Northampton County PA Archives History - Books .....The Indian Walk 1920 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 12, 2008, 8:29 pm Book Title: History Of Northampton County CHAPTER IV THE INDIAN WALK William Penn, when he met representatives of the Indians of the neighboring tribes under that famous wide-spreading elm, concluded a treaty with them for the purchase of their lands. There is no written record of this treaty extant; it seems to be an ineradicable tradition among both races. It was, however, to be an everlasting covenant of peace between the whites and the Indians. Penn says: "We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. I will not call you children, for parents sometimes chide their children too severely; not brothers only, for brothers differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain, for the rains might rust, or a falling tree break. We are the same as if one man's body was to be divided into two parts; we are all one flesh and blood." He then distributed to their chiefs presents, and received from their hands a belt of wampum, an official pledge of their fidelity. The Indians, in replying to Penn's speech, said: "We will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the sun and moon shall endure." Unfortunately, William Penn could not live for all time; the last years of his life were embittered by financial troubles and ill health, and in the early part of the eighteenth century he transferred his proprietary rights to the Crown, and other men lacking his humanitarian principles were to control the destinies of Pennsylvania. Other treaties were made with the Indians in which graft, selfishness and avarice predominated. One of the most questionable acts was called the "Walking Purchase." Penn, in his purchases, not being familiar with the topography of the country, boundaries were described by water courses and hill ranges; the Indian deeds, however, gave only vague descriptions of the lands conveyed; in some instances the boundaries were accepted "running northwardly as far as a horse can travel in two days." and other similar obscure terms. These discrepancies were the cause in 1737 of a new deed made by Thomas Penn to strengthen the titles of the lands previous to its execution. A preliminary trial was made by the proprietaries of a day and a half travel for two men, who were accompanied by two others on horseback with supplies. This test proving satisfactory to the proprietaries, two years and four months after this, an experimental walk was made, the leading object of which was to ascertain how far the walk might extend into the country. A deed was executed by the Indians at Philadelphia in August, 1737, in the presence of Thomas Penn. There were present at this meeting a number of Indians, among whom were Lapawinzo, Nutimus and Tiscohan. The proprietaries in the trial walk desired that it should extend far enough so by drawing a line at right angle it would embrace all the desirable lands above the Delaware river, even as far as the mouth of the Lackawanna, as the Penns had sold as early as 1728 to William Allen and others thousands of acres of land without any regard to honor, justice or the rights of the Indians, and even without their knowledge and consent. There were no records of affidavits to indicate the proper direction of the walkers, nor were there any roads and paths; the trees were blazed seven or eight miles beyond the Lehigh Gap, and without doubt to a distance beyond. By the terms of the treaty with the Indians the decisive walk was to commence September 12, 1737, but the date was afterwards changed that it should take place between the twelfth and nineteenth of that month. The starting point was a large chestnut tree that stood in the corner of a field where the road from Pennsville joined the Durham road at a short distance from the Wrightstown meeting-house. The walkers engaged were Edward Marshall, James Yeates and Solomon Jennings, who were accompanied by several whites on horseback and three Delaware Indians. The walkers had been selected for their athletic and healthy condition; they were noted woodsmen and hunters. The course was guided by the compass, the first direction being north thirty-four degrees west, thence on a straight line, when it was possible to do so, regardless of all minor obstructions. The party crossed the Lehigh river a mile below the present site of Bethlehem, the Indians having been led to believe that the walk would not extend beyond this point; here Solomon Jennings retired from the party. From the Lehigh they passed in the same direction between the river and the mountain gap. Their Indian companions had dropped out from fatigue, but at the gap now in Moore township they were met by a party of Indians who were amazed at the progress made by the whites in one day, as they expected that this point would be the terminus of the day and a half walk. They expected the whites would rest there, and also declare it to be the end of the walk and the boundary of the purchase. This was, however, far from the minds of the white men; they passed through the gap and slept for the night at the north base of the mountain. The Indians at the gap, with their yells and howls of rage on account of their great dissatisfaction, made the night hideous. The following morning at sunrise the walk was resumed. Yeates, after going a little distance, fell in a creek in a state of complete prostration and quite blind. Marshall continued the walk with apparent strength and vigor until noon, when Timothy Smith, the authorized agent of the Penns, struck his hatchet in a small sapling, one of a cluster of oak trees, which marked the northwesterly bounds of the famous walking purchase. The distance from the starting point is said to have been sixty and one-quarter miles, though the Indians claimed it was fully eighty miles. This established the northwestern boundary of the purchase; there was still, however, the running of the line to the Delaware river. The Indians insisted that it should strike the river at the nearest point, which would have been somewhere in the township of Mount Bethel, but the proprietaries' agents claimed it should be run at a right angle, and this was done by Benjamin Eastman, the Surveyor General. It passed through a barren and uninviting country, but included the rich lands of the Minisinks. The Indians were loud in their denunciations of the rascality of the whites, and were encouraged and supported by the Quakers, who professed to think that the natives had been shamefully swindled; they were not backward in expressing their sentiments, which inflamed the passions of the red men, and led them to believe that the Quakers were the only white men who were not their enemies. The Quakers were not, however, wholly free from the tincture of selfishness; they were antagonistic to the proprietaries' interests, and wished to establish the reputation of disinterested champions of right and justice to the savages, and their special guardians against fraud and wrong. There is no doubt the Indians honestly believed they had been betrayed, but the facts lead us to believe that there was no intention on the part of the whites to demand only what their deed called for. The blaze path made in 1735 was opened for inspection for either the Indians or the whites for over two years before the deed was given confirming the walking purchase. That the Indians did not avail themselves of the opportunity thus offered is no reflection on the whites. The proprietaries' surveyor had his way in running the line at right angle to the Delaware river instead of an acute angle which the Indians desired, and in nourishing their dissatisfaction the latter became convinced that a deadly outrage and wrong had been perpetrated on them. The proprietaries who had received the benefit of whatever wrong was done did not take any means to pacify the ignorant warriors, and whether their wrongs were real or fancied the Indians' discontent broke out into the consuming fire of hatred and revenge which in some degree became accessory to the atrocities which, in 1755 and later, spread woe and terror throughout Northampton county. The result of the famous Indian Walk is briefly summarized. It was the fortune of William Penn, in the formation of his colony, to have dealings with the gentlest natives and endowed with the noblest traits of all those found inhabiting the eastern portion of the present United States. Without peace, Penn well knew that his interests must suffer and seriously intercfere in the disposal of lands to actual settlers and the peopling of his colony. He knew the power he possessed and he meant to keep it; consequently he purchased land in his own manner as best suited himself. This accounts for the vagueness of the deeds and the trivial nature of the many articles paid as purchase money. There is no evidence that during William Penn's day there was any dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians in regard to these purchases; they were easy to deal with and entertained every confidence. To substantiate other purchases, walks had been made, the Indians' and Penn's representatives proceeding in a leisure manner, chatting, resting for refreshments, and to smoke, generally covering from twenty to thirty miles a day. The Indians did not value the lands south of the Blue Mountains very highly. Their favorite hunting grounds at that time were in the Minisink country, or the valley north of that mountain, extending from the Wind Gap into the province of New York near the Hudson river. In taking the rectangular line to the Delaware river from the terminus of the walk, the favorite hunting grounds of the Indians were swooped into the Penn colony. A straight line would have reached the river at the Water Gap in less than a day's travel, while the rectangular line terminated at Lackawaxen, now in Pike county, which took four days to reach. Previous to the walk the settlers of Penn's colony had dwelt together in peace with the Indians. The kindness of William Penn created a corresponding spirit in them which lasted through many years; but after the father of the colony was gone, the white man's treachery revealed itself, stirred up the savage nature of the red man, and many an innocent mother and child paid the penalty with their lives. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Northampton County [PENNSYLVANIA] and The Grand Valley of the Lehigh Under Supervision and Revision of WILLIAM J. HELLER Assisted by AN ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS VOLUME I 1920 THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY HOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/pafiles/ File size: 11.1 Kb