History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 8

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 8

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The primitive form of the pipe, we are told, was a straight tube, shaped often like the pres- ent cigar holders.

Fig. of Pipe

An interesting animal pipe, natural size, is here shown. It was found in Lehigh town- ship, Northampton county, this state. The fun- nel shaped bowl is placed in front of the effigy. It is three inches long, one inch thick, and weighs three ounces. The tail as the drawing shows, was perforated for suspension. This is the case with many of the pipes found in sec- tions where deep snow lies.

Their so-called ceremonial weapons, made in most instances of a soft stone, and gracefully formed, are found quite often in this section. Because of their shape they are often called "but- terfly" stones. They are perforated through their centre, which is always the thickest part of the implement. We do not for a certainty know how or why they were used. They may have been brought into play during a ceremonial occurrence of some kind. They were perhaps looked upon as having the power to bring good fortune to the owner, especially when marching against an enemy or when hunting for game. A verification of this theory may be cited in the fact that there is now resting in the magnificent A. F. Berlin collection, in the museum of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, at Wilkes-Barre, Penna., a butterfly shaped object

INDIANS.

of this kind, once owned by a Delaware Indian who about 150 years ago gave it to one of the early settlers of this section for a small quan- tity of tobacco. The Aborigine, loaded with skins and furs, which he had taken in the moun- tains toward the north, was then on his way to the frontier trading post of Bethlehem, twelve miles away. He could not while on this mis- sion use the implement for attack because it is made of soapstone. The slightest blow would have shivered it into atoms. Why then did he carry it? Because he believed that possession of it would bring him good luck while on the hunt.

1140686

Butterfly Ceremonial.

Here is figured, one-half natural size, one of the most interesting of perforated butterfly ob- jects. Into it have been bored two extra lateral holes, a feature never before seen in a perfect specimen by the writer. On both sides of the object occur many notches, and upon its faces have been engraved zig-zag and tree-like paral- lel lines. It is made of a gray soapstone and was found near Kutztown, this state.

Pendants

The exceedingly interesting pendant shown here, full size, was picked up at Laury's Station, this county. On each side of it, as shown, is engraved the figure of an unknown animal. The holes at the upper end were made by the drill-like specimens shown on plate as numbers 5 and 7.

Repasipo r.t. Grund Sept. 1894

Gorget

This full size and twice perforated imple- ment is called a gorget. It is nicely polished and bevelled and its edges have a very sawlike appearance. Its use is unknown.

They made pottery of clay, which was at times nicely ornamented, often holding several gallons. Perfect specimens are exceedingly rare ; but frag- ments are often picked up where were once their villages.

Beads of stone are now and then found. Those of shell, of which they made great num- bers, have all gone to decay. Their wampum or shell money is seldom found. Only a few of their pretty shell belts which they used in their treaties are in existence. The writer knows of but one which is in possession of an individual at Nazareth, this state. These belts often at- tained a great length.

Cylinders of stone, often twenty inches long, used in making flour, are now and then found. Their stationary mortars pecked into large boul- ders are not very plentiful in this section.

Ignorant of the relative worth of metal, which they treated only as malleable stone, it was necessary that they in their commercial inter- course with each other should agree upon some- thing which by common consent would be re- garded and accepted as the representative of fixed values.

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

They agreed upon shell money or wampum, which is said to be an Algonkin word meaning a mussel, or as some others will have it "white," which was the prevailing color of the beads. The ordinary wampum beads are cylindrical in form, having a length of one-sixth to one- quarter of an inch and about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. The more valuable color was a blue or purplish black.

This curious money was extensively manufac- tured by the Northern Indians, and for a con- siderable time circulated freely in New Eng- land, New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Several interesting accounts of the use of this money in early colonial days have been preserved. It may be asserted with safety that this shell money was made on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, if not as far south as Central America.

Many implements, ground, pecked and chipped, are found which cannot be classified. Their form is perhaps due to the whims of the maker, and because of this are not mentioned here.

This interesting science is still in its infancy. On every hand are many inviting fields in which the student devoted to the fascinating science of archaeology may reap rich harvests.

In conclusion the writer wishes to note that if his efforts have ministered to the entertain- ment of the general reader or the careful stu- dent, he will feel that that which he has tried to tell will not have been entirely in vain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

From the following works the writer has gleaned the interesting matter found in the forego- ing papers. Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, by John Evans; Antiquities of the Southern Indians, by C. C. Jones, Jr .; Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. 13, Washing- ton, D. C .; Prehistoric Fishing, by Charles Rau; Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge; The Lenni Lenape and their Legends; The Myths of the New World, and The Essays of an Americanist, by D. G. Brinton ; Indian Nations, by John Heckewelder; Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, Vol. I, by C. M. Skinner; A History of Bethlehem, by Joseph Mortimer Levering; The History of North America, Vol. 4, Young People's Edition; The History of the Lehigh Valley, by M. S. Henry; The Soul of the Indian, by Charles Eastman; Annual Re- port of the Smithsonian Institution, 1897, Vol. I; History of Northampton County, 1877; An- nual Reports of the Smithsonian Institution for 1875, 1877; Maize, by John Harshberger; Pre- historic Smoking Implements and other papers by A. F. Berlin.

THE WALKING PURCHASE.

Very little can be said against William Penn the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania. His mistakes were few, and, no doubt, inno- cently made. He tried at least to hold the good will of the Aboriginal people then in possession of the lands upon which they were roaming. History attests this fact as my readers well know. This, however, cannot be said of his son, Thomas Penn, who was as great a cheat as ever disgraced the Province founded by his illustrious father. One of his several shady real estate transactions was the famous WALK- ING PURCHASE, brought about in Septem- ber, 1737. This cheating, land grabbing off- spring of an honorable father claimed that cer- tain Lenni Lenape chieftians had on August 30th, 1686, given a deed to William Penn for territory extending in a northerly direction as far as a man could walk in a day and a half, and thence eastwardly to the Delaware river. It was a paper without signature of any kind, and marked as a copy. The original document was never seen nor heard of. It was designed to cover that part of country embraced in the then so-called Forks of the Delaware, and as occur- rences afterward proved, a large section of the best lands in the Minisink country on the other side of the Kittatinny or Blue mountains. The exact direction of the line from the end of the walk to the Delaware river was significantly left blank. An experimental walk was made in April, 1735, by whites to ascertain how much ground this paper so mysteriously produced, after being forgotten almost fifty years, would cover.

It made its appearance at a so-called treaty which was only a form at Durham, Bucks coun- ty, this state, on August 25th, 1737, and the chiefs then present were asked to ratify it. The Indians doubted the authenticity of the docu- ment; but, as the alleged parties to the contract were dead, they could not disprove the marks or signatures. They then gave dubious con- sent, and asked that if the lines must be run to do so at once and make an end of the matter.

The Forks of the Delaware, above mentioned, meant then that section of ground just within the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, and a few miles up both streams. The name was, however, sometimes applied to the whole section of country extending from the mouth of the Lehigh river, between the courses of both rivers with the Lehigh Water Gap,-or as the Indians called it in their idiom, "Buchka-Buch- ka," which translated into our language means "Two mountains butting against each other,"-

INDIANS.

as the western extremity, and the Delaware Water Gap the eastern end.

Hanover, one of the townships contained in Lehigh county was a part of this tract. This very desirable section of land to the whites re- mained nominally in the hands of the Delaware Indians until 1737 the year of the walk. After the so-called treaty at Durham, the proprie- taries who were Thomas and John Penn, sons of the Founder, immediately advertised for the most expert woodmen and walkers, and from those who made application were taken Solomon Jennings, James Yeates and Edward Marshall.

On a bright September morning at sunrise of the nineteenth, 1737, the appointed walkers ac- companied by officials and other whites on horse- back on their side, and three Aborigines on the part of the red inhabitants started from a mark- ed chestnut tree of great size, situated near Wrightstown, Bucks county, Pa. On the first day at sunset Marshall and Yeates greatly ex- hausted, reached a creek near the northern base of the Blue mountains, where they passed the night. This mountain was originally called Kitochtanemin, and this name is mentioned in deeds given to William Penn. Kit mean- ing very large or highest, Wachtu or Ascht- shu, a mountain. Guneu, long or endless moun- tain. The usual translation given to the word is "endless mountain." We read of it now as the Kittatinny or Blue mountains. It was expected by the Indians who had collected there from the village, a short distance away, that the walkers would go no further; but upon seeing that they intended to proceed became very angry. Marshall reached at noon of the twentieth the Tobihanna creek, near the banks of which he struck his hatchet into a tree.

Marshall's family, which consisted of a wife and two children was killed by the Indians at the commencement of the Indian Wars. The murder was caused, no doubt, because of the In- dians he did away with and also his questionable action in the walk. He then lived where Strouds- burg is situated. He married a second time and died on Marshall's Island in the Delaware river, Nov. 7th, 1789, aged 79 years.

Solomon Jennings gave out the first day. He reached with the Indians, who cared not to keep up the fraud and the pace of the others, the Le- high river, a short distance below Bethlehem. He was a pioneer settler upon land on the south bank of the Lehigh river, where now are situ- ated the Geissinger farms, midway between Al- lentown and Bethlehem. He died Feb. 15th, 1757, and lies in an unknown grave at the east- ern end of the lower farm.

Yeates reached the northern base of the Blue

mountains on the first day. Next morning after going but a short distance he gave out and fell into a creek totally blind. On account of the terrible strain imposed upon him he lived but three days longer. He was born in New Eng- land, and at this time lived in Newtown, Bucks county, Pa. The walk took place on an old Indian path, then called the old Durham road, to Durham creek, veering then westward across the Lehigh river, then over an island in the river, now called Jones' Island, a short distance cast of Bethlehem, then across ground upon which that town now stands, in a nearly north- western course, through the present Hanover township of Lehigh county, then across Allen township of Northampton county, to Smith's Gap in Moore Township, and thence on through that depression to the Pocono Hills. The dis- tance traveled was about 62 miles.

The Indian path upon which this walk took place was one of the principal thoroughfares from the Delaware river, near Burlington, New Jersey, to the aboriginal hunting grounds on the Susquehanna river, and for the occasion it . is said was cleared of obstructions.

Thomas Furniss, a young saddler of New- town, hearing of the contemplated walk, made up his mind to accompany the Walkers, which he did on horseback. He describes in a very in- teresting manner the incidents of the occurrence. "At the time of the walk I lived at Newtown, and was a neighbor of James Yeates. My situ- ation gave me an easy opportunity of acquaint- ing me with the time of setting out, as it did me of hearing the different sentiments of the neighborhood concerning the walk; some alleg- ing it was to be made by the river, others that it was to be gone upon a straight line from some- where in Wrightstown, opposite to a spruce tree, on the river bank, said to be a boundary to a former purchase. When the walkers started I was a little behind, but was informed they pro- ceeded from a chestnut tree, near the turning out of the road, from Durham road to John Chapman's, and being on horseback overtook them before they reached Buckingham, and kept company for some distance beyond the Blue Mountains, though not quite to the end of the journey.

"Two Indians attended, whom I considered as deputies appointed by the Delaware nation to see the walk honestly performed, one of them re- peatedly expressing his dissatisfaction therewith.

"The first day of the walk before we reached Durham creek where we dined in the meadow of one Wilson, an Indian trader, the Indian said the walk was to have been made up 'the river,

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

and complaining of the unfitness of his shoe- packs for traveling, said he expected Thomas Penn would have made him a present of some shoes. After this, some of us that had horses walked, and let the Indians ride by turns; yet in the afternoon of the same day, and some hours before sunset, the Indians left us, having often called to Marshall that afternoon and forbid him to run. At parting they appeared dissatis- fied and said they would go no further with us, for as they saw the walkers would pass all the good land, they did not care how far or where we went to. It was said we traveled 12 hours the first day, and it being the latter end of Sep- tember, or beginning of October, to complete the time were obliged to walk in the twilight. Timothy Smith, then Sheriff of Bucks, held his watch for some minutes before we stopped and the walkers having a piece of rising ground to ascend, he called out to them, telling the minutes behind, and bid them pull up; which they did so briskly that immediately upon his saying the time was up Marshall clasped his arms about a sapling to support himself. Thereupon the sheriff asked him what was the matter. He said he was almost gone, and that if he had proceeded a few poles further he would have fallen. We lodged in the woods that night, and heard the shouting of the Indians at a cantico, which they were said to hold that evening in a town hard by. Next morning the Indians were sent for to know if they would accompany us any further ; but they declined it although I believe some of them came to us before we started and drank a dram in company, and then straggled off about their hunting or some other amusement.

"In our return we came through this Indian town or plantation-Timothy Smith and myself riding some forty yards, more or less, before the company-and as we approached within about one hundred and fifty paces of the town, the woods being open, we saw an Indian take a gun in his hand and advance towards us some dis- tance, placed himself behind a log that laid in our way.

"Timothy observed his motions and being somewhat surprised, as I apprehended, looked at me and asked what I supposed the Indian meant. I said I hoped no harm, and that I thought it best to keep on; which the Indian seeing he arose and walked before us into the settlement. I think Smith was surprised, as I well remem- ber I was through a consciousness that the In- dians were dissatisfied with the walk, a thing the whole company seem to be sensible of, and upon the way in our return home frequently expressed themselves to that purpose.

"And indeed, the unfairness practiced in the

walk, both in regard to the way where, and the manner how it was performed, and the dissatis- faction of the Indians concerning it, were the common subjects of conversation in our neigh- borhood for some considerable time after it was done. When the walk was performed I was a young man in the prime of life. The novelty of the thing inclined me to be a spectator, and as I had been brought up most of my time in Burlington, the whole transaction to me was a series of occurrences almost entirely new, and which, therefore, I suppose made the more strong and lasting impressions on my memory."

Conrad Weiser, the celebrated Indian frontier diplomat, came into the service of the Province of Pennsylvania in 1738. Previous to this he lived in the province of New York with the Iroquois so justly hated by the Delawares. The Indian he lived with for many years, was a prom- inent chief named Quagnant, and with him suf- fered many hardships. His feelings were ever with the Nation with whom he once lived, and against the Lenni Lenape and Shawano tribes. Had he shown the same good will toward these two tribes many difficulties might have been avoided. The Shawanos, sometimes termed the Ishmaelites of the Indians, a wandering and fierce tribe of red people, came from the South into the province of Pennsylvania about 1699. They wished to incorporate themselves with the Delawares, who refused; but after many pledges and promises for their good behavior given by the Conestoga Indians, they were at last al- lowed to connect themselves with that nation.

Weiser was ever active in policies favoring the Six Nations which always rudely forced the Delawares into the background, and gave the Iroquois the power which they eventually gained over them at least for awhile.

The Iroquois chieftain Canassatego, at the meeting in Philadelphia in 1742, and at which gathering representatives of the Delawares tried to defend their nation from untrue charges, and which they were not allowed to do, rebuked them harshly saying that they had seen a deed signed by their ancestors fifty years before for this very land, and a release signed by their chiefs and others numbering about fifteen, not many years past. He asked, "How came you to sell land at all? We conquered you and we made women of you. You know you are women and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit that you should have the power of selling land since you would abuse it. This land that you claim is gone through your guts." After telling them that they were well paid for the land claimed by them, and were acting dishon-

INDIANS,

estly, and glorifying in the wise actions of his own people he further said, "We charge you to remove instantly, and not to think about the matter, to Wyoming or Shamokin then we shall have you more under our eyes."

The charge of this wiley Iroquois chief was made too much of by the whites and in conse- quence all good feeling and respect was lost for the Delawares. They were even refused their own version of the occurrence, and in no way was a chance given them to defend themselves. This denial of common justice says Heckewelder is one of the principal complaints of the Lenni Lenapé people against the English and makes a part of the tradition or history which they pre- serve for posterity. Again he writes, "This complaint indeed bears hard upon us, and should at least operate as a solemn call to rectify the errors, if such they are found to be; that we in our history may not record and transmit errone- ous statements of these aborigines from whom we have received the country we now so happily inhabit. We are bound in honor to acquit our- selves of all charges of the kind which those peo- ple may have against us, who in the beginning welcomed us to their shores, in hopes that "they and we would set beside each other as brothers;" and it should not be said, that now when they have surrendered their whole country to us, and retired to the wilds of a distant country we turn our backs upon them with contempt."

Being compelled to submit to one gross in- sult after another by both whites and the Iro- quois, and seeing none of their grievances cor- rected, and they knowing of the differences then existing between the French and English when war was declared between these two nations, they espoused the cause of France, and began to murder in great numbers the defenceless settlers on the then frontier of Pennsylvania, including our now Lehigh county, in which foray many persons, old and young, male and female, many of them innocent, were horribly slain, and much other property destroyed.

The Minsis resented the walk saying that they were not parties to the transaction and were not liable to any agreement made by the Lenni Lenapés living on the south side of the Kittatinny mountains. The land south of these mountains was held of little value by them. They were hunters and they did not want any invasion of the land upon which they hunted, which was the Minisink country extending from the Wind Gap into the province of New York, almost to the Hudson river. There they want- ed no intrusion.

At a treaty with Indians held at Easton in the latter part of October, 1756, Governor

Denny urged Teedyuscong, a noted Delaware chief, to tell why his people went to war with the English. In answer to this question he stamped upon the earth and said: "This very ground was my land and inheritance, and is taken from me by fraud."

Upon being asked by the Governor what he meant by the word fraud, he replied "that after William Penn's death his children forged a deed and took lands never sold by the Indians, this is fraud." That the Penns by the "Walk- ing Purchase" had taken more than double the quantity of land intended to be sold, "I have spoken at your request not that I wish you now to buy these lands but that you should look into your own hearts and consider what is right and do."

Always, until up to a certain time, did this Delaware chief declare the "walk" a glaring fraud, and charge Thomas Penn as the orginator of the transaction. When asked again later on the cause of the alienation of the Indians, he declared it was on account of the land. "The complaint I made last fall I still continue. I think some lands have been bought by the pro- prietors or their agents from Indians who had not a right to sell. I think also, where some lands have been sold to the proprietors by In- dians, who had a right to sell a certain place whether that purchase was to be measured by miles or hours walk, that the proprietors have contrary to agreement or bargain taken in more· lands than they ought to have done, and lands that belonged to others. I therefore now desire that you will produce the writings and deeds by which you hold the land, and let them be read in public, and examined that it may be fully known from what Indians you have bought the lands you hold, and how far your purchases ex- tend; that copies of the whole may be laid be- fore King George, and published to all the provinces under his government. What is fairly bought and paid for I make no further demands about. But if any lands have been bought of Indians to whom these lands did not belong, and who had no right to sell them, I expect a satis- faction for those lands; and if the proprietors have taken no more lands than they bought of true owners I expect likewise to be paid for that."

Thomas Penn smarting under the charges brought against him by this great Indian chief, determined in some manner to persuade him to deny that any fraud had been perpetrated in the land purchases, and when in May, 1762, he came to an Indian treaty in Philadelphia, he was approached by one of Penn's agents, who told him that if he would withdraw his charges

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

of fraud against the proprietors in the Walking Purchase, four hundred pounds sterling would be given him.

Being in needy circumstances and wanting the money badly, he declared that he never at any of the Indian treaties charged the Penns with fraudulent practices ; but had only said what the French had told him about the English cheating them out of their lands. At the request of Penns adherents he made at Easton, in June of

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History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 8

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