Daily stories of Pennsylvania (part 5 of 6)

Daily stories of Pennsylvania (part 5 of 6)

At fifteen minutes after 11 a bugle was sounded on board the enemy’s flagship, the Detroit. Loud cheers burst from all their crews, and a tremendous fire opened upon the Lawrence from the British long guns, which on account of the range of the guns on the Lawrence the fire could not be returned for nearly forty minutes.

The Lawrence kept her course in gallant and determined style, but was badly cut up by the big guns of the Detroit. The enemy’s fire was clearly directed toward the Lawrence. She was hit in every direction and narrowly escaped several explosions.

Perry realized the seriousness of his situation and made full sail, directing the other vessels to follow, for the purpose of closing with the enemy. The terrible fire, however, to which he was exposed soon cut away every brace and bowline of the Lawrence, and the boat became unmanageable. The other vessels could not close up, and in this disastrous situation the Lawrence continued to sustain the main force of the enemy’s fire.

Throughout the ordeal order prevailed. There was no sign of fear, and as rapidly as the men at the guns were wounded they were quietly carried below, and others bravely stepped to their places. The dead remained where they fell until after the action.

At this juncture the enemy believed the battle won. The Lawrence was reduced to a mere wreck; her deck was streaming with blood and covered with mangled limbs and bodies of the slain; nearly the whole crew were either killed or wounded; her guns, too, were dismounted, Commodore Perry and his officers working the very last one capable of firing a shot.

At 2 o’clock Captain Elliott was enabled to bring the Niagara into closer action; and Commodore Perry, finding he could get no further use from the Lawrence, suddenly shifted his flag to the Niagara and boarded her, leaving the gallant Lieutenant Yarnell in command of the Lawrence.

The transfer of Perry was made in the face of a terrible fire from the enemy ships, with the commodore standing erect in the small boat and directing his oarsmen.

The entire squadron was soon in action and Perry alongside the British Commodore Barclay, in the Lady Prevost. Approaching within half pistol shot, Perry’s fire was so deadly that the enemy’s men were compelled to run below.

The Caledonia opened a destructive fire upon the British, and she was closely followed by the other American vessels, and the enemy was soon enclosed between the Niagara and the American fleet, and in that position the British ships suffered a terrible fire on both quarters.

Thus, after a contest of three hours, a naval victory was achieved by the Americans, in which every vessel of the enemy fleet was captured. If anything could enhance its brilliancy it was the modest and laconic manner in which it was announced by the gallant victor—“We have met the enemy and they are ours!”

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Lord Cornwallis Defeats American Forces on the Brandywine, September 11, 1777

The objective of the British forces, early in the Revolution, was to occupy Philadelphia, which was then the largest city in the revolting provinces. It was the seat of the Continental Congress, and the center of the colonies. Although commanding easy access to the sea, it was capable of being readily protected from the approach of a hostile fleet, and it lay in the heart of an open, extended country, rich, populous and so far but little disturbed by war.

Philadelphia was, in a sense, regarded as the capital of the new-born Nation, and the moral influence resulting from its occupation by Congress was great, so that it was deemed an important point would be gained by its conquest. There was much criticism hurled at an army which could not penetrate to the headquarters of the infant Nation.

Sir William Howe directed the campaign of 1777, and disposed the troops under his command to that purpose. The British fleet under Lord Howe, bearing a land force of 18,000, left New York in July, 1777, with the intention of approaching Philadelphia by way of the Delaware River.

When about to enter it, however, the British commander was informed that the Americans had placed obstructions in the channel, and he, therefore, proceeded to the Chesapeake, and on August 25, landed his forces at Turkey Point.

When the departure of the British fleet from New York was made known to General Washington, he was uncertain as to its objects, but directed the concentration of his army in Bucks County, so as to meet the enemy should he attempt to approach Philadelphia.

Washington soon learned that the fleet was off the Capes of the Chesapeake, and turned his attention in that direction. The very day the British landed the Americans marched to Wilmington with a force of about eleven thousand men.

Washington made immediate preparations to oppose the enemy. A severe though brief encounter occurred September 3 at Iron Hill, Delaware.

On the 8th the American Army took its position behind the Red Clay Creek, where a battle was anticipated. Washington saw that the object was to turn his right, cross the Brandywine, and cut off his communication with Philadelphia.

After reconnoitering the enemy, Washington withdrew to Chadd’s Ford, on the Brandywine, where he arrived on the 9th of September, and entrenched himself.

Maxwell’s Light Infantry occupied the advance posts, and during the night of the 10th threw up defenses on the west side at the approaches to the ford. Here Washington determined to take his stand.

On the evening of the 9th the British Army entered Chester County in two divisions, one of which, under General Knyphausen, encamped at New Garden and Kennet Square, and the other, under Lord Cornwallis, a short distance below Hockesson Meeting House.

Early on the morning of the 10th they united at Kennet Square, whence in the evening the forces under Knyphausen advanced toward Welsh’s Tavern, later known as the Anvil, and those under Cornwallis remained encamped on the hills north and west of Kennet Square.

Early on the morning of the 11th the army divided into two columns—one division, under Knyphausen, marched to Chadd’s Ford, by the Philadelphia road; the other, under Cornwallis and accompanied by Sir William Howe, took a circuitous route and crossed the west branch of the Brandywine at Trimble’s Ford, and approached the Birmingham Meeting House. The object of these movements was to hem in the Americans between the two British forces and thus make them easy prey.

Both British columns had moved early and through a dense fog which did not lift until a later hour. The column under Knyphausen skirmished with the advance parties of the American Army sent forward to harass their march.

Maxwell’s corps, which occupied the hills west of the Brandywine, was driven across the stream after a severe engagement, and joined the main body of the American Army, which was already ranged in battle order, awaiting the attack of the enemy.

Several detachments of the Continental troops subsequently recrossed the creek and assailed the British, who were busy throwing up intrenchments and planting batteries. A footing having thus been gained on the western bank, General Maxwell returned in force, and a hot conflict ensued, the Americans driving the enemy from the ground.

The spirit of this action soon drew upon them overwhelming numbers, and the Americans were again repulsed.

Lord Cornwallis, with a larger division, under cover of the hills and forests and aided by the fog, proceeded in a circuitous route a considerable distance unobserved, and reached the hills south of Trimble’s Ford about the time Knyphausen moved from his position east of Kennet Square.

General John Sullivan, who commanded the right wing of the American Army, had received instructions to guard the fords as far up the stream as Buffingtons.

About 9 o’clock intelligence was brought that the British left wing was about crossing the Brandywine above its forks. Colonel Bland sent word to General Washington that a large force of the enemy was seen advancing up the road toward Trimble’s Ford.

That was confirmed by a note from Colonel Ross, who was in their rear, and who advised their strength was 5000. Those reports were in contradiction to one that Squire Thomas Cheney gave when he rode up to General Sullivan and advised him that the main body of the British had crossed the Brandywine and was already near at hand, approaching from the north.

The squire was not believed, and demanded to be led to General Washington, who doubted his information, but was at length convinced of its truth and immediately disposed of his troops to meet the emergency.

General Sullivan attacked the Hessians, who were the advance guard, who returned the fire, and soon the action became general. The artillery of both sides opened with terrible effect, and while the Americans held their position, the carnage was great.

The right wing of the American army under General Debarre gave way first, and the left under General Sullivan, soon followed. The latter tried to rally his troops, but fled over the fields toward the main army at Chadd’s Ford.

Sterling’s division in the center remained firm. General Sullivan attached himself to this division, and with Lafayette he engaged personally in the hottest of the battle. Cornwallis used his artillery with telling effect. Two of Sullivan’s aides were killed and Lafayette fell with a wounded leg. The troops fled into the woods, but were again rallied and after a sharp conflict again retreated.

When Washington learned of the approach of the British, he pushed forward with Green’s division of Pennsylvanians and Virginians to the support of Sullivan, leaving Wayne at Chadd’s Ford to oppose Knyphausen. Green, by a skillful movement, opened his ranks and received the fleeing troops and closed them again.

Wayne was on the alert, and the moment Knyphausen moved forward he opened a heavy artillery fire upon him. Soon as he learned of Sullivan’s defeat he retreated.

The approach of night ended the bloody conflict, but not soon enough to prevent the American army from a defeat which was most distressing to the American cause at this critical period.

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Mob Storms Mifflin County Courthouse September 12, 1791

September, 1791, an incident occurred during a term of court in Mifflin County, which has since been known as the Lewistown Riot.

The cause of the disturbance centered in the act of Samuel Bryson, then a resident of what is now the borough of Mifflintown, who for several years had served as county lieutenant, and while acting in that capacity refused to commission two colonels who had been elected by their regiments, which so incensed the members and their friends that when Mr. Bryson subsequently received the appointment of Associate Justice they were indignant and determined he should not act in that capacity.

On Monday, September 12, 1791, the Hon. William Brown, Samuel Bryson and James Armstrong, Esqs., met in the forenoon in order to open the Court and proceed to business, but Thomas Beale, Esq., one of the Associate Judges, not having arrived, the others did not attempt to convene the Court until he appeared, which was 3 o’clock, when he was requested to proceed with them to the court house. Mr. Beale declined to go, but the others went into the court room, where the commissions of the Judges were read, the Court duly opened, the officers sworn in, and Court adjourned until 10 o’clock next morning.

The following morning, John Clarke, Deputy State’s Attorney, received the intelligence that a large body of men was assembled below the Long Narrows, at David Jordan’s tavern, on the Juniata River shore.

They were armed with guns, swords and pistols, with an avowed intention to proceed to Lewistown and seize Judge Bryson on the bench and drag him from his seat, and march him off before them, and otherwise ill-treat him.

That information was immediately communicated to the Judges, who, acting upon the suggestion of Mr. Clarke, named Samuel Edminston, Esq., the Prothonotary; Judge Thomas Beale, Mr. Stewart, William Bell, Esq., and the Sheriff of Mifflin County, a committee to proceed to the place where the mob had assembled and meet with the rioters.

The Sheriff was commanded to inquire of them their object and intention, and if hostile, to order them to disperse and tell them the Court was alarmed at their proceedings.

Two hours after this the Court opened. A fife was heard playing, some guns were discharged and almost immediately the mob appeared, marching toward the court house. Three men on horseback were leading the column. The gentlemen who had been sent to counsel with them were being marched under a guard in the rear. When the column reached Lewistown all the committee were permitted to go at large except George Wilson, the Sheriff, who was held by an armed guard of four men.

The Court ordered Mr. Clarke to go and meet the rioters and remonstrate against their proceedings and warn them of their danger, which order was obeyed, but his endeavors were in vain.

The mob cried out, “March on! March on! Draw your sword on him! Ride over him!”

Mr. Clarke grabbed the reins of the leader’s horse, who refused to be held, and threatened to proceed to the bench and drag Judge Bryson off, take him down the Narrows to his own farm and there compel him to sign a written paper that he would never again sit there as a Judge.

This leader was a brother of Sheriff George Wilson. The mob cried out, “March on!” He drew his sword and ordered Clarke to let go the reins. The crowd pressed on him and one of them, a nephew of Judge Beale, pressed a pistol to his breast, when Clarke let go of the horse, and the mob reached the stairs on the outside of the court house. Clarke rushed ahead, and as he mounted the stairs he was met by Judge Armstrong, who said: “Since nothing else will do, let us defend the stairs.”

At that point several of the attorneys and citizens, who had been in the court, reached the stairs, where they were met by the rioters, now ably led by William Wilson, Colonel Walker and Colonel Holt. They cried:

“March on, damn you; proceed and take him!”

Judge Armstrong replied, “You damned rascals, come on! We will defend the Court ourselves, and before you shall take Judge Bryson you shall kill me and many others, which seems to be your intention, and which you may do.”

At this moment Colonel Holt seized Judge Armstrong by the arm with the intention of dragging him down the stairs, but he freed himself. Holt’s brother rushed to him with a sword and urged him to run it through the Judge. The other leaders drew swords and pistols.

Clarke suggested that they name three of their most respectable persons to meet with him to settle the dispute. Wilson, the leader, agreed to that, but it was with difficulty he was able to get the mob to move from the court house.

Mr. Hamilton went with Mr. Clarke to Alexander’s tavern, and soon after their arrival Messrs. Wilson, Walker and Sterritt, of the rioters, came in. Sterritt acted as their chief counselor.

Proposals were made that they should return home, offer no insult to Judge Bryson or the Court and send to the Governor a decent petition, stating their grievances, so that they might be laid before the Legislature, and that in the meantime Judge Bryson should sit on the bench of the court.

They seemed to be agreed, when mutual honor was pledged, but Sterritt stated that too great a delay was evident, that injuries had been received which required immediate redress and even objected to the power of the Governor as to the points proposed.

At that juncture Colonel Holt and young Beale rushed in, the latter heavily armed, and insisted on Wilson joining them, which broke up the conference. Clarke followed them to the field where the mob was assembled. Clarke asked Wilson:

“Your object is that Judge Bryson leave the bench and not sit on it this Court?”

He and Walker replied, “Yes.”

“Will you promise to disperse and go home and offer him no insult?”

They replied, “Yes.”

Their mutual honor was pledged for the performance of the agreement.

Mr. Hamilton then entered the Court, told Judge Bryson the agreement, when he left his seat and retired.

Hardly had Messrs. Hamilton and Clarke reached the court house when the mob again appeared in martial attitude at the foot of the stairs. Clarke reminded Wilson of his broken pledge; he acknowledged it, but said the mob would not have it that way. Clarke told him Judge Bryson had left the bench and departed.

The next day Colonel McFarland, of the local militia, marched his command to the court house.

The Court adjourned until 2 o’clock, and at that hour directed the Sheriff to invite Judge Bryson to march in and sit with them.

The Sheriff returned and advised them Judge Beale would not walk in or sit with Bryson. The Sheriff and Judge Bryson got into an argument, when the Sheriff struck and kicked the Judge.

Judge Armstrong seized the Sheriff, and took his rod from him, the Sheriff was brought before the Court, when he was committed to jail.

That night the mob again assembled with the object of rescuing the Sheriff, but before a sufficient number could be raised the Sheriff apologized to the Court and was released on his own recognizance.

The mob to the number of 300 assembled at the Narrows the following day, but when they learned the Sheriff was no longer in jail and had been forgiven by the Court they dispersed and went to their homes. The Court then adjourned.

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Inhuman Murder of Lieutenant Thomas Boyd by Tory Butler, September 13, 1779

During the expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations, in August and September, 1779, there occurred one of the most horrible Indian massacres recorded in the frontier history of Pennsylvania.

On September 12, Lieutenant Thomas Boyd, of the Rifle Corps, a resident of Northumberland and older brother of the illustrious Captain John Boyd and brother of Lieutenant William Boyd, who lost his life in the Battle of Brandywine, was sent with about twenty-four soldiers to reconnoiter the town of Genesee. They were guided by a friendly Oneida Indian named Hanjost, a chief of that tribe.

This number was too few if a battle was intended and too many for a secretive expedition. When the party reached Little Castle, on September 13, they surprised, killed and scalped two Indians.

They mistook this place for Genesee, and Lieutenant Boyd intended to await there for the advance of the main army, and sent four men to report his intentions. This party was fired on, a corporal was killed and the others fled until the main army was reached.

Boyd dispatched two more men to learn what had detained the army, when they discovered the dead corporal and at the same time the presence of Indians. They informed Lieutenant Boyd, who immediately assembled his party and gave chase, following the British and Tories to within less than three miles from the main army.

There they encountered a body of four or five hundred which lay in ambush, probably awaiting to surprise the main army, who immediately surrounded Boyd’s small party. Their defense against overwhelming odds was not less gallant than it was hopeless.

In their extremity they posted themselves in a small grove, with a considerable open space around it, and there they continued to fight. Some of the enemy were so near that the powder from their muskets burned the clothing and persons of the Americans, who fought bravely until the overwhelming superiority of the enemy obliged them to attempt a retreat, which they did, covering their movement with a deadly fire.

This small army of British and Indians was under the command of Colonel John Butler and the notorious Indian chieftain, Joseph Brant.

The Indians killed and in a most inhuman manner tomahawked and scalped six of Boyd’s soldiers, whose bodies were found the next day.

Nine of Boyd’s party escaped and reported the battle as soon as they had reached the main army.

As Lieutenant Boyd, the Indian guide, Chief Hanjost, Timothy Murphy and six others had not arrived safe in camp, there was much anxiety for their safety.

Timothy Murphy was from Northumberland, a personal friend of the Boyd brothers and one of the most famous marksmen in the service. It was his unerring aim which killed General Frazer, the British commander at the second battle of Stillwater, October 7, 1777.

Colonel Adam Hubley, in the journal which he kept during the Sullivan expedition, writes of him:

“This Murphy is a noted marksman and a great soldier, he having killed and scalped that morning in the Town they were at an Indian, which makes the three & thirtieth man of the Enemy he has killed (as is well known to his officers) in this War.”

It is also interesting to note that Murphy made his escape and was the one to report that Lieutenant Boyd and Chief Hanjost were taken prisoners, and he told in detail of the brave resistance they made.

The army made a quick march with the hope of releasing Lieutenant Boyd, but on arriving at Genesee Castle, or “Little Beard’s Town,” the capital settlement of the Seneca country, Colonel Hubley writes:

“At this place we found the body of the brave but unfortunate Lieutenant Boyd and one Rifleman massacred in the most cruel and barbarous manner that the human mind can possibly conceive. The savages having put them to the most excruciating torments possible by first plucking their nails from hands and feet, then spearing, cutting and whipping them and mangling their bodys, then cutting off the flesh from their shoulders, tomahawking & severing their heads from their bodys and leaving them a prey to their dogs.

“This evening the remains of Lieutenant Boyd and the Rifleman were interred with military honors. Mr. Boyd’s former good character as a brave soldier and an honest man, and his behaviour in the skirmish of yesterday (several of the Indians being found dead & some seen carried off) must indear him to all friends of mankind. May his fate await those who have been the cause of his. O! Britain—Behold—and blush!”

Miner in his “History of Wyoming” says their tongues were pulled out and flaming pine knots thrust into their flesh and that they were slowly burned to death in addition to the tortures mentioned by Colonel Hubley.

Miner says that Lieutenant Boyd was taken before Colonel Butler, the detestable Tory, who examined him, while Boyd was held by two savages, with a third standing at his back, with a tomahawk raised.

Butler demanded: “How many men has Sullivan?”

Boyd replied: “I cannot tell you, sir.”

Butler then asked: “How is the army divided and disposed?”

Boyd replied: “I cannot give you any information, sir.”

Butler then taunted him: “Boyd, life is sweet, you had better answer me.”

The brave lieutenant replied: “Duty forbids, and I would not if life depended on the word—but Colonel Butler, I know the issue, my doom is fixed.”

That a prisoner should be taken before Colonel John Butler for examination is quite probable.

Sergeant Michael Parker was the rifleman who was murdered with Lieutenant Boyd.

The remains of Lieutenant Boyd and Sergeant Parker were found on the outskirts of the town and were interred with the honors of war. In August, 1842, the remains of these two soldiers were exhumed and removed to Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, N. Y., where they were re-interred.

The unfortunate Lieutenant Boyd had shared all the hardships of the ill-fated expedition to Quebec under General Arnold, and had experienced many campaigns prior to the one in which he made the supreme sacrifice.

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Major Grant Meets Defeat at Fort Duquesne, September 14, 1758

The destruction of the Indian town at Kittanning September 8, 1755, was a severe blow to the Indians. The English had never before that time assailed them in their own towns, and they were led to believe they would not venture to approach them. While they desired to retaliate the blow, they feared another such attack upon their home, when they were absent on war parties. Such of them as had belonged to Kittanning and made their escape, refused to settle again east of Fort Duquesne.

Nothing was done to annoy the French or check the Indians, until a change occurred in the English Ministry, and the master mind of William Pitt assumed the control of the mother country. He seemed to fully realize the situation of the English subjects in the colonies and immediately determined to send troops in sufficient strength to maintain her power.

Pennsylvania, as usual, led the way and equipped 2700 men. The other colonies contributed large quotas.

Three expeditions were determined upon, and the most active measures taken to bring them to the field. The one in which Pennsylvanians are more properly interested was known as the Western expedition. It was placed under the command of Major General John Forbes, an officer of great skill, energy and resolution. His army consisted of nearly 9000 men, embracing British regulars and provincials from Pennsylvania, and the Lower Counties, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.

The troops from the other Governments rendezvoused at Winchester, while the Pennsylvanians, under Colonel Henry Bouquet, assembled at Raystown, now Bedford.

General Forbes, with his regulars, marched from Philadelphia to effect a junction with the provincials at Raystown, but the serious illness of the general compelled him to stop at Carlisle, where he remained until the middle of September, when he reached Bedford and the provincial troops under Colonel George Washington.

At the suggestion of Colonel Bouquet and the Pennsylvania officers, a new road was cut direct from Raystown to Loyalhanna, a distance of forty-five miles, where Colonel Bouquet erected Fort Ligonier.

Before the arrival of General Forbes at Loyalhanna, Colonel Bouquet had dispatched Major William Grant, of the Highland Regiment, with thirty-seven officers and 800 troops, to reconnoitre the fort and adjacent country. His instructions were to approach not too near the fort, and in no event to take the risk of an attack.

Grant camped the first day on the banks of the Nine Mile Run, ten miles west of the camp on the Loyalhanna. The second day he proceeded farther, and on the third reached to within about twelve miles of Fort Duquesne.

Although the French and Indians were constantly watching the movements of the army, yet Grant succeeded in coming within sight of the fort, after marching fifty miles without being discovered.

The detachment halted here until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, when the troops quietly marched to about two miles from the fort, where they left their baggage under charge of Captain Bullitt, two subalterns and fifty men. It was already dark, and later in the night Major Grant appeared with his troops at the brow of the fatal hill, which still bears his name, between the two rivers, about a quarter of a mile from the fort.

From the apparent stillness of the enemy’s camp and not having met with either French or Indians on the march, Major Grant supposed that the forces in the fort must be comparatively small, and at once determined to make an attack.

Two officers and fifty men were dispatched to approach the fort and fall upon the French and Indians that might be lying out, if not in too great number. They saw none, nor were they challenged by the sentinels, and as they returned they set fire to a large store house, but the fire was discovered and extinguished.

At break of day, Major Lewis was sent with 200 men, principally American regulars and Virginia volunteers, to take post about half a mile back, and lie in ambush in the road on which they had left their baggage, under the pretension of fears that the enemy would make a bold attempt to capture it.

But Major Grant, who was jealous of Major Lewis, wished to have the glory of capturing the enemy who had so signally repulsed General Braddock with his army.

Four hundred men were posted along the hill facing the fort, to cover the retreat of Captain McDonald’s company, who marched with drums beating toward the enemy, in order to draw a party out of the fort, as Major Grant believed there were not more than 200 men, including Indians, in the fortress.

The garrison was aroused from its slumber by the music of the invaders, and French and Indians sallied out in great numbers to the attack. Their whole force was divided into three divisions. The first two were sent directly under cover of the banks of the river to surround the main body under Major Grant. The remaining division was delayed while the others maneuvred, and then displayed themselves before the fort, as if exhibiting their whole strength.

The attack then commenced, and Captain McDonald was immediately obliged to fall back upon the main body and was a moment later killed.

Major Grant received and returned a most destructive fire. At this moment he suddenly found himself flanked on all sides by the detachments from the banks of the river. The struggle became desperate.

The provincials put up a good defense while concealing themselves behind trees, but the Highlanders who stood exposed to the enemy’s fire without cover, fell in great numbers, and at last gave way and fled. Soon the provincials, having lost all their support, and being overpowered by numbers, were compelled to follow.

Major Grant retreated to the baggage where Captain Bullitt was posted, where he again endeavored to rally his flying soldiers. His earnest appeals for support were unavailing, as the French and Indians were too close at their heels.

As soon as the enemy came up Captain Bullitt attacked them with great fury for awhile, but not being supported, and most of his men having been killed, he was obliged to give way.

The resistance shown by Captain Bullitt’s detail afforded many of the retreating and a few of the wounded to escape. Major Grant and Captain Bullitt were the last to leave the field, but when they separated Major Grant was taken prisoner.

In this conflict, which took place September 14, 1758, 270 men were killed, forty-two wounded and several taken prisoners.

“It was,” says Colonel Washington, in a letter to the Governor of Virginia, “a very ill-concerted, or a very ill-executed plan, perhaps both; but it seems to be generally acknowledged that Major Grant exceeded his orders and that no disposition was made for engaging.”

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Madame Montour Resents Murder of Her Brother, September 15, 1711

In the provincial history of Pennsylvania the name of the Montours stands out among the many Indians of note, and the intimate story of this large family presents many interesting and contradictory characteristics.

The first one of this family, which has given us its name for a county, town, river, creek and mountain range, was the celebrated Madame Montour.

There has always been a question of doubt as to her birth. She claimed to be a half-breed French-Indian, her father being a Governor of Canada. Whether this is true or not, about 1665 a French nobleman named Montour settled in Canada, where by an Indian woman, probably a Huron, he became the father of a son and two daughters. This son of Montour grew up among those Indians, who were at that time in alliance with the French.

In 1685, while in the French service, he was wounded in a fight with two Mohawk warriors on Lake Champlain. Subsequently he deserted the French cause and again lived among the Indians. In 1709 he was killed while inducing twelve of the Western tribes to support the English.

One of his sisters became a noted interpreter and friend of the English, and was known as Madame Montour; the other sister married a Miami Indian and her history is lost.

Madame Montour was born previous to the year 1684. When about ten years old she was captured by some Iroquois warriors and adopted, probably by the Seneca tribe, for at maturity she married a Seneca named Roland Montour, by whom she had five children: Andrew, Henry, Robert, Lewis and Margaret.

After the death of Roland, Madame Montour married the noted Oneida chief, Carondowanen, or “Big Tree,” who later took the name Robert Hunter in honor of the royal governor of the province of New York.

About 1729 Robert Hunter was killed in battle with the Catawba, against whom he was waging war.

Madame Montour first appeared as an official interpreter at the conference at Albany, September 15, 1711. At this conference the wanton murder of her brother, Andrew, by Vaudreuil, was bitterly resented by Madame Montour, and she employed her great influence with telling effect against the French, who tried to induce her to remove to Canada, but she remained loyal to the English and was put in a position of great power with lucrative return.

Madame Montour was the interpreter in Philadelphia in 1727 at a conference between Deputy Governor Patrick Gordon and the Provincial Council on the one hand and the Six Nations, Conestoga, Ganawese and Susquehanna Indians on the other.

It is claimed that Madame Montour was a lady in manner and education, was very attractive in mind and body, and that she was entertained by ladies of the best society on her trips to Philadelphia; but as her sister married an Indian and she was twice wedded to an Indian warrior, it is probable her education and refinement were not so marked as is claimed.

Nevertheless, from the testimony of those who saw and knew her, but contrary to the statement of Lord Cornbury, who knew her brother, it seems almost certain that she was a French-Canadian without any admixture of Indian blood, and that for some unaccountable reason she preferred the life and dress of her adopted people.

Madame Montour was always uniformly friendly toward the proprietary Government, and such was the loyalty of her family that at least two of her sons, Henry and Andrew, received large grants of “donation land” from the Government. That of Henry lay upon the Chillisquaque Creek, in Northumberland County, and that of Andrew, on the Loyalsock, where Montoursville, in Lycoming County, is now situated.

Madame Montour resided at the village of Ostonwackin[7] in 1734. This was some times known as Frenchtown. When Conrad Weiser visited there in 1737, on his way to Onondaga, he wrote of Madame Montour, as “a French woman by birth, of a good family, but now in mode of life a complete Indian.”

Footnote 7:

Village at mouth of Loyalsock Creek, present site of Montoursville, Lycoming County, Pa.

When she attended the great treaty at Lancaster in 1744 she was accompanied by two of her daughters, and at that time related to Witham Marshe the story of her life. He represented her as genteel and of polite address and as having been attractive in her prime.

When Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian missionary, visited Shamokin (now Sunbury) in 1742, he was welcomed by Madame Montour and her son Andrew. She had moved to that place from Ostonwackin.

Upon learning that the Count came to preach the gospel, the truths of which she had almost forgotten, she burst into tears. It was learned that she believed that Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, was situated in France, and that it was the English who crucified him—a silly perversion of the truth that originated with French religious teachers.

It is thought she died at the home of her son, Andrew, in 1752.

Of the children of Madame Montour, Andrew became the most prominent and indeed he was one of the strong men during a long period of stirring times in the province. His Indian name was Sattelihu, he was a son by her first husband.

Andrew became an interpreter at an early age and served the Proprietary Government faithfully and well; he also was loved by his Indian brethren, for he zealously guarded their interests.

In 1745 he accompanied Conrad Weiser and Shikellamy, the vicegerent of the Six Nations on the Susquehanna, on a mission to Onondaga, the Federal capital of the confederation.

He was sent on important missions to Maryland and other places and in 1753 the French authorities set a price of $500 on his head. In 1755 he was living ten miles northwest from Carlisle, on land which had been granted to him for his services.

During the French and Indian War he was captain of a company of Indians in the English service, and later rose to the rank of major.

In 1762 he was King’s interpreter to the United Nations, and he served as interpreter for the Delaware Indians at Fort Augusta, at the time Conrad Weiser held a conference for the purpose of bringing about peace between the Southern Confederation and the Six Nations.

October 29, 1768, the Proprietary Government surveyed and granted to Andrew Montour 880 acres of land at the mouth of the Loyalsock, where the borough of Montoursville now is. With this and other grants he was considered a man of great wealth.

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Matthew Carey, Editor and Influential Writer of Philadelphia, Died There September 16, 1839

Matthew Carey came to Philadelphia in November 1784, and spent the remainder of his eventful life there, dying September 16, 1839. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, January 28, 1760, where he spent his early life.

He learned the business of printer and bookseller, and at the age of seventeen he wrote and published a pamphlet on duelling. This was soon followed by an address to Roman Catholics in Ireland on their oppression by the penal code. This was so seditious and inflammatory that he was compelled to fly to Paris, but returned in the course of a year, and was soon after prosecuted for printing a libel.

In 1783, he edited the Freeman’s Journal and established the Volunteer’s Journal.

In 1784, he printed a libel on the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and was imprisoned during the session of Parliament. He escaped on board a ship in woman’s dress, and arrived in Philadelphia, November 15, 1784.

General Lafayette, then on a visit to the United States, heard his story, and not only procured influence for him, but advanced $400 to Carey, who immediately started the Pennsylvania Herald, the first number of which publication appeared January 25, 1785.

The young printer, publisher, and editor attracted immediate attention and patronage by giving the best reports of the Assembly yet published. The Herald was in fact the first newspaper in America which gave full and accurate reports of legislative proceedings.

Matthew Carey was most aggressive with his pen, and burning with hate to England, he at once became one of the most notable of the foreign-born editors in America.

But the spirited temper of the enterprising young Irishman aroused collisions, one of which with Colonel Oswald, had serious result. Eleazer Oswald had been a colonel in the Continental army during the war, in which he appears to have served with credit; he was a kinsman of Elizabeth Holt, wife of John Holt, and aided her in conducting the Journal after the death of her husband, in 1785 and 1786. They sold the Journal in 1787 to Thomas Greenleaf.

Oswald had an “unpleasantness” with Francis Child, of the New York Advertiser, and then succeeded in getting himself into a political dispute with Matthew Carey.

This latter quarrel terminated in a duel, in which Carey was shot above the knee, a wound that confined him to the house for nearly sixteen months.

During the interval, Carey seems to have been able to continue his editorial labors, and, in 1786, with several partners, he started the Columbian Magazine, but withdrew from this enterprise the following December, and founded the American Museum, a monthly eclectic magazine, which he edited with marked ability for six years.

After abandoning the Museum Carey entered into business as a bookseller and publisher, and among other works issued a quarto edition of the Bible, called the standing edition—as it was kept in type.

He took an active part in charitable enterprises, and every fortnight dispensed food and other necessaries of life to hundreds of poor widows. He was particularly active in works of benevolence during the prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793, and wrote and published a history of that epidemic.

In 1793 Carey founded the Hibernian Society and undertook with Hugh Gaine a system of annual book fairs, resembling the present trade sales.

He was an associate of Bishop William White and others in the formation of the first American Sunday School Society.

While the War of 1812–14 was kindling he wrote much on political subjects, and in 1814 the Olive Branch appeared, in which he attempted to harmonize the contending parties in the United States. It passed through ten editions.

In 1818 he published “Vindicia Hibernicæ,” which was a refutation of charges made against the Catholics of Ireland of butchering Protestants in the insurrection of 1640.

In 1820 he published “The New Olive Branch,” which was in favor of protection to American industry; and two years later his “Essays on Political Economy,” were also published in favor of protection. These publications were widely circulated.

In 1830, under the title of “Miscellaneous Essays,” Carey republished selections from his writings. There are fifty-eight papers, essays, and longer compositions, and two hundred pieces collected under the heading of “Light Reading.”

Carey also advocated the system of internal improvements which led to the construction of the great canal system in Pennsylvania.

He was active in promoting education, and in forming associations for the relief of those unable to help themselves.

As Matthew Carey advanced in years, he acquired a fair amount of wealth, and in consequence of ease and comfortable environment, he became a prolific writer, but always on subjects which were solid. He gave no time to the elegancies of literature or fiction.

In this field of literature he was succeeded by his son Henry Charles Carey, who became well known for his robust works on political economy.

In 1833–34 Matthew Carey contributed his autobiography to the New England Magazine.

He acquired an enviable social position as well as one of wealth. He died much lamented at his home in Philadelphia, September 16, 1839.

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First Constitution of United States Adopted in Philadelphia September 17, 1787

The Constitution of the United States, as is well known, was framed during the summer of 1787, by a convention of Delegates from twelve States. The convention sat in the old State House at Philadelphia, and after a stormy session of four months ended its labors on September 17, 1787.

In the preliminary movement to form a nation, only five of the thirteen colonies were represented. Delegates from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia, met at Annapolis, Md., September 11, 1786, and after much discussion and consideration, they recommended that a convention be called to meet in Philadelphia on the second Monday of May, 1787.

When that day arrived the only delegates to appear at the State House were those of Pennsylvania and Virginia. At the end of two weeks no others had arrived except those from Delaware and New Jersey. This fact indicates how little they appreciated the importance of the event.

Finally, twelve States were represented; the largest delegation was from Pennsylvania, and consisted of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris. General George Washington was elected president, and William Jackson, secretary. The convention sat with closed doors.

Former Governor Pennypacker, in his excellent “Pennsylvania—The Keystone,” says “Washington presided and the aged Franklin participated, but the most learned lawyer among them was James Wilson, and, perhaps, more than any other member, he affected the results reached.”

On the afternoon of the day that the convention finished its labors, the Constitution was duly signed by thirty-nine of the members. Some resolutions and a letter from Washington were ordered to be sent to Congress and to be by it transmitted to the States.

The Constitution was adopted September 17, 1787, and by this action of the convention a new Nation was born in Philadelphia.

While these things were taking place in a lower room of the State House, the Legislature of Pennsylvania was in session in a room above, and the Constitution was read to it on the morning of September 18.

Copies were then given to the press, and the next day the people of Philadelphia were reading the new plan in the “Packet,” the “Journal” and the “Gazetteer.” For a few days nothing but praise was heard, but before a week was gone, it was attacked.

The principal supporters of the plan of the Federal Convention were former officers of the Revolution, many of whom had served throughout the entire struggle for independence, while not one prominent soldier of that war was included among the twenty-three Anti-Federalists who consistently voted against ratification.

All was not satisfactory, and there was much trouble about the adoption of the Constitution, which did not go into effect until ratified by nine States.

Patrick Henry, of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, opposed it violently. It also had many opponents in Pennsylvania. Particularly was this true among the partisans of the State Government.

A draft of the instrument was reported to the Assembly, when a motion was made to authorize the calling of a State convention to deliberate upon its adoption.

This body met November 21, and was organized by the choice of Frederick A. Muhlenberg as president, and James Campbell, as secretary. On December 12, following, the final adoption of the draft of the Constitution was carried by a vote of 46 to 23 against it.

The following day the members of the convention and of the Supreme Executive Council, with officers of the State and the City of Philadelphia and others, went in procession from the State House to the old court house, where the ratification of the instrument was solemnly proclaimed. Twelve cannon were fired and the bells were rung.

The convention returned to the State House, where two copies of the ratification of the Constitution were signed. According to Hamilton, a motion was made that all members should sign it as an acquiescence to the principle that the majority should govern, which was strenuously objected to by the opponents of this instrument.

Delaware ratified the Constitution December 7, 1787, making Pennsylvania the second State to ratify. That is the reason that today in all national processions these States are given the lead.

State after State approved the Constitution, and in several of them processions had taken place to celebrate, but in Pennsylvania there had been no celebration of this kind; but it was decided, however, that as soon as the ninth State acceded to it, measures should be taken for public rejoicing.

Following Delaware and Pennsylvania came New Jersey, which adopted the Constitution December 18; Georgia, January 2, 1788; Connecticut, January 9; Massachusetts, February 6; Maryland, April 28; South Carolina, May 23.

On June 21, when New Hampshire, the ninth State, ratified it, it was determined by the citizens of Philadelphia to celebrate the formation of the new Union on the evening of the Fourth of July. By that time Virginia had also ratified the Constitution by vote of June 26.

This pageant was as imposing as it was possible for the authorities and the people of Pennsylvania in their enthusiasm to make it, and not only in the metropolis but in every town in the State was the occasion one of patriotism and splendor.

New York ratified the Constitution July 26, 1788; North Carolina, November 21, 1789, and the last one of the thirteen original States to ratify was Rhode Island, which did not accomplish it until May 29, 1790.

The adoption of the Constitution rendered the institution of measures necessary for the election of members of Congress and electors of President and Vice President of the United States.

The Anti-Federalists immediately got busy and endeavored to effect a plan to revise the new Constitution, but were defeated in their purposes. The actions of this body in Pennsylvania in their convention in Harrisburg, September, 1788, were denounced by the people.

A new convention was called to meet in Lancaster, which selected candidates for Congress and electors for President.

The election of members of Congress took place in November, and in the State six of the nominees of the Federal ticket were elected, and two, David Muhlenberg, of Montgomery, and Daniel Hiester, of Berks, who, although Federalists, had, with two others of the same politics, been placed as a matter of policy with the opposition ticket.

The centennial of the adoption of the Federal Constitution was fittingly celebrated in Philadelphia.

On September 15, 1887, there was a large civic and industrial procession, a military display on the 16th, and fine Memorial Day ceremonies in Independence Square on the 17th.

The occasion was celebrated with great credit to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Nation, as it illustrated the dignity and grandeur of the Republic.

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Labor Riots Follow Civil War; Jay Cooke Company Failed September 18, 1873

Following the suggestion of Governor John White Geary, the Legislature on June 2, 1871, adopted a resolution to submit the question of calling a convention to amend the Constitution to a vote of the people. The delegates were elected October, 1872, and assembled in the Capitol November 12, 1872.

Hon. William M. Meredith was elected president and served until his death, August 17, 1873, when Hon. John H. Walker, of Erie County, was chosen to fill the vacancy. The convention adjourned November 27 to meet in Philadelphia on January 7, 1873.

A new Constitution was drafted and adopted, after which it was submitted to the people on December 16, 1873, and approved by a vote of 263,560 to 109,198.

This new Constitution contained several important changes: An increase in the number of Senators and Representatives in the General Assembly; biennial sessions of the Legislature; the election by the people of sundry officers heretofore appointed; minority representation; modification of the pardoning power; the term of the Governor made for four years, and not eligible to the office for the succeeding term; the office of Lieutenant-Governor created; changes in tenure and mode of electing Judges of the courts. The new Constitution became effective January 1, 1874.

The good times which followed the Civil War were in a few years followed by a financial depression that extended over the whole country and reduced innumerable financial establishments to ruin.

These financial troubles began in Philadelphia with the failure of the banking house of Jay Cooke & Co., September 18, 1873. Mr. Cooke’s bank had given such help to the United States Government during the period of the war that he was frequently called the “Financier of the Rebellion.”

When this banking institution collapsed there followed a run on other banks, the effects of which soon spread throughout the United States.

The excellent “Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal,” by Howard M. Jenkins, says: “The condition of the times was rendered more deplorable by a series of labor difficulties, extending from 1874–1877. In 1874, there was a conflict in Westmoreland County between Italian and resident miners, in which four of the Italians were killed. The same year there was a railroad strike at Susquehanna on the New York and Erie Railroad. A number of trains were seized by the mob, and order was not restored until after the Governor had sent the State militia into that region. In January, 1875, the miners of the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions began a strike, which lasted six months. There was but little violence; yet the Governor found it necessary to order the militia to the scene of the disturbance.”

In 1877, the spirit of lawlessness increased, culminating in a series of destructive riots in different parts of the State. The cause of all this trouble was the railroad strike, which began on July 16, and soon became general throughout the United States.

In the beginning of July, a circular was issued from the offices of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, announcing a reduction of 10 per cent from the wages which the men were then receiving. A new schedule of wages was announced, to take effect on July 16. At all points along the railroad, there were demonstrations against this reduction. A strike was ordered, and before midnight of the 16th the immense property of the Baltimore and Ohio was in the hands of the rioters.

On July 19 the employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh inaugurated a strike, and stopped the passage of all freight trains east and west. By the evening of the 20th, a large number of freight trains were tied up in the city. The striking workmen resisted all efforts of the railroad officials to remove these trains, and threatened acts of violence. At this time Governor John F. Hartranft was on a trip across the continent, but upon the call of the Sheriff the Adjutant General ordered the Sixteenth Division of the National Guard to assist in restoring order.

Adjutant General James W. Latta arrived at Pittsburgh on July 21, to take personal charge of all the troops ordered out. The First Division of the National Guard was also called into service, and on the forenoon of the 21st, the troops took position upon the hill overlooking the tracks at Twenty-eighth Street.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon the troops from Philadelphia arrived, and they at once proceeded to open the road. As they approached Twenty-eighth Street, the crowds pressed in upon them and stones were thrown by the mob.

There was considerable firing on both sides, and in the melee twenty soldiers were wounded. In the evening the soldiers withdrew to the roundhouse and adjacent buildings. At midnight the rioters determined to drive them out by burning the freight cars in the vicinity. The result was a great conflagration, in which vast quantities of freight were consumed and all the rolling stock and buildings of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh were destroyed.

Hastening from his trip, Governor Hartranft reached Pittsburgh on July 24. After a consultation with the leading citizens he went to Philadelphia to confer with Generals Hancock and Schofield, of the United States Army.

Arrangements were made to forward a detachment of the regular army to Pittsburgh, there to join the State troops which the Governor collected on the way.

A large force was soon gathered at the scene of the disturbance, and, with Governor Hartranft in personal command, order was restored in a few days and railroad communications were opened with all parts of the country. In the meantime there were serious riots in other parts of the State.

The lawless spirit in Philadelphia and Harrisburg was quelled by the prompt action of the officials, but in Reading the work of destruction was almost equal to that in Pittsburgh. The railroad bridge over the Schuylkill was burned, and the mob virtually controlled the city.

As the authorities of Berks County were unable to suppress the riot, General Reeder was sent there with a division of the National Guard. On the evening of July 23 there was a severe street fight between the mob and the soldiers, in which some of the latter were wounded, while eleven of the crowd were killed. The next day a detachment of the United States troops arrived and the railroad was opened to traffic.

The contagion of lawlessness affected the miners of Luzerne County, and on July 25 they began a general strike. All railroad traffic was suspended in that region, and at Scranton the rioters attempted to drive the workmen from the shops. The Sheriff with a number of aides dispersed the crowd, but he was seriously wounded and three of the mob were killed.

As the conditions became more threatening, it was necessary to forward a division of the National Guard to the coal regions. Early in August all disorder was suppressed, and in a few weeks all the railroads in the State were running on schedule time.

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Indians Defrauded by Deceptive Walking Land Measure, September 19, 1737

From the time of William Penn’s arrival, in 1682, while he was a lowly Christian himself, he had followers who did not have the same fear of God in their hearts, and who did not hesitate to excite the cupidity of the unsophisticated children of the forest, and by any and all means take advantage of them.

William Penn formed many treaties with the Indians and concluded many purchases, no one of which was well and accurately defined as to its actual boundary.

Penn and his agents were ignorant of the topography of the wilderness in the interior of “Penn’s Woods,” and in their earlier purchases had been in the habit of defining the boundaries of land by well-known streams or highlands, or well-known natural objects.

They often indicated their extension into the unknown region by such vague terms as: “To run two days’ journey with a horse up into the country as the river doth go,” or “Northeasterly back into the woods to make up two full days’ journey,” or “far as a man can go in two days from said station,” etc.

The first purchase of land from the Indians above the Neshaminy, in Bucks County, made by William Markham, the agent of William Penn, was in 1682. This purchase was to be bounded by the River Delaware on the northeast, and the Neshaminy on the northwest, and was to extend as far back as a man could walk in three days.

It is stated that Penn and the Indians began to walk out this land, commencing at the mouth of the Neshaminy, and walking up the Delaware; in one day and a half they got to a spruce tree, near Baker’s Creek, when Penn concluded this would be as much land as he would want at present. A line was drawn and marked from the spruce tree to the Neshaminy.

This was the only boundary which was ever settled by Penn in person, and Penn wrote of this trip, saying that they frequently halted to converse, smoke and eat.

Lines measured in that manner would often have extended far beyond the expectations of the contracting parties, so more definite terms were soon employed to define limits of land grants. But about 1718 the settlers, maintaining the authority of the original lines, pushed their improvements beyond the designated lines, much to the dissatisfaction of the Indians.

That act nearly precipitated war, had not wiser counsels prevailed, but encroachments continued until a general meeting of the Iroquois was held and their chiefs determined to put an end to the bickerings, and sent their chief sachems to Philadelphia. There they renewed old treaties, by the signatures of twenty-three of their chiefs, and deed to Penn’s heirs “all the said river Susquehanna, with lands lying on both sides thereof, to extend eastward as far as the heads of the branch or springs which run into the said Susquehanna, and all lands lying on the west side of the said river, northward, up the same to the hills or mountains.”

That did not even stop the unscrupulous land seeker and much additional land was taken from the natives, which in consequence provoked trouble.

After the death of William Penn a copy of one of those walk-deeds was found by Thomas and John Penn, who, at a council in 1733, fifty years after it had been executed, presented it to the Indians and received from them an acknowledgment of its validity, and under that an arrangement was made for a walk of one day and a half to settle the boundaries.

The Penns, although strict Quakers, did not shrink from using means about the honesty of which there could be some question, and they advertised far and wide for the fastest walkers, offering five hundred acres of land and five pounds in money to the man who would walk the greatest distance in the allotted time.

Every facility was furnished them, a direct line was run, underbrush was cleared away, refreshments were placed at convenient distances, all arranged so that there might be little or no delay. Indeed, the preparations for a modern marathon race could hardly be more carefully made.

The persons selected by the Governor were Edward Marshall, James Yeates and Solomon Jennings. One of the Indians was called Combush, another Neepaheilomon, also known as Joe Tuneam, and his brother-in-law, Tom.

The time appointed for the walk was the morning of September 19, 1737, when the days and nights were equal. The walk was to commence at a chestnut tree just above the present site of Wrightstown Meeting House, under the supervision of Timothy Smith, sheriff of Bucks County, and Benjamin Eastburn, surveyor general.

Marshall was a noted hunter, chain carrier, etc.; Yeates was a tall, slim fellow, very agile and fleet of foot; Jennings was remarkable for his strength, but was of very stout build.

A great crowd of spectators gathered at the starting point. The walkers were accompanied by a number of persons who carried refreshments and otherwise encouraged the walkers to greater efforts.

They walked moderately at first, but soon quickened their pace, so that the Indians frequently called to them to walk and not to run. Those remonstrances produced no effect, and most of the Indians left them in anger, saying they were being cheated. A number of persons had collected about twenty miles from the starting point to see them pass.

First came Yeates, stepping as lightly as a feather. After him, but yet out of sight came Jennings, with a strong steady step, then far behind him came Marshall, apparently careless, swinging a hatchet and eating a biscuit. Bets ran in favor of Yeates.

In two and a half hours they arrived at Red Hill, in Bedminister, but the pace by this time was too hot for Jennings and two of the Indians and they gave up the contest. The other Indian, Combush, continued with Marshall and Yeates, and when they arrived at the fork of the road, near what is now Bethlehem, Combush laid down to rest a moment, but on attempting to rise was unable to proceed farther.

Marshall and Yeates continued alone and by sunset arrived on the north of Blue Mountain. At sunrise the next morning they started again, but when crossing a stream at the foot of the mountain near Lehigh Water Gap, Yeates became faint and fell. Marshall turned back and supported him until some of the attendants came up, and then continued to walk on by himself. At noon, the hour when the walk was to terminate, he had reached a spur on the Second or Broad Mountain, estimated to be eighty-six miles from the starting point.

Having thus reached the fartherest possible point to the northwestward, a line was drawn from the end of the “walk” to the Delaware River.

Not being described in the deed of purchase, the agent of the Proprietaries, instead of running by the nearest course to the river, ran northeastward across the country about sixty-six miles, so as to strike the Delaware near the mouth of the Lackawaxen, thus extending far up the river, taking in all the Minisink territory, and many thousand acres more than they should have included had the line been run by the direct course to the Delaware.

This walk gained for the Penn’s territory which now constitutes the northern part of Bucks, virtually the whole of Northampton and a portion of Pike, Carbon and Monroe counties.

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British Surprise and Slaughter Americans at Paoli, September 20, 1777

Following the defeat of the Continental Army at Brandywine, a detachment of the British Army under Major General Grant marched to Concord Meeting House, where it was joined by Lord Cornwallis and moved to near Chester.

The Americans retreated toward Chester. On the arrival of Washington, about midnight, he sent an account of the disaster to Congress. The next day the army marched by way of Darby to Philadelphia. The main body was encamped near Germantown for two or three days to rest.

Washington deemed it so important to save Philadelphia from falling into the hands of the enemy that he resolved to risk another engagement.

On September 15 he crossed the Schuykill and marched up the Lancaster road, with the intention of meeting the enemy. The British commander learned of Washington’s plan to attack him, and disposed his troops to meet the attack.

On the morning of the 16th Washington received information that the enemy was approaching by way of the Goshen Meeting House, and was already in that vicinity. The two armies prepared for action. Washington dispatched an advance guard to keep the enemy in check until his army was properly arrayed.

General Anthony Wayne in command of the advance, was to open the battle. Skirmishing began, but suddenly a rain storm of great violence stopped its progress. A hurried consultation was had as to whether the British should be fought on ground so soft there was danger of losing the artillery in case of defeat.

Washington gave the order to reform east of the White Horse and north of the Lancaster road.

The Americans discovered their ammunition was damaged by the rain and continued to Warwick Furnace. The storm continued for some time.

On the evening of the 18th, Cornwallis advanced to the Lancaster road, and the following day the entire army joined at the White Horse, and moved down the Lancaster and Swedes’ Ford road, where they encamped near the present village of Howellville.

On the 17th General Wayne’s division was sent to French Creek to annoy the enemy and endeavor to cut off the baggage train, and by this means arrest his march toward the Schuylkill until the Americans could cross the river higher up and pass down on the east side and intercept the passage of the river by the British.

General Wayne proceeded to the duty assigned him, and on the eighteenth encamped in the rear of the enemy, securely concealed from the knowledge of General Howe. Wayne’s home being in the neighborhood, he was acquainted with the locality.

On the nineteenth General Wayne watched the enemy with a view of attacking him should he move. On the twentieth, he believed the British Commander intended to take up the march, and it was his intention to advance upon the enemy’s rear and attack while in the operation of moving.

General Wayne had carefully guarded himself against surprise, planted pickets and sentinels, and threw forward patrols upon the roads leading to the enemy’s camp.

During the night a neighbor visited his quarters and advised him that the British intended to attack him during the night. Wayne took additional precautions, and awaited General Smallwood’s arrival with re-enforcements to enable him to take the offensive.

Although the British commander did not know where the forces of General Wayne lay, there were Tories residing in the neighborhood who did, and by these he was advised of the precise locality and of the nature of the approaches to it.

Howe sent General Grey to surprise and cut him off, and moved Colonel Musgrave with the Fortieth and Fifty-fifth Regiments up the Lancaster road, near to the Paoli Tavern, to intercept any attempt to retreat over that route. The watchword of the Americans for that night, through some treachery was communicated to the enemy.

General Grey, guided by his Tory aides, marched up the Swedes’ Ford road, and massed his troops as near Wayne’s camp as possible. General Grey cautiously moved through the woods up the ravine, and near the present Malvern station of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

General Wayne received intelligence of the enemy’s advances, immediately ordered the troops under arms, many were awakened by the cry, “Up, men, the British are on you!”

The night was dark, and the surrounding woodland made it uncertain as to the point of attack. General Wayne ascertained, however, that the enemy was advancing upon his right, where the artillery was placed, and ordered Colonel Humpton to wheel the division by sub-platoon to the right, and march off by the left, and thus gain the road leading to the summit of the hill.

The artillery moved off, but owing to a misapprehension the troops failed to move, although in a position to do so. In addition to this blunder, part of the force took the wrong road, which brought the men within the light of their fires, and thus gave the enemy an advantage which should have been avoided.

General Wayne took the light infantry and First regiment and formed them on the right, to receive the enemy and cover the retreat of the artillery.

General Grey had gained Wayne’s left about 1 o’clock in the morning. The troops under Wayne met the enemy with spirit, gave them several well-directed fires, which did considerable execution. They were, however, soon compelled to give way before superior numbers.

General Wayne with the Fourth regiment received the shock of the enemy’s charge, and covered the retreat of the rest of his line. He rallied such of Colonel Humpton’s troops as had taken the proper course in their retreat, where they were again formed to renew the conflict.

Both parties, however drew off without further contest, and General Wayne retreated to the White Horse, carrying with him his artillery and ammunition.

The British attack was made by twice the number of the troops commanded by Wayne. The enemy advanced with only bayonets and light horseman’s swords in a most ferocious and merciless spirit. General Grey ordered his men to remove the flints from their guns, that not a single shot should be fired.

The British dashed into the woods, guided by the straggling fire of the picket, and rushed into the camp yelling.

The Americans were completely surprised, some with arms, others without, running in all directions in the greatest confusion.

The light infantry bayoneted every man they met. The camp was soon in flames, and this with the cries of the wounded formed a scene terrible to behold.

In the slaughter even the sick and wounded were not spared. This conduct of the British commander has stigmatized it as “British barbarity” and has given to the action the title of the Paoli Massacre.

The loss of the Americans was about 150 killed and wounded. The British reported their loss as eight killed, but this is probably an inaccurate record.

The next morning the people in the neighborhood visited the scene and decently buried fifty-three mangled dead whose bodies were found upon the field.

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Unholy Alliance with Delaware Indians Concluded at Fort Pitt, September 21, 1778

When General Lachlan McIntosh was sent to relieve General Edward Hand at Fort Pitt it was expected that the frontiers would be made safe, as General Washington ordered the Eighth Pennsylvania and the Thirteenth Virginia detached from Valley Forge and marched to the Western post.

The plan of General McIntosh was to attack Detroit, which involved a march of 300 miles through a wilderness inhabited by savages, most of whom were hostile to the American cause. This army must be carried far from its base of supplies, and Fort Pitt was never strong. This was a stupendous enterprise.

The Delaware tribe, who had removed from the central part of Pennsylvania, were now living on the Tuscarawas and the Muskingum, and were the only Indians who had maintained neutrality between the Colonists and the British.

White Eyes, the head sachem and the greatest chieftain ever produced by this remarkable Indian nation, was devoted to the American cause. He revealed a spirit of intelligent sympathy with the struggle for liberty and even hoped that a Delaware Indian State might form a fourteenth star in the American Union.

Preparations were made for a formal treaty of alliance, and June, 1778, Congress ordered it to be held at Fort Pitt July 23 following, and requested Virginia to name two Commissioners and Pennsylvania one.

On account of the Continental troops being too far distant the treaty was postponed until September.

Colonel Brodhead and the Eighth Pennsylvania, which had been recruited in Western Pennsylvania, reached Fort Pitt September 10, 1778. Already the Delaware Indians were encamped near the shore of the river a short distance above the fort. Two days later the conference began.

This was probably the most remarkable treaty ever made in the interest of the United States.

By this treaty, the United States entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with a tribe of savage Indians, recognizing them as an independent nation, guaranteeing its integrity and territory. Each party bound itself to assist the other against enemies.

The treaty even contained a provision for the admission of an Indian State into the American Union. The Commissioners certainly knew this was impossible, yet they deliberately provided for it in solemn treaty, taking care, however, to subject the scheme to the approval of Congress.

In present day parlance it was a “gold brick,” the white men handed to their red brethren.

On the other hand, it was a most courageous act upon the part of the Delaware tribe to form this alliance with the Americans, as all the other Indian tribes of the West were in league with the British, and had for months been trying to persuade the Delaware to join them.

In that alliance White Eyes exposed his people to absolute destruction by the British and their red allies. He fully realized his danger, yet he had the courage to do what he believed to be the right thing, and he fell a martyr to his convictions.

The Shawnee were invited into the alliance, but made no response. At the treaty the Delaware deputies were White Eyes, the chief sachem; Killbuck, a famous medicine man and war chief, and Pipe, the chief warrior of the Wolf clan. All were attired in holiday regalia, paint, feathers and beads.

On the part of the Americans were General McIntosh and his colonels and staff officers. The interpreter was Job Chilloway, the noted Delaware Indian, who resided on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and who was ever the true friend of the whites. Soldiers patrolled the parade ground or stood about watching the unusual scene.

General Andrew Lewis, one of the Virginia Commissioners, opened the conference on Saturday morning by presenting a belt of white wampum, and praising the Delaware tribesmen because they alone remained faithful to their treaties. He then presented a broad belt which had the wampum so arranged that it depicted a red man and a white man connected by a black line, denoting a road or path. He then proposed a formal alliance, giving a third belt, showing a white man and an Indian clasping hands.

General Lewis stated the intention of sending an army against Detroit and asked permission of the Delaware Indians for passage through their country.

Chief White Eyes gave thanks for the offer of friendship and alliance. He told them it was to form such an alliance that he and his comrades had come to the council. He promised a prompt consultation and an answer in the afternoon. He was the only Indian who spoke at the conference.

The arrival of another delegation of Indians consumed much time. The new arrivals were led by Wingenund, the Delaware wise man, and Nimwha, chief of the small band of the Shawnee, who lived with the Delaware at Coshocton.

The conference was resumed in the morning, when White Eyes announced the readiness of the Indians to accept the alliance. The Commissioners announced they would submit copy of the treaty in writing.

White Eyes then said: “Brothers, we are become one people. The enemy Indians, as soon as they hear it, will strike us. We desire that our brethren would build some place for our old men, women and children to remain in safety whilst our warriors go with you.”

On Monday the articles of confederation between a civilized and a savage nation were interpreted and explained to the Indians. On Wednesday White Eyes accepted the treaty on behalf of the Delaware and the Shawnee.

On the following day the articles of confederation were signed in triplicate, one copy for Congress, one for the Delaware, and one for General McIntosh. There were six articles:

First, all offenses were to be mutually forgiven; second, a perpetual peace was pledged; third, the Delaware assented to passages through their country for American Army and agreed to sell corn, meat and horses to the army and to furnish guides, while the Americans agreed to erect a garrison, within the Delaware country, a fort for the protection of the old men, women and children; fourth, related to punishment for offenses only by trial by judges of both parties, etc.; fifth, the United States pledged the establishment of a fair trade under the control of an honest agent.

The sixth article was the most remarkable of all. It guaranteed the integrity of the Delaware territory so long as the nation should keep peace with the United States, promised the Delaware nation should have a representative in Congress, etc. All these articles were contingent upon the proviso that “it meets with the approval of Congress.”

On the succeeding day, September 21, presents were given to the Delaware on behalf of Congress and the Indians then departed for Coshocton, to make preparations for joining the expedition against Detroit.

Chief White Eyes was treacherously killed; the soldiers spent the winter in the wilderness, where many hardships were endured, and the expedition proved a failure.

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Franklin Attends Conference of Indians in Carlisle, September 22, 1753

During the summer of 1753 the Six Nations, Shawnee, Delaware and Twightwee held a great treaty in Virginia, where they were called by Governor Dinwiddie, but who much offended them by his failure to attend the conference in person.

On their return the Indians sent word to Governor James Hamilton, at Philadelphia, that they desired to negotiate a new treaty at Carlisle. The Governor learned that Dinwiddie had not met them in Virginia and he thought Carlisle too far distant to travel on such a mission, so Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, Richard Peters, the secretary, and Dr. Benjamin Franklin were commissioned September 22, 1753, to meet and treat with the Indians.

Those who today wander through the streets of historic old Carlisle cannot realize that Franklin and his companions found little more than a frontier fort. John O'Neal, in a letter to Governor Hamilton, dated May 27, 1753, says there were only five houses in the town and but twelve men in the garrison.

Fort Lowther, on High street, near the Public Square, was a harbor of refuge for pioneer families so frequently exposed to Indian attack. Court was held in a log building on the northeast corner of Center Square.

Franklin never forgot his experience at Carlisle and referred to it frequently. His visit to help make a new treaty with the Ohio Indians was a mission of much importance. Through daring wiles of the French, England’s position in the New World was being imperiled more and more.

What attitude the Indians would take in a contest between English and French was of vital importance, not only to the King, but more especially to Pennsylvania settlers, who well knew the terror of Indian massacres and wars.

The Indians attending the Carlisle pow-wow wanted fire water as soon as the commissioners arrived, but Franklin and the other members were shrewd enough to promise rum only when the conference had been completed.

Scarouady, an Oneida chief, sometimes called Half King, who was a person of great weight in their councils, went into caucus with the commissioners before formal sessions began.

He regretfully advised that deliberations could not proceed until belts, strings and goods sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly as condolences arrived “to cover the graves of braves killed by the French and their Indians, and were spread out on the ground” before the assembled red men.

The commissioners wanted to begin work at once and offered to furnish a list and inventory of the delayed presents. It was then agreed to confer with the chiefs of the “Shawnee and Delaware on the state of affairs in Ohio,” pending arrival of the condolences.

Conrad Weiser and Andrew Montour acted as interpreters between the commissioners and Indians, while several magistrates and freeholders attended the conference, which was formally opened on the morning of October 1, after the gifts costing £800, which had arrived that morning, had been laid out on the ground.

During the three days following, when Indians and commissioners were not passing presents to one another, speeches were delivered according to the customary procedure of such gatherings.

At the closing of the first day, as is briefly mentioned in the report, “the goods allotted for each nation as a present of condolence were taken away by each.”

The forms of the condolences depended entirely on Indian custom and were settled in conference with Scarouady and Cayanguileguoa, a sensible Indian of the Mohawk Nation, and accordingly the proper belts and strings were made ready.

But the commissioners had been compelled to await until the condolences had arrived before they were able to assuage the Indian grief.

After the Oneida chieftain had offered the suggestion, “We dig a grave for your warriors killed in your country and we bury their bones, decently wrapping them in these blankets, and with these presents we cover their graves,” the Indians aired their complaints and protestations of loyalty to the English.

In return for all the delicate niceties of Indian procedure, which the wise Franklin had been careful to observe the red men covered graves of the English with a beaver skin blanket and offered as occasion required a string or two of wampum, belts and bundles of skins.

A shell, painted green on the concave side, with a string of wampum attached, was given the commissioners as evidence that the assembled Indians had but a single heart and that “green and good and sound.”

The calumet, a pipe decorated with fine feathers, was offered in proof that the Indians cherished no resentment against the English because of French inroads.

They made Andrew Montour a counselor for the Six Nations, presented him with a belt in token of their confidence and gave notice in a speech that a horn had been set upon his head as evidence of Indian respect for one of their number who served the English.

Franklin thus speaks of this treaty in his autobiography: “Being commissioned, we went to Carlisle and met the Indians accordingly. As these people are extremely apt to get drunk, and when so are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly forbade the selling of any liquor to them; and when they complained of this restriction, we told them, if they would continue sober during the treaty, we would give them plenty of rum when the business was over. They promised this, and they kept their promise, because they could get no rum, and the treaty was conducted very orderly and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received the rum; this was in the afternoon.

“They were near one hundred men, women and children, some were lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of a square, just without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out to see what was the matter.

“We found they had made a great bonfire in the middle of the square; they were all drunk, men and women quarreling and fighting. Their dark-colored bodies, seen only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, running after and beating one another with firebrands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of an inferno that could be well imagined.

“There was no appeasing the tumult, and we retired to our lodgings. At midnight a number of them came thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of which we took no notice. The next day, sensible they had misbehaved themselves in giving us that disturbance, they sent three of their old counselors to make their apology.”

He concludes: “That if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for the cultivators of the earth, it seems not impossible that rum may be the appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the seacoast.”

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Boundary Dispute with Virginia Ended When Assembly Ratified Agreement, September 23, 1780

Besides the Connecticut claims, which took in almost the entire half of the Province of Pennsylvania, Virginia laid claim to a large portion of the western part. The origin of this claim dates very far back in the history of the country.

The charter of 1607 granted to the London Company all the territory in America lying between the 34th and 38th degrees of north latitude.

In 1609 the charter was amended and enlarged, so that it comprised a region stretching two hundred miles north and the same distance south of Point Comfort, and extending “up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest.”

In 1623 the London Company was dissolved, and their territory, except where grants had been made to private individuals, reverted to the Crown.

The Virginians never fully accepted this decision. Penn’s grant was respected; but any other territory within the limits of their charter they continued to claim, notwithstanding the action of the King’s Bench.

To explore and occupy his vast domain was one of the most fascinating objects of the early Virginians.

It was to vindicate their claim to the region about the forks of the Ohio that the youthful Major George Washington was sent to the French posts in 1753.

The authorities of Pennsylvania, however, now began to contend that the claims of Virginia overlapped the charter granted to William Penn, and some correspondence took place between Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, in the years 1752 and 1753.

Early in 1753 the Virginians undertook to secure possession of the country about the Forks of the Ohio against the common enemy, the French, by building a fort, where Pittsburgh now stands. The French, under Contrecœur descended the Allegheny, drove the Virginians away, and themselves built a stronghold at the same place, which they called Fort Duquesne.

This disputed territory remained in the hands of the French until General Forbes invested Fort Duquesne, November 24, 1758. The fort was rebuilt and named Fort Pitt.

No revival of the dispute took place until January, 1774, when one Dr. John Conolly, a native of Lancaster, and one whom Bancroft describes as “a physician, land-jobber and subservient political intriguer,” appeared with authority from Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, and took possession of Fort Pitt, and renamed it Fort Dunmore.

Conolly issued a call to the public to assemble as a militia, and for this conduct he was apprehended by Arthur (afterwards General) St. Clair, a magistrate of Westmoreland County, and thrown into jail at Hannastown.

He was released on bail and returned to Virginia. Here he was appointed a justice of Augusta County, which the Virginians contended embraced the territory in debate, and shortly returned to Pittsburgh with a strong force.

He captured the court at Hannastown, and at Pittsburgh, April 9, 1774, he arrested Justices Mackey, Smith, and McFarlane, and sent them prisoners to Staunton, Virginia.

Conolly’s high-handed proceedings called for action by Governor John Penn, who wrote to Governor Dunmore, complaining of Conolly’s actions, and describing the boundaries of Pennsylvania.

Governor Penn gave a careful delineation of the several surveys and closed his letter by suggesting a temporary line of jurisdiction until the affair could be settled by King George III in Council.

Lord Dunmore replied March 3, 1774, in which he contravened the opinions of Governor Penn and refused to comply with his suggestions. He furthermore resented the arrest of Conolly and demanded the dismissal of St. Clair.

Governor Penn replied, March 31, when he recapitulated the history of the claim, and declined to dismiss St. Clair from his office.

On May 7, James Tilghman and Andrew Allen were appointed commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania to settle the question in dispute. They reached Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, May 19.

Governor Dunmore demanded their proposition in writing, and they gave it to him on the 23rd.

The substance of the paper was that the Mason and Dixon’s line should be continued to the end of the five degrees from the Delaware River, and from the end of that line a line should be run corresponding in direction to the courses of the Delaware, and drawn at every point at the distance of five degrees of longitude from that river. This proposition would have the western boundary of Pennsylvania of the same form as the eastern.

Lord Dunmore replied that he did not believe the Crown intended such an irregular western boundary. He then proceeded to explain the boundary as he understood it.

It is a fact worthy of remark that Governor Penn’s proposition gave to Virginia nearly all that she claimed, while Dunmore’s gave to Pennsylvania far more than she demanded; the boundary lines as he defined them being almost identical with those at present established.

No agreement was reached and Lord Dunmore refused to relinquish his authority over Fort Pitt.

Meanwhile Conolly’s conduct was outrageous. He not only oppressed the people, but stirred up a war with the Indians, who committed great barbarities.

Governor Penn could not save the situation, nor could the law furnish any protection.

The war with the mother country developed and Dunmore and Conolly took sides against the colonists.

On the night of June 7, 1775, Dunmore was compelled to seek safety on board the “Fowney,” an English man-of-war, at York, Va., and Conolly soon joined Dunmore in his place of refuge.

In December, 1776, the legislature of Virginia proposed a line of demarcation, which was slightly different from those already suggested, but Pennsylvania could not accept it.

In the meantime matters remained in a chaotic condition, especially as to Westmoreland inhabitants. But the time came when it was necessary to do something.

Finally George Bryan, John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Dr. James Madison and Robert Andrews, on the part of Virginia, met as commissioners at Baltimore, August 31, 1779, and after thorough consideration of the subject agreed as follows:

“To extend Mason and Dixon’s line due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian, drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of said state, be the western boundary of said state forever.”

This agreement was ratified and confirmed by the legislature of Virginia, June 23, 1780, and by that of Pennsylvania, September 23, 1780.

In 1782 commissioners appointed by the two states ran the lines, but these were only temporary. In 1783, David Rittenhouse, John Lukens, John Ewing, and Captain Hutchins, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Dr. James Madison, Andrew Ellicott, Robert Andrews, and T. Page, on the part of Virginia, again ran the lines, and set up stone pillars at regular intervals.

This work was accomplished in 1784, and ended further dispute in the matter.

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Two Brothers of Doan Family of Outlaw Sons Hanged September 24, 1788

During the Revolutionary War a number of young men either to escape from serving in army or paying fines, or for the reason that they may have sympathized with the element which opposed the independence of the young colonies, and did not choose to enlist openly with the enemy, found a more profitable employment in secret acts of treachery and piracy among their neighbors.

For that service they were amply compensated by the British, especially during their occupancy of Philadelphia and New York City.

There were not a few such outlaws, and they did not reside in any one quarter of the State, but the most notorious of them all were several brothers by the name of Doan.

The Doans lived in Plumstead Township, near Doylestown, Bucks County. The father, Israel Doan, was a worthy man, but his six sons as they grew to manhood abandoned all the noble principles of the religious sect with which they had been reared, and retaining only so much of the outward forms as suited their nefarious schemes, they became a gang of most desperate outlaws.

The sons were professedly Tories and pursued for a time a very profitable trade in stealing the horses and cattle of their Whig neighbors, and disposing of them to the British Army, then in Philadelphia.

The brothers lived in the highways and hedges and waged a predatory and retaliatory war upon their persecutors. They were men of fine figures and addresses, elegant horsemen, great runners and excellent at stratagems and escapes.

The Doans were distinguished from their youth for great muscular activity. They could run and jump beyond all competitors, and it is said one of them could jump over a Conestoga wagon.

They delighted to injure public property, but did no injury to the weak, the poor, or the peaceful.

One of the brothers, Joseph, was a school teacher in Plumstead Township. Two of the brothers had joined the British in Philadelphia, and through them the stolen horses were disposed of and the proceeds shared.

The Doans at school were often displaying their pockets full of guineas, which at first were believed to be counterfeit; but subsequent events proved their genuineness, and disclosed the source from which they had procured so considerable an amount of gold.

Suspicion had long fastened upon the family; they were closely watched and eventually, about the year 1782, the stealing of a horse belonging to John Shaw, of Plumstead, was positively traced to them. This brought upon Mr. Shaw and a few others, who were active in their detection, the combined malignity of the whole banditti and it was not long before they obtained their revenge.

The Doans added to their band another villain of kindred spirit by the name of Robert Steele. Under the leadership of Moses Doan and Joseph, the schoolmaster, the seven outlaws fell upon Mr. Shaw in the dead of the night, in his own house, bruised and lacerated him most cruelly, and decamped with all his horses and everything of value they could take from the house.

A son of Mr. Shaw was dispatched to the nearest neighbors for assistance and to raise the hue and cry after the robbers. But these neighbors being Mennonites, conscientiously opposed to bearing arms and having besides an instinctive dread of personal danger, declined interfering in the matter. Such was the timidity and cautiousness manifested in those times between the nearest neighbors, when of different religions and political sentiments.

Young Shaw, however, soon raised a number of the inhabitants, part of whom responded to his father’s call for assistance, and part of whom armed themselves and went in pursuit of the robbers.

When the Doans finished with Mr. Shaw, they proceeded to the house of Joseph Grier, and robbed him, and then went to a tavern kept by Colonel Robert Robinson, a very corpulent man, whom they dragged out of bed, bound him in a most excruciating position, and placed him naked in the midst of them; then they whipped him until their ferocity was satisfied.

They robbed and abused several other persons the same night, and then fled into Montgomery County. Here they were overtaken, somewhere on Skippack, and so hotly pursued that they were glad to abandon the five horses on which they rode, and seek safer refuge in the thicket. Joseph was shot through the cheeks, and captured when he fell from his horse. The others escaped.

The prisoner was confined in jail at Newtown, then the county town of Bucks, but while awaiting trial effected his escape. He fled into New Jersey, where he taught school, under an assumed name, for nearly a year.

The Federal Government offered a reward of $800 for him or his brothers, dead or alive. While Joseph was in a saloon one evening a man was heard to say that he would shoot any one of the Doans on sight for the sake of the reward. Joseph took the hint and made his way into Canada.

Moses, the captain of the gang, with two of his brothers, had taken refuge in a cabin occupied by a drunken man, near the mouth of Tohickon Creek. Mr. Shaw learned of the place of their concealment, rallied a party with Colonel Hart as leader, and surrounded them.

Instead of shooting them down at once, Colonel Hart opened the door, and cried out, “Ah! You’re here, are you?”

The Doans seized their guns and shot down Mr. Kennedy, one of the party. Two of the outlaws crawled through a window unseen, and escaped in the woods. Moses, the most respectable of all the brothers, surrendered. Immediately after he gave himself up he was shot down by one of the attacking party. It was discovered that the man who killed Moses was a former member of his outlaw band and killed him to close his mouth forever.

Two others of the Doan brothers, Abraham and Levi, were later captured in Chester County, and afterward hanged on September 24, 1788, in Philadelphia. Their bodies were taken back to Plumstead Township for burial.

Their valor and generosity made them respected above ordinary robbers, and many temperate people in the county expressed or felt great commiseration for them.

The Doans made a desperate fight to obtain pardons and their case caused intense excitement throughout the entire State, but they paid the price their lawlessness deserved.

Many years after the Shaw robbery, young Shaw became a magistrate in Doylestown. One day Joseph Doan, the robber and schoolmaster, now a refugee from prison, entered his office. The Squire gave him a cool reception but inquired of his errand.

The old scoundrel had returned from Canada to bring suit against a Quaker for a small legacy of $40. He had the impudence to require Squire Shaw’s services, although he had robbed and nearly killed his father. Squire Shaw performed his professional duties, but treated his unwelcome client with cool disdain and hatred.

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Dutch Gain Control of the Delaware River September 25, 1655

After the arrival of John Claudius Rysingh, as the successor of John Printz, Governor of New Sweden, May 20, 1654, he became a very aggressive officer. He began his administration by capturing the Dutch Fort Casimer, thus destroying the authority of the Dutch on the Delaware River.

On June 17, he held a great convocation of Indians at Printz Hall, on Tinicum Island, now Essington, on the Delaware River near Chester, at which a new treaty was successfully consummated.

The triumph of Rysingh was regarded as a reconquest of usurped territory and no other means to reclaim it by the Dutch were apprehended. That was a fatal delusion, for at the close of 1654, while estimates were being made in Sweden for the support of their colony during the ensuing year, on a peace basis, an armament was being fitted out in Holland not only sufficient “to replace matters on the Delaware in their former position,” but “to drive out the Swedes from every side of the river.”

In the spring of 1655 five armed vessels, well equipped and with 600 men, were forwarded by Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor at Manhattan. This expedition was commanded by Stuyvesant in person and arrived in Delaware Bay Monday afternoon, September 5, 1655.

By Friday the fleet reached Fort Casimer, now in control of the Swedes, and renamed Fort Trinity. The garrison was in command of Sven Schute, while Governor Rysingh, in person, had charge of Christina, in what is now Wilmington, Del.

To prevent a communication of the two forts Stuyvesant had landed fifty men. The demand made by the Dutch was a “direct restitution of their own property,” to which Commander Schute, after having had an interview with Stuyvesant, reluctantly yielded on the following day upon very favorable terms of capitulation.

The nine guns of the fort were to be reserved for the Swedish “crown” and removed when convenient. The Swedes were to march out, twelve fully equipped, the rest with their side-arms. Stuyvesant proclaimed that Swedes who would take the oath of allegiance to him might remain unmolested, and twenty did so.

The surrender of Schute was unknown to Governor Rysingh, and his position was virtually untenable. He had placed some of his best men in the captured fort, and an additional party, sent the very day of the surrender. He prepared for resistance, collected all the people for the defense of Fort Christina, and strengthened the ramparts.

On September 12, the Dutch appeared on the opposite side of Christina Creek, and the siege began, which was continued uninterruptedly for fourteen days.

On the 16th, Stuyvesant sent a letter “claiming the whole river.” Rysingh replied asserting the rights of the Swedes on the Delaware and protesting against the Dutch invasion. Stuyvesant renewed his demand, and Rysingh next urged that the boundaries between the Swedish and Dutch colonies be settled by the Governments at home, or by commissioners to be agreed upon.

Only delay resulted. Stuyvesant was cocksure of his ability to capture the fort, and was satisfied to wait. It would have been folly in Rysingh, with his thirty men to have begun to fight. During the long siege no one was killed or wounded. September 25, Rysingh surrendered. A formal capitulation was drawn up and signed by the two commanders on the parade-ground outside the fort.

The soldiers were to march out with the honors of war. The guns and everything to remain the property of the Swedes. The Swedish settlers might stay or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they stayed, need not take the Dutch oath of allegiance.

Swedes who remained should enjoy the Lutheran faith, and have a minister to instruct them. Rysingh and the commissary, Elswick, were to be taken to Manhattan, and thence provided with passage to Europe. Thus ended the short but exciting career of Governor Rysingh, and with him fell the whole Swedish Colony.

Soon thereafter, Rysingh with other Swedish officials, proceeded to Manhattan. Rysingh, Lindstrom, the engineer; Elswick, the commissary, and the two clergymen, Hjort and Nertunius, sailed on a Dutch merchant vessel early in November, and were landed in Plymouth, England, where a report of the Dutch conquest was made to Lyderberg, the Swedish Ambassador to England.

Had not internal troubles arisen in Sweden at this time, their claim might have been pressed with effect, but in 1664 the whole of New Netherlands was seized by the English, and both Sweden and Holland had lost their colonies. Neither was likely to obtain much satisfaction from the other, and the controversy faded away.

Many improvements had been made by the Swedes, from Henlopen to the Falls of Alumingh. They laid the foundation of Upland, the present Chester; Korsholm Fort was built at Passyunk; Manayunk Fort was placed at the mouth of the Schuylkill; they marked the sites of Nya Wasa and Gripsholm, somewhere near the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill, Straus Mijk, Nieu Causeland, the present New Castle; and forts were erected at Kingsessing, Wicacoa, Finland and other places.

The Swedes lived at peace with the Indians. The Government of the Dutch was established by the appointment of John Paul Jacquet as vice director and commander-in-chief, and Andreas Hudde as secretary and surveyor, keeper of the keys of the fort, etc.

The overthrow of the Swedish authority on the Delaware was complete and final, and for a period of nine years the white settlements on the river, on both sides, remained wholly under control of the Dutch. The Swedes lived together, mostly north of Christina, and the Dutch gathered about Fort Casimer, where a little hamlet sprang up, which became known as New Amstel, the New Castle of the English and of the present.

The authority centered at New Amstel. Christina was eclipsed, and Tinicum ceased to have importance except as the residence of Madam Popegoja and the location of a church. The log forts at both places rotted down and were not rebuilt.

In April, 1657, Jacob Alricks assumed the governorship of the colony for the Dutch, when Hudde was appointed to command at Fort Christina, the name of which was changed to Altona.

Stuyvesant again visited the Delaware in May, 1658. At Tinicum he conferred with Sheriff Van Dyck, Magistrate Olaf Stille, Mathys Hansson, Peter Rambo and Peter Cock. These and Sven Schute and others took the oath of allegiance to the Dutch authority and were granted a number of requests.

In July, 1658, William Beekman was appointed by Stuyvesant to represent the Dutch West India Company on the Delaware.

But Pennsylvania was soon to be wrested from the Dutch and England gained possession October 1, 1664.

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British Under General Howe Invest City of Philadelphia, September 26, 1777

After the defeat of the American Army in the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, the British did not pursue Washington’s Army, which marched to Chester and then to Germantown. Here provisions and ammunition, both much needed, were obtained.

The British advanced toward Philadelphia, which was unprepared to make an adequate defense, and General Mifflin, who was to take command, was too ill to do so.

When the news reached the city, early on the morning of September 19, that the British had crossed the Schuylkill, all was in confusion.

Congress and the Supreme Executive Council of the State, which had remained in Philadelphia during the exciting events transpiring before the city, now adjourned to meet elsewhere, the former, on the 18th, to meet in Lancaster. After a flight to Bethlehem and then via Reading it reached Lancaster, where it convened on the 27th, but three days later removed to York, which became the capital of the United States.

The State Government remained until the 24th, when it also went to Lancaster, the archives, etc., having previously been removed to Easton. The first meeting of Wharton and his councilors was held in Lancaster September 29.

On the 19th Washington passed the Schuylkill at Parkers Ford, leaving Wayne with 2000 men on the west side to fall upon any detachment of the enemy or destroy his baggage. That night occurred the Paoli massacre.

The British crossed the Schuylkill at Fatland Ford on the 22d. General Howe established headquarters at Norristown on the 23d and 24th.

Washington had marched his army in the direction of Reading. On the 25th the British began an encampment at Germantown, Howe making Stenton his headquarters.

Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia on September 26 at the head of a detachment of British and Hessian grenadiers.

An American flotilla held the channel of the Delaware River below the city, but the British immediately constructed batteries which repulsed an attack the following day.

The main army of the enemy remained in camp at Germantown. Thus the richest and most populous capital of the whole confederation fell into the enemy’s hands, after a sanguinary battle, and a series of maneuvers no less masterly than painful to the two armies.

Washington, descending along the left bank of the Schuylkill, approached to within sixteen miles of Germantown, where he encamped at Skippack Creek.

General Howe, having occupied Philadelphia, at once took measures to secure the unobstructed passage of his fleet up the Delaware. Colonel Sterling was sent with a detachment to attack the American fort at Billingsport, on the Jersey side of the Delaware River, as its capture would place it in their power to make a passage through the obstructions in the channel and enable their vessels to approach within striking distance of Fort Mifflin.

Colonel Sterling’s attack was successful October 2, as no resistance was offered by the small garrison under Colonel Bradford. They had taken off all the ammunition and some of the cannon, spiking those that remained and burned the barracks.

While this action was in progress, General Washington regarded it as a favorable opportunity for making an attack on the British force encamped at Germantown, and with between eight and nine thousand Continentals, besides some militia marched toward that place on the night of October 3.

When Washington gave the order to retire the Americans executed their retreat in good order, followed by the British for about nine miles.

The American Army gathered at the back of Perkiomen Creek with a post formed on the hillside of the road near White Marsh Church, and Washington at Pennypacker’s mill.

The Congress expressed its approbation, both of the plan of enterprise and the courage with which it was executed, for which votes of thanks were given to General Washington and the army.

On October 13 the Assembly at Lancaster established a Council of Safety consisting of the members of the Supreme Executive Council and John Bayard, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, Jonathan B. Smith, David Rittenhouse, Joseph Gardner, Robert Whitehill, Christopher Marshall, James Smith, of York; Jacob Arndt, Curtis Grubb, James Cannon and William Henry with power to punish even capitally in a summary manner, and to take at their appraisement any necessaries for the army.

A rule also was made against profiteers, and any person who should buy up more bar-iron, leather, salt, wheat, cattle or other merchandise, or victuals, than proper for his own need and supply should be punished severely.

During the British occupation there were as many as 20,000 troops in and about Philadelphia. General Howe lived for a time in Stenton, the home built by James Logan, and later in the Samuel Morris house; he also lived for a time in the Perot mansion, which in 1793, was the residence of General Washington, while President of the United States. During the time he stayed in Philadelphia he seized and kept for his own use Mary Pemberton’s coach and horses, with which he rode about town.

General Knyphausen lived in General Cadwallader’s mansion, on Second Street; Lord Cornwallis dwelt in David Lewis’ house, Second, above Spruce Street; Major André dwelt in Benjamin Franklin’s mansion. Other officers occupied fine residences and it was a season of much social gayety.

On October 19 the main body of the British Army left Germantown and encamped behind the line of redoubts in the Northern Liberties.

Philadelphia was now walled in from river to river by lines of British troops, but yet the British men-of-war commanded by General Howe’s brother, Lord Howe, could not freely pass the obstructions in the Delaware River.

The artillery were quartered in Chestnut Street, between Third and Sixth Streets, the State House yard being used as a park. The Forty-second Highlanders occupied Chestnut Street below Third, and the Fifteenth Regiment was quartered in Market Street, in and about Fifth Street.

Later in October General Washington sent General McDougall to attack 1500 British at Gray’s Ferry. Generals Sullivan and Greene were to make a feint along the Germantown road. Greene got as far as Three Mile Run, where he united with Sullivan and waited for the signal that McDougall had begun the attack. The enemy had called in his troops at Gray’s Ferry and the Americans were obliged to return.

The English forced the evacuation of Fort Mifflin, November 15, and Fort Mercer was abandoned the 20th, but, in spite of this handicap, the American fleet successfully passed Philadelphia and took refuge above Bristol.

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British Open Hostilities in Long Siege on Fort Mifflin, September 27, 1777

The British Army was in possession of Philadelphia, but the communication was not open with their fleet, and General Washington in evacuating the city had placed a garrison in Fort Mifflin, not as strong as the importance and exigencies of the place required, but such as the situation of his army could afford.

Fort Mifflin was nothing more than a wooden fort with an inclosure of palisades. It was situated on Mud Island, on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. The small Pennsylvania fleet was in command of Commodore John Hazlewood.

The British were not unacquainted with the miserable situation of the fort and knew its weaknesses and the best means to reduce it.

On September 27 the enemy on Providence Island opened two mortars and three heavy guns against the southeast blockhouse. That left these batteries unsupported, which gave an opportunity for Colonel Smith to order a sally above and below.

Two parties supported by the galleys under Commodore Hazlewood landed on the beach of Providence Island and stormed the battery, which was defended by two officers and sixty British, who surrendered themselves. They were carried into the fort before the enemy’s guards could attack the Americans, but not before the guns were spiked.

From October 10 to the 21st a severe fire was kept up; the two west blockhouses were ruined and the north one blown up by the fall of several shells.

The enemy, seeing the breaches made to the palisades, hoped to gain possession of the fort, and as it was very important for their remaining in Philadelphia that the communication be open, they determined a general storm on Mud Island October 22.

Previous to it, in the evening of the 21st, the Hessian brigade crossed at Cooper’s Ferry to storm Fort Mercer, on the Jersey shore about 1500 yards northeast of Fort Mifflin and up the river. The attack was so rash that even success could not justify its temerity.

Before the storm of the fort was attempted Colonel Donop sent a flag to Colonel Christopher Green, who commanded the fort, threatening to put the garrison to the sword if he did not surrender it immediately. Colonel Green answered with disdain, saying he would defend it till the last drop of his blood. About an hour before night the attack was begun on the north and south side.

Both the British attacks were expected. The artillery and musketry of the fort and the heavy guns of the galleys poured grapeshot and cannon balls upon them and made great slaughter. They advanced as far as the abattis, and being repulsed with great loss, they left their commanding officer dying and retreated with hurry and confusion. They rallied in the woods, and leaving their wounded and dead, about 300, in the hands of the victors, retired to Philadelphia the same night.

Colonel Green and the officers who had displayed so much courage in repulsing the enemy, treated the wounded with much humanity. Colonel Donop was attended with the greatest care, but he died a few days after the action, and was buried with the honors of war.

The morning after the attack on Fort Mercer it became Fort Mifflin’s turn. On the 22d, about 9 o’clock, the ships Eagle, Somerset, Isis, Augusta, Pearl, Liverpool and several frigates, with a galley, came up to the chevaux de frise, 500 yards from the fort. At the same time the land batteries, the fort batteries and the American galleys and the British squadron engaged.

The firing continued until noon with relentless fury; the fort frequently fired red-hot balls, one of which struck the Augusta, a sixty-four-gun ship, she took fire, and in a moment was ablaze, and soon after blew up with a thundering noise, before the enemy could take out all their hands.

A moment after, the Merlin, a twenty-two-gun frigate, ran ashore below the Augusta, and as she could not be removed before the explosion, took fire and also blew up.

The other ships, frightened by the fate of these two, retired below Hog Island; and the land batteries, which had hoisted the bloody flag, to warn the garrison that they were not to expect any quarter, continued their fighting until evening.

The weakened garrison had been re-inforced by Pennsylvania and Virginia troops, but Colonel Smith found the garrison in great danger from fatigue and salt provisions, the water they had to wade through, the cold nights and constant firing by the enemy turned many men to the hospital.

The enemy suffered also from the inclemency of the weather, and the overflowing of the island. The water was two feet deep in their fort.

The British, believing they must evacuate Philadelphia or take the fort, made new batteries, and on November 8 kept up an incessant fire.

All the palisades were broken down and the block houses ruined. The ditch filled up with mud. Captain Treat and his lieutenant were killed. Colonel Smith was wounded and the garrison nearly exhausted.

Major Thayer with some New England troops relieved the garrison. Major Fleury would not be relieved and remained with the garrison.

On November 15 the enemy made a furious attack by the river and land and floating batteries on the fort.

The ships came as near the fort as possible in the main channel, and the Vigilant, carrying 24-pounders, came up under the protection of the land batteries, behind Hog Island, and anchored forty yards from the angle of the battery.

Fort Mifflin had been so much exposed on that side that on it did not remain a single gun. Major Thayer ordered the 32-pounder to be carried there. Before the Vigilant began to fire that single gun put fourteen shots in her board. But as soon as she was at anchor and began to play all resistance became impossible.

In three or four broadsides not only the parapet and the carriages but even the irons of the guns themselves were broken, and in half an hour not a gun in the fort was able to fire.

Another sloop of war joined the Vigilant and played against the fort all the afternoon.

The garrison was buried in ruins, unable to retreat during the day and unwilling to do it as long as they could expect re-enforcements, had not any expectation but to sell their lives dearly as they could.

It was impossible to defend the fort with so small a force, and Major Thayer called for re-enforcements from Fort Mercer or he must evacuate the fort. At that moment Major Fleury and Major Talbot were wounded and another officer of artillery killed.

At 10 o’clock at night, as no re-enforcements had arrived from New Jersey, it was impossible to defend the fort any longer.

Major Thayer evacuated the fort with a degree of firmness equal to the bravery of his defense. He set fire to the remains, and with less than 200 men, having carried off all the wounded, he arrived at Fort Mercer about 1 o’clock in the morning, being the last man to march out of the fort.

The British took possession of Fort Mifflin half an hour after the Americans left it.

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Colonel William Plunket Defeats Yankees in Pennamite War, September 28, 1775

There had been four years of tranquil enjoyment among the Yankee settlers at Wyoming following the conclusion, in 1771, of the first Pennamite War. The Proprietaries had been defeated and driven out, and for four years they made no attempt to retake their property.

With the defeat of Dick and Ogden, August, 1771, the Penns were actually driven out of Wyoming and the Yankee settlers poured into the valley in such numbers that it was considered advisable to erect five new townships, each five miles square, along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, on the lands of the Susquehanna Company.

Accordingly, in 1771 the township of Charlestown was erected at the mouth of Muncy Creek, now Lycoming County; the township of Judea was erected above the mouth of Limestone Run, which is in the center of the present borough of Milton.

In May, 1773, the township of Westminster was erected above the mouth of Buffalo Creek, in what is now Union County.

It was intended that another township, to be called New Simsburg, should be erected on the south side of the West Branch, opposite the mouth of Pine Creek. This survey was never made, but the site selected was opposite the present borough of Jersey Shore, and included the beautiful island at that place.

The fifth town, called Salem, was erected on the North Branch, May, 1773, below the mouth of Shickshinny Creek.

Northumberland County was erected March 21, 1772, and its territory, which embraced 462 square miles, included the entire Wyoming Valley, which was placed in the seventh and last township, called Wyoming.

During that summer a number of settlers arrived in Turbot Township from the State of New Jersey, among whom were John, Cornelius and Peter Vincent and their families. John and Peter were brothers and Cornelius was the son of John. They settled on a plantation one mile below the mouth of Warrior Run, which is two miles north of the present borough of Milton.

John immediately became the leader of this pioneer settlement and dominant factor and partisan of the Connecticut interest. In May, 1775, the Governor of Connecticut appointed him a justice of the peace for Litchfield County. Accompanied by his son and several others, he went to Wyoming in August and requested a number of people to go to the West Branch and make settlements.

Major William Judd, Joseph Sluman, Esq., and about eighty others arrived at Vincent’s September 23, and two days later Judd and Sluman wrote a jointly signed letter to Judge William Plunket, in which they acknowledged they had come with a view of settling, and stated that as this might be a “matter of much conversation among the inhabitants, we are willing to acquaint you with the principles on which we are come. In the first place, we intend no hostilities; we will not disturb, molest or endeavor to dispossess any person of his property, or in any ways abuse his person by threats or any action that shall tend thereto. And, as we are commissioners of the peace from the Colony of Connecticut, we mean to be governed by the laws of that colony, and shall not refuse the exercise of the law to those of the inhabitants that are now dwellers here on their request, as the Colony of Connecticut extended last May their jurisdiction over the land. Finally, as we are determined to govern ourselves as above mentioned, we expect that those who think the title of this land is not in this colony will give us no uneasiness or disturbance in our proposed settlement.”

If Major Judd and his party really supposed that their movements would meet with no opposition, they were egregiously mistaken. It is also quite evident they prepared for defense.

According to the deposition of Peter Smith, one detachment was on guard at a schoolhouse at Freeland’s Mills, three miles above the mouth of Warrior Run, and another at John Vincent’s house.

The report reached the county seat at Sunbury that the settlers had brought along entrenching tools, also swivels to be used in the entrenchments.

A petition was immediately prepared and sent to Governor John Penn, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, which was signed by William Cooke, Sheriff; James Murray, Coroner; William Plunket, President Judge; Samuel Hunter, County Lieutenant and Justice; Benjamin Alison, Robert Moodie, Michael Troy, Ellis Hughes and William Maclay, Associate Justices.

The petitioners set forth that their utmost efforts had failed to halt the “ambitious designs and enterprises of the intruders from the Colony of Connecticut. That they had been re-enforced with fresh numbers: Officers, civil and military. Swarms of emissaries are seducing the ignorant, frightening the timorous, and denouncing the utmost vengeance against any who may be hardy enough to oppose them—In fine, to such a situation we are already reduced as to be under the hard necessity of keeping constant guards, not only to prevent the destruction of our jail, but for the security of our houses and persons, all of which are violently threatened.”

Without waiting for action on the above petition the militia of Northumberland County was called out, and September 25 a company of fifty men left Fort Augusta to join companies from other points, to demand the reason for “this intrusion and hostile appearance.”

On September 28 the Yankees at their encampment at John Vincent’s were attacked by the Provincial forces under Colonel Plunket. Just how much resistance was offered is not a matter of record, but that there was a battle fought is evidenced by the fact that one Yankee was killed and eight wounded.

Plunket’s militiamen collected all the movable property, which was then and there divided among the victors. The torch was applied and all the buildings burned. They then marched the men, as prisoners, to Sunbury, where they were confined in jail. The women and children had been sent back to their friends and relatives at Wyoming.

At the hearing of the prisoners, Major Judd and Joseph Sluman, the leaders, were sent to Philadelphia, where they were confined in gaol, until December 20, when they were released by resolution of Congress. Three others were detained ten days in the gaol at Sunbury, and the remainder were dismissed.

This action of the county authorities and militia was approved by the Provincial Assembly in a resolution which was passed October 27, 1775:

“Resolved, That the inhabitants of the County of Northumberland, settled under the jurisdiction of this Province, were justifiable and did their duty in repelling the said intruders and preventing the further extension of the settlements.”

No doubt this expedition resulted in breaking up the Connecticut settlements on the West Branch, and the Pennsylvania claimants remained undisturbed in full possession of the territory.

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Captain John Smith Who First Meets Native Pennsylvanians Sailed for England, September 29, 1609

There seems to be no doubt but that the first European to meet the Indians who resided in what is now Pennsylvania was Captain John Smith.

This adventurer explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in 1608, and made a map of his observations, which with the one he made at a later date, of his explorations along the New England coast, were for many years recognized as the authority for this hemisphere.

The Dutch who first came to these shores formed an acquaintance with the Indians in 1615, and the Swedes first met them in 1638.

It seems, therefore, that a story about this intrepid navigator, statesman, soldier, and writer is timely.

Captain John Smith, founder of the Virginia Colony, was an English soldier, a native of Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, where he was born January, 1579; he died in London, June 21, 1631.

From early youth he was a soldier, enlisting in 1596, in the French Army to fight against Spain, but after the peace of 1598, he transferred his services to the insurgents in the Netherlands, and there remained until about 1600.

Returning home he almost immediately started on a career of marvelous adventure.

He sailed from France to Italy, where he was thrown overboard because it was learned he was a Protestant, but he was rescued by a pirate and landed on Italian soil.

He traveled through Italy and Dalmatia to Styria and fought with the Austrian Army against the Turks, distinguished himself in Hungary and Transylvania, for which service he was ennobled and pensioned.

Taken prisoner by the Turks, Smith was sent a slave to Constantinople, where he won the affections of his young mistress. He was sent by her to her brother in the Crimea, with a letter avowing her attachment. The indignant Turk cruelly maltreated Smith, when the latter one day slew his taskmaster, put on the Ottoman’s clothes, mounted a horse and escaped to a Russian port.

On his return to England, in 1605, Bartholomew Gosnold persuaded Smith to engage in founding a colony in Virginia, and at the age of twenty-seven years, already greatly renowned, he sailed from Blackwell for America, December 16, 1606, with Captain C. Newport, who commanded three vessels that bore one hundred and five emigrants.

Smith was accompanied by men of property, and the voyage being by the southern route was long and tedious. They landed, May 13, 1607, about fifty miles from the mouth of the river they called the James, where they built Jamestown, and chose that for the seat of the new empire.

Captain Smith, with Newport and twenty men, explored the James River as far as the falls, the site of Richmond, and made the acquaintance of Powhatan, emperor of thirty Indian tribes.

On the voyage to Virginia, Smith had become boastful and arrogant, causing him to be much disliked by Wingfield, of the London Company.

On his return from the first exploration trip Smith found Wingfield had set himself up as president, and that he was under arrest, but was acquitted at the trial and took his seat in the council, when that body demanded that the president should pay Smith £200 for false imprisonment.

All of Wingfield’s property was seized to pay it, when Smith generously placed it in the public store for the use of the colony.

Sickness prostrated the colony before the close of the summer.

Smith was soon made the leader of the colony, and brought order out of chaos, made the Indians bring in stores of corn, and had the colony well supplied with food for the ensuing winter.

After erecting fortifications Smith began a series of excursions into the surrounding region. He proved an excellent leader and became in fact the principal head of the colony.

He went up the Chickahominy in an open boat. Leaving the craft, he with two others and two Indian guides penetrated the forest, when Smith was seized by savages under Opechancanough, King of Pumunky, an elder brother of Powhatan, and conducted to the presence of the emperor.

At a great council presided over by Powhatan, Smith was doomed to die. Matoa, or Pocahontas, a daughter of Powhatan, begged her father to spare the prisoner’s life, but in vain.

Smith’s head was laid upon two stones, and two warriors had raised heavy clubs to crush it, when Pocahontas sprang from her father’s side, clasped Smith’s head with her arms, and laid her own on his.

The emperor yielded, and Smith was released and returned to Jamestown, where only forty persons were left, the little church burned to the ground, and the inhabitants on the point of abandoning the settlement.

On September 10, 1608, Smith was elected president of the colony; and, upon assuming this office, he enforced discipline, strove to convert their unthrifty methods, had them rebuild the church, strengthen the defenses, and make provision for agriculture and fishery.

Smith made two voyages, covering hundreds of miles, about the coast of the Chesapeake and its tributaries.

When his successor was elected Smith refused to surrender the government and served until September 29, 1609, when he sailed for England, and never again returned to Jamestown.

This was unfortunate for the colony, as his better leadership was necessary at that time to save it from frequent and serious disturbance.

In 1614 he made a voyage of exploration to New England and prepared a map of the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod.

When Captain Smith sailed his barge up the Chesapeake, entered the Susquehanna River and pushed as far up that stream as was possible, he made the first exploration of that great river from its mouth for several miles, and if he did not actually enter Pennsylvania, he was very close and certainly did meet some of the Susquehanna Indians, who resided in what is now called Lancaster County.

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Washington Started March Through Pennsylvania During Whisky Rebellion, September 30, 1794

Virginia claims George Washington as her native son, but most of the deeds which made Washington famous and the greater part of both his military and official life were passed in this State.

While Philadelphia and the counties of the East have stories, legends and traditions innumerable of the great Father of His Country, while Western Pennsylvania was the scene of his early military training, Central Pennsylvania, and the Cumberland Valley especially, have also their Washington traditions.

A Lancaster County almanac, published in the latter part of 1778, is credited by many with first having called Washington “Father of His Country,” while Lebanon, Hummelstown, Harrisburg, New Cumberland, Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg and many other valley towns and places have Washington traditions as part of their historic past, because of Washington’s trip to Bedford during the “Whisky Insurrection” of 1794.

A force of 12,900 men was to be raised against the rebellion, and Carlisle was the rendezvous for the Pennsylvania contingent of 5200. Cumberland County furnished 363 men, including officers. These, with similar quotas from York, Lancaster and Franklin Counties, were under command of Brigadier General James Chambers, of Franklin County.

The President set out from his home on Market Street, Philadelphia, September 30, 1794, accompanied by Secretary Hamilton, his own private secretary and a colored servant.

Accounts of the trip say that Washington was much interested in the canals and locks between Myerstown and Lebanon; that he lodged at Lebanon for the night, breakfasted at Hummelstown, the next morning and reached Harrisburg in time for dinner October 3.

Washington’s diary mentions the First Regiment of New Jersey, about 560 strong, which he found drawn up to receive him.

He spent the rest of that day in Harrisburg, received an address delivered to him by the burgesses[8] in behalf of the citizens, and departed the morning of October 4 for Carlisle, fording the Susquehanna in his carriage, which he drove himself.

Footnote 8:

Conrad Bombaugh and Alexander Berryhill.

Washington’s diary says: “On the Cumberland side I found a detachment of the Philadelphia Light Horse, ready to receive and escort me to Carlisle, seventeen miles distant, where I arrived about 11 o’clock.”

The President remained seven days in Carlisle, the guest of Colonel Ephraim Blaine. With him, according to one account, were “the members of his Cabinet and Governor Mifflin, many Senators and Representatives from Pennsylvania, and those, together with the New Jersey troops, formed a brilliant and numerous assemblage.”

The day after his arrival General Washington attended public worship. Before his departure a number of the principal inhabitants presented him with an address.

Sunday morning, October 12, Washington set out from Carlisle on the Walnut Bottom road. Near what is now Jacksonville stood the residence of Colonel Arthur Buchanan, relative of the later President James Buchanan, a large land owner and proprietor of Pine Grove furnace.

Verification of Washington having accepted Buchanan’s hospitality, for a short time at least, is said to have been founded on the story of “Polly” Buchanan, a daughter of the host. She died in Shippensburg in 1884 at the age of 104.

As Washington and his party came down Shippensburg’s one long street the citizens were at their doors. One account says:

“He was treated with great courtesy and respect by a majority of those who came to see him. Yet there were those who sympathized with the insurgents and did not join in the general rejoicing. This class, in order to manifest their disapproval of the employment of the military force for suppression of the rebellion, collected secretively a few nights after the visit of Washington and erected a liberty pole on the corner upon which the council house now stands. This was the cause of much ill feeling and many a black eye and bloody nose. The pole was cut down at night.”

After dining at Shippensburg the party set out for Chambersburg, entering that town by the Harper’s Ferry road the same evening. Many of the citizens paid their respects to him and the night was spent at Colonel William Morrow’s stone tavern.

At daylight on Monday morning, October 13, Washington left Chambersburg. The people were at their doors and the President acknowledged their salutations as he rode through the streets on horseback, followed by his black servant carrying a large portmanteau.

After ten miles’ travel they reached Greencastle. While Washington was breakfasting at Robert McCullough’s tavern, Tom McCullough, the landlord’s ten-year-old son, who later represented the district in Congress and became the first president of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, was discovered under the table. Washington intervened as the tavern keeper was about to send his son from the room for punishment, and patted the young fellow on the head.

Leaving Greencastle, General Washington and his party went on to Bedford, from which place the return journey was started on October 21.

The journey of thirty-seven miles to Burnt Cabins is said to have been the longest of the entire trip. Leaving there the morning of October 22, Washington crossed Tuscarora Mountain, passing through Fannetsburg, where earlier a liberty pole had been erected.

The feeling of opposition had largely passed away by the time Washington reached the town. After a hearty welcome, he proceeded to Strasburg and then through Pleasant Hill.

On the west side of Herron’s Branch Washington and his party halted at a tavern called the Black Horse. Here Washington inquired if dinner could be served the retinue. “We have nothing but an old-fashioned potpie ready, to which you are welcome,” replied the maid. The great general partook and thus rescued one more hostelry from oblivion.

Four miles farther he reached Shippensburg again, coming back into the town he had left ten days before.

After spending the night at Captain William Ripley’s Black Horse tavern in Shippensburg, where much entertainment was provided, the President set out early the next morning and by evening had reached New Cumberland, then called Simpson’s Ferry, in honor of Gen. Michael Simpson, who as a boy of fifteen had marched with Colonel Bouquet’s forces.

Washington spent the night of October 23 with his friend, General Simpson, and the next day journeyed to York. The next afternoon, it is said, he rode through the rain from York to Wright’s Ferry, now Columbia, where he remained over night.

On Sunday, October 26, he proceeded to Lancaster, and on Tuesday October 28, it was noted in Philadelphia that the “President of the United States with his suite arrived in Philadelphia from Bedford and resumed his duties at the seat of government.”

Commenting on his trip, Washington wrote to Alexander Hamilton from Wright’s Ferry on Sunday, October 26:

“Thus far I have proceeded without accident to man, horse or carriage, although the latter has had wherewith to try its goodness, especially in ascending the North Mountain from Skinners by a wrong road, that is, by the old road, which never was good, and is rendered next to impassable by neglect.”

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Sailors Cause of Bloody Election in Philadelphia October 1, 1742

One of the early Mayors of Philadelphia was the distinguished Quaker, Isaac Norris, who had been a member of the Provincial Assembly and the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He had also served as a member of the Governor’s Council for more than thirty years, and was named by William Penn in his will as one of the trustees of the Province. He died June 4, 1735, and was succeeded by his son of the same name, known in the history of Pennsylvania as “The Speaker.”

Isaac Norris, “The Speaker,” married one of the daughters of James Logan, and soon retired from commercial life. He was a member of the Assembly for thirty years and for the latter half of that time its Speaker.

Notwithstanding his connection with Logan, and the further fact that he was a grandson of Hon. Thomas Lloyd, one of the Commissioners of the Province from December, 1686, to December, 1688, and Deputy Governor from March, 1691, to April 26, 1693, he was a leader of the strict Friends in the Assembly who differed in politics from Logan, “who represented the Proprietary, or Governor’s party,” on all questions relating to the Province.

So persistently did Speaker Norris oppose the Proprietaries in the various disputes between the Governor and the Quakers, or “Norris Party,” that there resulted such bitter contests for office as would be fashionable in modern times.

The re-election of Norris to the Assembly in 1741 could not be prevented, and the Quakers gained much ground with Norris in that body, and with his brother-in-law, Griffiths, and uncle, Preston, who were aldermen of the city of Philadelphia.

The corporation was too important a political factor to submit to his influence and the Proprietary Party succeeded in electing four new aldermen and five new members of the City Council who would further the Governor’s plans, but it was no easy matter to defeat Norris at a popular election.

In 1742 a most important session of the Assembly had been held, the Speaker was the head of every committee, and he worked indefatigably in superintending the completion of portions of the State House and in purchasing a site and devising plans for a public pest house or municipal hospital, and in these activities gave some reason to believe he could be defeated. The wealthy Recorder of the City, William Allen, contended for his seat in the Assembly.

Then ensued what is since known as “The Bloody Election,” but Norris proved himself an astute politician and won the support of the German settlers, who constituted a large part of the electorate.

The Germans had invariably voted with the Quakers, and it was charged that the “Norris party” would take possession of the polls, crowd out their opponents, and thus elect their candidate with the aid of unnaturalized voters.

The Governor’s friends cried “fraud” but they were not in possession of any evidence of it.

On October 1, 1742, the day of the “Bloody Election,” a party of sailors, coopers, and others, strong enough in numbers to make havoc in the little city, marched uptown from the wharves, armed with clubs, and, when they arrived at the Court House, a fight took place in which several were wounded, and the disciples of peace and order were driven from the historic building.

The affair made a great stir, and is well perpetuated in the caricatures made at the time which were drawn with the intention to traduce and stigmatize the political leaders in those days.

In the appendix to the “Votes of the Assembly” is published the interesting testimony relating to this “Bloody Election.”

The witnesses were “examined in a solemn manner,” and it appeared that some fifty to seventy sailors, armed with clubs, made their appearance at the Court House, at Second and High Streets, in support of the Proprietary Party.

William Till, Mayor of the city, was called upon to interfere against the sailors, but he declined to do so, saying, as was testified: “They had as much right at the election as the Dutchmen.”

It appears by the statement of the time, that a wagonload of hop-poles, easy to cut into clubs, made its appearance at a point so convenient that the other party availed itself of the boon.

Among the witnesses, Robert Hopkins testified that, “when the sailors were moving off, and came by William Allen one among them being a squat full-faced, pock-fretten man, with a light wig and red breeches, as he supposes, said, 'Let’s give Mr. Allen a whorrah! And said Allen reply’d: 'Ye villians begone: I'll have nothing to do with you'.”

After this we are not surprised at that staunch Friend, Israel Pemberton, the last witness examined, being able to testify that upward of fifty sailors were arrested and secured in prison, “and then,” he goes on to say, “the Freeholders proceeded to the choice of the Representatives to serve in the Assembly, and the other officers, which was carried on very peaceably the remainder of the day.”

A petition was read in the Provincial Council, November 5, 1742, which was addressed to Lieutenant Governor George Thomas, and among other statements the petitioners stated that the rioters attacked the constables and broke their staves and beat them up and grievously wounded divers citizens, among whom was one of the Aldermen.

They claimed many were knocked down with stones without regard to age or station. Sure enough a bloody election; especially must it have seemed so to the staid Quakers of the City of Brotherly Love.

In September, 1759, Speaker Isaac Norris resolved to relinquish his public duties and declined a re-election which was sure to be in his favor. He made his announcement in the House, and among other things said:

“You were pleased to make choice of me to succeed my father in the Assembly at the election of the year, 1735. I never sought emolument for myself or family, and I remained at disadvantage to my private interest only to oppose the measures of unreasonable men. No man shall ever stamp his foot on my grave and say, Curse him! or Here lies he who so basely betrayed the liberties of his country.”

A true patriot in motive surely.

He was succeeded as speaker by Benjamin Franklin.

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Massacre in Vicinity of Patterson’s Fort, October 2, 1755

On October 2, 1755, the savages suddenly appeared in Tuscarora Valley, in the vicinity of Patterson’s Fort, on the north side of the Mahantango Creek, in Snyder County, and killed and captured forty persons.

This fort was situated immediately beyond the dividing line of Juniata and Snyder Counties, and in the vicinity of Pomfret Castle, which seems to be often mistaken for Fort Patterson.

There were two Fort Pattersons and two Captain Pattersons, which has also caused much confusion. The two captains were father and son, and their places near each other, and both stockaded, although Captain William Patterson’s fort was not built until 1763.

Benjamin Franklin gave the following directions to George Croghan in a letter dated December 17, 1755: “You are desired to proceed to Cumberland County and fix on proper places for erecting three stockades; namely, one back of Patterson’s—each of them fifty feet square, with a blockhouse on two of the corners and a barracks within, capable of lodging fifty men.”

The one “back of Patterson’s” was to be on the Mahantango Creek, where Richfield, Snyder County, now is situated, and was to be built by Colonel James Burd and Captain James Patterson.

Captain James Patterson commanded a company of rangers in Braddock’s campaign, under Colonel James Burd, and assisted in cutting the way through the forests.

In the year 1751 James Patterson, with five or six other settlers, settled in the Juniata Valley at the present town of Mexico.

Patterson cleared his land, engaged in farming and erected a large and strong log house, which afterward became known as Fort Patterson. It became the haven of refuge and defense for the settlers in the attack made upon them by the Indians.

Patterson was a man of daring and considered by the Indians to be a crack marksman. Whenever Indians appeared at his plantation he delighted to shoot at a mark, when his unerring aim impressed his visitors that he would be a dangerous foe.

His son, William, was called to Fort Augusta for the purpose of getting instructions to settle difficulties on the path through the valley. While on this mission he fell in with some Indians at Middle Creek, one of whom was killed and scalped and the rest put to flight.

One of Captain Patterson’s men was wounded. He advised the commander of Fort Augusta that the woods were full of Indians; that they found many houses burned, some still burning, and that he feared all the grain would be destroyed by the savages, who are known to be Delaware.

Fort Patterson was attacked at this time and one Hugh Mitcheltree carried off.

October 5, 1755, the savages made an incursion near Fort Patterson. Jennie McClain, a young girl, mounted a horse and hurriedly fled toward the fort, when, but a short distance from it, an Indian shot the horse through the body, when Jennie fell off the horse and was captured. The Indians surrounded the fort, but the Pattersons defended it so bravely that the savages were driven off.

In the summer of 1756 Captain Patterson marched to Shamokin (now Sunbury) with Colonel Clapham’s “Augusta Regiment” and assisted in building and defending that fort.

In 1757 Captain Patterson was detailed and placed in command of Fort Hunter, above Harrisburg, and at this post he was constantly occupied in sending out ranging parties, and had charge of the bateau men who transported provisions from Harris’ Ferry to Fort Augusta.

In July, 1758, Captain Patterson left Fort Augusta on the march to Raystown (Fort Bedford), where he joined in the Forbes expedition against Fort Duquesne. After the Indians were finally subdued Captain Patterson returned to his plantation and followed farming.

When the Indians again became violent in Pontiac’s War in 1763, Captain Patterson and his son, William, then a lieutenant, were again on guard.

Captain James Patterson died at his fort and is buried near it.

William, son of Captain James, was born in Donegal Township, Lancaster County, in 1737, and went with his father to the Juniata in 1751. Like his brave father, William was a keen marksman and a most daring and valuable aid to his father. He was with his father’s company, which was part of Braddock’s army. Later he was an ensign at Fort Augusta.

For many months he and his father, with details of privates, ranged the mountains and streams in search of Indians.

William Patterson not only displayed great capacity as a partisan soldier, but was equally conspicuous in civil life. He marched in advance of General Forbes’ army to Fort Duquesne in 1758. He also served under Colonel Burd in conveying livestock and subsistence from Fort Cumberland to Fort Burd and Fort Pitt in 1759.

After his return from the army Captain Patterson seems to have devoted his time to land surveying. His fine presence and dashing character won the admiration and esteem of the pioneer settlers, especially of the young men, who followed the chase and provided game for the large and growing settlements in Tuscarora Valley and around Patterson’s Fort.

Following the Pontiac War, as late as 1767, when fort after fort were destroyed and the feeble garrison put to the hatchet, Captain William Patterson called his young hunters and defied the Indians.

Pontiac had boasted that no wooden fort or stockade could escape destruction if he desired to destroy them.

When they could induce the garrison by cunning and lying to surrender, they would load a wagon with straw and hay and set it on fire and back it against the timbers and let the demon fire to do the work.

Although Patterson’s Fort was surrounded by savages repeatedly, they were driven away and kept at a safe distance by the expert riflemen under the command of Captain Patterson.

William Patterson, in 1768, arrested and safely lodged in the jail at Carlisle Frederick Stump and his accomplice John Ironcutter for committing an unprovoked massacre, the victims being Indians. This action required the greatest heroism.

The Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania at that period was so highly pleased with the prompt action of Captain Patterson that he gave him a commission as Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Cumberland County. He also was appointed a Commissioner to lay out Northumberland County in March, 1772.

Captain William Patterson is described in the Shippen papers as “a gentleman of limited education, a very good soldier and does his duty well.” He is often mentioned in Colonel Burd’s journal.

A fine bronze tablet mounted on a large boulder recently has been unveiled at the site of Fort Patterson, which will mark for this and future generations the spot made famous by the progenitors of this great Patterson family in Pennsylvania.

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Washington Joins Troops in Whisky Insurrection October 3, 1794

The year 1794 is distinguished in American history by a remarkable revolt among a portion of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, known as the Whisky Insurrection.

In 1791 Congress enacted a law laying excise duties upon spirits distilled within the United States. This tax excited general opposition, but nowhere else was such violence exhibited in resisting the execution of the law as in the western counties of Pennsylvania, where the crops of grain were so over-abundant that, in the absence of adequate market for its sale, an immense quantity of the cereals was distilled into whisky, the far-famed “Monongahela,” called from the name of the principal river in that region.

The inhabitants insisted that an article, produced almost exclusively by an isolated people as their sole and necessary support, ought not to be taxed for the support of the Federal Government, and to this opinion they adhered with a tenacity worthy of a better cause.

Public meetings were held in all the chief towns, at which the action of Congress was loudly denounced as oppression to be battled against to the very last extremity; declaring, too, that any person who had accepted or might accept an office under the Government in order to carry the law into effect should be regarded as an enemy of his country, to be treated with contempt and officially and personally shunned.

The Federal Government was scoffed at, its coercive authority ridiculed, and with the motto, “Liberty and No Excise!” the ball of the rebellion rolled on.

One day preceding the assembling of an important meeting of malcontents in Pittsburgh, the tax collector for the counties of Allegheny and Washington made his appearance. Aware of his business, a party of men, armed and disguised, waylaid him at a place on Pigeon Creek, in Washington County, seized, tarred and feathered him, cut off his hair and deprived him of his horse, obliging him to decamp on foot in that painful condition.

In attempting to serve legal processes upon the perpetrators of this outrage, the marshal’s deputy was also seized, whipped, tarred and feathered; and, after having his money taken from him, he was blindfolded and led into the depths of the forest, where he was tied to a sapling and left to his fate. He was fortunately discovered and rescued by friends.

Another man was similarly handled who remarked that they could not reasonably expect protection from a Government whose laws they so strenuously opposed. Two witnesses of this assault were seized by an armed banditti and carried off so they could not give testimony against the perpetrators of the assault.

President Washington feared such open defiance of the laws, and issued a proclamation condemning the lawless acts and warned all to return at once to their allegiance. Bills of indictment were found against the leaders of some of the outrages, and, at the same time, process was also issued against a great number of noncomplying distillers.

The proclamation and warning did not produce the desired effect. Washington then ordered the seizure of the spirits distilled in the counties opposing the law.

Contractors for the army were forbidden to purchase spirits on which duties had not been paid. The distillers were caught between two millstones. They feared the wrath of the infuriated populace if they paid the excise tax or lost their best customers.

The factionists were encouraged by the leniency of the Executive. By violent threats they kept the marshal from serving precepts, committed numerous outrages upon the friends of the Government and perfected their organization into military bands, to resist any force that might be sent to subject them to the laws. They styled their acts, “mending the still.”

It is not to be doubted that this inflamed state of the public mind was greatly aggravated by the ambitious designs and intemperate speeches of a few leading men. Conspicuous among the malcontents were David Bradford, Colonel John Marshall, Robert Smiley, Hugh Brackenridge, William Findley and Albert Gallatin. The first named was the chief agitator.

Hostilities broke out early in 1794, when those who paid the excise tax were punished as well as those who attempted to collect the tax. Even the Government officials were attacked by armed men.

General John Neville, inspector for the county, was compelled to defend his home by force of arms, and Major Abraham Kirkpatrick, with a detail of eleven soldiers, was compelled to surrender to a mob, under the leadership of a desperado named John Holcroft.

After brisk fighting continued for nearly an hour, the insurgents set fire to eight buildings, which finally compelled brave Kirkpatrick to yield.

David Bradford assembled meetings to ascertain their secret enemies as well as to learn their own strength. Mail was searched and the Government stores attacked. There was even a plan developed which had the capture of Fort Pitt and the United States Arsenal at Pittsburgh as its objectives.

The greatest popular demonstration was at Parkinson’s Ferry, where 16,000 men were pledged to follow the leadership of Bradford.

President Washington called a cabinet meeting and had General Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania, in attendance. Commissioners were sent to apprise the insurgents of their grave danger.

A proclamation was broadcast August 7, which warned of the impending war, if all did not quietly return to their home by September 1.

The same day of the proclamation a requisition was made on the Governor of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania for their several quotas of militia.

During the recruiting of this force Judge Jasper Yeates, James Ross and William Bradford were sent as commissioners to the western counties to extinguish the insurrection.

David Bradford laughed at the proclamations of the President and Governors of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania for the Committee of Safety was held at Parkinson’s Ferry and appointed commissioners to wait upon his Excellency and assure him that submission and order could be restored without the aid of military force.

In the meantime, the troops responded to the call, and, in response to a second proclamation of President Washington, they rendezvoued at Bedford, Pa., and Cumberland, Md. The command of the entire army was given to General Henry Lee, of Virginia. Governor Mifflin took command of the Pennsylvania troops in person.

The President departed for the front in a drenching rain. He arrived at Harrisburg Friday, October 3. The same day a meeting of the Committee of Safety was held at Parkinson’s Ferry and appointed commissioners to wait upon his Excellency and assure him that submission and order could be restored without the aid of military force.

The insurgents by this time had come to their senses, and intimidated by the greatness of the force, fled in every direction. Those arrested were pardoned. Bradford escaped to Spanish territory. The Whisky Insurrection came to an end. As Washington said, “the contest decided that a small portion of the United States could not dictate to the whole Union.”

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Americans Defeated in Battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777

The Battle of Germantown was one of the most spirited actions of the Revolution. It was a contest for the possession of a widely extended and strongly posted line, between the two armies, and at a time when the British had but a week earlier invested Philadelphia, driving the Continental Congress to Lancaster.

Howe’s army had crossed the Schuylkill, and was encamped near Germantown.

Washington was at Pennypacker’s Mill, between the Perkiomen and the Skippack Creeks, thirty miles from the city, where he awaited re-enforcements from the Northern Department. His army, which was mainly composed of Continental troops from Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, had suffered severe punishment at Brandywine and Paoli. It was poorly equipped and poorly fed.

Washington learned, through two intercepted letters, that General Howe had detached a part of his force to reduce Billingsport and the forts on the Delaware.

He believed that a favorable opportunity was offered to make an attack upon the troops which were encamped at Germantown, and fixed the attack for the morning of October 4, 1777.

General Howe’s army was encamped upon the general line of School and Church lanes.

On the 2d General Washington advanced his army to Worcester Township. The British did not expect an attack as General Howe fully understood the drubbing the Americans had recently received, but he did not know the fighting temper of the Colonists.

Washington was well informed of the enemy’s position and prepared his order of battle with great care. The divisions of Sullivan and Wayne, flanked by Conway’s Brigade, were to enter the town by way of Chestnut Hill.

General Armstrong, with the Pennsylvania Militia, was to go down Manatawny road and get in the enemy’s left and rear. The divisions of Greene and Stephen, flanked by McDougall’s Brigade, were to enter by a circuitous route at the Market House, and attack the right wing, and the militia of Maryland and New Jersey, under Generals Smallwood and Forman, were to march by the Old York road and fall upon the rear of their right. Lord Stirling, and Nash’s and Maxwell’s brigades were to form the reserve.

General McDougall was to attack the right wing of the enemy in front and rear; General Conway to attack the enemy’s left flank, and General Armstrong to attack their left wing in flank and rear.

Each column was to move into position, two miles from the enemy’s pickets by 2 o’clock, then halt until 4, and advance and attack the pickets precisely at 5 o’clock, “with charge bayonets and without firing, and the column to move to the attack as soon as possible.”

On the evening of October 3 the army left its encampment on Metuchen Hills. It was a hard march through the darkness, over rough roads and in a dense fog.

When the action opened the Americans soon gained much ground and General Howe, who had hurried to the front, met his troop retreating. He quickly galloped back to camp and prepared for the attack. Sullivan and Wayne pressed forward, and Washington followed with the reserve.

While the advance was in progress, General Greene had made the circuit of the Limekiln road, and engaged the enemy’s right. The incompetent General Stephens became entangled with Wayne’s troops, which confusion ended the efforts of General Sullivan’s columns upon the east side of the town.

General Greene continued to advance, maintaining a line of battle as long as practicable. McDougall was marching over ground so nearly impassable that he was quite out of the action and failed to assist Greene, leaving his flank exposed.

The morning was well advanced when the two wings of the army had approached the central objective point, the Market House. But the lines were broken and disordered, by the innumerable obstacles and by the impenetrable fog, that the British had opportunity to reform their own shattered line. Howe sent strong forces to oppose each attack.

When Sullivan’s division had pushed forward nearly to School Lane, while Greene was entering the town on the east, these generals found themselves unsupported by other troops, their cartridges expended, the force of the enemy on the right collecting to oppose them, and seeing many of the American troops flying in retreat, they retired with all possible haste.

When General Grey came from his camp at School Lane and advanced to the attack, the few Americans there could not resist him, and were soon repulsed. Grey advanced across lots and pushed on toward the Chew house.

General Agnew, following in the rear of Grey, ascended the hill and received a sudden volley from a party of citizens who were concealed behind the Mennonite meeting house and he fell mortally wounded.

Wayne’s division on the east of the town had already withdrawn when General Grant moved up his Forty-ninth British regiment.

General Washington, who had remained at the head of the hill above Chew’s house, saw the failure of his well-laid plans, and issued orders for the retreat.

The American army had gone forward to gain full possession of the enemy’s camp, which was on fire in many places. Dead and wounded were strewn about everywhere. The troops were in much disorder. Those in front had been driven back by the enemy and fell upon those in the rear, which increased the confusion and rendered it impossible to again form and oppose an advancing foe.

A general retreat was inevitably necessary to save the American army from a general rout.

Lord Cornwallis, who was in Philadelphia, learned of the attack and put in motion two battalions of British and one Hessian grenadiers, with a squadron of dragoons, to Howe’s support.

They arrived at Germantown just as the Americans were being forced from the village. Cornwallis joined with General Grey, and, placing himself in command, took up pursuit.

General Greene effected the withdrawal of his forces with considerable difficulty and no slight loss, as Colonel Matthew’s gallant regiment, or what remained of it, fell into the enemy’s hands, its heroic commander and many of his officers being severely wounded by the enemy’s bayonets.

General Greene also had much trouble in saving his cannon, when Count Pulaski’s cavalry being hard-driven by the pursuing British, rode into and scattered Greene’s division.

For two hours and forty minutes the battle waged at the very doors of the inhabitants of Germantown, in their gardens, orchards and fields.

The entire loss sustained by two armies was never accurately determined.

The British did not gain much satisfaction in their victory for they soon abandoned their well-earned fields, and moved within the entrenchments directly north of Philadelphia.

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Riotous Mob Attacks “Fort Wilson” in Philadelphia, October 5, 1779

In the year 1779 the lives of Mr. James Wilson, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the foremost practitioners of that day, and many of his friends, were put in extreme hazard by a band of frenzied partisans, under the pretext of his holding sentiments inimical to popular institutions.

At that time party spirit in Pennsylvania had taken definite shape, and the politicians were divided into Constitutionalists and Republicans. The former rallied around the Constitution of 1776, recently formed, which was reprobated by the Republicans, who believed it tended toward rash, precipitate and oppressive proceedings.

The term Republicans was embraced, as recognizing the principles of the Revolution.

Mr. Wilson was among the leading men of the Republican Party who had agreed that they would not accept of any office or appointment under the Constitution, which, in that case, they would be bound by oath, to support.

This circumstance offended and inflamed the Constitutional Party, and as Mr. Wilson had become counsel for the defense of some suspected traitors, and had succeeded in winning their acquittal, it angered the militiamen of Philadelphia and led to a most serious outrage.

The consequences of a rapidly depreciating currency were distressing to many who were incapable of tracing them to their causes. For example, every tradesman who had engaged in a piece of work felt, when paid for it, that he did not receive, except in name, the amount he had contracted to receive.

Artful and designing incendiaries persuaded many of the sufferers that the evil was owing to the merchants, who monopolized the goods, and to certain lawyers who rescued the tories from punishment, by pleading for them in Court.

Mr. Wilson had become particularly obnoxious. He was in fact a most decided friend of the popular government. He was a native of Scotland, and a Presbyterian, which should certainly stamp him as a friend of those opposed to the British authority.

The affair of “Fort Wilson,” as his house was thereafter known, flowed from this mistaken opinion, of which those who concocted the disgraceful transaction took advantage for party purposes.

September 13, 1779, a committee appointed at a town meeting, regulated the prices of rum, salt, sugar, coffee, flour, etc., a measure which was strongly opposed by the importers.

Robert Morris, Blair McClenochan and John Willcocks and a number of stanch Whigs had a quantity of these articles in their stores which they refused to dispose of at the regulated prices.

About the last of the month, a great number of the lower class collected and marched through the streets, threatening to break open the stores, distribute the goods and punish those who refused to open their warehouses.

On the morning of October 4, placards were posted menacing Robert Morris, Blair McClenochan and many other merchants.

Mr. Wilson was proscribed by the mob for having exercised his professional duty as a lawyer, and the punishment decreed for his crime was banishment to the enemy, yet in New York. But this was not the real cause which produced so lamentable an instance of popular delusion. That was to be found in the superior talents and respectability of the Republican Party.

The gentlemen threatened determined to defend themselves, and with a great number of their friends, to the amount of thirty or forty, took post at the southwest corner of Walnut and Third streets, in a house belonging to and occupied by James Wilson. It was a large old-fashioned brick building, with extensive gardens.

In the house were James Wilson, Robert Morris, Edward Burd, George Clymer, John T. Mifflin, Allen McLane, Sharp Delaney, George Campbell, Paul Beck, Thomas Lawrence, Andrew Robinson, John Potts, Samuel C. Morris, Captain Robert Campbell, General Thomas Mifflin, General Nichols and General Thompson. They were provided with arms but their supply of ammunition was very limited.

While the mob was marching down town, General Nichols and Daniel Clymer proceeded hastily to the arsenal at Carpenters’ Hall and filled their pockets with cartridges, this constituting their entire supply.

In the meantime the mob and militia assembled on the commons, while a meeting of the principal citizens took place at the coffee house. A deputation was sent to prevail on them to disperse, but without effect.

The First Troop of City Cavalry being apprised of what was going forward and anxious for the safety of their fellow citizens, quickly assembled at their stables, a fixed place of rendezvous.

For a time a deceitful calm prevailed; at the hour of noon the members of the troop retired to their respective homes for dinner, and the rebels seized the opportunity to march into the city.

The armed men in the mob amounted to 200, and were commanded by Captain Mills, a North Carolinian; one Falkner, a shipjoiner; Pickering, a tailor, and John Bonham. They marched to the home of Mr. Wilson, with drums beating, and two pieces of cannon. They immediately commenced firing on the house, which was warmly returned by the garrison.

Finding they could make no impression, the mob procured crowbars, sledges and bars, and with them proceeded to force the door. At the critical moment when the door yielded to their efforts, the First City Troop appeared and saved the lives of those in the house.

Many of the mob were arrested and committed to prison, and as the troopers used the sword very freely, many were severely wounded. One man and one boy were killed in the streets. In “Fort Wilson,” Captain Campbell was killed, and General Mifflin and Mr. Samuel C. Morris were wounded.

The Troop patrolled the streets the greater part of the night. The citizens turned out in great numbers and formed a volunteer guard at the powder magazine and the arsenal.

It was some days before order was restored and the First Troop, on account of the active part they had taken in the affair, found it necessary to keep together in small groups, and be on the alert to support each other.

The gentlemen who had comprised the garrison were advised to leave the city where their lives were endangered.

General Mifflin, and about thirty others, accordingly met at Mr. Gray’s home about five miles below Gray’s Ferry, where a council was called, and it was resolved to return to town without any appearance of intimidation.

But it was deemed expedient that Mr. Wilson should absent himself for a time. The others continued to walk as usual in public and attended the funeral of the unfortunate Captain Campbell. For some time each of them, however, was in danger of his life from the sympathizers with the killed and wounded assailants.

Thus ended the disgraceful affair known as the “Mob of 1779” and the “Attack on Fort Wilson.”

Had it not been for the spirited conduct of the First Troop, the lives of many valuable citizens, and genuine Whigs, would have been sacrificed, and an indelible disgrace entailed upon the City of Philadelphia.

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First German Immigrants Settle Germantown October 6, 1683

The Germans have played a most important part in the history of Pennsylvania, much more conspicuous than has been accorded them. They are the progressive farmers, and leaders in politics, literature and science.

The first great teacher was Pastorius; the first paper mill was established in 1690, on a branch of Wissahickon Creek, by William Rittinghuysen; the Bible was first printed in German, by Christopher Saur, thirty-nine years before it appeared in English; the same enterprising Germans, in 1735, established the first type foundry in America in Germantown and so on, but it is of the establishment of German Town or Germantown which this story is to relate.

The first German emigration was from Crefeld, a city of the lower Rhine. William Penn conveyed 5000 acres in Pennsylvania to each of three merchants of that city, March 10, 1682, one of whom, Jacob Telner, had made a trip to America in 1678–81.

Francis Daniel Pastorius first heard of the Pennsylvania plan in 1682, and became a purchaser of land while in London between the 8th of May and 6th of June, 1683.

Eight original purchasers, November 12, 1686, formed themselves into a company which was called the Frankford Company. Up to June 8, 1683, these persons had purchased 15,000 acres, and they mostly lived in Frankfort, but Pastorius was the only one of the original company who ever came to Pennsylvania.

Thirteen families, comprising thirty-three persons, set out for London, from which city, after many delays, they embarked, July 24, 1683, aboard the Concord.

Of the original purchasers three were Mennonites, and many of the remainder of the party belonged to that sect, so it must be stated that this emigration was also the beginning of that great church in America.

The pioneers had a pleasant voyage and reached Philadelphia October 6. On the 10th of the same month a warrant was issued to Pastorius for 6000 acres “on behalf of the German and Dutch purchasers.” On the 24th, Thomas Fairman measured off fourteen divisions of land, and the next day, meeting together in the cave of Pastorius they drew lots for choice of location.

Under a warrant, 5350 acres were laid out, May 2, 1684, for Pastorius, as trustee for them and future purchasers; in addition 200 acres were laid out for Pastorius in his own right, and 150 acres to Jurian Hartsfelder, a stray Dutchman, who had been a deputy sheriff under Andros in 1676 and who now cast in his lot with the settlers at Germantown.

Immediately after the division in the cave of Pastorius they began to dig cellars and build the huts in which, not without much hardship, they spent the following winter. Thus commenced the settlement of Germantown.

Other emigrants began to appear in the little town, and soon we catch a glimpse of the home life of the early dwellers of Germantown.

Pastorius had no glass, so he made windows of oiled paper.

Bom wrote to Rotterdam October 12, 1684: “I have here a shop of many kinds of goods and edibles. Sometimes I ride out with merchandise, and sometimes, bring something back, mostly from Indians, and deal with them in many things. I have no regular servants except one Negro, whom I bought. I have no rent or tax or excise to pay. I have a cow which gives plenty of milk, a horse to ride around, my pigs increase rapidly, so that in the summer I had seventeen when at first I had only two. I have many chickens and geese, and a garden, and shall next year have an orchard if I remain well, so that my wife and I are in good spirits.”

Bom died before 1689, and his daughter, Agnes, married Anthony Morris, the ancestor of the distinguished family of that name.

The first person to die in the new settlement was Jan Seimens. The first time that fire caused a loss in the village was in 1686. A small church was built that year. It is strange but true, that this was a Quaker meeting house, and also that before 1692 all the original thirteen, except Jan Lensen, had in one way or another been associated with the Quakers.

An event of importance was the arrival of William Rittinghuysen, a Mennonite minister, who with his two sons, Gerhard and Claus, and a daughter, came from Holland. In 1690 he built the first paper mill in America on a branch of the Wissahickon Creek.

On April 18, 1688, Gerhard Hendricks, Dirck Opden Graeff, Francis Daniel Pastorius and Abraham Opden Graeff sent to the Friends’ Meeting the first public protest ever made on this continent against the holding of slaves. There was then started something which became the greatest question of all time in America.

On January 14, 1690, 2950 acres, north of Germantown, were divided into three districts, called Krishelm, Sommerhausen and Crefeld.

The village had now become populous enough to warrant a separate existence, and on May 31, 1691, a charter of incorporation was issued to Francis Daniel Pastorius, bailiff, and four burgesses and six committeemen, with power to hold a court and a market, to admit citizens, to impose fines, and to make ordinances.

It was ordered that “on the 19th of one month in each year the people shall be called together and the laws and ordinances read aloud to them.”

The seal was devised by Pastorius and he honored the weavers by selecting a clover, on one of the leaves being a vine, on another a stalk of flax, and on the third a weaver’s spool.

The corporation continued until January 11, 1707. Newcomers were required to pay £1 for the right of citizenship.

On June 28, 1701, a tax was laid for the building of a prison, erection of a market, and other objects for the public good. The prison preceded the school house, but the interval was not long.

December 30, following, “it was found good to start a school here in Germantown.” Pastorius was the first pedagogue.

As early as January 25, 1694, stocks were erected for the punishment of evildoers.

February 10, 1702, three square perches of land were given to the Mennonites for a church, which edifice was built 1708.

Little did the industrious German of that day think, as he tilled the soil, or worked at his trade, that in after years the countrymen of Penn would be fighting the Quakers and others in that very town, that the streets of Germantown would be reddened by English blood, as it was on that eventful day, October 4, 1777.

The government of Germantown lasted fifteen years. Today this old town is one of the most delightful sections of the old city of Philadelphia.

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Colonel Richard McAllister, Soldier, Statesman and Citizen of York County, Died October 7, 1795

Colonel Richard McAllister, a hero of the Revolution, died at his home in Hanover, York County, October 7, 1795.

During that great struggle for the independence of the colonies York County gave many of her loyal sons, and none rendered more signal service or has been held in fonder patriotic reverence than Colonel McAllister.

He was the son of Archibald McAllister, who came to this country from Scotland in 1732. Richard was born in Scotland in 1724.

About 1745 Richard moved from Cumberland County to the present site of Hanover, where he purchased a large tract of land, and made a settlement.

On February 23, 1748, he married Mary Dill, daughter of Colonel Matthew Dill, who commanded a regiment in the French and Indian War, and whose son, Matthew, founded Dillsburg.

In 1750 Richard McAllister was a candidate for sheriff of York County against Colonel Hance Hamilton, who resided near the present site of Gettysburg. The result of the vote was so close that the election was contested and the Provincial Assembly decided in favor of Hamilton.

In 1763 Richard McAllister founded the town of Hanover and soon became one of the leading citizens of York County.

At the outbreak of the Revolution he was elected a member of the Committee of Safety for York County, and in June of the same year, 1775, he served as a delegate in the Provincial Conference, which met in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia. He again served as a member of the same body in January, 1776.

When the Fourth Battalion of York County militia was organized, 1775, Richard McAllister was commissioned colonel. And during the fall of the same year, he was made colonel of a battalion of Minute Men, formed out of the militia of York County.

In July, 1776, when Congress called for ten thousand troops, Colonel McAllister marched his battalion through Lancaster and Philadelphia to Perth Amboy, N. J.

General Hugh Mercer organized the Flying Camp, and selected Colonel McAllister to command the Second Pennsylvania Regiment.

This command was soon engaged in and about New York City and Staten Island. A short time later Colonel McAllister led the regiment in the defense of Fort Washington, where a large number of them were taken prisoners, among them being two of his captains.

In the campaign of 1776 Colonel McAllister was present with his regiment, under General James Ewing, when Washington captured the Hessians in Trenton on Christmas night.

After the expiration of his term of service in the Flying Camp, in 1777, Colonel McAllister returned to his home at Hanover, and in March of this year he was elected by the General Assembly, county lieutenant.

In the discharge of this commission he recruited six different battalions of militia in York County, which then included the present Adams County.

He drilled and disciplined the troops and made them ready for the service in the field when they were required to defend the State against the invasion of the British foe.

On August 28, 1777, Colonel McAllister wrote to President Wharton that there were dissensions among the Associators in the German townships near Hanover. Two hundred freemen had assembled at one place for the purpose of opposing the draft of the militia for service in the field.

He continued by saying that he had lived in peace among these people for twenty years or more, and knew well their customs and habits, but it was very difficult to induce them to take up arms against the country to which they had sworn allegiance.

He said that notwithstanding the difficulties he had encountered in the prosecution of his duties as lieutenant of York County, he had marched five companies to the front fully armed and equipped, and would soon have three more ready to take up the march for the main army.

Nearly every man recruited was a substitute, which had obtained by Colonel McAllister.

During the years 1783 to 1786, Colonel McAllister was a member of the Supreme Executive Council, and also served as a member of the Council of Censors. In the latter position he was engaged in the disposition of the confiscated estates of Pennsylvania Tories.

Like such a great number of the soldiers of the Revolution, Colonel McAllister also took a deep interest in legal affairs. He served as a justice of the peace, and then as justice of the court of common pleas in March, 1771.

He was a member of the First Constitutional Convention, in 1776, and on February 17, 1784, he became the presiding justice of the York County Courts.

When General Washington passed through Hanover, June 30, 1791, on his way to Philadelphia, he spent several hours the guest of Colonel McAllister.

He died at his home in Hanover, October 7, 1795.

His remains were first buried in the graveyard belonging to Emanuel’s Reformed Church of Hanover, of which he was a member and one of the leading supporters.

About 1870 the remains of this distinguished patriot were removed to Mount Olivet Cemetery, in the suburbs of Hanover, where they now repose.

On every succeeding Memorial Day commemoration services are held at the tomb of this hero and patriot, by the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic and allied organizations.

Colonel McAllister had eleven children. His eldest son, Abdiel, commanded a company in Arnold’s expedition to Quebec; another son, Archibald, commanded a company in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth.

A younger son, Matthew, became first United States district attorney of Georgia, judge of the Superior Court of that State, and was Mayor of Savannah during War of 1812.

A son of Matthew, named Julian McAllister, commanded a regiment in the Union Army during the Civil War.

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King Tedyuskung Questioned at Great Indian Conference in Easton, October 8, 1758

Governor Denny informed the Assembly September 12, 1758, that a general meeting of Indians has been agreed upon, to take place in Easton.

Tedyuskung and some of his retinue arrived early in Easton, and started on a debauch while awaiting the important event. Whereupon Reverend Richard Peters, the Provincial secretary, was requested to go to Easton immediately to keep the Indians in order.

This conference was opened Sunday, October 8, 1758, with 500 Indians in attendance. Governor Denny, members of Council and the Assembly, Commissioners for Indian Affairs in New Jersey, Conrad Weiser, George Croghan and a large number of Quakers from Philadelphia made up the attendance of the whites.

Governor Bernard, of New Jersey, joined the conference when it had been in session three days, and promptly demanded that the Munsee deliver up captives taken from that Province.

All the tribes of the Six Nations took part in the treaty; but the Mohawk had only one deputy, Nikes Carigiatatie, in attendance, and the Cayuga were represented by a single chief, Kandt, alias “Last Night.”

Unlike the several previous conferences, Tedyuskung was not the principal speaker at this treaty, but that proud position was assumed by Takeghsatu, a Seneca. He early addressed the Governor and others in these words:

“Brethren—I now speak at the request of Tedyuskung and our cousins the Delawares, living at Wyoming and on the waters of the River Susquehanna. We now remove the hatchet out of your heads that was struck into them by our cousins, the Delawares. It was a French hatchet that they unfortunately made use of, by the instigation of the French. We take it out of your heads and bury it under the ground, where it shall always rest and never be taken up again. Our cousins, the Delawares, have assured us they will never think of war against their brethren, the English, any more, but will employ their thoughts about peace and cultivating friendship with them, and never suffer enmity against them to enter their minds again.”

Two days later, Nikes, the Mohawk, stood up and, addressing himself to Governors Denny and Bernard, said:

“We thought proper to meet you here to have some discourse about our nephew, Tedyuskung. You all know that he gives out that he is a great man and chief of ten nations. This is his constant discourse. Now I, on behalf of the Mohawks, say that we do not know he is such a great man, if he is such a great man, we desire to know who made him so. Perhaps you have; and if this be the case, tell us so. It may be the French have made him so. We want to inquire and know whence the greatness arose.”

Takeghsatu, on behalf of the Seneca, said his nation “say the same as Nikes has done.”

Then Assarandongnas spoke on behalf of the Onondaga and said: “I am here to represent the Onondagas, and I say for them that I never heard before now that Tedyuskung was such a great man, and much less can I tell who made him so. No such thing was ever said in our town as that Tedyuskung was such a great man.”

Then followed, in the same strain, Thomas King, chief of Oneida, in behalf of the Oneida, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Nanticoke, Conoy and Tutelo.

Under this concerted attack upon his kingly pretensions Tedyuskung sat like a stoic and never said a word in reply; but Governor Denny arose and denied that he had made Tedyuskung “a great man,” but said in explanation that he had represented the Delaware at appointed places and had acted for the other Six Nations only as a messenger, who were his uncles and superiors. The Governor of New Jersey indorsed Governor Denny’s speech.

Five days after this discussion Tedyuskung arose in the public conference and addressing himself to the deputies of the Six Nations, said:

“Uncles, you may remember that you have placed us at Wyoming and Shamokin—places where Indians have lived before. Now I hear that you have since sold that land to our brethren, the English. Let the matter now be cleared up in the presence of our brethren the English. I sit here as a bird on a bough. I look about and do not know where to go. Let me, therefore, come down upon the ground and make that my own by a good deed, and I shall have a home forever. For if you, my uncles, or I, die, our brethren, the English, will say they have bought it from you, and so wrong my posterity out of it.”

Thomas King, speaking for the Six Nations the following day, addressed himself to the Delaware in these words:

“By this belt Tedyuskung desired us to make you, the Delawares, the owners of the lands at Wyoming, Shamokin and other places on the Susquehanna River. In answer to which, we, who are present, say that we have no power to convey lands to any one; but we will take your request to the Great Council fire for their sentiments, as we never sell or convey lands before it is agreed upon in the Great Council of the Six Nations. In the meantime, you may make use of those lands in conjunction with our people.”

Later in the open conference Thomas King presented Tedyuskung with a string of wampum and said: “This serves to put Tedyuskung in mind of his promises to return prisoners. You ought to have performed it before. It is a shame for one who calls himself a great man to tell lies.”

Last Night and Nikes, in behalf of the Six Nations, promised to satisfy the English as to the return of captives, adding: “If any of them are gone down our throats, we will heave them up again.”

Then Takeghsatu told Tedyuskung, the Six Nations having promised to return all captives, the Delaware and Munsee must do likewise.

Thus King Tedyuskung was humiliated in the conference, but never to the point where he ceased to be a most potent factor on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, and in the eyes of the English he was the king he professed himself to be.

One of the most important matters disposed of at this treaty related to the lands purchased by the Pennsylvania Proprietaries at Albany, July 6, 1754.

During the progress of this conference one of the Seneca chiefs in attendance died. He was interred with public ceremony; all the Indians and many of the inhabitants attended the obsequies.

On October 26, the business of the treaty having been finished after eighteen days of speech-making, “some wine and punch were ordered, and the conferences were concluded, with great joy and mutual satisfaction.”

The Indians were supplied with hats, caps, knives, jewsharps, powder, lead paints and walking-sticks (the term by which the Indians referred to rum). In addition, Tedyuskung and other chiefs each received a military hat trimmed with gold lace, a regimental coat and a ruffled shirt.

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Governor William Denny Removed and Superseded by James Hamilton, Native of Pennsylvania, October 9, 1759

Following the destruction of the Indian town at Kittanning, September 8, 1756, by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong, and the Indian incursions which reached to every section of the frontier, a chain of forts was built the following year which extended from the Delaware River to the Maryland line. These were garrisoned by troops in the pay of the Province.

This defense was made possible only when the Assembly finally awakened to the serious danger and distress, concerted to pass a bill for raising by tax £100,000, with the exemption of the proprietary estates. They also sent Dr. Benjamin Franklin, as provincial agent, to London, to lay their grievance before the King.

Despite the wartime attitude of England, nothing was done to annoy the French or to check the depredations of the savages, until Dr. Franklin’s presence in London, and the fortunate change in the ministry, which brought the master mind of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, to assume control of the government.

Pitt was endowed with a high order of intellect, eloquent, profound and patriotic. He seemed to possess in an eminent degree the full confidence of the nation and the command of its resources.

Franklin’s exertions resulted in gaining the influence of Pitt’s comprehensive mind, and soon his attention was directed to America, when the affairs in the colonies assumed an entirely different aspect.

Pitt’s plans of operation were grand, his policy bold, liberal and enlightened, all of which seemed greatly to animate the colonists and inspire them with new hopes.

The colonists resolved to make every effort and sacrifice which the occasion might require. A circular from Pitt assured the Colonial governments that he was determined to repair past losses, and would immediately send to America a force sufficiently large to accomplish the purpose. He called upon the different Governments to raise as many men as possible, promising to send over all the necessary munitions of war, and pledging himself to pay liberally all soldiers who enlisted.

Pennsylvania equipped two thousand seven hundred men, while the neighboring provinces contributed large quotas. Three expeditions were determined upon, and most active measures taken to bring them to the field of action.

General James Abercrombie was appointed commander-in-chief and General Jeffrey Amherst second in command, aided by Brigadier Generals Wolfe and Forbes.

The French were vigorously attacked on the northern frontiers of New York. General Forbes was charged with an expedition against Fort Duquesne, to be aided by the provincial troops of Pennsylvania and Virginia, under Colonel Henry Bouquet and Colonel George Washington. These troops rendezvoused at Raystown, now Bedford.

General Forbes, with regulars, marched from Philadelphia to effect a junction with the force at Raystown, but in consequence of severe indisposition he did not get farther than Carlisle, when he was compelled to stop. He marched to Bedford about the middle of September (1758), where he met the provincial troops under Washington.

The march and investment of Fort Duquesne are told in another story and the details will not be repeated here, except to state that Washington strongly urged that General Forbes should use the road cut by General Braddock three years earlier, as it was the most favorable route. But the Pennsylvanians were bent upon the policy of securing a new road exclusively through their province, and they succeeded.

Many weeks were consumed in cutting this road; but at length the army, consisting of 7859 men, penetrated the thick forest, and on reaching the Ohio River found Fort Duquesne abandoned by the French after they had blown up a large magazine and burned the buildings.

The French had retreated down the river, relinquishing forever their dominion in Pennsylvania. The fort was rebuilt, and received the immortal name of Pitt.

The posts on French Creek still remained in French possession, but it was deemed unnecessary to proceed against them, as the character of the war in the north left very little doubt that the contest would soon cease by complete overthrow of the French.

In 1759 Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec yielded to British arms and on September 8, 1760, Montreal, Detroit and all of Canada were surrendered by the French. The treaty of Fontainbleau, in November, 1762, put an end to the war.

But in our own province, our troubles were not as easily solved as were England’s under the great Sir William Pitt. A second great Indian conference was convened at Easton in October, 1758.

Tedyuskung, the great Delaware King, at this treaty received one of those insulting taunts from the Six Nations by which they, too often, exhibited their national superiority; taunts, however, that were deeply revenged upon the whites in after years, when the Delaware had thrown off the galling yoke.

Tedyuskung again supported his station with dignity and firmness, and refused to succumb and the different Indian tribes at length became reconciled to each other.

October 9, 1759, Governor William Denny was superseded by James Hamilton. Governor Denny was removed by the Proprietary on account of having yielded to the demands of the Assembly in giving his approval to their money bill.

Governor Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, was the first native of Pennsylvania to serve as Lieutenant Governor. At the death of his father, in 1741, he was left in possession of a handsome fortune, and in the appointment of Prothonotary, then the most lucrative office in the province.

He was first appointed Lieutenant Governor in 1748, serving until October, 1754, then again called to this executive position, which he filled until 1763. He held several other offices of distinction in the province, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the people, but his loyal feelings to the Crown caused him to be unfriendly to the Revolution.

The continued victories of the English put new inspiration into the people, who now returned in great number to the plantations from which they had been driven by the French and their Indian allies.

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First of Three Confederate Raids into Pennsylvania Began October 10, 1862

The part of our great Commonwealth which lies between the South and Blue Mountains, in the fertile and beautiful Cumberland Valley, since March 11, 1809, known as Franklin County, was from the very earliest recorded history of Pennsylvania the scene of many stirring events.

Being on the southern border of the State, it shared in the land and animated border fight between the proprietary Governments of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

It was in a valley loved as the home of the Indians and on the great pathway through the Tuscarora Mountains and was the scene of many terrible Indian incursions both before and after the French and Indian War.

As the County of Franklin was not erected at the time of the Revolutionary War its activities were not written into the martial story of Pennsylvania as a division of the great State.

In the War of 1812 the county played an active role and sent to the front eight companies organized within its limits.

But it is of a latter period that this county suffered at the hands of an invading host and on three occasions had its homes raided, stores plundered and part of Chambersburg, the county seat, destroyed by firebrand.

The Civil War was hardly begun when it became potent to every one that the Cumberland Valley would be the objective of any Confederate raid into Pennsylvania.

Easy of access from the Potomac and with the fertile fields as fresh foraging grounds for guerilla cavalry, the people realized that they were uncomfortably situated. This fear was well grounded from the fact that our southern border was virtually unprotected.

The first Confederate raid into Pennsylvania was planned and successfully executed October 10, 1862, by Generals J. E. B. Stuart and Wade Hampton with about two thousand troops.

This force crossed the Potomac River and by hurried marches pushed into Pennsylvania, reaching Chambersburg on the evening of that day. With the fall of night came a drizzling rain, in the midst of which the sound of fife and drum was heard, heralding the approach of a squad of officers and men under a flag of truce, who rode to the public square and there demanded the surrender of the town in the name of the Confederate States of America.

There was no military authority in the town to treat with the invaders, so the civil authorities, represented by the Chief Burgess, formally delivered up the town into their custody, and in a few moments the streets of the borough were filled with gray-uniformed soldiers, the tramp of horses, the rattling of sabers and spurs, and the dull thud of axes busied in demolishing store doors and in felling telegraph poles, which made sad music for the frightened inhabitants.

Chambersburg could hardly have been in worse condition for a raid. No soldiers were stationed there, and an enormous quantity of military stores was within its confines.

During the night the business houses were ransacked and the office and shops of the Cumberland Valley Railroad and the office of the Western Union Telegraph Company demolished.

The next morning their attention was turned to the attack on the military stores in the large brick warehouse of Messrs. Wunderlich & Nead, in the northern section of the town. These stores consisted of ammunition, shells, signal rockets and small arms, which only a short time previous had been captured from General Longstreet, and sufficient new equipment added for two full companies of cavalry, then being mustered in Franklin County.

Soon as every article of value to an army had been removed, the torch was applied to the building, and when the flames reached the powder an explosion took place which completed the entire destruction of the property. The rebels then beat a hasty retreat toward the Southland, leaving the inhabitants of Chambersburg in a terrified condition.

The following summer found the star of secession at its greatest height. Lee’s army was never in better spirits and every soldier looked with covetous eyes on the rich fields of Pennsylvania.

Lee succumbed to the temptation, and in the face of his better judgment, planned his northern campaign, and by a military movement, seldom equaled, marched his entire army across the border line of Pennsylvania, only to meet his Waterloo at Gettysburg. The approach of this great invading horde caused a mighty panic which shook with fear the very capital city of the old Keystone State, and every town and hamlet felt the alarm.

The fight at Winchester on June 13, 1863, forced the retreat of General Milroy, who stood alone as a barrier to Lee’s advance. On the following day General Couch removed his headquarters from Chambersburg to Carlisle.

About 9 o’clock on the morning of the 15th the advance of Milroy’s retreating wagon train dashed into Chambersburg, closely pursued by the rebels.

At the same moment General Jenkins with 1800 mounted rebel infantry rode into Greencastle. After a reconnoissance the town was occupied by the rebel horde and divested of everything movable, contraband and otherwise.

The rebels then pushed on toward Chambersburg, where they reached the outskirts about 11 o’clock that night.

Again the streets of Chambersburg resounded with the clatter of cavalry, and a second time the town fell their easy prey.

This visit continued three days during which time everything of value, especially horses, were taken without pretense of compensation.

General Jenkins on the 18th fell back to Greencastle, and then proceeded to Mercersburg, whence a detachment crossed Cove Mountain to McConnellsburg and down the valley. The main part of the invading force remained in the vicinity of Greencastle and Waynesboro, where plundering parties scoured that entire section.

The third terrible visitation of the Confederates in Chambersburg was the deliberate sacking and burning of the town by Generals McCausland and Johnson, on July 30, 1864.

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Colonel Matthew Smith, War Veteran, Elected Vice President October 11, 1779

On October 11, 1779, Vice President George Bryan resigned his office, whereupon Colonel Matthew Smith, a veteran officer of the French and Indian War, and one who commanded a company in Arnold’s expedition to Quebec, then a citizen of Milton, Northumberland County, was chosen to fill the vacancy, which he, too, resigned on the 29th of the month. William Moore was elected to the position, November 12.

On November 27, the Assembly after careful consideration, adopted a resolution annulling the Royal Charter, and granting the Penns, as a compensation for the rights of which they were deprived, £300,000.

They retained their manors, however, and were still the largest landed proprietors in Pennsylvania. They subsequently received from the British Government an annuity of £4000 for their losses by the Revolution.

The act for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania was passed March 1, 1780. It provided for the registration of every Negro or mulatto slave, or servant for life, before November 1, following, and also provided, “No man or woman of any nation or color, except the Negroes or mulattoes who shall be registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within the territory of this Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women.”

During the year 1780, every effort was made to keep the State up to par by passing several measures which brought but temporary relief.

An agent was sent to France and Holland to borrow £200,000, with the faith and honor of the State pledged for its repayment, but the mission was unfruitful.

The army was without clothing and short of provisions. Subscriptions were solicited by the ladies to relieve this distress. The “Bank of Pennsylvania” was established and still the Continental money continued to sink in value.

Virginia was induced to accede to Pennsylvania’s proposition to appoint commissioners to adjust the boundary. Pennsylvania appointed George Bryan, the Rev. Dr. John Ewing and David Rittenhouse; Virginia sent James Madison, afterward President of the United States, and Robert Andrews.

These commissioners met August 31, 1779, and agreed that Mason and Dixon’s line should be extended due west five degrees of longitude from the Delaware River for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian line drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the State should be the western boundary.

The Assembly of Pennsylvania ratified this on November 19, but Virginia proceeded to Fort Burd and occupied it. In March, 1780, the Assembly resolved to eject intruders under claims from other States, and authorized Council to raise troops for internal defense of the frontier; but Virginia afterward ratified the agreement and the southern line was run in 1784 and the western afterward.

Toward the close of September, 1780, the Supreme Executive Council received the startling intelligence of the treason of General Benedict Arnold, who had been in command of the American post at West Point. Among the people the news of the infamy of this officer excited the greatest indignation.

In Philadelphia a parade was held, three days after the arrival of the news, to give expression to the popular feeling.

During this demonstration an effigy of Arnold was carried through the streets and finally hung upon a gallows. The Council at once confiscated Arnold’s estate, and his wife was ordered deported from the State within fourteen days.

The arrest, trial and execution of Major André, and the escape of Arnold, his reward and price of dishonor, the sufferings and disgrace of his unfortunate wife Peggy are not within the scope of these stories.

If the proceedings against Tories in Pennsylvania had been fierce previous to this time, the feeling aroused by the defection of Arnold produced the bitterest animosity and hatred against all who were not in full sympathy with the American Colonies.

Many arrests were made, a number were tried and condemned, and one, a Quaker, of Chester County, executed for high treason. The property of prominent Tories was forfeited and sold, and, in fact, the most energetic measures taken to crush out whatever might be inimical to the cause of independence.

The situation among the soldiers from Pennsylvania in the Continental Army at this period was deplorable. About December 1, the division of General Wayne went into winter quarters in the environs of Norristown. The soldiers were wearied out with privations, and indignant at their officers, whom they accused of not properly representing their situation to Congress.

On New Year’s Day, 1781, there broke out such a mutiny in the Pennsylvania Line that it required the best efforts of Congress, the Government of Pennsylvania, and the officers of the army to subdue.

The Pennsylvania Line comprised 2500, one-third to two-thirds of the army, the soldiers from the other colonies having, in the main, gone home. Their terms of service had long since expired. They had not been paid for a year, and they were almost without clothes.

Then under the leadership of a brave sergeant, named William Bowser, they arose in arms and proceeded to settle matters for themselves. Two emissaries from General Clinton seeking to corrupt them they handed over to Washington to be hanged.

The terms of service of 1250 men had expired. They were discharged and the matter of indebtedness to them was arranged. The most of them re-enlisted.

However unjustifiable the conduct of the Pennsylvania Line was and should be deemed in the first instance, it must be acknowledged that they conducted themselves in the business, culpable as it was, with unexpected order and regularity.

Their refusing to accept the large offer made by the enemy, in delivering up the spies, and in refusing the hundred guineas they had so justly merited, exhibits an instance of true patriotism not to be found among mercenary troops who bear arms for pay and subsistence only, uninspired by their country’s rights, or the justice of the cause which they have engaged to support.

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Attempted Slaughter of Indians at Wichetunk, Monroe County, October 12, 1763

The expedition of Colonel Henry Bouquet, during the Pontiac Conspiracy, to Fort Pitt, in a great measure served to check the depredations of the Indians for a short time and the frontiers of Pennsylvania were quiet, and under the protection and assistance of 700 Provincial recruits the settlers gathered their harvests.

Had the Provincial Assembly acted promptly in the matter an effective defense could have been provided. The Government was deaf to all entreaties, and General Jeffreys Amherst, commander of the British forces in America, did not hesitate to vent his feelings in emphatic expression:

“The conduct of the Pennsylvania Assembly is altogether so infatuated and stupidly obstinate that I want words to express my indignation thereat. They tamely look on while their brethren are butchered by the savages.”

The Assembly finally authorized the raising of 800 troops and voted £24,000 to keep that force until December 1, but declared it was both unjust and impracticable for the province to defend a frontier of nearly 300 miles, which covered a greater extent than that of New Jersey and Maryland, without assistance from other provinces.

In September and October outrages were committed as far east as the neighborhoods of Reading and Bethlehem, and it was believed that not only Fort Pitt but even Fort Augusta was destined for attack.

The road to Fort Pitt was interrupted. A supply of provisions, under a convoy of sixty men, was forwarded from Fort Bedford to Fort Pitt, but on gaining the foot of the Allegheny Mountains was compelled to return. The officers learned that the passages were occupied by the savages.

Some fragments of the Delaware and Six Nations remained at their settlements in the interior, refusing to join their brethren in arms, professing affection for the Colonists and avowing a determination to continue neutral. But the neutrality of a part, at least, of these Indians was very doubtful.

The situation of the frontiers became truly deplorable, and the Quakers, who were in control, suffered the censure of the people. Captain Lazerus Stewart, of Paxtang, expressed the views of those on the frontiers, when he said: “The Quakers are more solicitous for the welfare of the blood-thirsty Indians than for the lives of the frontiersmen.”

Colonel John Armstrong led 300 men of Cumberland County to Great Island, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, the present site of the borough of Lock Haven, where certain of the marauders had their headquarters. On their arrival they found the place evacuated, horses, cattle and other spoils gathered in their forays being left behind.

With the main body of his men, Armstrong proceeded to another Indian village near Jersey Shore, where he found the late occupants had left in haste while eating a meal. So the expedition resulted in destroying their houses and corn fields.

Major Asher Clayton led a party from Harris’ Ferry to remove the Connecticut settlers from Wyoming and destroy their provisions, which were likely to be seized by the red men. When the party arrived at Wyoming, it found that the savages had been there before them and had burned the town and killed more than twenty persons in horrible torture.

A number of those Indians who had been converted by the Moravian missionaries around Bethlehem were murdered, as they were found asleep in a barn, by a party of Rangers, and the surprise and slaughter in turn of the latter increased the suspicion of the frontiersmen, who were neither Moravians nor Quakers, against the entire body of Christian red men, who professed a desire to live at peace and friendship with the English.

The Provincial Commissioners, indeed, reported their belief that those at Nain and Wichetunk (in what is now Polk Township, Monroe County) were secretly supplied by the Moravian brethren with arms and ammunition, which, in free intercourse with the hostile savages, were traded off to the latter.

About October 12 a number of armed men marched toward Wichetunk, but, waiting to surprise it by night, were frustrated by a violent storm just before nightfall, which wet their powder.

The missionary, the Rev. Bernard Adam Grube, then led the Indians to Nazareth, but the Governor suggested that to watch their behavior it would be better to disarm them and bring them to the interior parts of the province. The Assembly, actuated more by a desire to save them, agreed to the proposal.

Governor John Penn received the refugees from Nain and Wichetunk, but their arrival in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia excited the lower classes nearly to a riot, and the soldiers refused to allow them any part of the barracks as a sheltering place, so that different arrangements were necessary.

For five hours these Indians were in great peril, but escorted by Quakers, they were finally taken to Province Island.

The conduct of the Assembly, in which there were twenty-one Quakers, failed to satisfy not only the royal and proprietary officers but also the Presbyterians, who were ready to take up arms, and particularly the Scotch-Irish on the frontier, who saw large sums of money lavished in the presents to Indians, while they themselves lay destitute from the ravages of an Indian war.

As every now and then some of their kinsmen or neighbors fell by the tomahawk, they became exasperated, coupling their vengeance against the guilty savages with jealousy of the Assembly’s partiality, and also suspicion against those Indians who were treated as friends.

A cry like the Covenanters came from their descendants in Pennsylvania; loud exhortations were heard on the frontier to carry out against the heathen red men the decrees of heaven against the Canaanites.

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Molly Pitcher, Heroine of the Battle of Monmouth, Born October 13, 1754

There have been many stories of “Molly Pitcher,” and they have not always agreed even on the main facts. But on the occasion of the ceremonies incident to unveiling the cannon erected over her grave in the “Old Graveyard,” in Carlisle, by the Patriotic Orders Sons of America, on June 28, 1905, an excellent short biography of the “Heroine of the Battle of Monmouth” was prepared by John B. Landis, Esq., from which the following story is taken.

The heroine’s name was not “Pitcher,” but Ludwig, and at the time she earned her well-known sobriquet she was the wife of an artilleryman. Her father, John George Ludwig, came to this country from the Palatinate, and settled near Trenton, in Mercer County, New Jersey, where he engaged in the occupation of dairyman. It was here his daughter Mary was born, on October 13, 1754, and here among the surroundings of her father’s home were spent the youthful days of the future “Molly Pitcher.”

The wife of Dr. William Irvine, of Carlisle, afterward General William Irvine, and one of the greatest patriots of the Revolution, was visiting friends in Trenton when she saw the youthful Mary Ludwig, and, being pleased with her and in need of a domestic, took the young girl with her on returning to Carlisle.

Mary had hardly become accustomed to her surroundings in the fine home of Dr. and Mrs. Irvine until she met John Casper Hays, a barber, whose shop was near the Irvine residence. Their courtship was of short duration, for a marriage was solemnized on July 24, 1769.

A few years of quiet wedded life, disturbed only by the warlike preparations centered about the patriotic town of Carlisle, and John Casper Hays became a soldier. He enlisted December 1, 1775, in Colonel Thomas Proctor’s First Pennsylvania Artillery, in which he served as a gunner. His term of enlistment expired December, 1776, but he re-enlisted January, 1777, in the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, of the Continental Line, in the company commanded by Captain John Alexander, of Carlisle.

Dr. Irvine also was one of the first patriots to respond to the cause of the colonists, and January 9, 1776, was commissioned Colonel of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment. He became Brigadier General May 2, 1779. Previous to that time, however, on June 6, 1776, he was captured at Three Rivers, and remained a prisoner on parole until his exchange, April 21, 1778, when he assumed command of the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, in which John Casper Hays was a private soldier.

After young Hays left Carlisle with his regiment, his wife remained employed at Colonel Irvine’s. Some time thereafter her parents, who still resided in New Jersey, sent a message with courier for her to visit them, and the same horseman carried a letter from her husband, begging her to go, as he might then get an opportunity to see her, as his regiment was then nearby. With Mrs. Irvine’s consent Mary set out on her long journey, traveling on horseback. At the time Molly Hays was a young woman of twenty-five years.

To prevent the movement of the British on New York, General Washington marched his troops again into New Jersey, and the Battle of Monmouth was fought June 28, 1778.

The battle continued from 11 o’clock in the morning until dark, and the day was one of the hottest of the year. Fifty soldiers are said to have died of thirst, and the tongues of many said to have been so greatly swollen as to protrude from the mouth.

While the battle was in progress Molly carried water for the thirsting soldiers from a neighboring spring, which is still pointed out on the historic battlefield. Back and forth she went under shelter or under fire, supplying the much-needed water. Possibly, as is stated by some, it was carried in the cannoneer’s bucket. In whatever way it was carried the sight of Molly with her “pitcher” was a welcome sight to the weary and thirsty Continentals.

Molly’s husband, having served a year in Proctor’s Artillery, and though now an infantryman, had been detailed as a gunner in a battery that was engaged. Doubtless Molly was never out of sight of that battery. As she approached with water she saw a soldier lying at the gun, whom she thought to be her husband, and hurrying on she found her husband wounded, but the dead man was one of his comrades. Her husband recovered, but lived only a few years after the close of the war.

It is stated that the cannon was ordered to the rear and would have been taken off the field had not Molly bravely sprung to her husband’s place, and so kept the gun in action.

For her wonderful patriotism and self-sacrificing devotion to the soldiers she was dubbed “Sergeant” and by some called “Major Molly.”

“Moll Pitcher she stood by her gun, And rammed the charges home, sir. And thus on Monmouth’s bloody field A sergeant did become, sir.”

How long Molly stood by her gun, through the smoke and din of battle, on that hot and terrible day, is not a matter of record, but the water she carried to those soldiers and the service she rendered with the battery has been testified to by many whom she helped.

Molly was no imaginary heroine, but a real buxom lass, a strong, sturdy, courageous woman. Her name belongs on the roll of the world’s heroines, and some years ago the State of New Jersey honored “Molly Pitcher” by commemorating her heroic act on one of the five tablets surrounding the base of the beautiful monument erected at Freehold on the historic field.

Some years after the death of her first husband, Sergeant John Casper Hays, she married George McKolly, another soldier and a comrade of Hays, and she then became known as Molly McKolly. This name was also written “McAuley,” and “McCauley” while on her tombstone it was inscribed “McCauly.”

At the entrance to the grounds where until recently was the Carlisle Indian School, formerly for many years United States barracks, still stands the old stone guard house, which was built by the Hessian prisoners taken at the Battle of Trenton, and which escaped the fire when the barracks were burned by the Confederates in 1863.

At that post Molly lived for many years after the Revolutionary War, cooking and washing for the soldiers. Subsequently she kept a small store in the town proper, but the latter years of her life were lived in a stone house, where she died on Sunday, January 22, 1832. She attended the Lutheran Church and was respected by her neighbors.

On July 4, 1876, a marble headstone was unveiled over her grave, which had been erected by Peter Spohr, who knew her well and was present at her funeral. On this occasion an eloquent and interesting address was delivered by Captain Joseph G. Vale, a veteran officer of the Civil War.

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William Penn, Born October 14, 1644—His Youth and Early Struggles for Religious Belief

William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania and one of the most distinguished members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, a preacher and writer, was born in London, October 14, 1644.

His father was Admiral Sir William Penn, of the English Royal Navy, and his mother was Margaret Jasper, a remarkable Dutch lady, of Rotterdam.

While the Admiral was off on the seas, his wife and little son resided on one of his estates at Wanstead in Essex.

William Penn went to school at Chigwell, near by, where he was apparently under influences largely Puritan. At the age of eleven strong religious conviction came suddenly upon him.

His boyhood days were lived during the Protectorate. The Admiral, after receiving honors and riches from Cromwell, had so timed his change of loyalty as to gather in a good share of the rewards distributed at the time of the Restoration.

He was in a condition to send his son to the most aristocratic of Oxford Colleges, and at the age of fifteen, William Penn became a “Gentleman Commoner of Christ Church.”

Through the preaching of Thomas Loe he became a convert to the doctrine of the Quakers. The results were not exactly Quakerly, however, for in company with a friend, he forcibly tore from the backs of fellow students the “popish rags,” as surplices were called by the zealous Puritans of the day.

For this he left college, whether by the action of the authorities or not does not clearly appear.

He went to his home and announced himself a Quaker. His father intended him for a high career in the state, and no news could have been more unwelcome than this. His father turned him out of the house. The mother reconciled them, and the youth was sent to France, with a hope that gay society in Paris might redeem him from his almost morbid soberness.

Penn entered partially into the circle of fashion; thence he went to Naumur, the Protestant college, where he laid the foundation of that extensive knowledge of patristic literature so much in evidence in his future writings; thence to Italy, where he received a letter from his father calling him home.

On his return, in 1664, in compliance with the wishes of his father, he became a student of law.

The great fire in London, in 1665, drove him from the city and deepened his serious convictions.

He was sent by his father to manage his large Irish estates. He joined the expedition to put down an insurrection in Carrickfergus, and procured for himself a suit of armor, in which he seems to have been painted. His martial ardor was of short duration.

Thomas Loe again crossed his path in Cork and Penn became a Quaker never more to falter. He was soon imprisoned with his fellows, and this was the beginning of many and severe confinements which lasted at intervals through his life.

His father again drove him from his house. In time they were reconciled and the Admiral on his deathbed endorsed the course of his son.

Penn began immediately to preach and to enter into the theological controversy of his time. He was soon arrested and confined in the Tower nine months, during which he wrote his principal work, entitled “No Cross, No Crown.”

Penn was again arrested for preaching in the streets of London, and at his trial the jury declared him not guilty, but the court determined to convict him, ordered the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty. They refused and were fined and sent to Newgate Prison.

On his release from prison Penn made a trip to Holland and Germany, preaching the gospel.

He took advantage of a little surcease from jails to marry, in his 28th year, Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett, a woman of great beauty and sweetness.

A declaration of indulgence for dissenters issued by Charles II, in 1672, now made his life easier, and with an ample estate, he settled at Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire. He was active for a few years in preaching and wrote much.

In 1675 his thoughts were first seriously turned to America. Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, who had received from the Duke of York the promise of New Jersey, sold the western half to two Quakers, John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge.

The new purchasers had some difficulty between themselves in the settlement of their respective claims and asked William Penn to arbitrate the matter. Penn decided in favor of Byllinge, who soon afterwards became embarrassed and transferred to Penn and two others his interest for the benefit of his creditors.

West New Jersey was opened for sale and the persecuted Quakers found there a haven of rest.

Penn wrote to Richard Hartshorne, a settler whom he appointed his agent, “We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men and Christians, that they may not be brought in bondage but by their own consent; for we put the power in the people.”

The colony prospered greatly under the management of Penn and his friends.

In company with George Fox, Robert Barclay and others, in 1677, Penn paid a religious visit to Holland and Germany. Here he made a convert of the Princess Elizabeth Palatine, granddaughter of James I, a woman of great intelligence, learning and spirituality, who became a devoted adherent and correspondent.

More important, historically, however, he began that acquaintance with the Rhine Valley which resulted in a great emigration of its inhabitants to his future province of Pennsylvania, in the following century.

His journal of this trip is among his printed works.

When he returned he found persecution breaking out anew, many of his friends in jail and their estates confiscated.

Penn published a plea for liberty, even for Papists—a sentiment which, in that day, required no small courage—and gave rise to a report, from which he afterward suffered greatly, that he was a Jesuit in disguise.

He enjoyed great favor at court, and his influence was exerted for the aid of his suffering brethren, and his advocacy of his favorite doctrine of universal toleration.

The rest of William Penn’s life belongs largely to the history of Pennsylvania.

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First Massacre in Wyoming Launched During Pontiac’s War by Captain Bull, October 15, 1763

The conspiracy fomented by Pontiac, the Ottawa chieftain, was unmasked at Detroit on May 6, 1763, and then began the war which continued until late in the summer of 1764.

Fort Sandusky was captured by the Indians May 16, 1763; Fort Ouatanon (now Lafayette, Ind.), May 31; Fort Presqu’ Isle (now Erie County, Pa.), June 17; Fort Le Boeuf (in Erie County), June 18; Fort Venango (in Venango County, Pa.), June 18 and the military posts at Carlisle and Bedford, Pa., on the same day.

On June 22 a large body of Indians surrounded Fort Pitt and opened fire on all sides, but were easily repulsed. The Seneca were the only Indians of the Six Nations in alliance with Pontiac.

The report which reached Philadelphia the second week in July, 1763, revealed a most alarming situation on the frontier.

Through the efforts of the Reverend John Elder the able-bodied men of the Paxtang region in Lancaster County were soon organized into a mounted military battalion of several companies, under the name of the “Paxtang Rangers” or “Paxtang Boys,” with Elder as colonel in command.

“Swift on foot, excellent horsemen, good shots, skillful in pursuit or escape, dexterous as scouts and expert in maneuvering,” the “Paxtang Boys” became the terror of the Indians. And yet, during the summer and early autumn of that year numerous depredations and murders were committed by Indians in the counties of Lancaster and Northampton.

On Sunday, August 7, Captain Andrew Montour arrived at Fort Augusta from up the West Branch and informed Colonel James Burd that Forts Pitt and Ligonier had been captured by the Indians. Later this news was learned to be false, but the loss of Presqu’ Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango was a fact.

Colonel John Elder wrote Governor Hamilton, requesting that his command be allowed “to destroy the immense quantity of corn left by the New England men at Wyoming which, if not consumed, will be a considerable magazine to the enemy and enable them with more ease to distress the inhabitants, etc.” The Governor in his reply stated that he had no objection to their scouting as far as Wyoming.

On October 13 Major Asher Clayton, with a force of eighty soldiers from Lancaster County, arrived at Fort Augusta, en route to Wyoming. There he was joined by Lieutenant Samuel Hunter and twenty-four men of the garrison, and the combined force departed Saturday the 15th for Wyoming.

Two companies of the Reverend Elder’s command set out from Fort Hunter on the 11th destined for the same place, and “to intercept the murdering party on their return to Northampton.”

This “murdering party” referred to by Colonel Elder was a band of hostile Delaware led by Tedyuskung’s son, Captain Bull, and concerning whose depredations Governor Hamilton sent a message to the Provincial Assembly on October 15, in these words:

“Within a few days past I have received well-attested accounts of many barbarous and shocking murders and other depredations having been committed by Indians on inhabitants of Northampton County, in consequence whereof great numbers of those who escaped the rage of the enemy have already deserted, and are daily deserting their habitations; so that, unless some effectual aid can be speedily granted them, to induce them to stand their ground, it is difficult to say where these desertions will stop, or to how small a distance from the capital our frontier may be reduced.”

Captain Bull, who headed this war party of Western Delaware in these incursions, had spent ten years among these Indians west of the Ohio River. He was thoroughly familiar with their sentiments toward the English.

The first intimation of the presence of hostile Indians was on October 8, 1763, when before daybreak, Captain Bull attacked the house of John Stenton, on the road from Bethlehem to Fort Allen, where Captain Wetherhold and a squad of soldiers were lodging for the night. Wetherhold and several others of the whites were wounded and three were killed.

A day or two later Yost’s mill, about eleven miles from Bethlehem, was destroyed, and the people there cut off. Altogether twenty-three persons were killed and many wounded, and these depredations committed within a few miles of Captain Bull’s ancestral home.

On Saturday, October 15, the self-same day that Major Clayton’s expedition set out from Fort Augusta for Wyoming, the settlers of Mill Creek, in Wyoming Valley, were busily engaged in their various occupations at different places unaware of danger and unprepared for disaster.

Captain Bull and his warriors to the number of 135 swooped down on the settlers and death, desperation and destruction quickly followed. Eighteen or more were killed, including many persons of importance. The scene was terrible.

The settlers who heard the gun shots and war whoops of the Indians fled in great haste to the mountains. At night time the torch was applied and soon the homes of the settlers were masses of ruins.

The settlers who escaped death tramped back to Connecticut, and Wyoming was, in very truth, deserted and forsaken.

Major Clayton arrived soon after this massacre, but did not remain, and returned to Fort Augusta. An extract from a letter written by a soldier says:

“Our party under Major Asher Clayton is returned from Wyoming, where we met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been killed and scalped a day or two before we got there. We buried the dead—nine men and a woman—who had been most cruelly butchered.

“The woman was roasted, and had two hinges in her hands—supposed to be put in red hot—and several of the men had awls thrust in their eyes, and spears, arrows, pitchforks, etc., sticking in their bodies.

“They (Clayton’s troops) burnt what houses the Indians had left, and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn. The enemy’s tracks were up the river toward Wyalusing.”

Many writers have expressed different opinions about this massacre. Some thought it to have been done by the Delaware who believed the Connecticut settlers killed their king Tedyuskung; some believe it to have been done by Six Nations, who thought the whites had assassinated the Delaware king; but others believe there is not sufficient ground for supposing it to have been done by friends of Tedyuskung, even though the hostile party was led by his son, Captain Bull.

Whoever was to blame, or whoever committed the bloodthirsty deed, matters not, but the fact remains that the Delaware Indians were treacherous and none of them more so than King Tedyuskung and his sons, especially Captain Bull, the perpetrator of this horrible massacre.

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First Terrible Massacre of Settlers at Penn’s Creek, October 16, 1755

The year 1755 was anything but one of promise for the English colonies in America. The French were aggressively pushing their domain from Canada southward toward the Mississippi Valley, and what was more alarming to the English was the effort of the French to gain a foothold in the region of the Allegheny Mountains, in what is now Western Pennsylvania.

Three great rivers virtually determined the strategic situation of the territory involved between these two great nations. The Hudson River Valley was held by the English, the Susquehanna River Valley by the Six Nations of the great Indian Confederation and the Allegheny River Valley by French, along the banks of which a chain of French forts had been erected. Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers, where Pittsburgh now stands, was the principal defense of that valley.

In the spring of 1755 the expedition was fitted out which made the ill-fated march against Fort Duquesne and resulted in the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9.

This defeat was a terrible disaster and left the frontiers of Pennsylvania threatened with ruin by victorious French and their savage allies, who pressed through the passes of the Blue Mountains on the heels of the fleeing British regulars.

The main body of the French encamped on the Susquehanna River near where the borough of Liverpool now stands, thirty miles above Harris’ Ferry, where they extended themselves on both sides of the main river.

Braddock’s defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which had been expected would inflict a decisive blow upon the French, but it gave the signal to the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the province the scene of predatory warfare in which many sections of the Susquehanna Valley were severely scourged.

The Provincial Government did not act with the energy and promptness which the emergency demanded. No means were adopted for the protection of frontier settlements and the entire wilderness from the Juniata River to Shamokin, now Sunbury, was filled with parties of hostile Indians, murdering, scalping and burning. Every post brought to the Provincial Council at Philadelphia heart-rending appeals for help.

The Assembly and the Governor were deadlocked, no money bills could be passed. Troops of frontiersmen rode through the city threateningly brandishing their weapons. A party of Germans laid the corpses of the countrymen, scalped within sixty-five miles of the capital, at the door of the State House. The Quaker peace policy was denounced in unmeasured terms from the backwoods pulpits.

The Indians had driven off the Moravian missions at Shamokin and burned their own town at that important place.

Two of Colonel Weiser’s sons, Frederick and Peter, had been at Shamokin several days previously, then stopped at the house of George Gabriel, at the mouth of Penn’s Creek about the head of the Isle of Que, near the present town of Selinsgrove. While there a messenger arrived from Logan, one of Shikellamy’s sons and Lapacpicton, a friendly Delaware, who brought the alarming news that a large body of French and Indians was approaching by way of the West Branch.

The Provincial Government had been warned that a band of Indians had left the West on an expedition to the forks of the Susquehanna, but paid no heed until too late.

These Indians crossed the Allegheny Mountains, through the headwaters of the Otzinachson, now called West Branch, near Clearfield, thence through the “Great Plains,” now known as Penn’s Valley, Center County, through the gaps of Penn’s Creek, in Paddy Mountains, where they struck the white settlements along the creek, commencing at the present town of New Berlin and down the stream for about a mile in what is now Snyder County.

October 16, 1755, occurred the terrible massacre at Penn’s Creek, when fifteen persons were cruelly murdered and their bodies terribly mangled and ten others were carried away as Indian prisoners.

Of the twenty-five victims, one man, who was wounded, was able to reach Gabriel’s with the news of the massacre.

When the party went out to bury the dead they found thirteen bodies of men and elderly women, and one child, two weeks old.

The house of Jacob Le Roy, where the massacre was ended, was burned and his body lying just by it. He lay on his back, barbarously burnt and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead.

The conditions in the immediate neighborhood of Penn’s Creek beggared description. Conrad Weiser wrote to Governor Morris, upon the arrival of his sons, advising of the massacre, and gave him the news of the intended invasion. But John Harris rushed to the rescue of those in distress, and, with a company of forty-six men from Paxtang, arrived at the mouth of Penn’s Creek. He found the dead had been buried, and proceeded to Shamokin to learn the attitude of the Indians there.

In the Pennsylvania archives is to be found the examination of Barbara Leininger and Mary Le Roy, taken after their return from captivity. They testified that the others carried away captives at Penn’s Creek were Jacob Le Roy, Rachel Leininger, brother and sister of the testators; Marian Wheeler; Hannah, wife of Jacob Breylinger and two of their children, one of whom died of starvation, while they were being held at Kittanning; Peter Lick and two sons, John and William.

They named the principal Indians and gave a detailed narrative of their journey and captivity.

They were carried to Kittanning, where they were held prisoners until Colonel John Armstrong destroyed the town, September 8, 1756, when the Indians who had these prisoners in charge made their escape.

They were carried to Fort Duquesne and were then led twenty-five miles lower down the river to the mouth of Big Beaver Creek. In the spring of 1757 they were taken to Kuskusky, twenty-five miles up Big Beaver Creek, where they remained until the Indians learned that the English were marching against Fort Duquesne, when the Indians evacuated Kuskusky and hurried their prisoners on a forced march to the Muskingum, in the present State of Ohio.

March 16, 1759, the testators made their escape and were able to reach Fort Pitt fifteen days later. They reached their relatives subsequently, and were in Philadelphia, May 6, 1759, when they gave their testimony.

Ann M. LeRoy was residing in Lancaster in 1764, when she again made an affidavit in regards to the details of her capture and the visits of the supposed friendly Conestoga Indians at Kittanning.

A beautiful boulder with bronze tablet was unveiled at the site of this massacre, October, 1915. This can be seen above the bridge over Penn’s Creek, on the Susquehanna Trail, leading from Selinsgrove to Sunbury. It marks the scene of one of the most horrible of the Indian massacres in Pennsylvania.

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Railroad from Williamsport to Lake Erie Completed October 17, 1864

During the administration of Governor James Pollock the Main Line of public works had been sold by virtue of the act of Assembly of May 16, 1857. Governor Pollock had very strongly urged the sale of the public works, as they had become a running sore of corruption, including political debauchery and the systematic plunder of the treasury.

On June 25 following the Governor closed the transaction by which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, July 31, assumed ownership of the whole line of public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the consideration being $7,500,000.

Following that sale measures were taken for the disposal of the remainder of the public improvement. They had failed to be a source of revenue to the State, and the application of the proceeds to the payment of the debt of the Commonwealth soon led to the removal of taxation by the State.

With the disposal of the Main Line of public works, there were left not a few local canals, such as the North Branch, West Branch and others, to be managed by the Board of Canal Commissioners. This was a sore point, and there was a very general desire that these should also be disposed of and the State entirely divested of its interests in transportation lines.

The Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company was chartered April 3, 1837. The road was opened between Williamsport and Milton, December 18, 1854, and between Milton and Northumberland, September 24, 1855.

The railroad bridges over the North Branch at Northumberland were completed for traffic January 7, 1856, which opened the road from Williamsport to Sunbury. From this time it became a long struggle to complete the line from Williamsport to Erie, which was to be the western terminus.

Borough councils and prominent citizens subscribed for stock, and various attempts were made to construct the road, but each new organization only repeated the story of failure.

A number of very able and experienced railway men and the directors conceived the idea of virtually borrowing the credit of the State, without imposing any liability upon the Commonwealth, to aid in the construction of this road.

Their proposition was that the various canals remaining in the ownership of the State should be sold to the Sunbury and Erie Railway Company for $3,000,000, giving the railway company the right to sell or mortgage the several canals as might be deemed best, the proceeds to be applied to the construction of the Erie line, and the State to accept a mortgage upon the line for the $3,000,000 to be paid for the canals. It was believed this would provide sufficient funds to complete the line, and when this was accomplished the mortgage held by the State would be abundant security against loss to the Commonwealth.

A bill to enable this sale of the canals was read in place in both House and Senate and an earnest battle ensued as the members of the canal board were not willing to be shorn of their immense powers, which would result if the State sold the canals.

The Republicans in the House supported the bill; the personnel of the canal board was entirely Democratic. No community in the State would benefit more by the completion of the link from Williamsport to Erie than would Philadelphia, and the great interests of that city soon brought a solid support in both House and Senate in favor of the bill.

Many Democrats whose districts were traversed by the proposed road also fell into line, so that in spite of desperate opposition, the bill finally passed the House by a decided majority, and gained the narrow margin of one vote in the Senate.

Governor William F. Packer was a resident of Williamsport, and, of course, was intensely interested in the measure.

The bill reached the Governor only three days before final adjournment, and when he examined it, the Governor discovered a vital error in phraseology which had been overlooked, but which would result in serious embarrassment in executing its provisions. He could not return it with his objections, as it could not be passed over the veto; there was not time for the passage of a new bill, and the bill could be amended in the hands of the Governor only by the adoption of a joint resolution instructing such change.

A joint resolution was required to lay over a day under the rules and it required two-thirds vote to suspend the rule, while the delay of a day would be fatal.

The matter was submitted to Speaker Longnecker, who presided with ability and dignity over the body, and he informed those who were conferring with him that a joint resolution could not be read and finally passed on the same day.

Among the prominent Democratic members was George Nelson Smith, of Cambria County, a thorough parliamentarian and one of the most popular members of the House.

It was suggested to the Speaker that he call Smith to the chair. The Speaker consented, Smith took the gavel and the resolution to amend the bill was changed from the usual form of a joint resolution by saying, “Resolved, If the Senate concurs, etc.,” giving the appearance of a House resolution requiring simply the concurrence of the Senate.

As soon as it was read the point was raised that it was a joint resolution and must lie over for a day, but Smith faced the emergency with magnificent boldness, deciding that it was not a joint resolution and directing the final vote to be called.

It was evident that a majority of the House meant to save the bill; tactics for delay would be defeated by previous question and by the aggressive action of Acting Speaker Smith the House was suddenly brought to a call of the yeas and nays and the bill was saved. The Senate had ample time for concurrence and it was given.

Even after giving the Sunbury and Erie Railway Company the benefit of the loan of $3,000,000 the work was pushed forward under many embarrassments. It was on the verge of collapse in the general prostrations of 1860, but the Legislature came to its relief by an extension of credit.

The Civil War came with its quickening of business and large increase of circulating medium, and the great enterprise of building a railroad through an almost continued wilderness from Williamsport to Lake Erie, a distance of nearly 250 miles, was completed October 17, 1864, and the State gained not only by the sale of its canals and the abolishment of the Canal Board, but the $3,000,000 was abundantly secured to it.

The new railroad brought multiplied wealth to the State and the people that could never have been realized excepting by the construction of a great railway through the boundless riches of that great region.

The name Sunbury and Erie was changed to the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Company by Act of Assembly March 7, 1861.

On January 1, 1862, it was leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 999 years.

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None Escaped in Massacre at Mahanoy Creek, October 18, 1755

Following the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9, 1755, the savages roamed at will through the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania. They now realized the English were no longer invincible and became bolder and more terrible in their predatory warfare.

The first outbreak was at Penn’s Creek, in the present Snyder County, where on October 16, they swooped down upon the industrious German settlers of that neighborhood and cruelly massacred fifteen and carried away ten others into captivity.

The news of the massacre struck terror in the hearts of the settlers and all, excepting a very few, fled down the river to the older settlements.

Only two days after the Penn’s Creek massacre another occurred only a short distance to the eastward, at the mouth of Mahanoy Creek, about five miles south of the present city of Sunbury.

On this eventful day, October 18, 1755, twenty-five of the inhabitants were killed or carried away into captivity, often worse than death. Every building of the little settlement was burned, and all the improvements destroyed.

The difference in the two massacres lies in the fact that one escaped from the murderous savages at Penn’s Creek, who was able to make his way to George Gabriel’s at the mouth of the creek, where he told the awful story in detail. It also happened that two sons of Conrad Weiser were there at the time, and they hastened to their home in Berks County.

Soon the old provincial interpreter had messengers on the way to inform Governor Morris of the massacre and the threatened invasion of the Forks of the Susquehanna by the French and their Indian allies, who were approaching in great force.

Immediately the news of the massacre at Penn’s Creek reached Harris’ Ferry, and without waiting for advice from the provincial authorities, John Harris, with forty-six inhabitants of the neighborhood, hastened to the scene of the disaster, where they found and buried a number of the mangled bodies of the victims. From this place they proceeded to Shamokin to see the Indians and prevail upon them, if possible, to remain neutral.

Their reception at the Indian village was civil but not cordial, and they remained there only till the next morning.

During the night they heard the Indians talking about the English in unfavorable terms, and soon after they sang a war song and four Indians went away in the darkness in two canoes. They were well armed. One canoe went down stream, the other across the river.

In the morning they made a few presents to the Indians. Before their departure they were privately warned by Andrew Montour not to take a certain road on the western side of the river, but to continue down the eastern side.

They, however, disregarded his warning, either relying on the good faith of the Indians, or suspecting that Montour intended to lead them into an ambuscade, and they crossed the river and started to march along the flats on the western shore.

Hardly had they got started on their march until they were fired upon by some Indians who lay in ambush, and four were killed, four drowned and the rest put to flight.

John Harris, under date of “Paxtang, ye 28th October, 1755,” wrote to the Governor an account of the foregoing expedition, and how near they all came to suffer through Indian treachery. Among other things, he said:

“This is to acquaint you, that on the 24th of October, I arrived at Shamokin, in order to protect our frontiers up that way till they might make their escape from their cruel enemies, and learn the best intelligence I could.

“The Indians on the West Branch certainly killed our inhabitants on Penn’s Creek, and there are a hatchet and two English scalps sent them up to North Branch, to desire them to strike with them if they are men.”

He then described the situation and warned the Governor that the Indians entertained serious designs upon the settlers in and about the Forks of the Susquehanna. He then wrote:

“Montour knew many days ago of the enemy being on their march against us before he informed, for which I said as much to him as I thought prudent, considering the place I was in.

“On the 25th inst., on my return with about forty men, we were attacked by about twenty or thirty Indians, received their fire, and about fifteen of our men and myself took to the trees, attacked the villains, killed four of them on the spot and lost but three more, retreating about half a mile through the woods, and crossing the Susquehanna, one of whom was shot off a horse riding behind myself, through the river. My horse was wounded, and falling into the river, I was obliged to quit him and swim part of the way.

“Four or five of our men were drowned crossing the river. I hope our journey, though with fatigue and loss of our substance and some of our lives, will be of service to our country by discovering our enemy, who will be our ruin, if not timely prevented.

“I just now received information that there was a French officer, supposed captain, with a party of Shawnee, Delaware, etc., within six miles of Shamokin, ten days ago, and no doubt intends to take possession of it which will be a dreadful consequence to us, if suffered.”

Harris then told of his knowledge of the Indians who had made the attack on Penn’s Creek; of an intended attack on Shamokin and other places. He concluded his long and informative letter: “I expect Montour and Monacatootha down here this week, with the determination of their Shamokin council. The inhabitants are abandoning their plantations and we are in a dreadful situation.”

The postscript to his interesting letter was as follows: “The night ensuing our attack the Indians burned all George Gabriel’s houses; danced around them.”

The person who was shot off the horse, while riding behind John Harris in crossing the river, was a physician of Paxtang, who had accompanied the party in his professional capacity.

On the following day John Harris wrote a letter to Edward Shippen, at Lancaster, in which he expressed fear that the Indians would attack them any day. He wrote: “I have this day cut loopholes in my house, and am determined to hold out to the last extremity, if I can get some men to stand by me. But few can be had at present, as every one is in fear of his own family being cut off every hour.”

Harris advised the immediate building of a fort at the Forks of the Susquehanna. The situation in the Province even as close to Philadelphia as Harrisburg was truly desperate.

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General Edward Hand Starts on Expedition from Fort Pitt to Wheeling, October 19,1777

During the winter of 1776 and the following spring the agents of Great Britain had been very active in organizing Indian uprisings along the frontiers as a part of the general campaign for the subjugation of the rebellious colonists.

Continental Congress decided to take charge of the defense of the colonists, especially those in the western part of the State, where the Indians had been more active and where the settlers had been afforded less protection from the State and Colonial governments.

The first move by Congress was a decision to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide an adequate garrison at the Continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia, which colony then claimed the western part of Pennsylvania as its territory, and Captain John Neville was directed to transfer the fort to the United States officer appointed to its command.

General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand, of Lancaster, for this important service. The brave and efficient work of this distinguished officer led the commander-in-chief to believe that he would be an able defender of the border, but fighting British and Hessians along the seaboard and Indians in the woods are two quite different propositions, as General Hand soon discovered.

General Hand was no stranger at Fort Pitt, but during his former service there he had no experience in fighting Indians.

He was a native of Ireland and educated to be a physician. At the age of twenty-three years he was commissioned as assistant surgeon in the Eighteenth Regiment of Foot, known as the Royal Irish, and in the spring of 1767 he accompanied the command to America.

He was stationed for a time in the Illinois country and afterward at Fort Pitt. In 1774 he resigned his commission and took up the practice of medicine in Lancaster, Pa.

Soon after the news of Lexington and Concord he interested himself in raising troops for the cause of the colonists and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of Thompson’s celebrated regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen, afterward the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line.

In March, 1776, Hand succeeded as colonel and under his command the regiment did gallant work in the battles of Long Island, Trenton and Princeton.

On April 1, 1777, Hand was rewarded for his really exceptional services by promotion to the rank of brigadier general and soon thereafter General Washington further evinced his appreciation and confidence by assigning General Hand, then only thirty-three years old, to the defense of the western frontier.

General Hand arrived at Fort Pitt Sunday, June 1, 1777, and took over the property from Captain Neville. He led no forces across the mountains, being accompanied by only a few officers.

The garrison consisted of but two companies of the Thirteenth Virginia, recruited in and about Pittsburgh, and they were shy of discipline. The larger part of these soldiers had been with Washington in New Jersey.

General Hand, in the East, had engaged in warfare where it was never difficult to locate the enemy, in large bodies, ready to stand up and fight. In that warfare the colonists did most of the dodging and were the hardest to find.

On the frontier the conditions were reversed, the enemy could not be found yet was ever present. The savages, in small bands, entered the settlements and struck quick but terrible blows, then fled by night into the dense forests.

The only evidence of the presence of these savages were the dead bodies of the victims and ashes of their former cabins, but they left no trail that a white man could discover. The problem was perplexing to General Hand.

Many murders had been committed before General Hand’s arrival, but they became more numerous.

The British commandant, Colonel Henry Hamilton, at Detroit, began about June 1 to equip and send out war parties to attack the settlements of Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania, which parties consisted mostly of Indians of the Wyandotte and Miami tribes of Northern Ohio and Shawnee of Southern Ohio and a few British officers.

At the same time parties of Seneca invaded the Pennsylvania settlements from Western New York.

Beside the bodies of many victims of the raids were found copies of the proclamation by Hamilton, offering protection and reward to all settlers who would make their way to any of the British posts and join the cause of the King.

General Hand soon determined that the one way to fight Indians was to invade their own country and destroy their towns and provisions. The Ohio tribes had permanent villages and grew great crops of corn, beans and pumpkins, which they stored in earth silos. If the Indians lost their crops they would be driven to hunt in the winter and could have no time for the warpath.

General Hand decided to descend the Ohio with a large force of militiamen to the mouth of the Big Kanawha and to march thence overland against the Shawnee towns.

Hand appealed to all the militia commanders of Westmoreland and Bedford Counties in Pennsylvania, and of all the frontier counties of Virginia, to muster men for the expedition.

He also appealed to the governments of both States and they directed their officers to respond to the calls. The project was even indorsed by Congress; yet in spite of all these efforts the expedition was a failure.

General Hand expected 500 men from the two Pennsylvania counties and 1500 men from Virginia. His expectations were unreasonable in that he did not take into consideration the drained and distressed condition of the border. Already the hardiest and most useful men had gone to fight the British. Most of those who remained on the plantations believed they were needed at home to protect their families from the raids of the savages.

No men responded from Bedford County and only 100 from Westmoreland, under command of Colonel Lochry, reached Fort Pitt.

On October 19, 1777, General Hand left Fort Pitt and went down the river to Wheeling, where he expected to meet the recruits from Virginia. After a week of waiting only a few poorly equipped squads reported to him. Hand gave up in disgust and returned to Fort Pitt.

The following spring he requested to be recalled from the frontier service, and General Washington called him to his army May 26, 1778.

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Great Meeting in the Interest of Inland Waterways Held at Harrisburg, October 20, 1789

During the latter part of the year 1789, the President and members of the Supreme Executive Council appointed a commission to view the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers, in pursuance of an act of Assembly passed September 28, 1789, with the object of ascertaining data whether or not these waters could be rendered navigable.

This commission, composed of Timothy Matlack, Reading Howell, William Dean, John Adlum and Benjamin Rittenhouse, attended to the important duty assigned them and in their report strongly recommended that a commission of experienced surveyors be named for “the purpose of ascertaining the most convenient and practicable place for connecting the waters of the three rivers, with those of the Allegheny, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. And in cases where portage by land will be necessary, to examine the face of the country and report the most suitable places for landings and roads.”

A great meeting was held at Paxtang, October 20, 1789, which was attended by citizens of eight counties, when an organization was affected with James Ewing, of York County, as chairman. Committees were named for each county to solicit subscriptions for the furtherance of these surveys, and a commission was appointed, consisting of Frederic Antes, of Northumberland County; John Brattan, of Huntingdon; Andrew Galbraith, of Cumberland, and Sebastian Graff and John Haldeman, of Lancaster, to superintend the work of removing obstructions in the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers.

A resolution was adopted which authorized the appointment of three surveyors, to begin at the mouth of the Juniata and proceed up the Susquehanna to Sunbury, thence up the West Branch to Sinnemahoning Creek, thence to Canoe Place, or such place “as will connect most easily with any practicable branch of the Allegheny, the Consua, Toby’s Creek, or any other which may discharge itself into the Allegheny nearest to the mouth of French Creek, and thence examine French Creek up to Le Boeuf and the portage to Presqu’ Isle.”

Timothy Matlack, John Adlum, Samuel Maclay, Reading Howell, Frederick Antes, and William Dean were appointed April 6, and commissioned and qualified April 9, 1790.

The three first mentioned set out on the work along the Susquehanna and the others took up the work on the lower Susquehanna and Schuylkill.

Samuel Maclay kept an interesting journal of the experiences of the commission, from which the following is taken.

Messrs. Matlack and Adlum set out from Philadelphia May 6, and met Maclay at Lebanon. They remained there nearly a week, and began their work when they set out from the Swatara, having taken James McLaughlin, Edward Sweeney, and Matthew Gray into the pay of the State.

The party reached Herold’s, below Selinsgrove, by May 17, then proceeded to Northumberland. Here Maclay went to visit his family at now Lewisburg. John Adlum visited with his friend Colonel Frederic Antes, and Timothy Matlack was the guest of Colonel William Wilson, of Northumberland.

The party was organized during this stay at Northumberland and proceeded up the West Branch to the mouth of the Loyalsock. They next encamped on the Great Island, then reached the Sinnemahoning, where they built several canoes.

The actual survey began at Canoe Place, where Adlum ran a line to the Allegheny. He writes in his journal of catching beaver, and of the large numbers of “wolves which frequently crossed their track, in a very indifferent manner.”

June 14, they surveyed the West Branch of the Sinnemahoning as far as Boyd’s quarry, the following day reached Bennett’s.

On July 2, the party reached the Ohio River, and went down it, being guided by an Indian, named Doctor Thomas.

When the western boundary of the State was reached, Conne Shangom, the chief, had gone to Venango, but another chief, Captain John, made the commissioners a speech of welcome. At this place they came across a Dutchman, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians in the last war, but who chose to continue to live with them.

On July 7, the commissioners had an interesting interview with the celebrated Indian Chieftain, Cornplanter, at Jenoshawdego.

Maclay records that the Indians were very jealous of them until they were made to fully understand their mission. Cornplanter then welcomed them with a speech. Maclay says, “we were addressed by an orator, on behalf of the women.” This speech of Cornplanter’s was responded to by Colonel Matlack.

The Commissioners then went to Cornplanter’s town and “had the honor of his company for supper.”

July 14, they struck the old French road to Erie. Maclay records that “the cart ruts are quite plain yet.” He further records, “Lake Erie is a fresh water sea. You can see the horizon and water meet.”

The party was here caught in a terrible storm and thoroughly drenched.

The party pushed down the Allegheny a distance of eighty miles, and Sunday morning, July 18, they met Mr. Adlum and his party. Adlum finished a survey the next day, and the entire party was again united at Buckaloon, or Brokenstraw, about five miles from the present town of Warren.

On the 20th the party arrived at Fort Franklin, where the commanding officer, Lieutenant Jeffries, was very polite to them.

Two days later Maclay records, “we paired off and discharged an old Indian chief and a white savage.” The commissioners left Fort Franklin this day, and reached David Meads, at present Meadville. They then went to Le Boeuf, and from there back to Fort Franklin, where they arrived August 1.

Maclay writes about using some oil, collected from a small oil spring along French Creek, on his lame back. The effect was beneficial.

The survey of the Allegheny River began at this point, and they also explored the tributary streams all the way down that river to the Conemaugh, then to Frankstown, on the Juniata River, where they arrived September 8.

The commissioners proceeded down the Juniata to the Susquehanna. Samuel Maclay notes that he arrived at his home Friday, September 17, and found his family all well and at dinner.

The report was made as three different surveys, and the cost £561, 27s.

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Bicentennial Opened in Chester and Philadelphia, October 21, 1882

At the close of Governor John F. Hartranft’s second term the Republicans nominated General Henry Martyn Hoyt, of Wilkes-Barre, while the Democrats had as their standard-bearer Honorable Andrew H. Dill, of Lewisburg.

The campaign was conducted along the line of national issues, the leading discussion being the resumption of specie payments. This became the keynote of the campaign and Hoyt was elected by a large majority.

An interesting historical event occurred before the end of Hartranft’s administration, on December 19, 1878, when Bayard Taylor died in the city of Berlin, Germany, while serving at his post as Minister to Germany. He was a native of Chester County and through his literary works had done much to increase the fame of Pennsylvania.

After Governor Hartranft retired from the office of Governor he removed to Philadelphia, where he served as Postmaster of the city, and afterward as Collector of the Port.

His love for the National Guard continued and he was the commanding general from 1879 until his death on October 17, 1889. His memory as a soldier is perpetuated by an equestrian statue on the plaza of the Capitol at Harrisburg and by a beautiful monument in the cemetery at Norristown.

Governor Hoyt was inaugurated on January 21, 1879, being the first such ceremony held under the provisions of the new Constitution of 1874, and on January 7, following, the Legislature met in biennial session for the first time, as provided in the new Constitution.

On May 16, 1881, the Legislature adopted a joint resolution, which had for its purpose the reinterment of William Penn in the City of Philadelphia.

George L. Harrison, Esq., of Philadelphia, at his own expense, carried the Governor’s request to the legal representatives of William Penn, and trustees of Jordan’s Meeting House, England, but after some deliberation they refused to grant the request.

Had this been granted the body of the founder and former Proprietor of Pennsylvania would have been resting in Pennsylvania soil at the time the bicentennial of Penn’s arrival in the Province was observed with fitting ceremonies in October, 1882.

This great celebration was held in Chester and Philadelphia, beginning with appropriate religious services on Sunday, October 21. “Landing Day” was observed at Chester on Monday, the following day was known as “Landing Day” in Philadelphia, when the “Welcome” arrived at the foot of Dock Street, where the landing scenes of the previous day were again re-enacted, with Quakers, Swedes and Indians in the large cast.

The parade up Dock Street passed a stand, where Governor Hoyt, Alexander P. Colesberry, president Bi-Centennial Association Committee, and other members of the committee and distinguished guests reviewed the pageant. Here the character of William Penn made a speech, to which Tamanend, sachem of the Delaware Nation, made reply.

The great celebration ended on Friday with a grand military parade under command of General John F. Hartranft. This was a fitting and impressive observance in which the 200 years of history were recalled in tableaux, story, music, pageantry and parade.

The Republican Party received its first setback in a State campaign in 1882, when Robert E. Pattison, of Philadelphia, defeated General James A. Beaver, of Bellefonte, in a spirited contest.

The campaign disclosed the fact that there were too many members of the Republican Party dissatisfied with the conditions in their organization. The disaffected united in an independent movement and nominated John Stewart, of Chambersburg, afterward a Justice of the Supreme Court, as their candidate for Governor.

The Greenback-Labor Party also placed a candidate in the field in the person of Thomas A. Armstrong. The Prohibition candidate was Alfred C. Petit. Mr. Pattison easily overcame the normal Republican majority on account of the divided vote and was elected by more than 40,000 plurality.

Governor Pattison was inaugurated January 16, 1883, at the age of thirty-two years. He was of the opinion that the State should be redistricted in congressional, senatorial and representative districts, as required by the Constitution, and when the Legislature adjourned without passing the necessary legislation, the Governor issued a proclamation on the day fixed for final adjournment, June 6, 1883, and called an extra session to convene the following day.

The Legislature continued in session until December 6, and reapportioned the State into judicial districts, but the efforts in behalf of new districts for Congress and the Legislature proved unavailing.

The act creating the annual observance of Arbor Day was enacted on March 17, 1885, and Governor Pattison appointed April 16 of that year as the first Arbor Day in Pennsylvania, a custom which has been followed to the present time.

In 1886 four candidates were placed in the field for the office of Governor. The Republicans again nominated General James A. Beaver and the Democrats named Chauncey F. Black, of York. The Prohibitionists selected Charles S. Wolf, of Lewisburg, and the Greenback Party named Robert J. Houston.

The Republicans presented a solid front this time and easily elected General Beaver, who was inaugurated January 18, 1887.

In the first session of the General Assembly the State was divided into twenty-eight congressional districts and 204 legislative districts.

An amendment to the Constitution, proposing to “prohibit the manufacture, sale or keeping for sale of any intoxicating liquor to be used as a beverage” was defeated by the vote of the people almost two to one. This amendment was strongly urged by Governor Beaver.

An important movement was put into action by the Governor, himself a gallant veteran of the Civil War, when by the act of the Legislature memorial tablets were erected on the battlefield of Gettysburg. These tablets were dedicated on Pennsylvania Day, September 11–12, 1889.

An interesting historical event was the centennial anniversary of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which was observed in Philadelphia September 15, 16 and 17, 1887. The Constitutional Centennial Commission arranged a civic and industrial procession, military parade and memorial ceremonies in a manner reflecting great honor and credit to all concerned.

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Daniel Boone, Pioneer Kentucky Frontiersman, Born in Berks County October 22, 1733

One of the earliest of American romances is written about the character and thrilling experiences of Daniel Boone, who forsook the quiet and uneventful life of a Quaker, turned his back on the civilization of his native State, deserted his farm in North Carolina and went in search of adventure in the wilderness of Kentucky.

George Boone, III, sailed from England with his wife and three of their nine children, August 17, 1717, and landed in Philadelphia, October 10. This family resided for a short time at Abington, then for two years at North Wales. They belonged to the sect of Quakers and were members of the Gwynedd Meeting.

George Boone, next settled at Oley, then in Philadelphia County, but later, a part of Exeter Township, Berks County; named Exeter when Berks County was erected in honor of the Boone home in England. Here George Boone built a log house, in 1720, situated seven miles east of Reading. It is still standing, and is one of the priceless relics of old Berks County.

The third son of George and Mary Maugridge Boone was Squire Boone, the father of Daniel Boone, who was born on another farm in the same neighborhood, on October 22, 1733.

Daniel left Berks County with his parents for North Carolina in 1750, at the age of seventeen years. They seated themselves in Yadkin River Valley, and young Boone soon became the most expert woodsman and hunter in that section of the State. In 1755 Daniel married Rebecca Bryan, the prettiest girl in the neighborhood, and they were happy in their new log house.

The settlers became too numerous and soon the hunting was more difficult and longer trips necessary. Daniel grew restless, and about that time he was attracted by the tales of John Finley, an experienced Indian trader and adventurer, about the country beyond the mountains, known as Kentucky.

Boone then gathered together five companions and set out on a hunting and exploration trip. After a long, weary march they reached the heights overlooking the plains of Central Kentucky, and observed the huge herds of buffalo and deer, and felt amply rewarded for the hardships endured in getting there.

They erected a cabin and passed a happy and busy summer hunting and exploring. A few days before Christmas the camp was broken up through the capture of Boone and a companion while out hunting. They were suddenly surprised by fifteen Indians and taken prisoners.

Boone and his companion made their captors believe they were happy in their experience and promptly accepted the Indian manner of doing things.

In the middle of the night Boone awakened his companion, grabbed their rifles and escaped.

When they arrived at their cabin it was deserted. The two men realized they were the only white men west of the mountains, but they remained and resumed their hunting.

Some days later Squire Boone, a brother of Daniel, and a friend, arrived at Daniel’s camp. The neighbor who accompanied Squire soon grew homesick and returned to North Carolina. Boone’s other companion was killed by the Indians, and only the brothers were left alone in that wilderness of Kentucky.

They hunted all winter, and in the spring Squire tramped back home for a supply of powder leaving Daniel alone. Three months later Squire returned with powder, lead, horses and the happy tidings that all was well at home.

The following spring Daniel and his brother made a trip home. A year later he sold his farm and planned to make his home in Kentucky. Several neighbors decided to join him, and soon five families, forty in all, with cattle and household goods, were tramping toward the western country.

Suddenly the men driving the cattle were fired at from ambush and six of them killed, one of whom was Daniel Boone’s eldest son. This so saddened the emigrants that Daniel Boone led them back to the Clinch River, where they remained until 1774.

Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, employed Boone to rescue a party of surveyors, and he made a round trip of 800 miles, to the Falls of the Ohio and back to Virginia in sixty-two days, bringing the men back without a mishap.

On April 1, 1775, he began the erection of his famous fort on the Kentucky River. It was finished in June and named Boonesborough.

Boone then returned home, gathered up his family and took them to the new home he had prepared. Here they were happy until the Indians began to make trouble.

The day before Christmas one of his men was killed and another wounded. The following June, Boone’s young daughter and two girls foolishly crossed the river in a boat and were carried away by the Indians.

Boone and eight companions started in pursuit, and forty miles distant came upon them at dinner. The Indians were taken by surprise and fled without their rifles, two being killed on the jump. The girls were rescued unharmed.

During the winter of 1778 Boone was captured at a salt springs, with about thirty of his men. The Indians led them toward Canada, reaching Detroit in March.

The English bought the prisoners, offering a large sum for Boone, but the Indians refused it, saying they liked him and wanted to make him one of their tribe. Boone returned with them, always conducting himself in a cheerful manner. He was adopted in the tribe as a son of Chief Blackfish.

One evening he learned the Indians planned an attack on Boonesborough. He hid food in his shirt and at daybreak started on a hunting trip. Covering his trail, he set out for home, walking day and night, eating few meals during the 160 miles through the woods.

When he arrived he found his wife, believing him dead, had returned to her father’s home. He assembled his sixty men and prepared for the attack of 400 Indians.

The attack was made, British and Canadians being among the savages under Chief Blackfish. A parley of two days was agreed to, but Boone used the time to better protect the fort.

After a fierce fight lasting nine days the Indians gave up and started home, leaving behind thirty-seven dead and many wounded. Boone lost two men and had four wounded.

In 1780 Squire Boone was killed and Daniel had a narrow escape from capture.

In 1782 Boone was commissioned a lieutenant colonel. One of his sons was killed and the other wounded.

Kentucky was admitted as a State February 4, 1791. Boone’s restless spirit then moved him westward and in 1795 he settled in Missouri. He died September 26, 1820, and his body was buried beside his wife, who had died seven years before.

In 1845 Boone’s remains were re-interred near Frankfort, Ky.

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General Sir Guy Carleton Puts End to Indian War October 23, 1782

After the murder of Colonel William Crawford, which occurred June, 1782, about five miles west of Upper Sandusky, the Scots and other frontiersmen were saddened but far from being discouraged.

The fugitives of the ill-fated expedition to the Sandusky had hardly returned to their homes along the western frontier of Pennsylvania when they began preparations for another expedition.

The borderers possessed a fierce determination to crush out the “red vipers” and one more trip into the Indian country soon as harvest was gathered was but an incident in their exciting life.

General William Irvine, the commandant at Fort Pitt, was urged to command, and principal men of that vicinity agreed to furnish the provisions, not only for the volunteers but for the regular troops.

The General determined to lead the expedition if he should be satisfied with its size and equipment. Men who were too aged for service agreed to furnish the horses and provisions.

It was intended to start early in August, but the summer had been so dry that the mills could not grind until the water was sufficient, so a postponement was announced until September 20.

General Irvine kept the State Government advised of the preparations on the frontier and at the same time intimated that State and Congress would materially assist in the enterprise.

After a conference between members of Congress and the Supreme Executive Council a recommendation was made, September 1, 1782, to General Washington that the General Government should aid in this campaign against the savages. It was an opportune moment as operations in the East were quiet and peace was soon expected with Great Britain.

General Washington agreed that three expeditions should penetrate the Indian country, each to be composed of regulars, militia and volunteers, and Congress voted to bear the expenses of the regular troops.

Brigadier General Irvine was to command in person the expedition which would move from Fort Pitt against the Wyandot and Delaware on the Sandusky River; Major General James Potter, of Northumberland County, was to advance from Sunbury into the Seneca land, in the Genesee Valley of New York State, and a third expedition was to be sent by the State of New York against the Eastern Iroquois in the vicinity of Oswego.

Two companies of militia, one from York and the other from Cumberland County, were sent to Westmoreland to guard its settlements while its own men were absent in the Indian country.

Detachments of Colonel Moses Hazen’s “Canadian Regiment” stationed at Lancaster and Carlisle were ordered to march to Fort Pitt and there join General Irvine, who had at that post two companies of the Eighth Pennsylvania regiment, commanded by Captains Samuel Brady and John Clark.

General Lincoln, Secretary of War, proposed that General Irvine’s force should aggregate 1200 men and set October 8 as the date to begin the campaign, and assured General Irvine that the additional troops would be there by that time.

While preparations were being made the Indians struck a blow against the border. Early in September, Captain Andrew Bradt and forty Canadian Rangers and 238 Indians, Wyandot, Delaware and Shawnee, set out from Upper Sandusky to attack Wheeling.

Fort Henry, at that place, was defended by twenty-seven men, only eighteen of whom were fit for duty. One swivel gun, which had been discarded by the French and thrown into the river when Fort Duquesne was evacuated in 1758, had been recovered by the pioneers and again set up.

All the inhabitants of that neighborhood flocked to the stockade on the news of the approach of the enemy. Colonel Ebenezer Zane was in command of the garrison.

Captain Bradt’s force crossed the Ohio and paraded in front of Fort Henry in the evening of Wednesday, September 11. The captain displayed the British flag and demanded a surrender, which was promptly rejected, and soon firing was opened on the fort from long range.

At midnight the savages attempted to carry the fort by storm, but were repulsed. The French swivel gun proved to be more than a relic and rendered a good account of itself, and especially as the Indians were much afraid of any sort of cannon.

Two more attempts to gain by storm were made before daybreak, and both proved futile. The enemy, however, kept up a steady fire during the day. Captain Bradt sent a Negro to the fort with a second demand for surrender, and during Thursday night a fourth desperate attempt to take the fort by storm was made.

Again the brave riflemen repulsed the savage horde and broke their spirit, and they retired and recrossed the Ohio. Only one defender was wounded in the foot.

After the failure to invest Wheeling, seventy of the Indians who cut loose from the main force and went for scalps and plunder, attacked the blockhouse of Abraham Rice, on Buffalo Creek, within the present Donegal Township, Washington County.

Six men in that blockhouse successfully defended it from 2 o’clock in the afternoon of September 13 until 2 o’clock the following morning. They killed four Indians and lost one of their own number, George Felebaum, who was shot in the brain while looking through a loophole.

The savages killed many cattle and burned the barn. On their return toward the Ohio they met and killed two settlers who were going to the relief of Rice’s blockhouse. This was the last invasion of Western Pennsylvania by a large body of Indians.

While General Irvine was impatient that Hazen’s regulars did not arrive, on October 23, he received word from Philadelphia that the Indian war was at an end and that his expedition was countermanded.

To the credit of General Sir Guy Carleton is due the cessation of the Indian depredations. Soon after his appointment he was shocked by the cruel burning of Colonel William Crawford and other American prisoners, and he immediately put an end to the six years of terrible savage butchery.

General Washington learned of General Carleton’s action September 23, when he directed the authorities in Philadelphia to stop General Potter at Sunbury from marching to Fort Pitt.

On September 27 General Lincoln ordered Generals Hazen and Irvine to call off the expedition. The former immediately returned with his command to Lancaster. The letter to General Irvine was not promptly delivered and Captain Samuel Brady found the bearer at a wayside inn, and he hurried the intelligence to General Irvine too late.

But in the autumn of 1782, the sorely harried frontiersmen were encouraged to believe their distresses were at an end, and with much joy they were able to participate in the first general Thanksgiving Day celebrated in the United States on the last Thursday of November.

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Susquehanna River First Explored by Etienne Brulé in October, 1615

Two great waters south of Pennsylvania admit ships from Europe, and by them white men came. Their first approach was up the Chesapeake.

Captain John Smith sailed from the colony of Jamestown, Va., July 24, 1608, on an exploring expedition, and his little craft, bearing thirteen souls, was propelled with sail and oar. Even with such a vessel he experienced some danger and suffered privations, before he pushed as far up the “northwest branch” as he could. This, of course, was the Susquehanna River.

Captain Smith first saw the Susquehanna Indians, and he is the one explorer who has given us a fine account of the country he visited and the people he met.

Twelve months after Captain Smith’s visit to the head of the Chesapeake, Henry Hudson, in the “Half Moon,” sailed along the Atlantic Coast and discovered the existence of the Delaware Bay, on August 28, 1609.

But neither Captain John Smith nor Henry Hudson entered Pennsylvania. They approached or reached the open doorway, but it is not certain either came inside. The first actual visit of a white man was not made until six years after Hudson’s call at the Capes.

The first exploration of the Susquehanna River for its entire length was made in the fall, winter and spring of 1615–16 by Etienne (Stephen) Brulé, a Frenchman in the employ of Samuel Champlain, the first Governor of New France. He entered Pennsylvania via the North Branch the latter part of October, 1615.

A narrative of Brulé's explorations is given by John G. Shea and is to the effect that Brulé crossed from Lake Ontario to the headwaters of the Susquehanna, descended the North Branch, and furnished the Jesuit Fathers with the earliest information we have of the aborigines of that section.

The glowing description which Brulé gave of these Neuters led Father de la Roche Daillon to visit them. Brulé must have been among these Indians as early as 1610, and perhaps earlier. He was one of the first Europeans ever to visit the Huron country and acquire a knowledge of their language.

Brulé was a dauntless woodsman, interpreter and guide and seems to have possessed the requisite quantity of genuine bravado to have done the things with which he is credited.

September 8, 1615, when Champlain was preparing to join the Huron in their expedition against their ancient enemies, the Iroquois, Brulé set out with a party of twelve Huron from Upper Canada for the town of Carantouan on the Susquehanna, to obtain their co-operation against the common enemy. The Indians formed part of the confederacy known later as the Andastes.

Brulé, with his little band of Huron, crossed from Lake Ontario to the Susquehanna, defeated on the way a war-party of Iroquois and entered Carantouan in triumph.

This was that tribe’s principal town and was palisaded. From this town they could send out 800 warriors, which would indicate a total population of 4000 souls. Brulé obtained here a force of 500 Carantouan, and they set out to join Champlain and the Huron; but as they proceeded slowly, they reached the Iroquoian town only to find that Champlain had attacked it with his force, had failed, had himself been wounded, and had returned to Canada.

Brulé and his allies returned to Carantouan, and here Brulé remained the rest of the autumn and winter, “for lack of company and escort home.”

While thus waiting Brulé explored the country and visited tribes adjacent to that region. He explored along the river “that debouches in the direction of Florida,” and left the neighborhood of Oneida, N. Y., in the fall of 1615, and descended the Susquehanna River to at least the present Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary. This is evidenced by the fact that in the report of his journey he refers to meeting with tribes who complained of the harshness of the Dutch.

Certainly these early settlers had not gone far from the mouth of the great rivers at this early date, even to explore the country. He reported many warlike nations carrying on wars against each other; the climate as very temperate, and great numbers of animals and an abundance of small game.

He continued his course “along the river as far as the sea, and to islands and lands near them, which are inhabited by various tribes and large numbers of savages, who are well disposed and love the French above all nations. But those who know the Dutch complain severely of them, since they treat them roughly.”

When he attempted to rejoin his countrymen, his party was attacked and scattered by the Iroquois and Brulé, losing his way, entered an Iroquois village. He tried to convince them that he was not of the same nation of whites who had just been attacking them, but the savages fell upon him, tore out his nails and beard and began to burn him in different parts of the body.

He was far from being an exemplary character, but wore an Agnus Dei, and when the Indians went to tear this from his neck he threatened them with the vengeance of heaven. Just then a terrible thunderstorm came up, his tormentors fled in all directions and the chief of the tribe released Brulé.

After this he spent some time with them. They escorted him on a four days’ journey to visit the Huron tribe on Lake Huron.

He found Champlain in 1618, and made his report to him. It was apparently on this return trip that he passed through the territory of the Neuters, as it would be his safest course.

It may be well to record here the ultimate fate of this intrepid adventurer. In 1623 he was in Quebec, where he was sent to meet and bring down the Huron coming to trade. He returned with them, leading a very dissolute life among the Indians.

Sagard, in his “History of Canada,” says when Kirk took Quebec Brulé deserted the French and went over to the English. He was sent up to the Huron, in 1629, in the interest of the English, notwithstanding the bitter reproaches of his old commander, Champlain. Sagard further states that the traitorous conduct of Brulé provoked the Huron, who put him to death and devoured him.

The Jesuits do not mention this fate, but intimate that he met his death at the town of Toanchain, about one mile from Thunder Bay.

Such was the fate of the man who was the first to cross from Lake Ontario to the Susquehanna and pass from the villages of the Iroquois through neutral country to the shores of Lake Huron. Certainly he was the first European to discover the picturesque beauty of the great Susquehanna River.

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John Harris, Who Laid Out Harrisburg, Had Narrow Escape, October 25, 1755

John Harris, Sr., built his log house on the bank of the Susquehanna River where the City of Harrisburg now stands in the year of 1705. This building was subsequently stockaded and became known as Fort Harris.

Harris was especially an Indian trader, but engaged largely in agriculture. It is said of him that he was the first person to use a plow on the Susquehanna, and moreover, that “he was as honest a man as ever broke bread.”

The elder Harris was born in the County of Yorkshire, England, of Welsh parents, in the year 1673, and was brought up in the trade of his father, that of a brewer. He was of middle age when he emigrated to America and located in Philadelphia, where he became a contractor for cleaning and grading the streets of the city. He married Esther Say, an English lady, who possessed a remarkable personality and was noted for her extraordinary energy and learning.

In January, 1705, John Harris was given a license to “seat himself on the Susquehanna, and to erect such buildings as are necessary for his trade, and to enclose and improve such quantities of land as he shall think fit.”

He tarried at Conewago awhile, but soon learned of the beauty and superior advantages of Paxtang, and that the best fording-place on the Susquehanna was near there, so he removed and, immediately upon his arrival, commenced the erection of a home and storehouse, which were subsequently to figure so conspicuously in the pioneer history of the young Province.

In connection with his farming he established a ferry which became known throughout the entire Eastern section of the United States.

Miss Wharton, in her delightful story, “In Old Pennsylvania Towns,” refers to the elder Harris as follows:

“John Harris is said to have lived on fairly good terms with the surrounding Indians, but one thrilling experience of his is among the cherished traditions of Harrisburg.

“It seems that a band of roving Indians from the Carolinas halted at his trading post to exchange their goods probably for rum, of which the savages already had too much. They became riotous in their drunken revelry and, demanding more rum, were refused by Mr. Harris, who began to fear harm from his visitors.

“Not to be denied they again demanded ‘Lum’ and, seizing him, they took him to a mulberry tree near by and bound him to it, intending to burn him after they had helped themselves to his stores.

“Before the savages were able to carry out their evil designs, some friendly Indians arrived on the scene, having been warned of the danger of his master by Hercules, a faithful colored servant of Mr. Harris. It is said that these friendly Indians had come to the rescue of Mr. Harris in consequence of some act of kindness which they had received from him.

“The grave of Mr. Harris may be seen in the river bank opposite the Cameron house and is now inclosed by a railing. He is buried under the mulberry tree to which he had once been bound, and at his feet rest the remains of the faithful Hercules, who had saved his master’s life.

“There are men living in Harrisburg who remember the stump of the historic mulberry tree which residents of Harrisburg preserved for years by applying cement and plaster and later a shoot from the original tree flourished and bore fruit to which children strolling along the river bank would stop and help themselves.”

He died in 1748, and was succeeded by his son, who was born in the original Harris home, or Fort Harris, in 1727.

He was the first white child born in Pennsylvania west of the Conewago hills. He was carried to Philadelphia by his mother for the purpose of being baptized, and according to the parish register of Christ Church, in Philadelphia, this event was duly solemnized September 22, 1728, his age at that time being eleven months.

When only a young man, John Harris, Jr., was occasionally employed by the Province of Pennsylvania to transact important business with the Indians at critical periods.

His house was frequently visited by the aborigines, and several very important conferences were held there between the several tribes of Indians on the Susquehanna, Ohio, etc., and the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania.

Under the will of his father he became possessed of 700 acres of land, on a part of which he later laid out the city of Harrisburg.

John Harris, Jr., was an energetic and an extensive farmer and an Indian trader, who enjoyed the confidence of the Indians to an unusual degree. His ferry became the most prominent place along the frontier.

Prior to 1754, he had been sent on an Indian mission to Ohio, and at the same time to notice the practical route from his ferry to Logstown. He performed his errand satisfactorily.

Having accepted an Indian agency he was faithful to his charge, both to the Indians and the Provincial Government. The latter was kept constantly advised of happenings among the frontier settlements, for at this time many of the Ohio Indians had already taken up the hatchet against the English.

He frequently visited the Indians at Shamokin (now Sunbury), and when the French and Indians had committed atrocious murders upon the frontier inhabitants he, aided by others, rushed to their rescue and often buried the bodies of the slain.

These missions were frequently carried out under great hardship and danger. The most serious experience in the life of John Harris occurred October 25, 1755, when the party he was leading from Shamokin was attacked near Mahanoy Creek by Indians lying in ambush and four of his party were killed and four drowned. The person riding on the same horse with Harris was shot and killed, and a moment later the horse was killed and Harris compelled to flee for safety by swimming the river.

John Harris was a sincere patriot. When the independence of the colonies was being agitated he thought it premature, fearing that the colonies were unequal to the task of combating with Great Britain, but when independence was declared, he advanced £3000 to carry on the contest.

He was a man of keen foresight. He understood the natural advantages of Harris’ Ferry, and twenty years before he laid out the town, he observed that it would be a place of business and the seat of the government of Pennsylvania.

When he laid out Harrisburg in 1785, he conveyed, with other property, four acres on Capitol Hill, east of the present State buildings, for public use.

After a life of usefulness, he closed his eventful career, July 29, 1791, and his remains rest in the old Paxton Presbyterian Church graveyard alongside of the illustrious fellow-patriot, William Maclay, whose daughter was his loving and devoted wife.

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Fail to End Warfare Through Treaty at Albany, October 26, 1745

During the minority of Richard and Thomas Penn the Proprietary Land Office had been closed from 1718 to 1732, and many immigrants seated themselves without title on such vacant lands as suited their convenience.

The number of such immigrants entitled them to great consideration. Their rights accruing by priority of settlement were recognized by the public and passed, together with their improvements, through many hands, in confidence that they would receive proprietary sanction.

Much agitation was produced when the Provincial proclamation required all who had not obtained and paid for warrants to pay to the Receiver General, within four months, the sums due for their lands, under penalty of ejectment. As a consequence many and great difficulties arose. The Assembly sought to compromise the matter by postponement of payment of the purchase money for several years.

Great Britain and Spain declared war October 23, 1739, and the old troubles between the Governor and Assembly again appeared to disturb the peace of the Government. The Assembly refused to support England with money or troops and Governor Thomas was compelled to raise Pennsylvania’s quota of 400 men by his own exertion. This he accomplished in three months, but many of his recruits were bond-servants willing to exchange their service and freedom dues for nominal liberty and soldier’s pay.

In March, 1744, hostilities were openly declared between Great Britain and France. The peaceful era in the Province was now at an end, and the dark cloud of the cruel savage warfare began to gather on the western frontier.

The lands acquired by the infamous “Indian Walk,” and those of the Shawnee, which were purchased without their consent, were now to be paid for by the blood of the settlers.

The Delaware Indians refused to leave the forks of the Delaware, even though the “walk” had determined these lands belonged to the Proprietary. The Six Nations were called upon to order off the Delaware, which they did in an overbearing manner. The Delaware retired to Wyoming Valley and the forks of the Susquehanna, at Shamokin, with this additional wrong done them rankling in their breasts.

Franklin published his “Plain Truth” in an endeavor to conciliate the Assembly and the Governor and awaken them both to the importance of military preparations. Franklin was appointed a Colonel, but declined. He preferred to wield the pen, with which he could be of far greater influence to the province. James Logan justified defensive war and assisted with his means.

Defenses were erected below the City of Philadelphia from funds raised for the purpose by means of a public lottery, in which many Quakers sowed a seed, trusting it would bring forth an hundredfold.

These military preparations were necessary for two purposes: to intimidate a foreign enemy and to curb the hostile disposition of the Indians.

The alienation of the Indians was greatly to be dreaded, and Governor Thomas called Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, to the service and dispatched him on a mission to Shikellamy the great vicegerent at Shamokin (now Sunbury), to renew the assurances of friendship and to propose his mediation between the Indians and the Government of Virginia, occasioned by an unpleasant encounter between some Onondaga and Oneida with the English while on an expedition against the Tallapoosa, resident of that colony.

Weiser was happily successful and a treaty was held the ensuing summer. The Indians refrained from hostility in the meantime.

The treaty was convened at Lancaster, June 22, 1744, and ended July 4 following. It was attended by Governor Thomas in person, and by commissioners of Maryland and Virginia.

All matters of dispute were satisfactorily settled, and the Iroquois engaged to prevent the French and their Indian allies from marching through their country to attack the English settlements.

This conference did not, however, remove causes for future disquiet, occasioned by the encroachments of the settlers and the unfair conduct of the Indian traders.

The Shawnee, on the Ohio, allied to the French interest, now assumed a hostile attitude. A great convention was held at Albany, October 26, 1745, to which commissioners from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania were sent.

The Six Nations were urged to take up the hatchet against the French and become parties in the war, but the Indians showed no disposition to enter the contest, and the result of the conference was far from being satisfactory.

In May, 1746, Governor Thomas was directed by the Crown to raise forces for a conquest of Canada. After much delay, the Assembly voted £5000, and Governor Thomas raised four companies of over one hundred men each, commanded by Captain William Trent, John Shannon, Samuel Perry and John Deimer, who marched at once to Albany.

The attempt on Canada was postponed, but the troops were retained nearly eighteen months along the Hudson to intimidate the Indians.

John Penn died, and at a meeting of the Assembly held May 5, 1747, Governor Thomas communicated the news of his death, and at the same time, on account of his own ill-health, he resigned his office.

On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive administration devolved upon the Council, of which Anthony Palmer was president, until the arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, former Speaker of the Assembly, as Lieutenant Governor, November 23, 1749.

The crops were abundant in 1751 and 1752, but these years of plenty were followed by a season of want, covering the years 1753–1755, and on the heels of it came Indian hostilities.

The progress of the white population toward the west irritated the Indians. Especially was this true of the Scotch-Irish, who seated themselves on the west of the Susquehanna, on the Juniata, and in the Great and Little Coves formed by the Kittatinny and the Tuscarora hills, and at the Big and Little Connolloways.

The French applied themselves to seduce the Indians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawnee had already joined them, the Delaware awaited an opportunity to avenge their wrongs, and of the Six Nations, the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca were wavering.

To keep the Indians in favor of the Province required much cunning diplomacy and expensive presents. A chain of forts and the maintenance of a military force, drew heavily on the Provincial purse, and it is but little wonder that the Assembly and the Proprietaries early divided on questions involving taxes and expenditures. The French and Indian War soon broke in all its fierceness.

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William Wilson Sent on Important Mission to Ohio Indians After Fort Pitt Treaty, October 27, 1775

Early in the Revolution the Continental Congress opened negotiations for peace with the Indians. The frontier was divided into three Indian departments, of which the middle department included the tribes west of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Congress named a committee, consisting of Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, to hold a treaty with the Indians at Fort Pitt.

This treaty was assembled October 27, 1775, with the Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot tribes, represented by their leading chiefs. Guyasuta, the principal Seneca, also represented the Iroquois, and he presumed to speak also for the Western tribes, which so aroused the ire of White Eyes, the Delaware orator, that his tribe declared their absolute independence.

The council was neither harmonious nor entirely successful, and the English soon bribed the Indians to take up the hatchet against the Colonists. This they were easily able to accomplish, as they made tempting offers and made a greater display of military prowess.

During the treaty at Fort Pitt the commission selected John Gibson as Indian agent for the Ohio tribes, but he was soon succeeded by Richard Butler.

Early in 1776 Congress assumed direct control of the Indian agencies and placed George Morgan in charge of the most important post at Fort Pitt.

Morgan was a man of education, high family connections and considerable wealth. His home was in Princeton, N. J., but he owned a mercantile establishment in Philadelphia, and as agent of his own trading house he had traveled extensively in the Indian country, from the Allegheny to Illinois.

He arrived at Pittsburgh May 1, 1776, and immediately opened negotiations for a better treaty with the Indians. He sent agents with pacific messages among the tribes, employing in this service William Wilson, Peter Long, Simon Girty and Joseph Nicholson.

The mission upon which he sent Wilson was the most important. He was an Indian trader and acquainted with the tribes between the Ohio River and Detroit. It was his duty to invite the Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot chiefs to a council at Fort Pitt.

Early in June he departed, accompanied by Nicholson. They traveled on horseback to the Delaware towns on the Muskingum River. There the chiefs accepted his invitation. He then journeyed to the seats of the Shawnee on the Scioto, where he found many of the warriors to be in a very doubtful humor.

The chief sachem, Hardman, and the brave war chief, Cornstalk, were inclined to peace, but advised that they had received an invitation to take part in a great council with the British Governor at Detroit, and must go there first.

While Wilson was yet at the Shawnee towns, Morgan himself arrived there, and endeavored to arrange a definite date for the treaty.

Before Morgan departed for Fort Pitt, he handed to Wilson a large peace belt of wampum and a written message to deliver to the Wyandot chief. When Wilson and Nicholson departed, they were accompanied by Cornstalk, but they advanced only as far as Pluggystown, on the Upper Scioto. This place was inhabited by renegade Indians.

The chief, Pluggy, was a Mohawk, and his followers, called Mingo, were horse thieves and murderers. Pluggy’s warriors formed a plot to seize Wilson and Nicholson and carry them to the British fort at Detroit, where a handsome reward would be theirs.

This plan was revealed to Cornstalk, who advised the white men to flee to the Delaware town of Coshocton. They were barely able to escape by night and arriving at Coshocton, they placed themselves under the protection of old King Newcomer.

That venerable sachem, believing it would not now be safe for Wilson to proceed to Sandusky, lest the Mingo should waylay the trail, sent Killbuck, a noted Delaware war captain, to bear the American message to the Wyandot chiefs. Killbuck returned eleven days later with the message the Wyandots wished to see Wilson in person as an evidence of his good intentions, but that they could not give a definite answer until they had consulted their great council beyond the lake. The seat of the nation was in Canada, near Detroit.

Wilson determined to go to Sandusky, and the Delaware Council appointed White Eyes and two young warriors to accompany him. Nicholson had been sent back to Fort Pitt with a message to Morgan. Wilson was joined later by John Montour, a grandson of the famous Madam Montour, and he served Wilson faithfully.

Before reaching Sandusky Wilson learned that the Wyandot chief had gone to the Detroit Council, and he therefore made up his mind to venture into the immediate neighborhood of the British post, so that he might deliver his message to the Wyandot chief.

It was the decision of a brave and bold man. He was received with apparent friendliness by a majority of the chiefs and on September 2 he addressed them in council, presenting his peace belt and message from Morgan. He invited them to attend the council at Fort Pitt twenty-five days from that time.

The next morning the Wyandot betrayed Wilson’s presence to the British commander, Colonel Henry Hamilton. They returned the belt to Wilson and advised him to explain his errand to the British official.

Wilson, White Eyes and John Montour were compelled to go with the Wyandots to the great Council House in Detroit. Wilson frankly announced his purpose to the Lieutenant Governor, again presented the peace belt and the written message to the Wyandot chief and handed the articles to Colonel Hamilton.

The British commander addressed the Indians, saying those who bore this message were enemies to his King, and before he would take any of them by the hand he would suffer his right hand to be cut off.

Hamilton thereupon tore up the speech, cut the belt in pieces and scattered the fragments about the Council House. He then spoke to the Wyandot Indians in French, which Wilson did not understand. Hamilton abused Montour for aiding the colonists and denounced White Eyes, whom he ordered to leave Detroit in twenty-four hours if he valued his life.

Hamilton, notwithstanding his anger, respected Wilson’s character as an ambassador and gave him safe conduct through the Indian country. The trader returned to Fort Pitt much discouraged by the outlook and reported to Morgan that the Wyandot would go on the warpath. The Mingo were already in the British service.

In spite of Hamilton’s opposition, Indians of four tribes attended the council with the “rebels” at Fort Pitt, in the latter part of October. The Delaware sent their ruling chiefs; the Wyandot sent Half King; the Shawnee, the great Cornstalk, and the distant Ottawa sent one sachem. Costly presents were given them by the commissioners, and effusive peace speeches were made by the savages, but only the Delaware were sincere.

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James Logan, Penn’s Secretary and Trusted Friend and Agent, Born October 28, 1674

The lives of men like James Logan ennoble the pages of history and make its study an elevating pursuit and a reinforcement to the resources of public morality. This man was worthy the compliment which the great vicegerent Shikellamy paid him, when he named his son in his honor; he was worthy to have been the trusted friend of William Penn, and to have had Benjamin Franklin for his printer.

The world has not produced many men, who, after forty years spent in the whirl and muddy currents of active business and intense political strife, can, with clean hands and unsullied reputation, calmly step aside out of the turmoil and retire to the company of his books, to endow a library and make a translation of Cicero’s “De Senectute,” printing it, as the writer himself pleasantly says, “in a large and fair character so that old men may not be vexed by the defective eyesight in reading what was so appropriate to their years.”

James Logan was born in Lurgan, Ireland, October 28, 1674. His father, Patrick Logan, grandson of Sir Robert Logan of Restairig, Scotland, sprang from that stock of proud Scottish lairds, distinguished for long pedigrees and barren acres, whose children have lent their genius to the service of the world.

James Logan was a lad of precocious mind—at sixteen he knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and made rapid progress in mathematics. He afterwards mastered French, Italian and Spanish, and probably Dutch and German. He became familiar with several Indian dialects.

He went into trade as a linen-draper’s apprentice in Dublin, then in the Bristol trade for himself.

At Bristol, in 1698, he met William Penn, and became his private secretary and devoted follower ever after.

In the year 1699, he sailed with William Penn on his second visit to his province in America. In mid-ocean another ship came into sight, and as England and France were at war, all feared that the strange vessel might be an enemy. The crew prepared for action. Penn and his friends, who did not believe in warfare, went below. Only one of Penn’s party remained on deck to help defend the ship, James Logan.

Soon Logan went below to tell Penn that the strange vessel was English, when Penn reproved him for undertaking to engage in fighting, as he was a Quaker. The young man replied with spirit: “Why did thee not order me to come down? Thee was willing enough that I should stay and help to fight, when thee thought there was danger!”

Penn expected to stay in Pennsylvania the rest of his life, but on his visit he was able to spend less than two years here. But during his stay, Logan had become not only a helper but also an intimate friend.

Penn trusted his secretary to the utmost, and when he sailed away, left all his affairs in Pennsylvania under Logan’s direction. “I have left thee in an uncommon trust,” wrote Penn, “with a singular dependence on thy justice and care.”

There was no mistake in trusting James Logan. He kept Penn informed of everything, and scrupulously attended to all Penn’s business affairs.

William Penn never came back to see his province again. During the last six years of his life his mind failed, so that his wife, Hannah, carried on all business for him. Had it not been for James Logan, poverty would often have oppressed the great founder and his family.

From the moment of Penn’s departure, in 1701, to Logan’s death, 1751, he was always the power behind the proprietary throne, wielding what was sometimes almost absolute authority with singular propriety and judgment.

He was secretary of the province, commissioner of property, and of Indian affairs, member and president of Council, acting Governor, and chief justice.

After more than twenty-five years of residence in Philadelphia, Logan decided to build a country home for himself. He erected a fine mansion, which he called Stenton, near the Old York Road. Here he lived for nearly a quarter century more.

His thigh was broken in a fall, and he was compelled to live retired, but his love of books was so constant and sincere that the pursuit of literature became his passion.

But even in seclusion he never neglected his public duties for his private tastes. Many important affairs of state were transacted at Stenton, which was nearly always surrounded by deputations of Indians, who camped about the house to seek advice and favors from their honored friend “hid in the bushes.” As many as a hundred Iroquois once stayed at Stenton for three days as Logan’s guests.

Thomas Godfrey’s improvements in the quadrant were made at Stenton under Logan’s eye, and Franklin and he worked together with a thorough appreciation of each other’s good qualities.

The British determined to burn Stenton, when they captured Philadelphia, but the cleverness of an old Negro woman servant saved the historic mansion. Lord Howe afterwards made Stenton his headquarters.

Now the famous house, quite two hundred years old, is owned by the Philadelphia Society of Colonial Dames, and is kept in good condition and open for visitors. It stands near the station at Wayne Junction.

Logan was an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of Ann, daughter of Edward Shippen, who married Thomas Story. His wife was Sarah Read, daughter of a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, to whom he was wedded eight years after his ill-success with Miss Shippen.

His children were not literary in their tastes and it was on this account that he left his library to Philadelphia, endowing it for its perpetual maintenance, with the Springettsbury Manor property which he had received from Penn’s estate.

Logan was a fine type, dignified yet courteous, and his conversation was quiet and reserved.

Gordon says, “Never was power and trust more safely bestowed for the donor. The secretary faithfully devoted his time and his thoughts to promote the interests of his master, and bore with firmness, if not with cheerfulness, the odium which his unlimited devotion drew upon himself.”

He died at Stenton, October 31, 1751.

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Penn Lands at Upland and Changes Name to Chester, October 29, 1682

After William Penn issued his frame of government for his new Province of Pennsylvania and had sent a description of his property throughout England, especially among the Friends, offering easy terms of sale, there were many persons from London, Liverpool and Bristol who embarked in this enterprise and the association called “The Free Traders’ Society of Pennsylvania” purchased large tracts of land.

Penn then obtained a deed for the three lower counties (now the State of Delaware), which was duly recorded in New York November 21, 1682.

Having completed all arrangements for his voyage to America, Penn wrote an affectionate letter to his wife and children and another “to all faithful friends in England.” Accompanied by about 100 passengers, mostly Friends from Sussex, he embarked in August on the ship Welcome, a vessel of about 300 tons burden.

After a voyage of two months they sighted the American coast about Egg Harbor, in New Jersey, on October 24, 1682, and reached New Castle, Del., on the 27th.

On the following morning Penn produced his deeds from the Duke of York and received possession by the solemn “delivery of turf, and twig, and water, and soil of the River Delaware.”

His arrival off the coast and passage up the river was a continuous demonstration of great joy by all classes—English, Dutch, Swedes, and especially by his devoted followers.

The day following his landing Penn summoned the inhabitants to the court-house at New Castle, where, says Clarkson, “he made a speech to the old magistrates, in which he explained to them the design of his coming, the nature and end of government and of that more particularly which he came to establish.”

At this time he took formal possession of the country and renewed the commissions of the magistrates.

Penn then proceeded to Upland, where he arrived October 29, 1682. This was a memorable event, says Clarkson, and to be distinguished by some marked circumstances. Penn determined, therefore, to change the name of the place, and turning toward his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him on the ship Welcome, he said:

“Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I shall call this place?”

Pearson said, “Chester,” in remembrance of the place from which he came. William Penn replied, that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name.

From Chester Penn proceeded, with some of his friends, in an open barge, in the earliest days of November, to a place about four miles above the mouth of the Schuylkill, called Coaquannock, “where there was a high bold shore, covered with lofty pines.”

Here the infant city of Philadelphia had been established, and Penn’s approach was hailed with joy by the whole population.

Immediately after his arrival in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Penn dispatched two persons to Lord Baltimore to ask of his health, offer kind neighborhood and agree upon a time of meeting. Penn then went to New York to pay his respects to the Duke, returning to Philadelphia before the close of November.

It was about this time that the “Great Treaty” took place at Shackamaxon. Tradition has persisted that a great treaty took place here under an elm tree, with William Penn, Deputy Governor Markham and others, and the representatives of the several Indian tribes of that and other localities.

Even if tradition errs in the details of this treaty, it is a fact that the Indians themselves alluded to “the treaty of amity and peace held with the great and good Onas” on all public occasions.

Onas was the Indian name for the Governor of Pennsylvania, and it is supposed that the “great and good Onas” referred particularly to William Penn himself.

It is also true that for a period of forty or fifty years the treaty Penn made with the Indians was not broken, and the land of Penn was preserved during all the time from the suffering of the scalping-knife, the tomahawk or the torch.

William Penn convened a General Assembly at Chester, December 4, 1682, of which Nicholas More, president of the Society of Free Traders, was chosen speaker.

During a session of four days this Assembly enacted three laws: (1) An act for the union of the Province and Territories; (2) An act of Naturalization; and (3) The great law, or code of laws, consisting of sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon in England and several others afterward suggested.

Penn, by appointment, met Lord Baltimore at West River December 19, where he was received with great ceremony, but their interview led to no solution of the vexatious question of boundary. The discussion lasted two days, but the weather became severely cold, precluding the possibility of taking observations or making the necessary surveys, so it was agreed to adjourn further consideration of the subject until spring.

The two Governors were taking measure of each other and gaining all possible knowledge of each other’s rights and claims preparatory to the struggle for the possession of this disputed fortieth degree of latitude, which case was destined to come before the home Government and give Penn a great deal of trouble.

Early in 1683 Penn divided the province and territories each into three counties—those of the former were called Bucks, Philadelphia and Chester; those of the latter were New Castle, Kent and Sussex.

Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the several counties, writs for the election of members of Council and Assembly were issued conformable with the Constitution, and on January 10, 1683, Penn met the Council in Philadelphia and the Assembly two days later.

The Provincial Council was composed of eighteen members, three from each county, the Assembly fifty-four with nine from each county, making in all seventy-two. Thus was the Government of the province inaugurated, out of which has grown the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Penn concluded two important treaties with the Indians during June and July, 1683. He also visited the interior of his province, going as far west as the Susquehanna River.

The proprietary set sail for England June 12, 1684.

Penn wrote a farewell letter to his province when on board the vessel, which was couched in the most endearing terms.

After his departure the province and territories were divided into twenty-two townships. There were then 7000 inhabitants, of whom 2500 resided in Philadelphia, which already comprised 300 houses.

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Frightened Settlers Build and Defend Fort Swatara October 30, 1755

The stockades and small forts built along the frontiers during the intense excitement which followed Braddock’s defeat in July, 1755, have always been of great interest to local historians and the many citizens who reside in the vicinity of these provincial defenses.

One such place, to which not a little interesting history is attached, was built about twelve miles east of Manada Gap, near the passage through the Blue Mountains, by which the Swatara Creek wends its way to the fertile acres below, and a few miles farther empties into the Susquehanna.

In the immediate vicinity of Swatara Gap was located Fort Swatara or Smith’s Fort, as it was sometimes called. An unfortunate fact was that this fort was sometimes erroneously called Fort Henry or Busse’s Fort, and many incidents in and about this place are confused.

After the disastrous beginning of the French and Indian War the Indians swept through the frontiers of Pennsylvania and committed terrible massacres.

The news of the Penn’s Creek massacre soon reached the settlements on Swatara Creek and the farmers gathered together, October 30, armed with guns, swords, axes, pitchforks, whatever they happened to possess, until some 200 rendezvoused at Benjamin Spickers, near Stoucksburg, about six miles above Womelsdorf.

The Rev. Mr. Kurtz[9] of the Lutheran faith, delivered an exhortation and offered prayer, after which Conrad Weiser divided the people into companies of thirty each.

Footnote 9:

Reverend John Nicholas Kurtz, first Lutheran Minister in Pennsylvania.

They marched toward the Susquehanna, having first sent a company of fifty men “to Tolkeo in order to possess themselves of the Capes or Narrows of the Swahatawro, where we expected the enemy would come through,” wrote Colonel Conrad Weiser, to Governor Robert Hunter Morris.

The forces were augmented on the way, and by the time they arrived at Squire Adam Read’s plantation on Swatara Creek, they received the intelligence of the surprise and slaughter of members of Captain John Harris’ party at the mouth of the Mahanoy Creek.

This news dampened the ardor of the volunteers and they soon concluded they could be of more effective service guarding their own firesides and they hurried back. The news that 500 Indians had already made their way through Tolkeo Gap and had killed a number of people did not contribute to their joy on the long march home.

Colonel Weiser sensed the situation and fully understood he could not count much upon this group, so he advised them to make a breastwork of trees at Swatara Gap, promising to procure for them a quantity of bread and ammunition. They got as far as the top of the mountain; fired their guns to alarm the neighborhood, and then hurried back.

Soon came the news of the murder of Henry Hartman, just over the mountain. When Mr. Parsons and a party went to bury the body, they learned that two others had been recently killed and scalped, and some had been captured. The roads were filled with persons fleeing from their homes and confusion reigned.

It was clearly apparent that Swatara Gap must be occupied by troops and Colonel Weiser ordered Captain Christian Busse with his company of fifty men to “proceed to Tolihaio Gap, and there erect a stoccado fort of the form and dimensions given you, and to take posts there and range the woods from the fort westward towards the Swatara and eastward towards a stoccado to be built by Cap. Morgan, about half way between the said fort and Fort Lebanon.”

Governor Morris writing to Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, February 1, 1756, advised him that he had arranged to build a chain of forts, about ten or twelve miles apart, between the Delaware and Susquehanna. The best is “built at an important Pass through ye Kittahteny Hills, on our Northern Frontier and I have called it Fort Henry.” This is an error, as he should have written Fort Swatara.

This might be proved by a letter Colonel Conrad Weiser wrote to Governor Morris, July 11, 1756, giving the assignment of his troops. He stated that the men under Captain Smith are all placed in and about Swatara Gap and the Manada Fort; Captain Busse’s men were at Fort Henry and Captain Morgan’s at Fort Northkill and Fort Lebanon. This definitely proves that Fort Swatara and Fort Henry were not one and the same place.

The first and most important of the commanders of Fort Swatara was Captain Frederick Smith, whose company was recruited in Chester County. Captain Smith was ordered, January 26, to proceed as soon as possible to Swatara and in some convenient place there to erect a fort.

Captain Adam Read and Captain Hendrick, who had been ranging the mountains, were ordered to dismiss their men and turn over their arms and supplies to Captain Smith, all of which was done.

Further mention of the actual building of Fort Swatara is missing, as is the case of Manada Fort, but it is very probable that the stockade erected by the settlers was occupied by the provincial troops. This was not a very formidable fortification, and was afterward referred to in a letter to Colonel Washington as “only a block house.” It may therefore be presumed, at this late day, that it consisted of a single building, surrounded by a stockade.

The many murders committed by the savages and their stealthy approach, made it necessary to distribute the soldiers among the various farmhouses, especially during the harvest season.

The distribution of these men was usually made under the direction of Colonel Weiser, at consultations with the several commanders at Fort Henry.

This detail was not always satisfactory to the settlers, as may well be imagined. Each wanted troops to be on guard and there were never sufficient to supply the demand, but Captain Smith, at first negligent in this particular, was afterward complimented by both Colonel Weiser and Governor Morris for the faithful performance of his duty in the face of many hardships.

At the treaty held in Easton, in 1757, Conrad Weiser once more acted as agent for the Proprietaries, and interpreter. He arranged for a guard of 110 men, who were to come from sundry forts, one of which was Fort Swatara.

On February 5, 1758, Adjutant Kern reported Lieutenant Allen and thirty-three men at Fort Swatara, and “its distance to Fort Hunter, on the Susquehanna, as twenty-four miles.”

There are frequent references to be found in the Pennsylvania Archives of Paymaster Young’s visits to Fort Swatara.

Colonel James Burd’s tour of inspection in early spring of 1758 included Fort Swatara, where he remained two days longer than desired on account of incessant rains. He reviewed the garrison Tuesday morning, February 21. He did not seem very much pleased with conditions about the fort and gave orders intended to correct weaknesses. He ordered a cask of powder, 100 pounds of lead and blankets for the garrison.

After this tour of inspection there does not seem to be much more recorded of the transaction of Fort Swatara.

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Indian Ravages at McDowell’s Mill, Franklin County, October 31, 1755

A place of much consequence in provincial Pennsylvania and frequently referred to by public officers and agents was McDowell’s Mill. This was located midway between the Reverend John Steel’s Fort and Fort Loudoun, east of Kittatinny Mountains on the east bank of the Conococheague Creek, in the western part of the present Franklin County.

This defense was built in the year 1756 and was a log structure, rectangular in shape and provided with loop-holes. It stood until the year 1840. There is at present a stone house erected on or near the site of this old fort.

This place was a private establishment, and the earliest public notice of it is in a letter written by Major General Edward Braddock to Governor Morris, dated June 18, 1755, signifying his approbation of the deposits being made at McDowell’s Mill instead of at Shippensburg.

Governor Morris wrote to General Braddock July 3, 1755, saying that he had sent certain enumerated articles to Shippensburg, where “they will remain until I go up into the country, which will be on Tuesday next, and then I shall form the magazine at or near McDowell’s Mill and put some stoccados around it to protect the magazine and the people that will have the care of it; for without something of this kind, as we have no militia and the Assembly will maintain no men, four or five Indians may destroy the magazine whenever they please, as the inhabitants of that part of the Province are very much scattered.

“I send you a plan of the fort or stoccado, which I shall make by setting logs of about ten feet long in the ground, so as to inclose the storehouses. I think to place two swivel guns in two of the opposite bastions, which will be sufficient to guard it against any attack of small arms.”

On October 31 began incursions which lasted for several days. Adam Hoops wrote to Governor Morris, dated Conococheague, November 3, 1755:

“I am sorry I have to trouble you with this Melancholy and disagreeable news, for on Saturday I recd. an Express from Peters Township that the Inhabitants of the great Cove were all murdered or taken Captive and their houses and barns all in Flames. Some few fled, upon notice brought them by a certain Patrick Burns, a Captive, that made his Escape that very Morning before this sad tragedy was done.

“Upon this information, John Potter, Esq., and Self, sent Expresses through our Neighborhood, which induced many of them to Meet with us at John McDowell’s Mill, where I with many others had the unhappy prospect to see the Smoke of two houses that was set on Fire by the Indians, viz, Matthew Patton’s and Mesheck James’s, where their cattle was shot down, the horses standing bleeding with Indian Arrows in them, but the Indians fled.

“The Rev. Mr. Steel, John Potter, Esq., and Several others with us, to the Number of about an hundred, went in Quest of the Indians, with all the Expedition Imaginable, but to no Success; these Indians have likewise taken two Women Captives, belonging to said Township. I very much fear the Path Valley has undergone the same Fate.

“We, to be sure, are in as bad Circumstances as ever any poor Christions were in, For the Cries of the Widowers, Widows, fatherless and Motherless Children, with many others for their Relations, are enough to Pierce the hardest of hearts; Likewise it’s a very sorrowful spectacle to see those that Escaped with their lives with not a Mouthful to Eat, or Bed to lie on, or Clothes to Cover their Nakedness, or keep them warm, but all they had consumed into Ashes.

“These deplorable Circumstances cries aloud for your Honours most Wise Consideration, that you would take Cognizance of and Grant what shall seem most meet, for it is really very Shocking, it must be, for the Husband to see the wife of his Bosom, her head cut off, and the Children’s blood drank like Water by these Bloody and Cruel Savages as We are informed has been the fate of many.”

November 6, Hoops again wrote to Governor Morris, inclosing qualifications for two officers, and said:

“Hans Hamilton is now at McDowell’s Mill with upwards of 200 men and about 200 from this county, in all about 400 men.”

So it may be safely presumed as a fact that Governor Morris finally determined to establish his magazine at McDowell’s Mills and that these soldiers stockaded the buildings according to the plans of Governor Morris.

On Wednesday, February 11, 1756, “two lads were taken or killed at the Widow Cox’s, just under Parnell’s Knob, and a lad who went from McDowell’s Mills to see what fire it was never returned, the horse coming back with reins over his neck; they burnt the House and shot down the Cattle.”

Under date of March 25, 1756, Governor Morris sent the following to the Reverend John Steele: “With these Instructions you will receive a Commission appointing you a Captain of a Company in the pay of the Province, which is to be made up by Draughts of thirteen men out of Each of the Companys composed by James Burd, Hans Hamilton, James Patterson and Hugh Mercer, Esq., * * * also a Commission appointing James Hollowday your Lieutenant * * * When you have formed your Company you are to take post at McDowell’s Mills, upon the road to Ohio, which you are to make your Head Quarters, and to detach patroling partys from time to time to scour the woods. * * * You are to apply to Mr. Adam Hoops, for the Provincial allowance of Provisions for the men under your Command.”

Governor Morris sent instructions to Elisha Salter, Commissary General of Musters, to proceed to McDowell’s Mill and muster the company under Captain John Steel, and direct him to take post at McDowell’s Mill.

Robert Callender wrote to Governor Denny from Carlisle, dated November 4, 1756: “This day I received advice from Fort McDowell that on Monday or Tuesday last, one Samuel Perry and his two sons went from the Fort to their plantation, and not returning at the time they proposed, the commanding Officer sent there a corporal and fourteen men to know the cause of their stay, who not finding them at the plantation, they marched back toward the Fort, and on their return found the said Perry killed and scalped and covered over with leaves; immediately after a party of Indians, in number about thirty, appeared and attacked the soldiers, who returned the fire, and fought for sometime until four of our people fell, the rest of them made off—six of them got into the Fort, but what became of the rest is not yet known; there are two families cut off, but cannot tell the number of people. It is likewise reported that the enemy in their retreat burnt a quantity of grain and sundry horses in the Cove.”

The activities of Fort McDowell ceased during December, 1756, when Colonel John Armstrong removed the stores to Fort Loudoun, and increased the capacity and strength of that place. Further references to McDowell’s Mill are of no consequence, it being afterwards used by rangers who were scouting along that frontier.

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Turmoil in Lower Counties; Penn Sails for England, November 1, 1701

The Constitution, which had been under consideration for eighteen months, was finally adopted October 28, 1701, and William Penn, pressed by many claims for his presence in England, set sail November 1 and arrived there about the middle of January.

He had hardly landed before King William died, January 18, and Princess Anne of Denmark succeeded him. Penn was in great favor with her.

The new Constitution which Penn personally assisted in giving his Province was as comprehensive on the subject of civil and religious liberty as the former ones.

There was established a Council of State, composed of ten members, chiefly Quakers and his intimate friends, of whom four made a quorum who were empowered “to consult and assist with the best of their advice the Proprietary himself or his deputies in all public affairs and matters relating to the government.”

Andrew Hamilton, a native of Scotland, one of the Proprietaries of New Jersey, and formerly Governor of East and West Jersey, was appointed Deputy Governor, and James Logan Provincial Secretary and Clerk of the Council.

Governor Hamilton’s administration was very brief, for he died while on a visit to Amboy, April 20, 1703. The government then devolved upon the Council, of which Edward Shippen was president.

Almost the entire attention of the Government was directed to the consummation of a union between the Province and Territories.

The Territories, or Lower Counties, persisted in the absolute refusal to join with the Province in legislation until 1703, when it was finally determined and settled between them that they should compose different and distinct assemblies, entirely independent of each other, pursuant to the liberty allowed by the clause in the charter for that purpose.

The proprietary selected Mr. John Evans as the successor to Governor Hamilton. He arrived in the province in February, 1704, and soon increased the number of the council and called to that board, with others, William Penn the younger, who had accompanied him to the province. Pursuant to the instruction of the proprietary, he earnestly applied himself to re-unite the province and Territories; and his lack of success in this measure produced an unfavorable disposition toward the province, which embittered his whole Administration.

Governor Evans was but twenty-six years old when appointed, and he was zealous and active in the proprietary’s interest; he was deficient in neither wit nor talents, but lacked experience, prudence and tact, and was offensive to the Quakers. He showed a partiality toward the lower counties, which produced unpleasant effects in the province.

England was at war with France and Spain, and Evans was ordered by the Queen to raise an armed force in Pennsylvania, but his efforts proved unsuccessful. He incurred even greater unpopularity among the Quakers and became odious to the people of Philadelphia.

He offended the merchants of Philadelphia, when he authorized the erection of a fort near New Castle, where it could be of little use to the province, and inward bound ships, not owned by residents, were obliged to deliver their half-pound of powder for each ton measurement. The provincialists remonstrated against this abuse in vain.

At length Richard Hill, William Fishbourne and Samuel Preston, three spirited Quakers, resolved to remove the nuisance by a method different from any that had yet been attempted.

Hill and his companions, on board the Philadelphia, a vessel belonging to the former, dropped down the river and anchored above the fort. Two of them went ashore and informed French, the commander, that their vessel was regularly cleared, demanding to pass without interruption. This demand was refused, when Hill, who had been bred at sea, stood at the helm and passed the fort with no other injury than a shot through the mainsail. French pursued in an armed boat and was taken aboard, while his boat, cut from the vessel, fell astern, and he was led a prisoner to the cabin.

Governor Evans was apprized of the matter and followed the Philadelphia by land to New Castle and, after she had passed the fort, pursued her in a smaller but faster boat to Salem, where he boarded her in great anger, and behaved with considerable intemperance.

Lord Cornbury, Governor of New Jersey, who was also Vice Admiral of the Delaware, happened to be at Salem, and the prisoners were taken before him. He gave them and Governor Evans, as well, a severe reprimand, and when all promised to behave in the future they were dismissed and Governor Evans was jeered.

Following this spirited action, the fort no longer impeded the navigation of the Delaware.

Governor Evans made an extended trip among the Indians, which began June 27, 1707. He was accompanied by several friends and servants. The Conestoga and other Indians had advised him that the Nanticoke of Maryland designed war against the Five Nations. Governor Evans visited in turn: Pequehan, on the Pequea; Dekonoagah, on the Susquehanna, about nine miles distant from Pequehan; Conestogoe and Peixtang.

At the latter place he seized one Nicole, a French Indian trader, against whom heavy complaints had been made. His capture was attended with difficulties, but he was finally secured and mounted upon a horse with his legs tied together, beneath the horse’s belly.

The articles of remonstrance, subsequently addressed to the Proprietary by the Assembly, make it appear that the Governor’s conduct on this occasion and among the Indians was not free from censure, it being described as “abominable, and unwarrantable.”

To add to Governor Evans’ other troubles he had a very unhappy misunderstanding with his secretary, James Logan, which, with the antagonism of the Assembly, almost paralyzed legislative action, and led to a most lamentable exhibition of ill-temper on the part of the Governor.

Remonstrances were sent to William Penn, which tended to produce the very steps which the Assembly desired to guard against, of provoking the Governor to relinquish a troublesome and ungrateful Province to the Crown of England, which had long wished to possess it.

Governor Evans was removed early in the year 1709 and Captain Charles Gookin appointed as his successor. Gookin was an officer in Earle’s Royal Regiment, quite advanced in years, and in the language of Penn “a man of pure morals, mild temper and moderate disposition.”

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Indians Captured Frances Slocum, the “Lost Sister of Wyoming,” November 2, 1778

Among the many dramatic incidents in the history of the Wyoming Valley few, if any, are more thrilling or unusual than the carrying away into captivity of little Frances Slocum.

Jonathan Slocum, a Quaker, settled at Wyoming in 1762 and, with others who survived the awful Indian massacre of October 15, 1763, left the valley.

In the autumn of 1777 he brought his wife, six sons and three daughters from Rhode Island and again made his home at Wyoming.

On Monday, November 2, 1778, Jonathan Slocum and his sons, William and Benjamin, were at work completing their corn harvest. At the Slocum home were the other members of the family, together with Mrs. Nathan Kingsley and her two sons. About noonday the Kingsley lads were sharpening a knife on a grindstone in the front yard. Suddenly the crack of a rifle was heard, and Mrs. Slocum hastened to the front door, when she was horrified to see the lifeless body of the elder Kingsley boy lying on the ground. The Indian who killed him was preparing to scalp his victim with the very knife the boys were sharpening.

The terrified mother snatched her infant from the cradle, called to the others to run for their lives, and fled out of the rear door to a log fence beyond which lay a swamp, and there hid herself and her baby.

Meanwhile the younger Kingsley boy and Frances Slocum, then five-and-a-half years old, hid themselves under a staircase; Judith Slocum, with her three-year-old brother Isaac, fled toward the swamp, while little Mary Slocum, less than ten years old, started on a run in the direction of Fort Wyoming, carrying in her arms her baby brother, aged one-and-a-half years. Ebenezer Slocum, then thirteen years old, was a cripple and unable to get away with the others.

While the Slocums were fleeing from their home the Indian in their door-yard was joined by two others, who made their way into the house and quickly ransacked it. Frances Slocum and young Kingsley were discovered in their hiding place, and dragged forth, while Ebenezer Slocum was seized in another part of the house.

Mrs. Slocum, leaving her baby behind, rushed into the presence of the Indians and implored the savages to release the children. She pointed to the crippled feet of Ebenezer and exclaimed: “The child is lame; he can do thee no good.”

The Indian who had him in his grasp released him to his mother. She pleaded piteously for her daughter, but in vain.

The chief Indian of the three threw Frances athwart his shoulder, one of the other Indians did likewise with young Kingsley, while the third one of the party shouldered the big bundle of plunder which had been taken from the house. They then dashed into the woods, and that was the last Mrs. Slocum ever saw of her daughter, Frances.

Years later it was learned from Frances Slocum herself that she and young Kingsley were carried to a cave where they stayed all night. Early the following morning they set out and traveled for many days. When they arrived at the village to which the Indians belonged, young Kingsley was taken away and Frances never learned what became of him.

The chief took Frances to an aged couple of the Delaware nation, who adopted her. She was given the name of Weletawash, which was the name of their youngest child, whom they had lately buried.

They were living in Ontario when the Revolution ended. They then moved to Kekionga, the present site of the city of Fort Wayne, Ind.

Frances states she was there long after she was full grown, and that she could relate incidents of Harmar’s defeat, October, 1790. In 1790 Frances married a Delaware brave named “Little Turtle.”

During four years of war in what is Ohio and Indiana, Frances and her husband and her foster-parents were almost constantly on the move. Her foster-father could speak English and so could Frances, until he died, when she lost her mother-tongue. In 1794, “Little Turtle” left her and went west.

Sometime in 1795 while on the move with her foster-parents, Frances discovered an Indian lying in the path suffering from wounds received in battle with the whites. She dressed his wounds and nursed him back to health. He supplied them with game.

When about to leave he was promised the adopted daughter in marriage and Frances became the wife of Shepoconah, a chief of the Miami tribe. Soon thereafter her foster-parents died and Frances and her husband removed to Fort Wayne.

In 1801 they, with their two sons and a daughter, removed to the Osage Village, on the Mississineva River, about one mile from its confluence with the Wabash. Here Shepoconah was made war chief, and Frances was admitted into the Miami tribe and given the name Maconaquah, signifying “A Young Bear.” Shepoconah died in 1832.

After the capture of Frances her father was killed, but many efforts were made to obtain clues as to the whereabouts of Frances. After peace was declared her brothers made a journey to Fort Niagara, where they offered a reward of 100 guineas for the recovery of their sister. These brothers never gave up the search. They visited many Indian villages and traveled thousands of miles, even enlisting the Government and large parties of Indians in their search. They attended every gathering of Indians where white children captives were to be given up. They believed she still lived, and until 1797 every possible search was made, but the Slocums could get no trace of their captive sister during the life of their mother.

In January, 1835, Colonel George W. Ewing, an Indian trader, was quartered in the home of Maconaquah and she related the story of her life to him. The next day he marveled at its mystery and wrote a narrative of this woman, and addressed it to the postmaster at Lancaster, Pa. No one was interested. Two years later John W. Forney became the publisher of the Intelligencer and ran across this letter and published it, July, 1837.

Immediately it was read by those who knew the story of the “Lost Sister of Wyoming.” Correspondence was started, and Joseph Slocum and two nephews traveled to the home of Maconaquah, where she was positively identified and acknowledged him as her brother, but expressed no inclination to leave her wigwam to partake of the comforts of his comfortable mansion in Wilkes-Barre.

She said in reply to their pleadings: “No, I cannot. I have always lived with the Indians: they have always used me very kindly; I am used to them. The Great Spirit has always allowed me to live with them, and I wish to live and die with them.”

She had indeed become an Indian even in looks. She thought, felt and reasoned like an Indian.

The Slocums had this comfort, their “Lost Sister of Wyoming” was not degraded in her habits or character; her Anglo-Saxon blood had not been tainted by savage touch, but bore itself gloriously amid long series of trials through which it had passed.

Correspondence was kept up between the relatives until the death of Frances, which occurred March 9, 1847.

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George Major, Chief Burgess of Mahanoy City, Murdered by Mollie Maguires, November 3, 1874

George Major, the popular chief burgess of Mahanoy City, died Tuesday, November 3, 1874, from the effects of pistol shot wounds received the Saturday previous, the assassins being members of the notorious Mollie Maguires.

A great strike was in progress in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania, and during such periods of intense excitement the Mollies were as active as a community of hornets whose nest some schoolboys had invaded with paddles.

George Major had long since gained the enmity of this nefarious organization, and was a doomed man.

James McParlan, a young Irishman from Chicago, was the Pinkerton detective who lived among the Mollies, became one of them, and who successfully rid the State of the whole organization.

On the day of this murder James McKenna (as McParlan was known to the Mollies), was in Shenandoah, but soon received intelligence of the affair. He was an officer of the Mollie organization and, in his official capacity, was detailed with Charles Hayes to go to the scene of the shooting and gather such particulars as it was possible to obtain.

This information, of course, was for the use of the Mollies in event any of their members should be arrested for the crime, that an alibi could be prepared for them.

McKenna and Hayes arrived on the scene early Monday morning, while the victim was yet alive, but not expected to survive that day.

McKenna appeared particularly sad and dejected, declaring to his fellow Mollies that his income from his (supposed) crooked peculations had run several months behind, so that he had no funds to expend in too many treats. This was an excuse to provide him with a safe cover from which to carry on his observations, and he at once commenced hunting up the facts connected with the shooting of Burgess Major.

Major had been shot through the left breast, two inches above the heart. This fact was learned by McKenna as soon as he arrived at Clark’s house, the rendezvous of the Mollies.

The proprietor, Clark, was not a member of the order, but his two sons were Mollies. He was alone when McKenna arrived, and soon started to talk about the shooting.

After the usual greetings, McKenna asked Clark if he knew who fired the shot.

“That I can’t, for the life of me, tell! There’s two stories about it. One of them puts it on Dan Dougherty, but I believe him just as innocent as the babe unborn—and the other charges it on Major’s own brother, William, hitting him be mischance, when firing after the Hibernian company’s boys—for ye must know that the whole trouble came about through a quarrel between the Hibernian an' the Citizen Fire Companies. One is wholly made up of our countrymen, an' the other of Modocs—English, German, Welsh an' what not! I suppose ye know that?

“Yes! But who started the row?” queried McKenna.

Clark replied that he was sure it was not Dougherty. He told McKenna of the fire which had called out the companies, and the fact that many firemen were drunk. That on the way home some firemen got to fighting, when Chief Burgess George Major came out of his house, flourished his revolver, and during the confusion shot a dog that was barking nearby. This led to more shooting, when someone in the crowd took off the Chief Burgess, and his brother shot Dougherty in the neck.

McKenna then met Clark’s brother, who was a Mollie, and they went to Dougherty’s home, and soon gained permission to see the wounded man.

Dougherty was almost delirious, and barely recognized his friends. He was terribly wounded, the surgeons even thinking it unsafe to probe for the bullet.

McKenna and Clark then went to McCann’s and soon gained the landlady’s confidence and she invited them upstairs, where McCann was found in bed, also wounded. He claimed Major had fired three shots at him.

Here the scheme was hatched to swear out a warrant for the Chief Burgess before he should die, charging him with an assault with a deadly weapon. That, they contended, would place McCann on the witness-stand and prevent him from being brought to the bar as a defendant. Others present desired McCann to make his escape.

The Chief Burgess succumbed to his wounds Tuesday, November 3, and received burial, with suitable honors, the ensuing day.

McKenna returned to Shenandoah and reported to the Mollies the issue of his trip. He had previously sent to Mr. Allan Pinkerton daily bulletins of his inquiries and their results.

Dougherty recovered, had his trial, early in May, and was acquitted.

McKenna was not ready to call his work at an end. Sufficient evidence had not yet been obtained to bring the band of criminals to justice.

But it was only a few months later when the murderers of Alexander Rae, Gomer James, William and Jesse Major, F. W. S. Langdon, Morgan Powell, Thomas Sanger, William Uren, and others were brought to trial and such evidence obtained that the usual Mollie alibi was broken down and those guilty were made to suffer the penalty which they deserved.

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Captain John Hambright Leads Expedition from Fort Augusta Against Great Island, November 4, 1756

Fort Augusta was built and garrisoned during the summer and fall of 1756 under the direction of Colonel William Clapham and 400 Provincial soldiers recruited for that purpose. This formidable fortress was situated at Shamokin, at the Forks of the Susquehanna, in what is now the city of Sunbury.

The soldiers had barely landed at Shamokin until reports were brought there that the French were coming in great force to besiege the fort.

The Indians, hostile to the English, committed such depredations that Colonel Clapham sent out expeditions against the Indian towns on the Juniata, at Chincklamoose (now Clearfield); at Great Island (now Lock Haven), and up both branches of the Susquehanna River.

During October, 1756, intelligence was received that Indian families, resident at the Great Island, were making many incursions against the settlements. Several of them had visited Shamokin in August, when they killed a bullock guard at the spring. And as they had formerly lived at Shamokin, they were capable of very great mischief.

Colonel Clapham directed Captain John Hambright, of Lancaster, to lead a company of picked men and destroy the village.

The instructions for this perilous expedition are peculiar and of unusual interest to the present day residents along the West Branch of the Susquehanna as far up as Lock Haven and, because they reveal the dangers such enterprises always encountered, they are given in full:

“Sir:

“You are to march with a Party of 2 Serjts., 2 Corporals and 38 Private men, under your Command to attack, burn and destroy an Indian Town or Towns, with their Inhabitants, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, to which Monsieur Montour will conduct you, whose advice you are directed to pursue in every Case.

“You are to attack the Town agreeable to the Plan and Disposition herewith given you, observing to Intermix the men with Bayonets equally among the three Partys in the attack, and if any Indians are found there you are to kill, Scalp, and captivate as many as you can, and if no Indians are there you are to endeavor to act in such manner, and with such Caution, as to prevent the Discovery of your having been there by any Party, which may arrive Shortly after you, for which Reason you are strictly forbid to burn, take away, Destroy or Meddle with anything found at such Places, and immediately dispatch Monsieur Montour, with one or two more to me with Intelligence.

“When ye come near the Place of action you are to detach Monsieur Montour, with as many men as he shall Judge necessary to reconnoiter the Parts, and to wait in concealment in the mean Time with your whole Party till his Return, then to form your measures accordingly.

After having burnt and destroyed the Town, you are in your Retreat to post an officer and twelve men in Ambush, close to the Road side, at the most convenient Place for such Purpose which may offer, at about Twelve miles Distance from the Place of action, who are to surprise and cut off any Party who may attempt to pursue, or may happen to be engaged in Hunting thereabouts, and at the same Time secure the Retreat of your main Body.

“'Tis very probable, that on these Moon Light Nights, you will find them engag’d in Dancing, in which case embrace that opportunity, by all means, of attacking them, which you are not to attempt at a greater distance than 20 to 25 yards, and be particularly careful to prevent the Escape of the Women and Children, whose lives Humanity will direct you to preserve as much as possible.

“If it does not happen that you find them Dancing, the attack is to be made in the morning, just at a season when you have Light enough to Execute it, in which attempt your party are to march to the several houses, and bursting open the Doors, to rush in at once. Let the Signal for the general attack be the Discharge of one Firelock, in the Centre Division.

“If there are no Indians at the Several Towns, you are in such case to proceed with the utmost Caution and Vigilance to the Road which leads to Fort Duquesne, there to lye in Ambush and to intercept any Party or partys of the Enemy on the march to or from the English Settlements, and there to remain with the Design till the want of Provisions obliges you to return.

“I wish you all imaginable Success, of which the Opinion I have of your self, the Officers and Party under your Command, leave me no Room to doubt,

& am, Sir, “Your Humble Servant, “William Clapham.

“P. S.—You will not omit to post the Sergeant with a party on the other side of the River during the attack, according to Direction, in order to prevent the Enemy from escaping that way and to reserve always one half of your Fire.

“Given at Fort Augusta, Nov. 4th, 1756.”

A close examination of the route of march reveals to those at all familiar with the topography of that part of the State that the expedition crossed the river at Fort Augusta and marched through the ravine to the lower side of Blue Hill, into what is now known as Granger’s Hollow, and continued up the country on the west side of the river, passing through what is now Winfield, Lewisburg, West Milton, New Columbia and White Deer, where they evidently marched over the present Loganton road, following alongside White Deer Creek and then into the Nippenose Valley; thence over the hills and down again into McElhattan Gap, emerging at the river near Great Island.

This is the most direct route, and, as the Indians were good civil engineers and usually found the easy grades for their beaten trails, there is little doubt but that Captain Hambright and his sturdy band of chosen men surely experienced a hard, rough march, even for that early period.

He surely carried out his instructions, but what actually happened on this march is unknown, as no records of his report are to be found among the papers of that period. This is a matter of sincere regret, for the expedition was one of great importance.

It is believed from notes made on a time-stained paper now in the State Library that the first village visited was situated a few miles above the mouth of Pine Creek, opposite what is now the village of Pine, Clinton County. The paper bears the following indorsement: “4th Nov., 1756. Route of Capt. Hambright’s Secret Expedition, Inclos’d in Col. W. Clapham’s Ler of” (This sentence was unfinished).

Antiquarians inform us that many years ago great quantities of Indian relics were found at this site. It is only a short distance east of Great Island, and nearly the exact distance from Fort Augusta, by following the river, that is noted in Colonel Clapham’s letter.

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Disputed Boundary Lines Settled at Fort Stanwix November 5, 1768

Notwithstanding the surrender to the Six Nations by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, in September, 1758, of “all the territory lying to the northward and westward of the Allegheny Mountains,” the white settlers continued to encroach on the hunting grounds of the Indians.

At the great treaty held at Albany, the Proprietaries purchased and received a deed dated July 6, 1754, for the land of the Province above Penn’s Creek, in what is now Snyder County.

The Indians afterward asserted they were defrauded in this sale; that the territory included lands they did not purpose selling and there was much dissatisfaction.

To settle their trouble a compromise was made at the Easton treaty, October, 1758, by the terms of which the Proprietaries authorized Richard Peters and Conrad Weiser to release and reconvey to the Six Nations all the territory lying northward and westward of the Allegheny Mountains which had been conveyed to the Proprietaries by the deed of July 6, 1754, “provided the Six Nations fully stipulate and settle the exact and certain bounds of the residue of the said lands included in the before-mentioned purchase.”

Following the successful termination of the Pontiac Conspiracy in 1764, the whites were less fearful of the Indians and settled in the Indian country with much more confidence. The Indians were quick to grasp the situation and made vigorous complaint to the Governor and all the other provincial authorities.

Proclamations were issued against the settlers without effect, and finally, February 3, 1768, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed an act on the subject. It was enacted that if any persons, already settled or afterward moved on unpurchased lands, neglected or refused to remove from the same within thirty days after they were required to do so by the Governor after notice prohibiting occupancy as aforesaid, being legally convicted, were to be punished with death without the benefit of clergy.

Three weeks after the enactment of the foregoing law Governor Penn issued a proclamation to every person to remove themselves and their families off and from the said lands on or before the first day of May next ensuing.

But proclamations, edicts and acts seemed to be of no avail, and the disputes between the whites and Indians became most acute. At length, in the summer of 1768, Sir William Johnson, the great English agent and true friend of the Six Nations Indians, determined to hold a great council with the Indians “not only for the purpose of renewing the ancient covenant chain between the English and the Indians, but to establish a scientific frontier.”

In preparation for this great council twenty large bateaux, laden with presents best suited to propitiate the Indians, had been conveyed to Fort Stanwix, now Rome, N. Y. Sir William Johnson ordered sixty barrels of rice and seventy barrels of provisions. When the council opened 3200 Indians were present, “each of whom,” wrote Sir William, “consumes daily more than two ordinary men amongst us, and would be extremely dissatisfied if stinted when convened for business.”

The Indians invited to the council began to assemble at Fort Stanwix early in October, 1768, and by the middle of the month the various officials expected to be present were on the ground. From Pennsylvania came Governor John Penn, the Reverend Richard Peters, Benjamin Franklin and James Tilghman.

Governor Penn remained only for the preliminary negotiations, as important business of the Province compelled his early presence in Philadelphia.

Messrs Peters and Tilghman represented Pennsylvania as Commissioners. Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia and New York were also represented by high officials.

Eight tribes of Indians, including the Delaware, the Shawnee and all the tribes of the Six Nations, were present in larger numbers, while many other tribes were represented by small delegations.

The Seneca went to this great conference armed as if going on the warpath. There were also present a large number of private citizens either through curiosity or by reason of some personal interest in the proceedings.

The records of this great council would indicate that Sir William Johnson and the Commissioners dined together. They formally drank various toasts, as was usual in those times. Frequently these toasts were drunk to the King’s health, and on one or two occasions the language used gave offense to certain of the King’s officers at the table. Once a minister proposed a toast “not to the King of England, but to the King that hears our prayers.” The trouble with the mother country was even then brewing.

Sir William opened the council by telling the Indians that “the King was resolved to terminate the grievances from which they suffered for want of a boundary, and that the King had ordered presents proportionate to the nature and extent of the interests involved.” The Indians retired and for several days were in private council.

The new boundary had been practically agreed upon at a treaty held in 1765, its course being diagonally through Pennsylvania from a point one mile above the mouth of John Penn’s Creek, Snyder County, to a point then called Oswegy, now Oswego, N. Y. Beyond that point, the direction in which the line should be run seems to have occasioned the greatest discussion.

The question was finally and satisfactorily settled, and a deed was made and signed November 5, 1768, by a representative from each tribe of the Six Nations, fixing and describing the boundary-line and granting the land east of it to the King of England. The actual sum paid for this vast territory was about $50,600.

From a point on the Allegheny River several miles above Pittsburgh, this historic line of property ran in a northeasterly direction to the head of Towanda Creek, proceeding down the stream to the Susquehanna; thence it went northward along the river to Tioga Point, eastward to Owego, and crossed the country to the Delaware, reaching it at a point a few miles below Hancock. From here it went up the Delaware to what is now Deposit, Broome County, N. Y. Thence the line went directly across the hills to the Unadilla, and up that stream “to the west branch, to the head thereof.”

The “Fort Stanwix Treaty Lines” through Pennsylvania included all or part of the present counties of Pike, Wayne, Susquehanna, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Bradford, Sullivan, Wyoming, Montour, Northumberland, Lycoming, Union, Clinton, Center, Clearfield, Cambria, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny, Westmoreland, Somerset, Fayette, Green, Washington and Beaver.

It was also at this treaty that the Proprietaries were actively concerned in the purchase of the Wyoming lands then claimed by the State of Connecticut. In this object the Pennsylvanians were successful.

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First Siege of Yellow Fever Checked in Philadelphia November 6, 1793

Philadelphia was visited twice by the dreaded pestilence of yellow fever, first in the year 1793 and again in 1798. The general consternation which incited many to flee from the destroyer “produced scenes of distress and misery,” wrote Matthew Carey, “of which parallels are rarely met with, and which nothing could palliate but the extraordinary public panic and the great law of self-preservation. Men of affluent fortunes, who gave daily employment and sustenance to hundreds, were abandoned to the care of a Negro after their wives, children, friends, clerks and servants had fled away and left them to their fate.

“In some cases, at the commencement of the disorder, no money could procure proper attendance. With the poor the case was, as might be expected, infinitely worse than the rich, and many of these perished without a human being to hand them a drink of water, to administer medicine or to perform any charitable office for them. Various instances occurred of dead bodies being found lying in the streets, of persons who had no house or habitation and could procure no shelter.”

The cessation of business, in consequence of the plague, threw hundreds of poor people out of employment. Want and famine made their appearance. While the fatal atmosphere of contagion overspread the devoted city the most frightful exaggerations of the real condition of things were spread throughout the country, the consequence of which very soon became serious.

In nearly all the cities and towns, near and far, with a few humane exceptions, all intercourse with Philadelphia was prohibited. This added to the general distress.

The deadly disease swept away whole families. Eleven persons died in one house within a day.

Philadelphia with 50,000 population in 1792 was then not only the largest and busiest city of the Nation but its seat of government. The Congress moved from the city to Germantown; President George Washington and the members of his Cabinet and their families departed the city, and every person who could afford it followed their example.

One out of every five who remained in Philadelphia died. Churches and schools, as well as the stores and mills closed their doors. Half the houses stood empty. Those who ventured to walk abroad held over their nostrils handkerchiefs soaked in vinegar and avoided shaking hands with any one.

Grass grew high in the main streets. Carts passed the main thoroughfares to carry the bodies of those who had perished. The drivers called out at intervals, “Bring out your dead!”

The disease itself was horrible and filthy. The sick were gathered into hospitals, but these, unlike the great hospitals of today, added to their misery. They were mere barns where patients lay crowded together, without proper care. Nurses could not be obtained even at high wages, for to nurse the victims of yellow fever meant almost certain death.

Mayor Mathew Clarkson asked for volunteers to form a Committee of Safety which should do whatever seemed possible for the health of the city. Only twelve men in that greatest of American cities answered the call, so serious was the situation.

One of these volunteers was none other than the greatest man of his day, Captain Stephen Girard. Only two of these twelve volunteered to serve at the hospital, and these heroes were Stephen Girard and Peter Helm. Both possessed great wealth and might have fled the city to live in safety and comfort far from the scene of this horrible pestilence, but they nobly chose to help their fellow men and risk their own lives.

Of these two men Girard took the post of greatest danger, the interior of the hospital. There for two months he spent a large part of each day, nursing his patients. No money could pay for such services and Girard would have accepted no return. Moreover, he went with his own carriage to the houses where the sick lay, entered them, and drove with them to the hospital.

At last the benevolence of the inhabitants elsewhere came to their relief, and contributions in money and provisions were poured out with a liberal hand, which relieved the physical distress. But it took the return of cold weather to check the fever and on November 6 the citizens who had fled at the beginning of the plague began to return, and from that day conditions rapidly improved.

In the plague of 1793 the mortality was 3293, as reported by the “Minutes of the Committee.”

In this scourge there were on Market Street and north thereof 1178 houses shut up and 1066 open, and 1152 deaths. Of the white inhabitants 4627 fled, 7332 remained in the city, and of the colored inhabitants 64 fled out of the city and 474 remained.

South of Market Street 1009 houses were closed and 969 remained open and occupied, 1068 died, 4289 fled and 6133 remained, and 174 Negroes fled and 833 remained to face the plague.

In the Northern Liberties 302 houses were closed and 822 remained occupied; 546 died, 1751 fled and 4943 remained; 28 Negroes ran away and 205 remained.

In the district of Southwark 239 houses were empty and 742 occupied; 527 died, 1239 whites fled and 4521 remained, and 24 Negroes fled and 234 remained.

Thus in the city 2728 houses were closed on account of the occupants fleeing the city or dying and 3599 remained occupied. More than 12,000 inhabitants fled the city, while 25,000 remained and came into close contact with the fever victims.

The figures given here were taken during the month of November, when the cooler weather was beginning to check the ravages of the plague. According to the statisticians of that day, the average of those who fell victims to the fever amounted to more than six and one-third persons to the house.

Among those attacked were Governor Thomas Mifflin and Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury in President Washington’s Cabinet.

Both recovered and on November 14 the Governor issued a proclamation stating the pestilence had ceased and fixing a day of thanksgiving, fasting and prayer. The disease was considered to be conquered about November 6, and from that time confidence returned.

When the city was again desolated by yellow fever in 1798 the deaths reached an enormous rate and much greater than in 1793.

In the month of August, 1798, the deaths in Philadelphia were 621 and in August, 1793, 264; in twelve days in September, 1798, 720 died, and during the same days in 1793 there were 290 deaths reported. From August 8 to October 3, 1798, there were 2778 deaths, and in this same period in 1793 there were 1847 deaths, so it is safe to predict that about twice as many deaths occurred in the second plague as in the first.

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Philadelphia Merchants Rebel Against Stamp Act in Great Meeting, November 7, 1765

The relations between the colonies and the mother country at end of the French and Indian War would doubtless have continued friendly had the latter not seen fit to pursue a new policy toward the former with respect to revenue and taxation. The colonies, until then, had been permitted to tax themselves.

The first act of the British Parliament aiming at the drawing of a revenue from the colonies was passed September 29, 1764. This act imposed a duty on “clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, etc., being a produce of a colony not under the dominion of his Majesty.”

In the colonies it was contended that “taxation and representation were inseparable, and that they could not be safe if their property might be taken from them without their consent.”

This claim of right of taxation on the one side and the denial of it on the other was the very pivot on which the Revolution turned.

England maintained her position in this matter, and in 1765 the famous Stamp Act passed both Houses of Parliament. This ordained that instruments of writing, such as deeds, bonds, notes, etc., among the colonies should be null and void unless executed on stamped paper, for which duty should be paid to the Crown.

The efforts of the American colonists to stay the mad career of the English Ministry proved unavailing. Dr. Benjamin Franklin, then in London as the agent of the Province of Pennsylvania, labored earnestly to avert a measure which his sagacity and extensive acquaintance with the American people taught him was pregnant with danger to the British Empire; but he did not entertain the thought that it would be forcibly resisted.

The opposition to the Stamp Act was so decided and universal that Lord Grenville, to conciliate the Americans, asked their agents to suggest the person to have the sale of the stamps in their respective colonies. Franklin named his friend John Hughes, who in the Assembly had been voting with the opponents of the Proprietaries.

Franklin’s enemies tried to make much capital out of this participation in the introduction of the stamps, while Hughes and Galloway tried to lay the blame for the popular outburst upon the Proprietary Party in both contrivance and connivance.

Massachusetts Assembly suggested that the various Houses of Representatives or Burgesses in America send committees to a meeting in New York City on the first Tuesday of October, 1765, to consider a united representation to the King and Parliament.

The Assembly of Pennsylvania decided unanimously that it ought to remonstrate against the Stamp Act, and appointed as its committee Speaker Fox and Messrs. John Dickinson, George Bryan and John Morton. Nine resolutions on the subject of the “unconstitutional impositions” were adopted unanimously.

Mr. Hughes feared being mobbed during the joy of celebration incident to the change of ministry in England. He sat at his home, armed, watching for an attack on his house, but at midnight those whom he feared dispersed, after burning a “stamp man” in effigy.

Hughes wrote to Governor John Penn and to Mr. Dickinson, the master of the ship which brought the stamps, that he had received no commission to take charge of them. The ship then lay at New Castle, afraid to proceed farther, but on October 5 she sailed up the river to Philadelphia, escorted by a man-of-war.

All the vessels in the harbor put their flags at half-mast, the bells of the State House and Christ Church were muffled and tolled until evening, and two Negroes with drums summoned the people to a meeting at the State House. This sent Robert Morris, Charles Thomson, and others to Hughes, who was very ill at his home, asking him to resign, or at least to promise not to execute his office.

The crowd, Hughes said, was stirred up by the son of Franklin’s great enemy, Chief Justice Allen.

On the following Monday, Hughes gave assurance that neither he nor his deputies would act until King George’s pleasure be known, or the law be put into execution in other colonies, or the Governor commanded him.

Hughes wrote to the Commissioners of the Stamp Office that he would perform his duties if his hands were sufficiently strengthened, but in due time he resigned.

On November 7, 1765, the merchants of Philadelphia assembled at the Court House, where they adopted nonimportation resolutions which were embodied in an agreement soon signed by almost everybody who could be described as a merchant or trader, setting forth that the difficulties they labored under were owing to the restrictions, prohibitions and ill-advised resolutions in recent acts of Parliament.

These measures had limited the exportation of some of the produce, increased the expense of many imported articles and cut off the means of supplying themselves with sufficient specie even to pay the duties imposed.

The Province was heavily in debt to Great Britain for importations, and the Stamp Act would tend to prevent remittances, and so it was hoped the people of the Province would be frugal in the consumption of all manufactures except those of America or of Ireland, coming directly thence, and that the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain would find it to their interest to befriend them.

The subscribers agreed and pledged their honor to direct all goods ordered from Great Britain not to be shipped and to cancel all former orders until the Stamp Act be repealed. The ships already cleared for Great Britain owned by the merchants were allowed to bring back the usual bulky articles but no dry goods, except dye stuffs, and utensils necessary for carrying on the manufactures, and to sell no articles sent on commission after January 1, 1766.

The committee which circulated this agreement for signatures, and was appointed to see to its being carried out, was composed of Thomas Willing, Samuel Mifflin, Thomas Montgomery, Samuel Howell, Samuel Wharton, John Rhea, William Fisher, Joshua Fisher, Peter Chevalier, Benjamin Fuller and Abel Jones.

In February Franklin was examined before the House of Commons, when he told them there was not enough gold and silver in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year. He gave it as his opinion that the people of America would never submit to paying the stamp duty unless compelled by force.

Parliament had only the alternative to compel submission or to repeal the act. It was repealed March 18, 1766, but accompanying it was the one known as the Declaratory Act, more hostile to the American rights than any of its predecessors. This act affirmed “that Parliament have, and of right ought to have power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever.”

The news of the repeal reached America in May and caused unbounded demonstrations of joy. Though the Quakers generally would not have violently resisted the execution of the law, they shared with others the joy produced by the tidings of the repeal.

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Expeditions Against Indians—Franklin Sails for England, November 8, 1764

Soon after John Penn assumed the office of Lieutenant Governor, November, 1763, he convened the Assembly and presented General Gage’s request for 1000 men, to be used in the proposed Indian campaign, which was granted, together with a vote of credit for the additional force necessary “to frustrate the further wicked designs of those lawless rioters.” This had reference to the “Paxtang Boys” and their bold attack upon the Conestoga Indians, December 14, 1763.

Sir William Johnson, of New York, who had charge of Indian affairs for the Royal Government, having learned of both the above massacre and those in the Nain and Wichetunk settlements, a short time previous, and being possessed of the actual facts, was particularly anxious to acquaint the Six Nations with the details, and thus remove any bad impressions as to the faith of Pennsylvania in dealing with friendly Indians. It was most vital that there should be no alienation of the Six Nations from the English interest.

The affair of the Paxtang Boys was happily settled without any unfair or unwise hardships and the attention of the authorities again turned to bigger problems and those more difficult of solution.

Early in 1764 extensive measures were resolved upon for the reduction of the Indians. General Gage determined to attack them on two sides, and to force them from the frontiers by carrying the war into the heart of their own country. One corps was sent under command of Colonel Bradstreet to act against the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa and other nations living upon or near the lakes. Another, under command of Colonel Henry Bouquet, was sent to attack the Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo, Mohican and other nations between the Ohio River and the lakes.

The two commands were to act in concert. Colonel Bradstreet was directed to proceed to Detroit, Michilimackinack and other places, and on his return to encamp and remain at Sandusky, and prevent the Western Indians from rendering aid to those on the Ohio, while Colonel Bouquet was to attack the latter in the midst of their settlements.

Part of the Forty-second and Sixtieth Regiments were assigned to Colonel Bouquet, to be joined with 200 friendly Indians, and provincial troops from Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Indians never came and Virginia could not spare any men, but Pennsylvania furnished the one thousand men, which was its quota. The Provincial Assembly also voted 50,000 pounds to maintain it.

This force was reduced by the desertion of 200 before leaving Carlisle, and of others at Fort Bedford. Those remaining, with a very few regulars, and less than 200 Virginians, made up the army of Colonel Bouquet, which advanced from Fort Pitt in October, 1764, and marched ninety-six miles to Muskingum, mostly through a wilderness which the savages had deemed their sure defense.

This expedition appearing in such force in the heart of the enemy’s country overawed the Indians, who sued for peace. The Delaware, Shawnee and Seneca agreed to cease hostilities. Many white people held as prisoners were liberated.

So thoroughly is Pennsylvania entitled to the credit of this successful expedition, which not only restored so many of her men, women and children to their families, but it had the chief part in securing peace to the adjoining colonies.

The Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia did not contribute a penny to the expense, but left Colonel Bouquet personally liable for the pay of the volunteers from those provinces. The Pennsylvania Assembly in due time came to his relief, and also paid for this.

By the agreement of 1760 the Assembly was allowed to tax the Proprietaries’ lands upon certain conditions. The Assembly tried to have the language of the bill changed so that the Proprietaries’ land would not be taxed “only as high as the worst lands owned by the settlers” was taxed, but no such change was allowed.

Indeed, harmony was scarcely to be expected between one of the Proprietary family, as Governor on the one side, and the Assembly on the other.

The Assembly was compelled to yield to the necessities of the province, but the conduct of Governor John Penn so incensed the Assembly, that it was determined by a large majority to petition the King to purchase the jurisdiction of the province from the Proprietaries, and vest the Government directly in the Crown.

Joseph Galloway sponsored the resolutions which resulted in the petition being signed by three thousand five hundred persons and addressed to King George III.

There was much opposition from leading men in the province against throwing off the proprietary dominion, and these were not alone of the Quaker belief.

Isaac Norris, the venerable Speaker; John Dickinson, afterwards distinguished in the Revolution; the Reverend Gilbert Tennant, and the Reverend Francis Allison, representing the Presbyterian interest, with William Allen, Chief Justice, and afterward father-in-law of Governor John Penn, were strong leaders in opposition to the measure.

The Quakers, on the other hand, supported it, and were sustained by several successive Assemblies. The argument which lined up the Presbyterians with those who opposed the change in Government was the important question of defending the province, and particularly their brethren on the frontiers. It mattered comparatively little whether the Proprietaries or the richer inhabitants paid for this protection.

They also feared that under the Crown the Church of England might become the Established Church. The majority, which wished to divest the Founder’s descendants of their authority, were the strict followers of the Founder’s religion.

Dickinson was re-elected to the Assembly, as was Norris, even though he did not desire to return to that body. Galloway and Franklin were defeated, the latter by twenty-five majority out of 4000 votes. Only two of the ten members from Philadelphia were in favor of the change of Government.

Norris was again elected Speaker, but dissensions arose which caused him to resign the speakership, when Joseph Fox was elected to succeed him. He appointed Dr. Franklin as an additional provincial agent in London, and directed him to go with all dispatch, and urge the adoption of the measure before the British Ministry.

Franklin sailed for England on November 8, 1764, being escorted by 300 admirers, to Chester, where he embarked.

He took with him a copy of the resolution which the Assembly, upon hearing of the proposal in England of a stamp act or some other means of revenue had passed, acknowledged it a duty to grant aid to the Crown, according to ability, whenever required in the usual constitutional manner.

Franklin found, on his arrival at London, that he had to contend with a power far stronger and more obstinate than the Proprietaries themselves, even with the very power whose protection he had come to seek.

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Governor Simon Snyder, Prey of Kidnappers, Died November 9, 1819

Simon Snyder, three times Governor of Pennsylvania, was born in Lancaster County, November 5, 1749, and died in his beautiful stone mansion in Selinsgrove November 9, 1819.

Snyder had been defeated in the gubernatorial contest of 1805, but his election was not long delayed.

Alderman John Binns, editor of the Democratic Press, then the most powerful political leader in the State, was Snyder’s closest friend and adviser and soon influenced such a current of popular sentiment toward his friend’s candidacy that William J. Duane and Dr. Michael Leib were compelled to support Snyder even though they realized Binns would be more potent in guiding his Administration.

Snyder carried every county except six and defeated James Ross by 28,400 votes.

No sooner had the election occurred than the Governor was importuned to appoint Dr. Lieb to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth, but the astute Executive named N. B. Boileau, of Montgomery County, to that important place.

Governor Snyder was re-elected in 1811 and again in 1814, being the last Governor of Pennsylvania to serve three terms.

There were many thrilling events during the nine years of his Administration, the most important of which was the War of 1812–14.

The Chief Executive of no State in the Union performed his part more patriotically or with a firmer determination than did Governor Snyder.

A month before the formal declaration of our second war with England he had issued an order drafting 14,000 men as the quota of Pennsylvania for the general defense. His several addresses to the Legislature were of the most patriotic fervor and he deserved the hearty support which was generously given him.

During the trying period of the war, Governor Snyder exhibited many splendid traits of character, and met every emergency with determined courage and the consciousness of having performed his full duty.

Pennsylvania has been remarkably free from crimes against officials holding high office, and yet the nearest attempt was a plot to kidnap Governor Snyder.

Early in the year of 1816 Richard Smith, as principal in the first degree, and Ann Carson, in the second degree, were tried in Philadelphia before the Hon. Jacob Rush and his associates for the murder of John Carson, her husband. The trial resulted in the conviction of Smith and the acquittal of Ann Carson.

Richard Smith was a lieutenant in the Twenty-third Infantry Regiment U. S. A. He was of Irish descent, a nephew of Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, and heir to his estate, worth in excess of $1,000,000.

Ann Carson was the most captivating beauty of the underworld and the most notorious character in the State, according to the newspapers of a century ago. She married a Scotchman, Captain John Carson, a dissipated ex-captain of the United States Navy, who was nearly twice her age.

Several years after this marriage Captain Carson sailed for China, in command of the ship Ganges, and nothing more was heard of him for four or five years, and his wife believed he had perished at sea.

During his absence Ann Carson became infatuated with the dashing young Lieutenant Smith, who occupied an apartment in her home.

In the fall of 1815 Captain Carson appeared at the home and his estranged wife had no welcome for him.

For the following several months the trio lived a life of continual strife. One evening in January, 1816, the two men met in the parlor of the Carson home on Second and Dock Streets, when Smith shot and killed Carson.

The murderer was taken before Alderman Binns, who committed him to prison on a charge of murder. As already stated, Smith was convicted and Mrs. Carson acquitted.

Mrs. Carson immediately planned to save Smith from the scaffold. She was able to command the services of the most desperate criminals.

Both Smith and Mrs. Carson knew that the Alderman and editor had great influence with Governor Snyder, and their first effort was to bring pressure upon him to obtain a pardon for the condemned man.

Binns refused to interfere, and in addition published a caustic warning against any attempt to stay the course of justice. Never had there been so much feeling manifested in the desire to obtain a pardon for murder as on this occasion.

Ann Carson conceived the scheme to kidnap Binns and hold him as a hostage for Smith. This plan failed. Then the desperate criminals endeavored to coerce Binns into their measures by planning to kidnap his son, who had been christened Snyder, after the then Governor. The boy was not quite six years old, but daily went to his school.

This plot was communicated to Binns and the child was kept in his home, and that plot also failed.

Then the notorious and desperate Ann Carson determined to kidnap the Governor himself, and keep him in custody, under a threat of being put to death, if he did not grant a pardon for Smith.

The very night this scheme was determined on, it was, through a lay-cousin of Lieutenant Smith’s, communicated to John Binns, who immediately dispatched the details of the plot to the Governor, who was then at his home in Selinsgrove.

Ann Carson, accompanied by two ruffians named “Lige” Brown and Henry Way, set out from Philadelphia on horseback to Selinsgrove. At Lancaster, Way robbed a drover, but was badly beaten over the head and easily captured. The others, however, made their escape and proceeded on their nefarious errand.

Governor Snyder hastened to Harrisburg, where he swore out a warrant against the woman, and she was apprehended and held in $5000 bail, which was furnished by her friends. She returned to Philadelphia.

Way escaped from jail after nearly killing his jailer and was never captured. Lieutenant Smith was executed.

Mrs. Carson’s subsequent career was merely a succession of crimes, in which she affected the disguise of a demure Quakeress. It was in this disguise she was detected passing a counterfeit note on the Girard Bank. She was sentenced to seven years in the Walnut Street prison.

A writer says she was appointed matron in the women’s ward, where her cruel treatment drove the female convicts to revolt and that Mrs. Carson was killed during one of these uprisings.

John Binns in his “Recollections” says that while in prison she was a kind and most attentive nurse.

The latter is true. Ann Carson died in prison April 27, 1824, of typhus fever, which she contracted while nursing other victims of the plague.

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John Dickinson Writes First “Farmer” Letter, November 10, 1767

In 1767 a bill was passed by Parliament which affirmed its right “to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever” and levied duties on tea, paper, glass and painters’ colors imported into the Colonies from Great Britain, payable in America. This act, with several others, rekindled the opposition of the Colonies. Again associations were formed to prevent the importation of British goods and meetings called to resolve, petition and remonstrate.

The first of the “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies,” appeared November 10, 1767, the authorship of which gave John Dickinson, of Philadelphia, so much of his celebrity.

They were published in every colony, also in London, and afterwards translated into French in Paris.

Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who had formerly been an enemy of Dickinson wrote the preface to the London edition; while the people of Boston, assembled in a town meeting, voted Dickinson their thanks.

Letter No. 1 began: “My Dear Countrymen: I am a farmer, settled, after a variety of fortunes, near the banks of the Delaware, in the Province of Pennsylvania. I received a liberal education, and have been engaged in busy scenes of life; but am now convinced that a man may be as happy without bustle as with it.

“My farm is small; my servants few and good; I have a little money at interest; I wish for no more; my employment in my own affairs is easy; and with a contented, grateful mind, undisturbed by worldly hopes or fears, relating to myself, I am completing the number of days allotted to me by Divine goodness.”

Every man ought to espouse the sacred cause of liberty to the extent of his powers and “The Farmer” offered some thoughts on late transactions, praying that his lines might be read with the same zeal for the happiness of British America with which they had been written.

He had observed that little notice had been taken of the Act of Parliament for suspending the legislation of New York. This was punishment for noncompliance by the Assembly of that Province with a former act requiring certain provisions to be made for the troops. To compel the colonies to furnish certain articles for the troops was, he proceeded to show, taxation in another form and New York was being punished for resisting such taxation.

In Letter No. 2, the “Farmer” took up the Act imposing duties on paper, glass, etc., which he deemed a most dangerous innovation upon the old practice of imposing duties merely for the regulation of trade.

Parliament had a right to regulate the trade of the colonies; but here it was vowing the design of raising revenues from America; a right, which, America felt, was inherent in her own representatives. This taxation was attempted by the device of levying duties on certain articles imported to the colonies. The effect of this was clearly pointed out.

Great Britain had prohibited certain manufactures in the colonies, and had prohibited the purchase of such manufactured goods except from the mother country.

“If you once admit that Great Britain may lay duties upon her exportations to us, for the purpose of levying money on us only,” he wrote, “she will then have nothing to do but to lay those duties on the articles, which she prohibits us to manufacture—and the tragedy of American liberty is finished.”

In Letter No. 3 the “Farmer” explained there were other modes of resistance to oppression than any breach of peace and deprecated, as Dickinson did ever afterward, any attempt to make the colonies independent.

“If once we are separated from our mother country,” he said, “what new form of government shall we adopt, or where shall we find another Britain to supply our loss? Torn from the body to which we are united by religion, liberty, laws, affections, relation, language and commerce, we must bleed at every vein.”

In the subsequent letters, the dangers to American liberty were expiated, objections answered and the people urged to make a stand for themselves and their posterity peaceably, prudently, firmly, jointly. “You are assigned by Divine Providence, in the appointed orders of things the protectors of unborn ages, whose fate depends upon your virtue,” he said. “Whether they shall arise the generous and indisputable heirs of the noblest patrimonies or the dastardly and hereditary drudges of imperious taskmasters, you must determine.”

The effect of the Farmer’s letters was tremendous. About this time a letter to Governor Penn arrived from the Earl of Hillsborough, dated April 21, 1768, informing him that King George III considered the circular letter from the Massachusetts Legislature, calling upon the other colonies to send commissioners to New York City to consider a united representation to the King and Parliament to be of a most dangerous and factious tendency, and that Governor Penn should exert his influence to prevail upon the Assembly of Pennsylvania to take no notice of it, and to prorogue or dissolve that body.

The Assembly, September 16, resolved that the Governor had no authority to prorogue or dissolve and that it was the undoubted right of the Assembly to correspond with any of the American colonies to obtain by decent petitions to the King and Parliament redress of any grievances.

Four days later the Assembly addressed a petition to the King, the following day one to the House of Lords and another to the House of Commons. Each of these paraphrased in softer language and adapted to Pennsylvania the latter from Massachusetts.

The petition to the King referred to the settlement of the province when it was only a wilderness with a view of enjoying that liberty, civil and religious, of which the petitioners’ ancestors were in a great measure deprived in their native land, and also to extend the British empire, increase its commerce and promote its wealth and power.

With inexpressible labor, toil and expense, and without assistance from the mother country, that wilderness had been peopled, planted and improved.

It was conceived that by no act had the people surrendered up or forfeited their rights and liberties as natural-born subjects of the British Government; but those rights had been brought over and were vested by inheritance.

The duties and taxes for the sole purpose of raising revenue imposed by parliament upon the Americans, they not being represented in that body, and being taxable only by themselves or their representatives, were destructive of those rights and without precedent until the passage of the Stamp Act.

Whenever the King had had occasion for aid to defend and secure the colonies, requisitions had been made upon the Pennsylvania Assemblies, who with cheerfulness granted them, and “often so liberally as to exceed the abilities and circumstances of the people.”

It was essential to the liberties of Englishmen that no laws be made which would take away their property without their consent, and even if this taxation had been constitutional the present law was injurious to the mother country as well as America. And lastly, the revenue was to be applied in such colonies as it should be thought proper. Thus Pennsylvania would pay, without their consent, taxes which might be applied to the use of other colonies.

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In Anticipation of War with France General Washington Arrives in Philadelphia, November 11, 1798

On November 11, 1798, General George Washington, who was then lieutenant-general of the army, arrived in Philadelphia to assume charge of matters in relation to the threatened war with France, and was received by the troops of horse and a large number of uniformed companies of foot.

On the 24th President John Adams, who had left the city on account of the recurrence of the yellow fever, returned, and was received with salutes from the sloop-of-war “Delaware,” Captain Stephen Decatur, and Captain Matthew Hale’s Ninth Company of Philadelphia Artillery, which was stationed near Center Square.

The presence of John Jay, of New York, in England to make a treaty with Great Britain aroused the French to a sense of the importance of observing its own treaty stipulations with the United States, which had been utterly disregarded since the war with England began. Jay’s treaty with England, November 19, 1794, caused such a division of the Americans that they were all either Frenchmen or Englishmen in their politics.

Genet, the French minister, received the most flattering attention from the day he arrived until he was recalled. When Adet, his successor, ordered all Frenchmen in America to wear the tri-colored French cockade, everybody in Philadelphia wore it.

On January 4, 1795, a new decree was issued, giving full force and effect to those clauses of the treaty of commerce, signed in 1778, with the United States.

When the news of the failure of the Americans to elect Thomas Jefferson President reached France, the Directory issued a decree, March 2, 1797, purporting to define the authority granted to French cruisers by a former decree. It was intended to annihilate American commerce in European waters.

The treaty with America was modified as to make American vessels liable to capture for any cause recognized as lawful ground of capture by Jay’s treaty.

They also decreed that any Americans found serving on board hostile owned vessels should be treated as pirates; in other words, American seamen, impressed by the British, were made liable to be hanged by the French.

On January 18, 1798, a sweeping decree against American commerce was promulgated by the French Directory.

In consequence of this insolent attitude of the French Directory and the continued seizures of American vessels by French cruisers, the popularity of France had declined, and it soon became evident that the country was slowly but surely drifting into war.

On March 5, 1798, President Adams informed Congress of the failure of the mission of the American Envoys, and accompanying this information was a message from the French Directory to the Council of Five Hundred urging the passage of further objectionable laws against American commerce.

A few days later Congress was informed that the representatives of Prince Talleyrand, one of the French ministers, had demanded a bribe of £50,000 for the members of the Directory and a loan to the Republic, in consideration of the adoption of a satisfactory treaty.

Great excitement was caused by the publication of these facts. In every section of the country was re-echoed the vigorous language of Charles Pinckney: “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”

Governor Mifflin and his associates in the State Government openly sympathized with France, and in the Pennsylvania Senate the feeling in favor of France was still very strong. On March 20 that body adopted resolutions declaring that the representatives of Pennsylvania bear their public testimony against war in any shape or with any nation unless the territories of the United States shall be invaded, but more especially against the people with whom our hearts and hands have been lately united in friendship.

In the House, however, the resolutions were received and laid upon the table, but never taken up for consideration.

The councils of Philadelphia passed resolutions in favor of sustaining friendly relations with France, but strongly endorsed the Federal administration in its conduct of the matter. A great meeting of the merchants and traders of Philadelphia was held, April 11, when an address to the President was adopted, which expressed regret at the failure of the negotiations with France, and their determination to support the Government.

Popular indignation at the conduct of France was rapidly intensifying, and the publication of a new patriotic song, “Hail Columbia,” greatly stimulated the agitation.

At the request of Gilbert Fox, a young actor, Joseph Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, then twenty-eight years of age, wrote “Hail Columbia” to accompany the air of “The President’s March,” which had become very popular in Philadelphia.

This new song was first sung by Fox at his benefit in the theater, April 25, 1798, and excited the wildest applause. The words were caught up and repeated throughout the country.

Among other demonstrations in support of the Government was a meeting of youths between eighteen and twenty-three years of age, April 28, at James Cameron’s tavern.

Resolutions were passed approving the action of the Federal Government, and a committee was appointed to prepare an address to the President. On May 7, more than twelve hundred of them each wearing a black cockade marched in procession to the home of President Adams.

On the following night parties of men wearing the French cockades appeared on the streets and made some disorder, in consequence of which the Citizens’ Volunteers were placed on guard at the mint and arsenal, and troops of cavalry paraded the streets at night.

The newspapers contributed not a little to the excitation of feeling. Editor William Cobbett was particularly violent and Benjamin Franklin Bache, in the Aurora, was almost as vehement.

The citizen military organizations were most active and during the summer months assembled frequently and performed various evolutions.

Early in June, Governor Mifflin addressed a circular letter to militia officers, requesting their co-operation in preparation of measures for defense.

The necessity for Lieutenant-General Washington and his army soon passed. The trouble with France was brought to a satisfactory result through diplomatic channels and President Adams issued a proclamation calling for a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer, on April 25, 1799, over the happy event.

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First Jury Drawn in Early Courts of Province on November 12, 1678

The early judicial history of Pennsylvania presents striking features of interest to two classes in the community—the professional lawyer and the student of history.

To the former it must be a matter of curiosity and interest to study the first rude means devised to administer justice between man and man—to discern among the transactions of those early times the rise and development of institutions and practices.

But to the student of history the subject affords a different kind of interest. He finds gratification in the manner, customs and modes of thought once prevalent in these early courts.

In them he finds traces of the past life of the Nation, learns of the matters which then interested the people, the nature of their industries, the extent of their commerce, the character of their education, the attention paid to their morals, and even the depth of their religious convictions.

The early courts of what is now Pennsylvania had their origin in 1673, under the government of James, Duke of York.

After the Swedish settlements on the Delaware were conquered by the Dutch, the Swedes were directed to concentrate in villages, but they never did so. Among the places named for this purpose was Upland, now Chester.

The Swedish magistrates were permitted to remain in office—a conciliatory policy which was imitated by the English when they came into possession of Pennsylvania.

The Dutch divided the western shore of the Delaware into three counties or judicial districts, the most northern of which was called Ophlandt, its capital being Upland. This division was recognized and continued by the English.

In 1676, under Governor Andross, the Magistrates of Upland were Peter Cock (Cox), Peter Rambo, Israel Helm, Lace Andries, Oele Swen, and Otto Ernest Cock, all Swedes.

At the court at Upland, November 13, 1677, Captain Hans Jargin was ordered “to fit up the House of Defense for the use of the court at its next sitting.” The court previously had been holding its sessions at the house of Neeles Laersen, who kept a tavern, a troublesome fellow, whose daughter seems to have taken after her father, both having appeared several times in court.

On November 12, 1678, complaint was made against Laersen for building a fence which stopped the usual path of travel over the meadow. The Court ordered him to remove the obstruction.

At the same session of court the case of William Orian vs. John D'haes was called. It was an action on a book account for the sum of 167 guilders, and the first jury known to have been called in Pennsylvania was impaneled.

The names of these original jurymen were Hans Moens, Dunk Williams, Xtopper Barnes, Edmund Draufton, Peter Jockum, Isaac Sanoy, Jan Hendricks, Jonas Kien, Moens Cock, John Browne, Jan Boelson and Henry Hastings.

The verdict was for the plaintiff for the full amount of his claim which had been disputed.

These early county courts were vested with criminal jurisdiction in all save cases of heinous or enormous crimes. Treason, murder and manslaughter were outside their cognizance. Trials for larceny, swearing, laboring on the first day of the week, assault and battery, shooting or maiming the prosecutor’s hogs, unduly encouraging drunkenness, selling rum to the Indians and offenses against the public morality and decency constituted the great bulk of the criminal business.

“Lying in conversation” was fined half a crown, “drinking healths which may provoke people to unnecessary and excessive drinking” was fined five shillings, while the sale of beer made of molasses at more than a penny a quart was visited with a like penalty of five shillings for every quart sold.

No person could “Smoak tobacco in the streets of Philadelphia or New Castle, by day or by night,” on penalty of a fine of twelve pence, to be applied to the purchase of leather buckets and other instruments against fire.

Any person “convicted at playing of cards, dice, lotteries or such-like enticing, vain and evil sports and games” was to pay five shillings or to be imprisoned five days at hard labor, while those who introduced or frequented “such rude and riotous sports and practices as prizes, stage plays, masques, revels, bull baitings, cock fightings and the like” were either to forfeit twenty shillings or to be imprisoned at hard labor for ten days.

Smoking tobacco in the courtroom was an heinous offense. Luke Watson, himself a Justice, twice offended the Court on the same day in this manner and was fined the first time fifty pounds of tobacco, the second 100 pounds. In 1687 William Bradford was fined for swearing in the presence of the Justices, and Thomas Hasellum was fined for singing and making a noise.

Thomas Jones, who was wanted in court as a witness, was a hardened character and refused to appear. When two constables brought him into court he cursed at a horrible rate.

The records state “said Jones being brought into court, the Court told him of his misdemeanor, and told him he should suffer for it; he told the Court he questioned their power, so the Court ordered the Sheriff and constable to secure him and they carried and dragged him to ye Smith Shop, where they put irons upon him, but he quickly got the Irons off and Escaped, he having before wounded several persons’ legs with his spurs that strived with him, and when they was goeing to put him in the Stocks, before that they put him in Irons, he kicked the Sheriff on the mouth and was very unruly and abusive, and soon got out of the Stocks.”

An excellent law in the early days of the Province provided “that whereas there was a necessity for the sake of commerce in this infancy of things, that the growth and produce of this Province should pass in lieu of money, that, therefore, all merchantable wheat, rye, Indian corn, barley, oats, pork, beef and tobacco should pass current at the market price.”

Of this provision the people availed themselves largely. They frequently gave bonds to each other acknowledging their debts in kinds. Judgments were accordingly sometimes entered “for 172 pounds of pork and two bushels of wheat, being the balance of an account brought into court,” or for “32 shillings for a gun, and 150 pounds of pork for a shirt,” while, perhaps, the climax is reached in an entry of judgment for “One thousand of six-penny nails, and three bottles of rum.”

The early Provincial Courts were unusual peace makers and made peculiar awards.

In Chester County, in 1687, in an action of an assault and battery by Samuel Baker against Samuel Rowland was this award: “Samuel Rowland shall pay the lawful charges of this court, and give the said Samuel Baker a Hatt, and so Discharge each other of all manner of Differences from the Beginning of the World to this Present day.”

The sentences imposed were not unusually severe. The whipping post, the pillory and the imposition of fines were usually resorted to as punishments in preference to long terms of imprisonment. The services of the culprit were more desirable than to keep him within a prison’s walls.

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Council of Censors First Met Under Constitution of 1776, November 13, 1783

The Constitution of 1776, as would be expected, was hastily prepared. Great excitement prevailed everywhere throughout the Province and the document was adopted with the same determined spirit which characterized all public movements during that thrilling period of our history.

Nothing less than the impending war for liberty could justify the methods that were employed to change the frame of government under which the people had lived for nearly a century.

The most effective improvement in this instrument could have been made by amendment in the regular manner, but this method would not have served to satisfy the determined purposes of the leaders of that day.

The chief objections to the Constitution were the existence of a single legislative body, and a council of censors consisting of two men from each city and county in the State to hold office for seven years.

The function of the censors were of a most extraordinary character. The members were to meet annually, and inquire whether the Constitution had been kept inviolate; whether the legislative and executive branches had carefully functioned; whether taxes had been justly levied and collected, etc. A majority vote of their number was sufficient to determine every action, excepting the calling of a convention to revise the Constitution, which alone required the consent of two-thirds of the council.

It is believed that George Bryan and James Cannon were the authors of this unusual provision. Both were ardent patriots.

The Constitution fairly reflected the political opinions of those opposed to the English Parliament.

The office of Governor was swept away, and the Constitution of 1776 provided that the Supreme Executive Council should choose one of its number President, whose duties were those of the Chief Executive.

Every effort to secure a revision of the Constitution proved unavailing and public opinion waited impatiently for the first seven years to pass, in the hopes that a revision would then be possible. If the enemies of the Constitution were numerous and bitter, it had also many enthusiastic supporters.

The Council of Censors assembled, as the Constitution required, on November 13, 1783, and continuing in session nearly a year, adjourned finally September 25, 1784. Frederick A. Muhlenberg was elected President.

Various amendments were discussed and strong difference of opinion manifested, but in the address of the freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at the close of their labors, they recommended a continuance of the frame of government.

They say, “if with heart and hand united, we will all combine to support the Constitution, and apply its injunction to the best use of society, we shall find it a source of the richest blessings. We would earnestly recommend this to you. Give it a fair and honest trial; and if after all, at the end of another seven years, it shall be found necessary or proper to introduce any changes, they may then be brought in, and established upon a full conviction of their usefulness, with harmony and good temper, without noise, tumult, or violence.”

A majority of the members favored amending the Constitution, so that the Legislature should consist of a house of representatives of 100 members and a legislative council of twenty-nine members; that the executive power be vested in a Governor with a veto power; that the Judges should be appointed by the Governor to serve during good behavior, with fixed salaries and that the Council of Censors should be abolished.

Twelve Councilors favored and nine opposed these amendments, a two-thirds vote could not be had. The majority issued an appeal, as did the minority. Then followed a pamphlet war on the action of the convention, lasting all summer. It was not, however, especially bitter.

On resuming its sessions the Council then assumed its rights under the Constitution, but could arrive at no definite conclusion, and finally resolved “that there does not appear to this Council an absolute necessity to call a convention to alter or explain or amend the Constitution.” This report was adopted by a vote of 14 to 8, a marked change in the opinion of some of the censors since their previous action.

This change was occasioned by the people. A petition signed by 18,000 persons had been sent to the Council of Censors, opposing all changes in the Constitution. Then, too, George Bryan had been elected from Philadelphia to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of a Conservative. Bryan was a radical of the radicals, and his election was sensed as an indication of the drift of public sentiment.

President Muhlenberg admitted early in the summer that the Conservatives were beaten, and attributed it to the “blind passion and mad party spirit of the common crowd.” General Joseph Reed thought their chief mistake was in presenting too many amendments. Bryan was severely attacked, and was characterized as the censor general of Pennsylvania.

In justification of their cause the censors simply issued an address to the people and then adjourned. They admitted that there were defects in the Constitution, but they could not agree on the changes. Even this address lacked unanimity, for twelve voted for it and nine opposed it. Thus the Constitution, which had been assailed so long, weathered the first storm and still remained unchanged.

The discontent with the Constitution did not die with the inaction of the censors. The old confederation was now expiring and the chaos was becoming darker than ever. Finally when all authority was gone, and the people had suffered enough for the lack of it, they were willing to adopt another constitution containing the principles of enduring life.

The movement that led to the ratification of the Federal Constitution by Pennsylvania gave the proponents of a new constitution the suggestion that a convention should be called to adopt another constitution for Pennsylvania.

The necessary steps were then taken, and the Legislature, acting upon petitions addressed to it, after many heated debates, reported the resolutions from the Committee of the Whole with favorable recommendations.

By this time it was clearly evident the majority of the people desired this in preference to a new Constitution made by the Council of Censors.

Furthermore, the Bill of Rights recognized the people as possessed of all the necessary powers in the premises. The report recommended a plan for the election of members to the proposed convention, and method of procedure. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 39 to 17.

The learned members of the Council of Censors did not agree; indeed, there was a strong and general feeling, especially among the most influential and intelligent, that the Constitution of 1776 was inadequate, and was still more so since the close of the war, when the situation was entirely changed. On November 24, 1789, the convention met to revise the Constitution.

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Indian Outrages in Berks County Began November 14, 1755

The first violent outbreak by the Indians in Berks County, after the defeat of General Braddock in July, 1775, occurred in the vicinity of Deitrick Six’s plantation, near what is now the village of Millersburg, in Bethel Township. This tragedy occurred November 14, 1755.

Conrad Weiser, who resided in what is now Womeldsdorf, frequently accompanied bands of friendly Indians on important missions to Philadelphia, but after many cruel murders had been committed upon the settlers, the inhabitants turned against Weiser, believing him to be protecting Indians who did not deserve it.

The redskins all looked alike to the sturdy settlers, who so frequently lost their own lives, or those of their dear ones, or suffered the destruction of their homes and barns at the hands of these treacherous savages.

There is no doubt of the loyalty of Colonel Weiser and his brave sons, who were ever on the alert to help others in distress or travel to the seat of government and plead the cause of the less fortunate.

Upon his return home from a trip to Philadelphia, while the trusted Chief Scarouady and his friendly Delaware Indians were still under the shelter of Weiser’s roof, his two sons, Philip and Frederic, just home from a scouting expedition, related the story of the terrible massacre, which they had received from the lips of those who felt the cruel blow, but escaped death at the hands of the Indians.

The story they related to their father was immediately sent by him to Governor Morris. The facts are of interest.

Six of the settlers were on the road going to Deitrick Six’s plantation when a party of Indians fired upon them. The frightened white men hurried toward a watchhouse, a half mile distant, but were ambushed before reaching their haven of refuge and three of the party were killed and scalped. A man named Ury shot an Indian through the heart and his body was dragged off by the savages, but it was found by the whites the next day, when a dead Indian lost his scalp.

After this attack the Indians divided themselves in two parties. The one prowling around the watchhouse overtook some settlers fleeing toward that place, when they killed three of them, making six of the inhabitants killed by the Indians within an hour’s time.

On the following night the Indians crept up in the darkness to the home of Thomas Bower, on Swatara Creek, pushed their guns through a window and killed a cobbler, who was at work repairing a shoe. They also set fire to Bower’s house before being driven away.

The Bower family sought refuge through the night in the home of Daniel Snyder, a neighbor, and returning to their home in the morning, they saw four skulking Indians running away, who had with them the scalps just taken from the heads of three children, two being yet alive. They also ran across the body of a woman who had just been killed, with a two-weeks old baby under her body, but unhurt.

Colonel Weiser dispatched a second letter the same day to Governor Morris in which he wrote:

“That night after my arrival from Philadelphia, Emanuel Carpenter and Simon Adam Kuhn, Esqr’s., came to my House and lodged with me. They acquainted me that a meeting was appointed of the people of Tulpenhacon and Heidelberg and adjacent places in Tulpenhacon Township at Benjamin Spicker’s early next morning. I made all the haste with the Indians I could, and gave them a letter to Thos. McKee, to furnish them with necessaries for their journey. Scarouady had no creature to ride on. I gave him one.

“Before I could get done with the Indians 3 or 4 Men came from Benja. Spickers to warn the Indians not to go that way, for the People were so enraged against all the Indians & would kill them without distinction. I went with them; so did the Gentlemen before named.

“When we came near Benjamin Spickers I saw about 400 or 500 men, and there was loud noise, I rode before, and in riding along the road and armed men on both Sides of the Road I heard some say, why must we be killed by the Indians and we not kill them? Why are our Hands so tied?

“I got the Indians to the House with much adoe, where I treated them with a small Dram, and so parted in Love and Friendship. Capt’n Diefenbach undertook to conduct them, with five other men, to the Susquehanna. After this a sort of a counsel of war was held by the officers present, the before named and other Freeholders.

“It was agreed that 150 men should be raised immediately to serve as out scouts, and as Guards at Certain Places under the Kittitany Hills for 40 days. That those so raised to have 2 Shillings a Day & 2 Pounds of Bread, 2 Pounds of Beaff and a Jill of Rum, and Powder and lead. Arms they must find themselves.

“This Scheme was signed by a good many Freeholders and read to the People. They cried out that so much for an Indian Scalp would they have, be they Friends or Enemies, from the Governor. I told them I had no such Power from the Governor nor Assembly. They began, some to Curse the Governor; some the Assembly; called me a Traitor of the Country who held with the Indians, and must have known this murder beforehand. I sat in the House by a Lowe window, some of my friends came to pull me away from it, telling me some of the people threatened to shoot me.

“I offered to go out to the People and either Pasefy them or make the King’s Proclamation: But those in the House with me would not let me go out. The cry was, The Land was betrayed and sold. The Common People from Lancaster (now Lebanon County) were the worst. The Wages they said was a Trifle and some Body pocketed the Rest, and they would resent it. Some Body had put it in their Head that I had it in my power to give them as much as I pleased. I was in Danger of being Shot to Death.

“In the mean Time a great smoke arose under Tulpenhacon Mountain, with the news following that the Indians had committed a murder on Mill Creek (a false alarm) and set fire to a Barn, most of the People Ran, and those that had Horses Rode off without any Order or Regulation. I then took my Horse and went Home, where I intend to stay and defend my own House as long as I can. The People of Tulpenhacon all fled; till about 6 or 7 miles from me some few remains. Another such attack will lay all the Country waste on the West side of Schuylkill.”

There is undoubted sarcasm in Colonel Weiser’s account of how the people fled upon the first faint rumor of an Indian attack, after they had made mob threats against him, yet the gravity of the situation cannot be questioned.

The principal inhabitants sent a petition to the Governor, November 24, in which they recited their distress and accurately stated the lack of order and discipline among the people. They believed a reward should be offered for Indian scalps.

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Indian Shoots at Major Washington While on Important Mission November 15, 1753

George Washington had several very narrow escapes from tragic death a long time before he led the Continental Army through the eight years of the Revolution, and on one occasion was actually shot at by a treacherous Indian guide.

Late in the year of 1753 Governor Dinwiddie dispatched Major Washington on an important mission to the Ohio River, in Pennsylvania, where he was to convene the Indian chiefs at Logstown, learn from them the designs and strength of the French; then proceed to the principal French post, present his credentials and in the name of his Britannic Majesty demand the object of their invasion.

He departed from Williamsburg, the seat of Government of Virginia, on October 31, 1753. The route he was to pursue was about 560 miles in great part over high and rugged mountains, and more than half of the way through the heart of the wilderness, where no traces of civilization as yet appeared.

He arrived at Wills Creek, November 15, when John Davidson, an Indian interpreter, and Jacob Vanbraam, a Dutchman, but acquainted with the French language, were employed to accompany him. He was also fortunate in securing the services of Christopher Gist, a surveyor and guide, who was always his companion on this mission.

At length they arrived at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburgh now stands. Washington was impressed with the advantages it afforded as a military post.

They hastened to Logstown, twenty miles below the forks, where Washington held conferences with Shingas, Lawmolach and Monakatuatha, the Half-King. The latter had been sent by several tribes to the headquarters of French, and he related to Washington the substance of the speech he made on that mission.

Washington made a speech to the chiefs, and gave them a belt of wampum. The Indians consulted and made a friendly reply and promised an escort as soon as their young warriors would return from hunting, but Washington could not wait and on November 30, his party set out, accompanied by four Indians only, Half-King being of the number.

The post of the French Commandant was 120 miles distant and they arrived there December 11.

M. de St. Pierre, the commandant, promised immediate attention to the letter from Governor Dinwiddie and provided for the comfort of Major Washington and his party. During the two days the French officers were framing an answer, Washington examined the fort, and made accurate description of its form and size.

Washington and Gist clad themselves in Indian dress and set out on foot, leaving the weak and miserable horses to transport the baggage as best they could.

The next day an adventure occurred which is well narrated by Mr. Gist in his diary:

“We rose early in the morning, and set out about two o clock, and got to the Murdering Town on the southeast fork of Beaver Creek. Here we met with an Indian, whom I thought I had seen at Joncaire’s, at Venango, when on our journey up to the French fort.

“This fellow called me by an Indian name, and pretended to be glad to see me. He asked us several questions, as, how we came to travel on foot, when we left Venango, where we parted with our horses, and when they would be there. Major Washington insisted on traveling by the nearest way to the Forks of the Allegheny. We asked the Indian if he could go with us and show us the nearest way. The Indian seemed very glad, and ready to go with us; upon which we set out, and the Indian took the Major’s pack.

“We traveled very brisk for eight or ten miles, when the Major’s feet grew very sore. The Major desired to encamp; upon which the Indian asked to carry his gun, but he refused. Then the Indian grew churlish, and pressed us to keep on, telling us there were Ottawa Indians in those woods, and they would scalp us if we lay out; but go to his cabin and we should be safe.

“I thought very ill of the fellow, but did not care to let the Major know I mistrusted him. But he soon mistrusted him as much as I did. The Indian said he could hear a gun from his cabin and steered up more northwardly. We grew uneasy and then he said two whoops might be heard from his cabin. We went two miles farther. Then the Major said he would stay at the next water.

“We desired the Indian to stop at the next water, but before we came to water, we came to a clear meadow. It was very light and snow was on the ground.

“The Indian made a stop and turned about. The Major saw him point his gun towards us and he fired. Said the Major, ‘Are you shot?’ ‘No,’ said I; upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing light oak and began loading his gun, but we were soon with him. I would have killed him, but the Major would not suffer me. We let him charge his gun. We found he put in a ball; then we took care of him. Either the Major or I always stood by the guns. We made him make a fire for us by a little run, as if we intended to sleep there.”

The Indian was sent ahead to his cabin and Washington and Gist traveled all night, reaching Piny Creek in the morning.

Whether it was the intention of the Indian to kill either of them can only be conjectured. The circumstances were extremely suspicious. Major Washington hints at this incident in his journal.

The next night, at dusk, the travelers came to the Allegheny River, a little above Shannopino, where they expected to cross over on the ice. In that they were disappointed, the river being frozen only a few yards on each side, and a great body of broken ice driving rapidly down the current.

There was no way of getting over the river but on a raft, which they set about to build with the aid of but one poor hatchet. They worked hard all day and finished the raft just after sundown. They launched their raft, got aboard and pushed off. But before they got to midstream they got caught in an ice jam. Washington set his pole in an effort to stop the raft, but the current threw the raft against his pole with much violence and he was hurled out into ten feet of water. He fortunately saved himself by grabbing hold of a raft log, and was assisted aboard by his companions, but in spite of all their efforts they could not get the raft to either shore, but were obliged to land on a small island and encamp for the night.

Mr. Gist’s hands and feet were frozen and their sufferings through the night were extreme. The ice had formed during the night of sufficient thickness to bear their weight, and they crossed over without accident, and the same day traveled about ten miles, reaching a trading post established by John Frazier, at Turtle Creek, near the spot where eighteen months afterward was fought the memorable battle of the Monongahela.

Anxious to hasten back and report to Governor Dinwiddie the result of his mission, Major Washington and Mr. Gist recrossed the Allegheny Mountains to Gist’s house on Wills Creek and thence Washington proceeded with dispatch to Williamsburg, where he arrived on January 16, 1754, having been absent eleven weeks.

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John Binns, English Political Prisoner, American Politician and Editor, Died November 16, 1860

John Binns was one of the most influential citizens of the State during the quarter century of which the War of 1812 might be considered the central period. He was a politician, but more than all else an editor, who was a fearless and trenchant writer.

Binns had experienced a stormy life in England before he came to America. He was born December 22, 1772, in the city of Dublin, Ireland, and received a fair education at an English school.

April, 1794, he went to London and soon became a member of the London Corresponding Society, an event which gave much color to his future life. This society was the leading opposition to the Crown and many of its members were arrested and tried for high treason. Binns was an officer and most active member, and was soon in trouble, being arrested, March 11, 1796, while making an address in Birmingham, and imprisoned in “The Dungeon,” charged with “delivering seditious and inflammatory lectures.”

Binns was mixed up in the movement of the United Irishmen to have France make an invasion of Ireland. He was arrested four times for the same offense, and was sentenced to Clerkwell Prison. Soon as he was liberated, he was again arrested for high treason, and sent to the Tower of London, where he was confined under a strict watch.

After a number of trials he was freed, only to be again arrested, and confined in Gloucester prison, where he was ill-treated. On his liberation he embarked, July 1, 1801, for the United States and landed in Baltimore September 1.

Upon his arrival at Baltimore, he hired three wagons, loaded them with his personal effects, and set out, on foot to accompany them to Northumberland, where he proposed to reside. At Harrisburg he hired a boat, and helped push it up the Susquehanna. At Northumberland he joined Dr. Joseph Priestley and Judge Thomas Cooper, two former Englishmen, who had sought refuge there.

Dr. Priestley lived an ideal life of peace and usefulness in Northumberland, but Dr. Cooper, the most learned man of his time, a Judge, president of two different colleges, and renowned chemist, was so violent in his politics that he was imprisoned for a libel on President John Adams.

On July 4, 1802, John Binns delivered an oration, which was printed in the Northumberland Gazette, the only paper published beyond Harrisburg, in the State, at that time. The many criticisms of this oration led to a lengthy newspaper controversy, and finally resulted in John Binns establishing at Northumberland the Republican Argus, which soon became one of the best and most widely known papers in Pennsylvania.

John Binns, from that date and for many years thereafter, became a dominant factor in politics. About this time he fought a duel, near Milton, with a man from Williamsport, named Samuel Stewart, which was one of the last duels fought on Pennsylvania soil.

In January, 1807, he was urged by the influential Democrats to remove from Northumberland to Philadelphia and to establish a newspaper there. The Aurora had lost its punch; William J. Duane was losing his grip as a leader, and Binns’ power and influence were in the ascendent.

Binns yielded to these solicitations and the first number of the Democratic Press appeared in Philadelphia March 27, 1807. He was advised against using the world “Democratic” in his paper’s title, and later took much satisfaction in having started the first paper anywhere published under the name. He claimed the title of his paper led to the change of the party name to “Democratic.”

Binns was an ardent friend and admirer of Simon Snyder, then Speaker of the House of Representatives. Governor McKean defeated Snyder, “the Pennsylvania Dutchman,” but the latter was again returned to the House and elected Speaker.

Snyder was again nominated in 1808. During this campaign Binns wrote a series of letters, over the signature of “One of the People,” addressed to Governor McKean, which were published in all the Democratic newspapers of the State, and also in pamphlets.

Binns had no sooner arrived in Philadelphia than he had a clash with Dr. Michael Leib, who had been the autocratic political leader, but for some years with lessening power.

The Democratic Press openly opposed Dr. Leib’s candidacy for re-election to the General Assembly, claiming the doctor was the cause of the dissensions among the Republican Party. Leib was elected, but by a much reduced majority than the other Republican candidate received, and Duane was defeated for the Senate. The Aurora groaned aloud at this “first Federal triumph” since Jefferson’s election.

From its first issue Binn’s paper was highly successful. It soon was published daily. Its circulation increased rapidly and in the same proportion the Aurora began to lose subscribers.

The power of Binns was increased in the election of Simon Snyder as Governor in 1808. Duane and Leib were, at heart, opposed to Snyder, but could not stem the tide and supported him.

Dr. Leib was elected to the United States Senate in 1809, but Duane was not pleased with Governor Snyder. The Press defended him. The Aurora criticized his conduct and was soon in opposition in all that he did. By August the Aurora threatened the Governor with impeachment, and in October announced he should never again be Governor.

Binns called the Aurora and its supporters “The Philadelphia Junto,” and they soon joined with the Federalists. Binns already was in favor of a war with England, and he was active in pledging support to the Administration.

In 1811, Governor Snyder was overwhelmingly re-elected, and by 1812 Binns was even stronger as a leader, possibly increased by his war enthusiasm. The Democratic Press published strong articles on the war, while the Aurora was silent.

In fall of 1813 the Democrats were successful, but in 1814, though Snyder was elected for a third term by 20,000 votes over Wayne, and the State Legislature was strongly Democratic, yet the Federalists were largely successful in Philadelphia.

Leib was appointed postmaster at Philadelphia in February, 1814, but the opposition was too strong and he was removed, and passed off the political stage. Duane, who was supreme for a time, antagonized large numbers of his party, and finally yielded to Binns, who completely took from him his power.

Binns was an aid on the staff of Governor Snyder, with rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was actively engaged during the War of 1812–14.

Governor Snyder always remained a close and intimate friend of Binns, and while he was in office, Binns exercised great power, but only maintained his sway a few years after Snyder’s last term.

Binns bitterly opposed Jackson for President. He issued the famous coffin handbills in 1828, and excited thereby such opposition that his house was mobbed, Binns escaping by the roof.

He was appointed an alderman by Governor Hiester in 1822, and in 1829 the publication of the Democratic Press ceased.

John Binns died November 16, 1860.

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Administration of Sir William Keith as Deputy-Governor. He Died November 17, 1749

During the administration of Sir William Keith, Deputy-Governor of the Province, July, 1718, to July, 1726, a difficulty arose between the Southern Indians upon the Shenandoah, and those resident upon the Susquehanna in the Province of Pennsylvania, respecting the limits of their hunting grounds. Hostilities between them seemed imminent. It was necessary to settle these difficulties amicably or the peace of the Province was seriously threatened.

To avert this, says Proud, Governor Keith paid a visit to the Governor of Virginia, with whom he framed a convention, confining the Indians on the North and South of the Potomac to their respective side of that river. A conference was held with the Pennsylvania Indians and the Five Nations, at Conestoga, July 6, 1721, when this convention was fully ratified.

Governor Keith made this visit in state. He was attended by seventy horsemen, many of them were armed. He was welcomed upon his return at the upper ferry on the Schuylkill, by Mayor William Fishbourne and the Aldermen of Philadelphia, accompanied by two hundred of the most respectable citizens, who conducted him through the streets after the manner of a hero returned from a conquest.

Trouble over the boundary arose when the Governor of Maryland proposed making a survey on the Susquehanna, within the limits of the present York County.

Governor Keith resolved to resist this attempt by force, and ordered out a militia company from New Castle. The Provincial Council discouraged this show of violence.

The Indians became alarmed at the encroachments of the Marylanders and conveyed to Governor Keith a large tract of land, that he might have a better title to resist them. This land was given for the use of Springett Penn, the grandson of William Penn, and was afterwards known by the name of Springettsbury Manor.

The fears of the Province were soon after awakened by a quarrel between two brothers named Cartlidge and an Indian near Conestoga, in which the Indian was killed, with many evidences of cruelty. The known principles of revenge professed by the Indians gave reason to apprehend severe retaliation. Policy and justice required a rigid inquiry and punishment of the murderers.

Governor Keith took prompt measures for their apprehension and the Assembly ordered a coroner’s inquest, though the body had been buried two months, and the arrest of the Cartlidge brothers.

Messengers were dispatched to the Five Nations to deprecate hostilities, and, to prevent further irregularities, the prohibition of sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians was re-enacted, with additional penalties.

The Indians invited Governor Keith and the governors of Virginia, New York, and the New England colonies, to meet with them in council at Albany, where with great magnanimity, the Indians pardoned the offense of the Cartlidges, and requested they might be discharged without further punishment. The address of the Indian sachem is worth repeating:

“The great King of the Five Nations is sorry for the death of the Indian that was killed, for he was of his own flesh and blood; he believes the Governor is also sorry; but, now that it is done, there is no help for it, and he desires that Cartlidge may not be put to death, nor that he should be spared for a time and afterwards executed; one life is enough to be lost; there should not two die. The King’s heart is good to the Governor, and all the English.”

Governor Keith was attended on this journey to Albany by Messrs. Hill, Norris, and Hamilton, of his Council.

A considerable part of the emigration to the colonies was composed of servants, who were of two classes. The first and the larger part, were poor and oppressed in the land of their nativity, sometimes the victims of political changes or religious intolerance, who submitted to temporary servitude, as a price of freedom, plenty and peace. The second, vagrants and felons, the dregs of the British populace, who were cast by the mother country upon her colonies, with the most selfish disregard of the feelings she outraged.

As early as 1682 the Council proposed to prohibit convicts from the province, but as none had entered and this was only prospective, no law was enacted. Now the Council did enact such a law, by placing a duty of five pounds upon every convicted felon brought into the Province, and the importer was also required to give surety for the good behavior of the convict for one year.

In the year 1722 there were commercial embarrassments caused by the deficiency of the circulating medium. Governor Keith proposed to overcome this difficulty by the introduction of paper money. The Assembly moved with caution, for they had full knowledge of the mistakes of the colonies, and issued only £15,000 on favorable terms to keep up their credit. This act was passed March 2, 1723. The emission proved of advantage but was insufficient, so towards the end of the year £30,000 more were emitted on the same terms.

Governor Keith, in espousing this popular cause, pleased the Assembly but incurred the displeasure of the Proprietary party and its leader, James Logan. Complications arose which eventuated in the triumph of Logan and the deposition of Keith, who was decidedly the most successful of the Proprietary Governors.

Franklin said of Keith, that “he differed from the great body of the people whom he governed, in religion and manners, yet he acquired their esteem and confidence. If he sought popularity, he promoted the public happiness; and his courage in resisting the demands of the family may be ascribed to a higher motive than private interest. The conduct of the Assembly toward him was neither honorable nor polite; for his sins against his principles were virtues to the people, with whom he was deservedly a favorite; and the House should have given him substantial marks of their gratitude as would have tempted his successors to walk in his steps. But fear of further offence to the Proprietary family, the influence of Logan, and a quarrel between the Governor and Lloyd, turned their attention from him to his successor.”

After his removal, Sir William Keith resided in the Province, and was elected to the Assembly, but he manifested a most unjustifiable and malicious spirit, and caused dissensions in the administration of his successor. His power and influence rapidly waned.

In 1729 he returned to England, where, it is sad to record, he died in obscurity, in London, November 17, 1749.

“It may be very little known,” says Watson, “that he who moved with so much excitement and as our Governor in 1726, should at last fall into such neglect, as to leave his widow among us unnoticed and almost forgotten! She lived and died in a small wooden house on Third Street, between High and Mulberry. There, much pinched for subsistence, she eked out her existence with an old female, declining all intercourse with society or with her neighbors. The house itself was burnt in 1786.”

Lady Ann Keith died July 31, 1740, aged 65 years, and lies entombed at Christ Church graveyard.

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Governor Joseph Hiester, Distinguished Revolutionary Officer and Statesman, Born November 18, 1872

In the early settlement of that part of Pennsylvania which is now included within the limits of Berks County a large portion of the population was drawn from those parts of Germany bordering on or near the River Rhine.

Among these sturdy emigrants were three brothers, John, Joseph and Daniel Hiester.

John, the eldest, emigrated in 1732, and was followed in 1737 by Joseph and Daniel, who sailed in that year in the ship St. Andrew from Rotterdam.

These three brothers were sons of John and Catherine Hiester and their birthplace was the village of Elcoff in the county of Wittgenstein, in the province of Westphalia, Prussia. The father, John Hiester, was born in January, 1708.

The three brothers first settled in Goshenhoppen, then Philadelphia, now Montgomery County. Soon after the arrival of Joseph and Daniel, they purchased of the Proprietary Government a tract of several thousand acres in Bern Township, now Berks County.

Here John and Joseph settled, and the Hiester family in America are their descendants. Here was born a patriot of the Revolution, distinguished citizen and statesman, who afterwards became a governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Joseph Hiester, son of John Hiester, was born in Bern Township, November 18, 1752.

He spent his early days on the farm and in the intervals of the routine from labor, Joseph received the rudiments of an English and German education under the supervision of the pastor of Bern Reformed Church.

In 1771, in his nineteenth year, he married Elizabeth Whitman, daughter of Adam Whitman, of Reading, to which place he soon removed, and went into the mercantile business with his father-in-law.

Joseph Hiester was an ardent Whig in politics and took an aggressive part in espousing the cause of the Revolution.

As a representative of that party he was chosen a member of the Pennsylvania Conference, which met in Philadelphia, June 18, 1776, and which in reality assumed the government of the Province, called a convention to frame a new constitution, gave instructions for the guidance of its representatives in Congress, and authorized the calling out of troops for the Continental Army. In all these proceedings he was a warm supporter of the popular cause.

He was then a captain of militia, and no sooner had the conference adjourned, than he hastened home and aroused the young men of Reading and vicinity to the importance of enlisting in the cause of American independence, at that time but feebly supported.

Joseph Hiester called together, by beat of drum, his fellow-townsmen, to take into consideration the alarming state and gloomy prospects of their country. He explained to them the perilous situation of General Washington in New Jersey, and urged them to enlist and march to his support.

He was heard with attention and respect, and his proposition was kindly received. He then laid forty dollars on the drum-head and said: “I will give this sum as a bounty, and the appointment of a sergeant to the first man who will subscribe to the articles of association to form a volunteer company to march forthwith and join the Commander-in-Chief; and I will also pledge myself to furnish the company with blankets and necessary funds for their equipment, and on the march!”

This promise he honorably and faithfully fulfilled.

Matthias Babb stepped forward, signed the article, and took the money from the drumhead. His example, and the further advancement of smaller sums of money, induced twenty men that evening to subscribe to the articles of association. In ten days Captain Joseph Hiester had enrolled a company of eighty men.

The company became a part of the Flying Camp, but soon Captain Hiester was induced to extend his efforts, and a battalion was shortly obtained. He could have been made their colonel but declined to be even a major, so attached was he to his original company.

When his command reached Elizabethtown, N. J., it was learned General Washington had moved to Long Island. Captain Hiester used his best endeavor to induce the men to advance, as they had enlisted only for Pennsylvania service, and following his patriotic lead, they marched to join Washington.

The gallant captain little knew the hard fate that was to be his. In the battle of Long Island he was taken prisoner, with most of his men, and confined in the notorious prison-ship, Jersey, where they were subjected to every indignity which refined cruelty could invent.

After seven months’ imprisonment Captain Hiester was exchanged, and returned in time to take part in the battle of Germantown, where he received a wound in the head.

In the varied fortunes of the patriot army he continued to share until the close of the war.

He was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council one of the commissioners of exchange, April 5, 1779, and on October 21, following, one of the committee to seize the personal effects of traitors.

He was chosen to the General Assembly in 1780, and served almost continuously from that date until 1790.

He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Federal Constitution in 1787, and in 1789, he was a member of the convention which framed the State Constitution of 1790. He was chosen a presidential elector in 1792, and again in 1796.

He served in the fifth to eighth Congress, and again in the fifteenth and sixteenth Congresses, and during his last term was elected Governor of Pennsylvania by the Federalists, defeating Governor William Findlay, in a campaign which for personal vituperation has never been equalled in Pennsylvania.

Governor Hiester’s administration was most successful, but he would not allow himself to be nominated for a second term.

Returning to Reading, he retired to private life, and died there June 10, 1832.

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President Lincoln Delivered Address at Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863

Abraham Lincoln made many notable speeches, the most prominent of which, probably, were those delivered in his historic debates with Stephen A. Douglas, the “Little Giant.”

On his way from his home in Springfield to Washington for his inauguration he made a number of speeches, the most notable of which was delivered in Philadelphia in Independence Hall. But the most famous of all his addresses as President was delivered November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on the battlefield of Gettysburg.

President Lincoln left Washington at noon on Wednesday, November 18, 1863. There were four passenger coaches, in which were seated the President, members of his Cabinet, several foreign ministers, the private secretaries of the President, officers of the Army and Navy, a military detail serving as a guard, and newspaper correspondents. This special train pulled into the town of Gettysburg about dark of that day.

Mr. Lincoln passed the evening and night in the home of David Wills, who was the special representative of Governor Andrew G. Curtin and the most active agent in the establishment of the Soldiers’ Cemetery.

Arnold, in his “History of Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery,” asserts that the President while on his way from the White House to the battlefield was notified that he would be expected to make some remarks, and that asking for some paper a rough sheet of foolscap was handed to him. Retiring to a seat by himself, with a pencil be wrote the address.

Mrs. Andrews in her beautiful story entitled “The Perfect Tribute” says, “The President appealed to Secretary Seward for the brown paper he had just removed from a package of books: ‘May I have this to do a little writing?’ and then with a stump of a pencil labored for hours over his speech.”

Contrary to those statements, General James B. Fry, who was present in the car as one of the escort, says:

“I have no recollection of seeing him writing or even reading his speech during the journey; in fact, there was hardly any opportunity for him to read or write.”

That opinion is shared by no less an authority than Nicolay, the senior of the President’s private secretaries, who in an interesting and highly valuable paper on the Gettysburg address, says:

“There is neither record, evidence, nor well-founded tradition that Mr. Lincoln did any writing or made any notes on the journey between Washington and Gettysburg. The many interruptions incident to the journey, together with the rocking and jolting of the train, made writing virtually impossible.”

Morory in his “History of the United States for Schools,” says: “There is conclusive evidence that the words of the address were not written out until after the presidential party had arrived on the ground”; and in an appendix it is stated:

“The following account of how the address was written was received directly from the lips of ex-Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, who was present on the occasion and knew whereof he affirmed. Governor Curtin said that after the arrival of the party from Washington, while the President and his Cabinet, Edward Everett, the orator of the day, Governor Curtin, and others were sitting in the parlor of the hotel, the President remarked that he understood that the committee expected him to say something. He would, therefore, if they would excuse him, retire to the next room and see if he could write out something.”

The Hon. Edward McPherson, of Gettysburg, for many years Clerk of the House of Representatives and father of the present Judge Hon. Donald P. McPherson, of Adams County, said in 1875, that after Lincoln had retired to his room on the night of the 18th he sent for his host and “inquired the order of exercises for the next day and begun to put in writing what he called some stray thoughts to utter on the morrow.” Mr. Wills always believed the address was written in his house and said in 1893, as he had earlier, that the President read “from the same paper on which I had seen him writing it the night before.”

Noah Brooks, a newspaper correspondent at Washington during the war, who was on terms of friendly intimacy, declared that a few days prior to November 19, 1863, Lincoln told him that Mr. Everett had kindly sent him a copy of his oration in order that the same ground might not be gone over by both. The President added, “There is no danger that I shall; my speech is all blocked out—it is very short.”

Ward H. Lamon, a personal friend and chief marshal of the ceremonies at Gettysburg, in his “Recollections of Abraham Lincoln,” states that Mr, Lincoln read to him, a day or two before the dedication, what he claims to have been in substance, if not in exact words, what was afterward printed in his famous Gettysburg speech.

Senator Simon Cameron, also asserted, in a newspaper interview, that he had seen a draft of the address in the White House before the President left Washington.

Such are the divergent testimonies concerning the preparation of the Address. Fortunately there exists documentary evidence to substantiate the statements of Noah Brooks, Ward H. Lamon and Senator Cameron and to establish conclusively that the address was the outcome of deliberation and careful thought.

That is further emphasized in the wording of the formal invitation to the President, which was written on November 2, and specifically stated that “it is the desire that you as Chief Executive of the Nation formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.”

The address has been so long and so generously accepted as the highest expression of American oratory, that it is difficult to realize that it ever had less appreciation than now. The testimonies of those who heard the address delivered differ widely as to the reception given and as to the impression it made.

Bates in his “History of the Battle of Gettysburg,” in 1875, says: “Its delivery was more solemn and impressive than is possible to conceive from its perusal.”

Arnold says: “Before the last sentence was completed, a thrill of feeling like an electric spark pervaded the crowd. As he closed, and the tears and sobs and cheers which expressed the emotions of the people subsided, he turned to Everett and, grasping his hand, said, ‘I congratulate you on your success.’ The orator gratefully replied, 'Ah! Mr. President, how gladly would I exchange all my hundred pages to have been the author of your twenty lines’.” Major Nickerson, Robert Miller and many others commented on a similar vein.

The reports of the address, published November 20, 1863, in the Public Ledger, the North American, the Press, and the Bulletin, of Philadelphia, were furnished by the Associated Press, the text is identical in each. But many variations of this address are to be found even today.

Not until the war itself had ended and the great leader had fallen did the Nation realize that this speech had given to Gettysburg another claim to immortality and to American eloquence its highest glory.

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The Seneca Chief Hiokatoo, “Most Cruel Human Being,” Died November 20, 1811

The second husband of Mary Jemison, the celebrated Indian captive known as “The White Woman of the Genesee” was Chief Hiokatoo, who she describes as the most cruel human being of whom we have any authentic record.

When Mary Jemison was an old woman she related the thrilling narrative of her long life among the Indians. Nothing told by the venerable captive was more thrilling than the life of Hiokatoo, also known as Gardow.

She says: “He was an old man when I first saw him, but he was by no means enervated. During the nearly fifty years that I lived with him, I received, according to Indian customs, all the kindness and attention that was my due as his wife. Although war was his trade from youth till old age and decrepitude stopped his career, he uniformly treated me with tenderness, and never offered an insult.

“I have frequently heard him repeat the history of his life from his childhood; and when he came to that part which related to his actions, his bravery and his valor in war; when he spoke of the ambush, the combat, the spoiling of his enemies and the sacrifice of the victims, his nerves seemed strung with youthful ardor. The warmth of the able warrior seemed to animate his frame and to produce the heated gestures he had practiced in middle age. He was a man of tender feelings to his friends, ready and willing to assist them in distress. Yet, as a warrior, his cruelties to his enemies perhaps were unparalleled, and will not admit of a word of palliation.

“Hiokatoo was born in one of the tribes of the Six Nations that inhabited the banks of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. He belonged to a tribe of the Seneca nation. He was a cousin to Farmer’s Brother, a chief who has been justly celebrated for his worth. Their mothers were sisters, and it was through the influence of Farmer’s Brother that I became the wife of Hiokatoo.

“In early life Hiokatoo showed signs of thirst for blood by attending only to the art of war, in the use of the tomahawk and scalping knife and in practicing cruelties upon everything that chanced to fall into his hands which was susceptible of pain. In that way he learned to use his implements of war effectually and at the same time blunted all those fine feelings and tender sympathies that are naturally excited by seeing or hearing a fellow being in distress.

“He could inflict the most excruciating tortures upon his enemies and prided himself upon his fortitude in having performed the most barbarous ceremonies and tortures without the least degree of pity or remorse. Thus qualified, when very young he was initiated into scenes of carnage by being engaged in the wars that prevailed among the Indian tribes.”

In 1731 he was appointed a runner and assisted in collecting an army to go against the Catawba, Cherokee and other Southern Indians. In one great battle of this war the Northern Indians ambushed their enemies and in two days massacred 1200 of their Southern enemies.

During the French and Indian War Hiokatoo was in every battle that was fought along the Susquehanna and Ohio Rivers. At Braddock’s defeat he took two white prisoners and burned them alive in a fire of his own kindling.

Mary Jemison says he participated in the battle at Fort Freeland, on Warrior Run, Northumberland County, July 28, 1779. She says:

“Hiokatoo was in command of the 300 Seneca Indians, and that Captain John MacDonald commanded more than one hundred British regulars. Hiokatoo, with the help of a few Indians, tomahawked every wounded American while earnestly begging with uplifted hands for quarter.”

In an expedition against Cherry Valley, N. Y., Hiokatoo was second in command. This force of hundreds of Indians was determined upon the total destruction of the whites.

Besides these instances, he was in a number of parties during the Revolution, where he ever acted a conspicuous part.

When Tory Colonel John Butler and Chief Joe Brant were making their terrible incursions against the settlers in lower New York and Pennsylvania they frequently resided with Chief Hiokatoo and his wife, Mary Jemison, at their home in the German Flats.

During General Sullivan’s expedition against the Indians in the summer of 1779, Hiokatoo was most active in his attempt to frustrate his plans. During this march Lieutenant Thomas Boyd was captured by the Indians in ambush. While Chief Little Beard was in command at Boyd’s cruel execution, Hiokatoo was a close second.

Hiokatoo was one of the leading actors in the diabolical scene following the capture of Colonel William Crawford, July, 1782, when he was put to death after the most inhuman barbarities were inflicted upon him.

The cruel Indian chief was assisted in these fiendish scenes by Simon Girty, the white savage renegade and outlaw Tory. Hiokatoo was the leading chief in the battle which destroyed Colonel Crawford’s command and personally directed the colonel’s execution. He painted Dr. Knight’s face black with his own hands and had him conducted to the place where he was to be executed. Dr. Knight escaped during the night and was able to reach his home and give the horrid details of Crawford’s execution.

Chief Hiokatoo served in seventeen campaigns during the period of the Revolution, until his death, which occurred on November 20, 1811, at the advanced age of 103 years.

Hiokatoo was about six feet four inches tall, large boned and rather inclined to leanness. He was very powerful and active for a man of his unusual size, and his wife said of him that he never found an Indian who could keep up with him in a race or throw him wrestling.

His eye was quick and penetrating and his voice was so harsh and powerful that amongst the Indians it always commanded attention. His health was uniformly good, and he was never confined by illness until attacked with tuberculosis when quite 100 years of age.

During his married life as the husband of the White Woman of the Genesee he was the father of four daughters and two sons. The elder of the two sons, John, killed his half-brother, Thomas, in a family feud which had existed between them since John was born, although Thomas was a fine character and John dissolute.

John a few years later, May, 1812, killed his own brother, Jesse, in a drunken frenzy, inflicting no less than eighteen wounds with a knife, each so deep that it would have been fatal. Jesse was twenty-seven years old and had been more like his mother than the other children. He shunned the Indian frolics, dressed and acted more like a white man and was sober and industrious.

Thus we see the cruelty of old Chief Hiokatoo inherited by his own son and inflicted upon his own blood in a most fiendish manner.

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Delegates to the Constitutional Convention Chosen November 21, 1789

On November 5, 1788, General Thomas Mifflin succeeded Dr. Benjamin Franklin as president of the Supreme Executive Council. Dr. Franklin was now eighty-two years old and desired to be relieved of so exacting a responsibility and declined the re-election, which was assured him. At the same time George Ross, of Lancaster, was elected vice president.

The first election for electors of President and Vice President of the United States, under the new Constitution was held January 7, 1789. The Federal ticket was successful. The ten votes of Pennsylvania were given to General George Washington as President, and eight votes for John Adams, and two for John Hancock, for Vice President.

The National Government, feeble at first, had no buildings and no home. During seven years of Washington’s term as President the capital was at Philadelphia. Congress met at Sixth and Chestnut Streets. The Supreme Court met at Fifth and Chestnut Streets. The President lived on Market Street below Sixth Street. The Government of the United States has never paid the rent for these public buildings and in its infancy and weakness, Pennsylvania gave our National Government a home without compensation therefor.

The Constitution of Pennsylvania as adopted in 1776, had long since proved inadequate for the requirements of a useful and effective government, and its revision was demanded. The Assembly, March 24, 1789, adopted resolutions recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly. In September following the Assembly adopted resolutions for calling a convention.

At the election in October delegates were chosen and on November 21, 1789, the convention assembled in Philadelphia, and organized with the election of General Thomas Mifflin, Chief Executive of the State, as President of the convention. The sessions of the convention were long and tedious, and an adjournment was had for a time in 1790, but their labors were concluded, and the new Constitution adopted September 2, 1790.

The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches of the Government. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, a Senate being created. The Supreme Executive Council was abolished. A Governor was directed to be elected, to whom the administration of affairs was to be intrusted.

The former judicial system was continued, excepting that the Judges of the higher courts were to be appointed during good behavior instead of for seven years. The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old provincial provision copied into the first Constitution respecting freedom of worship, rights of conscience and exemptions from compulsory contribution for the support of any ministry.

The recognition of God and of a future state of rewards and punishments was still demanded of all holding office, but a belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not included. The Council of Censors ceased to have authority, and Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which the new Federal Government was to be administered.

The first election held in Pennsylvania under the new Constitution of the Commonwealth—that of 1790—resulted in the election of General Thomas Mifflin, then president of the Supreme Executive Council, who had presided at the forming of the new instrument. Mifflin had little or no opposition. His election was evident from the start, for there were no real issues. The result turned chiefly on his better-known personal qualities. Parties had not yet become crystallized with definite issues.

General Arthur St. Clair, his opponent, was highly esteemed as a citizen and brilliant soldier, but the popularity of Mifflin carried him in triumph, and for three terms he was chosen to the chief magistracy of Pennsylvania. His success was his own; he builded his own house.

Governor Mifflin’s chief political adviser was Alexander J. Dallas, who was appointed to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth. That was a wise selection. Dallas was young, but brilliant and deeply interested in politics. He knew the leading men of the State and maintained a close relationship with them.

With the new Constitution functioning, the course of legislation turned in various channels. The promotion of internal improvements which have since become so important in Pennsylvania, and other enterprises of a less public character, soon demanded the attention of the General Assembly.

One of the first measures was that urged by the Society for the Improvement of Roads and Canals, and which contemplated the construction of highways and artificial waterways at the expense of the State. This suggestion aroused such a storm of opposition that the Legislature was compelled to reject the original proposition and to pass bills providing only partial and doubtful encouragement for their establishment by private enterprise.

A long and valuable report was made February 19, 1791, which embodied the results of examinations made previously. The committee reported that the Delaware River could be made an important channel for the trade of New York by the construction of a portage canal of nineteen miles; that a safe boat and raft navigation might be made to the northern boundary of the State for £25,000. They gave an estimate of the grain which was brought down the Susquehanna and the Juniata and they reported on the probable trade along the Allegheny River and how it could be increased by canals at certain places.

They recommended that the Governor should issue a proclamation inviting proposals for building canals and locks in and near the waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla; for a canal from Frankstown to Poplar Run, and for clearing the Susquehanna from Wright’s Ferry to Havre de Grace. They also wanted proposals for a turnpike from Philadelphia through Lancaster to the Susquehanna and for other roads throughout the State.

A bill was passed April 6, 1792, and in August Governor Mifflin apprised the Legislature that he had made contracts for the improvements of certain streams, but that “several propositions had not yet met with persons willing to undertake the specified work.”

During the year 1793 the Bank of Pennsylvania was incorporated by the Legislature, the opinion being expressed that it would “promote the regular, permanent and successful operations of the finances of the State and be productive of great benefit to trade and industry in general.”

The State subscribed for one-third of the entire stock and branches were established at Lancaster, Harrisburg, Reading, Easton and Pittsburgh. These were discontinued in 1810; in 1843 the State sold its stock, and with the great financial crisis of 1857 the Bank of Pennsylvania sank in ruin.

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Joe Disberry, Remarkable Thief, First Arrested November 22, 1783

About the close of the Revolutionary War a notorious character named Disberry lived between Selinsgrove and Sunbury. He was possessed of great physical strength and had few superiors in running, jumping and skating. But in thieving and lying he was considered a match for the prince of darkness himself.

So bold was he that, according to reminiscences preserved by early settlers, he was known to enter the kitchen of a dwelling when the family were in bed, start up a fire, cook a meal and eat at his leisure. If disturbed in this agreeable occupation he relied on his swiftness of foot to escape.

At length Joe became so notorious on account of his thieving propensities that the whole settlement was up in arms against him, and he was finally arrested November 22, 1783, and imprisoned in the jail at Sunbury. But as the jail—which was the first one built in Northumberland County—was not secure he quickly escaped, and Sheriff Antes offered a reward for his apprehension.

On another occasion Disberry took refuge on the “Isle of Que” and concealed himself in a thicket of bushes, where he fancied himself secure. He might have remained undiscovered and escaped but for his inordinate love of perpetrating jokes.

Lying on the watch near the road cut through the thicket Joe heard the footsteps of a horse and, slyly peeping from his covert, espied the Sheriff’s wife approaching on horseback. He at once stepped into the road and, pulling off his hat, made a polite bow, when he suddenly disappeared in the bushes. The lady hurried to Selinsgrove and gave the alarm.

A party headed by George Kremer was immediately formed and went to the island in pursuit of Joe. Guided by the lady’s instructions, Kremer went to the spot and soon had the culprit in custody. He was taken back to jail, tried and sentenced, and his sentence is one of the strangest found in the annals of criminal history of Pennsylvania.

In the Quarter Sessions docket of Northumberland County the record shows that Joe Disberry was arraigned on the charge of felony, tried and found guilty. The jury was composed as follows: Peter Hosterman, Adam Grove, George Shaffer, Philip Frick, John Harrison, Michael Grove, William Clark, Adam Christ, Robert Irwin, Paul Baldy, John Shaffer, Alexander McGrady. The sentence of the Court, which still stands out boldly on the record, was as follows:

“Judgment that the said Joseph Disberry receive thirty-nine lashes between the hours of 8 and 9 o’clock tomorrow; to stand in the pillory one hour; to have his ears cut off and nailed to the post; to return the property stolen or the value thereof; remain in prison three months; pay a fine of £30 to the honorable the president of this State for the support of the Government, and stand convicted until fine, fees, etc., are paid.”

This remarkable sentence shows the estimate that was put on Joe as a criminal. The whipping post and pillory stood in the public square in Sunbury.

Colonel John Henry Antes was the Sheriff at that time and directed the whipping, if he did not do it himself.

There is no record to show who did the ear chopping, but as the surgical operation fell to the Sheriff also, it is probable that he did it.

John Buyers was the president of the court at that time, assisted by associates, and the duty of imposing the sentence fell on him. The Court met, according to the entry in the docket on the fourth Tuesday of August, 1784, and as the trial took place at once, the sentence was carried out on Wednesday.

Among the jurors were several men who were prominent as Indian fighters and participants in the war for liberty.

Peter Hosterman, foreman, was active as a militia officer and had command of a body of militia to watch and repel savage attacks.

Adam and Michael Grove were famous as Indian scouts, and the latter only a short time before he served on this jury, was one of a company that pursued a party of marauding Indians up the Sinnemahoning. Discovering their camp they stealthily approached at night, rushed upon them, surprised them, captured their arms and killed several. The balance escaped. The Grove brothers then lived in Buffalo Valley, now Union County.

This severe sentence, it seems, did not cure Joe Disberry of his thieving propensities, for the Quarter Sessions docket for August term, 1798 (Northumberland County), shows that he was arraigned and tried on three indictments for burglarizing the houses of Philip Bower, Peter Jones and Isaiah Willits, and convicted on each.

The jurors who found him guilty on each count were John Clark, John Metzgar, John Friesbach, George Clark, John Armstrong, John Cochran, Thomas Murray, Christian Gettig, John Dewart, George Bright, Peter Disher and Hamelius Lomison.

Judge Jacob Rush was President Judge assisted by Captain William Wilson, John McPherson, Thomas Strawbridge and Colonel William Cooke as associates. Robert Irwin was high sheriff of the county. Judge Rush, on sentencing Disberry, said:

“That the prisoner, Joseph Disberry, forfeit all and singular his goods and chattels, lands and tenements, to and for the use of the Commonwealth, and undergo a servitude of seven years for the burglary committed in the house of Peter Bower, and be committed to the house of correction, pay the cost of prosecution, &c.”

The Court then sentenced him on the two other indictments, seven years each. Joe, who was listening very attentively remarked rather jocosely: “Why, Your Honor, three sevens make twenty-one!”

Judge Rush then continued: “That the defendant be conveyed to the gaol and penitentiary house of the city of Philadelphia to undergo the servitude aforesaid for the term of twenty-one years. And that the said Joe Disberry be kept for the space of two years in solitary cells out of the term of twenty-one years.”

This remarkable criminal served his long sentence and returned in 1819 to his old haunts, about Sunbury and the Selinsgrove, an aged man, but as merry as a cricket. Being a natural-born thief, he could not resist the temptation to steal everything upon which he could lay his hands.

The date of his death is unknown. But the late Dr. Robert Harris Awl, of Sunbury, said that some time after his return from serving his long sentence, he went one night to a mill in Union County to steal flour and falling through a hatchway sustained injuries which resulted in his death. It is said that when they came to bury him, the owner of the mill insisted that he should be buried deep. “For,” said he, “if it is not done he will return and steal mill, dam and all!”

It is not positively known whence this remarkable man came. Tradition says that he was a native of Connecticut. In that event he might have been among the emigrants to Wyoming, but on account of his evil propensities was banished to Sunbury as a punishment to Dr. Plunket and his people, for whom the Wyomingites bore no love. Neither is it known whether he had any family or property. His criminal record, however, would furnish material enough for a first-class romance.

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Border Invasion by Thomas Cresap Ceased After His Arrest, November 23, 1736

There was great conflict between the several Lords Baltimore, Proprietaries of Maryland, and the Penns, Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, over the boundary of their respective provinces, which lasted from the time William Penn first received his grant until the Mason and Dixon boundary line was surveyed in 1763–67.

Conestoga Township, in what is now Lancaster County, was originally organized about 1712. Prior to 1719 it was divided into East and West Conestoga. The western boundaries of the latter were not defined until 1722, when Donegal Township was erected and Chicques Creek was made its eastern boundary. Pequea Township seems to have been to the northeast of Conestoga, with not very well defined boundaries, and was probably erected about the year 1720.

Lord Baltimore selected a pliant and bold adventurer for his agent in this disputed territory named Thomas Cresap, aged twenty-six years, a carpenter by occupation, and in religious faith a Roman Catholic, same as the Calverts of Maryland. He was to go to Conejohela Valley and settle, where he built a cabin and established a ferry, on March 16, 1730, near James Patterson’s land.

In a joint statement made by James Patterson to Justices John Wright and Samuel Blunston they issued a warrant and wrote to Governor Patrick Gordon, October 30, 1732, and said:

“About two years Since, Thomas Cresap, and some other people of Loose Morals and Turbulent Spirits, Came and disturbed the Indians, our friends and Allies, who were peaceably Settled on those lands from when the said Parnel and others had been removed, Burnt their Cabbins, and destroyed their goods, And with much threatening and Ill-usage, drove them away, and by pretending to be under the Maryland government, sought to Evade ours. Thus they proceeded to play booty. Disturbing the Peace of the Government, Carrying people out of the Province by Violence, Taking away the guns from our friends, the Indians, Tying and making them Prisoners without any offence given; and threatening all who should Oppose them; And by Underhand and Unfair practices, Endeavoring to Alienate the minds of the Inhabitants of this Province, and Draw them from Obedience to their party. Their Insolence Increasing, they killed the horses of Such of our people whose trade with the Indians made it Necessary to Keep them on that Side of the river, for Carrying their Goods and Skins; assaulted those who were sent to look after them.”

Cresap’s house was a convenient refuge for runaway servants and debtors. Samuel Chance, a runaway debtor of Edward Cartlidge, an Indian trader who lived in the Manor, took up his abode with Cresap and assisted him to row his ferryboat. A son of Cartlidge laid a plan to capture Chance by decoying him to the east side of the river.

Cresap and Chance got into their boat and rowed over to the Blue Rock, where they found Edward Beddock, Rice Morgan, and a Negro servant of Mr. Cartlidge. After being taken into the boat, and rowed out into the stream a few yards, Beddock and Morgan threw Cresap into the river, and took Chance to shore with them. Cresap made his escape to an island nearby, where he remained until after dark, when he was discovered by an Indian and rescued.

Cresap made complaint to the Maryland authorities, and a sharp correspondence between the Governors of the two Provinces resulted.

In the fall of 1733, Cresap came up to Wright’s Ferry and commenced to build boats and erect a house. Wright and Blunston had placed a number of men in the ferryhouse, who sallied forth and took Cresap’s men prisoners.

John Emerson, a lawyer, who lived in Lancaster, was appointed ranger and keeper of the Conestoga Manor. He also owned a ferry at Blue Rock. On January 29, 1734, accompanied by Knowles Daunt and five others, Emerson went down to Cresap’s house to arrest him. Cresap shot Daunt in the leg, from the effects of which he died. They failed to capture Cresap and he afterward made frequent raids into Kreitz Valley with bands of armed men.

In July, 1735, when John Wright was harvesting his grain, Cresap appeared with twenty men, women and lads, armed with guns, swords, pistols, blunderbusses and drums beating.

Wright approached Cresap and demanded the reason of their military display. Cresap replied that they came to fight the Pennsylvanians, drew his sword and aimed his pistol at Wright’s breast, who, by his courage, completely cowed Cresap and captured his wagons. Wright and his men then made a fort of the ferryhouse on the west side of the river.

Cresap reported these doings to Governor Ogle, who ordered out the Maryland militia. Wright learned of this martial movement and engaged Benjamin Chambers to ascertain their designs. Chambers was suspected as a spy and arrested, but escaped to Wright’s Ferry and made a full report. He then went to Donegal and collected a number of Scotch-Irish, and marched them to Wright’s Ferry, where they repelled two or three hundred Marylanders, under Colonel Hall.

Cresap built a fort from which bands of armed men went out to raid plantations, destroy houses and take the settlers prisoners to Maryland. Joshua Minshal and John Wright, Jr., were the only two men left in Kreitz’s Valley.

Cresap had surveyed forty tracts of land, which were owned by Germans. This state of affairs became so critical that Provincial Council concluded to have Cresap arrested for the murder of Knowles Daunt.

On November 23, 1736, a warrant was placed in the hands of Sheriff Samuel Smith, who lived at Donegal. He called upon John Kelley, Benjamin Sterratt, Arthur Buchanan, Samuel Scott, David Priest, John Sterratt, John Galbraith, James, John and Alexander Mitchell, James Allison and nineteen others to assist him.

On the night of November 24, 1736, they surrounded Cresap’s house, in which he had a number of armed men, who fired upon Sheriff Smith and his party. Laughlin Malone, of Cresap’s party, was killed, and John Copper, of the Sheriff’s party, was wounded.

Finding that Cresap would not surrender, the Sheriff set his house on fire, when Cresap attempted to escape, but was overpowered and carried in triumph to Philadelphia and placed in prison.

Colonel Hall and Captain Higgenbotham came to Cresap’s fort with 300 men, and at different times marched through the valley in martial array. In January, 1737, a company attacked these Marylanders in Cresap’s fort, but were repulsed with the loss of eight men.

The Governor of Maryland offered £100 reward for the arrest of John Wright, Samuel Blunston, Sheriff Samuel Smith, John Ross, Michael Tanner, Joshua Minshal and Charles Jones. The last three persons were arrested and taken to Annapolis jail.

The Marylanders were finally driven back to their State, and all efforts to colonize that part of Pennsylvania with Marylanders was abandoned in 1738, and the Cresap invasions into Pennsylvania ceased.

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Moravians Slaughtered in Indian Village of Gnadenhutten, November 24, 1755

The first settlement in what is now Carbon County was made by the Moravian missionaries in the year 1746.

The converted Mohican Indians having been driven out of Shekomeko, N. Y., near the border of Connecticut, and from Pochgatgach, in the latter State, found an asylum for a short time at Friedenshutten, near Bethlehem.

The missionaries considered it unwise to maintain a large Indian congregation so near Bethlehem, and they purchased two hundred acres on the north side of Mahoning Creek, about a half mile above its junction with the Lehigh. Here the Indian town of Gnadenhutten became a regular fixture, and in it each Indian family possessed its own lot of ground.

The paths to Wyoming and other Indian towns passed through the settlement. A church stood in the valley, the Indian houses formed a crescent upon the higher ground, and on the open end stood the home of the missionary and the burying ground.

In September, 1749, Baron John de Watteville, a noted bishop of the Moravian Brethren, went to Gnadenhutten and laid the foundation of a new church, replacing the one built in 1746, which was too small for the growing congregation, which then consisted of 500 Indians.

About this time Reverend David Brainerd and several Indian converts visited Gnadenhutten. The congregation continued in this pleasing and regular state until 1754.

The Delaware and Shawnee on the Susquehanna began to waver in their allegiance to the English. They were preparing to take up the hatchet on the side of the French, and it became a matter of concern to them to withdraw their Indian brethren in the Moravian settlements beyond the reach of the whites, that the hostile savages might more freely descend upon the white settlements.

The Christian Indians for some time resolutely refused to move to Wyoming or Shamokin. At length, however, a considerable part of them were seduced by the influence of the Delaware King Tedyuskung to move.

The Mohicans who remained were joined by other Christian Delaware and soon the land upon which they lived became so impoverished that the inhabitants of Gnadenhutten removed to the north side of the Lehigh River.

The dwellings were removed and a new chapel built in June, 1754. This place was called New Gnadenhutten, and stood where the borough of Weissport now stands.

In New Gnadenhutten the Mohican lived on one side of the street, the Delaware on the opposite side. The cultivation was under the direct charge of the Moravian missionaries.

The Indians who had gone over to the French interests became incensed that any of the Moravian converts among their people should choose to remain at Gnadenhutten, and they determined to cut off the settlement.

After Braddock’s defeat, July, 1755, the whole frontier was open to the inroads of the savage foe. Every day disclosed new scenes of barbarity committed by the Indians. The whole country was in terror; the neighbors of the brethren in Gnadenhutten forsook their dwellings and fled, but the brethren covenanted together to remain undaunted in the place they believed Providence had allotted them.

In that decision they neglected no caution whatever. But it was not to be as the Moravians had planned.

Late in the evening of November 24, 1755, the mission house on the Mahoning was attacked by the French Indians, the house burned to the ground and eleven of the inhabitants murdered.

The attack was made while the family was at supper. The uncommon barking of the dogs was noticed, upon which Brother Senseman went out to the back door to ascertain what was the matter. The report of a gun was heard, when several of the family rushed to the open door, where they were confronted with the Indians who stood with their firearms pointed toward the door, who simultaneously fired upon the Moravians.

Martin Nitschmann was instantly killed, his wife and several others were wounded, but were able to flee with the rest of the household upstairs into the garret, where they barricaded the door with bedsteads. Brother Partsch escaped by jumping out of a rear window. Brother Worbass, who was ill in bed in an adjoining house, also escaped by a window, although the savages had placed a guard before his door.

The savages pursued those who had taken refuge in the garret and finding the door too strongly secured, they set fire to the house. A lad, named Sturgis, jumped from the blazing roof and escaped, but not before he was severely burned by the flames and shot in the face in making his escape.

Soon as Sturgis was seen to get away, Sister Partsch took courage and jumped from the burning roof, and escaped unhurt. Brother Fabricius attempted to flee in the same manner, but was observed by the Indians and twice wounded and captured. He was immediately tomahawked and scalped. The rest of the household were all burnt alive.

Brother Senseman witnessed his wife being consumed by the flames. The scene was terrible to behold.

Soon as the house was destroyed the savages set fire to the barns and stables, by which all the corn, hay and cattle were destroyed.

The Indians then divided the spoils, soaked some bread in milk, made a hearty meal, and departed—all this being observed by Sister Partsch looking on from her hiding place behind a tree upon a hill near the house.

This melancholy event proved to be the delivery of the Indian converts at Gnadenhutten; for upon the first crack of the guns and seeing the flames, they sensed the cause and would have rushed to the defense of the Moravians had not a missionary advised them to the contrary. Instead they all fled to the woods, and in a few minutes, Gnadenhutten was cleared of everything worth while.

Reverend David Zeisberger, who had just arrived at Gnadenhutten from Bethlehem, hastened back to give notice of this terrible event to a body of English militia which had marched within five miles of the spot, but they did not venture to pursue the savages in the dark.

The fugitive congregation arrived safely at Bethlehem. After the French and Indians had retired, the remains of those killed on the Mahoning were carefully collected from the ruins and solemnly interred.

A broad slab of marble placed there in 1788, now marks the grave, which is situated on the hill a short distance from Lehighton, and a little north of a small hamlet which occupies the site of the ancient missionary village. The following is the inscription on the marble:

“To the memory of Gottleib and Joanna Anders, with their child, Christiana; Martin and Susanna Nitschmann, Anna Catherine Senseman, John Gattenmeyer, George Fabricius, clerk; George Schweigert and Martin Presser, who lived here at Gnadenhutten unto the Lord, and lost their lives in a surprise from Indian warriors, November the 24th, 1755.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints—Psalms cxvi, 15.”

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General Forbes Invested Fort Duquesne and Named It Pittsburgh, November 25, 1758

After the humiliating defeat of Major Grant, September 14, 1758, when he disobeyed his orders and attacked the French and Indians at Fort Duquesne and was himself taken prisoner, the French, exulting over their unlooked-for victory, believed that a successful attack could now be made upon the main army of General John Forbes in camp at Loyalhanna. By this bold stroke, in which they would use their entire force, they could, in the discomfiture of the English, end all hostilities, as they had done in the fateful defeat of Braddock.

General Forbes was wiser than his predecessor, and better appreciated the talents and experience of Colonel George Washington, and did not fail to seek his counsel.

General Forbes had joined Colonel Henry Bouquet at Loyalhanna and determined to advance upon Fort Duquesne. Washington drew up the plan, illustrating the proper disposition of the troops in the line of march, so the English would not again be overwhelmed by a surprise attack.

At this moment the forces of the French and their Indian allies rushed through the woods toward Loyalhanna, dragging some light cannon with them. They reached their objective before the British army had moved. An attack was made and long sustained, but the English, under General Forbes, repulsed the French, who returned to Fort Duquesne.

The battle of Loyalhanna has never been given its proper place in history for it was a noteworthy affair, important in its consequences.

The French had beaten Braddock by the aid of their Indian allies, and they hoped to defeat Forbes in the same way, but Colonel Bouquet had adopted the provincial practice of fighting Indians, which was the means of bringing them to a realization of their inability to conquer the English, and they abandoned hopes of success and quit the French.

The strength of the French garrison in Fort Duquesne in September, 1758, was 4000 troops, but by October this number was reduced to less than 2000, including the Indians. On September 22, Christian Frederic Post, the noted Moravian missionary and friend of the English, who had visited the garrison, reported its strength as 1400, but added he believed “there would be full 3000 French and Indians, almost all Canadians, who would be ready to meet the army under Forbes.”

The militia of Louisiana and Illinois left the fort early in November and went home. The Indians of Detroit and the Wabash country would remain no longer, and, what was even worse, the supplies destined for Port Duquesne had been destroyed by Bradstreet at Fort Frontenac. Hence M. de Ligneris, the commandant, was compelled by prospective starvation to dismiss the greater part of his force, and await the approach of the English with those that remained.

The French had always depended on the aid of the Indians to hold this fort. But it was the custom of the Indians after a battle, whether successful or not, to go home.

Colonel James Smith, at that time a prisoner who had been adopted into one of the tribes, in his very valuable narrative, says that after the defeat of Major Grant the Indians held a council, in which their opinions were divided. Some believed General Forbes would now turn back and go home the way he came, as Dunbar had done after the Braddock defeat; others supposed he would press forward and make the attack. The French urged the Indians to remain, but many returned to their squaws, children and hunting.

These things were unknown to the English. But when the actual condition of affairs in Fort Duquesne reached General Forbes, he concluded, late as it was, to advance.

On November 13 Colonel John Armstrong with one thousand men was sent forward to assist Colonel Washington in opening the road, and four days later General Forbes pressed forward. He met with no opposition, but the extremely disagreeable weather impeded his progress. The wagons and all the artillery, except a few light pieces, were left behind.

The force consisted of 2500 picked men, who marched without shelter or baggage and burdened only with knapsack and blankets. There were in addition the pioneers, wagoners and provincials engaged to work on the roads. Friendly Indians were kept out as scouts, and the greatest vigilance was exercised to avoid surprise. Washington and Armstrong opened the way to within a day’s march of the fort.

On the evening of November 24, the army encamped among the hills of Turtle Creek. That night they were informed by an Indian scout that he had discovered a cloud of smoke above the fort and soon after another scout came with the certain intelligence that the fort was burned and abandoned by the enemy. A troop of horse was sent forward immediately to extinguish the fire. At midnight the men on guard heard a dull and heavy booming over the western woods.

In the morning the march was resumed, the strong advance guard leading the column. Forbes came next, carried in his litter, as he was quite ill. The troops followed in three parallel columns, the Highlanders, under Montgomery, in the center, the Royal Americans on the right and the provincials on the left under Colonels Bouquet and Washington. It was dusk when they emerged upon the open plain and saw Fort Duquesne before them, with the background of wintry hills beyond the Monongahela and Allegheny.

When the fort was invested on November 25 it presented a sorry appearance. It had consisted of two fortifications, about 200 yards apart. One, built with immense labor, was small but strong; the other stood on the bank of the Allegheny, in form of a parallelogram, but weaker than the other. There were about thirty chimneys standing, the houses being destroyed by fire.

The French had also blown up one of the magazines, but in the other was found sixteen barrels of ammunition, a large quantity of iron, gun barrels, guns and a cartload of scalping knives. It has never been made known if they buried their cannon in the river or carried them away in their hasty retreat.

A boy twelve years old who had been an Indian prisoner two years escaped during the retreat and told General Forbes that the French had carried a large quantity of wood into the fort and that they burned five of the prisoners they took at Major Grant’s defeat on the parade and delivered the others to the Indians, who tomahawked the men on the spot.

There were many dead bodies found within a short distance of the fort, and many evidences of French inhumanity.

The Indians remaining about the fort were only too eager to treat with General Forbes.

Bancroft says: “Armstrong’s own hand raised the British flag on the ruined bastions of the fortress. As the banner of England floated over the waters the place, at the suggestion of Forbes, was with one voice called Pittsburgh.”

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Captain James Smith, of the “Black Boys,” Born in Chester County, November 26, 1737

One of the first captives of the French and Indian War in 1755 was James Smith, of the Conococheague frontier, in what is now Franklin County.

He survived a long captivity and afterward wrote a remarkable account of his experiences which were published in Archibald Loudon’s “Indian Narratives.”

He was born in Chester County November 26, 1737, and spent his early youth in that neighborhood. In 1755 he was living along the frontier in the vicinity of McDowell’s Mill, in present Franklin County, where he was employed by his brother William, who was a commissioner to build a road from the above mill to the Three Forks of the Youghiogheny, over which it was intended to transport supplies for General Braddock.

When the builders reached the base of the Alleghenies a storehouse for supplies was placed in charge of Robert McCoy. The supply of meat was almost exhausted and McCoy dispatched young Smith to meet the wagons, bringing a fresh supply, and hurry along the cattle and provisions.

Before reaching the Juniata Smith met Arnold Vigorus, who advised him that the wagons were near at hand. Smith then started back with Vigorus, but when the wagons arrived at McCoy’s the wagoners reported they had seen nothing of Smith or his companion.

McCoy sent out a searching party, who soon found the boy’s hat and Vigorus’s gun, and a short distance away his scalped body.

James Smith was a captive for five years and experienced a most varied and severe ordeal.

He effected his escape and returned to the Conococheague in 1760. As his family and friends believed him dead, their surprise over his return was the greater and even his gait and manners of the Indians did not lessen their joy in his return.

Smith learned that the sweetheart of his boyhood, believing him long since dead, had married only three days before his return, when his thought was to claim her.

Smith had no sooner returned to his home than he organized a company of Indian fighters, who wore Indian clothes, and were trained to Indian methods. This company soon became known as the “Black Boys,” because they painted their faces in the Indian colors—red and black. Smith was the captain.

During the Pontiac War these “Black Boys” were put under regular pay, and two other Indian captives served as Captain Smith’s lieutenants. This company rendered effective service in the Cumberland Valley.

As Smith had served with Colonel John Armstrong and Colonel Henry Bouquet, he had become familiar with the attitude of the Provincial authorities in their treatment of the Indians.

It so happened that one day he overheard an interview in the Great Cove which revealed the arrogance of the traders and the unfairness of those at the seat of government. He took matters in his own hands, and determined food, clothing and other goods should not be sent to the Western Indians if he could prevent it.

Captain Smith assembled ten of his command. They painted their faces in the Indian fashion and waylaid a pack train at Sideling Hill, an episode in frontier history which has been misunderstood and misrepresented in history.

The engagement was brief and decisive. The horses fell one after the other until the drivers were compelled to surrender.

The goods were assembled on one side, and the drivers led off some distance, under guard. The “Black Boys” examined the contents of the packs, and, as they suspected, found them to consist of blankets, shirts, vermilion, lead, beads, wampum, tomahawks, scalping-knifes, etc. The whole lot was burned.

The English soldiers thought the “Black Boys” were rioters, but the inhabitants viewed their acts with general satisfaction.

Lieutenant Grant attempted to effect the arrest of Captain Smith and his command, but the latter soon raised a force of 300 frontiersmen and promptly captured two British soldiers of the garrison at Fort Loudoun for every one of the “Black Boys” they held as prisoners.

The result of this action was that very few pack trains passed through that valley carrying goods to the Indians along the Ohio.

In 1769, when the Indians became troublesome in the vicinity of Fort Bedford, a new company of “Black Boys” was organized, but members were arrested and confined in irons, as they were not understood.

Captain Smith determined to release the men, and by a ruse managed to apprize the British of his approach and intended attack, which was to occur at midday. But at dawn his command was under the bank of the Juniata awaiting word from William Thompson who had entered the fort as a spy.

At the given signal the little band rushed the fort and secured the arms which were stocked in the center of the parade.

The prisoners were released and the first British fort in America was then and there captured by what they termed “American rebels.”

Captain Smith was afterward arrested in Bedford and confined in jail, on a trumped up charge of murder.

His “Black Boys” would have rescued him but Smith was conscious of his innocence and stood trial. In spite of the fact they desired it otherwise he was acquitted.

Smith afterwards became a valued officer in the Revolution, attaining the rank of colonel, and was several terms in the General Assembly and a most distinguished citizen.

After the Revolution Colonel Smith removed to Kentucky where he again earned an enviable reputation as an able member of the Legislature of that State.

He died there in 1812.

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Pioneer Postoffice of Pennsylvania Established in Philadelphia, November

27, 1700

In July, 1683, a post was established from Philadelphia to Maryland by William Penn. Henry Waldy, of Tacony, had authority to run the post and supply the passengers with horses.

The rates of postage were: Letters from the Falls to Philadelphia, three pence; to Chester, five pence; to New Castle, seven pence; to Maryland, nine pence; from Philadelphia to Chester, two pence; to New Castle, four pence; to Maryland, six pence. It went once a week, notice having been placed on the meeting-house door and at other public places. Communication was frequent with Manhattan and New York, the road starting on the eastern side of the Delaware at about Bordentown, New Jersey.

But the pioneer postoffice in the Province of Pennsylvania was established in Philadelphia under an act of Assembly, November 27, 1700.

The act by which this postoffice was established recited that “Whereas, The King and the late Queen Mary, by their royal letters patent under the great seal of England, bearing date the seventeenth day of February, which was in the year one thousand and six hundred and ninety-one, did grant Thomas Neal, Esquire, his executors, administrators and assigns, full power and authority to erect, settle, establish within the King’s colonies and plantations in America, one or more office or offices for receiving and dispatching of letters and packets by post, and to receive, send and deliver the same, under such rates and sums of money, as shall be agreeable to the rates established by act of Parliament in England, or as the planters and others should agree to give on the first settlement, to have, hold and enjoy the same for a term of twenty-one years, with and under such powers, limitations and conditions as in and by the said letters patent may more fully appear.

“And whereas, The King’s Postmaster General of England, and at the request, desire and nomination of the said Thomas Neale, hath deputed Andrew Hamilton, Esquire, for such time and under such conditions as is his deputation is for that purpose mentioned to govern and manage the said General Post Office for and throughout all the King’s plantations and colonies in the mainland or continent of America and the islands adjacent thereto, and in and by the said deputation may more fully appear.

“And whereas, The said Andrew Hamilton hath, by and with the good liking and approbation of the Post Master General of England made application to the proprietary and Governor of this Province and Territories and freemen thereof convened in General Assembly, that they would ascertain and establish such rates and sums of money upon letters and packets going by post as may be an effectual encouragement for carrying on and maintaining a general post, and the proprietary and Governor and Freemen in General Assembly met, considering that maintaining of mutual and speedy correspondencies is very beneficial to the King and his subjects, and a great encouragement to trade, and that the same is best carried on and managed by public post, as well as for the preventing of inconveniences which heretofore have happened for want thereof, as for a certain, safe and speedy dispatch, carrying and recarrying of all letters and packets of letters by post to and from all parts and places within the continent of America and several parts of Europe, and that the well ordering thereof is matter of general concernment and of great advantage, and being willing to encourage such a public benefit.

“Section 1. Have therefore enacted and be it enacted, etc. That there be from henceforth one general letter office erected and established within the town of Philadelphia, from whence all letters and packets whatsoever may be with speed and expedition sent into any part of the neighboring Colonies and plantations on the mainland and continent of America, or into any other of the King’s kingdoms or dominions, or unto any kingdom or country beyond the seas; at which said office all returns and answers may likewise be received, etc.”

Thus Governor Andrew Hamilton, of New Jersey, first devised the postoffice scheme for America, for which he obtained a patent, and the profits accruing. He afterwards sold it to the Crown.

The Assembly appropriated £20 yearly as a salary to Andrew Hamilton, “the postmaster of North America under the Crown.”

Thus was the postal system established, and the postmaster empowered to deliver mail to every corner of the Western World.

The first list of letters advertised appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette, March 21, 1738. It contained about 150 names of all the letters collected and uncalled for in the previous six months, mostly for non-residents.

In July, 1762, the following advertisement appeared in Bradford’s Journal:

“The lad who was lately employed at the Postoffice as penny post having run away, the gentlemen who expect letters are requested to call for them until a suitable person can be procured to carry them. William Dunlap.”

In November, 1756, the first stage was established between New York and Philadelphia by John Butler. The Philadelphia terminal was at the sign of the Death of the Fox in Strawberry Alley. It was to go via Trenton and Perth Amboy, and to arrive in New York in three days. Butler was started in business by the old Hunting Club, to which he had been huntsman and keeper of the kennels.

In 1765 a line of stage vessels and wagons was established between Philadelphia and Baltimore, via Christiana and Frenchtown on the Elk River. These trips were made weekly.

In 1773, Messrs. C. Bessonett & Co., of Bristol, started a stage coach line which made the trip to New York in two days and charged $4 fare.

The old Postoffice was afterwards the Congress Hall Hotel. It was kept by Robert Patton, postmaster from 1791 to 1814.

The first postmaster of Philadelphia who received a newspaper notice as such was Peter Baynton in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of November 27, 1776.

When the Government was removed from New York to Philadelphia in 1791 the departments were located in private homes, and the “General Postoffice was on the east side of Water Street, a few doors below High Street.”

An early pioneer mail route through the wilderness, across the State was over the old State road. It was established in 1805. The mail was carried on horseback from Bellefonte to Meadville. The first contractor was James Randolph, of Meadville, the second was Hamilton, of Bellefonte.

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Conway Cabal Started in Reading by General Mifflin on November 28, 1777

When the British marched triumphantly into Philadelphia there was gloom over America such as to make people lose all confidence in General Washington, the commander-in-chief, and as General Gates had but recently, on October 19, 1777, achieved such a brilliant victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga, the one event to bring joy to their hearts, it was but natural to suggest that Gates was the more competent. Many letters appeared in the public press favoring a change of commanders and Pennsylvanians were clamorous for the retaking of Philadelphia.

General Conway had written, “Heaven has been determined to save—your country or a weak general and bad counselors would have ruined it.” The words reached Washington’s ears, and he let Conway know the fact. A personal interview ensued, but Conway refused to apologize, and he boastfully told General Mifflin of his interview with the commander-in-chief. He was commended by Gates, Mifflin and others.

The Gates faction in Congress procured Conway’s appointment as inspector general of the Army and made him independent of the chief.

General Thomas Mifflin at this time was head of the Board of War, but on November 27 Gates became its president and the following day Mifflin declared to Gates that Conway’s letter was a “collection of just sentiments.” This produced what has been known in history as the “Conway Cabal.”

The principal events which led up to this cabal transpired in Reading, which during the British occupation of Philadelphia became a favorite place of resort for Philadelphians who wished to retire a little from the stormy political atmosphere of the city.

More than a score of fugitive families made their homes there, among them being General Thomas Mifflin, who at that moment was out of command in the army, complaining, though not ill, considerably restive, and apparently not in high favor at headquarters. He was resting at his country estate, “Angelica,” three miles distant from Reading.

There were other officers of the Continental Army there and many gay social gatherings were held.

It was in these dissipations that gossip among the high officers frequently turned against General Washington, who, according to Mifflin, would only counsel with General Greene.

They said Greene was not the wisest, the bravest, nor the most patriotic of counselors.

In short, they averred that the campaign in this quarter was stigmatized as a series of blunders, and those who conducted it were incapable.

The better fortune of the northern army was ascribed to the superior talents of its leader; and it began to be whispered that General Gates was the man who of right should have the station sustained by Washington.

A cabal was soon formed, in which Gates, Mifflin and Conway were already engaged, and in which the congenial spirit of General Charles Lee, on his exchange as a prisoner of war, immediately took a share.

The well-known apostrophe of General Conway to America, imparting that “Heaven had passed a decree in her favor, or her ruin must long before have ensued from the imbecility of her military counsels,” was at this time familiar wherever officers congregated.

On a visit which Conway made to Reading he expressed himself to the effect that “no man was more a gentleman than General Washington, or appeared to more advantage at his table, or in the usual intercourse of life, but as to his talents for the command of an army, they were miserable, indeed.”

These and similar expressions repeated frequently could not fail to create an unfavorable sentiment against the commander-in-chief.

It is also fortunate that the general population did not yet believe any of the officers busy in the cabal against Washington to be superior to Washington.

Without the knowledge of Washington, the Board of War devised a winter campaign against Canada, and gave the command to Lafayette. It was a trick of Gates to detach the marquis from Washington. It failed.

Lafayette was summoned to York to receive his commission from Congress, then in session there. That distinguished patriot met Gates, Mifflin and others at table. The wine flowed freely and toasts abounded.

At length the marquis, thinking it time to show his colors, said: “Gentlemen, I perceive one toast has been omitted, which I will now propose.” They filled their glasses, when he gave praise to “the commander-in-chief of the American armies.”

The coldness with which that toast was received confirmed Lafayette’s worst opinion respecting the men around him, and he was disgusted.

The conspirators, finding they could not use the marquis, abandoned the expedition. So, also, was the conspiracy abandoned soon afterward.

There is no doubt that the duel which subsequently took place between General Conway and General Cadwalader, though immediately proceeding from an unfavorable opinion expressed by the latter of the conduct of the former at the Battle of Germantown, had, perhaps, deeper origin, and some reference to this intrigue, for the brave and competent Philadelphian was an ardent champion of General Washington.

Some of Gates’ New England friends became tired of him. Conway, found out, was despised, left the army and returned to France.

So the cabal resulted happily, in a thorough vindication of the wisdom of Washington, and brought deserved censure on those who had not done their full duty.

Bancroft says “that those who had caviled at Washington, being unable to shake the confidence of the people, wished their words benevolently interpreted or forgotten, and Gates and Mifflin asked to be excused from serving on the committee,” meaning the committee which had been appointed by Congress to consult with Washington upon a complete reform in his administration of the army.

Mifflin became a major general in the following February and General Greene was made quartermaster general a few days later. Mifflin made a request to join the army in the field, but Congress desired Washington to make an inquiry into his conduct, which Washington did not do, and Mifflin then tendered his resignation, which Congress refused to accept, and, although Mifflin’s health was miserable, he served throughout the war.

The internment of the army at Valley Forge called forth remonstrances of the Continental Congress, the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly of Pennsylvania and furnished much of the subject-matter by which Washington was censured by those who were partisans of other generals who coveted the high and important office. These discouragements weighed heavily upon the anxious commander, who had quite enough trouble without those in authority adding thereto.

The men in camp erected huts of logs and mud, but blankets and clothing were scantily provided. Yet amid all this suffering, day after day, surrounded by the frosts and snows of a severe winter, patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers. It has often been recorded that Washington considered his experiences at Valley Forge as the most trying scenes of his life.

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Federal Party Is Broken Up in Closing Days

of November, 1823

It was during the administration of Governor John Andrew Shulze, of Lebanon County, that in 1823, President Monroe made his celebrated declaration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western Hemisphere and the noninterference of European Powers in the political affairs of this continent.

The determined stand taken by President Monroe was warmly indorsed by the people of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the State at the subsequent session adopted resolutions to the effect that it afforded them “the highest gratification to observe the President of the United States, expressing the sentiments of millions of freemen, proclaiming to the world that any attempt on the part of the allied sovereigns of Europe to extend their political systems to any portion of the continent of America, or in any other manner to interfere in their internal concerns, would be considered as dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.”

Governor Shulze, in transmitting the resolutions to the President, expressed his hearty indorsement of the doctrines therein set forth.

Soon after the election of Shulze, in the closing days of November, 1823, the old parties were broken up, none after that calling themselves Federalists. Indeed, the term Federalist became odious; but from the ashes there sprang a party that became more powerful than any which before or since has borne sway in this country, the great Democratic Party.

Every Federal newspaper in Pennsylvania except three—the United States Gazette, of Philadelphia; The Village Record, of West Chester, and the Pittsburgh Gazette—joined in its support.

In the national election of 1824, parties being in a disorganized state, there was no choice for President by the people. Crawford, Adams, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were supported. John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives. But in 1828 Jackson was chosen, receiving a majority of 50,000 in Pennsylvania. His brilliant victory at New Orleans, gained with scarcely a casualty on our side, created immense enthusiasm among the people in his favor.

In 1824 and 1825 the Nation’s early friend and benefactor, General Lafayette, revisited the scenes of his former trials and final triumphs. Governor Shulze had the satisfaction of welcoming the hero to the soil of Pennsylvania, which he did at Morrisville in a brief but eloquent and impressive speech.

This was Lafayette’s second visit to Pennsylvania and was an event which produced marked and spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population. Next to the great Washington he was hailed as the deliverer of this country, and nowhere was he made more welcome than in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and other parts of Pennsylvania.

This was the era when stupendous plans for the internal improvement of the Commonwealth were adopted and put into execution. The Schuylkill navigation canal, which had been projected almost thirty years previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed in 1825. The occasion was one of great rejoicing and the success of the enterprise gave an impetus to other improvements.

Shortly afterward the Union Canal was also finished, and the great Pennsylvania Canal was prosecuted with vigor. Governor Schulze hesitated somewhat at this stupendous plan of internal improvements by the State and opposed the loan of $1,000,000 authorized by the Legislature. He was obliged to yield, however, to the popular will, and before the close of his second term $6,000,000 had been borrowed.

At the session of the General Assembly in 1826 a Board of Commissioners for internal improvements was established. The Legislature authorized the Commissioners to contract for a canal from Middletown extending up the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of the Juniata, and from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Kiskiminitas, a navigable feeder of a canal from French Creek to the summit level of Conneaut Lake, and to survey a canal from there to Erie. These enterprises were started with the modest appropriation of $300,000, which was to be borrowed.

The board made two contracts, one for twenty-two and one-half miles along the Susquehanna and twenty-four miles along the Allegheny. At the following session the canals authorized were to be extended farther up the Susquehanna, the Juniata, and up the valley of the Kiskiminetas and the Conemaugh, another between Bristol and Easton and others of lesser importance.

In 1826 Governor Shulze was renominated and received within 1000 of all the votes cast for Governor. This was the nearest to a unanimous election ever known in Pennsylvania, and was an evidence of the confidence the people had in him, his fine character and intelligence.

Previous to 1827 the only railroads in America were a short wooden railroad constructed at Leiper’s stone quarry, in Delaware County, Pa., and a road three miles in length opened at the Quincy granite quarries in Massachusetts in 1826.

In May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch Chunk to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest and most important railroad in America.

In 1828 the State determined to engage in railroad building. The canal extending through the center of the State was to be connected by a railroad crossing the Allegheny Mountains, and with Philadelphia by a railroad extending to Columbia. Thus by railroad and canal a system of highway improved communication would extend from the Delaware to the Ohio.

The expenditures were now so rapid and enormous that the State began to suffer. Governor Shulze convened the Assembly in November, 1828, a month before retiring from office, and explained the tense situation. Funds had given out, the work was stopped and something must be done. But as he was soon to retire, he smoothed over the situation, leaving his successor to wrestle with the problem.

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