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 5
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 5
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 5
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"Zinzendorf was alone in his tent, seated upon a bundle of dry weeds which composed his bed, and engaged in writing, when the assassins approached to execute their bloody commission. A cur- tain formed of a blanket, and hung upon pins, was the only guard to the entrance of his tent.
"The heat of his fire had aroused a large rattlesnake which lay in the weeds not far from it, and the reptile to enjoy it more effectually, crawled slowly into the tent and passed over one of his legs undiscovered. Without, all was still and quiet, except the gentle murmur of the river at the rapids about a mile below. At this moment the Indians softly approached the door of his tent, and slightly removing the curtain, contemplated the venerable man, too deeply engaged in the subject of his thoughts to notice either their approach or the snake which lay extended before him. At a sight like this, even the heart of the savage shrunk from the idea of com- mitting so horrid an act, and quitting the spot they hastily returned to the town, and informed their companions that the Great Spirit protected the white man, for they had found him with no door but a blanket, and had seen a large rattlesnake crawl over his legs with- out attempting to injure him.
4
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
"This circumstance, together with the arrival soon afterwards of Conrad Weiser, procured Zinzendorf the friendship and confidence of the Indians and probably contributed essentially towards inducing many of them, at a subsequent period, to embrace the Christian religion. The Count having spent twenty days at Wyoming returned to Bethlehem, a town then building by his Christian brethren on the north bank of the Lehigh, about eleven miles from its junction with the Delaware."-Chapman.
Soon afterwards two other missionaries visited the valley and preached to the Indians in the various settlements, or towns along the Susquehanna.
The missionary station at Gnadenhütten, for about eight years before its destruction, had many Indians, men and women, resident there who professed the Christian religion. There were no resident Indians there but converts. They lived in peace, tilled the ground, and studied reading and writing. They were composed of Dela- wares, Mohicans and Shawanese; and occasionally a Mingo (Six Nations) professed to be converted and was baptized. The sincerity of these Indians is not to be doubted. The wife of Paxinos, who accompanied him there on his mission in 1753, was, or affected to become, converted, was baptized, and admitted a member of the congregation.
There was communication back and forth between these Indians and their relatives in Wyoming Valley. The Warriors' Path through Hanover was the road traveled on these visits. It was about forty miles, and the path passed through Old Gnadenhütten. "Old Gnadenhütten" was situated about three-quarters of a mile from the Lehigh River, in the back part of what is now called Lehighton. The land had become poor from continuous cultiva- tion, and during the year 1755 New Gnadenhütten had been built across the river, at what is now called Weisport.
Forty years ago-now 1884-5-the Warrior Path was still a well beaten path across the mountain from Hanover,-had been used by the whites after the Indians left, and can still be seen. A famous spring, called the "Indian Spring," still exists near the top of the mountain on the old Warrior Path. This was the path by which the Indians (from Wyoming, the historians say, but it would be correct to say through Wyoming) went to massacre those converted
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Christian Indians at Gnadenhütten in 1755, and only struck the missionaries and their families; and those other murders committed by them in Lynn, Heidelberg, Whitehall and Macungy townships in Northampton county then, now in Lehigh; their houses destroyed, their farms laid waste, barns, grain, fences, etc., burnt to ashes, and eighteen persons killed. These murders were committed about the 8th of October, 1763. The same parties that committed these murders, on their return through Wyoming on October 15th, 1763 (seven days afterwards), murdered the settlers of the first party of Yankees that tried to make a settlement at Wyoming, as will be re- lated in its proper place.
It is not known now where the Warrior Path crossed the Sus- quehanna, nor where it crossed Hanover township, until it com- mences to ascend the Little Mountain. It commenced to ascend the mountain within twenty rods east of the creek at the Warrior Run Mines where it passes through the gap in the Little Mountain called "Warrior Gap." The path did not go through the gap, but kept to the east of it. Its course was nearly a straight line, run- ning about twenty degrees east of south, across the deep narrow valley between the Little and Big Mountains, across the Big Moun- tain at the Indian Spring, and on the same course east of south towards Gnadenhütten (Lehighton), keeping on the west side of the Lehigh all the way down to Gnadenhütten, and to Allentown, where it would leave the vicinity of the Lehigh. This could not have been the path the Walking Purchase was run on, but would seem to be a parallel path not more than twenty miles from it to the west.
THE GRASSHOPPER WAR.
The writer heard the story of the Grasshopper War from his grandfather, and his recollection of the matter is, that it did not amount to much; but that the Indians mentioned it with contempt, and, although they told it themselves, they were ashamed that there should have been any fight at all among the men for such a cause. Here is Col. Wright's relation of it :-
"The circumstances which led to this battle I will briefly relate. A number of Delaware squaws, with their children, were gathering wild fruits along the eastern bank of the river, some two miles be-
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
low their village, which stood on the lower side of the present limits of the city of Wilkes-Barre, where they met with some squaws and their children of the Shawnee tribe, who had crossed the river in their canoes for the same purpose.
"A child belonging to the Shawnees had taken a large grass- hopper, and a quarrel arose among the children for the possession of it, in which their mothers soon took part. The Delaware women contending that the east side of the river was their property, persisted in their right to the grasshopper, and the feminine conflict terminated in the expulsion of the Shawnee squaws to the west side. And it is asserted, though I apprehend upon very question- able authority, that some of these women were killed in this en- gagement. The expulsion of the Shawnee women irritated and maddened their husbands, and the consequence was a declaration of war on the part of the Shawnees against the Delawares. The Shawnees embarked in their canoes, but were met by the Dela- wares before they could obtain a foothold upon the east bank of the river; but still they were able to effect a landing, and a bloody conflict ensued at the great bend of the river immediately above the present railroad bridge. It is said that nearly half of the Shawnees fell upon the battlefield. They were certainly driven back to their own side of the stream.".
Among the old people of Hanover this Grasshopper War or Battle was understood to have been fought on the Hanover flats below the Red Tavern, called by Christopher Hurlbut the "Nanti- coke Flats."
This event took place some twenty years only before the advent of the white settlers.
Indian arrow-heads, spear-heads, axes and various other instru- ments, made of flint nicely chipped into shape, were formerly very frequently found in the fields in plowing, both on the flats and on the back land. Of late very few have been found. The boys, forty years and more ago, used to have "pockets full" of them, and they would compare them with each other's "finds" frequently when they met to see who had the most perfect specimens. The most of them would have some part, such as a point, or corner, or the shank or some small part broken off, but frequently perfect specimens were found. The larger ones, such as spear-heads and
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WYOMING.
axes, were too large to be carried in the pocket and they were not so numerous. It was not every boy that could boast of the pos- session of one of them. The writer has himself found many arrow- heads, and an Indian stone axe; but such things were so common when he was a boy, that nothing was thought of them then. Every- body had some, and so no. one cared for them or to preserve them. Now it may be difficult to find anyone in Hanover that has a single specimen to show. What has become of them? They were some- times used for "flint and steel," to kindle fires. They were about the color of the ordinary gun flint of those times-a brownish color.
When the white people first settled here, and until shortly be- fore the battle and massacre of 1778, the Indians lived here on ex- cellent terms with the whites. The white boys frequently went to the Indian dances to see them perform and to hear their singing and music, such as it was. The writer remembers hearing the same old veteran before mentioned many times describe the Indians' song and dance, and in his description he somtimes gave the words and sang them, as nearly as he could, as the Indians did. According to the writer's recollection of it, it was a continuous repetition of the words :- He oh, he uh,-he oh, he uh,-or else it was he eh, he eh,-he eh, he eh ; and after a number of these expressions had been uttered, always in a sad or mournful tone, a yell was given; and then after a short pause in the "song," he oh, he uh began again. In the first he oh of each couplet the oh was somewhat prolonged, but in the he uh the uh was short, but strongly aspirated. The yell was given as loudly as the singer could whoop-yeh! This song, as recollected, was sometimes varied, as :- He oh, hinny uh,-he oh, hinny uh.
These dances were so frequent that the young men were quite intimate with each other. Their intercourse was always friendly and neighborly, only that the white people were forbidden by their local laws to give the Indians any liquor. The young men-red and white-hunted and fished together and lived like white neigh- bors to each other. .
These Indians left the valley a few months before the battle and massacre of July 3, 1778. The white people were surprised at that, for the Indians had always been well treated by them, and
.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
.
they had been well treated by the Indians, except that just before the Indians left, a few months, they became somewhat impudent and threatening. They went to begging, and on being refused anything they asked for, especially liquor, they would manifest considerable discontent, and occasionally let out some threat. There were not many Indians living here after the whites came, but there were several families in each of their towns. The old veteran, from whom the writer received the above information, had lived among, or neighbor to, these Indians for many years, and atthat period of life when impressions made .on one are the most lasting. The writer (then some ten or twelve years old) remembers hearing him sing the Indian song as they sang it at the dance, and how monotonous in tone and words it was. Since then he has heard Indian singing- real Indians-and the same monotony, and, it seemed, sadness of sound, occurred. It was a dreary repetition over and over, of the same words and sounds and a yell at the end.
Mr. Miner thinks these Wyoming Indians were coerced into fighting the whites here at the massacre by the Six Nations, to whom they were simply conquered vassals-subject tribes, paying tribute and making war, open or secret, on such people as they were directed to by their masters. This may all be true, but it is doubtful whether they were ever worthy of any confidence or trust. What! Good neighbors come back to kill their friends ! .
The Indians here had fire-arms and were good marksmen. They did not depend upon the bow and arrow, spear and tomahawk for weapons. They shot at mark, ran races, and hunted with the whites, and probably might have continued to live with them until now, and become civilized, but they would not.
The writer can remember very well seeing the old men's eyes flash with anger, or something very like it, when relating or recall- ing to each other the conduct of these Indians here at that time, even after so many years had passed and their heads were white with age. Ten or twelve of them were still alive when he was ten years old. They were all, so far as he knows, in comfortable circumstances in life, and their meetings together were quite fre- quent, and quite jovial. But they had a hatred for the Indians ever after their unparalleled treachery here. These old veterans were called out on all occasions of public interest, to grace the proceed-
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ings; such as the opening of a canal to public use; the opening excursion of a railroad; the laying of the corner stone of a public building, or a monument, or the reception of some great public character, either foreign or home; some great dinner, speech, cele- bration, a great celebration of the fourth of July, or to mark some public event, and many other things. In all such cases it was the usual and proper thing, the people thought, for these old warriors to be called out to be their guests, and to honor and to be honored.
The opening of the Lehigh Canal from White Haven to Mauch Chunk, (1838), was one case; the completion of the railroad from Wilkes-Barre to White Haven was another. At the opening of the canal, these old men all rode to White Haven from Wilkes-Barre on horseback, eighteen miles, except one who rode in a carriage which broke down on the way, on account of the execrable road.
The writer remembers only two of these old soldiers alive and able to be at the celebration of the completion of the Wyoming Monument, in 1842. There may have been others; there probably were. These were Col. George Palmer Ransom, of Plymouth and Elisha Blackman, of Hanover.
Mr. Blackman died in December, 1845, the last of the survivors, of the Wyoming massacre. Col. Ransom was not in the battle and massacre, but was away with the army, two days' march from the ·valley, hurrying in with those soldiers that were not sent home in time. Elisha Blackman lies buried in the Hanover Cemetery, on "The Green." Mr. Blackman assisted in burying the dead, in October, 1778, that were slain in the massacre, and after assisting to gather such crops as were still remaining in the valley, he enlisted in the army the same year, and served till the end of the war, and independence was achieved.
SOMETHING ON THE INDIAN SIDE OF THE STORY.
LETTER FROM CONRAD WEISER TO GOV. DENNY, OF PENNSYLVANIA. MEMORANDUM TAKEN AT FORT ALLEN, NOV. 26, 1756.
"As I came along this morning from Nicholas Upplinger's,* Joseph Tatamyt kept me company for the most part, and sometimes
*At the Water Gap.
+Son of William Tatamy the Delaware Indian chief that was murdered in 1757, near Bethlehem .- Tadame.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
John Pumpshire.# We began to discourse about this present Indian war. I asked them several questions, and so did they me. Among other things, I told them that for my part, I did not under- stand Teedyuscong§ clearly, in his speech about the cause of the war; now and then he blamed the English in general, the Proprie- taries of Pennsylvania, and the Indians for being too credulous and foolish to believe the French; sometimes said the Frenchman's success, wealth and power, prevailed upon you all, and so on.
Joseph Tatamy told me that everything had been agreed upon in the Indian council; that their king Teedyuscong had everything in his heart and knew what to say before he came to Easton, and that there his memory was refreshed, but being too often overcome with strong liquor, he spoke confusedly, though nothing that was wrong or false in itself, only not. in such order as he ought to have done, and one passage he never mentioned at all, which had drawn the Delaware. Indian's heart from the English and their Indian allies.
"That Teedyuscong should have given an account of the differ- * ences that had arisen sometime ago between the Delaware, Minissink Indians and the Mingoes (the Six Nations), and should have told the Governor of Pennsylvania how the latter have cheated the former out of a great deal of land on the river Delaware, and sold it to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania; that the Mingoes had abused the Delawares some years before, in Philadelphia, (1742), as if the Delaware and Minissink Indians were their dogs, and that Cannassatego, then speaker among the Mingoes, drove them away from their own land, and said he would give them lands on the Susquehanna River, and ordered them instantly to settle there, which the Delaware and some of the Minissink Indians did, in order to prevent mischief. That then Cannassatego sold that land to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania; but the Delawares and Minissink Indians made no reply against it, thinking themselves safe enough on Susquehanna; but about three years ago, a company of New England men had come down Susquehanna and taken draughts of all the good spots of land, and perhaps of all; that when the Indians asked why they did so, they boldly answered that so many
1
¿Another noted Indian.
¿This was the principal Delaware Indian chief or king; he made a speech at a treaty that year.
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WYOMING.
· · hundred families from New England would come and settle there. 'This is our land,' said the Indians who were settled there. 'No!' was the reply; 'it belongs to the Mingoes; you are only their tenants, slaves, dogs.' That thereupon, the Delawares sent a large body of their people, as their deputation to the Mohawk country, to protest against the New England people, or any other whites settling there, and to complain of the Mohawks' proceeding, and to tell them plainly that if they, the Mohawks, would not prevent the New England people from settling on the Susquehanna, they, the Delawares, would go over to Ohio, to the French, in hopes of receiving better usage from them. That the Mohawks then denied everything, and said the New England people had no leave of them for any lands on the Susquehanna and that they never would sell them any, and that neither the New England people nor any other white should settle there. That the deputation then went home again, the Delaware and Minissink Indians being thus satisfied, but that they were soon informed by some of the Mingoes themselves, that that land had actually been sold to the New England people, and that the Mohawks had received large considerations for them, and that the Mohawks had deceived the deputies of the Proprie- taries of Pennsylvania, who were about buying it, and having promised the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania that they should have the preference, if ever the land was sold. At this they became enraged, and fearing that they would be cut off, they gathered at Tiago, to see what would be the consequence and whether they would join the French, or hold on to their lands; a great many did so, others went over to the French from time to time, and came . back with messages from them. The war broke out.
"I said I wished that this story had been told at the treaty. Teedyuscong said he was afraid of the Mingo Indians that were there, lest they might misrepresent the story when they came home. 'The Mingo Indians' (continued Tatamy), 'have from the beginning cheated our nation, and got our forefathers to call them uncles by. deceit and art and at last said they had conquered our forefathers; whereas the Mingoes stood in need of our forefathers' assistance, and got some of their cunning men to come down to our forefathers, with the news that a certain nation from the west was preparing to
4*
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.'
come and cut them off, and so our forefathers entered into a league · with them, and rather fought their battles, when the Mohawks should have fought ours.'
"Both these Indians were desirous and insisted that I should use my endeavors with the governor and people of Pennsylvania, to lay out a large tract of land on Susquehanna and secure it to their posterity, so that none of the whites could sell it, or anybody buy it. That if this was done, the Delawares would, for the most part, come and live on it and be reconciled to the people and government of Pennsylvania forever. Teedyuscong told me much the same story, as before mentioned, before we parted, with very little differ- ence, and desired the same of me."
"CONRAD WEISER."*
SOMETHING IN THE INDIAN FAVOR, CONTINUED.
In a history of the Six Nations, published in 1881, by a Tus- carora Indian Chief, called in English Elias Johnson, is found the following several extracts :-
"In the early histories of the American Colonies, in the stories of Indian life and the delineations of Indian character, these children of nature are represented as savages and barbarians, and in the mind of a large portion of the community the sentiment still prevails that they were bloodthirsty, revengeful and merciless, justly a terror to both friends and foes. Children are impressed with the idea that an Indian is scarcely human and as much to be feared as the most ferocious animal of the forest. *
"But I am inclined to think that Indians are not alone in being savage-not alone barbarous, heartless and merciless.
"It is said they were exterminating each other by aggressive and devastating wars before the white people came among them. But wars, aggressive and exterminating wars, certainly, are not proofs of barbarity. The bravest warrior was the most honored, and this has been ever true of Christian nations, and those who call themselves Christians have not yet ceased to look upon him who could plan most successfully the wholesale slaughter of human beings, as the most deserving his king's or his country's laurels.
*History of the Lehigh Valley, by Henry. p. 27.
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WYOMING.
How long since the paan died away in praise of the Duke of Welling- ton? What have been the wars in which Europe, or America, has been engaged, that there has been no records of her history? For what are civilized and Christian nations drenching their fields with blood?
"It is said the Indian was cruel to the captives, and inflicted unspeakable torture upon his enemy taken in battle. But from what we know of them, it is not to be inferred that Indian chiefs were ever guilty of filling dungeons with innocent victims, or slaughter- ing hundreds and thousands of their own people, whose only sin was a quiet dissent from some religious dogma. Towards their enemies they were often relentless, and they have good reason to look upon the white man as their enemy. They slew them in battle, plotted against them secretely, and in a few instances comparatively subjected individuals to torture, burned them at the stake, and, perhaps flayed them alive. But who knows anything of the precepts and practices of the Roman Catholic Christendom, and quotes these things as proofs of unmitigated barbarity ?
"At the very time that the Indians were using the tomahawk and scalping-knife to avenge their wrongs, peaceful citizens in every coun- try of Europe, where the pope was the man of authority, were incar- cerated for no crime whatever and such refinement of torture invented and practiced, as never entered into the heart of the fiercest Indian warrior that roamed the wilderness, to inflict upon man or beast.
"We know very little of the secrets of the Inquisition, and this little chills our blood with horror. Yet these things were done in the name of Christ, the Savior of the World, the Prince of Peace, and not savage, but civilized Christian men looked on, not coldly, but rejoicingly, while women and children writhed in flames and weltered in blood. Were the atrocities committed in the vale of Wyoming and Cherry Valley unprecedented among the Waldensian fastnesses, and the mountains of Auvergne? Who has read Fox's Book of Martyrs, and found anything to parallel it in all the records of Indian warfare? The slaughter of St. Barthlomew's days, the destruction of the Jews in Spain, and the Scotch covenanters, were in obedience to the mandates of Christian princes,-aye, and some of them devised by Christian women who professed to be serving God, and to make the Bible the man of their counsel.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
"It is said also, that the Indians were treacherous, and more, no compliance with the conditions of any treaty, was ever to be trusted. But the Puritan fathers cannot be wholly exonerated from the charge of faithlessness; and who does not blush to talk of Indian traitors when he remembers the Spanish invasion and the fall of the princely and magnanimous Montezuma?
"Indians believed in witches, and burned them, too. And did not the sainted Baxter, with the Bible in his hand, pronounce it right, and was not the Indian permitted to be present, when the quiet unoffending woman was cast into the fire, by the decree of a Puritan council?
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