USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 9
USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 9
USA > Pennsylvania > Union County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 9
USA > Pennsylvania > Juniata County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 9
USA > Pennsylvania > Snyder County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 1 > Part 9
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ligion." Corn had to be sent to them down the river. They are described as half-starved, miserable objects. In November, 1770, Sir William Johnson says : "The Tuscaroras, since the last of them came from the southward to join the rest, may now number about two hundred and fifty."
In the Revolutionary War the Tuscaroras and Oneidas remained true to the interests of the colonists, and their settlements were not de- vastated by General Sullivan when he so severely punished the other tribes for their apostasy. Some time after the war the Tuscaroras migrated to a reservation near Niagara Falls, at Lewis- town, N. Y., where they still reside. Some of them, however, have gone over to Canada and a few to the West. Samuel Smith was the last chief of those that remained in Carolina, and died in 1802. Sacarissa and Solomon Long- board, both chief's of the northern Tuscaroras, then brought up from North Carolina the last remnant of their people, thus making the total duration of their migration northward to cover a period of eighty-nine years. They now number about three hundred, and still retain the peculiarities of their Carolina ancestors. The men cultivate the soil with great success, and the women are thrifty housewives. Those southern tribes which aided the white people in driving their ancestors out of Carolina, a couple of years later, went to war with the white people, because they refused to fulfill their en- gagements when they employed them to fight the Tuscaroras; and in turn they were devas- tated, and to-day are only known in history. The Tuscaroras are the only living representa- tives of all the Carolina tribes. In these de- scendants there is still the blood of those who first met Grenville, Lane, Hariot and White in 1585.
On December 16, 1766, one hundred and sixty Tuscaroras from Carolina arrived at Sir William Johnson's, in New York, who, while on their way, at Paxtang, in Pennsylvania, were robbed of their horses and other goods to the value of fifty-five pounds. In a diary kept at the Moravian mission at Friedenshutten (Wyalus- ing), during the year 1767, we find these entries: " January 25th-two feet of snow fell last night. The Tuscaroras were so alarmed, not being acens- Although the name Tuscarora is one of the plainest of our Indian names, yet, in the prep- aration of this article, the writer has found at least fifty-four variations in the spelling of the word. These arise from ignorance in the writers, dialectical variations in pronunciation and many other causes. The inability of the Delawares to pronounce the letter "r" has led tomed to snow, that they all left their huts down by the river and came up to us." In February mention is made of several Tuscaroras coming to the mission to stay there, who had planted, the summer previous, at the mouth of Tuscarora Creek, in Wyoming County. " In May seventy-five Tuscaroras came from Caro- lina." " They are lazy and refuse to hear re- | to curious variations. A town in Ohio, where
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THE ERA OF THE TRADERS.
a number of this tribe had settled, was called by the Delawares Tuskalawa, as given in Rev. Charles Beatty's journal. By a compromise, one of the displaced letters was restored, and the valley is now known as the Tuscarawas.
Like other Indians, the Tuscaroras were subdivided into families, named after animals. They were bear, wolf, turtle, beaver, deer, eel and mhipe. Marriage within the clan was forbidden, and all relationship reckoned in the female line, in which alone the civil and military chieftainships were hereditary.
THE ERA OF THE TRADERS. -- At what date and by whom the Juniata and West Branch Valleys were first traversed, and the Alleghen- ies first crossed by Europeans in a journey to the Ohio, is unrecorded, and must forever re- main unknown. The first men who ventured into the unexplored forests among these mount- ains were not given to keeping journals of their travels for future historians. No one seems to have thought of immortalizing himself by be- queathing to us a good description, giving minute details of the country and its tribes. 'At first the natives brought their peltry hundreds of' miles to the Delaware River; but, in course of time, these skins and furs became so valuable in Europe that the worst class of men were stimulated to penetrate the depths of the forest in order to hasten and monopolize the trade. In this way the whole Juniata and West Branch regions were traversed long years be- fore their settlement; but the few literary minants of those days scarcely furnish us a local habitation and a name. From the days of William Penn's advent up to 1722 the Indian expenses were inconsiderable, being limited by law to fifty pounds per annum, In that year the Assembly paid Governor Keith's expenses to Albany. In 1727 they refused to pay more than half the amount of an account of Conrad Weiser. In 1728, under an alarm, they agreed to pay without limitation the ex- penses of an Indian conference. After this they sometimes paid half, and sometimes all. The appetite for presents which the Indians ac- quired was not easily satiated. Constant dis- turbances, frequently caused by rum, called for expensive treaties, and the donations allured
the Indians and made them more insolent and exacting. The expenses soon rose to over eight thousand pounds, and the question whether these treaties were more for the benefit of the proprietaries in buying lands than for the safety of the people gave rise to heated contro- versy. The result was that Indian affairs began to take a wider and more public range, and the records of those days begin to throw more light upon the uninhabited interior of the country.
As early as 1722 we read that " William Wilkins was 150 miles up Sasquehannah (above Conestoga), trading for his master," John Cart- lidge, a trader. Several Frenchmen engaged in the trade lived among the Indians cast of the mountains, extending their travels up the Sus- quehanna and its branches ; but, in what is said of them and other traders, there is not a hint that any one penetrated or crossed the Juniata region prior to 1727-and then it is only an inference in the accounts of traders passing to the Ohio.
On July 3, 1727, at a council held in Phila- delphia with the chiefs of the Five Nations, but mostly Cayugas, also Conestogas and Ganawese, Madam Montour, interpreter, we have the first clear reference to the Juniata region. The rec- ord makes them address the Governor as follows :
"They desire that there may be no settlements made up Sasquehannah higher than Pextan (Harris- burg), and that none of the settlers there abouts be suffered to sell or keep any rum there, for that being the road by which their people go out to war, they are apprehensive of mischief if they meet with liquor in these parts. They desire also, for the same reasons, that none of the traders be allowed to carry any rum to the remoter parts where James Le Tort trades,- that is, Allegany on the branch of Ohio. And this they desire may be taken notice of, as the mind of the chiefs of all the Five Nations, for it is all those nations that now speak by them to all our people."
To this the Governor replied, the next day, as follows :
" We have not hitherto allowed any settlement to be made above Pextan, but, as the young people grow up, they will spread of course, yet it will not be very speedily. The Governor, however, will give orders to them all to be civil to those of the Five Nations as they pass that way, though it would be better if
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they would pass Sueqfheninidi avove the niountallis. And the sale of rum shall be prohibited both there and at Alegany ; but the woods are so thick and dark we can not see what is done in them. The Indians may stave any rum they find in the Woods, but, as has been said, they must not drink or carry any away."
Two interesting facts may be fairly inferred from the above complaints. First, at this date Le Tort, who had settled at Carlisle, it is said, as early as 1720, was a well-known trader al- ready at Allegheny, passing over the mountain either at the Juniata and Kittanning path, or by Shamokin and the West Branch. This is the more interesting, as it was in this year that the ! Shawanese began to pass over the mountains, followed by some of the Delawares and the restless young Iroquois, especially those of Con- estoga descent, and began to settle on the Ohio, then an uninhabited hunting-ground. The second inference is that at the date of the above conference there were white people already squatted on the Susquehanna or Juniata, west of Paxtang, or there were already such decided
symptoms of danger in this direction that the and Juniata are often connected with an Iro-
Iroquois deputies considered it necessary to for- bid that any one should presume to settle be- yond the Kittatinny Mountains. A violation of this . precautionary restriction led to a series of complaints about intruders into the Juniata region for the next twenty-seven years.
The reader will bear in mind that the Dela- wares originally lived on the river Delaware; that, being encroached upon by the settlers, they began gradually to remove to the Susque- hanna, especially at Paxtang, Shamokin and Wyoming, soon after the year 1700; that the Shawanese first came up from the south in 1699 and settled on the lower Susquehanna, the Conestogas going security for their good be- havior; that, about twenty-five years later, both these tribes began to work their way westward, along the Juniata and West Branch, and finally passed over the mountains to the Ohio. Some other remnants of southern tribes, such as the Ganawese, or Conoys, the Nanticokes and the Tuteloes, gradually worked their way up the main stream to the Six Nations, to whom they and all these tribes were tributary, and into which they were finally merged. It was
claimed by Pennsylvania, at the treaty in Al- bany in 1754, and admitted by the Six Na- tions, " that the road to Ohio is no new road ; it is an old, frequented road ; the Shawanese and Delawares removed thither about thirty years ago from Pennsylvania, ever since which that road has been traveled by our traders at their invitation, and always with safety until within these few years." Though the Delawares were leaving their ancient river and settling on the Susquehanna and its branches, and some of their hunters were following the restless Shaw- "anese to Ohio, still the Governor observed, in 1728, that " all our Indians in these parts have an entire dependence on the Five Nations." The truth is, it was about this time, as demonstrated by these movements, that the Shawanese especi- ally began to manifest impatience under the Iroquois rule, and the Delawares dissatisfaction at being displaced, feelings which eventually culminated in openly aiding the French.
During the next twenty years the history of Indian affairs on Susquehanna, West Branch quois agency on the northern border of the district. More than a passing notice should be taken of its principal managers. Allummapees, alias Sassoonan, was a Delaware king, a chief at Paxtang as early as 1709, and king from 1718 to 1747. He was a good-hearted Indian, true to the English and an advocate of peace, and sup- posed to be one hundred years old when he died.
Perhaps one of the finest and most prudent, as well as able and sensible, characters that the Indian business of those days brought to promi- nence was Shiekcalamy, Shikelimus or Shikel- limo. As early as September 1, 1728, we find Governor Gordon sending a message to Shamokin by the hands of Henry Smith and John Petty, Indian traders. From this we learn that Shickcalamy was already at that post as the deputy of the Six Nations and superintendent of their subjects, especially the Shawanese. IIe lived for ten years a mile below Milton, on the Union County side of the river, a spot long known as "Shickealamy's old town." He then moved to Shamokin, (now Sunbury), as a more conve- nient place for the transaction of his public business. He lived there until his death, in
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THE ERA OF THE TRADERS.
1709. His name is, moreover, memorable as the father of " Logan, the Mingo chief," whose .une, from Logan's Spring, in Mifflin County, hus geographical application all over the country. At the date above given we find him thus spoken of': "Shikellima, of the Five Nations, appointed to reside among the Shawanese, whose services have been and may yet further be of great ad- vantage to this Government," and the Governor all-, " he is a good man and I hope will give a good account of them." He was first visited at his old town by Conrad Weiser in February, 1737. Soon after he removed to Shamokin, where he was visited by Count Zinzendorf, in 1742, who preached to him the gospel. In after-years he received that gospel with faith in Wars from Bishop Watteville, and subsequently, while on a visit to Bethlehem, he was received into the Moravian Church, and before partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper he cast away a small idol or totem which he wore about his neck. He had during this trip with him his two sons, whom he had baptized, calling one after the above-named trader, John Petty, and the other after that distinguished friend of the Indians, and long the provincial secretary, James Logan. Shickcalamy was a descendant of the ancient Minequas or Susquehannock or Conestoga Indians, but was reckoned as an Oneida chief, but his son Logan was a Cayuga chief, belonging to the tribe of his mother, wyording to the system of Indian relationship. Zinzendorf says Shickcalamy was " the Viceroy of the Six Nations, maintaining the balance of power between the different tribes, and between the Indians and whites, acting as Agent of the Inquois confederacy in all affairs of state and war." Loskiel speaks of him as "being the first magistrate and head chief of all the Iroquois living on the banks of the Susquehanna as far 14 Onondago ; he thought it incumbent on him to be very circumspect in his dealings with the white people." He never became intoxicated, and died in April, 1749, attended by the pious Weisberger, in full confidence in the Christian's hope. His son, John Taghneghdoarus, was appointed his successor. What those services were which the Governor speaks of as having already been of great advantage to the govern-
ment in 1728, we are not told ; but we are bound to infer that he had been at this post for some time previous to this first mention of his name. It is probable that he was sent there in 1727. In the capacity in which he served he had general oversight of the Indian affairs in the whole Juniata region, and his advice was generally adopted by the council of the Six Nations.
The position here taken as to the time when the Delawares first settled on the Susquehanna and its western branches has been carefully considered, in view of the many writers who have taken it for granted that they always be- longed there. There are several French maps, of dates about 1700 to 1720, and the map of Senex in 1721, founded on Herman's of 1670, which give quite a number of names along the middle Susquehanna River. These names belong to the Iroquois stock of languages, showing that the Delawares then had no towns on its waters. In Egle's " History of Dauphin County " there is a manuscript draught of the middle Susquehanna River, made by Isaac Taylor, surveyor of Chester County, to which the date 1701 has been as- signed. This map, indeed, proves the presence of the Delawares, but its true date is at least twenty-five years later, as is demonstrated by numerous car-marks. Le Tort did not have a " store" at Northumberland, nor Scull, opposite Port Treverton in 1701; but we know they were in that region in 1727. Nor was the Delaware term "Shamoakin," applied to the river or its mouth, then in use. In fact, the name Shamokin is derived from the circumstance that it was the abode of the great sachem, Allummapees, whom we know yet lived at " Paxtang " in 1709, and probably did not go to this place of the "Shackamakers" prior to 1727, in which year he sent the Governor a letter dated at "Shahomaking." With all due defer- ence to Heckewelder's opinion that the name means "the place where we caught plenty of eels," the writer submits that, as in the case of "Shackamaxon," his definition is too slippery for this situation. It is evidently derived from the words "sachem," a chief, and "acki " or "olike," a place or region, meaning the place where the chief lived. The name only came
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
into use after this "king " removed there to look after his people, who were scattered in every direction in little temporary towns on the larger streams. These facts are not only inter- esting, but very important in understanding the history of this region and period. The Juniata is spelled " Cheniaty " by Taylor ; the Mahan- tango is called " Sequosockcoo;" and "Chin- as-ky " is the spelling of a name of the West Branch, of which the writer has made a collee- tion of over thirty variations. It referred to the caves on this river in which demons were supposed to dwell, and hence also often called by the Iroquois the "Ot-zinachson," or the stream in the region of thecave-devils. At these headquarters at Shamokin, Allummapees regu- lated the affairs of his tribe after 1727, and was joined by Shickcalamy a few years later.
In the spring of 1728 we find Le Tort con- templating a trading tour as far west as the Miamis or' Twightwees or naked Indians, who resided at the west end of Lake Erie. He had contemplated going the fall previous, and waited so long at Chenastry (West Branch) for one who had engaged to accompany him that the winter set in before he could procced. He had engaged Madame Montour and her husband to go along, as she had a sister married among the Miamis, but she was deterred by a prominent Delaware chief named Manawkyhickon, who had ill-will to the English because Wequeala, his brother, had been hung in New Jersey, and who told them they might meet some " white heads" on the way, as the Miamis were about to take up the hatchet against the English. This news was brought by Le Tort, and as he and John Scull were about "to return to Chenasshy, " the Gov- ernor sent presents to Allummapees, Madame Montour and Manawkyhickon. The latter boasted to King Allummapces that if he wanted war, " he could make a handel to his Hatsheat Seventey ffaddom Long." Chenasshy is the same as Zinachse, and other forms for West Branch.
At this period we have the first manifestation of uneasiness over the machinations of the French to the westward. It is feared, Septem- ber 2, 1728, that as "there are still some com- motions among the Indians," that the story " is
not altogether without a foundation " which Manawkyhickon and Madame Montour told Le Tort last spring, about the " Tweektwese, or Miamis, or naked Indians being invited to at- tack this country " by the French: "Our Lenappys or Delawares know nothing of it. The Shawanese we know are ready for any mischief. How far the Five Nations are privy to it we can not judge." Evidently at this time there was considerable travel up the Sus- quehanna and Juniata, and they were getting news over the mountains from the Miamis, who were the nearest Indian nation to the west.
In 1729 a son of Shickcalamy and Caron- dowanna, alias Robert Hunter, an Iroquois and husband of Madame Montour, were captured and killed in an expedition against the southern Indians. The Governor sent " strouds to cover the dead," and wrote, " our souls are afflicted for the loss of our dear good friend Carondowanna and of all our other brethren of the Five Na- tions." On August 18, 1729, Gordon wrote to Shickcalamy, desiring the Indians " to be kind to our people wherever they meet with them, whether on Susquehannah, Potowmack or Al- legheny, or in any other place." This proves the wide extent of trading operations at that date. On October 4, 1729, the Governor ad- dressed a formal letter " To the several Traders of Pennsylvania with the Indians at Allegheny and the other remote parts in or near said Province." The letter is a caution against carrying rum to the Indians; exhorts them to set an example to the Indians by their " sobriety, temperance, humanity and charity ;" urges them to observe honesty, justice, courtesy and humanity in their dealings; and enjoins these rules " for the peace of the public and your own ease, benefit and security." Unfortunately, this good advice was never observed, for, as a class, they were among the worst of the white people.
In 1730 two white men were killed at Al- legheny ; the number of traders was increasing, and rum was the principal cause of bringing items to the surface as surviving history. The fall previous John Fisher and John Hart, who are called " two of the Shoahmokin traders," went with the Indians to a fire-ring hunt one
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hundred miles down the river, in which ITart was accidentally shot. The Delawares got Ed- mund Cartlidge to write a letter for them to the Governor, which is dated April 30, 1730, " att Alleegaening on the main Road," and signed by Shawan-oppan and six other chiefs. Shanop- pin's town is described by Harris and others in 1754, and was on the river a little above Pitts- burgh. In a memorial of Edmund Cartlidge, Jonah Davenport and Henry Baly, in 1730, we have definite information as to when and by whom the trade at Allegheny was commenced. They claim to have been the pioneers at Al- legheny, and during the three years past had the chief part of the trade. This would fix 1727 as the time for " venturing themselves and goods further than any person formerly did."
In 1731 quite a desire was manifested to in- duce the Shawanese to return from Allegheny, offering as an inducement the grant of a reserva- tion in Cumberland County. Peter Chartier communicated this offer to them. He lived below and across the river from Harrisburg, and no doubt was to carry the message on one of his trips to Allegheny. This same Chartier afterwards removed near Pittsburgh, and in 1744 proved treacherous to the English, joined the French and helped to pillage traders, and wdluced a number of Shawanese to join the enemy. Governor Thomas attributed this to the " perfidious blood " of the Shawanese that partly filled his veins. The province now be- gan to awaken to the designs of the French. Their operations at Allegheny created mani- fest uneasiness, as the people began to realize how deeply the consequences might affect this province. A. new general atlas revealed how exorbitant were the claims of the French. Large parts of Carolina and Virginia were given as parts of New France, and the Susquehanna River was laid down as the western boundary line of Pennsylvania. The news brought cast- ward over the mountains by Le Tort, Daven- port and Cartlidge revealed the intrigues of the French in trying to gain the good graces of the Shawanese, through an agent named Cava- lier, who visited them every year and took their leading men to Montreal, and sent them a gun- smith to repair their arms free of charge. .1
Hence it was determined to try to induce the Shawanese to return to the proffered manor. But this effort failed, as it was found that if the Iroquois would press their jurisdiction, it would result in the summary removal of the Shawanese within undoubted French territory. The affida- vits of James Le Tort and Jonah Davenport concerning the Indian towns to the westward and the operations of Cavalier, were taken October 29, 1731. Up to this period no records have come down to us of those going to Al- legheny, relating their experience and observa- tions in crossing the Juniata region, yet there can be no doubt that it was traversed by them during these five years, and that every Indian town was frequently visited, although no land- marks are given. At this point, however, we are no longer in doubt as to the route traveled by the traders. On a paper that was folded with the affidavits above named there is an estimate of the number of Indians, the distances to their towns and the names of their chiefs and tribes. To this paper we are indebted for the mention of the name of the river Juniata and two places on its waters, being our oldest recorded land- marks. As a more than an ordinary interest attaches to this document, we give the few words it contains concerning this region,-
" Ohesson upon Choniata, distant from Sasquehan- na 60 miles; Shawanese, 20 families, 60 men, chief, Kissikahquelas.
" Assunnepachla upon Choniata, distant about 100 miles by water and 50 by land from Ohesson ; Dela- wares, 12 families, 36 men."
The other tribes named are all located west of the Allegheny Mountains. We must infer that these traders knew of no other towns be- longing to these tribes except the two here given. Assunnepachla was situated at Franks- town, in Blair County. Ohesson was probably at Lewistown. This point was carly and long known as "Old Town," meaning that it was the seat of a former Indian village. Jones, in his "History of the Juniata Valley," locates Ohesson " on the flat eight or nine miles west of Lewistown near a large spring." Why, he does not tell, and we know of no other authority. Twenty to twenty-three years after this date this chief Tevidently lived in " the valley of Kishicoquil-
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