USA > Pennsylvania > Clarion County > History of Clarion County, Pennsylvania > Part 2
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Seven or eight years later a little settlement (consisting of about thirty per- sons) was made by the Dutch near the mouth of the Delaware River on the western shore, but in a short time every one of the settlers was massacred by . the Indians, and their skulls and bones were found bestrewing the ground by their countrymen who came in a vessel to succor them in 1632.
The first permanent settlement in Pennsylvania was made by a company of Swedes and Fins in 1638, and was called by them Christina, after the name of the youthful queen of Sweden. The Dutch still held Nassau when the Swedes arrived, and their government at Manhattan looked with envious eyes upon the new colony. In a few years the Dutch secured a grant of land on the west bank of the Delaware, and a conflict of authority arose between the settlers of the two nationalities.
In 1654 the Swedes took forcible possession of one of the Dutch forts. The next year Governor Stuyvesant conducted a band of troops from Man- hattan and not only retook the fort but forced the capitulation of the entire Swedish colony, which thus came to an end after an existence of a little more than seventeen years.
The English had always claimed the entire Atlantic seaboard. On March 22, 1664, Charles II, of England, made a grant of the whole country, at the time in possession of the Dutch, to his brother James, the duke of York.
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James sent four men-of-war, which he borrowed from the king, under com- mand of Colonel Richard Nicholls, to wrest the New Netherlands from the Hollanders. The settlements along the Hudson surrendered without firing a gun, but those on the Delaware made a gallant but fruitless resistance, and their fort was taken by assault. Nicholls was succeeded by Colonel Francis Lovelace, who was appointed governor in 1667.
In 1673 war broke out anew between the French and English on one side and the Dutch on the other. The Hollanders repelled the French army of 200,000 men by cutting the dikes which held back the sea and inundating the land. The Dutch fleet, in three great naval battles, repulsed the English fleet that was acting in concert with the French army, and drove it from the coast of Holland. Deeming this a favorable opportunity to regain their possessions wrenched from them in the New World, the Dutch sent a small fleet to New York and compelled the surrender of the country. The possessions along the Delaware also fell into the hands of the Dutch; but when peace was concluded between England and Holland, in 1674, the whole country was restored to England, and Sir Edmund Andros was sent to govern the ceded territory.
The Friends, or Quakers, settled in New Jersey, and, through the financial embarrassment of one of the proprietors (named Byllinge), William Penn became trustee about 1675-76, and finally part owner of the territory, calling his share, which lay along the Delaware, New West Jersey, that on the ocean shore being called New East Jersey. Thus we see how Penn first became involved in the affairs of the New World. He instituted a liberal form of government for his people, and in every way disclosed a noble disposition toward the settlers.
William Penn became more and more interested in the subject of col- onization in America. His father had risen to distinction in the British navy, having served under the Commonwealth and also after the Restoration. Under James, duke of York, Admiral Penn commanded the English fleet which de- scended upon the Dutch coast, and gained a great victory over the naval forces led by Van Opdam. For this service to his country Penn was knighted, and became a favorite at court. At his death there was due him from the crown about $80,000, a portion of which he himself had advanced for sea service. The son, William Penn, petitioned King Charles II to grant him, in liquidation of this debt, " a tract of land in America, lying north of Maryland, bounded east by the Delaware River, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far as plantable." The government granted to Penn a larger tract than he had asked for, and the charter was drawn up with unexampled liberal- ity. He was invested with almost dictatorial power over a country as large as England itself, destined to become a populous empire. Penn wanted to name the land New Wales, but the king insisted on " Pennsylvania," in honor of the admiral, William Penn's father.
The charter of King Charles II was dated April 2, 1681, and next year
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Penn obtained a deed for the territory embraced in the charter. He also ob- tained in 1682 two grants of a tract of land extending to Cape Henlopen, on Delaware Bay, embracing the three counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, which were for many years a part of Pennsylvania, but subsequently consti- tuted the State of Delaware.
Penn now relinquished his share in West New Jersey and gave himself to reclaiming and settling his new province. The publication of the royal charter and his description of the country attracted attention, and many purchases of land were made of Penn before he left England. That these purchasers might have something binding to rely upon, Penn drew up what he termed " condi- tions or concessions " between himself, as proprietor, and purchasers in the province. These related to the settling of the country, laying out towns, and especially to the treatment of the Indians, who were to have the same rights and privileges, and careful regard as the Europeans. And, what is perhaps a remarkable instance of provident forethought, the eighteenth article provides " That in clearing the ground, care be taken to leave one acre of trees for every five acres cleared." It might have been well if such a provision had remained operative in the State for all time.
The articles and laws which Penn drew up for the government of his colony were unexampled for fairness and liberality, and gave impress to the character of the early government. They implanted in the breasts of the people a deep sense of duty, of right, and of obligation in all public affairs, and the relations of man with man, and formed a framework for the future constitution. Relig- ious freedom was guaranteed to every one, and thus an asylum was afforded to all who were oppressed for conscience's sake.
Not being in readiness to go to his province during the first year, Penn dis- patched three ship loads of settlers, and sent his cousin, William Markham, to take formal possession of the country and act as deputy governor. With him he sent commissioners who, in conjunction with the governor, were to preserve friendly relations with the Indians and acquire lands by actual purchase, and to select the site of a great city. Penn's instructions as to the treatment of the Indians will be handed down the ages as a model of justice, humanity, and wisdom. Purchases of lands from the Indians were made on the west bank of the Dela- ware, and above the mouth of the Schuylkill, and after considerable trouble in searching for an eligible site for a city, the present site of Philadelphia was finally adopted, at the junction of the Schuylkill and the Delaware.
Having settled his affairs in England, Penn embarked on board the ship Welcome, August, 1682, in company with about a hundred planters, for the New World. The voyage lasted nearly six weeks, and they had not been on the ocean long before the small-pox broke out, and thirty of the company died.
His arrival was hailed with demonstrations of joy by all classes-English, Dutch, and Swedes. On his arrival at Upland, now Chester, he called an as-
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sembly of the people, in which an equal number of votes was allowed to the province and the three lower counties, now constituting Delaware. The assem- bly was in session only three days, but over sixty subjects were treated in the laws they enacted.
Penn also visited New York, and, as the boundaries between his province and Maryland were in dispute, he paid a visit to Lord Baltimore to adjust the difficulties arising from the disputes, but his mission proved fruitless. Penn's charter limits were " all that tract of land, or part of land, in America, with the islands therein contained as the same is bounded, on the east by Delaware River, from twelve miles distance northwards of New Castle town, unto the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude. The said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude, to be computed from the said east- ern bounds ; and the said lands to be bounded on the north by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, and, on the south, by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle northward and westward unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude ; and then by a straight line westward to the limits of the longitude above mentioned." As we have seen, Penn afterward obtained a grant of the three counties of Dela- ware called the "territories " or " lower counties." By reference to a map it will be seen that the southern boundary of Penn's lands cuts the District of Columbia, and includes Baltimore and the greater part of Maryland, together with a good slice of Virginia. Lord Baltimore claimed the country as far north as Philadelphia, or to the fortieth parallel of latitude. These conflicting claims gave cause for grave disputes.
Penn next made his celebrated treaty with the Indians, in which the Lenni Lenape, the Shawnees, and the Mingoes are said to have participated, and which, we are told, the Indians kept sacred for one hundred years.
The fame of the colony and the desirableness of settlement therein spread rapidly, and the numbers coming hither were unparalleled in the history of colonization. People came from England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and Ger- many. Their first care on landing was to bring their household goods to a place of safety, often to the simple protection of a tree. Some made for them- selves caves in the earth until better habitations could be secured.
Penn divided the colony into counties, three for the province (Bucks, Phila- delphia, and Chester) and three for the territories (New Castle, Kent, and Sussex). A General Assembly was elected, eighteen for the Council, or Up- per House, and fifty-four for the Assembly, or Lower House. This Assembly convened January 10, 1683. The first grand jury in Pennsylvania was sum- moned for the 2d of February, 1683. In less than a year the number of houses in Philadelphia numbered about eighty.
Early in the year 1684 a party from Maryland made forcible entry upon the plantations in the lower counties and drove off the owners. Indications
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arising that a struggle was likely soon to be precipitated before the crown for possession of the disputed territory, Penn decided early in the summer to return to England to defend his interests. He accordingly arranged his affairs in the colony, issued an affectionate address to his people, and sailed for Europe on the 6th of June.
Charles II died this year and was succeeded by his brother James, duke of York, under title of James II. Penn enjoyed the friendship of the new king and soon obtained a temporary settlement of his disagreement with Lord Baltimore touching the boundaries of their provinces, which was effected by a compromise. The matter was finally determined in 1732.
July 27, 1688, John Blackwell was appointed lieutenant-governor, but ow- ing to dissensions his term was short, and in January, 1690, he left the colony for England.
Three forms of administering the executive department of the government had now been tried, by a council consisting of eighteen members, a commission of five members, and a lieutenant-governor. A disagreement as to the form of government caused a secession of the lower counties, which eventuated in the formation of Delaware as a separate commonwealth.
In 1689 the Friends' Public School in Philadelphia was first incorporated, confirmed by a patent from Penn in 1701, and another in 1708, and finally, with greatly enlarged powers from Penn personally, November 29, 1711. The preamble to the charter recites that as " the prosperity and welfare of any peo- ple depend, in great measure, upon the good education of youth, and their early introduction in the principles of true religion and virtue, and qualifying them to serve their country and themselves, by breeding them in reading, writing, and learning of languages and useful arts and sciences suitable to their sex, age and degree, which cannot be effected in any manner so well as by erecting public schools," etc. George Keith was employed as first master, and served one year. A school of a primary grade had been established as early as 1683 in Philadelphia, and was taught by Enoch Flower.
Penn's favor at court during the reign of James II caused him to be sus- pected of disloyalty to the government when William and Mary had come to the throne. Accordingly from 1688 to 1690 he was arrested four times on sus- picion of adhering to the Stuarts, and his fourth arrest prevented him from prosecuting a voyage with a large party of settlers to Pennsylvania. Political and religious troubles vexed the colony, which, coupled with the disfavor into which Penn had fallen in England, served as a pretext to wrest his province from him. The French and Indian's from the north were threatening the Eng- lish. Already the expense for the defense had become burdensome to New York. It was believed that Penn, with his peace principles, would refuse aid for the common defense. Accordingly, on the 21st of October, 1692, Benjamin Fletcher, governor of New York, was commissioned by William and Mary to
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take the province and territories under his government. The following April he came with great pomp to assume authority. He summoned the Assembly, and soon differences arose between the members and the governor. William Markham was appointed lieutenant-governor, and Governor Fletcher departed to New York.
The following year Governor Fletcher again met the Assembly, and again attempted to persuade that body to vote money to provide for the common defense ; but the Assembly persistently refused, and September, 1694, closed Fletcher's governorship of Pennsylvania. Penn was reinstated in his govern- ment the same year.
In July, 1699, Penn set sail for America, and was tossed about on the ocean by adverse winds for three months. Great joy was everywhere manifested throughout the province at his arrival. He at once set about the affairs of his people. The following February he met the Indians in formal treaty of friendship. Several sessions of the Legislature were held, in which great har- mony prevailed, and attention was given to revising the constitution.
In the midst of these labors intelligence came that a bill had been intro- duced in Parliament for reducing all proprietary governments in America to . regal ones. The case was urgent, and Penn reluctantly resolved to return to England in order to protect his interests. He appointed Andrew Hamilton as his deputy, and on the Ist of November, 1701, set sail for Europe.
Soon after Penn's arrival in England King William died, and Anne of Den- mark succeeded him.
Penn now found himself in favor at court, and the bill which had been pending before Parliament, that had given him so much uneasiness, was at the succeeding session dropped entirely, and was never again called up.
Governor Hamilton died December, 1702, and was succeeded by Edward Shippen, president of the Council. John Evans was appointed deputy gover- nor, and assumed his duties December, 1703. He attempted to reunite the province and lower counties, but insurmountable difficulties arose, and the ter- ritories, or lower counties, remained separate in a legislative capacity, though still a part of Pennsylvania under the claim of Penn, and ruled by the same governor, until September 20, 1776, when a constitution was adopted, and they were proclaimed a separate State under the name of Delaware.
Discord between Council and the Assembly marked the two years of the government of Evans, and little legislation was effected. The governor is- sued a proclamation calling for the organization of the militia, but no one en- listed. Next he attempted to frighten the Quakers into taking up arms by causing a false alarm of approaching enemies to be circulated, but without avail; few of these people showed any disposition to falsify their faith. Fail- ing in other measures, he was relieved in 1709, and Colonel Charles Gookin was appointed to succeed him.
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Contentions arose between the new governor and his Council and Assem- bly, which continued during the greater part of his administration. These troubles, and debts and litigations at home, caused Penn to think seriously of selling his interest in the colony, and in 1712 he offered it for £20,000. The sum of £12,000 was offered on the part of the crown, which was agreed upon; but before the necessary papers were executed he was stricken down with apo- plexy, by which he was incapacitated for transacting any business, and a stay was put to further proceedings. After a lingering illness for six years he died on May 30, 1718, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
With great power of intellect, and a religious devotion scarcely matched in all Christendom, he gave himself to the welfare of mankind, by securing civil and religious liberty through the operations of the organic law. Though not a lawyer by profession, he drew frames of government and bodies of laws which have been the admiration of succeeding generations, and are destined to exert a benign influence in all future time, and by his discussions with Lord Balti- more and before the Lords in Council, he showed himself familiar with the abstruse principles of law. He sought to know no philosophy but that pro- mulgated by Christ and his disciples, and this he had sounded to its depths, and in it were anchored his ideas of public law and private and social living. The untamed savage of the forest bowed in meek and loving simplicity to his mild and resistless sway, and the members of the Society of Friends all over Europe flocked to his city of Brotherly Love. His prayers for the welfare of his people are the beginning and ending of all his public and private corres- pondence, and who will say that they have not been answered in the blessings which have attended the commonwealth of his founding ? And will not the day of his greatness be when the inhabitants throughout all its borders shall return to the peaceful and loving spirit of Penn ? In the midst of a licentious court, and with every prospect of advancement in its sunshine and favor, inher- iting a great name and an independent patrimony, he turned aside from this brilliant track to make common lot with a poor sect under the ban of govern- ment; endured stripes and imprisonment and loss of property ; banished him- self to the wilds of the American continent that he might secure to his people those devotions which seemed to them required by their Maker, and has won for himself a name by the simple deeds of love and humble obedience to Chris- tian mandates which shall never perish. Many have won renown by deeds of blood, but fadeless glory has come to William Penn by charity.
After his death his wife Hannah assumed proprietary powers, issued instruc- tions to her lieutenant-governors, heard complaints and settled difficulties with the skill of a veteran diplomatist. A suit in chancery, after litigation for nine years, resulted in declaring the sale of the province to the crown void, and Penn's three surviving sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, became the joint pro- prietors.
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Governor Gookin becoming insane, was succeeded a year before the death of Penn by Sir William Keith, who was possessed of many good traits, and administered the executive power with skill. He made a treaty with the Five Nations and evinced a disposition to treat the Indians with fairness. However, factional troubles arose in the colony, and, having refused the request of Han- nah Penn to reinstate James Logan, president of the Council and secretary of the province, whom he had dismissed front office, he was himself removed in July, 1726, after an eminently successful administration of nine years.
Patrick Gordon was appointed lieutenant-governor in place of Keith. By the decision of the Court of Chancery in 1727, alluded to in a foregoing para- graph, Hannah Penn's authority over the colony was at an end, the proprietary interests having descended to her sons. The period from the death of Penn, in 1718, to 1727, one of the most prosperous in the history of the colony, was familiarly known as the " Reign of Hannah and the Boys."
The Indians now began to grow more troublesome. As early as 1732 the French, who were claiming all the territory drained by the Mississippi and its affluents, on the ground of priority of discovery of its mouth and exploration of its channel, commenced erecting trading-posts in Pennsylvania, along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, and invited the Indians living on these streams to a council for concluding treaties with them at Montreal, Canada. To neutralize the influence of the French, these Indians were summoned to meet in council at Philadelphia, to renew treaties of friendship. A treaty was also concluded with the Six Nations, in which they pledged lasting friendship for the English.
Hannah Penn died in 1733. King George II had been on the British throne since June, 1727. He now reserved to himself the government of the lower counties, which act of the king was the beginning of those series of encroach- ments which finally culminated in the independence of the States of America.
Thomas Penn arrived in the province in 1732, and John Penn came over in 1734. Soon after the arrival of the latter news was brought that Lord Bal- timore had made application to have the provinces transferred to his colony, and John Penn returned to England to defend the proprietary rights. In Au- gust, 1736, Governor Gordon died. His term had been one of prosperity, and the colony had grown rapidly in numbers and in the industries. James Logan, president of the council, was, in effect, governor during the two years following the death of Gordon. During this period serious trouble broke out near the Maryland border, west of the Susquehanna, in which several skirmishes took place between parties of Marylanders and Pennsylvanians, resulting in the death of some of the participants. Learning of these troubles, the king in Council issued an order restraining both parties from further acts of violence, and afterwards adopted a plan of settlement of the vexed boundary question.
Logan had been an active participant in the affairs of the colony for nearly fifty years, and had now been acting governor for two years. At his death he
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bequeathed his large library of standard works to the people of Pennsylvania, which is known as the Loganian Library. George Thomas assumed the office of governor in 1738, having been appointed the preceding year. War between Great Britain and Spain was declared in 1739, and eight companies of volunteers were furnished for coast defense. Whitefield, the great evangelist, visited the colony the next year and created a deep religious interest among all denominations.
In March, 1744, war was declared between Great Britain and France. Vol- unteers were called for, and 10,000 men were soon enlisted and armed at their ·own expense. Benjamin Franklin was elected colonel of one of the regiments, but soon resigned. John Penn died in 1747, and Governor Thomas retired from the duties of his office on account of declining health. Anthony Palmer became acting governor.
The French were now deeply intent on securing firm possession of the Mis- sissippi valley, even to the summits of the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania, and used every artful means to win the simple natives to their interests. By mak- ing large presents of most serviceable goods, the friendship of the Indians was retained by the Pennsylvanians. The treaty of Aix-la-chapelle, concluded in 1748, between Great Britain and France, brought about a temporary cessation of hostilities between their representatives in America.
Palmer retired, and James Hamilton arrived from England in 1748, bearing the commission of lieutenant-governor. Though the treaty of Aix was sup- posed to have settled all difficulties, yet the French were determined to occupy the whole territory drained by the Mississippi. Marquis de la Galissonière, governor-general of Canada, dispatched Captain Bienville de Céleron, with a party of two hundred and fifteen French and fifty-five Indians, to publicly pro- claim possession, and bury at prominent points plates of lead bearing inscrip- tions declaring occupation in the name of the French king. Celeron started from La Chine in 1749, and, having arrived at Warren, near the confluence of Conewango Creek with the Allegheny River, he caused a leaden plate, eleven inches long, seven and a half wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick, to be buried, bearing an inscription in French, claiming all the lands on both sides of the river to its source. A plate, on which was inscribed the arms of France, was affixed to the nearest tree. A second plate was planted a few miles below Franklin, at the rock known as the " Indian God," on which are ancient and unknown inscriptions ; a third at the mouth of Wheeling Creek, a fourth at the mouth of Muskingum, a fifth at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and the sixth and last at the mouth of the Great Miami. They returned to Canada by the Miami, the Maumee and Lakes Erie and Ontario. The Indians viewed the planting of these plates with great suspicion, and by some means got posses- sion of one of them. They immediately dispatched some Cayuga chiefs to Governor George Clinton, at New York, with it, and he sent the plate to the Lords of Trade in London about the last of December, 1750. When the in- scription was explained to the Indians they were greatly alarmed.
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