History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 171

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 171
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 171
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 171

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1 See history of the family, postea.

2 See " History of Stroudsburg."

3 The descendants of Ephraim Culver have been employed from the begining of the century at the gun-factory of Jas.

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in succession at that historic hostelry, late of Lower Smithfield, miller, but a native of Con- necticut, born 30th July, 1717, in the town of Lebanon, was installed at this inn, as near as we can ascertain, about the time of the vernal equi- nox of 1759.

In 1753 he left Connecticut and removed with his family to Smithfield and settled upon a small glebe he had purchased of Daniel Brod- head. On this site, now the centre of the borough of Stroudsburg, lie erected a grist-mill (its wheel was turned by the waters of Mc- Michael's Creek) and looked forward, no doubt, to years of peaceful industry, and then retire- ment from business, and rest in the evening of life. But these prospects were rudely marred when Mr. Culver, on the 11th of December, 1755, saw a cloud of smoke ascending from the site of his home and mill, as he was fleeing with his wife and children from the destroying Indians. With others of his neighbors, Mr. Culver sought a friendly asylum at Nazareth. There ere long he united with the Moravians. Mr. Culver was tendered, in 1756, the position of landlord of the " Crown Inn," at Bethlehem.

The " Red Rose " was situated north of Naz- areth, on the road to the Wind Gap.

The " Crown " was an inn of still greater historic celebrity, established at Bethlehem, in 1745.

On the same day that Mr. Culver's house and mill were burned many of the dwellings in the valley between the Lehigh and Delaware were laid in ashes and several of the inhabitants killed. Numbers fled to the Brodhead settle- ment at Dansbury (East Stroudsburg), where a united and determined effort was resolved upon to stay the further progress of the infuriated Indians. The main building was hastily for- tified and filled with the wretched and home- less sufferers, and suchi arms as could be pro- cured were placed in the hands of those who could use them effectually.

They were soon attacked by a party of sav- ages, hitherto unresisted in their devastating march down the valley, numbering, according

to different accounts, about two hundred war- riors, who signaled their approach by firing barns, stacks of grain and everything else with- in their reach. ` The attack upon the fortified house was commenced on the afternoon of the day named, but the Indians were unable long to withstand the well-directed fire from the building and were forced to retire with severe loss of men

DE PUI FAMILY .- Nicholas De Pui was a Huguenot, and fled from France to Holland in the year 1685, when Louis XIV. exposed them to Papal vengeance by revoking the Edict of Nantes, an act of stupendous folly on the part of Louis, to say nothing of its inhumanity, for he thereby drove some of the best French arti- sans out of France into Holland and England, where they taught those nations how to manu- facture certain articles which made them com- petitors with France in the markets of the world, and it may be truly said that every nation that received these refugees was made stronger and better thereby. Many of these exiles found a home in America ; among them were Nicholas, Ephraim and Abraham De Puy, or De Pui, as it was originally written, who first fled to Hol- land and shortly after emigrated to America, and fonnd their way up the Hudson to the Esopus. Ephraim located on the Hudson and Abraham located on the Pennsylvania side of the river, below Belvidere, and has numerous de- scendants, among them Judge David A. Depue, of New Jersey. Nicholas De Puy came to the Minisink in 1725, and was the first white settler in the Pennsylvania portion north of the Blue Mountain of whom there is any authentic ac- count, and his deed from the Indians, dated September 18, 1727, for three thousand acres of land lying along the Delaware River north of the Water Gap, including the three islands Shawano, Manwallamink, and another small island, signed by the Indian chiefs Waugoan- lennegea and Pemnogque, is the oldest docu- mentary evidence of any settlement of the Min- isink on the Pennsylvania side of the river. He was evidently a man of some wealth, and with the assistance of his slaves and his large family of children he was able to establish himself firmly and build up a home in the wilderness.

Henry, at Boulton, Northampton County, Pa. (See Stroud township.)

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He cultivated the friendship of the Indians and they were his true friends. He obtained his title from these proud Lenni Lenapes, and they considered it a valid one, although there is no consideration mentioned in the Indian deed, and it is otherwise defective as a legal title, and yet it had been given in good faith by the Lenni Lenape, or Original people, as they called them- selves, and they respected the title which they had given, and who does not sympathize with that spirit of independence which manifested itself some years later, when Nicholas Scull, the proprietaries' surveyor, was engaged in measur- ing off some of these same lands to Mr. De Pui, in order that he might obtain title to them through the proprietaries, when the Indians advised the surveyor to put up iron string and. go home, which he did ? This act is an evidence of good faith towards Mr. De Pui, and an as- sertion of original ownership on the part of the Indians which the proprietors could understand. The following is a copy of the original :

" INDIAN DEED TO NICHOLAS DEPUI.

" This indenture, made the 18th day of September, in the year of the reign of our Soverent Lord George the Second, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, An- no Domini one thousand seven hundred and twenty- seven, Nicklas Depui, of Kizenick, in the county of Ulster, yeoman, of the one part, and Indian owners and possessors of the said tract of land hereaf- ter of the other part, witnesseth that the said Indian owners, possessors of the said land aforesaid, for and in consideration of to them, the said Indian owners and possessors, well and Truly to them in hand paid by the said Nicklas Depui, at and before the enseal- ing and delivery of these presents, the receipt of which they, the said and every of them doe and doth, aquit, release and discharge the said Nichlas Depue, there heirs, executors and administrators and assigns, Have granted, bargained and sold, released and confirmed the said Nichlas Depue all the said tract of land lying in Pensalvena, in the county of Bucks, joining to Dellaway River, beginning by Peter Ribble on the south side of the land by the North of a creek and thereover, and runs up south- westly eighty chains; from thence Northwest so far as the top of the high mountains, and from thence all along the said mountains as the coast runs, so along till we come over against Peghgoquery, and thence with a south east line so as the river runs, including all the Islands and lowlands appertaining to the said tract of land belonging to the heirs of Sir William Pen, Containing Three Thousand Acres more or less,

together with all the Intress, woods, timbers ande un- derwoods, with all and all other privileges and advan- tages whatsoever, all manner of mines, minerals and quarrys, pastures and privileges whatsoever ; all these the said Indians and every of them, their rights and in- terests, property, claim of in the said tract of land be- longing or in any manner of way appertaining, and reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders thereof, and ofevery pusell there of to have and the said tract of land hereby granted, bargained, sold, re- leased and confirmed, with these and every of these appertenances, unto the said Niclas Depue, their heirs and executors & admenstrator or assigns forever, free from any claim to be maid by us or any of us, or any other Indians whatsoever, and we will and ever war- rant and forever defend the said Nichlas Depue, there heirs, executors, administrators and assigns in a quiet, peaceable possession thereof against all other Indian or Indians whatsoever.

"In witness whereof we, the said Indian owners and possessors, hereunto set our hand and seals the day and year first above written.

"Signed, sealed )

and delivered in | WAUGOUNLENNEGGEA C. (Seal.) the presence of PEMNOGQUE V. (Seal.)

us.

Notwithstanding this title from the Indians, which they considered good and which they were evidently ready to warrant and defend as they had agreed, Mr. De Pui acknowledged the title of the proprietaries and repurchased a good portion, if not all, of this land of William Allen,1 of Philadelphia, who had patented ten thousand acres of land in the Minisink in 1727.

1 The Allens occupy a distinguished place in the early history of Pennsylvania. Proud says, "William Allen was the son of William Allen, who died in Philadelphia in 1725. He had been an eminent merchant in the city and a considerable promoter of the trade of the province, a man of good character and estate." William Allen, the younger, had been appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1750, a position which he held for many years. He en- joyed the friendship of the Penn family, and his daughter Ann married Governor John Penn. He speculated very extensively in lands, and by shrewd and careful methods secured an ample fortune. Secretary James Logan, writing to Thomas Penn, in England, says he " had a method of procuring a knowledge of the quality and worth of lands, which he effected by private arrangements he made with the surveyors who traversed the wild lands, . . . to whom he gave douceurs ; in this manner he became the wealthiest of the land speculators, as persons desirous of purchasing good tracts would purchase of him in prefer- ence to all others." Judge Allen had married one of the daughters of Andrew Hamilton, a former Deputy Governor under William Penn. He had three sons,-Andrew, James and William.

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MONROE COUNTY.

Mr. Depui rented of Allen for a few years, and in 1733 he commenced to purchase of him. During that year he purchased one tract of four hundred and twenty-six acres for fifty pounds ; the three islands,-Manwallamink, containing one hundred and twenty-six acres ; the Great Shawna, containing one hundred and forty-six acres ; and a small island over which the rail- road now passes, containing about thirty acres, for four hundred pounds. He also bought an- other tract containing two hundred and thirty- two acres the same year, and by further pur- chases in the years following he acquired a large property along the Delaware above and below Shawnee, nearly all of it being fertile river flats. He built a large house and planted an apple orchard and also built a grist-mill, which is mentioned as reserved to Moses Depui, his son, in a deed dated 1743. He cultivated the flats and adjacent islands and lived like a prince among the aborigines. " Few communities can lay claim to a family of greater worth and re- spectability, and fewer still can witness a repu- tation such as this family possessed, maintained untarnished for five successive generations. For nearly half a century Mr. Depui and other members of his family continued in undisturbed friendship with the Indians of the Minisink, and after the main body of the tribe were ex- iled, the few who fondly lingered until the out- break of 1755-when they were hunted like wild beasts of the forest-ever found a generous welcome at his door."1 According to Nicholas Depui's will, made in the year 1745, his sons were Moses, Aaron, Samuel and Daniel, and the daughters are Cathrina, Susanna, Magda- lena, Johanna and Elizabeth. Cathrina Rosen- krans deceased before that time, and her chil- dren-Hendrikus, Harnod, Garret, Benjamin and Moses-are provided for in the will. Of these sons, Samuel Depui retained the home- stead, and during the war his house was stock- aded and a swivel gun mounted at each corner, and was called Depui's Fort. " The son, like his father before hin, had no fear of the Indi- ans, living among them in peace and security until the French began to exert a wicked influ-

ence upon them, when Depui became alarmed, and he and his neighbors asked for colonial help. These calls, which afterward became fre- quent, were always respected and help came, Depui invariably assuring the government that he had abundant provision to keep the men." And it is recorded that in all the public life of the original Depui reported by various officials of the colony only one charge was found by the commissary-general. They doubtless considered the assured safety to life and property against the depredations of tlie Indians a full remuner- ation for keeping the men. Samuel Depui was a very powerful man. A characteristic anecdote is told of him in connection with John Reading, who revived the old mine just across the river from Depui's, although it proved to be a poor speculation for investors. Reading became provincial Governor of New Jersey. He and Depui were warm friends. One day Reading was telling him of the trouble he had with a negro servant. The negro was a strong man and knew it. Whenever any one wanted him to do anything he would say, " Well, now, if you are stronger than I am, I will do it ; sup- pose we try strength and see who shall do the work." In this way he managed to do about as little as he pleased. Depui said, "Send him to me." The negro was sent. Depui set him to do some work near the river, and the negro commenced in his old way: "If you are stronger than I am, I will serve you ; if not, we'll sce." Depui threw him down the side- hill about twenty feet and followed him up with a kick, and was about to throw him into the Delaware when the African cricd, " Hold, hold, sir; I knock under !" and became after that an obedient and trusty servant.

Samuel Depui received a few years after an injury which shortened his life. One day, as he and some others were shoving a Durham boat up the Delaware, it stuck on a reef, and two men were trying to shove it off, when Depui stepped forward and took a pole, saying that he could shove it off alone. As he was making the effort the pole broke and he fell forward on the pole with such force that it penetrated his side and wounded him severely. He lived for a number of years, but was never well again.

1 Delaware Water Gap, by L. W. Brodhead.

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Nicholas (2d) son of Samuel, built the stone house which is now standing at Shawnee in 1785. Robert R. De Puy, of Stroudsburg, is the owner of the old estate at this time. His father was Nicholas (3d) son of Nicholas (2d). Moses Depui, who, from the order in which they are mentioned in the will, appears to have been the eldest son of Nicholas Depui, and was the owner of the grist-mill, as appears from deeds in 1743. In 1747 he was appointed a magistrate. In Hubbard's " Life of Major Moses Van Cam- pen " the following ocenrs concerning him :

" He was distinguished for an exemplary re- ligious character as well as for kindness and liberality to the poor. He acted for a number of years as justice of the peace and in the dis- charge of his office lie seemed more like a father consulting and settling the differences of a large family than like the generality of those wlio administer justice. He never would allow a suit between any of his neighbors to come to issue before him, but in almost every instance effected a reconciliation between the parties without going through the expensive and, in too many instances, painful steps of a lawsuit."

" The De Puis were not of Holland, but French origin. The family fled from France, it has been generally supposed, on account of the persecutions following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, and came to America about that time ; but we find in the list of early immigrants to New Netherland (New York) the following : ' Oct., 1662, in the ship " Pem- berton Church " Nicholas Du Pni, from Artois, and wife and three children,' and in the list of patents granted by the Dutch government of New York from 1630 to 1664, one to Nicholaes De Puis for a plantation on Staten Island on the 19th March, 1663; also, as appears by an abstract of the will of Nicholas De Puis, of New York, dated Oct. 13th, 1685. These together will show that the family came to this conntry at a much earlier period than is generally sup- posed." 1

THE VAN CAMPEN FAMILY .- John Arenson Van Campen arrived in New York, June 19,

1658, in the ship " Brown Fish " according to Dutch doc., vol. viii. p. 408, Albany. " Claus " Nicholas Van Campen, called "a farmer's boy," came from Holland on board the ship " Faith" in 1662. Dutch doc., vol. viii. pp. 408 to 412, show the passage of his wife Gretchen, (Grace), who came with their son, and the passage was remitted on account of the military services of John A. Van Campen. In 1692, John Van Campen petitioned for land for himself and military company on Shawangnnk Creek. This was probably John A. Van Campen, who came to America in 1658. In the year 1700, in Colonel Jacob Rutson's regiment, and Captain Joachim Schoonmaker's company of one hun- dred and fifty-five men from Dutchess and Ulster Counties, Lieutenant John Van Cam- pen's name appears. George Van Campen of Olean, New York, from whom these facts were obtained, thinks that this was a son of John A. Van Campen's. Dutchess was divided from Ulster in 1713. Ulster then comprised all of the land west of the Hudson to the Delaware. In 1728, John Van Campen was a freeholder in Marbletown, Ulster County, and in 1737, Jacob Van Campen was in the list of freeliol- ders in Dutchess County. In 1726, John Van Campen had a lawsuit with John Conrad Weiser about obtaining an Indian title to land west of the Delaware, from a point then known as Pionpock to a point opposite Van Campen's Island. Cornelius Van Campen is mentioned as a corporal, in 1738, in a militia company in Ulster County, N. Y. Moses, John, Benjamin and Cornelius Depui are also mentioned in the list of troops. In 1761, Cornelius Van Campen, Aaron Van Campen and Benjamin Van Campen are assessed in Smithfield township, Northamp- ton County. Garret Van Campen's name appears among the residents in 1777, and John, Moses and Abram Van Campen's names appear as early as 1778. Among the slave-holders in Smithfield , in 1780 was John Van Campen, wlio owned four slaves, and Benjamin Van Campen, who had five slaves. " At a meeting held in Philadelphia, Saturday, March 3, 1770, at which the Hon. John Penn, Esquire, Lien- tenant-Governor etc., William Logan, Richard Peters, Benjamin Chew and James Tilghman,

1 From Historical Notes of the Minisink, by L. W. Brod- head.

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MONROE COUNTY.

Esquires, were present, the Board after hav- ing considered the present state of the intrusion and settlements made by the Connecticut people on the proprietary lands within this province (at Wyoming), were of the opinion that if two prudent persons, living in the north part of Northampton County were immediately vested with the authority of magistrates, it would greatly conduce to the preservation of peace and better execution of the order of government from time to time, in defeating the measures of those people and checking the progress of their scheme of settlement on the lands at Wyoming and on the Delawere.

" The Governor therefore, on the recommenda- tion of the members of the Council present, issued two special commissions, appointing Garret Brodhead and Van Campen, Esquires, justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace and the County Court of Common Pleas for the county of Northampton." This John Van Campen was a son of Colonel Abram Van Campen, of Pahaquarry. He actively espous- ed the cause of the Pennamites in the Connec- cut troubles, and was in frequent correspondence with President Reed during the Revolution. He lived in the stone house which stood in Shawnee, where George V. Bush afterwards located ; the latter, with Benjamin V. Bush, Esq., were his grandsons. Colonel Abram Van Campen, father of the above-mentioned John Van Campen, came to the Minisink about the same time that Nicholas Depui did, and purchased a large body of land in what is now called Pahaquarra (Pahaqualine), on the opposite side of the Delaware, five miles above Nicholas Depui's. He was prominent in defending the frontier, which was then along the Delaware, in 1755, during the French and Indian War, and was one of the first judges of Sussex County, New Jersey, which embraced a portion of the Minisink, and was organized November 20,

1753. He and his associates were appointed, by order of His Majesty, King George II., and commissioned judges of the Pleas, with power likewise to act as justices of the peacc. The Van Campens were tall, noble-looking men and were always an influential and highly respectable family. Abram Van Campen married Miss

Jennins and had four sons,-Benjamin, Moses, Abram and John. Benjamin died young. Abram married Miss Cape, of Philadelphia, and their children were Moses, Andrew, Mary, Maria, John and James. Of these children, Moses, married Miss Overfield and their chil- dren were William, Jacob, Benjamin, Susan and Sarah, wife of Moses Shoemaker.

Andrew Van Campen married Miss Michaels ; their children were Mary, Sally, John, James, George. Maria Van Campen was the wife of John Nyce. John married Miss Pipher ; their children were Mary, Sarah and John. James married Miss Pipher, and their children were Andrew, Frank, James and John. Moses Shoemaker's children were Moses, Andrew and Mary. John Van Campen, of the original family, married Sarah Depui. They had one son, Abram, and three daughters,-Mary, Blandina and Susanna. Abram married Sarah Dewitt. They had two daughters,-Susan, whose first husband was Solferyne Westbrook, and second husband was William Dusenbury, of Sandyston, N. J., opposite Dingman's Ferry ; and Catharine, wife of Robert T. Green, and brother of Dr. Trail Green, of Lafayette College, of Easton Pa. Mary Van Campen was the wife of George Bush, of Shawnee. Blandina was the wife of Henry Shoemaker, of Paha- quarra, and Susanna was the wife of Judge John Coolbaugh, who was the son of William Coolbaugh, who came from Germany. He was a sea-captain and well educated. He came to Smithfield from Kingwood, Hunterdon County, N. J. His wife was Sarah Johnson; both of them are buried at Shawnee. Of their ten children, Cornelius and John were all that remained in Smithfield. John Coolbaugh who married Susanna Van Campen, was associate judge of Pike County twenty-two years, and his descendants are among the prominent men of Monroe County. Of Moses, son of Cor- nelius Van Campen, who probably married a sister of Nicholas Depui's, we have the fol- lowing account :

Cornelius Van Campen 1 came from Holland

1 Life and Times of Major Moses Van Campen, by John N. Hubbard, 1821.

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and settled in New Jersey. He married a Depui (Depee or Depue, according to some records), and soon after the birth, on January 21, 1757, of their first son, Moses Van Campen (who became an officer in the Revolutionary army and a celebrated border adventurer during the exciting times before, during and after the war for independence), they removed to the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware and settled a little above the Water Gap. In 1769 Cornelius Van Campen took his son, Moses, and went to the Wyoming region, where he had purchased a fine tract of land under the Pennsylvania title. The constant turmoil arising from the contested title to the Wyoming was, however, distasteful to him, and relinquishing, temporarily, the idea of cultivating the beautiful land, and having in the mean time sold his farm on the Delaware, he removed, in 1773, with his entire family, to the west branch of the Susquehanna, in Northum- berland County. While living here Moses Van Campen went with Colonel Plunket's force of Pennsylvanians to drive the Connecticut party from the valley of the Wyoming. In 1776 he was presented with the office of ensign in Colonel Cook's regiment, raised chiefly in Northumberland County, to join the Continental army under Washington, but was with some others induced to remain upon the frontier by James McClure, one of the County Committee of Safety, who knew that he was familiar with the woods and the ways of the Indians, who, it was foreseen, would prove most stealthy foes. He served very effectually as a, frontiersman ; built a fort on Fishing Creek, where he was several times attacked by the Indians; went through the whole of the bloody Wyoming campaign ; was with Sullivan in his famous march and subsequent movements; was captured by the Indians in 1780, but made his escape, and sub- sequently entered the Continental service, in which he soon became a lieutenant and per- formed important duty throughout the Susque- hanna region.

In 1782 he was again captured by the Indians, narrowly escape execution, but was taken finally to Montreal and paroled. In the spring of 1783 he was again active in the de- fence of the border, and was made commander

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 171

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