History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 6

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 6
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 6
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 6

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The " Enquiry into the canses of the aliena- tion of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians," just alluded to says :

" While they (the Delawares) were paid for their lands on Tulpebocken, they were unjustly, and in a manner forcibly, dispossessed of their land in the forks of the Delaware. At this very time (1733) William Allen, one of the principal gentlemen in Pennsylvania, and a great dealer in land purchased of the proprietors, was selling the land in the Minisinks, which had never been purchased of the Indians ; nay, was near forty miles above the Lehigh hills, which was solemnly agreed upon, (by the treaty of 1718) to be the boundary between the English and the Indians. Governor Penn, the founder, had devised to his grandson William, and his heirs, ten thousand acres of land, to be set out in proper and beneficial places, in this province, by his trustees. This ten thousand acres Mr. Allen purchased of William Penn, the grandson, and by virtue of a warrant or order of the trustees to Jacob Taylor, Surveyor General, to survey the said ten thousand acres, he had part of the land located or laid ont in the Minisinks, because it was good land, though it was not yet purchased of the Indians.

" Had he contented himself with securing the right, and suffered the lands to remain in the

possession of the Indians till it had been duly purchased and paid for, no ill consequences would have ensued. But no sooner had the land been surveyed to him than he began to sell it to those who would immediately settle it. His deed to Nicholas Depui in 1733 is recorded in the rolls of office of Bucks County." " About this time the proprietor published pro- posals for a lottery of one hundred thousand acres to be laid out anywhere within the pro- vince, except on manors, lands already settled, etc. There was no exception of lands unpur- chased of the Indians, but rather an express provision for those who had unjustly seated themselves there, since by drawing prizes they might lay them on the lands on which were already seated. By virtue of these tickets, tracts laid out in the forks were quickly taken up and settled. These transactions pro- voked the Indians."

" The extreme anxiety of the proprietors, as well as their motives, for extending the walk as far as possible, may be best appreciated by a glance at the map, and the peculiar course of the Delaware above the Kittatinny mountain. If the walk had terminated at the Kittatinny, the line from the end of the walk, to intersect the Delaware if drawn at right angles, (as the Surveyor General Eastburn and the land specu- laters claimed that it should), would have intersected the Delaware at the Water Gap, and would not have included the Minisink lands, a prominent object of the speculators. The line as actually drawn by Eastburn, strikes the Delaware near Shohola Creek in Pike County. Overreaching, both in its literal and figurative sense, is the term most applicable to the whole transaction."

" The deliberations of the conncil terminated however unfavorably to the Delawares.

" The Governor complained to the deputies of the Six Nations of the refusal of the Delawares, to remove from the lands embraced in the walking purchase, that they were disturbing the peace, and liad the insolence to write letters to some of the magistrates of this government, wherein they had abused the worthy proprietors, and threatened them with the utmost rudeness and ill manners (referring to letters given in

I This work was published in London in 1759. Charles Thompson was the American Patriot who in 1774, was elected Secretary of Congress, and whom John Adams styled " The Sam Adams of Philadelphia, the life of the cause of liberty." His last literary labor was a translation of the Septuagint, published in 1808.

THE "WALKING PURCHASE."

the following pages). Canasatego in the name of the deputies of the Six Nations told the Governor, 'That they saw the Delawares had been an unruly people and were altogether in the wrong ; that they concluded to remove them.' Then addressing himself to the Dela- wares in a violent and singular strain of invec- tive, he said, they deserved to be taken by the hair of their head and shaken severely till they had recovered their senses and become sober.

For what you have done, we charge you to remove instantly ; we don't give you liberty to think about it. You are women. Take the advice of a wise man and remove instantly. You may return to the other side of the Delaware, where you came from ; but we do not know whether, considering how you have demeaned yourselves, you will be permitted to live there,-or whether you have not swallowed that land down your throats, as well as the land on this side. We therefore assign you two places to go to, either Wyoming or Shamo- kin. You may go to either of these places, and then we can have you under our eye, and shall see how you behave. Don't deliberate, but remove away and take this belt of Wampum. He then forbid them ever to intermeddle in land affairs, or ever hereafter pretend to sell any land, and commanded them, as he had something to transact with the English, imme- diately to depart the council."

The Delawares dared not disobey this peremptory command. They immediately left the council, and soon after removed from the Forks. Some to Wyoming and Shamokin and some to Ohio.

Thus passed away the power as well as the prestige of this remnant of the great Lenni Lenape Nation.

Teedyuseung was the last chief of the tribe on their favorite river. He represented his people at several subsequent councils held at Easton and Philadelphia and displayed a high order of native talent. He possessed a good deal of foree of character and was a good speaker, exercising thereby grcat influence in council, and did much to restore the former reputation of his people. He was a prominent actor in the councils of 1756 and 58. At one of thicse assemblies he

contended for a seerctary of his own selection, and demanded a record of the proceedings, in view of the treacherous memory evinced by the Proprietaries at former deliberations. Strange as it may appear, Governor Denny persistently opposed this request ; but the chief sustained his demand so ably and with such good and forcible reasoning that the Governor was obliged, though very ungraciously, to yield to his wishes. Of his numerons speeches, space can be spared but for a few extracts.

At the Council at Easton in November 1756, Teedyuscung addressed Governor Denny as follows. (" Pumpshin," a Delaware Indian act- ing as interpreter)

" Brother : Hear me with patience; you may re- member I often desired you to endeavor to apprehend me aright when I am speaking of matters of impor- tance. Brother: I am going to use a comparison in or- der to represent to you the better what we ought to do.

" When you choose a spot of ground for planting you first prepare the ground, then you put the seed into the earth, but if you don't take pains afterwards you will not obtain fruit. To instanee in the Indian corn which is mine, (meaning a Native plant of this country ) as is customary I put seven grains in one hill, yet it will come to nothing, tho' the ground be good; tho' at the beginning I take prudent steps, yet if I neglect it afterwards, tho' it may grow up to stalks and leaves, and there may be appearance of Ears there will be only leaves and cobs. In like manner in the present Business, tho' we have begun well, yet if we hereafter use not prudent means we shall not have sueeess answerable to our expectations. God that is above hath furnished us both powers and abilities. As for my part I must confess to my shame, I have not made such improvements of the power given me as I ought, but as I look on you to be more highly favored from above than I am, I wou'd desire you that we would join our endeavors to promote the good work, and that the cause of our uneasiness, begun in the time of our forefathers, may be removed; and if you look into your hearts, and aet according to the Abili- tics given you, you will know the grounds of our uncasiness in some measure from what I have said before in the comparison of the fire; though I was but a boy, yet I wou'd according to my abilities bring a few chips. So with regard to the corn; I can do but little; you can do a great deal ; therefore let us all inen, women and children, assist in pulling up the weeds, that nothing may hinder the eorn from growing to perfection, when this is done, tho' we may not live to enjoy the Fruit ourselves, yet we shou'd remember our children may live and enjoy the Good Fruit, and it is our duty to act for their good."

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

" Brother : I desire you will attend to these few words, and I will, with all dilligenee, endeavor to tell you the truth: the Great Log you mentioned, when kindled, will make a great flame, but it will not kindle of itself, nor continue flaming unless there be Air and Leaves, as well as eoals, to make it kindle. I desire we may use our utmost endeavors to make it kindle, tho' what I have told you may relate to matters disagreeable to you, yet if we exert ourselves and act according to our abilities given from above, the events will be agreeable and pleasing to ourselves and of service to our children."

" Brothers : I have to request you that you would give Liberty to all Persons and friends, to reach into these matters ; as we are all children of the Most High, we should endeavor to assist and make use of one another, and not only so, but from what I have heard, I believe there is a future State besides this Flesh."

Mr. Brodhead comments as follows :

"The founder of this great Commonwealth was ever the faithful friend of the Minsis and the other tribes in his province. He understood their case perfectly ; and had he been permitted to be present at the Council of 1742, the result of their deliberations, we can readily conjecture, would have been greatly different. No preten- sions of the Six Nations, nor the alluring promi- ses of gain by their white allies, could have in- duced him to depart from the plain path of duty.

He knew what these people had suffered, and knew also that they were the rightful owners of the soil. His transactions with them were ever stamped with the impress of humanity and jus- tice. Would that we could say as much of his immediate successors. Well might these poor men lament the loss of such a friend, at a time too when all mankind else secmed to be frown- ing upon them-when the sun of their great- ness was setting in thickening clouds, porten- tous of the tempest that was to overwhelm them.

" There scems to be no doubt that these In- dians desired to live on terms of friendship with the white settlers; they evidently looked upon them as a superior order of beings, and, at first, thinking they were to be made wiser and better by their teaching and example, they made them welcome, so far as the simple native manners of these people could testify. Could we have more conclusive evidence of the friendly dispo- sition of the Minsis than is derived from the fact that for near a quarter of a century they lived quietly and peaceably with the settlers in

this valley, and permitted them to cut down their forests and cultivate their best hunting- grounds, all unprotected as the confiding settlers were against their overpowering numbers, and against the means they possessed of extermina- ting them without warning should they be dis- posed at any time to do so.

" Yet in all these years we hear of the com- mission of no single act of violence on the part of the Indians until the general outbreak dur- ing the war of 1755.

" But was there not sufficient provocation for this outbreak ? Was there not already cause for it in the infamous " walking purchase" of 1737, when the full effect of that fraud became apparent in the loss of their cherished posses- sions in the Minisink ?

" At the Council held in Philadelphia in 1742, called at the request of Governor Thomas Penn, the Delawares and Six Nations were each repre- sented.

" The Governor's object was to make com- plaints to the latter of the Delawares, as he had threatened in his letter of 1741, and induce the Six Nations to enforce his claim to lands in the Minisink, as well as in the Forks, and oblige them to quit the country. There were of the Six Nations then present two hundred and thirty, the Delawares being under a species of vassalage to that nation.

" The question of the "walking purchase " was discussed at this Council.

" When settlers began to move upon the lands in the Minisink great dissatisfaction was ex- pressed by the Delawares They declared the " walk " a fraud, especially as to the land claimed north of the Kittatinny, or Blue Moun- tains, which included the Minisink, their favor- ite hunting-grounds, and declared their deter- mination to maintain its possession by force.

" That these lands were occupied without their consent the following pathetic letters will show :

(From the Logan MSS. in possession of the His- torieal Society of Pennsylvania.)

"Memorandum of two letters to Jeremiah Langhorne,1 J. P. of Bucks County, from sun- dry Indians :

1 Jeremiah Langhorne lived at Newtown, Bucks County.

THE " WALKING PURCHASE."

"Smithfield, Nov. 21, 1740.

"To Mr. Jeremiah Langhorne and all Magistrates of Pennsylvania :

"We pray you that you would take notice of the great wrong we receive in our lands-here are about 100 families settled on it, for what reason they cannot tell.

" They tell that Thos. Penn has sold them the land, which we think must be very strange, that T. Penn should sell them that which was never his, for we never sold him this land. The case was this : That when we were with Penn to treat, as usual with his father, he kept beg- ging and plaguing us to give him some land, and never gives us leave to treat upon any thing until he wearies us out of our lives, but what should we give Penn any lands for-we never had any thing from him but honest dealings and civility. If he lets us alone, we will let him alone. The land we do own to be ours, Begins at the mouth of the Tohickon, runs up along the said branch to the head springs, thence up with a straight line to Patqualing,1 thence in a straight line to the Blue Mountains, thence to a place called Ma- honing, thence along a mountain called Neshameck, thence along the Great Swamp to a Branch of the Delaware River-so along Delaware River to the place where we first began.

" All this is our land except some tracts we have dis- posed of-The tract of Durham-the tract of Nicholas Depui-The tract of old Weiser we have sold. But for the rest we have never sold and we desire Thos, Penn would take these people off from our land in Peace, that we may not be at the trouble to drive them off, for the land we will hold fast with both our hands nor in pri- vately but in open view of all the Country, and all our friends and relations, that is the Eastern Indians and our uncles the five nations and the Mohicons and the troctweys, Shawanahs, Shawekelan, Tuskeroras & the Iakkesau the last, these all shall be by and hear us speak and we shall stand at our uncle's breast when we shall speak. Now Gentlemen & all others we desire some of your advice & likewise some of your assistance in this affair, for we have lived in brotherly friendship, so we desire to continue the same if so be we can be righted any manner of ways so we remain your friends. (The Indians acknowledge this to be done by their direction.)"

The second letter or petition is addressed to Governor Thomas Penn, dated-

"Smithfield January ye 3, 1741

" Hond Sir

"We are very much wronged and abused of having our lands taken & settled and we know not how or what affor-We have applied ourselves sometime ago

1 Patqualing .- There is a township in the New Jersey Minisink, now called Pahaquarry. It is the Indian name for the Water Gap. In surveys of land made in 1718, 1720, 1728, 1805 it was called respectively Pahakqualong, Paha- qualing, Pehoqucalin. Pahaqualong. The word signifies a river passing between two mountains.

to ye authority of the Province to Mr. Langhorne and begged their advice and assistance, but we have re- ceived no answer, nor any news as yet-We hope your Excellency will help us, that we may have justice done us according to the Articles inade between ye English and our Fathers, which was if we are right informed to live in Brotherly Love together-but not as we live now, for we cannot enjoy our Birth-rights in peace & quietness but we are abused as if we were enemies and not friends, for we dare not speak for our rights, but there is an upcom and in danger of being cut to pieces and destroyed-so that we cannot keep our young people in order and if we do get an honest man to assist in anything that we want, he is in danger of his life as appears now at this time for here is a great up- roar and we know not what it is (for it is very strange that we may not have an honest man to take our parts in any just cause, but he must be killed or fly his Country), so if this practice must hold why then we are no more brethren or friends but must be more like open enemies, then we shall ruin and destroy our- selves-It looks very strange that Your Excelly, would take any notice of Jolın McMaken,2 what he says or what he can do, for he is not a friend of the English nor to us-He is partly a Shawanah, the worst of all Indians-He has lived so long among you (them) that he has got their own nature. He lives a lazy idle life He is an intruder upon the Proprietor and us.

" He buys no land nor settles for a livelihood, but makes a little improvement and so gets a bottle of rum and other truck and goes peddling. He does no good to himself or anybody else. Now he is afraid lie shall lose his way of living. He makes a great up- roar, and does not care what he docs, so he may be revenged upon us, for we do not intend to let him settle any of our land any more.

"Indeed all the rest that make this uproar there is not a creditable person among them, for they think that by uproar, they will scare us to be easy and let them alone in their wicked way to take our land and never give us anything for it-but we are not willing to be served so. Therefore we pray your Excelly. will assist us to settle these affairs, so that we alto- gether live in Peace and in Brotherly Love, according to our first Articles which we made by our Forefathers.

"We pray it may please your Excelly to send us an answer and although we be Indians we beg leave to subscribe ourselves his Excellencies most humble servants

ONOTTESSAE - his mark MAWENCE - his mark MATAKER - his mark ONAHACKIS - his mark WIENHACKEME - his mark

TASSEHAWA - his mark

3 CAPPOS - his mark

3 NOTTEMEUS - liis mark"

2 McMichael.

3 The names of Cuppos or Cupoose, and Nottemeus, were

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

The Indians acknowledge this to be done by their direction.

These letters are endorsed as follows :

Copies of letters from Indians to ye Governor & Jeremiah Langhorne. Referred to in Minutes, March 26, 1741.

Following the last letter of the Indians is a letter or petition to the Governor setting forth :-

Jacob Sebring to be an honest and true man &c. and John McMachon a very bad man.

Signed by

ABRAHAM VAN CAMPEN, Justice. JACOB KUYKENDALL. NICHOLAS DEPUI. JACOBUS KUYKENDALL.

The scribe for the Indians was Jacob Seb- ring, whose character is vouched for above. He was arrested by the Sheriff of Bucks County for serving them in that capacity.

The following is a memorandum of the Gov- ernor's reply, and is endorsed :

" Rough draft of an Intended letter to the Delaware " Indians, 17th March 1741

Sent accordingly May 1st and the answer inclosed " The letter Begins:

"Acknowledge ye rect of these letters pr two Indian messengers two months and 21 days after date and also yt wrote to Jeremiah Langhorne mentions it being wrote in a different style and manner from others had hitherto seen from any Indians in this Goverment, who had sworn themselves to be an hon- est fair people, ready to perform their agreements, and who had always been treated by us with great tenderness-hopes that those letters were wrote by some evil minded men and that the Indians did not know ye contents which were not true-those relates the purchase made in 1686 and the confirmation with

noted in all the treaties of this period. The former is per- petuated at a clearing of his own, near Scranton, called "Capoose Meadow," and on which a part of the Scranton race-course is situated.

There is also an island in the Delaware, four miles below Belvidere, called Capoose Island.

Dr. Hollister, in his History of the Lackawanna Valley, says. "Capoose himself was a contemporary of Tudyus- cung of the Delawares, but so diverse in character and temperament, that while the latter was ambitious for dis- tinction, and prominent in Council gatherings, where he jointly looked after the interests of the Moneys and his own tribe, Capoose, undecked with the emblems of war, ived in amity with the whites, encouraged the culture of the soil, and left behind him a name untarnished with either blood or carnage."

the transactions at Durham and at Pennsbury and describes ye courses of the purchase. Mentions that Sappawinsa and their lionest old men were satisfied with and acknowledged it was all true and agreed upon ye day and a half's walk at a third meeting at Philadelphia, were the deeds were all produced and read again in presence of Sappawinca Tishiconk and Nautemus and many white people and Indians who were witnesses wherein they ye Delawares released all right and claim to those lands and promised to appoint some persons to walk ye day and a half which they did and they set out together in order to execute ye agreemeut-mentions ye fairness of the walk and where they stopped at a mountain and according to ye words in ye deed run a strait line to Delaware River -- Then mentions yt as this is the case it is they who have acted wrong &c and told a story in order to break ye friendship, or otherwise they might remember several things-

"Queries, how they could claim lands to ye mouth of Tohickon &c unless you had a mind to break ye peace, or if you had an inclination to keep the peace, how came you to write to J. Langhorne, that several Indians would be with you to demand Justice as if intended to attack and make war on the King's sub- jects-Desires ye Indians to consider well what they are about -- Mentions ye strength of ye English and if forced might easily overcome them-reprimands them for their taking Jacob Sebring out of ye hands of the Sheriff and demands his delivery-after this treaty that their uncles ye five nations had signed a release for these lands to the Proprietors and further desired Onas and James Logan that they would never treat with their cousins ye Delawares about land for that they were a people of no virtue and had nowhere a Council fire burning and who dealt often very un- justly with our friends and brethren the English & :.- Then acquaints them that some of their chiefs are to be here in May and that Mr. Penn will complain to them of their behavior and acquaint them publicly of everything that has passed at which any of ye may come down and be present, provided you come down at your own charge ( !! ) for the Proprietors concern you have acted so injustly by them and have so often put them to the expense in several meetings, without intending to do the business that you must not expect to be maintained here-you may send such as are allowed to be of the Delaware Nation because the Jersey or other strange Indians will not be taken any notice of. Mentions he had wrote a letter about 3 months ago and given it to Nicholas Scull to be deliv- ered them, with orders to examine very closely into ye cause of these Disturbances, and that if any injus- tice was done you by ye inhabitants, they might be punished for such behavior-But that he could not proceed for ye cold and was obliged to return-I now send him again to make this inquiry that he may know who are the principal causes of this uneasiness and that he does not expect they will interfere with

THE "WALKING PURCHASE."

any orders he shall send relating to ye white people King of England's subjects put under his Govt .- Sends a copy of ye last deed to be read to you all and to be left in your hands, that all their young people may know ye contents.

"N. B .- Sec the indorsement copied from ye original Indorsement.

The answer of the Chiefs of the Delaware Indians to the Governor's message of the 27th March, 1741:

"Our young men shall behave peacably and orderly toward the English till the Five Nations come down to Philadelphia to treat, at which time we will have a fair hearing with them and if the land be sold we will be easy.

"Signed

ONOTOPY. CAPUS.

NUTEMUS.

"Smithfield in the

WIENHOCKASINCK.

County of Bucks,

HOUGHQUATOON.

May 12th, 1741."

MAWEEMOO. MATUAMIN.

WALLA WANCHUN PAPES, alias Jo."

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 6

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