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 4
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 4
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 4
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The Indians had very little beard naturally, and what they did have they pulled out by the roots. After the white people came the Indians bought wire of them, and would coil it into a spiral form, by winding it around a small stick, and with a piece of such
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
spiral spring three-quarters of an inch long or thereabouts, and about a half inch in diameter, they pulled their beards out. They laid it on the chin and moved it about slightly until the hairs got between the wires, when they squeezed it together endwise, thus catching the hair between the wires. Then they gave it a sudden jerk. Among some tribes they dressed skins for clothing and wig- wam covers, and wove mats for beds, from the bark of trees.
WYOMING .- MAUGHWAUWAMA.
"Wyoming" is a corruption of the name given to their town by the Delaware Indians. They called it Maughwauwama. This name is a compound,-Maughwau, meaning large or extensive, and wama, signifying plains or meadows; so that it may be translated "The Large Plains." The name, in the language of the Mingoes-the Six Nations-is Sgahontowano, "The Large Flats;" 'Gahonto, meaning, · in their language a large piece of ground, or tract of land without trees. All the above information was given to Mr. Chapman by the Rev. John Heckewelder, the missionary to the Indians.
"The early settlers finding it difficult to pronounce the word corectly, spoke it Wauwaume,-then Wiwaumie,-then Wiomic, and" lastly Wyoming."-Chapman.
We learn elsewhere that Skehandowanna, was the Indian name of the river Susquehanna; and that its meaning, being translated, was muddy river, or "riley (roiley) river."
The name, Wyoming, was long supposed to mean " A Field of Blood," but Heckewelder, perfectly versed in the Indian language, set its meaning "at rest."
Maughwau-wama, was the name given by the Delaware Indians to their town built by themslves, on their first taking possession of the east side of the river in 1742. It was situated on the bank of the river on the flats, on some rather elevated ground, below the mouth of a small creek, nearly opposite the upper end of the island below Wilkes-Barre, about a half or three-quarters of a mile from Market Street. That was the name of their town, whatever the name of the valley of Wyoming may have been before that. The plains or flats we know were called Wyoming, or Wayomie by Connassatego when he ordered the Delawares to come here.
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WYOMING.
It would seem that the name the Six Nations gave the valley or the flats, Sgahontowano-was afterward given to the river-Skehan- dowanna. It has been stated also that the word Susquehanna- Skehandowanna-being translated, meant " crooked river."
The creek that fell into the Susquehanna a half mile above Maughwauwama, is entirely unknown to the present generation, the sources of it having been cut off by the digging of the canal in 1833, and its bed having been filled in nearly all the way from the canal to the river; but, at and near the river, there is quite a large depression where the creek once ran, and fell into the larger stream. This creek carried off the water-the surface drainage-from the region now known as "Woodville," (Moseytown,) and from all the back part of ancient Wilkes-Barre borough. This creek, or "small stream," emptied into the river at the place where the ice-pond now is, but its channel then was as deep as the river bed, and passed along the upper side and partly through the present ice-pond, and emptied into the river six or eight rods above the foot of Ross Street. This is about midway between Market Street and the island.
It seems impossible now to point out the exact spot where that Indian town stood, but it was probably a half mile below the mouth of that creek on some ground that is seldom or never covered by the overflowing of the river.
It is not probable that more than three hundred braves and warriors ever resided at Wayomick-Maughwauwama-at any one time. Their wigwams were built of poles, sticks, brush, leaves and grass. In 1758, the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania built ten log houses there for them at the earnest request of Tedeusung, their king. These were burnt when he was murdered, in 1763. Broken arrow- heads are found there occasionally yet.
The Susquehanna river is supposed to have been meant by Captain John Smith, (of Pocahontas fame), of Virginia, in 1607-14, when he states that the Powhattans were terribly harassed by the "Sus-que-sah-hanoughs ;" meaning the Susquehanna Indians. . If these were Susquehanna Indians and Shawanese, they must have been some of the Six Nations, because the Delawares did not reside here at that time, and there is a great probability that some of the Six Nations did.
1
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
Mr. Jefferson, after describing the Powhattan confederacy, says :- "Westward of all these tribes, beyond the mountains, and extending to the great lakes, were the Massawaumees, a most powerful confeder- acy, who harassed unremittingly the Powhattans and Manahoacs. These were probably the ancestors of tribes known at present as the Six Nations." This was written more than a hundred and sixty years after John Smith's time, but he was telling the same story. Massawaumees is probably only another English pronunciation of the name of Maughwauwamas, but it had relation then only to the Indians of these plains, so called, and not to the Delaware town, for the time of Powhattan was. more than a hundred years before the Delaware town was built.
The Delawares were divided into three tribes, the Monsey, or Wolf tribe resided in the Lackawanna valley, at Capouse, with their chief called Capouse. The Wanamie, or Turtle tribe resided on the upper flats in Wilkes-Barre, (now Plains), above Mill Creek, with their chief, called Jacob by the whites; and the flats are known as Jacob's Plains. The third tribe was called Unalchitgo, or Turkey. They lived at Maughwauwama, below Wilkes-Barre, where the greater number of the Delawares resided, with their chief Tedeuscung,
The Mohicans were probably a branch of the Mohegans of New England, who at an early period settled on the head waters of the Delaware River. They came to Wyoming with the Delawares in 1742 and with their chief, called Abram by the whites, built a village above Forty Fort, in Kingston, on the plain known as Abram's Plains.
Ullanckquam, chief of the Nanticokes, known to the whites as Robert White, by an arrangement with the Six Nations, located with eighty of his people on the east side of the Susquehanna at the lower end of the valley near the site of the present town of Nanticoke, in 1748. They removed to the country of the Six Nations in 1755.
A portion of the Monsey tribe (wolves) lived in a village or town of theirs called Asserrughney, at the mouth of the Lackawanna in the forks, on the west side, with their chief called Backsinosa .*
The Shawanese came into Pennsylvania in 1697-8. They (or a part of them), built their lodges on the west side of the river on the border of the Shawnee flats, where they resided with their chief or king, called Paxinos.
*Hollister, p 84.
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WYOMING.
The greater part of the Indian tribes which inhabited the regions bordering on the Atlantic, are utterly extinct. The Penobscots, Pautuckets, Pequods, Pokanokets, Narragansets, Mohicans, Nipmucks, so troublesome to the New England settlers, in New England, are gone, and the places which "knew them once, shall know them no more forever."
Of the Six Nations of New York, once so powerful, only a few remnants remain. The tribes of Virginia have perished, and those great bands or tribes, which had the title of nations-the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Catawbas and Cherokees, have been driven from their original homes, and are gradually losing their native characteristics, under the influence of civilization, on the plains and prairies of the " Far West." This region, called the Indian Territory, lying between Kansas on the north and Texas on the south, and Arkansas on the east, contains about sixty-eight thousand square miles-about one and a half times the size of Pennsylvania. It was set apart by our government for the permanent and exclusive resi- dence of the Indian tribes, sent there from the more eastern settled States. The whole number of inhabitants in 1870 was, Indians, 59,367; Whites, 2,407; Negroes, 6,378.
There were about 82,000 Indians in the Territory in 1884.
The most numerous tribes are the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Osages, and Seminoles. These occupying various designated por- tions of the territory, are not allowed to interfere with each other's grounds or grants. They have each their own laws, and are regarded as distinct nations. The Choctaws, with whom the Chickasaws have become mixed, have a written constitution and laws, with executive and judicial officers, schools, churches and printing-offices. Agricul- ture is their chief employment.
The Creeks and Cherokees have also made considerable advances in civilization, especially the latter. The other transported tribes, as the Seminoles, Senecas, Oneidas, Tuscaroras, Shawanese, Quapaws, Delawares, and Kickapoos, are also improving under the efforts of missionaries and school teachers.
The native tribes of the territory, as the Omahas, Otoes, Missouris, Poncas, Pawnees, and others are in a more savage state. Many of them still live chiefly by robbery and hunting. 3*
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
The New York Indians have eight small reservations covering about 87,000 acres. There were about 5,000 of these Indians in 1884-Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, Tona- wandas, and St. Regis. About 800 of these are called civilized Indians.
Pennsylvania had 184 civilized Indians in 1880. They are the remnants of Cornplanter's band-part of the Six Nations.
The Mohawks removed to Canada after the revolutionary war, and still remain there.
On the arrival of William Penn, the Proprietary of Pennsyl- vania, he purchased of the Delaware Indians the country along the Delaware River below the Blue Mountains, supposing those tribes to be the only original owners; but having been informed of the claim of the Six Nations, he also negotiated a purchase of them. Some difficulty having arisen between the Proprietaries and the Delawares as to the limits or boundaries of the purchase, the Dela- wares refused to give up possession. This was called the "Walking Purchase," that they objected to. It was made in 1686, and was confirmed in 1737. One eminent person says :- "The walk was made from Wrightsville to Mauch Chunk, but little over sixty miles (in a day and a half), not much of a walk in these days. From there the line was drawn to the Delaware at the mouth of the Lackawaxen, instead of the Water Gap. This is what made the dissatisfaction, and not the distance."-Hoyt. Another writer living on the line of march long afterwards, says :- "The Proprietaries, Thomas and John Penn, immediately after the treaty (Aug. 25, 1737) advertised for the most expert walkers, and from those who were presented, selected three men, Edward Marshall, Solomon Jennings, and James Yeates. The walk took place on the 19th and 20th of September, 1737. They started from Wrightstown at a marked spruce tree, at sunrise, and at sunset Edward Marshall arrived at a creek near the northern base of the Blue Mountains. About one mile from the resting place of Marshall, there was an Indian village called Meniolagemika, at which a large number of Indians collected in the expectation that he would go no farther. But when they found that he intended to proceed in the morning (a day and a half), they were very angry, saying, they were cheated. * * One old Indian, with indignation, thus exclaimed :- ' No sit down to
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WYOMING.
smoke, no shoot squirrel, but lun, lun, lun all day long.' The next . morning at sunrise Marshall started again, and at noon arrived at the Tobihanna Creek, near the bank of which he struck his hatchet into a tree." "This line commenced near Wrightstown in Bucks county, and terminated at the Tobihanna Creek, all the way east of the Lehigh River after crossing it about a mile below Bethlehem. The course was nearly northwest from there. Marshall ran all the time, and the course was along an Indian path, that had been cleared of brush and all obstructions beforehand. At the end of the run a line was drawn at right angles, and that line ran to the Delaware at the mouth of the Lackawaxen.
As no accommodation appeared likely, a messenger was sent by the governor to the Six Nations, requesting them to send depu- ties to meet in council in Philadelphia with instructions as to the matter in dispute. Accordingly in the summer of 1742, the chiefs and principal warriors of the Six Nations to the number of 230 re- paired to Philadelphia, where they met the chiefs of the Delawares, and a general council was opened in presence of the officers of the Provincial government and a large concourse of citizens.
The governor opened the conference through an interpreter, with a long talk, which set forth that the Proprietaries of Pennsyl- vania had purchased the lands in the forks of the Delaware, several years before, of the Delaware tribe of Indians who then possessed them. That they afterward received information that the same lands were claimed by the Six Nations, and a purchase was also made of them. That in both these purchases the Proprietaries had paid the stipulated price; but the Delawares had nevertheless refused to give up possession ; and as the Six Nations claimed authority over their country, it had been thought best to hold a council of all the parties that justice might be done. The chiefs of the Six Nations were then informed that as they had on all occasions required the government of Pennsylvania to remove any whites that settled upon their lands, so now the government of Pennsylvania expected that the Six Nations would cause these Indians to remove from the lands which it had purchased. All the deeds and drafts of the lands were submitted for consideration of the council. After some deliberation among the different chiefs, Connassatego, a venerable chieftain, arose in the name of all the deputies, and in-
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
formed the governor, "That they saw the Delawares had been an unruly people and were altogether in the wrong, and that they had concluded to remove them." And addressing himself to the Dela- wares in a violent manner, he said, "You deserve to be taken by the hair of your heads and shaken till you recover your senses and become sober. We have seen a deed signed by nine of your chiefs above fifty years ago for this very land. But how came you to take upon yourselves to sell lands at all? We conquered you-we made women of you; you know you are women, and can .no more sell lands than women. Nor is it fit that you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it. You have been furnished with clothes, meat and drink by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it again like children as you are. But what makes you sell lands in the dark? Did you ever tell us that you had sold this land ? Did we ever receive any part, even the value of a pipe- shank for it? You have told us a blind story that you sent a mes- senger to us to inform us of the sale, but he never came amongst us, nor have we ever heard anything about it. But we find you are none of our blood; you act a dishonest part not only in this, but in other matters. Your ears are even open to slanderous reports about your brethren. For all these reasons we charge you to re- move instantly; we don't give you liberty to think about it. You are women; take the advice of a wise man and remove instantly. You may return to the other side of the Delaware where you came from, but we don't know whether, considering how you have de- meaned yourselves, you will be permitted to live there, or whether you have not swallowed that land down your throats as well as the lands on this side. We therefore assign you two places to go to, either to Wyoming or Shamokin. You may go 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."
He then commanded them to leave the council as he had busi- ness to do with the English.
The authority of the Six Nations was too powerful to be dis- regarded, and the speech of Connassatego had its full effect; the Delawares immediately left the disputed country; some removed to Shamokin and some to Wyoming.
45
WYOMING.
On their arrival at Wyoming the Delawares found the valley in possession of the Shawanese; but as these Indians acknowledged the authority of the Six Nations, and knew that the removal of the Delawares was in consequence of their order, resistance was inex- pedient; and the Delawares having taken quiet possession of a part of the valley, built their town of Maughwauwama on the east bank of. the river opposite the island below where Wilkes-Barre now stands. This was the origin of the Indian town of Wyoming. Here resided the greater part of the Delawares of the valley, with their king, Tadame. A smaller part lived with Chief Jacob, on the plains above Wilkes-Barre. Of course the Delawares came, then, in the summer of 1742.
A large number of converted Indians had been compelled by persecution to fly from their homes in the eastern border of New York, and to be near their Moravian brethren, came to a place on the Lehigh where they, (the Moravians) had purchased land and made an establishment for them, about eighteen miles above Bethlehem, on the Warrior's Path, called Gnadenhütten, or Huts of Mercy, in 1746. It was about forty miles southerly from Wyoming. The settlement flourished for several years, and in 1752 numbered about five hundred persons; when a deputation of Nanticokes and others from Wyoming came to visit them, numbering more than a hundred. · In consequence of this visit or mission (and probable message) about eighty of the Christian Indians, under Tedeuscung, a Delaware chief, and Christian convert already of some note, accompanied the party back to the Susquehanna and established their lodges at Wyoming- Maughwauwama. The spring following, (1753), a second band of twenty-three persons, under Paxinos, a Shawnese chief, or king, accompanied by three Iroquois ambassadors, appeared at Gnaden- hutten and desired the whole settlement to remove to Wyoming. These Christian Indians, composed of Delawaresand Mohicans, were not disposed to yield obedience to this desire, and some of them peremptorily refused. This roused the chiefs to anger, and the Shawnese chief, Paxinos, delivered the Iroquois' message :- "The Great Head, that is, the council at Onondago, speak the truth and lie not. They rejoice that some believing Indians have removed to Wayomick; but now they lift up the remaining Mohicans and Dela- wares, and set them down also in Wayomick; for there a fire is
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
kindled for them, and there they may plant and think on God. But if they will not hear, the Great Head will come and clean their ears with a red hot poker." .
Paxinos then turned to the missionaries and earnestly requested them not to hinder the converts from removing to Wyoming.
The "French and Indian War," was about breaking out, and the Six Nations had joined the French. On November 24, 1755, Gnaden- hütten was attacked by the Indians and destroyed. Eleven persons belonging to the mission were burned alive. This was Old Gnaden- hütten. The Indian houses had been removed that year, 1755, across the Lehigh to new land, and that place was called New Gnadenhütten,-where Weisport now stands-and the Indian con- verts were living there and were not hurt; but they all fled to Bethlehem, and the place was abandoned forever by the Moravians and their converts. The next year, in January, Benjamin Franklin was sent there with about five hundred troops and built Fort Allen, on the site of New Gnadenhütten.
The Gnadenhütten Indians after the burning of Old Gnadenhütten lived at Bethlehem till 1757-8, when Nain was completed; and they lived there until they became too numerous and they had to swarm. To provide for this young swarm, in 1760, another station was built at Wequetank. Nain was in the neighborhood of Nazareth. Where Wequetank was is not now known. The murders of 1763 in North- ampton county and in Wyoming, caused the Scotch-Irish settlers in Northampton county to become so threatening towards the . Moravian Indians at Nain and Wequetank, that they were removed by the Pennsylvania government to Philadelphia. The Moravian or Christian Indians, of Wyoming and Wyalusing, also fled to Phila- delphia. Peace being concluded with the hostile Indians in 1764, the Moravian Indians returned to Bethlehem, Nain and Wyalusing, in 1765. The Scotch-Irish had destroyed Wequtank .- Watson's Annals.
On the death of Tadame, the Delaware chief who was treacher- ously murdered, but by whom or for what cause there is no record, Tedeuscung was elected king of the Delawares, at Wyoming. This was in 1755 or 1756 .- Miner.
In Henry's History of the Lehigh Valley, is found the follow- ing :- "Count Zinzendorf visited Tatamy, in 1742, at his house near
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WYOMING.
Stockertown, and says, he was a man of a mild disposition, who lived much as the 'white people.' He was shot near Bethlehem in 1757, by a boy fifteen years old. Tatamy's house was about seven miles up the Bushkill from Easton. Tatamy was the principal chief of all the Indians within a hundred miles."
This is probably our Tadame, and he was not murdered at Wyoming-Maughwauwama-but at Bethlehem; but for what cause is still left unrecorded; and also whether he was shot by a white person or an Indian.
On the death of Tadame Ta-da-me, Tat-a-my, Tad-e-my, or Pat- e-mi, for the name takes all these shapes, Tadeuscund,-Tedeuscung, Teedyuscung, for this name takes all these and many more shapes,- who had been converted to Christianity at Gnadenhütten, and baptized there and given the name of Gideon, was elected king of the Delawares. This was probably in 1757.
CHAPTER II.
ZINZENDORF.
OON after the arrival of the Delawares in Wyoming, 1742, and during the same season, Count Zinzendorf, of Saxony, arrived in the valley on a religious mission to the Indians. Either he or Conrad Weiser was the first white person that ever visited Wyoming; probably Weiser had been here before him, but there is no record of it. Zinzendorf was the revivor of the ancient church of the United Brethren, and had given protection in his dominions to the persecuted Protestants who had emigrated from Moravia, thence taking the name of Moravians, and who two years before, had made their first settlement in Pennsylvania.
"Upon his arrival in America, Count Zinzendorf manifested a great anxiety to have the gospel preached to the Indians and although he had heard much of the ferocity of the Shawanese, formed a resolution to visit them. With this view he repaired to Tulpehocken, the residence of Conrad Weiser, a celebrated interpreter and Indian agent for the government, whom he wished to engage in the cause, and to accompany him to the Shawanese town. Weiser was too much occupied in business to go immediately to Wyoming, but he furnished the Count with letters to a missionary named Mack, and the latter, accompanied by his wife, who could speak the Indian language, proceeded immediately with Zinzendorf on the projected mission."
John Martin Mack, the Moravian missionary, at Gnadenhütten, was born in Würtemberg, Germany, 1715. Some time after arriving in this country, he married Jeannette, a daughter of a Mohawk chief. She spoke that language, as well as that of the Delaware and Shawanese tribes. This knowledge of the Indian tongue of the Shawanese tribe accounts for the presence of Jeannette, in the missionary expedition of Zinzendorf.
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WYOMING.
"The Shawanese appeared to be alarmed on the arrival of the strangers, who pitched their tent on the banks of the river a little below the "town, and a council of the chiefs having assembled, the declared purpose of Zinzendorf was deliberately considered. -
"To these unlettered children of the wilderness, it appeared alto- gether improbable that a stranger should have braved the dangers of a boisterous ocean three thousand miles broad, for the sole purpose of instructing them in the means of obtaining happiness after death, and that, too, without requiring any compensation for his trouble and expense; and as they had observed the anxiety of the whites to purchase land of the Indians, they naturally concluded that the real object of Zinzendorf was either to procure from them the lands at Wyoming for his own use, to search for hidden treasure, or to examine the country with a view to a future conquest.
"It was accordingly resolved to assassinate him, and to do it privately, lest a knowledge of the transaction should produce a war with the English, who were settling the country below the mountains,
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