Chapter XXXI: Section 8: provided minute directions for the distribution of the tracts (19)

Many disturbances occurred in Mahanoy City, and an innocent citizen lost his life, when a disturbance arose between William M. Thomas and James Dugan. Both drew revolvers and fired at each other. Thomas was shot in the face, but Christian Zimmerman, who was standing across the street, waiting for his wife to complete her shopping, received a bullet through his lungs and died the following afternoon. Thomas was arrested for assault on Dugan, but no one was arrested for killing Zimmerman. Another man was shot through the leg during this wild duel, and a rioter was stabbed during the excitement.

McKenna hurried to Mahanoy City where he found the country in a blaze of excitement, and as the people believed him the worst Mollie Maguire in the regions, he remained but a short time, when he took a train for Shenandoah. He was in Shenandoah four hours when he learned who had fired the shot which killed Gomer James, and Tom Hurley became a refugee from justice.

The result of this unexpected success, was that all the Mollies in Shenandoah engaged in grand bacchanal, and to get rid of them McKenna left the place and went to Girardville. Here Jack Kehoe, one of the notorious Mollie leaders told him in a moment of confidence, that the murder of Squire Gwyther was the result of a drunken spree, and that Thomas Love, he was glad to say, had made his escape.

This was truly Bloody Saturday, but by no means was it the end of the reign of the Mollie Maguires in the coal regions of Pennsylvania.

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Yankees Drive Pennamites from Wyoming
Valley in Battle Which Began
August 15, 1771

Following the first massacre at Wyoming, October 15, 1763, it was more than five years before the first forty settlers arrived from Connecticut to reclaim their improvements. On their arrival they found Amos Ogden and a few other persons in possession of the lands, occupying them by authority of the Proprietary Government of Pennsylvania.

Now commenced a bitter civil war, which lasted with alternate success of the different parties for upwards of six years. The settlements of both parties were alternately broken up—the men led off to prison, the women and children driven away, and other outrages committed. Blood was often shed in this strange and civil strife.

Ogden and his little band were defeated, April 29, 1770, and the Yankees became the masters of the situation.

The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania raised a force in September, 1770, under Captain Ogden, to recover Wyoming. Governor Penn issued a proclamation, June 28, 1770, directing all intruders to depart from Wyoming.

Ogden planned a surprise attack and marching by way of Fort Allen, traveled the Warrior’s Path, then but little used. The stratagem succeeded, for the Yankees watched for them only along the regular path. Ogden again proved his shrewdness by outwitting the Yankees, and defeated them, capturing Major John Durkee, and others.

Ogden also captured Fort Durkee through a deception, and marched his prisoners off to Easton, where they were confined in jail. Major John Durkee, Major Simeon Draper and Captain Zebulon Butler, were put in irons and sent to Philadelphia.

Fort Durkee remained in possession of the Pennamites until December 18, 1770, when Captain Lazerus Stewart, and the “Paxtang Boys” surprised the garrison, and captured the fort.

The Pennsylvania authorities determined on the arrest of Captain Stewart, and a warrant was placed in the hands of Captain Ogden. He called upon Sheriff Peter Kechlin, of Northampton County, and a posse reached Wyoming, January 18, 1771. Stewart refused to submit to arrest and in the short fight, Nathan Ogden, brother of the Captain, was killed and three others wounded.

During the night Captain Stewart and forty of his men stole out of the fort and fled to the woods; the twelve remaining surrendered themselves to the sheriff. The death of his brother caused Captain Amos Ogden much distress. The coroner’s inquest found that Nathan Ogden had been horridly and wilfully murdered by Lazerus Stewart.

Fort Durkee was garrisoned by thirty Pennamites, when the sheriff, Captain Ogden, Justice Charles Stewart, with their associates, January 23, set out for Easton. Five of the ten prisoners taken at the capture of the fort were sent to Philadelphia and committed to jail, where Major Durkee and Captain Butler were still languishing. Those who escaped with Captain Lazerus Stewart scattered and returned to their homes. Thus was consummated the fifth expulsion of the Yankees from Wyoming.

The Pennamites in the two forts at Wilkes-Barre were reinforced by other Pennsylvanians and Captain Amos Ogden and Charles Stewart, Esq. Fort Wyoming was enlarged and strengthened and all the Pennamite settlers dwelt therein. Fort Durkee was abandoned and dismantled.

During the next four months peace reigned supreme, and the Proprietaries had much land surveyed in the Manors of Stoke and Sunbury, and laid out to various persons, under warrants of the Provincial Land Office.

In the mid-summer seventy men of Connecticut, formerly owners of land at Wyoming, were enlisted under Captain Zebulon Butler to go forward to the much-coveted valley. While preparations were going on in Connecticut for the Wyoming expedition Lazerus Stewart was gathering together a few of the “Paxtang Boys,” who hastened to join Captain Butler on the march to Wyoming.

Colonel Asher Clayton was the chief man among the Pennamites, who now seemed secure and thrifty. On July 6, news reached him that armed forces of Yankees were approaching, and scouts brought him intelligence that the Yankees were determined to secure possession of this country. Clayton went forward and met Butler, but they could not come to terms, and Clayton returned to the fort. Captain Butler and his men invested the block house at Mill Creek and awaited developments.

Captain Amos Ogden again arrived at Wyoming and almost as soon as the Yankees. He found the situation so serious that he determined to be his own messenger to Philadelphia, where he arrived July 16, in three days’ travel. He appeared before Provincial Council and related the story. They agreed to raise 100 men and immediately set about to recruit them, but met with unexpected difficulty.

Captain Butler did not wait for these reinforcements to reach the Pennamites, but, Sunday, July 21, believed the time had come for the offensive. That night he silently marched them to the vicinity of Fort Wyoming, where, before daylight he had entrenched. By Monday these intrenchments were occupied by Yankees and the battle for Fort Wyoming was begun. Other redoubts were erected by which all communication with the outside was cut off from Fort Wyoming, but the Pennamites possessed means of defense so long as their provisions and ammunition would hold out.

Reinforcements under Captains John Dick and Joseph Morris left their rendezvous in the Blue Mountains, Sunday, July 28, and arrived before daybreak on the 30th. Within 200 yards of the block house they were attacked by the Yankees and lost two loads of flour and nine men. The Yankees continued a constant fire, day and night, until August 10, the defenders returning the fire.

Efforts to send volunteers to the relief of the Pennamites were unavailing, until Ogden, Van Campen and others, who had extensive land claims there, induced 62 men to march under command of Dr. Andrew Leslie from Reemeys, they arrived August 15, at “Ten-Mile Run,” where they bivouacked, after sending a messenger to the inmates of the fort.

But before the arrival of this detail and the supplies which they brought, the garrison was nearly starved and on the 15th Colonel Clayton sent out a flag of truce, and after several consultations accepted the best terms he could obtain. By the Articles of Capitulation 23 men were to march out armed, the remainder unarmed, and all to return to their homes unmolested; men who had families could remain two weeks to collect their effects; and the sick and wounded could be cared for until able to leave. The Indian messenger from the relief party arrived just as the fort was surrendered.

Thus Wyoming was again in the possession of the settlers of the Susquehanna Company and Captain Zebulon Butler the hero of the hour.

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Great Land Purchase Made at Indian Council
in Philadelphia, August 16, 1749

Early in April, 1749, the Six Nations held a Grand Council at Onondaga Castle, when it was decided to send deputies from each of the nations to Philadelphia, to shake hands with Governor James Hamilton, who had assumed the office in the previous November; to answer a proposal for peace with the Catawba, which had been made by the former Governor of Pennsylvania, and to consider other matters. It was agreed that all the deputies should meet together at Wyoming, and proceed thence in a body to Philadelphia.

About the middle of May the four deputies of the Seneca accompanied by other members of their nation, arrived at Wyoming, where they waited a month for the arrival of the deputies of the other nations, who, however, failed to appear. The Seneca thereupon continued their journey via the North Branch to Shamokin, then the main river, and arrived at Philadelphia, June 26, accompanied by some Tutelo, Nanticoke and Conoy. These Indians were received by the Governor and Council on July 1, when Ogashtash, the Seneca speaker, stated that the Grand Council at Onondaga had heard that the white people had begun to settle on the Indians’ side of the Blue Mountains, in the present Juniata Valley.

Ogashtash further said that during their stay at Wyoming they had heard things which made them believe this was true. They wanted to know if this was done wickedly by bad people or if the new Governor had brought some instructions from the King, or Proprietaries, which the Grand Council did not yet know, but would cause much hurt.

Governor Hamilton informed the Seneca that the settling of the white squatters along the Juniata was contrary to the terms of the treaties made by the Government with the Indians, and that a proclamation would be issued commanding all the white people who had settled north of the Blue Mountains to remove by November 1, 1749.

Presents to the value of £100 were distributed on July 4 to the Indians, and a day or two later Conrad Weiser conducted them out of the city and journeyed with them as far as his house in Heidelberg Township. Here the Indians concluded to remain for a few days to visit with their old friend and brother, and without invitation they camped out near his house and made themselves very much at home. The Tutelo injured and destroyed a large amount of Weiser’s movable property and damaged his plantation generally. Weiser tried in vain to influence them to proceed on their journey. Finally, after an unpleasant experience of a week or ten days with these unruly visitors, Weiser induced the Seneca to take their departure, and they forced the Tutelo to go along.

The Tutelo were from villages on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Zeisberger speaks of this tribe as a “degenerate remnant of thieves and drunkards”; he says that their village near Shamokin was “the only town on the continent inhabited by Tutelos.”

These Indians loafed and loitered along the way to the Susquehanna, taking along anything which struck their fancy, and when that stream was reached they paddled their canoes up the river, stopped awhile at Shamokin, then at Nescopeck, then at Wyoming, where they arrived August 1.

Two days after these Indians arrived at Wyoming, a large fleet of canoes came unexpectedly down the North Branch bearing the belated deputies of the Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations together with many other representatives—chiefs, warriors, squaws and children of these several nations, and many Indians of other tribes.

This large company remained at Wyoming for a day, and then proceeded down the river, accompanied by the Seneca deputies, and their party, who had just returned from Philadelphia, also by Chief Paxinosa and a large number of his Shawnee from their new home in what is now Plymouth, Luzerne County, and by a number of Delaware, Nanticoke and Mohican from the different villages along their route. At Nescopeck they were joined by King Nutimus and a number of his people, and then, without further delay, they floated down the river to Shamokin.

Arriving at this old Indian town at the Forks of the Susquehanna, now Sunbury, a messenger was sent in haste over the mountains to Conrad Weiser to announce the coming of the deputies. Soon as Weiser received this intelligence he dispatched an express to Governor Hamilton, who immediately directed the messenger to hurry back to Weiser, who was instructed by the Governor and Council “to try all ways to divert the Indians from coming to Philadelphia.” This the good old interpreter tried to do, but his efforts were resented by the Indians with so much spirit that he was obliged “to turn his protestations into invitations and make the best of circumstances.”

When this small army of deputies reached Tulpehocken, Conrad Weiser joined them and was the leader of the party from there to Philadelphia, where they arrived August 14, and according to the official records they numbered 280 in all. Governor Hamilton paid a ceremonious visit to the Indians, and appointed August 16 as the date for the conference with them.

Several days time of this conference was consumed in discussing the matters which had brought the Indians to Philadelphia. As a result of the conference the Proprietaries obtained for £500 a deed dated August 22, 1749, for a strip of land northwest and contiguous to the Blue Mountains, and extending from the Susquehanna to the Delaware River, the northwest boundary of this strip being a straight line running in a northeasterly direction from the north side of the mouth of the “Cantagny or Maghonoy Creek,” and now known as Mahanoy Creek, a mile below the present city of Sunbury, “to the north side of the south of the creek called Lechawachsein,” now Lackawaxon, which flows into the Delaware near the northern limit of Pike County; the southern boundary was the mountain range, beginning near Dauphin and running in a northeasterly direction until it falls into the Delaware River at the present Delaware Water Gap.

This new purchase included all or parts of the present counties of Dauphin, Northumberland, Lebanon, Schuylkill, Columbia, Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne.

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Robert Fulton, Native of Lancaster County,
Operates First Steamboat, August 17, 1807.

Robert Fulton demonstrated the first successful commercial steam vessel August 17, 1807, when he opened the throttle and the Clermont slowly, but surely, moved against the swift current of the Hudson River.

Robert Fulton was born on a farm in Little Britain Township, Lancaster County, in 1765. His father was a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, and emigrated to Lancaster County in 1735, where he soon became one of the foremost citizens, but did not make a success of farming. A year after Robert’s birth he mortgaged the farm and moved to Lancaster, where he died in 1768.

Mrs. Fulton was left with three daughters and two sons, and but little money and less time to spare to help meet the mortgage. She managed well with her family but the farm was lost.

The boyhood of Robert was filled with a desire to express his feelings through the dual medium of painting and mechanics. He seemed to love both with equal ardor.

His first great thrill came through the acquisition of some discarded paints and brushes brought to school one day by a companion. Fulton accomplished great things with them, and quite forgot he was in school to study.

When Robert was thirteen, the citizens of Lancaster wished to light up the town on the evening of July 4. It was in the midst of the Revolution and candles were as scarce as money. The demonstration was given up until Robert thought out a plan for skyrockets and the lad made possible the celebration.

In Lancaster lived a clever man named William Henry, who had made some experiments with a steamboat. Robert often visited the Henry home, and there saw some pictures painted by Benjamin West, a former Chester County boy, who had gained great fame as an artist. Here was a man who appealed to young Fulton.

Robert placed a paddle wheel on his rowboat after the Henry plan, but propelled it by hand. It is quite possible that he dreamed of the greater speed if steam power could be applied.

When Robert was seventeen his mother apprenticed him to a Philadelphia silversmith. This was a mistake. He showed his character by quitting and establishing himself as a miniature painter—work that he loved. His plain studio was at the corner of Second and Walnut Streets. Here he supported himself for four years. He sketched and painted portraits and landscapes, and made drawings of machinery. So well did he work that at twenty-one he returned to Lancaster with enough money to buy a small farm for his mother.

Following the advice of some friends in 1786, he went to England, where he devoted several years to his profession, under the tuition of Benjamin West, who received him into his own home. Here he became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, the founder of the great canal system of Great Britain, who induced Fulton to abandon art, and take up the study of mechanical science.

Fulton soon invented a double-inclined plane for raising or lowering boats from one level to another. In 1794 he devised a mill for sawing marble. In 1796 he evolved the idea of cast iron aqueducts, and a structure of this kind was built over the River Dee. He designed several bridges; he invented machinery for spinning flax; another for making ropes; one for digging ditches, and a dispatch boat.

In 1796 he published a “Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation,” copies of which were sent to President Washington, and other public officials, accompanied by letters telling of the advantages to be derived by canal navigation in America.

From 1797 to 1804 he resided in Paris with Joel Barlow, the American representative at the French court. During this period Fulton invented a submarine or plunging boat, called a “torpedo” designed to be used in naval warfare. Bonaparte appointed a commission to examine it. Fulton could easily descend to any depth, or rise to the surface. On one occasion he remained below the surface for four hours.

The French Government declined to patronize the project, and Fulton accepted the invitation from the English ministry, but would not agree to sell them a secret which the United States might need.

In 1806, after an absence of nineteen years, Fulton returned to the United States, and devoted his thought to the perfection of a steamboat, a project which he had in his mind for many years.

When in France Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, a rich man from New York, who was much interested in steamboats. Livingston had already built one, which proved a failure. The two men now joined forces. This made a fine association for Fulton’s knowledge of machinery was far greater than Livingston’s, but the latter had the wealth and influence which could bring an invention to the public.

Livingston obtained the sole right for them to navigate the waters of New York State for twenty years, if they could produce a steam vessel capable of a speed of four miles an hour against the current of the Hudson River.

Fulton finished his first steamboat in the Spring of 1807. He called it the Clermont, which was the name of Livingston’s estate near Albany. The first trip from New York to Albany was made on Monday, August 17, 1807—a day that will never be forgotten.

Crowds assembled at the wharf to see the Clermont start. Few believed it would move; most called it “Fulton’s Folly.” The trip was even more successful than Fulton had anticipated; it excited great admiration, and steamboats were rapidly multiplied on American waters. The Clermont made regular trips between New York and Albany, at the rate of five miles per hour, but this speed was soon increased by improvements in the machinery.

The success of the Clermont caused Fulton to construct other and larger boats and ferry boats. He also built the world’s first steam propelled warship, in the War of 1812.

In 1806 he married Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston, by whom he had four children. He possessed great personal dignity and agreeable manners, and many noble qualities of heart.

In the midst of his triumph and in the height of his prosperity he died.

During the winter of 1814–15 he was building a floating steam battery and visited the works at Paulus Hook, now Jersey City. He stood three hours in the cold, and then tramped through pools of water. He became ill from this exposure, but again visited the construction, and died February 24, 1815. The New York Legislature wore mourning six weeks. His funeral was the largest ever held in New York City up to that time. The body of this distinguished Pennsylvanian rests in Trinity churchyard on Broadway, at the head of Wall Street.

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Anti-Masonic Outbreak in Pennsylvania
First Felt at New Berlin,
August 18, 1829

From 1826 to 1838 may be termed the Anti-Masonic period, for during those eventful years bigotry ran wild, while superstition and fanaticism, like the demons of old, took possession of the many. They were the halcyon days for broken-down politicians to ride into power and place.

Seizing the opportunity, these demagogues originated a political party, whose platform denounced all secret societies, particularly the Freemasons, as destructive of every principle of religion, justice and good government.

During the years 1823 to 1826 there resided in Western New York one William Morgan, a native of Virginia, by trade a stone mason.

It has been represented that he was a veteran of the War of 1812, but he earned his title of Captain as the owner of a fishing smack, with piratical tendencies, which plied along the gulf coast.

In 1825 “Captain” Morgan was residing in Batavia, N. Y., where a poor printer, named Wilbur, concocted with Morgan to publish a book containing the revelations of Freemasonry, which was in fact the copy of a volume formerly published in England in 1750, under the title “Jachin and Boaz.”

As would be expected, the announcement of the publication of the book in question wrought up members of the Masonic fraternity to fever heat. Efforts to suppress the work were freely discussed, and some even proposed doing so by force if it could not be done otherwise.

The respectable part of the fraternity, supposing that no book of that kind would really be published, and, like a nine days’ wonder, if it was, would soon vanish and wholly disappear, took little or no interest in the matter. While they were folding their arms, an inconsiderate scheme was developed by individuals for suppressing by force the contemplated work.

But at this time Morgan was arrested for debt, September 12, 1826, and placed in a carriage and driven to Rochester. That was the last ever seen of him.

Morgan’s sudden disappearance caused great excitement, and gossips gave out the statement that Freemasons had conveyed him to Fort Niagara, while others claimed they had drowned him in Lake Ontario.

Public meetings were held and finally a reprobate named Edward Giddings spread the sensational story that Freemasons had abducted and foully put Morgan to death.

At this time the body of a man was washed ashore on Lake Ontario, and a week after interment the body was exhumed and a second inquest determined that “William Morgan had come to his death by drowning.” The corpse did not, in any particular, resemble Morgan, but the crowd determined that “it was a good enough Morgan until after election.” This body was identified as that of Timothy Monroe, who had drowned September 26. The remains were buried by his widow.

This should have ended the Morgan excitement but it did no such thing. “A lie well stuck to is more convincing than the truth.” So a most infamous deception was practiced upon the people.

Prosecutions were instituted against those who were supposed to have anything to do with the abduction of Morgan. Many trials resulted, but no murder was ever established.

What had become of Morgan? Was he drowned or murdered?

As early as September 26, 1826, the “Intelligencer,” of Harrisburg, as well as other newspapers, cautioned the Masonic fraternity against “a man calling himself Captain Morgan, as he is a swindler and a dangerous man.”

It has been authentically settled that after the night of the so-called abduction, being threatened with numerous suits for debt and other misdemeanors, Morgan left the country of his own free will, going directly to Australia, the passage money being furnished him. Arriving in that far distant clime, he established a newspaper, but died ten years later. A son, who accompanied him, continued the business, and was living just prior to our Civil War.

The Freemasons of New York State, as a body and individually, disclaimed all knowledge of any abduction of “Captain” Morgan.

By 1828 the Anti-Masonic movement had gained such impetus in New York that a candidate for governor was placed on their ticket. Anti-Masonic tickets were named in Massachusetts, Vermont and Ohio.

In 1829 the storm broke out in Pennsylvania, and was first felt in the little town of New Berlin, Union County, where Lafayette Lodge No. 194 was holding a public procession August 18. The speakers for the occasion were Hon. Jesse Merrill, General Henry Frick, Henry C. Eyer, Reverend Just Henry Fries, Reverend John Kessler and Reverend Henry Piggott. Henry W. and George A. Snyder, distinguished sons of former Governor Simon Snyder, were officers of the lodge and had arranged the program.

The meeting was broken up by the hostile action of a mob. It was these same people who sent Ner Middlesworth, that great exponent of Anti-Masonry to the General Assembly; it was also in New Berlin where the first Anti-Masonic newspapers were established.

Joseph Ritner was placed in nomination for the office of Governor by the Anti-Masonic convention, which met in Harrisburg in 1829, and he received 51,000 votes, only 30,000 less than his successful opponent, George Wolf.

A national convention was held in Baltimore September, 1831, which placed a complete ticket in the field. In 1832 the Anti-Masons of Pennsylvania again placed Joseph Ritner in nomination, but he was again defeated by Governor Wolf, but two years later the Anti-Masons gained control of the Legislature, and under the capable leadership of Thaddeus Stevens, made political history in the Keystone State.

In the election of October, 1835, Joseph Ritner was elected, and with both branches of the General Assembly, the Anti-Masons were determined to carry out their various unlawful measures with a high hand.

The Stevens Legislative investigation held December, 1835, proved to be a fiasco, as the inquisition failed to disclose a single unlawful act upon the part of any member of the order of Freemasons or Odd Fellows.

By 1838 the clouds of ignorant oppression had cleared away, and the people, who cared to do so, could unite with either secret organization without fear of social ostracism or political suicide.

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York County and Its Part in the Revolution,
Erected August 19, 1749

York County, erected August 19, 1749, from part of Lancaster County, played a conspicuous part and contributed its full share of troops during the period of the early troubles of our Republic. Indeed York County seems to have been in the struggle from the earliest moment to the end of the conflict and in addition furnished men who assumed a leading role in that stirring drama.

Colonel Thomas Hartley, himself one of the greatest patriots of the Revolutionary times, in a letter to President Reed, of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, says:

“They knew they had been as patriotic as any, that the York district had armed the first in Pennsylvania, and had furnished more men in it than any other district on the continent of the same number of inhabitants.”

As early as December, 1774, James Smith, who was a Provincial statesman and sensed the impending struggle with the Mother Country, employed himself in raising and drilling a volunteer company, of which he was elected captain. This is said to be the very first body of volunteer soldiers organized in Pennsylvania, with a view to oppose the armies of Great Britain. The officers were James Smith, captain; Thomas Hartley, first lieutenant; David Grier, second lieutenant, and Henry Miller, ensign. Each of these officers, thus early attached to the cause of liberty, became distinguished in the subsequent history of the country.

A company of riflemen was recruited in York County under the Resolution of Congress, June 14, 1775, which was attached to Thompson’s Riflemen, the first command to receive commissions after General Washington. This company reached Cambridge, Mass., July 25, 1775, and was the first company to arrive there from any point south of Long Island or west of the Hudson River. It got into action July 29, before all the regiment had arrived.

Another rifle company was recruited in York County for fifteen months’ service, which marched from York early in May, 1776, and at Philadelphia became a part of Colonel Samuel Miles’ rifle regiment. In July five battalions of militia marched from York County to New Jersey. Of these five battalions two were formed and attached to the Flying Corps; Colonel Michael Swope commanded the first battalion, and Colonel Richard McAllister the second. Colonel Swope’s battalion suffered severe losses in battles of Long Island and Fort Washington. One company in this battalion lost all but eighteen men at Long Island. Colonel Swope and fourteen of his officers were taken prisoners when Fort Washington fell into the hands of the enemy November 16, 1776. Ensign Jacob Barnitz, of York, was wounded in this battle and lay fifteen months in prison.

Toward the close of 1777, events occurred which brought York into prominence and made it for a time the capital of the now independent States of America. The Continental Congress sat there for nine months, and at a time when its proceedings were of the greatest importance.

The disastrous Battle of Brandywine, fought September 11, 1777, decided the fate of Philadelphia. On the approach of the British towards the Schuylkill, Congress adjourned to meet in Lancaster on September 27, and on the same day adjourned to York. The Susquehanna was regarded as a safe barrier between them and the enemy, and they began their sessions there September 30, where they continued until the British evacuated Philadelphia. The Congress left York June 27, 1778.

October 17, 1777, Congress passed a Resolve, to procure a printing press so that the intelligence which Congress would receive from time to time could be given to the public. The press of Hall and Sellers, of Philadelphia, was set up in York, and even Continental money printed there. This was the first printing press erected in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna.

On November 15, Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation; on November 27, a new Board of War was organized. On December 1, Baron Steuben landed at Portsmouth, N. H., and started for York, where he arrived February 5, 1778, and remained two weeks. He was received by Congress with every mark of distinction, and was appointed Inspector General of the Army.

The treaty with France was ratified by Congress May 4, 1778, which was the occasion for a general celebration.

General Gates resided in York during part of the time Congress met there and when Lafayette called upon him, he was surrounded by friends, seated about the table and it was at this dinner the conspiracy was revealed to supplant Washington and make Gates the Commander in Chief of the Army. It was in York that General Gates and Colonel Wilkinson planned to fight a duel to settle their differences, but before the meeting, their troubles were adjusted.

General Wayne arrived in York February 27, 1781, on his way to assume command of part of the Pennsylvania Line which was to reinforce General Greene, then in the south. On May 20, Wayne’s corps, smaller in number than he anticipated, and by no means well equipped, but reduced to discipline and harmony, marched southward from York.

On April 17, 1777, Congress changed the name of the “Committee of Secret Correspondence,” to “Committee of Foreign Affairs,” and appointed Thomas Paine, secretary of the committee. His “American Crisis,” Number V., addressed to General Sir William Howe, commenced in the house of Hon. William Henry of Lancaster, was finished and printed at York.

Major John André, afterwards executed as a spy, was in York for a short time after he was taken prisoner at St. John’s, September, 1775, and was from there transferred to Carlisle.

General Washington visited York in 1791, when he journeyed from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. He arrived in York from Hanover at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, July 2, 1791, and took lodging at the tavern of Baltzer Spangler. He was met with the Independent Light Infantry, commanded by Captain George Hay, which fired a salute of fifteen rounds. He had dinner with Colonel Thomas Hartley, and walked through the principal streets, and drank tea with his distinguished host.

At night there were illuminations and every other demonstration of joy. The next morning his excellency was waited upon by the Chief Burgess and principal inhabitants, and was given an address, to which the President replied. General Washington attended divine service and then proceeded on his journey, being accompanied as far as Wright’s Ferry by a number of the principal inhabitants, among the latter being his close friend Colonel Thomas Hartley.

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Greatest Victory Over Indians Gained by
General Wayne at Fallen Timbers,
August 20, 1794

After the close of the Revolution the country west of the Ohio was still occupied with Indian tribes ever ready to bring devastation, destruction, and desolation to the homes of the border settlers, and ever incited and aided by the British, who held a number of posts along the lakes. The Indians had determined the Ohio River should be the permanent boundary between them and the United States.

President Washington sent Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair in succession to command troops selected to overawe them, and each in turn experienced bitter defeat by the savages. Washington then sent for General Anthony Wayne and in April, 1782, placed him in command of the Army of the United States.

Wayne understood his mission. He organized his “Legion” in Pittsburgh, June, 1792, consisting of only 2,631 troops recruited from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey. Pennsylvania furnished all but 232 of the command.

Wayne inaugurated strict discipline. Two soldiers were shot down for sleeping on their posts. Whiskey was forbidden in the camp and drunkenness severely punished. He insisted upon cleanliness and regularity of diet. He taught the use of the bayonet and the sword. He dined with his officers, and carefully planned every detail of his expedition with their full knowledge.

Wayne had Chief Cornplanter, ninety Choctaw and twenty-five Chicasaw Indians with him, whom he used to sow dissension among the hostile Indians.

The war lasted more than two years during which time there were periods of four and five months that he was without communication with the seat of government. The Government viewed this Indian war with alarm, and not without cause, as two previous defeats made the outcome doubtful.

While the hostile Indians were perfecting their combinations the Government sent commissioners to Fort Erie to sue for peace. The result was that the Indians gained the time they needed, then refused to treat at all, and the burden fell upon Wayne to see that the commissioners reached their homes with their scalps on their heads, for which they formally gave him thanks.

On October 13 he had marched to a point on the Miami River, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, where he found a camp which he fortified and called Greenville and remained there through the winter. From this camp he sent out scouts and spies to secure intelligence and scalps. He also sent a force to the field where St. Clair had been defeated to bury the bones of the dead and erect a stockade called Fort Recovery.

In May a lieutenant with a convoy gallantly charged and repulsed an assault. About seventeen hundred of the enemy made a desperate attempt June 13, to capture an escort under the walls of Fort Recovery and to carry the Fort by storm, keeping up a heavy fire and making repeated efforts for two days, but were finally repulsed. Twenty-one soldiers were killed and twenty-nine wounded.

A few days later, after receiving reinforcements of mounted men from Kentucky, General Wayne marched seventy miles in the heart of the Indian country, built Fort Defiance, and then within sight of a British fort on the Miami River made his preparations for the battle which was inevitable.

He had marched nearly four hundred miles through the country of an enemy, both watchful and vindictive; had cut a road through the woods the entire way, upon a route longer, more remote and more surrounded with dangers than that of Braddock; had overcome almost insuperable difficulties in securing supplies; had built three forts, and now had reached a position where the issue must be decided by arms.

On the morning of August 20, 1794, the army advanced five miles, with the Miami on the right, a brigade of mounted volunteers on the left, a light brigade in their rear, and a selected battalion of horsemen in the lead. They came to a place where a tornado had swept through the forest, and thrown down the trees, since called Fallen Timbers, and where the twisted trunks and uprooted trees lay in such profusion as to impede the movements of the cavalry.

Here the Indians, two thousand in number, encouraged by the proximity of the British fort, determined to make a stand. Hidden in the woods and the high grass, they opened fire upon the mounted men in front and succeeded in driving them back to the main army. The enemy were formed in three lines in supporting distance of each other, extending two miles at right angles to the river and were protected and covered by the woods.

Wayne formed his force in two lines. He saw the enemy was strong in numbers and intended to turn his flank, and met this situation by ordering up the rear line to support the first, by sending a force by a circuitous route to turn the right of the enemy; by sending another force at the same time along the river to turn their left, and by a direct charge in the front to drive the Indians from their covert with the bayonet.

The Indians could not stand this attack, broke in confusion, and were driven two miles in the course of an hour through the woods with great loss. Their dead bodies and the British muskets lay scattered in all directions. All of the village, corn fields and houses, including that of Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent, within a scope of one hundred miles were burned and destroyed.

American annals disclose no such other victory over the savage tribes. It secured for civilization the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It made possible the development of such states as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

When the news reached London, the British Government, recognizing that the cause of the Indians was hopeless, ordered the evacuation of the posts at Detroit, Oswego and Niagara.

Two weeks later General Wayne was crushed to earth by a falling tree, so much bruised as to cause great pain and hemorrhages, and only the fortunate location of a stump, on which the tree finally rested, saved his life.

After the treaty of cession and peace had been executed, and after an absence in the wilderness for three years, he returned home in 1795, everywhere hailed with loud acclaim as the hero of the time and received in Philadelphia by the City Troop and with salvos from cannon, ringing of bells and fireworks.

His last battle had been fought. His work was done. “Both body and mind were fatigued by the contest,” were his pathetic words. Soon afterwards the President sent him as a commissioner to Detroit and on his return he died at Presque Isle, now Erie, December 15, 1796.

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Chief Tedyuskung Annoys Moravian Brethren;
Arrives at Bethlehem
August 21, 1756

Tedyuskung, the great king of the Delaware tribe and one of the most powerful of the Indian sachems in Pennsylvania, much enjoyed the prominence he gained by frequent councils and conferences with the Governor and other Provincial dignitaries, even at the expense of causing a great jealousy among Indian chiefs of other nations. He was a skilled diplomat, a good speaker and a friend of the English, yet he was rather crafty in his dealings with both the whites and his own race, and was given over to excessive intemperance.

At the conclusion of the great treaty held at Easton, July 24–31, 1756, the Governor and others in authority doubted the sincerity of Tedyuskung, but he satisfied them on that score, and during August remained almost constantly in or about Fort Allen on a drunken debauch. Finally on August 21, he removed with his retinue to Bethlehem, where his wife, Elizabeth, and her three young children determined to remain, while the King went on an expedition to the Minisinks to put a stop to some Indian depredations.

Tedyuskung went from there to Wyoming and sent word to Major Parsons, at Easton, that he wanted his wife and children sent to him. Major Parsons went immediately to Bethlehem and made known the King’s desire to his wife, but she decided to remain where she was. This then was the cause of frequent visits to Bethlehem, where Tedyuskung much annoyed the Moravian Brethren, who were not in position to control his actions when he was their unwelcome visitor.

July, 1757, he was for some time in and about Fort Allen and then in attendance at the second great conference at Easton, during which time his wife and children were with him. Two days after this conference closed Tedyuskung, his family and others went to Bethlehem. Reichel, in his “Memorials of the Moravian Church,” says:

“Some of these unwelcome visitors halted for a few days, and some proceeded as far as Fort Allen and then returned, undecided as to where to go and what to do. During the month full 200 were counted—men, women and children—among them lawless crowds who annoyed the Brethren by depredations, molested the Indians at the Manakasy, and wrangled with each other over their cups at ‘The Crown’.”

Tedyuskung tarried in Bethlehem several days when he set out on a mission to Tioga, but on the way he was met by messengers from the Ohio Indians, who bore such glad tidings that the King determined he should go to Philadelphia and appraise the Governor and Council of the good news.

At Bethlehem Tedyuskung spent a few days with his wife and family, meantime holding a conference with Bishop Spangenberg, Reverend Mack and other Moravian Brethren—Augustus, the christianized Delaware chief serving as interpreter. Tedyuskung inquired of the Moravians why the converted Indians could not move to Wyoming. Bishop Spangenberg told him they would require a town of their own, where a school and church could be built. The king said these should be built there.

He then surprised the Brethren by telling them that reports had been circulated among the Indians that the Moravians had decapitated the Indians among them, placed their heads in bags and sent them to Philadelphia. These charges had so exasperated the Indians that they conspired to attack the Brethren’s settlements and cut off the inhabitants without regard to age or sex. He and Paxinoso had on one occasion persuaded 200 warriors, who had banded together for this purpose, to desist from their design.

After his interview with the Governor and Council in Philadelphia, Tedyuskung returned to Bethlehem, where he remained with his wife and children until October 7 when he again went to Philadelphia.

During all her sojourn in Bethlehem the King’s wife was maintained by the Moravian Brethren at the expense of the Province. Tedyuskung was back in Bethlehem in about ten days and remained until the 27th, when they set out for Wyoming, where the Commissioners were daily expected to build a fort and some houses for the Delaware.

Having previously signified to the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem his desire to spend the winter at Bethlehem, permission for him and his family to do so was reluctantly granted. Thereupon, upon his return from New Jersey, a lodge was built for him near “The Crown” inn. There he held court and gave audience to the wild embassies that would come from the Indian country.

In addition to Tedyuskung and his family nearly one hundred Indians spent the winter of 1757–58 in the neighborhood of “The Crown.” Reichel says: “Government was imposing an additional burden upon the Brethren when it committed this lawless crowd to their keeping * * * We are at a loss how to act. Furthermore, we are told that some of our neighbors are growing uneasy at our receiving such murdering Indians, as they style them. I fear we shall be obliged to set watches to keep such of them off as are disposed to quarrel with, or may attempt to hurt any of them.”

Tedyuskung attended a long conference in Philadelphia in the early part of 1758, and made trips to and from Bethlehem for this purpose.

He was back in Bethlehem in April, and on the 17th sent a number of the Delaware, who had wintered in the Moravian town, to Fort Allen, there to join Captain Jacob Arndt’s soldiers in ranging the frontiers. He also sent his sons, Captains John Jacob and Amos and three other Delaware over the Allegheny to the Indians towns of the Delaware and Shawnee.

Tedyuskung remained in Bethlehem, and Justice Horsfield wrote on April 18: “I never before was so much convinced of Tedyuskung’s zeal for the English cause.” Five days later, however, a soldier came to Bethlehem from Fort Allen with a letter from Captain Arndt in which he stated that he was having trouble with the Indians sent to the fort by Tedyuskung—the messengers, who were still there, as well as those who were to range being continually drunk, having brought with them some casks of rum from Easton.

Tedyuskung made another trip to Philadelphia in May to urge the Governor to again send the Commissioners to finish the fort and the houses. He returned to Bethlehem about May 8.

Reichel says: “When the swelling of the maple buds and the whitening of the shad-bush on the river’s bank betokened the advent of Spring, there were busy preparations going on in Tedyuskung’s company over the matter of their long-expected removal to the Indian Eldorado on the flats of the Winding River. It was the 16th of cornplanting month (May), the month called Tauwinipen, when the Delaware King, his Queen, his counsellors and his warriors led by the Commissioners, took up the line of march for Fort Allen, beyond there to strike the Indian trail that led over the mountains to Wyoming Valley—and on the going out of these spirits ‘The Crown’ was swept and garnished and Ephriam Colver, the publican, had rest.”

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Gilbert Family in Indian Captivity Twenty-nine
Months Released August 22,1782

Benjamin Gilbert and family, living on Mahoning Creek, about five miles from Fort Allen, now Weissport, Carbon County, were carried into a bitterly painful captivity by a party of Indians, who took them to Canada, and there separated them. At the time of this occurrence, April 25, 1780, the event caused intense excitement throughout the State, and from an interesting narrative published shortly after their release from captivity, August 22, 1782, the following facts are ascertained.

Benjamin Gilbert was a Quaker from Byberry, near Philadelphia, and in 1775 removed with his family to a farm on Mahoning Creek, near Fort Allen. They lived comfortably in a good log dwelling house, with barn and saw and grist mill. For five years all was peace and industry.

On the eventful day, about sunrise they were surprised by a party of Indians who took the following prisoners: Benjamin Gilbert, aged 69; Elizabeth, his wife, 55 years; sons, Joseph, aged 41; Jesse, 19; Abner, 14; and daughters, Rebecca, 16; and Elizabeth, 12; and Sarah, wife of Jesse; Thomas Peart, son of Benjamin Gilbert’s wife; Benjamin Gilbert, a nephew of the elder Gilbert; Andrew Harrigar, a German servant and Abigail Dodson, a neighbor’s daughter, the whole number taken being twelve. The Indians then proceeded about half a mile to Benjamin Peart’s and there captured himself and his wife and their nine months’ old child.

The last look the poor captives had of their once comfortable homes was to view the buildings in flames as they were led over Summer Hill, on their way over Mauch Chunk and Broad Mountains into the Nescopeck Path, and then across Quakake Creek to Mahanoy Mountain, where they passed the first night, fastened between notched saplings, with straps around their necks and fastened to a tree.

Their march was resumed soon after dawn and day after day they tramped over the wild and rugged region between the Lehigh and the Chemunk branch of the Susquehanna. Often ready to faint by the way, the cruel threat of instant death urged them again to march. The old man, Benjamin Gilbert, had begun to fail, and was already painted black, the fatal omen among the Indians; but when they were to kill him, the pitiful pleadings of his wife saved him. Subsequently in Canada, Gilbert told the chief he could say what none of the other Indians could, “that he had brought in the oldest man and the youngest child.”

On the fifty-fourth day of their captivity, the Gilbert family had to experience the fearful ordeal of running the gauntlet.

“The prisoners,” says the narrative, “were released from the heavy loads they had heretofore been compelled to carry, and were it not for the treatment they expected on approaching the Indian towns, and the hardship of separation, their situation would have been tolerable; but the horror of their minds, arising from the dreadful yells of the Indians as they approached the hamlets, is easier conceived than described—for they were no strangers to the customary cruelty exercised upon the captives on entering their towns. The Indians, men, women and children, collect together, bringing clubs and stones in order to beat them, which they usually do with great severity. The blows must be borne without complaint. The prisoners are beaten until the Indians weary with the cruel sport.

“Two of the women who were on horseback were much bruised by falling from their horses, which were frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took shelter by the side of a warrior, who sent her away, she then received several violent blows, so that she was almost disabled. The blood trickled from their heads in a stream. Their hair being cropped close and the clothes they had on in rags, made their situation truly piteous. Whilst the Indians were inflicting this revenge upon the captives, the chief came and put a stop to any further cruelty.”

Soon after this torture, a severer trial awaited them, when they were separated. Some were given over to other Indians to be adopted, others were hired out as servants, and the remainder were sent down the lake to Montreal. Among the latter was old Benjamin Gilbert, by this time broken in body and mind, and he there succumbed. His remains were interred near old Fort Coeur du Lac, below Ogdensburg.

Some of the family met with kind treatment from the hands of British officers, who were interested in their story, and exerted themselves to release them from captivity. Sarah Gilbert, wife of Jesse, became a mother, and Elizabeth Gilbert was allowed to give her daughter every necessary attendance. One day while Elizabeth was ironing for the family of Adam Scott, a little girl told her some one wanted to see her and upon entering another room, she found six of her own children. A messenger was sent to inform Jesse and his wife, so that Joseph Gilbert, Benjamin Peart and Elizabeth, his wife, and their young child, and Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert the younger, were with their mother on this occasion.

Elizabeth Gilbert, the younger, only twelve years of age, had been adopted by an Indian family, but was permitted to live with a white family named Secord, by whom she was treated with endearing attention.