Area History: Bell's History of Northumberland County, PA - the COLONIAL

Area History: Bell's History of Northumberland County, PA - THE COLONIAL

PERIOD (Concluded) - Part I

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______

HISTORY

OF

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY,

PENNSYLVANIA

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

CHAPTER II.

Pages 42 to 59

THE COLONIAL PERIOD (Concluded). Part I

PURCHASE OF THE SUSQUEHANNA - ALIENATION OF THE DELAWARE INDIANS -

HOSTILITIES INAUGURATED - RUMORS OF FRENCH INVASION - DEFENSIVE MEASURES

ADOPTED - THE AUGUSTA REGIMENT ORGANIZED TO BUILD A PORT AT SHAMOKIN -

PROGRESS OF THE EXPEDITION-CONSTRUCTION OF FORT AUGUSTA - PRINCIPAL

EVENTS OF COLONEL CLAPHAM'S ADMINISTRATION

The peaceful intercourse of the trader, the interpreter, and the

missionary, with the Indians of Shamokin and the surrounding region,

the narration of which forms so large a part of the preceding chapter,

was abruptly terminated by the massacre of Penn's creek. This was but

the beginning of a protracted Indian war, the causes of which are to be

found principally in the policy of the provincial authorities in the

purchase of Indian lands.

The first Indian deed to William Penn was executed on the 15th of

July, 1682, by certain chiefs of the Delaware Indians, and conveyed the

southeastern part of Bucks county. This was negotiated by William

Markham, and when the Proprietor himself arrived the further

acquisition of territory was energetically continued. Numerous deeds of

varying importance were executed by the Delawares during the following

years; and finally, on the 17th of September, 1718, a general release

was signed by their king, Sassoonan, and six of their chiefs for all

the territory between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers "from Duck

creek to the mountains on this side Lechay." In these negotiations the

Delawares were treated with as an independent tribe, and the various

transactions seem to have been mutually satisfactory.

Almost before his Colony was firmly established upon the Delaware,

Penn anticipated the extension of settlement to the westward by

negotiating with the Iroquois for the Susquehanna valley. In this he

secured the services of Thomas Dongan, Governor of New York and

subsequently Earl of Limerick, who wrote him as follows regarding the

contemplated purchase under date of October 10, 1683:-

END OF PAGE 42

I have had an account from Albany of the Indians being there, and

find they can not agree among themselves; I hope Mr. Graham will find

them there, and that my orders have taken effect, though I would not

advise you to settle any people suddenly upon it before the Indians

agree among themselves, two or three of the most powerful nations being

debarred from any interest in it, as you will see by the inclosed. The

Maquas have been here with me, and told me there was one about to

purchase the land; I have ordered them to agree in a peaceable way about

it and they have promised to send me word as soon as they do, of which I

will immediately after acquaint you. They have also given me the land,

and pretend that they have better interest than any other. They have all

of them agreed to give Susquehanna river to me and this government,

which I have under their bands to show for it.*

From this it is evident that Graham was the agent by whom the

original purchase was made; that the Five Nations were not jointly

interested, but that the Maquas (Mohawks), pretended to a "better

interest than any other," and that the council of the confederation was

divided in sentiment regarding the matter. These differences were at

length harmonized, and on the 22d of October, 1683, Dongan wrote. "The

Susquehanna river is given me by the Indians by a second gift, about

which you and I shall not fall out."† It was not until 1696, however,

that the transfer was made to William Penn. On the 12th of January in

that year Thomas Dongan granted to him "all that tract of land lying

upon on both sides the river commonly called by known by the name of

the Susquehanna" for one thousand years at an annual rental of one

pepper corn; and on the following day (January 13, 1696), he conveyed

the same to William Penn in fee simple at the consideration of one

hundred pounds.

The lower Susquehanna valley, the southern part of the lands in

question, was occupied at that time by the Susquehannock Indians, and

these transactions were naturally of vital interest to them. At a

conference at Conestoga in 1721, Civility, "a descendant of the ancient

Susquehannock Indians, the old settlers of these parts," stated "that he

had been informed by their old men that they were troubled when they

heard that their lands had been given up to a place so far distant as

New York, and that they were overjoyed when they understood William

Penn had bought them back again." On his second visit to the Province,

the Proprietor, actuated doubtless by motives of policy no less than a

sense of justice, further strengthened his title to the Susquehanna by

securing from the Susquehannocks a release even more absolute than that

which he had obtained from their conquerors. By the terms

______

*Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, pp. 76-77.

†Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, p. 81.

At a conference with the Six Nations at Conestoga in July, 1721,

"they were told it was now very near, viz., within one moon, of thirty-

seven years since a great man of England, Governor of Virginia, called

the Lord Effingham, together with Colonel Dongan, Governor of New York,

held a great treaty with them at Albany, of which we had the writings to

this day. Ghesaont answered they knew It well, and the subject of that

treaty, it was, he said, about settling of lands. Being further told

that in that treaty the Five Nations had given Up all their right to

all the lands on Susquehanna to the Duke of York, then brother to the

King of England, he acknowledged this to be so." Colonial Records, Vol.

III. p. 133.

From this it would seem that Dongan's purchase was not

consummated until August, 1684.

END OF PAGE 43

of this instrument, which was executed on the 18th of September, 1700,

Widaagh alias Orytyagh and Andaggy Junkquah, "kings or sachems of the

Susquehannock Indians and of the river under that name and lands lying

on both sides thereof," granted and confirmed to William Penn "all the

said river Susquehanna and all the islands therein, and all the lands

situate, lying, and being upon both sides of the said river and next

adjoining to the same, extending to the utmost confines of the lands

which are or formerly were the right of the people or nation called the

Susquehannock Indians," with all the right title, and interest therein

that they or their ancestors " could, might, or ought to have had,

held, or enjoyed." The bargain and sale effected by Dongan were also

distinctly ratified; and on the 23d of April, 1701, the Potomac and

Shawanese Indians, with other chiefs of the Susquehannocks, entered into

a treaty with Penn by which the purchase from Orytyagh and Andaggy

Junkquah was approved and confirmed.

While the Susquehannocks were apparently well satisfied, the

Six Nations were not. They acknowledged Dongan's deed at a conference

with Governor Gookin at Conestoga in 1710, but several years later the

Cayugas "had the boldness to assert that all the lands upon Susquehanna

river belonged to them and that the English had no right to settle

there;" and although the sale to Dongan was admitted and confirmed at

the Conestoga conference of July, 1721, and at Albany in September,

1722, his transfer to Penn seems to have been both incomprehensible and

unsatisfactory. The reason for this were thus stated by Canassatego, an

Onondaga chief, at the Lancaster treaty in 1744:-

Our brother Onas [Penn] a great while ago came to Albany to buy the

Susquehanna lands of us, but our brother, the Governor of New York,

who, as we suppose, had not a good understanding with our brother Onas,

advised us not to sell him any lands, for he would make an ill use of

it; and, pretending to be our good friend, he advised us, in order to

prevent Onas or any other persons imposing upon us, and that we might

always have our land when we should want it, to put it into his hands,

and told us he would keep it for our use and never open his hands but

keep them close shut and not part with any of it but at our request.

Accordingly, we trusted him and put our land into his hands and charged

him to keep it safe for our use. But some time after he went away to

England and carried our land with him, and there sold it to our brother

Onas for a large sum of money; and when, at the instance of our brother

Onas, we were minded to sell him some lands, he told us that we had sold

the Susquehanna lands already to the Governor of New York and that he

had bought them from him in England.*

At length, in pursuance of a decision of the Onondaga council, a

deputation was sent to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1736 for the

purpose of terminating all disputes relating to the Susquehanna river

and lands. A conference was held, resulting in the execution of a deed

by which the Six Nations, on the 11th of October, 1736, released and

confirmed to the Proprietaries "all the said river Susquehanna, with the

lands lying on both sides

______

*Colonial Records, Vol. IV, p. 708.

END OF PAGE 44

thereof, to extend eastward as far as the heads of the branches or

springs which run into the said Susquehanna, and all the lands lying on

the west side of the said river to the setting of the sun, and to extend

from the mouth of the said river northward up the same to the hills or

mountains called in the language of the said nations the Tyannuntasachta

or Endless hills and by the Delaware Indians the Kekkachtananin hills."

After the close of the conference the Indians set out on the return

journey; at Tulpehocken, October 25, 1736, they signed a supplementary

document declaring that the "true intent and meaning" of their deed of

the 11th instant was, to release all that part of the Province between

the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers with the Endless hills as the

northern boundary. The Kittatinny range thus became the line of the

Province along the entire north and west frontier from the Delaware

river to the Maryland border.

The next purchase from the Six Nations was made in 1749. On this

occasion they took the initiative; the conference began at Philadelphia

on the 16th of August, 1749, when, after the usual preliminary exchange

of courtesies, Canassatego reminded the Governor and Council of their

agreement under previous treaties to remove all persons who should

locate upon lands not yet purchased, and of their evident inability to

carry this stipulation into effect; but, as it would involve much

trouble to remove the intruders, the Six Nations were willing "to give

up the land on the east side of Susquehanna from the Blue hills or

Chambers' mill to where Thomas McKee, the Indian trader, lives," and

leave the amount of the consideration for the Governor and Council to

determine. The Governor replied that this proposition could not be

acceded to, as the lands offered were principally mountainous, but if

they would make Shamokin the northern limit and the Delaware river the

eastern boundary the Council and himself were ready to offer a fair

price and bring the transaction to a close. After some further

negotiations it was finally agreed that the northern line should begin

on the Susquehanna river at "the first or nearest mountain to the north

side of the mouth of the creek called in the language of the said Five

Nation Indians Cantaguy and in the language of the Delaware Indians

Mahanoy" and extend in a direct course to the Delaware river at the

mouth of Lackawaxen creek. The amount paid was five hundred pounds, and

the deed was executed on the 22d of August 1749. The course of the

northern boundary of this purchase in Northumberland county coincided

very nearly with the Little mountain.

As settlers continued to encroach upon the Indian lands beyond the

Kittatinny range and west of the Susquehanna, Tachnechdorus was sent to

the Six Nations in the spring of 1754 to arrange the preliminaries for

another purchase. In the following summer their chiefs were met at

Albany by the Pennsylvania commissioners, who at once opened

negotiations for a release of all their lands as far west as the extent

of the Province and as far north as they were willing to sell. At length

they acquiesced in the proposed western

END OF PAGE 45

boundary, but Hendrick, the great Mohawk chief made the following

significant utterance in his reply to the commissioners: "We will never

part with the land at Shamokin and Wyoming; our bones are scattered

there, and on this land there has always been a great council fire." It

was finally decided that the northern line should begin on the

Susquehanna river a mile above Penn's creek (a point nearly opposite

Sunbury), and extend "northwest by west" to the confines of the

Province. The deed was signed on the 6th of July, 1754.

Notwithstanding the comprehensive character of the release of

1718, the lands thus ceded by the Delawares were insufficient for the

extension of settlements between the Delaware and Susquehanna. In 1732

the region drained by the Schuylkill and its tributaries was purchased,

but while this quieted the Delawares regarding the Tulpehocken lands,

they were still greatly dissatisfied with the settlement of the

Minisink, their ancient council seat, which they were naturally

reluctant to relinquish. At this juncture a deed, said to have been made

in 1686, was produced; under its alleged provisions the "walking

purchase" of 1737 was consummated, but in a manner highly

unsatisfactory to the Delawares, who absolutely refused to acknowledge

its validity. The Six Nations had released the lands in question by the

supplementary deed of 1736, and in 1742 the matter was brought to their

consideration at a conference in Philadelphia. Canassatego, in

announcing their decision administered a terrible castigation to the

unfortunate Delawares. "You ought to be taken by the hair of the head,"

said he, "and shaked severely till you recover your senses...... We

conquered you, we made women of you, you know you are women, and can no

more sell land than women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of

selling lands, since you would abuse it. This land that you claim is

gone through your guts.....Did you ever tell us that you had sold this

land? Did we ever receive any part, even the value of a pipe shank, from

you for it?..You act a dishonest part, not only in this but in other

matters...... And for all these reasons we charge you to remove

instantly. We don't give you the liberty to think about it...... We

therefore assign you two places to go, either to Wyoming or Shamokin.

You may go to either of these places, and then we shall have you more

under our eye and shall see how you behave.....This string of wampum

serves to forbid you, your children and grandchildren to the latest

posterity, forever meddling in land affairs."* The immediate object of

the government in invoking the authority of the Six Nations was

successfully accomplished. The remnant of the Delawares forthwith

removed to the localities designated, and some continued their journey

to the Ohio; but they retained a deep resentment toward the provincial

authorities, and contact with the French on the Ohio early served to

alienate them entirely from the English interest.

______

*Colonial Records, Vol. IV. pp. 579-580.

END OF PAGE 46

The exploration of the Susquehanna valley by Etienne Brulé has been

related in the preceding chapter; and while it can not be positively

stated that this formed the basis of the French pretensions, the

Susquehanna river is given as the western boundary of Pennsylvania in a

map of Louisiana published at Paris in 1721. It was not until 1753,

however, that the French accentuated their claims to Pennsylvania