first place on the right of the hostess. This position of honor was
accorded her whenever she was present at a similar function, either in
New York or Philadelphia.
The glad news was soon received in Philadelphia that the capital was to
be removed from New York to the city which had been the capital of the
thirteen colonies during the Revolution and where the Constitution of
the United States was born.
President and Mrs. Washington soon became comfortably settled in the
fine home of Robert Morris, the same house which Sir William Howe
occupied while the British were in possession of Philadelphia and
General Washington was suffering with the Colonial troops at Valley
Forge. The Morris house was built of brick, three stories high. The
stable could accommodate twelve horses. This property was purchased by
Mr. Morris in August, 1785, and at once he rebuilt the house, which had
been destroyed by fire in 1780. Mr. and Mrs. Morris moved into the house
which had been confiscated from Joseph Galloway during the Revolution.
It adjoined the other residence.
The President and Mrs. Washington reached Philadelphia November 27,
1790. At the first levee given Mr. and Mrs. Morris were, as usual,
honored guests.
The home of the Washingtons became noted for its generous hospitality.
The younger people of the President’s household, as well as their
elders, were fond of going to the theatre.
The family of the President and his wife included Miss Custis, a
granddaughter of Mrs. Washington, aged about sixteen, and George
Washington Custis, her brother, about eighteen years old.
Their dinners were elegant and in good taste. President Washington had a
stud of twelve or fourteen horses and occasionally rode out to take the
air with six horses to the coach, and always two footmen behind his
carriage.
When the news reached Philadelphia that Washington had died, bells were
muffled for three days, a funeral procession was held and Major General
Henry Lee delivered an oration.
With Washington gone, the removal of the capital to the new Federal City
did not bring such a wrench to the people of Philadelphia, who dearly
loved the great and good man and his estimable wife.
----------
Moravian Mission at Wyalusing Established
May 23, 1763
During the month of May, 1760, Christian Frederic Post, the renowned
Moravian, on his way with a message from James Hamilton, Lieutenant
Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, to the Great Indian Council at
Onondaga, the seat of government of the Six Nations, stopped overnight
at Wyalusing in now Bradford County. At the request of Papunhank, the
chief of the Munsee, and the other Indians, he preached a sermon. Among
those in the crowd on that occasion were Job Chilloway, the friendly
Delaware Indian interpreter, and Tom Curtis, another Indian of much
consequence.
Papunhank was losing his influence among his people on account of his
own dissolute life, and a movement was started to bring in white
teachers. In their councils, however, they were divided in opinion, one
party favoring the Quakers and the other the Moravians, and so equal was
the strength of the two parties that neither was willing to yield to the
other. Their differences were compromised by agreeing to accept the
first teacher who came.
John Woolman, the prominent Quaker evangelist, having made the
acquaintance of some of the Wyalusing Indians at Philadelphia, probably
of Papunhank himself, after much deliberation, set out in company with
Benjamin Parvin, to visit the town, in May, 1763, purposing, if he
should be well received, to remain with them and teach them the gospel.
In the meantime, news of the awakened interest in religion at Wyalusing
reached the ears of Reverend David Zeisberger, the celebrated Moravian
apostle to the Indians, and he left Bethlehem May 18, 1763, meeting
Woolman on the mountain below Wilkes-Barre, where they dined together.
Zeisberger proceeded on his way and reached Wyalusing on May 23, two
days before Woolman arrived there.
When Zeisberger had arrived a short distance above the Lackawanna, he
was met by Job Chilloway who informed him of the conclusion of the
council at Onondaga, and accompanied him to Papunhank’s town. Here
Zeisberger was received as the divinely sent messenger, and though
wearied by his long journey, at once set about preaching the gospel to
his waiting and anxious hearers.
Woolman, on his arrival two days later, was received kindly, but was
informed that, according to the decisions of their council, Zeisberger
must be regarded as their accepted teacher. After remaining five days to
assist in inaugurating the good work, he departed, with many prayers for
the abundant success of the mission. The opportune arrival of Zeisberger
was the occasion of founding one of the most important and successful
missions ever established among the North American Indians.
Zeisberger was appointed resident missionary at Wyalusing soon as it was
learned that he had been so well received. He prosecuted his labors
there and at Tawandaemenk, a village at the mouth of Towanda Creek, with
great success.
Scarcely had a month elapsed from the time Zeisberger’s first visit to
Wyalusing, before the Pontiac War broke out, and the messengers of that
celebrated chieftain were sent to every village on the Susquehanna, to
urge the Indians to again take up the hatchet which they had so recently
buried. These emissaries arrived at Wyalusing and Zeisberger was soon
commanded to leave the town. All was now excitement and commotion. The
intrepid missionary was compelled to suspend the work so auspiciously
begun, but not before he had baptised Papunhank, who received the name
of John, and another Indian who was called Peter.
The Moravian Christian Indians, for their greater security during the
Pontiac War, in which they refused to take any part, were removed first
to a settlement near Bethlehem, and then to Province Island, in the
Delaware River, a little below Philadelphia, where they were sheltered
in Government barracks. Thither Papunhank and twenty of his followers
hastened. Here they lived for seventeen months, and at the first dawn of
peace, emerged from their prison-like home and again sought homes in the
forest. Papunhank invited the whole company to settle in his town on the
Susquehanna. They accepted and marched to that place, led by their
beloved teachers, Reverend Zeisberger and Reverend John Jacob Schmick.
This company, consisting of eighty adults and ninety children, set out
from Bethlehem and after a tedious march of thirty-six days, arrived at
Wyalusing May 9, 1765. They immediately set about building their town,
and during the season thirty bark-covered huts, four log cabins, a
mission house and church were erected.
The town was built on the east side of the river, about two miles south
of the present borough of Wyalusing, and near the Sugar Run Station on
the P. and N. Y. Railroad. The church was built of logs and had a belfry
in which hung a bell. The town was surrounded by a post and rail fence.
The streets were regularly cleaned by the Indian women. Adjoining the
town were 250 acres of plantations. They also maintained sugar camps on
Sugar Run.
The mission in 1766 received the name of Friedenshutten, meaning “Huts
of Peace.” A schoolhouse was built next to the church, where adults and
children were taught to read in both Delaware and German. Traders were
not allowed to bring spirituous liquors into the town.
In 1767 the mission entertained Tuscarora and Nanticoke Indians on their
migration northward.
Another mission was started at Sheshequanink, the present Ulster, soon
after the close of the Pontiac War, but did not prosper as much as the
older one. At the treaty of Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1768, the Six
Nations sold this land away from the Delaware, and the Moravians were
unable to induce Governor Penn to give them the land.
In September, 1766, Zeisberger left Friedenhutten, and went to the
Delaware Indians on the Ohio River, where he established a mission. He
soon induced the Indians at Wyalusing to follow him, and on June 11,
1772, the Indians at Wyalusing assembled in the church for the last time
and then they marched in two companies for the Big Beaver, in now
Lawrence County. They were led by the Reverend John Ettwein on this
journey.
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Peaceful Family of Chief Logan Slain by
Whites, May 24, 1774
In the spring of the year 1774, at a time when the Indians seemed to be
quiet and tranquil, a party of Virginians attacked the Mingo settlement,
on the Ohio River, and slaughtered the entire population, even the women
with their children in their arms, and members of the great Chief
Logan’s family were among the slain.
This tragic event occurred on May 24, 1774, and according to the common
belief at the time was perpetrated by Captain Michael Cresap, and a
party who deliberately set out to kill every Indian they met, without
regard to age or sex.
The first person to state that Logan’s family was murdered by Cresap was
no other than Thomas Jefferson, in his “Notes in Virginia.”
The main authority for the vindication of Michael Cresap’s memory, is
the extremely rare little volume, Jacob’s “Life of Cresap,” published in
1826. Jacob sets up an alibi for Cresap, but the present writer accepts
the popular story that the wanton murder was perpetrated under the
direction of Cresap.
Tahgahjute was the second son of Shikellamy, the great vicegerent of the
Six Nations. He was born at Shamokin, about 1725, and was given his
Christian name Logan in honor of James Logan, Secretary of the Province,
who was a devoted friend of the great Shikellamy.
But little is known of the early life of Logan, but he worked his way
West by degrees. He was for a time on the Juniata, where several places
still bear his name, but his final home was near the mouth of the Yellow
Creek, thirty miles above Wheeling.
Reverend John Heckewelder, the noted Moravian missionary among the
Indians, while passing down the Ohio, in April, 1773, stopped at Logan’s
settlement and in his interesting journal notes that “I received every
civility I could expect from such of the family as were at home.”
Cresap was on the Ohio, below Wheeling, engaged in making a settlement.
Some pioneers resolved to attack an Indian town near the mouth of the
Sciota, and solicited Cresap to command the expedition. They attacked
two canoes filled with Indians, chased them fifteen miles down the
river, where a skirmish ensued, and the Indians who were not killed were
taken. On the return of this party they planned an expedition against
the settlement of Logan.
Cresap and his party proceeded to a point near the settlement and
encamped on the bank, when some Indians passed them peaceably and
encamped at the mouth of Grave Creek, a little below. Cresap attacked
and killed the party. One of Cresap’s men fell in this action. Among the
slain of the Indians were some of Logan’s family. Smith, one of the
murderers, boasted of this fact in the presence of Logan’s friends.
This party then proceeded to Baker’s Bottom, opposite the mouth of
Yellow Creek, when Greathouse, a spy, crossed over and approached the
Indian camp as a friend and counted them. He reported their number too
large to attack and was then warned by an Indian woman to leave, as the
Indians had learned of Cresap’s murder of their relatives at Grave Creek
and were angry and that they were drinking.
He returned to Baker’s, collected a large enough force, all got drunk,
and then in that condition they fell upon and massacred the whole Indian
camp except a girl, whom they kept as a prisoner. Among the slain was
the woman who had warned him of his danger. A sister of Logan was
inhumanly and indecently butchered in this attack.
This commenced the war, of which Logan’s war club was the chief factor.
The first family murdered by him was the warning of what might be
expected. Logan left a note in the house of the murdered family, and,
true to his threat, great numbers of innocent men, women and children
fell victims to the tomahawk and scalping knife until the decisive
battle at Point Pleasant October 10, 1774.
When Lord Dunmore finally conquered the Indians and the treaty was held,
Cornstalk was the principal speaker. He laid much stress for the cause
of the war on the murder of Logan’s family. Logan disdained to meet with
the white men in council and sat sullenly in his cabin while the treaty
was in progress. Dunmore sent Captain (afterward Major General) John
Gibson to invite him to the council. General Gibson later became one of
the Associate Judges of Allegheny County.
The old Mingo chief took Gibson into the woods and, sitting down upon a
mossy root, told him the story of the wrongs done to him and, as Gibson
related, shedding many bitter tears. He refused to go to the council,
but, unwilling to disturb the deliberations by seeming opposition, he
sent a speech by the hand of Gibson to Governor Dunmore, which has been
preserved and greatly admired for its pathetic eloquence. The speech was
as follows:
“I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan’s cabin
hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he
clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war,
Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my
love for the white, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said,
‘Logan is the friend of the white man.’ I had ever thought to have lived
with you, but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, the last
spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of
Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of
my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for
revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many; I have fully glutted my
vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not
harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He
will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for
Logan? Not one.”
Lossing, in his “Field-Book of the Revolution,” says: “Logan, whose
majestic person and mental accomplishments were the theme of favorable
remark, became a victim of intemperance. Earlier than the time when
Dunmore called him to council, he was addicted to the habit. The last
three years of his life were very melancholy. Notwithstanding the
miseries he had suffered at the hands of the white men, his benevolences
made him the prisoner’s friend, until intemperance blunted his
sensibilities, and in 1780 we find him among the marauders at Ruddell’s
Station.”
The manner of his death is differently related. The patient researches
of Mr. Mayer lead the writer to adopt his as the correct one, as it was
from the lips of an aged Mohawk whom he saw at Caghnawaga, twelve miles
from Montreal, in the summer of 1848. His mother was a Shawnee woman,
and when he was a boy he often saw Logan. Mayer says:
“In a drunken frenzy near Detroit, in 1780, Logan struck his wife to the
ground. Believing her dead, he fled to the wilderness. Between Detroit
and Sandusky, he was overtaken by a troop of Indian men, women and
children. Not yet sober, he imagined that the penalty of his crime was
about to be inflicted by a relative. Being well armed, he declared that
the whole party should be destroyed. In defense, his nephew, Todkahdohs,
killed him on the spot, by a shot from his gun. His wife recovered from
his blow.” Chief Logan died November 28, 1780.
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Hamilton Pleads with Governor of Maryland
for Release of Pennsylvanians,
May 25, 1734
Thomas Penn informed the Council, May 14, 1734, that the business then
to be considered by them related to some very unneighborly proceedings
in the province of Maryland, in not only harassing some of the
inhabitants of this province who live on the border, but likewise
extending their claims much farther than has heretofore been pretended
to be Maryland, and carrying off several persons and imprisoning them.
Governor Penn then advised the Council that Marylanders had entered the
settlements of John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, on the Susquehanna,
in what is now York County, and carried them off to Annapolis and
confined them in jail.
The Governor arranged with Andrew Hamilton, Esq., to appear for the
prisoners. He was accompanied by John Georges, his secretary.
They made their visit and on their return made a full report to Governor
Penn.
Hamilton related that they were denied an interview with the prisoners,
but this was allowed them the following day, when the prisoners gave an
account of their arrest. They did not know what charges were lodged
against them.
The lawyer then appealed to Governor Ogle who advised them that the
charges against the prisoners were serious. Hamilton suggested that even
if this be true the men were taken into custody by Maryland officials on
Pennsylvania soil, and should be punished in that province.
Governor Ogle then ennumerated the many abuses the inhabitants of
Maryland had suffered from those of Pennsylvania. This interview ended
by appointment for a meeting before council on the following morning. At
this meeting, which was pretty much bluff and bluster, but little was
accomplished.
It was, however, agreed that each party should reduce their claims to
writing and then present them to the King for settlement.
Hamilton prepared his instrument and ably defended the part of
Pennsylvania, and recited the agreements of 1724 and 1732, which were
intended to quiet all disputes on the border, until actual surveys
should be concluded.
He stated that notwithstanding these agreements, “two of his Majesty’s
subjects, John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, inhabitants of Lancaster
County, settled upon lands legally surveyed and patented to them under
the proprietors of Pennsylvania, on the west side of the river
Susquehanna, had been taken from their homes, which were at least eight
miles to the northward of Philadelphia, and about twenty-three miles to
the northward of the line agreed upon by the aforesaid articles to be
the northern bounds of Maryland, which line runs near the mouth of
Octoraroe Creek, to the northward of which Maryland has never exercised
any jurisdiction, except over thirteen families, that is known to
Pennsylvania, till within two or three years, about the time when an
absolute boundary was agreed upon by the proprietors, though
Pennsylvania has maintained its government as far southward as the mouth
of the said creek for above these thirty years.”
The jail was too filthy to hold further conversation with the four
Pennsylvanians and permission was obtained for the sheriff to take them
to his home, where the interview was had.
They insisted they had never done or said anything against Lord
Baltimore, and that if such was charged against them Thomas Cresap is
the only man wicked enough to bring such false charges.
Hamilton could not get his clients into court as they were under
prosecution in Provincial Court, and Governor Ogle would not interfere.
Several interviews were held with the Governor, even in his own home,
but at each the executive insisted on reviewing a long list of
transgressions along the border and would not agree to anything Hamilton
had to propose.
On May 25 the most important session was had and Governor Ogle refused
even to concur in the proposal made by Hamilton that they agree upon
bounds which should be judged reasonable, upon which lands no persons
should plant new settlements under severe penalties.
Hamilton and Georges then said, in their report, that they saw from the
first that the Governor was resolved to avoid doing anything that might
prevent further differences upon the boundaries. The Governor finally
ceased to further discuss the question.
When the four prisoners were tried in Provincial Court they were denied
their liberty, lest it should be understood as giving up his Lordship’s
right to the lands in question.
Hamilton then drew up a memorial, citing the unreasonable proceedings of
Maryland and the absolute necessity Pennsylvania would be under for its
own protection. It was a strong argument, but of no avail. They returned
to Philadelphia in disgust.
The border troubles grew in intensity and especially when Cresap and his
followers were the most active.
Hendricks and Minshall were released at the end of their sentence and
many of the stirring scenes along the border occurred in the vicinity of
their settlements and with them as provincial actors in the drama.
The arrest of Cresap put a stop to the local warfare but the survey of
the Mason and Dixon Line fixed for all time the actual boundary between
the States.
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General Sullivan Arrives at Easton to Subdue
Six Nations, May 26, 1779
In the summer of 1778 Colonel Thomas Hartley made a successful
expedition against the Six Nations Indians, marching from Fort Muncy, in
present Lycoming County, to Tioga, covering 300 miles in two weeks. His
army destroyed every Indian town, defeated the Indians in each encounter
and brought off much food and Indian goods.
The settlers, who had taken flight, now ventured back and harvested
their crops, but by spring the Indians had become bolder and more
treacherous than ever before. The attention of Congress was drawn to
this distress along the frontier and General Washington was directed to
relieve the situation.
The Commander-in-chief selected Major General John Sullivan, and in
April, 1779, directed him to prepare for an expedition into the heart of
the Six Nations’ country. General Washington made no mistake in the
selection of General Sullivan. He proved equal to the stupendous
undertaking.
General Sullivan immediately began his preparations, but the real start
of this expedition may properly be considered as of May 26, 1779, when
he arrived at Easton with his command. General Washington gave him his
directions in a long and interesting letter of instructions. He told him
that the expedition he was to command against the hostile tribes of the
Six Nations was to discourage predatory marauds on our frontier
settlements and to retaliate for the horrible massacres at Wyoming and
Cherry Valley, and, “if opportunity favored, for the capture of Niagara
and an invasion into Canada.”
But Washington advised him that “the immediate objects are the total
destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as
many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. So soon as your
preparations are in sufficient forwardness you will assemble your main
body at Wyoming and proceed thence to Tioga, taking from that place the
most direct and practicable route into the heart of the Indian
settlements.”
General Sullivan established a rendezvous at Easton, May 26, 1779, and
then marched to Wyoming, where he experienced a long and tedious wait,
caused by the failure of both Continental and State authorities to
properly clothe and provision the army, and the further embarrassment
that promised re-enforcements were not furnished.
In spite of these discouragements, General Sullivan determined to march,
and July 31, 1779, at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the army left Wyoming
on its march up the Susquehanna, accompanied by 120 boats.
The army was composed of the following: General Edward Hand’s brigade,
which consisted of the light corps, made up of the German Regiment and
that commanded by Colonel Adam Hubley and the Independent regiments of
Colonels Shott and Spalding; and General Maxwell’s brigade, consisting
of four regiments under Colonels Dayton, Shreeve, Ogden, and Spencer;
and General Poor’s brigade, with four regiments under Colonels Cilley,
Reed, Scammel and Courland. The second line, or reserves were the
commands of Colonels Livingston, Dubois, Gainsworth and Olden. Colonel
Thomas Proctor’s artillery was also a most important part of this army.
The several encampments were made at Lackawanna, then at Quiltimunk,
Tunkhannock, Vanderlip’s farm, and Wyalusing, which was reached August
6, when a heavy rain kept the army in camp two days.