to colonize that part of Pennsylvania with Marylanders was abandoned in
1738, and the Cresap invasions into Pennsylvania ceased.
----------
Moravians Slaughtered in Indian Village of
Gnadenhutten, November 24, 1755
The first settlement in what is now Carbon County was made by the
Moravian missionaries in the year 1746.
The converted Mohican Indians having been driven out of Shekomeko, N.
Y., near the border of Connecticut, and from Pochgatgach, in the latter
State, found an asylum for a short time at Friedenshutten, near
Bethlehem.
The missionaries considered it unwise to maintain a large Indian
congregation so near Bethlehem, and they purchased two hundred acres on
the north side of Mahoning Creek, about a half mile above its junction
with the Lehigh. Here the Indian town of Gnadenhutten became a regular
fixture, and in it each Indian family possessed its own lot of ground.
The paths to Wyoming and other Indian towns passed through the
settlement. A church stood in the valley, the Indian houses formed a
crescent upon the higher ground, and on the open end stood the home of
the missionary and the burying ground.
In September, 1749, Baron John de Watteville, a noted bishop of the
Moravian Brethren, went to Gnadenhutten and laid the foundation of a new
church, replacing the one built in 1746, which was too small for the
growing congregation, which then consisted of 500 Indians.
About this time Reverend David Brainerd and several Indian converts
visited Gnadenhutten. The congregation continued in this pleasing and
regular state until 1754.
The Delaware and Shawnee on the Susquehanna began to waver in their
allegiance to the English. They were preparing to take up the hatchet on
the side of the French, and it became a matter of concern to them to
withdraw their Indian brethren in the Moravian settlements beyond the
reach of the whites, that the hostile savages might more freely descend
upon the white settlements.
The Christian Indians for some time resolutely refused to move to
Wyoming or Shamokin. At length, however, a considerable part of them
were seduced by the influence of the Delaware King Tedyuskung to move.
The Mohicans who remained were joined by other Christian Delaware and
soon the land upon which they lived became so impoverished that the
inhabitants of Gnadenhutten removed to the north side of the Lehigh
River.
The dwellings were removed and a new chapel built in June, 1754. This
place was called New Gnadenhutten, and stood where the borough of
Weissport now stands.
In New Gnadenhutten the Mohican lived on one side of the street, the
Delaware on the opposite side. The cultivation was under the direct
charge of the Moravian missionaries.
The Indians who had gone over to the French interests became incensed
that any of the Moravian converts among their people should choose to
remain at Gnadenhutten, and they determined to cut off the settlement.
After Braddock’s defeat, July, 1755, the whole frontier was open to the
inroads of the savage foe. Every day disclosed new scenes of barbarity
committed by the Indians. The whole country was in terror; the neighbors
of the brethren in Gnadenhutten forsook their dwellings and fled, but
the brethren covenanted together to remain undaunted in the place they
believed Providence had allotted them.
In that decision they neglected no caution whatever. But it was not to
be as the Moravians had planned.
Late in the evening of November 24, 1755, the mission house on the
Mahoning was attacked by the French Indians, the house burned to the
ground and eleven of the inhabitants murdered.
The attack was made while the family was at supper. The uncommon barking
of the dogs was noticed, upon which Brother Senseman went out to the
back door to ascertain what was the matter. The report of a gun was
heard, when several of the family rushed to the open door, where they
were confronted with the Indians who stood with their firearms pointed
toward the door, who simultaneously fired upon the Moravians.
Martin Nitschmann was instantly killed, his wife and several others were
wounded, but were able to flee with the rest of the household upstairs
into the garret, where they barricaded the door with bedsteads. Brother
Partsch escaped by jumping out of a rear window. Brother Worbass, who
was ill in bed in an adjoining house, also escaped by a window, although
the savages had placed a guard before his door.
The savages pursued those who had taken refuge in the garret and finding
the door too strongly secured, they set fire to the house. A lad, named
Sturgis, jumped from the blazing roof and escaped, but not before he was
severely burned by the flames and shot in the face in making his escape.
Soon as Sturgis was seen to get away, Sister Partsch took courage and
jumped from the burning roof, and escaped unhurt. Brother Fabricius
attempted to flee in the same manner, but was observed by the Indians
and twice wounded and captured. He was immediately tomahawked and
scalped. The rest of the household were all burnt alive.
Brother Senseman witnessed his wife being consumed by the flames. The
scene was terrible to behold.
Soon as the house was destroyed the savages set fire to the barns and
stables, by which all the corn, hay and cattle were destroyed.
The Indians then divided the spoils, soaked some bread in milk, made a
hearty meal, and departed—all this being observed by Sister Partsch
looking on from her hiding place behind a tree upon a hill near the
house.
This melancholy event proved to be the delivery of the Indian converts
at Gnadenhutten; for upon the first crack of the guns and seeing the
flames, they sensed the cause and would have rushed to the defense of
the Moravians had not a missionary advised them to the contrary. Instead
they all fled to the woods, and in a few minutes, Gnadenhutten was
cleared of everything worth while.
Reverend David Zeisberger, who had just arrived at Gnadenhutten from
Bethlehem, hastened back to give notice of this terrible event to a body
of English militia which had marched within five miles of the spot, but
they did not venture to pursue the savages in the dark.
The fugitive congregation arrived safely at Bethlehem. After the French
and Indians had retired, the remains of those killed on the Mahoning
were carefully collected from the ruins and solemnly interred.
A broad slab of marble placed there in 1788, now marks the grave, which
is situated on the hill a short distance from Lehighton, and a little
north of a small hamlet which occupies the site of the ancient
missionary village. The following is the inscription on the marble:
“To the memory of Gottleib and Joanna Anders, with their child,
Christiana; Martin and Susanna Nitschmann, Anna Catherine Senseman, John
Gattenmeyer, George Fabricius, clerk; George Schweigert and Martin
Presser, who lived here at Gnadenhutten unto the Lord, and lost their
lives in a surprise from Indian warriors, November the 24th, 1755.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints—Psalms
cxvi, 15.”
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General Forbes Invested Fort Duquesne and
Named It Pittsburgh, November
25, 1758
After the humiliating defeat of Major Grant, September 14, 1758, when he
disobeyed his orders and attacked the French and Indians at Fort
Duquesne and was himself taken prisoner, the French, exulting over their
unlooked-for victory, believed that a successful attack could now be
made upon the main army of General John Forbes in camp at Loyalhanna. By
this bold stroke, in which they would use their entire force, they
could, in the discomfiture of the English, end all hostilities, as they
had done in the fateful defeat of Braddock.
General Forbes was wiser than his predecessor, and better appreciated
the talents and experience of Colonel George Washington, and did not
fail to seek his counsel.
General Forbes had joined Colonel Henry Bouquet at Loyalhanna and
determined to advance upon Fort Duquesne. Washington drew up the plan,
illustrating the proper disposition of the troops in the line of march,
so the English would not again be overwhelmed by a surprise attack.
At this moment the forces of the French and their Indian allies rushed
through the woods toward Loyalhanna, dragging some light cannon with
them. They reached their objective before the British army had moved. An
attack was made and long sustained, but the English, under General
Forbes, repulsed the French, who returned to Fort Duquesne.
The battle of Loyalhanna has never been given its proper place in
history for it was a noteworthy affair, important in its consequences.
The French had beaten Braddock by the aid of their Indian allies, and
they hoped to defeat Forbes in the same way, but Colonel Bouquet had
adopted the provincial practice of fighting Indians, which was the means
of bringing them to a realization of their inability to conquer the
English, and they abandoned hopes of success and quit the French.
The strength of the French garrison in Fort Duquesne in September, 1758,
was 4000 troops, but by October this number was reduced to less than
2000, including the Indians. On September 22, Christian Frederic Post,
the noted Moravian missionary and friend of the English, who had visited
the garrison, reported its strength as 1400, but added he believed
“there would be full 3000 French and Indians, almost all Canadians, who
would be ready to meet the army under Forbes.”
The militia of Louisiana and Illinois left the fort early in November
and went home. The Indians of Detroit and the Wabash country would
remain no longer, and, what was even worse, the supplies destined for
Port Duquesne had been destroyed by Bradstreet at Fort Frontenac. Hence
M. de Ligneris, the commandant, was compelled by prospective starvation
to dismiss the greater part of his force, and await the approach of the
English with those that remained.
The French had always depended on the aid of the Indians to hold this
fort. But it was the custom of the Indians after a battle, whether
successful or not, to go home.
Colonel James Smith, at that time a prisoner who had been adopted into
one of the tribes, in his very valuable narrative, says that after the
defeat of Major Grant the Indians held a council, in which their
opinions were divided. Some believed General Forbes would now turn back
and go home the way he came, as Dunbar had done after the Braddock
defeat; others supposed he would press forward and make the attack. The
French urged the Indians to remain, but many returned to their squaws,
children and hunting.
These things were unknown to the English. But when the actual condition
of affairs in Fort Duquesne reached General Forbes, he concluded, late
as it was, to advance.
On November 13 Colonel John Armstrong with one thousand men was sent
forward to assist Colonel Washington in opening the road, and four days
later General Forbes pressed forward. He met with no opposition, but the
extremely disagreeable weather impeded his progress. The wagons and all
the artillery, except a few light pieces, were left behind.
The force consisted of 2500 picked men, who marched without shelter or
baggage and burdened only with knapsack and blankets. There were in
addition the pioneers, wagoners and provincials engaged to work on the
roads. Friendly Indians were kept out as scouts, and the greatest
vigilance was exercised to avoid surprise. Washington and Armstrong
opened the way to within a day’s march of the fort.
On the evening of November 24, the army encamped among the hills of
Turtle Creek. That night they were informed by an Indian scout that he
had discovered a cloud of smoke above the fort and soon after another
scout came with the certain intelligence that the fort was burned and
abandoned by the enemy. A troop of horse was sent forward immediately to
extinguish the fire. At midnight the men on guard heard a dull and heavy
booming over the western woods.
In the morning the march was resumed, the strong advance guard leading
the column. Forbes came next, carried in his litter, as he was quite
ill. The troops followed in three parallel columns, the Highlanders,
under Montgomery, in the center, the Royal Americans on the right and
the provincials on the left under Colonels Bouquet and Washington. It
was dusk when they emerged upon the open plain and saw Fort Duquesne
before them, with the background of wintry hills beyond the Monongahela
and Allegheny.
When the fort was invested on November 25 it presented a sorry
appearance. It had consisted of two fortifications, about 200 yards
apart. One, built with immense labor, was small but strong; the other
stood on the bank of the Allegheny, in form of a parallelogram, but
weaker than the other. There were about thirty chimneys standing, the
houses being destroyed by fire.
The French had also blown up one of the magazines, but in the other was
found sixteen barrels of ammunition, a large quantity of iron, gun
barrels, guns and a cartload of scalping knives. It has never been made
known if they buried their cannon in the river or carried them away in
their hasty retreat.
A boy twelve years old who had been an Indian prisoner two years escaped
during the retreat and told General Forbes that the French had carried a
large quantity of wood into the fort and that they burned five of the
prisoners they took at Major Grant’s defeat on the parade and delivered
the others to the Indians, who tomahawked the men on the spot.
There were many dead bodies found within a short distance of the fort,
and many evidences of French inhumanity.
The Indians remaining about the fort were only too eager to treat with
General Forbes.
Bancroft says: “Armstrong’s own hand raised the British flag on the
ruined bastions of the fortress. As the banner of England floated over
the waters the place, at the suggestion of Forbes, was with one voice
called Pittsburgh.”
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Captain James Smith, of the “Black Boys,”
Born in Chester County, November
26, 1737
One of the first captives of the French and Indian War in 1755 was James
Smith, of the Conococheague frontier, in what is now Franklin County.
He survived a long captivity and afterward wrote a remarkable account of
his experiences which were published in Archibald Loudon’s “Indian
Narratives.”
He was born in Chester County November 26, 1737, and spent his early
youth in that neighborhood. In 1755 he was living along the frontier in
the vicinity of McDowell’s Mill, in present Franklin County, where he
was employed by his brother William, who was a commissioner to build a
road from the above mill to the Three Forks of the Youghiogheny, over
which it was intended to transport supplies for General Braddock.
When the builders reached the base of the Alleghenies a storehouse for
supplies was placed in charge of Robert McCoy. The supply of meat was
almost exhausted and McCoy dispatched young Smith to meet the wagons,
bringing a fresh supply, and hurry along the cattle and provisions.
Before reaching the Juniata Smith met Arnold Vigorus, who advised him
that the wagons were near at hand. Smith then started back with Vigorus,
but when the wagons arrived at McCoy’s the wagoners reported they had
seen nothing of Smith or his companion.
McCoy sent out a searching party, who soon found the boy’s hat and
Vigorus’s gun, and a short distance away his scalped body.
James Smith was a captive for five years and experienced a most varied
and severe ordeal.
He effected his escape and returned to the Conococheague in 1760. As his
family and friends believed him dead, their surprise over his return was
the greater and even his gait and manners of the Indians did not lessen
their joy in his return.
Smith learned that the sweetheart of his boyhood, believing him long
since dead, had married only three days before his return, when his
thought was to claim her.
Smith had no sooner returned to his home than he organized a company of
Indian fighters, who wore Indian clothes, and were trained to Indian
methods. This company soon became known as the “Black Boys,” because
they painted their faces in the Indian colors—red and black. Smith was
the captain.
During the Pontiac War these “Black Boys” were put under regular pay,
and two other Indian captives served as Captain Smith’s lieutenants.
This company rendered effective service in the Cumberland Valley.
As Smith had served with Colonel John Armstrong and Colonel Henry
Bouquet, he had become familiar with the attitude of the Provincial
authorities in their treatment of the Indians.
It so happened that one day he overheard an interview in the Great Cove
which revealed the arrogance of the traders and the unfairness of those
at the seat of government. He took matters in his own hands, and
determined food, clothing and other goods should not be sent to the
Western Indians if he could prevent it.
Captain Smith assembled ten of his command. They painted their faces in
the Indian fashion and waylaid a pack train at Sideling Hill, an episode
in frontier history which has been misunderstood and misrepresented in
history.
The engagement was brief and decisive. The horses fell one after the
other until the drivers were compelled to surrender.
The goods were assembled on one side, and the drivers led off some
distance, under guard. The “Black Boys” examined the contents of the
packs, and, as they suspected, found them to consist of blankets,
shirts, vermilion, lead, beads, wampum, tomahawks, scalping-knifes, etc.
The whole lot was burned.
The English soldiers thought the “Black Boys” were rioters, but the
inhabitants viewed their acts with general satisfaction.
Lieutenant Grant attempted to effect the arrest of Captain Smith and his
command, but the latter soon raised a force of 300 frontiersmen and
promptly captured two British soldiers of the garrison at Fort Loudoun
for every one of the “Black Boys” they held as prisoners.
The result of this action was that very few pack trains passed through
that valley carrying goods to the Indians along the Ohio.
In 1769, when the Indians became troublesome in the vicinity of Fort
Bedford, a new company of “Black Boys” was organized, but members were
arrested and confined in irons, as they were not understood.
Captain Smith determined to release the men, and by a ruse managed to
apprize the British of his approach and intended attack, which was to
occur at midday. But at dawn his command was under the bank of the
Juniata awaiting word from William Thompson who had entered the fort as
a spy.
At the given signal the little band rushed the fort and secured the arms
which were stocked in the center of the parade.
The prisoners were released and the first British fort in America was
then and there captured by what they termed “American rebels.”
Captain Smith was afterward arrested in Bedford and confined in jail, on
a trumped up charge of murder.
His “Black Boys” would have rescued him but Smith was conscious of his
innocence and stood trial. In spite of the fact they desired it
otherwise he was acquitted.
Smith afterwards became a valued officer in the Revolution, attaining
the rank of colonel, and was several terms in the General Assembly and a
most distinguished citizen.
After the Revolution Colonel Smith removed to Kentucky where he again
earned an enviable reputation as an able member of the Legislature of
that State.
He died there in 1812.
----------
Pioneer Postoffice of Pennsylvania Established
in Philadelphia, November
27, 1700
In July, 1683, a post was established from Philadelphia to Maryland by
William Penn. Henry Waldy, of Tacony, had authority to run the post and
supply the passengers with horses.
The rates of postage were: Letters from the Falls to Philadelphia, three
pence; to Chester, five pence; to New Castle, seven pence; to Maryland,
nine pence; from Philadelphia to Chester, two pence; to New Castle, four
pence; to Maryland, six pence. It went once a week, notice having been
placed on the meeting-house door and at other public places.
Communication was frequent with Manhattan and New York, the road
starting on the eastern side of the Delaware at about Bordentown, New
Jersey.
But the pioneer postoffice in the Province of Pennsylvania was
established in Philadelphia under an act of Assembly, November 27, 1700.
The act by which this postoffice was established recited that “Whereas,
The King and the late Queen Mary, by their royal letters patent under
the great seal of England, bearing date the seventeenth day of February,
which was in the year one thousand and six hundred and ninety-one, did
grant Thomas Neal, Esquire, his executors, administrators and assigns,
full power and authority to erect, settle, establish within the King’s
colonies and plantations in America, one or more office or offices for
receiving and dispatching of letters and packets by post, and to
receive, send and deliver the same, under such rates and sums of money,
as shall be agreeable to the rates established by act of Parliament in
England, or as the planters and others should agree to give on the first
settlement, to have, hold and enjoy the same for a term of twenty-one
years, with and under such powers, limitations and conditions as in and
by the said letters patent may more fully appear.
“And whereas, The King’s Postmaster General of England, and at the
request, desire and nomination of the said Thomas Neale, hath deputed
Andrew Hamilton, Esquire, for such time and under such conditions as is
his deputation is for that purpose mentioned to govern and manage the
said General Post Office for and throughout all the King’s plantations
and colonies in the mainland or continent of America and the islands
adjacent thereto, and in and by the said deputation may more fully
appear.
“And whereas, The said Andrew Hamilton hath, by and with the good liking
and approbation of the Post Master General of England made application
to the proprietary and Governor of this Province and Territories and
freemen thereof convened in General Assembly, that they would ascertain
and establish such rates and sums of money upon letters and packets
going by post as may be an effectual encouragement for carrying on and
maintaining a general post, and the proprietary and Governor and Freemen
in General Assembly met, considering that maintaining of mutual and
speedy correspondencies is very beneficial to the King and his subjects,
and a great encouragement to trade, and that the same is best carried on
and managed by public post, as well as for the preventing of
inconveniences which heretofore have happened for want thereof, as for a
certain, safe and speedy dispatch, carrying and recarrying of all
letters and packets of letters by post to and from all parts and places
within the continent of America and several parts of Europe, and that
the well ordering thereof is matter of general concernment and of great
advantage, and being willing to encourage such a public benefit.
“Section 1. Have therefore enacted and be it enacted, etc. That there be
from henceforth one general letter office erected and established within
the town of Philadelphia, from whence all letters and packets whatsoever
may be with speed and expedition sent into any part of the neighboring
Colonies and plantations on the mainland and continent of America, or
into any other of the King’s kingdoms or dominions, or unto any kingdom
or country beyond the seas; at which said office all returns and answers
may likewise be received, etc.”
Thus Governor Andrew Hamilton, of New Jersey, first devised the
postoffice scheme for America, for which he obtained a patent, and the
profits accruing. He afterwards sold it to the Crown.
The Assembly appropriated £20 yearly as a salary to Andrew Hamilton,
“the postmaster of North America under the Crown.”
Thus was the postal system established, and the postmaster empowered to
deliver mail to every corner of the Western World.
The first list of letters advertised appeared in the Pennsylvania
Gazette, March 21, 1738. It contained about 150 names of all the letters
collected and uncalled for in the previous six months, mostly for
non-residents.