1 I B R.AR.Y OF THE U N I VE.RSITY Of ILLINOIS 9TA.T ILL. HIST. SURVEY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/pennsylvanianewyOObrew The Pennsylvania and New York Frontier History of from 1720 to the Close of the Revolution by WILLIAM BREWSTER <ai PHILADELPHIA GEORGE S. MacMANUS COMPANY 1954 Copyright, 1954, by WILLIAM BREWSTER All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without permission. Printed by Theo. Gaus' Sons, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., U.S.A. 7 S^^ Vis ^^ h CONTENTS 4 "Chapter Page FOREWORD V I. Shamokin 1 II. Shikellimy and Conrad Weiser 9 III. The Great Lancaster Treaty 19 IV. Winning the West 26 V. The Albany Congress and Susquehanna Purchase . 32 VI. The Frontier in 1754 41 VII. Sir William Johnson 49 VIII. The French Invasion 54 IX. Braddock's Defeat 62 X. The Battle of Lake George 68 XL Desolation of the Frontier 74 XII. Destruction of Oswego 83 XIII. The Frontier Forts 87 XIV. Fort William Henry Massacre 95 v XV. 1758 102 XVI. End of French and Indian War 110 XVII. The Indian Uprising of 1763 (Pontiac's War) 115 XVIII. The Conestoga Murders 127 XIX. Friedenshuetten 133 XX. The Fort Stanwyx Treaty 143 ft XXI. The Fair Play Republic 147 CONTENTS Chapter Page XXII. CUSHIETUNK 151 XXIII. The Seventeen Townships 156 XXIV. TlCONDEROGA 165 XXV. Battle of Oriskany 169 XXVI. Burgoyne's Invasion 175 XXVII. The Wyoming Massacre 184 XXVIII. Frances Slocum 191 XXIX. The Cherry Valley Massacre 194 XXX. The Sullivan Expedition 198 XXXI. Southwestern Pennsylvania 206 XXXII. The Last Raids 210 Authorities 215 index 217 FOREWORD Inasmuch, as no connected and complete history of the Pennsylvania and New York frontier has been published, this work was undertaken. The pioneer raised what he ate, made what he wore, doctored himself and worshipped alone, if at all. His long, loose, fringed hunting shirt partly covered his buckskin breeches ; and he had a rifle and carried a tomahawk and scalping knife. He lived in a cabin of unhewn logs without windows or floor, save the hard ground. Many of the pioneers were so poor, that with- out horse or cow, they made their way into the woods and squatted in a secluded cove of the mountains or on the fertile bend of an upland stream. The sun never penetrated the dense foliage of the trees and warmed the ground beneath ; and surrounded as they were by this unlit and unwarmed forest land, late springs and early frosts blighted their scant crops of corn, squashes and beans. In New England, the adjoining townships, fully organized at the time of settlement, with churches and schools, were closely knit together, insur- ing mutual support and protection. The large plantations of Virginia were located along the lowland rivers and these streams afforded easy access and communication, and floated with the tide, the English tobacco ships stocked with European luxuries. Only, across the mountains in the western part of the colony, was there a limited frontier. In New York, the fringe of land, on either side of the Hudson, the seat of the great patroon estates, was fully settled and suffered no Indian depredations, except during the New Netherland War, in 1643, and the Esopus War fought in 1663, when Wildwyck, now Kingston, was sacked and many of the inhabitants were killed and captured. Schenectady was burned by the French and Indians in 1690, and sixty persons were killed and twenty seven taken to Canada. Early in the Eighteenth Century, the fertile lowlands along the Mohawk, above Schenectady, were occupied by Dutch and Palatine settlers who established well ordered communities with churches, schools, substantial buildings and carefully tilled farms. It was not a region of isolation and poverty, but the proximity of Canada and the imminence of French attack made it a frontier of danger. But, southward across the divide on the headwaters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, a different condition prevailed. This vast country, extending north and west of the Kittatinny mountains and from the Delaware river to Shamokin (now Sunbury, Pennsylvania) and thence over the Allegheny mountains to the confluence of the Ohio, was the real frontier of isolated cabins and unprotected settlements. Although spreading over much of the distinct colonies of New York and Pennsylvania, it was one territory by reason of interlinked events occurring and similar causes and conditions prevailing. Living in friendly alliance with the English settlers, were the Six Nations and these valiant Indian people, comprising the Iroquois Con- federacy, continually protected the northern colonies from French ag- gression and made possible the English conquest of Canada. The desolation of the frontier was provoked by the French and committed by their Indian allies, mostly of the Algonquian stock. Any comprehensible history of the frontier must recount the intermingled lives and fortunes of the settlers and Iroquoian people. In compiling this work, the writer has visited the present Iroquois reservations, the various battlefields, the sites of most of the fortifications and scenes related ; and has relied, mainly, on the written works of contem- porary actors, and the public records contained in the Dutch, French, English and Colonial archives. The period covered is from about 1720, when settlement commenced to the close of the Revolution after which the savagery of this frontier borderland was succeeded by the culture and progress of peace. W. B. VI CHAPTER ONE SHAMOKIN Long before the English settled there, the confluence of the Susque- 1 hanna was the site of the Indian town of Shamokin. It was not unlike other native villages of the time, and was squalid and dirty and inhabited, mostly, by dissolute and roving Indians. Some historians have called it the vice-regal capital of the Six Nations, which is an exaggeration, as the Iroquois Confederacy had no kings and vice-roys and none of the trappings of royalty. 2 Yet, in a sense and for a time, Shamokin was the most impor- tant Indian town in the Province of Pennsylvania; and this importance was due to the natural situation of the place and the conquests and policies of the Six Nations. These Six Nations were the conquerors of the continent. No other Indians, north of Mexico ever equalled them. By rivers, lakes and trails, through the forests and over the prairies, their relentless and valiant war- riors pushed their way to the Ohio, Illinois and Mississippi ; and their roving bands had for generations trodden deep the great warpath, which led, from Onondaga, their capital, to the Tennessee. Their business was war and government. They subjugated, not only, their kindred people, Eries, Hurons, Neu- trals and Andastees ; but also the surrounding and alien tribes. From Lake Huron to Quebec, down the Delaware and Susquehanna to the sea, through the mountains to Carolina and Tennessee and westward to the Mississippi, all lay in their path of conquest ; and most of this vast region, they governed by the great council of their sachems at Onondaga. There is a natural reason why the Romans ruled the world ; and also why the Six Nations conquered and governed. The situation and aspect of the country they occupied, the sufficiency of the clothing they wore and the abundance of food which sustained them made the Iroquois a mighty people. 3 Their homeland was central New York, in the fertile valleys of the Mohawk and Genesee and about the beautiful lakes, the warmth of whose waters tempered the severity of the climate. The richness, of the soil with moderate labor, yielded an abundance of vegetables, fruit and corn ; and the wild regions of the Adirondacks and the Endless Mountains 4 of Pennsylvania to the south afforded a sufficiency of furs for their rai- ment and meat for their sustenance. Situated, as they were, adjacent to the 1 Great Lakes and on the headwaters of the Delaware, Susquehanna and Ohio rivers, they dominated the open roads of travel to the lands they conquered. The celebrated "long house" was the dwelling place of the Iroquois, and it symbolized their confederacy and government. The building con- sisted of a frame work of long vertical poles bedded in the ground, bent and bound together at the top, so as to make an oval roof ; and these were strengthened by lateral poles lashed to them by ropes of slippery elm bark. It was covered with long, lapped strips of bark fastened to it by a similar outer frame work and thongs of slippery elm. The house was about eighty feet long and seventeen feet wide. It was without windows or open- ings in the sides and was entered at both ends. The interior was divided by a six foot passage way, upon which fires were made, the smoke escap- ing through holes made in the roof. On both sides of this way, were long pole platforms covered with bark, the lower one was about a foot above the ground and the upper one some five feet above it. These platforms were divided by bark partitions into compartments, about eight feet long. Each compartment housed a single family, and some twenty families were accommodated in the building. 5 These long houses were irregularly arranged in palisaded villages, containing two or three thousand people. Around the village were garden plots allotted to each family, and upon which were raised crops of corn, squashes, melons and beans, which together with maple sugar, dried berries, fish and game comprised the principal articles of diet. The Indian utensils were few, knives, axes and tomahawks made of stone, bone awls and neeedles, and cooking vessels made of burned clay.