USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania; also containing a separate account of the several boroughs and townships in the county, with biographical sketches > Part 2
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Markham and the commissioners had bought land of the Indians before Penn's arrival and the process of settlement was already going on. Plans were now perfected for the building of the proposed city. Its name, form, streets, docks and open spaces were put on paper, very much as the famous ancient cities of the east were planned by their royal builders. Accord- ing to the provisions of this design, Philadelphia was to cover, with its houses, squares and gardens, twelve square miles.
Having now fairly started his enterprise, Penn turned his thoughts to the Indians. Putting aside all ceremony, he won their hearts by his confiding and familiar speech. He walked with them in the forests and sat with them on the ground to watch their young men dance. He joined in their feasts, and ate their roasted acorns and hominy. They called him the Great Onas, and were delighted with his companionship.
If tradition be true, his most famous meeting with the Indians was at Shackamaxon, or the place of eels.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
This was a natural amphitheatre shaded by a large elin tree, under the graceful branches of which friendly nations had met and smoked the pipe of peace long be- fore the landing of the palefaces on the Delaware. Dense masses of cedar, pine and chestnut spread far away on every side, cut by the noble river, whose crystal waters ran slowly to the sea.
The treaty which was there made was not fortified by oaths and seals. On both sides it was ratified with yea ; and unlike most treaties, this was kept.
The same year that Penn arrived, twenty-three ves- sels brought from two thousand to three thousand emigrants of various faiths and nationalities into the province, most of them landing at Chester and at Philadelphia. Some of these came in advance of Penn. While building their homes, they dwelt in caves and rude huts, suffering but little from hardship and dis- ease.
Even at that early day, the population of Pennsyl- vania was cosmopolitan in character. The lure which accounted for this varied national representation in the beginning of her history was the wealth of liberty and freedom that was extended to all comers. At a later date, the added attraction of the wealth of her forests, fields and mines induced men from every elime to build their homes within her boundaries. Naturally, from the first day of his landing, Penn found plenty to do. Much of his attention was given to the new city rapidly building on the banks of the Delaware. He visited New York and its governor, as a mark of re- spect to his friend, the Duke of York, also going to Baltimore in a vain attempt to adjust a dispute con- cerning the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. He preached in semi-weekly meetings of the Quakers, and served his term as a member of com-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
mittees in their work of organization. Numerous in- dividual claims respecting land and settlers were brought to him for disposition. In addition to the three counties in the lower peninsula (now Delaware), he laid out three more in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks. All of these stretched almost in- definitely westward.
On December 6, he was ready for a meeting of the assembly, when representatives from these six counties were collected to perfect the government. In a brief session of three days, held at Upland, several impor- tant laws were passed, one of which was an act to naturalize the Dutch, Swedes, and other foreigners.
Penn's wife being ill, and other considerations de- manding his presence in Europe, he sailed from the province, August 16, 1684, feeling that his "Holy Ex- periment" was now successfully launched. In bidding the red men farewell, he begged them to drink no more fire water, forbade his own people to sell them brandy and arms, and obtained their promise to live in peace and amity with each other and with the white men. At this time about seven thousand settlers were living in the province. Of this number, one-third were in Philadelphia.
The government during his absence was carried on by five commissioners, chosen from the provincial council.
Upon returning to England, Penn labored unceas- ingly in the cause of freedom and religious toleration. Many persons who had been imprisoned for their opinions were released through his intercession. He had always intended to return to the province, but the course of events led him to defer another voyage from time to time. Being left a widower, he, in January, 1696, married Hannah Callowhill, the daughter of a
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Bristol acquaintance of many years. She afterwards became a prominent figure in the affairs of the colony.
During Penn's long absence from the province, affairs did not always run smoothly, friction in the government and dissatisfaction among the settlers finally making his return imperative.
He came in 1699, bringing with him his new wife, and fully expecting to spend the remainder of his days on the banks of the Delaware. During the ensuing two years he was busily engaged in shaping the govern- ment to meet the needs and demands of the rapidly growing population of the province. Penn's first act on assuming the government was to publish a procla- mation against pirates and contraband traders. The robber spirit was rampant on the seas in those days, and the shores and bays of the Delaware were highly favored places for these marauders of the deep, be- cause the government, being dominated by the Friends, was disinelined to use force to capture or repel them.
Penn scarcely began to feel settled in the stately mansion which had been built for him during his ab- sence, when he received news from England requiring his immediate return. Among other things, his ene- mies had introduced a bill in the House of Lords for seizing his province and vesting it in the crown.
As soon as the Indians heard that Onas was to return, they came from all parts of the country to take leave of him. They had a premonition that he would never return to them, and clung more closely to his words because they feared that his children would not treat them in the same kindly way. Events proved that their fears were well founded in both respects.
Penn sailed from Philadelphia on the first of November, 1701, landing at Portsmouth six weeks later. During his absence Parliament had tried to get
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
hold of his province, and though failing, had succeeded in passing an act requiring the assent of the crown to the appointment of a deputy governor.
Penn's closing years were spent in pecuniary dis- tress. He had expended vast sums of money on Penn- sylvania and on the oppressed of his sect, besides hav- ing neglected his private affairs. To make matters worse, he was shamefully robbed by his steward, Philip Ford, who took advantage of Penn's confidence to ruin him.
Several times he narrowly escaped losing title to Pennsylvania as a result of financial difficulties. In 1712 Penn sustained a paralytic stroke, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He passed away at Rushcomb, Buckinghamshire, England, on July 30, 1718, aged seventy-four years. He was the noblest character in America's colonial history, while his name is justly enshrined in the hearts of men as that of the greatest champion of human rights of his time.
The widow of Penn became the executrix of his es- tate during the minority of his children, and was for a period the nominal head of the colonial government. While she administered the affairs of the estate with much shrewdness, the patriarchial relation which had subsisted between Penn and his colony was at an end, because the interest which his heirs took in the province was of a mercenary character.
Especially noticeable was this change in the treat- ment accorded the Indians in arranging for the pur- chase of their lands.
The charter which King Charles gave Penn made him the largest land owner in the world. It gave him a legal title to 47,000,000 acres; and had he been so minded, he might have taken forcible possession of the
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
country. He was honest and broad-minded enough, however, to recognize the fact that while the King per- haps had a legal right to transfer the title to this large domain to him, he had no moral right to do so, the English claim to the territory resting on the flimsy assertion that Henry Hudson, the discoverer of the Delaware bay, although cruising in the service of the Dutch at the time, was born an Englishman. Penn's sense of honor did not permit him to wrest the soil of Pennsylvania by force from the people to whom God and nature had given it, nor to establish his title in blood. He considered the King's charter as nothing more than a conveyance of the right to preemption, and by purchases and treaties secured his real title from the aborigines. During Penn's life-time only a small quantity of land along the Delaware had been purchased of the Indians. It was not enough to en- danger their means of subsistence, and if a new claim- ant appeared from time to time, something more was given to satisfy him, and a deed was taken from him.
According to tradition, one of Penn's purchases was to include land "as far back as a man could walk in three days."
Penn and several Indians started at the mouth of the Neshaminy creek, not far from Philadelphia, to walk out the purchase. They walked leisurely, after the Indian manner, sitting down occasionally to smoke their pipes, eat biscuit and cheese, and drink wine. After going a day and a half, Penn marked a spruce tree, near the present site of Wrightstown, Bucks county, informing his companions that the distance traversed would give him enough land for his present needs, leaving the remainder to be ascertained at a future day.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
This arrangement, while entirely creditable to Penn, who did not show the disposition of the land grabber, eventually proved ruinous to the Indians. The walk was not completed during Penn's life-time, while the settlers attracted to his province kept crowding farther and farther into the Indian country. When the Indians protested to the proprietaries that their lands were being usurped and their hunting grounds despoiled, they were always reminded of the addi- tional land to which the whites were entitled by virtue of the uncompleted walk of William Penn, and the treaty which he had negotiated. Matters were allowed to drag along in this unsatisfactory manner until 1737, when, in response to the demands of the Indians it was agreed that the walk should be finished, and the boundaries of the purchase definitely defined. While negotiations were being conducted, the proprietaries caused a preliminary or trial walk to be made to ascer- tain how much land could be secured. In order that the longest distance possible might be covered, axe- men were sent ahead to cut a pathway through the forests. The men who had held out best in the trial walk were those selected by the proprietaries to make the decisive effort. Edward Marshall, James Yeates, and Solomon Jennings, all noted for their powers of endurance, were the men called upon to make the walk. Timothy Smith, sheriff of Bucks county, and John Chapman, a surveyor, were engaged to accompany the trio on horseback and to carry provisions and stimu- lants for them. It was arranged that the Indians should send some of their young men along to see that the walk was fairly and honestly made.
The starting point was fixed at a large chestnut tree, near the Wrightstown meeting-house, in Bucks county,
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
and the walkers were promised five pounds in money and five hundred acres in land.
Early on the morning of the 19th of September, 1737, the day agreed upon for the walk, Marshall, Yeates, and Jennings, their hands touching the tree, like run- ners about to begin a race, waited for the command to start. As the sun appeared upon the horizon, the signal was given by Sheriff Smith, and the men started. Yeates led the way with a light step; next came Jennings and two Indian walkers, while Marshall came last. He swung a hatchet in his hand and walked with an easy, careless lope.
The walkers, stimulated by the promised reward seemed untiring. The party stopped fifteen minutes for lunch with an Indian trader named Wilson near what is now the northern boundary line of Bucks county, after which the walk was continued. The Lehigh was forded a mile below Bethlehem, and cross- ing the Blue mountains at Smith's Gap, near what is now the southeastern corner of Carbon county, all save Jennings slept at night on the northern slope. He had given out before reaching the Lehigh, and although he succeeded in reaching his home, which was situated near the point where Allentown was started about a quarter of a century later, he never fully recovered his health. Yeates collapsed at the foot of the mountain when the walk was resumed on the morning of the second day. When taken up he was entirely blind; he died three days later.
Marshall, however, held out until noon, when he threw himself at full length upon the ground and grasped a sapling which was marked as the end of the line.
The distance covered during the course of the walk is variously estimated, some placing it as low as fifty-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
five miles, while others aver it to have been as high as eighty-six miles. Naturally, the Indians who accom- panied the walkers were disgusted by the performance. One of their number, in speaking about it afterwards, remarked: "No sit down to smoke-no shoot a squir- rel; but lun, lun, lun all day long."
When the walk has been finished, it still remained to run the line to the Delaware. The Indians main- tained that, starting from the extreme northwesterly point reached by Marshall, the line should be run straight to the Delaware. Instead of this it was slanted northward to such a degree as to take in about twice at much territory as would have been included by the other arrangement. Again, while the walk had been made through Smith's Gap, terminating near the Tobyhanna creek, on the borders of Monroe and Car- bon counties, the arbitrary line was run through Lehigh Gap, ending in what is now Penn Forest town- ship, directly opposite Mauch Chunk.
The lines included nearly all the lands within the forks of the Deleware (i. e., between the Delaware and the Lehigh) and practically all the valuable territory south of the Blue Ridge.
The Minisink flats, celebrated as hunting grounds of the Indians, were contained in that portion of the pur- chase lying north of the Lehigh, and the aborigines parted with these very reluctantly. They rightly felt that they had been robbed in the whole transaction, flatly refusing to move from the land which was now claimed by the whites, but which they still considered their own. Finally the assistance of the Iroquois was asked to get them out. The Iroquois had long held the Minisinks in bondage as women, a most humiliating condition. Responding to the summons to come and remove their vassals, Canassatego, the spokesman of
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
the Iroquois, thus addressed the despairing Dela- wares: "How came you to take it upon you to sell lands at all? We conquered you; we made women of you. For this land you claim you have been furnished with clothes, meat and drink, and now you want it again, like the children that you are. We charge you to remove instantly; we don't give you liberty to think about it. You are women. Take the advice of a wise man and go at once !"
Notwithstanding their abject condition, the Dela- wares still had a sense of wrong as keen as in the days of their greatness; but from the imperious judgment of the Iroquois there was no appeal. The Minisinks sorrowfully made preparations to go to Wyoming, and feeling that they would never return, burnt their huts to signify their final departure. The message of the Iroquois was effective; the land was given over to the whites, and one of the most villainous transactions in the early annals of Pennsylvania was consummated. Thomas Penn, one of the sons of William Penn by his second wife, was a prominent figure in this outrage against the Indians. Such, in brief, is the story of the disgraceful "Walking Purchase." From this time forth, the Delawares cherished an implacable hatred toward those who had robbed them of their birth-right. Years later, when the posture of affairs gave them the longed for opportunity, the Delawares took their re- venge, and the woeful destruction of human life and property which took place on the Blue mountain frontier was the heavy price exacted for the unscrupu- lous conduct of the proprietaries.
The Penns acquired title to the major portion of the soil of the province by five great treaties with the Indians. The last and largest purchase made by them
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
was consummated in 1768, comprising an irregular belt of land extending from the extreme northeastern to the extreme southwestern part of the province. Usually the lines of these purchases were very vague and ill-defined.
All, or nearly all, of the territory now contained within the borders of Carbon county was included in the purchase of 1749, comprising a narrow belt of land running diagonally from Pike to Dauphin county. This purchase was made from the Six Nations, and not from the Deleware occupants of the soil, the price paid being five hundred pounds.
As time passed on and as the population grew, it began to be felt that the old system of proprietary ownership was inconsistent with the best interests and happiness of the people. Soon after the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, this feeling grew to a con- viction.
Pennsylvania adopted a constitution in 1776, and soon thereafter a series of acts were passed, vesting the estates of the proprietaries in the commonwealth, and the fudal relation created by the charter of King Charles was dissolved. This action was taken directly in response to the recommendation of the Continental Congress, which urged all the colonies to form new governments which should be independent of the Eng- lish crown and foreign proprietaries. At the time the divesting acts were passed, the proprietaries were two grandsons of William Penn, the founder-John, the son of Richard, and John, the son of Thomas Penn. The state voted them 130,000 pounds by way of com- pensation, which was paid with interest within eight years after the close of the war. Besides this sum, the Penn family received additional compensation in the
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
form of an annuity of 4,000 pounds from the British government. Strange as it may seem, this annuity was paid to the descendants of the founder of Pennsylvania until recent years.
CHAPTER II.
MORAVIANS SETTLE CARBON COUNTY.
The Christian society known as the Moravian Brethren had its origin among the religious movements in Bohemia which followed the martyrdom of John Huss at the hands of the Council of Constance. Huss was burned at the stake, and his ashes thrown into the Rhine in the year 1415, while the history of the society which was formed by his followers can be traced back to 1457.
When Luther appeared, the Moravians numbered about two hundred thousand people; but in the deso- lating wars which followed, they became almost ex- tinct.
Standing forth prominently among the leaders of this society was Nicolaus Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf. He was descended from an ancient Austrian family, and was born May 26, 1700, at Dresden. Educated at Halle and at the university of Wittenberg, he had planned to follow the career of a diplomat. Subse- quent to his marriage to the Countess Erdmuth, how- ever, he embraced the faith of the Moravians, and re- solved to devote his life and fortune to the spread of the gospel. In 1722 he offered his persecuted brethren an asylum on his estate. A number came, and thus Herrnhut became the nucleus of a new growth. The original Moravians were Slavonic; the revival brought in the Germans. Unlike many of the sects, the Mora- vians had no distrust of learning, and they formed a cultured, devoted society for the propagation of Chris- tianity at home and abroad.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Persecuted in the old world, they sought an asylum in the new. Count Zinzendorf obtained a grant of land in Georgia, and in 1735 a settlement was begun. Under the leadership of Bishop Nitschmann a church was organized the following year. Ere long war be- tween England and Spain interfered with the work, and the Moravians, refusing to bear arms because to do so was contrary to their religious principles, emi- grated to Philadelphia with George Whitefield, the famous preacher. They bought a domain of five thou- sand acres at the Forks of the Delaware, and began to build a large school house for negro children.
The land was purchased by Whitefield, but nomi- nally it belonged to the Countess von Zinzendorf. A question of dictrine soon caused a rupture, and the Moravians were ordered to leave. At this stage of affairs Bishop Nitschmann returned from Europe and purchased Bethlehem, an extensive tract on the Lehigh river, ten miles south of Whitefield's land, and the colony again began work. Afterwards, Whitefield's land was also purchased, and called the Barony of Nazareth. On this tract several settlements were or- ganized. The expenses of emigration remaining un- paid, the Brethren united in a semi-communistic as- sociation, Bethlehem forming the center. It was a communism not of goods, but of labor. Each settler was free to choose or reject the plan, while retaining exclusive control of his property. Participants gave time and work, receiving in return the necessaries and comforts of life. This system was called economy, and was admirably adapted to their peculiar wants. It continued for twenty years, sufficing to pay the ex- penses of ordinary emigration, to furnish the colony with daily support, and to maintain a mission among the Indians, besides an extensive itinerary among the
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
white settlers from Maine to Georgia. The Moravians were a missionary church.
From the beginning they sought to Christianize the Indians; nor were their efforts entirely unavailing. Believers in peace, like the Friends, and making their professions good by daily practices, they gained the confidence of the aborigines by treating them with in- flexible honesty, thus preparing the way for the ac- ceptance of their religious teachings. For many years the Moravians continued their work with vary- ing success. Intemperance and wars between the In- dians and the whites were the chief hinderances.
Count Zinzendorf came to Pennsylvania late in 1741, being accompanied by his eldest daughter, Be- nigna. He visited the Brethren's settlement on the Lehigh on December 24, and named it Bethlehem. During the ensuing six months, animated by religious zeal, he traveled through southeastern Pennsylvania, supplying destitute and isolated neighborhoods with the means of grace and education, organized churches, wrote multitudinous theological papers and essays, and preached statedly at Germantown and Philadelphia.
In June he again repaired to Bethlehem, and having organized the Moravians there into a congregation, he set off for a tour of exploration into the Indian country, visiting various tribes, and cultivating their friendship and good will. At the close of 1742 he left for Europe, where he died in 1760.
The number of Indian converts maintained by the Moravian congregation at Bethlehem kept steadily growing. Augmented by Mohegans from Shekomeko, in the state of Connecticut, and Patchgatgoch, in New York, near the borders of the first named state, their number grew to such proportions that it was found in- convenient to properly care for them all at one place.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Accordingly, in the early part of the year 1746, a mission was established near the month of the Mahon- ing creek, on the west side of the Lehigh river.
The land thus occupied was then contained within the limits of Bucks county, becoming a part of North- ampton when that county was organized in 1752. At a later date it became a part Carbon, and the settle- ment which was there planted was the first that was made by white men in this county. The location was selected by Count Zinzendorf in 1742, when, in com- pany with several friendly Indians, he ascended the Lehigh on his tour of exploration. The land on which the mission was established was purchased in 1745, there being one hundred and ninety-seven acres in the tract.
The Moravians named the place Gnadenhütten, meaning Tents of Grace, or, more literally speaking, Mercy Huts. South Lehighton now occupies the site where the mission stood, and smoke wreaths from the tall chimneys of flourishing industries brood over the peaceful valley where civilization gained its first foot- hold in this immediate region of the state. The first work done here was performed under Martin Mack, a missionary, the white men and the Indians laboring side by side in the enterprise of clearing the ground and erecting the necessary buildings.
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