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 6
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 6
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 6
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
"To come down to the more decidedly Christian times, it is not so very long since, in Protestant England, hanging was the punish- ment of a petty thief, long and hopeless imprisonment of a slight misdemeanor, when men were set up to be stoned and spit upon by- those who claimed the exclusive right to be called humane and merciful."
After more of this kind, all of which is true, he says :-
"This is not so bright a picture as is usually given of people who have written laws, and have stores of learning, but people cannot see in any place that the coloring is too dark. *
"There is a bright and pleasing side to the Indian character, and thinking that there has been enough written of their wars and cruelties, of the hunter's and fisherman's life, I have sat down at their fireside, listened to their legends, and am acquainted with their domestic habits, understand their finer feelings and the truly noble traits of . their character.
"It is so long now since they were the lords of this country, and formidable as your enemies, and they are so utterly wasted away and melted like snow under the meridian sun, and helpless, that you can sit down and afford to listen to the truth, and to believe that even your enemies had their virtues. Man was created in the image of God, and it cannot be that anything human is utterly vile and contemptible.
"Those who have thought of Indians as roaming about in the forests hunting and fishing, or at war, will laugh perhaps, at the idea of Indian homes, and domestic happiness. Yet there are no
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WYOMING.
people of which we have any knowledge, among whom, in their primitive state, family ties and relationships, were more distinctly defined, or more religiously respected than the Iroquois.
"Almost any portrait that we see of an Indian, he is represented with tomakawk and scalping-knife in hand, as if they possessed no other but a barbarous nature. Christians nations might with equal justice be always represented with cannon and balls, swords and pistols, as the emblems of their employment and their prevailing tastes."
"No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indians; his whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind. The moral laws which govern him are few, but he conforms to them all. The white man abounds in laws and religion, morals and manners, but how many of them does he violate. In their intercourse with the Indians the white people were con- tinually trampling upon their religion and their sacred rights. They were expected to look merely on while the graves of their fathers were robbed of their treasures, and the bones of their fathers were 'left to bleach upon the fields. And when exasperated by the brutality of their conquerors and driven to deeds of vengeance, there was very little appreciation of the motives which influenced them, and no attempt was made to palliate their cruelties. ·
"It was their custom to bury the dead with their best clothing, and the various implements they had been in the habit of using whilst living. If it was a warrior they were preparing for burial, they placed his tomahawk by his side and his knife in his shield; with the hunter, his bow and arrows and implements for cooking his food; with the. woman, their kettles and cooking apparatus, and also food for all. Tobacco was deposited in every grave; for to smoke was an Indian's idea of felicity in the body and out of it, and in this there was not so much difference as one might wish, between them and gentlemen of a paler hue."
This will do for a quotation from the English writing of a pure blooded Tuscarora chief, living on their reservation in New York. English is a foreign language to him, but after all he uses it pretty effectively.
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62
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
THE CONNECTICUT CHARTER.
1620, Nov. 3. LETTERS PATENT. King James I. to the Duke of Lenox et. al. Included all the territory from 40° to 48° of north latitude, and in length from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and to be named New England in America.
1629, March 4. LETTERS PATENT. King Charles I. to Sir Henry Roswell et. al. for the same territory, excepting any territory in possession of any other Christian Prince or State.
1662, April 20. LETTERS PATENT. King Charles II. to John Winthrop et. al. granting and confirming to them "all that part of our dominions in New England in America, bounded on the east by Narragansett River, commonly called Narragansett Bay, where the said river falleth into the sea, and on the north by the line of Massa- chusetts Colony; and on the south by the sea; running from east to west, that is to say, from the said Narragansett Bay in the east to the South Sea on the west part. To have and to hold to them and their successors and assigns forever," etc.
This is a part of the Connecticut Charter under which Con- necticut claimed the land in Wyoming or Westmoreland. They' still had to acquire the Indian title and then take possession, to make the title good. The southern line of Connecticut at its most southern point was at or about on the 41º of north latitude. Con- necticut then, claimed the lands between the parallels of 41º and 42°, from the Delaware River to the Pacific Ocean.
WILLIAM PENN'S CHARTER.
1681, March 4. CHARTER. Charles. II., King of England, to William Penn, for all that territory bounded east by the Delaware River, twelve miles northward from New Castle, to the 42° of north latitude, to extend westward five degrees of longitude. This in- cluded all the territory between the parallels of 40° and 42°, and a little south of the 40° parallel.
This was William Penn's title to the land between the above lines. He still had to acquire the Indian title-at least, that was always considered necessary in the chain of complete title.
1736, Oct. 25 .. DEED. Twenty-three Chiefs of the Six Nations to John, Thomas and Richard Penn, all the lands on both sides of
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WYOMING.
the Delaware River, from its mouth northward up the river to the Blue Hills, and from the eastward to the westward as far as Penn- sylvania extends.
After other deeds from the Indians to the Penns, not any of which conveyed any of the Wyoming lands, the last deed from the Indians is :-
1768, Nov. 5. DEED. Six Nations to Richard and John Penn: "All that part of the Province of Pennsylvania not heretofore pur- chased of the Indians." This included, of course, the territory claimed by Connecticut as far as the Province of Pennsylvania ex- tended to the northward and westward. This is the Penns' Indian title.
Pennsylvania had all the time claimed this territory by grant from the King, and now claimed it by purchase from the Indians, from the Delaware to the Ohio line ..
Which title was the best? If these grants from the King were like grants of land from man to man, then the oldest in point of time would hold, always admitting the grantor's title to be good. Connecticut's charter was the oldest by nineteen years.
THE CONNECTICUT SUSQUEHANNA COMPANY.
In 1753 about six hundred inhabitants of the Colony of Con- necticut voluntarily associated themselves under the name of "The Susquehanna Company," for the purpose of planting a new colony west of the Delaware River. These persons had in view the pur- chase of the Indian title to the Wyoming lands. The people of the whole country believed that there were three requisites demanded to render titled to lands perfect :- Ist, a charter from the King; 2d, a purchase of the soil from the Indians; 3d, possession.
In 1754 a Congress of Delegates from a number of the British colonies was called, with the approbation of the crown, to assemble at Albany, to hold a conference with the Six Nations, and to form a plan of union for their defense during the expected war. A plan of union was adopted not very unlike the present federal constitu- tion. This plan was signed by the agents of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Pennsylvania was fully and ably represented by John Penn, Isaac Norris, Benjamin Franklin and Richard Peters.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
During the session of this congress, under the eye of the Penn- sylvania Delegation, a deed was executed by the Indians-the acknowledged proprietors of the territory-to the Susquehanna Company. This was the Indian sale of Wyoming to the Con- necticut Susquehanna Company.
The old "French and Indian War" was about to commence, and the English wished to conciliate the Indians if they could. Active operations commenced early in the spring of 1755; Braddock's de- feat occurred ; the colonies were successful elsewhere, though war was not declared until 1756. In 1758 affairs looked so bad for the French that the Indians, who had joined the French in the war, appeared with a very large delegation at Easton and made a new treaty with Pennsylvania. There were no less than five hundred of them-Mohawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Tusca- roras, Nanticoques, Conays, Tuteloes, Chugnuts, Delawares, Una- mies, Minissinks, Mohicans, Wappingers and Shawanese.
On the way to this council Tedeuscung and the Delawares were accompanied by, or fell in with, one of the ambassadors of the Six Nations, a chief who had commanded the expedition against Gnad- denhütten in 1755. On the top of the mountain on the Warrior Path, in Hanover, a quarrel arose between Tedeuscung and this chief and high words passed, when Tedeuscung raised his toma- hawk and laid the chief dead at his feet. No doubt it was for this that Tedeuscung was murdered at Maughwauwama-Wyoming-in 1763, as will be mentioned in its proper place.
The French and Indian War ended by the surrender of Canada to the English, and, after the war had continued a year or so longer in other parts of the world, peace was declared in 1763. Pontiac's War commenced in 1763, seems to have been undertaken by him for the purpose of reinstating the French in Canada again. It stirred up the Indians more widely, if anything, than before for a very short time, and caused the massacre of the people in Northamp- ton county at exposed points Oct. 8, and at Wyoming Oct. 15, in 1763. After that the Indians all left the valley. Pontiac's War was but short, about one year, and trouble from him was ended by his assassination, 1767, while trying to raise the Indians on the Illinois. A few of the Indians came back to Wyoming before the whites came to make their next attempt at settlement in 1769.
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WYOMING.
At the Albany Congress of 1754 the chiefs of the Six Nations signed, sealed and delivered the following :-
"1754, July 1Ith. DEED. Eighteen 'chiefs,' 'sachems,' and 'heads of the Five Nations' in consideration of £2,000 (New York currency) convey to the Susquehanna Company lands as follows: Which said given and granted tract of land is butted, bounded and described as follows, viz: Beginning from the one and fortieth degree of north latitude, at ten miles distance east of the Susque- hanna River, and from thence with a northerly line, ten miles east of the river, to the forty-second *
* degree of north latitude, and to extend west two degrees of longitude, one hundred and twenty miles, and from thence south to the forty-first degree, and from thence east to the afore-mentioned bounds, which is ten miles east of the Susquehanna River; together, etc."
The number of grantees in this deed was 694.
From Connecticut . 638
From Rhode Island 33
From Pennsylvania IO
From Massachusetts
5
From New York. 8
This was the Susquehanna Company's Indian title to the Wyo- ming or Westmoreland lands-and it will be seen that it is fourteen years older than the Penn's deed from the same Six Nations, for the same lands (1768).
The Indians were paid in Albany for this land, in silver coin, which they divided there among themselves.
Another company, called the Delaware Company, bought of the same Indians, the lands between the easterly line of the above purchase and the Delaware river.
In 1755 surveyors were sent to survey lands along the Lacka- . waxen and in Wyoming along the Susquehanna, but the French and Indian War then raging, made the work too dangerous and they returned home.
As early as 1757 a settlement was made by the Delaware Com- pany, at Coshutunk (now Cochecton), on their purchase, and in 1760 it had thirty dwellings, a block-house and a grist-mill and saw-mill.
5
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
FIRST ATTEMPT TO SETTLE WYOMING.
In 1762 a number of the proprietors, with surveyors, went upon the Susquehanna, took possession, and began clearing the ground. The Indians had made peace in 1758 at Easton, and a number of them were living in their towns here. They made no objection to these settlers building houses, making fences around their lands, plowing, or planting. Large bodies of land were plowed and planted, reaching away down on the flats in Hanover, as it is now called; then it had no name but the general name of Wyoming. In the fall the settlers deposited their farming implements in the woods, returned home and staid during the winter. The next spring, 1763, they, with their families, stock and household furniture, renewed their possession, to the number of two hundred, and made a considerable settlement on the flats below where Wilkes-Barre now stands. "Their town was built nearer the river than the Indian village of Maughwauwame."-Miner. They also cleared and culti- vated land and built houses and a block-house at Mill Creek.
Several of the Six Nations were visiting at Maughwauwama, without any ostensible object. Tedeuscung, the king of the Dela- wares, was drunk in his wigwam on the night of the 19th of April, 1763, when twenty of the Indians' houses and wigwams burst simultaneously into flames. Tedeuscung's among the rest, he having been first assassinated. Tedeuscung had some years before killed the Mingo chief that led the party of Indians to the massa- cre of his friends, the missionaries and his Indian relatives, at Gna- denhütten, and his assassination here was probably in retaliation for that; but Iroquois Indian cunning ascribed the murder to the New England people. It is not believed, however, that the Dela- wares had anything to do with the murder of the whites here the next October; but this is the way it took place :-
The season was favorable and the various crops of the settlers on these fertile plains proved abundant, and they looked forward with hope to scenes of prosperity and happiness; when, without the least warning, on the 15th of October, 1763, a large party of sav- ages raised the war-whoop and attacked them with fury. Unpre- pared for resistance, entirely unarmed, about twenty persons were killed and scalped, the others escaped by flight to the woods, men,
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WYOMING.
women and children, in wild disorder. The settlement was ex- terminated. Not a living white person remained in the valley. Who can portray the sufferings of the fugitives, traversing the woods and swamps, destitute of food and clothing, on their way to their former homes. The crops were mostly destroyed and the buildings burned. Two days after this massacre two companies of the Paxtang Rangers,-Pennsylvania troops-arrived on the ground. The Indians had all left. The Rangers destroyed what was left of the crops. But they left standing the blockhouse and houses the settlers had built at Mill Creek; and after burying the dead returned home. One of these companies of Rangers was commanded by Capt. Lazarus Stewart, then with the Pennsylvanians-in a few years he was on the Connecticut side. This massacre was due to the dis- affection of the Indians toward the English during the Pontiac War, and was probably committed by the same Indians that murdered Tedeuscung; but from what the Delawares were guilty of afterwards, we need not think they were too good to do this. After the mur- der of Tedeusung the Christian Indians of Maughwauwama and Wyalusing fled to Bethlehem, but after the restoration of quiet they returned-in 1765-to the Susquehanna, and made their rest- ing place at Wyalusing. In 1771 all these Christian Indians re- moved to Ohio. There is an affecting story told of part of these Wyalusing Christian Indians on their way to Ohio, coming to Maughwauwama to wail over the graves of their dead and shed a tear over their departed ancestors. The pagan Indians only, remained in the valley of the Susquehanna.
For the next six years there were no white people in the valley, and up to that time no Pennsylvania settler had set his foot within it. Now we approach the miserable contest between the Connecticut settlers and the government of the Penns.
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CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST PENNAMITE AND YANKEE WAR.
N 1768, at Hartford, in Connecticut, the Susquehanna Com- pany resolved "that five townships, five miles square, should be surveyed and granted, each to forty settlers, being pro- prietors, owners of land, on condition that those settlers should remain upon the ground, man their rights, and defend themselves and each other, from the intrusion of all rival claimants." Five townships in the heart of the valley were assigned to these first adventurers; Wilkes-Barre, Hanover, Kingston, Plymouth and Pitt- ston. The lands were divided into "rights" of four hundred acres each, "reserving and apportioning three whole rights, or shares, in each township, for the public use of a gospel ministry and schools,, in each of said towns." With these settlers came Captains Butler, Ransom, (John) Durkee, and Stewart, all of whom had seen honor- able service in the "French and Indian War," and had shared in the campaign at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, except Stewart, who was at Braddock's defeat. They were not without the aid of bold adherents obtained in Pennsylvania. The Shoemakers and Mc- Dowells, from the settlements on the Delaware, above the Blue Hills; 'and Captain Lazarus Stewart and the other Stewarts, and the Youngs and Hollenbacks and others from Hanover, in Lancaster county, now Dauphin, and also by some Quakers from Rhode Island.
"The leaders of the Pennamites were Charles Stewart, Captain Amos Ogden and Sheriff Jennings, of Northampton county, Pa.
The Penns had leased to Stewart, Ogden and Jennings, one hundred acres for seven years, on condition of "defending the lands from the Connecticut claimants." They arrived first upon the ground. This was in January, 1769. They took possession of the block- house and huts at Mill Creek, (about a mile above the present city
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WYOMING.
of Wilkes-Barre), which had been left by the massacred settlers of 1763. They laid out for the Proprietaries two extensive manors, "Stoke," on the east bank, and "Sunbury" on the west bank of the Susquehanna, embracing the heart of the Wyoming Valley and com- prising more than 30,000 acres, and to be ruled like the English baronial manors, with their courts-baron, etc. The Penns took all the best of the land for themselves.
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· The word " Proprietaries," means the heirs of William Penn; and the "Governors or the Proprietaries," mean the governors of Penn- sylvania, appointed by the descendants of Penn, to govern during the absence of the Penns. The word "Yankee," is a corruption of the word "English," and is of Indian origin. "Pennamite and Yankee," means simply the two parties in the quarrel for the terri- tory, the word "Pennamite " having probably a shade of contempt in it, as applied by the Yankee. This was probably reciprocated by the Pennamite. We have all outgrown it now, and can use them and have them used without any feeling on account of it. The word " Proprietor," meant one who had bought land of the Susque- hanna Company or of another proprietor and settled upon it, or had it "manned" for himself by some man building a house on it and living there under his directions, to defend it from all intruders.
On the 8th of February, 1769, the first forty Connecticut settlers arrived. Finding the block-house in possession of Ogden, they sat down, mid-winter as it was, to besiege it and starve out the garrison. Ogden proposed a conference. "Propose to a Yankee to talk over a matter, especially which he has studied and believes to be right, and you touch the most susceptible chord which vibrates in his heart."* It was so here. Three of their chief men went to the block-house to "argue the matter." Once within, Sheriff Jennings arrested them on a writ "in the name of Pennsylvania." They were taken to the jail at Easton. They went along peaceably. Friends there bailed them out, and they at once returned to Wyoming and took posses- sion of the vacant fort. Ogden, when he heard of it, raised the posse of Northampton county, stormed the Yankee fort, and carried the whole forty to Easton. They were all immediately bailed out again, and at once returned to Wyoming. But this for the second time left the valley without white inhabitants.
*Miner.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
The additional quotas of forty each, for the other four townships arrived in April, making two hundred in all, counting the forty just arrived from Easton. They erected Fort Durkee on the river bank, and thirty huts. The fort stood at the lower end of the "river com- mon" in Wilkes-Barre. The block-house at Mill Creek was too remote from the lower flats, near the old Indian town of Wywamick, Maughwauwama, where large fields, long since cleared, invited cultivators.
There is nothing now to show the exact time that Hanover was settled, but as the forty to whom Hanover had been assigned, arrived with this last party, in April,* it is to be supposed that they took immediate possession and built a block-house on it, as it had open fields bare of trees, and adjoined the Wilkes-Barre flats about a mile below the town of Maughwauwama. .
The settlers had full possession now, and went vigorously to work, plowing, planting, felling trees and building houses.
The reader will probably be pleased to see a list of the first two hundred names enrolled as actual settlers to "man their rights" in the first five townships. The roll is dated June 2d, 1769.
David Whittlesey,
Stephen Miles,
Moses Hebbard, jr.,*
Job Green,
Jonathan Carrington,
Jabez Fish,
Philip Goss,
John Dorrance,
Peris Briggs,
Joshua Whitney,
Noah Allen,
Aaron Walter,
Abraham Savage,
Robert Jackson,
James May,
Ebenezer Stearns,
Zebulon Hawksey,
Samuel Badger,
Sylvester Chese- brough,
Caleb Tennant,
Samuel Dorrance,
Zephaniah Thayer,
Zerobable Wightman, John Comstock,
Elephalet Jewel, .
Gurdon Hopson, Asa Lee,
Samuel Hotchkiss,
Daniel Gore,
Wm. Leonard,
Ozias Yale,
Thomas Wallworth,
Elisha Avery,
Henry Wall,
Robert Hunter,
Ezra Buel,
Rowland Barton,
John Baker,
Gershon, Hewit,
Gideon Lawrence,
Jonathan Orms,
Nathaniel Goss,
Nathaniel Watson,
Daniel Angel,
Benjamin Hewit, jr.,
Philip Weeks,
1 Elias Roberts,
Elias Thomas,
Thomas Weeks,
Nicholas Manvil,
Abijah Mock,
Asher Harrot,
Thomas Gray,
Ephraim Fellows,
Asa Lawrence,
Joseph Gaylord,
Joseph Arnold;
James Dunkin,
Jabez Cooke,
*It is claimed now that the two hundred did not include the Hanover men ; that the number for a township had been changed to fifty; that the Lancaster county forty took in ten Yankees, and arrived on the ground in February, 1770.
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WYOMING.
Ebenezer Hebbard,* Morgan Carvan, Samuel Marvin, Silas Gore,* Ebenezer Northrop, Joshua Lampher, Joseph Hillman, Abel Pierce, Jabez Roberts. Jenks Corah,* Obadiah Gore, jr., Caleb White,
Wm. Churchell, Henry Strong, Zebulon Frisbee, Hezekiah Knapp, John Kenyon, Preserved Taylor, Isaac Bennett, Uriah Marvin,
Ephraim Arnold, Benjamin Ashley, Wm. White,
Stephen Hull, Diah Hull,
Joseph Lee,
Samuel Wybrant,
Reuben Hurlbut,
Phineas Stevens,
Abraham Colt,
Elijah Buck, Noah Read,
Samuel Sweet,
Jonathan Buck, David Mead,
Thomas Ferlin,
Wm. Wallsworth,
Thomas Draper,
James Smith,
Daniel Marvain,
John Wiley,
Timothy Vorce, . Cyrus Kenne,
James Evans,
Eleazer Carey,
John Wallsworth,
John Shaw, James. Forsythe,
Cyprian Lothrop,
James Nesbitt,
Samuel Millington,
Benjamin Budd,
John Lee,
Josiah Dean,
Thomas Bennett,
Zophur Teed,
Moses Hebbard,*
Dan Murdock,
Samuel Story,
Joseph Slocum,
Stephen Lee,
Robert Hopkins, '
Daniel Haynes,
Lemuel Smith,
Silas Park,
Stephen Hungerford, Zeorbable Jeorum,
Samuel Morgan. John Clark, Elijah Lewis,
Theophilus Westover, Comfort Goss,
John Sterling,
Wm. Draper,
Timothy Hopkins,
Joseph Morse,* Stephen Fuller, Andrew Durkee,
Thomas McClure, Peter Ayres, Solomon Johnson,
Edward Johnson, Jacob Dingman, Naniad Coleman,
Capt. Prince Alden,
Peter Comstock, John Durkee, Joseph Webster,
Benedict Satterlee, John Franklin,*
Benjamin Matthews,
Stephen Hurlbut, Benjamin Hewit,
Wm. Gallop,
Jesse Leonard,
Ebenezer Stone, Thomas Olcott,
Stephen Hinsdale, Benj. Dorchester, Elijah Witter, Oliver Post,
Daniel Cass,
Isaac Tracy,
Christopher Avery, Elisha Babcock, John Perkins,
Noah Lee, .
John Mitchel, Samuel Orton,
Christopher Gardner, Duty Gerold, Peris Bradford,
Benj. Shoemaker, jr., Jaebez Sill, Parshall Terry, John Delong,
Abisha Bingham,
Andrew Medcalf,
Daniel Brown,
Nathan Beach,
Thomas Knight, John Jollee, Ebenezer Norton,
Enos Yale,
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