Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 3

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

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Hon. James Hamilton, Esquire, Lieutenant- Governor and commander-in-chief of the prov- ince of Pennsylvania and the counties of New- castle, Kent and Sussex upon the Delaware, issued three proclamations forbidding " all his Majesty's subjects to intrude upon any Land within the Province not yet purchased of the Iudians." "And hereby strictly charging all Sheriff's, Magistrates, Peace Officers and other people within this province to exert themselves to bring to justice and condign punishment all Offenders iu the Premises."

This proclamation was issued ostensibly in the interest of " the Delaware and other tribes of Indians, and also the Six Nation Indians " who, according to the proclamation, " have re- peatedly made complaints and Remonstrances to me against the said Practices and Attempts, and insisted that the Intruders be removed by the Government to which they belonged, or by me, and declared that otherwise they would remove them by force and do themselves Jus- tice, but desired that the Intruders might be previously acquainted therewith." This pro- clamation was either intended as a friendly warning to the so-called intruders or it was a shrewd bid for Indian support. Doubtless the Governor would have been well satisfied if the settlers had left peaceably, but he did not lose sight of Indian friendship and assistance in his shrewd proclamation.

This proclamation, like those directed exclu- sively against Cushutunk, availed nothing. The few Connecticut people at Wyoming unfortu- nately did not heed it. The Indians were sullen. A storm was portending, and upon the 15th

of October (1763) it suddenly broke. The In- dians, without the slightest warning, raised the war-whoop and fell with fury upon the defence- less village. About twenty men were killed and scalped, and those who escaped a horrible death-men, women and children-fled to the mountains, and after long wandering in the wilderness, destitute of food and almost desti- tute of clothing, found their way to older settle- ments and eventually to their Connecticut homes.1 This was the first massacre of Wyo- ming-not a part of the Pennamite War, but an example of Indian ferocity in the resentment of real or imagined wrong. The government sent soldiers to the scene of the massacre, but they found the valley deserted by the Indians.

After this terrible experience no attempt was made by the Susquehanna Company to settle Wyoming until 1769. In the meantime the proprietary government had fortified itself with a deed from the Six Nations and other Indians of all that portion of the province, not before bought, which lay in the limits of the Connecti- cut claim. This was procured at the treaty held in 1768.2 And now commenced in earnest the strife, foot to foot aud hand to hand, for the occupation of the lovely valley of Wyoming and, practically, for the possession of that part of Pennsylvania between the forty-first and forty-second parallels of latitude-the struggle known in history as "the Pennamite War." To give an adequate history of this long, event- ful contest between the Pennsylvania and Con- necticut immigrants would alone require a volume, and, for that reason and the fact that the leading events of the war occurred on terri- tory of which it is not our province to treat iu this work, we attempt only such a brief analysis of important general movements as is necessary to a proper understanding of local events which come within the field which is our subject.

Each party, at the opening of the year 1769, was pretty well prepared to assert and defend its claims. There had been action upon each side something like that of two armies in the field as they prepare to meet for a stubborn cam- paign. Of the Susquehanna Company's party

1 Miner's "History of Wyoming, " p. 54.

2 See Chapter I.

0 to as gi ele th for İn

a a C d ki

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

which determined to effect the planting of a colony at Wyoming, Captain Zebulon Butler, a hero of the French and Indian War, was by common consent regarded the leader, if not actually clothed with official power. There were a number of other strong characters among the Connecticut adventurers, and they were not wauting in friends and adherents within the limits of Pennsylvania.

Among these were Benjamin Shoemaker, of Smithfield, and John McDowell. 1 The propri- etary leaders were Charles Stewart, afterwards an efficient officer of the Pennsylvania Line ; Captain Amos Ogden, the military leader ; and John Jennings, Esq., high sheriff of North- ampton County, civil magistrate. "These three constituted the Chief Executive Directory, to conduct the proprietaries' affairs at Wyoming. To these a lease had been executed for one hun- dred acres of land for seven years, upon condi- tion that they should establish an Indian trading- house thereon, and defend the valley from en- croachment." These three men were first on the ground, having arrived in January, 1769. They repaired the block-house and huts located a mile above Wilkes- Barre, ou the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Mill Creek, that had been aban- doned by the settlers of 1763. On the 8th of February the first forty of the Yankee detach- ment arrived, and, finding their expected shelter in the hands of the Pennamites, commenced to besiege the block-house by cutting off communi- cations with the surrounding country. They also erected a small block-house across the river at Kingston, afterwards called Forty Fort. Captain Ogden, seeing that something must be done, requested a conference. Messrs. Elder- kin, Tripp and Follett repaired to his quarters in accordance therewith, and were arrested by Ogden in the name of Pennsylvania and taken to Easton jail, accompanied by their thirty-seven associates, where they were released on bail given by William L. Ledley. This event clearly shows the naturally peaceful character of the pioneer Wyoming settlers, and their respect for civil process. After being liberated they immediately returned to Wyoming, where thir-

ty-one of them were again arrested by Ogden and Jennings, who returned with a large force and took then to Easton, and they were again released on bail, and again returned to the dis- puted territory. In April one hundred and sixty more Yankees arrived, and erected a fort on the river-bank near Wilkes-Barre, which they named Fort Durkee, in honor of their leader. Colonel Dyer and Major Elderkin went to Philadelphia about this time, with full powers to adjust all matters in dispute peace- ably ; but they accomplished nothing. On the 24th of June Colonel Francis, with an armed force, demanded the surrender of Fort Durkee, which was refused. Governor Penn instructed Sheriff Jennings to raise a sufficient force to oust the Yankees withont bloodshed, if possible. Ogden seized a few prisoners who were in their houses, among them Major Durkce. Sheriff Jennings, with two hundred men, was joined by Captain Patterson, from Fort Augusta, with an iron four-pounder. This, together with the loss of their commander, so appalled the garrison that they surrendered. Three or four leading men were detained as prisoners ; seventeen Con- necticut men were to remain and gather the ripening harvest ; all others were to leave the valley immediately, and private property was to be respected.2 Taking up their sad march, with their wives and little ones, these exiles made their way back to Connecticut. Their suffer- ings were great during this march, and Chap- man says that one woman roasted and fed her dead child to her surviving children to keep them alive.

Captain Ogden, to his disgrace as a man and a soldier, plundered the seventeen who had been left to gather the crops of all means of subsist- ence, driving away the cattle, horses, sheep, etc., to the settlements on the Delaware, where he sold them. The seventeen, having been plun- dered in violation of the terms of surrender, were compelled to follow their exiled comrades. Thus closed the first campaign in the Penna- mite War. The Yankees were three times ex- pelled, and finally compelled to abandon the settlement.

1 Miner, p. 106.

2 Miner.

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

The Yankees, however, were not long inac- tive. In February, 1770, in connection with a number of people from Lancaster, they again appeared upon the ground, and they easily took possession of the fort, which had only a small garrison. Ogden remained at the place with a number of his men, fortified in a bloek-house, which was besieged, and he was obliged to capitulate, and, with his followers, depart from Wyoming, after which his house was burnt in retaliation for the deeds he had committed the year before. This was in April, and in Septem- ber following, after Governor Penn had issued a proclamation warning the Yankees to depart from Wyoming, Ogden led an armed party against his late vietors, took several of them prisoners as they were engaged, unprotected, at their farm-work, and finally captured the fort, after killing a number of their garrison. Cap- tain Butler himself would have been bayoneted by the attacking party after they had gained an entrance had it not been for Captain Craig, who commanded a detachment of Ogden's men. During this siege the Wyoming men attempted to send messengers to Cushutunk, but the paths were watehed by Ogden's seouts, who captured them.

In the fall of 1771 the Pennamites, who then had possession of the garrison, were com- pelled to surrender, having been reduced to a starving condition by the Yankees, who had eut off all supplies from the surrounding country. By the terms of surrender, the Pennsylvania troops were to withdraw, twenty-three of them bearing arms. The men having families were given two weeks in which to remove, with the privilege of taking their effects. Thus ended the first Pennamite War, which had been waged with varying sueeess as a half eivil and half military movement. The loss of life was not great, but the constant annoyanee and distress eaused to these hardy pioneers eannot now be fully appreciated. This was one of the first contests waged against monopoly in this country. On the one hand was the rich proprietor, who would only rent lands for a term of years to his adherents, for maintaining his cause in the valley, while on the other hand was the actual settler. From this time forth the Yankees

began to pour into the valley, causing it to blossom as the rose.

"1 In 1773 the government of Connecticut, which, up to this time, had left the Susquehanna and Dela- ware Companies to manage their own affairs, now de- cided to make its claim to all the lands within the charter, west of the province of New York, and in a legal manner to support the same. Commissioners appointed by the Assembly proceeded to Philadel- phia 'to negotiate a mode of bringing the controversy to an amicable conclusion.' But every proposition offered by them was declined by the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, who saw no way to prevent a repetition of the troubles in Wyoming, except by the settlers evacuating the lands until a legal decision could be obtained.

"In the meantime the people had accepted articles, framed by the Susquehanna Company, at Hartford, Conn., June 2, 1773, for the government of the settle- ment, and acknowledged them to be of force until the colony of Connecticut should annex them to one of its counties, or make them a distinct county ; or until they should obtain, either from the colony, or from 'His gracious Majesty, King George the Third,' a more permanent or established mode of government. ' But his majesty soon had weightier matters to decide with his American subjects, which were settled by his acknowledgment of their Independence.'

" On the report of the Commissioners to the Assem- bly of Connecticut, after their return from Philadel- phia, decisive measures were adopted by the Assem- bly to bring the settlement on the Susquehanna under their immediate jurisdiction. An act was passed early in January, 1774, erecting all the territory within her charter limits, from the river Delaware to a line fifteen miles west of the Susquehanna, into a town with all the corporate powers of other towns of the colony, to be called Westmoreland, attaching it to the county of Litchfield. The town was seventy miles square, and was divided into townships five _ miles square, though those townships comprised within the Connecticut Delaware purchase were, for the most part, six miles square."

Susquehanna County was ineluded in this vast township and was divided into townships. Hibernia, Peru, Waterford, Ruby, Review, Cunningham, Julian, Abbas, Huniades, Dan- dolo, Manor, Chebar, Bidwell, Dundee, Kings- bury, Newry, Monmouth, St. Patrick and Simo are names of townships that lay wholly or in part within the present Susquehanna County.

3 1833 05 145 4905

1 Blackman's "History."

INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.

The following is a list of

1 MEMBERS FROM WESTMORELAND TO CONNECTICUT ASSEMBLY.

April, 1774, Zebulon Butler, Timothy Smith ; Sep- tember, 1774, Christopher Avery, John Jenkins ; April, 1775, Captain Z. Butler, Joseph Sluman ; Sep- tember, 1775, Captain Z. Butler, Major Ezekiel Pierce; May, 1775, John Jenkins, Solomon Strong; October, 1776, Colonel Z. Butler, Colonel Nathan Denison ; May: 1777, John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp; May, 1778, Nathan Denison, Anderson Dana; October, 1778, Colonel N. Denison, Lieutenant Asahel Buck ; May, 1779, Colonel N. Denison, Dea. John Hurlbut; May, 1780, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Fitch ; October, 1780, Nathan Denison, John Hurlbut; May, 1781, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Fitch; October, 1781, Obadiah Gore, Captain John Franklin; May, 1782, Obadiah Gore, Jonathan Fitch; October, 1783, Obadiah Gorc, Jonathan Fitch.

MEMBERS FROM LUZERNE COUNTY TO PENNSYL- VANIA ASSEMBLY.

Council.

1787, 1788 and 1789, to the 9th of October, Nathan Denison ; 30th of October, 1789, to 20th of December, 1790, Lord Butler.

On the 20th of December, 1790, the Council closed its session. The State was organized under the Constitution of 1790, and a Senate took the place of a Council.

As Susquehanna County was associated with Luzerne in choosing legislators, previous to 1829, the following table of Senators and Rep- resentives to 1811, the year following the or- ganization of the county, will be profitable for reference :

Senate.

1790 (with Northumberland and Huntington), William Montgomery; 1792, Willian Hepburn ; 1794, George Wilson (with Northumberland, Mifflin and Lycoming); 1796, Samuel Dale (with Northumber- land, Mifflin and Lycoming) ; 1798, Samuel McClay ; 1800, James Harris; 1801, Jonas Hartzell (with Northampton and Wayne); 1803, Thomas Mewhorter; 1805, William Lattimore; 1807, Matthias Gross; 1808, Nathan Palmer (with Northumberland); 1810, James Laird.

House. · (Year of election given.)

1787, John Paul Schott ; 1788, 1789 and 1790, Oba- diah Gore; 1791 and 1792, Simon Spaulding; 1793, Ebenezer Bowman; 1794, Benjamin Carpenter ; 1795 and 1796, John Franklin ; 1797 and 1798, Roswell Welles; 1799 and 1800, John Franklin ; 1801, John

Franklin, Lord Butler ; 1802, John Franklin, Ros- well Welles; 1803, John Franklin, John Jenkins; 1804, Roswell Welles, Jonas Ingham ; 1805, Roswell Welles, Nathan Beach ; 1806, Roswell Welles, Moses Coolbaugh; 1807, Charles Miner, Nathan Beach ; 1808, Charles Miner, Benjamin Dorrance; 1809 and 1810, B. Dorrance, Thomas Graham; 1811, Thomas Graham, Jonathan Stevens.

CHAPTER III.

INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.

Battle of Wyoming-General Sullivan's March-General Clinton at Great Bend-Defeat of the Six Nations-An Indian Claim-Ad- ventures of Hilborn.

WE have briefly given the overthrow of the Lenni Lenape who lived south of Susquehanna County, and visited it as a hunting-ground. It is pertinent to our inquiries to notice the overthrow of their powerful neighbors on the north, who were at last compelled to submit to the same power that they had assisted, only a few years before, in removing the Delawares from their loved home. During the Revolu- tionary War the inhabitants of Wyoming were very patriotic, and two hundred men were en- listed and joined the army to help fight the battles of Liberty and Independence. This took many of the bravest men from Westmore- land County, which then contained about two thousand five hundred inhabitants ; and left the settlement in an unprotected condition, an opportunity which the Indians, Tories and British were not slow to improve.

On the 3d of July, 1778, occurred the world- famous massacre of Wyoming. The confeder- ated Six Nations, who had been induced by the British in 1777 to take the war-path against the Americans, committed great ravages in New York during that year, and in the follow- ing they determined to make a murderous foray into Pennsylvania, with the especial object of striking the settlements on the two branches of the Susquehanna, which were left in an almost defenceless condition through the departure of their patriotic men for the army.

The Wyoming settlement was very naturally

1 Blackman's " History of Susquehanna County."

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the object of the Englishmen's especial hatred, because of the devotion its people had shown to the cause of liberty ; and it was easily accessible by the North Branch of the Susquehanna. Late in June there descended that stream, under the command of Colonel John Butler, a force of eleven hundred men, four hundred of whom were Tory rangers and regular soldiers of Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, with seven hun- dred Indians, chiefly Senecas. Jenkins' Fort capitulated, and Wintermoot's (which, as was afterwards learned, was built to aid the incur- sions of the Tories), at once opened its gates to the invading host. At Wyoming were several so-called forts, mere stockades, in no one of which was there a cannon or an adequate gar- rison, the arms-bearing men nearly all being absent, as has heretofore been stated. Colonel Zebulon Butler, who happened to be at Wyo- ming, took command by invitation of the peo- ple, and the little band, consisting chiefly of old men and boys, with a handful of undisci- plined militia, against whom eleven hundred warriors had marched, made as heroic a stand as the world ever saw.

And so upon that fatal 3d of July they marched out to meet and fight the enemy, for a safe retreat with their families was impossible, and surrender seems never to have been thought of. It is beyond our province in this work to describe the uneven battle and the slaughter which ensued. Suffice it to say that the brave defenders, about four hundred in number, were defeated by the assailing force, outnumbering them by nearly three to one. Then followed the horrible massacre-a carnival of murder and torture performed by fiends. But who is there who knows not Wyoming? Who that does not shudder at the recall of that name ? Of four hundred men who went into battle, but sixty escaped the fury of the Indians. That bloody day made one hundred and fifty widows and six hundred orphans in the valley.

And now the Wyoming Valley is a scene of pastoral quiet and loveliness, as if, in recom- pense for the dark deeds done, the Creator had breathed upon the bosom of nature there the benison of eternal peace.

The massacre of Wyoming thrilled the world

with horror. What, then, must have been the feelings of those people who had reason to think they might at any hour meet with the same fate which had extinguished the lives of the four hundred settlers of the beautiful valley ? The whole border was filled with the wildest alarm, and a fever of fear took possession of the people even as far down the country as Bethlehem and Easton.

Flight was the only recourse for the few ter- ror-stricken survivors. Vain efforts were made to concentrate the settlement at Forty Fort, but the tide of panic had already set in, and by night of the day of battle fugitives were flying in every direction to the wilderness. It was a wild, chaotic, precipitate hegira. All was con- fusion, consternation, horror. The poor, terri- fied people, men, women and children, scarcely thinking or caring whither their trembling footsteps led, if they could only escape the sav- age enemy and cruel death, fled onward into the wilderness and night. The general direction pursued was towards the Delaware and the Stroudsburg settlement. Every passage into the forest was thronged. On the old Warrior's Path there were, says Miner, in one company, nearly one hundred women and children, with but one man, Jonathan Fitch, to advise or aid them. The terrified fugitives fled through the Dismal Swamp or Shades of Death, and the Great Swamp to the west and southwest. Children were born and children dicd in that forced march through the wilderness. Some wandered out of the way and were lost, others died from wounds and starvation, but the great- er number reached the settlements about Strouds- burg and along the Delaware, where the Ger- man settlers treated them kindly, and some found their way back to Connecticut. Miner says : " In addition to those in train band, the judges of the court and all the civil officers who were near, went out. Many old men-some of them grandfathers -- took their muskets and marched to the field. For instance, the aged Mr. Searle, of Kingston, was one. Having become bald, he wore a wig; taking out his silver knce-buckles, he said to his family : 'If I fall I shall not need them ; if I come back they will be safe here.' He was killed, and the

INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.

Indians kept the wig as a trophy. His son Roger fled to Connecticut, but afterwards re- turned to Wyoming. His sons Daniel, Leon- ard and Raselas became residents of Montrose. Reuben Wells' father was also killed in that battle. His widow fled to Connecticut, where they remained until 1797, when they returned to Frenchtown, and in 1812 Reuben settled in South Montrose. Elisha Williams, grandfather of W. W. Williams, was one that escaped. Perry Gardner, grandfather of Latham Gard- ner, and his son Jonathan, then only twelve years old, were there. Probably many more of the residents of Susquehanna County are de- scendants of ancestors who were in that battle."

It is not within the scope of this work to notice all the barbarities practiced upon the Wyoming settlers by Tories and Indians who had been hired by the British agents to do this dastardly work. But the hour of punishment came at last. General Washington determined to send a sufficient force into the Indian country to break up their savage haunts. To this end General Clinton, with sixteen hundred men, was ordered to advance from the Hudson to Tioga Point, and General Sullivan was ordered to rendezvous at Easton. From this point he sent a German regiment of three hundred men to reinforce Colonel Butler, and on the 19th of April Major Powell arrived at Wyoming with an additional force of two hundred and fifty men. This force was fired upon by ambushed Indians, and a number of them were killed. On the 18th of June, 1779, General Sullivan left Easton with two thousand five hundred men. He went by way of the Wind Gap, Pocono Creek, White Oak Run and Birch Hill. Arriving at Mud Run, they cncamped on a knoll which they named Hungry Hill. Here they encamped for a few days waiting for pro- visions from Easton. From this point they cut a road through the Dismal Swamp around Lo- cust Ridge, thence westwardly seven miles across the Lehigh to the Old Shupp road to Wyoming.

On the 31st of July, at the head of some three thousand men, General Sullivan broke camp at Wyoming and began his march up the Susquehanna. Accompanying the troops were

three hundred boats laden with provisions, cannon and munitions of war. They marched up the river in good order. Following in the train were many hundred pack-horses laden with one month's provisions. On the 11th of August Sullivan arrived at Tioga Point and halted for General Clinton to come up.

" 1 When General Clinton arrived at the head of the river, Otsego Lake, he found the water very low, and the navigation of the Sus- quehanna on rafts, as intended, impracticable. In order to raise the water, it was decided to build a dam at the foot of the lake, which some of the soldiers, under the directions of the officers, proceeded to do, while others were de- tailed to construct timber rafts below, upon which the army was to descend the river. When the dam was completed, the rafts being ready, and a sufficient quantity of water having accumulated in the lake, the flood-gates were opened, away sped the fleet of rafts, with their noble burden, amid the loud cheers of the soldiers.

" Very soon new troubles arose, for not one of these sixteen hundred men knew anything about navigating the Susquehanna. The Indian canoes only had heretofore broken the stillness of its waters; consequently some of the many rafts were at almost every turn brought to a stand-still by the bars and shallows of the river. These 'shipwrecks,' as the soldiers called them, produced shouts of mirth and laughter from those who were inore fortunate in drifting clear of the shoals ; but, as the water was rapidly rising from the great supply in the lake above, these stranded rafts were soon afloat again, and very soon were passing some of those rafts which had first passed them, and from whose crews came shouts of derisive laughter, and now were stranded in like manner. Both officers and men enjoyed this novel campaign on rafts down the beautiful Susqehanna (to use the officer's word) 'highly.' He said that, notwithstanding they had to keep a sharp look- out for the 'Red Skins,' it did not in the least mar the great enjoyment of the sports of this rafting expedition ; fishing, frolic and fun were

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 3

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