USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 40
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 40
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1 Count Zinzendorf was The descendant of a noble Austrian family, and was born at Dresden, May 26, 1700. He was educated at Halle and the University of Wittenberg. In 1732 he married Countess Erdmulh Dorothea von Reuss, and soon afterwards became a convert to the Mo- ravian fallh. He visited England in 1736, the West Indies in 1739, and came to Amerien in 1739, accompanied by his daughter, Benigna. Ile spent little less than a year In the province, traveling and preaching, and in June, 1742, organized the Moravinns at Bethlehem into a con- gregation. At the close of the same year he left for Europe, where ha died in 1760.
" In the petition mention was made of the medicinal qualities of the spring at Lehigh Gap. About 1809 a bridge was built across the river at Col. Jacob Weiss', and the road was extended through the narrows, past the site of Manch Chunk, and to the Landing Tavern. A portion of the Easton and Berwick turnpike, built by the behigh and Susque- hanna Turnpike Company, chartered in March, 1801, was along the ronto of this old road.
573
574
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
the affections of the Mohegans from the missionaries had for some time been making by the Shawanese and Delawares on the Susquehanna, who had begun to waver in their allegiance to the English, and doubt- less looked forward to the time when they could boldly raid the settlements. The Christian Indians had until now steadfastly refused to leave Gnadenhütten, and when finally some of them did so, it was doubtless through the influence of that eloquent, wily, and ae- tive chieftain of the Delawares, Teedyuscung .! The Indians who remained were joined by the converted Delawares from Menialagemeka.
This same year (1754) the mission was removed to the northeast side of the Lehigh, where, upon the site of Weissport, a village, ealled New Gnadenhütten, was built." The dwellings were removed from the opposite side of the river and a new chapel was ereeted. Loskiel says, " In the removal of the build- ings (the chapel only excepted) the Indians were kindly assisted by the congregations at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Christianbruun, and Guadenthal, who fur- nished not only workmen and materials, but even contributions in money. Unanimity and diligence contributed so much towards the progress of this work that the first twenty houses were inhabited by the 4th, and the foundation-stone of the new chapel laid on the 11th of June. Bishop Spangenberg offered up a most fervent prayer and delivered a powerful dis- course on this solemn occasion. The houses were soon after completed, and a regulation made in all the fam- ilies for the children of each sex to be properly taken care of. The dwellings were placed in such order that the Makikaws (Mohegans) lived on one and the Del- awares on the other side (of the street). The Breth- ren at Bethlehem took the culture of the old land on the Mahoning upon themselves, made a plantation of it for the use of the Indian congregation, and con- verted the old chapel into a dwelling, both for the use of those brethren and sisters who had the care of the plantations, and for missionaries passing on their visits to the heathen. A Synod was held in New Gnaden- hütten from the 6th to the 11th of August (1754) and the chapel consecrated. Many Indian assistants were invited to this Synod, the chief intention being ma-
1 Teedyuscung was born near Trenton, N. J., about 1700, and was a son of the Delaware chief, old " Captain" John Harris. He came to the region of the Delaware and Lehigh about 1730, and thence roamed be- yond the Blue Ridge. Teedyusenng was converted by the Moravians and baptized at Guadenhillten, March 12, 1750. He hved among them until 1751, when he joined his wild brothers, and soon afterwards took up the hatchet. Ile exerted great power among his people, und was called the Delaware King.
2 The land on which the town was built was part of a tive-thousand- acre truet granted by William Penn to Adrian Vroesen, of Rotterdam - Holland, in March, 1682, deeded by him to Benjohan Furley, of the same city, and surveyed for his heirs in 1735. It was conveyed in its entirety in March, 1745, by Thomas Lawrence, of Philadelphia, attorney-at-law, for Dorothea, widow of Benjohan Furley, and Elizabeth and Martha Farley, co-heirs of Benjohan Furley, to Edward Shippen, of Philadel- phia, merchant. By Shippen it was conveyed, in September, 1715, to Richard Peters, of Philadelphia, who in turn decided it to Charles Brock- den, of the same city, for the use and behoof of the Moravians.
turely to consider the situation of the Indian mis- sion." 3
The Indian Uprising and the Massacre at Gna- denhütten .- The Moravians fondly hoped that the prosperity of their little colony might be increased, and that it should remain a permanent abode of peace and of Christianity. But destiny ruled otherwise. With the year 1755 came a change in the attitude of the Indians, and consequently in the welfare of the province. The Indians may have lost confidence in the descendants of the " good Penn," whose memory they revered ; they may have felt that they had been injured in "the Walking Purchase" and other nego- tiations ; they may even have indulged a wild long- ing to regain their lost ancestral lands ; but it is ex- tremely doubtful whether they would ever have re- sorted to acts of open hostility had they not been incited by the French. French intrigue provoked the first war in which the descendants of William Penn and the people of the province he founded en- gaged with the aboriginal tribes. The French well knew that by securing as allies the tribes which lived in Pennsylvania the possibility of successfully carry- ing on their military operations in the Ohio country would be largely enhanced. It was for that reason that they flattered and cajoled the Delawares and the lesser tribes. Ultimately this course of action had the effect of winning their allegiance from the Eng- lish, and was the cause of many deeds of blood in the white settlements of the entire frontier. Braddock's defeat on the 9th of July, 1755, proved the direct means of encouraging the disaffected Indians to make indiscriminate war upon the whites, which they fol- lowed with savage zest for several years. The mas- sacre at Gnadenhütten was only one incident in the series of border horrors, but it is the principal one with which we are concerned.
"The Indians in the French interest," says Loskiel, " were much incensed that any of the Moravian In- dians chose to remain at Gnadenhütten, and deter- mined to cut off the settlement. After Braddock's de- feat the whole frontier was open to the inroads of the savage foc. Every day disclosed new scenes of bar- barity committed by the Indians. The whole coun- try was in terror; the neighbors of the Brethren in Gnadenhätten forsook their dwellings and fled; but the Brethren made a covenant together to remain un- daunted in the place allotted them by Providence. Ilowever, no caution was omitted, and because the white people considered every Indian as an enemy, the Indian Brethren at Gnadenhutten were advised, as much as possible, to keep out of the way, to buy no powder nor shot, but strive to maintain themselves without hunting, which they willingly complied with."
The Moravians were suddenly and horribly aroused from their sense of comparative security. Late in the
3 For many details concerning the Gnadenhitten mission, see histories of Lehighton and Weissport.
575
SETTLEMENT BY MORAVIANS IN CARBON COUNTY.
evening of the 24th of November the mission-house was attacked by the Indians who were allies of the French, burned to the ground, and eleven of its in- mates murdered.
" The family, being at supper, beard an uneonnnon barking of dogs, upon which Brother Senseman went out at the back door to see what was the matter. On the report of a gun several ran together to open the house-door. Here the Indians stood with their pieces pointed towards the door, and firing immediately upon its being opened, Martin Nitelnman was instantly killed. His wife and some others were wounded, but fled with the rest up-stairs into the garret, and barri- eaded the door with bedsteads. Brother Partsch es- eaped by jumping out of a back window. Brother Worbas, who was ill in bed in a house adjoining, jumped likewise out of a back window and escaped, though the enemies had placed a guard before his door. Meanwhile, the savages pursued those who had taken refuge in the garret, and strove hard to burst the door open; but finding it too well seenred, they set fire to the house, which was soon in flames. A boy ealled Sturgeons, standing upon the flaming roof, ventured to leap off, and escaped, though at first, upon opening the back door, a ball had grazed his cheek, and one side of his head was much burned. Sister Partsch, seeing this, took courage, and leaped likewise from the burning roof. She came down nohurt and unobserved by the enemies, and thus the fervent prayer of her husband was fulfilled, who, in jumping ont of the hack window, cried alond to God to save his wife. Brother Fabricius then leaped also off the roof, but before he could escape was perceived by the Indians, and instantly wounded by two balls. He was the only one whom they seized upon alive, and having dispatched him with their hatchets, they took his scalp, and left him dead on the ground. The rest were all burnt alive, and Brother Senseman, who first went out at the back door, had the inexpressible grief to see his wife consumed by the flames. Sister Partsch could not run far for fear and trembling, but hid herself behind a tree upon a hill near the house. From thence she saw Sister Senseman, already sur- rounded by the flames, standing with folded hands, and heard her calling out, "Tis all well, dear Saviour. I expected nothing else.' The house being consumed, the murderers set fire to the barns and stables, by which all the coru, hay, and cattle were destroyed. Then they divided the spoil, soaked some bread in milk, made a hearty meal, and departed, Sister Partseli looking on unperceived.1
1 After the enemy had retired the remains of those killed at the mis- sion-house were collected from the charred rains and interred. A mar- ble slab in the graveyard south of Lehighton, placed there in 1788, and a small white obelisk on a sandstone base, erected at a more recent date, tell in brief The story of Guuddenhüllen and preserve the names of those who fell as victims to savage hate. The inscription on the slab rends :
TO THE MEMORY OF GOTTLIEB AND CHRISTIANA ANDERS, WITH THEIR CHILD JOHANNA.
" This melancholy event proved the deliverer of the Indian congregation at (New) Gnadenhütten, for, upon hearing the report of the guns, seeing the flames, and soon learning the dreadful cause from those who had escaped, the Indian brethren immedi- ately went to the missionary and offered to attack the enemy without delay. But being advised to the con- trary, they all fled into the woods, and Gnadenhütten was cleared in a few moments, some who already were in bed having searce time to dress themselves. Brother Zeisberger, who had just arrived in Gnaden- hütten from Bethlehem, hastened back to give notice of this event to a body of English militia who had marched within five miles of the spot, but they did not venture to pursue the enemy in the dark."2
Such is the matter-of-fact description of this hor- rible occurrence given by Loskiel.
At Bethlehem the people had been in an agony of sus- pense, for all had seen the lurid glare beyond the Blue Ridge made by the burning buildings, and had known that evil news of some kind would be borne to them in a few hours. The alarming news did come after midnight, carried by those who in terror fled from the fire-illumined scene of murder. Towards night of the day after the tragedy eight of the white people and between thirty and forty of the Indians, men, women, and children, who had made their escape from New Gnadenhutten, arrived in Bethlehem. From this time on for several days the people of the upper part of Northampton County and along the Lehigh Valley down to the Irish Settlement and below were precipitately pushing southward into the older and larger settlements of Bethlehem and Easton. They were filled with the wildest alarm, and many came with scarcely clothes enough upon their backs to protect them from the cold, while all were entirely destitute of the means to obtain the necessities of life. There was a general hegira from the region beyond the Blue Ridge, and hundreds of farm-houses below the mountains, in what is now Northampton and Lehigh Counties, were abandoned by their inhab- itants.
To these panie-stricken people the utmost kindness was shown hy the citizens of Bethlehem and Easton. The Moravian Brethren of the former place kept their wagons plying to and from between the town and
MARTIN AND SUSANNA NITSHIMAN.
ANN CATHARINE SENSEMAN.
LEONARD GATPERMYER.
CHRISTIAN FABRICIES, clerk.
GEORGE SCHWEIGERT.
JOHN FREDERICK LESLEY AND MARTIN PRESSER, WHO LIVED AT GNADEN-HUETTEN UNTO THE LORD, AND LOST THEIR LIVES IN A SER- PRISE FROM INDIAN WARRIORS, NOVEMBER THE: 21ru, 1755.
" PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD IS THE DEATH OF ITS SAINTS." -- Psalmns ex v1. 15.
The inscription on the marble obelisk reads :
To HONOR AND PERPETUATE THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE MORAVIAN MARTYRS WHOSE ASHES ARE GATHERED AT IT'S BASE THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED.
2 Loskiel, ii. 165.
576
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
points eight or ten miles up the road, bringing in the women and children who had become exhausted in their flight and sank down by the way.
The military which has been alluded to as being within five miles of Gnadenhiitten at the time of the massacre was doubtless Capt. Hay's company from the Irish Settlement, in Northampton County. They are said to have come to the hill overlooking the hol- low where Parryville now is and to have fired down into the bushes,' and then to have departed. How- ever this may have been, they subsequently repaired to the scene of the murders, and were probably re- inforced by another company under Col. Anderson. Capt. Wilson, of Bucks County, with a company of sixty or seventy men, also marched northward two days after the massaere. The troops were stationed at the forsaken village to guard the Brethren's mills, which were filled with grain, and the property of the Christian Indians from being destroyed. They were expected also to protect the few settlers who remained below Gnadenhütten. A temporary stockade was built, and the frontier at this point would have been well defended had the militia been governed by offi- cers who had a thorough knowledge of Indian ma- nœuvres, but none of those in authority seem to have possessed this all-essential qualification, and hence disaster followed. On the Ist of January, 1756, a number of the soldiers fell victims to an Indian strat- agem. They were amusing themselves by skating on the ice of the river, near the fort, when they caught sight of two Indians farther up the frozen stream. Thinking that it would be an easy matter to capture or kill them, the soldiers gave chase, and rapidly gained upon the Indians, who proved to be decoys skillfully manœuvring to draw them into an ambush. They had got some distance from the fort, when a party of Indians rushed out behind them, cut off their retreat, and falling upon them with great fury, as well as with the advantages of surprise and superior num- bers, quickly dispatched them. Some of the soldiers remaining in the fort, filled with horror by this murder of their comrades, deserted, and the few remaining, thinking themselves incapable of defending the place, withdrew. The savages then seized upon such prop- erty as they could make use of and fired the fort, the Indian houses, and the mills. Thus again the red glare against which the Blue Ridge loomed up tokl the people of Bethlehem and of all the lower county that another hostile act had been committed on the northern border.
This was by no means the first one after the Gnaden- hütten massaere. The hull of peace had lasted but a few days. A few scattered settlers from New York and New England had located on Pohopoko Creek, in Upper Towamensing township, Carbon Co., and
here the Indians made one of their forays on the 10th of December, 1755. The marauding party appears first to have visited the plantation of Daniel . Broad- head, on Broadhead's Creek (in what is now Monroe County and not far from the site of Stroudsburg) ; but the proprietor and his sons succeeding in barri- eading themselves in the house and repulsing their attack, the little war-party left to fall upon other set- tlers,-the Hueth, Culver, MeMichael, and Carmichel families,-where their bloodthirstiness was gratified in a number of murders. The attack upon the Hoeth family, which comes more especially in the province of this work than do any of the contemporaneous in- eidents, appears to have been made by five or six In- dians, a straggling division of a much larger band. At the house of Frederick Hoeth, which was about twelve miles east of Gnadenhütten, the family was at supper, when shots were heard just outside the walls, and two of the family fell to the floor,-Hoeth him- self dead and a woman wounded. Several more shots were fired, and then all who could do so ran out of the house. The Indians immediately set fire to the house, stables, and adjoining mill. Hoeth's wife ran into the bake-house, which was also set on fire. The poor woman ran out through the flames, was very much burned, and in a mad effort to relieve her agony ran into the creek, where she died. The Indians mu- tilated her in a horrible manner with their knives and tomahawks. Three children were burned, one daughter was killed and sealped, and two or three more were carried away into captivity. One of the Indians was killed and another wounded in this at- tack.
The state of affairs produced by these and other murders is well described in a letter written to Gov- ernor Morris by Timothy Horsfield, of Bethlehem, December 12th. He says,-
"In the night an express arrived from Nazareth aequainting me that there is certain people in Naza- reth who fled for their lives, and informs us that one Hoeth and his family are cut off, only two escaping, and the houses of Hoeth, Broadhead, and others are actually laid in ashes, and people from all quarters flying for their lives; and the common report is that the Indians are two hundred strong.
" Your honor can easily guess at the trouble and consternation we must be in, on this occasion, in these parts. As to Bethlehem, we have taken all the pre- caution in our power for our defense. We have taken our little infants from Nazareth to Bethlehem for their greater security, and these, with the rest of our children, are nearly three hundred in number.
" Although our gracious king and Parliament have been pleased to exempt those among us of tender conscience from bearing arms, yet there are many among us who make no seruple of defending them- selves against sneh cruel savages. But, alas ! what can we do, having very few arms, and little or no ammuni- tion, and we are now, as it were, become the frontier?
1 This locality became known as " the fire line," and the road laid out there in after-years is to this day called " the fire-line road." The name arose from the circumstance above referred to, but ils appropriateness is difficult to discern at the present day.
577
SETTLEMENT BY MORAVIANS IN CARBON COUNTY.
and, as we are eireumstanced, our family being so large, it is impossible for us to retire to any other place for seenrity.
"I doubt not your honor's goodness will lead yon to consider the distress we are in, and speedily to afford us what relief shall be thought necessary against these merciless savages."
Intelligenec of the massacre at Gnadenhütten had induced the government to undertake strong meas- nres for the protection of the frontier, and the subse- quent outrages had the effect of hastening their exe- cution. The people of the lower settlements, in Bueks and Northampton Counties, had been thor- oughly aroused to the danger that was threatening them, and had recruited volunteer companies for the repulse of the savages. It only. remained to effect an organization of the scattered elements of strength, and to carry them forward for systematic defense. For this responsible and difficult task the government brought forward no less a personage than Col. (after- wards Dr.) Benjamin Franklin.
Allemängel, and was mustered into service on Janu- ary 11th. Capt. Wetterholt's had been previously mustered.
On the 15th of January, Col. Franklin broke camp at Bethlehem, and moved his little army in the direc- tion of Gnadenhütten, where it was his purpose to build one of a chain of forts for the protection of the frontier. A good description of the march and of some subsequent operations is afforded by a letter from Benjamin Franklin to the Governor, dated Fort Allen, at Gnadenhütten, Jan. 25, 1756:
"DEAR SIR, -We got to Hays' the same evening we left you, and reviewed Craig's company by the way. Much of the next morning was spent in exchanging the bad arms for the good, Wayne's company having joined us. We reached, however, that night, to Up- linger's, where we got into good quarters. Saturday morning we began to march towards Gnadenhütten, and proceeded near two miles ; but it seeming to set in for a rainy day, the men unprovided with great-coats, and many unable to secure effectively their arms from the wet, we thought it advisable to face about and re- turn to our former quarters, where the men might dry themselves and lie warm; whereas, had they pro- ceeded, they would have come in wet to Gnadenhut- ten, where shelter and opportunity of drying them- selves that night was uncertain. In fact, it rained all day, and we were all pleased that we had not pro- ereded. The next day, being Sunday, we marched hither, where we arrived about two in the after- noon, and before five had inclosed our camp with a strong breastwork, musket-proof, and with the boards brought here before, by my order from Dunker's mill,1 got ourselves under some shelter from the weather. Monday was so dark, with a thick fog all day, that we eould neither look out for a place to build nor see where materials were to be had. Tuesday we looked round us, pitched on a place, marked out our fort on the ground, and by ten o'clock began to cut timber for stockades and to dig the ground. By three o'clock in the afternoon the logs were all eut and many of them hauled to the spot, the ditch dng to set them in three feet deep, and many were pointed and set up. The next day we were hindered by rain most of the day. Thursday we resumed our work, and before morning the stockade was finished, and part of the platform within erected, which was completed next morning, when we dismissed Foulk's and Wetter- holt's companies, and sent Hay's down for a convoy of provisions. The day we hoisted the flag made a general discharge of our pieces, which had been long loaded, and of our two swivels, and named the place Fort Allen in honor of our old friend .? It is
Benjamin Franklin builds Fort Allen .- Col. Franklin was appointed to take charge of the frontier defenses early in December, 1755, and he lost no time in undertaking the work, arriving at Bethle- hem upon the 18th of that month, with Commission- ers Hamilton and Fox. With them came Capt. Trump's company of fifty men from Bucks County, whose " arms, ammunition, and blankets, and a hogs- head of rum for their use, had been forwarded to Easton in advance." Franklin divided his time be- tween Easton and Bethlehem while he was muster- ing troops and making ready to advance into the - wilderness. From the 7th to the 15th of January, 1756, he made his headquarters at Bethlehem. "1 had no difficulty," he says, in his autobiography, "in raising men, having soon five hundred and sixty under my command." These soldiers, or rather minute-men, were comprised in the following companies: Capt. William Parsons' company, twenty-four men, and MeLaughlin's detachment, twenty men, from Easton ; Capts. Trump's, Astou's, and Wayne's companies, of titty men each, except the last, of fifty-five, from Bucks County ; Capt. Volek's (or Foulk's) company, of forty-six men, from Allemängel, now Lynn town- ship, Lehigh Co. ; Capt. Trexler's company, of forty- . night were perfectly well inelosed, and on Friday eight men, from townships of Northampton, now in Lehigh County ; Capt. Wetterholt's company, of forty- four men, from the same region; Capt. Orndt's, of fifty meu, from Bueks County ; Capts. Craig, Martin, and Hays' companies, from the Irish Settlement, in Northampton County ; and Capt. Van Ettan's com- pany, from Upper Smithfield. Besides these, there was a company of sixty men from New Jersey under command of Col. John Anderson, and no doubt a number of smaller bodies of which no reeord has been ! This mill was William Kern's, who lived at what is now Slatington. Ilis mill was on Tront Creek. In some reports it is mentioned as Truck - er's mill, and in others Kern's mill. preserved. Some of these companies, served without pay, and furnished their own arms and ammunition. 2 Judge William Allen, father of James Allen, who laid out Allentown in 1762. Capt. Volck's company arrived at Bethlehem from
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