History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 12

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438

USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 12
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 12
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 12

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The Pennsylvania government was unremit- ting in its efforts to thwart the plans of the Sus- quehanna and Delaware Companies. Although the former was the more powerful and better disciplined organization, it did not effect a set- tlement npon the lands it claimed until 1762, while, as we have seen, the settlement of Cushiu- tunk was made under the authority of the Dela- ware Company in 1757. It was here, then, that the Pennsylvania officials had first to use or thircaten to use coercive measures against the trespassers. Cushutunk was, in 1760, still an insignificant settlement, but it gave the provin- cial government as much trouble as a gnat lodged in the eye of an elephant might cause

that mighty animal. Repeatedly the little band of settlers were warned to depart. Proc- lamations were made against them and officers ordered to arrest them, but so far as any evi- dence appears in the State documents, they were never actually molested.

On September 15, 1760, Richard Peters, wrote Lewis Gordon to go to " Cashictan" with two of His Majesty's justices of the peace, take down the names of all the people there, inform them that they were trespassers and warn them, under penalty of arrest, to leavethe province.

Gordon, in answering Peters upon September 15th, says : "It occurred to me that if any ofthe people (of Cusutunk) should happen to be down towards the Minisinks, where they sometimes come to purchase some necessaries, the Noise of our Journey being spread abroad in the Country might reach Cashitunck before we got thither, which would in my opinion greatly disconcert IIS. For the people being once apprized of our coming (they to be sure) would not permit us to enter their settlements, much less acquaint us with their Names or anything else they could conceal. It was this Conversation, thereforc, made me conclude it most proper for us not to go or appear there in our real Characters, but to assume that and the dress of farmers going in quest of Lands to settle upon, by which we might more easily introduce ourselves amongst them, learn all that was necessary, and then, if we should think it prudent, we might discover ourselves tell them our real crrand and take our leave."2

All of which proves now, after the lapse of a century and a quarter, that Lewis Gordon was a very shrewd, fox-like man, and ardent in his loyalism to the provincial government.

Gordon, who was sheriff of Northampton, did go to the settlement in October, in company with three justices of the peace-one of whom was Aaron Depui, of Smithfield, and learned many facts, which he reported to Lieutenant- Governor Hamilton. As his report gives inter- esting and valuable partienlars,-quite a minute description, in fact, of the otherwise little-known settlement-we give it almost entire. It is dated October 15, 1760, and reads,-

1 Col. Rec., Vol. VI. p. 253-254.

2 Penn. Archives, Vol 111. p. 756.

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

" The Report of the Sheriff and Justices of Northampton County.

" To the Honorable Jamcs Hamilton, Esquire, Lieu- tenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, etc.

" We, Aaron Dupui, Lewis Klotz, John Moor and Lewis Gordon, beg leave to report to your Honour-

"That in obedience to your Honour's command, We having joined company at the house of Mr. Dupui, set out from thence on Wednesday, the 8th Instant, on our Journey to Cushietunk, where we ar- rived on Saturday following, and collected the follow- ing intelligence, viz. : That the Government of Con- necticut, by virtue of their original charter from the Crown, about six or seven years ago, granted to a great number of Persons, not less than eight or nine Hundred, who are called Proprietaries of a large tract of land in the Province of Pennsylvania, ex- tending on the River Delaware, 30 miles Horizontal Measure, beginning nearly opposite to Peter Kuyken- dahl's, in New Jersey, and so running northwards the said extent, and westward to a Mountain (Moosic range) lying something like half-way between Cushie- tunk and Susquehanna, in which Tract the Lands at Cushietunk are included, with full power to the said Proprietaries to purchase the said Tract from the In- dians ; That, in consequence of the said Grant, the said Proprietaries did empower and appoint two of their own Number, Namely, Eldrickens and Whit- ley, to purchase the same or part thereof from the Delaware Indians ; the names of some of them follow, viz .: Mayhios, Mastohop, Attamesick, Westcrank, Christias, Mictauk, Wiselawal, Nolotock Pooth, the King Cattacool, Mawichcomet, Maudlin, Colvelateb, Makeshacomas, Quanaloch, Tangol, Metuxing, Mon- kychiss, Mechukings; which said purchase was made abont six years ago ; That afterwards a Second Purchase was made for the said Proprietaries by John Curtius & Peebody, Surveyor (who are also of the number of Proprietaries), from the said Indians, either as a farther purchase in extent or in confirmation of the former ; that the said Proprietaries have selected a certain number of themselves whom they have ap- pointed to be a committee to manage and transact all Business relating to said Lands, who have accordingly laid out and surveyed the same, and at Cushietunk have erected three Townships, each of which is to extend in length on Delaware ten miles, and in breadth eight miles.1 In the Middle Township a large Town is laid out, consisting of eighty and odd Lots, two Hundred acres in each Lott, to each of which a Water Lott of ten Acres appertains; On the Lowlands are built three Logg Houses, one Saw Mill,

one Grist Mill, almost finished, and about thirty Cab- bins for working people; their number at present is about twenty men, besides Women and Children ; about twenty more are gone home for want of Provis- ions ; But they are in full expectation to be joined by One Hundred Families, at least, in the spring. That it is strongly affirmed that every individual member of the Upper House and Chief part of the Lower House of Assembly of Connecticut are interested and concerned in the said purchase ; the Governor has not yet thought proper to suffer his name to be made use of, but his son, whose name is Fitch, is one of the Proprietaries; That the lands are sold for 8 or 10 Dollars in hand for 200 Acres, twelve whercof to be cleared and improved and a House built in three years, otherwise to be forfeited ; That a large Sum of Money hath been raised and Sent home in order to sollicit a confirmation of this Grant to the said Pro- prietaries, or to get the ancient Charter renewed, which is said to be forfeited, and the better to affect the samne, Affidavits (particularly the affidavit of one Thomas Nottingham, who speaks the Delaware tongue well, and negotiated this bargain with the Indians, and hath been of singular service to us in collecting these Accounts, having since quarreled with the Con- necticut people) have beeu transmitted to England, of the said Proprietaries having purchased the said Tract of Land bona fide from the Indians, and of this Nottingham's being present when the purchase money was paid ; That the soil of the said land is said to be good in general ; of the three Townships, the upper and lower is said to be very good, the Middle town- ship, where they are settled, being but indifferent. But the deficiency of the Land is abundantly com- pensated by the goodness of timber, especially the white Pine, hard Maple or Sugar Tree, Beech, Wild Cherry and Black Birch, the finest and plentifulest in the world; That a right hath sold here for £40; a right is supposed to contain 5000 Acres.

" Here follow the names of some of the committec who are also proprietaries, viz. : - Fitch, son to the present Governor of Connecticut; Isaac Tracey, Benijah Geers, Gebish Fitch, John Curtius, Elisha Tracey, clerk ; Benijah Parks, - Peebody, Survey- or ; Moses Thomas, Hezekiah Huntington, Esq., late Governor; Stephen Kinney, Robert Kiunsman, Johu Burchard.

"Here follow the names of some of the settlers : Stanton, - Trim, Daniel Skinner, Simon Corking, who hath been a Justice and Lieutenant in Connecticut (a busy fellow and a ring leader), Holly, John Smith, John Corkins, Jedediah Willis, Jedediah Willis, Jr., James Adams, Benjamin Ashley, Nathan Chapman, Doctor Payne, - Kellick. That having given these people previous Notice that we had something of importance to deliver to them, about a dozen of them assembed in oue of their Houses, where Mr. Gordon addressed them to this purpose; That the Governor of Pennsylvania being

1 No other mention of these townships is known, and it is doubtful whether they were ever laid out. The whole purchase was divided into townships by the company, as will hereafter be shown.

SETTLEMENTS ON THE UPPER DELAWARE.

informed that some people from Connecticut had pre- sumed to settle themselves on lands at Cushietunk, within his Province, but without his knowledge or permission, and as yet not purchased from the Indians, had sent us (declaring who we are) to enquire if said Information was true, and if we found any person there to warn them off immediately; Which Mr. Gordon (after claiming as well those Lands at Cush- ietunk as the large Tract by said Government of Con- necticut, laid out and surveyed on Susquehanna, as the undoubted Right and property of the Honoura- ble the Proprictaries of Pennsylvania) accordingly did. To this it was answered that they claimed under the Connecticut Government & the Indian purchase, and that they would hold their Lands until it was decided by the highest Authority in whom the true title was vested.

" Dated the fifteenth day of October, Annoque Do- mini, 1760.

" AARON DUPUI. " LEWIS KLOTZ. " JOHN MOOR. " LEWIS GORDON."1

Richard Peters, writing to Sir William John- son, February 12, 1761, pointedly sets forth the condition of fear and disquietude that the settle- ment and the scheming of the intruders had caused. "The Connecticut people," he says, "are making their grand push both in England, for a new Grant from the King, and in this prov- ince, for a forceable Entry and Detainer of the Indian Lands, on no other pretence than that their Charter extends to the South Seas, and so, like Mad Men, they will cross New York and New Jersey and come to kindle an Indian War in the Bowels of this poor Province. The Governor has wrote you at large on this wicked revival of the Connecticut Claims, and I wish either you or General Amherst cou'd fall on some means to have it laid aside; for it will breed a Civil War among our Back Inhabit- ants, who are sucking in, all over the Frontiers, the Connecticut poison and Spirit, and will Ac- tually, in my Opinion, go into Rebellion in the opening of the Spring."2

The Governor, upon February 20, 1761 (" And in the first year of the reign of our Sov- ereign Lord, George the Third,") issued a pro- clamation to the trespassers at Cushutunk, en- joining all to immediately depart. It read, in part, thus,-

" Whereas, Divers persons, the National-born Sub- jects of his Majesty belonging to some of our neigh- boring colonies, have lately come into this Province and without Licence or Grant from the Honourable Proprietaries, or Authority from the Government have presumed in a body to possess themselves of and settle upon a large Tract of Land in this Province, not yet purchased from the Indians, near Cushietunck, on the River Delaware and in the parts of Northampton County, and are endeavoring to pursuade and invei- gle many of the Inhabitants of this and the neigh- boring Provinces to Confederate and join with them in their illegal and dangerous Designs, and to assist in settling and holding the said Lands by strong Hand ; 1

" And Whereas, the Delaware Chief Teedyuscung hath made a very earnest and formal Complaint and Remonstrance to me against the said Practices, in- sisting that the intruders shall be immediately re- moved by the Government to which they belonged, or by me, and declared if this was not done, the In- dians would come and remove them by force and do themselves justice, with which he de- sired they might be made acquainted beforehand that they might not pretend Ignorance, which has been since accordingly done by my order,

" Wherefore, as well to assert the just Rights of the Proprietaries of this Province to the said Lands, and to preserve the peace and friendship which is now so happily restored and subsisting between us and the Indians, and prevent the terrible consequences that must necessarily arise, by their carrying into Execu- tion their Threats of removing by force the Intruders of the said Lands, as also to warn and prevent any of the Inhabitants of this province from being unwarily drawn in to join the said intruders in their intended design of making settlements in the said Indian Country, I have judged it proper, by and with the Advice of the Council, to issue this proclamation, hereby Strictly requiring and enjoining in his Majesty's Name all and every Person and Persons already settled or residing on the said Lands, immediately to depart and move away from the same ; and do hereby forbid all His Majesty's Subjects of this or any other Province or Colony, on any pretence whatever, to intrude upon, settle or possess any of the said Lands, or any other of the Lands within the Limits of this Provice not yet purchased of the Indians, as they will answer the contrary at their peril and on pain of being prose- cuted with the ntmost Rigour of the Law. And I do hereby also strictly charge, enjoin and require all Sheriffs, Magistrates, Peace Officers and all other His Majesty's Liege people within this Province to exert themselves and use their utmost Endeavors to prose- ente and bring to Justice and condign Punishment all offenders in the premises.""3

! Col. Rec., Vol. viii. p. 564-566.

2 Peun. Archives, Vol. IV., p. 41.

3 Col. Rec., Vol. VIII. p. 566-567.

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

Prior to the issuance of this proclamation (February 10th) Governor Hamilton wrote a letter to the Governor of Connecticut, in which he bitterly complained of the settlers, and urged him to use his influence for their with- drawal from the province.

Teedyuscung, who, as we have scen by the Governor's proclamation, seriously disapproved of the continuance of the settlement at Cushu- tunk, again, in the spring of 1761, strongly urged its effacement. At Easton, on April 6, 1761, with other Delawares, in conference with Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton and Richard Peters, he said (through an interpreter),-

"Brother: you may remember that when I was here in the Fall of the year, I informed you that some New England people were settling the Indians Lands, near a plaee ealled Cushietunek, and expressed a great deal of uneasiness at it. You told me that you had likewise heard something of it and had sent the Sheriff and Magistrates of the county bordering on these lands to the place with orders to see what was doing and to warn any persons off whom they should find settling there. . I have not heard anything from you since that time and our People are become so uneasy at this new settlement that several of them are moved away to other places, and these now present are come on purpose with me to hear what you have to say about this affair." .

. " The reason why we were so uneasy is this : About three weeks ago, Robert White came to our town with Thomas King, one of the Six Nation Indians, and told us that they had been at Cushietunck among these People, and that Sir William Johnson had sent to warn them off if they intended to settle there; If only to trade there he desired that they would use the Indians well, and give them no offence ; but they made very light of it and said they would not regard either what Sir William Johnson should say, nor the Governor of Pennsylvania, nor the Magistrates, but only what should come from their own Governor. They said that they had bought the land from some Indians who were at the last treaty at Easton, and would settle there. They said, likewise, that in the Spring, when there should be plenty of Grass, they would come and settle the Lands at Wyomink, and that Thomas King had given them leave to settle the Wyomink Land, and if the Indians who lived there should hinder their Settlement, they would fight it out with them and the strongest should hold the Land. Robert White added that they told him that they should be four thousand strong in the Spring and would all come to Wyomink.

" Robert White told us further that they kept

continual watch for fear the Indians should shoot them."1

Teedyuscung being asked how many Robert White found there, said that there were reported by him thirty families.

Shortly after Teedyuscung's complaint was made, the Lieutenant-Governor sent James Hyndshaw (of Bushkill) to Cushutunk to ob- serve what was going on there and ascertain the temper of the venturesome Quakers. He set out upon his journey April 16 (1761), and, having re- turned, made report of it upon the 29th. Accord- ing to this report lie reached Kuykendal's tavern " on or near the River Delaware, at Mackhacka- mack, in Sussex County, West New Jersey," upon the second day of his travel, and there met one Halbert, who said that he was from Connec- ticut and was going with his family to live at Cushutunk. He learned from Halbert that some of the Indians living upon the Delaware, at or near Cushutunk, (and of whom the New Eng- landers, it was alleged, had bought their lands), had sent word to Teedyuscung that if he or lis followers should make any opposition to the Connecticut people settling either at Cushutunk or Wyoming, they (the senders of the message) would join with the new-comers and settle them there by force.

Upon arriving at Cushutunk, Hyndshaw " put up at the house of Moses Thomas, one of the principal Men of the Settlement, and saw over the door an Advertisement, signed Moses Thom- as, giving notice to all the Inhabitants of the Settlement that they were to meet at his, the said Thomas' house, on the Monday follow- ing, in order to Chiuse a Magistrate and their other Officers for the ensuing Year, and also to consult on other Affairs relating to the Settle- ment." Thus early was the institution of the New England "Town-Mccting " established in this pioneer settlement.

It happened that Moses Thomas was not at liome, and the agent of the Pennsylvania government found him "at work at a new erected Mill for grinding Corn." Thomas said that he " wondered the Lord Penn should send up there a proclamation threatening them with the Indians ; that he was settled there under a

1 Col. Rec., Vol. VIII., p. 595.

SETTLEMENTS ON THE UPPER DELAWARE.

Connecticut right, which he thought a good one ; but, if it should prove otherwise, he would take and hold his Land under the Lord Penn, it being all one to him." Some Indians who were present told Hyndshaw that if the Gover- nor of Pennsylvania did not send the settlers away, that they would drive them out by force.

He learned that there were quite a number of houses in the settlement, but saw only four. In Moses Thomas' house he " observed that there were a great many Families, the Beds lying as thick on the Floors as thicy commonly do in a Hospital."

A block-house of good size was in process of construction, which the settlers said was for pro- tection against the Indians, and they intended getting some swivel guns to mount in it.

On returning to Kuykcudal's the agent met in all fourteen men armed with guns, who told him that they " were going with Captain Tracey, one of their head men, to settle at Cushie- tunek." Information was received from these men to the effect that another town liad been laid out about eight miles westward of Cushutunk, that " lots for a town" had beenl laid out " at a place called Leighwackson,1 within a Tract of Land bought of the Indians by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania and surveyed for thiem in 1749, and that they intended to settle it in like manner under the Connecticut right." These reports the people on their way to Cushu- tunk had learned from the Indians, who also reported that the settlers liad marked the trees for a distance twenty miles back fromn tlie Dela- ware.2

On Sept. 16, 1761, Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, having in the mean time heard front the Governor of Connecticut, who, however, did not offer to recall the subjects of his govern- nient from the disputed territory, as he had been requested, and receiving the protest of the Six Nation Indians that they had never sold the lands in question, issued a second proclamation, simi-

lar to his first, enjoining the Cushntunk settlers to depart and forbidding others to intrude.3 This proclamation had just as little effect upon the imperturbable " Yankees " as the former one. In the spring of 1762 John Jennings, sheriff of Northampton County, contemplating the arrest of the Cushutunk people, sent John Williamson up to gain intelligence of the number living there and other particulars, and Williamson, executing his commission, duly made a report on June 18th, which showed the sheriff, among other things, that the trespassers held him in contempt, and were as defiant as ever. Wil- liamson's report reads as follows :

" 16 Families are settled on the river; their whole settlement extends 7 miles.

" Their head man is named Moses Thomas, lives in ye 2ª settlemt ; his Brother lives 3 mile from him and is named Aaron Thomas, lives in ye 1st settlemt.

" 3d Settlemt.

Isaae Traey owns a saw-mill. ? Brothers.

Christopher Traey.

Jonathan Tracey, their cousin, lives with Christo- pher.

Reuben Jones lives with Isaae Tracey.

Moses Kimball Do

Levi Kimball Do

James Pennin.

Daniel Cash.

" 4th Settlemt.

Nathan Parks.

- Tyler.

-- Cummins.

" There are in all 40 men-told him they held their Lands under N. England-have laid out a Town four miles to the West of them, on a Body of fine Land, on a Branch running in Lackawaxen+-threatened if any Sheriff eame to molest them they wou'd tie a Stone about his Neck & Send him down to his Governor, they knew the woods well and would pop them over 3 for 1." " Was informed by then that the land held good for 50 miles up the Dela- ware; said their agent had lately returned from England and brot news that there was no doubt of getting the Land for Connectieut. Some have got 4 or 5 acres of Indian Corn, some 3, some 2; no wheat. Live in pretty good Log' houses, covered with White Pine Shingles or Boards. Vast quantities of that kind of Timber there, very fine. . . . Said it wou'd be hard to hurt them, shou'd fall on those

1 The locality here referred to as " Leigh wackson " was the same at which, in 1774, was made the Wallenpaupack settlement, sometimes called " Lackawaek," from its prox- imity to the Lackawaxen. Of this name, " Leigh waekson " was a corruption or careless rendering.

2 Col. Rec., Vol. VIII. p. 612-614.

3 Col. Rec., Vol. VIII. p. 663-664.

" This was probably a "town " only in the Connecticut sense, or a township as it would be called in Pennsylvania. It was, undoubtedly, one of the several townships surveyed by the Delaware Company.

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA

who sent them-were in general scarce of provisions, especially bread-get their corn in canoes from Mini- sink."1

The first settlement at Wyoming was made in the spring of 1762-if, indeed, settlement it conld be called in which the men, after plant- ing, and, perhaps, securing some of their erops, retired to their Connecticut homes for the winter. In the following spring, however, they came back prepared to establish themselves permanently, bringing their stock, household goods and, it is probable, all that they pos- sessed. But their hopes were doomed to early and sudden blight.

The Delaware Indians, who claimed the lands on the Susquehanna and Delaware, embraced in the Connecticut charter, averred that they had never sold any of their possessions on the former river, though they admitted that some of their lesser chief had, in an irregular way, granted a title to those on the Delaware, and they complained bitterly of the presence of white men upon these lands, which, they as- serted, had been " bought from under their feet " of the Six Nations. The provincial au- thorities were constantly beset with applications to have the trespassers removed, and there were not wanting evidences that the Indians would take the matter in their own hands if the au- thorities did not intervene. Such was the con- dition of the Indian mind when Teedyuseung, king of the Delawares, was burned to death in his cabin on the night of April 19, 1763. While this deed was unquestionably committed by his Indian enemies, either by or through the influence of the Six Nations, Indian cunning ascribed the murder to the New England people. The people of the dead chief now be- came clamorous for the removal of the settlers, and several times importuned the government to drive them from the valley.

The Governor having, in June, 1763, received fresh complaints from the Indians at Wyoming that the Connecticut trespassers were still obsti- nately prosecuting their settlement on the lands there and at Cushutunk, thought proper, on the 2nd of that month, to issue a third proclamation

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 12

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 1438

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438