USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 37
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At this time, with England and France still at war, and most of the Indian tribes friendly to France, although the English were in undisturbed possession of Canada, and the Six Nations
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were in alliance with the English, the peace lately made with the Delawares and other Pennsylvania Indians, who were very will- ing to assert their independence of the Six Nations, was jeopar- dized by the coming of settlers from Connecticut. The Susque- hanna company, of which Joseph Skinner, Jabez Fitch, Eliphalet Dyer, John Smith, Ezekiel Pierce, Lemuel Smith, and Robert Dixon were the committee, had obtained a deed from certain of the Six Nations for a large tract sixty or seventy miles in breadth north and south extending from about ten miles east of the Sus- quehanna, in depth crossing the river westward two degrees. The design was to make a new colony there, and accordingly ap- plication was made soon after this purchase to the Assembly of Connecticut for its acquiescence in their obtaining a charter for it from the King. The Assembly passed a resolution that it would make no opposing claim to the soil. The appeal to the King does not appear to have been prosecuted until another company had made some progress in a settlement of the region east of what the Susquehanna company claimed.
In pursuance of a grant from the government of Connecticut of a tract extending thirty miles on the west side of the Delaware and westward to the mountains, embracing a large part of what is now Wayne county, Pennsylvania, with power to extinguish the Indian title, a large number of proprietors, or adventurers, had secured two deeds from certain of the Delaware tribe, said to have been residents of New Jersey. The tract included land which had borne the name of Cushietunk. Here a committee laid out three townships, each being ten miles along the river and eight miles in depth westward, and settlers came, built about thirty cabins, and started three log houses, a saw mill, and a grist mill, as the Pennsylvania sheriff and magistrates of Northampton county, sent by Hamilton to investigate, found in the fall of 1760. These officials remonstrated with the twenty men who with women and children were on the spot, but received answer that they would hold the region until the highest authority decided against their -
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title. Teedyuscung, who had been received into the Moravian Church, and had been instrumental in causing the return by va- rious Indians of some captives, entered a formal complaint, and warned Hamilton that if any white people should settle on the west side of the Susquehanna at Wyoming, the Indians would drive them off. Teedyuscung was angry when he received a let-
John Wilkes
Member of Parliament, after whom Wilkes Barre was named; born 1727; died 1797. Pho- tographed especially for this work from a copy in Wyoming Historical and Geological Society
ter from Sir William Johnson asking when the Delawares would meet him for an examination of the complaint as to land against the Proprietaries. Teedyuscung, perhaps because he knew that Johnson was so close to the Six Nations that he would see things with their eyes, and not recognize any ownership by the Dela- wares, said that he would have nothing to do with him, but de- sired the matter to be heard by Hamilton. The latter, seeing the Indian so earnest, said that he would consider the request,
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but told Teedyuscung that all the Delawares on the Ohio as well as the Susquehanna should be informed, and should attend the treaty. Teedyuscung replied that Shingass and others on the Ohio had talked with him on the subject, and would be at Phila- delphia in the spring. Hamilton wrote to Johnson stating his suspicion that the Proprietaries' enemies had suggested this ac- tion by the Indian claimant, so that they could manage the whole proceeding by its taking place in Philadelphia : "but," Hamilton added, "if nevertheless these officious people would not interfere, and you shall judge from the present circumstances of affairs, and the minds of the Six Nation Indians, who may be consulted as being concerned to support their own rights and proceedings, that my hearing it will contribute to the general good, I will not decline it ; but then, should you advise me to undertake this, I beg leave to use the precaution of assuring you that if I find any undue influence or any partial interferings from the people of this city, I will desist, and leave it to be heard by you." Hamilton desired Johnson to obtain General Amherst's interposition in the matter of the Connecticut claimants, as the intrusion into the Indian country might readily result in alienating the red men from the English. The old Susquehanna company claiming by deeds from Mohawks and the Delaware company claiming by the aforesaid deeds from Delawares, undertook to unite. Johnson sent to Cush- ietunk a message that if the white people were there to trade, let them treat the Indians well, but a settlement must not be made. Those who received this message answered that they would listen only to the Governor of Connecticut, and they told some Indians that in the spring they would come 4,000 strong to Wyoming.
Deputies from the Onondagas, Cayugas, Oneidas, Mohicans, Nanticokes, Delawares. Tutelos, and Conoys, a company of five hundred men, women, and children, arrived at Easton in July, 1761, met Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton and Peters and Chew and Joseph Fox, and reported the adhesion of seven nations across the lakes to the English alliance. Teedyuscung said that he had -
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been advised by the Six Nations to leave Wyoming on account of the white people coming over the mountain, and as the Six Nations had not given him a deed for it, he believed that he would. Joseph Peepy complained that Sir William Johnson had prom- ised to make war on the French, and after conquering them to establish a trade whereby these Indians could get article's cheap and a good value for their furs, but now the furs brought nothing, very little ammunition was given to them, and forts were sur- rounding them so that they were penned in like hogs and threat- ened with death; neither Johnson nor the Governor of Virginia had dealt fairly with them; they would speak only to the Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania. Tokahaio declared that the Six Nations had not sold the land, and desired no English beyond the line of the last treaty of purchase by the Penns, and asked the Governor to assist in having the strangers removed. As the goods the In- dians bought from Sir William Johnson were very dear, they would like a trading house at Tioga especially to supply powder and lead, but not strong liquor, the prices to be reasonable, so as to make Johnson sell cheaper. Hamilton in reply tried to dis- abuse the Indians' minds as to Johnson, and told them that Tioga was too far off for a trading post, whereas there was one at Pitts- burg and another at Shamokin. It being said that two Tusca- roras, one Oneida, and one Mohawk had privately made the deed for the Wyoming land, Hamilton suggested the summoning of them before the great council of the Six Nations and the cancel- lation of the deed. Teedyuscung told the Six Nations that when he went to Wyoming, he supposed that they would give him the land there in place of his land sold to the English, and he told Hamilton that he now desired him to pay for the land as to which the complaint had been made to the King : there were some pres- ent who had never received any compensation, but the Muncys and some at Alleghany would agree with the Lieutenant-Governor when they came. Hamilton asked what lands he meant, and he replied that the lands were where they were now standing, be-
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tween the mountains and Tohiccon, but the tract about Durham four miles square had been paid for. Tokahaio expressed a de- sire to have the Delawares satisfied. Hamilton then referred to the decision of the Six Nations in 1742 ordering Teedyuscung to Wyoming, and announced readiness to lay the deeds before Sir William Johnson when Teedyuscung should appoint time and place. Afterwards at Philadelphia Isaac Stille, the interpreter, reported that Teedyuscung had said that he did not himself know anything about the Proprietaries having cheated the Indians : the French had put it into the heads of the foolish young men, who had obliged him to mention it to Governor Morris at Easton. Joseph Peepy told Hamilton that he was sorry that Thomas Penn had been "scandalized," and added: "I am sensible that neither my relations nor I ever received satisfaction for the little piece that I claim as my share of those lands. My aunt, who is an old woman and knows all about the matter, is now alive and would be glad if the Governor would take pity on her, and make her some satisfaction for her piece of land."
Teedyuscung, for some reason which many will say was simply the treachery of the Indian character, afterwards wrote to Sir William Johnson that he expected to see the latter in Philadelphia in the early summer and depended solely upon him, whom only he could trust, to hear the complaint about the lands at the forks of the Delaware. The Moravian missionary Zeisberger appears to have acted as amanuensis and messenger, and also to have shown the letter to Hamilton, who in April, on the occasion of a visit from Teedyuscung, asked him for an explanation. Teedyus- cung seemed contrite, although reminding Hamilton of his re- fusal to hear the matter, and asked him to tell Johnson not to come, although previously invited by Beaver and Shingass. Hamilton declined to do so, offered a gratuity to the Indians if Teedyuscung would say publicly what he had told Isaac Stille about his own ignorance of the whole matter and his young men being stirred up by the French. Teedyuscung said that he .
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would, and that £400 would content the Indians for the lands in question. Hamilton warned him that he would not feel obliged to give a farthing if Sir William Johnson found that the Proprietaries had not cheated the Delawares.
Sir William Johnson came to Easton, examined the papers and writings produced by the Proprietaries' commissioners, and
Isaac Barré After whom Wilkes-Barre was named; born 1726; died 1802. Photographed especially for this work from an engraving in possession Wyoming Historical and Geological Society
convinced Teedyuscung of his error, the latter desiring that the matter be buried under ground, and offering to have the Indians execute a release; all of which we learn from Hamilton's speech at the treaty of Lancaster following, for there are no minutes of the Council between June 12 and August 6.
In August at Lancaster the Lieutenant-Governor with coun- cillors and commissioners appointed by the Assembly, and Israel Pemberton and other private citizens, met Beaver and other
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chiefs and warriors of the Ohio Delawares, Tuscaroras, Shawanees, Kickapos, Wiwachtanies, and Twightees, who came to confirm the friendship established with them by Sir William Johnson in the fall; and there gathered also at the conference a great number of men, women, and children from the Six Nations and also Nanticokes, Conoys, and Saponies and Teedyuscung and one hundred and seventy-five of his Delawares. Various captives were delivered. Some tribes declared that they had none at home. The Shawanee messengers promised that the prisoners held by that tribe should be brought to Pittsburg. Hamilton asked Beaver if he was satisfied with the decision about the lands. Beaver, after consulting with his counsellors, replied that he knew nothing of the Delawares' claim, neither he nor his people had any, but he supposed that there might be some spots unpaid for ; he was pleased if Hamilton and Teedyuscung were. Then Teedyuscung called the Allegheny Indians to witness that he was willing to sign a release. Hamilton told him that he had acted on the occasion like an honest man, and that the Pro- prietaries three years before had directed that upon justice being done to their character a present should be made as a mark of their affection for their old friends, the Delawares. Thomas King, the Oneida, who brought back fourteen prisoners, had heard that there was a promise by Governors Denny and Bernard to let the returned captives have their choice whether to stay with the whites or go where they pleased, and said that the Indians parted with the captives with reluctance, and some were loath to be brought back to the country of their people, because those whom he had been bringing, except the fourteen, were taken out of his hands when he reached the forks, and were made servants of, it was believed. He had brought a girl to Easton whom he had taken as his wife, and she ran back to his home, and it was hard to part with her. He asked that the whites covet no more land, and do not settle beyond Nixhisaqua, or Mahanoy ; also that the soldiers be removed from the fort at Shamokin, but the store
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remain and be kept by honest men. He wanted four stores, one at Shamokin, one to be kept by John Harris at his house, one to be kept by George Croghan with a blacksmith and gunsmith at Bedford, and one to be kept by Daniel Cresap on the Potomnac, these points being in the path by which the Six Nations would go to war with the Cherokees. Hamilton explained that the mat- ter of Croghan's store was within the jurisdiction of Sir William Johnson, and induced the Six Nations to give up the populated way by Harris's and Cresap's as a war path and to use the old one at the foot of the Alleghanies. Considerable presents closed the conferences.
Pursuant to votes of the Susquehanna Company to allow one hundred members to settle in a township on the east bank of the Susquehanna and one hundred more opposite, a large number of Connecticut people had advanced to the neighborhood of Wyo- ming when a body of the Six Nations passed that way returning from the treaty. The latter spoke very roughly, and forbade any settlement by virtue of the purchase alleged by the others, and obliged them to leave. When Teedyuscung went home after the treaty, he found one hundred and fifty New Englanders on their way to build houses at Lechawanock, about seven miles from Wyoming. On his threat to take them to the Lieutenant- Governor of Pennsylvania, they said they would go back and consult their own Governor, and if the Indians who had sold the lands would return the money they could have the lands back. Other parties following also retired; but the Company sent out others the next spring. The King of England, however, or- dered that neither the Company nor the Penns make any entry on the lands until the whole matter be examined.
On April 16, 1763, Teedyuscung, going to bed drunk, per- ished in the destruction of his house, believed to have been set on fire by Indian enemies.
When as a result of the surrender of Canada and the Ohio country, the Indians of those regions found in their midst British
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soldiers and Scotch-Irish huntsmen, against whom the French had long inculcated a hatred, and who on close acquaintance probably exhibited no ingratiating qualities, and while America was awaiting the official proclamation of peace between France. Spain, and Great Britain, the treaty having been signed at Paris on February 10, 1763, there broke out the conspiracy which bears the name of Pontiac's, of nearly the whole Algonquin race, to overwhelm every English garrison within reach, and lay waste the frontier settlements, and drive the colonies of the rising power back at least to tidewater, if not into the sea. The Six Nations, except the Senecas, remained well affected towards the English.
The forts within the present limits of Pennsylvania were at this time garrisoned mainly by detachments of the Royal Amer- ican regiment. Around Forts Pitt, Venango, Le Boeuf, and Presque Isle arson and murder began and multiplied. Far and wide terror spread through that region and across the Alleghanies as here and there roving bands took the lives or destroyed the homes of the pioneers in the new possessions ; but at Fort Bedford, when several persons in the vicinity had been killed, the back- woodsmen organized, and several formed a mounted company disguised as Indians, and, when some savages appeared uttering a war whoop, put them to rout. Steps were now taken to rein- force the garrison at Fort Augusta with one hundred recruits; and the British General, who had been actually considering the expedient of introducing small-pox among the Indians by means of infected blankets, decided to dispatch expeditions composed of regular troops to the enemy's country. Lieutenant-Colonel Bou- quet, in command of the first battalion of the Royal American regiment, with his headquarters at Philadelphia, received two companies of the 42d, or Highlanders, and 77th regiments, and started for Fort Pitt. When he reached Carlisle at the end of June, he found the town crowded with refugees who had nar- rowly escaped the tomahawk, and he soon heard of the loss of the
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ANTHONY WAYNE
Etched for this work bay Albert Rosenthal from the painting by Charles Willson Peale Owned by Mr J. M Wirgman, Paoli, Pennsylvania
Etched Any Albert Rosonihal,
Charlas Willson Prate, Pina.
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Men of the Frontier
posts at Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango; while scouting parties found houses and stacked wheat burning in the various valleys near by. Securing wagons and provisions, but no volun- teers, Bouquet after a delay of eighteen days set out with about five hundred men, about sixty of whom were in wagons, being too feeble to march. Thirty picked Highlanders were sent across
Interior of Fort Brown, Dauphin County, as it appears to-day
Engraved especially for this work from photo- graph in possession of Historical Society of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
the mountains as fast as possible, travelling only by night to Fort Bedford and thence to Fort Ligonier, which they found besieged, but entered as a welcome reinforcement amid a volley from the Indians. The main body moved up the Cumberland Valley by way of Shippensburg to Fort Loudoun on Cove Mountain, and thence to Fort Littleton, and reached Fort Bedford on the 25th of July. Here thirty backwoodsmen were added to the small army, and the invalids were left as a garrison. The march was continued across the Alleghanies to Fort Ligonier, now no longer
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invested by the enemy, while through the last four days of July four hundred Delaware Indians were assaulting Fort Pitt, wound- ing the commander and nine others. Leaving the oxen and wag- ons at Fort Ligonier on August 4th, Bouquet and his followers were within half a mile of Bushy Run at one o'clock in the after- noon of the 5th, when they were suddenly attacked. At first charging forward, then obliged to fall back and form a circle around their pack horses, with the flour bags a shelter for the wounded, for seven hours they were furiously assailed, losing about sixty men and officers. That night, forced to remain where they were, they found themselves without water. At daybreak, tormented by thirst, they were again furiously assailed. Until ten o'clock they were being decimated by enemies upon whom they were making no impression, when by the feigned retreat of two companies and the thinning of the line which closed after them the Indians were led to attempt to break it, and so exposed their flanks. The Light Infantry and Grenadiers wheeled around upon them, killing a great number, including Keelyuscung, a Del- aware chief, and finally putting the others to flight. With a loss of eight officers and one hundred and fifteen men and the escape of most of the horses, the British moved down in the afternoon and made their camp at the Run. Here they were again attacked, but more easily repulsed the enemy. The next day the victors resumed their journey to Fort Pitt, which they reached on the Ioth, and which was thus effectually garrisoned and provisioned. The loss of Presque Isle rendered impossible Bouquet's further advance to Lake Erie, as had been part of General Amherst's plan of campaign. Later in the summer the frontier inhabitants of Pennsylvania, under the protection of 700 Provincial recruits, and with their assistance, gathered their harvests.
Against some remarks of General Amherst as to "the infatu- ation of the people" of Pennsylvania, "who," he said, "tamely look on while their brethren are butchered by the savages," the Assembly having previously authorized the raising of 800 troops, .
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and voted 24,000/. to keep the same number until December I. declared that it was both unjust and impracticable for the Prov- ince to defend a frontier of nearly three hundred miles, which covered to a great extent that of New Jersey and Maryland, with- out assistance from other provinces. In September and October outrages were committed as far east as the neighborhoods of Reading and Bethlehem, and it was believed that not only Fort Pitt but even Fort Augusta were destined for attack. Colonel John Armstrong led three hundred men of Cumberland county from the Juniata river against Great Island on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, where certain of the marauders had their headquarters, On arrival they found the place evacuated, horses, cattle, and other spoil gathered in the forays being left behind. With the main body of his men, Armstrong proceeded to another village thirty miles away, and there found that the late occupants had left in haste while eating a meal. So the expedition resulted in destroying the houses and cornfields at these bases of supplies. Major Asher Clayton led a party from Harris's Ferry to remove the Connecticut settlers from Wyoming, and destroy their pro- visions, which were likely to be seized by the red men. When the party arrived at Wyoming, it found that the savages had been there before them, and had burnt the town, and killed more than twenty persons with horrible torture.
A number of those Indians who had been converted by the Moravian missionaries around Bethlehem were murdered as they were found asleep in a barn by a party of Rangers, and the sur- prise and slaughter in turn of the latter increased the suspicion of the frontiersmen not Moravians or Quakers against the entire body of Christian red men, who professed a desire to live at peace and friendship with the English. The Provincial Commission- ers, indeed, reported their belief that those at Nain and Wiche- tunk (in what is now Polk township, Monroe county) were se- cretly supplied by the Moravian brethren with arms and ammu- nition, which, in free intercourse with the hostile savages, were
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traded off to the latter. About the Ioth of October a number of armed men marched towards Wichetunk, but, waiting to surprise it by night, were frustrated by a violent storm, which wet their powder, just before nightfall. The missionary, Rev. Bernhard Adam Grube, then led the red men to Nazareth. The Governor of Pennsylvania suggesting that to watch their behavior it would be better to disarm them and bring them to the interior parts of the province, the Assembly, actuated more by a desire to save them, agreed to the proposal.
On October 29, 1763, John Penn, who had formerly spent some time in Pennsylvania, and had sat in the Governor's Coun- cil, arrived in the Delaware with a commission as Lieutenant- Governor. Hamilton resumed a seat in the Council. John Penn received the refugees from Nain and Wichetunk, their arrival in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia exciting the lower classes nearly to a riot, and the soldiers in the barracks there refusing to allow the use of any part of the barracks as the sheltering place, so that a different arrangement had to be made. For five hours these Indians were in great peril, but escorted by Quakers, they were finally taken to Province Island.
A royal proclamation of October 10, 1763, published in Phil- adelphia on December 8, prohibited until further order the colo- nial governors except of Quebec and Florida from granting war- rants of survey or patents for any lands beyond the heads or sources of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic, or any lands not purchased from or ceded by the Indians, and ordered all persons who had settled on any such land to remove therefrom forthwith. It furthermore prohibited any private purchase of land from the Indians, and provided that all who wished to trade with them should take out a license and give security.
General Gage, succeeding Amherst as commander-in-chief of the forces in America, renewed on December 12 Amherst's requi- sition of November 5 for 1,000 men besides officers to be raised by Pennsylvania before March I.
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