Northampton County PA Archives History - Books .....The Pennamite War 1920
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   Book Title: History Of Northampton County
   
   CHAPTER XI 
   THE PENNAMITE WAR
   
       The scene of this conflict between the Pennsylvania and Connecticut
   authorities, though not within the present limits of Northampton county, was, at
   the time of its occurrence, in the confines of the newly organized county. The
   contestants were descended from Connecticut Puritanism. There had been engrafted
   upon Puritanism in America a new idea and source of power progressivencss.
   Connecticut was its first exemplar, and led the new advance. There was a great
   westward pressure in creating new settlements in the latter part of the
   seventeenth century, and as early as 1680 Connecticut had sent offshots of
   population into New Jersey and lower Pennsylvania, as well as into some
   continguous territory.
   
       Connecticut's charter had been granted by Charles II in 1662, and like all
   of the earlier charters of that day was ambiguous in regard to boundary lines.
   It clearly conveyed to that colony, besides the present state boundaries, all of
   the land west of it to the extent of is breadth, from sea to sea, or "to the
   South Sea." This would have brought Connecticut's western extension nearly quite
   down to the 41st degree of north latitude, or almost to the Delaware Water Gap.
   
       The charter granted to Pennsylvania by the same sovereign nineteen years
   afterwards extended through the 42d degree of north latitude, or to the
   beginning of the 43d degree of north latitude, thus overlapping by one degree
   the grant made to Connecticut. The attorney of the Crown, Sir William Jones, in
   reporting to Charles II on the patent desired by William Penn, stated that it
   seemed to be undisposed lands except the imaginary lines of New England patents,
   which, on their westwardly boundaries to the main ocean, gave them a real though
   impracticable right to all of those vast territories. Thus the seed of strife of
   the Pennamite war was sown far away in the mother country. The peace-loving
   Quaker colony's territorial boundaries had been assaulted on all sides. Maryland
   and Virginia had endeavored to despoil her on the south, and New York and even
   New Jersey had sought to secure a fraction of her dominion; however, their
   efforts were all brief, bloodless and without results. Thus there was nothing
   new in Connecticut's purpose regarding the invasion of Pennsylvania. It was
   merely a manifestation of an old-time tendency turned in a new direction, and
   was more carefully planned and very much more pertinaciously prosecuted. In her
   early dreams of territorial expansion, Connecticut was obliged by certain
   conditions in her charter to pass over the lovely valley of the Hudson and other
   New York territory which, no doubt, caused her acquisitive people a sharp pang
   of regret; but, curiously enough, she did not let this interruption of her claim
   bar her from seizure of the lands still farther west.
   
       It was on February 8, 1754, that William Parsons notified Governor Hamilton
   that he had been informed on undisputed authority that three gentlemen-like men
   had visited the Wyoming valley and viewed the lands on the Susquehanna river,
   and had given out that the lands were within the boundaries of the charter of
   Connecticut, and they intended the following spring to settle a considerable
   number of families on the tract, and invited the present settlers to accept
   titles under the government of Connecticut for part of these lands. Previous to
   this, however, as early as the summer of 1750, spies had been sent out by
   Connecticut parties to view the virginal valley of Wyoming. Three years later
   the Susquehanna Company was formed, consisting of 840 persons, afterwards
   augmented to 1,200, and it proposed to occupy the coveted lands. The first step
   to this end was to send agents to Albany in 1754 to purchase from the Six
   Nations the land in the Wyoming valley. The Pennsylvanians immediately became
   alert to the danger that was menacing the province; their protests were
   unavailing, and the Susquehanna Company, on the payment of two thousand dollars,
   became possessed of the Indian title to the land, which they regarded as
   completing the legal title received from their colony. Governor Hamilton
   remonstrated to Governor Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut, writing him against the
   proposed settlement. The diplomatic governor of Connecticut answered him in a
   non-committal but persuasive way, and touched the keynote of the "Pennamite
   War." He ignored any response to the request to restrain the invaders, but urged
   that those who became settlers should be made freeholders, arguing they would be
   of inestimable value in case of French aggression, as they would have something
   to fight for—their own possessions. This was, however, in direct contradiction
   to the heirs of William Penn, who owned the lands of the province in fee simple,
   and their policy was to settle the best of them under leases. This was a feature
   of feudalism, and the vital question underlying the Wyoming controversy was
   whether those who cultivated the acres they dwelt upon should become serfs or
   freeholders. The Connecticut settlers received sympathy from a considerable
   element of the Pennsylvania people, who were opposed to this element of
   feudalism. The proprietors did not want them for settlers, as they were certain
   that they would not prove submissive or tractable to ideas which governed the
   landed aristocracy. This was the secret of the motive for the constant resort to
   official and military demonstrations by which the Penns sought the forcible
   expulsion of the settlers rather than the employment of diplomacy to obtain a
   peaceful settlement.
   
       Indian wars intervening, the Susquehanna Company effected no settlement
   between its organization and 1762. The Delaware Company, another Connecticut
   organization, had begun in June, 1757, in the valley of the upper Delaware, a
   settlement which they called Cushutunk. Here, in a tiny niche on the western
   bank of the river near the north line of Pennsylvania, a cluster of rude log
   cabins was erected. It was only a minute dot that the Connecticut Yankees placed
   in the present county of Wayne in Penn's dominion; it had but thirty families,
   but it involved most momentous issues. It was the first pioneer settlement of
   the Connecticut people within the boundaries of Penn's province, the first overt
   act of intercolonial intrusion.
   
       Governor Hamilton on September 16, 1761, issued his second proclamation as
   follows: "Whereas divers persons, the natural born Subjects of his Majesty
   belonging to some of our neighboring colonies, have lately come into this
   Province and without any license or Grant from the Honourable proprietaries, or
   Authority from the Government, have presumed in a Body to possess themselves of
   and settle upon a large Tract of land in this province not yet purchased from
   the Indians near Cushietunck on the River Delaware in the upper part of
   Northampton County and endeavoring to persuade and inveigle many of the
   Inhabitants of this land and neighboring Provinces to confederate and join them
   in their illegal and dangerous designs; and to assist in settling and holding
   the said Lands by strong hand. And Whereas, The Delaware Chief Teedyuscung hath
   made a very earnest and formal Complaint and Remonstrance to me against the said
   practices, insisting that the settlers should be immediately removed by the
   Government to which they belonged or by me; and declared if this was not done,
   the Indians would come and remove them by force, and do themselves Justice; with
   which he desired they might be made acquainted beforehand, that they might not
   pretend Ignorance; which has been accordingly done by my Order. And Whereas
   since the making of the above complaint by Teedyuscung, the chiefs of the Six
   Nations, who were present at the Treaty held at Easton in the month of August
   last, did in the most earnest manner renew the said Complaint &: remonstrance,
   and insist that this Government should afford them its aid in obliging the said
   Intruders to remove; affirming 'That the said Lands had never yet been sold, or
   were intended to be sold by them, to any person or persons, whatsoever,
   notwithstanding what the said Intruders have said, or may continue to say to the
   contrary; and if any Indian or Indians have taken upon them to sell or dispose
   of the said Lands, they had done it unknown to the Six Nations, and had stolen
   them, with a view to fill their pockets with the Money.' Wherefore, as well to
   assert the just Rights of the Proprietaries of this Province to the said Land, &
   to preserve the peace and Friendship which is so happily restored & subsisting
   between us and the Indians, & to prevent the terrible Consequences that must
   ncessarily arise by their carrying into Execution their Threats of removing by
   Force, the Intruders on the said Lands, as also, to warn and prevent any of the
   Inhabitants of this Province from being unwarily drawn into to join said
   Intruders, in their intended design of making Settlements in the said Indian
   Country, I have judged it proper, by and with ye advice of ye council, to issue
   this, my second Proclamation, hereby strictly requiring &• enjoining in his
   Majesty's Name, all and every person and persons already settled, or residing on
   the said Lands, immediately to depart & move away from same; And do hereby
   forbid all his Majestie's Subjects of this it any other Province, or Colony, on
   any pretense whatsoever, to intrude upon, settle, or possess any of the said
   Lands, or any other, the Lands within the Limits of this Province, not yet
   purchased of the Indians, as they will answer the contrary at their peril, and
   on pain of being prosecuted with utmost Rigour of the Law. And I do hereby,
   also, strictly charge, enjoin, and require all Sheriffs, Magistrates, Peace
   Officers, and all other, his Majesty's Liege People within this Province, to
   exert themselves, and use their utmost endeavors to prosecute, and bring to
   Justice and condign punishment, all offenders in the Premises."
   
       The sheriff of Northampton county in a report to the governor of his failure
   to remove the intruders, October 15, 1760, states that the settlers had selected
   a committee to manage and transact all business, that they had laid out and
   surveyed the lands and erected three townships, ten miles in length and eight
   miles in breadth, and had built on the lowlands three loghouses, thirty cabins,
   a sawmill and a gristmill. There were about twenty men in the settlement besides
   women and children, and about twenty men had returned to Connecticut for
   supplies, and they were expecting one hundred families the following spring. The
   land sold for eight to ten dollars for two hundred acres, twelve acres of which
   were to be cleared and improved, with a house built thereon in three years, or
   the land was forfeited. Among the committee and proprietors was _____ Fitch, a
   son of the then governor of Connecticut; Isaac Tracey, who owned the sawmill;
   Gebish Fitch; John Curtuis; Elisha Tracey; Benejah Park; ____ Peebody, a
   surveyor; Moses Thomas; Benejah Geers; Hezekiah Huntingdon, a late governor of
   Connecticut; Stephen Kenney, Robert Kinsman; John Burchard. Among the settlers
   were _____ Stanton; ____ Trim; Daniel Skinner, Aaron Thomas; Simon Corking, who
   had been a justice and lieutenant in Connecticut, a busy fellow and a
   ringleader; ____ Holly; John Smith; John Corkins; Jediah Welles; Jediah Welles,
   Jr.; James Adams; Benjamin Ashley; Nathan Chapman; Doctor Payne, ___ Kellick.
   
       Such was the situation in the spring of 1762. The Pennsylvanians based their
   claim that in 1736 the Six Nations granted to them the right of preemption to
   all lands within the bounds of their charter; therefore the sachems were not
   authorized to sell to anyone else. This is controverted that the Indians
   understood at that time that the claim of William Penn did not extend beyond the
   Blue Mountains in the direction of Wyoming. Thev also declined to treat with the
   Penn Proprietaries because the latter ignored their assertion that they had
   subdued the Delawares and made compact with their subjects as an independent
   people. There were strenuous efforts made by the proprietaries of Pennsylvania
   to prove the invalidity of the Indians' sale to the Connecticut companies.
   Teedyuscung, at the Treaty of Easton in 1757, demanded the lands at Wyoming and
   adjacent parts for the Delawares for their habitation, which was consented to by
   the proprietaries through their deputy, Mr. Croghan, and with the
   representatives of the Six Nations present. Houses had been built for them on
   the tract and the Indians resented their dispossession. There is no dispute that
   both by the Charter of Connecticut and their purchase from the Aborigines the
   priority in time is to be awarded to the Connecticut companies.
   
       As the spring of 1762 advanced, a party of immigrants came from Connecticut
   to the valley of the Wyoming, and settled under the auspices of the Susquehanna
   Company. The settlement was about a mile above the present site of Wilkes-Barrc.
   Governor Hamilton, seeming to be at the end of his resources, on February 20,
   1762, issued a proclamation asserting the rights of the Pennsylvania government
   against the claims of the Connecticut settlers, and also wrote the governor of
   that province, making strong remonstrances, as they were again occupying the
   disputed territory. He also wrote Sir William Johnson, expressing a fear of a
   renewal of Indian warfare from the revival of the Connecticut claims, stating
   that he feared this flagrant piece of injustice might cause the estrangement of
   the Indians' friendship, and that they might again become enemies, and assuring
   him on his part to vindicate them and the proprietaries' rights from this
   mischievous set of Yankee intruders.
   
       The governor of Connecticut replied that the government had no concern in
   the affair, and had no inclination to interest itself in the dispute about the
   lands; that although the purchasers may live in Connecticut, they acted' as
   private citizens, and were outside of the jurisdiction of Connecticut
   government. lie also took further pains to correspond with General Jeffrey
   Amherst, then commanding the English forces in North America, informing him that
   the Connecticut government was in no way interested or concerned with the
   settlers at Wyoming and Cushutunk.
   
       The Delaware Indians meanwhile demanded of the governor of Pennsylvania the
   immediate expulsion of the Yankee settlers, but nothing was done, and
   tranquility reigned for two seasons. The great Delaware chief, Teedyuscung, was
   mysteriously burned to death in his cabin by his enemies among the Six Nations,
   but suspicion was cast on the Yankee settlers at Wyoming. The Delawares brooded
   for months over this murder; their repeated demands that the settlers should be
   driven from the country were ignored, and at last on the night of October 15,
   1763, they fell in fury, without any warning, on the little village and murdered
   twenty of its people. The rest fled—some to the lower Pennsylvania settlements,
   others to Connecticut—and the first massacre at Wyoming, though not an incident
   of the Pennamite War, for a time stopped any progress of any further settlement.
   
       There were still strenuous efforts made by the proprietaries of Pennsylvania
   for a long period of time to win from the Six Nations their consent that the
   former sale of the Wyoming tract was invalid. After thirteen years their efforts
   were crowned with success; in 1768 the sachems of the Six Nations at Fort
   Stanwix, New York, agreed upon a treaty with the Pennsylvania authorities, by
   which the latter should have the same territory that had been surrendered before
   to the men from Connecticut. The Penns, after the Six Nations' repudiation of
   the sale to the Susquehanna Company, founded a settlement in Wyoming. The
   Susquehanna Company in 1768 established five townships in the disputed
   territory. These townships were five miles square, and allotments were made to
   each family of five hundred acres on condition they would take up their
   residence there and defend their rights against all intruders. The five
   townships were in the heart of the Wyoming Valley, and were named Wilkes-Barre,
   Kingston, Plymouth, Hanover and Pittston. Subsequently three other townships on
   the west bank of the Susquehanna river were allotted to forty settlers in each
   township. The Connecticut Yankees had deserted the wilderness for six years, but
   in 1769 they were again anxious to possess themselves of the valley. In the
   following February a body of forty determined men was sent out by the
   Susquehanna Company to occupy the country and defend it at all hazards against
   the Pennsylvanians. They were to be reinforced by two hundred more, and were
   given land and money liberally for their services.
   
       The Penns had founded a settlement in the Wyoming Valley and placed it under
   the command of Captain Amos Ogden, an Indian, trader from New Jersey. The
   commander of the Connecticut settlers was Colonel Zebulon Butler, a resolute
   soldier, and a veteran of the French and Indian Wars. The latter and his men
   built "Forty-Fort," so called from their number, a mere blockhouse, but destined
   to be famous. Ogden opened the war by the arrest of the Yankee leaders, marching
   them through the woods to the Easton jail; but the arrested prisoners regained
   their liberty by escaping. Then Ogden arrested the whole forty Yankee settlers,
   and the little jail at Easton was glutted with prisoners; again they were bailed
   out and returned to Wyoming triumphant. The next summer the settlements
   contained over three hundred men, and more were constantly coming. Another fort
   was erected and named "Fort Durkee." Ogden again appeared on the scene with two
   hundred men, captured Captain Durkee by strategy and sent him to Philadelphia in
   irons. The rest of the settlers surrendered, awed by a little four-pound cannon
   which Ogden had unlimbered before the fort. The poor settlers were again put on
   the road for a return trip to Connecticut. The victorious Ogden immediately
   returned to Philadelphia to receive congratulations from the proprietaries, but
   news was soon received that the Yankees had summarily ejected his little
   garrison and were again in possession. The secret of this success was that the
   aggressors were Pennsylvanians of the class sympathizing with the Connecticut
   people. They were under the command of Captain Lazarus Stewart, who had been
   stimulated by the presentation of a township of land from the Susquehanna
   Company. This was the secret of the long continuance of the Pennamite wars. The
   Pennsylvanians had no particular love for the intruders, and none whatever for
   the Penns. These conditions made it well-nigh impossible for the proprietaries
   to check the rising tide of immigration. It was Thomas Penn who was opposing the
   invasion, not the province of Pennsylvania. If it had been colony against
   colony, Pennsylvania would doubtless have prevailed over the intruders in one
   grand decisive action and thus ended the strife.
   
       The first blood flowed soon after Stewart's appearance, when the restored
   settlers of Wyoming were attacked by Ogden's force and one of the Connecticut
   men was killed and several wounded. This led to future clashings of the two
   parties, an increased ardor, and hence there were many sanguinary conflicts in
   this miniature war. Ogden, after a lengthy besiegement, surrendered; a period of
   five months of peace then ensued; Colonel Butler returned; recruits came in a
   rush, and there was new life and activity in the valley. The Perms again sent
   Captain Ogden to break up the settlement; a battle ensued in September, 1770,
   several of the Connecticut men were killed, many prisoners taken, and all who
   were able made their way to their old New England homes. The next spring Colonel
   Butler, with a new force, appeared in the valley; hostilities reopened; Ogden
   was summarily defeated with the loss of nine men, and an interval of peace
   ensued, which lasted four years.
   
       During this period of peace other changes were being made; Northumberland
   county was organized March 21, 1772; the territory of the Wyoming Valley came
   under its jurisdiction. In January, 1774, Connecticut, which as a colony had
   taken no part in the Wyoming controversy, organized the territory embraced in
   the claims of its subjects—the Delawares and Susquehanna companies—into a
   county, naming it Westmoreland: elections were held and representatives were
   sent to the Connecticut legislature. The settlers at Cushutunk, besides other
   settlements on the Delaware, were included within the confines of the new
   county. There had been six thousand people from Connecticut, all told, that had
   come into Yankee Pennsylvania. The history of the bloody Indian massacre during
   the Revolutionary war and the final adjustment of the controversy between the
   States of Connecticut and Pennsylvania by a commission at Trenton, New Jersey,
   are matters of national history and do not come in the compass of this work; the
   intention of this narrative is only to deal with the historic facts during the
   period that the Wyoming Valley was within the boundaries and under the
   jurisdiction of Northampton county.
   
   
   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
   
   
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