USA > Pennsylvania > Berks County > The story of Berks County (Pennsylvania) > Part 2
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THOSE WHO WERE HERE BEFORE US
for want of food and very often many of them starved to death. They cultivated the CORN DIGGER. ground with a sort of hoe made from the shoulder blade of a deer or of a tortoise shell which, having been sharpened with stones, was fastened to a stick. They made axes with stones fastened to a stick and these were used to fell the trees where they intended to plant corn.
They seldom had towns or fixed homes, generally living in the part of the country in which they could most easily procure food. In the spring and summer they preferred the banks of the Schuylkill and its branches where they could find plenty of fish. In the winter they went further into the country where the animals were more plentiful.
As very many Indian relics have been found in the neighborhood of Virginville and Poplar Neck, it is evident that their largest settle- ments in the county were these points. Thousands of Indian relics have been found at these places.
AN INDIAN WIGWAM.
Their movable huts or wig- wams were dens of filth and dirt. They built them by driving stakes into the ground and binding them together at the top, covering them with skins or mud. A bear skin usually served as a door. The fireplace was a hole in the ground. the chimney was a hole in the top.
How they acted in the woods. Their knowledge of the haunts and habits of animals was astonishing. They could gobble like a wild turkey, whistle like a bird and bark like a wolf so perfectly that they could deceive even these creatures themselves. It was seldom that the keenest animal could escape the Indians' cunning and craftiness.
When not on an extended chase. the Indian would leave at breakfast, and when he returned with a bear or a deer, his wife or
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
squaw, was proud of him and served him well. She cut and brought the fire wood, pounded the corn with stones and baked his bread in the ashes.
No one was compelled to go to war, but he who was young and able was hated if he refused to do so. He was chief who could reach and hold that place by showing superior heroism, greatest bravery, and the largest number of scalps. They assassinated their enemies but never fought them openly, if they could avoid it. They would hide in a ravine, lurk in a hole, crouch behind a stone until their enemies would come near enough, when they would spring upon them with a ferocious yell, TOMAHAWK. so piercing and so heart-rending as to paralyze an ordinary victim. When captured by an enemy, they would allow their bodies to be burned or pierced without leaving a cry of pain escape them, and they would sing their death songs to the end. Their hideous warwhoop was terrible and was almost sure to stun the victim before he was touched.
Indian boys and girls. Indian children were called pappooses. When a child was born it was washed in cold water to harden it. Penn, in one of his letters, said that an Indian child was invariably .. wrapped in a blanket laid upon a thin board somewhat larger than" the child. Then they fastened the board to the child to make him grow straight. Attached to these boards, they were often hung from trees to swing in the air. The children never went to school. The boys learned to hunt in the woods with the men. When they had given proof of their power and skill by having collected a large number of skins of animals they killed, they were considered fit to be married.
The girls learned the Indian ways of housekeeping from their mothers. They helped to hoe the ground, to dress the skins, and to carry the loads for their mothers.while SQUAW WITH PAPPOOSE. moving. When an Indian maiden was con- sidered old enough to be married she wore something upon her
y
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THOSE WHO WERE HERE BEFORE US
head to indicate this. She usually covered her face so that she could be seen only when she chose to expose herself. Most girls were married when from thirteen to fourteen years of age.
The women or squaws remained at home when the men went ishing or hunting; they took care of the fields; ground the corn and dressed the skins; and, when the family moved from place to place, they carried the load.
Government and laws. Their king was called Sachem. The line of succession was always on the mother's side. Every king had his council, which consisted of all of the old and wise men of the tribe. Nothing of importance was done without consulting them. In important things the young men were included in the council. In deciding upon war, peace, or selling land, the king sat in the middle of a half moon with the members of his council around him. Behind the old and wise men, at a little distance, sat the young men. It was the Indian custom to talk and consider quite long in their council before they acted. During the time that any one was speak- ing not a man of the council was observed to whisper or smile. The speakers usually said very little but spoke earnestly and elegantly. Penn said, "He will be a wise man who outwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand."
As they never acquired the art of writing they had no history. The legends and myths of the tribe were handed down from genera- tion to generation by the fathers who sat around the fire in the evening with their families and friends. Again and again would they tell the stories relating to their own deeds of valor in the chase or on the battle-field; over and over would they tell the legends and traditions relating to their own tribe as they learned them from their grandfathers while smoking the pipe.
The aged were always favored by the young who sought their company and advice. In travel the older ones usually went on horseback or by canoe. They assembled annually that the aged might tell to the grandchildren the things that had happened to the tribe and talk of the treaties that had been made.
Religious beliefs and customs. When sick they would pay anything to their medicine men to be cured. If any of them died they were buried with their own clothing, and the nearest relative
..
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
would throw into the grave some valuable thing in token of love. Those in mourning would blacken their faces and keep them so for a year. They selected the choicest places for their graves, kept them free from grass and shaped the ground into mounds with great exactness.
They believed in a great spirit who governed the world and con- trolled all things in nature. They believed that there would be for all a future life on a happy hunting ground on which all would live, sorrow free, very much as they did in the earthly life. They thought that spirits lived in animals and everything; they peopled the water and the air and the woods with imaginary spirits of which they lived in constant dread.
They worshipped the sun, the moon and the Great Spirit, but they never believed that their future conduct or condition could in any way depend upon their actions of the past. When they wanted the assistance of the Great Spirit very urgently, they often burned or tortured themselves to invoke sympathy. They often prayed for success in any enterprise, even though it was to steal, burn or murder. The Indian acted according to the custom of his tribe and felt no pity in torturing his enemy to death.
The Great Spirit was always considered their friend, but they thought there were smaller deities whose anger had to be avoided by worshipping them. Their religious services were always to keep the lesser Gods from becoming angry. They believed that all brave warriors and chaste women would meet their friends and ancestors and for this reason they dressed their dead in their best garments. Some of their dead were hung upon scaffolds from the branches of trees, others were put into the water, yet others were buried and not a few were cremated.
Marriage customs. Their marriage customs were peculiar. When a young Indian decided that he wanted a particular girl, his mother went to the girl's mother with a leg of venison or bear meat, telling the girl that her son killed it. If the girl and her family were willing that the marriage should take place, the girl's mother would take a piece of meat to the young man's mother and presenting it would say, "This is from my daugh- ter who prepared it." After this the young people worked and fished
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THOSE WHO WERE HERE BEFORE US
together for some days during which the happy lover wooed his dusky mate of the forest, each being dressed in robes of feathers and skins of wild animals. When an Indian had no mother he himself told the girl of his wish and, if she was willing, she went with him.
They remained married only as long as they pleased each other. The true warrior would leave rather than quarrel with his squaw. He would seldom stay away long enough to have his neighbors notice his absence. If he left a second time he seldom returned.
Some of the most beautiful stories are told about these dwellers of the woods and many of our grandfathers, even to this day. entertain their grandchildren with the tales of the red children.
The scene of a pretty Indian romance is laid in Albany Township along the northern border of the county, where the mountains rise for many feet and end in a sharp ridge, as if they were to be used for cutting the sky. One point, higher than the rest, sits upon this ridge like a mighty steeple.
At the foot of the peak Towkee sat one afternoon, his cheeks flushed with the bloom of health and aglow with the redness of exercise and with eyes bright with a hope he yet hardly dared to dream. He was a young warrior who for days had been searching for the graceful deer that now lay lifeless at his feet. Long and patiently had he waited and searched until finally he had succeeded. Eve more keen and hand more true had never guided an arrow than that with which he had that afternoon pierced the heart of the deer, whose capture so stirred his pride and increased his joy.
Now he had the venison he was looking for. This night he would take it to the south, to his home on the Ontelaunee. To- morrow his mother would take some of it to the home of Oneeda and say to her folks, "Here is some venison of a graceful young deer. which my brave, young son so skillfully captured." Then, to be sure, her folks would collect in their wigwam to smoke a pipe of peace. Ah! what joy would then be his. In his bright visions he saw himself and Oneeda sport happily through love's sunny morning and live joyfully through life's golden afternoon. Alas, the illusions of hope ! It might not be. No delicious venison prepared by the hand of his betrothed was ever to be returned. No happy rambles in the sand- bottomed brooks to angle the silvery trout from their torrents. No
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
blissful journeys with his chosen sweetheart to the mountain tops to gather the sun-kissed berries. The rugged old chief, Oneeda's father, said "No," and both were heart-broken. If they could not live together they at least could die together. A few nights there- after, a cry like a muffled shriek rang from the mouth of a cave, and from the summit of Round Top there stared a flaming dragon which looked like a huge bundle of straw all aflame, that shot across the sky to the mouth of what has since been called Dragon Cave.
The bodies of Towkee and Oneeda later were found upon the altar in the grotto. Ever since sadly the sounds ring and re-echo through the grotto when the altar is struck. On many a night, says the legend, has the bushy fiery dragon been seen to fly from the mountain peak across to the cave where is always its landing.
No word must be said while the dragon of fire is passing, or instantly it will disappear. Yet like a rainbow of promise it again will appear to tell the fate of Oneeda and Towkee.
List of Indian Words With Their Meaning.
Allegheny-Fair water-Allegheny.
Ganshowehanne-Tumbling stream -Schuylkill. Gokhosing-Place of owls-Cacoosing. Kau-ta-tin-chunk-Endless-Blue Mountain.
Lechauweki-Place of forks-South Mountain. Machksithanne-Bear's path creek-Maxatawny.
Maschilamehanne-Trout stream-Moselen.
Manakesse-Stream with large beds-Monocacy.
Menhaltanink-Where we drank liquor-Manatawny.
Navesink-Place of fishing-Neversink. $ Olink-Hole-Oley. Ontelaunee-Little maiden-Maiden Creek. Pakihmomink-Place of cranberries-Perkiomen. Sakunk-Place of outlet-Sacony. Sinne-hanne-Stony stream-Stony Creek. Sipuas-hanne-A plum stream-Plum Creek. Tamaque-hanne-Beaver stream-Beaver Creek. Tulpewihaki-Land of turtles-Tulpehocken. Wyomissing-Place of flats-Wyomissing.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HOMES.
The Dutch. After Columbus had discovered the western con- tinent, John and Sebastian Cabot, natives of Venice, explored the coast of North America from Newfoundland to Cape Hatteras. They obtained from King Henry VII a commission to sail into the eastern, western or northern seas with a fleet of five ships at their own ex- pense. They were to plart the flag of England on all lands found and occupy them for the English crown. Many other men sailed about the same time with the special object of extending the domin- ions of their "gracious sovereigns" and of opening new routes for securing trade and wealth.
In 1609, Henry Hudson, an English navigator in the service of the Dutch East India Company, explored the Atlantic coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine. It was on the strength of this dis- covery. that the Dutch laid claim to the land along the Delaware and Hudson Rivers and called it New Amsterdam. Berks County was included in this claim.
He made extensive maps of the shore, traded with the Indians for sables. furs, robes and other skins. He reported that he saw a land rich in soil, mild in climate, abounding in rich game and fish and valuable lumber. Settlements were made as early as 1630, along the Delaware Bay and River, from which the Dutch went to col- lect furs.
They were shrewd traders and sent out purchasing agents who bought from the Indians the land along the Delaware Bay and River far into the interior. The trappers came up the Schuylkill. The Dutch thus claimed this region by discovery, purchase and settlement.
The Swedes. About the same time a company was formed in Sweden to operate on the banks of the Delaware and its branches. Peter Minuet, who was dismissed from the employ of the Dutch, offered his service to this company. The company purchased from the Indians all the land between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, including what is now Berks County. In these purchases both parties set their marks and names under the contract. When the
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
chief signed such an agreement it was an indication that it was done in the presence of a number of his people. Payments were made in awls, needles, scissors, knives, axes, guns, powder, balls and blankets. Skins of bears, lynxes, beavers and raccoons, sables, foxes, wildcats and deer were also given in exchange. In one year they shipped
OLDEST HOUSE IN BERKS COUNTY, DOUGLASSVILLE, PA.
thirty thousand skins which were procured between the Schuylkill and the Susquehanna, though no one can tell how many were taken from our county.
The first Swedes to enter the county to make homes was a company of settlers under the leadership of Andrew Rudman. They settled along the Schuylkill several miles above the mouth of the Manatawny Creek in 1701. Soon after this, 10,500 acres of land were surveyed and laid out for them. Their descendants have remained in this locality ever since. A building erected by Mounce Jones in 1716 is still standing near Douglassville. It is the oldest building in the
THE OLDEST GRAVESTONE IN BERKS COUNTY, GRAVEYARD OF ST. GAB- RIEL'S 'Morlattan) P. E. CHURCH. DOUGLASSVILLE, PA.
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EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HOMES
county. They were Lutherans and built the first house for religious worship in the county. In the cemetery adjoining can still be seen the first gravestone erected in the county.
The early Swedes established friendly terms with the Indians and made possible those acts of Penn that are regarded among the greatest of human deeds. The first translation of a religious book of any kind into the Indian language was a Swedish catechism translated by Rev. John Campannus. They established regulations and usages that have exercised a refining and elevating influence in shaping the morals and habits of the community. One of their descendants very fittingly said: "Freely have we received, freely may we give until all nations, kindreds, tribes and tongues be gathered into one grand kingdom under one king, the common Redeemer and Saviour of all."
The English. William Penn, a young Englishman, who against the wishes of his family, became a member of the religious denomi- nation, known as the Quakers, was anxious to establish a place of refuge for those of his faith, who were persecuted in England.
In order to try his "holy experiment" he tried to secure land west of the Delaware River. The King of England owed his father, Admiral Penn. sixteen thousand pounds, or about $80,000, and at the father's death the son inherited the claim. At Penn's request. King Charles granted him forty thousand square miles of land in America to pay for the claim. To this Penn wished to give the name Sylvania, which means forest ; but the King prefixed Penn. in honor of Admiral Penn. His province was a vast forest region. rich in soil and minerals. The first English settlement was made at Bristol, Bucks County.
Penn drew up a code of laws and sent his cousin, William Mark- ham, to take possession of Pennsylvania for him. Markham purchased from the Indians all the land lying along the Delaware River to the Blue Mountains. Berks County was included in this tract The following is what Markham gave the Indians for the whole tract :
"350 ffathoms of Wampum, 20 white Blankits, 20 ffathoms of Strawed waters, 60 ffathoms of Duffields, 20 kettles, 4 thereof large,
.
..
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
20 gunns, 20 Coates, 40 Shirts, 40 payre of stockings, 40 Howes, 40 axes, 2 barrels of powder, 200 barrels of lead, 200 Knives, 200 small Glasses, 12 payre of shoes, 40 copper Boxes, 40 Tobacco Tonngs, 2 small Barrels of Pipes, 40 payre of Scissors, 40 Combs, 24 pounds Red Lead, 100 Aules, 2 handfulls of ffishhooks, 2 handfulls of Needles, 40 Pound of Shott, 10 bundles of Beads, 10 small saws, 12 Drawing Knives, 4 anchers of Tobacco, 2 anchers of Syder, 2 anchers of Beere and 300 Guilders."
Penn himself arrived in the colony Oct. 27, 1682. In addition to the three lower counties, which now form the State of Delaware, he laid out three more counties; Philadelphia, which included the present county of Montgomery and a portion of Berks; Berks, that is on the east side of the river; Chester, which included that part of Berks on the west side of the Schuylkill, and Bucks, with its boundaries nearly as at present. Philadelphia and Chester Counties as then organized extended to the northern border of the State.
It was shortly before 1720 that English emigrants arrived for settlement in our county. Some of them settled in the eastern sec- tion along Oley and the Manatawny; others in the western section along the Monocacy and the Schuylkill. As soon as the lands were released by the Indians, they also made settlements in the vicinity of Hay and Allegheny Creeks. Most of them were Friends or Quakers and meeting houses were about the first buildings they erected. During the days when the Penns were in power, the Quakers were the leaders. They sent the representatives to the council, did the surveying, acted as justices of the peace, and held the influential places. Before the Revolution the English were the leaders in colonial affairs. Since that time the same may be said of the Germans. The Friends, the Moravians, and the Schwenk- felders were opposed to war. The success of the Americans in the Revolution greatly increased the influence of the Germans and to the same extent decreased that of the English. The Germans fur- nished the farmers and the fighters of the Revolution and its success made them and not the English the men who controlled affairs.
William Penn. Penn was born Oct. 14, 1644, in London. As a child he was bright, thoughtful and handsome. In his fifteenth year he was admitted into Christ Church College, Oxford.
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EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HOMES
Before going to college he had listened to a preacher named Thomas Leo, of the Society of Friends. Ile often talked of a strange light which shone with- in him and gave him peace of mind. Among his classmates in college he found boys who sympathized with his views and a number of them "withdrew from the national way of wor- ship" and held private meet- ings for the exercise of religion where they preached and prayed among themselves.
WILLIAM PENN.
This bold opposition to the forms of the state church aroused the professors of the University and he and his companions were sent home in disgrace.
The father regarded the son's expulsion as a crushing stroke that would hinder the . career of wealth and influence in store for the boy of whom he felt so proud. After having used the "force of persuasion upon his mind and the severity of stripes upon his body" without success, the father in a fit of rage and despair turned him out of the house.
He soon relented, however, and the son was sent to France where he mastered the French language. He next visited Italy and at the breaking out of the war between England and Holland was obliged to return to England to take care of his father's estates.
It was in 1644, when Penn was in his twentieth year, that he made the choice of his life. His father's favor, his mother's pleadings, his lively and active disposition, his training and his accomplishments, the respect and esteem of his friends, all pressed upon him to em- brace the glory, pleasures, and wealth of the world. He was. how- ever, able to overcome all opposition and "pursue his religious prospects.'
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
At twenty-four 'he was fearless in advocating freedom of speech and "freedom of religion. He struggled for liberty of conscience, tried to secure for the persecuted better quarters than stocks, whips, dungeons, and banishment, and in the heyday of his youth, he was confined to the Tower. When offered freedom, favor, and royal preferment he demanded his liberty as the "natural privilege of an Englishman." "Club law," he said, "might make hypocrites, it could never make converts. Not all the powers of earth shall divert us from meeting to adore our God who made us," he declared in defiance of all the laws of England, and amidst all opposition he proceeded to plead for the fundamental laws of England in a trial for his freedom that marked an era in judicial history and court trials. "You are a gentleman," said a magis- trate at the trial, "you have a plentiful estate, why should you render yourself unhappy by associating with such plain people?" "I prefer," said Penn, "the honestly simple to the ingeniously wicked."
After a lengthy trial the jury brought in a verdict of "not guilty," which was contrary to the wishes of the Judge, who fined each juror forty marks and sentenced them to imprison- ment until the fine should be paid. The Judge accused them of following their own judgment instead of the advice of the court.
Penn came to the banks of the Delaware to plant a colony in which his brethren, the Quakers, could exercise religious liberty, to establish a new kind of government and to get payment for the debt due his father by the King of England.
He expected so many Quaker emigrants that they could set their stamp upon the new colony and make it according to their democratic and peaceful principles. It was a kind of govern- ment in advance of anything the world had yet seen. It was to insure religious liberty, allow all men to vote, insure people against oppression, simplify legal processes and form a moral state. In order to show that the governors of the province re- mained true to the king of England, they were each year to give the king two beaver skins and one-fifth of the gold and silver
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EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HOMES
that might be discovere.l. The king little dreamed that the rich- est treasures of Pennsylvania were her forests, her fertile soil, her iron, her oil and her coal.
The articles of the grant by which the king gave Penn his claim to Pennsylvania were signed March 4, 1661. Each line was underscored with red ink and the margins were decorated with drawings. They are now hanging in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth at Harrisburg.
Penn's treaty with the Indians. Soon after Penn's arrival in his new colony he sent an invitation to each of the Indian tribes to meet him at Shackamaxon, a short distance north of Philadelphia. He went up the Delaware in an open boat in early November when the trees on the banks of the river were clothed in brilliant autumn foliage. When he arrived at the appointed place he found the forest filled with red men.
The Indians sat in a semicircle on the ground, while Penn, with a few friends dressed as Quakers, talked to them as friends and brothers in the name of the Great Spirit.
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