Lancaster County Native Americans

Lancaster co. was first peopled by Indians—not aborigines, who had held the soil from time immemorial—but by remnants of southern tribes driven out by the encroachments of European colonists in Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, a few years before, and about the time that Pennsylvania was founded.

At the opening of that century (1600–1700) the lower valley of the Susquehanna appears to have been a vast uninhabited highway, through which hordes of hostile natives were constantly roaming between the northern and southern waters, and where they often met in bloody encounters. The Six Nations were acknowledged as the sovereigns of the Susquehanna, and they regarded with jealousy, and permitted with reluctance, the settlement of other tribes upon its margin. The Cayuga chief told the Moravians of Wyalusing, in 1765, “that the place they had chosen was not proper, all that country having been stained with blood; therefore he would take them up and place them in a better situation near the upper end of Cayuga lake.” This was nearly a century after the fugitive southern tribes had obtained permission to settle in the lower valley. Mr. Bancroft, in speaking of the Shawanees, says—”It was about the year 1698¹ that three or four score of their families, with the consent of the government of Pennsylvania, removed from Carolina and planted themselves on the Susquehanna. Sad were the fruits of that hospitality. Others followed; and when, in 1732, the number of Indian fighting men in Pennsylvania was estimated to be 700, one half of them were Shawanee emigrants. So desolate was the wilderness, that a vagabond tribe could wander undisturbed from Cumberland river to the Alabama, from the head-waters of the Santee to the Susquehanna.”

As these tribes came in one after another from the south, those previously here introduced and recommended their new friends to the protection of the provincial government and of the Six Nations. The Shawanees had a village called Pequea, or Pequehan, at the mouth of the creek of that name. Opessah was their chief. They were some years afterwards persuaded to remove to the lands on Conodoguinet, where a hunting-ground had been assigned them by the proprietary government. Ever restless and quarrelsome themselves, and encroached upon by the whites, they retired from one hunting ground to another, until they joined the French on the head waters of the Ohio, in 1755.

The Conoys, or Ganawese, another southern tribe, came in about the year 1700, and dwelt at Dekanoagah, about the mouth of Conoy Creek, near the site of Bainbridge. Their name is variously spelled in the early records—Canoise, Canaways, Ganawese, and Ganawense; and James Logan, who visited them in 1705, says when they first came into the province they were called Piscataway Indians, and that they then came to Philadelphia (in 1701) in company with the Conestogas and Shawanees, “who engaged to our government for their peaceable deportment and behavior among us.”

The Nantikokes, from Maryland, appear to have tarried for a while as guests with the Ganawese, and then to have removed further up the Susquehanna—probably to what is now called Duncan’s island—afterwards to the North branch of the Susquehanna, and eventually to the country of the Six Nations. (See Dauphin and Luzerne counties.)

The Conestogas were a small tribe, or, as some think, an aggregation of the remnants of various tribes, consisting in all of some dozen or twenty families, who dwelt on the Conestoga flats east of Turkey hill, a few miles below Lancaster. Their true origin it is difficult to ascertain, but it is very probable they were of the tribe called by the early Swedish settlers Minquaas, and that they had formerly lived in Maryland. Gov. Keith, in 1722, says, “the Conestoga Indians were formerly a part of the Five Nations, called Mingoes, and speak the same language to this day: they actually pay tribute now to the Five Nations, and, either from natural affection or fear, are ever under their influence and power.” They sent messengers with corn, venison, and skins, to welcome William Penn, and a treaty of amity was concluded between him and them, “to endure as long as the sun should shine or the waters run into the rivers.” This chain of friendship was often brightened from time to time; and when the whites began to settle around them, Penn assigned them a residence within his jurisdiction, on the manor of Conestoga. Here they enjoyed many years of peaceful residence, in friendly intercourse with the people of Lancaster, until the sad catastrophe which exterminated the tribe. All these tribes—the Conestogas, Shawanees, Ganawese, and Nanticokes—paid an annual tribute to the Five Nations; and the strings of wampum hung around their council fire told the number of years, and testified to their punctuality.

The village of the Conestogas is noted in the early colonial history as the scene of many important councils between the proprietary governors and the Indians of the Susquehanna and the Six Nations. Wm. Penn is said to have visited them once. James Logan was here in 1705; Gov. Evans in 1707, with a retinue of officers; Gov. Gookin in 1710 and ’11; and Gov. Keith in 1721. The details of their councils may be seen in the printed colonial records. They were also often visited by preachers of various denominations, among whom was Thomas Chalkley in 1705, an eminent Quaker preacher.

The proprietary government regarded with watchful jealousy the intrusion of traders among these Indians, and forbade such trade except under special license. The French, even as early as 1707, had their wily emissaries among them under the guise of traders, or miners, or colonists, to seduce them from their allegiance to the English. Maryland, too, was pushing her pioneers over the boundary to forestall the claims of Wm. Penn by actual settlement. The following facts are culled from the colonial records, which on this subject are too voluminous and scattered to be copied entire.

1701. “At a council held at Philad., 23d of 2d mo. 1701, present Wm. Penn, some members of council, and divers others, with the Susquehannagh Indians.” The chiefs enumerated at the head of the treaty are “Connoodaghtoh, king of the Susquehannah Minquays or Conestogo Indians, Wopaththa, (alias Opessah,) king of the Shawanese, Weewhinjough, chief of the Ganawese inhabiting at the head of Patowmeck; also Ahoakassongh, brother to the emperor or king of the Onondagoes of the Five Nations, and Indian Harry for their interpreter, &c. &c.” After a treaty and several speeches, sundry articles were solemnly agreed on.
1702. James Logan, with several others, visited them to learn the news among them, and to give the Indians on the Susquehanna advice, and exchange presents. Logan “understood John Hans was building a log-house for trade amongst them, which made him uneasy, and desired to know if they encouraged it. They answered that they did not, and were desired not to suffer any Christian to settle amongst them without the governor’s leave.” Logan, “with the company, had made a journey among the Ganawese settled some miles above Conestogoe, at a place called Conejaghera, above the fort.”
1703. Andaggyjunguagh appeared at Philadelphia as chief of the Conestogoes in 1707. He is called Adjunkoe.
1704. July 22. Gov. Evans laid before the council an account of his journey among the Susquehanna Indians. He was accompanied by Col. John French, sheriff of New Castle co., Wm. Tonge, Mitchel Bizaillon, Grey, and four servants. At Pequehan, they were received at Martin Chartieres’s (an Indian trader) by the Indians, with a discharge of fire-arms. He speaks of “Dekanoagah, upon the river Susquehanna, about nine miles distant from Pequehan;” also mentions an Indian village called Peixtan. At Dekanoagah, the governor was present at a meeting of Shawanois, Senequois, and Canoise Indians, and the Nantikoke Indians from the seven following towns, viz:—Matcheattochousie, Matehcouchtin, Witichuaom, Natahquois, Teahquois, Byengealitein, and Pohecommeati. An Indian presented a pipe to the governor and the company present. After satisfying himself that the Nantikokes were a peaceful, well-meaning people, he guaranteed to them the protection of the government. At Pequehan, among the Shawanees, Opessah said, “It was the Nantikoke and Canoise Indians who sent for our father the governor, and not we; therefore, we are very sorry they entertained him no better: but since they have not been so kind as they ought, we hope the governor will accept of our small present, for we are sensible the ways are bad, and that the bushes wear out your clothes, for which reason we give these skins to make gloves, stockings, and breeches, in place of those wore out.” Near Peixtan, with the aid of Martin Chartieres, as a sort of stool-pigeon, they caught one Nicole Godin, a French trader among the Indians, put him on a horse, tied his legs under the horse’s belly, and took him by way of Tulpehocken to Philadelphia, where he was imprisoned.

“During our abode at Pequehan,” says the account of Gov. Evans’s journey in 1707, “several of the Shaonois Indians from ye southward came to settle here, and were admitted so to do by Opessah, with the governor’s consent: at the same time an Indian, from a Shaonois town near Carolina, came in, and gave an account that four hundred and fifty of the flat-headed Indians had besieged them, and that in all probability the same was taken. Bezallion informed the governor that the Shaonois of Carolina (he was told) had killed several Christians; whereupon, the government of that province raised the said flat-headed Indians, and joined some Christians to them, besieged and have taken, as it is thought, the said Shaonois town.”

1707. Feb. “Complaints to council that Michel, (a Swiss,) Peter Bezallion, James Le Tort, Martin Chartieres, the French glover of Philadelphia, Frank, a young man of Canada who was lately taken up here, and one from Virginia, who also spoke French, had seated themselves, and built houses upon the branches of the Potowmeck, within this government, and pretended they were in search of some mineral or ore,” and had endeavored to induce the Conestogo Indians to assist them. Peter Bezallion had a license, and resided thirty-six miles up the river from Conestogoe. That would be near the mouth of Peixtan or Paxton cr. Among the traders residing at Conestogo, in Gov. Keith’s time, were John and Edmund Cartlidge. John was a magistrate and interpreter, and the council of July, 1721, was held at his house. Mr. Watson speaks of an old deed from an Indian to Edmund Cartlidge of a tract of land in a bend of Conestoga cr., called Indian Point. Both these men were in prison and on trial at Philadelphia, in March, 1721, for having killed an Indian in an affray at Conestogo. The other traders seem to have been no more fortunate, for Peter Bezallion and James Le Tort were also in prison, in 1709, for sundry offences. In 1718, on petition of several of the inhabitants of and near Conestogoe, a road was laid out from Conestogoe to Thomas Moore’s and Brandywine.

The following extract from the records chronicles the first arrival of the Tuscarora nation from the south, and is a quaint and graphic picture of Indian diplomacy. The Tuscaroras were soon after adopted by the Five Nations, and caused the change of their title to that of the Six Nations. The disbursement account of the commissioners is added. It differs somewhat in amount from those which our modern commissioners are in the habit of rendering to the bureau at Washington.

The Govt, laid before the board the report of Coll. ffrench & Henry Worley, who went on a message to Conestogo, by his Order, wch, follows in these words:

At Conestogo, June 8th, 1710.

PRESENT.
John French.
Henry Worley.

Iwaagenst Terratawanaren, & Teonnottein, Chiefs of the Tuscaroroes, Civility, the Sencques Kings, and four Chiefs more of ye nacon, wee Opessah ye Shawanois King.

The Indians were told that according to their request we were come from the Govr. and Govmt. to hear what proposals they had to make ancnt a peace, according to the purport of their Embassy from their own People.

• They signified to us by a Belt of Wampum, which was sent from their old Women, that those Implored their friendship of the Christians & Indians of this Govmt., that without danger or trouble they might fetch wood & Water.
• The second Belt was sent from their Children born, & those yet in the womb, Requesting that Room to sport & Play without danger of Slavery, might be allowed them.
• The third Belt was sent from their young men fitt to Hunt, that privilege to leave their towns, & seek provision for their aged, might be granted to them without fear of Death or Slavery.
• The fourth was sent from the men of age, Requesting that the Wood, by a happy peace, might be as safe for them as their forts.
• The fifth was sent from the whole nation, requesting peace, that thereby they might have Liberty to visit their Neighbours.
• The sixth was sent from their Kings & Chiefs, Desiring a lasting peace with the Christians & Indians of this Govmt., that thereby they might be secured against those fearful apprehensions they have for these several years felt.
• The seventh was sent in order to intreat a Cessation from murdering and taking them, that by the allowance thereof, they may not be affraid of a mouse, or any other thing that Ruffles the Leaves.
• The Eighth was sent to Declare, that as being hitherto Strangers to this Place, they now came as People blind, no path nor communicacon being betwixt us & them; but now they hope we will take them by the hand & lead them, & then they will lift up their heads in the woods without danger or fear.

These Belts (they say) are only sent as an Introduction, & in order to break off hostilities till next Spring, for then their Kings will come and sue for the peace they so much Desire.

We acquainted them that as most of this Continent were the subjects of the Crown of Great Brittain, tho’ divided into several Govmts.; So it is expected their Intentions are not only peaceable towards us, but also to all the subjects of the Crown; & that if they intend to settle & live amiably here, they need not Doubt the protection of this Govmt. in such things as were honest and good, but that to Confirm the sincerity of their past Carriage towards the English, & to raise in us a good opinion of them, it would be very necessary to procure a Certificate from the Govmt. they leave, to this, of their Good behaviour, & then they might be assured of a favourable reception.

The Seneques (Senecas) return their hearty thanks to the Govmt. for their Trouble in sending to them, And acquainted us that by advice of a Council amongst them it was Determined to send these Belts, brought by the Tuscaroroes, to the Five Nations.

May it please your hour.
Pursuant to your honrs. & Council’s Orders, we went to Conestogo, where the forewritten Contents were by the Chiefs of the Tuscaroroes to us Deliver’d; the sincerity of their Intentions we Cannot anywise Doubt, since they are of the same race & Language with our Seneques, who have always proved trusty, & have also for these many years been neighbours to a Govmt. Jealous of Indians, And yet not Displeased with them; wishing your hour, all happiness, we remain,
Your honrs. Most humble and obliged servants,

JOHN FFRENCH
HENRY WORLEY

Journey to Conestogo, Dr.—To Bread, 4s. 2d.; To Meat, 12s.; To Rum, £1 10s.; To Sugar, 15s.; To two Men’s hire for Baggage, £4; To John, £1 4s.; Total, £8 5s. 2d.

Source

Day, Sherman, Historical collections of the State of Pennsylvania : containing a copious selection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its history and antiquities, both general and local, with topographical descriptions of every county and all the larger towns in the state, Philadelphia : George W. Gorton, 1843.

1. Mr. Bancroft, in fixing the date in 1698, follows Logan’s manuscripts, and the Philadelphia historians agree on that date. Mr. Conyngham, who has investigated the manuscript records at Harrisburg, thinks the southern Indians came here in 1678—but we have no space for antiquarian controversy. See Mr. C.’s notes in Hazard’s Register, vol. xv., pp. 81, 117, 118—votes of Assembly, vol. iv., p. 517, and the printed Colonial Records. [↩]