Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318

USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania > Part 2

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In 1736 the Iroquois released their assumed claim to a belt of country lying north of the former purchase and south of the Blue Moun- tains, and extending southwesterly from the

Delaware to and beyond the Susquehanna, in- cluding the northern parts of the present North- ampton, Lehigh and Berks, and the whole of several countics farther west.

The Lenni Lenape grew restive under these assumptions of the Iroquois, and after consulta- tion with the proprietaries they agreed, August 25, 1737, that a former alleged purchase, which had been made from the Delawares, should be decided in a novel manner. The proprietaries were to receive such portion of the Indian terri- tory as should be included within a line drawn northwesterly from a point in or near Wrights- town, as far as a man could walk in a day and a half, and a line drawn from his stopping-place straight to the Delaware, which was the eastern boundary. It is said that a preliminary walk was had, and that the trees were blazed along the route in 1735, in order that no distance should be lost in wandering out of a straight line. Edward Marshall, James Yeates and Solomon Jennings, noted walkers, were chosen to make the walk. They started at a large chestnut tree near the Pennsville and Durham roads. Yeates led, with a light step, followed by Jennings, and Marshall brought up the rear, carelessly swinging a hatchet. Jennings and Yeates both gave out before the walk was fin- ished. Jennings was injured for life by his over-exertion, and Yeates died three days after. Marshall went on and completed the walk, at noon the second day. He threw himself on the ground and reached to a sapling, which was taken as the point from which the line was run to the Delaware. The Indians who accompan- ied the walkers, to see that everything was done fairly, frequently called out for them to stop, not to run, and finally left in disgust before the walk was completed. They had expected that the walk would be conducted in a leisurely manner, that they would stop, and talk, and smoke, like Onas (Penn) did, but the over-reach- ing policy of Penn's descendants began to mani- fest itself, and the Indians saw that they were losing their lands. Instead of running the line directly to the Delaware River at the nearest point, Eastburn ran the line at right angles with the path taken by Marshall, which caused the line to strike the Delaware near the mouth

1 Blackman's ' History."

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

of the Shohola. This included the Minisink, the chosen home and council-seat of the Lenni Lenape. The Indians murmured at this unfair treatment, but the proprietaries had sold ten thousand acres of these very lands to William Allen, and he in turn was selling them to settlers as early as 1733, or four years before the "walk- ing purchase." Thus it appears that the pro- prietarics had determined to ignore the Lenape and their claims, and in order to make their humiliation more complete, the Governor com- plained to the deputies of the Six Nations, and Canasatego, one of their chiefs, repaired to Philadelphia, accompanied by three hundred warriors, in 1742, where a great council was held, at which the injured Delawares were also represented.

The Penns had applied to the Six Nations to compel the Delawares to surrender their ancient home, and Canasatego stood up and made a very insulting speech, calling the Delawares women, and npbraiding them for presuming to sell the lands. Said he, "You deserve to be taken by the hair of your heads and shaken till you re- cover your senses and become sober. We have seen a deed signed by your chiefs above fifty years ago, for this very land. But how came yon to take upon yourselves to sell land at all ? We conquered you ; we made women of you." After talking for some time in this strain, he commanded them to remove from the land in- stantly, and gave them their choice to go to Shamokin or Wyoming. He then gave them a belt of wampum and ordered them to leave the council. These arbitrary orders they dared not disobey. They were between two great powers, -- the rapacious whites whom they had welcomed to their shores as messengers of peace, on the one hand, and the powerful Six Nations, their old enemies, on the other. They left their wig- wams on the Delaware and sadly took their march westward. A portion of them went to Shamokin, where Sunbury now is. A few of them settled on the Juniata, near Lewistown, but the greater number of them, under Tademe, went to Wyoming, below Wilkes-Barre, where they built a village in 1742. The Monseys oc- cupied the Lackawanna Valley under their chief, Capoure.

Thus was the power of the once proud and warlike Lenni Lenape broken forever. True, Teedyuseung rallied a remnant of this once powerful race in 1755, and tried to expel the pale-faced intruders from their old home, but it only resulted in their committing a great many ravages in Monroe and Northampton Counties, particularly in the vicinity of Stroudsburg and Smithfield. Teedyuscung gained such promi- nence that the chiefs of the Iroquois were jeal- ous of him. He participated in several great councils in Philadelphia and Easton, and ably championed the canse of his people.

Just twelve years after the unfortunate " Walking Purchase " was made, and while the contention in regard to it was still carried on, a portion of the territory which it covered and very much more was secured from the Del- aware, or Lenape, and the Six Nations by pur- chase, the consideration being £300 " lawful money of Pennsylvania." This purchase inclu- ded a belt of country stretching from the Dela- ware to the Susquehanna ; having as its south boundary the Blue Mountains. In this scope of country thus obtained, lies the whole of the present Monroe County, the greater part of Pike, a very small portion of Wayne (the ex- treme tip of its southern pan-handle), the whole of Carbon and Schuylkill and parts of Lacka- wanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Northumberland, Dauphin and Lebanon.

The treaty was consummated August 22, 1749, at Philadelphia, the parties being Edward Warner, Lynford Lardner, receiver-general of the province, William Peters, Richard Peters, secretary of the province, and others, and the sachems and chiefs of the Six Nations, Dela- wares, Shamokin and Shawanese Indians. After the treaty of 1749 another purchase of lands was made from the Indians in 1768. The treaty was made between the representatives of Thomas and Richard Penn and the sachems of the Six Nations, at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N. Y.), and concluded Nov. 5, 1768. By its terms the Indian title was released from an im- mense belt of country, northwest of the lands ceded by the treaties of 1749, 1754 and 1758, and extending diagonally across the entire pro- vince from the Delaware River, in the north-

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EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

eastern corner, to the boundaries of Virginia on the west, and of Virginia and Marylaud on the south.

All of the territory of the present Wayne County, except a very small fraction of its southeru extremity, was included in this cession, which embraced the whole of Susquehanna, Wyoming, Sullivan, Montour, Green, Wash- ington, Fayette, Westmorelaud, Somerset and Cambria, and parts of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Northumberland, Union, Snyder, Bradford, Lycoming, Clinton, Centre, Clear- field, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny and Bea- ver.

In the deed from the Six Nations, the terri- tory of the purchase was described as follows :

" All that part of the Province of Pennsylvania not heretofore purchased of the Indians, within the said general boundary line, and beginning in the said Boundary line on the east side of the east Branch of the River Susquehanna, at a place called Owegy, and running with the said boundary Line down the said Branch, on the east side thereof, till it comes opposite the mouth of a Creek called by the Indians Awandac (Tawandee) and across the River, and up the said Creek on the south side thereof and along the range of hills called Burnett's Hills by the English and by the Indians1-on the north side of them, to the head of a creek which runs into the West Branch of the Susquehanna; then crossing the said River and run- ning up the same on the South side thereof, the sev- eral courses thereof, to the forks of the same River which lies nearest to a place on the River Ohio 2 called Kittanning, and from the said fork, by a straight line to Kittanning aforesaid, and then down the said Ohio by the several courses thereof, to where the western Bounds of the said Province of Pennsylvania crosses the same river, and then with the same western Bounds to the South boundary thereof, and with the South boundary aforesaid to the east side of the Alle- gheny hills, on the east side of them to the west line of a tract of Land purchased by the Said Proprietors from the Six Nations, and confirmned October 23, 1758, and then with the Northern bounds of that Tract to the River Susquehanna and crossing the River Susquehanna to the Northern Boundary line of another tract of Land purchased of the Indians by

Deed (August 22, 1749), and then with that northern Line, to the River Delaware at the North side of the mouth of a creek called Lechawachsein, then of the said River Delaware on the west side thereof to the intersection of it by an east line to be drawn from Owegy aforesaid to the said River Delaware and then with that east Line, to the beginning, at Owegy afore- said."

CHAPTER II.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

Charles II. Charters-Connecticut, Susquehanna and Delaware Indian Purchases-Pennamite War-Westmoreland County.

SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY was included in Westmoreland County, aud attached to Litch- field County under the Connecticnt claim, which afterwards led to difficulties, under the opera- tion of the Intrusion Laws, in respect to land titles. Although the territory comprising the county of Susquehanna was not settled until after the Trenton decree in 1782 had declared that "Connecticut had no right to the lands in controversey," it was chiefly settled by men from the New England States, and the descend- ants of the Wyoming settlers under Connecti- cut title ; hence it is pertinent to our subject to briefly examine the conflicting claims between the proprietaries of Pennsylvania and the colony of Connecticut.

"To begin with, it must be stated that the contest for the possession of Northern Pennsylvania had its origin in the ignorance or indifference of the British monarchs concerning American geography, and con- sequent confusion in the granting of charters to the several colonies, several of them overlapping, and thus causing conflicts of authority over ownership and possession.

" The charter of Connecticut was granted by Charles II. in 1662, and was confirmatory to the charter granted by James I. to 'the Grand Council of Plymouth for planting and governing New England in America' in 1620, and also to a decd given in 1631 by the Earl of Warwick, then president of the Plym- outh Council, to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke and others, by which was conveyed to them that part of New England afterwards purchased by the colony of Connecticut. The charter granted to the colony all the lands west of it, to thic extent of its breadth, from sea to sea, or 'from Narragansett River, one hundred and twenty miles on a straight line, near the

1 At a subsequent treaty at Fort Stanwix (October, 1784), the Pennsyl- vania Commissioners inquired of the Indians what was their name for the range called by the English " Burnett's Hills," to which they re- plied that they knew them by no other name than the " Long Moun- tains." As to the creek called by them "Tiadaghton," they explained that it was the same known by the whites as Pine Creek, which flows into the West Branch of the Susquehanna from the north ward.

2 Meaning the Allegheny, to which the Indians always gave the name of Ohio.

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

shore towards the south west, as the coast lies towards Virginia, and within that breadth from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea.'' This measurement would bring the southern line of Connecticut nearly or quite to the forty-first degree of north latitude (upon or near which Stroudsburg, Monroe County, is lo- cated), and thus had the claim been maintained, Penn- sylvania would have been diminished to the extent of over two-fifths of its present territory. The charter included an exception of lands 'then actually pos- sessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or State,' and under this exception the Dutch posses- sions of New York, or the New Netherlands, extend- ing to the Delaware, were exempted from the 'sea to sea' charter of Connecticut. The lands of the Dutch were never vested in the British crown until the con- quest of 1664, and in 1650 articles of agreement re- specting their eastern line had been made between them and Connecticut. On the conquest of the Dutch by the English-their lands having been given to the Duke of York (afterwards James II., brother of Charles II.)-the line established in 1650 was agreed upon as ' the western bound of the Colony of Connec- ticut,' as it was the eastern of the Duke's lands-a statement which was afterwards taken advantage of by Pennsylvania and construed into a relinquishment by Connecticut of all claim to lands west of the Delaware, although they had been distinctly included in the charter of 1662."

By the charter granted to William Penn in 1681 by Charles II., he was invested with the ownership of a vast province-greater than the present State-having the end of the forty- second degree of north latitude, or the beginning of latitude forty-three degrees north for a north- ern bonndary, and thus overlapping by one de- gree the grant made to Connecticut by the same sovereign nineteen years before. The Pennsyl- vania charter also included a portion of the lands before granted to Lord Baltimore, just as Lord Baltimore's patent had covered lands long vested in Virginia, and thus there was error all around. The King, however, undoubtedly acted in good faith, if in ignorance. When the Quaker petitioned for his charter it was referred to the attorney-general of the crown, Sir William Jones, who reported that " the tract of land de- sired by Mr. Penn seems to be undisposed of by His Majesty, except the imaginary lines of New England patents, which are bounded west- wardly by the main ocean, should give them a

real, though impracticable right to all of those vast territories."

The Connecticut-Susquehanna Company was formed in 1753, and consisted at first of eight hundred and forty persons, including a large proportion of the leading men of the colony. Afterwards the number of proprietors was ang- mented to twelve hundred. "Their action," says Miner, the historian of Wyoming, " may be regarded as an unofficial popular movement of the colony itself."2 Their purpose was to purchase the Indian title within the charter limits of the colony of Connecticut on the waters of the Susquehanna, and this they did at a council held with the Six Nations Indians in Albany, in July, 1754. The treaty was con- cluded and a deed executed on the 11th of the month. The consideration for and the bound- aries of the purchased lands were given in the deed. After describing the grantors as "the chiefs, sachems and heads of the Six Nations and the native proprictors of the land," and setting forth that the same lies within the limits of the royal charter to Connecticut mentioning the application of the grantees being subjects of King George the Second, and inhabitants of Connecticut, and expressing the good under- standing which had mutually subsisted between the parties, their wish for its continuance and the benefits which would result from a settle- ment, the deed contains these words : "Now, therefore, for and in consideration thereof, and for the further, full and ample consideration of the sum of two thousand pounds of current money of the province of New York, to us, to our full satisfaction, before the ensealing hereof, contended and paid, the receipt whereof, to our full content, we do hereby acknowledge, there- upon do give, grant, bargain, sell, convey and confirm to," ctc. (here follow the names of the grantees), " which said given and granted tract of lands is butted, bounded and described as followeth, viz. : Beginning from the one and fortieth degree of north latitude at ten miles distance east of Susquehanna River and from thence with a northerly line, ten miles east of the river, to the forty-second or beginning of the forty-third degree of north latitude, and to

1 The vaguely-known Pacific was then so called.

2 Miner's " History of Wyoming," p. 68.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

extend west two degrees of longitude, one hun- dred and twenty miles, and from thence south to the beginning of the forty-second degree, and from thence east to the aforementioned bounds, which is ten miles east of the Susquehanna River." These boundaries did not include Sus- quehanna County, but they included the beauti- ful Wyoming Valley and a great extent of territory extending westward to the headwaters of the Allegheny River.

The Delaware Company, subsequent to the Susquehanna Company's purchase, bought with less formality the Indian title from certain chiefs of all the land bounded east by the Dela- ware River, within the forty-second degree of latitude, west to the line of the Susquehanna purchase, viz., ten miles east of that river. This purchase included Susquehanna County ; and it was under the auspices of this company that the first settlement of the Connecticut claimants was made at Cushutunk, on the Dela- ware River, in 1757. The amount of land in- cluded in the two purchases, according to Miner, embraced territory about seventy miles wide by one hundred and twenty miles long, or some five million acres.

Both purchases were immediately made known to the Pennsylvania authorities, and, in fact, commissioners from the province. were . present at the Albany council. The Governor at once wrote Sir William Johnson, requesting him, if possible, to induce the Indians to deny the regularity of the purchase, and he took various other means to defeat the Connecticut scheme.

The Susquehanna Company, having com- pleted its purchase, concluded to divide the land into shares, which were to be distributed, and called a general meeting, to be held at Hartford, for that purpose. They had very shrewdly endeavored to interest Pennsylva- nians, especially those of the frontier settle- ments, in their enterprise, and had succeeded in some measure.

The territory purchased of the Six Nations formerly belonged to the Lenni Lenape, and it became politic for the proprietary Governors to cultivate friendship with this unfortunate people again, but they were precluded by their

own acts from claiming any title through the Delawares, for it will be remembered that they called on the Six Nations to enforce the unjust Walking Purchase, thereby acknowledging their dominion over this very territory.

The first settlement at Wyoming was made in the spring of 1762-if, indeed, settlement it could be called in which the men, after plant- ing, and, perhaps, securing some of their crops, retired to their Connecticut homes for the winter. In the following spring, however, they came back prepared to establish themselves permanently, bringing their stock, household goods and, it is probable, all that they pos- sessed. But their hopes were doomed to early and sudden blight.

The Delaware Indians, who claimed the lands on the Susquehanna and Delaware, em- braced in the Connecticut charter, averred that they had never sold any of their possessions on the former river, though they admitted that some of their lesser chiefs had, in an irregular way, granted a title to those on the Delaware, and they complained bitterly of the presence of white men upon these lands, which, they as- serted, had been "bought from under their feet " of the Six Nations. The provincial au- thorities were constantly beset with applications to have the trespassers removed, and there were not wanting evidences that the Indians would take the matter in their own hands if the au- thorities did not intervene. Such was the con- dition of the Indian mind when Teedyuscung, king of the Delawares, was burned to death in his cabin on the night of April 19, 1763. While this deed was unquestionably committed by his Indian enemies, either by or through the influence of the Six Nations, Indian cun- ning ascribed the murder to the New England people. The people of the dead chief now be- came clamorous for the removal of the settlers, and several times importuned the government to drive them from the valley.

The Governor having, in June, 1763, re- ceived fresh complaints from the Indians at Wyoming that the Connecticut trespassers were still obstinately prosecuting their settlement on the lands there and at Cushntunk, thought proper, on the 2d of that month, to issue a

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

third proclamation requiring those intruders forthwith to remove from the lands. He also appointed James Burd and Thomas McKee, Esqs., justices of the peace, and gave thiem written instructions to proceed to Wyoming, and having convened the people settled there, publicly to read his proclamation to them ; to use the utmost endeavors, by expostulations and arguments, to prevail on them to relin- quish their scheme of settling the lands there, and to depart peaceably without delay; other- wise to canse some of its principals to be appre- hended and carried to the "Goal " at Lancaster.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848- Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318