USA > Wyoming > A sketch of the history of Wyoming > Part 4
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Governor Wolcott of Connecticut in his answer dated Windsor, March 13th. 1754, says: "Some "' of our inhabitants hearing of this land at Sus- " quehanna and that it was north of the grant " made to Mr. Penn, and that to Virginia, are
*See copy of the letter on file in the Secretary's office, Harrisburg.
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" upon a design of making a purchase of the In- "" dians and hope to obtain a grant of it from the " Crown. This appearing a design to promote "' his majesty's interests and render the country " more defensible we were all wishers to it. But "Mr. Armstrong informs me that this is certainly " within Mr. Penn's grant. If so I dont suppose · " our people had any purpose to quarrel with "' Pennsylvanians."*
It appears evidently to have been the intention of the Susquehanna Company to form a separate Colony of that part of the Chartered territory west of New York, as Connecticut itself had been form- ed from the Charter of New England ; and to give the Colony authority to exercise a separate juris- diction, a new Charter from the Crown would have been necessary.
It will have been observed that the modes of ac quiring and possessing new lands under the Char- ters of Connecticut and Pennsylvania were essen- tially different from each other. In Pennsylvania the lands were all granted to one individual, and he had, therefore, and those claiming under him, the exclusive right of purchasing those lands of the Indians ; but in the Connecticut Charter the lands were granted to the inhabitants of the Colony in their collective and corporate capacity, and until restrained by law, each individual possessed an equal right to purchase lands of the Indians and to
*See the original letter on file in the Secretary's office, Harrisburg.
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occupy and enjoy them. In Pennsylvania Will- iam Penn and his Proprietary successors purchased the lands in large bodies from the Indians, and sold them out to individuals who made promiscuous settlements. In Connecticut, individuals or com- panies, and generally some religious congregation, took possession of any unoccupied lands, and ha- ving purchased the Indian· title, or kept possession by force, commenced their settlements by town- ships or towns. Such was the mode pursued by the Susquehanna Company in relation to the lands. at Wyoming.
When the commissioners from the different Col- onies and plantations assembled at Albany, there appeared from Connecticut, William Pitkin, Ro- ger Wolcott and Elisha Williams ; and from Penn* sylvania, John Penn, Richard Penn, Isaac Nor- ris and Benjamin Franklin.
The agents of the Susquehanna company also at- tended and concluded a purchase of the Wyoming lands from the Indians, on the 11th. of July, 1754. The boundaries of which are thus described in their Deed bearing that date :- " Beginning from the one and fortieth degree of North latitude at ten miles East of the Susquehanna river and from thence with a northward line ten miles East of the river to the end of the forty-second or beginning of the forty-third degree of North latitude and so to extend West two degrees of longitude one hundred and twenty miles, and from thence South to the beginning of the forty-second degree, and from thence East to the above mentioned boundary.
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which is ten miles East of the Susquehanna river. This purchase included the Valley of Wyoming and the country westward to the head waters of the Allegheny river. The country lying between the line running ten miles East of the Susquehan- na river, and the river Delaware, was purchased by another company called the Delaware Company.
The commissioners of Pennsylvania in conformi- ty with their instructions from Governor Hamilton, held many conferences with the Indians during their continuance at Albany for the purpose of pur- chasing the same and other lands in Pennsylvania, and their reports of those conferences was read in council at Philadelphia on the 6th. of August, 1754, and entered in the minutes of the day, pre- faced in the following words. " The commission- ers of Pennsylvania having held a private treaty with the Six Nations whilst at Albany for the pur- chase of lands, their report was likewise read and ordered to be entered." In their report it appears that the commissioners made many attempts on the 4th. and 5th. of July to induce the Indians to sell the Wyoming lands to the Proprietaries of Penn- sylvania, and charged them with being disposed to sell to the Connecticut people. Peter Hend- rick a chief who acted as one of the principal speak- ers on this occasion, became angry with the com- missioners in consequence of their observations, and among other things said to them :- " We have " heard since we came here that our brother Onas*
Governor of Pennsylvania. The title was first
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6 and our brother of New England, have had some " disputes about the lands of Susquehanna ; a dis- " pute of the same kind as that of the Governor of " Canada and Assaragoah ; but we desire you " would not differ with one another about it for "neither shall have it. We will not part with "it to either of you-we will reserve it for our " western Indians to live upon." They however executed a Deed on the 6th. of July, to the Pro- prietors of Pennsylvania for a tract of land between the Blue Mountain and the forks of the Susque- hanna river.
The Governor of Pennsylvania having been in- formed on the return of the commissioners from Albany, that the Susquehanna Company had ef- fected a purchase of the Wyoming lands, wrote to Sir William Johnson on the 15th. of November 1754, requesting him to induce the Indians if pos- sible to deny the regularity of the contract, and as a preparatory step towards effecting it, to win over Hendrick to his interest, and persuade him to vis- it Philadelphia. Gov. Morris also enclosed a let- ter to Hendrick from himself, in which among other things, he says :- " Some matters of great moment to this Government as well as to the In- dians of the Six Nations, having lately fallen out, which makes it necessary for me to have a private conference with you before I can proceed to give public notice to them of my arrival here ; and as you was so good as to promise to the commis;
given to William Penn.
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sioners when at Albany that you would, at the re, quest of Government, come at any time to Phila- delphia and give your sentiments on any thing that might be proposed for the public service, I now earnestly desire that you would favor us with a visit in order to consult on some affairs in which the safety of the Indians and his Majesty's colonies are very much concerned that cannot be done by message but must first be communicated to you in personal conference. If you should incline to take with you one or two of your best friends it will be the more agreeable. Mr. Daniel Clause is well acquainted with the nearest and best roads to this city, and he has my directions to accompany you, furnish the necessaries, and make everything as agreeable to you as possible."
Sir William Johnson in his answer dated Mount Johnson, Dec. 9, 1754, says :-
" I have been honored with yours of the 15th. ultimo by Mr. Daniel Clause, whom I immediate- ly sent to call Hendrick to my house. Upon his arrival I delivered and interpreted your honor's letter or instructions to him, and urged his waiting on you immediately, which when he agreed to, I spoke to him concerning the affair as far as I judg. ed necessary ; and I flatter myself it will have a, good effect, he having faithfully promised me to exert himself and use his utmost endeavors for the interest of the Proprietaries against the Connecti- cut attempt. After my expatiating some time on the injustice of their proceedings, more especially so after what had passed at Albany last June, Hen-
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drick then with some warmth disapproved of them as well as the weakness of those of his brethren who were seduced by Lidias, and promised to do all he could to make them revoke or retract what they had so shamefully done."
The Susquehanna Company at this time consis- ted of six hundred and seventy-three persons, ten of whom were inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and having completed their purchase, concluded to di- vide the land into shares which were to be distribu- ted among the several claimants. A general meet- ing of the company was therefore called to be hol- den at Hartford on the 20th of November, and & messenger was sent to Pennsylvania to notify the members resident in that Province. The messen- ger having arrived in Northampton County, was arrested upon a warrant issued by Daniel Brod- head, Esq. a magistrate of Lower Smithfield, who having ascertained many particulars concerning the company, immediately communicated them by let- ter to Richard Peters, Esq. a member of the Coun- cil of Pennsylvania. Upon receiving this informa- tion, Gov. Morris sent Mr. John Armstrong to Connecticut for the purpose of collecting whatever information could be obtained in relation to the Company and the measures which they intended to adopt. He was also the bearer of a letter from Governor Morris to the Governor of Connecticut. In which the former again refers to the Deed from · the Six Nations to William Penn dated Oct. 11, 1736, and to the engagement then made by the Indians to sell all the lands in Pennsylvania to
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William Penn and to no one else ; after which le proceeds to say :
" You will give me leave further to observe to you that the Six Nations at the late Congress at Albany, in open council mentioned on application then made to them by agents from Connecticut for the purchase of some of the Susquehanna lands and that they had absolutely refused to give any ear to such proposal, telling the several Governments then present by their Commissioners that they were determined the lands at a place called Wyomink or the Susquehanna should not be settled, but re- served for a place of retreat." He further ob- serves: " Notwithstanding which I am informed that Mr. John Lidias who is known to be a Roman Catholick, and in the French interest, has been since employed by some people of your Province to purchase from the Indians some lands within this Government: that he has in a clandestine manner, by very unfair means, prevailed on some few Indians to whom he secretly applied to sign a Deed for a considerable part of the lands of this Province, including those at Wyomink. And as we stand engaged to the Six Nations by treaty neither to settle the lands at Wyomink, or suffer them to be settled, this Government thought it proper (among other things) to inform the Indians that those people were not authorised or even coun- tenanced by this Government, and their attempts were disavowed by the Government of Connecticut and were to be looked upon as a lawless set of people for whose conduct no Governmentis accountable .:
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It may be proper here to give some account of the Deed of 1736, and the Province spoken of. --- It was " For all the said river Susquehanna with " the lands lying on both sides thereof, to extend "' Eastward as far as the heads of the branches or " springs which run into the said Susquehanna, "" and all the lands on the West side of the said "river to the setting of the sun : and to extend " from the mouth of said river up to the mountains " called in the language of the Six Nations, Tay- "amentasatchta, and by the Delaware Indians, " the Kakatchlanamin hills." These hills are what are now called the Blue Mountains, and they for- med the northern boundary of this purchase. The Deed is signed by twenty-three chiefs of the Onon= dago, Seneca, Oneida and Tuscarora Nations.
A promise is annexed that they will never sell any lands within the " Government of Pennsylva- nia," to any persons but the Proprietaries of Penn- sylvania. It appears however by the speeches of various Indian chiefs at subsequent treaties, that the Government of Pennsylvania was supposed to extend no further North than those mountains, and the Indians, as Gov. Morris observed, had abso- lutely refused to sell the Wyoming lands ; they were to be reserved as Hendrick remarked " for the Western Indians to live upon."
The Commissioners of Pennsylvania were aware that such was understood by the Indians to be the limits of the Government of Pennsylvania ; and at the treaty at Albany on the 9th day of July, after the meeting of council that day, they drew a Deed F
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of promise which was endorsed on the Deed of Jan. 13, 1696, from Col. Dungan formerly Governor of New York to William Penn, and made part of a supplement to that Deed, by which instrument the Indians who signed it promised never to sell any lands in Pennsylvania, as the same is bounded by New York, except to the Proprietaries. To this promise they procured the signatures of nine of the Indians then present at the treaty.
Mr. Armstrong made a report to Gov. Morris on the 11th. of December, 1754, containing a par- ticular statement of the information which he had collected during his tour to Connecticut, by which it appears that the Susquehanna company must have increased in numbers after the purchase. He says: "There were formerly five hundred subscri- bers at seven dollars cach, to which are now added three hundred at nine dollars.each."
After having concluded the negociation with the Six Nations, and become organised in a regular manner, the Susquehanna company made applica- tion to the Legislature of Connecticut requesting the concurrence of that body in an application to the King of Great Britain for a new Charter giving them authority to establish a new Colonial Govern- ment within the limits of their purchase. The Le- gislature received their petition very favorably and on the second Thursday in May 1755 passed a res- olution approving of the measures of the company and recommended them to his Majesty's favor .*
These proceedings at large in Secretary's office.
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In the summer of 1755 the company having pro- oured the consent of the Colony of Connecticut for the establishment of a settlement, and if his majes- ty should consent, of a separate Government with- in the limits of their purchase, sent out a number of persons to Wyoming, accompanied by their sur- veyors and agents, to commence a settlement. ---- On their arrival, they found the Indians in a state of war with the English Colonies ; and the news of the defeat of Gen. Braddock having been received at Wyoming, produced such an animating effect upon the Nanticoke tribe of Indians, that the mem- bers of the new Colony would probably have been retained as prisoners had it not been for the inter- ference of some of the principal chieftains of the Delaware Indians, and particularly of Tedeuscund, who retained their attachment to their christian brethren of the Moravian Church, and their friend- ship in some degree for the English. The members of the Colony consequently returned to Connecti- cut, and the attempt to form a settlement at Wyo- ming was abandoned until a more favorable oppor- tunity. The Nanticokes, having during the sum- mer removed from Wyoming, united with their more powerful neighbors in persuading the Dela- ware Indians who alone remained in the Valley, to unite in the war against the English Colonics. To this measure the Delawares were already much in- clined and the capture of Fort Oswego, which took place in August 1756, induced them to declare more openly their hostility against the English which had in some degree made its appearance af-
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ter the defeat of Gen. Braddock. The Govern- ment of Pennsylvania seeing the necessity of nego- ciating a peace with the Shawanese and Delaware Indians invited them to a treaty which was held at Easton in November, where a peace was conclu- ded between those tribes and the English Colonies, an account of which is given in the preceding Chapter.
In the summer of 1757, the Delaware Company commenced a settlement at Coshutunk on the Del- aware river which appears to have been the first settlement established within the limits of the Con- necticut Charter West of the Province of New York ; for although there appears to have been a small fort built at the Minisinks on the same river in 1670,* yet that fort was soon afterwards aban- doned in consequence of some difficulties with the Indians, who refused to sell the lands.
A general peace having been effected with the Indians in 1758, the Susquehanna company re- sumed their intentions of forming a settlement at Wyoming, but the various events of the war be- tween England and France which was at this time carried on with considerable vigor by their respec- tive American Colonies, contributed to retard their measures for this purpose until the year 1762, when in the month of August about two hundred prisoners from the Colony of Connecticut arrived at Wyoming and commenced the first settlement there under the authority of the Company. On
*Trumbull.
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the left bank of the river a short distance above the mouth of a fine stream which came in from the East, a spot was selected for cultivation. It was sufficiently distant from either of the Indian towns to prevent any interference in their agricultural pursuits, and here the settlers began their first im- provements. A small house was built of logs at the mouth of the creek,* surrounded by several small cabins which formed the residence of the whole Colony, and here they were visited during their hours of relaxation by the Indians with whom they lived on terms of the utmost friendship and hospitality. They found the Valley covered with woods, except a few acres in the immediate vicini- ty of the Shawanese and Wyoming towns which had been improved by the Indians in the cultiva- tion of their corn, and which was still in part oc- cupied by them. The summer was so far advanced when the new Colony arrived, that they could on- ly prepare a few acres for wheat, and as provi- sions for their sustenance during the winter could not be procured from the Indians, they concealed their tools and implements of husbandry, and in November departed for their former habitations in New England.
While the Susquehanna company were project- ing and pursuing these measures, the Proprieta- ries of Pennsylvania, foreseeing that important difficulties would arise in the settlement of the controversy with the people of Connecticut, and
*Since called " Mill-creek."
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that the King of England was too much occupied by his war with France to undertake the settlement of Colonial disputes, submitted to the English At- torney General, for his opinion among others, the following question :-
" Whether the people of Connecticut have any color or pretence under their Charter to set up this right to this tract of land westward of New Jersey through Pennsylvania as far as the South Sea ; and what is most advisable for the Proprietaries to do in case the Government of Connecticut persist in their claim ?"
Mr. Pratt the Attorney General, afterwards Lord Camden, delivered his reply to Mr. Penn in March 1761, and as the station as well as the tal- ents of this gentleman entitle his opinion to some respect, it may be well to give it at large on this question. He says :-
" If all the Colonies in North America were to remain at this day bounded in point of right as they are described in the original grant of each I do not be- lieve there is one settlement in that part of the globe that has not been encroached upon, or else usurped upon its neighbour, so that if the grants were of themselves the only rule between the contending plantations there never would be an end to the dis- pute without unsettling large tracts of land where the inhabitants have no better title to produce than either possession or posterior grants, which in point of law would be suspended by prior Charters. Hence I conceive that many other circumstances must be taken into consideration besides the parch-
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ment boundary, for that may at this day be exten- ded or narrowed by possession, acquiescence or agreement, by the situation and condition of the territory at the time of the grant, as well as by various other matters with respect to the present dispute. The western boundary of Connecticut was barred at the time of the original grant by the Dutch settlements and the crown was deceived when they were prevailed upon to convey a terri- tory which belonged to another State then in amity with the crown of England. Besides this objec- tion the settlement of the new boundary under the King's commission in 1664, and what is still stron- ger, the new line marked out by agreement be- tween this Province and New York, has now con- clusively precluded Connecticut from advancing one foot beyond those limits. It was absolutely necessary for the crown, after the cession of the New Netherlands, to decide the clashing rights of the Duke of York and the adjoining Colonies ; and therefore all that was done by virtue of the com- mission then awarded for that purpose must at this day be decreed valid as the nations have ever since that time submitted to those determinations, and the Colonies of New York and New Jersey submit only upon the authority of those acts. I am of opin- ion therefore that the Colony of Connecticut has no right to resume its ancient boundary by over- leaping the Province of New York so as to en- croach upon the Pennsylvania grant, which was not made until after the Conascticut boundary had been reduced by new confines, which restored the
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land beyond those settlements westward to the crown and laid them open to a new grant. The state. of the country in dispute is a material state reason why the crown ought to interfere in the present case and put a stop to this growing mischief. But I doubt this business cannot be adjusted very soon because Mr. Penn must apply to the crown for relief, which method of proceeding will necessari- ly take up time as the Province of Connecticut. must have notice and be heard."
The position assumed by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, being calculated to exclude the Col- ony of Connecticut from all her claims westward of New York, very naturally excited the interest of the inhabitants of that Colony, and the Government feeling an equal desire to have their claims fully examined, submitted the subject to the considera- tion of learned and eminent council in England, who gave their opinion in favor of the Connecticut claim, as follows :---
" The agreement between the Colony of Con- necticut and the Province of New York can extend no further than to settle the boundaries between the respective parties, and can have no effect upon any claims that either of them had in other parts; and as the Charter of Connecticut was granted but eighteen years before that to Sir William Penn, there is no good ground to contend that the crown could at that period make an effectual grant to him of that country which had so recently been granted to others : but if the country had actually been settled under the latter grant, it would now be a
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matter of considerable doubt whether the right of the occupiers, or the title under which they hold, could be impeached by a prior grant without actu- al settlement. ".
The settlement at Coshutunk continued to pro- gress. In 1760 it contained thirty dwelling hou- ses, three large log houses, one block house for defence, one grist-mill and one saw-mill.
Early in the spring of 1763, the Susquehanna adventurers returned to Wyoming with their fam- ilies and a number of new emigrants, with a view of commencing a permanent settlement ; for which purpose they brought a number of cattle and hogs, and considerable stores of provisions for immediate use. They took possession of their former dwell- ings at the mouth of the creek which they found in the same condition in which they had been left the preceding autumn, and commenced their labours by extending their improvements upon the West side of the river. The Indians in the Valley still continued apparently friendly, and although they acknowledged the power and influence of the Six Nations, they considered themselves as entitled to some compensation for the lands occupied by the Connecticut people, and appeared to view with suspicion the increasing number of their new neighbors.
These suspicions were much increased by the conduct of several warriors of the Six Nations who, having cherished a hatred against Tedeusound since the peace of 1758, a hatred which his intu- ence among the white people was not calculated t
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diminish, came among the Delawares under the garb of friendship, and having in the night treach- erously set fire to the dwelling of Tedcuscund, the building, together with the venerable chieftain was consumed, and the crime laid to the charge of the new Colonists. During the preceding summer the friendly disposition manifested by the Indians to the Wyoming settlers, as the Connecticut emi- grants were called, had created a degree of con- fidence on their part which had prevented any ex- pectation of danger ; and fearing that warlike arms might create suspicion, they had not furnished themselves with any, and were almost destitute of any means of defence in case of an attack from the savages. While thus unsuspicious and occupied as usual with the labors of the field, they were at- tacked on the fifteenth of October by a party of In- dians who massacred about twenty persons, took several prisoners and having seized upon the live stock drove it towards their Town. Those who escaped, hastened to their dwellings, gave the alarm to the families of those who were killed, and the remainder of the Colonists, men, women and children, fled precipitately to the mountains, from whence they beheld the smoke arising from their late habitations and the savages feasting on the re- mains of their little property. They had taken no provisions with them except what they had hastily seized in their flight, and must pass through a wilderness sixty miles in extent before they could reach the Delaware river. They had left brothers, husbands and sons to the mercy of the savages ;.
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