Part 63

Captain Butler did not wait for these reinforcements to reach the Pennamites, but, Sunday, July 21, believed the time had come for the offensive. That night he silently marched them to the vicinity of Fort Wyoming, where, before daylight he had entrenched. By Monday these intrenchments were occupied by Yankees and the battle for Fort Wyoming was begun. Other redoubts were erected by which all communication with the outside was cut off from Fort Wyoming, but the Pennamites possessed means of defense so long as their provisions and ammunition would hold out.

Reinforcements under Captains John Dick and Joseph Morris left their rendezvous in the Blue Mountains, Sunday, July 28, and arrived before daybreak on the 30th. Within 200 yards of the block house they were attacked by the Yankees and lost two loads of flour and nine men. The Yankees continued a constant fire, day and night, until August 10, the defenders returning the fire.

Efforts to send volunteers to the relief of the Pennamites were unavailing, until Ogden, Van Campen and others, who had extensive land claims there, induced 62 men to march under command of Dr. Andrew Leslie from Reemeys, they arrived August 15, at “Ten-Mile Run,” where they bivouacked, after sending a messenger to the inmates of the fort.

But before the arrival of this detail and the supplies which they brought, the garrison was nearly starved and on the 15th Colonel Clayton sent out a flag of truce, and after several consultations accepted the best terms he could obtain. By the Articles of Capitulation 23 men were to march out armed, the remainder unarmed, and all to return to their homes unmolested; men who had families could remain two weeks to collect their effects; and the sick and wounded could be cared for until able to leave. The Indian messenger from the relief party arrived just as the fort was surrendered.

Thus Wyoming was again in the possession of the settlers of the Susquehanna Company and Captain Zebulon Butler the hero of the hour.

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Great Land Purchase Made at Indian Council in Philadelphia, August 16, 1749

Early in April, 1749, the Six Nations held a Grand Council at Onondaga Castle, when it was decided to send deputies from each of the nations to Philadelphia, to shake hands with Governor James Hamilton, who had assumed the office in the previous November; to answer a proposal for peace with the Catawba, which had been made by the former Governor of Pennsylvania, and to consider other matters. It was agreed that all the deputies should meet together at Wyoming, and proceed thence in a body to Philadelphia.

About the middle of May the four deputies of the Seneca accompanied by other members of their nation, arrived at Wyoming, where they waited a month for the arrival of the deputies of the other nations, who, however, failed to appear. The Seneca thereupon continued their journey via the North Branch to Shamokin, then the main river, and arrived at Philadelphia, June 26, accompanied by some Tutelo, Nanticoke and Conoy. These Indians were received by the Governor and Council on July 1, when Ogashtash, the Seneca speaker, stated that the Grand Council at Onondaga had heard that the white people had begun to settle on the Indians’ side of the Blue Mountains, in the present Juniata Valley.

Ogashtash further said that during their stay at Wyoming they had heard things which made them believe this was true. They wanted to know if this was done wickedly by bad people or if the new Governor had brought some instructions from the King, or Proprietaries, which the Grand Council did not yet know, but would cause much hurt.

Governor Hamilton informed the Seneca that the settling of the white squatters along the Juniata was contrary to the terms of the treaties made by the Government with the Indians, and that a proclamation would be issued commanding all the white people who had settled north of the Blue Mountains to remove by November 1, 1749.

Presents to the value of £100 were distributed on July 4 to the Indians, and a day or two later Conrad Weiser conducted them out of the city and journeyed with them as far as his house in Heidelberg Township. Here the Indians concluded to remain for a few days to visit with their old friend and brother, and without invitation they camped out near his house and made themselves very much at home. The Tutelo injured and destroyed a large amount of Weiser’s movable property and damaged his plantation generally. Weiser tried in vain to influence them to proceed on their journey. Finally, after an unpleasant experience of a week or ten days with these unruly visitors, Weiser induced the Seneca to take their departure, and they forced the Tutelo to go along.

The Tutelo were from villages on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Zeisberger speaks of this tribe as a “degenerate remnant of thieves and drunkards”; he says that their village near Shamokin was “the only town on the continent inhabited by Tutelos.”

These Indians loafed and loitered along the way to the Susquehanna, taking along anything which struck their fancy, and when that stream was reached they paddled their canoes up the river, stopped awhile at Shamokin, then at Nescopeck, then at Wyoming, where they arrived August 1.

Two days after these Indians arrived at Wyoming, a large fleet of canoes came unexpectedly down the North Branch bearing the belated deputies of the Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations together with many other representatives—chiefs, warriors, squaws and children of these several nations, and many Indians of other tribes.

This large company remained at Wyoming for a day, and then proceeded down the river, accompanied by the Seneca deputies, and their party, who had just returned from Philadelphia, also by Chief Paxinosa and a large number of his Shawnee from their new home in what is now Plymouth, Luzerne County, and by a number of Delaware, Nanticoke and Mohican from the different villages along their route. At Nescopeck they were joined by King Nutimus and a number of his people, and then, without further delay, they floated down the river to Shamokin.

Arriving at this old Indian town at the Forks of the Susquehanna, now Sunbury, a messenger was sent in haste over the mountains to Conrad Weiser to announce the coming of the deputies. Soon as Weiser received this intelligence he dispatched an express to Governor Hamilton, who immediately directed the messenger to hurry back to Weiser, who was instructed by the Governor and Council “to try all ways to divert the Indians from coming to Philadelphia.” This the good old interpreter tried to do, but his efforts were resented by the Indians with so much spirit that he was obliged “to turn his protestations into invitations and make the best of circumstances.”

When this small army of deputies reached Tulpehocken, Conrad Weiser joined them and was the leader of the party from there to Philadelphia, where they arrived August 14, and according to the official records they numbered 280 in all. Governor Hamilton paid a ceremonious visit to the Indians, and appointed August 16 as the date for the conference with them.

Several days time of this conference was consumed in discussing the matters which had brought the Indians to Philadelphia. As a result of the conference the Proprietaries obtained for £500 a deed dated August 22, 1749, for a strip of land northwest and contiguous to the Blue Mountains, and extending from the Susquehanna to the Delaware River, the northwest boundary of this strip being a straight line running in a northeasterly direction from the north side of the mouth of the “Cantagny or Maghonoy Creek,” and now known as Mahanoy Creek, a mile below the present city of Sunbury, “to the north side of the south of the creek called Lechawachsein,” now Lackawaxon, which flows into the Delaware near the northern limit of Pike County; the southern boundary was the mountain range, beginning near Dauphin and running in a northeasterly direction until it falls into the Delaware River at the present Delaware Water Gap.

This new purchase included all or parts of the present counties of Dauphin, Northumberland, Lebanon, Schuylkill, Columbia, Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne.

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Robert Fulton, Native of Lancaster County, Operates First Steamboat, August 17, 1807.

Robert Fulton demonstrated the first successful commercial steam vessel August 17, 1807, when he opened the throttle and the Clermont slowly, but surely, moved against the swift current of the Hudson River.

Robert Fulton was born on a farm in Little Britain Township, Lancaster County, in 1765. His father was a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, and emigrated to Lancaster County in 1735, where he soon became one of the foremost citizens, but did not make a success of farming. A year after Robert’s birth he mortgaged the farm and moved to Lancaster, where he died in 1768.

Mrs. Fulton was left with three daughters and two sons, and but little money and less time to spare to help meet the mortgage. She managed well with her family but the farm was lost.

The boyhood of Robert was filled with a desire to express his feelings through the dual medium of painting and mechanics. He seemed to love both with equal ardor.

His first great thrill came through the acquisition of some discarded paints and brushes brought to school one day by a companion. Fulton accomplished great things with them, and quite forgot he was in school to study.

When Robert was thirteen, the citizens of Lancaster wished to light up the town on the evening of July 4. It was in the midst of the Revolution and candles were as scarce as money. The demonstration was given up until Robert thought out a plan for skyrockets and the lad made possible the celebration.

In Lancaster lived a clever man named William Henry, who had made some experiments with a steamboat. Robert often visited the Henry home, and there saw some pictures painted by Benjamin West, a former Chester County boy, who had gained great fame as an artist. Here was a man who appealed to young Fulton.

Robert placed a paddle wheel on his rowboat after the Henry plan, but propelled it by hand. It is quite possible that he dreamed of the greater speed if steam power could be applied.

When Robert was seventeen his mother apprenticed him to a Philadelphia silversmith. This was a mistake. He showed his character by quitting and establishing himself as a miniature painter—work that he loved. His plain studio was at the corner of Second and Walnut Streets. Here he supported himself for four years. He sketched and painted portraits and landscapes, and made drawings of machinery. So well did he work that at twenty-one he returned to Lancaster with enough money to buy a small farm for his mother.

Following the advice of some friends in 1786, he went to England, where he devoted several years to his profession, under the tuition of Benjamin West, who received him into his own home. Here he became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, the founder of the great canal system of Great Britain, who induced Fulton to abandon art, and take up the study of mechanical science.

Fulton soon invented a double-inclined plane for raising or lowering boats from one level to another. In 1794 he devised a mill for sawing marble. In 1796 he evolved the idea of cast iron aqueducts, and a structure of this kind was built over the River Dee. He designed several bridges; he invented machinery for spinning flax; another for making ropes; one for digging ditches, and a dispatch boat.

In 1796 he published a “Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation,” copies of which were sent to President Washington, and other public officials, accompanied by letters telling of the advantages to be derived by canal navigation in America.

From 1797 to 1804 he resided in Paris with Joel Barlow, the American representative at the French court. During this period Fulton invented a submarine or plunging boat, called a “torpedo” designed to be used in naval warfare. Bonaparte appointed a commission to examine it. Fulton could easily descend to any depth, or rise to the surface. On one occasion he remained below the surface for four hours.

The French Government declined to patronize the project, and Fulton accepted the invitation from the English ministry, but would not agree to sell them a secret which the United States might need.

In 1806, after an absence of nineteen years, Fulton returned to the United States, and devoted his thought to the perfection of a steamboat, a project which he had in his mind for many years.

When in France Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, a rich man from New York, who was much interested in steamboats. Livingston had already built one, which proved a failure. The two men now joined forces. This made a fine association for Fulton’s knowledge of machinery was far greater than Livingston’s, but the latter had the wealth and influence which could bring an invention to the public.

Livingston obtained the sole right for them to navigate the waters of New York State for twenty years, if they could produce a steam vessel capable of a speed of four miles an hour against the current of the Hudson River.

Fulton finished his first steamboat in the Spring of 1807. He called it the Clermont, which was the name of Livingston’s estate near Albany. The first trip from New York to Albany was made on Monday, August 17, 1807—a day that will never be forgotten.

Crowds assembled at the wharf to see the Clermont start. Few believed it would move; most called it “Fulton’s Folly.” The trip was even more successful than Fulton had anticipated; it excited great admiration, and steamboats were rapidly multiplied on American waters. The Clermont made regular trips between New York and Albany, at the rate of five miles per hour, but this speed was soon increased by improvements in the machinery.

The success of the Clermont caused Fulton to construct other and larger boats and ferry boats. He also built the world’s first steam propelled warship, in the War of 1812.

In 1806 he married Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston, by whom he had four children. He possessed great personal dignity and agreeable manners, and many noble qualities of heart.

In the midst of his triumph and in the height of his prosperity he died.

During the winter of 1814–15 he was building a floating steam battery and visited the works at Paulus Hook, now Jersey City. He stood three hours in the cold, and then tramped through pools of water. He became ill from this exposure, but again visited the construction, and died February 24, 1815. The New York Legislature wore mourning six weeks. His funeral was the largest ever held in New York City up to that time. The body of this distinguished Pennsylvanian rests in Trinity churchyard on Broadway, at the head of Wall Street.

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Anti-Masonic Outbreak in Pennsylvania First Felt at New Berlin, August 18, 1829

From 1826 to 1838 may be termed the Anti-Masonic period, for during those eventful years bigotry ran wild, while superstition and fanaticism, like the demons of old, took possession of the many. They were the halcyon days for broken-down politicians to ride into power and place.

Seizing the opportunity, these demagogues originated a political party, whose platform denounced all secret societies, particularly the Freemasons, as destructive of every principle of religion, justice and good government.

During the years 1823 to 1826 there resided in Western New York one William Morgan, a native of Virginia, by trade a stone mason.

It has been represented that he was a veteran of the War of 1812, but he earned his title of Captain as the owner of a fishing smack, with piratical tendencies, which plied along the gulf coast.

In 1825 “Captain” Morgan was residing in Batavia, N. Y., where a poor printer, named Wilbur, concocted with Morgan to publish a book containing the revelations of Freemasonry, which was in fact the copy of a volume formerly published in England in 1750, under the title “Jachin and Boaz.”

As would be expected, the announcement of the publication of the book in question wrought up members of the Masonic fraternity to fever heat. Efforts to suppress the work were freely discussed, and some even proposed doing so by force if it could not be done otherwise.

The respectable part of the fraternity, supposing that no book of that kind would really be published, and, like a nine days’ wonder, if it was, would soon vanish and wholly disappear, took little or no interest in the matter. While they were folding their arms, an inconsiderate scheme was developed by individuals for suppressing by force the contemplated work.

But at this time Morgan was arrested for debt, September 12, 1826, and placed in a carriage and driven to Rochester. That was the last ever seen of him.

Morgan’s sudden disappearance caused great excitement, and gossips gave out the statement that Freemasons had conveyed him to Fort Niagara, while others claimed they had drowned him in Lake Ontario.

Public meetings were held and finally a reprobate named Edward Giddings spread the sensational story that Freemasons had abducted and foully put Morgan to death.

At this time the body of a man was washed ashore on Lake Ontario, and a week after interment the body was exhumed and a second inquest determined that “William Morgan had come to his death by drowning.” The corpse did not, in any particular, resemble Morgan, but the crowd determined that “it was a good enough Morgan until after election.” This body was identified as that of Timothy Monroe, who had drowned September 26. The remains were buried by his widow.

This should have ended the Morgan excitement but it did no such thing. “A lie well stuck to is more convincing than the truth.” So a most infamous deception was practiced upon the people.

Prosecutions were instituted against those who were supposed to have anything to do with the abduction of Morgan. Many trials resulted, but no murder was ever established.

What had become of Morgan? Was he drowned or murdered?

As early as September 26, 1826, the “Intelligencer,” of Harrisburg, as well as other newspapers, cautioned the Masonic fraternity against “a man calling himself Captain Morgan, as he is a swindler and a dangerous man.”

It has been authentically settled that after the night of the so-called abduction, being threatened with numerous suits for debt and other misdemeanors, Morgan left the country of his own free will, going directly to Australia, the passage money being furnished him. Arriving in that far distant clime, he established a newspaper, but died ten years later. A son, who accompanied him, continued the business, and was living just prior to our Civil War.

The Freemasons of New York State, as a body and individually, disclaimed all knowledge of any abduction of “Captain” Morgan.

By 1828 the Anti-Masonic movement had gained such impetus in New York that a candidate for governor was placed on their ticket. Anti-Masonic tickets were named in Massachusetts, Vermont and Ohio.

In 1829 the storm broke out in Pennsylvania, and was first felt in the little town of New Berlin, Union County, where Lafayette Lodge No. 194 was holding a public procession August 18. The speakers for the occasion were Hon. Jesse Merrill, General Henry Frick, Henry C. Eyer, Reverend Just Henry Fries, Reverend John Kessler and Reverend Henry Piggott. Henry W. and George A. Snyder, distinguished sons of former Governor Simon Snyder, were officers of the lodge and had arranged the program.

The meeting was broken up by the hostile action of a mob. It was these same people who sent Ner Middlesworth, that great exponent of Anti-Masonry to the General Assembly; it was also in New Berlin where the first Anti-Masonic newspapers were established.

Joseph Ritner was placed in nomination for the office of Governor by the Anti-Masonic convention, which met in Harrisburg in 1829, and he received 51,000 votes, only 30,000 less than his successful opponent, George Wolf.

A national convention was held in Baltimore September, 1831, which placed a complete ticket in the field. In 1832 the Anti-Masons of Pennsylvania again placed Joseph Ritner in nomination, but he was again defeated by Governor Wolf, but two years later the Anti-Masons gained control of the Legislature, and under the capable leadership of Thaddeus Stevens, made political history in the Keystone State.

In the election of October, 1835, Joseph Ritner was elected, and with both branches of the General Assembly, the Anti-Masons were determined to carry out their various unlawful measures with a high hand.

The Stevens Legislative investigation held December, 1835, proved to be a fiasco, as the inquisition failed to disclose a single unlawful act upon the part of any member of the order of Freemasons or Odd Fellows.

By 1838 the clouds of ignorant oppression had cleared away, and the people, who cared to do so, could unite with either secret organization without fear of social ostracism or political suicide.

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York County and Its Part in the Revolution, Erected August 19, 1749

York County, erected August 19, 1749, from part of Lancaster County, played a conspicuous part and contributed its full share of troops during the period of the early troubles of our Republic. Indeed York County seems to have been in the struggle from the earliest moment to the end of the conflict and in addition furnished men who assumed a leading role in that stirring drama.

Colonel Thomas Hartley, himself one of the greatest patriots of the Revolutionary times, in a letter to President Reed, of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, says:

“They knew they had been as patriotic as any, that the York district had armed the first in Pennsylvania, and had furnished more men in it than any other district on the continent of the same number of inhabitants.”

As early as December, 1774, James Smith, who was a Provincial statesman and sensed the impending struggle with the Mother Country, employed himself in raising and drilling a volunteer company, of which he was elected captain. This is said to be the very first body of volunteer soldiers organized in Pennsylvania, with a view to oppose the armies of Great Britain. The officers were James Smith, captain; Thomas Hartley, first lieutenant; David Grier, second lieutenant, and Henry Miller, ensign. Each of these officers, thus early attached to the cause of liberty, became distinguished in the subsequent history of the country.

A company of riflemen was recruited in York County under the Resolution of Congress, June 14, 1775, which was attached to Thompson’s Riflemen, the first command to receive commissions after General Washington. This company reached Cambridge, Mass., July 25, 1775, and was the first company to arrive there from any point south of Long Island or west of the Hudson River. It got into action July 29, before all the regiment had arrived.