[Pennsylvania County Histories]

HEFEI FENCE 1 t 9 y_ ff i W COLLEI jTIONS V S3 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun51unse SUMS' A Page B Page B Pa oere D D E IRTDEX:. Page Page Page T UV W w w XYZ and shelter for the Indians should they de¬ A Card From Secretary . termine to return and enjoy the fruits of their Editor Record | I observe.,by numerous unholy victory over the slain. editorial comments as scon in the Philadel By giving this explanation of Dr. Egle’s phia Press and some other papers of this position you will oblige our association, the vicinity, in discussing the facts of Dr. Egle’s members of which gladly hail any testimony that will entirely acquit the proprietary historical address at the Wyoming Monu¬ governor and council of any complicity or ment on July 8, that they entirely mistake guiity knowledge of the intended raid so the subject on which tho speaker based his fatal in its results to these flrst settlers here discourse. I did not know beforehand what 1 in Wyoming, and the members of which as¬ manner of address he intended to favor us sociation are not nearly so exclusive in their i notions of fellowship as some of their Quaker with; but after listening to it I was pleased brethren profess to believe. to find that he had not followed the beaten Wesley Johnson, Secretary. track of former speakers on a like occasion, by dwelling on events connected w th the Onb by one the ruthless hand of the icono- battle of 3d of July, 1778, and at once clastic historians shatters onr idols. For offered a resolution thanking the doctor for years and years the common people cf this his able and instructive paper as a contribu¬ county have been looked down upon, snubbed, tion to the history of the valley of an earlier brow-beaten and socially ostracized, because period than the one we had met to com¬ their great-grandfather’s names were not memorate. This was unanimously adopted “sculped” upon the Wyoming monument. after having been heartily seconded by Col. The pretentions of these aristocrats to great Dorranoe, though somewhat changed in iis and high honors were based upon the simple meaning a8 put by the president for the day. The fact is that Dr. Egle did not in any fact that their Connecticut ancestors came way touch upon the history as connected with and “squatted” upon the land to which they the battle and massacre of July 3,1778, other- had no legal right and that they were | wise than to refer to the heroism, of the ! participants being worthy of all praise. I. defeated in a battle near Wyoming on the 3rd | was of the flrst massacre, so called, of 1763. of July, 1778. ; that he undertook to speak, and to shew For years this battle of Wyoming has been I from documentary testimony in the archive? ' of the State Library that the governor and denominated as a massacre and the people | council at that time had been wrongfully ac who fell in it considered martyrs. Of course I cused Of a wicked complicity with the In- all blood shed in tho holy cause of liberty, is j Qians in bringing upon the Connecticut peo pie that dire calamity. It is true that the sacred but the toney people of our F. F. V. ; Quaker governor of Pennsylvania had re- have endeavored to throw a particular halo of i peatadly warned them that they wore tres- i passers upon these lands, but the settlers did glory around the killed of that day, because, j not look upon the situation from the same forsooth, they were “massacred.” Time and j standpoint as the Pennsylvania authorities, truth have shorn it of many of the mas¬ aud refused to leave at their bidding. The I raid in which some thirty or forty of our sacre features, aud at the centennial celebra¬ ! people were massacred in the fall was tion in 1878 the committee in charge amend¬ made by Oneida and Cayuga Indians from ed the old lime name and it was cfficially what was then called the “Lake Country” in the Province of New York, who came hert styled the “Battle and Massacre of Wyom- - by way of the West Branch of the Susque- ing. i hanna, avoiding the Pennsylvania soldiers The latest person to punch a hole in this ] stationed at Fort Augusta, near tho junction I of the two rivers, as reported by the two eom- inflated wind bag of self-pride and exclusive¬ ] panies from Lancaster County constituting ness is Dr. Egle, the State Librarian, who i the garrison stationed there, corrected the history that these parties in in¬ i It had been intimated by Charles Miner and other Yankee historians that as these terest have been teaching as gospel truth, and soldiers did not prevent the raid up the let in some of the light of day npon their er¬ North Branch when they had it in their power to do so, consequently they must have rors, and in language that was polite enough connived at it, if they did not really aid and for a Frenchman administered a rebnke to ; abet these blood-thirsty savages in their hell- them for their selfishness in keeping these ; ish work of murder of these defenseless Yankee settlers here in 'Wyoming, and in celebrations to themselves, and beneath his j the absence of any explanation of the case, speech conld be distinctly traced his con¬ this would seem to be a fair inference from the facts, and especially when we tempt for their many foolish pretensions. remember that it is a fact that has never been There are some unwritten things abont denied by the Pennsylvania authorities, nor this “masssacre” of Wyoming which, if can it be, that these same Pennsylvania soldiers appeared on the scene within a few printed would rob it cf many of its romantic days after the slaughter and ruined and de- traditions. i stroyed what little of buildings and stores had escaped destruction at the hands of these. There are descendants of these first set- ( ; bloody marauders from the North. This tiers, living all around ns to-day, who are the wanton destruction of the property of the ill- acme of America’s best type of citizens;) fated settlers from Connecticut, it was claimed by Dr. Egie, was justifiable, as there are others whose sole claim to position shown by documentary testimony of the time is dne to the enhanced valne of lands in¬ contained in dispatches from these Lancaster herited by them which have enormously appre¬ County soldiers, was done to prevent the abandoned property furnishing subsistence ciated in value by the enterprise of other people, and there are some alleged aristocratic descendants whom—but we will throw the mantle of charity over them. AT WYOMING MONUMENT. from Dr. Hollister, one of the vice-presidents of the association, was read. Calvin Parsons The One Hundred and Eleventh Anniversary and Mr. Jenkins led in singing “America” of the Wyoming Massacre Commemor¬ and Rev. J. K. Kilborn pronounced the bene¬ ated, diction. Those who have been accustomed The usual company, not too large, but to attend these exercises missed General characteristically patriotic, enthusiastic and Dana, and some disappointment was felt that high-toned, gathered last Wednesday after¬ no carefully prepared sketch ot his life was noon at the Wyoming Monument to celebrate presented. This was perhaps in part due to the one hundred and eleventh anniversary of the fact that such a sketch is being prepared j the massacre. Large flags were displayed, for the Historical Society, of which he was ■ and roses in abundance from Benj. F. Dor- President at the time of his death. rance’s conservatory were strewn. The Wy¬ oming Band enlivened the occasion with pa¬ Interesting Item of History. triotic music. The President of the Com¬ Editob Recoed : In an old number of the memorative Association, Gol. Charles Dor- Providence Gazette and Country Journal,. rance, called the meeting to order, and Rev. I Dec. 9, 1769, printed at Providence, It. I.,, Dr. Hodge offered prayer. The President’s I and now in the possession of W. H. Sturde- address followed and was marked by an en¬ thusiasm and vigor unusual in a man of vant, appears ihe following item of news eighty-fcnr years. Col. Dorrance began from Wyoming Valley one hundred and with an apology for not making the address twenty years ago. If correct, it gives the expected of him, saying that he bad just only detailed account of the capture of -Col. risen from a sick-bed and until noon had been Jno. Durkee, differing somewhat from weighed down with disappointment trom his Pearce’s account. Miner’s History states, expectation of not being able to be present. p. 113, that Captain Ogden of the Pennsylva¬ nia forces “with fifty armed men, by a vigor¬ He spoke, however, at some length and spoke ous and well timed movement, seized Captain well. Durkee,commander of the Yankees.” Pearce’s An ode, written in 1841 bv Amos Sisby, Annals, p. 66, says that Ogden “with a party editor of the Wilkes-Barre Advocate, (now of lorty or fifty men suddenly attacked tlio Record of tlte Times) was admirably read by houses of some of the settlers and took a few Philip Myers,- esq , of Chicago, a grandson prisoners, among whom was Major John of Philip Myers, of Forty Furt.

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