USA > Pennsylvania > Historical register : notes and queries historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 11
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The other route was by the Susquehanna river to the country of the Five Nations and the lands of tribes which had already begun to carry peltry down the St. Lawrence river to the old French trading-posts at its mouth, frequented since the days of Cartier, in 1535, and later, and which were visited in connec- tion with the Newfoundland fisheries. The idea of such ex- tensive inter-tribal trade may seem incredible, but it is well known that copper was in possession of the tribes on the At- lantic coast and on the Gulf of Mexico, which could only have been derived from Lake Superior. Certain flint stones used for arrow heads were also bartered in inter-tribal exchanges, for many hundreds of miles; and such trade was probably much more extensive prior to the wars incident to the intro- duction of fire-arms. It is also an interesting fact that Indian goods, such as hatchets, were in possession of the Susquehan-
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nocks, at the head of the bay, in 1608, which Captain Smith says he understood them to have received by trade from the French in Canada: and they had these implements of European manu- facture in such quantities that they shared some of them with their neighbors, the Tockwoeks; and vet we know that it was not until this very year that the first settlement was made by the French in Canada. Moreover, the Dutch were not vet on the Hudson, and this trade. as well as that referred to by Don Luis, must have come from Brest, the old French trading-post north of the St. Lawrence.
With these crude ideas of the nearness of China, and of the interior geography, a compound of the grotesque maps of that day, supplemented by the marvelous accounts of Don Luis. and the assurance of this converted Indian, now lately returned from Spain, a grave, intelligent man of fifty-five years of age, that he would protect them in instructing his brother's tribe, the Governor Melendez, the founder of St. Augustine, in Flori- da, after several years of careful consideration, determined to plant the cross and the banmer of Spain at Axacan, in St. Mary's bay. Fathers Segura and Quiros, and five young men of the Jesuit Order, with four Indian boys for catechists and attendants, were sent by Melendez from St. Helena sound, in South Carolina, and landed Sept. 10, 1570. The vessel re- turned the next day.
Where Axacan was, no map has been found to show. It was on a great river flowing into the bay, and must, therefore, have been either on the Potomac or the Susquehanna. It was called the Espiritu Santo, (Holy Spirit.) They were to aseend the river some distance to the landing, and then cross six miles over to another river, up which, another six miles, lived the chieftain brother of Don Luis. They came with high hopes, for Don Luis had assured them, "You shall lack for nothing; I will ever be at hand to aid you." They found a land scourged with seven years of sterility, and inhabited by half- starved remnants of tribes, which "all expected to die of hun- ger and cold this winter, as so many had done the previous winters, for the snows that fall on this land prevent their seek- ing the roots on which they are accustomed to live-in view,
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however, of the great hope we entertain of the conversion of this people. and the service of our Lord, and of his Majesty the King, and of reaching the mountain range and China. it seemed proper to the father that we should venture to remain here." Thus wrote Father Quiros by the returning ship.
It was a fatal venture. They had few provisions to start with. and the winter was near at hand. They gathered such edibles as the country afforded, acorns, walnuts, chestnuts, per- simmons. and a root growing like a potato. in moist lands. Thoughtlessly relying on the representation of Don Luis, they had come without means for hunting or fishing, seeming not to realize that this country was not like the sunny South from which they had sailed. Don Luis, as it usually turns out with such educated red men, soon returned to his old Indian habits, and then abandoned the missionaries entirely, and removed to a place distant from them a journey of a day and a half. They needed him as an interpreter. After several fruitless efforts to induce him to return. Father Quiros and two others were sent, in February following. to his place to make a final appeal for his return. He beguiled them with empty words, and, as they were leaving the town, they were pierced with a shower of ar- rows. Four days later, being February 8, 1571, Don Luis and his party. arrayed in the clothes of the slain, descended upon Segura and the others, and slaughtered all of them except one of the boys, who was saved by a chief, much to the chagrin of .Don Luis. Melendez himself afterwards rescued this boy ; for, after learning their fate. he came to avenge the death of his friends ; and this boy, of course, preserved the knowledge here given. Don Luis fled to the mountains. but Melendez. after hanging eight of the murderers, which the boy pointed out, again embarked, and the Spanish flag ceased to float over Ax- acan.
The question occurs again, Where was Axacan ? Dr. J. G. Shea, who has written up these discoveries of Buckingham Smith, supposes that the landing was at Occoquan on the Poto- mac, and that the tribe of Don Luis was on the Rappahannock. His reason is, that evidently these Indians were the nomadic Algonquins, who wandered from place to place, as it suited
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their convenience, in pursuit of food ; while those living up the Susquehanna are known to have been of the Iroquois stock. who lived in fixed palisaded towns, subsisting more by agri- culture, and less by hunting and fishing. This statement is undoubtedly true, and the point is well taken ; but there were also Algonquin tribes at the head of the bar and towards the east. The description would, for instance, be equally applicable to the country in passing from Port Deposit to the North East river. This location might explain two circumstances. It seems that it was upon the very arm of the bay that Capt. John Smith. thirty-seven years later, in going up the stream one and a half miles, came "where we found many trees cut with hatchets." Some white people must have been there, before this date, for some time, in order to have eut many trees. And it is also stated that Don Luis made Father Segura give up his hatchets, before killing him, under the pretense of wanting them to cut wood. There is a singular coïncidence in regard to the promi- nence of roots used as food in this region. The story of the boy, which, though somewhat obscure and indefinite, represents the journey of the tribe of Don Luis as by no means the short, and easy route he had made the missionaries believe it was. It relates that "they went into the interior, guided by the false Don Luis, taking with them their ornaments and apparatus for saying mass, and after having crossed forests, deserts, and swamps, they found themselves in want of necessary lodgings, and had to subsist on roots and herbs. In this way they reached, with much fatigue, the Province of Axacan, whose inhabitants were a savage and stark naked people." As the missionaries followed the habits of the natives in hunting roots for food, they may, indeed, have been among the Tockwocks, whom Captain Smith tells us were so called because they were proverbial root- eaters. Doubtless they subsisted so much more on roots than other tribes, that they were mick-named Tockwocks. Capt. John Smith found them, in 1008, on the Sassafras river. More- over, as the Spaniards called the bay the archipelago, the islands above the mouth of the Potomac must have been a prominent feature to those navigators in passing to and from Axacan. There are, therefore, some reasons for considering
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Early Indian History on the Susquehanna.
that the Susquehanna was the great river, emptying into the bay, visited by the Spaniards, and called by them Espiritu Santo. It is certain that the Susquehanna must have been the route by which that arm of the sea, that water communication, was reached, which led to the trading post towards Newfound- land. It presents an interesting idea-that this river was a thoroughfare for Indian trade from tribes in the North to those in the South.
It may never be known just where Axacan was located. but the general condition of these nomadic tribes must have been much the same as it was found in later years. They were the same untamable, treacherous, perfidious people, afterwards en- countered on the James and Delaware rivers. Though we may have no means of positively proving that Axacan was on our own Susquehanna, yet this little episode, which is new to most of us, presents an interesting and romantic prelude to the his- tory of our Indians in the days when they are better understood.
The idea of locating this place at Occoquan, on the Potomac, on the other hand, gains strength from the pronunciation of the old Spanish, which would be Och-a-kon, nearly resembling Oc- coquan, as given by Captain Smith, thirty-seven years later. This is not very conclusive, for as the word simply means "a hook." there may have been different places so called, as we know was the case with some other names. And it will be seen that Occo- quan is not as near the Rappahannock, as other points lower down the river. Perhaps the story of Axacan may explain the language of Captain Smith, while up the bay, in 1608, when he says : " We encountered our old friend Mosco, a lusty savage of Wighcocomoco, upon the river Patawomek, we supposed him some Frenchman's son, because he had a thick, black. bushy beard, and the savages seldom have any at all, of which he was not a little proud, to see so many of his countrymen." As we have no knowledge of Frenchmen visiting the bay, Mosco may have been a Spanish product then about thirty-seven years of age.
Our historians tell us little or nothing of the visits of Span- iards north of Carolina, yet they must have been in the Chesa- peake at a much later dax than the incident above narrated. We find that in the early history of Maryland that some Vir-
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ginians, envious of the peaceful and prosperous character of the infant settlement, "wickedly suggested to the Indians that those strangers were not really English but Spaniards, and would enslave them. as they had done so many of their coun- trymen," and "the Indians, being so credulous as to believe this report, grew jealous of Mr. Calvert, and made preparations for attacking the colony." It seems clear from this that the Spaniards were notorious among the natives on the bay for having, prior to 1634, carried off many natives as slaves. It seems certain Capt. John Smith was not the first white man to explore the Chesapeake bay, as has been generally supposed ; and he may not have been the first to enter the Susquehanna river, as heretofore universally believed.
While not calling in question the commonly accepted origin of the name of Maryland, that it was given as a compliment to the Queen. it may well be doubted whether it would ever have been so called had not the name been further suggested by being localized in the bay, prior to the Maryland grant. By whom. why, and when the bay was named St. Mary's is now not known. but it is found on a chart of Cabot, as early as 1544, and Lord Baltimore, no doubt, was well aware of this use of the word before the settlement on St. Mary's river, or naming the Province Maryland.
Our first glimpse into Indian affairs upon the Suequehanna is in 1608, when Capt. John Smith, of the infant Jamestown colony explored the Chesapeake bay and its inflowing streams. He had a barge of two tons, and twelve men to perform this tremendous task. With a little meal, scarcely sufficient for half the time, they "lay twelve weeks upon those great waters in those unknown countries" While coasting about the head of the bay, Smith discovered the "Tockwhoghs," a small tribe of one hundred men, on a small river east of the bay, evidently the Sassafras, and from them learned of the great Susquehanna nation living upon a large river above tide-water. The Tock- wocks were most probably a branch of the Nanticokes, but possibly Delawares, and certainly of the Algonquin family. Through Smith's interpreter, who understood English, and Powhatan Algonquin, he found no difficulty in communicating
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with the Tockwocks; and through a Tockwock, who under- stood the neighboring Susquehanna Iroquois, he opened com- - munication, by means of a double interpretation, with a people who scarcely knew of the existence of Powhatan, and he as little of them. How he met with and what he learned of the Susquehannocks will be treated in our next paper.
Tockwhoghs. or, as sometimes written, Tockawhoughs. is the same as Tuckahoe (men, ) and signified a kind of Indian bread made from a bulbous root. The terminal ogh is an Algonquin form denoting people, and the final s in English duplicates the same idea. Many of the tribal names given by Smith and by other Europeans, were those by which they first heard them designated by neighboring tribes. These were . often nick-names denoting reproach, some habit, or the locality. This tribe was termed most probably by the natives down the bay as great eaters of boiled roots ; for it is not at all probable that they called themselves root-eaters. It would be like an Irishman calling his people the potato nation. No remnant in after years was ever clearly identified as the Tockwocks of Smith, and they remain a matter for speculation. Tuckahoe is the name of the valley between Tyrone and Altoona.
Early writers ascribe great nutritive qualities to a root or kind of truffle, and seem to translate the word into "Indian loaf; " but the Tuckahoe of our day, pachyma cocos, has little or no value as food, and great doubt has arisen as to whether there ever was such a valuable root used by the Indians as the old writers describe. It is very probable that Tuckahoe formerly denoted any and all bulbous roots used for food. Dr. Trumbull, an authority in Algonquin, says the word comes from ptuckqui, meaning something rounded, globular, and hence a tuber. At least five different edible roots have been identified as once having been known as tuckahoe, all of which have received other names in the course of time, while this most worthless fungus knot on diseased roots still retains it. The negroes in marshy regions apply the word to arum Vir- ginianum, and declare that possum cooked with tuckahoe makes a most savory feast.
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FIRST SETTLERS OF THE IRISH SETTLEMENT.
BY JACOB FATZINGER, JR.
1
IL.
Thomas Armstrong ( Hist. Reg. p. 34, 35.) who was married to Susannah -, by deed of the Sth of December. 1750, purchased a tract of land containing 331 acres (situated as stated on page. 34.) from William Allen and William Webb. attorneys for Evan Patterson of Old Broad Street, London, England, being part of a large tract containing 2723 acres called the Manor of Chawton, originally patented to Sir John Page of London. by patent dated September 11th. 1735.
William Armstrong .- There were two settlers of that name, one of whom resided in Moore township. where he died during the year 1769. He married Margaret Kerr. (supposed.) They had issue. Robert, Jean. Mary, and Elizabeth. The other William Armstrong resided in Allen township, and died dur- ing the year 1760. He married Elizabeth ---: they had issue, Agnes and Margaret.
James Allison (p. 35) married Jennet -; they had issue, Sarah, m. Joseph Horner: Mary, m. Robert Hays: Mar- garet : James J., m. Rebecca - -: Jennet, Anne, and.John.
John Boyd, (p. 35.)-We find that in the year 1775, the sur- viving issue of Jolin and Elizabeth Boyd, was Adam, William, James, John. (who died in his minority during the years 1775 -- 1784) and Margaret, m. Robert Sharp.
Samuel Brown married Jean Boyd. He died June 11. 1798, in his eighty-fourth year. Jean (Boyd) Brown died March 25, 1812, in her ninety-second year. They left issue nine chil- dren, viz : James, who died unmarried and without issue dur- ing the year 1800; he was well educated. followed the occupa- tion of a surveyor, and in his last will and testament left £50 to the Library Society of Allen township for the purchase of
First Settlers of the Irish Settlement. 123
books. William, m. Jane -- , moved to Northumberland county. and died previous to the 15th of April. 1812, leaving issue, James, William. and Jane, m. John Kirkwood. Joseph married and moved to Turbut township, Northumberland county. had issue. William. James, (who died in his minority previous to the 3d of October, 1812.) Samuel. Robert, and John. John married Elizabeth Doak ; they had issue. Samuel, John died June 2d. 1798. in his thirty-eighth year. Elizabeth (Doak) Brown married as her second husband Dr. John Boyd. Robert married Catharine Snyder. Robert died February 26th. 1823, aged seventy-eight years and two months: Catharine (Snyder) Brown died in 1859, aged ninety-one years. eight months, and thirteen days. They had issue a son, William, who died at Bethlehem. Pa., January 10th, 1866. in his seventy- third year. Robert Brown served during the Revolutionary War as first lieutenant of Captain Peter Rundios' company of the Flying Camp, and was taken prisoner at Fort Wash- ington November 16th. 1776. afterwards exchanged at Eliza- bethtown, January 25th. 1881: was elected a Senator and rep- resented the county of Northampton in the State Legislature from 1783 to 1787; in the year 1796 he was elected to Con- gress, serving eighteen years in succession. Sarah married John Hays, son of James Hays, who, on the 14th of November, 1815, was living in Bald Eagle township, Centre county. Esther married Robert Craig, son of James Craig, (see p. 35:) they moved to Turbut township, Northumberland county. and from there to Derry township, Columbia county: for their issue see page 36, of whom Jane. m. John Brown, (in the year 1815, residing in North Sewickly township, Beaver county.) Mary died without issue, Samuel m. Jane Elizabeth married William Craig, son of James Craig, (see p. 36.) Jane married Thomas Herron ; they removed to Rockingham county, Virginia, previous to June 5th, 1815, where Thomas Herron died; they had issue, Samuel. Thomas, &c.
John Cook was an early settler of the Irish Settlement, re- siding there on the 7th of February, 1739, when he purchased a tract of land containing 300 acres and 114 perches from a certain Edmund MeEland We have no record of him later than March 14th, 1753.
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Samuel Caruthers resided in Allen township : married Mar- garet --; he died during the year 1769; they had issue William, Samuel. and Margaret, who had half sisters Elizabeth and Mary MeIntyre.
Williams Caruthers was a brother of Samuel Caruthers, (first :) he married Mary -- , and died during the year 1777, with- out issue.
William Craig, son of Thomas Craig first, (see p. 36.) it is said, served as the first sheriff of Northamtpon county. (1752.) We present our readers with a letter from William Craig, ad- dressed to Lewis Gordon," attorney-at-law, of Easton :
*Lewis Gordon was a Scotchman " cut in the forty-five"; he came to this country after the battle of Culloden, and lived at Philadelphia. where he practiced law and also served as a clerk in the office of William Peters. He was the first attorney admitted to practice in the courts of Northampton county, and also practiced in the courts of New Jersey and in the courts of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, as the following letter to him from Judge Benjamin Chew will show :
"BURDENTOWN, New Jersey, Feb'y 19, 1759. " To Mr. Lewis Gordon, Attorney At Law:
SIR: Messrs. Graydon and Buckley Justices for the tryal of Ne- groes in Bucks have appointed a Court to be held for that purpose, at Bristol on Monday the 26th of this instant, which being the time of holding the Quarter Sessions in Chester County, I am not able to at- tend at Bristol. I must therefore beg the Favour of you to prosecute the pleas of the Crown at that Court, for me, if it does not interfere with any other Court you are obliged to attend elsewhere.
I am sir your very hble Servt,
B. CHEW."
Lewis Gordon while at Easton also followed surveying, served as an agent for the Proprietaries, and as such assisted James Scull in the survey and division of the Manor of Fermor or Dry Land tract near that town. He was married in Christ Church, Philadelphia. January 4th, 1750, to Mary Jenkins, daughter of Aaron and Elizabeth Jen- kins. who was born in Philadelphia, October 13th, 1729, and died March 6th, 1763. Lewis Gordon died at Easton during the year 1778. Their children were :
i. Elizabeth, b. at Philadelphia, m. James Taylor, son of George Taylor one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. ii. Isabella, b. January 8th, 1752, at Philadelphia, m. Thomas Affleck, of the city of Philadelphia, cabinet-maker. iii. John, b. April 15th, 1755, at Easton.
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First Settlers of the Irish Settlement.
" WYOMING, ye 10th December, 1753.
Mr. GORDON : SIR : The Bearer's stay some minutes longer than I expected after writing and sealing the other few lines to you di- rected. gives this opportunity to send you an amount of Haymaker's snils as follows, viz :
£. S. d.
His Household goods and Chattles, &c., . 105 1 10
The Plantation on which he lived, . 436 0 00
Hornberrier's Place, 83 0 00
Servases Place,
69 0 00
A Warrant Surre, .
6 5 00
-
Sum Tottal, . 699 6 10
This I can assure you is the whole to a penny, Errors Excepted. I had Drawn a full account of the Pirticulars in general with a view To have given it to my Father or sent it to you sir, but as I forgot and laid it amonst my other papers I cannot recollect where. but however this I am certain aggrees Exactly with the others as I kept an Exact account. This in hast from
Sir your Humble Sevt
WILL CRAIG."
Christopher Haymaker resided in Salisbury township, North- ampton county, and his real and personal estate was taken into execution and sold by Sheriff Craig, at the respective suits of Derrick Johnson and Adam Klampfer.
Mary ( Boyd ) Dobbin, (p. 35.) We find that her son Alex- ander moved to the State of North Carolina and was living there on the 24th day of February, 1790, and empowered his "friend William Brown of Campbell county, Virginia, but who expects in the course of the ensuing summer to become a resi- denter of Pennsylvania," to dispose of his interest in the Pres- byterian parsonage in Allen township, Northampton county.
James Eggleson lived on that part of the Proprietaries' Manor of Fermor situated in Bethlehem township.
iv. Aaron, b. January 31st, 1757, at Bordentown, N. J.
v. William, b. April 22d, 170), at Bordentown, N. J.
vi. Alexander George, b. January 17th, 1762, at Easton.
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THE CONEWAGO CANAL.
BY SAMUEL EVANS.
The transportation of merchandize and the products of the soil from one point to another by water, conveyed in boats, is one of the earliest, as it is the cheapest modes our primitive fathers had of communication between settlements, and sup- plying each other with needed supplies or subsistence. Every stream in the Province of Pennsylvania was utilized for this purpose. A number of these were entitled to the more pre- tentious name of river, although we call them creeks only. The Conestoga, Swatara, Codorus, and Conedoguinit were large and easily navigated by small craft, many miles above their mouths. The Susquehanna, the most picturesque river in the State. into which these streams flowed, was the channel that carried the running waters from half of the Province to the bay, over rocks in many places, which made it dangerous and unsafe to navigate.
At the close of the Revolutionary war the trade carried on by water east of the Allegheny mountains was very large and increasing rapidly. The old "dugouts" were found inadequate for the business, and large numbers of "keel boats," carrying from five to thirty tons of produce, were built. These were floated down with the current of the river as far as the mouth of the Swatara, where this produce was transferred to the shore, to be transported over land by wagons to a more ready market further east. When these boats were ready for a return trip, men forced them against the stream with " set poles." They would start at the head of the boat and set their poles against the bottom of the river and then work down what was called "runs" at each side of the boat, thus forcing the boat up stream as fast as a person could walk. The business at Middletown became so large that it was with very great difficulty that the
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The Conewago Canal.
produce left there could be moved, without causing much de- lay. To facilitate the handling and transportation of the same. many boats went several miles further down the river, to the mouth of Conewago creek. where they unshipped their pro- duce. Although this point was several miles nearer market. the roads were so bad that no time was gained. This was at the head of Conewago falls, which presented a complete bar- rier to the navigation of keel boats. James Hopkins, Thomas Bailey, James Keys. and Jolin Greer organized a company and laid out a town at the mouth of the creek, and called it Fal- mouth. They also built a turnpike from there to connect with Elizabethtown.
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