Chapter XXXVIII: Section 8: provided minute directions for the distribution of the tracts (26)

Colonel Matthew Smith, War Veteran,
Elected Vice President October
11, 1779

On October 11, 1779, Vice President George Bryan resigned his office, whereupon Colonel Matthew Smith, a veteran officer of the French and Indian War, and one who commanded a company in Arnold’s expedition to Quebec, then a citizen of Milton, Northumberland County, was chosen to fill the vacancy, which he, too, resigned on the 29th of the month. William Moore was elected to the position, November 12.

On November 27, the Assembly after careful consideration, adopted a resolution annulling the Royal Charter, and granting the Penns, as a compensation for the rights of which they were deprived, £300,000.

They retained their manors, however, and were still the largest landed proprietors in Pennsylvania. They subsequently received from the British Government an annuity of £4000 for their losses by the Revolution.

The act for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania was passed March 1, 1780. It provided for the registration of every Negro or mulatto slave, or servant for life, before November 1, following, and also provided, “No man or woman of any nation or color, except the Negroes or mulattoes who shall be registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within the territory of this Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women.”

During the year 1780, every effort was made to keep the State up to par by passing several measures which brought but temporary relief.

An agent was sent to France and Holland to borrow £200,000, with the faith and honor of the State pledged for its repayment, but the mission was unfruitful.

The army was without clothing and short of provisions. Subscriptions were solicited by the ladies to relieve this distress. The “Bank of Pennsylvania” was established and still the Continental money continued to sink in value.

Virginia was induced to accede to Pennsylvania’s proposition to appoint commissioners to adjust the boundary. Pennsylvania appointed George Bryan, the Rev. Dr. John Ewing and David Rittenhouse; Virginia sent James Madison, afterward President of the United States, and Robert Andrews.

These commissioners met August 31, 1779, and agreed that Mason and Dixon’s line should be extended due west five degrees of longitude from the Delaware River for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian line drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the State should be the western boundary.

The Assembly of Pennsylvania ratified this on November 19, but Virginia proceeded to Fort Burd and occupied it. In March, 1780, the Assembly resolved to eject intruders under claims from other States, and authorized Council to raise troops for internal defense of the frontier; but Virginia afterward ratified the agreement and the southern line was run in 1784 and the western afterward.

Toward the close of September, 1780, the Supreme Executive Council received the startling intelligence of the treason of General Benedict Arnold, who had been in command of the American post at West Point. Among the people the news of the infamy of this officer excited the greatest indignation.

In Philadelphia a parade was held, three days after the arrival of the news, to give expression to the popular feeling.

During this demonstration an effigy of Arnold was carried through the streets and finally hung upon a gallows. The Council at once confiscated Arnold’s estate, and his wife was ordered deported from the State within fourteen days.

The arrest, trial and execution of Major André, and the escape of Arnold, his reward and price of dishonor, the sufferings and disgrace of his unfortunate wife Peggy are not within the scope of these stories.

If the proceedings against Tories in Pennsylvania had been fierce previous to this time, the feeling aroused by the defection of Arnold produced the bitterest animosity and hatred against all who were not in full sympathy with the American Colonies.

Many arrests were made, a number were tried and condemned, and one, a Quaker, of Chester County, executed for high treason. The property of prominent Tories was forfeited and sold, and, in fact, the most energetic measures taken to crush out whatever might be inimical to the cause of independence.

The situation among the soldiers from Pennsylvania in the Continental Army at this period was deplorable. About December 1, the division of General Wayne went into winter quarters in the environs of Norristown. The soldiers were wearied out with privations, and indignant at their officers, whom they accused of not properly representing their situation to Congress.

On New Year’s Day, 1781, there broke out such a mutiny in the Pennsylvania Line that it required the best efforts of Congress, the Government of Pennsylvania, and the officers of the army to subdue.

The Pennsylvania Line comprised 2500, one-third to two-thirds of the army, the soldiers from the other colonies having, in the main, gone home. Their terms of service had long since expired. They had not been paid for a year, and they were almost without clothes.

Then under the leadership of a brave sergeant, named William Bowser, they arose in arms and proceeded to settle matters for themselves. Two emissaries from General Clinton seeking to corrupt them they handed over to Washington to be hanged.

The terms of service of 1250 men had expired. They were discharged and the matter of indebtedness to them was arranged. The most of them re-enlisted.

However unjustifiable the conduct of the Pennsylvania Line was and should be deemed in the first instance, it must be acknowledged that they conducted themselves in the business, culpable as it was, with unexpected order and regularity.

Their refusing to accept the large offer made by the enemy, in delivering up the spies, and in refusing the hundred guineas they had so justly merited, exhibits an instance of true patriotism not to be found among mercenary troops who bear arms for pay and subsistence only, uninspired by their country’s rights, or the justice of the cause which they have engaged to support.

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Attempted Slaughter of Indians at Wichetunk,
Monroe County, October 12, 1763

The expedition of Colonel Henry Bouquet, during the Pontiac Conspiracy, to Fort Pitt, in a great measure served to check the depredations of the Indians for a short time and the frontiers of Pennsylvania were quiet, and under the protection and assistance of 700 Provincial recruits the settlers gathered their harvests.

Had the Provincial Assembly acted promptly in the matter an effective defense could have been provided. The Government was deaf to all entreaties, and General Jeffreys Amherst, commander of the British forces in America, did not hesitate to vent his feelings in emphatic expression:

“The conduct of the Pennsylvania Assembly is altogether so infatuated and stupidly obstinate that I want words to express my indignation thereat. They tamely look on while their brethren are butchered by the savages.”

The Assembly finally authorized the raising of 800 troops and voted £24,000 to keep that force until December 1, but declared it was both unjust and impracticable for the province to defend a frontier of nearly 300 miles, which covered a greater extent than that of New Jersey and Maryland, without assistance from other provinces.

In September and October outrages were committed as far east as the neighborhoods of Reading and Bethlehem, and it was believed that not only Fort Pitt but even Fort Augusta was destined for attack.

The road to Fort Pitt was interrupted. A supply of provisions, under a convoy of sixty men, was forwarded from Fort Bedford to Fort Pitt, but on gaining the foot of the Allegheny Mountains was compelled to return. The officers learned that the passages were occupied by the savages.

Some fragments of the Delaware and Six Nations remained at their settlements in the interior, refusing to join their brethren in arms, professing affection for the Colonists and avowing a determination to continue neutral. But the neutrality of a part, at least, of these Indians was very doubtful.

The situation of the frontiers became truly deplorable, and the Quakers, who were in control, suffered the censure of the people. Captain Lazerus Stewart, of Paxtang, expressed the views of those on the frontiers, when he said: “The Quakers are more solicitous for the welfare of the blood-thirsty Indians than for the lives of the frontiersmen.”

Colonel John Armstrong led 300 men of Cumberland County to Great Island, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, the present site of the borough of Lock Haven, where certain of the marauders had their headquarters. On their arrival they found the place evacuated, horses, cattle and other spoils gathered in their forays being left behind.

With the main body of his men, Armstrong proceeded to another Indian village near Jersey Shore, where he found the late occupants had left in haste while eating a meal. So the expedition resulted in destroying their houses and corn fields.

Major Asher Clayton led a party from Harris’ Ferry to remove the Connecticut settlers from Wyoming and destroy their provisions, which were likely to be seized by the red men. When the party arrived at Wyoming, it found that the savages had been there before them and had burned the town and killed more than twenty persons in horrible torture.

A number of those Indians who had been converted by the Moravian missionaries around Bethlehem were murdered, as they were found asleep in a barn, by a party of Rangers, and the surprise and slaughter in turn of the latter increased the suspicion of the frontiersmen, who were neither Moravians nor Quakers, against the entire body of Christian red men, who professed a desire to live at peace and friendship with the English.

The Provincial Commissioners, indeed, reported their belief that those at Nain and Wichetunk (in what is now Polk Township, Monroe County) were secretly supplied by the Moravian brethren with arms and ammunition, which, in free intercourse with the hostile savages, were traded off to the latter.

About October 12 a number of armed men marched toward Wichetunk, but, waiting to surprise it by night, were frustrated by a violent storm just before nightfall, which wet their powder.

The missionary, the Rev. Bernard Adam Grube, then led the Indians to Nazareth, but the Governor suggested that to watch their behavior it would be better to disarm them and bring them to the interior parts of the province. The Assembly, actuated more by a desire to save them, agreed to the proposal.

Governor John Penn received the refugees from Nain and Wichetunk, but their arrival in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia excited the lower classes nearly to a riot, and the soldiers refused to allow them any part of the barracks as a sheltering place, so that different arrangements were necessary.

For five hours these Indians were in great peril, but escorted by Quakers, they were finally taken to Province Island.

The conduct of the Assembly, in which there were twenty-one Quakers, failed to satisfy not only the royal and proprietary officers but also the Presbyterians, who were ready to take up arms, and particularly the Scotch-Irish on the frontier, who saw large sums of money lavished in the presents to Indians, while they themselves lay destitute from the ravages of an Indian war.

As every now and then some of their kinsmen or neighbors fell by the tomahawk, they became exasperated, coupling their vengeance against the guilty savages with jealousy of the Assembly’s partiality, and also suspicion against those Indians who were treated as friends.

A cry like the Covenanters came from their descendants in Pennsylvania; loud exhortations were heard on the frontier to carry out against the heathen red men the decrees of heaven against the Canaanites.

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Molly Pitcher, Heroine of the Battle of Monmouth,
Born October 13, 1754

There have been many stories of “Molly Pitcher,” and they have not always agreed even on the main facts. But on the occasion of the ceremonies incident to unveiling the cannon erected over her grave in the “Old Graveyard,” in Carlisle, by the Patriotic Orders Sons of America, on June 28, 1905, an excellent short biography of the “Heroine of the Battle of Monmouth” was prepared by John B. Landis, Esq., from which the following story is taken.

The heroine’s name was not “Pitcher,” but Ludwig, and at the time she earned her well-known sobriquet she was the wife of an artilleryman. Her father, John George Ludwig, came to this country from the Palatinate, and settled near Trenton, in Mercer County, New Jersey, where he engaged in the occupation of dairyman. It was here his daughter Mary was born, on October 13, 1754, and here among the surroundings of her father’s home were spent the youthful days of the future “Molly Pitcher.”

The wife of Dr. William Irvine, of Carlisle, afterward General William Irvine, and one of the greatest patriots of the Revolution, was visiting friends in Trenton when she saw the youthful Mary Ludwig, and, being pleased with her and in need of a domestic, took the young girl with her on returning to Carlisle.

Mary had hardly become accustomed to her surroundings in the fine home of Dr. and Mrs. Irvine until she met John Casper Hays, a barber, whose shop was near the Irvine residence. Their courtship was of short duration, for a marriage was solemnized on July 24, 1769.

A few years of quiet wedded life, disturbed only by the warlike preparations centered about the patriotic town of Carlisle, and John Casper Hays became a soldier. He enlisted December 1, 1775, in Colonel Thomas Proctor’s First Pennsylvania Artillery, in which he served as a gunner. His term of enlistment expired December, 1776, but he re-enlisted January, 1777, in the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, of the Continental Line, in the company commanded by Captain John Alexander, of Carlisle.

Dr. Irvine also was one of the first patriots to respond to the cause of the colonists, and January 9, 1776, was commissioned Colonel of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment. He became Brigadier General May 2, 1779. Previous to that time, however, on June 6, 1776, he was captured at Three Rivers, and remained a prisoner on parole until his exchange, April 21, 1778, when he assumed command of the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, in which John Casper Hays was a private soldier.

After young Hays left Carlisle with his regiment, his wife remained employed at Colonel Irvine’s. Some time thereafter her parents, who still resided in New Jersey, sent a message with courier for her to visit them, and the same horseman carried a letter from her husband, begging her to go, as he might then get an opportunity to see her, as his regiment was then nearby. With Mrs. Irvine’s consent Mary set out on her long journey, traveling on horseback. At the time Molly Hays was a young woman of twenty-five years.

To prevent the movement of the British on New York, General Washington marched his troops again into New Jersey, and the Battle of Monmouth was fought June 28, 1778.

The battle continued from 11 o’clock in the morning until dark, and the day was one of the hottest of the year. Fifty soldiers are said to have died of thirst, and the tongues of many said to have been so greatly swollen as to protrude from the mouth.

While the battle was in progress Molly carried water for the thirsting soldiers from a neighboring spring, which is still pointed out on the historic battlefield. Back and forth she went under shelter or under fire, supplying the much-needed water. Possibly, as is stated by some, it was carried in the cannoneer’s bucket. In whatever way it was carried the sight of Molly with her “pitcher” was a welcome sight to the weary and thirsty Continentals.

Molly’s husband, having served a year in Proctor’s Artillery, and though now an infantryman, had been detailed as a gunner in a battery that was engaged. Doubtless Molly was never out of sight of that battery. As she approached with water she saw a soldier lying at the gun, whom she thought to be her husband, and hurrying on she found her husband wounded, but the dead man was one of his comrades. Her husband recovered, but lived only a few years after the close of the war.

It is stated that the cannon was ordered to the rear and would have been taken off the field had not Molly bravely sprung to her husband’s place, and so kept the gun in action.

For her wonderful patriotism and self-sacrificing devotion to the soldiers she was dubbed “Sergeant” and by some called “Major Molly.”

“Moll Pitcher she stood by her gun,
And rammed the charges home, sir.
And thus on Monmouth’s bloody field
A sergeant did become, sir.”

How long Molly stood by her gun, through the smoke and din of battle, on that hot and terrible day, is not a matter of record, but the water she carried to those soldiers and the service she rendered with the battery has been testified to by many whom she helped.

Molly was no imaginary heroine, but a real buxom lass, a strong, sturdy, courageous woman. Her name belongs on the roll of the world’s heroines, and some years ago the State of New Jersey honored “Molly Pitcher” by commemorating her heroic act on one of the five tablets surrounding the base of the beautiful monument erected at Freehold on the historic field.

Some years after the death of her first husband, Sergeant John Casper Hays, she married George McKolly, another soldier and a comrade of Hays, and she then became known as Molly McKolly. This name was also written “McAuley,” and “McCauley” while on her tombstone it was inscribed “McCauly.”

At the entrance to the grounds where until recently was the Carlisle Indian School, formerly for many years United States barracks, still stands the old stone guard house, which was built by the Hessian prisoners taken at the Battle of Trenton, and which escaped the fire when the barracks were burned by the Confederates in 1863.

At that post Molly lived for many years after the Revolutionary War, cooking and washing for the soldiers. Subsequently she kept a small store in the town proper, but the latter years of her life were lived in a stone house, where she died on Sunday, January 22, 1832. She attended the Lutheran Church and was respected by her neighbors.

On July 4, 1876, a marble headstone was unveiled over her grave, which had been erected by Peter Spohr, who knew her well and was present at her funeral. On this occasion an eloquent and interesting address was delivered by Captain Joseph G. Vale, a veteran officer of the Civil War.

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William Penn, Born October 14, 1644—His
Youth and Early Struggles for Religious
Belief

William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania and one of the most distinguished members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, a preacher and writer, was born in London, October 14, 1644.

His father was Admiral Sir William Penn, of the English Royal Navy, and his mother was Margaret Jasper, a remarkable Dutch lady, of Rotterdam.

While the Admiral was off on the seas, his wife and little son resided on one of his estates at Wanstead in Essex.

William Penn went to school at Chigwell, near by, where he was apparently under influences largely Puritan. At the age of eleven strong religious conviction came suddenly upon him.

His boyhood days were lived during the Protectorate. The Admiral, after receiving honors and riches from Cromwell, had so timed his change of loyalty as to gather in a good share of the rewards distributed at the time of the Restoration.

He was in a condition to send his son to the most aristocratic of Oxford Colleges, and at the age of fifteen, William Penn became a “Gentleman Commoner of Christ Church.”

Through the preaching of Thomas Loe he became a convert to the doctrine of the Quakers. The results were not exactly Quakerly, however, for in company with a friend, he forcibly tore from the backs of fellow students the “popish rags,” as surplices were called by the zealous Puritans of the day.

For this he left college, whether by the action of the authorities or not does not clearly appear.

He went to his home and announced himself a Quaker. His father intended him for a high career in the state, and no news could have been more unwelcome than this. His father turned him out of the house. The mother reconciled them, and the youth was sent to France, with a hope that gay society in Paris might redeem him from his almost morbid soberness.

Penn entered partially into the circle of fashion; thence he went to Naumur, the Protestant college, where he laid the foundation of that extensive knowledge of patristic literature so much in evidence in his future writings; thence to Italy, where he received a letter from his father calling him home.

On his return, in 1664, in compliance with the wishes of his father, he became a student of law.

The great fire in London, in 1665, drove him from the city and deepened his serious convictions.

He was sent by his father to manage his large Irish estates. He joined the expedition to put down an insurrection in Carrickfergus, and procured for himself a suit of armor, in which he seems to have been painted. His martial ardor was of short duration.

Thomas Loe again crossed his path in Cork and Penn became a Quaker never more to falter. He was soon imprisoned with his fellows, and this was the beginning of many and severe confinements which lasted at intervals through his life.

His father again drove him from his house. In time they were reconciled and the Admiral on his deathbed endorsed the course of his son.

Penn began immediately to preach and to enter into the theological controversy of his time. He was soon arrested and confined in the Tower nine months, during which he wrote his principal work, entitled “No Cross, No Crown.”

Penn was again arrested for preaching in the streets of London, and at his trial the jury declared him not guilty, but the court determined to convict him, ordered the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty. They refused and were fined and sent to Newgate Prison.

On his release from prison Penn made a trip to Holland and Germany, preaching the gospel.

He took advantage of a little surcease from jails to marry, in his 28th year, Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett, a woman of great beauty and sweetness.

A declaration of indulgence for dissenters issued by Charles II, in 1672, now made his life easier, and with an ample estate, he settled at Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire. He was active for a few years in preaching and wrote much.

In 1675 his thoughts were first seriously turned to America. Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, who had received from the Duke of York the promise of New Jersey, sold the western half to two Quakers, John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge.

The new purchasers had some difficulty between themselves in the settlement of their respective claims and asked William Penn to arbitrate the matter. Penn decided in favor of Byllinge, who soon afterwards became embarrassed and transferred to Penn and two others his interest for the benefit of his creditors.

West New Jersey was opened for sale and the persecuted Quakers found there a haven of rest.

Penn wrote to Richard Hartshorne, a settler whom he appointed his agent, “We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men and Christians, that they may not be brought in bondage but by their own consent; for we put the power in the people.”

The colony prospered greatly under the management of Penn and his friends.

In company with George Fox, Robert Barclay and others, in 1677, Penn paid a religious visit to Holland and Germany. Here he made a convert of the Princess Elizabeth Palatine, granddaughter of James I, a woman of great intelligence, learning and spirituality, who became a devoted adherent and correspondent.

More important, historically, however, he began that acquaintance with the Rhine Valley which resulted in a great emigration of its inhabitants to his future province of Pennsylvania, in the following century.

His journal of this trip is among his printed works.

When he returned he found persecution breaking out anew, many of his friends in jail and their estates confiscated.

Penn published a plea for liberty, even for Papists—a sentiment which, in that day, required no small courage—and gave rise to a report, from which he afterward suffered greatly, that he was a Jesuit in disguise.

He enjoyed great favor at court, and his influence was exerted for the aid of his suffering brethren, and his advocacy of his favorite doctrine of universal toleration.

The rest of William Penn’s life belongs largely to the history of Pennsylvania.

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First Massacre in Wyoming Launched During
Pontiac’s War by Captain Bull,
October 15, 1763

The conspiracy fomented by Pontiac, the Ottawa chieftain, was unmasked at Detroit on May 6, 1763, and then began the war which continued until late in the summer of 1764.

Fort Sandusky was captured by the Indians May 16, 1763; Fort Ouatanon (now Lafayette, Ind.), May 31; Fort Presqu’ Isle (now Erie County, Pa.), June 17; Fort Le Boeuf (in Erie County), June 18; Fort Venango (in Venango County, Pa.), June 18 and the military posts at Carlisle and Bedford, Pa., on the same day.

On June 22 a large body of Indians surrounded Fort Pitt and opened fire on all sides, but were easily repulsed. The Seneca were the only Indians of the Six Nations in alliance with Pontiac.

The report which reached Philadelphia the second week in July, 1763, revealed a most alarming situation on the frontier.

Through the efforts of the Reverend John Elder the able-bodied men of the Paxtang region in Lancaster County were soon organized into a mounted military battalion of several companies, under the name of the “Paxtang Rangers” or “Paxtang Boys,” with Elder as colonel in command.

“Swift on foot, excellent horsemen, good shots, skillful in pursuit or escape, dexterous as scouts and expert in maneuvering,” the “Paxtang Boys” became the terror of the Indians. And yet, during the summer and early autumn of that year numerous depredations and murders were committed by Indians in the counties of Lancaster and Northampton.

On Sunday, August 7, Captain Andrew Montour arrived at Fort Augusta from up the West Branch and informed Colonel James Burd that Forts Pitt and Ligonier had been captured by the Indians. Later this news was learned to be false, but the loss of Presqu’ Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango was a fact.

Colonel John Elder wrote Governor Hamilton, requesting that his command be allowed “to destroy the immense quantity of corn left by the New England men at Wyoming which, if not consumed, will be a considerable magazine to the enemy and enable them with more ease to distress the inhabitants, etc.” The Governor in his reply stated that he had no objection to their scouting as far as Wyoming.

On October 13 Major Asher Clayton, with a force of eighty soldiers from Lancaster County, arrived at Fort Augusta, en route to Wyoming. There he was joined by Lieutenant Samuel Hunter and twenty-four men of the garrison, and the combined force departed Saturday the 15th for Wyoming.

Two companies of the Reverend Elder’s command set out from Fort Hunter on the 11th destined for the same place, and “to intercept the murdering party on their return to Northampton.”

This “murdering party” referred to by Colonel Elder was a band of hostile Delaware led by Tedyuskung’s son, Captain Bull, and concerning whose depredations Governor Hamilton sent a message to the Provincial Assembly on October 15, in these words:

“Within a few days past I have received well-attested accounts of many barbarous and shocking murders and other depredations having been committed by Indians on inhabitants of Northampton County, in consequence whereof great numbers of those who escaped the rage of the enemy have already deserted, and are daily deserting their habitations; so that, unless some effectual aid can be speedily granted them, to induce them to stand their ground, it is difficult to say where these desertions will stop, or to how small a distance from the capital our frontier may be reduced.”

Captain Bull, who headed this war party of Western Delaware in these incursions, had spent ten years among these Indians west of the Ohio River. He was thoroughly familiar with their sentiments toward the English.

The first intimation of the presence of hostile Indians was on October 8, 1763, when before daybreak, Captain Bull attacked the house of John Stenton, on the road from Bethlehem to Fort Allen, where Captain Wetherhold and a squad of soldiers were lodging for the night. Wetherhold and several others of the whites were wounded and three were killed.

A day or two later Yost’s mill, about eleven miles from Bethlehem, was destroyed, and the people there cut off. Altogether twenty-three persons were killed and many wounded, and these depredations committed within a few miles of Captain Bull’s ancestral home.

On Saturday, October 15, the self-same day that Major Clayton’s expedition set out from Fort Augusta for Wyoming, the settlers of Mill Creek, in Wyoming Valley, were busily engaged in their various occupations at different places unaware of danger and unprepared for disaster.

Captain Bull and his warriors to the number of 135 swooped down on the settlers and death, desperation and destruction quickly followed. Eighteen or more were killed, including many persons of importance. The scene was terrible.

The settlers who heard the gun shots and war whoops of the Indians fled in great haste to the mountains. At night time the torch was applied and soon the homes of the settlers were masses of ruins.

The settlers who escaped death tramped back to Connecticut, and Wyoming was, in very truth, deserted and forsaken.

Major Clayton arrived soon after this massacre, but did not remain, and returned to Fort Augusta. An extract from a letter written by a soldier says:

“Our party under Major Asher Clayton is returned from Wyoming, where we met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been killed and scalped a day or two before we got there. We buried the dead—nine men and a woman—who had been most cruelly butchered.

“The woman was roasted, and had two hinges in her hands—supposed to be put in red hot—and several of the men had awls thrust in their eyes, and spears, arrows, pitchforks, etc., sticking in their bodies.

“They (Clayton’s troops) burnt what houses the Indians had left, and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn. The enemy’s tracks were up the river toward Wyalusing.”

Many writers have expressed different opinions about this massacre. Some thought it to have been done by the Delaware who believed the Connecticut settlers killed their king Tedyuskung; some believe it to have been done by Six Nations, who thought the whites had assassinated the Delaware king; but others believe there is not sufficient ground for supposing it to have been done by friends of Tedyuskung, even though the hostile party was led by his son, Captain Bull.

Whoever was to blame, or whoever committed the bloodthirsty deed, matters not, but the fact remains that the Delaware Indians were treacherous and none of them more so than King Tedyuskung and his sons, especially Captain Bull, the perpetrator of this horrible massacre.

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First Terrible Massacre of Settlers at Penn’s
Creek, October 16, 1755

The year 1755 was anything but one of promise for the English colonies in America. The French were aggressively pushing their domain from Canada southward toward the Mississippi Valley, and what was more alarming to the English was the effort of the French to gain a foothold in the region of the Allegheny Mountains, in what is now Western Pennsylvania.

Three great rivers virtually determined the strategic situation of the territory involved between these two great nations. The Hudson River Valley was held by the English, the Susquehanna River Valley by the Six Nations of the great Indian Confederation and the Allegheny River Valley by French, along the banks of which a chain of French forts had been erected. Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers, where Pittsburgh now stands, was the principal defense of that valley.

In the spring of 1755 the expedition was fitted out which made the ill-fated march against Fort Duquesne and resulted in the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9.

This defeat was a terrible disaster and left the frontiers of Pennsylvania threatened with ruin by victorious French and their savage allies, who pressed through the passes of the Blue Mountains on the heels of the fleeing British regulars.

The main body of the French encamped on the Susquehanna River near where the borough of Liverpool now stands, thirty miles above Harris’ Ferry, where they extended themselves on both sides of the main river.

Braddock’s defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which had been expected would inflict a decisive blow upon the French, but it gave the signal to the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the province the scene of predatory warfare in which many sections of the Susquehanna Valley were severely scourged.

The Provincial Government did not act with the energy and promptness which the emergency demanded. No means were adopted for the protection of frontier settlements and the entire wilderness from the Juniata River to Shamokin, now Sunbury, was filled with parties of hostile Indians, murdering, scalping and burning. Every post brought to the Provincial Council at Philadelphia heart-rending appeals for help.

The Assembly and the Governor were deadlocked, no money bills could be passed. Troops of frontiersmen rode through the city threateningly brandishing their weapons. A party of Germans laid the corpses of the countrymen, scalped within sixty-five miles of the capital, at the door of the State House. The Quaker peace policy was denounced in unmeasured terms from the backwoods pulpits.

The Indians had driven off the Moravian missions at Shamokin and burned their own town at that important place.

Two of Colonel Weiser’s sons, Frederick and Peter, had been at Shamokin several days previously, then stopped at the house of George Gabriel, at the mouth of Penn’s Creek about the head of the Isle of Que, near the present town of Selinsgrove. While there a messenger arrived from Logan, one of Shikellamy’s sons and Lapacpicton, a friendly Delaware, who brought the alarming news that a large body of French and Indians was approaching by way of the West Branch.

The Provincial Government had been warned that a band of Indians had left the West on an expedition to the forks of the Susquehanna, but paid no heed until too late.

These Indians crossed the Allegheny Mountains, through the headwaters of the Otzinachson, now called West Branch, near Clearfield, thence through the “Great Plains,” now known as Penn’s Valley, Center County, through the gaps of Penn’s Creek, in Paddy Mountains, where they struck the white settlements along the creek, commencing at the present town of New Berlin and down the stream for about a mile in what is now Snyder County.

October 16, 1755, occurred the terrible massacre at Penn’s Creek, when fifteen persons were cruelly murdered and their bodies terribly mangled and ten others were carried away as Indian prisoners.

Of the twenty-five victims, one man, who was wounded, was able to reach Gabriel’s with the news of the massacre.

When the party went out to bury the dead they found thirteen bodies of men and elderly women, and one child, two weeks old.

The house of Jacob Le Roy, where the massacre was ended, was burned and his body lying just by it. He lay on his back, barbarously burnt and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead.

The conditions in the immediate neighborhood of Penn’s Creek beggared description. Conrad Weiser wrote to Governor Morris, upon the arrival of his sons, advising of the massacre, and gave him the news of the intended invasion. But John Harris rushed to the rescue of those in distress, and, with a company of forty-six men from Paxtang, arrived at the mouth of Penn’s Creek. He found the dead had been buried, and proceeded to Shamokin to learn the attitude of the Indians there.

In the Pennsylvania archives is to be found the examination of Barbara Leininger and Mary Le Roy, taken after their return from captivity. They testified that the others carried away captives at Penn’s Creek were Jacob Le Roy, Rachel Leininger, brother and sister of the testators; Marian Wheeler; Hannah, wife of Jacob Breylinger and two of their children, one of whom died of starvation, while they were being held at Kittanning; Peter Lick and two sons, John and William.

They named the principal Indians and gave a detailed narrative of their journey and captivity.

They were carried to Kittanning, where they were held prisoners until Colonel John Armstrong destroyed the town, September 8, 1756, when the Indians who had these prisoners in charge made their escape.

They were carried to Fort Duquesne and were then led twenty-five miles lower down the river to the mouth of Big Beaver Creek. In the spring of 1757 they were taken to Kuskusky, twenty-five miles up Big Beaver Creek, where they remained until the Indians learned that the English were marching against Fort Duquesne, when the Indians evacuated Kuskusky and hurried their prisoners on a forced march to the Muskingum, in the present State of Ohio.

March 16, 1759, the testators made their escape and were able to reach Fort Pitt fifteen days later. They reached their relatives subsequently, and were in Philadelphia, May 6, 1759, when they gave their testimony.

Ann M. LeRoy was residing in Lancaster in 1764, when she again made an affidavit in regards to the details of her capture and the visits of the supposed friendly Conestoga Indians at Kittanning.

A beautiful boulder with bronze tablet was unveiled at the site of this massacre, October, 1915. This can be seen above the bridge over Penn’s Creek, on the Susquehanna Trail, leading from Selinsgrove to Sunbury. It marks the scene of one of the most horrible of the Indian massacres in Pennsylvania.

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Railroad from Williamsport to Lake Erie
Completed October 17, 1864

During the administration of Governor James Pollock the Main Line of public works had been sold by virtue of the act of Assembly of May 16, 1857. Governor Pollock had very strongly urged the sale of the public works, as they had become a running sore of corruption, including political debauchery and the systematic plunder of the treasury.

On June 25 following the Governor closed the transaction by which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, July 31, assumed ownership of the whole line of public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the consideration being $7,500,000.

Following that sale measures were taken for the disposal of the remainder of the public improvement. They had failed to be a source of revenue to the State, and the application of the proceeds to the payment of the debt of the Commonwealth soon led to the removal of taxation by the State.

With the disposal of the Main Line of public works, there were left not a few local canals, such as the North Branch, West Branch and others, to be managed by the Board of Canal Commissioners. This was a sore point, and there was a very general desire that these should also be disposed of and the State entirely divested of its interests in transportation lines.

The Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company was chartered April 3, 1837. The road was opened between Williamsport and Milton, December 18, 1854, and between Milton and Northumberland, September 24, 1855.

The railroad bridges over the North Branch at Northumberland were completed for traffic January 7, 1856, which opened the road from Williamsport to Sunbury. From this time it became a long struggle to complete the line from Williamsport to Erie, which was to be the western terminus.

Borough councils and prominent citizens subscribed for stock, and various attempts were made to construct the road, but each new organization only repeated the story of failure.

A number of very able and experienced railway men and the directors conceived the idea of virtually borrowing the credit of the State, without imposing any liability upon the Commonwealth, to aid in the construction of this road.

Their proposition was that the various canals remaining in the ownership of the State should be sold to the Sunbury and Erie Railway Company for $3,000,000, giving the railway company the right to sell or mortgage the several canals as might be deemed best, the proceeds to be applied to the construction of the Erie line, and the State to accept a mortgage upon the line for the $3,000,000 to be paid for the canals. It was believed this would provide sufficient funds to complete the line, and when this was accomplished the mortgage held by the State would be abundant security against loss to the Commonwealth.

A bill to enable this sale of the canals was read in place in both House and Senate and an earnest battle ensued as the members of the canal board were not willing to be shorn of their immense powers, which would result if the State sold the canals.

The Republicans in the House supported the bill; the personnel of the canal board was entirely Democratic. No community in the State would benefit more by the completion of the link from Williamsport to Erie than would Philadelphia, and the great interests of that city soon brought a solid support in both House and Senate in favor of the bill.

Many Democrats whose districts were traversed by the proposed road also fell into line, so that in spite of desperate opposition, the bill finally passed the House by a decided majority, and gained the narrow margin of one vote in the Senate.

Governor William F. Packer was a resident of Williamsport, and, of course, was intensely interested in the measure.

The bill reached the Governor only three days before final adjournment, and when he examined it, the Governor discovered a vital error in phraseology which had been overlooked, but which would result in serious embarrassment in executing its provisions. He could not return it with his objections, as it could not be passed over the veto; there was not time for the passage of a new bill, and the bill could be amended in the hands of the Governor only by the adoption of a joint resolution instructing such change.

A joint resolution was required to lay over a day under the rules and it required two-thirds vote to suspend the rule, while the delay of a day would be fatal.

The matter was submitted to Speaker Longnecker, who presided with ability and dignity over the body, and he informed those who were conferring with him that a joint resolution could not be read and finally passed on the same day.

Among the prominent Democratic members was George Nelson Smith, of Cambria County, a thorough parliamentarian and one of the most popular members of the House.

It was suggested to the Speaker that he call Smith to the chair. The Speaker consented, Smith took the gavel and the resolution to amend the bill was changed from the usual form of a joint resolution by saying, “Resolved, If the Senate concurs, etc.,” giving the appearance of a House resolution requiring simply the concurrence of the Senate.

As soon as it was read the point was raised that it was a joint resolution and must lie over for a day, but Smith faced the emergency with magnificent boldness, deciding that it was not a joint resolution and directing the final vote to be called.

It was evident that a majority of the House meant to save the bill; tactics for delay would be defeated by previous question and by the aggressive action of Acting Speaker Smith the House was suddenly brought to a call of the yeas and nays and the bill was saved. The Senate had ample time for concurrence and it was given.

Even after giving the Sunbury and Erie Railway Company the benefit of the loan of $3,000,000 the work was pushed forward under many embarrassments. It was on the verge of collapse in the general prostrations of 1860, but the Legislature came to its relief by an extension of credit.

The Civil War came with its quickening of business and large increase of circulating medium, and the great enterprise of building a railroad through an almost continued wilderness from Williamsport to Lake Erie, a distance of nearly 250 miles, was completed October 17, 1864, and the State gained not only by the sale of its canals and the abolishment of the Canal Board, but the $3,000,000 was abundantly secured to it.

The new railroad brought multiplied wealth to the State and the people that could never have been realized excepting by the construction of a great railway through the boundless riches of that great region.

The name Sunbury and Erie was changed to the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Company by Act of Assembly March 7, 1861.

On January 1, 1862, it was leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 999 years.

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None Escaped in Massacre at Mahanoy
Creek, October 18, 1755

Following the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9, 1755, the savages roamed at will through the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania. They now realized the English were no longer invincible and became bolder and more terrible in their predatory warfare.

The first outbreak was at Penn’s Creek, in the present Snyder County, where on October 16, they swooped down upon the industrious German settlers of that neighborhood and cruelly massacred fifteen and carried away ten others into captivity.

The news of the massacre struck terror in the hearts of the settlers and all, excepting a very few, fled down the river to the older settlements.

Only two days after the Penn’s Creek massacre another occurred only a short distance to the eastward, at the mouth of Mahanoy Creek, about five miles south of the present city of Sunbury.

On this eventful day, October 18, 1755, twenty-five of the inhabitants were killed or carried away into captivity, often worse than death. Every building of the little settlement was burned, and all the improvements destroyed.

The difference in the two massacres lies in the fact that one escaped from the murderous savages at Penn’s Creek, who was able to make his way to George Gabriel’s at the mouth of the creek, where he told the awful story in detail. It also happened that two sons of Conrad Weiser were there at the time, and they hastened to their home in Berks County.

Soon the old provincial interpreter had messengers on the way to inform Governor Morris of the massacre and the threatened invasion of the Forks of the Susquehanna by the French and their Indian allies, who were approaching in great force.

Immediately the news of the massacre at Penn’s Creek reached Harris’ Ferry, and without waiting for advice from the provincial authorities, John Harris, with forty-six inhabitants of the neighborhood, hastened to the scene of the disaster, where they found and buried a number of the mangled bodies of the victims. From this place they proceeded to Shamokin to see the Indians and prevail upon them, if possible, to remain neutral.

Their reception at the Indian village was civil but not cordial, and they remained there only till the next morning.

During the night they heard the Indians talking about the English in unfavorable terms, and soon after they sang a war song and four Indians went away in the darkness in two canoes. They were well armed. One canoe went down stream, the other across the river.

In the morning they made a few presents to the Indians. Before their departure they were privately warned by Andrew Montour not to take a certain road on the western side of the river, but to continue down the eastern side.

They, however, disregarded his warning, either relying on the good faith of the Indians, or suspecting that Montour intended to lead them into an ambuscade, and they crossed the river and started to march along the flats on the western shore.

Hardly had they got started on their march until they were fired upon by some Indians who lay in ambush, and four were killed, four drowned and the rest put to flight.

John Harris, under date of “Paxtang, ye 28th October, 1755,” wrote to the Governor an account of the foregoing expedition, and how near they all came to suffer through Indian treachery. Among other things, he said:

“This is to acquaint you, that on the 24th of October, I arrived at Shamokin, in order to protect our frontiers up that way till they might make their escape from their cruel enemies, and learn the best intelligence I could.

“The Indians on the West Branch certainly killed our inhabitants on Penn’s Creek, and there are a hatchet and two English scalps sent them up to North Branch, to desire them to strike with them if they are men.”

He then described the situation and warned the Governor that the Indians entertained serious designs upon the settlers in and about the Forks of the Susquehanna. He then wrote:

“Montour knew many days ago of the enemy being on their march against us before he informed, for which I said as much to him as I thought prudent, considering the place I was in.

“On the 25th inst., on my return with about forty men, we were attacked by about twenty or thirty Indians, received their fire, and about fifteen of our men and myself took to the trees, attacked the villains, killed four of them on the spot and lost but three more, retreating about half a mile through the woods, and crossing the Susquehanna, one of whom was shot off a horse riding behind myself, through the river. My horse was wounded, and falling into the river, I was obliged to quit him and swim part of the way.

“Four or five of our men were drowned crossing the river. I hope our journey, though with fatigue and loss of our substance and some of our lives, will be of service to our country by discovering our enemy, who will be our ruin, if not timely prevented.

“I just now received information that there was a French officer, supposed captain, with a party of Shawnee, Delaware, etc., within six miles of Shamokin, ten days ago, and no doubt intends to take possession of it which will be a dreadful consequence to us, if suffered.”

Harris then told of his knowledge of the Indians who had made the attack on Penn’s Creek; of an intended attack on Shamokin and other places. He concluded his long and informative letter: “I expect Montour and Monacatootha down here this week, with the determination of their Shamokin council. The inhabitants are abandoning their plantations and we are in a dreadful situation.”

The postscript to his interesting letter was as follows: “The night ensuing our attack the Indians burned all George Gabriel’s houses; danced around them.”

The person who was shot off the horse, while riding behind John Harris in crossing the river, was a physician of Paxtang, who had accompanied the party in his professional capacity.

On the following day John Harris wrote a letter to Edward Shippen, at Lancaster, in which he expressed fear that the Indians would attack them any day. He wrote: “I have this day cut loopholes in my house, and am determined to hold out to the last extremity, if I can get some men to stand by me. But few can be had at present, as every one is in fear of his own family being cut off every hour.”

Harris advised the immediate building of a fort at the Forks of the Susquehanna. The situation in the Province even as close to Philadelphia as Harrisburg was truly desperate.

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General Edward Hand Starts on Expedition
from Fort Pitt to Wheeling, October
19,1777

During the winter of 1776 and the following spring the agents of Great Britain had been very active in organizing Indian uprisings along the frontiers as a part of the general campaign for the subjugation of the rebellious colonists.

Continental Congress decided to take charge of the defense of the colonists, especially those in the western part of the State, where the Indians had been more active and where the settlers had been afforded less protection from the State and Colonial governments.

The first move by Congress was a decision to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide an adequate garrison at the Continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia, which colony then claimed the western part of Pennsylvania as its territory, and Captain John Neville was directed to transfer the fort to the United States officer appointed to its command.

General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand, of Lancaster, for this important service. The brave and efficient work of this distinguished officer led the commander-in-chief to believe that he would be an able defender of the border, but fighting British and Hessians along the seaboard and Indians in the woods are two quite different propositions, as General Hand soon discovered.

General Hand was no stranger at Fort Pitt, but during his former service there he had no experience in fighting Indians.