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Home , Buckongahelas, Minisink, Munsee, Munsee language, William Conner

{'AIJN ,..1 2 County GENEALOGIST & HISTORIAN

The : A Clan, A Tribe, A Language? By Nonna Lasley

Muncy, Minsi, Monsey, Monsy, Monthy, Munsie, Munsey, to-Muncie.

Dr. Daniel Brinton (as quoted by Weslager, western and southeastern see below) called them "people of the stony State on the east to the and country" or "mountaineers," as distinguished the on the south and west." The from "people down the river" or "people who live Minisinks and their neighbors, a composite near the ocean." Researchers for the group, continued to speak the language as they Smithsonian disagree, saying that the Munsee moved westward ahead of the Europeans, to the form of the word was probably an archaic word upper Susquehanna and then further west. for "on the island," possibly referring to an island Groups of , who went to the Canadian in the . And this is only one of area ofMunceytown, Moriaviantown and Six the confusing and conflicting pieces of Nations Reserve, eventually came to speak the information about this subgroup or phratry or exclusively, although that clan of, or related to, the Delaware Indians. usage has faded rapidly in the twentieth century. Who were these people? Where were they Munsee was also spoken by small groups in from? Where did they go? , Kansas, and into the When first encountered by Europeans, they twentieth century. were on the east side of the Delaware River, In the past many historians have referred to across from the Delawares on the west side of three divisions of the Delaware, sometimes with that river. The and the Delawares are animal totem designations. Today this division is described as "closely related" or "kindred" or questioned and thought by some to be a "tribal affiliates" by various sources. Sometimes misunderstanding. Smithsonian researchers point they are referred to as Munsie or Munsee, out that early vocabularies recorded a "trade sometimes as Delaware-Munsie. The jargon," and say that linguistic differences Smithsonian volumes use Munsee as their between two of the supposed three groups were common spelling, but C. W. Weslager uses minor. This makes the later division of two Munsie as his common spemng. groups, the majority Delaware and the Munsee, The Munsees were distinguished by their seem more logical. Some authorities believe that language as much as anything else. The the Munsees also had animal totem designations Handbook ofNorth American Indians for subgroups, but that they were lost before they (Smithsonian, 1978--) states: "This name could be recorded. replaced to designate the consolidated Both the Delaware and the Munsee moved up group of emigrant Munsee speakers of whom the along the Susquehanna in the early 1700s. Minisinks were the major component. As a Weslager indicates that the population of the linguistic tenn Munsee includes all groups of any fonnerly scattered groups had declined rapidly period that spoke dialects of the language spoken and that this movement brought together by the Munsee group, even though not all such scattered survivors in a common location for the groups were or are Munsees in the political first time. Other neighboring tribes such as the sense." They also list 24 Munsee-speaking and Mahican (no relationship to Bands, one of them being the Minisink, " .. .later Mohegan or Mohican) also moved up along the called Munsee, after absorbing other groups." Susquehanna and into lands claimed by the Six The Munsees were not really a political Nations. division, as thought of by the Europeans, but By the middle of the eighteenth century the more of a geographical and linguistic division. Munsees and the Delawares had been pushed The Smithsonian work speaks of the language as further west and up along the Allegheny, "spoken, in an unknown number of dialects, from accompanied by sporadic warfare, various

~ QANGE COUNTV CAL\~QRNl /l GCNEALOG\CAL SOCiETY Dela-ware County Genealogist and Historian Vol8 No.1 Spring 1999 CONTENTS Notes:

The Munsee: A Clan, A Tribe, A Language? As many will know, the Alliance has By Nonna Lasley 2 commissioned a woven coverlet with designs Town Site of Albany Chosen Back in representing several historic buildings still in Year 1833 6 existence in Muncie. At Albany: Office of Bartlett Hotel Wrecked 7 The Alliance is now planning a similar Albany Was the Half-Way Point on Pioneer coverlet to represent the county. This might Wagon Trail 8 include historic sites, buildings or structures in Albany: From the Township Enumeration the county. Of 1907, Indexed by Norma Lasley 9 There are many ways to do this and therefore The Heritage Library: Books Added 14 we are asking for input for this project Towns Fruit Trees: an Advertisement, 1841 15 might be represented or townships might be The Other Side of Town in Middletown: represented, to illustrate two possibilities. Date The World Wars, by Hurley Goodall 16 of origin could be a guideline. Again, the sites Muncie at the Time of the Civil War, contd might or might not still have structures (e.g., By William Reid 18 Elizabethtown in Washington Township). Funeral Invitation, 1843 20 Possibilities mentioned by OCHA Board Revolutionary War: Builders of a Nation members included round barns and old iron By A. L. Kerwood 21 bridges (e.g., the Smithfield bridge). Do you Sketches: from the Muncie Daily News,1890 23 know of a structure or site you think of as The Distaff Side: Muncie's Oldest Settler, representative of or outstanding in the history of Mary Jane Gilbert 25 your (present or former) town or township? Index to Queries, 1997-1998 27 Please write or call with your suggestions. Jacob Bricker Celebrates 87th Birthday, 1935 29 Karen's Kobweb Korner, By Karen A recent trip to Albany to look at Halfway Beidelman · 31 Creek and environs proved to be mildly Queries By Elizabeth Modlin 32 disappointing. Of course, the creek is still there and there is also a small park beside the creek with appropriate equipment. But we could see ·.. tff t. LA-BHl&GlR .. . no sign or historical marker. We had hoped more would have been done to commemorate ANIMAL·' SHUW this site, as was suggested in the article of 1927, I t• reprinted in this issue. HeMe. of the Chl111p..vff eftll

0 Or•"'t'"t•n• · TIM -t-. · - llke aciee.. and the ...... Snake eYtr eahlbltffl.-.~ u.. 11ec1 .atatee. -u•,;.JS caitH If pictures of Muncie at the turn of the (last)

•lld ...... 0 • ..d ~··· ltfM~lf· tfll1-'Wf~W"'..!.10""a.•rwt century intrigue you, you will want examine the ••. '~- .... -~ _d.al•r·. ___.. __ reprint of Muncie ofToday (1895). These 313.:snuta~ Wll.IUT Sf•. reprints have been received and copies are for ·MuNc1it; ·1~11. sale at the Alliance office. At $15, the soft.cover copy is a bargain. It makes a nice gift-for Reprint by permissiOii © Muncie Press, 191 o. yourself or for someone else. Delaware County GENEALOGIST & HISTORIAN -· C.• ~· ' .3 colonial government dealings, etc. Trade As pressure for the various Indian Tribes to between the Indians and whites suffered from move on west continued, the Miami and the various efforts on the part of both sides to gain Piankashaw extended an invitation to the the upper hand. A particularly poignant quote Delawares and certain other Indian tribes for comes from the (Christian) converted Munsee them to live on lands in the Territory. chieftain Papunhank in a communication with The Piankashaw apparently specified certain Governor Hamilton: "Brother, you see there is no lands along the for the Delawares. Love nor honesty on either side." It is certain that by 1794 there were some Although Christian missionaries had worked Delawares living in the area. with the Delawares since early in the 1700s, the By the beginning of the nineteenth century the establishment of a Moravian mission not far from main body of the Delawares had established present Bethlehem Pa., brought the Moravians some nine villages along the West Fork of the and the Munsee together in an association that White River in an area extending from just south was to continue over the years. While some of present Muncie to about Noblesville. Monsees moved on west into present with Altogether there were as many as fourteen the Moravians and other Delawares, some went villages at one time or another along the White to to found Muncy Town along the River extending on toward Indianapolis. Not all Thames River. Unfortunately the Christian of them were.occupied at the same time and not Indians suffered from the hostilities as much as all were Delaware towns. The Shawnee and the anyone, both in a British massacre of Nanticoke were known to be among those who Gnadenhutten, , in 1755, and in an lived in the area. John and William Conner are American massacre of Gnadenhutten, Ohio, in said to have spoken the Munsee, Shawnee and 1781. Weslager gives a description of a May, Delaware dialects fluently, along with Chippewa 1768, party of fourteen canoes seen by the and Wyandot. garrison at Fort Pitt. These canoes moving A Moravian mission was established in 1801 slowly down the Allegheny were filled with east of present Anderson with a small group of Indian men, women and children. "The officer of Christian Delawares. By then the Delaware the day learned that the party comprised attitude to the missionaries was hostile, as a Munsies, who had recently resided at the head of strong non-Christian faction had gained power the west branch of the Susquehanna. A few old­ and opposed all Christian missionaries. In timers among these Munsies remembered when particular, the massacre at Gnadenhutten, Ohio, they had lived happily along the upper Delaware was repeatedly thrown up to the missionaries before they were forced to move to the along the White River. Susquehanna ... Now with the troubles between Details of the story of the Shawnee Yankees and Pennsylvanians, and new white and the Prophet may be read elsewhere. Suffice families entering the upstream lands, they it to say that the treaty of 1818 resulted in the belatedly decided to join the Delawares and removal of the remaining Delawares and other Munsies living on the ." tribes (excepting the Miamis in northern and Some of the Monsees remaining along the northwestern Indiana) from Indiana to west of the upper Allegheny, along with the neighboring Mississippi by 1821. Some 1,346 Delawares Senecas, supported the British cause in the from Indiana were taken across the Mississippi Revolution and terrorized settlers in western River in 1820. Illness delayed a group from the Pennsylvania. The Munsee and Seneca villages White River area, who wintered during 1820-21 on the upper Allegheny were destroyed by near Vincennes with little food. The Canadian military operations in 1779. At the time of the groups continued in Ontario on the Thames Revolution the Delaware population west of the River, with another mixed group including Alleghenies probably was less than 3000, Monsees at the mouth of the Grand River. according to Weslager. Not only were many Delawares lost during the trek west, but there were problems in the new environment, surrounded by different trib~.

ORANGE COUNTY Cj\LIFORNIA GENEALOGICAL ~OCIETY 4 Delaware County GENEALOGIST & HISTORIAN

From Missouri, they moved on to Kansas and in these diaries, which repeatedly speak of the from Kansas to Oklahoma. Indians themselves bringing in quantities of In a study undertaken in 1907, James Mooney whiskey that was then sold to others. As many enumerated some 260 Munsies with Stockbridges as 30 gallons or more might be brought in in Wisconsin, perhaps 45 Munsies with (sometimes even though food was scarce and Chippewa in Kansas and 122 "Munsies of the needed to be brought in) and the entire Thames" in Ontario, . By 1955, only a village-men, women and children-would binge few of the oldest people spoke Munsee. A visit until the whiskey was gone. The deleterious to the Canadian Delawares and Monsees by effect on the health can be imagined and this no Weslager in 1970 found a few Munsee dialect doubt accounts for some of the health problems speakers there. In the U.S. most of the Munsee experienced by the Delaware in their years along were absorbed into the majority Delaware and the White River. The Delawares themselves the Oklahoma Delaware were absorbed into the attributed the illnesses and deaths to witchcraft, general population, no longer living on as is related by the Moravians reservations. The Moravian diaries mention various Now only the name, Muncie, lives on in individuals as being a Munsee or of the Munsee Delaware County, but the story of those Indian nation. Several times they are mentioned in a villages still begs for our attention. Charles group of tribes, as Delawares, Monsees, Thompson, in his biography of the Conner Twechtowes [Miamis], Schawanos []. brothers, points out the difficulties of establishing The diaries state that the Munsee language is not the sites of these villages. The Moravian diaries spoken and Munsee words are not understood in and papers are one of the basic sources used in this area, the language used being Unami, the this reconstruction. The easternmost town was majority Delaware dialect. Buckongahelas' Town, which was on the river The origin of the "ChiefMunsee" legend about three miles southeast of present Muncie. would appear to be in a Helm quotation from a Tetepachsit's Town or Munsee Town was at the conversation with Mary Jane Gilbert: "When I northernmost part of the loop of the river in was a child, I remember having seen as many as present Muncie. Thompson describes nine of the five hundred Indians (men and women) pass our villages westward along the White River as house at one time, on ponies, in single file .... known to be Delaware. This includes both Chief Montsee (or Munsey) was among our Munsee Town and Nanticoke, both originally the visitors. He wore a nice broadcloth suit, with names of separate tribes, which became closely belt and beads, and always wore the feathers associated with the Delaware and apparently which are a part of the Indian head-dress .... were absorbed into the Delaware majority. ChiefMeshingomesa, as well as chiefMontsee, It is to be supposed that a majority of the stopped at father's house at various times." eight families mentioned by Thompson as being Romantic this story is, but no adult seems at Tetepachsit's Town or Munsee Town were ever to have mentioned a Chief Munsee, indeed of the Munsee nation, as stated by Jacob regardless of spelling. The basis for her Dunn. Sometime after Buckongehelas died in memories would appear most likely to be stories 1805, it appears that the forty families living at told to her in her childhood. Her birth date is his village moved down the river to Munsee given as 1825 or 1826 and her mother died in Town. The Munsee families would have been 1830. The major removal of the (mostly greatly outnumbered and it is easy to see how Delaware) Indians from this area took place in their identity could have been lost in a few years. the summer of 1820 as described above. (For As mentioned above, the Moravian Diaries other reminiscences by her, see The DistaffSide provide the best first hand descriptions of these in this issue.) villages from 1801 to 1806, when the Accounts of early pioneers in the county refer missionaries left the area due to the increasing to small groups of Indians seen from time to and unremitting hostility of the pagan Indians. time. Helm quotes Minus Turner; "At the time of The terrible effects of whiskey are made evident my location here (1827], a remnant oflndians Delaware County GENEALOGIST & HISTORIAN 5 frequently passed and repassed. They probably of the town in Delaware County, Indiana is came here to hunt.. .. " Apparently the only spelled with a 'c.' And, for one final note of Indians actually living in the area after I 820 was confusion, we are called Munsonians. the trio of Indian Jim and his parents, Indian Jake and Sallie. The removal was so effective that Sources: when C. C. Trowbridge made his inquiries Crumrin, Timothy. "Between Two Worlds: regarding the life and language of the Delaware William Conner of Indiana." Traces ofIndian a Indians in I 823, he had to send to Ohio to find a and Midwestern History, Winter, I 992. Delaware to answer some of the questions. (See Dunn, Jacob. True Indian Stories. 1908. Kienitz below for Trowbridge's major Handbook ofthe North Americans. Smithsonian contribution to knowledge about the Delawares.) Press, 1978. It is interesting to note that Chief Kinietz, Vernon. Delaware Culture Chronology. Meshingomesia (as it is most commonly spelled Ind. Hist. Soc., 1946. in the references) was definitely an historical The Moravian Indian Mission on White River: figure, although he was a Miami and apparently Diaries and Letters, May 5, 1789 to November did not become a village chief until after the 12, 1806, translated from the German. Indiana death of his father in I 832. Meshingomesia was Historical Collections, v. 23. Ind. Hist. Bur., born about I 800 and lived until 1879. His I 938. village was along the . He would Rafert, Stewart. The Miami Indians ofIndiana: have dressed in a suit and shirt as she describes a Persistent People, 1654-1994. Ind. Hist. Soc., and it is possible that he could have visited in 1996. Delaware County, although it would appear that Thompson, Charles N. Sons ofthe Wilderness: there were no Miami living in the area at that John and William Conner. Ind. Hist. Soc. , time. 1937. One last comment on the spelling of the name Weslager, C. A. The Delaware Indians, a may be made. That is the observation that in History. Rutgers Univ. Pr., I 972. modern literature, at least, the name of the Indian group is usually spelled with an 's,' and the name

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Used by permission of Museum. Map is from article by Timothy Crumrin, as cited above. 6 '. .. Delaware County GENEALOGIST & HISTORIAN --· • '- . I TOWN SITE OF ALBANY CHOSEN BACK IN YR. 1833 William Venard Bought Land and Laid Out Present Town Location. -Early History Interesting. From the Muncie Evening Press April 27, 1923 Albany is one of the oldest towns of up hill to perform its work. Boyles had been Delaware county, having been founded in 1833 warned by his neighbors that he was doing the when William Venard, having purchased the job wrong but he refused to listen to them. He land, on which Albany is located, from Andrew entered a tract of land in section 7 in 1832 but Kennedy, who had originally entered the land, after the township had become more thickly divided his purchase into town lots and founded settled, he moved away and nothing is known of the town. his whereabouts after leaving Delaware Although Kennedy is the first man to enter township. land in the township, he was not the first settler. After Mr. Kennedy, who entered land where John Boyles took up his residence in Delaware Albany now stands, in 1832, had sold his land to township among the Indians while they still Mr. Venard he entered more land in section 15 owned the land and he forms one of the and remained there until his death. picturesque figures of early township history. David Jones entered land in 1831 in section His object in living among the Indians was 2. At the first election after the organimtion of always a mystery as he was not a trader and his the township, he was elect[ ed] justice of the relations were none too friendly with the tribes, peace and he and Benjamin Drummond filled as evidenced by the scars he bore on his face that office jointly for several years. from fights with the red men. He lived among Probably the next settlers were James Dean them so long, however, and followed so many of and Absalom and Abraham Boots, who came in their customs that one of the early residents once 1832, Joshua Bantz, Joseph O'Neal and Lewis remarked "that Boyles was as much an Indian in Stoner came in 1832 and in the spring of 1834, his habits as a white man could be." Reuben Strong entered land in section 2. James His residence in Delaware township was Orr, Sr., came to that [t]ownship in 1838 and discovered by Thomas Kirby, one of the early following him there is a long list of the early settlers of Muncie, who with a companion were settlers of the township. on their way to an Indiana agency near The first road through Delaware township Logansport when they came across him. It is was from Deeds Mill to Smithfield, in Liberty not known how long Boyles had lived in the township, [Note: Ellis says Deeds Mill in township prior to the time that Kirby and his Smithfield to Albany; i.e., Deeds Mill was in companion found him as he was never very Smithfield] which had become quite a trading communicative. center. When Rueben [sic] Strong came to the But when he found that other settlers were township in 1834, he was compelled to cut down coming fast, he did not move away to more some trees along this supposed road for his remote locations. But determined to stay and he passage. built a mill, the first in Delaware township. The first stock of merchandise in the Boyles was so headstrong, so the story goes, that township was kept by Granville Hastings on a he built a mill race for power for his mill and site close to the old Sharon mill. This was in found upon completion that he had built it in 1834. He constructed the original mill at Sharon such a manner that the water would have to run

ORAl\IC~ ~OU\\!TY CALlfORNIA GENE.ALOG\CAL SOCIETY