USA > Pennsylvania > The making of Pennsylvania; an analysis of the elements of the population and the formative influences that created one of the greatest of the American states > Part 19
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he landed, put on his drenched and riddled garments, walked rapidly to dry them, and accomplished the dis- tance of one hundred and twenty miles to Philadelphia in three days.
Great efforts were made in the city to send assistance. A certain Captain Dick was started forward, with men and provisions. Other reinforcements were to follow. Whether Ogden or Dick was in the chief command does not clearly appear. But as the party fell into an ambus- cade as soon as they had entered the valley, losing nine of their men and nearly all their provisions, they were evidently not led by Ogden.
Butler, knowing that reinforcements were coming rom Philadelphia, pressed his siege closer than ever. Fighting began, a life was lost, and several men were wounded. About the middle of August, Ogden and Dick surrendered, and were allowed to march out of Wyoming with the honors of war. As Dick signed the articles of capitulation, Ogden had apparently been superseded.
Thus the first Pennamite War came to an end in 1771. The Penns were defeated and driven out, and for four years they made no attempt to retake their property.
About a month or two after the surrender of Dick and Ogden, a correspondence was opened with Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut. He denied that the govern- nent of Connecticut had taken any part in the violent proceedings at Wyoming, and he declared that the Gen- eral Assembly would never countenance any hostile neasures. The question, he seemed to say, was alto- gether an affair of the Susquehanna Company.
This was the shrewd position Connecticut had assumed
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from the beginning. Governor Trumbull, in the course of the correspondence, admitted, however, that the land in Wyoming which the company was attempting to occupy was in his opinion within the limits of the Con- necticut charter. His government had assented to the formation of the company, and to the purchase from the Indians of the land, and yet that government refused to restrain and refused to be responsible for the acts of a company which it had created, and which was acting upon land claimed to be within the charter limits.
In their official capacity, the members of the Con- necticut government professed to be entirely innocent of everything connected with the Susquehanna Company yet it was well known that as private individuals they were interested in the company as shareholders, anci were pushing its fortunes to the utmost. When they' were accused as a company, they threw the responsibility on the government, and when they were accused as a gov- ernment, they threw the responsibility on the company.
But when a year or so had elapsed without any at- tempt on the part of the Penns to regain their property the Connecticut government took deliberate and forma possession. The Pennsylvania Valley became a New England town. It was called Westmoreland, and con- stituted part of Litchfield County, Connecticut, and the Susquehanna Company drew up a form of government for it, very republican and liberal in its principles. Rep.
resentatives to the Connecticut Legislature were elected and attended its sessions at Hartford, and the inhabitants of the valley felt so secure that they instructed thei: representatives to demand forty thousand dollars dam ages from Pennsylvania.
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It may be asked why did the Penns give up so easily ? Pennsylvania was a more populous and richer colony than Connecticut, and in any real contest between the two the result could not have been doubtful. A perma- nent garrison of five hundred men in the valley would have put its ownership beyond question. The answer is that, if the contest had been with the people of Penn- sylvania, Connecticut and the Susquehanna Company would have had to seek other pastures for the excess of their population. But the people of Pennsylvania felt that they were in no sense the owners of Wyoming. It belonged to the Penns, who were holding it, like their other lands, for speculation, intending, finally, to sell part of it, and retain the rest for a rise in value from the im- provements on the parts sold.
The Penns could never raise a sufficient force to hold the valley. Even if they had raised such a force they could not have afforded to maintain it. They would have had to pay for it out of their own pockets or draw the money from the public treasury. The pay of five hundred men for a single year would have been a serious drain on their private exchequer, and they would have found it difficult to persuade the Quaker assembly to vote any considerable sum of money from the public treasury for such a purpose.
It was sometimes a little difficult to get the Quakers to vote money even for the defence of the frontier against the Indians. Many of them fancied themselves to be opposed to all war, fighting, and force, and, though they managed to strain their consciences when the Indian massacres became numerous, they would not be likely to strain them merely to assist the proprietors in growing rich.
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Ogden, after his successes, always retired from the valley, leaving only a small garrison, which shows very clearly that the Penns felt the necessity of economy, and that they could use only a small portion of the pub- lic money for their private ends. They were seldom able to raise for Ogden more than one hundred and fifty men, and it sometimes required three or four months to collect that number.
They were fully convinced of their inability to main- tain the contest. They dared not make it a party question in Pennsylvania, for it would have been over- whelmingly voted down and defeated. A large number of the people sympathized with Connecticut, and stood ready to assist her, and some, like those who went with Captain Stewart, actually did assist her.
The Penns being entirely excluded from the valley, the Yankee settlers poured in, and soon began to over- flow the mountain bounds. Some of them established a settlement at Muncy, outside of the natural stronghold, and outside the town of Westmoreland, as laid out by the Connecticut government. This gave the Penns an opportunity, and we are compelled to describe the Sec- ond Pennamite War.
An Irishman named Plunkett, of doubtful reputation, led the expedition, which in September, 1775, destroyed and scattered the outlying post at Muncy, killing one man and wounding several. Plunkett marched his pris- oners into Sunbury with much pomp, and believed himself to be the man of destiny who should restore Wyoming to the Penns.
His spirit was infectious and caught the Pennsylvania government. They furnished him with seven hundred
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men, a train of boats, and a field-piece. Previous to his setting out, rumors of his expedition reached Connecti- cut and also the Continental Congress. The congress passed resolutions requesting Pennsylvania to refrain, urging the importance in such trying times of a perfect union of all the colonies. But the remonstrance was useless, and the expedition started.
It is somewhat surprising to find Plunkett setting out on this campaign with seven hundred men, when the utmost efforts in former times could scarcely raise a hundred and fifty. But the condition of things had changed. In 1771, just before the close of the first Pennamite War, the Penns began to sell the land in the valley which they had divided up into two manors called Stoke and Sunbury. Lists of the purchasers have been preserved, and there appear to have been fifty-three of them, twenty-seven for Sunbury and twenty-six for Stoke, receiving tracts varying from seventy-nine to two hundred and fifty acres each. By the time of Plunkett's expedition, in 1775, many of these purchasers had divided up their land and sold it to others, so that there was a considerable body of persons who were financially inter- ested in the Pennsylvania title of Wyoming. These people increased in numbers as time went on, and under the name of Pennsylvania claimants caused the compli- cations which followed the decree at Trenton in 1782. They doubtless made a strong interest for Plunkett, and partially account for the number of his men.
A subscription list has also been found signed by such people as Francis, Shippen, Tilghman, Allen, Haines, Morris, Meredith, Biddle, all prominent Pennsylvania names. The amount of money given in this list to the
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Plunkett expedition is about five hundred pounds, and there may have been other subscription papers. From the one preserved, it appears that there was a committee and treasurer appointed to receive funds.
All this indicates a new interest in Wyoming. The date of the subscription paper is October 9, 1775, several months after the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. Pennsylvania had been trying for some time to get rid of the Penn family and put herself under the king; and now it seemed to all hopeful hearts that she might escape from proprietors, king, parliament, and all. In that event, Wyoming would belong to the people and not to a private family. There was good reason for being interested in her fortunes, and Plunkett's enlistments were increased.
If such a force could have been raised six years earlier the possession of the Penns would have been secure. But now even this large force was not enough to insure success. The population of Wyoming had increased; Zebulon Butler was in command, and Plunkett was not
Ogden. The seven hundred of the invading force were, it is true, about double the number of fighting men in the valley. But Butler selected a strong position on the side of a steep bluff where Harvey's Creek joins the Susquehanna. He threw out a small force as an ambus- cade, and Plunkett, of course, marched straight to the place where he was wanted.
Two fruitless attacks on two successive days were made on Butler's position, and lives were lost on both sides. After the second attack, Plunkett ingloriously retired; and this was the last fighting for the possession of Wyoming by Pennsylvania. Connecticut had won
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by conquest what she considered her right, and her people now settled down to reap the benefit.
At this time the population of Wyoming was about six thousand. In spite of the excitements of the Revo- lution and the absence of many of the able-bodied men in the Continental army, the valley for three years en- joyed considerable prosperity and repose. The Ger- trudes, Alberts, and Waldegraves increased and luxu- riated in the seclusion of their retreat, and they might have continued in this enjoyment had it not been for a new terror from the north.
The State of New York was at that time occupied by the Six Nations of Indians. They held all the land beginning at the head-waters of the Mohawk, passing round by the head-waters of the Delaware and Susque- hanna, through the lesser lakes Cayuga and Seneca and westward to the Genesee River. It was a beautiful fertile region, and a natural empire of wealth and power. Within this territory they were rapidly building up a civilization, and advancing in all the arts of life. They had numerous towns, many of them consisting of from wenty to sixty wooden houses, and one of them, Gene- see, had one hundred and twenty-eight houses. They painted their dwellings after the manner of white men, ind had graveyards with monuments made of planks. They had numerous orchards of peach-trees and other ruit, and cultivated the land, raising large crops of corn.
They had formerly dominated all. the other tribes outhward to the Carolinas and westward to Lake Superior. The Indians of Pennsylvania were at one ime their vassals, and obeyed their slightest command.
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Their position at the head-waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna gave them a great advantage. They could launch their canoes on the swift currents of those rivers, and descend with great rapidity into Pennsylvania and the South. At the time of the Revolution, they were believed to be able to muster about five thousand fighting men.
Their politics were controlled by the famous Sir William Johnson, who was an Irishman of birth and education. The refusal of his family to allow a marriage with the woman of his choice brought him to New York to take charge of the landed estates of a relative. From this experience he acquired an intimate knowledge of the Six Nations, and gradually assumed an influence over them. He was soon appointed the official agent of the British government for Indian affairs, a position which for many years he filled with the greatest ability, and prevented the Six Nations from joining Pontiac's con- spiracy.
He lived in the style of an English baron, in a large mansion house, which was conducted with profuse hos- pitality. After the death of his wife he had several women for companions at different times, the last of whom was a very pretty Indian girl, Molly Brant, the sister of the famous Joseph Brant. Several respectable families in Upper Canada are supposed to boast of their descent from this union, and remind us, except for the illegitimacy, of the Virginia families that claim descent from Pocahontas. At the time of the Revolution, Sir William's power had passed to his nephew, Guy John- son, who had married one of his daughters.
Whether the Americans or the English should have
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the alliance of the Six Nations was simply a question of price. If the savages had had the wisdom to remain neutral, as some of their chiefs counselled, they might still be living by their lakes and rivers, an interesting and instructive example of the advancement of a race. The work of Sir William Johnson and the progress they had made in civilization would not have been lost, and the solution of our present Indian problem would, perhaps, be easier. But England was rich and unscrupulous. She bid high in presents, and the Indians were doomed.
The Americans, be it said to their honor, made no attempt to buy these Indians. They tried to keep them neutral, but they would not and could not accept them as allies. The whole feeling and tone in all the colonies were against such an alliance. They had suffered too much from the Indian. They knew him too well, and they would not accept the assistance of his murderous and cruel skill.
During the first three years of the Revolution, the Six Nations were assisting the British to hold the region , in the neighborhood of Lake Champlain. But after the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga, they were no longer needed for that duty. They had all along regarded Wyoming and the other settlements to the south of them as ripe plums which they could take at any time, and they now prepared for it. They were accompanied by a large body of Tories under the command of Colonel John Butler, commonly called Indian Butler, to dis- tinguish him from his cousin, Zebulon Butler. The Indian contingent was led by Brant, the Mohawk sachem.
Brant probably had some white blood in his veins, although this slight on his purity is earnestly denied by
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one of his biographers. He had been educated at the Rev. Dr. Wheelock's school, in New Hampshire, which afterwards became Dartmouth College, and could write a letter in passable English. After the Revolution he became very popular in Canada, where there is a monu- ment to his memory, and towards the end of his life he became religious, translated some of the Scriptures into Mohawk, and visited England to raise money for a church. His admirers have given him the high honor of never killing women and children with his own hands, and taking but little pleasure in the torture of prisoners.
The place selected for the first onset was Cherry Valley, New York, and so sweeping, fierce, and cruel was this attack that, for some days after, the cocks could be heard crowing from the tops of trees and the dogs howling in the distant woods. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered, and the set- tlement wiped out of existence.
Mrs. Writer, as she was dragged away by her captors, saw an Indian draw his knife across the throat of a girl, and while she was in her death agony cut off her nose, ears, and breasts, and gash her cheeks. When the party encamped for the evening, a large belt of scalps was brought to Mrs. Writer, and an Indian, with uplifted tomahawk, compelled her to dress them. She had to open them out with her hands and spread them to dry. Many of them, she could see, were those of her friends, and presently she recognized the scalp of her mother.
Brant and Butler could have descended upon Wyo- ming with great rapidity by putting their forces in canoes. The rushing waters of the Susquehanna would have swept them into the valley in a few hours. But they
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were in no hurry. They used their boats only part of the way. They started from Tioga Point and landed at the mouth of Bowman's Creek, about twenty miles above the valley. From there they marched down with a deliberation which was intended to show confidence and contempt.
The men able to bear arms at that time in Wyoming are described on the monument erected to their memory as " the undisciplined, the youthful, and the aged." The rest were in the ranks of the Continental army. Every effort had been made to bring them home. The con- templated attack of the Indians was well known, and both officers and men earnestly pleaded to be allowed to return and protect their families. They had been en- listed on the understanding that they should serve on the frontier, near the valley, and they had been taken away to the sea-board in the dark hours of the contest when Washington was defeated and compelled to retreat through the Jerseys. As message after message reached them of the preparations of the savages, and the murders north of the valley, they broke through all restraint. The officers resigned, and about twenty-five of the men deserted. Those who remained were finally allowed to march to Wyoming, but too late.
The enemy quietly entered the upper end of the valley, and took their time in destroying the few forts and people they found there. It never seems to have occurred to these poor scattered settlers to escape. They went about their usual vocations, and when the overwhelming force of the enemy came upon them, fought with fury and des- peration. In one instance seven men and a boy were suddenly surprised. The boy threw himself into the
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river, where he lay with his face just above the surface, and listened to the fierce struggle of his companions and their dying groans,
Zebulon Butler had returned from the Continental - army and found himself in command of about three hundred men, among whom were grandfathers with their grandsons. The opposing force of the enemy num- bered between four and five hundred of British troops and Tories, together with about seven hundred Indians.
It would probably have been better policy for the three hundred Americans to have remained in Forty Fort and waited developments. The Wyoming men remaining in the Continental army were known to be coming, and other reinforcements were on the way. Everybody that could send assistance was sending it. The situation could not be worse and might grow better, and the chances within the fort were better than outside of it Such was the counsel of Zebulon Butler and some of the older officers, but they were overruled by the majority. The Indians, the majority said, had been ir the valley three days, were acting leisurely and gradually destroying it piecemeal. By the time they had decided to take Forty Fort, the garrison in it, unable to endure the strain of the danger, would have disbanded, each man intent upon carrying off his own wife and children
The British and Indians, with sarcastic politeness, had sent a message inviting the fort to surrender, and the fort had replied after the manner of frontiersmen. It inmates had actually decided that the only possible hope of saving the valley was for the three hundred old mer and boys to march out at once, meet the twelve hundred British and Indians, and fight them. So forth they wen
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at noon on the third day of July, 1778, passing out from the friendly shadow of the fort, with the odds more than three to one against them, and knowing it.
Such reckless, desperate courage is seldom seen, and, like the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, is not soon forgotten. The old men and boys arranged them- .selves by companies with military precision. Officers went ahead and marked off the ground for them, be- :tween a high bank and a swamp. It was a mistake to select the ground so far beyond all chance of retreat to the fort, and it was a mistake to rest the left wing on a swamp, the favorite fighting-ground of the Indian. There was but little of the skill of Zebulon Butler shown in the preparations. He had been overruled.
Still he did his best for the people. He told them that if they would only stand the first shock, the Indians would give way. Under his inspiring instruction they advanced a step every time they fired, and they actually forced back part of the British line, and more than held their own for half an hour. But it was useless. Their advance brought them in among the enemy who slipped round on their flank and occupied the swamp. The Indians and Tories kept close under cover, knowing their prey was secure. When the flanking movement was complete, Butler attempted to turn some of his men so as to face it, but they mistook the order for permission to retreat. Instantly the Indians rushed in with the war-whoop, and all was over.
The massacre began. Every captain that led a com- 1 pany had been shot at the head of his men. Some of the Indian marksmen had singled out officers and broken the thigh-bone so as to reserve the victim for torture.
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The rest of the three hundred were pursued, toma- hawked, speared, and butchered as they ran. Some took to the water,-that last resort of hunted deer and hunted ranger. They were shot while swimming, or brought to the shore by promises of quarter and in- stantly killed. A prisoner was thrown on the burning logs of a fort and held down with pitchforks. Sixteen more of the others were arranged round a stone, and Queen Esther, a squaw of political prominence, passed around the circle singing a war-song and dashing out their brains. When night came on the savages built fires, and, stripping the remaining prisoners naked, chased them back and forth through the flames with their spears until they fell exhausted and were con- sumed. Only two of all the prisoners taken escaped torture and death.
All that night and the next day there was a general rush to get out of the valley. Most of those who fled were women and children. Every road and trail was crowded. In one company there were a hundred women and children and only one man. They were flying in terror and with no provisions. Children were prematurely born, and when they died had to be left to the wolves, or their dead bodies carried in exhausted arms. The aged soon sank by the roadside, and many of the strongest were overcome. Many perished in a great swamp lying to the eastward of Wyoming, and still known as the Shades of Death.
The remnant of the three hundred, together with thirty or forty soldiers who had returned from the Con- tinental army, remained in the valley, determined to hold it to the last. They assembled at Forty Fort
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and tried to rally the fast-dispersing population. The Indians and British were still picking up fort after fort. Troops of squaws followed them, smeared with blood and brains, and carrying strings of scalps, which they would smell and cry " Yankee blood."
Negotiations were begun for a surrender. In the course of this Indian Butler insisted that the Continental soldiers should be given up as prisoners. Knowing what they might expect from the Indians, their friends gave them the hint, and they all left the valley. The articles of capitulation, in other respects, were fair and honorable. The fort and its stores were to be surrendered; the inhabitants allowed to occupy their farms in peace, and Indian Butler promised that the savages should be restrained from bloodshed and pillage. But he had little control over them.
As soon as the formalities were finished they started on their usual course, breaking open houses and taking everything they wanted. He finally persuaded most of them to withdraw, and his army returned northward. The squaws brought up the rear riding on stolen horses, with scalps stretched on hoops bound round their waists ; their bodies covered with dresses worn one over the other, and their heads adorned in the same way with bonnets.
The Indians who remained went through the valley from one end to the other, burnt every house and barn, and shot and scalped every human being that did not escape to the woods. For the sixth time within a period of fifteen years Wyoming was completely annihilated.
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