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 4
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A few white families still foolishly persisted in re- maining on the border after nearly all of their neigh- bors had fled, and some of these fell easy victims to the strategy and hate of the Indians.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Among the families who dared to remain in their homes after so many dreadful warnings was that of Frederick Hoeth, living about twelve miles east of New Gnadenhütten, or what is now Weissport. On the even- ing of the tenth of December, 1755, their habitation was attacked by a small party of Indians, six of the family killed, and two or three others carried away into cap- tivity, while the house was reduced to ashes.
The family was at supper, when a volley was fired through the windows, killing Hoeth, and wounding a woman. The firing continued, and a few of the inmates of the doomed house fled into the open. The invaders at once applied the torch to the dwelling, stables, and an adjoining mill.
Mrs. Hoeth sought shelter and security in the bake house, which was also set on fire. When unable longer to endure the resulting heat and smoke, the unfortu- nate woman rushed forth and dashed headlong into the Poho Poko creek, where she died, either by drowning or from the burns she had received. The Indians hor- ribly mutilated her body with knives and tomahawks. Three children were burned to death, while a mature daughter was killed and scalped.
Unlike the peace-loving Moravians, who refused to bear arms, even to protect their own lives, the members of the Hoeth family, when attacked, made the best de- fense of which they were capable, and one Indian was killed and another wounded in the affray.
Immediately following the massacre of Gnadenhüt- ten, the company of militia that Zeisberger passed on the way repaired to the scene of the murders. This body of troops was commanded by Captain Hay, and was re-inforced by another company under Colonel An- derson. Captain Wilson, of Bucks county, with a com- pany of sixty or seventy men, also marched northward a
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
few days after the massacre. These troops were posted at the deserted village to guard the mills, filled with grain that belonged to the Christian Indians, from being destroyed. They were also expected to protect the few remaining settlers about Gnadenhütten. A temporary stockade was erected, and all would have been well had the troops been officered by men experi- enced in the tactics of Indian warfare. But this all- important qualification was lacking, and disaster soon followed. On New Year's Day, in 1756, a number of the garrison fell victims to an Indian stratagem. The soldiers, to vary the monotony of life at the fort, were skating on the ice which covered the Lehigh. While so engaged they caught sight of two Indians farther up the stream, and, thinking that it would be an easy matter to capture or kill them, gave chase. They gained rapidly upon the Indians, who proved to be decoys, skilfully manoeuvering to draw them into an ambush. The fort was now some distance behind, and a party of Indians suddenly sprang from a thicket in the rear of the soldiers, cutting off their retreat, and falling upon them with the fury of a whirlwind . The soldiers were taken entirely off their guard, and being outnumbered they were quickly dispatched. This inci- dent had such a depressing effect on the soldiers re- maining in the fort that many of them deserted. The others, thinking themselves incapable of holding the place, withdrew. This was the moment for which the savages had been waiting. Seizing all the portable property that to them seemed of any value, they fired the fort, the mills and the houses in which the Mo- hicans and the Delawares had so peacefully lived for a time, the settlement being totally destroyed in a few hours.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
All these and countless similar acts of hostility finally awakened many who had been temporizing or believing that the blow would not fall on them to pre- pare for an efficient defense. There was no further time to be lost, because there was grave danger that this whole portion of the province might fall into the hands of the enemy.
CHAPTER IV.
BELATED MEASURES FOR DEFENSE OF FRONTIER.
The defenseless condition in which the border of Pennsylvania was found at the breaking out of the French and Indian War is to be attributed largely to the fact that the policies of the province were moulded and directed principally by members of the Society of Friends. They, like the Moravians, were lovers of peace, and it was contrary to their avowed principles to engage in warfare. This being true, it was natural that they did not consider it necessary to prepare for war. Again, the duty of protecting the province devolved solely on the proprietaries, and until this time the government had very little to do with this important function.
Aroused at last by the depredations perpetrated by hundreds of scalping parties and the loud complaints of the colonists, the assembly reluctantly enacted a militia law. But this encouraged a non-military spirit; it prescribed no penalty for those who were unwilling to enlist; the officers were elected by ballot, inadequate means existed for enforcing obedience; the enlistment of persons under twenty-one was forbidden, and like- wise the march of men more than three days' journey from the inhabited parts of the province, or their de- tention in garrison for more than three weeks.
The slight value of the law was destroyed by the preamble, which declared that the majority of the as- sembly was opposed to bearing arms, and that a com- pulsory militia law was unconstitutional. The law, however, was designed to encourage and protect volun- teer associations for the public defense.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Later, the tardiness and reluctance of the assembly in making provisions for the protection of the settlers spurred the latter to make a formal protest to the English king. A committee was appointed by the privy council to investigate the truth of the charges contained in the protest, with the result that the con- duct of the assembly was condemned. The committee declared that the assembly of Pennsylvania was bound by the original compact to support the government and protect its subjects ; that the measures enacted for that purpose were inadequate; and that there was no hope for more effective ones so long as a majority of that body consisted of persons whose principles were opposed to military service, although they repre- sented less than one-sixth of the population.
For three-quarters of a century the Friends had controlled the legislative destiny of the province, but now it was to pass from them forever. For a time they continued to send a majority of the members of the assembly, but those who believed in the principle of non-resistance no longer gave the keynote to that body.
At the time of the Indian uprising the Blue moun- tain practically marked the limit of actual settlement on the part of the white men. Standing, as it did on the verge of civilization, and forming in itself a natural barrier, it was but in accordance with reason, when the provincial government, late in 1755, with evident re- gret took the defense of the settlers into its own hands, to occupy it and to there stay the further encroach- ments of the enemy. It is well to bear in mind that the bloody work of the Indians was not performed by large bodies or any numbers combined; neither were the tactics of civilized warfare followed. But parties of from three to ten or twenty would creep noiselessly
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
past alert and watchful sentries and suddenly fall upon their unsuspecting victims, just as suddenly dis- appearing after their dreadful work had been com- pleted, long before the alarm had been spread, and before the most active troops could overtake them. This required peculiar methods of defense, necessitat- ing the erection of forts not very distant from each other, which would occupy prominent points of ap- proach, and, if possible, be situated on elevated ground, thus furnishing a view of the danger in ad- vance. It was also important that these forts should be convenient of access to the settlers, who might, and constantly did, flee to them for refuge. And last, but by no means least, an abundant supply of water nearby was essential.
Upon the occurrence of the first ravages of the In- dians, block houses were erected by the settlers them- selves, or farm houses were used as such, being located where the danger seemed most imminent, and without respect to any general plan.
When the provincial government decided to assume the duty of protecting the settlers, one of the first steps taken was the appointment of two commission- ers, who were expeced to outline a plan of defense, and to supervise its execution. The men chosen for this responsible task were James Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. Under their direction a chain of forts was established along the Blue mountain, reaching from the Susquehanna to the Delaware. The distance be- tween these forts was from ten to fifteen miles, de- pending upon the comparative situation of the promi- nent gaps, which gateways were invariably occupied. Sometimes the chain of defenses ran on the north side of the mountain, then again on the south side. Fre- quently both sides of the mountain were occupied, as
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
the needs of the population demanded. Sometimes these forts consisted of defenses previously erected by the settlers, which were available for the purpose, and of which the government took possession, whilst others were newly erected.
Among the defenses already existing when Hamilton and Franklin began the prosecution of their arduous and necessary undertaking was Fort Lehigh, situated just north of Lehigh Gap, and occupying the present site of Palmerton. Properly speaking it was only a block house, but it commanded an important position, and was for a time garrisoned by the provincial sol- diers. There was also a fort erected on the south side of the Blue mountain at Slatington, these two defenses being but a few miles apart. The most important, however, of all the forts along the Blue mountain, and the first to be erected, was Fort Allen, situated at New Gnadenhütten, where Weissport now stands. The ex- pediency of fortifying this location was first pointed out by Bishop A. G. Spangenberg, then the head of the Moravian congregation at Bethlehem, and a man of practical wisdom. In a letter to the provincial govern- ment, dated November 29, 1755, he gives it as his opinion that the safety of all the settlements lying along the Lehigh and the Delaware, even as far down as Philadelphia, itself, depended on immediately erect- ing a fort at this place. Continuing, he declares: "If the French once come and build there a fort, it will cost as much, if I am not mistaken, as the taking of Crown Point to get it out of their hands; for if they put a garrison in the gaps of the mountains, and make there also a fortification, you cannot come at them at all with any great guns." In closing, he also refers to the property of the Christian Indians remaining there with- out adequate protection, at the same time offering the
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
government ten acres of land on which to erect a fort. The erection of a fortification at the point indicated by Bishop Spangenberg was determined upon about the middle of December, partly because of the valuable property remaining there after the Moravians had de- serted it, but chiefly because of its central and com- manding location.
Hamilton and Franklin had ordered Captain Hay to that point, not alone to guard the property there, but to build the fort. The disastrous developments of the first of January, when the Indians succeeded in scaring off the soldiers under his command, and firing the settlement and the stockade which had been erected, proved conclusively that he was unfit for the duty to which he had been assigned. Occurrences similar to this were taking place at other points throughout Northampton county and along the border.
Naturally this did not have a reassuring effect upon the people. Everyone being filled with excitement and terror, it is not to be wondered at if the settlers, under these conditions, made unreasonable demands on the government. To such an extent does this seem to have been done that Governor Morris became somewhat im- patient and discouraged. On January 5, 1756, he writes from Reading to the provincial council at Phila- delphia, saying in part :
"The commissioners (Hamilton and Franklin) have done everything that was proper in the county of Northampton; but the people are not satisfied, nor by what I can learn from the commissioners would they be, unless every man's house were protected by a fort and a company of soldiers, and themselves paid for staying at home and doing nothing. There are in the county three hundred men in the pay of the govern- ment, and yet, from the disposition of the inhabitants,
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
the want of conduct in the officers, and of courage and discipline in the men, I am fearful that the whole coun- try will fall into the enemy's hands."
In casting about for a man with the qualifications necessary to bring order and security out of all this chaos and confusion, Governor Morris finally pre- vailed upon Franklin himself to take personal charge of the northwestern frontier, giving him full power to enlist men and to commission officers. He experienced no difficulties in securing volunteers, proving himself a capable recruiting officer. Assembling his forces at Bethlehem, he appointed his son, who had seen service as an officer in the army raised against Canada, as his aide-de-camp. It was the beginning of January, 1756, when Franklin began active operations in the defense of the frontier. He divided the force under him into three divisions. One detachment was sent to the Minisink region with instructions to build a fort for the protection of the upper part of the country; and another was sent to the lower part with similar instructions. With the remainder of the force, Frank- lin determined to go to Gnadenhütten, where a fort was thought more immediately necessary. The Mo- ravians at Bethlehem furnished him with the wagons necessary to transport tools, stores and baggage. All preparations had now been completed to begin the march into the wilderness. Just before leaving Beth- lehiem, eleven farmers, who had been driven from their homes by the Indians, appealed to Franklin for fire- arms that they might return to their farms to bring away their cattle, which, in their precipitate flight they had left behind.
On January 15, Colonel Franklin, for that was then his title, broke camp at Bethlehem and started his little army on the march to Gnadenhütten, the distance to
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
be covered being thirty-one miles. The force had not proceeded many miles when the rain began falling, and they were thoroughly drenched. On the way, the men were met by one of the eleven farmers already re- ferred to, who conveyed to them the melancholy in- telligence that they had been attacked by Indians, and that all save himself had been killed. The guns with which the farmers had been provided, while not differ- ing from those that were carried by the soldiers, were of the most ordinary sort, and the priming having be- come wet, could not be discharged. Hence the ten men fell easy victims to the Indians, who were better equipped in this respect than the farmers were. But a few miles were traversed the first day, the roads being in poor condition, and the wagons heavy.
Franklin was especially concerned for the safety of his men while passing through Lehigh Gap, where he feared the Indians might be lying in wait to attempt an ambuscade. The fate that befell the ten luckless farmers because their weapons proved useless when put to the test, was not calculated to inspire a feeling of security, since he knew that the guns with which his soldiers were armed, being unprotected from the rain, would probably behave in like manner, should the oc- casion to use them at that time arise. The little army passed through the gap unmolested, however, reaching the home of Nicholas Uplinger at nightfall. The force had been augmented by the accession of fifty men under Captain Wayne on the way. The men were quartered for the night in Uplinger's barn.
In the morning the march to Gnadenhütten was re- sumed, but only a few miles were covered when rain again began to fall. There being no shelter to look forward to at the destination of the march, and the soldiers being unprovided with great coats to protect
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
them from the elements, it was deemed advisable to face about and return to the quarters of the previous night for shelter. The next day being Sunday, the march was resumed, and New Gnadenhütten was reached at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Before dark the camp had been enclosed with a musket-proof breastwork, and with boards which had been ordered sent in advance from a saw-mill which stood where Slatington now is. The following day was so gloomy and foggy that it was determined no work should be done. A temporary defense having been provided, the next duty to be performed was to give proper burial to the bodies of the victims of the massacre at Gnad- enhütten, these having been but partially interred in the first instance. On Tuesday morning the ground on which the fort was to be erected was decided upon, and the men began work with a will. Seventy axe-men dexterously felled enough trees in several hours for the purpose in hand. The fort was one hundred and twenty-five feet long, and fifty feet wide. First a trench on all four sides was dug to the depth of three feet. Then palisades or timbers eighteen feet in length and about a foot in diameter, being pointed at the top, were placed vertically in the trench until the enclosure was complete, forming what is known as a stockade. Each tree, when eut in lengths made three palisades. When the stockade had been completed, a floor or platform of boards was built all around within at a height of about six feet from the ground, the plan being for the men to stand on this when firing through the loop-holes, which occurred at regular intervals in the walls.
As was almost invariably the case in the construc- tion of forts of this nature, a number of block-houses, pierced with loop-holes, were erected within the en-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
closed space. These were intended to be occupied as quarters by the soldiers and the refugee settlers. A well sixteen feet deep and four in diameter, walled with stones taken from the river, was dug for the use of the garrison.
The fort was finished on Saturday morning, less than a week having been required for its erection, notwithstanding that the progress of the work was greatly hindered by rain. The flag was then hoisted, followed by a general discharge of the rifles of the sol- diers, together with two swivel guns, constituting all the artillery of the fort. The cannon were fired for the purpose of overawing the Indians, should there be any close by. The defense was named Fort Allen in honor of Judge William Allen, father of James Allen, who in 1762 laid out Allentown.
"This kind of fort," says Franklin in his auto- biography, "however contemptible, is a sufficient de- fense against Indians, who have no cannon."
Considering themselves now securely posted, and having a shelter to flee to, should the occasion de- mand, the men forming the garrison ventured out in parties to scour the surrounding country for Indians. They failed to encounter any; but evidences were not lacking that the wily denizens of the forests had been interested spectators of the activities of the garrison.
It being winter, and the weather being inclement, a fire was of course necessary for the comfort of the Indians as they watched the progress of the work at the fort. An ordinary fire, kindled on the surface of the ground, would by its light and smoke have dis- closed their presence at a distance. They, therefore, dug holes of about three feet in diameter in the ground, sinking them to the depth of perhaps four feet. Em- ploying their hatchets they then cut off the charcoal
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
from the sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. With these coals they made small fires in the bottom of the holes, and the soldiers observed among the weeds and grass the prints of their bodies, made by their lying on the ground while their legs and feet dangled over the fire, it being an essential point with an Indian to keep the lower extremities warm.
Franklin was compelled to admire the shrewdness of the Indians in thus managing their fires that they might not be discovered, either by their light, flames, sparks, or even smoke. It appeared that their number had not been great, and evidently appreciating the dis- advantage of their situation, did not venture an at- tack.
Franklin's next concern was to get the fort well stored with provisions and ammunition.
This done, he received a letter from Governor Morris, apprising him of the fact that he had called the As- sembly, and that he desired his presence in Philadel- phia, if the posture of affairs on the frontier was such that he felt warranted in leaving. The other two forts, which the separate detachments of his command had been ordered to build, were now completed, and the settlers of the region feeling reasonably secure in the protection they afforded, he resolved to return to civ- ilization, the more willingly, as he tells us, since Colo- nel Clapham, an officer experienced in Indian warfare, and who was a visitor at the fort, consented tempor- arily to accept the command.
Franklin gave this officer a commission, and, parad- ing the garrison, had it read to them. He assured the soldiers that the Colonel, who was a New Englander, was better qualified, owing to his military experience, to command them than himself.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Delivering a short address of farewell and of exhor- tation, he then took his leave, being accompanied by an armed escort as far as Bethlehem, where he rested a few days to recover from the hardships which he had undergone. Just nineteen days had elapsed since he, with his little army, had broken camp at Bethle- hem for the march into the wilderness; but during that brief interval a defenseless frontier, which had been almost entirely deserted by the settlers, was converted into a defensible one. This change had been brought about largely through the energies and good sense of one man, whose services in this respect were later over- shadowed by his more eminent achievements in civil life. Once more the people could breathe freely, though the danger had not fully passed, and it was not until the close of the Revolutionary War that the peo- ple felt themselves secure from Indian attacks. Fort Allen was garrisoned for five years from the date of its erection, and was occasionally occupied by soldiers after the expiration of that time. Some of the com- panies stationed at the fort during its earlier history, and during the period of greatest danger, served with- out pay, besides furnishing their own arms and am- munition.
Later, however, the soldiers who garrisoned the forts along the Blue Ridge were provincial troops, which, almost without exception, were details from the First Battalion, Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Conrad Weisser, a gallant and energetic officer, who for many years played a promi- nent part in various capacities in the Indian affairs of the province.
A marked change had now taken place in the com- position of the assembly of Pennsylvania. In the face of earnest opposition on the part of the Friends, that
,
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
body had enacted legislation providing for the pay- ment of bounties on Indian scalps. Indians were em- ployed to fight Indians; and the cruelty of the savage was stimulated by the promise of reward. In response to this cold invitation to murder, a number of scalping parties penetrated the Indian country early in 1756. One of these bands was from New Jersey, and num- bered one hundred men.
Soon after the inauguration of this policy by the province, Governor Morris opened negotiations with the Indians with a view to putting an end to the strife, if possible. In pursuance of this object he issued a proclamation ordering a cessation of hostilities, and recalling the scalping parties.
Further efforts finally effected a meeting between the Governor and Teedyuscung, the Delaware chief, at Easton, about the middle of July. This was the first appearance in the settlements of Teedyuscung since he had taken up the hatchet against the whites. Ac- companied by about thirty Indians, men, women, and children, he stopped at Fort Allen on his way to the conference. It was on this occasion that he first pro- claimed his kingship. We are told that at this, and succeeding conferences that were held, Teedyuscung stood up as the champion of his people, fearlessly de- manding restitution of their lands, or an equivalent for their irreparable loss, and in addition, the free exercise of the right to select, within the territory in dispute, a permanent home.
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