Northampton County PA Archives History - Books .....The Indian Massacre Of 1763 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 13, 2008, 4:23 am Book Title: History Of Northampton County CHAPTER XII THE INDIAN MASSACRE OF 1763 For five years succeeding the treaty of 1758 the people of Northampton county enjoyed a time of comparative peace and safety against Indian outrages. There were from time to time during that period acts of violence committed by the savages, the murder of isolated settlers, burning of buildings. and other acts of rapine. These depredations usually seemed to be made by small and unorganized bands, and did not cause such general dismay and abandonment of property by the inhabitants as followed the massacres of 1755. However, in 1763 the people of Northampton county were again devastated by a terrible outbreak when the powerful Chief Pontiac conceived and came near executing his vast plan for the extermination of the whites. On October 8, 1763, Allen and Whitehall townships were the scene of a brutal Indian massacre. The following quotation (by Rev. Heckwelder, for many years a missionary to the Indians) clearly shows that the savages were provoked to this murderous deed by the inhuman treatment afforded them by some of the settlers. But as it often happens, innocent parties had to pay- dearly for the folly of a few: In the summer of the year 1763, some friendly Indians from a distant place came to Bethlehem to dispose of their peltry for manufactured goods and necessary implements of husbandry. Returning home well satisfied, they put up the first night at a tavern, eight miles distant from Bethlehem. The landlord not being at home, his wife took the libery of encouraging the people who frequented her house for the sake of drinking, to abuse those Indians, adding, "that she would freely given a gallon of rum to any one of them that would kill one of these black devils." Other white people from the neighborhood came in during the night, who also drank freely, made a great deal of noise, and increased the fears of those poor Indians, who,—for the greatest part understood English,—could not but suspect something bad was intended against their persons. They were, however, not otherwise disturbed; but in the morning, when, after a restless night, they were preparing to set off, they found themselves robbed of some of the most valuable articles they had purchased, and on mentioning this to a man who appeared to be the bar-keeper, they were ordered to leave the house. Not being willing to lose so much property, they retired to some distance into the woods, when, some of them remaining with what was left them, the others returned to Rcthlehem and lodged their complaint with a justice of the peace. The magistrate gave them a letter to the landlord, pressing him without delay to restore to the Indians the goods that had been taken from them. But, behold! when they delivered that letter to the people of the inn, they were told in answer, that if they set any value on their lives they must make off with themselves immediately. They well understood that they had no other alternative and prudently departed without having received back any of their goods. Arriving at Nescopeck. on the Susquehanna, they fell in with other Nescopeck Indians, who had been treated much in the same manner, one of them having his rifle stolen from him. Here the two parties agreed to take revenge in their own way for those insults and robberies for which they could obtain no redress, and this they determined to do as soon as war should be again declared by their nation against the English. In another place, about fourteen miles distant from Stenton's, another outrage was committed, of which the following account is given in Loskiel's "History of the Missions of the Indians in America": In August, 1763, Zachary and his wife, who had left the congregation in Wechquetank (where they had belonged, but left some time previous), came on a visit, and did all in their power to disquiet the minds of the brethren respecting the intentions of the white people. A woman called Zippora was persuaded to follow them. On their return they stayed at the Buchkabuchka (Lehigh Gap) over night, where Captain Wetterholt lay with a company of soldiers and went unconcerned to sleep in a hayloft. But in the night they were surprised by the soldiers. Zippora was thrown down upon the threshing-floor and killed; Zachary escaped out of the house, but was pursued, and with his wife and little child, put to the sword, although the mother begged for their lives upon her knees. These were friendly Indians, who were on their way from Shamokin to Bethlehem. Jacob Warner, a soldier in Nicholaus Wetterholt's company, made the following statement, September 9th: That he and Dodge were searching for a lost gun, when, about two miles above Fort Allen (Weissport), they saw three Indians painted black. Dodge fired upon them and killed one; "Warner also fired upon them, and thought he wounded another; but two escaped; and on the 24th, Dodge sent Warner with the scalp to a person in Philadelphia, who gave him eight dollars for it. These were also friendly Indians. On the 7th of October Captain Jacob Wetterholt, with a few soldiers from Bethlehem, were on their way to Fort Allen. They arrived in the evening and lodged at the house of John Stenton, who kept a store and tavern in the then Irish settlement about a mile north of Howertown in Allen township, Northampton county, on the road leading from Weaversville to Kreidersville, near where the High Tension Power Line crosses the road on the farm known for many years as the Baer home, now owned by George Laubach. This house the Indians burned with revenge on account of injuries received there. At daybreak on Saturday morning, October 8, 1763, as the Indians were making their way stealthily towards Stenton's tavern, they met Airs. James Horner, who was on her way to a neighboring house "to borrow fire," and tomahawked her. Her husband later found the body and carried it to the settlement meeting-house (Presbyterian), where he sat alone with the corpse of his wife the whole night. The following day her body was interred in the adjoining cemetery. A tombstone containing the following epitaph marks the resting-place of her ashes: In memory of Jane, wife of James Horner, who suffered death by the hands of the savage Indians, October Eighth, Seventeen Hundred and Sixty-three, aged fifty years. The Indians approached the house, which was unguarded, unperceived and undiscovered during the night, and when the door was opened before day on the morning of the memorable 8th of October by the servant of Captain Wetterholt, he was shot at and instantly killed. Captain Wetterholt and Sergeant McGuire were also shot at and dangerously wounded. John Stenton was shot dead. The wounded were taken to Bethlehem, where Captain Wetterholt died the next day. A detailed account of the different murders was sent by Timothy Horsfield, by a messenger, to the governor of Philadelphia. It was published in the Pennsylvania Gazette of October 13, 1763, printed by Benjamin Franklin: On Sunday night last an express arrived from Northampton county, with the following melancholy account, viz:—That on Saturday morning, the 8th inst., the house of John Stenton, about eight miles from Bethlehem, was attacked by Indians, as follows: Captain Wetterholt with a party belonging to Fort Allen, being at that house, and intending to set out early [or the fort, ordered a servant to get his horse ready, who was immediately shot down by the enemy; upon which the Captain, going to the door, was also fired at, and mortally wounded; that then a sergeant attempted to pull in the Captain and to shut the door, but he was likewise dangerously wounded; that the Lieutenant next advanced, when an Indian jumped upon the bodies of the two others and presented a pistol to his breast, which he put a little aside, and it went off over his shoulder, whereby he got the Indian out of the house and shut the door; that the Indians after this went round to a window, and as Stenton was getting out of bed shot him, but not dead, and he, breaking out of the house, ran about a mile, when he dropped and died; that his wife and two children ran down into the cellar, where they were shot at three times, but escaped; that Captain Wetterholt, finding himself growing very weak, crawled to a window, and shot an Indian dead, it was thought, as he was in the act of setting fire to the house with a match, and that upon this the other Indians carried him away with them and went off. Captain Wetterholt died soon after. After the deplorable disaster at Stenton's house, the Indians plundered James Allen's house, a short distance, after which they attacked Andrew Hazlet's house half a mile from Allen's, where they shot and scalped a man. Hazlet attempted to fire on the Indians, but missed, and he was shot himself, which his wife, some distance off, saw. She ran off with two children, but was pursued and overtaken by the Indians, who caught and tomahawked her and the children in a dreadful manner; yet she and one of the children lived until four days after, and the other child recovered. Hazlet's house was plundered. About a quarter of a mile from there the Indians burned down Kratzer's house, probably after having plundered it. Among the papers of Jacob Fatzinger of Weaversville, the following note was found: "Memorandum June 15th, 1880. Philip Kratzer's farm was purchased by Jacob Lindaman, father of George Lindaman, of Allen township, now in his 79th year, who says that Kratzer had stolen a deer from the Indians, who sought revenge by burning his house and barn, and that they would undoubtedly have murdered the family had they not been seen approaching the place from the neighboring hill; that Kratzer took the title deed and papers of value and deposited them under a fallen tree some distance from the house near a division line between his property and the land owned by Daniel Swartz, and that he mounted a horse and escaped; that Mrs. Hazlet, with two children and a dog, hid herself under a brush-heap in the meadow on the lands now owned by Charles Fogleman. Then a party of Indians proceeded to a place on the Lehigh, a short distance above Siegfried's bridge, often referred to as 'Indian Falls' or 'Indian Rapids,' where twelve Indians were seen wading across the river by Ulrich Showalter, who was at that time working on the roof of a building. The site of which being considerably elevated above the River Lehigh, he had a good opportunity to count them. It is not known that they were seen by any one but Showalter until they reached the farm of John Jacob Mickley, where they encountered three of his children, two boys and a girl, in a field under a chestnut tree, gathering chestnuts. The children's ages were: Peter, eleven; Henry, nine; and Barbary, seven; who, on seeing the Indians, began to run away. The little girl was overtaken not far from the tree by an Indian, who knocked her down with a tomahawk. Henry had reached the fence, and, while in the act of climbing it, an Indian threw a tomahawk at his back which, it is supposed, instantly killed him. Both of these children were scalped. The little girl, in an insensible state, lived until the following morning. Peter, having reached the woods, hid himself between two large trees which were standing near together, and, surrounded by brushwood, he remained quietly concealed there until he was sure that the Indians had left. When he heard the screams of the Schneider family he knew that the Indians were at that place. He ran with all his might, by way of Adam Deshler's, to his brother, John Jacob Mickley, to whom he communicated the melancholy intelligence. He often said that the Mickley family owned at that time a very large and ferocious dog, which had a particular antipathy to Indians, and it was believed by the family that it was owing to the dog the Indians did not make an attack on their house. John Jacob Mickley and Ulrich Flickinger, then on their way to Stenton's, being attracted by the screams of the Schneiders, hastened to the place and found the horribly mangled bodies of the dead and wounded, and the houses of Marks and Schneider in flames. The dead were buried on Schneider's farm." The Mickley and Schneider families suffered innocently. Heckwelder says: "The Indians, after leaving this house (Stenton's), murdered by accident an innocent family, having mistaken the house they meant to attack, after which they returned to their homes." It is said that they had intended to massacre the Paul Balliet family. Refugees from Allen, Lehigh and neighboring townships crowded the Crown Inn at Bethlehem, which stood on the site of the railway station at South Bethlehem. The inhabitants of the Saucon valley, when they heard of the massacre, became panic-stricken and also crowded into the Crown Inn. It was late in December before the last of the fugitives returned to their homes. The Indians finally withdrew from the interior of the white settlements into the wilds of the Susquehanna country. The government, conscious they could no longer protect any Indians, requested them to retire to the back country. The Conestogas settled at Wyalusing, a hundred miles from the frontier settlers. The other Indians of the same clans living at the Forks of the Delaware migrated still further northward and westward. Here they lived quietly, built good houses, planted fruit trees and cultivated the land. While enjoying these favorable prospects of quietness and happiness they were notified that the Six Nations had sold their entire country to the English. Then they in 1768 determined again to migrate westward. The Minisinks went to the Allegheny river; the Turtle and Turkey tribes, along with the Christian Indians, to Muskingum (now Tuscarawas) in the present State of Ohio; the whole country east of the Allegheny Mountains was then free from Indians. The Revolutionary War depleted their ranks, and the murder of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum in 1782 completed their alienation from the whites; those who remained were driven to despair and finally dispersed. The Minisinks finally settled permanently in Canada, affiliating with the struggling remnants of other tribes, and lost their individuality as a tribe. The Turkey and Turtle tribes were again compelled to migrate from Ohio to Indiana, and then again to the Mississippi river, then or. to Missouri, thence to Kansas, and in 1866 they were forced to Oklahoma. The sun has set upon the red man; the last sad relics of the aboriginal tribes who once owned all this vast continent as their hunting grounds have been practically swallowed up in the swift civilization of the paleface. 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: 15.5 Kb