USA > Pennsylvania > The Historical journal : a quarterly record of local history and genealogy devoted principally to Northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 5
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[ NOTE .- On page 4, No. 1, where reference is made to the funeral sermon of Rev. Isaac Grier, for Hebrews xi. 14, read 4th verse, which was the one chosen for the text .- ED.]
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SLAVERY IN THE WEST BRANCH VALLEY. . BY J. H. MCMINN, WILLIAMSPORT.
H UMAN slavery has been defined as the establishment of one man's right to control the liberty, property, and even the life, of another. It probably arose at an early period in the world's history out of the accident of capture in war, when it was found to be more profitable to keep prisoners in servitude instead of massacring them.
All the ancient peoples of whom we have any record had their slaves, and the same may be said of all modern nations, if we con- sider the innumerable limitations and modifications to which the custom has been subjected.
Although the spread of the Christian religion has led to its abolishment by all enlightened nations, yet the natives of Armenia and Georgia, in Asia. continue to sell their own daughters to supply inmates for the Turkish harems, and savage nations keep up the practice as it has existed from time immemorial.
The one race most conspicuous in the history of slavery as an organized traffic for supplying the subjects of human servitude, has been the negro of Africa, whose sable children have been carried away to serve strange masters from the days of the Rameses of Egypt, when a Nubian slave was a valued attendant, on down to the days when a " nigger " was worth just what he would bring on an auction block, or from a trader to whom a child would be sold from its mother's arms the same as a brute from the flock or the herd.
Negroes were first sold as slaves in the United States in the year 1620, when twenty were landed from a Dutch vessel at Jamestown. Va. The colonists of that state, as well as the other states after- ward, considered slavery as a moral and political evil, and strenuously opposed its introduction for 150 years, and protested so earnestly as to call forth from the King of England a special order forbidding their interference under pain of royal displeasure, and thus forced upon the colonists an institution at first intolerable, but which in the course of time became considered as a social necessity ; and under the fostering care of wicked men became such a hideous evil in the land as to create internal strife of such
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magnitude that to exterminate it a million of patriotic human lives were sacrificed, besides the untold agony and ruin that always fol- lows in the wake of civil war. By the terms of the 13th Amend- ment to the National Constitution, as adopted in 1865, this fright- ful sin was forever abolished from the United States of America.
Soon after the first settlement of Pennsylvania, in 1681, a few slaves were introduced from the West Indies, and the traffic con- tinued until an act providing for its gradual abolition was passed in 1780, by which adult negroes were liberated on July 4, 1827, and the children born before that time were free as they became of age, so that the last slave was set free about the year 1848.
During the century of negro slavery in this state, the victims of the curse fell to the lowest depths of degradation and debasement. Those in authority owned slaves to such an extent that selfish in- terests thwarted all efforts of philanthropy and humanity, until the unprofitableness of the institution led to its gradual abolition. After the census of 1830 was published, a great sensation was pro- duced by the showing that the number of blacks held in bondage in the commonwealth was 306, being an increase of 175 during the ten years ending; but it was explained away through errors of various kinds in the enrollment.
The census of 1800 recorded 39 slaves in Lycoming County, while the census of 1830 returned but five.
About the time of the waning days of slavery in this state arose the custom of indenture, or " binding out," which continued until within twenty years. It was a form of slavery designed to be humane and beneficial, but it is doubtful if it was any better than the genuine slavery in anything but name. Many white children who were bound out suffered more abuse and cruelty than the negro slaves had done, and being by nature more sensitive, they felt the disgrace and the tyranny much more deeply than people of duller sensibilities. The heartless wrongs that have been perpe- trated upon bound children in this state can never be known this side the judgment bar of God.
Another form of slavery that existed in Pennsylvania at an early day was carried on by a party of brutal speculators called "Newlanders,"? who encouraged emigration from Germany, and hy tedious delays and expensive formalities, the poor people spent
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their little savings until at length they found themselves on the 'shore of a new country, among a strange people, penniless and hungry, an easy prey to designing men. They were then unable to pay their passage money and were either cast into prison for debt or compelled to sell themselves, their wives or children, or all of them, for service during a term of years to pay the ship owner's claim. In this way it often happened that families of well educated, refined and respectable Germans would be separated for years, or forever, while enduring an enforced labor they were ill adapted for.
Although it is to no man's discredit that he comes from an obscure ancestry, especially if. by true force of character, he over- comes the obstacles that surround him, and maintains a record of honor and usefulness among his fellows: yet it seems natural to conceal such private history, and perhaps it is just as well to have their true worth go unappreciated, so long as the majority of the people prefer to applaud and emulate the glitter of baubles and the tinsel of vain show.
It is probable that Michael Ross, the founder of the beautiful city of Williamsport, was one of the victims of the " Newlanders ;" and it is certain that among us to-day are merchants, lawyers, farmers and other citizens, successful in business, honest and re- spected among their fellow men, whom natural gifts have raised from the sufferings and misfortunes of the poor German emigrant to the plane of an irreproachable life.
Could we but place the historic events of the past century in this county side by side. we would find that the present generation stands within easy reach of an era of hardship and suffering, crudeness and discomfort more like the experience of the middle ages, than seems possible to have belonged to our immediate ancestors.
Human slavery appears to have been quite common in the West Branch Valley at an early day, though it never developed into that distressing form of breaking up families and scattering parents and children, never to be reunited in the earthly life, as so fre- quently happened in the Southern States. Harrisburg was quite a slave market a hundred years ago, and one of the most thrilling incidents in our pioneer history was that connected with old.John
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Harris, whose son afterward became the proprietor. Our state capital was known as Paxton then, and consisted of a ferry, an Indian village, and a large mulberry tree. To this latter John Harris was tied by some drunken Indians, who were about to burn him, when his faithful negro slave, Hercules, crossed the river and hastily arousing some savage friends, they hurried to the re- lease of the victim, just as the torch was being applied. For this brave act Hercules got his freedom.
In Buffalo Valley, John Clark, John Louden, Samuel Maclay, Thomas Moore, Eli Holman, Samuel Hunter and John Linn, were each taxed with female slaves in 1775 or 1780. John Linn pur- chased his slave, Judy, of John McBeth, of Chester County, April 10, 1786. James Jenkins sold his slave, Tom, to Colonel John Patton, of Centre County. Tom was 30 years old when the emancipation act of 1780 was passed, but was registered defectively and lived in the belief that he was a slave for many years.
Rev. John Bryson, of Warrior Run Presbyterian Church, owned a number of slaves. *
Samuel Wallis. who came into the valley at an early day as the agent for an English land company, owned slaves and strenuously advocated the custom. He also held a number of Germans in limited servitude on the Hall's farm, near Muncy.
The Committee of Safety, about 1777, exercised their authority
* The following certificate relating to one of his slaves is still in existence : "Be it remembered that on this twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, David Montgomery, of the township of Lower Paxton, in the county of Dauphin, farmer, enters and returns upon oath, agreeably to the Act of Assembly in such case provided, one Male Negro child, born on the thirty-first day of May last and named Bob." Signed by David Montgomery and attested by Joshua Elder, Clerk, with the seal of the county. Underneath the above is the following: In Testimony whereof that the foregoing writing contains a true copy of the original entry as remains of record in my office, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the said Court to be affixed this twentieth day December A. D. 1813. For clerk Jacob Boas, George K. Nutz." On the back of this certificate is the following memorandum made by Rev. John Bryson in his own hand: "Record of the age of the Negroes Liddy, Abigal and Dick, Mulatto children of the said Liddy. Liddy, as nigh as I could ascertain, about 30 years of age November 3, 1801, when I purchased her of Richard Robison. Abigal one year and five months old, at the same time, which, if cor- rect, makes her birthday June 3, 1800. Dick was born December 12, 1803. Witness my hand December 25, 1813. JOHN BRYSON."
For Lydia and her children be paid one hundred pounds, and for Bob sixty.
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to stop a certain Henry Sterret, of Bald Eagle Township, from profaning the Sabbath in an unchristian and scandalous manner, by causing his servants to maul rails, &c., on that day, and beating and abusing them if they offered to disobey his unlawful demands. He probably lived on Long Island, opposite Jersey Shore.
Charles and Samuel Stewart owned about a thousand acres of land in Nippenose Bottom, and brought slaves with them when they settled there. Sampson and George Melix were among the number; Joseph Melix, a son of Sampson Melix, is a respectable colored citizen of Williamsport to-day.
John Knox, who settled at the mouth of Larry's Creek and built the grist mill there, brought slaves with him when he came. Wil- liam Crownover, who settled on " Level Corner," owned slaves.
Sheriff John Hays, of Lycoming Creek, bought Mark Colvin of General John Burrows, of Montoursville.
Robert Martin, who built the first grist mill on Lycoming Creek, at Newberry, brought a large number of slaves with him, compris- ing Venus, Prime, Pomp and Phyllis his wife; Mark, Pomp, Si and others, their children ; also another slave named Jack, who had a cabin in the hollow near the present colored camp-meeting ground.
Amariah Sutton had an old negro slave who was very powerful. She did not like to have a cross horse they had open his mouth and snap at her whenever she passed in the barn, so one day she heated the fire shovel very hot and when the horse opened his mouth as usual, she plunged the shovel into it, burning him severely. The sequel has not been recorded.
John Dunlap kept tavern in Jaysburg, near the shad fishery and boat landing. Before he brought his family up from Virginia, he sent his female slave Ann ahead of him to put the house in readi- ness. He handed her his cane and said : "Now, you go up to Jaysburg, and if any one stops you and wants to know who you are, you just say, ' I am John Dunlap's slave and this is his cane.'" She accomplished the journey on foot, and lived for many years with the family, to be cruelly beaten and abused during the drunken sprees of her master. On one occasion he determined to cut her throat, and chased her through the garden, overtaking her as she made a vain attempt to get over the fence. As he was about to plunge the knife into her, his big black dog, that had been
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aroused by the cries of the woman, seized him by the breeches and enabled the poor creature to escape. She would afterward take him around the neck and say: "You'll stick to your own color, won't you ?"
Dunlap had two choice wethers, one of which the wolves carried away, and Joseph King, a neighbor, set two traps near the spot occupied by the Dodge Mills edging burner, and the next morning they were missing. Upon tracking them up, two immense wolves were found to have dragged them into the woods that existed be- tween Jaysburg and Newberry. While the men were skinning them, old Dunlap cut out some rump steaks and took them home, where he made Ann fry them, and soon after reappeared with a huge piece of bread and slice of wolf meat, swearing and mutter- ing that he was bound to eat that wether if he had to eat the wolf to do it!
John Winters brought slaves with him, one of whom, Tom, is well remembered by some of the oldest citizens of Jaysburg. Judge William Hepburn had a slave named Ol, whom he bought from William G. Dunlap. George Cowel was a slave, and after being liberated, lived alone in a cabin just above Jaysburg, near the river road. Otto was another slave known to the early settlers.
The Rose family had slaves. Phyllis and Jack belonged to Mrs. Rose and were doubtless brought with her from her native place, Northumberland. She is said to have treated them with great tenderness and gave them a Christian burial. They lived together as man and wife in a cabin at the spring near the residence of the late John V. Woodward. They had a son called Sampson Jack, formerly well known in this vicinity.
George. Roach, now living in Williamsport at the age of 91 years, was the son of a man born in the West Indies, and brought as a slave to a place below Harrisburg called " Yellow Breeches," where he met with a slave woman # belonging to Robert Harris,
* Her name was Nancy, and in after years she lived in Northumberland, where she kept a little shop and sold cakes and beer. She attended all the battalions with a horse and wagon, and her cakes became famed for their excellence. She often visited the house of Samuel Awl, Esq., in Upper Augusta Township, the father of Dr. R. H. Awl, of Sunbury, who remembers her well. "Aunt" Nancy was a very pious woman and was respected by all who knew her.
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of Harrisburg, whom he married, and with her moved upon a tract of land in the wilderness, on Shamokin Creek, (five miles from Sunbury, ) given them by Mr. Harris on condition that they remain there, occupy it and improve it.
He came to Williamsport in 1816, where he married and settled down. On the fourth of July, 1824, he was one of a party of eight colored people who were crossing the river in two canoes, opposite the present foot of Locust street, when they were capsized and seven were drowned, he alone escaping. One of those drowned was Ellis Walton, who had fled from slavery down the country, and when pursued to Montoursville was secreted by the sons of General Burrows.
When the Harris family settled upon Loyalsock, just west of Mon- toursville, they brought a large number of colored people with them, who had been slaves at their former home in Peach Bottom, but by Pennsylvania law they were held by indenture. They always showed much kindness toward these people. and when they died had them laid in their own private burying ground. When the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was built it ran through this graveyard and all of the remains were taken to Sand Hill ceme- tery. Two or three of the women were among those drowned in the accident mentioned above. Among their colony was a colored hoy, twelve years of age, named Anthony Stokes, who was raised by them and afterward married and settled upon the large island below the railroad bridge, and known for many years as Tony's Island. * He was a very honest and industrious old man, and ac- cumulated some means. He raised very fine water melons, sweet potatoes and peaches, which attracted the boys to such an extent that a cross dog became an indispensable companion in order to secure his erop.
His son Anthony was also thrifty and successful, leaving his children, among other property, that wonderful deposit of sharp
* He used to take the grists of grain in a canoe to Grant's Mill, near Northum- berland, to have it ground, and on one of these trips he became acquainted with a woman who lived near Derrstown ( now Lewisburg), and in due course of time fell so deeply in love that he wanted to marry her, but before he could do this it was necessary to buy her freedom of the MePhersons, who had bought her of the Colemans, in Lancaster County. The price agreed upon was two yoke of oxen, which were given, and the purchase completed by a visit to Sunbury.
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sand just east of the limits of Williamsport. On one occasion he was visiting his brother Charles, at his home on Sand Hill, and after standing before the door for some time in silent admiration of the enchanting panorama spread out before him, he said : " Charles, you have a very large outlook here, but a very small in- come." The painfully truthful nature of this statement caused Charles to feel as though he was suffering from indigestion.
Perhaps the best preserved relic of Pennsylvania negro slavery - existing in the valley, is in the person of Benjamin Baker, who lives with his son in Mosquito Valley, or his daughter in town. He was born in Lancaster County ( now Lebanon ) as a slave, and belonged to the Colemans, along with many others who worked about the great furnaces. He got his freedom when he became of age, and was the youngest and consequently the last one freed by his master, George Coleman. His mother and her brother were stolen from the coast of Africa and sold into slavery in the land of Penn.
Josiah Emery, Esq., will remember old Uncle Elmer Murray and his family, also Elias Spencer, wife and children, taken as slaves from Delaware to Wellsboro by William Hill Wells, in 1802.
Time and space fail in undertaking to describe the workings of the underground railway in this section fifty years ago. The refu- gees from the South would come in from many points and find ready friends to secrete them until they could be safely sent on to Canada.
Those noble old patriots, Tunison Coryell, Esq., and Abraham Updegraff, Esq., inherited a depth of sympathy for the oppressed and afflicted that " passed the love of woman," and the extent of their benevolence and philanthropy can never be known this side of eternity. It would take volumes to picture the scenes of hunted men and women concealed about their houses or barns, or conducted to the cabins of a few colored people in the dense thickets of " Nigger Hollow," and from there transported to the North over the Williamsport and Elmira Railroad, whose superin- tendent was a skillful champion of these poor people; and of the · pathetic stories told of happy meetings of long separated mem- bers of one family, and of their seeing their owners upon the streets hunting for their " chattels," and many other stories of dis-
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tress and terror perfectly incomprehensible to the present genera- tion.
The census of 1800 gives the number of inhabitants, free and slave, in the following townships:
Townships.
Free.
Slave.
Bald Eagle
697
1
Loyalsock
512
14
Lycoming
520
6
Muncy
573
5
Muncy Creek
754
1
Nippenose
436
6
Pine Creek
706
5
Tioga
509
Washington.
465
1
Williamsport
131
...
-
Total
5,303
39
·
The population of Williamsport 87 years ago, contrasted with what it is to-day, shows the progress that has been made during that period.
INDIAN BURIAL PLACES ON THE WEST BRANCH.
BY DUDLEY A. MARTIN, CALEDONIA.
T HE village of Dunnstown, near the Great Island, was laid out in 1794, by William Dunn, in the hope that it might be- come the county seat of Lycoming. He was disappointed, and the town never became a place of much importance. Here is located one of the oldest burying grounds in the county. It is situated on the high hill overlooking the Great Island and sur- rounding country. Many of the old residents are buried here, and it is worthy of note also as being the burial place of Peter Grove, the old pioneer and Indian hunter, who was drowned in the river opposite Lock Haven. The old Indian town that stood on the site where Dunnstown now stands was located. as indications show at the present day. on the lands of Mr. Bethuel Hall, and Major David McCloskey. It was a charming spot and in every way worthy to be a fairy land and paradise to the Indian. Even at the present day it would be difficult to find a spot with more of the romantic and picturesque combined.
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Traces of the Indian burying ground were visible after the arrival of the white settlers. It was situated on the high ground, on the east side of the mill pond at Clinton Harbor, and was tastefully located in a grove of wild plum trees.
Not far from this more graves existed. They were on a hill known at the present day as Reed's Hill, or the picnic ground. A number of years ago, about 1820-5, one of these graves or tombs was opened. It was accidentally discovered by a hunter, whose dog gave chase to a rabbit, and ran it into a ledge of rocks near the brow of the hill. Proceeding to examine, it proved to be a shelving rock, walled up with rough stone around its outer edge, so as to form a small chamber or tomb. Removing part of the wall and stones and peering 'neath the rock, to his horror the hunter found himself confronted by an Indian. Being much frightened. he hastily left the place. On further examination it proved to be the body of an Indian woman, and what was strange, it was in a mummified state and placed under the shelf in a sitting position. Her clothing was richly decorated with beads and Indian finery, and was supposed to have been a queen or the daughter of a chief. In connection with the body was a kettle of European make, several glass bottles and a gilt button, which bore the stamp of "London." It was evident they had communica- tion with the white traders before her death. The body was re- moved to a distance by doctors, who took it in charge. Beads could be found around the rock for a long time afterwards.
Large numbers of Indian relics have been found at Dunnstown and the Great Island, consisting of arrow heads, tomahawks, celts, pipes, beads, pottery, &c., of which a large and varied collection can be found in the cabinet of the writer.
In 1865 there was found by Mr. James Newberry, near the Great Island, an Indian talisman or charm, in the form of a human face cut in relief from a fine stone of a red color, and about the size of an ordinary finger nail. It was so perforated as to be sus- pended with a cord. A similar specimen was found in a grave, on the Allegheny River, at Warren.
There existed a burial mound at Monseytown Flats, on the land of Mr. Isaac Packer. It was opened a few years ago, and was found to contain the remains of quite a number of Indians in an
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advanced state of decay. In connection with the remains there were found several stone pipes of curious workmanship.
A burying ground also existed where Lock Haven now stands. The remains of numbers have been disinterred there at different times. In 1877 Mr. Levi McGuire, while making a small exca- vation in his garden on Water street, disinterred the remains of several buried in one grave. They had been buried in a sitting position. The bones soon went to pieces on being exposed to the air. They had the appearance of having been buried a great length of time. A small paint cup of stone, and a perforated im- plement of stone and of peculiar shape, were found with the re- mains.
ECCENTRIC TRIBUTE TO A MOTHER.
Mrs. Catharine Fordyce, an aged and eccentric lady, died at her home in Smithfield, Fayette County, Pa., in the early part of April. 1887, and an equally eccentric son, Benson B. Fordyce, wrote the following curious obituary notice, which we find floating in the newspapers :
" She had almost reached her eighty-third mile stone," writes the son, "and she was a good Christian in that she always taught her boys to keep their bodies from the doctors, their money from the lawyers, and their souls from the devil. She had many ups and downs in this life, and more downs than ups, having had her left leg broken three times in the last twenty-two years-first at the ankle, second at the shin, and third at the hip. Never having been away, no wonder she shouted when she saw the headlight on the old ship :
" So much trouble here. God have mercy! Hallelujah !"
"The subject of religion being the greatest subject that ever en- grossed the mind of man, and being anxious about the future, hav- ing read Tom Paine, Voltaire, Hume and Ingersoll, and while I am sure a great and good God (creation being a positive proof, preaching being a trade like shoemaking), I always had my doubts about future rewards and punishments. When mother told me her gripsack was packed I told her if there was a heaven, to come back and let me know some way.
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