USA > Pennsylvania > Clearfield County > History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 2
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19
INDIAN OCCUPATION.
of five separate tribes being confederated together, for such unions have been frequent among civilized or semi-civilized people, though little known among the savages of this continent. The feature that distinguished the people of the Long House from all other confederacies, and which at the same time bound together all these ferocious warriors, was the system of clans extending through- out all the different tribes.
The distinctive word " clan " has been adopted as the most convenient one to designate the peculiar families about to be described, and is much better than the word " tribe," which usually applies to an Indian people separate and distinct from another.
The whole Confederacy of Iroquois Indians, or people, were divided into eight clans, as follows: Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. Some writers declare that every clan extended through all the tribes, while others assert that only the Wolf, Bear, and Turtle clans did so, the rest being restricted to a less number of tribes. Certain it is, nevertheless, that the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas or Senecas contained parts of the three clans named, and of several of the others.
Each clan formed a family, and all members of it, no matter how widely separated, were considered as brothers and sisters to each other, and were for- bidden to intermarry. This prohibition was strictly enforced by common consent. So powerful indeed was this bond of union that linked the whole Confederacy together, that for hundreds of years there was no serious dissen- sion between the several tribes of the Iroquois nation.
In times of peace all power was confided to the " sachems," in times of war to the " chiefs." The sachems were the rulers who exercised civil author- ity, met in congress, and directed the affairs of the Confederacy. Of these sachems, or rulers, there were fifty in all-of whom the Mohawks had nine, the Senecas eight, the Cayugas ten, the Oneidas nine, aud the Onondagas four- teen. Each tribe also had as many war chiefs as it had sachems, and in coun- cil each sachem had a war chief standing near to execute his commands.
The Senecas were, by far, the most fierce and powerful of any of the nation, and they were stationed at the western extremity of their dominion to guard that entrance to their domain against intrusion by their enemies.
The dates furnished by various historians as to the several conquests over smaller tribes or nations, by the Five Nations, differ materially. The French accounts tend to show that the Kahquahs were first conquered, and the Eries after them, while others reverse the order of conquest. Be that as it may, both were subjugated by the Iroquois, and Neuter Nation too, in turn, fell an easy prey to their relentless masters. The time of war against the Neuter Nation is given as having occurred about 1642 ; that of Kahquahs soon after 1650, while some writers assert that between the years 1640 and 1655 the fierce Confederates " put out the fires " of both the Eries and Kahquahs.
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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
After spreading destruction among their enemies nearer home, and bringing them into a state of complete subjection, the Iroquois went forth " conquering and to conquer." They first turned their attention to the tribes inhabiting the rivers of Pennsylvania, the descendants of their old associates and companions, the Lenni Lenapes, more commonly known as the Delawares-on the Al- legheny, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware in Pennsylvania ; on the Ohio, and even as far west as the Mississippi ; on the Potomac and the Savannah in the south, the Iroquois bore their conquering arms, filling with terror the dwellers alike on the plains of Illinois and in the glades of the Carolinas. They passed ruthlessly on over the mouldering bones of the slaughtered Kah- quahs to further conquests on the Great Lakes beyond the shores of Lake Superior. They fought and vanquished the Hurons, the allies of the French, and forced them to flee for safety to the frozen region of Hudson's Bay. They conquered as they went, destroying as a mighty whirlwind villages and inhab- itants alike of their people, and stayed only before the steady approach of the sturdy white-faced pioneer.
In or about the year 1712, the Tuscaroras, who had become involved in a war with the Powhattans, growing out of a dispute over the right of posses- sion to certain lands, were defeated by the Powhattans and fled northward, where they were received by the Iroquois and adopted into the Confederacy, which from this time forth was known as the Six Nations. The defeated Tus- caroras were a powerful tribe, and materially augmented the forces of the Iroquois. The territory occupied by the Tuscaroras before their disastrous warfare was the north part of the Carolinas and the lower part of Virginia.
The full credit for the victory over the vanquished Tuscaroras does not belong wholly to the Powhattans. It is said, by good authority, that the white colonists then settling in North and South Carolina, and Virginia, not only instigated the war against the Tuscaroras, but actually took part against them, and were it not for their white allies, the Powhattans undoubtedly would have been defeated. The Powhattans were a tribe of the Lenni Lenape family.
That the Iroquois so willingly received the Tuscaroras and added them to their great body as a distinct nation, may be accounted for by the fact that while waging their war against the southern Indians, the Tuscaroras were allied to the Iroquois, and gave them great assistance, and the same fact would also account for the eagerness of the Tuscaroras to join the nation after having been so severely beaten by their southern antagonists.
Although the Five Nations had, by force of arms, succeeded in defeating every antagonist in their depredatory excursions over a vast area of territory occupied by their enemies, they by no means entirely subjugated them all or brought them into an acknowledgment of their supreme right to the territory invaded. They destroyed villages and slaughtered inhabitants or compelled them to flee for safety to the mountains; but after the storm of war had passed
21
INDIAN OCCUPATION.
these refugees returned to their ruined habitations and sought to re-establish them, still claiming the right of possession and occupancy.
The Iroquois claimed this right by conquest, and proclaimed themselves absolute owners of the whole territory invaded, but were not sufficiently strong, in point of numbers, to occupy more than a small portion of the conquered country.
The precise time in which the conquest over the Pennsylvania Indians was accomplished is not stated by any authority. In, or soon after the year 1655, they started on the war path in this region, and had concluded their whole conquest, central, west, and south, soon after 1680. The reader has already become aware of the fact that the chief or central point of the Lenni Lenapes' possessions was in the region of the Delaware river, and that the tribe inhabit- ing that territory were called the Delawares ; and further, that all the other tribes in the whole Lenape country were branches of the parent tribe, although known by different names in various localities. In such mention as shall here- after be made of the occupants generally of this country, the word " Delawares" will be used, unless a particular locality is mentioned, in which case the name of the branch tribe will be given. It may be well to add that the language spoken by the Five Nations was different from that of the Lenni Lenapes.
The particular branch of the parent tribe that occupied the region here- abouts was the Shawnees, otherwise written Shawnese. Their language was the same as the Algonquins, and they are supposed to have been of southern origin. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, by permission of the Proprietory Government, they settled in the neighborhood of Conestoga and Pequea Creeks, where they remained nearly a quarter of a century. They were a migratory people evidently, not content to remain for a considerable time in any locality. They drifted westward, and in 1728 occupied country bordering on the Ohio, and before 1750 a majority of the entire tribe were settled there. Like the Delawares, the Shawnees were under the ruler-chiefs and sachems of the Six Nations, although they had their own chiefs and sachems . for local government. The representative of the Six Nations ap- pointed in 1728 to dwell among the Shawnees was Shekelimo. The jurisdic- tion of Shekelimo also extended over the Delawares. Richard Penn treated with the deputies of the Shawnees, who " were scattered abroad from the Great Island to the Allegheny." The Six Nations, in a message to the gover- nor in 1743, say they had gone to the Juniata to hunt with their cousins, the Delawares, and with their brethren, the Shawnees.
Shekelimo stationed himself on the west bank of the river, a few miles above the present location of Lewisburg, Union county. Here he received a visit from Conrad Weiser in 1733, and whom he accompanied on his journey to Onondaga, the seat of government of the Six Nations. Shekelimo died at the place now called Sunbury, whither he had removed, and was succeeded by his 4
22
HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
son Tachnachdourus, a chief of rank of the Iroquois, and who was better known as John Shekelimo.
The lands south of the West Branch were placed under control of Half King, a chief of the Senecas, who was properly called Tanacharis. In 1754 his post was located at Aughwick, in Huntingdon county. He lived but a short time, and was succeeded by a chief of the Oneidas called Scarrooydy.
At the time of the treaties with the natives for the purchase of their lands by the proprietaries, the negotiations were made with the sachems of the Del- awares. When this became known to the deputies of the Iroquois, they appeared and disputed the right of the Delawares to any territory drained by the Susquehanna River. They contended that the territory was theirs by con- quest and they had the disposition of it. The proprietory government then made purchases of both nations until the paramount title of the Iroquois nation was acknowledged by the Delawares. In July, 1742, a conference with the chiefs and sachems of the Six Nations and the chiefs of the Shawnees was held by the governor and council at Philadelphia, which continued several days.
The leading questions presented for consideration and adjustment at this conference were complaints on the part of the Indians of intrusions made into their country on the part of white settlers along the valley of the Juniata, a branch of the Susquehanna, and all along the banks of that river as far as Mahaning (Mahoning), and desire that they may be made forthwith to depart, " for they do great damage to our cousins the Delawares." The governor responded that regarding their former complaints of the settlers on the "Ju- niata and Susquehanna, some magistrates were sent expressly to remove them, and we thought no person would stay after that." The chief replied: " So far from removing the people, they (the magistrates) made surveys for themselves, and they are in league with the trespassers. We desire more effectual methods may be used, and honester men employed."
The governor promised them a redress for their grievances, and at the same time remarked that the Delawares were creating trouble over lands pur- chased from their ancestors over fifty years before. The chief of the On- ondagas, Canassatego, who was the orator of the council, addressed the proprietaries a few days after this in the presence of Sassonan, a chief of the Delawares, and a number of other Indians of that nation, upon the subject complained of by the governor, in which he severely censured them for their faithlessness, and alleged that they had fairly released their lands to the whites and received full pay therefor, but that they had squandered their pay and were now seeking to create a disturbance with the settlers. In closing this somewhat remarkable address, he says: "We have concluded to remove them and oblige them to go over the river Delaware, and to quit all claim to any lands on this side for the future, since they have received pay for them and it
23
THE INDIANS IN THE FRENCH WAR.
has gone through their guts long ago. To confirm to you that we will see your requests executed, we lay down this string of wampum in return for yours." When this address to the governor and council was concluded, Can- assatego upbraided the Delawares and ordered them to leave the lands imme- diately and go either to Wyoming or Shamokin. "You may go," says he, " to either of these places, and then we shall have you more under our eye, and shall see how you behave. Don't deliberate, but remove away and take this belt of wampum."
This speech was interpreted by Conrad Weiser into English, and by Cor- nelius Spring into the Delaware language, upon which Canassatego, taking a string of wampum, said : " After our just reproof and absolute order to depart from the land, you are now to take notice of what we have further to say to you. This string of wampum serves to forbid you, your children, and your grandchildren to the latest posterity, from ever meddling in land affairs. Neither you nor any who shall descend from you are ever hereafter presumed to sell any land, for which purpose you are to preserve this string in memory of what your uncles have this day given you in charge. We have some other business to transact with our brethren, and therefore depart the council and consider what has been said to you."
Conrad Weiser, the interpreter mentioned heretofore, and who took such an active part in the events that occurred during the Indian occupancy, was born in Germany in 1696, but emigrated to this country about 1714. He was a grandson of the celebrated Indian agent and interpreter of that name. Con- rad became well acquainted with the language of several Indian tribes and possessed their fullest confidence through his honesty and fair dealing among them. He died possessed of considerable property.
CHAPTER III.
THE INDIANS IN THE FRENCH WAR.
The French and English War -- Disposition of the Indians -Erection of Forts - Fort Augusta - Events Along the West Branch-Scenes at Chinckeclamousche -Summary - Close of the War.
T HE war between England and France began in the year 1744, and was closed by the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle in 1748. The Six Nations gen- erally maintained their neutrality, though the Mohawks occasionally gave some aid to the English. During the eight years of nominal peace which succeeded that treaty, both the French and English made every attempt to extend their
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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
dominion beyond the frontier settlements, the French with the greater success. In addition to their already established posts at Niagara and Detroit, they added Presque Isle (now Erie), Venango, and finally built Fort Duquesne on the site of Pittsburgh, evidently with design of establishing a line of forts from the lakes to the Ohio, and thence down that river to the Mississippi.
Frequent detachments of troops and their Indian allies passed through along this line from Niagara to Erie, either by lake or on foot, and thence to Venango and Duquesne. Dark-gowned Jesuits hastened to and fro, every- where receiving the respect of the red men, and using all their art to magnify the power of both Rome and France.
After two years of open hostilities in America, and several important con- flicts, war was again declared between England and France in 1756, this being their last great contest for the supremacy on American soil. In this war the Mohawks were persuaded to take the field in favor of the English, but the Senecas were friendly to the French, and only restrained themselves from tak- ing up arms against the English by their unwillingness to fight against their brethren.
On the Ohio the Shawnees, who felt an open enmity against the English, had assumed a hostile attitude.
The Delawares, smarting under the terrible rebuke administered by the Iroquois sachem in the conference at Philadelphia, and knowing the friendly feelings of the Five Nations toward the English, refused to leave the Delaware River, but located at Wyoming.
By the council held at Albany in the summer of 1754, and to which the Six Nations were invited, no substantial results were accomplished, except that the commissioners representing Pennsylvania acquired title to another large tract of land within the province. A serious dispute soon arose as to the boundaries of this tract under the written purchase. The Indians claimed that they never intended to include in their sale the West Branch of the Susque- hanna, the hunting grounds of the Delawares and Shawnees ; that they were were not acquainted with the points of the compass, and if the line was run so as to include the West Branch they would never agree to it. The line run, as claimed by the purchasers, started from a point a mile above the mouth of Penn's Creek, on the river, and extended northwest by west to the west bound- ary of the province. A line so run would cross the West Branch near the mouth of the Sinnamahoning, and instead of reaching the west boundary of the province, would touch the north boundary a short distance west of the Conewango Creek, in Warren county. The deed itself never contemplated that this territory should be included in the purchase, but was only to include the head waters of the Juniata, far south of this. Whether or not this claim on the part of the representatives of the province was actuated by an honest intent, does not appear, but certain it is that the white settlers along Penn's
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THE INDIANS IN THE FRENCH WAR.
Creek paid for the transgression with their lives in the fall of 1755. An ami- cable adjustment of the dispute was reached in 1758, and the lines were run in conformity with the construction placed upon the boundaries of the purchase as claimed by the Indians.
In the early part of the French and Indian war, the former were every- where victorious. Braddock, almost at the gates of Fort Duquesne was led into an ambuscade. The general himself fell mortally wounded, and his whole army severely beaten and totally routed by a force of French and Indians greatly inferior to his own. Montcalm captured Oswego, and the French lines up the lakes and across the Ohio were stronger than ever.
In the month of October, 1755, a strong force of French and Indians left Fort Duquesne and appeared at the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek, intent on establishing a line of French possessions along the West and North Branches of the Susquehanna River, and it was this force that slaughtered the settlers of Penn's Creek Valley in that year. To oppose this line of possessions, the Provincials erected Fort Lytleton, now in Fulton county ; Fort Shirley, Fort Granville, at the mouth of Kishacoquillas Creek, one called Pomfret, on the borders of what is now Juniata and Snyder counties, and in the following year Fort Augusta was built at Shamokin by Colonel William Clapham. Although the order for the erection of Fort Augusta was made in June, 1756, the work was not completed until the fall of that year.
In July Colonel Clapham and James Burd addressed a letter to Governor Morris setting forth their grievances and complaints. An extract from this communication reads as follows : " Tis extremely Cruel, Sr, and unjust to the last degree, That men who cheerfully ventured their lives in the most danger- ous and Fatiguing services of their Country, who have numerous Families dependant on their labor, and who have many of them while they were en- gaged in that service, suffered more from the neglect of their Farms and Crops at home than the whole Value of their pay. In short, whose Affairs are ruined by the Services done their Country should some of them receive no pay at all for those services, if this is the case I plainly perceive that all Service is at an end, and foresee that whoever has the command of this Garrison will inevitably be Obliged to Abandon his Post very shortly for want of a Suply of Provisions. Your Honr will not be surprized to hear that in a government where its Ser- vants are so well rewarded I have but one Team of Draught Horses, which, according to the Commissioners remark, can but do the Business of but one Team in a day from whence you will easily Judge that the Works must pro- ceed very slowly and the Expence in the end be proportionable.
"Permit me, Sr, in the most grateful manner to thank your Honr for the Favor conferred on me and on the Regiment under my Command which I am sensible were meant as well in Friendship to the Province as myself. I have executed the trust Reposed in me wth all Possible Fidelity and to the best of
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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
my Knowledge, but my endeavours as well as those of every other Officer in the Service have met with so ungenerous a Return so contracted a Reward that we can no longer serve with any Pleasure on such terms. And if we are not for the Future to receive from your Honr our Orders, our Supplys and our Pay beg Leave unanimously to resign on the Twentieth of August next, & will abandon the Post accordingly at that time, in which Case I would recommend it to the Gentlemen Commissioners to take great care to prevent that universal Desertion of the men which will otherwise certainly ensue."
In closing, this remarkable epistle says: "Tis wth utmost concern & Re- luctance that the Gentlemen of this Regiment see themselves reduced to the necessity of this Declaration and assure your Honr that nothing but such a Continued series of Discouragements could have extorted it from those who hope that they have not used any Expressions inconsistent with that high Regard they have for your Honr, and beg leave with me to Subscribe them- selves," etc.
The government, being no doubt hard pressed for funds and provisions, was exceedingly slow in supplying the wants of the soldiers. Again, in August, Colonel Clapham writes Governor Morris that their necessities are still unsupplied. Further he says he has been obliged to put Lieutenant Plun- kett under arrest for mutiny.
Fort Augusta was completed early in the fall of 1756, and in December following was placed under command of Major James Burd.
Major Burd reports the winter of 1756-7 as having been exceedingly cold and severe ; the West Branch entirely frozen over, and the paths so filled with snow that the Indians sent on an errand to Chincklacamoose (Clearfield) in February, 1757, were compelled to return before completing their mission.
On the evening of April 7, 1757, Captain William Patterson, with a squad of ten men, was sent up the West Branch in quest of intelligence. He came as far as Chincklacamoose, having met with none of the enemy's forces on their route. This seems to have been a tour of investigation into a new coun- try, as Major Burd reported that the great path from Buchaloons, on Lake Erie, passed by Chincklacamoose and forked on the south side of the West Branch, forty miles east from that place, one path leading toward Cumberland county, while the other took off in the direction of Fort Augusta. They found the cabins at Chincklacamoose all burned, and saw no traces of Indians having recently inhabited the place. The party remained in this vicinity for a space of about three days, living on walnuts, as no game could be found, and then passed down the river on rafts to the fort.
On the Ist day of July, 1758, Levi Trump, then at Fort Augusta, ad- dressed a letter to Governor Denny, from which the following extract is taken : "I received a Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel James Burd, dated 12th ulto., informing me that he had an account of a body of French that are Erecting a
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THE INDIANS IN THE FRENCH WAR.
Fort at Shinglaclamush, and 'tis thought they design to attack this place; and also, Colonel Burd ordered me to confine all the French Deserters that were inlisted as Soldiers, and send them down under a Guard to Lancaster Gaol, and instantly to acquaint his Excellency General Forbes of the same, which I have done. There are several soldiers here whose times have expired and have applied to me for Discharges, whom I have prevailed with to continue doing Duty, untill I know your pleasure in regard to them. Our Colours is entirely worn out, and shou'd be extreemly glad of a New one, the Staff is 70 feet.
"You mentioned in your last to me of six Lycences for Suttlars .being inclos'd, which did not come to hand."
After this information was made to the authorities, two Indians named Pisqutomen and Keekyuscung were prevailed upon to undertake a journey into the country of the enemy as far as Fort Duquesne, and take an account of the motions of the French and of the disposition of the Indians. Frederick Post was desired to accompany them, which he readily consented to do.
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