USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 23
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[In September, 1763, five persons were killed in a fight at Buffaloe creek.] .
In the year 1763, a company of volunteers of one hundred men resolved to go up the Susquehanna as far as Monsey, so as by attacking them at home, they might the better drive them off from any further invasions of the settlements. They joined battle near Monsey, with two companies of Indians, supposed to be then on their way down the river for destruction-they killed their chief, called Snake, and the others dispersed.
During the Indian alarms of 1763, the congregation of Christ church and St. Peter's raised the sum of £662 for the relief of the frontier inhabitants, especially in Cumberland county. A letter ar
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this time from their missionary, William Thomson, at Carlisle, says . "We find the number of the distressed to be seven hundred and fifty families, who have abandoned their plantations, many have lost their crops, and some their stock and furniture, and besides these we are informed that about two hundred women and children are coming down from Fort Pitt. The unhappy sufferers are dispersed through every part of this country, and many have passed through into York. In this town and neighbourhood, there are upwards of two hundred families, and having the affection of the small pox and flux to a great degree."
Besides the money sent by the vestry of the above churches, they also sent two chests of arms, half a barrel of powder, four hundred pounds of lead, two hundred swan shot, and a hundred flints; to be sold to such prudent and good people as should need them, and would use them for their defence. [The above facts are on the minutes of Christ church.] Contributions were made at Philadel- phia at the same time by others.
In the year 1779, the Indians made inroads into the settlements of Northumberland county, assaulted the house of Andrew Arm- strong, made him a prisoner, his wife was hid under a bed. Two families flying were attacked at Warrior's run, the men escaped, but Mrs. Durham, having her child shot in her arms, fainted and fell, and was scalped ; but she revived again and got off safely. The same year, a party of Indians came into Buffaloe valley, where they fell upon two girls separated from the reapers, and secured them with one Indian, while they should try to attack the said reapers ; while their Indian was lying down, one of the girls sunk a hatchet into his head, and both made off and gave the alarm.
The people of Northumberland county, to defend themselves, erected fort Freelan, also Brady's, Wallace's, and Boomes' forts. This repressed the incursions, but they killed Captain Bready while he was bringing provisions to the garrison. One of the parties of Indians went into Northumberland county, captured Peter Pence, a man and a boy. Some time after, when the Indians were asleep at night, Pence got loose, and with the aid of the boy killed two or three, and the rest, having their guns taken, fled. The white per- sons got to their homes.
Some of the Indian cruelties were extreme, one George Wools relates the suffering to which a young man was subjected ; it was too great to be conceived of unless seen. They cut holes in his cheeks, through which they passed the cord by which he was tied to a tree, with slack enough to let him move round it. His body being naked, they seared his flesh with heated gun-barrels, and as he moved round to shun one he was met behind by another. They scalped his head and applied hot ashes and coals to his skull. Then they opened his abdomen, and taking out part of his bowels to the tree, and again compelling him to move by the touching of the hot
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gun-barrels, finally, as he was nearly expiring, his tormenters thrust a hot iron up to his heart, and he died !
The Indians on Susquehanna.
In the years 1744-5, the Rev. Mr. Brainard visited the Indians on the Susquehanna-he thus describes his first visit there, to wit :
In October, he started from his Indians at the Forks of Delaware, (since Easton,) accompanied by his friend the Rev. Mr. Byron, of Rockciticus ; at twenty-five miles' journey they lodged at the last house on their road, all the rest was a " hideous and howling wilder . ness," nothing else but mountains, deep valleys and hideous rocks. His mare broke her legs in the rocks and had to be killed, and he went onward on foot, at night sleeping on the ground before a fire.
They arrived at Susquehanna river at a place called Opeholhau perg, consisting of twelve Indian houses-here he preached several times-had their attention, and a request to visit them again, and he returned home. [But little done.]
In September, 1745, he again left the Forks of Delaware, (Eas- ton,) and made his journey to the Susquehanna, lodging out three nights; when he arrived at Shamokin, where were fifty houses and three hundred persons, of three tribes, speaking different lan- guages, consisting of Delawares, Senekas and Tutelas.
Thence he travelled down the river-visited an Indian town called Juneauta, (since Juniata,) situated on an island in the Sus- quehanna, (Duncan's?) they were making preparations for a sacri- ficial dance. They had prepared ten fat deer for the sacrifice -they danced all night. Next day they gathered all their pow-wows, (con- jurors,) to ascertain why they were so sickly of fevers and flux. [He describes the process.] Several of them understood English- they learned it in Maryland.
[The present " Clark's ferry," near Duncan's island, was called Queenashawakee by the Indians, and the Juniata, near by it, was spelled Coniata. This ferry was once a great fording place-a little above it, at the White rock, on the river side, John Harris had, in 1733, a house, which was complained of by the Indians. The Swedish family of Huling came originally from Marcus Hook, and settled the fine island now called Duncan's. In the year 1755, Mrs. Huling, with her two children, all on one horse, forded the river and made their escape from the Indians, down to Fort Hunter, now McAllister's place. A Mrs. Berryhill got safe to the same place, but her husband was killed and scalped. This island was the favourite home of the Indians, and there are still many Indian remains. At the angle of the canal, near the great bridge, I saw the mound co- vered with trees, from which were taken hundreds of cart-loads of human bones, and which were used with the intermixed earth, as filling materials for one of the shoulders or bastions of the dam.
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What a sacrilege! There were also among them many beads, trink. ets, &c.]
August, 1746. Rode towards Paxton, (near present Harrisburg,) upon Susquehanna river; thence to Chambers', (Hunter's fort,) where he found ungodly people drinking and swearing ; thence fif- teen miles, to a family wholly unacquainted with God ; next day travelled above all the English settlements and lodged in the woods -then he met and assembled Indians at different places-all were attentive, but few converts. September 1st, set out from Shamokin for the Great island up the North-west branch ; lodged in the woods; when arrived at the Delaware town, found them drinking and drunken. Thence went eight miles to the Shawaunoes-some were attentive and some not. On the 4th September returned homewards, finding himself too feeble and unwell to remain longer. [One cannot but remark, how little all his pains and travel could ef- fect. These journeys seemed but ill requited by the measure of success ; yet his faith and zeal seem unabated.]
The Assault and Burning of Hanna's town, in 1782.
This town, now no longer such, once stood about three miles from Greensburg. It was distinguished in the year 1773, as the first county town, where justice was dispensed in legal form, west of the Allegheny mountains. At the time that it was made the court town of Westmoreland county, in 1773, it consisted of about thirty habitations of log construction. Even the court-house, and jail, and a stockade fort, were all formed of logs. Robert Hanna, Esq., was the first justice presiding in the courts, and Arthur St. Clair, Esq., first clerk and prothonotary-the same who afterwards became Gen. St. Clair. The first road opened to Fort Pitt, by Gen. Forbes and his army, passed through this town. At that place Hugh Breckenridge made his first debut as a lawyer. There were many joyous meetings at court times, when all was rustic cordiality and good cheer. Now the same grounds are annually furrowed with the plough. The summer of 1782 was a sorrowful season to the fron- tier inhabitants, all the country to the north-west of this town had been generally deserted from the dread of Indians, who had been killing and pursuing many of the people. On the 13th July, 1782, the memorable day for Hanna town, when sundry of the inhabitants were absent at Miller's station, two miles distant, and another part of them gone out to assist in the harvest of O'Connor's field, a mile and a half off, the alarm of approaching Indians was sounded, so that the most of the inhabitants got into the fort. The savages, pro- voked to find themselves discovered, sacked and burned the town -- the little garrison being too weak to assault. They then set off to attack Miller's station-they were supposed to be about three hun- dred in number, assisted by some fifty or sixty refugee guides. There the Indians assaulted by surprise the principal house, where
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was a wedding party, at which were present Mrs. H. and her two pretty daughters, Mr. Brownlee, and family, &c. Some made their escape, but the bride and groom (think of such a state !) and several of the guests were made prisoners, including some of the Miller fa- mily. These were all marched off to Canada-there the beauty and the misfortunes of the Misses H. attracted attention, and a British officer loved and married the gentle Miss Marian. Brownlee, from being an active campaigner formerly against the Indians, was toma- hawked on the route, while carrying his child on his shoulders-the child was killed also. A woman prisoner, who saw it, shrieking out with terror and interfering, was also killed as a warning of submission to the rest. They all remained in Canada till after the peace of 1783, and were then released-the widow Brownlee among the number, minus the loss of husband and child murdered! Much more in detail is remembered by the aged of that part of the coun- try-one man, for instance, in running from Miller's town with his family, and carrying his little child, was so hotly pursued by the sa- vages, that for the sake of saving his mother, he laid down his child in the field, thus saving himself and her, and strange to tell, the child, since grown up to manhood, was found afterwards safe at home asleep in bed-by what cause so restored, was never known! Is it not now subject of wonder, that so populous and civilized a country should, only as late as 1782, have been ravaged by predatory Indians. How easily too might some of the party have made a book of their sufferings and adventures in captivity, equal to that of the Gilbert family which I have herein preserved.
[A story of the above facts is well told in the Germantown Tele- graph of 22d Nov., 1837, from an inland paper.]
Narrative of Lieut. Van Campen, showing the state of the Penn- sylvania frontier, as he was engaged in it, during the Revolution.
The facts of this narrative, as he prepared it for his claim on Con gress, in 1838, show that the Susquehanna was then a western frontier. It is published at large on cover No. 7, of Aug. 14, 1838, of Waldie's Library. It is full of legend and daring adventure in conflicts with the Indians, from the years 1777 to 1782, in the same counties now filled with a rich and civilized population.
In 1777 he was stationed three months at Big isle, under Col. Kelly. In 1778 he was sent by Col. Hunter to build a fort at Fish- ing creek, where they were attacked by Indians. In the same sum- mer occurred the great massacre of Wyoming. This produced the appointment of Gen. Sullivan, with an army to push into the Indian country, in the year 1779. When near Tioga point, the Indians as- sembled in great force, and Van Campen, disguised as an Indian, went by night into their camp to espy out their force, &c. After this he was sent home sick with camp fever-he went to his father's farm, near the fort he had before built at Fishing creek. In March, VOL. II -Z
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1780, the family was attacked by Indians, and his father and brother killed before his eyes, and himself and two relatives borne off as pri- soners by ten Indians. In two or three days they rose upon these Indians when asleep, and despatched them all but one !- this was near the present Tioga. They made themselves a raft and drifted towards Wyoming. After this he was employed to keep up a con- stant chain of scouts around the frontier settlements, from Fishing creek to Muncey, &c.
Some Indian Facts.
At Lebanon, (one mile south of the road, westward, near to the creek Catepahilla, the former name of the settlement,) is still a stone house, altered and renewed, which was at first the Fort house for the neighbours, now belongs to Doctor Glovinger. There is also in the town, an aged woman who had been six years a captive with the In- dians-taken with other children from the neighbourhood. The house had little windows used as loop holes for guns.
At Myerstown, six miles this side of Lebanon, is another stone house, used for a fort, and which was once bravely defended by a single woman.
At Womelsdorf, at the east end of the town, opposite to Bunker's hill, a place of fight with the Indians, is a stone house, now in part re- built, belonging to Mr. Schultz, and once the property of Conrad Weiser, the interpreter, (still used as a farm house,) which was the fort of the place, and maintained at one time a strong defence. An Indian burial ground is close by. .
Mrs. Clemens is now alive, near Womelsdorf, who had been an Indian captive.
In the year 1736, there were a hundred Indians of the Six Na- tions at Stenton farm, (Logan's,) come for purposes of treaty. Stayed two days and went to the city and treated.
Conestoga Indians and Shawanese.
The Votes of the Assembly, vol. 4, p. 517 -- year 1755.
The committee upon the claims of the Delawares and Shawanese to lands upon Conedoquinet, (a creek near Carlisle,) report, that after making their best inquiries, come to the conclusion, to wit: That the Shawanese are southern Indians, who being made uneasy by their neighbours, came with about sixty families up to Conestoga, about the year 1698, by the leave of the Susquehanna Indians, who then lived there. Having afterwards consulted with William Penn, und having his permission, other Indians followed them and settled there, and also on the upper parts of Delaware. That as they had thus joined the Susquehanna Indians, who were dependent upon the Five Nations, they also became under their protection. In time,
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these same Shawanese were offered the lands (conditionally) upon Conedoquinet.
[NOTE .- The foregoing does not show any thing about a chief having said he had seen Penn at the treaty of the Treaty-tree, as I had published in my Tales of Olden Time, p. 208, upon the alleged extract from the above vol. 4, given by R. C.]
We shall enlarge this chapter relative to Indians, by giving a brief sketch of the narrative of the Gilbert family, captured by the Indians in the year 1780, at the place now so well known as Mauch Chunk, the present great coal district. We hope that its interest will excuse its length, abridged for these pages, from a still longer story. And here we must beg the reader to reflect, that this is a place but sixty miles from Philadelphia-and that secure as it then was for pre- datory Indians, it is now the alluring, charming and safe spot of summer travelling, and is filled with an active and prosperous popu- lation!
The captivity of Benjamin Gilbert and his family, 1780.
Benjamin Gilbert, son of Joseph Gilbert, was born at Byberry, about fifteen miles from the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1711, and received his education among the people called Quakers.
He resided at or near the place of his nativity for several years ; during which time of residence he married, and after the decease of his first wife, he accomplished a second marriage with Elizabeth Peart, widow of Bryan Peart, and continued in the neighbourhood until the year 1775, when he removed with his family to a farm situate on Mahoning creek, in Penn township, Northampton county, being then the frontiers of Pennsylvania, [not far from where Fort Allen was erected.]
This family was alarmed on the 25th day of the 4th month, 1780, about sunrise, by a party of eleven Indians, whose appearance struck them with terror. To attempt to escape was death, and a portion of distress not easy to be supported, was the certain attendant on the most patient and submissive conduct. The Indians who made this incur- sion were of different tribes or nations, who had abandoned their country on the approach of General Sullivan's army, and fled within command of the British forts in Canada, promiscuously settling within their neighbourhood, and, according to Indian custom of carrying on war, frequently invading the frontier settlements, taking captive the weak and defenceless.
The names of these Indians, with their respective tribes, are as follow :
Rowland Monteur, 1st captain ; John Monteur, second in com- mand, who was also styled captain. These two were Mohawks, descended of a French woman .* Samuel Harris, John Huston, and
* Catherine Monteur was settled at Catherine, New York-named after her
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his son, John Huston, Jr., were Cayugas ; John Fox, of the Dela ware nation ; the other five were Senecas.
At this place they made captives of the following persons:
Benjamin Gilbert, aged about 69 years ; Elizabeth, his wife, 55 ; Joseph Gilbert, his son, 41; Jesse Gilbert, another son, 19; Sarah Gilbert, wife to Jesse, 19; Rebecca Gilbert, a daughter, 16; Abner Gilbert, a son, 14; Elizabeth Gilbert,* a daughter, 12; Thomas Peart, son to Benjamin Gilbert's wife, 53; Benjamin Gilbert, a son of John Gilbert, of Philadelphia, 11; Andrew Harrigar, of German descent, hired by Benjamin Gilbert, 26; Abigail Dodson, (daughter of Samuel Dodson, who lived on a farm near one mile distant from the mill,) who came that morning with grist, 14.t
They then proceeded to Benjamin Peart's dwelling, about half a mile further, and brought himself and family, viz. :- Benjamin Peart, son to Benjamin Gilbert's wife, aged 27; Elizabeth Peart, his wife, 20; and their child, about nine months old-in all fifteen persons.
The prisoners were bound with cords which the Indians brought with them, and in this melancholy condition left under a guard for the space of half an hour, during which time the rest of the captors employed themselves in plundering the house, and packing up such goods as they chose to carry off, until they had got together a suffi- cient loading for three horses which they took, besides compelling the distressed prisoners to carry part of their plunder. When they had finished plundering, they began their retreat, two of their num- ber being detached to fire the buildings, which they did without any exception of those belonging to the unhappy sufferers ; thereby ag- gravating their distresses, as they could observe the flames, and the falling in of the roofs, from an adjoining eminence called Summer hill. They cast a mournful look towards their dwellings, but were not permitted to stop until they had reached the other side of the hill, where the party sat down to make a short repast ; but grief pre- vented the prisoners from sharing with them.
The Indians speedily put forward from this place, as they appre- hended they were not so far removed from the settlements as to be secure from pursuit. Not much further was a large hill, called Mo- chunk,į which they fixed upon as a place of rendezvous : here they halted near an hour, and prepared shoes or sandals, which they call moccasons, for some of the children : considering themselves in some degree relieved from danger, their fears abated so that they could enjoy their meal at leisure, which they ate very heartily. At their removal from this hill, they told the prisoners that Col. Butler was
. Since Mrs. E. Webster, in Byberry-visited by me in 1832-a lively woman still. t Abigail Dodson was held prisoner long-is now well settled on Susquehanna.
# Mochunk hill-now Mauch Chunk.
What a contrast between things and places then and now! Then so frontier and wild, now so peopled and improved !
Such Indian captivity as late as 1780, at only a distance now of one day's ride from Philadelphia, shows the rapid settlement of Pennsylvania
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no great distance fromn them, in the woods, and that they were going to him.
The Broad mountain is said to be seven miles over in this place, and about ten miles distant from Benjamin Gilbert's settlement. Here they halted an hour, and then struck into the Neskapeck path. the unevenness and ruggedness of which rendered it extremely toil- some, and obliged them to move forward slowly. Quackac creek runs across the Neskapeck path, which leads over Pismire hill. At this last place they stopped to refresh themselves, and then pursued their march along the same path, through Moravian Pine swamp, to Mahoniah mountain, where they lodged, being the first night of their captivity.
It may furnish information to some, to mention the method the Indians generally use to secure their prisoners : They cut down a sapling as large as a man's thigh, and therein cut notches, in which they fix their legs, and over this they place a pole, crossing the pole on each side with stakes driven in the ground, and in the crotchets of the stakes they place other poles or riders, effectually confining the prisoners on their backs; besides which they put a strap round their necks, which they fasten to a tree. In this manner the night passed. Their beds were hemlock branches strewed on the ground, and blankets for a covering, which was an indulgence scarcely to have been expected from savages. It may reasonably be expected, that in this melancholy situation, sleep was a stranger to their eye- lids.
Benjamin Peart having fainted in the evening, occasioned by the sufferings he endured, was threatened to be tomahawked by Rowland Monteur.
25th. Early this morning they continued their route, near the waters of Teropin ponds. The Indians thought it most eligible to separate the prisoners in companies of two by two, each company under the command of a particular Indian, spreading them to a con- siderable distance, in order to render a pursuit as impracticable as possible. Towards evening the parties again met and encamped ; having killed a deer, they kindled a fire, each one roasting pieces of the flesh upon sharpened switches. The confinement of the cap tives was the same with the first night, but, as they were by this time more resigned to the event, they were not altogether deprived of sleep.
27th. After breakfast a council was held concerning the division of the prisoners, which being settled, they delivered each other those prisoners who fell within their several allotments, giving them direc- tions to attend to the particular Indians whose property they became. In this day's journey they passed near fort Wyoming, on the eastern branch of Susquehanna, about forty miles from their late habitation.
28th. This morning the prisoners were all painted, according to the custom among the Indians, some of them with red and black, and some all red, and some with black only. Those whom they
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smut with black, without any other colour, are not considered of any value, and are generally by this mark devoted to death : although this cruel purpose may not be executed immediately, they are seldom preserved to reach the Indian hamlets alive. In the evening they came to Susquehanna, having had a painful and wearisome journey through a very stony and hilly path.
29th. They went in search of the horses, which had strayed from them in the night, and after some time found them. They then kept the course of the river, walking along its side with difficulty. In the afternoon they came to a place where the Indians had di- rected four negroes to wait their return, having left them some corn for a subsistence. These negroes had escaped from confinement, and were on their way to Niagara, when first discovered by the In- dians ; being challenged by them, answered, "they were for the king," upon which they immediately received them into protection.
5th mo., 1st. After crossing a considerable hill in the morning, they came to a place where two Indians lay dead. A party of In- dians had taken some white people, whom they were carrying off prisoners; they rose upon the Indians in the night, killed four of them, and then effected their escape.
2d. Having some of their provisions with them, they made an early meal, and travelled the whole day. They crossed the east branch of Susquehanna towards evening, in canoes, at the place where General Sullivan's army had passed it in their expedition.
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