USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Annals of Luzerne County; a record of interesting events, traditions, and anecdotes > Part 8
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The commissioners were to cause a re-survey of all the lands lying in the seventeen townships claimed by the Pennsylvania claimants, and after forty thousand acres should be released and re-conveyed to the Common- wealth by said claimants, then they were to receive a
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THE PENNAMITE AND YANKEE WAR.
compensation for the same from the state treasury, at the rate of five dollars for first-class lands, three dollars for second, one dollar and fifty cents for third, and twenty- five cents for fourth-class lands, per acre. These seventeen townships were those laid out by the Susquehanna Com- pany, and after the passage of the Act of 1799 were called certified townships, and those of them in this county are designated on the accompanying map by dotted lines and open letters. The names of these townships are Wilkes- barre, Hanover, Newport, Huntington, Salem, Plymouth, Kingston, Exeter, Bedford, Pittston, Providence, Putnam or Tunkhannock, Ulster, Claverack, Braintrim, North- moreland, and Springfield. The last six lie within the limits of Wyoming, Susquehanna, and Bradford counties.
Thus, after thirty years of strife there was peace, peace at last in Wyoming. The record presents a sad com- mentary on the folly of men. Passion and selfishness predominate, and the voice of reason is unheeded. Not until after their energies and substance are exhausted, and every expedient that folly could suggest has been tried, do they open their eyes, and quietly pursue that course which common sense pointed out at the first.
The conduct of the state of Pennsylvania is without excuse. Her vacillating legislation, and her bad faith, expose her to the severest censure. The Pennsylvania claimants undoubtedly exercised an undue influence in her legislative halls, and it is to be feared corruptly pro- cured the repeal of measures which at a previous session had been enacted with the best motives for honest pur- poses. It is to be hoped that our great Commonwealth will never again suffer the pages of her history to be darkened and disgraced, by a disregard of the dictates of justice and of humanity.
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CHAPTER III.
CAPTAIN LAZARUS STEWART.
DAUPHIN COUNTY, in Pennsylvania, was originally called Paxton district, and was included, previous to 1785, in Lancaster county. It was first settled by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, from the north of Ireland, about the year 1726, among whom were the ancestors of Captain Lazarus Stewart. He was born in Hanover township, in Paxton or Pextang district, in the year 1734. His father was a plain honest farmer, who gave his son such education as the frontiers of a new country commonly afford. The Scotch-Irish were generally impressed with the import- ance of mental improvement, and every settlement usually had its schoolmaster "to teach the young idea how to shoot." The subject of this sketch was endowed by nature with excellent abilities, and though his bold and impatient spirit could ill brook the strict school discipline of that day, yet he appears to have made considerable advance- ment in his studies under a Scotch-Irish teacher, who " flourished the birch" in the neighborhood of his father's cabin. For one whose days were destined to be spent in the adventurous scenes of frontier life, amid hardships and alarms, with an axe in one hand and a rifle in the other, his education may be said to have been excellent. He possessed a strong and active body, with a daring and enterprising spirit, which in boyhood gave him superiority among his companions, and in riper years made him a leader and a man of mark.
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. CAPTAIN LAZARUS STEWART.
In the year 1755, when the French were striving to prevent the expansion of the English colonies from the source of the Ohio towards the Mississippi, Stewart, then twenty-one years of age, was placed in command of a company of brave young men, who penetrated the wilder- ness westward, and united with the forces under General Braddock. That heroic but conceited general, who was accounted an excellent officer on the battle-fields of Europe, was altogether ignorant of Indian tactics, and in his infatuated self-reliance met with a most disastrous overthrow. The Indians, following on the track of the retreating remnants of the army, dispersed themselves in bands, and broke into the frontier settlements of Penn- sylvania with fire and murder. Captain Stewart and his comrades hastened home to defend their firesides and loved ones. However, while they were yet on their way, a party of savages, under cover of the night, stole into the northern portion of Paxton, and murdered a whole family. Then securing the plunder and cattle, they fled away into the wilderness. The head of a beautiful young girl of this family was severed from lier body, and raised on a pole above the house-top. This lady was Captain Stewart's intended bride, to whom he was to be united in marriage on his return from the campaign. She was an amiable girl, endued with rare beauty, fondly attached to her lover, and was looking forward with pleasing antici- pations to his return, though doubtless with mingled feel- ings of anxiety in view of the chances of war. The hope of future happiness, the bright eye and fair cheek of his promised bride, must have fortified the heart of the young soldier, and smoothed down the difficulties which he encountered in the depths of the forest, and on the field of battle. On his road to Hanover, he would pass near to the home of his loved one, but as he approached he
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saw in the distance its burned and blackened remains. Suddenly a terrible fear sprang up in his heart, and pale- ness overspread his cheek. When he came near he saw the bodies of the slain family, which had been gathered up and placed in rough coffins by the assembled neigh- bors. We may imagine the deep anguish of the young soldier as he gazed on the mutilated remains of her who was more to him than all the world beside. None but strong and passionate natures can conceive of the fierce emotions which flamed up in his soul, when he thought of those who had done this horrid deed. Hannibal, in obedience to parental authority, swore eternal hostility to ambitious Rome, because she was the rival of his native Carthage; Stewart, standing over that precious but dis- figured form, took an oath of vengeance against the Indians, because they had made his heart desolate, and turned his anticipations of joy to bitterness unspeakable.
The inhabitants of Paxton immediately formed them- selves into a military corps, called the Paxton Rangers, and constituted their excellent pastor, the Rev. Mr. Elder, its colonel. In this regiment Stewart was appointed cap- tain of a company, whose duties were to watch the settle- ments along the Juniata, and those on the west and north branches of the Susquehanna, and protect them from the rifle and tomahawk of the savage. Several skirmishes took place between his rangers and the savage foe during a period of two or three years. In these engagements he exhibited that impetuous daring and great firmness which were characteristic of the man. He was always on the alert; his vigilance never slept, and his powers of en- durance were the admiration of all. High mountains, swollen rivers, or great distances never deterred or appal- led him. His courage and fortitude were equal to every
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undertaking, and woe betide the red men when their blood-stained tracks once met his eye.
In 1763 the frontiers were visited by scalping-parties of Indians, during what was called Pontiac's war. Early in October of that year, the Stinton family and a number of Irish settlements in Northampton county were mas- sacred by Indians of the Six Nations. These barbarities soon reached the ears of the Paxton men, and they soli- cited their colonel,. Rev. Mr. Elder, to obtain permission from the governor to allow them to make an expedition against the enemy. Another object in view was "to destroy the immense quantities of corn left by the New England men at Wyoming, which, if not consumed, would be a considerable magazine to the enemy, and enable them with more ease to distress the inhabitants." At the most earnest solicitation of his men, Colonel Elder allowed two of his companies of rangers, respectively under the com- mands of Captain Stewart and Captain Clayton, to pro- ceed to Wyoming. They marched in three days and a half one hundred and ten miles on foot. When they reached Wyoming they learned that the murdering party, which had committed shocking depredations in North- ampton county on the 8th October, was probably the same which, on the 15th of that month, had cut off the New England settlers in the valley. At all events, they entered the valley from the direction of Northampton, and took their departure up the river. There is no suffi- cient ground for supposing that the massacre of the settlers of Wyoming, in the autumn of 1763, was done by the friends of Tedyuscung, the great Delaware king, who was murdered in the valley in the spring of that year. All the presumptions are in favor of the opinion that the murderers of Tedyuscung, as well as of the New England settlers, belonged to the Six Nations. From the
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language of Colonel Elder to Governor Hamilton, it would appear as if the colonel, in using the word left, with respect to the corn in Wyoming, thought the New Eng- land men had fled from the valley. And the belief was a natural one, when we consider the exposed condition of that region of country when Pontiac's war was raging along the frontiers. It is certain Clayton and Stewart could not have heard of the Wyoming murder until after they had left home, and had advanced a considerable dis- tance on their expedition. Their object was to intercept the Northampton murderers, as well as to destroy the corn which they supposed had been left by the New Eng- landers. They found and buried, of these New England people, ten persons, nine men and one woman, who had been barbarously butchered. " The woman was roasted, and had two hinges in her hands, supposed to have been put in red-hot, and several of the men had awls thrust in their eyes, and spears, arrows, pitchforks, &c., sticking in their bodies."# The Paxton Rangers, after burning the Indian houses and a quantity of corn, returned to their homes. The scenes which Stewart and his men had already witnessed were eminently calculated to rouse the highest degree of resentment against the Indian. Besides these murdered strangers of another colony, but of the same race and language with themselves, they had seen their neighbors and acquaintances, their friends, and those dearest to their hearts, cold in death, felled by the toma- hawk, tortured and cruelly mangled.
The condition of the frontiers now became most alarm- ing. The depredations of the savages grew more fre- quent, and the remote settlements were deserted. In the midst of the peace and quiet of our day, we cannot form
* See Appendix, A.
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. CAPTAIN LAZARUS STEWART.
an adequate conception of the perils which encompassed the Paxton settlers at this time. The slaughter of their wives and children drove the men to desperation. Some of the murderers were known to have been harbored by the friendly Indians at Conestoga. This gave rise to a bitter animosity against them. Indeed, a feeling of hos- tility was awakened against the Moravians and Quakers, who were disposed to conciliate and protect the Indians. The people in and about Philadelphia, and those portions of the province, secure against the fire and tomahawk of the savage, looked with a lenient eye on his bloody depre- dations. He was a savage, unchristianized, 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 and untamed nature, and reform rather than punish him. This was the glori- ous doctrine of toleration, calculated for the benevolent and non-resisting 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 now burying for ever from his sight the scalped and mangled forms of his family. Governor Hamilton was besought and petitioned to remove the Conestoga Indians. Rev. Mr. Elder informed the governor if these Indians were removed, and a garrison placed in their room, he would pledge himself for the future security of the frontier. These representations and petitions were disregarded. Murder following murder was perpetrated, and the bloody wretches traced by Captain Stewart and his men to Con- estoga. It was plain that the Indians at Conestoga, under the guise of friendliness, were harboring and assisting their red brethren in the destruction of white men. Their position and character rendered their offence the more heinous. Further endurance ceased to be a virtue. Cap-
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ANNALS OF LUZERNE COUNTY.
tain Stewart summoned his rangers. They were obedient to the call. In the language of Redmond Conyngham, Esq., rifles were loaded, horses were in readiness. They mounted ; they called on their pastor to lead them. He had mounted, not to lead them on to the destruction of Conestoga, but to deter them from the attempt; he im- plored them to return, he urged them to reflect : " Pause, pause, before you proceed !" It was in vain ; " the blood of the murdered cries aloud for vengeance; we have waited long enough on government; the murderers are within our reach, and they must not escape." Mr. Elder reminded them that " the guilty and innocent could not be distinguished." "Innocent ! can they be called inno- cent who foster murderers ?" Mr. Elder rode up in front, and said, " As your pastor, I command you to relinquish your design !" "Give way, then," said Smith, "or your horse dies," presenting his rifle : to save his horse, to which he was much attached, the aged minister drew him aside, and the rangers were off on their fatal errand. It was the night of the 14th of December, 1763, when these exasperated men approached the village of Cones- toga. The moment they were perceived an Indian fired, and rushed towards them, brandishing his tomahawk. He fell by more than one ball-one cried, " It is the villain who murdered my mother." The village was instantly stormed, and reduced to ashes. But many of the Indians escaped the vengeance of the rangers, and were received by the people of Lancaster, who placed them in the stone workhouse for safety. Stewart sent spies to Lancaster, who reported their condition, and that one of their num- ber, there sheltered, had been concerned in recent mur- ders. Stewart said, " We will go to Lancaster, storm their castle, and carry off the assassin." The plan was arranged. They proceeded to Lancaster. Stewart was
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to remain outside of the prison, with twelve men, to pre- vent surprise, five more were to guard the keepers from meddling, while three were to enter, secure the murderer with cords, and hand him over to Stewart. In case of resistance, a gun was to be fired as a signal. The signal was given, the Indians perished, and the rangers mounted and rode hastily to their homes. This occurred on the 27th of December, about two weeks after the affair at Conestoga, while the people of Lancaster were generally at church.
These deeds created a wonderful excitement throughout the province. Numerous essays and pamphlets were written, and the press teemed with publications accusing and excusing Stewart and his rangers. The Moravians and Quakers denounced the Presbyterians of Paxton, as aiding and abetting the rangers in their work of blood. The Presbyterians accused the Moravians and Quakers of fostering murderous Indians. All parties blamed the governor for not removing the Indians, as he had been repeatedly urged and warned to do. Crimination and recrimination were the order of the day. Governor Penn issued his proclamation, offering a reward of two hundred pounds for the arrest of Captain Stewart, or any of his men, and the Assembly passed a law declaring that any person accused of taking away the life of an Indian shall not be tried in the county where the deed was committed, but in the city of Philadelphia. This law shows the excited state of the public mind, and never would have been enacted if the frontier counties, which had but ten members in the Assembly, had not been overruled by the city and county of Philadelphia, and counties of Chester and Bucks, which gave twenty-six members. No doubt innocent persons perished at Conestoga and Lancaster, but, considering the circumstances of the case,
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there is every palliation for this deed of men acting in self-defence, and driven to madness by their losses, and their own perilous condition. It is important to know that the destruction of the Conestoga Indians gave quiet to the frontiers. The Rev. Mr. Elder, in writing to Governor Penn, under date of January 27th, 1764, says, in speaking of Stewart and his rangers, "The men in private life are virtuous and respectable; not cruel, but mild and merciful. The time will arrive when each palliating circumstance will be calmly weighed." In another letter, in speaking of Stewart particularly, he represents him as humane, liberal, and religious.
The history of Pennsylvania, from the period of the French war to the commencement of the Revolution, exhibits ample evidence of a gross neglect of the frontiers on the part of the proprietary government. These dis- tant settlements were left single-handed to hold the savages in check, and they were also refused pecuniary aid from the government. The people of the city of Philadelphia and of the lower counties sympathized with the Indians, and could form no adequate conception of the feelings of the frontier people, who lived in the midst of alarms and losses. A feeling of decided unfriendliness existed between the government and the eastern portion of the state on the one hand, and the settlers along the Susquehanna river and its tributaries on the other. Hence, we must read the letters, pamphlets, and essays of that period, in regard to the Conestoga affair, with many grains of allowance for the excited feelings of hos- tile sections. Stewart and his men continued to live in security in the Paxton district, npheld by their own people, in spite of the rewards and denunciations of the government.
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CAPTAIN LAZARUS STEWART.
But here is Captain Stewart's own view of the matter. as published by himself, in the midst of the stirring excite- ment of the hour.
" DECLARATION. Let all hear. Were the counties of Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton protected by government ? Did not John Harris of Pax- ton ask advice of Colonel Croghan, and did not the colonel advise him to raise a company of scouters, and was not this confirmed by Benjamin Franklin ? And yet when Harris asked the Assembly to pay the scouting party, he was told ' that he might pay them himself.' Did not the counties of Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton, the frontier settlements, keep up rangers to watch the motions of the Indians; and when a murder was committed by an Indian, a runner with the intelli- gence was sent to each scouting party, that the murderer or murderers might be punished ? Did we not brave the summer's heat and the winter's cold, and the savage toma- hawk, while the inhabitants of Philadelphia, Philadelphia county, Bucks, and Chester ' ate, drank, and were merry' ?
" If a white man kill an Indian, it is a murder far exceeding any crime upon record; he must not be tried in the county where he lives, or where the offence was committed, but in Philadelphia, that he may be tried, convicted, sentenced, and hung without delay. If an Indian kill a white man, it was the act of an ignorant heathen, perhaps in liquor : alas, poor innocent ! he is sent to the friendly Indians, that he may be made a Christian. Is it not a notorious fact, that an Indian who treacherously murdered a family in Northampton county, was given up to the magistrates that he might have a regular trial; and was not this Indian conveyed into Bucks county, and is he not provided with every neces-
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sary, and kept secured from punishment by Israel Pem- berton ? Have we not repeatedly represented that Cones- togue was a harbor for prowling savages, and that we were at a loss to tell friend or foe, and all we asked was the removal of the Christian Indians ? Was not this pro- mised by Governor Penn, yet delayed ? Have we for- gotten Renatus, that Christian Indian ? A murder of more than savage barbarity was committed on the Sus- quehanna; the murderer was traced by the scouts to Conestogue; he was demanded, but the Indians assumed a warlike attitude, tomahawks were raised, and the fire- arms glistened in the sun; shots were fired upon the scouts, who went back for additional force. They re- turned, and you know the event-Conestogue was reduced to ashes. But the murderer escaped. The friendly and unfriendly were placed in the workhouse at Lancaster. What could secure them from the vengeance of an exas- perated people ? The doors were forced, and the hapless Indians perished. Were we tamely to look on and see our brethren murdered, and see our fairest prospects blasted, while the inhabitants of Philadelphia, Philadel- . phia 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 persecution ? Why are the bloodhounds let loose upon me ? Let him who wished to take my life-let him come and take it-I shall not fly. 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 either have them or me on any terms. It is true, I submitted to the sheriff of York county, but you know too well that I was to be conveyed to Philadelphia like a
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wild felon, manacled, to die a felon's death. I would have scorned to fly from York. I could not bear that my name should be marked by ignominy. What I have done, was done for the security of hundreds of settlers on the frontiers. The blood of a thousand of my fellow- creatures called for vengeance. I shed no Indian's blood. As a ranger I sought the post of danger, and now you ask my life. Let me be tried where prejudice has not prejudged my case. Let my brave rangers, who have stemmed the blast nobly, and never flinched, let them have an equitable trial; they were my friends in the hour of danger-to desert them now were cowardice ! What remains, is to leave our cause with our God, and our guns.
" LAZARUS STEWART."
The strife at Wyoming, between the Connecticut set- tlers and Pennsylvania, gave Stewart and his rangers an opportunity to gratify their love of adventure, as well as their hostility to the proprietary government. The demo- cratic tendencies of the Susquehanna Company, and the vesting of the title of lands in the occupants of the soil, had strong attractions for men of Stewart's cast of mind. In December, 1769, Stewart went to Connecticut to nego- tiate with the Susquehanna Company. In consideration of certain lands he proposed to unite his forces with those of the company, and effect the occupation and settlement of Wyoming. The proposition was accepted. He re- turned to Paxton, and informed his comrades that he had obtained the grant of a township of land for himself and them, provided they would settle thereon and defend the soil. They afterwards called this township Hanover, in honor of their old home, Hanover of Paxton. In the beginning of February, 1770, at the head of forty of his
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men, and ten New Englanders, Stewart entered the Valley of Wyoming, and, routing the garrison left by Ogden and Jennings, under the Pennsylvania claim, took possession of Fort Durkee.
When news of this event reached Philadelphia, Ogden, with fifty men, immediately set off for the seat of war, where he arrived and took possession of his old post at Mill Creek. Thrice had the Yankees been driven from the valley by the forces of the proprietaries, the men being sent to prison at Philadelphia or Easton, while the women and children were forced on long and dreary marches to Connecticut. Stewart and his men being joined by Major John Durkee, who had been released from prison, marched against Ogden, and compelled him to surrender. They drove him from the valley and burned his block-house, having lost one man, who was killed at the first onset.
Stewart and his men now took possession of Hanover, the township granted by the Susquehanna Company. They proceeded to clear their lands and erect houses, preparatory to the removal of their families from Paxton.
On the 28th of June, Governor Penn issued a procla- mation, forbidding settlements under Connecticut, and offering a reward of three hundred pounds for the appre- hension of Lazarus Stewart, Zebulon Butler, and Lazarus Young, three persons against whom the governor's ire was specially excited. About the last of August Stewart and his men left Wyoming for Paxton, purposing to return in November with their families. In September, during Stewart's absence, Ogden entered the valley with a large force, captured several men in the field, and, storming Fort Durkee, compelled the Yankees to surren- der. Captain Butler and other leaders were sent prisoners to Philadelphia, and the rest were forced, with women
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