History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 5

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 5

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¿ Hütte, pl. n .; sig. hut, cottage, tabernacle.

¿ W. C. Reichel, Trans. Moravian IIist. Soc., p. 187.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Scarcely had the uneasiness caused by the desire of Togahaju to remove the mission into the Cayuga country ceased, when troubles arose from another quarter. The Iroquois had discovered the value set on their lands by the whites, and the arts and arguments used by different parties to obtain them. They therefore determined to dispose of the coveted tracts as often as a purchaser could be found to pay them their price. Having sold the Susquehanna valley, in 1754, to the New England people, in 1766 they gave the Christian Indians all that part of it from Wyalusing to above Tioga, and in 1768 sold again the same tract to the Proprie- taries of Pennsylvania. This latter sale was for a time kept profoundly secret from the Indians of Wyalusing, who had no intimation of the fact until the 5th of December, when it was told them by a trader. Early the next year a mes- senger was sent to Wechpekak to learn the truth of the report. To this inquiry the Cayuga sachem returned the following evasive answer: "I heard that an Alleghany Indian (Killbuck ) had been with you. Don't believe all he says. Stay where you are. Before the war, we Indians lived at Wyalusing. Then we seattered. Now you are there, stay ! But if white men eome, and you wish to or must leave, I will select good land for you." April 21, the Cayugas informed them that they had sold the lands from Shamokin to Wyoming ; that the Lackawanna was the northern boundary, and they had secured the Wyalusing grant ; that the lines had not yet been run, but they had stipulated they should be so run as not to include Wyalusing. But the Christian Indians were not deeeived by this duplicity. They had the best assurances that their professed friends and would-be protectors had sold their own land from under their feet, and they turned to the governor of Pennsylvania for protection.

In a petition to his honor the governor, dated February 7, 1769, signed by John Papunhank and Joshua the Mohican, in behalf of themselves and their friends at Wyalusing, they recite,-

" That the spot of ground whereon the said Indians are seated was originally the plantation of the said Papunhaak, who, with the eon- sent and approbation of the Five Nations at Onondaga, received at his said place several families of Indiaos, which came in the year 1765, from the Philadelphia Barracks.

"That the said Indians, heing about one hundred and eighty men, women, and children, are, by their connection and intercourse with Christians, become io some degree civilized, using agricultural and other domestie basiness ; have built at the place aforesaid twenty-five good, strong log houses, a handsome church or meeting-house, cleared and enfenced fields of several miles in circumference, in full expeeta- tiou that they and their posterity should enjoy the fruits of their labor ou a small glebe of their native country.

" That about six miles above the aforesaid settlement, at a place ealled Massasiung, is a traet of about three hundred acres, where they make hay for their cattle; and va the west side of the Susquehanna, opposite their settlement, is some good woodland, it may he one hun- dred acres, proper for to get their fnel; and that these three tracts are so necessary for the support of their settlement that if either of them should be taken up by an old right, or people should come of their own accord and scat and improve them, the Indiaos would he obliged to remove further mp io their country.

" That about six miles below their said settlement are two spots of ground, may be four hundred acres in the whole, which the Indians have no immediate occasion for, but they are apprehensive that some or other people, that look out for good land, might be tempted to seat themselves there, and give the Indians opportunity to bny rum, which most tend to the utter ruin of their young people.

"That your petitioners have no money to offer to the Honorable Proprietaries for these lands, or to pay quitrents or other rents, but most confide in their Honors' wonted goodness, who have always in their purchases reserved some lands for the Indians that had lived there before the purchase was made. Besides that, no grant of sale or lease can secure an Indian property when, for the convenience of Government and to avoid disturbances, they should shortly be obliged to remove further up in the country.

"And your petitioners bumbly pray that the aforesaid lands may, by a special warrant, he surveyed, and afterwards by grant he vested in trustees for the use of the said Indians; so that when the Indians, for the good of the State, must remove, the said trustees may sell the improvements for the benefit of the Indians, subject to the Proprie- taries' demands for the price of the lands, and under such other reservations and restrictions as your Honor in your wisdom shall think fit."

On the same date the petition of

"Samnel Davis and his friends, the Indians that live at a place called Tsbetshequanink, on the west side of Susquehanna, about thirty miles above Wyalnsing, humbly sheweth, -

"That their settlement or Indian town, of the name aforesaid, is out of the new purchase, hut oo the line thereof; and that they have made some corp-fields on the east side of Susquehanna, within the said purchase; and further, that there is on the same side a traet of about half a mile in breadth and five miles in length of grassy low- land, reaching from the point of their settlement up near to Diaogu, on which they have hitherto subsisted their eattle, grazing being the chief oeenpation of your petitioners.

"And your petitioners humbly pray that the said eorn-fields and grass-land may, by your special warrant, be surveyed and reserved ; not that they want any property or estate in the same, hut the use thereof for the purposes aforesaid, during the pleasure of your Honor, the Proprietor."

Joshua, John Papunhank, and Jacob were commissioned to present these petitions to the governor, bearing also a letter from the missionary in charge of Friedenshütten, indorsing the facts therein stated, and informing the gov- ernor of the uneasiness among the Indians on account of the sale of their lands.

Previous to this, Lewis Weiss, of Bethlehem, had also requested Governor Penn " that no application may be taken from or grants made to any person or persons interfering with their said settlement."

To these various petitions, John Penn, then acting gov- ernor, replied as follows under date of June 21, 1769:

"I have heard that you are very uneasy for fear that your land at Wyalnsing should be taken from yon. When some of you came to me a few months ago, I told yon that as you were a peaceable and a quiet people, and hehaved very well, you should not be disturbed in your possessions at Wyaloosing. This is the word that I theo gave, and yon may depend that I may keep it; and I have accordingly given orders to the surveyors not to survey your lands, nor any lands within five miles of your settlement. [Warrants, signed by John Penn, were issued for surveys within this reservation tho August fol- lowing.] Therefore I would have you disregard all idle stories you may hear about your lands being taken away from you, and be satis- fied that I will do all in my power to protect aod seenre you in the possession of them so long as you behave yourselves well ; and if any of the people of this Province shall offer to disturb you, I will take care that justice shall be done to you.

"One thing I must tell you, that I expect you will not give encour- agement to the New England people who have taken possession of the Proprietaries' land at Wiawamack. If you expect to be protected by this Government, you must not encourage the New England people, who are endeavoring to take the land from the Proprietaries."

In reply the Christian Indians thank Governor Penn for the assurances of his protection, and inform him that any who behave badly shall not live in their town; and with the New England people they have had no connection at all. This

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

whole correspondence is worthy of study. It not only reveals the care which was taken by the Christian Indians to avoid all complications in land matters, but the condition of the mission at that date, the gratitude with which they regarded their teachers, the importance of the settlement, and also the wise and eminently just measures by which they pro- posed to avail themselves of a fair remuneration for their improvements. This, to the shame of the Proprietary gov- ernment, was denied them.

Another and really far more serious difficulty grew out of these negotiations with the Pennsylvania government. Previous to the beginning of the mission a rivalry had arisen between John Papunhank and Job Chillaway. This for a time was restrained by the missionary, but now it well- nigh caused a rupture in the community. Job applied for a Proprietaries' warrant for the Wyalusing lands, ostensibly for the purpose of securing them for the use of the mission. This application was resisted by the Papunhank party, who urged the superior claim of Papunhank. The result was that neither party procured any form of title until after the abandonment of the mission. This rivalry not only retarded the progress of the gospel, but gave the missionary ceaseless care and anxiety. In the summer of 1771 there had been considerable sickness in the town, which resulted in a number of deaths; whereupon Chillaway concocted the story that Papunhank had been dealing in poison. This for a time created no little excitement at the mission ; at one time so intense was the feeling against Papunhank that his life was threatened. In due time, however, he most triumphantly disproved the accusation, and exposed what the missionary characterized as a "diabolical lie," to the chagrin and shame of his false accusers.

Notwithstanding these dissensions within and opposition without, the mission continued to increase in influence and usefulness. At the close of 1771 there had been con- nected with the mission 206 souls, of whom 41 had died and 14 had removed, leaving at that time the number in connection with the mission 151. To these should be added several families, who had obtained liberty to build at Wyalusing, but who were not considered as belonging prop- erly to the Moravian community. During the continuance of the mission 139 had been baptized, and 7 couples had been married, the first of whom were two converts named Thomas and Rachel, Dec. 23, 1766; doubtless the first Christian marriage celebrated within the bounds of the county. The town at this time consisted of 29 log houses, several of them roofed with shingles, and 13 huts, 7 stables for horses, and several gardens. Adjoining was an orchard of apple-trees, and on the island opposite a peach orchard.

In making these improvements, the missionary not only aided the converts with his counsels, but with his hands. In addition to this he was obliged to depend largely upon his own labor for his support. Such entries as the follow- ing are of frequent occurrence :

· " 1768, Oct. 25. My wife and myself harvested potatoes."

" 1769, July 4. Bro. Jungman made hay on the Wya- lusing creek."

" 1769, Oct. 12. My wife and myself bound buckwheat." Their Indian brethren assisted them what they could, and they also received some aid from Bethlehem. But at

the best it was at the expense of many comforts, sacrifices cheerfully borne, that they engaged in the work for the Master. As to supplies, their plantations afforded an abun- dance of corn, beans, squashes, and pumpkins; deer, bear,

PHOEBE

BARTHOL DMEW

MOSES

LUCIA

ZACHEUS

ESTHER

HELEN

>BILLY CHILLAWAY

SARAH

JOB CHILLAWAY

I SHEBOSH

JOHN MARTIN

SAM EVANS

MARY

JOSHUA SR-

CHRITIANA

JOHN

AUGUSTUS

MOHICAN

TIMOTHY

CORNEL US

DANIEL

JOSHUA JR

JOHN PAPOONHANK

WIDOWS

SCHMICK AND

WIFE

MARK

LOUISA

ANDREW

JOSEPH

HANNAH

D PATTY

AMY

PHILIP. JB

MAGDALENE <

CHRISTIAN

GOTTLIEB

D THOMAS

AMOS

A ABEL

DAVID

PLAN OF FRIEDENSHUTTEN IN 1771, LOOKING WEST.

House of round logs.

Hut.

Stable.

" squared logs.

wild turkeys, and other game were abundant in the forest ; in the spring-time, shad, by the thousand, were caught with bush-nets in the river, and large quantities of maple-sugar were made at the sugar-camps. It was a life of few wants, and these readily and abundantly supplied.

In addition to a great number of visitors, both whites and Indians, who frequented the town, on Oct. 19, 1766, Ne- wallike came with the following message from the Six Na- tions : " (1) That the Tuscaroras were coming from North Carolina, and all the Susquehanna Indians should assist them with food and oanoes. (2) That the Nunticokes, from below Philadelphia, were also coming up, and were to

HI MONUMENT

WIFE IND DAUGHTER

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

be aided. (3) That the Jersey Indians were coming up, and they also must be assisted. We promised to do so."

On March 25, 1767, two Tuscarora messengers arrived at Wyalusing, stating they had left their companions at Shamokin, and they were come to collect corn and request its transportation to that point without delay. May 4 they broke camp and commenced their upward march, arriving at Wyalusing on the 20th. Before the close of the week the most of these half-famished wanderers set out for Zen- inge, the place of their destination ; a few, however, re- mained at Wyalusing through the ensuing winter. This migration numbered seventy-five souls. A colony, consist- ing of twenty families, halted at the mission in November.

On Sept. 8, 1767, a message was received from the Nan- ticokes, stating that fifty-five of their nation were en route for the north. They begged for corn, and requested the loan of canoes in which to bring up their aged and infirm.

September 21 the emigrants arrived at Wyalusing, and the next day set out for Zeninge. These large bodies of strange Indians passing through their town drew largely on the stock of provisions and occasioned no little anxiety on the part of the Christian Indians, and the diarist ex- presses that great relief was experienced at the mission when the last of them had departed.

MISSION AT SCHECHSCHIQUANUNK.

It will be remembered that soon after the close of the Pontiac war, Echgohund, with a few Monsey families, settled at the mouth of Cash's creek, in the present village of Ulster. This being but a day's journey by water from Wyalusing, the inhabitants of one town were frequent visitors at the other. From the first Echgohund, the chief, manifested deep interest in the success of the mission, and in the negotiations with Togahaju volunteered to intercede with the Six Nations on its behalf. On his return from Cayuga town, Zeisberger tarried here overnight, May 4, 1766, and, at their request, preached to quite a company of them, who gathered at the lodge where he stopped. From this time a constantly-increasing interest in the gospel began to manifest itself in the settlement, and the two brothers, Jim and Sam Davis, influential inhabitants of the town, often came to Wyalusing to hear the Word of God. Joshua, Sr., a Mohicun convert, residing at Wya- Insing, visited Schechsehiquanunk the middle of August, and reported that there are many there desirous of hearing the gospel. During the next year eight persons, including two families, removed from there to the mission for this purpose. In May, 1767, Jo Peepe (or Peepy, alius Weho- lolahund), originally from Cranbury, New Jersey, who had been baptized by Brainerd, and who had subsequently lived at Craig settlement, near the Lehigh Water Gap, then at Bethlehem, and finally returned to New Jersey, came with his family, consisting of his wife Sarah and their children, James, Isaac, Sarah, Isaiah, and Mettshish, to reside at Sheshequin. A man of more than ordinary intelligence and influence, he favored the Moravians, and sought to persuade them to establish a mission there. On the 21st of February, 1768, the brethren were formally invited to come there, and promised to take the matter in considera- tion. Accordingly, John Ettwein, at this time a member

of the Moravian mission board at Bethlehem, and subse- quently a bishop in that church, was deputed to visit them. In the month of April, accompanied by Zeisberger and Sensemann, who were directed to visit the Allegheny for the purpose of establishing a mission there, he set out for the Susquehanna. On the 10th of May they reached Schech- schiquanunk, and, as Echgohund was not at home, were entertained by Jo Peepe, " whose house is the largest in the town." Here they continued until the 12th, holding religious services each day.

At this time the village consisted of twelve huts,-five on the south side of the creek and seven on the north side. Those on the south were wild Indians, whose heathenish practices and hatred of the gospel had hitherto deterred the brethren from undertaking to establish a mission there. Those on the north side had acquired some knowledge of the arts and customs of civilized life, whose chief business was the raising of cattle, of which they had large herds, and their meadows and pasture fields extended up to Tioga .* " From here the path leads to the West Branch, which Zeisberger and Spangenberg traveled on their way to Onondaga in 1745."

After the morning discourse on the 12th, t " Jo. Peepe, Jim Davis, Sam Davis, and James held a council together, and, when over, repeated to us their conclusion, to wit : ' Our four families desire to have the Word of God preached to us. We go often to Wyalusing to hear it, but cannot always go. We would like to settle there, but we have much cattle and large families. In Wyalusing there is not much pasture for cattle, and they would have a more pre- carious living than here, where there is plenty of good land and meadows. Hence we desire to have brethren come here and settle and preach the gospel to us.' David Zeisberger replied, ' Brother, how is it with the other families who are not of the same mind ? Will they not continue their dancing and carousing, and thus disturb you ?' Said they, 'The four or five huts over the run yonder have done lately just such things, but the chief, who is of our mind, has for- bidden them.' In answer I told them I would present their request to the brethren at Bethlehem, and doubtless they would heed it."

The Schechschiquanunk people were reminded of the necessity, to avoid complications, of obtaining permission from the great council at Onondaga for a missionary to reside there. Therefore a messenger was dispatched to the Cayuga sachem for this purpose, and his consent readily obtained, the sachem declaring that he, too, would come to Schechschiquanunk to hear the Word of God, as he was firmly convinced in his own mind that it pointed out the only true way to eternal happiness.

John Roth, a Prussian by birth, who had entered the service of the Moravian Indian mission in 1759, was ap- pointed to this mission, and arrived at Schechschiquanunk February 4, 1769, and preached his first discourse the fol- lowing day. From this time religious services were main- tained, with great regularity, morning and evening of each day. For the first year the congregation repaired to Freiden-

# As this included the sito of Queen Esther's town, that could not have had an existence until after the migration. + Ettwein's Journal.

IIISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

shütten for the sacraments and festivals of the church, Sheshequin being regarded as only an outlying station of the Wyalusing mission.

In a letter to Nathaniel Seidel, a Moravian bishop, and at that time president of the mission board, dated Sheshe- quin, February 8, 1769, Roth writes, " I am at present liv- ing here in a trader's house, in which a quantity of mer- chandise belonging to Mr. Anderson is stored. This is in charge of an Irish servant. I am to live with him until the Indians have built a house for me. Some of the Indians here were baptized by the Presbyterians" (Brainerd).

John Anderson, who, we are told by Heckewelder, was called by the Indians the " honest Quaker trader," in whose house Roth made his home for a time at Sheshequin, lived in the neighborhood of Fort Allen, and had established a trading-house here as early as May, 1765. For the next four or five years he and the Ogdens from Wyoming made two trips each year, visiting the villages on the Susque- hanna, buying peltry and selling rifles, powder, lead, trink- ets, and, possibly, rum, to the natives. We hear nothing of Mr. Anderson after the establishment of the mission at Sheshequin, nor of the Ogdens after their trading-house at Wyoming was destroyed by the New England people in April, 1770. That probably finished the business of Indian trading in the county.

February 10, some Indians from Wilawamink came to Sheshequin to hold the feast of the meat-offering with the heathen Indians in the neighborhood. On the night of the 21st the feast was held about a half-mile from the settlement. "There were some fifty of the heathen together, shouting and screeching like fiends." For eleven days they had turned the village into a Pandemonium, making the- day terrible and the night hideous with their wild songs, their dancing, and revels. In the Wyalusing Diary we have a faithful description of this feast, which is here transcribed for the purpose of giving the reader an accurate account of this heathen festival,-

" A lad approaching manhood has a dream, in which he sees either a raven or an eagle, as large as a man, approaching from afar towards the north, which says to him, ' You must prepare me a roast.' The boy now marks well the form of the hird and the words which he utters. These words are to be chanted repeatedly at the feast. As soon as such a lad shoots his first deer his dream returns to him, and this deer must be sacrificed entire. Sometimes a bear is sacrificed. This feast must not he made in the lad's village, but a day and spot are selected by an old man, to whom the offering is committed, and preparations are made according to his direction. Three days before the feast he sends ont messengers to invite the guests to the spot and the occasion. Many also come from a distance. A long house, in which there are three fire-places, is needed for the ceremony. In this house the old man who is to officiate suspends the skin of the deer, which has heen given to him, near the fire in the centre, and by the other two fires the flesh is roasted for eating. As soon as the guests are assembled, the nld man orders twelve straight, lithe saplings and twelve stones to be brought in. The foot of the saplings are thrust in the ground in a circle; the tops are bent over together in the form of an arel., and covered with a blanket. The twelve stones are now heated red-hot in the fire, and rolled into the centre of the vault. Each stone repre- sents a god; the largest the great God of Heaven, the others respeet- ively the sun, the moon, earth, fire, water, house, Indian corn, cast, west, sonth, and north. This ceremony being completed, the old man and the lad who offers the sacrifico go into the vanlt. The old man, having in his hand a rattle made of a calabash containing grains of Indian corn, strews tobacco on the glowing stones, and amid the incense smoke shakes his rattle, and invoking each of the gods by

name, says, ' This hoy, N, brings yon an offering for Inck and pros- perity. Ilavo merey on him. Give him luck and give him health.' Then ho chants a dream. As soon as the tobacco burns, he clasps his hands and prays nntil it is consumed. Then two go to the skin and chant their dreams and visions and what the bird told them, and the rest go to the other fires and eat. This is repeated until the repast is finished. Then each in turn seizes the rattle, chanting his dreams and dancing to the music, until each has recounted his visions, when the old man who has offieiated as master of ceremonies takes the deer- skin, and, directing its hend and horns toward the north, holds it suspended on his arm, nttering a strong cry, which ends the feast, and all return home."

To such scenes of heathen festivity and superstition and wickedness was the missionary introduced at the very begin- ning of his work, and we cannot wonder if his soul was fired with new zeal, as was Paul's at Athens, to preach the gospel to those thus sunk in degradation and vice. Nor did he have long to wait for the effect of his preaching, for on the 18th of the following May, James Davis, the first- fruits of that mission, was baptized into the faith of the gospel. At the close of the year five had been baptized, four log houses had been built, and eighteen added to the mission ; so that at that time there were fifty souls in the town. Among those who came was Isaae Stille, also one of Brainerd's Indians from New Jersey, who had been employed as government messenger and interpreter, and to whom, for his services, the proprietaries had given a traet of land at Sheshequin. As at Wyalusing, so here, strange Indians were frequent visitors, and from Zeninge, Shamunk, Wilawamink, and other places, multitudes gathered to hear the gospel.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 5

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 812

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812