USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Nanticoke > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 2
USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Ashley > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 2
USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Sugar Notch > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 2
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28. John Goodman § I
15
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
dead. They found under a small mound of earth, a cellar curi- ously lined with bark, in which was stored a quantity of Indian corn. Of this they took as much as they could carry, and re- turned to the ship.
Soon after, twenty-four others made a like excursion, and obtained a considerable quantity of corn, which, with that obtained before, was about ten bushels. Some beans were also found. This discovery' gave them great encouragement, and perhaps prevented their further removal ; it also saved them from famine.
After considerable discussion concerning a place of settlement, it was concluded to "send a shallop to make further discovery in . the bay. Accordingly Governor Carver with 18 or 20 men, set out on the 6th of December to explore the deep bay of Cape Cod. The weather was very cold, and the spray of the sea lighting on them, they were soon covered with ice, as it were, like coats of mail. At night, having got to the bottom of the bay, they discovered ten or twelve Indians about a league off, cutting up a grampus, who, on discovering the English ran away with what of the fish they had cut off. With some difficulty from shoals, they landed and erected a hut, and passed the first night. In the morning they divided their company ; some went by land and others in the vessel, to make further discovery of the bay, to which they gave the name of Grampus, because that fish was found there, They met again at night, and some lodged on board the shallop, and the rest as be- fore," in the hut.
The next morning, December the 8th, as they were about to embark, they were furiously beset by Indians. Some of the com- pany having carried their guns down to the boat, the others dis- charged upon them as fast as they could ; but the Indians shouted and rushed on, until those had regained their arms, and then they were put to flight. One, however, more courageous than the rest, took a position behind a tree, and withstood several volleys of shot, discharging arrows himself at the same time. At length a shot glancing upon the side of the tree hurled the bark so about his head, that he thought it time to escape. Eighteen arrows were picked up after the battle, which they sent to their friends in Eng- land as curiosities. Some were headed with brass, and others with horn and bone.
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16
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
The company after leaving this place, narrowly escaped being cast away, but they got safe on an uninhabited island, where they passed the night. The next day, December 9th, they dried their clothes and repaired their vessel which had lost her mast, and met with other damage. The next day they rested, it being Sunday. The day following they found a place which they judged fit for set- tlement ; and after going on shore, and discovering good water, and where there had been corn-fields, returned to the ship. This was on the eleventh of December, 1620, and is the day celebrated as the "FOREFATHERS' DAY." This is old style; to reduce it to new style, eleven days are to be added, making the 22d Decem -; ber, the day we celebrate the landing on Plymouth Rock.
On the 15th (26th) the ship came into the new harbor. The following two days the people went on shore, but returned at night to the ship.
On the 23d, timber was begun to be prepared for building a common store-house. On the 25th the first house was begun.
In January, 1621, their store-house took fire and was nearly consumed. Most of the people were now sick, and Governor Carver and Mr. Bradford were confined in the store-house when it took fire. In March an Indian came boldly into the town and saluted them with the words, "Welcome Englishmen! Welcome Englishmen !" This was uttered in broken English, but was clearly understood. His name was Samoset, and he came form the east- ward, where he had been acquainted with some fishermen, and had learned some of their language. They treated him with kindness, and he informed them that a great Sachem, Massassoit, was coming to visit them ; and told them of one "Squanto" that was well ac- quainted with the English language. He left them, and soon after returned in company with Massassoit and Squanto. This Indian (Squanto) continued with the English as long as he lived, and was of infinite service to them. He showed them how to cultivate corn, and other American productions.
About this time Governor Carver died, and Mr. William Brad- ford , was chosen governor. The mortality that had commenced soon after their arrival, had carried off before the end of March forty-four of their number, leaving only fifty-seven European in- habitants.
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
They had to build their log houses on the frozen ground, with nothing to effectually chink them; and nothing to build a chimney with, except the dry stones. Their exposure, under the circumstances unavoidable, together with a lack of food, carried off nearly one-half of them in three months. The annals of the world do not furnish a parallel to the first peopling of New England. It is believed they did not bring forth degenerate sons to continue the work of peopling North America.
They made a treaty with Massassoit which was never violated by either party during the whole life of Massassoit. At that first meeting and the making of their treaty, they arranged with Mas- sassoit to find the owners of the corn and beans they took before their first landing for settlement; and they paid for it.
Massassoit was the father of "King Philip," with whom the next generation had continual war until King Philip was killed.
THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.
THE FIRST IMMIGRANTS FROM GERMANY.
"From 1682 to 1776, Pennsylvania was the central point of immigration from Germany, France and Switzerland. Pennsylvania's liberal views, and the illiberal course of the government of New York towards the Germans, induced many to come to this province.
"In the first period of twenty years, from 1682 to 1702, com- paratively few Germans arrived ; not above two hundred families,- they located principally at Germantown. They were nearly all Plattdeutsch,-Low Germans, from Cleves, a duchy in Westphalia, and arrived in 1683-5. Leaving their native country at that time, they providentially escaped the desolation of a French war, which in 1689 laid waste the city of Worms, near which town they resided; ravaged the countries for miles round, where the flames went up from every market place, every hamlet, every parish church, every . country seat, within the devoted provinces. *
"Francis Daniel Pastorius, born at Sommerhausen, in Fran- conia, Germany, September 26, 1651, arrived at Philadelphia in the ship ' America,' Captain Joseph Wasey, August 20, 1683, with his family. He was occompanied by a few German emigrants : 2
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18
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
George Westmüller,
Jacob Schumacher, Isaac Dilbeck, (his wife and Thomas Gasper, two children,) Conrad Bacher, alias Rutter,
Abraham Dilbeck, and one English maid,
Jacob Dilbeck, Frances Simpson.
* "Pastorius located where he laid out Germantown, the same year in which he arrived in Pennsylvania. The land of the Germantown settlement was first taken up by him, the 12th of the Ioth month, (October) 1683. He commenced the town with thirteen families. In less than five years some fifty houses had been erected.
"The period from 1702-1727, marks an era in the early German emigration. Between forty and fifty thousand left their native country-'their hearts where soft affections dwell.' The unpar- alleled ravages and desolations by the troops of Louis XIV, (of France) under Turenne, were the stern preludes to bloody persecu- tions. To escape the dreadful sufferings awaiting them, German and other Protestants emigrated to the English colonies in America."*
These are believed to have been the first emigrants from Ger- many to America, and are therefore the very first progenitors of the "Pennsylvania Dutch." As Hanover, from a very early time in its history, was indebted to the Pennsylvania Dutch for some of its best population ; and from about 1830, for at least one-half of its population, it has been thought proper to introduce an account of the immigration and settlement in Pennsylvania of the first of their ancestors. It will be seen, that like the Puritans of New England, they came for the sake of religious freedom, and to escape persecu- tion in their native country, as well as from the ravages of war, waged against their native country, by an ambitious and bigoted king of France. In that very war, he wrested two German provinces from Germany, Alsace and Lorraine, and annexed them to his own kingdom, and they were held by France until the French and German war of 1870.
ACCOUNT OF THE DELAWARES AND SHAWANESE.
"The most formidable antagonists the Five Nations ever had to contend with, were the Delawares, as the English have named *Rupp's 30,000 names.
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
them, (from Lord de la War,) but generally styled by their Indian neighbors Wapanachi, and by themselves Lenni Lenape, or the Original People. The tradition is, that they and the Five Nations both emigrated from beyond the Mississippi, and, by uniting their forces, drove off or destroyed the primitive residents of the country on this side. Afterwards the Delawares divided themselves into three tribes, called the Turtle, the Turkey, and the Wolf or Monsey. Their settlements extended from the Hudson to the Potomac, and their descendants finally became so numerous, that nearly forty tribes honored them with the title of grand-father, which some of them continue to apply to the present day.
"The Delawares were the principal inhabitants of Pennsylvania when William Penn commenced his labors in that region, and the memory of Miquon, their elder brother, as they called him, is still cherished in the legends of all that remains of the nation. That remnant exists chiefly on the western banks of the Mississippi, to which ancient starting-place they have been gradually approxim- ating, stage by stage, ever since the arrival of the Europeans on the coast. Their principal intermediate settlements have been in Ohio, on the banks of the Muskingum, and other small rivers, whither a great number of the tribe removed about the year 1760.
"The Delawares have never been without their great men, though unfortunately many of them have lived at such periods and such places as to make it impossible for history to do them justice. It is only within about a century or a century and a half, last past, during which they have been rapidly'declining in power and dim- inishing in numbers, that a series of extraordinary events, impelling them into close contact with the whites, as well as with other Indians, has had the effect of bringing forward their extraordinary men.
"Among the ancient Delaware worthies, whose career is too imperfectly known to us to be the subject of distinct sketches, we shall mention only the name of the illustrious Tamenend. This individual stands foremost in the list of all the great men of his nation in any age. He was a mighty warrior, an accomplished statesman, and a pure and high-minded patriot. In private life he was still more distinguished for his virtues than in public for his talents. His countrymen could only account for the perfections
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
they ascribed to him, by supposing him to be favored with the special communications of the Great Spirit Ages have elapsed since his death, but his memory was so fresh among the Delawares of the last century, that when Colonel Morgan, of New Jersey, was sent as an agent among them by Congress during the revolution, they conferred on him the title of Tamenend, as the greatest mark of respect they could show for the manners and character of that gentleman, and he was known by his Indian appellation ever after- wards.
"About this time the old chieftain had so many admirers among the whites also, that they made him a saint and inserted his name in calendars, and celebrated his festival on the first of May yearly. On that day a numerous society of his votaries walked in procession through the streets of Philadelphia, their hats decorated with bucks' tails, and proceeded to a sylvan rendezvous out of town, which they called the Wigwam, where after a long talk or speech had been delivered, and the calumet of friendship passed around, the remain- der of the day was spent in high festivity. A dinner was prepared and Indian dances performed on the green."-Events in Indian History .- This was "Saint Tamany."
TRADITION OF THE DELAWARES.
"There was a tradition among the oldest and most learned of the Delawares, that their nation originally came from the Western shores of North America, and having proceeded eastward in quest of a better country, they came to the great river, Mississippi,* where they found a powerful nation of Indians in posession of the country, who had strong fortifications and other means of defense unknown to the Delawares. That this people refused them permission to pass through their territories, upon which the Delawares made war upon them, and cut them to pieces in many sanguinary battles; . after which the remainder went down the river, and have not since
*The name they gave to the river, supposed in this tradition to have been the Missis- sippi, was Namesi Sipu, or fish river. From the fact that the Indians residing along the banks of this river at that time were called Alligewi, or Alligeni, it seems easy to assume that they were the Allegheny tribe of Indians, and the river was the Allegheny river, and not the Mississippi.
21
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
been heard of. At what period of time these important events "transpired does not appear from the accounts transmitted to such of their posterity as remained upon the Susquehanna; and whether the tradition is founded in fact may be considered as doubtful. The Delawares, like all other tribes, were proud of the prowess of their ancestors, and without doubt would consider it an honor to be thought the conquerors of a nation, who had constructed such extensive works as are indicated by those ruins so common in the western country. The question may naturally occur, what became of that people who descended the Mississippi, after their dispersion by the Delawares, and who were acquainted with the art of fortifi- cation ? It is not probable that they could have been the same with the Mexicans or Peruvians, since their traditions will not induce a belief of such an origin; and it may also be considered a little surprising that the Delawares, during a long course of bloody wars, should not have learned from their enemies some knowledge of an art so beneficial in a system of national defence. The tradition proceeds to relate that after the Delawares had dispersed these people, called the Alligewe or Alligeni, and taken posession of the country, a great portion of their nation concluded to remain in the conquered country, and another part removed toward the Atlantic, and took posession of the country extending from the Hudson River to the Potomac. The nation was divided in several distinct tribes, each of which had an appropriate name. One took posession of the country between the sea coast and the mountains. Another tribe called the Monceys, occupied the country extending from the Kittatinnunk or principal mountain, now called the Blue Mountain, to the heads of the Delaware and Susquehanna. This tribe had their principal settlement or council fire at a place called Minisink on a river called by the Mingoes the Makerisk-Kiskon, or Makeriskiton, being the same afterwards called De-la-war, or Delaware; and a part of the same tribe nearly at the same time, settled at Wyoming."
TRADITION OF THE SHAWANESE.
About the time of the above tradition as to the Delawares-for tradition does not sufficiently determine the precise time-"the
22
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
Shawanese Indians inhabited the country now composing Georgia and the Floridas, and were a very powerful and warlike nation ; but .. the surrounding tribes having confederated against them, they were subdued and driven from that territory. In this unfortunate condition they sent messengers. to the Mohegans, a nation who resided on the east side of the Hudson River, requesting their influence in procuring from the Delawares, permission for them to come and reside under their protection.
" At this time the Delawares were not upon the most friendly terms with the Mingoes, or Six Nations, who inhabited the country in the neighborhood of the Lakes, and who, by virtue of their confeder- ated power, exercised a dictatorial spirit over the surrounding tribes. The Delawares were therefore anxious to accumulate a force against these powerful neighbors, and very willingly accepted the proposition of the Shawanese. While these negotiations were progressing, the Shawanese had found a resting place near the mouth of the river Wabash, where they were building a town, when their messengers returned, accompanied by a deputation of the Mohegans, who informed them of the success of their application to the Delawares, and that a territory was already allotted for their reception. Upon receiving this intelligence, a national council was held to deliberate on the propriety of removing to the country of the Delawares. The assembly however were divided, a part having resolved to remain and fortify themselves in their new town; and the remainder consist- ing principally of the Pickaway tribe, under their Chief, Gachgawe- atschiqua, removed from the Ohio, near the mouth of the Wabash in Illinois, and formed a settlement in the forks of the Delaware (Easton). They, however, brought with them that artless (is it not artful?) and warlike spirit which had rendered them so disagreeable to their southern neighbors; and as the character of a people can- not long be concealed, disturbances soon arose between them and that tribe of the Delawares who occupied the country lower down the river. These conflicts became at length so violent, that the Shawanese were compelled to leave the forks of the Delaware, and the whole tribe in that country removed to Wyoming Valley, which they found unoccupied, as the Monceys had been induced, by the threatening posture of affairs, to concentrate their forces around their principal settlement at Minisink.
23
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
"The Shawanese having arrived at Wyoming found themselves sole masters of the valley, and as there appeared no enemy to annoy them in their new abode, they built a town upon the west bank of the river, near the lower end of the valley, upon a large plain which still bears the name of the Shawanese Flats. In this situation the Shawanese enjoyed many years of repose. The women cultivated corn upon the plains, and the men traversed the surrounding moun- . tains in pursuit of game.
"While these changes were taking place among the Indian tribes, the Europeans were forming settlements in various places along the Atlantic coast, which they obtained sometimes by purchase, and at other times by conquest, and although they were beginning to extend them into the interior, yet the resistance made by the Indians was in most cases feeble, as there were few instances in which the different tribes united their forces for that purpose. There were, however, in the country of the Great Lakes, a people who conducted their wars upon a much more extensive system. These people were known by the general name of Mingoes. They consisted of the Onondagas, Senekas, Cayugas, Oneidas, Mohawks, and Tuscaroras, and their confederacy acquired the appellation of 'The Six Nations ;' (and also the Iroquois.) They were a powerful, warlike people, who held the surrounding nations in subjection, and claimed a jurisdiction extend- ing from Connecticut River to the Ohio. They are described by a celebrated historian as 'a confederacy, who, by their union, courage and military skill, had reduced a great number of Indian tribes, and subdued a territory more extensive than the whole Kingdom of France.' This people claimed the country occupied by the Delawares and Shawanese and held these tribes or nations subject to their authority."-Chapman's Wyoming.
Shawanee town, not occupied now by Indians, is a considerable town, situated in Illinois, on the Ohio River, a few miles below the mouth of the Wabash.
THE SHAWANESE, ACCORDING TO GOV. CASS.
"Their history is involved in much obscurity. Their language is Algonquin, and closely allied to the Kickapoo, and other dialects spoken by tribes who have lived for ages north of the Ohio. But
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
they are known to have recently emigrated from the south, where they were surrounded by a family of tribes, Creeks, Cherokees, Chocktaws, etc., with whose language their own had no affinity, Their traditions assign to them a foreign origin, and a wild story has come down to them of a solemn procession in the midst of the ocean, and of a miraculous passage through the great deep. That they were closely connected with the Kickapoos, the actual identity of language furnishes irrefragable proof, and the incidents of the separation yet live in the oral history of each tribe. We are strongly inclined to believe, that not long before the arrival of the French upon these great lakes, the Kickapoos and Shawanese com- posed the tribe known as the Erie; living on the eastern shore of the lake, to which they have given their name. It is said that this tribe was exterminated by the victorious Iroquois. But it is more probable that a series of disasters divided them into two parties, one of which, under the name of Kickapoos, sought refuge from their enemies in the immense prairies between the Illinois and the Mis- sissippi ; and the other, under the name of Shawanese, fled into the Cherokee country, and thence farther south. Father Segard, in 1632, called the Eries the 'Nation du Chat,' or the raccoon, on ac- count of the magnitude of these animals in their country ; and that is the soubriquet which, to this day, is applied by the Canadians to the Shawanese."
"The Shawanese tribe was divided, a portion having their resi- dence on the Scioto, and a large number were permitted, or directed, to erect their wigwams on the extensive and luxuriant flats on the west side of the Susquehanna, now Plymouth, but more popularly designated Shawney."-Miner.
"As early as 1608, the Shawnese had, in league with the Hurons, been engaged in war on the Canadian frontier with the Iroquois, the confederate tribes known as the Six Nations, and defeated, were obliged to leave their hunting grounds. They wandered south as far as Florida. Becoming there engaged in a war with the Spaniards, who then owned that territory, they migrated west in 1690 to the Wabash; and finally in 1697, upon the Conestoga Indians, who lived near the present city of Lancaster in this State, becoming security
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
to William Penn for their good behavior, they removed to Pequea Creek, below Lancaster. In 1701 William Penn made a treaty with the tribes upon the Susquehanna, and a portion of the Shawnee tribe, located within the present township of Plymouth. * When Count Zinzendorf, on his Christian mission, visited Plymouth in the autumn of 1742, he found the Shawnese, with their chief, Kakawatchie, and their principal wigwams situate on the west bank of the small stream emptying into the river above the old village, and between the main road and the river. .* * * The Shawnee
tribe at this time probably did not number over two hundred braves and warriors. They were subjects of the Six Nations, and com- pletely under their orders and control; in fact a part of their own associates and tribe who had occupied this very ground, were obliged to surrender for the benefit of the fresh immigration from the Delaware, and make a new home upon the Ohio and Alle- gheny."-Sketches of Plymouth.
THE NANTICOKES.
The English settlements in Maryland, in their rapid increase, had difficulties with the Indians in that quarter, and "a great number of the tribe called Nanticokes, who inhabited the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, at a place they called Chesakawon, removed to Wyoming in May, 1748, with their chief sachem called White. Finding the principal part of the Valley in possession of the Shawa- nese and Delawares, the Nanticokes built their town at the lower end of the valley on the east bank of the river, just above the mouth of a small creek called 'Nanticoke Creek.'
They did not stay here long, for, having a great animosity against the whites, they wished to get as far from them as possible, and in 1755, according to Chapman, they removed from the valley and began a settlement farther up the river at a place Chapman calls-Chemunk (Chemung). A part of them also migrated to a place he calls Chenenk (probably Chenango), where they were more immediately under the protection of the Six Nations.
During the same year, 1755, the Nanticokes having established themselves, as they thought, permanently at Chenenk, and being un- willing that the bones of their fathers and brethren should remain in
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