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ATPAi:. RM.
VERSi i Y
LIBRARY '"
DEC 27 1974 '
BINDER? ^ A
F 157 G8M*' ^''■9'"'^ University Libraries "i|»ory of Greene County, Penn *"'''"
II II II I I llllllllllllllllllllllil! Jill IJll l;lli 1
DATE DUE
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DEMCO, INC. 38-2931
HISTORY
OF
GREENE COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA,
BY
SAMUEL P. BATES.
Hills, valep, woods, netted in silver mist, Farms, granges, doubled up among the hills And cattle grazing in the watered vales, And cottage chimnej's smoking from the woods, And cottage L'ardens smelling everywhere. Confused with smell of orchards. 'See! I said. And see 1 is God not with us on the earth '!
—Elizabeth Barrett Crowning.
ILLUSTRATED.
NELSON, RISHFORTH & CO., [ICAG
1888.
». CHICAGO
i
Library Vest Yirginia University
CONTENTS
Martin, Prof. George F T
Mcstrezat, Jean Louis Guillaume T
iMc'Strezat, Frederic T
Milliliiu, Robert T
Millildn, J. L., M.D T
Minor, Otlio W '<
Minor, Joliu S • ■ T
Ponuiugtou, T. F T
ProvinB, J. Y 1
RopR, Silas "'
Titi'H, Eli N '•
TituH, E. L '<
Wcltncr, J. D 1
Williams, Benjamin G ■;
MORGAN TOWNSHIP.
Atlamson, Joseph ■;
Adamson, Smith 1
Bell, J R •;
Bell. I!. F ";
Braden, S. II 1
Buckiniiham, Heury ■;
BnrsDU, A. S 1
Gary, Cephas 1
Clayton, John ■;
Cox, John B '
Crayne, Miller 'i
Crayiie, Stephen 1
Crayiie, David 1
Fulton, Samuel 1
Greenlee, James '
(irucnlee, James '
Grimes, Henry '. '
Harry, C. O '
Ilatfleld, William '
Hawkins, John C ..
Hawkins, R. C
Hawkins, J. F
Holder, Thomas.!...
Horner, O. C
Keys, Henry
Lewis, Samuel
MontL;omery, Samuel
Monti;omery, Thomas H
Murray, Samuel
McCuilough, Able
Pollock, J. C
Pyle, William
Randolph, W. H. F
Rogers, W. D., M. D
Rose, -lohn
Rush, Jac-ol)
Rush, James
Stewart, W. B
Vaukirk, Edward, Sr . . . '.
Virgin, W. H . . .
Walton, Amos
Watson, Henry
MORRIS TOWNSHIP.
Auld, Hugh 798
Bane, Jasper 798
Bradbury, Cyrus 798
Brooks, Enoch 799
Cary, Stephen C 799
Couklin, .John M 800
Drier, H 800
Dunn, Joseph 801
Dunn, William 801
Hays, Jesse L 801
Hopkins, Samuel 803
Hopkins, D. W S02
Huftman, Joseph 808
Innis, Otho 803
lams, J. L 803
Lightner, Henry 804
Loughinau, Daniel 804
Loughman, William 805
Lou<,'limau, Daniel 80.")
iSIeCullouffh, Silas M 805
McVay, Oliver 8lKi
PAGE.
Patterson, Thomas 80G
Pettit, Elymas 807
Pettit, Matthias 807
Ross, Thomas M 807
Sanders, Reuben 808
Shape, George 808
Shoup, Jacob 809
Simpson, Hugh 809
Simpson, J. W 809
Swart, Jacob «10
Throckmorton, William S., M. D 810
PERRY TOWNSHIP.
Blair, Hon. John .. 811
Bovdston, T. W 812
Boydston, Thornton E 812
Brown, O. J 813
Rrown, Reuben., 813
Cowell, S. A 814
Donley, D. L 814
Fox, Dennis 815
Guthrie, Samuel 815
Guthrie, George W 815
Haines, Cyrenius... 810
Hattifkl, Jacob, M. D 8ir.
lIead!ev,G.F 817
Headle'e, W. 0 818
Ileadlee, Joseph 818
Hoy, J. S 819
Lemley, Morris 819
Lemley, Clark 819
Lemley, Asberry 820
Long,.!. W 820
Long, William 820
Lueilen, Coleman 821
Morris, Spencer, M. D 821
M<nris, Levi 822
I'atterson, Joseph 82:i
Keamer, Minor N 823
Shultz, Z. T 821
Snider, A 824
Spitznagel, Jesse 824
Stephens, Spencer 82.")
Wtiitldtch, Lewis 825
RICHHILL TOWNSHIP.
Baldwin, F. W 82(i
Bane, Ellis 82(!
Barnett, A. B,... 827
Bebout, John 827
Booher.I.C 827
Braddoek, James H 828
Eraddock, Newton H 828
r.raddock, F. M 829
Hraddock,D. A 829
Bristor, Robert 829
Clutter, Abraham 8:W
Clutter, William 830
Coukey, J. M 831
Conkey, James Han'cy 8:51
Day, Hiram 8:^1
Drake, W. S *W
Ferrell, Georse W 832
Fletcher, H. B 8:i3
Fonner, William R 833
Goodwin. A. J 834
Goodwin, Daniel 834
(i ray, Thomas L 835
Gribbcn, Elias K.. 835
Grim, Capt. Samuel 83()
llanna, Rev. William 836
Hughes, James *<37
Jacobs, William 837
Knight S 838
Lazear. Jesse 8-iS
Leslie, JohnJ : f}^
Loar, Jacob 839
Loughridge, J. K 810
Marsh, Phillip 841
Milliken, William 6 841
Murray, John M "'■-'
CONTENTS.
McCleary, T. J 8«
McNay, B. H 84:^
Orudoff, Johu 844
Parry, n. H 844
Pattersou, J. E., M. D 844
Scott, Mason .. 845
Scott, Hirnni 845
Smith, Itobert 845
Smith, -Tamus L 846
Supli-T, Martin 84ti
Wrisht, John M 847
Wright, G. W 847
White, P.. T 847
SPRINGHILL TOWNSHIP.
Ayere, J . 1! 848
Barger, Johu 848
Burdiue, James 849
Bitrge,W.L 850
Carpenter, Thomas M 850
Dinsmore, P. C, M. D 851
Perrcll, James M 851
Griffith,F.lI 852
Griffith, Samuel 853
Hamilton, Lewis W 852
llamiltou, Enoch 853
HoslviusoUjW. P 853
Isiminger, Josephus 854
Isimiuiier, Jacob 854
Miller, Johu H., M. D 854
Miller, John 855
Morford, J. L 855
McNecly, John 856
Rinehart, J. H., M. D 85B
Uiuchart, W. 11 ..856
Stiles, James 857
Strope, Thomas 8.")8
W^hite, W.T 858
Whitlatch, Joseph ... 858
Wildmau, William 859
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP,
Barnes, Silas 8.59
Boyd, James 860
Bristor, Robert 860
Gary, Sylvester 861
Closser.J. W 861
Craig, Jeg.se 862
Durbiu, Enoch 862
Durbiu, G. M' 863
Edgar, John 863
Fulton, Stephen 863
Garner, Spencer B 864
llufl'man, T. J 864
Huffman, G.W 865
Hughes, Andrew 865
Johnson, Zephaniah 865
Johnson, George W 866
Johnson, Zenas 866
Johns, D.W 867
Johns, Jacob 867
Keiglev, George 868
Martin, John M 868
Meek, h. \V 868
Meek, Cephas 869
I'AGE.
Mitchell, Asa 869
McClelland, M. M 870
Pettit, John 870
Pettit, Joseph H 870
Roes, Johu 871
Ross, Thomas 871
Shirk, Benjamin 872
Smith, J. H 872
Walker, Johu 873
WAYNE TOWNSHIP.
Bell, George W 874
Brant, Hon. Matthias 874
Brant, Kendall J 875
Calvert, Richard T 875
Coen, J ohu P 875
Cole, Ephraim 876
(Jole, James L 876
Cole, Henry 877
Conkliu, Henry 877
Cumberk'dL'e, A.J 877
Freehuid, John 878
Headley, Sam II 878
Johnson, William U 879
Kent, J. S 879
Kuight, Jame.s 880
Lantz, William 880
Moore, George W 881
Phillips, Hon. Jesse 881
Phillips, William D 882
Phillips, John Mc 882
Spragg, David 882
Spragg, Caleb A 883
Si)ragg, Henry M 8h4
Stewiut, Israel 884
Tustin, Abraham 884
White, Reasin 885
Worley, Johu I 885
Zimmerman, Robert 886
WHITELEY TOWNSHIP.
Bailey, A. M 88^
Bare, David 887
Bt)wers, Henrv 8&S
Brant, M.C' 888
Cowell, David L 889
Cowell, John M 889
Cummins, Johu A 890
Fox, John 890
Puller, John S 891
Gump, Abraham 891 v
Guthrie, Solomon 892 /
Hatfield, G. W 892
John, Christopher . . 892
Moss, G. W., M. D 893
Morris, Henry . . 891
Morris, Elijah 894
Patterson, Rufus 894
Shriver, Arthur 895
Smith, A. J 895
Staggers, Lisbon 895
Stephens, Liudsey 896
Strosnider, Simon R 897
Temple,A. M 897
Zimmerman, James R 898
PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
Adamson, Thomas 265
Barnes, .lames 125
Beall, Emanuel 335
Biddle, N . II 165
Black, Hon. C. A 25
Braddock, P. M 235
Clayton, J ohn 85
Couklin, John M 451
PAOE.
Donley, D. L 275
Fordyce, A. G ;i85
Fo.K, Dennis 355
Fuller, John S 65
Gordon, IIou. Johu B 16
Grimes, P. M 245
Hatfield, Jacob, M. D 1.55
Hinermau, Liudsey 435
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
'^wyiin, Jot^iah • •>!''
iwymi, J. F two
11. rtninn, Williniu ^iS"
lliithiiwiiy, J. W <i~l
Il;unilt()ii, JoRcph t'~l
Jackcoii, I. H... 6~'2
Kerr, Willinm tJ22
Kerr, James t>23
Kerr, John C 6-28
Kerr, Archibald (i23
LaifUe V, ^sorval fril
Laiclley, J. B, M D f,24
Laidlev, Hon. T. II fi'-T'
Lousi, K. S t>25
Lotij;, >! ilton ti2«
Minor Family fil!^
Murdock, Jariie.-' 6-'fi
Miirdock, William M ti-2tj
^loredoek, ISimou >)-"
McCliiUock, Rev. John •"•■27
McMillan, Rev. John ti-.'8
]S ickesou, Prof. W. M WJ
Pattertion, I. I! h*l
Patterson, J. G r,:iO
Rea, J. II b81
Rea, Samuel W (181
Reeves, Joseph ti3--
Rich, Daniel fi«
Richey, Alb(-rt M («3
Rinehart, Thomas ti3.3
Ro<;er,-i, Thomas W 634
Sharpnack, A. J (iS")
Sharpnack, Levi A 035
Stewart, Thomas L t)35
Stone, Elias H35
Steiihensoii, D. C 636
Topi)in, Johnson 63ti
"Warne, T. P 63V
Wilev, Lem II 637
Yonui,', A.J 638
Young, Morgan 6:18
DUNKARD TOWNSHIP.
Beall, Emanuel .... 639
Coalhauk, Thornton 639
Dilliner, Ambrose 640
Knotts, Ira B., M. D 640
Mason, John B 641
Miller, George G 611
Miller, Asa .'. 642
Morris, I. A 643
McClui-e, James 643
Roberts, Thomas B 644
Steele, David 644
Steele, Thomas B 644
Sterlins, Abraham 645
South, Joseph 645
South, Rev. Frank 645
Vanvoorhis, L. G 646
Vanvoorhi.s, Isaac 646
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP AND WAYNES- BURG BOROUGH.
Adamson, Thomas 647
A damson, Cvrns 648
Allum,J.P.' 64S
Ankrom, A.I 618
Axtcll, H. B 649
Barb, William H 649
liell, Jason JI 65t1
Blachlv, Stephen L., M. D 6.V)
Black.'Hon. C. A - 6.51
Blair, William 651
Boyd, James 653
.Brock, R. E., M. D 652
Bower, C . E 652
Buchanan, James A. J 652
Call, Harvey 653
Call, John 653
Chapman, G, W 654
Cooke, A.I 654
PAQE.
Cole, Jacob <)■"
Crawford, David 655
Cross. A. G., M. D H'^fi
Day, William G. W O^T
Day, Harvev • ''"8
Uehnv. B. A. W l".-i8
Donley, Hon. J. B (i"-8
Douga"l, Thomas E 659
Downey. R. F •''!"
Ely, J.*W., M. D two
Ely, Jonas ''lil
Evans. W. W ''•!!
Funk. J. M •!•«
Garard, J. C "^3
Gordon, Captain John A '''i3
Gordon, Solomon 664
Gordon, Hon. Basil 661
Gordon. Hon. John B l;<>^
Goodwin. Thomas •'•i'^
Grimes, H. M <i<>5
Hainer, D. II •jC'J
Ilarvev. Samuel G'i''
Ilavs, William Thompson 667
Her) i'.', Joseph S e<"°
IlerrinKtou, B. F "w
Hill. Jesse «i"
Ho<re, Norval ''■O
Ilogc, Asa B >>"^
Hoge, James ^I 'iTi
Hooper. Isaac ''7''
Hook. W. A <;J~
Hook. Thomas <;i_j
Hoskinson. Thomas O'S
Hughes, William R '^^3
lams, John T., M. D B'f
Illis, Frederick Ort
Inghram, William *''JJi
Inghram, Hon. James ''75
Jennings, Col. James S ' ']iJ]
Johnson, William R •7'>
Jordon. Rev. C. P '^^,7
Kent, Hiram '. *"7
Kent, Col. John M '"8
Kimher, Capt. W. E ''I'l
Knox, I. H <;'i'
Knox,P. A 68(1
Lantz, W. T 680
Lemley, J. S 1)81
Levino, Morris "^i
Lindsey, Hon. James *>81
LindseV, H. H "jSa
Lippencott, William. Sr 662
Lucas.H.C 6'^-^
Miller, A. B., D. D. LL. D [;83
Mitchell, Isaac ^8o
Moftett, T. P 6t>o
Moore, John A '•^''
Morris, William H ^Hh
McCounell, Hon. Robert A 68<
McConnell. Joseph L '»88
McNav, Samuel J ''88
Orndoff. Jesse B «' 8
Parshall, Nfithaniel 6SJ
Patterson, W. W '>»'J
Patterson, Rev, Alb<^t E 6S9
Patton, Hon. Alexander ');' '
Patton, Joseph ^-^0
Paul.'v, W. T. H I; 0
Phelan, Zadock W "Sii
Phelan, R. H 691
Pipes, John R 69;.
Pratt, D. B W'.;
Purman. A. A 6.) 5
Ragan.Z. C '^>
Randolph, James P 694
Randolph, J. A . F 6^-3
Kay, Joseph W ^Po
Rhodes, William 69b
Rinehart, S. S 6'7
Rinehart, James R 69^
Rinehart, Prof. A. I. P 69»
i,^^^-'
CONTENTS.
Ritchiu, J. G
Ro.ss, Mor;^an
Hoes, Joseph B. . . Ross, IIou. Abnor.
Rogers, .T. H
Ryan, Rev.W. M.
PAGE.
... 698 . . . 099 ... 699 .... 700 ..-700 . .. 701
Siiyers, E. M 702
Sayere, James E 702
Sayers, Robert A 703
8ayers, Henry U . 704
Scott, J. M 704
Scott, S. \V 70.5
Scott, W. G 70.5
Shipley, E. H 706
Silveu.s, A. F 706
Simpson, Rev. J, L 706
Smalley, A. 0 707
Smith, J. M 707
Sm ith, J ames B 70S
Sprags, D. A 708
Sprout, T. Ross .',. . . 709
Strosnider, M. L 709
Stoy, Capt. W.n 710
r.".vlor, George 710
Tempifc, J. P 711
Teagardeu, John P. 711
Throckmorton, Job 718
'! hrockmortou, F. LJ 714
Ullom, J. T., M. D 714
Vundriitr, M'. S 714
M'alton, D. S 715
Wisccarvcr, (Joort'o W 715
^\■ood, Rev. Joel J 717
Mood, Hiram (' 717
Zimmerman, Henry 718
Zollars, R. S " 718
GILMORE TOWNSHIP.
Clovis, William 719
JJye. Jeflersou 719
Eakin, Jacob M 720
Fordyco, John G 731
Ixilmore, S. W 721
;a;r';n. Hon. John 722
Ileuneu, T . M 722
Lantz, John ' 722
Lcmmon, W. M 723
Lemmon, Salem 723
Lemmon, Salathiel .•. . 724
Mciirheu, Peter 724
Sliriver, Jacob L., M. D 726
Shongh, Philip 725
Taylor, Abraham 726
GREENE TOWNSHIP.
Baihiv, W. C 727
Ueunv, B. W., M. D 727
''lenniken, W. C 738
.ianird, Stephenson 738
Keener, Charles 729
Tjaut/., Hon. Andrew 729
Lantz, John F 729
Liint/,, George W 730
:Myers, P. A 7a0
Reamer, Jaccdj 731
,Roberts, J. B 731
Sedtrewick, T. H., M. D 731
feouth, Benjamin 732
Vance, Joseph 733
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP AND JEFFERSON BOROUGH.
A.mmons, A. F 733
.'' ne, N. M 734
Bayard, Samuel., 734
Biuson, J. C 735
Cottcrrel, William 735
Cotterrel, John, Sr 735
( oltcrrcl, J ohn, .1 r 7.j6
Cree, Hugh D 736
Dowlin, Jesse 737
Goodwin, William 737
PAGE.
Gwyun, Marshall 737
Haver, John 7'' 8
Haver, Jacob 'i38
Haver, Charles II 738
Hays, Isaac 739 *'
Hughes, Charles 739 ,
Hughes, John H 740
Jordan, Robert H 740
Kendall, John (' 740
Long, Eli 741
Love, Martin J 741
McCleary, Ewing 742
McGoveru, Michael 742
McMinu, Thomas R 743
Moredock, Daniel ; . 743
Price, Jeremiah 744
Rex, George 744
Rinehart, U. P 745
Scott, James 745
Shape, ^lilton S 746
Sharpuack, Thomas 746
Sharpnack, T. 11., M. D 747
Sharpnack, Stiers 747
Shaw, Alva C 748
Smith, Sylvanus, M. D 748
Tilton, Rev. Charles W 749
Wise, F. B V49
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
Carpenter, James 750
Graham, William TSO
Grimes, Harvey Allison 7.51
Grimes, George W 751 i
Grimes, P.M. 751
Groves, John 752
Hull'man, William 753
Johnson, N. H 753
Keener, Liudsey 753
Kiger, Alexander 753
Kughn, Lester 751
Kughu, Jackson p4
Meek, James 754
Milliken, W. E 75o
Mitchell, L.H 75o
Mitchell, Rufus C 756 ,
Mitchell, A.J 756
Morris, .Jacob 756
Scott, Capt. John 75i
Smith, Hugh 758
Smith, Johnson T 7.58
Staggers, Abraham 758
Weaver, Hiram 759
Weaver, Jacob 760
Weaver, David 759
Webster, Joseph 760
White, Hiram '*>!
Williams, T. T., M. U 761
Wood, James '6-^
MONONGAHELA TOWNSHIP AND GREENS- BORO BOROUGH.
Atchison, II. K 76,'
Barb, John W 763
Birch, George F., M. D 763
Black, James A 764
Black, J. S 764
Blackshere, James E 76._>
Boughner, A. V 7ti.>
Cooper, O. P 765
Donawny, A.B 766
Dulauy, J. H 766
Dunlap, Samuel 766
Evans, E.S 767
Flcnniken, Elias A 76/
Gabler,A.K : 768
Gabler, J. W 768 ;
Grav, J. R 769 | ,
Greene, Wilson, M. D 769 ^
Jones, John 770
Kramer, T. P 771 |
Kramer, John C 773 .
Kramer, John P — 772 .
CONTENTS.
I'AGE.
Hughes, James 315
lams, Hon. Thomas 105
Johns, Jacob, Sr 205
Lind^ey, Hon. James 55
Lippencott, William 325
Loutr, Eli 225
Loushridge, J. K 505
Meek, James 305
Mestrezat, John Louis Guillanmi.- 135
Miller, Asa 395
Millikiu, John L., M. D 375
Morris, Isaac A 415
Moss, G. \y., M. D 195
AlcClelland, M. M :i45
McCouuell, Robert A 185
PAOE.
McMimi, T. R 255
McVav, James 295
Parrv.W. M., M.D 4S?
Phillips, O.S 409
Sayers, E. M 35
Scott, Capt. John 75
Scott, James 285
Sprassr, David 145
Swart, Jacob . . 305
Thompsou, Samuel 215
Tilton, Rev. C. VV 95
Throckmorton, W. S., M. D 1T5
\S' isccarver, George W 45
Worley, John I... 115
Young, A.J 405
Map of Greene County 15
PREFACE.
The section of country, of which Greene County occupies a central
position, has more vitally interesting problems in its history, than any
other portion of the United States. The nationality which should occupy
the great Mississippi Valley — Spanish, French, or English; the narrowed
struggle between the French and the English, inaugurated by Marquette
and LaSalle, in their pious ceremonials, and by Celeron in planting tlio
leaden plates; the fierce military contest led by Washington, Braddock,
^and Forbes for possession of Fort Pitt and the final banishment of the
French beyond the lakes; the long and wasting conflict with the natives
in which isolated pioneers with their families were exposed in their
scattered cabins in the forest, to the fiendish arts of the stealthy and
heartless savage, who spared neither the helpless infant, the tender female,
nor trembling age; the protracted controversy with Maryland over the
possession of territory which both States claimed; the settlements of a
Virginia company on Pennsylvania soil, and the claim of the former State
to the whole boundless Northwest; the chances by which the final
, settlement of possession was invested, and the finding of the southwest
ncorner of the State finally accomplished by astronomical observations at
^the instance of Thomas Jefferson; the subtle influences which swayed the
vocation of the National road, and the Baltimore and Ohio railway — these
were all questions which nearly touch the ultimate reaches of its history.
. ic has been thought best accordingly, to give generous space in this volume to these vital subjects, which will ever command the attentior of the thoughtful, will daily increase in interest to the oncoming genera-
c tions, and by means of which we trace the philosophy of the vital events
c of history that are really useful.
t In preparing these pages for publication it has been decided not to
Jlencumber the text with marginal notes, and references to authorities; but
irto name authors where their investigations have been used, and to make acknowledgements in a general way. It would be impossible to name all, but the following have been found especially useful and have been ' freely consulted : The Histories of the United States by Bancroft, Hildreth,
"^"l' Spencer, Bryant, and Lossing; Irviug's Life of Washington; Life and Writings of William Penn; Colonial Records, and Pennsylvania archives; History of Pennsylvania Volunteers; the Western Annals; History of
IV PREFACE. I
Western Pennsylvania; Piedstone Presbytery; McConnell's Map of Greene; County; The Historical Atlas; the State Reports of Education from 18S1\ to 1887; and Crumrine's History of Washington County. \
Especial acknowledgements are due to L. K. Evans, Esq., who, during the Centennial year of American Independence, published in the Waynes-i burg Hepublicrm, which he then edited, a series of articles running through an entire year of weekly issues, embracing investigations which he pushed with singular perseverance and marked success, covering much of tha early history of the county. In a spirit of generosity and kindness, he not only placed at my disposal a complete set of these articles, but alsc ? mass of manuscript which had been addressed to him by aged citizens in various sections of the county, bearing upon the subject of his investi- gations. From these sources matter has been freely drawn; and though it has not been possible, on account of the limits prescribed to this work, to use as much as might have been desired, in the interesting style h. which it appears, yet in a condensed form it has been freely appropriated. Probably no equal portion of any part of the United States has been, the scene of so many cold-blooded and heartless murders by the Indians! as this county; not because the pioneers here provoked the natives to re- venge, nor because they were the special objects of hatred, but because they happened to be in the way of the savages in their march to and fro upon their war expeditions, and because this was their ancient hunting ground. The Indians neV^er made this section their home, having no vil- lages nor wigwams in all its limits; but from time immemorial had kept this as a sort of park or preserve for the breeding of their game. They may have felt aggrieved in seeing their favorite hunting grounds broken in iipon, and the game scared away by the ring of the settler's ax, the echo of his gun, and his frequent burnings; but it is probable that this haa less influence than the fact that their war-paths happened to cross here,) and they found in their way subjects on whom they could glut theiri savage instincts. There are over one hundred well authenticated recordsj in the State archives of murders committed within the limits of this small; county alone.
Hoping that the work will prove useful to the citizens of the county, and especially to the rising generation, and will serve to stimulate to, further inquiry into the subjects which it touches, it is respectively sub- mitted to their considerate judgment.
S. P. B. Waynesburg, Nov. 13, 1888. ,
History of Greene County,
PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER I.
PicTUKKSQUE Beauty ov (tiieene Coi^ntv — -AYords oe Alexander Ca>[pbell — Its L(jcation — 389,120 Square Acres — Streams DRAixi>a It — Water-siied^ — Trend of the Hills — Fertility OF THE Soil — Liiviestone — Forests — Remarks upon Forestry — A Girdled Forest — Consequfnce of War upon the For- ests— Judicious Planting — The Suoar Maple — As Seen in Southern Italy — Questions Touching its Early Occupation.
AN Ens^lisli nobleman of the last generation, scliooled by travel in many lands, in a book which he wrote descriptive of an extended tour in the United States, deliberately declared that of all the lands which had gladdened his vision by their picturesque beauty in any part of the globe, none excelled those along the upper waters of the Ohio and its tributary streams. Indeed, so fascinated were the early French visitants, accustomed in their own land to scenes of enchant- ing natural beauty, that when they beheld the Ohio, they designated it, and ever after called it in all their books and writings. La Belle Revicve.
Of that portion of country, which, by its lines of beauty and grace, has justly won these generous and just encomiums, to none can they more fairly be applied, than to that territory included within the limits of Greene County; for it will be remembered that the French knew less of what is now designated the Ohio River, than its two principal tributaries, to which they applied the one common name. To the traveler who passes on over its network of highways, winding among its crown of hills, or by the margin of its sparkling streams,^ on every side are presented the elements of beauty; and the artist who seeks for worthy subjects of his brush, cannot fail to find them here. The monotony which plagues the traveler in a prairie land, and in many portions of the Atlantic shores, is unknown to
18 HISTORY OE GREENE COUNTY.
him here. Scarcely one field in all its broad domain is like another. Nor is there here the other extreme, — the bald and shaggy mountain with its inaccessible summits, forbidding intercourse from its op posing sides, given up to barrenness and sterility.
But everywhere is pleasing variety. In spring time the whole sur- face of the landscape is gladdened with the verdure of the fast spring- ing wheat, and rich pasturage links tlie margins of the quick flowing streams to the summits of the farthest hills. In summer time num- berless flocks and herds lick up the morning dew of the valley, repose at the heated noontide beneatli ample shade, or slake their thirst at the cool and abundant fountains, and find rest at night-fall on some breezy knoll or sheltered nook. In autunm shocks of well ripened grain gladden all the valleys, and along the hills are ridges of golden corn. When winter comes with its hoary Ijreatli, and river, and creek, and brooklet are bound in icy adamant, and the great clouds of snow- flakes come whirling over hill-tops and down the valleys, wrapping all the earth in a drapery of white, the sun, though with far-off slanting rays, peers into happy homes, sheltered from the biting blast by massive hills that rise up in giant form on every side, like trusty sentinels to keep back and break the force of the blizzards that come with their deathly embrace to torment the dwellers on the western plains.
That I may not seem extravagant in my estimate of the beauties of a Greene County landscape, or the fertility of its soil, I quote the language of one who well knew of what lie was writing, and was not accustomed to speak in terms of exaggeration, — the Memoirs of Alex- ander Campbell. "As we follow the descending waters, the hills and upland regions, M'hich in reality preserve pretty much the same level, seem gradually to become higher, so that by the time we ap- proach the Ohio and Monongahela liivers, their sides growing more and more precipitous, rise to a height of four or five himdred feet. These steep declivities inclose the fertile valleys, through which the larger streams wind in graceful curves. Into these wide valleys small rivulets pour their limpid waters, issuing at short intervals upon each side from deep ravines formed by steep hillsides, which closely approach each other, and down which the waters of the springs, with which the upland is abundantly supplied, fall from rock to rock in miniature cascades. Upon the upland not immediately bordering upon the streams, the country is rolling, having the same general elevation, above which, however, the summit of a hill occasionally lifts-itself, as though to afford to lovers of beautiful landscapes most delightful views of a country covered for many miles with rich pasturages, with grazing herds or flocks, fruitful grain-fields or orch- ards, gardens and farm-houses, while upon the steeper sides of the valleys still remain some of the ancient forest growths of oak and
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 19
ash, walnut, hickory and maple. Frequently as the traveler passes along the roads upon the upland, he sees suddenly from somedividino; ridge, charming valleys stretching away for miles with their green meadows, rich lields of corn, and sparkling streamlets. At other times, as he advances, he admires with delight in the distance, tht- ever varying line of the horizon, which on all sides is formed by the summits of remote ridges and elevations, sometimes conical in form, but mostly delined hy various arcs of circles, as regularly drawn as if a pair of compasses had traced the lines upon the sky. Every- where around him he sees lands abounding in limestone, and all the necessary elements of fertility, and producing upon even the highest summits abundant crops of all the cereal grains. To enhance the natural resources of tliis picturesque country, its hills conceal im- mense deposits of bituminous coal, which the descending streams here and there expose. * ''^ * Such for nearly two hundred miles west of the Alleghanies, is the general character of this region especial- ly of that portion of it lying along the Monongahela and Ohio, a region whose healthfulness is not surpassed by that of any country in the world."
We have thus far considered only the general aspects of the county. Its location and topographical features can be briefly stated. Greene County is situated in the extreme southwest corner of Pennsylvania, and is bounded on the north by Washington County, on theeastby the Monongahela River which separates it from Fayette County, on the south by West Virginia, the western extremity of Mason and Dixon's line forming the dividing boundary, and on the west by West Virginia, known as the Panhandle, the western merid- ian line of five degrees measuring the length of the State constitut- ing the line of demarkation. It contains within these limits three hundred and eightj^-nine thousand, one liundred and twenty square acres (389,120) of surface, or about six hundred and eight square miles (608). Were it in the form of an absolute square it would be nearly twenty-live miles on each side, or a hundred miles in circuit; but as the length is to the breadth as live to three, the average length may be set down as thirty-two miles and breadth nineteen. The surface is drained by the Monongahela River, which unites with the Allegheny at Pittsburg and forms the Ohio proper, and by the Wheeling River which also falls into the Ohio, and forms part of the great Mississippi system. The water-shed which separates the waters of the Monongahela from the Wheeling system, commences at a point on the Washington County line a little north and east of the Baptist church, near the northern extremity of Morris Township, and pursues a southwesterly course cutting a small section of the eastern portion of Richhill Township, striking Jackson Township at a point near the intersection of Jackson with Centre, dividing Jackson
20 HISTORY OF GKEENE COUNTY.
from north to south very nearly at its center, cutting off the north- west corner of Gihiiore, and the southwest corner of Springhill Town- ships, and passes on into West Virginia near the center of the southern boundary of the latter township, thus forming as it were, the back-bone of the county, and sending the waters on its eastern slope through innumerable and devious channels to the on-moving waters of the Monongahela, and those upon the western slope to the Wheeling.
Of the streams which drain the eastern slope, Ten Mile Creek is the most considerable, draining with its tributaries a full third of the entire territory; the second in magnitude, and nearly the equal of the former, though receiving a considerable portion of its volume from West Vii-ginia, is Dunkard Creek. Of lesser magnitude are Muddy Creek, Little Wliiteley and Whiteley. On the western slope are Ens- low's and North Forks of A¥heeling Creek and Pennsylvania Fork of Fish Creek.
Ten Mile Creek, which forms the northern boundary of Jefferson Township, and the northern limit of the county and is something less than four miles in length, is formed by the junction of the North and South Forks. The North Fork is forthe most part in Washing- ton County, draining its southeastern section. The ISouth Fork which drains the central and northeastern portion of Greene County, has for its tributaries on the left bank,Casteel Hun, Ruff's Creek, Wylies Run, Brown's Fork, Bates' Fork, Brushy Fork, Gray Rnn and MirandaRun, and upon the right bank, McCourtney's Run, llargus Creek, Pursley Creek, Smith Creek, Laurel Run and Coal Lick Run. Pumpkin Run is the next stream south of Ten Mile Creek and empties into the Monongahela at the point where is located the village of Patton and Hughe's Ferry. Muddy Creek drains for the most part Cumberland Township, passes through the village of Carmichaels and enters the river where has been established Flenniken's Ferry. Whiteley Creek which is fed by Frosty, Lantz and Dyer's Runs from the north, drains Whiteley, Greene and Monongahela Townships, passes through the villages of Kirby, Lone Tree, AVhiteley and Mapletown, and falls into the Monongahela River at Ross' Ferry. Dunkard Creek, which has for tributaries West's, Culvin's, Shannon's, Randolph's Robert's, Rush's Hoover's, Fordyce's, Tom's and Blockhouse Runs from the north, and numberless confluents from West Virginia from the south, has upon its banks the villages of Mt. Morris, Fair Chance and Taylortown and is the last of the considerable streams that flow into the Monongahela River on the south in Pennsylvania. The North Fork of Wheeling Creek, which drains the western slope of the county is fed upon the left bank by Whorton's, Hewitt's, Chamber's and A¥hite's Runs, and on the right bank by Stonecoal, Crabapple, Laurel, Kent's, Wright's and White Thorn Runs, and has
HISTOKY OF GREENE COUNTY. 21
the villages of Bristoria, Ej^erson and Crow's Mills, located upon it banks. Fish Creek is fed by Hart's, Waggon-road, Laurel aru
its
k1 Herod's Runs, and has the villages of Freeport and Deep Yallej'.
The general trend of the hills throughout the county of Greene is from northwest to southeast, and the roads which follow the val- leys by which the hills are bordered, follow the same general direc- tion, being for the most part parallel to each other and connected at intervals by cross roads leading over the hills, or through intersectino- valleys. The only exception to this general law is the tract embracino- the three western townships, comprising the valley of Wheeling <'reek, where the course is from north to south or bearing some- what from northeast to southwest. ICvery part of the surface is well watered by abundant springs and streams, and the soil is deep and fertile, being tillable even to the very summits of the highest hills. In many portions the hillsides, though very abrupt, are capable of being cultivated, and yield good returns for the labor l)estowed. In the western section of the county are beds of limestone, which, on being reduced and applied to the soil, stimulates it to great fertility. When first visited by the white man, this whole stretch of country was covered with one vast forest, the trees of giant growth, consist- ing of white oak, red oak, black oak, and in many sections of sugar maple, chestnut, black walnut, hickory, butternut, ash, poplar, locust, ciierry, ironwood, laurel and bay. In the rich bottoms, along the Monongahela River, in the southeastern section of the county, were, originally, vast tracts of pine and hemlock and spruce. These have been swept away for use in building, and the arts, until scarcely a vestige remains of the pristine forests, and few if any of a new growth have been permitted to spring up in their places. As a consequence, all the rough timber and sheeting boards used in building, are of the different varieties of oak. Poplar and hard-woods have now to be used as a finishing wood, or if pine is employed it has to be imported. The observation may be permitted in this connection, though not strictly in place here, that the subject of forestry has been too much overlooked by the inhabitants of Greene County. In a former generation the deep, dense forest was looked upon as the worst enemy of the settler, standing in the way of his improvements, and shutting out the sunlight from his vegetables and growing crops. Hence, to get the heavy growths out of his way, and prevent future growths was his greatest care. In what way this could be ac- complished with the least labor and most speedily, was his chief concern. Hence the hai'dy axmen went forth at the first breaking of the rosy tinted morn, and we can realize as he attacks,
-some stately growth of oak or piue,
Which nods aloft and proudly sjireads her shade,
The sun's defiance and the flock's defence;
How by strong strokes tough fibers yield at length,
22 iiisTOKY OF gkep:ne county.
Loud groans her last, and rushing from her height, In cumbrous ruin thunders to the ground. The concious forest trembles at the shock. And hill, and stream, and distant dale resound. "
This is bttt the history of what was transpiring in every portion of the county, day after day, and year after year, through all the early generations. It was too laborious and troublesome to cliop the monster trunks into sections fit for handling, so, fire was brought into requisition, and at convenient intervals burnings were made, when the dissevered parts could then be swung around into piles and the torch applied. All through the dry season vast volumes of smoke would ascend heavenward, and at night the sky would be illumined by the flames leaping upward and standing like beacon lights on every hill-top and down every valley. And when the settler was in too much haste to cut and burn tlie cumbersome forest, he would rob the innocent trees of their life by girdling the sap, thus cutting off" the health giving currents. I)y this process the foliage was forever broken, and the light and genial warmth of the sun was let in upon the virgin mould of centuries, which was quickened into life as the husbandman dropped his cherished seed. But there stood the giant forest stil), torn and wrenched by lightning and storm, stretching out its massive arms to lieaven, bleached and whitened by sun and shower, like the ghosts of their departed greatness, and as if implor- ing mercy still. One can scarcely pass one of these lifeless forests,, without a sigh of pity for the decaying monarchs.
But they subserve a purpose. The constant droppings from their decaying limbs engender moisture, and give nourishment to the rich ])asturage which springs, like tufts of velvet, beneath them: and, when at length they yield to the Idows of the elements, and the cor- oding tooth of time, they are i-educed to asiies, and finally disapj)ear from sight. They were sometimes fired while still standing, and scarcely can a more sublime sight be imagined than a forest of lifeless- trees in full blaze. The aslies 'from a burned forest were some- times gathei-ed up and converted into potash, which always com- manded ready sale in the eastern market, and was exchanged for salt and other necessaries of life not produced in the vicinage.
But what will be the consequence of this indiscriminate war upon the forests ? In a few crenerations the hills, being entirely denuded of shade, will be Darched by the burning suns of summer, and the streams will become less copious in the heated term and will eventual- ly l)ecome entirely dry. On the other hand, in the spring time, with no forests to hold the moisture, and yield it up gradually through the burning months when needed, the rains and melting snows will descend in torrents, and flood the valleys. The fertility of the soil will be soaked and drained out of it, the hillsides will be gashed and
HISTOIIY OF GKKKXK COUNTY. 23
seamed by the descending torrents, and thus all the hills, burned in summer and flooded in winter, will become barren. The tiller (^f the soil will wonder at the scantiness of his crops, and his tlocks and herds will ]>leat and call in hopeless starvation.
Of late years an attempt has been made to excite an intei'est in forestry'. Mr. Northup, in Connecticut, has secured some legislation upon the subject in that State and by lecturing before teachers' in- stitutes, and on public occasions, has called attention to the subject, so tliat we have our forestry day in this State, to which the governor annually calls attention by a special proclamation. IJut the manner in which it is acted upon, instead of resulting in a public oood, will be a positive injury. In the appeals of ^Ir. Xorthup and others, the call is to have trees planted about school-houses and dwellings, Now what will be the consequence ( In a few years, when the trees have become grown, there will be excessive shade and moisture. Moss will accumulate upon the roofs, the suidight will be entirely shut out, and the children will be pale and sickly in consequencf. The school-room will become unhealthy for lack of sunligiit, and the dwelling will be damp and gloomy. ()ne tree for a scliool ground not exceeding one acre, is ample shade. Excessive shade must always ])rove injurious to health, while sun light is a better medicine for failing strength than ever iiuman ingenuity com- pounded.
But Aviuit is the remedy for the evil complained of ^ The forester should commence his work upon the far-off hill tops, and with dili- gent hand should crown "them with forests most useful and valuable to man, — the line maple, comely in shape, challenging the painter's most gaudy pigments for color, close-grained and unyielding in tiber for lumber; the walnut, cherry and ash, unrivalled for furniture and linishing: the chestnut, valual)le for its nuts and for fencincf, and pine and birch and hemlock, iiseful all. For liolding moisture, and tempering the heats of summer, none are more useful than the ever- greens. All the waste places, the ravines and rugged hill-sides, unsuitable for cultivation, should be planted. The sugar from a thousand good trees will bring to any farmer a bigger income than the whole produce of his farm in other ways. The price of a good black walnut log is almost fabulous. A white ash of twenty years' growth will yield a timber unsurpassed for carriages; and pine of tifteen years' growth will produce lumber which will be much sought for, and is 3^ear by year becoming more and more scarce. A good field of planted trees, or sprout land, should be fenced and protected from the browsing of cattle, as carefully as a field of corn. It may seem an unpalatable doctrine to preach, that the forests, which our fathers M^orked themselves lean to banish, should be protected, and nurtured, and brought back to their old places. I3ut it is a true
24 IIISTOKY OF GKEENK COUNTY.
gospel, and if we look carefully at it in all its bearings, Me shall re- ceive it and recognize it as possessing saving grace.
Along the hills of sonthern Itidy may be seen, to-day, an aspect which, in a few years, will be presented in the now fertile lands of Greene County. The Italian hills for centuries have been swept bare of forests. As a conse(j[uence, the soil is parched in summer time, and has become bare and barren; the streams, which in other days were deep and ran in full volume to the sea, and were the theme of extravagant praises by the Latin poets, are now for months together entirely dry, not a gush of water gladdening their baked and parched beds. Of the innumerable streams which fall into the Mediterranean on the western coast, from Genoa to the Straits ol" JMessina,-there are only a very few, like the Anio and the Tiber, that do not, in July and August, cease to flow, the husbandman being obliged to resort to artesian wells to feed his vegetables and growing crops.
We have now considered the general features of the territory known as Greene County. But before entering upon a more particu- hir description of the settlement, and growth of its civil and religious institutions, it will be proper to consider several very interesting (questions vitally touching its early occupation. The manner in which the original inhabitants became dispossessed of the iidieritance of their fathers, and were driven towards the setting sun; why the dwellers in this valley are English, and not a French-speaking peo- ple; how it has transpired that we are the subjects of Pennsylvania rule, and not of Virginia or Maryland, and, Anally, why we are not the constituent parts of a new State formed out of western Pennsyl- vania and portions of West Virginia and eastern Ohio, — these were living questions which plagued our fathers, and were not settled without desperate struggles, marked with slaughter, which may justly give to this county of Greene the title of the ''dark and bloody ground."
LIBRARY
^
iii>toi:y of gkekne county. 27
CllAPTEU IL
A\ HY Called Indians — The Gkandfatheks, on Delaw akes — Shaw- NEEs — Six Nations or iKoinois, or Mingoes — The Tuscarokas — *Delawakes Vassals — Indians' Siiemitic Origin — Api'lica- TioN vv Bible Proi-iiecy — The Indian Sui Generis — Charac- teristics— Indolent — Position of AVoman — The Indian a Law To Himself — IIis Occupations — Tiiieyish — Patient of Toil to Feed Peyen(je— View of Columbus — Amida's and Bar- low's Expeuience^Penn's Testimony — Bancroft's View — The Stf:alth Practiced in Hunting Served them in Seeking the Victims of their Savage Cruelty — Brebeuf Describes an Instance of their Barbarity which he Beheld — Cruelty a Delight — Greene County the Scene of this Savage Bar- barity.
TITHEN Cohnnbus, after having denionstrated the rotundity of the y\ earth in his schcdar's cell, had verified the truth of his theory by sailing westward in search of the farthest east, and had actually reached and discovered the shores of the New AVorld, he believed tliat he had found the famed Cathay. Though he made several voy- ages, and lived a number of vears, he still thought that it was the Indies he had found, and died in ignorance of the grandeur of his discovery. To the inhabitants whom he found in the new country he gave the name of Indians, and, though wholly inappropriate in view of th'^. historical facts, it has clung to them through every vicis- situde of fortune, and when the last of their race sliall have disap- peared forever from the earth, they will he recorded as Indians.
The natives who occupied the greater portion of that part of the North American continent now designated Pennsylvania, were known as the Lenni Lenape, the original people, or grandfathers. They were by nature fierce and warlike, and there was a tradition among them that the Lenapes, in ages quite remote, had emigrated from be- yond the Mississippi, exterminating or driving out, as they came eastward, a race far more civilized than themselves, numerous, and skilled in the arts of peace. That this country was once the abode of a more or less civilized ])eople, accustomed to many of the com- forts of enlightened communities, that they knew the use of tools, and were numerous, is attested by remains, thickly studding western Pennsylvania and the entire Ohio valley; but whether their extermi-
28 HISTORY OF GIIKKXK ('OITNTY.
nation was the work of fiercer tribes than themselves, or whether they were swept otl' by epidemic diseases, or gradually wasted as the fate of a decaying nation, remains an unsolved problem. The three principal tribes of which the Lenapes were composed, — the Turtles or (Jnamis, the Turkeys or Unalachtgos, the AVolfs or Monseys, — occu- pied the eastern portion of Pennsylvania, and claimed the territory from the Hudson to the Potomac. They were known to the Englisii as the Delawares. The Shawnees, a restless tribe which had come up from the south, had been received and assigned places of habita- tion- on the Susquehanna, l)}- the Delawares, and finally bec<,»nie a constituent part of the Delaware nation.
But the Indian nationality which more nearly concerns the sec- tion of country of which we are treating, is the Six Nations, or as they were designated by the French, tlie Iroquois. They called themselves Aquanuschioni or United Tribes, or in our own parlance, United States, and the Uenapes called them Mingoes. They origi- nally consisted of five tribes, and hence were known as the Five Nations, viz: the Senecas, mIio were the most vigorous, stalwart and numerous; the Mohawks, who were the first in numbers and in rank, and to whom it was reserved to lead in war; the Onondagas, who guarded the council lire, and from among whom the Sachem or civil liead of the confederacy was taken ; the Oneidas, and the Cayugas. Near the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Tuscaroras, a large tribe from central North Carolina and \'irginia, having been expelled from their former dwelling place, were adopted by the Five Nations, and tlienceforward were known as the Six Nations. They occupied the country stretching from Lake Chaniplain to Lake Erie, and from J^ake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence on the north, to the head waters of the Delaware, the Susquehanna and the Allegheny rivers on the south. It was a country well suited for defence in savage warfare, being guarded on three sides by great bodies of water. They were quick to learn the methods of civilized warfare, and securing Hre-arms from the Dutch on the Hudson, they easily over- came neighboring hostile tribes whom tliey held in a condition of vassalage, exacting an annual tribute, but protected them, in return, in the possession of their rightful hunting grounds. The Lenapes. or Delawares, were held under subjection in this manner, which gave to the Six Nations semi-authority over the whole territory of the State of Pennsylvania, and reaching out into Ohio. This humili- ating vassalage to which the Lenapes or Delawai-es were subjected, had been imposed upon them by conquest of the Iroquois; but the former claimed that it was assumed by them voluntarily, tiiat ''they had agreed to act as mediators and ])eace-makers among the other great nations, and to this end they had consented to lay aside entirely tlie implements of war, and to hold and to keep bright the chain of
IIISTOIJY OF GHEENE COUXTY. 29
peace." It was the office, when tribes had weakened themselves by desperate conflict, for the women of those ti-ibes, in order to save their kindred from utter extermination, to rush between the contend- ing warriors and implore a cessation of slaughter. It became thus tlie office of women to be peace-makers. The Delawares claimed that they had assumed this office from principle; but the Iroquois declared that it was a matter of necessity, and applied the epithet •'women" as a stigma, thus characterizing them as Avanting in the <piality of the braves. The pious Moravian missionary, Ileckewelder, who spent much time among them, and knew their character well, believed that the Delawares were sincere in their claim, and from the fact that they had a great admiration for William Penn, with whom they associated much, and imbibed his sentiments of peace, it may be that they came to hold those principles, even if they had formerly been conquered in war, and been coin]ielled to accejit terms of de- pendence. Gen. Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, in a discourse on the aborigines of the valley of the Ohio, observes: "Even if Mr. Heckewelder has succeeded in making his readers be- lieve that the Delawares. when the}' submitted to the degradation proposed to them by tiieir enemies, were influenced, not by fear, but by the benevolent desire to put a stop to the calamities of war, he has established for them the reputation of being dupes. This is not often the case with Indian sachems. They are rarely cowards, but still more rarely are they deflcient in sagacity or discernment to de- tect any attempt to im])Ose upon them. I sincerely M'ish I could unite with the worthy German in removing this stigma from the Delawares. A long and intimate knowledge of them in peace and M'ar, as enemies and friends, has left upon my mind the most favor- able impressions of their character for bravery, generosity and fidelity to their engagements."' But whatever may have been their original purposes, or their subsequent convictions, after their associations with Penn, thej' did demand complete independence of the Iroquois in 1756, and had their claims allowed.
Of the orio-in of tiie Indian race little is definitely known. The Indians themselves had no tradition and they had no writings, coins or monuments by which their history could be preserved. Ethnolo- gists are, however, well assured that the race came originally from eastern Asia. Without reciting here the arguments which support this theory, it is sufficient for our present purpose to state, that it seems M'ell attested that the race has dwelt upon this continent from a period long anterior to the Christian era, obtaining a foothold here within Ave hundred years from the dispersion of the race, and that their physical and mental peculiarities have become fixed by ages of subjection to climate and habits of life. Mr. Schoolci-aft, who has written much upon Indian history, and has given much study and
30 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
thought to the subject, adduces the following couisiderations as proof of the fuliilluieiit of that prophecy of scripture recorded in the ninth chapter of Genesis: "And tlie sons of ]Noah that went forth of the Ark were IShetn, ilara, and Japheth. God shall enlarge Japheth [Europeans] and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem [Indians | and Canaan [Negro] shall be his servant."
"Assuming," says Schoolcraft, "the Indian tribes to be of Shem- itic origin, which is generally conceded, they were met on this conti- nent in 14U2, by the Japhet-ic race, after the two stocks had passed around the globe by directly different routes. AVithin a few years subseqnent to this event, as is well attested the humane influence of an eminent Spanish ecclesiastic, led to the calling over from the coast of Africa, of the Ilam-itic branch. As a mere historical qnestion, and without mingling it in the slightest degree with any other, the resnlt of three centuries of occupancy has been a series of movements in all the colonial stocks, south and north, by which Japhet has been immeasurably enlarged on the continent, while the called and not voluntary sons of ilam, have endured a servitude, in the wide stretching valleys of tlie tents of Shem."
The Indian, as he was found upon this continent when flrst vis- ited by the European, was verj' different in form, features, mental constitution, and habits from the latter, and apparently nnalterably different from any other race. But while they were thus unlike other races, there was found to be a strong resemblance in all essen- tial elements in all the various tribes and nationalities of their own race. The color of the skin was of a reddish brown, their hair was black, straight, stiff, not plentiful, and the males had scarcely any beard ; the jaw-bone was large, the cheek-bone high and prominent, and the forehead high, square and prominent above the eyes, show- ing a large development of the perceptive faculties; but narrow, and sloping backward at the top, showing defective reasoning powers. The person, unincumbered with the clothing common to a fashionable age in civilized countries, was erect, well developed, and in movement quick, lithe, and gracefuL
Dr. Spencer, in his chapter on the characteristics of the Indians, has given the following graphic account of them: ''Their intellect- ual faculties were more limited, and their moral sensibilities, from want of cultivation, less lively. They seemed to be characterized by an inflexibility of organization, which rendered them almost incapa- ble of receiving foreign ideas, or amalgamating with more civilized nations — constituting them, in short, a people that might be broken, but could not be bent. This peculiar organization, too, together with the circumstances in which they were placed, moulded the character of their domestic and social condition. Their dwellings were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the banks of a river or near a sweet spring, they raised their
nisTOKY OF gkep:ne county. si
groups of wigwams, constructed of the barks of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The abodes of the chiefs were sonietimes more spacious, and constructed with care, but of the same materials. Their villages were sometimes surrounded bj de- fensive palisades. Skins taken in the chase, served them for repose. Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, its uncer- tain supply had led them to cultivate around their dwellings some patches of maize; but their exertions were desultory, and they were often exposed to the severity of famine. Every family did every- thing necessary within itself; and interchange of articles of commerce was hardly at all known among them."
The Indian is by nature and habit indolent — as --lazy as he can be." To take up a tract of land, build himself a house with the conveniencies and privacies of civilized home life, clear away the heavy forests which incnmber it, plough and cultivate the sodden acres, fence in the many fields, dig for himself a well, get and care for flocks and herds, and lay up for himself and faniilj- abundant sup- plies of the prodncts of the soil, would have been to entail upon him insufferable misery, and rather than undertake the first stroke of such a life of toil, he would rather end it at once. He believed that the fish of the stream, the fowls of the air, tlie beasts of the field, and the land where he should stretch his wigwam, were as free and open to appropriation as the air we breathe, or the waters that run sparkling in abundance to the sea. They ridiculed the idea of fencing a field, and depriving any who desired the use of it. The strong dominated over the weak. The male assumed superiority over the female, and made her in reality his slave. Ills grunt was law" to her, and if he started upon a journey she must trot after, bearing the infant, if she have one, and the burdens. If crops were to be planted, and cultivated, and gathered, it was by the sweat of her brow that it must be done. She must gather the fuel for the fire, weave the mat on which to set and sleep, fashion the basket and decorate it with fanciful colors. She was in short little less than the abject and degraded slave.
Of the more special occupations of the men Dr. Spencer has given the following interesting picture: " In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian held to the right of retaliation, and relied on himself almost always to effect his revenge for injuries received. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man M'ere bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination, where that Avas possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, and the arts of peace, was the Indian's glory and delight; war, not conducted on the scale of more civilized, if not more Christian- like people; but war where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and
32 IIISTOKY OF GREENE COUNTY.
cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian was capable of making vast sacrifices, and displayed a patience and perseverance truly heroic; but when the excitement was over, he sunk back into a listless, nnoccupied, well-nigh useless savage. The intervals of his more exciting pursuits the Indian tilled up in the decoration of his person with all the relinements of paints and feath- ers, with the manufacture of his arms — the club, the bow and ar- rows— and of canoes of bark, so liglit that they could easily be car- ried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war dance and song, and athletic games, the narration of his ex- ploits, and listening to the oratory of the chiefs. But, during long periods of his existence, he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forest, and the clouds that sailed far above his head; and this vacancy imprinted an habitual gravity and even melancholy upon his aspect and general deportment."
The Indian was thievish to the last degree, indeed this seems to have been as much a temper of his mind as indolence was of his body. The disposition to take that which did not belong to him may have in a measure resulted from his belief in the common prop- erty of water and air, and land, the beast and fowl that swarm upon its surface, and the iish that dart in its streams. It seems to him no sin to steal. Among the iirst colonies sent out from England to colonize the American coast an Indian was discovered to have stolen a silver cup. The punishment, inflicted by the inconsiderate colo- nists of burning their villages, and destroying their growing crops, provoked a revenge which resulted in the utter annihilation of the colony and engendered a hatred which many subsequent colonists felt the force of, and which inherited from generation to generation, seems never to have been worn out of the savage mind.
The Indians of North America, as they were found upon the arrival of Europeans, could not be said to have been under the gov- ernment of law. If an Indian had suffered an injury or an insult, he took it upon himself to avenge without the forms of proof to fix the guilt, and if he was killed in the quarrel his nearest relatives felt themselves obliged to take up the avengetnent. Thus from the merest trifle the most deadly feuds arose by Mdiich the population was visibly diminished. The warrior chiefs among them became such by superior skill or cunning, and not by any rule of hereditary decent, or majority of voices. Matters of public interest were dis- cussed in public assemblies of the whole people, in which all were free to join. Decisions were generally in favor of him who could work most powerfully upon the feelings of his audience, either by his native eloquence or by appeals to their superstition, by which they were easily moved. The man who pretended to be the repre- sentative of the Great Spirit, had a great influence over them, and
IIISTOUY OF GllEENE COUNTY. 33
ill cases of sickness lie was appealed to as a last resort. It has been observed above that the Indian was naturally lazy. To that assertion one exception should be made. To carry out his purpose of re- venge the Indian was capable of making sacriiices, enduring hardships, and undergoing sutterings unsurpassed by the most daring of the human race. To gratify his thirst for revenge, he would make long and exhausting marches, with scant food, subsisting upon the bark of trees, the roots of the forest, and such random game as he might come upon, would lie in wait for his victims for hours and days enduring untold suffering.
It is curious to observe the impression which the natives made upon the first European visitants to these shores, Columbus in his report to Ferdinand and Isabella after his lirst voyage, said: "I swear to your majesties, that there is not a better people in the world than these, more affectionate, affable, or mild. They love their neighbors as themselves; their language is the sweetest and the softest, and the most cheerful, for they always speak smiling, and although they go naked, let your majesties believe me, their customs are very becoming, and their king who is served with great majesty, has such engaging manners, that it gives great pleasure to see him, and also to consider the great retentive faculty of that people, and their desire of knowledge, which incites them to ask the causes of things." If these were the real sentiments of Columbus, we are forced to believe that he had never seen an Indian in his war-paint and feathers, and that he had seen the Shylock who had money to lend, and not the Shylock who was exacting the penalty of the for- feited bond.
The adventurers whom Sir Walter Raleigh sent out for discovery and settlement, Amidas and I)arlow, gave a graphic report of their impressions of the natives upon their return, which Ilakluyt has preserved in his annals: ''The soile is the most plentifull, sweete, fruitfuU and wholesome, of all the worlde; there are above fourteene severall sweete smelling timber trees, and the most part of their underwoods are bayes and such like; they have such oakes that we have, but farre greater and better. After they had been divers times aboard our shippes myselfe, with seven more went twentie mile into the river that runneth towards the citie of Shicoak, which riv^er they call Occam; and the evening following we came to an island, which they call Roanoke, distant from the harbor by which we entered seven leagues; and at the north end thereof w^as a village of nine houses, built of cedar, and fortified round about with sharpe trees to keep out their enimies, and the entrance into it made like a turnpike very artificially; when we came towards it, standing neere unto the waters' side, the wife of Granganimo, the king's brother, came run- ning out to nieete us very cheerfully and friendly; her husband was
34 HISTORY OF GHKENE COUNTY.
not then in tlie village; some of her people shee commanded todrawe our boate on shore, for the beating of tlie billoe, others she appointed to carry us on their backes to the dry ground, and others to bring our oares into the house for feare of stealing. When we Avere come into the utter room, having live rooms in her house, she caused us to sit down b}' a great iire, and after tooke off our choathes, and washed them, and dried them againe; some of the women plucked off our stockings, and washed them, some washed our feete in warm water, and she herself tooke great paines to see all things ordered in the l)est manner she could, making greate haste to dresse some meate for us to eate. After we had thus dried ourselves she brought us intt> this inner roome, where shee set on the boord standing along the house, some wheate like fermentie; sodden venison and roasted; tish, sodden, boyled, and roasted; melons, rawe and sodden; rootes of divers kinds; and divers fruits. Their drink is commonly water, but while the grape lasteth, they driidce wine, and for want of caskes to keepe it, all the yere after they drink water, but it sodden with ginger in it, and black sinnamon, and sumetimes sassaphras, and divers other wholesome, and medicinable hearbes and trees. We were entertained with all love and kindnesse, and with as much bountie, after their manner as they could possibly devise. We ;ound the people most gentle, loving, and faithfull, voide of all guile and treason, and such as live after the manner of the golden age. The people onely care to defend themselves from the cold in their short winter, and to feed themselves with such meat as the soile aftbreth; their meat is very well sodden, and they make broth very sweet and savorie; their vessels are earthen pots, very large, white, and sweete; their dishes are wooden platters of sweet timber. With- in the place where they feede was their lodging, and within that their idoll, which they worship, of whom they speak incredible things. While we were at meate, there came in at the gates two or three men with their bowes and arrowes from hunting, whom, when we espied, we began to looke one towards another, and offered to reach our weapons; but as soone as she espied our mistrust, she was very- much moved, and caused some of her men to runne out, and take away their bowes and arrowes and breake them, and withall beate the poore fellowes out of the gate againe. When we departed in the evening, and would not tarry all night, she was very sor}^ and gave us into our boate our supper half dressed pottes and all, and brought us to our boateside, in which we lay all night, removing the same a prettie distance from the shore; she perceiving our jelousie, was much grieved, and sent divers men and thirtie women, to sit all night on the bank-side by us, and sent into our boates five mattes to cover us from the raine, using very many wordes to entreate us to rest in their houses; luit because we were fewe men, and if we had
HISTORY OK GREENE COUNTY. 37
niiscaiTied the voyage had beeiie in very great danger, we diirt't nut adventure anything, althougli there was no cause of doubt, for a more kinde and loving peoj)le there cannot he found in the workle, as far as we have hitherto liad triaU. "
Though given liere at some length, this passage from the records of the faithful llakluyt is very valuable as picturing the life of the simple Indians, and their temper towards the early European voy- agers, before their minds had been soured by injury and wrong which careless and brutal colonists subsequently visited upon them; and it may well be questioned whether, they would not have remained-friend- ly and loving as here desin'ibed had they received loving and (Chris- tian treatment in return. It is possible that such relations might have been preserved with the natives, that the tales of blood and sav- agery which form a dark page in the early history of Greene County would never have had occasion to be recorded. Certain it is that the redmen have had great ])rovocati()n, and have received most in- human and unchristian treatment at the hands of the pale face.
The relations of William Penn with the savages was difterent from those of any other European. He really believed them bretln-en in the true scripture sense, and treated them as such. Hence his view of the Indian character would naturally be more favorable to them than if regarded through prejudiced eyes. "For their persons," he says, "they are generall}'^ tall, straight, well built, and of singular proportion. They tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin. Their language is lofty, yet narrow; but, like tlie Ile- brew, in signification, full. If an Euro[)ean conies to see them, or calls for lodging at tlieir house or wigwam, they give him the best place and tirst cut. If they come to visit us, they salute us with an 'Itah!' which is as much as to say 'Good be to you I' and set them down, which is mostly on the ground, close to their heels, their legs upright. It may be they speak not a word, but observe all ])assages. If you give them anything to eat or drink, well, for they will not ask; and be it little or much, if it be with kindness, they are well pleased; else they go away sullen, but say nothing."
"In lil)erality," he says, "they excel; nothing is too good for their friend; give them a tine gun, coat or other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it sticks; light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent. The most merry creatures that live, feast and dance per- petually; they never have much nor want much; wealth circulateth like the blood; all parts partake; and though none shall want what another hath, yet exact observers of property. Some kings have sold, others presented me with several parcels of land; the pay, or presents I made them were not hoarded by their particular owners; but the neighboring kings and their clans being present when the goods were brought out, the parties chiefly concerned consulted what.
38 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
find to wlioin, they would give tlit'in. To every king then, by the liaiids of a person for that work M]ij)ointe«l, is a proportion sent, so sorted and folded, and \vith that gravity that is admirable. Then the king subdivideth it, in like manner, among his dependants, they hardly leaving themselves an equal share with one of their subjects; and l)e it on such occasions as festivals, or at their common meals, the kings distribute and to themselves last. They care for little be- cause they want little, and the reason is a little contents them. '" * '" We swgat and toil to live; their pleasure feeds them; I mean their hunting, lishing and fowling, and their table is spread everywhere. They eat twice a day, morning and evening; their seats and table are the ground. Since the Europeans came into these parts, they are grown great lovers of strong liquors, rum especially, and for it ex- change the richest of their skins and furs. If they are heated with liquors, they are restless till they have enough to sleep; that is their cry, 'Some more and I will go to sleep;' l)ut when drunk, one of the most wretched spectacles in the worhl.''
Jjancroft, in his elaborate chapter on the lialnts and customs of the Indians, says: "During the mild season there may have been little suffering. But thrift was wanting; the stores collected by the industry of the women was squandered in festivities. The hospitality of the Indian has rarely lieen questioned. The stranger enters iiis cabin, by day or by night, without asking leave, and is entertained as freely as a thrush or a black-bird that regales himself on the luxuries of the fruitful grove. He will take his own rest abroad, that he may give up his own skin, or mat of sedge, to his guest. Nor is the traveler questioned as to the purpose of his visit; he chooses his own time freely to deliver liis message."
We may gather from the testimony of those who earliest encountered them, what were some of the most marked of the charac- teristics. Of the stealth of the Indian in creeping upon his victim unawares, and the laying in wait foi- him in some M'ell-chosen am- buscade, we may look for the cause in the necessity he was under of practicing these qualities in the pursuit of his game. From child- hood he was taught to move noiselessly through the forest lest by the breaking of a twig he put to flight the coveted game for lack of which he was perhaps starving. The same noiseless tread with which he approached the pool where spoi-ted the finny tribe, and came un- noticed upon the wild fowl, was practiced in seeking out the victims of his revenge, or putting to the torture his prisoners of war. Of the barbarity practiced upon the latter, in no part of the liuman race is it equalled. Brebeuf has described it in all its horrors, as recorded by Bancroft: "On the way to the cabins of his conquerors, the hands of an Iroquois prisoner were crushed between stones, his lingers torn oft' or mutilated, the joints of his arms scorched and
niSTOKY OF GKEENE COUNTV. ,S9
gashed, while lie himself preserved his tranquility, and sang the songs of his nation. Arriving at the homes of his conquerors, all the cabins I'egaled him, and a young girl was bestowed upon him, to be the wife of his captivity and the cojnpanion of his last loves. * -:;- -;;- 'p^ ^]^g crowd of his guests he declared: 'My brothers, 1 am going to die; make merry around me with good heart; I am a man; I fear neither death nor your torments;' and he sang aloud. The feast being ended, he was conducted to the cabin of blood. They place him on a mat, and bind his hands; he rises and dances around the cabin, chanting his death song. At eight in the evening eleven tires had been kindled, and these are hedged in by files uf spectators. The young men selected to be the actors are exhorted to do well, for their deeds would be gratefid to Areskoui, the powei-ful war god. A war chief strips the prisoner, shows him naked to the people, and assigns their otiice to the tormentors. Then ensued a scene the most horrible; torments lasted till after sunrise, when the wretched victim, bruised, gashed, mutilated, half roasted and scalped, was carried out of the village and hacked in pieces."
From the venerable sachem to the infant in arms, the aged mother to the tender maiden, by all the tribe was this torture of the captive beheld. It was an occasion of feasting and rejoicing. The greater the ])ower of endurance of the victim and the more fierce and ter- rible the torture invented the more exquisite the enjoyment of the spectators. To add a pang to the sufferer was a subject of congratu- lation to the one who inflicted it. Often the greatest refinement of cruelty was devised and inflicted by the women. And Avhen the last pang had been eiulured and all was over they feasted upon the victim's flesh.
Further on in this work some account will be given of deeds of l)lood perpetrated by the savages in this county. From the evidence which has now been adduced some conception of the ])rimary char- acter of the natives can be formed, and an idea entertained of those qualities of mind and heart which could prompt them to the mid- night murdering and deeds of savagery which were to them a favorite trade.
40 HISTOKY OF GREEN?] OOTTNTY
CHAPTER 111.
Orkhxal Settlement Upon the Continent by Europeans — Ponce UE Leon in Floeida^ — Vasc^uez de Ayllon Seizing Natives for Slaves — De Soto Dh^covees the Mississippi — Voyages of Vek- • razzani — Jaques Carter — Champlain in Canada — His Ex- pedition Against the Iroquois — Mar<2Uette and Jolip:t Voyage to the Mississippi- — Map of Country — Death of Marquettp: — IIemarksofHildreth and Charlevoix — La Salle Pushes Explorations on the Mississipi'i — Takes Formal Pos- sp:ssion of the Piver and Lands it ])rains — Possibilities of Greene County — England Colonizes — Early' Attempts Abor- tive— Grants OF James I — Settlement of Jamestoavn and Ply- mouth— The Dutch on the Delaware — By What Right Had European Possessions on This Continent — A Fruitful Country Unused — A Savage and Barbaric Peoi-le Encumber It — Observations of Justuje Story- -Decision of Chief Justice Marshall — The Injustice Rankled in the 1>reasts of the Savages.
Aroused by the roseute iiccouuts given by (yolunil)us and the com- panioHs of his voyage of discovery in 1492, which was spread broadcast over Europe by the art of printing just then brought into use, tlie Sovereigns of three Eur(_ipean nations, at that time most puissant, encouraged their subjects to make voyages of discovery and issued patents empowering them to take possession of such portions of the main land in the JS'ew AVorld, and the contiguous islands of the sea, as they n]ig]it visit and explore. Spain, having tlirough Ferdinand and IsabeHa, patronized the great discoverer, took the lead, assuming a preemption right to the continent, by virtue of discovery, and Cortes and Pizzaro did their work of shiughter and extermination upon weaker and inoffensive' {^copies, innocent of any crimes against their oppressors.
Juan Ponce de Leon, who had been a companion of Columbus, having heard of a miraculous fountain up^i the mainland whose waters could impart life and ])erpetual youth, eager to bathe in the healing stream, sailed on the 3d of March, 1512, in quest of it. It M'as the season, when, in that far southern clime, the whole land was bursting into blossom, and, as he coasted along a great country pre- senting one mass of bloom, he thought indeed, he had found the land of perpetual life, and, accordingly, named it Florida. But the
HISTORY OF GREP:NE COUNTY. 41
weather was telupestuous, and returning to the AVest Indies, he songlit, and obtained from Charles V., of Spain, anthoi-ity to take and govern the conntry; but upon his second expedition he found the natives liostile, and u]>oii giving battle wasniortaiiy wounded and re- turned to the Islands to die.
Yasquez de Ayllon, in quest oi' shives to work in the mines of Mexico, came upon this coast, and having enticed numbers of natives on board his vessels, perfidiously sailed away; but one of his ships was lost in a storm, and the natives, who survived, disdaining to work, i-efused to eat, and died miserably of starvation. Xot satis- lied with his experience, de A^dlon obtained authority from Charles V. to conquer and govern the country, and in 1525 again set sail with his colonists. But now he found his tactics reversed; for the natives were the enticers, and having invited the i)o(lyof' the visitants to a feast gave them to slaughter and destruction. Again in 1528, Pamphilo de Narvaez with Alvar de Yacca and four luuulred colon- ists sailed for Tampa Ba)'; but after tiruitless wanderings by sea and land in which the leader was lost, de Yacca made his escape with l)ut four of his coni])anions alive, having s]>ent ten years in fruitless search for gold and b-iot}'. In his adventures he had traversed the whole southern border of what is now the United States, crossed the Mississippi, bent his steps onward to the Rocky Mountains, gladly performing the offices of a slave for sustenance and the poor l)0on of life, and arrived at last in JNlexico, whence he returned to Spain. Undismayed by the ill-fortune of others, and thirsting for riches, which he might have for the seizing, Hernando de Soto, invested with the patent of power and the title of Governor General of Cuba and Florida, with about a thousand followers in ten vessels, set sail in 1539 well armed, and ])rovided with the implements of mining, even to bloodhounds for capturing slaves, and chains for securing them. The first night on shore he was attacked by the Indians lying in wait for him, and driven in disgrace to his ships. Return- ing to the land he commenced even wider search than de Yacca ,and after three years of toilsome and fruitless wanderings, and incessant conflicts with Indians, having crossed the Mississippi and reached the great plains where grazed the countless herds of buffalo, final- ly, broken and dispirited at finding neither the wealth of gold which he sought, nor the empire which he coveted, he died, and the waters of the Mississippi roll perpetually above his bones. Having but one purpose, tljat of escape from this hated country, his surviving fol- lowers floated down the river, and retired to Spanish settlements in Mexico. Thus ended miserably the greatest expedition hitherto attempted upon the Florida coast. For a score or more of years religionists from Spain and France attempted permanent lodgeinent upcn this territory, in which the town of St. Augustine was founded,
42 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
at present the oldest town in the United States. 'But instead of practicing the mild and gentle precepts of their Master, they were torn bj mortal feuds, and a large proportion perished in their deadly and treacherous conflcts.
Thus, of the vast sums of money expended and hardships en- dured, in whicli the greater portion of the southern half of our country was overrun, and perpetual and wasting warfare for a (juarter of a century was prosecuted with the natives, nothing good or lasting was the result, though there was exhibited a resolution and unconquerable spirit by those proud cavaliers who went forth clad in their habiliaments of silk, rejoicing in their trailing plumes and glitteriug armor, truly worthy of a better cause. They expected to lind great nations overflowing with gold and precious treasures, whom they could easily overcome and despoil, where they might set up a kingdom. Unhappily for them they found no such people; the gold they coveted existed only in their own heated imagination, and the empire which they hoped to fond vanished like the mists of the valley before the breath of a summer morn. Their cause was the cause of the gambler and the freebooter in every country and in every age, and the lesson is one which the race may well take to heart.
Of the great European iiations. France was the next to send out colonies to take possession of, and settle the American continent. Moved by a knowledge of the misfortunes which had attended Span- ish settlements far to the south, the French sought a far northern latitude, and though on the same parallel as Paris, was swept T)y blizzards, and bound in icy fetters such as were wholly unknown in sunny France. This very circumstance may have defeated the en- tire French plans of colonization, and changed tlie whole course of empire upon this continent. For the French possessed, in an eminent degree, the spirit of colonization, and were eager to push plans of empire. Flad the first adventurers seated themselves upon the Po- tomac or the James, or along the shores of tlie Cai'olinas, they would have found so genial a climate and similar to their own, that they would have gained so firm a foothold and so long in advance of the English, that they would probably not liave been supplanted.
The state of navigation at this time was so ci'ude, the vessels so small and. imperfect in construction, that a voyage on the open ocean, across the Atlantic, was attended with deadly perils, and solemn re- ligious services marked the departure of the venturesome voyagers as they went down upon the seas, a large proportion of whom never emerged from the waves. Fishermen from Brittany, in France, as early as 1504, had discovered the rich fishing grounds on the Banks of Newfoundland, and had visited and named Cape Breton, a name which it still i-etains. Francis I. of Fi-ance, a sovereign not un- mindful of the gi'owtli of his kingdom, seeing the activity of ne'glu
HISTOIIY OF GREENE COUNTY. 43
boring nations in sending ont their subjects for voyages of discovery and colonization, dispatched Juan Yerrazzani, a Floientine navigator, in 1524, in a single vessel, the Dolphin, to discover and take posses- sion, in the name of France, of lands in the famed New World. After "as sharp and terrible a tempest as ever sailors suffered," Yer- razzani arrived upon the coast, touched at the Carolinas, at Long Island, at Newport, and skirted the coast to tlie fiftieth degree north, when he returned without making a settlement. Ten years later, in 1534, Jaques Cartier was dispatched by Chabot, Admiral of France, on an expedition to the Northwest, and arrived at the month of the St. Lawrence. Returning to France with extravagant reports of the excellence of the country and the climate, he was dispatched on the following year with three large ships, and upon his arrival on St. Lawrence-day, gave that name to the (tuIi which he had entered, and the river which drains the great lakes. Ascendincr the river, he visited Hochelaza, now ^lontreal, and wintered at the Isle of Orleans. The cold was intense, in marked contrast to his former visit, which was in the heat of summer, and his followers, suffering from scurvy and the severity of the climate, clamored to be led back to France. In 1540, Cartier was again sent out, and now with five ships, and Francis de la Koque as Governor of Canada. J)Ut strife ensuing, the attempt at colonization was abortive. This pnt an end to further attempts at settlement in this latitude for upwards of half a century. In 1598, the great Sully, under Henry lY. of France, dispatched the Marquis de la lioche, of Brittany, to take possession of Canada and other countries "not possessed by any Christian Prince." The expedition, however, failed utterly, though the enterprise of private individuals in trading with the natives for rich furs had in the mean- time proved successful. In 1603, Samuel Champlain was sent out, who carefully explored the river St. Lawrence, and selected the site of Quebec as a proper location for a fort. At about the same time De Monts, a Huguenot of the King's household, was granted a com- mission to assume the sovereignty of Acadie, from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of north latitude, which meant from the latitude of Delaware Bay to the north pole, — a glorious empire if it could be held and peopled. But tlie trouble with all the European sovereigns in drawing patents for slices of the New AVorld, was that they did what was charged u]^on the greedy countryman when offered tobacco — bit off more than he could chew. The expedition of De Monts, consisting of four ships, sailed in 1604, and the right of trade proving lucrative, the monopoly was revoked. But Champlain 'continued his explorations, embracing the St. John's River, Bay of Fundy and Island of St. Croix. By the advice of Champlain, Quebec was founded in 160S by a company of merchants fVoiri Die|)pe and St. Molo, In the following year C'hamplain explored the lakf which
44 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
bears his name, and, that he miglit secure the good will of the natives of Canada, he accompanied the Algonqnins on a hostile campaign against the Five Nations, or Iroqnois. Bnt this proved a fatal mis- take; for it provoked the implacable hatred against the French of that powerful Indian confederacy vi^hich held in an iron grasp what is now the States of New York and Pennsylvania. Thus, by an inscrutable Providence, was France again cut off from taking that course of empire, which would doubtless have given that nation pre- ponderance upon this continent. Champlain was devoted to his re- ligion, i-egarding "the salvation of a soul of more consequence than the con([uest of an empire.'" His chosen servants, the Franciscans, but later the Jesuits, assumed control of the missions to the Indians, and ibr a score of years threaded the mazes of the forest for new con- verts, pushing out along the great lakes by the northern shore, even to Huron, Michigan and Superior; but in all their efforts to i-eclaim the Iroqnois meeting with little success, and sufl'ering, at the hands of these savages, whippings, and torments, and death. With the tribes of the north and west, even to the Chippewas, Pottawatamies, Sacs and Foxes, and Illinois, they had better fortune, and with tliem made alliances against the Iro(|Uois. Fi'om the Sioux they learned that there was a great river to the south, and this they were seized with a desire to explore.
In the spring of 1673, Jaques Marquette and M. Joliet, with attendants, embarked in two bark canoes at Mackinaw, and passing down the lake to Green Pay, entered the Fox River. Toilsomely ascending its current to its head waters, they bore with difficulty their canoes across the ridge which divides the waters of the great lakes from the ffulf, and havini; j-eached the sources of the Wisconsin River, launched their fi-ail boats u])on its turbid waters, and floated onward upon the current, the stream studded M'ith islands and the shores adorned with goodly trees and creeping vines, until, on the 17th of June, with "inexpressible joy and thankfulness to God for his mercies," they entered the Mississippi. Maixjuette was fre- quently warned by the natives not to expose himself to the dangers of the voyage, and to desist from the further prosecution of his jour- ney; but the reply of the pions priest was cliaracteristic: " I do not fear death, and I would esteem it a happiness to lose my life in the service of God." ^
Passing, in turn the Des Moines, the Missouri, with its turbid stream, the Ohio gently rolling, they proceeded as far south as the Arkansas. Here they were fiercely attacked by the natives. But Marquette boldly presented the pipe of peace, and called down the blessing of heaven upon his enemies, in i-eturn for which the old men received him, and called off their braves who were intent upon blood. But now the dangers seemed to thicken as they descended.
^i-vi\ /»•//: -//W fL^t^t'U^^^'y
niSTOllY OF (iKKENE COUNTY. 47
Fearing tliat thev might hazard all by proceeding further, and being now satisfied that the river must empty into the Gulf of Mex- ico, having made a complete map of the portion thus far explored, Marquette -determined to retnrn and report his great discoveries to Talon, the intendant of France. With incredible exertion they forced their way against the current of the Mississippi, up the Illinois, across the portao-e, down the Fox by the same course that they had come, and reached Green Bay in safety. Though filled M'ith satis- faction at the importance of his discovery, and extravagant in praise of the country which he had seen — '• such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, paroquetts, and even beavers," as lie found on the Illinois liiver being nowhere equalled;- -yet he apparently felt a more serene and heartfelt satis- saction, in the fact tliat the natives had brought to him a dying infant to be baptized, which he did about a half an hour before it died, which he asserts God was thus pleased to save, than in all the far reaching consequences of his expedition. On the 18thof]Vlay, 1675, as he was passing up Lake Michigan with his boatmen upon the eastern shore, he proposed to land and perform mass. With pious and devoted steps leaving his attendants in the boat, he ascended the banks of a fast flowing stream to perform the rite. Not returning as he had indicated he would, his followers, recollecting that he had spoken of his death, went to seek him, and found him indeed dead. Hollowing a grave for him in the sand, they buried him on the very spot which his prayers had consecrated.
In commenting upon the devotion and loyalty of these pious men — Marquette, and his associates. Ilildreth justly remarks, ''Now and then he would make a voyage to Quebec in a canoe, with two or three savages, paddle in hand, exhausted with rowing, his feet naked, his breviary hanging about his neck, his shirt unwashed, liis cassock half torn from his lean body, but with a face full of content, charmed with the life he led, and inspiring by his air and his words a strong desire to join him in his mission. " And Charlevoix, in his annals, even more vividly describes -the character of these devoted men. " A peculiar unction" he says, '" attached to this savage mission, giving it a preference over many others far more brilliant and more fruit- ful. The reason no doubt was, that nature, finding nothing there to gratify the senses or to flatter vanity — stumbling blocks too common even to the holiest — grace worked without obstacle. The Lord, who never allow^s himself to be outdone, communicates himself without measure to those who sacrifice themselves without reserve; who, dead to all, detached entirely from themselves and the world, possess their souls in unalterable peace, perfectly established in that childlike spirituality which Jesus Christ has recommended to his disciples, as that which ought to be the most marked trait of their character.
48 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
'" v!- •«■ Sncli is the portrait of the missionaries of NeM' France drawn by those who knew them best. I myself knew some of them in my youth, and I found them such as I liave painted them, bend- ing under the labor of a long apostleship, with bodies exhausted by fatigues and broken with age, but still preserving all the vigor of the apostolic spirit." It should be added to this picture of the labors of the priests, that of all the heathen in any part of the world to whom the gospel has been sent, none were more ditlicult to reach and in- doctrinate in its mild and gentle spirit, than the North American Indians.
The report of the discovery of a great river to the west, draining boundless territory, and opening a highway to the gulf, aroused cupidity, and the desire to enlarge the dominion of France. Robert Cavalier de La Salle, who had already manifested remarkable enter- prise in his explorations along the shores of Ontario and Erie, and in his mercantile enterprises with the natives, was seized with the de- sire to follow the course of the Mississippi to its mouth. Returning to France he sought and obtained from Colbert authority to proceed with his explorations, and take possession of the country in the name of France. Returning to Fort Frontenac with the Chevalier Touti, and a picked band, he ascended to the rapids of Niagara, passed around the falls with his equipment, built a vessel of sixty tons which he named the GrifHn, and began his voyage up the great lakes, now for the tirst time gladdened by so pretentious a craft, the forerunner of a commerce whose white wings has come to enliven all its ways.
iVrrived at Green Bay, he sent back his craft for supplies with which to prosecute his voyage down the great valley of tlie prince of streams. Caught in one of those storms which Inrk in the secret places of these lakes, the little vessel was lost on its return voyage. Waiting in vain for tidings of his supplies he crossed over to the Illinois River, and in the vicinity of the present town of Peoria, he erected a fort, which, in consonance with his own disappointed spirit, he named Creve-co?ur, the Broken Heart. Leaving Tonti and the Recol- lect, Hennepin, to prosecute the explorations of the valley. La Salle set out with only three followers to make his way back through the sombre forests which skirt the lakes, to Fort Frontenac at the mouth of Lake Ontario. In the meantime Hennepin explored the Illinois and the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony, accounts of which on his return to France he published. Gathering fresh supplies and men, La Salle started again upon his arduous and perilous voyage; but upon his arrival at Fort Crevecoeur, upon the Illinois, he found it deserted and his forces scattered, Tonti, whom he had left in charge, having been forced to flee. Not dismayed, again he returned to Frontenac, having fallen in with Tonti at Macinaw. Again pro- vided with the necessary supplies, but now with less cnmbersome
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 40
(lutlit, lie started ao-aiii, after liaviiiir encountered discourao^enients that would have broken the spirit of a less resolute man, in August, 1681, and proceeded on his devious way. But now instead of the course which they had before pursued he moved up the Chicago River on sledges, and, having passed the j)ortage, found Fort Creveca'ur in good state of preservation. Having here constructed a barge of suf- tlcient dimensions for his part}' he commenced his voyage down the Mississippi, and reached the Gulf without serious incident. Over- joyed at hnally having brought his projects to a successful consum- mation he took ])ossession of the river, and all the vast territory which it drained. — large enough to constitute several empires like France, — with a formal pomp aiul ceremony which was sufficient, if it were to dejiend on pomp and ceremony, to have insured the pos- session of the country in all time to come. They thoroughly ex- ploited the channels which ibrm the delta at the mouth of the stream, and having selected a place high and dry, and not liable to inunda- tion, which they found by the elevation of the north star to l>e in latitude twentv-seven degrees north, they erected a column and a cross to which they affixed a signal bearing this inscrip- tion, "Louis l.e Grand, Koi de France et de Navarre, regne, le neuvieme, Avril, 1G82." Then chanting the Te Deum, Exaudiat, and the Domine salvum fac Regem. and sliouting Vive le Roi to a salvo of arms. La Salle, in a loud voice, read his process verbal, as though all the nations of the world were listening: '• In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible, and victorious prince, Louis the Great, by the grace of God King of France, and Navarre, I'our- teenth of the name, this ninth day of April, 1682, I, in virtue of the commission of his majesty, which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by all M'hom it may concern, have taken, and now do take, in the name of his majesty and of his successors to the crown, pos- session of this country of Louisiana." And here follows a descrip- tion of the rivers, and countries drained by them, which he claims; and that all this is by the tree consent of tlie natives who inhabit these lands, a statement which would probal)ly have been difficult of verification, and in his verl)al process he inserts the name Colbert, the king's minister, in place of Mississippi, lie claims besides that they are the hrst Europeans M'ho have ascended or descended the stream, on the authority of the peoples M-ho dwell there, a statement which would also be uncertain of verification, and thus ends his pro- cess, "hereby protesting against all those who may hereafter under- take to invade any or all of these countries, people or lands above described to the prejudice of the right of his majesty, acquired by the consent ef the nations herein named. Of which, and of all that can be needed. 1 hereby take to witness those who Iiear me. and de- mand an act of the notary, as recjuired bylaw," In addition to this,
50 IILSTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
he caused to be buried at the foot of the ci-oss a leaden plate with this inscription in Latin: '^ Lndovicus, niagnus Ileget. Nono Aprilis JVIDCLXXXIL llobertns Cavellier, cum Domino de Tonty Legato R. P. Zenobi Menibro, KecoUecto, et viginti Gallis primus hoc llumen, inde ab Ilineoruiu Pago, Enavigavit, ejusque ostium fecit pervivum, nono Aprilis, Anni JVIDCLXXXIL"
By the terms of the law, recognized by all civilized nations, the nation whose subjects were the discoverers of the mouth of a river, could rightfully lay claim to all the territory drained by that river, and all its tributaries even to their remotest limits. Had this claim been successfully vindicated, Louis-iana would have been bounded by the Alleghanj^ Mountains on the east, the Kocky Mountains on the west, and would have embraced the bulk of the territory now the United States, aiid thus Pennsylvania would have l)een despoiled of a large proportion of its ])roud domain, and Greene County been a vicinage of France, ihit the claim of La Salle was not well founded, he not having been the original discoverer. For de Soto, a hundred and forty years bef(»re, had discovered the river, and, through his followers, had ti-aced it to its mouth, and had taken possession of the river in the name of the King of Spain, with even greater pomp and ceremony than La Salle, setting up the cross and performing religious rites which the well known painting repeated on the greenl)acks of our national currency has commemorated. Had the claim of Spain l)een maintained by force, and followed by settlement, the people of Greene County would to-day be under the dominion of Spain, or- of a Spanish speaking people. But if, by the failure of Spain, the French had been successful in establishing their claims, then the Bourbon lilies would have succeeded to power here, and French would have been the lano-uaije. As we shall soon see, the chances by which it escaped that sway, were, for a time, quite evenly balanced between the French and the English.
La Salle returned to France with great expectations of empire for his country. With a fleet of thirty vessels, and people for a large colony, he set sail for the new possessions, four of which under his immediate command steered direct for the Gulf of Mexico, with the intention of entering the mouth of the Mississippi Jliver; l)ut he failed to find the entrance, and, after suffering untold hardships and privations on the coast of Texas by shipwreck, dissension among his followers, and tlie tireless hostility of the savages, his expedition came to an ignoble end, he himself fortunate in escaping with liis life. May we not believe that Providence had other designs for this continent?
The third, and last of the European nations to engage in active colonization on the Xorth American coast, was England. For, though lL)lland, Denmark, and other European nations sent out col-
irisTOKY OF grkp:ne rouNTV. 51
onies, they all became subject to the P^iiglish. lleiiry YIL, who had tuniecl a deaf ear to tlie appeals of Coliiml)iis, saw witli envy what lie thought were great advantages being secured to neighboring nations tlirough the discoveries of the great navigator, lie accord- ingly lent a ready ear to the Cabots, of Bristol, his chief port. As early as 1497 they set out to share in New AVorld enterprise, and in their voyages explored the coast from Labrador to the Carolinas, and subsequently South America, giving name to the great river of the south, Rio de la Tlata. Forbisher followed, and Sir llumphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Kaleigh, who aided Gilbert Avitli his for- tune and his powerful intlnence at Court, but perished by shipwreck without effecting a foothold upon the virgin soil. Under the patron- age of lialeigh, Amidas and Barlow in 1584 were sent, who made a lodgment on the shores of the Carolinas: but instead of observino: seed-time ana harvest, they wasted their energies in the vain search for gold, which they probably hojied to pick up in great nuggets, and their attempt at settlement came to naught. Not discouraged Jialeigli fitted out another expedition under Sir liichard Grenville, and exhausted his great fortune in the enterprise. A lodgment was made at Roanoke, but the colony planted held a sickly existence for a short time, when, after incurring vast expense, it was forever abandoned. Ilendrick Hudson, under the patronage of London merchants, and sul)se(|uently of the Dutch, made voyages of dis- covery, and in 1609 entered Delaware Bay, and made a landing on the soil of what is Pennsylvania, entered New York I>ay, and ascended the Hudson River, to which he gave his name, and took possession of all this country in the name of the Dutch, in whose employ he was then sailing. As yet nothing permanent l>y way of settlement had been acheived.
But the English having explored most of the coast from Halifax in Nova Scotia, to Cape Fear in North Carolina, laid claim to all this stretch of the coast, and indefinitely westward. In the reign of the feeble and timid James I., this immense country was divided into two parts, the one extending from New York Bay to Canada, known as North Virginia, which was granted for settlement to the Ply- mouth Company organized in the west of England, and the other reaching from the mouth of the Potomac southward to Cape Fear, was called South Virginia, and was bestowed upon the London Company composed of residents of that city. It will thus be seen that a belt of some two hundred miles was left between the two grants so that they should have no liability to encroach itpon each others settlements. The language of these grants by James was remarkable for every quality of style but clearness and perspicuity. The London Company were to be limited between thirty-fourth and forty-first de- grees of north latitude, and the Plymouth Company between the
52 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
thirty-eighth and tbrty-lifth degrees. It will thus be seen that the tw'u grants overlap each other hy three degrees; but as neither com- pany was to begin settlements within a hundred miles of the terri- tory of the other, it practically left the limits as given above. Previous to the active operations inaugurated by these companies, frequent attempts had been made by the English at colonization; but hitherto, beyond a few fishing stations, and the fort which the Span- ish continued to maintain at St. Augustine, no foothold had been ffained by them along the whole ttretch of the Atlantic, now oecuj)ied by the States of the Union. Tlie London (company, in 1607, sent one hundred and live colonists in three small ships under command of Christopher JXewport, to nuike a settlement in South Virginia. Among the number was Jjartholomew Gosnold, who was the real organizer of the company, and the renowned Captain John Smith, by tar the ablest. They entered C'hesapeake I>ay, giving the names Charles and Henry, the names of King James' two sons, to tlie op- posite capes at the entrance, and having moved up the James River, they selected a spot upon its banks for a capital of the future empire, which in honor of the king, they called Jamestown. The seat here chosen became the seed of a new nation. 'i'iie encounter with the powerful war chief Powhatan, and the romantic story of his gentle and lovely daughter Pocahontas, will ever lend a charm to the early history of Virginia.
The Plymouth Company having made fruitless attempts to get a foothold upon their territory, applied to the king for a new and more definite charter. Forty of "the wealthiest and most powerfnl men in the realm " associated themselves together under the name of the Council of Plymouth, which superceded the original Plymouth Com- [)any, and to them James granted a new charter em1)racing all the territory lying between the ^fortieth and the forty-eighth degrees of north latitude and stretching away to the I'acihc — a boundless grant, little comprehended by the king and his ministers, they believing that the South Sea, as the Pacilic was designated, which had been seen by Balboa from a high mountain upon the isthmus, was close at hand. In 1(320, a band of English J-'nritans, who had been persecuted and harried for non-conformity to the English church, having escaped to Holland, and there heard llattering acconnts of the New World, conceived the idea of setting up in the new country a home for freedom. Having obtained from the new Council of Plymouth authorit}' to make a settlement uj^on their grant, and having received assurance that their non-conformity would be winked at, a company of forty-one men with their families, one hundred and one in all, " the winnowed remnants of the Pilgrims," embarked in the May- flower, and after a perilous voyage of sixty-three days, landed on the shores of Massachusetts, at Plymouth Rock, and made a settlement
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 53
wliieli they called New Plyinoutli. Before leaving the ship they drew up, and the whole colony signed, a form of government, and elected ,Fuhn Carver governor. The elder IJrewster had accompanied them as their spiritual guide, and here in a rnid-winter of almost arctic lierceness, they suffered and endured; but sang the songs of freedom. By spring the governor and his wife and forty-one of their number were in their graves; but not dismayed they observed seed- time, and gathered in harvest; other pilgrims joined them; it became the seed of a state.
In the meantime, the Dutch had planted upon the Hudson and tlie Delaware by virtue of the discoveries of Hudson in 1609. And now in succession followed the planting of Maryland in 1634-5, Connecticut in 1632, Ehode Island in 1636, New Hampshire in 1631, Pennsylvania in 1682, the Carolinas in 1680, and Georgia in 1733.
But has it ever occurred to the reader when unfolding the charters conveying unlimited possession of vast sketches of the new found continent, by the great sovereigns of Europe, to ask by what right or by what legal authority they assumed to apportion out, and give away, and set up bounds in this land? Here was a people in possession of this country whose right to the soil could not be (juestioned. True, it was not so densely peopled as the continent of Europe; but the population was quite generally distributed, and they w'ere organized into tribes and confederacies, and were in actual pos- session— ^a claim fortilied by long occupancy. The European sover- eigns were careful to insert in their charters, " not heretofore occupied by any Christian prince." But the Indians believed in a Great Spirit whom they worshipped.
The answer to this question, whether satisfactory or not, has been, that the civilized nations of Europe, on crossing the ocean, found here a vast country of untold resources lying untouched and unstirred, the Indians subsisting almost exclusively by hunting and fishing, the few spots used for cultivation being small in proportion to the whole and consequently their right to the soil as being un- worthy of consideration. They found a people grossly ignorant, superstitious, idle, exhibiting the fiercest and most inhuman passions that vex the human breast, their greatest enjoyment, their supreme delight being the infliction upon their victims such refinements of torment, and perpetrations of savagery, as makes the heart sick to contemplate. Europeans have, therefore, held that they were justified in entering upon this practically unused soil, and dispossessing this scattered barbaric people.
Mr. Justice Story, in his familiar exposition of the constitution, in commenting upon this subject says: "As to countries in the possession of native inhabitants and tribes, at the time of the
54 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
discovery, it seems difficult to perceive what ground of right an^^ discovery couUl confer. It woukl seem strange to us, if, in the present times, tlie natives of the south sea islands, or of Cochin China, should, hy making voyages to, and discovery of, the United States, on that account, set up a right to the soil within our bounda- ries. The truth is, that the European nations paid not the slightest regard to the rights of the native tribes. They treated them as mere barl)arians and heathens, whom, if they were not at liberty to extir- pate, they were entitled to deem mere temporary occupants of tiie soil. They might convert them to Christianity ; and, if they refused conversion, they might drive them from the soil as unwortliy to inhabit it. They affected to be governed by the desire to promote the cause of Christianity, and were aided in this ostensible ol»ject l)y the whole inlinence of the papal power. J>ut their real object was to extend their own power and increase their own wealth, by acquiring the treasures, as well as the territory of the new world. Avarice and ambition were at the bottom of all their original enterprises."
Tills may be a just view of the moral and primary estimate of the case, yet the Supreme Court of the United States passed upon the question, Chief Justice Marshall delivering the opinion, holding that '* the Indian title to the soil is not of such a character or validity as to interfere with the possession in fee, and dis])osal of the land as the State may see lit.'' In point of fact, every European nation, has, by its conduct, shown, that it had a perfect right to seize and occupy any part of the continent, and as much as it could by any possibility get its hands upon, could with perfect impunity steal and sell into slav- ery the natives, drive them out from their hunting grounds, burn and destroy their wigwams and scanty crops on the slightest pretext, and inflict upon them every species of injury which caprice or lust suggested. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Indians felt aggrieved, and that their savag-e instincts were whetted for their fell work of blood, and many of the massacres which were perpetrated within the limits of Greene County, which will form the subject of a future chapter, may be traced to a bitterness thus engendered. Generations of ill usage could be scarcely expected to bear other fruitage.
/'\^:
klmiJ ^^U^cil^Y
\
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 57
CHAPTER IV.
The Dutch akd Sweden upon the Delaware — The English Supek- ci-:de them — In 1677 Came the English Quakers — William Penn Interested in New Jersey — Admiral Penn — The Uncer- tain Bounds — King Charles II. Grants Penn a Liberal Domain — Charter of Pennsylvania — Lujeral Terms — Spell- ing— Penn had Meditated of a Free Cc^mmoxweath — Re- ceives HIS (trant in an Humble Spirit — Bitter Experiences IN THE Life of Penn— »Disinherited — Father Relents on his Death-bed — Urges his Son Not to Wrong his Conscience — Seeks a Deed of Quit-claim from James, and Buys the Lower Counties — Perplexed in Devising a Form of Government^ — Secures Freedom to the Subject — Published Abroad — Letter Showing Abundance of Products — Penn Warns All to Con- sider Well before Embarking the Privations they Must Endure — Tender of Rights of the Natives — Sends a Notice
TO THEM OF HIS PuRPOSES AlL AlIKE AnSWERABLE TO GoD
Will Take no Land Except by Their Consent — Might have Become Citizens — Four Hundred Years of Intercourse has not Changed Their Nature — Show no Levitv in Thkik Pres- ence— "They L<»ve Not to be Smiled On.''
rpiIE Colony of J^eiiusylvaniH v.as later in hein-j;- permanently _L settled than most of the others upon the sea-board. It is true that the Dutch, who ori<i;inally settled New York, had effected a lodgment ujion the Delaware, and maintained a fort there for trading purposes, soon after its discovery by Hudson, in 1609, the Dutch claiming all the territory which the Delaware and the Hudson drain by reason of Hudson's discoveries. Dutch colonies increased upon the Delaware, and made settlements on both sides of the river, and Dutch governors were sent to rule there with justices of the peace, constables, and all the appurtenances of civil government. In 1638 came the Swedes, the representatives of the great monarch, Gustavus Adolplms, and for several years there was divided authority upon the Delaware, the Dutch and the Swedes contending for the mastery. In 1664, upon the accession of Charles II. to the English throne, came the English with a patent from the King covering all the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware Rivers, or in short, all the territory occupied bv the l^utch. Seeing themselves
3
58 HTSTOUV OK (;1{KKN"K COl'NTY.
likely to be overcome by force, tlic Dutch (quietly surrendered, and the colony upon the Delaware parsed under English rule. The list of taxables between the ages of sixteen and sixty, made in the year 1677, in the colony upon the Delaware, contained 443 names, wliich i;ives a poi)ulation of 3,101. In this same year came three ship-loads of emigrants, for the most part English Quakers, who settled on either side of the Delaware, but the greater part in West Jersey. Some of this religious sect had preceded them, and in 1672 George Fox, the founder, had traveled through the Delaware country, "ford- ing streams in his course, camjung out at night, and visiting and counseling with his followers on the way.'' In 16(54: Lord Berkeley and Sir (leorge Carteret received from the Duke of York a grant of territory between the Delawai'e and the ocean, including the entire southern portion of Xew Jersey. After ten years of troublesome attemj)ts to settle their country, with little profit or satisfaction, Berkeley and (^arteret sold New Jersey for a thousand pounds to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge, both Quakers, But the affairs of l)yllinge were in confusion, and U[)on making an assignment, Gawin Lawrie, William l*enn and Nicholas Lucas, became his assignees. Upon settleiuent of his affairs Byllinge came into pos- session of West New .Jersey, as his share of the province. In the discliarge of his duty as trustee for Byllinge, William Penn, who was himself a convert to the doctrines of Fox, became greatly interested in the colonization of the (Quakers ni the New World, they having suffered grievous persecution for religious opinions' sake. In his devotion to their interests he had spent much time and labor in drawing up a body of laws for the government of the colony, devised in a spirit of unexampled liberality and fi-eedom for the colonist.
We, who are accustomed to entire freedom in our modes of wor- ship, can have little idea of the bitterness, and deadly aniaiosity of the persecutions for religious opinion's sake, which prevailed in the reigns of bloody Mary and her successors. Even as late as the acces- sion of James IL to the Ii^ntrlish throne, ovei- fourteen hundred Quakers, the most learned and intelligent of that faitli, mild and inoffensive, were lantruishincr in the i>risons of Enffland, for no other
o o .
crime than a sincere attempt to follow in the footsteps of their Divine Master, for Theeing and Thoning as they conceived He had done. To escape this hated and harassing persecution first turned the mind of Penn to the New World.
Penn had reason to expect favor at the hands of James II. His fathei', who was a true born Lhigiishman, was an eminent admiral in the British navy, and had won great honor upon the seas for his country's flag. He had commanded the expedition which was sent to the West Indies by Cromwell, and had reduced the island of Jamaica to English rule. When James, then Duke of York, made
HISTORY OF GUKK.VK COUXTY. 59
his expedition against the Dutch, Admiral Penn commanded tlie fleet which descended upon the Dutch coast, and gained a great naval victory over the combined forces led by Van Opdam. For his gallantry in thi- cam))aign "■ he was knighted, and became a favorite at court, the King, and his Ijrutlier tlie Duke, holdini; iiim in cherished remembrance.'" It was natural, therefore, that the son should seek favors at court foi- his distressed religious associates. Upon the death of Admiral Penn, the British government was indebted to him in tlie sum of sixteen thousand pounds, a part of it money actually advanced by the Admiral in iitting out the fleet which liad gained the great victory. In lieu of this sum of muney, which in those days was looked upon as a great fortune, the sou, AVilliain, proposed to the King, Charles II., who had now come to the English throne, that he shoui<l gi-ant him a j)rovince in America, "a tract of land in America, lying north ot Maryland, bounded east by the Delaware liiver, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far as ])lantable."' These expressions, " as far as plantable," <»r. '• as far up and northward as convenient," and the like, were favorite forms oi' expression, in cases where the country had been unexpl(jre<l and no maps existed for the guidance of the royal secretaries, and were the cause of much uncertainty in interpreting the n.»yal patents, and of long and wasting controversies over the just boundaries of the colonies, and were really the cause which made it possilfle for this County of Greene to have been subject to ^'irginia, or ^laryland. or even to Massachusetts, or Connecticut.
Kincr Charles, who had trouble enon<;h in meeting the ordinarv expenses of his throne without providing for an old score, lent a ready ear to the application of the soii. and the idea of paying ofl" a just debt, with a >.!ice of that country which had cost him nothing, induced him to be liberal, and he gave Penn more than he had asked for. Alreadv there were conflicting claims. The Duke of York held the grant of the three counties of Delaware, and Lord Baltimore held a patent, the northern limit of which was left indeflnite. The King himself manifested unusual solicitude in pei'fecting the title to his grant, and in many ways showed that he had at heart great friendship for Penn. All conflicting claims were patiently heard Ijy the Lords, and that the best legal and judicial light upon the subject might be had the Attorney General Jones and Chief Justice ^iorth were called in. Finally, after careful deliberation, the Great Charter of Pennsylvania, conveying territory ample for an empire, holding unexampled resources upon its surface, and within its bosom, glad- dened on every hand by lordly streams, and so diversified in surface as to present a scene of matchless beauty, was conveyed to Penn in these liberal, almost loving words: •• Charles II.. by the grace of
60 HISTORY OF OKEENK COUNTY.
God, King of England, Scotland, Franei' and Ireland, defender of tlic faith, etc., To all to whom these presents shall come greeting."
'• Whei'eas our trustie and well beloved subject, William Tenn, Esquire, sonn and heire of Sir William Penn, deceased, out of a commendable desire to enlarge our English Empire, and promote such useful! commodities as may bee of benetitt to us and our do- minions, as alsoe to reduce tlie Savage Natives by gentle and just manners to the love of civill Societie and Christian Ileligion hath humbley besought leave of us to transport an ample colonie unto a certain countrey hereinafter described in the partes of America not yet cultivated and planted. And hath likewise humbley besought our Royall majestic to give, grant and conhrme all the said countrey M'ith certaine priviledges and jurisdiccons requisite for the good (irovernment and saftie of the said Countre}' and Colonie, to him and his heires forever. Jvnow yee, therefore, that wee, favoring the peti- tion and good purjmse of the said William Penn, and havmg regard to the memoiie and meritts of his late father, in divers services, and particulerly to his conduct, courage and discretion under our deai-est brother, James, Duke of Yorke, in the signall hattell and victorie, foucrht and obteyned againste the Dutc-h tleete, commanded by Ileer Van Opdam, in the yeai- one thousand six hundred sixty-five, in con- sideration thereof of our special grace, certain knowledge and meere motion, Have given and granted, and by this our present Charter, foi- ns, our heires and successors. Doe give and grant unto the said William Pen, his heires and assigns, all that tract or parte of land in America, with all the islands therein conteyned, as the same is bounded on the East by Delaware River, from twelve miles distance, Northwarde of New Castle Towne unto the three and fortieth degree of Northern latitude, if the said River doth extend so far Northwards; P>ut if the said River shall not extend soe farre Northward, then by the said Jiiver soe farr as it doth extend, and from the head of the said River the Easterne bounds are to bee determined by a meridian line, to bee draM-n from the head of the said River unto the said thi-ee and fortieth degree, the said lands to extend Westwards live degrees in longitude, to l)ee computed from the said Easterne P>ounds, and the said lands to be bounded on the North by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of Northern latitude, and on the South by a circle drawn at tMclve miles, distance from New Castle North- Avards, and Westwards unto the beiginning of the fortieth degree of Northernc Latitude, and then by a straight line Westwards to the limit of Longitude above menconed.
"Wee doe also give and grant unto the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, the free and undisturbed use, and continuance in and passage into and out of all and singular, Ports, harbours, Bayes, waters, rivers. Isles and Inletts, belonging nnto, or leading to
IIISTOHY OF GKEEXE COUNTY. 61
and from tlie Country, or Islands aforesaid; and all the sovie, lands, lieldd, woods, nnderwoods, monntaines, hills, fenns. Isles, Lakes, ilivers, waters, rivuletts, I3a)-s and Inletts, scituate or being within or belongino- unto the Liiuitts and bounds aforesaid, together with the fishing of all sortes of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all Royal 1 and other fislies in the sea, bayes, Inletts, waters, or Rivers within the premises, and the fish therein taken, and alsoe all veines, mines and quarries, as well discovered as not discovered, of (rold. Silver, Gemms and pretious Stones, and all other wliatsoever stones, metals, or of any other thing or niatter whatsoever found or to be found within the Countrey, Isles or Limitts aforesaid; and him the said William Penn, his lieires and assignes, Wee doe, by this our Royall Charter, for us, our heires and successors, make, create and constitute the true and absolute proprietaries of the Countrey afore- said, and of all other, the premises, saving always to us, our heires and successors, the faith and allegiance of the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, and of all other, the, proprietaries, tenants and Inhabitants that are, or shall be within the territories and pre- cincts aforesaid; and saving also unto us, our heirs and Snccessors. the Sovreignity of the aforesaid Countrey, To Have, hold and pos- sesse and enjoy the said tract of Land, Countrey, Isles, Inletts and and other the premises, unto the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, to the only proper use and bchoofe of the said AVilliam I^enn, his lieires and assignes forever."
Such is the introduction and deed of conveyance of the great charter by which Penn came into possession of that royal domain, Pennsylvania. But as it was to be in the nature of a sale, to make this deed of transfer binding according to the forms of law, there must be a consideration, the payment of which could be acknowledged or enforced, and the King, in a meriy mood, exacted the payment thus, '•yielding and paying therefor to us, our lieires and successors, two Beaver Skins to bee delivered att our said Castle of Windsor, on the first day of January, in everey yeare." The King also added a fifth of all gold and and silver which might be found. But as that was an uncertain thing, and as in point of fact none ever was discovered, the sale of this great State was made, so far as this instrument shows, for two beaver skins, to be annually paid to the King. And as a sequence to this con<lition the King sa3^s, "of our further grace cer- tain knowledge and meer mocon have thought litt to Erect the aforesaid Country Islands, into a province and Seigniorie, and do call itt Pensilvania, and soe from henceforth wee will have itt called, and forasmuch as wee have hereby made and ordeyned the aforesaid AVilliam Penn, his heirs and assignes, the true and absolute Proprie- taries of all the lands and Dominions affu-esaid.""
Penn had proposed that his province be callpd New Wf^les, but
62 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
tlie King objected to this. Fenn then proposed Sjlvaiiia, as the country was reputed to be oversliadowed by goodly forests. To this the King assented jn-ovided the prefix Penn should be attached. Penn vitrorously opposed this as savoring of his personal vanity. But the King was inflexible, claiming this as an opportunity to honor his great father's name, and accordingly, when the charter was drawn, that name was inserted. Following the pi'ovisions quoted above are twenty-thi-ee sections providing for the government and internal regulation of the proposed colony, and adjusting with great particularity and much tedious circumlocution, the relations of tlie colouy to the home government. It is not on this account thought best to quote the entire matter of the charter here, but any who nuiy be curious t(» consult the document in its entirety will find the orig- inal, engrossed on parchment with an illuminated border, in the executive office at Ilarrisburg, and a true copy printed in the first volume of the Colonial Records, page seventeen. If anything is wanting to show the heartfelt consideration of the King for Penn, it is found in the twenty-tliird and last section, "■ And if, perchance, it should happen hereafter, any doubts or questions should arise con- cerning the true sense and meaning of any word, clause, or sentence, contained in this oui- |>resent chai'tei-, AVe will ordaine, and command, that att all times and in all things such inter})i'etacon be made thereof and allowed in any of our Courts M'hatsoever, as shall be adjudged most advantageous and favorable unto the said AVilliam Penn, his heires and assignes.^'
It will be noticed that the spelling of the ro\'al secretary seems |)eculiar at this day, and that the ca])ital letters and the alphabet generally are used with a freedom and originality which would have taxed the utmost stretch of ingenuity of so acknowledged an expert as .Vrtemus Waivl himself; but in the matter of composition it fol- lowed the legal forms prevalent in the courts of England of that day, and was drawn with a particularity and minuteness of detail scarcely pai'allelcd in similar documents, apparently with a sincere desire to nud<e tlie jirovisions so clear that tliere should be no chance for future dispute or misunderstanding, and the authority givcTi to Penn as the j)r(»prietary was almost unlimited. In the matter of tlie boundaries the terms were such that there could be no possibility of mistake, the boundary lines being fixed by actual measurement and mathe- matical calculation, or by the observation of the heaveidy bodies. The Delaware river formed its eastern limits, and all the others wei'c lines of longitude and latitude. In this respect this portion of the charter was dr^uvn with less equivocal terms than any other similar document. And yet tlie authorities of Pennsylvania had more difficulty in establishing its claims — for reasons whi<di will liei-eafbM- be explained — than all the others together.
IIISTOKY OF GKEENE COUNTY. 63
It was a joyful day t'ov Feiin when he received, at the hands of the Kins, the ijreat charter, drawn with sucli liberalitv, conferrince ahaost unlimited power, and with so many marks of tlie kindness of heart and i)ersonal favor of liis sovereign. He liad louir meditated of a free commonwealth where it should be the study of the law- giver to form Ills codes with an eye to the greatest gowl and happi- ness of his subjects, and where the supreme delight of the subject would be to i-ender implicit obedience to its recpiirements. Plato's dream of an ideal republic, a land of just laws and happy men, " the dream of tluit city where all goodness sliould dwell, whether such has ever existed in the infinity of days gone by, or even now exists in the gardens of the Ilesjierides far from our sight and knowledge, or will perchance hereafter, which, though it be not on earth, must have a ])attern of it laid up in heaven,"- -such a dreaui was ever in the mind of Penn. The thought that he now had in a new country an almost unlimited stretch of land, where he could go and set up his republic, and form and govern it to his own sweet will, and in con- formity to his cherished ideal, thrilled his soul and iilled him with unspeakable delight. But he was not pufled up with vain glory. To his friend Turner he writes: "' My ti-ue love in the Lord salutes tliee, and dear friends that love the Lord's precious truth in those parts. Thine epistle I have, and, for my business here, know that after many waitings, watchings, solicitings and disputes in council, this day my country was contirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of Pennsyl- vania, a name the king would give it in honor of my father. ■''' * - Thou mayest communicate my grant to Friends, and expect shortly my proposals. It is a clear and just thing, and my God, that has given it me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation." And may we not cherish the belief that the many and signal blessings which have come to this common- wealth in succeeding years, have come through the devout and pious spirit of the founder.
lie had seen the companions of his religious faith sorely treated throughout all England, and for them he now saw the prospect of a i-elease from their tribulati9ns. Penn himself had come up through bitter ])ersecution and scorn on account of his religion. At the age of fifteen he entered Oxford University, and for the reason that he and some of his fellow-students practiced the faith of the Friends, they were admonished and finally expelled. Returning to his home in Ireland, where his father had large estates, his serious deportment gave great oflence, the father fearing that his advancement at court would thereby be marred. Tbinking to lu'eak the spirit of the son, the boy was whipped, and linally expelled fi-om the family honie. At Cork, where he was employed in the service of the Lord Lieu-
64 UI STORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
tenant, he, in couipariy with others, was apprehended at a religions meeting of Friends, and cast into prison. While thns incarcerated he wrote to the Lord President of jVIunster. pleading for liberty of conscience. On Iteing liberated he became more devoted than before, and so impressed was be with a sense of religious duty that he be- came a minister of the gospel. Religious controversy at this time was sharp, and a ])amphlet, which he wrote, gave so much offense to the Bishop of London that Penn was thrown into the Tower, where he languished for eight' and a half months. But he was not idle, and one of the books which he wrote during his imprisonment, — " No Cross, No Crown," — attained a wide circulation, and is still read with satisfaction by the faithful in all lands. Fearing that his motives might be misconceived, he made this distinct statement of his belief, " Let all know this, that I pretend to know no other name by which remission, atonement and salvation can be obtained but Jesus Christ, the Savior, who is the power and wisdom of (xod."" Upon his release he continued to preach and exhort, was arrested M'ith his associate Mead, and was tried at the Old Bailey. Penn plead his own cause with great boldness and power, and was acquitted ; but the conrt imposed a tine for contempt in wearing his hat, and, for non-payment, was cast into Newgate with common felons. At this time, 1670, the father, feeling his end approaching, sent money privately to pay the fine, and summoned the son to liis bedside. The meeting was deeply affecting. The father's heart was softened and completely broken, and, as wonld seem from his words, had be- come converted to the doctrines of the son, for he said to him with his parting breath, "Son William, I am weary of the worhll I would not live over again my days, if I could command it with a wish; for the snares of life are greater than the fears of death. This troubles me, that I have offended a gracious God. The tlionght of that has followed me to this day. Oh! have a care of sin! It is that which is the sting both of life and death. Let nothing in this world tempt to wrong your conscience; so you M'ill keep peace at home, which will be a feast to you in the day of trouble." Before his death he sent a friend to the Duke of York with a dying request, that the Duke would endeavor to protect his son from persecution, and use his influence with the King to the same end.
The King had previously given James, Duke of York, a charter for Long Island, witli an indefinite western boundary, and, lest this might at some futnre day compromise his rigiit to some portion of his territory, Peim induced the Duke to execute a deed for the same territory covered by the royal charter, and substantially in the same words used in describing its limits. But he was still not satisfied to have the shores of the oidy navigable river communicating with the ocean imder tho d<^niinio]) of others, who miglit in time becoin(;
1^^^^^ of "P^aaJLAj
IIISTOKY OF GKEKXE COUNTY. 07
liostile and iiitert'ere with the free navigation of the stream. He accordingly induced tlie Duke to make a grant to liim of 2se\v Castle and New Castle County, and on the same day a grant of the territory stretching onward to the sea, covering the two counties of Kent and Sussex, the two o-i-ants tog-etlier embracino; what were desiii:nated tlie territories, or the three lower counties, what in after years became the State of Delaware; but bv Avhich acts became and lon^ remained component parts of Pennsylvania. No sucli colony as Delaware ever existed. This gave Peiin a considerable population, as in these tliree counties the Dutch and Swedes since 1609 had been settling.
Penn was now ready to settle his own colony and try his schemes of government. Lest there might be a misapprehension respecting his purpose in obtaining his charter, and unworthy persons with un- worthy motives might be induced to emigrate, lie declares repeatedly his own sentiments: ''For my country I eye(\ the Lord in obtaining it; and more was I drawn inwards to look to llim, and to owe to His liand and power than to any other way. I liave so obtained and desire to keep it, that I may not be unworthy of His love, l)ut do tliat which may ajiswer His kind providence and people."
In choosing a form of government he was much perj)lexe<l. lie had thouijht the o-overnment of P^ngland all wrong, when it bore so heavily upon him and his friends, and he, doubtless, thought in his earlier years, that he could order one in righteousness; but Avhen it Avas given him to draw a form that should regulate the affairs of the future state, he hesitated. " For particular frames and models, it will become me to say little. 'Tis true, men seem to agree in the end, to wit, happiness; but in the means, they differ, as to divine, so to this human felicity; and the cause is much the same, not always want of light and knowledge, but want of using them rightly. Men side with their passions against their reason, and their sinister in- terests have so strong a bias upon their minds that they lean to them against the things they know. I do not lind a model in the world, that time, place, and some singular emergencies have not necessarily altered; nor is it easy to frame a civil government that shall serve all places alike. I know what is said of the several admirers of Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy, which are the rule of one, of a few, and of many, and are the three common ideas of government, Avhen men discourse on that subject. But I propose to solve the controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs to all three; any government is free to the people under it, Avhatever bo the frame, where the laws rule, and the people are a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, and confusion.'"
" F>ut when all is said, the)-e is hardly one frame of govpnniHMit in the world so ill-designed by its fii-st founders, that in good hands would not do well eripugli: an<l story tel|s us, the best jn ill ones can
68 HISTORY OK (UlEENE COUNTY.
do nothing that is great and good; witness the Jewish and the Roman states. Governments, like clocks, go from the moiion men ii-ive them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them are they ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend npon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad, if it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil to their turn."
'' I know some say let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that execute them; l)nt let them consider, that though good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want good men, and be abolished or invaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones. 'Tis true, good laws have some awe upon ill ministers; but that is where they have not power to escajje or abolish them, and tlie people are generally wise and good; but a loose and depraved people, which is to the question, love laws and an administration like themselves. That, therefore, which makes a good constitution, must keep it, viz., men of wisdom and virtue, qualities that because they descend not with worldly inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth, for which after ages will owe more to the care and prudence of founders, and the successive magistracy, than to their parents for their private patrimonies."
Those considerations, which stand as a preface to his frame of government, are given at some len<;th here, in order to show the temper of mind and heart of Penn, as he entered upon his great work. He seems like one who stands before the door of a royal palace, and is hjlli to lay his hand npon the knob, wliose turn shall give him en- trance, for fear his tread should be unsanctified by the grace of Heaven, or lack favor in the eyes of his subjects. For he says in closing his disquisition: " These considerations of the weight of government, and the nice and varied opinions about it, made it un- easy to me to think of publishing the ensuing frame and conditional laws, forseeing both the censures they will meet witli from men of differing humours and engagements, and the occasion they may give of discourse beyond my design. But next to tlie power of necessity, this induced me to a compliance, that we have (with reverence to God, and good conscience to men), to the best of our skill, contrived and composed the frame and laws of this government, to the great end of all government, viz.: To support in reverence with the peo- ple, and to secure the people from the abuse of power; that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honorable for their just administration; for liberty without obedience is confusion, and ob(idience without liberty is slavery. To carry this evenness is partly owing to the constitution, and partly to the magistracy ; where
IIISTOUY OF GlIEEXE COUNTY. Q',)
eitlier of tliese fail, guvernmeiit will be subject to confusion; but where both are wanting, it must be totally subverted; then where both meet, the government is like to endure. Which Ihumbly pray and hope God will please to make the lot of this of Pennsylvania. Amen."
In such temper, and with such a spirit did our great founder ap- ])roach the work of drawing a frame of government and laws for his proposed community, insignificant in numbers at first; but destined a' no distant day to embrace millions. It is not to be wondered at that he felt great solicitude, in view of the future possibilities. AV^ith great care and tenderness for the rights and privileges of the in- dividual, he drew the frame or constitution in twenty-four sections, and the body of laws in forty. And who can estimate the power for good to this people, of the system of government set up by this pious, God fearing man, every provision of which was a subject of his ))rayers, and tears, and the deep yearnings of a sanctified heart.
The town meeting works the destruction of thrones. Penn's sv^^tein was, in effect, at the outset, a free Democracy, where the in- dividual was supreme. IIa<l King Charles foreseen, when he gave his cliarter, what principles of freedom to the individnal would be em- bddied in the government of the new colony, and would l)e nurtured in the breasts of the oncoming generations, if he had held the purpose of keeping this a constituent and obedient part of his kingdom, he wonld have witheld his assent to it, as elements were implanted there- in antagonistic to arbitrar3% kingly rule. But men sometimes con- trive better than they know, and so did Charles.
When finished, the frame of government was published, and was sent out, accompanied with adescription of the country, and especial cai-e was taken that these should reach the members of tlie society of Friends. Many of the letters written home to friends in England by those who had settled in the country years before, were curious and amusing, and well calculated to excite a desire to emigrate. Two years before this, Mahlon Stacy wrote an account of the country, which the people of our day wonld scarcely be able to match. *' I have seen," he says, "orchards laden with fruit to admiration; their very limbs torn to pieces with weight, most delicious to the taste, and lovely to behold. I have seen an apple-tree, from a pippin-kernel, vield a barrel of curious cider, and peaches in such plenty that some people took their carts a peach-gathering. I could not but smile at tlie conceit of it; they are very delicious fruit, and hang almost like our onions, that are tied on ropes. I have seen' and know, this siiin- mei', forty bushels of bold wheat of one bushel sown.. From May to Michaelmas great store of very good w'ikl fruit as strawberries, cranberries and hurtleberries, which are like our bilberries in Kng- land, oidy far sweeter; the cranberries, much like cherries for color
70 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
and bigness, which may he kept till frnit comes again; an excellent sauce is made of them for venison, turkeys, and other great i'owl, and tliey are better to make tarts of than either gooseberries or cherries; we have them brought to our houses by the Indians in great plenty. My brother Robert had as many cherries this year as would liave loaded several carts. As for venison and fowls we have great plenty; we have brought home to our countries by the Indians, seven or eight fat bncks in a day. We went into the river to catch her- rings after the Indian fashion. We could have tilled a three-bushel sack of as ijood larije herrings as ever I saw. And as to beef and
O o O
pork, here is a great plenty of it, and good sheep. The common grass of the country feeds beef very fat. Indeed, the country, take it as a wilderness, is a brave country.".
If the denizens of England were to accept this description as a true picture of the productions and possibilities of the New World, they might well conclude with the writer that "for a wilderness" it was a "brave country," and we can well understand why they flocked to the new El Dorado. But lest any might be tempted to go with- out sufficient consideration, Penn issued a pronunciamento, urging every one who contemplated removal thither to consider well* the in- conveniences of tlie voyage, and the labor and privation required of emigrants to a wilderness country, "that so none may move rashly or from a flckle, but from a solid mind, having above all things an eye to the providence of God in the disposing of themselves."
And that there should be no deception or misunderstanding in regard to the rights of ^property, Penn drew np "Certain Conditions and Concessions" before leaving England, which he circulated freely, touching the laying out of roads and highways, the plats of towns, the settling of communities on ten thousand acre tracts, so that friends and relatives might be together; declaring that tlie woods, rivers, quarries and mines are the exclusive property of those on whose purchases they were found; for the allotment to servants; that, the Indians shall be treated justly; the Indians' furs should be sold in open market; that the Indian shall be treated as a citizen, and that no man shall leave the province withont giving three weeks' public notice posted in the market-place, that all claims for indebted- ness might be liquidated. These and many other, matters of like tenor form the subiect of these remarkable concessions, all tending- to show the solicitude of Penn for the interests of his colonists, and that none should say that he deceived or overreached them in the sale of his lands. Tie foresaw the liability that the natives would be nnder to be deceived and cheated by the crafty and designing, being entirely unskilled in judging of the values of things. He accordingly devotes a large proportion of the matter of these concessions to secure aucl defend the rights of the ignorant natives^ If it was possible tQ
UrsTOKV (IF (iUEENK TOT^XTV. 71
make a liuiiiaii being cuiit'onn to the rights and privileges of civilized society, and make him truly an enlightened citizen, Penn's treatment of the Indian was calculated to make him so. He treated the natives as his own ]ieople, as citizens in every important particular, and as destined to an immortal itdieritance. He wrote to them: ^'There is a great God and power that hath made the world and all things therein, to whom yon and I and all people owe their being and well- l)eing; and to whom yon and I must one day give an account for all that we do in the world. This great God hath written His law in our hearts, by which we are taught and commanded to love, and help, and do good to one another. Now the great God hath been pleased to make me concerned in your part of the world, and the king of the country Avhere I live hath given me a great jirovini'e therein; but I desire to enjoy it with your love and consent, that we may always live together as neighbors and friends; else what would the great God do to ns, who hath made us not to devour and destroy one another, but to live soberly and kindly together in the world? Now I would have you well observe that 1 am very sensible of the un- kindness and injustice that have been too much exercised towards you by the people of these parts of the world, who have sought them- selves, and to make great advantages by you, rather than to be ex- amples of goodness and patience unto you, Avhich I hear hath been a matter of trouble to you, and caused great grudging and animosities, sometimes to the shedding of blood, which hath made, the great God angry. But I am not such a man, as is well known in my country. I have great love and regard toward you, and desire to gain your love and friendship by a kind, just and peaceable life, and the people 1 send are of the same mind, and shall in all things behave them- selves accordingly; and if in anything any shall olfend you or 3'our people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same l)y an ecpial number of just men on both sides, that by no means you may have just occasion of being oi^'ended against them. I shall shortly come to you myself, at which time we may more largely and freely confer and discourse of these matters. In the meantime I liave sent my commissioners to treat with you about land, and form a league of peace. Let me desire you to be kind to them and their people, and receive these tokens and presents which I have sent you as a testimony of my good will to you, and my resolution to live justly, peaceably and friendly with you." Such was the mild and gentle attitude in which Penn came to the natives.
Had the Indian character been capable of being broken and changed, so as to have adopted the careful and laborious habits which Europeans possess, the aborigines might have been assimilated and be- come a constituent part of the population. Such was the expectation of Penn. Thev could have become citizens, as every other foreign
72 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
i-ace liiive. I'ut tlie Indian could no more be tamed than tlie wild parlridgtt of the woods. Fiijhini;- and Ininting were his occupation, and it' any work or drudgery was to be done, it was shifted to the M-omen, as being beneath the dignity of the free savage of the forest. Two hnndred and hfty years of intercourse with European civiliza- tion and customs have not in the least changed liis nature. He is essentially the savage still, as he was on the day when Columbus lirst met him, four hundred years ago.
But this fact does not change the aspect in which we should view tlie pious and noble intents of Pe-nn, and they must ever be regarded with admiration, as indicative of his loving and merciful purposes. He not only provided that they should be treated as human beings, on j)rinciples of justice and mercy, but he was particular to point out to his commissioners the manners which should be preserved in their presence: "lie tendei- of otfending the Indians, and let them know that you come to sit down lovingly among them. Let my letter and conditions be read in tlieir tongue, that they may see we have their good in our eye. J^e grave. They love not to be smiled on."
HISTORY OF GREENE COFXTY. 73
CHAPTER V.
Markiiam Fikst Govp:rn()r — Sails for jNTew York and is Accorded Permission to Assume Control on the Delaavare — Purchase Land of the Indians — Seek a Site of a Great City — Penn Sails for America — Advice to Wife and Children on Leav- ing— Love of Rural Life — Thirty Passengers Die on the Voyage — Calls an Assembly and Enacts Laws — Civil and Religious Liberty^— Visits Site of the New City — Satisfied With It — Visits Governor of New York and Friends in Lon(^ Island and Jersey — Discusses Boundary With Lord Balti- :more — The Great Treaty — Method t)F the Indians — Terjis OF THE Treaty — Speech of Penx — Legal Forms Observed — "Treaty Tree" Preserved— WALKiN(f Purchase — Consider- ation OF Penn — Injustice of Later Governor — Rai*id Increase —Penn Describes the New City — Distances Fko^i the Chief Cities — Latitude and L()N(;itude — Designs River Bank FOR A Public Park — Disrecjarded — Names His City Phila- delphia— Growth of the Colony — Comi'ared With Other
C< )LONIES.
VTOT being ill readiness to go immediately to liis province, Penn 1^1 issued a commission bearing date March 6, 1681, to liis cousin, William Markham, as Lieutenant Governor, and sent him forward with three ship-loads of settlers to take possession of his province. Markham sailed directly to New York, where he exhibited his com- mission to the acting governor of that province, who made a record of the fact, and gave Gov, Markham a letter addressed to the civil magistrates on the Delaware thanking them for their Zealand fidelity, and directing them to transfer their allegiance to the new Proprietary. Armed now with complete authority, Markham proceeded to the Delaware, where he was kindly received and all allegiance promptly accorded to him as the rightful governor. Markham was accompanied by four commissioners, who were first to establish friendly relations with the Indians and acquire land by purchase, and second to select and survey and lay out the plot of a great city. Penn had received a complete grant and deed of transfer of these lands, and had he fol- lowed the example of the other colonists he would have taken arbi- trary possession without consulting the natives. But he held that their claims to rightful ownership by possession for immemorial
74 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
time, must first be satisfied. Accordingly, following the pacific in- structions ot Penn, the coniniissioners found no difficulty in opening negotiations with the simple inhabitants of the forest, and in pur- chasintr long reaches of land on the south and west bank of the Del- aware and far beyond the Schuylkill.
But it was not so easy to find a site for a great city to completely fill all the conditions which the founder had imposed. It must be on a stream navigable, where many boats could ride in safety and of sufficient depth so that ships could come up to the wharf and load and uidoad without "boating and lightening of it." '' The situation must be high, at least dry and sound, and not swampy, which is best known by digging up two or three earths and seeing the bottom." The site was to contain a block of 10,000 square acres in one square, and the streets to be regularly laid out. " J^et every house be placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of its plat, as to the breadth- way of it, that so there may be ground on each side for gardens or orchards or fields, that it may be a green country town, which will never be burned, and always wholesome."'
These instructions of Penn were most carefully observed, and foi' many weeks tlie commissioners searched for such a site as he had pictured, their investigations extending far up the Delaware. They finally fixed upon the present site of Philadelphia, which was settled, and has grown as then surveyed. It was between two navigable streams; it was dry, being one vast bed of sand and gravel and hence easily drained; and so high as not to be liable to overflow; it had ten thousand scjuare acres; but there was not distance enough between the two rivers to allow it to l)e in a square block, llovever, as there was room for indefinite extension up and down the streams, this was not reo-arded as fatal to the choice. The streets were laid with exact regularity, crossing each other at right angles. Through the center. Market street extended from river to river, and so wide that origi- nally, and until within the memory of many now living, long, low market houses, or sheds stretched along its middle, and at its center it was crossed i)y Broad street, a magnificent avenue. At their in- tei'section a park Avas left, upon which the city has recently erected a structure of marble for the purposes of the city government, which, for beauty of architecture, convenience and solidity of structure is scarcely matched anywhere in the world.
Having settled all things at home to his satisfaction, Penn pre- pared to depart for his new country. i^ut before departing he ad- dressed farewell letters to his friends, and to his wife and children. From these we can gather what was really in his heart of hearts, what was his true character and the tenor of his inmost tl^oughts. To his fellow laborer, Stephen Crisp, he wrote, "Stephen, we know one another, and T need not say much to thee. '- * * The Lord
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IITSTOKY OF GREENE COUNTY. "^Y
Will bless that ground (Pennsylvania). " * * And truly, Stephen, there is work enough, and here is room to woi'k in. Surely God will come in for a share in this planting-work, and that Jeaven shall leaven the lump in time." As he was now about to depart on a voy- age over the treacherous ocean, he wrote to his wife and children as though he might never return to them again. To his wife he said, " God knows and thou knowest it, I can say it was a match of Providence's making, and God's image in us both was the first thing." In counselling her not to become involved in debt, he says, " My mind is rapt up in a saying of thy father's, 'I desire not riches,- but to owe nothing;' and truly that is wealth, and more than enough to live is attended with many sorrowes." Of his children he says,- "I had rather they were homely, than finely bred, as to outward be- havior; yet I love sweetness mixed with gravity. Religion in the heart leads into this true civility. * * * For their learning be liberal. Spare no cost; for by such parsimony all is lost that is saved; but let it be useful knowledge, such as is consistent with truth and godliness, not cherishing a vain conversation or idle mind, but ingenuity mixed with industry is good for the body and mind too. I recommend the useful part of mathematics, as building houses or ships, measuring, surveying, dialing, navigation; but agriculture is especially in my eye — let my children be husbandmen and house- wives; it is industrious, healthy, honest, and of good example; like Al)raham and the holy ancients, who pleased God and obtained a good report. This leads to consider the works of God and nature of things that are good, and diverts the mind from being taken up with the vain arts and inventions of a luxurious world. "■•' * * Of cities and towns of concourse beware; the world is apt to stick close to those who have lived and got wealth there; a country life and estate I like best for my children." To his children he said, " First love and fear the Lord, and delight to wait on the God of your father and mother. * * * Xext be obedient to your dear mother, a woman whose virtue and good name is an honor to you ; for she hath been exceeded by none in her time for her plainness, integrity, in- dustry, humanity, virtue, good understanding; qualities not usual among women of her worldly condition and quality. * * * Be- take _yourselves to some honest, industrious course of life. * * * And if you marry, mind neither beauty nor riches, but the fear of the Lord, and a sweet and amiable disposition; and l)eing married, be tender, affectionate and meek. * * * Be sure to live within compass; borrow not, neither be beholden to any. "^ ^- * Love not money nor the world; use them only, and they will serve you; but if you love them you serve them, which will debase your spirits as well as offend the Lord. ■••' * * Be humble and gentle in your conversation ; of few words, but always pertinent when you speak,
78 HISTOKY OF GREENE COUNTY.
hearing out before joii attempt to answer, and then speaking as if jou would pnrsuade not impose. Atiront none, neither revenge the affronts that are done to yon; but forgive and you shall be forgiven of your heavenly father. In making friends coiisider well lirst; and when yon are fixed be true. Watch against anger; neither speak nor act in it, for, like drunkenness, it makes a man a beast. Avoid iiatterers, for they are thieves in disguise. '" ■"' * They lie to flatter, and flatter to cheat. ''" '" ^' Be temperate in all things; in your diet, for that is physic by prevention; it keeps, nay, it makes people healthy, and their generation sound. '"■ - '" Avoid pride, avarice and luxury. Make your conversation with the most eminent for wisdom and piety, and shun all wicked men, as you hope for the blessing of God, and the comfort of your father's living and dying praj'ers. " ^ ■''' l]e no busy bodies. In your families remember, Abraham, Moses and tloshua, their integrity to the Lord. ■'•■ * '" Keep on the square for God sees you."
Of this remarkable letter, which is worthy to lay to heart and be made a fi-equent study *by the rising generation, only a few brief extracts are given above, yet enough has been adduced to show the pious intent of the founder of our noble C'ommonwealth. In June, 1682, Penn set sail for Amei-ica in tiie ship '' Welcome," with some hundred passengers, of wliouj thirty died of small-pox on the voyage. He landed at ]Sew Castle, where lie took formal possession of the country. At a public meeting called at the court-house he explained his object in coming, his plan of government, and renewed the com- missions of the magistrates. Proceeding to Uj)lands, which he named Chester, he called an at^sembly composed of an equal number from tiie province aiul territories, (^afterwards Delaware), and proceeded to enact a frame of government and a body of laws. The convention was in session but three days, as it was in harvest, and the farmers could not aiibrd to spend much time; but in that brief period, wdiich in these days would scarcely suffice for the speaker to make up his committees, tiie constitutiun Avas considered article by article, amended and adopted, and the laws in like manner, so that when they adjourned, after this brief session, it could ])e said that the great ship of State, Pennsylvania, Mas fairly launched, and the government, which, in this simple way, was there adopted in the town of Chester, has foruied the basis of that system which has guided the State in safety through the more than two centuries of its growth, and brought it safely on in the voyage of empire, with its more than four millions of people.
Penn's flrst and chief care was to establish civil and religious liberty so firmly, that it should not be in the power of future rulers to alter or destroy it. As he himself declared, " For tlie matter of liberty and privilege, 1 purpose that which is extraordinary, and
UlSTORt^ OF GRiEENT: COUNTY. 79
leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country." Having suffered sore persecution himself, as well as his religions associates, he cherished a bitter hatred of any system which could impose or even suffer such injustice, and accordingly he placed at the head of his Fundamentals this, in tliat age, remarkable provision: "In reverence to God, the Father of light and spirits, the author as well as object of all divine knowledge, faith and woi'ship, I do for me and mine, declare and establish for the first fundamental of the govern- ment of my province, tliat every person, that doth and shall reside therein, shall have and enjoy the free possession of his or her faith and exercise of worship towards God, in such way and manner as every such person shall in conscience believe is most acceptable to God."
It would seem as if the new world was opened at a time when persecution in the old world was rife, that the oppressed people of all nations might have an asylum, where civil and religious liberty should forever be preserved. Flaving thus settled his form of gov- ernment, and set it fairly in operation, be began to make journeys into the distant parts of his country. He first visited the site which had been selected for the new city, proceeding in a barge from Chester, and landed at the mouth of Dock Creek, now Dock street. Forests covered the site, conies burrowed in the bank, and wild ani- mals dashed past him as Penn was pulled up the side. The situation pleased him, and the country was even more inviting than he had been led to believe. " I am very well and much satisfied with my place and portion. '••" '-•' * As to outward things we are satisfied; the land good, the air clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provision good and easy to come at, an innumerable quantity of wild- fowl and fish; in fine, here is what an Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be well contented with, and service enough for God; for the fields are white for harvest. Oh how sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, heresies and perplexities of woful Europe."
Penn understood well the proprieties of social life, as well as the advantage of politeness to good fellowship. He took early occasion to visit New York, and pay his respects to the Governor and his associates there. But wherever he went, he never divested himself of his character as a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. Accord- ingly, after haviug taken his leave of the Governor, he paid visits to the members of the society of Friends living on Long Island, and in east New Jersey, which had previously come into the possession of a company of which he was one, and everywhere did " service for the Lord." He also visited Lord Baltimore, in Maryland, that they might confer together upon the subject of the boundaries of the two
80 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
colonies. As the weather became intensely cold, precluding the possibility of taking stellar observations or jnaking the necessary surveys, it was agreed to adjourn the conference to the milder weather of the spring.
The founder took great care to secure the friendship and interest of the Indians in the new State. He accordingly took early occasion to summon a council of all tlie neighboring tribes, that he might make a formal treaty of peace with them, and secure a legally executed deed for their lands. The meeting was held beneath the shade of a giant elm at Kensington, ever after known and held in veneration as the " Treaty tree." The Indians from far and near had come, as it was an event that had been widely heralded, and the desire on the part of the natives to see and hear the great founder, who had addressed them the year before in sucli loving words, was doubtless intense. Penn came with his formal treaty all drawn up, and engrossed on parch- ment, as well as a deed for their lands. In his letter to friends in Eng- and he describes the manner of the Indians in council, which was doubtless the method obs.erved on the occasion of concludino: the ffreat ti-eaty. " I have had occasion," he says, '^ to be in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of ti*ade. Their order is thus: the king sits in the middle of a half-moon, and has his council, the old and wise on each hand. ]je]iind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger fry in the same iigure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me. He stood up, camo to me, and in the name of his king saluted me; then he took me by the hand, and told me that he was ordered by his king to speak to me, and that now it was not he but the king who spoke, because what he should say was the king's mind. Hav- ing thus introduced his matter, he fell to the bounds of the land they had agreed to dispose of, and the price; which now is little and dear, that which would have bought twenty miles, not buying now two. Dui'ing the time that this person spoke, not a man of them "was observed to whisper or smile, the old grave, the young reverent, in their deportment. They speak little but fervently, and with ele- gance. I have never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the help (I was going to say, the spoil of tradition) and he will deserve the name of wise, wlio outwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand." Penn now responded to them in, a like sober and leverent spirit, assuring them that the I'ed man and the white man are equally tlie care of the Great Spirit, and that it is his desire to live in peace and good fellowship with them. " It is not our custom," he says, " to use hostile weapons against our fellow creatures, for which reason we have come unarmed." Penn now unrolls his parchment, and reads and explains the force of each article, all of which is interpreted into their own language, — though it should
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 81
here be stated that Pemi learned the Indian language, and was ahle to speak to them in their own tongue. " I will not do,-' he continued, "as the Marylanders did, call you children or brothers only; for parents are apt to whip their children too severely, and brothers sometimes will dift'er; neither will I compare the friendship, between us to a chain, for the rain may rust it, or a tree may fall and break it; but 1 will consider you as the same Hesh and blood as the Christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts." In response to this declaration the spokesman for the king again comes forward and makes great promises and declares that " the Indians and the En«:lish must live in love as long as the sun doth give its light." Another speaker now turns to the Indians and ex- plains to them what had been said and done, and counsels them " to love the Christians, that many Governors had been in the river, l)ut* that no Governor had come himself to live and stay here before, and having now such an one that had treated them well they should never do him nor his any wrong," all of which M'as received by the entire assemblage with accents of approval.
Penn took special pains to have all his purchases of the Indians executed in due legal form, and recorded in the othces of his govern- ment, so that if any question concerning the conditions should arise there should be the exact evidence of the bargain at hand. The Indians themselves had no method of recording their agreements, but their memory of such transactions was remarkably exact and tena- cious. They had some arbitrary way by which they were able to recall their knowledge of events. The Indian missionary and his- torian saj'S, "They frequently assembled together in the woods,. in some shady spot, as nearly as possible similar to those where they used to meet their brother Miquon (I^enn), and tliere lay all his words and speeches, with those of his descendants on a blanket or clean piece of bark, and with great satisfaction go successively over the whole. * ■^ '" This practice, which I have repeatedly witnessed, continued until 1780 (a period of a hundred years), when disturb- ances which took place put an end to it probably forever."
The venerable elm tree under which this noted conference was held was carefully guarded and preserved. Even while the city of Philadelphia was in possession of the enemy during the Kevolution- ary war, and firewood was scarce, the Treaty Tree, this venerable elm, was preserved from mutilation. The British General Simcoe sta- tioned a guard over it. It stood till 1810, when it fell a victim to the storms, and was found to be 283 years old, showing that at the time of the treaty it was 155. The Penn Society of Philadelphia have marked the spot where it stood by erecting a durable monu- ment.
Of Penn's purchases of the Indians two deeds are on record,
82 HISTORY OF OKEEN^E COUNTY.
executed in 1683, one of them bearing the signature of tlie i-enowned chieftain Taniinend. In one of tliese the method of measurement was unique. The terms were that the tract should embrace the ter- ritory between two rivers and " shall extend as far back as a man can walk in three days." It does not provide whether the days are to be from sun to sun, nor at M'liat season of tlie year tlie walk is to be made, nor whether a day shall be reckoned at twenty-four hours, or whether the walk shall be executed by an experienced walker at the top of his bent, or be walked leisurely. But Penn, actuated by a sense of simple justice, construed entirely to the advantao-e of the Indians, that he might show them that he was actuated by none but the most exalted motives. Accordingly, Penn, himself, with a num- ber of his friends, accompanied by a gay party of the natives, made ■the walk. They did not turn it into a race, but treated it as a pleasure party, proceeding leisurely, sitting down at intervals to "smoke their pipes, eat biscuit and cheese, and drink a bottle of wine." Com- mencing at the mouth of Neshaminy Creek they proceeded on up the shores of the Delaware. At the end of a day and a half they reached a spruce tree on the bank of ]>aker Creek, about thirty miles, when Penn, thinking that he liad as much land as he would want for the present, agreed with the Indians to stop there and allow the re- maining day and a half of space to be walked out at some future time. The execution of the Italance of the contract was in marked contrast to the liberal interpretation of the founder. It was not made till 1733, when the then Governor offered a prize of 500 acres of land and £5 in money to the man who would make the greatest walk. There were three contestants, and one, Edward Marshall, won the prize, making a distance of eighty-six miles in the single day and a half, an unprecedented feat. The advantage taken by the Governor in this transaction gave great offense to the Indians. " It was the cause," says Jenney, "of the first dissatisfaction between them and the people of Pennsylvania; and it is remarkable that the first murder committed by them in the province, seventy-two years after the landing of Penn, was on this very ground which had been taken from them by fraud."
The excellence of the country, the gentleness of the government, and the loving society of Friends, caused a good report to go out to all parts of Eui*ope, and thither came fiocking emigrants from many lands, from London, Cheshire, Lancashire, Ireland, Scotland, Ger- many, and from Wales a company of the stock of Ancient Britons. For the most part they were of the Society of Friends, and wei'e escaping from bitter persecution for their religion. They were, con- sequently, people of pure hearts, good elements for tlie building of a colony. On landing they would seek the shelter of a tree with their household goods, and there they would live till they could secure
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 83
their land and erect a rude shelter. Some betook themselves to the river's bank and dug caves for temporary shelter. In one of these caves the hrst child, John Key, was born in the new city, known long after as Penny-pot, near Sassafras street. lie lived to his eighty-iifth year, dying in 1768. It will be seen that many priva- tions had to be endured, and so great was the influx of settlers that food was sometimes scarce. But the}' were patient, accustomed to toil, and devoted in their worship, so that the colony had wonderful prosperity and increase.
Penn's own impressions are conveyed in a letter to his friends in England. '• Philadelphia, the expectation of those who are con- cerned, is at last laid out to the great content of those here. The situation is a neck of land, and lieth between two navigable rivers, Delaware and Schuylkill, whereby it hath two fronts upon the water, each a mile, and two from river to river. * "" ••' This I will say for the good providence of God, of all the places 1 have seen in the Avorld I remember not one better seated; so that it seems to me to have been appointed for a town, whether we regard tlie rivers, or the conveniency of the coves, docks and springs, the loftiness and sound- ness of the land, and the air, held by the people of these parts to be very good. I bless God I am fully satisfied with the country and entertainment I got in it." P>y the course of the river the city is 120 miles from the ocean, but only sixty in direct line. It is eighty- seven miles from jS^ew York, ninety-live from Baltimore, 136 from AVashington, 100 from Harrisburg, and 300 from Pittsburg, and is in latitude north 39°, 56', 54", and in longitude west from Green- wich 75°, 8', 45". The Delaware at this time was nearly a mile wide opposite the city and navigable for ships of the greatest tonnage. The tide here has a rise of about six feet and flows back to the falls of Trenton, some thirty miles. The tide in the Schuylkill flows only about six miles above its confluence with the Delaware. The purpose of Penn was that the land along the river bank should be a public park, holding in his mind's eye its future adornment with walks and fountains and statues, trees and sweet smelling shrubs and flowers; for when pressed to allow warehouses to be built upon it he resolutely declared, " The bank is a top common, from end to end; the rest next to the water belongs to front-lot men no more than back-lot men. The way bounds them." But Peim, at this early day, in the simplicity of his nature had little conception of the necessities wdiich commerce would impose, wdien the city should grow to the million of population, which it now has, so that the cherished design of the founder has been disregarded, and great warehouses where a vast tonnage is constantly moving, embracing the commerce from the remotest corners of the globe, cumber all the bank. Penn had chei-- ished the purpose of founding a great city from his earliest years,
84 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
and had adopted the name Philadelphia (brotherly love) before he had any reasonable prospect of coining to America. So that the name was not a matter of question.
The growth of the province was something wonderful, and caused Penn to say in a spirit of exultation unusual to him, " I must, with- out vanity say, I have led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did upon a private credit." Bancroft very justly observes, " There is nothing in the history of the human race like the con- fidence which the simple virtues and institutions of William Penn inspired. The progress of his province was more rapid than that of New England. In August, 1683, Philadelphia consisted of three or four litile cottages. The conies were yet undisturbed in their heredi- tary burrows; the deer fearlessly bounded past blazed trees, uncon- scious of foreboded streets; the stranger that wandered from the river bank was lost in thickets of interminable forest; and two years afterward the place contained about six hundred houses, and the schoolmaster and the printing-press had begun their work. In three years from its foundation Philadelphia had gained more than New York had done in half a century. It was not long till Philadelphia led all the cities in America in population, though one of the latest founded. liy the census of 1800 Pennsylvania led all the other States in the numl)er of white population, having 586.095; New York, 557,731; Virginia, 514,280; Massachusetts," 416,393; North Carolina, 337,764; Connecticut, 244,721; Maryland, 216,326; South Carolina, 196,255; New Jersey, 194,325; New Hampshire, 182,998; Kentucky, 179,873; Vermont, 153,908; Maine, 150,901: Georgia, 102,261; Tennessee, 91,709; Rhode Island, 65,438; Delaware, 49,852; Ohio, 45,028; Indiana, 5,343; Mississippi, 5,179.
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HLSTORy OF GREECE COUNTY. 87
CHAPTER YL
CoNTROAKKSY WITH LoRD Baltimork Opkxp:d — Chartp:rs Compared — Pexx Visits Lord Baltimokk — Baltimork Makes Excuses — ■ Ambiguities ix Both Charters — Baltimore Offers Disputed Lax]>s for Sale axd Drives Out Pexxsylvaxia Owxers — Summons to Quit — Respoxse — Pexx Offers to Purchase — Pexx Carries the Coxtroversv Before the Royal CoMAtrssiox — Letter to His Friexds ox Quittixcj His Coloxy — ForxD Officers Sour and Sterx — New Kixg Friendly, but Mixistry Hostile to Dissexters — Claims Com;promised — Elaborate Treaty of 1760 — Lixf Described — Local Surveyors Ap- poixTKD — Mason axd Dixox Appoixted— Native Surveyors' WoijK Found Coruect— Sample of Work — -Delaware Line Established — Extracts fko^f Notj:s — '•Tisro'' Cleared — Horizontal Measurement — Stone Pillars Set — Ixdians Viean' Astronomical Observations wtth Awe — War Path in Greene County Survi:y Stops — Tedious Labors of Surveyors — Boun- dary Stoxes Cut ix Exolaxd — Cost of Sura ey for Pennsyl- vania, $171,000— End Not Yet.
THOUGH feeling- a just pride in tlie prosperity and wonderful growth of his colony, Penn was not free from tribulations. Language could not be made more explicit than that employed to fix the boundaries of his province. That there might be no mistaking the place which it occupied upon the continent the stars were called to stand as sentinels, and science was invoked to fix the places which they marked. But the ink was scarcely dry upon the parchment which recorded the gift before the whisperings of counter claims were heard. Markham, who was sent forward by Penn as Lieutenant- Governor to take possession of the land and commence surveys upon it, had hardly shaken the salt spray from his locks before he was visited at Chester by Lord Baltimore from Maryland, who presented his claim to all that country.
On the 20th of June, 1632, just fifty years before Penn received his patent, the King had granted to Lord Baltimore a charter for Maryland, named for Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. and wife of Charles I., bounded by the ocean, the 40° of north latitude, the meridian of the western fountain of the Potomac, the
88 HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
river Potomac from its source to its mouth, and a Hue drawn east from Watkius Point to tlie Atlantic, the place of beo-inniiig. This territory was given to iiim, his heirs and assigns, on the payment of a yearly rent of two Indian arrows. Lord Baltimore exhibited Ins claim to Governor Markham, and to satisfy the latter that his claim was valid, he nuide an observation of the heavens, which showed that the latitude of Chester was twelve miles south of the 41° north to. which he claimed. Had this claim been allowed, the whole of Delaware bay and river, the three lower counties, now the State of Delaware, the city of Philadelphia, Yoi'k, Chambers- burg, Gettysburg, indeed the whole tier of southern counties would have been cut oif from Pennsylvania. As it will be seen the allow- ance of this claim would have swallowed all the settlements which had been made for three quarters of a century, and all the wonder- ful emigration and growth which had now set in, including the great city which Penn had founded with so much satisfaction, and cherished with his pains and his prayers, as well as the fairest section of his territory.
Markham, on his part, exhibited the Pennsylvania charter, which explicitly provides that the southern boundary sliall be the " begin- ning of the 40th degree of northern latitude." But this would have included Baltimore, and even as far south as the city of AVashington, embracing all the growth of the Maryland colony for half a century, and would have only left for Maryland a modicum of land west of the Potomac and south of the 40° north along either shore of the lower Chesepeake, about equal to the present State of Delaware. This Lord Baltimore regarded an unendurable hardship, and as his charter ante dated that of Penn by fifty years, he held that the charter of the latter was invalidated, and that his own claim could be maintained.
Li this condition matters rested until the coining of Penn. As we have already seen the new proprietary made it his business to visit Lord Baltimore very soon after his arrival upon the Delaware, and for two days the claims of the two governors were talked over and canvassed. But as the weather became cold so as to preclude the possibility of taking observations to fix accurately the latitude and longitude of the place, it was agreed to postpone further con- sideration of the question for the present. A true picture of these two eminent men in this opening controversy would be one of great historical interest. But we can well imagine that while the rep- resentative of Pennsylvania preserved throughout this conference a demeanor that was " childlike and bland," there was in the brain, which the broad-brim sheltered, and in the heart which the shad- bellied coat kept warm, an unalterable purpose not to yield the best portion of his heritage.
1II8TOKY OF GItEEXK COUNTY. 89
Early in the spring Penn invited Lord Baltimore to come to the Dehiware for the settlement of their difierenees; but it was late in the season before he arrived, Penn proposed that the lieai'ing be had before them in the nature of a legal investigation with the aid of counsel and in writing. But this was not agreeable to Baltimore, and now he complained of the sultryness of the weather. J>efore it was too cold, now it was too hot. Accordingly the conference again broke up wjthout anything being accomplished. It was now plainly evident that Baltimore did not intend to come to any agreement with Penn, but would carry his cause before the royal tribunal in London.
Penn now well understood all the conditions of the controversy, and that there were grave ditticulties to be encountered. In the first place his own charter was explicit and would give him, if allowed, three full degrees of latitude and five of longitude. On the other hand the charter of Baltimore made his northern boundary the for- tieth degree, but whether the beginning or the ending was not stated. l{ the beginning, then Maryland would be crowded down necirly to the city of Washington, and Pennsylvania would embrace the city of Baltimore and the greater portion of wdiat is now Mary- land and part of Virginia. On the other hand, if the ending of the fortieth degree, then Philadelphia and all the southern tier of counties would have to be given up. P>y the usual interpretation of language the charter of Baltimore would only give him to the beginning of the fortieth degree. But he had boldly assnined the other interpre- tation, and had made nearly all his settlements above that line. xVgain it was provided in tlie charter of Lord Baltimore that the boundaries prescribed should not include any territory already settled. But it was well known that the settlements along the right bank of the Delaware, from the first visit of Hudson in 1609, long before the charter of Baltimore was given, had been made on the territory now claimed by him. On the other hand there were difficulties in construing one portion of the charter of Penn, doubtless caused by the ignorance of the royal secretaries, who drew: it, of the geography of the country, there having been no accurate maps showing latitude made at this time. Consequently when. they commenced to describe the southern boundary of Penn- sylvania they said, "and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle, Northwards and Westwards unto the heglimiiuj of the fortieth degree of Northern Latitude; and then by a straight line westwards to the limitt of Longitude above men- tioned," that is to the Panhandle line, as now ascertained. But t^his circle Avhich is here described at twelve miles distant from New Castle northwards and westwards, to reach the beginning of the for- tieth, would not only have to bo extended northward and westwjird,
90 IILSTOKY OF GREENE COUNTY.
but southward, and the radius of twelve miles southward would by no means reach the beginning of the fortieth degree, and hence would have to be extended on an arbitrary line still further southward, not provided for in the chai-ter. The royal secretaries seemed to have labored under the impression that New Castle town was about on the beginning of the fortieth parallel, whereas it was nearly two-thirds of a degree to the north of that line.
it must be confessed that there wei-e many grave difficulties in the way of a satisfactory adjustment of these counter claims, and it is reported that Lord Baltimore, on his tirst visit to Markluim, after having found by observation the true latitude of New Castle, and heard the provisions of Penn's charter read, dolefully but very per- tinently asked: "If this be allowed, where then is my province?" Baltimore, from the very moment that he discovered what the claims of Penn were, had evidently resolved not to make any effort to come to an agreement with Penn, which is abundantly shown l)y his frivo- lous excuses for not proceeding to business in their several inter- views; but had determined to pursue a bold policy in pushing the sale of lands on the disputed tract, constantly assuniing that his in- terpretation was the true one, and even opening an aggressive policy, trusting to the luaintenance of his claims before the officers of the crown in England.
Accordingly, Baltimore issued proposals for the sale of lands in the lower counties, now the State of Delaware, territory which Penn had secured by deed from the Duke of York, after receiving his charter from the King, offering cheaper rates than Penn had done. Penn had also learned that Lord Baltimore had sent a surveyor to take an observation and find the latitude of New Castle, had prepared an €,v 2)CfHe statement of his case and was actually, by his agents, pressing the cause to a decision before the Lords of the Committee of Plantations in England, without giving any notice to Penn. Be- lieving in the strong point of possession, Baltimore was determined to pursue a vigorous policy. He accordingly drew up a summons to quit, and sent a messenger. Colonel Talbot, to Philadelphia to "de- mand of William Penn all that part of the land on the Avest side of the said river that lyeth to the southward of the fortieth degree of north latitude." Penn was absent at the time, and the summons was delivered to the acting Governor, Nicholas Moore. But upon his return the Proprietary made answer in strong but earnest terms, showing the grounds of his own claim and repelling any counter claim. The conduct of Baltimore alarmed him, for 'he saw plainly that if settlers from Maryland entered his province under claim of protection from its Governor, it would very soon lead to actual con- flict for possession. What he feared came to pass sooner than he had anticipated; for in the spring of 1684, in time to put in their crops,
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 91
a company from Maryland came in force into the lower counties, drove oti" the peaceable Pennsylvania settlers, and took possession of their farms. Taking the advice of his council, Penn sent a copy of his reply to the demand that Talbot had brought, which he ordered to be read to the intruders, and ordered William Welch, sheritf of the county, to reinstate the lawful owners. He then issued his proclamation reiterating and defending his claims, and warning all intruders to desist in future from such unlawful acts.
As has been previously observed, if Penn should tamely submit to the claim of Paltimore, his entire colony would have been swal- lowed up, and all his labor would have been lost. This result Balti- more seemed determined to effect. To the peaceful, quiet and loving disposition of Peim this contention was exceedingly distasteful. As for quantity of land, he freely declared that he would have had enough if he had retained only the two degrees which would have remained after allowing Baltimore all that he claimed. But he was imwilling to give up. the rapidly growing city and colonies which he had founded, and more than all to yield possession of Delaware Bay and river, his only uieans of communicatiou with the ocean. He foresa,w that if the two shores of this noble stream were in the pos- session of hostile States, how easy it would be to make harrassiiig regulations governing its navigation. But Penn was a man of just and benevolent instincts, and he was willing to make reasonable con- cessions and compromises to secure peace and satisfy his neighbor in Maryland. Accordingly, at one of their interviews Penn asked Balti- more what he would ask per square mile for the territory south of the Delaware and reaching to the ocean, though he already had tlie deed for this same land from the Duke of York, secured by patent from the King, and Baltimore's own patent expressly provided that he could not claim territory already settled. But this generous oft'er to repurchase what he already owned, was rejected by the proprietor of Maryland.
Penn now saw but too plainly that there was no hope of coming to a peaceful and equitable composition of their differences in this country, and that if he would secure a decision in his interest he had no time to lose in repairing to London, and personally defending his riglits before the royal commission. There is no question but that he came to this decision with nnfeigned regret. His colony was prosperous, the settlers were happy and contented in their new homes, the country itself was all that he could wish and he no doubt fondly hoped to live and die in the midst of his people. But the* demand for his return to England was imperative, and he prepared to obey it. He accordingly empowered the Provincial Council, of which Thomas Lloyd was president, to act in his stead, and on the 6th of June, 1684, sailed for England. From on board the vessel, before
92 HISTORY OF GUEKlSrE COUNTY.
leaving the Dehnvare, lie sent buck an address to the council, in which he unbosoms himself freely: "Dear P'riends: — ^My love and my life is to you and with you; and no water can quench it, nor dis- tance wear it out, nor bring it to an end. I have been with you, cared over you, and served you with unfeigned love; and you are beloved of me and near to me beyond utterance. '^•' '"' * Ob, that you would eye Him in all, through all, and above all the works of your hands; for to a blessed end are you brought hither. '" * ■'•' You are now come to a quiet land; provoke not the Lord to trouble it, and now that liberty and authority are with you, and in your hands, let the government he upon his shoulders, in all your spirits; that you may rule for Him, under whom the pi'inces of this world will one day esteem it their honor to govern and serve in their places. * * * And thou Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou ^Yert horn, what love, what service and travail has there been to bring thee forth, a!id preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee!"
Upon his arrival in England, on the 6th of October, he took an .early opportunity to pay his respects to the King, and the Duke of York, "who received me," he says, " very graciously, as did the min- isters very civilly. Yet 1 found things in general with another face than 1 left them — sour and stern, and resolved to hold the reins of power with a stiffer hand than before." In a letter to Lloyd, of the 16th of March, 1685, he says: "The King (Charles L) is dead, and the Duke succeeds peaceably. He was well on the First-day night, being the first of Fel)ruary so called. About eight next morning, as he'sat down to shave, his head twitched both ways or sides, and he gave a shriek and fell as dead, and so remained some hours. They opportunely blooded and cupped him, and plied his Lead with red hot frying-pans. He returned and continued till sixth day noon, but mostly in great tortures. He seemed very penitent, asking pardon of all, even the poorest subject he had wronged. '" * ^' He was an able man for a divided and troubled kingdom. The present King was proclaimed about three o'clock that day."
The new king being a personal friend of Penn, he had hopes of favor at court, and did secure many indulgences for his oppressed Friends in the kingdom; but the ministry was bitterly hostile to dissenters, and he found his controversy with Lord Baltimore very difficult of management. Penn now pressed his controversy with Lord Balti- more to a final settlement, and in November, 1685, a decision was made in the English court, compromising the claims of the two Governors, and providing that the portion of territor}' between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays should be divided by a line through the centre, and that the portion bordering upon the Delaware should belong to Penn, and that upon the Chesapeake to Lord Baltimore.
HlSTOKY OF GREENE COUNTY. 93
This settled the dispute fur the time; bat upon attempting to measure and run the dividing line, the language of the act was so iudetinite that the attempt was abandoned, and the old controversy was again renewed. Not wishing to press his suit at once, while the niemory of the decision already made was green, Lord Baltimore sutiered the controversy to rest, and each party laid claim to the territory ad- judged,to him in theory by the royal decree, but without any division line.
On the 28th of April, 1707, the goverment of Maryland presented to the Queen an address asking that an order should be juade requiring the autiiorities of the two colonies, Maryland and Pennsylvania, " to run the division lines and ascertain the boundaries between them, for the ease of the inhabitants, wdio have been much distressed by their uncertainty. It would appear that the controversy, — after William Penu in 1685 had secured the lands upon the right bank of the Delaware, — was left to work out its own cure, as a definite ajyreement was entered into in the life time of tiie founder that the authorities in neither colony should disturb the settlers in the other, and as the colonies were substantially located originally with a dividing line where tlie line was subsequently run, the portion of territory on this disputed belt which each was to give up settled itself, and only needed to be specifically delined, surveyed and marked. Repeated conferences were held, and lines run; but iiothing satisfactory- was accomplished until the 4th of July 17G0, when Frederick, Lord Baron of Baltimore, and Thomas, and liichard Penn, sons of the founder, entered into an elaborate and formal treaty by which the limits of the t\V(j provinces were provided. The boundary lines were made matliie- matically exact, so that there could b}' no possibility be further con- troversy, provided surveyors were found who had the skill and the instruments necessary for determining them.
The line was to commence at Cape Henlopen on the Atlantic coast. This cape as originally located was placed on the point oppo- site Cape May at the entrance of Delaware Bay, and Cape Henrietta was fifteen miles down the coast. Ijy an error in the map used by the parties, the names of these two capes had been interchanged, and Ilenlopen was placed fifteen miles down the coast. At this mis- taken point, therefore, the division commenced. When this was discovei-ed, a complaint was made before Lord Hardwick; but in a formal decree, promulgated in 1750, it was declared "■ that Cape Henlopen ought to be deemed and taken to be situated at the place where the same is laid down and described in the maps or plans an- nexed to the said articles to be situated."
This point of beginning having been settled the dividing lines were to be substantially as follows: Commencing at Henlopen on the Atlantic, a due westerly line was to be run to the shores of the
94 KISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
Chesapeake Bay, found to be 60 miles 298 perches. At the middle of this line a line was to be run in a direction northwesterly till it should form a tangent to the circumference of a circle drawn with a radius of twelve miles from the spire of the Court House in New Castle. From this tangent point a line was to be run due north until it should reacii a meridian line 15 miles south of the most southern extremity of Philadelphia, and the point thus reached should be the northeast corner of Maryland. If the due north line from the tangent point should cut off a segment of a circle from the twelve mile circuit, then the slice thus cut off should be adjudged a part of New Castle County, and consequently should belong to Pennsylvania. The corner-stone at the extremity of the due north line from the tangent point was to be the beginning of the now famous Mason and Dixon's line, and was to extend due west to the western limit of Maryland.
This settled the long dispute so far as it could be on paper, but to execute its provisions in practice was more difticult. The primeval forest covered the greater part of the line, stubborn mountains stood in the way, and instruments were imperfect and liable to variation. Commissioners were appointed to survey, and establish the lines in 1739, but a controversy having arisen, whether the measurement should be horizontal or superficial, the commission broke up and noth- ing more was done till 1760, when local surveyors were appointed, John Lukens and Archibald McLean on the part of Pennsylvania, Thomas Garnett and Jonathan Hall for Maryland, who commenced to lay off the lines as provided in the indenture of agreement entered into by the proprietaries. Their first care was to clear away the vistas or narrow openings eight yards wide through the forest. Having ascertained the middle point of the Henlopen line they ran an experimental line north until opposite New Castle, when they measured the radius of twelve miles and fixed the tangent point. There were so many perplexing conditions, that it required much time to perfect their calculations and plant their bounds. After these surveyors had been three years at their work, the proprietaries in England, thinking the reason of their long protracted labors indicative of a lack of scientific knowledge on their part, or lack of suitable instruments, employed, on the 4th of August, 1763, two surveyors and mathematicians to go to America and conduct the work. They brought with them the best instruments procurable at that time — an excellent sector " six feet radius which magnified twenty-five times, the property of Hon. Mr. Penn, the first which ever had the plumb line passing over and bisecting a point at the centre of the instrument." They obtained from the Royal Society a brass standard measure, and standard chains. These surveyors were none other than Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, names forever blazoned upon the political history of the United States, magnates at
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History of greene county.
97
home, but no more skilled nor more accurate in their work, over mountains and valleys, through the tangled and interminable forests of the American continent, than our own fellow-citizens, McLean and Lukens, and Garnett and Hall, who had preceded them.
The daily field notes of Mason and Dixon commence Nov^ember 15th, 1763; and the lirst entry is, "Arrived at Philadelphia;" 16th, " Attended meeting of the commissioners appointed to settle the bounds of Pennsylvania;" 22d to 28th, " Landed and set up instru- ments, and found they had received no damage;" December 5tli, " Di- rected a carpenter to build an observatory near the point settled by the commissioners to be the south point of the city of Philadelphia," which was to be one of the initial points of the line. When the observatory was finished the instruments were mounted and observ^a- tions taken to fix the latitude of the place. That the reader may observe the painstaking accuracy with which these surveyors con ducted their work, there is subjoined a table of one night's observa- tions:
1763
|
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s |
1 |
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a |
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a |
||
|
to |
09 |
|
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oa |
< . |
|
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^ |
■^ a |
|
|
c3 |
A o |
|
|
bC-M |
||
|
OQ |
P5 |
g^
K
o g
<
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Dec.
o' 21.
cc a Cygni
]
V Androm B Persei 8 Do.
!
Capella I • B Aurige
i Castor
20 34
7 19
30+ 15—
5+
5—
50
55+
35 —
(8 <8 (7 ■<8 <8 "(8
6
7 (7 ]10
ni
(8 <8 ]6
36 0 20 i
48+'o
7 I
7 i" 45M'o
38 r
43 ^
16.0 10.0 26.3 14.5 5.5 25.2 46.2
4 30 16.0 N. faint.
|
1 |
14 |
49.3 |
N. |
|
0 |
5 |
26.3 |
N. |
|
7 |
4 |
15.5 |
N. |
|
5 |
47 |
18.5 |
N. |
|
4 |
57 |
9.2 |
N. |
|
7 |
33 |
21.8 |
N. |
Cha: Mason. Jere: Dixon.
Nearly one whole year was spent in ascertaining the middle point of the Henlopen line