p. 87. Her Pine Creek description (while describing tributaries of the
Susquehanna) speaks of the gorge as the upper course of Pine Creek,
which is now part of Harrison State Park. Here, she says, "The rim is
accessible by a paved highway, and from there one may look down a
thousand feet and understand why the Indians called the stream
Tiadaghton or Lost Creek."
[21] Edmund A. DeSchweinitz, _The Life and Times of David Zeisberger_
(Philadelphia, 1871), p. 133. Further evidence of DeSchweinitz'
confusion is found in his Geographical Glossary in the same book. On
page 707, he calls the Great Island, Lock Haven; on page 709, he calls
Long Island, Jersey Shore; and on page 713, he refers to Pine Creek as
the Tiadaghton, "also called Diadaghton."
[22] The term "New Purchase" was frequently used, both officially and
otherwise, to designate the area on the north side of the West Branch of
the Susquehanna from Lycoming Creek to the Great Island, although in
actuality the purchase line terminated at Lycoming Creek.
[23] Charles Smith, _Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania_
(Philadelphia, 1810), II, 274.
[24] Paul A. W. Wallace, _Conrad Weiser, Friend of Colonist and Mohawk_
(Philadelphia, 1945), p. 81.
[25] Wallace mistakenly attaches the appellation "Limping Messenger" to
"a foot-sore Indian named Anontagketa," _ibid._, p. 220. However, this
error was corrected in a letter to this writer, August 24, 1962.
[26] Wood (ed.), "Observations Made By John Bartram," p. 90.
[27] _Ibid._, p. 79.
[28] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 411.
[29] Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson (eds.), _Philip
Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775-1776_ (Princeton, 1934), pp. 69-76.
[30] Hazel Shields Garrison, "Cartography of Pennsylvania before 1800,"
_PMHB_, LIX (1935), 255-283. Information on Adlum's maps was obtained
from [T. Kenneth Wood], "Map Drawn by John Adlum, District Surveyor,
1792, Found Among the Bingham Papers," _Now and Then_, X (July, 1952),
148-150.
[31] [Wood], "Map Drawn by John Adlum," pp. 148-150.
[32] Bureau of Land Records, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, New Purchase
Applications, Nos. 1823 and 2611, April 3, 1769.
[33] _Pennsylvania Archives_, First Series, XI, 508.
[34] _Colonial Records_, X, 95.
[35] In a letter to this writer, May 19, 1962, Professor Marshall
states: "It was my opinion that the treaty marked, in one aspect, a
bargain between Johnson and the Six Nations. I do not accept
Billington's charge of betrayal of their interests. But it does seem to
me that this meant hard bargaining in New York, when the state of Indian
and colonial lands was precisely known to both sides, and indifference
and ignorance beyond this point.... As far as I am aware, there was no
prolonged and close discussion about the running of the line in
Pennsylvania in the least comparable to that which took place over its
location in New York." _See_ Peter Marshall, "Sir William Johnson and
the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768," _The Journal of American Studies_, I
(Oct., 1967), pp. 149-179.
[36] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 340.
[37] Helen Herritt Russell, "Signers of the Pine Creek Declaration of
Independence," _The Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings
and Addresses_, XXII (1958), 1-15.
[38] The fame of this historic elm stems from the fact that it is
reputed to be the site of a local declaration of independence made the
same day as the adoption of Jefferson's draft in Philadelphia, July 4,
1776. The author is indebted to Donald H. Kent, Director of the Bureau
of Archives and History, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,
for the idea and some of the expression in this paragraph.
[39] Paul A. W. Wallace, _Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation_ (New York,
1962) p. 3. This delightful book in the "Regions of America" series,
edited by Carl Carmer, contains an excellent chapter on the significance
of Pennsylvania's "Three Rivers."
[40] Gristmills--meeting places of the Fair Play tribunal--a school, and
a church would all be found in this Pine Creek region. However, the
church (Presbyterian) would not be built until the territory became an
official part of the Commonwealth following the second Stanwix Treaty in
1784.
[41] Robert Frost, _Complete Poems of Robert Frost_ (New York, 1949), p.
467. This poem somehow characterizes the experiences of the settlers of
this frontier and many frontiers to come.
CHAPTER TWO
_The Fair Play Settlers: Demographic Factors_
James Logan, president of the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania,
1736-1738, once declared that "if the Scotch-Irish continue to come they
will make themselves masters of the Province."[1] His prediction, which
was to be generally proven in the Province during the French and Indian
War, was to be demonstrated particularly in the West Branch Valley
during the Revolutionary period. The Scotch-Irish were the dominant
national or ethnic group in the Fair Play territory from 1769 to 1784.
This dominance is demonstrated in Chart 1, which indicates the national
origins of eighty families in the Fair Play territory.
CHART 1
National Origins of Fair Play Settlers[2]
Expressed in Numbers and Percentages
Total Scotch-Irish English German Scots Irish Welsh French
====================================================================
80 39 16 12 5 4 2 2
% 48.75 20 15 6.25 5 2.5 2.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Not only were the Scotch-Irish the most numerous national stock among
the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch Valley, but they also
represented a plurality and almost a majority of the entire population.
The significance of this finding in terms of the "style of life" of the
Fair Play settlers cannot be over-emphasized. It influenced the
politics, the religion, the family patterns, and thus the values of this
frontier society.
Several other important conclusions can be drawn from this chart. In
contrast to the population of Pennsylvania in general and the
assumptions regarding frontier areas in particular, the English, rather
than the Germans, were the second most numerous national stock group.
The Germans, however, made up the third-largest segment of the West
Branch Valley population. The Scots, Welsh, Irish, and a few French
inhabitants formed the remaining sixteen per cent of the population.
Obviously, this was a dominantly Anglo-Saxon Protestant area of
settlement.
The impact of this Scotch-Irish hegemony upon the religion, politics,
family life, and social values in general will be dealt with in a later
chapter. However, it can be noted at this juncture that the
strong-willed individualism which characterized these sturdy people was
as much influenced by their national origin as by their experience on
the American frontier. Furthermore, Presbyterianism influenced and was
influenced by a developing democratic political system, which paralleled
the American Presbyterian system of popular rather than hierarchical
church government.[3] A prominent immigration historian has pointed out
that "the theory of Presbyterian republicanism, as a matter of church
policy, could easily be reconciled with demands of the more radical
democrats of 1776."[4] Finally, the social life and customs and, hence,
the values of this frontier society were governed for the most part by
this majority group. Thus, dogmatic faith, political equality, social
and economic independence, respect for education, and a tightly-knit
pattern of family relationships express appropriately the institutional
patterns by which the Scotch-Irish of the West Branch operated.
It is interesting to contrast the national stock groupings of this
Susquehanna frontier with the results of a study of national origins of
the American population made by the American Council of Learned
Societies and published in 1932:[5]
CHART 2
Classification of the White Population into Its National
Stocks in the Continental United States and Pennsylvania:
1790; and in the Fair Play Territory: 1784 (Expressed in Percentages).
Scotch-Irish English German Scots Irish Welsh French Other
=========================================================================
Conti-
nental
United
States 5.9 60.1 8.6 8.1 3.6 0 2.3 10.6
Penn-
sylva-
nia 11.0 35.3 33.3 8.6 3.5 0 1.8 6.5
Fair
Play
Terri-
tory 48.75 20 15 6.25 5 2.5 2.5 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From this comparison it can readily be seen that the national origins of
the Fair Play settlers in no way conform to either the national pattern
or the State pattern of just a few years later. Although this limited
frontier area can be recognized as having its own individual ratio of
component stocks, it is representative rather than unique in its culture
and values. The reaction of those of other national stocks to the
frontier experience buttresses the conclusion that their values were
influenced more by the frontier than by national origin. It is this
common reaction to the problems of the frontier which gives rise to the
conclusion that this West Branch Valley environment was characterized by
and that its inhabitants held values which Turner evaluated as
democratic. The nature of those democratic values is, however, dealt
with in greater detail in subsequent chapters.
The American sources of emigration form the next question to be
considered in examining the origins of the Fair Play settlers. Lacking
adequate statistical data for a complete picture of migration in terms
of percentages, the following chart indicates only the probable origins
of the three most numerous national stock groupings in the Fair Play
territory:
CHART 3
American Sources of Emigration[6]
National Percentage of
Stock Population American Source of Emigration
===============================================================
Scotch-Irish 48.75 Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin,
Lancaster counties
English 20 New Jersey, New York, southeastern
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and
Bucks counties)
German 15 Chester, Lancaster, Philadelphia,
and York counties
Total 83.75
---------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously, the primary sources for the West Branch settlements were the
lower Susquehanna Valley and southeastern Pennsylvania. However, an
appreciable number of English settlers appear to have come originally
from New Jersey to settle in what they called "Jersey Shore,"
immediately east of the mouth of Pine Creek. One explanation for the
migration of the dominant stock, the Scotch-Irish, is probably the fact
that the Provincial government refused to sell more lands in Lancaster
and York counties to the Scotch-Irish. In effect, they were driven to
use squatter tactics in the Fair Play territory.[7]
The internal origins of sixteen of these settlers can be verified in
either Meginness or Linn. Four came from Chester County, three each from
the Juniata Valley and Lancaster County, two each from Cumberland County
and New Jersey, and one each from Dauphin County and from Orange County
in New York. Nine of these settlers, incidentally, were Scotch-Irish.
Although these data are insufficient for any valid generalization, they
do conform to the characteristic migratory trends indicated in Chart 3.
In analyzing the migration of settlers into the West Branch Valley
beyond the line of the "New Purchase," it becomes apparent that the
Scotch-Irish came from the fringe areas of settlement, whereas the
English and Germans tended to migrate from more settled areas.
Furthermore, the English migrants often came from outside the Province
of Pennsylvania, either from New Jersey or New York. In fact, if one
were to construct a pattern of concentric zones, with the core in the
southeastern corner of the Province and the lines radiating in a
north-westerly direction, the English would be found at the core, the
Germans in the next zone, and the Scotch-Irish in the outlying area.
This zoning offers no real contradiction of the usual pattern of
Pennsylvania migrations. However, when one combines the data of internal
movements with those of external origins, certain contradictions do
appear. The most noteworthy of these is, of course, the prominence of
English settlers on this Fair Play frontier vis-a-vis the Germans.
Since the Pennsylvania frontiersmen of the Wyoming Valley were of
English stock, and immigrated from New England, it might have been
assumed that some of these Connecticut settlers came into the West
Branch Valley. Here, however, all evidence points to the fact that
Connecticut settlers did not migrate west of Muncy, which is located at
the juncture of Muncy Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River
(where the bend in the river turns into a directly western pattern).
Thus the Connecticut boundary dispute of 1769-1775, which erupted into
the Pennamite Wars, did not involve the Fair Play settlers.[8]
Nevertheless, at least one Fair Play settler looked forward to the
possibility of an advance of the Connecticut settlement along the West
Branch.[9]
The impact of events upon the settlement of the Fair Play territory is
particularly apparent when one examines the periods of immigration to
and emigration from the region. Three events seemed to have had the
greatest influence upon the immigration: the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in
1768, which extended the Provincial limits to Lycoming Creek in this
region, and the resultant opening of the Land Office for claims in the
"New Purchase" on April 3, 1769;[10] the almost complete evacuation of
the territory in the "Great Runaway" of the summer of 1778, which was
prompted by Indian attacks and the fear of a great massacre comparable
to the "Wyoming Valley Massacre" of that same year;[11] and finally, the
Stanwix Treaty of 1784, which brought the Fair Play area within the
limits of the Province.[12]
The first Stanwix Treaty, made by Sir William Johnson with the Six
Nations in November of 1768, extended the legitimate line of English
colonial settlement from the line established by the Proclamation of
1763 to a point on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River at the mouth
of Lycoming Creek (the Tiadaghton, as it was so ambiguously
labeled).[13] This extension, ostensibly for the purpose of providing
lands for the colonial veterans of the French and Indian War, became a
boon to speculators and an inducement to the Scotch-Irish squatters who
took lands beyond the limits of this "New Purchase" in what was to
become the Fair Play territory.
In the summer of 1778 the war whoop once again caused the settlers of
the West Branch Valley to flee from their homes for fear of a repetition
of the Wyoming Massacre. The peril of the moment is vividly described in
this communication to the Executive Council in Philadelphia from Colonel
Samuel Hunter, commander of Fort Augusta:
The Carnage at Wioming, the devastations and murders upon the West
branch of Susquehanna, On Bald Eagle Creek, and in short throughout
the whole County to within a few miles of these Towns (the recital
of which must be shocking) I suppose must have before now have
reached your ears, if not you may figure yourselves men, women, and
children, Butchered and scalped, many of them after being promised
quarters, and some scalped alive, of which we have miserable
Instances amongst us.... I have only to add that A few Hundreds of
men well armed and immediately sent to our relief would prevent much
bloodshed, confusion and devastation ... as the appearance of being
supported would call back many of our fugitives to save their
Harvest for their subsistence, rather than suffer the inconveniences
which reason tells me they do down the Country and their with their
families return must ease the people below of a heavy and
unprofitable Burthen.[14]
Robert Covenhoven, who lived at the mouth of the Loyalsock Creek and who
fled to Sunbury (Fort Augusta) also, described the flight:
Such a sight I never saw in my life. Boats, canoes, hog-troughs,
rafts hastily made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article,
had been put in requisition, and were crowded with women, children,
and plunder. There were several hundred people in all.... The whole
convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire range of farms
along the West Branch to the ravages of the Indians.[15]
In this eighteenth-century Dunkirk, the West Branch Valley was
practically cleared of settlers.
The Indians, it is true, proved troublesome to the entire advancing
American frontier; but unlike the French, whose menacing forts had been
removed in the recent wars, the Indians were unable to halt the westward
penetration. An expedition under the leadership of Colonel Thomas
Hartley was sent out expressly for the purpose of boosting morale in the
West Branch Valley following the Wyoming Massacre and the Great Runaway.
Colonel Hartley's letter to Thomas McKean, chief justice of Pennsylvania
and a member of the Continental Congress, gives bitter testimony to the
conditions which he observed in September of 1778:
You heard of the Distresses of these Frontiers they are truly
great--The People which we found were Difident and timid The Panick
had not yet left them--many a wealthy Family reduced to Poverty &
without a home, some had lost their Husbands their children or
Friends--all was gloomy.... the Barbarians do now and then attack an
unarmed man a Helpless Mother or Infant....
The colonel indicated, however, that strong militia support and some
offensive action would restore confidence and cause the people to return
to the valley. His interpretation of the significance of his mission is
quite clearly stated in the conclusion of his letter: "We shall not have
it in our Power to gain Honour or Laurels on these Frontiers but we have
the Satisfaction to think we save our Country...." Hartley's solution to
the Indian problem, which had driven off the settlers, was to expel them
"beyond the Lakes" excepting only the more civilized Tuscaroras and
Oneidas.[16]
Despite the danger from the Indians, the Fair Play settlers began
trickling back to their homes, or what was left of them, toward the end
of the Revolutionary War. Once the war was ended and the Fair Play
territory was annexed by subsequent purchase, the mass movement of
settlers to the West Branch Valley resumed.
Incidentally, Dr. Wallace in his _Conrad Weiser_ assesses one John Henry
Lydius with the major responsibility for the Indian massacres in central
and northeastern Pennsylvania. Wallace notes that Lydius' Connecticut
purchase from the Indians in 1754 caused "war between Pennsylvania and
Connecticut and ... [precipitated] the Massacre of Wyoming in 1778."
This massacre, as West Branch historians know, had its subsequent impact
on the West Branch Valley in the Great Runaway, although the Winters
Massacre of June 10, 1778, which prompted the evacuation of the valley,
actually preceded the Wyoming affair.[17]
Finally, the purchase of the remaining Indian lands in Pennsylvania
(except for the small corner of the Erie Triangle) was made on October
3, 1784, in a second Stanwix Treaty. This accession ended the
Pennsylvania boundary dispute with the Six Nations; and it also ended
the need for any extra-legal system of government in the West Branch
Valley, for this new treaty encompassed the Fair Play territory.[18]
However, this treaty raised the troublesome Tiadaghton question once
again, a question only partly resolved by the Legislature's designation
of Lycoming Creek as the Tiadaghton and the recognition of the
squatters' right of pre-emption to their settlements along the West
Branch of the Susquehanna.[19] The land office was opened for the sale
of this purchase July 1, 1785; by 1786 fifty heads of families were
listed for State taxes in Northumberland County.[20] Approximately fifty
per cent of these taxables had been in the area earlier.
Perhaps the only significant nationality trend to be noted in this
important sequence of events is the tenacity of the Scotch-Irish and the
subsequent increase of English and German settlers following this last
"New Purchase."[21] Over half of the taxables in Pine Creek Township,
the new designation for much of the Fair Play territory after it became
an official part of the Province, were Scotch-Irish. As a result, these
Scots from the north of Ireland continued to maintain their position of
leadership even after the area was included in the Commonwealth.
The reasons for migrating to the West Branch Valley in this fifteen-year
period from 1769 to 1784 were varied and numerous. For the most part,
the various nationality groups which emigrated from Europe came for
economic opportunity and because of religious and political
persecutions. Their movement to the frontier regions was prompted by
similar problems. In fact, much the same as the earlier settlers of
Jamestown and Plymouth, the squatters of the West Branch Valley came for
gain and for God. Furthermore, the promise of Penn's "Holy Experiment,"
in which men of diverse backgrounds could live together peacefully in
religious freedom and political equality, encouraged them to come to
Pennsylvania. However, once the dominant group of the Fair Play
frontier, the Scotch-Irish, arrived in Pennsylvania, they found
themselves unsuited to the settled areas. The natural enemy of the
English, who had oppressed them at home, these settlers soon found
themselves repeating the Old World conflicts. In addition, the German
Pietists caused them further embarrassment in their new homes. Their
Calvinism, fierce political independence, and earnest desire for land
and opportunity soon made them _personae non gratae_ in the established
areas. Hence, they migrated to the frontier areas and even beyond the
limits of Provincial interference and control.[22]
The paucity of population data makes impossible any extensive analysis
of the stability and mobility of the Fair Play settlers. However, the
tax lists, both in the published archives and in the files of the county
commissioners in Northumberland County, offer limited evidence for the
early years, though they provide ample data for the years after 1773.
Prior to the Great Runaway in 1778, tax lists are available for the
entire county of Northumberland; the lists simply indicate the taxable's
township, acreage, and tax. Records in the Northumberland County
courthouse give the assessments for 1773, 1774, 1776, and 1778.
Due to the fact that the Fair Play territory was outside the Provincial
limits until after the purchase of Fort Stanwix in 1784, the assessment
lists give only those persons residing within Northumberland County. As
a result, there were only six to twelve settlers who associated with the
Fair Play men who were included in the lists for 1773-1778. Chart 4
indicates the names, national origins, and years listed for those
settlers.
CHART 4
Fair Play Settlers on the Tax Rolls 1773-1778.[23]
Name National Origin 1773 1774 1776 1778
==============================================================
James Alexander Scotch-Irish x x
George Calhoune Scotch-Irish x x x x
Cleary Campbell Scotch-Irish x
William Campbell, Jr. Scotch-Irish x x x x
William Campbell, Jr. Scotch-Irish x x
John Clark English x
Thomas Forster English x x x x
James Irwin Scotch-Irish x x x x
John Jamison English x
Isaiah Jones Welsh x
Robert King German x x x
John Price Welsh x x
--- --- --- ---
Totals 6 8 7 7
--------------------------------------------------------------