The Delaware River above Trenton is for miles a stream of alternating
pools and rapids, with canals on either side, passing frequent
villages and displaying pleasant scenery as it breaks through the
successive ridges in its approach to the mountains. Alongside the
river, in Solebury, Bucks County, in the early part of the eighteenth
century, was the humble home of the pioneer and hunter, Edward
Marshall, who made the fateful "walk" of 1737, the injustice of which
so greatly provoked the Indians, and was a chief cause of the most
savage Indian War of Colonial times. All the country west of the
Delaware, as far up as the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, was obtained
from the Indians by the deception of this "walk." The Indians in those
early times measured their distances by "days' journeys," and in
various treaties with the white men transferred tracts of land by the
measurement of "days' walks." William Penn had bought the land as far
up as Makefield and Wrightstown in Bucks County, and after his death
his descendants, Thomas and Richard Penn, became anxious to enlarge
the purchase, and this "walk" was the result. After a good deal of
preliminary negotiation, several sachems of the Lenni Lenapes were
brought to Philadelphia, and on August 25, 1737, made a treaty ceding
additional lands beginning "on a line drawn from a certain spruce tree
on the river Delaware by a west-northwest course to Neshaminy Creek;
from thence back into the woods as far as a man can go in a day and a
half, and bounded in the west by Neshaminy or the most westerly branch
thereof, so far as the said branch doth extend, and from thence by a
line to the utmost extent of the day and a half's walk, and from
thence to the aforesaid river Delaware; and so down the courses of the
river to the first-mentioned spruce tree." The Indians thought this
"walk" might cover the land as far north as the Lehigh, but there was
deliberate deception practiced. An erroneous map was exhibited
indicating a line extending about as far north as Bethlehem on the
Lehigh, and this deceived the Indians. The white officials had
previously been quietly going over the ground far north of the Lehigh,
blazing routes by marking trees, all of which was carefully concealed,
and Marshall and others had been employed on these "trial walks." A
reward of five hundred acres of land was promised the walkers.
Marshall and two others, Jennings and Yeates, were selected to do the
walking, all young and athletic hunters, experienced in woodcraft and
inured to hardships. The walk was fixed for September 19th, under
charge of the Sheriff, and before sunrise of that day a large number
of people gathered at the starting-point at Wrightstown, a few miles
west of the Delaware. An obelisk on a pile of boulders now marks the
spot at the corner of the Quaker Burying Ground, bearing an
inscription, "To the Memory of the Lenni Lenape Indians, ancient
owners of this region, these stones are placed at this spot, the
starting-point of the 'Indian walk,' September 19, 1737." The start
was made from a chestnut tree, three Indians afoot accompanying the
three walkers, while the Sheriff, surveyors and others, carrying
provisions, bedding and liquors, were on horseback. Just as the sun
rose above the horizon at six o'clock they started. When they had gone
about two miles, Jennings gave out. They halted fifteen minutes for
dinner at noon, soon afterwards crossed the Lehigh near the site of
Bethlehem, turned up that river, and at fifteen minutes past six in
the evening, completing the day's journey of twelve hours actual
travel, the Sheriff, watch in hand, called to them, as they were
mounting a little hill, to "pull up." Marshall, thus notified, clasped
his arms about a sapling for support, saying "he was almost gone, and
if he had proceeded a few poles farther he must have fallen." Yeates
seemed less distressed. The Indians were dissatisfied from the
outset, claiming the walk should have been made up the river, and not
inland. When the Lehigh was crossed, early in the afternoon, they
became sullen, complaining of the rapid gait of the walkers, and
several times protesting against their running. Before sunset two
Indians left, saying they would go no farther, that the walkers would
pass all the good land, and after that it made no difference how far
or where they went. The third Indian continued some distance, when he
lay down to rest and could go no farther.
The halt for the night was made about a half-mile from the Indian
village of Hokendauqua, a name which means "searching for land." This
was the village of Lappawinzoe, one of the sachems who had made the
treaty. The next morning was rainy, and messengers were sent him to
request a detail of Indians to accompany the walkers. He was in ugly
humor and declined, but some Indians strolled into camp and took
liquor, and Yeates also drank rather freely. The horses were hunted
up, and the second day's start made along the Lehigh Valley at eight
o'clock, some of the Indians accompanying for a short distance through
the rain, but soon leaving, dissatisfied. The route was
north-northwest through the woods, Marshall carrying a compass, by
which he held his course. In crossing a creek at the base of the
mountains, Yeates, who had become very lame and tired, staggered and
fell, but Marshall pushed on, followed by two of the party on
horseback. At two o'clock the "walk" ended on the north side of the
Pocono or Broad Mountain, not far from the present site of Mauch
Chunk. The distance "walked" in eighteen hours was about sixty-eight
miles, a remarkable performance, considering the condition of the
country. The terminus of the "walk" was marked by placing stones in
the forks of five trees, and the surveyors then proceeded to complete
the work by marking the line of northern limit of the tract across to
the Delaware River. This was done, not by taking the shortest route to
the river, but by running a line at right angles with the general
direction of the "walk;" and after four days' progress, practically
parallel to the Delaware, through what was then described as a "barren
mountainous region," the surveyors reached the river, in the upper
part of Pike County, near the mouth of Shohola Creek, just below the
Lackawaxen.
The Indians were loud in their complaints of the greediness shown in
this walk, and particularly of the carrying of the surveyors' line so
far to the northward, which none of them had anticipated. Marshall was
told by one old Indian, subsequently, "No sit down to smoke--no shoot
squirrel; but lun, lun, lun, all day long." Lappawinzoe, thoroughly
disgusted, said, "Next May we will go to Philadelphia, each one with a
buckskin, repay the presents, and take the lands back again." The
lands, however, were sold to speculators, so this was not practicable,
and when the new owners sought to occupy them, the Indians refused to
vacate. This provoked disputes over a half-million acres, a vast
domain. The Penns, to defend their position, afterwards repudiated the
surveyors, and they never fulfilled their promise to give Marshall
five hundred acres. This did not mend matters, however, and the Lenni
Lenape Indians' attitude became constantly more threatening, until the
scared Proprietary invited the intervention of their hereditary
enemies, the Iroquois Confederation, or Six Nations. In 1742 two
hundred and thirty leading Iroquois were brought to Philadelphia, and
the dispute submitted to their arbitration. They sided with the
Proprietary, and the Lenni Lenapes reluctantly withdrew to the Wyoming
Valley, part going as far west as Ohio. But they thirsted for revenge,
and when the French began attacking the frontier settlements, these
Indians became willing allies, making many raids and wreaking terrible
vengeance upon the innocent frontiersmen throughout Pennsylvania.
Marshall, who never got his reward, removed his cabin farther up the
Delaware, above the mouth of the Lehigh. The Indians always pursued
him, as an arch-conspirator, for a special vengeance. They attacked
his cabin, killing his wife and wounding a daughter, he escaping by
being absent. They made a second attack, and killed a son. His whole
life was embittered by these murders, and he lost no opportunity for
retaliation, removing, for greater safety, to an island in the river.
They pursued him for forty years, a party of Indians, during the
Revolution in 1777, coming all the way from Ohio to kill him, but he
eluded them and escaped. His closing years, however, were passed
peacefully, and he died at the age of ninety at his island home in the
Delaware.