History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424

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The next purchase from the Six Nations was made in 1749. On this occasion they took the initiative; the conference began at Philadelphia on the 16th of August, 1749, when, after the usual preliminary exchange of courtesies, Canassatego reminded the Governor and Council of their agree- ment under previous treaties to remove all persons who should locate upon lands not yet purchased, and of their evident inability to carry this stipula- tion into effect; but, as it would involve much trouble to remove the intrud- ers, the Six Nations were willing "to give up the land on the east side of Sus- quehanna from the Blue hills or Chambers's mill to where Thomas McKee, the Indian trader, lives," and leave the amount of the consideration for the Governor and Council to determine. The Governor replied that this propo- sition could not be acceded to, as the lands offered were principally mount- ainous, but if they would make Shamokin the northern limit and the Dela- ware river the eastern boundary the Council and himself were ready to offer a fair price and bring the transaction to a close. After some further negoti- ations it was finally agreed that the northern line should begin on the Sus- quehanna river at "the first or nearest mountain to the north side of the mouth of the creek called in the language of the said Five Nation Indians Cantaguy and in the language of the Delaware Indians Mahanoy" and extend in a direct course to the Delaware river at the mouth of Lackawaxen creek. The amount paid was five hundred pounds, and the deed was executed on the 22d of August, 1749. The course of the northern boundary of this purchase in Northumberland county coincided very nearly with the Little mountain.

As settlers continued to encroach upon the Indian lands beyond the Kit- tatinny range and west of the Susquehanna, Tachnechdorus was sent to the Six Nations in the spring of 1754 to arrange the preliminaries for another purchase. In the following summer their chiefs were met at Albany by the Pennsylvania commissioners, who at once opened negotiations for a release of all their lands as far west as the extent of the Province and as far north as they were willing to sell. At length they acquiesced in the proposed western

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

boundary, but Hendrick, the great Mohawk chief, made the following signif- icant utterance in his reply to the commissioners: "We will never part with the land at Shamokin and Wyoming; our bones are scattered there, and on this land there has always been a great council fire." It was finally decided that the northern line should begin on the Susquehanna river a mile above Penn's creek (a point nearly opposite Sunbury), and extend "northwest by west" to the confines of the Province. The deed was signed on the 6th of July, 1754.

Notwithstanding the comprehensive character of the release of 1718, the lands thus ceded by the Delawares were insufficient for the extension of settlements between the Delaware and Susquehanna. In 1732 the region drained by the Schuylkill and its tributaries was purchased, but while this quieted the Delawares regarding the Tulpehocken lands, they were still greatly dissatisfied with the settlement of the Minisink, their ancient council seat, which they were naturally reluctant to relinquish. At this juncture a deed, said to have been made in 1686, was produced; under its alleged pro- visions the " walking purchase " of 1737 was consummated, but in a manner highly unsatisfactory to the Delawares, who absolutely refused to acknowl -. edge its validity. The Six Nations had released the lands in question by the supplementary deed of 1736, and in 1742 the matter was brought to their consideration at a conference in Philadelphia. Canassatego, in announcing their decision, administered a terrible castigation to the unfor- tunate Delawares. "You ought to be taken by the hair of the head," said he, "and shaked severely till you recover your senses. . . . We conquered you, we made women of you, you know you are women, and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it. This land that you claim is gone through your guts. Did you ever tell us that you had sold this land? Did we ever receive any part, even the value of a pipe shank, from you for it? . You act a dishonest part, not only in this but in other matters.

And for all these reasons we charge you to remove instantly. We don't give you the liberty to think about it. . . . . We therefore assign you two places to go, either to Wyoming or Shamokin. You may go to either of these places, and then we shall have you more under our eye and shall see how you behave. . This string of wampum serves to forbid you, your chil- dren and grandchildren to the latest posterity, forever meddling in land affairs."* The immediate object of the government in invoking the author- ity of the Six Nations was successfully accomplished. The remnant of the Delawares forthwith removed to the localities designated, and some con- tinued their journey to the Ohio; but they retained a deep resentment toward the provincial authorities, and contact with the French on the Ohio early served to alienate them entirely from the English interest.

* Colonial Records, Vol. IV. pp. 579-580.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

The exploration of the Susquehanna valley by Etienne Brulé has been related in the preceding chapter; and while it can not be positively stated that this formed the basis of the French pretensions, the Susquehanna river is given as the western boundary of Pennsylvania in a map of Louisiana published at Paris in 1721. It was not until 1753, however, that the French accentuated their claims to Pennsylvania territory by military occupation, thus precipitating the long struggle known in colonial history as the French and Indian war. An expedition against Fort Duquesne, which, from its location at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, was the most important French post in the Ohio valley, was undertaken in 1755 under the joint auspices of the British and colonial governments. The command was intrusted to General Edward Braddock, an English officer, whose utter ignorance of the methods of Indian warfare resulted in the almost total annihilation of his army on the 9th of July, 1755.

The influence of Braddock's defeat was at once apparent in the changed attitude of the Delaware Indians. Years of subjection to the dominant Iroquois, the injustice of the "walking purchase," the coercive measures of 1742, and, finally, the treaty of 1754, by which the Six Nations had virtually sold their lands and those of the Shawanese "from under their feet," had given cumulative force to the ardor of their revenge. Their former attachment to the English had resulted largely from the expectation that the latter would enable them to recover their former standing as a nation; dissappointed in this they embraced with eagerness the promised assistance of the French, and, in conjunction with the Shawanese and other allied tribes, ravaged the Penn- sylvania frontier from the Delaware river to the Maryland line with tomahawk and firebrand.

Hostilities were inaugurated in the Susquehanna valley on the 16th of October, 1755, when a band of fourteen Indians from the Allegheny attacked the settlements at Penn's creek, several miles south of Shamokin on the west side of the river, killed fifteen persons, and carried off ten prisoners. Two of Conrad Weiser's sons, Frederick and Peter, had been at Shamokin several days previously and stopped at the house of George Gabriel, who lived at the present site of Selinsgrove, on their return. While there a message arrived from Logan, one of Shikellimy's sons, and Lapacpitton, a friendly Delaware chief, to the effect that a large body of French and Indians was approaching by way of the West Branch and that they would dispute their progress if re-enforced and supplied with arms. But the warning was too late. Intel- ligence of the massacre reached Harris's Ferry on the 19th instant, and on the 23d John Harris, Thomas Forster, Adam Terrence and others to the number of forty left Paxtang to bury the dead. Finding that this was already done they were about to return, when Tachnechdorus persuaded them to go on to Shamokin and confer with the Indians there. They arrived on the 24th and remained over night; on the following morning they crossed the river

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

and started down on the west side, but were fired upon by Indians in ambush at the mouth of Penn's creek and suffered considerable loss.

This outrage, with others of a similar character at different points on the frontier, produced the wildest consternation. In a letter to Governor Morris under date of October 26, 1755, Conrad Weiser wrote: "I suppose in a few days not one family will be seen on the other side of Kittatinny hills." Three days later John Harris wrote from Paxtang: "We expect the enemy upon us every day ...... I had a certain account of about fifteen hundred Indians beside French being on their march against us and Virginia and now close on our borders ...... I am informed that a French officer was expected at Shamokin this week with a party of Delawares and Shawanese, no doubt to take possession of our river." The extent to which this rumor gained cur- rency is apparent from a letter of Governor Morris to General Shirley in which the following statement occurs: "There is reason to apprehend that the French have designs upon Shamokin and are going to seize and fortify it, having, it is said, obtained the consent of the Delaware Indians to do it under the ensnaring pretense of putting them again into possession of their former country and rendering them independent of the Six Nations. These Indians we know are gone against us, and with the Shawanese .... are now in several parties killing our inhabitants in the country near Shamokin, with design no doubt to give the French time to build their fort and to hinder any obstruction from us." These reports were confirmed by Andrew Montour, who arrived at Paxtang from Shamokin on the 31st of October, 1755; he had been as far as the Great Island in the West Branch of Susquehanna, where a council was held at which two Delawares stated that fifteen hundred French and Indians had left Fort Duquesne twenty-one days previously to invade the English settlements, and that a French fort would be in course of con- struction at Shamokin within ten days. The Indians whom he met confidently expected to spend the approaching winter at Lancaster.

Of the actual state of affairs at Shamokin there is but meager informa- tion. The attitude of the Indians toward Harris and his party was one of distrust, and warlike preparations were also in progress at the time of their visit. When John Schmick and Henry Fry arrived at Wyoming on the 10th of November, 1755, they were informed that Paxinos and Abraham, the two principal Shawanese chiefs at that place, " were sent for to Shamokin, and when they came there they found that the Indians there were convened to a treaty, where a Mohawk French Indian gave a string of wampum and addressed the other Indians in these terms: 'Your grandfather, i. e., the French king, sends you word that I intend to come down with fifteen hun- dred men with me;' .. . to whom the Indians made answer, 'If this is your intention, then come not through our land.'" From this it is apparent that the Shamokin Indians were not at that time committed to the French interest, conclusive evidence of which is found in the report of

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

Scarroyady, an Oneida chief, who visited the Susquehanna cantons shortly after the inroad on Penn's creek. He absolutely denied that they had been concerned in any attacks upon the settlements, and declared that they hated Onontio (the Governor of Canada) as cordially as the English; but they must know whether the latter intended to fight; if they could not be safe where they were they would go somewhere else and take care of themselves. " They could not even stay at Shamokin," he said, "which might have been prevented if the government had paid a proper regard to their repeated solicitations for a supply of arms and ammunition for their warriors and of necessaries for their wives and children." That the town was abandoned in November, 1755, is further shown by the report of an Iroquois who was sent thither from Harris's Ferry and found no Indians there. On Saturday, June 5, 1756, six scouts arrived at Shamokin, " and not observing any enemy, went to the place where the town had been, the houses being burnt to the ground. They continued there till ten o'clock the next day, and, seeing no appearance of an enemy except some old tracks of Indians and horses, they returned " to Fort Halifax. After abandoning the town the Indians retreated to Nescopec, Wyoming, Tioga, and other towns on the North Branch and to the French posts in the Northwest. The Delawares, who had been without a king since the death of Allumapees, elected Teedyus- cung to that position. He was keenly sensible of the wrongs his people had suffered from their conquerors at the instance of the English, and, as the first measure for a restoration of their former tribal standing, inaugurated a series of hostile incursions against the frontier settlements. From the Six Nations this policy secured a reluctant admission of the equality of the Dela- ware tribe; with the colonial government it was not so successful, however, and on the 14th of April, 1756, Governor Morris issued a proclamation declaring war against the Delawares and their allies.

While the Province was thus in constant danger of Indian incursions and menaced by French invasion, divided counsels prevented the authorities from adopting efficient measures of defense. The Governor refused his assent to the taxation of Proprietary estates, and the provincial Assembly, with equal obstinacy, declined to grant supplies upon any other basis. These differ- ences were at length temporarily adjusted, however, and in January, 1756, Governor Morris elaborated a comprehensive system of frontier defense. Four forts were erected west of the Susquehanna, viz .: Pomfret Castle, on Mahantango creek twelve miles from the river; Fort Granville, on the Juni- ata at the mouth of Kishocoquillas creek; Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, and Fort Lyttleton, on the road to the Ohio. Between the Susquehanna and Delaware a chain of blockhouses was constructed along the Kittatinny range, with Fort Henry at Tolheo gap, Fort Lebanon on a branch of the Schuylkill, and Fort Allen on the Lehigh.

The erection of a fort at Shamokin was repeatedly urged by friendly Indi-

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

ans. It was probably first suggested by Andrew Montour and Monocatootha at Harris's Ferry on the 1st of November, 1755, and at once received the favorable consideration of the Governor, who wrote to General Johnson under date of November 15th: "I intend to build a fort at Shamokin this winter." On the 17th of January, 1756, it was again brought to the notice of the Gov- ernor at a conference at Carlisle. The fort would, the Indians said, "be a place of refuge in times of distress for us with our wives and children to fly to for our safety." The Governor replied that he would "make immediate provision for the building a strong house at Shamokin," and its construction would probably have begun at once if the season had permitted. This is evident from a letter of Governor Morris to Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, in which he says (February 1, 1756): "I also propose to build a fort at Shamokin at the forks of Susquehanna as soon as the season will admit a passage up that river, for the mountains north of the Kittatinny are quite impassable for carriages." The Indians became impatient at the delay, and at the conferences of February 22 and April 10, 1756, urgently requested the Governor to perform what he had promised. The location was inaccessible, except by water, and opposition from the enemy was not improbable; the appropriations made by the provincial Assembly were dispensed under the supervision of a board of commissioners, who were not in cordial sympathy with the Governor's plans, and it was not until April, 1756, that their con- sent to this project was obtained.

The consent of the commissioners was coupled with a request that four hundred troops should be raised for the expedition. The Third battalion, known as the Augusta regiment, was accordingly recruited; the following is a roster of the officers, with the respective dates of their commissions :-

Lieutenant Colonel, William Clapham, March 29, 1756.

Major, James Burd, April 24, 1756.

Adjutant, Asher Clayton, May 24, 1756.

Aide-de-Camp, Thomas Lloyd, April 2, 1756.

Commissary of Provisions, Peter Bard.

Wagon Master, Robert Irwin, April 12, 1756.

Captain, William Clapham, March 29, 1756;" lieutenant, Levi Trump, April 3, 1756; ensign, John Mears, April 20, 1756.

Captain, Thomas Lloyd, April 2, 1756; lieutenant, Patrick Davis [Davies], April 4, 1756; ensign, Samuel J. Atlee, April 23, 1756.

Captain, Joseph Shippen, April 3, 1756; lieutenant, Charles Garraway, April 15, 1756; ensign, Charles Brodhead, April 29, 1756.

Captain, Patrick Work, April 22, 1756; lieutenant, Daniel Clark, May 1, 1756; ensign, William Patterson, May 14, 1756.

Captain, James Burd, April 24, 1756; lieutenant, William Anderson, May 10, 1756; ensign, John Morgan, May 24, 1756.

*Pennsylvania Archives (Second Serles), Vol. II. pp. 537-538.

Ing by James R Hice & Sons, Phila.

Hugh Dellax

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

Captain, Elisha Salter, May 11, 1756; lieutenant, Asher Clayton, May 24, 1756; ensigns: Samuel Miles, May 24, 1756; Alexander McKee, August 17, 1756.

Captain, David Jamison, May 19, 1756; lieutenant, William Clapham, Jr., August 20, 1756; ensign, Joseph Scott, May 24, 1756.

Captain, John Hambright, June 12, 1756; lieutenant, William Plunket; ensign, Patrick Allison, June 25, 1756.

Captain, Nathaniel Miles; lieutenant, - Bryan; ensign, - Johnson; sergeant, - McCurdy.

The battalion rendezvoused at Fort Hunter, a stockade on the east side of the Susquehanna river a short distance above Harris's Ferry. This point was selected by Governor Morris, who, on the 12th of April, 1756, issued instructions to Robert Irwin, " wagon master and conductor of the boats and canoes." On the 25th of April he wrote to Governor Shirley: "Your dis- patches found me preparing to set out for the Susquehanna, where the pro- vincial forces are waiting for me." In a communication dated "Camp at Harris's Ferry, May 23, 1756," he refers to "the multiplicity and great variety of business in which I have been constantly employed ever since I came here," from which it is evident that the expedition was organized under his immediate supervision.

After leaving the camp of rendezvous, the troops marched on the east side of the Susquehanna river as far as Fort Halifax. A stop appears to have been made at McKee's store (opposite the mouth of Sherman's creek); on the 11th of June, 1756, Colonel Clapham wrote: "On Saturday last [June 5th] I marched from McKee's store with five companies and eighteen bat- teaux and canoes loaded, and arrived here [Fort Halifax] the next after- noon." He then proceeds to give an account of the progress of the expedi- tion. Detachments had been stationed as garrisons at Harris's Ferry, Fort Hunter, and McKee's store. Considerable difficulty was experienced in as- cending the Juniata rapids; many of the batteaux grounded, "though laden with no more than four barrels of pork and a few light things." It was Governor Morris's idea originally to use canoes only in the transportation service; the substitution of batteaux was due to the suggestion of John Harris. At the time Colonel Clapham wrote (June 11th) there were twenty- batteaux and two canoes in the service; they had made five trips to McKee's and two to the "Camp at Armstrong's " (Fort Halifax), and were then absent on a third. While the transportation of the stores was in progress the main body of the troops was employed in erecting Fort Halifax; this was not included in the original design of the expedition, but was undertaken by Colonel Clapham in the exercise of his discretionary powers. On the 10th of June ten "ship carpenters" arrived from Harris's Ferry; they were probably followed by others, and ten days later the Colonel wrote: "The carpenters are still employed in building batteaux and carriages for the can-

HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

non." On the 1st of July he informed the Governor that "the ship car- penters have finished the carriages for the cannon, and, as soon as they have finished the batteaux in hand, which I expect will be done to-morrow, I shall give them a certificate of their services and discharge them all except one, who will be absolutely necessary in the passage and without whose assistance we may probably lose more than his pay can cost the Province. None of my people are to be depended on in case of an accident on the water, and I can assure your Honor that I find fatigue and difficulties enough to conduct so amphibious an expedition with all the assistance I can possibly command ...... I am at present extremely engaged in embarking the regi- ment's stores, etc. for Shamokin, expecting to march [in] time enough to encamp to-night on the west side of Susquehanna about five miles above Fort Halifax." From that place the march was continued on the west side of the river to a point opposite Sunbury, where the troops crossed in batteaux.

On the 12th of June, 1756, the Governor sent Colonel Clapham detailed instructions regarding the conduct of the expedition; the following is a transcript of those portions relating to the construction of the fort :- 1

Herewith you will also receive two plans of forts, the one a pentagon, the other a square with one ravelin to protect the curtain where the gate is, with a ditch, covered way, and glacis. But as it is impossible to give any explicit directions [for] the particu- lar form of a fort without viewing and considering the ground on which it is to stand, I must leave it to you to build it in such form as will best answer for its own defense, the command of the river and of the country in its neighborhood, aud the plans here- with will serve to show the proportion that the different parts of the work shall bear to each other.

As to the place upon which this fort is to be erected, that must be in a great measure left to your judgment; but it is necessary to inform you that it must be on the east side of the Susquehanna, the lands on the west at the forks and between the branches not being purchased from the Indians, besides which it would be impossible to relieve and support a garrison on that side in the winter time. From all the information I have been able to collect, the land on the south side of the East Branch opposite the middle of the island is the highest of any of the low laud thereabout and the best place for a fort, as the guns you have will form a rampart of a moderate height [and] command the main river; but as these informations come from persons not acquainted with the nature of such things, I am fearful they are uot much to be depended on, and your own judgment must therefore direct you.

When you have completed the fort you will cause the ground to be cleared about it so to a convenient distance and openings to be made to the river, and you will erect such buildings within the fort and place them in such a manner as you shall judge best.

Without the fort at a convenient distance, under the command of the guns, it will be necessary to build some log houses for Indians, that they may have places to lodge in without being in the fort.

As soon as you are in possession of the ground at Shamokin you will secure your- self by a breastwork in the best manuer you can, so that your meu may work in safety .*

Contemporary records contain but meager information regarding the

*Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II. pp. 667-668.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

progress of the work. Captain Levi Trump and Ensign Samuel Miles (sub- sequently a colonel in the Revolutionary war and the founder of Milesburg, Centre county, Pennsylvania) had charge of the workmen. On the 18th of July Colonel Clapham wrote the Governor that he had but one team of draught horses, in consequence of which "the works must proceed very slowly and the expense in the end be proportionable." In his reply to this Governor Morris says: "I have your map of the forts and of the blockhouses and stoccado you have erected, which I much approve, as your people may under that cover work in safety." This doubtless referred to the tem- porary defenses mentioned in his instructions; for on the 14th of August Colonel Clapham wrote: "We have the walls of the fort now above half- finished and our other works in such situation that we can make a very good defense against any body of French and Indians that shall seat them- selves before us without cannon." On the 7th of September he gave a letter of recommendation to Michael McGuire, who had enlisted as a private soldier and was "particularly useful as an overseer and carpenter in the building of the fort .. ..... If the government designs to strengthen this post by doubling the fort with another case of logs and filling up the interme- diate space with earth in order to render it cannon-proof, which I think ought to be done, such a man will be particularly serviceable." This letter was addressed to Benjamin Franklin, to whom, in a communication on the following day, he says: "This post, which is in my opinion of the utmost consequence to the Province, is already defensible against all the power of musketry, but as it is, from the nature of its situation, exposed to a more formidable descent from the West Branch, it ought, I think, to be rendered still stronger." Peter Bard, the local commissary, wrote to the Governor on the 4th of September: "The fort is now almost finished, and a fine one it is." Colonel Clapham transmitted a plan of the fort to Governor Denny on the 23d of September, with the information that its construction had required "little better than the space of six weeks." This referred only to the works originally projected, which were probably constructed from the plans fur- nished by the Governor without any special engineering supervision. On the 17th of October, 1756, E. Meyer, an engineer in the provincial service, arrived at Harris's Ferry with James Young, the commissary general; thence they proceeded to Fort Augusta in company with Captain Lloyd. On the 23d instant Colonel Clapham acknowledged the receipt of "Mr. Meyer's instructions relative to the additional works to be made at Augusta;" and on the 8th of November he wrote :-

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History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829- Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424