USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History, government and geography of Carbon County, Pennsylvania > Part 2
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The articles of the grant by which the King gave Penn his claim to Pennsylvania were very carefully drawn up. They told very clearly what were the rights of Penn, as well as of the King. They were signed by the King on the 4th of March, 1661, and were written in Old English on strong parchment paper. Each line was underscored with red ink and the margins were decorated with drawings. They are now hanging in the office of the Gover- nor at Harrisburg.
Philadelphia soon became the chief city in America. In less than four years it was larger than New York, which had been
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founded sixty years before. It was this city which at a later time became the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution of the United States.
The streets running from the Delaware to the Schuylkill were named after the trees of the forest, Pine, Spruce, Locust, Walnut, Chestnut; and the streets crossing these at right angles were named according to their number, as Front, Second, Third, etc., until the highest ground between the two rivers was reached, where a wide street was laid out and was called Broad Street. The street which ran through the central part of the city, east and west, was also made wide, and was named High Street. This now is called Market Street.
PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.
A few months after the city was founded Penn made his famous treaty with the Indians. They met under a great elm tree on the banks of the Delaware. The Indians sat in a semi- circle on the ground, while Penn, with a few friends dressed as Quakers, talked to them as friends and brothers. They agreed with each other to live as brothers; the Indians to live in love with Penn and his children as long as the sun and the moon should give light. No written words were taken and no oath was re- quired. The treaty was kept unbroken until long after those who made it had passed away. When in later years an Indian wished to give the highest praise to a white man he would say, "He is like William Penn." It must not be forgotten that they remained true to their promise long after they were shamefully wronged. A Quaker dress for a long time was a sure protection against Indian bullets. When they finally did give up their friendship for the followers of Penn, they were forced to drink in order that they might be cheated; they were cruelly wronged that they might give up their lands; and their revenge, of which we shall read later, was but the bitter fruit of tares which the white man had wilfully sown.
The elm tree under which the treaty was made was a short distance north of what was then Philadelphia. The city has
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OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
long since been extended to include the spot. The elm tree was blown down in 1810, and a beautiful monument now marks the spot.
To each of the Indian tribes, Penn sent an invitation to meet him at their old council ground at Shackamaxon.
The Indian chiefs sat in front with their advisors; behind them, arranged in form of a half ring, sat the young men and warriors; and beyond these sat the women. The Great Chief, Tominend, the most royal looking of them all, sat in the center of this gathering, and was the leader and spokesman who talked to Penn through an interpreter.
PENN'S WORK AND CHARACTER.
After the treaty with the Indians, Penn arranged a wise government for his colony. The Germans, the Swedes, and the Dutch came in great numbers. Penn was in the colony for several years only. While in England he lost his wife, his eldest son, and his fortune. During his long stay in England his colony forgot their love for "Father Penn," and though he was grieved at their coolness on his return, he gave them the best government that was to be found in the colonies.
The example of Penn's life is one of the finest in history. When a young man he gave up his chances of getting on in the world and cast his lot with the despised Quakers for conscience sake. He gave up a life of ease and pleasure for one of service in the cause of his Saviour. No prospects of personal gain, no threats of an angry father, no gloomy walls of a prison cell, could cause him to change the way of serving God that to him seemed right. He did much and he suffered much that men might have equal human rights. His work in founding a colony in which people could make their own laws and live in freedom and happi- ness is sufficient to make his name live all through our history.
He died thirty-seven years after the colony had been founded, having spent but four of these years in America. His colony he willed to his three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, and these with their successors held it until the Revolution.
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THE WALKING PURCHASE.
In one of the purchases of the land made by Penn from the Indians, it was agreed that the tract should extend as far as a man could walk in three days. To take this walk Penn set out with several of his friends and a number of Indian Chiefs. They began their walk at the mouth of the Neshaming Creek and went up the Delaware. They walked along slowly, frequently sitting down to rest, and at the end of a day and a half had gone about thirty miles. Near the mouth of Baker's Creek Penn marked a spruce tree, and said the line to that point would include all the land he wanted.
The remainder of the purchase was not made until 1733, when Governor Patrick Gordon employed three of the fastest walkers he could find to complete it. How the remainder of the walk was made is best told in the following story which is taken from "Stories of Pennsylvania":
Edward Marshall was a famous hunter. The Sheriff of Bucks County sent for him one day and asked him to be one of the three men who should walk out the remainder of the purchase made by Penn. Marshall was promised five hundred acres of land and five pounds in cash if he would go.
"I never liked the Indians," he replied. "They will lie, cheat, and scalp. They drink too much rum. I will go. When do we start?"
"On the morning of the 19th" (September, 1737), replied the Sheriff, "at sunrise. The men who will walk with you and I will be there."
"Tell me," asked Marshall, "What are the terms of the treaty? Where do we start from?"
"Well," replied the Governor, "This is how it is: Penn bought a lot of land from the Indians in 1682. The land was to include all that they could walk out in three days. It was to lie between the Delaware River and the Neshaminy Creek as far back as Wrightstown. Penn and some Indians have walked out the first day and one-half and I want you and two others to walk out the remainder."
"Yes, I have heard that before," replied Marshall. "I will go."
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The purchase started on the Delaware at a spruce tree marked with the letter P. From here it extended northward to an old oak tree which stood beside the old Indian trail. From this oak tree the line ran to the Neshaminy Creek, near Wrights- town.
"If we start from the old chestnut tree on the old Durham road, just above the Wrightstown meeting house, that will be fair enough, will it not?" said the Sheriff.
"Anything is fair for an Indian," replied Marshall.
"I will be along on horseback to furnish you with things to eat," said the Sheriff. "I want to see that everything is done in an honest and square manner. You see the farther we can walk in a day and a half the more land we can have. James Yeates and Solomon Jennings with three Indian walkers will also go with us."
"The more the merrier," said Marshall; "But I'll outwalk the crowd. When the walk is over the Indians will be off of the Minisink lands at the forks of the Delaware. I'll make the Indians say, 'Ugh!' more than once when he sees me walk."
As soon as the first sun rays of the morning of the 19th shone upon the faces of the walkers the Sheriff said, "Go!"
Yeates took the lead and Jennings with two Indians came next. Marshall, swinging a hatchet at his side quite a distance behind the others, followed in a careless manner.
A number of people followed on horseback. "Veates will outwalk them all," said some one.
"No he will not," said the Sheriff. "Marshall will be walking when the others are worn out."
It was understood that the Lehigh River could be crossed in a boat. All the other streams would have to be forded unless the first walked to the edge. In two and one-half hours after starting they came to Red Hill in Bedminister, and after having eaten dinner in a meadow, they crossed the Lehigh just below where Bethlehem now is.
When the Indians realized that much of their Minisink hunting grounds would be taken, they declared they were being cheated. They frequently told Marshall not to run but to walk.
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Jennings gave out about eleven o'clock in the forenoon. It is said that he never regained his health.
They crossed the Blue Mountains at what is now Smith's Gap in Northampton County. It was twilight when they stopped walking. It was intended that they should make up the time lost by eating dinner.
When the Sheriff called to the walkers to stop, it is said that Marshall put his arms around a tree to keep himself from falling.
"What is the matter?" cried the Sheriff.
"Matter!" gasped Marshall all out of breath. "If we would have gone ten rods farther I would have given out."
At sunrise next morning they all started again. Yeates did not go far before he fell into a creek. When they picked him up he was quite blind.
Marshall held out until twelve o'clock noon. He had then crossed Pocono Mountain. At the place he stopped five chestnut trees were marked with the names of the proprietors of Pennsyl- vania. From Wrightstown to this place was just sixty-one miles.
From this spot a line was then drawn to the Delaware River. Instead of drawing it to the nearest point on the river the sur- veyors said the line must meet the Delaware River at right angles, and so drew it to the mouth of Lackawaxen. This took the famous hunting grounds on the Minisink away from the Indians. They had not intended to included these in the sale and much of the trouble that came later arose from their dissatisfaction with this purchase.
Like Captain Jack, Marshall was later an object of hatred to the Indians. Their scalping knives robbed him of his wife and all of his children except one little boy who crept under a bee hive to escape them.
THE INDIANS BECOME UNFRIENDLY.
After the Walking Purchase bad feelings grew up between the Governor of Pennsylvania and the Assembly which made the laws. The people claimed that Penn's sons were not the proper persons to make treaties, that this should belong to the Assembly.
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OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Bad feelings were also made with the Indians. They felt that this measurement of their lands was unfair, and they refused to give their consent to it. Many of the traders were in the habit of carrying large quantities of whiskey into Indian villages, and after making them drunk, would cheat them out of true value of furs and skins. Often they would also abuse and insult their wives and injure their children. When the Indians would become sober they would be filled with anger and thirst for revenge. Their cruel firebrands, scalping knives, and tomahawks were soon to be used in revenge without mercy upon the early settlers in Carbon County.
One of the things that must not be forgotten in order to understand the action of the Indians in their attacks upon the settlers is the success of the French and Indians in the battle with Braddock.
This battle was only one of the many fought between England and France to decide which country should own and control the greater part of North America. The struggle between them was long and bitter. Each side well knew that the help of the Indians would decide the matter.
The Iroquois, or the Six Nations in Northern New York, sided against the French because in a battle of 1609 with their enemies Champlain used the French soldiers against them and killed a number of their chiefs. The Iroquois remained friends with the English and the deadly enemies of the French through all of our history. For more than a century the French made every effort to secure the friendship of the Six Nations. It is prob- able that their old feelings of hatred would finally have been over- come, had it not been for William Johnson, the manager of Indian affairs for the English. Johnson spent many years among the Iroquois, and knew their language as well as his own. He married one of their women, and was made one of the chiefs who could talk in their councils. It was he who held the Iroquois' firm friendship for the English when the other tribes forsook them.
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CHAPTER III. CONRAD WEISER.
One of the men who had most to do with shaping the Indian policy in America was Conrad Weiser, a German who readily learned the Indian language. He saw how the Iroquois were opposed to the French and how their friendship would be very valuable to the English in the struggle which was coming to decide who should own America.
His father came into New York from Germany. Conditions there did not suit the father, so he, with a group of others, descended the Susquehanna and went up the Swatara Creek to Tulpohocken. The lands on which they settled were not purchased from the Indians until nine years after the settlement was made. During all this time the Indians were filled with anger and began that alliance with the French which was to end in the attempt to wipe out the entire group of English settlements.
Weiser was born in Germany in 1696 and came to America when he was thirteen years of age. During the winter of 1713 and 1714 he lived with the Iroquois Indians at Schenectady. When he was seventeen he lived for some time with Quagnant, a famous chief, and for this reason the Indians considered him as an adopted son. He later came back to his father's people and married in 1720.
In a map made in 1721 the French claimed nearly all of North America. The Governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith, saw that it was the Iroquois Indians who could hold them in check, so he followed Penn's plan by trying to keep their good will. He was anxious to make a treaty with them, so he sent Weiser in company with Shikellimy to the Onondoga council fire. For many years after this journey Weiser was the Indian interpreter for the Governor, and was present whenever treaties were made with the Indians.
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It was Weiser who held firmly the friendship of the Indians on the side of the English during the entire war. Had they also joined the French it is quite probable that the future history of the United States would have been different; French customs and laws would now exist on this continent, and the spirit of freedom which was born in the colonies of England would likely have been unborn for centuries.
Conrad Weiser built the first hotel that was erected in Reading. His daughter was married to Henry Melchor Muhlen- berg, one of the most noted and best educated religious workers in the colonies. The Lutheran Church, which was built in 1743, and the parsonage of his son-in-law, both of which Weiser often visited, may still be seen at Trappe, Montgomery County, Pa., as they were more than one hundred and fifty years ago. It was Conrad Weiser's grandson, Henry M. Muhlenberg, who was the famous "Fighting Preacher" of the Revolution, and who was the hero of that stirring war poem, "The Rising in 1776," by Thomas Buchanan Read, which ends thus:
The great bell swung as ne'er before; It seemed as it would never cease; And every word its ardor flung From off its jubilant iron tongue Was, "War! War! War!"
"Who dares?"-this was the patriot's cry, As striding from the desk he came,-
"Come out with me in Freedom's name, For her to live, for her to die?" A hundred hands flung up reply,
A hundred voices answered, "I."
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CHAPTER IV. CAPTAIN JACK, THE WILD HUNTER OF THE JUNIATA.
The sketch of Weiser was included because he was influential in shaping the Indian policy which greatly affected the welfare of the earliest settlers of the county. Captain Jack was probably never within the present limits of the county, but he represented a type of early settlers whom necessity compelled to adopt an Indian policy of their own. It is probable that there would have been no massacre at Gnadenhutten, had Captain Jack and his companions been allowed to carry out their plan of dealing with the Indians who accompanied Braddock. As to what this policy was, and what effect its inauguration would have had on the early history of the county, the following sketch is supposed to reveal.
Captain Jack dwelt along the Juniata River, at a large spring in what is known as Jack's Narrows. As early as 1750, his home was in this lovely spot. As at Mauch Chunk, steep mountain sides, covered with waving forests and capped with rocky crags, arose on every hand. A shallow river rolled its foamy current over the rugged rocks, or loitered gently in the shade of its over- hanging trees. Cradled in the bosom of the mountains, cheered with the music of the river and the birds, brightened by the song and the laughter of his own happy children, the home of Captain Jack rested as if perpetually kissed by the sunshine of happiness. In this wilderness home in the forest depths, with his wife and two children, he dwelt comfortably, hopefully, and happily.
Like Ginter, who discovered coal at Summit Hill, he and his family lived by hunting. His "black rifle" when aimed by himself was never known to miss its mark. He left home early one morning in the summer of 1752, and returned again after sunset to find his cabin a charred ruin. The Indians had burned his dwelling, and his wife and little ones he found in the moon- light, scalped and murdered, near his favorite spring.
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After many hours of silent agony, agony that almost drove him mad, he arose, silently prepared a final resting place for the ghastly forms of his loved ones, and tenderly laid them away. This was the awful vow he made: "Curse the murderers of my loved ones! Curse them! I shall be avenged!" Then he shouldered his trusty "black rifle," his only remaining friend; and, with a last good-bye to what had been his brightest hopes and fondest ties, he took the trail for revenge.
He was a foot taller than most men, as strong as a giant, as fleet as an antelope, and as quick as an Indian. Dressed in buckskin, his trusty "black rifle" thrown over his shoulder, he was easily the king of the forest, and now the sworn enemy of the Indians. With a thirst for vengeance that never was satisfied, he roamed the woods like a savage tiger. Settlers, after he took the trail for revenge, often found Indian scalps tied to the bushes along the trails and white bones bleaching in the sunlight. A single hole in the skull told the story. Jack's piercing eye had found the lurking enemy, his rifle rang out, and the inevitable death whoop of the Indian followed. The bearer of "black rifle" could not forget his vow.
Mr. Moore was awakened by the crack of a rifle. He sprang to the door and looked out; at his feet, writhing in death, he saw an Indian. In the feeble light he could see a giant form which called to him, "I have saved your lives," and was gone. The aim which guided "black rifle" was as true as William Tell's, and that it had found its game, Mr. Moore well knew.
A painted warrior with stolen gewgaws one day came down the trail toward Captain Jack. "Black rifle" cracked, the Indian leaped into the air and fell dead. Three other savage companions were near. They thought their companion had shot a deer, and rushed down the trail to see it. "Black rifle" cracked again, and a second Indian was dead. A terrible fight of two to one then began. The stock of " black rifle" was used to crush the skull of the third Indian, then Jack and the remaining Indian drew their long hunting knives and grappled. The fight lasted until each was exhausted. They lay aside of each other bleeding and exhausted until finally the Indian crept away. Captain Jack scalped his
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three enemies, hung their scalps upon the brushes along the trail, and with ten ugly stabs returned to the settlement.
The "Wild Hunter" collected a band of frontier hunters. They dressed themselves like Indians, wearing hunting shirts, leather leggings, and moccasins. All they hunted for was the scalps of savages. General Braddock was urged to invite "Cap- tain Jack's Hunters" to join his expedition, but he would not. He was told, "They are well armed, and are equally regardless of heat and cold. They require no shelter and ask no pay." Braddock, however, wanted soldiers with showy arms and gaudy uniforms. He needed a well built road where he could float his bright colors in the breeze and march his soldiers in pomp and pride; he cared not for "Captain Jack's Hunters" who knew how to fight Indians in Indian fashion; and bitterly did he rue it.
That Captain Jack and his band were not with the ill-fated expedition, is a great misfortune. Had the "Wild Hunter of the Juniata and his Hunters" been present, their "black rifles" would have pierced the skull of many a lurking Indian, while many of the soldiers, now sleeping with their unwise leader, might have lived to tell of a great victory, and the sad tragedy of Wolfe and Mont Calm would never have been acted. Had the "black rifles" accompanied Braddock, the Indians would not have murdered the Moravians at Gnadenhutten or the settlers along the entire frontier. It was the success of the Indians against Braddock that turned them from savages to the cruelest of demons.
Captain Jack is buried near the graves he made for his loved ones on that mournful night of the greatest calamity that could have befallen him. No man-made monument marks his resting place. The mighty pines and the giant oaks are plumes over his couch, the sweet scented arbutis and mountain laurel decorate it hand- somely on each succeeding Memorial Day, the beautiful drooping ferns shed tears of dew upon it, and the silent stars are its constant sentinels.
--
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CHAPTER V. BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT AND CAUSES OF TROUBLE.
There was a tremendous war waging in Europe known as the "Seven Years War." In this war Frederick the Great at first was alone against Austria and France. Later he was joined by England. In America the fight was a struggle against France by England to get possession of North America.
On a Sunday in February in 1755 there came into the house of Governor Dinwiddie in Virginia, a British General of stately bearing and bright uniform. This gentleman was General Braddock. He had been sent by the British Ministry to take the fort in Pennsylvania at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, Fort DuQuesne, from the French; and, if possible, drive the French out of the Ohio Valley entirely. To capture this fort, Braddock was to lead an army and he never even thought of failure. He was extremely haughty, proud, and self willed. He was brave beyond a doubt, but was filled with an assurance that he knew best what to do. He refused to take advice from those who knew the country, the Indians, and the French missionaries better than he did. He wanted only soldiers in perfect uniform. He always tried to make others feel their littleness.
The army wagons and horses were secured from Pennsylvania farmers through the influence of Benjamin Franklin. The march began early in June of 1755, three hundred and fifty axmen having gone ahead to cut down trees and make a road. The road was made twelve feet wide. The army baggage and train was four miles long. When they came within eight miles of Fort DuQuesne they unexpectedly found the enemy whom they sought.
The French commander at the fort wanted to abandon it when he heard of the approach of the English, but M. de Beaujeau thought otherwise. This officer proposed that he be allowed to go and oppose the approach of the advancing army. After much debating, the commander consented, and at a call for volun- teers, all the soldiers in the fort volunteered to go. The Indians were called into council. At first they were unwilling to go along, telling the French that they would give their answer in the morning.
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The Indians decided to go, and in the morning barrels of powder and balls were rolled to the door of the fort and all were allowed to help themselves. Six hundred and thirty-seven departed with the French to meet the English.
Gage's men first saw the advancing enemy. At the sight of the English M. de Beaujeau waved his hat and the Indians dis- appeared. A terrific warwhoop was heard and the English soldiers were dropping thick and fast. Those unhurt fired at such enemies as they were able to see and then retreated over the road to the rear, where they were a constant target for the lurking Indians, whose unerring aim brought most of the leaders to the ground. The hideous yells and terrible warwhoops soon became louder and louder.
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