Annals of Luzerne County; a record of interesting events, traditions, and anecdotes. From the first settlement in Wyoming Valley to 1866

Front matter

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Preface

They, who have read the Histories of Wyoming, by Isaac A. Chapman, Esq., Colonel Stone, Charles Miner, Esq., and the Rev. George Peck, D. D., together with the History of Lackawanna Valley, by H. Hollister, M. D., may conclude, the Annals of Luzerne County is a superfluous work. It should be remembered, however, that the valuable works of Messrs. Chapman, Stone, and Miner have been out of print for upwards of fifteen years, and are now to be found chiefly only in public libraries, and in those of private citizens of wealth ; that Dr. Peck's work treats principally of incidents of the Revolutionary, and Pennamite and Yankee, wars, culled, in part, from the recollections of men and women who received the narratives from the lips of their forefathers ; that Dr. Hollister's history embraces only the settlement and improvement of the Lackawanna Valley and a few adjoining townships, and that Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys are but a portion of the great county 1 (l)

ii PREFACE.

of Luzerne. With this view of the subject I commenced my Annals, not claiming the dignity of History, but being a brief and impartial record of events, in the order, as near as possible, in which they occurred, beginning with the days when the Indians occupied these lands, and closing with the year 1859. If I have succeeded in placing in the hands of the reader an instructive and reliable work, a book containing useful data and statistics, or if I have added any good thing to the storehouse of knowledge, I am content.

It has been my object to treat each subject under its appropriate head, avoiding, as far as possible, frequent repetition, and to connect with local affairs as much information of a general character as is necessary to a correct comprehension of the whole subject. An account of the origin of steamboats, locomotives, railroads, plank-roads, printing, banks and paper money, and religious denominations, with descriptions of the great lakes and mountains of North America, together with various other facts connected with general history, may be found in this work. Consequently, it is not exclusively of a local character.

In addition to the works already enumerated, I acknowledge my indebtedness for much valuable information to the Pennsylvania Colonial Kecords and Archives, Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, Drake's

PREFACE. iii

History of the North American Indians, Rev. John Heckewelder's Narrative, Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, Campbell's Annals of Tryon County, Taylor's Statistics of Coal, and to newspaper files furnished me by Hon. C. Miner, Hon. C. T. Barnum, Steuben Butler, S. D. Lewis, and W. P. Miner, Esqs. ; also, to printed speeches and addresses delivered by the Hon. B. A. Bidlack, Hon. Andrew Beaumont, Hon. John N. Conyngham, and V. L. Maxwell, Esq.

I also own my obligations to the county officers and their clerks, to numerous gentlemen throughout the county, and, particularly, to Mr. R. Sharp of Eckley, Mr. D. Yarington of Carbondale, Colonel W. Lee of Nanticoke, and Mr. Lord Butler and Major A. H. Bowman of Wilkesbarre ; Chester A. Colt, Esq., of Washington City, and Charles Conner, Esq., of Harrisburg.

I am happy, also, to tender my acknowledgments to Captain E. L. Dana, for pencil sketches of Indian stone instruments, of Forty Fort, of the Fell House, of Stewart's Blockhouse, of Sutton's Mill, of Durham boat, and of the Wyoming Valley ; to Mr. W. H. Sturdevant for a pencil sketch of the Slocum House ; to Miss E. J. Alexander for one of the first Academy ; to Rev. R. Nelson for the use of the plate of the Wyoming Seminary ; to L. Hancock for an ambrotype view of the Scranton

IV PREFACE.

Graded School building; to Mr. W. H. Ward, of Wilkesbarre, for photographs of the jail, and the new court-house ; to Mr. H. P. Messenger, of Pittston, for photograph of Gouldsborough Tannery ; and to William P. Miner, Esq., of Wilkesbarre, for plate of the old church in the public square.

To William Henry Beaumont, Esq., of Wilkesbarre, I am indebted for an account of the expedition of the Wyoming Artillerists to the city of Mexico, during the war.

Stewart Pearce.

Note. — The figures 1, 2, 3, &c, in the text of body of the work, refer to " Notes " in the Appendix following page 562.

Chapter I. The Indians

Man's origin — Confusion of color and tongues — Migrations — Discovery of America — Indian traditions — Ancient fortifications — Indian relics — Iroquois, or Five Nations — Shawanese — Delawares — Treaty with William Penn — Walking purchase — Council at Philadelphia — Canassatego's speech — Shikellimus — Mohicans — Nanticokes — Indian villages and paths — Moravian missionaries — Rev. George Whitfield — Count Zinzendorf — Conrad Weiser — Gnadenhutten — French War — Sir William Johnson — Shingas — Logan — Neglect of the Provincial Assembly to protect the frontiers — Dispute between the Governor and Assembly — Teedyuscung — -Indian council at Wyoming — Destruction of white settlements on the Delaware — Madame Montour — Paxinos — Capture of Peter Hess and others — Logan's celebrated speech not true — Forts Augusta and Allen built — Rewards offered for Indian scalps by Governor Morris and council — Day of fasting and prayer — Councils at Easton — Speeches of Teedyuscung — His reasons for declaring war — Council at Lancaster — Third council at Easton — Teedyuscung demands a secretary — Charles Thompson — Peace with the Susquehanna Indians — Houses erected at Wyoming for Teedyuscung — Grasshopper war — Christian Frederick Post — His mission to the western Indians — Meets King Beaver — Fourth council at Easton — Peace with the western Indians — The French surrender Canada to the English — Second Indian war — Death of Teedyuscung — Rewards offered for Indian scalps by Governor John Penn — Peace — Christian Indians at Wyalusing — First bell on the Susquehanna — Departure of the Indians Page 13

Chapter II. The Pennamite And Yankee War

Charters of Connecticut and Pennsylvania — Purchase of Indian title — Susquehanna Land Company — First settlement at Wyoming — Massacre of settlers — Trenton decree — The Forty, or first settlers of Kingston — Forty Fort — Captain Ogden — First arrest of Yankees — Second arrest — Fort Durlee built — Its surrender — Flight and suffering of the Yankees — Captain

VI CONTENTS.

Lazarus Stewart and Colonel Durkee — First blood shed — Fort Ogden surrendered by the Pennamites and burnt by the Yankees — Return of Ogden — Renewed conflict — Capture of Captain Zebulon Butler and others — Fort Wyoming built — Death of Nathan Ogden — Butler and Stewart besiege Ogden — Ogden's tact and escape — Returns with reinforcements — Surrender of the Pennamites — Proposals by Connecticut to negotiate rejected by Pennsylvania — Town of Westmoreland formed and organized — Charleston and Judea destroyed by Colonel Plunket— Plunket marches against Wyoming— Is defeated by the Yankees at Nanticoke — Pennamites and Yankees united during the Revolutionary War — Civil strife resumed by Pennsylvania— Petition of Yankee settlers to the Pennsylvania Assembly — Compromise commissioners appointed — John Jenkins and others appointed a committee to meet the commissioners — Alexander Patterson — His infamous acts — Flight of five hundred Yankees, and their sufferings in the wilderness — Their return — Fort Defence — Battle on Ross Hill — Captain John Franklin dispossesses the Pennamites — Wilkesbarre burnt — Battle at Locust Hill — Colonel John Armstrong — His treachery — Arrest of Yankees — Their escape from the Easton jail — The Pennamites besieged — Captains Swift and Franklin wounded — Council of Censors — Battle of the Diamond — Franklin's oath — Susquehanna Company reaffirms its rights — New state proposed — Timothy Pickering — Yankees divided — Confirming Law — Mass meeting at Forty Fort — Club fight — General Ethan Allen — Arrest of Franklin — Meeting of Pennsylvania claimants — Land-jobbing priests — Repeal of the Confirming Law — Capture of Pickering — Compromise Law — Certified townships — Final settlement of the question 58

Chapter III. Captain Lazarus Stewart

Birth and education — Joins General Braddock — Returns to Paxton — His intended bride murdered by savages — The funeral — Stewart's oath — Marches to Wyoming with his rangers — Burial of the massacred settlers — Conestoga Indians — Reward offered for Stewart's arrest — His declaration — Joins the Yankees — Captures Fort Durkee — Joined by Colonel John Durkee— Capture of Fort Ogden — Reward offered for the arrest of Stewart and Captain Zebulon Butler — Arrest of Stewart — His escape — Second capture of Fort Durkee — Plunket's invasion and repulse — Stewart commands the Hanover Company — Council of war at Forty Fort — Is in favor of meeting the enemy in the open field — His death 100

Chapter IV. The Revolutionary War

Patriotic resolution — Tories — Fort Wintermoot — Independent companies —

CONTENTS. vii

Captain Weisner's company — Captain Strong's company — Companies join Washington — Battle of Millstone — First prisoners from Wyoming — Scalps taken — Widows and wives of soldiers supplied with provisions by the town- -■ Captain Hewitt's company — First American killed by the enemy — Indiar spies — Return of Colonel Zebulon Butler and Captains Ransom and Durke^ — Approach of the enemy — The Hardings — Colonel John Butler — Fort Wintermoot surrendered — Fort Jenkins — Pittston Stockade — Forty Fort — Numbers of the Americans — Council of war — Reasons for engaging the enemy — Battle of Wyoming — Death of Colonel Dorrance — Massacre — Elijah Shoemaker — The fratricide — The Bloody Rock — Burnt alive — Samuel Carey — Flight of the inhabitants — Captain Spaulding meets the fugitives — Colonel Nathan Denison — Surrender of Forty Fort — Wilkesbarre burnt — Queen Esther and her scalps — Departure of the enemy from Wyoming— Report of Colonel John Butler — Colonel Thomas Hartley — Forts Jenkins, Muncy, and Freedley erected — Return of Colonel Zebulon Butler and Captain Spaulding to Wyoming — Fort Wilkesbarre built — Address of Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania — Unkind sentiments of the council — Williams and Abbott shot — Capture of Tripp, Hocksey, S wetland, and Blanchard — Colonel Hartley's expedition — William Jameson killed — Burial of the dead — Capture of Frances Slocum — Numerous murders by the Indians — Capture of Bidlack — Fort Wilkesbarre attacked — Death of Williams, Pettebone, and others — Washington sends Generals Sullivan and Clinton against the Indians — Death of Captain Davis — Sullivan's army at Wyoming — Marches into the Indian territory — Battle near Elmira — The country of the Six Nations laid waste — Death of Lieutenant Thomas Boyd — Bennett and Hammond — Rogers, Pike, and Van Campen — Skirmish in Sugarloaf Valley — Capture of Harvey and Ransom — Capture of the Franklin family — Death of John Jameson and Asa Chapman — Revolutionary pensioners— The Monument — List of killed in the battle of July 3d, 1778 120

Chapter V. Luzekne County

Original counties in Pennsylvania — Northampton formed — Northumberland — Luzerne — Chevalier De la Luzerne — Divisions of Luzerne Connty — Its valleys — Wyoming — Lackawanna — Huntington and Sugarloaf — Mountains — Highest in the United States — Mountains in Luzerne — Their height — Dial Rock — Pulpit Rock — Honey Pot — Prospect Rock — Prospect House — Rivers and creeks — The Duke of Orleans on the Susquehanna — Bridges — Gaseous vapor from the Lackawanna—Lakes and ponds — Great lakes of North America — Harvey's Lake the largest in Pennsylvania — Lake House — Population of Luzerne county — Whites — Colored — Deaths — Marriages — Deaf — Dumb — Blind — Foreigners — Slaves — Comparative increase of population in agricultural and mining districts 156 viii CONTENTS.

Chapter VI. Boroughs And Townships

Certified townships — Townships of 1790 — List of townships and boroughs — Description of each in alphabetical order, embracing an account of first settlements — Saw-mills — Churches — Grist-mills — Population, &c. . 182

Chapter VII. The Judiciary

No law in Wyoming — Code established by Susquehanna Land Company — Westmoreland county formed — First court, judges, and lawyers under Connecticut — No lawyers in 1781 — Price of grain regulated by the court — Divorcements — Blue Laws — First Luzerne County Court — Judges — Lawyers— First grand jurors — Justices of the peace — Dueling — Log court-house— Hog in the garret — Second court-house — Supreme Judges — Court ceremonies — Balls — The contrast — President Judges — Imprisonment for whispering in court — Sheriffs — Additional lawyers — Jail and fire-proof buildings — Third court-house — Laying of corner-stone — Execution of criminals— Deeds — Mortgages — Judgments — Courts in Carbondale — County expenditures— Value of taxable property — Criminals sentenced to the penitentiary 234

CHAPTER VIIL

EDUCATION.

Land appropriated by Susquehanna Company — Indian school — Free school — Schoolmasters — School lands sold — Pennsylvania free school system — Accepted in Luzerne county — Adults who cannot read and write — Number of schools and pupils in the several townships — Wilkesbarre Academy — Teachers and students — Kingston Academy — Plymouth Academy — Madison Academy — Wyoming Conference Seminary — Wyoming Institute — Wilkesbarre Female Institute — Graded schools . . 262

Chapter IX. Religious Denominations

First minister in Wyoming — Presbyterian Church — Rev. David Brainerd — Support of ministers by the Susquehanna Company — First church in Hanover— First in Wilkesbarre — Lottery — The old sexton — The 9 o'clock bell — Religious war — New School Presbyterians — Methodist Episcopal Church — Rev. Anning Owen — Class and quarterly meetings — Bishop Asbury visits Wyoming — Forty Fort Church — First camp meeting — French infidelity — Baptist Church — Early ministers — Abington Baptist Association — Wyo-

CONTENTS. ix ming Association — Lutheran and German Reformed Churches — First ministers— Protestant Episcopal Church — Early ministers — Roman Catholic Church — Minor churches — Jews — Colored churches — The Mormons — Recapitulation 275

Chapter X. The Military

Whiskey Insurrection — Luzerne volunteers — John Adams's war — Second company of Luzerne volunteers — War of 1812 — Wyoming Blues — Letter of Captain Slocum and others — Reply of Mr. Jefferson — Wyoming Matross — Cannonading — Battle of Lake Erie — Silver medal — James Bird — Ballad — Matross at Maiden and Detroit — Battle of the Thames — The Bloody 16th — Recruiting stations — Militia march for Baltimore — Soldier beaten to death — Return of volunteers — Rejoicing — Mexican War — Wyoming Artillerists — Lobos Island — Siege of Vera Cruz — First fire of the Mexicans — Battle of Cerro Gordo — Castle of Perote — Burial of the dead — The Black Pass — Siege of Puebla — City of Mexico — Columbia Guards — Lieut. Le Clerc — Return of the volunteers — Reception at home — County volunteer organization 316

CHAPTER XL

AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.

Agriculture the true source of prosperity — Recommended by eminent men — False system of education — Our grandfathers and grandmothers — Rivalry among farmers and spinsters — Agricultural societies — First in Luzerne — Markets — Transportation of grain — Conestoga wagon — Price of grain — Spirit of speculation — Decline of agriculture — Second agricultural society — Abington Society — Fourth society — County fair — Specimens of vegetables and fruits — Statistical table — Manufactures — Spinning-wheels — Looms — Carding and fulling mills — Wool-growing — Paper-mill — Forges — Nail factory— Furnaces and rolling-mills — Foundries and steam-engines — Powder-mills — Tanneries — Lehigh lumber trade — Men and capital employed in manufactures in Luzerne county 337

Chapter XII. Minerals And The Coal Trade

Coal first used in England — Indian mines in Wyoming — Anthracite first used in smithshops — Silver, lead, and copper mines — Discovery of coal at Mauch Chunk — Progress and difficulties of the trade — Judge Fell — His experiment — Efforts of Messrs. Miner, Cist, Smith and others to introduce anthracite into use — Public incredulity— Discovery of coal at Hazel ton — Eastern Middle coal-field — Bituminous coal — Wyoming coal-field — Its development — The miner — Baltimore Coal Company — Individual operators — Pennsylvania x CONTENTS.

Coal Company — Dundee shaft — Lackawanna coal-field — Maurice and William Wurts — Delaware and Hudson Canal and Coal Company — Progress of improvements and trade — Area of coal-fields — Quantity and value of anthracite — Increase of consumption — Fossil remains — Iron ore — Limestone— Cost of manufacturing iron 364

Chapter XIII. Newspapers, Books, Poetry, Literary And Beneficial Societies

Discovery of the art of printing — First newspapers — Town sign-post — Newspapers in Wilkesbarre, Kingston, Carbondale, Providence, Pittston, Scranton, Plymouth, and Conyngham — Value of printing establishments — Books printed and published in Luzerne county — Poetry: "Jackson and his Comrades ;" " Columbia ;" " Lines on visiting the Wyoming Monument ;" " Ode ;" " The Sons of Wyoming ;" " Shawanee's Farewell ;" " To the Susquehanna;" " Poor Man and the Doctor;" "Death of Lieutenant Bowman ;" " Christmas ;" " Upon my life it's true ;" •« Mush and Milk ;" " Address to a Land Tortoise" — Debating societies — Libraries — Bible Society— Sunday School Union— Temperance societies — Free Masonry — Odd Fellows and other beneficial societies — Wyoming Historical and Geological Society 389

Chapter XIV. Roads, Mails, And Stages

First wagon road — Vehicles — Turnpikes — Plank-roads — Railroads — First locomotive in the United States — First train of passenger cars in Wyoming — Aggregate length and cost of railroads in Luzerne — First mails and post-offices — Stages, &c. 439

Chapter XV. Navigation On The Susquehanna

Durham boats — Teamboat — Steamboats — Explosion of the " Susquehanna" — Ship-building — The launch — Lumber rafts and arks — Canals — Breaking ground — First canal boat — First packet boat — First canal boats sent northward— Sale of state canals 455

Chapter XVI. Climate

Temperature — Extraordinary drought — Fasting and prayer — Ice flood of 1784 — Pumpkin flood — Subsequent floods — Hurricanes — Destruction of the Wilkesbarre bridge — Providence destroyed — Men and women carried away by the wind — Diseases — Deaths — Physicians 476

CONTENTS. xi

Chapter XVII. Wild Animals.— Hunting.— Fishing

Panthers — Early hunters — Ishmael Bennett — Wheaton and the panther — Sox and the panthers — Arnold and the panther — Wolves — George A. Crockett — Scott and the bear — John McHenry, the hunter king — Great circle hunt — The beaver and other animals — Shad-fishing — The first seine — The widow's haul — Connecticut salmon introduced into the Susquehanna — Rock fish — Bass — Trout-fishing — Extraordinary stories — A large pike .... 488

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Chapter XVIII. Miscellaneous

Banks and bankers — Continental money — Shinplasters — Wyoming and Pittston banks — Banking capital — Rates of discount — Insurance companies — Distilleries — Value of whiskey and other articles ninety years ago — Witches — Politics — Alien and sedition law — Election of Jefferson — Ox roasted — Candidates for office recommended by the grand jury — Elections — Presidents— Governors — Congressmen — Members of the legislature — Gershom Prince — Mineral springs — Interesting items — Hominy block — Table of distances 504

Appendix

A. Names of settlers in 1763 — B. Names of subsequent settlers — C. Names of prisoners sent to Easton jail — D. Muster-rolls of independent companies — E. List of killed at Wyoming massacre, 1778 — F. Muster-roll, 1794 — G. Muster-roll, 1799 — H. Muster-roll, 1813 — I. Names of militiamen who marched to Danville — J. Muster-roll of Wyoming Artillerists — K. Taxables of Exeter township — L. Taxables of Hanover — M. Taxables of Huntington— N. Taxables of Kingston — 0. Taxables of Nescopeck — P. Taxables of Newport — Q. Taxables of Pittston — R. Taxables of Plymouth — S. Taxables of Providence — T. Taxables of Salem — U. Taxables of Wilkesbarre — V. Postmasters and offices — W. Statistical coal tables — Coal companies and operators — Railroads — Salt and Iron and Petroleum companies — X. Population in 1860— Y. Floods— Z. The great rebellion . . 535-562

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Indian Relics .... 19

Teedyuscung .... 39

Capture of John Franklin . . 93

Stewart's Block-House . . 115

Forty Fort 126

Frances Slocum .... 139

The Wyoming Monument . . 150

View of Wyoming Valley . 159

First House built in Carbondale 191

The Slocum House ... 222

Sutton's Mill .... 228

Red House 229

Wyoming Valley Hotel . . 232

Old Court-House, Wilkesbarre 244

Luzerne County Jail . . . 251

New Court-House, Wilkesbarre 252

Court-House, Carbondale . 259

Old Academy, Wilkesbarre . 267

PAft£

Wyoming Seminary . . . 271

Scranton Graded School . . 274

Old Church, Wilkesbarre . 282

Old Church, Forty Fort . . 293

Conestoga Wagon . . . 344

Tannery, at Gouldsborough . 361

Fell House .... 369

A Miner 378

Coal Breaker .... 378 Baltimore Company's Coal Opening ...... 379

Mail Coach 450

Durham Boat . . . . 456

Stern Wheel Boat . . . 457

Ship 465

Deer 498

Hominy-Block .... 532

(xii)

ANNALS

OP

LUZERNE COUNTY.

Chapter I. The Indians

Alas ! for them their day is o'er, Their fires are out from shore to shore. No more for them the wild deer bounds, The plough is on their hunting grounds ; The pale man's axe rings through their woods, The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods ; Their children — look, by power oppressed, Beyond the mountains of the West — Their children go — to die ! — Sprague.

Rejecting the theories that the human race advanced to its present development, by slow gradations, from inferior organizations, such as snails, oysters, and monkeys, or from separate and distinct acts of creation, and that climate and food have produced the various colors of the human family, we express our belief in the account of man's origin as recorded in Holy Writ, and entertain the opinion that the confusion of colors was a miraculous work simultaneous with the confusion of tongues. The word Babel signifies confusion, and is as applicable to color as to language. It was the object of the Almighty to scatter the people abroad on the face of the whole earth, and to prevent their reunion ; and it is apparent no surer means could have been adopted by Divine wisdom to effect this end than to confuse their color as well as their language. Nations of the same color, but speaking different languages, may unite by marriage or otherwise, but where language and color are both different, a union is extremely improbable ; and between the extremes of colors there exists, in the superior race at least, an utter abhorrence of the mingling of blood. It is said the natives in the wilds of Africa instinctively shrink from a marriage relation between themselves and the whites. The great Apostle Paul, in his speech to the Athenians, "in the midst of Mars' Hill," said, among other things, that God " hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." Again, we read in Deuteronomy, xxxii. 8 : " When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam," &c. From these passages we understand that the Creator had fixed, or decreed, in his eternal mind, the time when each nation, or race, should migrate, and also the continent or territory that should be occupied by each. If this be the true construction, it is probable that He who made the skin of the negro black, and that of the Indian red, guided the former to Africa, and the latter to the continent of America. The Aleutian Islands are near the coast of Asia, and extend almost to the peninsula of Alaska, a short distance beyond which the north-west coast of America begins. Behring's Straits, separating Asia from America, are only thirty-two miles in width. A canoe, or craft adrift, from the Polynesian islands, will be borne by the currents to the northern extreme of California. Hence, we conclude it would not be impossible, or even very difficult, for the ancestors or predecessors of the North American Indians to find their way from the Old to the New World.

Within three hundred and fifty years after the confusion at Babel, Abraham found Egypt inhabited by a people measurably civilized. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had been built and destroyed, and a large portion of Asia was settled. It would be no great strain on one's credulity to believe that in three hundred and fifty years more some colony of adventurers had pushed their explorations northward across Behring's Straits, and had made a settlement on the fertile lands of the Western World. Less than three hundred and seventy years ago Columbus had not sailed from Palos on his voyage of discovery; and yet see what millions are now located between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and are pushing their settlements towards every point of the compass.

It is well authenticated that the Northmen discovered Greenland in the tenth century, and that in the year 1002, Leif, a Norwegian, sailed south-west from Greenland and discovered the coast of Newr England. Thorwarld afterwards made a voyage in the same ship to the same coast, and was murdered by the Indians, whose enmity he had incurred. This continent, then, wTas peopled to its farthest eastern extremity long before Columbus discovered it. Whether the Indians he found here were the original people has been made a question. Or, whether the Indians, as the Europeans found them, were not degenerated from a higher condition of civilization, than that then existing, has also been made a subject of discussion.

In the West are found mounds and fortifications, which indicate an advancement in the arts, to which the Indians were utter strangers. Similar evidences have been found on our own Susquehanna. A very slight examination will satisfy any one that there was once a people on these shores who defended themselves by regular fortifications, buried their dead in a peculiar manner, and worked mines of copper, and of other metals, which were not practised by the Red men, when the colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth were planted. Rome, once stern and virtuous, became great and triumphant over a vanquished world. But with the introduction of the many arts and refinements of other lands came luxury and debauchery, which were followed by the flight of virtue and of valor. The hardy nations of the Notfth, finding no longer virtuous courage to resist their onsets, poured down on the enervated empire, and barbarism covered refined and classic Italy. So, possibly, a similar scene may have been enacted in America. The original settlers, bringing with them the arts which flourished in Egypt, when the first Pharaohs were on the throne, may have eventually become luxurious and weak, and may thus have fallen an easy prey to barbarous but valorous hordes, who coveted their lands and possessions.

Our knowledge of the Indian race begins with the discovery of America. They were then, as the vast majority of them are at the present day, hunters, living in rude huts, clothing themselves in the skins of animals, and using the bow, stone hatchet, spear, and arrow-head, as their weapons of attack and defence. They, as a race, have been uninfluenced by anything of civilization, except its vices. The strong-water of the white man has made sad havoc among them, and they are rapidly disappearing from North America.

Kagegagahbowh, alias George Copway, an educated Indian of the Ojebwa tribe, informed the writer, that the Indians had a tradition that their ancestors came from

THE INDIANS. IT

the West, and that when they die they go back towards the setting sun to the country whence they came, and on their passage cross the water. That a very bad Indian, when he returns, finds a sterile soil and poor hunting in the Fatherland; that a pretty good Indian passes on through the poor country to other and better hunting-grounds ; and a very good Indian goes still farther, to a land where excellent game is found in great abundance, amid the most attractive scenes of nature.

They have also a tradition that their forefathers were engaged in war with another race of people in this country, whom they exterminated, and drove out. This tradition of another people is corroborated by the fortifications and mounds before alluded to, also by heathen gods, implements of husbandry, looking-glasses, and other articles found in Ohio and Western New York.

When the forty settlers arrived in Wyoming, in 1769, they found the remains of an ancient fortification, or enclosure, respecting which the Indians could give no information as to its origin or use. Within this enclosure large trees were found growing, one of which, when cut down, was ascertained to be seven hundred years old. This work was located on the west side of Toby's Creek, in Kingston township, a few rods above the present road leading from Kingston to Wilkesbarre, but is now entirely destroyed. It was visited by. Mr. Chapman, in 1817, and is described by him, in his History of Wyoming, as being of " an oval of elliptical form, and having its longest diameter from the north-west to the south-east, at right angles to the creek, three hundred and thirty-seven feet, and its shortest diameter from the north-east to the south-west two hundred and seventy-two feet. On the south-west side appears to have been a gateway, about twelve

feet wide, opening towards the great eddy of the river, 2 into which the creek falls. From present appearances, it consisted probably of only one mound, or rampart, which in height and thickness appears to have been the same on all sides, and was constructed of earth. On the outside of the rampart is an intrenchment, or ditch, formed probably by removing the earth."