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 3
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
The improvements were meant to be but temporary, because it was designed from the first to locate the In- dians permanently on the Susquehanna; the project was, however postponed from time to time, and thus the settlement on the Mahoning grew, and became the seat of a most flourishing mission. The farm buildings lay at the foot of the hill, near the creek; on its first ascent were the huts of the Indians, forming a cres- cent; behind these was an orchard, and on the summit,
29
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
the graveyard. The latter was laid out in August, 1746. Jeannette, the wife of Martin Mack, lies buried here, her dust mingling with that of about two score others, both Indian and white, who died at the mission. Each Indian family was allotted a portion of land, and each had its own house. A little log church was built in the valley.
On the eighteenth of August, 1746, the Indians and the missionaries held a love feast, partaking of the first fruits of the land and of their labor, while offering thanks to God for the blessings that He had bestowed. The sound of song arose from the forest hamlet morn- ing and evening, and the labors of the day were always begun and concluded with prayer. Portions of the Bible were translated into the Mohegan tongue, to be read whenever the congregation was assembled, and devout discourses were delivered every Sunday by the missionaries.
The holy sacrament was administered to the congre- gation once every month; this day was known among the Indians as "The Great Day." Christian Rauch and Martin Mack, who first ministered to the spiritual needs of the congregation on the Mahoning were suc- ceeded by others after a comparatively short period, it being the policy of the Moravians to make frequent changes, so that the Indians might not form too strong an attachment for their religious leaders, but learn to place their hope and dependence on God alone.
The church built during the first year of the mission was soon too small to accommodate the growing con- gregation, and the missionaries usually preached in the open air, that all might hear.
Successive parcels of land were added to the original tract on both sides of the Lehigh, until 1382 acres be- longed to the establishment.
30
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
The affairs of the station being promising, Bishop Watteville went to Gnadenhütten in 1749, and laid the foundation of a new church, which was dedicated by Bishop Cammerhoff on November 14 of that year.
There were accessions from Pachgatgoch and Wech- quetank in 1747 and 1748, and from Meniolagomeka in 1754. The last named placed lay in Smith's Valley, eight miles west of the Wing Gap, on the north bank of the Aquashicola, in Monroe county. The Moravians conducted a mission here, but it was finally absorbed by that at Gnadenhütten, the converts being Delawares.
The congregation at Gnadenhütten now numbered several hundred people.
During 1754, the land on the Mahoning being impov- erished, the seat of the mission was transferred to the east side of the river, where Weissport now stands. The transfer was made in the month of May. The place was called New Gnadenhütten. The dwellings were removed from the opposite side of the river, and a new chapel was erected.
In the removal of the buildings, the chapel only ex- cepted, the Indians were kindly assisted by the congre- gations at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Christianbrunn, and Guadenthal, who furnished not only workmen and ma- terials, but even contributions of money.
The work progressed so rapidly that twenty dwell- ings were ready for occupation early in June, while the foundation stone of the new chapel was laid on the eleventh of that month. Bishop Spangenberg preached a powerful sermon on this occasion. The houses were so placed as to form a street, on one side of which lived the Mohegans, and on the other the Delawares.
The Brethren at Bethlehem took the culture of the old land on the Mahoning upon themselves, made a plantation of it for the use of the Indian congregation,
TEEDYUSCUNG.
From a Statue in Fairmount Park. Philadelphia.
31
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
and converted the old chapel into a dwelling, both for the use of those who cared for the plantation and for the accommodation of missionaries passing to and fro along the Lehigh.
The mission at Gnadenhütten was connected with that at Bethlehem by a road which was built during the third year of the history of the first named congrega- tion.
Among the Indians who came under the influence of the Moravians was Teedyuscung, who was destined to become the last great war king of the Delawares.
According to his own statement, he was born about the year 1700, near Trenton, New Jersey. In this neighborhood his ancestors of the Lenape had been seated from time immemorial.
Old Captain Harris, a noted Delaware was his father. He was the father of a family of high spirited sons who were not in good repute with their white neighbors. The latter named them, it is true, for men of their own people, and Teedyuscung they termed "Honest John"; yet they disliked and feared them; for the Harrises were known to be moody and resent- ful, and were heard to speak threatening words as they saw their paternal acres passing out of their hands, and their hunting grounds converted into pas- tures and cultivated fields. These they left with re- luctance, and migrated westward, in company with others of the Turtles or Delawares of the lowlands. Crossing the great river of their nation, they entered the province of Pennsylvania in its forks, that is to say, on the north side of the Lehigh, which river was in earlier times termed the west fork of the Delaware. This was about 1730. Finding no white men here they lived the life which they loved so well until the advent of the Scotch-Irish immigrants, who began to crowd
32
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
the Delawares in the forks south of the Blue mountain as early as 1735.
Count Zinzendorf's reconnoisance in 1742 introduced the Moravian missionaries into the homes of the east- ern Delawares; and from that time they preached the gospel to them on both sides of the mountain.
Teedyuscung too heard them, first on the Aquashi- cola and then on the Mahoning.
Impressed by the words of the plainly clad preachers from Bethlehem, his religious feelings were stirred, and he sought for admission into Christian fellowship with the Mohegans and Delawares of Gnadenhütten by baptism.
The missionaries hesitated long before they acceded to his request, for they tell us that he was as unstable as water and like a reed shaken before the wind. Hence they granted him a time of probation, and as he reiterated his request at its close, they consented to admit him into their communion. He was baptised by Bishop Cammerhoff in the little chapel on the Mahon- ing in 1750. The estimation in which he was held by the Moravians is indicated by the entry which the Bishop performing the rite made in his record: "March 12. To-day I baptized Tatiuskundt, the chief among sinners."
Thus the straight limbed Delaware warrior became a member of the Christian church. But the lessons of the Divine Master whom he had promised to follow proved distasteful to him. Every fibre of his being rebelled against the idea of the renunciation of self, the practice of humility, the forgiveness of injuries, and the return of good for evil. These doctrines did not accord well with the lessons which he had learned in the stern school of nature, in which he had for half a century been an observant pupil.
33
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Hence he ill brooked the restraints imposed upon him in the "Huts of Grace," and resisted the influence of the Good Spirit that sought to dispossess him of the resentment that burned in his soul when he remem- bered how his countrymen were being injured by the whites, and how they had been traduced and were being oppressed by the imperious Iroquois, who had made them their vassals.
The Moravians, it is true, treated the Indians justly and fairly ; but these could not atone by their kindness and honesty for the wrongs which other white settlers along the border were daily heaping upon the aborigi- nes against a day of terrible retribution.
CHAPTER III.
GNADENHUTTEN DESTROYED IN INDIAN UPRISING.
The crucial hour in the history of North America was soon to strike. Although there had been no for- mal declaration of war, the English and the French had long been maneuvering in the gigantic game that was being played by the rival nations for supremacy in the New World.
The issue of the conflict which was then impending was, after years of sanguinary struggle, determined on the Plains of Abraham, giving to the English tongue and to the institutions of the Germanic race the better part of half a continent for all future time. Appre- ciating the help which might be rendered by the In- dians, the French emissaries, bent on territorial ag- grandizement, made alluring representations to the dusky dwellers of the forest, in which the prospect of recovering their national independence and the homes of their forefathers was flatteringly held out. The con- fidence of the Indians in the descendants of the "good Penn," whose memory they revered, had already been seriously impaired; and under these circumstances it is not surprising that the designing French were able to secure their allegiance and good will.
The Indians along the Susquehanna who were favor- able to the interests of the French looked with much disfavor on the mission of the Moravians at Gnaden- hütten. Messenger after messenger came down from that region with sinister invitations to the reluctant Delawares and Mohegans at Gnadenhütten to come up to them and plant at Wyoming. Teedyuscung had already yielded to the persuasions of his untrained
34
35
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
countrymen from the Minisinks, who had come to the smithy at Gnadenhütten, bringing with them their un- shod ponies and broken flint locks, preparing for war. They told him that the hour had come to place things in readiness to rise against their oppressors, and they asked him to be their leader and king. This was in the spring of 1754. Abraham Shabash, the first of the patriarchs, also turned his back on the whites, and the two chieftains together prevailed upon seventy of the "brown hearts," as the missionaries termed the In- dians, to remove to Wyoming, there to live neutral, or to array themselves under their standard. Further efforts to induce the rest of the Indians at the mission to imitate the example of these seventy in removing to Wyoming proved unavailing, and this roused the hatred of Teedyuscung and his dissatisfied followers.
"Are they not our brethren, and is it not best that they should return to their own people?" was their in- sidious plea.
Meanwhile they and others reasoned among them- selves : "If these Moravian Indians continue at Gnad- enhütten they may thwart us in our plans when the time comes to take up the hatchet; they may become in- formers, or they may be employed as scouts and run- ners; and even if they hold themselves neutral, their proximity to the settlements will embarrass our move- ments." Foiled in effecting the coveted removal, the chieftain spoke angrily of the Moravians, and the evil report was spread throughout the Indian country that the palefaced preachers from Bethlehem were craftily holding the Indians in bondage. To render the situa- tion of the Moravians still more trying the mission among the aborigines was loudly denounced by that class of white people who profited by degrading and defrauding the Indians. These men published the mis-
36
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
sionaries to the world as an association in league with the savages, in the interests of the French, and as de- serving of being treated as a common enemy. Thus a strong feeling was aroused against the Moravians.
In July, 1755, Braddock's army was disastrously routed and almost annihilated on the banks of the Monongahela. His defeat left the whole border of the province deplorably defenseless, and was the signal for a general uprising among the Indians. The Dela- wares of the East met the Delawares of the West in council on the Allegheny and prepared for war. They were especially bitter in their denunciations of the fraud that had been perpetrated by the whites in the walking purchase of 1737. Wherever the white man was settled within this disputed territory, there they resolved to strike him as best they could with the most approved weapons of their savage warfare. And that the blow might be effectually dealt, each warrior chief was instructed to kill, scalp, and burn within the pre- sinets of his birth-right, and all simultaneously, from the frontiers down into the heart of the settlements, until the English should sue for peace and promise re- dress.
Teedyuscung assembled the Delawares and the allied Shawnese and Mohicans on the Susquehanna, where a plan of campaign was mapped out for the coming autumn and winter.
Soon the whole frontier along the line of the Blue mountains, extending from the Delaware to the Sus- quehanna, was bathed in blood. The terrifying sound of the war-hoop, intermingled with the shrieks and groans of the dying, echoed along the border.
Sparing neither man, woman nor child, the Indians indiscriminately killed, mutilated and scalped the de- fenseless settlers and their families, while their humble
37
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
homes were reduced to ashes. The Indians had their hiding place in the dark recesses of the Great Swamp, later known as the Shades of Death, or the Pine Swamp. Here Teedyuscung gathered together his forces, as the tempest marshals the battalions of its wrath in the bosom of the thunder-cloud, and would suddenly emerge at a time and place least expected, carrying havoc and consternation into the settlements.
Occasionally there would be indications of these im- pending ravages that filled the hearts of the settlers with foreboding. Perhaps the distant report of a gun would be heard from the solitary woodland, where there was known to be no white man; the cattle which had been wandering in the woods would sometimes re- turn home wounded; or an Indian or two would be seen lurking about the skirts of the sombre forests and suddenly disappearing, as the lightening may at times be seen playing silently about the edge of the cloud that gives warning of the approach of the storm.
Many of the people, abandoning all their belongings, sought madly to escape, only to be suddenly overtaken in many instances, and mercilessly slain.
As winter came on, the border was well-nigh de- populated of white people; but the Moravians made a covenant together to remain undaunted in the place alloted them by Providence. In so doing they acted unwisely. For on the evening of the twenty-fourth of November, they were suddenly and horribly aroused from their sense of fancied security, the mission-house on the Mahoning being attacked by Indians, burned to the ground, and ten of its inhabitants massacred, while another was carried away a captive.
It was in the gloaming, says a Moravian chronicler, and they were about finishing their evening meal when
38
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
the furious barking of dogs in the farm yard apprised them of the approach of strangers.
Joachim Senseman being reminded that the meeting house was not locked hastened thither to secure it. This precaution saved him.
The barking of the dogs had been indeed porten- tious; for soon after there were voices, and then foot- steps were heard without.
Martin Nitschmann opened the door to ascertain whose they were.
A blinding flash, followed by a terrible roar revealed the hateful countenances of twelve Shawnese, painted for war, and Nitschmann fell to the floor riddled with bullets. Joseph Sturgis was also grazed by two bul- lets. The door standing ajar, the attacking party poured a random volley into the room, killing or wounding John Lesley, Martin Presser, and John Gat- termeyer.
Those who remained retreated preciptately into an adjoining apartment, and from there up the stairway to the loft, closely followed by the Indians, who raised a terrific war-whoop.
Susanna Nitschmann was overtaken on the stairs, and pierced by a ball; reeling backward, she fell into the hands of the enemy. Her piteous cries for help were unavailing; she was bound, gagged, and given to an attendant by her captor to grace his triumph on his return to his native village.
Eight persons reached the attic, immediately barri- cading the trap door at the head of the steps.
George Schweigert, a sturdy teamster, successfully resisted the desperate attempts of the assailants to force it with their hatchets and the butts of their guns. Foiled in their efforts to reach those for whose blood they thirsted, the Indians fired repeated volleys
39
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
through the floor, and some from without into the roof, in the hope of killing or bringing to terms the unfortu- nate beings within. Suddenly the shooting ceased. Deep silence prevailed, while hope revived in the hearts of the survivors.
Soon they realized the terrible fate that awaited them. The torch had been applied, and the house was in flames. One of the number went to the window and shouted for help, but the only answer was the echo of his wailing cry. Among the fated company in the loft were three helpless and tender women, and it is re- corded that they were long the most composed.
Anna Senseman was last seen seated upon a bed with folded hands and upturned face in an attitude of pious resignation. The second was a mother with an infant in her arms. Wrapping the child in her apron, she pressed it closely to her bosom and sat in silence; for the flood of feeling and motherly affection that swept through her heart in that moment of peril and supreme anguish rendered her speechless. This was Johanna, the wife of Gottlieb Anders, the gardener.
At intervals, above the roar of the flames and the whoops and taunts of the Shawnese, were heard the piteous cries of the affrighted little one.
Three of the beleaguered party could now endure the suspense no longer, and chose the desperate alterna- tive of risking their lives in an attempt to escape in preference to that of certain death by the horrors of fire. The first to take the awful leap was Joseph Stur- gis, a youth of seventeen years. Watching his chance at a moment when the vigilance of the sentinel on guard was relaxed, he jumped to the ground, ran for his life and won it. He lived many years thereafter. Susan Partsch followed Sturgis' example, reaching the meeting place without being detected. Here she se-
40
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
creted herself for a time, leaving her covert on the approach of the Indians, later in the evening, and mak- ing her way falteringly down the valley toward the Lehigh.
George Fabricius, a scholar, was the next to take the desperate leap. He did so with hesitation, having waited until goaded to the attempt by the fierce heat of the burning building. He fell as he reached the ground, but sprang quickly to his feet, probably feeling that he was safe. His hopes were of short duration. Being discovered, he was instantly pierced by two bullets, and sank to the earth.
Rushing upon him, the infuriated Indians buried their tomahawks in his unresisting body and scalped him down to the eyes. His mutilated corpse was found the next day in a pool of blood on the spot where he had cruelly met his death.
By its side, in mournful vigil, was couched his faith- ful dog. Five of the inmates of the house on the Ma- honing met death in the fire.
When the attacking party made its first onslaught Joachim Senseman and George Partsch, who were with- out the house, made a brief reconnoisance of the position, which showed them the folly of any attempt to render assistance. They accordingly resolved to cross the river wthout delay and give the alarm to the inhabitants of New Gnadenhütten.
Their action was probably the means of saving the life of David Zeisberger, perhaps the most noted of all the missionaries of the Moravian church among the Indians. He had reached New Gnadenhütten from Bethlehem early in the evening, and was preparing to go to the dwelling house on the Mahoning. Martin Mack advised him to wait until morning. He started on his journey, however, the chill autumnal winds sigh-
41
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
ing among the fallen leaves as he left his friends and started to cross the river. Shortly afterwards a cry of distress reached the mission house, but the splashing of the water by his horse prevented Zeisberger from hearing it. Mack ran to the Lehigh, where he met Senseman and Partsch, who conveyed to him the fear- ful intelligence of what was taking place at the house on the Mahoning.
By this time the missionary had reached the oppo- site side of the river, and his friends called to him to turn back. He heard their voices, and hastened to re- ford the stream. Soon thereafter a pillar of flame rose in the direction of the Mahoning.
The loyal Indians at New Gnadenhütten, upon hear- ing the reports of the guns, and seeing the flames across the river, when informed of the cause, went imme- diately to the missionary in charge, and offered to attack the enemy. But being advised to the contrary, they fled precipitately into the woods. New Gnaden- hütten was cleared in a few moments, while some who had already retired for the night, had scarce time to dress themselves.
Having finished their bloody work on the Mahoning, the Indians proceeded to pillage and burn the remain- ing houses of the doomed settlement. First, the barn and stable, and next the kitchen, the bake house, the Single Brethren's house, the store, the mill, and, finally, the meeting house, until the whole valley was light as day with the glare of the conflagration, athwart which could be seen, in bold relief, the dusky figures of the fiendish Shawnese as they hastened to and fro in the closing scene of this sad tragedy. When their work was done, they gathered about the spring house, where they divided their plunder. They then soaked some bread in milk, feasted with blood-stained hands, and,
42
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
loading their spoils on stolen horses, they filed off leisurely in the famous Warriors' Path that led to Wyoming.
Their latter movements were observed by Susan Partsch, who has been mentioned as having escaped from the burning house, unperceived by the Indians. She and her husband were happily re-united the next morning, each having thought the other had been killed.
Susanna Nitschmann was carried away a captive, and at Wyoming Christian Indian women ministered to her wants, and tried to shield her from a life more terrible than death. Her captors claimed her, dragged her to Tioga, and forced her to share the wigwam of a brutal Indian. The horror of her situation, together with the wound she had received, broke her strength. She spent her days and nights in weeping for half a year, when she was mercifully released from her suf- ferings by death. Thus the innocent Moravians, who had lived and labored for the good of the Indians, were visited with a terrible punishment for the crimes that unscrupulous men had committed against the aborig- ines.
After the Indians had retired, the remains of those killed on the Mahoning were carefully collected from the ashes and ruins, and were solemnly interred. A broad marble slab in the graveyard at Lehighton, placed there in 1778, and a small white obelisk on a sandstone base, erected since that date, tell in brief the melancholy story of Gnadenhütten, and preserve the names of those who fell as victims of the hate of the Indians.
At Bethlehem the people had been in an agony of suspense, for all had seen the lurid glare beyond the Blue Ridge, made by the burning buildings, and had
43
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
known that evil news of some kind would be borne to them in a few hours.
The unwelcome intelligence was brought to them by David Zeisberger at three o'clock in themorning of the next day, and it was broken to the congregation, which had been summoned to meet in the chapel at five o'clock, by Bishop Spangenberg. On his way to Beth- lehem, the missionary passed a body of militia, who marched to within five miles of the scene of the mas- sacre; but fearing an ambushment, they did not ven- ture to give pursuit in the dark. Towards night of the day after the tragedy, eight white people and between thirty and forty Indians, men, women and children, who had made their escape from New Gnadenhütten, arrived at Bethlehem.
With few exceptions, the remaining settlers of the upper end of Northampton county and along the Le- high Valley down to the Irish settlement and below were precipitately pushing southward into the older and larger settlements of Bethlehem and Easton. Naturally, they were filled with the wildest alarm, and many were scantily clad, while all were entirely desti- tute.
These unfortunate and panic-stricken people were received with the greatest kindness by the citizens of the localities to which they fied. The Moravians of Bethlehem kept their wagons plying to and fro between the village and points eight or ten miles up the road, bringing in the women and children, who had become exhausted in their flight and sunk down by the wayside.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.