USA > Pennsylvania > Historical register : notes and queries historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 23
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tainly knew enough not to duplicate the idea of people. So we need not look for any word or ending meaning people in the name used by Smith, beyond what is implied in the closing letter.
There is another ending often appended to Algonquin nouns when used as names of places. In New England it took the form of -ut, -it, -et, etc., and in some other dialects, -k, -g. etc., with a connecting vowel. Among the Delawares. it generally took the form of -unk, sometimes -ank, -onk, -ink, but often changed to -ing. Thus, Kittanning, from keht. greatest, hanne, stream, and ing, at ; meaning at the principal stream : Mahon- ing, at the lick: Mahonink, Licking creek, where there is a lick : Saukunk, at the mouth: Paxtang, Peshtank, Peekstang, corrupted into Paxton and corrupted from tu-peek and -ank, at the standing water: Muncy, corrupted from Mins-ink, where there are Minsies: Manyunk, where we go to drink : Mauch Chunk, at the bear mountain. This is what the grammarians call the "locative case." It does not locate the object, to the name of which it is a part, but something else connected with it, of which location can be affirmed. We cannot say "at the bear," but we can say "at the rocks," that is, something is de- scribed as belonging to the place or region where the rocks are located. The question is, have we this suffix of place in Smith's word for the Susquehannocks? We think clearly it is not ; but there are some derivative forms, as we shall see, that do seem to have this ending. We labor under this great difficulty -we have no grammar of the Powhatan nor of the Nanticoke dialects, and the vocabularies which have been preserved are so exceedingly meager that while showing a common origin and dialectical divergence, they give us provokingly little light on the questions before us. The locative case and the animate plural, in some of the dialectical forms, as written by careless writers, come so near the suffix word for land, country, or region that we cannot be sure always that as words are now spelled they may not run into each other and become indistinguishable.
This leads us, then, to examine the Algonquin word for place, land, region, country, often used as a suffix. This is given in Narragansett, auke; Massachusetts, ohke; Abeneki, 'ki; Ot- chipwe, ahke or aki; and in Delaware, hacki; and our geographies
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furnish other variations such as oki, ook, aug, oag, aque. auqua. etc. If the reader will now glance at Smith's map and writ- ings, he will be surprised at the number of the names of tribes and clans occupying towns. which end in -ock,-eck .- uck,-cgh,- ough,-ok,-oc, etc. An examination of Smith's books, and the . writings of others in his day, will show instances where a num- ber of these names are spelled with an additional "e" after the "k." As this necessitates an extra syllable in the pronunci- ation. it cannot be regarded as a mere orthographical freak. As it produces the most common sound among the Algonquin dialects for the word meaning land, place, country, etc., it seems certain that it was intended for that word; and that the absence of the "e" in other instances and in other words is owing to carelessness, euphony, or a tendency in these Indian dialects to cut off this syllabic sound. evidences of all of which we see in the use of the word in kindred dialects. Smith gives us Pat- awom-eke-s, Massawom-ecke-s, Atquinac-huke-s, Kuskarana- ocke, Nantaqu-ake. Quadr-oque. Then we have Tappahan-oke. and Coracohan-auke as equivalent to Quiyoughcohan-ock. Purchas, who says he had access to Smith's manuscripts prior to their publication, found and gives us the very form Sasque- sa-han-ocke-s, and this form is also found in Smith's Oxford tract of 1612. We have the use of this suffix finely illustrated in Smith's spelling Chawwon-ock and Chawon-ocke, from sowan-ocke, the south-country, applied to a region south of Jamestown on what is still known as the Chowan river in North Carolina. The Chowans or Chawons were simply "South- erners ;" the Chawanockes were strictly the "South-land-ers." Compare wa"pan-auke, the east-land : by the Dutch, Wapenokis : by the English, Wampanoags, which ending is like Smith's Mangoags elsewhere spelled Mangoacks, but by Strachey Man- goangs. There can be no reasonable doubt that the ocke, ock, ecke. eck, ough, oug, ox, etc., used by Smith and others, were intended to represent the sound of the Indian word meaning land, place. region, country. The Sasquesahan-ockes were the "Sasquesa- han-country-people." The Massawom-eckes were the Great- water-region-people. So, Milwaukee is the rich-land. Tulpe- hocken, from tulpewi-hacki-ing, is at the turtle land, a region
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noted for turtles, the turtle country. From Tockawho-ughe. flag-root-land, we have the Tockwhoughs, or the Tuckahoe, land-ers. Tesinigh seems to come from tessinan. I spread out. and an obscured form of ake or ing. and meaning the Flats- the same idea that is still in the word which we have corrupted into Wyoming. The force of the affix is very apparent. In some cases it may be disguised or unobserved. as in Accomac. the Other-side-land-ers ; or other forms may be mistaken for it. As we do not know the Powhatan or Nanticoke idioms, we can- not reject this word because of the presence or absence of a let- ter or sound. There was. moreover, no Indian standard, but an almost unending variation. Half a dozen, or. for that mat- ter, one man might write a word in half a dozen different ways, as they or he heard it from the lips of that number of Indians even of the same tribe, and each one may be correctly written. all the sounds may have been in use. and in the absence of any established criterion, orfe may be as good as the other. As the Delawares seem to have been peculiar in using an aspirate at the beginning of the word. making it hacki. it is not a little sin- gular to notice on Smith's map Chicka-hokin and Atquinac- huke; in Smith's book of 1612. Atquana-hucke, which. as al- ready shown, is the same as Powhatan's Anchanac-huck. and derived, possibly, from aquacken-hake. barren-land, referring to the sandy and swampy lands of New Jersey. Here it will be of interest to recur again to Pocoughtaon-acks, Powhatan's name for the Susquehannocks, which Strachey produces in five va- riations as follows: Bocootawwon-auke-s, Bocootowwon-ock-s, Bocootauwan-auke-s, Bocootawwan-auke-s, and Bocootawwon- ough, the country. Here we have conclusive proof of the sameness of the forms auke, ock, and ough. The force of the wan or won is undetermined, though it is like one of the forms of -han. The first part seems to be the word for fire, which Strachey gives as boketauh and bocuttau ; also, bocatoah, bocataw, boketaw, boketan, bocata. Lightning is more likely to strike twice in the same spot than this classically educated man was to spell a word twice in the same way. He describes their country as having hills abounding in copper, and that these Indians "are said to part the solid metal from the stone without fire, bellows,
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or additament and beat it into plates, the like whereof is hardly found in any other part of the world." We see no reason why fire should be associated with the land occupied by these natives, though we read of a Fire-nation to the north-west.
We come now to notice the next component part of this word. We have here most certainly and clearly the Algonquin inseparable generic noun affix : hanne, huan, han, sometimes even contracted to -an or -wan, which means flowing water, rapid river, like the Latin Aluvius, that is, a stream, as distin- guished from -tuk or ittuk, tide or wave-moved water. There are many -hanne streams in Virginia and Pennsylvania. It is in Tunkhannock, Alleghany, Loyal Hanna, Kittanning. Mo- shannon. Lackawanna, Neshannock, Tobyhanna, Tohickon from tohick-han. We find it in Rappahanoek, Toppahanock, Accohanock, etc., on Smith's map; and it is partly disguised in Powhatan, which was the name of the river and not of the chief. It is derived from paut-hanne, the falls on a stream. the "t" and "h" changing places by metathesis, for Smith himself inforins us, in speaking of the falls at Richmond, that it is "the place of which their Emperor taketh his name." As Indian names are generally accented on the penult, the elision of the final "e" accounts for the accent on the last syllable of Pow- hatan. The word -hanne is well known to the Delawares and others now living and speaking languages nearly related to the Powhatan. It could not stand alone for the reason that the Indian did not speak of a stream except as a certain kind of running water, and the qualifying word preceded it. It is impossible to explain it awar, known and familiar as it must have been already to Smith, on the ground that he tried to imitate another sound by the spelling -hanough. Unfortunately for General Clark's argument, in the text of the original editions of Smith's History, the word occurs ten times, and is always Sasquesa-hanocks. The -hanough never occurs, save in the map, once in the margin and once in the table of contents of the book, all of which may possibly have been the work of another hand. The same facts are found in the endings in his Oxford tract of 1612. Smith was a smart man, but he was no expert in nasal sounds. There are several other names of
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tribes or clans on the map and a number in his book that terminate in -ough. If the argument be good in this case, it would make out all these to be Iroquois words. The fact is. Smith was in no ways particular as to his spellings, as we can see in the terminations of his name for the Tockwocks, which are -woghs, -woghes, -whoghs, -woughs, and he speaks of the Tockawhoughe roots. Many other words as they are repeated show the same lack of uniformity. And, again, we have the conclusive evidence of the Delaware " Bark Records," presently to be quoted. that -han in this very word does mean stream. The conclusion we have now reached is that these Indians were called the "Sasquesa-stream-land-ers." or inhabitants of a country known by a certain kind of a stream, as they were looked upon through the eyes of the Tuckahoe-land-ers.
We come now to sasquesa, the first portion of this name. Our Iroquois friends to the northward, and, so far as we know, all others, in attempting to analyze this word, seem to take it for granted that they must account for three syllables, for they divide the word thus, sas-que-sa. We formerly also fell into the same error. It seems never to have occurred to these writers that it is a common thing in our language for " que" to be equivalent to "k." Smith certainly was familiar with such words as casque, mosque, burlesque, antique. Strachey also uses this form, and even the single "q," for the sound of " k." The presumption is entirely against an intention to say sas- que-sa or sa-sque-sa ; but it is in favor of sasque-sa, that is. sask-sa or sasks-a. As proof of this we have the fact that it soon took forms necessarily of two syllables, such as sasque. susque, sackice, susco, etc. Only those who copied Smith's text afterwards use his spelling. Those who tried to imitate the sound follow the various two-syllable forms. In Maryland, prior to their subjugation, we find Sasquehannocks, Sasquehannoughs, Sas- quehanowes, Susquehanoughs, etc., in common use. After the English superseded the Dutch on the Delaware, we find such. forms as Huskchanoes, Susequehanes, Suscohanes, and Governor Lovelace, in 1671, calls them "Susconk Indians," an interesting form, which probably purposely dispensed with the parts for river and country. There are, perhaps, fifty or more different
Early Indian History on the Susquehanna. 265
spellings to be found in the old records, but they would illus- trate nothing beyond what we have already given.
Smith himself, in his brief list of words. gives suckahanna as the Powhatan word for " water." Strachey gives suckquo- hana and secquahan as meaning "water," and mammahe suc- qwahum, for " give me some water." Beverly gives suckahana for "water." These slight modifications evidently all aim at the same sound. and all the forms, and the names above given, clearly show the intent to use but two syllables: and in the brief definition, water, as we shall see. there is comprehended the meaning of both words as here compounded. There re- mains yet another spelling. accompanied with an interpreta- tion of the word, that is of much more importance than any that has been given. In the " Walum Olum," Painted Sticks or Bark Records of the Lenni-Lenape, published in "Beach's Indian Miscellany," the manuscript of which was obtained from some Indians in Indiana in 1822. we have the Traditions of the Delawares reduced to writing by some unknown edu- cated native. There is in it, among many other interesting things, a list of 97 chieftains, in order of succession prior to the advent of the white man. In this recital we find: "And Hanaholend (Stream-lover) [ruled] at the branching stream (Saskwihanang or Susquehanna)." Here we have most excel- lent and conclusive authority for pronouncing Smith's sasquesa in two syllables, sask-sa or søsk-we. In the little collections of native Virginia words preserved by Smith, Strachey, and Bev- erly we have the several forms already given as meaning sim- ply " water," seeming almost as if the first part had no mean- ing. They were not critical nor philosophical, and they fail to inform us what kind of water is intended. Still it is evi- dent that the kind of water intended was not sea, salty, or tidal water; not sepu, sipo, river; not nipi, nebi, m'bi, broad water ; not pog, bog, paug, water at rest, a pond ; not gami, gomi, omi, oma, lake, large water. What was meant among white men in every-day life by water without any other quali- fying words was water fit to drink, or fresh or spring water. This kind of water was to the Indian to be found in rills which we in the United States expressively call runs. It is not the
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fountain, but that which flows from it-not the spring. but the springlet. It is not salt. tidal, standing, stagnant, rapid, falling. broad, massive. but running fresh water. This is the kind of water termed sasque-sa, suck-quo. suck-a, secq-wa, sask-we, etc. That this is the sense of the prefix to -han in Smith's and Strachey's vocabularies cannot be doubted; and that it is the same word that enters into the composition of the name of the tribe under discussion is equally clear. As applied to -hanna. stream, it referred to the numerous and wide-spread springs, or rather, runs and creeks belonging to that river. The translation, "branching." from the Walum Olum. above given, is in strict accordance with this idea. provided we do not con- strue "branching" to be synonymous with dividing or forked stream, but as having numerous branches, distinguished for its wide-spread affluents of palatable spring-waters. We do not have any single English word that exactly expresses this idea, for in common parlance we call it simply water. The idea of a forked stream is in Lackawanna, from Lechau-hanna. The old Lechar, the forks, now Lehigh, may be a shortening of Lechauwekink, where there are forks: Lackawannock, the place where the river forks. The stream is forked if it divides into two nearly equal branches; but it is not "branching" unless it has a multiplicity of affluents. The root of sush-wi is no doubt found in a word meaning that which is fresh, new, recent, young, etc. In Cree this word is woski; in Otchipwe, oshki (as Ottawa in Cree becomes Watawa); and in Delaware, wuski, and wuskiyeyu, it is new or fresh. Beverly gives husckaw for "young men's trials" in Powhatan. It could be applied to the new moon as seen in Strachey's suckimma. Adjectives proper are almost unknown in these languages, as such words assume the form of verbs and are conjugated through the various persons, moods and tenses, and in their synthetic sys- tem of word building there is room for a great variety of prefixes and affixes in expressing fine shades of meaning. In the various spellings now given, observe that the initial "s" may give way to "w," or even disappear ; that the "k" sound properly belongs to the first syllable, but has a tendency to re- duplication at the beginning of the second syllable, where it
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often assumes the form of "qu" or "ir." which, in Smith, is again interchanged for "s:" and hence, that our Sus-que-hanna is a corruption in so far as it has entirely omitted the "k" sound in closing the first syllable.
The word sharply qualifies the kind of water composing the stream. The scope of the idea conveyed is that the river was distinguished for its numerous fresh-water branches, as seen through the eyes of those who resided on the Eastern Shore. To them this land was an Enon, " because there was much water there." Not that other streams had no such branches, but as we would say, in their eyes. it was the branching stream. the great spring-fed river. To them this idea was true, natural, forcible. for their country of tidal waters and small streams on the coast were not thus remarkable. The form Saskwihan-ang is in the locative case. and means at the stream of numerous brooks, or where there are many spring runs. The spelling " Sasque- sahanonges" in the margin of Strachey suggests the idea that his form ending in ougs may be a mistake for ongs, the loca- tive case, equivalent to unk or ing. that is "Susquehanings," and meaning "those at the Sasque-sa-Han-ne." The Sasque- sa-han-ocke-s were, therefore. the Brook-stream-land-ers, or the Spring-water-Stream-Region-People. Whether the people were called after the country previously so named, or whether the region took its name from a people already so called is unim- portant, but in this case, as it generally is the case, the people were so termed because they lived in a region which had a name given it entirely independent of its inhabitants.
We have already mentioned that the Dutch and Swedes called these Indians Minquaas or Minquas. When we come to look at them through the Dutch and Swedish Archives, we will find that this name also means nothing more nor less than the Springs-people, thus confirming the conclusion here reached. The tribes of the Minquas occupied the region of the Susque- hanna and its branches. To the Algonquins occupying the low lands and sandy coast where springs are less numerous and good water often scarce, it was an expressive title to call them the People of the Spring-water country, literally Brook-stream- land-ers. These Algonquins were fishers and hunters, and
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loved the sea-coast and its tidal waters. The various Iroquois tribes having advanced a step in civilization, lived more by hunting and agriculture, and preferred the land of forests and brooks and the rich interior valleys. Governor Lovelace's "Susconks " is not a senseless contraction, but is entirely cor- rect, the equivalent of Minquas, and means those at the spring- waters. It is probable that the name "Sabsqungs," for a river running southward, east of Lake Erie, on the Senex map of 1719, is intended for this word. The name which Smith has given us for the Susquehannocks tells a long historical story. and when given him by the Tockwock interpreters, described the relative situation of the parties with all it previously im- plied. This solution of the word is modestly submitted as the first and only true interpretation of the origin, use and signifi- cation of the name which Captain John Smith has handed down to us for "the goodliest " men he had ever seen.
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Captain David Ziegler.
CAPTAIN DAVID ZIEGLER :*
An Officer of the Pennsylvania Line of the Revolution, and the First Chief Magistrate of Cincinnati, O.
BY H. A. RATTERMANN.
DAVID ZIEGLER was born in the city of Heidelberg on the Neckar, August 16, 1748. Of his family and the younger days of his life but little is known. His father was an inn-keeper, or vintner, the house of whom was frequented largely by students of the University, who had their " Paukboden " (a room for duelling or rapier-fighting) there. Whether these customary fights of the academicians stimulated young Ziegler's appetite for warlike pursuits cannot now be answered. However, he possessed a liking for military life already in his earliest youth, and as the boundaries of the "Holy Roman Empire's Wine cellar," as Klauprecht calls his immediate fatherland, the Neckar valley, did not give him sufficient playroom for his heroic ambition, he went to Russia and enlisted under the banners of the empress Catharine II, who had just then declared war against the Ottoman empire. 1768. Ziegler joined the army of General Weisman, serving in the campaign of this celebrated Marshall in Wallachia, the lower Danubean provinces, and the Crimea, during which time he participated, among other minor engagements, in the battles of Tulcza, Maczin, and Babadag. After the conquest of the Crimea on the part of Russia, when the peace of Kutschuk was concluded, July 21, 1774, and when the larger part of the Russian army was disbanded, Ziegler, who had served for almost six years with meritorious distinction, and been promoted to an officership, received his honorable dis- charge, together with a badge in his buttonhole, for bravery
* Read before the " Literary Club of Cincinnati," Ohio, June 8, 1883.
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shown on the field of battle, and a scar received by a Turkish saber, on the side of his head.
A soldier from crown to feet, he felt lonesome in the then peaceful Europe. Not knowing what to do with himself. he emigrated to America, settling in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania. Klauprecht, evidently in error, says that he hastened to this country upon receiving the news of the outbreak of the Revolution, to participate in the colonies' struggle for liberty. It is not certain when Ziegler came to this country, but it is certain that he was already in Carlisle. Pa., when the news of the battle of Lexington reached there. When the cry for re- sistance to British tyranny sounded over the land, a meeting was held at Carlisle, to deliberate upon the raising of volunteers, to suppress by dint of arms the usurpations of the mother- country. at which meeting David Ziegler was present. A bat- talion of riffemen was immediately raised in Pennsylvania. under the command of Col. William Thompson. afterwards a general in the Continental army, who selected Ziegler as his adjutant, with the rank of lieutenant. Col. Thompson the more gladly accepted the volunteered service of Ziegler, as he was aware of the fact that Ziegler was an experienced soldier and officer of a great European conflict, and. therefore. "reared to the art of war." This battalion was, under the guidance of Ziegler, so quickly and efficiently organized, as to be the first organization, outside of Massachusetts, that appeared upon the scene of war. Already, on August 2, 1775. the battalion arrived at Washington's headquarters before Boston. . This battalion became " The Second Regiment of the Army of the United Col- onies, commanded by his Excellency, Gen'l George Washington, Esqr., General and Commander-in-chief." So reads a return dated, "Head Quarters at Cambridge, August 18, 1775," by which it appears that the three field officers, nine captains, twenty-seven lieutenants, the adjutant, quarter-master, surgeon and mate, twenty-nine sergeants, thirteen drums and fifes, and seven hundred and thirteen rank and file were present fit for duty. "This battalion was the picket-guard of the two thousand Provincials, who, on the evening of the 26th of August, took possession of and threw up intrenchments on Ploughed Hill,
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Captain David Ziegler.
and on the morning of Saturday, 27th, met with its first loss, private Simpson of Smith's company, who was wounded in the leg and died therefrom."#
The abilities shown by Ziegler in the efficient organization of this battalion were soon recognized by the military author- ities, and when the army was re-organized in the spring of the year 1776 he was promoted to a second lieutenancy in the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line. With this regiment Ziegler participated in the battle of Long Island, (August 27. 1776.) where he was wounded and had to be transferred to the hospital. Upon his recovery he was raised to the position of first lieutenant (January 16. 1777.) when he again joined his regiment at Valley Forge. participating in the sufferings of that dreadful winter. During the next campaign Ziegler fought in the battles of Brandywine. Germantown. and Paoli. and in the year 1778. distinguished himself at the battle of Monmouth or Freehold Church. so that he received a meritorious mentioning in the report of General St. Clair, followed by a promotion to the captaincy in his regiment. December 8, 1778.
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