History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Waterman, Watkins & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 967

USA > Pennsylvania > Bedford County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 2
USA > Pennsylvania > Fulton County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 2
USA > Pennsylvania > Somerset County > History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Many ages after, during which the victors lived together in great harmony, the enterpris- jing hunters of the Lenape tribes crossed the Allegheny mountains and discovered the Susque- hanna and Delaware rivers and their respective bays. Exploring the Sheyichbi country (New Jersey), they arrived on the Hudson river, to which they subsequently gave the name of the Mohicannittuck. Returning to their nation, after a long absence, they reported their discov- eries, describing the country they had visited as abounding in game and fruits, fish and fowl, and destitute of inhabitants. Concluding this to be the country destined for them by the Great Spirit, the Lenape proceeded to establish themselves

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DESCRIPTIVE AND INDIAN OCCUPATION.

upon the principal rivers of the east, making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of Lenape-Wihittuck (the river of the Lenape), the center of their possessions.

All of the Lenape nation, however, who crossed to the east side of the Mississippi, did not reach this country, a part remaining behind to assist that portion of their people who, fright- ened by the reception which the Allegewi had given to their countrymen, fled far to the west of the Namoesi Sipu. Finally the Lenape became divided into three great bodies. The larger one- half of all settled on the Atlantic and the great rivers which flow into it. The other half was separated into two parts; the stronger continued beyond the Mississippi, the other remained on its eastern bank.

Ultimately those on the Atlantic were sub- divided into three tribes-the Turtle, or Unamis, the Turkey, or Unalachtgo, and the Wolf, or Minsi. The two former inhabited the coast from the Hudson to the Potomac, settling in small bodies, in towns and villages, upon the larger streams, under the chiefs subordinate to the great council of the nation. The Minsis, called by the English the Monseys, Munseys or Muncies, the most warlike of the three grand tribes, dwelt in the interior, forming a barrier between their nation and the Mengwes. From the Minisink on the Delaware, where they held their council seat, they extended themselves to the Hudson on the east, to the Susquehanna on the south- west, to the headwaters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers on the north, and to the range of hills now known in New Jersey by the name of Muskenecun, and by those of Lehigh and Conewago in Pennsylvania.

Various small tribes emanated from these, who received names from their places of resi- dence, or from some circumstance remarkable at the time of its occurrence. Such, it is very probable, were the Delawares, Shawnees, Nanti- cokes, Susquehannas, Nishamines, Conoys, and others, resident in or near the borders of the Province at the time of its purchase by Penn.

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For some years the Mengwes remained near the Great Lakes with their canoes, in readiness to fly should the Allegewi return. The latter failed to appear again, however, and becoming lemboldened, and, their numbers rapidly increas- ing, they stretched themselves along the St. Lawrence, and became, on the north, near neigh- bors of the Lenape tribes. In the course of

time the Mengwes and Lenape became enemies, and, dreading the power of the Lenape, the Mengwes resolved to involve them in war with their distant tribes to reduce their strength. They committed murders upon the members of one tribe, and induced the injured party to believe they were perpetrated by another. They stole into the country of the Delawares, sur- prised and killed their hunters and escaped with the plunder.

The nations or tribes of that period had each a particular mark upon its war clubs, which, left beside a murdered person, denoted the aggressor. The Mengwes perpetrated a murder in the Cherokee country, and left with the dead body a war-club bearing the insignia of the ; Lenape. The Cherokees in revenge fell upon, the latter, and thus commenced a long and bloody war. The treachery and cunning of the Mengwes were at length discovered, and the Delaware tribe of the Lenape turned upon them with the determination to utterly extirpate them. They were the more strongly induced to take this resolution, as the man-eating propen- sities of the Mengwes according to Heckewelder, had reduced them in the estimation of the Delawares below the rank of human beings.

To this time each tribe of the Mengwes had acted under the direction of its particular chiefs, and, although the nation could not con- trol the conduct of its members, it was made responsible for their outrages. Pressed by the Lenape, they resolved to form a confederation which might enable them better to concentrate their forces in war, and to regulate their affairs in peace. Thannawage, an aged Mohawk, was the projector of this alliance. Under his aus- pices, five nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onon- dagas, Cayugas and Senecas, formed a species of republic, governed by the united councils of their aged and experienced chiefs. To these a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, was added in 1712. This last tribe originally dwelt in the western parts of the present state of North Carolina, but, having formed a deep and general conspiracy to exterminate the whites, were driven from their country and adopted by the Iroquois con- federacy. The beneficial effects of this system early displayed themselves. The Lenape were checked, and the Mengwes, whose warlike dispo- sition soon familiarized them with firearms procured from the Dutch, were enabled at the same time to contend with them and to resist

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HISTORY OF BEDFORD, SOMERSET AND FULTON COUNTIES.

the French, who now attempted the settlement of Canada, and to extend their dominion over a large portion of the country between the At- lantic ocean and the Mississippi river.

However, becoming hard pressed by the Europeans, the Mengwes, or Five Nations, sought reconciliation with their old enemies, the Len- ape ; and for this purpose, if the traditions of the Delawares be accredited, they effected one of the most extraordinary strokes of policy which aboriginal history has recorded.

When Indian nations are at war, the medi- ators between them are the women. However weary of the contest, the men hold it cowardly and disgraceful to seek reconciliation. They deem it inconsistent in a warrior to speak of peace with bloody weapons in his hands. He must maintain a determined courage and appear at all times as ready and willing to fight as at the commencement of hostilities. With such dispositions Indian wars would be unending if the women did not interfere and persuade the combatants to bury the hatchet and make peace with each other. On such occasions the women would plead their cause with much eloquence. "Not a warrior," they would say, " but laments the loss of a son, a brother or a friend. And mothers, who have borne with cheerfulness the pangs of childbirth and the anxieties that wait upon the infancy and adolescence of their sons, behold their promised blessings crushed in the field of battle, or perishing at the stake in unut- terable torments. In the depth of their grief they curse their wretched existence and shudder at the idea of bearing children." They conjured the warriors, therefore, by their suffering wives, their helpless children, their homes and their friends, to interchange forgiveness, to cast away their arms, and, smoking together the pipe of peace, to embrace as friends those whom they had learned to esteem as enemies.

Such prayers thus urged seldom failed of their desired effect. The Mengwes solicited the Lenape to assume the function of peacemakers. "They had reflected," said the Mengwes, "upon the state of the Indian race, and were convinced that no means remained to preserve it unless some magnanimous nation would assume the character of the woman. It could not be given to a weak and contemptible tribe ; such would not be listened to; but the Lenape and their allies would at once possess influence and com- mand respect." The facts upon which these

arguments were founded were known to the Delawares, and in a moment of blind confidence in the sincerity of the Iroquois they acceded to the proposition and assumed the petticoat. This ceremony was performed at Albany amid great rejoicings in 1617, in the presence of the Dutch, whom the Lenape afterward charged with hav- ing conspired with the Mengwes for their de- struction.

The Iroquois now assumed the rights of pro- tection and command over the Delawares, but, still dreading their strength, they cunningly involved them again in war with the Chero- kees, promised to fight their battles, led them into an ambush of their foes and deserted them. The Delawares at length comprehended the treachery of their so-called friends of the north, and resolved to resume their arms, and, being still superior in numbers, to crush them. It was too late, however. The Europeans were now making their way into the country in every direction, and gave ample employment to the astonished Lenape.

On the other hand, the Mengwes denied the story told by the Lenape. They always asserted that they had conquered the Delawares by force of arms, and made them a subject people. And though it was said they were unable to detail the circumstance of this conquest, it is more rational to suppose it true than that a numerous and warlike people should have voluntarily suf- fered themselves to be disarmed and enslaved by a shallow artifice, or that, discovering the fraud practiced upon them, they should unre- sistingly have submitted to its consequences. This conquest was not an empty acquisition to the Mengwes. They claimed dominion over all the lands occupied by the Delawares, and their claims were distinctly acknowledged by the early whites. Parties of the Five Nations, after- ward known as the Six Nations, occupied and wandered over the Lenape country at all times at their pleasure.

The Shawnees came from the south. They were a restless, wandering tribe, and had occu- pied regions now embraced by the states of Ten- nessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas before com- ing to Pennsylvania. After passing a few dec- ades in this province they migrated, or rather were driven, westward and by the middle of the eighteenth century the entire tribe had settled : on the Ohio river and its large tributaries. 1

Of the Delawares and Shawnees, the Indians ",

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DESCRIPTIVE AND INDIAN OCCUPATION.

who were the chief occupants of this region at the time it was first visited by the Europeans, but little more can, or indeed need, be said in this connection. We entertain for their memory no feelings akin to admiration or respect, nor is it probable that present residents hold dissimi- lar views. Though placed here by the Creator for some inscrutable purpose, yet the Anglo- Saxons, at least that portion of the race repre- sented by Americans, have ever been more se- cure, contented and refined when separated from the savages by a wide expanse of territory. First instigated by the French, and afterward by the British, they, for more than a quarter of a century, ravaged the frontiers and destroyed the homes of the ancestors of people now citi- zens of these counties. Revengeful, cowardly and ruthless in their nature, they frequently spared neither age, sex nor condition. The prattling babe as well as the tottering, decrepit grandparents, all, all fell victims to a ferocity of disposition and cruelty of purpose never ex- ceeded.

It has been stated that Queen Alliquippa, be- fore locating near the confluence of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela, resided at the point in Bedford county now known as Mt. Dallas. Many evidences also indicate that at a time antedating any knowledge of the past, so far as regards this part of the state, the Turkey- foot region in the southwestern quarter of Somerset county was the abiding-place, or place of assembling at frequent intervals, of a race who were the predecessors of the Euro- peans on this continent; but whether they were the Lenape, the Allegewi, or some other un- heard-of people, will never be known. We con- jecture, however, that they were the Allegewi, for " Fort Hill " seems to have been a fortified position at some very distant period in the past, and the occasional discovery of the remains of a people who were of gigantic size also lends plausibility to the supposition.

Numerous Indian paths, or trails, traversed these counties in various directions, but the principal ones in all this region were the great "Kittanning Path " on the north, and "Nem- acolin's Path" on the south. The former did not cross these counties as now formed. It led from Kittanning on the Allegheny river, in a south- easterly course, across the present counties of Armstrong, Indiana and Cambria, to the head- waters of the Juniata river in Blair county,

and from thence it followed down the valley of that stream toward the seaboard. It was a broad, well-defined trail, and during the days of Indian occupation it frequently resounded to the stealthy tread of large parties of hostiles as well as to the measured, heavier footsteps of the Scotch-Irish provincial troops of Armstrong and other commanders sent in pursuit of them. "Nemacolin's Path," or trail, derived its name from the fact that when the " Ohio Company " of Virginia was preparing to go into the Indian trade at the head of the Ohio, in the year 1749, one of the principal agents of the company, Col. Thomas Cresap, of Old Town, Maryland, employed a Delaware Indian named Nemacolin (who lived at the mouth of Dunlap's creek, on the Monongahela) to indicate the best route for a packhorse path from the Potomac to the Indian towns on the Ohio, a short dis- tance below the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela. The old Indian pointed out the path in question as being the most feasible route, and it was adopted. Washington, in 1754, followed its line with his troops as far as Gist's plantation, in the present county of Fay- ette, and the following year Gen. Braddock made it, with few variations, his route of march from Fort Cumberland to Gist's, and thence northwardly to near the point where he first crossed the Monongahela. Although this was designated for many year " Nemacolin's Trail," it was, doubtless, traveled by Indian parties many years, and perhaps ages, before the birth of the Indian whose name it bore. It led, as before indicated, from the " Forks of the Ohio" (now Pittsburgh) to the Potomac river, at the mouth of Will's creek (where Cumberland, Maryland, now stands), crossing in its route the present counties of Allegheny, Westmoreland and Fayette and the southwestern corner of Somerset. From the two main trails above de- scribed minor ones diverged at various points, and intersected the counties affording subject- matter for these chapters in all directions.

The trails were the highways of the Indians- the thoroughfares over which they journeyed on their business of the chase or of war, just as white people pursue their travel and traffic over graded roads. "An erroneous impression ob- tains among many at the present day," says Judge Veech, in his Monongahela of Old, " that the Indian, in traveling the interminable forests which once covered our towns and fields, roamed

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HISTORY OF BEDFORD, SOMERSET AND FULTON COUNTIES.

at random, like a modern afternoon hunter, by no fixed paths, or that he was guided in his long journeyings solely by the sun and stars, or by the courses of the streams and mountains. And true it is that these untutored sons of the woods were considerable astronomers and geographers, and relied much upon these unerring guide- marks of nature. Even in the most starless night they could determine their course by feel- ing the bark of the oak-trees, which is always smoothest on the south side, and roughest on the north. But still they had their trails or paths as distinctly marked as are our county and state roads, and often better located. The white traders adopted them, and often stole their names, to be in turn surrendered to the leader of some Anglo-Saxon army, and finally obliterated by some costly highway of travel and commerce. They are now almost wholly effaced and for- gotten. Hundreds travel along or plow across them, unconscious that they are in the footsteps of the red man."

CHAPTER II. A LEAF FROM EARLY PROVINCIAL HISTORY.

The Swedes the First Settlers of Pennsylvania - Their Surrender of Territory to the Dutch -The Penn Family - Quakers Im- migrate to the New World - A Vast Province Granted to William Penn -Origin of the Term Pennsylvania- Penn's First Visit to America - His Proceedings- Formation of the First (three) Counties - Penn Returns to England - Pennsyl- vania Attached to New York - Penn Visits his Province the Second Time - Returns to Europe in 1702 - His Death in 1718-Popular Errors Regarding his Bearing and Character- istics - Allusions to the Time and Extent of Indian Cessions of Territory - Date of Formation of Counties Preceding the Organization of Bedford.

G LANCING at what various historians have written concerning the early settlement of Pennsylvania, it appears that the first white set- tlement within the limits of the Commonwealth was made by the Swedes, who, about the year 1638, settled at Christina, on the north bank of Minquas creek, nearly three miles above its mouth. The region claimed by them was styled New Sweden, and they made many improve- ments from Henlopen to the falls of Alumingh or Santhikans. They laid the foundation of Up- landt, the present Chester, and of other towns, besides building numerous forts. They had purchased the lands of the Indians, and were living on friendly terms with them. Mean- time the Dutch Governors of New Amsterdam claimed jurisdiction over, and possession of, the

territory occupied by the Swedes, and finally, in 1655, Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam, proceeded with a large force to Fort Christina. The small Swedish garrison gallantly defended the work for four- teen days, but at the expiration of that time the fort was surrendered, as well as all of their towns and places of defense in New Sweden, and the Dutch became virtual masters. In 1664, however, the settlements on the Delaware passed, with New Amsterdam (since known as New York), under the control of the English.

During the sixth year following the first occu- pation of Pennsylvania by the Swedes, or on the 14th day of October, 1644, William Penn was born in the city of London, England. He was the son of Sir William Penn, a distin- guished commander in the British navy, and Margaret Jasper, of Rotterdam. At the age of fifteen young William was sent to Christ Church College, Oxford, where he made rapid advance- ment, being equally noted for scholastic prog- ress and zeal for athletic exercises. About this time he became interested in the Quakers, whereupon his father, treating him with much severity, sent him to travel upon the con- tinent, whence he returned when twenty years of age, full of theological learning, "a most modish person, grown quite a fine gentleman." At the suggestion of his father, Penn then en- tered Lincoln's Inn as a law student. During the ravages of the plague his serious impressions were revived, and his father, discovering this, sent him to the vice-regal court of the lord-lieu- tenant in Ireland. The Duke of Ormond wished to make him a captain of foot, a position which he accepted. Nevertheless, he soon became en- grossed in the management of his father's Irish estates, and thus, while in Cork, met Thomas Lee, the Quaker preacher, whom he had known at Oxford.

"It was at this time," says PenD, "that the Lord visited me with a certain sound and testi- mony of his Eternal Word." Drawn into close fellowship with the Friends, his principles se- cured him the compliment of being thrust into Cork jail. He there wrote a letter to the Earl of Orrery, saying : "Religion, which is at once my crime and mine innocence, makes me a pris- oner." The earl ordered his immediate release, whereupon his father called him home, and began anew the task of reclaiming him from Quaker opinion, offering every inducement that

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A LEAF FROM EARLY PROVINCIAL HISTORY.

wealth and station could supply; but in vain, for the young disciple of Lee, while continuing to wear his sword and gay apparel, refused to take off his hat in the presence of the Duke of York, being resolved to reserve that degree of deference for God alone. Accordingly, at the age of twenty-three, he was again expelled from his father's house. Subsequently the admiral allowed him to return, but refused to counte- nance his peculiar religious opinions.

When twenty-four years of age Penn began to preach, and soon after was locked up in the tower, "for a book I writ, called the 'Sandy Foundation Shaken,' undervaluing the principles of one Thomas Vincent, a dissenting minister." For nine months the well-intentioned young preacher languished in the tower for this literary aggression. He then found his way to Newgate, and went thence to the dock of the Old Bailey, where he was fined and recommitted in default. His father, whose life was now drawing to a close, secretly paid the prisoner's fine, called him to his bedside and parted with him in peace. The son inherited his estate, worth £1,500 per annum. He, however, had to endure another sojourn of six months' duration at Newgate, the penalty of speaking in an unlawful assembly, after which he visited Holland and Germany.

He married Gulielma Maria Springett in 1672, and three years later became interested in American colonization. He acted as arbitrator between Fenwicke and Byllinge, both members of the Society of Friends, in the settlement and sale of West New Jersey, Lord Berkley having sold one-half of the province of New Jersey to Fenwicke, who held it in trust for Byllinge and his assigns. The matter being adjusted, Fenwicke embarked with his family and some friends, and their ship, the Griffith, was the first English vessel to reach West New Jersey. The colony under the management of Penn and his associates prospered well, and was joined in 1677-8 by eight hundred emigrants, mostly Friends.

Having gained much valuable experience and information regarding the New World, and despairing of ever being able to obtain tolera- tion and protection for his co-religionists and himself at home, Penn applied to Charles II to grant him a tract of country lying north of Maryland, being bounded on the east by the Delaware, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward "to extend as far as plantable,"

or, in other words, a region between the paral- lels of forty and forty-two degrees north lati- tude, and from the Delaware river five degrees westward. He asked for this grant in lieu of the sum of £16,000 due to his father from the British government. The scheme was objected to by Sir John Werden, agent of the Duke of York, on the ground that the territory west of the Delaware belonged to the government of New York, especially the New Castle Colony. It was known as Delaware county, and was then occupied promiscuously by Swedes, Finlanders, Dutch and English. The Duke of York, how- ever, favored Penn, and March 4, 1681, the patent was signed.

This venerable document, written on parch- ment, having the lines underscored with red ink, is now preserved in the department of state at Harrisburg, being handsomely decorated with heraldic devices. Penn was highly elated, and in a letter to Robert Turner said, respecting the name of his province, that " Pennsylvania" was " a name the king would give it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty hilly country, but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Pennmanmoire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in Bucking- hamshire, the highest land in England, (he) called this Pennsylvania, which is the high or head woodlands ; for I proposed, when the sec- retary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it ; and though I much opposed it, and went to the king to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him ; nor could twenty guineas move the under-secre- tary to vary the name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as respect in the king, as it truly was, for my father, whom he often mentions with praise." Yes, it is quite popularly supposed that the name was given in honor of the son.

The preamble of the charter declares that Penn's application arose out of a commen- dable desire to enlarge the British Empire, and promote such useful commodities as may be a benefit to the king and his dominions, and also to reduce savage nations, by quiet and gentle manners, to the love of civil society and the Christian religion. The charter consists of twenty-three articles, and Penn was made abso- lute proprietor under the king, holding in " free and common socage by fealty only." He was to

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History of Bedford, Somerset, Fulton counties Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Waterman, Watkins & Co. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Number of Pages: 967

Author: Waterman, Watkins & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 967