History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 4

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended > Part 4

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"But all of good did not die with them. If they would find cause of regret at the depart- ure from their simplicity and frugality, they would find much to admire in the improved aspect of the country, the rapid march of improvement in the soil of their adoption. Where they left unoccupied land, they would find valuable plantations, and thriving vil- lages, and temples dedicated to the worship of the God of the Christians. Where they left a

field covered with brushwood, they would find a flourishing and populous town. The Codorus, whose power was scantily used to propel a few inconsiderable mills, they would see with its banks lined with large and valuable grist- mills, saw-mills and fulling-mills; they would find the power of its water used in the man- ufacture of paper and wire, and they would find immense arks of lumber and coal floating on its bosom from the Susquehanna to the very doors of the citizens of a town whose existence commenced after their departure from toil and from the earth.

" But to return to the situation of these early settlers. For some time after these early set- tlements were made, there was neither a shoe- maker nor a tanner, in any part of what is now York County. A supply of shoes for family use was annually obtained from Phil . adelphia; itinerant cobblers, traveling from one farm-house to another, earned a liveli- hood by mending shoes. These cobblers car- ried with them such a quantity of leather as they thought would be wanted in the district of their temporary visit. The first settled and established shoe-maker in the county was Samuel Landys, who had his shop somewhere on Kreutz Creek. The first, and for a long time the only tailor, was Valentine Heyer, who made clothes for men and women. The first blacksmith was Peter Gardner. The first schoolmaster was known by no other name than that of 'Der Dicke Schulmeister.' The first dwelling houses of the earliest set- tlers were of wood; and for some years no other material was used in the construction. But about the year 1735 John and Martin Shultz each built a stone dwelling house on Kreutz Creek, and in a few years the example was numerously followed." Glossbrenner's History gives us the further information of the time it was written, in regard to the early settlements.

" Settlements of 'The Barrens.'-For sev- eral years after the settlements were made in the neighborhood of Pigeon Hills, and on Kreutz Creek, the inhabitants of those regions were the only whites in the county. But about the years 1734, 1735, 1736, a number of families from Ireland and Scotland settled in the southeastern part of the county, in what is now known as the 'York Barrens.' These families consisted principally of the better order of peasantry-were a sober, industrious, moral, and intelligent people- and were for the most part rigid Presby- terians. Their manner partook of that sim- plicity, kindness and hospitality which is so characteristic of the class to which they belonged in their native countries.

THE EARLY SETTLERS.

"The descendants of these people still retain the lands which their respectable progenitors chose upon their arrival in York County. And we are happy to add, that the present inhabitants of the inappropriately named ' Barrens' inherited, with the lands of their forefathers, the sobriety, industry, intelligence, morality and hospitable kindness of their predecessors.

" The townships comprised in the ' Barrens ' are Chanceford, Fawn, Peach Bottom, Hope- well, and part of Windsor, and from the improvements which have of late years been made in the agriculture of these townships, the soil is beginning to present an appear- ance which is entirely at variance with the idea a stranger would be induced to form of a section of country bearing the unpromising name of 'Barrens.'

" Before the commencement of the improve- ments in farming recently introduced, the mode of tilling which generally prevailed was ruinous. Having abundance of wood- land, the practice was to clear a field every season. Wheat was uniformly the first crop, of which the yield was from eighteen to twenty bushels per acre. The second crop was rye, then corn, then oats. After going through this course, it was left for a year or two, and then the course began again; this was contin- ued until the soil would produce nothing. But most of the farmers have, as we have said. much ameliorated the condition of their lands, by the adoption of a better system of culture. "Having introduced the first settlers of the 'Barrens,' we shall defer further remark upon this section of country, while we return to 'olden time,' and look after the early set- tlers of other parts of the county. We have now settled the eastern, southeastern and southwestern parts of the county, and leave the settlers 'hard at it,' while we take a view of the north and northwest.

SETTLEMENT OF NEWBERRY AND THE ADJOINING TOWNSHIPS.

"About the same time that the 'Barrens' were settled by Irish and Scottish emigrants, Newberry Township and the circumjacent region was settled by a number of families from Chester County, who, under the auspi- cious influence of that spirit of peace and amity which had been spread abroad by the wise and excellent proprietary of Pennsylva- nia, sate themselves down here and there in a few rudely constructed cabins, surrounded on all sides by the still more rude wigwams of their aboriginal neighbors. Thomas Hall, John McFesson, Joseph Bennet, John Ran- kin and Ellis Lewis were the first persons to

visit this section of the county; and having selected the valley in which the borough of Lewisberry is situated, they gave it the name of the 'Red Lands,' from the color of the soil, and 'red rock,' on which it is based. By this name it was principally known to them and their eastern friends for many years. It was by a descendant of Ellis Lewis that Lewisberry was laid out-and it is from Joseph Bennet that the main stream which winds its devious way through the valley derives its name of 'Bennet's Run.'

"An anecdote is related of Bennet, Ran- kin and Lewis, connected with their first visit to the 'Red Lands.' Having arrived at the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River, and there being no other kind of craft than canoes to cross in, they fastened two together and, placing their horses with their hinder feet in one and their fore feet in the other, thus paddled to the shore, at the imminent peril of their lives.

"This section of the country, naturally productive, had suffered a material deterio- ration of quality, and was indeed almost ' worn out' by a hard system of tillage, when the introduction of clover and plaster, in the year 1800, established a new era in the hus- bandry of the neighborhood, and gradually produced a considerable amelioration of the soil. At present the spirit of 'liming' is gaining ground rapidly in Newberry and the adjoining townships, and promises very fairly to effect a material increase of productive- ness. There is also a great change of sys- tem in the husbandry of this section which is doing much for the land. Formerly the farmer depended mainly upon keeping a large stock, and enriching his land by the manure which he wonld be thus enabled to make, at the expense of all the hay and grass on the farm. At present he keeps a compar- atively small stock, except where there are extensive meadows, and depends more upon plowing down a clover lay and liming. It is to be remarked also that this quantity of manure is not lessened by this curtailment of the stock of his farm ; but with care may in fact thus be increased, and his land greatly benefited. For instead of putting all his hay and straw into them, he turns some under with the plow, leaves some to shade the ground, and saves a goodly portion to put under them.

"We have now fairly settled those parts of the county which were the first to be in- habited by the whites. Those parts of which we have made no mention in noticing the early settlements were not in fact taken up by the immigrants to York County; but be-

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

came populated from the stock which we have introduced to our readers. In the course of time the Kreutz Creek settlement increased in population, and gave inhabitants to a large tract of country surrounding it, including parts of Hellam, Spring Garden, York and Shrewsbury Townships. The few early settlers of the region in which Han- over stands gave population to several town- ships in that quarter of the county. The number of families in the 'Red Lands' and thereabout was for some time annually aug- mented by fresh emigrants from Chester County, the small portion of territory at first chosen became too small for the increased population, and the whole northern division of the county, comprising Newberry, Fair- view, Monaghan, Warrington, Franklin and Washington Townships, were partially set- tled as early as 1740-50."*

"Mills there were none for the first few years -the people being obliged to cross the Sus- quehanna for their flour and meal. Even from the Conowago settlement, Digges' choice (now Hanover) the long journey was made. Andrew Schriver, an early settler in that neighborhood, (whose first dwelling in this county, by the way, was a haystack), used to relate to wondering auditors, in his old age, how he tied his clothes on the top of his head, lighted his pipe and forded the Susquehanna. Roads being almost unknown, wagons and carriages were not much used, journeys be- ing made on horse-back. While the Indians were generally peaceable, great caution was used to avoid injury from the drunken or vicious among the sons of the forest, while away from home on these journeys."f

"It did not take long to build a house in those days. Logs were felled and hewed of the proper length, and arranged with a friendly aid into the frame work of a one- roomed log-cabin. A roof of puncheons rudely shaped with the broad axe was placed upon it, and an outside chimney of stone and sticks, filled in with clay, adorned one end of the edifice. The interstices between the. logs were then plastered up with mud and moss, a door, and an aperture for a window added, and, if the building were a luxurious one, a puncheon floor, and the house was done. A block or two served for stools; a broad slab of timber for a table; a rude frame work for a couch. Here in one chamber would sleep all the family; here was their kitchen; here did they eat. In some more elegant establishments, a double cabin or even a loft was to be found. A few wooden

bowls and trenchers, some spoons carved from a horn, a calabash and an irou pot, with two or three forks and knives, completed the sim- ple furniture. China or even ordinary delf ware was unknown in those times; a few pack borses in their annual journey were the only means of communication with the seaboard. For food, the chief reliance was upon the product of the chase, the corn, pumpkins and potatoes which were cultivated upon the little farm and the invariable dish of pork. No settler was without his drove of swine, and ' hog and hominy ' is still a proverbial expression for Western fare. Their cows yielded them milk; and corn meal either ground by hand or pounded iu a wooden mortar, furnished their only bread."*

" The most important feature of a new set- tlement, was, however, its fort. This was simply a place of resort for the people when the Indians were expected, and consisted of a range of contiguous log-cabins, protected by a stockade and perhaps a block-house or two. It was chiefly in the summer and fall that the approach of the savage was to be dreaded. Families would move into the fort. Panics would crowd the inland towns. "f

THE ABORIGINES.

W HEN William Penn visited the province in 1682, the great treaty of amity and peace was made with the nations of the Lenni Lenape Indians, at Shakamaxon, under the historic elm, 'marked now by a monument within the limits of the city of Philadelphia. In the spring of 1683, he visited the interior of the province, going as far west as the Sus- quehanna, where he contemplated founding a great city. This conception was almost re- alized when Wright's Ferry was nearly deter- mined upon as the site for the. Natioual Capital, and possibly it has been fully real- ized in the opinion of the present inhabitants of the State Capital. During the period of his second visit to the province, he formed a treaty of amity and trade with the tribes on the Susquehanna, from whom he had already obtained grants of land, through Col. Don- gan, of New York. This treaty, which opened the way for settlements as far as the Susquehanna, was made by William Penn in person, at Philadelphia, on the 23d of April, 1701, with the Indians inhabiting upon and

* Glossbrenner.

fSmith's History of York County.

*Introductory Memoir to Braddock's Expedition. +Ibid.

THE ABORIGINES.

about that river, and an ambassador from the Five Nations. By this last mentioned treaty, the parties were to be hereafter " as one head and heart, and live in true friendship and amity as one people." The articles confirmed the friendship of the parties, and a firm and lasting peace between them, and bound each never to injure the other. The kings and chiefs were to be subject to the laws of the government of the province, and not to aid or abet its enemies; to give notice of all designs of hostile Indians, and not to admit strange Indians to settle in the prov- ince. William Penn, for himself and his successors, agreed not to permit any per- son to trade or converse with any of the Indians, except upon approval under his hand and seal. No skins or furs were to be sold out of the province, and the treaty oth- erwise regulated their trade. The Indians confirmed the sales, already made, of lands lying near and about the Susquehanna. In confirmation of these articles, the parties made mutual presents to each other of skins, on the part of the Indians, and of articles of merchandise, on the part of the English, " as a binding pledge of the promises never to be broken or violated."*

The treaty of Shakamaxon is altogether traditional, and though the theme of art and story, is, by many, deemed mythical, but this treaty with the Susquehanna tribes is in writ- ing, under hand and seal, and is lodged among the archives of the province. The record states that the kings and chiefs had arrived in town two days ago, with their great men and In- dian Harry as their interpreter, with some of their young people, women and children, to the number of about forty, and that after a treaty and several speeches, the articles were sol- emnly agreed on. f At the time of the treaty of April 23, 1701, according to the minutes of the Provincial Council, the representatives present of the several tribes are named as follows: Connodaghtoh, King of the Susque- hanna, Minguay or Conestogoe Indians; Wopaththa (alias Opessah), King of the Shaw- anese; Weewhinjough, chief of the Gan- awese, inhabiting at the head of the Patow- meck; also, Ahoakassough, brother to the Emperor or Great King of the Onondagoes of the Five Nations. The first named are further described in the articles of agreement as Indians inhabiting upon and about the River Susquehanna. There was a tribe known to the early colonists as Susquehan- nas, who occupied the territory along that river to its source, for some hundreds of

years. They are said to have been a power- ful nation and considerably advanced in the arts of civilization and war, which is evi- denced by the mounds and fortifications existing where they inhabited. They had terrible wars with the Five Nations, and were not only conquered by the latter, but, according to the authorities, utterly exter- minated.+) The lands along the river fell under the control of the Five Nations just about the time of the first visit of William Penn to his province. The Five Nations consisted of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagoes, the Cayugas and the Senecas, and afterward became the Six Nations, by the addition of the Tuscaroroes. These nations were sometimes called Mengwes, otherwise spelled Minguays. Hence, as in the treaty, the name Minguay-Susquehanna Indians. In documents of the period we also find those settled at Conestogoe styled Seneca-Susque- hanna Indians. At this same treaty of 1701, an ambassador of the Emperor of the Five Nations, a king of the Onondagos, was present. Therefore, the settlement at Cones- togoe was evidently planted by the Five Na- tions after their conquest of the Susquehan- nas. The names of all the tribes of that confederacy are mentioned, more or less, by contemporaries, as applying to the Indians settled there, but they were known in a body as the Conestogoe Indians.

The Shawanese mentioned in the treaty were some three or four score of families, who came from Carolina in 1698, and applied for leave of the Conestogoe Indians and of William Penn to settle in Pennsylvania, and leave was granted them. They promised to live in peace and friendship, and the Cones- togoes became sureties for their good behav- ior to the Government.§ Others of this people subsequently settled at Conestogoe and some about Wyoming. About 1738 they were estimated at 700 fighting braves, and turned out to be among the fiercest of those tribes whose savage treachery is so well known in the sad history of that valley. The Ganawese, as is mentioned in the treaty, in- habited in and about the northern part of the river Potomac. They had come into the province by leave and were once known as Piscataway Indians. Having been reduced to a small number by sickness they applied for leave to settle at Conestogoe, with the proprietary's consent, and for them also the Conestogoes became guarantees in a treaty of friendship.| The tribe of Shawanese is

*Arch. I. 144.

+II Col. Rec. 15.

*History of Wyoming. +Ibid.

ĮDougan's Deed, infra.

21 Archives 228.

II Col. Rec. 191.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

mentioned some years subsequently in a letter of Gov. Gordon, as consisting of a thousand fierce fellows, and had become a source of apprehension .* A tribe called the Conoys had settled in the same vicinity, who afterward removed to the Juniata, and whose name became a terror. There were also some of the Delaware Indians settled at Conesto- goe. All of these tribes, except the Cones- togoes, became in after years formidable enemies of the English, but during the period now treated they were all friendly and dis- posed to maintain a permanent peace.

William Penn's great treaty at Shakamaxon was made with the Delaware Indians, who are named the Lenni Lenape, and the several tribes of Indians already mentioned, other than the Five Nations, were branches of that people. Lenni Lenapi means original people, but this race were not the original occupants of the country where they were found. Their own accounts brought them from the land of the setting sun. They were named Delawares by the colonists, from their settlements being in proximity to the river of that name. The name is not Indian, but was given to the bay and river in honor of Lord De la War, who is said to have first entered it with a fleet. The Delawares were once a warlike people, and came in conflict with the Five Nations, who were also called the Iroquois. History relates that they were conquered and were compelled to put on petticoats and acknowl- edge themselves women .* They frequently admitted their feebleness. As late as 1742, in the presence of the Provincial Council at Philadelphia, a chief of the Six Nations, Cannasatego, turning to the Delawares, holding a belt of wampum in his hand, spoke to them after this fashion: "Let this belt of wampum serve to chastise you; you ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shaken severely till you recover your senses and be- come sober; you don't know what ground you stand on. We have seen with our eyes a deed signed by nine of your ancestors about fifty years ago for this very land, and release signed not many years since by some of your- selves and chiefs now living to the number of fifteen or upward. But how came you to take upon you to sell land at all? We con- quered you, we made women of you, you know you are women, and can no more sell land than women. We charge you to re- move instantly. We don't give you the lib- erty to think about it. This string of wam- pum serves to forbid you, your children and

grandchildren to the latest posterity, for ever meddling in land affairs."*

An explanation is given by the Delawares for this singular subjugation. The women were the peacemakers among the Indians, as the warriors would not deign even to propose peace, and the prayers and appeals of the weaker sex led to the burying of the toma- hawk. In order to effect reconciliation it was necessary that one of the powerful tribes should act the part of the peacemaker and assume the garb of the woman. Confiding in the sincerity of the Iroquois, in an unfor- tunate moment, the Delawares yielded and assumed the petticoat. They were disarmed, and the Iroquois took such absolute control over them, that, as in the instance just relat- ed, when European adventurers had fraudu- lently deprived them of their land, by cun- ning leagues made with the chiefs of their conquerors, they were obliged to relinquish their claims and were silenced by the com- mand not to speak, as they were women.}, But the Delawares did not rest under the ban imposed upon them. Though they were pre- vented for many years from recovering by force of arms and numbers their original su- periority, on account of the rapid settlements of the Europeans encroaching upon them, they did at length throw off the yoke, and at Tioga, in 1756, Tledyuscung extorted from the Iroquois chiefs an acknowledgment of their independence.t The Delawares be- came the most formidable of the hostile In. dian tribes, and appeared in a terrible attitude in those dreadful incursions that made the settlements on our frontiers scenes of devasta- tion and massacre. At the period of the set- tlement of this county they had largely de- serted the eastern parts of Pennsylvania and moved westward with the fiercer tribes. The Indians who remained were peaceful and in complete harmony with the proprietary gov- ernment. It appears that it was difficult for those Indians who remained in this region to maintain themselves, even in the necessaries of life. They had periodical tits of hunting, but they were waylaid by traders and plied with rum, for which they parted with their valuable furs. The warlike ones had wan- dered to other parts, leaving the feeble behind them.

It is this mixture of feebleness and feroc- ity, that has made the American Indian at once an object of pity and of dread; that has caused him to be despised and his nobler qualities overlooked. Unable to cope with

*I Archives 324.

*Day's Annals p. 7.

*IV Col. Rec. 579.

+Day's Annals, p. 7. Heckenwelder. ĮDay, 7.

THE ABORIGINES.

the cunning of traders, and realizing the de- ception practiced upon him for gain, drawn backward by a power against which he is helpless to contend, he instinctively burns for revenge. His nature is such that he cannot embrace civilization. Though possessed by some intuitive promptings of nature of a species of liberality in gifts and a lofty idea of peace and its blessings, the firm sentiments of generosity, benevolence and goodness were wanting. This has been declared to be so by those most familiar with the Indian character. William Penn and his followers came among the Delawares in a spirit of peace and brotherly love, to which they seemed to respond, but they succeeded no bet- ter than the Puritans in changing their hab- its and character, nor could the missionaries, Catholic or Protestant, or Edwards or Brain- erd, or any other of the great teachers who went among them. They were morally in- flexible, and adhered to their hereditary cus- toms and manners. The Indian child soon discovers a propensity for the habits of his ancestors. This is displayed in their wild and fitful hunting, and indolence, and in their manner of warfare. Their war parties consisted of volunteers for special expedi- tions, surprising the enemy and taking their scalps. They would follow each other sin- gly and in silence. They would hide and dash upon the unwary .* It is this that made the frontiers tremble.

Much learning has been exhausted in ac- counting for their appearance on this conti- nent. William Penn, in his letter to the Free Society of Traders of the Province at London, in 1683,f accepts without question the theory that they were the remnants of the lost tribes of Israel: He writes: "For their origin, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race; I mean of the stock of the ten tribes; and that for the following reasons: first, they were to go to a 'land not planted, nor known;' which to be sure, Asia and Africa were, if not Europe; and He that in- tended that extraordinary judgment upon them might make the passage not uneasy to them, as it is not impossible in itself, from the easternmost parts of Asia, to the western- most of America. In the next place I find them of the like countenance and their child- ren of so lively resemblance, that a man would think himself in Duke's place or Berry street, in London, when he seeth them. But this is not all: they agree in rites; they reck- on by moons; they offer their first fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles; they

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History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 4

Author: Gibson, John, Editor Publication date: 1886 Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104