A history of Pennsylvania

Front matter

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Preface

When historical societies for study and research in Pennsylvania history — local and general — are inultiplying all over the State, no apology is needed for writing a book on the subject. Pennsylvania has a history of more than two centuries. It consists, like that of the other States which separated from Great Britiain to form the American Union, of a Colonial, a Revolutionary, and a Constitutional period. It has always been a part of another history: first of England, and then of the United States. This is true, not alone in a nominal, but in a real sense. United States history, whether its political, social, or industrial side, is of a composite nature. Every State helps to make it. The contribution of the thirteen original States is the greatest, because they have a Colonial and a Revolutionary history. In Pennsylvania these periods are especially interesting and important, though they have been sadly neglected.

But independent of the relation to United States history, State history has a claim on us for study and investigation. Pennsylvania ranks second among the States in wealth and population, and has the proud distinction of being the Keystone of the Union. If we would maintain this preeminence we must not be indifferent to our historj^ else neither we nor our descendants will attain to greater heights. Anything that is worthy of a future has a past that ought to be

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studied. Then, too, a patriotic duty and a pardonable pride should move us to study the history of the State in which we live. It is the history of our forefathers, and we might as well neglect their graves as their deeds.

There is also a pedagogical reason for the study of State history. American history, in all its phases, is receiving increased attention in colleges and universities. The Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools has advocated the adoption of better methods for teaching the subject. The Committee of Ten of the National Educational Association recommended its introduction in two places in the public school course — in the grammar and the high school. But to accomplish all this with the greatest possible degree of success, there must be a deep and abiding interest aroused in American history. Such an interest can be created by the teaching of State history. Its persons, places and events are near in point of place, and have a great fascination for the mind. To stand by an historic grave, to set foot upon historic ground, and to receive history from the lips or the pen of one who helped to make it, are powerful adjuncts to teachers and books.

As to its plan and contents, the book may speak for itself. However, the author desires to call attention to the chapter of biographical sketches. With few exceptions the biography of every person named in the book can be found in that chapter. The chronological arrangement of the Governors' biographies and the alphabetical arrangement of all others make it easy to find them. Whenever the name of a person is met for the first time, his biography should be read.

Preface v

In writing "A Pennsylvania History," the author performed the part of a pioneer. In the plan and scope of this work, there was no book to imitate and none to modify; consequently much original research in official reports and documents was necessary, and constant visits to the best libraries in the State had to be made. This explanation is made to soften criticism and make it charitable. However, the author will be greatly obliged for the communication of any error, and for suggestions by which he can improve the book.

L. S. S.

HARRiSBURa, Pa., January 2, 1900.

Contents

CHAPTER PA0K

I. The Indians of Pennsylvania 1

1. Their Geographical Distribution 1

Chapter I The Indians Of Pennsylvania Their Geographical Distribution

The Indians who occupied the territory of Pennsylvania at the time of its settlement belonged Two Great to two great families — the Algonquins and Famines the Iroquois. These occupied a part of North America which was triangular in form, the base extending from Cape Fear to the coast of Labrador, and the sides terminating in Lake Superior. The Iroquois, or Five Nations, were in the center of this triangle, in the lake region of New York, from Albany to Niagara Falls. Surrounding these dwelt the numerous nations and tribes of the Algonquins. It was in the language of the Algonquins that Raleigh's colonists were greeted at Roanoke, the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and the Quakers at Shackamaxon.

Both these groups had traditions of a western origin. Of the Algonquins, the Lenni-Leuape, ^^^.^ ^^. .^ or the Delawares, as they were called by the English, were the most important. Their Indian name signifies "the original people;" and nearly forty tribes acknowledged them as "great grandfathers." A legend was current among the Lenni-Lenape that in the dim past they and the Iroquois were one people, living beyond the Mississippi. After a time they migrated eastward and came to the Mississippi, where their passage across was disputed by a nation of fierce warriors on the eastern bank. The Lenni-Lenape tried to pass over in the face of the enemy on the other side. The Iroquois crossed higher up the stream, outflanked the enemy, and so enabled their friends to get over. The fierce nation on the east bank were the Allegewi, who were driven back until they reached the mountains. Thence they made their way southward, never to return, leaving no trace except the names Allegheny and Yougliioglieny . The Lenni- Lenape crossed the mountains and reached the ocean ; while the Iroquois went up the Allegheny and thence into central New York. But this is only a legend. It bears some resemblance to the crossing of the Jordan by the Israelites, the story of which the Delawares had heard from the missionaries. Still, it accounts for the geographical distribution of the Algonquins and the Iroquois over the triangular part of North America known to have been occupied by them at the time of its exploration and settlement.

When Penn arrived on the banks of the Delaware, The Delawares hc met thcrc thc Lcuni - Lenape tribe and subtribes ^^^ ^^g subtribcs. They had made the Delaware river the center of their possessions. They consisted of three tribes; viz., the Turtle, the Turkey, and the Wolf. The first two lived along the coast from the Hudson to the Potomac, between the sea and the Blue mountains. The third, whom the English" called Monseys, occupied the mountainous country between the Blue mountains and the sources of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers ; and they kindled their great council fires at the Minisink Flats. These three tribes were divided into numerous sub tribes, named, according to Indian custom, after the rivers, creeks, or other noted places at which they lived.

According to the tradition of Penn's treaty, he met another tribe — the Susquehannocks, or The

Audastes— under the elm tree at Shacka> susquehannocks maxon. While the Delawares inhabited New Jersey

Penn's Treaty at Shackamaxon. (See page 26.)

and eastern Pennsylvania, the Susquehannocks occupied the country on the Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers. The Iroquois, having been supplied with firearms by the Dutch in New York, made war upon the upper Susquehannocks, and almost exterminated them. Driven down the Susquehanna valley, the few that survived were allowed to establish themselves along the Conestoga creek, and were afterwards known as Conestogas. It was this remnant of Susquehannocks with whom Penn treated, jointly with the Delawares, under the Shackamaxon Elm.

The hunting grounds made vacant by the extermination of the Susquehannocks were given

The Nanticokes , ' .

to various tribes by the Iroquois. The upper parts of the Susquehanna valley were allotted to the Nanticokes, a tribe from the eastern shore of Maryland, claiming relationship to the Lenni-Lenape. Some of this tribe settled on the lower Susquehanna, not far from where John Harris afterwards established a ferry, at the present site of Harrisburg. The Nanticokes had the singular custom of disinterring the bones of their ancestors and carrying them to their new abode. They used to go from Wj'oming and Shenango to the eastern shore of Maryland to get the bones of their dead.

After disposing of the Susquehannocks, the The Deiawares Ii'oquois made war on the Delawares. as Women Accordiug to the account of the latter, the Iroquois would have been exterminated had it not been for the peaceful disposition of the Delawares. Among the Indians, the women are the peacemakers ; the men, though never so weary of the contest, hold it cowardly to offer the olive branch. The Iroquois, fearing total extinction, proposed that the Delawares should assume the character of the woman among the Indians. "One nation," said they, "shall be the woman,^^ who was not to go to war, but keep the peace with all, and the men were to hear and obev the woman. The Delawares were thenceforth to dress in woman's long costume, to carry a calabash filled with oil and medicines, and to engage in the cultivation of Indian corn.

The Iroquois, though agreeing in the details of this account, denied that the Delawares chose to play the woman. They claimed to have conquered the Delawares and forced them to adopt the defenseless state and name of woman. Whichever account is true, the fact remains that the Delaware nation was ever afterwards looked to for the preservation of the peace. It was entrusted with the great belt of peace and the chain of friendship, the middle of which was said to rest on the shoulders of the Delawares, the other Indian nations holding one end and the Europeans the other.

The Iroquois, whether by strategy or by force it matters not, were now in a position to iroquois Rule assume the rights of protection and com- *^® Delawares mand over the Delawares, who, though permitted to stay in their old homes, were but little better than serfs. Their conquerors wandered over their lands at pleasure. The Senecas and Cayugas frequently came into the valleys of the Susquehanna, roaming about at will and using the waters and forests for fishing and hunting. Resident deputy- governors were appointed by the grand council of the Iroquois.

Shikellimy, the noted chief residing at Shamokin in the first half of the last century, was one of the vicekings. Shikellimy.

The Iroquois were always considered by the Dela- The wares as only one nation. The name of Five

Five Nations ]i[aUons (and later Six Nations) was given them by their English ally, to magnify their importance. Their own name — Aquonoscliioni — signifies one house, one family, which consisted originally of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. The alliance of the five tribes was proposed by the

Mohawks ; hence they rank as the eldest brother in the family.

The Tuscaroras, the sixth and last tribe in the The league, joined it about one hundred years

Tuscaroras ^f^^^. ^^-g formation. In 1713, they were driven out of the upper country of the Neuse and Tar rivers, in North Carolina, by the whites. They sojourned in the Juniata valley for some ten years, and gave their name to a chain of mountains in that section of the State. In fact, some of them had a village in the vailey, which bore their name until after the purchase of 1758. On the supposition that they were originally of the same stock with the Five Nations, the Tuscaroras were adopted into the Iroquois Confederacy, which was afterwards known as the Six Nations.

There was still another nation of Iroquois in Pennsylvania ; but they were not connected with the Five Nations of New York. They were the Fries, known also as the Cat Nation, by reason of their cats, a sort of small wolf, from whose skin robes ornamented with tails were made. These Indians occupied the western shore of Lake Erie, from Buffalo to Toledo. Captain John Smith fell in with a party of them at the head of the Chesapeake bay, whither they had come to make war on the Susquehannocks. They had come down by way of the Potomac, and filled seven canoes, whose construction gave evidence of experience on some large body of water. The Fries were overthrown by the Iroquois about the year 1655. After that time there is no mention of their existence.

A tribe of Indians prominent in the history of Pennsylvania was the Shawanese. They ^^ „^

•^ 1 A . o The Shawanese

were the Bedouins of North America, tor as wanderers they were without rivals among their race. They were Algon quins ; but their original home is not known to a certainty. They have been traced to the valley of the Cumberland river. Thence, their principal band moved to the Atlantic slope, in South Carolina. About the year 1698, some three or four score families, by leave of the Susquehannocks, planted themselves on the Conestoga. A few, at the request of the Monseys, were allowed to settle about the forks of the Delaware. Other straggling parties joined their brethren, until, finally, they were a numerous and powerful tribe in the province. Some historians assign an earlier date for th^ migration of the Shawanese, and claim that they, too, were present when the celebrated treaty was made at Shackamaxon. It is said that at a conference held with one of Penn's successors, this nation produced the treaty on parchment.

THEIB NATIVE CHABACTEB

In delineating the character of the Indians of Penn-

The sylvan ia, happily for them, we can go back

Good Side ^Q ^ ^jjjjg when it had not yet become greatly

changed hj association with the Europeans. Hecke-

welder, the great Moravian apostle to the Indians, gives

us an example of how we should judge the red man:

"Often I have listened to these descriptions of their hard sufferings, until I felt ashamed of being a white man."

The Indian known to the missionaries of Pennsylvania was a religious being. An old Delaware once said that it had ever been the custom of his fathers to climb upon a high mountain to thank the Great Manitou (spirit) for all his benefits, and to ask for a continuance of the same, feeling sure that their prayers were heard by him. They were very hospitable, and expected hospitality in return. Some traveling Delawares once put their horses in a meadow of fine grass without permission, and, when taken to account replied, "Can you make the grass grow? The Great Manitou makes it grow, both for your horses and for ours." Civility was a marked trait in their character. A "good morning, father," "grandfather," "uncle," and so on, down to a small grandchild, was the common form of address. Even the children saluted one another affectionately and respectfully. Quarrels were avoided. Fighting, they said, is only for dogs and other beasts. It was a rare thing to hear of murders among them in the days before the settlement of Pennsylvania. This we know from the testimony of reliable and well-informed Indians who helped to build the first houses in Philadelphia. The sense of wit was rare among them, yet there were occasional instances of it. The Delawares compared the European nations in America to a pair of scissors, which cut what comes between them. "The Europeans do not want to destroy themselves in their wars, but us poor Indians that are between them." In their aboriginal state, they were not vain ; but they possessed a high-minded pride that was truly heroic at times. A white prisoner taken at Fort Mcintosh, now Beaver, and carried into Ohio, was condemned to die at the stake. Two English traders, acquainted with the Indian's personal pride, said to the chief : "Among all the chiefs there is none to equal you in greatness." "Do you really believe what you say?" asked the chief, in childish simplicity. "Indeed we do." Then the chief rushed through the crowd, cut the cords around the prisoner, and set him free. Before the astonishment was over, the prisoner was out of sight.

The Indian, like every other savage race, had a dark side to his character. His name be- The came a synonj^m for revenge and cruelty. ^^""^ ^^^^ But are we in a position to "cast the first stone?" Our estimate of his character was prepared by the white man. "If lions had painters," illustrates the Indian's position in history. Few men outside of the missionaries told his side of a long, cruel story. Columbus, the first white man to know the red men, pays them the high compliment that "they love their neighbors as themselves." The original Indians were not beasts of prey; they became such by exasperation.

Another instance of the deterioration of Indian character is his drunkenness. When Henry Hudson and his sailors first offered the cup to the Mohicans on Manhattan, it was passed around the circle as if they had been taught the lesson — "touch not, taste not, handle not." But one was tempted, and he became the Adam of a long line of Indian drunkards. The thoughtful Indians of a century or two ago well knew whom to blame for their drunkenness. A missionary once asked an Indian at Pittsburg who he was. He answered: "My name is Black Fish; when at home with my people, I am a clever fellow, but when here I am a hog." William Penn, in his letter to the Free Society of Traders, in London, saj^s: "Since the Europeans came into these parts, the Indians are grown great lovers of strong liquors, rum especially, and for it exchange the richest of their skins and furs." Surprise was often expressed by these simple children of the forest that a people who believe in a religion of the Great Spirit, who claim to have his own word in their houses, could think of making a liquor to bewitch and to destroy one another. When the English traders, soon after Penn's death, had gone among them in the valleys of the Juniata and the Susquehanna, they had constant complaints to make about the sale of rum to their people.

The Indimis of Pennsylvania 11

THEIR MODE OF LIFE

The Indians had no code of laws, except a few unwritten rules of justice and courtesy,

Few La>vs

which were enforced by the chiefs and their counsellors. The wampum, or Indian money, necessary to carry an order of the chief into effect, was freely given. Important transactions were ratified by strings and belts of wampum. Black wampum signified war ; white, peace, friendship, good- will. The pipe of peace, which was made of black or red stone, had to be whitened before it was used for such a purpose. To keep treaties fresh in the memory, the chiefs met occasionally at some chosen spot in the forest and rehearsed them. Thus, between the years 1770 and 1780, the Delawares could relate very minutely what had passed between William Penn and their forefathers. On such occasions, the Indians sat around a chest, took out one string or belt after another, handed it to every person present, and repeated the words spoken at its delivery.

The Indians had no schools. The parents taught the children. The first lessons were about

No Schools

the Great Spirit and about the duties to parents and elders. Reading and writing were unknown arts to them. The Iroquois and Delawares understood a little counting. The position of the sun served to show the time of day; and the stages of the corn, the season of the year. The marriage tie was weak, and polygamy was permitted. The children followed the mother in case of separation. The name, as a rule, was given by the father, who generally selected that of some animal. Other names were frequently added. Thus, one who wore torn or patched shoes was called Bad Shoes; one who had large eyes, Great Eye. To the white men the Indians gave suggestive names of their own. When the Delawares had learned the meaning of Penn's name, they at once called him Miquon, feather or quill. The Iroquois called him Onas, for the same reason. Ingenious compounds were invented. Thus, the name for Philadelphia was Queqiienaliti , "the grove of the long pine trees."

Hunting was considered the most honorable occupation. The Delawares early trained their boys to run so fast as to overtake a deer, and to shoot small fishes with their bows and arrows.

Occupations

Neshaminy Creek, Bucks county.

The oyster, the land -tortoise and the locust were also in demand for food. Vegetables of various kinds were raised; but maize, aside from meat and fish, was the chief food. They planted it after the hazelnut was in bloom, as a precaution against frost. The shoulderblade of a deer or a tortoise shell was used to hoe — a work that fell to the women.

Dancing and singing were the Indian's amusement, though he indulged in them for other pur-

Amusements .

poses. This grotesque performance ended in a disagreeable yell, which resembled the mewing of the cat -bird at the close of its pretty song. The war dance was to terrify, not to please. It was performed around a painted post, and the dancers went through all the motions and actions of the battle. After a victory, a dance of thanksgiving was in order. It was religious in its nature.

Stone's Life and Times of Bed-Jacket, Ch. i ; Heckewelder's Indian Nations; Parkman's Conspiracy of Poniiac, Ch.i; Schoolcraft's Notes on the Iroquois, Chs. iii and iv ; Doddridge's Notes, passim; Loskiel's Indian Mission, Part I.

CHAPTER 11 THE SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA

THE DUTCH .^

Penn^s settlers were not the first Europeans to dwell on the banks of the Delaware. Henry Hudson, the English explorer, after^ two failures under his native flag to discover a short' passage to Asia, got the consent of Holland to try the same experiment under the Dutch flag. In 1609, this daring adventurer, with some Netherlanders -and Englishmen, set sail in the Half Moon for China by way of the northeast. Fogs and ice, and the recollection of what Frobisher, Drake, Raleigh and other Englishmen had done in America, made him change^ his course. After stopping at various points along'^the Atlantic coast, he touched the mouth of "a great bay," which was afterwards named Delaware bay, in honor of Lord Delaware, who entered it the next year. Hudson spent one day on its waters, and then sailed north, discovering the river which bears his name. On this brief visit to Delaware bay the Dutch based their claim to the country of the Zuydt (south) bay and river. After Hudson had reported his discoveries to Holland, five vessels were sent from Amsterdam to America in 1614. Four of them made explorations around Manhattan and to the eastward. The other, under command of Cornelis Jacobson Mey, went south and reached Delaware bay, where the Captain left his name on the southern cape of New Jersey.

The vessels all returned to Holland except the Unrest, Captain Cornelis Hendrickson, which captain had been built on the Hudson to take the Hendrickson place of one that had been burned. The Unrest was accordingly the first vessel constructed in this country by Europeans. With it Captain Hendrickson, in 1616, explored the Delaware more minutely, ascending it as far north as the mouth of the Schuylkill, which river he discovered. By a singular coincidence, he met three Netherlanders near the site of Philadelphia ; they had come there from Fort Nassau (Albany) by way of the Mohawk and the Delaware. On his arrival home he gave a glowing account of the land of the Delaware, describing it as a vast forest, abounding in bucks and does, turkeys and partridges ; the climate temperate, and the trees mantled by the vine.

The application of the Puritans to settle in America under the protection of Holland, and the First settlement intimation that the English were disposed °" *^® Delaware to colonize the lands claimed by the Dutch, led, finally, to the chartering of the Dutch West India Company, 1621. This corporation at once turned its attention to its two objects — traffic and colonization. Its possessions extended from the Delaware to the Hudson, and were named "The New Netherlands." In the spring of 1623, Captain Mey sailed for the Delaware bay with a number of colonists. Passing the cape bearing his name, he ascended the river for a distance of fifty miles, and on the eastern shore erected Fort Nassau, near the present site of Gloucester. This was the first European settlement on the banks of the Delaware.

On the west side of the river, an association of patroons resident in Amsterdam, in 1630

Swaanendael

bought an estate from the Indians. A settlement of some thirty people, the first in Delaware, and older than any in Pennsylvania, was made the next year on Lewes creek. It was named Swaanendael, but its settlers, on account of a petty quarrel between the commander of the fort and the Indians about a piece of tin, were all murdered by the savages. Not even the faithful watchdog escaped. However, the ruins of Swaanendael and the bones of its Dutch inhabitants gave Delaware a separate existence. The English recognized occupancy as a title to the wilderness. Lord Baltimore's grant, which he received the year following the destruction of Swaanendael, extended over Delaware. Had it not been occupied before by the Dutch, the State would likely have been included in Maryland.

There is some evidence, too, of a very early Dutch A Dutch settlement on the soil of Pennsylvania.

Settlement in Tradition has it that a company of miners Pennsylvania ^^^^ Hollaud made their way from Esopus (now Kingston), on the Hudson, to the Delaware below Milford, and settled within the present limits of Monroe and Pike counties, principally on the site of Shawnee. There are accounts of "mine -holes" near the Blue mountains, and of a "mine-road" a hundred miles long. On this road, it is said, the Hollanders of the Minisink Flats took their wheat and cider to Esopus on the Hudson as late as 1730, without knowing anything about Philadelphia. Large orchards of "apple trees far beyond the size of any near Philadelphia" were reported to have been seen by some public surveyors about fifty years after the settlement of the state.

THE SWEDES

Before the Dutch could recover the soil of Delaware from the Indians, a European competitor Gustavus

appeared. As early as 1624, application Adoiphus and was made to Gustavus Adoiphus, King of o^«"«ti«-" Sweden, by a dissatisfied member of the Dutch West India Company, for a Swedish West India Company. The charter was granted in 1626. It was a paper that breathed much love for humanity. All oppressed Christendom was to have an asylum in the New World. The colony was to be "the j«wel of the kingdom." But alas ! the battle of Lutzen put an end to all of this good King's dreams. Fortunately, Oxenstiern, his Premier, became the executor of the plans of the dead master. Through this wise and good statesman the first permanent settlement was made on the Delaware.

Peter Minuit, a German of Wesel, the first governor of New Netherlands, was obliged to The Dutch resign in 1633, on account of factional Purchase strife. He then offered his services to the Swedes, and took out the first colony. He arrived in 1638, and landed his little company of Swedes and Finns near Lewes, Delaware. A fort was erected near the mouth of the creek, and both fort and creek were named Christina, in honor of the little girl who had succeeded

Gustavus Adoiphus.

her father to the throne. All the lauds from Cape Henlopen to the Falls of Trenton were purchased from the Indians, and stakes and marks put up. The Dutch protested, but without effect. The enthusiastic Scandinavians extended their plantations and their trade with the Indians, and exported thousands of skins the first year.

Seeing their protests defied, the Dutch stationed The Dutch some twenty men at Fort Nassau, which Settlers rn had bccu abaudoucd with the destruction Pennsylvania ^^ Swaaueudael. So whcu Printz, the third governor of New Sweden, arrived, in 1643, he selected the island of Tinicum, now Tinicum township, Delaware county, a few miles below Philadelphia, for a place of residence and defense, and called it New Gottenberg. A strong fort was built as a protection against attacks from Fort Nassau.

The governor also erected a handsome mansion with bricks from Sweden. This, it is said, stood for more than one hundred and fifty years, when its history was ended by a fire. New Gottenberg was the first European settlement in Pennsylvania of which there is positive knowledge. The few English families, Londoners, who had found the soil of Connecticut too stubborn for their easy habits, and had settled on the Schuylkill, either left or submitted to Swedish jurisdiction.

It now became evident to the Dutch on the The Swedes Hudsou that the Swedes on the Delaware Surrender wcrs bccomlng daugcrous rivals. Fort Nassau, "being too far up and out of the way," was broken up. and Fort Casimir erected in 1651, near the present town of New Castle, and about five

Swedish houses in Philadelphia.

miles from Fort Christina. It was agreed to be neighborly, but that was impossible. The Swedes soon took the offensive, gained entrance to Fort Casimir under pretense of friendship, and overpowered the garrison. This was a fatal step. Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherlands, was ordered to "avenge the wrong and to drive the Swedes from the Delaware or compel their submis - sion." In 1665, he compelled both Fort Casimir and Fort Christina to surrender to him.

Then ended the Swedish power on the Delaware. The whole territory, from Cape Henlopen to the Falls of Trenton, passed under the rule of the Dutch, which remained undisputed, except by Lord Baltimore, until 1664, when all of New Netherlands was taken by the Duke of York, to whom the King of England had granted it.