their head. They turned their horses loose in Slough's ini- yard and proceeded to the work-house, which they surrounded. Their entrance into the building was opposed by the Sheriff and the Coroner of the County and others in the building, but Stewart detailed a number of his men to break down the door, enter the building and bring out to him the Indian whom they sought. The "Rangers" to whom this duty was confided became so enraged at the Indians, who fought desperately with billets of wood, that before their resentment could be repressed all the Indians present -fourteen in number-were slain. No children were killed by the "Rangers," and no act of savage butchery was committed. After they had finished their work the "Rangers" gave three cheers, and then declared : "We have presented the citizens of Lancaster with a Christmas-box, and we will present the Philadelphians with a New Year's gift !" So, at least, stated a writer in Hazard's Register of Pennsyl- vania in 1830 ; and the same writer said, further, that Captain Robinson, with a company of Highlanders, was in Lancaster at that time on the march from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, and that Edward Shippen,
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Esq. (see page 360), the principal magistrate in the town, hurried to the quarters of Captain Robinson and besought him to hasten with his Highlanders to the rescue of the Indians or the arrest of the Paxtang and Donegal "Boys"; but that officer replied : "Damn them ! I would not care if the whole race were slain, for my company has suffered enough by them already. I will not stir one step !"
"If the excitement throughout the Province was great after the affair at Conestoga, this last trans- action set everything in a ferment," states Dr. W. H. Egle in his "History of Pennsylvania." "No language can describe the outcry which arose from the Quakers in Philadelphia, or the excitement which swayed to and fro in the frontiers and in the city. The Quakers blamed the Governor, the Governor the Assembly, and the latter censured everybody but their own inaction." Under date of January 2, 1764, Gov- ernor Penn issued a proclamation calling upon all good citizens "to make diligent search and enquiry after the authors and perpetrators of the said last-mentioned offense, their abettors and accomplices ; and that they [the good citizens] use all possible means to apprehend and secure them in some of the public gaols of this Province to be dealt with according to law. And I do promise and engage that any person who shall apprehend and secure, or cause to be apprehended and secured, any three of the ringleaders of the said party, and prosecute them to conviction, shall have and receive for each the public reward of £200; and any accomplice, not concerned in the immediate shedding of blood of the said Indians, who shall make discovery of any or either of said ringleaders, and apprehend and prosecute them to conviction, shall, over and above the said reward, have all the weight and influence of the Government for obtaining His Majesty's pardon for the offense."
None of the known or suspected offenders was mentioned by name in this proclamation !
Pamphlets and letters without number, truth or decency now poured like a torrent from the press. The Quakers took up the pen to execrate the crimes of the Paxtang and Donegal "Boys," and many others seized the opportunity to defame the Scots-Irish Presbyterians as religious zealots, ignorant bigots and lawless marauders, who had imbibed in their native country a fanatical spirit and hatred of pagan insti- tutions, which had been excited to a pitch of wildest enthusiasm by their spiritual teachers in Paxtang and neighboring districts. The following (see Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, VI : 298-November, 1830) emanated from one of the Quaker pamphleteers of Philadelphia at that period : "The frontier in- habitants are mostly emigrants from the North of Ireland-by religious profession, rigid Presbyterians. In some of the townships are a few Germans, but these are in general settled in the more interior parts of the Province. To the wicked and inhuman conduct of the former may be in some measure attributed the general corruption and depravity of the Indians, through their trading with them in times of peace, intoxicating them with spirituous liquors, defrauding them in their bargains, and, since the treaties held with them by the Government, taking opportunity of creating fresh broils by quarreling with and abus- ing in many instances such who had lived in friendship with the English. The Indians being by nature revengeful, an implacable hatred has long subsisted between them and the Scotch and Irish."
Although the men who exterminated the Conestoga Indians belonged to the Rev. John Elder's "Pax- tang Rangers", it has never been proved that he had previous knowledge of the plot formed. When the deed was done, however, and the Quaker authorities were determined to proceed to extreme lengths with the participants, and denounced the frontiersmen as "riotous and murderous Irish Presbyterians", he took sides with the border inhabitants and sought to condone the deeds of December. In a letter to Col. James Burd (see note, page 360) Colonel Elder said, among other things: "Lazarus Stewart is still threatened by the Philadelphia party. He and his friends talk of leaving. If they do [leave] the Province will lose some of its best friends, and that by the fault of others-not their own ; for if any cruelty was practised on the Indians at Conestoga or at Lancaster, it was not by his or their hands. *
* It is evi- dently not the wish of the [Government] party to give Stewart a fair hearing. All he desires is to be put on trial at Lancaster, near the scenes of the horrible butcheries committed by the Indians at Tulpehocken, etc., where he can have the testimony of the scouts and 'Rangers'-men whose services can never be sufficiently rewarded."
(See pages 750 and 751 of "The Harvey Book"-published at Wilkes-Barre in 1899-for the remainder of Colonel Elder's letter ; and also for a "Declaration" published some time later by Captain Stewart, in which, among other matters, he asserted : "If a white man kill an Indian, it is murder far exceeding any crime upon record ; he must not be tried in the County where he lives, or where the offense was com- initted. but in Philadelphia, that he may be tried, convicted, sentenced and hung without delay. * * Were we tamely to look on and see our brethren murdered, and see our fairest prospects blasted, while the inhabitants of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Bucks and Chester slept, and reaped their grain in safety ? * * These hands never shed human blood ! Why am I singled out as an object of persecu- tion? Why are the bloodhounds let loose upon me? * * All I ask is that the men accused of murder be tried in Lancaster County. All I ask is a trial in my own County. If these requests are refused, then not a hair of those men's heads shall be molested. Whilst I have life you shall not have either them or me on any terms.")
All efforts to carry into effect the proclamation of Governor Penn for the apprehension of the Paxtang and Donegal "Boys" seem to have been early suspended-at least so far as the Governor's authority went. And because of this grave complaints were made by the Assembly, the members of which seemed to bend all their energies to persecute the offenders. Stone, in his "Poetry and History of Wyoming," refers to the Conestoga and Lancaster incidents, and says (page 157): "It is a singular fact, that the actors in this strange and tragic affair were not of the lower orders of the people. They were Presby- terians, comprising in their ranks men of intelligence, and of so much consideration that the press dared not disclose their names, nor the Government attempt their punishment. It was, indeed, believed by some that the murder of the Indians was by no means the chief end of their design ; but that, taking ad- vantage of the wide-spread consternation they had produced, they intended to overturn the Government and revolutionize the Colony."
At the time of the Conestoga and Lancaster tragedies there were in the neighborhood of 150 Indians -men, women and children-living in barracks on Province Island, about four miles from Philadelphia. They included 120 or more who had lived under the care of the Moravian Brethren near Bethlehem, and Papoonhank and his family and Job Chillaway and his family and others from Wyalusing (see page 435), all of whom had been removed by the Government to the locality mentioned both by way of security to them as well as to obviate the clamors of the people who accused them of holding intercourse with the inimical Indians. Early in January word was brought to Philadelphia that a large body of Paxtang and Donegal "Boys" purposed marching down to Philadelphia to destroy the Indians on Province Island. The following paragraphs from a letter written by a Quaker in Philadelphia to a friend, under date of February 29, 1764 (see Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, XII : 9-July 6, 1833), give a brief account of the excited feelings of the Philadelphia Quakers at that time and their willingness to go out and fight the on-coming Lancastrians.
"At last, on the fourth of this month [February, 1764], we received certain intelligence that a con- siderable body of them were coming down with arms, to destroy every Indian they could meet with. The Governor, immediately upon this, ordered the Sheriff and his officers to summon the inhabitants to meet in the afternoon at the State House. A vast concourse accordingly assembled, when it was proposed that they should enter into an association to defend the Government, for it was imagined that killing the Indians was not the only motive of this hostile insurrection. * * In the morning, the weather prov- ing fair, though very cold, a number of carpenters were hired, who, by directions of Captain Schlosser [of the 'Royal Americans' previously mentioned], built a redoubt in the center of the parade, at the military barracks [whither the Indians had been brought from Province Island]. Several pieces of cannon were likewise hauled up, and the best preparations were made that the time would admit of. Notwithstand- ing these warlike measures the Government was still unwilling to proceed to extremity, * * and there- fore sent the Rev. G-t T-t, with two or three more pious divines of the same order, to convince them
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if possible, by the force of reason and argument, or by the opposition of texts of Scripture, that they were in error, and to prevail upon them to return home. Perhaps some people may be inclined to censure this step when they consider that a proclamation had been published, offering a reward of £200 for ap- prehending any of the parties concerned in the murder of the Indians at Lancaster, and that the Riot Act had been extended to this Province a few days before.
"The day passing over, and no enemy appearing, nor any intelligence of their motions, we began to hope that the rumor was without foundation. For my own part I went to bed as free from any appre- hensions of danger as ever I did in my life, and slept very soundly till after midnight, when all of a sud- den I was alarmed by the ringing of the bells. *** * One of the neighbors thundered at the door and called to us to put out the lights, for the Paxtang Boys were coming. Then I heard the old militia drums with solemn dubb beating to arms, and saw the inhabitants running from all quarters to obey the sum- mons. By sunrise they had got themselves officers. The remains of the old artillery company were like- wise mustered, and two pieces of cannon brought out of the magazine and stationed before the Court House. All business was now suspended, the shops and stores were close shut, and every person seemed anxious to know what would be the issue of all this tumult. The number of persons in arms that morning was about 600. *
* About eleven o'clock there was a general uproar. "They are coming ! They are coming ! Where? Where? Down Second Street !' Such of the company as had grounded their fire- locks flew to arms and began to prime ; the artillery-men threw themselves into order, and the people ran to get out of the way, for a troop of armed men on horseback appeared in reality coming down the street. * * They proved to be a company of German butchers and porters under the command of Captain Hoffman. * * A false alarm was now called out, and all became quiet again in a few minutes.
"In the afternoon we received word that the Paxtoneers had actually crossed the [Schuylkill] River and were got as far as Germantown, where they proposed to take up their quarters for the night. Several persons went out from town to view them, and from the best accounts that could be obtained their num- bers did not exceed 200; but they pretended that the whole were not yet come in. This formidable body consisted principally of a set of fellows dressed in blanket-coats and moccasins, like our Indian traders or back-country wagoners. They were armed with rifles and tomahawks, and some of them had a brace of pistols besides. * * Their chiefs assumed an air of command and importance. One of them was called Smith, another Gibson ; the third I have forgot. They behaved with great civility to those they conversed with ; were surprised to hear that the citizens had taken up arms to oppose them ; declared that they had no intention of injuring any one, but only wanted satisfaction of the Indians, as some of them had been concerned in the murder of the friends and relations of the Paxtoneers. When it first became known that the latter were at Germantown it was proposed in council to go and take them prisoners ; but that advice was overruled-though Capt. Turbutt Francis [see Vol. I, page 489] of the 41th Regiment (who, at the request of a number of young persons, had undertaken to command them), voluntarily offered to make the attempt. As it was reported they [the Lancastrians] were excellent marksmen, and as a great deal of blood might probably be spilt upon the occasion, it was resolved to send a body of select patricians to inquire into the object of their coming, and to persuade them to return home.
"The weather being now very wet Captain Francis, Captain Wood and Captain Mifflin drew up their men under the market-house, which, not affording shelter for any more, they occupied the Friends' Meeting-house, and Capt. Joseph Wharton marched his company up stairs into the monthly-meeting room. * * Nothing of any consequence passed during the remainder of the day, except that Captain Coultas came into town at the head of a troop which he had just raised in his own neighborhood. * * In the evening our negotiators had come in from Germantown. They had conferred with the chiefs and prevailed with them to suspend all hostilities till they should receive an answer to their petition, or manifesto, which had been sent down the day before. As it was necessary that these requisitions should be laid before the Governor and Assembly, the chiefs agreed to disband their troops and come to town with the envoys-being promised protection on the faith of the Government. * The Paxtang chiefs are gone home without being heard, and we are daily threatened with a return of a more formidable force. Many people are now convinced of the utility of a military force, to secure our lives and property, and the Assembly have passed a law for that purpose, which now lies before the Governor. Whether he will give his assent to it or not is doubtful, for the Assembly have vested in the people the power of choosing officers."
Under date of February 9, 1764, Joseph Shippen, Esq., Secretary of the Provincial Council, wrote from Philadelphia to Col. James Burd at Fort Augusta as follows (see "The Shippen Papers"): "I should have returned an answer before now, but was prevented by the great disturbance made here by the approach of 700 armed men near to this city, with a design to destroy the Indians in the barracks. The whole city was under arms three days. * * * The rioters rendezvoused at Germantown, where Messrs. [Benjamin] Chew, [Benjamin] Franklin, [Joseph] Galloway and [Charles] Willing went to confer with them and demand their reasons for assembling in arms, and approaching. They continued with them several hours, and happily settled the affair, so that they [the Lancastrians] agreed to return peaceably to their homes, leaving three of their principals behind to lay an humble petition of their grievances before the Governor and Assembly."
After this emeute Lazarus Stewart and the other Paxtang "Boys" settled down at their respective homes and proceeded with their various vocations, undismayed and undisturbed.
In January, 1768, it was feared that Indian hostilities were about to break out again, and Sir William Johnson formally stated that one cause of dissatisfaction on the part of the Six Nations was that Pennsyl- vania had neglected to punish the perpetrators of the Conestoga and Lancaster murders. The Pennsyl- vania Assembly thereupon addressed a message to Governor Penn, in which they suggested that "although Justice may sometimes sleep, it can never die." They asserted, further, that in order to prevent an Indian war "the principles, both of Justice and Policy, call for a speedy redress of the grievances complained of by the Indians. * * For when we consider the manner of committing the murder at Lancaster-that it was done at noonday, in the midst of a populous borough, and in the presence of many spectators, by men probably of the same county, undisguised and well known-we apprehend their names may be easily discovered, and their persons brought to that punishment their heinous offenses deserve." Noth- ing came of this, however, and Captain Stewart and his Paxtang "Boys" continued to reside on their farms in Paxtang, Derry and Hanover, unmolested so far as we know.
In addition to the share in the Susquehanna Purchase to which Captain Stewart became entitled in consideration of his services in helping to regain and maintain possession of the Wyoming lands, he pur- chased a "right" in the Summer of 1770, as is shown by a receipt, recorded in the "Proceedings of the Commissioners under the Confirming Law of 1787," in the following words: "Windham, 6 April, 1771. This is to certify that Mr. Lazarus Stewart some time last Summer paid £7, 11sh., Pennsylvania money, in part pay for a whole share or right in the Susquehanna Purchase promised him by Major Durkee, and that I gave Mr. Stewart a receipt for said money. [Signed] "ZEB! BUTLER."
In the Autumn of 1771 Captain Stewart began the erection of a block-house in Hanover, originally Nanticoke, Township, on "Lot No. 3, First Division." This was the first building erected in the township by a settler under The Susquehanna Company, and it stood on a slight rise of ground a few rods from the bank of the river, a short distance below the Wilkes-Barre-Hanover boundary-line. It was built of logs, was one and a-half stories high, and contained four rooms on the ground floor with ample space on the floor above for the convenience of its occupants. The part of the building above the second floor pro- jected beyond the walls of the first story-this "overshoot," as it was called, enabling the defenders of the house to protect the walls from assaults by attacking parties.
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