History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 5

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1158

USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I > Part 5

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In the year 1000 the Northmen, who landed somewhere on the coast of Massachusetts or Rhode Island, found the natives of Vineland, as they called the country, of the same race as those they were familiar with in bleak Labrador. Such implements of stone as those Arctic people even now use are frequently found far south from the cold country in which they now live. A fine, perfect lunar shaped knife of slate was picked up in Northampton county several years ago, only a few miles from the boundary line of Lehigh county. Similar knives of stone are to-day used by these people. This magnificent relic of a long ago departed race is now in the collection of the National Museum, at Washington, D. C., given to it by the writer.

The Lenape nation-the writer believes in ad- hering in the production of this paper to their original name,-was divided into three sub-tribes.

I. The Minsi, often corrupted into Monseys. Montheys, Munsees or Minisinks, lived in the mountainous country at the head of the waters of the Delaware river, and back of the other two tribes, forming a sort of protection against the Iroquois, who they heartily hated. They were considered the most active and warlike of the Lenape nation. Their totem or symbol was

a picture of the Wolf, who is a rambler by nature, running in every direction in search for food. Yet is he considered as their benefactor, because he led them out of the centre of the Earth, where they say they once lived, and by the appointment of the Great Spirit, killed the deer found by the Minsi when they came out of their dark and damp abode. They paint this ani- mal, sometimes at large, with one foot and leg raised to serve as a hand, in which it also carries a gun with the muzzle forward.

Generally, when speaking of their tribe, they do not use the word "wolf"; but call themselves P'duk-sit, which means roundfoot, that animal having a round foot like a dog. Naturally so, for the dog is simply a domesticated wolf.

2. The Unami, or Wonameys, meaning "peo- ple down the river." They occupied the right bank of the Delaware southward from the Le- high Valley. It was with them and the Una- lachtigos, their southern neighbors, that William Penn dealt with for lands ceded to him at treaties held at various times in Philadelphia.

Their totem or symbol was the Turtle or Tor- toise. This reptile, according to the Lenapé, claims a superiority and ascendancy above the cther totems, because their relation the great "Tortoise," the Atlas of their mythology, bears, according to their traditions, this great Island on his back, and also because he is amphibious, and can live both on land and in the water, which neither of the heads of the other tribes can do.

3. The Unalachtigo, meaning people who live near the ocean. Their principal seat was on tributaries of the Delaware near where Wilming- ton, Delaware, now is situated. They chose for their totem the Turkey, because it is stationary and always remains with them. They only painted as a "Coat of Arms" one of its feet.

Metaphorical expressions were only used in speaking of their totems. The wolf was called the roundfoot; the turtle the crawler, and the turkey was Pulleau, because he does not chew his food but only swallows it. These symbols the Indians in their hours of leisure painted upon the doors of their houses, so those who passed by might know to which tribe the owner belonged. They also served for signatures to treaties and other documents. They are proud of their origin from the animals noted, and when children are born from intermarriages between different tribes their genealogy is carefully preserved by tradi- tion in the family, that they may know to which tribe they belong.

They consider the Earth as their universal mother, and that they were created within its bosom, where they lived for a long time before coming to the surface. when the all powerful

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Spirit would in good time allow them to enjoy the good things which were prepared for them on its surface. It is contended by some Indian mythologists that while living in the bowels of the Earth they were of animal shape, such as the rabbit, tortoise and groundhog, until they came to the surface.

The Minsi or Wolf tribe had a tradition that their abode while in the Earth, was under a lake, and that one of their number fortunately discovered a hole through which they crawled to the surface. The Unamis and Unalachtigos reject this story.

They refused to eat the rabbit and groundhog for fear they might be related to them, and for a similar reason greatly respected the rattlesnake, which reptile they called their grandfather, and would on no account destroy it.

I have often reflected, says Heckewelder, on the curious connection which appears to exist in the mind of an Indian between man and the brute creation, and found much matter in it for curious observation. Although they consider themselves superior to all other animals, and are very proud of that superiority ; although they be- lieve that the beasts of the forest, the birds of the air, and the fishes in the waters were created by the Almighty Being for the use of man; yet it seems as if they ascribe the difference between themselves and the brute kind, and the dominion which they have over them, more to their su- perior bodily strength and dexterity than to their immortal souls. All beings endowed by the Creator with the power of volition and self- motion they view in a manner as a great society of which they are the head, whom they are ap- pointed, indeed, to govern, but between whom and themselves intimate ties of connection and re- lationship may exist, or at least did exist in the beginning of time. They are, in fact, according to their opinions, only the first among equals, the legitimate hereditary sovereigns of the whole ani- mated race, of which they are themselves a con- stituent part. Indeed, they go so far as to in- clude trees and plants within the first of these descriptions.

All animated nature in whatever degree is in their eyes a great whole, from which they have not yet ventured to separate themselves. They do not exclude other animals from their world of spirits, the place to which they expect to go after death. I find it difficult to express myself clearly on this abstruse subject, which, perhaps, the In- dians themselves do not very well understand.

Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, a full blood- ed Algonkin, of the Sioux nation, in an inter- esting manner tells us of the religion of the Aborigine. "The original attitude of the Amer-

ican Indian toward the Eternal, the "Great Mystery' that surrounds and embraces us, was as simple as it was exalted. To him it was the supreme conception, bringing with it the fullest measure of joy and satisfaction possible in this life. Its worship was silent, solitary, free from all self-seeking. It was silent because all speech is of necessity feeble and imperfect. It was soli- tary, because they believed that He is nearer to us in solitude. No priest was allowed to come between a man and his Maker. None might ex- hort or confess or in any way meddle with the religious experience of another. All men among the red people were created sons of God and stood erect as conscious of their divinity. Their faith might not be formulated in creeds, nor forced upon any who were unwilling to receive it ; hence there was no preaching, proselyting nor persecution, neither were there any scoffers or atheists.

"Among them there were no temples or shrines save those of nature. Being a natural man the Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or in the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rocks, and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky!" That solitary communion with the great Unseen was the high- est expression of his solitary life.

The first religious retreat marked an epoch in the life of the youth, and may be compared to confirmation in Christian experience. Having first prepared himself by means of the purifying vapor bath, and cast off as far as possible all hu- man or fleshly influences, the young man sought out the noblest height in all the surrounding re- gion. Knowing that God sets no value upon material things, he took with him no offerings or sacrifices other than symbolic objects, such as paints and tobacco. Wishing to appear before Him in all humility, he wore no clothing save his moccasins and breech clout. At the solemn hour of sunrise or sunset he took up his position overlooking the glories of earth, and facing the "Great Mystery" he there remained naked, erect, silent and motionless, exposed to the elements and forces of His arming for a night and a day, sometimes two days and two nights, but rarely longer. In this holy trance or ecstasy the In- dian mystic found his highest happiness and the motive power of his existence."

The aborigine was generally despised by his white conquerors because of simplicity, and his failure to accumulate property. His religion forbade this, but it taught him at the same time to share the fruits of his skill and success with

INDIANS.

his less fortunate brothers, thus freeing him from pride, cupidity or envy, and carrying out as he believed the divine decree, a matter of great im- portance to him.

He failed to establish permanent towns, and to develop a material civilization, because the concentration of population was the prolific mother of all evils, moral no less than physical.

He argued that food is good, while surfeit kills; that love is good, but lust destroys; and not less dreaded than the pestilence following upon crowded and unsanitary dwellings was the loss of spiritual power inseparable from too close contact with his fellowman.

The Indian adored, but did not worship the Sun and the Earth, because in his view they were the parents of all organic life. From the Sun as the universal father, proceeds the quickening principle in nature, and in the fruitful and pa- tient womb of our mother, the Earth, are hidden embryos of plants and men.

Having but limited knowledge of cause and effect he saw miracles everywhere-the process of life in seed and egg, the miracle of death in lightning flash, and in the swelling deep, crea- tion was to him a thing of wonder and past un- derstanding.

The aboriginal people amongst themselves were just and generous, and loathed to see the sick and aged suffer for the want of anything. What was needed was cheerfully given to those in want, for they believed that everything was given in common to all men, and not for the benefit of a few. Whatever liveth on the land, whatsoever groweth out of the Earth, and all that is in the rivers and waters flowing through the same, was given jointly to all, and every one is entitled to his share. Believing that all are descended from one parent they look upon them- selves as one great family, and should at all times be kind to and serviceable to each other.

An example of this is noted by the missionary, Heckewelder: "Some travelling Indians having in 1777 put their horses over night to pasture in my little meadow at Gnadenhütten, Ohio, on the Muskingum, I called on them in the morn- ing to learn why they had done so. I endeavored to make them sensible of the injury they had done me, especially as I intended to mow the meadow in a day or two. Having finished my complaint, one of them replied: 'My friend, it seems you lay claim to the grass my horses have eaten, because you had enclosed it with a fence: now tell me who caused the grass to grow? Can you make the grass grow? I think not, and nobody can except the great Mannitto. He it is who causes it to grow both for my horses and for yours! See, friend! the grass which grows

out of the earth is common to all: the game in the woods is common to all. Be not then dis- turbed because my horses ate only once of what you call your grass, though the grass was given to us all by the Great Spirit. Besides, if you will but consider, you will find that my horses did not eat all your grass. For friendship's sake, however, I shall never put my horses in your meadow again.' "

They treat each other with civility, even so the children. They are not quarrelsome and are always on their guard so as not to offend each other.

No nation in the World, says the Moravian missionary, pays greater respect to old age than this great Indian nation: "From their infancy they are taught to be kind and attentive to aged persons, and never to let them suffer for want of necessaries or comforts." Heckewelder speaks for the Lenni Lenapé people with whom he was best acquainted. "I am free to declare," he says, "that if any one should kill an old man or woman because of having become burden- some, it would cause such indignation and hor- ror that the murderer would immediately be put to death.

Each totem of the Delawares recognized a chieftain who found little trouble in governing them. The head chief was selected from the Turtle totem. Such heads were called "peace chiefs," who neither could go to war nor send or receive the war belt.

The people declared war back of whom were the "war captains," men who had distinguished themselves in battles with other tribes.

The first lesson taught Indian children is that of impressing upon their tender minds that they owe their existence to a great, good and kind Spirit who gave them life, and who watches all their actions as they pass through life. They are told of the actions that are good as well as of those which are wicked. This is not an hour or day procedure; but is a long course rather more of practice than theory, the whole com- munity even taking part in it. This instruction is given in a gentle and persuasive manner, which plan of education tends to elevate rather than to depress and by these means grow up good men and women.

A marriage contract amongst the Lenni Len- apé was not one for life. One could part from the other at any time. The male took the female, as it were on trial, determined, however, in his mind not to forsake her during good behavior, and particularly if children came to bless their union. The husband's duty was to build a home for them to live in; to procure such implements as were necessary for housekeeping, and to do

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the hunting and trapping. The woman as his helpmate took upon her the labors of the field and the house, which was neither hard nor diffi- cult, and it was always performed in a cheerful manner. "Mothers taught their daughters those duties which common sense would otherwise point out to them when grown up." As master of the family the husband considers himself bound to support it by hunting and trapping. The wife cultivated the ground, harvested in season that which grew, pounded the grain in mortars for flour, and saw also to the cutting and gathering of firewood. This part of the household duties is often performed as do the whites in the manner of frolics.

The husband likes to see his wife well dressed, while she in turn will buy for him an article which she believes will be suitable for him, telling him at the same time it is her choice, and he is never dissatisfied. The better care he takes of her the more is he esteemed by the other women, who say, "This man surely loves his wife." If a wife is sick and longs for any article of food the husband will make every effort to procure it. Heckewelder, who I have so often quoted in this paper, tells us that he knew of an Indian who travelled between forty and fifty miles to obtain a mess of cranberries longed for by his wife. He witnessed in 1762 a remarkable instance of an Indian who wished to indulge his sick wife. Famine was abroad in the land, and she longed for Indian corn. Her husband learning that a trader one hundred miles away had a little he set out on horseback to procure as much as he could get. He brought back as much as filled the crown of his hat, for which he exchanged his horse. This devotion to his loved one was certainly worthy of comment. Marriages are negotiated by the mothers on both sides, and presents of meat or cereals are exchanged be- tween the two families. The friendship between them increases daily, they do their domestic and field work jointly, and when the young people have agreed to live together they are presented with utensils of the house and for the field.

A male without parents, who wishes to gain his object, will step up to the woman he wishes to marry and say to her: "If you are willing I will take you as wife." If agreeable to her she will immediately go with him, or meet him at some appointed place.

The Lenni Lenapé were proud but not boast- ful. They considered vanity as degrading and unworthy the character of man. Whatever heroic action or meritorious service they per- formed was allowed to speak for itself. Know- ing all this they were content. They never warred with other tribes for conquest, but only

to protect their hunting grounds, and to punish such as had murdered their people or robbed them of their property. The whites have gone farther than this: they stole their land from them and when they protested murdered them.

The original character of the better tribes of the American Aborigines as found by the first white people who met them, and substantiated by numerous historical accounts was kind, hos- pitable and generous, so long as they were treated with justice and humanity. The European, how- ever, failed to develop this fine trait in him. He robbed him: then outlawed him and when he re- torted as a savage his character was blackened with unrestrained calumny.

Christopher Columbus, all of us know who he was, wrote this in letters to his king: "There are not a better people in the world than these, more affectionate, affable or mild. They love their neighbors as themselves." The navigator spoke for the Southern Indians, who were then an agricultural and stationary people. Of the New England Red people, who were Algonkins, and to which family, as before stated, belonged the Lenapes of whom we write, the Rev. Mr. Cushman, in a sermon delivered in Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, said: "The Indians are said to be the most cruel and treacherous people in all these parts, even like lions; but to us they have been like lambs, so kind, so submissive and trusty, as a man may truly say, many Christians are not so kind and sincere." Heckewelder, and no man knew the red people better than he, passed on them similar praise. William Penn in 1683 said of them: "If a European comes to see them or calls for lodgings at their house or wigwam, they give him the best place and the first cut. If they come to visit us they salute us, 'Good be to you.' If you give them anything to eat or drink, well, for they will not ask; and, be it little or much, if it be with kindness they are well pleased. In liberality they excel. Nothing is too good for their friends. Wealth circulateth like the blood; all parts partake; and though none shall want what another has, yet are they exact observers of property. Likewise, are the praises from other historical authorities. A few whites, who had an interest in swindling them, were their slanderers.

The principal food of the Lenapés consisted of game killed or taken in the forests, fish from streams near by and the products of the field, which were maize or indian corn, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, cabbages and turnips. They also ate fruits, nuts, berries and edible roots. Indian corn, Zea mais, which they raised in enormous quantities was found in cultivation by the whites upon their arrival here as far north as the St.

INDIANS.

Lawrence river. It originated in the highlands of southern and central Mexico, where the Mayas, the oldest civilized American Indians cul- tivated it. The Northmen who came to the coast of Massachusetts about the years 1000-1006, saw young corn stalks and full grown ears of corn later.

This now much used grain, given to them by kind hearted red people, saved from starvation many early settlers. Harvested by natives and procured from them by Miles Standish, it saved him and fifteen of his men from starvation dur- ing the long and dreary winter of 1620-21. The Frenchman, de Nouville, in his expedition in July, 1685, against the Seneca Indians, then liv- ing in the State of New York, destroyed in ten days 1,200,000 bushels of their corn. The writer Kalm tells us that the Swedish settlements of New Jersey and Pennsylvania were obliged to buy maize from their Indian neighbors for plant- ing and eating.

They prepare this grain in different manners. A very durable and nourishing food which they call Tassmanane is made by parching their blue, sweetish kind in clean, hot ashes until it bursts, after which it is sifted until clean and then pounded in a mortar into a kind of flour. Wish- ing to give it an extra good taste they mix a little sugar with it. When they wish to use it they take about a tablespoonful in their mouths, drinking water with it. Wishing to boil it they put a small portion into a kettle, adding water and letting it boil down until thickened. With this food the warrior or traveller will set out on long journeys and expeditions, and as little will daily satisfy him in the matter of pro- visions, he will have but little to carry. Taking more than two spoonsful at any one time was considered dangerous, for it was apt to swell. Another very palatable dish was a mixture of boiled corn and the washed kernel of the shell- bark. It had a rich and agreeable flavor.

A variety of dishes were also prepared by the Indian women from the pumpkin, squash and kidney beans. Great care was used in the selec- tion of these articles and the manner of their preparation. In the way of cooking they used but little water, declaring that if prepared in their own sap they would be more delicious. In preparing food they cover the vessels with large leaves. They made also an excellent preserve from the cranberry and crabapple, to which they added sugar.

They made two kinds of bread, one of green corn still in the milk, and the other of the same grain when fully ripe and quite dry. The last was pounded as fine as possible, then sifted and kneeded into dough, after which the preparation

was formed into cakes about six inches in diam- eter, about one inch thick, with edges rounded off. Great care was taken in baking the cakes. The ashes must be clean and hot, and, if pos- sible, be of dry oak bark, because this gave a brisk and durable heat. In this pasty mass they frequently mixed boiled pumpkins, green or dried, dried beans, or well pared chestnuts, sim- ilarly boiled, dried venison, well pounded, huckle berries, green or dry, but not boiled, sugar and other toothsome ingredients. In the preparation of the other kind of bread the green corn was either pounded or mashed, then placed in broad green corn blades well wrapped and baked in ashes. They considered this prepara- tion a very delicate morsel; Heckewelder con- sidered it too sweet.

Their meat they either boil, roast or broil. They are fond of dried venison, powdered and dipped in bear's oil. They are not only cleanly in their eating, but even delicate, and will not eat animals which they consider improper food.

Fish were exceedingly abundant in the streams of our county, and the red inhabitants knew very well how to take them from the waters. So practiced were they in this occupation that they excited the astonishment of the early Euro- peans. They took them with hook and line; shooting with arrows, which required a nice calculation as to the position of the finny vic- tim, as well as in spearing them, and with nets. They constructed traps, weirs, fish-pens and fish preserves. It is safe to assert that nets were used in this occupation by our Indians. This is proven by the fact of the presence of sinkers which are very often flat oval stones, of various sizes, notched on two opposite sides, and found in abundance along the banks of creeks and rivers. To this occupation the Delawares devoted much of their time.

Loskiel, the Moravian missionary, describes in an interesting manner the taking of shad. "When the shadfish come up the rivers the Indians run a dam of stones across the stream, where its depth will admit of it, not in a straight line, but in two parts verging towards each other in an angle. An opening is left in the middle for the water to run off. At this opening they place a large box, the bottom of which is full of holes. They then make a rope of the twigs of the wild vine, reaching across the stream, upon which boughs of about six feet in length are fastened at the distance of about two fathoms from each other. A party is detached about a mile above the dam with this rope and its appendages, who begin to move gently down the current, some guiding one some the opposite end, whilst others keep the branches from sinking by supporting the

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History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 5

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1158

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1158