Local History: Chapters VIII - XV : Davis's 1877 History of Northampton Co, PA

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                                  HISTORY

                                    OF

                       NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


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31 (cont.)


                             CHAPTER VIII.

                        THE FIRST PROPRIETARY.

  INTERESTING and instructive as is the story, it is one which needs no 
repetition to the ears of Pennsylvanians-the story of the beloved and 
peaceful founder of their noble State-William Penn. he who was not only the 
promoter of permanent white settlements within its boundaries, but sole 
proprietor of its vast territory.

The following brief narrative of some of the leading events in his earlier 
life may not, however, be thought uninteresting. They are taken from 
Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary:

  "William Penn, the celebrated Quaker, was born in London, 1644. From a 
private school at Chigwell, Essex, he entered, in 1660, a gentleman 
commoner, at Christ Church, Oxford; but as he withdrew from the national 
forms of worship with other students, who, like himself, had listened to 
the preaching of Thomas Lee, a Quaker of eminence, he was fined for 
nonconformity, and the next year, as he pertinaciously adhered to his 
opinions, he was expelled from the college. This disgrace did not promote 
his comfort. His father considered his singularly sober and serious conduct 
as tending to impede his elevation to the favors of the licentious court, 
and, therefore, after being, as he says, whipped and beaten, he was turned 
out of doors, in 1662.

  "His father, however, sent him to France, and on his return, he entered 
at Lincoln's Inn as a law student.

  "In 1666 he was sent to manage an estate in Ireland, and during his 
residence there, he renewed his acquaintance with Loe, and showed such 
partiality to the Quakers that he was, in those days of persecution, taken 
up at a meeting it Cork, and imprisoned by the Mayor, who at last restored 
him to liberty at the request of Lord Orrery.

  "His return to England produced a violent altercation with his father, 
who wished him to abandon those singular habits so offensive to decorum and 
established forms; and when he refused to appear uncovered before him, and 
before the king, he it second time dismissed him from his protection and 
favor.

  "In 1668, he first appeared as a preacher and as an author among the 
Quakers, and in consequence of some controversial dispute, he was sent to 
the Tower, where he remained in confinement for seven months.

  "The passing of the Conventicle Act, soon after, again sent him to prison 
in Newgate-from which he was released by the interest of his father, who, 
about this time, was reconciled to him, and left him, on his decease, some 
time after, a valuable estate of about fifteen hundred pounds per annum."
The obloquy and persecution under which the Quakers suffered, continually 
increased, and finally became intensified to such a degree that they were 
even subjected to the torture and ignominy of the branding iron, and this, 
too, almost under the very shadow of the Rock of Plymouth, and at the hands 
of those same Puritans who had so recently escaped the fangs of 
proscriptive intolerance in lands across the sea.


32


  Penn, however, although he had cast his lot with the despised sect, had 
no longer any need to fear personal persecution, for he had become a 
favorite with his sovereign, mainly, perhaps, on account of the brilliant 
naval service which his father, the Admiral Penn, had rendered to the 
'merry monarch,' in the great sea fight against the Dutch, June 3d, 1664. 
But his personal immunity from persecution did not cause him to forget 
others, whose hearts were aching for some peaceful place-among the islands 
of the sea, or in the wilderness of America-where they might worship the 
Almighty Ruler as their consciences should move them, without dictation or 
hindrance, from the hand of power.

  He resolved that, if practicable, he would found such all asylum, and as 
he cast about him in the prosecution of his benevolent design, what was 
more natural than that his eyes should turn towards that new country across 
the ocean, whose lands were known to be of virgin fertility, and almost 
boundless in extent?

  He had recently acted in the capacity of trustee for Edward Byllinge, a
Quaker who had met heavy pecuniary disaster in an attempt to establish
settlements in New Jersey, upon lands which he had purchased there from
Lord Berkeley, and while so acting as trustee, Penn bad become acquainted
with the existence  and eligibility of the great expanse of country lying 
west of the Delaware, and north of the grant made to Lord Baltimore, these
lands being still in the possession of the crown. He remembered, too, that
the government was yet indebted to the estate of his father, in the sum of
sixteen thousand pounds, for his services as admiral, an amount which in
those days of kingly extravagance and slender revenue, we may suppose it
was not entirely convenient for the royal treasury to pay. So, in the year
1681, he made an humble petition to King Charles the Second, praying that,
instead of the large sum due his father, lie might receive a grant of lands
upon the river Delaware in America.

  His request was acceded to. The king granted him lands, which were 
described and bounded, in the Royal Charter (dated March 4th, 1681), as 
follows:

  "On the east by the Delaware River, from twelve miles distance northwards 
of Newcastle Town, unto the three-and-fortieth degree of northern latitude, 
if the said liver doth extend so far northward, but if the said river shall 
not extend so far northward, then by the said river so far as it doth 
extend, and from the head of the said river the eastern bounds are to be 
determined by a meridian line drawn from the head of the said liver unto 
the said forty-third degree. The said land to extend westward five degrees 
of longitude to be computed from the eastern bounds, and the said lands to 
be bounded on the north by the three-and-fortieth degree of northern 
latitude and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from 
Newcastle, northward and westward unto the fortieth degree of north 
latitude, and then by It straight line westward to the limits of the 
longitude above mentioned."

  The reasons moving the king to grant the charter were declared in that 
instrument to be the merits of Admiral Penn, the extension of the British 
Empire and the conversion of the savage nations to civilized life and to 
the Christian religion.

  This vast territory the king named Pennsylvania (Penn's forest land), in 
opposition to the wishes of the great Quaker, who did not desire that 
complimentary name, but preferred rather, that the province should he 
called New Wales.

  So broad and comprehensive was his spirit of philanthropy, that he 
designed this as an asylum, not only for his own people, the English 
Quakers, but us one to which all Christians, of whatever country might flee 
from religious oppression. And so firmly was he resolved that no injustice 
should stain his enterprise, that when he himself came over to the England, 
it was one of his first and chief acts to call together the red men-they 
who had owned the soil long before Charles Stuart laid claim to it-and to 
repurchase from them the same lands which he had already bought (and paid 
for) of the Crown of England.

  Nineteen nations of Indians thus met,1 and extended to him the hand of 
friendship. Always after, they spoke of him as their Miquon, their elder 
brother, their good and just friend; and so long as he lived they never 
broke their faith with him.

 It seemed incredible how rapidly and how widely the knowledge of Penn's 
benevolent project was spread abroad, for in less than two years, more than 
fifty ships entered the Delaware, freighted with eager emigrants; not only 
Quakers from different points in England and Wales, but from Holland, and 
from many other places on the Continent; among them a large number of 
Germans-some of them Quakers-from Cresheim, in the Palatinate. So rapid was 
the influx that, says Proud (page 220, vol. ii, History of Pennsylvania), 
"the banks of the Delaware were one bustling scene-some lodged in the 
woods, in hollow trees, some in eaves, which were easily dug on the high 
banks of the Wissahickon and the Delaware, and others, in haste, erected 
huts."

  During the very first year there were eighty dwellings erected in the 
town of Philadelphia. It seemed as if those swarming refugees from 
oppression were. endued with the spirit of prophecy, and that they foresaw 
the worldly advantages which did afterwards accrue to them and their 
children, as a result of the humane, just, and pacific policy pursued by 
Penn, towards the Indian proprietors of the land. Very many of those 
immigrants who came then, in too deep poverty to provide their families so 
much as a shelter, lived to find themselves in positions of comfort and 
competence; and of many more, it may be truly said, that their descendants 
are to-day among the most cultured, wealthy, and influential people in the 
State.



                           
                           CHAPTER IX.

                     THE MINISINK SETTLEMENT

  THE first subdivision of the province of Pennsylvania was made by Penn, 
in 1682, forming the three counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks the 
last named being bounded eastwardly by the Delaware River, but running 
northwardly as far as the northern boundary of the province, and including, 
in its limits, all of that territory which, nearly seventy years later, was 
partitioned from its northern end and called Northampton County.

  Probably, in all that vast scope of country, from the Great Bend of the 
Susquehanna, southward, far below the forks, of the Delaware, there was 
not, at that time, a single white inhabitant; though it is but proper to 
say that some apparently reliable authorities have asserted that the 
Minisink flat lands, on the Delaware, above the Water Gap, lying once in 
Bucks and afterward in Northampton county, were settled by whites years 
before the date of the royal grant to Penn.

  As bearing upon this question, there may be found, on page 439, vol. i, 
of Hazzard's Register, a communication from Samuel Preston, of Stockport, 
Wayne county, from which the following are extracts:

  "In 1787, the writer went on his first surveying tour into Northampton 
county. He was deputy, under John Lukens, Surveyor-General, and received 
from him, by way of instructions, the following narrative respecting the 
settlement of Minisiuk, on the Delaware, above the Kittatinny or Blue 
Mountains.2

  "That the settlement was formed a long time before it was known to the 
government at Philadelphia.

  "That when government was informed of the settlement, they passed law, in 
1729, that any such purchases of the Indians should be void, and the 
purchasers indicted forcible entry and detainer, according to the laws of 
England.

  "That in 1730, they appointed all agent to go and investigate the facts, 
that the agent, so appointed, was the famous surveyor, Nicholas Scull; that 
he, John Lukens, was then Scull's apprentice, to carry chain and learn 
surveying; that he accompanied Nicholas Scull. As they both understood, and 
could talk Indian, they hired Indian guides, and had a fatiguing journey, 
there being then no white inhabitants in the upper part of Bucks or 
Northampton 3 counties.

  "That they had very great difficulty to lead their horses through the 
Water Gap to Meenesink flats, which were all settled with Hollanders, with 
several, they could only be understood in Indian. At the venerable Samuel 
Depui's, they found great hospitality and plenty of the necessaries of 
life."

_________________________________________________________________________

1 It was at this famous treaty that we first hear of the great Tamanend the 
most renowned of all the Indian sachems. At that council he, with another 
chief, Metamequan, on the 23d of April, 1683, affixed their marks to an 
instrument by which they conveyed to the Proprietary a tract of land on 
Neshaminy Creek, in the county of Bucks.
 His correct name, Tamanend, came, in the course of time, to be written 
Tammany, and a society was founded in his honor, during the Revolution, by 
which society he was recognized as the Patron Saint of America. At the 
present day he is still regarded as holding the same relation to a powerful 
political party in this country.
The name Tamanend is said to signify, in the Indian tongue, "The Urbane."


2 This settlement was a few miles northeast of Stroudsburg. 

3 There was at that time no Northampton county. It was erected twenty-two 
years later-in 1752.


33


  John Lukens said the first thing that struck his admiration was a grove 
of apple trees,1 of size far beyond any near Philadelphia.

  "That Samuel Depui told them that when the rivers were frozen he had a 
good road to Esopust from the Mine Holes, on the Mine road, some hundred 
miles; that be took his wheat and cider there for salt and necessaries  and 
did not appear to have any idea or knowledge where the river ran 
Philadelphia market-or being in the government of Pennsylvania. They were 
of opinion that the first settlements of Hollanders in Meenesink, were many 
years older than William Penn's charter.  I had it in charge from John 
Lukens to learn more particulars respecting the Mine road to Esopus, etc. I 
found Nicholas Depui, Esq. (son of Samuel), living in a spacious stone 
house in great plenty and affluence."

  "This interview with the amiable Nicholas Depui, Esq., was in the month 
of June, 1787. He then appeared to be, perhaps, about sixty years of age. I 
interrogated him as to the particulars of what he knew; as to when, and by 
whom the Mine road was made, what was the ore they dug and hauled on it, 
what was the date, and from whence or how came the first settlers of 
Minisink, in such great numbers as to take up all the flats on both sides 
of the river for forty miles. He could only give traditional accounts of 
what he had heard from older people, without date, in substance as follows:

  "That in some former age there came a company of miners from Holland, 
supposed from the great labor that had been expended in making that road, 
about one hundred miles long, that they were very rich, or great people in 
working the two mines. That he ever understood abundance of ore had been 
hauled on that road, but never could learn whether it was lead or silver.

  "That the first settlers came from Holland, to seek a place of quiet, 
being persecuted for their religion. I believe they were Arminians. They 
followed the Mine road to the large flats on the Delaware. That smooth 
cleared land and such ail abundance of large apple trees suited their 
views; that they bona fide bought the improvements of the native Indians, 
most of whom then removed to Susquehanna. That with such as remained there 
was peace and friendship until the year 1755.

  "The other old men that I conversed with, gave their traditions similar 
to Nicholas Depui, and they all appeared to be the grandsons of the first 
settlers 2 and very illiterate as to dates, or anything relating to 
chronology.

  "In the summer of 1789, I began to build on this place. There came two 
venerable gentlemen on a surveying expedition. They were the late General 
James Clinton, father of the late DeWitt Clinton, and Christopher Tappan, 
Esq., the Clerk and Recorder of Ulster county. For many years before, they 
had both been surveyors under General Clinton's father, when he was 
Surveyor-General. In order to learn some history from gentlemen of their 
general knowledge, I accompanied them in the woods. They both well knew the 
Mine Holes, Mine Road, etc., and there was no kind of records or 
documents thereof, united in opinion that it was a work transacted while 
the State of New York belonged to the government of Holland; that it fell 
to the English in the year 1664, and that the change of government stopped 
the mining business; that the road must have been made many years before so 
much digging could be done; that it must undoubtedly have been the first 
good road of that extent ever made in any part of the United States.

  "From the best evidence that I have been able to obtain, I am clearly of 
opinion that Meenesink was the oldest European settlement, of equal extent, 
ever made in the territory afterwards named 'Pennsylvania."

  This account is obscurely given, but its meaning seems to be, that the
company of miners from Holland' came there in the very remote past; that 
their purpose was to open and work mines, build roads, and to plant apple 
trees. That after a great many years, they, for some unknown reason, 
abandoned the place, allowing their mines to cave in, their fine long road 
to fall into disuse and to become nearly obliterated; and that years 
afterwards came the first settlers, who were Arminians, fleeing from 
persecution in Holland; that they, by some means, struck the trail of the 
old road, which led them to the mines, and the clearings, and the orchards; 
and that, pleased with these improvements, they made a bona fide purchase 
of them from the Indians.

  It is not told to us whether the Dutch miners had also purchased the 
property from the savages, nor whether, if so, the red men had bought it 
back, or whether it had reverted to them, when vacated by the mining 
company; but at all events, the religious refugees purchased in good faith, 
and the Lenape thereupon at once left for the hunting grounds of the 
Susquehanna.3 That then the Arminian settlers went on prospering, and so 
closely attending to their own affairs that, after a stay of many years, 
they bad not even learned the course of the Delaware River, below their own 
settlement, nor had the outside world learned of them-even so much as the 
fact of their existence.

  It is worthy of note that although the Holland 'settlers" came long 
previous to 1730, yet the ancient miners must have been there a great many 
years earlier, for the apple seeds which they planted had sprung up and 
grown and matured into large old trees before the coming of the Arminians, 
and it is certainly a most remarkable supposition that such a settlement 
could have existed there, from and before the time of the first 
Proprietary, without his knowledge, while he and his agents were so often 
receiving visits from chiefs of the Indian nations located along the whole 
valley of the Delaware, and beyond it, to the northward-chiefs; who could 
not have been ignorant of the fact, if such a fact existed.

  In a recently published account of the Minisink settlement, it is stated 
that:  "The earliest mention of the Minisink in our county records, is in 
1733. Nicholas De Pui, a Huguenot refugee, settled there in 1725, and in 
1727 he purchased a tract of land from the Minsi Indians, with two islands 
in the Delaware. In September, 1733, William Allen, who, meanwhile, had 
purchased this land of the Penns, confirmed the title to De Pui. There were 
six tracts in all, containing six hundred and forty-seven acres, and, in 
addition, the three islands in the river, contained three hundred and three 
acres. These islands were, Maw Willamink, one hundred and twenty-six acres;
Great Shawna one hundred and forty-six acres; and a third, formed by some 
creeks which emptied into the Delaware, and lately held by John Smith, 
containing thirty-one acres.

  "Abraham Van Campen settled at the Minisink, about the same time, on the 
New Jersey side of the river, about five miles above De Pui. The only 
surviving representative of this family is Robert Reading De Pui, of 
Stroudsburg."

  These statements seem to be, in some particulars, 
irreconcilable-especially as referring to the Depui family-and in view of 
this fact, as well as of the rather extraordinary character of some 
portions of Mr. Preston's account, it seems difficult to avoid the 
conclusion that he has made the coming of the Hollanders appear many years 
too early; and that, at the time of the establishment of Bucks county, it 
was, in all its upper portions, but a howling wilderness, peopled by no 
human inhabitant save the red sons of the woods.

  But as regards the settlement on the Minisink flats, there can be no 
question that it was the first ever made by white men within the territory 
embraced in Northampton county at its erection. Its precise date cannot be 
given, but it was probably made not long after the commencement of the 
eighteenth century.

  The Samuel Depui, mentioned in Mr. Preston's narrative, came there, a 
Huguenot refugee, and bought lands from the Minsi Indians-including three 
island in the Delaware-his title to which was afterwards confirmed by Chief 
Justice William Allen, one of whose five thousand-acre grants from Penn was 
supposed to cover Depui's Indian purchase.

  Other French Huguenots, who settled there, were the Desha5 family, also 
Pierre LaBar, and his brothers, Charles find Abraham, who came some years 
later, probably about 1730.

  Nicholas Depui was the builder and owner of the first grist-mill in all 
that section of the country. His daughter became the wife of Colonel Daniel 
Brodhead, whose father, Daniel, was one of the very early settlers in that 
region. The son, Colonel Brodhead, was one of the bravest and most active 
defenders of the white settlements against the savages in 1755, and was 
highly esteemed by Washington himself, during the Revolution; after which 
be became Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania. His remains lie in the cemetery 
at Milford, Pike county.

___________________________________________________________________________


1 Both the Dutch on their arrival at the Hudson, and the French on entering 
Canada, found apple, peach, Plum, and mulberry trees, growing upon the 
domain of the Indians; but of course being almost entirely unproductive in 
their wild state. They, however, at once commenced to improve them by 
cultivation, and in this they met with very excellent success, raising 
probably as fine, if not finer orchards than any in the old country. When 
the Iroquois, the Mohicans, and other tribes saw the-to them-marvelous 
result of such delicious fruits being produced from trees which before they 
had held in so slight estimation, they returned to their own towns, and 
following the European plan, succeeded in a very considerable degree in the 
rearing of trees which, although of course, being cultivated in their 
careless and desultory manner, were much inferior to those of the white men 
from whom they had copied the idea, yet were, in many instances, reasonably 
productive for a time; such, for instance was the large peach orchard which 
Heckewelder mentions as having been owned by them, at or near the present 
site of the town or Nazareth.

2 Now Kingston, N. Y., on the Hudson River.

3 If this was a fact, it would seem to indicate that those first settlers 
came but later then 1700.

4 The Lenape or Delawares did not leave the Minsink lands until they were 
peremptorialy commanded to do so by the Iroquois, at the treaty of 1742.

5 Governor Desha, of Kentucky, was a descendant of this family, he being 
born in Smithfield township, in 1768.


34


                              CHAPTER X.

                    THE SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRANTS.

  IT was not long after the Hollanders, settled upon the Minisinks, -that 
other portions of the present county were penetrated by white men; though 
for some years these were of the character of pioneer adventurers, father 
than of permanent settlers. In the commencement of the year 1701, all 
adventurer, named John Steihlman, it German-probably of Hebrew origin-came 
from across the Maryland border, and reached the Forks of Delaware, with 
goods adapted to the wants of the Indians with whom it was his intention to 
open a contraband trade. But just at that time, a bold young Swede arrived 
at Philadelphia-probably front a secret mission to the Lehigh, it) the 
Proprietarys1 interest-and reported having seen indications of the presence 
of white men there.

   Penn at once dispatched Edward Farmer and John Sotcher -residents in the 
lower part of Bucks-to reconnoitre the vicinity of the Forks. The, result 
was, that Steihlman was discovered, find his merchandise seized, by orders 
of the Proprietary.

  There are accounts that traders front the New Amsterdam posts, reached 
and passed down the Delaware River 2 to Philadelphia, at, an earlier date; 
but these do not bear the impress of probability. Certainly, if true, they 
destroy the story of the ignorance of the Minisink Hollanders, as to the 
course of the river below their own settlement; and it, is also 
antagonistical to the fact, that the Proprietary government was, until 
1729, unaware even of the existence of that community upon the upper 
Delaware.

  There is little doubt that those pioneer whites who first planted their 
rude cabins within the Forks of the Delaware,3 and along the south bank of 
the Lehigh, reached there by way of the lower river, and through the 
country, now Bucks find Montgomery counties: the videttes if they might he 
so called, of the occupying host which was steadily pushing the red man to 
the wall.

  In a report made to the Legislature, about the time of the erection of 
Northampton county, on the subject of a paper currency, it was set forth 
that, as early as 1723, the white settlements did extend above Durham. It 
is not possible to say who were the first of these solitary settlers, nor 
the precise time when they sat themselves down in the old forests; along 
the Lehigh, but among the first of them, whose names have been preserved, 
is that, of John Apple, a German, who arrived from Fatherland in 1726, and 
built his log dwelling in the wilderness within the present bounds of Lower 
Saucon township, near the "Apple Church," and it cannot be doubled that, 
long before 1730, many another adventurous squatter had set up his 
household gods in those places which to him seemed most favored by nature, 
in the wilds stretching along the banks of the Delaware and Lehigh 
(particularly the latter), many miles above their confluence, and, indeed, 
far into the interior to the northwest of those streams towards the Blue 
Mountains.

  After the Minisink, the next settlement which was established in numbers 
sufficient to deserve the name, was that made in 1728, by Thomas Craig, his 
son-in-law, John Boyd, William Craig, Hugh Wilson, Samuel Brown, Nigel 
Gray, and two or three other Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who were, in an 
eminent degree, possessors of all the stern energy and earnestness, both 
religious and utilitarian, which constitute distinguishing characteristics 
of Scotchmen and of Presbyterians, but which become doubly marked, when the 
nationality and the faith are blended together in one individual, or in a 
community.

  They laid their lines, in what was afterwards Allen township, at a point 
about where Weaversville now is. This became known it"s the "Irish 
Settlement," and the creed and the nationality of the settlers were almost 
wholly those which we have mentioned above.

The next of the settlements in the county limits was also made of the same 
element, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, under lead of Alexander Hunter, who 
entered there in 1730, with a following of about thirty families. They 
located at three different points, viz.: at Martins Creek, at Richmond, and 
at Williamsburg, afterwards comprehended in the township of Mount Bethel. 
The ancestors of the Moodys, the Brittons, Rays, Arrisons, Lyles, Deatzs 4 
and the Moores, and of many other well known families in that section, were 
among those pioneers. For a more full mention of these Presbyterian 
settlements under Craig and Humer, and of the later events, occurring to, 
and in the communities of which these were the germs, the reader is; 
referred to the historical accounts; of the townships of Allen, Lower
and Upper Mount Bethel, and Washington, in another part of this volume.



                               CHAPTER XI.

                         SETTLEMENT BY GERMANS.

  THE, Germans did not lag far behind the Hollanders and Irish. Many of the 
first of them entered the county at its south part, through the townships 
of Milford, Macungie, and Saucon. They naturally ascended the valleys of 
the streams flowing into the lower Delaware; while more came by the valley 
of the Schuylkill and Perkiomen. Then crossing the dividing ridges, they 
passed down to Little Lehigh and the Saucon, to where those streams flow 
into the Lehigh.

  It was by this route that John George Hess reached the point where he 
settled, low down on the Saucon, and Adam Schaus 5 and Conrad Reutsch 6(a 
Swiss), and Isaac Martens Ysselstein, came to the south bank of the Lehigh, 
at and above the month of the. Saucon.

  In 1735, these lands were thrown open to settlement, and the 
Proprietaries of Pennsylvania had planned and advertised a lottery to be 
drawn for the disposition of one hundred thousand acres in the wilderness 
portion of Bucks county-to be laid out anywhere, except on matters and 
lands already settled-not excepting lands to which the Indian title had not 
been extinguished, and the scheme provided that squatters who had illegally 
established themselves, might, by drawing prizes, have their claims 
ratified.

  Great numbers of tickets were sold, but, for some cause, the drawing 
never took place, However, in lieu thereof, the holders of tickets were 
permitted to locate the lands in question, on certain favorable terms, and 
by virtue of this arrangement, many were so located by settlers, and among 
these was Nathaniel Irish, to whom probably belonged the honor of erecting 
the first mill on Saucon Creek.

   Of settlements made by Germans, in sufficient numbers to over-balance 
the English-speaking element, those in Upper Milford were the first, They 
came by the Perkiomen Valley, and had soon established themselves with a 
firm hold in the southernmost point of the present county of Lehigh, which,
at the time of Northamptons erection, was embraced within its territory, 
formed the apex of a triangle, whose base was the Blue Mountain Range.
Nor did they stop at the Lehigh. They pushed vigorously northward, and had, 
by 1736, reached a point-now in Lehigh township, near Petersville -in 
sufficient numbers to have erected a log church there. The names of 
Kleppinger, Kepler, and Bartholomew, are the only ones which seem to have 
been preserved of those first religious settlers.

  Among the names of the first comers in Upper Milford, we find those of 
Dillinger, Musselman, Hoch, Kirster, Scheimer, Lauer, Knecht, Henckel, 
Jost, Benner, Rausch, and others.

  Upon the petition of Peter Walhert, Mathias Ochs, Joseph Henckel, 
Johannes Meyer, Ulrich Kinter, Daniel Rausch, Heinrich Ris, Heinrich 
Willim, William Bit, Christian Bigli, Jacob Wetel, Duwalt Mechling, 
Johannes Hast, Johannes Betzlart, Melchoir Stuher, Michael Keher, Felix 
Benner, Jacob Derry, Michael Zimmerman, William Longhurst, Johannes 
Bangerner, Mirwin Weihnacht, and Hannes Ord, the settlements were erected 
into the township of Upper Milford, in 1739, by decree of the Court of 
Quarter Sessions of Bucks county.

  It was surveyed and laid out in rectangular form, and not far from five 
miles and a half long by five miles wide, viz.: "Beginning at the northern 
corner of Milford township, and then running up to Lawick Hills; then along 
the said hills to the county line westward, then down the county line to 
the other corner of Milford township, then along the, line of said township 
to the place, of beginning." Peter Walhert, the head petitioner, was made 
the first constable.

___________________________________________________________________________

1.  Penn himself had already passed through that, country, on his way to and 
  from the Susquehanna.

2.  One account has it that as early as 1616, three Dutch Traders from Fort
  Nassau (Albany) reached the Delaware, across the wilderness, and were 
  captured by the Indians, but afterwards ransomed by Captain Hendricks, a 
  mariner from New Amsterdam, who was cruising up the Delaware, near the 
  mouth of the Schuylkill.

3.  In all the old accounts the Forks of Delaware, was understood to 
indicate present area of Northampton county, except the townships of 
Williams and Lower Saucon, that is to say, all the territory between the  
rivers Delaware and Lehigh, and thence to the Blue Mountains.

4.  Now spelled Dietz.

5.  Adam Schaus, emigrated from the Palatinate to America, in 1735, and was 
the ancestor of the numerous Schaus (or as it is now spelled Shouse) 
family, whose descendants are spread so widely over Northampton county.
>From Saucon, he removed to Bethlehem, and thence to Fusion, where he kept a 
public house in 1760.

6.  The cabin which Reutschl first built is said to have formed a part of the 
old "Crown Inn." This is not unlikely as it certainly stood upon that site.


35


  Macungie was settled in the same manner, find at about the same time soon 
after 1730 -by Germans principally, interspersed with a few Swiss,
They were Mennonists, Dunkers, Amishes, with some of other beliefs, who 
ascended the Perkiomen, find thence crossed to the waters of the Lehigh A 
few years later, it congregation was organized there by the Moravians, near 
the, South Mountain, a few miles southwesterly of Allentown.

  Macungie became a township of Bucks in 1743, the decree being made on 
petition of Peter Tracksler and seventeen others, In 1746, Jeremiah 
Traxeler 1 opened a tavern, and around this nucleus, grew fill the village 
of Trexlertown, This, however, was not, the first public public house in 
that section, for we find a tavern license granted to Conrad Kelp, in the 
previous year 1745.

  Of Salisbury, the Whitehalls, and Heidelberg, nearly the same may be 
staid, Individual settlers-mostly Germans-entered there soon after 1730, 
and they came in greater numbers when, five years latter, the large tracts 
which had been granted to Chief Justice William Allen, James Bingham, James 
Hamilton, and Thomas and Patrick Graeme, were laid opened for settlement.

  They soon felled the forests, built cabins, and organized religious 
worship.

  The lands of Judge, Allen embracing five thousand acre, lay on both
sides of the Lehigh; those on the south side falling in both Salisbury and
Whitehall, and comprehending the present site of Allentown, which, a few
years later, was laid out by James Allen, son of the Chief Justice.

It was a town which, for a long time, grew but slowly. As late as 1764, it 
was a hamlet, of only thirteen families Germans living in log houses. 
Christian and Abraham Rincker were among the more considerable of these 
citizens; but still more prominent, was David Deshler, who owned the mill 
at the Little Lehigh. He did more than any offer, fit the, defence of that 
neighborhood against Indians in 1763. It was said that, at that time, he 
owned the only serviceable fire-arms in the town. In after years, during 
the Revolution, he made great sacrifices for the patriot cause, and 
advanced money to the government in the time of its greatest, need. He was 
the son of Adam Deshler, who was one of the first, confers into Whitehall 
township.

  Like almost of the pioneers, he at first sheltered his family in the 
regulation log cabin, but afterwards erected a large stone house; find this 
house became, during the Indian wars, a place of refuge for the people of 
the vicinity, who called it "the fort."

  George Knapp and Peter Kohler built grist-mills there, nearly as early as 
the establishment of Irish's mill on the Saucon.2

  Besides operating the mill, Kohler kept a house of entertainment, as also 
did Lawrence Guth-probably small log houses, where, occasionally, a 
wayfarer would receive accommodation for the night, and pay therefor a 
shilling, including the evening and morning meal. These were located in a 
district of rich land, called Egypta, lying northwesterly from Hokendauqua, 
and excellently watered, by Coplay Creek and its affluents.


                              CHAPTER XII.

                   THE NORTHAMPTON HUNTING GROUNDS.

  Some time, later, Lynford Gardner, who seems to have been a man of some 
wealth and consequence, came up from Philadelphia and built, upon land 
which he owned on the waters of Cedar Creek, a house of good size, 
which-strange as it must have appeared in that wilderness, and at that 
day-he painted white, and called White Hall, from which the name was given 
to the township, Afterwards, however, this house became known as "Grouse 
Hall," in the same way that Judge Allen's house at Little Lehigh -now 
Allentown-received the appellation of "Trout Hall" -because, during the 
seasons of fowling and falling, both these establishments almost, 
constantly entertained parties of sportsmen from the city, and from the 
lower parts of the province, sometimes including the Governor of 
Pennsylvania himself.

It is related that, upon one of these occasions, when the Governor was 
stopping at a tavern in the neighborhood of the hunting grounds-it being
on the Sabbath day, when no grouse shooting could, with propriety, be 
indulged in-he found himself touch wearied fit mind for lack of occupation, 
and dispairingly asked his landlord if he had not aches interesting book in 
his house, the perusal of which might cause the hours to pass less 
tediously, "Yes, indeed," said the host, "I have the must entertaining book 
you ever read." And thereupon, produced, for his Excellency, a well-worn 
copy of the Scriptures.

The Governor felt the reproof, and read his Bible in silence, and it is to 
be hoped, with much profit to himself.

  At that early time, more than a century and a quarter age, all this 
section of country-all of what we now know as Northampton county-was 
preeminently it sportsman's paradise.3

  The rivers teemed with shad, rock, and many other fish of scarcely less 
delicacy; while in the branches, particularly towards their heads, the 
holds, trout existed in great abundance.

  In the woods and heaths there were thousands of quail, pheasants, grouse, 
turkey, and deer; while, if the desire of the hunter was, for more exciting 
gains, he might not infrequently find its gratification in a shot at bear, 
wolf, or panther.

  Who can wonder if, when the Indian found that his exile from this 
magnificent domain was inevitable, he turned his back on these forests, and 
streams sullenly, and with ii, heart full of hatred toward the white man?


                            CHAPTER XIII.

              CHARACTER OF THE PIONEERS - THEIR PRIVATIONS.

  IT is not a little remarkable that every permanent settlement within the
borders of the county, was made by people, in whom a deep religious feeling 
was the predominating sentiment of action.

  In other places-in Virginia, Maryland, and New Amsterdam-the white, 
colonists had come into the western wilderness, wholly as a matter of 
pecuniary profit. But here (with the exception of the Holland miners, who 
were but temporary squatters, and in no sense permanent settlers), all were 
earliest religionists, and subordinated all other questions to, that of 
liberty of conscience. Of course, when they took tip their new homes by 
life clear waters of the Delaware and Lehigh, they were not insensible to 
the prospect of worldly advantage; they foresaw that their industry and 
frugality, would cause the fertile forest land of Penn to blossom like the 
rose, but after all the question of religious freedom was paramount.

  The Lutherans upon the Lower Lehigh, the Mennonists, the Dunkers, 
Schwenckfelders, and Reformers, who entered the southwestern townships; the 
Presbyterians who followed Hunter and Craig; the refugee Huguenots and 
Arminians who re-occupied the abandoned lands and orchards of the 
Hollanders; and last, but not least, the lowly Moravians, who settled at 
Nazareth and Bethlehem, in 1740 and 1742; each and all set up God's altar 
in their wilderness homes, and made His worship their first duty and their 
chief delight.

  They did not, as did the Puritans of New England, invoke the aid of the  
hot, iron, or of banishment, or of any corporeal torture, to take away from 
others that liberty of conscience which they had striven so hard to secure 
for themselves; the worst that can he alleged against them in this, 
direction is, that they practiced a mild form of prescription towards Roman 
Catholics, in deifying to them licenses for keeping public houses, and in 
similar petty annoyance, but beyond that, they did not go.

To-day, the descendants of those, steadfast pioneers are proud of that 
ancestry; and yet, how little is realized of the labor, privation, trials, 
and danger incurred by them in laying the foundation of all the plenty, 
comfort, and security which we now enjoy.

  It was, with those pioneers, one long attack against the obstinacy of 
nature, and a continual defence against tire active forces of savage 
hostility, When they cattle, to make for themselves new homes in those 
solitudes, their journeys were accomplished in a manner very different from 
that of travel at the present day.
___________________________________________________________________________

1 Now spelled Trexler.

2 For some years after the entrance of immigrants into this part of the 
county until the erection of these settlers were obliged to go as far as 
Tulpehocken for the grinding of their grain and the purpose of flour. 

3 In a letter written by William Penn, to the Free Society of Traders, in 
London, he thus speaks of the fish and fowl of the province:

Of living creatures fish, fowl, and the beasts of the wood, there are, 
divers sorts, some for food and profit and some for profit only. For food 
as well as profit, the elk, as big as a small ox, deer, bigger than ours, 
beaver, raccoon, rabbits, squirrels. Some eat young bear, and commend it. 
Of food of the land, there is the turkey, forty and fifty pound weight,
which is great, pheasants, heath birds, pigeons, and partridges in 
abundance. Of the water swans, goose-white and gray-brant, ducks, teals 
excel; nor so good have I ate in other counties.


36


  Now, even the poorest and most ignorant emigrants who leave their 
European homes, to settle in the western land of promise, cross the ocean 
in swift steamers, and are from them transferred to railway trains, which 
whirl them over mountains and rivers to fit(, places of their destination.


  But when the forefather, entered these woods, on railway, not, canal, nor 
stage roach lightened the toil of their migration. There was not so much as 
over which they could travel. Those who came up by way of the road lower 
settlements, of Bucks county, passed over the Indian "Minisink path," which 
reached the Lehigh at the mouth of Saucon, while those who ascended the 
Perkiomen Valley, and thence crossed the, ridges, had not so much as even a 
trail to guide them.

  The migratory journey was invariably a laborious one. Heads of families 
took the lead on foot, always with axe, and often with rifle, in hand, 
while the more helpless ones brought up the rear.

  There were no wagons in which to transport their worldly gear; sometimes 
they had pack-horses for this service, and sometimes they had no means of 
carrying their effects, except on their own broad shoulders; but even this 
perhaps was less laborious than it might, seem at first thought so few were 
the articles which went to make up the total of then, moveable property. 
When they reached streams of size, fords must be sought, for there were 
neither ferries nor bridges. At night, it was but a light shelter of 
boughs, a bivouac fire-kindled by flint and steel-for safety against wild 
beasts; a slender meal from such coarse supplies as they carried with them, 
a few fervent words in English, or in the guttural German, thinking the 
Father in Heaven for all his mercies through the day, and then that 
profound sleep, which severe toil and clear consciences were sure to bring.

  In the morning they were astir long before the first sunbeams shone
through their leafy screen, and, never neglecting to thank God for 
protection through the night, they soon resumed their way. Arrived at their 
destination, the first question which arose was that of shelter, of this 
there was one universal solution-the log cabin. To erect this, was 
comparatively an easy task, if there were two or more strong men of the 
party to lend mutual assistance; but if it was but -it single family, with 
only the fathers arm to depend on, then the labor was much more severe. 
Until this was completed, they sheltered themselves as best they could, 
behind trees or under shelving rocks. If it was summer, and the weather was 
fair, this was no very serious matter; but it there came cold, drenching, 
and long-confined rains, we can imagine how pitiable was the condition of 
these exiles; very many-probably most-of whom had been accustomed to 
comfortable homes.

The following is extracted from a letter written by a lady who, with her 
husband, settled in Allen township, in 1745. They were among the most 
respected of its inhabitants, and this is descriptive of a, portion of 
their journey thither, and the establishment of their home:

   "In crossing the mountain, night came upon us, the horses became 
frightened by wild beasts, and refused to proceed. We wrapped ourselves in 
our clocks and horse blankets, and attempted to get some rest, but had a 
disturbed night of it.

  "Panthers came near us often, giving terrific screams. The frightened 
horses snorted and stamped upon the rocks. Taking all early start in the 
morning, we soon came upon a settlers house, and were informed that we had 
stopped in a common resort of the panther. My husband built a, shanty, 
which was about ten feet square, flat-roofed, covered with split oak 
shingles; the floor was made of the halves of split logs, and had no 
chimney.  A blanket answered the purpose of a door for a while, until lie 
got time, to make it door of split planks. We needed no window: the light 
came in where the smoke went out. For chairs, we had benches made by 
splitting logs and setting the sections upon legs. A bedstead was made by 
boring holes in the sides of the shanty, inserting pieces of timber which 
rested upon two upright posts in front, a side, piece completing the 
structure; peeled basswood bark answering in place of a cord.

  "We, of course, had brought no bed with us, on horseback, so one had to 
be procured. We got a coarse bag, stuffed it with grass, and found it far 
better than no bed. Our journey was ended; and, while much hard work was 
still before its, a lifetime was given to do it in."

  Even after the cabin was logged in, the cold winds searched through and 
through it, until the interstices were chinked and plastered with mud; nor 
did it, for some time, furnish tiny shelter against the descending rain, 
until the settler could, by a slow and wearying process, cut and rive 
shingles for a roof which, after all, was seldom water-tight.

  The house was built somewhat in this wise; its walls were notched logs, 
and the openings between them were filled with smaller sticks and then
Plastered over with clay. Its chimney was of rudely-piled stones, or of 
sticks, plastered on the inside with mud. Its floors of split logs, with 
flat side up. Its apartments formed by blankets suspended from above. Its 
doors swung on wooden hinges, and its windows  (if it had any 
light-apertures at all) were formed of paper, well saturated with grease, 
in order to shed rain.

  Following the planting of the first settlements in Northampton-then the 
northern end of Bucks-the increase was considerably rapid. The wave of 
immigration rolled on towards the northwest, and those who had been the 
pioneers, were such no longer. The clearings spread, and the filled area 
grow rapidly with the increase of population. As neighbors established 
themselves, nearer and nearer to each other, mutual help was willingly 
given in the building of cabins, clearing of lands, fencing, and securing 
of crops. Those pioneer, who transformed the wilderness into cleared and 
productive lands, were generally fit, hardy and energetic class, all 
influenced by the same circumstance and motives, and by a sincere and 
hearty good-will towards each other. They acknowledged a common dependence 
and necessity of cooperation. All stood in need of the help of neighbors, 
and, whether living near together or widely separated, they cheerfully 
shared labor and promoted good feeling and hearty sociability.

  After the cabin had been reared, and the family was safely sheltered from 
cold and storm, then came the girdling and felling of trees-clearing. It 
was the custom for people, when living sufficiently near to each other, to 
give mutual assistance to get the log-heaps in place for burning, and, when 
all was ready, a log-rolling bee was held.

  Often the, settler, having spent the day at one of these gathering, 
passed the entire flight in kindling tip and keeping his own log heaps 
burning; thus the work was incessant, night and day, and the whole 
operation most severely laborious.

  It was customary, in winter, to chop a piece of ground to plant in corn 
then, when dry, in spring, fire would be set and the brush burned where it 
lay. If the fire swept the field, the ground was in good condition for it 
crop. The ground was fertilized by the ashes from the brush, the leaves, 
and matted roots. In the spring days, the woods were often dark with smoke, 
and lurid fires by night gave a wild and weird aspect to the scene. Here a 
dead and hollow tree blazed like a furnace from the top, and on the 
clearing might be seen freshly-kindled heaps in lively flame, and others 
smouldering in red coals, with intense heat.

  A sentiment which seemed universal among the pioneers, not only of 
Northampton, but of every new country, was enmity to forest trees. They 
were, regarded as the greatest enemies of progress (which with them meant 
clearing), and he who leveled the greatest number of these, was thought a 
hero and a public benefactor. They waged against these old forest giants, a 
vigorous and unrelenting warfare, which to them seemed almost a religious 
duty, but which to us, seems to have been much more like sacrilege.

  If the season, far advanced, did not admit of full clearing, then the 
various crops were planted irregularly among the blackened logs. If full 
clearing was accomplished, then came the breaking of the ground, and even 
this operation was performed by hand labor, for there were few ploughs, and 
yet fewer Learns of sufficient strength to break forrows through the tough 
root-bound sod.

  The first crop put in was mainly wheat, but usually a small portion of 
the clearing was devoted to maize, and there was always a small space 
planted with that royal esculent, the potato.

  When these crops were in, there was still no rest from unintermitting 
labor, for the work of clearing was never (lone; fences must be built, and 
more inexorable than all was the demand for daily food, a demand not easily 
met during the time that elapsed before the ripening of the crops; and if, 
by any mishap of drought or depredation, or untimely frosts, those crops 
should fail, then the settlers prospects were gloomy indeed.

  The abundance of wild game in the woods, however, and particularly the 
great numbers of fish which inhabited the streams, very materially 
lightened the, task of providing for the family of a fish so delicious and 
so highly prized as the shad, no less than six thousand were taken at a 
single haul upon the lower Delaware, and were, sold at a half-penny each 
among the inhabitants of the vicinity. This statement might seem an 
erroneous one, but for the fact that it was made by an authority as 
unimpeachable as William Penn himself.

  Although this occurred in the lower river, between Trenton and Bristol, 
yet the fish were abundant beyond all needs of the inhabitants, both in the 
upper Delaware and in the Lehigh.


37


  Wild pigeons too, at certain times in the year, were often so plenty that 
a hundred times as many might be killed as were required for food but
for these two sources of supply the struggle for existence there, and at 
that time would often have seemed hopeless. As it was, the fight was a hard 
and stern one, and presented an almost immeasurable contrast to the ease 
and abundance which are now shown on every hand, in the thriving towns, the 
handsome and substantial country homes, the full barns and granaries, and 
the "cattle upon a thousand hills," which bear evidence that the present 
generation in Northampton county have no practical knowledge of how their 
forefathers lived.

  Among those homesick dwellers in the wilderness, assistance was most 
freely tendered, and gladly accepted, at the bedside of the sick, and words 
of sweet consolation were spoken to mourners.

  None whose experience has been wholly confined to thickly-settled 
communities, call know how gladly and gratefully such help and consolation 
are received by lonely, isolated settlers ill their times of trouble, 
poverty, and affliction.

  Chronic diseases were then much less frequent than now; ail immunity, 
doubtless, due to their coarse, frugal diet, constant labor in the open 
air, and freedom from the wearing anxieties of ambition and avarice. But 
acute disorders were far more prevalent than they tire at tire present day. 
Agues and fevers, malignant sore threats and pleurisies were common, with 
many other like ailments, which are now comparatively infrequent.

  But of all diseases, small-pox was the most dreaded; and well it might 
be, for besides the isolation and terror which it brought in its train, its 
nature and proper treatment was a mystery, and death was its most frequent 
result.

  Medical attendance, of course, could not often be had; and when sickness 
fell upon wife or child, the well ones could do no more than look 
helplessly on, and ask from the Heavenly Physician, that succor which was 
accessible to them here.

  It may be maintained by some that to have no medicine at all, was better 
for them than to use too much, as we undoubtedly do at the present day
and the cases of extremely old people who, in the past, have lived and died 
in Northampton county-very notably those of George La Bar-father and son 
-who respectively attained the age, of one hundred and five and one hundred 
and eleven years are cited in support of the assertion  but, probably the 
wholesome air and general healthfulness of the region, added to the frugal 
habits of the ancestors, had much more influence in the production of the 
many cases of remarkable longevity which, it is well known, have existed 
here in spite of the lack of proper medical attendance in the early days.


                             CHAPTER XIV.

                  SOME ACCOUNT OF THE REDEMPTIONERS.

  FOR years succeeding the first settlements, the Germans steadily gained
on the English-speaking population, and their language acquired that 
ascendancy which it still retains in the county- the "Pennsylvania Dutch" 
dialect, being now much more frequently heard than English, in common 
conversation and in the transaction of business.

  Every vessel arriving at Philadelphia brought German passengers. Those 
who had come from the Palatinate and from many other parts of Germany in 
previous years, had been almost exclusively refugee-emigrants leaving their 
own country for the sole object of enjoyment of religious toleration -but 
now, at the period of which we write, the errand of the new-comers. was 
more frequently the improvement of their temporal condition. Very many of 
these went to the valley of the Schuylkill and of the Lehigh; the latter 
receiving its full share.

   Glowing accounts of the surpassing advantages to be realized in the new 
country were circulated in the Fatherland, by a class of conscienceless 
Germans 1 who had resided for a short time in this country, and who seemed 
to make it, their special business to spread these reports for the purpose 
of inflaming the minds of their untraveled and inexperienced countrymen, 
until they were induced to sacrifice their property in Europe, and abandon 
all their pleasant associations of family and country to try fortune in 
America. The mania, spread to all classes; people of moderate means, as 
well as those of more considerable wealth, who in Germany lived in 
profusion and comfort, left, all behind them, to seek the paradisiacal 
forest land of which they had heard so much; too often, upon their arrival 
here, to bewail, in bitter repentance, the ill-advised change which they 
had been so eager to make.

  They had exchanged their comfortable homes, their ties of kindred, and 
all the surroundings of easy and pleasant life, in the country where their 
childhood had been passed, and where lay the ashes of their fathers, for 
privation and hardship in a new and strange, land; and they learned, too 
late, the deception which had been practiced on them by designing sharpers, 
of their own nationality, who cooly lured them into the snare, in the hope 
of scouring advantage and profit to themselves.

  To many others, especially the poorer emigrants- very small farmers or 
tenants at home-the change often proved a stroke of fortune, and laid for 
them the foundation of a material prosperity which they never could have 
attained in the land which they had left. There is to-day, in Northampton 
county, many a wealthy farmer who can beast of his hundreds of broad and 
fertile acres, his, barns and granaries and cattle, and, perhaps, his 
certificates of stock in mine, or bank, or railroad, whose ancestors in old 
Germany, a hundred and forty years ago, were of the honest but impoverished 
class we have mentioned, who, by bold and timely emigration to the western 
kind, broke the bonds of indigence which otherwise might have held them and 
their descendants in perpetual thraldom.

  Thousands came, too, who had no pecuniary means whatever, Those
generally entered into contracts with the shipmasters, by the terms of 
which, in consideration of receiving passage to the New World, they allowed 
themselves, upon arrival, to be sold as servants to the highest bidder, for 
a  term of time sufficient to liquidate their indebtedness to the ship. 
This class of immigrants were called Redemptioners. 2 On their arrival in 
Philadelphia, they were exposed for sale, at auction, to the highest, 
bidder, for three or five years servitude whichever term might be found 
necessary to defray the expense of the passage. Ordinarily, the price, 
which they brought was ten pounds (equivalent, in the old money of the 
province of Pennsylvania, to $26.67), although, of course, the price paid 
for them varied, according to age and physical condition.

  The sales of these unfortunates were, chiefly leads, to the comparatively 
wealthy residents In the lower part, of the province, near Philadelphia; 
for they not only had more need of such service, but had also more ability 
to pay for it than had the squatters upon the small clearings farther in 
the interior.

  But after a time, when the market for these servants in the city and
vicinity became overstocked, and it was necessary to dispose of them at
places more remote from the point of disembarkation, then the auction
sales in Philadelphia grew less frequent; and there sprung up a class of
traders who made it their business to purchase the poor redemptioners, at
wholesale, at the seaport-in the same manner that inanimate merchandise
might have been bought -and then to march them to the more distant 
settlements, where they were sold to farmers, and others, as opportunity 
might offer. These traffickers in human flesh and blood, received the 
opprobious came of, "soul drivers" and were, held in contempt by the 
verdict of public opinion, which invariably espouses the cause of the weak 
and unfortunate, as against the oppressor however rich and powerful that 
oppressor may be, and however safely he only be entrenched against the. 
possibility of harm through the processes of law.

  For a considerable time the redemptioners attempted no evasion of the 
terms of their contracts with the shipmasters but tamely submitted to the 
sales, and then faithfully served out, the stipulated term of labor. 
Indeed, in their sturdy German honesty, no thought of two-fulfillment of 
promises made in good faith, seemed to have entered their minds. But after 
a time, when they came to be trooped through the country at the heels of 
the soul-driver; sold and bartered like sheep or cattle, they at last 
learned that evasion was not only possible, but easily to be accomplished, 
sustained in it as they were, by the opinion and sympathies of the 
community.

  Many instances were given of escape made by these bondsman from the 
clutches of the traders; and they were related from mouth to mouth, always, 
with exultation at the discomfiture of the soul-driver.

  In particular, there was told the story of one of them who was 
represented to have been more than ordinarily acute. He was being offered 
for sale through the upper portion of the county, and as he was the last of 
the gang remaining unsold, he, of course, traveled alone with his owner, 
and laid his plans accordingly. Arriving at a log tavern in the country, 
and managing to meet the landlord out of ear-shot of his companion, he very 
candidly told the former that he hall been disposing of a drove of 
redemptioners, of whom he had now only this one fellow left; and this being 
the case, he would be willing to part with him, at a price much below his 
real value; he being-as the pretended owner assured the purchaser-a strong, 
healthy, and active laborer, who would be invaluable in almost any kind of 
severe drudgery.

___________________________________________________________________________

1 These were known as "Neulaenders."

2 The first importation occurred about the year 1725. Many also came over 
in the years 1729, 1730, 1737, 1741 and 1750.


38


  He confessed, however, that he was decidedly inclined to be impudent not 
to say insubordinate; and moreover, was a most amazing liar; even sometimes 
going so far a to represent himself as a dealer and a gentleman of means.

  "But," he added, with a complimentary glance, which greatly flattered the 
landlord, "a man of your strength will soon cure him of that nonsense."

  This argument, it, conjunction with the inducement of the exceedingly low 
price demanded, closed the bargain. The money was paid, a bill of sale-
written in good fair German hand-was given to the purchaser, and then the 
redemptioner -who in this case had certainly accomplished his own redemption 
in a very clever manner-went on his way rejoicing; without even so much as 
waiting to judge of the landlords success with his new purchase, in 
illustrating the beauties of truth and proper subordination.

  These desertions became more and more frequent, until at last the 
occupation of the soul-driver was entirely gone, and the system died out; 
though there were occasional instances of its practice, until nearly, or 
quite the year 1785.

  No authentic knowledge can be had, of how many were held to service 
within the limits of Northampton county; though it is certain that some 
were brought here, It is said, and is doubtless true, that Colonel Jacob 
Stroud, afterwards the founder of the town of Stroudsburg, was one of this 
unfortunate class.

  The influx of the Teutonic element continued so great, that the agents; 
of the Proprietaries, and the government itself, viewed the situation with 
a jealous eye. It would have been very different if the First Proprietary 
had yet been living, for he had, during his life, shown great confidence in 
the sober-minded and honest Germans, and his feelings towards them were of 
the kindest.

  In a letter which he once wrote to James Logan, he informed him that many 
German Palatines were on their way to Pennsylvania; and he most especially 
charged him to "use them with tenderness and care, they being a sober 
people; divers Mennonites, and will neither swear nor fight. "This kindness 
and solicitude was entirely characteristic of the gentle William Penn.

  But the policy which he pursued towards them was entirely reversed by his 
successors. Concerning this, it is remarked by Day, that "the affectionate 
patriarchal relation which bad subsisted between Penn and his colony ceased 
with his death; the interest which his family took in the affairs of the 
province was more mercenary in its character, and looked less to the 
establishment of great and pure principles of life government. The widow, 
Hannah Penn, as executrix, laid the management of the Proprietary interest 
during the minority of the heirs, and, for many year, afterward, her Shrewd 
and powerful intellect was exerted in the appointment of governors, slid 
the direction of the affairs of the colony."

  The enmity of the (new) Proprietary interest had been awakened against 
the Germans, because they almost invariably acted in all political matters 
with the Friends, towards whom, since. William Penns death, his sons, their 
agents, and the government had assumed an attitude of antagonism, This 
hostility was intensified by the fact that the Quakers uniformly used every 
means within their power to circumvent the Schemes of indirection by which 
the Penns and their government now sought to dispossess the red man of his 
lands. This they did in flagrant disregard and Violation of the honest and 
Christian policy which their father always practiced and wished to have 
perpetuated.


                                   CHAPTER XV.

                              THE WALKING PURCHASE.

  THE Friends, aside from their inherent love of the principles of honesty 
and fair dealing, revered the memory of their dead patron, and did all that 
laid in their power to prevent his just and peaceful plans from being 
disregarded and set at naught by his successors. Hence they incurred the 
ill-will and strong hostility of the Proprietaries, and hence, also, they 
retained and strengthened the sincere friendship which the sons of the 
forest always cherished for the good Miquon, and his Quaker followers. 
Heckewelder, referring to this friendly feeling, says; "Several gentlemen 
in Philadelphia, especially those (by some called Quakers) humanely 
endeavored to render their situation more agreeable.

  "Indeed, this worthy class of citizens did, on all occasions, exert 
themselves in their behalf both in protecting them, as also in relieving 
wants. Oftentimes these Indians have been heard to say that during 
troubles, even the sight of a Quaker made them feel happy."

  The principal one among the questionable acts, by which the junior 
Proprietaries aroused the indignation and active hostility of the Indians, 
that notorious transaction known as the "Walking Purchase," which, the 
perhaps not so much of all outrage, theft, and unblushing fraud, as many of 
the chroniclers have represented it to be, yet was an acquisition of from 
the Indians, accomplished in a dark and questionable manner; one which 
produced, in the savage breast, an enmity, an intense feeling of 
resentment which was never wholly allayed, and which was the active and 
direct cause of the massacres, which during the succeeding years, cost so 
many human lives, and so much of agony and devastation to the people and 
settlements of Northampton county.

  The facts in this widely-celebrated transaction seem to have been these:
William Penn, being of course ignorant of the topography of the county
embraced in his charter boundaries, had, in the repurchases (if the term 
may be permitted), which from time to time he made from the natives, hour
such purchases by natural and well-known landmarks-where it was practicable 
to do so-such as the streams and hill ranges; but where such well-
defined natural boundaries could not be named, and where an actual sox
was out of the question-as was usually the case-he and his agents had
recourse to extremely vague descriptions, never thinking of the possibility
serious trouble ever being created thereby; for it had always been his 
intention and policy to extinguish all titles claimed by any Indians, 
whatsoever and as he, by this mode of procedure, never expected to make 
less than two purchases to cover each tract, and, indeed, preferred buying 
even three times over rather than expose his Pennsylvanian to the horrors 
of Indian war the exactness of the boundary descriptions was a thing of 
comparatively little moment, for, if the savages proved to be 
discontented-as they usually were-with the terms and specifications of the 
sale they had made, then easy-going Proprietary had but to call another  
"council," and make another payment of Indian goods; upon which the 
warriors and chiefs would depart satisfied for the time being.

  This plan seemed as easy and pleasant one enough; it was certainly better 
than the attempt to hold wild Indians to the strict letter of a written 
agreement, of the precise meaning of which they could always so easily 
plead a misunderstanding. But the good Miquon, seems to have forgotten that 
the time would Surely come when he could no longer be present to make 
purchases-overlapping those previously made-for the sake of peace; did he 
realize that his heirs and successors, might prove to be less just 
benevolent than himself; and so, in all the purchases which he made
the natives, he caused natural and well-defined boundaries to be named- 
such as the Neshaminy, the Pennypack, or the Delaware-in cases where such 
definite bounds were known; but where he was ignorant of the existence of 
any such, then he contented himself with more vague description which the 
lands conveyed would often be mentioned as "running northly as far as an 
horse can travel in two days!" and other similarly obscure term; such 
doubtfully defined distances being intended to be laid off at some future 
and more convenient time, which, however, never arrived, for it is not 
known that during his lifetime any of those indefinite distances were ever 
determined by actual measurement or travel.

  From among the, effects of Penn there was brought to light, long after 
his decease, a document purporting to be a true copy of a deed made August 
30th, 1686, by several Delaware chiefs to the original Proprietor, which is 
brief, called for a very large tract of land lying to the northward c 
Neshaminy purchase (the same which was made for Penn, by William Markham, 
in 1682), and extending from the upper line of that purchase northwardly" 
as far as a man can go in a day and a half;" and from that point thus to be 
determined eastwardly to the river Delaware.

  This document was endorsed: "Copy of the last Indian purchase." writers 
upon the subject who are most severe in their denunciation of they term the 
infamy of the transaction, speak of this paper as pretense sham, and they 
say it is wholly improbable that there ever was all, treaty made either in 
1686 or at any other time; that the document merely purported to be a copy 
of such deed, but that it bore no attestation or authenticity, and that 
even the endorsement upon it was made in unknown hand-certainly not that of 
Penn nor any of his agents or secretaries that it was only unearthed long 
after the death of all the pretended parties to the transaction; in short 
that it bore every indication of being superior and had evidently been 
manufactured attended fraud of the most shameless character, This is about 
the position assumed by those who were most emphatic in their condemnation 
of the Proprietaries action among the principal of whom was Charles 
Thompson, Esq., the first Secretary of Congress, who, in 1778, published a 
pamphlet entitled "An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the 
Indians," in which the subject is treated at length, and the conduct of the 
instigators of the "walking purchase" is most severely censured.


39


  On the other hand, it must be stated, in favor of the authenticity of the 
document, that a "Report of Council," made in 1758, on the subject of the 
grievances of the Indians, makes the statement that the copy of the deed at 
1686 was made in the handwriting of Philip Thlehuman, who was a well-known 
clerk, at that time holding position in the Land Office, and who died in 
the following year; also, that the endorsement upon it was in the hand of 
Thomas Holme, Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania, who, with William Markham, 
treated with the Delaware chiefs for the purchase of lands, including the 
Forks of the Delaware, at a time just previous to the date of the deed 
(1686), and that this last-mentioned circumstance is proved by entries in 
Markhams diary of that date.

  Whatever may have been the truth in the case, whether the copy was 
authentic or not, it was, in 1737, made the basis of a new deed 
confirmatory of that of 1686, the tenor of which new instrument was as 
follows: "August 25th, 1737.  We, Teshakomen, alias Tishekunk, and 
Nootamis, alias Nutimus, two of the sachems or chiefs of the Delaware 
Indians, having almost three years ago, at Durham, begun a treaty with out- 
honorable brethren, John and Thomas Penn, and from thence another meeting 
was appointed to be at Pennsbury the next spring following, to which we 
repaired, with Lappawinzoe and several others of the Delaware Indians, at, 
which treaty several deeds were produced and showed to us by our said 
brethren, concerning certain tracts of land which our forefathers had more 
than fifty years ago bargained and sold to our good friend and brother, 
William Penn, the father of the said John and Thomas, Penn, and in 
particular, one deed from Maykeerikkisho, Sayhoppy, and Taughaughsey, the 
chiefs or kings of the northern Indians on the Delaware, who, for did grant 
all those lands lying and being in the province of Pennsylvania; beginning 
Upon a line formerly laid out from a corner spruce tree by the river 
Delaware (Makeerikkitton), find from thence running along the ledge or foot 
of the mountains, west-northwest to a corner white oak, marked with the 
letter P, standing by the Indian path that leadeth to an Indian town called 
Playwirkey, and from thence extending westward to Neshamony Creek; from 
which said line, the said tract or tracts thereby granted, doth extend 
itself back into the woods as far as a man can go in one day and a half, 
and bounded on the westerly side with the creek called Neshamony, or the 
most westerly branch thereof, and from thence by a line - to the utmost 
extent of the said one day and it half's journey; and from thence to the 
aforesaid river Delaware; and from thence down the several courses of the 
said river to the first-mentioned spruce tree, etc But some of our old men 
being absent, we requested more time to consult with our people; which 
request being granted, we have, after more than two years, from the treaty 
at Pennsbury, now come to Philadelphia, together with our chief sachem, 
Monockykichan, and several of our old men. They then acknowledged that they 
were satisfied that the above described tract was granted by the persons 
above mentioned, and agree to release to the Proprietors all right to that 
tract, and desire it may be walked, traveled, or gone over, by persons 
appointed for that purpose.

  "(Signed) Monockykichan, Lappawinzoe, Teshakomen, Nootamis, and witnessed 
by twelve other Indians, in token of full and free consent, besides other 
witnesses.

  "Recorded May 8th, 1741, in book G, Vol. I, p. 282." -Smith's Laws.
Previous to the execution of this confirmatory deed (in the month of
 April, 1735), the Proprietaries had employed men to walk over the line for 
the purpose of ascertaining in advance how far the tract could be made to 
extend, and how much at the, best land could be embraced in it.

  John Chapman, a surveyor, and Timothy Smith, sheriff of Bucks county, 
were engaged to superintend the business, and to employ three persons, the 
best pedestrians to be found in all the country around, to perform the 
walk. These were to be accompanied by Smith and Chapman on horseback, with 
one or two assistants to carry supplies, and to help the walkers on their 
return. Those who performed the walk were promised a generous reward.

  The Penns were exceedingly anxious to have the matter finished before the 
conclusion of the treaty and agreement with the Indians, so that they might 
know precisely the boundaries for which it would be necessary to stipulate, 
in order to include the coveted lands. John Steel, Esq., Penn's receiver-
general wrote to Sheriff Smith on the 25th of April saying:

  "The Proprietaries are, impatient to know what progress is made in 
traveling over the land that is to be settled in the ensuing treaty that is 
to be held with the Indians, at Pennsbury, on the fifth day of the next 
month, and, therefore, I now desire thee, without delay, to send down an 
account of what has been done in that affair." And again, a few days later, 
he addressed another letter to Chapman and Smith: "The Proprietaries are 
very much concerned that so much time hath been lost before you begin the 
work recommended so earnestly at your leaving Philadelphia, and it being so 
very short before the meeting at Pennsbury, the fifth of next month, that 
they now desire that, upon the return of Joseph Doane, he, together with 
two other persons, who can travel well, should be immediately sent, on 
foot, on the day and a half journey, and two others, on horseback, to carry 
the necessary provisions for them, and to assist them in their return home. 
The time is now so far spent that not one moment is to be lost; and as soon 
as they have traveled the day and a half journey, the Proprietaries desire. 
that a messenger may be sent to give them account, without any delay, how 
far that day and a half traveling will reach tip the country."

  This last letter, however, did not reach Chapman until after the walk 
had been completed, which was on the 1st of May, the start having been made 
on the 22d of April.

  It would appear that the result of this experiment was satisfactory to 
the Proprietaries, for they procured, from the Indians, the confirmation of 
the limits mentioned in 1686, with the day and it half journey measurement, 
as we have seen.

  Immediately upon the conclusion of the treaty, and the confirmation of 
the land transaction, Penns agents at once made known their desire to 
engage the services of the most rapid and enduring walkers in the province: 
and Receiver-General Steel directed Timothy Smith, "in the Battle of our 
Proprietor, to speak to that man of the three, which traveled and held out 
the best, when they walked over the land before, to attend that service, at 
the time mentioned, when Solomon Jennings is expected to join and travel 
the day and a half with him."

  By the terms of the treaty, the decisive walk was to commence on the 
12th of September, 1737; but as the Bucks county courts, both Supreme and 
Quarter Sessions, would be then sitting and as it would be necessary for 
Chapman, and also for Sheriff Smith to be present, the day of the setting 
out on the walk was changed from the 12th to the 19th of the same mouth; 
and Edward Marshall, James Yeates, and Solomon Jennings, bad been selected 
as the champions of the walk.

  The point from which the start was to be made, was a large Chestnut tree, 
that stood in the corner of a field where the road from Pennsville joins 
the Durham road, and but a short distance from the Wrightstown 
meeting-house. This tree was selected as the starting-point, on account of 
its size and prominence, as well as because it stood on, or very near, the 
north line of the Markham or Neshaminy purchase of 1682.

  Not only John Chapman and Timothy Smith, but Thomas Furniss and several 
others were there on horseback, to accompany the party; and three Delawares 
also were to go, as representatives of their people, and to see that no 
unfairness was practiced against the interests of the Indians.

  The party had assembled at the designated spot, before sunrise on the day 
named. The three athletes-the most observed of all-stood, with their 
extended hand laid on the trunk of the old chestnut, waiting far the 
starting signal, which was given by the toaster of ceremonies-Sheriff 
Smith-precisely at sunrise.

Off they went, Yeates, with a remarkably elastic step, leading, He was 
followed, not far behind, by Jennings and the three, Indian delegates, who 
loped beside him; and lastly came the lithe young hunter, Edward Marshall, 
wearing Indian moccasins and carrying a hatchet in his hand. He was far in 
the rear of the others, and yet accrued nowise in a hurry, but walked with 
a swinging, careless step, entirely different from the spurting, excited 
gait of the other two; husbanding his strength and powers of endurance for 
the long, toilsome stretch which, he well knew, would tax them to their 
utmost.

  Their course was guided by the compass, the first direction taken being 
north thirty-four degrees west; and they kept on a straight line, whenever 
it was possible to do so, regardless of all minor obstructions. A part of 
their route, however, lay directly up the old Durham "road," which, at that 
time, was a road in little else but the name. Diligently, Yeates and 
Marshall kept at their work, showing no sign of weariness; and, before 
twelve o'clock, they had reached an inviting-looking glade, where a halt 
was called for dinner. This was on the premises of one Wilson, an Indian 
trader, on Durham Creek.


40


  They spent but a short time at the meal, and soon again pushed resolutely
on, though considerably to the disgust of the Indian escort, who thought it 
would he proper to consume wore time in smoking, shooting, or lolling upon 
the ground.

  The party crossed the Lehigh, at a beautiful island, a mile below the
present site of Bethlehem. Here Solomon Jennings left them; he had 
abandoned the contest an hour or two before the halt was made for dinner, 
and afterwards only kept on, in the rear of the company, as one of the 
spectators, not intending to pass the Lehigh, but to go to his home, which 
was near the river, bank, two or three miles above the point of their 
crossing.

  From the Lehigh they passed on in the same general direction, and made
no halt of more than a few minutes between the river and the mountain
gap, through which their path lay. The Indians, who started with them,
had fallen out and left them hours before, being both exhausted with 
fatigue, and greatly incensed at what they professed to consider the 
unfairness of the manner in which the walk was made, and when they dropped 
out from the walking party, they did so with many expressions of 
indignation at the fraud which they said Penn was practicing upon their 
people.

  At the gap (now in Moore township), the travelers found a number of 
Indians awaiting them. These Indians were amazed to see that, such a 
distance had been made by the white men in a day, for they had believed 
that this point would be the end of the one-and-a-half days journey, and 
they thought that, at any rate, the whites, although arriving so long 
before the specified time, would rest there, and declare it to be the end 
of the walk, and the boundary of the purchase.

  But no such thing was in the minds of the white men. They passed right on 
through the gap; the time for their night halt, not having yet quite 
arrived, By this time all were excessively fatigued, and when, a short time 
later, Sheriff Smith called time, and ordered the walking to cease for the 
day, both Marshall and Yeates sink on the ground in utter exhaustion. They 
passed the night at the north base of the mountain, and slept under the 
open canopy of heaven.

  The Indians, at the gap, when they found that the party did not intend to 
stop at the mountain, were in it state of great dissatisfaction, and 
withdrawing to a place a little way from the bivouac of the walking party, 
they made the whole night ring with their yells and howls of rage.

  In the morning, they again set out, at sunrise, but had gone only a 
little distance when Yeates gave out and fell in a creek, in a state of 
complete prostration, and quite blind. It was his last walk, for he lived 
but three days after that fatal morning.

  Marshall continued to walk with apparent strength and vigor until noon, 
and when Smith announced the completion of the time, he struck his hatchet 
into a small sapling, one of a cluster of five chestnut oaks, which marked 
the northwesterly bound of the famous walking purchase.

  Among the spectators, who accompanied this famous expedition, was Thomas 
Furniss, a young saddler of Newtown, who had learned what was in 
contemplation through Yeates, and being charmed with the novelty of the 
thing, and with the idea of, escaping for two or three days from the 
confinement of his shop, and taking a romantic trip into the wilderness, 
under such seductive and exciting circumstances, he mounted a horse, and 
followed with the party. The following is the way in which he narrates the 
incidents of the journey:

  "At the time of the walk I was a dweller of Newton, and a near neighbor 
to James Yeates. My situation gave him an easy opportunity of acquainting 
me. with the time of setting out, as it did me of hearing the different 
sentiments of the neighborhood concerning the walk; some alleging it
was to be made by the river, others, that it was to be gone upon a straight
line from somewhere, in Wrightstown, opposite to a spruce tree, on the 
river bank, said to be a boundary to a former purchase. When the walkers
started I was a little behind, but was informed they proceeded from a 
chestnut tree, near the turning out of the road, from Durham road to John 
Chapman's and being on horseback, overtook them before they reached 
Buckingham, and kept company for some distance beyond the Blue Mountains,
though not quite to the end of the journey. Two Indians attended, whom
I considered as deputies appointed by the Delaware nation, to see the walk
honestly performed, one of them repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction
therewith. The first day of the walk before we reached Durham Creek,
where we dined in  the meadow of one Wilson, an Indian trader, the Indian
said the walk was to have been made in the river, and complaining of the
unfitness of his shoepacks for traveling, said he expected Thomas Penn
would have made him a present of some shoes. After this, some of us, that
had horses walked, and let the Indians ride, by turns; yet in the afternoon 
of the same day, and some hours before sunset, the Indians left us having 
often called to Marshall that afternoon and forbid him to run, At parting 
they appeared dissatisfied, and said they would go no further with us, for 
as they saw the walkers, would pass all the good land, they did not care 
how far or where we went to.

  "It was said we traveled twelve hours the first day, and it being the end 
of September, or beginning of October, to complete the time were obliged to 
walk in the twilight. Timothy Smith, then Sheriff of Bucks held his watch 
for some minutes before we stopped, and the walkers having a piece of 
rising ground to ascend, he called out to them, telling the minutes behind, 
and bid them pull up; which they did so briskly, that immediately upon his 
saying the time was up, Marshall clasped his arms about a sapling to 
support himself. Thereupon, the sheriff asked him what was the matter, he 
said he was almost gone, and that, if he had proceeded a few poles further 
he would have fallen. We lodged in the woods that night, and heard the 
shouting of the Indians at a cantico which they were said to hold that 
evening in a town hard by. Next morning, the Indians were sent for  to know 
if they would accompany us any further; but they declined it, although I 
believe some, of them came to us before we started, and drank a dram in 
company, and then straggled off about their hunting or some other 
amusement.

  "In our return we came through this Indian town plantation-Timothy Smith 
and myself riding some forty yards, more or less, before the company-and as 
we approached within about line hundred and fifty fares the town, the woods 
being open, we saw an Indian take a gun in his hand and advance towards us 
some distance, placed himself behind a log that laid in our way.
 
  "Timothy observing his motions, and being somewhat surprised as I 
apprehended, looked at me and asked what I supposed that Indian meant I 
said hoped no harm, and that I thought it best to keep on; which Indian 
seeing, he arose and walked before us into the settlement, I think Smith 
was surprised, as I well remember, I was through a consciousness that 
Indians were dissatisfied with the walk, a thing the whole company seem to 
be sensible of, and upon the way in our return home, frequently expressed 
themselves to that purpose.

  "And, indeed, the unfairness practiced in the walk, both in regard to way 
where, and the manner how it was performed, and the dissatisfaction the 
Indians concerning it, were the common subjects of conversation in 
neighborhood for some considerable time after it was done. When the walk 
was performed I was a young man in the prime of life.  The novelty of thing 
inclined me to, be a spectator, and as I had been brought up most my time 
in Burlington, the whole transaction to me was a series of occurrences 
almost entirely new, and which, therefore, I apprehend, made more strong 
laid lasting impression on my memory."

  The distance from the starting point is said to have been sixty-one-a 
quarter miles, and the different courses and distances of the line are 
preserved in an old memorandum (presumably correct) as follows:

                       Course No. 1-N 34           W.13 7/8   mile
                       Course No. 2-N 19           W.14 3/4   mile
                       Course No. 3-N 37           W.14 7/8   mile
                       Course No. 4-N 66           W. 3 1/4   mile
                       Course No. 5-N 31           W. 8 1/2   mile
                       Course No. 6-N 35 30'       W. 8       mile
                       Course No. 7-N 30           W. 9       mile
                                                     ______________
                                            
                                            Total    61 1/4    miles [sic]


  The Indians, however, declared that the distance was fully eight miles, 
and of course, could not be convinced to the contrary. And now that the 
northwestern boundary of the purchase was established, there still remained
the running of the line from thence to the Delaware river; and this was the 
cause of as much ill-feeling as was the one-and-a-half day's walk; for the 
Indians insisted that it should be run so as to strike the river at the 
nearest point, where it could be reached (which would have been somewhere 
in the township of Mount Bethel), but the Proprietaries agents very 
naturally claimed that it should be run at a right angle to the line of the 
walk; this was done by Benjamin Eastburn, the Surveyor-General.  This, line 
was so long that it required four days time to walk over it. It struck the 
Delaware, near Lackawaxen, and traversed a very barren and uninviting 
country though it passed above, and included, the rich lands of the 
Minisink.


41


  In their loud denunciations of what they called the rascality of the 
white man the Indians were-it must be admitted-encouraged and support by 
the Quakers, who professed to think that the natives had been most 
shamefully swindled, and they were not by any means, backward, in so 
expressing themselves to the Indians; thus inflaming the passions of the 
red men still more, and inducing them to believe that the Quakers were the 
only white people who were not their enemies.

  That the motives of the Friends in this course of procedure, were wholly 
free from a tincture of selfishness, is somewhat doubtful; they were, it 
was well known, entirely antagonistical to the Proprietary interest, in 
which the walking purchase was made, and they might very probably have 
wished to tender them odious; particularly so, as at the saline time they 
could establish for themselves, the reputation of being the disinterested 
champions of right and justice toward the savages, and their especial 
guardians against fraud and wrong.

  At this distant day, it is not easy to arrive at a satisfactory 
conclusion as to the right or wrong of the manner in which the purchase was 
made, and its, boundaries determined. To the eyes of some it has appeared 
in a light which reflected nothing but duplicity and unfairness, on the 
part of the Proprietaries and their agents, while others have regarded 
their acts with far more leniency. In the interest of the last-named view 
it may be said, without fear of successful contradiction, that as regards 
the charge made by Thompson, and others, that advantage was taken of the 
Indians, by the preliminary walk which was ordered by the Proprietaries, it 
is a most absurd one, for it was an act which could, not have been kept a 
secret from the keen-eyed savages, it such a thing were intended; but that 
it was not intended, is made clear, by the fact that the party which made 
the experimental walk took pains to "blaze" the trees throughout the entire 
route, which disproves the charge of attempted secrecy.  It is plain, from 
this fact alone, that they rather published than concealed the transaction, 
and that they furnished, to the Indians, the means of ascertaining just 
what they are charged with having tried to prevent them from knowing, viz.: 
the extent of a day and a half's walk, made by white men. And it should be 
remembered that this preliminary walk was made in 1735-two years before the 
deed was given confirmatory of the walking purchase of 1686-and, that, 
during all that two years, they left the blazed path open to the scrutiny 
and experiment of all-Indians or whites-who might wish to avail themselves 
of it.

  More than this; the statement was made by John Watson, the elder (and 
there is no reason whatever to doubt his words), that forty-five years 
before the official walk was made, an Indian and a white man had walked the 
route privately-that is, without the knowledge of William Penn or of his 
agents. Below is given that portion of Mr. Watson's statement which refers 
to the private walk:
 
  "In the year 1692, a white man living at Newtown, and Cornelius Spring, a 
Delaware Indian, accompanied by several Indians and white, people, 
undertook and performed the walk in the Indian manner; but by whose 
authority, or by whose direction, is not now known, They started from a 
spruce tree, and walked up the river; the Indians jumped over all the 
streams of water until they came to the Tohickon, which they positively 
refused to cross, and therefore, they proceeded up the creek, on the south 
side, to its source, and then turning to the left, they fell in with Swamp 
Creek, and going down it a small distance, it, was noon on the second day, 
or it day and a half, from the time of setting out.  To close the survey, 
it was proposed to go from there to the source of the west branch of the 
Neshaminah-so called-thence down the creek to the west corner of the first 
purchase, and thence to the spruce tree, the place of the beginning. These 
bounds would have included a tract of land larger than the first purchase, 
and, no doubt, would have been satisfactory to the Indians. It does not 
appear to have been a final settlement, or that anything was done relative 
to the subject, except talk about it, for forty-three years, in which time 
a large tract was sold to a company at Durham; a furnace and forge was 
erected there, and numerous scattered settlements made on the frontiers, as 
far back as the Lehigh hills. The chief settlements of the Indians, at the 
time, were in the Forks of the Delaware and Lehigh, below and beyond the 
Blue Mountains. But, in the summer season, many families migrated in their 
way, and cabined among the white people, in different places, its far down 
as Penusbury manor, where they long retained a permanent residence on 
sufferance; and although a general harmony subsisted between the natives 
and the white people, yet they showed a dislike to the surveys and 
settlement-, that were every year extending further back in the woods, and, 
as they presumed, far beyond the proper limits of the land they had sold."

  Do not these facts fairly and effectually dispose of the charge that the 
white purchasers wilfully and cunningly befogged the Indian mind as to the 
result-as effecting their interest-of establishing the boundary in the 
manner stipulated for by the terms of the deed? Then, as to the fairness or 
fraud of the walk: it was a fair agreement, which the Indians deliberately 
ratified-not hurriedly and without due consideration, but after 
deliberating on the matter, arid referring it, again and again, to their 
people, through a term of more than two years-and by the terms of that 
agreement it was agreed, in the plainest possible terms, that the 
northwestern corner should be determined by starting from it given 
point-which point was not, in the least degree, a matter of disagreement 
between file contracting parties-and proceeding thence, such a distance as 
a man call go in one day and a half... The sellers expected that it should 
be a day and a half of lounging by the way, stopping to shoot game, to 
smoke, and to drink fire-water, of which they wished to have a plentiful 
supply carried along; and by this process they argued, and argued 
correctly, that the day and a half walk would not have carried the boundary 
far enough to include the good lands which they were so desirous of 
retaining. But the purchasers regarded the matter differently, It was a 
plain business transaction, and, although it must be admitted, that they 
were careful to secure to themselves all the advantages to which the deed 
entitled them, it seems hard to show that they did more. They engaged those 
whom they believed to be the best and most enduring pedestrians, and they 
instructed these to attend to the business they had in hand, and not to 
dally and smoke and tipple by the way, and two of the men strictly observed 
these directions. Surely there was no fraud nor wrong in this!

  As to the running of the head-line, from the northwest corner bound to 
the river, there seems to have been no precise description of the course to 
be run; "thence to the Delaware," is indefinite.  The Indians asked for all 
acute angle, so as to strike the river at its nearest point, while the 
Proprietaries surveyor claimed a right angle, which would include the 
Minisinks in the purchase.

  It was accordingly run at a right angle-the white man had his way, and 
the Indian nourished his dissatisfaction until it became in his mind a 
conviction that deadly wrong and outrage had been perpetrated on him.

  There is no doubt that the Indians honestly believed that they had been 
betrayed, but the proprietaries (no matter how clearly they may have 
fulfilled the letter of file agreement), when they ascertained that, this 
was the feeling which they entertained, might easily have allayed their 
resentment-as their father would have done had he been alive-by another 
council, and the payment of a low more Indian goods, which would have been 
an easy and cheap way of preventing all the evil consequences, which 
followed: the massacres and burnings, and untold cruelties which these 
savages, a few years, later, inflicted upon the defenceless settlers of 
this and the neighboring region.

   But if the Proprietaries, who received the benefit of whatever wrong 
there was done in the walking purchase, were to be blamed that they did not 
take means to pacify the ignorant warriors, who were smarting under a sense 
of outrage-whether real or fancied-is there not still more blame to be laid 
to the charge of those-even though they might be, peace-loving Quakers-who, 
through their ill-advised course in fanning the Indian discontent until it 
broke out  into the consuming fire of hatred and revenge, became, in some 
degree at least, accessory to the atrocities which, in 1735, and later, 
spread such woe and terror through all Northampton county?

  Edward Marshall, the champion of the great Indian walk, was twenty-seven 
years old at the time of that performance, he having been born at 
Bustleton, in the county of Philadelphia, in the year 1710. His vocation 
was that of hunter and trapper, and he desired no other. In the pursuit of 
this, be traversed the country from the Forks of the Delaware, across the 
North and West Branches of the Susquehanna to the Alleghenies, Many were 
the bounties which he received from year to year from the county 
authorities for wolf scalps; and it was said that with a single rifle, 
which he carried for many years, and which is still in existence, he killed 
thirteen bundled deer, nearly as many wolves, and great numbers of other 
animals. The old long gun, too, in his hands, sent the messenger of death 
to many a red warrior, for Marshall was always their deadly enemy, but more 
particularly was he such after the attack on his: house and the murder of 
his wife and two children, during his absence from home, about the year 
1756. He was then living near the town of Stroudsburg. After this, his 
house was attacked again in his absence, but his housekeeper, Elizabeth 
Meaze, defended herself and the children; file elder boy loading the rifle 
for Miss Meaze, who held her post bravely till Marshall returned. It is 
probable that he greatly admired the qualities which she displayed upon 
that occasion, for he married her, and by her had eight children. By his 
first wife he had been the father of thirteen.


42


  After a time, he removed from his place near Stroudsburg to Marshall's
Island in the Delaware where he died November 7th 1789 at the age of 
seventy-nine years.

  James Yeates, who failed and fell from exhaustion and blindness, at the
creek just north of the mountain, on the morning of the second day, was a
New Englander by birth, and was then a resident of Newtown, Bucks county. 
He left his home in the early dawn of that bright September morning, full 
of life and Strength and hope; but he never saw home nor family again.

  Of Solomon Jennings, it was said that the cause of his abandonment of the 
walk, in less than five hours from the time when he so gaily set out from 
the chestnut tree, was too free indulgence in the treacherous turn. Such 
tales, however, are not always true, and at this distance of time, no one 
can say with certainty whether this was or was not a slander upon Solomon, 
he was a public-spirited man, and held several offices; among them, that of 
county commissioner, in 1755. He lived on what is known as the Geisinger 
farm, near Bethlehem, at the time of the walk. His health was permanently 
injured on that occasion, though be lived twenty years longer, and died 
February 15th, 1757.