USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > The Wyoming Valley, upper waters of the Susquehanna, and the Lackawanna coal-region : including views of the natural scenery of northern Pennsylvania : from the Indian occupancy to the year 1875 > Part 7
USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Susquehanna > The Wyoming Valley, upper waters of the Susquehanna, and the Lackawanna coal-region : including views of the natural scenery of northern Pennsylvania : from the Indian occupancy to the year 1875 > Part 7
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The attitude of the early settlers partook large- ly of this spirit in reference to Brant, the mighty Mohawk. Aside from his connection with earlier wars, his name was terrible in every American ear, during the war of Independence, and was long afterward associated with every- thing bloody, ferocious, and hateful. As the master spirit of the Indians engaged in the Brit- ish service during the war of the revolution, not only were all the border massacres charged di- rectly upon him, but upon his head fell the pub- lic maledictions for every individual act of atro- city, whether committed by Indians, or torics, or by the exasperated regular soldiery.
Aside from all this, the most candid of Amer- ican writers do not hesitate to admit that it was the policy of these in authority, not only to mag- nify actual occurrences, but sometimes, when these were wanting, to draw upon their imagina- tions for accounts of such deeds of ferocity and blood, as might best serve to keep alive the strongest feelings of indignation against the pa- rcut country, and likewise induce the people to take the field for revenge, if not driven thither by the nobler impulse of patriotism.
The birth of Joseph Brant, otherwise of Thay- endanegea, his proper name, which means tuo- sticks-of-wood.bound-together, denoting strength, scems involved in uncertainty. It seems to be settled, however, that he was a half-breed, but even at this point the birth and parentage seen obscured with doubt. There seems to be no limit to the theories of the best authorities, and the reader is referred to the more elaborate works devoted especially to his life and eareer. The earliest accounts on record state that he was but thirteen years of age when he first took the war-
path. At this time he joined the warriors of his tribe, under Sir William Johnson, and was pres- ent at the memorable battle of Lake George, in which the French were defeated and their com- . mander, the Baron Dieskau, mortally wounded.
It is reported, that in relating the particulars of this bloody engagement to Doctor Stewart, the youthful warrior acknowledged, "That this being the first action at which he was present, he was seized with such a tremor when the firing began, that he was obliged to take hold of a small sapling to steady himself; but that after the dis- charge of a few volleys, he recovered the use of his limbs aud the composure of his mind, so as to support the character of a brave man, of which he was exceedingly ambitious."
The young warrior continued on the war-path until he was nincteen years of age, when, through the instrumentality of Sir William Johnson, he was sent to the "Moor Charity School," estab- lished at Lebanon, Connecticut, under the imme- diate direction of the Rev. Dr. Eleazer Wheelock, afterwards President of Dartmouth College, of which by its transfer, that school became the foundation.
In this school he manifested such au interest in study and in the modes of life of white men that he was favorably noticed by many of the literary minds of the day. In after years, the Rev. Dr. Wheelock, in commenting upon his knowledge of Brant, concluded a letter as fol- lows :- "He went out with a company against the Indians, and was useful in the war, in which he behaved so much like the Christian and the soldier, that he gained great esteem. He now lives in a decent manner, and endeavors to teach his poor brethren the things of God, in which his own heart seems. much ougaged. His house is . an asylum for the missionaries in that wilderness."
ITis life abounded in excellent traits of charac- ter from the time he entered the forests as a war- rior until his death. The above events connect- ed with his life were given to illustrate the int- portance of judging him in his proper sphere.
To the matter then in point, -did Brant lead the Indians on July 3d, 1778. during the battle ? The early settlers were stern in their adherence to the affirmative of this issue, and many and long have been the tales at log cabin firesides'
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BRANT, THE GREAT WAR CHIEF.
which have wrought upon the sympathies of a patient, listening posterity a tenacious fidelity to the original belief. But, tradition alone, how- ever pure the channel through which it has coursed, must in its ceaseless wash, carry along many foreign particles which need casting out, in order to identify the true original.
Mr. Chapman, a historian of the valley follows tradition. The Hon. Win. W. Campbell, of Cherry Valley, the historian of Tryon county; takes the same view ; Thomas Campbell, the British poet, along with Halleck and Whittier, onr own, immortatize in song the sufferings of the early settlers, all agreeing upon Brant's pres- ence at the bloody scenes in Wyoming.
Colonel Stone, the biographer of Brant, denies it stoutly, giving forcible reasons to induce a charitable feeling for his subject, while Mr. Chas. Miner neither affirms or disputes either position. The history published a few years since by Rev. George Peck, D. D., takes firm ground against popular tradition, and proves an olibi, giving dates and circumstances with commendable pre- cision.
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The fact that Brant was accustomed to lead the Indians into battle, under the generalship of Colonel John Butler, that he did so at Oriskany a year before the Wyoming campaign, and that he fought in the same capacity on the Chemung a year later, when General Sullivan advanced into the lake country, lends great weight to the op- posite side who claims that he too led the say- ages, acting in conjunction with Colonel John Butler on the invasion of the Wyoming valley. A thorough investigation of the subject will not warrant such a belief, for it is definitely cer- tain that Brant's base of opperations during the entire summer of 1778 was in the Valley of the Mohawk, and at the head waters of the Susque- hanna, with headquarters at or near Una- dilla. In June he burned the settlement at Springfield, near the head of Otsego Lake. On the 3d of July, 1778, occurred the conflict at Wyoming. Two days after, July 5th, Brant purchased corn and provision at Unadilla, and gave a receipt in his own handwriting, which was shown by the younger Brant to C. L. Ward, of Towanda, whose authority on pioneer literature was ever help reliable.
A few days before the battle, he was at the head of four hundred Indians, resisting a party of regular troops and Schoharie militia on the upper branch of the Cobelskill. He is casily traced after this fight, all the way to Unadilla, by the following circumstances :- Capt. M'Kean, with five men, who were out scouting his whereabouts came upon his track in the town of Laurens, abont nine miles north of the present town of Oneonta, and seventeen miles north of Brant's headquarters.
Here a Quaker by the name of Sleeper, whose descendants still remain in that region, informed M'Kean that Brant, with fifty men, had been at his house that day. " As the old Sleeper house is still standing, it is easy to track the course of Brant's command down the Susquehanna. It was at this point in Laurens that Capt. M'Kean wrote a letter which occasioned Brant's answre on July 9th. M'Kean challenged Brant to meet him in single combat, or to meet in fair fight, an equal number of the patriots with his Indians, telling him they would make a goose of him- referring to his name-if he ever came to Cherry Valley. He tied the letter to a stick which he stuck in an Indian path. Brant received it, and mentioned it afterwards with an equally bitter spirit.
While this was transpiring on July 2d John Butler was in front of Fort Wintermoot, three days march distant down the Susquehanna. This fact itself should acquit Brant of the charges against him, while the receipt for corn two days after the battle certainly would, for it would be impossible for him to be in Unadilla on the 5th of July and at the same time commanding the the drunken Indians in Fort Forty.
Additional evidence of Brant's abscence is fur- nished from the Documents relating to the Colo- nia! History of the State of New York, Vol. VIII. p. 752, wherein is published a dispatch from Col. Guy Johnson to Lord George Germaine, dated September 10, 1778. The realer will readily observe that the lapse of time, from the engage- ments both on the head waters of the Susque- hanna and at Wyoming, is sufficient to enable Colonel Johnson to report on the campaign with definite military precision. The following is a portion of the report :
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THE WYOMING VALLEY.
"Your lordship will have heard before this can reach you, of the successful incursions of the In- dians and the Loyalists from the northward. In conformity to the instructions I conveyed to my officers, they assembled their forces early in May, and one division under one of my deputies (Mr. Butler), proceeded down the Susquehanna, de- stroying the forts and settlements at Wyoming, augmenting their number with many loyalists, and alarming all the country, while another division, under Mr. Brant, the Indian chief, eut off 294 men near Schoharie, and destroyed the adjacent settlements, with several magazines from whence the rebels had derived great re- sources, thereby affording encouragement and opportunity to many friends of government to join them."
Another fact, which is given by Dr. Peek, in support of this side of the question, is that of a certificate of protection, given to one of the set- tlers, dated "Westmoreland, July 5th, 1778," and signed by "John Butler" and "Kayenguaurton." Colonel Stone and Mr. Lossing give the name, "Gi-en-gwa-tab," which signifies, He who goes in the smoke. The name of the chief was prob- ably written by Colonel Butler but a turtle drawn at the end of the name, indicates that the chief himself set it there as his mark and seal. This argument is a strong one, for had Brant himself commanded the Indian wing of the forces, his signature would have joined that of Colonel Butler in giving protection.
Again, and the strongest evidence which can be adduced, is the report of Colonel Butler him - self, who commanded the entire British, Tory, and Indian force at the battle. He states that the Indians were led on by a Seneca chief by the name of Gucingeracton. This name is but an- other version of the one mentioned by Lossing and Stone.
There can now no longer remain any doubt upon the matter, but, were it necessary to en- large upon the subject, it is quite evident that a process of military reasoning could demonstrate beyond a doubt, that Brant, commanding a force ranging in numbers from four to seven hundred men, could not march over the country swifter than the cavalry forces of the late war were ac- customed to move. Indeed, with his base of
supplies at Unadilla, with primitive roads, sparsely settled settlements, and the impedimenta which usually characterized an Indian campaign, includ- ing eveu the squaws, it would be simply impossi- ble to be at Wyoming with his force.
Then was he there in person ? The proofs above given are sufficient to convince intelligent minds beyond a reasonable doubt, that he was at the head waters of the Susquehanna, while there is not a partiele of reasoning given from any source, which would induce the reader to believe that Brant had left command of the forces above, and had repaired with extraordinary haste to another scene of action.
Proof abundant is given to argue a belief in Brant's abscence from Wyoming, and the evi. dence is conclusively sufficient to satisfy any mind beyond a reasonable doubt, of his presence at Unadilla. Now as to cumulative testimony :
Long after the war had been settled, and dur- ing years of peace, while residing in Canada,. Thayendanegea himself, declared times without number to literary minds of many nations who visited him, that he was not present at Wyom- ing, and in every case gave sufficient reasons to convince his attentive listeners that such was the truthful state of faets.
All British officers who accompanied the ex- pedition have lent their soldierly honor to clear the Indiau warrior of the stigma which rested upon his name.
Philip R. Frey, esq., who was ensign in H. B. M's Eighth Regiment, and who with his regi- ment was engaged in the campaign and battle of Wyoming, has left behind him for posterity to consider, a very accurate and detailed account of the events connected with this subject, in which he declares with vehemence that Brant was not with the commaud.
Captain Walter N. Butler, who commanded a corps of Rangers, on the Tory side, states posi- tively, barring any mental reservation, that Brant was not at Wyoming.
Another reason-many of the Masonic fratern- ity of the forests of New York, who were con- temporaries, bore testimony until death that Brant was not on the expedition, for they had means of knowing, and here let it be understood that the cases are numerous by tradition in Ma-
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BRANT, THE GREAT WAR CHIEF.
sonie Lodges of New York, of the sterling worth of Brant in rescuing many of their number when in distress.
Cases are given elsewhere, one of which is the case of Jonathan Maynard, esq., of Farmingham (near Boston), Massachusetts, formerly a member of the Senate of that State. He was actively engaged in the Revolution, and at one time was taken prisoner, and carried away to the western part of New York by the Indians, who were of Brant's command. He was eondemned to death, and preparations were being made by stripping him, when Brant discovered the symbols of Free Masonry marked upon his arm, which led him to interpose and save his life.
A number of these incidents could be enumer- ated, but space forbids, and the subject has lost its thread. To return to proof :- Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming," dealt the heaviest blow in the following verses :
"But this is not the time,"-he started up
And smote his heart with woe-denouncing hand- This is no time to fill the joyous cup,
The mammoth comes,-the foe,-the monster Brant, -- With all his howling, desolating band ;- These eyes have seen their blade, and burning pine Awake at once, and silence half your land.
Red is the cup they drink-but not with wine: Awake, and watch to-night! or see no morning shine ! Scorning to wield the hatchet for his tribe, 'Gainst Brant himself I went to battle forth : Accursed Brant! he left of all my tribe
Nor man, nor child, nor thing of living birth :
No! not the dog that watch'd my household hearth
- Escaped that night of blood, upon our plains ! All perish'd-I alone am left on earth !
To whom nor relatives, nor blood remains,
No !- not a kindred drop that runs in human veins !"'
This stroke left a wound in the feelings of the family, and aeeordingly, John Brant, son of Thay- endanegea, visited England, prepared with doeu- ments to prove his father's innocence. Mr. Campbell received him, and listened to his griev- ous tale until he became convineed of his error, and promised in the next edition, then soon to be
published, a correction. This correction was not made in the manner promised, but in a note as follows :
"I took the character of Brant in the poem of Gertrude, from the common histories of England, all of which represented him as a bloody and bad man, (even among savages), and chief agent in the horrible desolation of Wyoming. Some years after this poem appeared, the son of Brant, a most interesting and intelligent youth, came over to England, and I formed an acquaintance with him, on which I still look back with pleas- ure. He appealed to my sense of honor and jus- tice, on his own part and on that of his sister, to retract the unfair assertion, which unconscious of its unfairness, I had cast on his father's memory. He then referred to documents which completely satisfied me that the common accounts of Brant's cruelties at Wyoming, which I had found in books of travels, and in Adolphus's and similar histories of England, were gross errors ; and that, in point of fact, Brant was not even present at that scene of desolation. * * * I ascer- tained, also, that he often strove to mitigate the cruelty of Indian warfare. The name of Brant therefore, remains in my poem, a pure and de- elared character of fiction."
Truly, as Colonel Stone has remarked :- "this is something like knocking a man down, and then desiring that he would regard the blow as purely a phantasy of the imagination."
Thus, has Brant, the mighty Mohawk, passed into history, but posterity will learn to tone down the irregular traits which have been as- cribed to him, and when men, who in their day were glorified for fietitious heroism, shall have their memories buried as deep as the entombed slabs of Assyria, tradition will kindle a flame on the shrine of a man who was savage by nanie but a nobleman by nature.
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CHAPTER IX.
GENERAL SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION FROM WYOMING TO THE LAKES. THE STORY OF FRANCES SLOCUM-MA-CON-A-QUA, THE CAPTIVE GIRL.
""Your ancient house ?' No more. I can not see The wondrous merits of a pedigree : Nor of a proud display Of smoky ancestors in wax and clay." 1
-Gifford's Journal.
'They came and questioned me, but, when they heard My voice, they became silent, and they stood And moved as men in whom new jove had stirred Deep thoughts.
-The Revolt of Islam.
It would be only a sequence to allege that the expedition under Colonel John Butler was met by punishment. The Continental forces were not able to sueeor Wyoming when in need, but now, having learned of the disaster to the valley, Gen- eral Sullivan was dispatched to punish the In- dians for their greedy love of conquest.
In the interim, many matters of minor detail had been considered.
Upon the first reception of the disastrous news, Colonel Hartley, with his regiment, was ordered to proceed forthwith, with instructions from Con- gress to remain upon the frontier until further orders. He was soon joined by other companies, inany of them militia, and among the officers who associated with him was Colonel Dennison, who, in the stipulated artieles at Wyoming, had agreed uot to serve again in hostility against the British troops. Dennison accompanied Hartley up the Susquehanna as far as Windsor, destroying sev- eral small Tory towns and Indian villages. This expedition aroused the people above, and soon force sufficient was gathered to compel Hartley to retreat. It is elaimed by Walter Butler, in defense of the atroeities at Cherry Valley, that Dennison violated his parol. Dennison justifies himself on the ground that the Indians and Torys were first to break over the rules of war. A dis- interested inind, at this day, in reviewing the
state of faets as then existing, ean but eonelude that both were guilty of every charge which is brought against them as far as the point of honor is concerned.
Colonel Zebulon Butler returned to the valley and built another fort 'which he occupied, until the following year, when General Sullivan en- tered the region and assumed entire command. The Sullivan expedition was purely one of retali- ation. There was nothing to be gained by send- ing a foree up the country against the numerous tribes of Indians, but the one feature of teaching the red-skins a lesson after their own tactics.
General Sullivan collected his forces at Wilkes- Barre, and by great energy succeeded in trans- porting the cumbersome luggage of an army of . those days, besides the unwieldy artillery, up the Susquehanna as far as Tioga point. Here he was joined by General Clinton, who swelled the numbers to such magnitude, that Colonel John Butler, who was the victor at Wyoming, was now compelled to fly with nearly two thousand men, after making a ereditable stand below New- ton, on the Chemung River.
The country was flowing as with "milk and honey :" the crops promised everything to the British and Torys, but the avenging host of Sul- livan put everything to waste and desolation. Every Indian who fell into the hands of Sullivan's
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GENERAL SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION.
command, even by surrender, was instantly des- pateled ! ! The reader will please note this fact. Miner gives the following account of the havoc made in the country :
"Not a moment of delay was allowed. Being now in the Indian country, hundreds of fields, teeming with corn, beans, and other vegetables, were laid waste with rigid severity. Every house, hut, and wigwam was consumed. Culti- vated in rude Indian fashion for centuries, or- chards abounded, and near a town between the Seneca and Cayuga Lakes there were fifteen hun- dred peach-trees, bending under ripe and ripen- ing fruit : all were eut down. The besom of de- struetion swept, if with regret and pity, still with firm hand, through all their fair fields and fertile plains. Deeply were they made to drink of the chaliec they had so often forced remorselessly to the lips of the frontier settlers within their reach. Some idea of the extent of country inhabited by the Indians, the number of their towns, and the great quantity of produce to be destroyed, may be formed, when it is stated that an army of four thousand men were employed, without a day's (except indispensable) remission, from the 29th of August until the 28th of September, in accont- plishing the work of destruction. The farthest northwest extent of General Sullivan's advance was to Genesce Castle, at the large flats of the beautiful river of that name."
It may be well to record as a matter of history, that William McClay, in April, 1779, offered a proposition to the authorities of Pennsylvania, to hunt the Indians of the Lackawanna and Wy- oming valleys with dogs, saying that "a single troop of Light Horse attended by dogs, would destroy more Indians than five thousand men stationed in forts along the frontiers."
Sullivan penetrated the Indian region to the Lakes, in July, 1779, and burned eighteen of the villages, destroying crops, orchards, and in faet, everything upon which a human being could sub- sist. He returned to Wyoming, October 7th, having lost but forty men. The force then marched up the Lackawanna and from thence joined the main command of Washington.
This grand expedition had a salutary effect in teaching a lesson, but it did not prevent incur- -jons of small bands. For three years afterward,
prowling detachments were on every hand, seout- ing the valley, and carrying away their vietims.
Among the many who were kidnapped, was one who has passed into history, whose life has been studied with as keen relish as was ever a fairy tale :- that of Frances Sloeum, who was carried away when but five years of age, by a party of Delawares, and who lived with them un- til her death, March 9th, 1847.
The Sloeums eame from Warwick, Rhode Is- land, and Jonathan Slocum, the father of the far famed captive girl, emigrated in 1777, with a wife and nine children. They located near one of the forts, upon a spot of ground which is at present covered by the city of Wilkes-Barre.
The early training of the family had been on principles averse to war, and Jonathan was loath to mix with the tumult of the valley. A son by the name of Giles, of a fiery spirit, could not brook the evident intentions of the Torys and British, and consequently he shouldered his mus- ket and was one to take part in the battle of July 3d, 1778.
The prowling clans of savages and bushwhack- ing Torys which continued to harrass the valley, occasioned much mischief in different parts, and in the month of November, following the battle, it was the misfortune of the Slocum family to be visited by a party of these Delawares, who ap- proached the cabin, in front of which two Kings- ley boys were engaged at a grind stone, sharpen- ing a knife. The elder had on a Continental eoat, which aroused the ire of the savages, and he was shot down without warning and scalped by the very knife which he had put edge to.
The report aroused the inmates of the house, and Mrs. Slocum had reached the door in time sufficient to see the boy of her neighbor scalped.
An older daughter seized a young child two years old, and flew with terror to the woods. It is said that her impetuosity in escaping eaused the Indians to roar with laughter. They were about to take away a boy, when Mrs. Sloeum pointed to a lame foot exclaiming-"The child is lame, he can do thee no good." They dropped the boy, and discovered little Frances hidden away under the staircase. It was but the act of a moment to secure her, and when they bore her
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THE WYOMING VALLEY.
away the tender child could but look over the in vain. A large number of Indians of different Indian's shoulder and scream "mamma."
The alarm soon spread, but the elasticity of a Delaware's step had carried the party away into the mountains.
Mr. Slocum was absent at the time of the cap- ture, and upon returning at night learned the sad news.
The family's trials did not end bere. Miner, who is ever in sympathy with the early annals of Wyoming, thus depicts the scenes which occurred afterward :
"The cup of vengeance was not yet full. De- cember 16th, Mr. Sloeum and Isaac Tripp, esq., his father-in law, an aged man, with William Sloeum, a youth of nineteen or twenty, were feeding cattle from a stack in the meadow, in sight of the fort, when they were fired upon by Indians. Mr. Slocum was shot dead ; Mr. Tripp wounded, speared, and tomahawked; both were scalped. William, wounded by a spent ball in the heel, escaped and gave the alarm, but the alert and wily foe had retreated to his hiding place in the mountain. This deed, bold as it was cruel, was perpetrated within the town plot, in the centre of which the fortress was located. Thus, in little more than a month, Mrs. Slocum had lost a beloved child, carried into captivity ; the doorway had been drenched in blood by the murder of a member of the family ; two others of the household had been taken away prisoners ; and now her husband and father were both stricken down to the grave, murdered and man- gled by the merciless Indians. Verily, the an- nals of Indian atrocities, written in blood, record few instances of desolation and woe to equal this."
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