Part 48
In October, 1767, he traversed the solitude of the forest and reached the Munsee Indians, who were then living in what is now Forest County. This pious missionary remained with these savages but seven days. They were good listeners to his sermons, but every day he was in danger of being murdered. Of these Indians he wrote:
“I have never found such heathenism in any other part of the Indian country. Here Satan has a stronghold. Here he sits upon his throne. Here he is worshipped by true savages, and carries on his work in the hearts of the children of darkness.”
He returned to Friedenschuetten and labored there until the Six Nations sold the land in that part of the State, November 5, 1768.
The Six Nations had by this treaty sold the land from “under the feet” of the Wyalusing converts and the Reverend Zeisberger was compelled to take measures for the removal of these Christian Indians, with their horses and cattle, to some other field.
This company penetrated through the wilderness to the Allegheny River, and established a church at a Delaware town of three villages called Goschgoschunk, near the mouth of Tionesta Creek in which is now Venango County. Here they built a log chapel, planted corn and commenced the work of evangelization.
They were soon rewarded by gaining a number of converts, among whom was the blind old chief Allemewi, who was baptized with the name of Solomon.
As usual, however, their success excited opposition and their lives were threatened by the hostile Indians, who called the converts “Sunday Indians” or “Swannocks,” a name of great opprobrium.
Wangomen, an Indian prophet, declared that he had a vision in which he was shown by the Great Spirit that the white man had displeased him by coming among the Indians; and the old squaws went about complaining that since their arrival the corn was devoured by worms, that the game was leaving the country, and that neither chestnuts nor bilberries ripened any more.
Some said, “The white men ought to be killed,” and, others agreeing, said, “Yes, and all the baptized Indians with them and their bodies thrown into the river.”
The name of the town, Goschgoschunk, meant “the place of the hogs,” and the missionaries believed it was well named.
In 1769 they removed their converts to Lawunakhanna, on the opposite side of the river about three miles above Goschgoschunk. A strange thing occurred here in the friendly attitude of their old enemy, Wangomen. He carried news of their success to Kuskuskee, a celebrated Delaware town on the Beaver, in the present Lawrence County. From this place Chief Pakanke sent Glikhickan, a celebrated Delaware warrior and orator, to refute the teachings of the missionaries.
Glikhickan listened to the preaching of Zeisberger, and received private instructions in the Gospel, and was completely won by them.
On his return to Kuskuskee Glikhickan made a favorable report to Pakanke, who invited the missionaries and their converts to remove to Beaver, where a tract of land was promised them for their exclusive use.
Zeisberger asked and received the consent of the Mission Board at Bethlehem to accept the invitation, and he promptly prepared to remove thither.
April 17, 1770, the congregation at Lawunakhanna, set out in sixteen canoes, passed down the river to Fort Pitt, and on to the mouth of the Big Beaver, where they arrived in the forenoon of April 23 and paddled up the stream to the falls. At this point a portage was necessary and it took four days to carry their baggage and canoes around the rapids. Here they were met by Glikhickan and others with horses, who assisted them in this labor.
Five days later Zeisberger tarried at New Kuskuskee to visit with Pakanke, who received him with a genuine welcome.
The site of their new encampment was reached May 7. Corn was planted, a large hut for meetings of the congregation and smaller ones of bark for dwellings were put up and all were happy in their new home. This town was called Friedenstadt, or “town of peace.”
Glikhickan became a devoted friend of the Christians, and when he removed to Friedenstadt old Pakanke attacked him publicly. Colonel George Croghan used his influence to appease Pakanke and secure a fair hearing for the missionaries, and the labors of the brethren began to bear fruit.
On June 12 the wife of the blind chief Solomon was baptized. Six months later Glikhickan and Genaskund were baptized. Glikhickan took the name of Isaac and became an assistant in the work of the Gospel.
On July 14 Zeisberger was adopted into the Munsee tribe and Pakanke was present at the ceremony.
July 23, Zeisberger laid out a new and larger town on the west side of the Beaver, near the present Moravia. This was a more permanent settlement. The houses were built of logs, with stone foundations and chimneys and the church was much larger. Here, too, they built a blacksmith shop and stockades.
Other missionaries came from Bethlehem. On the one hand, they enjoyed success in their work, and, on the other, they were subjected to much disagreeable treatment by those still unfavorable to them, their lives being more than once seriously imperiled by visits of hostile and drunken savages. But they continued their labors undaunted by trials and persecutions.
May 27, 1771, the foundation stone of the chapel was laid, and June 20 the house was dedicated with great rejoicings. In all probability this was the first church building dedicated to the worship of God west of the Allegheny Mountains.
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Revolutionary Forces Threaten Executive Council June 21, 1783
A change in the British Ministry had encouraged Dr. Benjamin Franklin to renew his efforts for a peaceful adjustment, and after working with the utmost industry and skill throughout the summer and most of the autumn of 1782, he had the satisfaction of seeing his labors crowned with success.
A preliminary treaty of peace between the Colonies and Great Britain was signed at Paris, November 30, 1782, but the news did not reach this country until March 12, 1783, when the packet George Washington, Captain Joshua Barney, arrived at Philadelphia with the joyful intelligence that a treaty had been concluded, acknowledging the independence of the United States. This was the initial step necessary in the negotiations for peace between all belligerents.
On March 23 the French cutter Triumph arrived at Philadelphia from Cadiz, bringing the news that a preliminary treaty of peace had been signed January 20, 1783.
M. de Luzerne, the French Minister, at once issued an official notification of the fact, directing French cruisers to cease hostilities. Intelligence of the state of affairs was also communicated to Sir Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry Clinton as the British commander-in-chief at New York.
On April 11, the British officers received official notice from home that peace had been concluded, and the same day Congress issued a proclamation enjoining a cessation of hostilities.
On April 16 the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania made public announcement of the happy event at the Court House, where the official document was read by the Sheriff in the presence of an immense concourse of people. The State flag was hoisted as usual on such occasions, at Market Street wharf; church bells were rung amid general demonstrations of joy at the termination of the war. In the evening Charles Wilson Peale exhibited the patriotic transparencies which had done good service on previous occasions, and one week later Thomas Paine published the last number of the Crisis, in which he declared that “the times that tried men’s souls were over.”
The definite treaty of peace was signed at Versailles, September 3, 1783, in which the United States was formally acknowledged to be sovereign, free and independent.
One of the first measures made necessary by the cessation of the war was the exchange of prisoners. The soldiers of Burgoyne’s army were principally at Lancaster, and they were put in motion before the proclamation, and arrived in Philadelphia on their way to New York a day or two previous to the official announcement. The obstructions that had been placed in the Delaware River were removed and commerce resumed.
In June, 1783, a number of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line wearied, and exasperated by the delay in the settlement of their claims, resolved to demand a redress of their grievances and a prompt settlement of their accounts.
A body of them accordingly marched from Lancaster toward the city of Philadelphia, and although the Supreme Executive Council and Congress were informed of their coming, no measures were taken to check the advance of the malcontents.
A committee of Congress requested the Executive Council to call out the militia in order to prevent the progress of the rioters, but the State authorities took no action, in the belief apparently that the troops could be conciliated.
Orders were issued from the War Office that the soldiers be received into the barracks and supplied with rations. On reaching the city they marched to those quarters in good order and without creating any disturbance.
Congress and the Executive Council both held their sessions in the State House at this time.
On Saturday, June 21, Congress not being in session, having adjourned from Friday until Monday, about thirty of the soldiers marched from the barracks to the State House, where the Executive Council was in regular meeting.
They sent to that body a memorial in writing stating that as their general officers had left them, they should have authority to appoint commissioned officers to command them and redress their grievances. With this demand went a threatening message that in case they refused, the soldiers would be let in upon the Council, who must then abide by the consequences. Only twenty minutes were given for the deliberation, but so insolent were the terms that the Council at once unanimously rejected the proposition.
This action created a widespread alarm. Other bodies of soldiers joined the mutineers, who now numbered 300. The president of Congress assembled that body in special session and demanded that the militia of the State should be immediately called forth in sufficient force to reduce the soldiers to obedience, disarm them and put them in the power of Congress. Prior to the assembling of Congress at Carpenters’ Hall the soldiers were at their barracks and all was quiet.
A session of the Supreme Executive Council was held the following day, Sunday, at the house of President Dickinson. That body did not agree on the extreme measures of Congress. The result was that the latter, dissatisfied with the indisposition of the Council, adjourned to meet at Princeton, N. J. This action of Congress was neither necessary nor prudent. It was prompted by pride and a disposition to construe an undesigned affront into the wanton insult, or it was in consequence of fear that was unjustifiable by the succession of events.
The promoters of this meeting escaped, but several of the ringleaders were arrested and court-martialed. Two of the sergeants of the Third Pennsylvania were sentenced to be shot, while several others were to receive corporal punishment, but all were subsequently pardoned by Congress.
Congress remained during the summer at Princeton. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, the Council, and prominent citizens of the State invited it to return to Philadelphia, and although Congress seemed pleased and satisfied at the measures taken, yet they were ashamed to go back to a city they had deserted so precipitately and carelessly, and they adjourned at Princeton to meet at Annapolis, Md.
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Colonel Turbutt Francis Marches Provincial Troops to Wyoming June 22, 1769
The Connecticut people had gained complete possession of the Wyoming Valley at the conclusion of the so-called first Pennanite-Yankee War, in 1769.
These Yankees entered with enthusiasm upon their agricultural pursuit, while their surveyors were employed in running out the five townships which had been allotted to the actual settlers by the Connecticut authorities. But no one supposed that peace and security were finally yielded them by their alert and powerful Pennsylvania opponents.
Captain Amos Ogden with the civil magistrate, Sheriff John Jennings, of Northampton County, of which county the Wyoming Valley was then a part, appeared at the head of an armed party in the plains May 20. They found the Yankees too strongly entrenched and returned to Easton.
Sheriff Jennings informed Governor John Penn that the intruders mustered three hundred able bodied men, and it was not in his power to collect sufficient force in Northampton County to dislodge them.
At the same time that the Governor sent Sheriff Jennings to Wyoming, he sent instructions to Colonel Turbutt Francis, who was then commandant of the garrison at Fort Augusta, to extend such aid as was necessary to secure the Proprietary settlements at Wyoming, and to hold his troops in readiness for any emergency or call that he might make for them.
The records of Fort Augusta, or those published in the Archives do not give much detailed information of the instructions which Colonel Francis received, but in a long report of the committee of the Susquehanna Company, written from Windham, Connecticut, and signed by four members, is this paragraph:
“June 22nd, 1769, Colonel Francis, with sixty armed men in a hostile manner demanded a surrender of our houses and possessions. He embodied his forces within thirty or forty rods of their dwellings, threatened to fire their houses and kill our people, unless they surrendered and quitted their possessions, which they refused to do, and after many terrible threatenings by him, he withdrew. Our people went on peaceably with their business.”
Miner, in his History of Wyoming, says of this event: “Col. Turbutt Francis, commanding a fine company from the city, in full military array, with colors streaming, and martial music, descended into the plain, and sat down before Fort Durkee about the 20th of June; but finding the Yankees too strongly fortified, returned to await reinforcements below the mountains.”
On June 15 Major Durkee, and others of the New England adherents went to Easton to attend the Northampton County Court, but the case against the Yankees was continued to the September term, and the defendants returned with Major Durkee to Wyoming.
It was during Major Durkee’s absence that the exciting events took place.
Colonel Francis was a native of Philadelphia and a distinguished officer of the French and Indian War, since which service he had spent the greater part of his life in and about Fort Augusta. He was in command of the garrison at that fortress when Governor Penn sent him to Wyoming, and his troops were in the provincial service.
A Yankee report of this event says: “The 22d of June our spies gave fresh information, that the mob was on their way, and they judged their number consisted of between 60 and 70, and in the evening they came and strung along the opposite side of the River for more than a mile, judging by their whooping, yelling and hideous noise and firing of guns.
“The 23d, in the morning, one Captain Ogden, with two more, came to know if our committee could be spoke with by Colonel Francis, which was consented to. About 8 in the morning the Colonel came, seemingly in an angry frame by his looks and behavior. He told us he had orders from the Governor of Pennsylvania to remove us off (which he in a short time contradicted), and demanded entrance into our town, which was refused; and continued he—'You have lost your case at Easton, and I have 300 men here with me, and 100 more coming, and my men are so unruly and ungoverned that it is hardly in my power to keep them from you; and they will kill your cattle and horses, and destroy your corn, and block up the way so as to cut you off from all communication for provisions, and your Government will not own you.'
“We told him that we had a good right to the land by Charter from the Crown, and Deed from the Indians, and that we could not, consistent with the votes of the Susquehanna Company, give it up, and should not. He then made proposals of agreement that we should possess the land on the East Branch, except that what Ogden and some others of them improved, and they enjoy the West Branch, till decided by law; and he would give us an hour to consider, and give him an answer. We sent him word that we would not comply with his terms, for it was not in our power.
“Finally he concluded to move off with his mob to Shamokin (which is about 60 miles) and wait there about ten days for the committee to send our proposals, which, if he liked, it was well; if not, he could come again. And further, he desired our men might be kept in the Fort till his men should be gone, lest they should hurt us. Towards night they moved off, seemingly well pleased with their _Conquest_. As near as we could learn their number did not exceed 50 men, and a considerable part of them in our favor.”
Colonel Francis was called to Philadelphia in July and gave a full verbal report of his expedition to the Governor and Council.
In September thirteen of the Connecticut settlers in three canoes loaded with flour were halted at Fort Augusta. They were on their way up the river with the cargo which they had purchased at Harris’ Ferry for the Wyoming settlement.
The Yankees were detained by armed troops for three hours, but their cargoes were confiscated, even in spite of the fact they agreed to pay for the food.
Thus the trouble between the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimants continued for many years.
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Pennsylvanian Makes First Report in Congress for Railway to Pacific June 23, 1848
James Pollock had exhibited unusual personal and political strength in carrying at three consecutive elections his Democratic congressional district. He was first chosen to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Congressman General Henry Frick, then again in 1844 and 1846 he won his re-election. He was one of the younger members, but during his nearly six sessions of service he exhibited not only great efficiency, but he was in advance of most of his older associates in heartily sustaining all progressive movements.
Pollock was one of the few members of Congress who took kindly to Professor S. B. Morse, when he went to Washington and was shunned by nearly every Government official as a crank or lunatic because he proposed to utilize the lightning for the transmission of messages.
Pollock also was one of the earliest public men to accept Benton’s idea of the great destiny of the West after the extension of our territory to the Pacific by Mexican annexation. He served on the Committees of Claims, Territories, and in the Thirtieth Congress he was on the important Committee of Ways and Means.
On June 23, 1848, Pollock offered a resolution for the appointment of a special committee to inquire into the necessity and practicability of constructing a railroad to the Pacific Coast. As chairman of that committee he made a report to the House in favor of the construction of such a road which was the first favorable official act on the subject on the part of the Congress of the United States.
The report discussed the question in its international and domestic aspects, its feasibility and probable results. The opening paragraph is in these words:
“The proposition at first view is a startling one. The magnitude of the work itself, and the still greater and more magnificent results promised by its accomplishment—that of revolutionizing morally and commercially, if not politically, a greater part of the habitable globe, and making the vast commerce of the world tributary to us—almost overwhelm the mind. But your committee, on examination, finds it a subject as simple as it is vast and magnificent, and sees no insurmountable difficulties in the way of its successful accomplishment.”
A bill accompanied the report, and was referred to the Committee of the Whole, but no further action was taken on it at that time, and Pollock soon after left Congress. In the fall of 1848, however, he delivered a lecture on the Pacific Railroad, by invitation to a crowded house at Lewisburg, Union County, closing with the following remark:
“At the risk of being insane, I will venture the prediction, that in less than twenty-five years from this evening a railroad will be completed and in operation between New York and San Francisco, Calif.; that a line of steamships will be established between San Francisco, Japan and China; and there are now in my audience, ladies who will, before the expiration of the period named, drink tea brought from China and Japan by this route, to their own doors.”
That prophetic announcement was received by the audience with a smile of good-natured incredulity, but some of those very ladies, during the year 1869, were able to sip their favorite beverage in exact accordance with the terms of the speaker’s prediction. On May 10, 1869, the last rail was laid, the last spike driven, and the great Pacific Railway, so long in embryo, became an accomplished fact.
Pollock gave special interest during his Congressional service to the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the acquisition of California, the repeal of the Tariff Act of 1842, and the “Wilmot Proviso,” in its application to the newly acquired territories of the United States. In all the discussions on those exciting topics he was the leading factor. His speeches and votes demonstrated the consistency of his views, and the breadth and soundness of his understanding.
In 1850 he became President-Judge of the eighth judicial district, then composed of the counties of Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, Sullivan and Lycoming.
In 1854 he was nominated and elected by a large majority Governor of Pennsylvania.
It was during his administration, May 16, 1857, that the main line of the public works of the State was directed to be sold. On July 25 following Governor Pollock caused the same to be done, and on July 31 the whole line of the public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at the price of $7,500,000.
In the summer of 1857 a serious financial revulsion occurred, resulting in the suspension of specie payments by the banks of Pennsylvania and other States of the Union, followed by the failure of many long-established commercial houses, leading to the destruction of confidence and to the general depression of trade, and threatening to affect disastrously the credit of the Commonwealth and the great industrial interests of the people.
In order to release the banks from the penalties incurred by a suspension of specie payments, Governor Pollock convened the Legislature in “extraordinary session” October 6.
On October 13 an act was passed “providing for the resumption of specie payments by the banks and for the relief of debtors,” to go into immediate effect. The law had the desired result, the different branches of industry revived and the community saved from bankruptcy and ruin. He declined a renomination for a second term.
While serving in Congress, Pollock became intimately acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, who was then also a member, and they boarded at the same house.
This friendship was renewed after Lincoln became President, when he called Pollock to Washington to consult with him upon the grave questions confronting the country and to consult with him regarding certain men he was considering for his Cabinet. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed his Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, and it was through his efforts, while so serving, that the motto, “In God We Trust,” was placed upon our coins.