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 3
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 3
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 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
Maryland and be exposed to the operations of English agriculture and other disturbance, sent a deputation from their tribe who re- moved them from the place of their deposit, and carried them to Chenenk where they reinterred them with all the rites and cere- monies of savage sepulture.
Afterwards we hear of them only once, as meeting with the other tribes in a grand council of all the Indian tribes, in Easton in 1758, by their deputies.
The chief residence or Great Head of the Six Nations was at Onondaga, now understood to be Syracuse. Somewhere in this neighborhood was the residence of the Nanticokes.
THE FIVE NATIONS.
"The Five Nations were the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas and the Senecas. The Virginian Indians gave them the name of Massawomekes; the Dutch called them Maquas, or Makakuase; the French, Iroquois. Their appellation at home was Mingoes, and sometimes the Aganuschion, or United People.
"When the French settled in Canada in 1603, they found the Iroquois living where Montreal now stands. They were at war with the Adirondacks-a powerful tribe residing three hundred miles above Trois Rivers-in consequence of the latter having treacherously murdered some of their young men. Previous to this date their habits had been more agricultural than, warlike; but they soon perceived the necessity of adopting a different system. The Adirondacks drove them from their own country, and they retreated to the borders of the lakes, where they have ever since lived. This misfortune it was-ostensibly, at least, a misfortune-which gave the earliest impulse to the subsequent glorious career of these Romans of the West.
"Fortunately for them, their sachems were men of a genius and spirit which adversity served only to stimulate and renew. They, finding their countrymen discouraged by the discomfiture suffered on the banks of the St. Lawrence, induced them to turn their arms against a less formidable nation, called the Satanas, then dwelling with themselves near the lakes. That people they subdued and ex- pelled from their territory. Encouraged by success and strength-
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
ened by discipline they next ventured to defend themselves against the inroads of their old conquerors on the north; and at length the Adirondacks were even driven back in their turn as far as the neigh- hood of what is now Quebec.
"But a new emergency arose. The French made common cause with the nation just named against their enemies, and brought to the contest the important aids of civilized science and art. The Five Nations had now to set wisdom and wariness as well as courage and discipline, against an alliance so powerful. Their captains came forward again, and taught them the policy of fighting in small parties, and of making amends for inferior force by surprisal and stratagem. The result was, the Adirondacks were nearly extermin- ated, while the Iroquois, proudly exalting themselves on their over- throw, grew rapidly to be the leading tribe of the whole north, and finally of the whole continent.
"The career of victory, which began with the fall of the Adiron- dacks, was destined to be extended beyond all precedent in the history of the Indian tribes. They exterminated the Eries or Erigas, once living on the south side of the lake of their name. They nearly destroyed the powerful Anderstez, and the Chouanons or Showanons. They drove back the Hurons and Ottawas among the Sioux of the upper Mississippi, where they separated themselves into bands, 'proclaiming, wherever they went, the terror of the Iroquois.' The Illinois on the west were also subdued, with the Miamies and the Shawanese. The Niperceneans of the St. Lawrence fled to Hudson's bay, to avoid their fury. 'The borders of the Outaouis (Outawas),' says a historian, 'which were long thickly peopled, became almost deserted.' The Mohawk was a name of terror to the farthest tribes of New England ; and though but one of that formidable people should appear for a moment on the hills of Connecticut or Massachusetts, the villages below would be in an uproar of confusion and fear. Finally they conquered the tribes of Virginia west of the Alleghenies, and warred against the Catawbas," Cherokees, and most of the nations of the south.
"The result of this series of conquests was, that the Five Nations finally became entitled, or at least laid claim to all the territory not sold to the English, from the mouth of Sorel River, on the south side of lakes Erie and Ontario, on both sides of the Ohio, until it
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
falls into the Mississippi; and on the north side of these lakes the whole tract between the Outawas River and Lake Huron." Their territory was estimated at 1,200 miles in length from north to south and about 800 miles wide. The Tuscaroras, a tribe expelled from North Carolina in 1712, was united with the Five Nations, making a sixth member, after ivhich they were called the Six Nations by the English. Before the Tuscaroras joined them they numbered about about 2,150 warriors. The Tuscaroras numbered about 200 war- riors. At the time of our revolutionary war (1776) the whole num- ber of the Six Nations actually engaged in the contest was 1,800." -Events in Indian History.
The emigration of the Tuscaroras from North Carolina, is thus related by Elias Johnson, a Tuscarora chief, in 1881 :-
"One bright sunny morning in June, 1713, was one of the darkest days that the Tuscaroras ever witnessed, when most of the nation took their pace to the north until they came within the bounds of the Oneida domain, about two miles west of Tamaqua, in the State of Pennsylvania, where they'located and set out apple trees, which can be seen to this day; some of the trees will measure about two feet in diameter. Here they dwelled for about two years."
About 1715 the Five Nations held a general council, where the Tuscaroras applied, through the Oneidas, to be admitted into the Iroquois confederacy to become the sixth nation, on the ground that they were of a common origin with the Five Nations. Their application was favorably considered, and finally granted unani- mously, and the Senecas adopted them as their children. The Senecas always address the Tuscaroras as "my sons," and the Tus- " caroras address the Senecas as "my fathers."
""Chaelevoix, long since described the Wyandots, as the nation of all Canada, the most remarkable for its defects and virtues. When Jacques Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence he found them established near Hockelega, now Montreal; and when Champlain entered the same river their war with the Iroquois had already com- ,menced, and that enterprising officer accompanied one of their parties in a hostile expedition against their enemies. The events of the war were most disastrous, and they were driven from their country to the northern shore of Lake Huron. But distance afforded no security, and the Iroquois pursued them with relentless fury. Famine,
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
disease and war made frightful havoc among them, and the account of their sufferings, given by the old Missionaries who witnessed and shared them, almost tasks the belief of the reader." "They were literally hunted from their resting place, and the feeble remnant of this once powerful and haughty tribe owed their preservation to the protection of the Sioux, in whose country west of Lake Superior, they found safety and tranquility." -- Miner.
The. Indians, in another place called Adirondacks, defeated in many sanguinary battles and finally driven entirely from their country by the Iroquois, are probably the same here called Wyandots.
At all events the Six Nations were great conquerors, and by the right of the victor, owned all the lands or territory lying within the boundaries of Pennsylvania. And they claimed and exercised the right of disposing of it. They sold the lands of Wyoming to the Susquehanna company of Connecticut.
AN INDIAN TRADITION.
CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE FIVE NATIONS.
The following is the account given by old Cannassatego, of the manner in which his country was made and peopled.
Cannassatego was a great chief of the Six Nations.
"When our good Mannitta raised Akanishionegy (the country of the Five Nations) out of the great waters, he said to his brethren, how fine a country is this! I will make red men, the best of men, to enjoy it. Then with five handfuls of red seeds like the eggs of flies, did he strow the fertile fields of Onondaga. Little worms came out of the seeds, and penetrated the earth, when the spirit, who had never yet seen the light, entered into and united with them. Man- nitta watered the earth with his rain, the sun warmed it, the worms with spirits in them grew, putting forth little arms and legs and moved the light earth that covered them. After nine moons they came forth perfect boys and girls. Mannitta covered them with his mantle of warm purple cloud, and nourished them with milk from his finger ends. Nine summers did he nurse them, and nine sum- mers more did he instruct them how to live. In the mean time he had made for their use trees, plants and animals of various kinds. Akanishionegy was covered with woods and filled with creatures.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
Then he assembled his children together and said 'Ye are Five Nations, for ye sprang each from a different handful of the seed I sowed; but ye are all brethren, and I am your father for I made you all; I have nursed and brought you up; Mohocks, I have made you bold and valiant, and see, I give you corn for your food; Oneidas, I have made you patient of pain, and hunger; the nuts and fruits of the trees are yours ; Senecas, I have made you industrious and active, beans do I give you for nourishment ; Cayugas, I have made you strong, friendly and generous, ground nuts and every root shall refresh you ; Onondagas, I have made you wise, just and eloquent, squashes and grapes have I given you to eat, and tobacco to smoke in council. The beasts, birds and fishes, have I given to you all in common. As I have loved and taken care of. you all, so do you love and take care of one another. Communicate freely to each other the good things I have given you, and learn to imitate each others virtues. I have made you the best of people in the world, and I give you the best country. You will defend it from the invasions of other nations, from the children of other Mannittas, and keep possession of it for yourselves while the sun and moon give light, and the waters run in the rivers. This you shall do if you observe my words. Spirits I am now about to leave you. The bodies I have given you will in time grow old and wear out, so that you will be weary of them. I cannot remain here always to give you new bodies. I have great affairs to mind in distant places, and I cannot again attend so long to the nursing of children. I have enabled you therefore, among yourselves to produce new bodies to supply the place of the old ones, that every one of you, when he parts with his old habitation may in due time find a new one, and never wander longer than he chooses under the earth, deprived of the light of the sun. Nourish and instruct your children as I have nourished and instructed you. Be just to all men, and kind to strangers that come among you, so shall you be happy and be loved by all; and I myself will sometimes visit and assist you.'
"Saying this he wrapped himself in a bright cloud and went like a swift arrow to the sun, where his brethren rejoiced at his return. From there he often looked at Akanishionegy, and pointing, showed with pleasure to his brothers the country he had formed, and the nations he had produced to inhabit it."-Miner.
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
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This is the Indian legend of the creation or origin of the Mingoes. Is it not fine? . These Indians were full of flowery language, and some of them were very eloquent. Some of their speeches have been preserved to us, but only one will be introduced in this work, and that only to show how the Six Nations domineered over the other tribes in their neighborhood, and how the Delawares came to be here in this valley when the white people came to settle here.
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CHAPTER I.
HISTORY OF WYOMING.
YOMING is the name given to a beautiful valley, situate along the river Susquehanna, in the north-eastern part of the State of Pennsylvania. It is about three miles wide, and twenty- five miles long, and is formed by two ranges of mountains nearly parallel to each other, extending from the north-east to the south-west. These mountains contain many rocky precipices, and are covered with wood consisting principally of oak and pine. The average height of the eastern range is about one thousand feet; that of the western about eight hundred. They are of a very irregular form having elevated points and deep hollows, or openings which are called 'Gaps.' The Susquehanna enters the valley through a gap in the western moun- tain called the 'Lackawanna Gap,' and following in a sepentine course about twenty miles, leaves the valley through another opening in the same mountain, called the 'Nanticoke Gap.' These openings are so wide only as to admit the passage of the river, and are in part faced with perpendicular bluffs of rocks, covered with a thick growth of pine and laurel, which have a very fine appearance when viewed from the river, or from the road which runs along their bases. The river is in most places about two hundred yards wide-from four to twenty feet deep, and flows with a very gentle current, except at the rapids, or when swelled with rains or melting snows. Near the. center of the valley it has a rapid called the 'Wyoming Falls;' and another called the 'Nanticoke Falls,' where it passes through the Nanticoke Gap. Several tributary streams fall into the river, after passing through rocky gaps, in the mountains on each side of the valley, forming beautiful cascades as they descend into the plain. Those on the north-west side are Toby's Creek, Moses' Creek, and Island Run. On the south-east side are Mill Creek, Laurel Run, Solomon's Creek and Nanticoke Creek, all of which are sufficient
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WYOMING.
for mills, and abound with fish. Along the river on both sides are level fertile plains, extending in some places nearly a mile and a half from the margin of the stream, where small hills commence; stretching to the mountains, the river sometimes washing the base of the hills on one side and sometimes on the other. The surface of the plain in some parts of the valley is elevated about ten feet higher than in other parts, forming a sudden offset or declivity from one to the other. These plains are called the upper and lower 'Flats,' and spontaneously produce quantities of plums, grapes, many kinds of berries, and a great variety of wild flowers.
"In many parts of the valley, and in the sides of the mountains, mineral coal of a very superior quality is found in great abundance ; it is of the species called anthracite, which burns without smoke and with very little flame, and constitutes the principal fuel of the inhabitants, as well as their most important article of exportation." -Chapman's Wyoming.
This is a very good description of the valley as it is to-day, only that there is not much wood on the mountains, and there are no fish in the streams.
Mr. Chapman also describes, "some remains of ancient fortifica- tions which appear to have been constructed by a race of people very different in their habits from those who occupied the place when first discovered by the whites. Most of these ruins have been so much obliterated by the operations of agriculture that their forms cannot now be distinctly ascertained. That which remains the most entire, was examined by the writer, (Chapman), during the summer of 1817, and its dimensions carefully ascertained, although, from fre- quent plowing, its form had become almost destroyed. It is situated in the township of Kingston, upon a level plain on the north side of Toby's Creek, about one hundred and fifty feet from its bank, and about half a mile from its confluence with the Susquehanna. It is of an oval or elliptical form, having its longest diameter from the north-west to the south-east, at right angles to the creek, three hun- dred and thirty-seven feet, and its shortest diameter from the north- east to the south-west, two hundred and seventy-two feet. On the south-west side appears to have been a gateway about twelve feet wide, opening towards the great eddy of the river into which the 3
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
creek falls. From present appearances it consisted probably of only one mound or rampart, which in height and thickness appears to have been the same on all sides, and was constructed of earth, the plain on which it stands not abounding in 'stone. On the outside of the rampart isan entrenchment or ditch, formed probably by removing the earth of which it is composed, and which appears never to have been walled. The creek on which it stands is bounded by a high steep bank on that side, and at ordinary times is sufficiently deep to admit canoes to ascend from the river to the fortification. When the first settlers came to Wyoming this plain was covered with its native forest, consisting principally of oak and yellow pine, and the trees which grew in the rampart and in the entrenchment, are said to have been as large as those in any other part of the valley, one large oak particularly, upon being cut down, was ascertained to be seven hundred years old. The Indians had no tradition concerning these fortifications, neither did they appear to have any knowledge of the purpose for which they were constructed. They were perhaps erected about the same time with those upon the waters of the Ohio, and probably by a similar people and for similar purposes."
Mr. Miner also describes a fortification as nearly like the above in shape and size, as can be, on the east side of the river, on the edge of the upper flats, in Wilkes-Barre township, now Plains, called. Jacob's Plains.
MOUND BUILDING.
A friend of the writer, in Wilkes-Barre, who many years ago lived for a considerable time in the vicinity of an Indian encamp- ment and town in the far West, has given him the substance of the following narrative, as to the growth of an Indian mound :-
In the summer the Indians live in tents, or booths made of brush, near or on the bank of a river. They always live near a stream of water. This is the best spot on the river, not occupied by some other band of Indians, for fishing. Here they stay through the summer. In the fall they remove back from the river into the woods, if there are any woods near, but in all cases, to higher ground so as to be above the floods of the river. Having selected the place, they build their town there-as many wigwams as there are families, and select a place near by for the burial of their dead.
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WYOMING.
Each family intending to build a wigwam, digs a hole, or pit, in the ground eighteen inches or two feet deep; a pole is erected in the centre of the pit eight or ten feet high; poles are placed around this, within the foot on the ground outside of the hole or pit, the tops leaning against the top of the center pole, where they are fastened with withes. The spaces between the poles are filled with smaller poles and sticks, and all covered over with grass and leaves; after which the whole wigwam, excepting an opening at the bottom to crawl through into the interior, is covered up from bottom to top with earth. The earth is carried there in baskets, by the women from the surrounding plain, and is piled on until it is about eighteen inches thick over every part.
These wigwams are placed in a circular row or ring around an open space, and the doorway or hole to enter by is placed on the side of each wigwam towards the central open space. The earth- covered wigwams touch each other all around the inclosed open space except one or perhaps two broad spaces between the wig- wams, to get into, or out of the town. The interior of the town or central space is used to store away corn or vegetables they have raised, in a wigwam or structure prepared for it, and for a council house.
This town is always near some spring, or stream of fresh water, and their burial place is not far off. These huts or wigwams will last till spring, when they are all abandoned and left standing, and the band goes to its summer tents at the river again. In the fall the band returns to the same old dirt-covered town. As their wig- wams have now mostly fallen down into the pits, they pull out the old decayed poles, level off the whole surface to a common level, dig new holes and erect new wigwams all over again. Fresh earth is carried. to cover them over each time they are rebuilt, and that occurs every year.
They have no fires inside of these wigwams. They have grass and leaves to lie and sit on, and such furs as they may have caught. The fires for cooking are built outside, in front of the entrance opening. There is no heat in their wigwams but the animal heat of their own bodies. The Indians invariably return to the same town in the fall and rebuild. They live in the same place from generation to generation, for hundreds of years, unless driven away
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
by hostile neighbors. They love the place of the graves of their ancestors, and continually return to the same town, no matter how far they may have wandered away in search of fish or game.
It can easily be imagined how a mound would grow in such a town, and how rapidly it would rise above the general level. There never appeared to be any design in forming the shape of the eleva- tion. Each family built to suit itself. The mound would grow in various directions by accident as the band increased in size. The earth was carried as short a distance as possible, and therefore made a broad ditch around the town. The wigwams were made to touch each other all around the town, and the children played upon them as well as around them.
The above may account for the mound building and mound builders of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri, and other rivers of the West. But if it does, it will be seen that the mound builders were inferior instead of superior, to the Indians of our times. .
THE INDIANS WHEN FIRST KNOWN TO THE WHITE PEOPLE IN THE EAST.
The Indians had no houses but lived in huts they called wig- wams. These were built of poles, sticks, leaves, bark and some- times of skins, like a tent. They were generally arranged around in a small circle or cluster, and one wigwam sometimes contained several families. An Indian village contained generally from fifty to one hundred inhabitants, but sometimes they were more than twice as large. They knew but little of agriculture, though they sometimes raised corn, beans, peas, melons, tobacco, and a few other vegetables. The employment of the men was hunting, fishing and war. The work of agriculture, such as it was, was left to the squaws. They knew only enough of manufactures to make their wigwams, weapons of war, hunting and fishing, the simplest articles of dress and ornament, wampum, and a very few domestic utensils and implements of agriculture. Their food was chiefly flesh-though they sometimes subsisted on parched corn, or on a mixture of corn and beans called succotash. In boiling suc- cotash, or meat, or soup, they used a basket made water tight. The ingredients were introduced, with sufficient water, into which heated stones were dropped until it was cooked. The squaws
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WYOMING.
usually cooked the food. Their dress consisted, in the summer, of a slight covering about the waist, with ornaments for the ears, the nose, the wrists, and the ankles. In the winter they dressed in skins and furs, often untanned. In war and on ceremonial oc- casions they painted their faces with gaudy colors, giving them- selves a hideous appearance. They wore moccasins on their feet, and on state occasions they were highly ornamented. Their knives, and hatchets, and other implements and weapons were made of shells, or sharp stones, most frequently of stone, generally of flint. The bow and arrow and tomahawk were their chief weapons of war. They pounded their corn in large stones hollowed out. The ground served as beds and tables and chairs to them. The thread for sew- ing, and cords for nets, etc., were made of the tendons of animals, and their fish-hooks of bones. Their wampum was a kind of bead made of clam shells, strung together in strings, or made into belts, and was used as money by them, and to convey intelligence to other tribes. They had some idea of a good spirit, their deity being called Manitou or Manitta. They had some idea of a future state of existence beyond the grave. They had no kind of relig- ious worship. Polygamy was practiced among them, and their wives were slaves. For medical treatment they held "powwows," the medicine man, being considered a sorcerer, charmed the disease away; but sometimes they gave a little herb tea, and warm or cold bathing, and sweats. When one died, they dug a hole in the ground, wrapped the body in skins or mats, with his implements of war and hunting, and laid it in the hole. Sometimes they buried them in a sitting posture-or some Indians did-with their faces to the east. They had no horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, dogs, nor domestic fowls. They loved display. They tattooed their faces, arms, necks and shoulders, and decorated themselves with the heads of wild animals, the claws and feathers of birds, and the bones of fishes and beasts. Their sports were jumping, dancing, target-shooting, ball-playing, and various games of chance in which they indulged with passionate delight.
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