intimidate a foreign enemy and to curb the hostile disposition of the
Indians.
The alienation of the Indians was greatly to be dreaded, and Governor
Thomas called Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, to the service
and dispatched him on a mission to Shikellamy the great vicegerent at
Shamokin (now Sunbury), to renew the assurances of friendship and to
propose his mediation between the Indians and the Government of
Virginia, occasioned by an unpleasant encounter between some Onondaga
and Oneida with the English while on an expedition against the
Tallapoosa, resident of that colony.
Weiser was happily successful and a treaty was held the ensuing summer.
The Indians refrained from hostility in the meantime.
The treaty was convened at Lancaster, June 22, 1744, and ended July 4
following. It was attended by Governor Thomas in person, and by
commissioners of Maryland and Virginia.
All matters of dispute were satisfactorily settled, and the Iroquois
engaged to prevent the French and their Indian allies from marching
through their country to attack the English settlements.
This conference did not, however, remove causes for future disquiet,
occasioned by the encroachments of the settlers and the unfair conduct
of the Indian traders.
The Shawnee, on the Ohio, allied to the French interest, now assumed a
hostile attitude. A great convention was held at Albany, October 26,
1745, to which commissioners from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut
and Pennsylvania were sent.
The Six Nations were urged to take up the hatchet against the French and
become parties in the war, but the Indians showed no disposition to
enter the contest, and the result of the conference was far from being
satisfactory.
In May, 1746, Governor Thomas was directed by the Crown to raise forces
for a conquest of Canada. After much delay, the Assembly voted £5000,
and Governor Thomas raised four companies of over one hundred men each,
commanded by Captain William Trent, John Shannon, Samuel Perry and John
Deimer, who marched at once to Albany.
The attempt on Canada was postponed, but the troops were retained nearly
eighteen months along the Hudson to intimidate the Indians.
John Penn died, and at a meeting of the Assembly held May 5, 1747,
Governor Thomas communicated the news of his death, and at the same
time, on account of his own ill-health, he resigned his office.
On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive administration
devolved upon the Council, of which Anthony Palmer was president, until
the arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, former Speaker of
the Assembly, as Lieutenant Governor, November 23, 1749.
The crops were abundant in 1751 and 1752, but these years of plenty were
followed by a season of want, covering the years 1753–1755, and on the
heels of it came Indian hostilities.
The progress of the white population toward the west irritated the
Indians. Especially was this true of the Scotch-Irish, who seated
themselves on the west of the Susquehanna, on the Juniata, and in the
Great and Little Coves formed by the Kittatinny and the Tuscarora hills,
and at the Big and Little Connolloways.
The French applied themselves to seduce the Indians from their
allegiance to the English. The Shawnee had already joined them, the
Delaware awaited an opportunity to avenge their wrongs, and of the Six
Nations, the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca were wavering.
To keep the Indians in favor of the Province required much cunning
diplomacy and expensive presents. A chain of forts and the maintenance
of a military force, drew heavily on the Provincial purse, and it is but
little wonder that the Assembly and the Proprietaries early divided on
questions involving taxes and expenditures. The French and Indian War
soon broke in all its fierceness.
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William Wilson Sent on Important Mission
to Ohio Indians After Fort Pitt Treaty,
October 27, 1775
Early in the Revolution the Continental Congress opened negotiations for
peace with the Indians. The frontier was divided into three Indian
departments, of which the middle department included the tribes west of
Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Congress named a committee, consisting of Benjamin Franklin and James
Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, to hold a
treaty with the Indians at Fort Pitt.
This treaty was assembled October 27, 1775, with the Seneca, Delaware,
Shawnee and Wyandot tribes, represented by their leading chiefs.
Guyasuta, the principal Seneca, also represented the Iroquois, and he
presumed to speak also for the Western tribes, which so aroused the ire
of White Eyes, the Delaware orator, that his tribe declared their
absolute independence.
The council was neither harmonious nor entirely successful, and the
English soon bribed the Indians to take up the hatchet against the
Colonists. This they were easily able to accomplish, as they made
tempting offers and made a greater display of military prowess.
During the treaty at Fort Pitt the commission selected John Gibson as
Indian agent for the Ohio tribes, but he was soon succeeded by Richard
Butler.
Early in 1776 Congress assumed direct control of the Indian agencies and
placed George Morgan in charge of the most important post at Fort Pitt.
Morgan was a man of education, high family connections and considerable
wealth. His home was in Princeton, N. J., but he owned a mercantile
establishment in Philadelphia, and as agent of his own trading house he
had traveled extensively in the Indian country, from the Allegheny to
Illinois.
He arrived at Pittsburgh May 1, 1776, and immediately opened
negotiations for a better treaty with the Indians. He sent agents with
pacific messages among the tribes, employing in this service William
Wilson, Peter Long, Simon Girty and Joseph Nicholson.
The mission upon which he sent Wilson was the most important. He was an
Indian trader and acquainted with the tribes between the Ohio River and
Detroit. It was his duty to invite the Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot
chiefs to a council at Fort Pitt.
Early in June he departed, accompanied by Nicholson. They traveled on
horseback to the Delaware towns on the Muskingum River. There the chiefs
accepted his invitation. He then journeyed to the seats of the Shawnee
on the Scioto, where he found many of the warriors to be in a very
doubtful humor.
The chief sachem, Hardman, and the brave war chief, Cornstalk, were
inclined to peace, but advised that they had received an invitation to
take part in a great council with the British Governor at Detroit, and
must go there first.
While Wilson was yet at the Shawnee towns, Morgan himself arrived there,
and endeavored to arrange a definite date for the treaty.
Before Morgan departed for Fort Pitt, he handed to Wilson a large peace
belt of wampum and a written message to deliver to the Wyandot chief.
When Wilson and Nicholson departed, they were accompanied by Cornstalk,
but they advanced only as far as Pluggystown, on the Upper Scioto. This
place was inhabited by renegade Indians.
The chief, Pluggy, was a Mohawk, and his followers, called Mingo, were
horse thieves and murderers. Pluggy’s warriors formed a plot to seize
Wilson and Nicholson and carry them to the British fort at Detroit,
where a handsome reward would be theirs.
This plan was revealed to Cornstalk, who advised the white men to flee
to the Delaware town of Coshocton. They were barely able to escape by
night and arriving at Coshocton, they placed themselves under the
protection of old King Newcomer.
That venerable sachem, believing it would not now be safe for Wilson to
proceed to Sandusky, lest the Mingo should waylay the trail, sent
Killbuck, a noted Delaware war captain, to bear the American message to
the Wyandot chiefs. Killbuck returned eleven days later with the message
the Wyandots wished to see Wilson in person as an evidence of his good
intentions, but that they could not give a definite answer until they
had consulted their great council beyond the lake. The seat of the
nation was in Canada, near Detroit.
Wilson determined to go to Sandusky, and the Delaware Council appointed
White Eyes and two young warriors to accompany him. Nicholson had been
sent back to Fort Pitt with a message to Morgan. Wilson was joined later
by John Montour, a grandson of the famous Madam Montour, and he served
Wilson faithfully.
Before reaching Sandusky Wilson learned that the Wyandot chief had gone
to the Detroit Council, and he therefore made up his mind to venture
into the immediate neighborhood of the British post, so that he might
deliver his message to the Wyandot chief.
It was the decision of a brave and bold man. He was received with
apparent friendliness by a majority of the chiefs and on September 2 he
addressed them in council, presenting his peace belt and message from
Morgan. He invited them to attend the council at Fort Pitt twenty-five
days from that time.
The next morning the Wyandot betrayed Wilson’s presence to the British
commander, Colonel Henry Hamilton. They returned the belt to Wilson and
advised him to explain his errand to the British official.
Wilson, White Eyes and John Montour were compelled to go with the
Wyandots to the great Council House in Detroit. Wilson frankly announced
his purpose to the Lieutenant Governor, again presented the peace belt
and the written message to the Wyandot chief and handed the articles to
Colonel Hamilton.
The British commander addressed the Indians, saying those who bore this
message were enemies to his King, and before he would take any of them
by the hand he would suffer his right hand to be cut off.
Hamilton thereupon tore up the speech, cut the belt in pieces and
scattered the fragments about the Council House. He then spoke to the
Wyandot Indians in French, which Wilson did not understand. Hamilton
abused Montour for aiding the colonists and denounced White Eyes, whom
he ordered to leave Detroit in twenty-four hours if he valued his life.
Hamilton, notwithstanding his anger, respected Wilson’s character as an
ambassador and gave him safe conduct through the Indian country. The
trader returned to Fort Pitt much discouraged by the outlook and
reported to Morgan that the Wyandot would go on the warpath. The Mingo
were already in the British service.
In spite of Hamilton’s opposition, Indians of four tribes attended the
council with the “rebels” at Fort Pitt, in the latter part of October.
The Delaware sent their ruling chiefs; the Wyandot sent Half King; the
Shawnee, the great Cornstalk, and the distant Ottawa sent one sachem.
Costly presents were given them by the commissioners, and effusive peace
speeches were made by the savages, but only the Delaware were sincere.
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James Logan, Penn’s Secretary and Trusted
Friend and Agent, Born October
28, 1674
The lives of men like James Logan ennoble the pages of history and make
its study an elevating pursuit and a reinforcement to the resources of
public morality. This man was worthy the compliment which the great
vicegerent Shikellamy paid him, when he named his son in his honor; he
was worthy to have been the trusted friend of William Penn, and to have
had Benjamin Franklin for his printer.
The world has not produced many men, who, after forty years spent in the
whirl and muddy currents of active business and intense political
strife, can, with clean hands and unsullied reputation, calmly step
aside out of the turmoil and retire to the company of his books, to
endow a library and make a translation of Cicero’s “De Senectute,”
printing it, as the writer himself pleasantly says, “in a large and fair
character so that old men may not be vexed by the defective eyesight in
reading what was so appropriate to their years.”
James Logan was born in Lurgan, Ireland, October 28, 1674. His father,
Patrick Logan, grandson of Sir Robert Logan of Restairig, Scotland,
sprang from that stock of proud Scottish lairds, distinguished for long
pedigrees and barren acres, whose children have lent their genius to the
service of the world.
James Logan was a lad of precocious mind—at sixteen he knew Latin, Greek
and Hebrew, and made rapid progress in mathematics. He afterwards
mastered French, Italian and Spanish, and probably Dutch and German. He
became familiar with several Indian dialects.
He went into trade as a linen-draper’s apprentice in Dublin, then in the
Bristol trade for himself.
At Bristol, in 1698, he met William Penn, and became his private
secretary and devoted follower ever after.
In the year 1699, he sailed with William Penn on his second visit to his
province in America. In mid-ocean another ship came into sight, and as
England and France were at war, all feared that the strange vessel might
be an enemy. The crew prepared for action. Penn and his friends, who did
not believe in warfare, went below. Only one of Penn’s party remained on
deck to help defend the ship, James Logan.
Soon Logan went below to tell Penn that the strange vessel was English,
when Penn reproved him for undertaking to engage in fighting, as he was
a Quaker. The young man replied with spirit: “Why did thee not order me
to come down? Thee was willing enough that I should stay and help to
fight, when thee thought there was danger!”
Penn expected to stay in Pennsylvania the rest of his life, but on his
visit he was able to spend less than two years here. But during his
stay, Logan had become not only a helper but also an intimate friend.
Penn trusted his secretary to the utmost, and when he sailed away, left
all his affairs in Pennsylvania under Logan’s direction. “I have left
thee in an uncommon trust,” wrote Penn, “with a singular dependence on
thy justice and care.”
There was no mistake in trusting James Logan. He kept Penn informed of
everything, and scrupulously attended to all Penn’s business affairs.
William Penn never came back to see his province again. During the last
six years of his life his mind failed, so that his wife, Hannah, carried
on all business for him. Had it not been for James Logan, poverty would
often have oppressed the great founder and his family.
From the moment of Penn’s departure, in 1701, to Logan’s death, 1751, he
was always the power behind the proprietary throne, wielding what was
sometimes almost absolute authority with singular propriety and
judgment.
He was secretary of the province, commissioner of property, and of
Indian affairs, member and president of Council, acting Governor, and
chief justice.
After more than twenty-five years of residence in Philadelphia, Logan
decided to build a country home for himself. He erected a fine mansion,
which he called Stenton, near the Old York Road. Here he lived for
nearly a quarter century more.
His thigh was broken in a fall, and he was compelled to live retired,
but his love of books was so constant and sincere that the pursuit of
literature became his passion.
But even in seclusion he never neglected his public duties for his
private tastes. Many important affairs of state were transacted at
Stenton, which was nearly always surrounded by deputations of Indians,
who camped about the house to seek advice and favors from their honored
friend “hid in the bushes.” As many as a hundred Iroquois once stayed at
Stenton for three days as Logan’s guests.
Thomas Godfrey’s improvements in the quadrant were made at Stenton under
Logan’s eye, and Franklin and he worked together with a thorough
appreciation of each other’s good qualities.
The British determined to burn Stenton, when they captured Philadelphia,
but the cleverness of an old Negro woman servant saved the historic
mansion. Lord Howe afterwards made Stenton his headquarters.
Now the famous house, quite two hundred years old, is owned by the
Philadelphia Society of Colonial Dames, and is kept in good condition
and open for visitors. It stands near the station at Wayne Junction.
Logan was an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of Ann, daughter of Edward
Shippen, who married Thomas Story. His wife was Sarah Read, daughter of
a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, to whom he was wedded eight years
after his ill-success with Miss Shippen.
His children were not literary in their tastes and it was on this
account that he left his library to Philadelphia, endowing it for its
perpetual maintenance, with the Springettsbury Manor property which he
had received from Penn’s estate.
Logan was a fine type, dignified yet courteous, and his conversation was
quiet and reserved.
Gordon says, “Never was power and trust more safely bestowed for the
donor. The secretary faithfully devoted his time and his thoughts to
promote the interests of his master, and bore with firmness, if not with
cheerfulness, the odium which his unlimited devotion drew upon himself.”
He died at Stenton, October 31, 1751.
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Penn Lands at Upland and Changes Name to
Chester, October 29, 1682
After William Penn issued his frame of government for his new Province
of Pennsylvania and had sent a description of his property throughout
England, especially among the Friends, offering easy terms of sale,
there were many persons from London, Liverpool and Bristol who embarked
in this enterprise and the association called “The Free Traders’ Society
of Pennsylvania” purchased large tracts of land.
Penn then obtained a deed for the three lower counties (now the State of
Delaware), which was duly recorded in New York November 21, 1682.
Having completed all arrangements for his voyage to America, Penn wrote
an affectionate letter to his wife and children and another “to all
faithful friends in England.” Accompanied by about 100 passengers,
mostly Friends from Sussex, he embarked in August on the ship Welcome, a
vessel of about 300 tons burden.
After a voyage of two months they sighted the American coast about Egg
Harbor, in New Jersey, on October 24, 1682, and reached New Castle,
Del., on the 27th.
On the following morning Penn produced his deeds from the Duke of York
and received possession by the solemn “delivery of turf, and twig, and
water, and soil of the River Delaware.”
His arrival off the coast and passage up the river was a continuous
demonstration of great joy by all classes—English, Dutch, Swedes, and
especially by his devoted followers.
The day following his landing Penn summoned the inhabitants to the
court-house at New Castle, where, says Clarkson, “he made a speech to
the old magistrates, in which he explained to them the design of his
coming, the nature and end of government and of that more particularly
which he came to establish.”
At this time he took formal possession of the country and renewed the
commissions of the magistrates.
Penn then proceeded to Upland, where he arrived October 29, 1682. This
was a memorable event, says Clarkson, and to be distinguished by some
marked circumstances. Penn determined, therefore, to change the name of
the place, and turning toward his friend Pearson, one of his own
society, who had accompanied him on the ship Welcome, he said:
“Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my
perils. What wilt thou that I shall call this place?”
Pearson said, “Chester,” in remembrance of the place from which he came.
William Penn replied, that it should be called Chester, and that when he
divided the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same
name.
From Chester Penn proceeded, with some of his friends, in an open barge,
in the earliest days of November, to a place about four miles above the
mouth of the Schuylkill, called Coaquannock, “where there was a high
bold shore, covered with lofty pines.”
Here the infant city of Philadelphia had been established, and Penn’s
approach was hailed with joy by the whole population.
Immediately after his arrival in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Penn
dispatched two persons to Lord Baltimore to ask of his health, offer
kind neighborhood and agree upon a time of meeting. Penn then went to
New York to pay his respects to the Duke, returning to Philadelphia
before the close of November.
It was about this time that the “Great Treaty” took place at
Shackamaxon. Tradition has persisted that a great treaty took place here
under an elm tree, with William Penn, Deputy Governor Markham and
others, and the representatives of the several Indian tribes of that and
other localities.
Even if tradition errs in the details of this treaty, it is a fact that
the Indians themselves alluded to “the treaty of amity and peace held
with the great and good Onas” on all public occasions.
Onas was the Indian name for the Governor of Pennsylvania, and it is
supposed that the “great and good Onas” referred particularly to William
Penn himself.
It is also true that for a period of forty or fifty years the treaty
Penn made with the Indians was not broken, and the land of Penn was
preserved during all the time from the suffering of the scalping-knife,
the tomahawk or the torch.
William Penn convened a General Assembly at Chester, December 4, 1682,
of which Nicholas More, president of the Society of Free Traders, was
chosen speaker.
During a session of four days this Assembly enacted three laws: (1) An
act for the union of the Province and Territories; (2) An act of
Naturalization; and (3) The great law, or code of laws, consisting of
sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon in
England and several others afterward suggested.
Penn, by appointment, met Lord Baltimore at West River December 19,
where he was received with great ceremony, but their interview led to no
solution of the vexatious question of boundary. The discussion lasted
two days, but the weather became severely cold, precluding the
possibility of taking observations or making the necessary surveys, so
it was agreed to adjourn further consideration of the subject until
spring.
The two Governors were taking measure of each other and gaining all
possible knowledge of each other’s rights and claims preparatory to the
struggle for the possession of this disputed fortieth degree of
latitude, which case was destined to come before the home Government and
give Penn a great deal of trouble.
Early in 1683 Penn divided the province and territories each into three
counties—those of the former were called Bucks, Philadelphia and
Chester; those of the latter were New Castle, Kent and Sussex.
Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the several counties,
writs for the election of members of Council and Assembly were issued
conformable with the Constitution, and on January 10, 1683, Penn met the
Council in Philadelphia and the Assembly two days later.
The Provincial Council was composed of eighteen members, three from each
county, the Assembly fifty-four with nine from each county, making in
all seventy-two. Thus was the Government of the province inaugurated,
out of which has grown the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Penn concluded two important treaties with the Indians during June and
July, 1683. He also visited the interior of his province, going as far
west as the Susquehanna River.
The proprietary set sail for England June 12, 1684.
Penn wrote a farewell letter to his province when on board the vessel,
which was couched in the most endearing terms.
After his departure the province and territories were divided into
twenty-two townships. There were then 7000 inhabitants, of whom 2500
resided in Philadelphia, which already comprised 300 houses.
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Frightened Settlers Build and Defend Fort
Swatara October 30, 1755
The stockades and small forts built along the frontiers during the
intense excitement which followed Braddock’s defeat in July, 1755, have
always been of great interest to local historians and the many citizens
who reside in the vicinity of these provincial defenses.
One such place, to which not a little interesting history is attached,
was built about twelve miles east of Manada Gap, near the passage
through the Blue Mountains, by which the Swatara Creek wends its way to
the fertile acres below, and a few miles farther empties into the
Susquehanna.